Puckers Season Preview

[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 The Uncle Puckers NJD Podcast. Let's go Devils! Well, the wait is over for 10 fan bases. Ours is not over until Thursday at 7 o'clock when we face the Flyers, but hockey season has officially begun.

[00:00:32] The puck has officially dropped. Tim officially has tuberculosis, and Bobby will be here in about 20 minutes to join us for our New Jersey Devils preview show. Woo-hoo! Who's Ronald Stevens, Husky? Do we know who Ronald Stevens is? Don't know. I Google searched him right before we went on, and there's a lot of guys who did some rape named Ronald Stevens.

[00:00:59] Oh my god. Okay. I don't think that's the same person. We sure he's not already president? What's up, Steven? How are you, Mike Ruff? How's everybody doing this fine Tuesday evening? Scott's real name? You learn something new every day. Did not know that. Wait, Scott Stevens' real name is Ronald? Is that fucking true? That can't be real. I have to look that up. Hey, me too. You know what? You look that up, and I'll read the DraftKings.

[00:01:28] Do the DraftKings. I'll do our DraftKings ad read real quick. We'll get this out of the way. And it's just in time for hockey season because the wait is over. Football is here, and so is DraftKings. DraftKings is now live in all 50 states. One app, every sport, nationwide. New DraftKings customers can sign up with code THPN. Spend $5 to get $200 in rewards within 21 days. Includes all markets. That's code THPN in partnership with DraftKings. Gambling problem?

[00:01:57] Call 1-800-GAMBLER, 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, this bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21-plus void in Canada. Not just Ontario now. This is completely void in Canada. Okay. Bet with DraftKings Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with DraftKings predictions to get prediction dollars that expire in one year.

[00:02:26] Event contract trading involves risk, whatever, risk of loss, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so you guys know what to do. THPN, the crown is yours, DraftKings. Woo-hoo! I think the prediction markets are void in New York City, by the way, or in New York. Yeah, Scott Stevens. Who knew? No shit. Apparently Husky knew. Yeah. Way to go, Husky. That was just not on my radar. No. I'm like, we're sitting here talking. I'm like, who the hell is Ronald Stevens?

[00:02:56] So, season's over. Markstrom's having a great game. It's over. We fucked up. He's having a good second period. He only saw, like, six shots in the first. Yeah. I cut the cord, like, with basically my entire cable package. And, A, I don't know why I did that, because it's still just as expensive as it was. And I realized, like, I won't get the ESPN feeds of things, because that's what I need to log in to as, like, a cable subscriber. Shh.

[00:03:26] I got you. It's like, what the fuck, man? You want my guy? Your guy? Plus your 30 bucks a month. Who's your guy? The guy that set me up with my cable. Yeah, he's still... That's all right. Wow. He... My driveway's a mile long. Like, he would have to do some serious... No, it's just... No, he doesn't. He calls you up. You have a fire stick. He sets you up. Don't worry about it. It's it. You don't have to... I have a Roku box.

[00:03:55] Well, you can buy a fire stick. It's $40. Roku TV, you can actually do it right on the TV. The guy did it from Nashville. I was in Jersey, and we did it over the phone. Just think about all the porn you can have. I've got everything up here. Yeah, but think about how much new stuff you can put in now. Think about how far porn's come since you were clipping through nudie mags in a drugstore. There's some weird shit I'm worried about myself getting into if I do that. Really? Left unchecked.

[00:04:25] Left unchecked. I'm a problem masturbator. Idle hands. Spend time at the genitals. So you're just a fucking deviant. Just an absolute fucking scumbag. So, yeah. Go hockey. It's back. I have the same guy, Mike. Sorry. Mike Ruff has a guy, too. So, yeah. Hockey's back. We talked about this last time. We've got to have a guy. We all got guys. Nice.

[00:04:52] So, there's a lot of news, I think, before we dive into the Devils a little bit and, you know, do our kind of predictions for the year. The Kirill Marchenko for Matthew Nye's trade. Thoughts on that? I mean, huge fucking trade. Huge hockey trade. I haven't seen one like that in a long time. It's really odd to me. And, like, you know, like, I kind of know Nye's from his boxcar stats and a little bit of, like, his analytics. You know, watched him, you know, whenever they played the Devils and caught a couple of Toronto games.

[00:05:22] Like, I don't know, like, the full breadth of his game. But it's weird to me that Toronto was so eager to move off this guy. I don't understand. 23, right? 23, 24. Yeah, he's 23. Now he's on a reasonable contract. Like, you know, 30-goal score. You know, I realize the data community seems to think, like, he's a bit more of a passenger than a play driver. But, like, I don't give a fuck. Like, big boy. Like, get to the front of the net. Good speed. Good hands.

[00:05:52] Like, I don't get why they're so eager to get off of that. But Marchenko's nasty. So, you know. That's why, though, I think. You know, it's like, yeah, Matthew Nye's is good. But Kirill Marchenko's special. Like, he's, there's something about him. Like, he is a fucking just archetype power forward that I think every team needs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's a lot of untapped production in there. Like, I mean, he put up, you know, whatever, you know, 30-plus goals, 60-plus points, you know, with Monaghan as his primary center.

[00:06:22] Like, he's going to do some fucking damage, like, with Matthews if that's the way it goes. Like, if it's, like, Matthews, McKenna, and Marchenko, like, holy shit. Like, their top six might be one of the best in the league. I have them second in the Atlantic. I think that they're, Toronto's going to turn it around. So, I do have them second in the Atlantic. I think that, you think Marchenko's going to play tonight? Like, I wonder if they'll have him. He's already in Toronto. I saw pictures of him in Toronto. He had his cat moved in and everything. You know.

[00:06:51] Red Tesla. That's too bad. Yeah, Toronto's an interesting case. I don't know what to make of them, you know. And Hiller has always been this sludge puck defensive specialist. So, I don't know if there's a systems talent mismatch there. And they're just going to be able to play above that. So, yeah. So, I don't know. We'll see. Long season. So, it'll be interesting to see.

[00:07:18] But, you know, on the back end of this, you know, Marchenko got his 12.5 extension. Good for him. So, yeah. So, you know, Chayka is making moves. I'll put it that way. He's been making moves since he got in there, man. He's done some shit that I like. He's done some shit where he's kind of like, what are you doing? You know, I personally wouldn't have given Bobrovsky what he gave him. So, I don't know. We'll see.

[00:07:47] It's, yeah. It's a big trade. I think it does actually kind of make both teams better. Especially when it comes to Columbus and the fact that Marchenko was going to be a problem this year if you didn't move him. That's the thing. It's like Columbus. Columbus did well to get Nyes out of this and to get out of Miles Wood. Speaking of which, does anybody want a Miles Wood military appreciation jersey? 50% off. Go to ebay.com slash Tim Wood and you'll find it. And it's from his first team. Not his second team. Not his third team.

[00:08:17] Not his fourth team. His original team. His OG. His original team. Before he got sucked into crypto spaces. Fucking poor Miles Wood. But, you know, I always like Miles Wood. And they also got rid of Merz Lincolns, too. That one kind of, you know, I understand that Jack Reeves is the future. And maybe it just came down to money when it came to Elvis. But I like Merz Lincolns. I think he's a good goalie. And I think that that's a pretty darn good tandem they have up there in Toronto right now.

