17: Over the Hump(hreys)

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.

0:31Justin: Back to regular scheduled programming. I have watched games. Good. You have watched games.

0:37Andrew: It's true.

0:38Justin: We know what's happening.

0:40Andrew: It's feels like that has to be debated, I think.

0:46Justin: Yeah. Fair. Yeah.

0:47Andrew: Good.

0:47Justin: Not to over compensate.

0:50Andrew: Absolutely. We don't want to over promise and under deliver. We want to under promise and over deliver and.

0:57Justin: Well, deliver. Let's not. Let's not say over deliver.

1:01Andrew: Yeah, perhaps just deliver in general. Right? Perhaps. Maybe.

1:06Justin: Yeah. Yeah, perhaps. So tonight, we of course, are always recording on Wednesday night. So Tonight is the McElbow's top prospect tournament. So the who? The McElbo's. McMuffin. What's his name? Goat.

1:18Andrew: The McGoated.

1:21Justin: The MC crying at the end of the season guy. Yeah.

1:24Andrew: The playing in June guy.

1:28Justin: Well, yeah, all players are playing in June. Just some are playing different games.

1:33Andrew: Do you remember when you had that core on the Flames? You had that nice core of a team.

1:40Justin: You remember?

1:40Andrew: And you were really competitive and excited because what happened to that team?

1:46Justin: Yeah, they. They all quit and went and got other jobs. Yeah.

1:51Andrew: Because 97 was in the division.

1:54Justin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we got some games to recap. So we. We played the triple header. The triple header is so brutal and we have so many. I think we're over the hump of them. The majority of our triple headers are done for the season, but we played so many of them.

2:17Andrew: Yeah, that's good news.

2:18Justin: And yes, this was an awful. This was an onslaught. This was top teams.

2:23Andrew: It was. It was really talented teams.

2:25Justin: Yeah.

2:26Andrew: Yeah.

2:28Justin: So. So of course we played the Steelheads on Friday and we lost five to two. We played the Colts on Saturday and we had a strong game winning 4 to 1. And then we played Saginaw on Sunday and lost in overtime four to three. So, you know, it was a. It was a solid.500 weekend.

2:46Andrew: Yeah. I mean, getting three points in a triple header is a positive thing, I think, for sure.

2:53Justin: You know, Brampton, they had bought some stuff. And so at Barry, they had both like, you know, at the trade deadline last week had loaded up, so it was like, I don't know what we're in for, but we went.

3:05Andrew: That's true. That's true. I mean, the Rangers stood pat. They didn't do anything. Yep. They brought in Christian Humphreys who played top line right away and. Which was another thing we got wrong.

3:18Justin: Yeah.

3:20Andrew: As we had. It used to Recap. In the earlier episodes when we had absolutely no confidence in ourselves as ODD as AudPod hosts, and we've kind of shied away from that, but we still get things horribly wrong. Christian Humphreys is just the first line center, I guess.

3:37Justin: You know, it's hard to compare these leagues, right? Like, he. He was playing ncaa. His. His numbers were pineapple.

3:43Andrew: Yeah.

3:44Justin: His national team play suggested that he did have some pretty superior talent, and he came in and showed it immediately.

3:53Andrew: Right away. Yeah. Although I. I will say he kind of got mugged in that first game. But we'll get into that when we're. We're recapping.

4:01Justin: Let's get into it.

4:02Andrew: Yeah.

4:03Justin: Rampton.

4:03Andrew: Rampton. All right, so that was a game. That was a. Well, you know what? I'll say it. 45 minutes of it was a great game.

4:13Justin: Kitchener was the better team for. Yeah. That 45. The last 45 minutes. Well, the last five minutes, they were probably not the best team. And then the first 10 minutes, they were definitely not the best team. And then the rest of it, they were by far the best team.

4:26Andrew: They were by far the best team at points during that game. And unfortunately, they came out very flat. Nobody was skating. They were doing a lot of puck. Watching Brampton came in there, it looked like on a mission to make a statement. And Carson Rakop was a big part of that.

4:45Justin: Yeah, I think he remembered how much he likes scoring at the Aud Yeah,

4:49Andrew: he had two goals and an assist. He was the second star of that game. He was in top form to play at the Aud His interview was really nice. It was that he said that, like, it'll always be home and he'll always follow the Rangers. And you could tell that he's a Ranger at heart. He's doing what he has to do to play hockey. This year in Brampton, it made me feel kind of sad because I felt like, man, not that we need Carson Rakop, but imagine.

5:19Justin: Yeah. I mean, he's so talent. We knew this. We talked. We talked about him so much in the preseason. You know, we're. We're still pulling for him in the NHL. We're pulling for him to have a great career going forward. But, yeah, it's. It's hard to see how good he is and have it happen again. I know, but also, it's just, like, crazy showing how he was the taxi squad in the world juniors.

5:43Andrew: Ridiculous.

5:45Justin: Had a breakaway at the beginning of this game. He was by himself. There was no pressure on him. He had a straight breakaway and that was one of the lamest experiences I've ever seen. No Andrew Team Canada lost. Like, lamest experience. Your top line and Carzen Rakoff is not playing. What is happening?

6:04Andrew: It was the lamest breakaway experience since the shootout with Easton Cowan, the world juniors, where he did the triple pumpernickel. And it wasn't anything. If you're going to do a triple fake, you have to score.

6:17Justin: You've made your bed, you have to score.

