The Flyers Shock The Met And Clinch The 3 Seed

Summary

Empty Netters Podcast: The Flyers Shock The Met And Clinch the 3 Seed

Podcast: Empty Netters Podcast (Almost Friday Media)
Date: April 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Empty Netters crew unpacks a thrilling and chaotic final weekend of the NHL regular season, highlighted by the Philadelphia Flyers’ shocking clinch of the third seed in the Metropolitan Division. Dan Powers, Chris Powers, and Evan bring their signature brotherly banter and sharp hockey insight to breaking down wild card chaos in both conferences, the fallout for teams left on the outside, and dig deep on the NHL’s best and worst front office storylines. Later, they’re joined by Tal Pinchevsky to talk about his new Hartford Whalers documentary and the enduring legacy of lost franchises. The pod wraps with Coachella stories, the annual debate on NHL theme songs, and a wild Beer League Hotline scenario.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Wild Card Weekend Chaos & Playoff Clinching Drama

• Eastern Conference shakeup: The Philadelphia Flyers beat the odds to clinch the #3 seed in the Metropolitan Division, knocking out the Capitals and Blue Jackets.
• Key elimination results:
  • New Jersey Devils eliminate the Red Wings with a 5-3 win.
  • Blue Jackets beat the Canadiens 5-2.
  • Senators blank the Islanders 3-0—locking in wild-card spots for Bruins and Senators.
• Boston Bruins’ steadiness: Bruins were a wild card bubble team “all year,” as Dan reminds everyone he called this perfectly in preseason.
  • “No one has ever been more fucking dialed than I was in our season previews when I was like, Boston will be a wild card bubble team all season.” — Dan Powers (04:35)
• Ottawa Senators’ late charge:
  • “The Sensation from the death. Just what a fight.” — Chris Powers (04:11)
• Summing up the playoff mix:
  • Boston & Ottawa clinch wild cards; Red Wings and Islanders now eliminated.
  • Ongoing jostling for Atlantic division seeding: Sabres, Habs, Bolts all in play.

Timestamp:

• Wild card context and results: [02:32] – [06:44]
• Boston & Ottawa playoff outlook: [03:41] – [05:46]

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2. The Detroit Red Wings: "ISER Plan" Autopsy

• Disappointment in Detroit: Long, heated debate over Steve Yzerman’s management and the missing identity of the “ISER Plan”.
  • “There is no ISER plan. Like, that's my biggest takeaway from the Wings the last few years.” — Chris Powers (07:07)
  • “A lot of the naysayers and the boobirds about [Yzerman] not being a good GM have a lot of ground to stand on right now.” — Dan Powers (07:41)
• Key issues highlighted:
  • Top four players (DeBrincat, Raymond, Larkin, Seider) all had strong seasons, but the depth falls off a cliff.
  • Patrick Kane’s performance dissected: “I need you to score goals. You’re Patrick Kane. Even if you’re 37... I need you to get more goals than 16.”
• GM job security:
  • Debate over Yzerman’s future: “I don't think Iserman will be fired. But for the first time... if you're a Red Wings fan and you’re upset with Steve Yzerman—I get it.” — Dan Powers (13:10)

Timestamp: Detroit Red Wings “ISER plan” breakdown: [06:54] – [14:56]

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3. Metropolitan & Western Conference Wild Card Math

• Philly’s clutch win:
  • “The Flyers could lock themselves in and eliminate both Washington and Columbus if they win this game tonight.” — Dan Powers (16:14)
  • Islanders collapse: “They felt like the most locked... when we had Schaefer on the pod. It felt like they were such a lock for playoffs.” — Dan Powers (16:49)
• Islanders & Sharks heartbreak: Both franchises were in the driver’s seat for a spot, but slip out due to brutal last-week stretches and injuries.
• Western Conference race:
  • Kings catch fire to potentially win the Pacific after an up-and-down campaign.
  • Kings’ playoff scenarios explained and potential matchups discussed (Kings vs. Oilers rivalry, etc.)
  • “The Kings are on a four-game heater... They could literally win the Pacific. It’s hilarious!” — Dan Powers (18:48)
  • Jets and Caps, top teams from last season, both miss playoffs.

Timestamp:

• Philly’s clinch and Met breakdown: [15:21] – [17:45]
• West playoff chaos: [18:26] – [22:42]

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4. Farewell to Legends: Kopitar & Quick’s Last Rides

• Anže Kopitar:
  • Celebrating his legacy in his emotional last regular season home game:
    • “He’s the all-time leader in points, assists, game-winning goals and games played for the Kings... The greatest King of all time.” — Dan Powers (24:17)
• Jonathan Quick’s Retirement:
  • Recognition of career and question whether the Kings will “mend fences” over his exit.
  • “That’s a jersey number retiring.” — Chris Powers (25:50)

Memorable moment:

• Reflecting on aging with your childhood heroes: “You just watch the people you grew up loving just get older, to retire.” — Chris Powers (24:19)

Timestamp: [23:01] – [26:32]

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5. College Hockey: Denver’s Dynasty, Michigan’s Agony

• Denver’s third title in five years:
  • “Denver wins their third title in five years... Johnny Hicks was fucking ridiculous in net.” — Dan Powers (29:10)
• Michigan’s continued heartbreak:
  • “The most horrendous run for Michigan since 1998 continues to be so depressing and embarrassing...” — Dan Powers (26:58)
• Coach Dave Carle’s future: Extended discussion on whether young Denver coach will jump to NHL or build a dynasty in college.

Timestamp: [26:32] – [33:47]

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6. Interview: Tal Pinchevsky & The Hartford Whalers Documentary

• Origins of the film: Tal and co-director Pat Pickens realized the definitive Whalers documentary hadn’t been made, and got to work with support from Sacred Heart University.
  • Three dozen interviews with Whalers alumni, staff, and devoted fans.
• Standout moments in the documentary:
  • The “Brass Bonanza” theme song origin story (“...had the record in his house.” — Tal, 40:58), logo creation, and the family aspect with Gordie, Mark, and Marty Howe.
  • “Half the league’s head coaches are former Whalers... Every time I would talk to someone... they're like: Oh, yes, I can talk about this for days.” — Tal (39:52)
  • Emotional footage of the last game in Hartford and the city’s sports heartbreak.
• Whalers’ enduring legacy:
  • “It’s everywhere. Everyone loves the Whalers. Right.” — Tal (36:28)
  • “The logo is everywhere. It is, without a doubt, the number one vintage logo...” — Dan (43:46)
• Carolina Hurricanes and Whalers Night:
  • Panel debates the respect/disrespect of “Whalers Night”—Carolina embracing Whaler heritage after relocation.
    • “I think it is the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” — Dan (55:20)
• Community ownership as a relic:
  • The Whalers were owned by a collective of Hartford businesses and the community, an era unlikely to be repeated.

Timestamp: [35:56] – [70:29]
Notable Quotes:

• “About half the guys who are in the parade are like ‘I don’t know if this is a good idea. We won one playoff round and they threw a parade for us.’” — Tal (47:53)
• On Whalers’ legacy: “They've been gone longer than they were a team, so true. But it was a lot of fun.” — Tal (65:34)

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7. Around the NHL and Playoff Predictions

• Tal’s East/West picks:
  • “I think Ottawa is firmly in that spot...” — Tal (66:08)
• Panel analyzes which teams could still make a run, goalie showdowns in the West, and possible first-round upsets.

Timestamp: [65:44] – [69:14]

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8. Notable Quotes & Memorable Banter

• “It is pure fucking mayhem and you love to see it.” — Dan Powers wrapping up the wild card preview (23:01)
• Chris on beer league etiquette: “I like the cut of his jib. I like that about him. He likes that about her.” (93:42)
• On retirement rumors: “Do none of us believe Ovechkin is actually retiring?” — Evan (71:27)
• Coachella headliner wisdom:
  • “It would be so easy to just literally go up on stage and sing all your most streamed songs. And everyone on earth would go: it was amazing.” — Chris (78:56)
  • “If it's not for you, that's totally cool. But shitting on Coachella and people who go to Coachella—uncool.” — Dan (91:28)

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Other Highlights

• Hockey theme song blind ranking: Lively debate over best/worst NHL TV theme music.
  • ESPN’s classic “da-na-na-na-naaa” is crowned the GOAT ([102:44])
• Beer League Hotline:
  • Hilarious moral dilemma about handling a dirty, undersized-but-tough woman in a father-daughter beer league duo.
• Coachella stories: Riffing on headliner setlists, wild bathroom stories, and what makes festivals worth attending.

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Episode Timeline

| Topic | Start | Key Timestamps | |---|---|---| | Opening banter / playoff stakes | 00:00 | [02:32] | | East wild card updates | 02:32 | [02:56], [05:13]| | Red Wings/ISER Plan analysis | 06:54 | [06:54]–[14:56] | | Met & West playoff breakdown | 15:21 | [18:26], [22:06] | | Legends Kopitar & Quick | 23:01 | [26:32] | | NCAA Hockey Finals | 26:32 | [33:47] | | Whalers Documentary interview | 35:56 | [70:29] | | Playoff predictions | 65:44 | [69:14] | | Not Ice / Coachella | 76:54 | [91:28] | | Beer League Hotline | 92:55 | [97:14] | | NHL TV Theme Rankings | 99:12 | [104:27] | | Final playoff results reaction | 104:44 | [107:54] |

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Final Word

This episode of Empty Netters is a perfect encapsulation of what makes the show a favorite among NHL diehards: hilarious and authentic brotherly banter, deep analysis on league drama and GM messes, a love of hockey culture, and a willingness to chase any tangent to its weird, beer-league conclusion. Through their interview with Tal Pinchevsky, the crew digs up the soul of a lost franchise—and reminds us what’s at stake for every city, every spring.

“We are getting to the most fun time of the year... Playoff hockey is the greatest thing of all time... Stay dialed in. We will see you very, very soon. Until then, skate hard.” — Dan Powers (108:39)

Transcript

[Dan Powers]

Welcome to the Empty Netters podcast.

[Chris Powers]

Can you believe what this has become? There's a full 48 hours where I

[Tal Pinchevsky]

felt like I was like literally Superman. Jumbo loves playing Fortnite, so he gets on the sticks.

[Dan Powers]

Did TR show you the sauna cycle or was that already.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

No, I invented that.

[Chris Powers]

Almost a year now that I haven't taken a body check. That's kind of nice.

[Dan Powers]

So we are back. We are horned up and we are going deep.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Finished tonight with some chicken fingers and a few Guinnesses. Ran into you guys.

[Dan Powers]

And that's where this pod came to life. Ice is ready. And we are back. Back with another episode of the Empty Netters podcast, brought to you by BetMGM. I'm your host, Dan Powers. Healing us on the sticks is Dr. Watkins.

[Evan]

You're healed.

[Dan Powers]

Thank you.

[Chris Powers]

Thank you. It's not easy.

[Dan Powers]

Dude, over here. I'm too tired to insult him, but he's still wearing his Coachella beads. Cuz he came straight from there.

[Chris Powers]

Chris Powers, as always. I also just, just right now recalled that I put this computer in my car on the way to Coachella and I needed to do something with it on Friday, which is why I brought it at all. Okay. But I also made Masters pimento cheese dip for everybody because the Masters was on and I had it in a bowl with tin foil over it. And the. I took a turn. My computer was loose in the backseat, which is insane. I accept that. Yeah. I took a turn, my computer slid off the backseat and the bowl of pimento cheese was on the floor of the backseat. And the corner of it, like the corner of the closed computer knifed right through the tin foil and did the whole ride sitting in pimento cheese dip. And then I forgot that that happened. And I just opened my computer right now and see the pimento cheese dip all over it.

[Evan]

I'm sure it smells amazing. Does it smell good?

[Chris Powers]

Everything is fine.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

They're water.

[Evan]

All these Apple. Apple electronics. All waterproof.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Evan]

So maybe it's pimento cheese proof.

[Chris Powers]

Dude, that's. I heard that was the new. That was their new update.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Now 10 meters depth in water and fermento cheese.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Evan]

At least an inch.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Thank you, Tim Cook.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, my God. Yes. So we'll see. We'll see how that goes, but I'm doing fine.

[Evan]

You sound like you were screaming at a stage for three days straight.

[Chris Powers]

I get dirt. I get dirt everywhere.

[Dan Powers]

I have so much dirt in my nose, it's unbelievable.

[Chris Powers]

Ridiculous.

[Dan Powers]

Listen, we got a great episode. We're recording late, so We've got some games on right now. The wild card race continues to be absolutely insane. Tons of updates there. We got a fun Whalers, Hartford Whalers documentary to talk about. We've got a beer league hotline. Let's get into it. Come on. Wild card update. Lots happened. Lots happened this weekend and there's not that much left to happen.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

But I'm going to take us through.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Yeah, you do it.

[Dan Powers]

Going to take us through it. Got everything. We're going to go through the east first and first and foremost. On Saturday, the New Jersey Devils beat the Detroit Red Wings 5 to 3. Was that the official elimination unacceptable loss by the Red Wings. And then the Blue Jackets beat the Canadiens 5 2, and the Sens beat the Islanders 3 to nothing. This locked in the two wild card spots as the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators. So in the east eliminated from playoffs are now the Rangers, Leafs, Panthers, Devils, Islanders and Red Wings. The Islanders and the Red Wings have been eliminated from the Stanley cup playoffs.

[Chris Powers]

I want to get to them specifically in a second, but I do just want to say that the, the Bruins and the Sens, really nice like that. This was a team. The Bruins were kind of in the spot all year, but coming into the season, I was like, I don't know, bubble team. And they pulled it off and went wire to wire basically of being in the mix. Great job. And then the sensation from the death. Just what a fight.

[Dan Powers]

Little fight Ottawa sends coming back was so remarkable. It's also, as we've said a number of times now here, Islanders in their last 10, 3 and 7. Red Wings in their last 10, 3, 6 and 1. Blue Jackets in their last 10, 2, 7 and 1. It's like everyone pissed and poo pooed their pants. It was like. And here we are now. I've never, no one has ever been more fucking dialed than I was in our season previews when I was like, boston will be a wild card bubble team all season. Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

And they were.

[Dan Powers]

And they were. They were literally right here all fucking year long.

[Chris Powers]

It's actually really funny. Like everyone. Detroit was like, away, up, way down.

[Dan Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Boston was like, we're going to stay right here.

[Dan Powers]

And I will say this for Boston too. They. They are a team that no one wants to fuck with. Yep. And as we said, they. They put their nuts on the table towards the end here. Last 15, 20 games or so, they won a ton of big important games and that is why they're in the playoffs.

[Chris Powers]

And I'll say this. I was about to Ask you, if you're Boston, who would you prefer? And I imagine you're going to say anyone but Carolina.

[Dan Powers]

No, I will not say that.

