David Dwork

Yeah, you just come here.

I was born in the 90s, but I wish I lived in the 90s for real because I would have thrived. Thriven? Thrived? Thrived. You were born in the 90s.

And you mentioned the game the other night. And to me, that kind of looked like what game five would have looked like had it gone the Panthers way. Right. They kind of fell behind. Edmonton had that great 10 minute stretch and then the Panthers kind of dominated the rest of the game.

So is there something to what the Panthers are doing right now against great teams in terms of maybe they struggle against the Chicago, but they come out against Edmonton and Minnesota again the other night and just dominate these teams and win these big games?

Yeah.

Yeah, Colorado, for as slow of a start as they had, they're sitting in that second wildcard spot right now and they haven't even really gotten hot yet. So I can just see them getting guns blazing in the second half of the season and then just climbing up that central division. And they're actually tied on points right now with Dallas, who everybody loves Dallas, right?

And they're sitting right behind Dallas in terms of the central division. And I just see them getting hot in the second half and rolling.

Yeah, they did that earlier this year. They lost, what, four or five or something, and then they came back and won three in a row by a score of like 17-6 against the Canes twice and the Leafs. They're good. They're just kind of streaky, and they're really good, and they show up for big games.

Why does Supercut make me laugh so much? You should have let me set it to the Benny Hill music.

How would you guys like seven games of this again? This was good, huh? Not to travel.

Hold on. Can I just say... I would have taken all that travel you guys did. No, no, no. Shut up. You shut up. You shut the hell up. You guys were on the ice after game seven. That was worth it. That was worth it. That was worth like one mile to do that. I don't want to hear you guys complain. You were on the ice after game seven. From all of us that were not on the ice after game seven.

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It's a roof. I do kind of agree with Rose here because as excited as I am about a stadium series coming to Florida, it's not an outdoor game if it's in a stadium with a retractable roof where the roof is going to be closed and the windows are going to be closed.

0-9, finished with 93 points. Was that the year that they finished tied?

I'm not selling off the Rangers just yet just because they've got some good players and they've got an amazing goalie, but they've got to figure their shit out right now.

Yeah, uniforms and everything.

They're cool looking, though. I gotta say, they did a pretty good job.

Rose just posted a picture of herself looking beautiful, and you just got to throw her up to something.

So one thing I wanted to ask you about in terms of, I guess it kind of falls into that rank, the attendance numbers. I know they've gone up from year one to year two. I believe I read that they're averaging about 1,000 fans per game more than they were at this time last year, which is pretty impressive considering that's about, what, a 20% increase.

I also know that there have been games where they've done larger venues and they've gotten some really big crowds. So how excited have they been by the attendance numbers and the way that they've been increasing year over year?

You mentioned expansion before. One thing that kind of crossed my mind as I researched a little bit, thinking about the expansion idea, is that a lot of the teams seem to be struggling to hang on to their reserve players, which I would think would make it difficult for expansion just because are there enough players to fill a couple more teams?

Now, I know that might tie into the fact that the reserve players don't get the same benefits and pay that the rostered players get, but is that something that could impact expansion, do you think?

All right. Hot takes for last week. Let's see. Where am I?

Yes, hot takes.

All right. So my hot take is Colorado Avalanche are now my pick to come out of the West after making the trade from Mackenzie Blackwood last week. This guy is, as we see some footage of him just making some ridiculous saves this year, this guy played out of his mind for San Jose this year. He's actually been kind of an under-the-radar elite goaltender since his time in New Jersey.

You mentioned the incoming class of talent and how the influx could really help the league, but right now the rookie class has been doing really good as well. You mentioned Sarah Fillier and what she's been doing in New York, Dominique Petrie in Minnesota. Just wanted to get your thoughts on how great the incoming class has been this season.

