14: Catalina Wine Mixer Strikes Back

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:00Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:02Justin: Should we say good morning to our alarm clock listeners?

0:06Andrew: Oh, yes. the Aud Potters. The aw dience.

0:11Justin: The awdience. We should do a little asmr. Morning. Good morning.

0:16Andrew: Good morning.

0:17Justin: How are you doing this morning?

0:19Andrew: Welcome to the AudPod.

0:20Justin: This is the AudPod for you

0:22Andrew: early morning folks, or if you slept in. I hope you feel nice and cuddly, so warm in your bed. Remember, the Kitchener Rangers play tonight at the Aud so enjoy that. Let's go, Ranger.

0:48Justin: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas. I'm feeling creepy.

1:07Andrew: I find all that stuff very creepy.

1:09Justin: Got a little far, but I mean,

1:11Andrew: just the ASMR in general. It doesn't work for me. It makes. I am uncomfortable. Maybe it's my problem. I'm not doubting that. It is probably my problem.

1:19Justin: We got a new. We have a sponsor this week.

1:22Andrew: Oh, do we? Do go on? We rebranded last week. This week we have a sponsor. We. What have you cooked up now?

1:30Justin: Sponsored by Deera Cola, the only cola made for wearing a sweatsuit.

1:39Andrew: Finger guns, people. I don't think we can do the finger guns in 2024. It's triggering.

1:44Justin: Oh, because there's a trigger on the finger guns. All right. The Windsor commentators kept calling Deer e Colo dericola.

1:51Andrew: I mean, they suck.

1:53Justin: Yeah, I know. I don't know. We'll get on that, but. Hey, hey, hey, Andrew. Hey, Justin. No, we don't need to start again.

1:59Andrew: Are we starting again?

2:00Justin: No, we're fifth in the chl.

2:02Andrew: We're fifth in the chl. We're ranked number two in the OHL rankings. Pretty, pretty good. Pretty, pretty good. Finally feeling justified in our early pod objections to how the league was viewing us.

2:18Justin: Yes.

2:19Andrew: Yes.

2:20Justin: Six games in a row. It's good. Gonna. It's gonna do things for you.

2:23Andrew: You know, I like. I'm desensitized to it. Now they're winning. They won so much that now, like, six games in a row, I'm like, oh, yeah, six in a row.

2:30Justin: Yeah. Yeah. I can't remember which commentator duo was. It wasn't a Rangers commentator duo, but they were talking about the Rangers winning, and they said, you don't want to be the team that wins 10 and then you lose two, and then you win another 10 because you just don't want to be streaky like that. And I couldn't disagree more.

2:48Andrew: That's exactly how streaky you want to be.

2:50Justin: Yeah, I want to I want to win.

2:51Andrew: I would like any day of the week. Yes. Yes. I don't care. In fact, I would take 20 in a row and then two losses.

2:59Justin: That's.

3:00Andrew: I'll go with that one, too.

3:01Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

3:02Andrew: And actually, any combination of 20 wins and two losses, I will.

3:06Justin: I will take however it comes.

3:07Andrew: Yep.

3:08Justin: I'm great.

3:08Andrew: Absolutely.

3:09Justin: Okay, so we got. We only had two games this weekend. It felt very light.

3:12Andrew: It was a light. A light weekend. Back to the asmr. A light weekend. Rangers, hockey, a couple victories. What else? That's all they do. All they do is win.

3:23Justin: All we do is win and win.

3:25Andrew: Win and creep our audience out here. That's pretty much.

3:29Justin: I'm creeped out. Yeah, me too. All right. Yeah.

3:32Andrew: On to the game recaps.

3:34Justin: So the first game we played was Friday night. Soo Greyhounds. We won it three Nothing. Just another Jackson Parsons shutout.

3:42Andrew: Easy, light work.

3:44Justin: You know, when we were talking last week, we talked about the Soo Greyhounds having Shankle in Ned, who's been kind of matching Parsons in numbers. But we didn't play Shankle. We played Miller. And he was kind of amazing. He was great.

3:57Andrew: I was actually surprised to realize that he was not the regular starter.

4:01Justin: Yeah, he's not even their normal starter. Yeah, he was unbelievable. I think the Aud computer, I think, is still broken and we're still fixing it. So it spit out that our expected goals in the first period was 8.5. So might be a touch high, but not that high. This is what you get with AI, okay.

4:19Andrew: If you just had a man in their count, it might not be right, but you'd have a reasonable number.

4:27Justin: Yeah. So 8.5 is what we've come up with with a man counting. Okay. All right. Wait a minute.

4:35Andrew: It's fraudulent. This is fraudulent.

4:37Justin: Yeah. Only one goal on 18 shots in that first period, of which they were crazy high danger chances.

4:44Andrew: Yes. I mean, it was right off the bat, the goal that was originally credited to Anonofsky.

4:50Justin: Yeah.

4:51Andrew: He was digging in the crease. I guess he didn't. He didn't physically touch it because they credited to Mercer, but I mean, the Catalina Wine Mixer duo, they. They worked their butts off.

5:02Justin: They made that happen.

5:03Andrew: They. Yeah, they. They remembered their dinosaur. All right.

5:06Justin: And that first goal was all hard work by Mercer getting it into the zone.

5:10Andrew: Exactly. Yeah.

5:11Justin: He came from. He came from the neutral zone and created everything that happened.

5:15Andrew: And the pressure from the. Aud Laurian, like driving to the net and digging away. I mean, that why it went in. He might not have got credited with it.

