27: Firebird Hunting SZN

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:01Andrew: Hey.

0:01Justin: Justin Humphries back.

0:04Andrew: He's coming back.

0:05Justin: Back again.

0:06Andrew: Christian Humphreys has committed to coming back to Kitchener. Yeah.

0:11Justin: Got here.

0:12Andrew: It feels like just a few weeks ago.

0:14Justin: You said a few weeks about him a few times. I know.

0:17Andrew: That's what it feels like, though. Yeah, it really does feel like that. A few months ago. Yeah. And he committed since last episode to coming back, which was never really the plan.

0:29Justin: I thought he was going to college

0:30Andrew: next year, but no, he said, I

0:32Justin: actually don't know how old he is, so maybe he's not even college age.

0:35Andrew: No, he is. He's 19. He was playing with the University of Michigan.

0:38Justin: Oh, yeah.

0:38Andrew: He came here and he said that he got his confidence back here and he loves it here and that he loves playing for his brothers here and that he's staying.

0:46Justin: So he's just OA next year.

0:49Andrew: So we have no. I think he'll still be 2006. I think he's a 2006. I think.

0:55Justin: Yeah.

0:56Andrew: So I think overagers this year were 2004. Yeah. I could be wrong on that. If I'm wrong, he's then 2005. He will be one of the overagers, but cool. I think he's 2006. Great. Makes sense. 19.

1:10Justin: He's fit in so well with this team.

1:12Andrew: Absolutely.

1:12Justin: I think he's a great. He's a great addition. He'll only get better. Win, win, win, win, win.

1:18Andrew: He, I think, would be on track to be like the leading scorer. So.

1:22Justin: Yeah, I think so.

1:23Andrew: Doing awesome.

1:24Justin: We'll talk about that in September. Yeah, exactly. For those of you that follow us on social media, you'll know that we are heavy in the groating. The groat vote.

1:34Andrew: Knee deep in the groat vote.

1:36Justin: And we just have to give, like, first of all, we have to give a huge shout out to Ken Born Yes.

1:42Andrew: Papa Born who made the most incredible player cards.

1:46Justin: They look so.

1:47Andrew: And the bracket and everything. But the player cards look so professional.

1:51Justin: They literally look like hockey cards.

1:53Andrew: They do.

1:54Justin: They're great.

1:54Andrew: I love them.

1:55Justin: Me too. And they look. Yeah. People seem to be really liking them. People seem to be liking the groat vote.

2:00Andrew: Look, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we've already let it slip a few times on social media that maybe there's too many Groats for 32. Perhaps a top 100 Rangers of all time is in the distant future for the AudPod. But I think that the player cards themselves are so beautiful and perfect. That's why I feel like we need to have 100 of them.

2:27Justin: Dad, we're going to need some help.

2:30Andrew: Papa Born.

2:32Justin: Don't worry. We'll do 32 a year. Yeah. And we can do them, like, one at a time.

2:39Andrew: Yeah. We don't need to do them in one weekend.

2:42Justin: Any of you. If you haven't. If you haven't got on the Instagram and got vot. Get over there.

2:46Andrew: Get over there.

2:47Justin: Now is Friday, because we're releasing on Friday. So it's the last day, the last conference of the first round.

2:54Andrew: Exactly.

2:55Justin: Tuesday, Monday, we'll release the bracket. So you'll see who's going into round two, who makes the top 16, and then Tuesday the voting will start. We'll probably do two conferences a day. We're going to finish next week. Yep. So next week, done. We will know who the groat is. Not next Friday, because we'll record before we know, but the following Friday we will announce the groat on the podcast. Probably will have been done on Instagram ahead of time, for sure. Tbd. Yes, but vote. We need the votes.

3:25Andrew: And you can only vote for 24 hours, so it goes up in our story. So every morning that goes up and then you only have 24 hours for the day of voting. And so there will be less matchups every single day now going forward. So get in there and tap away. Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin.

3:55Justin: Take it away, fellas. We got 100 points.

3:59Andrew: We did. On 100 points.

4:03Justin: 100 points for the fourth time. Yes.

4:07Andrew: In franchise history.

4:09Justin: Correct. It's. It's pretty remarkable. It's very remarkable.

4:13Andrew: Bubble team rebuilding.

4:15Justin: Yeah. Yeah. September, we sat here in this room and talked about the fact that we might not make the playoffs.

4:24Andrew: We were on the fence about whether or not they'd be a 500 hockey team.

4:29Justin: Yes, that. We'll bring that up later. But, yeah, we were on the fence,

4:33Andrew: but we admittedly knew nothing. We knew nothing about the ohl. Like, we still know very little.

4:39Justin: Very little. But we know a little bit more.

4:41Andrew: We know a little bit more. And we know a little bit more about the Kitchener Rangers now. And we know a lot about the 2024, 2025 Kitchener Rangers. I will say that we almost know

4:50Justin: everything about them because that season's done.

4:52Andrew: Yes, exactly. Exactly. We know almost everything except how their playoff run is going, how the playoffs

4:58Justin: are going to go. But that's to start on Friday. Today, if you're listening, on the day of recording.

5:03Andrew: Oh, I'm already a bit nervous. Excited, nervous, excited, nervous.

5:06Justin: We're going to talk about flint coming up because that's who we're playing in the first round. Flint Fighterbirds. The Flint Fighter Birds.

