Jack Is Heating Up

Chris (00:02)
All right, I think we're rolling. I think we're good. This is the second time that we're trying this. if you know, Tim, if it doesn't work this time, maybe we might have to make it tomorrow. But but yeah, so.

Tim Wood (00:10)
Yeah

Yeah, that's fine. We had that whole conversation about Wawa versus Sheetz is just on the scrap heap forever, I guess.

Chris (00:21)
We know when people want to pay the extra money they can get the behind-the-scenes stuff but for anybody that missed it apparently Sheets is a thing down in Maryland and it's a wannabe Wawa, but it just it can't hang right

Tim Wood (00:31)
It is.

Eww, I don't know, Sheets is pretty fucking good. Wawa clears for hoagies and subs. Like, all day, every day. I don't really get like, coffee from there. I have like a, I have a nice coffee, I have a pretty nice coffee machine at home that I, that I use. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris (00:43)
What about coffee?

Yeah, you make everything there. See, I like to just stop at Wawa in the morning and get my 20 ounce coffee. just, it's...

Tim Wood (00:57)
It's good. Do you have like your guy like that you like, hey Jim, how are you?

Chris (01:02)
You know what? No, I don't. I'm very, like I'm very polite when I'm out. I'm very, you know, I say hello to people, have a good day, whatever, but to strike up conversations, no, I kind of just have my headphones in. I'm usually listening to like, you know, XM listening to NHL morning skate or whatever. I don't, there's a couple of people I see there, but they go through so many fucking people. It's like, you know, cause they, there's, there's honestly in a matter of like a mile.

There's two miles, I'll say one, two, three, three wah-wahs. So they, yeah, it's crazy. And so there's, a lot of people work in all of them. So I see different people a lot. So you have your guy at Sheetz.

Tim Wood (01:44)
Interesting. Same thing. Like I don't go there enough. Like I don't have like a routine to go there. So not really. And honestly, like the one kind of culture shock from moving from New York City down to Maryland is like, I got like walk out the door and get whatever I wanted. You know, I could get like a six pack pack of Marlboro's and like, you know, a hooker if I wanted to in like, you know, 30 seconds. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know, some jurgens and some tissues and

Chris (02:08)
Yeah, yeah. Porn Magazine, you're ready to go.

Tim Wood (02:14)
Here, like everything is like 20 minute drive. Everything. It's like I am just pounding my car into the ground right now. like the closest while was 25 minutes. Sheets is like 15, but you know, there's like a little Dairy Queen that's that's close to me is like 10 minutes away, but it's just it's weird. Which, you know, which I just I just hammered cookies and cream data to kill those. That was delicious. Really going to help my way in tomorrow morning.

Chris (02:33)
which you just partook in.

That's a whole nother subject to that you'll get on the extra bonus for you the the birthday parties at Dairy Queen stories. Yes, which was the first place I played Donkey Kong. So but yeah, so Bobby will be joining us soon. He's having technical difficulties with his computer. I don't know what the hell is going on. And then all of a sudden we were recording and it just threw both of us off. So the gremlins are out today. So hopefully it's weird because I had on I was listening to XM most of the day.

Tim Wood (02:47)
I know.

Chris (03:12)
the NHL network and they had a lot of like hiccups too during their broadcasts like they would suddenly like there'll be some commercials I usually start it like so like I usually try to go on like around nine o'clock in the morning and I'll rewind it like till set to 730 in the morning and I'll start so then I could fast forward all the commercials and I never have to listen to commercials I absolutely despise commercials whether it's on radio or TV I hate them they

They to the point now they they make me angry and that's that's something I have to fucking deal with. But yeah, they make me angry. But anyway, like they would have the commercials and then all of sudden, like, you know, the normal music would start and then the guys would jump in. But there'd be some dead air and you'd hear like them talking, but they're not talking like it's not what they're going to be like. Yeah. So, yeah, my car had a flat this weekend and then all of a sudden the music would kick on. so I'm like, OK, so they're having technical difficulties, too. So something's going on.

Tim Wood (03:57)
That's weird.

Yeah, yeah, know, it's only been what, four days? So, right, right, right. So, is now a bad time to tell you that I worked in advertising for 20 years?

Chris (04:12)
Yeah, well, if this is the worst that if this is the worst that happens from it, then that's all right. We're in good shape, but I highly doubt that.

No, go for it. were Bobby went to school for advertising. Did you guys ever discuss that?

Tim Wood (04:30)
did it? Did it? No, no, no, we didn't at all. Yeah, I kind of felt backwards into it. I was a media buyer, so I'd negotiate all the deals with TV networks on behalf of advertisers. It was a cool job. I've been to the Super Bowl seven times. I've been to the Masters twice. I was in New York City, so I reluctantly...

Chris (04:33)
Yeah!

Get the hell out of here.

Tim Wood (04:55)
spent a lot of time at the Garden, although a lot of the time it was in suites. yeah, I've been to Miami. One of my funnier, in the Miami Super Bowl in 2011. So what they do every year as a guest of the NFL is they kind of flag, that was, no, that was New Orleans. That was that, yeah, that was that pain manning, that interception by New Orleans. Yes, yes.

Chris (05:10)
that Giants one was that Pittsburgh Arizona okay New Orleans Denver

That's the Super Bowl the Vikings were supposed to be in. That's the Bounty Gate NFC Championship game. But go ahead, I digress.

Tim Wood (05:27)
Yeah, it's all right. It's all right. It's just, you know, I also saw highlights of the one the Giants beat the Vikings 41-0 in 2008, but...

Chris (05:36)
They were stealing signs, you know that right? Like they were totally stealing, like there was talk even afterwards like they had played Philadelphia the week before and Philly came out after the game and they were like they fucking stole all of our signs like and they, I don't remember how they did it or whatever but or how Philly thought they did so nobody paid any attention to it but then watching that game now

Let me preface this, okay? I'm in probably, I'm probably about 23 years old at the time, right? I've never seen the Vikings in a Super Bowl. And I had lived through the 1998 debacle, Gary Anderson, right? Never missed a, had to missed a field goal in two years, we're in overtime against the Falcons. He misses a field goal and the Falcons go to the Super Bowl. So now we go to the, you know, 41 doughnut or whatever the score was.

Tim Wood (06:16)
yep.

Chris (06:30)
And I'm watching the game and like all I kept thinking about was and now everybody in my life is a giant fan at that time, right? So my phone's blowing up. I'm ready to like seriously fucking kill somebody. I'm so pissed. But they knew every freaking play that the Vikings were doing. Like it's crazy. And I know that the Vikings, they were a good team then. And the Giants were like, man, like how the hell did the Giants get that good? And then when it all came out,

Tim Wood (06:54)
Yeah, they were.

That was a surprising game.

Chris (07:01)
Yeah, and then they what happened your boys whooped them post to post end zone the end zone that next in that Super Bowl right that was Baltimore right that we had that was Who the hell was Trent Dilfer's was quarterback in the who was quarterback in the Giants? Like no, this was before Eli Kerry Collins, I think it was Kerry Collins. Yes

Tim Wood (07:10)
Yeah, I think so, yeah.

Yep. was an Eli at the time, was it? think it was pre-Eli.

was it? Man, there's so many there's so many guys like that from like the 90s and 2000s. He was like, yeah, that guy was a quarterback. I fucking forgot about him.

Chris (07:33)
Yeah, Kerry Collins who was drafted. think he was drafted by Carolina and he played. was pretty good too. And yeah, he brought the Giants to the Super Bowl, but yeah.

Tim Wood (07:39)
Yeah.

One of the, so one of the cooler things the NFL did is that they had a flag football game every year with, they have former pros as your quarterbacks and, and current pros are your coaches. So, worked on and John Lynch were the quarterbacks and like, like all the guests were like played in the game, you know, so they're, you know, they're like, like some people brought like their 18 year old kids and, some of them were like fat asses like me and, work done through four interceptions. got so pissed.

Chris (07:45)
Yes, go ahead.

He's not a quarterback. mean Yeah, fair enough

Tim Wood (08:13)
No, I know, but he's a professional athlete, like get it together, work. But it's funny because we were pulling up on our bus, like Miami Beach, it's beautiful prefabricated field, right? On Miami Beach with a scoreboard and stands and everything. And there are like a good 4,000 people in the stands, like expecting some sort of like real celebrity type of football. And then it's a bunch of idiots like me getting off the bus, me and this, I'd slept for two hours, I came straight from this Playboy party.

