Do You Believe In Miracles? NO!

[00:00:06] 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! Devils are going to need all the help they can get going in tomorrow What's up everybody, we are the Uncle Puckers, Timmy, Bobby, go-kart, and I'm Chris Yeah, so we did a show on Friday night after the big overtime win

[00:00:35] And I think we were all very happy and it was a great fun show to do But over the course of those 48 hours till our next game I got to thinking and just like, I really hope that they can replicate what they did on Sunday What they did Friday But I was getting more and more discouraged in the fact of the injuries are piling up

[00:01:02] And, you know, there's only just so much that you can do when your entire decor is essentially on the shelf here And, of course, it was exactly, we needed everybody to be A++ yesterday And we unfortunately didn't get everybody to be A++ And you're not going to win a game in the playoffs when every single person isn't playing at their absolute best So, it was an extremely disappointing loss And now the Devils have guaranteed one more game

[00:01:31] As we roll into Game 5, they're down 3-1 Tuesday night They lose this game, our season is over You know, it's not four in a row So, maybe we can do three in a row? I don't know, I'm really not putting too much stock In my opinion, I think we're probably cooked tomorrow I'm real curious to see how these guys come out with their back against the wall And see, but, you know, that's my thoughts off the bat Bobby, let's start with you First off, how was your party?

[00:02:00] How were your go-karting party? Okay, so that was super cool Because he just wanted a get-together with a couple of friends Nothing huge We found a relatively new, renovated track With the duck pin bowling and all this other stuff Restaurant stuff And he got the track to himself Just him and two buddies, man That's pretty cool They had 45 minutes And the guy's like, you know, if they're going to need a break, let me know I'm like, nah, that's a lot of reasons They were beat, dude Their arms were shaking

[00:02:30] Their hands were shaking You know those go-karts You'd like take all the corners Like, trick, trick, trick Yeah, they made it about 38 minutes And they were like, nah, can't Just can't do anymore That's impressive But dude, super cool Weather was perfect Just the three of them race around My kid tells me he wants to be a race car driver And he blew away his friends on the track, man There was like no There were so many curves I sent you some pictures I don't know how much you saw But there were so many curves And it was so tight There was really no room to pass Like, you had to really time it perfectly To kind of get on the inside

[00:02:59] And he was doing it repeatedly So, it's pretty cool to watch Satan was a race car driver People just said It was so goddamn fast Never did win no checkered flag But it never did come in last I'm sorry Go ahead, Timmy Go ahead, Timmy Rubbing his racing, man You gotta get inside You gotta bump him out I have to say Out of any sport And I won't First of all I shouldn't even call Racing a sport I don't think it's a sport It's a stamina sport Well, yeah You gotta have stamina

[00:03:28] But I don't necessarily know If you have to be an athlete To do it Oh, no In my opinion I kind of It's being athletic Yeah, but still You're driving a car left Constantly My thing is NASCAR is just left I absolutely hate it I can't just I don't get in I can't get into it Like, I don't understand it I don't get why people are And I've tried watching it I have I've given it I honestly say Out of all sports I say I hate I've given that one a fair shake And I just

[00:03:57] I can't I can't do it I'm sure doing it Is a hell of a lot more fun Than watching it One of the things I'd recommend doing Sometime in your life I'm a I'm a car I like I like cars And like fast cars And I've gotten Several speeding tickets In my life James got the fast car I'd recommend doing One of those Like racing experience things Where you go Right Track and you race Like supercars around That shit is a lot of fun There's actually Bob, I don't know If you want to show them this Because there's a movie

[00:04:26] It came out Last year Maybe two years ago About A kid that was really good At a particular video game A car racing video game And they brought him in And like a bunch of other Really good video gamers And Gave them real cars to drive It's a true story This actually happened It's like a different It's not F1 It's another series I forget what it is But it's Same kind of cars That drive like Le Mans I think And stuff like that But I I don't like NASCAR

[00:04:56] I think NASCAR Is kind of silly But I do Occasionally catch An F1 race Formula 1 Has gotten so much More popular In this country Over the course Of probably The last five or six years It's They did this show Drive to Survive On Netflix That really launched The popularity of it And then Golf saw that And was like Oh let's do our own show And then football Was like Well we got to do A quarterback show And then they did A receiver show And I don't know What they're doing next So The show

[00:05:27] Is Blew up And popular Basically because Of the F1 show But The F1 guys Are actually pretty jacked And their reaction Times are outrageous I love the Netflix Quarterbacks and receivers I thought they did A great job And now they're doing I guess receivers Again I mean Quarterbacks again Yeah Well you're You're a football guy So like of course Yeah Yeah I mean I love football And if we're done Tomorrow I shall be looking Forward to the start Of the football season And that will be What gets me through This summer

[00:05:57] But you know Bobby what are Your thoughts here man Well You know The reality is With injuries Injuries suck They really do I mean I think I talked About it last pod Like yeah It's not an excuse Per se But half your decor Down Two of them Barely played Your superstar Down I mean It is a legit Problem And even if we Had squeaked By this round I mean We were all Going to keep Rooting for them In every round And all of our Predictions But did anybody Really think They were winning

[00:06:27] The Stanley Cup I said I didn't No But you wanted To ride it As long as Possible And that's just Us watching Our combined 100 years of Hockey It doesn't feel Like a team That could actually Put off Not that miracles Don't happen But the reality Is injuries Do suck But for me That doesn't Change the effort I don't freaking Get it at all I don't get One You know I don't get That last period Or the first period How much more