5:12Andrew: I feel like you manifested this just

5:15Justin: so that you could the first groat day.

5:18Andrew: Just so that you could just get stuck in the dialect.

5:21Justin: All right, we're going to play some flint. But how did we get 100 points? We should start there with our game against Owen Sound on Friday night at home at the Aud for over age or night. Owen Sound and goalies, man.

5:36Andrew: Yeah.

5:37Justin: We got Koprowski again. He was unbelievable. It took two periods to beat him.

5:42Andrew: Yeah, he's good.

5:44Justin: He's good. Is this. Does this give us any hope for Owen sounds ability against London?

5:50Andrew: I think London is having the second best season in franchise history.

5:55Justin: Yeah.

5:55Andrew: Yeah. I think it gives you hope that they might get a game off London.

5:58Justin: Yeah. To be honest, I think Carter George can shut the door.

6:01Andrew: That's what I mean.

6:02Justin: Yeah.

6:02Andrew: Yeah. But I mean bigger upsets have happened for sure. I'm not, I'm not predicting that when we get go we're getting ahead of ourselves but in the predictions part I'm not necessarily predicting that, but that would be. That would make everything better in the world. Everything in the world would instantly be better if Owen Sound beat London.

6:24Justin: Just goalied London. Yep, yep. Because their goalies are good. Anyways, back to our game. We had. We had 16 shots in the first period. Could not beat Kabrowski. And then also Ando with the crushing

6:36Andrew: hits in the first period. Unbelievable.

6:38Justin: And then Landon Hookey, always good at hockey.

6:41Andrew: Good at hockey.

6:42Justin: Yep. He scored the first goal of the game. We took 24 shots before we got our first goal on Koprowski. And the Aud got called back.

6:50Andrew: Yeah, it did. Yeah.

6:53Justin: And then I think the next shot went in.

6:55Andrew: I was texting you during this game.

6:56Justin: I know.

6:57Andrew: I was like, you have to go and because you weren't watching.

6:58Justin: I wasn't watching it.

6:59Andrew: You weren't watching live. And I was like, you're going to have to watch at very least this review because I felt like this was going to be like the. We're not going to get to 100 points tonight because everything is just going to the wrong way.

7:11Justin: The sideways game.

7:12Andrew: Yeah, yeah. But thankfully that's not what happened.

7:15Justin: No. And then, yeah, luckily Humphrey Humphreys, our boy coming back, number one center potential, our guy candidate for next season.

7:23Andrew: Of course, like put that out there. Speaking of overager night, that Means our guy is leaving.

7:28Justin: Our guy is gone.

7:29Andrew: He can't come back.

7:30Justin: He will not be back. Yeah, it was sad watching those guys, like, do the walk out, do the. Like. Like, I got a little teary.

7:38Andrew: Yeah. I got a.

7:38Justin: It's like I got really emotionally invested in these guys this season.

7:41Andrew: I went back and listened to a few of the earlier episodes and I got a bit of a knot in my gut because I was like, we sound so. We don't know what this is or what. Who they are or whatever. And I was like, we're. We're just like blissfully unaware of how attached we're going to get to these guys.

7:57Justin: Although we were attached to Parsons even before we started this podcast.

8:00Andrew: We for sure were. Because, yes. Going back to last season, we were like, who is this guy? He's really good.

8:06Justin: He's really good. Yeah.

8:08Andrew: We projected that. That was the one thing we did project.

8:11Justin: Yeah. Yeah. We could feel it in the air. And then the third period was when we really started to pick up steam. I didn't realize Swick was on like a goal dro. He's played so well the last. It's not like he's been on a points drought and it's not like he hasn't been helping, but I didn't realize he was on like a ten game goalless streak.

8:28Andrew: Because they're winning.

8:29Justin: Yeah, they're winning.

8:30Andrew: It doesn't matter if you're on a ground.

8:31Justin: He looks good.

8:32Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I was gonna. That's what I mean, though, is if you're playing well and the puck's just not going in, it's not a storyline. And it's funny because we're going to talk about the over unders and the bets and whatever, and we projected him for much more points and obviously it's going to be the under for that, but it doesn't feel like it was a down season for him.

8:51Justin: He just fit in with the team so well. Like, he did what he needed to do.

8:54Andrew: Absolutely.

8:55Justin: And that was. That was it. He got a great goal. Like a Pridm. Just like just knew. Sensed him. Just threw the puck to him and he put it in. And then they reversed that goal where Swick threw Pridm the puck in the exact Sam O'Reilly Sends them in front of the net. It was like the exact same goal. Just the two players swapped places.

9:13Andrew: Exactly.

9:14Justin: Yeah.

9:15Andrew: And that's the thing, I think about this team that other teams don't have is that chemistry.

9:20Justin: Yeah.

9:20Andrew: That awareness.

9:21Justin: Yeah.

9:22Andrew: The sensing.

9:25Justin: Yeah. And then Mbuyi.

9:28Andrew: Bowie, Bowie No M. No M. Silent.

9:30Justin: It's a silent M. So you go Bowie.

9:33Andrew: Bowie. Sam Bowie.

9:35Justin: Sam Buoy.

9:36Andrew: No, it's not Sam Bui. Sam Buoy was drafted before Michael Jordan. That's who I always think of when I hear Pierce Mbuyi's name.