Chris (08:38)
Right.

You

Tim Wood (08:42)
and me and this other dude are smoking cigarettes as we're walking across the field and you can just see the fans just be like, what is this? And they just left. But there are like 10 people that stayed and we actually had fans for this game. It was hilarious. But I remember I was running to the backfield and I like, I'm going to sack John Lynch. And then he was 10 yards that way and I was eating a face of dirt. was like, all right, that's not good. No, no.

Chris (08:47)
You

Right?

Yeah, that's not a guy I would fuck with, John Lynch. No, no, he's a big dude.

Tim Wood (09:12)
And you know, and he was... Yeah, well that's the other thing, these guys are monsters, you just don't... You don't realize it. Same when you go to like a pro, like an NBA game, and you sit up kind of close, like these guys are fucking huge.

Chris (09:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, the first time I ever had like the that moment that holy shit moment when it to a professional athlete. We've told this story on the show before, but in 1996, the winter of 1996, Bobby was going to school up in Rhode Island and me and Dan and another one of our buddies, we used to go up. Dan and I used to go up to Rhode Island probably twice a month because we were going to college too, but our classes were over on Thursday afternoons and we didn't have go back till Tuesday. So we would hop in the car and we drive to Rhode Island.

Tim Wood (09:53)
Nice.

Chris (09:53)
So Bobby used to work at the Providence Civic Center. He was one of those t-shirt girls that would run out on the ice with the t-shirt guns and shoot them up. So that's, that was what Bobby did. So this was when the Fleet Center was being built in Boston. So there was a preseason game between the Flyers and the Bruins. So.

We were there and we were sitting up by the press box and right off into like the next section, maybe like 10 seats down was the whole Legion of Doom and Ron Hexdahl. Now we had just beaten them in the Eastern Conference Finals that spring and won our first Stanley Cup. Bunch of kids start going up to Lindros, ADA jerseys wanting to get them signed. This asshole would not sign. And I'm talking, these were little kids. It wasn't like, you know, like, like

Tim Wood (10:42)
really?

Chris (10:44)
parents going up and shit like no these were like nine year old girls and stuff that had their jerseys that wanted to he didn't sign anything so he stood up and got away and walked away from everybody and he walked into the press box now we were sitting right next to the press box so I had to stand up had to stand up to let Lindros walk in front of me bro I'm just looking up I'm like my god this guy's fucking huge like it was one of the biggest men I've ever seen what's he like six four six five I mean it's just a monster and thick

Tim Wood (10:58)
Hehehehe

I think it's 6'5", yeah.

Chris (11:14)
So of course, we start like, hey Hextall, what's wrong with your boy? So Hextall actually came over and sat over by us and we were bullshitting with him. And I think Dan was wearing a devil hat and he's like, great, now everybody's on the bandwagon. I'm like, we're from Jersey, man. We just see, goes, all right, if you guys live there, he goes, I'll give you the pass, right? But he was awesome.

And we bullshitted with him for a while. Lindros and mean, LeClaire and Remberg, they had gone back down to the bus and Hexdahl just sat there with us and then like the game was over. He's like, shit, I gotta get out of here. Like I'm about to get fined. And he like ran down to get to the bus, but he was awesome. Awesome.

Tim Wood (11:54)
That's cool. I love stories like that when you hear like a professional athlete kind of understands that part of... And conversely, like, Lindros can eat the fattest bag of dicks for doing that. Especially little kids. And that's kind one of the things that I like. When you see clips and highlights of Jack, like the interview he gave last night after the game, he could not give two fucks about answering those questions. But then you see the community work he does and going and...

Chris (12:07)
Right.

now.

Tim Wood (12:22)
coach little kids and you really see him kind of like like energetic and engaged and like he remembers these kids names and it's like hey how you doing good to see you sorry good

Chris (12:31)
And I've heard so much about him like that. He's one of the funniest dudes too. Like he's got this great sense of humor. He's a really funny guy. I'm like, wow, we don't see any of that personality. Like none of it. Like you just said, he absolutely hates being interviewed. Like I've never met, like that's why this guy might not ever be able to wear a C. Cause I just don't think he ever would want to talk to people after every game. But you know, go ahead.

Tim Wood (12:42)
Yeah.

No, no, but you know what he can do.

Chris (12:59)
You can get three points and lead this team against the Montreal Canadiens. Wow, what a game for Jack. I mean, he was just on fire and we kind of talked a little bit about it, right? Like we knew that that's the type of game that, you know, there is going to be some open ice there. And if Jack wants to, you know, strap on the shoes and take it, he could basically do whatever the hell he wanted. And he did, man. He that was just a really what were your takes on that game? Positive takes.

Tim Wood (13:03)
You can.

Right.

Yeah, you know first period just dominant period, know, and you could tell like right out of the gate Jack was flying like his you can kind of tell with him and you'll see Jack as for as good of a stick handler as he is he fumbles the puck a decent amount just for no reason not like he's getting poked tucked away he'll just kind of lose the puck like when he's handling the puck but when his

Chris (13:48)
You think that's like a thing with him where he's like thinking three steps ahead and sometimes you see it sometimes with wide receivers, right? They just hit that little glance up the field and they don't catch an easy pass. is it, you think it's sometimes like that? Like I know what I'm going to do and I know where I'm going as soon as I get this puck and you just take your mind off of that one objective there and you fuck up.

Tim Wood (13:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, you know what, honestly, I never thought about it that way, but yeah, that actually probably is exactly what it is. You know, it's that sort of losing that focus for like a split second, but last night you could tell just his hands and his feet were in sync and he was just cooking from the the get-go and you know, they got that.

Chris (14:25)
He was tired of the, what's wrong with jack shit going around, you know? Yeah.

Tim Wood (14:28)
Right? I know. I know. but you know, Montreal is a weaker team and you know, whatever, you have to play the games that are on your schedule and, and you know, hopefully this kind of unlocks him. And he said it himself after the game. He says, it feels like we're about to pop off. Like that's, is kind of his sense of humor is he has these little, little, you know, Gen Z, Gen Z isms.

Chris (14:45)
It does.

Yeah, now everybody goes on heaters when they have a three game win streak and yeah, Jack started that. but yeah, I, it definitely does seem like there's one player that, you know, now I think we need to focus our attention on what's wrong with Dougie, but we'll dump it. We'll jump into that a little bit later. Yeah, we'll shit all over him, but I was just so impressed with the way that that whole line, that line played all of them. I mean, all three guys ended up with, with goals. Brad had two.

Tim Wood (14:55)
Yeah.

We'll dump on him later, yeah?

Chris (15:21)
And then that third line too I thought played so good for the Devils like that pass that Holla made to Segan Duller for that third goal. I think it was a third goal. I don't remember. But what a beautiful pass. Just a lot of hard work. Like those two, well I guess the Jack lines now are top line. But our one line and I think our three line as far as offensive goes, were able to do a lot against

against montreal and then you know the he sure of course state that line gets the assignment of you know shutting down. Call call field in his his line and they did a pretty decent job on call field.

Tim Wood (15:56)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, that's, you know, that was the Montreal's dangerous line and Nico got that assignment. And, you know, that, that third line and, know, this is doing no research whatsoever into it in any way, or form. It's the best third line in hockey. you know, I, I'll say that, I don't, know, without even, even looking into it, like just the way they're constructed, what they do, they just tilt the ice every time they're on the ice, you know, they're banging around in the corners or

keeping the ozone pressure just consistent, consistent, consistent. And they got rewarded for it last night. Like, Cotter won a great battle in the corner, kicked it over to Holla. That beautiful little pass through a maze of legs over to Seagantall is a beautiful goal.

Chris (16:40)
When they bring the energy when they come to play and there's not many games this year that you can say they they haven't but when you know, So it's usually what they do when they come out to play though. They can dominate any line and I agree with you They you know what teams that have three really good lines and a very serviceable fourth line can do You know what teams like that are built like that can do they can win Stanley Cups? now i'm not saying this team is going to win the Stanley Cup this year, but

Tim Wood (17:01)
Yeah, they win the cup. Yep.

Chris (17:08)
I feel like Jack is 100 % right and we have maybe just started a scratch-off for service about how good this team can be.

Tim Wood (17:17)
Yeah, I was just looking at the, you know, I'm not all that smart. like, you know, the research I was, the research that I could figure out on my computer, I was looking at.

