#FireFitz

[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! What's up? Hi guys, how's everybody doing? Morning. Hi. Good afternoon. Good morning. I've been better.

[00:00:35] Yeah, so we don't have a bunch of time because it's, you know, I have to go to work. It's 7.30 in the morning here. 2.30 in the afternoon for Tony. Do we even have to cover the game last night? No, there's no reason to say anything. I mean, you can say whatever you want. I just think, you know, the little bit of time that we have, I just think that the three of us, I mean, lay it out there. I mean, tell me, tell us what you're feeling. I mean, yesterday, I think, was a day that we all woke up and not just us, not just Bobby too.

[00:01:04] I'm talking to every Devil fan woke up very optimistic, right? Like, okay, we might not have Jack Hughes, but this team's not terrible. And Tom Fitzgerald is going to pull some strings. We're hearing constantly Devils are talking to this team. They're interested in this guy. They're interested in that guy. You know, everything's coming out, but this Jack injury, Jack's injury doesn't waver from the plan. This is, they're still moving forward as if this is a contending team.

[00:01:34] And then we ended up doing absolutely nothing. Well, I understand not a lot of guys that we talked about were not moved. Okay? Like, we talked about Tuck and McCann and Raquel. And those guys weren't moved. But there were some big names moved. And it kind of seems to me, Tom Fitzgerald gets laser focused on one person. And he does whatever he can to try and get that person.

[00:02:03] And if it doesn't, there's no plan B. There's no backup plan. There is no quick adjustment on the fly. He doesn't know how to fucking do this. And when I watched that press conference of his yesterday, that looked like a man that had a really, really bad day at work. That looked like a dude that was just defeated, man. And so I think I'm kind of at the point now, and I'll rant a little bit more. I just wanted to kind of set it up here.

[00:02:34] Sometimes people just aren't good at their job. What was it like? The press conference was like when you walk in on your mom and your dad, and he has to sit there and explain to you what happened or what was going on and think that you're stupid enough to go out the door and be like, oh, they were just wrestling. I mean, that's... That was the most cuckold fucking press conference I've ever seen. Like, there are some... He dropped like so many all-time...

[00:03:01] Like, I just watched my wife get railed by eight dudes type of quotes. He looked nervous. He looked nervous. He was swaying back and forth. We came in second on one of them. Like, you fucking pussy. Like, are you kidding me? Look, none of us could have done a better job. None of us know how to do his job. We know how to do our jobs. I had confidence in this guy up until about three months ago. He just is...

[00:03:31] This is the second year in a row he has proven an absolute inability to adjust on the fly. He is so big on creating his little family and culture in the offseason and doesn't want to ruffle any feathers or hurt any feelings. Like, you heard him say yesterday that it's one of the tightest rooms that we've got. Every hot... That and $2 will get us a cup of coffee.

[00:04:00] Yeah, they all say that. There are 10, 15 guys that were traded or put on waivers over the past two, three months that would have been significant upgrades over this bottom six. But he waits until the last day possible to get three fucking scrubs that aren't going to fucking do shit for us. Like, and he left $13 fucking million on the table this year. He left $9 million on the table last year. I'm embarrassed.

[00:04:30] Well, that's... And you have the very mature outlook. I always sit there and think of, like, some, you know, odd shit, you know. And I'm sitting there and I'm watching yesterday and I'm like, man, I compared it to so many things. I'm like, this is like when the Raiders got Morenovich or Kiss took off their makeup or YouTube made you listen to all the records on iTunes. Like, this was just, like, one of those things. And I don't even know, like... Or Chris, I bet you remember the crying game? When you sit through the theater and watch that and you get the big surprise. Like, just disappointment.

[00:04:59] Like, it's like, what the fuck's going on? I think that... We talked about it via text yesterday. It's like... And also, Josh and David, I mean, it's... You know, is it the owners too? I mean, are they causing some of this? I mean, it's just deflating. Like, yesterday I just felt like... It's just... It was sad to be a Devils fan. And it really feels like this is the trend now. Last year it was the same shit with goaltending. You know, this year it's like... I just couldn't believe... It was funny because I was seeing all...

[00:05:28] You know, you see all the Twitter things of, like, who's going where and who's going that. Eventually, I didn't even have any hope. I kind of got... Time there now. Yeah. Maybe, like, by noon I was, like, here. I was like, man, this is... There's a couple hours left, you know? And, I mean, Florida. I mean... Dallas, Florida, Colorado, all loaded up. Toronto even got a heck of a lot better. Marshan went for a fucking second-round pick.

[00:05:54] We got a number seven defenseman for a second-round pick and a prospect. Like, I don't understand that. Like, I guess Marshan forced his way to Florida. Look, that's the one thing I will... And the one thing that he can save his ass on is that it was an impossible marketplace. He can't. He can't save his ass on that. I know. I'll tell you why. Well, hang on. Let me finish. No. Fine. Fuck you. I'm sorry. Go ahead and finish. Are you finished?

[00:06:23] No, I wasn't. But now I am, I guess. Go ahead and finish. It was an awful marketplace. Are you finished? That's what she... I'm going to keep doing it, Tim. I'm sorry. I just didn't see your face. This is what happens when you do a show at 7 o'clock in the morning. I'm teasing. Go ahead and finish. I'm going to break you in half and through. You're in the ocean. Rip that little soul patch off your chin. Put him in the bathroom. I don't want his face looking at my money. Put him in the fucking bed.

