This episode the "Puckers" give letter grades to the forward group. How "real" is the Quinn Hughes to NJ steam real & what would a trade of that caliber look like?
[00:00:05] Hey everyone, Mr. Devil here, Kenny Danico, three-time Stanley Cup champion of the New Jersey Devils And you're listening to The Uncle Puckers NJD Podcast, Let's Go Devils! Let's Go Devils! Hi guys! Hi! Hey everybody!
[00:00:27] It's all of us today, Tim, Tone, Bob, oh my god, did you see it? I got my sexy voice, that was my pillow voice. Bobby, it's good to see you, man. I feel like I never taught you anymore, dude. It's good to see you. It is good to be seen. Thank you, Tony. I feel like we get on like once a week or so. It's just hard for us to match up schedules. We could take a minute. We're not going to wait back. You guys bounce out really fast. Chris, do you want to put me in timeout really quickly? Can we just black out the screen real quick so Tony and I can catch that?
[00:00:55] As long as our us commercial rate backgrounds. Tim, you got any extra drinks? So I didn't talk to you guys about this, but I So I attributed a point system to our picks, our first round picks, and we'll do it going forward. So how I did it was one point for if you pick the winner of the series, two points if you get it in the right amount of games. Okay?
[00:01:22] So I guess before we jump into anything, let's do a quick accountability of round one And then anything that you guys want to, you know, add about round one. All right. So Bobby is kicking our asses. Bob's got nine points. Okay. So the Kings lost to the Oilers in six. Bobby, Tony, you're the only one that got a point off that. You took Edmonton in seven. Timmy and Bob took LA in seven.
[00:01:52] I took LA in six. Dallas, Colorado went seven. Tony and I both got that Dallas for seven. Bobby, you took Colorado in seven. Tim, you took Colorado in five. Then we have Jets, St. Louis. That went seven. We all took, oh, you guys took the Jets. I took St. Louis in six. So Bobby and Tim, oh, no, Tim, you took the Jets in seven. Bobby took them in five. Tony took them in six. Vegas, Minnesota. Minnesota lost in six. We all took Vegas.
[00:02:21] Tim and Bob got it right. Six points. Six games, rather. Me and Tony, five games. Toronto beat Ottawa in six. Tim had Toronto in seven. Bob had Toronto in six. Tony had Ottawa in seven. I had Toronto in seven. Caps and Habs, that went five. Caps, one. Bobby, caps in five. Tim and Tony, caps in six. I took them in seven. Florida, Tampa Bay. I think we should just skip this one because we all took the Lightning and we all lost.
[00:02:50] And then also there was some other series that I don't really know how it went. But anyway, Bobby has nine points. Tim has six points. And Tony has six points. And I have five points. So I imagine how many points we would have had if we didn't just pick the Devils because we're fans. We all would have had like two more points. We would all be much. Yeah. I'm glad we all did that, though. Oh, sure. You are? Yeah. Because we kind of, we all, you know. None of us can go against the Devils on a playoff pick because then we are going to jinx the team, man. You got to go down with the ship.
[00:03:20] You know what I'm saying? It's like, we were an NHL podcast where we were talking about other teams and stuff. Then maybe I would have been a little bit more thoughtful as far as that series goes. But like you said, it's a devil podcast. Like, this is our favorite team. This is what we do. So, yeah. People aren't tuning in to hear us say they didn't got a chance in hell. I mean, essentially, I think we did say that, especially the podcast before that we did on a Sunday. It was just Tim, Tony, and me. I think Tony and I were very critical of we're not taking New Jersey on this.
[00:03:49] Like, there's just no way. I think I've been even more critical, right, Chris? Like, off the show even about it because, like I said, I'm a devil's homer. But, man, it's... Anybody who listens to us knows that if we do a true analysis, it eventually comes out at some point how we really feel from a hockey standpoint. But then when push came to shove and it was time to pick, we picked with our hearts and that's fine. I'll do that every time. Yeah. Every time. Yeah.
[00:04:15] I think I really, really misestimated that Colorado-Dallas series. Yikes. I didn't. I didn't think Dallas... I know. But, like, Dallas didn't have Haskin in. They didn't have Robertson. Their whole right side of their D is fucking awful. But apparently they weren't. I took the lightning in five over the chimps. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that looks bad. How did I have seven for that, Chris? You had Tampa Bay in seven. All you guys had Tampa Bay in seven. I took them in five.
[00:04:45] Yeah. I think we underestimated the camps there. I should get a point. How about that fucking Winnipeg game last night? Dude, that was awesome. I was just like... I was so... I had, like, the longest freaking week. I mean, I was seriously running on fumes. I still am. Like, everything hurts. Every fucking muscle in my body hurts. I just want to lay down. And that game wouldn't end. And I'm, like, half asleep. And I'm, like, I can't go to bed now. I mean, they pulled it out this far. And then, even though I had St. Louis, I don't like St. Louis.
[00:05:15] I was really hoping that Winnipeg pulled it off. Like, you don't drag your team into double overtime just to blow it like that, you know? How big is that for Hallibuck? He must have been. I mean... And I think he'll be all right moving forward. I think that was, like... Do you guys feel that way? Like, this was that hurdle, right? He had to get over Tomas Hurdle. Which I guess they will. 1.7 seconds makes a difference, though. You know what I'm saying? 1.7 seconds makes a difference on how his... Like, imagine if they wouldn't have scored.
[00:05:44] It would have been a hell of an offseason for him. The shit he would have heard. I mean, he was... There's already memes out. I was already seeing these memes about Hallibuck all over the place, you know? But St. Louis blew it. Yeah. All they had to do was tie the puck up in the corner. That's all they had to do. Just don't play the goddamn puck. You take a page out of the Florida Panthers book. How many games last year in the playoffs did they just run off 30 seconds by... You just eat it. Eating it. St. Louis is thinking the same thing in their cars right now, heading out of it. I mean, man.
[00:06:12] I mean, a guy that we should look at in free agency is Nick Ehlers. Like, that play he made at the blue line on the tying goal was insane. Like, the balls he had to throw that cross to Connor. I was yelling at the TV. I'm like, what are you fucking doing? Shoot it, man. And Connor got a decent amount on that from the angle that he was at and the stance he was in. Like, I couldn't believe... And then you recover from when he lost the puck out of the zone before that, too. Yeah. You know, he recovered really nice.
[00:06:42] He went from, like, fumble-fucking the puck. Like, Andy whiffed on his first original shot. Like, that was a hell of a play by Lowry to get the puck back to him at the point. I couldn't believe that happened. That's fucking crazy. Yeah, it was crazy. It was a lot of fun. So, I'm now officially on the... I want Winnipeg to win the Stanley Cup. So, that's my train right now. I want Winnipeg, Florida. And I want Paul Maurice to, like, constantly give his ex-girlfriend the eye with the new girlfriend. Like, constantly, like, you know, I kill still kind of like you.
[00:07:12] But, you know, that kind of thing. That's what I want. Florida wins. Did you guys see the crowd outside the arena? I mean, the crowd is insane. I mean... Do we get that? It was, like, the whole city. Yeah, but the devil... Like, they always show it. But I've never seen it with us. Like, do they show... Like, is there a contingent of devil fans that hang out outside the Rock to watch these games? I don't know. I think there are a lot of people that like American Whiskey. There's, like... They have a third floor. Yeah, they do reds and American Whiskey and such. And, you know, the road will be full. They show them?
