28: Fantast-Swick Spectacle

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:01Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:02Justin: So we have to record two different intros. Okay, ready? Okay. Hey, Andrew.

0:10Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:11Justin: We're up three to one in the series. Whoa, whoa.

0:17Andrew: Right where we're gonna closing the Aud Friday night. Tonight.

0:23Justin: Tonight is game five. And we're obviously up three to one. Three to one.

0:29Andrew: That's right.

0:31Justin: Okay, ready? Hey, Andrew.

0:34Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:35Justin: Tied two.

0:36Andrew: Two.

0:36Justin: Man, we knew this series would be close.

0:39Andrew: Every game was close. So it only makes sense that the series is also close.

0:44Justin: Wow. I can't believe we got to this point. Everyone's winning at home. Wow.

0:49Andrew: Wow. It's generally, you know, that's not that, that's not that uncommon.

0:55Justin: So there we go. We now we have all. They're all in the bag.

1:01Andrew: Welcome to the AudPod where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin.

1:12Justin: Take it away, fellas. Obviously recording on Wednesday night. So the game four is tomorrow night on Thursday. We do not know the outcome. So right now when we are talking, we are talking about a 2:1 series because we got out last night and got so frustrated about it.

1:35Andrew: Got go front of, in front of what they said was 2221. But if that's 2221, then. Well, my friends, I'm 6 foot 7

1:46Justin: and we have 53,000 podcast listeners. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

1:51Andrew: And we're, we're, we're both billionaires. I can tell you at the door. Financial center, which to me sounds like, you know, a sound you make when maybe you're, you're choking on something or you're a seal.

2:06Justin: Yes. Dork.

2:08Andrew: The Financial center, there was almost a handful of people present for that game.

2:15Justin: So.

2:16Andrew: Yeah, I was pretty shocked, to be honest.

2:19Justin: Yeah. What. Where are all the people? Is it usually Canadians that go down and they're boycotting?

2:24Andrew: I know. I'm, I'm confused because I just felt like Flint, probably, especially for a playoff game. I'm assuming that they have better attendance than that year to year because I

2:35Justin: thought there was more attendance on games I've watched this season. I don't remember there being nobody at Flint games.

2:41Andrew: No, it was very strange. It was an, I guess an April Fool's prank they pulled, which they fooled themselves because their home team won.

2:50Justin: Yeah.

2:50Andrew: So. Yeah. But the Rangers. The Rangers, I think, are in a good spot in this series. I'm not worried about.

2:59Justin: I, I, you know what?

3:00Andrew: I listened back to our last episode. Not that I love hearing our voices as much as I've heard them this year, but I listened back and we did talk about Nathan Day and perhaps, you know, him stealing a game.

3:16Justin: Yeah.

3:16Andrew: And I think that was the one he stole, to be honest.

3:19Justin: Well, for sure. Yeah. We've experienced this sort of goalieing only a couple times this season. And when it happens, it happens. Obviously we were able to beat him in other games. When they get locked in, they get locked in. I think Parsons is. Is one of the few other goalies playing right now who can do this as well. So we haven't. Not that he's played poorly in any way. It's just that, you know, this shutdown game that Nathan Day played, this is. This is the first goalieing of the playoffs.

3:45Andrew: Yeah. And I will say Flint did outplay Kitchener in the third, but Kitchener, I felt, handily outplayed Flint in the first two periods.

3:56Justin: I actually thought that this. I guess we're just. We're just talking about game three now.

4:00Andrew: Yeah, well, I. This was the most recent one.

4:03Justin: It was. And. And what I think was interesting was it felt like the. The Rangers were. There was dominance happening on the Rangers end throughout most of the game. And then Flint got that first goal and it just felt like the Rangers got frustrated and, and then started to play a little sloppy and. And it, you know, there was like they got frustrated, then Flint immediately scored again. And then the Rangers, they were sloppier the rest of the game and it was just, I think it was purely frustration about the fact that they had already put up like 40 shots on Nathan Day and just couldn't beat him.