Chris (17:24)
You

We have a podcast called Uncle Puckers, Tim. Yeah. Let's name, let's name our devil podcast a name that nobody in any way, shape or form put with the devils at all. We're not, you know, the trap. I love, I love Bill and his show there. But like, you know, everyone has like, yeah, that's a devil podcast. Like that's the uncle Puckers. What the fuck is that? That's the dumbest name ever. So yeah, we're with you on that. But what were you saying?

Tim Wood (17:42)
Yeah, it felt good.

But that's fair. It's not like you guys have a segment with a giant fart in it or anything. But if you look at the expected goals differential, which I get there are lot of stats and advanced stats out there. And I use them as a barometer. If someone's not putting up the actual basic goals assist points, you've got to look under the hood and be like, all right, well, are they playing well? And I think that's the usefulness of some of these advanced analytics.

Chris (18:01)
No, not at all.

Tim Wood (18:24)
So you look at their expected goals differential since that Detroit game, which I think was even though they lost, like I still think they dominated that game. like it was kind of their expected goals differential. That means the difference between what they're expected to do versus what they did or what they're expected to do offensively versus expected to do defensively. The difference now is pretty flat until that Detroit game. And since then it's shot through the roof and it's just kind of going up and up and it's a cumulative number.

Chris (18:33)
Absolutely.

Tim Wood (18:54)
So it's just going up and up. I'm looking at it over here like people can see it, but it's pretty remarkable to see it. I know, I'm like, right here, it's this chart that I'm looking at right here. So on the 24th, their cumulative expected goals differential was negative 0.12. And then the next game it was one, next game is 1.6, and then three, and then four, and then 4.2, and now we're at four. So it's just kind of gone up and up and up.

Chris (19:03)
So what does the chart that you're looking at right there say?

Wow.

Tim Wood (19:23)
You know, think we're seeing that, you know, like the first period against Montreal was great. However, you know, the second period wasn't all that great. You know, like they kind of let Montreal get back into it, but they held the lead. You know, they kind of held onto that. You know, there were a couple of breakdowns and then in the third period, same more of the same, they kind of held on to that lead. They got that fourth goal, which is really important. And again, that was that, that Jack and Brad, that little filthy pass that, that little backhand pass that, that Brad made like, just like that Mercer pass, man, like I can't.

I don't think I can express the degree of difficulty for him to be able to kind of slide that the way he did to the exact right spot and inch from the defenseman stick with like the perfect pace on it where Jack can catch and release. It's just remarkable how good these two are. And that line is really starting to cook. And, you know, I'm not ready to write my Andre Pallad apology letter yet, but like he's fitting in on that line. He got rewarded with that goal. And some of the quotes were

pretty funny after the game. It's, you know, I hate to say it's some of these guys listed to this. I don't think they do, but, but you know, this is from, this is from J, Jesper Bratt and it's pretty clear that they hear a lot of what the fans are saying. So I was going to read this verbatim if you don't mind. said, Palat such a great teammate. He works really hard and creates a lot of space for me and Jack out there. He's taking a lot of the jobs, sometimes a tough job.

Chris (20:39)
Right.

No, go ahead, I wanna hear it.

Tim Wood (20:52)
that fans and other people don't notice on the ice, but it's really important to create space for plays like us. So basically, Bratt just told us that we don't watch the games too well and leave Andre alone. Leap. Look what you did to my boy.

Chris (21:02)
He said, leave and leave Andre alone. Leave Andre alone. All right, we will leave Andre Palat alone because yeah, Brad's right. we did, Bobby is the Palat hater in this group and he's not here to defend himself on it. you know, anybody that's listened to this show for a long period of time knows that I gave Palat the benefit of the doubt.

Tim Wood (21:17)
Right.

Chris (21:28)
for the last two years on everything. And in the beginning of this year, it was just like, all right, what are we doing? Like he's on the Jacks line, he's on the third line, he's on the fourth line. Like if we really don't know what to do with Andre Pallott, then maybe Andre Pallott shouldn't be on this team. That was my logic at that time. Now it does seem like he's found a home. you know, we always talk about how good he is defensively. You know, his offense has been absolutely abysmal since he's been on this team.

I know he passes are not crisp. does not get himself into good shooting lanes. He has not, you know, produced at all. Tough as hell. Really came through in the Ranger series two years ago. I thought he was fantastic in leading this young team that had no idea what to do in the playoffs. really, I thought, set the tone. I like Andre Pallat. I hope that it, you know, two goals now in three games. That's huge.

I mean you get him going a little bit, you know, he didn't miss yesterday like that was the goal that normally he'll shoot wide or something, you know, he, he, he, you know, so yes, the apology letters are maybe not going to be in the mail just yet, but there, but we're starting to write them. Yes, that's it. And I probably spelt it wrong, but yeah.

Tim Wood (22:30)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Yes, it's Dear Andre, I've gotten that far. It's...

man, I was about to say something so insightful and he just made me laugh. He was never a play driving point producing guy. He's always been that kind of passenger. And I think this is one of those two things can be true type of scenarios. We were talking about this beforehand a little bit. It's like that type of player that he is.

Chris (22:51)
So he's like, who the hell is this guy?

Tim Wood (23:15)
It's the contract. It's a $6 million. We could have two or even three of those same type of players. That being said, like the indirect value, I guess, if Brad and Jack have three point nights every night and it's because of some of the work that Andre is doing, fine. Not every team, actually a lot of teams are in serious cap problems. And I think, I think Fitz and his team do an incredible job managing the cap and mitigating kind of any sort of potential issues.

Chris (23:43)
Yeah, and if Pilat can bring that same intensity and just wear with all to the playoffs this year, hopefully the Devils are gonna make it, but it looks pretty good. But yeah, so mean, that's invaluable. Then okay, no one's gonna complain about him. But there is a guy that I do wanna complain about. And I've...

Really like the way this team is look so far and I just I feel like especially on our blue line like there is a Lot to be happy about especially with what we've gone through last year But i'm not ready to shit too much over. Brendan dillon right now But dougie hamilton has been bad like he's just been Defensively bad what the I know he was never the greatest defenseman, but like

I don't know, like I'm ready to vote Jack Hughes for Selkie Trophy the way he's been playing lately, you know, and why is Dougie Hamilton struggling so much?

Tim Wood (24:45)
It's, know, and his biggest weapon has always been his shot. Dougie's has been, and I don't know if there's some sort of systemic or systematic, systemic, systematic system. Yeah. Systemic mandate where maybe he's not like shooting as much. one of the most interesting kind of differences is that Brendan Dillon, his longtime partner is plus seven and I don't really like to use plus minus all that much. realized this is a team spat.

Chris (24:57)
Systemic is right.

Tim Wood (25:14)
team stat but if your partner is plus seven and you're minus two something weird is going on there and Dougie does have nine points in 16 games he has eight assists so he's piling up the assist he's just not scoring goals as much as we are accustomed to like Dougie was a fucking god in those in overtime during 22 23 two years ago there he is

Bobby (25:35)
Thanks

Chris (25:37)
is he? Cause I don't see him yet. Hi Bob!

Bobby (25:42)
What the fuck?

Tim Wood (25:42)
Hey!

hahahaha

Bobby (25:46)
Hey Tim you sound real good. You sound good. You actually sound loud. Jesus I can hear him. Back off the mic. Shit.

Chris (25:48)
Go ahead, take a minute to vent. Take a minute.

Tim Wood (25:49)
Yeah, there you

Chris (25:52)
You can hear them.

No, it's perfect. Leave it.

Tim Wood (25:58)
I hate my voice so much, it's gonna be so annoying for me.

Bobby (25:59)
That makes three of us. Jesus man. Let me tell you something. You just expect to charge a computer and it works. That's all. It's not even an old computer. It's just that Google Chrome wouldn't update unless I updated my whole computer. And that's just stupid. So here we are. Did you guys have fun?

Chris (26:03)
Go ahead, Bent.

Tim Wood (26:18)
There we are. We did, we did. We wrote your apology letter to Andre Pallad, so I hope...

Chris (26:19)
Well, we-

Bobby (26:22)
let's not go there yet. Hold on. Do we need to dive into that?

Chris (26:25)
Anything you want to say about... Well, we were just talking about...

Tim Wood (26:29)
I'm just kidding, we're not- we're not-

Chris (26:33)
We were just talking about Pilat and Bratt had come out and said that, you know, I don't know if you saw the quote, like, you know, okay, so you know what he said. So, so what do you, how do you, has your, has your opinion of him changed at all in the last week or so?

