33: Season Retrospective

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:01Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:02Justin: We are back for our season retro spectacle.

0:08Andrew: Ooh. It's official. We're back in person.

0:11Justin: We are back in person. We haven't done this in four weeks.

0:14Andrew: No, I know.

0:15Justin: Because the playoff schedule has been crazy. So we've just been recording from home.

0:18Andrew: The playoff schedule was designed to ruin the AudPod, and we came out on top. We're still here.

0:25Justin: We're still here. We're still going.

0:27Andrew: We still did episodes. We did all of them after some of the games.

0:31Justin: Yeah, that was crazy. You see, you all seem to like that, so that was cool. Thank you. Thank you for all the feedback. We appreciate it. All of it. But this is our final regularly scheduled episode.

0:43Andrew: Who'd have thought we'd make it here?

0:46Justin: Not me either, but we did. So what we're gonna do today, we're gonna talk broadly about the season. It was a pretty fun season. You've heard us talk about the season a lot already. We're not gonna get too crazy into it, but then we're gonna. We're gonna give away our three player stars. We're gonna give away our three highlight stars of the season. We're gonna talk a bit about the team. We're not gonna get too much into next season. We will at one point, and I'm gonna get into that in a moment. But we're not gonna. We're gonna just talk about the season that was and enjoy. What a mag. And then we're going to talk about our little AudPod podcast milestones. Because we hit a bunch of milestones that we would have never. We didn't put on our dream board.

1:29Andrew: We're going to do a season recap of the Aud part as well.

1:32Justin: So we'll go through that. And then yesterday we posted on Instagram if you have any questions for us, and we got a good number of questions, so I think we're going to answer all of them or close to all of the Aud some of those get into next season. So that's why I wanted to give that caveat earlier is we will talk a little bit. But remember, we are two dumb guys in a room who don't know anything. We don't have insiders. We don't know what is happening with the team.

1:54Andrew: We might have one insider. I don't want to show my cards. So as far as I'm concerned, we are just dumb idiots in a room.

2:00Justin: Yeah.

2:00Andrew: So that's saying things about hockey, a sport we've never played.

2:04Justin: Absolutely. Nor are neither of us built to play like that's not a sport.

2:08Andrew: Well, I do have a large lower body, and I don't mean that in

2:12Justin: a pause kind of way.

2:14Andrew: I mean, when I go and get dress pants made, the guy. Did you play hockey?

2:18Justin: Why is your ass huge? It was that time you were in Brazil. Yeah.

2:24Andrew: I thought I was getting hair treatment. I thought they were taking hair off my.

2:29Justin: You did? Oh, wait. Yeah. So that's what this episode's gonna be.

2:37Andrew: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin.

2:48Justin: Take it away, fellas. Yes, this was a magical season. I know.

2:54Andrew: It was truly a magical season. One for the ages, one for the history books. Short of winning a title, it was one of the best seasons the Rangers have ever had. So it was just truly serendipitous that we started this podcast and got to go on this ride.

3:09Justin: At the beginning of the season, we listened to the. The preseason rankings on the OHL podcast, and they were like, yeah, the Rangers might come in eighth in the West. So we were expecting to see a lot of moves and see talk about players being traded away and getting draft picks for the future.

3:26Andrew: I put the over under for their win total at literally 500. And that seemed like I was being gracious doing that because it seemed as probably. Probably going to be more losses than wins kind of situation. And boy, were we wrong. And, boy, were we happy.

3:41Justin: We were wrong. These are things I want to be wrong about, definitely. So it was great. We got to see some historic things. The Rangers got 100 points, which is only the fourth time in their history. Also, we saw the NCAA agreement come into effect, which has been a huge point of contention around the league, where players can go, what players can do in. In the long term. And we'll probably talk about this a bit with the questions that we received from Instagram, but it was. This is going to change the dynamics of the CHL as a whole for sure. So we saw some benefits of it this year, but there's going to be a balancing with this new agreement.

4:17Andrew: Yeah, it's like everything. There's ups and downs. With a rule change as drastic as

4:22Justin: this, we got to see a European coach, coach his second season in the ohl, but only the first, you know, European coach ever, and become the coach of the year.

4:35Andrew: Were we surprised? Absolutely not. No Juice from the beginning on the AudPod.

4:40Justin: I will say.

4:41Andrew: Sorry, I need. We need to toot our own horns. Yeah, we might be idiots in a room talking about a sport that we haven't played.

4:47Justin: However, we did.

4:49Andrew: We did say the Juice was a great coach, and we said that Jackson Parsons was great goalie and they both took home their respective awards.

5:00Justin: Yes. So we were wrong about other things, but that we were wrong about a lot. But you cannot take that away from us.

5:06Andrew: But we were right about two very specific things.

5:09Justin: Yeah, absolutely. That was pretty awesome. And generally, we just saw, like, the charm of junior hockey this season. Like, the fans are awesome.

5:19Andrew: I'd say junior hockey fans are the best fans. Yes, definitely.

5:22Justin: They're passionate and they're not politically correct term jerks. Yeah.

5:30Andrew: I think that everyone has in perspective except for one fan base. Everyone but one fan base has in perspective that this is junior hockey. Yeah. And it's not the end all be all. Now I'm not. We have a podcast about it. It's obviously very important to us. Yeah. But there's certain things. There's certain lines I won't cross with criticizing these teams and players and organizations. Yeah. There's just certain things I won't Sam

5:54Justin: O'Reilly but we've heard them.

5:56Andrew: But we've heard them.

5:57Justin: Base again. But we're not gonna. That is one thing I don't want to talk about.

6:03Andrew: Forget about them.

6:05Justin: Okay. Dream season. You all get it. We talked about this. We've talked about this at length. The last episode, we were blubbering on about how magical this season was too. So that's true. Andrew, who is your first star of the season? And before you even say it, who is our first star of the season?

6:25Andrew: There can only be one. Yeah, we. This was written in the stars. We called him the original AudPod guy. He's our guy Today, tomorrow, forever. 32 forever Jackson Parsons.

6:41Justin: Of course, his career in as a Ranger was phenomenal.

6:45Andrew: It was a crazy story.

6:47Justin: Right.

6:47Andrew: Because he was here for his Andrew career, but he really only got to play a couple of years because of an injury because of COVID And obviously the first year, he was just the backup. So it was a crazy career arc for him where he missed out on a lot of development. So his development happened at the end of his career, and it happened so fast, and he shot up to the best goalie in the chl, bar none. That's not just my opinion. That's people who know what they're looking at in the CHL saying, this guy is the best goalie in the whole Canadian Hockey League, so.

