56: Re-Heated Rivalry

0:01Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:01Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:02Justin: People may have noticed we don't know what we're talking about.

0:04Andrew: They've noticed. I think if they've been following us from the beginning, they know for sure we don't know what we're talking about. But they stay for the friendship and the laughs. That's what we've been told. Anyway.

0:18Justin: Welcome to the AudPod where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin.

0:28Andrew: Take it away, fellas.

0:30Justin: So we got wrong. We got. I, I forgot to Sam O'Reilly didn't forget. He was in my notes. I just, we got distracted. Jacob Jew was traded to London in the trade for Sam O'Reilly It's funny

0:41Andrew: because I was listening to the episode.

0:43Justin: Yeah.

0:43Andrew: And I was like, I remember you not saying his name in the initial part, but I remember thinking that we were going to add on. Of course. I think Jacob Xu was the player going to London.

0:56Justin: That was for sure the plan.

0:58Andrew: We didn't get there and then we just went off track. Which like, you know, that's normal for us. That's so normal for us. And that wasn't the only thing, was it?

1:08Justin: No. The other thing is we got our website and email address wrong. So I think actually for the last two episodes we've been saying AudPod because it sounds funny, but it's actually theaudpod.com theaudpod.com because.

1:23Andrew: But there was, you know what the best part is?

1:24Justin: There was a point when we were looking at domains where there was AudPod ca and and there was theaudpod.com and we went with theaudpod.com.

1:32Andrew: the best part is we went with it. You know, we had to know it. This isn't even something like lazy research. This is just like two tired, you know, late 30 year old guys who

1:46Justin: are, we're barely making it through.

1:49Andrew: I was going to say working a part time job that makes no money called the Aud bottom on top of being dads and full time employees. Yes.

2:02Justin: So you want to email us, it's hello@theaudpod.com and then also you could go to the website which is theaudpod.com also. All of this is in the show notes. So like I, I really hope nobody's emailing. They're like hearing it. It's like the old days when you had to listen to the radio and they're like, call in. You're like, what's the number?

2:22Andrew: I know, right? And they've been saying it wrong and

2:24Justin: they're like, how come nobody Nobody's calling. We look for three. Only two people have called in.

2:31Andrew: We. We are getting emails.

2:33Justin: It's just.

2:33Andrew: We're getting it on the old Gmail address.

2:35Justin: Yeah, we're still getting it on the.

2:36Andrew: Still getting.

2:37Justin: Which is. Which is fine. It still works. Which is fine.

2:39Andrew: We're monitoring it. Monitor. Okay.

2:41Justin: And then the last thing, we tried to create a conspiracy theory that the OHL was expanding. Interleague games were. Are a thing.

2:52Andrew: I don't know. It's weird.

2:53Justin: Yeah. A lot of people gave it us. This happens every year. And then we said, not true. Yeah, that wasn't true.

3:00Andrew: That's not true. So fact checking. We're fact checking the fact checkers because that is not true. It hasn't happened since the year 2022. 2023 season.

3:10Justin: And. And we're newer than that.

3:12Andrew: Like, Exactly.

3:13Justin: We've also not tried to hide that fact.

3:16Andrew: That's true. We also haven't tried to hide that we're, you know, imbeciles who know nothing when it comes to most of this stuff.

3:23Justin: I. I will happily create a conspiracy theory, though. That is like. That is my level of enjoyment in life is creating conspiracy theories. So I would have been okay letting that one live as a conspiracy theory.

3:36Andrew: There were people in our mentions who were like, this should be the case for these teams. These two border teams should go that way. It makes sense to me. I know it would be tough pill to swallow for, you know, like, a couple Quebec teams to come home to the ohl, but I mean, like, travel in the Andrew What's. What's more important? Pride or. Or surviving Andrew travel? I think we all know.

4:00Justin: And then that also. It's pride. It's pride. It's pride. Speaking of pride, did you see that? The heated rivalry jerseys for the Aud Senators? They made them the H. The Hog. Hoglander. Is that his name?

4:15Andrew: The Hog, Yeah. Nils Hoglander and Rastronoff. Stroganoff.

4:21Justin: Beef Beef. Stroganoff. Stroganoff and Hoglander.

4:24Andrew: Yeah. Yes.

4:25Justin: They. They made Ottawa Senators jerseys for Pride Night, which I was like, hell, yeah. That's awesome.

4:31Andrew: There's. There's got to be some level of. Of trademark infringement that we're nearing. You don't think HBO is evil enough to sue someone CBC being raised for?

4:43Justin: Didn't CBC have a hand in making this?

4:47Andrew: Did they have a hand in it? Yeah, but it's hbo. I have no idea if CBC had anything.

4:51Justin: I think it's HBO for sure.

4:53Andrew: Ah, Gary watched. It's HBO for sure.

4:56Justin: Also.

4:56Andrew: Gary watching There is way too much steamy stuff in that for it not to be hbo. Gary watched it. Gary watched after his, after his White House visit. So there's, you know, he's a very complicated person, let's put it that way.

5:07Justin: You know, Gary's got layers. So there we go. Yes.

5:10Andrew: Yes.

5:10Justin: Okay, Andrew, we are not a heated rivalry podcast. Although, no, I don't know if there is one.

5:17Andrew: Had we had.

5:18Justin: Oh, there's.

5:19Andrew: There's a few. Had we been one, we'd have so many more followers at this point.