[00:08:46] You know, I know you're not huge on Bobrovsky. I like Bobrovsky. I think he still has game. I think Florida at the end is going to regret that they have Markey in there and not Bobrovsky. I only think they're like four good goalies in the league. If that. Mike Ruff says that the Leafs have the best top six in the league. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Nylander.

[00:09:09] Like Nylander, Tavares, McKenna, and then Matthews, Marchenko, and who am I missing? Who are you missing? Rossovich. Yeah, Rossovich. Jack Rossovich. Yeah. So he's a bit of a weak link. But I don't know. I'd stack ours up against them. You know, they need things to go right like we need things to go right. You know, like they need Matthews to get back to doing Austin Matthews things. And we need Jack Hughes to stay healthy. Yep.

[00:09:39] Yeah, Kyle. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of the end of my spiel. Like, you know, we'll see who has, you know, the best top six. But on paper, it's their dangerous dynamic team. Absolutely. You throw in Radish and Riley now on the back end. I think they definitely got better. Yeah. They should be good. And then Kyle M18 asking, who's the Dallas goalie on waivers we picked up? I had never heard of him before.

[00:10:07] Yeah, we had a little group text going around that we didn't necessarily believe that this man really existed. So none of us have ever heard of him. What's his name again? Do you have it on top of your head? Remy Poirier. Poirier. I mean, his numbers for the A are fucking good. Yeah, yeah. Like, he's gotten better every year. You know, his volume has gone up. You know, he's in the 30s. And then at like a 904. And then at 38 games at a 907. And then last year, 52 games at a 908. He was blocked.

[00:10:35] You know, like I saw Dallas, you know, like one of the barometers now is reading the reactions of Dallas fans. You know, like same reaction as, you know, Detroit fans had with Lombardi. You know, it's like, why the fuck are we giving up this guy? And a lot of them were like, we should have just traded to Smith and let this guy back up out and sure. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, he's a good guy.

[00:10:58] Like, you know, don't know if he was a guy that was on like Luongo's radar or, you know, Brodeur's radar or Sonny's radar. But I like him. I love the fact that he's wearing number one. I fucking love a goalie who wears number one. Like, just, it's such a good goalie number. It's a perfect fucking number. So, he's been good. I don't know. I feel a little bit more solid about the goaltending with him instead of Riddich. Because Riddich can be a little more volatile. But, you know, he's young and hasn't played any NHL games.

[00:11:29] So, I don't know. Like, are we still okay with this? Or are we, you know, is this kind of more desperation? Or are we just kind of straight up, you know, throwing darts and hoping something works? Well, I think that there's a lot of that when it comes to the throwing dart part when it comes to Dawes and Remy. But, you know, Allen is steady.

[00:11:49] And I think, you know, Allen allows us the opportunity to kind of, I guess, look for guys or kind of bring some dudes up that maybe you wouldn't if you didn't have a seasoned veteran like Allen right there. But I'm curious to now see who's going to take the number two spot. Because we've talked about it. I don't see the three-goalie thing going, like, past Christmas. You know, if I'm expecting one of these guys to step up. And that's the interesting thing now.

[00:12:18] Remy, hey, Dawes had to work for it before. He really has to work for it now. Yeah. And so, I mean, right now they have the luxury of being able to have three goalies. They're only carrying 60 on the roster with Kovacevic on IR. Don't know what his deal is. But, you know, he's going to be back soon. So it's like, what do you do then? Do you send, like, is this a trial run for one of the goalies? Like, what's... I have a question. Is Nason waivers?

[00:12:47] Yeah, like, you know, is Nason waivers? Or is it Dawes waivers? Or do we send Chisholm down? You know, like, and carry just 60. I don't know. Mike Ruff says that Dawes will be on a new team by the end of November. I mean, it's possible. If, you know, I doubt he'd be on a new team. I think they'd probably... Well, I guess you can't really send him down, right? He's not waiver exempt this year. Or is he waiver exempt this year? Not next year. It's one or the other. I'm not sure what it is.

[00:13:16] Well, I think, you know, so Dawes, his ceiling is pretty good. But his floor is also pretty bad. Yeah. So it's like, you know, making sure that he can be, you know, like, raise that floor. You know, like, those softies that he lets in is, you know, always a problem. And if he's Markstrom 2.0 with the softies, yeah, like, get fucking rid of him. I don't care. Bobby, when you say I'll be there at 7.30, you're fucking...

[00:13:47] Is it right on? You're at 7.30. It is 7.30, brother. What's up? I'm a scheduled motherfucker. You really are. You really are. Yeah. That makes fun of us. It's actually, when you look at how opposite we are, it's really odd that we've been best friends since eighth grade. You're the yin to my yang, buddy. I guess so. I guess so. You guys are so gay for each other. Absolutely. It's in the past, Tim. Yeah. C-Dawg is saying that he wish he had Casey option. Yeah.

[00:14:17] I think we all kind of wish we had the Casey option. You know, he's... We all like Seamus Casey. Yeah, we like him, but it's like he's not an NHL. No. He's not an NHL player. It's... Unfortunately, I think this injury has kind of shown us that. Yeah. Like, I agree with you, Mike. He'll be in Europe by the end. I said in the last show, is he destined to play the rest of his career in Europe? I think so. So, Bob, we were actually just about to dive into Brock Faber.

[00:14:46] Did you hear about this one? I heard nothing about Brock Faber. Brock Faber has a fractured skull. He got it in the preseason finale on Friday night against Dallas. I think it was Miro Haskin and took a shot and just hit him in the side of the head. But, like they said, I think John Hines said today, like, quarter inch north? Like, it's hitting his helmet. He's fine. Yeah, but he's fine. But he's going to be out for... I don't think we see him 2026 at all. I think he's... Yeah.

[00:15:16] Well, Scott Stevens had that, too, at one point, right? And it's the same thing. John Carlson had that sling injury where he took a shot. So, helmets... Hang on. So, yeah. So, Brock Faber's out. So, now that basically means that Quinn Hughes has to play 30 minutes or 50 minutes a night. I'm sorry, guys. So, you see this? Yes. So, like, see this plastic ear guard right here? Most pros don't have these on their helmets. And Brock Faber didn't either. So, like, I don't...

[00:15:47] Like, I always wore these. Or not always, but, like, I wear them now. Like, particularly in beer league. Like, I'm not... Nah. Not taking a full cage. Like, I'm not... I'm not... Yeah. I'm not fucking fracturing my skull or taking a stick to the face because some dickhead doesn't know you. Like, pieces of equipment I understand these pros maybe don't want to wear. Why that one? That does not seem to interfere with much. It's a style thing. Honestly, these guys are obsessed with how they look on the ice.

[00:16:15] It's a fact. Like, you hear them talk about it all the time. Like, does, you know, guys have good style? Well... And now all the rookies, they all have to wear that and the neck guards. And the neck guards. Like, you saw how fucking crazy the Flyers and Zegers went about him tucking his jersey in. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I honestly think he's going to be the only person all year to get that penalty. And I'm fine with that. I just...