5:22Justin: He might not have touched it, but

5:23Andrew: those two boys, they. They made that happen. I also noted that the Rangers are. Are really not getting pushed around. They're. They're doing a good job. Because I felt like earlier in the year when they lost a couple games, I was worried that this is going to be one of these situations where if you're losing, you know, you're going to have to fight back physically. Bilecki took a cross check from behind in this game early on. And speaking of Derrick Cola, straight jab right to the chops. And I. Look, I'm not just. I'm not glorifying violence. I'm just saying that, you know, our.

5:54Justin: Our.

5:54Andrew: Our young kid, our boy Balecki, who has been scoring and looking better and better, took a cheap shot. Yep. And one of the guys, one of the veteran leaders on the team, stepped up and handled some business.

6:08Justin: He definitely went up, stood up for Balecki. It was great to see him do that. Yes. The. The shot to the face.

6:15Andrew: Yeah. I mean, this is the thing, the Aud wasn't. It wasn't a concussion shot. It wasn't a cheap shot. It wasn't. It was. It was just like. It was. It was a little glove to the face, a little quick little snap jab.

6:24Justin: Okay. Little love tap.

6:25Andrew: Little love tap.

6:26Justin: Yeah, Right.

6:27Andrew: It was a little. It was a little ego check.

6:28Justin: All right.

6:29Andrew: You don't do that, you're gonna cross check in the back. You're gonna get your face checked a little here. You know, that's all.

6:34Justin: I did laugh.

6:35Andrew: Yeah, for sure. That's why I made note of it is. It was funny. It was just like, boom.

6:40Justin: Then. Then we had the extremely sleepy second.

6:43Andrew: Yes. Oh, well, we. We can't. We can't gloss over the fact that they had another five minute power play

6:48Justin: and they didn't really get any scoring chance. Oh, yeah, right. That's a. That's the theme from the weekend. Yeah, that is. That is seven minutes on the power

6:56Andrew: play in the first period.

6:57Justin: Yeah.

6:57Andrew: And then another one to open up the second period, and no goals.

7:01Justin: The power play looked amazing.

7:03Andrew: It does. It does. Yeah. I said no scoring chances, but there were scoring chances. There was just no conversion.

7:07Justin: Yeah, they didn't convert.

7:08Andrew: It's.

7:09Justin: It's crazy. And that.

7:10Andrew: And that captain got ejected for the suit right away, which I was kind of like, okay, this. We got to win this one.

7:16Justin: Yeah.

7:16Andrew: You know, for sure. They had the call, the goal called back.

7:19Justin: Yeah. In the second.

7:20Andrew: In the second. Once we got Onto the second, which was pretty obvious. Not from our angle. I was, like. I was sitting there. I was, like, so mad. I was like, why is this being called back?

7:29Justin: Yeah.

7:29Andrew: And then they showed, like, on the other side of the ice, there's just a player completely offside.

7:33Justin: What. What we learned is that the refs do have other angles than us a lot. Yeah.

7:39Andrew: Just like a general angle.

7:40Justin: Yeah. Which is great.

7:41Andrew: Yeah. And then Grizzolia with the one timer,

7:44Justin: absolute blast, 200th game.

7:47Andrew: Yeah.

7:48Justin: And then. Yeah, well. And he got. He got two.

7:50Andrew: Yeah.

7:51Justin: Which was so awesome. Yeah.

7:52Andrew: He got the empty netter as well.

7:54Justin: Players that I noted in this game, like the Ellis, Lamb, Arquette line, seems to be just, like, gelling like crazy. For sure. And then Reed. Holy cow, was he flying? Well, it looked like he was on fast forward and everyone else was on slow motion.

8:07Andrew: Did you see the Sam Cosentino sportsnet draft rankings came out today?

8:11Justin: Oh, I did not.

8:12Andrew: Number 21, Cameron Reid I think the

8:15Justin: Flames have some picks around there, so.

8:19Andrew: I mean, will they go with another defenseman?

8:23Justin: Yes.

8:24Andrew: An offensive defenseman.

8:25Justin: You haven't been watching the Flames draft these past few years?

8:28Andrew: No, because I skipped the early picks.

8:31Justin: Oh, yeah. Right.

8:33Andrew: Yeah.

8:33Justin: Seems likely.

8:34Andrew: Yeah. See, I got my fill of the early picks.

8:39Justin: A decade of them. Well, he only had to tune in for five minutes. Exactly.

8:43Andrew: It was actually better that way.

8:45Justin: Yes. We ended this game with 48 shots. 27 shot shadow for Parsons.

8:50Andrew: Yes. He had unbelievable breakaway save again on Gibson. It. Yeah. I mean, the. The. The kid is, like, so locked in. Like, to say that he's dialed in is an understatement. The. The guy is seeing the puck before the puck is actually, like, on his way to him. He's. He's judging the angles. He's in perfect position. When he's not in position because of, like, say it's a pass or a rebound or something like that. His reaction time is second to none. He's just a great goalie.

9:16Justin: The. The smile. The smile on his face at the end of that game, he was just priceless. Yeah, man. He's. He's loving it, too.

9:23Andrew: He's. He is a very likable kid.

9:25Justin: Yeah. Yeah. He's our guy.

9:28Andrew: He's our guy.

9:29Justin: On Saturday, we played the Windsor Spitfires.

9:32Andrew: Oh. And we said that there was. This was bulletin board material. This needed to be a statement game.

9:38Justin: Do not mess with the Andalorian on Star Wars Night.

9:42Andrew: You cannot.

9:42Justin: It doesn't matter whose Star wars night it is. Yeah.

9:44Andrew: It doesn't Matter whose Star wars night it is. The Andalorian in town.