7:27Justin: And he has some hardware to prove it.

7:28Andrew: And he has some hardware to prove it.

7:30Justin: Yeah. I'm not. I got nothing else to say. He's amazing.

7:33Andrew: Bottom line is I not to take away anything from this coaching staff. Not to take anything away from the rest of the team that played their hearts out game in and game out.

7:41Justin: Yeah.

7:42Andrew: How many one goal games did the Rangers win? How many of those could have went the other way if you didn't have Jackson Parsons in that and how much closer to that 500 record would they have been?

7:53Justin: Yeah, it's true.

7:54Andrew: And realistically, a lot of the times in the ohl, especially in junior hockey, no matter how good a goalie is, they can't overcome players being out of position, teams not being as talented as other teams. It's easier. As crazy it is, I think in the NHL to have an all world goalie come in and steal games.

8:19Justin: Yeah.

8:19Andrew: In the ohl, I think if you have just like a young team in front of you, they're playing guys who are bigger, stronger, faster, two years older, three years older. What are you gonna do? What can you possibly do? We saw Jackson Parsons as a 20 year old. Just come in and do it.

8:35Justin: Yeah. Stopped everything. Unbelievable. I think that we've quoted it to death, but as Mike Farwell, Jason Hagholm, one of these amazing broadcasters that we listen to, I'm gonna say that every time you think you saw Jackson Parsons best save, he pulls out another one. And we saw that all season long. All right, Andrew, who is your second star of the season?

8:56Andrew: My second star of the season is a concept. It's not a player, it's a unit.

9:03Justin: Okay.

9:04Andrew: It's the penalty kill. The penalty kill was the second star of the season. So every Ranger who took part in the penalty kill, they were second in the OHL in penalty killing. That was so important. And yes, Jackson Parsons is a big part of your penalty kill, but I will say the goalie can only do so much on the penalty kill because there is an extra man and you can't cover everyone. And that's the bottom line. I couldn't pick one particular player that stood out on the penalty guild because Brad Flynn penalty kill really incorporates a lot of players all of the time. The Sam O'Reilly that the special teams does on both sides of it.

9:43Justin: Yeah.

9:43Andrew: But the penalty kill was elite and I had to go with the penalty kill. So I really, I want to shout out to the big four defense corps. Right. With Ando and Chromiak and Reed and Campbell being the four who logged the most minutes. And I just think that trying to decipher one of those guys as the second star was too Difficult in a team that really got by committee at every end of the ice.

10:09Justin: Right? Yeah. No, the penalty kill was phenomenal. We saw it also go into the. In the playoffs. We saw the penalty kill really won us a series. Really did. It was pretty awesome to see. And, yeah, Allseason Brad Flynn on point. We talked about Jackson Parsons. He played phenomenally, but also he gave the coaching staff opportunities to create other things because they didn't have to worry about protecting him too much. You don't have to worry about your goaltender. You can fan out. You can do different things.

10:36Andrew: When you have a guy who will play 55, 60 games.

10:39Justin: Yeah, 80% of the games.

10:40Andrew: Yeah.

10:41Justin: Pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good. Okay. My second star is. I'm gonna guess that you expect this. It's the laminator. Tanner Lam Tanner Lam I loved watching this kid's passes all season long. He threw a couple snipes on, too. It's like he's got the shooting skill, but men, his passing, his ability to move the puck around the ice is bar non. He's fast, he is small, but he's wily. He gets into the places. And we saw him throw a few hits.

11:07Andrew: We did.

11:07Justin: And I was like, all right. Good on you, bud. Doing it all.

11:12Andrew: He plays bigger than he is.

11:14Justin: Yeah. You know, we saw some fun goals. Like, he gets into the right places, so it's. It's not even that. So. So, yes, he's great at distributing the puck. That is by far top. But we saw one off his rear into the net. He was just in the right place at the right time all season. Huge part of why this team was so successful this year. A high IQ player, high hockey, high Q.

11:37Andrew: What he lacks in conventional size, which means you have to be a behemoth. Yep. He's just a regular sized person. Actually. Probably above average for walking around. A normal person he makes up for with his vision, but also his wherewithal on the ice to be in the right place. Yeah, for sure.

11:57Justin: All right. Who's your third star? What is your third star?

11:59Andrew: No, this is a player.

12:00Justin: Okay.

12:01Andrew: This was really hard because I had to encapsulate a whole concept, but I was like, I only want to do that for one star. For the third star, I had to decide between two or three players that were so important throughout the whole season. And I have to go with my boy. Luke Ellen is all right. Luke Ellen is just got better and better throughout the season. He will fight, he will check. He can play wing. He can play center. The bottom Line is, this guy is not an overager. He's not even going into an overager season. And the dude just is, like a consummate professional. And. And I also remember him doing interviews last year, last season. And I remember him having a huge overtime series winner last season as well in the playoffs. The guy is just so clutch, but also so composed. Like, he's just like a chill, professional dude.

12:57Justin: Yeah.

12:58Andrew: And there was something in the air during that Windsor series where Luke Ellinas literally willed this team to do the comeback.

13:06Justin: Yeah, it was.

13:07Andrew: And it was funny because I remember seeing that picture of him with the sunglasses and the headphones, and he inspired me to do the LeBron James meme, not the other way around. It wasn't like I was like, I'm doing it now. They're also doing it. And it's just a coincidence. I saw that guy come in like that, and I was like, I think Luke Ellen is. Has got ice in his veins.

13:28Justin: He's here to play.

13:29Andrew: Yeah. I wanted to give a shout out to Jack Pridham. I wanted to give a shout out to Trent Swick, the overager. I wanted to give out a shout out to the leading scorer on the team, Adrian Missile, Jack Revic, who I think maybe he helps us in that London series. Huge. Maybe if we have him in Windsor. That whole narrative is totally different. Yeah, you don't even need the reverse sweep, whatever. But yeah, Luke Ellinas I think I was high on him coming into the season, and I'm higher on this kid now.

13:57Justin: We again, in another moment of tooting our own horns at Christmas, at our holiday extravaganza, when we were talking about the trade deadline coming up and stuff like that, we were talking about if the Rangers don't make any trades. And then, of course, we got the Humphrey signing, which wasn't a trade, but lives in that world. If we didn't have anything, if we had the team that we had at the Christmas break, what was needed to push this team further? And we said, luke Elena's needs to take his game to one more gear. And we thought he had it. And he did.

14:30Andrew: And he did.

14:31Justin: This second half of the season, Luke Ellen is insane.

14:34Andrew: Truly. Come playoff time, the dude just becomes an animal.

14:37Justin: Yes.