[00:06:51] That's what it felt like yesterday during that press conference. Exactly. Exactly. But look, he's going to be able to hide behind injuries. And I put that the wrong way. He's going to be able to hide behind this. I think with his own, with his ownership. He's going to be able to hide behind injuries and an absolutely brutal marketplace. But we wouldn't have been in the position we were in if he had done something earlier. That's what I was going to say. We are holding on for fucking dear life right now.

[00:07:21] We would have been in a much better position if we picked up Daniel Sprung on waivers two fucking months ago. Yeah. Now we give him a seventh round pick for him. I don't think that is just a dumbish. Playoff hope. I mean, I really, I hate to say it. Because, you know, and we've all known, I mean, Chris, we've known each other for many, many years. Like since we were teenagers. I'm a huge Devils fan. And I don't have that. I'm actually starting to think now, like, okay, like, should we even get in the playoffs? I don't think we do. Do we even get there? I don't think we do.

[00:07:51] I think last night was the, I think. You know, I mean, yeah. Yeah, and what that was too last night was a bunch of guys in Timo, Nico, you know, Marky, Brat, most of the defensive core expecting that something was, some help was coming. Right? And, all right, you know, we can still do this. We lost Jack and that's huge. But if we can get ourselves a top scorer, we can get ourselves a guy to come in here.

[00:08:19] Even if it's just a rental, we can maybe go on a run. And they were just as deflated as I think the entire fan base was. Now, I didn't finish watching that game. But if there was a fire fit, if there wasn't a fire fit, see, Chan, I'm going to be upset with our fans. Was there? I didn't hear one. But I turned it off, honestly. So, I turned it off at 3-0, like right before the end of the second. Mike Ruff actually sent me a note. He was like, hey, Mercer scored. I went to go turn it back on. Two minutes.

[00:08:48] 4-1, 5-1. Turned it right back off. I was like, fuck this. This was, the more I thought about it yesterday, because I was pissed yesterday. I was literally angry that, you know, if Tom Fitzgerald was in front of me, I would have probably punched him in his face. I was so angry. And then I got depressed. I got really sad. And I was like, man, this just isn't right. How do you go to these guys and say, sorry, we didn't do shit?

[00:09:14] And, again, the Harris's, the other owner family, whatever. Are you just more concerned about Jaden Daniels and the Washington Commanders now? Because your 76ers blow and you're letting your fucking devils completely shit the bed here. Because you don't want to spend any extra money over to cap. You had $13 million to play with. I'm sorry. You could have made fucking deals. And, Tim, you are 100% right. And that's what I was going to say.

[00:09:42] He can't hide behind this market bullshit. Because these are, again, the second year in a row, the mistakes, the issues, the deficiencies were known at Christmas. And you did nothing. Do you think Vegas general manager would have waited until the trade deadline to fix any problems that were on that team? He would have saw right away, oh, shit, our bottom six blows. These guys are out. These guys are in.

[00:10:11] And Colorado changed, overhauled their entire goaltending tandem like six weeks into the season. Yeah. Yeah. In a matter of like three days. You talked about that three months ago. Yeah. Like, it's, I get that they took a flyer on like Blackwood and Wedgwood. But, like, those are much better options than what they had. They upgraded. They upgraded. That's all we asked for is upgrade. I don't give a shit. Like, we, Lazar's a great guy.

[00:10:39] Please do not be on my fucking team next year. Bastion, I think he may have done. He may not be. And that's another fucking thing. How do you not know about the things that McLeod and Bastion did? Yeah. Again, here we go. That should be a fireable fucking offense. Yesterday was a fireable offense, in my opinion. Tom Fitzgerald should not be the general manager of this hockey team. He is not capable of doing it. He is Mr. Free Agency. But you know what? This is getting old.

[00:11:09] This is now two years in a row that you coming off a 112 point fucking season. When you got your, this team came out of nowhere, right? Two years ago, blowing teams out, playing fast, awesome hockey, getting good goaltending. And that was kind of shocking to everybody, including management. But then what happened after the year? Tom Fitzgerald got his middy little grubby little fucking mitts all over that team.

[00:11:37] And for the last two years, during the summer, he has managed to make the team worse and then not make the right choices during the year to get them steady. He doesn't know how to steady the ship. This guy should not be the general manager. This devil team will go nowhere with him. And all of that goodwill that you have built up over the last couple of years of guys wanting to come to Jersey and feeling good about coming to Jersey, that's all going to be gone because they're going to know that Jersey are a bunch of fucking frauds.

[00:12:07] And who I felt bad for last night, Chris, is Nico. And I mentioned this to you, I think, via text, too. I was like, man, you're telling me that, like, if I'm Nico, I'm like, you can't give me a few more tools when I'm watching teams that are behind us tooling up? You know, I mean, and I think we could, like we said, we could have done this weeks ago. I mean, this could have been done two months ago. And that's when I started noticing, when we started seeing the moves go on, we said that because, and like, totally, we're totally rooting for the devils.

[00:12:34] I'm still like, hey, until it's over, we're going to watch. We love our team. But man, we just know. I mean, it's not even like, you know, if you got a couple guys that just, you would be like, that just made sense. You'd be like, you never know, man. You can make a little run. You know, I don't feel that excitement. He didn't have the balls to fucking sign Brandon Stott off of fucking waivers, which I really thought would be great for this team. He did all from a contract, but Saad picked Vegas. I don't know. Right. I mean, I get that.