6:20Andrew: And apparently somebody dug up a clip of him scoring in the OHL on that. On that move. So, I mean, I don't know if that goalie did his homework, but if he did unbelievable research levels to be like, if I'm ever in a shootout, what's he going to do? Which I think is probably a bit doubtful. But I. Yeah, everything was. Everything was lame about that. That shootout. Except for the Latvian goalie and I mean, and the Canadian goalie, they had lots of chances to win. However, going back to this game, speaking of goalies who were not lame, Jack Ivankovic, which I kept wanting to call him Ivankovic.

6:55Justin: Oh, you really got the Justin Born going on these names these days.

6:57Andrew: Yeah, something's happening, man.

6:59Justin: We've we Friday or something on this perhaps. Perh.

7:03Andrew: Yeah, he stopped 35 of 37. He was kind of the issue for the Rangers after they got their act together. Of course, the Rangers went down four to nothing in the first 10 minutes.

7:17Justin: In 10 minutes? Yes. Not the first period. The first 10 minutes.

7:21Andrew: First half of the first period. They were down 4 to nothing. I was like, oh, is this going to like, are we somehow regressing back to. Because this happened last year. I didn't. Yeah, I didn't follow the Rangers as closely, obviously last year, but this happened last year where the Rangers were first in the conference and then took a nosedive after Christmas. And I was like, oh, no, is this the identity of this team? And no, they came back, they fought, they fought back. It was 4 to 2 after one.

7:54Justin: That game could have easily. Like the Rangers had enough of enough high danger chances that they could have. If Ivankovic hadn't been insane, they could have. It could have easily been a 5, 5 game that went to overtime. The Rangers had some amazing chances. Pridm Lamb, you know, Misaljevic, there was that one. What was that one? Crazy tic tac toe passing play. I think it was Swick Humphries and. And I can't remember who it was. Anyways, there was. It was three passes, wasn't it Pridham. Pridham was the Finisher on it. Yeah, for sure. But he, like Ivan Kovic, just saved it. Like he shouldn't have been able to get from his left post to his right post that quickly. And speaking of that was moving so fast.

8:37Andrew: They hit the post twice.

8:39Justin: Yes.

8:39Andrew: One was the commentary Tommy Kut fooled and actually thought it was an incredible save. I thought it was, too, because the angle. And then when you saw back, it was a post. And then very shortly after that, there was another post. So, like, that could have been four to four. We could be talking about this unbelievable comeback. Wasn't in the cards. You know, Tanner Lam had a goal. Max Dirracolo had a goal. He, who's been playing like we highlighted him last week, he's been playing great. Continues to play great. I mean, you know, Lamb Pridham and Ellen is on the power play. They're just so talented.

9:16Justin: Masterclass.

9:17Andrew: It's nice to see Lamb on the power play. I guess he's on. I guess that's the second power play. I have no idea because it's.

9:24Justin: We've talked about this in the past. We do not know what power play is, which power play. But no, this one looked great. That one, when they were out there, they looked fantastic.

9:32Andrew: Bottom line, they ended up out shooting Brampton, I think not counting the first period, the Aud chanced Brampton probably fairly heavily. They got stonewalled. They hit the post, is what it is. You kind of go, well, we screwed that up early on. We'll take accountability for that and we'll move on.

9:50Justin: Yeah. Where were the penalties? There was like, no penalties called in this.

9:55Andrew: I don't want to complain too much about the refereeing because they were down 4 to nothing early.

10:01Justin: Yeah.

10:01Andrew: But I will say that was one of the worst officiated games of the season.

10:05Justin: And we really don't want to complain about officiating, but it keeps coming up and I just don't want it to.

10:11Andrew: No. And I, like I said, I don't want, like, I want to take accountability. If you're down four to nothing and, you know, in 10 minutes in, it's fine. Like, you know, you know, kind of sounds like sour grapes. But the second period. Well, first of all, in the first period, actually just throughout the game, Christian Humphreys, it was like a welcome to the league kid kind of vibe because why was he getting assaulted on every play and there was no call and it was like, clearly interference. At the very least, maybe roughing.

10:41Justin: Yeah, it was pretty egregious. Like, it didn't make any sense. Yeah, it was Definitely interference. Because they just kept messing with him when he didn't have the puck.

10:49Andrew: Away from the puck.

10:50Justin: Yeah, he just couldn't get into position ever, because they were just all over him.

10:55Andrew: I was shocked that the officiating was as bad as it was. I was disappointed because Kitchener only had two power plays and they scored on one.

11:04Justin: Yes.

11:05Andrew: And honestly, I kind of feel like, if you want to say that that was the difference in the game, then that was kind of the difference in the game because I just thought it was egregious, like the things that were not being called in the second period, especially the third period, you know, it. I feel like the game tends to tighten up. Referees tend to only call more egregious things in the OHL in the third period. But in the second period, there was things where I was just like, how is that on a penalty, he just tripped him. He just tripped him in the open ice. Everyone saw. It was. It was bizarre.

11:41Justin: Going back to speaking about accountability, they. They were accountable because they came back on Saturday against Barry and won 4 to 1 in what. In what was a very dominant Rangers game against a very good Barrie Colts. Like, not to discredit the Aud all.

11:59Andrew: I was shocked. I was shocked at what seemed like a gap in talent, ability. I don't know. Effort, I guess, because I think Barry's talented and Barry has a good record. And Barry went out and, like, picked some people up and made some deals, and they're going in. However, they were outshot 17 to 8 in the first period and 41 to 23 in the game.

