Puckers Playoff Spectacular

[00:00:06] 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, New Jersey Devils Podcast. Let's go Devils! Hello everybody, welcome to The Uncle Puckers. Tony Zamboni, Bobby, Pennsylvania. And I'm Chris, we are The Uncle Puckers, and this is our playoff spectacular episode.

[00:00:33] So this is going to be all about the postseason. We're going to dive into every one of these round one matchups, and we will, of course, dive deeply into our Devils and Carolina matchup. But before we start, what's up? Oh, we also have a Pucker, Uncle Pucker Snake draft of the week coming up at the end of the show. So stay tuned for that. It's a lot of fun. What's up, boys? How's everybody? What's up? What's up? What's up? We did it. We're here. Playoff time.

[00:00:59] We're here. It's over. 82 games in the books, and we still get to keep playing. We are guaranteed at least four more Devil games, guys. That was an exhausting season. Wasn't it? It was exhausting. Yeah, hockey was, too. It's just so much fun to start, and then just the last couple months have been just such a slog. But it makes sense, though, right? You think about when it started, the fall started, what, right?

[00:01:28] When the December, January, right? And it's been a shitty December, January all worldwide anyway. So it kind of fits the whatever you call it. Fits the routine of what's been going on. That old proverbial flip is going to happen. Yeah, I hope so. Well, you know, I mean, there are a lot of good matchups. And to be honest with you, when I go over it and I really think about who's going to win a lot of these series, I don't know if I feel 100% comfortable about any of them that I'm picking. Like, they are all up for grabs.

[00:01:58] I mean, this should be a really fun playoff. The only thing I will say for myself when I debate it with this is I kind of – I didn't play – through the whole brackets, I'm not going to play a homer, but I have to be honest, at first I have to a little bit. I just can't help it because I can't just say our team's going to be out the first round. Just can't do it. Not saying I feel like ultra confident at all, but for some reason I just can't do it. So I admit that on the – in the beginning, at the end of the thing, I get real.

[00:02:25] But I just feel like I'm wrong anyway, so there's no harm in being more wrong, and I'm just going to have fun with it. I'm just fucking wrong. Yeah. You know, I do the same thing. I'm in our pucker bracket on the NHL site. Like, I absolutely went with a homer bracket. Yeah. I did too for that reason. Yeah. I did too for that reason. And for any listeners – You guys have them winning though? No. I'll tell you what I did put for that. So any listeners, if you guys want, go on X or Blue Sky.

[00:02:53] You'll see the link to our Uncle Pucker brackets on NHL.com. Hop in. It's free. Sign up. Join the team. The winner gets dinner with Bobby and maybe a sticker or something. And – Let you know if he buys you dinner and you have a couple of drinks, he is expecting you to put out. So – He's no Artemi Panarin though. No. No. No. He's not going to force you. He's not going to force you.

[00:03:20] And nor will the Uncle Puckers pay off any of this to silence this person like the Rangers did. So – It is a line we do not cross. No. No. Bobby's on his own after that. So – But don't worry. He's a gentleman. And he'll be very gentle. He likes to cuddle afterwards. And, you know, I mean, what can go wrong? I ask, are you sure so many times they kick me out? Right. You know, I tell you, out of all four of the – It's in. I said yes. What do you want to do here?

[00:03:50] Can you just get it in writing real quick? After page 15 of the NDA, you know, it's a little exhausting. But I will be honest. If out of all of us, if I had – none of my daughters now, but if I had an older daughter and Bobby came to my house, I would be okay with it, man. Bobby's the only one. I think Bobby's a gentleman. Bobby's the only one. Yeah, Bobby, absolutely. I would let my daughter even probably hang out with. She knows he's not going to bang her unless her name's Ryan. Well, I joke about Bobby. But that was a compliment at first. At first that was meant to be a compliment, man.

[00:04:20] It started so well. Thank you, Bobby. He couldn't lay in the ship. Well, thanks for all the kind words. I just pictured a puppet sock next to his bed. I was like, I can't do it. Bobby's just sitting there like, what the fuck, guys? I know. It's just drive-by after drive-by. Poor guy gets oral surgery and comes back and just gets – By the way, how is your enchilada mouth going, Bob? You know, other than the fact that the whole thing sucks and costs a ton, like pain's virtually gone right now. A little bit of regular over-the-counter Advil. Whatever.

[00:04:50] What did you get, Bobby? Something pulled out? Yeah. Yeah. Broke a tooth eating an enchilada. I got a root canal that I didn't need. That was fun. By the way, that didn't work. One of the softest known foods on the planet, the enchilada. Unless it's got a chicken bone. Horizontal-based chicken bone right where your bicuspid comes down. What kind of dentist does a fucking root canal and then you have to go get oral surgery? Like, don't they – they should know that the tooth is insavable. The crack – there was a crack in the tooth.

[00:05:19] That's why they send you to the endodontist to get the root canal. And they're supposed to determine if the crack is – will leave a viable enough tooth for a crown. At that determination, it was good. Then they say – the dentist is like, we'd like to schedule at least two to three weeks before you come back for the crown. Which I thought was excessive. I'm like – I called them that day. I'm like, I'm on my way. You know what I mean? Like, I'm already numb. Let's go. No, we need to heal. So couldn't work out the two-week because of my work schedule. So I said the three-week, which was within the border of what they gave me.

[00:05:49] I get there. I sit in the chair and it was almost like, there's two cracks. Have you been chewing on that side? What did you – I'm like, dude, I haven't had a piece of food. I'm like, dude, on that side of my mouth for like four months. Like, I didn't do shit. A couple of dicks, but no food. Three weeks to come see you. Now you're telling me there's two cracks. Yeah. Those don't count. They're soft. A couple. What? So, yeah. The guys you're seeing are getting older, huh? They're soft. You're doing it wrong. Or I just don't want to do it. Fair enough. Not again. These pucker meetings suck.

[00:06:19] My mouth hurts. Thank God we went virtual. For our production meetings to get a little funk. All right. So, go ahead. Finish your story. Sorry. No, that's it, man. They're like, dude, foundation's ruined. Therefore, you got to get it pulled. So, I went from – this wasn't even a cavity riddled tooth. This was literally one of my perfectly fine teeth. And it just kind of spiraled. And next thing you know, you know what's different too? We've all had different dental work. And you go there. Maybe you're getting a drill or a crown or a cavity, whatever. And they got a little tiny tray. They've got a couple of cute little things on it.

[00:06:49] Yeah, you see the drill. It's not scary. It's this big. You know? And they got a couple of little utensils. Like, okay. No big deal. Now, when you're getting a tooth pulled, a very quality tooth with all the roots, they roll this tray over with medieval devices on it, man. And there's like hammers and chisels and wrenches. And you're like, holy shit. It was the first time I actually got a little anxious sitting in the chair. I was like, I'm a little nervous. And then they took my blood pressure. I'm like, son of a bitch. You're going to pull out like what was recently a very good tooth.

[00:07:19] Yeah. So, did you get the implant yet or no? No. I got to wait two months for it to heal. And then if everything's well, which I'm anticipating. Oh, the implant's in. The screw's in. Okay. Yeah, the implant, just not the actual new fake tooth. What does that run you, Bobby? So, I saw my last x-ray. Wait, do you have a awesome mushroom? And I'm like, it's so cool. It's like tooth, tooth, tooth. Screw. You just see this screw in my jaw. So, you just have this random screw just hanging out of your smile right now? Can you like that? No. It's like right up to the gum line.

[00:07:48] They put a little cap on top. Oh, okay. And then that cap gets replaced with eventually the actual. What does that run you, Bobby? Like not exact price, but what is the average for something like that? This outpatient surgery just for this was $2,300. Jesus. And then when I go back to the dentist and have a tooth 3D printed, that's probably going to be in a $700 plus range. And I already did the couple hundred dollar root canal and, you know, the $37 enchilada. Do not fucking knock with that in my total bill. And I tipped on that shit too.

[00:08:18] So... No more soccer at your house. Hockey at your house. Sorry, buddy. Right. I had a... I just had my crown put on. I told you guys, I split the tooth. The old crown broke and I had to go. So it was two weeks in between. It was three visits. It was the first visit. They did all the actual work where they grind the tooth and all this shit. Like, I have a crown up front. One of my tooth split years ago back there and they had put a crown in it.

[00:08:47] And it's crazy because if that crown comes off, the tooth is like this... The only thing left is like this tiny spike. It's a step. It looks like a little fucking fang that just comes out of the gum. It's craziest looking thing. It's like stepping nace and shit. Like, you know, like this little tiny tooth just coming out. And this one though, it was two weeks. They did the first one. They did all the work and numbed me and everything. The second one was like 10 minutes. They just measured for the crown, put the temporary on. And then the third one, they just put the crown in.

[00:09:16] So it was nice and easy. But they didn't know if I needed root canal at first. At first, they thought that I would have to go the route you did the first time. But luckily, they were able to save the tooth. Just for anyone listening, don't let the words root canal freak you out. That shit was painless as hell. In fact, the minute you get off the chair, it's nothing but relief. Like when the pain goes away, the root's gone. Like whatever pain you had is gone. This shit's totally different. This was like Advil fucking six or whatever the hell it's called.

[00:09:46] And flipping it with time and all for a few days. Not really. It's annoying. It's like a dull thud. Do you just kind of play with it with your tongue, basically? I try. It's really freaky. I try to keep away. I haven't not had like a missing tooth since I was like 11 or whatever. You know? That's really weird. Yeah. You always have a bunch of them missing. My tongue just goes there, yeah. I've been lucky. I've never had a cavity. Never had braces. You're lucky. Always had nice, strong, clean teeth. Mike, Mike. I give it to me. Take it away.

