57: Pump Up the Jam for Mental Health

0:01Justin: Hey, Andrew, are you ready to pump up the jam? Pump it up. Pump it, pump it, pump it.

0:13Andrew: Is this supposed to be Arnold?

0:15Justin: All the workout freaks from Eastern Europe, you know. Yeah.

0:20Andrew: Okay. Okay.

0:21Justin: All right.

0:22Andrew: It is generic generic bodybuilder number three.

0:26Justin: Whoever you want it to be. You know, whoever you hear. It's like a rack test. I hear.

0:33Andrew: Oh, now I'm blanking on his name. But that, that comedian from Germany, Flula Borg, that's who I hear.

0:39Justin: Why are we bumping? Is jacked Now, Andrew, what's, what's the pump?

0:47Andrew: I think it's to support mental health awareness, isn't it?

0:51Justin: Yes. Oh, that got a little Jamaican. Okay.

0:55Andrew: Fludorg just became one of the Bobs letters from Cool Runnings, which ties in with your Calgary hat right there. That's.

1:04Justin: I will stop.

1:05Andrew: That's how you do it.

1:05Justin: Generic Arnold Schwarzenegger Teemo version number three. So starting February 5th, Andrew and I and Tim and our friend John and anybody out there listening to this, if you want to join us, we're doing 2,000 push ups between February the Aud the the Soo that's, that's a lot of push ups and we're doing 2,000 of the Aud a lot of. In support of CAMH, the Canadian association of Mental Health. And the whole point is to raise money to, to, to the, to the charity, so to raise awareness to help with funds in places that help people with mental health crises and all those sorts of things. This pretty near and dear thing to me as I have lost a family member because of mental health issues. That's why I do it and I drag everyone along with me when I go.

2:14Andrew: It's true. You are dragging me into it as a, as a large, robust man. I am being forced to do more push ups than I will ever do in a, another year of my life.

2:26Justin: We're going to do it in 22 days. Yeah.

2:28Andrew: I also have full permission to just do my best. I was told in the group chat to do my best because my loyal AudPod team does not want this to be a source of mental illness for myself.

2:41Justin: Well, the, the 2000 push up challenge is more than just doing 2000 push ups. It is really about bringing awareness. So it's, it's more about challenging yourself. You know, we are in the, the doom and gloom of Andrew We're in getting into February here and it's, this has not been a nice Andrew in, in our neck of the woods here. So yeah, we will be getting down, doing some physical activity to Help our mental health. Because there is research that shows that doing physical activity can help your mental health. And yes, 2000 push ups is a lot. And you don't have to do 2,000 push ups. I mean, if you want to do two, 2,000 of something, you can do different types of exercises. It's an Australian organization and they, they have an app and it's really great and helpful and, and it can help you put together like a different routine. So, you know, you could do like 10 squats and then you could do 10 push ups and then you could do 10 crunches or whatever. So it's like, it's a, it's more about getting, getting in some physical activity in the dreary months and, and bringing awareness to mental health. That's the point of this. So if you do want to join us and help us raise money, reach out DM us. We have a, we have the, the AudPod Push up squad team on, on the Push Up Challenge. So anybody who wants to join us and help us raise money, you are more than welcome to join us. If you want to donate, we'll put stuff in Instagram, Tik Tok stories. We'll put some stuff in the show notes of this show. So, and next week as well. And then all throughout the challenge, we'll update you as we go along. So yeah, we start next Thursday. So that is happening

4:21Andrew: less than a week from when you're listening to this, if you're listening this to the day that we release more crunches, less munches in February for old noodles here.

4:32Justin: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls

4:39Andrew: themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas.

4:45Justin: Ranger news. We got, we got Sam O'Reilly got some commitment news. And this information, and this affects issues.

4:55Andrew: Issues really to me, I'm married. I don't have the commitment issues neither. So are you. Yeah. But I feel like these are, are going to slowly start to trickle in and become more and more of an issue for me.

5:06Justin: So one, one of the commitments is, is great. Dylan Edwards, he's an overager this year.

5:15Andrew: Well, both of them are great.

5:18Justin: Both of them are great. Yes. Yeah, of course. Yes.

5:21Andrew: We.

5:21Justin: Okay. We always support these young guys in following their hockey dreams, playing to the best of their ability, taking the path that is right for them. But we are still Kitchener Rangers fans.

5:34Andrew: First and foremost, I'm a Kitchener Rangers fan. Second. Secondly, I am a good person.

5:39Justin: Secondly, I'm an okay person. Yeah. So Dylan Edwards and Christian Kirsch have Both committed to Winnipeac. Not even trying.

5:49Andrew: University. Yes, it is a rather strong school this year in the NCAA Division 1 hockey. So really good couple, really good Rangers adding to their squad for next year. So obviously that takes care of one of our overager problems for next year with Christian Kirsch and. And Dylan Edwards was going somewhere else anyway because he's an overager as it is. Yeah. It starts to become more clear to us that, I mean, fingers crossed that Jason Schaubel is a kitchen arranger next year. I have no reason to believe he wouldn't be, but it's obvious that he is inheriting the crease, and I think he's shown that he can. He can carry the mail.

6:35Justin: That felt really personal for you, Andrew. Carrying the mail.

6:38Andrew: Carrying the mail. It's true. I like the expression because it's a lot of work.

6:43Justin: Yeah. I mean, we've seen Shabble. You know, we got that. We got the, the. The world junior Shabble train where we got to see him play like a good amount of games in a row. And I mean, he can hang, man. He's got it.

6:55Andrew: And when we spoke to him, he said that he likes.

6:58Justin: He.

6:58Andrew: He plays better the more he plays. And I think that that just shows that he's such a competitor. But also I, I get it. Like, how can you get into a groove if it' and a half between games? Like, it's already sometimes a week between games for these guys. So if you don't play that game and then you don't play the Sunday game, you're going two weeks without a start. It's. It's hard, you know, even though you're practicing all the time, it's hard to stay in the head space of like, these. Now, now, now it counts. And I want to keep the puck out. Like, it's not practice.

