11: Reaction Jackson Parsons

0:12Justin: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas. Hey, Andrew.

0:30Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:31Justin: I have an honorary first star this week.

0:34Andrew: Ooh. This is an exciting new segment for.

0:36Justin: No, just. Just for this week.

0:39Andrew: Well, don't rule it out in the future.

0:41Justin: Yeah, we can. We can do whatever we want. As last week, we determined it is our podcast. We can make the own rules.

0:46Andrew: That's one of my favorite moments from

0:48Justin: the pod, is when we decided we can make our own rules.

0:52Andrew: We became strong, independent young men. Young asterisk.

0:58Justin: Young asterisk. Good. So I. I have a first star for Sean Furfaro Oh. Because he made the Juice laugh this week.

1:09Andrew: That is incredible.

1:10Justin: The intermission video. He had them signing a bunch of players and coaches signing pictures of themselves as children. Oh. And he pulled out a picture of the Juice, and the Juice went, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. And I was like, is he Dracula? Because that was amazing.

1:27Andrew: Was he laughing or doing what he thought he should do in that moment?

1:31Justin: I. I think it was a genuine laugh.

1:33Andrew: Genuine laugh from the Juice.

1:35Justin: It was great. I. Because he's like. He's like, smiled and chuckled at things before. Mostly all Sean. I'm gonna say it's all Sean Favaro. I've never seen him do that with any other interview or anything like that. Like, Sean Favaro gets his funny bone going.

1:49Andrew: Brings it out of him.

1:50Justin: He does.

1:51Andrew: Brings him out of his shell. Well, we saw him pretty much perform that slap shot skit.

1:55Justin: It's true.

1:56Andrew: So, yeah, Sean has the key to the Juice. To unlocking the Juice's fun side.

2:03Justin: Yes. So that was great. I really enjoyed it.

2:06Andrew: Thank you, Sean. Thank you, Sean.

2:08Justin: All right, so we got some games to recap. We do. We got three games from. From this past week. I was. I. I really enjoyed not having a triple header on the weekend. I have the break.

2:19Andrew: That was really enjoyable. It was nice to. Not one to have to commit to in a row when you have a young child and a wife. But also it was good for the boys.

2:31Justin: It was.

2:32Andrew: That's the main thing, I think it

2:34Justin: was good for the boys. I can watch the games on delay. Yeah, they cannot play them on delay. They cannot. Okay, so the first game we're going to recap is the Peterborough Petes on Friday night, where we won four to one. So guess what we're doing? Three stars.

2:48Andrew: Three stars are back.

2:50Justin: Heck, yes. H E. Double hockey sticks. Yeah. Hockey podcast.

2:57Andrew: They got it.

2:57Justin: They're smart. They're way ahead of you.

2:59Andrew: Oh, you gotta treat your audience with

3:01Justin: a little more respect than that. They're ahead of you.

3:02Andrew: Okay, shoot.

3:03Justin: Sorry everyone. What's your first star?

3:06Andrew: The whole team. I know that's a cop out, but it was a complete team effort. So I tried to narrow it down and I thought, you know what, it's not working. So that must mean everybody played well. Yeah.

3:19Justin: And so I just took that as

3:20Andrew: a sign that honestly it was just. They really gelled, they bounced back and I was proud of them that they didn't get caught by a team that has nothing to lose because pretty much all they do is lose.

3:32Justin: Yeah.

3:32Andrew: And it's not throwing shade, that's just that like they're having a tough season.

3:36Justin: Having a real tough season. Yeah.

3:37Andrew: What was your first star?

3:39Justin: I was able to distill it down. Great. Down to our man, Jackson Parsons. Oh yeah. I. This is going to get real, real boring on this podcast because I think we're going to say his name a ton today.

3:51Andrew: Well, I, I will say he has a star in every game.

3:54Justin: He does. Yeah, yeah, he was, he was so. He was so great in this game. Again, like this game started, it was not a given that we would win this game because the first period, the Pete's had some really good chances. They did.

4:08Andrew: That's what I thought was. Was interesting was that they've lost so many games, but they look like they've got some compete in them.

4:16Justin: Yeah, they came out ready to, ready to play. So there was some breakaways, there were some pretty high intensity slot shots like for sure. And our man Jackson, Action Jackson as they call him. Michael Franklin. They call him.

4:30Andrew: Yes.

4:31Justin: He shut him down. All right, what's your second star?

4:33Andrew: I call it the pretty power play because Priddham has arrived.

4:39Justin: She has.

4:40Andrew: And I think we're going to be talking about him a lot in this episode.

4:42Justin: Yeah, I think he's going to get a couple stars as well.

4:44Andrew: But yes, he was. He joined on to our power play in this one and buried one. So I'm really excited that he's bringing another offensive threat and finishing ability to a power play that we're going to get into later. Maybe needs it. Maybe he's exactly what the doctor ordered because I believe they were almost. They were one for nine or something in the last two games.

5:12Justin: That is.

5:12Andrew: That is an approximation. I just remember it wasn't great.

5:16Justin: AudPod analytics team really failing you on this one.

5:19Andrew: It's true, it's true, it's true. However, if you are following along and watching the games. You know that it's been. It was bad, the Aud was really good for a long time, and the Aud kind of floundered a little bit. And so it was nice to see them score one in this one Y. And it's nice to see that they have power play depth.