[00:10:16] Yeah. I mean, my wife has perfect teeth. My kids have perfect teeth. I just don't. Like, my teeth are fucking, you know, they're, I mean, they're fine, but they, I've had cavities. I've had to get root canals. How'd you have your dinner tonight, Chris? Sour patch kids. I haven't eaten yet. No. Believe it or not. So, so I, I have a big, I had a big sugar problem. All right. And I went to, um, get my physical a while ago, all my blood work and stuff came back and all those numbers were high. And like, I was like, you know what? I'm almost 50, dude.

[00:10:46] I'm not doing this shit. So since that day, I haven't had, I've had like me, I think I had like two pieces of candy. I took sugar out of my coffee. I took sugar out of everything. And I'll tell you like two weeks now, I feel a lot better in just those two weeks of getting that sugar out of my system. I have more energy. You should talk to R.K. Jr. No, thank you. No, thank you. All right. So since we, we got exactly, we got a lot on the show to go to today.

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[00:12:43] So, I guess we will start in the West. How's that sound, boys? Yes. All right. So, I just have a- Probably the West to talk about in the West. Yeah. I have a couple quick little stats we can go- We'll go over a little bit in the head-to-heads and then we'll make our picks. So, the first one I have is the Kings and Edmonton. And the Kings have home ice. This is the fourth time in four years they will be facing each other in the first round, which is crazy. The Kings this year-

[00:13:12] And now, okay, keep in mind, some of these teams are playing tonight. So, I only have the stats for some of them on an 81-game schedule. So, the Kings only played 81 games. They're 48, 24, and 9, have 105 points as of right now. They are sixth in goal differential at a plus 50. They are 28th in the league in power play at 17.6. Their penalty kill is 81.3. That's good for eighth.

[00:13:41] And their team save percentage is 904. And that's good for fifth. Edmonton also only played the 81 games. They played tonight. They're right now at 47, 29, and 5, have 99 points. They're a plus 21 in goal differential for 12th in the league. They are 11th in the power play at 23.9. And they are 18th in the penalty kill at 77.9. And they are a team save percentage of 893. And that's good for 16.

[00:14:09] The Kings this year have been extremely dominant at home. They are 31, 5, and 4. And they are 17, 19, and 5 on the road. Edmonton is 25, 13, and 3 at home and 22, 16, and 2 on the road. The Kings won the season series 2, 1, and 1. And that's what I got on this series. Thoughts, prediction. We'll go Tim, Bobby, Tony, me. Timmy, L.A., Edmonton. I think the Kings get this done.

[00:14:40] That home record is unbelievable. Kemper's been lights out the past couple months. Contradictory to our belief that that doesn't matter, but it does. I just think Edmonton, I don't know. There's something about them I don't trust. Maybe it's Skinner at home. Nobody knows what's going on with him. I just don't think they have the depth this year to do it. But Conor McDavid and Leon Dreisler are the only wild cards. Those two, they could go absolutely fucking nuclear.

[00:15:09] And in the past playoffs, like last year in the playoffs, their power play was at like 50% or something like that. If that falls off a little bit like it did in the regular season, I just don't see it happening. I think the Kings get it done. And how many games? I think it's going to go seven. I think Conor and Leon steal one or two games. Not steal, but go nuts. And take a couple games, probably in Edmonton. But I think the Kings get it done in seven. All right.

[00:15:38] Bobby, your thoughts? I pretty much agree completely. I mean, I know it's outside looking in, it's pretty hard to bet against the Oilers. And you look at how many times they've met. But I think because the Kings got that home ice advantage, and it just seems so crucial to their game, I can literally see them winning all four of their home ice games. And I got them winning in seven as well. Okay. L.A. in seven. Tony Zamboni.

[00:16:09] I'm going to probably change what I said last show. I'm actually going to go with Edmonton. I thought about it today before we came on. I could go either way, definitely. I'm definitely saying seven games. But I just think Conor McDavid's going to show up. Yeah. So, I mean, it was, like I said, I think last episode, I actually kind of went on the Kings side with you guys. But after thinking about it, I'm going to go with Edmonton. Well, I mean, look, Edmonton, they have the bona fides, right?

[00:16:38] I mean, they were there last year. They know what they're doing. And it's like Conor McDavid, who I feel like was invisible all year, ended up with 100 points because he's frigging ridiculous. Like, is that the quietest 100-point season ever? Yeah. And so, I mean, the guy's amazing. The only thing he needs in his trophy case is the Stanley Cup. But it's not coming this year. L.A. is a better team. And I think Edmonton's banged up. I don't trust their goaltending.

[00:17:07] I'm going with L.A., their juggernaut at home. And, you know, they have a losing record on the road. But I still like them in six. I'm taking them. I think the Kings get it done in six. And Conor McDavid and the boys go home early this year. All right. Worst thing that happened to Edmonton was those two offer sheets from St. Louis. Like, those are the two guys that they absolutely needed to replace. And losing McLeod also hurt them. The other one that hit McLeod. Yeah.

[00:17:35] You know, I was watching a little bit of Buffalo, and I was thinking, man, Ryan McLeod would have been good on the Devils. He would have been a really good fourth liner for us. You know, he played great for Buffalo at the end. But, yeah, I just think Edmonton – and it's funny. I want to ask you guys, like, this offer sheet stuff, this is something that I think is going to start coming back big time in the offseason now after what St. Louis did. I just think that a lot more – a lot of teams, I think, kind of GMs were like, ah, let's not do it.

[00:18:04] It's just kind of an ethic thing. And, you know, I don't want to be a dick. Like, and now I think everyone's going to be like, all right, we're going to be dicks, and we'll just offer sheet guys and try and get them. Yeah. I'd love to see it. All right. The second series, which I'm – this is the one I'm most excited for in the East. Well, let me say, I mean, in the West, I was until a few injuries, but I'm still very excited for Dallas, Colorado. Dallas this year, they are 50, 25, and 6.

[00:18:32] They have 106 points. They are fourth in goal differential at a plus 57. 22.5 power play. That's good for 16th. 82.1 on the penalty kill. That's good for fifth. And a team save percentage of 908. That's good for second in the league. The abs are 49, 29, and 4, 102 points. A plus 42 in goal differential. That's seventh in the league. Their power play is 24.8%.

[00:19:02] That's ninth in the league. 79.8% on the PK. That's 12th in the league. And 18th in the league in save percentage at 891. This year, the Stars were 28, 10, and 3 at home. 22, 15, and 3 on the road. The abs were 26, 12, and 3 at home. 23, 17, and 1 on the road. The abs won the season series. Two games to one. Timmy, Colorado, and the Stars.

[00:19:31] I think Colorado's going to take this in five. Dallas has quietly kind of fallen off a cliff from a process perspective. You know, there are two things I look at when I'm looking at a team's performance process and then their results. Sometimes they don't necessarily match up. But their expected goal differential has fallen off an absolute cliff since basically February. They've almost been as bad as the Devils. Ottinger is a question mark.

[00:19:58] You know, he hasn't had very good playoff success with no Haskin in. And now Jason Robertson was seen with a brace on his knee. And if he's out, I just don't. I think Colorado's the best team in the league. And I just don't see how anyone can match them. So I think Colorado on five. Wow. I had a hard time with this series because I'm always so bullish on the Stars.

[00:20:24] And usually if I get them out of the first round, I'm usually taking them straight up to the finals. But there's something about the Avs team this year, more so than how Dallas has been playing for me. Because, like, we're hoping you can just kind of write that off, start anew. I don't know. This is more just a gut feeling. I just think it's going to be a back-and-forth series. I think ultimately the Avs are going to come out on top in seven. I'm going to make it go the distance. All right. So I'm going to go seven, too.

[00:20:52] And I'd like to see – you know, I like Wood. I like Blackwood. No, I'm going to take the Stars, though, in seven. Yeah. But I would like – obviously, for me, I would like to see the Avs take them out. But I'm going to go with Dallas in seven. I don't know. I just – you know, Dallas, I think, could come alive. Like, everything Tim said is true about what – you know, the drop-off and stuff. But my instinct just tells me that it's going to go seven games and Dallas can pull it off.

[00:21:22] I mean, Dallas, if Robo's out, that's huge. I mean, it's already tough enough, like you said, with Haskinen being out. And Colorado's going to want to beat Rantanen. Rantanen's going to want to beat the Avs. This is going to be a heck of a series. I have right here, like on my other sheet, Avs in seven. I took the Avs for most of the ones that I picked here. But I'm kind of like you, Tone.

[00:21:51] Like I've been – like you were in the last series. Like, I'm thinking about it a lot. And, yeah, Dallas has been playing like crap. And they're – but they're playoff ready. And Ottinger is – you know, the guy's gone far in the playoffs. I don't know if I trust Mackenzie Blackwood. I am going to go with the Stars in seven. That's what I'm taking. I'd like to see Colorado do it. But I think it's going to be Dallas in seven. So, all right. Jets and Blues.

[00:22:22] The Jets, President's Trophy winner, best team in the regular season. 56-22-4 with 106 points. They're plus 85 in goal differential. That is tops in the league. 28.9 in the power play. That is tops in the league. 79.4 on the penalty kill. That's 13th in the league. And a save percentage of 915. And that's good for first in the league. This team is a fucking wagon. The St. Louis Blues.

[00:22:51] The little peppy team that could coming out of the blue. Ha, ha, ha. See what I did there? Let's see what you did there. And, yeah, the Blues, you know, 44-30 and 8, 96 points, plus 19. Goal differential, that's good for 13th. 22.1 on the power play. 17th in the league. 74.2 on the PK. 27th in the league. And the team save percentage is 897. That's 13th in the league.

[00:23:19] Winnipeg is 29-7-4 at home. They are 26-15-0 on the road. This team just doesn't lose much anywhere. The Blues are 24-14-3 at home. 20-16-5 on the road. The Jets won the season series 2-1-1 against the Blues. Timmy, Winnipeg, St. Louis. This is the one that I've had the hardest time with.