7:29Justin: So it's. It's great. I mean, obviously we, we definitely, when we were recapping who we thought would be here next year, when even before we. We knew all the overagers that would end up being on this team, you know, we, we were projecting that Christian Kirsch would be one of the goalies that would. That would be on this team. And I mean, obviously these things can change, but I would imagine you're doing a commit halfway through the season. You're probably committing to go next year and go play in the ncaa. And that's great. I mean, it's a good opportunity for him.

8:00Andrew: I do remember a certain Rangers goalie who committed to a university last year and then ended up playing, signing a pro contract.

8:10Justin: So things.

8:10Andrew: Things can happen.

8:11Justin: But yeah, I think. I think it's pretty safe to assume that this is the most current information that we have at this moment. And we shall be taking that absolutely face value. Yeah.

8:22Andrew: Christian curse will not be arranged next year. That's what we can say.

8:25Justin: Even though, man, he looks so good with his Swiss pads and his. And his Rangers outfit, even though he stopped wearing it this weekend.

8:32Andrew: But, you know, I know, I know he did. I wondered if we cursed them. Did they did. Was there stain or something that he have to. Maybe we maybe curse them.

8:40Justin: Nobody noticed. And then we brought it up and they were like, hey, you can't wear that.

8:46Andrew: Stop doing that. That's how much power we have. We just. We have the ear of the lead. Well, you have.

8:52Justin: You brought the attention Swiss. And then the Finnish guys were like, yo, that's our turf, the Finnish mafia.

9:02Andrew: We still haven't heard from our scout over there. Maybe after the thaw.

9:08Justin: Yeah, he could just be stuck somewhere. We don't know. It's true. It has been. All right, so we got. So we're gonna recap three games this week. So we are recording on Tuesday, January the Aud is 6:36pm There is a game at 6 7pm Tonight. So we won't be able to recap that game because it hasn't happened yet. And then there's also a game tomorrow night. So that's the. The second Owen Sound game. So we. We had a Windsor game from last week that we hadn't recapped. And then we have an Owen Sound game and an eerie game to recap. So we should just do that Wednesday, January 1st. All right. We were in Windsor. We won 3 to 2. Overtime. We were.

9:49Andrew: We won. Oh, it felt so good, too. It was such an important game to win.

9:55Justin: It.

9:55Andrew: It was one of those games where it could definitely have gone either way. But I think the Rangers, I mean, as a Rangers fan, I felt like it. It felt like they were gonna. It was gonna slip through their fingers because they went 0 for 3 on the power play. And. And Windsor only had one power play opportunity and they scored. And I thought, ah, if we could have just scored on one of these power plays. Anyway, let's run it back to the first period. 52 seconds into this game, Liam Green Tree scores his 19th. Liam Green Tree, of course, is a phenomenal hockey player, and there is absolutely no shame in giving up a goal to Liam Greentree. However, Dylan Edwards has four more goals than Liam Greentree at this point in the season and he scored his 23rd of the year from Alexander Bilecki and Christian Humphreys 6 minutes and 50 seconds into this one. So that was the scoring for the first period. This was the second period.

10:55Justin: Pretty tight checking period. Like, Kitchener only got three shots on goal in this first period. And like there was not a lot of shots in this game overall, but this was like, this was a tight first period. You. We talked about this when we previewed it. Windsor and Kitchner are very well matched for each other and you kind of knew this was going to be a bit of a bloodbath. And it was, it was in a way, but not in like either a shooting way or even a hitting way really. It was more just in like their defensive teams just were so good at taking each other out that it was hard to get anything going.

11:31Andrew: Yeah, it was, it was a, it was a tactician's fight in a sense, if you. I always compare it to prize fights. You had two very tactical squads going up against each other and n. Neither team wanted to give an easy goal away to the other team. So everybody was playing really tight. Nobody was taking any chances. And that reflected that in the shots. Like you said, Windsor outshot them seven to three and then seven to five in the second. And then Kitchener took over in the third period with nine shots to four. Now scoring in the second period. This one power play that I talked about, it happened about five minutes into the second period and Ethan Belches, he scored his 28th of the year. He's having an absolutely unreal season in his draft eligible year.

12:20Justin: We're gonna hear his name pretty early.

12:23Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I was surprised. I Sam O'Reilly consensus scouting rank and they had him at 12, so earlier in the year, in September, they had him at 5. So I think you're getting a really good player. I think he might be a little raw considering he's. He's just this like, big powerful guy. And I think maybe he'll. His game will kind of round out a bit here now as he gets more experience and, and, and perhaps, you know, moves on to the NCAA as people are talking about. But yeah, great player. I've enjoyed watching him play, but I don't like him scoring against the Rangers. And in fact, I was really nervous because we were. Now that's the second period scoring. It's two to one going into the third. Yep, that's it. Third period. I mentioned that he had 23 before he gets his 24th. Six minutes into the period. I don't know what it was about six minutes into the period. In every period, there was six minutes in, there was a goal scored. Dylan Edwards scores his 24th unassisted. And it was a huge goal. Happened early enough that it felt like, okay, all right, we're back in the driver's seat. We're not chasing. And ultimately, one penalty in the third period for Windsor. AJ Spellis, he took a roughing penalty. And I thought, okay, now here's your chance. It was with about five minutes left in the period, four and a half minutes left in the period. And I thought, this is. This is it, this is it, this is it.

13:53Justin: I think I texted you. Jack Pridham. Goal incoming.

13:59Andrew: I know. And you were right. You were a couple minutes a little early. You were a little early because it didn't happen. And then we went to overtime, and basically Windsor didn't really touch the puck in overtime. Kitchener face off ability upgrade came in handy. But actually, Sam O'Reilly wasn't paired with Pridm in overtime. It was Luca Romano. And PridMoney scores his 29th from Anonovski. And Luca Romano. Ando had a beautiful outlet pass. Really patient, really patient in his own zone, waited, and then set Pridm and Romano in on a two on one. And Pridham just said, I'll do it myself, and picked the far corner. And it was. Yeah, it was a perfect shot because the goalie had the angle. It was fine. It was just a perfect shot, as Jack tends to do. And he hit the. The. Always Superman Sully. And we loved it. It was a. It was great because I. He's got the hair slicked back. He's got the. He's got the Superman cell. He's got a bunch of cellies. And I. I love them because I feel like they're themed. And he hits them when.