[00:06:56] Hockey do you need To play in your life To realize how Important Every shift But with this team I mean this is Nothing that we Hadn't seen all year I wonder if we Or maybe Maybe we We shouldn't Have been surprised With how Yesterday's first Period went How game one Went Because we had Seen them all year Play a great game And then a different Team comes out The next game I just thought In the playoffs Maybe it wouldn't Happen because the Urgency was too high But it did I get I get the Circumstances

[00:07:26] I get the fact That you know What's often Overlooked When we were Kind of Pushing Carolina Around in our Win Like We were beating Them to the game And then they Look like they're On their back foot The whole time They were trying Sometimes you're Just matched up And you just Can't get it Going but I Just don't Buy it I just There's just Something that They're They just didn't Have enough drive And what are They going to do I mean You have to Be on Elimination game To finally say Oh yeah Let's win this one You know

[00:07:56] To a man I'll always say They want to win Every game And I believe That's true But you can see It in their step There's something Different from Game to game And at this level It's just very Concerning And then the only Other thing I can Really think of Is that Despite where We are If our Power play Had even Been Let's say It was what It was Scoring at The rate That it Was Those three Or so Goals Could have Turned this Series We don't Know when They would Have been Maybe One would Have been The win

[00:08:26] That Would Have Matter Like I don't Know But you Gotta Think We might Have at Least Another Win If a Timely Power Play Goal To And nobody saw That Coming We were The number One team In the league Combined Special Teams I just Didn't See That Falling Off A cliff Like That So A lot Of Questions But Yeah I mean I Absolutely Agree With you The power Play The penalty Kill The special Teams In general Has been Absolute Killing Killing Us This Series And it's

[00:08:56] Just Also The fact Of Like I think They're Just Shot Man I think They're Physically And Mentally Spent Right Now And I Don't Know If They Can Turn It Up To The Level That You're Going To Turn It Up To To To Win Two Games In Raleigh One Game At Home And Beat This Team Three In A row Who I Don't Think Maybe Maybe They lost Three In A row One Time All Year It's Just You know I Think They're Physically And Mentally Spent I

[00:09:33] Don't See Them Completing The three games they need to win this round No I Will Love it Like crazy if they do of course I'm a big fan But realistically no way man we're cooked No And Tim I mean do you disagree? Yeah fuck you we're winning the cup What are you guys watching? Of course I agree like Yes going in this in that little Delusional back of my head and I even Like a lunatic in my

[00:10:03] My bracket challenge I was like yeah They're going to the eastern conference finals But I knew that that Probably wasn't happening You know we did get that little glimpse In game Three but it's just like They put everything they had Into that game to win in two overtimes And that was the best they could come up with And There Chris I think you said it perfectly like For them to even Sniff this series Everybody had to be perfect Including Markstrom And

[00:10:33] Like They They just haven't been You know game one was an absolute dud Game two was a little A little closer but they still couldn't pull it off The same issues Again and again and again Are showing themselves This lack of scoring And the Bottom six depth Are issues The injuries Are an issue Markstrom having an off night Is an issue Yeah Bobby going in Like Thinking that You know special teams Is going to be an advantage

[00:11:02] That hasn't really worked out It had to be That was one of our paths That was one of That was the only thing Where we had an extreme advantage Was it And it's flipped the other way Our power play is actually A net negative Because they were short-handed Goal against us And just I've seen a lot of people Pointing the fingers At this guy And that guy And there's a referendum On every single thing That is You know It's only the bottom six And it's only this And I've seen people Even saying Fucking Kick Sheldon Keith To the curb Because he's not teaching But Nate Bastian How to

[00:11:33] Fucking tip shots It's like What are you talking about Like This is just This is just An accumulation Of everything On this team And it's just all Coming to a head I kind of I agree with Bobby To an extent On the effort That was a really Disappointing First and third period You know When you have to Get back into things In that third period They You know It just didn't seem like They had any Any juice At all I get Carolina Kind of You know Turtled a little bit And you know There's some Score effects in there But

[00:12:03] You just have to Find a way And And if those two lines Aren't Aren't doing anything Just Throw the guys That are out there Like Like just I don't know man It's just frustrating And It was really Disappointing Like We get scored on First In the first minute And it's just like Man You can just Sometimes you just tell With Markstrom When he's just a little bit off Yeah Like Right after Palat had a beautiful Scoring opportunity On the other end I get it Yeah We came out of the first shift And that line

[00:12:33] Palat Timo Nico Great line Only line that really was like Delivering consistently good shifts All night Palat was probably Our best player Last night Palat and Timo Were probably our best players Last night But you know With Markstrom We should give him another Six by six Yeah Don't get it twisted I think we need to Free up his cap space He had a great game I know You know that Bob Yeah If we could just

[00:13:02] Dust Palat off For the playoffs I'm fine Like if we can just Keep him And then just Dust him off And get his old ass Out there for the playoffs I'm down There's been like Three opportunities Where he strips someone In the offensive zone Come down the boards And like oh my god Here's that playoff Palat moment And then just Nothing happens I'll take all the intangibles And no goals Though too If that's what it means If I got that Consistently shift After shift from him Of course He's He's a record ball And like you know We were leading You know We were leading With the physicality

[00:13:32] We just didn't have it Last night You know We were 50-50 And 40 hits The first three games We had like 30 Last night Which kind of Backed down to our norm Which you know That's I realize Kind of hit tracking Is a little bit Wonky But Having that Less of a number I think really Is kind of an indicator That they just Run out of gas You know And then with Kovacavich going down And now You know Dumoulin He was expecting To be kind of A depth guy Maybe a third pair guy And suddenly he's Logging 35 minutes In game three You know And now

[00:14:02] Now all three of these guys Are dead for the rest Of the playoffs So It sucks It sucks This fucking sucks It does suck And one of the things That I just I can't understand With this team And it's not just A series It's the Entire season The Ineptitude Six on five With the goalie Pulled late in the third Like it is I don't know Have we ever Have we scored yet This year With the goalie pulled Down a goal To tie something up I don't think we have And two years ago

