WTF Guys??

[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! Man, you just cut off Tone mid-story telling us about these supernatural gummies that he took. No, I took two of these gummies my buddy gave me, but I was only supposed to take half, I guess, of one. So, you know, we'll see. It'll be okay.

[00:00:35] Like I said, those are famous last words right there. Yeah, but I don't like eating. I'm not a big gummy person, but, you know, it's very rare here to get them. But, like, I'm just – I don't know what it is. I'd rather smoke than do that. Just whatever you do, don't look at Chris's lizard-person eyes. Chris is always eating you. They're not bad. I do like my gummies. Don't focus on his eyes. I have my head like this. I like my gummies. I do. Do you smoke than others? Do I smoke at all? I just like the cart once in a while, you know.

[00:01:05] But you guys want to hear something crazy? Definitely. All right. Other than Jack Hughes and Luke Evangelista and Jesper Boquist, Igor Shosturkin has more goals than every other forward on the Devils. Yeah. Well, Timor should have one. I'll say this. Actually, Igor Shosturkin has equal or more goals than everybody on the Devils –

[00:01:33] every forward on the Devils other than Luke Evangelista. I think he'd be the – I think he'd be, like, the second-leading scorer on our team. Yeah. He would be. He'd be tied for second. Yeah, the Devils have not held a lead yet this season. Nope. Have not had a lead. Not for one second. No. And the fact that they managed to get a dub out of one of those games is a little insane.

[00:02:02] It's starting to kind of look like the Flyers might be, like, special kind of bad. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Tom? It's funny you guys mentioned that goal, you know, for Shosturkin, because usually I would always go – how do you not go watch a goalie score a goal? I just – it's the Rangers. I just – I have not watched it. I did not even watch the video. I heard about it, of course, you know, that next morning. But, yeah. I saw it on the fly, like, on the fly quite a bit. Like, I keep it on in the morning while I'm, like, getting ready and shit.

[00:02:31] So, you know, I saw it, like, a million times. But, hey, good for him. Whatever. Fuck them. I mean, I guess we just got to talk a little bit about last night's game against Utah. And I'll open it up with what I named the show. Like, what the fuck, guys? Seriously. What the fuck? I'm talking to them, not us. But I'm asking you. I fell asleep in the second period. I, you know, I was pissed about it at first. But now I'm glad I didn't stay awake all night for that.

[00:03:01] Yeah. You know, it's – I think two things can be true. It's – this is a pretty concerning way to start just by the way they've looked at things or the way they've looked. And it's not looking nice. It's not looking good. It's looking pretty sloppy. It's looking pretty soft. All the concerns that we had about things potentially being bad are bad and, like, bad in a really bad way. However, it's only three games into this season.

[00:03:31] And, you know, the best season in our recent history, they started one and two also. You know, they had two terrible fucking games to start, if you remember. So I'm not going to throw them out the window just yet. But there are some serious red flags about shit that's happened with this team. It has not looked good by any means in the last two games. And last night – and, like, apologies for missing the last show. I just got stuck in horrible traffic and then got home and found out – Don't apologize to us.

[00:04:01] Apologize to the millions and millions of listeners that tuned in to only be disappointed to see Tony and I. I was the backup quarterback, and it was – The backup quarterback came in, and it was a little Tom Brady-ish. I got to say there, Drew. I got to say, it was a little Tom Brady-ish. You better walk – I'm going to pull J.J. McCartney. He didn't pull anything. He's not going to be on IR for four to six weeks.

[00:04:29] So this is me resigning from the Uncle Puckers because these guys are poopy and mean to me. I have no stats, Tim. You're that guy. I hope you don't think I'm just, like, a stats guy. Like, I don't understand what I'm saying. You're just our stat guy. That's it. I think statistics help contextualize what you're seeing because you can say all kinds of crazy-ass numbers and be like this, that, and the other thing.

[00:04:55] But if you don't know how that compares to is that a good number or a bad number or a mediocre number, I think they are very useful for comparative analysis.

[00:05:35] Absolutely. Let me ask you guys. Look at this fucking nerd. This fucking guy and his numbers. What's four? What are we talking about? What webpage do we write for, Tim? What? Advertisement time. I have to ask. Yeah, there's a piece of me.

[00:05:55] It's a small piece right now that's saying it's only three games because my concern is so much greater because of what we've seen in the past. It's just it looks exactly like it did last year. And this was supposed to be different. And, of course, you automatically have, you know, it's that, you know, abusive relationship, right? Like, I want to love them.

[00:06:25] I want to, but I'm so afraid they're just going to hurt me again. So, like, I'm pulling back and I'm kind of just at that point right now. Like, something has to fucking change because it's just right now. I know it's only three games, but this is bad. And this looks bad. And I'm, like, sitting there last night after the game. I'm, like, I don't know. Do we have a goaltending? Do we have a good head coach? Are our forwards? Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry. No, just like, do we have the right line?

[00:06:53] Now, the line, I know that Keith changed it up and I was super happy to see Gritz get it on Jack and Brad's line for the third period. And that might help unlock a little bit of everybody, you know, even Manta. I think Manta might have been trying a little bit too hard on that line. And, you know, maybe he needs to settle in just kind of play hockey and not worry about what Jack and Brad are doing and maybe putting him on that third line is the right thing. Keep Gritz on the second. But that's not the kind of changes I'm talking about.

[00:07:22] I'm talking about, like, systemic changes to this team. Something I believe has got to be done. Yeah. I mean, so I think a couple things may or may not be happening. And, you know, their first game, they looked great. They were engaged. They were all over the puck, you know, on every facet of the game. And, you know, some of that may have been the Flyers. Some of them may not have been. But then I think they kind of sat on their laurels a little bit.

[00:07:50] And it's just something that we've talked about with this team over and over again is today the mental makeup to kind of to get over their issues and right the ship. And we haven't seen that everyone yet. But, you know, and that's why they kind of reinforced some of their leadership group and brought in guys like Connor Brown and brought in guys like Erod to be able to help them get over this hump because they are still kind of a youngish leadership group.