[00:16:43] What I'm worried about is I've heard a couple people float the thought that this is a precursor to the league putting fucking ads there. It's coming. I don't know. They fucking have had this rule in the books forever, right? They just never enforced it. So, like, I don't know. I mean, maybe now, okay, yeah, we've got to find the empty space to slap a fucking, you know, Chevy ad on the back of somebody's jersey.

[00:17:11] I mean, it is kind of getting there, right? It's stupid rule. I just don't want him to look like he's in teams. He's a walrus. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. I want the walrus. Absolutely. Yeah, no. I'm interested to see him play. Like, I know nothing about him. Haven't seen him. Why do you think he'll play? People are big on him. So that's the issue with Dawes and a leash. So I asked this question in Ace's chat last night, and he didn't understand what I was saying.

[00:17:40] So fucking dummy Ace. Jesus Christ. What was the question? Let's see if we understand it. Rank your top five leashes. Okay. I understand the question. Yeah. Say something fucking hard. Jesus Christ, Ace. Get it together. I think... I don't know. Does Mike Babcock have a short leash? Or are they ride or die with him right now? Like, I don't know.

[00:18:09] I think he's got to have a short leash. I think he's got to have a short leash. All right. So I think him... I think Sheldon Keefe has a short leash. Yeah. I agree with that. Let me think. I meant more like players. Players, right? Yeah, I know. I'm just kind of thinking. Yeah. But, yeah. Coaches are the easiest person to replace. I think Koba Savage has a short leash right now. He can't stay fucking healthy. And, you know, he's not one of Sonny's guys.

[00:18:38] And Sonny did bring in a couple of his guys. So I think Koba Savage could be in danger. I think Nason absolutely is in danger. Who'd you have in mind? Because you don't ask a question without having the answers. So who do you have? Yeah, I mean, it's like Dawes, Keefe. I think Manta. I think Manta has a short leash on that second line. Or first line. The Jack line. Whatever. I think Manta has a short leash there. And we kind of talked a little bit about it the other night.

[00:19:07] Like, are we going to get to a point if we're 10 games in? And Manta is, you know, missing some opportunities and stuff. That Jack starts lobbying for Connor Brown or Gritz or somebody on that line again. And Manta ends up relegated to 10 minutes a night on the fourth line. I don't know. Is that what you mean by short leash? Or you mean like... Yeah, like who's rank in order? Like who has the shortest leash to...

[00:19:36] Like there are a bunch of guys that have leashes, so... It's on the devils, are you talking? Yeah, primarily on the devils, yeah. Okay. So... Marshall. Five to one. Let's see. I'll say... Like who has the shortest leash to... Someone who has a leash, probably, but not at a short. So this could be cut or lose your... Like a starting role. Cut, lose your job, demotion. Demotion. Okay. Okay. Nason absolutely is number one in my opinion.

[00:20:06] I gotta agree with that. If even... I mean, has he been cut yet? It just seems like... He's on the team. Yeah. I think it's a matter of time until he's on waivers. But yeah, I'm with you. So Nason, I would say number one. Manta, probably number two. But then again, Sonny's guy... Lombardi has options, right? I'm gonna go number two just because you can just switch in Boquist for a guy like that.

[00:20:35] So if he's not performing, you get demoted. I'm not saying he's a bad player, but that would be one where you just... You know, all right, you're going down to the A. We're gonna roll with Boquist. I can get behind that. He'd have to go through waivers. He does have to go through waivers. And that's not happening. That's why he's with us. Now what about... Yeah, exactly. That's why he's still... And he earned it. He also earned it. I love the way he plays. What about Dawes? Does he have to go down, Bobby? I know you... Does he have to clear waivers this year or next year? I think pretty much anybody that we would send down has to clear waivers. Yeah. Okay.

[00:21:04] So next year would be like a full... Like he wouldn't have to clear waivers next year because I think it's just a strictly one-way deal or something that Dawes signed. It's something like that. But I'm not sure. No. Once you... It's... I mean... Is a 10-year thing. So once you have to go through waivers, you go through waivers. I thought he had one year that he was exempt. I'm not sure. Out of his two-year contract. That's all I... But I could be wrong. I usually am. You are. Dawes definitely has a short leash, I think.

[00:21:34] I don't think... You know, Sonny Maida is not going to let goaltending harpoon this season. So if it's not up to his standards, yeah, I do think that Dawes has a short leash. Yeah. You willing to go with that with three, Bobby? Or you got somebody else? I don't mind him at three because, I mean, Sonny's made it clear what he thinks about the goaltending position, right? So if you can just kind of get fair and equitable goaltending, it's, you know, kind of good enough for him.

[00:22:03] So I think it's fair to put him at number three. I'm struggling to pick other guys just because of how much we need the role on the team. Like, for example, you could say, look, it's just some type guy, but who steps in right now if not him? But then it got me thinking, like, what about a guy like Brett Pesci? Like, I know how high we were getting a Brett Pesci, right? Then he was hurt all year. What if he is not the Brett Pesci that we thought we were getting?

[00:22:30] Well, I don't see any chance of him, like, you know, being demoted, being cut, being sent down, like, you know, a trade or something. I mean, yeah, I could see that if you're trying to better this team. You know, I just, I think Pesci, I think Pesci's due for a bounce back this year. Like, he's never going to be wrong. Solid player. I'm all for it. I think he's going to have a fine year. I'm just trying to think of, there's not that many guys that... Pesci misses a lot of games.

[00:22:59] Like, he hasn't really played a full season, I think, his entire career, maybe once or twice. I'm curious if Luke has a short leash as far as, like, power play one time and that kind of stuff. I'm wondering if, you know, you got Dougie waiting in the wing. We know what he's capable of. How long, if there's no production coming from that defenseman on the power play, is that switched up? There's that. I can also see Jack Hughes having a short leash.

[00:23:27] Like, if that motherfucker gets hurt again for, like, 20, 30 games, like, I'm sorry. We need to have a conversation about him. Like, it's... I think he's an unbelievable player. But, like, if our team continues to sink every time he gets hurt and he misses that time every year, like, it's like... You have to then seriously look at the options outside of Jack Hughes. Yeah. And unfortunately, like, that probably means, like... I don't know.

[00:23:57] I mean, would you trade him to Quinn? If Quinn ends up there, Quinn won't be there. But, um... I agree with that. He definitely has... He has to stay healthy this year, or at least, like you said, if he does miss a couple of games, like, if it... If it really does just completely destroy our entire season, like, yeah, you gotta make some moves. We've said this going into this year, at the end of last year, like, we can't have this anymore. If he misses a couple of games here and there for, like, nagging things, but, like, that,

[00:24:26] like, one major blow type of injury and... Right. Learn how to use Stemler. Right. And the next day, like, it's always, you know, we'll follow up tomorrow and we'll see how things are, and then the next report is he needs surgery. Like, it always ends in a fucking surgery with him. It's never just, like you say, the nagging injury that he'll be fine in a week. His punch card with that doctor is pretty lengthy. I'm gonna go with not a chance in hell on that one. I think you guys are crazy. I don't care.

