29: Firebirds Downed & GROAT Crowned

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:00Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:02Justin: Man, I don't even know where to start. We got so many things to talk about today.

0:06Andrew: It's true. And yet only a couple hockey games.

0:09Justin: Only a couple hockey games. Okay, so quick overview. We won. We won game round one of the series, not game one. We also won game one of the series, but we won the first series of the playoffs. Flint. Bye. Bye.

0:24Andrew: Wiping my hands of the Flint Firebirds.

0:28Justin: Yeah, couldn't be happier for them to be gone.

0:30Andrew: Yep.

0:31Justin: See you later. So they're gone. We were just talking about this. The OHL schedulers, they were not taking into consideration the AudPod for next week.

0:41Andrew: Not at all.

0:42Justin: So this. We're all in shambles.

0:44Andrew: They didn't consult us at all. Pretty much every week of this series goes the full seven games. It's. It screws up our Wednesday night record session.

0:53Justin: Correct. Be prepared. Keep. Chaos will come. Let's just hope the Rangers take it in four. And then. That's easy.

1:00Andrew: Yes, exactly.

1:01Justin: And then of course, we're going to tease you along a little bit here because we finished the groat vote.

1:07Andrew: We did. We finished it.

1:08Justin: It's. It's done.

1:09Andrew: You finished it. You the listener, the voter.

1:13Justin: Oh, not me, Justin.

1:14Andrew: Not you. You did a lot of work.

1:15Justin: You're looking at me saying you. I got really confused. Yeah. So thank you for everyone who voted. We're going to do that classic prime time early 2000s tease where we're gonna tell you who won the groat, but not till the end of the episode. But then also, like I put in the chapter markers of every episode. If the only reason you're here is to listen for the groat vote, you can just skip to the probably. The chapter is probably called the Grove vote final or something.

1:41Andrew: Probably something like.

1:42Justin: Seems like something I might call it.

1:43Andrew: Don't skip it though, because this is gonna be a good episode. I can feel it.

1:46Justin: Yeah, good. So there. Play the intro music.

1:55Andrew: Welcome to the AudPod where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas.

2:10Justin: Okay, so normal format we got. We have two games to talk about because we won the series. We. One of those games happened between when we recorded and when the episode came out. And we recorded two intros. But we got the first one right. We were. Went up 3:1.

2:26Andrew: We should have just stuck with our gut.

2:29Justin: That's why we recorded it first.

2:30Andrew: We were like, this is the most fun.

2:31Justin: This is the one. Yeah. Yes. So, yeah, that first game. That was the Thursday night game. Game four, we won five to one, which was like another. After those first three games. We got the one good game. And then the other two were super close, as we expected with this series. But then game four was not close again.

2:50Andrew: Went right back to the. Exactly. Just like the Sunday games. That was six to one. This one was five to one. It wasn't close.

2:55Justin: No.

2:56Andrew: And the Rangers just, I think, stole their soul in this one.

2:59Justin: But not until the third period.

3:01Andrew: Exactly.

3:01Justin: The first period was still 0. 0. It was a little bit of concerning going into this game with no read.

3:07Andrew: Yeah.

3:07Justin: No, no. Cameron Reid Cameron Reid He is.

3:12Andrew: Yeah.

3:12Justin: Yes. We were a little bit concerned about that. But defenseman Zhu came in and held down the fort.

3:18Andrew: Okay. I love this kid.

3:20Justin: Okay. Okay.

3:21Andrew: Don't get me wrong, he's young, he's raw. A few times I saw some grenades being launched. There was some passes that I was

3:30Justin: like, oh, he's nervous.

3:31Andrew: In the playoffs. Didn't result in anything. So we. There's no. You can't get on the kid for that. No.

3:36Justin: However, learning opportunity.

3:38Andrew: The hits, the hit. The hits that he was throwing, he was.

3:43Justin: They were also grinning aids, taking no prisoners.

3:47Andrew: This kid comes to play. He was not going to let Flint push him around, I'll tell you that much.

3:53Justin: No.

3:53Andrew: So. Loved seeing that.

3:55Justin: Yep.

3:56Andrew: Love. Because he was for sure going to be an everyday guy next year. Although there's just so many players. I have no idea.

4:02Justin: I'm gonna wait till September because there's a draft coming up. Agreed. I don't know.

4:05Andrew: Yeah, I know there's talks that there's like compensatory. Compensatory. Compensatory, right. That's a word.

4:14Justin: That's a word. Yeah.

4:15Andrew: Yeah, I know words. Some of them.

4:17Justin: You.

4:17Andrew: If you trade, you can not sign your first round pick because you have like too many guys on the roster and they're not gonna have a chance to play and then somebody else can sign the Soo then you get a pick in a first round pick at the end of the first round in the following year, which, like, you're not supposed to do.

4:34Justin: Interesting.

4:35Andrew: It's not supposed to be like a thing you do strategically. Yeah.

4:39Justin: But it's a thing that exists.

4:41Andrew: It's a thing that gets done strategically. Yeah. Like you draft someone who's never coming to play in the ohl and they don't show up and then somebody else signs them or he goes to college or whatever, and now you get another pick because. I don't know, it seems like a

4:55Justin: lot of guys yeah, this team is kind of stacked, definitely. Yeah.

4:59Andrew: Yeah. It's pretty good. You open the cupboard and it's just

5:02Justin: full and you're like, oh, we don't

5:05Andrew: have any room for this new shiny object that, that we need to put in the cupboard.