9:48Justin: I mean, it was a great game

9:49Andrew: that, that, that Lamb, Arquette and. And Ellis line got going right away.

9:55Justin: I mean, Arquette just totally duped out Costanzo.

9:59Andrew: Yes.

10:00Justin: And passed it to Lamb for the Aud open net. Yes. It was amazing.

10:04Andrew: That's what you need.

10:05Justin: Yeah. It was so good. That was a great way to start.

10:07Andrew: That was. I felt like this game was almost a little bit closer than it could have been. I thought they got a really bad bounce on one of the. Aud was either the first or second goal. They had a really bad bounce that Windsor capitalized on. But I thought that was a little bit.

10:21Justin: I think that was the first goal. Yeah.

10:22Andrew: That was a little bit of puck luck on the first goal. Yeah. I just thought that overall this was like a complete team game.

10:27Justin: It was.

10:28Andrew: And the Aud was the, you know, the cherry on top was obviously the shootout with Jackson Parsons once again proving that he is goaltender of the week, the month, the year, the decade, the millennium. Like, it's, you know, he just, just, just, just give him the award.

10:46Justin: The decade of the millennium. Falcon.

10:47Andrew: Of the Millennium Falcon. Star wars night.

10:49Justin: I've never seen a goalie look so calm in a shootout. Even Costanzo was like. He did his lap. He was. Jackson Barson just, like, took a. Took a swig of water. Yeah, I'm good.

10:58Andrew: The vibes off Parsons are that the dude doesn't get rattled. It's crazy, too. I've never cheered for a team where I don't get tense on, like, a breakaway.

11:08Justin: Yeah.

11:08Andrew: I'm. I'm almost. Now at this point, I'm like, well, he's probably going to stop, like, three out of four breakaways if there are in a game. So, like, you know, chances are good he's going to stop it.

11:19Justin: As we said last week, breakaways are just a part of Rangers hockey. So, you know. Yeah.

11:25Andrew: So, I mean, all right, not to get too far ahead of ourselves going into. So the first period, it was the aptly named Smurf line. Getting a goal. The bad bounce on. On the first goal with Windsor going into the second period, though. Pridham in the slot.

11:40Justin: Yep.

11:41Andrew: I mean, the kid.

11:42Justin: What?

11:42Andrew: I don't know. Like, listen, I have faith in the Juice and I have faith in the coaching staff and the team that Mike McKenzie put together. But, like, when we got Jack Pridham. Yeah.

11:54Justin: Like early in the season, but they were already on a roll.

11:57Andrew: Like, I mean, this is now. It's just like that's Just like the cup overflow.

12:01Justin: You just locked it in with him. He was like. He was that extra piece that everyone's like, they got to get that extra piece. Yeah, we got him on game seven.

12:08Andrew: Yeah, exactly. The trade deadline. Acquisition came in game seven.

12:11Justin: Yeah.

12:12Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

12:13Justin: Pridham fifth, fifth goal in 10 games with the Rangers.

12:17Andrew: That's unbelievable. Yeah, he's just like, he's like, he's all over the place. I think he's scoring about a point a game. It's.

12:23Justin: That was. That was the great goal, too. The one right below the glove, above the pad. The armpit goal. Yeah.

12:29Andrew: I mean, if you can put it there, you're gonna score 10 times out of 10. And what he does off the puck, too, is. Is just as impressive. He's a. He really is the quintessential two way forward for sure.

12:39Justin: Then we got to talk about the Campbell hit.

12:41Andrew: We got to talk about Carson Campbell getting absolutely run over.

12:48Justin: Yeah.

12:48Andrew: Like. And not only that. Targeted from a forward, coming from the neutral zone coming in. You saw the bottom line is, is even if it was somehow clean, which it wasn't.

12:59Justin: No, even if it was. Yeah. First.

13:02Andrew: That's a whole. We're going to talk about that in a second. But we're first going to talk about the hit itself.

13:05Justin: Yeah.

13:06Andrew: Even if it was somehow clean and it wasn't shouldered directly to face.

13:11Justin: Yes.

13:11Andrew: It's predatory because you're watching the play go around the back of the boards, you see that he's retrieving it. As soon as you see that there's a retrieval in process and he has his back turned and you're. You're going in with the intentions of hitting him. Like, the timing on it was just like impeccable for him to be turning around and you're putting your shoulder in his face. The bottom line is you can make that hit and not destroy a human being's face and skull. And there's a way to crunch a guy without attempting to dome a guy with your shoulder.

13:46Justin: Yeah. The fact that the player skated all the way from the neutral zone, full speed coming in left his feet in an upward trajectory on a guy that's shorter than him, smaller.

13:56Andrew: This is. I mean, this is. The thing is these guys are young guys. I don't want to smear Ethan Martin for a decision he made in a game. But the bottom line is he hit a guy. It was cheap, it was dirty, it was brutal. And the Windsor commentators were basically going back and forth on whether or not this was a dirty hit. And if it was five in a game, they couldn't.

14:17Justin: They were trying to debate whether it was a penalty or not.

14:20Andrew: It was. It was mind blowing to me because I was sitting there and I'm like, did I miss something?

14:25Justin: No.

14:25Andrew: Did I miss something? Because I see. I see Carson Campbell, who, like, I mean, I can't imagine watching this. This game. And you're his family. He's literally starfished out like a light, like, bleeding.

14:37Justin: Yeah.

14:38Andrew: What do you mean? You think that it's. It's. I mean, the back of his head hit off the boards.

14:42Justin: Yeah.