5:26Justin: Yeah, that's the truth. But we are Kitchener Rangers podcast and we got a couple games to recap from this weekend. So we are recording on Tuesday, January 20th. That means tomorrow is the Windsor game against the Kitchener Rangers. So that's true. So we can't, we can't recap it yet because it hasn't happened yet. So we'll do that next week. Well, next week's gonna be a cluster cuss of things. We'll see how that goes. We had two games that we are gonna recap today. So we. Friday night at home at the Aud against the Saginaw Spirit. We won 7 to 4. Didn't feel like we were gonna win that game.

6:02Andrew: That was a really strange game, but an exciting game for sure. Shout out to my mom, who is a huge AudPod listener and kept saying during the game, I, I know these players better than I know NHL players. And I'm like, I know because you're a loyal AudPod listener. So shout out to my mom who was here celebrating her birthday and happy birthday, Mama Merrigan. Yes, Happy birthday Mama Merrigan. And as she met former friend of the pod and current assistant to the regional producer Sean Furfaro after the game, and as he put it, the Rangers scored a goal for every decade. So mom American entering a new decade.

6:46Justin: There you go.

6:47Andrew: Exciting time. And in mama, it should say Grandma Merrigan.

6:51Justin: Yeah.

6:51Andrew: Not Mama American. It doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. Yeah. However, what did roll off the stick was Cameron Reid first, or I should say his 10th, but his the first of the game. Cameron Reid snipe from Jack Pram. Short handed. They went down on a a two on one. And Cameron Reid made no mistake. Two minutes and 48 seconds into the game after new acquisition Jared Woolley took a slashing penalty two minutes into the game. It matter because these guys shorthanded, especially, you know, Jack Pram, the shorthanded force for the Rangers. Yeah, I, I was looking at goals, he has six. So he has four shorthanded goals and two shorthanded assists as of today on Tuesday, January 20th.

7:39Justin: Probably be by Friday.

7:42Andrew: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Then like you said, it was an interesting game because then in the next 10 minutes, Saginaw was scored twice and both of these goals were completely strange bounces that could have not really been stopped. Nikita Klepov, who is just a phenomenal hockey player, scored on a weird like

8:03Justin: off a Ranger skate deflection.

8:05Andrew: Off a Ranger skate?

8:06Justin: Yeah.

8:07Andrew: It didn't look like a shot. And then Uri Rausa, I think, scored his first.

8:13Justin: That's a guy from heated rivalry.

8:16Andrew: Yeah, exactly. The bounced off it looked like the glass or a stanchion behind the net and popped right to him at the corner of the net. And there's no way Kirsch could have anticipated that. That was just absurd. So all of a sudden it was 2 to 1. My mom and I looked at each other being like, well, that. I don't. This is weird because they had literally scored on their first two shots and their only two shots.

8:41Justin: Only two shots. And the only two shots in the period for Saginaw.

8:47Andrew: Very strange because they weren't really shots. Well, I mean, you know, the second one was sure, but it was. It was strange. Anyway, second period starts and right away Jack Pridham gets his 26th of the season from Cameron Reid and Dylan Edwards on the power play, which was a huge boon to, you know, it being a weird two to one going into the break. I think they outplayed them heavily. They outshot the Aud to two. And right away, you know, getting that power play goal, that's huge, especially when you're out playing a team and you're losing. However, here we go again. A Rangers goal followed by two goals by Sagina. Demian Zilken scored. Brother of former Ranger. He scored his 21st. He's having a great year. Okay. Number 71, Zilken was very obviously one of the. The better players for Saginaw. I honestly really only saw three standout hockey players for Saginaw on this one. They're not, you know, they're in a rebuild. So it is.

9:45Justin: What we talked about going into this game was that, you know, they're kind of top line team. Like they have one line and then they got some. They got some guys and the Aud

9:54Andrew: then Jacob cluce scored his 10th of the season. That Jilkin goal was on the power play, but this one was even strength. So now it's four to two.

10:02Justin: Did not Feel good.

10:03Andrew: Halfway through the game, four to two, halfway through the game. I was very, very confused between that and the fact that I kept looking up over my shoulder because the Bob. Father, Bob McKenzie, was in the press box with his son, Mike McKenzie, Rangers GM. And I was just distracted by the. I was like, oh, my God, it's.

10:23Justin: It's Bob. It's Bob McKenzie. It's Bob McKenzie.

10:25Andrew: And the Aud was like, oh, it's four to two. This is not good. But not to fear, Jack Pram scores his 27th of the year three minutes later. And that's on the power play. In fact, the next two. Come on the power play. This one from Dylan Edwards and Christian Humphreys and then Dylan Edwards from Sam O'Reilly and Christian Humphreys. With about a minute and a half left in the period, they the Aud up. Not to be outdone, Gabriel Sheratt scores his 17th of the year from Cameron Arquette and Andrew MacNiel to take the lead going into the third with six seconds.

11:04Justin: Six seconds left. It was a very exciting goal. Like. It was.

11:07Andrew: Yes.

11:07Justin: Yeah, that was a fun one. I loved it.