15:07Justin: I really like that.

15:08Andrew: He.

15:08Justin: Yeah, he has some variety because he scores so much that it's nice to be able to switch it up a little bit.

15:15Andrew: Cycles through, cycles through. He cycles through. That's right. He has 29. At this point.

15:20Justin: At this point, more teams. Come on. Yeah, I. I love watching the Kitchener overtime. I think that's one of the, like, most elegant things that they do as a team, is the way that they. They put out the two defensemen to try and win the draw. Sort of, no matter what happens, they sort of take a moment with the puck because they often end up with the puck right after the initial draw. They take a moment, swap out that one defenseman for another forward, and then just Sort of set up a nice play. And it seems to be like the way that they start every overtime is because they rarely, they rarely lose that draw. And if they do, they have two defensemen there that just like take the puck away immediately. And I love watching the way that they do this and I think it's an interesting. I would hate it as a fan of the. If I was not a Kitchener fan watching my team play, I'd be like, just move the puck. But I think it's like it works so well for this team and it's interesting because they do have like, they can get really hot about things but man, when they get into that over time they just like, it's like Zen the way that they get into their play.

16:25Andrew: Ice in the veins for sure. I was. It's very like control the pace and then strike when. When it's most convenient for you. It's not a. They don't push the pace in overtime. They take what the defense gives the Aud then just cycle it around. And they're just superior skaters. So they don't need to. It's just. That's just who they are.

16:44Justin: Caught flat footed on a. In overtime, which is hard to do. We've seen some of the best teams get caught.

16:50Andrew: Absolutely.

16:52Justin: All right. So that was the Windsor game, obviously. Huge, huge competition, huge challenge, huge game to sort of see where the Rangers are at compared to the other top teams in the league. So great to have that. And then speaking of not top teams, I wasn't really speaking of not top teams. Terrible segue. Oh, and sound. We came back to the Aud on Friday night to play Owen Sound at home where we won 6 to 2 in a game that I was at. You were at home watching. Very stressful game. Two periods of a lot of stress.

17:32Andrew: It was. It was. And the Aud then speaking of Zen, I feel like you, you could have just meditated through that Andrew third period and just used your ears and you would have known everything was all right. This game started with a Cole Zaroski 18th goal of the year for Owen Sound. 332 into the game, classic classic early goal. The other team and you're just kind of like, yep, one nothing, one nothing deficit. That is pretty much Kitchener Rangers hockey at this stage. We just, we just do that and it seems like it makes us play a bit better. So I don't understand. But it is what it is at this stage. We're used to it now. It didn't end in the first one. Nothing because Dylan Edwards, you're seeing a pattern here. Dylan Edwards got a 25th of the year from Jack Pridham and Sam O'Reilly on the power play. And the power play is out. You know, Ha. It's generating chances. Okay. That's what I will say is it's generating chances that the. I don't think it's a problem. I think that like we, when we talked to our friend Babs, he said those things even out. You know, they went 0 for 3 on in the Windsor game, but they got a really big goal in this game. They went one for four. But one for four is not terrible. You'd like, you'd love to see it hover between 1 for 4 and 1 for 3. That would be ideal because you can't ask for more than that, really. But if you're looking, if you're, if you're hoping for 30%, which is high rate, that's. That's what you're hoping for. That's what you'd love to have and, and you'd be lethal. But 25% isn't terrible on the power play as long as you're converting some chances when you need to. Now, the second period, that was the first period. One, one. Kitchener out shot them 10 to 7. The second period, Kitchener out shot them 10 to 9. But nothing.

19:30Justin: Just felt like Kitchner couldn't buy one because you might have. Yeah, the, the shots, the shots were close. Ish. Like 16 to 20 at the end of the second. Yeah, like that's not, that's not terrible for either side. But just the shot quality was so different. Like Kitchener had so many. Yeah, Grade A chances and just couldn't get one in the net. Owen Sound was really kept to the outside taking long shots taken stuff that just wasn't really threatening.

20:02Andrew: And I will Sam O'Reilly will, I will make note that Matthew Koprowski for two periods in this game played really, really well. The Owen Sound goaltender, of course, who is taking over as one of the two goalies taking over for Carter George after the Carter George to Susei Marie trade. And I mean, obviously it's tough to come in as a goalie and they're kind of packing it in a little bit. No one sound trading away Owen, you know, Carter George, so props to him. Unfortunately, the levees kind of started to break five minutes into the third period when Luca Romano got his 10th of the year shorthanded from Gabriel Sherratt and Carson Campbell. I will say the sh. The penalty killing aggressiveness is one of the strengths of the Rangers this year. And it's, it's not always just Jack Pridham which we've seen many times this year, as he, I believe, still leads the league in shorthanded goals. But it's. That's kind of the MO of the penalty kill is, is get the puck and if there's a chance to generate offense without risking, you know, a bad turnover, take it on. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of coaching staffs that would Birchie just, just dump it. Just, you know, kill time. Whatever this coaching staff, junior hockey, whatever it may be, is literally attack, attack, attack on the penalty kill. As long as you're not, you know, hanging yourself out to dry. And it was nice to see Carson Campbell get on the score sheet. I will say that I was really. Campbell.

21:40Justin: Yes, totally great to see him on the score sheet. One who somebody who needed a goal though was Luca Romano. It had been 10 games without a goal into this one, so seeing him get that breakaway just, he just showed his like his smoothness and his shooting ability and being able to put it in the back of the net was. Yeah, you could see it on his face too. Like there was a bit of relief and he needed that.

