Celtics Win Game 1, SCF Preview With Paul Bissonnette, Edmonton Oilers Evander Kane And Fyre Fest Of The Week

Hey, Pardon My Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music on today's Pardon My Take. We finally have some sports to talk about again, and it's the N.B.A. finals. Game 1 The Celtics handled the Mavs. We're going to get into that.

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Yeah, it's a shame that Jason Kidd couldn't give another halftime speech where he said, Everyone remember to have fun out there.

In the NB.A. finals, he said.

When you're given the have fun speech you lost, I don't think that you can come back with a have fun speech. But I guess they did come back a little bit in the third quarter.

Yeah, no, they definitely did, I mean, they made it an eight-point game and then it was. And then when you looked up at the end of the third quarter, the Mavs had only won the quarter by one point. And they took their best punch and the Celtics came out with way more energy. They looked better, poor Zingas, kinda rope-a-doping everyone where he's like, I don't know if I'm 100. He looked, he didn't look 100. When he started the game, he looked slow. They were kinda pick-and-rolling. He wasn't really closing out, he wasn't really contesting shots. It was like, Oh yeah, he's definitely not 100, and then he just made 20 shots in a row.

Yeah, he was the best player on the court for a little bit and that first quarter it was unreal. This is a big-time revenge series for Chris Stops Hank. You are very confident right now. Are we still thinking Celtics in six?

Yeah, we're thinking Celtics in six, the Mavs aren't gonna go away.

I did not realize this was gonna be a Bill Walton game. That would have affected things quite a bit for me. The family's there, they're wearing the Bill Walton jerseys, they're passing out the Bill Walton buttons and stickers before the game. If there is an afterlife where you can control something that happens on planet Earth, I'm certain that Bill Walton would be doing everything in his power to control this game. This should have been an easy bet.

Yes, the one thing you could say, if you're the Mavericks, you couldn't have played worse, couldn't have played with less energy coming out.

So who's the MVP after one game? Jalen? Yeah, Jalen. I am looking forward to the discourse if he wins MVP.

That is crazy that the Celtics won by as much as they won by and Jason Tatum was not good. I think that's a good thing. Yeah, no, I'm saying, that's crazy. He's not gonna be not good for the entire series.

Were you thinking blue?

I was thinking, blue, these jerseys feel like the jerseys you wear for Star Wars Night in, like early February.

Yeah, yeah, I also think the white Celtics jerseys, they're just that's a big game jersey.

Yeah, I just, yeah, I just feel like it was crazy. Because if you had said before that, the Mavs were the team, or sorry. The Celtics were the team that had the longer rest and also had just played significantly less. Games. Weren't in the rhythm of, like, a big time game. What are you talking about? They look as sharp as could be.

Yeah, they weaponized time.

Yeah, they did, they weaponized time. Mavs Max, Mavs Max.

I stand by Celtics in five, I feel good about that.

Three, Listen, we can't overreact to one game. Max Hank's the fucking worst. I fucking hate when Hank. ugh, yeah.

Wait, what?

I said, at least let's list them Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, Poor Zingas, Derek White. I mean, Pritchard, friend of the program.

Drew Holliday Hey Pritchard's stunt tonight.

Sam Houser Sam Houser Stud.

I think the Mavericks could've won.

Remember when it seemed like his career was over on the Sixers? That was like seven years ago?

Yeah, I wanna play, don't remember, didn't wanna play there. Need a better environment, I think.

He signed there, he chose to play there. By the way, Luka, having one assist that tells you how bad everyone else played because Luka, Oh, come on, No.

Hey, do you know how an assist works? It's a fact that you have to miss the shot from the pass early on, it was like.

Nobody should've thrown more lobs, but you, like Luka, didn't have only one pass tonight, they were just they missed everything. Luka didn't play great, but one assist played better than Jason Tatum. Do you understand how assists work?

It was great team defense by the Celtics.

No, the Mavs stunk all around.

You say, Drew holiday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jeez, I couldn't even say the one assist without Hank getting well. I was curious how you were gonna, you know? Because in an assist you have to pass the ball, then the person has to make the shot. The rest of the Mavs you gotta make good passes, though the Mavs didn't make the shots. Should've done more lobs. Yeah, Kyrie was really bad.

