Episode 4: A Curséd Affair

0:12Justin: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas. Andrew.

0:28Andrew: What?

0:28Justin: Are we cursed?

0:30Andrew: Are we cursed or did we curse them?

0:32Justin: We might have brought our own curses to the Rangers.

0:36Andrew: We brought our Alberta curse.

0:40Justin: I don't know what to say.

0:41Andrew: There's not a lot to say after. After a game like that. I mean, a weekend like that, but especially game two.

0:47Justin: Yeah, game two. 28 years of OHL tracking does not have a blowout that high.

0:53Andrew: I was going to ask you that. If there's stats that say that that was the worst loss. The good thing is a loss is a loss.

1:01Justin: A loss is a loss. It only counts as zero points for the one game.

1:05Andrew: Yeah, you. You lost one game. It doesn't matter if you lost 2 to 1 or 12 to 2. It really doesn't. I mean, sure, you can make the argument that probably way down the line, one of the tiebreakers is goal differential, but, like, it's not going to happen. That's never. That's never, never come up. Yeah, it's not going to happen. And ultimately, I guess not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but the positive out of it is that's probably going to be worst loss of the season.

1:31Justin: Yeah, absolutely.

1:32Andrew: And you got it out of the way and you survived to play another day. And hopefully it motivates you not to

1:37Justin: always bring it back to the Flames, but I think it was 2008, 19. The Flames were really good that season. I mean, they got destroyed in the playoffs, but they were really good that season. And it started when the Penguins beat them nine to two, I think, on in October.

1:55Andrew: Sure.

1:56Justin: And then they came back and they won like 10 straight.

1:58Andrew: Sure. Look, just what happened with the Oilers last season.

2:01Justin: Oh, yeah.

2:01Andrew: They started off, it was. The sky was falling. Right. And then you win 16 in a row. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because you had to. But. And I'm not expecting the Rangers to go on a crazy run. I'm just saying that, like, sometimes you need to get spanked and you learn your lesson and you come out and you Sam O'Reilly know what? Maybe we're not the best team. Maybe we're not the most skilled Tommy Kut we are going to put in the work so that doesn't happen again. Because that didn't feel good.

2:29Justin: Yeah, I hope it didn't feel for good for the Aud was not good to watch.

2:33Andrew: Yeah, I know it wasn't good to watch because it, you know, there was some fights, but it didn't seem like there was a lot of fight in the actual playing.

2:42Justin: Let's maybe break down these two games. Weekend.

2:44Andrew: Sure.

2:45Justin: So, so we did play two games. We had the season in. Home opener. We were there.

2:49Andrew: We were there.

2:50Justin: It was actually super fun.

2:51Andrew: It was.

2:52Justin: Even though the game itself wasn't the

2:54Andrew: greatest world, it was kind of a snooze fest.

2:56Justin: It was a little snoozy. The energy was still super high in the Aud It was, it was great.

3:01Andrew: People were excited.

3:02Justin: It was fun.

3:02Andrew: Kitchener was excited. People walking in there. It felt great to walk in there.

3:06Justin: Yeah. I, I, I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh, it just feels like we're home. Yeah. It felt good.

3:11Andrew: And, and I think we've kind of found our, our crow's nest. Our seats.

3:16Justin: I love our seats.

3:16Andrew: I know, it's great.

3:17Justin: The nosebleeds. The nose. Sorry. The press. The press.

3:20Andrew: The press box.

3:20Justin: the AudPod press box. the Aud

3:24Andrew: the AudPod press box. That's exactly what it is. We've got three extra seats there too.

3:28Justin: Yeah. If anybody wants. Oh yeah, for VIPs. We'll, we'll grab those X3 seats.

3:33Andrew: Yeah.

3:35Justin: Okay. So the, the home opener we played the, the Erie Otters, which by the

3:40Andrew: way, new uniforms for Eerie.

3:41Justin: Yeah.

3:42Andrew: Look super clean. Yeah, I like the Soo They look good.

3:45Justin: Yeah, it's good. The yellow with the, that dark navy blue. Yeah, it's almost like a purpley blue.

3:50Andrew: Yeah.

