Flip A Switch

Tony (00:00.46)
And hurricanes, because fucking A.

Chris (00:03.476)
Yeah, but on the hurricane, well, we'll talk about that. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to the Uncle Pucker New Jersey Devil podcast with Chris, Dan, Bob and Tony tonight. Even though right now it's just Chris and Tony. Tony has to leave a little bit early. Dan's going to be jumping in soon and then Bobby will be here later. So it's going to be like an hour of people coming and going. So we're going to start this thing with myself and Mr. Tony out there in Lithuania. What's up, Tone?

Tony (00:33.58)
That's a weekend for us both, man. I know you must be walking around like a fucking chicken in the den, like a cocky I see the hoodie on too, man.

Chris (00:39.68)
It's it's victory Monday brother. It is victory Monday for both of us We haven't lost yet then and let me But With two of the biggest names of the Raiders not there You guys pulled off a win. You guys pulled off a win and that's impressive. That's the first thing

Tony (00:43.382)
Your boys for real, Your quarterback is real.

Dan (00:44.864)
What's up? guys won? Did you guys win? Awesome.

That's fucking great,

Tony (00:51.98)
My team has several times.

Tony (00:59.68)
Eight starters out. Eight starters out.

Chris (01:06.612)
but your division's tough as hell, but it's kinda like seems like it's ripe for the taking. Kansas City doesn't wanna win this thing again. They want somebody to come in and take it away. I just don't know if it's gonna be the Raiders or the Chargers or the Broncos.

Tony (01:21.666)
And no one's getting first in that division this year besides Kansas City as much as, mean, you know, whatever. I mean, they always find a way to win. It's unbelievable.

Chris (01:28.862)
Rushie Rice not being there is tough tone. That's gonna be tough. He's probably, didn't get any, I didn't see anything yet, but it looked like it was an ACL out for the season, so.

Tony (01:38.104)
Jets pissed me off yesterday. All they had to do was beat Denver. They couldn't get it done. my God.

Chris (01:42.356)
The Jets are so bad. am so like, look, I know in any Sunday anything can happen, but I am chomping at my bit at the bit for this defense next week to go out to London and just make fucking Aaron Rodgers life miserable for three and a half hours.

Tony (01:53.09)
You can reach your bit.

Tony (01:58.648)
Dude, you guys are for real this year, you know? mean, that quarterback was so underestimated, I guess. You really didn't think that you got, I when I watch, it's not only with the watch the Vikings, not only is the offense good, but the defense is good. You probably have, I mean, the best receiver in the NFL, in my opinion, maybe. Yeah, just the plays they're making are crazy, you know? Yeah. Randy Moss made one of those too. Yeah.

Chris (02:15.712)
See that catch he made in the end zone yesterday and that toe tap catch that they had to review because they called it incomplete and Jefferson gets up and looks at him and goes, trust me, that was complete. And they look back and the dude got his toes in. mean, he's. And here's the thing, I've watched this team forever, right? And Dan could attest to this. He was my roommate for many, many years. There were many Sundays that I was not in a good mood and even the good teams that they had. There was always that, yeah, but.

Tony (02:28.93)
Yeah, the Vikings are for real.

Dan (02:40.287)
Nope.

Chris (02:44.936)
You know, yeah, they're winning games, but come playoff time, are they going to be able to do anything? Their defense is really a sieve and a true team's going to blow them out. Most of the time those things happen. This kind of feels a little different. This year feels like, holy shit, maybe they are one of the legit best teams in the league.

Tony (03:03.87)
You guys can be KC right now if you guys put them right at this point right now while watching both teams play because as much as I hate Kansas City, I admit that they always find a way to win whether it's calls are going on their side or whatever. But the Vikings dude, I can't think of I've watched it's funny because I watch Viking games because of you now. So like if it's a one o'clock game, I'll put the Vikings game on and I'll you know, unless like I'll flip over to see if one of my division teams is losing. But I haven't seen a team that looks better than you guys. I mean, or you I really haven't.

Chris (03:31.186)
And here's the other thing too with the Vikings. Look who they beat. Because all I heard after week one was, yeah, but it was the Giants. And wait, what's going to happen after you beat San Francisco or you play San Francisco? Then we go and we whoop San Fran and everybody said, yeah, but CMC wasn't playing next week against Houston. You're going to get yours. And they completely annihilated Houston. And then it was, yeah, but.

Tony (03:36.696)
Yeah?

Giants.

Tony (03:55.256)
Key word is whoop too, you guys are whooping teams.

Chris (03:59.146)
Can you go into Green Bay and beat the Packers in Lambeau? And they did that too. So this is like the equivalent of going into Lambeau and beating the Packers is like us taking, playing the Rangers in a playoff series and taking every game at Madison Square Garden. Like that's how much fun it is. So how are you, brother? We haven't seen you.

Dan (04:17.054)
That's awesome. Doing alright. Yeah, mean fucking my schedule sucks anymore, especially lately and happy I can squeeze it in today, definitely.

Tony (04:17.909)
You guys look damn good.

Tony (04:25.314)
Same here, man, same here.

Chris (04:28.51)
Yeah, so I mean, there's a couple of things on the devil front and I'm glad that you know where you guys are here because Bob and I kind of talked about it last week, but.

Chris (04:40.894)
I get let's start with positive okay and Seamus Casey said last year that early whenever it was the spring that he was making this team he said that he's gonna come in and earn his spot did not want to start the season in Utica well looks like he did it

Dan (04:45.226)
Right.

Dan (04:55.752)
Yeah, it looked like he's going to Prague. I heard that he's definitely on that trip, so he's playing.

Chris (05:00.094)
Yeah, now it's most likely because Hataka and Pesci and Hughes are out, but still, congratulations to the kid, man. He worked his ass off. He had a good camp, at least a little bit of camp that we saw, and he'll be hopefully in the lineup. I think he will be. So that's awesome.

Dan (05:18.27)
Yeah, definitely. That's a positive. You found one. You had to do a little looking.

Chris (05:21.267)
I did find one.

Tony (05:22.102)
Yeah, I was gonna ask you guys, I haven't talked to you guys in a couple weeks, but I gotta say, man, I'm starting to like, starting to wonder if it's gonna be a long year not.

Chris (05:24.17)
Alright.

Dan (05:25.832)
I don't want to be too negative, it's just pre-season but...

Chris (05:28.624)
Okay, so...

Dan (05:30.75)
You got it back to back with the Rangers. So let's say we do well against them there. You know, this whole preseason looks a lot better. I mean...

Chris (05:38.024)
No it doesn't. Not at all. It doesn't matter if we win every preseason game that's left. The preseason's over for the Devils. They're on their way to Prague. These guys that are playing them are the Utica comments.

Dan (05:46.45)
Yeah, these two is not going to matter. That's very true. that's where it was kind of disappointing. Maybe not the first couple, but how many games now have they had most of their roster? The defense still looks really shitty. I know they've had problems. know the injuries, blah, blah. But it's not the defense you want. Goaltending? Eh.

