The Hockey Show: Talkin Cawlidge Hawkey With Bucci

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Hockey Show: Talkin Cawlidge Hawkey With Bucci

Episode Information:

• Title: The Hockey Show: Talkin Cawlidge Hawkey With Bucci
• Hosts: Roy Bellamy, Jason, Gino, Ethan, John Butcher Grass
• Release Date: March 28, 2025

---

1. Introduction and Episode Kickoff (00:01 - 02:36)

The episode begins with brief introductions and updates from the hosts:

• Jason welcomes listeners to "The Hockey Show" alongside co-host Roy Bellamy and mentions that David Druck is out on a family vacation assignment.
• Gino clarifies that he is handling dad duties while his wife is on vacation.
• John Butcher Grass receives a shout-out for his impressive Zoom background.

2. Coverage of Recent NHL Events and Locker Room Pep Talks (02:40 - 05:04)

• Jason introduces a notable event where San Diego Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh visited the Anaheim Ducks' locker room to deliver a pep talk and announce the starting lineup.

• Gino and John share their thoughts on the interaction, highlighting Brad Marchand’s enthusiasm and the impact of Harbaugh's motivational speech.

  Notable Quote:

  • Brad Marchand (00:03:09):

    "I was always like one of those race horses at the Kentucky Derby, you know, before a game... Draw back as far as you can. Aim and release. Take your frickin shot, man."

3. Discussion on Coaching Dynamics and Team Performance (05:04 - 09:12)

• The hosts delve into coaching strategies, specifically focusing on Sheldon Keefe of the New Jersey Devils.

• John Butcher Grass analyzes Keefe’s recent criticism of his players, discussing the balance between being supportive and demanding.

  Notable Quote:

  • John Butcher Grass (07:19):

    "You can't have both. It's got to be one or the other. So we'll see how it affects them going down the road."

• Jason updates listeners on the Philadelphia Flyers' coach John Tortorella being fired after a series of underwhelming performances despite a strong start to the season.

4. Wins and Fails of the Week (12:04 - 18:18)

Wins:

• Gino celebrates Nikita Kucherov as a dark horse for the Hart Trophy, recounting his resilience after losing a tooth during a game and subsequently scoring a crucial power-play goal.

  Notable Quote:

  • Gino (12:04):

    "He gets his tooth knocked out by the goalie helmet, goes looking for it... and then he scores a goal because he's Nikita Kucherov."

• John Butcher Grass applauds Alex Ovechkin for his sportsmanship in a recent game, highlighting his respect towards former rival Mark Andre Fleury.

Fails:

• Gino discusses Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils exhibiting unorthodox behavior post-goal, leading to playful mockery.

  Notable Quote:

  • Gino (14:46):

    "He took his baseball, his hockey stick like he was Babe Ruth and just cracked it against the post."

• Jason critiques the officials for prematurely breaking up a goalie fight between the Bruins and Kings, emphasizing the ritualistic excitement of goalie altercations.

  Notable Quote:

  • John Butcher Grass (16:07):

    "The lamest thing you can possibly do is break up a goalie fight."

5. NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament Analysis (20:55 - 30:49)

Matchups and Key Games:

• Cornell Upsets Michigan State: A dramatic win with the game-winning goal scored with eight seconds left.
• Boston University Defeats Ohio State: Despite intense pressure and a narrow victory.
• Western Michigan and UMass Secure Overtime Wins: Highlighting the unpredictability and high stakes of the tournament.

Player Spotlight:

• Ryan Leonard of Boston College is discussed as a potential Hobie Baker Award winner, with analyses on his impact and future in the NHL.

Notable Quotes:

• Ethan (21:02):

  "Cornell is going at the right time. They have a little inspiration. Their coach announced his retirement before the season... So every game could be his last."

• John Butcher Grass (23:58):

  "This gives you an idea. There is a cause for sure for the players and they feel it, it's emotional."

6. NHL Discussions and Player Performances (30:49 - 53:53)

Alex Ovechkin’s Legacy:

• Ethan and John Butcher Grass discuss Ovechkin's potential to break the career goals record, tracing predictions and his evolving persona in the NHL.

  Notable Quote:

  • Ethan (32:25):

    "If he decides to play three more years, he's going to get a thousand goals. So, yeah, 2010 was the original column."

Florida Panthers Update:

• Jason, Gino, and John Butcher Grass provide a comprehensive update on the Florida Panthers’ performance, highlighting key players like Sam Bennett and Sergey Bobrovsky.

• Discussion on the impact of Brad Marchand joining the Panthers, bringing energy and depth to the team’s lineup.

  Notable Quote:

  • Gino (41:13):

    "He just gives them a big jolt of energy late in a long, long, long NHL season."

7. Concluding Remarks and Future Outlook (53:53 - End)

• The hosts wrap up the episode by reviewing the Panthers' recent games, emphasizing the importance of upcoming matchups and the critical role of key players in the postseason.

• John Butcher Grass and Ethan discuss the strategic moves and challenges facing the Panthers as they navigate a tough stretch of games, including back-to-backs and crucial playoff battles.

  Notable Quote:

  • John Butcher Grass (56:58):

    "It's going to be an interesting off-season for sure."

• Jason concludes by reflecting on the Panthers' resilience and the potential for exciting developments as the season progresses.

---

Key Takeaways:

• Coaching Strategies: Balancing motivation with accountability is crucial for team performance.
• Player Highlights: Nikita Kucherov and Alex Ovechkin continue to make significant impacts in the NHL.
• NCAA Insights: Emotional momentum and coaching changes heavily influence tournament outcomes.
• Team Dynamics: The Florida Panthers are gearing up for a critical phase, with strategic player acquisitions and standout performances shaping their playoff prospects.

Conclusion:

This episode of "The Hockey Show: Talkin Cawlidge Hawkey With Bucci" offers an in-depth analysis of both NCAA and NHL hockey, featuring insightful discussions on coaching dynamics, player performances, and team strategies. The hosts provide a blend of statistical analysis, personal anecdotes, and expert opinions, making it a must-listen for hockey enthusiasts seeking comprehensive coverage of the sport.

Transcript

[Roy Bellamy]

You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network.

[David Druck]

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You might say all kinds of stuff when things go wrong, but these are the words you really need to remember. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. They've got options to fit your unique insurance needs, meaning you can talk to your agent to choose the coverage you need. Have coverage options to protect the things you value most, file a claim right on the State Farm mobile app, and even reach a real person when you need to talk to someone. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

[Roy Bellamy]

Hey there, travelers and dreamers. We all have that dreamtrip that we've been wishing we could go on. But too often life just gets in the way. Whether it's work, family responsibilities, or in my case, and I'm sure many of yours, price. But your dreamtrip doesn't have to stay a dream any longer because Priceline is here to help you book it. With millions of deals on hotels, flights, cruise cruises and rental cars. That bucket list destination. Yeah, it's a lot closer than you think. You know, I've been wanting to go see the Pittsburgh Pirates for a long time at PNC park in Pittsburgh. That's like at the top of my list of bucket list destinations of baseball parks around the country. And because I now know about the type of deals that Priceline offers, I may pull the trigger this summer and go see those Pirates. Priceline makes it easy and stress free to book a flight and a hotel so I can go see my team play live. With millions of travel deals like up to 60% off hotels, I know I'll be able to find great options even when I need to book last minute. So don't just dream about that next trip. Book it with Priceline, download the Priceline app or visit priceline.com to go to your happy price. Actual prices may vary. Limited time offer terms apply.

[Ethan]

Hello.

[Jason]

Welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. My co host is David Druck. He works for the Hockey News. He is not in studio. Studio. He is on assignment. And that assignment is family vacation. Ethan is in the shipping container in the EP chair. Rosie is not here. She is still doing March Madness.