4:37Andrew: Like just couldn't buy one. But no, that if we go back to the home games, The Rangers scored 10 goals over two games, so they had no problem scoring. The first game was an absolute showdown. What a game. What a dangerous part.

4:57Justin: You were there. You were there. Tell us about, tell us about the atmosphere.

5:02Andrew: Well, I can tell you I was so proud that the name of this podcast is the AudPod. When I was in there because I was like, this is what I remember. This is what I remember from the first year of going to the playoffs when they played Windsor, the year that Shane Wright was on Windsor and Pinelli played for Kitchener. It was a couple years ago and I just remember being like, holy crap. This is like, this is. This is NHL level intensity from the crowd. This is like people are into this. And it was like that on. It was palpable. There was a pulse to the crowd and the Rangers and the Firebirds came out on all cylinders. That beginning of that game was absolutely bonkers. It was big Hits. There was no way that the whole game could go like that or else there wasn't going to be a player standing.

5:59Justin: That's.

5:59Andrew: I cannot tell you. If you, if you can, if you missed it, if you can go. If you have the ohl, the CHL app, if you could go back and watch even just the first five minutes of Kitchener Flint on Friday, March the Aud nuts. It's. Everybody's finishing their checks, everybody's skating all out. There's a ton of stick work going on, extracurricular stick work. It was unbelievable. And I can tell you they just didn't really call anything. I was like, what is happening? And it wasn't even, I wasn't even saying it just as like a homer. Now, there was one call in particular, which we'll talk about that or non call. I should say that I was a homer, but I do think I feel justified in. But the Rangers weren't getting called for, for anything either. It was like, oh my goodness. Like they're going to kill each other, right?

6:50Justin: Yeah.

6:51Andrew: Kill each other.

6:52Justin: It didn't feel like one team was getting it more than the other team. It just felt like the, the refs were mandated to not call everything. And I find it the most frustrating hockey to watch. Well, don't call it. But I, I appreciate the fact that it wasn't, it wasn't like every little thing was getting called too. I get the flow of the game, things like that. You want that. But it, I find it frustrating.

7:16Andrew: I agree. I totally agree. I don't understand the logic of the whole year being played a certain way and then you come out in playoffs and it's a totally different rule book. I don't understand that. I, I understand that we have a lot of fans and, and peers that do understand it and like it like that. But my issue is that with that is I feel like that favors a lesser skilled team. So if you can be more rough and you can get away with more, I feel like lesser skill can compensate in those scenarios. Now, do I think that any of the calls. Sorry, I just want to make one last point. Do I think that any of the non calls or calls affected the outcome of the game?

8:05Justin: No. Yeah, there you go. I, I do. I, I agree with you. And I also think that there's some, some undisciplined teams that get to go further in the playoffs than maybe they should because they are undisciplined and, and it's a shame because I think in the regular season you can have A really stellar regular season. If you, if you work really hard on your discipline, you don't take so many penalties, you, you know, you, you get a couple more calls in your favor than the other team, that, that can be a difference maker throughout the regular season. And if you don't have that in the, in the postseason, then, yeah, it can, it can dramatically change a series.

8:42Andrew: It's also frustrating because, like the, the Rangers have such a dominant penalty kill and, and realistically, a lot of the game comes down to special teams in the regular season. It's. It's how good, basically, how good can you kill penalties a lot of the time?

8:58Justin: Right. Yep.

8:59Andrew: And then you get to the playoffs and you're playing just mainly five on five. That's a very different structure to your game now. You're being forced to win different ways. Now, The Rangers were 1 for 2 and killed all three penalties. But, you know, if you were actually calling it closer to the regular season, I would think that each team would have had six or seven penalties for sure.

