Devils Down Avalanche & Win 3 Of 4

[00:00:04] What a goal! 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 New Jersey Devils Podcast. Let's go Devils! Hello everybody, we are the Uncle Puckers, I'm Chris along with Mr. Tim. And once again, Bob and Tony cannot make it.

[00:00:29] Bobby said his schedule does lighten up considerably coming up, so he will be making more shows, but he could not do it tonight. It's his late night with the kids games and stuff, so no Bob tonight, but we're here. So we got a lot to talk about. Fucking losers. That's it. Kids are old and out the door, nothing else to do except get chicken sandwiches and talk about the Devils. My kids are out of fucking the state and the country. My daughter just flew to Colorado today and my son's in Switzerland hanging out with Timo's sister.

[00:00:59] But, um, yeah, so we miss Bobby too, especially drunk Bobby, but any Bobby's a good Bobby. But, uh, thank you, Zach. But, uh, seriously, last night we talked about it before the game, you know, this had the potential to go one of two ways and it went our way. What a game. I mean, you just throw away that Washington game. This team's now won three of our last four games.

[00:01:25] Uh, there's a lot of good that you could take away and just again, Anaheim coming up. Just play that way. You play the way that they played last night. They win a lot of hockey games. They will make the playoffs. They will end up second in the Metro, but you just got to do it on a consistent basis. But there was a lot to like on last night's game. What's your thoughts, Tim?

[00:01:48] Yeah, I, you know, it was, and I know the Rangers game was great and a lot of fun and stuff like that, but that was, this felt more like a, a, a full team win, you know, up and down the lineup, kind of everybody contributing, everybody buying in, you know, so there are a couple of things happen. Like after the Washington game, Keith was pretty pointed in his comments saying, you know, they're not engaging enough physically. They're not, you know, battling for pox.

[00:02:16] They didn't win a single battle in the second period, all that stuff. And then the next practice, it was all battles, you know, wasn't really a bag skate, but it was like a battle bag skate. And Bryce basically made that point a couple of times in the pre show that, that, you know, as far as a, a statistic goes, they rank dead last when it comes to, or close to it, when it comes to board battles and points one and things like that. So that has been something that I guess has been being drilled into them over the last couple of days.

[00:02:44] Yeah. And you can see it, you know, like, I think after a little bit after that flyers game, I think they were really enjoying the smell of their own farts a little too much. They do that too much. I think they think it's going to just come so naturally for them and that there is no easy game in the NHL. Like we said, Carolina lost to Calgary.

[00:03:05] So I think, you know, it was, it was encouraging to see that kind of buy-in and them to be able to kind of step in and, and buy in immediately and not have a BA process and not get kind of beaten down. And, um, you saw it in, in the game against Colorado and like early in the game, Colorado hit what they had a crossbar. And then we'll see him Kajri, I don't know what the fuck Cove Savage was doing, but Cove Savage slid to like block him, but he was like a mile and a half away from him.

[00:03:34] And Kajri was like, all right, dude, I'll just take a shot from the slot. So it's kind of like, after that though, the devils just took the puck back and fucking brought their games that like we, we like we're all over them and every aspect of the game. And like, there's something that Spencer Spencer Carbery said in talking about, and it was a really interesting contrast in the way that people talk about us versus other teams.

[00:04:01] Because someone asked him about playing teams that are really fast and have like really good team speed. And Carberry used us and Carolina as kind of two examples. He's basically like, you know, the Devils are rush base. You know, they are dangerous when they're on the rush. They're delaying. He called the area where they're making plays kind of in the high zone off the rush. Called it the soup where you get where guys get like spun around and stuff like that. It's like you look at Carolina.

[00:04:29] They use their speed in a different way where they dump it in and then they get on top of you. And like, we all know that kind of thing. It was just kind of an interesting to hear a coach actually talk about that type of contrast. But couldn't be happier with how the team played, you know, like last couple minutes they maybe need to clean up. But I think the details were really good. And their stick work was really good. They had sticks in lanes. They had sticks in passing lanes.

[00:04:55] You know, like Colorado is really good at those sort of little backdoor plays and stuff like that. You know, McKinnon's always lurking around there. Lekkonen's always lurking around there. Landis Gogh's always lurking around there. So sticks in lanes all the time, particularly up high too. Like Gritsuk got a stick on a kill McCarr shot from the point. Couldn't be happier. Great game. Don't fucking waste it. Well, that's it, right? I mean, it's the consistency and that's what it comes down to.

[00:05:20] When they play this style, when they don't cheat for offense, when they are hard on pups, hard on the guys with the pups, don't give the other team a chance to breathe. When they play that way, there's not many teams that are going to beat them. And they can win a lot of fucking hockey games. This was the Colorado Avalanche. This was, I think, their favorite now to win the Stanley Cup after Barkov went down. They're showing some cracks, though, and it's a little weird that they're going 11-7. It's a bit of a feather in your cap.

[00:05:50] People are questioning you. They're wondering what kind of team this is going to be. Basically, that was a nice statement when we talked about it before that game, right? Can they have that complete statement game where they say, okay, this is who we are. And if the Devils, if that's who they are, then show it against Anaheim. That's going to be another tough one. That's another team that likes to fly up and down the ice. They play a lot like Utah. We talked about it. Utah made us look silly. But they can keep this thing going.

