The Hockey Show: The Panthers Own The Oilers (feat. Dave Jackson)

Summary

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The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

The Hockey Show: The Panthers Own The Oilers (feat. Dave Jackson)

Date: March 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

Broadcasting from downtown Miami’s Elser Hotel, Roy Bellamy anchors a provocative, high-energy hockey roundtable with David Dwark, Ethan, and Rose. This week’s focal points:

• The latest NHL injuries and playoff races, with a highlight on the Panthers’ dominance over the Oilers.
• Breakdowns of surging and underperforming teams.
• Evaluating the league’s disciplinary decisions.
• A deep-dive interview with former NHL referee and ESPN rules analyst Dave Jackson, dispelling the mystery of goaltender interference.
• Memorable moments include playful pod banter, hot takes on awards, and a heartfelt personal tribute from Ethan.

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Major Discussion Themes and Segments

1. Injury Updates & Playoff Picture

• [01:56-05:42]

• Auston Matthews: Successful MCL surgery, out 12 weeks (should return for training camp).
• Leon Draisaitl (Oilers): Out for rest of regular season, expected for playoffs.
• Sidney Crosby (Penguins): Returns, immediately impactful with a goal and assist in an OT win.

Notable Quotes:

• “Auston Matthews underwent successful MCL surgery and will be out for 12 weeks... Neon knee collision.” – Roy [01:56]
• “Toronto’s not making the playoffs. Edmonton is in a good spot… Six points clear of the Kings right now.” – Roy [03:20]

2. Divisional Races, Surprises, and Trends

• [05:43-09:51]

• Anaheim Ducks lead the weak Pacific Division, but would be outside the wild card in the East.
• Penguins, Islanders, and Blue Jackets vie for playoff spots in the Metro; Blue Jackets’ turnaround emphasized.
• Defensive struggles for Penguins (notably Chris Letang); praise for Eric Karlsson’s bounceback.

Notable Quotes:

• “The Ducks... first place in the Pacific Division... they would be six points out of a wild card spot in the East, which is crazy.” – Ethan [06:24]
• "The Blue Jackets... a miracle since they fired their head coach... 17-2-4 since making the change." – Roy [08:45]

3. The Blue Jackets’ Miraculous Run

• [09:00-11:22]

• Coaching change to Rick Bowness propels Columbus from last in the conference to playoff contention.
• Adam Fantilli highlighted as a breakout; Jet Greaves praised in goal.
• Playoff implications for both Buffalo and Columbus discussed.

Notable Quotes:

• “Adam Fantilli for the Blue Jackets... 8 goals and 15 points in 12 games [since the coaching change]. If he can keep up that kind of pace, that'll be huge for Columbus.” – David [09:30]

4. Jack Adams (Coach of the Year) & Team Turnarounds

• [10:51-12:18]

• Lindy Ruff of the Sabres named as the clear Jack Adams favorite following their 14-year playoff drought turnaround.
• Discussion of criteria and history of the Jack Adams award, with mention of recent winners losing jobs.

Notable Quotes:

• “There's a clear favorite to win the Jack Adams this year and it's going to be Lindy Ruff who's going to get the Sabres to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.” – Ethan [11:16]

5. Panthers Update: Ethical Tank and Youth Showcase

• [14:06-17:22]

• Panthers keep their protected top-10 draft pick alive by rotating lineups and getting up for marquee games.
• Mike Benning, young defenseman, singled out for strong late-season play.
• Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky’s resurgence noted.

Notable Quotes:

• “This is like the most ethical tank of all time...” – Ethan [15:52]
• “Bob kind of get back into his groove... Seth Jones coming back is a huge steadying force.” – David [15:15]

6. Stat Picks & Analytics

• [17:22-18:53]

• PuckLuck segment features parlay picks centered on shot totals, including Jack Hughes and Jacob Chychrun.
• Hockey Stat of the Week: Jacob Chychrun (defenseman) leads the Capitals in shots on goal, not Ovechkin.

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Key Moments & Fun Sidebars

What Should Happen to the Golden Goal Puck?

• [21:55-24:19]

• Jack Hughes voices frustration that his gold medal puck is in the Hall of Fame.
• Spirited debate: does the player who scores a historic goal have the right to keep the puck?

“He scored the goal, he should get to decide what happens with the puck.” – Ethan [22:15]

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Win/Fail of the Week

• [19:54-29:31]

• ECHL: Dante Sheriff’s dazzling goal, gritty celebration, and ensuing brawl earn “Win of the Week.” [20:03]
• Flyers-Ducks: Matt V. Michkov “rage baits” Pavel Mintyukov into a penalty. [20:54]
• “Fail” segment: Fan jinxed for wearing a Canadiens jersey at Leafs-Islanders game and getting hit with a puck. [26:57]
• Amazon hockey ad with Nathan MacKinnon panned for odd concept. [28:42]

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Off-Ice Pop Culture

• [25:30-26:50]

• Rose highlights excitement for an upcoming hockey romance series based on “Off Campus” book series.

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[33:04] Special Interview with NHL Rules Analyst Dave Jackson

Deep Dive: Officiating, Player Safety, and Goaltender Interference

On Kneeing, Penalties, and Player Safety

• [34:14-39:26]

• Explains referee’s process: “As a referee, immediately you throw your arm up, you've got a penalty... If the player's injured, it's a pretty simple call. You're going five in game, and then you kick it upstairs and let player safety deal with it after that.” – Dave Jackson [34:14]
• On repeat offenders: “You want to judge every play as they come in a vacuum.” [35:35]

Is Department of Player Safety Too Lenient?

• [36:53-39:26]

• Five-game suspension for knee-on-knee hit seen as significant; context of past discipline.
• “This one incident seems to me to be like a knee jerk reaction... because it ended Auston Matthews season, superstar player.” – Dave Jackson [36:53]

On Slashing, Major Penalties, and High Sticking

• [41:07-42:16]

• Distinctions among different types of stick penalties; how intent and location affect the call.

The Mystery of Goaltender Interference Explained

• [42:16-48:20]

• The crease is a 3D space (“It goes all the way up to the height of the crossbar.” – Dave Jackson [45:39]).
• If a goalie reaches outside the crease, he shares that ice with opposing skaters; only within the crease does he have special protection.
• Example: Panthers’ controversial challenge, explained clearly – a goalie outside the crease gets no special protection.

Notable Quotes:

• “If you're breaking the plane of that crease and you're out considered in the white paint... that space is as much belonging to the Buffalo player as it is to him.” – Dave Jackson [46:55]
• “When the goaltender breaks the plane of that crease, he becomes almost like a defenseman.” – Dave Jackson [48:20]

Lesson for Goalies (and Coaches)

“That’s why I keep my ass in the crease.” – David [49:02]

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Final Highlights

Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer Makes History

• [49:46-50:31]

• Youngest defenseman in NHL history to 50 points; Calder Trophy in sight.

Notable Quotes:

• “The call to trophy damn is basically his.” – Roy [50:00]

Personal Moment

• [50:38-51:07]

• Ethan pays tribute to late friend Claire Lepat. Hosts respond with sympathy.