Tony (05:48.664)
That's where Bobby is right now getting suited up. He's playing.

Chris (06:00.308)
for.

Dan (06:14.92)
You know, it was not like, but here's the savior. get it. Mostly I watch season recap. I saw a few minutes here and there during game. So I don't know. Definitely not finding a way to win, but you know, I get it. It's preseason. I'm not going to flip out.

Chris (06:31.85)
So well, this is my question to you, Dan. Yeah, it's preseason. Yes, the games don't count. But at the same time, you kind of want to build some good habits and a little bit of momentum to bring in a regular season. So with the four exhibition games that we've seen already, and the Devils have looked terrible in all of them, and even

Dan (06:46.366)
Yeah, not really doing that.

Dan (06:54.078)
Yep, couple pretty goals, other than that, who cares?

Chris (06:57.064)
Yeah and I mean just no effort all that stuff right same shit we saw last year was like wow now we're rolling into you know game eighty three and eighty four and eighty five of last year like it's the same team.

Dan (07:07.572)
You mentioned the effort. That's what I, look, if they had problems to work out and there's mistakes being made, that's one thing, but we wanted this coach to bring in a strong work ethic. I don't see it yet.

Chris (07:18.24)
Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, how worried are you, we'll start with this one first, are you in this preseason thus far leading up to Friday's opener against the Sabres?

Dan (07:33.896)
Okay, that's a tough question because if we're just talking about how worried can you possibly be during a preseason, that scale can never match. Like if we were talking about the first five games of the regular season, that's a whole nother level that you lose five in a row. It can never be as bad as losing five in a row regular season. That said, this has gone almost as bad as it could barring maybe a few more injuries picked up or something disastrous like that. can't really, all the areas that you

improved on paper, I don't see it. I don't see that work ethic, that even grit, I'll say, that we were supposed to add. I don't see the improved defense and I don't see improved goal-thending. So three strikes, it's not good. So, you know, as worried as you can be during a preseason, yeah, nine or 10. But that, course, doesn't mean you got to flip out. There's still, you know, once the season starts is when the season starts.

Chris (08:29.386)
So with that being said, you think that the Devils, or any team for that matter, can flip it? Is it legitimate to think that they could just flip a switch on Friday and become the Devils team, or at least begin to become the Devils team that we are expecting? I mean, you have to keep also in mind, Sheldon Keefe chewed these guys out publicly after the game against Montreal. He was not happy, he said it.

Dan (08:37.994)
you

Dan (08:53.684)
Right. Right.

Chris (08:58.782)
like I said told everybody who knows what he said in the dressing room but he wasn't happy and then the following game you had a worse effort against the islanders that he did the night before this is your brand new head coach who told you just how disappointed and fucked up this whole thing was and you went and did the exact same thing that's the thing that kinda makes me worry but what do you think is there a switch do you think they could turn it on if they have to when they have to

Dan (09:08.286)
Yeah, no response. Yeah.

Dan (09:20.2)
Absolutely.

Tony (09:20.238)
anything.

Dan (09:25.342)
I think it's also like the fortunes of the game. They come out and play well. They get the good bounce. Things start rolling well. Anything is possible. You can't say that it's not. the switch that gets turned sometimes, that's what it takes. And it's not like they can't play. That said, I think that you would be surprised to have such an awful preseason and then so-called flip that switch. And here we are. We were just kidding.

That doesn't make sense. You know, so yeah, if you're putting odds on it, odds are against them. They have not shown how to play together as a team, give you 60 minutes, play better defense than last year, get better goaltending. None of those things we said. it's, you know, even if one area looks much improved, you still got two other really important areas that would have to also improve. Now you're asking for like a trifecta of turning the switch to

really, because it does, it just looked really bad. It looked bad.

Chris (10:27.348)
Tone, how worried are you about the preseason so far?

Tony (10:30.936)
You know, I don't worry about the preseason. My biggest worry is, as of like, of course I'm excited. You know, always get, we were just talking about football, right? You get excited before, even when you're thinking that you might hit damnation. Thing with the Devils is, last year there was a lot of question marks going when the season ended. Like we had a lot of guys who had shitty years. So we had a lot of guys the year before that who may have played well. So to me that the...

I have more, I'm worried, but I'm more worried because there's a lot of guys from last year's roster that I watched play that I'm not 100 % sold on if they're what we think they are maybe. you know, hate, obviously you have to, mean, glad we signed Mercer, I love Mercer, but I am kind of quite, there's certain got, Mercer's one of them, know, last year wasn't the Mercer we had the year before that. I mean, I think there's a lot of them. I mean, think there's a lot of, yeah, Hamilton, was, I like Hamilton, but I was saying,

Chris (11:03.178)
Like who?

Dan (11:17.524)
And even guys who've been out, right? Hamilton?

Tony (11:23.042)
during the off season this year a lot, like he kind of wasn't that great last year. You know, there was a, he's good score. He does, yes, he does do things that we definitely missed, but there was also a lot of minus on that side too last season.

Chris (11:28.298)
Well, before the injury, defensively, no, he wasn't.

Chris (11:37.528)
Do you think that these are problems that because look at what you're saying is true then that means fundamentally this team The makeup of this team is wrong that this team will never be able to put it together Do you believe that?

Tony (11:52.27)
But with the new goal, no, the reason I kind of don't believe that, I mean, again, it's in the back of my mind is because when you've upgraded the goaltending like we have in both areas, know, start at first and second, you know, right there, we've gotten tougher, which was a big thing that we said we had to do for the last two seasons. If Jack, you know, if our guys actually show up this year, I don't see how we can't have a good run. I'm not saying we're gonna win the Stanley Cup this year. The problem is...

is being realistic. If I was like on the outside, it wasn't a Devil's fan. There's a lot of question marks on the team that you have to kind of wonder about a little bit. yeah, preseason, you know, is a weird thing. But I just think with the goaltending, we have to have a better.

Dan (12:25.246)
Yeah, preseason has not answered them. Yeah.

Dan (12:31.722)
And that's a good point. know, with the goaltending too, like you talk about flipping a switch. Goaltending, like I think in the preseason is the biggest difference that, know, yeah, even the forwards somewhat, like goaltending is the biggest difference. First of all, they rarely play the whole game and that's hard to judge a flow and everything when they're playing one or two periods. Secondly, I think that one of the biggest things is just stay loose and don't get hurt. Like, I don't think they're playing

Chris (12:51.424)
Yeah, that's true.

Dan (12:59.316)
the way you would expect them to play during regular season on the whole. You're just getting loose, get a feel for the team. The goaltending especially is the weirdest variance between preseason. So if you were hoping for like something to be a savior here, maybe it is goaltending and we're gonna get a test very early, know, got Buffalo.

