The Devils woke from their winter slumber and "smoked" the Bruins. The guys break down the game. Jacques Lemaire gets his flowers. Markstrom gets injured. 5 Trades to play with Jack????
[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! Hey boys, how's everybody doing today? Pretty good. Good mood kind of day. Feeling a little better, not so grumpy now. It's amazing what a win can do, and a good win is that.
[00:00:35] We just got some decent news, hopefully. Yeah, so Tim, you want to share? Yeah, from Kevin Weeks, and confirmed by Nichols and Danny Amoya, too. Oh, the New Jersey club's feared it would be worse, but hearing it's a knee sprain. You know, missed some time, and I can't believe Weeks says this, because I do not give a fuck about this tournament, but sorry for the F-bomb. What does Nichols on the square? F-bomb number one. I'm checking it out. Four Nations face-off could be in jeopardy for goalie Markstrom.
[00:01:03] So, if Four Nations is in jeopardy, hopefully that sounds like it's really not as severe as we were wearing, as bad as it looked. That's two weeks away, right? It's two weeks away. So we have seven games, and then there's two weeks for Four Nations. So the first game after Four Nations is February 22nd against Dallas. That should be the target. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, if he's okay. I don't like this break.
[00:01:32] How many games are we watching over the Four Nations tournament? Is there going to be enough hockey on to, you know, placate me for that amount of time? Well, every time without Devils hockey in February? Come on. It's dark out of two weeks. It's a two-week tournament? Yeah. Maybe on at least every other day or something like that? Well, everybody wants to play everybody once, right? So, and then I don't know how it goes after that, if it's just two best play for the gold
[00:02:01] and the, I don't know, the bottom two play for not last, I guess. I mean, I literally can't care. I don't care about this thing either. I'm much more concerned that, like, you know, Jack's going to get an injury or something like that. Like, that's the last thing that we need to deal with is an injury during this Four Nation face-off. Right.
[00:02:30] I want to watch it just because I want, like, I'm a USA hockey fan and I want to see this iteration of, like, USA guys play together. Like, I loved that 96 World Cup. Like, that was so fucking cool. It was cool. But it looks like there are three games, the 12th won the 12th, won the 13th, to the 15th, and then to the 17th, and then, yeah, the championship game on the 20th. All right. It's basically just like a giant round robin and the best two teams then play. I'll check it out.
[00:02:59] That's going to be, that's definitely going to be fun. But, you know, I would rather have Devils hockey. But, yeah, I mean, I would like to see some good best-on-best action. I mean, that could be fun.
[00:03:13] I think that that's the type of tournament that a guy like Jack, I think, I'd love to, I just would love to see him play with, like, the mouth breathers or, you know, Austin Matthews or something like that. For anybody that doesn't know, those are the Kachuks, the air-to-mouth breathers. Did you see that frigging run that Brady took on Shisterkin the other night? Oh, my God. It was, yeah.
[00:03:41] I mean, it was dirty, but it was fun to watch. So, I do have a question for you guys about the injury to Markstrom, and we'll dive more into the game. But, was there anything that the big Braggiole could have done to stop from running him? Was it his fault? Was it Brendan Dillon getting his stick tied up or getting his stick in between his skates? Or was it just, this shit happens.
[00:04:10] This is hockey, and, you know, it's part of the game. What do you guys think? Is there any blame to go around here? I think it shit happens. I'm with you on that. Like, I didn't even think it should have been a penalty for the way I first looked at it. I get why it's a penalty, right? Anytime that kind of collision happens with the goalie, they're going to call it. But, it did look like the Devils had something to do with it. And, I don't know. It just kind of looked innocent to me. Yeah. I mean, like, that's... I was surprised, though, that the net didn't actually come off its moorings.
[00:04:37] Like, two guys pushing into the net, and it stays there when the pucks knocked it off before. So, that was a little weird. Right. You have 400 pounds plus of guys plus Markstrom's leg pushing into the net. Like, I know, I think a couple years ago they made it more secure, the pegs. But, that net should have come off. And, I feel like that... If we're going to point the fingers at anything, we're going to point the fingers at that.
[00:05:01] You know, Dylan, maybe he kind of was, like, digging at Brezzo's legs a little bit. And, you know, I don't know if Brezzo can do much of that. He's making a hard play going to the net. You know, I don't think... It is just kind of a freak thing. Like, you know, I didn't see any reaction. Like, fuck this guy. Fuck that guy. Do you hear something? I didn't either. I kind of agree. Yeah. I mean, I know that, like, a lot of Devil fans were upset about it, you know. And Dylan should have went after him or whatever. But, it was a very...
[00:05:31] To me, shit happens, you know. When you have a guy making a beeline straight towards your goalie, and he's got a defender on his back, and they're going at that speed, this shit happens, you know. And that's... Yeah. It sucks. And it looked a lot worse than it apparently is. I mean, when... And I was watching the game late. So, Tim, you and I were texting, so I don't want to bother Bobby late. But, um... He's getting his beauty sleep. See? I know who works.
[00:06:01] Okay. Look at him. Look how pretty he is. Like, shit, that works. He gets his beauty sleep. But, you know, to me, this was... Yeah. I thought he was done for the season. I was... I seriously was like, man, that looked bad. If that's an ACL or something, he's done. You saw the flex in the knee. And if it's an ACL, he's done for a year. Yeah. You saw the flex in the knee, so it didn't look good. Yeah. No, it did not.
[00:06:31] Oh, no. But another thing I want to note is the way these guys wear their pads now, they're not like really all that firmly strapped to their legs because they go down on the side. So, they kind of flip up a little bit. They have a little give to them, right? Yeah. They have a little give to them. So, I think there was some a little bit... It looked a little worse, like the twist on the post, because that was actually his pad twisting and not necessarily his leg. Even though his leg did give a little bit.
[00:06:56] So, anyway, long story short, it sounds like it's worse or better than we hoped. But, you know, we haven't heard anything official from the team yet. So, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But hopefully dodged a bullet, man. He's been the clear cut. And I was actually talking to someone on Twitter last night, Tyler, about this. He's been the clear cut MVP of this team this season by far.
[00:07:24] I don't think that that's even debatable right now. Yeah, I completely agree. From a consistency standpoint, too. You know, other guys can pop up and Jack can carry you for a couple games and all that kind of thing. But, yeah, Markson's been better than advertised to this point in the season. Yeah, I agree. We just wanted slightly above league average. That's all we wanted, right? And that's all we were told. And he's far exceeded that. But, like, he'd be top five Vezina voting right now easily. I agree.
[00:07:53] And if Connor Hallibuch wasn't having the Connor Hallibuch season that he is, I would think that Markstrom might be the frontrunner for the Vezina. Yeah, that's a good point. It's a good conversation. But I am also very confident in Jake Allen and Nico Dawes, if that's who they decide to bring up, which I would assume it is. I am confident that they can do the job. I mean, Jake Allen came in last night, won one game.
[00:08:21] Look, we saw this show, right? Jack gets hurt in St. Louis last year. You know, we've seen things not go right for this team years prior. And then to just crumble like blue cheese. And the whole, what was me, and everything like that. Man, they, you know, right on that big brush roll power play. They, you know, Dougie scores. All right, Hamilton. And we're, you know, rolling. I mean, what a game. I mean, they looked absolutely fantastic last night.
[00:08:51] Power play three out of seven. Seven freaking power plays, man. And I kind of, you know, even talked about it a little bit with you guys and stuff. Like, I thought this would be the game that they could get out of it. I know Boston's not very good. The only thing that really worried me was Swayman. But, you know, I, but that, that shift, I can't even call it a shift because we've rotated lines like four times.