[Gino]

Yeah, let's be clear. I'm not the one on vacation, by the way. It's my wife is on vacation. I'm on dad duty.

[Jason]

Oh yeah, you're on dad duty. Yes, you are.

[Gino]

I am not on vacation.

[Jason]

No, you got two kids.

[Gino]

I'm working double duty right now. I'm still working and I'm doing all the dad stuff as well. So let's just, you know.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Gino]

Does it look like I'm on vacation? I mean, I'm surrounded by toys, but this is my home.

[Jason]

I'm at work. So it looks like you're on vacation.

[John Butcher Grass]

Awesome zoom background, by the way. Jworky. Awesome zoom background, top notch.

[Jason]

That's some books in there, you know, like Ronan Farrell. Today we have John butcher grass from ESPN to talk about the NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament. For those on DraftKings Network watching today, you can watch that on the Les Show, YouTube. Just go to playlist and find the hockey show folder. Now, earlier this week, San Diego Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh stopped by the Anaheim Ducks locker room to give a pep talk and announce the starting lineup. And this is how it sounded.

[Gino]

All right.

[Brad Marchand]

Thanks, Coach Crow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gentlemen, the. What an honor. This is. This is incredible. It's kind of stuff I live for right here. This, this time, right before the game. And I can see the heart going. My heart's going too. I was always like one of those race horses at the Kentucky Derby, you know, before a game. Like you can tell, I mean, they got a little sweat, got a little sweat coming down. You can see the. See the heart pumping. Snot bubbles, snot bubbles coming out. I mean, you guys are thoroughbreds, man. And coach was hitting me with this story about the bow and arrow and got me. I mean, that's why. That's why the heart's going right now, man. You got me pumped up right there. So hey, let's go draw the arrow back. I just feel that. I feel that strong. That's strong. Like right there, right? Draw back as far as you can. Aim and release. Take your frickin shot, man. It just. It gets me right there. So go out and play as hard as you can, as fast as you can, as long as you can. Keep your wits about you and don't worry. Win on three. One, two, three. Okay, the guys leading that hunt tonight, starting at left wing, Harky at center, Lundy at right wing, Leaser defense, Minty Helly. And in net, Dasty.

[Ethan]

Go Ducks jail.

[Brad Marchand]

Get a freaking win. All right, let's go get this thing. Go. Get after him. Get after him. The hell get after him.

[Jason]

Too bad than us, huh?

[Gino]

I am.

[Jason]

Oh, no.

[Gino]

Confused.

[John Butcher Grass]

My takeaway from this. How good are those Ducks jerseys? Oh, boy. Yeah, Big up the Ducks this season. Love them.

[Gino]

I'm still caught up on. On snot bubbles and. And. And then he became Rudy for a minute. We're gonna Go inside. We're gonna go outside. And we're like, I'm just like, I'm sitting there. Like, am I. I'm a player on that team. Like, is Robin Hood walking in? Like, what's happening? I mean, I don't know that. That didn't work for me.

[Jason]

The Chargers players get that every day, so think about them on that situation.

[Gino]

Were they in the playoffs last year?

[Jason]

I don't remember.

[John Butcher Grass]

Yes, Justin Herbert threw four interceptions, but we don't talk about that.

[Jason]

Okay, well, we don't talk about that here. We. This is a hockey show. We talk hockey. Speaking of which, from an actual.

[John Butcher Grass]

They lost 5, 2 to Carolina that night.

[Jason]

Oh, yeah, that didn't work. But we go from a good coach to a good coach that probably made a mistake. Here, check out this video. Here we got Devil's defenseman Jonathan Kovacevic. He answered a pre game, postgame question. It was innocuous. You know, it's just regular hockey speak that you hear from these players. You know, just like any other NHL player, uneducated and dry as possible. But the Devils head coach, Sheldon Keefe apparently didn't like the answer that Kovaceva gave. So this is what he said.

[Ethan]

You know, we're in a fight and hopefully that, you know, gets us in that playoff mentality. You know, 10, 11 games out and we carry that into playoffs. So, yeah, obviously the results are tough, but we're in a fight here and.

[Gino]

We'Re not going to back down.

[John Butcher Grass]

Kobe Severs just mentioned to us that he thinks the team kind of needs to have that playoff mentality going down the stretch.

[Ethan]

Or is that something needs to play better?

[Brad Marchand]

That would help.

[Gino]

Damn. Damn.

[Jason]

Yeah, that's. That's not cool.

[Gino]

That was surprising, right? Coming from Sheldon Keefe. Yeah, like, that was a little bit surprised. I haven't seen him rip a player like that in the media. Maybe I'm not remembering that something happened.

[Jason]

In Toronto, but we need to have a playoff mentality. Is something that anybody was saying. That situation, like, I don't understand why we have a problem with that.

[Gino]

There's clearly something deeper there where, you know, maybe this is like getting into the torts, Cam York, you know, territory. We'll get to that at some point. But, I mean, that seemed like there was something there. Like, that did not feel good.

[John Butcher Grass]

Been a frustrating year for New Jersey. Right. And they're kind of limping to the finish line.

[Jason]

Literally.

[John Butcher Grass]

Literally limping. With all the injuries that they've suffered in the past, what, two months or so, right now they're seven points back of Carolina, and, you know, they're. They're fine in the division because Ottawa's in the Atlantic, so they won't catch them there. But it's been a frustrating year, and it just seemed to all bubble over in the moment. You know, I was listening to 32 Thoughts last week, and they were talking about this, and Freej was kind of saying that people were hard on Keef about how he wasn't hard enough on his players in Toronto. And then now he takes a shot at his players, and everybody's mad at him for being hard on his players. So, you know, it. You can't have both. It's got to be one or the other. So we'll see, you know, how it affects them going down the road. But certainly some interesting comments there.

[Jason]

David mentioned John Tutorella. He got fired yesterday. The Flyers fired him. And the Flyers ended up the day before, I should say. And the Flyers ended up winning the very first game with Torella not behind the bench.

[Gino]

And the thing that always happened, though. Yeah, Isn't that always the case when it's.

[Jason]

Yeah, it does. It does, doesn't it?

[John Butcher Grass]

And Mitch cop score.

[Gino]

Everybody plays hard for the new guy.

[Jason]

Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, we knew the flies were going to be bad, but really, the man said that after the Toronto loss, actually, because they beat the Canadiens after the Toronto loss, he said, really not interested to learn how to coach in this type of season. That's where we at right now. I mean, Dan Briere as general manager, like, like, he said that this is a recent thing. This came into his head recently. Like, okay, we're gonna have to let this guy go. I mean, but we knew the flight was gonna be bad. This is a rebuilding season for him. I thought that they had a little bit of promise coming into the next season, but I guess Daniel Briera thought that they should go in a different direction.

[John Butcher Grass]

This is kind of the typical torch track, isn't it? Where he overachieves with the team his first two years, and then by the third year, everybody's sick and tired of him. There's been problems with his star rookie all year, where Mitchkoff, you know, everybody was like, oh, look, Mitchkov scored in the first game without Tortorello. Of course he did. So it kind of seems to be that track. Somebody called towards the Stan Van Gundy of hockey, where every time he coaches, he seems miserable, but he just can't stay away from the game. Torts is a really interesting character. I'm sure he'll Be on a bench somewhere in the NHL coming soon.