Kyrie was really bad lucky revenge game.

No, the Mavs were bad, I mean, the Celtics were, it wasn't, as the Mavs were bad, the Celtics were just like. They came out and they were like, Hey, we're playing in the N.B.A. finals right now and they looked as sharp as sharp could be. I don't think this series is over either. I think the Mavs could easily come back, win game two. It is, you know, a blowout like that will wake you up.

Hank, Would you have rather won this game by like, two points, three points?

No, but I'm just I don't think the Mavs are gonna roll over and die.

I think it's-.

Like, Kyrie's not gonna play that bad, Luka's gonna make some better passes next game, get some more assists. Yeah, Kyrie was very, very bad. I mean, the. But the Celtics have so much more depth.

And he looks very healthy, very healthy.

Yeah, Porzingis does. Max, you didn't even say you didn't even like my spin zone.

What?

You still have your reservation at Fort Charles Prime. This is just a bad joke. Why? Because this is the second time that Jerry's done this to me. What happened?

Oh, I didn't know that, yeah.

I mean, this is a bad joke, like this is not a good joke for the listeners.

Can't you get it back?

I don't care, I don't care about this. Do you have to reply error?

You know, Max really is angry when he tells everybody like the listeners hate this.

Yeah, the listeners hate this, they fucking hate this.

Do you think the listeners like Mad Max?

No, I shouldn't, I should just go. actually. no, that would be hank whatever I'm done.

I'm done, he can't even speak.

I'm done, I'm done. He is Max, I'll agree with you, he is annoying, but his team won game one. You can't really like, What are you gonna say? Nothing, nothing, you gotta talk, Max.

You know what, I'm happy for Hank right now in this moment. Fucking hate boss. But I can assure you that if they win game two and game three and Hank, just the shit-eating grin becomes shittier and grinnier. I'm gonna start to hate Hank too. Because this cockiness is gonna carry over all summer.

But it was good that we got. Yeah, it's just they hate his cousin. We got game one out of the way because we had the worst combo of hank today. Because we're dealing with cocky Hank right now, which I have no problem with cocky Hank. We had nervous Hank all day and he was just a little annoying. Even you'll hear for the rest of the show, he's annoying. I was getting fits off of it.

Yeah, I'm rooting for you Hank, I truly am, but I don't wanna see you sweep. I wanna see you sweat a little bit.

I mean, I'm rooting for a sweep.

He's really good at doing that and then also watching the finals and be like, Damn, this is so good. I wish we were in this, not happening again next year, yeah.

But that is some really good game one news that he needed to have out there. And there's no doubt that he planned this whole Dan Hurley thing for having it all day on Game One.

Yeah, also, he said. Important moment for a sports night. Love and respect to Doris Burke and everything she does to elevate all of us. You're a Goat. And then everybody started to congratulate LeBron James on congratulating Doris Burke. Yes.

He also had, he said, I'm so effing, with some stars in it, mad that I'm not his running mate anymore. Talking about Kyrie, Yeah, Kendrick Perkins called him out and was like, Dude, shut up, it's game one of the finals.

Why? what's up?

Mike McDaniels is so. The Dolphins have not won a playoff game in 24 years. He now has every staff meeting, he puts it 24 on the hour.

I don't like that.

Like 7.

I don't like that, not because you're just thinking about it all the time, yeah.

I don't know if he was being cheeky with it.

He probably just did that so that the big team meeting could start. 4.

I will hold reservation because Mike McDaniels is a funny guy and he might be just fucking with the media. But if this is true, this makes me nervous. This is like after the double doink year, when Matt Nagy ended every practice with all the kickers having to kick a 41 yarder.

Yeah, it's in his head, right? It's in his head. And so you're just making everybody in the building think about how long it's been all the time, right? Not the best way to do it.

That would be a shame.

That would be.

You're right, people really like the Shameless.

A crying shame.

Yeah, we might have to do an updated, shameless, that's six months.

I'm not gonna root for it, but if it does happen, just know that it would be a.

It would be a shame, a dear shame, that would be a very big shame. It'd be a shame if Max's reservation got canceled before Charles Prime. It'd be a shame if me and Max had to go to Game Four and then shoot a PMTV.

Where would that be?

Dallas.

Oh, okay.