[00:07:42] Do they show them? I don't think that there are a lot... I mean, I think that's a lot of pre-gaming. I don't know if a lot of people actually... I think Chris is right. I know I see reds outside of reds before the games. But the last time I think I saw a devil's crowd was, like, when Hughes got drafted. There's no, like, broadcast feed in a place like that. You know? Like, there's a square in Toronto where they do it. Winnipeg. All 500 people that live there, like, gather in that little... Why do you got to go and take a drive-by on Winnipeg? Because. It sucks. I guarantee if... It looks like a movie set. It's like a tiny little street.
[00:08:11] Like, what the fuck is that place? If we did a long run and we're going deep in the playoffs... I'm kidding. I guarantee people are up there in Newark watching from the bars, too, and they can't afford tickets. Like, if we're in the Stanley Cup Finals, I guarantee Edison Avenue would be completely full. And so would the building during the finals. If I had to choose... I would go up there just to drink there and hang out with everybody, dude. If I couldn't afford a ticket. We all know I probably couldn't afford that ticket. You'd go to Newark, New Jersey? Yeah. That's where my team plays, dude. You know, and I think back from...
[00:08:38] If you go back to, like, 94, 95, like, the Devils do have such a larger fan base now. Like, it just seems like it's grown. I mean, there was, you know... There was a lot of Devils fans back then, but now I just... It just seems like it's big, so I do think people would still come out. There's still people paying for tickets at the end of the... You know, those last... Think about it. If you're... What do you pay for the... Bobby, in Jersey, what are you paying for the average ticket? Now, I know when I was in Tampa, it was me, my two kids, and my wife, and we paid, like, $400 for a decision.
[00:09:05] Well, they have the tiered pricing, depending on the event, the team. Like, opening day is always higher priced because it's opening day. So, I mean, even the nosebleeds were up over $100. Ah, so, I mean... But you average around $60 to $70 for a ticket. Yeah. That's about average. It's expensive, man. But, like... Yeah, I mean, I like the old arena better just for the tailgating aspect. Well, we've talked about that a million times, but... What the hell? I had a point, and I don't remember it.
[00:09:33] Yeah, but, like, to Tim's point, when he cracked at me from going up there, like, seriously, if the Devils were in a Game 7 Stanley Cup final right now, they got 50-50 chances of taking that cup home, and you can't get tickets, you wouldn't entertain maybe going up there and just hanging out with the crowd? Oh, I would. I would definitely do that. Of course, I remember... I'm just kidding. I'm being a Chris outside for Billy Joel tickets on the line. Of course, I would. I've sat outside for a lot of tickets. In 2001, Bob and I were, after Game 6, were on the computer looking at tickets for Game 7 in Colorado to head out there to go watch that. And it was out of our price range while we were looking.
[00:10:03] Yeah. You know, I would have loved to have made that trip. Well, in retrospect, no, I wouldn't know. Yeah, good thing. It would have been fun. It would have been fun. So, we have round two coming up. We also have... Tim, do you want to go over a little bit of the kind of grading thing that we did and have these guys kind of hop in? So, I figured a useful exercise would be that now that we've kind of taken a step back and a little less kind of emotional about it was to go through and kind of give everybody a letter grade.
[00:10:33] How they did, management, you know, down to everybody on the team. One quick thing, the Ravens just released Justin Tucker, by the way. Oh, good. How about having a moral compass on a football team? Didn't see that coming. Hope the Raiders play them this year. The only team we could beat. We drafted a kicker in, like, the sixth round or something like that. It was, like, his, like, percentage was, like, 50% or something ridiculous. I'm so curious about... I mean, not to, like, get off on a football or a tangent, but I'm so curious...
[00:11:01] Baltimore is one of those teams, the Ravens, that do interest me a lot this year. Like, I'm just... If they can keep it together, where if Derrick Henry doesn't kind of have a slide backwards... Because, I mean, we all need to keep in mind that the guy's old. I mean, and he's a running back. Well, for a running back, he's old. Well, when running backs fall off a cliff, it seems to just happen, like, overnight. Yes. So, I'm real curious about that. I love what they did on the defensive side.
[00:11:30] I love this kid, Starks, and I think Starks and Hamilton are going to be amazing together. You still have Lamar, but I would say Lamar Jackson probably has the most pressure on him out of any quarterback in the league this year, going into this year. Him and Josh Allen. They need to get over that hump, man. Like, it's just, you know, they get to that same, you know, first, second round of the playoffs. Well, they're always going to. They run into the Bills, run into the Chiefs, and, you know, they shoot themselves in the foot. It's been year after year.
[00:11:58] They're something that they've done to themselves. You know what, Tim? They always compete. I will say that, but I can't stand the Ravens. But, man, they're always, like, up there. They're never, like, with five weeks left, they're never not going to make the playoffs, it feels like. You know, no matter who was that quarterback. They're a well-run organization. They have good scouting. They have very stable, good management. I think they have a good organizational philosophy. Maybe you shouldn't hire so many murderers and kind of bad guys, but, you know. It's football.
[00:12:28] Your standard for that is a little bit lower, I would say. That Shannon Sharp thing is crazy. I mean, I really hope that it's not true. I like Shannon Sharp. But some woman came out and accused him of rape. I thought that was not even on my radar. Yeah, it was, like, I think, rape and other physical abuse and shit. So, I mean, yeah, yeah, it's a really, really bad look.
[00:12:57] I mean, this dude has never been in any trouble. Like, Shannon Sharp, to me, always just seemed like a stand-up dude. And, yeah, I mean, it's true. If it could make a gun, then look at OJ. Watch Naked Gun, then you go look at OJ. Dude, they remade Naked Gun. Have you guys seen this trailer yet? Yeah, with Liam Neeson. Okay. I don't know how I feel about this. I really don't. I mean, I think, yeah. I thought the trailer looks promising. It's Seth MacFarlane, who I'm a fan of. Right, yeah. I think you and I talked about this, too.
[00:13:26] Yeah, and it looks like I will give it some rope. Like, I'm not going to be an immediate curmudgeon and be like, why are we making that? Because it could be fucking hysterical. But it could also be just absolute bag of trash. I'm going to try to approach it with an open mind. I am, too. Because I like Seth MacFarlane. I like a lot of the people in the movie. But at the same time, like, and I think I even said this when I saw the trailer.
[00:13:52] Or to you, Tim, like, I have such a special place in my heart for the Naked Guns, the Airplanes, the Top Seagull, all the Zucker Brothers films. You know, they're brilliant. Bobby, you feel the exact same way. Absolutely. So, like, to remake it, are you going to be able to, first of all, keep it as funny as the original without repeating the same jokes? Because even by Naked Gun 33 and a third, like, they're repeating jokes. Like, it got to a point where there just wasn't enough funny shit that you can keep doing, you know?
[00:14:20] The frequency and the rapid fire ability of them to just pop in a joke every 30 fucking seconds is unmanent. And even at 49 years old, I sit down, like, I'll watch Airplane. I'll watch whatever it's on, Naked Guns. And I crack up. My wife looks at me like I'm fucking insane. She's like, how many times have you seen this movie? Airplane? Probably got to be in the hundreds by now. And you still laugh because it's still freaking funny. And, you know, you know every line, but yet you can't stop fucking laughing.