5:37Justin: Yeah.

5:38Andrew: And that there is different combinations of defenseman and forward stat can get out there and score a goal.

5:46Justin: It's interesting that I don't know if this is specific to the ohl, but definitely to the Rangers is that they don't really work in the. The power plays don't really work in the Sam O'Reilly that the NHL power plays do. Like, the NHL power play is like. Is a coveted role that all the players seem to really want to get onto that power play. One position where I feel like here I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but like, there's different guys on the ice all the time. Like, it's always a different combo of players in the power play. Like there's some staple guys, but like the.

6:17Andrew: The defense.

6:18Justin: Fin will rotate, like, and they don't always change at the same time. So like a defenseman will swap out, but the forwards will stay out or the forwards will switch and Andonofsky will stay out and. Or whatever. Like, it doesn't seem like it's the same.

6:29Andrew: If I could ask the Juice a question. Yeah, I'm putting this out into the universe. Perhaps maybe one day we will be able to ask the Juice question. I would like to talk to him about his power play strategy. Not from a critical standpoint, but from asking what it's like to run a power play where you have different players all the time, just as you described, coming on and off and trying to find the chemistry. Also, a lot of times I notice it's 3 and 2. Three forwards, two defensemen, whereas NHL is almost exclusively 4 and 1.

7:02Justin: Very rarely.

7:03Andrew: However, I know it's pretty scrambly in the ohl.

7:05Justin: We know it's easy to get scored

7:08Andrew: on shorthanded, so maybe it makes more Sense to go 3 and 2.

7:12Justin: It's also easier when you have guys like Cameron Reid who are amazingly gifted offensively as well.

7:18Andrew: Yes, Last year we were spoiled with Hunter Brzustewicz. Yeah. This year we're spoiled with Cameron Reid on the back end. Sometimes Cameron Reid looks like a forward in the offensive zone with his skating ability and his puck handling. And yeah, that's. That's invaluable. But like, there's Lots of times where it's like Chromiak and Anonovsky.

7:39Justin: Yeah, well. And those guys can also produce. For sure.

7:42Andrew: For sure.

7:43Justin: They are not hindering the team. Not at all. In the. In the offensive zone.

7:47Andrew: I'm just curious what the strategy is.

7:49Justin: Yeah, me too. Well, when. When you get. When you secure the interview with the Juice, see if you can get him to laugh and then also ask him that question. That's true. Yes. I. I don't know if you got the Sean Furfaro touch, but I believe in you.

8:04Andrew: Well, you know, he gets a lot

8:05Justin: of add baths with the Juice. He does, yeah. He's had a few times to try and figure it out. Yeah.

8:10Andrew: So I'm not going to compare myself against a major leaguer like Sean. What's your second star?

8:15Justin: The Missile had a great game. Feeds into your power play conversation. He scored one goal on the power play. He got an assist as well. But he's just fun to watch. Like he. He's. He's great to watch. There's not much more to Sam O'Reilly talked about him in length. Misaljevic ad nauseam almost at this point.

8:31Andrew: But it's because he is doing so much heavy lifting.

8:35Justin: Yeah.

8:35Andrew: Offensively for sure. And it's just again, if you haven't been listening, he's a great story. He went undrafted. He is now the team leader in points and he's just carrying his weight and more offensively as a finisher, as a distributor, as a puck carrier. He does it all.

8:55Justin: He does everything. What's your third star?

8:57Andrew: My third star is Jackson Parsons. If you haven't been paying attention. The third star is something we like, but we question. I'm never going to question the original AudPod guy, Jackson Parson, never, however.

9:08Justin: But you did put him as the third star.

9:10Andrew: I put him as the third star because I'm not necessarily questioning him. He played lights out. Almost always does. I can't think of a time he didn't Shabble. Didn't get a game.

9:19Justin: Yeah, this. I also agree with you and I

9:22Andrew: thought that the 1, 13 and 2 or whatever they were. Peterborough Petes is on a Friday night. Home at the Aud probably would have been a nice game for Shabble to start.

9:32Justin: Yeah, I agree.

9:33Andrew: So I guess I'm not questioning Jackson Par. I'm questioning maybe the goalie rotation a little bit.

9:38Justin: Yeah.

9:38Andrew: In the sense of Parsons played all the games a previous weekend. I thought that was a lot. I think he's got a heavy workload and I just Think that, like, this is the cupcake of all cupcakes coming to town.

9:49Justin: Yeah.

9:49Andrew: Maybe Shauble gets a game in front of the home crowd on a Friday night.

9:52Justin: It would have been fun.

9:53Andrew: I'm sure his family would appreciate that,

9:55Justin: and I think he would. He's. Shauble has also proved to be able to hold his own.

9:59Andrew: He is doing his job very well.

10:02Justin: He is.

10:03Andrew: What's your third star?

10:04Justin: My third star. It's mostly I just miss saying, let's

10:11Andrew: make up for all the episodes where we haven't said.

10:16Justin: Yeah. I just miss him, that's all.

10:17Andrew: I know he's out there.

10:19Justin: And you know what?

10:20Andrew: He does his job because it's somewhat unnoticeable.