[00:06:19] Utah is, I think, a distinctly better team than Anaheim. I'm looking at Anaheim's lineup. You know, it's Carlson, Gauthier, Seneke. And then you kind of look at the rest of their players and you're like, who the fuck are these guys? They're still a playoff team from last year. It's a team that you can build momentum off of. You go and beat two playoff teams back-to-back like that.

[00:06:42] I think it's important for the psyche of this team because it does seem like they just go into these complete mental breakdowns where, you know, everything goes wrong. But holy shit, when you play as a team, like you said, connected units, connected lines. Dude, they made Colorado. Take those two goals at the end away. You know, they skated Colorado into the fucking ground. Yeah, I'm not really like all that concerned about those two goals. No, I'm not either. It's the avalanche.

[00:07:10] Yeah, it's like, you know, six on five with McKinnon, McCarr, and Natchez on the ice. And, you know, I think they – the Devils kind of lost their poise a little bit there. And Q said as much, you know, it's like, you know, let's calm down. You know, you've done this before. Right. But, you know, I don't think it ruined anything or spoiled anything. Like, we were still winning that game.

[00:07:34] So, I was really impressed that, like, I didn't really notice Nathan McKinnon last night. Nope. Like, he didn't really ever get up to – Or Marty Natchez. Or Natchez. I noticed McCarr once, I'll tell you that. Well, I actually noticed McCarr twice. Yeah. You know, so let's just talk about – like, I know Timo has caught a few strays on that. Let McCarr assist to Landis Cog for the first goal.

[00:08:00] But, I mean, in his defense, Timo played his ass off last night. I mean, that's the Timo Meyer we want to see. And he was, like, at the tail end of a minute and a half long shift when he did get, you know, schooled by Kale McCarr. And so, I'll give him a little grace on that. Plus, it's fucking Kale McCarr. Let's be serious. But, yeah, it's got the best of them on his goal. Well, it's a tough look when you get cooked like that. But, yeah, it is Kale McCarr.

[00:08:28] I, you know, I was arguing with Mike Ruff about this last night. I think, you know, the guy that I'm a little more annoyed about on that play, to be honest, is Jack Hughes. Like, if you rewatch that goal, McCarr pulls it through Timo's legs, right? And he's kind of cutting towards the middle. Jack peels off towards the boards, giving McCarr that center lane. Jack's got to force him wide. Because, like, I don't know what he's doing. And I kind of, someone mentioned it here.

[00:09:01] The Jack, I think, has been playing a little bit tentative. And a little bit scared. Yeah. I... Last night's game was pretty obvious. He was avoiding any kind of contact. And there was a thing where, you know, he avoided Tom Wilson. And, like, I get that. Like, Tom Wilson is going to... Jack would disintegrate if Tom Wilson actually made contact with him there. But... He would turn to dust. He's been... He's just like, I don't know.

[00:09:31] It's kind of like he... If he tries too hard and loses the puck, he's not really working to get it back. When he's coming in on a four check, he's not the first guy in. And, look, I understand how Jack does that. And Jack's actually, like, a ninja being the second guy in. Like, being a second guy behind the defenseman. He's intentionally getting behind a defenseman because he's so good at anticipating and has such a good stick. But it's not working for him right now.

[00:09:59] And he just kind of has looked pretty foolish on some of his four check chances. So, funny thing is, he's still a point-for-game player. And, like, we're shitting on him. You know? It's pretty wild. I'll defend him. I'll play devil's advocate on this. Like, if it's costing us scoring chances and things like that, then that becomes an issue. Him avoiding, you know, a hit and maybe, you know, not getting the puck up as quickly as he should or, you know, whatever.

[00:10:28] I'm okay with Jack Hughes. Like, I'd much rather have a healthy Jack than a banged-up Jack because he's trying to make a play. So, with that, I'll give him the grace. But there was a level of his four check and tenacity that we haven't seen really this year. I will say that. He does seem like he's kind of playing at half speed right now. I don't know what it is. And, honestly, Brad hasn't been very good himself.

[00:10:54] And I think when the two of them being a little bit off, like, Gritzik's been the best player on that line. Yes, he has. You know, when the two of them are a little bit off, it's noticeable. Yeah. You know, like, I mean, Brad had a couple times where he just fucking flat-out whiffed on the puck. And he's done that, like, every game so far. It's like, I don't know what the fuck happened to this guy. Yeah, I mean, they definitely haven't. And it just kind of reiterates how important the moves Sonny made him made over the summer were

[00:11:21] because these guys have been the catalyst of our offense. You know, Evangelista, Boquist, Evan Rodriguez. These guys are all contributing. Everyone except Anthony Manta. But we do need these top guys to start getting in gear. Because there's another level to this team, too, that we haven't even seen yet. So, yeah, how good can they get? Like, he's a professional athlete, Jason. He goes to the fucking gym. Jesus fucking idiots.