Tony (13:18.414)
But what's gonna be tough is coming back from, you know, from Prague, actually. That's gonna be a weird week because usually a lot of teams, even I've seen it in the NFL, I've seen it in every kind of sport. Usually when you take this trip, you come back, there's like this weird lull going on for like a week or two, maybe. And I just don't wanna see them get caught into that, you know, that trend because like we said, last year there wasn't many bright spots really. I mean, the last bright spot we remember was the stadium series game. if there was never big, though years the season before that, we had like, you'd win like,

Dan (13:27.85)
Yeah, like a

Tony (13:48.12)
We had a lot of weeks. mean, there's some great times, you So last year, there's just a lot of, think, how could they not be better? You've done everything that we asked them to do in a lot of ways. It's just, like I said, it's just question marks. is this, are we gonna have, I know, I hate saying this, because I do like Dawson. Are we gonna have Mercer from the year before, or are we gonna have last year? Are we gonna have this guy from the year before? Are we gonna have, is Holla gonna show up? Like, these are the questions I have. Like, what are you gonna get from these guys?

Dan (13:48.992)
13 in a row.

Dan (14:13.78)
Yeah, I'm interested to see how they how they respond to the coach too, because you asked about what to do with it. Maybe a couple key personnel changes, but let's face it, the personnel on paper is really damn good. So if they can't play ball with this coach, then what's going on? Like, you know, like.

Chris (14:25.45)
Well, that's what I was gonna say.

I don't think it's the coach at this moment right now. I absolutely don't think it's the coach. I do not think it is the lineup. Like Tom Fitzgerald went out and got every single thing these kids wanted for Christmas underneath their tree. Everything he wanted that this team needed to the point that if any devil fan, if this season goes south and any devil fan is out there going, see, we shouldn't have gotten Mark Strum. Why do we give up this for Dylan or Pesce? No, no, no. Fuck you. Because

Dan (14:32.883)
No, you can't. It's too early.

Chris (14:58.512)
Everyone thinks that these are great moves.

Tony (15:01.1)
Would you not be excited about this lineup?

Chris (15:02.94)
Right, which is why I believe that I do think they're going to be okay. I also lay a lot of this and this whatever this was, lethargy and the preseason has been on the players. This has been an effort. This has been just guys skating like they don't give a shit or whatever. I do think they're going to be a lot better.

Dan (15:16.51)
Lethargy.

Dan (15:21.032)
Yeah.

Chris (15:31.942)
on the fourth and the fifth against Buffalo. do. not saying we're going to win these games, but you got to split them because you're coming home on a travel day from Europe, like Tone just said, right? And now you probably have maybe three days after your home and settled that you can get some practices in and clean up the messes before you have to go next week for your home opener against the Maple Leafs. Now, Craig Barube is going to make sure that that team is ready to go. That might be one of the tougher games on the schedule.

Tony (15:37.614)
Mm-hmm.

Dan (15:41.279)
Yeah.

Chris (15:59.91)
So they got to figure it out, excuse me, quickly. Right. But I don't think that this is a personnel problem as far as pieces in play. think the pieces are good. Now, do you guys think that the I mean, not having Pesci and Hughes in the beginning that this is probably as bad as it can get right for your defensive pairings?

Tony (16:04.837)
And Toronto's always a pain in the ass for us, so.

Dan (16:14.909)
Right.

Tony (16:26.445)
Yes.

Dan (16:27.102)
Yeah, I mean, this comes at a really horrible time. We got Hughes out and then we got to take more lumps and that's a bummer.

Tony (16:34.595)
It's who feels like, you you're saying to yourself, please don't let us continue last season with the injury plague, like, cause it seems like, it seems like it's already rolling, like, you know, it's a.

Dan (16:42.334)
Yeah, as soon as I heard about that shoulder from Hughes, I'm like, here we go. I think everybody felt the same way. And yeah, like what the f... I still don't know how it happened. They call it a training injury, but I

Tony (16:46.637)
Yeah. Picture with him in a cast.

Chris (16:46.645)
Night.

Ugh, the whole team will be in traction by Christmas.

Tony (16:53.452)
And then Nemitz, know, Chris mentioned it a couple, maybe two months ago even. Man, these guys playing, if I'm an owner, man, I would hate to have, I mean, I know why they go play with these other teams. I get it, because there's so much pride for the countries. I see it over here in Europe all the time, but man, it's just, know, God, it sucks.

Chris (17:13.898)
There's nothing worse than losing a top flight player to international competition or some bullshit like that. enough man. Just right. But now I guess that we could kind of turn around look at last year, right? We know how bad Tony talked about it, right? Last year, how bad everything was. We won every preseason game last year. So is there like a reverse jinx that's happening? Can we do that? Can we just be like psych?

Tony (17:18.508)
F.

or an all-star game or you know.

Dan (17:35.838)
Yes, yes, the...

Chris (17:41.552)
and then just go out and whoop up on Lindy Sabres, you know, six to one. I hope so.

Dan (17:46.304)
I see on social media and hear people saying this, well, this is actually good because look what happened. Look, come on, let's get real. Does that have anything to do with anything? Do you really think that winning all your preseason game means you're doomed to? What did that have to do with it? It had nothing to do with it. likewise, I don't think there's some kind of reverse jinx here that can actually where you'd have to really believe in some crazy voodoo to accept that. I can't take solace in that.

Chris (18:07.455)
No, there's not.

Tony (18:11.714)
And do you guys believe in the, I mean, pre-season, always look at it like, it's just kind of like trying to figure out this line or that line or this. Do you guys really think it's like, cause I, I'll be honest, like my concern, like I said, it's not so much to, of course you'd like to see them win a pre-season game, but it's more for my worries from last year. But are you guys really, like, are you guys believe in the pre-season that if, you know, if you really lose all the games that you're in trouble for, you know, does that really worry you guys personally?

Dan (18:39.626)
I mean, I don't like the trajectory. I mean, they actually lost to the Isles more recently with a worse score, like 5-1 or something? I don't know. Yeah, so like, I mean, they actually, the first time they were against them, I think they lost 4-2. And that is the first preseason game you throw that out. What would you like to see as you, especially as your lineup becomes more complete? Now, I got to go over it. don't remember exactly, but I feel like they had, as preseason wears on, more and more of like the real lineup.

Tony (18:45.912)
What was that score too? was like, yeah.

Chris (18:48.416)
5.01

Chris (18:55.23)
Ford is too, yep.

Dan (19:09.276)
And that's the part that I don't like. Like how are we getting worse in results with more experience and the real lineup? I mean, it's only preseason, but it's not a good sign.

Chris (19:09.48)
and

Chris (19:19.56)
But you know Tony to kind of piggyback off what Dan said you're you know, it's preseason It doesn't mean shit. Am I worried or do I care or worried that we lost three pre four preseason games? Not at all. Not at all I don't give a shit about the preseason games preseason is there in Hockey to like you said make sure you got guys that you know are trying to make the team You got PTOs you want to take a look at and stuff but as far as your roster your players most of them are set there's a

a piece here or there that you might want to plug in and you want to get a good look at guys. That's not what I'm worried about as far as the preseason. The thing that worried me was just the lack of effort. Like it looked like they didn't give a shit. Every single game just looked like they could not care less. They'd rather be anywhere other than playing hockey. That's the thing that worries me.