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Notable Quotes & Banter Snapshots

• “I feel almost enlightened right now because the whole breaking the plane extending off the ice... that’s something to take into account I really hadn’t been.” – David [47:48]
• “If more guys applied that to the game, we would have a much easier job.” – Dave Jackson [49:05]
• [Laughter] “Win for Akira Schmid, fail for Utah.” – Rose [29:38]

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Timestamps: Key Segments

| Time | Segment | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:56 | Injury report and playoff implications | | 05:43 | Pacific Division/Ducks and playoff races | | 09:00 | Columbus Blue Jackets' turnaround | | 11:01 | Jack Adams discussion | | 14:06 | Florida Panthers tank, young talent | | 17:22 | PuckLuck betting picks/stat of the week | | 19:54 | Wins and fails (Swamp Rabbits, rage-bait, golden puck) | | 25:30 | “Off Campus” hockey romance series segment | | 33:04 | Dave Jackson interview begins | | 34:14 | Explaining knee-on-knee, major penalties, player safety | | 42:16 | Goaltender interference deep dive | | 49:46 | Matthew Schaefer’s rookie feat | | 50:38 | Ethan’s tribute |

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Closing

A fast-paced, insightful hockey barroom roundtable with genuine analysis, big personality, and impeccable timing. Dave Jackson’s rules expertise shines, giving even seasoned fans new clarity. The episode’s playful, irreverent tone contains sharp analysis, friendly jabs, and heartfelt moments—quintessential Le Batard Show fare.

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Transcript

[Ethan]

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[Dave Jackson]

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[Ethan]

your favorite drink or try one of

[Dave Jackson]

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Try it today at Starbucks.

[Roy Bellamy]

Ugh.

[Depop Ad Voice]

You said you were over him, but his hoodie is still in your rotation. It's time. Grab your phone, snap a few pics, and sell it on Depop. Listed in minutes with no selling fees.

[Roy Bellamy]

And.

[Depop Ad Voice]

And just like that, a guy 500 miles away just paid full price for your closure. And right on cue.

[Roy Bellamy]

Hey, still got my hoodie?

[Depop Ad Voice]

Nope. But I've got tonight's dinner paid for. Start selling on Depop. Where taste recognizes taste list. Now with no selling fees, payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details.

[Roy Bellamy]

We're still trying to figure out what goaltender interference is. This is the Aki Show.

[Rose]

I did Serendip.

[David]

Rose is not happy.

[Ethan]

We're off to a flyer today, boys. Let me tell you, we are off to a hot start.

[Roy Bellamy]

Unbelievable. That's David Drunk of the Hockey News. Rose in a very angry, very angry Rose. And Ethan is over there in the.

[David]

You don't listen to her.

[Roy Bellamy]

I mean, come on. I do listen to her. I'm listening to the format round. I'm doing her format right now. All right, this is what we're doing. We're gonna talk about the injuries, right? The injury updates that we have. God damn it. You guys are throwing me off, man.

[David]

So, Rose.

[Rose]

Yes.

[David]

What happened that has Roy so just totally discombobulated right now?

[Rose]

Our cold open was. We still don't know what interference is gonna.

[Roy Bellamy]

Interference? Yeah.

[Rose]

I'm not gonna keep watching.

[Roy Bellamy]

That's just boring.

[Rose]

So I need a hook to be a hook. But anyway, that takes us to a lot of injuries that Roy wanted to talk, so I'm going to throw it back to Roy. Come on, Roy.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right, before I do that, let me just Pub where we are on social. Okay, so we're on YouTube at the Hockey Show DLS on TikTok, the Hockey Show 7 on X Instagram, and threads at Hockey Show DLS. Now we have some injury updates. Auston Matthews underwent successful MCL surgery and will be out for 12 weeks. He'll be back in time for training camp. That happened with the Raccoon Gurus. Neon knee collision.

[David]

We'll be back for the conference finals, right?

[Roy Bellamy]

All right. We know that Toronto is not.

[David]

Sorry. Toronto fans. Sorry. Shameless. You just laugh at trolling action. Yeah, I mean, whatever.

[Ethan]

Alexander Barkov will be back for the conference finals, right? Oh, my God.

[Roy Bellamy]

Why would you do that?

[David]

Wow.

[Rose]

For real.

[David]

Well, there you go, Toronto fans.

[Ethan]

We got you back.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yep. Yeah.

[Ethan]

Well, this is a. This is a neutral show. You know, we're all journalists here.

[Rose]

No, I'm not.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, you're not a journalist. Speaking of laughing at somebody, the Oilers, the. Leon Dryle will be out for the rest of the regular season. He'll probably be back in time for.

[David]

They'll be in the playoffs.

[Roy Bellamy]

Game one of what will they second place in the Pacific. Pacific is a terrible.

[Ethan]

That division is so bad, man. Oh, if the Panthers were just in that division, they.

[Roy Bellamy]

They still wouldn't.

[Ethan]

If they just played in San Jose

[Roy Bellamy]

or something, technically, they still wouldn't be

[Dave Jackson]

in maybe one point out of a wild, would they?

[Ethan]

Really?

[David]

They'd be one point out of the wild.

[Ethan]

71 points. Yeah.

[Roy Bellamy]

Wow. Speaking of raccoon, Sidney Crosby came back into the lineup for the penguins in their 65 overtime victory against Carolina. He had a goal and assist. Now, as I said, Toronto's not making the playoffs. Edmonton is in a good spot. Six points clear the Kings right now. Who has a. Has the second wild card. As Dave said, the Panthers will be a point out of that second wild card. That's how bad that division is in the West. Who made it to salad but. And we'll talk about the Blue Jackets in a second. The Penguins are trying to hold them off on a. On their playoff spot. As I continue to ignore Rose. Let's talk about Cindy Crosby's return and how huge that is for the Penguins. Dave.

[David]

I think it's exceptionally huge for Pittsburgh because they can't seem to keep the puck out of their own net lately. I mean, we talked a couple shows ago about how Stuart Stinner had been so good for Pittsburgh since coming over from the Oilers and that that's not

[Roy Bellamy]

the complete opposite for Tristan Jari and Edmonton.

[David]

No, it's. It's been like kind of bad for everybody. I mean, Skinner's not doing well. Archer Shilobs, who I really liked, you know, won the Calder cup last year with Abbotsford. He's not doing well for Pittsburgh, so they need all the help they can get right now. So Crosby being let back in the lineup, that's big. Also another bad thing for Pittsburgh. You know how bad Chris Latang has been playing lately?

[Ethan]

I saw his numbers recently. He's had a terrible year. Yeah, Eric Carlson has kind of had a bounce back year. I've heard Pete Blackburn talking about it a lot. On what chaos recently. But Latang has been rough. But I mean you know that. I guess Pittsburgh just decided this year we're going to take one last stab at it with this aging core, and it's going to work like they're probably going to make the playoffs. Right now, they're sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 84 points. The. The Islanders are a point out. The Blue Jackets have actually been playing outstanding recently. They've snuck into the third spot in the division now. But one of these three teams, right? Two of these three teams, the Islanders, the Penguins and the Blue Jackets, are going to make the playoffs. And two of those teams before the year people thought would be bottom feeders in the Eastern Conference. So really an interesting year in the east, but especially in the Metropolitan Division, where the Capitals have fallen out of it, the Devils have fallen out of it, and now you have these two teams that were not expected to be competitive at all competing and in the playoff spot. And a guy we'll talk about in a minute has been a huge reason for that for the Islanders, and that's Matthew Schaefer. Kid is unbelievable.

[Rose]

Do you guys remember where you put the Sharks and whatever teams we're talking about in your tier or.

[David]

Yeah, Sharks, Sabers, we had them all as potential playoff teams.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, we saw that coming.