[00:11:52] He has gotten taller. Jack looks like he has gotten a little taller. His neck is noticeably thicker from now versus his first year. But, look, he's not a physical guy. No, he's never going to be. He's never going to be a physical guy. Exactly. Like, this is Jack Hughes. He's – Right. Teams are going to pay him for the offense he brings, not for anything else. But – and you kind of touched on it before. But the crazy thing is, is like they can put up a game like they did last night without – with Jack being pretty quiet. Right.

[00:12:19] Like, it's – it's – you know, that Timo, Nico, Evangelista line is fucking great. Like, they're a great line. And Luke Evangelista – I mean, Gritza, you know, I think is the best value deal. But Evangelista has been an unbelievable find. Yes, he has. And he's just watching him day in and day out. Just kind of the subtle little IQ, hardworking things that he does.

[00:12:45] You know, like that – the power play where his stick just disintegrated. And he fucking jumped on the puck like it was a grenade. That's what he said. And he kept possession on the – yeah, and he kept possession on the power play. Then there was another thing where I think Timo tried to feed him a stretch pass where he was at the blue line. It was a little bit out of his reach and it was going down for an icing. And he beat the guy out in a foot race. And, like, the puck was behind.

[00:13:11] And the defenseman basically had him kind of dead to rights, sort of paced up against the boards. But he somehow, some way, got a stick on it and, like, poked the puck a little bit towards Wedgwood. And towards Wedgwood. And Wedgwood had to cover it up, like, quickly. I was thinking of a different play. Yeah, but, like, just these subtle little high IQ, high poised plays. Like, I've been nothing but impressed by this kid. I agree. And I see you guys are kind of going at it a little in the chat.

[00:13:41] But, like, that's the thing. We're going to rent an octagon. But, like, that's the thing that I think as a Devil fan you have to be so happy about is the fact that, like, if we're not winning because just straight up losing games, like, against Detroit or, you know, against any of the teams we beat, maybe not even last night. If Jack, you know, we don't get that secondary scoring. We're in a much tighter game if Jack's not scoring and all this stuff.

[00:14:10] Like, this team keeps putting up Ws. I don't care. Yeah, I can give a fuck. Jack and Brad will take as much time as you need to figure shit out. You know, like, as long as we're winning, I'm fine with that. Like, just – but to shit all over them now after a big win like that, no, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, I'm not going to do that. They're just – they had a quiet night. And they're going to get keyed on by, you know, by the best players on the other team.

[00:14:35] So, one thing I wanted to note is so Nico played seven minutes against Natchez and six and a half against McKinnon. Controlled 72 and – or 76 and 72 respectfully expected goals. Outshot when he was on the ice. Outshot McKinnon 12 to 5. What were the faceoffs last night?

[00:15:00] Because it seemed on – watching it on TV, we, like, absolutely dominated them in the dot. And we haven't really done that this year. That impressed me. Did it? Yeah. Fuck possession, baby. It's that simple. There's no correlation between possession and faceoffs. Oh, my God. You're so annoying. Mike, you're right. It's so annoying. I know you're not talking about Tim, but I am. I know, but, I mean, it's a fact. It's a mathematical – it's a fact. It is 100% a fact.

[00:15:30] It's not a fact. JP Gambates did an entire mathematical empirical study on faceoffs and basically said there are, like, four that are important. Okay. Okay. So, JP said it. So, it's fact. No. He actually did a mathematical study on every single faceoff taken over the past five years. Show me that study. I will. And I want it in PowerPoint form. No fucking around. No, you're going to have to learn to read, and you're going to have to learn all the mathematical formulas that he pulls out of it. Anyway. Oh, okay. See? So, that's it.

[00:15:59] That's how they get you. It's all fake news, Tim. Don't let me fucking believe everything JP Gambates writes. Yeah, go get it. No, it was – I mean, it was a very good – it was a very good – very good – well thought out, well researched. What's the fifth narrative you like to spread on this podcast? Your conspiracy-laden bullshit. I'm sorry if I'm correct. I apologize for being right all the time. It's a fucking hard life, man. I know. We absolutely crushed him in the dot last night, and it was a –

[00:16:28] You know, you can try to be as, you know, cool about this. This is not – you know damn well that face-ups are so much more important than you like to fucking let on, and you play your little part. I know. Face-ups are like – they're like four. They're important. Four out of what? Out of all of them. Oh, that there are four face-ups. I counted. There's way more than four. I know. Way more. Yeah, there are always more than four, but there are only four that really matter.

[00:16:58] No, there was at least 16 that matter. I will – so, all right, I'm just busting your balls. I know you are. I did notice that Jack actually won several face-offs last night too. They were good in the dot last night. Which is pretty wild. Yeah, just up and down the lineup, and it's – you know, we're talking like Jack couldn't – might not even play last night. And – And you know they're going to have a game. Everybody else stepped up.

[00:17:26] Yeah, and they're going to have a game where they just light it up and make the other teams look stupid. But it's probably going to be tomorrow against Anaheim. I would actually bet on Jack Hughes' anytime goal tomorrow night. Anaheim is a team – it could go a couple of ways. It could go full-on track meet, which I don't – which I think still favors us based on four lines deep. I don't think it's a preferred way to play.