[00:24:54] I don't care if he stabbed himself in the wrist again and misses half of the season. They're just... Okay, well... You're not moving him and not letting him go. You're not coming off him trying to be your number one driver. Let me ask you a question real quick, Bob. I'll play devil's advocate here, all right? It's two weeks before the end of the season. The Devils are firmly in a playoff position. Jack goes screaming at 150 miles an hour into the boards and boom, his shoulder is fucked because it's made of balsa wood and he's gone for the remainder of the year.

[00:25:22] Devils look really promising. They're leading the league in a few offensive categories. Jack is on pace for 100 points. Like, this is all looking good and we get beat in the first round by Team X because whoever is filling in for this dynamic player is no longer there and not as good as him and he's not there. Then, honestly, when you look at, hey, can I get a return that can make this team better or at least keep it status quo?

[00:25:50] And we can compete for a Stanley Cup because player A, B, or C, however many guys you get back on a Jack Hughes trade, stay healthy and they contribute a little bit more analytically or this or that. Jack, you're telling me you wouldn't do that just because of who he is? At this stage with this term and contract, yes. I'm telling you I wouldn't. You're talking about a guy who goes into the boards too hard because he was giving all out effort for his team. Yeah.

[00:26:17] I didn't say anything about his ability or his work ethic or any of that. Like, Jack is one of my favorite players. Yeah. Listen, everything is always situational. I just think that in that case, you're still talking about just one of the top players on a great contract for a long time. That would be an unfortunate event. It's not like he meant to cause it. You know, it's not the knife or the wine glass, wherever the hell we decided it ultimately was. I think they would just deal with it.

[00:26:46] I just think you would deal with it to have his caliber of player. Maybe a year or two more movable, but. Well, it has been like four years now or three years at least. So to finish this game of point counterpoint, Tim, same question. What do you do? I mean, if he, if he only plays 50, 60 games, we got to trade him at the end of the season. Like that's where you stand. And like, yeah, it is a little circumstantial.

[00:27:13] Like if, if we fucking plug Lombardi in there and suddenly he's a stud and we can, we can kind of maintain our game and our scoring without him. I think that kind of opens up some eyes to say like, all right, if we could do that without him and we can trade him for a massive fucking haul, that kind of changes the pair of the paradigm a little bit. So I think it's, I think it's a, a worthwhile discussion. I would hate to see it happen.

[00:27:43] Like it sucks. And I can't believe I don't, I don't want to go down this road because obviously we're speculating about something, but. You know, is he, is he due for a full season or does past performance indicate future performance? I wait real quick. I am on the record. I've said that Jackie is going to play 80 games this year. I absolutely think this is the year he stays healthy. He has his hundred plus points. He's close to, or over 50 goals. Like this is the year that Jack Hughes puts the NHL on fucking notice.

[00:28:12] He's in the heart conversation from pretty much jump street to the end. I think that this will be Jack's year. So again, we've been saying that every fucking year. And yeah, that's true. We have. All right, Bobby, what was your point? If he takes like a little bing hit into the boards and his shoulder gets ridden, I get it. That's one thing. But if the guy takes a bad trip from behind and goes head first into the boards or pulls

[00:28:40] his groin and it's just not, you can't blame that on a small body, you know, but you can blame it on a small body. If he just walks into a wall and all of a sudden can't play hockey for a couple months, like Luke's phantom shoulder injury. Like he was tapped in the shoulder and then he needed season engine surgery. That was crazy to me. Like it didn't even look like, I just thought Tim was happy for the last few minutes. He was first frozen with a smile on his face. Sometimes he just looks so happy.

[00:29:09] We don't want that to happen. We all want to wear 86 on our back and just, you know, let this guy take all of our titles and all of our, uh, 130 points. Heart trophy season incoming 80 plus games. Well, speaking of season incoming, let's talk a little bit about the game. Um, Thursday. All right, guys, we got swept by the flyers last year. All right. Oh, three. No, they kicked our ass three to six. They kicked our ass three to five. They kicked our ass five to one.

[00:29:38] Um, they did it in the fall. They did it in the spring. They kicked our asses. Um, what do you guys expect Thursday night? We kicked their asses. Um, I'm, this is a three, four goal win. I don't know how many they get, but it's a three, four goal win. Um, we, we need to put the league in the division on notice that we are not fucking around this year. Like that's, that's what we need from these guys. Like, yeah, to Bob's point, four, one, five, one, kick the shit out of these guys.

[00:30:07] Fucking put, put everybody on notice. Like we, we, for whatever reason, don't match up well against the flyers. I, it's just, you know, one of those teams that we just don't match up well against. Um, you know, they have a decent collection of forwards, you know, their defense is okay. I mean, their goaltending is going to be shit with the door hurts, but yeah, I don't know. Um, but like I, they need to put the league on fucking notice with this. Well, yeah, I agree with that.

[00:30:37] I mean, the flyers are again, the Vladar injury fucking hurts them big time. Um, I don't even know who's starting. Is it, who do they have now? Does they have Stolarz? No, uh, Joseph Wall. Joseph Wall. That's right. Um, I knew it was somebody from Toronto, but okay. So Joseph Wall's capable, but I also think like you've seen the Rick Tockett thing, kind of like the Peter Lovillette thing, right? He has his great first year and the second year things kind of dipped down a little bit.

[00:31:05] I think they absolutely overperformed last year and we went the opposite way and underperformed dramatically. So yeah, I agree. I think this is, I think this is ass kicking. I mean, I think the devils will get cooking, get cooking in the second period. And, um, I think it's a two to three goal lead. We need to start, we need to push, start pushing that rock downhill. Like once you start going downhill and start winning games, it just, it just makes things easier.

[00:31:34] Like if you're constantly, you know, we saw it last year when, when they were struggling so much, just like the littlest thing just set them off. It's just, you know, once you start getting the vibes high, you're winning, you're scoring goals like that. That's a real thing that the real tangible thing that can happen just needs to happen. I wanted to see what Vladar was going to look like this year too, because there's really,

[00:32:00] we don't know, like we know what he did last year and that's great, but you can also just start to steamroll, right? Like we don't know what he is really going to be for the next season. And I'm not saying he's not a good goaltender for my team. He looks very good, but I was really curious to see, are you going to start at that pace or are you going to kind of level down a little bit, but the team as a whole, I'm still confused as to why like the overall general consensus is that they are like such a lock for top three

[00:32:29] and, and we're like barely sniffing the wild card. I don't understand. I know again, national media and these, these hockey guys, they're always going to say, well, you know, you got to prove me wrong first. Right. So someone's got to come out of the basement, but I just don't understand how like on paper and all things being considered like health that you're seriously seating them above us and by a decent margin, it makes no sense to me. I think we're going to piss on them this year.

[00:32:56] Well, I think that, like you say, a lot of it is, um, I think a lot of these guys, especially the national guys, I think they've all gotten burned by the devils the last couple of years. So I think they're just staying as far away from them as possible. And they'll take all the credit for it when the devils end up being good. Like, you know, yeah, we said, cause they always have the caveat, right? Like if Jack Hughes stays healthy, if blah, blah, blah, goaltending holds up. And then when that all happens and you know, of course we knew they were going to be this good, but they, you're right.