[00:08:17] But, like, Nico Heischer has zero points. Jesper Bratt has one. You know, Jack Hughes has two. Dawson Mercer looked terrible last night. Dawson Mercer looks terrible. Jack was invisible last night. Yep. Invisible. You know, actually, no, he was very visible in a terrible way because the power play is so awful. And that runs through him. And they're one for 14 on the power play. Like, we took a five on three for fuck's sakes. Yes, exactly.

[00:08:44] And a shitty deflection that was kind of like an oopsies. Yeah. It was a bad shot selection that he got lucky on. It's just they were playing so well and getting back to that rush-based identity that they're kind of trying to force that so much where it's like sometimes you have to take the chip and chase. You know, if a team's going to, and it's the same problem that this team has always had, is that they try and force something when they don't take what the game gives them.

[00:09:13] You know, they're going to continue to try and force and force and force the rush. But if, like, it's not working for you, if you're a little bit off, you've got to do things a different way. And you've got to get to a B game. You've got to get to a C game and try things a different way. And it's pretty emblematic that that's how they scored on the power play because that was them getting to a B version of a power play or the C version of the power play where they're not going to snap it around in a beautiful way like Utah does. It's like, holy shit, their power play looks gorgeous.

[00:09:40] But if they're not going to do that, then throw pucks at the net and good things will happen. And that's what happened. So it's just like, it's been incredibly frustrating to watch this team the last two games. And our stars need to be stars, and they just have not been. I mean, look, Luke's been the better Hughes on the ice since, you know, Luke's played great. Luke's been our best player. And that's a problem in and of itself because he needs to be, like, our third or fourth best player.

[00:10:05] I do have a, I don't know, the axe of grind or whatever, but I'm done. Last night, I was talking a little bit about this with Mike DiCaro this morning. And so you go back to the third period, late in the third, goalies pulled. That is a goal. Timo Meier scored the goal. I don't know why, and I didn't even think about this, but Mike DiCaro made a good point.

[00:10:31] Like, why did the, like, we're at home, and our goal judge didn't put the light on. Like, that would have probably stood or at least been a lot more difficult to go call no goal if that light is on and the fans are cheering. And, you know, now you have to go and review it and whatever. The fact that Sheldon Keefe did not challenge that play really pisses me off. It does, I don't care if you thought that, you know, maybe we don't win and we get a penalty. Like, who cares at that point?

[00:11:00] Like, you have to show a little fire and not just bend over and take it. And that's what we did. And that's what he did. And that's a big reason. Like, I'm done with him. I don't think he's a good fucking coach for this team. So I don't want him here. It's a microcosm of this whole team. It's just they just bend over and take it. Yeah. Metalander, real quick, yes. Luke's turnover did create that third Utah goal. Luke played very good. The team, you're going to have mistakes. And, yeah, Luke did have one mistake.

[00:11:30] But in a season so far that he's played very, very well. So I'm not going to shit on him over every little mistake. And he's, yeah, like every mistake he makes isn't going to be a referendum. Like, I think, yeah, he made a mistake. But it's also the point that, like, he realizes he's the only one that's fucking doing anything. And when that happens, and Jack does this too. We've seen Jack do this all the time where he's trying to force something to happen. And that's when he gets into turnovers and gets himself into issues.

[00:11:58] He tries to stick handle through four guys. You know, Luke's trying to do the same thing. And he probably should have taken the pass to the right wing boards as opposed to trying to float a backhander to Jack. Because Nick Schmaltz was right there. It was a world-class pain in the ass. But we got beaten by a better team. The intent to blow the whistle thing. Like, how many other, like, professions are there in the world where he could be like, eh, I meant to do that. So we're just going to kind of call it that.

[00:12:27] I was just about to do that. You know, like, I meant to get a blowjob yesterday. But it didn't happen. No. So, like, what the fuck? It is the, it's a dumb rule. But the fact that Sheldon Keefe did not challenge it just says something to me about him. Why? Why do you not challenge it? It makes no sense. The goal would have stood. It was a good fucking goal. I don't care about intent or whatever. Like, the goal light should have been on. And Keefe should have challenged it. And then you got the fans are riled up. Everybody's going crazy.

[00:12:57] Still got, like, a minute and a half left. Goalie pulled. All the momentum. Maybe he's going to get a point out of that game. I don't know. But you've got to fucking challenge it. Yeah. You've got to do something. Look, it wouldn't have mattered probably anyway. Like, we were doing our fake comeback thing, you know, where, you know. But you have to play to win the game, man. You've got to try it. Like, you have to take the chance. To me, it made no sense not to do it. Okay. Yeah.

[00:13:26] And that's why I think bring Torts in. Bring in Torts. Is he, is Torts the only guy that's, like, I'm with the Torts idea. And I've said this before. Like, I love the idea of Torts because he has a unique talent in sniffing out the soft pussies. And if that's everybody, great. You know, but, like, it's kind of like we said with Fitzgerald. It's like, let's bring in some fresh eyes to look at this team in a different way. Even if it's just a change to make a change.

[00:13:55] It's the easiest, no cost, no assets, doesn't cost anything type of change. But I just, I don't think they're going to do that. But, um, so, uh, we're going to actually reach out to the PR guy at the Devils to see if Sonny Mehta will actually come on this podcast. It would be fucking hilarious if he actually did. But, um, because he's in the rounds. He's, he's, he's gone on, like, basically every other Devils podcast. So, we'll see.

[00:14:24] It'll be, it'll be fun. I don't know. I don't know if they'll listen to us and be like, absolutely fucking not. Probably. Every other Devil podcast, I have to say. And they do, everyone kind of takes themselves a little seriously. We do not. So, this would be a completely different forum for him to get in. Like, you know, we, we're not the most, uh. We've had professionals on too. We had Jim Dowd on. But you can talk a certain way to pros. And, you know, like, we talk locker room kind of talk most of the time.

[00:14:53] And that's what these guys are used to is Sonny, you know. But I, but I think, like, you know, the two of you can talk to him about music. Yeah, I mean, the two of you can talk to him about music for the most part. Like, that's kind of the interview that I think we would probably want to do is talk to him about music. And I'll, I'll ask him where he played growing up as a kid. You know, you can ask him what coffee shop he's going to do, like, uh, going to show up at or show up at with a guitar. Look, all we can do is ask. Right? Yeah. That's it. All we can do is ask. So we're going to ask.