11:09Andrew: This was a fun stretch. Three goals in about five. Just about six minutes. Yeah, Was super exciting. They knew that they had to turn it on. I mean, it was. They're clearly outplaying Saginaw, but I don't know, the pucks were going in. It was. It was a bit like that Owen Sound game where it was like, what's going on? How come Saginaw is just like scoring on like 50 of their chances? This is very strange, but it's 5 to 4. That's as close as it would be because, you know, two minutes into the third period, Christian Humphreys scores is 15th from Cameron Reid and Sam O'Reilly on the power play. The power play was buzzing. And then Jack Pridham, empty net. Let's talk about it. The hatless hat trick goal, because the second PRIDM goal was originally credited to Dylan Edwards. And it's funny because I was at the game and I'm up in the blues and I'm far away and I'm like. I'm pretty sure Pridham touched that puck in the crease and sure enough he did. But it was announced in. In the intermission of the second when we were coming back or it was either at right at the end of the second or either when we were coming back from the second in the third period. It was. It was basically a very innocuous time that it was announced, so people did not hear it. Yeah, it was not heard because when Pridham scored the hat trick goal, there was only a few people who tried to toss their blue bell. Let's talk.

12:38Justin: Yeah, because they gave away hats that night.

12:41Andrew: They gave away toques. They gave away to. So you, you've just sitting there, it's freezing cold, getting to the arena, you've got an extra toque in your hand and a guy scores a hat trick. The guy who scores hat tricks the man that you must fear if you wear a hat to the Aud jack pram scores a hattick and nobody throws any hats. Now, I did have a few people message me and Sam O'Reilly threw a hat, but it didn't make it to the ice. I know I Sam O'Reilly few of those tuks get flung, but they're not going to make it. Nobody picked it up and threw it because there just weren't enough people aware that it was a hatrick.

13:14Justin: Yeah. It was so confusing on the broadcast. I was like, are we, are we not at home tonight? I had to think about it for a second. I was like, where are we?

13:23Andrew: It was the hatless hat trick. I've never seen it at home. Even on the road, somebody throws a hat.

13:29Justin: Yeah, I usually get a couple hats.

13:31Andrew: Yeah, it was, I. So I guess do we, do we owe Jack Pridham a hat trick celebration?

13:39Justin: I think so.

13:39Andrew: Do we need to have like a, do we need to have like a hat toss? Like bring your old hat to the Aud night? I think the Rangers should be like, you owe this man trick. Bring your old hat and it'll be

13:51Justin: like a teddy bear toss.

13:53Andrew: I'm saying it right now.

13:54Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's do it. Yeah. This game, this game ended up being like seven to four. You're like, ah, dominant game. But yeah, like the amount of time that Saginaw led this game for, the like shots that they had, the possession time that they had, it, it just like nothing about this score makes sense in the end, but you know, a win's a win. We're not going to remember this one in a couple weeks when we're talking about Saginaw again or whatever. So.

14:22Andrew: No, I mean, it's been, it's been weird. The, you know, the, the, the save percentages haven't been great, but I, I, I wouldn't particularly say that the goaltending has been weak lately. So it's just been this a weird, it's just been a weird stretch of like, I wouldn't even say that the defense has been poor. There's just been some weird puck luck.

14:42Justin: Yeah, I guess. I guess we had weird puck luck offensively in the first half of the season, so I guess we're having weird puck luck defensively in the second half

14:50Andrew: of the season, and yet they're still winning.

14:52Justin: So let's.

14:53Andrew: Yeah, well, now we're worried about it too much. Stats don't matter. If you win, wins. The only. Only thing that matters, really.

14:59Justin: So Pridham, four points in this game. Edwards, Reed and Humps all got three points in this game. Like, yeah, these guys were. These guys were cooking.

15:07Andrew: Flying. Yeah. Shall we go on to the next. Yeah.

15:09Justin: So the next game was against Ralph. It was also at home. Sunday afternoon game. Four to three win.

15:13Andrew: Also.

15:14Justin: Also weird again, four to three. You're like, oh, tight game. And it's like it shouldn't have been, but it was.

15:20Andrew: Oh, I know, I know. The shots were 41, 25 in this game. It was. This was the shots.

15:27Justin: The opposite. Like the. The last game at the end of the first period, it was 8 to 2. This one was like 17 to 4 at the end of the first period. Yes.

15:35Andrew: 16 to 5.

15:35Justin: 16 to 5.

15:36Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. The second was even more lopsided. The Rangers out shot them 18 to 7. Like, it was, you know, this was just a dominant puck, possession, everything. But it wasn't like a total blowout. In fact, scores first, Eric Froster scores. He scores. Four minutes in, it's one nothing. I'm kind of thinking like, okay, this is par for the course. Like, you know, it's a. It was a Sunday day game, and I'm just kind of looking and I'm like, yep, this is normal. They get scored on. That's fine. This is not, you know, this is not a team that should beat the Rangers. However, Zachary Jovanovsky decided that he was going to do everything he could to beat the Rangers.

16:16Justin: What a.

16:16Andrew: What a goalie this kid is.

16:18Justin: We've had some pretty intense games against him already, and, like, he's just getting better and better for sure.

16:23Andrew: He stopped 37 of 41. He's. He's a very talented player. But our boy Andrew MacNiel who's, you know, was the. The fighter last year, but the sniper this year.

16:35Justin: Yeah.

16:36Andrew: He gets his second. And not only that, his first goal. That he'll, you know, maybe. Maybe tell your kids one day, Andrew, if you have them, if you're listening, tell them this goal was your first goal. Because this was. This was such a beautiful.

16:51Justin: This was such a great. I'm like, who's this guy again? Like, where did he come from of

16:55Andrew: course, if you'll remember, his first goal was from his own end. Very wacky goal from. Yeah, very strange goal earlier in the season. But this one was just a beautiful snipe from Cameron Arquette and Alexander Bi. That was right at the end of the first period.