[00:17:51] I liked the defensive structure, and I believe – and like what Nico said about like we need to refocus on the D zone because the offense will come out of that, and it has. Because the other funny thing that I've noticed is that I'm pretty certain, you know, the 1-0 them shit, the guys that have scored first for us are all the new guys, Evangelista and Eron. So it's like they haven't gotten the memo yet that we're not supposed to do that. Still can't score first.

[00:18:20] But, you know, you say this could go a couple of different ways. If they're getting into a track meet with Anaheim, they're not playing their game. And even though that does favor us, especially the fact that we can roll the four lines like you said, but you don't want to get into that. Play the way you fucking played last night, and all the offense you're going to need will come from that. You know, you just have to play that – the way you played against the apps. You could beat anybody. You play that way. You can keep them in check. You'll win the game. Yeah.

[00:18:49] You get into a track meet and defensive breakdowns and everything. Well, then we can flip a coin. Yeah, and Anaheim's coming off four losses, like Zach just said. Like it's, you know, they're going to be pissed off or whatever. But like – So was Colorado after losing the Phillies. Yeah, I think that's kind of nonsense. But like are we catching them on a – are they due or are we catching them like in like a rough batch?

[00:19:15] Like I think we can just like – I think we can just steamroll this team again. And I would like to see that because like you said, you know, that's now suddenly we've won three or four. Let's make it four or five. Because that next stretch when we actually go on the road that's Vegas, Colorado, Dallas, three games and four nights on the road, that is going to be the hardest stretch of this season so far. Oh, absolutely. And that's why you have to bank as many of these home games as you can.

[00:19:43] And, you know, the fact that you're starting the season with this many home games in the month of October, that's awesome. Bank the points, win at home. You know, but again, this is the style that they played last night. That's – you can win a lot of road games that way. You just win a lot of straight-up hockey games. Like that's the formula. Don't waver from that. But I do want to talk a little bit about what was brought up today that apparently one Mr. Dylan Larkin has – Hey, oh, I did want to touch on one other player.

[00:20:13] Do you mind? No. No. Jake Allen. Thought he had an outstanding game. Jake Allen was great. He gave us the situational saves that we've needed and have been lacking all season. Because while we were dominating that team, it was 1-1 for a long time. Yeah. He made some big saves when they needed him too. He made some big saves. Beginning of the first, beginning of the third, he kept us in it before grid six goal. Like that could have been 2-2 pretty quickly.

[00:20:41] You know, and I was really, really happy about that. And the fact that how many times have we seen them fail at – after getting that one goal lead, getting that two-goal fucking lead. Instead of letting them come back, tie the game, that was nice to see. Like, holy shit, we have a third period two-goal lead against the fucking Abs. We can win this thing. That's – you know, that was huge. But – so anything else about last night? No. Yeah. I love you, Arsenio Gritzuk. Fuck you, Kelly. Oh, my God. You stink.

[00:21:10] He's the fucking best. I mean, what a – like, that goal was so fucking beautiful. And I love this kid. He just – Honestly, took notes from Matt Boldy in the Olympic game. Remember Boldy's first goal in the Olympic gold medal game? Yeah, it was very supportive. Did the same thing to Makar and Taze. Split him right down the middle. Yep. And just turned a rocket on up his ass. And once he got past Makar, Makar just stopped skating. It was – I'm noticing. Yeah, it's a great play.

[00:21:39] So anything else about the Devils before we move on to what's around the NHL? Yeah, Zach, I'll agree with you there. We got to give Brownie a little love. He looked good. This is the lineup as it should be. These are the guys that we needed to play as many games as possible. It's going to – Lombardi will get back into a game at some point. I'm not concerned about him. Brennan Dillon, on the other hand, he might have to wait for him. He made an issue with him again. Yeah.

[00:22:08] So – but like I was saying earlier, Dylan Larkin has expanded his teams to be traded to from three to ten. The Devils are on that list along with, I think, Utah was on there, Carolina. I forget who else. Do you know what it was? What? It was every American team that's in the top 11 in Stanley Cup odds. Like he's such a douche. First, second, third, fifth, like seventh, eighth, ninth, and 11th or something like that.

[00:22:37] And we're on that somehow. I heard Elliott Freeman say on XM this morning that – who's the dude from the fucking Wild, the douchebag? Like Russo. Russo. That, like he believes that if the Wild got Larkin, Quinn Hughes would sign the next day, no questions asked. Now, there might be some truth to that, but I also think like just the Wild should probably forget about getting Dylan Larkin

[00:23:05] because like they were the top team on his list. This wasn't done yet. Like we know Billy Guerin wants to get him, so why isn't he there? Because he can't make a deal. If he had the appropriate assets to get him, they would have gotten him. He would already be there. And that's why Larkin is a three-team trade list. It was a veiled one-team trade list that's now a ten-team trade list. Veiled one-team trade list.

