The Gloves Come Off!

[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 NJD Podcast. Let's go Devils! Welcome everybody, we are the Uncle Puckers, Tim, Bob and Chris, which seems to be the regular trio lately.

[00:00:31] So I was thinking real quick that since we're always holding off on doing a W-no because we want to have the four of us or whatever, I think that we need to start over fresh, the three of us, and we do it every week. At least we know we're going to get it in every week. I mean, even just the cumulative scoring doesn't really matter. The fun is in the game. Right. So regardless of who's got the most wins and all that, even though I was starting to pick up on Tony.

[00:00:59] You know, whatever it doesn't matter. Yeah, it was. No, you really weren't. I would have been checking. Tony is so far ahead of you guys, it's ridiculous. I know. He really is. He's like Rain Man with this stuff. It's crazy. It's unbelievable. I did it once. The one time that I got it quick was probably the last one that we did. It was the Kevin Ball one when Dan said he placed the Ottawa 67s and I jumped all over that one. Yeah.

[00:01:27] So, you know, it's Saturday night. It is exactly two weeks from today until we see our next devil game. Kind of have two games that we can discuss today. The shit show that was the Vegas Golden Knights and this, you know, pretty strong effort against the Habs today.

[00:01:48] I really want to kind of touch on both those games with you guys and talk a little bit about kind of what needs to change on this team. Because I think it's obvious that the group of guys that we have right now are only going to take us so far. And it is time to look towards some trades with hopefully some term guys that are going to maybe stick around here for a few years and replace maybe some guys that aren't producing.

[00:02:16] So I do want to jump into all that with you guys. But before we start, Bobby, what's the matter? Well, I have a story that's similar to what you went through last week. So Thursday, during the terrible game, I was at Quizzo. I was invited to Quizzo. I was doing a Quizzo. At a restaurant. Quizzo? Quizzo. Is that an old sub place? What's that? Is that an old sub place? Quizzo the game at a restaurant.

[00:02:46] I was thinking of Quiznos. Like a trivia night? Like a trivia thing. You know, all different music clues and all this weird stuff. So anyway, while I'm there, I'm about three quarters of the way through a very delicious enchilada at a restaurant I've been wanting to go to for years. El Pastor. It was fantastic until I bit down. Oh, no. And the searing pain and the crunch on the right side of my mouth was just so intense.

[00:03:14] It felt like a piece of bone was wedged into my upper tooth. Jesus. It ruined the rest of the night. Now, I have since checked I don't have a crown missing. I don't appear to have any cracks or broken tooth. I don't know if just the sheer impact was enough for like the root system to really be hurting. But that's exactly what it feels like. It feels like this is like inside my teeth. I can't chew at all on the right side of my mouth since this happened.

[00:03:43] And again, no visual cracks that I'm aware of. I'm giving it a few days just assuming it's going to be an impact pain, a swelling that will go down. And if it's not come Monday or Tuesday, I'll of course go to my dentist because they'll be able to see if there is in fact a crack or something that I can't see. Look at my mouth. I just thought it was so funny that you had just done that. And, you know, it happens to all of us at some point. But it happened to two of us in like separated by five days. No, not even.

[00:04:12] It was the day it was. It happened to me. When did this happen to you? The Thursday night? During the during the shitty game. Yeah. During the Vegas game. During the Vegas game. Yep. Yeah. Mine was Wednesday. The day before. Oh, Jesus. It was that close. Yeah. So, yeah. No pressure at all. I have no idea what's going on with it. But they look fine. But man, I mean, the crunch. It was like what kind of bone was in this thing?

[00:04:37] You know, I've torn a tooth before or a cap on like something soft like Wheaties where it's just one of those fluke things like it was ready to go. This was like an impact crunch. Like somebody just threw a rock in my mouth right when I was biting down. That's so weird. Yeah. Yeah. Did you take Advil and stuff just to see if the swelling goes down, if that's what it is? It's not visibly swollen, but I did take it once or twice to see if it kind of helped take the edge off. And it did. Right. So, yeah. We'll take a look at that.

[00:05:07] I had to finish the enchilada, of course, because it was delicious. But it hurt to do so. Yeah. See, tooth pain is probably the worst pain. It really is. It's so fucking bad. So, that's why, like, mine was searing pain through my whole body. I was like, I got to get to the dentist now. But I could see where mine was. Like, you can't see anything. You can't see anything. I can't tell you leaving that night, because, you know, it's been chilly out, obviously. I did the whole super breathe in test.

[00:05:36] And, like, the air did kind of rattle me and hurt my teeth a little bit. So, I was getting it. It doesn't do that now. But I literally can't bite down on anything. Even something like a banana. Can't even do that. No cock munching. No cock munching. No. That's off the table for at least two weeks. When did the devils get back? Two weeks. Two weeks. You'd be back to munching time. Hand jobs only for me for a week. Yeah, I know. It kind of sucks. But he has super smooth hands. He could never work a real day in his fucking life. It's wonderful. So, anyway.

[00:06:06] Well, I'm fucking eating soup for the rest of the week. Jesus Christ. Yeah, right? Just precautionary. You guys are horrifying. Jesus. Who is the chicken? What kind of dental care do you guys have? It's like we're Canadian or something. British. Bad. Right. There you go. So, the good part about all this, though, is that I seem to have a really good knack for missing the games that are like utter shit.

[00:06:34] And judging by some of those little charts that Timmy put out there, that Vegas game was the utter shit that we've ever done. So, I had the information at my fingertips to know, is this a game I even need to watch anything on? Do I need to replay it? The answer was no. I left that shit off. I could tell by your text. I could tell by what was going on that there is no reason I need to put myself through that. So, whatever you're going to talk about from that loss, other than me knowing it was one of the worst losses we've had, that's about it. I did not watch that.

[00:07:02] There wasn't many. Not many games infuriated me or have infuriated me the way that that Vegas game did. It was... I was so angry watching it. Like, it was just... They literally didn't give a shit about this game. And I give a ton of credit to Vegas. And if this was kind of a one-off thing, I might even say, hey, look, that was all Vegas.

[00:07:31] And the Devils just, you know, it happens. But the fact that we've seen the Devils do this now, you know, seemingly every other game, that's what really kind of pissed me off. Like, you just got done with Pittsburgh. And it took overtime to do it. You got a big home game. There's a possible four points left before this break. And that was the effort that you gave on Thursday night. I thought it was just disgusting. Mistakes all around.

[00:07:58] And Shimon Nemich, that might have been one of the worst defensive games I've seen anybody play in a double uniform. I mean, he was so much better today. But you look at that Thursday game. You know, Tim, you and I were kind of texting throughout. But when he took that icing after the stupid-ass penalty that he took, where, you know, the

[00:08:26] guy was just bullying him and he didn't know what to do. So he just kind of bear-hugged him from behind. Takes the two minutes. Then he's back out. You have him and two other forwards coming up through the neutral zone. You make an outlet pass and there's probably a good scoring chance. And he just chucks it down the ice from behind the red line. Ice is the puck. I was so pissed. And I think they scored after that faceoff. I think that, yeah.

[00:08:53] So it led to a, directly led to an offensive zone faceoff for the Knights, which they scored on. And I was just livid with this guy. And then he didn't see a whole lot of ice after that. But the mistakes, the one-timer, he snaps his stick, you know, just everything that could have gone wrong for Nemich. And in turn, I thought that brought Luke's game down because I think Luke was trying way too hard to cover up for his mistakes.

[00:09:19] And it's like, dude, you're not quite there yet that you can be that guy bailing your defensive partner out right now. Like, you need help sometimes. And, you know, not a knock on Luke. It's only his second year. And, but at that, after that game, this is why I can never be a general manager. Because my, my emotions run way too hot during certain things. You weren't overreacting at all. No.

[00:09:46] I would have called up like the, the fucking, you know, Florida Everblades and been like, send a bag of pucks up. You're getting Nemich and Mercer. Fuck these guys. You know, like that's, that's where I'm at. I would have just dumped them to any shitty ass team in the ECHL. But yeah, it was just, you know, like calm down. And then of course today's effort, which, uh, you know, I do want to discuss in depth with you guys. But Tim, what did you think of Vegas and whatever else you got to say?