[00:14:31] That was automatic We pulled Our goaltender We were scoring We were tying it up We were going overtime We can't do it With the empty netters Since 2013 23 rather Have just been Ridiculous We probably have More empty net goals Against than anybody Else in the NHL We are completely Inept six on five Which again I guess Is a contributor To And the power play Same kind of thing You know They even said During the broadcast Bill Spaulding Said Or Kenny Danico Said

[00:15:01] When we got a power play Late in the I think it was The second or the third In the last game And we were pressing I think it was The third period We were pressing And then we take The power play And they were like That might be Actually That might be You know Bad for the devils Here That you know They were pushing And pushing And now all of a sudden They have to go Into power plays Mode And everything Just dies At the fucking blue line Not the first time We've talked about that Right And you see it Year after year And other teams Do it too It is the most Maddening thing

[00:15:31] When they're all Front foot And just controlling The game And they get a power play And it just falls apart And it can be It just Equally is deflating Like You know When You have a good power play And you get a lot of chances And a lot of opportunities Like we haven't done that You know I put it in my recap Like There's There's a number That's a pretty good Reference of how You're kind of Generating chances And I think Over the course of the season Our power play Generated about 10.8 Expected goals

[00:16:00] For 60 minutes So We're generating Half of that In these playoffs And actually Like The Carolina Penalty kill Has had a better I think Corsi and expected Four Than we have In In their penalty Kill minutes Versus our power play minutes Their penalty kill Actually has been better Offensively Than our fucking Power play has been I in absolutely No way Shape or form Blame Sheldon Keefe For this playoff run I think that guy Has done everything He could With what he's got I don't

[00:16:29] I'll even say Like I've seen The bottom six Playing hard Guys like Bashing in game Three Playing really hard Okay They're not getting The goals But I can live With that Because I Attribute this failure In the first round I contribute 90% of it To injuries I really do I just It's just And that's the thing That sucks Because you can't Sit here and piss And moan about Every little thing No it's just We don't have Jack We don't have Luke We don't have You know Dylan We don't have

[00:16:59] Kovacevich Like we don't Have our fucking D-Core One of the best D-Cores all season Long and finally Looks like you know Okay we're going to Get everybody back For the playoffs Right Like Luke is Healthy Dylan's healthy Kobe's healthy And Siegenthaler's Going to slot in And we're going to Get our D-Core Back to And then all of a sudden We lose all those guys It's just You can't win You can't win A playoff series Injuries can't be An excuse But they can be A reason If that means It's not an excuse

[00:17:28] It is the reason It's the reason It's the reason You know Those guys still have to Go out there and play hard And they're NHL players Yeah And during the overtime You know Dowling Fucking crushed somebody Right before NEMX goal That kind of led To that goal And they They were out there In that overtime Because they didn't get A lot of minutes In regulation They were fresh And they were fresh And they were out there But you know Just Yeah It's frustrating You know Like I just I was Before Bob came on Like I was just Looking at some Of these numbers

[00:17:58] Like The Holland Mercer Bratline Palat Nico Timo line Were both Well positive On expected goals They were generating chances They were They were doing well So Glass Potter Nason And Tatar Dowling Bashan Were both like I mean They're both in the Single digits For expected goals For a percentage Like that's That's fucking awful Those guys need to We're not asking them To score Chris Sorry I'm kind of Cut you off No it's fine Go ahead About getting this In a long way Basically what I'm saying Is like

[00:18:27] Like those are Terrible numbers Like at least Get those closer To even Like you know You need to be able To To Be competitive In your minutes To be able to Tilt the ice So that when Those better lines Can come on That they have An opportunity And they don't Have to be the Ones Going 200 feet Every goddamn Time Like we It's just Yes Do you think That the Fourth line No Couple things The fourth line I thought Especially in Game three Did that I thought The game Three

[00:18:57] That fourth Line Because like You said Later in the Game They were Getting They were The freshest Guys out there And it Showed But your Points Absolutely The bottom Six has Been terrible All year We're crazy To think That it was Not going To be Terrible In these Playoffs So our Back's Against the Wall I personally Do not Think we Win tomorrow I'm even Kind of At the Point now That I Can see It just Being a Fucking Blowout And I Hope I'm Wrong Trust me I do Hope I'm Wrong But that's Kind of What I See right Now

[00:19:27] But What Changes If any To this Lineup Do you Guys Make Because Personally I think You have In there We can't Score goals I don't Care about Seamus Casey's You know Defensive You know Lack of Defensive Ineptitude Which I Don't think He is Bad Defensively But you Need his Offense You need His Scoring You need His Puck Moving

[00:19:56] He can Pass The puck He can Start Rushes I want To see Him In But those Are the Two Guys That I Would Like To See In And Get Rid Of Tatar I Don't Care If he Doesn't Play Again But I'm Curious You guys Make any Changes Or you Just stick With it And run It back With what We did Last Night I

[00:20:44] Make every character guy. It's do or die. Put laser back in. Like, don't give me any chemistry questions about the lines because the lines aren't working. So I'd find a way to squeak him into. Yeah, no, I, I agree with all that, to be honest. And just the way the decor is arranged is, you know, Pesci and Hamilton were actually, so we'll go back to the, the, uh, game three, the game that we were pretty successful, right? Jonas and Nemich, that should be a pair.