[00:33:25] They're, they're not getting the respect and that's fine. I'm glad they're not, you know, I don't want to be on the radar. Just yeah. I'm totally down. I'm totally down with, with being an underdog. Like I I'm perfectly fine being that, you know, underestimate us. That's fine. I'm fine with our role in that. I just honestly trying to figure out like why no one else is saying, you know, Philly is likely taking a bigger step back than we thought.

[00:33:52] You know, they're just talking like a couple of points and third in the Metro. Like I see them falling further than that. That's my point. Like I do too. I do. I do too. I think there's going to be a lot better teams in the Metro. And so what's your top three in the Metro, Bob, before we dive into some of these others, the awards and stuff. Give us your top three. I've said it before. I think we topple Carolina this year. And I mean that, um, not just in a coming off of 2022 way. Like I think that we take them for first, which puts them at second.

[00:34:21] And I don't really give a shit about third. I'll pick a team. Okay. Um, I really don't know who. Everybody's got Washington. Yeah. I, I, I keep trying to not pick them because I don't like to pick them. God damn. They're going to be good though. Yeah. Angle. Angle. Hang on. Angle. You know what? Go outside. Go outside, man. Relax, buddy. I almost forgot. Washington, Carolina, Carolina gets third. I'm going there.

[00:34:51] Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Carolina couldn't even score on fucking Markstrom. So you're doomed. I have, I have, uh, I have Carolina winning. I have the devils. I think I had Washington coming in second, the devil's third. And that's, that's very close. All three of them, but I could see it. Any variation of those three. But I think I, knowing what we know about the devils and how, how good they can be when all these things align.

[00:35:19] I don't know who else there is to put in that top three. I just, I just don't in the Metro. I think there actually could be quite a difference between third and fourth. Yeah. I I've, that's kind of the position I take. I think it's going to be a three dog fight at the top. And like the Rangers, the flyers, the penguins, and even to the Islanders to an extent. Like, I think Columbus doesn't stand a chance now that, that Marchenko's Marchenko is gone.

[00:35:49] The vibes in that fucking dressing room have to be so bad right now. It just really does. Like, it doesn't seem like anybody wants to fucking be there. Yeah. It's, it's tough, man. It's like vibes were high when, you know, I've said it before, but like, you know, it's just such a fucking absolute shame. Like that losing Johnny Gaudreau was kind of, you know, speared this or spearheaded this sort of tumble away. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, I agree with you.

[00:36:16] And yeah, I got to agree with the guys here, Jay Snow. You got to relax, man. Tell us about Marky, you know, how great, how big of a bounce back he is when, you know, he's hoisting the Stanley Cup in June. Hurricane's got 14 shots on goal. Let's fucking relax. I mean, look, no one said that Marky is not a decent goalie. He can have good games. He had good games for us. When he's bad, he's fucking bad. And as the season goes on, he's going to get worse. Let's move past him.

[00:36:43] So, so yeah, I think I like, you know what? I'm with Bob. I think the Devils take the division. I love it. I fucking love it. You did. Yeah, you did take them to win it. Yeah. I think Devils, Carolina, Washington. And I think the three teams separate themselves pretty significantly from the rest of the pack. I think the Rangers are kind of hanging around in wildcard territory for a while and either just miss or just squeak in.

[00:37:08] But I do tend to lean that it is going to be five Atlantic, three Metro. Yeah. Do you have any idea about the Atlantic, Bob? Any who you got winning? No, not really. Tim has Ottawa winning it. I have Montreal winning it. I think Buffalo can repeat. I know some people are saying to take a step back. I can see Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, something like that.

[00:37:37] But just on our end again, I just got to say one more thing. We improved all four lines. We essentially have two more lines than we had last year with a third and fourth. It's just wave after wave with slightly different looks. We've talked about on the show a couple different times about the depth being unprecedented for this team going back probably 20 years or more.

[00:38:04] I just don't see how a lot of teams are going to sustain that like year round. Like they have to even just play up to their averages. Things are just going to go really well. I mean, did you hear what Keith said after the last game when he was talking about trying to get Jack's line on a little bit more? But he kind of felt like it disturbed the flow of just running all four lines like they were getting better chances when they were just evenly distributing out all four lines.

[00:38:30] And yes, that's like absolutely the music to my ears as far as a hockey coach saying that. That's how you should roll the game. Maybe a few less minutes depending on you. But that's how you should roll the game. Depending on the game. Double shift Jack and Nico when you need a goal. Like you can definitely you'll have games where you need to play them way more a night. But if you don't. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, dude. It's just they're all four lines are just totally different. And they're coming at you in different ways. And I just I don't know if I'm the other team.

[00:39:00] All right. Who am I? Who am I stopping? Line one? Line one A. What about that third line? Like, I just don't know. I think long term it's just one of those like small accumulations of points just going to propel us to the top. And if you look at like when the main lineups were in and in preseason. But like the first game in preseason, you know, the Nico's line scored two goals to grindy for checking cycling type of goals.

[00:39:29] Then the next game. Oh, who else scored in that game? Great. Great. You talk about the last game. Great score the last game. But that's what I was getting to. It's like we got a power play goal from Jack to Evangelista. And then Evangelista got another nice net front goal off a tip from from Nico. And then we scored on the power play and then Gritz scored, too. So it's like if we can get some sort of combination of that every single night where like, you know, Jack's line scores two and Gritz scores one and maybe glass chips in.

[00:39:59] And then, you know, Nico's getting the tough assignments or Jack's line gets keyed on. Then Nico's line is is fucking cooking. And then Gritz is there again cooking himself like he looks like he's developed. He plays so well with anybody. It's remarkable. Like he's already good with Eron. I'm a little Mercer hasn't been great on that on that line. But like if glass Brown, like fucking Connor Brown is on the fourth line. We have two first lines and basically a second line in the third line. Yes. Yeah.

[00:40:29] And I'm watching that game and I'm watching the power play. And all I kept thinking about was your visual in my head as I'm watching. Me too. Of course, Evangelista scores. I'm like, this guy's a genius. It was just like you drew it up, dude. Exactly. It was exactly how you drew it up. Yeah. Except Jack, except it was from like Jack and Bratz, which side. So I was like, oh, fuck. Nobody remembers that. No, it was it was perfect. And if anybody missed that, you need to go back a couple of shows.

[00:40:54] And Tim had put together some really awesome power play diagrams and shit of how things are probably going to lay out. And then that night we saw it to a frigging T with Evangelista scoring. It was really something to be proud of. People are like, oh, we need like a big shooter. It's like not really for someone in that spot. Like you saw the shot that he got off. Like it just needs to get off quick. And you know what? I'm credit to the Devils Insiders guys for making this point too.

[00:41:20] Is that it's somebody that needs to be able to handle a bad pass, you know, or a puck that isn't like perfectly flat laid out to them. Like if it's a little fluttery behind them, you'll be able to catch and release. And I think Evangelista has the talent to be able to do that because he's got great fucking hands. Yeah, I'm with you. All right. How about we do some predictions, guys? I will read the awards. I will tell you who is favored according to DraftKings. I don't have to read all the odds unless you guys want.

