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hockey mountain high your go to avalanche podcast presented by super books
for today's age there is here a rough dean from c atle
of course your colorado avalanche go up to one in the series last night after
a game that they they really had to dig and you know the stars really carried
the team and got them through in the victory but we'll get more into that in
a second i think right now air of everyone is intrigued by this mysterious
val in the chuchkin situation so you're in seattle you are at the game last
night you got some first-hand info from the team itself so i just want you to
get into it tell your version of the story and everything that we know to be
true so on saturday the avalanche started their morning skate and val in the
chuchkin was absent for a maintenance day
um later on we get back to the rink and val's not there for the skate and we
find out that he's no longer with the team this was kind of something that
there was a discussion among media we kind of had some hints that something was
going wrong that he had left several hours before and we had asked the team
about it and kind of started to get a little bit of
some clues to connect on on exactly what's going on and
we didn't really say anything until we talked Jared bedner post game obviously
the avalanche win six for a big game and Jared said that val's gone for
personal reasons leading up to that actually even when we were getting
ready to go speak with Jared and go into the locker room we saw all the guys that
didn't play darren helm we saw Brad hunt we saw Curtis McDermott we saw
Jack Johnson gave real land to scog who's here
but we did not see val in the chuchkin so kind of the hints that we were putting
together the clues that we were kind of starting to put together were
coming to fruition to the idea that val is not with the team
and as soon as we asked Jared bedner about it he did say that like I said
val's gone for personal reasons we later went back to
kind of confirm with a team spokesperson on what exactly that meant
and basically the information we know right now is
several hours before the game started after morning skate
nichushkin left the team and was taken to the airport
and I didn't get a confirmation that he left Seattle but he went to the airport
he's not going to there to sleep so like he had to have left Seattle I asked if he
went to Denver the team couldn't confirm or deny it
obviously there's just like it's it's the team knows what's going on but is
being a little bit hush hush about it is the kind of the thing that I'm getting
we asked Jared if it was injury related he said no
we asked him if it was disciplinary he said no we asked him when val is
going to be back he said I have no idea we asked him again today sunday on their
off day when he did meet availability he also said I have no idea
we are digging into this we are looking to find more clues on it there are some
things that are kind of coming together on what the story is
but I the last thing I like to do is share things that are not confirmed so
we're just kind of waiting to see what is confirmed but ultimately that's the
story the when when he was absent from morning skate
it was a maintenance day we've seen val take
several maintenance days this season because he's banged up and because he
plays a lot and because let's just save his energy for the game
but the morning skate was at 11 30 a.m. pacific time
the puck drop here was at 7 p.m. pacific time and several hours before the game
around 2 or 3 p.m. something happened and and nichushkin was taken to the airport
by team security so that's what we know at this time
that is all that is confirmed I should say at this time and that's all that we
can share at this time there is not much else that we've gotten from the
team at this point and we'll just have to wait and see
I don't expect him to play game four unless he flies back to Seattle tonight
and he's on the ice tomorrow morning it'll be very interesting if
this the thing that he had to leave for is something that he can check on and be
back within a day wouldn't surprise me but also I don't expect it to happen
game five will see and after that ultimately we don't know
yeah well said I mean obviously you don't want to share any information that
could be rumors so that's exactly what has been
I guess confirmed like you mentioned and it was just unfortunate because he's
such a reason that they won game two right I mean he was a big part of that
he was he looked okay like I think he's been battling
an injury throughout the playoffs but he still looks fine he still was able to
execute and be effective the way Val and the chushkin's supposed to be
in game two so yeah terrible timing of course and I guess the timing could be
worse right it could be later in the playoffs so
hopefully this gets resurrected soon and you know whatever the avalanche are
trying to protect or keep quiet it's for good reason so
you know we'll wait till more things get
divulged is that is that a good word divulged
and yeah I guess we'll just go from there but
were you able to talk to any of the teammates today kind of get their side
of the story or just get their opinion and feelings on the matter
so today the locker room was not open it was just a press conference setting
because the avalanche didn't have an actual practice today it was just off
ice work I do believe that Jack Johnson Darrin
Helm and I'm missing a player Curtis McDermott I think we're on the ice
obviously Darrin Helm was a was not a healthy scratch far from the word
healthy but he was a scratching game three after playing game two and missing
game one so Darrin Helm is doing his
consistent I am so hurt and so banged up so use me wisely kind of thing that's
been going on all season so shout out to him he was great in
game two but those guys skated the rest of the team did not
so the avalanche didn't have a traditional open locker room today for
media it was Evan Rodriguez and JT comfort coming up to a podium and
speaking to us in a press conference setting followed by Jared Bedner so
we don't really ask a lot of guys about Val yesterday you know when the clue