12:24Justin: Yes.

12:25Andrew: And at no point they were up.

12:28Justin: They were up six shots to one after the first five minutes. So six of those 23 shots came in the first five minutes.

12:35Andrew: That's true. At no point did they seem like they were in this game.

12:39Justin: No. And I want to take it. I want to take it back to the Rangers. I think the Rangers came out and just shut down Barry. Like, I don't think Barry has some very talented players. I think they could have gotten out, I think. I think because of the game the night before. I think the Rangers came out and they wanted to prove that they are not being kicked around this league. And they came out and. And shut down Barry. Like, Adno andonofsky was insane. McNeil and Diricolo laid some of the best hits of the season in this game against Berry. There was. There was a physical presence to this game that maybe we haven't seen to this extent against any other team yet this season.

13:22Andrew: Yeah. It was basically end to end, every zone, all three zones. It was domination. And it was one of those things where we saw Christian Humphreys get his first goal of the season, of his career, of his OHL career. In the first period, they shook it up a little bit. They put Swick and Priddham on his wings, which. I like that. I like that line combination. I just think you've got a top six where all these guys play a team game. From what I can tell, it doesn't seem like anybody is a selfish player among those guys.

13:55Justin: No. Well, Swick and Pridham have so much good chemistry that you can. You could saddle pretty much anybody with the Aud they'd look good. But Humphries added to that line, which was.

14:05Andrew: He did. I'm excited to see more of him moving forward. And of course, Cameron Reid had a goal in this one, which would have been the game winner. He's just like, we'll talk more about him in the next game. But he is. Yeah, I mean, he was. He was named top 10 on that scouting list. Who was that? Craig button of TSN named him number 10. So he has Matthew Schaefer, number one. He's got Porter Martone number three, Misa number five. And then Cameron Reid number 10. As far as the oh Hellers are

14:40Justin: concerned, which has been moved up. Like, Cameron Reid the lowest we saw him, I think, was in the maybe early second round, and he's moved up. He was sort of at the probably the November mark. He was sitting around the 15 to 20 range. Then I saw him as high as 11 shortly after that. And now this is again the highest we've seen him at 10. So obviously, what. What the scouts are seeing is the same things that we're seeing is that Cameron Reid is phenomenal player. Yeah. Do it all.

15:12Andrew: Unbelievable skater. He has great puck senses. He is able to jump up in the play seamlessly. I remember the first couple games, I honestly was like, is he a defenseman? Not. Because he was not a responsible defenseman. That's what's crazy about it all, is he also just plays a responsible game.

15:32Justin: Yeah.

15:32Andrew: But what's crazy is that, like, he has, like, a offensive ability that makes him look more like a forward when he's in the offensive zone attacking. It was great to see him get the game winner in this one, but Jack Pridham got an empty netter and basically, yeah, Ellen has had a couple assists and Misaljevic and Romano got in on it. And Chromiak had a point as well.

15:57Justin: Speaking of Chromiak Parsons got hit a little bit in the third period and Chromiak went ballistic. Did you see this? Yes. He lost his mind at. I don't even know who it was that hit Parsons. It wasn't that big of a hit, but it was like. You could tell that Chromiak took that very personally. I just, I just love seeing how Chromiak has fit into this team. And just like, he's just stand. He's in it. He stands up for Parsons. He stands up for everyone. He's so awesome.

16:26Andrew: He's a Ranger. He's absolutely a Ranger. He's a great team player. I think he's a great defenseman. I think he's got a future playing hockey somewhere. For sure.

16:36Justin: Yeah.

16:38Andrew: Speaking of guys who have fit in, it was the Grizz, Chris Grizzolia. It was his return to Barry, so we got him from Barry. He played an inspired game too. He didn't, he didn't register on the, on the score sheet, but he, he had some chances and he just, you know, it's always. I think it's always kind of bittersweet when you're going back somewhere where you've played your whole career.

17:00Justin: Yeah.

17:01Andrew: As a young, as a young kid like this and he performed well and he, you know, he didn't. He didn't take the night off because he's playing against his buddies, let's put it that way.

17:09Justin: Yeah, he. He still. He still wanted to perform. Yeah, for sure. I found the numbers really hard to read on this broadcast. I don't know about you. I was having a really hard time telling the players from the players. And I think the announcers were struggling too, because they were not saying Ranger names at all. Like, they were not. They were just saying all the, all the Colts players. And then they were just saying. And the Ranger gets it in the wing.

17:32Andrew: How about the. The illegal equipment penalty that happened?

17:36Justin: Oh, I missed that one late in the.

17:38Andrew: Late in the game. Yeah.

17:39Justin: What happened?

17:40Andrew: The Barrie Colts player got a penalty for. I don't know if it was a stick or whatever, but it was. It wasn't exp. Explained very well and I just saw that it was illegal equipment and I thought that was strange. So that's not something you see every day. I assume it was a stick because what else would be a two minute miner?

18:01Justin: Maybe he didn't have his fight strap on.

18:03Andrew: Isn't that an ejection, though?

18:05Justin: Oh, I don't know.

18:05Andrew: Just a funny little nugget.

18:07Justin: Definitely. And then on Sunday we played the Saginaw Spirit. They brought some spirit to this game.

18:12Andrew: They did.

