Episode 66: Dogfight

0:00Justin: Hey, Andrew.

0:01Andrew: Hey, Justin.

0:03Justin: Round three starts on Friday.

0:06Andrew: Halfway to the ship. Halfway. Eight wins down, eight to go.

0:16Justin: Welcome to the AudPod, where we're talking Kitchener Rangers hockey with the AudBalls themselves, Andrew and Justin. Take it away, fellas. I'm just happy that we're not facing another. It's hard to make analogies about getting rid of the animals.

0:36Andrew: That's true.

0:36Clip: We did.

0:37Andrew: We. We did have a brainstorming session to talk about what our theme was for the COVID of the episode with the dogs, with the greyhounds. And there was a lot of. There was a lot of animal violence that we didn't want to get into. We didn't want to get animals.

0:51Justin: We. And we're both dog people, so.

0:53Andrew: Yeah, I love dogs.

0:55Justin: Tim is also a dog person. So we're just like. The pod is a real dog friendly place. Even greyhounds specifically generally like the Soo Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.

1:06Andrew: Oh, dear. But I did love, I did love the fact that the Spitfire Emporium that closed in Kitchener, right next to KW Surplus, the world famous KW Surplus. They took down the Spitfire this week off the building that's been there since I moved here. And I live, you know, fairly close to the Spitfire Fire Emporium. Never was there when it was open. I don't know if it was open while I lived here, but I always wondered, I thought it was strange that they just left behind the Spitfire and this week they took it down. So if that's not a good omen, I don't know what it is.

1:43Justin: They could have just waited till the end of the week. We, the Rangers would have taken it down for them.

1:47Andrew: Whoa. Shots fired.

1:54Justin: Okay, so we just finished the series. We should, we should. Maybe we've had a couple days to gestate about this, about this previous series against the Greyhounds. Andrew, what, what are your final thoughts on the. On the Soo Greyhounds series against the Kitchener Rangers?

2:09Andrew: I think the Soo was a good team, not a great team, and I think the Rangers are a great team. And I don't want to just boil it down to like that basic breakdown, but realistically, that's what it was. It was a fifth seed that deserved a fifth seed. You know, they took down the fourth seed. That's always a toss up, but, you know, that fourth seed had kind of punted. We know the London Knights, they kind of punted a little bit. And you know, the Soo is a tough place to play. They took a game from Kitchener in the Soo I think it was mostly because they wore those black and Red uniforms that are really nice, really cool.

2:48Justin: Yeah.

2:48Andrew: But I think ultimately, yeah, it was a good team that fell victim to an elite team that's built for a championship. And the Soo you know, Brady Martin couldn't get going. Huge props to the team defense and Christian Kirsch in Kitchener. And I think that like they were a little bit outmatched at the coaching level too. I think that Rangers were obviously a better coach through that series as well. So ultimately, you know, they had, you know, the elite goaltender and they had some really high end talent, but they didn't have the cohesive team that the Rangers do.

3:25Justin: Yeah, I, I totally agree. I think that the, the, the Rangers were as you said about the coaching. I think that was, that was my big takeaway too is that the Rangers are an adaptive team. We have seen a few things sort of struggle in these playoffs. Like I think, you know, our power play has felt a little, you know, it not, not bad, but just like it's been a little predictable. When you're playing a team four or five times in a row. There's a, there's a few things like that, but coaching wise, like I think the, the juice box boys have, have done a great job at taking care of, yeah, the, the biggest threats on the ice. So they, everybody has their assignments, they understand them, everybody's bought into the team system. You can tell all that because they know where each other's going to be. You know, we saw some pretty amazing flyby passes, one touch passes, stuff like that. It's just, that's, that's awareness of your, of your teammates and understanding the systems that you're playing and, and that's really where that comes about. So this is, it's been really nice to see the team sort of gel. I was a little bit concerned about that. When you know, you make lots of trade deadline deals, it's, you don't necessarily know how everyone's going to fit in. Obviously Dylan Edwards and Sam O'Reilly and Jared Woolley and Gabriel, I almost called him Ben Sherrod. Gabriel Sherrod have all like fit into the team so, so well, like they, they've totally bought in. They've totally joined this team. You know, sometimes I even Forget that Sam O'Reilly and Jared Worley were once London Knights. Like, that's, I'm past that already. So, you know, this is. Except for I guess this moment. But yeah, but it is nice to see the team gelling so well together.