9:23Justin: Agreed. Yes, I, I think so too. There was a lot of. Yes, that extraneous stick work, as you mentioned earlier. Yeah, they were watching it on. I wasn't at this game. I was watching it on tv. But yeah, it was like, okay, that's a lot of stuff happening behind the play.

9:40Andrew: But yeah, and I mean, the good thing, though, like I said, didn't really affect the outcome of the game. Speaking of, the big contributor for the Rangers was the big man on campus himself, Trent Swick. Two goals, one assist.

9:52Justin: Huge, huge game.

9:55Andrew: They left him alone twice in the slot.

9:58Justin: He's huge. You can't lose him, man. The elation on his face when he scored. Him and Vermeulen scored the second goal of this game and the two of them, like, lost their minds. They were so excited. And the Aud then the Aud winner also, that was. These guys are so happy to be here. It is so exciting. the Soo into it. It's the best. This is what makes playoff hockey the best. When it's when you have NHLers who are like, they've been through it for ages, and you got some of these guys in the playoffs, they're like, whatever, it's just the playoffs, blah, blah, blah. But you want the guys who are so excited about it.

10:35Andrew: Oh, man, you can tell that every single guy on this team feels it with their whole heart when they score, when they. Which we'll get to in the next game too. But yeah, the elation, the relief, the passion is just absolutely like it's, it's. Well, there's a picture. There was a picture from this game that the Rangers account posted of Trent Swick celebrating and I shared it to our social media page and said hang it in the Louvre because it was just so, like it was the embodiment of passion and like success. Like it was like there it is. That's what, that's what you're, that's what you work for all year. That's why you, you get out and you, you dream of as a little kid is scoring a goal like that in the playoffs.

11:23Justin: Yeah, totally, Totally. We, we mentioned Swick had a crazy game. Like he was, he was a dominant force. Vermeul got a, got that second goal and then in. So the game went to overtime. Oh, also like Pridham didn't get any points in this game, but Pridham was. You were like all over the place. You, at the end of this game you're like, he is. And then he was. Yeah, but man, he was so good in this game and it was like. It just felt like he just couldn't buy one. But it was, it was great. And then we, yeah, we got to, we got to overtime and man.

11:58Andrew: Yeah.

11:59Justin: Romano. Holy.

12:00Andrew: Yes. Yeah. Luca Romano is almost, has almost been a bit of like the forgotten guy in this top six. And I don't mean that isn't that he's been forgotten.

12:12Justin: It's.

12:13Andrew: It's just that when you're thinking in your head who's going to be the guy to come up big and score the winner, he's not the one who comes to mind right away. And it's funny because I think he actually often is the guy and doesn't get enough love for that. He had three game winning goals this year. Misaljevic kind of is more like, oh, he's going to be the scorer. Pridham's going to score. Trent Swick. Hatrick came to mind that. I thought that that was going to happen.

12:40Justin: But yeah.

12:41Andrew: Luca Romano, so silky gets in there. Missile Javic made a beautiful pass from the sideboards to the high slot and Romano received it, went in and like roof daddy backhand. Just a beautiful goal. A very high skill goal.

12:58Justin: Very high skill. Yeah. Yeah. To be able to do that. That's like that, like that's a, that's an NHL draft position. Up he moved just with that one goal. Yeah, he just was like bloop one up.

13:09Andrew: It was a, a Crosby esque backhand. That's what it was. Because you get in that close and roof it like that it's going to be hard to stop when the, when the goalie drops down. So it was total elation. Luca Romano, the hero. Luca Romano just continues, like you said, to rise in the draft rankings. It's so exciting. And the Rangers are up one nothing, you know, on a Friday night and going into Sunday. And we're all there.

13:39Justin: Yeah, we were there.

13:39Andrew: The whole family.

13:41Justin: Six of us in four seats.

13:43Andrew: Six of us in four seats. You do that math. Figure that one out.

13:47Justin: Yeah, you figure out what happened there. Yeah, that was, that was super fun too. Like, okay, what was the energy compared Friday night to Sunday afternoon game? Sunday? Definitely more kids in the crowd.