[00:21:11] Pesci on his offside with Dougie and then Dumoulin with Casey. That gives you defensive protection for all of our, all of our defensive liabilities and gives you, um, gives you offense on every single parents. It's balanced, you know, Pesci Pesci is the only guy that, that has shown any sort of confidence going to his offside. And actually I think he was extraordinary in game three. His best game is when he was on his offside. I get it. He was kind of rotating in on the right also because we were down to five guys,

[00:21:38] but yeah, but I think we start off with those pairs and I'm, I'm with Bob on the forward core. Like, yeah, but when Lazar came back in after sitting out a couple of games, he had some good jump in his legs and these guys don't seem to have any juice in their legs at all. Like from the, from the hop in, on first period, it was like, man, these guys have fucking nothing in the tank. Like they were, they were exhausted. They were absolutely fucking exhausted. And if you have all these guys sitting up in the press box, throw them in, throw them on and fucking put in Hallin in for Mason.

[00:22:08] Mason's not doing shit either. I would have no problem with that. We're not three rounds deep into the playoff where we've got this team, this cruise and you don't want to risk any changes. Like we got shit that ain't working. So Bob, does it end tomorrow? I, I fricking hate to say that. It really just feels like we're going to get smashed, dude. I just, it's got that momentum on it where Carolina just smells the blood and, you know, I have faith that the guys can pull off another great effort in game, but I think for all the things we mentioned today, we're,

[00:22:37] we're just outmatched. We are physically outmatched. This is not our team. And these momentums like this, I don't know. I, I, I don't think they're coming home with a win. Well, I was busy all day today, so I didn't really get a chance to like listen to anything or read anything or watch anything. What's being said, anything online about this team? Like, what are they saying? I mean, are they, do they seem like they still believe or does it? A lot of them, you know, I should, I sent you guys the text message that got from the New Jersey Devils.

[00:23:07] Like where the, I gotta, you know, I'd sign up for the text message on the Devils and it's just like, fuck, what did I do? So they're just such a clingy ex-girlfriend. No, they're sending me like game six watch party stuff. I'm like, get them. Yeah. Okay. But, um, what game are you watching? Yeah. I don't think we're playing. What game are you talking about? Um, but you know, Nico said, yeah, we, we know what's in front of us. You know, we, we have to go steal one in their building. You know, that's, that's what they all say. And that's what they have to say. And that's what they're going to say, you know,

[00:23:36] none of them are going to be like, yeah, man, they're going to kick the shit out of us. They're not going to stay. The coach had the, you know, big thing on, right up on NHL and he's talking about how, you know, now's the time to, you know, don't worry about the macro environment. You got to bring it right down to like each shift, each period, each, like no shit, man. Like this is the stuff I'm talking about. That's game one talk. That is game one talk, especially the shift. You can control your line is going out there. You can do what you want.

[00:24:04] I'm not saying you're going to win the shift, but that's your energy. That's your game. Go play it to the best you can each and every time. I don't want to hear it now that their backs against the wall. Like here's a great idea. Let's not worry about all the other games. Let's worry about today. Okay, good. That's how I think we don't know. I haven't seen anything, but I get what you're saying, Bob, but I think a coach has to say that. And that's part of his job. You know, it's like, you know,

[00:24:32] his job is to remind them and be like, this is, this is a tall order when you look long-term, but that you can't look long-term right now. To me, there's nothing else to say in this environment. That all needs to be said all the time. The total mentality from drop one. Maybe it is. I'm just a frustrated devil's fan. Yeah. This is when you hear it backs against the wall. And now it's every second counts. It's like, you got to preach that from the beginning,

[00:25:01] all season, game one to the end of the playoff. That's just the winning mentality. And I feel like part of that's the problem with this team. Why we never even won four games straight. There was, there was some, you know, that kind of killer instinct was just never there. Yeah. And I mean, look, you can really boil it. I mean, cause tomorrow, yeah, it's everything. It's we lose, we're done. But if you do kind of take that away, it's,

[00:25:31] it's just the one game. And if you can pull out an upset in Raleigh, then you can maybe put it. Cause if they don't have Anderson and I'm just going to, I'm just going to be the therapist here and just kind of like, if you, if Anderson's not in, Anderson has been great. I don't think we tested what the hell's a, could check off at all after Timo's goal. I don't think we tested him at all. We were, everything was to the outside. We didn't have a ton of really good opportunity.

[00:25:59] So I don't know how he is going to play. Um, and if it is him, if the devils can get to him early and they somehow pull this off tomorrow, you do have three days then to rest. Well, two and a half early you play again Friday night. So you got two full days to rest, to come back to your barn for game six. Yeah. And again, you leave it all on the ice. Anything can happen. And then all you need to do is get to the game seven and then it doesn't matter.

[00:26:29] They're flip a coin. And if you can pull two in a row off of Carolina, I mean, yeah, it is. Okay. Not therapy session worked. Okay. Happy Homer's back. We are going to go down there and steal the game that we're supposed to steal. So the goal is a point we're coming back and then you win your game at home. You got the one game to win at home. Then we're back to the proverbial toss up for game seven. And that's it was in seven. Let's go. All right. I just, and I really need to get some shit out because I'm very disappointed. Well, this has been a very,

[00:26:57] the past four months have been some of the most frustrating I've had as a devil's fan, just watching this team game in and game out. Just be like, why can't you find it? You had it. Like, why can't you find it again? It's just so fucking frustrating. Well, I mean, you talked me into it, man. We're going to score three on Kachecoff in the first and cruise to a seven nothing win, come back home, win again. And then it's going to be game seven, which is a toss up. And here's the thing. If it is Kachecoff, here we go. You do.

