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In episode 8 of the Inside The Rink podcast, Matty and Smitty are joined by new co-host Conrad Jack. After the long hiatus, we get back to hockey with a PACKED episode!
- Matt Rempe & the Devils vs. Rangers Line Brawl
- Could the Vancouver Canucks squander a playoff opportunity?
- Have the Winnipeg Jets finally figured out their lines?
- Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella is a sound byte MACHINE
- Ovechkin is on his way to 895, Who is next?
- McDavid joins elite company with 100 Assists in a season
- Ryan Hartman was suspended 3 Games, was it worth 3 games??
- Can Auston Matthews hit 70 Goals this season?
- The Eastern Conference Wild Card race is heating up, who lands the two playoff berths?
For all of your hockey news and more from the show, visit us at insidetherink.com and watch us on YouTube!
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How to support us and our sponsors:
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Fanatics
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What is Inside The Rink?
Inside The Rink Podcast, covering hockey news from the NHL, AHL, ECHL, and more. Bringing all of the latest stories in an upbeat, modern, and enjoyable manner.
welcome to the inside the
rink podcast and we return
in episode eight we got the jack
And it's sponsored by
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Just go to InsideTheRink.com,
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coverage and podcasts like this one.
Maddie, Smitty,
and Conrad Jack as we
return after a small hiatus.
yeah yeah a little break
whatever just a wee little
break hey boys yeah that
was seven seven episodes we
were like we're spent so we
had to wait till episode
eight came back yeah we had
to wait for conrad to you
gotta get the young guy in
there yeah we had to wait
for conrad to actually make
it a half decent show so right
Now we have someone that
actually knows hockey and
we can talk to him about, uh,
goings on around the league.
Oh, Smitty.
That's a stretch thing.
I know hockey.
Okay.
That's my bad, but we'll fight through it.
We'll fight through it.
It's a team.
Yeah.
It's a team game.
Absolutely.
Uh, tons of action, tons of, uh, NHL news.
Uh,
of course we haven't been on in about
two months,
so we could talk about a ton of stuff,
but right now let's talk Matt Rempe.
Okay.
He gets a line brawl going
against the New Jersey Devils.
He's played 14 games.
He's averaged about five and
a half minutes of ice time,
and he has 69 penalty minutes.
This guy is like Slapshot 2024 on red.
Oh, well, I mean, if you take a look, well,
I just want to go off of
the stats first and
foremost with Matt Rempe.
His three games against the Devils,
he's been ejected all three games.
I think he has, like,
barely over five minutes of
total ice time.
Uh...
That is tremendous.
I mean, ejected, ejected in every game.
I mean, that's, that's just,
it's doing your job to the
fullest right there.
He's just going out there and,
and being the enforcer that
the Rangers want him to be, I suppose.
Yeah.
I mean, it's circa 1982.
I don't, I don't know this guy.
I don't even know if he can play.
I think he played a little bit.
He has a goal and assist anyway.
So he has done something.
But if you're watching on YouTube,
you'll see the quote on getting tossed.
He says,
I thought I was going to have a
good five minutes in the
penalty box with the fellas.
We were going to be cuddled up in there,
getting cozy and having a good time.
I had no idea that was a rule.
I was like, dang it.
My total ice time didn't go up that game.
He said it was a real banger.
Rampy.
Yeah, I mean, it was.
Sure.
I mean, everybody was fighting.
So, I mean,
they were banging each other around.
What caught me off guard
with all of that is how
quick VC and Lazar went at it.
It's like the puck dropped
and both of them are like
just bear hugging each other,
just chucking them.
And I see everyone else on the ice like,
OK, let's give the crowd a show.
Just VC Lazar is like, I hate you.
We're going to fight.
And it was, yeah, that five fight line,
bro.
Just like good old time hockey.
And that's the first time
since like 2014 that I can remember.
with a Canucks and Flames
brawl that something like
that has happened right off the drop.
Right.
Well, there was a Stars,
was it Stars Bruins?
Was that what's his face?
Avery?
Was that Avery?
Steve Ott and Avery,
Sean Avery was on the Stars
team at that point.
But I don't know if he
fought anyone because he
wasn't really a fighter.
He was more of an agitator,
get in your face, clear things up,
and then get out of the way
and let other people handle
the pugilistic aspect.
So,
um yeah but uh that was a
bunch of penalty minutes I
don't think it was a
full-on line brawl off the
side of the game though it
just it just uh I think
there was a couple guys
that fought and then it
just kind of escalated as
the game went along what I
what I think what I think
we're referencing is the
game where it was three
fights in four seconds or
something like that yeah I
just remember jack edwards
going nuts on the clip just
like oh we got another one
off the draw just right
little things like that it's like
And the crowd loves it, obviously.
I think they do.
And the question on YouTube is,
do the NHL fans want fighting in games?
I think they absolutely do.
Um, and I,
and I don't think there's going
to be much fighting in the,
in the league is actually
threatened to take it out
and all that stuff,
but there is some room for it.
Now this might be a little
over the top what's
happening now with Rempe, but there is,
there is actually a role
for fighting and a lot of
it's the policing of the game with the,
with the players.
And that still needs to
remain in my opinion,
or people are just going to take shots.