[00:10:15] Some of the, uh, some of the trade proposals you were texting to me, you were like fucking, I don't know, Nemich for, for Raquel. But I don't care. Mercer and Nemich and give them all, give them all away. I don't give a shit real quick. I would do Mercer for Raquel in a goddamn heartbeat. Yeah. I did Mercer for Raquel one up straight up and Mercer plus for Besser. Uh, well, we could get into that a little bit.

[00:10:40] Um, dude, Bobby, you missed like the worst game I've ever seen in my life. Like I could not believe how bad it was credit to Vegas. They're a very good team. And they just, they just stepped on our throats and didn't let us up. We couldn't get anything going through the neutral zone. Every time we dumped the puck in, well, half the time we couldn't even get to the point where we got to the point where we could dump the puck in. Like they would just, they would just take it back from us in the neutral zone. Just bully our guys. Yeah.

[00:11:08] Our plays died on the red line. You're right. It was, it was awful. Like it was like that kind of road by like that three quarter ice game where you're kind of controlling your blue line into the offensive zone. Like every single transition we were trying to, to get out of the zone and, and through the neutral zone, just wind up on their D stick right back to the forge, right back in our zone. It was infuriating. And then when on the off chance, we actually did get it into their zone on a dump in.

[00:11:36] We had no forecheck. We had no one getting after pucks. We just couldn't get anything going. And it was right back out, right back in our zone. I could not believe, I've never seen a team play as bad as it did. It's like, it was like if like the varsity high school team in your area played your son's team right now. Like that, that's how bad it was. And twice, I kind of twice where we successfully retrieved the puck on a forecheck and just to just throw it away on an errant pass.

[00:12:06] Like I remember Pallott once successful forecheck, got the puck back, slid it behind the net. It was right to the defenseman, their defenseman, right to the wing, to the center, out of the zone. Like we had no top of the zone pressure to disrupt anything in the top of the zone. The RD were, were already falling back on their heels. We're just on our heels the entire game. It just, it was just not pretty. And Nemitz, yeah, he had a fucking awful game, man. Like the first, like his first shift, he got blown through by, by Anderson.

[00:12:35] Just got absolutely cooked on the toe drag move. Then like his second shift, he blew a tire. It was like, oh man, this kid's in for one tonight. And then like, not even, not even like 10 minutes later in the first period, the guy just walked right by him on the, on the left wing boards. The left wing came down, just walked right past him. And then Luke would let him, like you said, like Luke had to be like, oh shit. Like Luke's used to pass you over there, like doing cool stick tactician stuff. And he's like, oh shit, I got to go help him out. So brutal game, throw it away.

[00:13:05] You know, Vegas is, Vegas is good. They're there. They're, even though they've been scuffling a little bit, like their decor is so big and so mobile and so good. Like we just had no answer for that. And that kind of worries me for, for the playoffs. Like Carolina's decor is kind of pretty similar. They're big, they're mobile. They're, they're hard to get through and around. We gotta, we gotta fix something like, like system systematically.

[00:13:29] I think there are some flaws in Keith systems where it's almost overly defensive. I do appreciate the shutdown D that's great. And it was awesome in December when it was working, but when, when we're playing defensively and it's not working defensively and we can't even generate offense either. That's when our shit breaks down pretty badly. Like if you look at like, when we got the puck and neutral zone regroups, that's when the

[00:13:53] D gets the puck on like, on like top of our zone, right, right below the blue line, our forwards aren't even on the television screen. Like they're all the way at the far blue line. So our, our defensemen are sending these stretch passes to the forwards that are completely stationary or have a defenseman right on their, right on their hip. So their defensemen are so good. They're just breaking that up or our forwards are tipping it into the zone. And we don't have any other forwards to get any speed to go after and chase the puck.

[00:14:20] So just, just a frustrating, bad game to watch. Did not like it. No good, no fun, very bad game. When they get in that way, when the teams do play them like that, and it's always kind of the same teams, right? It's the Carolinas. And like you said, the Vegas is the teams that play a very good defensive structure, which we play a very good defensive structure until we don't.

[00:14:44] And there are, we have such a habit of getting away from that game, our game, whatever that game is. Cause keep is very big on different teams, different game plans. Let's stick to this. We can probably have more success like with Montreal, like doing the four check that we had great success with that today. It was, they, they looked fantastic, especially the fourth line. And we'll talk about them.

[00:15:07] But I feel like if the game plan isn't clicking right away, it's every guy trying to do too much and it completely everything. Then you're missing, you know, you're missing your first pass out of your zone. You're making all that stupid mistakes and it's, you know, Jack trying to, you know, throw a seam pass through three defenders and to Brad. And it's no, that simplify everything.

[00:15:35] And you look at how today went where they basically simplified everything and your great defense led to offense. You buried the chances when you had them a lot of good about today. But again, you played Montreal. I don't want to, I get it. An NHL team is an NHL team. Vegas is not Montreal.

[00:15:58] And if you want to have delusions of grandeur of lifting a Stanley cup, you better be able to hang with the Vegas is. So Bob, what did you think about today? I'm sorry. Sorry. I just to layer onto that, I apologize. It's in the differences sort of stylistically like a team that we play against. You know, I think there is kind of a book out that like, if you trap or like, if you clog the neutral zone, it's, it's hard for us to get through.

[00:16:24] However, not every team either has a personnel to be able to really pull that off really well, or has that kind of neutral zone system in their bag that they practice in as part of like their system structure. So that's why sometimes I think it's easier for us to do that. Like Vegas clearly has that in their bag. I don't think Montreal necessarily does. So that's what I just want to layer on top of that. Bob, what did you think about today? I like today. Today was a really fun game to watch.

[00:16:53] You know, it was mostly a clean game structure, finish, timely saves for check. You know, I had a little bit of everything. Obviously you got the shutout there. Like I said, that was just exciting, fun, fairly crisp game to watch. You know, it gave me optimism going into a much needed break. One of the things I particularly liked about the game was Jack's goal. Because as he's coming down on that two-on-one, Montembeau is playing him right.

[00:17:21] He knows it's shot because the defenseman was in such a good spot, right? He knows it's a shot coming. But Jack was still kind of selling pass a little bit because his stick was pointed like directly to where Bratt was coming down the wing, which also happens to be like the same exact line for that far corner top shelf. So he didn't have to put much behind it to kind of snipe that in the corner. And I just found that fascinating because you got the D who's exactly where he's supposed to be. You got a goalie who absolutely knows the shot's coming. And you still had Jack looking like he's selling pass till the very last second when he didn't even have a pass.

[00:17:50] And then he beat him clean. He beat him super clean, kind of froze him. So he had a goalie knowing where he was going and he still kind of froze him. I just really love that goal. And, you know, the effort altogether. So that's something just show that replay to your kid just about the sort of deception because like when you're handling the puck and coming in on a goalie, if you have it on like the shooting side where you can either shoot or pass, like it's much harder for a goalie to read that.

[00:18:19] Like if you have the puck in front of you and you're stick handling in front of you and this is where Jack kind of gets into problems during a shootout. Like if you stick handling in front of him, like that's going to be a deke. Like there's, he can't, you can't shoot with the puck like this. You know, you can shoot or pass or deke from, from this type of positioning. So it's a good catch on that. I'll tell you what I like most about today's game. And there were some things I didn't like, you know, there were still some structural things

[00:18:45] that, you know, a couple of times getting hemmed into the offensive zone and stuff. But for the most part, the thing I like best about it is after two, we're up to nothing. Going into a third against a team that has to get these points, Montreal, they have to get these points or else, I mean, this loss was really bad for them. It kind of, it kind of took them out of the chase right now. So when we're up to nothing, third period starts and we're starting on a penalty kill.

[00:19:15] We kill it off and then we bang, bang, two quick goals. So it was, I love the killer instinct. Like you said about Vegas, putting their foot on your throat and choking you out. That's what we did to Montreal today in that third period. And that's what I like best about it. It wasn't, we're going to try and play this prevent defense and, you know, hope, you know, it's only a two goal lead at that point. You know, Montreal gets one, things change, the devils tighten up. But no, that jack snipe was brilliant.

[00:19:44] And then, you know, loop that CNI puck with great shot and boom, four, four nothing. And now you can kind of breathe and, you know, of course, 15 seconds left. You get a bullshit penalty shot call that I don't know. That was bullshit, right? That was bullshit. That was bullshit. That was, that doesn't happen. In my opinion, that does not happen in any other arena. No. Other than Montreal. Really would have hated to see him lose a shutout on that. Yeah.