[00:27:27] And you do. Like we haven't scored more than three. Well, yeah, we scored four in game three, but that the overtime goal, but let's just say during the 60 regular 60 minutes, we haven't scored more than three scored two in the first two. So let's say that you do do what you just said, Tim. Maybe not seven, nothing, but let's say that you put four or five past Kachecoff. You'll win the game five to two, five to three, whatever. Five, nothing. Now you do. Now you have Carolina going off. The last thing we want to do is go all the way back to Jersey to that

[00:27:56] fucking building after without our starting goaltender. And then in the back of their head, what they're thinking about is we can't put these fucking guys away. They have nobody on their team. I don't know half of the fucking defensive core that they have back there. Who's Seamus nation nation. And who are these guys? I don't know him. You know, you know, that's, that's the whole thing. Like Nemo, who the fuck is Nemo Casey? I don't know this guy. Right. Exactly. Game three game winning goal scorer.

[00:28:25] You know who he is now. Yeah. You know, you know who Nemitz is now, but I'm just, I was mixing the names up. I know. They could just, you know, but they start having some doubt. And then if you go and punch them in the dick again on Friday, then it's a series. Then it's just, then it doesn't matter at that point. You lose game seven. If you lose game seven, you can even as a devil fan say to Carolina in general, fuck you.

[00:28:53] We took you to the edge and we didn't have Jack Luke, you know, and blah, blah, blah, everybody else. And person, I'm still sticking with my, I have the feeling we're going to get lit up tomorrow night, but that's it, man. It's just that one. It's all you need. And if you can do it. Yeah. I'll know in the first, probably five minutes, whether I agree. Yeah. I agree. But if you, you know, they had that first good shifts and then they just got absolutely fucking dummied, you know?

[00:29:23] And, and, but they fought back. They did fight back yesterday. And it was just, one goal. That's all you needed. One fucking goal. The power play was that there's a power play. And I thought that if we tied that up at three, three, and we go in overtime again, I felt good. I felt good. In games one, two, and four, our power play has had multiple opportunities. Yeah. Tie to tie or take a lead in. And they're not delivering.

[00:29:53] Our power play needs. I mean, just the percentage. I say we're going to get, I don't understand what they did. I don't understand what they did. You know? And I, I've talked about this before. It's like, I don't know why suddenly Timo is now almost at like the left point down to the left flank, which was Jack's usual spot. And Brad's back on the right flank. It's like that, that's not working. Like the most effective power play player we had last night was, was to tar. And he was moving the puck around with motion.

[00:30:23] I think they need to put Nemich in for Dougie on power play one. Dougie, I think is still hurt. Like he, he's just, he just looks like an absolute shell of himself. Hold on, Tim, put, put your, like your, your hockey coach hat on like for real, because you're saying it, I've read it. I'm seeing everybody say it about this power play setup. So why in the world would the coach still not, what are they seeing that we're overlooking? Like, why is it this way? I don't know that there,

[00:30:53] something about the way Carolina pressures, maybe the personnel, you know, the way they match up on either side. Maybe Timo matches up with someone like Jarvis up on the top right versus stall in the, on the top left. They kind of play more of a box than a diamond and we're more successful against the diamond, I think. And, but there are opportunities. Like, you know, I saw a picture someone posted of one of the power plays where, where Nico won the face off. Timo had the puck on the boards.

[00:31:21] Three of the canes were outside of the dots and Timo had a direct lane to, to throw it right to, to he sure in the bumper spot, like right in the slot. Nobody was around Nico, but he chose to then pull it back and set it up with Dougie. And that gives them time to get back into their structure. And they're a very structured, high pressure team. Like we've, we've had problems with high pressure penalty kills all year. You know, it's just, it's just the way it is. I seriously, I don't understand why more teams don't,

[00:31:50] don't run a high pressure penalty kill because it works. Um, but I, I, I think they kind of big brain this and we're just like, we're going to, we're going to, you know, our power play has been so good that we can flip everybody around and still be so good, but it's just not working. I think it starts with Dougie up top. He's just not dynamic enough right now to, to be the distributor that we need when, when he's getting pressured as highly, as much as he is. I think Nason's got, you know, absolutely. His hands have gone to absolute stone down, down low.

[00:32:20] Like he can't retrieve a puck for his life down in the corners. Like he's getting pressured by everybody down in the corners and is losing almost every puck battle. Nico has been kind of invisible on the power play. He's not getting utilized at all. Brat's trying. Timo's kind of trying like they're, they're getting, they're the only ones kind of getting any chances. though. That's a big sample. Oh, for 12. Oh, for 12. I fully expect. So negative one for 13 to put the best lineup out there tomorrow. I really believe that.

[00:32:46] And for anybody that wants to have a little bit more good vibes going in to the rest of this series, however long it lasts. So last year, Toronto played Boston in round one, Toronto lost game one, five to one. Then they came back and they beat Boston three to two in game two, one, one. Then Boston won four to two in game three. They were up to one. And then Boston won game four, three to one, three games to one.

[00:33:16] And Toronto came back in game five and won an overtime two to one. They came back in game six and they won two to one and they lost it in overtime on that beautiful pass. Not goal in the set game seven, but Sheldon Keefe got these guys playing fucking great defense in games five and six. And we're able to force that game seven, which was one, one going in overtime could have gone anyway. So Sheldon Keefe was in this position last year and managed to squeeze out game seven.