[00:23:32] Because even the teams like maybe Utah could find – like we don't have – where would you put Dylan Larkin on this team? Because I was thinking about it, right? So that's why I'm not really all that interested. So you put him at one or two – Jack's spot, move Jack to the wing. That's a possibility if you wanted to do that. The only other spot – I think that's the spot for him, but – The only other spot is on the fourth line, taking over for Cody Glass.

[00:24:02] I can't put him anywhere else. I put – I mean, he's better than Erod. Move Erod to the wing. But still, you're not breaking that line up. It doesn't matter how you count it. I wouldn't – Connor Brown, Boquist, and Dylan Larkin, that's a damn good fucking line. Yeah, but Larkin's – we're not going to pay $8.7 million to a fourth liner. So you're putting him on Jack's line and moving Jack to the wing. That's the only – Yeah, that's – That's eight and a half million dollars. That's where he goes. Right. That's where he goes.

[00:24:30] Like, I don't even think, like, as a 3C, it doesn't really make much sense for him – for that to work here. So Dylan Larkin, I don't know what you'd have to give up for him. But let's just start with, in any way, shape, or form, does that interest you? No. Zero. Zero percent. I just – look, it interests me in the sense that he – that basically confirms that we will, in fact, get Quinn Hughes.

[00:24:59] Okay. So my reasoning was if that means that Quinn's definitely coming here in July or sometime during this year, then, yes, you get him here. But that's the only reason. And I don't know how much that moves the needle. And you can't take a shot at that. Larkin's a really good – Larkin's a really good player. I just think there is a fit problem unless some things get really moved around. And, look, we could certainly do that.

[00:25:27] But if you look at his actual production, people are like, oh, he's a 30-goal scorer. It's like half of those goals for the past, like, four seasons have all come on the power play. And it's all on the power play in that same exact – like, him and Nico, actually, their production is actually eerily similar. Like, you know, they're both 30-goal, 40-assist guys, roughly. Although Larkin – Nico's had a couple of better seasons and Larkin's had a couple of better seasons. But they're both good in the dot. They're both kind of 200-foot players.

[00:25:56] They both kind of play all situations. Larkin is a prolific diver and does – there's a whole Twitter thread I think I sent you guys from this dude. His Twitter name is like RyanHockey88 or something like that of just clip after clip after clip of Larkin acting like he was getting fucking sniper fire in Fallujah. It is so fucking funny just looking at this over and over and over again of him. So I don't know if I really want that kind of element on this team.

[00:26:25] He'd fit great in Carolina. That's the other side problem, though, is like if Carolina gets him, it's a real problem for us. So I'm a little on the fence, but like I'm kind of leaning no. I just don't see a place for him on this. Well, I'll tell you this. Not to mention the fact that he's 31 and has four more years at 8.7 million, which isn't going to be a lot in like four years. But where are we putting all these guys? Yeah, where are we putting all these guys? Well, that's it. Is it four years after this year or four years?

[00:26:55] Yeah, so until he's 35, he also, you know, gets bumps and bruises, you know. And, you know, he disappeared when Detroit needed him most last year. And he hasn't been to the playoffs yet. And he's been the captain of that team. I don't know. I could kind of go on and on. And someone said it earlier in the chat. I'd rather target Edmonton. Wow. I would like to. Edmonton's a fucking good player. And what? Yeah, that's with the Dylan Larkin thing. I'll say this just to button it up.

[00:27:24] No, I don't think he should be here. I don't think there's room for him. I just don't know what you do with the guy. I don't. Again, I don't. Again, and who knows what goes the other way? And I would assume that Gritsuk would be in that conversation. And there's no freaking way I would get rid of Gritsuk right now. Right. Like, if I'm any GM, if, like, the doubles are after Edmonton, for example. Like, and if I'm another GM, I'm asking for Gritsuk. Absolutely.

[00:27:53] That's an outrageous value contract right now. And I hang up the fucking phone on that. Like, you just can't give up Gritsuk right now. You know, I'd honestly, I'm already ready to move on from Mantha. You know, like, Dylan, you know, has some money on the books. And apparently there's some news that he actually vetoed a trade last year, too. So, yeah.

[00:28:18] I mean, he looks like he might be on the way out, you know, as much as I hate to see that in terms of, you know, his sort of presence. I could also probably be talked into Siegenthaler. Like, again, like, if we're, you know, getting, if we're going to be positioning ourselves for Quinn, we're going to need to free up a spot on that left side. I don't know. There's a lot more nuance to it, I think, than people who are looking at 30 goals.

[00:28:47] Give me that guy. You know, I don't think there's, we would have to, if we do acquire him, we would have to prepare ourselves to, for his production to look a lot like Timo Meyers' production. And whether we'd be okay with that or not. I think you make an excellent point. And, again, I say no. I like this team. I like the team we watched last night. Like, that's the team that we were excited about in the summertime. I want to see this team cook a little bit.

[00:29:16] The only person, like, look, goaltending is a different issue. I would not be against talking about getting a goaltender. I mean, way more than I'd be right now talking about a ballward or a defenseman. So, I would be right now out of the trade market. I'm not really, I want to see what these guys can do. But I can be talked into a goalie. I'm saying that. Yeah, I could be too. Although, we apparently have, like, one of the better goalies that, like, deserve to get called up just not doing shit. This whole thing is weird.