[00:41:50] But in most of these, actually pretty much all of these, like Devils were not in the top. However many they listed, 30, 40 of them. So when they weren't, or I mean, wherever they were, I put them in so you could see the difference between like the first one and where our Devils turn up. So first one is the Rocket Richard. Anybody want to guess who's? Time out. Time out. Time out. Time out. Last year's standings. I just removed the points.

[00:42:20] I had the points of last year going right across. Well, now it's at zeros. Everybody is anti-ticker. Nope. Ticker stays. Ticker stays because at the end of the year, New Jersey is going to be in first place. Florida won. That's why the ticker stays. Florida won. Nice. Yeah. Excellent. What was the score? One nothing because it was in overtime. All right. That works. I didn't know it was in overtime.

[00:42:49] There's an extra point given away already. All right. The Rocket Richard trophy. Who do you think is favored on DraftKings? Who's favored? Probably McKinnon. Seems pretty lazy. It does, but it seems pretty accurate. Yeah, that's McKinnon. Favored? Yeah. He's at plus 475. I have a little bit of a dark horse candidate for that. Okay. Well, these are the odds.

[00:43:16] So we got McKinnon, Cole Caulfield, Leon Drysaddle, Kiprasov, Robo, Celebrini, Connor McDavid, Kaprizov. Matthews. And the closest devil was Jack Hughes at plus 7,500. McKinnon's at plus 475. Jack's at plus 7,500. Who's your dark horse, Tim? Dylan Gunther. I like that. Dude, I like that.

[00:43:45] Dude, I got Utah in the fucking finals this year. I know. I know. I know that does well with your pick. But I think... I love it. I think he's going to unlock a whole new fucking level. They're going to be a really fun team to watch this year. Yeah, they will be. I think they're going to be fucking good. I know. I know. And people aren't really sleeping on them. There were a couple of guys nationally that had them second, third, in the central. Yeah, they should do some damage this year. We play them early, too.

[00:44:14] I think we play them this month or October, right? We do. Yeah. All right. The Art Ross Trophy. Who do you think is favored? Are we picking? We're not picking. Well, you can... I guess we should pick, right? Why did I not even think about that? So you're going with Dylan Gunther. You said we were picking. Now you're just rattling. I know. I'm starting to get a little high. We got the show quality again. The gummy just kicked out.

[00:44:42] I'm going to go with just a bounce back year led by Connor McDavid. Drysaddle. I'm going to say Drysaddle. Okay. Art Ross? No, Richard. We're still... Bobby, that was Bobby's pick for the Rock. Oh, okay. My pick for the Rock is Robo. All right. I am going with Robo. All right. Art Ross. Who's favorite for the Art Ross guys? Probably Kucherov. No, it's McDavid. Is it? Yeah. Plus 22.

[00:45:12] Kucherov is second. McKinnon third. Celebrini. Leon Drysaddle. Posturnock. Krill Kaprizov. Nick Suzuki. And then Jack is at plus 3,500. Connor McDavid is at plus 220. And Jesper Bratt actually shows up on the list at plus 15,000. Oh, that would be a fun bet. That's a nice bet. I might sprinkle some money on Jack Hughes, Art Ross. Hey, you guys take a dollar?

[00:45:39] I'm going to go to my hand for a time. I'm going to go to my hand for a time. Shit. All right. So, wait. You're going to take Jack for the Art Ross? Yeah. I think so. Why not? Okay. I mean. Yeah. Why not? Plus 3,500. I think Brad definitely has a shot at 100. Like, look.

[00:46:04] If things break correctly for the Devils, Brad is going to be in that 100-pointers range, I think. And Jack's going to be at like 120, 130. What do you got for the Art Ross, Bobby? Well, Drysaddle can't get the Rocket without McDavid getting the Art Ross. So, I'll just have to give it to him. I know it's kind of an easy one, but I'm punting. But it makes sense. I get it. You can just light it up there, Bob. Well, I'm just thinking what's going to happen. I'm kind of punting, too. I got to go with McKinnon. Like, he's just...

[00:46:33] I fucking love McKinnon. He's a horse. Yeah. All right. The Heart. Who's favored for the Heart, guys? Jack Hughes. It's got to be McDavid and McKinnon, right? Yeah. Actually... Or Kucherov. It's McDavid, McKinnon, but Kucherov's not three. Really? Yeah. Celebrini coming in at three. Ooh, that's interesting.

[00:47:01] Leon Drysaddle with the fourth. Kucherov, fifth. Trill to Thrill, sixth. Austin Matthews, seventh. David Posternach, eighth. And Jack Hughes, ninth. Coming in ninth at the Heart. I got to go Jack for Heart, too. Although Pasta would be an interesting choice, I think. He's just got the captaincy. If Bruins do anything, he's going to drag them anywhere. Is there a score on that game? Or it starts at eight, doesn't it? Never mind.

[00:47:29] Yeah, Canadians and Leafs are 1-1 right now. Nice. All right. So, Bob, Heart. I think if the Heart is awarded the way it's truly supposed to be, that Jack will win it. But since it's not going to be awarded the way it's truly supposed to be, I could see it being Celebrini. It's going to pop off like another 50 from what he did last year. The kid's just on fire. He's on Celebrini. And I think what people are going to start looking at with Celebrini is the gap between his production and everyone else on the team. Yeah. Yeah. That's a big deal.

[00:47:59] Especially if they get into the playoffs. Sticking with it anyway. Yeah. That's a good one. That's a totally valid pick. I'm going to stick with Jack. Kind of the same. Not – I'm going with Jack too. I'm with you. I just think the Devils are going to be that good. He's staying healthy. He's going to – and the narrative for all year is going to be, this is how good the Devils can be when Jack is healthy, when Jack stays healthy and all that shit. So, yes, I'm going with Jack. MVP.

[00:48:30] Yeah. Need it. The Norris. Who's favorite? Dougie Hamilton. He's in there. All hail Kale. Kale McCarr is favorite at plus 300. Kale Quinn, Wierenski. That's one, two, and three. That's four. Who's five? Five. Wow. You're good. Okay, six. Come on. Six, probably. Who's six?

[00:49:00] Sink North. It's not Radish, is it? No. The Hudson? Yes, Hudson. You want to go for the next one? Schaefer. No, no. Stay in the same country. Oh, Sanderson? No. No? No. In Canada? Yes. Yes. That's the country. All right. All right. Relax.

[00:49:29] Yeah, I fucking said that. Relax. Is that Radish? No, it's Bouchard. Oh, fuck. All right. Yeah. My bad. I always forget about him. He had like 90-something points last year. Guy's totally one of the most disrespected players on the planet. And then Schaefer. Then Miro Haskinen. Then Dougie. Charlie McAvoy. And the closest New Jersey Devil. Dougie Hamilton. At 15,000.

[00:50:00] Kale McCarr at plus 300. Dougie Hamilton at plus 15,000. But he's not the only devil coming in, according to DraftKings. Does Luke actually have odds? Luke gets in at plus 25,000. Is there like horse racing where I can place a bet to show? I don't think we can do that. I'm going to take Kale McCarr to win. Rorinsky to come in second. You should be able to do that. The things you would know if there's a sports book where you can bet on a guy to get votes.