[00:14:49] It's one of the greatest movies. I won't go see the remake, though, because I won't even – like, Chris brought up something about a year ago. And I was thinking about this because I was talking about this movie with my wife the other day. Like, I won't see the remake. I don't like remakes. And then we're talking about Clerks 3 one time, Chris. And I won't watch it, man. I won't watch it because I love the first two. I just think that's not what you do with that movie, man. I've heard how it ends. I'm like, dude, you just can't do that. Like, that's not what I wanted to do.
[00:15:17] I get what you're saying about it, but the movie itself – like, Kevin Smith did a great job. Like, he did such a good job with finishing that story. You know, he just – he finished it, and it was great. Bobby, what were you going to say? Well, just on Clerks real quick, Derek had sent me, like, the trailer for it or something. We were out running about, and I'm looking at it. I'm like, oh, that's who I started announcing. It's like they were going to make Clerks 3. I didn't even fucking know they did it, dude. So I was like, oh, I'm so excited. I can't wait to watch this. So, yeah, I got to find that one. You got to catch up, huh?
[00:15:47] Yeah. No, what I was going to say about the Naked Gun movies – I told this story before on here probably a couple years ago, though. It's just – they were so funny. I'm guessing it was the second one. It was me, Chris, and his dad. We went to the movie to see it. It might have been the first one. And, you know, the opening scene where the police car is just driving through the siren's on. It's like hitting everything. Like, it's funny. But it wasn't, like, crazy funny. But Chris's dad couldn't stop, like, laughing. Like, the most big, grunty laugh ever.
[00:16:17] I don't remember that. It's funny, dude. He was laughing. It was funny. But he was so – it was so funny to him. Now you're laughing. And this – it just started from that moment. Like, the entire thing was just laughter. The fire hydrants and shit. Yeah. Yeah, and then he goes through the women's locker room. She pulls the dog off the curb. I've got to rewatch that. I've got to go watch it now, guys. I'm on air. So now – okay. So this is giving me my idea now. I just thought of for our snake draft to think about it.
[00:16:46] And we'll do for next time. But best 80s comedy movies. Oh. That's a good one. Yeah. That's a good one. Okay. All right. So let's get back to the ranking. Yeah, so that's the reason people generally listen to us and fucking talk about stupid shit. So this list, before you go into it, is quite long and extensive. And I can see how each one is going to be a conversation. We might want to segment this. I think that's a good idea.
[00:17:14] Like coaching and forwards and then defense or something like that. Because this is well over an hour right here. We can – You wrote the Bible, didn't you, Tim, over there? I like it to talk. You know, I talk – No, he did good. But each of us, to grade them, we're going to probably explain why. And I could just see it going for a while. Do you have mine on there, Tim, or do I have to pull those up? I don't. Well, I don't get the Pucker email. Oh, you don't get the email? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm just a lowly employee here. All right. So go ahead. Tim, get that.
[00:17:44] You start, Timmy. And I'll just write what I wrote. Yeah. So overall, team grade, I gave them a B minus. Started out great, you know, first three months. And the analogy I use is like a college freshman who discovered weed and booze midyear. You know, they got an A on their first test, a D on the midterm, and a C plus on the final. They barely just kind of squeaked through. They kind of figured out how to just get to the end of it.
[00:18:13] But overall, it's somewhat disappointing, but kind of understandable. All right. So I wrote, it's hard to quantify an accurate team rating when we rarely saw the team as it was intended. I will give two grades when healthy, a B plus, post injuries and into the playoffs, C minus. That's where I am on team. So what about you guys? Well, I think now that it's come to light a little bit more of the injury situation,
[00:18:41] I'm going to be a little more lenient than I was probably originally going for. I love him's analogy on that, too, with someone discovering booze in college. It totally makes sense. You know, they were hurt. They were banged up at the same time. Like half of that team was just ass. So I think I'm going to stick exactly with the B minus that Tim gave. Don't. I'm going to go see, I think. Okay. Because I just, it was a disappointing season.
[00:19:10] It started out good, but fell apart injuries. That's why I think if you don't have the injuries, you have to give it like even less maybe because it was, it was a tough, it was kind of a bummer of a year, man. Going up from management to me to the, what happened on the ice, you know, the whole experience was kind of, it wasn't a fun season, which is weird. Because at first it started out like, well, they were, they were gangbusters. You know, you're like, holy shit, man, this is going to be. And then it just, I don't know. It's a lot of disappointments.
[00:19:35] A lot of not excited, a lot of bad losses too this year against teams that you weren't supposed to lose against. You know, so. They need to get over that. That's happened two years in a row where they've, they've walked into some, slept, walked into some, some teams where they just should have kicked the shit out of them and just inexplicably lost. Plus underachievers, right? If you take that and put it into the number, I think it turns to a C because you have so many guys on that team this year that just, now you're left scratching your head like, well, is this guy done now? I mean, I don't know.
[00:20:04] It's a lot of question marks after this year. A lot of question marks. Yeah. So I say C. All right. Next, we've talked enough about fits. We don't need to give them a grade, but I have it in here. Coaching. I gave Keith a B plus. I think with the tools and toys that he was given, I think he did about as well as he could have. A couple in the injuries. I don't necessarily like a lot of his systems. And I do think for a coach, you know, a second year is probably the most important year.
[00:20:34] We kind of talked about that a little bit. And with, with Colleton, I gave him an A. You know, special teams carried this team all year long. You know, the power play was top five almost the entire year. You know, tape to tape and, and the penalty kill was really good. It was probably more, more of the other guys, but. So what do you give them? I gave Fitz a B plus, or sorry, Keith a B plus. Fitz, I did not give a B plus. All right. Keith, I gave a B plus. Colleton and A.
[00:21:01] So I have, for Keith, I wrote, but one thing Fitz did nail was the hiring of Sheldon Keefe. Coming into a team with a solid core and a lot of new faces and expectations can be difficult. Keefe got a pulse of the team early and rarely failed when adjusting different line combos. The emergence of Jack Hughes as a legitimate two-way player and his defensive style hit a lot of warts that the Devils had, especially in the bottom six. I give Sheldon Keefe an A minus. Okay. All right.
[00:21:29] I think I'm just going to level off at a straight B for Keefe. I mean, I know that he did a lot of great things and most of the buttons he pushed were great or did, did work. And I think that if we even had at the least like a healthy Jack throughout the year, I'm probably definitely bringing that up because of what you just mentioned, Chris, about the type of game he was able to get out of a guy like Jack Hughes. But I just felt somewhere towards the end there, there wasn't enough change to realize we're not winning this way. You know, the whole end of the season and even the playoffs, I know it's tough to do.
[00:21:59] And I don't think a B is any indictment that he sucked. I think it's still a really good grade for a first year coach on the team. So I think that's fair for me, just a straight B. Yeah, I'm going to go with a B too because I, you know, a lot of injuries. So I'm going to give him that credit. I do like him, but, you know, nothing's proven really because it wasn't a, you know, it wasn't a great year. But like I said, injuries, I think a B because I think he is a good coach and I think he's good for the Devils. So I think it's a good change from last year. So.