Is that on the table? Mavs Max, You love that, You love the Mavs PLL. Oh what?

We can do a different weekend for that, right?

What day? Yeah, what day, I don't know. Sounds like it's really locked in, we can go.

It'd be a shame if you had to follow Hank with a camera wherever he went.

Wherever he went, wherever.

Until he closes his eyes to fall asleep.

Any concourses, bedrooms, pools.

He is more torn up about this than he was about the Sixers. No, I'm not, it's crazy.

After the Sixers loss. No, he's not, he's just mad. He just hates Hank. He really hates Hank.

After the Sixers loss, he was like, it feels different, this one feels different. now. this feels bad for Max.

I think it's also the problem is Mavs Max is a great nickname, yeah, and it's just he quit in the second quarter. Mavs Max died in the second quarter. Tonight dead.

No max, Max, how's that?

Decline, decline, decline 10 bucks.

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Okay, Dan Hurley might be the new Lakers head coach, according to the woge bomb that went out at four, five in the morning, he said. Breaking the ESPN story on the Los Angeles Lakers preparing massive long-term offer to bring UConn's Dan Hurley to the NBA, with talks expected to escalate in coming days.

So when we had Dan Hurley on, I believe this was two years ago. We asked him about taking an N.B.A. job and he said, not. Now. I've got a lot to learn. He also said the league might not be ready for a guy like him. That's a fact, might be true, but then. He also said it's a challenge that he could see himself doing at some point in the future.

That part of the story was very funny. Because it would be just as easy, easier, way easier, actually, to just have Bronny transfer to UConn.

Yeah.

Why not just transfer to UConn and stay in college and actually learn from Dan Hurley right now? But LeBron has tweeted about how much he likes Dan Hurley. Dan Hurley is an incredible coach. The Lakers are one of those jobs, I mean, Coach K, which we'll get to in a second, flirted with it 20 years ago. But the Lakers are one of those jobs that I think every single college basketball coach picks up the phone for. Because, you know, they'll always get free agents and they'll always find a way to be relevant.

I would love to see Dan Hurley take a hands-on approaching, like he did at Uconn, like go on the court and push LeBron James.

Oh, he would have a play. I don't think he'll go there if he can't coach the way he wants to coach.

That would be awesome. Also, Dan Hurley doesn't strike me as an L..A. guy. No, like he's not laid back enough, but he would bring the fire to L..A.

There's two ways this is gonna play out. One is the Lakers are gonna offer him so much money that he can't turn it down. And you're gonna say, Okay, well, Dan Hurley, good job, like you deserve this, and yeah, you gotta take this offer. And the other thing that could happen very well and I could see it in my head is Dan Hurley. Sitting at his desk that he tweets a picture on Sunday night. Maybe with just the number seven because they have six and they're going for their seventh.

You know what would be great? let me strike that reverse, you know what would be a real shame? It'd be a real shame if Dan Hurley left and then Uconn hired Jay Wright, that'd be a real shame.

That would never happen. Max is hoping for this to happen so, so bad.

Such a shame.

Max and Pug, the whole Big East, yeah, they all need Dan Hurley out. I don't know which way this is gonna go. I wonder, Do you think JJ feels like he's being used a little bit?

I actually think that this might be an entire Duke conspiracy because coach K.

Yeah, no, I was tweeting about this morning, I was right on it. Coach K did all of this.

But think about Yeah, with the J.J. Redick thing, too.

No, yeah, no, Coach K was named a unofficial. what was it? I'm gonna get the exact consigliere, how do you get named something? but it's unofficial.

Just tell him to shut the fuck up.

Shut the fuck up for a second, satisfied. Lakers reportedly using Mike Krzyzewski as unofficial resource in coaching search. Coach K sees Dan Hurley win his second national title back to back.

I think he might've engineered the entire podcast and he's been like, Hey, you guys do a podcast. And then we're gonna set that up. When the coaching thing becomes available, then we're gonna link JJ heavily to it. I'll call Shams.

And don't put it past Coach K. Don't put it past Coach K. To not try to take down all of college basketball because Dan Hurley is a throwback coach. If we lose Dan Hurley in college basketball, I will be upset he is. We had all these tough guys, hard-nosed guys. The Patinos, the Baheims, the Izzo's still around, but, you know, Patino's still around.