Dan (20:07.26)
And when you see that, you got to go, these guys are have incredible confidence to just flip the switch as you called it. And they don't give a shit about this preseason. And that's why I put an effort, but you just wait till opening night. And you know what? I'd love to see it. And I would still say like, it is a dangerous game to play. You want to start, as you said, form some decent habits, see things that work. And it's all believable that like, you're going to get lack of days of effort, but you're losing like, I think at one point maybe it was even five, nothing or four, nothing.

Chris (20:20.608)
It's a dangerous game to play though.

Dan (20:36.764)
and like there's a little bit of pride. Hopefully you'll have to put on a decent show and try to do something right. So I kind of can't buy that. Like, we're just so damn good that we're just not even trying right now. So don't worry guys. These games don't matter. I mean, if that's what they end up doing and turn on some kind of opening season winning streak and they look back and go, yeah, I mean, gotta be honest guys. Sorry to any fans who showed up there, but we really didn't want to.

Chris (20:50.282)
Right?

Dan (21:04.628)
work too hard in those games and could care less about scores. I'd be like, wow, that's a lot of swagger gentlemen, but okay.

Chris (21:10.238)
A lot of swagger for a team that didn't make the playoffs last year. That's for sure. No.

Dan (21:13.234)
Yes, I'm kind of not buying that story. That seems right now a little bit less believable than a team that is in somewhat disarray, that it can come together and it doesn't take much. I really think that you put forth the effort that's been lacking in one game. Have a couple bounces go your way with that effort. You build on that and the preseason is a distant memory that nobody gives a shit about. So we'll see what happens.

Chris (21:35.904)
This is all true. It's all very true. I mean, yeah, that's it's gonna be now we're gonna try and get on on on Thursday. Rigby, lay down, paint in the butt. Yeah, I know he's upset about him. He's a Packer fan. Stupid dog. He's still upset about the game. But, you know, I just I just I'm

Dan (21:47.968)
Bingby's upset about the devils too, I don't blame him.

Tony (21:48.27)
What's up, dog?

Dan (21:53.706)
Hahaha

Chris (22:01.194)
The problem, I think, for a lot of Devil fans is PTSD. We watched the preseason and they looked exactly the way they did last year. And it was like, no, this can't be happening, right? They're not gonna be like this again. And that's the thing. And I think that's where most Devil fans are right now and they need to see something different. So hopefully on Friday, now I saying, we're gonna record on Thursday. Now, Tone, are you not sure if you can make it on Thursday?

Dan (22:05.354)
Yeah.

Tony (22:28.406)
I can make it Thursday, it just matters what time you guys do it. know that Wednesday I won't be, Wednesday's the only day that I know I won't be around.

Chris (22:35.058)
Okay, because I'd like to get do a little preview. I work until about three I was probably not till like maybe after dinner. If possible.

Dan (22:36.81)
What time are you trying to do Thursday?

Dan (22:45.768)
Okay, I might have a problem.

Tony (22:47.544)
we did like five or six, I could probably do it. But much later would be the problem. But I can go a little bit later that night. So we can figure that out, obviously, you

Chris (22:51.251)
Okay.

Dan (22:52.03)
Yeah.

Chris (22:54.272)
Alright.

Dan (22:55.006)
I could only do like an early one on that day and I got something with the kids so I probably won't make Thursday night.

Chris (23:02.95)
I will then if you were not sure of at least with you to. What do you guys expecting to see Friday against the Sabres this is gonna be a hot ass crowd right I mean they love their hockey out there.

Dan (23:14.088)
Yeah, yeah.

Tony (23:18.062)
I have been to these games too. So I've been to the, yeah, I've been to these games like when I saw them play last time this series is, it's gonna be, shitloads of Devil fans are gonna show up. I already know a bunch I've already seen that are going out there that are already in Germany already heading out there. I mean, the last time we went against the Oilers when they played in Sweden, there was more Devil fans. I'm talking like probably 75%, 60 % of the building.

Chris (23:18.258)
You know, yeah, so go ahead.

Dan (23:18.375)
I

Yeah, tell us.

Chris (23:37.245)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (23:43.156)
Really?

Tony (23:44.022)
Yeah, yeah, and then it was the players were excited. You could tell, you know, like they were, there was a certain atmosphere there. It's a very big thing they do. It's really cool setup. When we were there, they had Patrick Elias was doing the whole event, like speaking and hanging out and everything. So I think the Devils are gonna come out fired up. You know, always in these kinds of series, always, when you're playing two games like this, I kind of expect the one-one split, like you were saying earlier, just because both teams are gonna be fired up. But I will say the Devils,

Chris (24:06.772)
Mm-hmm.

Tony (24:10.658)
are gonna have no lack of fans. And like I said, I've already seen a bunch of them out there. And when I went last time, it's insane how many devil fans travel to these things. I don't know, I think the devils are gonna win the first, I think that first night they're gonna be pretty fine. I the devils have, know, look at our goaltending, we have a good team. And I believe that, you know, it would be awesome to see Markstrom come out there and just nail the first game, you know? So I mean, I'm excited. I actually have high hopes for the series.

Like I said, I always kind of expect that split when they're going out of the country because I know both teams are, like I said, amped, but I'm feeling pretty confident.

Chris (24:47.658)
What are you most excited to see in the game on Friday? Markstrom? Dan, what are you most excited to see on Friday?

Tony (24:51.082)
Markstrom. Markstrom. Yeah.

Dan (24:55.764)
Yeah, I gotta agree. want to see how Markstrom plays in these big situations. That's why it's going to suck if he just gets like the worst defense in the world. So you can't even judge how he's going to deal with it. And puts him out to a bad start. But I'm a little concerned. mean, Buffalo has looked pretty good in their preseason. They actually look like they're ready to, you know, have a emerging year. And we said it, Lindy was a great coach for the Devils for that emerging year.

Chris (25:17.108)
Okay.

Dan (25:22.202)
And he kind of has a knack for those young guys just getting them up off the mat. Now where he takes them from there, absolutely, they're going to want to beat New Jersey. They're going to look at it as like, hey, this could really put us on a map. They're in a great stage. I think it's going to be tough. I think that the devil's really got to get their shit together fast. And if they do, I would not be surprised to at the end of the series call a split. Hey, that wasn't bad because I do think, like you said, Buffalo is going to play hard. They got a lot to prove.

Tony (25:26.38)
and he'll wanna be Jersey, you know that.

Dan (25:51.648)
So I'm very curious about it. We know this double team when they're fired on all cylinders can actually give any team a vicious beating But that's been over a year. Okay, we got it. We have not seen that this year We have not really seen that last year. So it's gonna be interesting

Chris (26:05.968)
Is we're not able to display this camera and mic. Bobby, what are you doing? You're screwing us all up here. Bobby. Does it say the same thing for you guys?