14:42Andrew: Like, it was basically worst case scenario all the way around. I haven't heard much about. I'm assuming that's a good thing. That, like, I mean, obviously that he's. He's okay. Besides the fact that I'm assuming he's heavily concussed.

14:55Justin: Yeah.

14:55Andrew: These. These Windsor commentators, like, what. What are you. What, What, Sorry, did you wake up and it's 1993 or something? Like, the worst part of this is this wasn't even like an open ice hit where you have your head down. This was retrieving the puck in the corner. Give me a break, man. Like, it was literally like, this is a kid on the ice, unconscious, trying to be helped up, and you're like, well, I don't know, going back and forth on this one. Head up, sphincter.

15:24Justin: I'm glad to see. He walked. Campbell got up, walked off like that. That seemed like a miracle at that point. I know they had the gurney out ready to go. Like, it was. It. It was. It didn't look good.

15:34Andrew: No. I mean, I'm hoping it's one of those situations where the optics of it, like, the actual. It looked worse than it actually was as far as he, like, his actual health. But, like. Yeah, I. I just can't get over the fact that you had two grown men watching this, and they were kind of. Neither of them were like, oh, no, that he's gone. Because I would have been like, of course they're reviewing it. That's process. That's standard process. But the call on the ice was five in a game.

15:58Justin: Yeah. And then he got three more today.

16:01Andrew: And then he got three more Today. So maybe you should join us in 2024, where shoulders directly to the jaw and face of a player is illegal.

16:13Justin: After, kind of after that moment, we were. We had a two, two hockey game and everything just got tight. Yeah, that's really what I noticed. It was like this game, nobody had any clean zone entries. There was not Much happening. It was a neutral zone puck fest. I wrote down Hedwig did not give an inch.

16:33Andrew: All right, all right.

16:34Justin: So real.

16:35Andrew: That is a real deep reference.

16:36Justin: Yes.

16:37Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, into the third period, I really only noted that, like, I thought that the Cameron Reid penalty was absolutely ridiculous. I didn't know why that was called. Thankfully, they killed it and it didn't make a difference.

16:48Justin: Yeah.

16:49Andrew: And then Cameron Reid again, like, was just. I mean, he's just. He's just an elite player. It's just. I am just. I'm just really excited watching him. He had a back check on Green tree. Green tree had an opportunity to score. He is a very talented offensive player. And Reed back checked in. An incredible effort. He had to cover so much ground, and he got there and he broke up the play. And it was just like one of those moments where I was just like, they're going to win this game because, like, you, like, you start taking away those A plus chances. And outside of very bad puck luck, those are the games that you win. Right towards the end of third period. Star wars night. Ando. He won a puck in the corner, and I was like, oh, man, that was huge. Because it was kind of getting a little scrambly. And he won a puck battle in the corner that, like, he probably shouldn't have. And he just willed it.

17:39Justin: Yeah.

17:39Andrew: And it was about two minutes left in. Oh, that was in the overtime. Two minutes left in the overtime. And it was just like. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was clutch.

17:47Justin: Like, it's. They're almost starting to run together. The. The Andalorian, like, highlights. Yes. It's like every game he's just doing something that he shouldn't be able to do.

17:57Andrew: Absolutely.

17:58Justin: And. And it's starting to feel commonplace, but it isn't. I fully needs to be remarkable every time. Yeah.

18:04Andrew: And he's one of those guys that, like, he doesn't fill the. The box score usually. Like. Like, he does sometimes.

18:09Justin: Don't get me wrong. Yeah, he gets the apples. Gets the. Gets the occasional goal.

18:13Andrew: Yeah.

18:13Justin: But that's not his game.

18:14Andrew: But that's not his game. And it's like. But if you watch it, you just. You just really appreciate Matt Andonofsky. Yeah, I do. I do. I do, too.

18:23Justin: All right. And the shootout.

18:25Andrew: Very quickly, breaking down the shootout, it was basically just Parsons had a nice blocker save on. On the shot, number one. I just had to mention the shootout because Trent Swick had this killer fake shot. Backhand goal.

18:37Justin: Yes.

18:37Andrew: That was like butter.

18:38Justin: Like you were like, oh, man, that's.

18:40Andrew: That's a textbook.

18:41Justin: That's. That's.

18:42Andrew: No one's stopping that. You could put him in the NHL if you do. If you perform that move with that sort of grace is all I could call it. You're scoring.

18:50Justin: Yeah.

18:51Andrew: Because. Yeah, I mean, you know, and then there was the whiff on shot number two. And then Costanza, who played very well.

18:58Justin: He did.

18:58Andrew: He had a save on Lamb. And then Parsons stopped the. The kid with the six point game.

19:05Justin: Yeah, yeah. Mr. Belches himself. Yeah.

19:08Andrew: Yeah. So that was kind of felt like a nice redemption moment.

19:10Justin: And the Aud then Parsons crossed his arms and nodded to everyone in the crowd.

19:15Andrew: Yeah, I know. I was like.

19:16Justin: I love. I was like, what is this? I love.

19:19Andrew: A little bit of.

19:20Justin: A little bit of sauciness. Yeah. Yeah.

19:21Andrew: That we don't normally see.

19:22Justin: No, not at all. It was awesome.

19:24Andrew: Yeah.

19:24Justin: Yeah. All right. So who's your three stars of the weekend?

19:27Andrew: Oh, it's. It's pretty easy. Jackson Parsons is my first star. Jackson Parsons. I don't know where this team would be without him. They're a good team with Jackson Parsons. They are a elite team. So it's. He just. To me, every great team needs to be led by a great goalie, and he is that.

19:49Justin: Yeah.