Bobby Knight.

The Roley Massiminos, the Bobby Knights, these guys are like 100 years old, the Jay Wrights. We don't have any old school coaches anymore. Dan Hurley is what college basketball has been for a very long time.

If you were Dan Hurley, would you rather go to the Lakers and get paid a lot more money? And not have to recruit and not have to worry about Nil? All that stuff? But you also have the threat of being fired every single season, sometimes in season, if LeBron James doesn't like you enough.

Yeah, but then he could go back to college. Yeah, he can.

He could, yeah.

He always wanted to go back to college. I what, Max? I think that he's done everything that he needs to do in college, he should go.

Oh, I want to. He should go attack this new venture now, I want him to go and I want Jay Wright to sign on that dot com.

That's not gonna happen, it's not gonna happen. Jay Wright would just go back to Nil. There's no chance, no chance.

Didn't change.

I've been busy, Yeah, you've been really busy.

He's been busy trying to nap.

Took a nap? I didn't take a nap. What do you think about this, hank? I think it's a bunch of malarkey. Oh, you think he's gonna stay?

And then he comes back.

And then he's like, I'm not leaving, yeah.

That would be a good motivational tactic. I think he might be bored with college basketball at this point, the last two NCAA tournaments he's just dominated so hard.

There's no way that's boring.

Just fucking crushed it.

The other thing to your point, which has nothing to do with Coach K, is that it's tough to be a hard-nosed coach. In today's day and age. When the transfer portal exists, wait, if you're too hard, they just leave, but that it's way harder to be a hard-nosed coach in the NBA. But you get paid a lot more, you don't have to worry about the transfer portal.

How much money would they have to offer him? Because he probably got, do? We know the terms? 12 13 mil.

He probably can't coach what he wants to coach in the NBA at UConn, but he has been coaching that way. But it's probably a lot, and it's probably dealing with a lot of bullshit.

You know, like 20 mil a year.

I don't know, I don't know what the offer was, 100 mil. Over however many years, I have no idea. I hope we don't lose him in college basketball.

He'd probably just publicly say, like, we're trading. LeBron James, Yeah.

You don't want to see that shut up. You are so biased right now. You're very biased. I understand I understand your bias, and you should be taking the stance you're taking, but don't everything you say is very biased. But go ahead, that's everything, that's everything in this show.

I don't blame you for that at all.

Yeah, no, not at all, you have to.

They're just so dominant. Maybe bored is the wrong choice of terms. But I do think that he's accomplished a lot in college basketball and he feels like a guy who's ready for different challenges.

Yeah, for sure, I just I don't know if I would want. The challenge to me would not be to coach LeBron where he's desperate and will blame anyone but LeBron.

Maybe the challenge is try to win a championship with LeBron's son, yeah, in the rotation.

Yeah, so we'll see what happens, we'll update, obviously on Monday, I think maybe if something happens, Johnny Fanta will come on.

Also if they're dead set, if they're making this pitch to him like, we want you. In case we do draft Bronny, another team should just draft Bronny and then try to trade him to the Lakers. Yeah, he's the most valuable poker chip of all time.

Yeah, for Anthony Davis. Straight up. Yeah, I offer you one, Anthony Davis.

You're essentially kidnapping LeBron James son. Yeah, and be like, all you have to do is give me your second guy. And then now we can all be friends again.

Yeah, I. how bad do you think Choms feels right now? He's gotta just be praying that Dan Hurley says, No, mm-hmm has to pray. And do you? JJ is he? I'm actually, this is good for JJ, Redick.

It's good for him because now he's the big name out there, so next opening they're going to talk to JJ.

Well, it also is a good little reminder you haven't coached yet. Yeah, and you, yeah, you go, you go behind Dan Hurley.

But he's already, he's already skipped to the front of the line, right? So the next coaching vacancy, it's like, Okay, I guess JJ is a name that we should interview, yeah.

Coach K will probably get. That's probably the end part of it. You gotta get over it, you gotta get over it. No, no, I don't. No, I don't.

Yeah.

That's probably what.

Win a gold medal, yeah, front of the line.

I still have the coach K little cheat sheet. Yeah, no, we'll update it. It's in my wallet. yeah, it's in mine as well. From the final fourth two years ago.

What do you mean, his friends, big cat?

