Chapter 1: What are the biggest headlines approaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
Guys, hang on a sec. Hour 2 Overdrive, Brian Hayes, Jamie McLennan, Jeff O'Neill. There was another storyline at Augusta National that absolutely chapped my ass. And it was on the 16th tee. There was a gentleman Saturday and Sunday who was right in the shot of the guys teeing off with a bright yellow egg salad hat. Yeah.
Yep.
If I was Jimmy Nance, I would have called security and said, get him out. Because he knew exactly where to sit. Everyone that teed off with the view from the green, egg salad. Every single shot. He was there. Dude, I don't know if... Look at that guy. Egg salad. Move the pickup, Joe. We got to see the guy.
Yeah, egg salad hat guy. That's Harmon. He went through it like 11.30 in the morning.
He was there all day with that egg salad hat. And I don't know if it's because he got momentum from Bobby Weeks. Or what?
Yeah. But even the guys in the Burberry behind them, it's like, what is happening on the 16T? They've got to clean that up.
Didn't they have two colors going, though? Wasn't there a green one with yellow writing as well?
I think you're right. You've got to have options, right? Yes. You've got to have options down there. All right. Craig Button in a few moments. And we've got... Not surprisingly, a lot of Leaf fans obviously follow us online. We've been asking people about the three Canadian teams going to the playoffs. Leaf fans are salty.
I'm not asking anyone to root for anybody, but we thought it was somewhat of a reasonable question to ask people. Something to chew on brought to you by Boston Pizza. This playoffs BP is summoning the hockey gods to tilt the ice in Canada's favor. Join us and feast like a hockey god on our new playoff menu. See you for puck drop at your local BP.
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Chapter 2: How are the Maple Leafs expected to perform in the playoffs?
me the other day with Brady. I don't know what happened there. Yeah, that was goofy.
That wasn't like an injury. That was like dizziness or something.
Yeah, that looked like it knocked him like, you know, equilibrium type of thing. And I'm sure he's fine. He's an absolute warrior. But like if they are healthy, I think they might be. This is what it looks like. Somebody stick Barzell stick coming off the bench or whatever that was. But he was he was having some trouble. But if they're healthy, I think they might be a problem.
I think if Edmonton gets healthy, that division, they might do something. But there's no guarantee. I could see a pathway for all three guys, to be honest, and I know that's a lame answer.
Well, yeah, it is a lame answer. Such a lame answer. It is true. Now, injuries, Noah Dobson's out for the Habs. That's a big hit. That's a big hit. But that adds to dry, subtle being out. It adds to, you know, if Clevin, you said, is banged up, Jensen's not available for them. You know, so now Dobson is a legit 23, 24-minute-a-night stud. And Reinbacher's been called up.
And I'm curious what they end up doing there. You know, the right side of that defense has been ā challenged in Montreal throughout the year. They feel really good about their left side.
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Chapter 3: Which Canadian teams have the best chance in the playoffs?
The right side is past Dobson, I think, somewhat of a weakness for them. But it is a difficult question to answer without knowing who they're going to play yet. If Edmonton plays either Anaheim or LA, they will be a favorite. They should be a favorite. It doesn't guarantee anything, but they will be and they should be. If Montreal plays...
Montreal or Ottawa, they're going to have a tough first round. It's just Ottawa's going into Carolina. If that's what it is, that's tough.
Here's the one thing I would say about that. Sorry to interrupt. I think Ottawa matches up well against Carolina. They mirror each other the way they play. Sure.
But that could go both ways. You're not wrong, Noodles. I'm not predicting Carolina definitely wins the series or wins the series even. But it's not a cakewalk. No, no, no. Anaheim, to me, is not ready for prime time. I think if Edmonton smartens up and goes, let's just shore this up and play, they might win that in five or six. I think, and I would say the same thing about L.A.
With their history, with the way they've played all year, Carolina is going to be ready to play. They're going to be healthy. They're going to be ready to play.