[00:50:29] I'm sure there is. There isn't like that old Cowsies thing. You can pretty much put fucking bets in on anything. That's actually a good dark horse. David Chimes. Adam Fox. That's not bad. Who you got for the Norse, Tim? I hate to say the Rangers are going to be better than people think. But I think they're going to be better than the Rangers than people think. Yeah, I think Luke breaks 60. If he sticks around on power play one and he looks like he's cleaned up his game a little bit,

[00:50:57] he did make some mental midget mistakes. And he continues to kind of make some bad decisions in the offensive zone. But he's still just such a good play driver. He's just got to stop thinking that he can do stuff like Quinn. Because he's too big to move like Quinn does. That's kind of the thing. If he needs to simplify his game a little bit more, then simplify your game a little bit more.

[00:51:27] But I've seen like 90% of his games so far in the preseason. I know it's just preseason. He definitely simplified things. But he had a couple of bad moments where you're like, come on, man. What are you doing? But he's had some nice moments too. He's looking good. Let's hope he just shake this off. And hey, that's what preseason's for. Make your fucking mistakes. That power play diagram that I drew up, like it's all triangles. So like Luke knows that Evangelista is... Saying it's too hard for Luke? No.

[00:51:56] He's not good at it. He's not going to do it. He just kept it in circles. But like he knows that Evangelista is going to be the shooter in that play. So putting it on the tape to Jack to put it to Evangelista, that is a two-way play. Like that works. So like if... And if he could do that on the other side to Jack or whoever's there on the left flank to Nico on the bumper, you know, like he sets the whole thing up. Like, I mean, don't get me wrong.

[00:52:23] It's not flowing through him because Jack makes the more important decision. But he kind of gets the ball rolling in that power play. Like his shot's not really a threat, you know, from the blue line. So it's as hard as Dougie's. It just doesn't feel as hard as Dougie's, which is a weird thing to say. Like Dougie's is heavier. We've always wanted to say that. It doesn't feel as hard as Dougie's. You and Dougie, man. Dougie's just... He's such a fucking handsome fucking guy. So what I'm getting from all that is you're taking Luke to win the Norris?

[00:52:54] No. Fuck no. Fuck no. So you got winning the Norris? I'm Quinn Hughes wins the Norris as a New Jersey Devil. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. I love it. All right. I'm going to put that in there. You get extra points. All right. Thank you. Bobby? Yeah. Makar. He's not getting unseated yet. He's got a lot to play for this year. I just think... I need to have an avalanche on this list.

[00:53:21] The Colorado roster that they are basically like permanently going 11-7? Yeah. What the fuck are you doing? You know what they could use? They could use a Stephen Mason on the fourth line. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Look, they're just so fucking good. And they're so good because of him. And if he was playing in the final last year, I think Vegas gets a series out of Colorado. I'm going Kamakar. He's too fucking good. He's a McKinnon merchant. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. McKinnon merchant. Vesna.

[00:53:51] Who's favorite for the Vesna guys? It should be Logan Thompson. I don't know. Logan Thompson is second in the odds. Is it Hellebuck? Or... Well, actually, probably not now. The Vasilevsky? No, it's Connor Hellebuck. That's going to be hard to do.

[00:54:16] I think that Vegas is betting on the fact that he's not going to be a Winnipeg Jet much longer. And I think they're right. But yeah, he's... And they're also saying if he misses a month of the season as of right now, let's say, he's still going to win the Vesna. Jacob Markstrom. Leader in the clubhouse. There you go. Jacob Markstrom is. If you have an early vote, put it in for Jacob Markstrom now. That would be such a perfect devil's move if that motherfucker won the Vesna. Jesus Christ.

[00:54:45] As long as we win the cup. I don't give a shit what he wins. As long as we win a cup, I don't give a fuck what he wins. Yeah. Enjoy your retirement home. Swayman should be in there. Logan Thompson. Vasilevsky probably Hellebuck. Oddinger in there? No. Yeah, he is. Connor Hellebuck has the best odds at plus 500. Logan Thompson at plus 600. Then you got Sorokin. You got Vasilevsky. Shesterkin. Jeremy Swayman. Jacob Ottinger. Jacob Markstrom.

[00:55:15] Yes, he's in there. Wallstad and Jet Greaves coming in at plus 2,500. There is no devil I could find on the list here. So we are not getting a Vesna. I thought he'd at least get some shitty odds, but nope. Yeah, because the sports folks don't know what the fuck Sonny's doing. They're like, we don't understand this, so we're just not going to include it. But I think Jake Allen starts more games than –

[00:55:43] I think he starts more games than people think and does well and gets some votes. But I think Logan Thompson should win the Vesna this year. All right. So Tim's taking Logan Thompson. Who you got, Bob? I'll go a little bit down the line a little bit. Has Swayman won it before? He's won it before, right? God damn it. No. Has he? He hasn't? Well, he's going to win it now. What's his name when Boston was so good? Shesterkin. No, the other Boston goalie.

[00:56:13] Counterpart there. Oh, Allmark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Allmark. And just an observation or hot take, I don't know what it is. I think that Sorokin's best year is already behind him. I'm not saying he's not one of the hopper goaltenders. Sorokin? Yeah. He's not in the top five conversation this year. He's not old. No, I know. I just – I'm not impressed with what I've seen. I think he's – like I said, he's not going to be that conversation for number one, number two.

[00:56:42] I'm saying he falls into kind of mid-upper tier. You realize Sorokin was the best goalie in the league by far until like March last year. But you also understand he has had just as many bad years as he had good years. So – I'm just saying his decline is starting now. I'm not saying he's shit. Goaltending is a product of – I'm glad that people are starting to see like the real kind of picture with goaltending.

[00:57:07] And it sucks for goalies that are coming up because like they're going to be underpaid, undervalued, and just like fucking tossed around like a hooker at a frat party. But like I actually probably shouldn't make that joke right now. Probably not. Yeah. Okay, Tim. Good job, Tim. You fucking idiot. So I don't know. But like if Logan Thompson is at the top of the goal-saved above expected chart again, like it should be his. I love Logan Thompson.

[00:57:37] He's a good goalie. Jeremy Swayman is getting it for me out of this list. I like him the best. I think Boston is going to be a good team this year. I do think they're going to make the playoffs. I'm going Jeremy Swayman. If I were to bet money, I actually think a good odds bet would probably be just Sturken. With the decor that they have together, I think the Rangers are going to be better. I agree with that. But I'm still going with Swayman because I like him better.

[00:58:04] Logan Thompson, Jeremy Swayman, Jake Allen. Too much. I didn't hear what either of you said. Sorry, I'm talking over everybody again. Are we moving on? Yes. We're just going to move on. Moving on. I have a hot take for the next trophy. The Calder. Who's favored for the Rookie of the Year, boys? McKenna. Oh. Yeah. No? No. Stenberg?

[00:58:34] No. Vigo Bjork? Nope. Porter Montone. Amadeus Lombardi? Porter Montone? Oh, Porter Montone. Yeah, I forgot about him. At plus 280. McKenna's also at plus 280, so they're tied. So I shouldn't have said that. I should have read the odds first before I said it wasn't McKenna at one, so he kind of is. Dan Stenberg at plus 600. Anton Farndel at plus 950. Farndel. And then Cole Hudson at plus 950. Cole Hudson's interesting.