22:07Andrew: Yeah, it's. I mean he's on a winning team and the culture's good and everything's good. But you do have to think that maybe it's been a little bit of a disappointing year for Luca Romano. I think that, I think that even like our, you know, friend of the pod, Mike Farwell, had him pegged to have maybe 25, 30 goal kind of season, like a breakout kind of year. And it just hasn't, it's. The cards just haven't been dealt that way. Luca has been. Yeah, still can. Luca Romero has been playing a lot of basically this in between 2c, 3c. Not getting first line power play there. There's been a lot, I mean like, you know, I have no idea who, who moves if, if magic. If I could, you know, wave a wand and magically Luke Ellinas is healthy. Is it Luca Romano who's now on the third line? Yeah, I have no idea. I'm just saying that like it. It's one of those things that it just hasn't necessarily. He hasn't been a relied upon as a go to offensive option this year. And I don't think think it matters because Luca Romano has proven that he'll play whatever game he needs to play. But obviously coming with that first round draft pick, was it first? Yeah. Or was he a second round? Oh, I Don't know why I said coming with that picks. Yeah, yeah, that's why it was. That's why it was. Yeah, yeah. Cuz. Cuz they had so many picks and they just crushed that draft. Having that kind of price tag attached to your head. I understand that like obviously you're going to look at yourself, your stats and probably say 10 goals isn't, you know, what you'd want. But the bottom line is I think he's been a positive player. I think, you know, you'll see him killing penalties, you'll see him doing things that he needs to do. I don't ever see Luca Romano dragging his feet. So it is what it is. I think he'll probably, he continue to heat up here and, and add some goals to. But speaking of adding goals to the total and heating up, we went from two to one five minutes into the third to in the next. From ten minutes in about. Yeah. Nine minutes in. Nine and a half minutes in. Jack Pram gets his 30th. The, the long. The, the shortly awaited 30th from Jack Pridham because he's just constantly scoring from Sam O'Reilly and Dylan Edwards. 11:36 into the third and that's when it all just took off. In the next two minutes, Nellis gets his eighth from Andrew MacNiel which was again, I love seeing these depth defensemen on the score sheet. And then Alexander Bi has his seventh of the year. He's having a great year. Assist from Jack Pridham. Of course that was with about three and a half minutes left in the game. Not to be outdone. Two and a half minutes. Two minutes. Yeah. Two minutes left. Tanner Lam gets his 14th of the year from Weston Cameron. Good to see Weston on the score sheet. And Alexander Bilecki gets his second point of the game. Yes. Owen Sound would add a goal from Mason Ray with 59 seconds left, but six.

25:27Justin: How he felt about that goal in that last minute of play there. Give him a good.

25:32Andrew: Yes. Yes it was. Yeah. No, that was unnecessary. Mason.

25:39Justin: That's didn't, didn't like that one. Yeah. Oh, I get it.

25:42Andrew: You know you gotta, you gotta get them when you can get them, man. But yeah, so to have, you know, Tanner Lam Belecki, Ellis, that's, you know, Romano, that's realistically at this point which is we're living in this like, you know, embarrassment of riches. That's your secondary scoring guys that the, you know, guys that started the season as your primary scoring when before you had guys come back from camps and before you made acquisitions. They're now your secondary scorers and they're scoring. That's how you're going to end up with six goals in a game because Dylan Edwards and Jack Pram are going to score pretty much every game.

26:19Justin: Basically everybody scored in this game, which was like, okay, great. Yeah, yeah, in the, in the third period.

26:26Andrew: That's all you need. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And. And I will Sam O'Reilly know, after giving up that first goal, I thought Kirsch had a good game. He, again, he's not. He's not. He's not setting the world on fire with his save percentage because the Rangers don't allow high quantity of shots. Obviously, when you do that, it's going to be harder because sometimes you're going to give up, you know, power play goals and you're going to give up, you know, high danger chances. That's going to happen every game, and sometimes those get converted. But what I will say is it's hard when there's not a lot of shots and there's not a lot of chances. And he. He played well. He stopped everything that was thrown at him until that, you know, that, you know, that last goal that Carson Campbell didn't like and, and, you know, neither did I. But it's. It is what it is. I thought he had a great game, not necessarily a bounce back from Windsor because he played well in Windsor, but it was just like that was a. That was a game where it was kind of the, the defenses kind of kept the. The goalies in, you know, a little bit of a bubble because they weren't. They weren't giving up like, anything except really outside chances, except for the things that basically went in. In that game.

27:49Justin: Yeah, it was a good, nice little game there that they. They ended up putting together. That was. That. It was a. Yeah, two.

27:56Andrew: Two good team effort games. It really was. You.

27:59Justin: You.

27:59Andrew: You. You narrowly beat the. The. The. A really strong opponent and you kind of did exactly what we wanted them to do with, you know, foot on

28:09Justin: the neck with a weaker opponent. Things that we've talked about in the past, for sure. Speaking of foot on the neck, we went to Erie the next day, which a team really struggling in the standings these days. We beat them four to three in overtime in Erie. So Saturday we went to Erie and that's where we were. Andrew, before we really get into this game, we have to talk about the second period when they added an announcer, a color commentator to this commentator. Holden.

28:42Andrew: Yes.

28:43Justin: Gotta know when to. Holden, you're.

28:45Andrew: You're very passionate About Holden to tell me. Tell me Your, your don't. Holden back.

28:51Justin: They, they had. I don't, I can't even remember what they called it. They had junior announcer day or something. They had, they had kids doing every job at the rink this day. So they had, they had interviews with kids with the players and, and then Holden came in to do color commentary because they usually just have a play by play. And then the, the, the Sean Furfaro like character. Tim. Not our Tim. Different Tim in, in between the boxes. Who, who pops in Louis Debrus style way better than Louis DeBress. Just have to say that out loud.

29:27Andrew: I also will make a note that there, there, there is no one Sean Furfaro like we. Before we trigger. Before we trigger anyone listening. There's no Sean Furfaro like doing

29:40Justin: the same job, same location in the rink.

29:45Andrew: Yes. One of one. Okay.

29:48Justin: The only.

29:49Andrew: Just like his AudPod.

29:50Justin: The only person just like his AudPod.

29:51Andrew: One of one.