9:43Justin: Okay. Anyways, he tied it up and then we. And then they did the fancy goal and then Parsons just shut the door.

9:50Andrew: Pierce Mbuyi actually won the rookie scoring race.

9:53Justin: Oh, did he?

9:53Andrew: He did. And He's a true 16 year old. So this kid is probably going to be.

9:58Justin: He's legit.

9:58Andrew: Unbelievable. He already is.

10:00Justin: But yeah, we've seen a hat trick against us with him. Like, he's pretty special.

10:04Andrew: Maybe not this year coming, but like 100 points is in a season is coming for sure.

10:09Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Probably his draft year.

10:11Andrew: Yeah, for sure. I think that would be next year, wouldn't it?

10:13Justin: Would it? If he turns 7.

10:16Andrew: If he depends on when he turns 18. Yeah. I don't have in front of me.

10:19Justin: Man, we are not good at math.

10:21Andrew: No. It's very hard. And it's also. It's just hard to swallow when you're like 2004, 2005, 2006. I'm like, I know what I was doing.

10:28Justin: Yeah. Those years, they were little babies. This is. I don't like this. I'm old. Yeah. There are people in the league that I graduated high school before they were born. Yeah. So just don't think about it. Just don't think about it. Don't think about it. And you know what else we're not going to think about? The game against Guelph.

10:45Andrew: No.

10:46Justin: Neither of us watched it. We didn't do it. We didn't even watch the highlights. I'm so sorry.

10:50Andrew: Rangers faithful. We cannot comment on it. It was the first time the team was shut out all year. I don't know if the Aud gods were mad that we didn't watch it. They didn't play half the team. Half the team Sam O'Reilly We couldn't

11:03Justin: shut out the season series in eight games. That's too many games.

11:06Andrew: You got to give them one so

11:08Justin: Guelph can have that one. There's nothing else that Guelph is playing for other than the bragging rights.

11:13Andrew: So the only notable thing was Avry Anstis Ohl game. That was it. So shout out to Avry Anstis and congrats, man. I'm excited that he will be probably on the team next year. So it's great for him to get a little bit of experience.

11:28Justin: So we're sorry for The Nothing Burger game that we didn't watch. We didn't watch. And the Soo we're going to. Because we only watched one game this week, we're not going to do three stars, but I have assembled the greatest star of the season.

11:42Andrew: The greatest star.

11:44Justin: And it's to the whole team, the coaching staff, the management, the scouts, obviously the players. Like they had a legendary season. They got 100 points.

11:53Andrew: Yeah.

11:54Justin: Fourth time in 65 years of.

11:57Andrew: Yeah.

11:58Justin: However long they've been. 70 years of being a team. 63. 63. 71. No, 85.

12:06Andrew: 400.

12:10Justin: They were.

12:10Andrew: They were the first in 20. In 2020.

12:15Justin: They had the Kitchener Rangers.

12:18Andrew: The Rangers have to be 20, 25 years old.

12:23Justin: That's the number we're in. That's why. That's. That's why the years are. Yeah. This way. Yeah. Oh, I get it now. Yeah. Unbelievable season. Just like looking back, we didn't get our first win till the fourth game of the season. Those first three games represent 20% of our losses this season.

12:42Andrew: Yeah. That's pretty incredible.

12:43Justin: That's pretty incredible. After that three game losing streak to start the season, we didn't have another three game losing streak. We also went 15 games straight with a point.

12:53Andrew: Never lost three games in regulation in a row.

12:55Justin: Nope. And that was like before Pridham and Humphrey showed up.

12:58Andrew: It was. Yeah.

12:59Justin: Like these guys. Swick was injured for part of that. He showed up a little bit later. The team is vastly different than it was at the beginning of this season. And just thinking about all the changes that have happened. We've talked about the Juice being in mid season form from game one. Like, man, the coaching staff. Unbelievable.

13:18Andrew: Which is. I just quickly segue into that. He has to be the odds on favorite for coach of the year.

13:24Justin: You would imagine.

13:25Andrew: We're campaigning for the Juice to get coach of the Year.

13:28Justin: Coach of the year.

13:29Andrew: Vote Juice.

13:31Justin: We got a lot of voting going on right now.

13:33Andrew: I know, I know.

13:33Justin: I don't know how you vote for the Juice, but I would. Please. We don't vote for the Juice. Right. Your local counselor.

13:39Andrew: Someone votes for the Juice. I'm assuming the big boy journalists or maybe someone with the league. I have no idea. Maybe it's the other coaches because sometimes they do stuff like that.

13:47Justin: That's cool.

13:48Andrew: That. I don't know. We'd have to. Maybe we'll write a friend. Mike Farwell, on the OHL podcast. A different podcast, which you could listen to after.

13:56Justin: Wait, there are other podcasts?

13:58Andrew: At least one. Because that's the only other One, I listen to Mike.

14:03Justin: We should write Mike and find out how do we get the Juice nominated. We want to be on the campaign.

14:08Andrew: Oh, I think he's nominated.

14:10Justin: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

14:10Andrew: I think he might win it, to be honest. Yeah, I think he should.

14:14Justin: Yeah. So. So the coaching, staff, management, obviously, Mike McKenzie did like amazing things with this roster.

14:20Andrew: Yeah.