[00:23:46] So, I'm just going to say Winnipeg in 7. I think it's going to be a hell of a series. You know, we've seen Bennington since the Four Nations has really stepped up his game. You know, with Montgomery coming in and, you know, Robbie Thomas and Cairo. And, you know, they have a good solid team. But Winnipeg, man, they just are such a wagon. And they come at you in waves and waves and waves.

[00:24:11] And I think this is the year that Hellebuck just finally says, stop telling me I choke. Go fuck yourself. And pulls it out. But I think it's going to be a pretty tough series. Almost a coin flip. So, I'm going to go with Winnipeg in 7. I, too, I think this is the year that Winnipeg, you know, puts it all together more or less. I think this is Hellebuck's year. Just like he's saying, this is not kind of one of those fluky President's Trophy deals. Nor am I picking them simply because, oh, a team with the most points.

[00:24:40] Obviously, they can beat the most teams. I just, I really think that they're just about to go on a tear. And I'm not giving the Blues nearly as much respect. I got them in 5. Oh, okay. I had to have a 5 somewhere. Yeah. I'm doing the same thing. I'm like, uh. I'm all 6-7. You're always playing it safe. You're going to all go 7. You're right. So, I had exactly what Bobby had. But I'm going to change it just to make it interesting. I'm going to go 6. Because I had them in 5 also. I have Winnipeg. I think St. Louis is good. But I think you're going to crack. I think Winnipeg's that much better.

[00:25:11] I mean, there's a lot of, there's a big part of me that thinks Winnipeg can make their whole run this year. And win the Cup this year. I didn't pick them to win the Cup. But I could picture them doing it. And like I said, I think, I would have said 5. But I'm going to say 6. Because Bobby went with 5. Well, I am going to go away from you guys here. I'm going to take St. Louis. I'm going to take him because I don't trust Connor Hollabuck yet in the playoffs. He's one of my, maybe my favorite goalie in the league. But last year's first round was so bad.

[00:25:42] So bad. And you got to prove it. And you went up against Binghamton in the Four Nations and he beat you. And I know that wasn't the Winnipeg Jets team. And I know it doesn't mean anything. But this, I like St. Louis as far as, you know, they have so many good guys on there that just, they're deep. They play, and so is Winnipeg. They're both really deep teams. Goaltending is going to be great on both sides. I just think St. Louis, I don't know.

[00:26:10] I kind of, I got to take one of these wildcard teams to go and win a series. I'm going to pick St. Louis. So I'm going to take the Blues in six over Winnipeg. Probably going to be wrong. It's your upset pick, and it's the ultimate upset of the playoffs. Yeah. And I could absolutely see the Winnipeg Jets winning the Stanley Cup. I have, like, no doubt in my mind. They have everything that they need to do it. But for this exercise, I'll take the Blues in six. All right. Another good one. Vegas, Minnesota.

[00:26:39] So the Knights are 50, 22, and 10, 110 points. Plus 60 is good for third in goal differential. Their power play is second in the league at 28.3. Their penalty kill is 26th in the league at 75.7. And they are ninth in team save percentage out of 900. Minnesota Wild are 45, 30, and 97 points. One of only two teams that have a dash next to their goal differential.

[00:27:08] They are minus 11 in goal differential. That's 18th in the league. 20.9 on the power play. That's 20th in the league. Penalty kill is 30th at 72.4. And their team save percentage is sixth in the league at 903. Vegas at home this year went 29.9 and 3. They went 20.13 and 7 on the road. The Wild were 22, 17, and 2 at home. 23, 13, and 5 on the road.

[00:27:37] Vegas swept the season series three games to none. Timmy, what do you got in this one? I'm just not ready to bet against Vegas. See what I did there? You know, Minnesota, they have Capri softback. I think Eric's neck is back. They were the best team in the league at the beginning of the season before those guys went down. Do you want to note that? But Vegas is such a wagon. Their decor is outstanding. They've been there.

[00:28:07] They've done that. Jack Eichel hits another level in the playoffs. And their center depth is incredible. I just think Vegas and six. Yeah, I mean, for me, Vegas, you know, their top five in goals for, goals against, and power play. They're just so strong to play against. And I like Minnesota. Like, I want to root for Minnesota here. Especially when I look at, like, Vegas beat them 3-0. I'm always like, oh, okay, now that seems too easy.

[00:28:36] It's going to be the other team that comes back. But I just honestly can't see the Wild breaking through Vegas in this round. So I'm going to take the Knights and six. I'm going to go Knights and five. I could picture, you know, like I said, Minnesota's good. But I think Vegas is better. I mean, and might be one of those series that we think would last longer than it does. So I'm going to go with them in five games.

[00:29:07] Yeah, I'm with you, Tone. I'm taking the Knights and five. I like Minnesota a lot, especially with Kaprizov and Ekback, like you said to me. They're a really good team, Minnesota. But Vegas is just on a different level, especially come playoff time. Vegas seems like one of those teams that they can just go and blow through everybody and win another cup. They're that good. I'm taking the Knights and five.

[00:29:35] I would like to see Minnesota upset them, but I don't think it's going to happen. Yeah, it'd be kind of cool to see Fleury, even though he's probably going to be on the bench, like, you know, kind of make it make a one last sort of playoff run. But I just don't think that happened against Vegas. Yeah, like I said, I'd be extremely happy to see the Wild pull it out. But that's a tough ask, man. That's a damn good Golden Knight team. All right, now we go to the East. The Battle of Ontario.

[00:30:04] Toronto, Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators. Toronto, again, neither one of these teams played all 82. They play again tonight, each of them. So Toronto right now is 51-26-4. They have 106 points. They're first in the Atlantic, a plus 37 goal differential. That's good for ninth. Seventh on the power play at 25%. Seventeenth on the penalty kill at 78.1. Fourth in team save percentage at 9.05.

[00:30:32] Ottawa Senators, wild card one, 44-30-7, 95 points as of right now. A plus eight goal differential. That's 14th in the league. They're 13th on power play at 23.5. 19th on PK at 77.9. And seventh in team save percentage at 9.02. Toronto at the Garden is 26-13-1. Away from the Garden, they're 25-13-3. They are steady Eddie, whether home or away, man. This team is –

[00:31:02] Yep, you get what you get. The Sens are 26-11-3 at home. 18-19-4 on the road. Losing record at home. But the Senators swept the Maple Leafs three games to none this year. And I believe – I don't have the scores. I believe in those three games, Toronto scored three goals. I think it's like – I think they beat them by nine total goals, I think. Okay. Over the three. So, yeah.

[00:31:28] So, Ottawa has their number in this regular season. But we all know that this is the playoffs. So, Tim, Battle of Ontario, what do you got? This is going to be a war. I think Toronto outlasts them. I think they'll last them in seven. You know, I think they get some good goaltending from Stolarz and Wall. Their decor is a lot better than it has been historically. And that's kind of been their Achilles heel. I think Willie Nylander has a huge series.

[00:31:57] I know Brady, you know, he's – everybody wants to see him in the playoffs. It's going to be cool. But I think, unfortunately – and I hate the narrative that's going to come out of this regarding Sheldon Keefe. But I think Toronto finally gets out of the first round. Well, he got them out of the first round. Well, one time. But, you know, that was – that's going to be – Oh, that was the problem. You know, that's what's going to happen. It's going to be the simple, dumb narrative. Yeah, I could definitely see that happening.

[00:32:27] Robert? Yeah, I actually had a really tough time with this because I feel like, you know, I finally picked the Leafs last year to get out of the first round and it actually happened. I feel like I'm a fool to do it again. No, it didn't happen last year. It happened the year before. Or the year before, I'm sorry. The year before. I just think overall they're just more powerful. Like you said, they're kind of steady, Eddie. They could beat you in both places pretty well. I like the story of the Senators. Don't quite think they're going to keep up. I think it's going to be ultra tight too.

[00:32:56] And even though it's going to be super tight, it'll still be in six, but all six will be tight. Like a couple that probably could have went either way. So you're taking Toronto in six? Yes. All right. Tony Zamboni. I've been saying it all along. Ottawa in seven. I think Ottawa's going to make a run this year. Yeah. You know, I've been high on Ottawa and going into this series. I even said on the last show I was going Ottawa. I thought about it a lot.

[00:33:25] I've been thinking about this series. And I don't know. Linus Allmark is a big difference maker when it comes to the Senators. I worry a little bit about Brady Kachuk and the way he plays when he gets himself like so amped up and gets himself injured like he did at the Four Seasons. Like Four Seasons. That's a diner down the road. I saw Brady at the diner. That's where the RNC is, press conferences. I saw Brady Kachuk having a pina colada at a Trader Vic's.

[00:33:55] There you go. Nobody. Nobody's going to ask me what his hair looked like. What his hair looked like. His hair was perfect. Is that Four Seasons? Is that the old Tom's River Diner? No. The old Tom's River Diner is the Tom's River Diner. The old Four Seasons was a lot. Oh, so it's still the Tom's River Diner is still there. Tom's River Diner is still there. It's not open 24 hours. Yeah, exactly. They closed their hours. What was that guy's name? Costa? What was the guy that used to run? Costa. It's always a Greek name. Yeah. He was cool.

[00:34:24] Costa Vasilakis, I believe. He's not still there, is he? No, no, no. It was closed for years during COVID and even before that. So they just reopened a couple of years ago and it's all new ownership and stuff. But Toronto, I just think they've been just steady all year and playing really good hockey. Chris Tannin made a world of difference on their blue line.