[00:09:17] When we pin them back there for almost four minutes, I can't remember the last time that I saw a double team do that. I mean, that Boston, it sucks that we weren't able to score on it. But, I mean, talk about just deflating your opponent on the bench. Like, after that, Boston had nothing. That was such a cool moment because my kid was already late to go up and start getting ready for bed. So, you know, you're hearing the calls from upstairs. We were watching it down here in the basement.
[00:09:46] And it was about a minute into that shift. And he's glued to the TV. I'm glued to the TV. I'm like, you're not leaving. I'm like, come on, you got to come up. I'm like, no, not yet. Like, as soon as they're done pinning them in the zone, I'm like, if they're ever going to be done pinning them in the zone, it's still there. They're still in the zone, honey. I don't know what to tell you. It's so nice being on the other end, right? Yeah. Being able to actually not be pinned in our zone. Yeah. You know, sorry. No, go ahead. Go ahead.
[00:10:14] I was, yeah, I was just going to say, you know, like the first period was kind of that same Ottawa period, maybe a little bit less in our, in our favor. You know, we did get some good chances. I think they were in our zone a little bit more than we were the other way. And it kind of, it's this stylistically, we're kind of falling back. We were falling back into this being so entirely rush dependent and not really getting a lot of cycling chances, offensive zone time.
[00:10:44] And the first period kind of worried me a little bit like that, you know, aside from Dowling, Dowling, Timo and Mercer, like the other lines weren't really clicking like Jack and Jack and Bastion look like they're playing two entirely different games. Yeah. But the, yeah, the second period, just that, that consistent ozone time, which was, was incredible. We were cycling the puck. We were, we were just all over them.
[00:11:06] The power play kicking just solved so many problems and dug us out of so many holes that we've like, we've been accumulating over the past couple of weeks. It just, it just felt really good to, to see it all kind of come back all at once almost. Now, the one thing I will say, even though it was a great game, we were more or less playing the Providence Bruins. I will say that with, with Swayman, like they didn't have McAvoy. No.
[00:11:33] You know, they, they didn't have a couple, they didn't have Frederick in the lineup, but I think they were both sick or something like that. So they had some scrubs in the lineup and they're not a good team. So can they then carry this over to Montreal? Who's been kicking the crap out of everybody recently. So that's, that's kind of the next step. Well, I agree with you. And the thing is about getting out of a slump like this, like the, it doesn't matter who you're playing. Like, you know, devils can't control who's on the other side of the ice.
[00:12:00] The fact that they played such a good game, I think just because we know that that's really who this team is, right? Who we saw last night. That's, that's who they are. Who we've seen earlier in the month of January so far, that wasn't them. And that was a team in the funk and, you know, we know all the bullshit that they were doing and how bad they were playing. But when you see it last night, like I'm not really overly concerned.
[00:12:24] I think this is a really good kind of launch point to start now getting serious again. And, and, you know, I'm just worried that we're going to have a great run of six, seven games and then be off for two weeks and then come back and take a while to warm up again. That's my only concern. I think they are. I don't want to say officially out of the woods as far as their, you know, offensive troubles go. But I think that they have a lot more confidence now.
[00:12:53] And I do want to discuss these line change ups that we talked about it, you know, what we thought should happen and everything. That was the best game Timo Meyer has played as a New Jersey devil. I mean, even in the playoffs against the Rangers, I thought this was his best game. He completely dominated the ice when he was out there.
[00:13:14] Now I know that they talked a little bit about it, you know, when he was playing with Nico, he's a little bit more of a passenger and Nico's driving all the play and that's not really Timo's game. So I kind of, and at first when I saw Timo down in the third line, I was like, I don't know if I like that. But then the more I thought about it, that was the line I was really excited to see, you know, can you actually unlock Timo and Mercer together? And then Dowling played fantastic. And Timo just drove all the play.
[00:13:44] Everything that we wanted to see from Timo Meyer, we got it, you know, and if he can continue that. And then of course, you know, Jack, I mean, Bratt and he's your nation, I think are going to be fine. It's just now you need to get somebody to play with Jack. And that's, in my opinion, that's if you, if this, these are the lines going to be, I don't care who centers the third line. I don't care if it's Holla, if it's, you know, a guy we trade for, or if it's Dowling.
[00:14:13] But Mercer and Meyer are the keys to that line, in my opinion. So now what do you do with Jack? Because you're right. Bastion, Jack, and I'm fine with Cotter and Jack, but you need somebody in Bastion's spot. Bastion needs to go back to the fourth line. And even Cotter, if you want to bring Palat back, I don't care how they're going to work that. But Jack definitely needs a running mate now. I mean, do you guys feel the same way? Yeah, I think, yeah. I mean, that's, I don't know what else we have to talk about. You kind of said it all.
[00:14:43] Okay. Yeah. Good, good show. Well, there was an article that came out today. No, I'm just, I'm just to elaborate. No, please. Oh, and there I go. All right. I, you know, the, the Bratt, Nico, Nason line was okay. Like, I thought they were okay. I think they'll, they'll be able to hold their own. That, that's three good players, guys that play together. They'll be good.
[00:15:10] Obviously, the Mercer Meyer stuff is great together with Dowling as a 3C. You know, no idea if, no idea, you know, what we're going to be doing with Holla and Palat when they come back. But maybe those are the guys for Jack's line. You know, it would be interesting because Holla kind of unlocks himself when he plays with Jack. If they put him back with Jack, when he comes back in the lineup to see if we can get him going. And then we have Jack and Holla together. So that's kind of, I think, how it's going to go.
[00:15:40] And then maybe do, you know, you get that meets and myths line together again that we was unfortunately nicknamed in preseason. The Cotter Lazar Bastion line. That's the worst name for a line ever. That's so gay. It sounds like, it sounds like animal porn. I don't know. Meats and mitts. Meats and mutts. I don't know. I don't know. What do you think, Bob? Animal porn. Well, first, I just want to say what I said.
[00:16:07] To Chris's point about coming out of a slump with a big offensive win like that. I think that takes it a little further than just a, like a, we got past them kind of win, even though it was the Providence Bruins and that sort of thing. And it kind of felt like you were, you just woke up right in the last two weeks where like just a nightmare. It didn't really happen because you watch that game last night. You're like, oh yeah, that's how they were playing earlier in December. So it was exciting for that.
[00:16:32] I'm watching the Jacques Lemaire ceremony and they're showing all the clips from 95 and everything and the guys talking. And I'm just thinking, if this doesn't get these dudes fired up on that bench, nothing's going to. Like you are sitting amongst, you're sitting in there in that bench, you're wearing your devil's jersey and you're around these devil legends that completely set the table for you guys.
[00:17:00] And, and, and, you know, they, they are the standard. And then you watch this screen of this, these young guys, right. Who had never won it before. And they go on this run, they win the Stanley cup. Everybody's sitting there in front of you. I'm getting fired up watching it. I'm like, you know, I want to get out there and start playing. Like if they come out flat, I'm like, there's definitely something frigging wrong.
[00:17:22] And I feel like if Lindy was still coaching this team, they would have, you know, it just, I just don't like Lindy Ruff as a coach, but you know, they came out. And like you said, the first period was a little bit. That first shift, that first shift, they were fucking all over. Yes. All over. Like, yeah, that team will on there. Or was it? No, I think it was a Nico line. They were all. Yeah. It was, it was like, they, they had the, the puck is on the entire time. Yeah. I said just so much on, on Twitter.
[00:17:49] It was like, you know, you guys better go run through a brick wall. I mean, that's devil's royalty in front of you, you know, like that, you know, and with, with LaMare, like he's such like, you know, it's hard to put into words for people, you know, younger than us that didn't really get to see it, see it live. Just how amazing of a person and a coach and everything that, that he was, you know, he was a tough coach, but he wasn't Pat Burns. He wasn't Tortorella. He wasn't Babcock.