I don't know any of his friends from coaching.

Yeah, do you think he's gonna let his? Do you think he's gonna let Paolo Bancaro, I mean, his grandson, drive that highway?

Yeah, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Who do you thought I was talking about Jake?

No, I don't know.

Okay.

Probably not all of his friends.

Yeah, there's probably one friend he doesn't want.

Yeah, Tony Stewart.

Okay, anything else before we get to? Oh, I saw Angel Hernandez. Jeff Passon said that bullying worked in this case and that he was sick of seeing himself dragged on the internet all the time.

So we did it, yeah, we did it, guys. Congratulations. This is a big year for bullying.

It is very funny that Angel Hernandez would say I was sick of watching myself being dragged online. When all he could do is just, he could easily fix that by not being terrible.

Yeah, well, he can't eject the internet, he can't throw the internet out of the game, yeah.

Why are they being? so? why are they replaying? All of these times? I've gotten balls and strikes wrong.

I hope that MLB brings him on as an analyst as like a rules analyst. The way they did remember when Mike Carey came on in the NFL and he got every prediction wrong. That was incredible. If they bring Angel Hernandez in for the playoffs, he's like, I think that's a strike, yes.

So bad.

Do the right thing. MLB Yes.

I guess we'll talk, Max. Will you talk a little bit about your deli slicer during Fyre fest, or do you want to talk about it right now? We can, we can do it later. Okay, well, is it a Fyre fest? There's Fyre Fest aspects.

There's so much football starting in December, so much football.

There's also just so much more football in January now that is going to be we've almost eliminated January. Yeah, which is great, yeah.

It's just a month of pure sports now, yeah, and just looking forward to sports.

So pull it up, it is. It's perfect. Because we have a Friday game, then three Saturday games right before Christmas. And then we have a New Year's Eve game, and then three New Year's Day games, which is going to be great. And then we get the special Thursday. I think January 9th is week that's right before week 18..

And a Friday?

And a Friday which leads us into week 18.

It's pretty sweet. And then Monday, January 20th, National Championship, is that MLK day.

That is MLK Day that's also coming off, I think that's also inauguration.

Oh, good.

Yup, and that is also coming off.

That'll be fun.

That is coming off of, I think that's super wildcard weekend, so 11, 12, 13 is actually super wildcard. Oh, it is. Yeah, so I guess everything's up this week, okay?

That's the best stretch of football right now. I hope the new president, or the president, goes to that game the day after they get inaugurated.

Yeah, what? Wait, When is the Super Bowl this year? February? What?

It's not President's Day, but it's like, ninth, okay?

Okay, so it's early, it's earlier than it's been.

Yeah, January is January and December are incredible this year.

Incredible. This is my whole plan. Just eliminate if we could just get football, as much football in January as possible, to just get rid of January as a month.

Oh, we even. We get that Friday December 20th game, we get a Friday night college football playoff game.

No, it's Monday, January 20th.

No. Friday, December 20th.

Oh, yes, yeah, it's one Friday, three Saturdays, yeah, and then New Year's Eve, then three New Year's Day games. It is interesting how this is going to go head to head with some NFL games, which we usually don't see.

It's going to be tricky for the travel schedule around Christmas time, that weekend, that Friday and Saturday.

Also our show, Yeah, we're going to have to do some shows.

Yep.

I did think about that.

So, December 23rd, that Monday.

Yeah, which that would be.

We normally would have done a Monday show there.

Yeah, and then we're going to have to do a show on the Wednesday, January 1st. Yep, yeah, which we would have probably had to do a show anyway. But yeah, I'm excited.

I love doing the X factors. I think we started doing it last year or maybe the year before, and I think Witt was like, fuck off with these X factors. But then now he's an X factor guy.

They play cause, you know what it is. Biz, and this is a little tip for you. I mean, you know this, you're very successful in everything you do.

Mansplain it to me, please.

No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not gonna say what you think, I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say is. At least for this show when we have a guest on like you, who knows hockey so well? When I ask for the X factors, I'm basically asking for you to give us a name or two. Or a situation that all of our listeners can walk around this weekend at the bar and sound smart. And they can be like, Yeah, you know, if the Oilers do this, and then everyone's like, Oh shit, you know, your puck? It's like, No, they just listened to Biz.