5:09Justin: Yeah, there's just a lot of chips.

5:11Andrew: Yeah.

5:11Justin: This game, it was fun and it was interesting and it was chaotic and. Yeah.

5:16Andrew: Yeah.

5:17Justin: I don't know, it just, it had all the emotions.

5:19Andrew: It really did. Because of course, Jack Pridham got us started. This is in the second period. He scored. Luca Romano got an assist on that goal. Trent Swick, it's like the usual suspects. The big time playoff performers continue to be big time playoff performers. Yeah. And then Tanner Lam who, who got his first of the postseason, but he's been playing extremely well for a undersized guy. We'll say in the ohl. Just generally an average sized man off the ice, but a undersized guy. He's playing with an edge. He's taking a lot of bs. And I don't mean that they're putting up with it. I just mean that I'm seeing a lot of stuff going against Tanner Lam and he's not throwing his hands up. He's not getting, he's not, it's not breaking his spirit. He's not complaining. He just is. He just gets up and keeps going. I did notice it. It's one of the things that really peeved me off in this series was that there wasn't any calls. He never really drew too many calls

6:17Justin: because no one did, I guess, until game five.

6:20Andrew: Until game five. Yeah. And the Rangers did finally start drawing calls in Game 4, which was something that they probably should have been doing all series.

6:30Justin: And probably what finally broke the spirit of Flint.

6:34Andrew: I agree.

6:35Justin: Was the Rangers finally getting the penalties or the power plays that they deserved.

6:40Andrew: Yeah. And they got seven of them in this game and they converted on two of them.

6:43Justin: Yeah.

6:44Andrew: And if it wasn't for. It's hard to say in a 51 game. If it wasn't for Nathan Day, this game would have been further apart. But that was the whole series. He stole the one game from the Rangers. It would have been a Soupy undoubtedly.

6:55Justin: Yeah.

6:56Andrew: Nathan Day is a very talented goalie. I'm excited about him.

6:59Justin: I, I now he's.

7:01Andrew: Yeah.

7:02Justin: In the dog house forever.

7:04Andrew: As an Edmonton Oiler, I am rooting for him forever.

7:07Justin: He was great.

7:08Andrew: But yeah, Trent Swick also got a goal in this one. Yeah.

7:12Justin: Didn't he also get three points in this game? He Did.

7:14Andrew: He had two assists and a goal.

7:15Justin: So that after four games, he's at nine points.

7:18Andrew: Yeah. He's unstoppable.

7:19Justin: Yeah.

7:20Andrew: Okay. Like, this is the guy that when I said is over, under. This is exactly who I was thinking he was going to be. And I have no problem with the fact that he just marinated through the regular season and now he's just upped his game to a truly elite level, which I just knew that this is the type of hockey that he plays though, right? This is. This playoff style hockey is going to benefit. Trent Swick. It gets a little bit more edgier. It gets a little rougher. And not only that, in a way, his big frame allows him to gain some space and he's not just trying to skate fast and keep up with the play and that kind of thing. It's literally okay. It's going to slow down a bit here now because everybody's checking the heck out of each other. So he's able to take it to a new level because he's just a physical specimen. And he's smart. He is smart. Really smart player. Yeah. And he just knows where to go.

8:10Justin: And now it says on the score sheet that he got three points, but really he was responsible for four points in this game.

8:15Andrew: That's true. He was. Technically. Yes, he was. You could say that he scored the one goal for Flint that they attributed to Klattenberg with an assist. I did appreciate that. Mr. Swick, when they eliminated them in game five, did post on his Instagram that photo of him in the net with the goal going in.

8:41Justin: Nice.

8:42Andrew: There you go. So not only is he a great

8:44Justin: player and a great teammate, sense of humor, also hilarious. Also a funny guy. Yeah.

8:49Andrew: Oh, okay.

8:50Justin: You know me. I always have a bone to pick. Yes, I already tried to pick one with the OHL Schedulers, but there was something happening in. In Flint during the series and that we will talk about more in the next game as well.

9:02Andrew: There was something happening. Is that why nobody was at the games? They were all at this thing that was happening?

9:06Justin: Yeah, they were at the event.

9:07Andrew: That was the event that was happening. Yeah.

9:08Justin: Down the street.

9:09Andrew: Yeah.

9:09Justin: No, but there was obviously something going on in the dressing room where they were clearly targeting players on the Rangers to hurt, injure, take down.

9:19Andrew: When you've got Mike McKenzie responding in a Waterloo Record article. Oh, good. Weekly plug. It's really cheap right now. You can get six months for a dollar.

9:29Justin: Oh, is it? Oh, I should do that. I keep sending you articles to tell me what they Sam O'Reilly And I

9:33Andrew: read the Aud I go, yeah. And you're like, what does it say? When Mike McKenzie saying, yeah, there's a little bit of headhunting going on.

9:38Justin: Yeah.

9:38Andrew: You're not supposed to say that. Right. Like you and me on the AudPod. We're supposed to bring that kind of conjecture into the ether.

9:45Justin: But the Flint players said it in the intermission interview.

9:49Andrew: In the intermission interview told us that

9:52Justin: they were doing that.

9:52Andrew: Yes. That they were literally basically targeting.

9:55Justin: Yes.

9:56Andrew: Yeah.

9:56Justin: It felt awful. It.