And, um, and I,
and I feel like people take
more and more shots recently, uh,
And it's probably because
there's less enforcers in the game.
Yeah,
I think the enforcers can't really
control it without fighting.
You can't have just guys
running around and killing
people and not have fighting in the game.
I think if they try to
uh legislated out of the
game it's just asking for
trouble and you know
there'll be longer
suspensions and guys taking
cheap shots and I think it
needs to be there because
you know the refs miss some
things and then there's you
know if guys get hurt or
stuff like that like there
needs to be some kind of a
payback and that's in those
type of situations so I feel like
You know, fighting has to be there to to,
you know,
it allows the it allows both
teams to kind of answer for
what happened and then move on.
And without that, you know,
that stuff can linger for
for much longer.
The interesting thing about
Rampey is that the Rangers are good,
like really good.
And it's not like they're
just like a bottom feeder
team that needs some
entertainment value thrown
at just a ham and egg or in
there firing shots at
people like they're really good.
So it's I find it
interesting that this guy
is just kind of roaming
around with five and a half
minutes of ice time,
getting all sorts of
penalty minutes on a team
that's that's excellent.
Yeah, you wonder,
does a guy like that create
more space for the likes of
Panarin and Kreider and
Zibanejad and so forth?
Does a guy like that kind of
open up the ice knowing
that if somebody takes a
run at one of those guys,
there's going to be repercussions for it?
That's the other role of
having a guy like that on
your team is maybe your
creative players get a
little more open ice and
don't have to worry so much
about getting suckered or
run or whatever.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, it's interesting.
I think the Rangers should
be a favorite to
potentially get to the
finals and win the Cup.
I mean, they're really good.
Panarin's had a great year again.
But Rempe is just kind of there.
And in the playoffs, I mean,
that doesn't really work.
So does he even make the
lineup heading into the postseason?
I think that's something
that you got to look at the
team because you don't want
a guy like Matt Rempe
coming into the game,
getting a couple of shifts in,
and then all of a sudden
he's gone and you're down a forward.
Now you're going to play
with 11 guys and double
shift another guy.
It's like,
do you run the risk of wearing
your top guys down because
they're playing more now
with Rempe being out?
It's like a lot of factors that,
you have to take into consideration,
especially with rampy
chicken winging guys,
like our guys off the devils.
I can't remember who he chicken wing,
but just little things like that.
Cause other teams are going
to start going after him.
And it just,
it's like a snowball effect of
what's going to happen when
this guy does these sort of
things and just.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think maybe with, uh,
it might be matchup based, you know,
you could see him going
into the lineup against a
team like Florida or
something if they happen to
meet because of the antics
of some of the guys from,
from Florida and the
toughness kind of they have.
Um, but then, you know,
the team like the Bruins, you know,
do you,
would you put Rempe in the lineup to,
you know,
knock around with the likes of
Jasper Boquist and stuff?
Like, I don't think he would, you know,
I think the Rangers have
enough speed and skill and, and, uh,
you know, other,
other things on their team
that they wouldn't need to, um,
have a guy like that in the lineup,
you know, in a series, like, you know,
if they face Boston, for example.
Yeah, I totally agree.
And, you know,
we'll see what happens when
it comes postseason time.
All right, Vancouver Canucks.
This is a team that's been
pretty good this year.
Potentially unable to
capitalize on potential playoff success,
Conrad.
Yeah, so I take a look at this team.
I also fired off a few
tweets about this and got
myself into some hot water
because my team got on a
nice long losing streak,
but that's not the point.
I've watched the Canucks
from the start of the season,
and they had a bit of a dip.
They kind of came back, played a few games,
and it looked like they had their mojo,
and then they acquire Elias
Lindholm well before the trade deadline.
And now you have this team
that's kind of struggling to keep afloat.
I think since acquiring Lindholm,
they're just barely above .500,
which isn't good because
he's supposed to be an
impact guy and he's your
third-line center.
Going into the playoffs,
you have guys who should
make the lineup who aren't
going to make the lineup
because they're going to
get pushed down the depth charts.
And I watched Vancouver play.
I think they're frauds
because of their lack of just finishing.
They don't have that it factor.
Like, yes, you got Pedersen and Besser,
but like,
you don't got a guy who's going
to go in there and take
control of the game.
The thing about Lindholm is
that Smitty and I talked
about on the Bruins podcast,
we didn't really want
Lindholm on the Bruins
because he really hadn't
been producing that much.
And Smitty was definitely
someone who just would
rather not use the capital
to get him and would not
like to extend him.
Especially for that price.
Yeah, that's the thing.
I think the price is coming down.
Every game he plays,
the price is coming down lower and lower.
Yeah,
he'll be an effective third-line center,
but he wanted nine and
change from Calgary.
That's not the price of a
third-line center.
So, you know,
if he's going to not really
produce and he's going to
be getting less minutes, he could be a,
you know,
a suitable third line center face off guy,
you know, and put up 40 points.
That's nice.
But you're certainly not
getting top of the market money for that.
Uh, and, and I think you're right, Conrad,
I think since he's been to
gone to Vancouver,
they've kind of haven't
really been able to find
where he fits well with that team.
And he's just not really producing like he,
like they thought he would.