[Rose]

Good for you guys.

[David]

I think the Ducks, too.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I was on the Ducks early this year. Yeah, I love that Ducks team and their first place in the Pacific Division right now. I mean, they haven't just been a dark horse to make the playoffs. They have been one of the better teams in the Western Conference and I mean, the best team in their division, which isn't really saying much. They're sitting on 78 points.

[David]

Are we done?

[Roy Bellamy]

Not yet. We didn't see how bad the Pacific Division was going to be at the beginning.

[Ethan]

No, not at all.

[Roy Bellamy]

That is a cluster.

[Ethan]

Yeah. I mean, the Ducks would not even be just one more point on this. The Ducks would be third team out of the wild card spot right now. They would be six points out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, which is crazy.

[Roy Bellamy]

You brought up what chaos, by the way. DJ Bean was in town. We didn't get to see him, unfortunately, but he had a tragic time in Miami.

[Ethan]

I know. I felt so bad for him. It was so bad for him. I was talking to him a little bit. He's like, what do I do in Miami when it's raining? I'm like, I don't really know.

[Roy Bellamy]

I told him. I told him to go eat. I told him to go to Yardbird.

[Ethan]

I Told him to go to Sandwichery and I told him to go to the Frost and the Perez Museum right over here. But other than that, it's like, what do you. You go watch a movie or mini golf or something?

[Roy Bellamy]

Well, that's the thing. He decided to stay in Miami Beach. I told him we have a studio in a hotel. Going to Mainland in downtown. Go on the mainland and go to Elsa. Go to the Elser. It's around everywhere. You got Design District up north, you got Windward and you got Brickell. There's a whole bunch of stuff that you can see. You can go across the street, the Bayside. I wouldn't recommend that. But yeah, there's a whole bunch of sea on the mainland. I mean, wait until. Wait until later to go to south beach, but that's neither here nor there.

[Rose]

So hopefully hockey show, not Miami, because Miami, that's political. Hashtag, this is not the Miami.

[Roy Bellamy]

I'm not gonna play a bunker.

[Ethan]

We miss. We miss dj.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, we missed dj. That's why I brought him up. It's a hockey show. The what Chaos show is a podcast about hockey. He's our friend and I just want to mention his name. He was a. He was here in town last week. But back to hockey, as Rose has subtly, subtly suggested. We've been talking about the Buffalo Sabers, obviously in the miraculous climb out of the cellar in the Eastern Conference, but we haven't been talking about the Columbus Blue Jackets. We mentioned it a little bit earlier, but the Columbus Blue Jackets has Rose, like, just. It's been almost a miracle since they fired their head coach, Dean Everson, since. And this is from Mark Shag. He shared this on his Twitter account. Currently known as X since the coaching change to Rick Bonus and at the time they were in last place in the Eastern Conference. That. That spot, by the way, is occupied by the New York Rangers. Since last night's 63 victory against the Rangers, they are now third in the Metropolitan Division. They have a game at hand on the Islanders. That's why they are in third right now. They are 17, 2 and 4 since making the change to Rick Bonus. How is this happening in Columbus?

[David]

No, the new coach Bump is always kind of nice, but the fact that it's been rolling now for months, it's pretty impressive. I think a big reason guy that's been playing amazing for Columbus basically since Bonus took over is Adam Fantilli. He has been that dude for the BJ's. Basically a point per game.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah. Hey, yo, man, we have a child.

[Ethan]

Come on.

[Roy Bellamy]

Man, cbj.

[David]

Are the Blue Jackets the bj.

[Roy Bellamy]

Cbj.

[David]

All right. Anyway, you guys are taking it to a funky place. I'm just trying to talk about hockey.

[Ethan]

Yeah, yeah, sure you are.

[David]

Adam Fantilli for the Blue Jackets point per game, basically since Rick Bonas took over, since the Olympic break ended. 8 goals and 15 points in 12 games. If he can keep up that kind of pace, that'll be huge for Columbus. Him and Jet Greaves, who's been quietly amazing in goal for the Blue Jackets. If they can keep it up. Dude, they're going to be scary. Columbus and Buffalo are going to be a scary first round out.

[Ethan]

Yeah, I genuinely think Buffalo is a wagon. Just since you mentioned them. I mean, they're now four points up, two games in hand, to be fair, on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division. But you talk about Columbus, they are on an 11 point, 11 game point streak right now. They're 6 or 70 and 4 in their last 11 games and they have just jetted up the standings and it's exactly what they did last year. Like, let's be very clear about this. Like they started pretty slow last year and then everybody kind of, they hung around but towards the end of the year they got really hot and then they just fell off with like four or five games left. So they're going to have to hold on here at the end of the year in a way that they couldn't do it last year. But you, you know, last year everybody kind of thought they rode the Johnny Goudreau thing and, and, and you know, kind of it might have been a fluke, but this team's really good. You look at that lineup, that's a very talented lineup with led by one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League in Zach Orinsky. And I would love to see this team in the playoffs. And I agree with you, Dave. I think they would be a really tough out for any team come playoff time.

[Roy Bellamy]

I don't think that Rick Bonus has had enough games to be considered for Jack Adams. But if you look at that race, you don't you think so?

[David]

I think you remember was it 2020 or whatever it was when Andrew Brunette took over for Joel Quinville and he was a Jack Adams. Yeah, but that was like nine games.

[Ethan]

Seven games.

[David]

Yeah, but still, I mean, even at the halfway point, that's a huge, huge turnaround. I mean, Jack McKeon, 2003, what's up?

[Ethan]

Yeah, well, I think I was going to say there's a clear favorite to Win the Jack Adams this year and it's going to be Lindy Ruff who's going to get the play the Sabres to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years and fully, fully, you know, deserves it.

[Rose]

Rose, what's the Jack Adams for those that we don't know?

[Roy Bellamy]

That's the Coach of the Year.

[David]

That's the Coach of the Year award for the Coach of the Year.

[Rose]

Did Palmarese won it last year?

[David]

No, Palmarese has not won it.

[Roy Bellamy]

No, Jack. John Cooper has not won it at all.

[David]

John Cooper has not won at all.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, so that's the other thing.

[Ethan]

Usually the award is reserved more, Rosie, for guys, teams that surprise. Like last year, the coach of the Washington Capitals won the Jack Adams. It's more for teams that kind of come out of nowhere and surprise rather than a top team like the Lightning or the Panthers or whoever.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, it's usually not necessary. Well, I want to say it's not necessarily for president trophy winning team coaches there. I wouldn't say that. But I mean, seeing what the Sabres did after they fired Kevin Adams, that is almost automatic. Especially for a team like the Sabres.

[Ethan]

14 years since they've made the playoffs. It's not just that. It's also the turnaround that they've had within season this year where they were looking like again going out for their 14th straight year without the playoffs, 15 straight year, whatever. And then all of a sudden they are legitimately, to me, they might be the best team in the Eastern Conference. Like they look like an absolute force and they're going to be a really, really tough outcome playoff time. Because that team is good, man.

[Roy Bellamy]

How long was that winning streak, by the way?

[Ethan]

Was it 14, 13 or 4? Yeah, I think it got to 13. Crazy.

[Roy Bellamy]

First three happened before they even fired Kevin Adams. So they were starting to get on a roll. And then I guess what the new GM bump. Is that such thing for Yarmo? I don't know.

[David]

Yeah, maybe. That was a big correspondent though. Like as soon as he took over, they turned it around.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, I guess you can't have a player's gm.