14:38Andrew: Like an animal. Not only that. Missed two games, and it was a nightmare for the Rangers. Was suspended for two games, and the ability to score was almost, like, neutered. And this has not been a team that has relied on one player.

14:53Justin: No.

14:53Andrew: And so all of a sudden you're missing one guy and it's like, oh,

14:57Justin: he a game breaker.

14:59Andrew: Yeah. And like we said earlier in an earlier episode, all he does is score pretty goals. Yeah, yeah. Like, he scores. He scores. It's not like a crazy amount, but he scores an important goals and he scores beautiful goals. Those are the two goals he scores. That's the two types.

15:16Justin: Yeah, yeah.

15:16Andrew: The only two types. He scores.

15:18Justin: Yep. Awesome. Okay. My third star is to our dear captain, the Andalorian. And truly, this is. I want to highlight the captain part of that because Ando has really proven to be a fantastic leader for this group. It started with the first game of the season. He dyed his hair blonde. We've talked about this young room that we got, a young team. We had a lot of nerves going into this season. He showed up, he dyed his hair blonde just to take the edge off for everybody. And I think that that's only one very small portion of what he does. He's on the ice, he stands up for his guys. He's on the bench. He's encouraging everyone. He's always in every game. He never had a quit attitude. He never had a, oh, we can't win this one. If the Rangers were down and this happened quite a bit, we were down going into the third period, Ando would always show up with that whole hard hit. He'd show up with a good shot, or he'd show up with a nice pass, or he was always. There was always an extra energy to him that he then distributed to the rest of his teammates and line mates. What a great leader.

16:28Andrew: Porn leader.

16:29Justin: Yeah.

16:29Andrew: Never takes a shift off. You can make individual criticisms about Ando's game. He can improve, but never takes a shift off.

16:37Justin: No.

16:37Andrew: I never once saw Matthew Anovski out there sandbagging it. I never, ever saw it. Even when they were down and they were going to lose a game, he's still out there playing with that same intensity. Yeah. And he also is just that guy to get in the face of the other team and say, this is. We're not pushovers.

16:55Justin: No.

16:55Andrew: And I think, like you said, he's clearly got a sense of humor. He's a funny guy.

17:00Justin: Yeah.

17:00Andrew: And he cares about the squad, he cares about the organization. I think he cares about the community. There's that whole. It seemed like some of the things that, like our dear friend of the pod, Sean, for Faro was saying about him when ando played his 200th game was just like how much he's grown and how important he is to this Ranger's identity. And personally, I'VE always loved when your captain is a character guy.

17:28Justin: Yeah.

17:28Andrew: I just love that because that takes away some of the responsibility of a top scorer or a hot prospect. I love that in the NHL, too. I like the team I grew up cheering for. Jason Smith was the captain.

17:44Justin: Right.

17:45Andrew: I loved that. Was he the best player on the team?

17:47Justin: No.

17:48Andrew: But who was going to have your back in the scrum? Yeah, that guy. Yeah. And that's who Matthew Anonofsky reminds me of. And that kind of never say die like we're just going to keep coming at you. It doesn't matter if you're better than us. It's hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. And that was the mentality of the Rangers coming into the season. And I think a big part of that. Matthew Anovski.

18:12Justin: I 100% agree. Yep. That's the power of the Ando.

18:16Andrew: This is the way.

18:17Justin: This is. This is the way. Okay, Andrew, three highlights of the season. What's your first star highlight?

18:27Andrew: My first star highlight has to be the reverse sweep.

18:30Justin: I've never been a part of anything

18:32Andrew: like that in my life. That was unbelievable from start to finish, but I'm so glad I lived through it and witnessed greatness, because realistically, just going back to what we were saying about this team identity, that down three, nothing. Didn't give up, even against the Knights in that last round. Like, they were down three goals in that third period, and they're still pressing, they're still trying desperately to score and come back. And there was a belief until the time ran out. Yeah, we can get another one. It'll happen for us. And so that comeback, even the Aud was only the second round of the playoffs, but for a team that was literally being earmarked to miss the playoffs or squeak in, I think that just overshadows everything else. And there was a lot of great things, but that was my favorite moment.

19:22Justin: My top highlight, 100% ties into this, is that Jack Pridham penalty shot.

19:29Andrew: Yes.

19:29Justin: In game four.

19:31Andrew: Yes.

19:31Justin: Of the Windsor series. And which really felt.

19:34Andrew: Yes.

19:34Justin: The turning point of that series. This was the TSN turning point.

19:38Andrew: It really was.

19:39Justin: And we. That puck went in the Aud Went insane.

19:43Andrew: Oh, it did.

19:44Justin: You were there and you could just feel it. You were like, this Tommy Kut it.

19:47Andrew: Oh, yeah.

19:47Justin: He put that puck in the net. And everybody in the Aud Anybody who was skeptical was like, we're gonna win this series for sure.

19:53Andrew: I think there was a weird vibe about winning game four the way that they did. There was this Weird. Yeah, I think they can.

20:03Justin: They got this.

20:03Andrew: I think they're better.

20:04Justin: They lost by some big scores in those first three games, but it never really felt like they lost. It was never felt like a blow up.

20:12Andrew: It felt like they were just literally stuck in the worst hockey that they've played since they lost the poop game.

20:19Justin: 122 just Windsor to Windsor.

20:21Andrew: And so I was like, I don't believe it. I don't. This, this isn't that.

20:25Justin: This can't be.

20:25Andrew: This isn't the Soo we'll just. And sometimes that happens and you can't make up the ground. But yeah, I mean, if we're picking a specific moment. For me, that first star was the Eleanor's goal. That sealed the comeback.

20:37Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

20:38Andrew: So the. Soo your first star was the pridm penny shot goal.

20:42Justin: Your first star can be the sweep.

20:44Andrew: I like it. It has to be a specific moment.

20:48Justin: Fine, you can have it. Whatever. Okay, what's your second highlight?

20:51Andrew: Okay, now I'm getting away from getting away.

20:55Justin: Get out of the recency bias.

20:57Andrew: Getting. Yeah, I'm getting away. I'm going back to concept, not a play. It's the winning streak for me. Oh, it is the winning streak. At the beginning of the season, after coming out of the gates looking like a three legged dog. You know what I mean? It looked like a three legged dog in a dog race. It was not good. It was scary. For two idiots in a room who had just started a podcast.

21:21Justin: Yeah.

21:22Andrew: I was like, oh, no.

21:24Justin: That second, the second episode that we did where we had to talk about games, it was that I was like, I don't know how we can do this for a whole season.