3:50Justin: Really nice.

3:51Andrew: It's nice.

3:51Justin: Okay. We lost five to two.

3:54Andrew: Yeah, they lost. But there was Empty Netter. It kind of felt like one of those games you watch where they didn't get going until they were scored on.

4:03Justin: Yeah.

4:03Andrew: And the Aud was like you were constantly trying to dig out of that hole.

4:06Justin: Y.

4:06Andrew: Like if you took away falling into that hole, it was fairly even game.

4:10Justin: Yep. And there was a couple, there was a couple opportunities where it was like almost tied.

4:14Andrew: It was. Yeah, it's true. They got close and then they gave one up. And then that was another two goal game again. Right.

4:19Justin: And then there was the road game the next day on Saturday, which was

4:24Andrew: a game that happened.

4:25Justin: It happened. They played the Windsor Spitfires and the Rangers got Spitfired. Did they play the Aud a bit roasted.

4:32Andrew: They were there. But did they play them is the question.

4:36Justin: They showed up, they were present.

4:38Andrew: But did they lay the controller down?

4:41Justin: Yeah. It feels like maybe they ran out of batteries.

4:43Andrew: Felt like. Yeah, Felt like maybe they left the Xbox on.

4:46Justin: So just so we can. We've said it out loud. They lost 12.

4:50Andrew: 2. 12 to 2. It was 5 to 1 after 1, 8 to 2 after 2. And I remember thinking, they'll probably call off the dogs now. And that'll.

5:00Justin: It'll probably.

5:00Andrew: That'll probably be like 8 to 2 or, you know, 8 to 3 or whatever. For final. No, no. Things just got a lot worse from there.

5:09Justin: Okay, so let's. Let's break down the first game. So when we're talking about games recapping, we're going to do the good, the bad, and the ugly. And we just got demonetized.

5:20Andrew: No, because I did it with my voice.

5:22Justin: Oh.

5:24Andrew: It was for sure off key. It's called. It's not off key. It's called a.

5:28Justin: Sound like do, do, do.

5:33Andrew: All right, let's break down the first game.

5:35Justin: Okay. The good.

5:37Andrew: The good.

5:37Justin: I. I'm going to start with the good. We got some good. We had what. We had some good moments in this game. It wasn't. It wasn't all bad.

5:43Andrew: No.

5:44Justin: So Jackson Parsons, he's been our guy. He had some pretty great stops to start this game. The first 10 minutes, we can get into the. The bad and the ugly here, but the first 10 minutes, there were some incredible shots against him.

5:58Andrew: That's true. There were some really high danger chances early on.

6:01Justin: And he stood so tall.

6:03Andrew: He.

6:04Justin: He was always square to his guy.

6:06Andrew: The.

6:06Justin: The first goal against actually was the third shot in a row. Yeah, right. The same guy.

6:12Andrew: It was a double rebound, shorthanded semi breakaway, like.

6:16Justin: Yeah, he saved the first one. He got the rebound and then he was way out of position and there was like, no hope for him.

6:23Andrew: I've got a good.

6:24Justin: Oh, you got it good.

6:25Andrew: I've got a good. I thought Cameron Arquette played really well considering he's being asked to play in a position that he wasn't last year. So he's being asked. He's one of the guys that I think is getting less overager I'm seeing online some buzz around like Tanner Lam playing more and Mjvic and know different guys like that. But Cameron Arquette is being asked to do some stuff that he wasn't asked to do last year.

6:49Justin: He.

6:49Andrew: Right before the shorthanded goal, he hit the post on. On the power play and he had the first goal this season. Yeah. So I think all in all, he looks like a strong player this year for the Rangers and he's going to be a leader. He's one of our many Camerons.

7:02Justin: So many Camerons.

7:04Andrew: He honestly one of many Arettes.

7:06Justin: We should. We should just start chanting Cameron.

7:09Andrew: Cam. Someone is going to feel, feel good about it.

7:13Justin: There's probably a Cameron on the, on, on every line.

7:16Andrew: Yeah. What's your.

7:19Justin: What's your bad?

