Pick A Lane

[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! Good morning, boys and girls. How's everybody today? We are the Uncle Puckers. It is way too early on a Sunday morning, Tim, Tone, and Chris. I swear Bobby's going to be back next week. He's had a crazy week, so he wasn't able... What?

[00:00:36] Bobby's with Dan. Yeah, so he'll be back hopefully on Tuesday's show, and we have a lot to talk about with these Devils this week, but Tim, you have a story to share? No, it's just I'm going to complain, A, about being up this early to talk about this, even though I think I did one last night because that would have been... Was he at a dream or something that you wanted to talk about? No. Did you have a scary dream, Tim?

[00:01:03] One of the... Yeah, there's a guy under my bed. One of the... It's called a milking table, Tim. Just let him do what he does. He'll leave the room when he's dawning. Chris, why do you know what a milking table is? I'm a fucking... Chris, he works in the restaurant industry. We all know what milking tables are in the restaurant industry. I'm sorry.

[00:01:33] Sometimes you get a weird porn rabbit hole, and you find out things you didn't know. So, one of the perils of living in a big farmhouse is during the spring, sometimes there are more bugs inside the house than you care to remember. So, we get these stink bugs. You know, they're... Yeah. They're little gray things.

[00:01:58] One of them fell right into my fucking ear at about 2.30 in the morning last night. Ooh, boy. Like, right into the fucking cavity. And so, I had to get out of bed, and I couldn't get it out for about 45 minutes. I could feel it, and I could hear it scurrying around in there and crawling around in there. And obviously, I'm, like, a little bit panicky about it's going to fucking burrow itself into my brain. Is this real? Like, this is seriously happening.

[00:02:27] This happened to me five hours ago, yeah. 40 minutes of this fucking thing digging around in your ear? Around my ear as I'm, like, trying to kind of... Because I don't want to, like, jam it in with a Q-tip. I'm trying to kind of delicately, like, flick it out. Yeah, you need tweezers. Well, yeah, naturally, of course, we don't have fucking tweezers. Oh, I have a pair. Well, yeah, you drive four hours and bring them down. Tony, you want to hop on a flight and bring me a pair of tweezers? That's only 17 hours.

[00:02:54] Well, yeah, tweezers would come in handy because I also now have found a fifth embedded tick in my body. So, yeah, that's probably something I should address at some point. Yeah, after the first tick, I would have gotten the tweezers. Yeah. I have to think positive thoughts, Tim. Like, at least it's not crabs. You know? Yeah. No, well, you've got to keep that trimmed down there anyway. Make lemons out of lemonade or whatever they say. That's what they say. So I eventually got a, you know, like, the little nail valve. No, it's not. Like, the lemonade out of lemons. Oh, that's right. And vice versa.

[00:03:24] Had a long night, too, man. No bugs. I'm still on my first cup of coffee. I'm like, yeah, that's right. Make lemons out of lemonade. No, you don't. All right. That's kind of what I feel like I was doing in my ear last night. Finally got one of those, you know, nail clippers and, like, the little file that you flip out. Mm-hmm. I kind of finally was able to flick it out. Scraping the ear canal so now my ear hurts. And I was like, great. I'm going to, you know, kill the cilia in my ear and make myself go deaf. So. I have a question.

[00:03:53] When the think bug got out of your ear, was it dead? No. It was still scurrying around on the floor. It's dead now. Yeah. Because it met the bottom of my foot. Right. But, yeah. That was pretty bad. That is. But my dog didn't help either. He was looking on greatly concerned, but didn't do shit. Well, I mean, did he at least hop on, you know, the internet and see how to get the thing out of your ear? I mean, if not, then he's useless.

[00:04:22] I have a friend of mine that lives in Florida, and I remember she told me a story once. He, um. Tone, you met her when I went down there years and years ago. We hung out for her that one time. She was. It doesn't matter. Anyway. Blonde? No. Okay. Maybe not. I don't think so. Anyway. Blonde? She was living down there. Well, the hands were. That was a mistake, actually. I. Yeah. Yes. The hands were a lot of attention. She was blonde.

[00:04:53] Blonde? Really blonde. Real blonde. Yeah. I was at a kid's birthday party yesterday, so my brain is shot, too, Tim. What are you doing to flash us, dude? Hang on. I got to grab something. I'll be right back. She, uh, she was little, and she was, like I said, dude, they were living in Florida, and she said that her pillow had fallen in between the wall and down to the floor of her bed. So she was reached over. She grabbed her pillow after she realized it had fallen, and she put it back on the bed,

[00:05:22] and she laid down but didn't realize that when the pillow fell, it fell in, like, a pile of fire ants that were on the floor. So she put the pillow back on her bed. It was covered in fire ants, and she put her head down, and the fire ants just completely destroyed her. She put her face, like crawling all over, biting the shit out of her. I heard that story, and I was, like, probably, I don't know, 11 or 12 years old when I heard that story, and I never wanted to go to Florida again. I was like, this is the scariest place in the world. They have fire ants that'll eat your- The worst thing about Florida is palmetto bugs, dude.