[Gino]

Yeah, well, he seems miserable because of his interactions with the media and because the negative ones get overplayed so much. I don't know if it's fair because he looks like he supposedly. I've never met him in person, but you know, people say he's a great, great guy, he's a great hockey guy. So I don't think it's fair to just judge him on that. But man, like this, it sounds like there was like some incident that he had with one of his players because came York was benched, he dressed, he didn't play any of that. Win over Montreal, was it, the other night. And Mitchkoff, by the way, what did he hit the post on a empty net for, For a hat trick? It's been a rough year in Philly. Hopefully they get some stability moving forward because they do have some really good pieces there. But yeah, it's. It's been a rough time.

[Jason]

And finally I'm going to continue my streak of laughing at the New York Islanders until they do right by me. And people who don't want to see races get second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth chances in the NHL. They got screwed just like the Panthers have been screwed on a goalie interference call. And we're gonna play the video here. This is, this is not great. This is against, I believe Columbus. And yeah, yeah, he was outside of crease. I don't really think that was gonna interference there, but I'm gonna screw it up.

[Gino]

I'm gonna tell you why. Why I think it was. I don't know if we have the angle, but there's an angle from behind the goalie where like you can see as the shots coming and that what we just saw right there, for those watching the YouTube, that was in super slow motion when this was happening in real time, when the contact between Palmeri and Merzleekins happened, the puck was being released at the point at that exact moment. So even though in slow motion it looked like Mers Leakins like, look, here's the replay. Right here is where the defenseman, I'm not sure who it is, is shooting the puck. So the puck's traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling. By the time Mers Leakins has a chance to reset himself, the puck's already halfway to the net. So I understand why that shouldn't have counted. It just doesn't look good in the moment. And good, good on Roy because it's a bad for the Islanders.

[Jason]

Yes, I'm laughing at them regardless of what Happens here. Ha hahaha. Ha ha ha. All right, it's time for Wins and Fellas of the week, presented by Jagermeister. Servic code or don't serve it at all. Jagermeister. Damn, that's cold. For more, visit jagermeister.com Drink responsibly. David, your win of the week.

[Gino]

My win of the week. We don't have to go too far away from South Florida to get there. Just a little bit up the coast to Tampa. It's Nikita Kucherov, who is a dark horse for this Hart trophy this year. I don't know if he's going to get a lot of votes, but he's having an amazing season. The other night against Pittsburgh, he got checked into Alex Nadelkovich head first. Lost the tooth on the goalie mask, which I don't know if I've seen that happen before. That's pretty interesting. But then what does he do? He comes back, he goes out onto the ice where they're scraping. You know, the commercial breakdown. And he's like looking with his stick. He's looking for his tooth, trying. That's such a sad thing when you're trying to find your own tooth in the ice. It doesn't look like he ever finds it, but what he does find about five minutes later was the back of the net when he scored a power play goal. And I think what was like a 6 to 1 victory or something over the. Over the Penguins as Tampa is rolling right now. But I just thought that was a cool thing all around. He gets his tooth knocked out by the goalie helmet, goes looking for it because of course he did, and then he scores a goal because he's Nikita Kucherov. Win of the week by far. Good on Nikita.

[Jason]

Probably should check that shovel because it's.

[Gino]

Probably in that shovel with the scrub the ice crew. Definitely he's got it in his pocket right now. That tooth is on ebay for sure.

[John Butcher Grass]

I love Dwarky saying that's such a sad thing when you're looking for your tooth, as if that's something that's very relatable to all of us. That's a very exclusive to the greatest hockey players in the world. Problem?

[Jason]

My win a week is a video with sound here of a dad who brought. Who created a portable goal horn. Go ahead and play that Milwaukee drill. Where did you buy this? Don't do it.

[Ethan]

No, don't.

[Gino]

No. Oh, my God.

[Ethan]

Don't.

[Jason]

Remote control on it so you can take that with you and scare people. Badass. That's nuts.

[Ethan]

I love.

[Jason]

Oh, man, that's.

[Gino]

That's a fee for trouble.

[Jason]

I'm. I'm showing up with that thing to Claire's game whenever she starts playing hockey. There you go. She scored.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Jason]

I'm going to piss off everybody. Ethan.

[John Butcher Grass]

My win of the week is Alex Ovechkin and not because he's six goals away from breaking the all time goal record. My win of the week is for him is because of this incredible act of sportsmanship that we saw last night against the Minnesota Wild, where they lose to the Wild. It's a tough loss for them. And he goes to the bench as his teammates are going into the locker room. This is captain type stuff. Waves everybody out there to shake the hands of old rival Mark Andre Fleury. Those guys did some incredible battles back in the day when it was them and Pittsburgh going at it. And to see the respect that they have for each other. There's been respect for Fleury all over the league this year. To see that kind of respect from an old rival like that, it's just as cool as it gets. So hats off to Alex Ovechkin for that one.

[Jason]

All right, Fails of the week, David.

[Gino]

My fail of the week comes from the Hughes bowl on Monday between New Jersey and Vancouver. Jacob Markstrom, former Panthers goalie, had one of the most real reactions. He's talking about realness, Ethan. After giving up the what was the game winning goal in the shootout to Jonathan Lecher, Maki Markstrom popped up. He took his baseball, his hockey stick like he was Babe Ruth with a baseball, baseball bat and just cracked it against the post. It was awesome to see to the point where they were making fun of it on the NHL on TNT broadcast. They got Darren Payne, who's famously a former NHL goalie, but he's shorter than me. He's like 5, 7. They brought him like a little miniature goalie helmet, goalie stick to crack on the, on the post. There we go.

[Jason]

Oh, if you're watching on YouTube with a Michigan State jersey.

[Gino]

Oh, my God. So, so. Credit to Markstrom for being real. Credit to Panger for, for getting razzed on it. Just, you know, a lot of fun all around.

[Jason]

My fail of the week comes from Bruins and Kings. This is the official's fail. Goalie fights. We need more of them. Jeremy Swayman and Darcy Kemper had a chance to do it and they go to center ice, gloves, blockers, sticks down, masks down and broken up like before they even get together.

[John Butcher Grass]

The lamest thing you can possibly do Is break up a goalie fight. Swayman's already got his helmet off. They're ready to go at it. There is no reason that fight should have been broken up.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Jason]

And the tail of the tape, 6:3 versus 6:5. That would have been a nice, nice little bout there if they had gone through. But the linesman decided, yep, no jerky.

[John Butcher Grass]

You ever been in a goalie fight?

[Gino]

What's that?

[Jason]

You ever been in a goalie fight?

[Gino]

Have I been in a goalie fight once. Didn't go well for me.

[Jason]

Oh, no.

[Gino]

But whatever. You get caught up in the moment. I gotten a lot of goalie skirmishes. I was. I was a little hothead on the ice. I was an asshole. I knew that everybody had my back as the goalie, but. Yeah, didn't go good for short guys.

[Jason]

You know, short guys like to be scrappy on the ice. Right?

[Gino]

Well, Mike Vernon. Mike Vernon is a short guy and he went out and he went toe to toe with Patrick Waugh and did okay. So I really have no excuse, by.

[Jason]

The way, anniversary for that. It was this week, right? It was the anniversary of the. The game in Detroit between the Avalanches and the Red Wings.

[Gino]

Yep.

[Jason]

So to recap that, by the way, it was Chris Draper.

[Gino]

I was about to say Malice at the palace, but that was the Pistons. That's my bad.

[Jason]

Yeah. Pistons paces. But to recap that, the year before in the conference final, Chris Draper was boarded by Claude Lemieux and shattered his jaw. Gone.

[Gino]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason]

So.

[Gino]

Exploded his whole face.

[Jason]

Yeah. And the Avalanche ended up going through the. The cup final that year. Dino Cicarelli said, can't believe I shook that freaking guy's hand. Sucked. The next year, Brawl City, everybody fighting. And then the Red Wings went to the Stanley Cup Final and won. So, yeah, that was a rivalry of the 90s, and we all missed that. Ethan, your fellow of the week.