Okay, all right, I like this, I like this, okay.

Yes, okay.

All right, okay, so if Evander Kane is like your prototypical power forward in the NHL, he's nasty. He can play with a physical edge and he's tough as shit. I think he grew up a boxer.

He did, yes.

So he hasn't quite been himself over the past couple of years. Going back to two playoffs ago, he had 13 goals that might've led all of playoffs and they were ended up being getting swept in the conference finals. If he can get to playing that nasty, that nasty style of play, play physical and find his goal scoring edge. I think that that helps them out so much. Because he hasn't been there quite all of this playoff, like this playoff. I think right now they have him going into this round on the third line.

Okay.

Okay, but you picked the Panthers, and I saw Gretzky kind of trashed you over it. He reminded you that you picked the stars in the last year.

Well, he's on the Oilers payroll, so let's not go over there, and he's also won four cups with them, so let's not go there.

Well, he does live in South Florida.

Right?

Yeah, so I don't know, I'm just saying what the great one told me on TV was that he shouldn't trust you. Because the pick that you had in the last series was ass.

Okay.

Well, I had, so I had Dallas in six, I thought that they were the better overall team and Edmonton kind of now the new team of destiny. That the Rangers have been pigeon tossed to the side. I do believe that the Oilers could do it, but they have to have all systems go. Florida is expected to be there. They have the goal tending.

Whammy. Oh another. whammy. whammy, whammy.

They have three X factors.

Yeah, they might have triple X.

Triple X?

And they also got that in the stands, too, yes.

That's the Titz McGee, baby. We saw the big jugs come out in Dallas, but not those nice ones like in Edmonton Boys. She had a nice little paunch belly, too, she had that big black leather belt which, you know, she wants to be choked and spanked with, you know that?

Oh, Jesus, you know that you did some deep diving on that? I didn't get around to analyzing the ball.

What do you mean? I did R.A.'s texting with her.

Is he really?

And to make matters even crazier, the texts have not been going through that. Well. Because she apparently is at one bar because she works up north in Alberta at the oil rigs. Oh, okay, that's okay, this is just it's just too perfect at this point.

Can you explain to me how this shakes out for Canada as a whole? I know it's big if Canada wins the Stanley Cup back, but I know that maple leafs fans are maple leafs fans, and that's it. Is that the same way for Senators fans and for Canucks fans? Or is there some sort of unification in Canada right now, where it's like, we need the cup back on our soil?

Okay, so before I answer that, just to quickly go back because I got distracted by tits. McGee. And then at the forward position, yes. Edmonton has Dreisaitl and McDavid, who are world-class top of the game, probably top three players in the world, McDavid being number one. Overall, Florida has a deeper offense up front, they have a better four lines. You cannot debate that anybody who has half a brain in the hockey world will tell you that.

Wait, let me ask it again. I fucking nailed it. The first time I asked it, let me set you up again. I want to hear it again, baby. This is a major, major, major Stanley Cup for the entire country of Canada.

Okay, so this question the first time.

That was unbelievable. No, you made me believe the first time was better. It's basically a cover song of my question, Paul.

Great question, great question.

No, because you being long-winded with it and throwing all this stuff at me, it reminded me. I believe it was Wayne who said that all Canada is gonna be behind Edmonton on the panel, and that's kind of what sparked this whole conversation. Now, I would argue that I think that more Canadians overall, from a percentage standpoint, are interested on whether. Connor McDavid.

Will lift the Stanley Cup?

Rather than maybe more so, the Oilers and a Canadian team winning it. I believe that the fact that it's Connor McDavid, this generational talent, a guy who has poured his heart and soul, every fiber of his being into hockey since probably the young age of like, six years old. This guy's a phenom, he deserves a cup, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. You dealt with it with a guy like Ovechkin, who had done all he did in the goal scoring department and everything he'd done for the game. But what was held against him?

I also think it's you can kind of like, compartmentalize, because it's a little bit. It's not the exact same, but it's similar to college sports. And rooting for your conference? I never really, actually root for my conference. But there are certain things that are in the back of your mind, like for March madness, the Big Ten has not won a national title in, like, 20 plus years. I was not rooting for Purdue when they were in the national title this year, but if they had won, I then would have used that going forward to be like, Hey, we're not a joke anymore.