[00:05:51] I don't know if you remember those. They're, like, these- They don't live in the house. They live outside the palm trees. They're gigantic cockroaches that fly. I've seen them, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So when you hit them, you have to, like, beat the shit out of them. They don't die very easy. Yeah, my wife, when she first came, she couldn't believe it. They're probably about as big. I don't know. Probably about as pretty damn big, you know. You can hear them. So when they get in your house, they always come back out to you. You can hear them. Like, if they're in the papers or the draws, you can hear them walking around, and you know they're going to come out. Whenever you see one, you're always going to see it again. It's not going to just go away.

[00:06:22] I think they come in warm, wet places. Florida is a warm, wet place. Yes. So, you know, that's a palmetto bug. Whoever lives in Florida knows those and hates those. Did you say that they come in warm, wet places? Yeah, and I kind of, like, pulled myself back. Like I said, I've had a long – I had a little too much drink last night. Went to a concert with the wife after a kid's birthday party. My daughter's – happy birthday, honey. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, honey. My daughter turned six. A lot going on in this conversation. Yeah, I went to a show last night.

[00:06:51] So, see, God dethroned over in Vilnius. And I'm beat, man. And I came home and watched the Devil's Game. I got home. It was like our time changed an hour, too. So, I'm totally screwed up on the time thing last night. Got home, watched the Devil's second period on. Got it at 2 o'clock in the morning. Talked to you guys all night. And like you said, just thank God they won, man. Because – All right. Well, Tony, you did have them losing. I'm just saying. Did I? I was wondering. Yeah, I knew I flip-flopped on one of those Minnesota games, right, I think? Yeah, actually.

[00:07:18] Yeah, you have them winning the home one and then losing the game in mini. But let's see. Okay, so since we don't have a ton of time, I guess we should dive into this schizophrenic fucking team. I mean, I get it. Like, Minnesota is much more in their weight class than Winnipeg was. And you see the difference, right, when the Devils go up against a heavyweight team as opposed to a middleweight team. Possibly even a cruiserweight team, but not a heavyweight team.

[00:07:48] And they absolutely got smoked. That game in Winnipeg, I don't even know if there's anything that anybody wants to discuss about the Winnipeg game because I found it absolutely disgusting. But if you guys have anything that you want, I'm willing to just – Of course, it's like Jekyll and Hod. I had the season over. Are you scratching yourself, like just sitting there? Yeah. You look like you're just scratching your balls. I'm scratching my – Are you waving to us under your desk? What's going on over there? I thought we were doing handjobs this morning. Am I – What the fuck?

[00:08:17] I just saw Blonde and was like – He was so excited about the win. He had to show us. That was weird. I'm right. No, like the – I mean the Winnipeg game, you know, that we were done in the first two minutes. They actually played okay after that in the first period. But then second period on, there's like a blue wall just at the offensive blue line. They couldn't – What was funny too, remember Chris? He's like, I don't want to hear about the first period. And then I was like, I think I said something because it was like two goals in like two minutes. And he's like –

[00:08:47] I was like, yeah, dude. Bobby wrote that he's – Fuck this. I'm going to watch the Mets. So I was like, don't even tell me we're down already. Like it was only 10 after 8. I knew the game had just started. I'm like, are we down already? Tony's like, yeah, we're down too. I'm like, what the fuck? You know, and just, you know, that's about it about the Winnipeg game. You know, that place – that city is just a house of horrors for us. You know, we've been outscored 10-1 against Winnipeg this season.

[00:09:16] Yeah. I don't think – like you said, we're just not in their weight class. Whatever. You know, like we're out of the season. I think we probably could have put up a better fight if we had the lineup that we had last night and the kind of energy and effort that they had last night. But I still think Winnipeg takes us to the woodshed regardless, you know. And every opportunity we got against Hellebuck, like he made it look so fucking easy to save. It's like, you know, it was like an adult playing against kids in hockey. He's like, all right, well, I guess I'll grab that.

[00:09:45] You know, the one goal that got – the one goal that got called back, you know, we had to interfere with him. You know, hollow is basically like in his pants, so. Chris, is that your favorite goal at Hellebuck? Because I remember when we were trying to figure out who we were going to get in net, you know, last year. Like, is that your favorite goalie? Yeah. As far as like guys that are around now, I've always been a huge Hellebuck fan. I'm becoming – I'm becoming a Jacob Markstrom fan big time.