21:34Andrew: And we also basically had made a pact with each other that we weren't going to be negative, that we weren't going to be like we weren't going to take this too seriously and that we wanted to be a source of positivity for the rangers. Yeah. Knowing that we were accessible, knowing what we knew about the reach that we had already at that point on social media, particularly with people involved in the organization. All I wanted was, I didn't want somebody's mom or dad to pull open Instagram and look at a clip of you and I going, these guys suck.

22:08Justin: Yeah. Bashing.

22:09Andrew: That's an awful feeling.

22:10Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

22:11Andrew: So it was like we were like, oh, how are we going to spin this? And we were totally prepared to just spin. Oh, they're growing.

22:17Justin: Yeah. Yeah. And they grew very quickly. Yeah. I mean, we, we have both been through like rebuilds. In our NHL fandom.

22:25Andrew: Endless rebuilds.

22:26Justin: Endless rebuilds. So it was like we knew how to. We knew we had the capacity to spin it. Thank God we didn't have to.

22:33Andrew: I know exactly. It was. I feel like we got spoiled because that 10 game winning streak.

22:37Justin: Yeah.

22:38Andrew: That was just literally turned the whole season around and set the tone of, oh, this is going to be an elite team in the ohl.

22:46Justin: And it also got us our fun bit of picking a bone with the OHL power rankings.

22:51Andrew: That's true.

22:52Justin: Was the start of that. Yep. My second star highlight is very specifically the. Because I wanted to pull. I. When I was thinking about my third player star.

23:04Andrew: Yep.

23:04Justin: It was between Ando and Cameron Reid of course is the pass from the ass.

23:09Andrew: Love it.

23:09Justin: Cameron Reid against Owen Sound. It's taken out behind the net. Manages to keep his wits about him. Passes it out front. I actually do not remember who scores it. Maybe Elena's. And he passes it right out front. Instant beautiful goal. He was not on his feet at all. He was just sitting on the boards passing the puck.

23:28Andrew: Pass from the ass all time. It was apple of the year for sure. We called it when we saw it. That's apple of the year so far. It was apple of the year.

23:36Justin: Never got beat, period.

23:37Andrew: Yeah.

23:38Justin: All right, what's your second highlight? Star? Highlight? Star.

23:41Andrew: My third highlight.

23:43Justin: Your third. Because you did the second.

23:45Andrew: Because I did the second one.

23:46Justin: I go second, you go second. So now it's your third.

23:48Andrew: Second.

23:49Justin: So we did first.

23:50Andrew: You go second. I went. I go first.

23:51Justin: Third. Thank you.

23:52Andrew: It's actually one of the things that started the winning streak. It's a specific moment and it also is AudPod lore.

24:01Justin: Oh, I Andrew if we have the same one.

24:03Andrew: It is the brawl at the end of the Saginaw. It is.

24:07Justin: It is.

24:08Andrew: Gave birth to the Aud Delorian. And more specific, the moment where he stuck his tongue out and he put his arm up in the air and it's just that iconic photo. And I got my own iconic photo from where I was sitting. And I just remember that was like a great moment. Just personally, like I was out with my wife for the first time after like we had the baby and it was just a chance to go out and do something, just the two of us. And it was a super exciting game. And Saginaw is supposed to be like this powerhouse and the Aud seven to four. The Rangers dominated the Aud then we get to see the Andalorian come alive.

24:44Justin: So yes, I did have the exact same third star. Him Taking on two Saginaw players and the ref just trying to get those poor Saginaw players away from him.

24:54Andrew: He's ready to go.

24:55Justin: He was a dog with a bone.

24:57Andrew: He didn't have a problem. He was ready to go.

24:59Justin: Yeah. That was awesome. And yes, definitely started some more. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. All right, Andrew, Justin, now is time for our tribute section of the episode. I will remember you. Will you remember me? Adrian Misaljevic. Tren Swig Jackson Parsons. Overagers. We did not rehearse that at all.

25:43Andrew: We didn't.

25:43Justin: We fell into it.

25:45Andrew: We fell into it.

25:47Justin: I honestly, I don't know what we haven't said about these guys. They've been pretty important for us all season long for their. They're all OG Rangers.

25:59Andrew: Lifetime Rangers.

26:00Justin: Yeah.

26:01Andrew: Just so cool to have been a part of it this year knowing that these guys played every game they could for the Rangers.

26:07Justin: It's amazing. And they were phenomenal players for us. I remember specifically the teddy bear to us where they were taking pictures, the three of them, because they knew this was the last one. It was special for us. It was special for the Aud you could tell that this time meant a lot to the Aud yeah, they were phenomenal players. And they join Hunter Brustevich on the memorial wall from now on. But we will remember them fondly wherever they go.

26:32Andrew: They are alive though.

26:33Justin: You know that.

26:34Andrew: They are going to remain with us. I will look forward to. They're all golden knights of a sort. Are the Aud Clarkson Golden Knights.

26:42Justin: Oh, yes.

26:43Andrew: And Vegas Golden Knight.

26:44Justin: Oh, yeah. Transfix.

26:46Andrew: All going on to be Golden Knights. Golden on the AudPod. Golden as a knight.

26:50Justin: Yes. Yeah.

26:51Andrew: What else can we Sam O'Reilly just going to miss them.

26:53Justin: I'm going to miss the Soo I

26:55Andrew: appreciated the presence they had on the team. I liked the interviews they gave, the energy they had out on the ice. And obviously the skill level that they brought was exactly what the Rangers needed this year. Just going to miss them.

27:06Justin: Me too. Yeah. And speaking of that, I think we just want to give a little bit of a shout out to the team just as a whole. Yes. These overagers are leaving. Yeah. But this magical season, most people aren't leaving. Yeah.

27:20Andrew: We're in a very unique position to have seen a hundred point season.

27:23Justin: Yeah. And it gets a run it back

27:24Andrew: to the third round. Yeah. And be able to like more or less run it back with a huge portion of the team. And a lot of the guys that were really key players are young they're

27:35Justin: young and can only get better.

27:37Andrew: Yeah.

27:38Justin: Yeah. So, yeah, thank you to the team for putting this together. It's like a phenomenal.

27:43Andrew: Loved it. Huge season for the boys.

27:45Justin: I wanted to say thank you to the team because now it's gonna become all about us. Okay. AudPod retrospective. Andrew, let me run you down a timeline of from when we started this thing to now. A couple just, like, milestones we've hit. Like I said at the beginning. Yeah. You know.

28:04Andrew: Yeah, that was going back in time.

28:06Justin: Yeah, that was perfect.

28:07Andrew: Conventions.