Bobby (26:38)
saw that. I saw that. Yep. Absolutely.

Sure, sure. It's definitely changed some he is playing much better and as we've talked about listen I'm still cheering for him right like if he gets going this could be a whole different dynamic I also completely understand what brad's saying and I've always said Construction of a line is important. You don't have to have like these three particular type players We've been saying that since we talked about comparisons with like the 2000 team So I get that I just felt I always felt that a version of a plaid pilots style player

was fine but he was still not doing what he had to do he's doing it now and he's complimenting the line and he's not I just looked at the stats before because I knew you guys were going to get me with this one he's still producing at about half the level of Jack and Brett like literally that Jack Jack and Brad have six and seven points he's got three but he's playing very well he's adding to that line and if that keeps up I'm completely fine with.

Tim Wood (27:30)
Yeah

Chris (27:44)
Do you want to hear a statistic that just blew my mind that Tim just read? Tim, can you give the plus minus on the Dougie Hamilton Brendan Dillon pairing again?

Bobby (27:47)
love those.

Tim Wood (27:53)
Yeah, so Dylan is actually plus seven and Dougie is minus two. I don't know how that happens. I just, I don't know how that happens. because, Dougie has been a defensive liability, but Dylan hasn't exactly been like carrying the water form either.

Bobby (27:58)
How does that work?

Chris (28:06)
I didn't

Bobby (28:12)
Interesting.

Chris (28:13)
No, they haven't. That's the one thing. don't know. There just doesn't seem to be a great connection with those two right now. Like you watched it even as a short time and probably, you know, how many less games did Pesci and Hughes play than those two, but they seem to know what each other are doing. They seem to always be able to bail each other out, which is awesome and a great testament to those two and their skill. But I kind of feel like Dylan and Hamilton just with the eye test aren't really doing that.

Tim Wood (28:43)
Yeah, no, I agree. And you know, they both have had their own individual kind of issues, you know, on the second goal against Montreal Anderson's goal where he just, you know, snuck right past, he actually snuck past Jack and Dougie into the slot to pick up that rebound and put it past Markstrom. Then on their third goal, New Hook's end-to-end rush, Dylan, for whatever reason, it's four to two. Dylan is below the

the top of the circle in the offensive zone watching Holla in the corner for some reason. I don't know why he's there. There's no reason. He's almost like the second four checker. So why are you down there? And then he's, yeah. And then he kind of slowly gets back and then he goes off for a change and new hook just blows right through the spot where the lefty is supposed to be. And it's just, and then it goes in kind of awkwardly off a Dougie stick. I don't put that on Dougie. That's that and look.

Chris (29:22)
I didn't notice that.

Right.

Tim Wood (29:37)
I'm not gonna put that one goal all on one person, but he was a significant problem as to why that goal happened. But Newhook did go through the entire fucking team on that end end rush. So that was a failure across the board. But I see what you're saying in terms of the two of them not totally jelling, but looking at the defensive group as a whole, I'm very happy with how these guys are playing.

Chris (29:47)
Yeah.

Absolutely, that's why I like to find things to bitch about even when the team's doing good. We gotta keep them on their toes. You can't let them get complacent. Next thing you know, we're losing Sunday to San Jose, so we gotta be on top of this shit.

Bobby (30:03)
Well how about-

Tim Wood (30:03)
Hahaha

Bobby (30:10)
You know we've been saying to about like Hamilton that you know his defensive miscues are amplified when he's not scoring as much so was surprised during the broadcast yesterday to learn that Dougie had nine points in the last nine games like quietly. I didn't really notice that and again he's not scoring goals per se which is really where his money is that's you know we want those goals those overtime goals of game winning goals but still nine points in nine games is nothing to shake out and then but yeah that that.

Chris (30:26)
Yeah.

Bobby (30:39)
Plus minus situation, that is awkward.

Tim Wood (30:42)
it's it's so weird I don't know I physically don't understand how that can happen like and you know I saying this right when you were chopping on like like Ducky in 22 23 two years ago was a god in overtime like the amount of overtime game-winning goals and his goal in game three against the Rangers just like he and I think that's what we're not seeing like his shot is his primary best weapon and it's

Chris (30:44)
It is.

Bobby (30:53)
Absolutely.

Chris (30:55)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (31:08)
the power play the dynamics of the power play change a little bit so not really seen a much there but yeah he's still racking up those probably a lot of secondary assist to be perfectly honest and on the power play but still nine points in sixteen games is nothing to shake a fist

Bobby (31:15)
True, true.

Chris (31:22)
So hopefully then Mr. Hamilton can get going and start getting some goals. now we got a break for commercial time. Sorry to all the listeners, I know that this is the part you fast forward. We don't blame you. We try and get it done as quickly as possible.

Bobby (31:38)
What about me? I'm coming off cold off the bench. Just gotta jump right into a live read. Hold on. Just shake it out.

Tim Wood (31:42)
I know. Get in there. I probably missed this trying to get...

Chris (31:43)
You are. You are, Bob. Alright, I'll tell you, I'll go first and then you can keep loosening up in the bullpen. you guys know what the, like, I love Black Friday and Cyber Monday because, like, just tons of sales, you know, I can pick up an Xbox for like 26 cents at Walmart. It's awesome. And it's like the only days that you can get these awesome deals.

Bobby (31:51)
Alright.

Chris (32:11)
except with Raycon Because we're Raycon you get an amazing deal on premium audio every day of the year But that doesn't mean they're not having any sales for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. No, no, no They're not bitching out like that far from it They're actually doubling down on their amazing value by offering viewers of this show up to 30 % off site wide It's a Black Friday Cyber Monday deal. You'll appreciate every day Ray cons everyday earbuds

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Hey Bob, why don't you tell us about game time?

Bobby (34:04)
Would love to and I'm sure that earlier in the podcast I missed all the exciting talk about how fun that game was and it really got me thinking about how cool that game would have been to be live at. That's the type of game you want to be at, you want to see it and that is exactly what Game Time can help you out. Game Time has this new feature called Game Time Picks which makes getting tickets to see your New Jersey Devils easier than ever. It simply filters out all the fluff just to show you incredible deals on the seats you're looking for.

highly recommend going to the site every day that I go on you will see last minute deals sometimes in the teens for tickets to a hockey game you just can't beat that they have a ton of different features they have a priority game time picks which simply curates it to make it a lot easier to pick the sports or concerts or comedy or theater or whatever it is you're looking for they have an all-in pricing guarantee or all-in pricing toggle feature so you know what you're going to pay when you check out and there's no surprise fees.

They also have the lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you up to 110 % of the difference. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time picks. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code THPN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code THPN for $20 off. Download Game Time today. What time is it? Game Time.

That was weird, you don't like that one? I don't know how you want me to really accentuate this game time.

Chris (35:31)
That was weird man. That was weird. I don't know if I like that one. It sounded like at first, you know what it was? You didn't commit to it. Like you started to commit to it and then I think you bailed out.

Bobby (35:40)
Really? I was going for the Adam Sandler effect. Was it not?

Tim Wood (35:45)
It sounded a little Scooby-Doo here.

Chris (35:46)
Is that what that was? Sounded like Scooby Doo.

Bobby (35:48)
I'll take Scooby-Doo! That's not bad!

Chris (35:54)
Yeah, alright, was definitely Scooby-Doo. That's fuckin' Yoda.

Tim Wood (35:55)
What? Game time?

Bobby (35:57)
Now that was a little Yoda! You try it!

Tim Wood (36:00)
Hahaha

Chris (36:03)
no but i will that i'm sorry to the listeners this is the last adam i would tell you if you want to fast forward thirty seconds or so trying to go as fast as possible here the quest for the stanley cup starts now the box dropping on the twenty four twenty five season you can get on all the action with drafting sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the nhl and if you're new to draft kings listen up new customers can bet five bucks and get two hundred instantly in bonus bets

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Chris (36:30)
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Bobby (37:06)
Alright, next. Who is that? Who is that speed talker guy that used to do like the cars and stuff? Yeah, Micro-Precine. guy. sounded like a little bit of that.

Tim Wood (37:09)
Dude, I just did-

Chris (37:13)
Micro Machine Guy

Tim Wood (37:15)
Hehehehehe

Chris (37:17)
I try to do the disclaimer fast because it's annoying.