[00:18:17] You know, he was, he was human and he was real. And he had, you know, you could see it in his speech. He had kind of a good sort of sense of humor about things. And, and he was, he was more kind of uplifting and, and it's almost like, you know, it's the, you didn't want to disappoint him type of thing. That's, you know, that's the vibe I kind of got from the players with him. And you saw the guys that showed up for him. You know, that is devil's royalty that showed up for him. Every single one of those guys had their numbers in the Raptors. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:18:46] And yeah, it was, I was thinking though, Zajac and green. So they were with him with the second, his second stint, like I'm guessing, because they were not in the first, right? When did Zajac and green get on the team? Oh, Zajac. Zajac was a year after. Where's Tony? Where's Tony? Where's Tony? What was that? He was on the floor, right? I was like, where's, where's Tony when you need him? He could probably tell you the exact date. And tell you when he was drafted and, you know, yeah. What town they're in during that draft? Exactly.
[00:19:17] Exactly. So, I mean, I was super excited about all, everything last night. I think that, you know, they finally have some good vibes or feeling good about themselves and there were no glaring mistakes. The only shitty thing is that Marksrum went down. And at the same time, though, like I said, I am fully confident that Allen and Dawes can do the job, especially when we play the defensive type of hockey that we know that we know we can play. When Dawes came in last. That's a valid point. Yeah.
[00:19:45] Can I ask you one weird question about the Zajac ceremony? Sorry to totally backtrack. No, go ahead. Is a bottle of wine a weird gift to give for that? I don't know. I mean, that's always kind of a feel like a difficult thing. Like, what are you going to give them? But like, I feel like that's weird. It wasn't a particularly old bottle, wasn't it? I think it was like 2020 something I heard. It's like an Opus One or something, which is a nice bottle of wine. But I don't know. That just always feels like so weird to me. Not millionaire level, right?
[00:20:17] I don't know. How much money is that bottle of wine? Let's take a look. Yeah, I have no idea what it was. But I know Opus One is a very high-end brand. Well, he also got a jacket that he's not going to wear again. Yeah, he said it was a little tight. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean, they're all, you know, $150 is the lowest price point, you know, to buy it on month. That's it? That was our opening day seats in the top row. Right.
[00:20:47] Yeah. A 2016 bottle is, you know, $2,000. You know, so it's like, it varies. I imagine it's got something special. It just feels like a bit of a weird gift. Like, you know, picture or like, I guess, you know, he got the jacket, like you said, you know. Got a watch. Got like a little ceramic pin. I don't know. It's just like, a bottle of wine just always feels weird to me. It's like, what are you doing? What if also he's like, yeah, I'm an alcoholic. I quit drinking 20 years ago. I'm recovering. I don't really need that, you know. So anyway, sorry.
[00:21:16] I started a totally sidetrack. There's just something that was on my mind. Definitely better for a nice bottle of whiskey. Right? That would have been better. They had a bunch of the guys in the media scrum. I don't know if you guys saw it. You know, like just each guy was asked a bunch of questions and they were with the, you know, Amanda Stein and all the other reporters and stuff. And they had Stevens. They had Niedermeyer, Robinson. Who else was there? Jimmy Dabb was there.
[00:21:46] No, but he wasn't on the media scrum. Nobody wanted to talk to Jimmy. No, honestly, because because this game also for Bobby and I was NHL network. So I missed so much of this. Like they cut the middle of the ceremony to go to commercial. I was like, what are you doing? Yeah, I had a real big problem with that because I wound up seeing a good amount of it. But for a while there, I was really kind of bitching about it.
[00:22:09] Like for anybody who's tuned into this game anyway, who's not a fan of either team, but it's just kind of a hockey fan that wants to watch this game. That's fun. They're probably interested in something like this. I mean, this is like one of the legends of hockey. This isn't just some guy we're retiring or whatever. Like this is, there's a lot of history with this guy. So I would think like rabid hockey fans would be into that ceremony too. If they're going to, you know, why not just have it on in its entirety? Yeah. It really pissed me off.
[00:22:38] Like right when the, at the very beginning, when they're about to start the ceremony, went to commercial. Two minutes of like awful products that they sell on NHL network. I couldn't believe it. And then four nations tickets. I have a little beef though with devil fans here because they kept showing the stands and they were way too many empty seats for a guy like Jacques Lemaire. Like I know that filled up for the game, but come on, man. I get it.
[00:23:08] It was 30 years ago. Not everybody remembers it, but this is Jacques Lemaire. You know, I mean, you got to show up if you're a devil fan and you got to be, you have tickets to that game. You don't miss that ceremony. Like, I don't know, man. It just, that bugged me. That's cold. Roads are icy. I don't know. There are New Jersey transit problems too. I saw. So, you know, maybe that, that was an issue, but yeah, you mark this one in your calendar and you go out there. Chris is fine.
[00:23:34] If this were, if this were a retirement ceremony for a player, you're literally going. That's one of the main reasons you're going. That's all went to all those, you know? And, but of course we grew up watching them. So maybe you're younger. It was just another game. I don't know. Yeah. There's this old guy. I don't care about him. I guess. I saw a picture on Twitter. Someone posted a picture. There are like three guys sitting on the glass with Rangers jerseys on. It's like, what are you guys doing? Get out. Respect. Yeah.
[00:24:03] You know, it's like, it's like, yeah, it's like, what? Billy Madison. It's like, you go out there and you find that fucking dog. Right. You get yourself to that game. You go out there and you find that fucking dog. Check. Check. FF. I tell you, that was my first. That was Timmy's favorite. That was my fifth. That might've been your fifth. But, you know, now I've completely lost my train of thought.
[00:24:29] Oh, uh, the one thing that used to bug me more than anything is going to, when we used to go to all the devil games, uh, you know, it's devil's penguins. And there's five dudes there with Ranger jerseys on. That would bug the living shit out of me. Like, dude, what are you doing, man? Like you're a Ranger fan that don't come to this game and don't wear your fricking Ranger jersey. Like they're not even playing. I have bugged me so much. I have a USA jersey.
[00:24:57] That's my, my team's not playing jersey that I wear whenever, if someone says, hey, here's tickets to the Flyers game or wherever, that's the one I throw on. I don't wear a devil's jersey to a game where the devils aren't playing. That's just such a weird, weird behavior. I don't understand it. Um, everybody go out and get your USA jersey. Don't be a jerk like me. Don't get the 96, get the 1980. It's way sweeter. Yeah, it is. We can all go out and get our four nation, uh, Facebook jerseys. We can get those. That'd be awesome.
[00:25:27] I'm actually looking at the NHL site right now. Like, remember what I was saying last time? Like, like every single banner ad on NHL.com is all four nation stuff. Like it's the only, they only are using their own and operated like, like properties to market this. Like, I don't think anybody outside of the hockey universe has any idea that this is happening. Which is really, yeah, that is a shame because I would love to go to one of the games. I would love to. That'd be awesome. That'd be awesome.
[00:25:57] Love to go, but I don't know what tickets are. You know, I'm not about to drive to Boston. I would drive to Montreal. I mean, I do love Montreal. Boston's cool too, though. Fun city. Quick question. Do any of that. Let's give a little shout out here to our hockey podcast network sponsors. Playoffs.
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[00:27:26] For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, visit dkng.co slash audio. Audio. That's DraftKings Sportsbook with code THPN. The crown is yours. That is so cool. You changed your outfits in less than a second. Different hoodie, different hat. It looks completely different. And you didn't talk from it. I couldn't even distract you with my Jobu again.