[Gino]

All right.

[John Butcher Grass]

My fellow week is Matt Rempe.

[Jason]

No. Lord.

[John Butcher Grass]

Again, this guy features in Fail the week seemingly every time I feel like. But he deserves it this week. Tanner Janeau here and him going at it for a scrap. How many times have I told you guys? This guy isn't actually good at anything. He's bad at hockey, he's bad at fighting. He gets penalties pretty much every time he's on the ice. Gets his ass whooped here by Tanner Janeau. Just like he does every time he fights. Ends up on his ass. Tanner Janeau actually picks him up off the ground and is like, let's go, buddy. Like, you're not Getting out of this easy. Yeah. Fail of the week. Matt Rempe, always the fail of the week. Now he's on the injured list and won't be seeing him anytime soon.

[Jason]

I mean he's like the Islanders for me at this point. For you?

[Gino]

Yeah. The two of you, your anti New York bias.

[Jason]

Oh my goodness. All right, for those on DraftKings Network we have John Butcher Cross coming up next. You can watch that interview and the rest of the show on the Levitar YouTube page. Just go to Playlist and find our folder. We got every episode in that folder. So we got John Butcher Grass coming up next to talk about college hockey.

[TurboTax]

This is a message from sponsor Intuit. TurboTax Taxes was waiting and wondering and worrying if you were going to get any money back and then waiting, wondering and worrying some more. Now Taxes is matching with a turbo tax expert who can do your taxes as soon as today. An expert who gives your taxes their undivided attention as they work on your return while you get real time updates on their progress so you can focus on your day. An expert who will find you every deduction possible and file every form, every investment, Every everything with 100% accuracy, all so you can get the most money back guaranteed. No waiting, no wondering, no worries. Now this is Taxes. Get an Expert now on TurboTax.com only available with TurboTax Live full service real time updates only in iOS mobile app. See guarantee [e-mail] guarantees.

[Jason]

The NCAA Men's hockey tournament has started and you can find all the games across the ESPN platform, the family of networks and one man who will be prominent on said platforms. It's John Butcher Grass who joins us now. We're going to talk about the Frozen Four. Let's go through the matchups here because last night was absolutely crazy. Cornell upset Michigan State, game winner with eight seconds left in regulation. Boston University defeated Ohio State. So the Big Reds they're going to face the Terriers tomorrow. Western Michigan got past Minnesota State and double overtime and UMass with a stunning and I mean this is a stunning overtime victory over the Minnesota Minnesota Gophers. They the Gophers had to change goaltenders in the middle of the third period, immediately gave up a goal off the face off, switched goaltenders back because there's an equipment issue and that was two goals in a minute and a half and then a tripping call was missed in overtime and then transit transition. The Minutemen scored and they will play the Broncos tomorrow. Today's matchups, Maine vs. Penn State, UConn vs. Quinnipiac, Boston College vs. Bentley and Providence vs. Denver. Denver is the national, the defending national champions. So John, why don't you give us your thoughts on what's going on in the tournament right now.

[Ethan]

Yeah, we'll start yesterday. Roy, first of all, thanks for having me on the hockey show. I like your cute little cartoon caricatures with their hockey helmets.

[Jason]

Lovely. Thank you. Thank you.

[Ethan]

Love it, love it. But yeah, the Cornell yesterday with that big shocking win, I thought Michigan State was the most dependable team to get to the Frozen four. Play a pretty simple style, really good goaltender. Well, coach, but you know, Cornell is going at the right time. They have a little, little inspiration. Their coach announced his retirement before the season. Mike Schaefer. So every game could be his last. So sometimes that can carry a team emotionally. Little extra effort, every inch of the ice is protected and they got the job done. Western Michigan had a really good year this year. 30 wins. I think Pat first Wiler their head coach could be an NHL candidate for a few teams if they're looking for a fresh start. And a good coach who's obviously can inspire people. He took over for Andy Murray. You remember that name. A long time NHL head coach for the Kings. He went to Western Michigan. Pat took over for him. He's done a great job there. They squeaked by Minnesota State, so yeah, really exciting day. And BU with an 83 win over Ohio State. Sometimes those hockey games go sideways. So that can happen especially in the tournament when everyone's wired tightly and then things don't go your way and it just kind of collapses. And so that can happen today. Looking forward to it. Beautiful day here in New Hampshire. I have the number one overall seed, Boston College Eagles. Ryan Leonard. Washington Capital fans are excited about him. He was their eighth overall pick. A couple of drafts to go. Will likely win the Hobie Baker for best college hockey player. We'll get to see him in person today at a nice small intimate rink here in Manchester playing Bentley, which is just located outside Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, first time they've ever been here, Bentley. And so that's always a fun story to watch them. And then you mentioned defending champs the Pioneers. They play Providence, who hasn't been here since 2019. This is the 10th year anniversary of them winning their first and only Natty in 2015 against Jack Eichel and BU in 2015. Providence finally back after a 2019 appearance. That's when they lost in Buffalo in the Frozen four. And so they're back. So Providence, this is the eight, nine matchup. So mathematically it's the best closest matchup. But I really like that Penn State main game. I think that's the best first round game we have. That's in Allentown. The place will be packed. Obviously it's close to Penn State. Big advantage for Penn State, little disadvantage for Maine. They're a number one seed. They got to basically play a road game. But they travel well. They should have a couple thousand fans there themselves. So it won't be like a 95, 5 or 9010 crowd but it still should be 80, 20, 75, 25. But that's a really exciting first round matchup.

[John Butcher Grass]

Booce, I've got a million questions for you. There are a million ways I could go, but I'll start here. BC has this star studded line that basically carried the Americans to the world Junior championship this year. Right. But they also have the, you know, the tragedy of Johnny Goudreau is affecting them as well. Just like the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames. So the way that a lot of NHL fans are kind of, you know, we're all Blue Jackets fans this year. Is that the same kind of thing for bc?

[Ethan]

I don't maybe for them personally, but maybe not quite with the fan base. Obviously Johnny hasn't been there for 12 years when he played Matthew 11. But yeah, the last time they won the national championship was 2012. That was Johnny Goudreau's amazing year in Tampa. In Tampa, Florida. That amazing goal that he had late in the game that punctuated that win. Obviously he and his, his brother Matthew, just awful. The saddest hockey story just imaginable this past summer and, and, and they lost another member of the family as well. 40 year old, dropped, died of a heart attack. So they have three, three initials on their uniform and it's been on the board there. We did a really good, we did a nice hour long feature, hour long show on preceding the tournament and previewing the tournament with really good E60 features. Beautifully done. Probably the best college hockey telecast that's ever been done because of the E60 strength behind it. And we did a beautiful feature on it. It's on ESPN plus. I highly recommend college hockey fans and hockey fans to watch it. Feature on Jimmy Snuggerude, feature on Trey Augustine, feature on Denver's as well. And, and it's feature on the Godreau brothers and, and Tony Bose and how they're, how they're honoring them this year. So yeah, that gives you an idea. There is a cause for sure for the players and, and they feel it, it's emotional. And don't forget they lost last year in the national championship game to nothing to Denver. If they win today and Denver wins today, that's our rematch here in Manchester on Sunday. So it's right there. The only, the other problem facing a team like Boston College and other teams that have NHL prospects, do they have one foot out the door? You know, as soon as Boston College loses, Ryan Leonard will be a Washington capital two days later playing for them, you know, and he's going to sign a contract, he's going to get his big rookie bonus. He's going to start, you know, making his 800 grand a year. There was only a couple of paychecks yet left this year, but. So that's the problem when you have these teams like that. I get it when you're 19, 20 years old how they always say I'm not thinking about that, I'm compartmentalizing. But I know I would have thought about it when I was 19 years old with zero money in my checking account. So. So you know, that's, that's the big challenge with these hyper, you know, talented teams. You mentioned, you know, obviously Leonard James Hagan is going to be a top five pick in the draft this summer, so he can't go anywhere. Gabriel Perot is a Ranger first round pick. We'll see if he goes. I think he should come back one more. But yeah, that's the issue with same with Denver and Z Bouilliam who will be in Minnesota's lineup as a big time defenseman. So that's the issue with these young teams and why a team like Cornell, an older team and Bentley, even an older team, you know, this is the business for them. This is the highlight of probably their hockey careers with these other prospects. Had the NHL to kind of get distracted by.