9:58Andrew: It felt like it was something that shouldn't have been said. Even if it was going on in the sense that almost saying it was worse than actually doing it because doing it and saying it is actually worse. Because if it's a small group or an individual or something like that, where they're like, I'm going to go out. I'm making a conscious choice to go out and try and hit the talented player and potentially take the Aud of the game.

10:24Justin: Yeah.

10:24Andrew: That's an individual choice. I don't agree with it. It's definitely been in hockey forever. So you're really not going to get away from it in a physical contact sport. But to announce it and for two

10:35Justin: different players to use almost the same words.

10:38Andrew: Yeah.

10:38Justin: Makes it feel like the Aud a coaching management. Yeah. Somebody said this to, we're going to wear them down. Yeah.

10:44Andrew: Which that's something that you do. And it doesn't have to be dirty. We're going to wear them down. We're going to grind the Aud We're going to. We're going to. We're going to. We're going to finish our checks. We're going to do that. But it was not.

10:55Justin: That was not the intonation of the comments.

10:57Andrew: The vibe was much more like intent to injure.

11:01Justin: Yes.

11:01Andrew: Which you don't want to throw around. And we're not trying to get anybody in trouble and we're not trying to ruffle any feathers of the firebirds.

11:09Justin: Do they have feathers? They were on fire.

11:11Andrew: Like they, they, they were burning to the ground, scorched earth. Oh, you know what? I don't care if I offend them. There's nobody there.

11:18Justin: There's no fans. One Flint fan got mad at me

11:21Andrew: because I commented on account on one of the videos that Flint posted or the Ohl posted or something, and I was just like, there's nobody there to even see them. That's terrible attendance. They tried to justify. There's only like 15% of Americans like hockey. I'm like, yeah, so we're on the same page.

11:38Justin: Yeah. Terrible attendance. 15% of Americans is still more than there are Canadians.

11:47Andrew: You should be able to fill a small building. There's no upper section in Flint. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, not that I know of. I don't know why you'd need it.

11:59Justin: Okay. Game five.

12:01Andrew: Yeah.

12:01Justin: We then won the series two to one.

12:04Andrew: A close game.

12:05Justin: In a close game. That was pretty crazy that it was this close of a game.

12:10Andrew: It was also crazy that the Rangers won this game.

12:14Justin: Yeah.

12:15Andrew: Because of the power play.

12:17Justin: The second period, the most infuriating period of hockey. At least I'm not going to say of all Tommy Kut of top five

12:25Andrew: that I've watched of the season, I'd

12:27Justin: Sam O'Reilly for sure.

12:28Andrew: Of the. Of the Aud pot.

12:29Justin: This should be.

12:30Andrew: Of the Aud pot. It's the most infuriating.

12:32Justin: It might be an infuriating period of hockey. Like in the last 10 years.

12:36Andrew: Yeah, it was bizarre.

12:38Justin: Yeah.

12:39Andrew: I'd never really seen penalties go down like that or non calls which resulted in the Rangers losing their lid over it. I understand. And I think I texted to you. If they had just made that call, the neon knee that they didn't call, we wouldn't even be here.

12:57Justin: This is why you should just call the same in the regular season as you do in the playoffs. Or vice versa. I don't know what words I'm saying.

13:04Andrew: Bottom line is if you see something like that, which I don't know how they couldn't have seen that hit against the boards that clearly the knee got stuck out. You just make that call so that tensions don't boil over.

13:16Justin: Yes.

13:17Andrew: It's the playoffs. They just played four games in a row against each other. And these two teams did not like each other from the moment the puck dropped in game one.

13:25Justin: And there was no settle time because this was a Thursday to Friday game. There was a travel day. Like there was no practice to calm everyone down.

13:32Andrew: People are grumpy. Yeah. Yeah.

13:34Justin: It was a hard schedule for the Aud was. Yeah.

13:36Andrew: And imagine if London was playing. All we hear about is how hard of a schedule it was. 2. Two games in a row.

13:44Justin: Mohawk Construction glasses. Wow. What do you think you're doing there? Scheduling two games on a back to back? These boys need to rest. It's the playoffs.

13:56Andrew: These are elite athletes.

13:58Justin: We need to give them the time to recuperate between games.

14:02Andrew: Anyway.

14:03Justin: Yeah, that was an impression.

14:04Andrew: Yeah.

14:04Justin: Yeah. So I was infuriated. We got 17 penalty minutes in the second period.

14:09Andrew: At one point they had just they had a five on three.

14:12Justin: Yeah. For a full two minutes.

14:13Andrew: For a full two minutes. And then there was still three minutes and 45 seconds or something. Once. Once he got out of the box.

14:20Justin: Yeah.

14:20Andrew: I'm just looking at power play.

14:21Justin: Power play. Power. Yeah.

14:22Andrew: It was Ellenus who had the match penalty for slew footing.

14:26Justin: Yeah.

14:27Andrew: Yes, it was. It was a frustration penalty. I don't think. It wasn't the type of slew foot where he skated, went out of his way, stuck his leg out and got a guy. He was tied up with a guy they were pushing and shoving as they were skating down the ice. Elena slew footed him.

14:44Justin: Yeah.

14:45Andrew: You get a five minute.

14:46Justin: It was a five. Listen, I'm not arguing.

14:48Andrew: I'm not arguing that it was an ejection. I'm not arguing that it was a five minute major. I'm just saying it was what it was. He left the game as a result. I'm okay with that. Char again. He had a roughing penalty. He had a charging penalty.