[00:29:45] And I saw Ace ask the question about it to Sheldon Keefe. And Keefe was, you know, pretty much what you said in the last show, right? Like, just very Allen and Dawes are our guys and that's it. Yeah. I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense. Why are you not sending him down then? I mean, is that just because you're worried he's not going to clear waivers? Or, I mean, why is he up here? He's not practicing. He's not getting any game time. Yeah. I don't get it. I think.

[00:30:12] And in terms of waivers, I know there's some different rules now about how long guys have you have to wait before, like, you claim can send someone down. So, I'm not sure if they can actually do that. Oh, that was another thing. Yeah. I did want to talk about the power play. Okay. So, we don't know what's going on with the kid with waivers. We all have a clue why he's up here and we have no idea. And it doesn't look like he's going to see any ice time in the foreseeable future. That's pretty much what we're doing. Yeah.

[00:30:42] And, oh, my goodness, he'll get claimed again if we put him on a waiver. So, like, if they've communicated to him, like, sit tight, keep practicing, blah, blah, blah, blah. Power play. We forgot to bring this up. We only got one opportunity last game. Totally fine. Oh, sorry to back up again. One of the things that was really good last night was a penalty kill. Connor Brown just adds a whole different element to that.

[00:31:12] And he had a great clear. He had the first clear during the power play was, like, a second effort on the boards. And it was, like, kind of looking like they were going to keep the puck in. And he just wheeled it out of the zone. And they didn't really get shit done on their power play. Colorado didn't do shit at all last night. No. So, the power play, I think it's time for some personnel moves. I just don't. It's not working.

[00:31:40] I don't like what they've done where they've swapped Jack and Brat on the flanks. I know oftentimes you want your best passer and distributor on his off wing on the flank. That's why they have Jack over there now. But Brat is just, he's fucking worthless on that left flank. Like, I want to see Jack back on his strong side. And I want to see Gritzuk in place of Jesper Brat on that power play. Like, it's time to. Okay, so you actually do want a personnel change. You want Gritzuk.

[00:32:10] Yeah, I want to put Gritzuk and replace Brat. And I don't know. I don't know if Evangelista is totally, like, he's not really blowing my skirt up in that bumper spot as the righty bumper net front. But I do like his hands. I do like his hands down low and his ability to pass and his ability to kind of recover, like when his stick blew up.

[00:32:32] So I don't know if there's a way that maybe you can kind of put him on the left flank instead of Brad and Gritzuk in the bumper and Jack on the right flank. And I don't, you know, I'm fine with either Luke or Dougie. Like, if it's not working, I don't know. Try Dougie. Like, I don't think it really matters either way. But I think right now, I think Gritzuk would be a great opportunity, especially with him cooking the way he is. I think he actually has our only fucking power play goals this year anyway on the second unit.

[00:33:02] Yeah, I think he has one. But, yeah, I mean, you can't let the power play go this long without there being some changes made. It's looked awful. Real quick, Alex Russo writes, Larkin would be brought in for leadership too. But, damn, he seems like a clown. Yeah, I would. Can you can any team with a straight face say you're bringing Dylan Larkin in for leadership value? The fucking captain that quit on the Red Wings? Like, I don't know how much of a leader. I'm talking about it right back.

[00:33:29] Yeah, I just don't know how much water that holds with what he did and how everybody kind of sees him now. And that's another reason, too, why I don't want Larkin. He's a quitter. Like, you know, no matter how you cut it, I just I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like the fact that he fucking quit on them and I would not want him. What the hell is going on here? Yeah. That's weird. Your first when you ducked out, I didn't remove you.

[00:33:58] So when you came back, there were actually two Tims. No, two of me. Yes. Yeah. A leader is someone who, you know, re-ups for this team and says, I want to be part of the solution. You know, let me consult. Let me help. Let me be part of the solution. Not like a guy that wants to slink off to Florida and be, you know, second, third, fourth fiddle to, you know, his fucking buddies. I will say. OK, so real quick.

[00:34:26] Jay Snow wrote that Brady quit, too, but I take him in a second. OK, I put what Larkin did and what Brady did separately. All right. Brady was coming up on a contract extension, told the team beforehand that he didn't have interest in re-signing. I think it was this year and next year left on the contract. So he was saying, look, you got me for two more years, but I'm not staying too far after that. So the team did what they thought was going to be best for them. And they moved him right away because they knew full well he was walking out the door anyways. So he got a good deal.

[00:34:56] They took it. Larkin has five years left on his deal and he wants out. That's different. You know, so if he walked and he's like you said, what, 31 now? Yeah, I believe so. So if Larkin walked into Steve Iserman, GM at the time and said, hey, look, I'm just letting you know, I'm not re-signing here. Larkin goes, you're going to be 36. We're not re-signing you. So that's it. Like to demand a trade at 31 years old with five years left on your deal, that's fucking shitty.

