Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Greetings, Rob Simpson, Bruce Boudreaux, Zimmer and Gabby. That's right. It's time to talk playoffs. Time to talk round two, although, Gabby, there is a game seven as we record this that has not yet gotten underway. Do you even want to, is it even a chance to pick? Are you going to look smart if you want to pick Dallas or Vegas?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Well, I want to. I've been waiting all day for this game. I mean, I was in Vegas last week and got a chance to see Dallas and Vegas play live a couple times and, man, Dallas looked so good, I was wondering, and they made Vegas look slow, quite frankly. But.
So I was wondering how Vegas could possibly win, you know, a game six when they took it back there and. But they did. It's, when you're playing a good team, it's really difficult to win four in a row. And as I've been, I've been in that seat of losing the first two, winning the next three, and then not being able to close it out. So, I mean, these are two great hockey clubs and from what I saw, and it's going to be a tremendous game. And it would not surprise me if one of these clubs, I mean, there's a long way to go yet, but go win the Stanley cup. It wouldn't surprise me at all.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: All right, let's stick with current events.
By the way, the winner of that game will go on to take on the Colorado Avalanche. Who?
SmackDown.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: It's not going to be easy.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah, SmackDown. The Winnipeg jets, which we'll get to, but on current events today. Also, before we record this, we just saw the end of the New York Rangers against the Hurricanes series. Is one nothing for New York. I kind of, I've liked the Rangers in this matchup. I don't know why. I don't know if it's chemistry or goaltending. Like always, people talk about playoff experience, but Carolina has the edge there in terms of guys going deep with gentle and you got Kuznetsov and Stahl. I mean, guys that have won it all. New York doesn't have to that level. But for whatever reason, I just like their size, their toughness, their grit and the way they approach things.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah, Rangers pretty well. Have it. Have it all. I mean, Carolina's got a good team. Really good team.
The one thing that I know, and I had him for four years and I think he's a great goalie. He's won the Jennings with me and everything else, but Freddie hasn't been able to play an awful lot of games in a row and especially in the playoffs. And it's, that's the only thing I worry about with Carolina.
The Rangers seem poised, seem ready to go. They've had a great year. It wouldn't surpass me or surprise me. Their special teams are so good to special their power play, especially that I think that might carry them a little bit, but I think it's going to be another great series. What I like, too is if Dallas wins tonight, you realize that every one two seed in each division is playing each other. There's been no upsets if that occurs. And I think that hasn't happened in a long time and it just shows you that the regular season does mean something.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And we're going to see some knockouts here and the, some big names going out again. Hey, real quick, your favorite team, your childhood team, game seven. They lose to the Boston Bruins. I'm talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs, your, your post mortem.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, they're my favorite team when I'm not working. Right. They're the most hated team when I am working. It's funny how that works. Uh, yeah. You know what? Uh, watching that game last night and uh, I, I thought, you know, the Leafs, uh, definitely after the first ten minutes of the game controlled the game and uh, uh, you know, I mean, Boston wasn't getting any good looks, they weren't getting any chances. They almost reminded me of Nashville's game six against the Canucks where they just looked like they were playing not to lose and the goal they got like, I mean, Marner went to sleep and Morgan Riley went to sleep and, and that's how quick a hampus made a great look. Lindholm and a perfect carom shot. And I mean, because you could see past pastor was getting frustrated all game because he hadn't done anything and, and the other guy Marshand hadn't done anything and Charlie Coyle hadn't done anything and Zaka hadn't done anything. So, I mean, I just didn't think these guys were going to score. We're going to score. But somehow some teams are, are doomed to win and some are doomed to fail and some teams are just, they, they've got things following them. But good series, a lot of drama.
We'll have to see the fallout of the Leafs losing for the fifth time in a row under Sheldon Keef and see, see how it goes.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: I don't know how he, when you consider the other coaches that get fired and what they get fired for, it's incredible that this guy's still going.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Well, you know what? It's funny you said that. I'm watching stuff today, and I remember Bob Murray coming in and telling me when I was in Anaheim that he said, if you only had a one game seven, we wouldn't have fired you. And I went, okay.