Tony (26:07.725)
Wait here.

Dan (26:12.747)
Bobby.

Tony (26:13.452)
He probably thinks it's on one of those live webcams. Yeah.

Dan (26:16.2)
I see what you're saying. I don't hear him either, so I don't care if we don't see him, nothing against his looks, but we've got to have him talk.

Chris (26:18.13)
Yeah. No.

Tony (26:23.938)
Maybe he thinks he's in like one of those live webcam shows or something. This is the pucker show, dude.

Chris (26:24.254)
So.

Would you say that the team defense is what concerns you the most about the game?

Dan (26:27.3)
Dan (26:35.528)
If I have to pick one thing, although what you said as general effort, that's going to go a long way to describe the team defense problem and other problems that are there. I'm just saying that like, yeah, if you just look at the three areas, forwards, defense, goaltending, every area has been lacking. If we had our defense come together, that has been the worst, I think, of the three. And then it gives a chance for the goaltending to do its job, a chance for the forwards to do something other than score a meaningless score.

goal when the game's already down for like the happened last game. So yeah, it's definitely the biggest key in that biggest area where we need improvement in. But I can't disagree when Tony says, I'm curious to see in the goaltending. I just realized that it's limited when the defense is that bad. And whether it's Markstrom or Jesus Christ in that it doesn't matter if the defense is going to be that bad. like, kind of want to see them at least attain a decent amount of defense and then

Chris (27:07.646)
Right.

Dan (27:33.15)
you know, yes, then we're leaning on Markstrom to do his job and more and steal a game if they can give him defense that at least leaves it within range, you know.

Chris (27:42.132)
Right. Just a little programming note, Bobby is not going to be able to make it. His internet's been out of his house. He's been trying to get on to do it from a hot spot and it's just not working. So, not so hot. So, Tone, what about you? What are the things that you're most concerned about going into Friday's game?

Dan (27:52.253)
shit. Hot spot's not so hot. I'm sorry, Bobby. All right.

Tony (28:03.169)
Well, defense, of course, like, you know, with already we've have injuries. So of course that

Tony (28:10.606)
Besides that, I don't really have too many concerns except for...

I know, like I said, I feel pretty confident for this, at least these first two games, you know, I really do. I think we can.

Dan (28:22.506)
How do you think their physical play has been though? Like, are you concerned about that showing up or, cause I, I don't, didn't see them as overly physical, but it's hard to judge. It's preseason. Nobody wants to get hurt.

Tony (28:30.05)
That I think, the hatred isn't there yet as much probably unless you're trying to make the team. Back in back in 90s, 80s, people would just beat the hell out of each other to make the teams. Now it's a little different I think. Maybe against the Rangers, maybe we'll see that against the Rangers.

Dan (28:40.561)
Right, right.

I just hope that gets turned on game one because they're going to need it. I mean, they're going to need it against Buffalo. think game one, they're going to need to be physical in every game.

Chris (28:48.988)
Well, you're going to need it against everybody.

Tony (28:52.012)
Yeah, in a regular season you need to guess, especially the good teams, as we always say, like the Florida's and stuff, they're just going to knock the hell out of you you don't give that part of your game.

Chris (28:58.792)
Yeah, this is going to be, mean, they have the two games against Buffalo, who I think most people do think Buffalo Sabres should be considerably better this year. And then you come home, you have a few days off, you have the home opener against the Maple Leafs. And then I think we have Washington in their barn, I think on Sunday or whatever. But like, so there you go. There's your first four games. None of them are easy. And you get, yeah, go ahead.

Tony (29:24.514)
Here's a question for you, Chris. Go ahead, I'll let you finish. Go ahead, for now, then.

Chris (29:27.59)
I was just going to say if you end up 0-4 by this time next week, that's a really bad spot to be in, or two weeks from now.

Dan (29:35.196)
yeah.

Tony (29:35.918)
So that's where I was going. When is it like, you know, I mean, I'm many fan bases, maybe we're devil's fans. So we deal with our fan base the most. When is it okay to start like, cause you know, I mean, I'm sure you know, if you say, you lose the first two games in Prague, people are going to be jumping off the, you know, roof already. But when do you think is actually, cause I think you got to give the team at least like a week or two to really get their, you know, get the gel going on.

But I mean, when do you guys think it's too early to start? You know, we all see it, you you see on social media, and it's not everybody, but some people start, I already see people freaking out over the preseason.

Chris (30:10.207)
Well, Bobby...

Dan (30:10.314)
But you're going to tell me that you dropped two games in a row on that big stage. You're not going to be concerned.

Chris (30:16.202)
Well, Bobby and I were talking about like just before this preseason even even happened the way it did. We were talking about like with all the new faces, with the new coach, with the new implementation of scheme and style and all the other stuff. Is it possible that the devils are going to get off to a slow start that maybe it'll it'll take a couple of games a week or so, two weeks before they click it, you know, finally figure it out. And maybe that's what's happening. I don't know, but I don't think so. So

Tony (30:18.764)
I see it,

Dan (30:22.314)
Right.

Dan (30:45.056)
Now what is it about the losses that make you think that's not it?

Chris (30:49.556)
The losses I don't care about, it was the effort and how they lost. That's what it comes down to. You get beat and there's no back check. They just, fuck it, Kyle McLean's gonna score or whatever, we'll just leave our goalie hanging out to dry. All the other bullshit. It's just, that was the problem, is the lack of effort and that was an issue. All right, so it's a good thing that Bobby's here. Bob, how are you, Bob? You're on.

Dan (30:51.262)
Right. Effort. Exactly. That's what I thought you were going to say. Yep.

Tony (31:09.134)
Yay!

Dan (31:10.848)
There he is.

Dan (31:14.452)
Bobby, made it.

Bobby (31:15.442)
It worked I'm great. Just saw a killer baseball game. So I'm good to go. yeah in the playoffs

Tony (31:17.602)
Sup dude.

Chris (31:21.096)
Did you win? You're in the playoffs? Was that the first game or the second game?

Dan (31:25.824)
Congrats.

Bobby (31:27.826)
It was the first game, yeah they were down 3-0, scored 6 runs in the 8th only to blow it in the bottom of the 8th.

Chris (31:32.7)
So why don't you just forfeit and not play the game and let Atlanta make the playoffs and then you guys can just stay healthier and get some rest.

Bobby (31:39.932)
They're probably just going to play whoever, I guess, at this point. But Atlanta needs to win to get in, so I'd be loved to knock them out.

Chris (31:45.148)
Right, if you guys, but if you guys take both the games, and he already took the one, so if you guys take both, Arizona gets in, am I right about that? Really? Hmm, I didn't hear him at all. Alright. Did you hear him?

Bobby (31:53.03)
That's correct. Yep. That's right. Yep.