[00:10:12] I really – I like – when he's on his game, man, he has a lot of fun to watch. And then you go to last night, which, I mean, I can't remember probably before Christmas that this team played a game like they did last night. I mean, it just – it felt like, holy shit, this is a team. Like, I don't know what happened in that come-to-Jesus moment from Winnipeg to Minnesota, but apparently something was said that guys just took accountability for their actions,

[00:10:41] and they realized that, you know, if we play the way that we played against Winnipeg, we're going to be gone in four games against the Hurricanes. I mean, it was night and day. That game was so great to watch last night. I mean, everything from Markstrom to the physicality to everybody just having each other's backs, making smart, simple plays, shooting the puck from everywhere on the fucking ice. Didn't matter. We're not going to try the stupid stretch passes.

[00:11:10] We're not going to try the stupid seam passes. We're just going to put shit on that, funnel, funnel, funnel it. And they looked like a fucking – and then you're down a goal going into the third, and instead of sitting back and pissing all over yourself, you attacked and scored two more goals. What did you guys think when that goal went in, Chris? You guys – I thought, oh, here we go again. Here we – Oh, I'm like, we're done. Yeah, yeah. Can we at least get a point and get this thing to overtime is really what I was thinking at that point. But, I mean, what did you guys think of the wild game?

[00:11:39] Was it wild? So I'll start out, man, because I was thinking about this after the game. You know, it was wild. It was wild. It was actually – that's one thing I loved about it. First of all, it's good to see – I love violent hockey. We all – we talk about this all the time. Great to see that shit going on. You know, Kovacevic, you know, taking those – missing those punches was nice too. So he almost got like, what, two in the head I think they missed on him? Yeah, he's like, hmm. That fight, yeah. But I think it's like Jekyll and Hyde, man. And I thought about this when I first woke up this morning.

[00:12:09] I'm like, man, I don't know. Like, you said Winnipeg game. I'm thinking the season's done. I'm like, okay. I'm like, I'm watching Yankee games. I'm like, okay, I know where this is going. You know, I'm going to watch. I'm a Devil's fan until the end. I always root for them. Love the team. But I'm thinking, and it's such a Jekyll and Hyde because you asked me the next game, if we don't show up, I'm going to be bitching again like I did during the Winnipeg game. So it's so Jekyll and Hyde. I will say, I've said it, and I hate saying it. I've said it for like the last, since the trade deadline. I don't think we did the stuff that we have to do to get through.

[00:12:38] I don't think we can get through the playoffs. I really don't. Play like last night, you could do good, but I just don't think you'd beat the elite teams. I was excited last night. I was pumped up. But then there's this up and down. I'm always thinking to myself, okay, what's going to happen in the next game? Well, we got Minnesota and the Rangers next. You win those two. I'm always going to be excited when you get a win because we're going to, I mean, most likely we're getting in the playoffs. I think it's like, Tim, what is it, like 93%, 94%? It's 99 now. 99. It's like 99 and a half, yeah. Just so much. Even last night, if you actually look at that game, Markstrom was awesome.

[00:13:08] But there was a few pucks that I was like, man, if that goes in. It was like I could think of in my head like three different pucks that hit posts. You know, and then fucking Bratt, man. When that one, he couldn't get that goal in, you know. But, you know, he always. The one that went up Myers-Kate. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was just a whole bunch of emotions last night. And when they did score that goal in the third, I was like, damn it, man. But it was great. And I love Nico. I think he. I said to my wife this morning when we were talking about the game.

[00:13:36] I said, man, you know, he's just. You think about when he was drafted and what he's done and what it's become. He's even over. My expectations for him are even. It's higher than I. He's better. Better player than I thought he would actually be in the total for the Devils. Last night was awesome. And I just like I said, man, it's just so up and down, up and down. And I'm hoping this week it's not like that, too. And Tim, I want to hear you. You're going to say, but you look like you fell asleep. So I don't know. No, no, no.

[00:14:02] I'm looking because I usually have a second monitor with like some of the numbers and stuff like that up over here. But I'm in a different room because I don't want to wake people in the house. So I got you. I'm like looking at my phone now. So. So, I mean, I'm kind of. Sorry. Well, I could tell you definitely are. You're being attacked by bugs. I have a CPAP. Okay. No, I mean, like, that's the thing, right? Last night, you go. You can't. You look at it.

[00:14:32] You compare these two games. And it's like, you have no idea who we're going to get tomorrow night. And we have no idea who we're going to get Friday against the Rangers. But I'm with you. Like, if you win those and you actually got four in a row going, you know, into the end of the season, I'd feel a little bit better. I don't know. I don't think we're doing much come postseason. But whatever you do, you have to play the way that you played last night. And, Tim, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the lineup because you had mentioned it already.

[00:15:00] So, like, what did you like about everything last night? Yeah. So, I mean, just to start, you know, obviously, you kind of covered it all pretty well. I think the juxtaposition of who we were playing, you know, is pretty stark. You know, Winnipeg's just in an absolutely different class of hockey team. But, you know, what's funny is the Wild, they just beat the Capitals, who are in that same class of team as Winnipeg. So, hockey's a funny sport, man.