[00:13:04] I would have picked Vegas too. Probably Jersey's falling out of the destination area. We were talking about last year, how it was an exciting place you wanted to be. You wanted to be in Jersey. You wanted to be on this team. Now, I mean, if you're, you know, some of these older guys, the veterans that you'd like to put on this team for a run, they probably don't know if they want to come here. I mean, you know, you're not going to get the tools you need. Most likely we saw that we watched the devils last year where goaltending would have made a huge difference. We said that from week three, I believe, actually. Never happened, you know. Yeah.

[00:13:33] And, you know, if you look at like the Rantan thing, right? Like he turned down 13 plus million dollar contract in Colorado. Rumor was that it was something similar in Carolina. Only to accept 12 in Dallas. I think the tax thing is really starting to kind of rear its ugly head, you know, like the no tax, no state income tax thing. And I don't think Carolina is sending them to Jersey. I don't know. I just. No, no, no, no, no. They say I don't think so either. They I think that was all smoke and mirrors.

[00:14:03] It would have been it would have been great to get them. But I think there was something about Toronto put together a pretty hefty package for him to like actually saw the package that they put together. And Carolina said, we're not sending them to someone in the east, basically. Yeah. Which I mean, it's really the only way they could have fucked that deal up anymore is if they had sent him somewhere in the eastern conference.

[00:14:29] And maybe that might also be a saving grace of Tom Fitzgerald that maybe one team may have done worse over the course of the trade deadline time with then Carolina. But you know what? They're still ahead of you and they're a better team. I mean, and that's it. I mean, what this team looked like last night on the ice was what Tom Fitzgerald looked like in that press conference. Yeah. Just beaten down. So, yeah, a beaten down team that's not getting any help.

[00:14:59] And the people that are supposed to be, you know, in charge of helping us get better just left us hanging out to dry. I will say it did make me think a little bit more on the whole Harrison Blitzer thing. Like, is this guy's hands tied or something that like we don't know? I mean, because he just I really, to be honest with you, I didn't like I said by like afternoon yesterday, I didn't think we were going to do anything eventually.

[00:15:23] But I thought we'd do something just so I mean, I know we did something, but I thought we'd at least bring a guy like, you know, bring a guy in that we would be like, OK, this could this could help. I don't see that yesterday. I mean, you know, I don't think Cody Glass is going to help. Oh, you know, I mean, if you would have made some other moves that we wanted that we asked for. And then Cody Glass was our three C person that we put in, like we didn't even mention Cody Glass. I didn't even know that he was in the, you know, on the on the trade block.

[00:15:51] And then if you would have plugged in Cody Glass. OK, we got Alex Tuck to play with Jack. I'm saying perfect world. Right. And then Cody Glass comes in to be our three C. I don't think anybody would be complaining. But, you know, now Cody Glass is our two C, I guess. Right. Because we don't fucking have another center. Another line from the press conference yesterday that was absolute fucking spin. I think I know what you're going to say. Go ahead.

[00:16:16] Was now is like, well, you know, with all the money that we have now, we can expand the rosters and, you know, provide competition. I was like, there's 19 games left. What did you also say that? Goddamn retard. Pardon my language. I'm sorry. We feel confident because this is the team that got us there. Wasn't that got us where we are now? Wasn't that one of his comments? We're a good team. We're a good team. It's like, no, you're fucking not Christmas. You're just not, man. It's they're playing uninspired, lazy hockey.

[00:16:46] Eric Hall hasn't had a point since Thanksgiving. I'm actually adding a prediction to my little round of predictions. I am saying that Brian Dumoulin will get a point before Halla, Tatar, Lazar and Bastion. And he didn't look all that great last night. Nemich did last night.

[00:17:13] Like, I don't want to see anybody on our bottom six on this team moving forward. No. Like, Cotter. Okay. He might be it. But even, like, Nason looks lost out there, like, lately. Like, nobody can do anything. And it seriously is a fucking shame because this team, you look at how we played. At one point, we were one of the better teams in November, December. Like, you would watch these games and holy shit, man. The Devils can lock it down. They can score at will.

[00:17:40] They're getting contributions from pretty much every – well, at least the top six. And, you know, we were able to survive. But nothing ever got better with that bottom six. Like, Tom Fitzgerald should be fired for the simple fact of going into this year thinking that Halla, Lazar, that these guys were Tatar, that these guys were the answer. You know, I mean – The problem with Jack – Yeah, sorry. Go ahead, Tony. Go ahead. I'll just say this really fast. Like, the thing is, is that, yeah, you know, Jack's injury is deflating. Okay, you definitely understand this.

[00:18:09] But the problem is right there is that when one guy basically decides if you're going to be a contender or not, you have a big problem because you always have to expect an injury, right? But when you have one dude, just one guy that the whole team relies on, that's a problem, man. You know, and that's the feeling right now. Right when he got hurt, that was the vibe. Like, you even – I don't know. You just saw – and I kind of felt it too, and that sucks, man. I was like, man, what do we do now?

[00:18:35] Like, you got to have two or three of those guys that can – you know, well, you add another piece, and then you still have a unit that can – and maybe we did with – maybe we would have added – if we would have taken a risk and made a move, you know, maybe with Bratt and them, maybe it would have worked. Now we don't know. I agree. Now the season might be done. I mean, as of last night, I felt – you know, I actually passed out in the second period last night because I knew eventually, like, yeah, it's 5 o'clock in the morning, and this is just going wrong here.