14:21Justin: Without trading away anything like he used the hall of Carson Rakoff. Very strategically.

14:26Andrew: I was going to say it was even crazier was he did trade like players away.

14:30Justin: Yeah.

14:30Andrew: In the last season for a rebuild and then just pivoted without trading any of those picks.

14:36Justin: Yeah. So we're in good shape. And obviously the scouts. I want to give a shout out to the scouts because a lot of this with the NCAA agreement, knowing who the good players were. Some of these players obviously were scouted and looked at and they were. They had agreed to NCAA agreements. So they were probably just forgotten about a little bit. But like to have the foresight to draft and understand what might be coming.

14:58Andrew: Yeah. I think that's the crazy.

15:00Justin: That's pretty amazing.

15:01Andrew: That's pretty crazy. The foresight to be like, in this year. I think there's a chance these guys are available to come play for us.

15:08Justin: Yeah.

15:08Andrew: You know what I mean?

15:09Justin: So knowing that, however, all of that came together, just first star for everybody.

15:14Andrew: And you know what? If it's just pure dumb luck for some of it. You know what?

15:18Justin: That's. If that's a first star too. I was going to say that's the

15:21Andrew: thing is you just draft a good player no matter what his plans are, and you just hope that the universe aligns and he can come play like Jack Pridham out of the bchl.

15:29Justin: Yeah. Yeah. That was the season.

15:31Andrew: It was a great year. Adrian Misledgevic was the all the leading points getter.

15:37Justin: Yeah.

15:37Andrew: And also the leading goal scorer. And of course, both our goalies performed very well. And Parsons finished the season with a 0.92 save percentage and a 2.24 goals against average, which is elite in junior hockey for sure.

15:55Justin: As we've seen, there have been many high scoring games in the OHL this season. Yeah. 10 to 15 goal games.

16:02Andrew: Yeah. Like routinely nine goals are scored.

16:05Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

16:06Andrew: So to have those numbers. Unbelievable. 37 wins, five shutouts. That dude had a year.

16:11Justin: We are going to preview our very first playoff matchup against the Flint Fighter Birds. Fighter Birds. Okay. So here's some stats I'm going to throw at you.

16:22Andrew: Okay.

16:22Justin: We've played them four times this season.

16:24Andrew: We have. Yes.

16:25Justin: We have won three times. We've lost once in overtime.

16:30Andrew: Points in every game.

16:31Justin: Points in every game. Two shootouts. We won overtime. So we only won one game in regulation. It was also a three, two win. Yeah. So one goal games every time we played them.

16:42Andrew: This is going to be a tight one.

16:44Justin: And I think that is partly to do with our goalie matchup of Nathan Dave versus Jackson Parsons.

16:49Andrew: Exactly.

16:50Justin: Like they each had a first, a second and a third star in our four games.

16:55Andrew: Yep.

16:55Justin: Nathan Day played 59 games this season. Jackson Parson played 52. And that felt like so many games. Yeah. We've talked about. It's like you could have maybe let him have the night off.

17:07Andrew: I know, but.

17:08Justin: I know, but no, they. Nathan Day played a ton of games. Most in the OHL, 3.07. Goals against average.897 say percentage. Like 59 games. That's pretty good.

17:20Andrew: The more more games you play, the harder it is to keep those numbers high because occasionally you're gonna get lit up. That's like. That's every goalie ever on earth, right? Yeah. He's definitely gonna be a guy, a kid who's locked in to this playoff matchup. And if Flint has a chance, it's Nathan Day.

17:37Justin: I agree.

17:37Andrew: And Flint's a pretty good team. I think the issue for me, looking at Flint is outside of Sam McHugh, there's not a lot of scoring depth to be had. In fact, when they acquired Sam McHugh, he immediately became their leading scorer. Yeah. So there hasn't been a lot. Now that's. The Rangers have been getting by with kind of a committee, but the difference is a lot of people are scoring.

18:03Justin: We have a lot of depth scoring where they're pretty top heavy in scoring. And by top heavy, I mean Sammy Q and A. Matthew Mania. Who is.

18:10Andrew: Yeah.

18:10Justin: Who's their top sister?

18:13Andrew: Yeah.

18:14Justin: Who's pretty good.

18:15Andrew: He's a sister. A sister Who?

18:17Justin: His brother. My sister. Sister.

18:19Andrew: Who's a sister?

18:21Justin: A sister. We're only children, so we don't have sisters. Yeah. So Sam McHugh. I mean, it was hard to find, like, interesting stats about Flint. They're a solid team.

18:30Andrew: No, they are. The problem is they're limping into the playoffs. Yeah. Which is not how you want to go into the playoffs.

18:36Justin: No. So it will be. It'll be interesting. Clattenberg takes a lot of penalties, but not as many as the league leading. Matthew Andonovski The Andalorian. The Andalorian.

18:46Andrew: Listen, he gets the job done.

18:48Justin: Yeah. He knows his job. And he does it well.

18:52Andrew: He spends a lot of time on the ice.

18:54Justin: He does.

18:55Andrew: And he spends a lot of time in the box.

18:57Justin: Sometimes you got to sit.

18:58Andrew: You got to sit.

18:59Justin: You got to rest up.

18:59Andrew: The great thing is we have an elite penalty kill.

19:02Justin: Yes.