Bobby (37:19)
Good. Hey, I know you guys obviously were on the show for a long time before I jumped on, I just twice. So internet gremlins everywhere today, right? So I'm sure you talked about everything like Jack and everything. I just got to mention like Jack Hughes, he's on the devils little guy. Where's the name? No.

Chris (37:25)
Twice. We got thrown off.

Tim Wood (37:26)
Twice a

Chris (37:34)
Jacko.

Tim Wood (37:39)
Never heard of him.

Chris (37:39)
Little guy. Little guy wears an A. Never heard of him.

Bobby (37:42)
Well, he's really good hockey player. just got to say like, was so cool to see like vintage Jack last night, just, just doing what he does. And then more importantly, over the points. did you guys notice towards the end of the game when there was the empty net, there was one play where he was kind of going after the puck to get an empty net goal. It would have been a high risk play. And instead of like chasing the puck down, he actually backed off and retreated to defense and then even did a better defensive play like 30 seconds later.

Chris (37:49)
Dude.

Yep. Yep.

Bobby (38:12)
I was really impressed by that because you know he's a go kind of guy and that puck was right there and he could have taken those extra steps forward and made a high risk play but he decided not to and he backed off. mean that's growth for a guy that can you know do what he did offensively and still be able to reign it back when the games online was very impressive.

Chris (38:31)
Like we all know how amazingly creative he is when he gets in any kind of open ice, especially like, I mean, three on three, the Devils are by far the most fun team to watch in the league, you know, and it's mostly because of him. And you saw it against teams that don't play great defense like Montreal, like he had, and he's fucking amazing. And then you see how much better he's getting on the faceoff dot.

How now this year where he's kind of you know not not kind of like he's absolutely paying attention to the details paying attention Defensively and you can tell he takes pride in that he keeps it on this trajectory two three years He's will be one of the best players and he already is one of the best players in the league But that would bring him to another level that would yeah

Tim Wood (39:17)
Yeah, it's, you know, happy learned how to putt, you know, it's, and people have said this a lot. It's like, Keith turned Matthews and Marner into perennial Selke guys, know, guys that were, you know, A plus offensive guys. Both of them get a lot of Selke votes. think Matthews is top five in Selke voting. But I know Bobby, I'm glad you brought up that play. And it's, whether it's one of two things, whether he was like, saw the situation, was like backed off.

Chris (39:22)
Exactly.

Bobby (39:37)
Incredible.

Tim Wood (39:46)
Or situationally, he saw that it was Matheson, who's a really good skater and probably can go toe to toe with Jack on skating. And he's like, you know what? I'm not going to go after Matheson here. We're gonna wait till he fucks up in the offensive zone. And then I'm going to strip him from the puck because yeah, it's awareness. you're just kind of seeing that permeate throughout the team. Just this awareness. Just these guys are just playing with such a good head on their shoulders, except for maybe Dougie.

Bobby (39:58)
Either way, it's awareness, like you said, either way. And that's great.

Chris (40:04)
Bye.

But I'll tell you, I noticed how much more relaxed I am at this point so far in the season. They have a one goal lead in the third. I kind of sit back a little bit, like, okay, they're going to handle this. how many times did a team last year pull their goalie and they scored on us and we ended up losing it overtime or whatever. kind of just was like, even when they put Jack and Brad out there together, final minute of this game.

Tim Wood (40:16)
Yeah

Chris (40:46)
nursing a one goal lead it's six on five and nico's not out there you know and and nason's maybe nason was out there but like now you have jack and brad like i was i was totally comfortable with that i was like i really like the way this team plays especially defensively like they haven't i mean the bad games that they had were total you know but they they they really haven't had any big meltdowns i don't really count the big melt like a meltdown that happened in calgary it was a

a bad goal late, you know, a lucky goal, we can say late, and then, you know, the devils had to take a couple of chances if they wanted to try and pull a point out and they got burned. That wasn't like last year where every bad thing just kind of compounded on top of each other. And it was like, all right, we're down one nothing in the first, we'll be all right. After the first, you're like, fuck man, we're not coming back from five. Like you just knew that you were getting killed. So yeah.

Tim Wood (41:35)
No.

Yeah, that snowball effect that happened last year where they'd give up one and then it would be two almost instantly. And Chris and I were talking about this, I forget which version of the recording, if we already recorded this or not, I'm sorry. But they haven't lost going into the third with the lead. We just looked through the schedule and the only game, they were tied with Calgary and like we just talked about.

Bobby (41:44)
instantly.

Chris (41:45)
Yep.

It's alright. Most people have turned it off by now.

Bobby (41:51)
Welcome to the Uncle Puckers.

Yeah.

Tim Wood (42:06)
But every game they've gone into the third with the lead, they've locked it down and won the game. look, Markstrom has his warts. He's going to want that first goal back. That was pretty soft. He seems to have a bit of a vulnerability underneath his arm. It's probably because he's 6'6 and he's just a fucking monster of a man. But when the game was on the line, 6 on 5, a couple power plays, a couple penalty kills in there.

He locked it down and won us again. That's what we want. That's what we wanted in our goal because...

Bobby (42:35)
He's been inconsistent in that way right so but i did notice during the game last night that there was a there's a time where he made another critical save big saves right before we scored a goal. And that wasn't happening for us last year so yeah you know that first one's kind of questionable i was sitting here kind of human like you can stop that. But then he goes ahead and does that extra little bit which is still odd that he's getting that done considering where he is.

In the goalie standings as far as you know save that you shouldn't make is not doing what he normally does which is blowing them out of the water but he still given us just enough where because of that presence and that happening like we went off in one game instead of them tying it or doing whatever.

Tim Wood (43:20)
Yep, yeah, that's kind of what I was, yeah, sorry, go ahead, Chris.

Chris (43:21)
Devils look I was just going to say the Devils lost 17 games last year that they led in at some point in eight third period blown leads last year Yeah, yeah 17 and eight third Yeah, 16 points guys where 16 points put us next last year

Tim Wood (43:31)
Jesus Christ, really?

Bobby (43:36)
That is a lot.

Tim Wood (43:42)
Yeah, and now, like last night, I said this in last episode, that Montreal game was setting itself up to be a bit of a trap game. was a bad team early in the season, like it happened to us last year. We lost to San Jose and then these other shitty teams. We went out, we beat a team we should beat. And we should do the same thing with the Islanders, should do the same thing with the Sharks as we roll into Florida.

Chris (43:51)
Yeah.

Bobby (43:58)
Yeah.

Chris (44:05)
Well, the Islanders, I mean that game kind of, I mean it always worries me whenever you play a divisional team and I know that they can't score but they're gonna be up for this game and it is on the island. the only thing that makes me nervous about the Islander game is Ilya Sorokin. You know, he's the only one, he can steal. I mean the numbers here and then I wanna ask you guys who you would start because of the back to backs.

So like Sorokin right now, he's 4-3-1. He has a 9-21 save percentage and a 2.35 goals against average. Those are some really good numbers. And Varlamov is at 1-3-1. He has an 8-8-7 save percent and a 3-0-1 goals against. But they didn't play today, so I have no reason to think Varlamov would be in net. But we do have the back-to-backs. Who do you guys play?

and then I'm going to tell you what the right answer is.

Bobby (44:58)
I guess I'll go first. I think you go with Markey against the Island. He's de facto 1A coming off a win. You give him that and then you Alan take San Jose.

Tim Wood (45:13)
Yeah, I did the same thing. You put your one in against a divisional rival. I think that's how I would look at it. Those two games are back to back, but after that, we have an absolute fucking gauntlet of a schedule.

Bobby (45:25)
Yes.

Chris (45:27)
But what if I told you that both Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen have both played 14 games against the Islanders and that both of them are 7, 5, and 2. But Jacob Markstrom's a 9.06 save percentage and a 2.96 goals against average. And Jake Allen is a .928 save percent career against the Islanders with a 2.23 goals against average. Now,

Tim Wood (45:54)
But what are those numbers in Long Island on a Saturday night?

Chris (46:00)
That I don't know. But if you weren't... Now those numbers... Those numbers... Those numbers I will get back to you of how they do against each other when the temperature is below 45 degrees in March. But first, if you can look at those two and say, numbers are too close to make a decision, right? I mean they both won the same amount. Yeah, Mark's room... I mean that one has a higher save percentage, probably on worse teams, whatever.

Tim Wood (46:02)
What kind of research did you do here, Chris?