[00:19:03] But I feel like that game last night might have been the final – you know, might be at the end. I mean, that's bad. You know, you just – and the non-consistency. I mean – So basically the way it stands now is 91 points is going to make the playoffs, and they have 72. So they need basically 19 more points, right? And they have 18 more games. They have to go 10-8 basically in their last 18 games. I don't think they can do that. Which they should be able to. It sucks.

[00:19:32] Which – and that's just – 10-8. 10-8. That's just to squeak in at, like, the final wild card spot. Right. I'm not even talking about staying in third. I think that – I think this spot is long gone. I'm fucking actually embarrassed that I said we were going to beat CBJ twice. Like, no, we're not. Like, that was absolutely fucking embarrassing last night. They weren't even trying. I've taken off a power play one. He's looked awful over the past month.

[00:20:02] Bratt has scored, like, three goals since December. Again, like, I – you know, I'm the biggest Jesper Bratt fan, but this motherfucker needs to start scoring some goals. Timo still needs to score goals. Nico, I need him to step up. I want to see him start fucking yelling at people on the bench. I want to see him fucking start – Being a leader. Like, getting mad. Like, get mad. You should be mad at your team for this performance. We don't know what they're saying in the locker rooms. Like, I don't see – I don't see it.

[00:20:30] Like, I don't see what – I don't see the energy. I don't see that from him. I see exasperation and defeat. And I don't know if maybe that's just his resting fucking pussy face, but, like, get mad about something, man. Last – And just one more last point. To Tony's point, this is like watching a Trump press conference where he flat out fucking lied to our faces. Where he's like, oh, we're not a one-man offense.

[00:21:00] You are a one-man offense. We have been. The fucking numbers prove that. Like, you can't just sit here and lie to our face. Like, that is 100% bullshit. It's funny you say that, Tim. I thought this yesterday. I thought to myself, we've seen some bad press conferences in the last couple months, right? But yesterday's may have been the worst. You know what I mean? And we've seen some shit, you know? So it's like – Yeah. It's like a – Like, we know what we're watching. We know the truth. Like, we are a one-man team.

[00:21:28] We are a one-man decor offensively. Like, what the fuck are you talking about? You're lying to us. You're flat out – When's the last fight we've had? December? I think it was December. Well, no. We had one the other night. There was one the other night. But, like – But you know, like a fight. But it was – Yeah. But it was a – Yeah, it was an undercard flyweight. Brandon – I'm talking – I think Devil fans need to come to terms with the simple fact that this core that we thought that was going to take us to Stanley Cups is not the core.

[00:21:58] Okay? Brat, Timo, Nico, Jack, forwards. And one of those guys – And I'm leaning more towards, like, a guy like Brat. I'm sorry. Or even Timo. You have to move – You have to move them and you have to go and get some fucking people. Like, you know, we talked about it a million times. A Brady, Kachuk, even at this point. You know, a guy like Tuck, which you're not going to have to give up a lot for. But we need more of a – There's not enough leadership on this team.

[00:22:28] I love Nico, but I'm just – I don't see it. I don't see anybody that gets in these guys' face. Do you think that Scott Stevens will put up with the bullshit that's been happening that we've seen on this bench over the last couple? Like you said, nobody gets mad. Everybody's got a look of fucking depression on their face, defeated. And that all comes from the top. All right? Tom Fitzgerald is not a good GM. Should not be – I miss Lou. Well, I mean, I wasn't a giant fan of Lou at the end either. I love Lou. At the end, yeah.

[00:22:57] Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. But, like, Tom Fitzgerald's got to go. Tom Fitzgerald's got to – But, I mean, look, I think a lot of this too, like you said, is the ownership. And we talked about that. If you had $13 million of LTIR money, that comes directly out of their pockets. They're not going to – They didn't want to do it, apparently. They didn't want to spend any money. So maybe it's not all on Fitz. Maybe it is on them. But I don't want to hear how you can – Then you build through the draft. You build through other ways.

[00:23:24] You build the right team in free agency. The problem is if you don't – If you make any move – If you make any wrong moves, it's going to set your team back. Well, he's made wrong moves. And this has set the team back. He's drafted poorly. This is all the shit that now is coming home to roost. And I think now we have enough, five years of Tom Fitzgerald. And you can lay it out. And you can look at his tenure with the Devils. And it's been five years.

[00:23:53] You made the playoffs once, dude. You made the playoffs once. I don't know if that's enough to hold on to your job. I was thinking about that because I'm waking up – Over here, I wake up at like 3 o'clock for these games or 2 o'clock and watch them. And now I'm still – You feel like you suffer for this team, but they don't suffer for you. You're not – I'm talking about ownership. No, no, no. I get it. I'm talking about the ownership and that because, man, it's like the ticket prices aren't going down. I get the email still.

[00:24:22] I went to the arena like what, two years ago and signed a thing for a giveaway. I'm getting called every day by reps or emails every day. And the prices aren't going down. It's just, man, I mean you almost feel like – And I've heard a few people say this too. You almost have to gut the team. You have to like – I'm not doing it. You don't have to gut it, but I do think that you either – If you don't make the playoffs this year, I think you have to move Lott out. I think that's what Chris is saying.