19:49Andrew: Who's your first star?

19:51Justin: Mine is the. The Lamb Ellis Arquette line. I know you're. You're coming with the Soo but, man, they. They impressed me so much. They worked so hard in that first. In the first game against the Soo they. They. They created a lot of opportunities. Didn't get. Didn't get to convert on the Aud then they got the goal, like, immediately against Windsor. Oh, yeah. And it. And it just really cemented. I was trying to come up with a name for them.

20:12Andrew: Well, that's actually my second star.

20:14Justin: Oh.

20:15Andrew: Is whoever came up with the smurf line.

20:17Justin: Oh, is it the.

20:18Andrew: That's the smurf line.

20:19Justin: Oh, I didn't know this because they're

20:20Andrew: all vertically challenged in their own way. You know. They're not. They're not. I'm. I'm not going to throw around the Soo word here, but I'm just going to Sam O'Reilly know, for hockey players.

20:28Justin: Yeah.

20:29Andrew: I think they're all like.

20:30Justin: For human beings.

20:31Andrew: All, like, average. Up to above average human beings. These gladiator freaks on ice.

20:36Justin: Yeah.

20:36Andrew: They're all a little bit on the vertically challenged side.

20:39Justin: On the Justin side of height.

20:41Andrew: On the Justin side of height.

20:42Justin: Yes, exactly. Yeah. I've been. I just been loving watching them Play. I, you know, I was Sam O'Reilly know, Lamb is. Lamb is one of our. One of our guys, truly. And, you know, I was like, oh, he's kind of getting demoted, but, man, is he driving play with that line. And they're doing such a great job.

20:59Andrew: Like, absolutely.

21:00Justin: The bottom six is so solid right now. They're. Nothing gets by them.

21:03Andrew: No, I. I mean, the numbers on the lines are what? The numbers are just numbers.

21:07Justin: Yes.

21:07Andrew: Really. Because you. It's very clear to me that this coaching staff prioritizes having a leader on every line. Yeah, I. Some lines have two and three leaders, thankfully. But, yeah, I think that Lamb is being asked to go down and kind of drive the fourth line.

21:24Justin: My second star is Cameron Mercer.

21:27Andrew: Oh, nice.

21:27Justin: Because he a. That goal that he. He ended up getting credit for, but he made that goal happen, so I'm happy he got the goal. Like, either way, he. He made that happen. But he was doing that again all weekend as well. Like, multiple times. You saw just Mercer streaking in down the wing and just bringing the puck into the zone sort of in a way that is. It felt like it. It caught the other teams out of sync and it just caused a little bit of havoc, which allowed, like, a good opportunity or whatever, obviously, that first goal. But yeah, man, Mercer, he was killing it this weekend. He.

21:59Andrew: He's just getting better. It's really nice to see.

22:01Justin: And you could see, especially against Windsor, like our. The top two lines are pretty evenly matched on both teams. So. So there was a lot of shutdown.

22:09Andrew: The depth is where the Rangers are going to win games.

22:12Justin: Yes. That.

22:13Andrew: It's. Every line has the ability to score and push the play, and that's what.

22:18Justin: That's what we want to start seeing now and pushing towards the playoffs, which I'm assuming will make. I don't want to curse us or anything.

22:25Andrew: Oh, yeah. Well, last season, they. They really slumped. They were the first team. They were first in the league for a long time, and then something really went haywire. So we won't. We won't curse them.

22:35Justin: No. But.

22:36Andrew: Yeah, that's. It feels like a foregone conclusion with this squad.

22:39Justin: What's your third star? Third star?

22:41Andrew: Listen, Cameron Reid could be every star, I think all the time just because he's so talented. But I am going to go with Chris Grazolia. I thought that having your 200th game, kind of being a wily veteran, kind of coming into a new Hlacar room. You played your whole career in Barry, and now you're coming to the Rangers to play Kind of like your swan song. I mean, I think a lesser athlete and person could probably just kind of phone it in a bit.

23:07Justin: Yeah.

23:07Andrew: Not. Not Gris. Not Grizz Golia.

23:10Justin: Grizz Golia never phones it in, so he's my favorite. Doesn't even have a phone out in the woods.

23:15Andrew: He's my third star. Who's your third star?

23:17Justin: Oh, I'm sticking with the we love we. Like we question.

23:21Andrew: Okay.

23:22Justin: Three stars. So I'm putting those Windsor commentators on

23:26Andrew: blast because I don't question. I already just know that they're fools.

23:32Justin: Also. Dear A Cola. Get it right, guys.

23:35Andrew: Dear O Cola.

23:37Justin: He's our guy.

23:37Andrew: Yeah.

23:38Justin: Diro Cola. Terrible.

23:41Andrew: Did A Cola.

23:42Justin: Also.

23:42Andrew: The.

23:47Justin: Also. They kept talking about how they didn't know anything about Star wars on Star wars night. I'm like, get a grip, guys.

23:52Andrew: Oh, yeah. You're so cool. You're so cool not knowing about Star Wars.

23:57Justin: You know what? I want to say it. They're nerds.

23:59Andrew: Yeah, they're nerds for not knowing about Star Wars.

24:02Justin: Exactly.

24:02Andrew: Yeah.

24:02Justin: Yeah. Okay. News around the league.

24:04Andrew: News around the league.

24:05Justin: That's the OHL for those in question. That's right. Yes. So not tons of news around the league. This week, World Junior camp started. The Canadian camp was in Ottawa. Was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Obviously, we got. Jakub Chromiak is gone now through the. Through the World Junior to pei. That's where they're doing it.