[00:15:28] Like, anything can happen, and that's why I still have this little bit of delusional hope somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind that, you know, funnier things could happen. I like the lineup that they put together. And I think all four lines, to an extent, I think the third line was a little bit weak. But, and the fourth line had, you know, got caved in a little bit. But generally, we were much better offensively.

[00:15:56] And I think, you know, we were on the front foot offensively. And that kind of started from the hop. Obviously, Nico scores early on a nice break. They actually, I was a little concerned because, you know, Minnesota got a good rush opportunity right there off the bat. They killed that rush opportunity and turned it around. You know, Luke killed the opportunity, got up to Mason, who had a nice, nice cross-ice pass to Bratt. And they were off.

[00:16:23] And Bratt, you know, one of my favorite moves is on a two-on-one is the pass-off pad, where, you know, if you don't have the lane to shoot it, you know, you shoot it to the far pad. And the guy, the goalie, he'll kick it out. And that's what I'm doing. It's so pretty when it works, right? It's so pretty when it works. And then, you know, getting that second goal and getting a little bit of breathing room, you know, you know, was massive. So, I'm still a little concerned that we can't just totally bury teams.

[00:16:50] And their second goal, Hartman's goal, and I'll get to him in a second because he's the biggest fucking scumbag in the league. And that's, you know, the two against Allen in the first two minutes and then that one. We still suffer from a little bit of scrambliness in our own zone and in front of the net. Like, that's three goals in two games that have been just pure chaotic net front scrambles, which is a little concerning.

[00:17:20] But something happens to this team where they really lock in with what Tony was talking about with the physicality and that fight with Kovacevic and Foligno. Like, I don't know what our record is when we have a fight, but I'm suspecting it's pretty good. Like, just, you know, you can complain about it all you want. People want, you know, there's a certain subset of hockey fans that want to see fighting eliminated.

[00:17:46] But it adds, I know, it adds an energy and an enthusiasm to a team when a guy goes to bat for you. Especially, you know, when it's Kovacevic. Is that a bug? A stink bug on your screen? No, no. Another issue with the farm is there's a chicken farm about a mile away that during the spring,

[00:18:12] when their operations start ramping up, there's about a week or two when it starts getting warmer that flies are really bad. Just fucking sucks. We see a sheep pass by and guard her belts behind Tim. So a fly literally just landed on my camera. It's pretty funny. So that, that when they get locked in, in a physical game, they're the better team. Like, you know, we, we do have big, mean fucking guys.

[00:18:40] Foligno's a fucking heavyweight. And I don't know what he's doing. That looked like a stage fight almost where, you know, it was almost like fucking Jake Paul and Mike Tyson where, where he was throwing fake haymakers. But I was, I would miss them and just got one shot in and took them down. And from that moment on, I was like, we're not losing this game at all. And we just, you know, and I've said this before and I forget what game it was. Maybe it was like the second, it was the second Flyers game in like February-ish where,

[00:19:12] where a team challenges us physically and we punch back and, and we can win that physical battle. We had the guys that can do it. You know, we were hitting everything last night. Foot had a couple of good hits. Cotter had a couple of good hits. Even Bratt, you know, had a couple of good forecheck hits. We were getting in, getting in on their defensemen and, and disrupting, disrupting their zone exits. And it was just a really good, thorough, fun, entertaining game to watch. And I want to see more of that.

[00:19:41] But we've gone down this road before every goddamn game for the past three months where suddenly like we're, oh, we're done. We're toast. Oh, we're so back. You know, it's just like, I wanted, they need to get more consistent. And they were very consistent last night, all three periods. You know, if you look at some of like the Corsi and scoring chance numbers, we were in the positive every single, every single period.

[00:20:08] You know, the second period was probably our best, even though we scored other goals in the third. And we got goals from Cotter and Tuna. Depth scoring. Our stars stepped up. Nico with a hattie. I think Markstrom looked pretty good last night. Wouldn't say he looked great. He's still on his way back. But he stopped everything he needed to stop. And was swallowing rebounds a little better than he was before. He didn't look totally as scrambly. And I think when he's on, he's playing the puck pretty well. And he was a little shaky playing the puck. But was okay.

[00:20:38] So... Paul was just run last night a little bit too. So that helps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and that's how they scored both of their goals. And I don't know why, if it's a systems thing or a structure thing. But we leave the points open pretty easily. And are susceptible to long shots. And I mentioned this in our text chain. Where both goals were scored.

[00:21:05] The first was on one of the wackier deflections you'll see. Where the guy tipped it and basically bounce shot it up into the corner. And the second one, a point shot got through. Deflected. Hit the crossbar. And then that's kind of how it wound up all scrambly. So, I don't know if that's by design. Or if we're just kind of... Some of our wings are a little bit late getting out to challenge the points.