starts come together I asked McKinnon about like you know it sucks
Val or you know it hurts or it hurts the lineup it hurts the
team that Val's not there and you know he said yeah it sucks and
went on to talk about the lineup and how it you know missing Val is a big piece
um this is the most important time of the year this is the best hockey of the
year and Val Nachushkin loves this team to death and loves the sport to death
and it's unfortunate that he's not here because you know he wants to be here
I know people were tweeting me that he was on
Instagram liking the videos of um the avalanche posting like videos of the
goals that they were scoring yesterday so whatever it is that he's dealing with
um is not maybe as concerning as many of you are led to believe but it's
something that he needed to be a way for I guess is the best way to put it and
we'll just kind of see what happens with that yeah we'll see what else comes to
light and hopefully it's something minor something quick and uh you know
something we could turn around and see Val Nachushkin
back playing in no time because you know I don't want to get ahead of myself
here the avalanche still have the cracking to overcome but if they do get in the
second round I mean it's going to be really tough without Val Nachushkin
so of course they were able to get it done last night but you don't you know
you don't want to get too comfortable in that setting and you want Val in the
lineup as soon as possible absolutely so with that said um let's move on and
look at the game itself like you mentioned a pretty good 6-4 victory
out of the avalanche kind of taken over in the third period and who took over
it was familiar friends Nathan McKinnon and Miko Ranton and took a second for
them to really feel like they got involved in the playoffs but don't
forget kill macar yeah mccar chipped in as well sure sure absolutely but I
think the reason they won was those two guys putting them on their shoulders
um so yeah just I guess get into Miko Ranton and Nathan McKinnon taking a
couple games to get involved in this series have you
seen the well you probably watched the game but did you see the celebrations
for both of McKinnon's goals mm-hmm you can tell that dude was like I can't
believe I went two games without scoring I actually wanted to do some digging on
this and I didn't get a chance to so I will uh tweet it out you know at some
time after we we get this podcast published I want to see how long it takes
Nathan McKinnon to score his first goal in the postseason every year he's been
in the NHL because this might be a new record like three games it never takes
McKinnon three games against the Minnesota Wild when he was 18 years old he had
three goals and 10 points in the 70 game series I'm pretty sure he scored pretty
early in that series in Calgary he scored the game winner in game two
obviously they were shut out in game one against Arizona he scored a ton in that
five game series against uh st. Louis he scored against
natural he was scoring pretty quick and now here we are in the first two games
against the Seattle crack and he had one assist which is just mind boggling to me
so he was super pumped for both of his goals mikko ryanin who had one goal
obviously the one point he had was scoring on the one assist that McKinnon had in
the first game um so seeing him get going was was really crucial as well
obviously adding the empty netter kel macar got a goal of his own and an
assist I believe that the trio of them combined for five goals and two assists
those are the guys that look we talked about it with peter bah I talked about
it with k chef d you and I talked about it endlessly over the first two games when
we were recapping the abs games the crack and have depth the avalanche have
lesser depth the avalanche have a good defense the crack and have a good
defense not as good as the avalanche the avalanche have a good goalie the
crack and have a good goalie none of them are world beaters none of them are
bottom of the barrel nh l goalies the difference between the two teams
is the avalanche have superstars future hall of famers undeniable nh l undisputed
superstars the crack and don't have that they have a kid in mattie beneers that is
growing into that but right now they don't have that that's the difference
between the two teams and that was the difference in game three in seattle
yeah and they i think another big difference is just the fact that the
avalanche have those calluses built right i mean they have the war wounds
they you know it was really the third period where the avalanche
absolutely took over i think they definitely showed spurts have taken over
in in the second but they definitely had full control in the third
and i think that's a testament to a the resiliency that we've spoken of
all year long and even last year and to just having that experience knowing
that okay it's not time to panic we can still stay calm it's the third period
we could still take over this game and still win it so
um yeah just simply having that experience and and that
you know wisdom i guess you could say of Stanley cut playoff
it helped them out in the last six years have gotten them to this point right
they had one good year of of success and the other
i guess four um were were i don't want to call them failures but short
comings that that they learned from and here we are
an experienced team that that has learned how to win and learned how to win
against adversity yeah the second period they started to tilt the ice hell i would
say the second half of the first period they started to tilt the ice
it was the most prevalent in the third period and what i loved about it being
the most prevalent in the third period was
Seattle ended that second period with two goals in a flash and the avalanche
were dominating dominating i even tweeted out it's all abs right now and then
three minutes later it was three to three like it was right then and there
Seattle scored the two goals jamey olexiak how about that for a big
rugged defenseman that's not known for his goal scoring scoring a sick goal and
celebrating like a behemoth and then maddy veneers ties it up and the place