[Gino]

You kind of led me perfectly into what I wanted to ask you about because you mentioned like Leonard, you know, with BC with the Capitals, Perot also BC with the Rangers. You've got Jack Devine at Denver. You know, Panther fans are always asking about him. Who do you think about this crop of talent? Who do you think would be the most pro ready if they were to make that decision?

[Ethan]

Leonard and boohoo Leonard more so he's a forward. Boo him a defenseman. That's hard. A 19 year old defenseman coming right into the league. You know, that's these guys are big strong men in the corner and now he's offensively dynamic. He's absolutely a Sensational player to watch. He breaks people down like few hockey players do. I always compare it to like Allen Iverson, you know, crossover dribble. He breaks people down like he's on a tennis shoes, you know, Rasmussen style. Lane of Buffalo, you know, Quinn Hughes of Vancouver does it, you know, obviously Cale McCarr, that they can break people down one on one. He can, he can do that and so he's in that kind of class. Offensively, defensively, it's, it'll be a little tougher. So I would say Ryan Leonard to go to a good team, they can pick his spot, pick his slot where he can maybe be comfortable. And, and so he would be the one that we're going to see in Washington's lineup as a depth guy. We'll see how you know, they might realize, you know what he's kind of, you know, he's, he plays a different game in college. Gets a lot of breakaways, little pave, Pavel Bureau center ice logo hanging around to get those little cherry picking, you know, try to get those plays. Got to play a little more honest 200 foot game in the Stanley cup playoffs for a Stanley cup contender. So he'll need to make that quick adjustment. I think he can, he's, he's wired for this and I think he'll be the guy who makes the biggest impact right away. But over time there's a, there's plenty of people who will make their presence felt in the NHL.

[Jason]

We, you guys mentioned a couple of names from the finalist list from the Hobie Baker Awards. So let's go over the entire list. For best hockey player in the country, Z Bouilliam and Jack Devine from Denver, Aiden Fink from Penn State, Matt Gadowski from Army, Isaac Howard from Michigan State, Ryan Leonard from Boston College, Ayrton Martino From Clarkson, Liam McClinskey from Holy Cross, Jimmy Snuggerude from Minnesota, Alex Tracy from Minnesota State.

[John Butcher Grass]

So some unreal names on that list.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[John Butcher Grass]

Oh my God.

[Jason]

So you have any thoughts on any of the names that we haven't mentioned yet, John?

[Ethan]

Yeah, I think the votes are all are due after this weekend's games and there'll be a final three. So whoever gets the three highest vote totals become the final three. That and then they go to the show on the Friday in St. Louis in between the Frozen Four games and they'll have you know, the half hour show on NHL Network and then they'll unveil the winner and I'm pretty sure the top three is, is going to Be Leonard Bouilliam and Howard. It might be snuggered. It'll be close. You know, Hobie Baker likes when people come back for their third. For their third year, like Snugaroo did, obviously. Heartbreakingly lost last night in overtime again. They should have won against UMass. The grandfather played for the Gophers. The dad played for the Gophers. And one of the stories that we did on that E:60 show on ESPN plus was, you know, just trying to. They. They also had heartbreaking losses in the tournament. He was hoping to be the first Snugaroo to finally get it done. And this team is stacked. Minnesota has the most NHL players on it, the future NHL players. We might see six next week. You know, Renzel with the Blackhawks, Snugger with the Blues would probably play. You know, Oliver Moore might be playing for the Chicago Blackhawks as well. So they are loaded up and down the lineup, but Snugger couldn't get it done. So it might be snug root, Howard, but I really do think it'll be Howard, Leonard, and boom. And I do think that Leonard, in the end, will win the Hobie Baker. Hobie likes goals. He has 29 to leave the league. And all these stats keep counting. So, you know, he's. He's the current leader. And so these stats count right to the end of the tournament. So I think Leonard will win it Friday, which makes me interesting. Like, if BC doesn't make it, he goes to the Capitals. Like, he might not be able to be at the ceremony, which kind of stinks. I get it. You know, but maybe they're off that they. I didn't check their schedule, but maybe they can zip them in, zip them out to, you know, to get that picture next to the Hobie Big. It's a cool trophy. You know, the names were starting to win it recently are like NHL guys to, you know, Cal McCard, Jack Geiko. It's a. It's a cool trophy to win again, much like Heisman Trophy. It's a. It's a cool one to have forever. So I think Leonard will win it.

[Jason]

The Frozen Four, the actual semifinal is April 10, and the national championship is April 12 in St. Louis on ESPN2 and ESPN plus, before we move on to the NHL, I want to give a shout out to the women. Wisconsin won the national championship on the women's hockey side. And Layla Edwards, I see you. All right.

[Ethan]

Ohio in the house.

[Jason]

Ohio. That team was loaded.

[Ethan]

What a game it was to win, you know, to tie the game. On a shootout and then win that legendary performance by Mark Johnson. And who wants it when he called it, who wants the penalty shot, raise the hand, go out and score. That was great television as well.

[Gino]

Mark Johnson, 1980.

[Ethan]

Yeah, he was the best player in that team. Had a really good career too in the NHL. Almost a point per game guy. I did a column on ESPN.com a few years ago and I give my top 20 all time American born players. And at the time I had him like 19 because of the miracle ice, because his success in college and a solid NHL career. Almost point per game at Mark Johnson in my top 20 all time born USA players.

[Gino]

Two goals in that Russia game. Right.

[Ethan]

Big one. Hit the big one late in the period. Right. He was their best player throughout the tournament. And now amazing women's coach at Wisconsin, just piling up the national championships.

[Jason]

You mentioned Team usa. Layla Edwards is now joining Team USA as they go out to play in the Women's World's championship. So good luck to Team usa.

[Ethan]

Fire the puck. Unbelievable how she can fight. She's going to play defense on that team, Roy. She's normally a four for Wisconsin, but they're. They're going to put her as a defenseman. So she's pretty versatile.

[Jason]

So it's basically Dustin Bufflin.

[Ethan]

That's right. Good call.

[Jason]

I like it. Yeah. You have been on Alexander Oveskin watch as we transition to the NHL now. And I was looking up the exact date that you predicted that he would break the record. And originally you said he would break the career goals record in the spring of 2026. Originally. And then you upgraded it, right? Yeah.

[Ethan]

You make a bunch of them and then you just go with one.

[John Butcher Grass]

When did he say this? Because I was watching a Canadian broadcast the other night. I can't remember the game, but on Sportsnet or TSN they had somebody on who said it around 2015 or 2016 as well.

[Ethan]

We have cleared this up. I wrote my original ESPN.com column saying I think Alex Ovechkin can break this record. In February of 2010, he came to ESPN to shoot one of those. This is SportsCenter commercials. The Russian spy one.

[John Butcher Grass]

Yeah.

[Gino]

Top five all coming out of the roof.

