54: Return of the Andolorian

0:00Andrew: Hey, Andrew. Hey, Justin.

0:01Justin: How was your holidays?

0:02Andrew: I almost forgot that we had a podcast.

0:04Justin: I know, it's crazy. It's been three weeks and everything happened

0:08Andrew: that could happen under the sun, including something we could have never, ever thought.

0:13Justin: We wrote this off.

0:14Andrew: Yep.

0:15Justin: Like maybe five episodes ago.

0:16Andrew: Well, something else happened that made it so that realistically, he wasn't coming back.

0:22Justin: What are we talking about, Andrew?

0:23Andrew: Yeah, we're talking about the return of. Of not the Jedi, the Andalorian. That's right. That was Matt Andonovsky is back.

0:34Justin: He's back, baby.

0:35Andrew: He's back and he's ready to shore up the blue line.

0:38Justin: Man, does he look good in a Kitchener Rangers jersey.

0:41Andrew: Yeah, it feels the. My heart feels whole. There's also now a hole in my heart. We'll talk about that.

0:46Justin: Yeah.

0:46Andrew: In a second. But yeah. Matthew Anowski is a Kitchener Rangers once more.

0:51Justin: Yeah.

0:51Andrew: This is the swan song. This is it.

0:54Justin: Yeah. His overager season. He is back, baby.

1:02Andrew: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're

1:06Justin: talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls

1:08Andrew: themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas.

1:15Justin: Okay, Andrew. Ando is back. Yes.

1:18Andrew: Yes.

1:19Justin: But that causes a pretty major problem. And we are recording. Okay, this is this week. This is more important than anything. We are recording on Tuesday, January the Aud 6:52pm because literally we are in breaking news week. So we like, January 8th is overager day. They have to deal with all things overager related, which we'll talk about here. And then on Saturday, January 10, the Aud is trade deadline day, so stuff going down this week, so we're gonna miss stuff we. But we have missed. The last time we recorded. There was a trade. During us recording.

1:59Andrew: Yes, during the episode. I was just about to Sam O'Reilly let's go back to that.

2:03Justin: So let's start there. Okay, let's start there. Back in the wee olden times when Andrew and I were drinking our fake eggnog and doing a holiday episode and

2:11Andrew: we're making a Christmas wish.

2:12Justin: We made. Andrew made a. Was your Christmas wish that Evan Headrick would score a goal.

2:18Andrew: Meanwhile, he was probably literally in the process of being traded. Was being finalized while we were recording that.

2:25Justin: Yes.

2:26Andrew: When I got home, I opened my phone and I was like, great. Not just because I was sad that he was gone, but because we had just recorded this big spiel about how all I wanted for the Kitchener Rangers for Christmas was Evan Headrick score a goal.

2:40Justin: And he did. He did immediately.

2:42Andrew: His first for the Kitchener.

2:44Justin: His first shift as an Erie Otters He scored for Shot first shift. He scored a goal. So Christmas miracle. It was.

2:53Andrew: It was.

2:53Justin: And I couldn't be happier for him. I really.

2:55Andrew: He's going to get way more opportunity to play in the top six over there. So it's win, win because we got an amazing player.

3:02Justin: Okay, so here's the trade. If you live under a rock and you were like, I'm only listening to the AudPod for all my Kitchener Rangers content, you'd be really confused that

3:09Andrew: there was this guy named Dylan Edwards

3:11Justin: in the six games now. But yes, we traded for Dylan Edwards from the Erie Otters. We traded away Evan Headrick and a fourth round pick. Yes. Dylan Edwards has played six games as of this recording. As of Friday. Because we don't play again till Friday.

3:25Andrew: Yeah.

3:26Justin: Yeah. He's already put up six points and in six games. But he didn't score in his first two. So he's put up six points in four games, which is what he does. He's a 1.5 points per game guy. Yeah.

3:37Andrew: He's an overager as well.

3:39Justin: Which. He's an overager again. Yes.

3:40Andrew: It is significant as everything started to fall into place here.

3:44Justin: Yes. Because at this moment of this trade, our overagers were then full. We were like, okay, great. Here's our other over, Jakob Kak y

3:52Andrew: Jack pram and now Dylan Edwards.

3:54Justin: Yeah. We were like, this is awesome.

3:55Andrew: Great. We finally have a third overager. This is great.

3:58Justin: We needed to do that. That was like, it didn't matter. Andrew and I talked about, are we going for it this year, we going for it next year? Like, what's the motivation? It didn't really matter. We need an overager because we have the spot.

4:08Andrew: You have the spot. And Dylan Edwards is a heck of an overager. He was leading league the overagers in points. Yeah. And so to bring him in immediately, he became like the highest scoring player on the team at that moment.

4:20Justin: Yeah. Which was crazy.

4:21Andrew: Which is crazy.

4:21Justin: Which is crazy to think about when you have Jack pram, Christian Humphreys putting up mass points. But the Rangers don't play like that. We don't play. We don't blame the way that one player is going to exceed in that way.

4:32Andrew: Yeah. It's very balanced scoring. That's just how the system runs. Yeah.

4:36Justin: So that happened. Hedrickon obviously, like sad buddy. We like this kid. Like he was. He's. He is awesome. He's not dead.

4:44Andrew: No.

4:44Justin: He's just placed for years.

4:45Andrew: No Evan Headrick memorial award.

4:47Justin: Not yet.

4:48Andrew: It's a win. Win.

4:48Justin: Yeah.

4:49Andrew: But it Makes sense for Erie, who. They're not in a position to go for it. They can develop Evan. Evan obviously missed a year of development with or most of a year with a severe upper body injury and is now back and didn't have a lot of chance to play. He's basically playing fourth line minutes the whole year.

5:06Justin: Yeah.

5:06Andrew: And it's just. Because there's just too much depth, and

5:09Justin: he's a kid who can play more.

5:11Andrew: He's not a player that you want to play bottom six minutes. He's not a. He's not a large player.

5:16Justin: That's not what they drafted him for either.

5:17Andrew: He's an offensive player. And I've had people in minor hockey tell me that he had, like, incredible vision and he never really got a chance to play that kind of role. And so it wasn't a crazy surprise to me that he immediately started succeeding with Erie.

5:31Justin: Yeah.

5:32Andrew: But this is a crazy trade.

5:33Justin: Yeah.

5:34Andrew: To get. I know that overagers aren't worth as much because they're rentals.

5:38Justin: Yes.

5:38Andrew: But like, to get, like, arguably the best offensive overager.

5:41Justin: Yep. In the league for the season, which,

5:44Andrew: for just a fourth and a guy that you want to move. You wanted to move him and Hedrick because you knew he wasn't getting a fair shake.

5:52Justin: Championship, so.

5:54Andrew: Yeah. Exactly.

5:55Justin: Yeah. Championship.

5:56Andrew: Championship. Yeah. I love that trade.

5:58Justin: Crazy trade. It's a good trade. That led into only a few days later. Another. The rumors the night of the Hedrick trade, the Edwards Hedrick trade there were like, he's not done. Mike's not done. Yep. And we're like, okay. We don't know what's coming next.

6:15Andrew: Yeah. And it didn't feel like he was done.

6:17Justin: No.

6:17Andrew: Because it was a great ad. But it's.

6:21Justin: If you're doing it, you're doing it.

6:22Andrew: Yeah.

6:23Justin: Yeah.

6:23Andrew: Exactly. It's like you've only filled a hole in the fact that you had an overager spot.

6:27Justin: Yeah.

6:29Andrew: Now you're actually adding.

6:30Justin: Yes. Yeah. So he wasn't done. Mike McKenzie.

6:34Andrew: Never done.

6:35Justin: He's never done. So then he makes a trade for Gabriel Sherratt with the Brampton Steelheads. This was a classic Ohl trade for a guy that isn't an overager in the fact that there was eight picks and the Valentini rights and the lefts. And the lefts and centers, too. Traded for Gabriel Schrott. And it's a lot of picks. It's a lot of picks.

6:59Andrew: Yeah.

6:59Justin: Yeah.

7:00Andrew: It's an investment.

7:01Justin: Yeah.

7:02Andrew: Which we'll also talk about later.

7:03Justin: Yeah.

7:04Andrew: Which he's 19. Right.

7:05Justin: You're not doing this. You're not doing this for one year. You're doing it for two.

7:07Andrew: Yeah. And I would imagine he's a Vancouver Canucks. We're going to talk about that. Yeah, yeah, but he's a Vancouver Canucks draft pick.

7:13Justin: Yeah.

7:14Andrew: He comes very highly touted, highly regarded.

7:17Justin: Brampton is in a weird place. No matter how good he is, you're not really in a position to succeed in that franchise.

7:23Andrew: Br. Brampton also had all these incredible players and then they just left. They just all left like Porter Martone, Jack, Ivan Kovic. It like they just left for ncaa. So your window just collapsed on itself. So I understand. So they.

7:38Justin: Because they bought in for last year.

7:40Andrew: Well, and maybe you don't want to. You don't want to give up a 19 year old when you still got two years or a year and a half with him. Yeah, but you're getting eight. Eight or nine draft picks. Eight picks.

7:50Justin: Eight picks and the right and the rights.

7:51Andrew: You're. Yeah, you got to do it.