10:23Justin: It is.

10:23Andrew: And that's. I think the best compliment you can give to a defender sometimes is like, oh, I. I noticed you so much up there.

10:31Justin: Yeah. Because you didn't make any mistake. I know. He's. He'. The. He's the true stage hand of this team.

10:37Andrew: Very Steady Eddie.

10:38Justin: Yep. Absolutely. All right, so the next game we have is the Sarnia Sting. I don't know why I have to say an accent with that name every time. It was the Flint Fighter Bir. Yes, but we haven't played them in a while. It's this. What?

10:51Andrew: I don't even know what accent that was.

10:52Justin: It was the Sarnia Sting. I don't know.

10:55Andrew: Oh, no.

10:56Justin: I don't know. He's trapped in the accents. The dialect got him. But we won 5 to 1 or 5 to 0? 5 to the big old goose.

11:05Andrew: You're scoring a goal here, Parsons. Definitely not.

11:08Justin: What's your first star? Is my parson. No, no.

11:11Andrew: Only because he didn't face that many shots.

11:14Justin: It's true.

11:15Andrew: However, my first star. I will say Parsons is my second star.

11:18Justin: Okay.

11:19Andrew: My first star is the. Aud I was trying to figure out a good nickname for this line. I tried the lp, as in Elenis Lamb and Pridham.

11:32Justin: Yeah.

11:33Andrew: But I don't love it. So we're going to just call it the.

11:36Justin: The.

11:37Andrew: The Eleanor's Pridham Lamb line right now. So it's. It's Naz Nash. Ham.

11:43Justin: Lamb. Anyway. No, we could go with here. Okay, this. This could be a stretch. Okay, so Run the Jewels. The band. I know. Well, that's why it was an lp. Lp.

11:53Andrew: So we call them Run the Jewels.

11:54Justin: This could be the killer mic line.

11:56Andrew: Could be the killer mic line. But we don't have a mic on the.

11:58Justin: I know, but it's the. Aud killer Mike and lp.

12:01Andrew: I know. Rtj. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

12:04Justin: There's something.

12:04Andrew: There's something there. Yeah, we'll mine it.

12:06Justin: Yeah.

12:07Andrew: I'll sleep on it. This episode will come out and I'll wake up and I'll go, it's this. And I'll be. You know, I'll be late. And it's just. Yeah. Anyway, they are firing on all cylinders. It looks like Priddham is exactly. Jack Pridham is exactly what you needed on that line.

12:27Justin: Yes. I thought I. So I thought I was. Deacon, you out here?

12:32Andrew: Okay.

12:33Justin: I thought you were gonna go Parsons number one. And I wanted to get the Pridham Elena slam line as my number one because they were so good. the Soo good. I mean, there's nothing else to say. It was just. It was great. Yeah.

12:46Andrew: They're. They're firing, and it's exciting to have two lines with that kind of offensive control. It's not just the results. It's the possession time. It's. Yeah. The ice is tilted now with two lines.

12:59Justin: We are. We have two dominant lines that could be number one lines on other teams.

13:04Andrew: It's funny because we were right and then we were wrong, and then we're right again. Talking about how it feels like we have a 1A 1B kind of line.

13:10Justin: Yeah.

13:10Andrew: And the Aud was very clearly that when Swick came back and Misojevic was so good and Romano has been lights out, it was definitely their line one. Now with Pridham in the mix with Elena and Lamb, it really feels like. Yeah, I think we're back to 1A 1B. Yeah, for sure.

13:27Justin: All right. What's your second star?

13:29Andrew: Jackson Parsons.

13:30Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You said that. I said that, yeah. What's.

13:33Andrew: What's your second star?

13:34Justin: My. My second star is the Sarnia announcers. Okay. They said all the things that I yell at my TV on the broadcast. Well, that's nice. And I just. I. I felt so heard. I felt so seen.

13:46Andrew: It might not be nice for family watching.

13:49Justin: No. Oh, it was the PG version.

13:51Andrew: Oh, the PG version. Yeah. Okay. All right.

13:53Justin: But it was all the, like. Because we have to watch the broadcast. There's only one broadcast.

13:57Andrew: True.

13:58Justin: It is really nice when there's, like, some unbiased opinions that come along with the announcers. Yes, absolutely.

14:04Andrew: Like, against Owen Sound, when the Owen Sound Attack commentators were criticizing calls against the Rangers. I felt very validated.

14:13Justin: Yes.

14:14Andrew: So I appreciate when commentators call it down the middle.

14:18Justin: So this was pretty much it. And they. They were like. They said things like, oh, that kind of looked like a dive and stuff like that. And I was like, thank you. Thank you for seeing what I'm seeing. So I don't know what your names are. I should have looked that up. But thank you.

14:31Andrew: If only they were calling the game against London. That's a whole different ball game. We'll talk about that after.

14:38Justin: Okay. What's your third star?

14:40Andrew: They scored a power play goal. The power play is working. However, it was one for six, so I don't know. I mean, it's kind of foreshadowing.

14:48Justin: Yeah.

14:49Andrew: But yeah, the power play is going through something.

14:54Justin: We. We have the. the AudPod brain meld is currently happening.

14:59Andrew: Nice.

14:59Justin: Because my third star is the hot and cold power play.