[David]

It's interesting. I'm just looking at the list of recent Jack Adams winners and other than Spencer Carberry last year, the three guys behind him are all out of their jobs. Rick Talkett, Jim Montgomery, Darryl Sutter.

[Dave Jackson]

Nope.

[David]

Fired, fired, fired.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right, so don't win a Jack Adams trophy if, if you want to have a job later. I guess that would be the thing.

[Ethan]

Well, Jim Montgomery was in there for what he did with the blues and he's still with the blues, is he?

[David]

No, Jim Montgomery won it in 2023.

[Ethan]

Oh, the winners. Excuse me, I thought you were saying who finished in the order last year.

[David]

No, no, no, those are the last winners. That's crazy talking. 24, Montgomery in 23, Sutter in 22.

[Ethan]

Yeah. Vancouver. Man, how things change in Vancouver. It's crazy, insane, insane how things have changed in Vancouver. Like genuinely one of the craziest like tip overs you've ever seen where they have nobody left basically. Except that Pedersen albatross.

[David]

Which Pedersen?

[Ethan]

Yeah. Marcus Elias or the other Elias.

[David]

No, they've got two with the exact same.

[Ethan]

No, I know, I know.

[Roy Bellamy]

Panthers then. We continue to be on draft lottery watch as the Panthers are currently tied for the 9th least amount of points in the standings. They are technically 12th because the tiebreakers. So the Panthers have the protected top 10 pick. They keep it if they are in the worst of the 10. So that's the situation that we are looking in right now. But they played Edmonton last night and you got to play the. All this. You got, you got to be. They are 5, 6 and oh since the Olympic break. So they have been mediocre.

[David]

Average.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, they've been pretty much average. Yeah. That included a four game losing streak, a three game winning streak and back to back losses. Now to win in Edmonton. But when you get into a situation like this, when you end up in, you know, bottom, you're not going to make the playoffs. You start to look at the young players and I'm seeing a guy like a Mike Benning who has done very well. He has three assists in four games and he did very well last night. He had two assists. So. And especially last night the defense played very well in front of Sergey Barack.

[David]

Very good.

[Roy Bellamy]

Who, thank you very much. Who got a shutout last night. He's played pretty well recently as well.

[David]

It's nice to see Bob kind of get back into his groove. Last night in Edmonton, I think he had nine high danger saves of the 21 saves he made. But as you mentioned, the defense is good. Seth Jones coming back is a huge steadying force on that backline for sure. Yeah, but Mike Benning, I mean quietly really good for playing his first handful of games in the NHL when he was with Charlotte, especially over the last month or so heading up to when he got called up, he became a much more consistent source of offense from their blue line. So to see somebody who was a, you know, a big of a prospect for the Panthers starting to come around Some of that homegrown talent that'll help them moving forward. That's nice to see.

[Ethan]

Yeah. In terms of young talent, I'm kind of wondering where Sandis Vilmanis is, because I really like the way that he played when he was up here. I know he's been sent back down to Charlotte. They're getting look at some other guys, but I'd like to see him. Yeah, they. They want him for the stretch run for the playoffs, but I would like to see him get some run here the end of the year. But just the Panthers. Like I said this on Twitter last night, this is like the most ethical tank of all time where, because every once in a while, the Panthers just kind of remind people, like, hey, you wouldn't have stood a chance if we were healthy this year. Like, last night clearly meant something to this team. Matthew Tkachuk said it in the lead up to the game. He was like, if this game doesn't mean something to you, then you've got a problem. You know, we want to beat this team. We want to show this team that, hey, we got you the last couple years and we can still. No Leon. Dry saddle. To be fair to the Oilers, that's going to be really interesting to see how they survive the rest of this regular season without him, if they survive the rest of this regular season without him. But I just think the Panthers, they're going to spend a little bit of time every once in a while, you're going to see them get up for one of these games. But also we see the rotation, we see the guys in and out of the lineup. Erod was out of the lineup the other night. Mikola was out of the lineup the other night. Verhagi's been in and out. Reinhardt's not even on the trip with them right now, which I know has to be disappointing for him because they're out in West Canada, which is where he's from, but they're just kind of doing their thing where every once in a while they're reminding teams, if we were healthy, we would still be right here. But we got a business to take care of, which is getting into the top 10, making sure we have that draft pick in, that usable asset going forward in this offseason.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right, it's time for puck luck. It's sponsored by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours, David.

[David]

Hello, Roy.

[Roy Bellamy]

Hi.

[David]

Handful of games tonight. First gonna start with the New Jersey Devils and the Washington Capitals at a couple from that game. First, we're Gonna take Jack Hughes over three and a half shots on goal. He's hit this number six of his past seven games overall and five of his past six on home ice. We're gonna combine that with Jacob Chikrin over two and a half shots against the Devils. Buying low after zero shots in his last two games. But he's had five and six shots in his past two games against New Jersey this season. So look for Jacob Chikrin to bounce back. And then finally, we're going to round this out with Dylan Gunther over two and a half shots as the Utah Mammoth play the Anaheim Ducks tonight. Another by low spot. He had five shots in each of his two games against Anaheim this season. Doesn't put up the same numbers on the road. So we're going to take the alternate line at plus two and a half shots. Total parlay odds plus 500 6. So some good opportunity, some good value. Let's win some good money.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right, David, we stay with you for the hockey stat of the week.

[Dave Jackson]

The hockey stat of the week.

[David]

Hello, Roy.

[Roy Bellamy]

Hi, David.

[Ethan]

Hi, David.

[Roy Bellamy]

Oh, my gosh.

[DraftKings Ad Voice]

Wow.

[David]

So when researching Puckluck this week, I came across something that made me kind of jump a little bit. You know who leads the Capitals in chats on goal?

[Roy Bellamy]

Who's that, David?

[David]

Who do you think it is?

[Roy Bellamy]

It's not Oviskin.

[David]

It is not Ovechkin. It's not even a forward.

[Roy Bellamy]

It's not a forward.

[David]

No, it's Jacob Chikrin.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, it's Chikrin.

[David]

He leads the caps and shots on goal. Despite playing two less games than Alex Ovechkin and having a total of no shots in his past two games. Three total shots in his past five games. Yes. We're betting on him tonight because I'm an idiot. But, no, I just. I was like, whoa. Like, you think Alex Ovechkin. You think ripping pucks and.

[Roy Bellamy]

Nope, not jinx that, buddy.

[David]

The reverse jinx.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah. Okay.

[David]

The reverse jinx. Like last night. I bet on Edmondson. The Panthers won. It's the reverse jinx.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Should have won against the spread on that one.

[David]

Yeah, I guess.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right. Rose doesn't have a minute, but she is going to pick. And for the pick, we have Claire Bellamy, who's going to stick her hand in a bag of. Claire. Ready? Mini hockey helmets. Claire. Ready?

[Ethan]

Reach in here, pick out a team.

[Roy Bellamy]

She's not looking at the bag.

[Ethan]

Around, dig around. Don't look at the bag. Dig your hand around. Pull out a team.

[David]

What do you got Rose. Claire. What do you got? Claire?

[Rose]

And we got. It's not on.

[Roy Bellamy]

Guess what team it is. I guess I don't know what it's busy producing.

[Ethan]

What do you think it's called?

[Rose]

The Helmets. No, no, no, no.

[Ethan]

The Helmets.

[Roy Bellamy]

The Helmets.