I think they thought he
would come in and really
give a lift to their bottom
six and really kind of, um,
stabilize and energize that, that group.
And he really hasn't done it.
So they, you know,
they they may be in a
little bit of trouble.
I mean,
they have a pretty deep team and
they have some defense and
Demko is really good.
So, you know, they'll be they'll be OK.
But the West is stacked.
I mean,
there's a lot of great teams in the West.
And if they're, you know,
playing at less than their
optimum level going into the postseason,
they're going to be in for
a rude awakening here, you know,
in one of the early rounds.
And Lindholm's out now with
a hand and wrist injury,
and he's out for a little
bit of extended period of time.
So it could be into the
playoffs that he's out.
So that kind of backfired on
them to give him any sort
of balance or stability
there with the addition of Lindholm.
And who knows what happens
to him at the end of the year?
I mean, like you said, he might be in...
he might have to do a prove
it deal with a team just to, just to,
you might have to do a
bridge deal because he just hasn't,
he just hasn't been the
type of player that people
thought he would be.
He was white hot in the
beginning of the year.
His name was everywhere.
And now I'm not sure how
many teams will be
interested in him at any type of price.
Like you're talking about, I mean,
a third line center,
you're talking maybe 4 million a year.
Like,
not nine.
Now that's just ridiculous.
So be interested to see what
Lindholm can do.
And if he actually gets
playoff playoff time with a
wrist injuries are funny.
I mean, that's, that's your whole game.
That's your hands.
That's can't lose your hands as a center.
Can't face off.
Can't score.
Can't shoot.
I mean, that's everything.
So.
And I,
I think also with the price they
gave up for him,
Kuzmanko and Hunter
Brustavich alone could have
been enough to get him.
if that's the role they knew
they were going to play him in.
But you added a first-round
pick and two other pretty
decent pieces to the deal.
Yikes.
Wow.
I look at Winnipeg and all that,
and I see what they acquired,
which we'll get into right away,
but I see the market for centers,
and I'm like, that's not... Like, yes,
you're going out way ahead
of the deadline,
so the price might be far,
far higher than what you wanted, but...
Now they've been figuring
out the right line combinations, Conrad.
Is that right?
Yeah.
See,
I got a little mad last night and
cause Rick bonus seems to
continuously get back to
having Kyle Connor and Mark
Shifley play together.
And it's a line that keeps
getting caved in.
They went eight or they got
outscored eight,
nothing in a six game losing streak.
And just defensively, they were awful.
So,
Bones finally says, you know what?
We're playing L.A.
We got to snap this losing streak.
And he plays Nick Ehlers
with Shifley and Velarde,
bumping Kyle Conner down to
the second left-wing
position with Sean Monaghan,
who they only gave up a first for.
And what's his name?
I have it picked up,
but I should have this memorized.
Perfetti.
And now you have two first
lines on a team,
that shouldn't have the
depth that they do.
With Niederreiter being down, it's like,
okay, we're going to bump Toffoli down,
and we have all this
interchangeable depth
because Ayafoll has gone
from the first line all the
way to the fourth,
and he's effective wherever he goes.
You've got Lowry who will
step into the second line
or even first line center position.
It's so much interchangeable
depth that this team has
that if they want to be the
team to beat in the playoffs or –
Sorry, I said that backwards.
If they want to beat the
teams like Colorado,
who are the teams you want to beat,
you need to have this depth,
and your strength needs to
be your scoring and
everything that you have
going on the wings.
You need the finishing touches.
While I don't believe
Winnipeg has that with this lineup,
they have the interchangeable depth.
They'll change on the fly.
Sometimes they're reluctant,
but if you look at the roster as a whole,
you have 16 guys.
who can get put into the lineup.
Yeah,
I feel like the depth of Winnipeg is
definitely one of their strengths.
And you need that in the
playoffs because usually,
and we've talked about this before,
the top lines,
the top six guys kind of
cancel each other out.
And then it's left to the
depth guys to win series and win games.
You know,
it's the depth scoring usually
that leads to victories in series.
And then Winnipeg also has
tremendous goaltending, which...
The Avalanche don't really have.
Edmonton doesn't really have.
So you're looking at a team like Dallas,
a team like Vegas maybe,
that can match goaltending-wise.
But I think with the depth
and the goaltending that Winnipeg has,
there'll certainly be a
tough out in the playoffs.
They could,
and the only problem is that
they're staring down the
barrel of a Colorado first round series,
which is really hard.
Like you said,
if offensively they're not
getting some balance
throughout the lineup,
Colorado can score goals.
Colorado has excellent talent,
good offensive talent,
and that might be a really
bad matchup for someone like Winnipeg.
Maybe Winnipeg can hang in and
But I think that Shifley, you know,
there's no surprise that
Shifley and Connor would
have one of the worst
defensive pairings there.
I mean,
they're just not known for Shifley
is widely regarded as a bad
defensive player.
So, you know, it's, you know,
to get you definitely have
to separate those two.
We've talked about with the Bruins,
Pasternak and Marchand,
like they turn the puck over.
a little bit too much
together to really play together.
So it's just too many turnovers, too much,
you know, just too much unbalanced play.
The same can be true for Shifley and,
and that group, because it's just, it's,
you know, it's just, it just doesn't work,
especially in the playoffs.