[00:15:21] That was the Gene Simmons theory, wasn't it? You ask the 100 women to sleep with you and someone's going to say yes. I think that's what was this thing I read in the interview. Well, when you look like him, you have to ask 100 people to get one. Gross. But, but so Tony, you have said now going on four years that you think this team needs John Tortorella and you think this team needs some serious sandpaper. Yeah.

[00:15:48] And I think with, I think with Tortorella, I think it would, a lot of shit would probably go down by the end of the season, but probably maybe some shit that has to go down. You know, there might be some moves and some, you know, he's not a long-term coach as we all know. Eventually it burns out, you know? I think we have some talent. I think he can, you know, you know, push it. But I think the big, the goal tending, man.

[00:16:13] I mean, it's, you know, that's the, until that's, until we figure that out, that is going to be a thing, man. I don't, I just. Seven says that he could not have challenged the last goal based on the intent to blow the whistle rule. It's not challengeable. I didn't know that. If it's not a challengeable call, then it's not a challengeable call. Which is, I just, that's. Then he should have. A ref can be like, oops, my bad. I meant to do it, but I just didn't. Like the, like nobody, nobody on the ice had stopped playing.

[00:16:42] Then, then, then you do a Robbie Futura. Mike DiCaro said this, right? Pick the bench up and throw it on the fucking ice at that point. Do you know they bolt the benches down now? So it would have been great watching them try to lift the fucking thing. That fat fucking meatball would probably have an aimer as I'm trying to pick the coach. Sheldon keeps on fucking IR. That top button on his necktie is already about to explode as it is. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think a guy like towards. So, so.

[00:17:12] So anyway, Sonny. What's up? Somebody did say that Sonny, everybody softballs Sonny, Mehta, and Keefe break the mold. We would definitely ask them some tough hockey questions. Like, no doubt. Like, we have, we have no problem. We have, we have to go. If he does say yes, we'd have to go into it that this is probably going to be the only time we're ever going to get a chance to talk to the guy. Yeah. Because when we're done, he probably isn't coming back. I'm not going to, we're not going to like, you know, grill him on, on shit. No, no. Like, you know, I mean, we're, we're part of a devil's ecosystem. I think we'd have to handle it respectfully.

[00:17:41] But we're never rude. We're just. Well, so there's, there's an off chance depending on where he played youth hockey that he, because we're the same age. So like, there's an off chance that we played against each other at some point when we were like kids. Ooh, there you go. Use that as the end. That's an intro. And then you guys can talk about music with him. And then I'll ask him what his baseline for player evaluations and where he starts is. Like. Why? We don't need Sonny. We have the interview right here. We already know all the questions.

[00:18:13] Let's just, let's just submit this, submit these in, in right. In like video form, just send them an interview, just send them like this clip and just send it to the PR. Please answer and send back. There's our interview. So. So, so back to the devil's like, look, and Tony, I know you, I heard you guys on the last show about goaltending. Like Nico Dawes hasn't really shown any particular reason why we should. Stooks. Keep, keep giving, keep giving him stars.

[00:18:39] But, and Alan wasn't exactly great last night. Like he was fine against, against the Flyers, but I, you know, I think you guys hit the nail on the head that, that we also have like a pretty skewed perspective on the goaltending position based on, based on our fandom history with the devils. It's just like, it's hard to kind of wrap your brain around money balling the goalies when we, when we grew up with, with one goalie, basically the entire time.

[00:19:06] Like the easiest job in the world was Marty's backup goalie, just as it's like the third string quarterback, you know? Well, did you guys watch the game on the devil's feed last night? Yeah. Okay. So you saw the, the Cadillac trivia question. Yeah. Was. So I'm, I, I got Chris Terraria. That was it. Like, I honestly could not remember another goalie starting a playoff game other than Terraria at the Boston garden. That.

[00:19:35] Was it starting or played in a game? Cause I think Marty might've. Maybe it was, maybe it was played in a game. Right. Cause it was, it was Terraria Schwab. Those are the. Hedberg. And. Who the fuck was the other one? Clementson. Beezer. Didn't he? Scott Clementson. Clementson. Clementson. Oh yeah. So, and I don't remember any of those guys ever playing a playoff game. But you said like, it probably wasn't relief at some point. Right. I didn't even think about that.

[00:20:02] So, so like I, you know, I agree that I think the goaltending has been an issue, but I, I think. I still agree with the concept that they need to fix the play in front of the goaltender first. And a guy that I keep coming back to, it's like, it's like ever since Brad Shaw has been brought in to coach the defense, like the PK has gotten noticeably worse. Like the defensive zone systems and structure is fucking awful. Like they're not defending the rush at all very well.

[00:20:31] Like our, our defense and our defensive play in the D zone has gotten noticeably worse under this guy. Like I thought he was supposed to be some, some defensive whisperer. So like if they don't want to go through the extreme of firing, firing Keith just yet, like get rid of Brad Shaw. Like what the fuck does this guy do around here? Is he your mush? Is he your one mush on this team?

[00:20:53] He's the guy that like, I'd look at right now and be like, he's the most easily expendable message that can be sent to this team and say, let's just get rid of this fucking guy. Like, what does he do? Unfortunately, I, I agree with that, but the sentiment, but I don't think that that is like, that's too easy. Like, but I'm talking three games into the season. If they need to send a message and do something extreme, I don't think they're going to do anything extreme. I just, I just think it's too early in the season.

[00:21:22] I know people are calling for people's heads and stuff like that, but. But if you, if you fired Keith three games into the season, like that would send a fucking message. Like that would send a fucking message. And to be honest today, would it be the day that do it because they have four days or so to prepare for Saturday? Yeah.

[00:21:42] And Tortorella kind of did this in Vegas where, where he basically said, I didn't change anything with how the team played and the systems and structures and stuff. I just, you know, I just kind of let them play within that. But, but I think from a motivational perspective and from the, his ability to, to sniff out who's a weak link is, is an extremely important thing. Cause I think Keith doesn't have that ability. I don't know.