7:53Justin: Yeah, for sure. Charat's played four games with the Rangers. He has an assist. And I think there was some line shuffling in the last game I was looking at. Yeah, no, I don't think it was the last game. It was the second to last game. Whatever he was playing with Humps at one point. I think they're trying to find his spot. And this is always the danger with trading at the trade deadline is like it's not just that you're trading for a player, they also have to. You have to fit them into your team.

8:19Andrew: Oh, absolutely. So he came into the. Having 25 points in 31 games.

8:24Justin: Yeah.

8:24Andrew: So he's not quite a point a game player, but he had.

8:29Justin: Brampton's also gone three or four games in a row without scoring a goal.

8:33Andrew: Well, that's what I was going to get to. So they were a powerhouse to a degree last year. They were a strong team upper. Upper half of the conference.

8:41Justin: Yeah.

8:42Andrew: Could have probably been a better team on paper.

8:44Justin: Should have been.

8:45Andrew: Yeah. And he had 21 goals with the Aud that was in his draft eligible year. So I don't know how many minutes he's playing, but that seems to be pretty good. Bit of a mess for 25 and 31. That's probably, you know, I think that's a little lower than he probably.

9:01Justin: I think the expectation will be point per game probably with him. He's.

9:05Andrew: He's. He's 511, 191. He's a solid kid. Like, as far as size, he's not huge, but he's not small. I'll be interested to see more of him as it goes on to see, like, how much of an energy guy he is as he finds a spot in the lineup.

9:21Justin: Yeah, yeah, it'll be. Yeah. I'm excited to see how he gels into this whole thing because it's a lot. And then as a side note, this last week, Ian Robinson, he wasn't traded, but he did sign. He had a. He was. He had his OHL debut and he scored a goal in that game.

9:36Andrew: Yes.

9:37Justin: And that was his first OHL go. Because it was his first OHL game. And then Kitchener immediately signed him, so that's another addition.

9:43Andrew: I love Ian Robinson.

9:44Justin: Yeah.

9:44Andrew: Everything he's brought to the table, he's 6 3. He's a big center. He's been centering the fourth line. This is exactly the type of player that I thought Kitchener needed in the bottom six. Arguably on the fourth line, someone.

9:57Justin: They need someone to bung up that the center of the ice from the big players on the big centers on

10:03Andrew: the other teams, and to be able to handle big defensemen down low and just put in a shift and get in the offensive zone and just make defenders pay a little bit. Just use that strength to get in good position. He looks right at home. He doesn't look nervous.

10:19Justin: No.

10:19Andrew: There's always. Sometimes you see brand new guys come up. They might be super talented, but they're a little shaky.

10:25Justin: He was right in.

10:26Andrew: Really comfortable.

10:27Justin: Yeah.

10:27Andrew: And I'm a huge fan of this kid. Right away, I'm like, oh, he looks like he belong. Like, the first game that he played, I'm watching it. I'm like, who?

10:34Justin: I didn't know who he was.

10:35Andrew: Who is this?

10:36Justin: Yeah, it was very.

10:37Andrew: I was like, have I lost my mind? Yeah.

10:39Justin: That's how I felt.

10:40Andrew: Where I was like, did I forget that we had a guy, a big center?

10:45Justin: Like, it was middle of the. Aud was middle of the holiday break.

10:47Andrew: Yeah. Everything is weird.

10:49Justin: Everything is weird. And then I was like, I have no recollection of this player at all. And I loved it.

10:55Andrew: And I was like, I don't remember him in the prospect talks or anything, so that's probably on us. But, like, at the same time, like, I'm thinking of, like, guys in the pipeline that I do know. And I'm like, I don't know why it never came up as this guy was around for. This is the type of player we need.

11:11Justin: Yeah.

11:11Andrew: And he obviously felt that and Mike McKenzie obviously felt that. And here we are.

11:15Justin: Just so you know, that was. Was he came in after the holiday episode.

11:19Andrew: Yeah.

11:21Justin: I don't want to say that we have influence over the team. Maybe we. Mike listened to the episode and went, oh, yeah, I got a guy for that.

11:28Andrew: I do need some size and grit.

11:29Justin: I know what they're talking about.

11:30Andrew: I don't need to make a trade.

11:31Justin: I don't need to make a trade because I know where that player is.

11:34Andrew: Yeah, I'll bring him up.

11:34Justin: Yeah. I don't need to talk to Sudbury. I don't need any blueberries. No. And then the final trade which happened today, our dear friend Jakub Chromiak, who, as an aside about the trade, like the AudPod we bit. We named some episodes after Chromiak. Like, we are big fans of this player's game.

11:54Andrew: Yeah.

11:54Justin: He plays a great game of hockey. He is an unsung hero in hockey because he's. Yeah, he scores occasionally, but he's not a guy that's on the score sheet because he wants to be on the. Like he is. He knows his role and he is so good at it.

12:08Andrew: He's been on the score sheet a fair bit.

12:10Justin: Yeah. Way more than you would expect.

12:12Andrew: Than you would have expected.

12:13Justin: Absolute.

12:14Andrew: Absolutely. He, like, officially ends his tenure with 23 points in 38 games. 17 assists, which is goals.

12:21Justin: Yeah. For a defender who is more of a defensive defenseman than a offensive defenseman

12:25Andrew: who doesn't get necessarily first power play time.

12:28Justin: No.

12:29Andrew: Like, he has a couple power play

12:30Justin: goals, but he usually plays second power play in our weird, nebulous power play unit.

12:35Andrew: Power play units. Yes. He had 32 points last year in 54 games. He was obviously brought in for. From Sudbury last year.

12:44Justin: Y.

12:44Andrew: He's moving on to Niagara Y. For a couple picks because he's an overager.

12:49Justin: Y.

12:49Andrew: Essentially, this is. This trade is because there was a log jam, because Ando comes back and suddenly you've got Dylan Edwards, Jack Pridham, Jakob Kak, and Matthew Anovski. Yes. So I just want to take a moment to point out that Mike McKenzie. Every single thing that could go, quote, unquote, wrong this year for Mike McKenzie acquisitions have gone wrong. And he's still been like, no, I'm figuring it out.

13:17Justin: He rolls with the punches.

13:18Andrew: He rolls with the punches.

13:19Justin: Right.

13:20Andrew: First it was the kid who went off to Michigan with two weeks notice.

13:23Justin: I heard his right is gone.

13:25Andrew: His rights are gone now they've been traded.

13:27Justin: Yeah.

13:27Andrew: the Aud was Oscar Hemming.

13:29Justin: Yeah.

13:29Andrew: Who Also was freed over the holiday break.

13:32Justin: Oh yeah.

13:34Andrew: That was another. Yeah. Another Christmas wish that the Aud pot had. Unfortunately he was freed to Boston College.

13:40Justin: We want him. Obviously our motivation was to be freed to the Kitchener Rangers.

13:43Andrew: I think we need to be really specific with the Christmas wishes because the first Christmas wish was Evan Headrick gets a goal.

13:50Justin: He has traded to Erie and gets a goal. And the second Christmas wish three days later. Yeah.

13:55Andrew: The second Christmas wish is Oscar Hemming is free.

13:59Justin: Yeah. And that happened about four days later.

14:01Andrew: He gets. He gets to go learn and further his education. Boston College.

14:06Justin: Yeah.

14:06Andrew: But that was the only. His only way out. His only way out of this double IHF dictatorship.

14:12Justin: Yes.

14:12Andrew: Which is what it is. Yep. And this weird dill weeds of the year over in Finland. Geko espu.

14:19Justin: Like I heard they come. They're a fourth rate team.

14:21Andrew: I heard that they want their hot potty. Yeah. I'm going to send them an actual outhouse used. Yeah. Can we arrange that?

14:34Justin: You know what? I bet in Finland they have like really beautiful outhouses. You have to send them one of the blue ugly ones from a construction site.

14:41Andrew: North American one.

14:42Justin: Yeah.

14:42Andrew: Can we get somebody to send the Soo Bloopers. the Soo poopers. A North American odd potty.

14:50Justin: Outhouse construction. Like what's the biggest building in the area that has the same one outhouse the whole time?

14:56Andrew: You don't know. We gave Sean Furfaro former friend of the pod a odd potty last year. A physical odd potty. And it was.

15:04Justin: You can keep an eye out on twern this week in Rangers nations at 6:30. It's on the corner of his desk.

15:09Andrew: It's a tiny porcelain. What do you call it? It's not an.

15:12Justin: It's an outhouse statue.

15:14Andrew: It's. Yeah.

15:15Justin: But it's multi function device because it has a hole in it.

15:18Andrew: Yeah. But what I'm saying is what do you call those things? the Aud not outhouse, it's porta potty. Porta potty, that's the word.

15:24Justin: Yeah.

15:24Andrew: Yeah. It's this little porcelain porta potty.

15:26Justin: Yeah.

15:26Andrew: Yeah. Let's send it a full size one.

15:28Justin: Yeah. Full size porta potty. Yeah.

15:30Andrew: Anyway, we should be very careful about our wishes. Yeah. Because they come true.

15:34Justin: Yeah. Next year. Real specific.

15:36Andrew: Yeah, absolutely.

15:37Justin: Ye. Very specific. We got to get our legal team on them for next year because this

15:40Andrew: all not to take away from how much we're going to miss Jakub Chromiak Yeah. There's nothing about Chromiak's game that I am not going to miss.

15:48Justin: No. There.