5:07Andrew: You mentioned some really nice plays. The team knew when to be aggressive. They knew when to kind of sit back. They didn't let it get in their heads. When they lost that game four when they probably could have won that game four it was. And even when that first goal went in in game five in less than a minute's time, that didn't seem to bother this team. So this team has faced adversity already in, in so many ways in the first two series as much as you can with an 8 and 1 record. I need to especially highlight that incredible pass and, and finish Beleki to Edwards. Oh yeah, I think that's probably the play of the playoffs so far. And you know what, I think that's the early contender for Apple of the year.

5:55Justin: Oh yeah, for sure. For the mid year awards for sure.

5:58Andrew: Well, I think Beleki actually has two contenders for Apple of the year because he had that one touch that was like a backhand one touch and then he has this one that he's getting hip checked and he still completes it. So incredible player going to get drafted higher than anyone would have projected at the beginning of the season for sure. It's really exciting and ultimately I just think that this team is built to beat Windsor. Windsor's a great team as well. It's going to be a dog fight but it's not.

6:29Justin: I see what you did there. Right.

6:31Andrew: But it's not a team that they can't handle if they play their best hockey. They can beat Windsor if they play their best hockey. The goalie is incredible in Windsor. He's having an incredible year. But we've been here before. We've seen goalies that are having playing out of their minds. It all comes down to taking advantage of your opportunities when they're given to you. So power play needs to click. Jack Pridham needs to score. Yes, he's got some assists but like now is the time where it's like now we need not just the depth scoring but we need the top line scoring. Oh, we've heard that Luke Ellinas is cleared for contact. I don't know if that means that he will be back game one but he is cleared for contact. So if you can add a Luke Ellinas even if it's, it's game three, you can add a Luke Ellinas or game five. God forbid that there's a game five

7:27Justin: or you have him game one but you have to work him in.

7:30Andrew: Yes.

7:30Justin: Like maybe he's not playing very much in those first couple games but yeah,

7:34Andrew: well I mean it's conference finals so he's got to get up to Game speed. But he is a gamer. That is the type of player he is. And how fitting is it that he potentially returns against the team whose soul he took in the reverse sweep overtime game seven winner last year?

7:53Justin: Because of exactly what you just said last year. Elena's stealing their soul. We know that Windsor is out for blood this year. This is not going to be an easy series. I think any expectation of less than seven games is an absurd way to think about this series. We're going in to dominate the series. We're going in to win this series. I think we have a better team. I'm biased. I still think we have a better team, even if I try and take my bias off. But this is going to be a fight. This is going to be a real battle of a series. For sure. Windsor is a good team. We, we talked about this at the, Aud the, in our preview of the Saginaw or sorry, of the Soo series. We talked about how Saginaw had one of the best lines in hockey and the Rangers have taken that, dealt with that. We talked about sue having one of the best goaltenders in hockey or at least in the, in the ohl and obviously we were able to take care of that. And so now, you know, Windsor's a more complete team. That's the next boss battle.

8:54Andrew: They have both, they have, and, and they have depth as well. So they do.

8:59Justin: And they have.

8:59Andrew: And they have great coaching. So it's. They have everything that you'd need to beat this Rangers Tommy Kut I do think even without my, you know, red, white and blue colored glasses on, I do think the Rangers are the. Yeah, there are the better team.

9:17Justin: Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So I think, I think this is going to be great. I mean, obviously, you know, we don't have to get into the minutiae of Windsor's lines, but Windsor has some pretty crazy players on their team. So like you said, Jack Pridham, you know, I think that's the AudPod call. Jack Pridham is positively regressing in goals this series.

9:37Andrew: Definitely.

9:38Justin: This is, this is going to be an outrageous Jack Pridham goal scoring event. That's what I foresee.

9:45Andrew: Yes. And Luke, and Luke Ellen is. If he gets back in the lineup, I guarantee he is going to score a big goal. We're going to have a point.

9:55Justin: Yeah. At some point we're going to just play this clip of Andrew saying that with Luke, Elena's doing the thing.

10:01Andrew: That'll just be the clip. And there'll be nothing else.

10:04Justin: There'll be nothing else.

10:06Andrew: We're gonna.