[00:27:56] And did you even notice? I managed to run all the way into my kitchen to do that one and then came back in here real quick. Yes, God. It's like the little kid in The Incredibles. He's redefined live reads, folks. It's so much better than actually reading them. But yeah. Well, you did read it. That's true. It was also the first time I felt like I was looking at a computerized version of you. Really? Yeah. That was a little alarming. I was just like right there.
[00:28:26] Full curse in the face. Oh, shit. Oh, God. So what else do you guys want to touch on about this awesome game against the Bruins? Just how bad the Bruins suck? Because my God, the Bruins suck, guys. You know what? I wanted to bring up number one. Jimmy Dow does go commitments, I guess. He just doesn't call us back anymore. No problem, Jimmy. That nascent goal. Anyone notice? Like he hit it twice. Like he hit it.
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[00:29:24] See site for details. We're coming back now. So I'm just unsure if this is going to work to splice these two shows together. So we're just close two shows and do part one and part two. So you're under part two now, everybody. Well, if that's the case, I should have probably kept the intro video in that one, but I didn't. So I apologize. This whole thing is fucked up. So anyway, Bob, what were you saying? Was I talking about you and your reader? Spoker admin.
[00:29:55] Oh, I know. I should not have this kind of power, guys. I don't deserve it. Life was so much simpler when there was no camera. Oh, man. I can't believe I fucking did that. It's so stupid of me. But you were saying something, Bob, about... Yeah, I was talking, I think, specifically about the Nason goal. I said, I don't know if you guys noticed it, but he kind of first, he chipped it into the net and it kind of landed on Swayman's legs. And he had to kind of chip it off his leg into the net. I thought that was really cool.
[00:30:23] It's two quick moves there to get that in. You don't see that much. I had referenced the fact that our old pal Jimmy Dow does show up for things. No offense, buddy. But, you know, call the show. Also, mid-Markstrom interview, he was getting interviewed mid-Markstrom interview. Right. And we talked about this on the first show that maybe you guys are going to hear. Maybe it's going to be part of this. We're not really sure yet. We talked about... We don't know what happened. The Meyer and Mercer combination.
[00:30:51] All I did here on my little notebook is I drew that, like, those pair of eyes, like you could do, like, when you're tweeting something. Like, ooh, look at this. That's what I drew because they were obviously standing out to me. But, finally, I just got to say something. I know we've given this guy love before, but, like, Bill Spalding's really good. Like, I'm really enjoying his calls. He's got really good calls, especially on, like, legit big-time goalie saves. He's got such tremendous energy when our goalies make these out-of-their-mind fucking saves. Oh, one for me.
[00:31:21] First check from your show. I just got to say that. Like, Bill Spalding, I know, like, remember when he came on a couple years ago? We're like, oh, he kind of feels like a little kid that's so happy to be in the candy store and all this shit. But he's good. He calls a good game. He has a really good job of, like, crescendoing to the moment. Like, he feels it almost, like, about to happen and then just nails the calls. And there's no lag after or before. He's just really good. And I like some of the – he's kind of starting to throw some of his own terminology into things, too.
[00:31:50] He uses the term mixer a lot when talking about the in front of the net. And then he said something funny in the third – oh, he said in the third period, he said, and they just like to snuff out the life of their opponents. I was like, Jesus Christ, Bill. He's very good. But Danico is – you know, the thing I love best about Danico, and he stumbles over himself a lot and everything. But you know he's invested in every shift that the Devils are out there.
[00:32:19] Like, he is an absolute uber fan and just, you know, you could tell. I mean, I love watching, like, clips of, like, if the Devils blow a game and stuff and they'll show, like, him in the back and he'll throw his shit. You know, he's all pissed and he has to stay calm. But, you know, the guy's kind of like – Bill kind of backs away from him sometimes because, you know, that Kenny's about to lose it. And I love what they're doing this year with actually having Bryce as the third guy.
[00:32:47] Even though he's still, you know, between the benches, they were always, well, you know, let's throw it down to Bryce. Now he's just jumping in. Now he's part of that crew, and I like it a lot. And I think now – because I wasn't a big fan of Bryce because he always seemed so robotic and stiff and uncomfortable. And I think when people throw shit at you and they're like, okay, talk, you can be that way. You know, it's kind of hard where now he can kind of just free flow into the conversation and stuff.
[00:33:14] And you kind of see a lot more of his personality and him and Danico kind of ripping off each other. And the three of them together, I think it's – are super solid. I like it. The team did him dirty because he had just, what, complimented, like, their power play work or something. And they gave up short-handed chances. Like, they did me dirty. Well, there you go. It's going on about how great they were. And then they took a penalty. Yeah, something like that. Four-on-four, yeah. Yeah, and you can kind of actively see them, you know, getting better with their dynamic, the three of them, and how – you know, who to jump in.
[00:33:44] You know, like we kind of do this to a lesser extent, you know, understanding, you know, when the other guy is going to talk and pitching to each other and saying stuff to each other. But what cracks me up about Danico is, first of all, when he's like, oh, boy, that just kills me every time when something happens. But you can hear his heart palpitations when Jack Hughes dangles through the front of the – in front of the goal or makes a cross-crease pass, like, right in front of the goalie. It just fucking makes me laugh. There it is again.
[00:34:14] Makes me laugh every single time because – We're so happy to have them laugh. Yeah. Between the bunch of games that have been on national, a couple that I've missed, their shitty play. Like, last night was the first time I felt like I was sitting down at home and watching my team again. You know, I got them calling the game instead of the shit that they put out there with some of the national broadcasts. So, yeah. And, of course, you always like your home team. Most people do, right? Of course. I will take my homers all day every day. Yeah.
[00:34:42] Hey, Tim, do you have that article we were talking about before because my phone just died and I don't have it anymore? Oh, I don't know. I could kind of go off memory because I know the people that it was. It was a – hang on. Let me see if I can find it. It was Pucks and Pitchforks. Pucks and Pitchforks? It was Pucks and Pitchforks, yeah. So, I mean, are the Rangers going to make the playoffs?
[00:35:12] What do you guys think? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, they turned it around. They turned it around fast. And the core of that team is still there. So, Sterkin looks like he's back to being most of what he was probably. I'm saying no. You're still saying no? I'm still saying no. They are not going to make the playoffs. Let's see the standings here. I think Ottawa is getting in. I think Ottawa is getting in.
[00:35:39] And I think Columbus is getting in. All right. I would love to see Columbus in. And what Columbus plays such a fun brand of hockey, man. Like it's just high-end, fire wagon, we'll score more than you type of stuff. I love it. Two points out of the playoffs. I mean, it's crazy. And honestly, we could have something to do with that with playing Montreal twice in the next couple of weeks.
[00:36:08] Like we could have a big say in that. Well, you know, the problem is like I'm hearing more like, you know, the Devils keep this up. Columbus is only, what, six points behind them with two games in hand or something like that. And, you know, I'm not – maybe I should be a little bit worried, but I'm really not. I mean, I think the Devils are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
[00:36:30] And I think once they – and I think once they start rattling off a few and they start getting back into, you know, three out of four, four out of five, they'll be fine. They'll, you know, hopefully maybe even give Washington a run down the road. You know, we still have 30-something games left. Let's go for it. We've talked about it and everybody's talking about it now, you know, on all these different games, even not Devils games.
[00:36:57] Like you can go back and they're showing how all these championship teams have these kind of two weeks. Almost all of them have it at some point. Yeah. And you just got to get over it. And earlier in the last show, first half, whatever we're calling it, Chris had just started talking about Markstrom going down and feeling confident with Allen. And we didn't really get a chance to talk about that. We went off topic, but I'm fully on board with that because the losing that we did had nothing to do with Markstrom. You know what I mean?