13:59Andrew: Definitely more kids. I will say that on a. I mean it's a Friday night, right. It's the beginning of the weekend, so people are a little bit rowdier. It's a little bit more like, you know, it's the first game of the playoffs, but atmosphere at the Aud even on a Sunday 2pm start. Lots of kids. It was still electric like it was. And part and parcel because the Rangers were flying.

14:21Justin: Yes, yes. We've seen this game a few times from the Rangers this season where it is your dominance. Like the. The Rangers just owned this game from the minute the puck dropped. I never, never felt like it got out of hand. Yes. That the closest the game was, was. Was 00 at the beginning, but like 2 to 1 at the end of the first or midway through the first, I never felt like Flint had a chance.

14:47Andrew: Now, even when they scored the only goal, of course the Rangers won this one six to one. When Flint scored their only goal, it didn't feel like it was so much of a pushback because literally two minutes and 30 seconds later, Vermeulen scored one. And they're back up three to one. And you could just feel the ice tilt then because then after that, I mean, I don't want to glaze over the fact that Jack Pridham scored the opening two goals of the game and he scored them 40 seconds apart. 39 seconds.

15:18Justin: Technically, yes.

15:19Andrew: He scored them 39 seconds apart. The dude was like made up for not getting on the score sheet in the first.

15:26Justin: In the first game. Like I said, he was due in that first game because he was all over it. And the Aud just all came to him in this game like it was all Jack Pridham. The Jack Pridham Show.

15:36Andrew: Oh, so Vermeulen had another goal. He's turning out to be, I mean, just like a monster in the playoffs. He looks like a grown man out there. It's, it's, it's great to see Vermeulen who's just slotted in perfectly as that 3C.

15:52Justin: Yeah.

15:52Andrew: And he's out there and he's in a scoring role which is unbelievable from your bottom six to have a guy like that that you can rely on now and.

16:00Justin: Well, and I'm playing with Lamb too. They did a little line shuffling into this game which was interesting. You win game one, I mean obviously you went to overtime but you win game one and then you, you shuffle the lines a bit so that you know the Romano is playing up on that second line with Elena's on the wing and all of a sudden you have, yeah, Vermeulen playing with Lamb and it's like, all right, this is magic.

16:24Andrew: I'm just never worried because I just feel like the, the Rangers just roll four lines and yes, you know, it's, it's not, it's no issue. Right. I, I, I, I thought Le Char had a good, a good game out there. He was, he was very physical and yet he, I didn't think that he crossed any lines, which is good. You know, just from the, from a perspective of this game, could have got out of hand a little bit, you know.

16:53Justin: Yeah, Flint was very frustrated in this game and yeah, the Rangers thankfully didn't take the bait.

17:02Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

17:03Justin: I mean it got, it gets, it got chippy. Like these two teams got chippy against each other. Ando's had a couple run ins throughout the games and like, I mean Lachar had a little bit of a cross the line in game three. But generally these teams have been chippy but the Rangers have been controlled and which I think is, is helping.

17:21Andrew: Exactly. I agree. But that's, that's actually a good segue because the fourth Rangers goal was scored by Supy himself. Carson Campbell of Campbellford. He scored a absolute beauty. He's not known for scoring but we love it when he does. He's a heart and soul guy. I've loved watching this Steady Eddie play defense all year. He's just been a total beauty on the back end. He scored a really nice goal and then really enjoyed it. He enjoyed himself in the celebration. That's all we're going to say. And there may have been a, a jock. What would you say it readjustment perhaps on the way back to the home bench which may have taken place in front of the visitors bench. Listen, all I can say is I, I read an article in, in the Waterloo Record. My little Waterloo Record plug, Josh Brown. Waterloo Record and coach UC A Hocus said, I didn't think he should have even been ejected for it. He does that all the Tommy Kut there. He was just adjusting himself and let's move on. That's how I feel about it. I saw it. I didn't, I didn't cover my, my 10 month old's eyes or anything. I thought it was understated and I thought it was kind of ridiculous that he was tossed for that. Yeah, to me, because it wasn't, it was something that I saw on, on replay. It wasn't something that I really.