24:25Andrew: Yeah.

24:26Justin: Oh, crazy.

24:26Andrew: Slovaks are cool.

24:28Justin: I mean, that seems like place to play.

24:29Andrew: My guess is it's just that, like, ice time is severely limited.

24:33Justin: Yeah.

24:34Andrew: And like, finding a facility that can accommodate. Yeah, right. Like.

24:39Justin: Yeah, yeah, I think it's great. Like, there's lots of great players. It'll be fun to watch now that we've been following these guys for, like, like, this league, watching all these players that are going to end up playing together on, like, Team Canada, mostly.

24:51Andrew: Yes. It's.

24:51Justin: It's going to be really exciting to see how they kind of gel and what.

24:54Andrew: It's going to be fun to cheer for some of these guys that we've been rooting against.

24:57Justin: Yeah. London.

24:58Andrew: Yeah, London. Which. Yeah, that's. There's my news of the week. Yeah. The reign of terror is over. Thanks, Oshawa. I'm sorry I ever talked bad about you, Oshawa.

25:07Justin: Oshawa's great.

25:08Andrew: Yeah, we love Oshawa now. Yeah, it was great.

25:11Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Exactly.

25:13Andrew: The reign of terror is over.

25:14Justin: Yeah.

25:16Andrew: They are human over there.

25:17Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Which is good, because that's coming up in our. In our previews.

25:22Andrew: Yes.

25:22Justin: NHL moment of the week.

25:24Andrew: NHL moment of the week.

25:25Justin: What's your NHL moment of the week?

25:26Andrew: Okay, so it's a two parter.

25:28Justin: Yeah. Tell me.

25:28Andrew: First things first. NHL salary cap going up to $92.4 million. Which is good for cap. Which is good for cap strap teams.

25:40Justin: Yeah. You know one of them intimately?

25:43Andrew: Yes, I do. I do. I root for one. Although I will say since Darnell Nurse had the factory resetting of his settings, he's back to Sue Darnell, so.

25:54Justin: Oh, great.

25:55Andrew: You know, I don't ever advocate for head injuries or for headhunting from no talent scrubs.

26:01Justin: Sometimes you just need to restart.

26:02Andrew: Yeah. But yeah, sometimes you just need a clean slate and you just become the player that everyone thought you were going to be coming out of Junior.

26:10Justin: Yeah. Great.

26:11Andrew: Anyway, but the NHL, the second part of that is the Igor shusturkin contract.

26:16Justin: Yeah.

26:17Andrew: $10.5 million for eight years. And yeah, this is just a classic case of basically, I think it's agent driven. It's a situation where it's a business. But he has not been playing well this year.

26:32Justin: Yeah. Your fantasy team knows that.

26:33Andrew: My fantasy team knows that. Fantasy team knows that in a different league. Well, you're not doing as good as me in that league because I don't have Igor Shastakian.

26:42Justin: True.

26:42Andrew: Yeah. But. Yeah, so that's kind of reset the market for goalies, but not as much as we thought it was going to be.

26:49Justin: Yeah, that's true. Eight years ago. Goalie is always fascinating to me because it rarely turns out well. But then you have Bobrovsky winning you a cup.

26:58Andrew: Yeah. I mean, a cup kind of forgives all sin, as it were.

27:01Justin: I agree. I'm bringing us a little bit closer to home for my NHL moment of the week. Sebastian Kosa, he got his NHL debut in coming in for relief for Husso against Buffalo. He's placed for the Red Wings.

27:16Andrew: Yeah. And he's been setting the AHL on fire.

27:19Justin: Absolutely. He. The juso was getting lit up by Buffalo.

27:24Andrew: Everyone was getting lit up in that game.

27:25Justin: Yeah, that's true. And he allowed two goals against and. And saved 14 shots. And then he went to a shootout. There you go. And he won the game. And I just thought it was such a nice moment. I was looking at. I didn't really know who he was.

27:40Andrew: Edmonton Oil King.

27:41Justin: He's a WHL Oil King. Poor guy had to live in Edmonton.

27:45Andrew: Hey, now.

27:46Justin: Yep. I said what I said. But in the whl, he has he had some pretty phenomenal stats. Definitely. He played 98 games. His goals against average was 2.12 and his save percentage was.921. He did have one season as a.941 save percentage, which is unbelievable. Yeah, that's your third season. Yeah.

28:08Andrew: Well, you know, I hope Kosa signs when the stock is at the all time high.

28:14Justin: All the, all time high for his sake. Absolutely. Yeah. So that was my NHL moment of the week.

28:20Andrew: Da da da da da.

28:22Justin: Should we preview some games?

28:24Andrew: Oh, let's get into the game previews. Yes.

28:28Justin: So we, we play three times this week and unfortunately we have a Wednesday game to deal with our recording night. So Friday at home in the Aud We are finally. We are finally playing the Kingston front necks.

28:44Andrew: Finally. You know, my first ever Rangers game. Oh, really was against Kingston front necks. And they wore those blue. The blue retro. A variation of the jersey I'm wearing right now, which is great for an audio medium. The Tex. The Texas. It's not Texas, but Tex the Ranger. Mine is Tex on a horse, which they only wore for two seasons. Yes, but the one they wore is just Tex with the hockey stick on skates. And obviously I fell in love with the Rangers during that game. Yeah, they won six to nothing. And it was a good time.

29:19Justin: So you have great memories. It was great playing Kingston.

29:21Andrew: It was a great.