[00:37:27] That was completely like offensive dry up. Allen's capable of giving us at least league average like we always wanted. If our defense plays anything like it's played for majority of the year, which is a large sample size for us to suggest they will, then that part of the game is not going to be the problem. You just don't win when you don't score. That's the way it's always been. So I think we're out of the losing streak. I think I'm not, we want Markstrom back sooner rather than later.
[00:37:53] The break's probably going to help with the four nations, but I think that we'll be able to keep our head above water with defensive and goaltending as long as our guys remember how score. And Alan being a, a experienced veteran goaltender. A couple of days ago before Markstrom got hurt, he had a great interview where he was really gracious and really cool about like, hey, I'm here to support Markstrom. He's our guy.
[00:38:16] I'll do whatever he needs that like, and for him to then, you know, he knows his role and, but he is a veteran. He's been around for a while. He's been in this role where he needs to step in when he has to, you know, if remember, I don't know if you guys remember when Nico Dawes had to come into a game and he looked like, he looked like a deer in headlights. You know, if we had a rookie goalie doing that, like I'd feel a lot less confident, but Alan is more than capable and he played great when he came in.
[00:38:43] Like that, that two on one sort of half breakaway at the end of the period in the second, he doesn't stop that. You know, they get maybe a little bit of momentum going into the third. Like we didn't do anything in the third. It kind of was a bit of a throwaway period, but, but like, if he doesn't stop that, it could be a little bit of a different game. But I still think, I still think the Rangers do climb themselves out of this. They, I think roster wise, they, they are a much better team than, than what the record indicates. I don't like it.
[00:39:13] But, you know, like I said, we do have a lot to do with it in terms of playing Montreal twice right now, because they've been on an absolute here. We could just, we could just crush their Montreal spirits, spirits right now. So we, you know, who wants the Rangers to make the playoffs more than any other team, right? It's the Capitals. The Capitals want to end up with the first seed, have the Rangers take the second wild card and then do to them what they did to the Rangers. They did the Capitals last year. I think that's what the Capitals would love to do.
[00:39:43] And they could probably do it. Washington is a damn good team. You know, you go back to like, even last year when we were having all our goaltending problems, this is back in like December pre Jake Allen and Nico Dawes came in. And in the beginning he played really good. And we were on the show going, guys, do we have our goaltender here? Is it going to be Dawes? And then the defense completely crumbled. And so did he. And we couldn't buy a save from anybody.
[00:40:12] He got started like eight straight games or something like that. A couple of back-to-backs were in there. But I think I remember one specific game in Washington where he stopped like five breakaways or something like that. Yeah. And after the game, he said something akin to, I really like stopping breakaways or something. Right. Something very Ivan Drago. Like, I think I did a breakaway. But, you know, you know, he's going to get at least we think we have a back-to-back coming up against the Flyers. Right.
[00:40:42] So Dawes will get in for one of them. We got one. Yeah. I think of these seven games, they're pretty well spread out for the most part, except for that back-to-back. So realistically, you know, we could be, you know, Allen six games, Dawes one game. If it's Dawes, it might be Poulter. I have no idea. Which I would be happy seeing. I really, really want to see Poulter play. So that would be nice. I would love to see him play.
[00:41:08] But I'm just so happy that we're not doing a show bitching about how everything sucks on this team. You know? I mean, we were just sitting here on the last show going, and I still think if they're going to make a move, it's a big move. Because now there's more and more talk about JT Miller, and they were talking about it on NHL Network. Like, no, the Devils are in on this. And, you know, you know it's going to be Mercer. And, like, we're saying, like, yeah, Mercer's gone. But then, you know, you see how he plays last night.
[00:41:38] I was so happy for him. Like, every year, this guy's on the trade block. Every single year. And, look, I'm not in love with, you know, many of these players. If you trade them, you trade them. The goal is winning a Stanley Cup. If it has to be on, you know, Dawson Mercer leaving New Jersey, so be it. But I'd love to see, like, now we can make these. He keeps this up. Now we can make the argument. Like, no, wait a second. That's all I want. I want to be able to sit here and pound the table and say, no, don't trade Dawson Mercer.
[00:42:08] He's playing great instead of where we were most of the season going, trade him. He's done nothing. I probably have a series of unpopular opinions here as the team has kind of evolved. And maybe I'm just still too old school throwback. But I still envision Mercer as a prospect for a top six. I still think he's the one guy that just kind of gets moved around a lot and has a hard time figuring out exactly what he should be doing. And I also think he does play excellently with Meyer.
[00:42:38] Now, the problem with that is, and the current lineup, which I'll take for a while to get out of this funk, right? Spread out all the offense over to things. I don't traditionally like that model. I think what you found here is that you can put a Meyer and a Mercer together on lines one and two. Either Hughes or Heischer is centering those guys. And then fill in the brat with either the Heischer or Hughes. Get a traditional 3C. Build a real third line again with Palat and Mason back down there.
[00:43:04] Because come playoff time, I think that's going to be really important to have that kind of third line presence going in the playoffs. So I just think maybe we've seen that those two work together. Let's find a way to get him back up in the top six. Let's make the top six be who we really all think the top six should be. Barring the fact that we can't go get somebody who's really good to play with Jack. But here's the thing. If Jack is, let's say it's Jack Palat and insert winger that we draft, right?
[00:43:34] This is the problem right there. I don't want Jack Palat anymore. That's what I'm saying. It could be Jack. Let's say Jack and Cotter. I'll go with Jack and Cotter, okay? Jack and Cotter and then a winger that we go out and get. We've talked about a whole bunch of them. Let's say it's an Alex Tuck or a guy like that, right? That's a great – should be a great line. And they can generate offense. And Jack has gotten so much better on defense. And Tuck can play defense. And Cotter can play defense.
[00:44:04] So it's a responsible line that can give you a ton of offense. Now you have your second line if you keep it the way it was last night, right? It's Heischer, it's Bratt, and what the hell were they with? Mason. Right? Love that line. Let's not touch it. We all know what they can do, which is very good defensive and they can score goals. Now if your third line is consistently what we saw last night, then there is no way top six.
[00:44:32] There's nine guys, three lines that can generate offense and defense. The days of matching guys against certain players, against certain players, and like that left when Jacques LeMere actually left as a devil coach. Because there was no devil coach. We've talked about this a million times. That was better at just matching guys up against other dudes that, hey, you're better than him. We're going to put you out against him every single time.
[00:45:00] And I know on the road you don't get the last line change and everything, whatever. But Jacques was great at it. I would like to see a top nine that can do what we saw that third line do last night consistently. Much more than just having a heavy checking line that can keep best players in. Look, you have the puck on your stick. Other teams aren't going to score. And then they don't care what you do with the fourth line. Lazar, Bastion, Palat, I'm fine with that.
[00:45:30] You can also change your lineup now knowing that that works. You can change your lineup whether you're home or away. If you're home and you get the line matchup, you can build that defense structure third line to match up against the other team's first line. And then just run roughshod over everybody with the first two lines like Bobby's talking about away. You can put the onus on the home team to be like, which line do you want to match up against? The line with Nico Hesher and Jesper Bratt? The line with Jack Hughes?
[00:45:59] Or the line with Timo and Dawson Mercer? So we can do, if we can effectively put out both lineups, that's fucking scary. Pardon my French. That's number seven. Seven. Seven. Are you keeping a tally? But that's what I mean. It's like, but knowing that we have that optionality now is a huge advantage. And I think Keith kind of hinted at, we'll go back to what we should kind of more look like top six, bottom six.