15:02Andrew: Yes. Something's going on with this power play because we've just. We just talked about how. What's the power play strategy? I'd love to like pick the Juice's brain. What's the. You know. But there's something going on there. In. In a stretch of games. It seems to go cold. They still might score one, but one for six is not the percentage you want.

15:20Justin: No. On the other end of special teams, our penalty kill is killing it. Yes. They are amazing.

15:27Andrew: They are.

15:28Justin: So. So it's. It's not even really a special teams issue. It's. It is this streaky power play that is a problem.

15:34Andrew: As much as I like the rotating power play, I also Andrew they didn't have more defined roles. Would the power play be as streaky or would this just. Is this just junior hockey?

15:44Justin: Yeah, I think that's a. I think that's a good question for the Juice. Maybe on your second interview, I was

15:49Andrew: going to say maybe I won't hardball. Question, Question him right off the bat.

15:54Justin: Ask him about nicknames first and then the next time you meet with him. Nicknames.

15:59Andrew: Growing up, what do your kids call you? Yeah. What does your wife call you? Also, why is the power play streaky?

16:07Justin: Great questions. Then finally, definitely our most anticipated game for the last little while.

16:13Andrew: It's true. We have had this date circled. Yeah.

16:17Justin: So we played the London Knights last night. It was very fresh in our minds at time of recording.

16:22Andrew: Yeah. Two top teams in the league, two top ranked squads going head to head on the Tuesday night CHL game of the week. Yep.

16:32Justin: So we lost 3 to 1 with an empty netter.

16:35Andrew: So.

16:35Justin: Yeah, not even risk.

16:37Andrew: And they missed an empty netter. I missed it. And it ended up as the 52 point streak goal because Easton Cowan scored it. I never been so disappointed in an empty Netter. But we're. We're getting ahead of ourselves.

16:51Justin: I. I rolled audibly.

16:52Andrew: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

16:54Justin: Okay. What's your. What. Let's start with the good. What's. There's only.

16:58Andrew: There's only really one good in this game. Yeah. And it wasn't a good. It was a great. It was a phenomenal. It was a statement to the league to. To potential NCAA opponents. Yeah. It was Jackson Parsons.

17:14Justin: Yeah.

17:15Andrew: I mean the first two periods, I think Jackson may have been the only Ranger who came ready to play. And boy did he.

17:25Justin: Because it was. I. Correct me if I'm Wrong, it was 31 shots to 12 after the second period.

17:33Andrew: Yes, it was.

17:36Justin: Yeah.

17:36Andrew: The dead air is because like, what the heck. I mean look, the London Knights are like the Yankees of the ohl. This is a harsh fact. We're feeling a bit like the Red Sox pre Bambino curse breaking just in the head to head is almost 3/4 wins for London. Yeah. In the last 15 years. So it's an uphill battle. They got all the money. They got all the Nepo babies. They got the former NHLers in the behind the bench. They have it all. They have all the money. I live in London, so I got to have something. I guess it can't be an excuse because this is a good team and you're also good. You can't. You can't go into it with a inferiority complex. It has to be. This is. These are the games you have to get up for and you have to push hard. And if I Sam O'Reilly team getting outclassed and giving it their all, I kind of would Sam O'Reilly London's just that good. But I don't think that the Rangers played their best game.

18:42Justin: Yeah.

18:42Andrew: I know they didn't. I know that they got much better in the third period.

18:47Justin: Yes.

18:48Andrew: So whatever they were doing in the third period is how they. They made an adjustment and it worked.

18:52Justin: Yep. That's how they needed to start the game.

18:54Andrew: That's how they needed to start the game.

18:55Justin: And when you're playing hard opponents, that's when you need to start the game is at the beginning.

18:59Andrew: Yes, exactly. So I'm really hoping that they can even out the series in the next

19:05Justin: game during the Sarnia game. Because Sarnia started. I, I believe the first period was 00 at the end of the first note. Sean, because they were away. They were in Sarnia.

19:15Andrew: Right.

19:16Justin: They interviewed Cameron Reid That's right. And he. It was, it was funny. He felt, he felt very. The interview was very light. And he was like, yeah, like, you know, we just have to make a couple adjustments. We'll. We'll be back in this game. This is not. We are not out of this game in any way. I mean, it was zero. Zero.

19:32Andrew: True.

19:33Justin: They interviewed him at the end of the second period last night against London and the dude looks stressed. It was a different. It was a different feel to the game last night.

19:44Andrew: Too stressed, frustrated. They knew that they weren't playing their best.

19:48Justin: They knew.

19:49Andrew: Yeah. It just was a suffocating game.

19:51Justin: It was.

19:52Andrew: But then the third period, there were adjustments. So there is a bright spot.

19:55Justin: Yeah. So just because my good was obviously also. Parsons just throwing out his stats for the weekend.

20:02Andrew: Sure.

20:03Justin: So for the three games since we last recorded, he had three goals against in three games, 81 saves and a.964 save percentage.

20:14Andrew: Do you think he'll get performer of the week?

20:16Justin: He didn't. He already didn't get goaltender of the week. Great.

20:19Andrew: That's great.

20:20Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

20:21Andrew: That's great that it's different now and we're getting all the respect we deserve.

20:25Justin: Yeah.