[Chris Powers]

Okay, what would you say?

[Dan Powers]

Anyone but Tampa.

[Chris Powers]

Anyone but Tampa.

[Dan Powers]

Tampa is the only team. I. I do think Carolina is the best they've ever been. Yeah, but. But Boston's kind of had their number a bit a few times in the

[Chris Powers]

past, so wouldn't be in Carolina two than the other ones. Yeah. And so just more credit to the Sens, I guess. But I. I had naively been like, Boston is locked at Wild Card 1, and now that is a dog fight with one game left, too.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So to. To. To finish up things here. Right now, it's Boston. First wild card, sends second wild card. That could still flip flop. Boston has 98 points. Sens have 97, each. With one game left. Top of the Atlantic is also still up for grabs. Sabres are at the top with 106 points and two games left. Habs also have 106 with only one game left. Bolts have 104 points with two games left. First round matchups are all in the balance here. Bolts and Buffalo are playing as we speak. I think that game is tied. Let me look at that.

[Chris Powers]

Tampa's up.

[Dan Powers]

Tampa's up. Okay, Tampa is tied. 11 right now. And Buffalo is yet to start, so. Oh, wait. No, sorry. Tampa is up 31 3.

[Chris Powers]

God.

[Dan Powers]

Mine says 2, 3 1, and it's 00. Buffalo, Chicago.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

So Tampa winning, which is big for them. So.

[Chris Powers]

And they also need a regulation win to get the tiebreaker back.

[Dan Powers]

Yes. Before we move on to the situation in the Met, it is time to talk about certain Atlantic teams.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

We avoided this all year.

[Chris Powers]

All year.

[Dan Powers]

I refuse to speak. Are we done with the ISER plan?

[Chris Powers]

Here's a take for you, and I mean this. Yeah. There is no ISER plan. Like, that's my biggest takeaway from the Wings the last few years. They have their team, and. And then Stevie goes, I believe in these boys. My team's on the floor, which I can respect to a degree. But then they've just done the same thing, and again, there is no movement. There's no change. There's no plan. So I don't even want to say the ISER plan failed because I don't know what the ISER plan is other than we are the Red Wings.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. Listen, I. I am officially rattled for the Detroit Red Wings. I love Steve Yzerman so much. I love that he is back with Detroit. But a lot of the naysayers and the boobirds about him not being a good GM have a lot of ground to stand on right now.

[Chris Powers]

Where has he worked?

[Dan Powers]

Tampa.

[Chris Powers]

Is that it?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. Tampa is the big one and now he's here and they have not made the playoffs since he has joined this team. The ISER plan is years and years and years in and. Dude, I don't know. I'm. I'm Danny Positivity here and I'm not going to speak negatively about anyone on this team. But you bring in McClellan and you have got like there are guys on this team doing what they're supposed to do, right? Alex DeBrincat, 40 goals, 43 assists, 83 points.

[Chris Powers]

Stick taps to Cat. What a season.

[Dan Powers]

Unbelievable. Cat is that he is doing exact, exactly what he needs to do. Lucas Raymond, 25 goals, 51 assists, 76 points. Perfect. Like I would. I would like Lucas to live in the 70 to 90 point range every season. He's right in there. Dylan Larkin, 67 points in 73 games, 34 tucks.

[Chris Powers]

Awesome.

[Dan Powers]

Awesome. Like Dylan Larkin is in the 70 to 85 point, 90 point range and with the games he missed, he would have been in that. So boom, there you go. Mo cider. 10 goals, 50 assists, 60 points. That is Norris shit right there. Exactly what he needs to do after those four, and I think most would agree, those are your four best players on your team. They are all doing what they need to do. There is a significant drop off and I include Patrick Kane with 16 goals, 40 assists and 56 points.

[Chris Powers]

56 and 65 is pretty much what I want.

[Dan Powers]

It's not bad. But the 16 goals is not what you want from Patrick Kane. And if you say you do, you're a fucking idiot. Liar. I don't care.

[Chris Powers]

How many did you want?

[Dan Powers]

25 goals.

[Chris Powers]

25?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, that's. That's 10 more. That. That is an important 10 goals.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, for sure. I'm just looking at games though. Like in a full season he would have had 20.

[Dan Powers]

Sure. But I need, I need 25. Sorry. Like you are Patrick Kane. I need 25 goals. If you're going to be on this team and if you're going to be this valuable. So it's like there's just guys that, I mean, you look at their lines, you look at their roster construction and it just feels like there's. There's a lot that just is still needed there. They have. What do they have? 11 mil in cap space? Yeah, 11 mil in cap space. They're a major NHL franchise. Original six team. They should not have a hard time getting free agencies. They should free agents. They should not have a hard time having people sign here long term. And I am with you. I don't know what the plan is anymore. And this is. They went out and got Falk and that's great, and I'm glad Falk is on this team. But if I'm looking at the Detroit Red Wings and I'm looking at some of their young players who are, you know, no one really had this big jump out year yet. Right? That's a big thing. I look at Emmett Finney, I look at asp, who had a decent little year. I look at Casper, I look at Brand. Said Nagaard, who had one point in 12 games, like no one has made a significant jump. That is a problem. You need that to happen. I'm. I do wonder though, missing playoffs again. Here we go. 10 years now is as Eiserman on the hot seat.

[Chris Powers]

I kind of. It's weird when you get to team royalty, right? It's like we always said with Frank Chelsea, where I was like, you can't fire Franklin.

[Dan Powers]

Rod is the great example.

[Chris Powers]

Yes, yes. So I wanna go kind of. But maybe he has a longer leash. Cause he's Steve Eiserman and it's the Red Wings. And to be fair to counter myself, there were a couple trades made this year. John Gibson was brought in this summer. There are things happened that I was thrilled about. I announced Detroit would make playoffs no matter what, just because of the John Gibson thing. And I was just looking up these numbers. Gibson, 903-267. And for reference, Sorokin, 906, 268. And everyone's like, you know, Sorokin's been incredible. He could win the best. So I'm like, Gibson, he's not leading the league in anything. But for the most part, I'm like, yeah, you. You pretty much after a slow start, you got. Those are numbers that you would want from John Gibson.

[Dan Powers]

And it's certainly an improvement.

[Chris Powers]

Yes, totally.

[Dan Powers]

They are better in the goaltending situation because of John Gibson.

[Chris Powers]

And like, let me look up Gibson's career. Like, his career is 909287 this year. It gives you 903267. So I'm like, this is what you traded for. Like, you got. You got the guy. But your larger point. And when I'm. This is what I'm screaming. This roster is not a definite playoff roster. It could be if you break it, right, but it's not a Team that you go, they are making playoffs for sure. And as the gm, that is your job. The coach coaches them up, you build them up. You need to build a team that we look at on paper and go, that is a playoff team. This could be a playoff team. And they had every opportunity to be one this year. They fucked it up. Yeah, but it's. You don't want to be in the we could be a playoff team roster.

[Dan Powers]

I don't think Iserman will be fired. But I. For the first time in a long time, I am fully on board with. If I'm a Red Wings fan and I'm. If you're a Red Wings fan and you're upset with Steve Yzerman. Yeah, I. I get it.

[Chris Powers]

I get it.

[Dan Powers]

I'm not gonna get. I'm not gonna hop on Twitter and tell you to calm down anymore. I'm gonna be like, fuck that. Yeah, this is tough.

[Chris Powers]

It also just sucks because they're such an awesome franchise.

[Dan Powers]

And here's my big thing, dude. I'm obviously a massive larks guy. You see how fucking good he is? Yeah. Every time he plays for usa, you see how good he is with good talent. Lucas Raymond is a great player. DeBrincat's a great player, but you just. We gotta get better talent around this guy and around Mo and around Raymond. And I'm. You know, it's like the Patrick Kane thing was a good, good pickup when it happened, but is it good anymore? I don't. You know, I. I'm not sitting here saying, get rid of Patrick Kane, but I am saying, I don't know that Patrick Kane can be your guy that you're calling like your third best winger. Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Now he only signed a one year, eh?

[Dan Powers]

Yes.

[Chris Powers]

Interesting. I wonder what he'll do.

[Dan Powers]

He's 37 years old. I'm certain he can play one more year, maybe two more years, but you can't bring in Patrick Kane and give him like $3 million again and be like this. And, you know, you are a top six winger for us that we're deep relying on. Because I'm like, no, you're not. And it's like, jt Compere, David Perron. Those guys didn't do what you needed them to do.

[Chris Powers]

56. Sorry, how many points was it? 56.

[Dan Powers]

Yes.

[Chris Powers]

56 for 3 million.

[Dan Powers]

It's. It's good.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And the 40 assists is amazing.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

But I need you to score goals. You're Patrick Kane. Even if you're 37. Seven. I need you to get more goals than 16 goals. But I. Either way, we can move on from Detroit. But this is a fucking massive dick kick. It's a massive dick kick. I don't know what else to say. So in the Met, only the Canes and Pens have clinched. The Islanders have been eliminated with their Sunday loss to Montreal.

[Chris Powers]

Sucks.

[Dan Powers]

We will get into that in a second. The Blue Jackets lost to Boston 3 to 2 on Sunday, but they are still alive. The Caps dude dude beat Pitt back to back games and they are alive. Flyers currently sit in third in the Met with 94 points and two games left. They're playing right now. Washington has 93 points with one game left. Columbus has 92 points with one game left. If the Flyers win now tonight, both Washington and Columbus are eliminated. If they lose in ot, Columbus is eliminated. Okay, so the Flyers winning will essentially set the matt.

[Evan]

Well, if. If they lose in overtime, the next game doesn't. Technically they doesn't Capitals have the tiebreaker on them.

[Dan Powers]

Okay, yeah, that's. That's why I only said Columbus is eliminated. If they lose an ot. Columbus is.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Because of those regulation wins. Yeah. Fuck yeah.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

So the Flyers could lock themselves in and eliminate both Washington and Columbus if they win this game tonight. So by the time you guys are listening to this episode, you might potentially

[Chris Powers]

know because the Caps can only get to 95. Yes.

[Dan Powers]

It is 22 right now. The end of the second they were down to now Flyers and Canes. Yeah, they have Cl. Mitch cough and Zegras. Sick fucking Zegras is about to sign a fat deal.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Okay. The DeBoer bump did not work.

[Chris Powers]

Yes.

[Dan Powers]

Our. We. We talked about it. We talked about it weeks ago and we said who is the most bummed if they miss the Islanders got to be pretty bummed right now.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, this is.

[Dan Powers]

They felt like the most locked like when we were there when we had Schaefer on the pod. It felt like they were such a lock for playoffs.

[Chris Powers]

Dude.

[Dan Powers]

I feel bad because I thought they were. I thought they were going to finish top three.

[Chris Powers]

I remember being like. He said come out to new. And I was like, dude, I'll see you for the playoffs. Like, it's gonna be sick. And he was like. I mean he wasn't braggy at all, but I was being like, you're in, dude. It's gonna be amazing.

[Evan]

You jinxed him, dude.

[Chris Powers]

I'm like, sorry, dude. That was. That was on me.

[Dan Powers]

Brutal.

[Chris Powers]

Jesus Christ. The. Okay, let's talk about the island for a second. The. I view it though and I know you agree, But I view it as. They have every right to be really sad because of how the season went. But just like the Sharks, who were never quite as high as the Islanders, but the Sharks were in playoffs like many times and were in the driver's seat a week ago and they just kind of slipped. You just have to get over this pretty quickly because of what's coming down the road. Like yes, this sucks 100%. Be sad for a week. Like fuck, that would have been awesome.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

But I'm like chill dude. Like we you good. You could be a Wings fan. You could be a Blue Jackets fan. You know, I'm like just. Just be fine. You are going to be a 10 year playoff team moving forward.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, no doubt they that I kept using the word bummed for a reason because there's no. You haven't lost any massive opportunity here. They had tough injuries too, dude. Like Romanov dead, Palmari dead, Angval dead. Like they had a lot of guys injured all year. They, they. In my opinion they overachieved. But after you go out and get Shen, it felt like yeah, no, you wanted it. And like then wildfire DeBoer brought in the. The. The end of this season was definitely like what happened.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

So that is tough. But we are very close to having the east locked up. So let's move on to the west. Top three in the Central are clinched and locked. The Mammoth have clinched a wild card spot. They could flip flop. However, Vegas and Edmonton have clinched. But the Pacific is very much up for grabs in literally every way. The Kings are in a four game heater.

[Chris Powers]

It's incredible.

[Dan Powers]

With a massive one nothing win over Edmonton on Saturday, the Kings could literally. How about this ev. Win the Pacific. Yeah. Oh, wow. How funny is that? Dude, all the talk about the Pacific and the pillow fight and how insane it is and a mere two weeks ago we were sitting here being like

[Chris Powers]

the Kings are out of Kings.

[Dan Powers]

Like some of the. They lost that game to Calgary and it was like what the are you guys doing? You're going to miss. They could literally win the Pacific Division now. It's hilarious. And let me tell you, if that happened and they forced Vegas and the Ducks get bumped down and they forced Vegas and Edmonton to play each other in the first round, it would be one of the great Kings and in Kopi's last year, it would be fucking storybook shit. If the Kings can go, can continue this heater and they can, I assure you, which we'll get into, but the Kings could literally win the Pacific.

[Chris Powers]

So I just want to say on that topic.

[Dan Powers]

Yes.

[Chris Powers]

Because I said this a while ago and everybody was like, well, that's not. That's not actually realistic, Chris. It is so realistic.

[Dan Powers]

It is very possible.

[Chris Powers]

Kings get wild card one and catch Utah. And Edmonton wins the Pacific and they play in the first round.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

That is. That is so on the table.

[Dan Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Evan]

So we get Oilers and Kings again.

[Chris Powers]

Yes. Fucking A. Rowan's like, no way.

[Dan Powers]

And I'm like, what will this be the fifth year in a row? Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

And Kobe's like, I'm going to fucking kill them. And then myself. Yes, that's going to happen.

[Dan Powers]

On Thursday, Utah beat Nashville. The Ducks snapped their losing streak beating San Jose. Seattle beat Vegas and ot. Then Saturday, Vegas beat Colorado. San Jose lost to Van. And the Preds beat the Wild. Big win Sunday. The Ducks lost to Vancouver. The Ducks are. Oh, my God. Come on, guys. So now Vegas leads the Pacific with 91 points and two games left. They play Winnipeg tonight.

[Chris Powers]

Okay.

[Dan Powers]

Edmonton is in second with 90 points and two games left. They play Colorado tonight. The Ducks are in third still with 90 points and two games left. They play Minnesota on Tuesday and the Preds on Thursday. Huge game.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Jesus.

[Dan Powers]

The Kings are in that second wild card spot with 87 points and they have three games left. So the Kings very much control.

[Chris Powers]

And do you know what they are?