18:56Justin: Yeah, I didn't notice it in the moment. Even on, even. Yeah, even in the replay. I didn't really notice it. And I went, oh, right.

19:04Andrew: No, it was, it's very, it's very nothing to me.

19:07Justin: It was funny because obviously we were there. We couldn't really, we, we couldn't see it from. Or I wasn't, Wasn't watching for him either.

19:14Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Generally not looking for that kind of thing, so.

19:18Justin: No. And, and then I, I, they were like, Campbell scored. And then they were like, Campbell Jack did. And I was like, hey, misconduct. What happened?

19:30Andrew: Unsportsman.

19:31Justin: Like. Yeah, okay.

19:33Andrew: So I was like, I thought that he was just really happy. That's what it looked like to me. And the Aud didn't really matter because another defenseman got on the score sheet with Chromiak scoring his first playoff goal and he had an assist as well in this one. So it was a two point game.

19:49Justin: Romac. He even got the third star of this game.

19:51Andrew: Yeah. And the Aud then Swicky gets his third goal of the postseason, which, I mean, if he keeps scoring at this rate.

19:59Justin: Well, I mean, that was. Not only was that his third goal of the postseason, that was his sixth point of the postseason.

20:06Andrew: Unbelievable. These overagers. These overagers know this is the end of the road for them in the ohl and they make it count.

20:14Justin: Man. Obviously we started with the game we lost first, but man, this was a fun weekend of hockey. I am loving the playoffs. I've been watching some highlights of some of the other games too. It's all very high octane. These kids are going and it's, it's, it's a blast. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right, so who, who's your three stars of the first three games of the, the playoffs? Andrew, who's your first star?

20:41Andrew: My first star. We just talked about him.

20:43Justin: It's.

20:44Andrew: Trenswick has to be six points in three games, all of them coming in two. I also thought that he played well in the third game and he could have had another one at least just because he gets in front of the. He gets in front of the net and. And he puts himself. Unfortunately he couldn't, you know, he couldn't convert or anything on, on these chances. It was also. It was a weird game because there was a lot of chances from further out in this game.

21:19Justin: Yeah.

21:19Andrew: For example, I thought it was really strange. I thought it was a statistical anomaly. Chromiak had nine shots in this game.

21:27Justin: He did. But a lot of point shots was the only thing you could get going in this one.

21:31Andrew: And that's the thing is I respect it because they were trying to set up that like Trent Swick deflection. They're trying to set up that kind of thing and they just couldn't get it going and just didn't.

21:44Justin: They knew what was going on. Like credit to Flint. the Soo where their weaknesses were in that second game and they, they shut it down. So you know, there will be some adjustments before game four here for sure.

21:55Andrew: Absolutely. I think that the Rangers just need to get back to what was working for the Aud and just keep that high octane offense where the Aud skating Flint and just pushing the pace.

22:08Justin: Yeah, agreed. My, my first star also Swick. For exactly all the same reasons. Six points, man. You can't, you can't not say that. Who's your second star?

22:18Andrew: My second star is Jack Pridham because I felt that Jack Pridham could have had a goal or more in the first game and in the second game he had four points. He was dominant. Jack Pridham put them to be early is how it felt because he just literally scored those two goals and it. I just honestly felt like, oh yeah, they're winning this game. I, I've never. I just felt so confident. Well, I was like this is just a. Even like we said, when Aspinall scored, to answer back, it didn't feel like it was like a big pushback. It felt like it was a desperation goal and we had him on the ropes. And of course we did because then Andrew Vermeulen Vermeulen scored and that was it. Who's your second star?