He never was really on a really good team. He goes to San Jose, uh, playing excellent on a team, a decent Sharks team that doesn't really defend that well. Now he goes to an Avalanche team. They can score, as we know. They can defend a lot better than a Sharks team defend. And they may be getting Gabe Landestad back at some point.

And an overworked goalie.

They've already got a pretty stacked roster with Ranton and Kael McCarr. I think the Avs are going to go to the Stanley Cup Final now.

I guess.

Yeah, man. I mean... I don't know if it's going to be outdoor. Is the roof going to be open? It's going to depend on how the weather is when we get there. But this is cool, man. We've been talking about this for a while. I don't know if I ever actually believed that it was going to happen. I don't think I've actually processed in my brain that it's happening in South Florida. We're going to go.

The Panthers are going to be the center of the NHL universe for a little while. We don't know yet whether it's going to be a winter classic game. We don't know if it's going to be. We know it's not going to be stadium series. That's what we've been told.

So I'm not sure, but it's happening. That's what's really cool about it. I'm curious who the Panthers are going to play. I've heard a couple teams thrown out, but nothing for sure yet. I'm pumped, dude. This is going to be awesome.

Our goal, our new goal. Our old goal was the Stanley Cup. We got there. This one, we will have to skate on that ice.

We'll see.

Well, they could, right? Because they're in the different divisions, I think. But either way, I don't think... Right now, until... It's like last year. They've got to get their back end shored up. Because if they can't keep the puck out of the net, no matter how many times Sidney Crosby and Leon Dreisaitl, who's scoring like a maniac this year... Sidney Crosby. Oh, Conor McDavid.

Yes. Well-deserved. Obviously, we missed the herd dog, and Montour was amazing. A fun game. Maybe great for Joey Decord. Stood on his head for Seattle. Yeah. And then the Panthers put some fireworks up in the shootout.

Barkov turned to court. He gave him a brain pretzel on that one. Reinhardt, he had no chance of stopping Reinhardt after that happened to Barkov. He might as well have just gone to the locker room.

Barkov has a ridiculous... I mean, we've seen it for years, how good he is on the shootout. But right here, when he made that little fake move, and you freeze the goalie mid-shootout, that's game over. As a goaltender, it's the worst. And he had no chance here on the Reinhardt shot.

Yeah, hopefully it's a one-off, as Paul Maurice said after the game. We'll find out in their next game in Calgary. But, yeah, very unlike the Panthers to see him giving up that many rush opportunities.

Sorry, Roy, I'm just infusing superstars. Why are you doing that to me? That's what the NHL wants. I see Conor McDavid a lot less than I see Sidney Crosby on my TV. That's very unfortunate.

Yeah. Yeah. Shut up. Get off the pot time.

Well, he thought they were figuring it out, but what have they lost, like eight in a row right now or something? Yeah.

I'm sure the fans love hearing that. What are we, rebuilding for the sixth straight year? What are they doing in Buffalo? Nothing. They've got some really good young stars. Tate Thompson is, like, amazing. Yeah. They've got some pieces there. But, yeah, like, you've got to build around it.

All right. Hi, Rose. The wins of the week. My win of the week goes to Flyers rookie Matt Vey Mitchkoff and an unnamed Flyers fan. As we see the video here, Mitchkoff got thrown out. He got a game misconduct late in their game earlier this week against Utah. As he's walking out, some Philly fans are awesome. Some fans are like, hey, I've got a spare water bottle for whatever reason.

Why would somebody have a water bottle at the game? I don't know. Yeah, how do you bring that in? Maybe it was water bottle giveaway night is the only thing I can think of. But he's got his water bottle and he's got a Sharpie. And Mitch Koff, this awesome rookie who's playing amazing this year. Credit to him. Credit to the Flyers. Torts is getting a lot out of him.

But he signs the dude's water bottle. He's getting tossed out the game. I thought that was awesome. I think that's a win all around. I really like this rookie and I like what he's doing in Philly.