[Dan Powers]

Yes, I sure do. We're going to get to that.

[Chris Powers]

Okay.

[Dan Powers]

They control their destiny. So the Sharks and Jets, they are still alive somehow. They have 82 points with three games left each of them.

[Chris Powers]

Dude, jets and Caps finished with the two best records in their conferences last year. Yeah, both are going to miss playoffs, I'm pretty sure. Yes, but both were deader than dead. And we were. They were just like surging, surging. And I was like, ah, no way. But now like. And they're gonna just miss.

[Dan Powers]

But I thought, dude.

[Chris Powers]

You idiots.

[Dan Powers]

So the Sharks and Preds are playing as we speak, as we are speaking right now. So by the time you are listening to that, we will see what happens. 00. Sharks and Preds are playing right now. The jets in Vegas play tonight. Jets play the Mammoth tomorrow. So they've got a back to back. Sharks play Chicago on Wednesday. The Preds have 86 points and two games left. Sitting just outside of the playoffs. They have the Sharks and Ducks left. Two games that they can win. Especially with how the Ducks are.

[Chris Powers]

It's fucking crazy that we just said the Kings could win the Pacific, which they easily could. Yes, but the Preds could easily catch the Kings. Could also easily be out.

[Dan Powers]

Yes.

[Chris Powers]

I'm like, oh, they're in. We did it.

[Dan Powers]

And I'm like actually Creds are on a west coast swing though.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

You know. And they play the Sharks and the Ducks. Two teams who can beat any team at any given night. The Kings with 87 points and three games left. They play in Calgary tonight, in van tomorrow and in Calgary on Thursday. Again, they recently lost a bad game to Calgary, so hopefully they learned a lesson there. But big stuff. And here's the thing. If the Kings win two of three, no matter what, they're guaranteed in. And tonight, if they win and the Preds lose, they are in. So a lot can be decided tonight.

[Chris Powers]

Okay. Hawks up one nothing on Buffalo.

[Dan Powers]

Okay. Interesting stuff. So the playoffs are going to go down to the wire. Yep, we are. There's a chance that like tonight we find out who's in, but we still don't know tons of the match.

[Chris Powers]

And that's actually a great teaser, Dan, because usually for people who have listened to us for a long time, we do the week before playoffs. We do. Our two episodes are the east playoff preview and then the west playoff preview. We couldn't do that. Can't do it because we don't know yet. So we're actually going to not really, most likely not release our second episode this week on Thursday. We're going to wait to Friday, drop it Friday so we can have the full seating and give you a full playoff breakdown.

[Dan Powers]

And I'm praying to God that doesn't happen because I'm going to have to fucking record from a fucking air airport. So no, can't have that happen. But that is our wild card update. It is pure fucking mayhem and you love to see it. We're talk heavy talk on the Kings. So we do want to take a moment to address Kopi had his final regular season home game, big moment again. Awesome one nothing win against Edmonton. That was fantastic to see. But we've talked about it before as he announced his retirement. We're going to have Kopi on the show at the end of the season whenever playoffs or regular season ends. And it'll be amazing. You'll get to see Kopi and we'll do a great episode with him. But just another time to remind everyone he's the all time leader in points, assists, game winning goals and games played for the Kings. He played 20 years with this team, all in that barn. Two Stanley Cups, Selke. The guy's unbelievable. He's the greatest king of all time.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yep.

[Chris Powers]

It's.

[Dan Powers]

It's hard.

[Chris Powers]

This. This happens as you get older. You just watch the people you grew up loving just get older to retire.

[Evan]

Oh, man.

[Chris Powers]

You're like, dude, like, it's so brutal. Yeah, but it is. It is hard to process that like all these things are happening. And he's like, yeah, it's my last regular season. Brutal.

[Dan Powers]

Super emotional happening. Yeah, super emotional. You could see all the boys on Edmonton too, just being like me. You're watching the legend leave. It's crazy. And then another legend we had yesterday. I believe Jonathan Quick has announced his retirement. We all kind of had a feeling, but I believe he's playing tonight, right against the Panthers. His final game in the NHL 19 pro seasons. He has the most wins and shutouts of any U.S. goalie. Three Stanley Cups, con Smythe. He's one of the greatest goalies of all time. Yeah. Greatest. One of the greatest goalies of all time. My wanted to bring this up as a massive shout out. When Alec Martinez was on, we were talking about the Quicksilver. What an amazing dude he is. What an amazing family he is. Him and Jackie are the best. I am very curious here if there will be any sort of fence mending with the Kings.

[Chris Powers]

If I. I will not be surprised at all. In fact, I almost guarantee there will be an attempt by the Kings. I think there will be some kind of thing of like, hey dude, we fucked you and like what do you want to do here? What I don't know is if he accepts said all of.

[Dan Powers]

I mean, that's a jersey number retiring.

[Chris Powers]

Oh yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And to me it's a. If I were them, I would desperately want to give him a one day contract and be like, we want. Can we make you retire a King and fucking say sorry for the way we handle things. At the very least they should have fucking extend that offer because it was shitty the way it ended. And Jonathan Quick deserves better. And it would be amazing for Kings fans and who knows, but I would love it. But who knows if they deserve it? Yeah. Either way, Jonathan Quick, the fucking best. And what a career.

[Chris Powers]

Oh my God. And it's actually wildly poetic that him and Kobe go out together.

[Dan Powers]

I agree. There have been some sick photos that popped up with that. All right, last bit of hot ice. I'm wearing the sweaty the sweatshirt for a reason. College hockey. I had my heart ripped out on Thursday. Yep, double O T Denver, as usual takes down Michigan. And just the most horrendous run for Michigan since 1998 continues to be so Depressing and embarrassing and I don't know what to say.

[Chris Powers]

One thing I got really bummed about watching it was people were asking me who I was rooting for when I was watching on Thursday. And I. I was like, oh, I picked North Dakota over Michigan. So I'm like, I hope those things happen for my bracket. But I was like, you know what it'd be if Wisconsin and Michigan win?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Then it would be kind of cool because it's either the boys and girls won at Wisconsin or basketball and hockey won Michigan, which has never happened. Which I didn't know. Yeah. So I was like, if it's Wisconsin, Michigan, we actually have a fucking numby's thing that will take place. Wisconsin, my God. Like I. I cannot believe how great they were down the stretch because as I've said a million times, they were up and down during the season for me. They would have some bad weekends, have some incredible weekends, and looks amazing. And you just didn't know what team was going to show up in the tournament. Holy fuck. Their A team showed up their best game every fucking time. So so much credit to them. Stomping, frankly, a North Dakota team. Multiple North Dakota power plays in the third period, down two goals, fucking barely got any shots. Outrageous. Then you get the Michigan game. I had to leave. I was dying laughing because I'm watching it and I had to leave probably 10 minutes into the first OT to go play beer league. And when Denver tied it, I was like, I just remember sitting here next to you going, there is literally no way that game doesn't go to overtime. Just so you know. And they were like, tie? And I was like, yeah, I told you.

[Dan Powers]

So when that got tied, I was like, are you fucking kidding?

[Chris Powers]

I was like, this is insane. And when I got out of the. I got off the game and I was like, well, who won? And they were like, denver, double ot. And I was like, dude, they are now going to win because I lost my hockey basketball thing. I'm now rooting for the boys girls duel. Maddie. But it's Denver and man, they obviously are that good. It's not, it's not like they are these random Cinderella teams, so they deserve it certainly. But it is fucking crazy how they just in the tournament, step up every

[Dan Powers]

time, dude, it's wild. It would have been cocky of me to ask for two national championship titles in a matter of one week, but

[Chris Powers]

I wanted to swap them.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, I would love to swap them. But Denver wins their third title in five years. They went down one nothing in the first period, stayed calm, cool, and collected boom, two goals in third national title. Third and five years. Eleven titles overall for the pios. Johnny Hicks was fucking ridiculous in that. In that Michigan game, I think he had 49 saves. Then here in this one, he had 29 saves or something like that. And he's gone 16.

[Chris Powers]

Oh.

[Dan Powers]

And one as a starter since he got that job. I think he had like a.957 save percentage. He's been unbelievable. Carl had some funny comments where he was like, he wasn't calling them like a small program. Yeah. But he was talking about how big some of these other programs are. And he. And he even said he was like, I'm not saying that we're like this little program, but, like, you know, we have disadvantages compared to some of these other schools. And there's part of me in the hockey front where I'm like, shut the fuck up. You have 11 titles. Three and five years. But he is objectively right. If you look at the size of Denver and then a Michigan. Yeah. Or a Michigan State or an Ohio State, just like the entire schools and the programs and the other, like, name another Denver team.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Powers]

You know, it's so. It's in hockey. Probably.

[Chris Powers]

Probably nil money, too. Like.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

You know, I'm sure they're spending for hockey, but those other schools have more money.

[Dan Powers]

Absolutely. But Denver continues to be a powerhouse. And I. I laugh and go back to when we. We popped on Chiclets earlier this season. And G was like, who do you like? And I was like, obviously, I love Michigan, but you and I, you know, I mentioned Duluth and the Plant Bros, but I was like, you can never count out Denver. And here we are.

[Chris Powers]

He was like, yes.

[Dan Powers]

He was like, can't count out Denver. And it's like, they win again. So fucking fuck me, but congrats, Denver. You are undeniable, dude.

[Chris Powers]

There's. I will be really interested to see because Dave. Carl's 36.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

I think. Which is fucking.

[Dan Powers]

That's right.

[Chris Powers]

Lunacy. Is that right, Jack? That. I'm Pretty sure he's 36, but I'll be really interested to see if he is because he obviously gets the doors kicked down, but we see guys all the time, Jerry York, Jackie Parker. Guys that just go, no, this is sick. I love younger than that. I love doing this. It'll be really interesting to see what he chooses because he's either a guy that goes, no, I love this. And I'm going to be remembered as the greatest hockey coach of all time. And I have a lifetime contract to Denver. I'm going to win 15 national championships all. Or is he like, I'm going to the NHL because literally every team wants me.

[Dan Powers]

Yance talked about this, and he, you know, he said that line, that correct line. In the NHL, you get as a coach, you get hired to get fired.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Why the fuck would you want that? How much more money are you possibly going to get to live in? You know, Denver is such a sick city. You have such a good setup at this school. You can coach there to the end of your days. You are a millionaire.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

Your family and kids will go there forever for free, for as long as you want. You live in and around this unbelievable camp. Like, why would you ever leave if it. Is it just because people are like, we'll go to the next level, dude?

[Chris Powers]

I'm kind of like, would be why he does.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. And I'm like, why? Who gives a fuck?

[Evan]

Like, so you can get shipped off to Winnipeg at a moment's notice.

[Dan Powers]

Like, genuinely, man.

[Chris Powers]

I'm like, certainly getting your name on the cup is like, that's. That's an appeal. I'd be like, oh, this would be sick. My name's on the fucking Stanley Cup.

[Dan Powers]

Winning the cup definitely would be cool. But if I were Carl, dude, again, he's 36. I would coach at Denver for 20 years. Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Like, literally more years.

[Dan Powers]

Yes. I would coach 20 more years. And at like, 56, I'd be like this. I'll pop to the NHL after you have 25 national titles.

[Evan]

Yeah. Make him want you.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And think about it. Think about how much money he'll make if he just stays there. Let's even be more realistic. Coach for 14 more years, and at 50, be like this. I'll go give it a shot in the NHL for a few years, see how it goes. I would never leave if I were him.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. I think. I actually think if he doesn't go soon, he won't. If he.

[Dan Powers]

If.

[Chris Powers]

If the next year or two, he goes, yeah, it. I want the next challenge, then so be it. But I think if he coaches 10

[Dan Powers]

muggers at Denver, I disagree with that so passionately. Because of his age.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

I like, if he doesn't go soon. If he doesn't go in four years, he's still only 40. Like, they'll. They'll be, dude. I mean, there are multiple dudes, dozens and dozens of dudes in the NHL right now who are older than him.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

So, like, no, I think he could do 10 more years in Denver. And then be like, yeah, I'm going to go to the NHL now at 46.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. No, I didn't mean like, he'd be too old. Pass him by. I just was more feeling like if I had been at Denver for.

[Dan Powers]

No, I know. I know what you're saying. And again, I passionately disagree because I think he's still so young, and at that point, he will have achieved so much at Denver that it's like, I feel good about this. There's nothing more that I could possibly do at Denver. So now I will go. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what he does, but it's fucking crazy. Congrats, Denver. God damn it, Michigan. All right, let's take a quick ad break and then we will pop back in with an awesome interview talking about the Hartford Whalers documentary that you can check out on NHL Network.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Because we are recording the 13th. So it's out today.

[Dan Powers]

Yes.

[Chris Powers]

So when you're listening to this, if

[Dan Powers]

you have NHL network, you can see it.

[Chris Powers]

Bang. Hockey is in full swing. Playoffs are right. Right here. They're right there. I can touch. I can touch the playoffs. And just because it's playoffs, you can still use BetMGM's favorite promotion, the hat trick jackpot. All you have to do is bet on an anytime goal scorer, and if they score three or more, if they get that Hattie for you, you get your share of 10,000 bucks in bonus bets. That's ridiculous. Okay, so bet on an anytime goal score. Figure out sniff. Sniff out the hattie. You can find it. You can find the Hattie. You sniff it out. You bet on that guy. 10 GS and bonus bets log into your account. It's so easy. You log into your BetMG account and you place your bet on a goal score. Okay? If the player scores, ka ching. You win that bet already. Great job. And then if they get three or more, boom, you're in the 10G bonus bet land. It's amazing. When you get that app, use promo code netters. That's N E T T E R S when you sign up. And then you get a welcome offer because you're a new member. And then you can use the promotions and then you can start winning bets left and right. Playoff hockey is the greatest thing of all time. Don't miss it on the action bet mgm. Make it legendary. Well, today, ladies and gentlemen, we are joined by our friend Tal Pinchevsky. And this is exciting Dan, because you. Well, actually, both of us, we're New England boys You know, so we. We go way back in Whalers lore, but Dan has a whole personality based around the Whalers protecting the Whalers.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It's a very worthy cause.

[Dan Powers]

This is a very exciting time for me because we're going to get into all of this, and then I'm going to be able to tell Hurricanes fans that if they want to take themselves seriously, they have to watch this doc.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, okay.

[Dan Powers]

If you're going to fucking steal valor from the Hartford Whalers, then you owe it to them to watch this doc.

[Chris Powers]

Good. Good take.

[Dan Powers]

Every single Carolina fan has to do it.