You can't be giving up odd
man rushes and more,
more offensive chances,
especially to a team like Colorado.
And the thing, all right, John,
what's that?
Go ahead.
John Tortorella.
It's in the news again.
I tell you what,
I'd love Torts to be the Bruins,
and I'm a big Bruins fan.
We host a Bruins podcast.
I'd love Torts to be the Bruins coach.
I would.
I mean, I just love coaches like Torts.
He says it like it is.
We've had that with Bruce
Cassidy in Boston before,
but Tortorella would take
it to another level,
and he calls guys out,
and he calls his team out, and so forth,
and he does it with such honesty.
And recently, after a game,
he talked about how the Flyers, who he's,
I believe,
has completely squeezed
everything out of.
Like,
this is a team that should not be
where it is.
It's in playoff position.
But he says that there's a different level,
which is true,
as you get to the end of the year,
trying to get that last
wildcard spot or whatever the case,
and getting into the
playoffs and succeeding.
And Tortorella had this to
say after a postgame recently.
John,
it seemed like after San Juan scores
that goal early in the second period,
you guys got all the
momentum and things kind of
came to a stop.
What was your assessment of
where things were?
Soft.
One guy played, the goalie.
How encouraging is it that
he came in like that cold
and was able to?
Terrific.
He's the only guy that played.
Is that pretty surprising?
Considering you said you trust your team,
you don't have to tell them
or remind them, and then they do that.
You're finding things out here, okay,
when these games are at a
whole different plane, okay?
It's still regular season, right?
But it's a whole different plane.
So we're finding things out.
That was kind of what you
felt like wasn't a great performance.
Are you concerned at all
that tonight it kind of
lingered again that you
just said it was a soft game per se?
Not the whole game and not
the whole group.
There are certain people
that they don't have a clue
how to play or just don't
have it in them to play in
these type of situations.
And this is why I'm glad
we're playing them.
Because we have to figure
things out as far as what
we're going to become as a team here.
That was embarrassing in the
second period for the
Philadelphia Flyer uniform,
the way we played.
Embarrassing.
High marks as far as how we
came back in the third.
Some guys.
With regards to Ivan,
why did you make the
decisions to bring him in
and how impressed were you
in his performance tonight?
I wanted to bring him in.
It just didn't look right
with Urs and I'm totally impressed.
I put him in a hell of a spot.
And he's the only goddamn
player that played in the second period.
No.
Yeah, yeah, we can talk about that.
To rest, this, that, the other thing.
If you don't have enough
balls to play in these type of games,
rest doesn't do us any good.
Doesn't do us any good.
He's had a hair across his
ass with Kateria, hasn't he?
Oh yeah.
He really has.
Yeah.
I mean, maybe he's not caught in or,
or maybe getting a little
pushback from him or, you know,
he's the captain.
So he's the one that he kind
of has to drill down on to
kind of get the rest of the
guys to fall in line and say, look,
I'm going to,
I'm going to treat Sean Kateria this way.
So the rest of you, you know,
assholes better,
better fall in line because you know, or,
or,
or you'll sit for a long period of time,
you know?
Um, but I love towards, I, I, I,
I love his honesty, but,
and he's a hell of a coach.
Uh, like you said,
squeezing every ounce of,
of everything that he could
get from this flyers team,
but he is definitely one of
those coaches that has a shelf life.
You get to a certain point
and everybody's like,
this fucking guy won't get
off my back for crying out loud.
Can somebody hire someone?
Can we get someone else in
here who's not going to rip
me a new one every time I
turn the puck over at the blue line?
It reminds me of the Ryan
Kessler interview on Spit
and Chicklets where he was
just like going at Kessler,
stripped him of his A and all that,
and then almost fought him
in practice pretty much.
And he's like, I fucking love it, Kess.
I fucking love it.
You're going to get your A back next year.
And Kessler's like,
you're not going to be back
here next year.
I'm not going to be back here either.
And this is like little things like that.
It's like Torts definitely
has a shelf life,
but there's a reason why.
he has continued to find a
job in the league.
Sure.
Sure.
I mean, he gets,
he gets you there and then
they may even win it maybe
next year or whatever.
He gets you there.
But then after a while, it's just like,
that's, that's enough.
I mean, it's, he's kind of a hot, hot,
hot knife through steak.
He's just like kind of after a while,
I just like, okay, okay, dude.
But what I love is that that was like a,
that was like a post game on a,
on a bad one night stand
where you just say like, Hey,
what's the one thing that
comes to mind after that performance?
Soft.
Yeah.
That's like, you know,
that was just incredible.
I love it.
I love torts.
I mean, I just, I mean,
I would love to play for a guy like torts,
you know, but some people don't, you know,
and it's hard nowadays,
obviously players dictate things.
We saw it with Cassidy in Boston,
like players dictate things and,
and the coach goes,
you can't fire all the
players and that type of thing.
But torts has done a great
job with that group.
And that's a team that I
didn't think had any chance
of making the playoffs.
And here we are, like,
just really on the cusp of making it.
And it's a scary team
because they'll have no
expectations and they play hard.
Like, he gets them playing hard.
And they're a scary team.
They get going.
They win game one.
And all of a sudden, you're in a dogfight.