28:08Justin: So we started the Aud Andrew had the name picked out for this AudPod two years ago. Two years ago, we got to start a podcast about the Kitchener Rangers called the AudPod. I was like, okay, yeah.

28:20Andrew: But you were a little bit more excited than that.

28:22Justin: You're like, oh, that's a great name. It is a great name. I think initially I went, what? What's the Aud Right? I think you did.

28:28Andrew: But we kicked a can down the road.

28:30Justin: Yeah. We mulled it around for a year, had a couple beers. We got together. We were like, ah, this is. We were following the season before. Like, it was a good season. We were like, okay, like, maybe this is because at one point they were like, top in the league.

28:41Andrew: Yeah.

28:42Justin: Okay. Like, maybe we should. So we kicked it around, and then last summer, we were just like, yeah,

28:47Andrew: let's just do it.

28:48Justin: So we found the Kitchener Public Library, because that was one. That was a huge thing. It's like putting stuff together to do an odd part. It's like a huge investment. Not an odd, but a podcast in

28:58Andrew: general, but an odd.

28:59Justin: Specifically an AudPod. There's an investment that we. I don't know if we were 100% willing to put in. And this just gave us the opportunity. And so huge thank you to the Kitchener Public Library for putting us up. I think we've done about 30 episodes here or 25 episodes here.

29:14Andrew: It's just so nice here, too.

29:15Justin: It is.

29:16Andrew: It was such a welcoming space. The staff was awesome, and I think we just were, like, surprised at how high quality everything was here, so that

29:24Justin: we were just kind of good instantly.

29:25Andrew: We can do this.

29:26Justin: Yeah. Then we had to figure out how to edit and make clips.

29:30Andrew: We also looked good instantly. Shout out to Papa Born.

29:32Justin: Yeah. So my dad. Then we had a ChatGPT logo that looks close to what our logo is, but my dad, being a retired graphic Designer, took our ChatGPT rendering in some of our notes and made us, like, a legit logo. And then we were like, oh, we need this. And then instantly had it. Yeah. Thank you, dad. Thank you for all of that. And then we got going, and we started posting on social media. We really focused on Instagram as our thing, and Babs instantly liked our name. You just said, nice name. Liked our stuff, followed us, and we

30:05Andrew: were like, okay, he's like a hockey guy. He's a former professional coach, and he's like a social media influencer, like, content maker.

30:13Justin: And when he followed us, we had nothing posted.

30:15Andrew: We had 40 followers.

30:17Justin: Yeah. And we had. We didn't have any videos or reels or anything. We just had our logo.

30:22Andrew: Yeah.

30:23Justin: So that was awesome. And then four episodes in someone close to the team, not on the Tommy Kut close to the team, reached out to us and validated what we were doing. You guys are doing something cool. I'm going to leave it at that. But it was like, whoa, sweet.

30:39Andrew: Yeah. It was a moment. There was lots of moments where it was just like, oh, people are watching, people are listening. Don't get us wrong. It's. The fact that fans were interested in what we were doing is probably the greatest compliment, because that's who's going to consume the podcast, and that's who's really invested year to year.

30:58Justin: Yeah.

30:58Andrew: But, like, to have somebody, like, close to the team notice us, follow us, engage with us, was like, oh, this could be an actual thing that continues.

31:11Justin: Maybe we're filling in a niche. It was a. We found that we were filling a niche that maybe we didn't realize was needed because we didn't start. We weren't like, oh, this is needed in this. We were just like, let's just do it.

31:24Andrew: As most good things start, we were like, we just want to do it. We want to do it.

31:28Justin: We didn't even look up if there were other podcasts. We didn't. And then we came up with the Gro idea, which dominated most of our episodes for this season.

31:36Andrew: And we also learned about so many players.

31:39Justin: Yeah, that was a thing that we talked about in our first episode that we wanted to learn the history of this team. And a great way to do that was researching the greatest Ranger players that have ever played on the team.

31:50Andrew: We only profiled 32.

31:52Justin: Yeah.

31:53Andrew: But there was so many that we learned about. There's guys now that Justin and I know about just from seeing their names, seeing their stats, looking them up, considering them for the Groat tournament, seeing their

32:04Justin: names in the rafters. Odd.

32:05Andrew: But realistically, we had to limit it, and we wanted some people to put their input in so that limited what we could do. However, we learned even more than what we let on in the 32 that we nominated.

32:16Justin: Then we started doing some trivia with Babs, which helped us gain some followers, gain some credibility. Also gave us some great content ideas because he's the master of content. Yeah.

32:26Andrew: It was just fun.

32:26Justin: And it was also fun. And he's a nice guy.

32:28Andrew: Yeah.

32:29Justin: Then Stephen from events at the Aud messaged us because he saw our videos on TikTok and asked us to shoot pucks on the ice at intermission.

32:38Andrew: That was a blast.

32:38Justin: Which was super fun. We got a. That picture of us in helmets is on most of our stuff now.

32:44Andrew: That's just like the AudPod photo.

32:46Justin: Yes. Yeah. Then we've talked about this already, but Andrew comes up with the nickname the Andalorian.

32:52Andrew: Yeah. That was the Saginaw game.

32:54Justin: That was the Saginaw game. Which led to a slew of other nicknames and also inspired our first bit of fan art, which we greatly appreciated, even if it was questionably researched. He was expressing himself as a hitch onto that. The Andalorian was used by the social media team on the Rangers.

33:12Andrew: Yeah.

33:12Justin: As a shout out to us on

33:14Andrew: an overtime Adonovsky game winner.

33:16Justin: That made our week.

33:17Andrew: You were frantically texting. That was an awesome moment for us. We know who was behind that. But another shout out to the whole social media team. That made our little life that day for sure. Yeah.

33:28Justin: And then on the holiday break, we haphazardly gave Sean Furfaro an award that he then demanded a physical copy of. Yeah.

33:35Andrew: The old fafo. If you don't know what that is, just Google it. Yeah. This was the find out portion. As Sean Furfaro said very eloquently when we met him and presented him with the Aud potty. Yeah. Basically we learned about writing checks that need to be cashed.

33:55Justin: We learned a lesson that day.

33:57Andrew: I will say my craftsmanship on that.

33:59Justin: It was. It's beautiful. Yeah, it was.

34:00Andrew: It was worth it. It was worth the Aud If you're listening, Sean, I think it was worth

34:05Justin: the Aud Your paper clips look great in it. And then I went and had a baby and we came back and we started video podcasting like dummies. So now you have to can see our faces. Then the OHL collabed with us on Instagram on a Jackson Parson post because they knew we were so into Jackson Parsons. And that was another one where it made our week. We were like, what?

34:30Andrew: Big moment for us.