[00:22:11] Like, I mean, Keith really hasn't shown us shit. Um, you know, they, they, we barely made it into the playoffs this first year. And then last year was last year. And this year so far has been the same. Uh, my mush though is Don LaGreca. Like since this dude joined this team, we've really gone South. So I think like, I understand you don't want to do something too extreme and get the guys too upset and fire Don LaGreca. I understand that. Talking with the players. No, I'm just saying, I'm watching this, watching this game last night.

[00:22:40] I'm like, this guy has called more fucking losses than anybody else right now. I think in devil history as far, well, since maybe 95, you know, he, he, yeah, last night he did the same thing. He's done it in two games in a row where he's like, Luke comes down to left wing boards. He scored twice on opening night. It's like, yeah, yeah. No, he didn't. What are you talking about, man? No, he didn't. Stop saying that. Yeah. He gets easily confused. Absolutely. He's just a liar.

[00:23:10] So what other coaches are out there? He's a fucking liar. What other coaches are out there? You got Cassidy, right? He's still sitting at home. Is he still sitting at home? I think so. I guess he is. I mean, Pete DeBoer was the move. Like he would have been a guy. I liked him already. Yeah. I always liked him. And, you know, the Islanders were smart to fire a lot early knowing full well, like somebody's going to pick him up. And that's what I said on the last show. Like Torch is going to coach somewhere this year.

[00:23:39] You know, somebody is going to hire John Tortorella. You might wait halfway through the season or, you know. Right. And somebody will get that push and they'll end up probably a better team for it. And it could have been us. The other guy, who else is out there? I mean, is Woodcroft out there? There's a variety of like assistant coaches. Like I think Woodcroft is an assistant. Yeah, he's in Anaheim. Yeah. I think so.

[00:24:06] So I was trying to get, and pardon me for using AI to answer this question, but I feel like it's the best way to do it. Oh, yeah. The other thing about Don, or was it Dano, I think, was telling a Chris Terreri story right in the middle of Luke Evangelista's second goal. We didn't get the end of the story. He was like, oh, he's playing for Providence against BC and they score. And it's kind of like, all right.

[00:24:33] I think he was just going on about how the record that he was so good at the Boston Garden, which is why we gave him the starts in 94 and 95. 95, he actually started this series. That was our first round against Boston. And I'm like 99% sure of this, but wasn't the size of the ice in Boston Garden just a little bit smaller than every other rank at the time? So, yeah. So like for some reason, Terreri always played well there.

[00:24:57] And we started 95 against Boston and our goalie, you know, Brodeur, who won like fucking whatever 40 plus games that year, is not starting. Oh, no, 95 was a shortened year. So he doesn't start the playoffs. Terreri does. He's got both the wins and we end up sweeping Boston on our way to our first Stanley Cup. So, you know, it's a dub saying it ain't the coach boys. It's the core coaches, staff, people bottom and enroll players, goalies.

[00:25:24] How many times are they going to make changes before they admit that what the problem is? It's time. Okay. If we want to open that can of worms, we can. And I'll ask this. At what point do you give it the whole year before what Dubbs is saying, we start to have no other option than buying it? Is the core not the right fit? Is this not a core that can win? Either.

[00:25:53] Even if it's not right, I think you can't do it three games in. Oh, no. No. You know, I mean, you have to. I mean, I get it. I mean, but I think it's, you know, you can't do it three games in. Because, again, what if they go bang out like six in a row? You know, we won't be talking about this. We got to hope this is the beginning, you know, getting their feet wet or whatever. I mean, yeah, they've been basically no-shows for the first three games, but it's three games.

[00:26:18] You know, like if Jack wants to clock 100 points, he's going to have to do a little better than what he's doing right now. Yeah. You know, like I get it. It hasn't been three years, though, because Jack's been dead for fucking three of them. You know, like I don't know. You kind of have to go into this season with a little bit of fresh eyes. It's not fair. I'm probably the most guilty of it. Like because of the last couple of years that this is just – I have no appetite for it.

[00:26:48] But Dubs isn't 100% wrong, though, I don't think. He's not 100% wrong at all. Again, it's two things can be true. It's like, no, they haven't done anything, but nobody has until they do. But who scored the goals last night? All the new guys. Evangelista and Boquist. Yeah. So those guys aren't devils over the summer and we shut out again? Like, I don't know. Like when our only goal scoring has come from defensemen and our two new guys, that does say something.

[00:27:18] I thought Timo played a great game last night. I thought Timo was everywhere last night. He's our best forward. You know, like look, he took two penalties, but you kind of want him to play on that edge. And the second penalty was a bit of a phantom trip, I think. But like that's – He also drew one. Yeah, no, he drew a couple of them. Yeah. So here's the – I have a kind of larger point that I wanted to make about Timo.

[00:27:47] And I kind of want him to play on the edge, but that Marino penalty. So like when you – it's a stick issue, which is a detail issue, which is a lacy play issue. It's like he had his stick in Marino's feet and that's getting called 99 times out of 100. Like you can't do that. And that's kind of really emblematic of a lot of the mental mistakes that this team continues to make. Like, you know, the Luke turnover on the last goal. Like that's a mistake that can't happen.

[00:28:17] Dylan on the penalty kill, like going – chasing Gunther up into no man's land and letting Schmaltz sit around behind him. You know, it's – it's Amos – Siegenthaler and Amadeus Lombardi on the goal right before the end of the second period where Siegenthaler passes it into the slot into no man's land. And Lombardi needs to cover for him, but his controller turns off on the back check.

[00:28:40] And then they get a shot off, the rebound comes out, and Lombardi takes this huge circle of a route and lets Schmaltz basically cut across him and walk right back in. It's just, you know, Allen not – you know, when he's flailing around on the ground, Allen's got to just stop moving and don't let the puck kind of potentially ricochet off you and in, which he did fucking twice.