7:20Andrew: Getting consistently outplayed along the boards, turning the puck over, which causes odd man rushes and everything else. Going into the corners and fighting and playing that dirty, gritty game and trying to dig out pucks. It's not even that. That's not even. What's happening is the puck is going along the boards and. And it's just. It's literally popping out and play is going the other way. It's weak efforts along the boards. You know, like, that was not part of this team's DNA last year. No, absolutely not. We sat along the glass for a game and yeah, it was a rough game. It was up against the glass, it was pushing and there was all sorts of grinding happening, but you got to. You have to grind out along the boards. You have to. Right. Like you ha. You have to. When teams are this big and strong. Yeah, everyone is big and strong. So you have to want it more in those dirty areas.

8:13Justin: I still have PTSD from that game that we sat against the glass. Big guys being thrown against.

8:18Andrew: Yeah, yeah.

8:19Justin: I mean, my bad is pretty generic. That game was lethargic.

8:22Andrew: Yeah.

8:22Justin: There was the second period you could have slept through and you didn't miss anything.

8:26Andrew: Honestly, I. Yeah, I drafted an Andrew fantasy hockey team during the second period because I'm bad at scheduling. I missed nothing.

8:34Justin: No, you didn't.

8:35Andrew: There's not a single note that I would have taken.

8:37Justin: No. The ugly.

8:38Andrew: Well, honestly, it goes back to. What was your good? Was Parsons playing well? He gives up that first goal shorthanded. So it's that power play. There was some chances, sure, but it was mostly sleepy. It was. There wasn't a lot of intensity. You got five minutes. You got to cycle the puck, you got to hem them in. You got to get that line on the ice. Tired. You're not a high skill team per se. Even if you are, you're probably not going to score more than a couple goals on a five minute power play. Yeah, penalty killing. And goaltenders are just too good nowadays. If you get guys tired, that's how you score. And if you have five minutes to trap guys in there, that's how you score. Right. You don't necessarily need to set up the perfect shot because you don't have that. Elena's goal on the power play was perfect positioning. He's right there to get it. That was good. That's not always Going to happen. So sometimes when you have that opportunity early in the game to kind of like break down a line there, you have to take that.

9:36Justin: Yeah, I agree.

9:36Andrew: You have to jump on that and you have to Sam O'Reilly just going to outwork you for five minutes and even if a guy gets released from the box, we're going to score. As he's trying to skate into the zone and save you. It's too long for you to be unman. Undermanned to go down the ice at the. Aud was towards the end of that power play that they scored.

9:54Justin: It's like 38 seconds left in the

9:55Andrew: power play and it's a. It's an ugly turnover. And at the blue line, which has been a theme, no back checking effort from the whole team once a guy's gone, which I understand, sometimes a guy is gone. But you got to move your feet for the film. You go into the film the next day and you look at it and, and coach can see you not skate. If Parsons makes that save twice and he still gets the puck, that's on the whole team.

10:19Justin: Yeah. And. And my ugly was. It's really just exactly the, the issues that happened in the neutral zone. There was just nobody there. Erie got the puck in their defensive zone and just skated right to our blue line.

10:32Andrew: Yeah.

10:32Justin: Every time. The whole game.

10:34Andrew: They were.

10:34Justin: They were through all the way.

10:35Andrew: Yeah. The transitional play was night and day.

10:37Justin: Yeah.

10:38Andrew: Right. Yuri looked like a team that was in sync and o' Rangers looked like a team that were not skating as hard as I think they can. And they were making passes that aren't going to help you.

10:51Justin: We've talked about it already.

10:52Andrew: Game two A shellacking. They might, you might say shellacking a modern day shellacking. Kids won't know what a shellacking is, but I can tell you if you watch the game on Saturday night, that's a shellacking.

11:05Justin: You've experienced it. I mean, my good is pretty simple. The Romano bar down beauty in the second period was great. It was like. That was a. That was a well set up play. And my God, did he pick his spot. And he just nailed it.

11:17Andrew: He's got the skill. He's got this skill we were talking about. He's one of the guys that needs to take a jump.

11:22Justin: Yep.

11:22Andrew: To take a step. He's being counted on it looks like he has that ability.