was going wild i can't explain i can't believe it took me 11 minutes
to get into just how incredible the atmosphere was at climate
pleasurine on saturday night it was so loud from the opening puck drop from the
pre-game warm-up this place went nuts the three to three goal i damn near went
death it was so intense in there and it was
genuinely a hostile crowd and the avalanche brushed it off
came out in the third period and despite Seattle doing all of that
they said we're just going to win this thing and it was really quickly that
mikor and scored it was even quicker that nathan mckinnon
scored the sickest goal i've seen him scoring a little bit i i don't even want
to say in quite a while because he scores one of these every month
where's the sick goal but it's been a little bit of a time since i've seen him
score something like that and then obviously the empty netter made it six
three and then seattle added a garbage time power play goal which
is unfortunate because the avalanches pk was perfect up until that moment i think
they kind of let the foot off the gas pedal a little bit too much
but um it was so great to see that this team like i said they had those
calluses they have the star power the two things that we've been talking about
and coming out in the third period on the road hostile crowd
historic game for the seattle kraken and for the nhl and and being the first one
ever for this franchise three to three game after trailing
three to one for the home team and the abs just came out and said all right we're
just going to take over and and that was that was awesome to see
because they needed a game like that they got a game like that they're feeling
really good about themselves nobody would be surprised if the series goes
seven but nobody would be surprised if the avalanche can
can scoop this up in five and and get ready for the next round
yeah it's funny how throughout the series we've seen i think three times now
where two goals were scored within less than a minute of each other right
really quick let me cut you off on that it has happened
17 times i think through the first 12 or 15 games or 18 games my math is a
little off of the playoffs this year more more of the story
leading into the games on sunday had happened already 17 times around the
genny chow funny stuff funny stuff for sure but um
you know i guess just looking back at it you know the avalanche were pushing and
pushing and pushing and i i think it was just
simply being patient right they had so many great chances and they didn't get
down on themselves they just kept generating good chances
and that ultimately in my opinion is what allowed mikko rant and nathan mckinnon
to i guess burst out of these shells and finally take over was just
that tunnel vision that okay yeah sure we haven't scored yet sure we're still
tied but we just keep going the way we're going and keep doing the things we're
doing it's eventually going to work out and i can just hear jared bednar in my
head just saying that exact same thing just keep doing what you're doing you're
working hard you're doing the right things it's going to work out and look
there they had a three goal lead at one point till that silly penalty at the
at the end silly by the ref not silly by nathan yeah
um look mckinnon this was uh something that one of the reporters was asking
about today and and was asking about yesterday yesterday to nathan today to
his teammates to to rodriga's in comfort it was
when you talked to mckinnon yesterday and knowing that it took him like i said
three games to get into the series on the goal scoring
side of it um was he panicked no was he stressed about it no
and he said like you know i'm getting the chances and they're going to eventually
go in and then they did and jt com for an evan rodrigas were asked about this
and basically were asked like did you guys see it the same behind the scenes
was nathan mckinnon com cool collected and and not panicking about the fact that he
hasn't scored and they said yeah he's the last thing nathan mckinnon does is
doubt himself that's not something you see nathan mckinnon do
and i think that's spot on nathan mckinnon does not doubt himself he gets frustrated
at himself he starts to try to do too much sometimes but the idea of doubt in
his mind is not an i is not something that he computes and and that's why you
saw him kind of get through this carry the wave of what's
been going on i mean remember in the stanica final last year was kind of the
talk of the series was nathan mckinnon hasn't scored i think it took game
by i want to say yeah and even with even with that mikko
rate and it was kind of you know mikaren this got a lot of gold yeah
in a little bit yeah that was the entire playoffs for mckinnon it was specifically
that that final series valent chuchkin was carrying the weight obviously cadre
and game four had the winner um but and you know in game one it was
game two was everybody helm and manson were sniping on vassalevsky but burikovsky
and game one jt comfer and game one but mckinnon i want to say scored his first
goal in that series in game five and it was like kind of when's mckinnon gonna
make his mark and tamp vase a one nothing leading game six and
nathan mckinnon sets uh nathan mckinnon ties the game up at one one with a
sick shot on a tight angle and then nathan mckinnon sets up our tory
lekkenin for the game winner to make it two to one so
he never doubts himself and i think that's something that you need in your
superstars because you don't want him to ride the ebbs and flows the way that
you know most players and most people do well now that i guess they've
officially joined the playoffs and have officially contributed
in you know the fashion that we expect of them
it's time for the power play to step up and kind of contribute the way we
expect of it as well right power play still has a score to
goal in the whole series um i guess what what do you think is going wrong there
what do they have to do to adjust it or is it one of those things where
you don't have to do anything it'll start going in as long as you keep doing the