[00:22:29] Okay. What do we got next? Next, we just do the whole forward group. You know, we are going to go through and give everybody an individual grade. But I think that it's kind of a tale of two halves, basically, you know, the top end of the forward group, I think was really good. Probably B plus level B injuries obviously affected that. But, you know, the progress Jack made defensively was pretty incredible. Nico took another step. Brad took another step. Definitely want more from Timo in the regular season next year.
[00:22:59] I would love to see him be steady and be on pace. I think hopefully they realize they need Timo on power play one. I don't care if you have to put Brad on power play two. But then the rest of them, fucking dog shit. The bottom six is just trash all fucking year. And that was our downfall. That's what sunk us. And then when injuries happened, those guys got elevated rolls and they did even worse. Like our scoring depth and our offensive depth was just absolutely awful.
[00:23:28] And those guys could barely even hold their own ice defensively. Yeah, I pretty much had the same things that, you know, I wrote that I believe most of the pieces are in place. I like the blend of speed, skill and size. Top guys did it again. The top guys did a good job of covering up the holes in the bottom of the lineup. But more is required. I give it a B minus. I give it a C plus, by the way. That was my grade. Straight C for me. It just that's the easiest math. It was two completely different sets of good.
[00:23:58] The forward group, good. You know, upper group, good. Lower group, bad. I don't know where else to put it there. We can get into specifics, like you said, like guys like Timo and stuff. And it's also like this weird blend when I think back of the year, because in the beginning of the year when there was a lot of success, you did have a guy like Mason who was stationary on the third line. So in my memory, that was a powerful thing to have him doing that. But then if I really look back, I'm sure that majority of his points came on the power play. Didn't really have anything to do with that lineup.
[00:24:28] So you're just very dismal bottom six. So the best I could do is give a C. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to go probably a C plus, I think. Okay. You know, we have, I think, Chris, you might have mentioned this last show too. Bobby made a great point early this year that the Devils are going to need to make a big move. Like some trade, you know, there's going to have to be some kind of transaction this offseason, you know,
[00:24:54] trading away some guys to get something else, I think, to really improve this team. So, you know, Tone, I want to actually just, let's just hold up on the rest of the grades real quick. So I just want to run something by you because there's all this talk now about Quinn. And I don't know how real this team is going to get over the summer. I would assume it's probably going to get real, especially if Quinn Hughes does say he wants to come or Jack comes up and calls Fitz and says, how can we get my brother here?
[00:25:23] So let's say that this is real. And Bobby, you've been talking about it for years. A big hockey move. In my opinion, there are only three guys on this team that when you're talking about acquiring a player of Quinn Hughes's stature, there are only three players on this team, in my opinion, that are safe. And I'm not talking Markstrom. I'm not talking the goaltending.
[00:25:48] I'm talking three players and it's Luke, it's Jack, and it's Nico when it comes to Quinn. Am I wrong about that? Or is anybody else 100% safe? Everyone else is fair game, right? I think so, yeah. I think Brad's fair game, I kind of see him leaning more towards the four guys that won't leave only because of the contract and stuff. But he could go. Yeah, I mean – You're saying Brad would be the fourth guy? I think if there was a fourth guy that wouldn't get moved, it would be Brad maybe. But the problem is, as we look, you've got a gift to get.
[00:26:17] You've got a gift to get. So you're going to have to give up big draft picks probably. You're going to have to give up a Mercer. I mean, you're going to have to give up some stuff because nothing is free, especially – But, man, imagine – First of all, like we said, imagine having those three on the same team. And for everybody, for the organization, it's huge. The marketing thing they could do with him. I mean, I don't know. I think that they – And he's one of the best players in the world, which is – Tim, you thought he was the best, right? Not the best in the world, but the best in his position. I think he's the best defenseman in the league. Yeah.
[00:26:48] I think he will be for a couple of years. Yeah, we talked about this on Sunday. Yeah, I listened to the show, and I thought it was a really great conversation. I remember, I think, was it Chris? When he brought up the point, you know, is the team going to become too Hughes-centric? Is that going to be kind of a problem? And I honestly don't think so for several reasons. I think, number one, because those three guys, they just – you know, they're on a good level. You know what I mean? They're not about that.
[00:27:14] But more than anything, you're talking about a Norris trophy-winning defenseman. I don't care what his last name is. You plug him in, you've just gotten that much better. You're now – your number one defenseman has just been slotted down, which is incredible. I would definitely entertain it without worrying that it's going to be Hughes-centric. It's not going to bruise Nico Heischer's ego. That guy's a warrior now. He is the team.
[00:27:42] Just, you know, Luke's going to become what he's going to become. I've said it before, and it wasn't my quote. It was Scout's quotes that he may, at the end of the day, wind up being the best of the three of them. Remains to be seen. It's a lot of – it's a large shoe to fill, right? But it's possible, which means if you have that kind of talent between the three of them, it would be amazing. And if you think about it, so Quinn probably – he's playing about 25 minutes a night, and Luke would probably be about 20 minutes a night.
[00:28:11] That's 45 of 60 minutes. Basically, one of those guys is on the ice every single time. And then Jack is basically on the ice the entire time with either one of them. And so that's just – that's going to be hard to stop. You know, Quinn really functions really well with the high-end forwards, kind of like McCarr and McKinnon. They try to match the matchup there ice time. So I was thinking about it a little bit. You know, the only issue is stepping on toes on the power play, and who gives a fuck about that?
[00:28:40] Well, I mean, I know a shit about it, but, like, you know, I don't think Luke should really care that Quinn's going to take over power play one. And, I mean, I would not have thought before this conversation became, you know, what it is – I would not have thought a defenseman would even be in the market. You know what I mean? Like, I would say, okay, we're going to need to help up front, not to – but I cannot just stop salivating over the idea of Quinn Hughes being on the team. I've always thought it was going to happen. Exactly, bro. Exactly.
[00:29:09] But I figured it's Quinn who – he moved up the timeline. I don't know what he's going on over here. Quinn's going to want to move up the timeline because otherwise he'll be a free agent in a couple years. That would have been an easy get for New Jersey. Right. Now, if – and whether or not – I don't know how deep you've got to read into these conversations. It's out there, and it's already known. So, like, the wheels can be in motion. So he pushed it up. Do I think that we can realistically pull off what we have to give to get him? Yes.
[00:29:39] Are they going to want to? I don't know. But even if nothing else happens, I think he signs here in two years. Yeah, I agree. I think so too. Quinn doesn't have any – doesn't have any trade protection. He doesn't have, like, a no-move clause or a no-trade clause. So we kind of – because they could really fuck him over if, like, they want to. I don't think they would do that to him. Yeah. So they could theoretically trade him to, like, San Jose and just be like, fuck you, pal. But I don't think they would do that.
[00:30:07] It also depends on what Vancouver wants. Like, I'd give up every draft pick in the next two drafts for Quinn. Like, tomorrow. I think it's going to happen this summer. I really do. I think it's going to happen. I kind of feel with you there, Chris, too. But, and Tim, to that point, like, what you would give up in the draft picks. Like, think about this for a second. If we legitimately got him, I don't see a hole in our defense for, like, the next six years. You don't have to worry about it anymore. Right. It is what it is.