[00:33:45] And they were out without Matthews and Nylander. Nylander was out for a while. Matthews was out for a lot of that series. And he had, they were, they were giving up like five goals, four goals. And it was okay. Boston, Toronto can't play defense. And then Sheldon Keefe had them playing a much tighter defensive structure. And they ended up winning a couple. There we go. Devils in seven and a half. Well, look, I mean, if they win tomorrow night, I,

[00:34:13] I might change my tune depending on how they win tomorrow night. What? I'm still back on the bandwagon. They win tomorrow. Absolutely. They win tomorrow. Then they're definitely going to a game seven. I'll go that far. I will, I will go. I will agree with that. If they win tomorrow, I don't think they are. I really don't think they've seen a chance tomorrow, but it depends on how they race your shit has happened. If it's Kochekov and we get on top of him early and get a couple in on him early, then we can kind of, then we can kind of do a little bit of score effects. And,

[00:34:41] and be a little bit more stringent defensively, just chipping pucks out, dumping it out. Like that's kind of something that when you get down three, nothing and you're getting pinned in your zone and you can't get the puck out and get through the neutral zone, like we're getting killed in the neutral zone. Yes. But, you know, we can play that way too. And we did in game three, when we said, we said it right. We out Carolina, Carolina, and then they came back. And I, I honestly thought yesterday we were going to win. I, I really believe that we were going to take both those,

[00:35:11] games at home. So I was very surprised with how that first period went the first half of that first period, at least like, you know, how you are not on the front foot right off the bat. And you're a hundred percent right, Tim. When that first goal went in, you kind of knew this is not Marky's night. And yeah. And there's one right after that, that, that kind of squeaked through his legs and went wide. And I was like, Oh man, we're, we're kind of, yeah. He had a couple of close calls to the, um, yeah. And then like the Slavin goal, like,

[00:35:41] you know, Mason, I was going to get that. Yeah. That, the, yeah, that was nice. Mason's got to get that puck out. Slavin was an unbelievable fucking play. Batted it out of the air and then went around or Mason tatted on it. But Mark is on that RVH. Like the reason you go down to that RVH is so you can push off and slide for cross breeze pass. There was nobody over there. There's no reason to go down into that position.

[00:36:07] Slavin did find like that little fucking puck size spot over his shoulder. And, you know, Slavin played a rough game in game three. So you knew he was going to be back for game four for finding that spot. And that goal, that was ridiculous. You know? All right. So before we play W, you know, uh, so what do you guys give me your honest prediction tomorrow? It's in Raleigh seven 30 star. I,

[00:36:35] unfortunately I'm going to stick with what I was saying and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see us pulling this thing out tomorrow, but Bobby wait fan. Man hat or podcaster hat. So my podcaster hat says we're getting destroyed. We're lucky if it's not, if it's four one or, or worse. And then the fan of me says, this is the one we're going to sneak out. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be gritty kind of like game three. And we're going to come home with a win. Overtime again. Oh God. I can't handle another one. I don't want to do. Well, I got a, I got a school concert,

[00:37:05] uh, for my kid in band. So I probably need overtime. I'm going to watch any of it. I can't do overtime. Again, my little heart can't handle it. It really can. How about you, Tim? You're cold black heart. If we're going to lose like four or five, one, I think we're just, the scoring is not there. I'm a little concerned about marks from now. Hopefully he bounces back. Um, the fan of me, I'm with, uh, we went three, nothing, get a bunch of goals and coach check off. Mark is out of his mind. The decor goes back to the way we said,

[00:37:35] Seamus Casey with all three goals. Well, okay. I'll take it. All right. Well, before we go any further, the NBA 82 game grind is done. And now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes, drama, clutch moments, and jaw dropping plays. And if you're looking to make the playoffs, even more exciting drafting sports book has you covered as the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Here's something special for first timers. New drafting customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets. Instantly,

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[00:38:35] and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario, new customers only bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance or additional terms and responsible gaming resources. Visit dkng.co slash audio. Okay. So we're back. Um, hang on one second. What was that? 37. 37. Okay. All right.

[00:39:05] You guys want to play a double, you know, I do. Absolutely. Get my devil, you know, out my little piece of paper here. All right. And I'm going to stretch out, stretch out, get your brain ready. And away we go. Shall we play a game? Buckle up boys and girls. It is time for the devil, you know, on the uncle Pucker,

[00:39:34] new Jersey devil podcast. You know, if it's possible, maybe we play the game after every loss because the part always just makes me happy. It is a happy. Now farts are funny. Nothing we can say about that. Farts are funny. Farts are always funny. We're now going to play the, uh,

[00:40:04] most interactive fan friendly game in New Jersey devil podcast history tonight. I will be a clue giver giving clues for any former New Jersey devil player. Bobby and Tim have two guests. They get three incorrect guesses before they are eliminated. And they can ask me any question I can or cannot answer. It is completely up to me. So are you boys ready? Ready. Sure. This former devil is a native of Elk river, Minnesota.

[00:40:31] He was born on March 5th, 1981. He played 16 years in the NHL from 2003 to 2018. Jamie Lange, brother.

[00:41:02] It is not Jamie Lange burner. This former devil played for three NHL teams, the New Jersey devils who drafted him in the second round, 60 second overall in the 2000 entry draft. He also played for the San Jose sharks and the Pittsburgh penguins.

[00:41:29] In his first full season in 2003, 2004 with New Jersey, he played 70 games. And after the Oh five, Oh six lockout, he played during the lockout. He played in Switzerland. And then after the lockout, he played in all, he played in 80 games and had 37 points. And in Oh six, Oh seven, he finally played. I'm sorry. How many points did he have? 37.