[00:20:11] The, the interpretation, like it's, you're supposed to have a clean breakaway from a certain point to be able to get a penalty shot. And I feel like that, that clean breakaway from a certain point has really been massaged a lot recently on, on penalty shots. Um, yeah, I, I think, you know, it, we didn't play all that great. There were, we had great moments. I think our finishing was finally there for once. Like we, we finished off chances.

[00:20:37] We had several, I feel like the juxtaposition of the two games made it seem like we played a lot better than, than we did. Um, because the Vegas game was so bad, but we had a lot of sustained offensive zone time. A lot of our, you know, even the fourth line had some good ozone time. Um, Jackson had some good ozone time, but that man, that, that hollow Mercer Meyer line got just absolutely caved in over and over and over again.

[00:21:03] And multiple times it's because Mercer's not clear the fucking puck, man. Like I'm so ready to ship this guy off somewhere. Where I don't care where just he, he should be the centerpiece of a package for that scoring wing that when, that we need. Um, and I don't know if you want to segue a little bit, but that's, um, oh yeah. Um, just still in the Montreal game. Um, and thank you for putting that up. Um, Jake Allen was shut up, man.

[00:21:33] He was, um, Jake was incredible again. And this guy and actually sent you guys his stats as a fill in, right? Um, what do you have? 34 stops or something like that. 34 for 34. Including the, they gave him a free opportunity to score and he still couldn't fucking score. So yeah. So he's had, um, since Markstrom's injury, Allen's been nine 34, save percentage, eight 75, high danger, um, 10, 10 ish goal saved above expected.

[00:22:00] Now Jake Allen is actually in the entire league on money puck. He's in the top 10 for goals saved above expected. So he is awesome. The top 10 goalie marks from still sitting at 12th, but like, that's, you know, he's, he's right ahead. The guy he's right ahead of, uh, is he or sister can, but, um, you know, that's Hellebuck Thompson, decor, Dostal, Gibson, Gustafson, Blackwood, McKenzie Blackwood is seven, Joseph wall.

[00:22:30] And then Jake Allen. So it's good to see we have, we have good goaltending. You know, it's nice to finally have good goaltending. Second in the league to Hellebuck six shutouts with four. As a backup. Like, yeah, quite impressive. Yeah. I'm going to include a bunch of stats, my little recap tomorrow, but there are some fun ones. Like, um, this is a seven team shutouts for the first time since 15, 16, um, which was Schneider. Um, this is one of my favorite ones.

[00:22:58] Um, Jack went 359 games without a, without a shorthanded goal. And it's now he has two and four games. It technically wasn't a shorthanded goal, but I'm going to give him credit for it. Um, because of the penalty, just that it basically was a, was a shorthanded goal. Yeah. So what, if Jack has figured out the penalty kill now and how to be dangerous on the penalty kill, like it's over for the rest of the league. Sweet. Um, so anyway, um, I'm ready to ship Mercer off for, for whatever we can get, um, from

[00:23:28] a scoring winner, winner. And I'm kind of, I put this in my last recap. I think like the, the kind of three main pieces that we can make work, especially if Mercer is going the other way. Um, hold on, hold on. Sorry. Chris just put a banner up. Okay. And it's great. But, um, Chris, you've seen Lego Batman. I'm sure. Right. Yes. So at the end of your little thing here, it gets Alan guys for set out of the year. Let's go devils. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. And all I can think of is Lego Batman when he's blinking like blink, blink, blink, blink, blink.

[00:23:57] Before, uh, yeah. Before we do, um, the, the talk of some. Sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. No, it's fine. I do want to discuss some possible additions or subtractions on this team, but we have to give a shout out to our hockey podcast network sponsors. Sponsors. This ain't the little itty bitty teeny tiny bowl. This is the Superbowl and that's right. It's Superbowl 59 and you can get it on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official

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[00:25:48] The crown is yours. Yours. I don't know if you say yours. Yours. I have a question. How come DraftKings allows us to say Super Bowl and nobody else allows us to say Super Bowl? Like any other ad reads or whatever on any other shows, like for Vandal or Underdog or whatever, there's a big game coming.

[00:26:13] But this script specifically says this is Super Bowl, whatever number it is, 49. I think that's fine. But why? I guess they're sponsoring it, I guess. They're allowed to say. It's so those types of deals. And it depends. And the sportsbook stuff's been a little different because there's so many sportsbooks.

[00:26:36] And a few leagues have taken kind of an egalitarian approach to where they let all the sportsbook be kind of sportsbook partners of the leagues so they can all use kind of the rights and marks. I think the NFL and DraftKings is some sort of exclusivity around that for them to be the only sportsbook to be able to say that. So that's probably negotiated into the terms of their partnership.

[00:27:04] They're also doing – I think DraftKings is doing the Manning Brothers kick of destiny thing. No, that's Vandal. Is that Vandal? Vandal's kick of destiny, yeah. Yeah, I can't even tell the difference between the two, so it doesn't matter that one says it and one doesn't. Oh, I just – I thought it was just kind of odd. But back to the Devils. We can do a little Super Bowl – our Super Bowl picks at the end of the show and see how that goes. But it was nice today to get that little bit of depth, right? Great. Cotter scoring from the third line.

[00:27:35] Luke getting at least a – you know, Luke getting the goal from the blue line. That was nice. And then the two big guys, it was nice to see Bratt finally net a goal. I know they were talking about it on the broadcast. But, man, it's great. Nice pass from Tatar, too. Yes, Tatar worked hard on that. And the bottom, though, is still broken. And we have got to get better all around.

[00:28:00] But I think that – I'm thinking there's three positions that need to be filled. And I don't know if we're going to be able to go and get three guys, but that's my opinion of it. And you're – I think Mercer absolutely should be a trade candidate. But I just – you know, we're not getting what we should get from him.

[00:28:24] And if you were to, like we said, Mercer for Raquel, one for one, I would do that in a heartbeat. Raquel is such a more dynamic player. I mean, this guy took Sidney Crosby's spot last night against the Rangers. He was fantastic in the dot. He scored a goal. He does all the right things. He's hard on the boards. He's a hard guy to play against. And he's a legitimate sniper. 24 goals already on the year.

[00:28:50] And you put that dude with Jack and Bratt, I think it completely changes the entire dynamic of that line. And then you're able to, like you said, move plot down. The other spot is 3C. We saw Jake Evans today in Montreal. That kid is good. And he's good in the dot. And he plays hard. He's tough. He's physical. And then you need somebody else on that. I would say those two are the most important.

[00:29:19] I would like to see another guy maybe in that third line winger role. Like have a, let's say, like you said, Trent Frederick. A guy like him that can play with, let's say, Evans and Palat on the third line. And you can kind of move Holla down to the fourth. And play with Bastion and Lazar. Whatever you decide to do with that fourth line. But Holla gives you now a fourth line that can win face-offs.

[00:29:49] Can still work hard and penalty kill. Do all that responsible shit that we need a fourth line to do. Again, Lazar was invisible today. Bastion, you know, again, not too much. Tatar, like you said, I thought he had a good game. But the fourth line in general today, I thought, did very well. They were the ones involved on both those goals. And they were the main four-checking line. They were able to kind of hold that offensive zone.

[00:30:17] I love the Devils when they're able to sustain that four-check. And sustain that offensive zone pressure. And directly, like we saw in the Chicago game, saw it today. When you're able to make those line changes while you have possession in your offensive zone. I mean, there's not a team better coming off the bench. I mean, all of a sudden, you've got a wide-open Brad, a wide-open Hughes. And it, you know, it works.

[00:30:43] But we have to be able to sustain that four-check a lot longer than we've been. That's my opinion of what we need. And I'm not saying it has to be those guys. But a, you know, winger to play with Jack and a 3C, absolutely. And possibly another winger to play in the bottom six. But curious what you guys think. I mean, that lines up, dude.

[00:31:12] It really does. I mean, obviously, we need a score to sit with Jack. And obviously, we need a 3C. By getting that, and depending on where the addition also comes from, some subtraction, I don't know what else we might possibly have to do. We'd have to wait and see what would come of that. But I'm not disagreeing with you that the ultimate goal would also be something new and better and improved on the fourth line. For sure. I mean, we can't run what we're running out there right now for the rest of the year.