29:55Justin: And that's why I'm saying this right now. Quit on us. Because, you know, he's gotten three promotions in the last two months. I mean, he's, he's very valuable to the odds.

30:04Andrew: He started his friend. He went to correspondent.

30:06Justin: He went.

30:07Andrew: And now he's, now he's an assistant to the regional producer. And soon he'll be showrunner and then he'll, he'll just, he'll just be EP, I think that point. And he'll probably take the two of us off of it.

30:19Justin: That would be my first move.

30:21Andrew: How does he own the pod? I don't understand. We started it.

30:25Justin: Yeah.

30:27Andrew: Did you see any money?

30:29Justin: Yeah. So. Yeah, so Holden came in to, to do some color commentary and you know, this kid, he was really all over it. They, they had a lot of questions for him. They wanted him to get going and man, he just threw it right back at these commentators. They, they couldn't get in a word in edgewise. They were, they were beholden to the. Holden.

30:49Andrew: Yes, yes, indeed. And also bad things happened in the second.

30:53Justin: So. Yeah. Which.

30:55Andrew: Let's go back to the first period.

30:57Justin: But he was his boon to the team.

31:03Andrew: Well, as you know, any great media personality, as you know, here on the AudPod, you like to take credit for things. Any great media personality takes credit for things they have absolutely controlled over.

31:15Justin: So when Sean does inevitably take over the AudPod, he's probably replacing us with Holden. So here we are, Holden. There you go.

31:25Andrew: All right. Well, I won't hold in my breath any longer. Let's get to the actual game summary, our friend Luca Romano, the foreshadowing from the last game. Here it is. He gets his 11th right here. He's breaking out of his slump. So he gets exactly right. Four minutes in from our friend of the pod, Matthew Andofsky, who is over a point per game. And we are now five games into his run. I mean, let's, you know, two games are going to happen between this recording and the. Aud the release. But in five games, he has six points, a goal and five assists. So. Yeah, and Weston Cameron back on the score sheet. Really, really happy about that. That's. That's the first goal. Nothing really transpired offensively for the Rangers until the last 16 seconds of the period when Jack Pridham scored his 31st. His 31st from Christian Humphreys and Cameron Reid on the power play. That's your first period summary. They had. They actually were out. Shot by Erie. Yes, exactly. And they were one for one, obviously, on the power play, which helped the Aud as they. The Otters took a slashing penalty really late in the first period, which is Always a killer, right? Always a killer. However, we're getting into this because in the second period, three minutes in, Haeden Ellis again, this depth scoring. These guys who were scoring a lot at the beginning of the year, then they kind of moved into checking roles. Haeden Ellis is scoring again. He's got his ninth of the year from Luca Romano. There you go. Luca Romano is fully slumped. Busted. And our boy, Matthew Anonofsky. So it's. Yeah, it's. The offense is coming from all places. It's three to nothing. Three minutes. Three minutes and 42 seconds into the second period. What could go wrong?

33:24Justin: Holden went wrong. And Tanner Lam missed. Well, he got robbed. Tanner Lam got robbed.

33:34Andrew: Yes.

33:35Justin: And this.

33:35Andrew: Yes.

33:35Justin: This was a huge turnaround. TSN turning point to the game. Tanner Lam goes in for an amazing shot on. I wrote his name down. Tagalar. Oh, I don't. I didn't write down the Taglar. Okay.

33:50Andrew: Yeah. Noah.

33:51Justin: He went in on Taglar. Unbelievable. Oh, sorry. It wasn't Tanner Lam It was Cameron Arquette went in for an unbelievable.

33:59Andrew: It was Cameron.

34:00Justin: Open net. Arquette had this goal. He thought he scored. Taglar came from nowhere to save this puck. I was like, who is this goalie? I. I couldn't even remember his name. Who is he? Where did he come from? Unbelievable. Safe. Yeah.

34:17Andrew: Yeah. He.

34:18Justin: He.

34:19Andrew: He actually played incredibly well. Noah Taglar. He is. He's. He's from Georgetown, Andrew Not far from here. Yeah. Really? He really was Drafted by the Suit. I'm just telling you where he came from. Now.

34:33Justin: Sad boy pizza. Go there if you're in Georgetown area. Sad boy pizza.

34:38Andrew: Sad boy. Well, they need to do something.

34:40Justin: You want to do push ups with us? I'm watching you.

34:45Andrew: So after the Arquette robbery, Andrew Kuzma scores an absolute no doubter his 14th of the year. There's nothing Jason Shaw could do about this goal. Jason Shaw played extremely well in this game. The second period, I'm sure he'd love to have it have gone a different way, but I would say these, these first two goals, absolutely nothing he could do on these goals. Michael deck scored his 18th of the year and that was with five minutes left in the period.

35:16Justin: And then we knew this was going to happen.

35:19Andrew: The curse of the AudPod. We knew this was going to happen. The curse of the AudPod. The curse of the AudPod strikes again. Evan Headrick puck kind of rolls out of the zone weird. He chases the puck down in, in the Ranger zone and just throws it. But it was, it was actually a crazy snipe, but he was from an angle where he was just kind of throwing it. But he's just got such a great shot. I do think Shabble would probably love to have this one back. It was a laser, but it's just one of those where you're like, oh my goodness. It's. I, I, of course he was going to score. Evan Headrick scores his third of the year. And, and I will say Evan Headrick looked good in the, the face off circle. I thought that he had some strong plays, you know, along the boards. I, I just noticed him, he was 3 for 5 in the face off circle. He just, he, he had a really big draw late in the, in the third period that he won. He, I just thought he had a great game. He, he's a, he's a, I'm just happy for him. However, why'd you have to do this to us? I, I was like, oh, man, it's now it's three to three going into the third period. It, you know, it wasn't a last minute goal. It was a last, you know, 87 seconds of the period goal. But it felt like, oh no, the

36:40Justin: tie angle, if

36:43Andrew: the tying goal from the guy who used to play a

36:47Justin: goal in Kitchener and we loved and well, and we wanted him to score. Christmas miracle. This. I get the Grinch. I was like, oh, no Grinch exists because he probably got Christmas miracle. The first Christmas miracle. Just like the Aud pot always does. Exactly, exactly.