That's okay, that's fair. And there's also, like a Tinfoil hat theory that Gary Bettman is like, you know, okay, yeah, these Canadian fan bases, they're going to sell out every, every billion. But he's more concerned about growing the game in the states and favoritism towards these American teams. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, so we talked about the Edmonton Oilers X-factors. You have the Panthers in six, is it as simple as if the Panthers play their game? They should win this series.

Yeah, if they're so, last year the issue with Florida was where they. They were a little bit banged up going into that finals. And of course, maybe the lack of experience and the fact that they had to really turn it on. From the All-Star break last year, all the way to the Stanley Cup final, in which it took a lot out of them. They are a better overall team this year, they still have the goal tending for Bobrowski that they had last year.

I'm excited for it. And we were talking with Kane about how good their power play is in Edmonton. Is there something about their game that they do? That invites more penalties? That, like they set up plays, they work the puck around. They put the other team in a position to commit penalties. So that way they get that man advantage to really hammer home the power play.

Well, I mean, it also depends who you're playing, right? So they played Dallas last round, where, for the most part, Dallas was one of the most disciplined teams all season long. As well into playoffs, maybe a little less towards the end of the series, and that's when Edmonton's power play started clicking. But the way to draw penalties in hockey is you gotta win your one-on-one battles. So if you beat a guy, he's either gotta hook you on the way to the net trip.

Okay, I got one last hockey question for you.

So let's start with Bobrovsky. So he's the Russian goalie that in Florida got that big contract. He signed like an eight year deal at 10 million per. And kind of lost his game. And then that's Bobrovsky last year, on that playoff run, found it.

Keep your eye out.

Fair enough, and as that series went on against Florida, he was obviously stellar, but they weren't allowing a lot of high danger chances. They had New York Rangers nuts in a vice.

Yeah, maybe, cause he was injured and they were like, we have to, we have to do our job, keep him out in front.

Hey buddy, at the end of the day, most of the time, if you're a team like Florida and you're limiting teams to. Let's say 25 shots on goal and only four or five high danger chances a game, it's going to be hard for them to generate and obviously win. So to me, right now, goalie goaltending looks fine, overall team defense looks fine, nothing wrong with Bob that to be worried about.

I just saw one tweet, I saw one tweet and I was like, Oh, that's interesting.

Hey, listen, I'm the guy who reads Twitter and then all of a sudden starts spouting off, too. So actually, everything I think I've said so far on this podcast is probably false and things that I read off Twitter.

I love that.

Going across the ice to Skinner. Skinner struggled a little bit in that round against Vancouver, to the point where they put Calvin Pickard in net, their backup to play back-to-back games. And he did well, you know, he did solid. But they had the confidence to put Skinner back in game six and game seven of that series against Vancouver. And I think he's played eight games since being put back in, he's six and two and I'd have to look it up online. As far as his numbers. But overall, it looks like he's fixed a few things in his game, he's not moving as much.

All right, some of the people might be injured, though, we don't know.

So, Wayne Gretzky's brother, Keith Gretzky, is the assistant general manager of the Edmonton Oilers and knows a lot about their farm team. And three, four years ago, the Bakersfield. Their AHL team had made a couple of runs where I don't think they were expected to make runs in the Calder Cup playoffs. And Wayne was like, You know, oh, like, what are they doing well? and Keith was like, they have this goalie, Stuart Skinner.

All right, we'll keep an eye on him. So back to the goaltender being injured situation, maybe. How does that work? In terms of the injury reports that teams put out in the playoffs are, they always do?

So I think in football, they have to say exactly what it is. That's bugging these guys at a certain date and time in hockey. It's very private. They usually just go with lower body injury or upper body injury, and that's all the information you're getting. And then, of course, playoff ends for a certain team.

Yeah, all right, so Biz. I had one last question for you. It's a rollback question. Rhoback.com promo code TAke.

Okay, so here are the things I know about baseball that the worst umpire in the history of the world is retiring after this season.

I think he's out, he's out. He quit. Spent more time with his family this summer.

Yeah, he's done.

Oh so, my understanding was. It was originally said that this would be his last year, but then he just completely shut the mill.

I think he shut it down, yeah.

Do you think he had his Twitter mentions on?