[John Butcher Grass]

Five to Sports Center. I'm coming up with my list right now.

[Ethan]

Great spot. And so at the time I was writing my hockey column for.com once a week. I did it from 01 to 2017. About 16 years. A lot of work. Pay me like 500 bucks a week.

[Jason]

It was.

[Ethan]

I was so underpaid. So I Figured, you know what? I can. I can ask him a few questions. I'll kind of, you know, piggyback on this little shoot. I heard he was commenting. I just. I brought it up. And he looked at me like I had 10 heads. Because he's 24 years old at the time.

[Gino]

Guy.

[Ethan]

He's been in the league for four years, you know. But my point was, he had such a big, broad, you know, foundation, got to a great start for goals, and he just looks like the kind of guy who was going to get hurt, like, LeBron never got hurt. And then here we are, so. And then. Yeah, then 2015, I. So I kind of. I think that's when David Amber first mentioned it to Elliot Freeman, hey, ask Obi about the record, maybe. And so we. We've texted. Me and Ray Ferraro have texted Elliott to clear up, because it's right on the interwebs, you know, Butcher, Gossel, Vechin, Gretzky. It'll come up there. And I kind of forecasted each age from 24 on, when he could break the record. I was very reasonable in my projections. You know, like when he was 36. Well, Brett hall had like, a 39 goal season, so why can't he age 37? Phil Esposito had, like, 38. Well, he could do that. Then I was kind of historical comparisons all the way to age 40, and I actually reached the point where, like, holy crap, this guy's going to score, like, a thousand goals. Forget the record. The record was never a question to me. I thought it was more. Less likely. You know, it was more likely he would score a thousand than he would not break the record. You know, and I'm still going to stick with that. If he decides to play, you know, three more years, he's going to get a thousand goals. So, yeah, 2010 was the original column. And then, yeah, then I made a few predictions about when. And I. Yeah, I think I've deleted all those tweets that were wrong and saved the one that was closest.

[Gino]

What did you think of what happened? Was it last night, Roy, in Minnesota, when. When OV called basically the entire Caps team back onto the ice?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Gino]

To. To honor another legend.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Gino]

Retiring after the season. And Mark. Andre Fleury. I. I thought. I. I don't know why I. I was surprised by that. I guess maybe because Ovechkin doesn't. He's not in the spotlight for more than his goals record a lot right now, but, I mean, just for. For the kind of guy he is. That was Just so cool to see something that we probably, you know, I mean, when do you see those kind of like generational type guys come together like that? I thought that was just spectacular.

[Ethan]

I've always thought he's done a good job really assimilating himself right from his rookie year to the NHL, even America, even the culture, even like, you know, he would do in local ads as soon as he became a capital. He was goofy. You know, when I, when the Russians first came into the league actually going back to Miracle on Ice, you mentioned Mark Johnson, how dower they were. You know, they were just so. Of course their lives were terrible. They, they were, you know, they had to just go play hockey around the world. None of the, none of them had anything. Remember the famous story they would trade vodka for blue jeans and lake plastic because they couldn't get any blue jeans, so they would trade with the Americans, get some blue jeans to wear. It was a tough existence, you know, it's kind of. And, and so, and the players seem to reflect that in their, in their countenance and their expressions when they first came to the NHL. But then over time it kind of changed. And Obesk was the first one. He was a goofy. Like there weren't goofy Russians in the 80s, you know what I mean? 70s, in the 80s and the early 90s when FaceTime Batista first coming over and those guys, he was really out there and he just kind of embraced it all and, and being goofy, never took himself seriously, understood like Arnold Schwarzenegger, that, you know, my English is going to be perfect, but I'll try and I'll laugh and I can laugh at myself and, and just the whole game. And he kind of learned the. And then the Stanley cup has grown to become the trophy in sports. It used to be the gold medal. The gold medal is still very huge, don't get me wrong. But back in the old days in the NHL, 70s and 80s, the Europeans couldn't wait to lose. They could go back home and they weren't getting paid in the playoffs. So to them it didn't have any kind of impact. That slowly changed and you saw Ovechton's reaction when he won the Stanley cup. And that shows you what the value of the trophy means now and the accomplishments. So I agree. He really has, he really has, you know, endeared himself completely to the NHL now and all, you know, all countries and all players from all countries do that now. That wasn't the case initially in the NHL.

[John Butcher Grass]

Boochie. Before we get you out of Here. You mentioned that this is SportsCenter commercials. I've been. I fell asleep and woke up to SportsCenter every day growing up. And these.

[Ethan]

I love that shirt, by the way. That's like Atlanta Braves combination.

[John Butcher Grass]

It's a Gator shirt, baby. So I put together my list of top five. This is SportsCenter commercials. Really quickly. I scrambled, so I might have missed some of my favorites, but this is what I came up with off the top of my head. I want to run it by you.

[Jason]

Yep.

[John Butcher Grass]

All right. Oli outside looking in. As I mentioned, Florida Gators. Steve Irwin with Albert the Alligator. Really did all right. Number five, David Ortiz trying on a Yankees hat. And Wally the mascot walks by and gets mad at him.

[Ethan]

Agreed.

[Jason]

Sneaky good.

[Ethan]

Sneaky good.

[John Butcher Grass]

Number four, Scott Van Pelt. His cubicle is right next to LeBron James, and he steals LeBron James's chair.

[Ethan]

Simple, clean, good. More simple, the better.

[John Butcher Grass]

Number three, Scott Van Pelt. A big feature on this list. Stu Scott and Scott Van Pelt before the show, and they. They rip off the suit. Number two, the inspiration for this list, Alex Ovechkin. The Russian spies.

[Ethan]

Okay.

[John Butcher Grass]

And number one, this is far and away the greatest. They're in the cafeteria. Arnold Palmer walks up, pours an alder. Aren't pours an Arnold Palmer? I can't say that word either, Lucy. And then they whisper to each other.

[Ethan]

That was awesome.

[Brad Marchand]

I know.

[John Butcher Grass]

Greatest. This is SportsCenter commercial.

[Ethan]

I would just add, follow me to freedom, Charlie. Follow me to freedom.

[John Butcher Grass]

Oh, that's great.

[Ethan]

That's a good one. Jay Harris with the New York Jersey Devil mascot. No words.

[John Butcher Grass]

That was going down.

[Ethan]

And he gets up, gets out of the elevator. I love the Van Pelt thesaurus one. When the guys come in, here's the steroid era and, like, performance enhancing as a writer. And they found this thesaurus in his desk, and they tries to run and they tackle him. I like that one, too. I love the OV1, too. So, yeah, I've done about. I did about 12 to 15 of those. They went with Shaq, where he walks up the tree and he pulls down.

[John Butcher Grass]

The human mascot, Mike the tiger. Yeah, that's a good one.

[Ethan]

You think he's getting the kitten out of the tree? It's actually the human size mascot who looks like a baby in Jack's arms. And that was. I. I did that with Stu. That was a great memory, a great day being around those guys. So, yeah, those are fun. We don't do them anymore. They're really expensive to do. They Were part, they were part of the budget cuts originally. So now we kind of make some new ones. You know, we do it in house, do it ourselves. But that was an amazing. It was like a movie set. There'd be a hundred people, really talented directors and we'd make a lot, make up a lot of stuff. In fact, the Adrian Peterson wonder, I call Van Pelt Bedwetter. Hey, Bedwetter. We just made that up. And that was the one they ended up using. Not the real scripted takeover forever to plan and shoot. It was just that one. Let's try this. So a lot of those, we would do the one they scripted and then say, let's try this, let's try this. And I bet that was the devil's one with Jay Harris. And let's just try this. You know, you just walk in the elevator, you ask if he's going up and he says no and you hurry up and get out. And those, those are some great memories.