Dan (31:58.216)
He's all froze up. There he is. Just now. Up, he's coming. He's got it. There he is.

Bobby (31:59.921)
Yes.

Tony (32:01.928)
Bobby's froze. what'd do?

Chris (32:03.144)
Yeah, yeah. This is not such a hot, spot. Yeah. I mean, it could be recording everything he's saying normal like it sometimes does, but we can't hear you.

Bobby (32:03.302)
This is not gonna work.

Tony (32:09.582)
short circuit style.

Dan (32:14.974)
Yeah, that's right. Sometimes. Just hang out. Hang out. Because I noticed when I had that trouble, it went away after a while.

Tony (32:15.554)
Yeah, they come out perfect, audio, but they're gone.

Chris (32:19.166)
Yeah

Chris (32:24.51)
So yeah, just sit there and listen to the show.

Tony (32:28.034)
Hahaha

Chris (32:29.884)
Alright, so, he wrote, I'll hang on a bit.

Dan (32:34.292)
Yeah. This is total Max Headroom. You look like Max Headroom right now. You're moving like him. You look like him. You remember that show? Yeah. Yes.

Tony (32:34.594)
Look at us Bobby when we're talking to you.

Chris (32:36.436)
Yeah, don't you turn your head on us. All right, so, yeah.

Bobby (32:42.639)
it's funny you guys can't hear me. How much I hate you guys right now.

Tony (32:43.054)
That commercial,

Chris (32:45.064)
Yeah. All right. So let's let's do this real quick for all who can all who can contribute. Bobby, just stop talking. We can't. It's not working. It's not working. All right. So the first game October 4th against the Sabres winner loss guys.

Bobby (32:58.481)
Way ahead of you.

Tony (33:03.8)
Devils 4-2.

Chris (33:06.474)
Dan.

Dan (33:07.636)
I love that. I like the prediction. I'm gonna stay something close to that, which would make me even happier, like a three, one. Boy, do I see it coming? I'm not so sure, but there we go. I'm throwing some positivity out there.

Chris (33:14.857)
Okay.

Chris (33:19.668)
Bob and I aren't gonna... Okay, well that's what we're getting to that. Bob and I aren't gonna answer any of these questions because we're gonna do it on Thursday and hopefully you guys are... Some of yous can make it. But okay, so the second game against the Sabres. What do you think?

Tony (33:19.798)
TAR is going to score that first game.

Dan (33:27.157)
All right.

Dan (33:35.402)
Hmm.

Tony (33:37.806)
I'm gonna say five four devils in OT.

Chris (33:40.104)
Alright, so you're saying Devils are taking both of these, sweeping the Global Series, heading back home, the best record in the National Hockey League. Alright, I like the optimism.

Dan (33:40.842)
could see that.

Tony (33:44.958)
A lot of Devil fans there, a lot of Devil fans there.

Dan (33:52.158)
Alright, well I think we're gonna have a 5-2 win on that. Okay, very similar to Tony. Again, staying optimistic. I think the most likely thing is a split, so what I said makes no sense for what I really believe, but that's what I'm hoping. That's what I'm calling for. I think it's possible, and that's what I want.

Chris (33:55.359)
Hmm? Okay.

Chris (34:09.886)
Home opener Thursday night against the Maple Leafs.

Tony (34:13.4)
That's why they've lost all their preseason games. They're waiting now to start racking them up. Yep.

Chris (34:16.81)
Well, that's what people, some people believe. I don't think so. Bobby, that seems a lot better now.

Dan (34:17.126)
That's the hope. That's the fan's biggest hope.

Bobby (34:22.694)
Yeah, I didn't want to jump in, but it looks clear. Damn it.

Chris (34:23.726)
And then it just started freezing up.

Dan (34:27.87)
Yeah, good. Awesome. Awesome.

Chris (34:27.89)
Okay. All right, so maple leaves.

Dan (34:33.184)
I think that Maple Leafs are to be a tough opponent. If we win against them, I wouldn't be surprised. It's because on the scoring, think they could score. I think maybe that's one where we're going to have a 5-4 kind of win as I Tony predicted. Yeah.

Chris (34:48.288)
5-4. The home opener, Devils win 5-4. What about you, Atone?

Dan (34:52.053)
Yeah.

Tony (34:52.526)
do I go with honesty here or do I go with the devil's fan? I mean...

Dan (34:59.048)
I'm staying optimistic for now.

Chris (34:59.433)
Yeah, honestly.

Tony (35:01.014)
man, know, Toronto's, can't stand them. They're tough for us for some reason. If, say if we do, you're coming back from Prague, is there going to be a little bit of that little dust on you from that? A little bit of, I don't know. I'm going to go with, I of hate to do it. Yeah, I could take an L. Yeah, I would love them to, you know, but I'm saying,

Chris (35:15.936)
Taking L? They can't, we're not gonna go 82 and 0, Tom.

Dan (35:22.56)
I got them going 82 and 0 right here.

Tony (35:24.59)
Damn, that took your shutout. gotta... 82 shutouts.

Chris (35:24.678)
Alright, well, and then Saturday, Saturday we're getting October 12th against the Capitals in Washington. What do you think?

Dan (35:26.452)
Yeah, well I'm getting to that. That's the shutout. Till next game.

Dan (35:36.35)
2-0 and shutout.

Chris (35:38.512)
Okay, two nothing shut out. Okay, yes.

Dan (35:39.252)
For the devils. the devils. Although maybe the opposite's more likely, I don't know. We'll see.

Tony (35:46.166)
I'm gonna say four to three. And the reason I'm gonna say that is because as much as I can, I'm not a big fan of Eskimo who scores against us usually for some reason. So I'm hoping so. Next year, when they're back. I mean, but I think we're gonna win that game though, yeah.

Dan (35:57.748)
Those days are over now. Soon as our defense comes alive. Then Markstrom the Savior swoops down.

Chris (36:05.834)
Alright, so you're saying that they're gonna win? Alright. Then we come back home and we play the Utah Hockey Club. I think their name is the the Snow Taint or something. The Ice Still Dose.

Dan (36:19.754)
I wanted to ask you, do we have a date on when the name, whether it be I Still Doze or something equally magnificent, is coming? Because I would have thought, now, how long does it take to pick a stupid name?

Tony (36:20.76)
It's awful, Utah, awful.

Chris (36:34.27)
Well, no, this season is going to be the UHC. Yeah, there's, yes.

Dan (36:36.596)
The whole season? Are you serious? This is what happens if you give a team to Utah. It takes them a whole year to pick a name. What? Why? What takes so long?

Tony (36:38.888)
The uniforms are a suck.

Chris (36:44.16)
So I think it was just we need to get it happened so quick. was to get the generic stuff out there and then we'll work on the team name. We'll work on all the color schemes, the jerseys and we'll advertise it.

Dan (36:49.45)
What?