20:27Andrew: That's sarcasm. Sorry, people, you can't see my face.

20:30Justin: What's your bad?

20:32Andrew: The vibes off London.

20:34Justin: Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Terrible vibes.

20:39Andrew: Yeah. I mean, I get it. I'm a Rangers fan, so it's biased. I don't care. Yuck. I don't know what it is, man. Just rubs me the wrong way. There's some teams that are great and they come in and they beat you and you tip your cap and then there's some squads that come in and beat you. I know this from being an Oilers fan. They come in and beat you and you're like, you know what I hope? I hope you fail the next game you play. I don't care who you're playing. I hope you just go out there and lose all. You know, and I. And. And it's. It's. Yeah, it. Maybe it's petty, but that's it. That's. That's my bad. My bad are the vibes. You're celebrating like you.

21:16Justin: Like.

21:16Andrew: Like the 52 point streak matters. All right? Okay. You're drafted, big boy. You're going to the NHL, right? You're going to play for the Leafs. So you get ready to play really well until about May, which is the opposite of London. So enjoy it while it lasts for you.

21:34Justin: Hope you like the fourth line.

21:38Andrew: Yeah, well, maybe won't even have a spot when somebody gets back from Germany with their hair transplant.

21:44Justin: Yeah, that. The vibes that was. That's real. I don't want to give credit to the person that came up with this, but I remember when the Canes got the nickname Bunch of jerks. Yes. And I didn't see it back then. No, this is. This, This I would get.

21:59Andrew: Yeah.

22:00Justin: They could have that nickname and I would get it.

22:02Andrew: Yeah.

22:02Justin: Okay. My bad is sometimes I just feel like we're pilot on ourselves. Like the Rangers.

22:07Andrew: Yeah.

22:07Justin: You know, penalties.

22:09Andrew: Yeah.

22:10Justin: And just like, you know, I don't. I don't want to pile on officiating, but it wasn't. It wasn't a greatly officiated games, but. Well, that's part of the vibes.

22:18Andrew: Right.

22:18Justin: They got suckered in. Oh, yeah, the vibe.

22:21Andrew: Part of the vibes is the diving.

22:23Justin: Yeah.

22:23Andrew: Diving vibes.

22:25Justin: The diving vibes. But yeah, the. Like London. Dan and Jason called it at the beginning of the game. London's game is to basically bully you into taking penalties. And we fell for it in the second period that. The first period, you know, we. Everything seemed sort of logical. Second period, we started taking penalties we shouldn't have taken, and they. The. The team was just getting frustrated because they couldn't get any opportunities. Like, it was just.

22:49Andrew: Absolutely. I also carried more malice into this matchup too, because I witnessed firsthand in person a former London night on the Edmonton Oilers poop his pants in front of the Toronto Maple Leaf Spadeful and choke away a win.

23:04Justin: So.

23:05Andrew: Yeah. Thanks for that, Evan. Anyway, you're a good defenseman. I don't.

23:10Justin: Not based on that game, no.

23:12Andrew: But even the fancies are still good. So we'll, We'll. We'll. We'll give him a pass. But I was. I was. There was an extra snarl to me last night watching this game.

23:21Justin: If there's any players listening, just don't stop skating. That's what we learned from Evan Bouchard. Don't throw a grenade into the slot either.

23:31Andrew: All right.

23:32Justin: Yeah. Piling on ourselves. That. That was my bad.

23:35Andrew: Yeah.

23:35Justin: Parsons getting taken out by his own defenseman. Also, like, it didn't lead to a goal.

23:40Andrew: No.

23:40Justin: But it probably should have. Like.

23:42Andrew: Yeah, it's like that kind of stuff happens in games where you're scrambling around and not playing your best.

23:48Justin: No composure. Yeah. Or less composure. It. Yeah, it was messy. What's your ugly.

23:55Andrew: Oh, let's just bring it down to just zone entries. Getting the puck to the net and not being able to get through. London sticks in the offensive zone. In. On the. In the third period where you dominated puck possession there was. It Was just a frustrating game. It was like they were stuck in the Aud once it turned around. What's crazy is, I will tell you, I had to watch this game on delay. I never Sam O'Reilly spoiler, but I did see is that Parsons had 35 saves and was like performer of the night or of the game or whatever. I saw it very quickly and closed my phone down and was like, I don't want to see this because I like watching the games without the spoilers.

24:32Justin: Yeah. Early third period, he had like 34 saves and I was like, he's only

24:38Andrew: getting one more save the rest of the game. Yeah. Because London couldn't get anything through to them. Like there was nothing. So that's crazy to have 35 saves. And I think only a few of them, four or something came in the last period.

24:51Justin: Yeah. He. He saved seven in the third, seven in the third.

24:54Andrew: There you go. So it's. They did what they had to do. But what was frustrating was they could only get these perimeter shots. It was just like playing in mud. So the ugly was the actually capitalizing on chances in the third.

25:08Justin: Yeah.

25:09Andrew: What was your ugly?

25:10Justin: Similar. It was like this could have been a bloodbath. And it was looking at the stats going the other direction. So, you know, the. The high danger chances in the first and second period broke the AudPod. the AudPod analytics computer. Oh, yeah. It was just toast. It couldn't count.