[00:29:03] So it's all these problems rolling up into one, and, you know, I think there is a bit of a player problem, but there is also a coaching problem. Like that is they're not being held accountable. No, I think that – look, I think you make that coaching move before you do anything with the core because we do know that we have a lot of really good players.

[00:29:28] This team should not be bad, and maybe it is just, you know, it's a mental effort, all of that. But the coach, to me, that's the first thing that, like we said before, right, the easiest thing to change. You can just, you know, one guy out, one guy in, gets his message across, teams, you know, hopefully buys in and starts playing better. I think you kind of have to start there if this continues.

[00:29:55] And I don't know when my kind of levy would break here and say, okay, I'm completely fucking done. Like it is only three games. But, like, if we play another three and we go 0-3 in the next – so Vancouver beats us on four days rest and all the other bullshit that, you know, we have going for us. Like then it's just like, yeah, something then maybe has to change. We can't get too far behind this one. Got to start winning some fucking games and getting some points.

[00:30:23] And, yeah, I mean, it's just – it's so difficult to, like, just swallow. We all drank the fucking Kool-Aid over the summer, right? Like we all were like, this time it's going to be different. Tony, no, not so much you. You were saying from the beginning. Maybe I don't want to say I didn't, but I don't think I did. The gummies just kicked in. I'm not sure what you were saying. I think I didn't. I was kind of skeptical. I mean, you know. You were definitely skeptical about the goaltending. I asked my – that was one.

[00:30:52] Yeah, you were big on that. Do we start the new kid or do we put Remy in against Vancouver? No, they're probably going to go back. Well, they won't, but why not? But they won't. I think they should. I think they should give them a look too. And I think there might be a little bit of a disconnect between Keefe and Sonny on that. But, like, when, you know, when it looked like they were going in with Riddich as, like, the third goalie,

[00:31:21] and then they sent him down and picked this kid up on waivers because of the new waiver rules, he has to stay up. Like, they couldn't immediately have sent him down. So, I think Keefe made some comments about how – basically dismissing the fact that this kid was here. Kind of like, I don't even know why the fuck this guy is here. Really? I didn't hear that.

[00:31:47] I'm paraphrasing, and I'm probably paraphrasing badly, but he was like – he's kind of like, no, we're going to go with Dawes and Allen. Like, those are our guys. So, I don't think this kid's going to see the light of day. So, Mike Ruff is saying the issues we have can be fixed easily. Okay. So, what's the easy fix, Mike? Curious. So, nope, Tim's back. Tim's gone? Yeah, I was frozen. Sorry, I just ducked out, ducked back in. I don't know.

[00:32:17] I mean, it's just – again, I'm just frustrated. It's frustrating, and it's easy to call out individual players. Like, I think Dylan is absolutely fucking cooked as an NHL hockey player. He played so bad last year. I think Jonas Siegenthaler is fucking a terrible hockey player. I think Dougie is finally, to my eyes – I know everybody else saw it, but, like, to my eyes, finally looks fucking cooked. You know, Chisholm hasn't worked out great. Manta, I don't know what the fuck that guy's doing. You know, even Erod, you know, has been okay.

[00:32:46] But, like, you know, I haven't seen all that much from him. Like, Glass barely noticed that guy. Lombardi – I thought the Glass line played pretty good last night. Yeah. You know, the Boatwish Glass line. Gritz has no goals. Nico has no goals. Brad has one point. Jack has two points. Nico has no points. Yeah. It's just kind of like it's sort of up and down this vaunted forward core. What was supposed to be our strength is not a strength right now.

[00:33:14] And what were thought to be weaknesses are very, very big weaknesses. So these motherfuckers need to get their shit together, look in the mirror, and figure this fucking thing out before it really starts going south. Because it could go south. If they lose to Vancouver, that stone is really going to start rolling fast down the hill. Yeah. They lose to Vancouver. That's something – Sonny has to do something. You know, you cannot let this thing go any further. You've got to start winning some fucking games and getting some points.

[00:33:44] Yeah. I mean, definitely. Again, hopefully they'll turn this around. Hopefully it's just the beginning. I know it's – I said it last one. It's only two games in. But it's only three games in. It still sounds kind of practical to think that way. Yeah. There's 81 games left. Goal tending is a problem. And we know this. I mean, there's no – there's no way around it at the end of the day. But we know goal tending can get better. Defense in front of these guys can play better. If they go into Vancouver – well, it's here. But they play the game on Saturday and put five or six up and, you know, that can get them rolling.

[00:34:13] But if they are still struggling to find offense and, you know, getting down two goals by the second period and things like that because this is a different team when it has to lead. They don't have the mental fortitude to come back. And I thought last night was going to be different. I really fucking did. When I saw Timo's goal, like, that is – this is going to – we're going to get a point out of this at least. And, you know, again, it's that last goal that Allen lets in.

[00:34:42] Like, we need that save, dude. We need that save. That's the one. And, yeah, it's just not working out. And Vancouver – Yeah, but – Vancouver's going to put up a fight. We're talking about that Allen save, but, like, in that – when Dylan got his two-minute roughing penalty for, you know, the fight, which is fucking ridiculous, man. It's like, why does Dylan get that penalty? Like, it's another thing. You know, that's something – and another thing.

[00:35:12] But Dylan didn't even drop his gloves first. So you're telling me the fact that he skated over to the guy was enough for an instigator? Because that's all he did was skate over to him. And McBain dropped his gloves first. I thought that was the instigator rule. Like, I don't know. My eyes, yes. It's fucking ridiculous. Look, and I appreciate Dylan standing up for – Chisholm got fucking buried behind the net. But I appreciate Dylan standing up for him. But with Siegenthaler just going down, it's like by putting yourself in the box for five minutes,

[00:35:42] like that leaves us with 4D, one of which is Declan Chisholm and one of them, which is Dougie Hamilton. It's like no fucking thing. I'm going to defend Dylan on this part when McBain – well, sort of defend him. When McBain dropped his gloves, you could see Dylan was like, fuck. Like, he didn't want it. And at that point, he should have just turned around and walked away and let McBain take the penalties. But he's Brendan Dillon. So you could tell, though, he did not want that fight. There wasn't a reason to have one. All he did was skate up to the guy. He might have pushed him a little bit.