[Chris Powers]

Good take. So our first question, honestly, is just tell us about the origin story of how this came. This doc came together in the first place.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I mean, I don't want to date myself too much, but I mentioned I'm old enough to have actually seen the Wailers play.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, just special.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Back in the Montreal Forum, back in the day. And then a colleague of mine, Pat Pickens, who's a co director and producer on the film, he wrote a book about the Wailers. So that's really where it started. And I read the book. I loved it. I always been fascinated by. I mean, it's everywhere. Everyone loves the Whalers, Right. So we started talking at that point. I been transitioning into other platforms, as they call them. You know, films and features, shorts, podcasts, whatever. So we got into it, basically, and wanted to figure out how can we make the definitive Hartford Whalers doc?

[Chris Powers]

And was this, like, over beers one night where you wake up in the morning, you're like, were we serious, or was this, like, legitimately you went into it being. Being with the thought, we gotta make a Whalers project? No, we.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I mean, we were on opposite sides of the country. Yeah. Cause he was on the East Coast. I was in Los Angeles at that time. So there wasn't a lot of beer discussion, but we were both totally gung ho. We really wanted to do it. We were kind of surprised it hadn't been done yet. And so the first person I reached out to was Howard Baldwin, who also lives out here. And we started talking, and he was on board immediately and has been a huge advocate for the project since the beginning. And, yeah, we just kind of dove headfirst into it. Pat's alma mater is Sacred Heart University. They made a generous contribution of some funds and some cheap student labor.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, huge. You need that.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

And we were off and we were off. And, you know, by the time it was all done, about a year, year and a half later, we'd done about Three dozen interviews with different people from the Whalers universe. Executives, players, coaches, fans, everyone. And the response has been great. Premiered last year on some regional sports networks in the Northeast. If you had cable in New England last year, you could watch.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Hell, yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Okay. And now we are going national. It premieres on NHL Network on April 13th. So we're psyched.

[Chris Powers]

Coming right up. So a year and a half. I was gonna ask how long? Which is actually kind of fast. I know it sounds long to listeners, but that's kind of quick.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, yeah, it felt quick. Yeah, yeah, it felt quick. You know, we went to Whaler's Night in Raleigh one year. That was our first trip. And just we wanted to shoot some stuff and witness the phenomenon and see how legit, like, the Whalers representation was in Raleigh for the Hurricanes game. And it was massive. It was great. So from there, we were in Vegas for the draft. We did a bunch of interviews there. We crisscrossed Florida. Everyone was in Florida. So true. We did, I think, like, six interviews in four. Four days in Florida. We did a bunch of stuff in Connecticut and New York, and we talked people from the marketing office, people from the ticket office. You know, we found fans who went down to Raleigh for Whaler's Night from Connecticut. We found people tailgating at Whaler's Night. We found these girls having, like, a birthday party at Whaler's Night, and the birthday girl claimed that she thinks her dad had gone to a Whalers game in Hartford for her birthday party. She didn't know all the details. There was a lot of.

[Dan Powers]

Hell, yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

There was a lot of fun stuff. It was a great time. It was fun to make hectic, but we had a good time with it. We hope that the audience will enjoy it, too.

[Chris Powers]

Absolutely.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

How? Because the guests you got were amazing. As I was watching, I was like, oh, my God, everybody's talking. How was that process? Were people just so psyched when you reached out?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It was amazing. I mean, I had done this before. Like, as a journalist, I had done stories about, oh, remember the Wailers? And. Or, like, oh, half the league's head coaches are former Whalers, or, you know, whatever it is. And every time I would talk to someone, whether it was Dave Tippett, Joel Quennville, Dean Evans, and they're like, oh, yes, I can talk about this for days.

[Dan Powers]

So that is my favorite part about it.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

As guys like Verbeek starts talking, and then they're talking about Quenville, and I'm like, what the fuck? Every. Every coach or gm. Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Mike Liute, who's one of the most prominent agents in the league. Ray Ferraro, who's been on ESPN for I don't even know how long.

[Dan Powers]

It's unbelievable.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, it's crazy.

[Chris Powers]

Who was it? Someone in the docs like, fucking Ray, always running his mouth. Of course he got that joke.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah. Ray Ferraro is full of baloney. Right? So he's a perfect broadcaster.

[Chris Powers]

That was awesome. Yeah, Very cool. Okay, so I want to hear, you know, all your favorite parts of doing it, but I've got it. We got to hit some of our favorite highlights, dude. The first one that just killed me was the story of finding the theme song. That was epic, dude.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

And you have to. It's literally George Ducharme, who was like one of the executives at the team, just had the record in his house.

[Chris Powers]

How insane is that?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, it's crazy. And then. And then his grandparents, or, excuse me, his grandkids heard it, they liked the song, and he decided, okay, here's our theme song. By the way, what team even has a theme song?

[Evan]

I know.

[Chris Powers]

And to nail it, to hit it. That out of the park, where everybody. It's iconic. Everybody knows it, everybody loves it.

[Dan Powers]

It's so funny. It's so funny.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I mean, after making this film, I'm hearing freaking Brass Bonanza in my nightmares when I go to sleep. It also took forever to track down the license, actually. That was like a behind the scenes. We must have talked to, I think, about five different record labels about who actually owns the song. And eventually we did find it, but it took a little while to figure out who do we have to pay to actually use the song? And we eventually figured out. But, yeah, it's one of the many iconic aspects of this franchise that we all still love.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Oh, my God. That's amazing, dude. So funny. And then the Gordie House stuff, of course. It's actually crazy to me to think about, you know, we know that. That he goes there and all that stuff, but just hearing the logistics behind it.

[Dan Powers]

Crazy.

[Chris Powers]

Hearing the stuff about. With his kids.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. I was gonna say making it a family affair.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Like he'll retire.

[Chris Powers]

So many behind the scenes things that went down to get him to Hartford is fascinating.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It took a while, too. I mean, Howard Baldwin was pursuing them for a while.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

And until eventually the owner of the Houston Arrows was like, they're yours. I don't want to deal with them anymore. I suspect the team, I mean, half the league was kind of struggling to stay afloat at that point. But yeah, I mean, Howard Baldwin visited them on their farm and closed the deal. And it was a huge moment for the franchise. And, you know, Mark Howe wanted to go play. He said this a few times, but he wanted to go play in the NHL. And they said, well, if you don't go play with your dad in Hartford, or, excuse me, in the World Hockey association, he's going to retire. And Mark Howe just said, well, I'm not going to be responsible for Gordie Howe retiring. I don't think he knew he'd still be playing 10 years later, however many years.

[Dan Powers]

It was so true.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, it was awesome. And again, another very cool aspect of this. I mean, at one point they had Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe playing on the Whalers.

[Chris Powers]

God, that's insane. And the Gordy stories about there was somebody that he. Oh, fatoric, like cut Mark or something. And then Cory, he's like, I'm going to beat the out of you. So good to just think about that dynamic, Mr. Hockey, defending his kids on the ice.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

I mean, it's incredible. There are so many parts that, you know, all the players, like we keep mentioning there who are now coaches or GMs, and then the Gordy story, all that stuff's cool. But there's so many ins and outs that were done so well, that were so fun about like, literally the construction of the team. And I mean that literally with like the collapse of the arena and then how that actually ended up being a blessing. Yeah, it's unbelievable. And then I kept dying at the. The designing of the logo story because it feels like such a flippant part of the doc. But I'm like, people, NHL fans today who didn't even watch the Whalers play are like, that's the best logo in NHL history.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

The logo is everywhere.

[Dan Powers]

It's. It's everywhere. It is. It is without a doubt the number one vintage logo that people, NHL fans or hockey fans were like, I want like a vintage shirt or hat. They always get Whalers. There are people in this office who have Whalers hats. And I'm like, sick. And they're like, I don't even know what this is. And I'm like, oh, there you go.

[Evan]

We.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

We want just a quick story about that. We. We were doing a bunch of work in Connecticut at Sacred Heart over the course of a weekend, and I had to go into New York City after that to do some stuff. So I've been doing Whaler stuff all weekend in Connecticut. I go down into the city. I have to go to the bank and I'm waiting in line for the teller and I look behind me and I swear to God, the guy standing behind me at the bank is wearing a whaler's hat. It's everywhere. I mean, I close my eyes and I still see the logo because it's in my brain so much. But, yeah, it's everywhere. And we were lucky because one of our first interviews was Peter Good, the designer of the logo. And he passed away not long after that. So I'm pretty sure we had. I think we may have had his last on camera interview about the logo. And he was not a sports fan, didn't know anything about hockey. He just kind of dove into it and came up with an absolute genius logo.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, I was dying at the. When they were trying to use like a harpoon and they were like, let's not do it.

[Chris Powers]

It was actually kill whale. Kill whales. But it was funny seeing the other versions, like with the full whale body. And then he had the comment where it's like, you know, it's. The shape isn't easy to manipulate. Except for the tail. He was like, the tail you can be creative with.

[Dan Powers]

It's just perfectly done.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

And the empty space with the H. I didn't even notice that until a couple years ago.

[Dan Powers]

The Bruins rivalry element was really awesome and particularly awesome for me because when we were young, our dad kept a corkboard and anytime he would go to a game, he would, you know, back in the day when you'd get physical tickets, he would staple the tickets to multiple corp. It was, you know, Red Sox games, Bruins games, all this. And the tickets back then, I can picture them so vividly in my head, were so cool looking. They were like kind of this, like tan color. And whenever there was a significance of a game, he would write on it. And my first Bruins game ever was a Whalers game. Wow. It's unbelievable.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Nice.

[Chris Powers]

It's actually epic. Mine is in Nordique's game.

[Dan Powers]

Game.

[Chris Powers]

It's like Christmas.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, that's perfect.

[Chris Powers]

Nordique's Dancers. Game, Bruins, Whalers. And I was like, wow, who knew

[Dan Powers]

that that was going to be so iconic? We killed those teams. Yeah, unfortunately, our presence unfortunately killed those teams.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

That was the beginning of the end for both those teams.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, now that I think about it, that's probably why I'm so passionate about the whalers and protecting them. Yeah, I love that. Save our whales. Save our whalers. It's unbelievable.

[Chris Powers]

But no, that's. That was really cool. Part of it, too. Because I think we were too young, you know, to actually remember that. And I. I think. I mean, the Bruins Habs rivalry is amazing, but when I think about a team in Hartford, of course, there'd be a huge Bruins rivalry. Used to play in the. You know.

[Dan Powers]

Right.

[Chris Powers]

In Boston, for sure. So it's. It was cool to see how hot that fire burned for those guys firsthand, whereas I wasn't quite aware of that.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Well, I didn't even know that the Whalers started out in Boston. I didn't even know that until we actually started in the World Hockey Association. I didn't know that till we started making the film. So there was always that little brother thing, even after they went to Hartford and, you know, the Bruins are the Bruins, and, you know, the Wailers were. The Wailers. Interpret that any way you want. And there was definitely. It seemed like. And when they first got to the NHL and they were playing the Bruins, they weren't good. The Bruins were dumbing them most of the time. And then eventually, once they got that big team in the 80s with Francis and Deneen and Quenville and all those guys, that's when the table started to turn. That was a huge moment for that franchise. And like, all right, we're gonna. We're gonna. You know, we can stand up. We can be.

[Dan Powers]

For sure.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, we can take these guys. If we have to meet him in the playoffs, we can. We can beat them. And it was huge for just the collective energy and confidence around Hartford and in Connecticut.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, definitely.

[Chris Powers]

Well, as they got competitive and good. The. And this is another one where I'm like, I can't believe there was. There were several things in Doc and I don't want. I want everyone to go see it. There's several things that I was like, how did I not notice this? Like, you said, the playing in Boston and the. The white chasing logo. But the parade story is gold. I literally have no idea how I've never heard that. Dude, that is so funny. People would lose their shit if that happened now. Like, if a team did that now. But it worked somehow. It was amazing.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

About half the guys who are in the parade are like, I don't know if this is a good idea. We won one playoff round, and they threw a parade for us. This. There's like, a karmic thing going on that I'm not sure is good.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, funny, dude.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

But, yeah, it was incredible. I mean, it shows you how bad, badly they wanted to celebrate something with that team. And, yeah, we got some great Footage of the parade. It's. Yeah, Mike Liute had it. Had the best line. He just paused, went, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

So funny. And what did he say? They go. They're like, what would you do? What are you gonna do if you win the whole thing? I forget what he says, but he's like, you know, the Hartford's gonna burn to the ground or whatever. But I was like, yes, sing it

[Dan Powers]

in the happiest way possible.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, yeah. They were stoked about it.

[Chris Powers]

But, dude, it's. It's funny, and it's easy to poke fun at because you're like, what is this? What's happening here? And half people didn't want to be there, but looking at the footage, I was like, this is sick. I'm glad that the city just loved it. And we're so pumped that we're. We're in the mix, you know, it's legit. It's a legit franchise. I love that.

[Dan Powers]

It's just. I. To me, it's really cool. I mean, there's so many things that we need to get into, like the, you know, Ron Han, Ron Francis elements, all that. But I. I'm curious just from your perspective. It's like, I think a lot of new fans see these teams that have come and gone, and it's easy to be like, oh, yeah, you know, I get it. There was a team here and they relocated. It's fine, whatever. But you forget that these teams, whether struggling or not, had huge fan bases. They had people who loved them and cared. So as you made it, what were some of the coolest things that popped out about that? Like, did you talk to anyone who was like, I'm so glad you're making this. I was the biggest Whalers fan ever. Blah, blah, blah. Anything like that.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

There's a lot of. I mean, the legacy is actually pretty interesting. I mean, for one thing, we mentioned all the guys who played for the team who pretty much run the league. And then, you know, the. The growth of hockey, youth hockey in Connecticut since, like, college hockey. There's, what, four Division 1 programs just in Connecticut. It's not a big state. You know, Quinnipiac won the whole thing a few years ago.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

And I think. You know what's interesting, What I found really interesting is that it's like, it's an era of pro sports we're never gonna have again. Like, right now, if you want a team, you find a billionaire like Ryan Smith who snaps up the. You know, the Coyotes and brings them to Utah, and that's that's just how you get it done. You need someone with money to burn who can just foot the bill for everything, the building, the everything. And back then, you know, Howard Baldwin started the team and he did all right, but he wasn't. He wasn't a billionaire. You know, this was a total community collective that, you know, at the time, Hartford was the. The national capital of insurance. So all the biggest insurance companies were in Connecticut and in Hartford. And they all bought a piece of the Whalers. You know, they. The. The Hartford Current. The newspaper owned a piece. I mean, that's crazy. Imagine if, like a newspaper owned a piece of a. Excuse me. A pro sports team. Like, there were about a dozen different businesses in the city that owned the team. It wasn't one guy with a ton of money. It was a real community thing. Like, the. The comparison I hear a lot is the packers, obviously, but it's been a different feel, though. Yeah. And. But that. I don't know if we'll ever see that again. And that the big question is, like, well, are the Wheelers going to come back? I was like, really? If. If you can find someone with a $5 billion who really wants to do it, then, yes, they'll come back.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

But until you do, I don't think it's gonna happen.