No, but he laughed about it. He liked it too. So credit to Torts. You never know what you're going to get from Torts. I'm glad I haven't had to cover him on a beat just because he's probably scared the bejesus out of me.

It's great.

That's not very teddy bearish.

Actually, what happened was... Did I just see the Grinch involved in this?

He's like walking around.

And it is exactly what you're picturing in your head right now. I promise you.

That's just one of those things that's just like disgusting and awful when you look at it on the surface. But when you add the context of hockey, it's just it's home. You know, it's perfect. The only thing missing was like and probably best that we didn't see this and maybe I shouldn't even say it. But, you know, somebody like taking a teddy bear and using it as a weapon and like.

Oh, I saw that. He was like shooting them back into the stands.

Fight another man. Don't take your frustrations out on a beautiful little teddy bear. That's going to make some kid very happy.

You're going to love it because this kind of works with my next video, my fail of the week.

Yeah, it was good. Good on Nazem Khadri. All right, fellas of the week, David. All right, mine, we just saw it, if you want to roll it back. It was also against the Lightning on the road in Alberta. This time, they just decided to not defend Connor McDavid. I mean, he came from his own blue line, took a beeline straight down the middle of the ice, cut through everybody.

Vasilevsky's probably like, what the hell's going on? I see four of my guys, and suddenly I'm facing a breakaway.

Puck, blue line, McDavid gone. Bye-bye. Four guys surrounding him. Nobody touches him. He barely moves as the puck is just kind of flicked over his blocker. I don't know. This guy is like the best hockey player in a generation. Maybe we should keep an eye on him. Maybe we should defend him. I don't know. But not a good look for Tampa. They're not having a very fun trip through Alberta.

It doesn't look like.

Really? He made that comparison? Well, first he said he was like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, then he said he was like his Hispanic guy.

It seems like that's their M.O., is they just travel around getting drunk, starting fights, and in this case, they just started the fight with the wrong guy, because there were six of them, and the six of them couldn't take down Biz. Yeah. And he got, what was it, he took some, he gave some more, is that what he said?

I would imagine. You spend a career getting punched and punching, and he has some experience. And he's also like, we've been around Biz. I wouldn't say he's Dwayne the Rock Johnson, and he's not going out for Too Fast, Too Furious. He's fit, but he's not that fit. Well, nobody's that fit. He's not fitted like that. I feel like this is going in a downward spiral.

And I'm trying to say, like, Biz is, like, built. He's a tough dude. He's not The Rock, but nobody's The Rock. But Biz, I wouldn't. Biz could probably flick his finger and knock me out cold. I would not want to mess with Biz. So these guys, I'm glad they got what was coming to them.

Rose, nothing to do with hockey. Absolutely not. It's just some lady who tried to close her door and failed like three times. It's hilarious. I love that one. The fake booty bump. And then she's basically... She left the window open, by the way.

You know what? As much as this has nothing to do with hockey, I'm okay with Rose putting some nonsensical video and us spending 30 seconds on it. Because that made me laugh.

Yeah. Very Rose.

Let's see. I've noticed that the Panthers are out West. Yeah. Yes, they are.

Yeah. I've noticed that I don't enjoy West Coast games as much as I used to. No. Because now I'm writing until 2 in the morning, and then today I had to wake up early. But what am I noticing is, as I kind of glance through the standings right now, I'm really enjoying watching the Washington Capitals, and I'm afraid of what's going to happen when Alex Ovechkin comes back.

Because they're already playing so well. The moves they made in the offseason were great. Obviously, the move that they made at the draft getting Logan Thompson, Jacob Chikrin has been great for them. It's just it's fun. And I don't think we saw it coming. No, absolutely not. That's almost what makes it better.

And I'm sure you're more than happy to see OV having a much better season than your buddy Sidney over there in Pittsburgh because those just always kind of tied into each other. But it's interesting because right now the Capitals are leading the Metro. They're ahead of the Rangers.