18:13Justin: And they won it 4 to 3 in overtime. But it was still a good game. It was actually. It was pretty close. Like, you could tell it could have went either way. It didn't really feel like either team had the edge necessarily on the other Tommy Kut Rangers were behind at one point in this game, and it seemed like it was going to be an uphill battle for them to get back in it.

18:35Andrew: Yeah, I, I, unfortunately, I didn't see this game live. I did see and wanted to point out, obviously, that Le Char was in the lineup because it was Saginaw, and things get spicy with Saginaw. And he scored. He did, like, right away, like, in the first 10 minutes.

18:52Justin: Not only was Lechar in this game, Lechar was an agent of chaos in this game. He and Arquette were all over the ice. His forechecking was amazing. And what led to his goal was a, like, a destructive hit from a forecheck that it was just like so much chaos by lechar. Arquette was there supporting him the whole time. Just gave him back the puck, and he was by himself in front of the net. It was amazing. Everybody was like, didn't want to be near Leuchar, so he was just by himself in front of the net. It was great. That's great.

19:26Andrew: And that's the edge that he brings. And. Yeah, and I think he hasn't been playing a lot of hockey. So when he gets in there and he's a game changer when he gets in there, that's huge. So I would like to see more of Matthew Hlacar I know he plays a role, and he thrives in that role. And it's hard to get in this lineup, man, because there's talented hockey players and deep, deep. You can't sit, you know, some of these guys at all.

19:50Justin: Straight up.

19:51Andrew: They cannot sit. So it's hard to get in this lineup. So it's great to see a guy who's kind of the 13th forward, as it were, get in there and play really well. However, I will say, speaking of spirit, Cam Reed. Cameron Reid had a bite. He had a goal, which was unbelievable, and tied it up late in the third. And it's just. Remember when we said that the. The Jack Pridham overtime goal was an NHL goal. This was another one of those where it was, this is a professional hockey player scoring a beautiful goal. Cameron Reid tied it up and. But this was after he had a fight in the second period. I Don't like seeing that.

20:30Justin: I don't like seeing. I don't like seeing the fights. But he was standing up for teammates and you know, absolutely. I, it's. It goes back to the Chromiak thing earlier there. He's a Ranger and that is a part of his identity in his game right now. For sure.

20:44Andrew: For sure. I mean it's, you know, he has to be. If there was Vegas odds, he has to be the odds on favorite to wear the C next next season.

20:52Justin: Right?

20:53Andrew: I would think so. Like he's, you know, he's going to get drafted high. Yeah. It just feels like that's the way it's going.

20:59Justin: The rest of the game was interesting. Second period was a little rough. They got scored on twice and they kind of came out flat footed. They came out in the second, the top of the second period. Like they came out at the top of the first period against Brampton. That's what it felt like.

21:14Andrew: Thankfully it didn't lead to four goals,

21:15Justin: but there was a little bit of flatness to their game. I mean, you're three games in three days in two different cities. Like, you know, I get it. But also it's like these are the games you gotta, gotta stick in so that, that you know what, to, to

21:31Andrew: get a point in this game is huge.

21:34Justin: Right?

21:34Andrew: Because Saginaw doesn't have a good record. Honestly. They have a fine record, but they don't have the record I thought they'd have coming into the season.

21:41Justin: No, they are underperforming compared to what everyone thought they would be doing.

21:46Andrew: It almost feels like a Freaky Friday situation where I think most people would have thought that the Rangers would have had a Saginaw's record, which is close to 500. The Rangers are at the top of the conference, challenging for second right now and sitting in third. I think that this is a talented team that can beat you any given night. So to go into overtime and fight back and get that point on a triple header weekend which I honestly sometimes can't believe exists.

22:14Justin: I can't believe they do AudPod.

22:15Andrew: Yes, but they do it.

22:17Justin: They do. There was a couple things near the end of this game that I, I didn't, I didn't love seeing. He got a, he got a checking to the head penalty in, in the second period. It. It was a, it was a bad momentum play, which is unfortunate. And I also think like, you know, he probably deserved the penalty regardless, so.

22:36Andrew: Sure.

22:36Justin: You know, it was one of those things where I'm like, I hope this doesn't end up in a suspension. I don't. I haven't seen one, so I don't think that is the case. But Reed. Reed got punched in the back of the head during this game, and it was pretty dirty. And I also haven't seen a suspension for that one. And I. And I don't quite understand. So he got. He was. He kind of got bopped around a bit. He got in the fight, he dropped to the ground, and the guy started punching him in the back of the head and. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty egregious. So I. I don't. I don't love that. And I'm surprised that there hasn't been a suspension.

23:08Andrew: They don't usually. I feel like if. If it's a willing fight, they don't usually suspend people based on the results of the fight. You know what I mean?

23:17Justin: Like, sure.

23:18Andrew: I mean, what's crazier is I don't think anybody got suspended in Erie for the. The after the. The game stuff.

23:25Justin: Yeah, no. And that so felt like similar.

23:28Andrew: Bizarre. So.

23:29Justin: Especially for how hard they were going on the suspensions at the beginning of the season.

23:33Andrew: Yes. That's the thing is I'm not saying like, oh, suspend everybody. I'm not like, you know, suspension happy, but this league was suspension happy early in the season. Everybody was getting suspended. Right. Like, it's. It seemed like it was like you were just. Guys were out of the lineup. You thought, are they injured or are they suspended? Which brings me to the next thing. The Eleanis injury. This is the thing that they don't show on the highlights. They don't show the fighting. They don't show the rough stuff, the penalties, and they don't show like an injury. And I understand why they don't do it. But for somebody who needs to, like, watch a recap because they have an AudPod.