work like we were talking a second ago in games two and three they had an
incredible amount of chances it's just not going in
game one something needed to change and i think they ended up
flipping the chuchkin for lekkenin on that top unit and obviously val's not
there anyway so lekkenin would be on the top unit regardless at this point
but what they were doing in game two and especially in game three they were
getting a ton of chances it just wasn't going in for them and i think that's
the that's the the way you got to kind of ride it right now is don't worry
things will eventually hopefully start to go in um kelma car is doing good
things even the second unit is getting good opportunity so i wouldn't worry
about it too much you do want to kind of get a little bit of a hot streak
going before you like you said if you get into the second round uh you kind of
want to be getting going before that yeah definitely i mean it was such a
dangerous part of what they've put together the last couple years i mean
to have it chipping in it would be huge for him right now and i don't think it
would be much of a contest if the power play was rolling at full steam i think
you know we'd see a lot more blowouts a lot more puck lines than we've seen so
far and you know i love the puck line and you know i love it on super book
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erif i know your give isn't exactly the topic of conversation after after
last night's game but let's let's just take these three games that he's put
together so far take a step back and assess what he's done i guess
what do you what are your thoughts on his game because for some reason
you know he's been okay but i feel like there's another level to him that we
haven't seen yet these playoffs i think the biggest thing to take away from the
Seattle Kraken series is so in game two giorgiab was strong
and we remember that but there hasn't been an
like this total dominance of an outpouring of opportunities
um from the Seattle Kraken at one point
where you need him to be that kind of player so the Kraken have had waves of
chances but like so basically what i'm trying to explain it's really hard
to explain because Jared Jared did a good job of this yesterday when i
asked him about it but it's like giorgiab hasn't stolen any games for you
he stepped up big in game two when the game was two to two and that helped a
lot i wouldn't say he stole the game as much as he helped kind of
let the avalanche do what they did with the demonetis game winner
he hasn't stolen any games for you but he hasn't lost any games for you
he's kind of just right there and that to me is a symptom of
the Seattle Kraken don't have the star power to you know with McDavid and
dry saddle and Zach Hyman and Ryan Newjot Hopkins are going to skate circles
around you and Evander Kane i should say as well are going to skate circles around
you and get chance after chance after chance and giorgiab's out there doing
his thing and and like stopping them dead in their tracks like he did in that
regular season game that ended two to one in overtime
yeah you can say that he did a sting Seattle hasn't done a lot of that
but at the same time giorgiab has led in nine goals obviously
the avalanche have ten goals the Kraken have nine in the series
but the avalanche have also had a lot of turnovers so
i do agree there is another level but i'm not ready to say that he's not a
playoff goalie and he's not doing well and all this it's still far too early for
that um the biggest thing for me is the team is
starting i mean yesterday they played probably one of their better games in
terms of a complete effort defensively and executing exactly on what they
wanted to do but it was also the game where he led in the most goals it's
very strange in that way they were they they turned off their their
forward checking their game their brains their hockey brains for
19 seconds and two goals went in and early in the game they had to weather
the storm so you know basically what i'm getting at is i do
agree there is another level for him to get to but i don't buy any means
think that he's lost them anything no not even close he's been
more than adequate i just again i feel like um we we just haven't seen the
giorgiab we were expecting i mean not that we've been
underwhelmed or disappointed by what he's brought to the table but
um yeah maybe i i think you're onto something too like maybe it's just a
lack of real dangerous tests a lot of the things that are
leading me to say this or we've seen him get sniped a couple times and i
think that's out of character for him um but other than that call in
that goal in game two that one sticks out to me big time
yeah exactly other other than that i don't think he's been
terrible by any means um he's been just fine just fine um but i guess with that
being said let's say the avalanche go on and win
game four come home with a three one lead are you
comfortable maybe given franceous a look at that point and just
you still want to keep right and giorgiab you don't think there's any chance he
needs a little rest yeah but you don't got a galaxy brain this thing
that's something that a lot of teams are doing we saw minnesota do a little bit
of that with starting mark on jflerian game two
um you don't got to overthink this go with the guy that you know works
go with the starter and look no further than last year
frankey was incredible in the playoffs when you relied on him you know maybe
game four was a little shaky but everybody was scoring in game four
between the avalanche and the oilers um
frankey was incredible in the playoffs but point is
every game that darcy kenper was healthy i almost had darcy campbell darcy
camper was healthy every single game he was healthy he
started the only time he was the backup and not
healthy was in game four after frankey had already won games one two and three
against edminton and they kind of were just like all right let frankey win
then finish the series the avalanche ended up winning six to five and over
time thanks to that goal from lekkenin but i promise you this even if frankey
had shut out the edminton oilers in game four
they're going back to darcy against the tampay lightning