10:07Justin: So stay tuned. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about the series. I was, I was excited about the Soo series. It did live up to the hype, obviously. I wish I, I never want the Rangers to lose a game, but it was a real series where it felt like Saginaw was not a real series. The Saginaw almost squeaked one out, but it didn't feel the same in any way. Sue was, is like, was a good team. They, yeah, no doubt about it. They didn't have the depth, but they were a good team and we can't take that away from them. They, they were, they were good. They, they did show up. They, they gave the Rangers a run for their money a couple nights. So that's, that was serious. Obviously the. I agree 100% with what you said, Sue. Good team. Rangers. Great team. Windsor.

10:52Rita: Great team.

10:53Andrew: Exactly. And, and, and, and realistically, the suit could have went, could have won more than one game.

10:59Justin: Yeah.

10:59Andrew: But the Rangers had to play their best and they did. And they only got one game off them because like we said, they weren't a match for the Rangers. If the Rangers played extremely well, if the Rangers took their foot off the pedal, well, they lost the game. That's what we saw. The one time we saw the Rangers lift their foot off the gas, they lost. So that was a good Tommy Kut yeah, with Windsor, it's just going to be a heavyweight matchup. You've got, you know, you've got the two heavyweight champion boxers who are, who are going to unify the Western Conference title is what I'll call it. And, and I think honestly, either team could win this. It, it could go either way. So Rangers fans need to be on the edge of their seat. I know I will be and I believe in this team and I believe that they will gut it out. But be prepared to have some scared moments throughout this series.

11:51Justin: The Rangers need all of our support. All of it, all of it. All the positive vibes to the Rangers for this series.

11:59Andrew: Get down there and cheer as loud as you've ever cheered because that's what we need. We need to get inside their goalies head. I want to hear chants and jeers, I want to hear cheers, I want to hear booze. And you know what, like the bottom line is there's going to be some calls you don't like. That's fair. But let's, let's just go hard with the noise. If it's refs, you, you suck. Whatever, just make it loud. That's all I want I want energy, energy, energy so that the Rangers in the Aud are just like, you know, willed to win.

12:31Justin: Yeah. Energy positive. I think. Let's, let's. Let's lean positive on that.

12:36Andrew: Let's lean positive.

12:37Justin: Yeah. Yeah.

12:38Andrew: There's going to be bad calls. It's going to happen.

12:41Justin: All right, so the Windsor series kicks off Friday, April 24 at 7pm in Kitchener. Because we have home ice advantage for the Andrew Western Conference.

12:55Andrew: I mean, we're definitely, we're definitely rooting for Barry right now because Branford and. And Kitchener meet in the finals will suddenly only have, you know, two or three games at home, whereas Barry would be still a lower seed. So go Barry. Go Kitchener.

13:12Justin: Yeah. I think the OHL has really, because we're in the number one seed, we get to choose when our games are because we start every series Friday night at home, which I really appreciate. Last year's playoffs was a. Was a hot mess of. I, I have no idea when these games are going to be, but these are very consistent and I love it. You're making the AudPod life easy. Okay, now we are jumping into last week. We took. Or when was it on the, on the last mini episode, the last car episode, Game five. We. We said, hey, we have a. We have a voicemail.

13:52Clip: We.

13:53Justin: Did Andrew say more about the voicemail? I'm.

13:56Andrew: I'm. I'm really excited. We added a voicemail feature to our website and some of you responded. We asked for your hot takes, your spicy takes, or just if you wanted to drop in and say hi. So we're going to keep that feature up there. Obviously between recordings. We won't necessarily be able to put every voicemail on every pod, but we are looking forward to hearing from you. So please stop by at any time and drop us a voicemail. And these are the first four voicemails that made it onto the pod. So we're pretty excited about sharing these with you.

14:34Justin: Indeed. Okay, the first one up is from Andrew mother in law, Rita, which I love.

14:44Andrew: Yeah.

14:44Clip: All right.

14:44Andrew: Thanks, Rita. We're gonna listen now.

14:47Rita: Hi, Andrew, this is your mother in law, Rita.

14:50Andrew: I know nothing about hockey, but I

14:52Rita: quite enjoy watching the AudPod with you and Justin.

14:55Andrew: You guys are doing a great job. Go Kitchener Rangers. Go.

15:00Rita: I think that's the team you go for, right?

15:02Andrew: Yay.

15:03Clip: That.

15:03Andrew: That is the team we go for. Yes. That is the team. You know that.