[00:46:29] But for now, if that line's working, keep them together, run with it. And we know that it works. I'm with you guys. Like I said, I knew this was going to be kind of unpopular opinion because it's almost like backwards. It's not. I don't like, I don't like an $8.8 million guy as my third line left wing. I really don't. Don't look at it as your third line though. Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. I know, but I don't think it's going to work forever as currently constructed. That's all. I just think at some point you're going to beef it back up a little bit.
[00:46:58] I mean, if you've got Hughes playing with Brett and then you figure out who plays with them, maybe it's still a Cotter. You got Meyer, Keesher, Mercer, and you got Nason down the third line. Palat's been playing better. Maybe they can get something, some hard North hockey. You know. Listen, this worked great last night. I'm not saying we got to change it. I'm just saying like, that's just my gut. Right, Tim? Like, I just feel like. And I don't think you're wrong. I don't think you're wrong. One thing.
[00:47:28] Which makes me right. So I appreciate that. By not being wrong, I'm 100% right. Yeah, I guess, you know, I don't know. Are we in court here? One, another thing while we're talking, going back kind of a couple of stages. And I think giving Keith like flexibility and optionality within those lineups is, this is a very good problem to have. So I think the problem that he now needs to solve is what's he going to do with Jack's wigs. Sorry, I keep losing my voice for whatever reason.
[00:47:57] I want to go back to the goaltending really quickly because we're talking about Dawes. And as opposed to talking about those ridiculous trade targets that Chris brought up, I just wanted to read something about. We know that Yegorov, our prospect who is going to be you, right? So we know that. JP Gambitese put out a kind of thread on Jacob Malik as well that I wanted to kind of go through a little bit if you guys are cool with that. Who's Jacob Malik?
[00:48:26] Who's Jacob Malik? He definitely needs to. Oh, the goalie? Yes. Yeah. So. Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to read this thread because it's actually great because it kind of goes to show that we actually have like a very good pipeline of young goalies with Dawes, Poulter, Malik, Yegorov, and even this Finnish kid that we also drafted. I don't know how to even say his last name. So I'm seeing an article, article, article after article about Yegorov, who's going to be good.
[00:48:55] Nothing mentions who I argue is the devil's best goaltending prospect. According to the League of Statistics page, Malik has the second best save percentage and the best goals against average in the league. He also has saved 6.71 goals saved above expected, which puts him fifth in the league. He's following a similar career trajectory similar to Lucas Dostal, the Anaheim goalie, down to the same Finnish team, though Dostal's statistical profile in Liga was a bit better than Malik's.
[00:49:22] The caveat to that is that Dostal and Malik's statistical profiles are similar relative to the rest of the league during their tenures. Dostal ranked top five in save percentage and goals against average in his draft plus two year, and so did Malik. Dostal's draft plus three year was a COVID year, but he was first in save percentage in the games he played. Malik currently sits second in Liga in his draft plus three year. So really kind of what he's saying is that the statistical profile is very similar to Lucas Dostal, who's turned out to be a stud in Anaheim once they start turning themselves around.
[00:49:52] Malik possesses extreme composure on breakaways and other odd man situations. He's cool, calm and collected and has a solid frame. He's 6'4 for a goaltender. He's a freak athlete who moves across the crease very well and is a strong glove hand. So, yeah, he's going to be an excellent goalie. He'll be in the AHL next year. So we have a really good, really good goalie pipeline. Which really does excite me because we talked about it on this show like last summer.
[00:50:19] You know, after we got Markstrom and everything and Bobby and I were talking about this and we had said, you know, the one thing I feel like we don't have on this team is that young goaltender that's going to be with these guys for the next six, seven years. If they start, you know, being that perennial deep playoff run, deep, you know, Stanley Cup contender every year. You've got to have like it would be great to have like Marty. Right.
[00:50:44] He was his rookie year and they make it to the Eastern Conference finals and the rest is history. And he had like the Niedermeyer Stevens, Danico, like that. Like Jack and Nico, excuse me. And and and, you know, Dougie and Luke and goalie a that is that young stud that's going to be with them throughout it all. Because, you know, Markstrom, now you're dealing with a knee injury.
[00:51:13] Let's just hope he comes back and he's as good as he was. Because now there's questions, not to mention that he's 36 and he or 34 and he has only next year left on his contract. Who's it going to be? You know, I believe in Dawes. I think Dawes can be the guy. I like Nico Dawes. I think that, like we said, when he came up last year and we played some good defense in front of him, he played well. But there was I don't give a shit. If you had two goalies in that last year, we were going to give up a shitload of goals. You know, walrus in that.
[00:51:43] Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, this kid, let's bring him in. Come on, let's go. So and to get also now I know that I got sidetracked as Chris get to do a little thing. But to talk back to Bobby's point about lines and I don't necessarily believe in the line designations. One, two, three. It kind of, you know, I don't know if it necessarily works out that way anymore. And it really kind of depends on game flow and deployment.
[00:52:09] But if you look at actually ice time from from last night at five on five, Timo Meyer had the highest five on five forward ice time, followed by Dowling, followed by Mercer. So they actually got the most five on five ice time. There were also seven penalties. So that kind of throws things into flux a little bit with power plays and penalty killing. So it changes game to game. So I don't know. It's an interesting question. It's kind of a philosophical debate about whether you wanted to have top six, bottom six, top nine, fourth line.
[00:52:37] However you want to want to kind of identify yourself. You want to have three lines that just, you know, is pure gasoline and, hey, you have to defend us. Or we have a third line that's like, hey, we're going to shut down your first line. Try and stop our top two. Yeah, you're right. It is a philosophical question because there aren't many teams that are as deep as New Jersey that can legitimately put out three lines that can, you know, produce tons of offense. You don't see it.
[00:53:05] And, you know, most teams are lucky that they have one good line. And, you know, we have three. And now it just comes down to our best player needs somebody to play with. And, you know, that seems to be the problem, right? Like we just for a couple of years now have not been able to find that perfect partner for Jack. Who the hell is it? It's just a brother.
[00:53:30] You know, and I was all for – I'm completely for splitting up Jack and Brad. You know, I didn't give it – I know that there were some people, no, you never split them up. No, split them the fuck up. Like there's no problem with that. Oh, yeah. I'm totally fine with that. You know, Jack is fantastic no matter who he's playing with.
[00:53:47] But there's like – there's so much – in my opinion, there's just so much more you can get from him if he has that solid winger that just stays with him for a couple of years and they become, you know, Arnot and Eliash or, you know, something like that. I mean, it's got to be a shooter, though, right? At the very least, it's got to be a shooter. Yes. A straight-up shooter. Yeah, I keep saying this. This right-hand – righty sniper. Get him a righty sniper. You know, like everybody's talking about JT Miller.
[00:54:17] Meanwhile, I'm looking at Brock Besser from Vancouver. Pittsburgh is apparently about to have a fire sale. And I look at Ricardo Raquel, who I – did I see you his picture? Yeah, my new invention. I'm going to trademark this and nobody steal it, but it's Tinder for trade targets. But you just get to swipe on the guy that you want. For you, nobody's listening. Yeah, exactly. So all 12 of you, if there's any app developers out there, give me a shout.
[00:54:47] So the five trade targets, Chris. I got it here, actually. That's why I ran out to get my charger. So you want to go over or do you want me to read it? Yeah, I can start. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So the first two really is finding that 3C, right? Read the whole headline. Let everybody know what exactly the headline says, who wrote it, where you're getting it, and then go through the guys. Please.
[00:55:16] Five trade targets that would be perfect partners for Jack Hughes featuring a picture of Quinn Hughes. What a segue. What a picture of Brian Carter for Jack. Jack, it's almost like they grew up together and know each other. The New Jersey Devils are looking to make big moves at the NHL trade deadline. If the price makes sense, but one of their main priorities has to be finding the right partners for Jack Hughes. By Jennifer Schmacher.