11:26Justin: That was a breath of fresh air. In the moments of despair of that game. It was like, oh, okay, okay.

11:32Andrew: There's.

11:32Justin: There's Optimism. There's hope.

11:34Andrew: It's like something you're hitting on the way down as you fall.

11:37Justin: What did you see that was good?

11:38Andrew: The good, though, was Elynas, I think, is legit. I think as you're looking for bright spots, the darkest of corners. Just judging from the moments he's flashed in both games, I think he could actually lead the team in points. I now. I don't know how many points that's going to be if you know, we're looking at a squad that is going to struggle out of the gates. But, like, he. He does look like a leader. Absolutely offensively, and he just looks like he drives the play. Yeah, I think that that's a. That's a positive.

12:11Justin: And I think the. The fact that we were talking earlier that there was like, we were. We were lacking some center depth, and it's like, at least we got Romano and Elena.

12:20Andrew: Exactly.

12:20Justin: We feel pretty confident in those two abilities.

12:23Andrew: Suddenly I feel good about center.

12:24Justin: Okay, the bad. What'd you got for the bad?

12:26Andrew: Basically, when the puck dropped and then the horn went. The moments in between.

12:32Justin: Yeah, the horn at the 60 Minutes.

12:34Andrew: Yeah, the final horn. Yeah. Pretty much everything in between, with the exception of a couple moments. It's just my bad category. It was too much. Belches looks unbelievably elite. He looks like he is going to be the first overall pick in a couple of years.

12:50Justin: Yeah.

12:50Andrew: He's new and he's putting up six points on you.

12:54Justin: That's bad.

12:55Andrew: It's bad. I know he's. He's a monster. I know he's Eric Lindross. He's fast. Eric Lindros.

13:00Justin: It's terrifying. He scored as many goals as Kitchener scored this weekend in the game against Kitcher.

13:07Andrew: Yeah. And had two assists in a fight

13:08Justin: on top of that. Yeah. Yeah. Because he got a. He got a hat trick and a Gordie Howe hat trick.

13:13Andrew: Yes, I saw. Mr. Farwell tweeted that.

13:15Justin: Yeah. Right.

13:16Andrew: Yeah.

13:16Justin: Yeah. I know that there's a true ugly here that I'm going to let you get to, because I know you got it prepped. My ugly is just. I feel bad. So bad for Jason Schaubel Like, yeah, you know, it was. It was probably the right call to pull Parsons.

13:29Andrew: Oh, it for sure is like, is. I mean, like, he got run out

13:32Justin: of the crease the first 100%, but it's like. It's still like he got piled on. There was nobody helping him.

13:38Andrew: Oh, no, it was.

13:39Justin: He got kind of hung out to dry in his first.

13:41Andrew: I think It's a keep your head up kid kind of mess. I hope so. It's not.

13:48Justin: That was not on him.

13:50Andrew: An ugly. Welcome to the league. You got that out of the way.

13:53Justin: Yeah.

13:53Andrew: Forget about it. That's only go up from here if you want to. If you want to make it and you want to be a guy, you forget about that. Because I think everybody's had that, and he's probably had that in his career before. It just stings, especially when you come in and there's zero pressure because you're already down 5:1. You know what I mean? It probably stings to be like, oh, well, it got worse. A guy went off for six points. Like, it's. And he looks like a freak. It's. Just keep your head up and you'll be fine.

14:19Justin: Okay. What's your ugly. That's the ugly of ugly.

14:23Andrew: The ugly of ugly. Our beloved looked like he was making a beautiful zone entry and a Windsor Spitfires stepped up to try and make a hit and was about to just get walked around. And then the old knee got out there, which I thought looked pretty cut and dry as that knee got out there to stop or impede the player that was carrying the puck. Now, here's the thing. I don't know that player and his history from a hole in the ground, so whatever. But you got to be responsible for your body and your stick and everything.

15:03Justin: Your knees.

15:03Andrew: Your knees especially. And I think that not only was it ugly that that happened and did a colo. Was obviously injured, which is very bad for the team. I mean, him and Andonovsky, I think, are on the ice all the time.