[00:34:49] Their goaltending kind of is the only question mark that I can take away from Toronto. I think that the Maple Leafs are going to get it. I think they win. They move on to the second round. They do it in seven. It's kind of my way of saying I really have no idea who's going to win this thing. But I am going to take Toronto in seven. I would kind of like to see Toronto. I know a lot of people think it's funny when they fuck up every year. But I kind of feel bad for them, man. I'm kind of like, let them get through a little bit more.

[00:35:19] You know, I have to be honest. I don't hate Toronto. So, I mean, I, you know. You know, the offer sheet thing that you were talking about. So, this series, I think, is going to dictate, like, more than it should, what's going to happen with Mitch Marner and Tavares. And then, if they re-sign both of them, they're vulnerable to an offer sheet on Matthew Knives, which would be a really, really fascinating guy to offer sheet. He might get a monster offer this summer.

[00:35:49] Would love him on the Devils. Yeah, probably not going to happen for us. But I think we're one of a few teams that actually can, based on the draft pick compensation necessary. I haven't totally looked into it. We could get into that another time. All right. We will. All right. So, then we got the first place team in the East. The Washington Capitals versus wild card two, the Montreal Canadiens. So, the Caps, 51-21-9. They played tonight, though. 111 points.

[00:36:18] A plus 60 goal differential. That's good for third. They're 14th on the power play at 23.3. Fourth on the penalty kill at 82.3. And 12th in team save percentage at 898. The Habs are 40-31-11 for 91 points. Minus 18. Biggest goal differential in the playoffs. 21st in the league. 20.1 in power play. That's also 21st in the league. Their peak K is 80.9.

[00:36:48] That's good for ninth in the league. And team save percentage is 890. That's good for 20th in the league. Washington. They don't lose much at home. 26-9-6. Away from D.C. They are 25-12-3. The Habs at the Bell Center are 23-12-6. And 17-19-5 on the road. The Caps are 2-1. 2-1-2 out of 3 against Montreal this year. So, Timmy.

[00:37:17] Montreal and Canadians. I mean, Capitals. I waffle back and forth in this. I think actually in our bracket challenge, I picked Montreal just to be a chaos agent. But I honestly, I think the Capitals take this pretty easily. They're just bigger, stronger. They have the horses that have been there before. Their goaltending is a little bit of a question. But, you know, they've been cruising for, you know, the past couple of months. You know, trying to get Ovechkin to goal chase.

[00:37:46] I don't know, you know, how their vibes are in the locker room. But I think they kind of snap together once the playoffs start. They know they've been here before. Or, you know, Carlson, Ove. I like Strom's game. One wild card is if Protus comes back, he's a huge loss for them. If he can't go at all. That guy's just an absolute monster. But other than that, I think the Caps get him in six. Montreal's going to be frisky. And this Demidob kid, man, he is so much fun to watch.

[00:38:17] If only we had a young Russian prospect that we could have added to the roster. Patience. Patience. Patience. I have no patience. Yeah. I didn't even really write any notes with this one. I'm just kind of going gut. I just don't know how to, like, understand what the Caps are and why they're there and why they're as good as they were. And Montreal just doesn't wow me at all. So, I just got the Caps rolling them in five. Okay. Tony. I got the Caps in six.

[00:38:46] I don't – they've been running all season. I don't see – I don't see them slowing down. I'm shocked. How many – even when you said the points just now that they've got this year, I was just like, man, what I thought this team was going to be before the season started to what they wound up. And I can't say it's a fluke because they've been consistent. They might have a little bit of, you know, you slow down a little bit. But, I mean, I think the – and, Tim, I think you mentioned the chemistry, right? I think there's a lot of chemistry there. I saw it, unfortunately, when Ovi was breaking the record. You could tell that team is tight.

[00:39:16] I'm thinking the Capitals in six. Yeah. I mean, it's tough to beat against Washington. I had them last in the Metropolitan Division when we did this thing last summer. And they ended up first in the Eastern Conference. So, yeah, I was a little wrong there. I was like, oh, you're not the only one, so. I know. But I love the Habs. I love everything about that team. Love watching them play up at the Bell Center. The place is electric every time that they're taking the ice. The road games – I mean, the home games for Montreal are going to be so much fun.

[00:39:48] They're going to put up a fight, but it's not going to be enough. Washington takes us in seven. It's going the distance. I'm excited to see hockey in the Bell Center, man. That place is going to be absolutely wrong. Same here. Another great series of Battle of America's Wang. Flying Florida Panthers versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. These teams are tight, man. Florida's 47-31-4.

[00:40:16] The Lightning are 47-26-8. 98 points for the Cats, 102 for the Lightning, and they play the Rangers tonight. Do you think Panarin's playing tonight? I don't think he would, speaking of Wangs. Yeah. Goal differential. The Cats are plus 23. That's 11th. The Lightning are plus 80. That's two. Penalty – power play, rather. 23.5 for the Panthers. They're 12th in the league. 26.2 for the Lightning.

[00:40:46] 5th in the league. PK. The Cats are 80.7 for 10th in the league. Lightning, 81.5. 6th in the league. And team goals – team save percentage is 8.96 for the Cats at 14th in the league. And 9.07 and third for Lightning. Florida at home, 27-12-2. Away from home, they're 20-19-2. The Lightning at home are 29-8-4. And away from home, they're 518-18-4.

[00:41:16] They split the four games. Each team won a game at home. Each team won a game on the road. So, split right down the middle. The Stanley Cup – defending Stanley Cup champions against the, like, perennial Stanley Cup fucking contender, Lightning. What do you got, Timmy? I mean, this is going to be a bloodbath. This may be my favorite series that I'm going to watch a lot of. But I think Tampa's going to win at seven. You know, we've talked about this before. They just roll so much depth.

[00:41:46] You know, McDonough and Hedman on the back end. Vasilevsky looks like he's all the way back. You know, Florida, I think, is going to have that year that a lot of these teams that have consecutive years that go to the Stanley Cup finals have, where they have kind of a fall-off year. And then they kind of regroup and get back where they have a lot more wins. 2002 Devils. Yeah, exactly. That's the fact that I was thinking, too. Yeah, so I think Tampa gets their own button seven. But I think it's going to be an absolute bloodbath. And it's interesting.

[00:42:15] I didn't actually realize how both of them have kind of shitty away records and good home records. And they were evenly split down the middle in the season series. So I think it goes seven. And just Tampa makes it work. Yeah, I had a horrible time picking this just from, like, the 50-50 aspect of it. You know, like, it's so hard to write off that Florida team. But there's something about the Lightning this year. And I had to do a double take at their goal differential at plus 79.

[00:42:44] I was like, are you kidding me? Did I see that right now? I get that the Jets, you told me they're plus 86. I was like, sure, yeah, I get that. I had the Lightning every year. I had them falling a little bit further down the mountain. And they just keep proving me wrong. And then I watched the team play. And, like, Kuterov is on another planet and points his fucking moon. And that's before you get into, what's his name? Hagel? Or no. Yeah, Hansel. With his 90 points. And, like, this is just incredible. That Hansel is so hot right now.

[00:43:13] I think it's just going to be, like you said, a bloodbath. I'm really looking forward to the series. But the Lightning are going to pull it out in seven. Seven? Yeah. You know, I want to be – I agree the 50-50 thing. Everything that you guys said is I agree with. It's going to be a bloodbath. It's going to go seven. And from living in Tampa so long, I'll be honest, I don't want to see the Lightning advance because I feel like their fans have been spoiled. Like, when I would go to the games when the – you know, the Devils there.

[00:43:43] All fan bases have been spoiled. Yeah. But, I mean, as a Devils fan, you go there and you hear some of the things the Lightning fans say and you start getting a little resentful. But I will say it's a great team. I actually have them winning the cup possibly. I mean, not even – I believe that will be the team that wins the cup this year. And I hate to say it, but with – just look, Braden Point, the names. Kucherov, who you want to hate, but you can't help but wish he was on your team, you know. He has a – you know, Kucherov's a weird guy too because he has that real arrogant swagger.

[00:44:12] He's a – I mean, I've done the – I've met – he has this kind of thing to him, but he's a hell of a player. Anybody want him on the team, not only does he give you offense, but he also will give you that attitude that you want on your team. Vasilevsky, he to me – I don't know. He – you know, we talk about who's the best goalie for the last maybe five years or so, last ten years. I mean, I think Vasilevsky's probably the best goalie in hockey when he wants to be. I mean – His larger body of work. Yeah. He can – he's the guy who can steal a whole series too, I believe.

[00:44:42] So, I'm going to go with Tampa, unfortunately, and hope – So, I think it's going to be the best – out of all these series we're talking about right now, this is going to be the best series in the first round, I think. I do like how there's a battle of Florida and a battle of Ontario. Yeah. It definitely has the making of one of the best series in the first round. And, you know, look, Vasilevsky versus Bobrovsky. John Cooper versus Paul Maurice. Like, there's so many awesome storylines to go in this series.

[00:45:12] It's going to be a ton of fun. If Matthew Kachuk comes back, that adds a whole other dimension to the Florida Panthers. Florida has played a lot of hockey over the last few years. They kind of haven't really looked like Florida a lot, like later – like, you know, the tail end of this year. They've kind of fallen off a little bit. And I know part of that was Paul Maurice basically saying, we're going to end up somewhere in the top three. Who cares? Let's just kind of load manage everybody.

[00:45:40] And, you know, sick guys that are a little bit banged up. So, Parkov's a beast. It's so many guys on Florida. But that's why I think you guys are wrong about one thing. Tampa Bay is loaded. We played them a few times this year. They just look like – they are on a different planet when they're playing their game. They're so in sync with what everybody else is doing on the ice. Everybody's constantly moving.