15:03Justin: He charged.

15:04Andrew: Gila charged. The issue that I have is the penalty that's not here, which I don't know if these things happen the Sam O'Reilly Is the knee on knee.

15:12Justin: Yes, there was earlier.

15:15Andrew: Adrian Misledgevic went out with an awkward injury as well. I don't think it was a dirty hit. I don't think it was. It was just weird. There was contact. He went funny into the boards. I texted you right away and said it reminded me of Kachak and Scheifele where Tachuk just bumped him. It wasn't. Again, Kachuk. I don't like Chuck. I think he is a dirty player. I don't think that was intent to like ruin Mark Scheifele's knee or ankle or whatever. It would just literally just. He ended up going into the boards funny. Reminded me of that.

15:44Justin: So there was tension right before Elena's got ejected. He also took a high stick in the face that didn't get called. There was like.

15:50Andrew: There was stuff.

15:51Justin: It was this weird thing where it felt. Maybe it's biased, but it's like it felt like everything that the Rangers did got called and nothing that Flint did got called, which I think the players felt as well. And that's what raised tensions in the game.

16:06Andrew: It felt like they were managing the series. It felt like you guys are up three games to one.

16:12Justin: Yeah.

16:13Andrew: So you're going to have to earn it. Which I don't really agree with. That style of officiating. It drives me nuts. Just call the game Just call the game. Exactly. And this is the issue is when something bad happens or multiple things happen and a team gets frustrated, especially a young team in junior, you're going to end up with a slew foot penalty or you're going to end up with a fight or you're ending up with somebody who doesn't want to fight, getting dragged into a fight or somebody getting slashed or high sticked or whatever. And it's just stupid. Just call the egregious penalties.

16:44Justin: Yeah. And this is the point where I'm going to break tradition and I'm going to Sam O'Reilly am shouting out my first star in this moment.

16:54Andrew: Nice.

16:54Justin: Which is first of all the special teams.

16:57Andrew: Yes.

16:58Justin: But the penalty kill went 20 for 20 in this series.

17:03Andrew: Yeah. You go 20 for 20. If you go 100% in any seven game series, a five game series, four game series, you're winning the power play.

17:09Justin: Also the. All the concerns that we had about the power play going into the playoffs.

17:14Andrew: Yeah.

17:14Justin: None of that arose in this, maybe in the game that we lost, but that was only because Nathan Day was insane.

17:20Andrew: Yes.

17:20Justin: And. But otherwise I think we scored power play goals and maybe not game five here because there was very few goals, but I think we scored it in all the important moments we got our power play goals.

17:30Andrew: That's. Since your cat's out of the bag, I'm going to say my first star, bad boy Brad Flynn, because he runs the special teams.

17:38Justin: Brad boys for life.

17:39Andrew: Brad, boys for life.

17:41Justin: At least three more years.

17:42Andrew: Yes. Stay with us, Brad.

17:45Justin: Brad, back to the game. The third period became a goalie battle. Like the second period, the Rangers had to stay in it. They miraculously killed off all those penalties

17:55Andrew: and Jackson Parsons had save of the year.

17:57Justin: Of course. Yeah, yeah, it was.

17:59Andrew: And it wasn't even the flashiest save, but it was one of those saves where he anticipated. He moved his body, crossed the crease and just narrowly stopped the puck. It was a yawning side of the. Like the cage was yawning wide open. And I thought for sure you have that instinct that they're gonna score. You know what I mean? And no, you can never doubt this guy is. Even when he's out of position, he's in position.

18:24Justin: Mike Farwell posted on Twitter, every time I think I've seen the greatest save Jackson Parsons will ever make, he does another one.

18:31Andrew: And with that video, fantastic tweet.

18:33Justin: So we already spilled our first star of the week, which was the same AudPod mind meld.

18:37Andrew: Yep.

18:37Justin: Who's your second star?

18:38Andrew: My Second star is Jackson Parsons.

18:41Justin: My melt. Yeah.

18:44Andrew: We said everything we needed to say. This is the play of Jackson Parsons is all world.

18:52Justin: Yes. Last week he was my second star and he was already sub two goals against. And then he did two games in a row where he only let in one. Yeah. Insane.

19:02Andrew: If you're playing from behind against Jackson Parsons, you're in big trouble.

19:09Justin: Yes. All right, who's your third star?

19:11Andrew: My third star, at the risk of being redundant because I've picked him now. I picked him last episode. Oh, yeah, it's Trent Swag.

19:23Justin: Good.

19:24Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

19:25Justin: Nine points in five games is.

19:27Andrew: Listen, he didn't actually score in the last game, but Trent Swick has just been the offensive leader. Jack Pridham, I think is the trigger man. I think Jack Pridham has done some awesome things, has had some game changing moments, but there's just been this constant narrative of we need a goal. Trent Swick is there to either dish one out or score it himself.

19:51Justin: My third star is different than yours.

19:53Andrew: There you go. That's good.

19:54Justin: It's Tanner Lam Yeah. The laminator.

19:56Andrew: Love the laminator.

19:57Justin: He was sneaky good in this series. Like, he. He did get. He got a bunch of points. Like, he wasn't quiet on the score sheet, but man. Yeah, he, like leveled up his game in the playoffs in this first round. He reminds me a little bit of early days Sam Bennett, when Sam Bennett was like, good in the regular season but beast mode in the playoffs, and he has that beast mode going right now. I love it. Yeah. So great couple. Dane.