15:07Clip: She.

15:08Andrew: She knows that. She knows that. She's just. She's just. She's just playing coy. She knows that.

15:15Justin: Thanks, Rita.

15:16Andrew: Thanks, Rita.

15:17Justin: I had, I had a lovely chat with Rita last summer about canning tomatoes.

15:23Andrew: Oh, yeah.

15:23Justin: I cherish that moment.

15:24Andrew: That's true. You got me in trouble because I don't can tomatoes.

15:28Justin: Yeah.

15:29Andrew: And she was like, she's like, even this guy.

15:31Justin: Yeah. This non Italian, weird concoction of a man cans tomatoes.

15:39Andrew: She didn't say it in so many words.

15:41Justin: Sure. I could see it in her eyes. Yeah.

15:44Andrew: This guy, Jabroni.

15:47Justin: She never ever followed me.

15:49Andrew: She never ever did that.

15:49Justin: That's what you said.

15:50Andrew: I know she's going to listen to this and I have to Sam O'Reilly know she did not say that.

15:56Justin: All right, this next one is from Brendan.

15:59Rita: I feel like this upcoming series, it's gonna be a tough one for the Rangers just because Windsor has been on a hot streak with their playoffs journey. But they do have a good chance because they defeated sue and sue is an underdog in the tournament. But also Windsor's hoping for a little revenge for the past two years with last year having the reverse sweep on Windsor for the Rangers and the year before that was the good old underdog for nothing sweep when they were the eighth seed. So this series is probably going to be a tough one for the Rangers, but hopefully they can get the win and go to the finals.

16:30Justin: Couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more.

16:32Andrew: I, I know, I, I, I was thinking about that too. Was that two years ago when I was experiencing my first playoffs at the Aud It was the 4 nothing first round sweep where Kitchener was the 8th seed. Yeah, I had, I went down because I was like, oh, Shane Wright is playing for the Spitfires.

16:51Justin: Let's see, let's see him play.

16:52Andrew: And yeah, it turned out to start a love affair with the scrappy underdog Rangers, which of course now they've turned into the Titans of the Midwest.

17:03Justin: Was Liam Green tree on that team?

17:06Andrew: I believe so, yeah. Because that would have been, he's just

17:09Justin: had a lot of heartbreak to the Ranger.

17:11Andrew: That would have been his first year.

17:12Justin: Right.

17:13Andrew: First year, second year. Last year was his draft season this year. Or is he.

17:17Justin: Yeah.

17:17Andrew: Or is he an overager now?

17:19Justin: No, I, I don't think he's an overager. I think he has another year.

17:22Andrew: Okay. Either way, he would have been on

17:25Justin: that, he would have been on that team.

17:26Andrew: Yeah.

17:26Justin: All right, this next one is from Evan.

17:28E: This is about last year in Game 7 against Windsor. We had Ellenus and he scored the overtime winner. I was at that game. I knew he was going to do something big because in warmup one of The Spitfire fans brought one of the clappers that they gave out in Kitchener. He I guess went to Kitchener and came back with one right at the end of war up he started ripping it. Elus was like that little fire Andrew,

17:52Andrew: ask him for it but.

17:53E: And hopefully we get somebody like, I don't know, pram step up, do something in those big moments, get back to what he was like in the regular season. We just came from playing the third best league in Carter George and yeah, yeah, now we're going on to the best. So it's going to be a battle. I also have Fedoroff it too, if you care.

18:16Justin: Ah. I mean, what more could we say? Evan knew it all.

18:20Andrew: Yeah, yeah, absolutely he did. He knew. He knew every single thing that we talked about. He said it more succinct and eloquent.

18:29Justin: Yeah, it was a one minute podcast from Evan. Seems like a normal one hour podcast from the AudBalls Yeah, yeah.

18:36Andrew: He's just gonna start uploading the voicemails that he would send to us to Spotify and he'll y. He'll corner the market.

18:45Justin: Perfect.

18:46Andrew: Great voicemail though.

18:47Justin: Love it. Oh, yeah, totally. Yes. No complaints. 10 out of 10. And our final one for this first rendition of Voicemail Reactions. We need a theme song.

18:59Andrew: We do. We do. Voice. Yeah, yeah. Voicemails. Voicemails. I know Tim will do something good.

19:09Justin: Yeah, he'll auto tune you. Yeah.