[00:46:09] Everybody knows what everybody's doing. They're scary fucking good. Tampa Bay is going to win this thing in five. That's what I'm going. I don't – I think it's going to be a bloodbath. I think it's going to be a low-scoring game, a low-scoring series. But I'm going to take Tampa. And maybe two of those five wins will be in overtime or whatever. But I'm going lightning in five. I think they absolutely have a shot to win the cup. You know, when I look at the rosters, Tampa may be – out of all the teams that are going into the playoffs,

[00:46:37] they may be the best built team round for a Stanley Cup. If you look at every angle, goaltending, the defense, the playmakers, the guys who chip in who aren't the stars, they may be the best set team lineup-wise in the playoffs right now. You know who's another team that I agree with you in the East? The team in the West that I think is built a lot like Tampa. Not with the star players, but so much of like the depth and all that. And I think the Kings.

[00:47:07] I think L.A. is a sleeper in this whole fucking thing. I really do. I think they can come out of the West. But that's for them. No. So that leads us to the series that we all really care about. Caroline. Homer glasses, everyone. New Jersey. I have mine on. I have my drunk goggles on right now. So, Tim, you had done – like do you want me to go over our stats here? Do you have them all? No, no, no.

[00:47:34] Do the overview team stats and then we can make our picks and then I can take us through the sort of player level comparisons that I did. Perfect. So, Carolina, they play again tonight. But right now they are 47-29-5. They have 99 points. We are 42-33-7. Ended up with 91 points. They're plus 38 in goal differential. That's eighth in the league. We're plus 20. That's 12th in the league.

[00:48:03] 18.5 for the Carolina Hurricanes power play. That's 26 in the league. We are clicking at 28.2. That's third in the league. Their penalty kill is 84.3. That's first in the league followed by our 82.7, which is second in the league. And team save percentages. The Hurricanes are 23rd in the league at 889. We are 11th in the league at 898. Carolina at home, 31-9-1. On the road, they were 16-20-4.

[00:48:33] New Jersey at home, 19-17-5. And on the road, they're 23-16-2. Split all four games with them. We won the 1-2 at the Rock. They won the 2 down at the Lenovo Center. Timmy, Carolina, New Jersey. All right. I think the Devils pulled us out in six. I know it's going to be hard. I know. Yeah. I think, look, I certainly have rose-colored glasses on because it's the Devils.

[00:49:02] But I'm not going to not pick them, you know, just to try and be like, I was right. I'm going to pick them because I'm a fan of the fucking team. And I want to see them win. And I do think there, and I'll get into this when I go through everything, I do think there is a path to this. And I think people are starting to see this. Like Sportsnet.ca just put out Eastern Conference predictions. They picked the Devils in seven.

[00:49:26] Money puck, the Devils' odds to beat the Canes were at like 30% a week ago. Now they're at 42%. So there is a path here. And I think we can do it. I think we can. I could be totally fucking wrong. We could get the shit kicked out of us in four straight games and go home with our tail between our legs. But I'm going to choose to not think that's going to happen. All right. And it's an act of choice, mind you.

[00:49:57] Because I do see reality, but I am making the choice to not see reality. I like it. Funny. Didn't you guys see that graphic that's going around social media? It had all the contending teams and it had, as the year goes on, like their logos fluctuating up and down with their odds. And then at one point, like to say the Devils fell off a cliff would be an understatement. Like it was a direct shoot down off the chart. You can't even scroll the chart to see how far down he went. It had to be right when Jack got injured. I'm assuming. And then everything.

[00:50:26] But it is hysterical. Like no other team did that. They dropped. But the Devils just disappeared. It was pretty hysterical. Having said that, I don't care about that. I'm with Tim, man. This is. I'm a Devils fan. I'm not going to root against them here, at least not logically. I've said before, you know, are you asking me to win this cup right now? Probably not. No. But I'm definitely not rooting against them here. I think we have the better goaltending. I think. I know we have the better total specialty teams package.

[00:50:54] The home and homes were fairly split. I think we can steal a game. I think we're going to win maybe the first game and change a series. And I've also got the Devils winning in six. That's my guy. So, you know, it's. Again, I'm going to wear the Devils glasses, too, because I will do this any series they're in. First of all, you got to win one of these first two games. We've talked about this. You don't win one of these first two games. It could be four games. You're out. There's no doubt about that. You lose those first two games.

[00:51:23] You are in trouble, especially the way we've been playing at home. You know, it's actually a benefit for us to be on the road somewhere. So it's probably, you know, it's not bad to start there. We need some guys who are going to, as we said last show, we need guys who are going to chip in. We need the Tars. We need the Hollas. We need guys that you don't expect to put in some goals. We need those guys. Goaltending's better. Definitely. But I'm going to be a Devils fan, and if they advance to the next one, I'm going to pick them again. I can't help it because you can't go against your team, you know, and I admit that.

[00:51:51] It's going to be a tough series, but the Devils are going to pretty much have to have everything work out for them, I think, to get through this series. And they can, but they're going to need to make sure everything, just going to have to be the heroes. We're going to have to have at least two games with heroes. Hopefully our goaltending steals a game or two, but I'm going with the Devils in – I'm going to go Devils in seven. All right.

[00:52:18] So there is absolutely – and look, nobody's giving the Devils a chance in this. I mean, I get, Tim, you said a couple. I hadn't seen any yet until that. That was the first time you told me that some people were actually picking New Jersey. Everybody is basically on the – Outside of PKC, man. Yeah. And I get it. You know, the Devils have been inconsistent since Christmas. We've talked about it on this show ad nauseum. Everybody knows – everyone that listens to this show is a Devil fan. They know that.

[00:52:45] This team hasn't shown a consistent – there's no way they're sweeping anybody because they can't win four in a row. But my – I think that New Jersey has a couple of advantages, and one being absolutely goaltending. Second is I think that they can do some damage off the rush. I think that Carolina is a little bit vulnerable.

[00:53:11] That's why I think having Hamilton back is going to be huge because he's able to – him, Luke, even guys like Kovacevic, and they can make those long passes, those outlet passes, get the rush moving. That's how the Devils are going to have to beat Carolina with their speed. They're going to have to shoot everything on net. They're going to have to keep them – I mean, I just think – we know how good guys like Palat, Mercer, you know, guys like Sprong and Glass who are now on the lineup.

[00:53:39] They're all going to have to chip in. We didn't see them this year really playing great. Even Timo up until March was kind of just a guy – a passenger. But those guys have really stepped up later in this year, Mercer and Meyer especially. I expect guys like Nason, Palat, Cotter to be active in this series. They're going to have to have something to say about this if the Devils are going to win. It cannot just be Heischer and Bratt and Meyer.

[00:54:09] It's got to be – all four lines have to contribute one way or another. I think they're going to be ready for this. I think that – man, I don't – two years ago I wanted to beat the Rangers more than anything. And when we did that and then we stumbled into the Carolina series the next day, I think we had a frigging – we had one day off and we had to travel. That was bullshit. It was bullshit. And it was bullshit.

[00:54:35] And, you know, I just think that that was a big – coming off that emotional high of winning against the Rangers and then going right away, no rest, guys are banged up. And you're playing a tough Carolina team who, if I remember correctly, finished their series in five against the Islanders. So they were rested. Well, that's not going to happen this year. Devils are rested. We don't play until Sunday. And all our guys had off basically last night. They're going to be ready. I'm taking the Devils as well.

[00:55:04] I mean, this is a Devil podcast. I cannot – I know I said on the last show that I was going with Carolina, but I just can't do it. I'm taking them in six. They're going to win this thing. They're going to win it at home, and I think they can beat Washington, but we'll talk about that later. But I think that the Devils absolutely get back to the way that they were playing earlier in the year. They simplify their game. I think they can beat them. And you're right, Tony. It's the first two games. Got to steal one.

[00:55:32] You have to – you cannot start this playoff series like they started both series two years ago. They've got to come out guns blazing. And I think that goaltending is going to be huge. Markstrom can absolutely steal this series for the Devils. So I'm taking Devils in six. Yep. All right. That's our first round. Yeah, Bob, I know you've got to go. I've got to roll out. I know you had a couple of other questions. Obviously, we're not going to get to the snake draft because that's going to take too much time.

[00:56:01] But you did want to know just our general predictions right now early for a final. Right? General predictions right now for a final. Who wins and who's your consummate trophy winner? And also who's scoring first for the Devils, right? And who's scoring first for the Devils. That I want to take first because I went back and forth with just guys like Sprong I wanted to see maybe or Glass or something. But I actually think it's going to be Bratt. I think Bratt's going to show us right from the start that we can get into the interior on them. It's going to get an early goal. And it's just going to galvanize the team to know that we can go ahead and take them down.

[00:56:31] So I'm going to go Bratt with the first goal for the Devils. Right now, I mean, this is not dream Stanley Cup final. Obviously, I'd have the Devils in there. But right now, I would have the Jets beating the Lightning in six with Hellebuck getting the consummate. I like that. All right. So I got to blow out. All right. Leave the studio, Chris. You need me to just leave it open, bud? No, you can X off. All right. Cool. All right. You don't have a good. You don't have a good. You don't have a good. You don't have a good.

[00:57:00] Hardboard cut out of yourself. Just probably. Bobby, are you going to come on Sunday? What's that? You're going to come on Sunday after the game? I'm traveling, be in Jersey, be at my cousin's for Easter. I do not. I won't. I'll be on the road. Fucking Easter. I know. I know. Are you going to be able to watch the game? Fucking God. Hope so. As long as, as far as I know, a lot of people in time is over have problems watching the game. So hopefully I'll be on my phone. I'll be able to watch it. I'll be on my phone. I'll be doing Easter. Yeah. So why? Come over and hang out. No, that's a good point.

[00:57:30] Probably way more fun over there. Absolutely. You're more than welcome. Leave your family. Later, Bob. Leave your family. Later, babe. Later, babe. All right. So, Timmy, you want to go over your stuff? And then we can do our predictions on the cup final. And we'll wrap this up. Yeah, yeah. Sure. All right. Let me share my screen. And I'll put these graphics out. Be careful what you share there, Tim. On our Twitters. I got you.