20:20Andrew: Tanner, Lam Tanner, Lam Leon. Lamb.

20:23Justin: Leon. Sam.

20:25Andrew: Leon, Sam.

20:27Justin: O'Reilly are we talking about? All right, so then next week. Yeah, so we. Again, we are recording on Wednesday. Tomorrow night is Thursday, which is game one of our series against Windsor. Of course, this doesn't come out till Friday, so you'll all know how game one went. We're just gonna preview it and. Or preview the series.

20:46Andrew: The whole series and.

20:48Justin: Yeah. Hope for the best that we don't say anything too crazy. Saturday's game two, Monday's game three, which we might be at. We might be sitting in the AudPod press box.

20:57Andrew: Oh, I think we'll be there. Yeah. Oh, I think we can make that happen.

21:01Justin: I think we're gon to make that happen. So. Yeah, Monday. Yeah. If you see us, come say hi. And. And then Wednesday is game four also at home. So that's weird. The weird point. Seating has us. Even though we had an amazing, historic season, we are the underdogs in the series according to the.

21:20Andrew: We Are we? Are. Have we. If it goes seven games, we have to play four games on the road even though we had a better everything.

21:26Justin: Yeah. Better everything.

21:27Andrew: Better everything.

21:28Justin: Yeah. Great Windsor. I hope that gets in their heads.

21:31Andrew: Listen, Windsor has two incredible offensive players, but they lack the depth that the Rangers do. That's what it's going to come down to. Sure. You have Green Tree and protests that are just literally they combine for a million points in the regular season. Yeah.

21:47Justin: 200 and. 200 and. Oh my God, 43 points.

21:51Andrew: That's too many points for you guys to have. Too many.

21:57Justin: Yeah.

21:57Andrew: Incredible. They're having incredible years. They're great hockey players.

22:00Justin: Yes.

22:01Andrew: The bottom line is the Rangers can roll four lines at you.

22:04Justin: Yes. And that, that is often the playoff winner is. Is that so? So, yeah. Our season series is 2 to 2. Kitchener won one of those games in a shootout.

22:14Andrew: Yeah.

22:14Justin: And then we each got a blowout game.

22:16Andrew: Yeah. And not only that, we were blowing something out.

22:20Justin: Well, we had a double.

22:21Andrew: It was a double blowout game early in the year.

22:23Justin: Yeah. And then our last game against them, we blew the Aud like 7 4.

22:27Andrew: That's true.

22:27Justin: And then there was one tight game in the middle.

22:29Andrew: Yeah.

22:30Justin: And looking, I was looking at. Honestly, I haven't. For some reason I haven't really been looking at Windsor that much in the second half of the season. But I was looking at their last 10, 15 games. It's like they either won or lost in a blow up game.

22:42Andrew: Right.

22:42Justin: There was no close games. It was seven nothing that they won and then they lost eight to two. It was like, what is going on?

22:49Andrew: I. I feel like when you're really top heavy and I know this from being an Oilers fan, that the hockey you play.

22:56Justin: Yeah. It's a shootout hockey.

22:58Andrew: Yeah.

22:59Justin: Joey Costanzo is their goalie. He's like a workhorse goalie. Like he is. He plays almost every game. Yeah. He's one of the few that played as many as Jackson Parsons this season. Regular season stats weren't quite as good. But this is the blowout nature of Windsor is like you get eight goals against multiple times. Like your stats.

23:17Andrew: Your stats.

23:18Justin: Yeah.

23:18Andrew: Are not going to be.

23:19Justin: Or they suffer even though you're playing volume.

23:21Andrew: Yeah.

23:21Justin: Yeah. I expect this series to be not dissimilar to the Flint series like Windsor. They're pretty chippy. They're pretty hard hitting. Like.

23:28Andrew: Yeah.

23:28Justin: I foresee a lot of the same chippiness that we saw against Flint now against Windsor.

23:33Andrew: I think so too.

23:34Justin: I think the Rangers are okay with that style. Of play. I would say other if we were. If we were Windsor's podcast. The Spit and Fires or something.

23:43Andrew: Yeah, the branding. Yeah, we'll talk to your. We'll talk to your dad about that.

23:47Justin: Yeah.

23:47Andrew: Dr. Branding, our director of marketing and branding.

23:51Justin: Yes. Yep. I would Sam O'Reilly the Rangers, they're heavy hitting and. And that's what they're going to come in and do here. So it's. I feel like we're built in similar ways, but defensively, offensively.

24:03Andrew: Yeah, it's very different.

24:05Justin: It's a very different game.

24:06Andrew: Yeah, I agree.

24:06Justin: Yeah.

24:08Andrew: I did want to talk about quick rundown of the OHL playoffs so far, just to recap. Brantford took down North Bay. Yeah. That's the one seed. And the Aud seed, four to one two. Number two Barry eliminated Niagara four to one. I feel like we pretty much nailed both of those. Forgive me for not remembering exactly how we called it, but we know that those. We picked those two. This is where it gets a little bit hazy for you. Kingston and Sudbury. You actually pick Sudbury. Yeah, I had Kingston, but I said it was going to be in six and they swept them.

24:42Justin: Yep.

24:43Andrew: So Kingston is. Put us on notice. Kingston listened to the AudPod and used it as bulletin board mater. And now Sudbury is finished.

24:53Justin: Kingston just sent us a text and it said K. Yeah, exactly.