[00:30:37] It's solid. And now you take it with the rest of the lineup. And that defense, Jesus, with the kids coming up, too. I mean, I don't want to talk about that. Yeah. Quinn, Luke, Salayev, left side. Yeah. Well, Sieg's is still there. And Salayev kind of eventually takes over for Sieg's. You know, I imagine then you can move Dougie out for Peanuts. And, you know. Still got Pesci. Still got Pesci. Still got Kovacevic. And Nemec. You know, that's unbelievable. Yeah, it would be. And so, anyway, go ahead.
[00:31:06] No, I agree. I mean, I think that you have to. And I think Jim Rutherford only brought this thing up. I think to kind of prepare the Vancouver fan base. That this guy's not going to be here long. Like, we've already lost. Besser's already out the door. We know he signed him probably with either the Rangers or Minnesota. You know, Miller's already gone. They don't know what's going on with Demko. And then now Quinn, you know you're going to lose him in two years.
[00:31:35] So, like you said, Bob, there's no doubt. If Luke is locked up in Jersey and Jack's locked up in Jersey, Quinn's coming to Jersey in two years. Now, if you're Vancouver, the guy's a perennial Norris Trophy candidate. His trade value is never going to be higher. You've got to move him now. In my opinion, if you're Vancouver and you're saying, okay, we're going to make that decision. We have to rebuild. Tockett's gone. I mentioned all the other guys that are gone. You're going to build around Patterson?
[00:32:04] Maybe Patterson and Bratt. Maybe that works. Maybe you can do something with that. But you have to get legitimate players right now on this team. And what better way to do it? But they maybe want to tear it all down and rebuild. And that's why I brought up all the draft picks. Because it's like, you know, the next, you know, 26, 27, 28 first rounders. Good. I don't care. It shouldn't be that high anyway. Yeah, exactly. We're in a win now window. You know, like right now,
[00:32:31] like we need to maximize every single year under this window that we have. If we do send out Bratt, we need to bring in a corresponding player or players that kind of sit pretty well with him. Like, you know, like a Nick Ehlers or even give Mitch Marner a sniff, even though I don't know if that would necessarily work with the amount of money that he would command. But you bring in like a Nick Ehlers and a McCann, like that would be, that would be perfect. Yeah. All right.
[00:33:01] But anyway, that brings us to the, to the decor. So I gave them a B plus. You know, we're not going to go through the players. Oh, you want to do each individual? I was just wondering, like, are we going to do that? Or do you just want to skip the players? We can, we, you know, if people want to read it, they can. Okay. Let's do that. I mean, I could do, I could, we can, we can pick like the best and the worst. If we want. I, okay. I mean, if you want to do that. We can do the individuals on another show, we can do whatever. It's going quicker than I thought personally. Okay. All right. All right. Then let's let,
[00:33:30] then we could go through the, the forwards quickly and individually. Nico gave, Nico gave an A plus heart and soul of this team leader. PK one power play one hardest matchups, most defensive zone start times in the league, most face offs in the league guys, a fucking warrior. And he's, he's gotten bigger. This, this national narrative that he's somehow a small players. Bullshit. I wrote, Oh, captain, my captain. If Jack Hughes is the heart of the devils and Nico, he sure is the soul. He is one of the best face off and two way forwards in the game. He's grown in the leader. We all hoped he would become,
[00:33:59] he's a solid day. Nothing else I could say about Nico. I fucking love him. Yeah. Can't change anything you guys said there. Don't even have to think. It's just instinctually an A. Same. Uh, Brett, I gave an A, took another step. Um, you know, regular season set a new career high single season record for assists. Uh, it's huge. Would have loved to see a little bit more production from him, uh, during the playoffs, but I think he actually played pretty well. Um, I know that's kind of, you know, a hollow statement, but I think he actually,
[00:34:29] uh, you know, was effective except for the power play. And I think that's what affected his production, the power play going cold. He was partially responsible for that. Um, but I gave him an A. Jelly to Jack's peanut butter. Brad has shown his willingness to do all that is required to become a better player each and every year. He was top in the NHL and assist this year and is always one of the best pure skaters on the ice. The sky's the limit for Jesper Brett. He's a B. So here's the problem with me and Jesper Brett.
[00:34:58] I'm sitting here trying to find justification to lower the grade. And I'm not really finding it other than slowing down a little bit at the end of the year in the playoffs. But we know it, but we look at the whole body of work. I can't just focus in on a few weeks because what he's done is it's worthy of an A. He's that's where he is now. I think Jesper Brett has a work ethic. He gets better every year. Um, like I want to nitpick you a minus cause of this and that, but I just can't do it. So I'm going to say a also,
[00:35:28] he's it's sometimes like, you know, like I said, it's sometimes you forget, forget what he's even doing out there to see the stats the next day. Yeah. He's quiet. Yeah. He's a quiet. He's, but he's, I see no reason not to give him an A to be honest. Okay. All right. Jack, I gave an incomplete to got hurt. Need this kid to be healthy. Um, Timo, I gave a C plus to, um, you know, the joke about, you know, setting his calendar to March, you know, he, he made back up some of that. Originally,
[00:35:57] I was going to give him like a D, um, um, but you know, he needs to be on that first power play to really kind of pump in the goals. Um, he was a minister in the playoffs. I think he was our best player in the playoffs. So C plus though, again, like Bobby said, looking at the whole body of work, she's, you know, tape, tape. I wrote, I'm so torn on Meyer. I like his game once winter ends, but he's yet to show the playoff fire, the, that playoff fire during the regular year, regular season. I love playoff Timo for the contract. He needs to be that guy starting in November.
[00:36:27] I too gave him a C plus. I can't figure out him anymore. Um, I'm still in love with the idea of the Timo Meyer. I thought we were getting, and frankly, I mean, I'm disappointed. Not on the guy. He seems like a great guy and he got a great March and yeah, he could be a playoff menace, but I don't think he's performing anywhere near expectations of his skill level or his contract. So I can't go any higher than a C and he's lucky he got that. Okay.
[00:36:57] Take that Timo. Yeah. What are you going to do about it? Millionaire. You're a fucking nice turtleneck. Wipe his ass with his $9 million a year. Oh, is that a hundred? I'm going to say B. I'm going to say, you know, I'm going to say B plus cause he was really nice to my kids this year. There you go. There you go. That's a great reason. I like it. Dawson. I gave him a C. Um, yeah, I think he kind of flatlined a little bit year over year. You know, I don't think we're ever going to see him get back to that,
[00:37:28] that high twenties goal production. That was a bit of a fluke, I think in my mind, but there's something to be said for his versatility, his iron man streak, it's power play penalty kill, um, could play up and down the lineup, multiple positions. That is a valuable thing to have in our toolbox. I've softened on my criticism of him a little bit. I think he had a pretty good playoff, but I gave him a flat C. All right. I gave Mercer a C plus. And what I said was, I think it's safe to say that Mercer's career year, two seasons ago was an outlier. He's a third line guy that can kill penalties.