37:08Andrew: Yeah. Hopefully we don't have a bunch of people singing songs about how much we suck at any point. The third period, however, there was a goal scored in this period, and it was for the Kitchener Rangers, but it didn't count. What'd you see on that one, Justin? What did you see on that one? Tanner Lam This is where I think you got the Tanner Lam So this was.

37:35Justin: Tanner did put the puck in the net. This one. This one is there. I can see the. I can see both sides of this one. But I do understand why it got called back. It got called back for goaltender interference. Tanner Lam was being pressured on. On his left side. He was skating to the left side of the ice. He. He was being pressured on the one side. Tanner Lam not a huge guy, can be a little bit pushed around a bit. We've seen that a lot. Obviously, magical hands. But. But he can be pushed around a little bit. Skating through the blue paint. He just clips Tagalar on his pad with his skate and pulls him slightly out of position just as he's releasing the puck. And the puck goes in the net. So I get the goaltender interference. I under. I don't. I always have an issue with the refs with this one. Is because he was being forced more or less into the blue paint.

38:32Andrew: Yeah.

38:32Justin: So I don't really know what he's supposed to do, but I also get why it was goaltender interference. So I'm like, yeah.

38:39Andrew: What did you see there? There. There's. Well, it was a small correction of what you said Tanner Lam did and bring the puck into the blue and. And. And make contact with the goalie. But it was Cameron Arquette who shot the puck into. Into the yawning cage, which made good on his. His. The robbery. But yeah, Tanner. Tanner Lam was the. The reason why it didn't count. It was also. He was also the reason why the puck. It looked like a patented Tanner Lam doing all the work and then somebody, you know, putting away the garbage. Yeah. Yeah. And I was excited, I think by letter of the law. Like, it's one of those things that if it's just consistent, I'm fine with this being no goal. But the problem is, is I see this sometimes go the other way. And I think back to a goal like this, and I go, how come that one didn't count? So ultimately, I'm. I'm very much a proponent of all or nothing. So I think, like, honestly, I would just like a crease violation rule if you skate in there when. And there's no puck in there. If. Yeah. And, well, even more. Even more strict, if the puck isn't in the crease and you're in the crease, blow the whistle, it's done. Play is done. So you can't go in the crease unless there's a puck there. So. So as soon as that puck is. Is out of the crease and there's a player still in the crease, play is dead.

40:05Justin: I.

40:05Andrew: A lot of people hate that idea because it breaks up the play. And I understand that. But that, to me, is the only way you remedy this weird black and white. This. This weird. I shouldn't say black and white. The opposite of black and white. This muddled. It's a gray area. Yeah, It.

40:20Justin: It.

40:20Andrew: It makes it more black and white. And I think that that's good for. Not necessarily. I think for just making sense of the rules. However, if this is how we're gonna call it, and a guy skating in, who necessarily want.

40:36Justin: He.

40:36Andrew: I don't think he wanted to make contact. His Tanner Lam He doesn't. Tanner Lam doesn't make contact with goalies. Like, that's not what he does. But if that's how you're gonna call it, that's what you're gonna call it. It didn't matter ultimately, because 45 seconds into overtime, our new friend Sam O'Reilly scores is 15. Another starting to get used game winner. Another game game winner.

41:00Justin: Yeah.

41:00Andrew: Yeah. Starting to get used to these game winners out of Sam O'Reilly Yeah, he's. He's only got 15.

41:06Justin: He's only got 15.

41:07Andrew: But, like, you know, I think two out of the three that he scored for us have been game winners, so.

41:12Justin: Yeah, yeah, it was. I'm into it.

41:14Andrew: I'm into it. He does so much. Sorry, I was just gonna say he does so much away from the puck and he does so much with the puck that, you know, say he's only got 15. Sounds bad. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that, you know, if. If. If you score, you know, two out of your three are our game winners, then you don't need to score that many.

41:34Justin: This. This goal, I mean, it was. It was. It was a bit unlucky for Tagalar. It was a bit lucky for. For Sam O'Reilly but his. His awareness is unmatched because. Because this. This. This puck went.

41:48Andrew: Oh, absolutely.

41:49Justin: The equipment of Taglar and bounced out. But Taglar thought it was still in his equipment. He goes down, basically just like, holds every pad in place so the puck doesn't squeak out. Everybody's looking at the goalie Sam O'Reilly He's the puck just sitting on the ice and Taglar is, is down and he just pops it over his shoulder and, and calls it a game.

42:12Andrew: And of course, the puck was there because our, our, our pal Jack Pridham put it there. Yeah, that's, that's why it was there. He generally has a tendency to, to bring the puck to, to where goalies do not want to.

42:22Justin: Bouncing off your equipment.

42:26Andrew: No. No. And so, yeah, that, that wraps up a strong three games for a bunch of players for sure. On the Rangers, it's going to be a hard 3 stars. I struggled because there's just so many. Yeah, yeah. I, I, I am still struggling. I'm still going back and forth. So why don't we continue our trend and you go first because then that, that can, that can help. Well, you know, I, I, especially the third star is the one I'm having trouble with. Okay, who's your third star? And then maybe I can pick someone

43:00Justin: differently off base and you might know who it is, but I'm going with Holden for the, the announcing. Even though he kind of cursed us in that second period. You know, I like a young guy with energy coming into this game, so I appreciate it. So third star Holden, you are of

43:17Andrew: absolutely no help at all when it comes to picking my third star. It did it. I was hoping somehow I got one star further in and I don't. I have, I have the same amount of players to pick from. Okay. My third star. I'm just gonna go with it. I'm just gonna go with it. Is Dylan Edwards. Dylan Edwards had a great on, on another, on another weekend.

43:44Justin: He could be a first points in three.