24:58Andrew: Shout out to Babs.

24:59Justin: Yeah, for that one.

25:01Andrew: Then we have the series that we thought was going to be the closest. And believe it or not, at a six game series, it was the closest

25:10Justin: of all the series.

25:11Andrew: It was the only one that went to six.

25:13Justin: Insane.

25:14Andrew: Insane. So we really got the Juggernauts this season going to the second round. Oshawa defeated Brampton 4 to 2. You took Brampton, I took Oshawa. We both said it was going to be six or seven games. London and Owen sound. He's a Soupy Poor Carter. George Windsor versus the Soo was 4 to 1 for Windsor. I got that one wrong in the sense of I thought it was going to be closer. Yep. Yeah, we predicted the Rangers would win. Never a doubt.

25:40Justin: I did not predict anything for that series.

25:42Andrew: You did not predict the games. But you said.

25:44Justin: Oh, I did Sam O'Reilly did say that.

25:45Andrew: Rangers win. And then the one that we absolutely got 100% wrong all the way around. Little bro rose to the occasion. The Erie Otters went into Saginaw and cleaned their clocks, eliminating them in five games. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what Saginaw was doing, unfortunately. I guess their starting goalie, which wasn't reported. And the Aud Was the playoff started and he just was not available. And it doesn't seem to be a good omen when you can't really play very strong defense, which we saw was Saginaw's issue the whole season. Yes, they. Erie took the Aud in five games. It was shocking. Now, moving on to round two, we've got Branford and Oshawa. This is a crazy matchup because this could easily be a third round series. I think there's just that much talent there on both these teams. Who you got?

26:38Justin: You know what, Oshawa, they looked really strong in that first series.

26:41Andrew: They did.

26:42Justin: This second round, it's gotta go longer. So I'm gonna go seven on this one.

26:46Andrew: Oshawa and seven. Yeah, I think that's a really good prediction. Yeah. I. However, I'm gonna. Just for the drama, I'm gonna take Brantford in seven.

26:54Justin: Yeah.

26:55Andrew: Yeah. Barry and Kingston.

26:57Justin: Barry and Kingston. Kingston's put us on notice, so. Barry in six.

27:02Andrew: Barry in six. Okay. I'm gonna take the Kingston front next to upset Barry in seven games. Yeah, I think it's going to be a great series.

27:11Justin: Honestly, both of these series. I. I could totally see it going, like, literally either way. Yeah, I know.

27:17Andrew: It's a coin flip series.

27:18Justin: I.

27:18Andrew: Listen, I would like to see Barry get through personally, but I just. The Kingston Soupy of Sudbury, where I thought there was a lot more fight in Sudbury, it got me a little.

27:29Justin: It got you a little frazzled.

27:31Andrew: Yeah, it got me a little. Do we have to worry about Kingston?

27:33Justin: Yeah, I thought we just had to worry about Brantford. Yeah. And Oshawa and London and. Oh, my God, Windsor and all these teams, and I'm like, this league so good.

27:42Andrew: Yeah, exactly. All right, now we've got our favorite little brother, the Erie Otters. Yeah. Going into, you know, that place that's named after a city that's better than it. London.

27:55Justin: Erie and seven.

27:56Andrew: Erie and seven. I love it. I. Here's the thing.

27:59Justin: I'm going with my heart.

28:01Andrew: I could legitimately. I think London's a better team. Like, I think London is statistically the best Tommy Kut iri going into saginaw and just. It wasn't close. Obliterated the Aud obliterated them. Like, the games were like, 9 to 2 and 8 to 4. It wasn't even close. All I'm saying is, if we're going to see a third round between Erie and Kitchener, I have to try and manifest it. So I'm taking Erie and seven as well.

28:31Justin: Hey, we've seen Iri Irritate us to the point of taking bad penalties.

28:37Andrew: Yes.

28:38Justin: And London is very fallible in that department. Listen, it could happen.

28:43Andrew: The only time I'll cheer for Erie. Yeah.

28:45Justin: Okay. Come on, guys. This is like last year when I cheered for the Vancouver Canucks because they were playing the Oilers. Like, never in my life would I consider that I would ever cheer for the Vancouver Canucks.

28:56Andrew: But now you have.

28:57Justin: Now I have.

28:58Andrew: And now you have to own up to it forever.

29:00Justin: It's a stain on my soul.

29:01Andrew: I was going to say it's a sin.

29:03Justin: Yes.

29:03Andrew: Yeah. So. Yeah. So come on, Erie. Do your thing. Yeah. And we'll have a date with you in the third round. So obviously, we're not going to predict anything other than a Kitchener win.

29:13Justin: Yep.

29:13Andrew: And all we know is it's going to be a close series. It's going to be a fun series. And the Rangers are up to the task. Yep.

29:19Justin: And now, Andrew, it is time to end this series of the greatest Ranger of all time, the Groot.

29:30Andrew: The group. We did it.

29:32Justin: So we spent nine days over two and a half weeks.

29:36Andrew: It was a marathon.

29:37Justin: Voting.

29:38Andrew: Yes.

29:39Justin: We started with 32 players. We got over those nine days. We got 4,500 votes across Instagram and TikTok.

29:47Andrew: You guys showed up. Truly.

29:50Justin: It was. It was awesome.

29:53Andrew: It was awesome.

29:54Justin: The first round, not really tight matches.

29:57Andrew: Not at all.