[00:42:02] Did you say position yet or no? I did not say. He's six foot one, 200 pounds. He finished with 163 points as a devil where he played five years for New Jersey. Just so you guys know. And on July 1st, 2010, he signed a five year, $25 million contract with Pittsburgh. Paul Martin. Paul Martin. Ding, ding,

[00:42:32] ding. Well done, Timothy. It was starting to come together. What else do you have on him? All right. Um, he made the playoffs in all 14 of his NHL seasons. He, um, let's see. Most notably, he was paired in New Jersey with Stevens and Niedermeyer and Rafalski. Those are the three that I remember him playing mostly with. He was put on waivers on June 22nd, 2018 and retired November 14th,

[00:43:02] 2018 on July 1st, 2025. He signed a four year, $19.4 million contract with San Jose. Um, he lost to his former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley cup final as a shark the following year after he left Pittsburgh. Yep. Um, let's see that Pittsburgh contract is what I, I remember that so specifically. I always liked Paul Martin. He left us. We won the cup. I mean,

[00:43:32] it came to us the year after we won the cup. My bad stayed with us in five years. He leaves, goes to Pittsburgh. They get really good. He leaves and goes to San Jose and then loses to Pittsburgh in the cup final. It was like two cups that missed them. So I liked Paul Martin. Yeah. He was, he was a good player. It's never, it wasn't anything spectacular, but he was like super fucking solid. Yeah. He, he, the expectations were higher than they should have been on them. I think so too. He was a great, he was a fine hockey player, but there was always this next level.

[00:44:01] Everyone just assumed he was going to get to kind of. At the end of his career, he went to, he got sent down to the AHL when he was with the sharks and he was thinking about retiring then. And, you know, then he ended up getting called back up and he went on that playoff run and then they basically send them on waivers and then they just caught him after he wasn't picked up on waivers. So, you know, that was his career ended, you know, not on his terms, but, but Paul Martin was a very solid defenseman for New Jersey for a nice jumpy years.

[00:44:31] Number seven, right? Yes. He was number seven. Paul Martin was number seven. Dougie Hamilton's number. All right, boys. Is there anything else you guys want to discuss tonight? No, I actually got to get, got to get cooking. I just, I hope they can, I hope they can get another game. Honestly, just for all the fucking people out there, the devil's going to lose in five. I would love to see them push it to a six game. At least give it, give us a six game.

[00:45:01] I've heard the fans. Another game to go to too, man. Let's have a little fun. I have low expectations, but let us see some, let us see Seamus. Let us see some of these guys, you know, like, come on, you know, like I, I, I need that, you know, and who knows, maybe like Dylan and Kovacevic can come back for like a game six or a game seven. You never know. I don't know. No idea. No idea. What happened to Kovacevic? What is even potentially wrong with them? Like it's absolute mystery.

[00:45:31] NHL is fucking funny that way. It is a mystery, but okay. Well, before we wrap up, did you want to talk anything about the NFL draft this weekend? Cause it was a lot of fun. This NFL draft, which was probably in, I would say the last five or 10 years, like a draft of meat and potatoes. Mostly this was not a awesome skill position draft or anything like that. A lot of, a lot of line, a lot of line work. And that was next year. It's going to be the big QB draft, but you know, and, and look, as far as being a Viking fan,

[00:46:00] I like that. They just stuck at 23 or 24, whatever pick it was. They took Donovan Jackson, the tackle out of Ohio state or yeah, Ohio state. I was very happy with that pick. I mean, it's not sexy at all, but you know, it, you only had four picks going into this thing, but the Sador Sanders, anybody want any, anything to say about this? That was wild, man. Him falling. Look, you know, a lot of stuff was coming out after the fact that he just fucking absolutely was, it was a,

[00:46:29] just a piece of work during his, during his interviews. And, and, I'm surprised he still fell as deep as he did. I saw some of the tape on some of the other guys that went in front of him. Like, it's kind of crazy, but I was watching ESPN draft coverage on and off and Mel Kiper jr. Like he had one of the worst on-air meltdowns I've ever seen. I know I watched it. It was ridiculous. It was, it was, it was losing his goddamn mind over Sanders falling.

[00:46:59] And, and I know I, who knows? Like, I know you like him. I know you think he's going to be a productive quarterback. I don't. Um, but a lot of that is environmentally driven, you know, where you land, how you get, how you get brought up, you know, who your series are, who your line is. Um, you know, for our local fans, I think the giants did pretty well. The kid they drafted, um, was it three or four? Um, is probably one of the best players in the draft. If not the best player in the draft. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to be an animal. Um,

[00:47:30] I don't know about Jackson dart a plus name. My dog is named Jax too. Jackson dart for a quarterback might be the coolest name ever. I mean, it really is like dart. Like, come on. That's dude. I love it. But the door thing. I mean, look, I, I don't think any of these quarterbacks that were, coming into this draft are going to be. Sorry. Motorcycles are driving past are going to be anything. You know, I don't think we're going to see too many hall of fame guys coming in to,

[00:48:00] you know, super bowl winning. I like cam ward. I'm not sure about his, you know, that is with him. He's such a quiet kind of, you know, I don't know. Quarterbacks. You kind of have to be a bit of an alpha male and I'm not quite sure. Cam ward is. Yeah. The door is like when they were reports coming out that your door was like taking personal calls during interviews at the combine, like just picking a cell phone up and talking when there's a general manager and a coach interviewing you and you just ignore them. Not even an excuse me.

[00:48:29] And you take a personal call. Like, look, the NFL isn't putting up with any of that bullshit, you know? So, and his dad is, I mean, apparently he had his headphones around his neck with music still playing out of an entire entourage to his meetings. Like, what are you doing, man? Yeah. I mean, he did admit after the fact he was like, yeah, maybe I didn't handle that. Right. But he didn't do any, any of the combine stuff. He, he didn't do any of the testing. Yeah. But now he dug his own grip, but now you, you got drafted.

[00:48:58] You're on a team right now that has five quarterbacks. All right. They took the, they drafted the other kid before him and then they drafted Sanders. They have Kenny Pickett in the line in there. They have Joe Flacco and they have Deshaun Watson. So Deshaun Watson is going to be on IR. So now you're down to four. Joe Flacco is not leaving that building because they brought him in. They need an adult in the room. That's Joe Flacco. So that leaves the three you traded for Kenny Pickett and drafted these two guys.