17:16Justin: But speaking of beautiful snipes, just before this happened, well, halfway through this period, Carson Campbell came in with a. An incredible snipe that did the double post bounce. Everyone thought it went in except for Carson Campbell. He was like to the sky. But yeah, but yeah, no, he came in with a Tanner Lam fed him a beautiful pass to. He sniped it opposite corner. It just bounced off both posts and popped out. And I was like, that looked like a Jack Pridden shot.

17:47Andrew: Yeah, the horn went off and the music kind of. Oh yeah.

17:50Justin: Well, everyone else thought it went in but the, the players knew it.

17:53Andrew: the Aud stopped. Yeah, the Aud stopped. It was one of those classic, classic hockey moments.

17:59Justin: My favorite moment was on the. Was on the broadcast. They were like did it go in? Did it not go in? I guess we're going to review it. They go and review it. They're looking over to the Ranger bench to see if there's going to be a chalice challenge. And Jeff Kakis is just like eh, yeah, no, yeah.

18:14Andrew: In the second period now. So that's one one. Could have been two to one. But you know, Jovanoski got a little help there from his two best buddies the post, but he wouldn't have any help on this one. Four minutes in. Dylan Edwards gets his 22nd of the year from Humps and Reed on the power play. Five min later, our boy who came back from suspension, the Andalorian himself scores his first of the year. Yes, he took a shot and it went in. In his first game. However, it was tipped by the artist. Avery Anis, humble artist. This one. This one goes all the way in without. Without. Yeah, it was a beautiful.

18:53Justin: How much could stop that?

18:55Andrew: No. Set up by Sam O'Reilly exactly 11 minutes into the period. Matt Andonowski. Let's talk about this. He was a man possessed. In this case this game was a response I felt like to all the chatter about, you know, is Ando not going to be a positive influence on this team with his discipline Is this guy, this guy we got rid of Chromiak. What's going on? Matt Anonovsky showed up in this game like a guy who had. Like a bull. Like a guy who pen for. Yeah. For two games, you know, waiting, just waiting, frothing at the mouth. Like, just watch what I learned in the A. You guys. Like, I played with men. I'm back here to play in the O, and I'm going to show you how it's done. Now it's three to one late in the second. Shabinski for Guelph scored us 14th on the power play. There was, you know, there's a. There's a few penalties in this one. Back and forth, both ways. I will say that it seemed like Guelph took more penalties in the beginning of the game, and then Guelph was just allowed to kind of do whatever they wanted after that. Based on game management. Classic game management. We're not going to give the trailing team penalties anymore because they already took their penalties. So it was three to two going into the third.

20:11Justin: Oh, we should definitely mention in the. This is. This is a little bit of a leading thing, but our dear friend the Andalorian was interviewed by Sean Furfaro at intermission. And, yes, Sean asked him about, like, what he learned in the A and what he was bringing back. And one of the things he brought up was, my body is a temple. Okay, go on.

20:31Andrew: He absolutely did.

20:31Justin: Yes.

20:32Andrew: Body's a temple. And he, you know, he's going to look after himself.

20:36Justin: He is. And he is.

20:38Andrew: He is.

20:38Justin: Oh, yeah.

20:39Andrew: 44 seconds into this third period, Rowan Topp decided that Matthew Anonofsky was going to fight him. And I say it that way to infer that there should be an instigator penalty on this one. Yes, because Rowan Top made the decision for Ando that they were going to fight. Ando handled his business. Yeah. As it were.

21:04Justin: We didn't really see how it started because the. The play was happening at the other end of the ice, but because we were watching the broadcast, we weren't there in person, but the broadcasters were like, Top just flew at Ando. Like, Jason.

21:18Andrew: He charged him. Yeah, he charged him right at the beginning of the period. That's what. That's exactly what the Soo And they. They did mention that there was some jawing and warm ups. There was some chatting going on between the two players. However, you know, if one guy skates directly out of player and says, we're fighting, that's an instigator. That's letter of the law. That's.

21:39Justin: The Rangers have. I don't care a lot of those instigator penalties this year. Like. Like, we. We know what an instigator penalty is.

21:45Andrew: I don't care if you were texting before the game. I don't care if, if. If you sent an email to hello@theaudpod.com and said, set it up, set up the fight, all right? We don't have that kind of control. Telling you is, I don't care if any of that happens. If you get out on the ice and skate at a guy and then literally jump him and start fighting him, you're the instigator. It doesn't matter who is talking or emailing or paging or. Or, you know, Morse coding. I don't care. It was an instigator. Clears day. The official did not agree, I guess. And Ando and the coaching staff, specifically the Juice, they were all very animated. They were very angry about the lack of instigator because I don't think, you know, Ando didn't need to fight in this third period at all. Not at all. It was three to two. They were winning. And then naturally, four minutes later, while the Andalorian is still in the box, Leo Serlin scores. It wasn't power play, but I'm just saying he was still in there. Once again, a bull in a pen, frothing, waiting to get out and get his opportunity to have retribution on the score sheet because Jack Pridham through a desperation saucer. I shouldn't say desperation, but it was a saucer pass up the middle trying to make something happen. Ando knocked it down with his stick. It was about, you know, almost waist high. He knocked it down. And then as the puck bounces on the ice in front of him, as they're going in on a, you know, they didn't really have a two on one. It was kind of a two on two. It was kind of. There was bodies. They didn't necessarily have numbers. Ando literally lays out. And the best I could say is like, flying Poke checks it over to Sam O'Reilly who deposits it easily, easily behind Jovanoski for what would be the game winner 18:12 into the period. So just under two minutes left in the game. It was. You want to talk about art and artists? This was like. You could see, like, this is like a painting. This is like a Bobby or type moment. But a pass as Ando laid out. I gotta Sam O'Reilly not gonna. I didn't get it. I didn't get any dms. I didn't see any stuff online about, you know, oh, Ando with the penalties because the Gordie Howe hat trick. You're never gonna complain about that. There's. There's five minutes involved in that. But you, you can't complain about those five minutes. He didn't even want that.