[00:24:51] I think one of those four guys has to go. I think it's got to be Timo at this point. Like that just – it's just not – it's not working. Whatever we brought in, whatever power forward stud he was supposed to be, it's just not working. I mean can you call Ottawa – Timo for Brady. That's what I was going to say. Like can you call Ottawa in the summer and say we'll give you Timo Meyer and Seamus Casey and let's get Brady. I like Meyer, but no, they won't take that. They won't – there's no way.

[00:25:20] I don't know because now with – you know, he's getting blowback from the Canadian fans now because of all the shit that's going on. They just traded his BFF. Did you see his press conference throughout that? No, I saw – I didn't watch it, but I saw what it – how was it? He was crying. He was crying. During the press conference. And then his Instagram post was even more heart-wrenching. He wants out of there. Like if – and that's the thing. Well, he may want out, but I don't know if you're going to get out. But that's the other thing.

[00:25:46] We may need to hold on to this wild card spot just to force Ottawa out of the playoffs just so that he'll sell them to us. I don't know if they have that fucking capability. Oh, no. They loaded up. They got better. They got a guy that I wanted. Like Ottawa did. The whole thing – everything yesterday just made – like why not Cousins? Why did you not do whatever the fuck you had to do to get Don Cousins in here? And, you know, again, you didn't.

[00:26:17] You see – and they – Ottawa picked up Zetterland. Yeah. Another guy. For a fucking nobody. Double fans would have been ecstatic if you had brought back Zetterland. Yeah. You know. I've said it all year. He would have been a perfect middle six third-line winger for us right now. I'll tell you who I think is going to make a – it's going to be tough in the playoffs. And they're always tough in the game. Obviously, they won a couple cups in a row too. I think Tampa is going to be tough in these playoffs. Oh, thank God. They brought Gordy back, which I mentioned wanting him in New Jersey at one point even.

[00:26:45] You know, and they're going to love him there because he was former. He was there winning cups with them back in the day. So – and I think, you know, obviously, Vassie in a playoff, she just would think that this is what's going to happen. And he's been on fire recently. I think Tampa, Florida – I like Florida with this move that Florida made, dude. I'll be honest. I think that it's a great move. I think it's going to be – unless Tampa and Florida play each other before the – well, they're going to. But that's probably going to be an absolute blood path. That's the other thing. And that will be back, I'm sure.

[00:27:14] If we somehow get in the playoffs in the position that we're in, Carolina is pretty weakened right now too. Like five of their forwards are like 5'10 and under. They're not big. They're not strong. They're not necessarily – the only thing that they really have going for them is their D court. They didn't upgrade their goaltending, which is fucking crazy to me. Right. Like if we can somehow hang on – I can't believe I'm putting a positive spin on this.

[00:27:42] But if we somehow hang on to this third spot, we can fucking beat Carolina. We can. No, I don't – I mean I agree. And I even – I was hate tweeting for a while yesterday. And that was one of the things that I – I saw that because I'm logged into the Twitter too. Yeah. I always get the message. Yeah, I get the message. And I looked at the notifications. I was like, we have 40 notifications. I was like, that's a little odd. And I was like, look at the – I was like, ooh. I was a little angry. Chris is angry today. I was. And I even said that.

[00:28:12] Like, you know, Carolina got worse. You're holding on – like you have a decent enough cushion over the guys behind you or whatever. Like all you got to do is keep winning and you did nothing. Did nothing to make this team better. Who was the other schlub that we fucking got? What was it, guys? Jonathan Gruden. Jonathan Gruden. Don't let him draft for you. Are you kidding? Doesn't he work for Barstool? Like what are we doing? Yeah. And who is Jonathan Gruden?

[00:28:43] He's a left wing center, right? I think he does. He's – He's not an NHL player, is he? No. He's 24 years old. He's played 13 games this year. So he's 13 games this year, one goal, zero assist. About ranks up with the rest of our – This is the competition that we're creating? Ranks up with the rest of our scoring. One goal, no assists. No, the other dude. It's Cody Glass. Daniel Sprong. Sprong Dumoulin? Oh, Sprong. So here's the other thing. Sprong's going to come in, score fucking 10 goals for us over the next 20 games,

[00:29:12] and save our goddamn season. And that's going to make me even more upset because I wanted him off of waivers two months ago. He's always been kind of a favorite of mine. He's all offense, no defense. It's hilarious. That's the thing. Wait until you watch him play. It's fucking funny. Cody Glass is Lazar 2.0. High draft pick that didn't pan out as a fourth liner now. He's soft, doesn't get to the interior. He's going to fucking frustrate the shit out of us. Cholowski. Like this guy was playing in the AHL.

[00:29:41] Like we made like four AHL deals yesterday. Why? Kovacevic, we'll see. We now – Kovacevic for five more years. So like I don't understand this move. Like what – What was the contract on that, Tim? Five. Five by four. Five by four. Look, he's had a good season, but he's largely had a good season because he's been tied to the hip with Siegenthaler. Like if we can have a shutdown pair and if Siegenthaler can stay healthy, this is again the second season in a row.

[00:30:11] Siegenthaler's had a pretty significant injury too. Yep. So the three guys constantly. It's Sieg's, Hamilton, and Hughes. Yeah. Every frigging year, one of three – well, mostly all three of these fucking guys go out with significant injuries. Like that's another thing. Like fire your fucking health and fitness coach or whoever the fuck it is because there's something wrong with fucking the way that – we get injured more than everybody else.