[Ethan]

It's the Vegas Golden Knights.

[Roy Bellamy]

The Houston Helmets. The Vegas Golden Knights. That is going to be next week's.

[Ethan]

We have spent a lot of time on the Golden Knights. What a weird year they're having.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, it's been back and forth for them. All right, it's time for wins and fairs of the week. David, what's your win?

[David]

My win of the week. We're going to the echl. We're actually just going a little bit north to Orlando. The Greenville Swamp Rabbits were in town to play the Orlando Solar Bears and Dante Sheriff of the Swamp Rabbits scored a gorgeous goal. We're going to show it here on the video cuts into the Solar Bear zone. Makes a nice little move to the middle of the ice. Gypsy dandles around the goaltender. Nice. So then he does the gritty to celebrity.

[Roy Bellamy]

Then he stops.

[David]

Jake Wahlman stops right in the path of an Orlando player. And then chaos ensues at center ice. And just this whole sequence of plays, the gorgeous goal, the toe drag, the gritty celebration and then the brawl, the line brawl at center ice.

[Roy Bellamy]

That's echo hockey for me.

[David]

I loved everything about that. That is in little 30 second clip what we all love about hockey all wrapped up into one. That's a big win of the week for me.

[Roy Bellamy]

Hey, if you're angry about that, stop him.

[David]

Correct, correct.

[Ethan]

Don't let him score.

[Roy Bellamy]

Don't let him score. That's what I always say in the Flyers Ducks game there's a bit of gamesmanship. Matt V. Mitchkoff rage baited Pavel Mit Yukov into a penalty. How he did it? Well, there was a glove punch by Mitchkov and that led to Miyukov's gloves being dropped so he can get in fight mode. But unfortunately for him there was no fighting back by Mitchkov. He just skated away with a smile on his face. Hahahee. So that was a rough obviously for the punch in the face, the glove punch in the face for Mitchkov, but he took Mitukov with him to the box who got an unsportsmanlike conduct call because he dropped his glove. Dropped his gloves to fight. So obviously Mishkov got a rough on that one for the glove punch and Mitukov ended up going to the box for sportsmanlike conduct. That is how you rage bait somebody Into a penalty. Good job there by Mitch. Cough. All right, Ethan, go ahead.

[Ethan]

My win of the week is Roy's pronunciation of Menchikov. No, my win of the week, I'm going by Menchukov.

[Roy Bellamy]

It's.

[Ethan]

It's a good, tough one. I know. I don't know where the mint shoe. Mint shoe. Like Gardner Minshew. But anyway, my win of the week comes from. So this was initially going to be my fail because of the reaction to this, but I changed this to my win instead. Jack Hughes had a quote when asked about his gold medal puck. So the gold.

[Roy Bellamy]

The.

[Ethan]

The gold, golden gold puck is at the Hockey hall of Fame. And Jack Hughes was asked about it by our good friend Greg Washinsky. And Jack Hughes had this to say. If we can put this graphic up on the screen here. I'm trying to get the puck. Like, that's a word I'm not going to say because Claire is here, that the Hockey hall of Fame has it, in my opinion. Why would they have that puck? And I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I'm going to agree with Jack Hughes. For some reason, a lot of people have been taking it out on Jack Hughes and saying, you know, that quote is. Is not right. And I'm going to tell you why. He scored the goal. He should get to decide what happens with the puck. If he wants the puck to eventually go to the hall of Fame, then it eventually should go to the hall of Fame. If he wants the puck on his wall, in his office or wherever, he should get the puck. He scored the goal. I think more people should stand for the fact that I scored the goal. I get to decide what I want to do with it. And it's my puck. It's his puck. He scored the goal. Give Jack Hughes the puck. Let him decide where it wants. Where he wants it to go.

[Roy Bellamy]

He said it was bull crap, out of way.

[David]

I feel like I disagree with that.

[Roy Bellamy]

How so?

[David]

Who says it's his puck?

[Ethan]

He scored the goal, but did he

[David]

bring it with him to the goal?

[Ethan]

That doesn't matter. I think once you score the goal, like, okay, Ovechkin, he scores. What was it? 895. It's his puck, right?

[David]

It's Jordan Bennington's puck.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah.

[David]

Fair. Okay.

[Ethan]

He should decide what happens with that puck, should he not?

[David]

No, I don't think so. I think it's history. I think that the puck belongs to the league.

[Ethan]

I disagree. If he wants his puck to go to the hall of Fame, then let it go to the hall of Fame, but he should make the decision. That's my personal opinion.

[Roy Bellamy]

Was there a picture of Alexander Oveskin holding up the goal? The goal record.

[Ethan]

There's a picture with him and Gretzky in the locker room.

[Roy Bellamy]

But was he holding up the puck? Was it Tate. Did the number? Was the number.

[Ethan]

Pretty sure that there was a picture of him with the puck. Whatever the case may be. It's the golden goal. It's the golden puck. He scored the goal. Let him decide. I think it's outdated to say that it has to go to the hall of Fame. Yeah, I think it's. It's a. It's a bygone thing.

[Roy Bellamy]

There's a picture.

[Ethan]

Archaic is the word I'm looking for. I was looking for the word archaic. It's archaic to say that it has to go to the hall of Fame. Rosie.

[Roy Bellamy]

Rosie.

[David]

Yeah, we can go to Jack Hughes house and visit history instead for this one.

[Roy Bellamy]

E. Speaking to the mic. Yes.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Roy Bellamy]

Stall.

[Rose]

Entertain. Claire, please.

[Ethan]

Yeah.

[Rose]

Because I'm going to show you something.

[Ethan]

Okay. Claire, look over here.

[Roy Bellamy]

Shield. Shield. Claire. Why would you do that so fast? Why would you.

[Rose]

Okay, so my win of the week. You can put it. You can put. You can put it on. You can put it out now because we have kids.

[Roy Bellamy]

But my win of the week is unbelievable.

[Rose]

Off campus is coming, and it's.

[Ethan]

The show looks Great series.

[Roy Bellamy]

The zoom is on your computer.

[Ethan]

She looks right. No, it's. It's not up there. It's not up right now. No, There.

[Rose]

So it's four. Five books. It's four Players, and we follow each one's romantic life. And the fifth book, it's like all of the fours and etc. Etc. And the first one is gonna be the Deal, and that's the guy, the girl. We don't care. You can see the teaser there. But that's Garrett, and Garrett is gonna make us fall in love. So whenever that's out, kids, I'm gonna give you the recap. And we are gonna be watching.

[Ethan]

Right, E. I'll be watching.

[Rose]

Yeah.

[Ethan]

I'll be watching.

[David]

I don't know if I'll be watching.

[Rose]

You have to.

[Roy Bellamy]

I don't have to do. I don't have to do a thing. I don't know what you're talking about.

[David]

The shows that I want to watch. Like, I'm trying to get through Landman right now.

[Ethan]

I know. I don't watch anything either. I've been trying to watch Scrubs. I've. I'm now two Episodes behind on Scrub.

[David]

I haven't finished the new season of Shoresy. Like, I'm so behind on everything I want to watch.

[Rose]

Excuse me, does a scrub or shortc. Or things have hockey? No, this one has hockey.

[Roy Bellamy]

Sure, she has hockey.

[Ethan]

Definitely has hockey.

[David]

The Hockey show is this show about hockey that you're talking about.

[Rose]

You guys have a show?

[Ethan]

Yes, it's a. It's a. It's a hockey. It's a hockey. It's another hockey romance show.