23:06Justin: My second star is our guy, Jackson Parsons. A little bit understated. You know. The first game, three goals against second game, one goal against. Third game we lost. But only two goals against. We played extra frames. He's two goals against average in these three games. Like the dude is solid. Yes, you can score on him, but you can score on every goalie that's not really the point. The point is that he shuts down at key moments and, and that's just his game, man. He's solid. Like. Yeah, I just don't worry with him and it's great. And it feels. I don't have that in my real life, so.

23:43Andrew: Yeah.

23:45Justin: Just need somebody back there to just be the guy.

23:49Andrew: Yeah, I get you. I feel you.

23:51Justin: Who's your third star?

23:52Andrew: My third star is Luca Romano. He had the overtime winner. I also just felt like he was a leader in puck position. I felt like he's always in the right spots. I felt like he played really well in the face off dot. Although I did not double check that statistic. That just. It just felt like he was winning most of the draws in the first two games. At the very least.

24:19Justin: I'm okay to accept that argument. Yeah. Yeah.

24:22Andrew: And I just, I just felt like he was a. Just a leader and if you get a game winning goal in overtime, you would. You deserve at least the third star, let's put it that way.

24:31Justin: There you go. Yeah.

24:32Andrew: Yeah. Who's your third star?

24:35Justin: Mine is the penalty kill. We went 13 for 13 on the penalty kill in these three games. Flynn didn't get a lot of great opportunities on the power play. And yeah, we talked about this at length going into the playoffs. Specialty teams are key. Our power play did well. Like we scored in the first two games on the power play. But yeah, the penalty kill. Dominant. Yeah. So the. That's our three stars. I mean when it comes to game previews, the game previews that we have is there could be four more games, but hopefully there could be.

25:08Andrew: Hopefully there's not four more.

25:10Justin: Yeah, hopefully. Yeah.

25:11Andrew: I only want to see two more games. Even though these games have been great,

25:15Justin: they've been super fun. Yeah.

25:17Andrew: Do not like each other. That is very clear.

25:21Justin: Yeah. The Flint Fighter Birds.

25:24Andrew: Fighter birds. Yeah. They're not, they're not. They're not huge fans of the Kitchener Rangers.

25:29Justin: They're kind of like. They're like, kind of like Canadian geese. Which is interesting because they are American guessing.

25:34Andrew: They don't listen to the AudPod down in Flint.

25:38Justin: Correct. So there's some more games. I mean Nathan Day we, we talked about last week, he's going to be a factor. The guys that we talked about, Clattenberg Mania, they've been, they've been solid for that team. I think. You know, we've talked about it in this, in this episode already. The Rangers, if they play their game, they can beat Flint. We saw that in game two, that was the Rangers playing their game, dictating the game pace. That's how they win for sure.

26:06Andrew: And I think it was a little understated. But it was also that game in game one as well on the Friday night. I feel like it was a closer game but. But it was honestly two of those goals I think Parsons would like to have back from the first game. They're just. They weren't necessarily bad goals because, you know, Flint had some. It was a very, very, you know, high danger chance. But Parsons generally stops at least one of those. There was kind of that like I, I couldn't blame Parsons at all for either of those goals, but it was like, you know what he's. He normally he'll have at least one of those. I think that realistically that game could have been a little bit further apart. It could have been a little bit comfier. In fact, in that third period when Trent Swick scored his second goal and they went up with about six minutes left in the game, I thought that was it. And then when Aspinall scored, who like that, that's what he does. This, this Aspinall guy, he scores a lot and he's a powerful player. When he scored and sent it to overtime with about five minutes left, I did. I got, I got really nervous because it was just one of those like, is this gonna swing now the other way?

27:25Justin: Yeah. Did the momentum actually shift or.

27:28Andrew: Yeah, yeah, but ultimately no. I. Then you get into overtime and you know, Jackson Parsons is like closing the door. It's not, it's not gonna happen.

27:37Justin: Battle shields lockdown.