[Jason]

Finally, Brad Marchant is playing tonight for Florida.

[Ethan]

Yes.

[Jason]

So he's going to be on the second line with Mackie Samoskiewicz and Sam Bennett. There's a three way tie in the Atlantic Division right now. Toronto has first place based on the third tiebreaker with regulation and overtime wins. Panthers are in second and Tampa is now in third. They are in third because they played one more game. Then Tampa and Toronto and Florida. So how is Brad Marchant's addition to the Florida Panthers going to affect this first place race for the Atlanta Division?

[Ethan]

Yeah, he just gives them a big jolt of energy late in a long, long, long NHL season. The players will be excited during warm up. Warm up will have a buzz to it. Marcian will be flying around the ice that. No, he's on a Stanley cup contender. Remember, he's only won one. It was 15 years ago. He's a young kid. It'll mean a lot this time as well as he, you know, toward the end of his, his career. So he's just going to bring energy and obviously the on ice stuff, the grit, the playmaking, just a good hockey player. But I think overall energizing the room. And you know, that's the difference between the NCAA hockey tournament that we started talking about in the NHL. And why the pan favorite? Because it's not one and done. You have to beat them four out of six times or four out of seven times. That's hard. And that's why they're the favorite amongst those three. Home ice doesn't really matter. In the NHL we see the history of it. It's 50, 50 home and road records. It does kick up a little bit for the home team in Game seven. A little more of an advantage, but otherwise you can win in the road. Players enjoy it. They like that us against them mentality, you know, as the Panthers have shown in their, you know, last few years here on their cup run. So yeah, he'll add a lot. And they are the favorite, you know, to get back to the Cup Final for the third straight year. And they need that. You know, it's tiring to do this every year, so they need these little bursts of energy that Marchand will provide.

[Jason]

The Frozen 4 is on the ESPN family of networks. Guys, enjoy college hockey. John Butcher, Grass, thank you for joining us.

[Ethan]

Thank you.

[Roy Bellamy]

Hey there travelers and dreamers. We all have that dream trip that we've been wishing we could go on. But too often life just gets in the way, whether it's worth work, family, responsibilities or in my case, and I'm sure many of yours, price. But your dreamtrip doesn't have to stay a dream any longer because Priceline is here to help you book it. With millions of deals on hotels, flights, cruises and rental cars. That bucket list destination, yeah, it's a lot closer than you think. You know, I've been wanting to go see the Pittsburgh Pirates for a long time at PNC park in Pittsburgh. That's like at the top of my list of bucket list destinations of baseball parks around the country. And because I now know about the type of deals that Priceline offers, I may pull the trigger this summer and go see those Pirates. Priceline makes it easy and stress free to book a flight and a hotel so I can go see my team play live. With millions of travel deals like up to 60% off hotels, I know I'll be able to find great options even when I need to book last minute. So don't just dream about that next trip. Book it with Priceline, download the Priceline app or visit priceline.com to go to your happy price. Actual prices may vary. Limited time offer terms apply. Hey friends, it's Jerbear here and I'm here to tell you all about Boost Mobile, which is now a legit nationwide 5G network. So I must take a break from the jokes here for a second and put on my serious voice because I would never, ever joke about a 5G network that has invested billions building 5G towers across the country. Not even once. Not even if Mr. Boost Mobile himself asked me to. There is nothing funny about it. Boost Mobile is Now a legit nationwide 5G network and also provides coverage across 99% of America. Seriously? Visit boostmobile.com or your nearest Boost Mobile store location to learn more. The Boost Mobile network, together with our roaming partners, covers 99% of the US population. 5G speeds not available in all areas.

[Jason]

Okay, it's time to review what happened this week in Pantherland and the Panthers have back to back games on Saturday and Sunday at Washington and back home against Pittsburgh in Washington. Not good. They lost six to three and it was a wild first period. It was tied three to three after the first 20. But the way the Panthers looked on defense, it was pretty much inevitable that they were going to end up losing that game and the capital shut them down for the rest of the game. And Alexander Bradshkin did not score a goal, but he had two assists.

[Gino]

So everybody else scored a goal?

[Jason]

Yeah, everybody else scored a goal, including Tom Wilson, who continues to have a career year. Yeah, yeah.

[Gino]

30 plus goals now for Tommy W. But you could tell from early on that that was not going to go the Panthers way. That game. Just it was back and forth, a lot of rush goals, you know, like you said, third or the first period, three goals each. Each. I think Washington took three leads for the. Tied it three times and, and then when the second period started, what Washington was up five to three before the second period was a minute old. Just very un. Panthers like maybe perhaps a wake up call for Florida as they were wrapping up that road trip. But yeah, just not pretty.

[Jason]

Tom Wilson is now a goal away from career, his career high and assist away from career high. Ethan. Yeah, I mean that's just really surprising.

[John Butcher Grass]

Washington is so weird to me. Like this team, I mean, I know they got a lot better. They had a great off season and everybody's really excited about them and everything. But Tom Wilson scoring 32 goals and just the way that everything is happening around the Ovechkin chase, I'm still sticking on this team. I don't want to call them frauds because they're good. I don't see them going very far in the playoffs. I just think that they're a team that just has a great regular season and they run into one of these tougher teams in the playoffs and they struggle a lot to score. They're kind of like the, I think we talked about this last week. They're kind of like the Panthers in when they won the President's Trophy, where they score, score, score, score, score. But when it comes to playoff time, is that really going to be an effective Strategy to go deep in the playoffs? I don't think so.

[Jason]

Apologies, by the way. He already has a career high end goal, so there's that. But the good news, the good news out of that is Sam Bennett continues to help the pets. He's helped another pet gets get adopted through Benny's buddies in the Humane Society of Broward. He had a goal and assist and he's five goals away and two points away from his career high in each of those categories. Is a contract year, fellas.

[Gino]

It is. And remember early on, like Bennett had that huge, like 17 or 18 games where he didn't score a goal. The fact that he still got, what is it, 23 now, really 22, 23, whatever it is, like it's been a pretty impressive season. But I think the time that he's out of the lineup, it's never more apparent that the Florida needs Sam Bennett in their lineup. And I really hope as we get towards the off season that the Panthers and Sam Bennett figure out a way to get something done. I think with both of their UFAs, with Bennett and with Ekblad, it's been pretty clear that both of them are pretty integral parts of the Panthers machine that keeps churning along. So it'll be interesting to see if they can get something done with those guys as we get closer to the off season.

[Jason]

Five goals away and two points away from a career high. That's, that's good stuff from Benny.

[John Butcher Grass]

That's how you play in a contract year, Roy.

[Ethan]

You want to get paid.

[John Butcher Grass]

That's how you do it. And he, right now he's on track to get paid. There were recent reports from Elliot Friedman that the Panthers and Bennett have started talks again. He said they were really close when they started talks earlier this year. It didn't quite, quite come to fruition. I think with the cap stuff, the way it's going up, all of a sudden he saw a little more value. But also this has been a great relationship. Benny's been really good here. It wouldn't surprise me if they get a deal done at all and they kind of need to. He's a very valuable player. And like Dwarki mentioned, Ekblad, I mean, has been just. The defensive leaks in this game are crazy. The defensive leak since Ekblad went out have been very un Panther. Like they really need to try and get both of these guys re signed or else it's going to be an interesting off season for sure.

[Jason]

So the Panthers complete their six game road trip going 2, 4 and 0. Not good not good at all. They were outscored 18 4. So a little home cooking for them was very much needed. And the Panthers played the Penguins. The Penguins. And all three of the matchups have gone past regulation. Extra hockey. That means more Sydney Crosby for me. Hooray. Just what are we doing here, man? Just winning.