[Chris Powers]

Right. It's not coming back the way it was.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

No place. Yeah. They need a new building anyway. They're still playing in the same building.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Right. Insane. And Dan mentioned Ron Francis. That was actually cool. You know, I'm well aware how good Ron Francis was, but it was cool to see how huge he was there, how much the boys were like, dude, he changed. Changed everything. Yeah, sick.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah. He was after Gordie Howe, I guess, like the. Was their franchise guy. He did everything and sick and just.

[Dan Powers]

I mean, they call him Ron franchise for franchise.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Chris Berman said he could run for governor today. And probably. And the craziest part, this isn't actually in the film. This is David McNabb. One of their scouts told us that they. What year would have been maybe in 84, 85, something like that. The Whalers had Joe Sakic absolutely pegged in the first round of the NHL draft. And they're like, we are going to put Joe Sackic and Ron Francis together, and this is going to be our franchise down the middle for the next 20 years. And Quebec traded ahead, one spot ahead of them, and drafted Joe Sack. And he's convinced if. If in the alternate universe where they get psychic and they team them up with Francis. The Whalers still exist because they would have been such a sick Francis.

[Dan Powers]

Not a crazy thought.

[Chris Powers]

And that's a nuts. What NHL. What? I've never heard. Yeah, because that changes so much, too. With the North. They probably leave still. But then the abs don't have the run, you know, like, that's.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

That changes everything.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. God, that would have been really exciting. I was also shocked. Here's another one I didn't know, and maybe I did, but I just feel like I'm too young and forget. But in my mind, it was always Carolina. Like, we were going to Raleigh. But that was really cool to hear people in the know be like, I thought we were going to Columbus. I thought we were going to Nashville. Yeah, that. What a crazy moment in time that was.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

People forget when they announced they were leaving, they didn't know where they were going, so they were just like free agents. And you could.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Like you said, everyone had a different idea of where they were going to go. Some Cincinnati, Columbus, who knows? There were a bunch of. You know, there are fewer teams in the league, obviously, so there were more markets available, and it took a little time before Karmanos kind of got the. Basically got the deal he wanted in Raleigh and got the building and got everything he needed and moved there. But there was that brief period that. Where they didn't know where they're going. And even when they got to Raleigh, the building wasn't ready yet, so they were crisscrossing all over North Carolina. The first couple of seasons, it was an absolute disaster. And no one went to the game. It's funny to watch it now because the Hurricanes are such a stable model franchise, but first couple of years, they were an absolute disaster. No one was going to the games. No one knew anything about hockey. You know, they bring, like, Richard Petty from NASCAR out to try and drum up a little support.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

No one knew anything about the games.

[Dan Powers]

I mean, that was in an era where a lot of these Southern teams were new.

[Evan]

Right.

[Dan Powers]

It's like the Panthers were what, a year before that? Or like a couple years before that. And it's like, I mean, add to the element of you're moving an entire team to. You're moving a team to Carolina.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Like, hey, here's pro hockey. And they're like, okay, thank you. Yeah. But it is remarkable to look at what they are now.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. And it's cool. I have a funny relationship with the move because I was at Duke for a bit, and so I, you know, I have love for the Canes And I used to go into so many of those games, so it's like, I actually love that franchise. But I. I have so much lore and love for the Whalers growing up in New England that I get split between Dan's like, don't you dare touch the Whales. But I'm like, you're both cool. I love it. But I actually thought it was sick. Hearing Columbus national places that have teams now, too, I was like, oh, wow. Yeah. This was all in the works for so long that.

[Dan Powers]

That's my favorite part about it, is that it shows that this. This was a well thought out plan. Yeah. You know, like, it's not like they're random cities that don't have teams now. It's like, well, the Whalers moved to Carolina, and then eventually we got the Preds and we got Columbus, and it's like, oh, shit. Okay. This was all in the works.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Very cool. I think all of that was in place with Gary Bettman around that time. Like, the league was definitely researching certain locations, saying, what are our options here? Can we get a team here? I mean, you look at the map back then, and there are massive swaths of the. Of, you know, of the United States, where there's just no teams at all. Yeah. Now they're everywhere, really. Especially when you look in that part of the country in the Southeast. But, yeah, it was. It was an interesting time. What do you guys think about Whalers night? Is it. Are we cool with it?

[Chris Powers]

Dan, how do we feel? Is yours?

[Dan Powers]

I think it is. I think it's the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Wow.

[Dan Powers]

I hate it.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Shots fired.

[Dan Powers]

No, no, no, no. Well, shots fired at Carolina. Right. Because I'm like, you do not get to steal a team and then wear their jerseys and sell their jerseys and shirts and hats and scarves and make all this money off the back of the Whalers.

[Chris Powers]

When you ripped the team from their hands, what did. In your experience? I'm actually really interested. This.

[Dan Powers]

It's also kind of a bit. Yeah, I don't really care that much. Well, we're.

[Chris Powers]

We're. We went through this. Not us personally, but the St. Louis Rams came back, and granted, they were in LA first, but the St. Louis rams came here, and my girlfriend's from St. Louis. I. We know a lot of St. Louis people. They. I found, were very split on. I now hate the Rams because they're gone or. Yeah, that's my team. In your experience, the Hartford people, are they all Kane's fans, or are they upset?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

They're not Canes fans, that's for sure. But I think they appreciate that the team is embracing it, I guess. I mean, Howard Baldwin says it in the film. He goes, listen, it's nice, but let's be real. It's motivated by greed. They're trying to make money off the jersey.

[Dan Powers]

That's my entire.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Which is fine. Which, I mean, he says, which is fine. That's okay. But let's be honest about it. I think they should play an exhibition game in Hartford. That would be sick wearing the jerseys. Avalanche should play an exhibition game in Quebec City wearing the jerseys. It would be a lot of fun.

[Dan Powers]

That would be very cool.

[Chris Powers]

They should actually do a home. And home.

[Dan Powers]

It is.

[Chris Powers]

They should play each other.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

That'd be awesome.

[Chris Powers]

And then Hartford.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

That'd be great. Well, the Adams Division, it's motivated by

[Dan Powers]

green, but it is. It's nice that it keeps the Whalers alive. That is a good thing.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I'll say this as someone. I grew up in Montreal. We lost the Expos. It was tough, but they were in. That team was in such a better place after they left. I mean, the building in Montreal is still there, and it's still a wreck, you know, and it was horrible, and it was not a great situation for the team or the players, so.

[Dan Powers]

Have the Gnats ever worn Expos jerseys?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yes.

[Dan Powers]

Really?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I'm okay with it. I don't mind it. Like, that's another cool logo. I like the logo.

[Evan]

I like the logo.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. Tom Brady, drafted by the exposure.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

That's right. Expos legend Tom Brady. Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

They.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

They. I think they have wore the Expos. I don't think Expo's fans are that bitter about it. Yeah, I mean, we had screenings of the Whalers film where we'd get to the part where they move the team, and there would be people yelling at the screen. Like, people had to be escorted out of the theater. Yeah. Yeah. There was one guy still pissed about.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Still very upset. Very upset. Like, yelling at the screen. And then the ushers have. Excuse me, sir. We're gonna have to ask you to leave.

[Chris Powers]

But they took our team. I know. I know.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I love the passion. I'll say that. I love the passion.

[Dan Powers]

That passion in the portion with the last game was, oh, my God, so awesome.

[Chris Powers]

That actually took my breath away. The fact that they were still. Even the interviews, present day, get that choked up, was awesome to see. I loved that.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, it got a little dusty. We put a little teary music to that. You know, we want to pull the heartstrings a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I was talking with a guy I work with in London, you know, he's a huge soccer guy, and he said, like, the whole idea of a team leaving like that, it's so alien. Like you'd never even heard of it. And it doesn't really happen, fortunately, it doesn't happen that much anymore. So just seeing the, you know, the footage and the.

[Dan Powers]

I love how he said that happened two years ago.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, well, yeah, that was different. That was. We don't have to go in the detail. That was a different sit. They were playing in a college arena. But anyways. Which I would have loved to see a game, but anyways. But yeah, just seeing the footage of the crowd and, like, children in the stands and older people in the stands and the players, they did a lap. Like, they did a whole lap with their gear off. Just kind of. It was. It's very surreal.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

And yeah, the crowd, honestly, because the players, I totally get right. You. You have connected to the city, to these fans. You're leaving pretty uncertainty in your life. I totally get the emotion, the fans openly crying in the crowd. That's what really got me. I was like, damn. Cause to your point, that doesn't happen that much. And I can't fathom a team like the Bruins being like, we're leaving. And I'd be like, oh, I guess we don't live there anymore. But even if.

[Dan Powers]

No, it's still. Though, could you imagine.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Could you imagine, like, your team just crawling?

[Dan Powers]

I remember that, you know, we were watching the playoffs, you know, however many years ago, and it was Bergeron's last game, and it was like the Bees were losing and it was kind of like, oh, whatever. But I grabbed him and I was like, hey, watch this. These time took off because this is Berg's last game. And I take that to the team. This is the team's last game. I think I'd be like, what the fuck is happening? Yeah, that would be tough. That would be so tough. So it was, watching it, I. I was like, damn, that is very real emotion. I. I know so many people back home who. The only thing they think about is the Boston Bruins. And if that were to happen, oh, they would die.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Literally, I don't even know what they would do.

[Chris Powers]

Correct.

[Dan Powers]

So it's so real and it's cool. Again, I don't mean to say, say it's cool to see, but it's important, I think, to see the emotions because that's what makes the doc so good. And stories like this so good.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It's like, yeah, it was a cool thing talking with everyone. Everyone we spoke. There's such a range of emotions, right. So we had literally people tearing up, talking about the last game, but we had guys telling stories from the room, cracking up, you know, and just having a great time remembering all the good times that they had. And so that was some major feedback for us. I feel like when people started singing, viewing screenings, they're like, man, I was like up and down the whole time. You know, they show that Game 7 against Montreal in 86, and I was fucking pumped. Exactly. For a second, I forgot how the game actually ended. You know, that was dead. You want to talk about dead silence in a theater? The part where the Claude Lemire goal comes on and over when we were. Dude, the theater just went silent. I didn't know if I was good or bad, but it turned out it was. It was again, part of the emotion.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Chris Powers]

Well, that's actually a great transition because I was curious, what were some of your favorite parts in this whole process? Maybe it's like a behind the scenes story or whatever. But what do you take away from this whole experience?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I mean, part of it was just getting it done and getting it on NHL Network. I mean, you guys know, like, if you just get it done, I don't care what it is like that you should be congratulated. It's a huge accomplishment, 100%. And we had like, micro budget would be, I think, a generous return. Yeah. So just the whole process of learning how to think on our feet. And we were literally working with college kids in our crew who had not done a lot of work before. And me and Pat, we definitely had to kind of be on our toes and figure out how to solve problems. We went to Vegas for the draft and we had a couple of interviews booked, but then a couple of people backed out. And that whole time we were there, it was awesome. We got to go to see the drafted sphere and everything. But we still had to book some interviews and get some work done. And fortunately it worked out great. But there was like the first day there, like, wait, this person backed out. This person might back out. We might be in a little bit of trouble here, but worked out fine. We got Mike Liute there, we got Larry Plo there, we got a few guys in Vegas and had a good time. It worked out well. The experience as far as as the educational aspect was a huge eye opener for me. My background is A journalist and a sports writer covering the league, and I'd never done anything like this before, so it was cool. I feel like I can do it again now if I have.

[Dan Powers]

There you go. I love that.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Working on that.

[Dan Powers]

And then what if you were to speak to hockey fans who don't have a connection to Connecticut or the Whalers or don't remember these days, and give them a reason why they should watch it? Because for me, if you, you know, older generation, if you grew up a whaleish fan, you're going to devour this. If you even had parents who loved this team, you're going to devour this documentary. But some of these newer fans who just love the game, what are the big reasons why they will love this?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I mean, we all love a pretty good underdog story, right? I feel like the Hartford Whalers are the ultimate underdog. It's literally a city between New York and Boston. I mean, it's a train stop.

[Dan Powers]

True. Exactly. Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

You want to stop for Hartford on the way to Boston, you know, and get some lunch? It's, you know, listen, there's plenty going on there. But it's easy for a place like Hartford, Connecticut to be overlooked, not just in sports, in. In life. And the fact that they had this team, the community really, really loved these guys, especially when they got competitive and they had that team with Francis and Deneen and Mike Liute, I mean, they were all in, so. And they were going up against the Bostons and the Montreal and, like, these historic original six franchises, and for a little while, they. They held their own, you know, and. And I think that's really cool to see. I think it's. It's harder to find a pretty solid underdog story, maybe in college sports, you know, but in pro sports, it's hard to find that these days. So it kind of goes back to an older era where that was maybe a little. A little more achievable.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, it's a very good point.

[Chris Powers]

And we got to say, dude, you crushed it. Thank you, man.

[Evan]

Thanks, man.

[Dan Powers]

I. It's. I'm a ucker for a doc, but I will say, sometimes you watch them, they drag a little bit, and you're like, okay, I get it. This was just. When you find yourself learning new things in a space that you love, every scene, every new moment, and then, like, we keep touching on. It's so cool when stuff pops up that you're like, oh, shit, I know that guy. Or I remember that thing. And that happens throughout the whole thing.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And it's so Fun. And again, doesn't matter if you were born in the 80s, 90s or 2000s. Like, you will know these names if you're a hockey fan. And that is so fun about it. So it's just. We're pumped for you because it's so great. It's such a fun watch. I can't wait for people to see it. And I'm glad you learned how to do it again, because you better do it again.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, we got. There's some more stuff coming. Yeah, there's a lot going on. It was a great experience. It's crazy. I'm curious to see what people who are watching the game now, who aren't around for the Whalers are going to think going, oh, Joel Quinville, huh? Ron Francis, all these guys played together on the same team. Like, you literally look at the team like, head coach, head coach, head coach, gm, agent, broadcaster. They're all still in the game. It's pretty cool. Like, it's a. It's an impressive legacy for a team that has. They've been gone longer than they were. There's been. So true. It was a lot of fun. I appreciate you guys saying such.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, dude, it's our pleasure.

[Dan Powers]

Thank you for letting us see it. Truly, it's so great.

[Chris Powers]

And as you said, you covered the league a long time. So before we let you go, I gotta get your thoughts on these wild card races.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, my God.

[Chris Powers]

Who do you think's getting in?

[Dan Powers]

How insane.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I was at King's Preds the other night. That was. That was a big game.

[Chris Powers]

Which one were you at? You were at one of the. One.

[Dan Powers]

I was at the. No, that was at the Mammoth game. They got quiet.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah. I mean, the ones in the west would never make the playoffs. In the east, we should probably mention that. Like, it's. It's. It's a pillow fight, as McJesus would call it. I mean, I think Ottawa is firmly in that spot.