24:21Justin: No, he didn't.

24:22Andrew: And he took it and he won that.

24:23Justin: He won that fight.

24:24Andrew: And he had a goal and assist. He had probably the apple of the year. That was an all time, I think Rangers moment, to be honest. Like, yeah, it was epic. Ye. I'm only a Rangers fan for a couple years now, but I gotta say it's one of my favorite comeback stories to get thrown out of the, the return game and there to be, you know, significant kind of like, well, you know, we've, we've given up Jakub Chromiak, who's a very responsible defenseman, very disciplined player. And then you come back and yes, you're, I would say, the more physically gifted player. The only knock on you is your discipline and you throw a hit. That's very unfortunate. Gets you tossed out of the game. Then you have to sit through two games. It doesn't harm the team. The team is okay, even though this all happened. And then you come back and you get the Gordy Howe hat trick and it's like the assist. The apple of the year. I don't know. This is just one of my favorite regular season moments, I think, of any hockey story ever. This is just like one of my favorites.

25:29Justin: He just brings so much fun, fire and passion to this team. Like, like that is. Yeah, okay, maybe he won't. He's not going to be point per game Ando the rest of the season. But maybe he will be.

25:40Andrew: Maybe, maybe he will be. I mean, this is the thing is he, he looks, he looks like a more confident player offensively. He looks like a guy who is not afraid to jump up in the play, which he never was, ever was. I, I will say he was an underrated offensive player. He's a tactician now in the sense that he's doing it and it's resulting in points.

26:02Justin: Yeah. Way more mature game.

26:04Andrew: Like, definitely, for sure.

26:06Justin: Like, we can see that already. Like, he's, he's more calculated. He's like when you watch the old, the old guys in the NHL, they're like, you know, they're not skating at 100 miles an hour. That's not their game anymore. They're, the Soo the space and they, they work with what they got. And, and he's starting to, he's starting to look like that guy on this team.

26:23Andrew: Yeah, he is just way more, more experience and he's bigger and he's stronger than he was and it just, it's. I Don't know. It was just. To me, it was exactly what he needed. It was exactly what the Rangers needed. And like you said, Cameron Reid is undoubtedly the captain. He's undoubtedly been a leader for them all year. But to have a returning captain come back and play like this to start his return is like, oh man, are you kidding me? Like we have this much more leadership. It. It was unreal y. And of course for Sam O'Reilly to get a game winner was fantastic. I mean Sam O'Reilly and, and Anonofsky connected a couple times. Is that gonna be, you know, are they. Are they just in sync already? Is there that level of chemistry that, that'd be great.

27:10Justin: Yeah.

27:10Andrew: Defenseman in a center who just know where to play with each other. I don't know how Matthew Anonofsky wasn't first or second star in this one.

27:18Justin: Yeah, because that's a whole other question.

27:20Andrew: He was think he was the best player on the ice. And that's saying something because Zachary Jovanoski was undoubtedly the best player for Guelph, like far and away and played an amazing game. But I mean, you know, the Andalorian. This was, this was like, you know, his signature game as a Kitchener Rangers So.

27:40Justin: Yeah, for sure. So after, after this game. So after the Sunday game before the Windsor game, we have. Jack Pridham is now sitting two goals back of league leader for goals in the, in the OHL and Christian Humphreys is tied with 38 assists for the league leader in assists. So this, these guys who weren't in the top five at the holiday break have just shot up this. Like, I mean obviously we've been watching these games. Like these guys are on every goal. These two guys, there's like, there's. They're always assisting or Jack Pridham is scoring like.

28:22Andrew: I know. Yeah, I know. And it's, it's meaningful goals too. Like it's, you know, it's goals when

28:27Justin: you need a goal. It's not the seventh goal. Well, it is the seventh goal but you scored two of the other seven.

28:33Andrew: Yeah, I was going to say it's also the seventh goal but you scored two huge goals in the, in the, you know, in the. To make it five to four. Yeah, these guys, they're. They're eighth and ninth in scoring. But like, I mean they've. The production and the pace has picked up huge in like I said in that second quarter we'll say of the season now moving into like the third quarter of the season that we're in now, it's just skyrocketed. Like they're just scoring at such high clips. Of course it helps that now they've, they're surrounded by, you know, Dylan Edwards and you know, at even strength they're playing with Sam O'Reilly who's winning puck battles, winning face offs and, and they're having puck position and Humps doesn't need to play center now Humps is playing wing and you've got this natural playmaker on your one wing and you've got a defensive minded, you know, two way dynamo at center now and then you've got still think the best two way player on the team in Jack Rham

29:38Justin: on right wing who's a natural goal scorer.

29:42Andrew: I know, yes. He's just like, it's like you know best, one of the best shots in the league and then you get on the power play and you add Dylan Edwards and Cameron Reid to that. Like these, these point totals are just going to keep going up. There's no way. I can't see it petering off at all. I think it's just going to continue on this pace that the Aud I think the thing that we have to kind of side eye them a little bit is why are there so many goals against in these games? You know.