24:09Justin: Yeah. They shouldn't help cater more to the AudPod is what they're trying to say. They have to.

24:14Andrew: Yes. They're stealing our ideas, so they need to cater to us. They couldn't possibly have the same ideas as us.

24:20Justin: I didn't really see what the injury was either. So he left the game sort of midway through, and then he never came back. And I have not heard if he's out or not. Have you?

24:30Andrew: I haven't heard anything, but I saw scary tweets about it. I heard like, dislocated shoulder.

24:36Justin: Yeah, that's. That's what the announcers were saying is that it sounded like a dislocated shoulder in the way he was. He was holding his shoulder when he left the ice, so that's not good. Sean Furfaro also sounded less than pleased about what he saw with him going down the tunnel.

24:50Andrew: Oh, man.

24:51Justin: Yeah, I didn't, I didn't quite see what, what happened.

24:53Andrew: That is not good.

24:55Justin: No, not.

24:56Andrew: And not only that, the day after the trade deadline, like, couldn't be worse times.

25:03Justin: No. So hopefully, hopefully he's okay. Hopefully it's just a, you know, a little bit of a bang up. Maybe you'll miss a few games, but hopefully that's all it is. So.

25:10Andrew: Yeah, absolutely.

25:12Justin: Great. So that's, that's our, that was our games. Who were, who were your. Who were your three stars of the week? Andrew?

25:20Andrew: Unfortunately, I went with the good, bad and the ugly. And I'll tell you my reasoning. It was a.500 weekend and I don't think that it was a negative weekend by any means. However, if you're counting wins and losses, strictly wins and losses, it was two losses and one win. Now, one was overtime and so they got a point. So it was three points out of three games.

25:42Justin: I went with the.500 points percentage and went with the three stars, so.

25:46Andrew: Well, that's exciting.

25:48Justin: So what's your good?

25:49Andrew: My good was the bounce back in the Berry Gate. So it's a broad generalization, but I felt like the whole team just bounced back really well going into Barry. Second game of a triple header and they really could have packed it in this weekend in starting in Barry, after coming out really flat against Rampton, just had that bad three game weekend that they haven't had all year. They haven't had a week where it's just been since the beginning where it's been bad. So I have to say the bounce back coming out and being dominant in Barry was my good.

26:29Justin: Okay. So my first star, first star is Mike McKenzie because he kept just signing these amazing NCAA players. So we've sure did. We've experienced so many of the Aud Christian Humphreys is just the cherry on top of this season of signing amazing players without giving away any draft capital.

26:47Andrew: Honestly, honestly, that's so much better than trading because you're strengthening someone with a trade. I was like, I Sam O'Reilly saw like reporters and hockey journalists saying like, oh, the Rangers stand pat. They don't do anything at the deadline. I'm like, what are you talking about? We brought in a D1 center.

27:04Justin: Yeah.

27:05Andrew: To center the front, the first line.

27:08Justin: Like, give me a break. We got it. We got everything we needed. Out of not trading.

27:13Andrew: And we didn't exactly. And we didn't make anyone better. So that's, that's. I think you're, you're bang on with your first star.

27:21Justin: All right, what's your bad?

27:22Andrew: Okay, my bad. We talked about it a little bit. The officiating. The officiating wasn't good in either of the two games that I watched. That's not to say that it wasn't horrendous in Brampton. It was, but it also wasn't great in Barry. There was some stuff going both ways. I hate to make it a generalized thing like that, but that really kind of struck me as something that didn't seem like it was a problem earlier in the season. And I'm not sure if it's because now we're going down the stretch.

27:56Justin: Yeah. Getting close to playoffs. Starting to call things. Yeah.

28:00Andrew: It seems like we're back to like, you get a penalty, then they get a penalty. It seems very predictable that way of trading penalties. And I don't like that. I don't like that kind of officiating. And I felt like earlier in the year that wasn't a problem. What's your second star, Justin?

28:17Justin: My second star is the Pridam Humphrey Swick line, specifically in the Berry game where they had 12 shots, nine of which were high danger shots and four points in that game. They were unstoppable and I really enjoyed watching them play. And Humphreys got his first goal, so,

28:36Andrew: you know that's true.

28:37Justin: Yeah. Win, win, win, Andrew.

28:38Andrew: Yeah.

28:38Justin: Yeah.

28:39Andrew: Win, win, win, win.

28:40Justin: Yeah. Wait. Win, win, win. And we won the game. Win, win, win, win. Lose, lose. And win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win. Okay, and what is your ugly.

28:47Andrew: I mean, it's obvious it was the start against Brampton that was the worst they played since the Windsor loss. What happened?

28:55Justin: Yeah, I don't know.

28:57Andrew: I mean, like, Brampton honestly is just not a powerhouse the way that we all thought that they were going to be. But they looked like it against the Rangers in that first 10 minutes.

29:10Justin: I kind of hope that we didn't unleash the beast in that first 10 minutes.

29:14Andrew: Yeah, I, I kind of got the vibe. I was like, is it like, did they. Were they. Are they like, you know, now they're turning it on like they kind of floated around and now it's, now it's time to like play some serious hockey in Brampton, you know, like.