They haven't been talked about a lot. They had an unbelievable season, again, under Rod Brindamore. But, like, why can't they just smoke everyone's ass?
Let me ask you this, then. Who plays game one in net for them?
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Chapter 4: What are the OverDrive PGA picks for this week?
Carolina?
Yes. Is it the kid? Jamie, it's the same. Or is it the 27-year-old rookie?
They are faced with the same question every year. Can their skilled players step up and play with some jam and get things done? The Sebastian Ajos, the Svechnikovs, the Stankovans, all of them, the Blakes, because they've been getting pushed around a little bit year after year. Not a ton, but they need to step up in a big way.
And the second part is, is their goalie going to have a mystery injury and disappear, and then they go to another guy and another guy, or just who's going to start, period? Yeah. Because I've got to be honest, if Freddie Anderson's the guy going in the net, I don't trust him a whole lot.
Well, Bussey's going to play at some point if Anderson even gets game one. Right. I think that's just the reality.
So I've been going through the experience of the goalies throughout the playoffs. Outside of Vasilevsky, and the crazy thing is, oh, Freddie Anderson has 80 games of playoff experience. He's got a wealth. Like going back to Anaheim, Toronto. So he's played a lot.
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Chapter 5: What are the FanDuel Best Bets for the upcoming games?
You want me to detail what's happened in them? I'm not. I'm just saying from a games played standpoint. Oh, I forgot. You guys are analytics guys. No, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about you guys look at things differently. I forgot. I don't. What I'm trying to do is explain experience. That's all I'm saying. It doesn't mean anything.
It doesn't because Jacob Fowler might be the guy in Montreal he's played. I've got more starts in the playoffs than he does, and that's concerning. But the point being, he might be a rock star. Same thing, Dobish. Like, you know, Montreal ā There's no experience there. Monty's the guy who's got experience other than the other two. And he ain't playing. But that's my point.
You're going to see, because there's no Bobrovsky there, and we are going to have a new cup winner, throughout the playoffs here, you're going to see different storylines working from the net out.
Honestly, it's weird in the East Noodles. I don't love anyone other than Vasilevsky. I guess Swayman has had really good playoff numbers before.
And he's a player.
Like, Swayman's a legit player. Swayman would count. But for me, it's Vasilevsky, then Swayman. Every other team, it's a question mark.
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Chapter 6: How do injuries impact playoff predictions?
You know, like Philly, Pittsburgh, Carolina, Montreal. Dobish has been phenomenal. But let's see what he does in the playoffs. You know, Allmark, who knows? In the playoffs last year, he wasn't very good. Yeah. Yeah, it's Buffalo, Alex Lyon.
But that's the thing. Buffalo, I looked, there was like three games experience. Colorado's probably the favorite in the playoffs. There's 11 games experience in net there between the two of them.
Yeah, that's a question mark. Vegas, Edmonton, they all have them.
They all have them right now. You look at the senior goaltenders, you mentioned it, like Freddie Anderson, Vasilevsky, Stuart Skinner is one of them as well. Stuart Skinner's played a lot of games in the playoffs the last couple years, obviously. But I look at it. There's not a lot of experience on the quote-unquote cup contenders. Jake Ottinger, obviously, in Dallas.
Let's bring in Craig and see maybe how he would answer this question. Here's our director of scouting, Craig Button, joining us now. Craig, is there something funny? What's going on? You all right over there?
Yeah, well, we're talking about goaltending. I'm thinking about the goal that went in on Jet Greaves last night by Mark Kastelec. And I'm going, the goaltending is so unpredictable. And the goaltending coaches that teach these goalies how to play goal like that, they should all be fired on the spot.
Well, it's going to be a big debate, isn't it? You're going to be asked in the next few days, give us your bracket, predict how you see it plays out. Do you go to goaltending first when you're thinking about a team's journey through the Stanley Cup playoffs? How do you approach that position compared to everything else?
Well, I mean, what I would say is you better have your defensive game in order. You better have your penalty killing in order. You know, the power plays gravy as far as I'm concerned. If you don't have your defensive play and your penalty killing in order, your chances of moving along are remote. You can have the greatest goalie on the planet.