[00:55:45] Yes, Jennifer, we agree. The New Jersey Devils are in a great spot right now. Superstar Jack Hughes is a huge reason. The Devils have 58 points as of press time. But the Toronto Maple Leafs are also doing well in the Eastern Conference and are neck and neck with New Jersey. They're not. Toronto's way out of us in the points. Not sure where that came from. Okay. That's the Eastern Conference final. Here's five trade partners that would pair well with Hughes. What's that? I said that's the Eastern Conference final. I'm just throwing it out there. Toronto, New Jersey. That's the Eastern Conference final. All right.
[00:56:16] Okay. Mark it in your town. New Toronto actually makes it. Yeah, I do. Mark, dude. I do. Here's five trade partners that would pair well with Hughes and bring added strength to the Devils roster. Jack Hughes noted center, first line center on the New Jersey Devils. Yes. Number one, Ryan O'Reilly. Ryan O'Reilly, who also plays center. Yeah. Recently reported that Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald had started to check in on obvious center targets to pair with center Jack Hughes.
[00:56:45] O'Reilly, 33. He's 32. Would be a massive addition to the Devils' third line, not the first line. And penalty kill. We just moved Jack to third line winger. God damn. I work for Meyer. Yeah, I guess we just did. He does. So, I've actually brought up O'Reilly. I think he would be a great 3-seat target. I don't know how it's in the context of partners. Jack Hughes. I have no idea either. 13 goals, 26 points, 40 blocks, 41 games.
[00:57:13] Adding to his appeal would be more than a rental. He does have a $4.5 million cap hit through the end of next season. I love the idea of Ryan O'Reilly on this team. I would love Ryan O'Reilly. I like Ryan O'Reilly. Another guy, her actual number two, is another third line center target for Jack Hughes, third line winner. Yanni Gord on Seattle. LeBron also mentioned Yanni Gord as another potential target.
[00:57:41] What makes sense, given he's in his final season's contract with Kraken. One of the last lines on this part, real quick, real quick, timeout, timeout. One of the last lines on this part make me crack up. So, go ahead. Finish reading that. This last line is great. Go ahead. He has six goals. He has six goals. Six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yep. Goals. 16 points and 58 hits. Not bad for the Petsman. He's 5'9".
[00:58:11] 5'9", 175 would pair well with Hughes. Also on the smaller side, 5'11", 175. Do we both able to utilize their speed efficiently when skating across zones? Huh. Let's take a look at that. And get bullied all over the ice. I know Yanni Gord plays very big. NHL edge puck tracking technology. Huh. Because all the players have puck tracking in their jerseys. Let's take a look at Yanni Gord's speed. Shall we? Yes. 2023-24, last season. Top skating speed.
[00:58:41] He's in the 77th percentile. Speed burst over 20. 92nd percentile. Middle guy is fast. Let's look at how that's going this year. Oh, no. Top skating speed. Below the 50th percentile. Speed burst over 20 miles. 60th percentile. Skating distance. Below 50th. Top shot speed. Below 50th. Shots on goal. Below 50th. Yanni Gord is not a good option. He's slow. He's small. He's getting slow. He's washed.
[00:59:11] We already have that guy. His name's Eric Haller. Exactly. I got to click next as the ads on the screen are giving my computer disease. Next. All right. Takes me up to the top. Cool. Hang on. The next person is a blank page. Still a picture of Quinn Hughes. Can't wait to get to that part. Oh, page 202.
[00:59:38] Scott Lawton from the Philadelphia Flyers. From the final of three players LeBron listed as potential trade targets for New Jersey. He's the kind of player who chips in offensively, is solid defensively, and throws the body. Noticeably no statistics listed. Making him a perfect addition to the Devils roster. He's been in the rumor mill for quite some time and carries a reasonable $3 million cap hit. I would like my own personal $3 million reasonable cap hit. I don't agree about Scott Lawton. Flyers aren't trading us. You're new to the show. You'll get your money.
[01:00:08] Scott Lawton is the best one so far to actually play with Jack. To play with Jack. The only one that makes sense. Trent Frederick. Currently with the Boston Bruins. We didn't see him yesterday. He was either scratched or sick. Currently with explosive diarrhea. Not sure what happened to him. He's a big boy. 6-3. 7 goals. 14 points. 132 hits. Do not think he is the type of wing to play with Jack. I believe he's more of like a faster, a little bit better version of Bastion.
[01:00:39] If the Devils acquired Frederick, he'd have the potential to give their bottom six a nice boost. To play with Jack Hughes. To pair with Jack Hughes. This is due to his heavy game of play. This is due to his heavy game of play. Yes. Okay. And how he contributes offensively. He hit 18 goals and 40 points last season. Played both up and down the middle of the wing. Setting up well to pair with Hughes in the bottom six. Number five. Number five. Noted forward.
[01:01:09] Noted forward. Wait, wait. This is, again, to reiterate. Players to trade for to play with Jack Hughes. That's the name of the article. That's what this article is about. The title of the article. It's the only reason why I clicked on it. Yes. Yes. I clicked on it because of the thumbnail of Quinn Hughes. Now, this is a long shot and certainly not reasonable as Quinn Hughes is the current captain of Vancouver. He just won the Norris Trophy.
[01:01:38] I have a question. It would be fun to see. Sure would. All three Hughes brothers, Jack, Luke, and Quinn, have expressed a desire to play together. Hold on one line. Considering it a dream to share the ice as siblings in a professional game, which they have. They have openly stated that playing alongside each other is something they've talked about and look forward to a long time. I don't think, see, when they say alongside, I don't think that Quinn meant I'm going to drop down to a forward role. No. He wouldn't even be paired with Luke. He wouldn't even be paired with Luke. No.
[01:02:07] Now, if you just wrote, like, joining Jack on the Devils and, you know, that would be what she actually even wrote in the forward to pair with Jack Hughes. To pair with him. To play with Jack. Let's take Quinn out of Vancouver. Take the sea off his chest. Tell him to go burn his Norris Trophy because he's now a winger. And we throw him. Come on. Who writes this shit? Right.
[01:02:36] And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the danger of having AI write your stories. Yes. You got to check this shit. You don't just take whatever it gives you. His wonderful run of play, which is just not a phrase I've ever heard talking about a hockey player. And I've also never heard two hockey players that would pair well because they're both small. That was an entertaining. I do want to mention, though, that I have seen Yanni. The lolly pop line.
[01:03:03] And I have seen Yanni Gordon mention that we represent the New York Devils, New Jersey Devils, New Jersey Devils. I have seen Yanni Gordon out there. I think this guy is washed and we shouldn't go anywhere near him. I'm down for Ryan O'Reilly. No doubt. But not to play with Jack Hughes because it's really hard two guys taking the same face off in the same spot in the dot. They get confused. They trip over each other. Yeah. It's in the circle. That could be messy.
[01:03:33] Now no one can take a face off. No one's taking the job. Total chaos. So Ryan O'Reilly actually as our third line centerman. I like that. Yeah. If you're, you know, if he's willing to come here and it's, you know, I like the price tag. I like all of that. Jack's willing to go down a few. If Jack's willing to go down on Ryan's line. And, yeah, so no one else on there really intrigues me. You know. I like Frederick for the bottom six.
[01:04:01] Yeah, I'm saying to pair it with Jack. Oh, to pair it with Jack. No, none of those guys. And I don't know if. Crazy. Like, if we get JT Miller, which I officially I don't think is a good idea. I just think the cons far outweigh the pros. Do you know who the name is to go the other way? No, I don't even think we're really in the conversation. I think we are. I think it's Rangers Carolina.