[00:37:58] He plays with heart and has no problem getting into the dirty areas to create offense. The problem is that when he gets there, he's usually bullied off of his spot. Mercer has the intangibles to be a Sergey Breland type of player. Someone get this dude, a membership to LA fitness C plus that's my Dawson Mercer. I think that, um, yeah, I think he did overperform two years ago so we can reset the bar as to what he is. And if he's playing in the right role, I think he's extremely valuable, especially for, you know,
[00:38:28] contract ratio to what he brings to the team. Um, and as just as a hockey player, I'm teeter on the B minus to C plus, but you just sold me on C plus because the guy just gets pushed off. Everything's too much. So I'll go with C plus this year, but I think he's going to be a B player. If we all stop thinking that Dawson Mercer is our, you know, our second line right wing or something. Right. I'm going to give him a B and the only reason I'm not giving him a C plus is because the guy doesn't miss a game. And you know,
[00:38:58] I, this is what I think he is though. I don't think there is, this is who I think Mercer is. And so I think he'll always be, um, this is the kind of player he is. I don't think we're going to, it's not going to burst into being a superstar one day. I don't know. I don't think that you need players like him at his price. Doing the role. Never misses a game. 4 million, 4 million a year is not a lot to, for, for his level of production. It's hockey smart. I mean, if you, if, if they could figure out a couple of guys in the top six,
[00:39:26] like we talk about a winger for Jack and everything, and we can build that bottom six around Nason, Cotter, um, Mercer and glass dependent. We're just saying they're, they're all going to stick around. Uh, I think you have something there. If you can fix that top, you know, get somebody to play with Jack. I think you can work around those. Those guys I think are good foundations for a bottom six. The problem was, like you said before, Bob, nation plot, all these guys playing the top lines, Mercer playing on every line.
[00:39:56] Like if we know, and we have the guy slotted where they need to be, those guys can be valuable where, where they're at. Yeah. We, I think we touched on this earlier this year is is Mercer kind of felt a little bit of role lists in five on five. Like what lines he played on? What's his position, you know? And he kind of took it like a trooper, you know, up and down, left and right. Um, I still think he's, you know, just not going to be that guy. And it's unfortunate that we built him up in our minds to want to be that some guys like Bob said,
[00:40:25] I think we just need to dispel that notion that he's just not going to be that guy. Um, I'm going to lump two guys together, uh, just to kind of speed this up a little bit, uh, Hala and plot. Um, I gave them both these. I think they were kind of the primary reasons why our offense was really dried up. I've said this before about the three C. I think that is one of the most important positions on a hockey team should be taking a lot of pressure off of Nico. Um, whether that's defense, his own draws, penalty killing, um,
[00:40:54] hard matchups against their best offensive lines. We could not rely on hollow to do that. So that's why I give him a D plot was a disaster all season. He showed up in the playoffs. That's great. That's the only reason he's above an F. Um, but I think they are two of the veterans that we counted on that, that unfortunately were, were kind of part of the reason why our offense drove, drove dried up. Thousand percent. Right. And I gave both of those guys D pluses and I'm going to lump another guy in too. So a Palat, I wrote a big contract for a guy whose best days are clearly behind him.
[00:41:24] I have two grades for plot. Playoff plot was a B plus regular season D plus Hala. I wrote, I hear he's good in the dressing room D plus, and then I'll throw Tatar. Then, then I'll throw Tatar in. And I just wrote, I wish him well in his future endeavors. That's all I got for those guys. For Tatar, I wrote D plus and I said, enjoy Europe. Yeah. There you go. I'm going to expand upon your additional person. I'm going to throw Lazar in my group too,
[00:41:51] because I'm just giving them all these as in these guys sucked. And I don't want to see them anymore. Well, the derivative of the D's nuts joke. Exactly. With Lazar, I wrote, he has a nice smile and seems like a sweetheart F. Tony, what do you get? What do you give our collection of veteran presence? His R was nice to my cousin. In France. So I'm going to give him an A.
[00:42:20] He gave me a reach around once at a bar. Oh, then he would get an A. They're harsh. I'm going to say, how could you not say D? I guess it's hard to heart to even get up to a C on the whole situation this year, thinking about that group. So, you know, Palat with his, the contract makes it worse. If he had a really, you know, really low salary, you wouldn't care as much, but, I don't know.
[00:42:47] The only thing is that contract's getting smaller in retrospect to other contracts. Sure. And it still sucks. Yeah. Like, it just does. Yeah. I mean, and, and those three guys, Tatar, Hala, Palat, that's $10 million. That would be much better spent elsewhere. Well, we might as well do that with a military parade. We might as well do Bastion. We might as well do Bastion in this too. Oh, yeah. This is my favorite, uh, my favorite comment. All,
[00:43:16] all I wrote for Bastion was this fucking guy. D minus. Okay. So what I wrote, uh, Nate Bastion, he'll always be remembered by fans for, wait, I got something here. He, um, yeah, I got nothing. F that's, that's my Nate Bastion write up. I love it. I love it. I'm just going to lump him in the D's group because I, they were all just interchangeable suck. So just be part of that group. That's a description that interchangeable suck.
[00:43:45] It's actually a good band name. Tony. There you go. Good porn name. Ah, Tony. You guys seen that movie on X, X, X, I'm going to say D too. I mean, you know what I, what I liked about Bastion back in the day was when he used to fight and he was a feistier player. And just now it's just, don't even notice him out there back in the day. You know, you felt like he made a little bit of a difference. Yeah. There's no, before we go any further, we got to give a little shout out to our hockey podcast network sponsors. The NBA 82 game grind is done.
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[00:45:12] The crown is yours. Who's next? All right. Next. I got Paul Cotter. That was so too. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Who next? Well, exactly. Paul Cotter started off camera shot out of a cannon. Generally a pretty inconsistent offensive season, but he was a menace man. Set a new, new team record for, for hits. I think he's a great fit for the bottom six.
[00:45:42] He's still very young. And his highlight reel. We've talked about this before is just outrageous. Good bottom six guy, 15 to 20 goals, 250 plus hits. Take it any day. Wish you didn't have a fucking potato for hockey sense, but you know, I gave him, I gave him a B plus. All right. I'm very similar to what I wrote. I said, freaking guy's a hitting machine. And is there a fourth liner in the league with better hands? I just want to see more consistency between him and nation. The devils have a solid bottom six foundation to add to see.
[00:46:13] I just still like the guy. I think it's going to be, it's going to take a while for me to ever come off like the B that I want to give him. I just, I like what he brings in the right role for sure. And just kind of overall happy with him. Can't figure him out either. Don't know how you could be that extremely skilled in your hands and not score every day, but whatever. That's, that's his problem. So still a fun hockey player on the fourth line. That's his fucking problem. That's his problem. This fucking guy. That was a problem this year for the whole team. Think about that. Meyer, Brad,
[00:46:43] how many times did they shoot at that net? And it just did not go in this year. You know, I would give him a C too. I'm pretty much agree with what Bobby said. I was, I've been asking. I totally disagree with that. I've been asking all the analytics guys, if they have any sort of chart that maps out where the devils are shooting to, not where they're shooting from, but where they're shooting to, where they're hitting the, where they're missing the net, hitting the posts and hitting the goalies. Cause I swear to God, I think we have a collection of some of the worst fucking shooters on the planet.