[00:58:01] All right. So. Not that long. All right. I thought the best podcast logo there is on it. I don't know. It is. Actually, someone complimented it to me because I post my little recap blogs that I forgot to write for the past three games. Now I didn't think about it. Oh, well. Whatever. Someone was like, that's an awesome logo. I was like, thanks. I didn't have anything to do with it. That was all Tony. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What do we got here?

[00:58:24] So I broke this down by our top six forwards, bottom six forwards, top 4D, bottom 4D, or bottom 2D goalies, special teams. So kind of look at how we stack up us versus Carolina. So first things first. And I think you'll kind of sense the theme here. It's our top end is better than their top end. But their depth absolutely blows ours out of the water. That's going to be, I think, our biggest problem.

[00:58:50] So what I really think we need is for our top end guys to really deliver. So total goals, 138 to 133 points. Our goals per game, our points per game, our top six guys are better than Carolina across the board. Our goal is 4% meaning the amount of goals that we were on the ice for versus the amount of times that the other team scored on us. We're about the same and the same as the expected goals for percentage.

[00:59:18] So that's, you know, the expected goals for, I think actually it's kind of a, I think it's mislabeled. I use that as really just a general barometer of how well you played. So really, if you look across the board and for those goals, points, goals per game, points per game, the Devils have the better top six. And in goals for percentage, expected goals for percentage, we're right. We're dead even with Carolina. So that's where I think we have an advantage.

[00:59:45] We need guys like Nico, Bratt and Timo to really step up. Um, so I was talking about our depth. So this is the bottom six forwards and this is where, where our problem is. And this has been our problem all year. Our depth scoring has been a major issue. We pointed it out. We've been talking about it for months. Um, they're just, they're, they're scoring is just somewhat better spread out. Goals, points, goals per game, points per game.

[01:00:11] Their goals for percentage, expected goals for percentage, just better than us in every single category. Um, you know, they're, they have a fourth line that actually can actually talk in the net. Um, their, their scoring is just so well distributed across their lineup. And a lot of their offense is predicated on obviously shot volume, but they're very good at capitalizing on turnovers. And that's something we really need to be cognizant of. And, and people talk about their forecheck and, and how good their forecheck is, but what,

[01:00:39] what makes their forecheck so good is getting second opportunities on the forecheck. You know, it's not just that first guy in hitting the D and causing a turnover. It's causing a turnover in the secondary pass and getting, getting it back in their defense, pinching in and keeping the pocket. So we really, really need to be able to get the puck out. So if our top guys deliver and our bottom six can kind of break even a little bit. And now this bottom six also includes like glass and sprung who have a little bit of a limited

[01:01:08] sample relative to their guys who've been there pretty much the whole year. Um, we need these guys to break even. We really need our bottom six to step up and hopefully playoff plot shows up playoff hollow shows up and that'll make things, make things better. But right now we have the better high end. They have the better depth. So this is, um, basically their, their lineup. So their top line Jarvis, Ajo Blake, um, Svetch, Rossovich, Hall. I don't know what the deal is. We've got Kinemi. I don't know if he's hurt.

[01:01:35] I was trying to find something on him, but he may swap in for, for Rossovich. And then the guy that I'm worried about is Stahl. Um, if our top end guys need to get through Jordan Stahl, he is one of the best shutdown centers in the league. Combine that with their decor. Um, if they match that guy, if they match Stahl up against say Nico, then we really need someone like Mercer to step up and glass to step up because that that's going to make Nico a wash.

[01:02:02] And I've actually heard people talk about potentially breaking Nico and Brad up and making Carolina choose which guy they want to match Stahl up against because that that's going to be kind of an interesting battle. One thing that, that I think about Carolina is Jarvis is five foot 10. Blake is five foot 11. Ajo is barely six feet. Rossovich is only six one. Svetchikov is six three, but he's under 200 pounds. Their forwards aren't that big. Their, their depth is kind of big.

[01:02:32] Like Jankowski, six, four, um, Carrick, who's not on this is six, two. Um, Stahl is six, four Robinson, six, two. Those guys are all over 200 pounds, but I'm worried more about their, their top end guys. We can really punish these guys. And with how good our penalty kill is getting into that a little bit later, I think we could risk some physicality penalties, um, and really put their power play, you know, put some stress on their power play, which has been fucking awful. And ours has been, ours has been good.

[01:02:59] So that's really kind of what, what their lineup looks like, uh, up front. Um, so our, again, going back to our top end is better than their, their bottom end. Our top four defensemen, they have more points, more better goals for game. That's really driven by Dougie and Luke. Our points per game really, again, driven by Dougie and Luke goals for percentage, expect goals for percentage. And then I actually included a defensive metric in here, which is expected goals against by 60.

[01:03:25] So that's weighted by, um, by the amount of ice time that these guys get. So their top four guys versus our top four guys. And it's about the same. So we're giving up our top four defensemen and their top four defensemen are kind of giving up just about the same type of chance volume. Really? That that's really kind of what, how I look, look at that number. So again, our top end is better than their top end. We need Dougie to show up. We need Luke to show up, but I don't know if you guys noticed this, but Dougie had actually

[01:03:53] had a really good game against Detroit and, um, who else had a really good game? One of their best game probably in a couple months was Brendan Dillon. And that's, and metrics kind of play that out. And that's because he's back with Dougie again. And Dougie's so good at pinching in, keeping plays alive, taking shots, getting his shots through that. He's really good at keeping the puck in the zone and getting, um, getting our offense into that cycling and keeping it in the zone.

[01:04:20] And that prevents the puck from obviously being in our end where Dougie and Dylan kind of suffer a little bit. You know, we saw that goal that, that Dylan was pretty much responsible for against Boston where Fabian Lysel just jumped over his back. Yeah. Um, so not having any, anything like that happen. Dougie's also very good in transition with that first pass, getting the puck out of the zone. Um, he, he's not great at puck, puck retrievals, but having him in the lineup causes just like a,

[01:04:46] such a good cascading effect across the entire D core and really elevates everybody's game. I like Dumoulin's game recently, Dumoulin and Kovacevic, you know, been pretty good. And Luke and Pesci, Pesci got the day off. I think he even kind of fallen off a little bit. Um, but if Luke shows up and, and plays the way we know Luke can, I think our top four D are in really good shape. Problem then again, becomes the bottom two bottom pair. Right now this is done by ice time.

[01:05:14] And I will note that this is all situation. So it includes power play and penalty killing. Um, their offensive numbers are really skewed because Shane Goss's bear is on their bottom pair, even though he's like their number one power play quarterback and has a lot of power play points, but you know, our goals per game again, driven by, um, uh, driven by, uh, Dumoulin actually with his one goal, um, the points per game, you know, the goals, 4%

[01:05:40] expected goals, expected goals against they're better than us in the bottom pair. So they do a really good job. Like I was saying, what, what Dougie does is keeping that puck in the zone and capitalizing on turnovers and capitalizing on an inability to get the puck out of the zone. So we really need to be able to, to tighten that up and be, and to be good at, good at it. Another thing that, that Carolina does really well, and this is kind of what their, their decor looks like. It's Slavin and Burns or often, Chatfield Goss's bear and Walker. And if any of those guys are hurt, Mauro comes in.

[01:06:11] So what these guys do really well is Carolina's entire offensive zone scheme is basically getting the puck from, from low to high for point shots. And that's actually been kind of a problem for the devils, you know, through those Minnesota games, um, you know, almost every single goal was, was a tip shot, you know, in the high slot or tip in front where, where our defense aren't, aren't covering guys. So we need to make sure that our defense are picking up sticks and sticks out of the lanes.

[01:06:36] And that is kind of one of Markey's bugaboos is the low danger shots from the point kind of sneaking, sneaking through him. He's great, the high danger shots, but those low danger shots from the point sneaking through can be kind of problematic. So I think, you know, overall, like I was saying, our high end guys need to be high end. Whoops. Um, goaltending. So this is team goaltending. I know it's going to be Markstrom probably versus Anderson.

[01:07:01] Um, but in goals against average, say percentage shutouts, goals saved above expected, uh, we're better than Carolina across the board. All four of those. Um, and I think Markstrom's high end ceiling is a lot better than Freddie Anderson's high end ceiling. Absolutely. And then, um, so these are the two guys, um, Anderson and Kochekov. So Anderson's actually been playing really well. Uh, half of those goals saved above expected have come from the last, his last 10, 15 games that he's played. Um, so he's been playing really well.

[01:07:31] So I wouldn't be surprised if we see him in the net game one. Um, we need to, we need to get in this guy's head. We need to get him rattled and looking for guys like Timo to kind of do what he did to Igor a couple of years ago, uh, really getting these guys head. Um, and then last, last piece is, uh, special teams. You know, you talked about it in yours. We're the best combined special teams in the league. Um, we need our power play to deliver. Um, we, we absolutely need our power play to be lethal. You know, we need Brad, we need Nico. We need Nason that front. We need Mercer that front.

[01:08:01] Not sure what they're going to do in terms of Luke and Dougie, but if we can get two units together that are actually really good, um, that'll be, that'll be outstanding. And like I said, you know, our penalty kill was ranked second only to Carolina's. We can take some penalties against these guys. Their power play blows. Um, the one thing we need to be cognizant over on the power play is, um, uh, is Jarvis on that left flank and the kind of Ovechkin spot. He scores a lot of goals. He had 32, um, yeah, he had 32 goals, uh, this year.