19:03Andrew: They've had lots of practice. I don't think of Ando as an undisciplined player.

19:08Justin: No.

19:08Andrew: I think that there's been moments where he has been undisciplined. But I think when push comes to shove, would I say he's undisciplined? I wouldn't say that at all. And that's not just me being a homer. That's just. I just think that a lot of it. A lot of those penalty minutes came from a misconduct here, a fight here. Like he. He's the leader. He's the leader. So he's out there and he. He stands up for guys and that's just his game.

19:35Justin: You know what? Nobody needs to stand up for the Andalorian because he stands up for himself.

19:39Andrew: Exactly. He'll fight two guys, actually.

19:41Justin: Yeah. Let's Sam O'Reilly know, so. Yeah, that's our. Our matchup. We start Friday tonight, if you listen. Yeah. On the day. And then there's a game Sunday that. We're going to that together. We're going. You're going Friday. I'm going to Sunday with you.

19:54Andrew: Yeah. We're all going. The whole family.

19:56Justin: The whole family.

19:56Andrew: Two kids. Bringing the babies.

19:58Justin: Two wives.

19:59Andrew: Two.

19:59Justin: No dogs. No dogs. No.

20:02Andrew: No. Although I probably would bring my dogs if you could do that once. Once a season.

20:07Justin: If there was a dog dog night at the Aud Yeah.

20:10Andrew: Yeah. Odd dogs.

20:11Justin: Odd dog night.

20:12Andrew: Odd dogs. Let's make it happen.

20:14Justin: That'd be great.

20:15Andrew: Sounds brilliant.

20:17Justin: But, Andrew.

20:18Andrew: Yes.

20:19Justin: We're not the only playoff matchup happening.

20:21Andrew: No. There's a handful. There's a plethora.

20:23Justin: A plethora of other plethora.

20:26Andrew: And what we're going to do is we're going to do a very quick preview.

20:28Justin: Yeah.

20:29Andrew: And I'm going to get your prediction and I'm going to give my prediction and we'll just do the games. Number of games in the Andrew Yeah.

20:37Justin: Great.

20:38Andrew: You ready?

20:38Justin: I'm ready.

20:39Andrew: All right. So in the eastern conference, we'll stay far from home.

20:42Justin: Who's them? Yeah. Who? Day.

20:45Andrew: We've got the first place, first seed. Brantford Bulldogs really like turned it on to get that first seed.

20:53Justin: They did.

20:54Andrew: They're playing the scrappy and ever ready for a good time. North Bay Battalion who fought their way in yes. So this is a. This isn't necessarily just a squash match here. It's first seed Branford, eighth seed North Bay. Who you got?

21:09Justin: I got Branford.

21:10Andrew: In how many games?

21:12Justin: I think it's five games.

21:13Andrew: Five games? Yeah.

21:14Justin: When you're talking about Flint not winning, like, Brantford's the opposite. They've been winning everything lately.

21:19Andrew: I agree.

21:20Justin: I think you're right. The Battalion will fight their way through one game, but. Yeah.

21:24Andrew: Nick Lardis has 73 goals.

21:26Justin: Yes. He's very good.

21:28Andrew: I think. Yeah. I think the issue is there's nobody on North Bay with 73 goals. I think if you just mix in a 73 goal scorer, chances are you're going to get out of the first round. I agree. 5 games. I would give North Bay a game just because, like I said, they're scrappy, they're game, they're fun. All right, moving on, Barrie Colts, number two seed, versus Niagara Ice Dogs, number seven seed.

21:54Justin: I'm calling this one a sweep.

21:55Andrew: I totally agree.

21:57Justin: Niagara is a tire fire.

21:58Andrew: I give them absolutely no credit in this one. So whatsoever. Now, that might be bulletin board material because I think most people would predict a sweep here.

22:06Justin: Yeah. So it could be an upset.

22:08Andrew: I don't think so.

22:09Justin: It's a sweep for Niagara.

22:11Andrew: It's a reverse sweep.

22:13Justin: A reverse.

22:13Andrew: They'll go down three games to nothing and then win in seven.

22:15Justin: Yeah.

22:16Andrew: No, I think Barry's got too much firepower. I think Barry underperformed maybe a little bit.

22:22Justin: I think. I think they could more to go.

22:24Andrew: Yeah. I think most people thought they'd probably be one of the top two seeds, though. Yeah. And I think that they'll actually pummel Niagara.

22:31Justin: Yeah.

22:32Andrew: All right. Three seed Kingston, the Kingston front next versus the six seed Sudbury Wolves.

22:39Justin: I'm going to go Sudbury in seven. Wow.

22:42Andrew: The first upsets. Yeah, the first big upset. I like that take because I think Sudbury got some guys at the trade deadline and said, no, you know what, we're going to try and make a little run here for sure. I think, though, I think Kingston, just what I saw against the Rangers. Just too powerful of a team with too much firepower. I think that it will go six, though.

23:07Justin: Six.

23:07Andrew: I think it will be a very

23:09Justin: six for Kingston for you. Yeah. Seven for Sudbury for me. Yeah.

23:12Andrew: I think it'll be a very competitive six or seven games, no matter what. Like, I don't think it's going to be a squash match. 4 seed Oshawa Generals, 5 seed Brampton Steelheads. This is the premier matchup. I think in the first round, maybe in both conferences, this is to me just two really well built teams.