[00:47:13] Just accidentally wound up with a bunch of awful fucking shooters. Um, Mason, did we do Mason? No, not yet. No. Okay. Um, he was our worst forward during the playoffs. Absolutely useless. Probably killed about half, probably killed about half of our power play time. Just wrapping the puck down below the net to nobody. Um, but he was a great net front guy, like found himself on the power play. One of our five players that scored over 20 goals. Um,
[00:47:43] need him to slide in that third, fourth line role. And just to be a greasy net front guy in the power play. And I gave him a B minus. Okay. I said what Mason, the prodigal son had returned and he started the season on fire. His production took a huge hit when he sure went out with injury and he never seemed to regain his confidence and touch. I like his character and the edge he brings to the bottom six C plus. Yeah. Um, I think I got to go with a B minus on him. He started off with such a career year. It was a pretty big fall, you know,
[00:48:13] Nico situation excluded, of course, but, um, just something really happened late in the, in the season here where he just seemed like a totally different guy. He was the guy I went on to say earlier in the season where I said, this is one of the guys in the team that won't let us sink that fast in the playoffs. That's how much I thought of his game. And he didn't bring any of that. Yeah. I wonder how much of it too, when it came to the playoff time, where these guys with the way that the season ended with the injuries,
[00:48:42] the way that these guys weren't slotted in any of the right spots. I wonder just how much of them, how much of it was just plain old exhaustion. Like how much of it was just like, you know, trying to do so much more than what you are tasked normally to do with. And these guys had a lot thrown on their plate, the entire decor. Absolutely. But also guys like Nathan and, um, yeah. So I, I think next year, again, another year slot in the right spot with Sheldon Keith system. He'll be fine. Yeah.
[00:49:13] I think he'll be plus, um, you know, I like him. Yeah. You know, he think about it as his career high and goals this year. Yeah. I like, I like it. Yeah. But I, you know, yeah, he just disappeared, but sort of a lot of guys on that team, but I still think that he's got a lot of personality. He's got a lot of personality that devils do need because we've lacked it for the last bunch of what the last like eight years having that kind of personality. So I like having them on there. Uh, you know, I say B plus. Yeah. Okay.
[00:49:43] I was bummed when he went to Carolina. He actually, you know, I remember watching him with Carolina too, being like, damn man, I wish we had him back. That's the problem with Tatar, right? We all kind of were excited about getting him back. Yeah. I wasn't. That was, I was, what the fuck are we doing here? That season before he was good for us. So I was like, okay, cool. Maybe we'll have a little bit of magic, but it was a total dud of a year. Yeah. Yeah. It just didn't replicate, didn't replicate what, what we brought him in here. Yeah. Tony, we shared the same, you know, thought about Mason coming up here and playing that game,
[00:50:13] watching him playing Carolina. The shit of it was he plays that game in Carolina. Then he comes up here for us and he can't play that game against Carolina to help us get past them. Yeah. Really weird situation. Carolina. You think about it. Don't you know something, man? Don't you know how to play against these guys? I forgot to, I forgot to give my grade on Lazar F. He's another one of these, these, the veteran guys are supposed to be the veteran presence. Make us a little bit older, a little bit grittier. I realized it just came out that he had a knee injury that he couldn't walk down the stairs.
[00:50:42] Sorry, buddy. That sucks. Seemed like a nice guy. We'll find someone else to bully Luke. Enjoy your rest of your career. Tim's going to go to a meet and greet and get attacked. Son of a bitch. I heard about what you said on that show. Yeah. Jesus Christ. One of these guys listen to this. Please don't. I'm going to Nancy Kerrigan. You be like, you've got a fucking knee problem. What's the chances that one of three people are going to try to jump Tim? Wouldn't be the first time. Speaking of what you're going to hockey in later. Who else do we have? Oh, I got a McDermott. I mean,
[00:51:12] he didn't play the last quarter of the ice. I realized what he supposedly brings. I just, you know, he's an awful hockey player. I gave an F like if, if Kovacevic and Dylan are going to, are going to fight for us. Like there's no need for this guy to be taking up a roster. I get it. I get the intention of him. I just don't think it's necessary. And I wrote the poster boy for fits over correcting last summer. Maybe he should get into coaching incomplete. On my point. I can't, I can't actually be as harsh with the dude. I'm just going to give him a seat.
[00:51:42] He it's his role. They paid him to come play that game. He's not doing anything wrong. He's just not good at hockey, but that's what they paid for. Yeah, absolutely. So I gave him an incomplete. Incomplete may be a more fair grade. Yeah. He just, he didn't play enough. And again, he was brought in to do something and then he overcorrected, realized we didn't need it. And now the guy sits in the press box. That's exactly what I would say too. So. All right. We have Dowling. We didn't do Dowling. Oh yeah. Dowling. Honestly,
[00:52:12] I'm kind of grading on a curve here because he was an admirable fill in for what he was asked to do. You know, took over Lazar's job as the foresee very unremarkable guy, but worked his bag off. Like I was always impressed watching him. He, he tried, he tried real hard, tried real hard. So I gave him a B. Dowling. I wrote the good little soldier. This dude did everything that was asked of him. He played his ass off for Keith. And even when most nights he was out of his depth, a for effort,
[00:52:41] but a solid C plus. That's what I give Dowling. I'm going to give the kid a B. Like you said, he's it wasn't about the skill. He just shouldn't have been here, but when he was, he gave everything he had. So can't, you know, can't overgrade that. I think it's his effort was worth the B. I'm going to give him a B because he did that. Like Chris, you said, he did everything he was asked to do. That's all you can ask for someone at that level to come up and do. So I think he deserves a B actually. All right. Cody,
[00:53:11] good. Last two forwards are glass and sprung. I didn't do any of the calls or anything that that's not, not necessary. it's glass and sprung. Yeah. I think glass, you know, he'll be a good foresee moving forward. I think showed some early offensive promise. Seemed to integrate into the team, the systems really well. He did cool off. Didn't really put up much in the way of points towards the end of the year or in the playoffs. He didn't really do anything. But I, but I think he, he's a guy we should keep around and could probably be a pretty decent,
[00:53:41] decent player for us. I gave him a B minus. And that's strong. It's wrong. I just gave an incomplete, like confusing usage. Like he was in and out of the lineup. I don't know what they're going to do with him. If they're going to keep them or not. He said he loved Keith best coach he's ever had, but I'd say that too, if I was dying for a new job. Yeah, of course. It's a very similar. I wrote with glass. I said that. I think the devil should lock them up. He solves our three or four C hole another year in the system. And I think we have a serviceable bottom six center to build around.
[00:54:10] I gave him a B sprong. I wrote, is he that big headed bald guy? We picked up at the deadline, right? D that's all I got for him. Glass. I'm first. You're actually third. I'm over you. You're actually over Tim. I'm Tony's not wrong. Tony would you like to go first? I would be going forth. No, go ahead. So,
[00:54:40] yeah, I think that glass is a fine hockey player. I think he's going to need a more established role. I'm kind of grading him on what I feel he will be put more in that position because this year was kind of wacky with him coming in, starting off hot. Everyone's like, Oh my God, glass, this guy can score and well above his head there for a little bit, but I'll give him a B. I think he's a solid hockey player. And, I agree. I really want to see him in a fourth line role with us. I think it'd be an asset. He said that was a shit. Asset. Asset. I'm going to say B.
[00:55:11] I'm going to say B. All that dropping in on me just for, I'm going to say B. I'm telling you, man. I always say, don't get stoned before the show, Tony. As he rips a huge head right as Ken Danico's talking. When I, when I, when I, when I eat some gummies, like, you know, a little while before the show and then halfway, quarter way through the show, it starts kicking. Like I wake up the next morning. I don't remember anything that we talked about. I had to go back and I was like,
[00:55:40] did I say anything really fucking stupid? So I don't remember it. Like talking about your gummy habits, but I'll never say what it was. Bobby made the best thing ever on the show. We got to take it. I did. We, we, we got rid of that though. Only time that we ever had to go back and edit out something. Um, then you were 10 sheets to the fucking wind. That was great. I just watched his face too. I was like, no, he's not. Yeah. Good times. All right.