[00:36:13] Why are these guys doing standings talk? What are we talking about? Why are these guys doing standings talk? It's like – Why? What are they saying? I don't know. Mike Ruff was saying they're going to be 10 points out by Saturday. It's like, well, yeah, because the Rangers have played 40% more games than we have. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, the game's in hand. Look, it's going to – let's get through October and see where this team stands. That's still plenty of time, but it just has to look better. Yeah.

[00:36:42] No, I get it's a roughing penalty, but I think that roughing penalty is the sort of placeholder for what was historically the instigator. Right. I think that's what it is. It's sort of a proxy. Yeah, we're going to have to win the games in hand. Absolutely, dude. We have to. Thank you.

[00:37:00] You know, I'm doom and gloom when I'm watching the game, and then when they play that bad, I barely even watch, like, listen to, like, I won't even put, like, NFL, NHL network on, like, XM and stuff, because, like, I don't want to hear it if the Rangers are doing good and we're doing bad. Like, it sucks that we have to come on and talk about it, how bad we're doing on this show. Like, I can't listen to it anywhere else. But this month is brutal.

[00:37:26] And if they don't get their shit together by the end of this month, they can be, there is plenty, like, again, plenty of time. But you don't want to spend the rest of this season playing fucking catch up and trying not to fucking make mistakes. There are 82 games in the season, right? Or were. And we give up, we've given up the first goal in probably about 50 to 55 of those games.

[00:37:53] How many times when we actually do score first, which leaves about 30 of them, we probably score second, so we go up 2-0, probably about 10, 15 times. Like, so over the past two seasons, we've had a 2-0 lead, what, 30 times, maybe? Yeah. In 180-something games. Just like, I don't know.

[00:38:15] It's just like this, it's why I kind of, you know, we, I still question Keefe and I hate to continue to question the coaching, but it's like, why aren't you ready to play? Why don't you ever, ever score first? Like, why don't you ever fucking score in the first period? Like, why can't you fucking get a lead? Torts isn't putting up with it. I think you need that fire behind the bench. Keefe is not the guy.

[00:38:42] And that's why I'm going to stand on the, we're going to die on the Torts Hill right now. I'm absolutely in Tony's corner on this one. I think we need John Tortorella. I just think we need someone that can fucking get these guys to play harder. You know, like, everything was just so fucking soft. Like, everything was so soft, like, against Utah. Yeah.

[00:39:06] Like, it's just bad routes and not stopping and starting and taking big looping circles and just kind of, you know, not, not taking straight lines to the puck. It's just like, you know, peeling off of guys, you know, finish your hits, fucking take straight lines, stop and start, get on guys quicker. That's, and they've said all this themselves. They said, this is what we're going to do. This is the type of team we're going to be. And then they don't fucking do it.

[00:39:34] That's the other thing that aggravates me is after every game, like, I'm so tired of hearing these guys say the same fucking things. Like, I want somebody to be pissed off. Just straight up fucking pissed off. And say it to the press. You know, say it to the media. Like, this is unacceptable. We cannot play like this. This is bullshit. No, yeah, you know, we got, we got to try a little harder. And, you know, they had some blah, blah, blah. And we didn't blah, blah. Shit, shut up.

[00:40:03] It's always the same fucking shit. The same excuses for how they play this bad. It's, the fan base has no fucking appetite for it. None. Yeah. I disagree about that being Euro hockey. Like, the Finns and the Swedes are pretty, pretty tough on pucks. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. I don't know what they're, again, I don't know what Keith is preaching in the dressing room.

[00:40:31] And I have no idea. But I don't like him. I don't think he's doing a good job at all. I don't like his fat fucking head and his fat face. Get some bigger shirts, you tough bitch. Brad saying he's pissed off is like Trump saying he's ending the war. Yeah. Basically, yeah. It's all lies. Honestly, yeah. It's just like they did all that. They said, like, we're all pissed off. We're so pissed off. It's like, cool. Prove it. Like, fucking show me, man. Prove it. Yeah.

[00:41:01] So, yeah. So now we got to wait until fucking Saturday to get this bad taste out of our mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully. You have to expect they got to come out there fucking wanting to get it done. You think? I agree. How you feeling, John? Definitely going to bet a mortgage payment on all that. Good, man. I'm beat, too. Obviously, I'm pretty beat. But I was a long day today. Long day. I actually watched Texas Chainsaw with the wife, the original, you know, with her today, which I haven't watched that in about a year. But the movie is just still great, man.

[00:41:30] The movie is, you know, but, you know, my wife is like 10 years younger. So to her, some of these movies, these older ones, she's not totally impressed. I'm like, what are you like? How does this not get you? And she's just like, oh, no, it's cool. But I like the CGI shit, which I can't stand it. You know, I'm all into the old monsters and puppets and all that stuff. So what else are you watching? I don't know. I mean, to be honest with you, like, we've watched like The Reef Company and like Seinfeld.

[00:41:59] And yeah, it's pretty much like whatever the kids are watching, what they're watching. What are the girls dressing up for Halloween as? They're like these pop demons or demon pops. It's like this purple hair. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes, I've seen them. So they already have these little outfits and they're running around the room. And they're really, my daughter's in chorus now, my older one. She's at seven. But they're both like, you know, they play drums now. We got the drums here and stuff. And they're so into music.

[00:42:29] And my daughter today, man, she, my wife got home. She's like, listen to this. And my daughter, Samantha, got in front of the TV. She put on like Tiffany, like this eternal flame, right? That's Tiffany. No, that's the Bengals. No, the Bengals. No, okay. Well, they put this on and my daughter starts singing it. And I was like, wow, man. And she like knows, you know, it's weird. It's just crazy to me to hear her like Bowie. She put on David Bowie, my little seven-year-old's like singing the songs along. It's like his trip, man.