34:31Justin: We finished the Groat series and then we did the Groat vote brought in 4,500 submissions over three weeks.

34:40Andrew: It was a lot of work by yourself, especially putting together all of that, taking all the work that your dad had done. And I made a spreadsheet, so it

34:50Justin: was a lot of work for all three of us, but it was worth it and awesome and fun. And we also learned some stuff out of that, too. So.

34:56Andrew: Yeah, definitely, we did. We learned about community.

35:00Justin: We did Community.

35:01Andrew: And the power of love.

35:02Justin: The power of love. And then the playoffs started and CTV contacted us to talk about the reverse sweep that was in the process of happening, as if we were qualified. No, we. We weren't. I'm so sorry to the CTV crew for pretending like we were.

35:18Andrew: Honestly, though, shout out to Jeff Pickle for reaching out to us, because that was just really cool.

35:22Justin: Huge highlight for us.

35:23Andrew: Yeah.

35:24Justin: And then in the final act of the season, the Rangers collabed with us about Jackson Parsons as well. Yes.

35:32Andrew: That was.

35:32Justin: We had a lot of collaboration.

35:33Andrew: The crowning achievement, I think.

35:35Justin: Yes.

35:36Andrew: An official collaboration on social media with the official Rangers.

35:40Justin: Yeah, that was pretty. Pretty freaking cool. Yeah. So that was our season and it wasn't really a nutshell. It's a coconut shell here on the ipod.

35:48Andrew: We've been known to talk about something for seven minutes or so.

35:51Justin: Okay. Then we asked you some questions on Instagram yesterday. And so we got a few of these questions. So we're just going to answer them. Maybe a little rapid fire. Yeah, for sure, we'll do that. I've separated these questions out into talking about this previous season, talking about next season and beyond.

36:08Andrew: Okay.

36:08Justin: And then talking about the AudPod, because there was a few AudPod questions. So this previous season we have a question from Curtis. Was this year a fluke or sign of things to come?

36:21Andrew: Andrew definitely wasn't a fluke. I think it's an interesting year because Jackson Parsons is moving on. So I'm not saying that there's going to be regression next year. I'm just saying that it's a different team next year. It's going to be a different makeup next year because one of your best players is no longer in Ned. That's not to take away from Shabble, who I think is going to be the answer of another question later on. However, I think that next year's team will be better at scoring realistically, and I think that will take some of the pressure off having to win these 30 out of 31 shots. Puck stopped games. I think there'll be a bit more. 4, 3 and 5, 4 and that kind of game. So I don't think it's a fluke, but I think it's definitely a sign of things to come because the Rangers, I think ultimately are built for 20, 27.

37:17Justin: Yep, I agree. Definitely not a fluke. I think there was some strategic luck that came into play this season. I think the writing was on the wall with this NCAA agreement and I think Mike McKenzie was thoughtfully prepared for it. And so there was some strategic drafting in past years that have happened that were pretty critical to this year's success. But even if that hadn't happened, there were some necessary step ups by players from the last couple seasons that we needed to see. And we saw so specifically like Elena's lamb, even like I know he won't be with the team again next year, but Missile Jevic also took another step forward and so he was great last year, but he was like phenomenal this year. We Sam O'Reilly bunch of that sort of stuff and we saw this coaching staff really pull into full form. Like what they were trying their vision. Next question. This is from Chris. Would the Rangers have been as competitive without Parsons, which does lead in pretty much to that last question.

38:16Andrew: Yeah, realistically, I think they would have been just as competitive. If you want to say, were they going to be gamers, Were they going to be up for every game? I would argue that with league average goaltending, they would have been one of the top five teams in the West.

38:33Justin: Yeah, I don't think they would have got to 100 points. No. But I think good goaltending gives you confidence so you can build on that. But yeah, I would say it's pretty hard to say anything beyond the fact that we had the league MVP as our goalie.

38:48Andrew: Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, I think it's probably somewhat unlikely he wins league MVP just because for some reason organized leagues hate giving the goaltender mvp. But that's what I'm saying. I think they hate giving the MVP to a goalie.

39:03Justin: Yeah.

39:04Andrew: Because the goaltenders have their own award. But yeah, I like, honestly, he is absolutely the most valuable player of possibly the whole Canadian Hockey League this year because no one thought, no one anywhere thought the Rangers would be this competitive and he willed them to that. Yes, I think the Rangers would still be a stronger team than expected. But no, I don't think they would have been who they are.

39:29Justin: I agree. All right, so now next season and beyond, Ben asks which player will have

39:35Andrew: a breakout season, I'm going with Cameron Arquette. It was a breakout season personally for me this year. But I think it's because we were watching every game and paying attention to every detail so that we could talk about it and not sound as stupid as we sounded in the earlier episodes. So I just think that Cameron Arquette is showing all the signs of being an even better player than maybe he was projected to be. I did read something somewhere that he was a proficient scorer in Bantam, so that's where my money's going, that he's going to be the one who takes a huge step. Of course he's still young because it's only his second year, but that's who

40:13Justin: I think that's who I picked as well. So I'm going to pick a different player and this is going to lead into the next question, but I think Shovel is going to have a crazy season next season. I think he's probably not. It's probably not going to be like he's going to do 80% of the starts. It's probably going to be more like 60, 40 with Edwards. But yeah, I think Shovel is going to show us that he's got the goods. And then Lauren asks thoughts on who is going to be between the pipes next season. Sell for a goalie shabble.

40:37Andrew: Here's the thing is I just. Personally I don't know what the Rangers outlook is on Owen Edwards and that's not. I'm saying that in ignorance. No idea how they feel about Owen Edwards. I don't know if they Owen Edwards is projected to be the guy obviously because he's in the organization. But they're putting together these development camps now. I just saw that they've got the spring camp going on and there's a ton of goalies. There's six goalies, Shabble being one of them.

41:05Justin: Yeah, week we'll learn a lot more about goalies.

41:07Andrew: Yeah. But I do think Shabble did everything right last year to be the guy this year. Maybe they could go out and trade for somebody to split the crease with him. Yeah, but there's absolutely no way after the season he had last year as a true backup that they're not going to give him more leash.

41:23Justin: Yeah, I would 100% agree with you. I think I could see them going out and buying a goalie in the off season. I think that he should be given the one A role to at least start and see how it goes. And maybe if you have to make that trade mid season and he becomes the 1B, I think the only thing is he just needs more experience and he's young.

41:41Andrew: He's young for a goalie. It's harder for goalies. Look at Jackson Parsons takes so much longer to develop 19 and 20 year old seasons he was. That was when he became the starter for sure.