29:27Justin: Well, you think that they had a few players who were at the world Juniors and this was their first game back from being embarrassed and. And they've been embarrassed for the first half of the season. So maybe this is the Brampton reckoning that is coming.

29:39Andrew: That's not great.

29:41Justin: Nope.

29:41Andrew: Because they're a very talented team. They are. But I think that I still favor the Rangers in that because I think honestly that was the worst the Rangers have played and they were two posts from tying that game.

29:54Justin: Yeah.

29:55Andrew: After a horrendous start.

29:56Justin: So realistically it took out that first 10 minutes. The Rangers. Nobody would think that the Rampton was

30:01Andrew: better than the Rangers.

30:02Justin: My third star is Tanner Lam from this the weekend. He had an assist and a goal this weekend and. But more than those two points, he was driving play. He was creating chances. He was working hard. He threw a hit at one point. I don't remember which game it was, but he hit somebody and it looked like it hurt the other guy who was much bigger than him. And I was like, go Tanner Lam The laminator. The laminator. He laminated that larger fella. So there. There we go. Yeah. All right. News around the ohl. I mean the exciting news is that the Hyman family and your. Your best friend Zach Hyman bought the. Just the.

30:42Andrew: The sweetest man I have. I have his children's books.

30:46Justin: That's great. He wrote.

30:47Andrew: I'll let you borrow them.

30:49Justin: Really? He's a.

30:50Andrew: He's a published children's author. It's very cool. He writes good stuff too. They're nice books.

30:55Justin: I hate that he plays for the Oilers because he seems like a really nice guy.

30:58Andrew: What a sweetheart. What a likable human being he is.

31:02Justin: That.

31:03Andrew: That was the best part. If you don't know. Last year some knucklehead reporter in Quotations said that he wouldn't be where he was if his family wasn't rich. And yes, he comes from a well to do family. I believe his. His dad was in real estate. Like whatever. Don't begrudge the guy. The guy is a 50 goal scorer in the NHL. He's a hard worker. He's a children's author now. He owns an OHL team. Like the guy just seems like such a good dude. So. Yeah, I just love that that that knucklehead is somewhere cowering, being like, why

31:40Justin: does he just keep winning?

31:42Andrew: So it's pretty cool that an NHL or a current NHL or owns an OHL team.

31:46Justin: Yeah. So. So I didn't even finish saying the whole thing that his. Him and his family bought the. The Brantford Bulldogs. One thing that I really like about it is that they've really committed and they're working with Brantford to make the Bulldogs stay in Brantford. That's a part of their mission. They bought it from Michael Landauer, who is the now the sens majority owner. And. And he just doesn't want to. He. He felt too. Too thinly stretched. So he wanted to sell it to someone who cared about this team. And it feels like. Feels like the steps that the Hyman's have already taken is to. Is to make this team better. So.

32:21Andrew: And that's such an awesome thing for Brantford. Now all we need is for the realignment after expansion realignment. We need Brantford in our division because they're like what, 25, 30 minutes? Well, I think it's more like 45 minutes away, but it's.

32:38Justin: It's. Yeah, locationer for sure.

32:40Andrew: 25 minutes from you.

32:41Justin: It's. It's less than 20 to get to the new Branford Costco.

32:44Andrew: So there you go. So, yeah, we've got to get that division rivalry going eventually once they're in our division.

32:53Justin: Yeah, that'll be. That'll be great. I think it'll be super fun. NHL moment of the week. You got an NHL moment of the week, Andrew?

33:00Andrew: I. Honestly, I do not, Justin. So I didn't know we were doing that segment again.

33:05Justin: I'll jump in with mine because I think it was. It's a good moment. So former Ohl Soo Greyhounds Rory Kierans got his NHL debut for the Calgary Flames on Monday and he got his first NHL point 12 seconds into the game. And I think, well, that's fun. That's lovely. He got an assist and then he ended up. He ended up getting two assists in the game. What a debut. It was awesome. That's.

33:30Andrew: That is fun.

33:31Justin: Yeah.

33:32Andrew: It's too bad he plays for a team that gave up a couple years ago.

33:35Justin: They have not given up. They have not given up.

33:39Andrew: The players haven't given up.

33:40Justin: They are in a playoff spot when we should be 27th in the league.

33:45Andrew: Yeah, that's what you need to do, Justin.

33:48Justin: I know. Don't you understand, bitch?

33:49Andrew: You need to do.

33:52Justin: I know that's what we need to do. But like, we just don't have that loser mentality, so we can't do it.

33:58Andrew: You have.

33:59Justin: You have to play the game. You have to. Well, they are. That's the thing. The players keep. Yeah, it's true.

34:06Andrew: I. I just think that the.

34:07Justin: The young franchise got too good too

34:09Andrew: fast and they just want to always flounder in like. Are we gonna make the playoffs.

34:16Justin: They love the 17th position. It is their favorite position.

34:20Andrew: How are you going to beat like a team like Colorado or Edmonton or even like last year's Vancouver if you're just barely scraping in? I don't know. I love it because it's. I'd rather, I'd rather Calgary make it and, and we have a battle of Alberta.

34:36Justin: Those are so fun. And yeah, it be very mismatched suspect if the Flames make it into the playoffs, it will look a little, a little bit like Washington looked last year.

34:45Andrew: That's true. Washington had no business.

34:48Justin: I don't really want them to make like. Don't want to ever say that. I want to see them lose. I don't want to see them in a top spot though. Like, I know.