[00:56:10] So I think we should leave it there. We have to save the defense group of goalies for, for another episode. We never get to our round two predictions either. Okay. So before we wrap up for tonight, all right, we got some, um, yeah, that would be a great condom reading. If you had like what you just said, let's wrap up for tonight. If you guys have commercials, that would be excellent. So let's start with, uh, Toronto and they are playing the Panthers. Yep. Okay.
[00:56:40] Toronto's got home ice. We'll go, Tim, Bob, Tony, and then me. Go ahead, Tim. Okay. Toronto, Florida, right? Toronto, Florida. Oh, I'm not, I'm not making this mistake again. I think Florida takes care of them in seven cats in seven. Bob, literally the words coming out of my mouth. For the same thing.
[00:57:10] I just can't bet against Florida after doing that in the first round. I also don't believe in Leafs. So I'm also going to take Florida. Uh, I'll make it six, six. Yeah. Florida, seven. All right. I'll do it then. I'll take the Leafs. And I'll take them in seven. I know I'm wrong. Cause I think Florida is just too damn good, but I'm going to take the Leafs in, in Craig Berube. We trust. All right. Second round.
[00:57:40] Second Eastern conference series. We have the Carolina fuck a canes against the Capitals. I got the, uh, I'll do the caps in six. I was not impressed with Carolina at all. Like we had no business being in any one of those games. They should have fucking absolutely steamrolled us. The caps have been a little up and down, but they just got produce back. And I think, I think they're ready to start rolling. So I think they may give Carolina one in Carolina, uh, one or two, but, um, I don't,
[00:58:09] I don't see it going longer than six. I hate this one because, um, I really do believe as we've discussed before, even a somewhat healthier team and one or two power play goals. I think that whole series is different. So I wasn't overly impressed with Carolina, but at the same time they do play a style that can suffocate you a little bit. And I, I'm not a huge believer in Washington. So I'm, I'm really torn on where to go with this. I mean, but the bottom line is Carolina will continue to be marginal.
[00:58:38] There'll be a tough team in the regular season. They'll make it to the first round and then they'll get bounced. So I will give it to Washington, but I'll, I'll call it a fight and give it in seven. Okay. Caps in five. I'm with you. I got captain. I was going to say four. Reminds me of Pulp Fiction. Uh, when they're doing the dance. It's like Mr. Vince Vega.
[00:59:09] Yeah. I'm going to go captain five too. I was going to say four, but I think that Carolina, you know, probably will steal one, but fuck the canes. I'm telling going to caps. I think either way, whoever comes out of the other series is going to the final. So, yeah, I kind of felt that with the devils and canes, Chris, what we did last year is we just played, obviously like, I kind of felt like it would go five and I kind of felt like we would win one game. That's kind of what I kind of thought in back of my brain. I was like, you know, you got to at least win one, right? You can't, right.
[00:59:48] Let's hop out West Vegas, golden Knights versus the Edmonton Oilers. This is going to be a really fun series. Timmy, what do you got? I think Vegas is just too structured. I think they're going to steamroll Edmonton. I think it's going to go five. Edmonton has too many questions in gold. They give up so many goddamn odd man rushes. They're going to make David's going to go nuclear in one game, but then the rest of the time, Oh, Vegas is also, I saw a chart the other day where Vegas has been the only team to kind of really be able to neutralize McDavid.
[01:00:18] So I think that happens for four games, one game. He goes apeshit, but Vegas and fun. This will be my reason number 567. Why Bob doesn't know shit about hockey. I'm just going to go have fun with this one. I don't know what it is about Edmonton. I thought their demise was met in the last round and they beat that team. I'm going to take them over Vegas. I'm going to go stupid and say they do it in five. I like it, Bob. Speaking of LA, did you see that Rob Blake stepped down there? No, he did. Yeah. Oh, wow.
[01:00:50] I'm going to go Edmonton in seven. I picked them in the last series and I don't know. I just, I don't think they're going to win the cup this year, but I think they're Vegas is tough. I think they can take them. I think Edmonton is, uh, have proven that they, they are a playoff team. I mean, they, when the playoff start, they're ready. I did not give them a chance against LA. I thought LA was going to roll them in five. I thought LA was going to roll them in five and they ended up coming out,
[01:01:17] but Vegas is really fricking good. They know how to win. I think it's going to be a fun series. I think it's going to go the distance. I'm taking the golden Knights in seven. And that leads us to our Winnipeg jets, Dallas star series. Another one. I'm looking forward to Tim. Who you got? This is going to be a tough series. I think, I think you're right about hell about kind of getting over that psychological hurdle, but I still think Dallas is too deep, man. Their Dallas is so good.
[01:01:46] I think Dallas takes them in six. That's our seven. I think it goes seven stars and seven. I got a big one that goes seven. I don't, I don't know where to go with this. I have lost all faith in, in hella buck now. Plus with these brackets, I mean, my Stanley cup winner at round one, when we discussed was the jet. So am I, I'm torn. If I should stick with that and go or re like, rethink about that. Considering. I cannot stand what hell about doesn't a playoffs. I don't get it.
[01:02:16] When I picked them the first time I said, because I don't think it's a fluke to their presence trophy winners. And I don't think, I think that the playoffs were the fluke for hell about last year. And he proved me like way wrong. If this is who he gets in the playoffs, I want to keep rooting for them, but I don't, I don't see them getting past Dallas with that kind of goaltending performance. I do believe this is going to help hell about kind of be that switch to make them play better, but he's played like way better. And right now I'm not seeing it. So I'll go Dallas. Uh,
[01:02:46] six. Seem confident. And I really want to root for the jets all the way, but go Dallas and seven. Wow. I'm the only one taking the jets. Uh, I just, I think that that was a hurdle that he'll buck needed to get over. And I think now he can, okay. Proved he can get out of a round. It took double overtime at game seven to do it, but he played great in those overtimes. Um, made some beautiful saves. I think the jets are going to start rolling.
[01:03:16] Um, I'm going to take them in six jets. So jets in six. So I got jets, Vegas in the Western conference final and lease caps in the Western conference final. Uh, Timmy, uh, Bobby and Tony all have the Panthers and the Capitals in the Eastern conference final. Tim has the Knights and stars in the West and Bobby and Tony have the Oilers and stars last year, repeat out West. So it looks good.
[01:03:43] Anything else that you guys want to add to before we wrap the show up? No, no, we're good. Um, all right, this was fun. So we did our little gratings. Next time we come back, we're going to do a snake draft of the week. We're going to play W. You know, whose turn is it for W? Yeah, whenever. So, uh, we'll try and come back, hopefully on Thursday and get those. Games in talk a little bit about some of the games that already happened. And of course, dive deeper into all the news notes and gossip that around our New Jersey devils.
[01:04:12] So we are the uncle puckers for Tony, Tim and Bob. I'm Chris. We'll see you when we see you face. Suck it. Valley cat. Suck it. Valley cat. You dirty motherfucking. It's over. Johnny. It's over.