15:49Andrew: I have no criticisms of Jakub Chromiak. That's. Is that not the highest like you? If I said I wish that he was a point per game defenseman, that's ridiculous. That's not the type of player he is. No. So with the type of player that he is, I have no criticisms of him. I'm going to miss him. I think he was a great leader. I thought he was a. He seemed like he was a great personality. All the guys loved him.

16:10Justin: Yeah.

16:11Andrew: What can you say other than this sucks?

16:14Justin: It sucks that this is the situation that we're in because. Yeah. You can't trade Jack Pridham. No.

16:20Andrew: No. Okay. First of all, we saw rumors saying that Jack Pridham could be traded. That would be the absolute devastating thing for morale, top to bottom. And if you're.

16:30Justin: If you're okay, if that happens before Friday, we're going to lose our minds.

16:34Andrew: I will lose my mind.

16:36Justin: We will have a reaction video to that because we will live.

16:39Andrew: We will go in and do a live record and release like a remote what just happened.

16:44Justin: No, there's no movement on Jack.

16:46Andrew: There's no movement on Jack that would destroy team morale. The whole thing runs through Jack Pridham to a degree. That's like he literally came back to be on the Rangers. Yeah. Like, he turned down the NCAA to come back to be here.

16:58Justin: Yeah.

16:58Andrew: And I see people saying that he wanted out. It was all stupid stuff.

17:01Justin: No.

17:01Andrew: But also it's just like he's not available. You can't trade the kid who just came here.

17:05Justin: No, you can't trade Edwards.

17:07Andrew: I can't turn around and do that.

17:08Justin: And you can't trade Ando.

17:10Andrew: No, you can't trade. And.

17:11Justin: Because you can't.

17:12Andrew: And if you're. This is. The thing is, I don't want to get into who's better and who's not and who does what and who doesn't do. But one guy has been playing in the AHL and practicing with ahl.

17:20Justin: Yeah, I know he's only played three

17:21Andrew: games, but was drafted.

17:23Justin: He's drafted and has been in that

17:25Andrew: system and has been in that.

17:26Justin: Yeah.

17:26Andrew: And is going back there.

17:28Justin: He's literally been playing in a higher league.

17:30Andrew: And another guy is probably going to play in Europe, which is great.

17:34Justin: Yes.

17:34Andrew: Or he'll catch on somewhere. But right now we don't know where he's going. So you're going to go with the player who.

17:41Justin: Yeah. He's got.

17:42Andrew: Has that kind of.

17:43Justin: There's this new level of Experience.

17:45Andrew: Yes.

17:45Justin: That he was like, Ando was great on the Rangers last year.

17:49Andrew: Yes.

17:50Justin: I can only imagine that he will bring so much more now. Like, yes, we've seen Cameron Reid elevate his game this season. And that's just. There's confidence with being drafted.

18:00Andrew: Yep.

18:01Justin: But then he also went and did the full Nashville Predators camp.

18:04Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

18:04Justin: And, like, I'm sure he learned a ton.

18:06Andrew: Of course.

18:07Justin: And that's what he brought.

18:08Andrew: Like. And I think the same as with Ando, he went and did the Aud camp. He's.

18:11Justin: Every time he comes back.

18:13Andrew: Yeah, he's gonna come back. This is the other thing too, is I think the knock on Ando is the discipline. Right. If he can be a little bit more disciplined, that's. I don't think. What can you Sam O'Reilly think people misunderstand how good he is defensively.

18:25Justin: I think so, too.

18:25Andrew: I think people see that he's a rough. He's a rough player.

18:29Justin: Take some penalties.

18:30Andrew: Some penalties. He. But he puts the body on people.

18:33Justin: Yeah.

18:33Andrew: And they think that that's all he does.

18:35Justin: Yeah.

18:35Andrew: That is. No. He. Very skilled defenseman.

18:37Justin: Yeah.

18:38Andrew: He's a smart.

18:39Justin: Work is very good.

18:40Andrew: Yeah.

18:40Justin: He's always in the right place.

18:41Andrew: Yeah. They're like. And not only that.

18:43Justin: Like, he.

18:43Andrew: He's clutch scoring. Like, he'll do stuff. He'll come in and score a beauty. Like when you need him because he's got that, like, crazy leadership perk in his skill tree.

18:53Justin: Last year he scored Novechkin goal.

18:55Andrew: I know.

18:55Justin: Like, he looked. Yeah. He's got it all.

18:57Andrew: Yeah.

18:57Justin: And he's a very good player. And yeah, he's gonna come back. He's not going to be the cap captain because Cameron Reid is the captain for sure. But regardless, he's a locker room guy, too.

19:07Andrew: He's going to be a culture leader.

19:08Justin: Yeah.

19:09Andrew: He's not coming back in. And it's also like the other thing with you can't trade Pridham. Well, like Pridham and Ando are like the guys who go all the way back.

19:16Justin: Yeah. They're like childhood friends. Yeah.

19:18Andrew: That's. That's a boost there too. Right. Like, your chemistry is just.

19:22Justin: Yeah.

19:22Andrew: Is getting a boost there. It just sucks that it's chromiac because there's not a bad word that.

19:27Justin: No.

19:27Andrew: There's nothing about Chromia's game that I will criticize to say that at least this won't be happening.

19:33Justin: You know what I'm going to criticize about Chromiak? That he's not a year younger Exactly. How dare you. How dare you Go Dare you.

19:39Andrew: I'll criticize his parents.

19:42Justin: Okay, so, yeah, we've talked about the overager problem, but Andrew, that's not it. Next year. Now walk us through the overager problem that we're going to experience next. This is just to emotionally prepare everyone in the dregs of the horrific January we're having for my good weather and all the whatever. But next year is. It's not going to be pretty. There's going to be movement.

20:07Andrew: So Christian Humphreys will be an overager next year.

20:10Justin: Yeah.

20:10Andrew: Okay.

20:11Justin: We're assuming he's going to stay because he's chosen to stay. Yeah. He's so good on this team.

20:16Andrew: He left Michigan.

20:17Justin: He.

20:18Andrew: I. If there's a chance he goes back to the ncaa, I don't think it would be like an open door at Michigan because I assume that if you say this isn't working for me. Yeah. I don't know.

20:29Justin: Not even. Yeah. Not even to really speculate on that. If he did choose to go to nca, he be somewhere else.

20:35Andrew: That's. That was. That's just my. That's just my hunch he could.

20:38Justin: But I don't like. We've. We. There's no indication that he's thinking that way. No.

20:42Andrew: Don't take it from us that, like, Humps might go to ncaa.

20:45Justin: So we are assuming he's staying.

20:46Andrew: We are saying that he's staying and we would be surprised if anything else happens.

20:50Justin: Yeah.

20:50Andrew: He's also been like the points per game leader since he showed up here.

20:54Justin: Y.

20:54Andrew: So I would think if the championship window is officially 2027, obviously we're in it now because we're making these trades.

21:01Justin: Yeah. These trades aren't championship. Championship.

21:04Andrew: The team obviously is still built for 2027 as well.

21:07Justin: Yeah.

21:08Andrew: The window is still open, I guess I should Sam O'Reilly Humps of Stan.

21:12Justin: Okay.

21:12Andrew: Luke Ellen is. Now here's a candidate that if he played healthy the whole year.

21:16Justin: Yeah.

21:17Andrew: Maybe they do a similar thing in Belleville and he plays or he plays in the ECHL and then he plays in the ahl, whatever. And that they followed that development path for him. But because of the injury, he's basically.

21:28Justin: Oh, yeah. We didn't even talk about this because this happened or we got the news about this. He hasn't played for a while, but

21:34Andrew: for a while he.

21:34Justin: He is probably out until the playoffs or.

21:38Andrew: Well, we.

21:39Justin: Or the rest of the season.

21:40Andrew: Or the rest of the season.

21:41Justin: Yeah. Like regular season. We're probably not going to see Elena's

21:43Andrew: again, he's a battler. So I wouldn't be surprised if he's back for playoffs.

21:48Justin: Yeah.

21:48Andrew: But I also like. It also sounded his career.

21:51Justin: It also sounded. If he's back for playoffs, it's like second round.

21:54Andrew: Yeah.

21:55Justin: It's not. It's not like he's going to be ready for day one of playoffs.

21:57Andrew: Any doubt? Yeah. Don't play.

21:59Justin: Yeah, exactly.

22:00Andrew: Because if this is your career and if. And with like shoulder surgery, which I'm not revealing this is in the press, the shoulder surgery that he's had, you don't want to re aggravate these things and have severe shoulder problems because that's it. That's you're done, your career's done. Oscar Clef Bomb of the Oilers had to choose between being able, like he could have played, but if something happened and he re aggravated it, they said you may never be able to pick up your kid.

22:27Justin: Yeah.

22:27Andrew: And so there was a choice made that I've made money, I've played professional hockey. I'm going to step away and I'm going to be able to move my shoulder above, move my arm above my head. I think that's a fair choice to make. I don't want anybody else to have to make that choice. So I would think Luke Ellen is here next year.

22:43Justin: Yeah. Is basically all to Sam O'Reilly think so, too.

22:45Andrew: All right.

22:46Justin: Yeah.