so don't overthink it don't overdo it giorgi f's healthy giorgi f plays a lot
of games in a row he's done it a number of times this year
he's feeling fine he's not at that point like he wasn't january where gerry had
to give him kind of a little bit of a mental reset like if that happens
sure but it was beneficial for him it was it was but but right now he's not at
that point he's not frustrated he's not
slamming his dick he's not playing terrible he's not being you know maybe
he's not being tested like yesterday the shots were 34 to 29
all it takes is two goals to be you know under a 920 safe percentage when
you're facing 29 shots against a team like seattle whose
high school score is 40 goals from jared mccan
so it's going to be a little bit different when he played the minnesota
as the dallas is or the l a's and edminton's and and vegas and even winnipeg if
they advance like all of these teams have a different level of star power
i'm i get what you're saying for sure and i'm not
you know this isn't something let me let me ask you this let me ask you this
you start georgian game four he wins it you come back to denver you put in franke
the abs loose what are you doing game six
well that that's a sick okay so you're in my mind you're coming back for game five
with a three one lead you essentially have three games to beat the kraken
one more time i think you can do that in three games no matter what the
circumstances so yeah give by a little dance he wins
then then what then you then you got everybody rested and and everybody ready
to go for round two but you're over you're you're risking
putting in a goalie that is a little bit cold and yes he's called and i know
you know he came in last year and he was you know not cold but right and i think
i'm pretty sure that the injuries he's dealt with all year long are the same
injury that you know you don't want it to pop up again so you know
yeah but throw them out there just to get hurt again
but point is if you're gonna end the series in this scenario let's say you
you win you win monday and then you win wednesday
or sorry you win monday and you have a three to one lead heading into wednesday
if you win that series on wednesday you're gonna have
four to six days but but but until your next game
if you're a georgian do you think you're gonna sit there and be like yeah yeah
i need six to eight days off let frankie have this one
no you're gonna put in your give and he's gonna sit there and be like fuck yeah
let's get four to six days rest let me go in there and win the game so we can
have that four to six days rest so that we can see him on instagram posting
pictures at red rocks because he likes to explore color auto on his off days
um that's kind of the way that i see it there's no yeah that's right you're
right like if it was if this was a very crammed
playoffs i'd get it but like winning a series in five the
the like the good thing you get out of that is a lot of rest
and gorgis gonna look at that and say let me do this and let me just
get it done and taken care of by the way really quick i want to go back to the
star thing that we were talking about i know we moved on from them
but the avalanche i just remembered when i mentioned the shots on goal
the avalanche outshot seattle thirty four and
twenty nine so it wasn't a huge shot discrepancy
pretty even you know right till the end at five on five
when kelma car was on the ice the shot attempts not shots on goal shot
attempts this is even more fascinating because shot attempts are even shots
that are blocked and shots that missed the net
it was twenty one to five with kelma car on the ice
so not only in the twenty four minutes i think it was twenty four minutes that
kelma car played not only did seattle not get five
shots on goal at five on five they didn't even get five shot attempts
at five on five just an incredible number that's that's the kind of stuff that
kelma car does where even away from his goal and assist when he was on the ice
it was in the seattle so on pretty much the entire time
and interesting that uh nathan mckinnon came out and said
that this is probably the hardest round one he's faced yet right but as long as
kelma car's on the ice there's no sweat no problems there too bad you don't have
two kelma cars yeah but it's it's fun i mean you pretty much
have two and a half yeah two and a half i mean
devon tays i don't know if you have that written in our
in our plan to talk about but devon tays has been incredible by the way the
oilers just tied it up at three to three they were down three and nothing when
we started the show 27 minutes ago just wild stuff two goals for dry
seattle that'd be fascinating if this was a live show
yeah i know right everybody's gonna be like yeah you would yet we already know
the king's one six three or whatever but yeah it's gonna be hilarious if they
actually win six three but going back to what i was saying
i don't know if you had this on the agenda today but devon tays has been
absolutely incredible in the series seeing what he's doing has been awesome
bow and byram you know you and i have talked about him a lot on the show and
and off the record we love that kid he's been crazy good
and kelma car's doing his kelma car thing yeah yeah i mean
that third pairing might be a little bit you know leaving more to be desired but
the the top two pairings the way they're set up right now or just
i think dominant so you know stick with what you what you got
right in that scenario and i think everything will be fine but with that
i think you look at the depth of the forward group and and that's kind of
shuffling around right i mean cagliano gets healthy
um you know you've had myers in there helms been in and out so i guess what
what do we think the depth looks like for for game four here
i would assume garen helm gets back in uh i don't know who sits
probably ben myers silly question but i don't know about you but
game three was one of the best games i've seen ben myers play he was physical
he was physical he was in the play he was a pesky little guy he was doing his
thing and he was trying to generate he was doing well