30:10Justin: Yeah, this one felt like luck based these specific games but then also they're, you know, luck also comes from something. So.

30:19Andrew: Yeah, and it's, it's a, it's, it's now like a pattern. Right. Like with, with the Owen sound from like last week that we, that we recapped with Saginaw with this one against Guelph. It's kind of like, all right, sure, these goals are not necessarily like bad goals. They're kind of. But it's like how do we eliminate these opportunities? I think is, is you know, is because you don't want to give these kinds of opportunities to the good teams. Right. Like you know, in the sense of, of like the really powerhouse teams. Like we'll see tomorrow night. I'm saying tomorrow night. This was Wednesday night. If you're listening the data that comes out on Friday. So you'll know what happened against Windsor, but we don't. Right.

31:02Justin: We said last week Windsor is going to be a big test for this team and how they, how they can deal with a team that can also put up a ton of goals and stop things like, you know, they're not that dissimilar from the Rangers in a lot of ways.

31:15Andrew: No, I mean, in fact they only have, they have Two more wins and two less regulation losses, and they have one more overtime loss. That's literally it. The difference between these two teams, they're. They're nearly identical as far as record is concerned.

31:31Justin: We should probably say the three stars first.

31:34Andrew: So who's your third star?

31:36Justin: Oh, me going first. Weird. Yeah. Christian Kirsch is my third star because, like, you mentioned, like, yes, the. The. Maybe the. Maybe the pure stats don't look super great from this weekend, but I think Kirsch looked great. There was a couple things, like he only faced one real shot in the first period against. Against Saginaw, and. And those are that. I think that's the hardest for a goalie when you don't see any puck, so you kind of get out of it a little bit. So I think.

32:10Andrew: Well, it's also like. It's like those two goals in that Saginaw game that started it were so wacky and unbelievable and like, just like. And then those unfair.

32:18Justin: And then not being able to see another puck for a whole period basically was like, yeah, it's kind of like you're in the mode, but you don't get that chance to stop one. I. I feel like there's.

32:28Andrew: There's.

32:28Justin: There's got to be. There's got to be a mental game. And so the fact that Kirsch was able to in third periods, like, really shut down and lock down when they were starting to get pushback from both teams, Guelph and Saginaw, they were starting to get pushed back in those third periods. He really locked it down and. And played great. So I think Kirsch had two really good games and the. The stats just don't represent that. So shout out to Kirsch.

32:53Andrew: Absolutely.

32:55Justin: Who's your third star?

32:56Andrew: My third star is Sam O'Reilly Not just for the fact that he had two points in both games, but because Sam O'Reilly won the majority of face offs in both games. In fact, against Saginaw, he was 19 of 23, which is absurd.

33:14Justin: Absurd.

33:15Andrew: But he was. I mean, he was just over 50 in the Guelph game, 11 or 20. But overall, I just think that, you know, he's scoring two points a game, which is more than he was scoring in London. He's winning face offs. He's instant chemistry with the top line, with. With Pridham and Humps. He's doing exactly what you want him to do. Yeah, like, this is exactly the player. If I could have said, you know, like, could we just suddenly have a 1C that wins face offs and can shut down the other team just by, you know, making life, you know, you know, what for, you know, opposing players down low.

33:57Justin: He, he just takes the puck away

33:58Andrew: and feeds guys and they score. That's what he does. Possession metrics must be through the roof since he.

34:07Justin: You win all the face offs, then you always have the puck.

34:10Andrew: I, I love seeing that. I feel like it's something that was sorely needed because, you know, in Guelph. Guelph's a good face off team. Everybody, Every other Center was below 50 against Guelph. So that'll put it in perspective that every other, Every other center that took face offs for the rangers was below 50. Except samurai. Who's your second star?

34:31Justin: My second star is Andrew MacNiel He had a great goal against Guelph, but that wasn't the. He had a good number of opportunities in that game. He looked really good. He, he, he won some puck battles. He was, he was digging. He was really into this game. Specific, specifically the Guelph game. He was like, very noticeable and deserves a little shout out because we often talk about McNeil being. He's. He's a hitter, he's a fighter, but he is, he does do offensive things really well. And he's a great, He's a great sort of like mid six guy or bottom six guy to have on your team. Who's your second, sir?

35:06Andrew: It's Cameron Reid Cameron Reid had four points in two games. Cameron Reid is technically second pairing now because you've, you know, woolly and Ando kind of is the big shutdown, but Reed plays all the power. Yes. So to me, he's like your number one defenseman, you know, special honorable mention to Carson Campbell, who plays that steady. Like, I'm just gonna let Reed do his thing and I'm gonna watch and just have fun. And then of course, you know, Campbell had that opportunity. You just wish, like, how.

35:42Justin: What degree of, of like velocity or angle change needed to be done to like, get that puck in the net? It was basically nothing.

35:49Andrew: Absolutely. It's just one of those things that I, I just, I just watch Cameron Reid and I just think, you know, we're just very lucky that we get to see Cameron Reid play junior high.

35:58Justin: He's very exciting.

35:59Andrew: He is. He's so good. He is so unbelievably good. And, and I think there's going to be more offensive opportunities now down the stretch for him, especially with, with, you know, it kind of like those two big boys are, are taking care of things defensively and And Carson Campbell as steady as they come, so shout out to all those guys. But Cameron Reid Yeah. I mean, if you have, you know, three points in one game and then you add another point in the next one, he.