[01:04:29] I think if they were to tears, it's one Rangers, two Carolina, the Devils. And they talked about it a lot on NHL Network today. I know, but they talked about it in like an NHL Network did this shit with Brady Kachuk too. It's like they play matchmaker where they think a guy would like to go. I'm not talking about it. I'm talking about the ones on XM. The Mick Kearns and Steve Kulias and stuff. They were the ones that were doing a lot of talking about.
[01:04:57] Mike Gordon today was talking about because they had a guy call up a Mick Kearns show today. They had. What does your team need? What is the one thing call in that your team has to get better at or acquire to get them over the next, you know, and then like five Ranger fans called because that's all that ever calls. And one of them was like, we need to get JT Miller here.
[01:05:24] And he's like, well, it looks like New Jersey is really on the fast track here for JT Miller. And, you know, the other guy chimed in with, you know, yeah, a lot of that is also to keep that guy away from your opposition. You know, do you go out and get JT Miller? So the Rangers don't like I'm not I don't buy into that theory at all. But I don't think that's ridiculous.
[01:05:48] And it's Seamus Casey is apparently the guy that that if there is anybody being dangled in front of Vancouver, it's Seamus Casey. And I'm with you on JT Miller. I don't want to. But, you know, explain why you don't. Because he's 32 now. So he has five more years on his deal. So that's just going to age so poorly. If we bring him in, that's another left shot in our top six. He's a great player. He is a great player.
[01:06:17] 30 goals, 100 points. Like there's no denying that. But that puts basically six left shots in our top six, you know, except for maybe Nathan, depending on who's up there. If you put like him and Jack together, it's just it's just too easy to force guys to their backhand side if they're all of the same handedness. That's why I keep harping on this right hand thing. So that's thing one. I do think there is something to the locker room attitude stuff. You know, he rubs teammates the wrong way. Like when there's smoke, there's fire.
[01:06:47] Like I know it shouldn't matter to us and we have no idea what goes on in the locker room. But where there's smoke, there's fire. If we get him somehow, like there's going to need major kind of roster shuffling up on our end. Unless Vancouver somehow is willing to retain, in which case we have to give up even more. So I feel like we're just going to have to give up too much to get him. It's going to leave our box at bottom six even more exposed than it already is. Our depth is the problem.
[01:07:15] Like we don't need another $8 million, 30 goal, 100 point pass first guy. He's a pass first guy. Also, where are we going to put him on the power play? Are we going to kick Brad to power play two? Are we going to put him on the right flank where Brad goes? Like how is that going to work? And Brad and Jack and that power play already have so much good chemistry. Are we going to disrupt that? Like JT Miller is the primary facilitator on the first power play in Vancouver. It's like, is that the right move for us?
[01:07:44] If I'm not sold on it, and if I'm not sold on something, I don't think it's necessarily the right move. I think our depth is what needs to be addressed. We saw it yesterday. We had Curtis McDermott out there. Like the guy can't play hockey. Like we are an injury away from him having a permanent spot in the lineup. Like we can't do that. We need more depth. And we won't be able to afford depth if we bring in another $8 million contract. So those are kind of the cons. Yeah. Bob, what do you think?
[01:08:13] So obviously we're in talks with Tim a lot on this show and on the side. And I've been hearing his argument against him for a while now. And I got to say, like, it's completely compelling. I completely understand where he's coming from. I think it's a fantasy world trade. We're like, oh, 30 goals, 100 points. Let's just throw them in there. Put them on your PlayStation 5 line or whatever. But he's right, man. That's not solving our problems right now. Our problems are depth. I think we have enough of the scorers to go around if we can figure out, like, who's going to play with Jack.
[01:08:42] And maybe this guy doesn't profile as the perfect guy to play with Jack. It's a lot of money. I think we can do more with less. Two things. Way too expensive. And no dickheads. And the drama follows JT Miller everywhere he goes. I mean, and I just don't want that. I don't want it in this locker room. I think this dressing room right now has a really good vibe. I think they all like each other. I think they get along.
[01:09:09] I think it's just you got to bring the right guys in that are going to be able to gel with these guys. And I'm not 100% sure that JT Miller and his $8.5 million contract is it. So I'm out on him. I mean, I'm really waiting. Because really, Buffalo is probably the only team in the Eastern Conference right now that is out of it. And or at least they think they're out of it. They know they're out of it, I should say. I mean, what can we do to get Alex Tuck over here?
[01:09:38] I mean, if we were going to bolster a little bit on our top six, what the heck do we have to do to get Alex Tuck? Because I would love to see him playing with Jack. You know, I think if you can make a couple of deals and do a Ryan O'Reilly, Alex Tuck kind of deal. And there's also a part of me that is like, Stan Pat, we have been, we have played the same defensive pairings for the last 40 plus games.
[01:10:08] The same dudes. How many teams can you say that have had such consistency? Probably would have been the whole season if Luke and Pesci weren't hurting. I think it's us and probably Carolina are the only two teams that have done that. And I don't even know if they've had any injuries. I mean, to have this kind of defense right now after what we went through last year. I mean, it's awesome that we don't need that, you know, right-handed shot defenseman.
[01:10:32] We don't need, you know, first line centers, which are just, you know, wishlist bullshit that every team says that they need that you're never going to get because people don't part with them. Um, so I love our D our blue line. I think our goaltending is fine and it comes down to, I'd rather just stay pat than make the bad move or make something that's going to hinder us in years to come just for a shot at it this year. I mean, do you guys agree with that?
[01:11:01] Yeah, I, I think we should still go for it this year. And look, if we wind up with JT Miller, I'll be all, I'll be on board. I'll defend the wall for him. Um, but, but like if we get leveraged into some bidding war with the Rangers to try and get them and overpay and then, you know, what, and then we don't win. And then, you know, three years down the road, we have to tear it all down because we have too much money on our books and he's disgruntled. And I just don't like the way it kind of plays out.
[01:11:28] Maybe I'm kind of, you know, over-exaggerating what's going to happen in the future. But, um, I don't know. I'm just, I'm just really, I just think there are too many flags and too many question marks and too many issues and too much smoke surrounding him to really make it seem like it. He's a great player. You know, he's, he's got the right kind of attitude, I think for the playoffs, but I just don't know if it, it doesn't seem to fit with, with, with looking for the best players. I'm looking for the right player. There it is. Herb books. Um, I got to get going to my own.
[01:11:57] Herb does not sound like that. Yeah. We're going to wrap this up. I have my own beer league game where we're going to get fucking pumped like eight to one tonight. Can't wait. Yeah. You wish. Um, so Montreal. This thing's going to continue boys. I'm telling you, it's going to continue and Montreal will, uh, we're going to, we're going to start giving them the reality check that they need.
[01:12:23] They're not going to make the playoffs and devils are going to show them exactly why on Saturday. I hope. And, uh, uh, also wherever you guys are listening to this, this is going to probably end up being a part two. Uh, the first part is ending abruptly and, um, then we'll start. So just come in cause I screwed up. So I apologize. Actually, I can fix that. Talk to me after. All right, cool. So anyway, forget what I just said.
[01:12:48] And, um, wherever you're listening to us to like a five-star review subscription download. Um, we are now up on YouTube and check us out. The uncle Pucker YouTube channel previews of every game. Um, we have, uh, write-ups of every, um, uh, after every game. And then, you know, we do our three, three shows or so a week and we will be back Saturday night after the Canadians game. So we will chat then, uh, anything else you boys would like to add? All right. Good luck. And Tim.
[01:13:19] Yeah. I'm pretty late. Nobody likes you, Steve. Bye. Bye. Nobody likes you. It's over, Johnny. It's over.