So that's a scary team.
All right,
Alex Ovechkin is on his way to 895 goals.
He sped up a little bit here,
and the Caps are actually another team.
Completely surprised by the Caps.
I thought they were one of
the worst teams in the
league coming into the season.
But Ove is getting there,
and I think he's actually
going to get there.
He's at 848.
So he's about, what is that,
46 away from Gretzky.
Yeah, he'll get there.
I think he will.
He'll play until he gets there.
We'll put it that way.
I think so.
Uh,
whether he's just out there on the
power play,
just banging one timers until he hits it.
Uh, but he will, he'll get there.
And, um, and then I think, you know,
down the line,
you're looking at a guy
like Austin Matthews, who, uh, uh,
we talked to Ardo Cal, uh,
and he thinks Matthews will
pass Ovechkin at some point.
And it certainly looks like
Matthews as well on his way with, uh,
you know,
does he have 60 already this year?
Oh, he has 63 this year.
63, yeah.
So, you know, and, you know,
if he starts putting
together back-to-back, you know, 55, 60,
65 goal seasons,
it's only a matter of time
before Matthews catches
Ovechkin and Gretzky.
He's only 26 years old.
I was going to say, he's still very young.
So he's got a long time in front of him,
and it's just whether or
not he plays long enough to
get up into that stratosphere.
Right.
I agree.
And that's, you know,
there's only three people
ever who scored over 800 goals.
And I tweeted out on our
Bruins friends' account a
while back that there were
a few like Nathan McKinnon
and Matthews and Pasternak.
who are in the mid-300s range,
under 30 years old,
who all have a chance.
But like you said, longevity is the key.
I mean,
with the money that's in the game
and those types of things,
are guys really going to
play until they're 36, 37, 38?
You know,
there are some in the league right now.
You know,
the Zach Parises and Goligoskis
and guys who have been
around quite a bit and
played a long time in the league.
But do guys like Matthews
and Pasternak play that long?
You know, in the league, who knows,
but definitely have a chance.
And so do you think, okay, Conrad,
I'll ask you this.
Does Ovi do it with the caps?
Do they, I mean,
I would assume he would and
the caps would want him to, but I mean,
he's a guy who every single
year would be a candidate
to kind of deal for a playoff run,
wouldn't he?
Yes,
and I think the Capitals have done a
good job at keeping the
team relatively competitive
because they're fighting
for a wild card spot at the moment.
It's a wild duck chase right now.
With the way that Ovechkin
kind of started the season
and everyone's like, oh, he's 38,
he's slowing down,
and now he's picking it
right up near the end of
the season because, well, one,
they're in the playoff hunt, and two,
you have the team
to go on this run like you
have patch ready Sandin uh
McMichael you have a bunch
of young guys and then a
lot of really strong
leaders too to go on top of
it so it's like you have to
look at the team that they
have put around him and you
also have to look at
Ovechkin's play because 846
or 848 goals later in the
league and he's still in
that one position in the
power play still scoring
from that one angle
Yeah.
I mean, he's, he's X. I mean, he's just,
I mean, he, one,
one thing about OB that's
impressive is the fact that
he he'll play physically.
He always has.
And he is tremendously durable.
I mean, my God,
he's like a machine and
he's still out there
playing at a fairly high level.
And I mean,
he may be a little bit more one
dimensional than he was,
but there was a time where
he was banging bodies and
playing physically and,
having a different impact in
the game than just scoring
goals on the power play.
And that may be how it ends.
Like Smitty said,
just kind of being
specialty guy and that's fine.
But it's interesting that
the Capitals have been able to,
because I really thought
this was a Cal Ripken type
of situation where all of a sudden,
like you're just waiting
this guy out and your
roster is struggling through it.
And you just, at the end of it,
it's just your bare bones.
You're all done.
Like you have to completely
rebuild after this.
Like you're selling your soul for this.
But it doesn't seem to be that way.
It seems to be that they've
done a pretty good job of
staying relevant and
staying in the playoff chase.
Whether or not they make it, who knows?
But at least they've been
able to remain relevant in
the playoff chase.
All right.
Moves that we think teams
should have or should not
have made at the trade deadline.
Conrad,
anything come to mind for you as
far as who should have made?
I think I kind of alluded
with the whole Vancouver thing is
The Elias Lindholm trade is
one that they should not have made.
And I feel so strongly about that.
And I'm pretty sure my trade
deadline grade piece,
I think I gave them a D.
I was very rough to them.
And then San Jose also comes
to mind with some boneheaded ass moves,
trading Thomas Hurdle with
two third round picks,
which are basically second
round picks for how bad the
team is going to be over
the next five years for
their best prospect in
Vegas at a first round pick.
That's basically a second
round fucking pick.
Like, what are we doing in San Jose?
It's a clear F on their part.
So I got two teams that I
want to rip an asshole about,
but here we are.
Yeah,
I think Mike Greer in San Jose
probably should be fired
for the way that he did.
I don't think there's any
two ways about it.
He should have been fired
for negotiating to Trent Hurdle.
Even cap retention on it.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
The, the, you know,
the retention back and then
not getting enough.
It's, it's a,
it's a viable offense in my opinion.