[00:31:43] I mean, Dowling needs to go back to the AHL. Paula is not up there, 2C. We know Heischer's coming back. But you still got the Mercer inconsistencies that's there. We flirted with Nason on the upper lines. But, I mean, Nason just gives you so much extra gravy when he's down there on the third. I don't know yet. But, yeah, I definitely agree with you. I'm starting to look at some big names for the right side with Jack. And 3C is just so important.

[00:32:15] Yeah, you know, I think there are three guys, you know, that I'd be fine if not very, very happy with if they brought in with Jack. But I think for any of these guys, based on their salary and term, Mercer's got to be part of it going the other way. I just don't see any other way around it. Like, you know, Pallad isn't going to be a guy going the other way. We need to move big money. Yeah. We would need to move that kind of money out.

[00:32:42] And that's, you know, Brock Besser, Raquel, or Jared McCann. Those are kind of the three guys I think they're on bad teams. That's still, I think most, all of them except for Besser. I think McCann and Raquel still have a little bit of term left. Raquel, I don't know. Real quick, I don't know about McCann. But I know that Besser's a UFA after this year. So if you get him, it's a rental. Raquel is $5 million AAV until 2728. And is there any indication that they're willing to trade this guy? Or are we just saying this is the guy we want?

[00:33:12] I heard Raquel on the market. I have heard that the Penguins are looking to kind of move off of him. I know Besser, just because that team is where they're at, and they're probably not making the playoffs, even though they did win today. But you got Quinn still injured. You got rid of JT Miller. They're probably not going to make the playoffs. And he's a UFA after this year. So if you're not making the playoffs, Brock Besser has to go. There's no way in hell they're going to keep him to just have him walk if they can get any

[00:33:41] kind of assets for him. Do we have any sense of what that would be? For Brock Besser? Yeah. Well, I wouldn't give Mercer up for Brock Besser. No. Without some type of at least conversation in a negotiation for an extension. I don't want to end up in Carolina's position. We could discuss Miko Ranton in a minute. But, you know, you give away Mercer.

[00:34:11] He signed for another, what, three years after this? Two after this, I think. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Your pace isn't moving again. Well, I know on my screen, I'm just a black circle. Mercer's one of three. Two more years after this. Right. So are you going to give up Mercer with two years left on his deal for a rental? No. I don't know. Yeah. I would. Yes. You would. I would. Yeah.

[00:34:37] Because like, look, like if it doesn't work, if Besser doesn't sign an extension. All right. Then we have that money to go fix that hole and have more time to fix that hole with the guy that we want. You know, and I just like, I think one way or another, Mercer's, Mercer's just not cutting it for me. Like, you know. So it's safe to say that you're done with, with Dawson. I mean, I'm done with Mercer, especially if it comes, if it brings us that, that better piece.

[00:35:04] And the one thing that, that kind of was interesting to me is, and I, it was probably in an Elliott Friedman report. I don't know how long ago it was, maybe like a week or so. Basically the, the, it was, if Vancouver's going to move Besser, they want a young mid-twenties forward. And I was like, huh, we have one of those. We do. And, and I think. You stop that. But you know what?

[00:35:32] Like if it doesn't work out long-term with Besser, then that gives us salary flexibility in the off season. Then we have Ritz coming over. I gotta admit, I didn't think about it that way, but I really want him on the team. Brock Besser? Yeah, Besser. I want him. I want him here. I want him playing with Jack. I've just been looking at him lately. I love his size. I love his skill set. I think it's a perfect fit. We got to go for it. I think for the next six, seven years, you know. That's, that's exactly right. Like we go for it this year.

[00:36:01] If it doesn't work, we have that salary flexibility in the off season. Like I don't, I don't necessarily see a loss in that. I don't know who's a UFA this summer. I haven't really totally looked into that, but there can also be like a hockey trade worked out this summer. I don't know, but like, you got to go for it this year. Like that's kind of been. So you, you'd rather do this than do draft capital. Yeah. Minor league. Well, I mean, if it was just, if it's just draft capital and we keep Mercer, like I want to see Mercer succeed. Right. He's a homegrown kid. One of our draft picks.

[00:36:31] It could get into kind of looking at a broader view and sort of hindsight of some of fits his draft picks and not looking all that great in the first round. Like you think that draft was, was Holtz, Mercer and Stillman. And then who's the other one that, that didn't land very well. Stillman. Who'd you say so far? Stillman hurts Holtz and Mercer. Nemitz. Oh, well, yeah.

[00:36:59] I mean, Nemitz, Nemitz, I still think he's going to be very good. He was, he was good against Montreal. He had two very nice stretch passes, set Brad up for a nice, nice play in the first period. He does go, he does go, I'll use the crocodile Dundee term. He does go walkabout a little bit where he goes a little bit rogue. And it's, it's kind of interesting to see how there's a sort of new breed of defenseman where they are a little bit of a rogue agent.

[00:37:26] I don't know if Nemitz is, is good enough to be doing that at the NHL level, but you watch a guy like, like Zach Wierenski, like he's a fourth forward these days, but he also has the speed and capabilities to get back. You know, like half of Vancouver's offense runs through Quinn. So I can still see the, the, the idea behind it, but I just think he needs to kind of simplify his game. But, but like, you know, we could have Logan Cooley and Shane Wright and not really be talking

[00:37:54] about, you know, our scoring problems needing to trade for another forward. So I don't know. Like that's all, that's all hindsight is 2020 type of shit, you know? Sure. So let's say that you, we trade Mercer for either Ricard Raquel or Brock Besser. All right. So I think we're all in agreement. Mercer goes out of here and we get. Or Jared, or Jared McCann. Or Jared. All right. Let's keep it with Raquel and Besser for a conversation right now.

[00:38:22] And then we want to get Jake Evans from Montreal, right? I think we're all kind of cool with him on a three C. Does anyone else have other guys that you like better? I like Jake Evans the best out of any possible guy. Again, another guy, they know they're not going anywhere. They're going to have to move off of him. I don't know what his contract is though. I think it's like one point. It's not much. It's like, like 1.7 or 1.8 or something. My computer's term, right? I don't know. Hang on.

[00:38:51] I got to, I'm going to hop out really quickly and hop back in just because my computer's fucked. Okay. That's fine. All right. So now what do you think that Bobby, do you get for, what do you have to give up for Evans? I mean, I can't. Yeah. I haven't really looked up like his stature to be honest with you. I, I, I need to do that. Um, I don't know who to put for three C you have more of a grip on that. I was just, I just know it needs an upgrade.

[00:39:21] You know what I mean? So let me take a look at him real quick. I like, I like Jake Evans. And I think a guy like Trent Frederick who brings the physicality, he's tough. He's got some hands and put him on the line. Like right now I have line one Jack with Bratt and either Raquel or Besser. I have Heischer with Meyer and Mason. Me too. I have Evans with Palat and Frederick and Holla with Bastion and Lazar.

[00:39:48] Now I would be fine with, for Evans or Frederick moving Bastion in a package, maybe Bastion and a couple of picks or whatever, uh, goes to Montreal or goes to Boston for Frederick. And then we can plug whoever else into that fourth line winger. I'm sorry. Did you say your fourth line was, um, Cotter, Holla? Oh shit. I forgot about that. Nevermind. You said, you said Tatar, right?

[00:40:15] No, I said Lazer, Holla and Bastion. I completely forgot about Cotter. It's gotta be more like Cotter, Holla. Between Bastion and Lazer. I'm probably, I'm taking Lazer, I think. Yeah. So it would be Cotter, Holla and Lazer. Yeah. So Bastion now is, we, we can move him to one of these teams for, for, uh, Evans or Frederick. I'm even okay. It'd be a throw in or, or a legit part of it, depending on how the team views them. But yeah, you move them.

[00:40:43] But I also like the idea of maybe, all right, maybe I'm, maybe I'm thinking too hard here. Let's get rid of Frederick. Let's not pick him up and let's move Cotter over to the third line to play with Evans and Palat. So who, who's more apt to go to the other wing? Um, for which line? For, if you put Palat, Cotter, and Evans on the same line. You're back near me? Yeah, we got you, buddy. I'm thinking.

[00:41:16] What'd I miss, what'd I miss? I think Palat is a little bit more of a, Chris, run through your lines again. We'll give you our hypotheticals here where we're at. So we're made, we only made two trades. Okay. And so that's it. So Frederick's not coming right now. So the first line we have, Jack is centering Bratt and either Raquel or Besser. We have Nico Heischer with Timo Meyer and Stefan Nason. That's the second line. And then we have Jake Evans with Palat and Cotter.