36:22Justin: You're just a good weekend. Yeah.

36:24Andrew: Clipping along. He had a good weekend. Yeah.

36:26Justin: Who's your first? My first star is the power play five of eight on the weekend. We. We may as well just start calling the. The pp. The. The ppp. The pray point. Because, yeah, if he doesn't score, he's probably getting a point on the power play. Like, that's just what it's like these days.

36:43Andrew: They're. They're four for five against. Against Saginaw. Yeah. I mean, they're. They're one for three against Guelph, but it's still like. That's still good, right? That's still. Yeah, it's. If you're.

36:54Justin: If you score one out of every three power plays, you have a great power play. So, yeah, five for eight this weekend. You know, we've knocked the power play a few times this year, so I'm. I'm happy to see it really, really finding its stride. Who is your first star?

37:09Andrew: It's the. The childhood buds. It's Prids and Ando. I had to, you know, I PRs. I think, dominated in one game and then, you know, in the second game it was Ando. So knowing that those guys, you know, go. Wait. Matt. Yeah, Matt. Matt. Yeah. Who's.

37:25Justin: Who's Matt?

37:26Andrew: Who's Ando?

37:28Justin: Who's

37:30Andrew: got those two guys? The print money and the Andalorian. Yeah, I mean, I just. I just love that it's two, you know, friends of the pod that are just absolutely leading the team when we need them most. And I'm excited to see what's going to happen because I feel like there's. There's. There's. I don't know, like, it's. I think they were a great team all year, but it feels like there's a little bit of magic now.

37:54Justin: Yep.

37:55Andrew: I'm starting to feel.

37:56Justin: Yeah, there's.

37:57Andrew: There's.

37:57Justin: There's something in the air. It's mostly snow, but, you know, we're

38:02Andrew: used to that, though.

38:02Justin: We're from Alberta. This feels like an Alberta Andrew If anybody. If anybody cares, that's what we're having.

38:08Andrew: Yeah, it's just. This lasts a lot longer out there till May.

38:12Justin: Okay, let's preview some games. So we got four games between Friday and next Friday. So Friday, January 23rd, we are at home against Owen Sound. Saturday, January 24th. Oh, Friday, January 23rd, against O Sound. I will be there with like 20 other guys. My. My like beer sock softball team.

38:36Andrew: I was gonna.

38:36Justin: Is coming.

38:37Andrew: I was gonna Sam O'Reilly thought this wasn't a heated rival.

38:39Justin: Oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe it could be.

38:43Andrew: Could be.

38:44Justin: So come say hi if you. If you see just like a lot of weird looking dudes walking around. That's probably my crew. Yeah. Saturday, January 24th, against Eerie. We are in Eerie. Why are they all weird looking?

38:58Andrew: Where did you find these guys?

39:00Justin: Special edition.

39:06Andrew: Come gawk at them in the box.

39:09Justin: They're gonna.

39:10Andrew: We're all gonna be there. Yeah. This is the absolute freak show of. Of. Of a friend group.

39:16Justin: I apologize to all the softball guys. Okay.

39:22Andrew: And they're like, yeah, our team name's starting to. Starting to make sense. Yeah. The circus. Yeah.

39:28Justin: It's all right. I'm sorry. The gentleman of West Cult. So, you know. Okay. Saturday, January 24th, we are in Erie. So back to back games on the road. Hey, that's not even the first time that happens in this week. Tuesday, January 27, we are at home against Sarnia. And on Wednesday, January 28, we are in Owen Sound. So it's a. It's a hectic travel week for the Rangers with four games pretty busy. Two back to backs. It's like, yeah, that's a deal. So Owen Sound. We see twice. We see them first. We've. We've played them four times already. Our season series is three to one for the Rangers. We just saw them last week for that weird one that Andrew mentioned earlier. Or. Yeah, so. Or maybe that's our new normal.

40:13Andrew: I don't know.

40:15Justin: Owen, sound. You know, they traded away Carter George. They're obviously not going for it this year. They're 18 and 1 in their last 10. Like. I don't know. I don't know. Owen Sound had a hot. They had a hot start.

40:28Andrew: I thought they were. I thought they were.

40:30Justin: I thought they were legit, man.

40:32Andrew: Yeah, I thought they were going to contend this year and it just all kind of fell apart there very quickly. But there's still not an easy out. Like it's not easy to get big to beat this team, especially for the Rangers for whatever reason. So this is definitely, you know, there's two games against the Aud this is definitely a game where I could. A serie A series. I know it's not back to backs, but this is definitely a situation where I could see the Rangers dropping one of these games. And it's just because Owen Sound just kind of goes all out, I find, especially when the Rangers are in Owen Sound.

41:06Justin: So that second game, the Wednesday game, could be.

41:09Andrew: So the Rangers have to be on their games. They have to be on.

41:12Justin: They got to be clean because they'll go them into doing some, some things. That's what Owen Sound likes to do.

41:18Andrew: So Yuri's not, you know, a total pushover, especially at home. Now the Rangers have been able to kind of get out and beat them.

41:28Justin: We are three and one against them in the Soo Actually, we're three and one against all the teams that we're going to talk about today.

41:34Andrew: Yeah.

41:34Justin: And while in la, we haven't played three times, but we haven't.

41:38Andrew: But Sarnia is not very good. So you, you have to beat Sarnia. Yeah. You have to at least worst case, split Owen Sound and you have to beat Erie as well.