Bobby (46:04)
during a half moon. Nothing?

It is important.

Tim Wood (46:14)
That's never happened again.

Chris (46:31)
But against the Sharks, Jake Allen is 2-5-1 in 9 games against them. He has an 8-51 save percentage and a 4.33 goals against average. Jacob Markstrom is 6-8-1 in 15 games with an 8-98 save percentage and a 3.13 goals against average. Both these guys have had really rough time with the Sharks.

Bobby (46:54)
So they both got to play against the islanders and neither one of them could play against the sharks.

Tim Wood (46:58)
Right? I don't know, just...

Chris (47:00)
I'm thinking you gotta put Alan in against the Islanders because apparently the Sharks own these guys. You gotta go with the guy with the little bit of the better numbers and just go to Markstrom because we're gonna get lit up Sunday.

Bobby (47:10)
Apparently, yeah, they're not gonna do that. That's funny,

Tim Wood (47:13)
For God's sakes.

Chris (47:16)
I'd be fine with Alan Stark.

Tim Wood (47:17)
I get it. just still think know, Markstrom just got this win. You know, he is the one. You I appreciate that. I can't believe the numbers are that bad against the fucking Sharks. Jesus. And the Sharks have been terrible the entire time that both of those guys have been in the league too.

Chris (47:30)
I know.

Bobby (47:31)
Terrible.

Chris (47:37)
I mean, when it comes to that game, the game, I mean, you got to get past the Islanders on Sunday, but the sharks, they, they, know that they're, you know, frisky and, know, and I love celebrini. Like I watched that game yesterday. That kid is going to be, yeah, he's, he's going to be a fucking superstar, but, they make so many defensive mistakes, like just so many, like the devils, if they're on, like that can really be a game that gets, gets really out of hand quick.

Tim Wood (47:43)
Yes.

Well, he's fun to watch.

Bobby (47:52)
for sure.

Yeah. You know what it needs to be another one of those kind of no doubt kind of wins I know coming into this game like if I had to come on the podcast first thing I would have mentioned that no optically maybe you weren't as happy with the 5-3 win over the Canadians because we all kind of wanted to see more of kind of that clean dominant effort but then when you kind of consider all the other things that went into it the road trip coming back from the West Coast how that always affects it Montreal just playing us hard and then the odd things that happen the game within the game like

How we were 9 for 18 on the power play leading up to that game against a leaky defensive Canadians team and we go 0 for 3 like these are those weird things. It just they always seem to happen. But you know you look at that they got past it. I think they could do the same thing with the Sharks just moving on a little forward. We didn't actually talk about last week like our predictions for the week ahead. We talked about the schedule and how it appeared but I would have said at the time that I fully expected to beat the Habs.

possibly lose to the Islanders, beat the Sharks and then split the Panthers. That would be my expectation for a good week. Well, Tampa's after I didn't get that far, I think we owe them, I think we owe them an ass beating, so we'll beat them too. But I think it's very realistic to split at least with the Panthers. I want to split at least with the Panthers. I think that's a really good showing. If we can stay in those games, if they're good games, which I think they will be, and hopefully we'll win one or two of them, I think that's huge.

Chris (49:07)
And what about Tampa?

Well, now answer it.

Well Tampa hasn't been playing well.

I I believe that if this team wants to be taken as a serious Stanley Cup contender, they have to do exactly what you just said. They have to, you know? You can't, no one's gonna, like, you only get a few times a year to really kind of crap the bed to a bad team or something before you just become that bad team, you know? And I feel like, you know, Montreal was a good test. They did good. You knew Montreal was gonna play them tough. They're coming off four losses in a row. These guys are pros, too.

Bobby (49:47)
Yeah.

Yep. You know, St. Louis, he's driving that team to he's pissed. You know, he demands respect.

Chris (50:01)
They're not gonna walk in there and just get you know, but the devils and But I real quick off the subject off the subject of that did you guys think it was kind of odd? Last night's game that with like two minutes left and down a goal they started playing like really head-hunting type of hockey like use and Like what that's just seems like that's a really bad time to do you're not down three or four like you can still try and

Tim Wood (50:20)
They were getting very chippy, yeah.

Chris (50:30)
salvage this game like why are you playing that way why are you putting your team in a position where they might get a penalty on a morning you know yeah like it just made no sense to me like if it's the devils and rangers and one of them is down by three you totally expect that but

Bobby (50:35)
Right, you don't want to go shorthanded, sure.

think the emotions are already catching up with Montreal. The expectations were that they would be better, not great, but an improvement from last year and they're currently not. And then you mentioned a four game losing streak does a lot to your fucking head. You know what I mean? Whether you're the coach and the players and you start to question things and you start to grip your stick tighter and you get, yeah, and then you get fighty like that. And again, St. Louis, he's kind of a little fighty. He's a little spark plug back there. He's an angry little guy. So he's getting his team angry.

Chris (51:01)
Yeah, especially Montreal.

fighty. He got real fighty last night. Yeah.

Tim Wood (51:12)
I had a funny side story about Saint Louis. I worked at stick handling hockey camps in high school. My high school hockey coach ran these nationwide stick handling hockey camps. You got really good players to be the instructors. But because he was my high school coach, it was my summer job. I worked at Bridgeport, Connecticut and the other instructors were Martin Saint Louis, Eric Perrin, who was his

line-main at UVM and Steve Guala who played for the Ottawa Senators and me. It's kind like one of these things is not like the other but I had to share a hotel room with Marty Santelui and Eric Perrin and they took the beds yeah they took the beds and they made me sleep on the floor but he's fucking good yeah I was like I didn't really argue all that much about this but this is when I kind of realized I was fucking going nowhere when

Bobby (51:47)
Hahaha

Chris (51:49)
You

Bobby (51:55)
Really?

Frightfully so, I guess.

Tim Wood (52:09)
They're like, hey, Tim, we're going to go for a run now. I was like, enjoy. I'm going to go smoke cigarettes out front. And they went for a 10 mile run, came back, and they had a cooler full of American cheese and white bread. And they just made little American cheese, white bread sandwiches. And I was hammering dominoes on one of the beds. So that was it.

Bobby (52:23)
That is awesome.

You're the man. Did they even give you a hotel key or did you just have to be like, can I have one of yours?

Tim Wood (52:33)
No, no, then they taught me how to play poker and I went home and was like, dad, was a net negative for that week that I just worked because I came home. But that's why.

Bobby (52:41)
at Derek.

Chris (52:41)
He's watching the lightning game and you're like that guy has my money right there

Bobby (52:46)
That's a-

Tim Wood (52:47)
There's another kind of grosser part of that story that's pretty funny, but I won't tell them. yeah, no, it's...

Bobby (52:50)
That's a great story though, man. Like who gets to say that, right?

Chris (52:54)
Wait, wait, there's a grosser part of the story? What did make? What did Martin Saint Louis make you do, Tim?

Tim Wood (52:57)
marty said we're he he and now he just and he just enjoyed being naked and and he's gifted

Bobby (52:59)
You

Chris (53:05)
Fair enough. Alright.

Bobby (53:07)
Right.

Tim Wood (53:08)
Yeah, his big quads, that's what I'm talking about. my God, Delete, delete. So anyway, yeah.

Bobby (53:10)
Yeah, obviously. Skates like crazy.

Chris (53:12)
Yeah, well, yeah, what else would you be talking about?

Bobby (53:19)
We don't edit, Tim. We just keep rolling, buddy.

Chris (53:20)
Yeah, there's more?

Tim Wood (53:27)
I've been dying to tell that story in a podcast, so I'm good now I'm done. Thank you guys.

Bobby (53:28)
That is a great story. Chris, where he's got a microphone now, he's got great stories, our plan to phase ourselves completely out is underway. Let's go. Tim Pucker.

Tim Wood (53:36)
Just, just, wait.

Chris (53:38)
Right, Tim, the meek shall inherit the podcast. Tim will get it.

Bobby (53:41)
by the way, so I saw you, we were all texting before the show. So now I got Tim's numbers. put put them in my phone is Tim Puckerwood.

Tim Wood (53:46)
Neither.

I've fucking heard this shit my whole life this guy this guy in my dorm every morning Walk by was walking the shower and I kind of appreciated relenting relentlessness. It's just like morning wood said that to me every fucking day I was like, hey Pete

Chris (53:52)
in Peckerwood. I like that. I'm sure.

Bobby (54:03)
Classic, yep.