22:46Andrew: Now we've got Andrew Vermeulen, who's an energy guy, so you'd think that there's a chance that you'd have to move on there. And that's not. I like Andrew Vermeulen. I think he's been. He's been a great acquisition. I don't know what Niagara looks like next year because that's where he came from. Could there be an overager spot open in Niagara next year? I don't know. But again, Andrew Vermeulen is going to be an overager.

23:10Justin: Yep.

23:11Andrew: Matthew Hlacar Lachar is hard. An overager. Yeah. Here's the thing. Obviously he's a bottom six guy just like Vermeulen. Oh, Vermeulen has jumped up and yeah. Char is a. Has talented hands. Is talented score.

23:26Justin: Filthy.

23:26Andrew: Filthy hands and filthy knuckles, too. But at the same time, you got to think you're keeping these guys over the first two guys I mentioned. Yeah. That's the reality of it. Unless you have a deal that makes it so that you're trading the first two. One of the first two. You know what I mean? Which I can't imagine. So you've got. Now you've got two guys that I feel are slam dunks.

23:47Justin: Yeah.

23:48Andrew: And now you've got two guys who are bottom six guys who are character guys that you love to have on your team. Can't keep both of them.

23:54Justin: No.

23:54Andrew: And now we're not even done. No, not even.

23:57Justin: This is the problem. This is when it gets so messy.

23:59Andrew: I'm doing this from memory, so.

24:00Justin: No, I can tell you. Yeah.

24:01Andrew: The next guy. Dera Colo. Yeah, yeah. Max Dirracolo Okay. So here's your depth defenseman. Yeah. Okay.

24:06Justin: We've already talked about. Forest needs a spot. We got D that needs spots.

24:11Andrew: Like now with Chromiak gone.

24:14Justin: Yeah.

24:15Andrew: The right side is thinner.

24:16Justin: Yeah.

24:17Andrew: You're gonna see a lot more Max now. There's gonna be a lot more minutes on that right side.

24:20Justin: Yeah.

24:20Andrew: Yeah. So Max is going to be in.

24:23Justin: Relied upon. Yeah.

24:25Andrew: A lot more. But again, depth defenseman. We saw him play second pairing last year. We saw him play a lot of third pairing.

24:34Justin: Yeah. He can play wherever.

24:36Andrew: Do you think he's going to be kept? Like, I have no idea. But this is the thing. Now we're at five guys and we got two slam dunks. So I've got three that I'm like. I don't.

24:46Justin: Continuing on defense.

24:47Andrew: Yeah.

24:48Justin: Carson Campbell.

24:48Andrew: Carson Campbell. Yeah. There you go. So here's like the stalwart of Stalw.

24:52Justin: Yeah.

24:53Andrew: This is a guy that like, you can't really afford to lose a Carson Campbell But yeah.

24:59Justin: But yeah, the stacking up of who's gone. And then you still have Shirat, who we just traded for.

25:05Andrew: Yes.

25:06Justin: So we don't even know how he fits on the team. He's not a defense man.

25:08Andrew: We don't know how he fits on the team. So there is a world where maybe, like, he never really gels with the team and they move him. This is, again, this is all just crazy speculation.

25:16Justin: Don't take this. None of the. Don't start posting this on social media.

25:20Andrew: And this is the thing is we haven't even spoken to him. We haven't spoken to anybody about this. We're just literally saying, now we have another body. So now you've got a guy that you invested nine picks into. Eight picks and some rights to a player.

25:32Justin: Yeah.

25:32Andrew: So nine assets.

25:34Justin: Yeah.

25:34Andrew: Into this player, you think you're not going to keep him. So that's three.

25:38Justin: Yeah. And Christian Kirsch.

25:40Andrew: And Christian Kirsch, the goalie.

25:43Justin: Yeah.

25:43Andrew: Who's going to be an overager. So you've got that's six players. Six or seven.

25:48Justin: Two, four, six. Eight players.

25:50Andrew: Eight players. Oh, my goodness.

25:52Justin: Potential overagers for seven.

25:53Andrew: Three spots and a goalie.

25:56Justin: Yeah.

25:56Andrew: And you have three spots.

25:57Justin: Yeah.

25:57Andrew: And how are you? Like I said, Humps and Ellenus, they're Luke Ellinas is in the lore. Is in the mythic lore of Rangers history.

26:07Justin: His picture is in the hallway to the dressing room. Him.

26:11Andrew: Like, it would be like earth shattering to. To do something with him next year.

26:17Justin: Yeah.

26:17Andrew: Besides have him come back and rehab this injury and come back and help lead the team.

26:21Justin: And Hump's like, we've been watching him all season. Like, what?

26:25Andrew: I just.

26:25Justin: You're not getting anyone.

26:26Andrew: He chose to come here, so I have no idea. Because you could argue that there's four guys that you have to keep. Yeah. And then you've got four guys that. That you'd like to keep. Yeah. And that you're going to have to try and find a landing spot for.

26:43Justin: Yeah.

26:44Andrew: Maybe some of these guys who are a little bit more on the bubble. We've seen like Cam Mercer. We saw him go to university and play hockey. Maybe a couple of them will go play ncaa.

26:54Justin: If you see the writing on the wall, too, or I'm. The conversations, I'm sure are happening, like.

26:59Andrew: Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. No, none of this is going to be. I don't think that.

27:03Justin: I don't think. I don't think any of these players is going to listen to the Aud pot on Friday and be like. And be like, wait, I' ager next year and there's seven other guys.

27:11Andrew: Yeah.

27:11Justin: No, they know. They know.

27:13Andrew: We're not. Breaking news. Anybody?

27:15Justin: Yeah.

27:15Andrew: It's just. To me, it's just like one of these things where I've never quite, like, Andrew never seen something like this because we're new fans of the ohl and it's like.

27:24Justin: This is like soul crushing a little bit.

27:26Andrew: Yeah, it is. This is like a core of the team. Because like I said, those four guys who are character guys, all four of those guys you'd go into battle with.

27:33Justin: Yeah.

27:34Andrew: Like, I love those players.

27:35Justin: Yeah.

27:36Andrew: And then the four guys that I'm calling the guys that you've invested in and are like the top tier OHL talent, you can't get rid of them. No. I don't know.

27:46Justin: I don't even know.

27:46Andrew: I don't know.

27:47Justin: And when we. In the holiday episode when we were like Freaky Friday with Mike McKenzie. Yeah. I absolutely. It. It would be my worst Nightmare. To Freaky Friday as Mike McKenzie when he has to, like, make this decision.

28:02Andrew: I know.

28:03Justin: Because it's. I couldn't even imagine. I know we've said this so many times. We're so attached to these players and it's. I can't imagine any of them not being on the team.

28:11Andrew: Yeah.

28:11Justin: And the fact that I. That we're even talking about the fact that they won't be there. Some of these guys will be gone next year.

28:17Andrew: Something makes me feel a lot better about it if, like, I know that they had to. They had to release Pulazi last year.

28:23Justin: Yeah.

28:23Andrew: When Swick came back. It makes me feel better if they're going on and there. There's another opportunity.

28:29Justin: Yeah.

28:29Andrew: You know what I mean?

28:30Justin: I think all of these guys are good enough to keep going on.

28:33Andrew: It's just. It just sucks if you can't, like, if you can't get something back for them because they're like. They're all important assets. Yeah. But it's one of those things where realistically we've seen what Chromiak fetched.

28:48Justin: Yeah.

28:48Andrew: And he's a great defense.

28:49Justin: Yeah.

28:50Andrew: Because he's got two good.

28:51Justin: We got two good picks for him.

28:52Andrew: But like, he's.

28:53Justin: He will also help. Like, we know Niagara isn't in a great place this year, but they have a lot of young players.

29:01Andrew: Yeah.

29:01Justin: And he's going to help those young defensemen up their game. And there's a value add to that. But. Yeah. That can't. Not everyone's gonna do that.

29:11Andrew: Yeah.

29:11Justin: Like, this is a good fit because you have a great player who's available.

29:14Andrew: Yeah. And we just want the best for all these young guys.

29:17Justin: Yeah.

29:17Andrew: And like wherever they land, I hope they land on their feet playing hockey in a competitive atmosphere that can help them with their career. Because I think all these guys want to pursue that.

29:27Justin: Yeah. Okay. Andrew, we're like so deep in this episode.

29:33Andrew: Oh, we are.

29:34Justin: And we got so many games to. Oh, yeah.

29:38Andrew: We're going to do the fast forward recap.

29:40Justin: So we're doing maximum 30 seconds except one game. Because I'm going to. I'm going to long talk it. But let's blast through from Friday. I'm going to start from Friday, December 12th.

29:51Andrew: Yep.

29:52Justin: That's so long ago.

29:54Andrew: I know. Almost a month.

29:56Justin: The Flint Firebirds at home. Flint was at home.

30:00Andrew: Yeah.

30:00Justin: The Rangers were on the road. A 41 loss, easy one. No highlights. The team left Kershaw to dry. They tightened up a bit, but there was no pushback. Humphrey's got a nice goal, but it wasn't enough. And Kirsch played well after the team decided to defend him.

30:16Andrew: Yeah.

30:16Justin: And so that was that game. Andrew, next game.

30:20Andrew: Flint is so good.

30:21Justin: It's. Yeah. Just bothers. I don't understand it.

30:24Andrew: the Soo good.

30:25Justin: I don't. I do not acknowledge that they're good. Is so, so good. Yes.