25:24Andrew: That's why our stats are off this week. Because it's gone.

25:27Justin: Yeah. It died last night. It cried. We didn't know what was going on. All the. Like, there were so many chances for London just right in front of Parsons right there. And. And just like you were saying, we couldn't. We couldn't get anything off the perimeter.

25:41Andrew: Anytime you see a goalie do a rollover on his back, kicking his legs up. I didn't lead to anything.

25:48Justin: And it.

25:49Andrew: And it wasn't. It was more of a reaction for. For Jackson. It wasn't a reaction. Jackson.

25:56Justin: Yeah.

25:56Andrew: It was more of a. A reaction from him. It didn't. It wasn't even really in the process of a shot being taken, but it was just a desperate thing. Anytime you see that sort of desp from a goaltender means, like, you're under fire.

26:08Justin: Yes. Yeah. Often the flashiest saves by goaltenders are usually because there's like, positions are out of whack or your player. People standing around. Watching the bug. Yeah. Watching the bug. That's usually what's going on.

26:19Andrew: Yeah.

26:20Justin: So, yeah. Not. That was not the most fun game. We could have had to end this week. But guess what? We got two more games coming up before our next recording.

26:28Andrew: We do.

26:29Justin: We got a bit of a conference rivalry weekend. Oh, so we have Friday night. We're gonna be there.

26:36Andrew: We'll be there.

26:38Justin: So if you're, if you're there tonight because we released this on Friday. If you hear this and you're going to the game, say hi, look for us.

26:45Andrew: Yes, we're going to be there. We're excited to meet people that listen and we'd love to talk to you about maybe your greatest ranger of all time.

26:56Justin: We always like to ask that question. So, yeah, Friday night we play the Windsor Spitfires. And then House of Windsor. The Windsor. And then Saturday we play the Eriadters. So it's a, it's an interesting one.

27:10Andrew: I Andrew what our old friend on Twitter, the Eriad cracker, will have to say about this. Are we still fraudulent?

27:16Justin: I, I, I don't, I can't see how we could be. But we'll see.

27:22Andrew: We'll see.

27:22Justin: Friday night against Windsor. Windsor. They're top in the west division, third in the Western conference. Man, the Western conference is a, is a force. They are third in the league, too. Which means the, the three western teams are the three top teams which loaded.

27:37Andrew: This is going to be a, a, a prize fight.

27:41Justin: This is our redemption game.

27:42Andrew: This is a.

27:44Justin: Yes.

27:44Andrew: This has been circled since the poop game.

27:46Justin: Yeah, since the, since the 122 loss

27:48Andrew: as a, the stomach flu game.

27:51Justin: So Liam Green tree, who I don't remember from that game because.

27:54Andrew: Oh, I remember the horror show of the horror shows.

27:59Justin: Oh, Green Tree.

28:01Andrew: That.

28:01Justin: He's very good. He is.

28:03Andrew: I don't know if he is a questionable player that way. I doubt it if he's a talented guy.

28:09Justin: He's very forward.

28:10Andrew: However. Yeah, that's. Who did that to Dericolo.

28:14Justin: You're just trying to get the numbers up so you win the bet.

28:16Andrew: I'm blasting those two uppers.

28:18Justin: I control the odds, baby. So, yeah, he, he has. Liam Greentree has 33 points in 20 games, interestingly. So, as I'm sure we remember, Belch has put up six points against us. Yes. He only has 14 points in 15 games since like, not since the whole season.

28:37Andrew: I mean, he's young, so I think

28:38Justin: it's going to be streaky.

28:39Andrew: It's a rookie thing, but it's crazy

28:41Justin: to see a six point game and then only have eight points in your other 14 games.

28:46Andrew: I guess he thrives when the opponent is sick.

28:50Justin: Sick. Yeah. Great. The next game is against the Eriadters on Saturday. They're sitting third in the Midwest Division. That's our division. And then fourth in the Western Conference. We have already played them three times, so we're two in one in the season matchup. We won the last two that we played against them. They only beat us in the season opener. And then we still have three more games against Erie. Like, I love how much we play our division rivals.

29:15Andrew: Yeah, the ohl.

29:16Justin: Super fun.

29:17Andrew: Take note. NHL. It used to be a little too much. I understand. The NHL used to have. Used to have six games against Calgary, six games against Edmonton, six games against Vancouver. Like, and you saw it a little. And it was a little too much. It's like, oh, Calgary again. Oh, it's. It's. It's Vancouver again, whatever. But like now this, like three games.

29:36Justin: Three Battle of Alberta's this year.

29:38Andrew: And they're all spread out weird. It's.

29:40Justin: Yeah, one was on a Tuesday night.

29:42Andrew: Yeah.

29:42Justin: Like, come on.

29:43Andrew: If that's a Saturday night or a Friday night or even a Sunday night game, that's like a Sunday afternoon game.

29:49Justin: Yeah, a premiere game. I don't understand Gary's world.

29:54Andrew: We're all just living in it.

29:55Justin: We're all forced to Andrew it.

29:57Andrew: We're all just buying fanatics merchandise into it. All right, I haven't bought any yet. No, me neither.

30:02Justin: But. All right, so those. That's just the two games. And now it is time for the

30:08Andrew: greatest Ranger of all time.