uh matineeato also looked good he played 15 minutes i know he started on the
second line and then that didn't last long which deservedly so it shouldn't
last long but he played 15 minutes and he was effective
so you know maybe denis malgan lars atler played well i thought he was really
good in game three uh the offense isn't there yet for lars
eller but 71 percent in the draws he's been great on the pk he's been
the the analytics and the numbers with him on the ice have been very good for
the avalanche in terms of defensive zone draws and him winning them and being
successful in getting the puck out so uh the offense hasn't been there yet but
you know then again he's playing with myers and and malgan
you know on two of the three games is what he started with so
can't entirely blame him there i think if he had burakovsky and last year's new
hook because whatever the health this year's new hook is especially recently
is very snakebit um he'd probably be producing a
little bit more so far but you know who sits is it going to be denis malgan
is it going to be ben myers that's if daren helm comes back and if helman
nichushkin both come back then you got to sit two guys
which would be probably neato and myers or myers and malgan so
now suddenly you're at a point with jared bednar again assuming everybody is
healthy which we don't know what the situation is with nichushkin
and he's very much probably not playing game four
um you had a point where you finally have to make those tough decisions you
have had to make all year so i guess to answer the question i asked we have no
idea what the depth of the literally yeah literally no idea because
on any given day i mean daren helm there was a joke we were making among the
media today that he went to jared bednar this is fake it's just a joke
but he went to jared bednar between before the playoffs and said i got six
games left in me so choose them wisely and when they lost game one they're
like all right we're going to put you in for game two and now we're like all right
we're going to kind of see how it plays out so
um it's going to be the daren helm rolling to the dice pretty much every
game he he took part in morning skate he took part in uh i think pre-game no he
wasn't pre-game skate but he wasn't morning skate
and then didn't play the game even though he talked to me and everything is just
helm season man he's his body's broken and you know i think i've made the joke
before this guy's going to retire so damn fast when the season ends
but god bless him he's putting it all out on the line when he plays
yeah i mean i don't know if there's anything to look into you said that it
was helm jack johnson and mcdermid skating today
um you know i don't again i don't know if there's anything to read into for what
that means for tomorrow it just it just means he has to get his
reps in it's got to be painful to be getting reps in while you're half
broken but hey he's got to do his thing and try to stay
in game shape so i understand it um if i know you you know you touched on it a
little bit kind of brushed over your experience at the seattle crackens first
ever playoff game is there more to it is there more of the picture that you want
to paint for us as far as the atmosphere the
ambiance and just the overall experience of the first playoff game
i think their their goal song is really cool they've worked let's go cracking
into it um i'm not gonna pretend i can remember i think the song is called
lithium i forget who it's by but it's i like it let's go
cracking and the way that everybody says it in that atmosphere is
so cool very chilling um that was awesome the pre-game uh
like the introductions that they did in the ceremony that they did before the
puck dropped was so damn cool it was so great
uh people were people were buzzing i mean this is a market that didn't hit it
off the way vaguest did um for many reasons number one they were
kind of very bad in their first year and the excitement dropped really quickly
uh they didn't have the same kind of excitement in the expansion draft they
didn't have the same kind of star power especially last year it was like jadyn
sporets and jordan everly and olexia gennadam larson like they didn't
have those big names um which this year you know jared
mccand has taken off maddy beneers has been a fun addition because that's that
young of the future kind of center that they've been able to add in
uh so this year it's taken off a little bit more
but this market is just such a raw hockey market in general so i didn't
really know what to expect and i was more than taken aback by it it was just
an incredible atmosphere it was really fun
like i said it was crazy early when the kraken got the first goal it was really
crazy when alexia gorg to make it three to two
they started to get a little life because the avalanche had silenced the crowd
pretty much at that point alexia gennadam making it three to two
there was a little bit of life when maddy beneers made it three to three
that the place like you could go deaf it was so unbelievably out and so cool and
so fun and then like i said it didn't put an
inch an inch it didn't put a hint of panic in the avalanche because it came
out in the third period and just shut her down again which was really cool to see
that they are not fazed by this it's too bad for them that they don't have
on drey bircobsky because he would be a good addition for them make a little
bit more electric but just add him to the list of guys who played in the
stanley cup final that are hanging by a thread right
um but it did it did it i guess i've been curious about the building itself
there in seattle does it throw you off at all entering through
essentially the top concourse and then looking down it's very different
it's very different in that sense the building itself is really cool what i
like about it is as compared to like edminton or detroit or
i haven't been to ubs center but i've seen pictures of it the one in on long
island this one has a lot less of a cookie cutter
new corporate building feel it's got a personality to it it's very well done
it's very i don't know how i feel about the double jumbo trons i still don't