[00:21:32] But that's kind of the only thing structurally I'd complain about. Otherwise, a good, thorough, physical, hard-fought, nice bounce-back game. Like, that took some energy. That took some balls. And fuck Winnipeg. I just can't help but get frustrated. I will say this. When I watch the games, especially now that everything's so vital and important. I just get so frustrated that we just didn't add another piece or two of any... You know? I mean, I'm not even talking like... And I heard... I mean, I'm not going to...

[00:22:02] Just for instance, like a talent. Anybody. Like, just a couple different pieces. And that's what I'm thinking. Because I'm looking ahead to the playoffs. Most likely, we're in the playoffs. We know we're going to get in there. I guess we're going to play, most likely, Carolina. I just... Man, it really frustrates me as a Devils fan. Especially a long-time Devils fan. Because we grew up on Lou. You know? And I just... Damn. I just can't play. I look at the moves we made. I just... You know? Just not sad. That really bugs me, actually. And it bugs me more and more the closer we get. When I see potential like last night.

[00:22:31] When I see a game last night. I get frustrated. Because I'm like, man... No, you lose Jack Hughes. Because, okay, we're surviving still right now. We're not... I mean, it's a rat race. But I just don't understand how the ownership... I'm going to go to the ownership. I'm not even going to go to Fitz. I'm going to go to the ownership, even. I don't understand how you don't do that. And you see these games now. And it's one or two pieces. Even a solid player. You know? We have guys playing right now that wouldn't play on other teams, most likely. Do you not think Cody Glass was a solid pickup? I don't know yet.

[00:23:02] I'm still on the fence about that. But a little more solid, I would have liked to see. And there was a couple guys available that I think you could have got. And I think if you would have went back earlier before the deadline. If you would have done a little shopping a couple months prior, like other teams did. I think it would have been a lot easier to get those guys. And it pisses me off now. Because when I watched a game like last night, I'm like, man. If you had one or two more solid guys, I'd have a whole different outlook going into round one. You know, I agree with you 100%.

[00:23:28] And here's the – look, we're going to have the whole offseason to bitch and moan about Fitz and his lack of, I guess, urgency on getting some players in here. So, yeah, that's going to – and I completely agree. I don't think Cody Glass is the answer. I think Cody Glass was the consolation prize. It was just – you know, and it was kind of like last year. Like, you know, we don't have Markstrom, but hey, guys, I got you Allen. And I got you, you know, whoever the other fucking guy was.

[00:23:57] Kakanen. Kakanen, yeah. Kapo Kakanen. And Allen, man, give him respect. I mean, the guy has – Yeah, look, Allen's been great. But, you know, it was Jake Allen. Like nobody was doing backflips when we got him in from Montreal. Like, great. We got the Canadians third fucking goalie. And now we have the defenseman. I guarantee you, Chris, when we got Glass. And then Sprung – I guarantee you people had to Google who they were, some Devil fans. Because a lot of people probably had no idea who they were.

[00:24:26] Yeah, and it's a pattern of being too late. Like, with these issues that we had for two years in a row were glaring. And we had, like, last year, I don't know why they didn't put Dougie on LTIR. That could have opened up a world of possibilities. And to Tony's point about ownership being cheap, I really can't help but wonder if that's – if there's something to that. Hang on. I'll be right back. I'm tying hands with Fitz or something.

[00:24:55] Yeah, he's 100% right. You guys are right. There's definitely some issue there with Harris and Blitzer with not wanting to spend this money. Maybe it's just, you know, wait, we got to pay Jaden Daniels $60, $70 million in a couple of years. We have to hold on to all of our money. So maybe that's it. Maybe they just don't want to spend anything extra because they're more interested in winning the Super Bowl than hoisting a Stanley Cup. Yeah, and Glass and Sprong – sorry, I was trying to finish my thought. I apologize.

[00:25:23] But Glass and Sprong were easily guys that we could have gotten months ago. Like, Pittsburgh waved the white flag in January. Sprong was on fucking waivers. You know, we have those guys that kind of strengthens us a couple months ago. And then at the deadline, even with Jack down, Cousins, Zetterlin, and Taylor Hall even, who's absolutely shredding it with Carolina right now. You know, you add those three pieces at the deadline for packages that I think we could have easily matched. Yeah, that's the thing.

[00:25:52] Could we not have matched what fucking San Jose got from Ottawa for Zetterlin? I mean, that just doesn't make any sense to me. That makes no sense to me. I think we could have matched what Ottawa got for Cousins. I think Marshall or Colorado gave up for Brock Nelson. Like, we couldn't have matched any of these offers. And, you know, I mean, that's – it's ridiculous. Imagine how bad it's going to feel if Zetterlin, you know, in the playoffs, will we get put down by a Hall or Zetterlin?