[Chris Powers]

You think so?

[Dan Powers]

Think so?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah. Yeah. I think despite all the ridiculousness going on in that locker room, I mean, they're just too good. They're just too good. And I think. I think if. If they play. Let's say they play Carolina. I don't know. I don't know if Carolina wants to. I don't know. I think Ottawa is really good.

[Dan Powers]

I. I do, too. And that's a unstoppable force, immovable object for me, because I do think Ottawa is very good. I think this Carolina team's better than they've ever been. I actually think they don't do it this year, 100%. There is a year where they are to do it. I genuinely think it's right now. So as good as Ottawa is, I do think Carolina is not sweating that matchup, but they're certainly not happy it's Ottawa as opposed to Columbus or Detroit, because they'd be way more comfortable there. Like, Ottawa is a good team, and when you look at their lineup, the talent is insane.

[Chris Powers]

If anyone could catch Ottawa from the Islanders, the Wings and the Blue Jackets, who do you think gives them the best bid?

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Wings are done. I'm sorry. It's like, no, they might be.

[Dan Powers]

Don't say that to me.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It's March. It's March in Detroit. Not good.

[Dan Powers]

Do you think they're capturing the fight still? They've got one extra game played, but they've got the same amount of win.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I think if the season was a week longer, maybe. I like Columbus. There's something about them. I just.

[Chris Powers]

Dude, they got the fight.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I want to see. I'd love to see Columbia.

[Dan Powers]

I want to see Zach. We're in playoffs.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Powers]

I'm just.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It's such a great. I love what they've done with bonus. And, yeah, I like the team. I think it's a very, like. You know, they play, like, a very honest brand of hockey. And Jake Greaves has been fantastic.

[Dan Powers]

Shock, like, truly, that was their Achilles heel, right? Going to the season, it was like, what are you going to do at goalie?

[Chris Powers]

He's been great.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

They found their goalie. I mean, they could probably still use a piece, but they'll figure that out. I think out West, I mean, I got to see more macklin Celebrini. I'm not ready for the Sharks to go out just yet. I don't know if they'll make it, but I think I want to see their season keep going.

[Chris Powers]

I think they're in the driver.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

I think they're currently really tough.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Let me see.

[Dan Powers]

They're not in the driver's seat anymore. They have the same amount of games.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It's not looking great.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

No, but they're okay. Like, let's see here.

[Dan Powers]

They have the same amount of games played as the Kings and two plus points. So they are not in the driver's seat.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Okay. So, yeah, they're so Kings. Kings control their destiny right now.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yes. Kings have a really easy schedule. I think they have Vancouver twice in Calgary once.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, we said.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah, that's. It's theirs. To win. I mean, they'll lose in five to Colorado, but it'll still be funny.

[Dan Powers]

At least they get playoffs for the Kopies last season. Exactly.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

You got to make the playoffs. Kopi's last season. Figure out what the hell they're going

[Dan Powers]

to do next year. Listen, I'll be honest though. Colorado's obviously a wagon, but I take the Kings goalie in that goalie matchup, if we're being honest. Okay. Yeah, I like Kemper.

[Chris Powers]

You've had questions about the woods in playoffs.

[Dan Powers]

I, I. And it's literally just a question because they've been such a good tandem in front of the best team in the league. When you get into playoffs and you're playing all playoff teams and you have to start one of them, what are we going to see? Yeah, I believe we're going to see something great because I think they're both great. But it is a question. That's all I'm saying.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Kemper going against the old team would be interesting. Would be pretty cool.

[Dan Powers]

I'm saying, boys, Kings in.

[Chris Powers]

Let's get the Kings.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Let's do it.

[Dan Powers]

All right. So the Sens are in.

[Chris Powers]

The Kings are in. I love it.

[Dan Powers]

Before we let you go again, tell everyone where they can find this, how they can watch this. Doc. And what else you're up to and everything else going on.

[Chris Powers]

Everything.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Okay. Okay. Right here.

[Dan Powers]

Yes.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

The Wailers on NHL Network premiering April 13th. Fantastic. Old school hockey story. You'll learn a lot. You'll laugh, you'll cry. And they'll be airing it repeatedly over the next year or so, so there'll be other opportunities to watch it. I also produced the NHL unscripted pod with the NHL with Jason Demarez and Adnan Virk. We now have Nate Thompson on Hell Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. So we've got a nice three man weave going with those guys. Yeah. I had an Iheart project that came out last year called Livewire, which is not sports, but it's about this one of the original shock jocks named Alan Burr. So we're developing something with that as well.

[Chris Powers]

That's awesome.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

It's like a 10 part audio documentary basically about this shock jock from the 80s. And yeah, plenty of other things. But yeah, we'll get into that another time, I guess. But yeah, the Whalers. The Whalers is the, the main one right now. That's why I'm here. So happy you guys enjoyed it.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, dude, I'm so happy you shared.

[Dan Powers]

It was 100 agree.

[Chris Powers]

I couldn't. I was actually fired up when you messaged. You're like, I did a Whaler's doc. And I was like, oh, yes, dude.

[Dan Powers]

You know what's actually funny? There is a beer league team in our league called the Whalers, and we actually just played them and lost in a barn burner last night. And that's where my head went first. And I'm like, man, I am tortured by that team.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

I was like, what? They have a dot? And then I was like, wait, wait, wait. This is an awesome doc. Okay, so shout out, you fuckers who beat us. But thank you again for sharing it with us. And. And, yeah, everyone go check out the pod. There's so many friends of the program.

[Chris Powers]

I know, I know. Podcast.

[Dan Powers]

I mean, it's. This is fantastic. But thanks for popping in, dude.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Dan Powers]

Of course, man.

[Chris Powers]

Wow. Stick taps to Tao, because that was incredible.

[Dan Powers]

Huge shout out, tp. That was an awesome, awesome chat. And it's a sick doc.

[Chris Powers]

Sick doc.

[Dan Powers]

Check it out for sure.

[Chris Powers]

And he's got such a wealth of knowledge about it, and it's all in there, too. But just seeing him get so fired up about it was amazing because it just made me more fired up again having just watched it. Yeah, I can't wait to check it out again.

[Dan Powers]

Agree.

[Chris Powers]

It was awesome.

[Evan]

Can I interject one question, please? Do we. Do none of us believe that Ovechkin is actually retiring?

[Chris Powers]

You don't believe he is?

[Evan]

Well, we didn't even talk about it. I feel like if he was actually doing it, we would have talked about it.

[Dan Powers]

It's weird to me that he. I won't acknowledge it, really. I don't think OVI is the type of guy who would want the full season tour. But I also think he cares too much about fans that he would, like, randomly at the last game of the season be like this, yeah, I am retiring, so I don't think he's doing. I think he's.

[Evan]

I think, like, last year when he was chasing the. The goal record was kind of felt like the retirement tour almost, because it's like, well, here's your thing. But it was just weird because this weekend they did the whole, like, it felt very much like, oh, it's Sid's last game with ovi, and they didn't. Sid didn't play in the Saturday game, and then he played the Sunday game, and then they tried to do, like, a handshake line, and Obi was like, no.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Evan]

So I'm like, he's sending mixed signals to me, dude.

[Chris Powers]

So I have been firmly in the camp that he is just. Cause I was like, it just feels weird. Like, I feel like he is going to retire because his contract's up. We had always talked about he's not going to leave money on the table, but once this deal was up, I was like, I could see him going. So I've kind of been on the dark horse. Like, he is retiring, but interesting point by you, because I definitely don't think he wants the retirement tour. Yeah, but it would be. If I was a Caps fan, I would be bummed if in the middle of summer, in July, he goes like this, dude, I am retiring, by the way. And I'm like, bro, even if they're.

[Evan]

No fanfare.

[Dan Powers]

Even if they lose here and they don't make playoffs. And. And he, like, in that last game, he's like, hey, like, that's it. If I were fans, I'd be like, what? Like, they didn't get a chance to see him last. One last time. I don't think he would do that. So I don't think he's retired.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

Okay, Quick ad break and then we'll get back into some not ice. Talk about Coachella. Talking about the best name in hockey, and that is Bauer, our favorite brand partner. The best people in the game, bringing you the best rollerblades you could ever imagine yet. That's right. I'm talking about the Bauer vapor flylights. These flylights are some of the sickest skates you have ever seen. Well, guess what? Now they're in the rollerblades. And let me tell you what. Bauer has gotten me back into rollerblading. And it is the greatest thing of all time. Not just because it's super fun. And in the summer, especially here in Southern California, just ripping around on the blades all the time is amazing. Yes, it is remarkable what blading does for your training. A lot of you folks, you get into the summer months, the ice is gone. You don't have all those unbelievable ponds to skate on and odrs to skate on. You're searching for ice time. You don't always need it. Pop on some Bauer vapor fly lights and keep those edges sharp. Keep the speed coming. Work on the hands, work on the feet. It's unbelievable. I'm going to tell you all about these things. Okay? Bauer just dropped these flylights, the vapor fly lite roller skates. And they are unbelievable. They're built for players who play fast. This is not just like the casual Sunday league skate. No, no, no, no. You are going to Be ripping around there. They got the all new Kryptofly chassis. It's lightweight, flexible, built on kryptonium geometry for max roll speed. Pair that with the fusion curve composite boot which is ultra reactive for quick transitions and you've got a skate that lets you accelerate and change direction without any lag. This is unbelievable. They got Swiss bearings. It's remarkable. Truly, folks, these rollerblades are unbelievable. It feels like you're skating out there on the ice. You can get in a roller league. You can just tool around in your driveway or out on the sidewalks, wherever to keep those feet light and fast. That's what Bauer's all about. Me, myself, I cannot tell you how much fun I have on these things. Again. I'll go out there with my twig, I'll tool around, work on my game, or I'll just rip around, get a nice little exercise in and keep my edges and keep my turning and all that stuff sharp as possible. So you're gonna go to bauer.com, you're gonna check out the Vapor Flylite roller skates. They're available now. Grab a pair and bring your ice speed to the rink. It's unbelievable.

[Chris Powers]

Let me ask you an honest question, okay? When you think about your deodorant, why do you even get the deodorant you get? Is it just because that's what your mom bought when you were in high school? You would come home and they'd be going grocery shopping, got you deodorant. Were you stealing it from your dad's shave kit like I was? How do you get your deodorant? I want you to put some real thought into it because it is time to fix that game. Because your deodorant's been failing you and it can't happen anymore. Listen, I've been there. You get the. When Dan and I are doing interviews, we're. We're pitted up all the time.

[Dan Powers]

It's ridiculous.

[Chris Powers]

So what you need to do is to get rid of that forever. Because it would be amazing if you never had to worry about that again. Now, very importantly, Dr. Squatch has a new head professor, and it is Megan Fox. Holy hot for teacher. She's running the Fox the Foundation for Odor Excellence. That is awesome. That is just incredible. Class is in session. I do not. You want to miss. You don't want to miss this. The lesson. Real men pay attention to their deodorant. Their product is their invisible Glide deodorant. It's natural, aluminum free, 72 hour odor protection. No more Pit stains, ruining your first impressions, ruining interviews. It goes on invisible so you're not leaving white marks on everything you own. It's the perfect collection of things to create this experience. It's available in stores and [e-mail]. so upgrade your stick. Let your stick do the talking, and head to DrSquatch.com that'S-R-S Q U A T C H.com or find Dr. Squatch in stores. Let your stick do the talking.

[Dan Powers]

Time for some not ice. The boys just got back from Coachella.

[Chris Powers]

Literally, my big.

[Dan Powers]

Literally, my big question for you is, was that our last one,

[Chris Powers]

one of our friends is likely retiring due to baby and we'll see.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

We'll see.

[Dan Powers]

Babies will get you. Yeah, they'll get you. So I went.

[Chris Powers]

I went into this one. I was kind of doing ovie this year. I went in being like, this is probably it, but like, ovi. I'm afraid that in the off season, I'm gonna go. I actually wanna go back, so I'm not willing to commit. I need to have a. I'll have a discussion with my team in the offseason.

[Evan]

Do you look at the artist lineup and let that determine it, or are you just always gonna. Always want to go?

[Chris Powers]

Can I just.

[Dan Powers]

Yes, I think I am. Admittedly, I am not the most dialed music person. I love music. I listen to a lot of music. But I am not that guy that knows everything about everyone on the set list. So it doesn't affect my decision whatsoever. If there is a headliner or someone big that I'm fired up about, that adds excitement. But every year that I go, I see some performance of someone I've never heard of, and it blows my dick

[Chris Powers]

clean off my body.

[Evan]

Nice.

[Dan Powers]

And that's what I look forward to the most.

[Evan]

Yeah. Yeah. Discovering new cool.

[Chris Powers]

So.

[Dan Powers]

And you know what? Frankly, I actually think sometimes the headliners create more of a disappointment.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

It's more.

[Chris Powers]

So much.

[Dan Powers]

Certainly more opportunity for disappointment.

[Evan]

Don't you think? Also, like. Like, do you get so crammed in, it's like almost unenjoyable when there's like a billion fucking people. And then you might see somebody that's not getting noticed and you're like, oh, I have a great view. Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, I think. Okay, quickly on that. And I get that artists are weird in their nature, you know, but what I find frustrating is these headliners. Obviously, if you're headlining Coachella, presumably you have a large collection of A large catalog of music that people like.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

And it would Be so easy to just literally go up on stage and sing all. Like, go to Spotify, see what your most streamed songs are. Go up on stage and just sing those songs. Literally just do that. And everyone on earth would go, it was amazing.

[Evan]

It was perfect.

[Chris Powers]

And the Internet would love you. But every time the headliners specifically go, no, I have to do something. Like, I have to make this weird. And then the Internet's like, that sucked because you just didn't sing the good songs. And I'm like, why do you even let yourself get ripped like this? Just sing the good songs.

[Dan Powers]

Well, yeah, I don't. I'm gonna come to the defense of some of these artists, these poor struggling artists, because years ago when Blink182 was there.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

Blink182 is making new music. Oh, yeah. But they also know that they're not.

[Chris Powers]

Like,

[Dan Powers]

people aren't losing their fucking mind for the new album that Blink is dropping. So they played all their hits.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And they sprinkled in some new songs. But when fucking Biebs, for example, drops a new album and all these butt plugs are out there mad at him for not playing his music from 2010.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

I'm like, you're an idiot, dude.

[Chris Powers]

Right.

[Dan Powers]

Like, he needs to play his new album because he needs people to listen to his new album. I get it. So I. And I also get the other side and we'll get it fully into Bieber.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. Okay.

[Dan Powers]

But I think it is such a dumb person. Take that. These, like, very current, relevant artists when they're not playing their old songs that you love and you're aghast by that. I'm like, you're a dumb.