[00:30:38] I mean, I know the Jack thing is just because he's fucking all go no stop right in the freaking – Yeah. I mean that's like his is an awkward injury. Hamilton's was an – Hamilton's had the most unbelievable series of like random injuries. Like when he broke his jaw, it's like just because a puck happened to hit him in the face. Tore his peck, which I guess is a soft tissue issue, which could be like the training guys.

[00:31:05] And then the injury where his leg got pinned behind someone a couple games ago. Like, you know, we got to send him to buyout town. You know, we got to send Palat to buyout town. Eric Holla watching him play last night. Like what is this? He has no step, no speed at all, no juice. Like honestly, insert me into the lineup. I'm better than – I think I'm better than Eric Holla right now. Why? I'm in my 40s and I'm fat.

[00:31:34] But that's the thing. Like we – and I've said this before. We really don't have anybody in Utica that can come in and do better than Eric Holla. Like are you fucking serious? And that's another reason why Tom Fitzgerald should be fucking fired because you are doing absolutely nothing to develop the next tier of fucking devils. Brian Hallinan has like 40 goals in 80 games in the AHL. Like Laguerre or Laguerre, whatever his last name is, scored a beautiful two-on-one goal last night. Why are we not bringing in his game up?

[00:32:02] Remember when he came up and we were like, we like this kid. Yeah, I do. And then he went back to the AHL, never to be heard from again. What are we doing? Like why are we clinging to a guy who's probably going to be implicated in a gangbang who's best friends with the fucking Captain Gangbang, who was probably involved in that second gangbang? Like why are we doing that? Like why are we holding on to this guy? We should fucking punt his ass to the moon. Like Lazar, I love you. Put a suit on him. Put him behind the bench and just jazz up Luke.

[00:32:31] Like why are we clinging to these guys? Like I don't give a fuck about your little family and your little – I don't either. Like I'm so tired of this shit. It's not working. It's not working. You need some ruthlessness. And I will say another thing. I'm not sure if Keith's the right guy. He says – I'm getting flashbacks to Lindy where he says all the right things in the press conference. We need this. We need this. They need to look inside. It's not happening. You're the coach.

[00:33:01] Like you need to take some more responsibility. Like Nemich was awful last night. Take his ass off the ice. You know, he was minus three in about five minutes. I just – everything is going wrong right now and I'm so fucking mad at this team. It's so frustrating. And again, we're all Devils fans. But being a Devils fan is like being born into a family of suicide bombers and you know what your 18th birthday is going to be like. You know, it's like you just kind of know. You know, I mean it's –

[00:33:30] I don't know what that's like now. Now you do. Now you do. Now you do. It's just so frustrating. Like you just kind of – Like yesterday, I knew – When I woke up tomorrow morning – Yesterday morning, tomorrow morning. Yesterday morning, I wasn't too excited. I was like – I was. It's going to be a very disappointing day. I was. It was like he's going to fall. You were fooling yourself, man. I was too. It was like something great is going to happen. Three o'clock comes around. I'm like, yay. We're going to get the guy.

[00:33:59] You know, I had that meeting yesterday at 2.30 and I was like, I'm going to come out of this. We're going to have like McCann and Tuck and I come out of it. We have Dennis Chalowski. 33 games this year. Well, me and Chris should know what this is like. Look at the hats we're wearing. Well, we put these on every day. We should expect to be disappointed. All three of us now, right? Miami got the Raiders, the Vikings, the Devils. Yeah. This hat was supposed to be spucked out for a fucking Yankees hat. And again, I love the Devils, man. You know, we all do. It's just so frustrating.

[00:34:28] And I see everyone's frustrated, man. I didn't see – you know, usually I remember when the whole – when the rough thing was going on, you had like 25% saying don't fire and you had the rest saying fire him. This time it was like 100% on the board of like what the fuck did we do? Nothing. Like how could you – Wait, wait. Can I read you a funny tweet that I retweeted yesterday? Did Chris tweet this? No, no, no. He didn't. No, no. Chris is an angry elf yesterday.

[00:34:55] Dennis Chalowski is the name of some Polish DJ that is playing a set at Whistler Club in Garfield next month. Okay. That's basically the equivalent of who we have or is that – seriously, another guy named Dennis Chalowski? That's Dennis Chalowski. Oh, there really is a DJ named that maybe. No, it's just like he just – that's what he just sounds like. Yeah, I got you. You know, he's the AHL guy. Like –

[00:35:20] Well, here's – I'm going to say this to all Devil fans and mostly to management, which we'll never hear this. If the Devils do anything with the remaining 18 games and in the playoff, it will be in spite of Tom Fitzgerald and this management of this team. Because it's got to be – I think these guys are good enough to band together. And like you said, Sheldon Keefe saying, all right, guys, you know, this is how we're going to play from now on.

[00:35:48] This is what I expect from each and every one of you. There are 18 games left. I'm going to insert guys in this lineup from Utica. I'm going to make every single fucking one of you guys work your asses off if you don't do your job. You're not on the fucking team. And when we get into the playoffs, you'll be sitting up in the fucking booth. That's what – and then this team can get together, galvanize, maybe go on a little bit. Like you said, even, you know, lose – you can basically have 18 games left. You got to go 10 and 8. I don't feel confident in them doing that.

[00:36:18] No, no, no, no. And that's just a squeaking – that's just a squeaking in the playoffs. That's just a squeaking in. And – Can you imagine being Danico up there and like having to make – it'd be like – I mean, how do you put a positive spin on this? You might as well get Uker up there from major league. His head almost exploded last night with the positive spin he was trying to put on things. Yeah, I mean, they have to. It's part of their game. He's like, oh, man, can't do that in amateur. No, this is ridiculous now. And this is another thing.