41:51Justin: I could easily see a goalie, maybe an 18 year old goalie getting picked up just for the sake of experience.

41:57Andrew: Yeah, you bring in. It could even come at the trade deadline or something. If the Rangers are really playing well and they just want a seasoned guy to come in a little bit more stability as like a 1B who's maybe a 19 year old is behind a guy that is the crease, dominant goalie in whatever market they're in. But yeah, I think Shovel has to be projected as the guy.

42:20Justin: Yeah, I agree. Chris asks, should Ando keep the Soo next year?

42:25Andrew: I mean, this is an interesting question because how much, how much stock do you put in the Soo if Ando relinquishes the Soo and they give it to someone like Cameron Reid which I think I could understand in the sense of they just want to pass the Soo on. Do we really think that Ando isn't the on ice or like dressing room leader of this team? I don't think so. I think Anonovsky is the de facto captain, whether or not he has the C or not.

42:55Justin: Yeah, I agree. Should.

42:56Andrew: Should he even be on the team?

42:57Justin: Yeah, that's so that's my only caveat is like my answer to this question is yes, he should still have the C. If he's back, I could easily see Ottawa wanting him in Belleville next season. Like I could easily see him being on in the AHL team.

43:12Andrew: Yes. As a 20 year old, I think Ando would be. There's benefits to him playing the type of player he is. He's a big guy. He's strong guy.

43:20Justin: Playing with the bigger players. The older players.

43:22Andrew: Exactly.

43:22Justin: Yeah. So I could see that either way. James. I think his name is James or their name is James. Which three OAs will we keep next year and why is one of them Jack Pridham, who will bail from be you?

43:37Andrew: This is an interesting question because you and I talked about this very briefly.

43:42Justin: Yeah.

43:42Andrew: In a text back and forth that we often have about the team and talking about the overagers and realistically, I don't know how realistic it is that Jack Pridham is back. Yeah. Because this is what I will say is he could have said I'm bailing on Boston and come to Kitchener anytime after he was drafted here and he didn't. And then Once the NCAA agreement was put in place, he immediately came here. Yeah, but I think that ultimately this is one of the things we're going to get into with the NCAA is the nil agreements, which is name, image and likeness agreements. Means he's going to make money playing for bu. Now you make more money as you go on the more games you play and each year you're el to make more money because they're making money off your name, image and likeness in the ncaa and it's much bigger market and Boston University is one of the teams in the Frozen Four, the ncaa, that kind of, that ether of a team that is a team to watch and has a following. So I don't think he comes back, but maybe he loves it here. Maybe he comes from a hockey family. So to not say anything of he doesn't need the money. Not to go down the Zach Hyman's parents are rich route. But maybe he says, I necessarily it won't make dollars and cents for me to go to the ncaa. That's the only way I could see him being one of the Rangers.

45:11Justin: The only other thing is that there he's already been drafted. So the like the sort of the credit going towards like the Ohls better development. I'm like he's already, he's shown that already. Yeah, he's shown who he is. And so I agree. I don't think he'll be back. To answer the question, who will the three overagers be here? I'll answer first. So I think, I think there's a couple, there's a couple ifs in there, but I think Ando will be back. I'm gonna assume that Mercer and Chromiak and then Grizz Golia will come in if Ando's gone. I think and yeah, I said to you it's. I don't wanna. If I was cold blooded GM Mike McKenzie right here. Like there's some value in some of these guys like Chromiak and Mercer. It's like you could potentially trade them for stuff that gets you better for 27.

45:57Andrew: Yeah. If you want to accumulate some picks so that you can buy big at the deadline or in the off season going into 2027. Yeah. Obviously Jakub Chromiak is the, is a crown jewel going into this year as an overager. But he's also like a right shot defenseman, minute muncher that if you want to develop Jason Schaubel that's a kind of guy you'd like to have in

46:23Justin: front yeah, for sure. Okay, next question. This is from Steve. How does the NCAA ruling affect the Rangers ability to put together a competitive 2027 Memorial Cup bid?

46:34Andrew: Yeah, this we just talked about, this was the name, image and likeness thing is going to be a hurdle because you're not going to be able to compete with that in the short term. Maybe the Canadian Hockey League changes rules. I think realistically you're going to see older players jumping to the NCAA rather than younger players because that tends to be an older league. So it's just bigger older guys. So you're. I think they're in a really good place. I don't think it should affect the Soo much because a lot of their players like you already can project who the overager are going to be in 2027. You know that that's on the table that they could make the jump. But I think if you're looking at somebody, the 2026, 2027 season would be like the overager season for somebody like Luke Ellinas I don't see him jumping ship.

47:24Justin: No.

47:24Andrew: Does he?

47:25Justin: Maybe.

47:26Andrew: Of course, yeah.

47:27Justin: Now it's just an avenue that is open to all of them now.

47:29Andrew: Yes, exactly. But however, it's also going to be make the NCAA more competitive at that age. So you could actually just see that some guys are not going to go the NCAA route and they're going to choose the OHL at this point or guys from the USHL choose the OHL and eventually jump to.

47:50Justin: This is what we mentioned earlier. There's a balance coming and it's. There's going to be some ins and some outs that happen. One thought I had is I think trading for some of these higher end, 18, 19 year old, 20 year old players is going to become more expensive because I think they're going to be a little bit more of a premium because those guys who are like really good but maybe not super NHL bound, like not guaranteed NHL bound or don't have that avenue open to them fully might jump to the NCAA earlier to start making the steps towards the games they need to play. So I think there's going to be a little bit of a gap between the highest end talent and then that sort of mid round talent. And I think buying some of those players is going to become more expensive.

48:32Andrew: Even we already seen it. Like Henry Muse jumped to the ncaa, he's leaving and he's going to. So it's going to. It's just, I think it's going to balance itself out. We just don't know how it's going to balance itself out in the short term.

48:44Justin: Yeah. Okay. Curtis asks us which undrafted ranger is currently on the team going highest when he gets drafted? I put the easy answer is Cameron Reid But thinking beyond Cameron Reid beyond this year's draft, who do you see going higher?

48:59Andrew: Honestly, I, I. Very early, Very early. And I don't want to put pressure on this kid, but Jacob Zhu, early

49:05Justin: on, man, we are. Our brainwave is really going.

49:08Andrew: He's a big, smooth skating defenseman who like can't be hit. Yeah. You know what I mean? He's one of these guys. He's 16 years old. He forced his way into the lineup.

49:17Justin: Yeah.

49:17Andrew: He. You have to think that's a guy who could go real early.

49:21Justin: Think about his game and the way he plays already. And I was like, I was looking at high drafted defensemen and I was like the Noah Hannifin archetype.