30:30Andrew: Okay. Moving on. A 5, 4 shootout win over the Saginaw Spirit, which a little. It was a little. It was a little touch and go with Saginaw, which is. They're not necessarily a great team.

30:41Justin: Nope.

30:42Andrew: So it was mostly Jack Pridham.

30:44Justin: Yeah.

30:44Andrew: Yeah. He scored a hat trick in this one.

30:47Justin: Yeah.

30:47Andrew: Which he's gonna score later on. He's gonna score another hat trick. I foresee it.

30:52Justin: This was only his like. Like second Ohl hattrick, wasn't it? And then. Yeah. Also his third coming up.

30:58Andrew: But yeah, he. He had a bunch of two goal games. Jack Pram scores two to open it and then they give up three and then he ties it up. So none of them were the game winner. Obviously it was a shootout, but it's not even the tying goal for Jack Pram. But yeah, it goes to a shootout and ultimately the Rangers get the dub with our dear friend Jason Shaw and that. Who made some big saves throughout this Andrew time because Christian Kirchhoff was at the World Juniors. Not yet. Not yet.

31:25Justin: But he was backing up this game.

31:27Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.

31:27Justin: Because very soon. Yes.

31:30Andrew: Yeah.

31:30Justin: Because then Wednesday, December 17 was Kershaw's first official game. Yeah. A gone. And this is when. Yeah, we started the shovel train.

31:38Andrew: The shovel train.

31:38Justin: Yeah. Which awesome. We did talk about this in the holiday episode too, was that we wanted to see some shovel and. Oh, we got some shovel.

31:45Andrew: Oh, yeah.

31:46Justin: And you look good. Okay. This game was a bit closer than I would have wanted against Sarnia. This was an away game again for the Rangers. We won five to two. It was a bit closer than I wanted it to be, but the Rangers stepped up when they needed to. The shots were 25 to 25. So there was that. But it was a great depth game. Ellis, Cameron, Campbell, Lamb and Chromiak all scored. Campbell, Ellis and Cameron all with multi point games. Like very good team effort game, which I really like to see. And then we didn't score first in this game, but after that first goal against Shabble, man, he was lights out like he did. There was another goal against him, but it was. He was unstoppable in this game.

32:23Andrew: Oh, yeah.

32:23Justin: Yeah. Andrew next.

32:25Andrew: Yeah, we had the Owen Sound Attack at the Aud And The Rangers won 4 to 1. We're gonna see. We're gonna preview a game with Owen sound. So this was relevant information. Christian Humphreys gets it going. Cameron Arquette scored a goal. Our dearly departed but still alive Jakub Chromiak scored a goal. And that was three to nothing early in the second. And then I gotta say, friend of the pod, Noah Roberts scored the only goal for Owen Sound congrats. Found the video that we reposted about him and commented and got a kick out of it. So that's why we're calling him friend of the pod. Noah Roberts, please stop scoring against us. And Luca Romano added a power play goal. There's not much to say except Jason Schaubel stopped 23 of 24 and Humphreys had a two point night. It was overall, it was a good team effort.

33:11Justin: It was. Yeah. Then the game. I'm going to talk a little bit more about Andrew on Sunday, December the Aud about 4:12pm roughly. Where were you when the lights went

33:25Andrew: out,

33:28Justin: as Mike Farwell calls it? This was blackout Sunday.

33:31Andrew: Blackout Sunday.

33:32Justin: I was at the Aud with my dad.

33:34Andrew: Your dad in to get blacked out?

33:36Justin: To get blacked out and not intoxicated?

33:38Andrew: No, no, no. We have literally blacked out.

33:41Justin: Literally blacked out. Okay, first of all, this game, not that exciting of a game. It was the first period was okay for Kitchener, but the second period really tilted towards Erie. This was an Erie Otters game. This was home at the Aud The Rangers did inevitably win this one five three. But let's get into that. The game was tilted towards Erie in the second period after a good first by the Kitchener Rangers. It was 3:2 going into the third. In the third period, Kitchener had three power play opportunities to tie up the game. And they took until the third one to get a goal. Jack Pridham of course, he finally scored on that third one. And about two minutes later, while the Erie Otters were on a power play mid play, the power just fully went out in the Aud Yeah. So they stopped play obviously because no one could see. Whistled it down. We waited a good few minutes for any sort of light to come in. Then backup generators or whatever. I don't know. I don't exactly know what's going on but. But partial power came on and they waited. We probably sat there for 15 minutes waiting to see what would happen eventually. It wasn't full power like the board was partially on. There was some things. There was no game clock. There was no Score. It was just eerie. Eerie in the Aud And. And we were just sitting there and they decided to drop the puck. So it was a defensive zone draw for Kitchener. Through a very quick series of events, our new newly found friend who had not scored a goal at this point, Dylan Edwards has the puck on a breakaway. Shorthanded towards the other end, scores. The whole sequence. I don't know why I was filming this when it happened. The whole sequence was 12 seconds. He scores. The light goes on to signal a goal. Power goes out again.

35:34Andrew: It was crazy.

35:35Justin: His mom was sitting behind me and she was like, oh, my God, is it not gonna count?

35:40Andrew: And then even Mike Farwell on the radio broadcast because the flow hockey.

35:45Justin: The stream was out. Yeah. But apparently Roger's TV was still up.

35:48Andrew: That's true.

35:49Justin: That's what Sean told us.

35:50Andrew: That's what you gotta live love about. Auxiliary analog. Auxiliary analog.

35:54Justin: Cables.

35:55Andrew: Yeah, cables. It's not. Yeah. It's not wavelength, so.

36:00Justin: Good old cables.

36:00Andrew: Yeah. Even Mike didn't know. Yeah. It was gonna. He was confused as well.

36:04Justin: We didn't know because the lights went out. Like the power went out right after.

36:07Andrew: Yeah. So we did imagine it went out while he was on the breakaway.

36:10Justin: Oh, no.

36:11Andrew: What is the timing of that?

36:12Justin: Yeah, that's crazy timing because it was only. Like I said, it was only 12 seconds. And the Aud was like five seconds later, the power went out. If it had taken. If someone had thought about a pass, he wouldn't have made it.

36:23Andrew: If it wasn't a breakaway.

36:24Justin: If it wasn't a breakaway.

36:25Andrew: If. It would have been a very Setup. Yeah. Carried in.

36:28Justin: No, it would have been playing. It would have went out and blown dead again.

36:30Andrew: Yeah.

36:30Justin: Yeah.

36:31Andrew: It ends up being the game winner,

36:32Justin: the Aud was the game winner.

36:33Andrew: And it was shorthanded.

36:34Justin: It was shorthanded. And then they got an empty netter shorthanded as well. Pretty much immediately after, like, the power came on. There was never full power. The lights were flickering. It was weird. It was so weird, like watching this game because the. Even the lights on the ice weren't fully on. It was.

36:50Andrew: So it seems like agreed to play it out. Yes. I guess you could have said this.

36:55Justin: There was only like a minute 37 left on the clock when the power went out. So know, like the fact that the Rangers came back and won. This was insane.

37:03Andrew: A wild finish.

37:04Justin: It didn't feel like that was going to happen. I think the power outage helped the Rangers.

37:08Andrew: I think so. I think it did.

37:09Justin: It kind of electrified them.

37:12Andrew: Yeah.

37:13Justin: Well, it also.

37:13Andrew: It Also just gave them a little bit of time to regroup. And like, imagine you're trying to close out a game on the road and the lights start going out. There's a break and. And you're already like the lesser of the two teams. Like, you're. It's like you're the underdog mug man. Like, they were. They're destined to lose this game. Unfortunately.

37:32Justin: Everyone, literally everything was working against them.

37:35Andrew: Yeah.

37:35Justin: Everything.

37:36Andrew: Yeah.

37:36Justin: Okay. That was long winded, Andrew.

37:39Andrew: Next game, we played a Sudbury. In Sudbury. We had to start Mason Rizkoff in this one in his first official. Official OHL start.

37:48Justin: Yep.

37:48Andrew: Because Shovel was playing in the day game the following day. So I understand that you got a.

37:54Justin: A.

37:54Andrew: You can't double up when it's like less than 24 hours. Turnaround.

37:57Justin: Yeah.

37:58Andrew: A little shaky in the first period. Obviously you're gonna have your nerves. He's a young kid, whatever. But settled down. Unfortunately. It was three to one a little early on in this game, and it would end up being a 4 to 3 loss for the Rangers. But he did settle in. He did settle in and played well in the second and the third periods. Jack Pridham, Dylan Edwards, and then Jack Freedom again scored for the Rangers. It's great to see that those guys are going. Prids is going.

38:26Justin: Yeah. If anybody's keeping track of these recaps of how many points Pridham has, it's a lot.

38:32Andrew: It's a lot.

38:32Justin: It's a lot.

38:33Andrew: Prince is going nuts. All of that positive regression to the mean where we were talking about. He's hit. He was the iron man.

38:40Justin: Yeah.

38:41Andrew: He's no longer the iron. No. Now he's the net rippler.

38:44Justin: A little.

38:45Andrew: He is. All hat wearers fear him.

38:48Justin: Okay.

38:49Andrew: Because he's getting two and sometimes three every game.

38:53Justin: He had a little turkey in it. His puck just moved down a half inch. The next game was New Year's Eve against North Bay. In North Bay, it was a 4 to 2 win. Shoble back and net. Sometimes letting in the first goal, I think is Kitchener Rangers blessing.