know if i like those much they're called the twins i believe
um but the actual building the way that you know it starts from that upper
concourse the way that when you're standing outside it's just this like
looks like a single family home it doesn't look that high up and then you go
into it and you go downwards into like the uh
into the actual arena is really really cool i think that's cool i love the
windows they obviously have them covered up for the games but
like today on an off day they had those windows open and you can get that
natural light coming into the ring is really cool
um it's it's a special building it really is it's different it's very
Seattle vibe kind of kind of building and it's just very well done
and then how about the fans do do they give the
presence of being educated or do you still get the hint that they're they're
still learning their way through this it's a little bit of both i mean
they they were very much great with the refuse suck chance when they were
miss calls on uh the avalanche they were very good with
the booing you know the icings and the off sides and the things like that they
know there's stuff i mean it's 18 000 people in the building if only
3 000 people in there are crazy hockey fanatics
you're still gonna hear but the market in general is it's coming around to the
team i remember i took a trip to Nashville and
saw an app predator's game in Nashville in 2020 and there was a good
contingent of those fans that still didn't really know what was going on
which was surprising to me but i would expect it to be a little bit
better in in Seattle for sure yeah which mind you by the way i'm talking
on about Seattle as if like they draw Arizona numbers this is
that's very much not the case this is one of the
highest grossing revenue teams in the NHL right now they have been a
great success and Coachella Valley their team in the AHL is top three in
grossing revenue they have been a great success
this market has done nothing but grow hockey related revenues it's going to be
a part of the reason why the cap is going to explode once this
covid debt is paid off so they've been great in that sense
the people are just learning as they go though
cool stuff cool stuff so we'll see what they bring for game four here i guess
now's a good time to take a step back and and look at the rest of the western
conference playoffs right particularly i think we're keeping
our eye on the Dallas Minnesota series which was tied
to to just tonight so um yeah i guess you're just
overall thoughts on what's going on around the rest of the week
uh these are some really fun series the Dallas Minnesota one is exactly what
we thought it would be it two teams beating two teams exchanging blows
both in terms of wins and literal blows like they are beating the crap out of
each other every single day uh Minnesota one game one Dallas
game two Minnesota game three Dallas answers back with game four Jake
audinger is playing great Philip Gustafson is playing great
Marcus Fellino is getting all up in everybody's grill Joe Pavelski obviously
got hurt in game one everybody's doing their thing and it's been really cool
to see both of those teams kind of just duke it out
on the scoreboard physically after the whistle stuff it's it's a rugged
vintage hockey series um and the winner of that is going to come out limping to
play the cracker the avalanche which is the good part for the avalanche and all
the more reason why you want to figure out a way to win Monday win Wednesday
finish the series in five sit back with your ice packs and watch Minnesota and
Dallas continue to beat the crap out of each other
hope you get Val Nachushkin back and be ready to go for that second round
so that's that series i feel like whoever you get Minnesota or Dallas if
you're the avalanche i think it's gonna go deep it's gonna go six or seven games
and then that's that's right where the what you're saying is gonna
kick in where they are beating each other up now
you know i think they're still gonna have the adrenaline they're still gonna be
able to go early in round two but if that thing gets
to six or seven games after they already played six or seven games in
the first round i mean they're gonna be tired they're gonna be beat up and it's
gonna be to the avalanche's advantage for sure but um you know still no no
easy pickin's still gonna be a really tough series no matter what but let's
not get ahead of ourselves still two games to win yeah
against the Seattle Kraken yeah and it's not just that the avalanche are
looking to win this in five it's the avalanche are looking to win in
general like in 24 hours from now we could be watching game four
the Kraken could win send it back to Denver
tie series again so uh it's very much not over but that's a fun series
Edmonton LA has been a little bit interesting obviously the LA Kings have
a two-to-one series lead right now game four is going on so by the time you
guys listen to this you will know if it's either three to one for the Kings
or two to two the Edmonton Oilers tie it up so
you know looking back looking into the future i can't do that just yet but
right now it is a three to three game the Kings were up three to nothing
that is a fascinating series where we're seeing the LA's rugged vintage
defensive style game uh with their offensive flair
going up against the Oilers of Conor McDavid and Leon Dreyse that'll do in
their thing Leon Dreyse that'll has been absolutely incredible as he
always is in the postseason Conor McDavid kind of trailing a little
behind but that's a fun series and then
Vegas Winnipeg man Winnipeg gave it their all
i think that series is over even though it's two to one for Vegas right now and
game four is in Winnipeg for two reasons number one
Winnipeg gave all they had to erase a four to one deficit
to send it to overtime and then to lose in second overtime i believe it was to
the Vegas Golden Knights in a game where Josh Morris he got injured on
his second shift they lose in second overtime and then
Rick Bohness comes out and announces that Morris he's done for the series
so all of that put together in their first home game in in five years or