Chris (54:10)
Pete and your uninteresting surname. Alright, so I gotta ask you guys, do a little quick run around the NHL. I got a few teams, just kind of want some quick thoughts about them and what you guys are thinking. By the way, the Pittsburgh Penguins just beat the Washington Capitals today, 4-2 I think. Yeah, so that's awesome. Let's start with Washington. Do you guys think that...

Tim Wood (54:12)
Yeah

They did, I saw that.

Bobby (54:30)
Okay, that's weird.

Chris (54:39)
Washington is going to end up one two three in this division

Bobby (54:45)
123 yeah. Possibly they do worry me I don't know why they're still winning.

Chris (54:47)
Cause they worry me now. Yeah.

Okay, wait. Let me ask you guys this. Rank, not by, you know, just by you guys and what you've seen, the eye tests so far, rank the top four in the Metro.

Tim, you can go first.

Tim Wood (55:09)
Carolina, New York, Devils, Washington.

Chris (55:14)
I'm gonna say Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Washington.

Bobby (55:23)
I'm actually struggling to put the devils above washington right now but i think that. Overall they will wind up above them so i'll do that and then i'll say the rangers so.

Chris (55:37)
So you think the Rangers are a force?

Bobby (55:37)
Right now, yeah, and I've got a thing I want to talk about before we end the show too about the Rangers and their goaltending. So that would be interesting. Yeah, Keqing King. basically, I'm sitting here looking at another awful night that he had the other night, right? I had to make sure he was actually in goal because the five pass just stark and thing was going out again.

Chris (55:45)
Well, go ahead.

Tim Wood (55:46)
the Kachin King.

Chris (55:58)
So did I. It was like, this had to have been quick.

Tim Wood (55:59)
Chris and I were texting that, it's like, man, five passes to Sterker. Wait, was he playing?

Bobby (56:05)
Yeah, gotta double, you definitely gotta check that stuff.

Chris (56:07)
Yeah, and I quick I was like wait he let five in on 17 shots what the hell or 11 shots or something was crazy it was like his safe percentage was like I don't know for yeah.

Bobby (56:15)
So here's what got me thinking. I'm like, I want to look at Shusterkin's I want to see where he's at because he's not having a Shusterkin type year. And I thought he would be pretty low. So I pulled up the Goaltender stats. And to my surprise, he's actually still sixth in the league with a 920 save percentage. And this is how I sorted it, by save percentages. So by comparison, wanted to look at anybody got to guess who's number one? Yeah, by far. 932. Guys, amazing.

Chris (56:35)
Okay.

How about

Bobby (56:43)
Unbelievable that that whole team right now 10 and one is ... pretty sick.

Tim Wood (56:43)
Guys, unbelievable.

Chris (56:47)
Which is why Igor should get almost double what he gets, but yeah.

Bobby (56:48)
Right and this is this is exactly where I'm going with this whole thing here so now I compare him to Jacob Markstrom who to my surprise is also 9th in save percentage with a 9.04 so she's stuck in the sixth in the league he's got a 9.20 and a 2.62 goals against average he is he is 10 games 6 wins 3 losses won overtime loss Jacob Markstrom is a 9.04 a 2.65

Chris (57:02)
for.

That's good.

Bobby (57:18)
5 goals against average 11 starts 6 for and won overtime loss so right here I'm saying okay that's. Pretty comparable right now like Mr. King is not exactly out playing everybody in the world then I want to take it a step further and I was really curious career let's look at a bigger spectrum because I can't just look at the 11 games of this so in their careers. And obviously you got a smaller sample set but so I use about 4 years of Igor since he's been the man.

Markstrom has a 909 save percentage and a 273 goals against average. That's career right now, career average. Starkin is a 921 and a 248 goals against average. so the 248 to 273 goals against average equals one additional goal scored on Markstrom every three and a half games. Okay, so if you take the

Chris (57:55)
That's career? Okay.

Bobby (58:17)
average goaltender now with starter 55 games or so. Right you could say 50 you could say 60 but I actually looked at just stark and he is averaging in his last four years as a starter 55 there was a 60 in there there so I'm using 55 as the barometer. So if you look at 55 starts say both him and March to 55 starts right 55 is. It would be 16 more goals in a year that Marks from would let up.

Chris (58:17)
Okay.

Okay.

Bobby (58:47)
Right, because it takes over three and half games for him to put up a whole other goal. So 16 more goals. So we could then say, let's say we'll just split the difference. Half run wins, half run losses. Right. So he gives up eight extra goals and wins, or you can even say they're all losses. I don't care. But if you just looked at it eight and eight, that would mean that in eight losses, Markstrom gave up one more goal than she's Sterkin. Okay.

Chris (59:01)
Okay.

Bobby (59:17)
Seems bad but here's the catch. here's the catch the. The average margin of victory in the NHL is 2.23 goals so anything over two goals might as well be three goals right so even if Markstrom is allowing a goal more every three and half games his average margin of victory is to he still has a goal to play with. Why do I bring this up. Just Erkin.

Chris (59:20)
Talk about the micro here, Bobby, holy shit.

Tim Wood (59:22)
I'm loving this. This is fantastic.

Bobby (59:46)
Better Marks room okay he's kind of been a mid tier slightly above his whole career he has these years where he stops things he shouldn't stop. At fourteen million or whatever that's just Sturken wants versus a guy like Marks room who's six. Who maybe lets up one more total goal every three and half games that might factor into some losses with a margin is over two goals per game per victory.

Just goes to show you, it ain't worth paying a guy that much money.

Chris (1:00:23)
Kinda can't argue with the numbers, right? I mean...

Tim Wood (1:00:26)
I think you just did the math that a lot of GMs in their analytics department do and that's why goalies, their teams are so resistant to pay goalies big ticket money because they see that. The difference, Colorado scored 302 goals last year. The difference, or sorry, the most goals against last year, or sorry, the least goals against, 198 was Florida, You had 16 to that.

Chris (1:00:39)
Carolina.

Tim Wood (1:00:56)
that's you're going from one to four. It's really not that big of a gap from first to fourth. So that's why I keep, you you hear the term like league average goaltending. If we just had league average goaltending, we'd be winning these games because you kind of amortize that over a season like you did. So, no, that's incredible analysis.

Chris (1:01:01)
Right.

Yeah, and when it comes to sturken, mean, look, I watched him play Washington and they lost that game and he played out of his fricking head. I watched some of the game yesterday and I know he had a rough night, but this guy has way more good nights than he does rough nights. And I'm looking at the team in front of him and I'm saying that is going to get it's kind of bad some nights.

And that's going to get so much worse once they sign this guy to 12 or 13 million dollars because it's just they're probably not going to be able to build the type of team that you need to build in New York to satisfy everything. Like if you had a smaller salary, you paid the old guy like just circling 12 million, you can maybe build a

Carolina hurricane type of team the way you play you know with some lower name tickets and commit to a system and all but that's not the Rangers the Rangers are high-flying they got to get the big names they have to do everything that they can do it's gonna be really hard and you're gonna have nights where your goalie doesn't play great and You the team in front of them played like absolute ass last night and I've seen the Rangers play absolute ass a lot of nights this year and they won the games that she's circling was playing like if I

Tim Wood (1:02:16)
No.

Chris (1:02:39)
I think the Devils are a better team than them right now. And I think the Devils are just getting started. We talked about that. Like I see this. We haven't even seen how good this team can be. And I think they stay healthy. They're going to be really fucking... People are going to be talking about them in a different way in February and March than they are right now, I think. And the Rangers, I don't know.

Tim Wood (1:03:01)
Yeah, I think the Devils are better than the Rangers. know, look at like like your Chris is just saying, know, they're they're forward depth is is pretty thin, you know, I mean, they're one C is is advantage ad who's who's okay. I mean, he's having he has 10 points and 12 games. He's only got two goals like his shot is his best asset. And, you know, I don't know how much of that is on the power play which which he feeds on and Crichter's cut. Crichter has a hilarious stat line right now. He has seven goals and no assists.

It's like a makeup player in NHL.

Bobby (1:03:31)
Yeah, yeah, certainly.

Chris (1:03:34)
That just goes to show you how selfish of a puck hog Chris Crider is. That's why he's not wearing the C, you bastard.

Tim Wood (1:03:38)
What a

But, that son of a bitch. yeah, so I think, you know, and those guys are on the wrong side of 30, you know, what's going to happen, you know, if I, and I think she's stuck and kind of sees that, but at the end of the day, I take she's stuck in any fucking day over Markstrom.