[00:42:57] You know, but now they're asking to go to the concert. This is the problem. My youngest daughter likes Michael Jackson. She's like, I want to go see Michael Jackson. I'm like, I'm like, she's like, I want to go see Ozzy Osbourne. I'm like, they don't realize that everybody they like is dead because I haven't told them that, you know? I'm like, they love David Bowie. They have no idea. Tom Petty, they like. They have no idea. Like the whole catalog is expired, you know? Right. It sucks, man. Because now they're asking for that. Like my daughter this year, she's like, I want to go see Tom Petty. I want to see Michael Jackson.

[00:43:26] I was like, you know, here's YouTube. So you have not told them? No, we don't tell them. Now they know what death is because like it's a big thing around our house because they're so little. Like, you know, it's seven and five. But now they figured out what it is. And I'll always say to me all the time, daddy, I don't want you to be dead. I'm just like, we'll be out at the store. And they'll say that. I'm like, I don't want to be dead either. Yeah. I'm like, no, it's going to be cool. But they caught on to that. So, you know, these kids, man, my wife says when she takes them to school, you hear the conversations they have amongst each other.

[00:43:55] It's insane. Like they're like little people with these crazy little minds, you know? Yeah, I know. I know. Yours is traveling. Mine is heading to your neck of the woods next week. It's Sunday. He is flying out to Europe. Yeah. I'm a nervous wreck, but he's going to have a blast. He'll love it, dude. Yeah. What are you doing over there, Tim? Responding to someone on Twitter. Are you fighting again? Are you fighting again? I blocked that fucking loser. I was tired of it.

[00:44:27] No, just tell someone. People still are like, put Timo Mayer right wing. It's like, are you fucking kidding me? Like this has been explained to people over and over and over again, and people still say it. It's fucking blows my mind. Yes, Mike. That's it. Yes. But yeah, I think there are problems go beyond Timo Mayer on the right wing. And that's not the care all here. No, no. I mean, look, we need our stars to be stars.

[00:44:57] Yeah. It comes down to Brat, Nico, and Jack. You need to step it the fuck up. Timo Mayer was our best forward. Luke Hughes has been our best defenseman for these past couple games. And I was like, I want to see that game that Timo played last night every single night moving forward. I agree. I agree. It was like I said in the group during the third or whatever. It'll be nice if this 86 guy decides to show up tonight. Like you're the best player on the fucking team. Got a kid wandering the hallway. Sorry, guys. One second.

[00:45:28] No fair. No fair. No pet cemetery. But yeah, like, dude, he's been invisible. He was fucking invisible. Like that should have been the type of game that Jack Hughes and Jesper Brat flourished in last night. Right? Up and down, north-south, fast hockey. Like that's what these two dudes do. Four power plays? Five power plays? Yeah, five, four, five power plays, whatever. Five on three. Like, okay, he scored on that. But like, yeah, dude, like they should have been so much more visible out there.

[00:45:56] And it's interesting to see because the juxtaposition of Utah, who's a team similarly built to us, you know, predicated on high-end talent, good, you know, good high-end skill. And just watch how they play versus how we play, you know? Like, and in particular, just watching their power play. Like, we have similar kind of build on our power play. It's just they cannot get the puck in the zone and get it set up into their preferred structure.

[00:46:27] And like he said it, you know, he's like, he's like, they seem to not have a plan. You know, or we have a plan and they're not adhering to it. It's like they're not getting into their, like all that shit I did about, like diagramming out, like what the power play should look like. They're not even coming close to what that structure looks like to even open up the options that they're supposed to have. No, it looks a lot better in preseason.

[00:46:52] And truth be told, like I'm not, I'm starting to really doubt that Evangelista should be in that bumper spot. Like he almost, he almost cost them a goal on that five on three. Like he, so he got that pass in the bumper and passed the brat in the corner as opposed to taking a shot right before he scored. And it's like, because he, because he, his, he positionally wasn't ready for that

[00:47:17] one time where you always need to be in a shooting posture and shooting position to be able to take a one timer from that bumper spot, particularly if you're going to be the only right-handed forward on there, because you have to expect that to come to you. I agree. I also think that these guys are talking a little in the chat and we kind of talked a little off air and on the group there, but I think there needs to be some serious line adjustments going into the next game. Like I break up Jack and Brad. They haven't done anything together.

[00:47:47] Like let's break them up. Let's like grits, Jack Mercer. I mean, a Jitmercer, no Meyer grits, Jack Meyer. I want to see that. I want to see Jack and Meyer play together with grit. I think that that line could be a very, very good line. And Brad, Evangelista and Nico. Yeah, I'm all for trying to see if changes work.

[00:48:15] You know, like I mean, I know fundamentally they're not going to fire the coach. They're not going to fire anybody. They're not going to trade anybody. I know people want to trade fucking everybody. You know, it's three games in, but it's not going to happen. So the low hanging fruit you have is to try some different combos and see what works. They already did last night when they swapped Samantha and grit sick. And I think it looked a little bit better. But I think, you know, we, I don't know what happened to Siegent dollar.

[00:48:41] I don't know how long-term his injury is going to be, but the way he reacted didn't, didn't look great. So now what are we going to do? You know, is that I didn't mind Chisholm and Dougie playing together. I thought they actually looked pretty good for the, for the limited time that they had. But is that sustainable over 60 minutes? I don't know. It might be absolute fucking chaos in, might be a little chaos in the D zone. But if they have the puck the whole time, that's right. Does it matter?

[00:49:11] You know, like, are we moving Dylan up to this, to the second pair? Because that scares me. And then who's coming up for Siegent dollar? I mean, if I had my choice, it would be Edwards. I agree. I'd bring Edwards up. I like, I like Ethan Edwards. Edwards.

[00:49:53] I think there's, these guys have to be like chomping at the bit to get on the board, you know, and get this, you know, it just has to be getting in the season too, man. It's not, it's, it's gotta be killing them. Especially that they know what everybody's saying. Right. I mean, they, they know the narrative around this team and this is how they're starting. It is now up to them. And. The fundamental problem and everybody, you know, I know we won't play in the decor and how

[00:50:18] that's looking goalies and everything, the power play like they've had circumstantially as well as being one for 14 circumstantially in every single game, they've had opportunities to put up a, put up a goal and really change the momentum of a game and being one for 14 on it is not going to cut it. And that comes down to Jack Nico and Brad there, the engines of that unit. And they need to make something fucking happen. I think on that note, we should probably wrap it up for tonight. All right. All right. Well, Tony has to bounce.