[Rose]

It's a romance show.

[Ethan]

Yeah, it's another hockey romance show.

[David]

Are they straight?

[Roy Bellamy]

Yes.

[Ethan]

Yes.

[Rose]

All of them are straight.

[David]

I'm just curious. I'm just trying to keep up. I'm fine with how.

[Ethan]

So now we had gay hockey show. Now we have straight hockey.

[Rose]

The only reason I'm telling you is because it's hockey. If it was something else. No, no.

[David]

Now I got like. Is this like a. Like a men's hockey player and a woman's hockey player falling in love at the Olympics?

[Ethan]

It's like an equipment manager. It seems like.

[Rose]

Yeah, no, she's, like, scandalous right there. Something artistic, and she has to tutor the guy so they fall.

[David]

You know, I feel like we've had situations where, like, somebody that works for the team has gotten involved with somebody on the team, and it's led to them getting kicked out of the league.

[Rose]

Something like that.

[David]

You know, I feel like we've heard this story before and it hasn't ended well, but, you know, fiction.

[Rose]

Now we're gonna watch it.

[Roy Bellamy]

And, Chukov, that one's gonna eat at you tonight, huh? Yes, it is.

[David]

Oh, God, Dave.

[Roy Bellamy]

Failed.

[David]

Fail of the week. Let's go to Toronto. The Maple Leafs were hosting the New York Islanders a couple nights ago at Scotiabank Arena. For some reason, a fan with amazing seats decided to wear his Montreal Canadiens jersey to a game that the Montreal Canadiens weren't playing and the hockey gods did not approve. As the video shows, a deflected puck on a random play went up into the stands and nailed him right in the face. And I think he was okay. Like, there were pictures of him in his seat with a big welt, redded face. But, Roy, isn't that a faux pas? You don't wear a jersey of a team that's not playing in the game to the game where the two teams are playing.

[Roy Bellamy]

Exactly. What are we doing?

[Rose]

I have done that.

[David]

Well, you're lucky you didn't get hit in the face with a puck.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, that's. That's. That's bad luck.

[David]

Maybe that's why you keep losing things.

[Roy Bellamy]

The World Baseball Classic saw Team USA go into the championship game against Venezuela wearing game worn U.S. men's Hockey Olympic hockey jerseys as a nod to the gold medal winning performance in the hopes that they might win. Well, the stink of cash Patel must have still been on him because Team USA will lost three to two in the championship. That is back to back losses for the United States in the championship game for the wbc.

[David]

This is karma, Roy, because how many people tried to get a Team USA jersey after they won gold and nobody could because Nike didn't make enough?

[Ethan]

Mine is coming in August.

[David]

Yes, exactly. It's coming. So these guys, they somehow managed to get the whole freaking team wearing jerseys to the game.

[Ethan]

Well, those were the game worn jerseys. Fanatics got them. Pete. Carl Armstrong, through his deal with fanatics, got them the game warranty.

[David]

Those were the actual.

[Ethan]

My only problem with this was that was that Tariq Skubel wore Dylan Larkin jersey, which he did not deserve to do. Okay, my fail of the week, let's go. My fail of the week is this commercial from Amazon. What are we doing here? Let's put this up here. What's going on here?

[Roy Bellamy]

He's biting the box.

[Ethan]

He's biting nobody in the South Park. Make fun of the advertising department at Amazon. Consider anything about Nathan McKinnon in this commercial.

[David]

Okay, well, Rose, this is the wrong wheat with Claire and the shipping container.

[Ethan]

Claire has no idea what I'm talking about right now.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, well, anyway, McKinnon was wearing gloves. He couldn't open up the box because it was taped. That's, that's, that's, that's what they were going for.

[David]

No, you know what that reminds me of? A quick fail real quick.

[Ethan]

Nobody thought that.

[David]

I want the McDonald's hockey sticks. So we can't get them here in the States. I don't know why that made me think of that, but that for me, that's a fail. I want those.

[Ethan]

I wanted a samurai.

[David]

If I went to. If they had them down here, I'd be at McDonald's every freaking day. I'd have so many duplicates and triplicates of Connor Matava. Anyway. Okay, go ahead, Rose.

[Rose]

Okay, my fail of the week is actually a win. It's a fail for Utah, but it's a win because that guy. Smeech. You can play the video.

[David]

Kevin Stenwin.

[Rose]

Yeah, that Smeech. Look at that. He's there and then he goes and then they try to throw it in.

[David]

Oh, Akira Schmidt. Nice. That's good. Goaltending Very, very, very. I don't know why that's a fail, but I like that you're playing the video.

[Roy Bellamy]

It's a fail because they didn't score.

[David]

Oh, okay. It's a fail for Utah.

[Rose]

Yeah, for Utah.

[David]

But it's a win for Akira Schmidt. Exactly. And you got Vegas Golden Knights. World's colliding.

[Rose]

I'm taking it as a win. But I had to put it off campus there, so I'm just taking it as a win. So it's a win. I fell for Utah.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right. For those of you watching on DraftKings Network, check out our YouTube channel, because we have former NHL referee and ESPN rules analyst Dave Jackson to come on and explain what exactly is goaltender interference, Please. Jackson comes on.

[David]

Teach me.

[Roy Bellamy]

Coming up after this. Teach me. I need to know.

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[Roy Bellamy]

Yo.

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[Roy Bellamy]

Oh, absolutely. Mike. Yeah.

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[Roy Bellamy]

Oh, delicious.

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[Roy Bellamy]

Dave Jackson had been a NHL referee for a long time and now he is the rules expert for the NHL broadcast on ESPN and abc and you can check out him explaining the rules on the American Broadcasting Company tomorrow as the Bruins play the Red Rings at 8:00pm Eastern. Dave, we wanted you to come on so you can explain to us what exactly is goaltender interference, among other things. Obviously we need your expertise, but first we want to start with this video here. Obviously you've seen this one. This is Rako Gutas colliding with Austin Matthews. This is the knee on knee incident that ended up ending at Austin Matthews season. He now has surgery. So you look at this one, it's a neon e collision. Good has put his stick out but led with his knee and then down goes Matthews. You see a play like this one, what goes into your interpretation, into the role and what leads to your final decision on the severity of the penalty? And does the department of play safety have any role in what you're thinking in this situation?

[Dave Jackson]

So those are, those are great questions. It functions much like the police officer on the street, which would be the referee, and then player safety is much more like the judicial system, you know, the judge who imposes the sentence. As a referee, what you're looking for is initially is, does the player take a poor angle and at the last second does he, does he sort of jut his knee out and it's just reactionary, almost accidental? Or does he take a line to the player with his knee already extended? And I think that is sort of what happened in this play here. You know Matthews had a lot of speed coming in on the play. He realized he wasn't going to get a piece of him, so he extended his knee to make sure that he got a piece of the player. I don't believe you wanted to hurt him. I really don't believe any player ever really wants to hurt another player. But you want to win your hockey game. You don't want to get scored on. So I think that's what he's doing. As a referee, immediately you throw your arm up, you've got a penalty. You talk it over to your partner. If the player's injured, it's a pretty simple call. You're going five in game, and then you kick it upstairs and let players safety deal with it after that.

[Roy Bellamy]

But what if that player has, you know, a history like a raccoon Gutis? Does that factor into your decision as well?