[00:36:41] Like I texted you guys in the second year of his career, Cal McCarr won the Norris, the Consmite, and the Stanley Cup. It's time for guys like Luke to take over a lot more responsibility on this defense. And I want to see him do it. And I hope he is capable of doing it. I don't know how he – apparently nobody did very well yesterday that we scored six goals on us. But I want to see him take that next step.

[00:37:10] I want to see him become a leader on that defense and take over a little bit more. I don't know if he does that. And that's another thing. Like the leadership on this team. Like if I brought Brady Kachuk in to this team, I would take the C off Nico and put it on him because he's a better fucking captain. And he – Well, you mentioned McCarr. Yeah, I don't know about that. McCarr is like – you mentioned him. I mean he – like you know all the things he's won. But they say like there was a guy that was traded to that team.

[00:37:38] And they said the first day he was yelling at him on the ice. For the first day he got there because McCarr is up your ass. Like he – I heard – like that is – like you said, that ranks up there with Matthew Kachuk, Brady Kachuk, Scott Stevens kind of guys. Do we have those guys? I'll leave it to say Ovi. Guys that just are on top of you and have – you know, that's the thing with the Devils back when we were watching them, all of us back in the 90s and stuff because we did get to see the Cups, you know. Yeah.

[00:38:02] We had a guy like Scott Stevens who was – when you walked in that locker room and if you like even gave a half-ass performance, you weren't even going to have to answer to say LaMare or Lou. You know, you had Scott Stevens waiting for you at your locker. Danico once said that if we lost a game, then you knew that Stevens was going to be really, really pissed and he was going to say what he had to say and, you know, get it off his chest. Yes, but if – That's McCarr too. And if we lost two in a row, forget it.

[00:38:32] Like it was bad. And then if God forbid we ever lost three in a row, he's like you wouldn't even want to be in that locker room. That's why we did everything we could to make sure we never lost three in a row. You know, and that's just who that team was, the leadership of that team. I don't think they have it. I love Nico Heischer as a player. I'm not sure I love Nico Heischer as the captain yet. And I'm still – Nico's a good captain. And to a man, they always – I will defend Nico. He's a good captain. I am a Nico guy too. I've said that to a man.

[00:38:59] To a man, they defend him and say, you know, Nico's our leader. It's Nico's team. They do say that he's universally respected around the league. You know, like he's – and again, we don't know what he does behind the scenes. Obviously, you're right. You're right. But – I'm not going to shit on Nico. Tim, you froze where you look like you're staring at your – I thought that he was. I was like, what is he looking up? I was looking up Luke's numbers last night. But that apparently caused my computer to freeze.

[00:39:29] That looks like – Any other browser, your whole thing? Yeah, I got to pause you porn. That's getting real deep into the weeds on some stepbrother shit last night. Fuck. Stepbrother shit. All right. Tony knows what I'm talking about. I used to work in the business. That's a story for another day. I got to go, though, boys. I got to go. All right, man. I need to work today. It was a good venting session.

[00:39:59] Let's go, Devils. Get your fucking head out. Yeah, man. Let's try to like – you know, we got to fucking – we got to pull for the team, as they say. We got a big-ass game tomorrow. Yeah. And now we'll see the new guys inserted into the lineup tomorrow. Yes. You know, I would – go ahead, Tim. No, no, no. I interrupted you. I apologize. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say the new guys will be inserted into the lineup tomorrow. We'll be able to see – I'd love to see, like you said, like bring up – call up some dudes and start sitting some fucking guys.

[00:40:27] And put them in this lineup and let's see what they can do. Well, yeah. I mean, the problem is Utica is now digging themselves out of their own hole that they dug themselves in the end of the season. They might make the playoffs now. Nobody cares about Utica making the playoffs. I don't, except for Utica people do. Yeah, but then they'll fuck them. And Harris Blitzer might care about it because – and that's the problem. It's like they care about making money. And if they call up all their good players, then Utica is not going to get attendance. They're not going to get the gate revenue.

[00:40:56] They're not going to fucking be a profitable team. It's just – it's such bullshit. I think Tony's right about the ownership. Like there's just something off there. And I've heard that the concessions are fucking awful. Yeah, I heard some people have some food poisoning or something. Yeah, and like they're fucking uncooked chicken tenders and a bunch of vendors being closed and just – Chicken sushi. Oh, God. Some people – well, listen. Tomorrow's a big game in the afternoon. Hopefully – I'm leaving work a little early tomorrow. It's my anniversary.

[00:41:24] So I'm going to try and watch it. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm going to try and watch it. We'll see how that goes. But we're definitely going to be back Monday or Tuesday. And we'll vent some more. And then we'll have Bobby in. And, you know, hopefully Dan will be back next week at least for like a show or so. So we'll hopefully see if we can get everybody on. Thanks, guys, for hanging out. Wow, three people actually woke up with us this morning. That's pretty cool. Really? Some people actually get notifications.

[00:41:54] Yeah, I got one. I just didn't go on because, you know, I could see you guys perfectly. Yeah, that would absolutely – my computer would probably catch on fire if I actually went onto the YouTube right now. All right. So, you know, we said this before. We did the rounds, right? I think me, you, and Bobby, Tim, we're at like five scale. One out of ten faith in Fitzgerald to have fixed this team before the trade deadline. We were all at five. We're going to revisit that right now. Zero to ten.