Yes, no, that was the story that he got bullied online. He was like, I'm sick of all the hate. It's like, Well, dude, you suck.

I don't know, I don't follow baseball, but is this a commitment that I'm making? More so than just the day that we draft? Do I have to do this all summer?

No, no, that's the beauty of this league.

The league is as simple as it gets, we each, all of us draft nine players and you get, I think, a 10th reserve player. And there's no lineups or anything that you set, it's just you go, and it's. The only stat is home runs, and we update it every week. But the only thing is, if you lose, you have to get six outs against a college baseball team.

They'll be there that afternoon.

Yeah, we did it. PFT lost. Last year, he had to get six outs against a college baseball team.

And I pitch.

You pitch yeah, if you lose, I only hit one guy, yeah.

Oh, okay, if I, yeah, let's do it. I love that, I like that. I'm actually leaving Monday morning, I'm driving to Vegas and then I will be there. For whatever time your draft is, let's hope it's at, like, what, two or three o'clock?

Yeah, whenever you get there, we'll do it, we'll have some drinks. It's like, and it takes like a couple hours. But it's just us fucking around saying names and we don't know what we're saying.

How about I'll 100 do it if you guys take mushrooms with me?

Okay, yeah, no.

Oh, no, don't twist our arms.

Oh, you're a big mushroom guy.

Yeah, well, I mean, I'm going to the sphere on the Saturday and Friday before that.

Yeah, we're fun guys, yeah.

Okay, let's do it, I'm in. I mean, I don't know about Yans on the shrooms, but he'll definitely be there.

Okay, all right. How many baseball players can you name right now?

I can name Bryce Harper.

Yep.

Who's the guy you guys, Yilich?

Yeah, okay, I'll count that.

I like him, he seems like a good dude.

Doesn't really hit home runs, but yeah.

Carlos Stanton.

Yeah, John Carlos.

We'll give him that, the Carlos Stanton.

John Carlos.

Yeah.

Oh, who's the guy who got busted with the gambling?

You got this.

Ohtani.

Yeah, uh-huh, that's four.

Oshanti Ohtani, which is his first name.

Yep Oshanti Ohtani.

Oh, who's the guy in Anaheim? He's the big dog fuck.

Maybe the best hitter of all time.

Actually.

No, like Barry Bonds is that guy, but he's like, historically good.

He's like Connor McDavid if Connor McDavid never made the playoffs.

I think it starts with a T, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's a fish.

Oh, trout, Mike trout, that's it. Thanks for that, That's fine. I know enough of him. I really like the guy from Cincinnati who he just seems to be a fucking character that doesn't give a care in the world.

Are you talking about Joey Votto?

Joey Votto, He's a Canadian.

Yeah, I don't know if he is, is he.

Is Joey Votto? I'm pretty sure he's Canadian.

Oh, yeah, I think he is, you're right.

Sean Paul's not Canadian, Joey Votto is Canadian.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we're gonna do, we'll have a whole cheat sheet for you. So we'll have a list of everyone's, because the thing is we do the draft. It's already like halfway through the season, so we'll have a list of everyone who's already what their home runs are.

I'm so excited and I'm pumped that you guys are spending even more time that you have in the past invested in. The Stanley Cup playoffs because it's been a great run. And like I said, for all your fans who might be just casual hockey fans, this is gonna be an unbelievable final. And there's a lot at stake. And a generational, talented player might end up hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time. So even for you Capitals fans, you can really relate to this watching OVI trying to get his cup.

That's a long time, that's a long it would. Certainly, it would put to bed the narrative out there that I've heard all over the place. Which is he can't win the big one, that he's not good enough to win the big one. So, on one hand, I would not like to give that narrative up, on the other. I understand the pain and the suffering that he's going through, that the fans are going through.

I appreciate that that's a Canadian, yeah.

All right, biz, you're the best. We're excited for it. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. Get ready for dingers only.

Yeah.

Are you guys doing the beer Olympics the next day?

Yes, we are. yeah, are you?

Yes, we're very excited. Oh, it's gonna be the best.

Oh, I can't wait, boys. yeah, I can't wait. You guys are the best, love you guys and hopefully we'll see you in Edmonton for Game four.

All right, sounds good, biz. Okay, all right.

Save us a seat, all right, see ya.