[00:41:46] Okay. And the fourth line, we have Holla with Lazer and Bastion. Unless we trade Bastion to Montreal for Evans. And then we can just move Nolan Foote. I don't care. Well, we still have Tatar on the contract too. Oh no, I'm dumping him. We're, we're getting rid of him. You don't care if you just. We're going to get some of that money. But you know what? Tatar for like a fifth or sixth round or something. Yeah. But I mean, I'm okay if he ends up on the fourth line with Holla and Lazar.

[00:42:14] I actually think with Holla on that fourth line, it's actually a legitimate fourth line. And then you're looking down the middle. Let's look. Cups are won and lost down the middle of the ice. Jack Hughes, Nico Heischer, Jake Evans, Eric Holla. That's pretty good. That's good. That's really good. You know. Sorry. Sorry. I need to hear this in layman's terms. Hockey as hockey fans. How much is an upgrade is Evans over Holla? Like, be real with me. Like.

[00:42:45] I think that Jake Evans brings. He's really good in the dot. But I would say probably about the same as Holla as far as face. Percentage wise. Percentage wise. I don't have the numbers in front of me. But Jake Evans is. He has better hands. He's faster. He's bigger. He's more physical. He'll get into shit. He's that kind of guy. He's the kind of player that I think in playoff time would be that guy that's a lot harder to play against and be that hard edge dude.

[00:43:15] And I think if you paired him up with Cotter, I think that could be a really physical line that can score a shitload of goals. I'm wondering. I think that Holla has always been drawn up as our prototypical three scene need. But it could be that they flip flop. Like, I don't know that.

[00:43:40] I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't know that once we get down to that level, I think as long as line chemistry makes the most sense, I wouldn't be so worried about who's three and four. I just want those two lines to produce the way you expect those two lines to produce. Now, I also have a list here of all UFAs going into this summer. So we talk about, like you said, Besser, right?

[00:44:06] If we get Besser and we make a little run with him, but then he walks, these are guys that are available. I'm going to give you what their previous AAV is and who they are, and you guys say yay or nay. Okay. John Tavares. $11 million. I'm a nay on John Tavares. Anybody else? Well, that's it. That's all you're giving us? This is just... Yeah. Okay.

[00:44:34] But he's also a center, so not really a position of need. I mean, he's probably going to sign... I think he's going to probably sign a cheaper deal to stay in Toronto. I agree, but he is a UFA. Cheaper than the 11 he's making now? Yeah, he'll probably take a discount. He'll probably go to like... No, he'll probably go to like 9 or 10. Okay. Yeah. I don't see him as the perfect fit, but I need to hear the whole list, of course. Left wing, Mitch Marner.

[00:45:03] Right now, his AAV is almost $11 million, $10 million. He's going to want to be in that $12 million, $13 million range. And if Toronto has a run and he's a part of it, he might start asking for $14 million. So, I'm kind of out on him. We already have... We already have like 90% of Marner with just for Bratt. Like, you know... I need to see what Bratt does in the playoffs. Like, I depend him to the death all the time.

[00:45:33] But Marner and Marner are kind of the same, you know, where... Yeah. Can't do what he did the year against the Rangers two years ago. No, then it becomes a pattern and that's a problem. Yeah. Now, the next guy, I absolutely love this player. And it's so weird because we just brought him up. It's Miko Rantanen, right? And he's right now with Carolina. And his AAV is 925. Okay. So, $9,250,000 is his AAV. He's looking for anywhere...

[00:46:00] He's looking for Nate McKinnon money, $13,000, $14 million. This is crazy because reports just came out today saying that the Hurricanes are not against the possibility of trading Miko Rantanen before the deadline. Because apparently, they're getting about as much contract action out of him as Colorado got, which is nothing. So, he doesn't want to... He hasn't said that he wants to sign.

[00:46:29] He hasn't said that he doesn't want to sign. He has said, un gots. Yo, Carolina's got to learn how to trade for term. You know... What the fuck are they doing? And also, have you seen Rantanen's stats since he's been on Carolina? He's hurt now. He has like two points in like six games and he's hurt now. And he's hurt. So, but we all know that he's a fantastic player and he's a game changer.

[00:46:53] He's a guy that can just at any point put your team on his back and he can win you games. We've seen him do it for years in Colorado. It's just really strange to me that you traded Marty Natchez, who... Look, we all hate. And I didn't think that that guy fit as a Carolina Hurricane for some of his shenanigans that he pulled this year. Just really wasn't kind of in the... Not really the MO of what the Hurricanes do. But he's gone.

[00:47:23] He's still a great point producer for you. He was having a career year. You move him and you move some assets and you get Mikko Rantanen. And now, two weeks after trading for him, reports are coming out that you might look to move him again. That is absolute management malpractice, in my opinion. Unless you can move him for a shitload more than you gave away to get him. Right.

[00:47:48] But if you're already looking to move him, every team knows you're desperate and you want to get rid of the guy. Yeah. And it takes a certain type of player and a certain type of guy to be able to plug into that Brynham Moore, faceless, nameless type of system. They've never really had a big superstars type of guy. And Natchez was emerging like that. But you look what Natchez is doing in Colorado.

[00:48:15] And I actually just really listened to PDOcast a couple of episodes ago. They kind of did a mixtape on Natchez and how he's fitting in with McKinnon. And it's almost like the analogy they used is that he's kind of free now. And he's free to, like Rod Brynham Moore dictates a pretty north-south grindy type of game. Right. And Natchez is kind of a bit of a pretty flower and likes to play a lot more east-west.

[00:48:45] And with McKinnon, he's able to do that now. And now Rantan being used to that Colorado more free-flowing, freestyling type of system, now being inserted into this very north-south system is kind of stifling him a little bit. It's a really fascinating dynamic. It really does. And it makes sense. I mean, look, Marty Natchez was bitching about his playing time and power play time and all that other stuff last year. He thought he should have been, you know, the guy playing on the top, getting the most minutes and playing on the top line and all the other stuff.

[00:49:16] And I guess there is some truth to that because he's playing well with McKinnon. And, you know, you're right. You have to – the Colorado – the Carolina Hurricanes are the closest thing in the NHL to what the Devils were in their heyday. Yeah. They're the closest thing. Everybody on that team has to sacrifice their personal goals for one goal, one goal only. That's a good point. It is a defensive first system.

[00:49:46] The biggest difference is we had Marty Brodeur and they just have guys, you know, and you're not winning a cup with Freddie Anderson. And you're not winning a cup with whoever the other guy is that plays – could check off or whatever. I just don't think you're winning a cup with those guys. So I think Carolina – Could check off. Yeah. It's going to be the two of us this year.

[00:50:11] If the Devils do this trade deadline right, they get healthy, we can beat Carolina in the first round, with or without Mikko Rant. I believe that. Yep. So the question is would we be interested in him as a – Right. I was just going to ask. So would you sign Mikko Rant in for $13 million or $14 million? I'm not going that level for him. I really want the player, but I just look at like some of our contracts and the big contracts

[00:50:41] and the fact that we were just talking about needing three things. So no, I'm not giving him $14 million at this point. Jimmy? Yeah. I mean, unless we unload Timo somewhere, I don't see that kind of fitting very well. But – Because that's the sort of guy that you're replacing. I mean, I don't know. I would definitely – Just money-wise.

[00:51:09] But see, like we have very low contracts, right? I mean, I know we have a lot of guys, but like Jack's getting a great contract. Mikko's got a great contract. Jesper's got a great contract. Even Meyer's not over – You know, really too much over value. I'm reserving everything I have to say about Timo Meyer until after this playoff run is done. Because – And I also think if you shore up the third line and you – Or, you know, whatchamacallit, and you get him back with Heischer and Nathan

[00:51:39] and maybe allow him to drive the play a little bit more instead of always kind of, you know, falling back and letting Heischer kind of do his thing. I think if – Maybe Meyer needs to be on his own line like he was with the Mercer and whatever. I want to see Meyer in the playoffs. I love Mikko Rannan. If you could make the money work, I would definitely entertain this. I mean, why is it every other team, though? Like Edmonton, you know, they just signed Drysaddle for $40 million.