[00:26:21] Because there's a good possibility that could happen. Exactly. I mean, I just – Zetterlin really pissed me off because I would have loved to have – I didn't even like when he left, but I understood why he left because that's how it goes. You got to give to get. But, man, when I was thinking that last night and watching the game, I'm like, fuck, dude, we get in the playoffs. Like, just a couple of these guys would make such a big difference. But I'll say this. And, you know, yes, I agree. But this is a team we have. And when they play and they play that physical game like they did yesterday –

[00:26:51] and, Tim, you're 100% right – when they – we saw them do it against Philadelphia. We've seen them do it against a few teams this year. When they just decide, you know what, we're not going to let you take liberties. We're not going to let you go chasing around and throwing bodies wherever you want. We're ending this right now. And they set that physical tone right off the bat. Things go very well. The Devils – I mean, we were last year going, oh, my God, thank God we have McDermott because we finally have somebody that can throw some punches. We have quite a few guys now that can throw some punches to the point that McDermott

[00:27:20] spends 99% of his time up in the press box. But, you know, that's the thing. Like, when this team wants to play and lay it down physically, they're one of the more physical teams in the league. And come playoff time, I think that's going to help us. I think we can be a more physical team than the Carolina Hurricanes on a regular basis. And I think in a seven-game series in the playoffs, with better goaltending, I think we can actually pull this thing off unless we go tomorrow night

[00:27:50] and Minnesota comes into our building and whoops us 6-1. Like, that's the thing. Like, show us some consistency. It's almost like we have to get provoked into physicality to kind of wake up. It's almost like we have to, like, get the bear woken up in us to respond. And when we don't manufacture it from the hop, like, that's when they play this kind of uninspiring sort of hockey. And that's what they've been playing for so long.

[00:28:19] They need to find a way to set the tone early to use a short-season term. And we're devil fans, so we try to see the positives in everything, right? So we're trying to always see the positives. On the outside, I don't know if we would be so positive. And I get why we're positive. Like I said, I'm pumped after last night's win. And like Chris mentioned, yes, I think physically in the playoffs, we have stepped it up definitely. Just a lot of missing pieces, I think. And I can't get it out of my head. I mean, I want to. I want to come on here and lie and be like, yes, you know, I'm pumped for the playoffs.

[00:28:49] Man, like I said, I'll go down with the ship a million times. But there's definitely – during the offseason, there's definitely some questions that the ownership should be held responsible for that I think they're going to have to, you know, because there's just – things weren't done right during the – You have seven games to get yourself excited about the playoffs, Tom. So there you go. I'm excited. You've got to go. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm just – I like this year a lot more than last year. It's nice knowing.

[00:29:18] Like I work with a diehard Ranger fan. I work with a diehard Flyer fan. I get a little bit of joy knowing like, yeah, we'll be there in two weeks and you guys won't be. And I like that. So, you know, let's just hope that we don't embarrass ourselves. Is that the same Ranger fan from two seasons ago? Yes. I don't know if you remember. Okay. Yes. Yes. So let me just do this quick ad read and then we're probably going to have to wrap it up soon because I've got to get ready for work. So it's going to be a little bit of a shorter episode today. You know what?

[00:29:47] I'm not even reading this one today. You guys know the whole DraftKings thing, right? All right. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Don't – Gamble, gamble, gamble. Gamble, gamble. Gamble, gamble. Problem gambling. Playoffs. Talking about playoffs. I always hear that whenever – that's all the voice. It's like stuck in my head. Boot Hill Resort and Casino. So there you go. 21 plus, deployed in Ontario. Yada, yada, yada. You guys brought up torts last show or – Well, no. I mean, yeah, we did. But please, go ahead.

[00:30:16] I want – we can close up on your torts prediction here. I do want to say one thing about Hartman because – Go ahead. I'll do Hartman first. All right. He did probably the biggest scumbag thing and it was kind of like – it was a little thing. But it was right before Kovacevic's fight. It kind of fell like sort of under the radar because Foligno, you know, buried Dumoulin from behind and that's what Kovacevic was responding to.

[00:30:41] But while that was happening, Hartman shot the puck right at Marksman, right at the side of his leg. Like that is just – there's – while there's a code in hockey, like that is just a one-on-one fucking no-no. You don't shoot the puck after the whistle and you don't fucking shoot it at the goalie's side of the leg. Like Hartman, like he already got suspended I think twice in his career for like 10 or more games. Tried to murder Timmy Stutzel the other day.

[00:31:11] Just absolute piece of shit behavior. Like fuck that guy. Like that is – I get he plays on the edge, but that is just absolutely something you don't fucking do. Like that is absolute fucking real scumbag behavior. I honestly – fuck this guy. Get him out of my fucking league. Well, we got to deal with him one more game. All right. So, okay. So I'm sorry that there's a little bit of a shorter show today. But, you know, I think we accomplished everything that we wanted to accomplish.

[00:31:39] And we'll be back on Tuesday and we'll talk about the second game here against the Wilds. So tomorrow night back at the Rock. Are we doing this again or are we falling to pieces like we normally do? We're going to win again. I wanted to see what Tony had to say about Tortorello. Oh, yeah. I want to hear your Tort story. I just, you know, we're going back and forth. I know you guys hate the guy. I don't hate him. I think he dealt his own grave. No, no, no, wait, wait. Hang on. I never said I hated him.