[00:35:25] And that's where I will give Brady a little bit of grace. I still think it's Dickie that he did it too, but I don't think it's as bad as what Larkin did. Yeah. And look, and I understand like looking around at your team being like, my GM's not helping this guy fucking sucks at his job. But like, that's then go to the owner and be like, you need to get rid of this fucking guy. Right. You know, like it's not, it's not hard. So your Brady could chuck for price sakes.

[00:35:53] You can get, you have the owner's phone number and you can talk to him. Yeah. So anyway, enough about Larkin. I'm so tired of like, I just, I hate getting caught up in the rumors and like, be like, here's a trade package. And here's, let's talk. Well, no, we're not going to talk about that. We don't want them. So there's no sense in talking about where we would, what we would give up for him. I will talk about one, one other guy though.

[00:36:16] So Friday is the day that Connor Hollabuck suspension ends and he is eligible to come back to the Winnipeg Jets and play goalie for them. How do you think this thing's going to play out? I have no idea. And I think they have some outdoor heritage game or something like that. This weekend. Yeah. Is it this weekend? Yes. I think they're just going to pay him and tell him to stay home. I think that's probably the best thing to do. At least for this weekend. Like, I don't know. It's just like, what do you do?

[00:36:46] And I don't know. Has anybody on Winnipeg made any sort of disparaging or pointed comments about like, fuck this guy? Not that I know of. They've all kind of been in lockstep behind Skinner and basically said, you know, we love Connor. We want what's best for him. But right now he's not part of the team. So let's move on. Now, if he's part of the team again, how do those guys feel? I don't know. He'd probably have to do a lot of work in that locker room to kind of make amends.

[00:37:15] And the other thing is, like, if you come back and suit up, like, if I was, you know, Connor or Shifley or guy on that team, one of the leaders on that team, I would make it known. Like, if you're going to suit up for us, it better be all in. Like, we don't want you to be fucking complaining two weeks down the road saying that you want out of here. Like, if you're going to come fucking play, then play. And we're at a point where, you know, these guys are such creatures of habit.

[00:37:40] It's kind of like, you know, at what point, like, is his season compromised because he hasn't been doing anything or hasn't been playing? You know, I don't know. I don't know if he's skating anywhere. I assume he is. I don't know if he's at home somewhere. But, like, I don't know. And, you know, Chimes and a couple other people were talking about the Canes being on his radar.

[00:38:07] I don't – I think Tulski thinks a lot like Sonny does in terms of the volatility of the goaltending position and not investing in it. But I don't know. I could be proven wrong. They also just have the money and can just be like, fuck it. Why not? Let's just get hellebucked. They also have a much better defensive team than we are. Hullabuck would be very scary on Carolina. You need to be a very specific – specifically skilled set type of goalie. I don't – that was a terribly phrased thing.

[00:38:37] But they give up so many – they don't give up a lot. But every now and then they will give up an odd man rush or a breakaway or something like that. You know, it's – I don't want to say it's similar to us but kind of in that same vein. So you need a goalie that can sit there for a while, stop a breakaway. Then sit there for a while and stop a breakaway. So is he that kind of guy? I don't know. Or is he a volume guy? I don't know.

[00:39:07] To be honest with you, it's kind of messed up. Like he is probably – not probably. He is one of the best goalies in the world. I don't watch him a lot because he plays in Winnipeg. Yeah. Yeah, I don't watch a lot of Winnipeg Jet games. Yeah, I mean their games are broadcast in like crayon. What's the – oh, did anybody know how Brady was received at a puck drop today in Ottawa? Curious how that went down. I'm sure we'll see clips of that. So that should be a fun game.

[00:39:36] I'm going to go watch that when we're done here. Yeah, me too. Yeah, me too. Other than that, like I think we're starting to get a real sample of like what this team is in terms of numbers and stuff like that. It's been a little inconsistent. But let's make this one count against Anaheim. And then, you know, I don't want to go back to being 500. I want to continue to move away from 500. You know, I think we win one more than we're 600 or above. And look at the teams in front of us.

[00:40:05] Like let's be realistic for one second and just look at that beautiful ticker across the bottom for one minute. All right. Carolina, 8-2-1, 17 points. They're probably staying there. 7-3-1, Rangers second place, 15 points. Rangers aren't staying that good. I'm sorry. The Islanders, 5-3-1 with 11 points. We're better than them. Washington, 5-4-0, 10 points. Washington's having the same problems we are. We can jump into second, third within a week if we play good hockey. Yeah.

[00:40:34] Like win tomorrow, win Saturday, and suddenly we're cooking. And then we're going out on a road trip with confidence. You know, they'll probably have their rookie dinner, one of those games out there, one of those nights out there. Jack, careful. Austin Cutlery and bubble wrap, just like AJ recommended. Although we're allowed to make that joke, not you, you fucking bitch. So, yeah.

[00:41:01] Oh, one other shout-out guy from my high school is he's playing on Anaheim's first line. So, very exciting. Yeah. Nikita Nestorenko. So, very exciting stuff. He's not very good and should not be on the first. Nikita Nestorenko? Nikita Nestorenko. Nikita. I thought you said Nikki. Nikita. Maybe they're calling that. Maybe. He probably should not be playing on a first line, but, you know. So, my daughter actually texted me today because she's up at Montclair, and she was like, hey, I got a –

[00:41:30] she signed up for, like, the Devil's Package and stuff, so, like, they'll send them notifications when they have tickets. So, they have tickets available for tomorrow for under $20. Unfortunately, we can't go, and it sucks. It's K-pop night, too, and you know how much I fucking love K-pop. Yeah. That would have been awesome. Awesome. I have some extremely racist gear I was going to wear. Totally awesome. Why are you there?