[Chris Powers]

Dumb.

[Dan Powers]

They need to play their new music. That's the whole point of live performances. It's like as if Ryan Gosling comes out with Project Hail Mary and then goes on Conan and Graham Norton. And you would be mad that he wasn't talking about Remember the Titans, Drive and Remember the Titans. It's the same exact thing. Live performances for current artists are almost always built around when they have a new album drop and they're going to place at new music. Yeah, that's. So the complaint, I think, is. I understand the desire for it.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

But the complaint, I think, is very misplaced. It's crazy.

[Evan]

Were you talking about Bieber specifically? Is that here? Or were you just saying a general rogue?

[Chris Powers]

I find this happens a lot with headliners, but I do thought. I do think it happened with Bieber this year. Like, it was another example of, like, oh, dude, because it was. I forget. I saw. I was reading narcole. It was like 55.0minutes before he played Baby and like, dude, we were pretty far back, so maybe the people up front were like geeking for him. They probably were probably girls crying just to see him or whatever. But we were pretty far back, but the people around us were lying on the ground. Like, people were like sitting, lying down or leaving. And then he played Baby and fucking. Everybody launched into the air and was screaming. And I'm like, dude, yeah, you got ideas? Give the people.

[Dan Powers]

I am going to. People forget we're talking about my teammate here.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, true.

[Dan Powers]

People forget the outlet pass. I snapped tape to tape for him on a nice ozone rush. So I'm going to have my guys back. And I mean this passionately. I thought he was great and I think the Internet backlash is a bummer.

[Evan]

Well, they're mad about. Hey. Like, he pulled up a YouTube page or something. I wasn't aware. I didn't watch it.

[Dan Powers]

Let me break this down. Okay.

[Evan]

What happened?

[Dan Powers]

Justin Bieber has a new album, right? Justin Bieber needs to sell said new album. He is performing at Coachella. He hasn't performed in years to this capacity.

[Chris Powers]

I think he's ever headlined.

[Dan Powers]

He's been there, certainly. Obviously he was going to play his new album.

[Chris Powers]

Yep.

[Dan Powers]

Obviously, Beliebers and his fans, of which there were many, many, demanded that he played his bops.

[Evan]

Right.

[Dan Powers]

Myself included. I was like, I really hope he plays his bops. Biebs went up there. He started his performance wearing a big red hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and sunglasses on. And people were going, oh. He put out a sleepy, lazy performance where he then doom scrolled the Internet.

[Chris Powers]

It was hilarious headlines.

[Evan]

Well, but that maybe that was an artistic statement.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. So in my opinion, what happened was Justin Bieber, who has been who is the biggest star of our generation. It's not even debatable as far as I'm concerned. He has been famous his entire life. He has been uber, uber famous for decades now and has been through so fucking much. Yeah. God, and a lot of shit that

[Chris Powers]

we don't even know about.

[Dan Powers]

I watched him go up on that stage with hundreds of millions of people demanding he do this, that or the other, when he has every right to go eat my butthole. I will do whatever I want. And not only did he give us exactly what we wanted, but he did it in his way. And I thought it was great watching him up there. Like scrolling YouTube, which is where he was discovered, which is where he Became famous where we all found him watching him scroll YouTube and play those classic songs and play, like, 45 seconds to a minute of each of them. So everyone got to it. He got to move on to the next one. He then even played a couple of those funny viral videos where he ran into that glass door. He played the paparazzi clip where he's like, it's not clocking to you, and, like, laughed at it.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

I was like, dude, anyone who thought that Bieber was going to get up there with his fucking headset on and do choreographed dances like he did in the past, that was never happening. But the fact that he did give all those old songs, but he did it in a way that made him happy. I think it's something that we should have all gone. That was fun. I thought it was fun. I think shitting on it is a bummer, dude.

[Chris Powers]

So I'm with you. My. The part that the Internet is shitting on the Most is that YouTube portion of the show. And I was like, that was the. That was amazing. I thought it was a really cool way to do this part by people.

[Evan]

Did people around you seem to be into it, or did you feel the air?

[Chris Powers]

No, it was cool.

[Dan Powers]

So you know what was interesting? Ev. He goes. He was up there performing, and there was no. There was nothing. There was no set design.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

There was no light show. It was very much him just with a microphone singing.

[Evan]

Cool.

[Dan Powers]

He went up there and then every now and then, he had a laptop set up, and there was, like, a camera angle on his face, as with a split screen of what? He was like, youtubing. And he was like, I'm checking out here, like, on Twitter, what you guys want me to play? And everyone. He did that immediately.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And everyone freaked out because they were like, oh, this is his sign of he's gonna play the hits. But then to Chris's point, we got 40 minutes in, and he hadn't played any of the hits, and people were like, oh, actually, what he's doing is making it seem like everyone is requesting swag songs. So it was almost a little bit of a misdirect. Chris is right. People were lying down, People were having conversations. People were leaving. Yeah, a lot. A lot of people in our group left the second those first few notes of Baby came on. Dude, it was crazy. It looked like a scene from World War Z, the way people jumped up

[Chris Powers]

off the ground, coming out of the

[Dan Powers]

ground, and, like, sprinted closer to the stage. That was a cool moment, too. I was like, oh, holy so.

[Evan]

Well, you know, I can respect that because, like, you and, like, I. I have the musical taste of an ARP member. So my only proxy for this is, like, you look at artists like Bob Dylan or Neil Young who, like, they never play their hits. Every time you see one of those guys, they're like, I'm really stoked to play this weird that I wrote in my 70s.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Evan]

And they're like, you. If you don't like it, this is what. But that just means they're excited to play it. Like, they're. They've got a boner for their new music, and that's cool. Hopefully it's good.

[Dan Powers]

Okay. My urge. Go on.

[Chris Powers]

I just have a question. So usually someone with these or everybody plays a set, and then weekend two, they play the same set. You know, like, that's. That's what we do. And it was so charming the way he was just YouTubing stuff. I was like, oh, this is so spontaneous and cool that I'm actually so curious if it next weekend, is he going to do the same shtick and be like, oh, I'm just like, what are you doing?

[Evan]

He's got to change it.

[Chris Powers]

I know. It'll be. In fact, I think it'll be psychotic if he literally does the same things. I'm like, oh, you're a robot.

[Dan Powers]

No, I see. You know what? I brought this up actually, today. I don't think it's psychotic because Haley posted a couple videos. Like, they went through her rehearsal. Dude.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

That wasn't random. It was rehearsed. Every song was in order on their set list. He will do maybe not the same thing. Like, Kid Laroi went up there for State. Maybe they do something different. Maybe a different artist comes up and. But I think all the YouTube stuff will be exactly the same.

[Chris Powers]

Will he play Deez Nuts and double rainbow? Yeah. Will he be like, and then double rainbow?

[Dan Powers]

I hope so.

[Chris Powers]

Dude. Somebody said online they go, bieber should. This next weekend should do that. Like, pull up his YouTube, but YouTube his weekend one performance just.

[Dan Powers]

And walk off stage.

[Chris Powers]

I was like, that is. That actually would be inspired.

[Evan]

It's like one of those fathom events you go to Regal to watch scientists.

[Dan Powers]

It'd be amazing.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Here you go.

[Dan Powers]

I only have a couple other thoughts on Coachella, mostly for Ev here.

[Evan]

Yeah. I mean, I'm. I was in my backyard doing shrooms when I was.

[Dan Powers]

When I mentioned sometimes the headliners are a bummer. So I'm a big anima guy. Anima got canceled because of the wind. It Was utterly devastating. Dang. So John Summit was performing at the Do Lab, and a speaker fell down and squished a girl. A girl got squished?

[Evan]

No way. Did she die?

[Dan Powers]

No, she's alive, which means she's probably going to be able to go to Coachella for free Everywhere. She's like, anything, Dude.

[Chris Powers]

Evan, listen to me loud and clear. I would give anything to get hit by a fallen speaker at Coachella.

[Dan Powers]

I would have loved to have gotten sports spell.

[Evan]

Yeah, you could buy like 20 bottles. Bottles of water at Coachella.

[Chris Powers]

Correct.

[Dan Powers]

You know what's funny?

[Evan]

How much were the water?

[Dan Powers]

Very cheap. The waters were like $1.

[Evan]

I think water should be free.

[Chris Powers]

Me too. But they. They would never do that. Of course. But they keep it cheap because they're like, don't die.

[Dan Powers]

I'm actually pretty sure. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty. Those waters that you get, they're in the, like, steel. I'm pretty sure they're only like $1. And I think all of the water money goes to foundation sick, which is pretty sick.

[Chris Powers]

And there's free. There is free filling station.

[Evan]

Okay, good.

[Dan Powers]

So, yeah, girl got squished.

[Evan]

Oh, boy.

[Dan Powers]

But Anima getting canceled was an absolute dagger for me. I can never not find this funny. Listen, man, it's a long festival. You're there for a long time. You're there for hours and hours and hours. Lot of substances being taken at these shows.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, yeah. So I'm told.

[Dan Powers]

Wouldn't know anything about it.

[Evan]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Lot of substance being taken. People are eating, drinking. I will never, ever understand the state of porta Potties at festivals like this.

[Evan]

We just had the piss conversation. It's not going to get better.

[Dan Powers]

I don't want to get back into a pee, pee, poo poo conversation. But, dude, going in, like, on the last show, if you got a pee and you go into the porta potties at the end of the festival, you walk into some of these porta potties and I'm like, what happened in here? I don't care how many drugs you are on. Why people are just pooping on the walls. I was like, what? What is going on? What trip are you at?

[Chris Powers]

I have a question. I generally don't know the answer to this. Are porta potties when they drop off.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

600 porta potties at Coachella?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Are they on Thursday morning? Are they pristine?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, like, yeah, spotless. And they clean. They're empty. And then they pump them full of the blue sanitize, whatever you know, they

[Chris Powers]

didn't come with destruction.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Pooping it.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. No. They don't pre poop deliver Porta Potties.

[Chris Powers]

I imagine they could.

[Dan Powers]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Chris Powers]

They're brand. Just move it over. They are brand.

[Dan Powers]

They're spanking clean.

[Chris Powers]

What? What are they? How do Porta Potties work?

[Dan Powers]

They get.

[Evan]

It's like a chemical toilet.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Down in the toilet, though. It looks like it goes down 500ft, but I'm like, this is.

[Evan]

You're staring into the abyss, and the abyss stares back at you.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, sure does.

[Chris Powers]

Dangerously.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They get pumped and dumped, brother.

[Chris Powers]

So they just dump it right out the clean it up and then they go boom. Or is a Porta Potty retired after one event?

[Evan]

Dude, that would be awesome. But I bet somebody's cleaning that thing. It's got to be a horrible job.

[Dan Powers]

For sure. What a tough job. What's that guy show? Dirty jobs.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Quarter potty cleaner. That's a tough job. That.

[Evan]

That. That job should be like $200,000 a year minimum.

[Chris Powers]

100% minimum.

[Evan]

It's not, though.

[Dan Powers]

I suppose my last take is this too. Coachella and music festivals rock.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, my God. Dude, they're incredible.

[Dan Powers]

If it's not for you, that's totally cool. But shitting on Coachella and people who go to Coachella.

[Chris Powers]

Uncool.

[Dan Powers]

Uncool. Yeah, it's really fun. You get to. You see so much music, and if you go with a good crew, like we do, it is fucking awesome.

[Chris Powers]

The balls.

[Dan Powers]

Awesome.

[Chris Powers]

Yep. It's. That's why I don't want to retire.

[Dan Powers]

I know, man. I'm getting old, though.

[Chris Powers]

I know.

[Dan Powers]

It's a lot of walking this year. It's getting so crowded. It's impossible to get in and out of.

[Chris Powers]

Well, this was the first time. You're in years because of Bieber.

[Dan Powers]

Once you're in. Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Then anything goes.

[Dan Powers]

It's special. It is. When you get into that festival, you're

[Chris Powers]

walking around and anything goes.

[Dan Powers]

Do. Do you. I. Do you prefer it when the sun is up? We got to stop talking about Coachella. But do you prefer it when the sun is up or down? Because it's tough, I think. Me too.

[Chris Powers]

But the sunset set is the best set because the sun is setting and it's fucking perfect. I actually disagree. Oh, my God.

[Dan Powers]

I think when it is dark and you get either a headliner or just Subtronics. When it is. When it is dark and a DJ does, like what Mal P and Boris Breha did or what Subtronics did. It's dark and the light show is melting your face. It is the best.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, actually, I love lasers. I will say I am a big laser.

[Dan Powers]

Call me major laser.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, call me major laser.

[Dan Powers]

Can you imagine the lasers of the major laser show?

[Chris Powers]

No, I actually. I can't believe that. That's crazy.

[Dan Powers]

All right, let's get into a beer league hotline and a blind ranking and close this EPI out. Ev, what do we got for the beer league hotline?

[Evan]

Playing in a C league, one team has a father daughter combo. Both could play B level. She's gritty and I love seeing women play like that. But she does a lot of dirty stuff. Elbows, cup checks stick to the back of the leg. She gets away with it because she's a smaller woman. She also dives every time there's any contact. Last week she punched three guys on our team with no call and we didn't retaliate. Given playoffs are coming up, I anticipate she will ramp things up, not down. How best to handle this teacher Consequences like any other player. Oh, my God. Jesus.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

This.

[Evan]

Or. Or she gets a pass because she's a female.

[Dan Powers]

This guy likes a gritty, dirty woman. And I.

[Chris Powers]

And I like. I like that.

[Dan Powers]

I like the cut of his gym.

[Chris Powers]

I like that about him. He likes that about her. I like that about him.

[Dan Powers]

Oh, man.

[Chris Powers]

Define what do you think he means by consequences? Because that is really the crux of this question.

[Dan Powers]

He will.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. First of all, I'd like to say a father daughter combo on a beer

[Chris Powers]

league team is real cool. Badass.

[Dan Powers]

That's cool. I went up and down on this

[Chris Powers]

gal a few times.

[Dan Powers]

I love that she's gritty.

[Chris Powers]

Me too.

[Dan Powers]

I don't love that she's cup checking. Cup check is a little slash to the back of the legs. Dirty, messy.

[Chris Powers]

What was the other thing? Elbowing or something? Elbows.

[Evan]

Yeah, she's.

[Dan Powers]

Elbows stick to the back on the leg. I don't love an elbow in beer league either.

[Chris Powers]

I don't love an elbow, to be fair.

[Dan Powers]

Maybe she's a little shorter.

[Chris Powers]

An elbow.

[Dan Powers]

Maybe it's just right here hitting you in the chest or something. Yeah, cup checking. That's when you're with the.

[Chris Powers]

And it sucks too, cuz it's all the boy like you. You can't even.

[Dan Powers]

You're. You're coming around ball tapping the fellas. I don't think that's cool.