[00:52:09] They have McDavid coming up. He's going to probably get 15 over 15. You have all these – John Tavares, $11 million. Fucking Matthews, $14 million. Marner, almost $11 million. Why can't we fit a fucking $14 million guy in a $14 million contract in our team? I just don't understand that. I think we can. Multiple guys. With the way the salary cap's going, I think we can.

[00:52:34] I cringe at the fact that we might bring in another top-tier guy, this time blowing away any other salary at $14 million. So we're back to the conversation of, hey, which one of our awesome top-tier guys is relegated to third-line minutes? Like in a team of Meyer. Like, Timo Meyer's our highest paid forward. And I expect more points out of this player, you know? And it's not there. And we've talked about his game and how great it is and what he's doing, and I'm all for that.

[00:53:02] And I love the type of game he plays and the power forward. I think we need that element on our team. But at almost $9 million, I'm like, what happens if we bring in a $14 million player? Oh, yeah, that's right. We could just move Timo around wherever we want. I don't know that Timo can do that. All right. So I agree with you guys. If you were to move on, if you were going to really think about, okay, we're going to bring Mikko Ranton in, and then you have to find a trade partner for Timo Meyer. And, like, take a look at... Take a look at what, Tim?

[00:53:34] So I pulled up Edmonton. I pulled up Edmonton. I'm sorry. My internet's really... My internet's really choppy. Okay. That's right. We hear you now. I think the weather around here is kind of affecting me pretty badly. It is. Like, you look at Edmonton's roster. Okay. So Conor's looking at their next year's salary, right? Conor McDavid's $12.5 million. Drysad was $14 million. The only other big contract they have in the books is Darnell Nurse at $9.25 million. That's why they can afford it.

[00:54:02] Everyone else on the roster makes $3 million, $4 million. Okay. Not that much. But they have Bouchard that's coming up, who's going to be an RFA. So he's going to be another big... Yeah. So, like, we have Timo makes nine. Dougie makes nine. Jack makes eight. Brat makes almost eight. Nico makes seven. Yeah, I guess when you add up all the eight... We have, what, six guys? Six guys. Yeah. Yeah, like, it's like three guys versus, you know, three times 15 is the same as, you know, five times... Right. Whatever. All right.

[00:54:30] So I have to choose Miko or Timo. I would like to... I still am reserving everything until after the playoffs, but at this moment right now, I would take Miko Rantanen over Timo Meier. Okay. Next guy on the list. Nikolaj Ehlers. Left wing. Out of Winnipeg. $6 million a year right now. I don't have any of his numbers, so I don't know where he's at. Are you looking that up, Bobby? I'm going to try to pull that up. Yep. All right. So you can let us know what his numbers are. I love Ehlers.

[00:55:01] He's 28 years old. That's all I know. I mean, I guess maybe if I click on him here, I might get some... I love Ehlers. Yeah. All right. So it's $6 million. I don't have any of his stats. I just have his contract here. He signed a seven-year, $42 million contract with the Jets, and it's up this year. His base salary of 6-7 and a cap hit of 6. So you got any of his numbers? No. How do you spell it? I'm not coming up.

[00:55:30] Where am I? N-I-K-O-L-A-J-E-H-L-E-R-S. I got him. Yeah. He makes... He's $6 million this year. He's a UFA. He'll probably be around 8 or so next in his UFA contract. Is that a guy that... I'd be surprised if he doesn't resign. But is that a guy... Regardless, is that a guy you would take? So...

[00:56:00] I love Ehlers. I think he's just a fucking unbelievable player. He has 48 points. He's a point-per-game guy. He'll be $8 million, $9 million. The only problem is he's 6'1", 70-ish. So, like, he's kind of another fleet-footed, Jack Hughes-ish size guy. He is strong. So, you know, do we... Do we want more guys like that? You know, or do we still try and fill out...

[00:56:30] I think we can win with this core. I think we haven't gotten the complementary pieces right yet. Like, that's why I think we need some construction done in the bottom six. That's why I think... But I think, like, the top four or five forwards are kind of in place. All right, I'm going to just save time. Instead of going through, like, every name, I'm just going to ask you guys certain names. And you say... And you just say, like, whether or not you think they could fit on this team. All right?

[00:56:59] The next guy up is Nicholas Backstrom. Center, $9.2 million. Yay or nay? No. Nay. Right? We don't need a center. Taylor Hall, he gets $6 million. Would you bring Taylor Hall back for more than $6 million? I'd bring him back for less than $6 million. I would, too. Yeah. Andrew Matthews... Yeah, he's getting less. He's getting older. Yeah, he's not worth that. Production's going down. I don't think anybody's giving him close to $6 million. Right.

[00:57:26] If you want to play in the NHL, you're getting, like, a $4 million, four to five. We were talking about Taylor Hall and his $6 million hit. Like, we would sign him, but his next contract is going to be for considerably less than $6 million. No. I mean, but if you get him for three and a half or four, you would do it, right? Yeah. Okay. I would. Under the right circle. It depends on how the team is constructed. All right. So, the other guys here that I think...

[00:57:55] We have Andrew Mangiapane, left wing at 5.8. We have TJ Oshie, right wing at 5.75. Andre Kuzmenko, left wing, 5.5. Yanni Gord, center, a little over $5 million. Center, Miguel Granlin, $5 million. Then you have Riley Smith for the Rangers. He's $5 million.

[00:58:24] Jason Zucker, left wing, 5 million. How about this guy? Even though he's a center and you want to talk about a good old replacement for Eric Holla, how about Sam Bennett? Ooh. He's a UFA. Yeah. And he's 4.425. Why did I feel like he just signed? You give him a million dollar raise. You sign him for 5.5 million.

[00:58:52] You trade off or get rid of Eric Holla. And you put that fucking legitimate badass as your 3C going into next year. I would love him as a 3C. He's one of my favorite players. I always get him, and I think this, Bobby, I think this is who you're talking about. Because they're both Sams, I always get him and Reinhardt. Mixed up in my head. So I'm thinking Reinhardt got the extension. Reinhardt got the extension. Gotcha.

[00:59:21] Yeah, and Reinhardt's nasty. Yeah, Reinhardt's the guy that he's 50, 60 goals. So we're not kidding, Reinhardt. Right. And Bennett's only 28. God, I thought he was like 33. Yeah, it's awesome. And it's, you know, he's that kind of greasy prick that you need in the playoffs. Oh, he's a fucking animal. Oh, he's an animal. You know, I missed out on JT Miller. I just never thought that that was actually anything realistic.

[00:59:51] Would have loved to have got that kind of play style on our team. But, you know, Vancouver's now 6-1 without him in the locker room, and the Rangers are falling apart. Well, no, they pulled it off tonight. I don't know. Did they? They were losing halfway through to third, and they scored two. I didn't finish watching, and I was watching most of the game. They won an overtime. No, I think it was regulation, actually. But I'm not 100% sure.

[01:00:20] But anyway, so look, okay, so this team needs to do – we're running a little late, so I kind of want to put a bow on the trade thing. Like, this team needs to make some moves. Do you guys think that anything is going to be done before the trade deadline? Like, Dory needs two weeks. Like, I think this – if you're a player – if the guy you're looking for is not playing in the Four Nations, this is a perfect time to make a fucking trade.

[01:00:49] I think if our team has any balls at all, then we go for, like, a Brock Besser. We get him in here and start there. Tim brought up a great point. You know, maybe we have to trade somebody like a Mercer, and then we don't get that return by keeping them, but we're still at a position of power going into next year. I think it's a statement move. I think it's a great move. And then it'd be a little easier to have some of the other pieces fall in line once we do that.

[01:01:17] If we get him on this team, and he's the guy I want over Raquel. He's the guy I want. If we get him here, I feel like we've got plenty of pieces together to find a 3C. And I don't – I'm trying to remember Brock Besser in the playoffs last year for Vancouver. Was he that annoying? I mean, other than him scoring huge goals for them, like this dude was scoring every clutch goal for the Canucks last year in the playoffs.

[01:01:44] But was he that Sam Bennett-esque kind of pain in the ass? I don't recall. No, not Raquel. No, I said I don't recall. I know what you said. All right, Tim. Do you remember Brock Besser in the playoffs last year? Tim can't hear us. You guys sound like a couple of robots to me. Okay. No, I can hear you. I don't. I do remember him.