[00:41:58] I just imagine you're just, like, one of those, like, little rice patty hats. Look at that. That's all. Canceled. Sonny, you want to come on a podcast? We're getting closer to these hometown remix jerseys. Yes. They're teasing us all day today. They teased us. Like, every team sent out this stupid coded thing that was, like, one letter off.

[00:42:23] So, it was Black Parade, which I guess is a My Chemical Romance song, which I guess is a band that I've never fucking heard of. You've never heard of My Chemical Romance? Really? I have. I'm just kidding. Oh, okay. Yes. I have heard of them. Have you ever watched The Umbrella Academy on Netflix? I watched, like, the first five episodes and kind of lost track of it. And then I checked back in. It was, like, four seasons in or something like that. And I was, like, ugh. All right. Very, very full show based on the graphic novel written by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance. Oh, really?

[00:42:53] Yeah. He wrote it. He wrote it. Talking about talented. Jesus. I could barely put my pants on. So, what were you saying about the Black Parade? It's called Black Parade. I don't know if that's a coded message for the type of jersey. I think we all have kind of made, jumped to the conclusion that it's going to be some sort of inverse of the stadium series. But I really would love to see just almost like a night black, like, just the simple red

[00:43:20] logo, black pants, black socks, black gloves, black helmet, like, just all black. I think that'd be fucking badass. It would be awesome. And we'll definitely be getting some. And I'm going to look for a great sick one. But the release date. So, yeah. I was, Gritzuk or Evangelista? I might go Evangelista. You know, mine was actually Gritz or Luke. Well, interesting. I already have the USA Luke Hughes jersey. Yeah, yeah. Saw that. Not as good as your military appreciation. I don't know.

[00:43:48] For sale, by the way, on eBay. Google search Miles Wood military appreciation. Somebody's giving me an annoying box for it. The release date, I checked it today. And all it said was early November. But then it said that some teams are scheduled to wear them November 2nd. So, I'm going to go on a limb and say November 1st. Sure. Sounds good. All right. Anything else? No, no. Good win. Really, really happy. I was pleasantly surprised.

[00:44:19] Play it like that some more. We've seen proof of concept. Like, I don't think we should be easy on this team if they can't do that again. No, if tomorrow night looks like Washington, you know, then we're going to be back here bitching about the same fucking things that we were bitching about. So, it's just going to be more and more. We're going to get more and more frustrated because it's exactly what you said, right? We've seen proof of concept. We know this can work. Like, that was against fucking Colorado Avalanche. If you can do it against them, you could do it against any other team in the league.

[00:44:48] There's no excuse other than just playing stupid hockey, losing focus, and not being committed to the plan. That's the only thing that's going to hold this team back, besides injuries, of course, is their own fucking head. Yeah, 100% agree. Like, it just focused, you know, lock the fuck in. You know, and it's, like, our last four games, you know, they dominated Detroit but had some issues, you know, with those mistakes.

[00:45:17] Rangers was a completely thorough game. Took a step back versus Capitals but then reemerged against Colorado. So, again, three of our last four are wins. Three of our last four are very good games, particularly from a gameplay perspective. So, I'm encouraged. I think, you know, the trend line's going up. You know, don't make us look like idiots. By November 1st, I want to be in the top three of the Metropolitan Division. By November 1st, I would like to be in second place.

[00:45:47] Okay. All right. There we go. After what we saw last night, like, they have no excuse to not be 110-point second-place Metro team. Right. Fucking take first place from Carolina. Fuck them. Yeah. Look, Carolina's managed to stay ridiculously healthy most years. The injury bug is kind of kicking them a little bit this year. We'll see how that goes. We know it's like... Jarvis just got activated for them today. God damn it. Yeah. All right. They just keep getting fucking better.

[00:46:16] Never mind on that, I guess. Hey, look. But that's the giant you have to slay, right? Like, you have to get through them at some point. And it'd be nice if they start regular season. Beat them this year. But look, anywhere you want to go in the playoffs, there's a 99% chance that you have to go through Carolina at some point. But yeah, first things first. Tomorrow, take care of Anaheim. Go beat the stupid ducks. Go beat that Lawrenceville kid. Guys, thanks so much for hanging out with us tonight.

[00:46:45] Enjoy the rest of your evening. Hit the like, subscribe, and the alert bell if you're listening to us on Apple and Spotify. A five-star review, a positive comment. A subscription to download helps a little podcast that could. He's Tim. I'm Chris. We're the Alka Puckers. Thanks for hanging. See you when we see you. Eat it, Dick Valley. So last you heard from Bobby, he was on the PA Turnpike with the goat in the front seat? No, the goat.

[00:47:14] He says he was just trying to push it through the fence.