[00:50:48] So yeah. My, my kid woke up. She's not feeling too well. She says so. Sorry about that guys. I know it was a little, I was constantly, it was a little interruptions tonight going on. Hopefully it's not the wife is working. So at the hospital, so Mr. Mark, Mike Ruff texted me, he's like, he texted me, he's like, he's like, it'll be so devils when like, you know, we're, we're in first place in like December and it's the fucking plague. Right next door. So Tony seriously though, being in Lithuania, man. Like, I hope none of that.

[00:51:18] It doesn't come to the doorstep. We had a, so actually we had last week. This is how I've been here for eight years, nine years. And probably last week we're all, it was like midnight and our phones go off. Like our emergency is on our phones, you know? And it's like, oh, there's a drone in the area. Everyone stay put, you know, and this and that. So, you know, when I first moved here, this would have totally like freaked me out, you know, but I've been here so long where like, it's, I see tanks. You get that a lot?

[00:51:48] No, but it can happen. We live by a big military place over here too. So we're like a target. But we like, well, dude, you wouldn't even know, like we live in a beautiful area, but it, but yeah. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, I see it. I actually rolled back over and I was like, okay. I'm like, cause there's nothing you can do. You don't know where it's at or not. You know, it was a Russian drone. And it blew up actually too. But what happened was, is I guess, you know, during this war, they're like making the drones,

[00:52:16] there's different, Ukraine's trying to make the drones go the wrong way and all this kind of stuff. And sometimes it goes into these countries. So it hit our country. Second drone. I think we've had this year that exploded in Lithuania, but you know, it was just crazy. You know, just, you might, one of our phones went off cause it's like this alarm sound. You look at it and it's like, there's a yellow code or red code. If you're a red code, you know what the, I think you're fucked. But I just was like, I just become annoyed. I wasn't totally freaked out.

[00:52:43] You know, I was like, red code is bad. It's not like the Nissan Altima code that we get all the time. No, no, no. Like 20 minutes later, we got a code saying, and then the next day, if you watch the news, which was on in the States, cause my mom told me she saw it too. But that 20 minutes later, NATO jet shot it out of the air. And that was scary, scary fucking time to be alive, man. I'll tell you that. After all that, all these wars that stop, and I wish they would stop that one. Yeah, right? Come on.

[00:53:13] Can't you stop the one that, you know, is going on in Tony's backyard? Yeah, please. Trump stopped 15 wars. Yeah, if you're worried about your favorite Hawk team going one and two, Tony's got fucking drones exploding in his house. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's some real problems. But, all right, Tone, bounce on out of here, my friend. Bye, guys. Have a good one, man. Later, brother. Peace. And there he is, Tony from Lithuania. So, yeah, again, like, shake up the lines.

[00:53:41] Get a little bit of fucking, like, you know, like, you're going to go through adversity all season. I understand that. Like, every team that's playing well now isn't going to be playing well throughout the entire year. I just want to get to a point where we're playing good. So, when we do hit those little droughts, we know that we have the capability to get out of it. That's the problem, I think, for me. Like, we haven't – like, if this is happening in December and we were in first, second, third place in the Metro,

[00:54:09] I probably wouldn't – you know, hey, look, man, where we need to be, a little blip in the radar, three games. Who cares? I'm going to have a hard time doing this show if this continues to look like this for, like, two months. I don't think we can. I'm not even kidding. Like, once in a while, yeah, once a week maybe we can come on. But, like, if this is what we see throughout the entirety of the 26-27 season, the fuck? Worst of all, why would anyone even want to watch anything about a team that plays that bad? Like – I don't know.

[00:54:36] You'd be surprised at how many people just absolutely just revel and rolling around in the fucking dog shit. I know that there are a lot of people like that. Personally, like, when it even gets to a game like last night, like, I turned it – like, not last night, the Day Islander game. Like, I turned it off. It was just like – I couldn't fucking watch it. This is – I've waited since the last game of the year against Boston until game one, however many months that is.

[00:55:03] Like, anxiously waiting and so excited to see this team on the ice. Every move that was made in the summer, like, this is going to make us so much better. Like, we're going to take the leap, and Jack's going to stay healthy, and goaltending's finally going to work out. And all the resources and the time and the development we put in in Nico Dawes is going to – it's going to bear fruit. We're going to see it all this year. And then to start like this is just like, can you just kick my dog after you're done punching me in the nuts? Thank you.

[00:55:33] Like, that's the frustrating thing. Yeah, and it's – we've had two very frustrating seasons, and then to make all these changes and for it to just come back and kind of look pretty similar to what it looked like for the past two frustrating seasons with no scoring and soft play and disinterest, just – it's very hard to watch. But I do think, A, short preseason affected them.

[00:56:00] New guys, new stuff going on. They got to figure it out. You know, just these motherfuckers need to figure it out. Yeah, yeah. And look, one big game against Vancouver will do that. You know, don't fucking get into a close game with them. Smoke them. Blow them out of fucking water. Skate them into the ground. Yeah. Feel good about yourself because the weeks coming up are not going to get any easier. And you got to travel at the end of the month.

[00:56:27] And this team right now, yeah, they look lost and absolutely rudderless. But Saturday we can change our tune. We can come on on Sunday and just be like, whew, this feels good. To finally get the big win, see how it goes. But that's what they need to do. Yeah, buddy. All right. We are going to bounce, guys. Thanks for hanging out with us and appreciate it. We know it's like dinner time, getting home from work time.

[00:56:55] So the guys that jumped on, we do appreciate the hell out of you. So please give us a like. Hit the subscribe. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, download, five-star review. Subscription helps a little podcast that could. And for Tony, Tim, I'm Chris. We're the Uncle Puckers. We'll be back over the weekend. Let's go, Devils. We'll see you when we see you. Go, Devils. Fuck you, Velocat. Oh, say that again? Fuck you, Velocat.

[00:57:33] Paul Cotter turns into fucking Mario Lemieux. Like, what the fuck?