welcome to the inside the rink podcast and we return in episode eight we got the jack And it's sponsored by DraftKings Sportsbook. Presented by InsideTheRink.com, your one-stop shop for all your NHL, ECHL, AHL news, insight, and analysis. Just go to InsideTheRink.com, get your extensive hockey 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.