49:30Andrew: Yes.

49:30Justin: Who I think went fourth overall in his.

49:33Andrew: Yeah, look at like Aaron Ekblad.

49:34Justin: Guys.

49:35Andrew: Guys went so high because it's just, it's like you see a raw athlete like that who can play defense whilst they're young in this league. Do I think that they're just gonna just immediately transition into the NHL and be superstars? No. It's really hard to play defense in the NHL.

49:51Justin: Yeah.

49:51Andrew: But I could just see someone like licking their chops at that kind of a specimen and being like, we gotta get this.

49:57Justin: Yeah, we gotta get this guy. Yep. For sure. Okay. This is a question specifically for you, Andrew, because I have done no research on this. Ryan asks thoughts on Kane Birchie and do you think he's going to come after the US Development team?

50:12Andrew: I will say that I think the Kane Barch pick was a brilliant strategic move by Mike McKenzie once again because there's no room for a first overall or. Sorry. Since a first overall first round pick to come in and immediately play hockey and Kitchener. And what teams do is they intentionally pick guys who may never report so that you can get that compensatory pick. And if you get a compensatory pick next year, that means you have two first rounders next year back to back. I can't say for sure if he's going to come, but I can tell you that the Rangers feel like this is a win win. If he never shows up and he just goes on to the USHL because he is a US born player, I don't think they're going to lose too much sleep over it. However, this is what I've heard from our one bantam Junior Hockey Insider. He reached out to us and said it was a great pick. He is a very strong two way player. Does everything right, never takes a shift off. So if Kane Barsh does end up here, I guarantee you he's gonna be a dog.

51:12Justin: He sounds like a real Ranger. All right, this is now into the AudPod section. This is from OG Odd. Oddball Community. Odd. The AudBallsians. I don't know what we're calling them. Gourd.

51:27Andrew: AudPodience.

51:28Justin: AudPodience. This is from Gord. Will you do a groat for Ranger fans and players next season? I think Gord is definitely making the semifinals if we did.

51:40Andrew: Gord. Gord just wants to be in the bracket and to just dominate somebody in the vote.

51:45Justin: Yeah, yeah, There's. There are official Ranger gifts of him waving the flag again. So, yeah, we'll just say yes. Gord makes it to the finals. Curtis again asks if you could rebrand the Rangers. What is the name, logo, and theme song?

52:04Andrew: I thought of this. Yeah. And I didn't think of the theme song, but I'll do a deep poll here in a second. I would stick with the old school text logo. I would call them the Kitchener Highwayman.

52:21Justin: Okay.

52:22Andrew: And I would stick with that Western sheriff. Yeah. Vibe. Maybe I would do more of a soldier jersey, but with the Ranger logo. Yeah, yeah, we could do something like that. That would be cool. There's a song by. I think it's Harry Nilsson and it's like. Like the lineman.

52:42Justin: Yeah.

52:42Andrew: You know what I'm talking about.

52:43Justin: Yeah. I can't think of how it goes, but yes.

52:45Andrew: You know what I'm talking about.

52:46Justin: Or you could do I Shot the Sheriff.

52:49Andrew: I kind of feel like we are

52:50Justin: the sheriff, the Soo I don't want to. If we became the Highwayman. That's true.

52:54Andrew: We would drop the. The badge. So you could do that. Yeah, do that. That's a good one.

52:57Justin: Okay. I went with. I was thinking about this because the transcript always automatically switches Kitchener to the kitchen ers.

53:06Andrew: And.

53:07Justin: And so I went with the Kitchener cooks.

53:09Andrew: Okay. Yeah, we're cooking.

53:11Justin: We would change our mascot and logo to the Swedish Chef. Oh, what's the drummer from the Muppets? What's his animal? Animal. We get animal to play Peanut butter Jelly Time as our theme song. Okay, Curtis, final question. Curtis asked, when will we see some Rangers joining you on the AudPod? And I just want to say open invitation.

53:35Andrew: I'm asking the same thing right now.

53:38Justin: Any day.

53:38Andrew: Any of you boys listening?

53:41Justin: Open invitation. Let us know so just thank you to our community. It's been an awesome season. We appreciate every single one of you. We can't believe all the people that, like, reach out. They slide into our DMS during games and are like, what was that ref thinking? Oh, that was a beautiful goal.

53:59Andrew: I Love the reactionary DMs.

54:02Justin: Yeah. Live game.

54:03Andrew: Never stop.

54:03Justin: Yeah. Please keep going. We appreciate all of you, every single one of you. We've shout out a few of you during this episode, but I don't want to start naming people because there's too many people to name. And you've all been fantastic and just

54:15Andrew: there's been a few of you who've reached out with, like, true feedback and it's been constructive and it's been positive and it just means a lot to us as two people who have spent a lot of time on this podcast of. All we want is for people to listen, really. But we also just love that you guys are enjoying it.

54:37Justin: We appreciate it and thank you. Okay, Andrew, that's the end of our episode. That's the end of our season.

54:44Andrew: That's it. Season one of the AudPod wrapping up.

54:48Justin: So we gotta, of course, we thanked. We thank Ken Born already. But thank you again for all the branding, all the marketing, all the beautiful stuff. The hats, all the things.

54:58Andrew: Yep.

54:58Justin: And the groating. And we gotta shout out our prodigal producer, Liam the phenom. He gave us some amazing feedback in the beginning, in the early days, and then stuck with us and man listening. Wherever his travels have taken him, he's always listened.

55:13Andrew: Give us a note.

55:14Justin: Yeah, give us another one. We got to thank the Kitchener Public Library. We said we've been here for a majority of our recording. Truly, we sound great because of their equipment and they've been very gracious and wonderful for us to be here.

55:26Andrew: They know us by face now.

55:28Justin: By face, at the very minimum. Andrew, how can you find us on the socials?

55:32Andrew: You can find us at theaudpodcast on TikTok and Instagram. You can also find us on YouTube @theaudpodcast Kitchenerrangers. Or you can just search in the search bar. Theoddpod will come up free time and

55:47Justin: as always, if you can subscribe, follow. We appreciate that now that we won't have regular scheduled programming. If you follow us and put the notification bells on or whatever in your listening, that'd be great because we'll have a few episodes probably throughout the summer, and then we'll be back at it before the season starts in the fall.

56:05Andrew: Yeah, we're gonna leave you wanting for more.

56:06Justin: A little bit.

56:07Andrew: We're not gonna have weekly drops, but there will be a few.

56:09Justin: There'll be a few, probably. And as always, you can find us

56:13Andrew: at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.