41:49Justin: Erie and Sarnia are both bottom of their divisions. Like Erie's in our division, Sarnia's in the west division. Like, these are. These are, these are the games we talked about a couple weeks ago. When you're in the back half of the season, these are mandatory wins. Like you're playing bottom teams. If you want to be a contending team. These teams, there's. There's nothing on this team that should

42:09Andrew: beat you as far as the standings are concerned. Yes. Like, I know the Rangers, you know, are in a good spot with the, with the conference standings, obviously, especially with the divisional being the divisional leaders. But what I will say is London is still sniffing around. They're five points back. Obviously, we don't think that's going to happen, but in the conference, it would be nice to catch Flint. Right. We're six points back. Flint. You start winning some of these games and hope that maybe Flint loses some games in the second half that they shouldn't and then you might be able to get yourself that number one seed.

42:48Justin: Right.

42:48Andrew: So I want the games, you know, I want to see the Rangers tighten up a little bit defensively. Windsor is going to be a test. It's one of those things if you're, if you happen to drop the game against Windsor, I want to see them win all these other games. That's what I want to see as a Rangers fan, you know, you can forgive if, you know, you lose a game against Windsor. Windsor is a great team. It could go either way, whatever. But these other, these other games are kind of games that you have to win and it's going to be tough because you got two back to backs.

43:14Justin: Yeah. The Schedule is against you. So there's. There's mental and physical preparation that needs to go in to be in sharp for these games. And. But this isn't that different from when you're playing playoffs. Like, it's. They're more physical games, so you got to be ready for those, too. So this should just be a challenge for the guys to be ready at any given moment for whatever comes at them.

43:34Andrew: As a footnote, going back, way back to the beginning of the episode where we talked about things we get wrong, things that we maybe get wrong in advance was that, you know, Avery Ansels came out of the lineup and. And I will say our boy Weston Cameron, another one of our favorites to talk to, got some playing time, which is good because he needs some playing time as well. But it is. It. We do apologize if we were the ones that, you know. Yeah, we caused.

44:02Justin: We say things and then they happen the exact opposite.

44:05Andrew: And we're like, was in the lineup over and over. And then as soon as we were like, man, you're just always in the lineup. He had to sit for a couple games. So I. I apologize if that's our fault. However, I don't think it was because of his play. I think it's just because they have limited opportunities for these young guys and like. And Weston Cameron has to get some ice time.

44:26Justin: Like, he has to.

44:27Andrew: He's a. He's a good.

44:28Justin: This is a problem with being an embarrassment of riches. Teams like. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. These guys on. On other teams that. That we've talked about today would be getting, you know, if not every game, they might be top six. Every game or top six. Half the games. Like, these are. These are. This is the way that it. It happens when you. When you're building for a championship team. These. These kids end up sort of. Yeah. Having to rotate in and out. And I hope it feels like. What I like is that they're not rotating out in. In and out every game. They're actually getting a few games in a row to sort of settle in and get in jive with the team and whatever. So I think they're getting some adequate time. Of course, we love seeing Weston Cameron in the lineup. Of course we're sad to see an is not in the lineup, but we also don't want to take anybody out of the lineup. Like we want to. We want to roll like 15 guys. Like five lines. Six lines.

45:21Andrew: Like, yeah, we eight defensemen, 15 forwards.

45:26Justin: We can build a Tommy Kut it's not legal.

45:29Andrew: We will swap. We'll swap goalies every period.

45:31Justin: Yeah, for sure. Or just put them both in net, you know.

45:35Andrew: Exactly. Why not? Yeah, I Sam O'Reilly saw Shovel skating around. He can. He can play.

45:39Justin: Yeah. So perfect. He can be another defenseman. Exactly. That's our episode for the week. Some thank yous. Of course. Thank you to Kim Born, director of branding and marketing. Shout out to our prodigal producer, Liam. Thank you to him. You're gonna get in so much trouble.

46:06Andrew: But he thought I was gonna whisper.

46:08Justin: The text is incoming.

46:09Andrew: My voice cracked on that too.

46:10Justin: That was the best part. Yeah. Thank you to Tim for writing, producing, editing, creating, doing all the sound things and the intro music and the outro music. And special shout out to JJ for doing the voiceover for our intro. And yeah, thank you, JJ and Andrew, where can you find us on the social medias?

46:31Andrew: Well, apparently you can find us@theaudpod.com theaudpod.com

46:36Justin: the another word for you to teach

46:38Andrew: yourself a u d pod.com we that's right.

46:43Justin: Oh, sorry, that's another podcast thing at.

46:49Andrew: You can find us at the AudPod at the AudPod on Instagram and Tick tock. Boy, Tim's gonna have to fix that pop. And he can find. You can find us on Tick tock and Instagram at the AudPod. That's the only place that we have the cast involved. If you just Google us, we'll come up on YouTube. the AudPod. You can put us in the search bar on YouTube. In fact, there seems to be enough traction on YouTube now that we come up right away and yeah, don't forget, email us. Hello, theaudpod.com and I don't know, share us some odd history, which we might have a couple people coming up here pretty quick.

47:31Justin: Yeah. So yeah, hoping to have odd history back up next week and like subscribe all that jazz that we normally do. Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment. Give us a week since the comments. Give us the. The emoji in the comments. We love that. So thank you in advance. And Andrew, as always, you can, you can find me on Friday with a

47:56Andrew: bunch of weird looking dudes at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

48:01Justin: See you at the Aud

48:08Andrew: Bunch of freaks.

48:13Justin: Imagine they listen, they want to listen to it on the way.