[00:49:24] If Shador Sanders does not prove that he deserves to be on this team, he will be cut before that. Nobody has a problem cutting a fifth round pick. I don't give a fuck if it's a quarterback or if your last name is Sanders or anything. So he has his opportunity. Every little thing. This guy does. You are and go get it. Every little thing. Even if he throws like one ball, like a little bit off in preseason, he's going to get ripped to shreds. I, you know, I, I, I feel bad for him, but he also dug his own grave on this.

[00:49:54] What did you think about this? fucking old bricks kid doing? Did you hear about this? Holy shit, man. What are you doing? And they're not, and Elena's not punishing them at all. I mean, what do you think, Bob? Do you not give a shit at all? No. Yeah. So no, I have my notes here. I'm transcribing kind of as we're going along here. I got, um, no clue. Uh, what the actual fuck are they talking about? thankful we're doing this at the end of the pod. Cause everyone's listening anyway. So I got a beat. Just to tell you a fucked up story about this.

[00:50:23] So the shader Sanders, right? Is Deion Sanders, you know, Deion Sanders is right. Yeah. Yeah. So the, he was a quarterback, he's drafted, but what happens is they, they, I guess they, they provide a phone. Um, he gave everybody a phone number. It was one phone that he had for just the draft. So all the GMs and coaches had his one number, how all bricks kid found it. I have no idea. I think it's the defensive corner for Atlanta. Yeah. Used to be with the interim head coach of the jets last year. Yeah.

[00:50:53] Prank called him like pretending to be from, I don't know what team he said he was on. He said he was with new Orleans city. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It was with the saints and said that they were drafting him. They prank called him. So they found out that it was this kid and that his, I don't know how he got this number that, but like Atlanta isn't even, they're like, yeah, we're not going to look into it at all. That's no, it is fucked up. Like, I mean, if that's your kid, like that's, that's bull that you don't do that, man. You just, yeah, that's like Danny Bure, Bure's kid throwing that, throwing that wheelchair down the stairs. Like it's just that,

[00:51:23] that sort of reckless idiotic behavior. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So I felt bad for it. I did feel bad for Sanders. Cause I honestly feel like if his last name was Smith, he's drafted in the first round, maybe the second round, but he's drafted way before the fifth. It's because you are Dion's kid. Dion put you on a fucking pedestal since the day you were born. And he bullied made this kid believe that he was going to be the greatest thing since Tom Brady. And you know, it is what it is. He's going to be a good quarterback. If he gets himself,

[00:51:51] it gets his head out of his ass and kind of just says, all right, I'm going to put the work in and do it. I think he'll be fine. He's very accurate. I think he does do that though. Relative to who's Johnny Menzel, you know, like that was kind of a lot of the, like Menzel also had all that time, but he didn't do shit off the field. Like he didn't do the work off the field. No, that was the problem. Jamar, Jamarcus Russell, another guy went number one overall. Doesn't do the work off the field. Yeah. I mean, so, you know,

[00:52:20] he's got his opportunity now. See if he does it. That would be Bobby. That's all the football talk we're going to do for now. Sorry about, sorry about, but you know, go Ravens. They, they picked up the draft. I told them exactly the way they did. They were great. Ravens did now between Hamilton and what's the kid's name. They drafted. I forget his fucking name. Oh, I can't remember. But anyway, it's great. See now that both those guys are, can play strong, can play free. Like what they can do in the middle of the field now is just, yeah,

[00:52:50] it's, it's scary. It's scary. How the, how good that defense should be that line and that, that linebacker safety group. I'm a little about your cornerbacks, but you know, when you have guys like Hamilton and the kid you just drafted, you know, you have help and that's, you can design coverages around that. You know, I think. Yeah. That's what I mean. Their line's really good too. So I really liked what Baltimore did. I'm excited. It's nice to have,

[00:53:18] it's nice to have competent management for one of my favorite teams. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you. That's a story on the devils for the off season. And that gentlemen was a preview of our new show. The uncle punters. No, no more. No more. Love it. I like the name. Our Sunday, Sunday morning uncle punters. Yeah. I think we should do it on Monday or Tuesday after all the games, do one show where we just talked to football for the week. I'll get back. I'll get back. Backfires. All right.

[00:53:48] Uncle punters. I just sent out a couple of stickers. To a dude out in Ohio. And he, he emails us, you know, that, you know, the stickers. So I have to ask, like whenever people aren't from Jersey, I like to find out how they became devil fans. So he was in, got into hockey and he was watching all bunch of hockey. He is, you know, an adult. And, um, he, that's good. Well, I'm just saying it wasn't like a little kid. Like he was, you know, the kids, we drag them in with the fart jokes.

[00:54:18] That's it. And, uh, he asked his wife what team he should root for, you know? So they went through all the different logos and his wife's like, well, the devils have the coolest logo. So he was like, all right. And that was it. He was a devil fan. I love it. Yeah. There we go. Nice. So those stickers are on the way. All right. So we're going to wrap this thing up. Uh, let us know what you guys think. Is there going to be a game six or is it devil season? Uh, dead and buried tomorrow by 10 30 at night. Let us know.

[00:54:45] You can reach us on X on blue sky at the uncle puckers at gmail.com. Wherever you're listening, a like a five-star review, positive comment, a like subscription, a download, and all that other fun stuff helps the little podcast that could for Bobby go part. And Timmy, I'm Chris. We're the uncle puckers. And we'll see you when we see it. One day. Fuck you, Valaket for chiming in yesterday after going fucking dark for months and tweeting some bullshit about the Prudential being dark. Fuck you.

[00:55:13] You smug daddy owns a car dealership. Motherfucker. I fucking hate you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Valaket. Well said to it's over, Johnny. It's over.