That's what it came down to. What? Yeah, and then Billy Garrett saying, if you only hadn't lost in that shootout, we wouldn't have fired yet. I'm going, okay. It comes down to that. So, I mean, you get, you get fired for lots of reasons. So it's funny how it goes, by.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: The way, an ancient play, in a way. The Lindholm off the boards caroms out to Pasternaki tucks at home. Variation of the original production line. Sid able would dump it in the corner. Ted Lindsay would go beat everybody there to get it, and he'd send her it to Gordy Howe. That was their little trick. But it was the same thing. Caramel off the corner boards at the Olympia in those days.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: The only time, you know, I talk every year about this to players, the only time you want to do a cross corner dump ever is if it's a play for your guy to get it back. Otherwise, the, the defense always gets the, the puck if it's not a play, because the goalie either will get it or the defenseman's going to be the first one back. But that was a perfect, you could see Pasternak going down the wing, Lindholm saw him going down. It was a perfect in off, off the boards and, you know, and then the rest is history.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Speaking of coaches getting fired, there's an opening right now in Seattle. Dave Hackstall. Interesting. There is a player dynamic to this. Ron Francis does not have the greatest success rate as a general manager in this league, quite honestly. What do we. Did you have any initial thoughts on that? Or are you just going to maybe give them a shout and see if they're looking for a coach?
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I think my agents, always looking, are giving it a shout. I was, I thought I was in the running the last time when they signed, hired Dave Haxtal. I mean, I was, I was told that I was going to get interviewed, and then the next thing you know, it was announced that he was hired. So I don't know. I mean, I would love to. I think Seattle's a tremendous spot. I think it's got a fabulous hockey base and they, they got a pretty good team. And so, I mean, it would obviously be something that I'd be interested in. But it takes two, right?
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah, two to tango.
All right, so we've talked about Boston moving on from Toronto. We talked about the games that are going on today.
Let's just stay out west here for a second. And that Colorado beaten up on Winnipeg since we don't know who their opponent is yet.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I was really surprised, quite frankly, especially after the last game of the season when Colorado lost seven, nothing to Winnipeg in Colorado. And, you know, and Winnipeg ended the season on an eight game winning streak, which goes to prove that it doesn't matter if you've lost five in a row or you've won ten in a row. The playoffs are a whole different animal. And to them, to lose in five games, I was really surprised at the amount of goals they gave up. As good as Colorado is offensively, I thought Winnipeg, when you can go 35 games, is giving up three or less in a row. I mean, you know how to play defense. So I was a little surprised by all of that and a little surprised that it would go, that it went five. I actually thought Winnipeg having home ice in Colorado, not having a great world record, would not win this series. But they proved me wrong as, as almost everybody is when I'm making predictions these days.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah, you're on the NHL Network in the US, so popping up there all the time. Yeah, the prediction game is very, very dangerous.
One series where we always say it as cliche, regular season of matter, throw it out in the post season. But the way the Canucks handled Edmonton in the regular season, in the way in which they handled them, and the fact that Edmonton just manages no matter what Darnell nurse is overrated, in my mind, they're a mess in their own end. Even when we think they've changed the personnel and they've cleaned things up, this, that and the other thing, they always end up kind of being a mess in their own end. Petey's going to, he gets a fresh start. He had a, Leus Pedersen had a crappy first round, so he gets, he gets to start over the four. Check. Everything about it for me is, is positive for the Canucks going into the series. Now, Edmonton obviously has a lot of motivation, and revenge will be part of that, but I don't know. The matchup to me favors Vancouver really well.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: I mean, you know, the one thing, I don't think it matters who plays goal. The Canucks play pretty solid defense, and they don't give up a lot. But Edmonton is certainly a different animal than Nashville is. I think you can throw the regular season out. Let's not forget three of those wins were in the first eight games of the season and two of them were back to back games one and two. Then I think it was game eight that they beat them in.