[01:08:30] Um, so that's really kind of the general overview and I'm going to clip each of these slides is like a picture and put it out on our socials, but that's great work, Timmy. Yeah. That is great work. So this is why I think we can win at six. We have better high end guys. We have the better goalies. We can make, I mean, and, and also the physicality, you know, that's another big thing. I think the devils can be more physical and I think they have to be, they've got to start

[01:08:57] this series out on the physical note and they've got to set the tone right away. Um, yeah, I mean, we, we got the guys to do it. One of the things that, um, Florida on their cup run, um, I remember seeing a clip with, I must, maybe it's in the Amazon series. I forget, but it was Maddie Kachuk basically being like, we don't even think there's a puck out there the first 10 minutes. We're just going after everybody and just getting everybody's faces and put them through the, putting them through the glass.

[01:09:25] We do not give a shit if there's a puck out there. Like, that's kind of what I want to see. And it's like you said, if you take a couple of penalties, so be it. You take a couple of penalties. If that, if those penalties are the penalties that, you know, I think it's okay to take a penalty to of course, stop a goal. All right. So that's fine. It's also okay to take a penalty. If you've got to send a message, if you have to kind of set the tone, like, all right, it is going to be physical and we are okay with occasionally running you or, you know, whatever

[01:09:53] the case is, I'm okay with that. Set the tone because that over the course of a seven game series will get in a team's head. And if you keep doing it in the physicality, it wears on you. It's an 82 game season now into the playoffs. If the devils play that way, man, I, they have a shot. They have a shot. So let's do our first goal and our Stanley cup matchups. And then we're going to do the snake draft. So is he coming back? Yeah. He'll be back in a minute.

[01:10:24] Timmy, you are who's scoring the first goal for the devils in these playoffs. Andre Palat. Oh, I like that one. Yeah. We need, we need a man. Look, we've been giving him shit all year. I still think, you know, we need to unload them at the end of the year, but him scoring and having a great playoff will make it a lot easier. We can actually look at a trade versus just a buyout. Hey, Bob. What's up, Bobby? Bob.

[01:10:54] So, so that was going to the Stanley cup final, Tampa Bay and Colorado. And who's winning Tampa Bay. And who's winning the cons might Kucherov. Oh, who's good. I think Kuch is going to just have an insane playoffs and break all kinds of records. The amount of points that guy put up at the end of the year. I mean, he won the art Ross. Nobody, nobody saw that coming two months ago.

[01:11:24] All right, Tony, who's scoring the first goal? I'm going to go with Timmy's guy, Dougie Hamilton. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm going to go for finals. I'm going to go, like I said, devils keep on winning. Then I keep on changing, but I'm going to go with Dallas, Tampa. But Tampa wins point is, I guess the trophy. Over Dallas? Yeah. Oh yeah. I would take out Tampa over Dallas any day, I think. And who'd you say for point? Point. Yeah.

[01:11:54] I was going to say Kucherov too, but I mean, it could be either of those guys. I think both of them could, you know. Or Vasilevsky. Or Vassie. Or Nepal. Or Nepal. Or one of these. Yeah. Or Gensel. And you know, that's the thing with Tampa that makes it such a difference than what we deal with right now with the team. You know, we love our devils. But I don't, like we have, you know, we might have a guy or two that can win that. But with Tampa, you have like five guys that could be that guy. You know, that's the difference between the elite, you know. I'm not saying, hey, if you make a run, you make a run, you know.

[01:12:23] But just in the big picture of things, you look at Tampa, you could be saying five or six. You could be saying Hagel. You could be saying all these different dudes, you know. So it kind of shows you how they're built. Bobby, I'll set up a private hour-long appointment to go through the slides I just went through. That's why Bobby wasn't gone. He just. Bobby's like, hell yeah. Bobby's just like, I don't need another fucking PowerPoint presentation. I love charts. I know, right. Yeah, you might see a lot of those. Okay.

[01:12:52] I am going with 43. Luke Hughes will get the first goal for the Devils in these playoffs. Nice. The Los Angeles Kings will win the Stanley Cup over the Tampa Bay Lightning. But Andre Vasilevsky will win the Conn Smythe. Oh. Was it Jaguer? Yeah. Jaguer. Hexal did it, too. In 87, I think, against Edmonton. So, or 85. All right.

[01:13:21] So those are our picks. Those are everything that we have for our playoff spectacular. Now it's fun time. The snake draft of the week. Bob, you want to explain the snake draft this week? Please do, Bobby. Well, again, that's a new thing we're going to do each week where we pick any random category, non-hockey related. I suppose it could be hockey related, but the plan is mostly non-hockey related. And it could be anything. And we're going to rank them in our favorite order. And then we're going to go through them in a snake draft, picking our favorites of whatever the category is.

[01:13:51] When we're done, we're going to post it to the social medias, try to get a vote out there of who thought we got the best three of whatever it is. Last week, I had the most votes for my Stallone movies. So I got to pick the category. Low-hanging fruit. Whatever, man. I won. You're going to get over it. You're a very bitter person. I am. I am. This is rigged by the way. This year, I was cheap. And I'm picking first again, which I didn't want to. I did everything in my power to not pick first.

[01:14:21] I said, I won. I don't need to pick first. Let's randomize it. We all picked a number, something through 10. I picked two. The randomizer picked two. I'm not making this shit up. All right? Randomizer. So for this week, you get the quote-unquote randomizer that Chris holds in his hand. I'm not paying for shit. That's what I call it. We are going to be one of the best. Who needs to randomize? One of the best years for music for men of our age. And that is 1991.

[01:14:48] We're going to rank our favorite albums that were released in the year 1991. All right. I'm going to go first. You get the first pick. And I got to say, five of my first, my first five picks, maybe even the first six were like literally my high school playbook albums. Like they were shuffled in my car the entire couple of years. So I bonded with all of them.

[01:15:14] I had a harder time with choice one than Chris would probably think. Oh. But I'm going to let Chris spoil it. Chris, what is my number one from 1991? It's probably Octung Baby from U2. Oh, you are wrong. That is going to be number two. I am going to go with the Metallica Black album. Oh, man. I don't listen to it. They're both. Bobby won again. They both. I mean, you're talking high school.

[01:15:44] You're talking, you know, emotional problems. You got girlfriends. You got fights. You got all this shit. They're both just soundtracks of my youth. But in the end, I got to go with the overall body of work and what I feel about the album now. So I'm going to take Metallica Black. All right. Now, who had the second pick? Tony or Tim? Tim. Okay, Tim. Your first round pick. I think we're going to play the game here and not pick my number one album because I think I'm going to try to poach something.

[01:16:12] So I'm going to go with 10 by Pearl Jam. That's such a good album, man. Front to back. I don't have a chance in this thing. Front to back. It's tough. I mean, that album is so freaking good. All right, Tony, your first pick. Can I say something about the other picks? Because, Bobby, I got to go to the Metallica Black, man. That, to me, is when Metallica just right when I heard Enter Sandman, I said, this sucks. Because I was justice back. That's just me. I have to say that because the Black album, I can't stand.

[01:16:42] But my pick, you guys aren't going to be able to stand probably. Blessed Are the Sick from Morbid Angel. I've never even heard of them. Yeah. See, that's what's going to be the problem with some of these picks I have. I remember having this tape at the Guilford Hotel, which whoever knows the Guilford Hotel wasn't a great place. Blessed Are the what? Morbid Angel, Blessed Are the Sick. Don't underestimate the metalheads and the devil. Just a great album, man. The first one before. Yeah. I mean, they're of Tampa. Obviously, a Tampa band, too.

[01:17:12] But that was before I ever went to Tampa. And it's loved the record. I liked the Alters of Madness before that I thought was amazing. But Blessed Are the Sick was actually. Do you guys ever have a band that you really like, but you actually had to go backwards? Like, I heard Blessed, then I went back and started hearing the other stuff. And the other albums were great, too. But I wasn't. You know, the first album I actually heard from them was Blessed. So it's always my favorite from them. Even if there's this battle in this metal world that Alters of Madness is probably one of the best death metal albums ever. But as you guys may know, when you first hear an album, that's your favorite records.

[01:17:41] So I'm going to go with Blessed because that was the first Morbid Angel I ever heard. And I think it's flawless. And it came out in 91? Yeah, it came out in 91. All right. As long as it's in the parameters of our little game tone. All right. Well, I mean, I was expecting to not have this one on the board because I thought Bobby would take it. I have to go with Octong Baby and U2. This album was, I mean, U2 back then and still are one of my favorite bands. I absolutely love them.

[01:18:08] Everything pre-Octong Baby had a certain sound. And then this band who is at the height of their fame from 1997 to 1991, just everywhere you look, U2, Joshua Tree, it was all over. Touring everywhere. And this band decided that they were just going to change their entire sound, which they have done many times since then. But Octong Baby was that first album where they just went completely.

[01:18:35] And they were told, like they said in interviews, like we didn't want, basically I'm paraphrasing, but we wanted to be as far away from Joshua Tree as we could. And there's not a bad song on the album. I mean, start to finish. That album is fantastic. Some great lyrics, everything about it. And it's, I would listen to the, I could say album. I listened to the tape. I mean, I must've worn it out. I mean, just the amount of times I listened to this album. So my first pick is Octong Baby.

[01:19:04] I remember you guys with X. We were all, you know, and Bobby, that's who I thought you were going to pick actually was that one. Yeah. But I have to say, I remember you guys. I remember we worked, we were at the sawmill and that was on the jukebox. It would always play, man. I remember Chris. That was, yeah. Bobby, that's what I thought you were going to go with first. But it makes sense because you're a Metallica guy too. So I get it. Yeah. But I can't explain, like when I say it was hard to pick, I'm not just saying that. Like literally, if you asked me this question again, a couple of months, I could change my mind.