Dan (36:54.186)
Dude, I wish Bobby was here. He's a marketing genius as we know. I'd like to know if this is a good idea to run it here, which is just, I don't know name. Look, when Washington did it, there's a whole reason.

Chris (37:05.106)
You don't think that the name might be the Utah Snowy the Snow Cubs?

Dan (37:09.576)
I would love that. That would be so awesome. Brought to you by the Snowcaps. Yes, I would love that. I wish Bobby was here right now. I mean, is it a good idea to have a no name team? When Washington did it, the Washington, we understood why they got, our names canceled. We're going to throw a big fit and take a year to pick a name. What's Utah's reasoning? Is that lacking creativity as a state? They can't come up with a name. It takes over a year.

Chris (37:15.024)
snowcaps! I said a lie.

Tony (37:15.982)
Utah, hear the snow ca- The Utah Utah Cheers

Chris (37:23.423)
Yeah.

Tony (37:35.275)
What if they had, had the Utah-

Chris (37:38.42)
The Yeti is the main one. Yeah.

Tony (37:39.778)
Yeti. That Yeti's the bad, I mean that's a good name right there.

Dan (37:41.536)
So vote on it. I mean, they're gonna vote in this election on November 5th. So are they gonna not vote? Because that's too quick of a turnaround for them? They've only known about this?

Chris (37:45.876)
Yes.

Tony (37:47.234)
That's wonderful.

Chris (37:49.639)
In the time

In the time that 340 million Americans are going to cast a vote and then transition from an entirely new administration all in a matter of three months and the Utah Hockey Club can't come up with a name in jerseys. You're right. All right, this is the big one guys. October 15th in Carolina against the Canes. Dan so far has them undefeated. Tony has them.

Dan (37:56.351)
Right.

Tony (37:58.518)
and riot.

Dan (38:08.042)
They're like, maybe next year.

Dan (38:19.333)
haha

Chris (38:20.435)
Tony has him dropping the home opener against the Leafs. And just so you guys know where I'm going with these, I do believe we will drop that second game in Buffalo, against Buffalo. And then I think we come in and we start getting our shit together. So against the Canes, what do you think?

Dan (38:31.166)
Yeah, that makes sense. That's fair.

Dan (38:39.53)
That said, know, Keynes are always tough, but they're a diminished team this year, so it's really not crazy to pick the devils, the winners here, especially if think that they've been rolling for a while, like I have. That said, most of what I said today has made no sense. So let the Keynes, let the Keynes win, and we're going to get shut out and hopefully a fun goaltender match duel. And we lose one nothing, just unable to score for some reason.

Chris (38:51.998)
hahahaha

Chris (39:04.178)
Alright, so you got the devils going five and one through their first six. Alright, and Tony, what about you and the hurricanes?

Tony (39:05.592)
for a f-

Dan (39:10.335)
Yeah.

Tony (39:17.646)
for three devils.

Chris (39:19.496)
When? Okay, so you have them 5-in-1 too.

Dan (39:19.551)
All right.

Tony (39:22.742)
Yeah, the only thing I really question is that that Prague series win in both games, but I mean besides that I'm pretty confident.

Chris (39:30.484)
But yet those two games in Prague, if they can pull it off and they can win both of those games against the Sabres, I mean, it really is a nice springboard. You're feeling so good coming back home. You know you have Toronto. You're going to be fired up to beat them. Sheldon Keefe's old team, the same way as you know, every dude in that Maple Leaf locker room is going to be trying to come out and put a whooping on Sheldon Keefe. So you got to, I think you got to take the two.

and feel really good about yourself. Personally, I'm not sure. do think this team through the month of October, I do think they're going to keep their head above water. I just don't necessarily know if it's going to start clicking right away. I would say, Tony, this is where I'm going to stop this picking the games through October. We'll get back to it because your original question was, when do you start getting worried? This is where you start getting worried. Six games in, if you're

You know, one in five or even two and four not playing well. That's where you can actually start worrying and seeing, in my opinion, like guys, this is the time that you got to turn it around because Bobby made an excellent point on the last podcast from, I believe it was May 25th to now. The Mets have had the best record in baseball. They were so bad in the month of April and the first half of May that even though they played.

Tony (40:33.931)
I agree.

Chris (40:56.148)
the best baseball from May 25th to right now, they were still battling, scratching and clawing trying to get into the playoffs. That's the same thing.

Dan (41:04.734)
It's a horrible thing to start off like that. And I think you're totally right. Dropping four in the middle of December after you've had a good start means nothing. It's just a little mini slump. Dropping four in your first four or six games, that's horrible. It's a horrible way to start, especially the context of this team and this year, all the moves that were made, the pressure to get off the mat already. It's going to be huge. And you're right. I can't pick a worse part.

point of the season to drop four, unless you needed four to clinch a playoff berth later on in spring. a hundred percent, I'm honestly, I'm worried if we drop those first two in Prague. I know that we come back with this slump that Tony's talking about. That's a thing against a really tough opponent. In fact, even though for some stupid reason I picked us to lose to Carolina and not Toronto, Toronto is going to be the toughest. They're going to be the toughest opponent in that first.

Tony (41:59.224)
They're gonna be tough.

Chris (42:00.53)
Yeah, they're gonna be good.

Dan (42:02.89)
five games or whatever we just predicted. yeah, man. All right, man. You got it.

Tony (42:05.196)
Boys, I gotta get outta here, actually, I apologize. I have to. Yes.

Chris (42:06.976)
Before you leave we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up in a couple minutes But real quick tone since before you give me your first goal scorer for a Friday night against Buffalo Tony's going to tar Tony have a good show, buddy Thanks brother, yeah and watch some football too, so be good brother so Tony has to tar as his first how about you Dan?

Tony (42:10.936)
Uh-huh.

Tony (42:15.822)
Tatar, there you go.

Dan (42:17.481)
I love it.

Tony (42:19.714)
Thanks guys, you guys have a good night tonight. Let's go Devils. Peace. That's right. Peace.

Dan (42:20.372)
Yeah, take it easy. Good luck. Later.

Dan (42:28.831)
All right.

I would love to see a Timo Meyer goal.

Chris (42:33.48)
Okay, Timo Meyer. I like it. I like it. He did have a nice power play goal in last game. Yeah, but...

Dan (42:39.422)
He did that was like eight seconds in just boom and that was the highlight of that fucking game that one goal and the rest of it looked like dog shit

Chris (42:47.422)
Now, I do want to bring this up to you because we, me and you specifically, we're talking before the trade for Timo Meyer was even done that like this is the guy that's got to play with Jack, right? It's got to be Timo. That just looked like it was going to work. It was going to be wonderful and all the other stuff. And last year we know that it didn't happen. And then this year it does look like the reason, I mean, Jack hasn't been playing much. So that's another thing that also concerns me. Why was he not in the last game against the Islanders?

Dan (43:02.59)
Yeah, that was it.

Dan (43:15.808)
I don't know, is the shoulder not 100 %? What's going on? This is bad news.