15:18Justin: Yeah, they. They been playing a lot of minutes, crazy minutes.

15:22Andrew: But, like, knee on knee looked pretty obvious. He's coming in. It's. It's obvious he. He was getting beat. It would be different if he was going in and it was incidental, but he was getting beat.

15:32Justin: No, that knee came. That knee came flying for him.

15:35Andrew: Yeah. And he got him. And the Aud kind of set the tone because the Aud was. It didn't result in anything positive for the Rangers. The Rangers. I didn't feel like they stepped up to scrap on behalf of D. It was just kind of like, all right, we'll take our power play and then we'll get scored on.

15:51Justin: Unfortunately, it wasn't the only neon knee we saw this weekend. And also including a former Kitchener Rangers Yes.

16:00Andrew: So let's transition to the. To Andrew NHL moment of the week. Unfortunately, Patrick Lyona season is over. Possibly could be worse. Yeah. It could be worse than that, which is scary.

16:10Justin: I mean, we don't. We don't know. Don't know what the diagnosis is yet.

16:13Andrew: The moment that we're talking about is Patrick Ly on his own entry. Once again, coming in, it wasn't so much that he had a guy beat. It was different.

16:20Justin: Y.

16:21Andrew: There was an intent to make contact with Cedric Par, who was make. Who's the Leafs player. But once again, I just don't understand anybody defending this is. You have to be responsible for your body as much as the stick. Yes. Lion's got his legs. He's gliding and the Aud But. But go back and watch it. Par's legs are as wide as line A. The NHL wants to get rid of that open ice head. They do. But it's still going to happen from time to time. Yeah.

16:46Justin: Par. I'm assuming he's trying to prove himself. He was going. He got. Got a lot of adrenaline. He's got a lot of excitement and whatever. But it's just. You're using your body in the wrong

16:57Andrew: way, and you'll never know if. If he meant to do it or he didn't do it. That's. That's stupid to argue. So the real moment comes afterwards with former Kitchener Rangers Arbor Jackey.

17:07Justin: Yeah.

17:08Andrew: All right. And it's heat of the moment. Your big free agent signing that you're probably supposed to protect, which I have. That's his job. That's why he's in the league making money. He sees that. And he's already wired. Years and years and years and years of being wired of like, I have to go and take care of business now. And he goes and does what many are comparing to Todd Bertuzzi, which I don't really agree with, because it's the heat of the game. Heat of the moment. I do see the physical similarities. Par wanted no part of it, which I can understand. Tab Bertuzzi had three weeks to think about what he was going to do to Steve Moore. Yeah. Jacky did it in the heat of the moment. And Jack Ey is that guy. He is the enforcer.

17:49Justin: Yeah. Right.

17:49Andrew: Bertuzzi was a vet who should know better.

17:52Justin: Does.

17:52Andrew: Should Jacky know better? Sure. But hockey culture has that kid programmed. Yeah.

17:59Justin: You know, Stands up for. For his stars.

18:02Andrew: Stand up for your stars. Take care of business. So ultimately, I think it's all just. It's just very unfortunate.

18:07Justin: Yeah.

18:07Andrew: I think somebody got assaulted. I think somebody got really angry, and I think somebody got really injured. And it's just a Black eye for preseason hockey.

18:17Justin: Yeah. Preseason. We haven't. The NHL has not started no. Their regular games yet.

18:22Andrew: So this is bad thing. And I think anybody trying to take a hard stand on who. Who's right and who's wrong and what's good and what's bad and what should be and what shouldn't be should just relax and realize that all around it was just the bad part of hockey.

18:35Justin: Maybe back to the light side of things.

18:37Andrew: The light side.

18:38Justin: Let's preview the up. We have some now. We have quite a number of upcoming games. We do now in our next episode.

18:44Andrew: Yeah. We're excited.

18:45Justin: We got a triple header this week. I didn't even know this was possible.

18:47Andrew: I didn't know either. That's tough.

18:49Justin: Yeah. So we got. We got Friday night at home against Flint.

18:53Andrew: Nice.

18:54Justin: Then. Then we got Saturday away in Owen Sound.