23:35Justin: I'm like, I worry that Brampton has like severely underperformed and there might be like some course grass. I'm going to go for the course correction in the playoffs. Brampton, five games.

23:48Andrew: Wow. So you think that they're just going to take.

23:50Justin: I think they're just going to show up and take them down. Okay.

23:53Andrew: I am going to say Oshawa and seven.

23:57Justin: Okay.

23:57Andrew: Because I think that's going to be a slug vest.

24:00Justin: Yeah.

24:00Andrew: I think this is going to be like must watch of a first round matchup. I think, I think that either of these teams that win could go into say that there's not a. Like, if Sudbury doesn't win and then they have to go and play Brantford. I think either of these teams could upset Branford. Not that Branford's not a powerhouse. Just that both of these teams feel low at 4 or 5.

24:23Justin: Yes.

24:23Andrew: It just feels strange.

24:24Justin: They're both in the wrong place.

24:25Andrew: Yeah. I would take both Oshawa and Brampton over Barry.

24:29Justin: Yeah. Or Kingston. I agree.

24:31Andrew: Like, yeah. Branford's the only team where I'd be like, that's a toss up.

24:34Justin: Yeah.

24:34Andrew: I think I like both of these teams. I think it's mostly because Brampton seems like maybe they're playing with their food, which is scary.

24:42Justin: Oh, that's what I think.

24:43Andrew: Yeah.

24:43Justin: I'm like, they're just going to show up and be like, we are playoff ready.

24:47Andrew: Yeah. Or I think Oshawa is just a. Just such a stacked, like it's just such a well built team. Like it's one of those teams where you're just like every line goes. Yeah. And they just play like really responsible hockey. Okay. Moving over to the west side. Yeah. All right. West side. Best side. Western Conference.

25:05Justin: Yeah.

25:05Andrew: We've got the Monday night.

25:12Justin: Hello, governor. Hello, Governor.

25:15Andrew: Versus the Aud seed Owen Sound Attack.

25:18Justin: I'm going London in five because I think Nathan Day is going to steal a game.

25:23Andrew: Yeah.

25:23Justin: I'm hot take. Do the hot take.

25:25Andrew: Well, Nathan Day plays for Flint. So if he steals the game, of course.

25:30Justin: I don't mean that. I mean Carter George. I mean Carter George.

25:32Andrew: Yes, I knew. I knew what you meant. I knew what you meant. But you reset my brain a little bit there. I was like, will you.

25:37Justin: We were just talking about Nathan Day. Carter George plays for Owen Sound and he is very good.

25:42Andrew: Do the hot take. Just troll them. Come on, Owen Sound and seven.

25:48Justin: Yeah.

25:49Andrew: Oh, and sound and Seven. I will just pick against them the whole way.

25:54Justin: That's how I lived with the Oilers last year.

25:56Andrew: The head says nights in a sweep. The heart says, oh, and sound in seven.

26:01Justin: Love it. Yeah.

26:02Andrew: Okay, so I'm on record now. All right. The number two seed. Fraudulent two. Eye roll, Fraudulent two. The division winning two seed handed out participation. Two seed.

26:17Justin: Yeah.

26:17Andrew: Versus. Sorry. The Windsor Spitfires versus The Assu. Greyhounds. Seven seed.

26:24Justin: See now Windsor's had some ups and downs this season. It's like they've had some unbelievable games. We witnessed one of them.

26:31Andrew: Yeah.

26:32Justin: But then they've also like just got beat like outright by teams that didn't deserve to beat them or shouldn't have beat them on paper.

26:38Andrew: Yeah. And the Kitchener Rangers looked much better than Windsor the last time they played.

26:42Justin: At the odds. I agree. Windsor, like, I do think they're a good team. I think they'll win. I think it's going to be six.

26:49Andrew: That's fair.

26:49Justin: Yeah. I think it's going to go at least a couple games for.

26:52Andrew: Yeah. I'm. I'm picking Windsor, but I'm picking them in seven.

26:54Justin: Okay.

26:55Andrew: I think the Soo is one of these teams that they lose games that they are winning. Like they're. That they're leading. Like we saw that. But they also have a tendency to beat teams that are better than them. Like they. They beat the Rangers. I remember earlier in the season when the Rangers were on that streak. They ended up beating the Soo Ended up beating them. Not shortly after that ended. And.

27:19Justin: And we called it the Sneaky Pete's, but it was really the sneaky suit

27:23Andrew: and they actually turned it on later in the year. They're coming in on a winning streak because I just picked an upset which probably isn't going. I'm going to refrain from picking both the Aud seed and the seven seed to win.

27:34Justin: Yeah.

27:35Andrew: But I. If the Soo won in seven, would I be totally surprised? Not really. I just think that could happen. But I think Windsor's just too strong with. With Green Tree especially just. And protests the two. They. They have 230 points together. Like it's nuts.

27:51Justin: Insane. There was like a potential for the Soo to have to play like a. Like a tiebreaker.

27:57Andrew: I know. I didn't realize that was. Oh, rules was a play in.

28:00Justin: I was like, oh, I wanted that to happen so bad.

28:02Andrew: It hasn't happened since 2002. We need to have this happen. Yeah. Need this to happen.