Chris (43:18.772)
That's what worries me. Yeah, so let's assume that everything's fine and he'll be in the lineup. There was a big article by Pucks and Pitchhorses that they wrote basically saying why Timo and Jack will never work. I vehemently disagree with it. I think it's ridiculous to think that...

Dan (43:38.216)
Yeah, what was their main thrust of the argument, if you could summarize in your own words?

Chris (43:42.856)
Well, because Bobby was playing my part last time and I asked him the same question and he said, because I didn't read the article, but he said mostly playing style, mostly they're both puck carriers that like to shoot the puck. Neither one of them are big on passing, which I don't agree with. Jack is a amazing passer and one of the best in the entire league. So like to me, do you just, you just keep putting that line out there and making it so these guys click? I mean, it's, I understand that chemistry.

Dan (43:59.38)
But, yeah.

Dan (44:11.38)
Well, yeah, it's got to happen. Sometimes chemistry is a mystical thing, right? It either works or it doesn't. You just can't explain it. But that said, I think you got to try because I love what we see on paper. Timo can go to the net and give Jack so many more options by being that, know, bull in the China, China shop right in the crease, causing havoc, deflecting shots, you know, like together they can really do that.

And I don't believe they can't pass to each other. It doesn't have to be, I'm just your deflection slash screen man. I'm Timo Meyer. They can have some good passing plays together. You'd like to see that develop, give it time to. I would definitely not pull the plug on that experiment too soon. And if it takes a while for them to develop, still think it's really worth it to give it a shot. Now, you know, maybe there's other things we don't know about how it doesn't work. they're both players are like, no, I just, really hate it.

And as a coach, you want to pull a plug on it earlier than maybe makes sense to some fans like myself. But I don't know, man. I don't see what's wrong with the idea. I think it's a great idea that hasn't had enough time. I don't know. What is enough time? I'll ask you.

Chris (45:25.248)
10 games, I think you gotta give them decent shifts together for the first 10 games and try and make this thing work because I just think that the upside, potential upside is far greater than the downside. I just think if you can get these two rolling with Brad on the other side, it has no doubt in my mind that it's gonna be a dynamic line that's gonna score a shitload of points and that's why I think you have to, and I don't think Sheldon Keefe will have the

itchy trigger finger like Lindy did with just you know shit we're 35 seconds in guys and you haven't scored six goals yet throw everything in a blender let's see what happens

Dan (46:02.868)
Yeah, that's why it's a shame they're getting off to such a slow preseason because you know, he might not have that inclination, but let's say they start, they drop three of the first four, he's going to have to do something. And that's going to include moving the big guns around to try to get some scoring somewhere. That's going to be one the first moves you make because, okay, I I got to get Jack or Timo working. They're not working together. I'm going to move them. And I understand that it becomes even close to putting the panic, pushing the panic button.

Chris (46:15.175)
yeah.

Dan (46:33.088)
But I hope you're right and he gets at least enough winning out of these guys to continue that and give it the time it needs to develop as a real chemistry that I think would pay off huge if it could.

Chris (46:44.948)
Yeah, yeah. And I think also part of our preseason struggles is the fact that this team has got a lot of new guys. And even our roster that was here prior, Mercer just got in, right? Holla just got back on the ice. Hamilton, not being with the team and stuff. there's, and now you got Nason in there, you got Cotter in there, you have two D-Men, your entire second pairing is out.

Dan (47:02.494)
Yeah, Hamilton hasn't been with the team in how many months?

Chris (47:14.634)
for a few weeks. that's gonna throw things into a blender as well. So I do think that my level of concern for the preseason right now is at five. That I am right in the middle as far as my concern of how they did. I am concerned with the lack of effort, but I'm also understand that these games don't matter.

Dan (47:41.128)
Right, you're taking this whole circumstances too of like, this isn't actually the team we're gonna have for the most of the season, right? Like we're not gonna get bit with injuries to this extent, we shouldn't be, which is something we said for an entire year last year. But you know, hey, lightning can't strike in the same place twice, right?

Chris (47:51.082)
Right.

Chris (48:00.712)
Yeah, I mean, I'm not willing to put money on that, yeah, mean hockey is a tough sport. Yes.

Dan (48:04.05)
It feels like a curse at sometimes at this point, you know, like with these injuries going into this season, we really deserved as fans to have the injuries be at a minimum. It was bad enough when Hughes, you know, a dreaded huge shoulder injury that was by itself horrible to hear. And then to pile two more important D on top of it. It's like what I do feel a little cursed. So I guess that goes into like your five.

Chris (48:30.207)
Yeah.

Dan (48:33.152)
I said, man, nine or 10 with the performance, at least in a preseason context, but I understand where you're coming from. Because when you take those out, if you're hopeful, I guess I probably would be closer to your number myself.

Chris (48:45.19)
And this team right now is built in such a way that if you did have a significant injury to somebody, you kind of hope it's not going to derail the whole season, that there are enough dudes on this team that they can keep. Yes. that's, that's, and that's key. So, I mean, I also think that we should do a show on Friday, after the game, if you're, mean, well, actually the game's on it in the afternoon. I think it's on at like one or three o'clock in the afternoon.

Dan (48:57.369)
We kept saying how deep they are, right? They're deep. They're deep in every position, but...

Dan (49:14.026)
That's a one o'clock game. Is that what that is?

Chris (49:15.346)
One o'clock. So I mean, I work until probably won't be home until like nine thirty or so. So hopefully everybody can we can hop on and talk about that game and kind of. Or we can do it Saturday night and talk about both games, either one. So that could be fun, but we'll figure all that out. Is there anything else, Dan, that you want to talk about tonight?

Dan (49:22.324)
Yeah, that sounds like a definite possibility.

Dan (49:37.934)
no, I wouldn't say anything majorly important. So we'll try to get together after these opening games.

Chris (49:44.798)
Yeah, try and, I know you said Thursday is no good for you.

Dan (49:49.322)
Thursday's gonna be tough for me, man. I will try, but I have a feeling that I can either go early, like we did today, or maybe not at all, because I got something with the kid that is gonna keep me most of the evening.

Chris (50:03.168)
Well, let me know if you can go at like 430 or five and we'll record the show then. All right. All right. So wherever you're listening to us, say like a five star review, a positive comment, download subscription helps a little podcast that could thank you to Tony who actually made it on tonight, which was really nice. We did have a brief sighting of Bobby. It was like a Sasquatch in the woods. He was here. We think we saw him and then he was gone. Right. And then then he was gone. But

Dan (50:06.632)
Okay, let me look into that and I will definitely stay in touch.

Dan (50:20.906)
That was awesome.

Dan (50:26.642)
Yeah, for a moment we had a four man show. That was nice.

Chris (50:32.67)
Other than that, he's Dan, I'm Chris. Where the Uncle Pockers? We'll see you when we see you.

Dan (50:36.65)
Bugs out.