[Evan]

See, that's. That's an unfair advantage for her too.

[Dan Powers]

That's what I'm saying.

[Chris Powers]

Back there.

[Dan Powers]

You can't. You can't be cup checking.

[Chris Powers]

But. But I doubt. I've never seen a play, but I doubt she's cup checking all like. I bet she's cup checks on, which I don't love, but I bet it's more the back of the leg stuff. I'm kind of with you. Where I'm just in. She's gritty.

[Dan Powers]

He did say plural. Cup checks.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. And I really don't like the dives.

[Dan Powers]

I hate the dives.

[Chris Powers]

Because then you're going. You're taking advantage of being the girl and going, oh, I'm going to get a call here. If, like, someone bumps up against me and I go flying, I'm going to get the call every time.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

And I don't like that.

[Dan Powers]

If you want to be treated the same and the gritty nature makes it feel as though this gal is like, yeah, treat me the same. Yeah. You can't be diving if you're right. So.

[Chris Powers]

Because, dude, if you're. Yes. If you're mixing it up, then. And aren't diving, I kind of have no problem with you because I know we can mix it up back. Yeah. So now we go. Now she's punching people, and now we got playoffs. Her dad's on the team, too. That's kind of crazy because, like, how kind of consequences you teach her when her fucking dad's right there.

[Dan Powers]

I'm gonna be honest. I think you two hand this broad to high heaven.

[Chris Powers]

Well, dude, this is. You.

[Dan Powers]

You just.

[Chris Powers]

You just. You just heard the Gordie Howe story on the whaler's dock when someone hit his kids and he beat the wheels off. Yeah, I'm worried about that because dad's got old guy strength.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. And I to hand the girl to high heaven and then my head gets ripped clean off.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. It's a risk you got. You got to be willing to take. Yeah, she's a player, too.

[Chris Powers]

She could be B level.

[Dan Powers]

She's.

[Evan]

Couldn't we just teach her consequences by just having a conversation?

[Dan Powers]

I don't think so. No, I think you got to do. Because if she's diving, it means she's a rat. She's a rat. And I mean that in a good way. Yeah, you're a rat. You're Matthew Tkachuk. You know. You know. You know how to get under team skin, and you also know how to get results for your team. Oh, yeah, she's a rat. I respect it. But.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

If we're in the playoffs and she. She's causing problems, you Got to snap a twig over her shin pads. I don't know what else to tell you. Dude, don't. Don't do that.

[Chris Powers]

Here's another thing.

[Dan Powers]

Maybe.

[Chris Powers]

Well, no, you can't talk to the rest, but maybe, maybe, like, why are they in the C level? We kind of brushed over that. Like, go, go up. What are they doing down here? Ratting around the C level. Well, go to B.

[Dan Powers]

They say both could play B level. You play in the highest level and then also the second highest level.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, but it sounds like she doesn't also play. Yeah, if she played both, I'm with.

[Dan Powers]

Maybe they do. We don't know.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, I guess this guy doesn't though.

[Dan Powers]

I. I think my big issue with my answer for you here is I don't know what beer league justice looks like.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out.

[Dan Powers]

I. Because I don't. I am so anti physicality.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

If you face wash someone in beer league. If you're two handed someone in beer league, I am so not about it. It's insane. But what I do think you could get into here is some verbal abuse. Okay, I'm okay with a chirp. Yeah, I'm okay with a chirp hit or where it hurts. So if you maybe want to start talking some shit. Keep it classy.

[Chris Powers]

How much do you weigh?

[Dan Powers]

Oh, no, keep it classy. But you could start chirping, I think. Yeah, don't I? As I know I made the two hand joke. I do not think that we should be physically taking out our frustration on this.

[Chris Powers]

Because I, I do think fairly or unfairly, you would get jumped not only by her dad, but also by the whole team. Like if she, if she slash you the back leg and I turn around and bang, cross check. I'm like, everyone is going to kill.

[Evan]

Well, why not? Why don't you do like a, like a hostage situation or like a villain does in a movie. Go after the dad and then be like, it's your fault.

[Dan Powers]

And he's an older guy too.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

No one likes to see our dad.

[Chris Powers]

That's incredible. After the dad, everything you do to me is being returned to your father.

[Dan Powers]

The second she dives, go out the next shift and fucking whack your stick down on the top of her dad's foot.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

And when he is like, oh, my foot's broken, I can't do the lawn work tomorrow. You look at her and go like this. You like what you did? Quit fucking diving or I'm gonna break your old man's. Hip. Yep.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

She cup checks me. Turn around, dad. Bang. Balls are hanging solo.

[Dan Powers]

Go after her father. That's it, super villain. That is the answer.

[Evan]

All right.

[Dan Powers]

We thought chirping was the answer. Unfortunately, the answer is take out her dad. Yeah, take out her dad. Yeah, sure. I bet she'll stop diving after that. That's it.

[Chris Powers]

That is incredible.

[Dan Powers]

Brilliantly done. All right, Bauer given us the best vapor flylight rollerblades in the game. Now they're going to give us the best blind ranking you've ever heard. Evan, what do you got for us today?

[Evan]

This might be a horrible copyright issue, but I want to blind rank the best NHL on TV theme songs.

[Chris Powers]

Oh, awesome.

[Evan]

Have you done this one before?

[Dan Powers]

I don't think so.

[Chris Powers]

Whoa. Are we allowed to play this?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

10 seconds or less.

[Dan Powers]

10 seconds or less.

[Evan]

10 Seconds. So I'm only gonna play 10 seconds.

[Dan Powers]

Okay.

[Evan]

Okay, here we go.

[Dan Powers]

Blind ranking. NHL broadcast them. I don't love that one. I think it's. I mean, they're all good.

[Evan]

I know.

[Chris Powers]

That's the thing. And they all fire you up.

[Dan Powers]

So which one is that?

[Evan]

That's NHL on tnt and a newer one that's.

[Dan Powers]

Give us the. Give us the announcements after. Okay, so NHL on tnt. Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

It gets the juices going, so I don't want to sewer it.

[Dan Powers]

I think I'm gonna go four. That wasn't that special. It's good.

[Chris Powers]

There's definitely stuff I have higher.

[Dan Powers]

It's good.

[Chris Powers]

Four. Wow. All right. I'll get nuts. I'll get nuts.

[Evan]

You want to get nuts?

[Chris Powers]

Four.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Michael Keaton's let's get nuts. All right, here we go. This is NHL on Fox theme.

[Dan Powers]

I feel like I'm watching a 90s growing fox.

[Evan]

Well, it's funny because that was the. The broad nhlm Fox theme when it was, like, nationally on Fox, but it's also now the theme when it's, like, local networks.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Evan]

So it still exists after all these.

[Dan Powers]

That's a hard five, brother.

[Evan]

Really?

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

I get that it's not good, but it also is kind of fun.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah, but, like, the tin. Most of these are pretty great. So that's five.

[Evan]

But you don't know what's coming.

[Chris Powers]

I know I don't know what's coming.

[Evan]

Not to be ominous.

[Chris Powers]

Okay, five. I'll live with that. Five.

[Evan]

This is my personal Coachella, by the way. You guys. You guys went to Coachella. These are the bops that I was listening to all weekend. All right, number three, NHL on Versus. Remember that? Do you Remember when this was? All right.

[Chris Powers]

See, now that is terrible. And that should be dead last. But instead, I kind of like. That is ridiculous.

[Dan Powers]

That was great.

[Evan]

Like that Versus, I think used to be the broadcast probably till the 2014, maybe.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah.

[Evan]

Yeah. Like, it's not.

[Chris Powers]

It was like post lockout. Like, we don't have it. They had no network NHL on television. I was like, what the fuck is Versus?

[Dan Powers]

So thank God for them.

[Chris Powers]

And they're like, turn on it.

[Dan Powers]

Like a little guitar riff. Three.

[Chris Powers]

Yes. Because we have no choice.

[Dan Powers]

But I thought that was.

[Chris Powers]

We. Fox.

[Dan Powers]

That was better than Fox.

[Chris Powers]

Fox is incredible.

[Evan]

Okay.

[Dan Powers]

You're in it.

[Chris Powers]

Okay. Three.

[Evan]

Ready? Yep. Next one. Espn.

[Chris Powers]

That used to be my ringtone.

[Dan Powers]

That is number one.

[Chris Powers]

That is number one. And it is. And it's a landslide haymaker.

[Dan Powers]

Dude.

[Chris Powers]

There's something about Bieber and that theme. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Evan]

Did they do. I think when the. When the NHL went back on espn, they did like a special about that theme. Was he in that special?

[Chris Powers]

Maybe that might have been it. Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

We made a fun video about that. Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

In October 2021, lifelong hockey fan Justin Bieber narrated an ESPN video tribute celebrating the return of the NHL on ESPN. Theme song.

[Dan Powers]

Boom.

[Chris Powers]

Because it was goaded.

[Dan Powers]

Connected to Bieber, too. Number one. What's our number two?

[Evan]

NHL on NBC.

[Chris Powers]

This.

[Dan Powers]

I feel like I can see a tracking shot.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Dan Powers]

Over a cold winter city. Pretty sick.

[Evan]

I just. I just always hear Doc Emmerich's voice over that.

[Chris Powers]

You can't.

[Dan Powers]

I feel fantastic about this list. I think that is my number two for sure.

[Chris Powers]

Yes. Do we need that?

[Dan Powers]

The beginning part is not great. At the end there it gets nailed one, too.

[Chris Powers]

Those. That's exactly where I wanted.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Those.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

And I think everything should go above Versus. But. But. But I. But I'll live with that. I'll live with.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah. Good list.

[Chris Powers]

God.

[Dan Powers]

Fun. Blind rankings.

[Chris Powers]

Two are awesome.

[Dan Powers]

Those first two are so the ESPN

[Evan]

theme I always have such a fond memory of. Because honestly, the first time I saw it was not on espn. It was the movie Sudden Death, which was the Penguins fucking. The Jean Claude Van Damme movie. That's like Die Hard inside the Penguins arena. And I remember hearing, like, they had the theme in the movie movie while they were broadcasting it. And that was like the first hockey movie I ever watched.

[Chris Powers]

It's fucking great, dude. It was when it was my ringtone. It was like when your ringtones were like beeps. Like eventually you could get.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Songs.

[Dan Powers]

Yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. But. So it was Just like this beep version of the ESPN theme. But it would get me so fired up every time. I love it. Yeah, that was money.

[Dan Powers]

All right. Great blind ranking. Quick update before we close the episode on some of the scores here.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

Oh, wow.

[Dan Powers]

Tampa Bay has beaten Detroit in overtime. So two points for Tampa Bay.

[Chris Powers]

Massive. Holy.

[Dan Powers]

We have got Buffalo and Chicago tied 1 1. The Sharks are up 1 nothing on the Predators after two periods. And the LA Kings are up 1 nothing on the Seattle Kraken. So those results, if they stand, would be huge.

[Evan]

Flyers are in a shootout with the Hurricanes.

[Chris Powers]

That means they've got the point.

[Dan Powers]

Yep.

[Chris Powers]

So they're already at 95. So the cap. If they. If they win the shootout, it's over. And if they lose the shootout, the Caps cling to life.

[Dan Powers]

If the Flyers win in this shootout,

[Chris Powers]

how far into the shootout?

[Dan Powers]

Washington and Columbus will be eliminated.

[Chris Powers]

Should we just stay right here?

[Dan Powers]

I think we might have to just stay and watch this play out.

[Chris Powers]

Yeah. So. Dude, connect me, folks.

[Dan Powers]

You just thought the episode was ending. It's not. Oh.

[Chris Powers]

Flyers missed. Canes missed. Flyers missed. Kane's missed. Flyers missed. And it was Zegras, which is insane. He never misses.

[Dan Powers]

He never misses.

[Chris Powers]

So the Canes are about to shoot for their third shot right now.

[Dan Powers]

All right. This is amazing. So we got this game. I mean, we want the Flyers in, right? I mean, this is like.

[Evan]

Dude, I. Dude, I'll be honest with you. Either way, if it's Caps or Flyers, as a Penguins fan, I'm having a great time.

[Chris Powers]

Great.

[Evan]

It doesn't. Doesn't matter to me, but I have more respect for the Capitals and the Flyers. But whatever.

[Chris Powers]

Super fun first round series, no matter what. As a Pens fan, I want the Flyers because it's like. Holy shit.

[Dan Powers]

Huge shave. Keandre Miller just went. Big save by the Flyers. Really? Yep.

[Chris Powers]

Holy shit. Are you watching it?

[Dan Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

Like the video?

[Dan Powers]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Powers]

I'm coming around.

[Dan Powers]

All right, here we go. We got Forrester up on the puck, coming down, coming in slow. Goal. Goal time. This could be playoffs, and that is massive. Flyers are fired up on the bench, folks. Flyers are fired up on the bench. And now it comes down to your boy Bussy. Or not. Not Bussy. Sorry. God, that's a sick shot. So the Flyers just scored.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

All right.

[Evan]

You kind of said that like Christopher Walken. The Flyers.

[Chris Powers]

Boom.

[Dan Powers]

The Philadelphia Flyers. Darth Vladar. Huge, huge save.

[Chris Powers]

They know it. Look at them.

[Dan Powers]

Wow.

[Chris Powers]

That's awesome.

[Evan]

So.

[Dan Powers]

So. The Flyers.

[Chris Powers]

Penguins. Flyers.

[Evan]

And the Penguins were sure about that?

[Chris Powers]

I think so because now they're at 96. Oh, yeah, I think they just went to 96.

[Dan Powers]

So here we go.

[Evan]

But I thought that the, I thought the Caps had a tiebreaker over them if they, like, if they lose the next game.

[Chris Powers]

No, but the caps have played 81.

[Evan]

Yeah, you're right. They would need to lose in overtime.

[Dan Powers]

The Philadelphia Flyers have officially clinched the playoffs. The boys are celebrating on the ice. And the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Washington Capitals have been eliminated.

[Chris Powers]

Holy smokes.

[Dan Powers]

That's what happens when you add Porter Martone.

[Chris Powers]

I could text my neighbor. It's incredible.

[Dan Powers]

Wow.

[Tal Pinchevsky]

All right.

[Dan Powers]

Special stuff. All right, folks. What a great way to end the episode. Flyers winning a shootout. They have clinched that spot in the playoffs. Unbelievable. Great episode. We will hit you later this week with our big full playoff preview. It's going to be fantastic, guys. Make sure you go Give us five stars. Apple, Spotify, share the pod. Go get more people to subscribe to the YouTube. Follow us on all the socials. We are getting to the most fun time of the year. We're going to be going on trips to different cities, watching playoffs, doing a ton of fun content for you. Stay dialed in. We will see you very, very soon. And until then, skate hard.

[Chris Powers]

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