30:11Justin: The groat. The Groat. I go first this week.

30:14Andrew: You go first this week.

30:15Justin: There is a little concern that we picked the same groat.

30:17Andrew: No, we didn't. It would be freakish. But what if we did?

30:20Justin: But it doesn't matter. And I guess he's just the groat. He is the Groat. He gets an automatic buy is what happens. My groat pick is in because Hockey hall of Fame weekend was a couple weekends ago. Uh, we've already picked three Hockey hall of Famers as Groats and there's five total. You've picked Bill Barber and Scott Stevens. I picked Al McInnis, so I wanted to even it up.

30:46Andrew: All right. You know. You know that my dad messaged us this name too.

30:50Justin: Oh, did he?

30:51Andrew: Yeah.

30:51Justin: Oh. Anyway, I don't know this.

30:52Andrew: Yeah. Great. He'll be excited.

30:54Justin: Okay, so this is for Laurie. He only played one year of major junior because this man could not be stopped from going professional. So he only played one year with the Kitchener Rangers. He was a defenseman and only a defenseman none of this. None of this jumping around and being an elite center. Although he probably could have been. I bet he could have been. Yeah. Yeah. So 51 points in 65 games with the Rangers that year. The Rangers were not a top dog. He was there for development. And we'll take it because he then was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. He played a year and a half of junior hockey before playing 19 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, not even ending his career there. Went on to play more. But he played. Could not be stopped. He could not be stopped. He played 1384 games in the NHL and scored 958 points again as a defenseman. As a defenseman, he won the Norris twice.

31:55Andrew: He won a ConnSmith.

31:56Justin: He won six Stanley Cups and two Canada Cups as a player. Okay. He was unstoppable. Like, this dude won everything. He then went on to coach. And I feel like this is actually the best part of his story is he went on to coach. He started with the LA Kings, then he went over to the New Jersey Devils as an assistant coach, where in 1999, 2000 season, he was the assistant coach. And the Devils were expected to be far better than they were. But going into the final stretch of the season, they went 5, 10, and 2, and they dropped to the last playoff spot in the standings. And with two weeks left in the regular season, Lou Lamarello fired head coach Robby Torek.

32:47Andrew: Yeah.

32:48Justin: And put this player, now this coach.

32:51Andrew: Yes.

32:52Justin: As the head coach. Two weeks left in the season, he righted the ship. Won the Stanley Cup.

32:59Andrew: First of all, Lou is unhinged.

33:02Justin: Unhinged. Two weeks left in a season, he replaces the head coach for the playoffs.

33:08Andrew: Can you imagine that?

33:10Justin: Locker room. Insane. What is going on? Insane.

33:14Andrew: And then in walks this man.

33:17Justin: Don't worry, guys. So with seven Stanley Cups, all this guy did was win. In 2017, he was named one of the top 100 players of all time at the NHL Centennial celebration. I was there. I froze my toes off. His nickname was Big Bird.

33:36Andrew: And I've seen him play.

33:37Justin: Have you?

33:37Andrew: I saw him play in. I believe I saw him play in the 2002 Heritage Classic.

33:43Justin: Oh.

33:44Andrew: Oh. Pretty cool Legends game.

33:46Justin: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you definitely would have been around back then. For sure. So this Gro nomination is Larry Robinson.

33:55Andrew: Oh, what a legend. Larry. Larry. Legend. Larry Bird is known as Larry Legend in the NBA annals of history. This is our Larry Legend. Larry Robinson, Kitchener legend and coaching legend and Montreal Canadiens superstar.

34:12Justin: Superstar. It would be hard to imagine. It would take multiple players to add up the amount of accomplishments as Larry Robinson had in the NHL and over his career. Like, he won everything.

34:25Andrew: He won everything. He is the top of the mountain.

34:27Justin: Yep.

34:28Andrew: And probably doesn't get mentioned enough, even with hall of Fame career, when people are talking about greatest defenseman of all.

34:36Justin: Oh, absolutely not. Yeah.

34:37Andrew: Definitely a name that escapes, and it's probably a generational thing.

34:41Justin: Andrew. Okay, who's your groat?

34:43Andrew: I'm going. I'm going alt groat here.

34:46Justin: Alt groat.

34:47Andrew: Alt groat. This is a. This is an interesting pick.

34:50Justin: Okay. It wasn't Larry Robinson.

34:52Andrew: It wasn't Larry Robinson.

34:53Justin: Oh, okay, good. Phew.

34:54Andrew: It wasn't Larry Robinson. It wasn't someone who ever donned the Rangers uniform.

35:03Justin: I think I know who you picked.

35:05Andrew: He played in the OHL for four seasons with the Windsor Compuare Spitfire. Yeah, his best offensive season, he scored 45 goals and had 46 assists for 91 points. He was drafted 237th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988.

35:21Justin: Yeah.

35:21Andrew: He played three seasons with their NHL affiliate. He scored 27 goals and 34 assists for 61 points in the last season he played for the Aud then he promptly retired and went into coaching. He became an assistant coach for the Detroit Junior Red wings during the 199495 season, which. It's kind of funny, throughout his, like, junior coaching career, they keep renaming this scene. So the Detroit Junior Red Wings become the Detroit Whalers, and he is promoted to the dual position of head coach and general manager.