[00:59:03] There was a bunch of other dudes. I have no idea who the fuck they are. Who were the other dudes? Teja Ginla was in there. I don't know. A bunch of other rookies that I don't know. Amadeus Lombardi's winning the Rookie of the Year. He what? Amadeus Lombardi's winning this trophy. You're going with Lombardi. I like it. Why not? All right. What do you got, Bobby? I think Hudson. I like Hudson for it. All right. Yeah. All right. This is where my hot take comes. That's going to be a good fucking team.

[00:59:32] I can't say his last name, but the Calder Trophy winner this year will be our new goaltender, Remy, whatever the fuck his name is. Calder goes to Remy. Well, all right. I like it. Warré. Then we got the Selkie Trophy. Who was favorite for the Selkie? Suzuki. No. Barkov? Yeah. Barkov. At plus 175.

[01:00:03] Then Nick Suzuki, plus 400. Anthony Cirelli at plus 700. Nico Heischer at plus 1200. Sebastian Ajo at plus 1500. Sam Reinhardt also at 1500. Also Brock Nelson at 1500. And Austin Matthews at 2000. Who is winning the Selkie? Feel free to go off the board. I would love to go off the grid, but it's going to be... I hope Nico.

[01:00:32] Nico's going to win it. I'm going Nico this year. Nico wins it across the board. Yep. Yeah. Selkie's always a weird reward. It's so reputation-based. You know, there isn't really any kind of science that goes into it. It's just kind of like, yeah, that guy takes a lot of faceoffs. Spoiler alert. I've picked him for the last six years. I'm not really jumping off the bridge here. I'm just... I really want him to win it. Yeah. I do too. I do too. All right. Finally, we get the Jack Adams Trophy.

[01:01:02] Coach of the year. Everybody's high on San Jose. So we're... I should ask. Who's favorite for Jack Adams? I just told you. San Jose. Wurofsky. Plus 750. Who won it last year? Oh, what's... Cooper won it, right? Yeah. They finally gave it to John Cooper. Paul Maurice is second at plus 1,000. Carberry at plus 1,000. Keefe at 1,400.

[01:01:32] Labillette at 1,500. John Hines at 1,500. Hiller at 1,500. And St. Louis at 1,800. Those are the odds for the Jack Adams. Hmm. I think Travis Green wins it. Ooh. Travis Green is going to win. Jack Adams. All right. The coach that got away. Yeah. First place in Ottawa. All right.

[01:02:01] I know you're high on him. I'll give you Travis Green. For all the reasons we discussed earlier, this is why it's going to land in Keefe's lap because nobody expects the Devils to do shit and they're going to storm the league. So he gets it. Okay. Bobby the homer is out in full force. I am going... I had two Devils. Bobby, you're the best. I love it. We need some positivity around here. We were talking about trading Jack Hughes at the beginning of this pod. You told us to fuck off. I love it. I take a couple months off and you guys suck.

[01:02:31] Who just... All right. My Jack Adams winner is the one-year wonder. It's Peter Labillette. He's going to get the Kings into the playoffs and everyone's going to talk about how great he is and then the Kings are going to fall apart and explode in the middle of the ice next year with him as the coach. But Labillette wins Jack Adams. Has Rod Brindamore ever won this award? Nope. I shouldn't say that so definitively. I really shouldn't. I'm like 90% sure. I don't think he has. I think he always...

[01:03:01] There's always some kind of bullshit that he should be winning it. He'd break it over his knee and throw it in the ice and grunt off. Nobody wants to give him that. Exactly. Yeah, he has one. 2000... Yeah, 2021. No. All right. So it's been five years. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, I would love for Keefe to be in the mix.

[01:03:31] I don't know. He's got a short leash. Yeah, but he's not going to... That leash is going to get nice and long this year. They're going to come out. Like I said, first period Thursday night, you know, maybe 0-0, maybe 1-1, just kind of feel. Second period, Devils are going to open it up. They've got a couple power plays and they'll just make Philly want to go home and cry. That's what I'm saying. So, we'll end the show. The most important question. Who is scoring the first goal for the Devils

[01:04:01] in the 26-27 season? Douglas Entertainment Hamilton. That's his middle name? Yes. It's like him and Chuck E. Cheese. Same middle name. I'm going just like the first game I watched. I'm going Evangelista on the power play. All right. Oh, he should call him a power play too. Did that a few years ago when I was right. Try that again. Yeah,

[01:04:29] you also got Alex Holt right one year. That was the one on the power play. Oh, yeah. I was also against the Flyers if I'm correct. First goal. I'm going Cody Glass. All right, you and Chimes. All right. Oh, yeah, thanks. Nice, Chimes. I didn't even see that. Yep, I'm going Cody Glass too. So, anything else you guys want to add? Before we go, are you going Thursday? I am going. Now, understand,

[01:04:59] I am still in the upper deck. There's really no way around that. However, I do not have to traverse any steps. I merely come out onto the concourse and I'm right there. I'm not sitting in the last row. I'm in the first row. Look at you. Up the deck. Dead center. Upgrade. It's so exciting. I don't know how many of those are going. I guess promoted and see what happens. It costs less than last year when I had my back against the wall. So, I'm like, this is really cool. It's only nine rows different, but that means these people are actually going to look like players now. Yeah.

[01:05:29] Are you? Is it game for ants? They have to be at least three times the size. Do you, are you going to call us? We're going on after the show. After the game. I usually can't even hear you guys. I know. I know, but we can hear you and that's what makes it fun. Exactly. They closed closing down the road. So, I'm really, really pissed about that. Yeah. So, I can go drink cheap ass Bud Light in Championship Plaza, right? But I can't have any good beers outside of Madison Avenue. This makes no sense to me.

[01:05:59] So, we shall see what the evening brings. Well, hopefully it brings a phone call from Drunk Bob because we want to see it. So, any final thoughts before the game? He's a good dude. Just so everybody knows. He's a good dude. Slightly misunderstood. Just likes to have fun. I would like to hang out with his drunk Bob. Leave him alone. Is Kay coming down to this area to play any games? I know we talked about that. We don't have a Princeton game this year. We might have a Lancaster, but that's close to not to Reisterstown, Maryland. Nope.

[01:06:30] Don't even know where that is. Nobody does. All right. Wrapping it up. Since nobody has any other hockey stuff, just stay there. You look nice. It looks like a good profile picture. That's actually a pretty solid picture. Very photogenic. That is pretty solid. I can take that from LinkedIn. Yeah, he's been frozen. You've been frozen for like a few minutes now. We're just letting it go. I'm not just some psycho that can sit like that. All right, guys, we're going to wrap it up. Please hit the, you know, the like, us on Apple,

[01:06:59] Spotify, five-star review. Positive comment helps a little podcast that could. Thursday's the big one. We will be on after the game. Bobby will be calling us in live from Championship Plaza. I'm Chris, Bob, Tim. We're the Uncle Puckers. I'll see you when we see you. Bye-bye. Suck it, Delicate.

[01:07:32] And now he's invisible. No, he's invisible.