18:57Andrew: Okay.

18:58Justin: And then we got Sunday at home against Guelph.

19:01Andrew: All right.

19:02Justin: And the Aud then we got a couple days off.

19:04Andrew: Yeah.

19:05Justin: And then Wednesday we are in Flint.

19:08Andrew: Okay.

19:09Justin: Playing Flint again.

19:09Andrew: All right. So a couple games against Flint. And then, you know, the highway. The battle of Highway 7 with. With Guelph and Owen Sound.

19:17Justin: The. I don't know much about these teams, so I thought I'd look up a little bit about. About the three. The three teams that we're facing this week. Flint is. I think maybe preseason wise, they were a bit of a dark horse on how good they're going to be this season.

19:30Andrew: Right.

19:30Justin: They made a pretty massive trade with the Sudbury Wolves for some of their sort of top end guys. There was four players that came from Sudbury to Flint.

19:41Andrew: They're going for it.

19:42Justin: They're going for it. Flint traded away two of their younger prospect guys and nine draft picks. We've talked about nine draft picks.

19:51Andrew: Nine draft picks.

19:52Justin: Yeah. That's insane.

19:53Andrew: And not a. You can't trade a first. So I have to trade you nine of the other ones.

19:58Justin: Yeah. It's a lot of seconds in there. So Flint has only played London and destroyed London.

20:04Andrew: Wow.

20:05Justin: Seven to four.

20:06Andrew: Which we like.

20:07Justin: We like.

20:08Andrew: I mean, it's really this early in the season. It doesn't matter because it's all divisional and it's not good for anybody to get points. But we like it.

20:16Justin: We like London losing. London did beat them, but it was a closer match. So they've played each other twice now, but that's all they've played. Well, it's good.

20:23Andrew: At least they split points, I guess.

20:25Justin: I don't know.

20:26Andrew: Spin it positively.

20:27Justin: Yeah, let's spin it positively after. After we play Flint the first time we play Owen Sound. Owen Sound and Guelph have played their two games against each other.

20:37Andrew: Right.

20:37Justin: And Owen Sound lost both of them to Guelph.

20:39Andrew: Fairly close games.

20:40Justin: Yeah, they were close games. They were tight. Owen Sound kind of looks like they're in a bit of a rebuilding phase right now. So I, I think there's going to be a maybe on paper, Kitchner has maybe a couple more stars or studs on the lineup than. Than Owen Sound, but I think overall makeup pretty close.

20:56Andrew: So it's. It's a game that. Let's Sam O'Reilly going into it hoping for a 2, 2 split in these next four games. Let's just Sam O'Reilly think we have to keep temper our expectations after 12 to 2 and 5 to 2. Yeah. Which I think is totally fine this early in the season because I think things can turn around. Owen Sound basically has to be one

21:13Justin: of those wins we have to win against. Yeah, I think, I think if we're going to be competitive at all, like those are the types of teams that we have to beat in these.

21:21Andrew: Owen Sound is a, is a. Is a team that you have to beat in these next four games just to feel good about yourself.

21:27Justin: And Guelph. Guelph, I think is there may be a little bit even more evenly matched against Kitchener. Like they have notable guys on their team.

21:34Andrew: They're always tough. I feel like that's just like a good organization. It seems like.

21:37Justin: Yeah, it seems like one. One of the guys that they have though, might not be a threat for Kitchener in this week because he is

21:43Andrew: still up with Philadelphia Jet Lachenko.

21:46Justin: So he's been. He's been playing third line minutes with Philadelphia.

21:49Andrew: That's incredible. So there's a good chance that he'll play those nine NHL games and then they'll make a decision.

21:54Justin: Maybe.

21:54Andrew: Maybe. Or maybe he ends up back because the last time we did this, we cursed Carson Rakoff 100.

22:00Justin: He came back and we'd be 2

22:01Andrew: for 2 now if he just comes right back.

22:03Justin: I mean, it seems like he's playing more meaningful minutes than anyone else I've seen in the OHL that's been up in training camps.

22:09Andrew: Okay. I saw him play last year. Yeah. In Guelph.

22:11Justin: Oh, yeah, he's good.