And, and then, um, you know,
some moves that people did
make at the deadline, you look at,
you know, Vegas gets hurdle, uh, you know,
Edmonton gets some pieces, um, you know,
uh, Colorado with the trade for, um,
uh buffalo who was it oh um
uh middle middle stats are
uh byron that was a good
move for them to give them
some more depth um so you
know the teams in the west
kind of loaded up there for
the for the stretch run uh
and it's going to be a
battle uh and then you know
tampa and you know makes a
minor move and florida
makes a minor move with duclair and
uh you know carolina uh
makes a move so um there
were some good moves made
by by some of the
contenders in the east you
know boston gets the peak
trade I uh peak and I think
that was a little bit of an
underrated signing uh he's
kind of fit in well with
them on their third pair
and giving them a little
bit more physicality and pk
work so um it seems like
most of the contenders made
pretty good little moves
with the exception like uh
conrad said of of vancouver uh and and
And, you know,
then there's... I don't know if... I mean,
San Jose obviously was a
dumpster fire or whatever, but... Yeah,
you know,
I think that... I thought when
it happened that the
deadline was a pretty good deadline.
I thought that teams didn't
have a lot of room to take
on salaries and had to be creative.
And I thought it was going
to be a real dud.
I really did, but...
It really wasn't.
I thought teams did a really
good job of having some creativity,
getting enough help.
Many teams did.
We kind of lamented Boston
not getting something a little bit better,
maybe a centerman or
another scoring winger.
But when you look at Maroon, who's now...
he's going to start playing for them.
And that's probably a good
move because they do need
some bottom six help.
And then the peak trade was
a really good one, as Smitty said.
So they actually did some
things to really shore
themselves up when they
didn't have a lot of cap
space or any capital to trade.
They don't have great prospects.
They don't have a lot of
high picks and don't
certainly want to give any
more of them up.
So I thought that was a
pretty good deadline all around for
But the Lindholm thing was,
if you could ever see
something coming a mile away,
it's that Elias Lindholm thing.
It's just like,
you could just see it
coming that he just wasn't
performing well,
wasn't producing well in a
real dry spell.
And then you make that trade
with all that was sent in return.
It was just like a head scratcher for me.
It's just all the red alerts
were there to not do
something to that magnitude
with Lindholm.
Another thing with that
Lindholm trade is Vancouver,
I very strongly believe
they're going to get
bounced in the first round.
Right.
So you're giving up a pretty
decent first round pick on
top of some other pretty
decent assets for a guy who
might not even sniff the
playoffs with this team.
Right.
And I thought Carolina
really helped themselves with Gensel.
He's been really hot since
he's been there.
Carolina has a lot of good
forwards and he'll fit right in there.
And they just got Freddie Anderson back.
And, you know,
with the exception of the
Bruins game last night,
he's been terrific since he came back,
I believe 11 and one before that game.
with the,
with the goals against under two.
So, um, you know,
Carolina is going to be a
really tough out cause
they're playing well and, and have,
you know, the defensive depth and, and,
uh, you know,
a really good solid forward group.
Um, if they can, you know,
figure some things out, uh, as far as, um,
you know, fetching the cause, taking some,
some, uh,
kind of stupid penalties he did
last night.
Um, so they need to clean some stuff up,
but there'll be, uh,
there'll be a tough out in the East.
But, you know,
Vancouver's looking down the
barrel of a L.A.
Kings first round matchup.
And the Kings are pretty good.
And I would favor the Kings
in that series.
It could either be the Kings or the Preds,
looks like.
The Preds have been fairly hot.
Bruins beat them the other night,
but they had won eight out
of nine at home in a really hot.
And the Kings are pretty good.
Either one of those two
teams could upset Vancouver
in the first round.
One thing with Nashville, too,
is they went from not having a great...
not so great to start to
this season and then the
whole thing with the
youtube concert and the
team out and getting
cancelled they went on just
an absolute terror they did
I've I don't know if
they're still or no they're
just sniffing up winnipeg's
back for the third central
spot but right nashville is
going to be a very sneaky
team when it comes to
playoffs because yeah 92 points
The admirals are also a really,
really good team and they
have so much depth.
It's like guy goes down,
they got a guy who'll come
in and step right into that role.
It's no problem for a national.
the guy I always thought was
really underrated is Philip
is Philip Forsberg.
Like he's 87 points.
Like he's such a good player.
Um,
they don't really have enough around
him ever, but man, he's so good.
And he signed to extend with them.
And I just think he's an
under the radar star for them.
Like no one,
people don't give them enough
credit for being,
if he was on a team in a
bigger market or,
You know, in a more of a hotbed of hockey,
like, man,
like he'd be someone that the
league is really, you know,
that's really on top of the league.
And he's just so, so good.
And he kind of makes that team go.
Connor McDavid joins Wayne Gretzky,
Bobby Orr,
and Mario Lemieux is the only
players to record 100
assists in a season.
Nikita Kucherov has 90.
I don't think he's going to get there,
but he has 90 this season.
But 100 assists.
for McDavid.
That's pretty impressive.
Yeah, it really is.
I mean, that's, uh,
that's pretty good company to be in with,
uh, with Kresge, Lemieux and Orr.
So, um, you know, he, he just continues to,
to put up numbers and, and now, uh,
his legacy will be, you know,
can he get over the hump and,
and win a cup?