[00:32:05] I just never – didn't understand why the Flyers were bringing him in when they were. With that lineup. You know, there's not a guy that you bring in to rebuild your team. And I thought his shtick is going to get old. It always does. He's not going to last more than a couple of years before everybody in that locker room is just going, all right, we get it. You know, I'm done with this guy benching everybody, shitting all over us. Like, we're still learning here. And, you know, that's what happened. So I don't hate Torts.

[00:32:32] I just think that that was not a spot where, like, that's where you bring – you bring, like, David Carl in to get your team up to this point. Right, right, Lindy Rub. And then when you're, like, where the Devils are, then you bring Torts in to get you over the hump and win you a Stanley Cup, hopefully. Well, I like Torts. I think that he – I wouldn't want him as a Devils coach. I just don't think that our team is built to handle him the way the most of the guys we have. Oh, God, Mavich would cry so much at Torts as coach. But I like him.

[00:33:02] I don't know about that. Like, you know, Torts is tough, but he's fair. You know, like, I kind of talked about this last time how he and Babcock were sure on this parallel path. But Babcock really proved himself out to be, like, an absolute fucking mind game piece of shit. Well, Torts is just mean and fair.

[00:33:25] And, Tim, I'll tell you, with Torts, if you notice, and we've talked about this before, a lot of the old players who were great players, hard-nosed players, they liked them. And the ones that don't like him are the guys who are, you know, the new generation. Let's be honest. Some of the pretty boys who don't want to get hit. They don't want to – I think that Torts is bad for certain teams. Maybe he would do good with Jersey. I don't know. But I don't want – I'm not saying we should get Torts, of course. But I'm saying that I do like him. I think he's good for the sport. I think he brings – keeps the hard nose in it.

[00:33:55] He reminds me of the Mr. Food. We talk about this. Always ends on wrestling these shows. He reminds me of the old managers that give personality to sport because, you know, there's just too many guys who, to me, they just – just stand there and, you know, we've had a few of them. I like the personality. The Flyers have been tearing it up since they got rid of them. And they've scored – And he dug his own grave too, didn't he? He was basically saying like this week, like, why don't you just fire me or whatever. So, I mean, come on. No, I mean –

[00:34:24] The Toronto game, I was just going to say, like, after the Toronto game where he came out, I don't know if he was taken more out of context, like, with what – because I think what he was trying – like, I don't know how to coach a team. Like, I don't want to coach a team that isn't going to get better. Like, I think that was his – but he put a lot out on himself. He kept saying, you know, like, but that's me. Like, he was kind of making it sound like I don't know what to do anymore with these guys. So, yeah, I think that was a little bit of him putting up the white flag.

[00:34:54] But I think management heard it as he doesn't want to coach us anymore and he doesn't want to be the head coach. I don't think that that was the case. I think he was just – No, I think they wanted to save face and make ourselves look a little – Right. They won at the end of the day. We squatched. We did it. You know, not you. Yes, exactly. Because, you know, I don't think he was coming back. Yeah. I was doing a pretty good interview on the Jeff Merrick show yesterday with a Philly reporter. And he was like, this actually kind of was an accumulation of things. And that was not necessarily the last straw.

[00:35:24] But, you know, like why not give the guy the last 10 games? But what they're doing is really kind of establishing like letting – because Torch still wanted to win games, but they still have some young guys and guys they want to give a look to and guys they want to get some opportunities to line up. And Torch just isn't going to let that happen. And they're still in a rebuild. You know, the – they're talking basically the kind of – he's lost sight of the game a little bit.

[00:35:53] You know, it has changed as much as people want to kind of cling to – cling to the fact that it hasn't. You know, it's faster. It's more offensive. You know, a lot of the clutching and grabbing is gone. You know, some of the physicality has kind of left the game. And for better or for worse, you know, you need to be able to relate to a sort of younger, probably softer generation of player. That's not to say these guys aren't hockey players.

[00:36:22] You know, you don't get to the NHL without being a super competitive person and wanting to win. You just don't do that. The difference is these guys are making $7, $8 million and are set for life and aren't scrapping by making, you know, like kind of a normal-ish person's salary. So there are some distinctions. I'd be curious to see if he lands somewhere. But I think – I think he will. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like he said this was going to be his last ride.

[00:36:50] But I feel like he doesn't want to – he wouldn't want to go out like this. But we'll see him on ESPN during the playoffs. I can guarantee you that. I think he'd be great on there. I mean, you know, like I said, I think he's – I thought Babcock was awful. I thought he was bad for young players. I thought he was just ruining – he would just ruin careers. He just was a bad person. Yes. Yeah. Tortorella is just old school, man. You know, and I – Chris, I know you've got to go, so I'm going to shut up now. But I'm going to say that, like, I just feel like he's the coach, you know, the guy that would get in your face, but he would also let you get in his face.