29:57Justin: Not blowouts. Just like the first round of the OHL playoffs.

30:02Andrew: Yep.

30:02Justin: All the Juggernauts won.

30:04Andrew: All the Juggernauts won. There was only one matchup that was even remotely close.

30:09Justin: We did have a five win over

30:11Andrew: a four a couple times.

30:12Justin: Yes. They were also blowouts.

30:14Andrew: They were also blowouts.

30:15Justin: Yeah.

30:15Andrew: Yeah.

30:16Justin: Then we got to the. I don't even know what. The eighth finals. In the second round.

30:21Andrew: The second round, we were.

30:22Justin: We had some very upset Ranger fans.

30:24Andrew: We did.

30:25Justin: Because we had Derrick Roy vs Andre Benoit in the second round.

30:30Andrew: People were livid and people were just mad that. That Derrick Roy wasn't a one seed.

30:34Justin: Yeah. Legitimate concern. Legitimate. We heard. We got a lot. We got a lot of feedback. Feedback. And we appreciated all of it. And we heard it all.

30:43Andrew: We got it from fans and got it from staff. We got it from all sides.

30:51Justin: All sides.

30:52Andrew: And listen, we weren't in no way were we not taking notes and in no way were we arguing our points. We were like, yeah, no, that sounds about right.

31:00Justin: Sounds great.

31:00Andrew: Yeah, I think you are right on that.

31:02Justin: Yes. So the Soo Derek Roy beat Andre Ben. Then we got to the quarterfinals. I think that's what it was.

31:08Andrew: Yeah.

31:08Justin: So then yeah. On the other side of the bracket we Got Larry Robinson vs Gabriel Landiscog. Gabriel Landiscog blew that out of the water which was six time Stanley cup champion. Gone. Gone before the quarterfinals.

31:22Andrew: Gone. Yeah. And then in the next round we had Jeff Skinner defeat one of. If you were creating a line of the greatest Rangers of all time, I think you'd have to consider him as a forward. Brian Bellows. Yeah, he defeated him.

31:40Justin: Yeah.

31:40Andrew: I was gobsmacked, flabbergasted.

31:43Justin: Jeff Skinner was a great Ranger.

31:45Andrew: Great Ranger.

31:46Justin: But yeah, it just baffled.

31:48Andrew: Complete. I paused me to say recency bias.

31:51Justin: Yes.

31:51Andrew: But I was shocked. And we also again, Roy continued his title quest where he eliminated Bill Barber.

31:58Justin: Yes.

31:59Andrew: Hall of Famer, all time Philadelphia Flyers scorer.

32:03Justin: Yeah.

32:04Andrew: This is where Landiscog met his end.

32:06Justin: Landiscog met his end. Al McInnis, Mike Richards, they were pretty much destined to make it to the truly like this was also feedback that we received was that we needed. We should have seeded it so that Al McInnis and Mike Richards could meet in the finals, which they could not. But we left it up to the Aud gods.

32:25Andrew: We did. We left it up to random chance

32:27Justin: and this is what we got. And Al McInnis beat Mike Richards.

32:31Andrew: Shockingly.

32:32Justin: I was so surprised.

32:34Andrew: Again was flabbergasted. Not as much of Skinner over Bellows, but I was shocked.

32:39Justin: And then on the other side of the bracket, Paul Coffey against Derrick Royce. And we didn't know like this was. I was trying to post these so that the votes were ending as the next ones went up.

32:50Andrew: Yeah.

32:50Justin: And I didn't know who was going to win until like maybe 20 minutes

32:54Andrew: before we posted Paul Coffee was mowing down the first couple that he tasted. Understandably it's Paul Coffey, but up against Derek Roy. I was actually fairly certain that we were going to have a either McInnes Roy or Richard Roy final just because Derek Roy's contributions as a Ranger is second to almost none.

33:17Justin: Really.

33:17Andrew: Dwight Foster is pretty much the only one on the score sheet who's got more. Yeah, exactly.

33:23Justin: Okay, we're biased now. We are biased now. Yes. But yeah, no, this Derrick Roy, Paul Coffey, like we. We had to get into recounts. We had to check our math. We had to get Florida involved. That was weird.

33:35Andrew: Yeah.

33:36Justin: I don't.

33:37Andrew: Not sure but yeah, Al Gore had something to say afterwards.

33:39Justin: Ye. Yeah. We had a conversation with someone named Chad. I'm not sure what he was on to, but hanging around, hanging around. And the Aud then we felt like the AudPod audience. The audience.

33:56Andrew: The audience.

33:57Justin: Odd Potty was trolling us. I.

33:59Andrew: We did. I did message you and Sam O'Reilly think this is an elaborate troll job.

34:02Justin: Yeah, they. the. Aud that point, like 4,000 votes had been cast, and we ended up with a Calgary Flame and an Edmonton Oiler in our finals.

34:12Andrew: Give me a break. You all did this on purpose. You knew that this podcast started between Justin and I trying to find a common ground as a Flames fan and an Oilers fan. And you did this to us.

34:23Justin: You divided us again. You took the thing we love in the Rangers and you divided us.

34:30Andrew: You really did.

34:31Justin: Yeah.

34:31Andrew: And speaking of division.

34:34Justin: Yeah. Tell us.