[00:42:19] Ten being I have the most faith in Tom Fitzgerald and I would let him babysit my children and manage all my retirement funds. And one being I wouldn't fucking loan this guy a pencil and, you know, I just – he should not have this job. Tony, one through ten, where's your faith in Tom Fitzgerald? Fortunately, it's going to have to be a one. I want to say two even, but I'm just going to say right now it's one.

[00:42:46] I mean, like I said, I feel like I got shell shocked from yesterday and I still – I'm not very excited right now. You know, you know. One's the lowest I can go. Well, no, you can go lower. Yeah, negative four. You can't clarify. I'm going to – honestly, I am going to over the next two months twist myself into rationalizing why –

[00:43:14] kind of retrospectively why he should keep his job and I fucking hate myself for it because honestly, like, I hate it when people lose their jobs. It sucks. Like, we're going through a pretty shitty time in our country right now where that's happening to a lot of people. I lost a pretty – I know it's a different thing. Look, I get it. These guys make millions. They should. You know, they're – but they're there for our fucking entertainment. But it's not a fucking zoo. I hate it. I'm going to do it.

[00:43:41] I know myself too well that I'm going to somehow have some sort of spin zone that I'll be back with later. But right now, fuck that motherfucker. Get off my team. Get out of my building. I hope your key pass gets taken away. I hope you get sent in an Uber. Go to the airport. Get the fuck out of here. Tim's so ashamed he can't even look at us. No. I'm looking – I know. Yeah, I'm just staring down. Staring at his crotch. You look like you're praying or sleeping. Something's going on or had a stroke. I am. I'm praying to the little furry guy downstairs.

[00:44:12] Is that what you call him, the little furry guy? Yeah. I will give Tom Fitzgerald the one as well. No, this is terrible. He completely fucking ruined the season. And I was getting so mad at people when they were posted on X and stuff like, well, with your jacks out, how do you push forward? Like, he's your best player. Like, I was like, no, this is fucking not just a jack – I know they're very jack-centric,

[00:44:42] but this isn't just about jack Hughes. This team can make a run. And then – Yeah, Austin Matthews has been hurt all year. Matthew Kachuk is on LTIR. Like, the players can hurt all the time. Fuck this. Yeah, and maybe you're right about Sheldon Keefe. I remain – you know, I'm still out – the jury's still out with me on him. You know, I said last year that they needed to kind of go in a different direction, like a Craig Berube kind of guy, somebody that will hold them accountable and be a pin.

[00:45:11] And now I'm looking at, like, a guy like Torts and I'm like, man, bring that fucking dude in. Like, we need somebody that's going to just lay into this fucking team. And maybe Sheldon Keefe will get there. I like Sheldon Keefe, though, and I think he's going to do the best he can with the players he has. But – His voice kind of bothers me. I wish they would give him, like, a voice changer maybe during the interviews. The voice kind of doesn't sound too intimidating when you're trying – you know, I can't picture him yelling at the team in the locker room. He's got a little bit of –

[00:45:39] No, I mean, we definitely talked about that. He does have that very high kind of pitch. Like, you know, it really does stink and not having Jack in. And then I go to – Wasn't that you in the locker room? And then all of a sudden I'd be going like – Are you fucking looking at me? You fucking telling me that Jack's not going to be in this fucking lineup? I'm sorry. All right. We're going to get out of here. Can I mention, Chris, though, that one of my teams did make a move? Yeah, dude. Got a quarterback. Got a quarterback.

[00:46:07] We got – and the biggest move of all, like me and Chris talked about, is Max Crosby, a Raider for three more years. 106. I guess he's guaranteed like 91. But as a Raider fan, man, if you're going to lose, I'd rather – you've got to have Max on your team. I love him, you know. And it's nice to see someone stay loyal, dude, because I have to be honest with you guys. There was a part of me that was like, is he going to bail on us, you know? Yeah. And what do we give up for the quarterback now? We gave up the third round that we got for Adams, who just got released.

[00:46:37] So, I don't know. I still don't understand football trades. It's just fucking bananas to me that these guys like Bosa is just like, yeah, fuck it. We're going to cut them. Well, that's the thing. The NFL – I mean, the players in the NFL have so much more power than any other sport. Well, maybe the NBA has just as much power. The players basically run the fucking league there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, because the dynamics of the NBA are so different. They're like 12 guys on the team and five guys basically.

[00:47:05] You get one good player and suddenly you're a wildly different team. NFL, like one guy isn't going to affect too much. Unless it's a quarterback. Yeah, you're right. You're right. But good to see that that signed helmet you got is still going to keep some value. My wife gave it to me. I said, oh, fuck. He just jinxed me. I'm like, he's gone. I'm like, he's leaving. I love that. Guys, drop us a line. Let us know what you thought about yesterday. We will suffer through the fucking flyer game tomorrow.

[00:47:35] But I think that right now all three of us are firmly on the Tom Fitzgerald should not be the general manager. This team's trained. He needs to go. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel. Like, five-star review, positive comment wherever you listen to the podcast. It really does help us. For Tim and Tony, I'm Chris. We're the Uncle Puckers. We'll see you when we see you. Suck a dick, Valaket.

[00:48:05] It's over, Johnny. It's over. It's over. Suck a dick, Valaket.