[01:02:13] He's a good playoff player. He's not particularly fast. So – but he would be – he'd be really reminiscent of Toffoli. I think just that kind of smart veteran player. You know, he's got decent size. He gets in the corners, digs around a little bit. You know, he'll go to the net and get in front of the net and score some greasy goals. But he's got a really good shot. You know, I think that's his – that's his kind of MO is being just a smart veteran player. Good leader. Really good looking.

[01:02:46] I think that's a decent – but, like, the core guys, like, when you see the lazy play, when you see the stuff like that, like, don't you think shipping Mercer off would shake up that entire fucking dressing room? Like, wait, we thought it was, you know, it's Jack and Mercer and Nico and Timo, and these guys are all been there forever, and they're going to stay forever, and they're all signed long term. And then you just kind of pull the rug out and ship one of their boys out. I love it. I think you should fucking do it. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[01:03:13] But I'm wondering if that – they have never had that, right? They've never had – like, Timo came, but nobody left that was on the roster. You know, I mean, maybe Sharon Govich, but he was only there for a year, year and a half. Yeah, and it's the core. You know, what is the core? You know? Right. And now you just drew a monkey wrench in the core. I feel like that was kind of – is Mercer part of the core, though? Because he's not – you know, he's one of his eight-year deals. I'm starting to look at our team.

[01:03:43] If you look at, like, throughout the entire year, I'm starting to really feel that the core might only go as far as Jack Hughes, Nico Heischer, and then maybe you can get into a philosophical debate about some of the younger guys on defense and what they're going to become because when I look at a guy like Brat, love him, but as core, you just – you can't keep disappearing for 20 games at a time.

[01:04:10] Timo, love the type of game you play, but have we ever really gotten the Timo we thought we were going to get? I mean, statistically, we have not. Yeah, and that's the problem. It's like we're getting the Timo play style, but we're not getting the Timo results that we need. Everybody talks about last year, the end of the year. Oh, if he did that all year, he would have had 50 – well, guess what? Right. He's not. He's not. He was hurt all last year. Great. He's not getting power play one time. Well, he was on power play one, but they took him off.

[01:04:40] Like, you know, it's getting very hard. It's getting hard. If he was on power play one, he'd be on power play one. So, it's getting hard to defend Timo. It's really getting hard to defend Timo when he continues to not produce like this. Brad, however, has 12 points. I was expecting a big game from him. Yeah, I get that. I get that, but Brad, for me, like, I just always wait for, like, the big goal.

[01:05:09] Like, you're one of our top guys. You break us out of slumps. It's – you score first like you did today to get us going. Like, I just always expected more of that from Brad. Right now, I feel like if it's not Jack or Nico, and Nico hasn't been here, a lot of guys take a lot of time off. Bob, you – that is so absolutely 100% true on every level.

[01:05:36] All right, if it's not Jack and Nico, it's – look, I like Jesper Bratt a lot. But, Bobby, you're 100% right. Like, he – is there a more – I've said this to you guys before. I'll ask. Is there a more all sizzle and no stake player in the fucking NHL? A guy that wows you to death when he's coming through the neutral zone and puts on these great moves and spins. I was like, holy fuck. And then he shoots it wide. He shoots it in a goal. He shoots it. Never scores. Never finishes. It's like, great, dude.

[01:06:04] You know, you puck handle great. You're fast. But make some fucking plays. Put the team on your back sometimes. I go back to last year. We had Mercer – I mean, Heischer and Jack out of the lineup. You're the next dude up, man. Like, you should have said, all right, I'm going to put this team on my shoulders, me and Timo, and we're going to fucking win some games. He was invisible. And let's not even discuss two years ago in the playoffs when his only goal was an empty netter. All right?

[01:06:33] He was nowhere to be found again. So, I'm with you. You're talking about goals. He's not a goal scorer. Like, you're talking about – like, he's sixth in the league in assists. I feel like he's paid to be a goal scorer. Do you get that? Because he's not a goal – he's a playmaker. Like, he's an assist guy. Like, that's what he's always been. He'll put up maybe 25, 30 goals. That's not really, like, a goal scorer. That's my problem. Why is everybody hellbent on putting Jack and Brad together if they're both playmakers? Like, who the fuck's scoring for him?

[01:07:03] Yeah. I mean, you're playing with Jack Hughes. Your job is to score goals. I'm sorry. Half the season, he didn't play with Jack Hughes, though. Jack scores and Jesper scores. And that's the beauty of the two of them playing together is that they both can score at any given time. Like, that two-on-one that Bobby was just describing. Is Jack going to score? Is he going to shoot? Is he going to pass to Brad? I don't know. And that's going to throw the goalie off. That's why.

[01:07:26] They both can score, but they're both – we have a large – sorry, I'm arguing this because I would defend Jesper Brad to the death. But we have a large collection of volume shooters and passers that don't – that aren't like a pure shooting, shooting, shooting cycle. I get that. And we don't have that. And Brad's not that guy either. And I don't think that should be the expectation for him to be. That's what I guess I'm saying. This is the point that Bobby is making. Back to the point.

[01:07:56] I agree that it's Nico and Jack. Like, I have – I wouldn't be – Jesper – I mean, Jesper Brad could be traded this year, could be traded next year. Like, I see every single one of those guys other than those two being, like you said, a couple of the key young defensemen that wait and sees. I get that. But, like, anybody else on this team, if you trade, you trade. You know, if Fitzgerald believed or any GM believed it was going to make your team better, I'm not – I don't want to think – you think I hate Jesper Brad.

[01:08:25] But Jesper Brad does not perform as far as being a goal scorer. And when you are playing with Jack Hughes, I'm sorry. You've got to bury a lot more than what you do. And this is the interesting dynamic of this problem. We're talking about a guy who is one point under Jack Hughes for the team lead in points. Jack is 65. He's 64. It's not that he's not producing. And I do love Jesper Brad. I'm just saying – He hasn't gone more than two games without adding to the score sheet, without putting a point on the board.

[01:08:54] I get what he does. We all get what he does. Like, he needs to create goals. That's what he does. Like, against Vegas, like, the only goal we scored on the power play was because Jesper Brad dug the puck out, got the puck to Nays in. He's one of the best players on the team. I completely agree with you. But I'm saying – Was that? So what's the problem? The problem is that he does not score at the rate that he should. He is so freaking good.

[01:09:23] He makes these beautiful plays, everything like that. But he never buries the puck. And I understand what you're saying. He's not a goal scorer. Well, you know, you have tons of opportunities. Right. And it was the first one in 20-something games, like Bobby said. Jesper Brad cannot take 20 games off to fucking between scoring goals. It's just you get paid a lot of money on this team. It's just I don't care about the fucking assists. You don't fucking win games if you have, you know, the most assists. You have to score goals. This guy has to score and score clutch goals.

[01:09:52] And Jesper Brad doesn't do it enough. It's all my – If you get an assist, that means a goal was scored. Does it not? Of course it does. It does. But again, score clutch goals. But if his primary skill set is playmaking, then – Why is it – Nobody's scoring at the rate that we want. We're one of the most snake-bitten teams of all of our problems. Jesper Brad – How can you say that Jesper Brad is not a streaky goal scorer? Of course he is.

[01:10:22] Right. But he always has been. But he also doesn't make $12 million. That's fine. I like that. He makes seven inches. Look, if we want to – It makes almost eight million. So now, if Ottawa collapses and Brady Kachok suddenly becomes available, I will drive Brad to Ottawa. All right? I love how you just – You are defending your guys. It doesn't matter. It's like it doesn't matter what you're saying. You will defend. I like that. I appreciate that. Yeah, because I don't – Because I think that asking him –

[01:10:51] I just want you to admit, though. I just want you to admit that Jesper Brad does not score nearly as much as he should. But should he? But is that our expectation? Well, hang on. Hang on. Hang on. All right. We don't have time to go through all the numbers. We'll continue this argument later. You're going to sit there and you're going to like my fucking numbers. I know. Let's understand. Throw out his fucking numbers again. Throw out the numbers. Hang on. Hang on. Bobby, this is more your point. You should defend this more. Listen.

[01:11:22] Throw out the numbers. Anybody who watches the Devils. There are only a couple guys that don't seem to take four, five, six, seven games off all the time. That was my point. We are a better team with Jesper Brad. Jesper Brad is a great hockey player. He's only one point off the lead. I get it. I'm just saying the guy has literally been removed from the equation sometimes. I know he's got the assists. I get it. I know how it all works.