35:57Justin: Terrible job. Yeah.

35:59Andrew: You know who left that job where he got promoted? Paul Maurice.

36:02Justin: Ah, yes. His good friend.

36:04Andrew: In. In 1998, 99, he led the team to an OHL leading 106 points. He turned them around. They were a bad team. He turned them around. In. In one year, they had a down second year, and then the third year, they had 106 points and led the OHL. They won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy for best regular season team, and he won the Matt laden Trophy as OHL coach of the year in 99. 2000, they're renamed again.

36:32Justin: He's more. Guys, they're not the Detroit Whalers.

36:34Andrew: They're the. The Plymouth Whalers. They get the best record again, and he wins coach of the year again. Okay. They get all the way to the J. Ross Robertson cup finals. The OHL finals. They lose in six games. Repeats it. Okay. This time, they get to the final round. They lose to Ottawa, but again, a really successful season. However, after this season, this man and his assistant, Steve Spot are leaving the Whalers. And they're coming to Kitchener. All right.

37:06Justin: This is a team that missed the

37:08Andrew: playoffs and was under.500. And quickly they're improving. The first, first season he's with them, their third place and they lose in round one. All right. But immediately the next year they're a 46 win team. He's the head coach in GM. They win the championship. Not just the championship, the Memorial Cup, of course. Okay.

37:34Justin: That legendary team.

37:36Andrew: He never misses the playoffs. His worst. He only has one season under.600 winning percentage. He has a couple 47 win seasons. And the Aud 2007, 2008 and he has the 53 win season. Only an 11 loss season, which he did also with plymouth. Lost only 11 games. He did that twice in the OHL as, as head coach and GM. Not just head coach, GM as well. And they of course in 2007, 2008, they win the OHL championship and lose a heartbreaker at home in the Memorial Cup to Spokane. But all in all, an incredible run in the ohl. He was the Memorial Cup champion. As I said, he under 20 World Junior Championship gold medalist 2004, 2005. Had the won a world championship gold medal with The Pros in 2014, 2015. He was a. He was the head coach of the all star game in 2016, 2017. Of course, after that storybook season, he jumps to the NHL. He coaches the Panthers. It doesn't go extremely well, but there was improvement there under him. He then gets hired by the Devils and in his first year with the Devils, they win 48 games, come out of nowhere and they lose in the finals.

38:59Justin: Yep.

39:00Andrew: Okay. the Aud was a bit of a regression. It was a weird lockout year. The Devils were already kind of not expected to be this good.

39:10Justin: It was a dark decade in hockey.

39:13Andrew: Yes, exactly. So he misses playoffs the next couple years, ends up getting canned, but then goes to San Jose and first year with the Sharks. This man is like a first year

39:25Justin: phenom with takes them to the finals.

39:28Andrew: Unfortunately they lose. He makes the playoffs all but two years from then on. Out in the NHL with the Sharks, Golden Knights and Dallas Stars. Lost in round three five times. He's lost in the finals twice. But all to be said, he's an incredible head coach. An incredible head coach and GM for the Rangers. Probably the best in their history. I was going through it, trying to compare him. It's hard to compare him to anybody else. There's no one else. This week's Grot nomination is Pete DeBoer.

39:58Justin: Yeah, man. He's he's great. We appreciate all the growth send ins that you've sent us over social media. Send us more. We want to hear from you. So let us, let us know who your groat is. Groat, obviously we've, we've talked about not just greatest of four points or not just one piece of area. The groat goes deep. It does tell us why.

40:19Andrew: If you know, somebody had one particular standout season and you think it was truly something that needs to be mentioned. Not everyone can be the, the true one and only groat standing at the end of this. But this is an opportunity for you to Sam O'Reilly know what? I, this guy needs some props. Send us a voice note, send us a video or even just send us an email and say like you got to do a little piece on this

40:44Justin: guy and tell, tell us why. We want to hear why you think these are.

40:47Andrew: And the more passionate, the better.

40:48Justin: Now we got some thank yous as always. We have Ken Born for all the branding.

40:53Andrew: The branding and the. Then. Yeah, the branding.

40:57Justin: And, and he's going to be at the game on Friday. He's going to be at the game.

41:01Andrew: I'm excited to, to meet your dad.

41:03Justin: Yeah. Our prodigal producer, Liam the phenom. We're back at the Kitchener Public Library this week.

41:09Andrew: It's home a daytime, A daytime pod. It's a daytime pod. So they didn't know us.

41:13Justin: Yeah, it was different people socials.

41:15Andrew: You can find us on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter heoddpodcast. If you want to send us interesting facts or history about the Kitchener Rangers, the Aud or Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge, please email us@theaudpodcastmail.com we'd love to hear from you.

41:31Justin: If you're enjoying the podcast, please do all the normal things of subscribing, liking, engaging with us on social media. We would.

41:40Andrew: We need it.

41:41Justin: We need it.

41:41Andrew: We'd love it.

41:42Justin: We'd really appreciate it. And we appreciate everybody who's done so so far.

41:46Andrew: Yeah, everybody watching and listening. We love you.

41:48Justin: We love you all and as always,

41:51Andrew: you can find us at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

41:55Justin: See you at the Aud