34:36Andrew: This was the first time in the Andrew tournament that the winner on each social media was completely different. On Instagram, with around 60% of the vote was Al McInnis. On TikTok, however, with 71% of the vote was Paul Coffey. And ultimately, the difference between the number of votes crowned Paul Coffey as the greatest Ranger of all time. Now, I know what you're thinking. This guy showed up for 52 games. Listen, he played his heart out. He's Paul Coffey. But he only played 52 games with the Rangers. How could he be the greatest Ranger of all time? Justin, let me tell you, I don't think he is. But I also don't think Al McInnis is the greatest Ranger of all time. I don't think Derrick Roy is the greatest Ranger of all time. I don't think Brian Bellows is the greatest Ranger of all time. I don't think Mike Richards is the greatest Ranger of all time. I think we learned something through this. It was a teachable moment for the AudPod and important because we are new in this community and we thought, you know what we're going to do? I think we got a little too big for our britches. Let's put together a list of who we think are the greatest Rangers of all time, and let's let the community decide. And we're a little let down by the choice. You know why? Because there is no greatest Ranger of all time. Because that's not what this team is about. That's not what this community is about. Richards had Roy, Roy had Benoit. Bellows had McInnes. Everybody is part of this community equally. That's the amazing thing, is that this community rallies around itself. The team was sold for a dollar to the community. This has always been about many, not one individual. The 2024, 2025 Rangers. The leading scorer is like 30th in the league. It's been a success by committee type of organization all year. And we were trying to hyper fixate on who is this best single individual. And it not so much blew up in our face because we had a great time and we saw some fun things happen. But I think we learned that you can't single out one Ranger. That's not what the Kitchener Rangers are about. That's what I took away from it.

37:16Justin: I think that's a great thing to take away from it. Andrew, thank you. Thank you. Because I think, yeah, we were a little bit disappointed that Paul Coffey won. And it's not because we're disappointed that Paul Coffey was the arranger or that everybody voted for him. Were so happy and, like, grateful for everybody who voted and was a part of this whole process. It just felt. Then we got the fan. Like a fan favorite of the NHL.

37:39Andrew: Exactly.

37:40Justin: And that's not really what it was about. And I think you're totally right. We saw these tight matchups all throughout this competition and the feedback and the frustration of how the seating happened because all these guys work together. Like, even Pete DeBoer.

37:55Andrew: Exactly.

37:55Justin: He had Mike Richards. It was just like all these guys together.

37:59Andrew: All these guys came together even when they were championship teams. It was integral that they had each other. Yeah. It was never about one guy. This has never been a franchise where it's. Oh, yeah. And we got this one guy.

38:12Justin: Yeah.

38:12Andrew: That we all worship and adore. No, there's just so many. And that was what we. One of the things that we got, the feedback was, where's Boyd Devereaux? Where's Trevor Galland? You know what I mean? There's guys that you're missing. And it was like, we could only do so many because we're human and we only have so much time.

38:28Justin: And I think we thought we could distill it down and we just couldn't.

38:32Andrew: And we just couldn't. And I honestly think you could do this. You could do this groat vote every year and you could end up with a different groat at the end of it, simply because it's going to be different trends of how people vote. I think people took it as who maybe is the most accomplished, who has the most the pure talent for hockey, and that's who they voted. You know what I mean? But I think if you go down to the Aud which we have done, and ask who is the greatest Ranger of all time, Nobody mentioned Paul Coffey.

39:02Justin: We also never got two responses the Sam O'Reilly never got Any.

39:06Andrew: Exactly, exactly. In fact, I don't think anybody mentioned Al McInnas. So it's, I think it's just the bottom line is if I was picking the Groat, I would have to say it's the teamwork, it's the organization, it's the fans, it's the community. That's truly what it's about.

39:24Justin: Probably the quarter century team that we built was probably the more pure version of what the Groat ended up or what we wanted the groat to be.

39:33Andrew: 100%.

39:34Justin: Yeah. Okay. Some thank yous. Of course we have to thank huge, huge, huge shout out to Ken Born for putting together all of the groat stuff. Like, amazing.

39:47Andrew: We have these player cards forever now.

39:49Justin: Yeah.

39:50Andrew: Like I said, I don't think this is the end of the Groat in the sense of it being a concept that we'll have to hold and, and, and use through the life of the AudPod.

40:00Justin: Yeah.

40:01Andrew: But yeah, it wasn't possible without pop up Warren.

40:04Justin: No, absolutely not. Of course we got a shout out. The forever prodigal producer, Liam, the forever phenom. We got to think the Kitchener Public Library because we're back here recording this week. We had no freak snowstorm.

40:16Andrew: That's true.

40:17Justin: It's. Yes, it did snow while we were recording, but it stopped now.

40:20Andrew: Okay, that's par for the course.

40:24Justin: And yeah, you can if you want to. If you want to give us any more feedback, you can find us on

40:29Andrew: the social medias, at theaudpodcasts on Instagram and TikTok where you can complain about the groat, you can cheer for the groat, you can rub it in Justin face, which I had too much class on this to rub it in his face.

40:44Justin: Oh, man, you really went up me here. I was definitely gonna rub it in your face.

40:47Andrew: Yeah, I knew that's why I kept the cards close. Did not tell Justin about the TikTok swing until I got here.

40:55Justin: At recording, I was like, yes.

40:57Andrew: But yeah, check us out, reach out to us, interact with us. We love to hear from you, we love to learn from you. And you can also email us@theaudpodcastmail.com if you want to speak in long format.

41:08Justin: Ye. And as always, you can find us

41:11Andrew: for round two at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. See you at the Aud