[01:11:51] I'm just saying sometimes, you know, tonight what he did is exactly what I'm talking about. Go out there. Get that first goal for us. Put the team going in the right direction. That's all I'm saying. Bury the puck more. We win more games if Jesper Brad scores more goals. It's very simple. And one thing I will admit is he is not the guy. Like you said last year when Jack got hurt. Like we needed Jesper to step up and he wasn't the guy. And like we needed him to. He was still getting points.

[01:12:20] But like he – I don't want to say he's a passenger because he's not. Because he is one of our drivers. He's not a driver. He's a driver. But he's not the guy. Right. But I don't necessarily think we need him to be the guy. He's still going to put up 90 points. I get that. Look, I absolutely – I'm saying clutch goals. Like he doesn't have that clutch gene at all.

[01:12:49] You know, I just don't see it in him. I want to. You know, let's get into the playoffs. Let's go overtime. And Jesper Brad is the guy, man. And I can see it happening. But up until now, he just doesn't seem to like have a clutch gene. He's a great little addition. You know, you can forget about him for three or four games, you know, because he doesn't really do a whole lot. And then one game he'll just be all over the place. He doesn't do a whole lot. He literally – Let me finish. He's all over the place. And you're like, wow, man, he played great.

[01:13:16] And then you look – well, he had secondary assists on a goal and, you know, should have scored four. But he didn't. He's just – he's not clutch. I'm with Bobby on this. I'm with it. We need more than – for Jesper – for this team to go where it needs to go, Jesper Brad has to score more fucking goals. It's that simple. I don't give a fuck about the assist. He's got to score more goals. Dude. Okay, so you won. Guys, this is cool. We've got like our first on-air fight in like three years. Oh, well, don't get – oh, now let's – now. Wait, hang on.

[01:13:48] Fucking talk about – You want to start talking about Dougie Hamilton? No, no, no, no, no. I don't want to get rid of Dougie Hamilton. Fuck, Dougie. I do want to discuss possibly. Look, Brad's career high in goals is 32 two years ago. He scored 27 last year when he set his career high in points, right? He also had 56 assists. This year he has 17 goals. That's on pace for about 25 goals, which is almost right on track of where he's been.

[01:14:14] The expectation for him to be a goal scorer shouldn't be the expectation because he's not a goal scorer. He's a playmaking assist guy. He's a six-round fucking draft pick. You're a hockey player and a stat guy, which I can appreciate. I love numbers and all that, but there's a lot of just regular fans out there who pretty much thought Jesper Bratt was brought in here to score goals. Like, I'm just saying, like, 30 should be his expectation. He's under that.

[01:14:43] I would like – I would like – I would like Brad to be a 30-60 guy. 30 goals, 60 assists. He's supposed to be. He's supposed to be 30-60. He's not even supposed to be in the NHL because he's a six-round pick. Stop. It doesn't matter. He's supposed to be a 30-60, 35-60. That's who he's supposed to be, and he's not. He doesn't score enough goals. And look, and I don't think that's a knock on Jesper Bratt. Timo Meier is the guy that's supposed to score enough goals. Yes. That's the guy that's supposed to score goals.

[01:15:13] And he's not. That's a good argument for me. Hey, well, how come – all right, all right. Let's just put it out here real quick, right? Since if Jesper Bratt is not here to score goals, if he's a playmaker, why isn't he ever shuffled down to the third line? Why is it always okay for Timo to be thrown down there in his expectations, but not a guy like Bratt? We put Bratt down the third line and we get a sniper for him. All he does is get assists. I mean, we need the bottom six to get working. Then put Bratt and Timo together. I was calling for Bratt. He was on the first line.

[01:15:41] I was calling for Bratt, Nico, and Timo to be put together. I'll do it. Bratt, Nico, Nico. Yeah, that's – didn't he do that right before the injury, right? That was the game in Boston where, yeah, those guys were together. And Jack was with Nason and Cotter, I think. Or no. And then – no, because Meyer was with Dowling and Mercer. I'm sorry. I got those missed out. Anyway, they played together. Meyer, Bratt, and Heischer.

[01:16:11] I don't think they have. Not this year. You know? Look, both those guys – I mean, I think that, yes, they do a lot of other stuff. But I think both those guys who we can categorize as devils that are supposed to be scoring a lot more fucking goals than they do. Absolutely.

[01:16:29] And I hope that they get unlocked when – and I think maybe bringing in some more skill, bringing in some other guys like we talk about, Brock Besser or Raquel or, you know, an Evans and putting those guys into the lineup. I think just some new faces. Some new skill sets. Some – I think this team is kind of – it's kind of getting old. I'm kind of tired. Yeah. What we did – We need to inject some light. It slowly happened over the past couple years.

[01:17:00] Losing Mick Gangbang and letting Boquist walk. We got slower in the bottom six. Yeah, we did get slower. We got a lot slower. And we sacrificed speed and some of that foot speed for size. And I think Fitz overcorrected a little bit that way without – and now he needs to kind of – you know, the pendulum swing needs – like 22, 23, we were small and fast. Last year, we were just a fucking hospital ward.

[01:17:28] Now, we're kind of big. We're big. We're actually one of the bigger teams in the league now. But we're kind of slower. So now we need to find that happy medium between the two. And that's what I meant about we have our core in place but the complementary pieces around it. I don't think have necessarily fit in the way they wanted to. You know, we also have a $6 million anchor skating with Jack and Brett. Yeah, let's – obviously, we got to end.

[01:17:53] I just realized something looking at the stats that I think we need to look deeper into next time because we've kind of talked about Timo Meier in two different ways. We've talked about loving the player and the type of element he brings to the game. And we've talked about his lack of production. I did not realize that this dude is sitting at 38 points after 56 games. He is an admirable plus 12. But he has 52 penalty minutes, which I know is part of his game. But we got to dive into this and see if that's actually helping or hurting us. Yeah, and it's –

[01:18:23] I mean, at 38 points for $9 million, it's not enough. It's not enough. The next pod. He's never had – he's never had – I think he's had one 70-plus point season and only one 40-goal season. So, we were paying for that. But we can also talk about just how outrageously snake-bitten he is. And I don't know if – He hits a post tonight. Like, he's already done. It's fucking unbelievable how many posts he hits.

[01:18:52] But, like, I get into kind of some of the money puck expected goals numbers. I know those are kind of a little hokey sometimes. And I know a lot of people don't like them. But they do kind of show what we were just talking about. How somehow this guy just is unlucky. Like, it's unbelievable. He's 18 points off a point-per-game pace. Yeah. But he's also – $10 million forward. This is a big problem. He also – like, watch him play. Watch where he shoots from. He gets, like, a shit ton of shots.

[01:19:22] But he shoots from, like, all kinds of weird angles. He does this, like, weird, like, spin shot from, like – Like, he'll come around behind the net up just above the goal line, just spin and shoot from, like, a really bad angle. Yeah. He does that all the time. Anyway, I know we spent 20 minutes already. I definitely do want to dive into Timo because that is very interesting. I think that we should do – next show, we should really discuss him because, yeah, it's not – I'm saying, you know, let's hope that –

[01:19:50] I'm hoping that he can bring – I saw a glimmer of what he can bring in the playoffs when he was only with this team for a very short period of time. I'm really hoping that he's that guy, you know. I don't want to compare, but I'm really hoping that he is a Claude Lemieux type of dude. And he seems like he could be, right, where, you know, his regular season may be not the most. But when Game 83 starts, he's a fucking animal and he's a completely different player.

[01:20:19] And I'm really hoping that that's Timo Meyer. But if he doesn't perform in the playoffs this year, I agree, we got a problem. Yeah. Long-term problem. So, anything else you guys want to say real quick before we wrap this fun little party up? This was Hardo. No, that's a good show. There is one stat about Timo that I can save for the next one when we can actually delve into him a little bit more. But we've already – it's Saturday night and it's 11.15. Yeah. So, we're going to go. Thank you guys so much.

[01:20:49] Thank you guys so much for checking us out. If you're watching on the YouTube channel, please subscribe. Leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you wherever you're listening. Like a five-star review, positive comment, download, subscription. Helps a little podcast that could. We're Tim and Bob. I'm Chris. We are the Uncle Puckers. We'll see you when we see you. Bye-bye. I'm right. He's wrong. Fuck you, Steve. It's over, Johnny. It's over.