[01:19:31] I'm just thinking back to like, and it's not what it meant to me necessarily then, but it's also kind of going forward. But I had, I had a lot of anger problems in high school, man. And I was raging out in the Trans Am a lot. And if I wasn't trying this in October. You were in the Rage Against the Machine, I remember that first Rage. Yeah, I had Rage. I was beating my fist on the stealing list of the Metallica. Yeah. Well, 91, if you think about it, 91 had such, I mean, if you go to even, if you look at 91 from pop, that's the difference between now, I think, and back when we were growing up in

[01:20:00] the 80s, you know, even pop music. I wasn't always, I wasn't a big pop music fan, but there was great artists back then. You know, now it's so different. I don't understand pop music, but like you look at the albums that came out there, even from like Skid Row, Slave to the Grind was a great record. I love that. Nirvana. Well, that was, was that 91, right? The Nevermind. I mean, as a little bio show. So let's go through them so we can pick more. So Tony, instead of naming all the albums, we'll pick more than one. Oh yeah. Three rounds. Oh, I didn't know this. Yeah. Three rounds. I thought that was it.

[01:20:30] So Bobby, your second round selection. Wait, no, Chris, you're up. Oh no, I'm sorry. I'm up again. Oh, oh. That's the Snake. See? Okay. Yeah. That's right. It goes to Chris and then back around and then back around and then back around. Sorry guys, I messed this up. No, no, you're good. There were so many good, like you mentioned, Nevermind. Like, I mean, that album changed music. I mean, changed the entire perception of music. Brought grunge into the mainstream.

[01:20:58] But I was, I mean, I always liked Nirvana, but I was never a huge Nirvana fan. And for my second pick, I'm going with Blood Sugar Sex Magic. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Motherfucker. I did come out that. You're still, like, you're still in my top five. Like I said, all these were just, if I had a five disc CD changer, then we've already nailed three of them. I just don't know how I'm going to fit all these. Like, Morbid Angel, Blessed Are the Sick is going to take up all of my space on X when

[01:21:28] I go to put this thing in. So I'm going to try to find a way to be in that range. You're only allowed so many characters for each of the survey questions, too. So it's going to be hard to. I think if you just put Blessed next to Morbid Angel, anybody who knows would know. Okay, I'll do that. All right. So, and then we go, Tony. Your second pick. So I'm going to stay kind of where I'm at with what, you know, because I can obviously go to more of the popular shit that we all know, but I'm going to stick with. Go whatever you want.

[01:21:57] I'm going to go autopsy, mental funeral. None of us actually. I'm going to do it. 81. Not 81. Okay. Anything you want to add about it or that's it? It's a great record, man. You know, I loved it growing up and I actually had the singer on my show, which was like a thrill to me. Oh, nice. Yeah. Just to, just to grow, you know, was he come out if you guys ever heard of the band death, but he comes from the band death. The singer Chris Reifert.

[01:22:28] And he was a Florida guy to moved out to California and autopsy still was one of the biggest, the biggest acts in that kind of genre. So there's a guy I follow on Twitter's in the devil's fan base that posts a lot of death metal shit. I think he's actually in a death metal band. Yeah. That's the end of my, that's the end of my story. All right. So Tim, how about your second pick? Cool story, Tim. All right. Well, fuck it. If none of you guys are going to pick Nevermind, I'm going to pick Nevermind. There you go. Not even on my list.

[01:22:58] Really? Yeah. All right. And how about your second pick, Bob? So this was not hard because the dual albums were so sought after at this particular time. The question became, which one do I like better? I know where you're going. And I had originally thought that Use Your Illusion 2 had a little more uptempo, that I would like that favorite album, but I pulled them up side by side.

[01:23:28] And over time, I have to admit that the first one is a better overall album. So I'm going to do Use Your Illusion 1 by Guns N' Roses. I'm just going to give you all of Use Your Illusion. Doesn't matter. They both came out. Yeah. So. Okay. What's funny is, you know, we're talking 91 because, you know, I was 13 and you guys were driving cars and shit. So I actually rode my bike 12 miles to go by Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 when it came out. Nice.

[01:23:57] It was like my closest record store. My parents had no idea where I went. So I remember Chris got it for Christmas and I was so jealous because I did not. Don't you guys think what Use Your Illusion 1 and 2, if they would have like taken nine songs or eight songs off of those both records and put them on one, they could have made a great record. Because I thought there's some good songs on those, but I thought there was a lot of filler, you know, yeah, but also they weren't together at all. Like they were already fighting and shit. Like they were recording in separate studios and shit. Yeah. They never toured for that album.

[01:24:26] What a mess, man. They could have been. Yeah. Well, they did tour because I saw them open up. I saw them with Metallica. Oh, that was for Use Your Illusion? Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought it was Appetite. Yeah. That was the Metallica Use Your Illusion show. I forget what they called it. And Metallica technically opened for Guns N' Roses, which to this day I think really Which if you actually, you hear Metallica, they say that that's when they learned how not to act on the road. They said that was the biggest example of what not to be like is touring with Guns N' Roses because they were showing up late, like two hours late, hour late, riots and stuff.

[01:24:55] So your third and final pick, Bob? Boy, I'm really close to a lot of kind of obscure ones that I do like, but this one's on the table and I kind of thought it would be. And it wasn't a huge fan of mine back then, although I was already a fan of the band. This particular album, I didn't really get more into it. I appreciated it more as I got older and that's Fear by Toad the West. Okay. Okay. And Timmy, your final prediction.

[01:25:23] So this is actually my favorite album from this year, but I think knowing the crowd here that it would slip to number three. I'm going with The Low End Theory by Tribe. I've never even heard it. Tribe Called Quest? Tribe Called Quest. Oh, Tribe Called Quest. Okay. Back in the day. Boy, I had stats. Was that the one they used in Judgment Night? No. No, I think those are all original. That Judgment Night soundtrack was awesome. That was pretty good, right? You had Slayer and Onyx on there. Yeah, it is. Yeah. It was Onyx and... Faith Millmore.

[01:25:54] And... Yeah. Yeah. But they're all like hybrids, like hip-hop metal hybrids, I think. Who was... Wasn't the guy, the Humpty Dance guy was even on there, I think, with something. Yeah, Digital Underground, yeah. Your chance to do the hump. Now stop what you're doing, because I'm about to ruin the image and the style that you're used to. I look funny, but yo, I'm making money, see? So yo, what? I hope you listen to me. I got the round. I'm the new fool in town. And my sound's laid down by the underground. Sorry. People changing the station right now. They're on the radio.

[01:26:23] And we're done. I used to wear the t-shirt, and when I was going to Central, before I went to Tom's River, I was wearing the t-shirt, man. So I'm gonna have to say Arise from Sepultura. Sepultura. There's a nice, easy, short title for you, Arise. All right. So that leads me with the third one. My final pick. This is a band that I love. Still listen to them to this day.

[01:26:50] Their debut album came out in 1991, Pennywise. I'm going Pennywise with my third album. So that's it. There's so many, man, right? I know. I gotta say. You wanna go another round? It was really hard for me to not throw something like Cypress Hill in there, too, man. I just think about how much I wore that album out. Bad Motor Finger. I was gonna go with NWA, but I didn't know how to really, yeah. Sorry, we don't take abbreviations, Tim.

[01:27:21] Mud Money. Every Good Point Deserves Fudge came out that year. Like, so many great albums. Stiff Little Fingers. Flags and Emblems. That's another great album. R.E.M. There were so many. At a time, R.E.M. It's a great album. Do you guys remember the band Down By Law? Public Enemy, Apocalypse 91. Apocalypse 91, yeah. It's another great one. My dad found that album. Bobby, this is the one I was talking about. It was P.E.? The Public Enemy. Yeah, because I'm 13 listening to Public Enemy.

[01:27:49] My dad was very, very conservative. Didn't I get that right? I said that, didn't I? Yeah, you did. You did. But I was waffling between that and the Tribe one. But my dad found the Public Enemy. He lost his fucking mind. I remember my dad. By the time I get to Arizona. My mom got me an appetite for destruction because she only heard Sweet Child of Mine. And I'll never forget, she opens up the cover, which was the cartoon, which was the rape scene, the whole thing in there, which was actually the original cover because I have the vinyl that actually that is the cover of it.

[01:28:20] And she was, you know, of course, every parent who heard Sweet Child of Mine was like, oh, this is a nice song, you know, that you listen to the rest of the album, which is great. Like, it's so easy and stuff. Yeah, she was pissed. Actually, I think I was allowed to keep the tape, which I was surprised, but I had to throw away the cover. There was only one band or album song, whatever, that I listened to that my mother actually came into my room and she was like, wait, what are you listening to? And that was Number The Beast, Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden was like maybe 11 years old. And I was blasting that song.

[01:28:49] And she's like, are they singing about Satan? I'm like, yeah, 666, mom. Rock on. She's like, oh, The Beast. All right. We're good. So I guess that's why we're all Devil fans, right? Oh, there you go. Biggest Devil fan you know. All right. So let's wrap this thing up. We've been going an hour and a half now. So this has been a lot of fun, our fun little playoff spectacular. We're going to try. We're going to talk about it. We'll try and come back after the game on Sunday being Easter, though. It's going to be difficult.

[01:29:18] Maybe we get a quick show in before. We'll figure something out. But, again, if you are CS on X or Blue Sky, click on the bracket challenge. Go and fill one out. It's going to be fun. We have a bunch of people already on. Well, not a bunch. But, you know, there's a few on. A handful. So it'll be fun. A handful. So that'll be fun. Wherever you're listening to us, like a five-star review, a subscription. Download whatever. Hit the subscribe button.

[01:29:47] Also, let us know your picks. It's who's scoring the first goal for the Devils. Who's winning the Stanley Cup? Who's getting the consmite? Email us. Hit us up on X. UnclePuckers at gmail.com. Wherever you like. For Tony, Bobby, and Tim, I'm Chris. We're the Uncle Puckers. And we're going to the playoffs. We are. But you're not, Velocat. Later, skaters.

[01:30:17] It's over, Johnny. It's over.