34:55Andrew: Well, that's, that's the thing, man. Living through the been through the decade of darkness, man, you don't want to see your team pick first overall that many times. You don't want to see your, your, your team picking in the top three, in the top five, lots and stuff like that. But the weird thing is is you look at these really successful franchises and I'm not, I'm not talking about my favorite team. I'm talking about like the ones that have actually won cops and built, yeah, dynasties or just like one more than one cup. And they do, they just get the like supreme talent and then they just

35:28Justin: gotta, you gotta bottom out at some point before you can get to the top for sure. So it is what it is. But Rory Kierans had a great NHL debut. Former OHLer Sue Graham.

35:39Andrew: Congrats, kid.

35:40Justin: Congrats, kid. All right, so we got, we got three games coming up this week. Luckily it's not a triple header. So we got a, we got a Friday night game at home at the Aud as always against the Flint Fighter Birds. We haven't seen them since the beginning of the season. Firebirds. Firebirds.

35:59Andrew: Our, our, our, our first ever game that we went to together.

36:03Justin: Yes.

36:03Andrew: Was against Flint.

36:04Justin: Flint Spider Birds. Firebirds. And then Sunday we see our old pals for the second and final time, the Brampton Steelheads. So hopefully we can show the Aud what in this one. Maybe show up for the first 10 minutes and then.

36:20Andrew: Yeah, just play 60 minutes instead of 45.

36:23Justin: Yeah, that would be great. And then Tuesday we play London. It's a pretty hefty schedule. Flint. Flint's not bad. Like they're not great. They're, they're sitting, they're sitting third in the Western Division, sixth in the Western Conference, we're 101 against them. Hopefully we can, we can come back and just feed them.

36:42Andrew: Absolutely. And at that London game, I will say of the people that interact with us, second only to Rangers fans, Knights fans love to comment on our stuff and reply to our posts and stuff. It warms our. The cockles cockles of me at. We love that the Knights fans comment on our stuff because we know it's.

37:06Justin: It's driving engagement for us community building in the Ohl through trolling.

37:13Andrew: Yeah. And listen, here's the thing. I will roast you if you comment on our stuff. I have been commenting and insulting people on the Internet longer than most of these kids commenting on our. On our page have been alive. So you know, if you want to

37:30Justin: go to toe to toe with somebody

37:31Andrew: who grew up when the Internet wasn't serious business, that's up to you.

37:36Justin: So since we haven't seen Flint in a while, a couple, a couple updates, I was trying to look for some interesting stats on them. When you look at the OHL league leader page. So it's like tons and tons of stats. The top five guys in each stat block. The only one that Flint has a player in is penalty minute leaders with your pal Conor Clattenberg is sitting in third. But, but you know who's beating him at penalty minutes? Our dear friend, Mr. Andalorian.

38:08Andrew: Nice.

38:10Justin: Sitting second. So we're better at everything. Everything. And then they, they, they actually made a acquisition recently. They picked up Sam McHugh who's the Leafs prospect and he instantly.

38:21Andrew: That was an odd trade.

38:22Justin: It was because it doesn't feel like they're in a place to be picking up that kind of player who is.

38:26Andrew: But Sam McHugh had more draft picks attached to him coming across than what was going back.

38:34Justin: So it was weird.

38:36Andrew: The other guy is better? I have no idea. I don't understand.

38:39Justin: But Sammy Q instantly became their goals and points leader even though he got most of those on a different team. Hasn't been a great year for our Scottish friends there, Lynn.

38:48Andrew: Sam McHugh.

38:50Justin: Sam McHugh. All right, now we are at the point of our show where we are talking about the greatest ranger of all time. The girl greatest ranger of all time. We have done 21 of the Soo far. So Andrew, bring us number 22.

39:08Andrew: Number 22. He was born September 29, 1964 in Windsor, Andrew Canada. He's 6 foot 1, 185 pounds and he plays center and shoots right. The coveted right shot center. He played with the Rangers for three seasons, including his rookie year in 1981, 1982, where he played 67 games and contributed 16 goals, 32 assists, 48 points. Pretty good for a rookie. In the 15 games of his playoff career in that season, he had two goals and five points. And of course, they won the Memorial Cup in 1982. So he was a rookie on that team, which is pretty exciting.

39:56Justin: That's cool.

39:57Andrew: And then a lot of those guys who were great players after 1981, 82, they kind of went along and, you know, blossomed into great NHL superstars.

40:08Justin: In the NHL. Yeah. No big deal, actually.

40:10Andrew: Hall of Famers. No big deal. Yeah. This guy was a rookie. So this was his. His sophomore season. He's coming in. Oh, my goodness, what a season it was. In 70 games, he scored 60 goals and had 80 assists for 140 points. Two points a game, two points a

40:34Justin: game the whole season.

40:36Andrew: That's unbelievable. And then, unfortunately, he dealt with injury in his third season. He only played 39 games for the Rangers in his third season. But get this. I had to check. I was confused. I was like, did he regress? Did he regress or something? No. He only had 39 games played. He had 40 goals, 60 assists for a hundred points in 39 games. And he had 30 points in the playoffs that season in 12 games. He had 12 goals, 18 assists for 30 points in that playoff run. He is then unfortunately drafted first overall by Buffalo in 1983.

41:17Justin: However, death curse. First overall.

41:19Andrew: Buffalo's good, right? He plays in Buffalo. Buffalo's never really good. I feel bad for them.