29:21Justin: It was a great time. So Kingston actually has dropped a little bit lately. They were, they were first in the east for like probably the first 15 games. Now they're, now they're sitting third in the Eastern Conference, second in the East Division. And honestly, they haven't been playing poorly. Like it's, it's literally Oshawa and Barry has just taken their spot. It's not, it's not that they have been playing poorly in any way. They have five players above point per game and now I'm going to try and pronounce three of their names.

29:50Andrew: Oh, here we go. I'm sorry. To their families.

29:54Justin: So we have Cedric Guindon, who's on Montreal.

29:58Andrew: This is Gwynden.

29:59Justin: Gwynden.

29:59Andrew: Yeah.

30:00Justin: Oh, I really tried to zhuzh it up.

30:01Andrew: Yeah, I don't. I think, I think it might just be Gwynden.

30:04Justin: Gwynden. So Cedric Guindon. But maybe.

30:06Andrew: You know what, this might backfire. This. It might now maybe I become the bad names guy. So Gwyndon.

30:11Justin: Let's hope so. Then we have Jacob Battaglia.

30:16Andrew: It's definitely Battaglia. No relation to Bates Battaglia, former NHLer.

30:22Justin: I don't know who that is, but great.

30:24Andrew: But you know what the audience does.

30:26Justin: He's a Calgary prospect. He was taken in the second round last year. Yeah. So this is great. And then we have Trent Swick's future teammate, Dumas Ronen perhaps, maybe, but he's Vegas Golden Knight. Okay, so they've been Kingston's. Feels pretty loaded. Like they got some pretty high end guys. Goaltending, though, that's not been their flavor this season. That's true.

30:49Andrew: I've seen a few scores that I was like, oh, so their.

30:52Justin: Their game is out, shoot or outscore your opponent. So yeah, this should be a fun one.

30:57Andrew: It's very oily.

30:58Justin: Yeah, a little bit. Also, did you know that Kingston has 99 cent hot dogs on Friday nights?

31:04Andrew: Oh, wow. Dollar dogs.

31:06Justin: I was like, hey, Odd. Yeah, get on that.

31:09Andrew: Get the glizzies in you.

31:11Justin: Yeah. And then on.

31:13Andrew: Imagine those bathrooms, the

31:21Justin: Aud then on Sunday.

31:22Andrew: And then on Sunday.

31:24Justin: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. It's London.

31:28Andrew: All right. London.

31:30Justin: Yep.

31:30Andrew: In London.

31:31Justin: Yep.

31:32Andrew: Hmm.

31:32Justin: Yep.

31:33Andrew: We just went to Windsor.

31:35Justin: Yep.

31:35Andrew: And we handled business.

31:36Justin: Yep. So maybe a little away game is what we need.

31:40Andrew: I'm thinking.

31:41Justin: Yeah. Yeah. So I don't really want to talk about London anymore. Not giving them the credit of any of their stats that they have.

31:48Andrew: No.

31:49Justin: And. And then on Wednesday next week, one week from date of recording, we play Sarnia. So Sarnia Sting fifth in the west division and eighth in the conference. We. We've played them once. We beat them six to one.

32:02Andrew: Right.

32:03Justin: This week they fired their assistant coach after losing seven in a row. So.

32:08Andrew: The assistant coach.

32:09Justin: Yeah. Which I thought was an interesting.

32:11Andrew: As I fire in the assistant manager, the business is going under and it's like, who are we firing? The assistant manager. What?

32:21Justin: I was like, okay, all right. Yeah.

32:23Andrew: So how did he talk his way out of this one? I want to talk to that coach.

32:27Justin: So they'll obviously have some games before we end up playing the Soo they may or may not be on their losing streak anymore. But the Pete's bait beat the Aud

32:35Andrew: I'm like, that's probably why. Yeah, that's why they. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

32:40Justin: They had to fire someone. I think I would fire someone after losing to the Pete's too. Yeah, I like the Pete's. I still. I'm kind of pulling for them. Yeah. I hope.

32:49Andrew: I hope that they. They turn it around and start winning more often.

32:52Justin: Yeah.

32:52Andrew: Yeah. No one deserves to be that bad.

32:54Justin: No. Now we are on to the greatest

32:59Andrew: Ranger of all time, the Groot.

33:06Justin: You can't asmr In Scottish. Andrew, you are first up on the groat.

33:17Andrew: The groot. All right, well, let's get it kicked off here with my groat.

33:21Justin: Yes.

33:22Andrew: Born in Toronto, Andrew April 2, 1957. He was a right winger. He played four seasons with the Rangers, 1973-1978. As a rookie, he scores 55 points in 67 games. Pretty good, pretty good, pretty good, pretty good. And then was named captain in his second season.

33:41Justin: Gotta love a captain, right?