28:07Justin: I really wanted it to happen. I was. I didn't fully understand all the things that Needed to happen to make it happen, but I was pulling for them regardless.

28:15Andrew: Yeah, that would be amazing television. Okay, we're going to skip that one.

28:18Justin: Yeah.

28:18Andrew: And then we're going to go to number four, Saginaw versus five. Eerie.

28:23Justin: I think Erie feels like they've been on a downward trend all season. They got a lot of. They got a lot of behind the bench issues that have been going on.

28:30Andrew: Yeah. What if Matthew Schaefer comes back?

28:34Justin: Is that a possibility?

28:35Andrew: That's definitely a possibility.

28:37Justin: I think even, like Schaefer comes back, obviously that's a huge help, but I think there's. There is more going on than hockey in Erie.

28:46Andrew: I agree.

28:47Justin: And I'm.

28:48Andrew: They've got little brother syndrome. We diagnosed them months ago.

28:51Justin: Months ago. Get help. I think it's a sweep. I think Yuri's out.

29:02Andrew: Yeah. You know what? I will. I'll give them. I'll give them a game.

29:07Justin: Okay.

29:07Andrew: I'll give them a game. I think it's. I think it's five. I think Saginaw is in the same boat as four or five in the east.

29:14Justin: Yes.

29:15Andrew: I think they're seated much lower than most people would have anticipated. And they are the team that. I think if you're London and if you're playing the four seed and there's no upsets and it's 1, 2, 3, 4 in the next round, I would be very nervous.

29:30Justin: And you know what the other thing is? Even in Matthew Schaefer comes back, Zane Breck is better, and I think they're going to win that. They're going to win that matchup.

29:38Andrew: Yeah, that's a. That's a. That's a good point. All right, cool.

29:43Justin: There's some. Book it.

29:46Andrew: Book it. There's some predictions. Obviously, the Rangers and Flint.

29:50Justin: Yeah, we don't need to predict those. We don't. I don't want to predict our team.

29:53Andrew: We're not predicting our team.

29:54Justin: No, I can't do it.

29:55Andrew: He can't do it.

29:56Justin: I can't do it.

29:57Andrew: I'll predict it.

29:58Justin: Oh, you're going to predict it.

29:59Andrew: I'm just going to predict that the Rangers win.

30:01Justin: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

30:02Andrew: I'm not nervous.

30:03Justin: I would predict that the Rangers would win, but I don't want to predict games. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. Man, we've talked about too many upsets.

30:11Andrew: Yeah, that's true.

30:12Justin: That's true. It's scary. Okay. But we do have some bets to settle from. We do pre preseason bets.

30:18Andrew: Of course we didn't wager anything.

30:20Justin: We didn't. The first bet that we made was. So this is all Ranger specific.

30:25Andrew: Yes.

30:26Justin: Team wins.

30:27Andrew: Yeah.

30:27Justin: Over. Under 34.5. Which feels laughable now.

30:31Andrew: It's hilarious.

30:32Justin: I went Justin. I am Justin. Justin went. Andrew went under.

30:36Andrew: Yeah.

30:36Justin: Obviously over.

30:38Andrew: Way over.

30:38Justin: Like 19.

30:39Andrew: Hilarious.

30:40Justin: Over.

30:41Andrew: Yeah. Amazing.

30:42Justin: Amazing for the ages.

30:43Andrew: So I am going to predict that the Rangers don't win anything every year.

30:48Justin: Yeah.

30:49Andrew: Every year I'm going to predict that their season is going to be an under.

30:53Justin: You're welcome. You're welcome. The next one was great. The next one. You. Your lines were incredible.

31:00Andrew: I should be a bookie is what you're saying.

31:02Justin: Yeah, you should start that out.

31:03Andrew: Ohl bookie.

31:05Justin: the Aud bookie. So this is Jackson Parsons shutouts. You put the line at 4.4.5. He ended with 5. Yes. We both took the over. So we got more specific.

31:16Andrew: We did.

31:16Justin: Andrew took six and I took seven.

31:20Andrew: Why? I remember that was. I prices righted you.

31:22Justin: Yeah. Yeah. So you price it right in me.

31:23Andrew: Yeah.

31:24Justin: So congratulations. You prices right. Yeah. But we both won. We both won and all the fans won.

31:29Andrew: Exactly.

31:30Justin: And then the next one, a little less good. On your lines.

31:33Andrew: Yeah.

31:33Justin: Trent swick over, under 85.5 points. How many did he actually end up with?

31:38Andrew: 61. Yeah, I was off on that one.

31:40Justin: But you took the over and I took the under.

31:43Andrew: And it was funny because I think we both said that he was going to get close to that. I think you said something like 83 points.

31:52Justin: Yeah, yeah. So I thought that number was good. But it wasn't.

31:55Andrew: He was a point a game player.

31:57Justin: Yeah.

31:57Andrew: 61 and 60.

31:58Justin: Phenomenal.

31:59Andrew: But he did miss some time. He did. Yeah.

32:01Justin: He came back injured from Vegas training.

32:03Andrew: Exactly. And. And he was on a little bit of a slump like we talked about.

32:07Justin: The team changed so much after this. The next one is Roman. Yeah. 67.5 points. We. We assumed Romano was going to be the top line center totally the whole season, which, you know, he fit nicely into that second C felt like that. And so it was all good. But how many did he actually get?