Now you're relying on one part of your team to cover up weaknesses in your other hand. And then the goaltending comes in. Jamie, Jeff, you guys all know this. Brian? Listen, if you just ask the goaltenders to do what they're capable of doing, you'll be fine.
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Chapter 7: What are the key factors for teams to succeed in the playoffs?
That's right. Yes, I like the sounds of that. What are the chances the Colorado Avalanche, Craig, who just... The incredible start, and it's almost like we got bored of the story, and it would just... goes on and on. They're very deep. They're very good. If they get goaltending, what are the chances they just smoke everybody's asses and go on a heater here?
You're not going to smoke everybody, but they're so good. The only area of their game that was really struggling was the power play, and they've got that in order now. Defensive play, offensive play, goaltending, penalty killing, all top of the league. So, Other than a cap size in the goaltending or a major injury, and Jeff, I went through it when I was with Dallas in 98.
We were the President's Trophy winners. We had everything going. Joe Neuendijk got hurt in the first game of the playoffs, and we couldn't overcome the Detroit Red Wings. We lost in the conference final in game six. That, to me, is the only two things that could derail the Colorado Avalanche because it's
every other every other there's a game like they are at an altitude above everybody else in my view
So, Craig, this is the one thing that I think has been the common theme throughout the whole season for me and probably everybody else as well. The condensed schedule, the Olympics, and now you see massive injuries.
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Chapter 8: How does the episode conclude with final thoughts on the season?
And, you know, the injury, not just Edmonton, Dreisaitl, Matthews, and Toronto, all of that, but, like, McCarr is not playing again tonight. Like, you know, you look at every team has had to battle the injury bug. Do you think... Now this playoffs, more than ever, it might be the last team standing that is the healthiest team.
Yeah, and with that is depth, right? Who has some depth? You can only go so when you're playing the same team in a playoff series, and they're good teams. I mean, 16 teams that are no good are gone. They're gone. They're planning for next year. The teams left playing are all good. Why don't we just look at the wild card in the East? Right. Like Boston and Montreal, I think they're a fun team.
Not Boston. Sorry. Boston and Ottawa. You think they're fun to play against? You think anybody's going, yeah, boy, this will be easy. I think it's a little different in the West than the Pacific Division isn't great. So you just try to find a way to grind through it and find your way on the right side. But the East, I mean, it is really hard. And now you get an injury.
Now you have players that are not at 100%. Jamie, you've watched the Ottawa Senators, you know, do what they've done. No Sanderson for a long stretch. Then they didn't have Shabbat. And what they did and how they were doing it, that becomes really hard to put... One, two, three, four wins together when you're playing really good competition. And they're zeroing in on your weakness.
We talk about a battle of attrition. That's what ends up happening. And now all of a sudden, the players that are being asked to play a little bit more minutes, they wear down. They're not going to be able to handle, in my view, the rigors of playing against the other team's better players. And the whole idea, find the soft underbelly of your opponent and expose it.
Craig Button, prior to having you on, we were discussing the three Canadian teams going to the Stanley Cup playoffs and the likelihood of any of them going on a run. I'm curious which sticks out to you of the three, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa. Is it Edmonton because you referenced it? They're in the Pacific, and if they play Anaheim in the first round, that's a pretty good spot to be in.
Where do you stand on the likelihood of any of these teams possibly going on a run?
I take Edmonton because of the path, right? We always look at a path, right? And the Pacific Division isn't strong. I don't care if they finish first, second, or third. I think that they have a great path to get to the Western Conference final once again. And in the East, though, I mean, I can't... You watch... Montreal and Ottawa have played here.
And we're not talking about last week, two weeks, trade deadline, post-Olympics, January, end of January. These two teams are wagons. And to me, you start to play at that same level. Obviously, no adoption being out now for the Montreal Canadiens for a couple weeks, it sounds like. That hurts. That hurts them, right? But... These two teams are good.
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