27:40Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

27:41Justin: Excited for these games. Not going to start speculating on anything past this, this round. So happy to see it go. We'll talk about that next week. We'll know what, what the outcome of this series was. I bet we'll be talking about, you know, where. Well, we'll. By then we'll know because Tuesday night, next week is the last is game sevens across the league. So we will be into round two probably already by the time we record our next podcast. So we'll be talking one way or another. Well, round two will be happening no matter what though. We will talk about that for sure. And also what we're going to talk about next week is the, is the OHL draft, which I believe is next Friday, which is a week from the day that this will become out. So yeah, yeah, we'll have a little preview on that. And then Andrew, the greatest Ranger of all time, the groat we both have Sleeping children nearby. So we can only do it. So we are, we are recording at home because there was like a free freak snow slash ice storm today, Wednesday. And if you're in Kitchener, you know, because the world shut down today, basically, like, what the hell?

28:47Andrew: Yeah, yeah, it was insane. So we just kind of said, you know what, we'll do a remote. We'll do a remote.

28:54Justin: We know how to remote groat. Oh, a pod.

28:56Andrew: Yeah, a remote groat. There you go.

28:58Justin: But we are, we are in the throes of this, of the groat vote. It's been awesome. Thank you to everybody who's been voting and been in on it. This is killer. Like, we are right now, as of recording, we are finishing up the, the final eight groats tomorrow, which is Thursday. We will be, we will be doing the final eight vote and then Friday when this episode comes out, you better get over because it's the semifinals. And then next Final Four Friday, today, podcast episode release day. Final Four is happening. I think there's going to be some guys I didn't expect in the Final four.

29:42Andrew: I don't want to call them upsets. I don't want to call them upsets.

29:45Justin: No.

29:45Andrew: But I do feel like it's, it's already taken some left hand turns that I couldn't have predicted there.

29:52Justin: I think after today's vote, again, we just not have final tallies in, but I think we might have two hall of Famers out before the final eight. Oh, no.

30:02Andrew: That's so insane. That's unbelievable. If you told me that. Yeah. I wouldn't have believed you. Just because I felt like the hall of Famers were locks to get at least two wins in this tournament.

30:14Justin: Yeah, agreed. But no, no dice. No.

30:17Andrew: Not to be.

30:18Justin: Not to be. So, so here's the, here's the schedule. You're hearing this on Friday. The final four vote is happening today. The finals vote will happen on Tuesday. So make sure that you're, if you look at our stories today on Instagram, you'll see there's the little countdown timer. You can click the bell to remind you on Tuesday we're going to be like bugging people. Like if we don't see your vote in, we're going to be looking for you because we, we've seen all the people that have been voting. We're going to be all over you because we want, we want historic turnouts for this. It's true.

30:54Andrew: We've had, we've had phenomenal turnout so far. We have the first round. We had almost 2000 votes. What was it?

31:02Justin: 1500? Yeah, it was a lot.

31:04Andrew: It was a lot.

31:04Justin: 1500 just on Instagram and then we also.

31:06Andrew: On Instagram.

31:07Justin: Yeah. And Tick Tock. So.

31:08Andrew: And then we had several hundred on. On TikTok as well. So I, I conservatively I'll say basically 2000 votes in the first round. So.

31:16Justin: So absolutely.

31:17Andrew: That's unbelievable.

31:18Justin: Thank again. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We said this last week and we are taking it back. We are not going to announce the winner of the Groat on Instagram first next Friday. Tune in to the AudPod on Friday. That's where you'll find out who the Groat is. That's where we're going to announce it.

31:41Andrew: This is coming out on Friday, April 4th. The groat vote. The final growth vote is come is on on Instagram on April 8, Tuesday, April 8. And then you will find out who is truly the growth. Once we've done all the tabulations, added up the Tick Tock added up the

32:02Justin: Instagram votes, get the AudPod computer going.

32:08Andrew: That will be announced on April 11th. The episode the AudPod episode on April 11th.