33:42Andrew: In year two and three, he had 90 and 94 points respectively. So pretty good, pretty good increase. Pretty good. And then in year four, he set the all time Kitchener Rangers single season scoring record with basically what is an unmatchable 60 goals, 83 assists, 143 points in 64 games. All right, so after that, he's heading into the draft. All right, he's highly touted. The New York Islanders are seriously thinking about drafting him, but instead they draft some guy named Mike Bossi. It turned out to be pretty good. Not to take away from our growth here, but Mike Bossi, you know, 580ish goals in 700 games. Yeah, pretty good. He was known as a strong defensive forward with like marginal offensive ability, notwithstanding that crazy season that he just had. But everyone thought that, you know, maybe he's not going to be that type of a player in the pros. Meanwhile, like bossy guy, I just talked about prolific scorer. Legendary Islanders coach Al Arbor convinced general manager Bill Torrey to take Bossy instead of our groat, arguing that it was easier to teach a scorer how to check than a checker how to score. So our growth goes to Boston. All right, that same year that he's drafted, he helps Team Canada win silver at the World Juniors and he scores in his very first game as a Bruin. So, like, things are getting off to a really good start. However, 14 games into the season, season ending knee injury, and this is going to become the theme of his NHL career. He, the next year he comes back, he rehabs, he plays 44 NHL games. But unfortunately, Don Cherry, the coach of the Bruins doesn't like him. He only, he actually gets dressed in all 11 playoff games during that run, which they swept. And then they played to a game seven. But in game seven, he played three seconds. That's not made up. He played three seconds. So he never really got a fair shot with the Bruins. He finally, finally wins the trust of Don Cherry. He wins a full time starting job in 80, 81, and he's productive. 24 goals, 52 points in a Full season after that, he leaves Boston because he's not loving the vibes. He signs with the Colorado Rockies, unfortunately injured again. This time it was a groin and a shoulder injury. So he's just banged up. He's nicked up. He scores 31 points that year. But he pays parts of a full season, then relocates to New Jersey where he's injured. And he plays only four games and gets traded to the Detroit red wings for US$1. His career continues to be derailed by injury. This is very tragic because he was such a great Ranger. He actually did score 17 goals in 58 games. But you can't get it going when you're. You're constantly. Your body is not agreeing with you.

36:36Justin: Yeah.

36:36Andrew: So eventually he plays parts of four seasons in Detroit and then he gets traded back to Boston where he only gets a few games over the course of two seasons and then retires due to injury. However, he finished his NHL career with 274 points in 541 games. Not a lot of people on earth can say that. He finishes his junior career with many more. 158 goals, 224 assists, 382 points. Good for the most all time in Kitchener Rangers history. His name and photo is on a banner in the Aud His name is Dwight Foster.

37:17Justin: Dwight Foster. Yeah. I've been waiting for him for a while. Yes. Yeah, definitely a groat of groats.

37:23Andrew: A groat of groats.

37:24Justin: Yeah. For sure. It is my turn. I've seen my groat nomination live at the Aud Oh, I. I don't want to show my jersey or you might know who it is.

37:36Andrew: Well, it's an audio medium.

37:38Justin: Yes, thank goodness.

37:39Andrew: I was just reminded it's an audio medium. It's great for an audio medium.

37:44Justin: Technically, my groat nomination is still eligible. Eligible to play for the Rangers as an overager. He's never coming back. He's not coming back. But technically still eligible, but definitely worth the groat nomination. He's a right shot defenseman with unbelievable puck skills. He. He played for only two seasons for the Rangers. He. He was playing for the ushl and then he came over. In his first season with the Rangers, he scored 57 points in 68 games. Remember a right shot defenseman? His second season, which happened to be the 2324 season, he holds a record. Thanks to some guy named Andrew for telling me this stat. He has the most points in a single season by a Ranger defenseman ever. He was drafted in 2023 by the Soo Vancouver Canucks, but he didn't sign with the Soo he. They traded his rights in the Elias Lindholm trade to the Calgary Flames, where he immediately signed. And then that night, I bought his jersey because I was very excited about it.

38:43Andrew: That's true.

38:43Justin: You did. Yep.

38:44Andrew: I remember.

38:45Justin: And he seems like he's a very smart hockey player because he didn't sign with the Canucks, but he did sign with the Flames. Just a great guy. And so, of course, my nomination is the Hunter Brustevich. Let me show you. For the Aud medium.

38:59Andrew: Oh, he's wearing the jersey.

39:01Justin: I am.

39:01Andrew: He's wearing the jersey. And it kind of ties into our last game preview because we will see his brother Henry Brustevich in London.

39:08Justin: And of course, we want to hear your groat nominations.

39:12Andrew: Please give us groat nominations because we've already used a bunch of the Aud they've all been great.

39:16Justin: They've all been terrific. But we got to do some thank yous now.

39:19Andrew: Yes.

39:20Justin: We, of course, have to thank Ken Born director of branding.

39:23Andrew: Director of branding and merchandise.

39:26Justin: Oh, right.

39:27Andrew: Because once again, in the Aud medium, we have ipod hats.

39:31Justin: We do. We're both wearing them right now.

39:33Andrew: We are.

39:34Justin: Of course, we have to send a shout out to our prodigal producer, Liam the phenom. We're back at the Kitchener Public Library this week. We are. This is home.

39:41Andrew: Home away from home. This is where I, you know, I'm excited to. To be here with you.

39:46Justin: Yeah, same.

39:47Andrew: Well, you know, if I could get an Oilers fan to do this with me, I'd be a little bit more excited.

39:52Justin: Would be better for you, but. Yep, you got me.

39:54Andrew: Yeah.

39:55Justin: Socials.

39:56Andrew: Oh, you can find us on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter @theaudpodcast. That's right. They're all the same. If you want to send us some interesting facts or groats or history about the Kitchener Rangers, the Aud or Kitchener Waterloo, Cambridge, because we live here, but we haven't lived here forever. Please e. Email us@theaudpodcastmail.com we would truly love to hear from you.

40:22Justin: And if you're listening to this podcast and you're not following subscribed, please do all those things.

40:28Andrew: And one last thing. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it because I didn't want to speculate or anything like that, but our coach, the Juice, Jusia Hokas and his family are in Finland right now taking care of some family business. It didn't sound like it was a good situation. That's just me projecting but that's what I understood. Don't know what it is, but we just wish him the best.

40:48Justin: The best. We love the juice. And that's it for the week. So as always, you can find us

40:53Andrew: at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

40:56Justin: See you at the Aud