39:11Andrew: Yeah.

39:11Justin: Because. Yeah, the Kitchener Rangers had a great game after getting scored on pretty early in the game. Ansys and Ellis got nice goals in the first pri on the power play seems to be clicking. He got the game winner with Romano and Bleki. In the second, Edwards got an empty netter. That puts him up to, I think, five points in five games at this point. And just a nice way to close out the calendar year. Pretty tidy win.

39:36Andrew: Absolutely. Then we'll move on to the Barrie Colts shootout win over the Kitchener Rangers on January 2nd. There's not much to say about this game except that they got goalied. Arvin Jaswal played unbelievable hockey. Yeah. In this one, Christian Humphreys scored a goal. That's nothing to say. Jason Schaubel didn't play well. He did extremely well. He stopped 28 of 20 or, sorry, 28 of 30. And played completely like it's a shootout.

40:05Justin: You make this a shootout. You make it through three on three.

40:08Andrew: They had some chances.

40:09Justin: Nobody cares.

40:10Andrew: They could have scored. They didn't. It goes to a shootout. Anybody can win. Both goalies were playing really well. It is what it is. The longer it goes, you're either gonna win or you lose. It's a coin flip. Right. The longer that shootout goes, it's like,

40:24Justin: all right, who knows?

40:25Andrew: Who knows?

40:25Justin: Abolish the shootout.

40:27Andrew: Yeah. Haeden Ellis did score a goal. It's been a little while for him, so it was good to have him. He set up. Was set up from Cameron Arquette. See, both those guys had some points in this little run here now.

40:37Justin: Yeah.

40:37Andrew: And Dylan Edwards and Gabriel. Is it Sherratt?

40:40Justin: I think so.

40:40Andrew: It scares me that we pronounce the team T. It's. It's like it's always Sherrat. Because I think about the guy who plays in the NHL. Shot.

40:49Justin: Yeah.

40:49Andrew: But it scares me because I feel is like a French ass name. Sh. It should be Ch. Anyway, Gabriel fr. Gabriel shot. Got his assist in this game.

41:00Justin: Yes.

41:00Andrew: So it was nice to like that.

41:01Justin: Yeah.

41:02Andrew: He's settling in and having a chance to figure out where he fits in.

41:05Justin: Like, we saw Dylan Edwards take a few games to. To also start fitting in. And this felt like his. His chance of getting in. Absolutely. And that was so many hockey games since the last time we recapped a hockey game. We got two games coming up this week. Tonight, Friday, January 9th, Oshawa is at the Aud in Kitchener. And then Saturday, January 10th, Owen Sound. We go there.

41:32Andrew: We go there.

41:33Justin: Because we don't play home games on Saturdays.

41:36Andrew: She doesn't even go here.

41:37Justin: She doesn't even go here. Oshawa. This is our second and final meeting with them. We won. They're in there. They're in their out of sequence era.

41:46Andrew: Yeah. I think it was like six to two. Six. One or six.

41:48Justin: Yeah.

41:49Andrew: Yeah. It was a beating.

41:50Justin: Yeah.

41:51Andrew: Good.

41:51Justin: Yeah, they did. They were too.

41:52Andrew: Window closed.

41:53Justin: They were too good for too long.

41:54Andrew: Yeah. Window closed.

41:55Justin: So, Oshawa, we sometimes we lose to teams that we should win.

41:59Andrew: Yeah. But Like Sudbury. But this. The thing is you gotta. Yeah, it's gotta play this one now. They gotta win this.

42:04Justin: No, everybody. All the games you should win, you gotta win.

42:06Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

42:07Justin: Owen Sound, on the other hand, very good. Although we beat them.

42:10Andrew: We have.

42:11Justin: Twice recently.

42:12Andrew: Yeah. Two out of three times.

42:13Justin: Two out of three times.

42:13Andrew: But they did beat us the first time.

42:14Justin: Yeah. Because they are a good team.

42:16Andrew: Yep.

42:16Justin: And Carter George will be back from World Juniors motivated.

42:19Andrew: Highly motivated.

42:20Justin: Because we did beat the. That is a little bit of the caveat is we did beat them without their star goaltender. He was. He would have been away on the 19th.

42:29Andrew: Was that. Oh yeah, it was.

42:30Justin: Yeah, yeah, they were.

42:31Andrew: We did beat them another time with. With him.

42:33Justin: No, I know, but the last one. I think part of what makes Owen sound great is they're very good Star gold ender.

42:41Andrew: Yeah, well, that's true. And they also are like pretty stacked up front too. Yeah, sure.

42:46Justin: So are we.

42:47Andrew: Pierce Mbuyi, Harry Nansi. You can't say that on a podcast.

42:51Justin: Yeah, you'll have to bleep that. So Owen Sound. It's going to be a tough game. There's no way. It's a back to back. It's a home and then a road game.

42:59Andrew: Yeah, it.

42:59Justin: Owen Sound's not close.

43:01Andrew: It's.

43:02Justin: It's a thing.

43:02Andrew: Isn't Owen Sound the. The.

43:05Justin: The road game?

43:05Andrew: Is it really?

43:06Justin: Yeah.

43:06Andrew: Oh, you're right. The Bay Shore Bounce, that's trouble.

43:10Justin: But it's gone now.

43:11Andrew: Yeah, I know.

43:12Justin: But it's there forever for. In spirit.

43:14Andrew: Yeah.

43:15Justin: Occasionally the puck will just move for no reason and you'll be like the ghost of the board.

43:19Andrew: Did they change the boards there?

43:21Justin: Yeah.

43:21Andrew: I thought that was the one with the corners you're talking about is what they changed.

43:25Justin: I think they did. But the Bayshore Bounce is gone. They fixed that.

43:27Andrew: They fixed that. Fix the.

43:28Justin: Yeah, whatever. I. That's cuz we played there once and I remember that was like.

43:31Andrew: Don't change that. That's fun.

43:33Justin: In. When we went to Owen Sound. The. I think it was the first game we played against them was in Owen Sound. Yeah, I remember it. And it was early and that was like the main story point of the episode or of the game. Cuz they.

43:45Andrew: You shoot it off and it would bounce.

43:47Justin: Yeah, but it. But that was. The storyline was that. It's gone now.

43:50Andrew: It's gone now.

43:51Justin: They fixed it.

43:52Andrew: I don't like that.

43:53Justin: I hear they have good fries too. We gotta do our tour.

43:56Andrew: We do. Yeah. Whenever. We don't have full responsibilities.

44:00Justin: Okay. So we're never doing.

44:01Andrew: Never.

44:02Justin: Yeah, we're doing that.

44:02Andrew: We're gonna try.

44:03Justin: Yeah.

44:03Andrew: We gotta get to Belleville, too.

44:05Justin: Yeah, that.

44:06Andrew: Or maybe Belleville is somewhere closer to us.

44:09Justin: Oh, maybe if they play the Marleys.

44:11Andrew: Exactly.

44:11Justin: We could go be JP super fans.

44:14Andrew: Yeah.

44:15Justin: In the Coca Cola column.

44:16Andrew: I'm always a JP super fan, no matter where I am.

44:18Justin: No, but I was saying we could go actively be JP Superfan openly in the Coliseum. Yes.

44:25Andrew: Yes.

44:26Justin: Which seems fun.

44:27Andrew: It would be fun.

44:28Justin: I like that arena. Oh, yeah, that's great. Coca Cola Coliseum.

44:31Andrew: Lots of character in that.

44:32Justin: It's good. I like the openness. It's very open. Yeah. Yeah.

44:34Andrew: I've been on that ice. Oh, yes, I have.

44:37Justin: When you were a professional hockey player

44:38Andrew: for a moment where I shot a puck at the ice. This. Tried to curl it to the center ice. I didn't win. Wow.

44:45Justin: You.

44:45Andrew: There's footage.

44:46Justin: You've done this multiple times? No.

44:49Andrew: Oh, yeah, I did. We did it at the Aud But it wasn't curling. You're actually trying to score.

44:53Justin: Oh, you were actually curling.

44:54Andrew: No, with a puck. It's basically curling. If you're trying to put the puck onto the center dot. Oh, I see. It's basically curling.

45:01Justin: I. I now understand.

45:02Andrew: Whereas, like, with. This is the thing. I haven't been able to actually properly shoot a puck either time. It was on the ice at the Aud and they gave me a golf club and a golf ball.

45:11Justin: Yeah.

45:12Andrew: And then this time on untreated ice and. And then with a lot of snow at the Coliseum.

45:17Justin: Real snow. Heavy.

45:18Andrew: You have to curl it to the center dot. I'm like, but I just want to shoot the puck on the ice. Was not.

45:24Justin: And they were like, be careful of your Christmas wishes. Okay. I want to be on. Be specific.

45:29Andrew: On the ice with. Yeah.

45:31Justin: Okay. Andrew, we've alluded to this like 1400 times in this episode. We should probably talk about it. We should. Canada won bronze at the World Juniors.

45:40Andrew: They did.

45:40Justin: The World Juniors happened. It's over. It's great. Obviously, we're cheering for Canada. We were cheering for Kirsch. We're cheering for all of our guys. We were cheering for Kirsch over in Switzerland. We were cheering for Cameron Reid in with Canada because we were also cheering for Canada. I was cheering for Zane Prak because he plays for the Flames. And it's like, it all happens. Obviously, Canada not winning gold is basically. It's bad as it. The expectations are always gold. Always gold. Always gold. Of course, Cameron Reid had a great tournament.