43:46Andrew: He had a couple goals. Yeah, exactly. He had a couple goals in the first game. A goal in this, in the second game. He's just, he's just such a great skater. I can, I'm excited that he's gonna go on and play D1 next year. I think that that'll be great for his development. I just think that, you know, he's just such an elite skater and he's got great offensive awareness and I just, I, I have to highlight him as my third star. Who's your second star? I swear to God, if you don't, if you don't Sam O'Reilly player.

44:23Justin: It's the discipline of the Kitchener Rangers. This, this Erie Otters. They did not. The Eerie fans might have felt like that was not right.

44:35Andrew: Yeah.

44:36Justin: But they didn't take A penalty in this game. They only took five. Panel or five. They only had five penalty kills in these three games. There's a. There's an interesting thing that I think maybe these London guys have brought into this. Sorry, they're not London guys. Jared Woolley and Sam O'Reilly have brought into this room. X. Excellent.

44:57Andrew: London guys.

44:58Justin: Guys. Is that they brought into this room is maybe a little bit of the mentality of if you're getting a penalty, get them to take one, too. Because there's a lot of offsetting penalties happening these days, and I don't mind it as much when it's happening for the Kitchener Rangers, Listening to one of

45:15Andrew: the broadcasts was like, oh, I think it was the Windsor game, actually. And that's. It's been a while. That's what it makes sense. One of the players said, like, we're. We're, you know, we're just not going to give the Aud they want. We're not going to, like, retaliate. And I was like, you talking about kitchen. You're talking about my Kitchener Rangers You're talking about. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like, usually the shoe was on the other foot. I'm like, I don't think. I think we're the ones getting retaliated. Retaliation penalties. And you're telling me now you guys feel like we're the pests. All right, I'm. I'm. I'm happy to be the pest. I'd prefer to be the pest. You know what I'm saying? Like, because I find that, like, the game is set up now for the retaliation gets penalized. The retaliation gets penalized. The initial penalty doesn't usually get called. Very rarely do they send both guys. So I'm totally down to be the

46:09Justin: agitator, if that's what they're calling it.

46:11Andrew: Happy being the agitator.

46:13Justin: Your advantage. Yeah. Who's your second star? Who's your player?

46:17Andrew: I am my second.

46:20Justin: I.

46:21Andrew: Second star.

46:23Justin: Okay.

46:23Andrew: I'm gonna. I'm gonna honorable mention Jack Pridham. Okay?

46:27Justin: We're not supposed to pick Jack.

46:28Andrew: He's not in my three star. He's not in my three stars.

46:33Justin: Okay? Jack Pridham three stars of the weekend.

46:35Andrew: He.

46:37Justin: He should be my first star.

46:39Andrew: Okay. Okay. But I just can't keep giving him stars. This is not. This is not a meritocracy. This is just random babblings from imbeciles on the AudPod. That's what this is. Okay? The second star of the weekend for me. Is Alexander bi. I thought Alexander Bilecki was all over the place. He, he, he. He doesn't convert on all his chances. Obviously, he's a defenseman. He also doesn't get caught out of position. I just love how he jumps up. He adds to the play.

47:13Justin: He.

47:14Andrew: He scores more often than he doesn't when he has these really great looks and he has seven goals this year. And, you know, he's involved all the time when he's on the ice. Like, you just see him out there and he is involved. Like, he, he's basically every other game scoring a point. He's got 22 points in 44 games. Like, he is just. He's steady.

47:41Justin: He.

47:42Andrew: He doesn't take too many risks. I'm never like, oh, man. Like, ley. You know, you turned it over again. Like, he's not one of these guys. Like, he seems like he's aggressive to a point, and I love that in a defenseman. And, and he can skate with. With anybody in the.

47:57Justin: Oh, everything defenseman. It's amazing.

48:00Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. He really is. All right.

48:03Justin: Who.

48:04Andrew: Watch your first player.

48:07Justin: It's Sam O'Reilly It is Mr.

48:09Andrew: Clutch.

48:10Justin: Man. He's in. Okay. Yeah, you said it earlier, Mr.

48:13Andrew: Clutch.

48:13Justin: Like, two of his three goals with the Rangers are game winners. Like, that's, that's just. This guy comes up big in big moments and face offs. We have. We have dominated face off since he rolled up into this team. So it's. It. It makes these games so much easier to watch when the Rangers are controlling more of the play, which they are. I always hated listening to, like, broadcast people talk about face offs, but it, like, there's. There's a difference between winning 50% of face offs and winning like 65 and 70% of face offs. Like, it's. There is a difference there. Like, if you. If the difference is 50% to 55%. I don't really care about face offs, but when you're dramatically changing the face off atmosphere, it is. It is significant and awesome and great to watch.

49:02Andrew: Absolutely. I mean, they had really good face off games against Owen, Sound and Erie. Windsor was tough. Windsor's a really strong team up the set, up the middle. But yeah, Owen, Sound and Erie, they absolutely dominated in, in the. In the.

49:21Justin: Who's your first star?

49:22Andrew: My first star is the slump buster himself, Luca Romano. I. I was really excited for him. He had points in every game. He was just an important player game. And I just think that, yeah, like I talked about, like, maybe things haven't really gone his Way true, like on an individual level, on the stat sheet. But I think he's been a positive contributor. I think he's still a great player. I think the other thing that you, you sometimes need to take into context too is that scouts aren't always just looking for scorers. That's literally the truth. It cannot be overstated. Is what I'm learning is you look. I look back even when we were researching like the groat and that sort of thing is you look back and sometimes you see these guys not just in Kitchener, but in different junior markets. You look back and you see these guys with these outrageous point totals and you go, like, how is this guy not like an NHLer? Because there's a difference between putting up 130 and 68 games in, in the O as a 20 year old and then going on to play professional hockey and, and, or filling a role and learning how to play a role in junior hockey. And maybe you only have 40 points in 60 games, but you are a fantastic middle six guy. Like, you're just, that's, you can just, you can play up if you need to, but you're also really solid as a third line checker. Like, that's, that's, that's why you see guys, you know, you see Matthew Hlacar getting drafted in Layton, you know, the draft, you see, you know, you see guys who aren't necessarily setting the world on fire on the stat sheet getting drafted because role players make a living in the NHL, they make a living in the ahl and they make a living in Europe. There can only be. I know it sounds nuts, but there can only be so many, like skilled scorers because there's just, there's just not enough, there's not enough puck to go around.