Chris (1:03:55)
But I also think that there's a very good chance that Sterkin wants to go to free agency because I think that I think there are a few teams that will pay him any and I think the Rangers are one of them too that will pay him anything like can you just imagine the Colorado Avalanche with Igor Sterkin as their goalie? You know, once they get healthy again and stuff like I look at that team and I'm like that's a team that can go on a big time run with him and win a cup. You know.

Bobby (1:04:13)
Yeah, that's a different level,

Chris (1:04:23)
I don't, the guys in New York, this is probably their last really good go at it, you know, so.

Tim Wood (1:04:28)
But the Rangers need Shastrkin, I think, more than Shastrkin needs the Rangers. The Rangers need a big time marquee name, best player at that position in the game type of player. And I think that is Shastrkin. Or that's the snake oil that Dolan and Drury will sell to New York City. That he is that guy, the same bullshit that they sold with the king with no cups.

Chris (1:04:34)
Absolutely.

Tim Wood (1:04:57)
They need that kind of player, that marquee name in New York City to bring people in.

Chris (1:05:02)
Yeah, they do. excuse me. They definitely do.

Bobby (1:05:03)
It's a shame right you got a city of 8 million people and you need that marquee player to fill a stadium of 18,000.

Tim Wood (1:05:06)
Yeah.

Well, I mean, you've got to convince people to, you know, look past the homeless guy taking a shit out in front of Dwayne Reed on 33rd Street and, you know, naked crackhead in the Port Authority bus terminal. But you get a handy from her every week.

Bobby (1:05:14)
Yeah, on the route to Madison Square garbage

Chris (1:05:18)
and the building that's falling apart that, know, and it's...

Bobby (1:05:22)
I hate that.

Chris (1:05:29)
You know her?

Bobby (1:05:32)
You

Chris (1:05:33)
Jesus.

Tim Wood (1:05:36)
Sorry. Now it's Bobby's turn for story time.

Bobby (1:05:36)
been there. Not that we've done it on the show before. I have not been there. That's not what I mean. I mean, I mean, Freudian slips is what I'm referring to.

Chris (1:05:42)
I've never given you a hand job on this show Bobby.

Winnipeg.

This team is for real right like they're that freaking good I watched a couple of games so far this year and there I can't wait to play them because that's like that's the test right can you

Bobby (1:06:06)
They're not win 9 out of 10 every time good, but they are super good.

Chris (1:06:13)
I don't see any like cracks in that team. Like they're just, they're super deep. They're awesome. Like I see Winnipeg and like right now, if I had to pick, if I had to pick Stanley Cup final right now, it's Carolina Winnipeg.

Tim Wood (1:06:24)
Yeah

Bobby (1:06:26)
Really? Okay, calling it early.

Tim Wood (1:06:29)
That's, yeah, that's, mean, that would, mean, hockey wise, it'd be a great series. It'd be a fucking disaster for the NHL though. you know, you look at how, you look at how deep that team is, know, Kyle Connor is nasty. And I think that guy, that that guy, you know, is going to be first line unless they do some kachucks with, with Matthew's type of thing on team USA and people are going to see just how good this guy is. They're going to look at him and be like, I swear to God, I bought a pack of camels from that guy from a Sunoco on route 22, but.

Chris (1:06:29)
Yes.

yeah.

There he is.

Tim Wood (1:06:59)
That motherfucker is a sniper. Josh Morrissey is probably one of the most underrated defensemen in the league. They Nino Niederreiter, who's another Swiss infinity stone that I wanted on the Devils for years. Like that guy is nasty. He's on the third line. But the best things they did was getting out from under PLD and they got, but they got, they got Velardi and someone else for him. LeVard, Velardi and, and Iafalo from, from LA. Like that was.

Chris (1:07:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's right, IFO went over there.

Tim Wood (1:07:24)
That's like they are deep like Nikolai Ehlers is super fast, super quick. Shifeley doesn't age. Like they're just a very good, deep, well-built team.

Chris (1:07:28)
They're ridiculously good.

And they have the best goalie in the NHL. Not New York. Colorado should have won 6-0 yesterday with the way Gagorgiev played and the way that that team played and they couldn't get anything past Holobuck. He was fucking... That was his second shutout in a row. I mean, he just doesn't get... And that was our whole argument when this whole thing came down with the contract. It's just circling. I just kept saying, like, what makes...

Bobby (1:07:35)
Agreed.

Tim Wood (1:07:37)
They do. They do.

He's unbelievable.

Chris (1:08:03)
this guy deserve more than Connor Hollebuck. Like I just couldn't figure it out. You know, there was no way in my mind would I pay, I mean, Connor Hollebuck, what, eight, eight and a half million to Veznas? Like he's the best there is. Neither one has won anything other than Veznas.

Bobby (1:08:13)
Yeah.

Even even money you can argue and again we talked about like the macro economy okay to different time so she started might get a little more give me half a million more whatever it is but to jump from that to twelve thirteen fourteen whatever ridiculous number asking it's just stupid.

Chris (1:08:36)
Yeah, I agree.

Tim Wood (1:08:36)
I mean, so if you look at their playoff last year, Igor at a 927 save percentage, which is

Chris (1:08:44)
Connor Hall book has like a 6'5".

Bobby (1:08:45)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (1:08:46)
Connor Hellebuck was 870. And I'm serious, there's something to that. Hellebuck and the Jets have flamed out in the playoffs the past couple years. so has Carolina.

Chris (1:08:48)
You

Yes they have and so is Carolina and I mentioned them and yes they're another one Toronto you're right no matter what happens this year none of it's gonna matter it's all gonna just depend on what they do in the postseason you're 100 % right.

Tim Wood (1:09:10)
The playoffs are random, man. Like, just so much random shit happens. Like, there's no way the best goalie in the world suddenly has, like, a crisis of ability in the playoffs. Just like, shit just happens to go in. You know, I'm a big believer in that. But, Winnipeg looks nasty. They look like a lot of fun. being inside that building looks like fun. Like, those fans have a lot of fun. You go outside that building, fuck that place. But...

Chris (1:09:28)
Yeah, they do.

Bobby (1:09:33)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (1:09:38)
Like it looks, I neither of I have no interest in ever going to Winnipeg in my entire life. I don't even know how you would get there. I think you have to take like three Greyhound buses.

Chris (1:09:39)
I've never been.

Bobby (1:09:46)
You

Chris (1:09:49)
I would love to go to Winnipeg. would absolutely love another place I want to go is Calgary. I want to go to the old Saddle Dome before they tear it down. I'd love to see a game there. But all right, guys, I think if anyone doesn't have anything else, think we're going to wrap this thing up. Yes.

Tim Wood (1:09:57)
That would be fun. That would be fun.

Yeah, one thing I did want to bring up last five minutes, speaking of goalies, a guy that I was interested in this summer before we wound up with Markstrom, made a, just, know, we're in this hotel room and he's just walking around naked in the Port Authority. Bobby knows him, he's in the Port Authority.

Chris (1:10:13)
Aww, that's cute.

Bobby (1:10:13)
You didn't get your guy?

Chris (1:10:18)
Are you going on a date or something? Is he French Canadian and 5'3"?

Bobby (1:10:19)
Hung to his knees.

You

yes.

Tim Wood (1:10:31)
Stolar Stolar's in Toronto It's just fucking Jersey, New Jersey kid just had to give the give the Jersey kids a props made a bare-handed save tonight Yeah, yeah

Chris (1:10:34)
god, he's playing well.

Yep.

Bobby (1:10:40)
Guess I wanted to bring that up. Okay, got it. Yep Yeah, he lost his blocker. He lost his regular glove. He made a bare-handed save just kind of you know Flared it out. It was awesome Yep

Chris (1:10:41)
Did he really?

That's awesome.

Tim Wood (1:10:47)
Yeah, then he showed it to the ref. He was like, I got it. Yeah.

Chris (1:10:53)
That's awesome. I want to go watch the highlights. All right, we're going to wrap this thing up. It's getting a little late. Thank you guys so much for checking us out and sticking with us. This was a lot of fun. Wherever you're listening to us, like a five star review, download subscription helps a little podcast that could for Tim and Bob. I'm Chris. We're the uncle puckers and we'll see you when we see you.

Bobby (1:11:11)
Bye-bye.