41:24Justin: You don't win with Buffalo. That's.

41:26Andrew: I feel so bad for them. He plays in Buffalo from. He actually played 21 games in his 83, 84 season. He got called up basically, at the end, and he had 16 points in 21 games. So he looks like a slam dunk. He goes on to play parts of six seasons with the Sabres. He's never fully healthy. He never plays a full season with them. However, his best season came in 1985, 86, where he had 31 goals, 34 assists for 65 points. He generally is very productive throughout the first five, six years in the league, but injuries get the best of him. He also played, which was really fun. He played for a team called HC Asiago in the Italian League.

42:11Justin: He put up.

42:12Andrew: He put up 88 points in 36

42:15Justin: games and was the MVP of the league. His league? Yeah, the MVP of that league.

42:20Andrew: And that was actually in between Washington and Tampa. So he went to Italy and just owned face and then came back.

42:29Justin: He had a gap year.

42:30Andrew: Yeah, he had a gap year, exactly. He just owned face. The cool thing is he actually went back there and coached for HC Asiago for a little while and he won a couple championships back to back for the Aud which you'd think perhaps he's Italian. However, nothing about who this man is seems Italian. So with that, I'll tell you my group candidate, one of the greatest single season performers of all time in Rangers history. With the 140 point season and the 30 point playoff run in 12 games. My group this week is Mr. John Tucker.

43:10Justin: Nice John Tucker.

43:11Andrew: And he must not die. I don't want him to die. That's a movie. John Tucker must die has nothing to do with this. John Tucker. I don't want anything to happen to him.

43:19Justin: Allegedly.

43:20Andrew: Yeah.

43:21Justin: All right. My groat nomination this week was born in Waterloo, Andrew Ooh. Is there like animosity between Kitchener and Waterloo? Like, is it like a Dog river and Woolerton situation or is there anything like that that goes on?

43:38Andrew: I think there is absolutely zero anim. Totally cool with each other.

43:42Justin: They're like.

43:43Andrew: They totally embrace each other.

43:45Justin: Yes. Good. Good for them. Yeah, they're like the black and white cookie. Like harmony in a cookie.

43:51Andrew: More people should be like the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo.

43:55Justin: I think so. I think so too. This player was on that epic 0203 Memorial Cup winning team. And you might say, Justin, we've covered so many players off that team, how could there be any more? Well, we haven't talked about the goalie. He played 177 regular season games with the Kitchener Rangers over five seasons with a goals against average of.297 and a safe percentage of.917 over five seasons. Very impressive. He also played 26 playoff games with 2.27 goals against average and a 9:36 save percentage. Insane.

44:33Andrew: He went next level in the playoffs.

44:35Justin: He was. He's the Bobrovsky of ohl. Like, the dude is just like shows up in playoff Tommy Kut he was not bad in the regular season. Plus he. He played all four Memorial Cup games in 03 and he had a 2.25 goals against average and a 911 save percentage. Obviously they won the Memorial Cup that year. And like, looking at it, I had chatgpt do some graphing for me, which I'm not gonna share because it was kind of ugly. But he has shockingly similar stats to Jackson Parsons. It is. The lines are the same. They're just.

45:10Andrew: I believe it.

45:11Justin: Yeah. So this guy very much embodies the Jackson Parsons of the early aughts.

45:17Andrew: So he would have been the AudPod guy.

45:19Justin: He would have been the Aud guy. If we had been around 20 years ago.

45:23Andrew: Love it. We were around 20 years ago.

45:25Justin: We were. But not the Aud guy he was. Unfortunately, this guy was never drafted into the NHL. After playing with the Rangers, he played a few more years in some senior leagues. He did, he did make it into the AHL at one point, but he still lives in the Kitchener Waterloo region. He teaches hockey. He seems like he's a really terrific community builder. He's just around and does this. He's a part of the community, which is awesome. So my Groat nomination this week is Mr. Scott Dicke.

45:54Andrew: Give it up for Scott Dicke Memorial Cup. That's awesome.

45:57Justin: Groat.

45:58Andrew: I was wondering, I was wondering which of us would end up nominating Scott Dicke because he was on my list and he played an integral role in that Memorial Cup.

46:09Justin: So we've been, we've been punting around an idea with this, with these growth. So we're gonna, we're gonna do the bracket challenge. That's. We're definitely doing that. But we've also been punting around the Aud of, of fantasy drafting a Groat team. If you wanna. If you're interested in the fantasy drafting of a Groat team, let us know. Let us know if you like this idea. This is just something that we're talking about. So, yeah. Want to hear about your Groat nominations? We want to do that. Hit us up on the socials. Andrew, hit us up on the socials. How do we do the socials?

46:41Andrew: You can find us at Theodd podcast on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Yes, we're on TikTok. And if you want to send us an email and talk to us about the history of Kitchener Waterloo, Cambridge or the Aud or the Kitchener Rangers, you can send us an email@theaudpodcastmail.com we'd love to hear from you.

47:01Justin: Of course. As always, we want to thank Kim Born, our director of branding and marketing, always hitting us up. Andrew wearing the hat today. If you're watching the video of this that we never released, you'll see it.

47:13Andrew: We'll post a clip.

47:15Justin: Of course we want to thank our prodigal producer, Liam, the phenom. And as always, you can find us

47:23Andrew: at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

47:28Justin: You let me say it. I did.