All those other guys have
multiple Stanley cups.
So he needs to, uh,
he needs to join that elite
company if he wants to be
mentioned in the same
breath as those guys.
Uh, I mean, you know,
he's a tremendous talent and, um, but he,
he really needs the playoff success now,
um, to be mentioned among the greats.
Yeah, I mean,
Edmonton-Vegas could be the
first round matchup.
And that's a tough one.
That's a tough one.
I mean, Vegas has been dinged up.
I mean, Eichel was out for a while.
Stone was out for a while.
But man, if they can get healthy,
they're fully healthy.
That's a tough first round
matchup for Edmonton.
Yeah, it is.
I think they have 21 or 22
million on long term
injured reserve right now.
Yeah, that they're, you know,
that they got guys hanging
out just off to just off to
the off to the side of the rink there.
And so all around and then
you see everybody hop the
boards and be like salary cap gymnastics.
Yeah.
I mean, hey, it's legal.
And, you know,
everybody kind of jumps on
people for doing that and, you know,
cap circumvention and all this stuff.
But until somebody closes that loophole,
you got to use everything
that's available to you in
order to field the best
team possible to win it.
So, you know,
Vegas is doing what Tampa did
for a long time and some
other teams have done to, you know,
kind of get around that and
have the best team come to playoffs.
I've had this conversation
with a few friends, too.
It's like,
if it's there and the league
isn't doing anything about it, yes,
it might seem like cheating
to us because we're fans of other teams.
Right.
But they are doing what the
league refuses to kind of
put their foot down on.
Sure.
100%.
If it's there, use it.
Like, I would love for Winnipeg to do it.
I would love for Boston to do it.
Yeah.
Like Toronto did or tried to
do it a few years ago.
Yeah.
You got these teams that try to do it,
but you got other teams who
are doing it to an extreme,
like Tampa with the 18
million goes and wins the cup.
Can't fault them for using what's within,
I guess,
I don't want to say the rule book,
but tactically in the rule book,
the LTIR thing.
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean, that's part of the gig.
I mean,
that's a loophole that you take
advantage of for sure.
Yeah.
Um,
Minnesota wild for Ryan Hartman gets
three games suspension for
throwing a stick on the ice, uh,
from the bench after a game last weekend,
the second time he has
received supplemental
discipline in the season
and the third over the past
year for Ryan Hartman.
Nobody likes him, I guess, huh?
In the league office?
What, did he piss in George Daros' chair?
Three games?
Is it because of the multiple infractions?
Three games for throwing your stick?
It has to be.
I mean,
there really can't be any other
explanation for that.
It's because he was already
disciplined once this year or whatever.
That has to be the reason.
It has to be.
Because throwing your stick off the bench,
I mean, sure.
That's more like a 10-minute
misconduct than...
then, you know, suspension worthy,
in my opinion, I don't know.
It's like, that's like a, you know,
go hit the showers early, buddy.
We'll see you.
Right.
Not,
it's not suspension level in my opinion,
but I mean, I,
I have no idea what the
people of player safety
deem suspension worthy and
not suspension worthy or
how many games they should give.
It seems like it's fucking
completely arbitrary to me.
Like they just spin the
wheel of fortune and they're like, Oh,
bankrupt.
You get fucking 10 games.
And then this other time,
Yeah.
You know,
give somebody a slight push from
behind and he gets a
boarding and then they give them,
you know,
five games or they give them 5,000 bucks.
Like it's just all over the place.
It's completely arbitrary
what the decisions are from team team,
from game to game.
Um,
player to player.
It's all over the place and
I wish it was a little more consistent.
I think that's really all
anyone would ask for is
just be consistent with
what you call and what you
dole out as punishment.
Yeah, I agree.
I just think it's throwing darts,
throwing darts.
I don't know.
Or whatever the mood swings.
Someone's in a pissy mood,
and I'm tired of player discipline,
so you get five games.
Or we haven't had one in a while, so yeah,
give him a fine.
He's fine.
It just seems like that.
It just seems like if you
hit me at the wrong time,
And I've had too much of
this crap this last week.
Then I'm going to just lay
the smack down on you.
And that's, you know, in the Hartman thing,
it's definitely basically them saying, OK,
Ryan, that's enough.
That's enough from you.
Like,
that's it before it escalates even
further, which I'm OK.
I mean, I'm OK with,
but it's just such
inconsistency in all of it.
And some guys get treated differently.
And then other guys do.
And then you can talk about the teams,
which teams seem to get, you know,
anytime anybody has an
infraction against the Bruins,
they get a fine at the most.
Like,
it just seems like nothing ever
happens if something
happens to a Bruins player.
They just don't get suspended very,
you know, very harshly or anything.
I mean, Boston also did.
has gotten away with murder before.
Not literally,
but it feels like they've
committed murder.
Peros is like, whatever,
you guys are fine.
It's extremely inconsistent.
You know who's very
consistent is Austin Matthews,
who's at 63 goals.
Does he get to 70?
He has seven games remaining.
Seven goals in seven games?
I have the schedule pulled
up and they play some pretty tough teams.
Okay.
The only two kind of not so
tough teams are Montreal and Pittsburgh,
but the rest, maybe New Jersey,
but New Jersey, isn't that bad.