32:16Justin: Episode 29.

32:18Andrew: Yes. How, how we've made it here, I have no idea.

32:21Justin: No idea. Absolutely.

32:22Andrew: Here we are.

32:23Justin: Yeah, here we are. People are still listening to us, Andrew.

32:26Andrew: And you know what? No, you know what though? I have to do a special shout out just to the Rangers community, to the OHL community that honestly I just feel completely embraced. It's really nice, it's really nice to start something to admittedly know very little next to nothing about the league, about the history of the league, about the franchise that we're following and for nobody to kind of get in our face about it. People have just embraced us and we've embraced the Aud it's just been awesome all the way around. So positive. And even more, you know, from, from people who are fans to people who are personalities in the league, to people who work with the team to just, you know, to super fans in the, in the stands. Everyone has embraced us and been kind to us and welcoming and it's just like an unbelievable thing to experience.

33:27Justin: Yeah, couldn't. Couldn't agree more. Thank you to everybody who sends us messages, like private messages on, on all the social medias and st. Just we, we, we try and reply to everybody. I think we do app reply to everybody but we just appreciate it. Like just know that we really appreciate. Yeah. The, the welcoming community that we've stumbled our way into.

33:47Andrew: Yeah. And if you see us at a game You. You gotta say hi. You know, and we say hi. We got a message. We got a message this past week saying, we saw it. I Sam O'Reilly guys, but I didn't want to interrupt, which I appreciate. We were with our families. We were with our little babies, and. But honestly, you're not interrupting us. If you just come over and say, hey, you know, I follow you guys, or I listen to the pod or whatever, you know, keep up the good work. Or you can just criticize us relentlessly to our face and. And we will take notes and we will implement them. No, please, please be kind. All right? We have egos, all right?

34:23Justin: And you can. But you can criticize us how Derek Roy and Andre Benoit ended up in the. In the second round of the Gro Vot.

34:30Andrew: Well, we agree. We agree with that criticism. That was chance, people. That was.

34:36Justin: That was the Aud gods at work.

34:38Andrew: We didn't control who was playing against each other or competing against each other. And it also doesn't matter. Try to explain this to someone.

34:48Justin: Whoever the Gro is will win. That's what the point. If you. Point is anyone. We got a couple thank yous to throw out this week. Of course, we have to thank Ken Born, the director of branding and marketing, all the throat stuff. Holy cow. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

35:06Andrew: Doing a lot of the heavy lifting for this tournament.

35:09Justin: Totally. Yes, of course. We have to thank the prodigal producer, Liam, the phenom. And then, yeah, you can find us on the socials.

35:17Andrew: Yes, heoddpodcast on TikTok and Instagram quickly. Go there now. If you're listening to this, go there now. There might be a Groat vote happening. If you're listening, on Friday, the day of release, there absolutely is, and there is the finals on Tuesday. Just reiterating the finals on Tuesday after release. Tuesday, April 8th, get out there and vote for the Groat. It's your last chance. Find us on YouTube and you can watch me suffer through a severe leg cramp, or at least part of it, because it went. Was ongoing. And we did have to do some editing. So it's not fully uncut this week, but usually there is an uncut version, completely uncut version on YouTube. Check us out. the AudPod Kitchener Rangers is what you want to search out there and you'll find us.

36:11Justin: Indeed. Thank you to everyone who has, liked, subscribed, followed, hit bells. I don't know all those things. And if you haven't, please do, please. We really appreciate all of it. It goes a long ways to helping us stay in the algorithms of the world, which we don't understand, honestly. We don't.

36:30Andrew: We don't love asking for that, but we want to connect with Rangers fans and OHL fans, so it helps us do that. That's honestly more. More that than our ego, truly.

36:42Justin: Yeah. Yes. And as always, for the continuing playoffs of the Kitchener Rangers, you can find

36:51Andrew: us at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

36:55Justin: Be at the odds.