whatever it was it's tough it's tough that you know
somebody put it late laid it out in simpler terms of
Vegas Golden Knights have it or sorry the the Winnipeg Jets have had a home
playoff game in five years and they lost to their backup goal lead the last
time they had a home playoff game so that's it's very unfortunate Laurent
Broswan Vegas got that overtime win um i think that series is over so i i
could see Vegas maybe Colorado LA or Edmonton who knows Minnesota
Dallas who knows it's going to be a great second round
well no matter what the playoffs around the league have met expectations right
the parodies been kicking in we saw three overtime games on saturday and
um pretty much every series was one one except for
two of them one of them two of them one of them one one one of them only Carolina
and every series and every series was oh yeah sorry yeah you're right to them but
every series is two to one heading into today's games where obviously now the
caroline hurricanes have taken a three to one lead
the LA Kings have a chance of doing that as well but
through three games every series was three to one was two to one
um in the eastern conference New Jersey has been a little bit of a dud we saw
them bounce back in game three after getting shellac two games in a row five
to one uh we've seen boston and florida exchange blows obviously now boston
is also a team that's up three to one three to one right yeah three to one
um i am losing track of which game is which for the series it's a challenge to
to follow every series when you're also following the avalanche yeah it's a
lot of hockey man um but the one that sticks out to me is
toronto and tampa bay there is like a deep rooted hate between those two teams
right now it started last year it's going into the series you're seeing the
coaches go at each other and their post gamers uh john coopers getting grumpy
already did you see his comments after game two
mm-hmm about uh the centermen mm-hmm yeah so for those who didn't see it
basically the Leafs lost game one well the Leafs got blown out in game one
and they decided to put ryan o'Reilly they took him off the wing and put him at
center so that they can go math used to bearers in o'Reilly down the center
and john cooper and the was asked about that after game two because toronto
responded by winning game two seven to two and uh the reporter that asked the
question said how you know what was different or you know what did
you have to do different with toronto taking o'Reilly and putting him at three
c and having that three headed monster down the center
and he said give me braid in point and tini serralli and nick paul against
any top three c in the nhl and then just got up and walked off the podium
so they're already going at each other now Sheldon keef is talking about how
john cooper and the tempe lightning are great at manipulating the refs
austin matthews and steven stan coes dropped the gloves and got five-minute
majors in the first fight in nhl history between two
sixty goal scores never happened before um ryan o'Reilly got a penalty
full stop that's the whole sentence ryan o'Reilly got a penalty
ryan o'Reilly's also been spectacular for toronto he's been
everything that team needs and and i've been like listening to all the radio
shows and the podcast of ryan ryan scoring that
game tying goal with seconds left on the clock and then assisting on morgan riley's
game winner and over time and they're all talking about how he's a savior a
winner he doesn't have the you know the the ghosts of the past of the sleeves
team and he's kind of carrying them it's what it's what o'Reilly does
um it's a conversation for another day how frickin amazing that dude would have
been as a second line center on this af's team
but you know it's been such a fun series basically what i'm trying to get at
and why i mentioned this one most with them playing last year going seven
rounds with tampa bay having all they have on the line
given the fact that they are three years in a row in the Stanley Cup final two
championships ever since 2019 they've been the
beasts of the east going up against toronto who if they don't win this
series are going to blow a lot of things up in their front office and their
roster there is a lot of urgency and a lot of stress on
both of those teams to win they played last year and went seven
seven games deep here they are again if you are not tuning in
to toronto verse tampa and you are a hockey fan
you gotta tune in so that's my sale of that series
um because it's been the funnest one to watch so far
there you have it a look around the NHL so i guess let's prepare for uh
whatever happens Tuesday or i guess monday i mean sorry
for some i'm all lost in my days these playoffs and then we got the nuggets
going on to every it's just chaotic right now ready for round two
i don't even know where i am you we turned on the show i'm somewhere in
seattle it's eight o'clock over here i think it's nine o'clock in denver i'm
in ryan clark's office he's in the other room watching hockey i
i'm exhausted i think today's sunday i think i come home Tuesday he was supposed to
be on this episode but what happened yeah we uh we decided to shift it to have
clark on between round one and two so if the avalanche
lose to the crack in then you know we can
talk about what could have been and what happened if the avalanche win then we
can talk about minnesota slash dallas versus the abs in round two
after all as we know ryan clark is not a seattle crack in bure porter he is an
esp and national reporter so it doesn't matter who the abs are playing
he's got some info and some insights and he's got a realm of drid scarf behind
you there so he's got some points in my book but uh and a really comfy
computer try i need one of these at my house i'm excited to see
the uh updates and everything from you uh monday morning from morning skates
so let's see what the lineup looks like let's see the latest news and see if
anything comes up on valentitution the mystery
evolves and see how uh how that develops so
um yeah if you've waited this far in the podcast
bless you pretty little heart let's make our keep for everyone
we got you
you