[Dave Jackson]

As a referee? No. As a referee, you make the call on the ice. Every play is separate. You want to have a. You want to have a short memory, kind of like. Kind of like a goldfish. You. You don't want good reference. You don't want to prejudge a game. You don't want to come into a game and say, well, I've got. I mean, obviously, you want to be aware. Every game you work, you look down the lineup before the game starts. You're aware of who's on the ice. You're aware of maybe past instances between the two teams where maybe there had been bad blood. And when certain players are on the ice, your antenna is definitely up. You're much more aware. But you certainly don't want to have a bias, and you don't want to say, I've got to be tougher on this player because he has a history. You want to judge every play as they come in a vacuum.

[David]

Dave, it feels like the Department of Player Safety is kind of always under the microscope, but it feels like that's almost been exacerbated lately. There's been a lot of talk. I know some agents have been out there, maybe critical of not protecting players as much as they feel they should. Maybe the suspension lengths aren't enough or the penalties aren't severe enough to cause players to pause a little bit before perhaps a play like what we just watched with Radko Dudis and Auston Matthews. But I wanted to get your take from the officiating standpoint of do you think that criticism is fair, or do you think that the Department of Player Safety is doing a pretty good job right now?

[Dave Jackson]

I Personally? Well, I mean if you look at my Twitter feed, people just think that I'm going to defend the referees or defend players safety. And that that's, that's not, that's not the case. I do respect the job the officials do and I respect the job player safety does. I have a lot of respect for the men in that room, starting with George Barros. He's a man of integrity. And I've had long conversations with George. I've had a lot of conversations with the guys on his staff and they really, they think long and hard about what their, what punishment they are going to meet out. And I think historically, I think if the players association, for example, had a real issue, I mean George has been doing this for like a decade now. If they had a real issue with his consistency or length, I think they would have addressed it before this one incident, this one incident seems to me to be like a knee jerk reaction to some degree because it ended Auston Matthews season, superstar player. It should never have happened. I not defending it whatsoever. All I'm saying is based on historical suspensions, the players association, the league seem to be okay with it. I don't really understand why all of a sudden this, this one instance seems to, seems to be creating a firestorm. Five games is a lot. I mean, I know the player is going to lose probably a hundred thousand dollars team, team needs him. He's one of their best players. They're in a playoff hunts. Five games is a long time. You don't see a five game suspension very often. And this is for a player who I don't believe according to the standards they use for repeat offenders, I think it has to be 18 months or it's a shorter period of time. It's not your entire career. So I don't think he's classified as a repeat offender. I don't think he's been suspended in quite a while. So I think a five game suspension is quite heavy. Could it be more? Sure, it could always be more. But then you're going to see all suspensions be more. And I'm not sure there's an appetite to have players suspended left, right and center.

[David]

You bring up a good point though because as you were saying that I'm thinking back to some of the hits just from, from a Panthers perspective because that's the team that we cover down here. There have been some pretty big substantial hits in recent postseasons, whether it's been Sam Bennett or whoever's been involved. Yeah. So. But again, it feels like there's a bit of a knee jerk reaction, especially if it's a big, big star player that get that's on the receiving end of one of those hits. But again, just kind of thinking, as you were saying, it, it does kind of feel like they've done a fair job, that there's been maybe more of a. Oh my God. When it's something big happens or at a big point of the season or the playoffs.

[Dave Jackson]

Yeah. And if I may add what I certainly don't take this lightly. I'm not laughing about it, but Royals will attest. I mean, I get beaten up a daily basis on Twitter. People going back and forth with me. The biggest criticism I hear from people is that referees should just call the act and not the result. So a guy will get hit from behind. For example, referees give two minutes for boarding and everybody's up their arms saying, well, because the player wasn't hurt, they only called two minutes. It shouldn't matter if the player is hurt, they should just call the result. I mean they should just call the action. The result shouldn't matter. So now you get player safety that suspends based on the actual and not the result. And now everybody's up in arms again because they want them suspending based on the result and not the act. So I mean you can't have it both ways. And I think player safety does a great job of suspending based on the act, the result. You know, guys could what if Auston Matthews had got up and skated away? Would they still want a 10 game suspension or would they be saying 5 games is too much? So I think it's really, it's a very slippery slope when you start suspending players based on the result.

[Roy Bellamy]

Let's take a look at the a still shot of Afghani mock and slash to the neck of Ramses Darling. Now the call on the ice was initially a cross check before what was called a slash. That's what led to the slash. He got a game misconduct as well. It looked like a attempt to injure to me. Obviously it could have been called high sticking. And if that's the case, would you have called that a match penalty?

[Dave Jackson]

Yes. So high sticking only has three options. You have a minor penalty which an accidental high stick. You get a double minor, which is an accidental high stick that causes injury, draws blood and then there's no major, it goes right to match. So if they deem it not to be accidental, it must be an attempt to injure. So you go straight to a match penalty for slashing. You do have the option of two, five or a match. They called it slashing because it was, I guess they deemed that he was maybe trying to get him in the chest area. It went too high. It was definitely a slashing motion. But when it comes down to it, end of the day it's really, it's semantics. If they call five and a game misconduct, it doesn't mean that player safety is going to look at it any differently. Player safety monitors every single game. There's somebody in that room watching every game that goes on. So if there's eight games going on, there's eight guys watching one hockey game, making notes and everything. So nothing escapes player safety. So really when it comes down to it, semantics, whether you call a match penalty or whether you call five in game the same result, you're going to have the same scrutiny placed on it by player safety.

[Roy Bellamy]

Goaltender interference and this is one to my co host's heart because he is a goaltender. It's been an issue for fans for more than the past couple of seasons. A lot of complaints to the department of players safety. Let's take a look at a still shot of Nathan McKinnon colliding into Connor Ingram. Like Connor Ingram was in his crease. It looked like McKinnon was skating parallel to the goal line, went through the crease and they both collided. It was called a major and McKinnon was given a game misconduct. I don't know when the last time I saw a player get ejected for goaltender.

[David]

I can't remember. Can't remember that being the case.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, the league has rescinded that major so he's not going to get suspended if he did it again. So there's that too. So if you were the refs last night, would you have given a game misconduct to Nathan McKinnon?

[Dave Jackson]

I could say after watching it a bunch of times, no, I wouldn't have. I and the league didn't actually rescind the majority of the. It still goes on his penalty record. That's five minute menu. They rescinded the game misconduct aspect of it, meaning that if he gets a second game misconduct within a certain period of time, it calls for an automatic suspension. Now he doesn't have one on his record. He's back to zero. So that's what they rescinded. You know, I had the benefit of watching it a bunch of times in slow motion. I believe the nurse, the defenseman for Edmonton exacerbated it, ran into him, changed his direction, changed his line. I didn't see any intent. I think probably in hindsight, and I think the referee would probably agree, in hindsight, it was 2 minute minor for goaltender interference.

[David]

So that brings up something that I guess from a referee's perspective, you could have an interesting opinion on this. But I feel like. And Roy, I think we've talked about this before, but especially lately, the instances of players driving and opposing player into their own goaltender have been going up and up and up. And that play right there is just another one where you saw, like Darnell Nurse, he's not giving McKinnon much of a chance to get out of the crease, to get out of his goaltender's way. And I don't know, I guess I'm just complaining about it now because they

[Roy Bellamy]

teach you this in mites. If you're a defenseman, do not drive the opposing player into your own goaltender. It's common sense. Although common sense is a common nowadays. But it doesn't make any sense for me to see these defensemen guide the opponent into your own goaltender, causing a potential injury.