22:12Andrew: Yeah, he's a strong player.

22:13Justin: Yeah. If he's back, he's. He's a real threat for us. Like he's. He's a good. He's a good player. The other guy that they have is Cam Allen, he drafted by the Capitals, so he was up at training camp. He's back. He's back now with Guelph. He. He seems highly touted. I, you know, I don't. I don't know how to read too deep into their. Their histories. Last season, he had nine points in 25 games. He already has four points in two games this year. Okay.

22:36Andrew: So he took a step.

22:36Justin: He took a stab. And. And people have been talking about him.

22:39Andrew: Okay.

22:40Justin: He's. He's a defenseman. He seems like he's a guy who's going to get some points. So probably Cameron Reid like, comparable.

22:48Andrew: Okay.

22:48Justin: At this point, excited to see these guys. So a couple guys that we can like, kind of look and compare and see how they do against each other,

22:54Andrew: which is a good segue. Just to quickly talk about Belt just being incredibly elite.

22:59Justin: Yeah, we didn't. We didn't really talk about him.

23:01Andrew: We didn't really talk about him, and

23:02Justin: I think we just need to spotlight that.

23:04Andrew: That was unbelievable.

23:05Justin: Unfortunately, we were at the. The. The wrong end of that beating.

23:09Andrew: It's true.

23:10Justin: You do have to remember, like, I've seen some Connor McDavid games where I'm like, I hate what is happening to my team. You're on the wrong end of those. Yeah. I don't know what that feels like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

23:23Andrew: I guess I'm spoiled that way. Could you imagine what it was like to see him with Erie?

23:27Justin: Maybe we did just see what it was like when McDavid played in the

23:31Andrew: OHS, because honestly, we saw Francisco Pinell now in the A with the Kings organization, and he looked like a man amongst boys. And I remember thinking when Shane Wright came to town, Windsor, a couple years ago in the playoffs, that he was going to be, like, unbelievable, super underwhelming. Pinelli looked like a, like, monster. Now, obviously, Shane Wright is getting better and playing. So it's interesting to see how guys, the step between.

23:58Justin: The step between the OHL and even the AHL seems like it's a pretty big step. Like, there is an adjustment period that is needed for sure.

24:05Andrew: And I'm wondering if there's not a type of player that hits their stride in the O and then doesn't seem to be able. Now, I'm not insinuating this about Penelli because he's very young. I'm just saying that maybe there's a type of player that doesn't have an extra gear after that just gets to the AHL or the ECHL or whatever. And it's like this is as good and as, as powerful of a player I am. It's just interesting to be watching these young 16 year olds who are already so elite and I, I'm interested now that we're really following it to see who's able to take that step in three years time, four years time.

24:42Justin: Yeah. Well, it'll be even interesting to see where, yeah, like Carson Rakoff and some of these guys who went this last year, like how long does it take them to break Andrew. And the Aud is that ceiling?

24:53Andrew: I'm still waiting to like hit my, my prime. You know, I, I've, I feel good about this year though I did say that about 2020 as well. And now it's just suddenly 24.

25:06Justin: So we are cursed. The theme of this episode is it's us. So we got a couple thank yous.

25:10Andrew: We do.

25:11Justin: Ken, Born as always for our awesome logo.

25:13Andrew: Logo's great Twitter banner. Even better.

25:15Justin: Our Twitter banner is really good.

25:17Andrew: Yeah.

25:17Justin: We want to throw out our thank you to our prodigal producer, Liam.

25:20Andrew: Oh yeah, the phenom.

25:22Justin: And then also we're back at the Kitchener Public Library this week.

25:25Andrew: We are.

25:25Justin: So thank you to them for the room, a lovely recording studio.

25:28Andrew: Thank you so much. Check us out on social media, on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok at TheAudPodcast. If you want to email us to give us a story or a historical fact about the Aud or the Kitchener Rangers or Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge, email us@theaudpodcastmail.com that's it. That's it.

25:51Justin: You know what, you're going to have

25:52Andrew: to probably catch us over at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

25:56Justin: See you at the Aud

26:00Andrew: Sam.