32:25Andrew: 51.

32:25Justin: 51.

32:26Andrew: So he had 25 and 26 for 51.

32:29Justin: That's pretty awesome.

32:30Andrew: Pretty good.

32:30Justin: We both took the over.

32:32Andrew: Yeah.

32:32Justin: And then we both went in the Soo So we were like.

32:35Andrew: We just thought that Romano and Swick were going to. We could never have predicted that they would have. Let me tell you right now they have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20 goal scorers and then they'd have 1, 2, 3, four, five more guys with double digit goals.

32:56Justin: Yeah. Insane. We'd have never anticipated.

32:59Andrew: Just not usually how hockey teams are.

33:01Justin: Bills. No, we are not. Especially not junior and not good teams.

33:05Andrew: Yeah.

33:07Justin: The next one, though, this one was bang on. So this was Reed, 55 points. How many points did he get?

33:15Andrew: Andrew CAMERUS Reed got 54 points. Unbelievable.

33:22Justin: And he was right on pace to get 55.

33:24Andrew: Yeah. He didn't play the last game of the season.

33:27Justin: Yes. And he probably would have got it because they probably would have scored.

33:30Andrew: Yeah.

33:30Justin: Yeah. Andrew won because he got the under and I took over.

33:33Andrew: I. Yeah, that's I. Vegas to there. That's how Vegas does it. Somehow they know. Exactly. And they're like, yeah, just pick it.

33:40Justin: The next one, we'll just remind everyone, but this was Antonino Pugliese getting some penalties. 75 penalty minutes. Obviously he. He got scratched from the team early on because he was an overager and we ran out of slots.

33:55Andrew: He was released.

33:56Justin: So we didn't get to hang out with pug life too much this season.

33:59Andrew: No, but we. You know what? Brief. But yeah, I'd rather have pugged and lost than to not hug at all.

34:06Justin: And he looks like he's doing great in his X Men league.

34:09Andrew: Absolutely.

34:09Justin: So I'm happy for him. And the final one. The final one was the number of. That we were going to say per episode. The line was at 3.5.

34:19Andrew: Yeah, I think it's under, but I don't think it's as far under as you would think it is.

34:24Justin: No.

34:25Andrew: Because I went back and listened to some of those episodes and some of those episodes. We say it a lot.

34:30Justin: A lot. But I do think it's probably closer to 2 and a half to 3. I agree. overager out. Because there was. There were several episodes where we didn't talk about him at all.

34:39Andrew: I agree.

34:39Justin: Yeah. Because he's morphed back. We thought he was going to be a top pairing with Ando and then he ended up being like a middle pairing. Middle or third pair. But he was a stay at home guy.

34:50Andrew: He was playing. He was playing basically the second most minutes as a pairing because they had the. They played the 117 so much.

34:59Justin: Yes.

35:00Andrew: And he was right in that mid two or that like three, four, five out of those seven defensemen. Any given night. He was playing either three or four minutes or sorry, three or like third or fourth most minutes.

35:11Justin: Also another plug for the juice. Just playing 117 and just like rocking. Rocking the defense all the time.

35:17Andrew: Yeah.

35:17Justin: Making it impossible for anybody to score

35:19Andrew: against, which is great because then you have this, like, team that's like scoring from all angles.

35:25Justin: Yeah.

35:25Andrew: Like, it was just like everyone could score. No one had to be the guy.

35:29Justin: Yes.

35:30Andrew: So it was just genuinely a brilliant season from the coaching staff.

35:34Justin: It really was. Yeah. So that's the regular season complete. So playoffs start Friday tonight, if you're listening. Thank you all for listening throughout the season. We're not going anywhere. We're here for playoffs.

35:48Andrew: Oh, yeah.

35:49Justin: We're going to keep going, rolling through the playoffs and, yeah, we'll be with

35:52Andrew: you the whole way.

35:53Justin: Yeah, for sure. So we're not going anywhere. We already thanked Ken Born, but just another shout out for those beautiful player cards in the brackets. And go. Vote on the groat. Get in the groat.

36:01Andrew: Vote on the groat.

36:02Justin: We got to thank our prodigal producer, Liam, the phenom. We got to thank the Kitchener Public Library for hosting us.

36:08Andrew: Yes. It's the home away from home. I.

36:10Justin: Of course, you can find us on the socials.

36:12Andrew: Yes. At the AudPod on Instagram and TikTok. Go there now. Go to the AudPod right now and vote for the Groat. the. Aud the last day of round one. You got to do it. You have to do it.

36:26Justin: Get in there.

36:26Andrew: Get in there and do it. We're also on YouTube where you might. Maybe you're watching this right now and you're like, yeah, I know, I know, dude. Check us out the AudPod, Kitchener Rangers. Search it up. We're there, but we also have a link in the Instagram so you can get there as well.

36:40Justin: Go to Instagram. That's the main point we want to get you to.

36:43Andrew: Exactly.

36:44Justin: Yeah. And thank you. Thank you all for listening.

36:46Andrew: Thank you, Rangers Nation, for supporting us and supporting the Rangers and just being genuinely awesome people to interact with online. We love it.

36:55Justin: It's been awesome, especially this week. We've been talking with so many people. It's awesome. And as always, for the playoffs, you

37:03Andrew: can find us at tonight, the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

37:08Justin: See you at the Aud