[David]

Well, now it makes me wonder though, Dave, because we're seeing these goaltender interference challenges where a goalie's glove gets hit by a stick or his pad gets nicked by a skate, but it's somebody on his own team that's kind of forcing that player at least to be in the vicinity. And so I'm now wondering if maybe it'll cause players to take pause or protect their goalie a little bit more or protect the crease a little bit more for danger of that maybe happening.

[Dave Jackson]

You got so much going on with goalie interference. Everybody seems to say, you know, I don't even know what goalie interference is anymore. Well, goalie interference, there's A great video, NHL.com if you go to video, go to rulebook rules, go to video rule book, 8 minute video on goalie interference. It's not going to. It's not a magic pill, but it's really going to open people's eyes if they watch it and give them a much deeper understanding of the rule. There's a couple things I want to point out that a lot of people maybe don't understand is that the crease is three dimensional.

[Roy Bellamy]

It's 3D.

[Dave Jackson]

It goes all the way up to the height of the crossbar. And much like at the blue line when they're determining offsides, did that skate break the plane of the leading edge? Well, the goaltender, if he breaks that plane of the crease, meaning he might have his feet in the blue paint, but his stance, he's Leaning forward, his blocker, his glove, his head might be outside the blue paint. Just because your feet are in the paint doesn't mean your whole body is in the crease. So if you're breaking the plane of that crease. Exactly. So if you're breaking the plane of that crease and you're out considered in the white paint and the attacking player makes incidental contact with you, that's the key. So if the goalie's glove is breaking that plane in the white and I intentionally go over and slash his glove, that's always going to be a penalty.

[Roy Bellamy]

Well, Dave, we have a, we have a perfect video for this because this happened during the Sabres Panthers game. Matthias Samuelsson, who was covered by Nico Mikola, so he was forced towards the actual crease. He had his skate in the crease. But Danil Tarasov's glove was out of the crease and Samuelson's stick touched Tarasov's glove. So the Panthers challenged that. It ended up being not overturned. They ended up getting a penalty. The goal stood.

[Dave Jackson]

Yeah.

[Roy Bellamy]

So that's not right. Goaltender interference.

[Dave Jackson]

That is a great example. That, that is a great example. Panthers fans lost their minds. What are we doing here? And I watched that one time. I had to watch it one time. And I said, good goal, good goal. Because what's happening there is the goaltender is leaving the safety of his crease. He's putting his glove out there. And that space is as much belonging to the Buffalo player as it is to him. If he'd have gone over before that shot was taken and slashed the goalies glove, that would be a penalty in this case. He's reaching for the puck, trying to deflect it. And that's no more the goaltender's ice than it is the Buffalo player's ice. Tough luck. You make contact with left, that's a good goal. If you don't want that to happen, stay within the confines of your blue paint and it will be called back. If that had happened in the blue paint, if that glove hadn't been breaking that plane, that would have been goaltender interference. And that's the biggest difference.

[David]

See, I feel almost enlightened right now because the whole breaking the plane extending off the ice, like that's something to take into account that I really hadn't been because I thought the goalie was able to establish his area and protect it. But that makes me think now the crease isn't that big. And a lot of these goalies like to come out and challenge and take ice away so it almost kind of made sense that, like, you're leveling the playing field and not saying, well, the goalie just has free reign to go anywhere around his crease. If the back of his skate blade is touching the top of the crease, he's still off limits. Like, that's not the case. And I think that. But even from a goalie, it kind of makes sense.

[Dave Jackson]

And the way I try, and I'm oversimplifying here, but the way I try and describe it is when the goaltender breaks the plane of that crease, he becomes almost like a defenseman. We can still call interference if a forward runs a defenseman over. If a forward cross checks a defenseman or a forward cross slashes the defenseman, we call a penalty. And the same thing applies to the goaltender not being in Greece. But if you come in and bump a defenseman when you're actually trying to get the puck or you're trying to vie for position on the ice, that's all legal. That's why a lot of people don't

[David]

seem to understand that when the goalie gets bumped behind the net, right? Like, if it's just a friendly bump and nobody's trying to run him over, then play on.

[Roy Bellamy]

What's the mantra that you always say, David?

[David]

That's why I keep my ass in the crease.

[Roy Bellamy]

Exactly.

[Dave Jackson]

You know, if more guys applied that to the game, we would have a much easier job.

[David]

Most goalies aren't 5, 8 like I am, you know?

[Roy Bellamy]

Dave Jackson will be the rules analyst for the Women's Frozen Four today as Ohio State plays Northeastern at 4:30 Eastern and Wisconsin takes on Penn State at 7:30 Eastern. You'll see Olympic gold medalist Layla Edwards, who was already on a stacked Wisconsin club. So you get to see both of those games on ESPN. The women's national championship will be Sunday at 4pm Eastern on ESPNU. Dave Jackson, the rules expert for ESPN and their NHL broadcast, thank you for joining us, Dave.

[Dave Jackson]

It's been an honor, guys. Thanks a lot.

[Roy Bellamy]

Before we get out of here, I want to shout out a little bit of history that was made last night in the Islanders Senators game as Matthew Schaefer became the youngest defenseman in NHL history to reach 50 points. The call to trophy damn is basically his.

[David]

That's crazy.

[Roy Bellamy]

Yeah, man. This is unprecedented. This is more than Bobby Rohr.

[Rose]

I called it.

[David]

Did you?

[Dave Jackson]

Did you?

[Rose]

I did. Is he a defenseman?

[Roy Bellamy]

Yes, yes.

[Rose]

In my. In my predictions that I told you, hey, this is gonna be the first. No, not this. First time since 1960, something that he was gonna win it.

[Dave Jackson]

I don't remember.

[Rose]

I'm gonna look for you. You don't remember?

[David]

You gotta look.

[Ethan]

Did you say MVP or did you say rookie of the year?

[Rose]

I said the rookie of the year.

[Roy Bellamy]

Wow. Well, look at you, Rosie. Aren't you an expert in hockey now?

[Rose]

I'm gonna go find it.

[Ethan]

Roy, can I have the floor for one quick second?

[Roy Bellamy]

Go ahead.

[Ethan]

I just, I'm sorry to do this to you guys. I just wanted to take one second. I. I lost a friend earlier this week and I just wanted to say how much I loved her and how much I cared about her and how much I'm gonna miss her. So, Claire Lepat, I love you and I miss you already. And you know, if anybody. Yeah, I just wanted to say that. Love you.

[Roy Bellamy]

All right, thoughts? To Claire, very important to Ethan's life. So condolences to Ethan and Claire's family.

[Ethan]

Thank you guys. Appreciate that.

[Roy Bellamy]

Thank you to everybody who was on the show, who was. Who's back there in video right now, is it. And Danny, Danny Gino, thank you for everything that you do back there. You've, you've provided a good job there back there. Ethan and Rose, thank you for producing this show. Dave Jackson joined us earlier. Thank you for your expertise and thank you for Greg Cody for creating that card. That's David Dwark. My name is Roy Bellamy. This has been the hockey show. We will see you next week.

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[Rose]

Time to party.

[Dave Jackson]

That's a great attitude.

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[Dave Jackson]

You sound insane.

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I thought you were a clone.

[Roy Bellamy]

Well, clones aren't real, dummy.

[Dave Jackson]

And time machines are super grounded in reality.

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Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. Rated R. Written and directed by Ben David Grabinski. Only on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bumble subscribers.