[Gino]

Smile. It's all for you.

[Jason]

No, for you, Roy. No, no, no.

[Gino]

By the way, these teams know how much you love the. Was it black and yellow, right? That's Pittsburgh, black and yellow. So they know how much that you love that. So they're g. I feel like you should just smile and say thank you for this extra access to this generational player that everybody seems to love but me.

[Jason]

Okay, whatever. By the way, those, those three games, very important in the standings because that would have figured it into the tiebreaker with Toronto. Right now there's, and we mentioned this with Bucci, a three way tie in the Atlantic Division. So. And that tie, by the way, 35 wins in regulation, both Toronto and Florida. So they had to go to the third tiebreaker, regulation and overtime wins. And Toronto has the advantage on that. So yeah, win games in regulation. And they did not versus the Penguins as the Panthers won 4, 3. But Alexander Barkov in the shootout, best backhand in the game. Just making goaltenders look silly.

[John Butcher Grass]

Ethan, he is so good at the shootout. It feels like every time he is in one, it's a shock. If he doesn't score, you know he's going to score when he gets into the shootout. Rhino should have tucked the game away. He beat Jari, but it just went off the post, his shooting. He's had a little bad puck luck recently. But the star of the shootout for me was Sergey Bobrovsky. Saved all three attempts. And the final attempt against Brian Russ, who had two goals in this game. I thought he was beaten. I think Goldie thought he was beaten. But then Bobrovsky kind of like moved his pad and you saw the puck just sitting in the crease, it had not gone in. And you were like, oh my God. You know, the Panthers won. So that was a crazy shootout. Bob has been absolutely phenomenal recently and it shouldn't be any surprise, right? We all kind of knew he struggled early. It'll be fine. He'll round into form come February. And since I think his number, since I can't remember exactly when, since January, he's got under two goals allowed per game. His save percentage is up near 930, maybe, maybe even over 9:30. He's been absolutely fantastic. He's Going to be ready for the playoffs once again and he's going to have to put the Panthers, you know, he's probably going to put the Panthers on his back just like he has the last two years.

[Jason]

This is going to make David Brovsky.

[Gino]

In the month of March, fellows, six wins in eight games, three shutouts, 1.50 goals against and a 9:35 save percentage. This guy is ready for the playoffs.

[Jason]

Yes, he is. And this is going to make Dave happy here. He had an assistant assist in the game.

[Gino]

Yes. Yeah, goalie assist.

[Jason]

Goalie assist. Sam Reinhart had two goals in the game as well. The Panthers are going to play Utah this tonight. Tonight.

[Gino]

So weird to say, right?

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah. The Utah Hockey Club four day break for the Panthers. Uhc. Even though that's not what they put on the. The graphic in the. The upper third for the scoreboard. But uhc, we mentioned this to the Bucci earlier that Brad Marchant hopefully will make his debut tonight.

[John Butcher Grass]

Confirmed.

[Jason]

Confirmed.

[John Butcher Grass]

Confirming he's making his debut. Paul Maurice announced in the press conference today.

[Jason]

So it's looking like the second line. Correct. He's going to be in Matt Dukachuk spot as well as Mackie and Sam Bennett.

[Gino]

So that's right. That's going to be Marshand and Bennett.

[John Butcher Grass]

When you look at these lines, all of a sudden what these lines look like when the Panthers are at full strength, you're looking at either Mackie Samiskiewicz, possibly Evan Rodriguez. Fourth line.

[Gino]

Yeah, that's Mackie on the top line. Mackie up top. You could have Verhegee on the third line or vice versa.

[John Butcher Grass]

Ryan and Boquist on the fourth line. Erod on the fourth line. Like I don't know what the hell Paul Maurice is going to do with these lines. But just like the Panthers did last year where they had five lines they could roll out there if they wanted to. Yeah, they're going to have five lines that they could roll out there again. Guys like AJ Greer, Jonah Gadjevich and Thomas Nosek who have been solid players for the Panthers all year long are going to possibly, you know, be on the wrong end in the playoffs. It's going to be amazing to see what Maurice does and what this team looks like at full strength. Because you're talking about Evan Rodriguez who led the Stanley Cup Final in goals last year, possibly being a fourth liner come playoff time. It's insane.

[Jason]

It's a good problem to have being that deep.

[John Butcher Grass]

It's the best problem.

[Jason]

Oh yeah, yeah. Kevin Stanley's coming back. He's gonna get his trippy video. That's. That's great. His tribute video should just be the penalty kill.

[John Butcher Grass]

The penalty kill, yeah. Correct. Just play the penalty kill in full. The minute 30 where he doesn't have a stick and he's diving head first to try and clear the puck. And then Bobrovsky. That should just be. They don't need to show anything else.

[Jason]

That's exactly right. The biggest and greatest penalty kill in franchise history. Straight up. Utah is coming off of a eight nothing beat down against Elay. Lost in Tampa. Yeah, they. That was. That was bad. The Panthers last year played Utah. Was the first matchup they. That they had since Utah moved from Arizona. And that was a dominant time win.

[Gino]

Yeah, Utah, they. They're basically like, what are they, 10 points out of a playoff spot right now with 10 games to go? Like, they have zero margin for error. They basically have to win out and then hope to get some help. I know that after the game last night in Tampa, a couple of guys were talking about like, we really have to like check ourselves if we want to talk about the playoffs. Like, guys, the playoffs are like passing you by. It's that time has basically passed for the Utah Hockey Club. So we'll see what, what kind of effort they have. Because having their season end basically with an 8 nothing loss in Tampa, it probably killed them.

[Jason]

Yeah, not a good problem to have. And that and the opposite end on that one Sunday and Tuesday, back to backs. I should say home and homes. Not back to backs, but home and homes. Against the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs are in the last wild card spot in the East. They got four teams chasing them. As we mentioned with Bucci. Cole Caulfield dedicated his season to Johnny Goudreau. Changed his player playing his jersey number. He has 34 goals and 29 assists for 63 points. Nick Suzuki's leading the team in points for 73. He's got 22 goals and 51 assists. These are big games for the Canadians.

[Gino]

Monty's having a great year for them too. Another former Panthers goalie out there to talk about, but it's been fun. They've really responded to Marty St. Louis. Remember when he took over a couple of years ago toward the end of the season where I actually played pretty well under him. Well, I mean, look what's happening now. So it'll be fun to see if. If we can get another Canadian team into the playoffs where. I know we talked about it last week, but anytime you get the Canadian teams in the playoffs, you know it gets rowdy up there, especially in Montreal.

[John Butcher Grass]

Panthers four days off between tonight's game and Sunday's game. But the schedule just loads up at the end here. They get that tough back to home and home with Montreal, not back to back, but Sunday, Tuesday. That's still a tough trip. And then a back to back on Wednesday against Toronto and then another back to back the next weekend on Saturday and Sunday. So there's three. I think they have two more back to backs the rest of the season. It's a brutal stretch and it's going to be. Or three more back to backs. Excuse me, three more back to backs the rest of the season. So they needed those four days really badly.

[Jason]

Yes. The rest is. It's very important and good to have Brad Marshawn on this team now because they need the support because it's going to be a long one for the rest of the season.

[Gino]

So it's going to be so weird seeing him in a Panther jersey tonight. Even if we're watching this after it happened, it's still weird for you. Like, it's going to be an adjustment period for sure.

[John Butcher Grass]

I cannot wait.

[Jason]

Yeah, neither can I. For Ethan, for Dave, for Jason, for Gino. My name is Roy Bellamy. We'll see you next week.