[00:37:20] Or Babcock will send you down to the minors for fucking ever. Yeah. And there's a lot of – No, I was just going to say those old school coaches. The Torts, the Mike Keenan's. I don't mind if you're going to put Bob Babcock in there because he's a fucking piece of shit. But, like, those old school coaches are a dying breed. It's just that way is – you know, plus they're getting older. It's not just that the game's changing, but these guys are getting – I mean, Torts is what, like 70-something? 66. Yeah, he's almost –

[00:37:49] I didn't know he was that old. He's almost 40 years older than, like, Matt Bay-Mitchkoff. Like, that's – Yeah. That's a big deal. That's just an untenable age gap, except for Bill Belichick. Well, yeah, then he's completely into this. He's like, milking table? Okay. But also, one interesting thing about Torts that I continue to forget, I guess his son is – I'll just shout out to his son who's on the kind of a front line.

[00:38:15] I think he's a Marine and, like, is over in the sandbox, you know, fighting for us. Who are you talking about, Torts? Tortorella's son. Oh, okay. He's like a front line fucking badass, like, soldier. That's pretty badass. All right. We're going to wrap this thing up real quick. Tim, you got a win tomorrow? Got a win tomorrow. Steve Tardis, we're going 8-1.

[00:38:45] I'm going to go Devils, even though – yeah, because I flip-flop, but I'm going to say Devils. Brad's going to – he needs – how many points does he need to get to 100? I'm going to say Brad's going to get – He has 14 points or something like that. 14, I think. Something like that, yeah. Two-pointed gamer is what he's got to do. I think he's going to get two tomorrow, and I think Nico's going to get another goal tomorrow. So that's a moment. I would say Brad has played pretty well against Minnesota most of his career. I go back to last year, we had a back-to-back against them,

[00:39:15] and I think he won the game in the first game. And, yeah, so he's always been pretty good against the Wild. So I'm – I don't know, man. I feel like I'm just all of a sudden falling back – right back into that fucking trap. You know? You had him 9-0, Chris. You had him 9-0. It's like you caught her – you caught her sleeping with another guy, and she's going, but I didn't. And you're like, maybe you didn't. Maybe you guys were just cuddling. All right, I'll give you another chance. Like, this is what I feel like.

[00:39:44] He's just fixing the cable. Right? Yeah. Literally. I mean, honey, do you know how to build a – what was it called? A milking table? Yeah, whatever that. Anyway. He's killing all the stink bugs. All right, so, I mean, just because I'm going to say, yeah, sure, we're going to win, but I'm not going to be shocked if we throw up a big stinker tomorrow. But, yeah, I got them. I got them now going undefeated. I mean, I had them losing just the Pittsburgh game,

[00:40:14] but they ended up losing the Winnipeg game, so now I need them to win that Pittsburgh game. So, now they've got to go, what, 7-0, 8-0, whatever we have left. So, I mean, it wouldn't be crazy. Yeah, I saw something since the end of January. They've won 70% of their games after losses, but they've lost 77% of their games after wins. Yeah, like this is crazy. Just stop it. Stop it. Yeah.

[00:40:42] Wouldn't be surprised if we see McDermott tomorrow, although I really did like the lineup we put out. This might be – I think Keeb kind of hit on something with this lineup. You know, Bratt and Nico just so electric together. I think Timo was really good with Mercer and Hall. Mercer, yeah. Tatar has looked like a whole new player of late. He's been great. And, you know, Cotter scored another goal. You know, depth scoring. We got it again. I want to see Cody Glass back in the lineup. Yeah, I'm really curious what happened to this guy.

[00:41:10] This team is not the same when Luke Hughes is not in the lineup. Like, I mean, it's – yeah. We need Luke to really step up. And, I mean, look, last night was – We need Luke, we need Markstrom, and we need Greenland. You guys. That's it. That's all we need. On that note – Is what the president desires. Maybe he shouldn't fucking desire that. Take it. Stop. Stop it. Oh, you probably shouldn't dive down that – I don't care. Fuck that. It's the dumbest shit I ever –

[00:41:39] I don't have enough time to get into how much I fucking hate this administration and this fucking guy. I mean, like, that's the thing. I have to go to work soon, so I don't want to sit here and go on a fucking anti-Trump plan. Do us a favor, though, Chris. When you get to work, I want you to write down on a piece of paper five things you do during your day and send them to us, and we're going to give you a bunch tonight and evaluate that. You got it, Mr. Musk. All right. We're going to get out of here. If you're watching on the YouTube channel, subscribe, like, wherever you're listening, and like a five-star review.

[00:42:15] I'm Chris. We're the Uncle Puckers. We'll see you when we see you. Peace. Hey, Valaket. How'd you guys do? It's over, Johnny. It's over. You know, I always feel bad. I can't help but take the –