46:10Andrew: Yeah.

46:10Justin: He looked good. They won bronze.

46:13Andrew: They won bronze.

46:14Justin: You still have to win that bronze medal game. You get silver. You lost.

46:17Andrew: I know. You lost the gold. You didn't win the silver. You lost the gold.

46:20Justin: Right.

46:20Andrew: That's the old adage. I think it, like, you got to think it was an improvement. It was an improvement. The last two years the Aud sucks because I think people see that they lost to the Czech Republic and it's

46:31Justin: for the third year in a row

46:32Andrew: or something and that it's this same hole. But if I want to point fingers, I'm pointing the fingers at Dale Hunter. I thought that the beginning of the tournament there were. They're very undisciplined. There was some really poor sportsmanship. Listen, I think that stuff that they were getting on with against Czechi in the first matchup against Czechia was stupid. That's a stupid bunch of stuff to be doing in the warmup. It's stupid. It's not head games. You look like a head case. And all you did was motivate those guys that if they Sam O'Reilly again. And they did.

47:03Justin: Yeah.

47:03Andrew: Was that we will literally go out on our shield. They didn't care. I'm not saying that they didn't care to win gold because they did end up losing to Sweden. But listen, I would say the adrenaline dump that they got from beating Canada was way more than whatever it was against Sweden. Going for goals.

47:22Justin: Yeah.

47:22Andrew: Like they just so badly wanted to beat Canada after all the stupid, you know, what. Going on in that first. I wasn't gonna openly say anything during the tournament that, like. And this is the thing. I'm also not gonna blame the kids.

47:38Justin: No.

47:38Andrew: But like that, like not shaking their hand and so like hitting them during warm ups.

47:43Justin: Yeah.

47:43Andrew: And all that kind of stuff. Stuff so weird. Go out and win. No one cares about that.

47:49Justin: Yeah.

47:50Andrew: No one wants to see that.

47:51Justin: No.

47:51Andrew: It's like we all stood on our high horses and we're like, we can't believe that Swedish guy threw his silver into the crowd. We all. You know what? That's a. That's literally. That's a half step from not shaking hands. Yep. Okay. That's the same ballpark. Yeah. Of just being. That's not what we're about. Yeah. All right. And that would be my first thing is that I think that Czechia was like locker room bulletin board material. Yeah. When that first matchup happened.

48:19Justin: Yeah.

48:19Andrew: That was like, if we see these guys again, there's no way we're losing them to them.

48:23Justin: No. It was so motivating.

48:24Andrew: And who looked like they wanted to win it more. There were some guys on Canada who looked like they wanted to win it.

48:29Justin: Yep.

48:30Andrew: And I'm not saying that it's. Again, those guys who didn't look like they wanted to win it. I'm still not blaming them.

48:34Justin: No.

48:34Andrew: I'm saying that.

48:35Justin: You know what I. You know what I noticed in that both games against Czechia, but specifically the round robin game against Czechia, was that Czechia looked like a team playing hockey.

48:45Andrew: Oh, definitely.

48:45Justin: And Canada looked like certain guys were given the go ahead to do whatever they wanted and everyone else was supposed to pick up the slack. But these guys don't play together.

48:57Andrew: They struggled against Lafia.

48:58Justin: Yeah.

48:58Andrew: Why? Because Lafayette was like, we can't make any mistakes.

49:02Justin: Yes.

49:02Andrew: We have to block as many shots as possible. Lafia was like, play this positionally perfect and we have a chance. And they did. And then they went out and they were exhausted against playing Canada and got whooped by Finland.

49:14Justin: But it.

49:16Andrew: Finland played a very balanced, organized game. And then when they played up, came up against Canada, Canada pushed and pushed and won out because Finland was like, we'll play offense with you. We'll go shot for shot with you. You're not going to go shot for shot with Canada.

49:31Justin: No.

49:31Andrew: That's how you're going to lose. But all the teams that beared down and they were like, we are just going to play positionally sound against these guys.

49:38Justin: Yeah. Canada had no answer.

49:40Andrew: No. Canada looked frustrated. Yes. And that was the thing. To me, that's coaching. That's leadership. That's. If you're getting frustrated because you can't score on Lafia, you're frustrated because what you've got some beef with last year's Czechia team or the year before, which

49:55Justin: is probably like a third or less of the same guys.

50:00Andrew: They beat you, it's over, move on. You know what I mean? It's like I didn't understand that at all. I just flat out didn't understand that. And I thought it reflected poorly only on one person, and that was Dale Hunter.

50:10Justin: Yeah.

50:11Andrew: And that. I have no problem saying that because I don't like him anyway.

50:13Justin: No. It actually gave me some insight into London and how they play.

50:17Andrew: Yeah.

50:17Justin: And it did give me some insight into. They do they find these, like, really elite players.

50:23Andrew: Yeah.

50:24Justin: And the structure is built in such a way that they find all these versatile players to. To basically make up for all their lapses. So whatever that superstar player does on

50:34Andrew: and off the ice, maybe, perhaps sure.

50:36Justin: Behind a wheel.

50:37Andrew: Accidents.

50:37Justin: Yeah, Whatever.

50:38Andrew: Yeah.

50:38Justin: You like what. Whatever they do. Well, they find a complimentary player to just cover his butt. Yeah.

50:44Andrew: They have guys who go out and are just blank disturbers.

50:48Justin: Yes.

50:48Andrew: They have that. They've always had that in London. And that's what they do. And that's what they try and do. They try and get in your head and they try and mess with you for sure. And then that way throw you off your game. They can rely on their talent to score once. You're frustrated.

51:01Justin: Yeah.

51:01Andrew: And beaten down. And mentally beaten down. Yeah. But this is the thing is, Chucky, it wasn't. Didn't feel like that. They didn't.

51:06Justin: They did.

51:07Andrew: They said they were motivated. We don't.

51:09Justin: What are you doing? No.

51:10Andrew: You okay? You don't want to shake her hands, that's fine. Because that was the thing is. Check. You didn't come out in the press and Sam O'Reilly you know what? They're gonna be sorry.

51:19Justin: Yeah.

51:19Andrew: They just said, we didn't think it was a big deal.

51:21Justin: Yeah.

51:21Andrew: Not a big deal.

51:22Justin: Yeah.

51:23Andrew: Yeah. Because you think in that dressing room that had that dressing room was like, they didn't shake her hand.

51:29Justin: Yeah.

51:29Andrew: Okay. All right.

51:31Justin: Yeah.

51:31Andrew: Better not see us again. It was like that. The reverse sweep come back. Better not let us get one.

51:36Justin: Yeah.

51:36Andrew: Because it. It felt like Canada was chasing him the whole time. I will Sam O'Reilly think Cameron Reid had his best shift of the Andrew tourney in the Czechia game where they lost.

51:46Justin: Yeah.

51:47Andrew: There was one shift where he was, like, all over the place. Dive bombing. Had a couple chances, couldn't get the puck to go.

51:53Justin: Yeah. Guys who wanted to win were.

51:54Andrew: Cameron Reid There were guys who wanted to win. No doubt. And I just. But I felt like there was no cohesion there. And it was like people are blaming Gavin McKenna. Yeah. Listen, Nathan McKinnon had one point in six games. Yeah. You think that this is a reflection of how good these guys are?

52:08Justin: No.

52:08Andrew: No. Gavin McKenna is going to be just fine. Yeah. And if you don't take Gavin McKenna with either the first or second pick, which I still think he's the first pick.

52:16Justin: Yeah.

52:17Andrew: I think you're crazy if you don't pick him. But if you want to say the Swede, Stenberg is your guy, I'm not sure.

52:23Justin: Fine.

52:23Andrew: If you're in love with that player, that's fine.

52:25Justin: That's great.

52:25Andrew: But we've been talking about Gavin McKenna since he was, like, 15.

52:28Justin: Yeah.

52:28Andrew: Okay, so.

52:29Justin: And when we saw the flashes in this tournament, it was. Yeah, he's electric.

52:35Andrew: Yeah. And we see. But we see. I see mouthpieces. Talking about disappointed in Gavin McKenna. Why don't. Do you not realize that it doesn't always transfer. He had more points than Connor McDavid had in this tournament. Yeah. Connor McDavid had 11 and seven. It wasn't like he, like, set it on fire. Yeah. Like, it was only Bedard.

52:52Justin: Yeah.

52:52Andrew: That had the crazy tournament. And yes, Bedard's been very good. Yes. In the NHL. But it's not necessarily like we're looking at Connor Bedard being like, he's going to break every record in the NHL. It's not necessarily what we're looking.

53:03Justin: No. He's going to be a generational franchise player, but so is Crosby. He doesn't break every record.

53:08Andrew: Crosby actually is going to break that yogurt.

53:10Justin: Yeah.

53:10Andrew: Second.

53:11Justin: Yeah, I'm happy about that.

53:12Andrew: I'm calling. I like that he's gonna catch yogurt.

53:14Justin: Yeah. I. That's great. Because not. We're not talking about Olympic hockey. I am so excited. Yes. To see another Olympics with Crosby in it, man.

53:24Andrew: Yes.

53:25Justin: Yeah. It's good times.