51:21Justin: Yeah, it's Romano, man, I'm so happy to see him back. Going. So great weekend.

51:28Andrew: Yeah, he had a great weekend.

51:30Justin: There's, there's a Sarnia game and an Owen Sound game that will happen between now and when this podcast comes out. So we'll recap those next week. The two games on the docket for next week, Friday, January 30, at home at the Aud against Windsor. So we just saw Windsor and we see him again. And the Aud then on Wednesday, February 4, weird gap with no other weekend games, we go to London. So we see London. So obviously we just saw Windsor. Like, I expect that we will see another tight checking, intense game of two evenly matched teams. Windsor might have a little bit more of an ax to grind now that they lost this one. Against Kitchener in sort of our fully formed states that we're in now. So, so we'll see how, we'll see how they come out in that game on Friday. I don't know, I don't, I, I, yeah, I can't imagine that it's going to be like a blowout either way. This is, these two teams are too evenly matched for that.

52:30Andrew: No, yeah, yeah, no, they'll, that won't be a blowout and, and honestly I don't think either will be going to London. I think London is going to be ready for the return of O'Reilly and Woolley on the 4th. I think, you know, anytime you're going into London it can be tough. So I, I, this is a, yeah, it's gonna be a tough, tough.

52:56Justin: Luckily there's a nice little break in between so they're not doing this week is, is brutal. Like these two, all these back to back on the like one at home, one away games with back to backs. This is like a nice break in between games. So hopefully they're rested up mentally ready to go for that London game on Wednesday. And yeah, I mean we, we can, we can stake a claim in the season series by winning that game. So we're already had two to one in that and yeah, Sam O'Reilly and Jared Woolley might have something to prove. Jacob, you might too. I don't know who. Okay, that's, that's the games, of course. I came prepared to talk about our news from alumni. If you're watching on. I'm now talking away from my mic, but I'm wearing you.

53:55Andrew: All right, I'll do, I'll, I'll do descriptive. I'll do descriptive. Justin turns slowly revealing the name on the back of his home blue Rangers jersey. Bruce Devich. And he puts his head up in the air and now he's, he's rubbing his scalp. Oh, he's massaging his face into the screen. He's, he's bleeding profusely from his nose. None of these things are happening if you're listening but he is, he seems very like a questionable level of excitement. I think perhaps maybe for our family friendly audience here. Yes, lots of flames massaging going on over there, but yes, it was really exciting. I almost said Henry Hunter Burstevich scored his first NHL goal and it was a nice goal and he is continuing to have a really nice period.

54:56Justin: Nice team up with the team. It was a really good goal. You could tell that it, not just him but all of his line mates were really excited that he scored and he got his first goal and yeah, it was a good one. Like it was a, it was a bombshot from the point and I, I, I, I don't 100 know why, but he was up near the net and he tipped at home and it was great. It was like a really, I'm like, why was Brucevich up by the net? That's great. I'm happy he was there and got it in. So that was a, it was a nice goal and yeah, really happy for, for Hunter to get his first goal.

55:31Andrew: Yeah.

55:32Justin: Yeah.

55:33Andrew: It was funny because when I was shoveling today, I was thinking about Hunter Brstevich and Henry Burstevich and how we have to have a, a, a interview with Hunter Bruce. That's what I was thinking is that we have to schedule that interview hopefully during the Olympic break. And I'm just putting that out there into the ether and, and I was thinking Hunter and Henry and then I was thinking that there is a, it's going to be the super bowl and New England Patriots are in it and there's a New England Patriots player named Hunter Henry. And I was just like, like, have that, has that conversation ever happened between the two of them? I'm sure it has. You know, there's a, there's a guy with both our names, you know. Oh, I feel like.

56:14Justin: Aren't the Breastvich Bruce Devi the first David says. Aren't they in that?

56:20Andrew: No, they got to be Lions fans.

56:23Justin: I, I don't know.

56:24Andrew: They gotta be Detroit Lions fans. I will be mad. I will ask, I will ask if they're Detroit Lions fans and I will be upset if they're not because. Because the Lions were probably so bad for most of their lives and then now, well, not this year they weren't great, but last year they were phenomenal. So I hope that they got the, I hope they got the sports fan treatment that I get, which is really bad for a long time and very good for a little bit. Little tiny under prepare.

56:51Justin: Just talk about NFL with Andrew and I will go like this because I don't know anything about NFL, so. Yes. Yeah.

56:59Andrew: Well, he's a Michigan guy, Detroit guy. I gotta ask him about Detroit. Yeah, gotta ask him about Detroit sports.

57:04Justin: Long, long legacy there. Okay, that's it for this week. Yeah, we gotta thank Ken Born director of branding and marketing. Our prodigal producer, Liam. We gotta thank.

57:16Andrew: No,

57:24Justin: Now Tim is editing. He's also writing and directing and doing all the business with our. He like rewrote the intro song or re constructed it last week so it fit better with the timing of our of our comedy if you want to call it that at the beginning of the episode. So you know Tim and of course thank you to JJ for doing our voiceover at the beginning there. So good.

57:47Andrew: Yes, thank you our warrior and I

57:51Justin: almost called you Tim. Andrew, how do you find us on the social medias?

57:57Andrew: Maybe we get Tim to do this section too. You find us at Theodd Podcast on TikTok and on Instagram and just search Theod Pod or Kitchener Rangers on YouTube or Google and we're actually one of the first results. Now even if you just put in Kitchener Rangers which tells you that the algorithm is flawed, hugely flawed and you

58:17Justin: can find us on the interwebs theaudpod.com or you can email us at hello@theaudpod.com

58:24Andrew: the theaudpod.com theaudpod.com just to correct theaudpod.com

58:30Justin: thank you everyone for listening. Andrew as always you can find us

58:34Andrew: at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

58:38Justin: See at the odds it.