So, I mean, I'm not really counting that. I think, I think Edmonton's on a little bit of a roll and on a little bit of a mission right now, but every time you think Vancouver is not going to be successful, they come up and they'd be successful. They've got, they've got enough game breakers, any one of their goalies. I mean, I have actually more confidence in sea lofts and Demko than I do to smith if, if he had to play three or four games. But it's, it's going to be an interesting series because the, the one thing about regular season loss is the doubt is in Edmonton's mind right now that, oh, can we not beat them? Cause they didn't, they played them the third last game of the season, too. So, I mean, I'm sure Edmonton really, really wanted to beat them there and then they lost again. And the confidence on Vancouver side is going to be high as well. So it should make for a great canadian out west series. I think both teams believe they're going to win.
I think the big key if LA had one of the best penalty killing units in the league for the most of the year and Edmonton made them look like an American League penalty killing unit, the way they were passing the puck around. So, I mean, I think that's going to be the key. This key to the series is power play versus penalty kill.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: All right, that'll be, that's, that's going to be fun. And obviously all of Canada will be watching that one very closely. No canadian team has won the Stanley cup since 1993. The Montreal Canadiens, Boston and Florida is an elite matchup, Gabby. I mean, this thing is, that's, we just saw the start of New York and Carolina. How about Florida? Boston?
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Well, I mean, if you're asking me, and I just, I have never thought, quite frankly, that Boston has the firepower or the players this year to go anywhere. I mean, that's why I thought Toronto would beat them. I thought they had better star power. The only, the thing that Boston does have good swim and was incredible in that, in that series. Their defense is pretty, pretty solid, even though they changed a whole bunch of them around and they used McAvoy and Lindholm, it seems like, and Carlo almost the whole game.
But the way I'm looking at it, Morgan geeky who played with Seattle last year played more minutes than Brad Marchand and he's like, playing number one center. So, I mean, I don't know how good he is, but, I mean, I'm thinking if that's the situation, then they don't have that star power. Florida can throw four lines out to at you and they're going to keep coming. They're going to keep coming. Toronto hit Boston a lot. I think Florida will hit them even more. And I don't know if they'll be able to contain Florida. I mean, they got playoff players. I mean, um, Kachuk and, and Barkoff and, um, uh, Reinhardt and, uh, and that probably gave enough time for Bennett to heal. Uh, you know, those guys are playoff players. Like, I mean, we've seen, seen them and they're just, they're built for the playoffs. And I think they will be giving Boston an awful lot more trouble then Boston will be able to take. And consequently, I think Florida will win.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: This, by the way, Barkoff. I mean, around North America, fans still don't realize it. Maybe it's because they play in Florida, but the guy is off. Off the charts.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know what? They beat a good Tampa team, and Tampa was playing really good at the time, and they beat them in five. And they made it look easy, actually, except for the one game. And the one game was when Tampa's power play was working. And so, I mean, it's it. And they had the best power play in the league. So I just don't think Boston has the firepower to be able to contain Florida to win two to one every game. And I think that's what Boston's going to have to do if they want to win. It's going to have to be a very low scoring, low event series.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: All right, so let me get this straight. We're doing this very casually. This is not a hardcore prediction for the second round, but you're cut. You're going Florida.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Rangers.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: You're going Edmonton.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: I'm going Edmonton.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: Edmonton. And the winner of the Dallas Vegas game to beat Colorado.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Okay. That's pretty good.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: All right.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: We'll keep our eye on other coaching situations, of course, as they, as they move around. And you got the grade eight right there over your right shoulder.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean, this is. We just happen to be in the Washington room, and I've got a lot of themes going on in this house that when we bought in Hershey, you know, when we thought it was, and we still think it's going to be our forever home. That all the stuff that was in boxes we put on walls and got framed and everything like that. So I just happened to be in the. The Washington room, which is also the sort of the bar room.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Oh, very nice.
Well, I'm in the hockey dungeon at the moment. I'll be back in the hockey cabin later tonight, but there you have it. Great stuff. Gabby, we'll talk to you in the not so distant. We appreciate your time and energy, and for the folks in the US, they'll see you on the NHL Network.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: I will be there Tuesday till Sunday. This week.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Very nice. One show nightly, two shows nightly, four shows.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Well, just. I'll be there. I don't know how long the shows are, but I'll be there every night.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: It's the old stand up comedy reference. Try the veal. Don't forget to tip your waiters and waitresses.
Thanks.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Good.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: See you soon.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Okey doke. Bye bye now.