53:27Andrew: If anybody is going to not. Yeah. There's. There won't be. There won't be shenanigans of the Canadian Olympics.

53:32Justin: Olympics.

53:32Andrew: Let's put it that way.

53:33Justin: Dale Hunter. Not in charge of that.

53:34Andrew: Not in charge of that.

53:36Justin: Yeah. Thank goodness. Yeah. All right. And our last bit of business before we close out this probably extremely long and abnormally long episode.

53:45Andrew: Yeah.

53:46Justin: It might be okay.

53:47Andrew: Yeah.

53:47Justin: the AudPod got a Christmas present. We did from former friend of the pod, former AudPod correspondent, assistant to the producer, Sean Furfaro, assistant to the regional producer. I think it's bigger than regional because he's gone.

54:07Andrew: There's only one region.

54:08Justin: He went. Yeah. It's North America. Yeah. The region of North America.

54:13Andrew: Yeah. We're not allowed back in Finland.

54:14Justin: No. Oh, God, no. Yeah. Our scout was. We haven't heard from him.

54:18Andrew: Yeah.

54:22Justin: We hope he's fine. Shecks aren't getting deposited, so I don't know. Sean Furfaro very lovingly got us an interview with a ghost.

54:33Andrew: Yes. A ghost.

54:37Justin: We got a. We got an interview with. Or.

54:40Andrew: Haunter. Haunter. Spook Stavich. Yeah. Haunter. Boo Stavich. There it is.

54:46Justin: There it is.

54:47Andrew: Took me a second.

54:47Justin: Yeah. Good work. Yeah. Apparently Sean's been working behind the scenes to get Hunter Brucevich y to agree to come on the AudPod. And there was a video that was in our. Is somewhere in our Instagram. So you can go look at right now. We. We'll repost it on the day. We'll repost it and you can go see that and yeah, he's agreed to. Come on. Our people are talking to his people.

55:11Andrew: Our assistant to the regional producer talking to him.

55:15Justin: I'm not sure. Perhaps. I'm not sure if he has an assistant. Assistant to the. Assistant to the regional producer.

55:20Andrew: I'm not sure. Yeah, I think so.

55:22Justin: So probably.

55:22Andrew: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

55:24Justin: No, it's Lucas. But. At some point, hopefully in the near or distant future, I'm not committing to anything. I'm just excited.

55:35Andrew: All we know is Hunter is committed to doing it.

55:37Justin: Hunter has verbally agreed to do our podcast and it'll happen.

55:41Andrew: He's a bit busy.

55:42Justin: He. Yeah, he's playing hockey. He got shouted out just today in one of the Flame games. News releases that he's one of the most impressive 19 or sorry 20 year old defenseman that we've seen in this franchise in a long time. He's been. And he shut down Connor McDavid in

55:59Andrew: a battle of Alberta on a breakaway. I shall be near break. On a near break. You'll let me ask him about it because I am the Oilers fan and I want to tell him that it was the weirdest feeling to be rooting for the Oilers and to be obviously Connor McDavid doing Connor McDavid thing and then to see Hunter Brucevich play it really well and force the play away and make it so that really nothing happened. Not even a penalty.

56:25Justin: No.

56:25Andrew: And I was like. And I was like, oh, good. That was good. And I was like, wait, no, that wasn't good.

56:30Justin: That was the wrong color.

56:31Andrew: That was not it. I don't like that. But I did like it for him because you still, at the end of the day, you want these players to do well. And it's. I guess it's a new sensation for us that we're going to be rooting for. For players that are not on our teams.

56:43Justin: Yeah, thank goodness there's no Rangers on Oilers anymore.

56:47Andrew: Yeah, maybe soon. They do need a goalie. They do need a goalie.

56:52Justin: So does Ottawa.

56:53Andrew: If JP gets the call up there, I might just go full red. Yeah, I think I Red, black and white.

56:57Justin: I might go full sends if he's there. Yeah, yeah. Watching. I've watched 10 years of Connor McDavid in Battle of Alberta and how many can you. I've seen like a hundred breakaways and I've maybe seen twice where he got disconnected from the Pocket.

57:15Andrew: Yeah.

57:15Justin: Without a penalty.

57:16Andrew: Yeah.

57:16Justin: Like, you know, Giordano I think did it once and I was like.

57:20Andrew: Killed him, I think.

57:21Justin: Yeah. But then he's also tried to kill him at least a dozen.

57:23Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

57:24Justin: It took a lot of attempts to get to that penalty free takedown.

57:28Andrew: The. I'm gonna think how much hockey I've watched of Connor McDale.

57:32Justin: Sure. Yeah.

57:32Andrew: Nearly all of his games.

57:33Justin: Yeah.

57:33Andrew: Since he's been in the league. League. And definitely all of his highlights. Yeah. Like everything. And like to see a guy skate with him.

57:42Justin: Yeah.

57:43Andrew: You listen, all I'm saying is Morgan Riley is a good NHL defenseman. He's a good player. He has all time low lights against Connor McDavid. Yeah. So when you see a young player like this able to keep up with Connor McDavid and just not take a penalty or not cause a penalty shot or. Or not even get away with a. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it wasn't like he got.

58:06Justin: It wasn't like the Oilers subreddit was like the dirtiest player on the planet.

58:11Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. Because sometimes players get away with stuff. Like I remember when Connor Garland was just like holding on to him.

58:16Justin: Yeah.

58:17Andrew: And I was like, what is going on?

58:18Justin: It's game management. Game management. This is outrageous.

58:21Andrew: The end of the game and he's trying to score it. Garland is just literally holding on to him.

58:25Justin: Real clean takedown by. Yeah.

58:27Andrew: It was just a sick play. It was just a stick on stick.

58:29Justin: Yeah. Didn't. Nobody went to the ice.

58:31Andrew: It was great.

58:31Justin: Nobody. It was great. I loved it.

58:33Andrew: It was unbelievable. Well done.

58:34Justin: Yeah.

58:35Andrew: Yeah. So we'll. We'll have that at some point.

58:38Justin: At some point.

58:38Andrew: 2026. Something to look forward to.

58:40Justin: Yeah. 2026.

58:41Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. Here we are in 2026. So it'll happen this year.

58:44Justin: Yeah.

58:45Andrew: Guaranteed.

58:46Justin: I'm telling you, it's happening.

58:47Andrew: It's pretty exciting.

58:48Justin: It is. Okay. Thank yous. Thank you, of course, to Ken Born our director of branding and marketing.

58:54Andrew: That director of regional marketing, as we've

58:57Justin: discussed, discovered North American marketing.

58:59Andrew: Yeah.

58:59Justin: North American marketing. Global branding.

59:01Andrew: Yeah.

59:02Justin: Global branding and blackout aficionado.

59:04Andrew: Yeah, that's true.

59:07Justin: Of course. The prodigal producer. Producer. Liam, the phenom.

59:11Andrew: We both bungled that.

59:12Justin: Yeah, we did.

59:12Andrew: Yeah.

59:13Justin: Thank you, Liam. No notes. We're getting a note on that. Yeah, of course. Thank you to Tim for writing, producing, directing, creating, profiltizing. I'm just trying to make Andrew hold his breath for a really long time for creating our theme song.

59:34Andrew: Tim.

59:36Justin: Tim. He's gonna have to fix that so hard.

59:40Andrew: Coming all the way through. I heard it echo.

59:42Justin: Yeah, it did.

59:42Andrew: Yeah.

59:42Justin: And a special thank you to JJ for doing our voiceover.

59:47Andrew: The battle built AudPod winner and voiceover over.

59:50Justin: Exactly.

59:51Andrew: Deliverer. Commentator. Announcer.

59:54Justin: Thank you, jj.

59:55Andrew: Yeah, thank you.

59:56Justin: And thank you to the Kitchener public library southwest branch. Southwest branch for this beautiful studio.

60:04Andrew: Spicy.

60:05Justin: So the central branch was closed this week.

60:07Andrew: Yeah.

60:07Justin: And next week. And we're like, this is awesome. No one knows about this, so don't tell anyone.

60:13Andrew: Don't tell anyone.

60:14Justin: Please don't take our recording studios.

60:16Andrew: No. Yeah, it's very hard to get the other one. And it's. Yeah, it's easier in this one. Yeah. So don't book it.

60:23Justin: Stop talking about it.

60:24Andrew: Yeah, stop it.

60:27Justin: Andrew, how do you find us on the social medias?

60:29Andrew: Yeah, you can find us at theaudpodcast on TikTok and Instagram and you can find us on YouTube. Just search theoddpod. We'll come up.

60:38Justin: Yeah, great.

60:39Andrew: We also have a website.

60:40Justin: Oh, yeah.

60:40Andrew: It should be your homepage.

60:41Justin: Yeah. AudPod i had to look it up today because I couldn't remember what if

60:46Andrew: it was theaudpod.com or the AudPod.

60:49Justin: Yeah, it was too much. So odd. It's the one that rolls off the tongue easier. Email us. Yes, hello@yes, AudPod and Andrew, as always, on Friday for Brian Bellow's banner Rafter night.

61:07Andrew: Brian Bellow's banner.

61:08Justin: We're hanging Brian Bellows.

61:11Andrew: No, his banner. Brian Bellows.

61:15Justin: Brian Bellows night at the Aud Friday you can find. Oh, and on Friday for Brian Beth's night, you can find us at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

61:25Andrew: See, at the Aud