They're just having a down
year in my opinion,
but like you got Florida, Tampa,
you got some pretty decent
teams coming up.
So Tampa shut them down to just one goal,
but,
That's a goal per game for
the rest of the season, maybe less.
I think he hits it because I
think he could score four
or five against Pittsburgh.
Honestly, fair enough.
I think they got more
offensive inclination.
Yeah.
I mean,
I think Pittsburgh's kind of cashed,
cashed it in.
They're like, yeah, I mean,
Crosby's trying,
but I'm not sure the rest
of the team is really just
in the last few games, you know, devils.
He had a goal.
He had a goal.
He had two goals against Florida,
one goal against Tampa.
like it seems like he's scoring against,
you know, the good teams too.
Yeah.
I mean,
put those guys on the power play and,
and he can score, he can score a bunch.
So I'm going to say he hits it.
I'm going to say he hits it.
I say he comes just like one
or two goals shy.
It's like he can score,
but he needs to get in a groove.
Yeah.
Okay.
And again,
you got that Pittsburgh team
with Carlson on defense,
the reigning Norris trophy winner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm looking back against this season,
and I don't see a goal,
if you can believe it,
against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Really?
That means he's going to break out.
Did not score a goal against
the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Scored a shitload against Philadelphia.
Oh, my God.
At least seven.
but Austin does too.
He lights up the flyers.
Oh, he lights up the,
and David Krejci used to as well.
Yeah.
Lit up the flyers, uh, like a lampshade.
But, uh, I, I think, um,
he has a real chance.
It'll be interesting to see
if he plays all those games.
I mean, do they,
do they give him a load management,
you know, once or twice,
or does it depend on
whether or not he's at 68 or whatever?
He'll, he'll play.
He wants it.
He wants 70.
We know for sure a player like that,
do that in the modern era
because it was cool when he
did 60 and then fucking
Pasternak and McDavid do it
the same or the next season.
Is McGilney and Solani the last to get 70?
Who's the last to get 70?
That's a good question.
I think they both had 76.
Solani and McGilney.
I don't know if there's been
a 70 for a while, right?
I don't think so.
McDavid is supposed to be 70.
It might be McGillney.
It might be McGillney.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's impressive.
All right.
Wildcard race in the East.
Flyers, Capitals, Red Wings.
And there's maybe another team.
Which team locks up the last
Eastern Conference playoff spot?
Pittsburgh's actually surging a little,
although they're slightly behind.
Who gets in?
I'm honestly going to say
Detroit is the team that sneaks in.
Yeah, I'm in agreement with Flyers,
Red Wings.
Get in.
Yeah, I think so, too.
I think Detroit gets in.
I just I don't think.
I mean,
Islanders have played one more game
than Detroit.
And are only up a point.
So I feel like Detroit will
sneak in there.
And Philly, you know,
they've lost five in a row.
So that doesn't bode well for them.
No, it doesn't.
And that's probably why
torches beside himself.
Yeah.
And they got some tough games coming up.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure the flyers stay
in the playoff race.
I think they may fall out of it.
Cause I, I just,
they just don't have enough.
Like he's gotten every ounce
out of them and they just,
they just don't have enough.
I feel like, um, you know,
the Islanders have some
goaltending and some forward, you know,
Washington's right there.
So I feel like one of those
teams will probably jump
over the flyers and get in.
And I did look up the 70 goals, by the way,
and it was McGilney and Solani,
both in that 92-93 season, both had 76.
McGilney did it in 77 games.
Solani in 84 games.
And before that,
it was Brett Hull had 70 in 91, 92.
And before that, 86 in 90, 91.
Brett Hull?
Yeah.
Wow.
86.
Jeez.
Yeah.
So that's, wow.
So that's, yeah.
So that's McGillney and what was it?
93, 94, 92, 93, 92, 93.
So 31 years ago,
McGillney and Solani both
in that same year.
And then before that, um,
Brett Hull in three straight years had,
uh, 72, 86 and 70.
Wow.
Wow.
That's Adam Oates, right?
In the mid-80s.
Yeah, it was late 80s, early 90s.
89, 90, 90, 91, and 91, 92.
Yeah,
I think Oates was in there somewhere.
Yeah, I think Oates was still there then.
Actually, Oates,
we were talking about
college free agents.
Colin Graff went to San Jose.
Jackson Nelson, the Bruins.
It was Jacob Quillen went to Toronto.
And in that talk,
who are actually any
superstars that come in as
college free agents?
And Adam Oates is probably the all-timer.
At RPI.
RPI, yeah.
Yeah.
And there's a list of some
that really did come about
and have really good careers.
There's not a ton of them.
But Adam Oates is definitely
far and above the best
college free agent signing
ever as a Hall of Famer.
So that'll do it for this
episode of Inside the Rink podcast.
We're back at it.
We're back at it weekly.
Next week we can do our
playoff predictions probably.
Yeah, sounds good.
I think we'll be like a day
away from the final of the season.
So...
Oh, yeah,
definitely get to InsideTheRink.com.
You can get merchandise on there.
You can get great articles,
extensive hockey coverage,
and other great podcasts.
And we'll see you again next week.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks a lot.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.