19:11Andrew: Voicemail.

19:13Justin: You'll sound like to the Aud part. Yeah, sound like t. Pain.

19:20Andrew: Make me sound good. Not even Tim. Not even Tim has the magic.

19:25Justin: No, he's. He's good, but he's not a wizard. Well, he is a wizard.

19:28Andrew: Well, he is a wizard.

19:29Justin: Yeah, maybe like a level three wizard.

19:31Andrew: You're a wizard to me.

19:32Justin: Oh, my God. Okay, the last one is from Mark. Hey, Andrew.

19:36Andrew: Hey, Justin, it's Mark. Great running into you guys Friday night at the game, chatting about the series so far and what the boys needed to do to come out with the win. And boy, did they ever got the matchups. Shut down Brady Martin. Kirsch played great defensively, limited them in shots. Can't wait to see what we can do against Windsor. We've played them really well all year. Look forward to seeing you guys at the game. Take care.

19:58Justin: Yeah, Mark, we're looking forward to seeing you at the game too.

20:02Andrew: Another pro, Mark. Mark's a beauty. Mark. Mark has like broadcast chops. Mark, there was no ums or Oz. Took his time and was confident in what he was saying. I. I completely agree. They shut down Brady Martin, they did what they had to do. Now it's, you know, the, the, Aud turned over a new leaf. Now they have to focus on a different opponent with a different set of skills. And hopefully Mark is right that this team will, will continue to do what it's been doing against Windsor all year, of course, winning the series three to one. We'd love to see another series where the Rangers have a, you know, distinct lead after the first two games at home.

20:46Justin: Totally. Yes. We need, we need that lead. That would be great. That home, home ice advantage is going to be more important in the series than any other series. We talked about it with the Soo It's going to be more important against Windsor because you want to have those lineup matches. So that's why I say might go to seven. I don't want it to.

21:04Andrew: I know, I know.

21:05Justin: All right, well, thank you very much to Andrew mother in law, Rita. Tim. Tommy Kut it in as Andrew MIL and that. And then I had to think about it for a second on who that was and it was Rita, Brendan, Evan and Mark. Really appreciate you all sending it in. The voicemail box, as Andrew mentioned, is on our website. It's at the top of the screen. It kind of looks like an ad, but it's not. If you look at it closely, you're like, oh, right, this is actually what they were talking about. You can, you can click the button record right on the website and it will send it in. Yeah, we'll take the Aud any time. If you send it in during a game, we'll try and put it in the mini, mini episode after. No promises on that, but we will try.

21:46Andrew: We will try.

21:47Justin: And then for sure, if we don't hit it in a mini episode, we'll put it on our wrap up episode for the series. So that's, that's the goal. That's the dream. You know, even if it's just like, man, I hated that play or I love that play, or I can't believe we've never talked about this player, you know, those types of things. We love to hear it. So thanks everyone who wrote in. And of course we got to thank Ken Born our director of branding and marketing for all the lovely stuff and things and the beauty of our product that we put out. True.

22:20Andrew: Yeah. He puts lipstick on a pig.

22:23Justin: Yeah, totally. We gotta shout out the prodigal producer, Liam, the feed on who was so dedicated he was listening to the radio because he couldn't figure out how to get a broadcast of the of the game. Game five. He was listening on the radio.

22:42Andrew: What a beauty.

22:43Justin: Yeah. Legend. So shout out to Liam. Of course we got a shout out. Tim. Tim who's going to be auto tuning us at this point. We are talking in auto tune now.

22:58Andrew: Voicemails on the AudPod.

23:02Justin: Yeah, yeah. And of course we forgot to shut her out last time. So double shout out to jj.

23:13Andrew: Yes, of course. Because JJ rang the bell. Rang the bell and yeah, as done chemo and is the true battle built warrior of Kitchener Waterloo region. She is the rallying cry for this team and I'm excited to be, you know, in her like in the lore of the Kitchener Rangers be a part of the JJ story is unbelievable.

23:43Justin: Unbelievable. And of course the, the, the second shout out is for her wonderful introduction to the podcast. So thank you JJ for doing that.

23:53Andrew: Yes.

23:54Justin: And Andrew, how do you find us on the social medias?

23:57Andrew: You can find us on TikTok and Instagram the AudPod and you can find us on YouTube. Just search TheAudPod, Kitchener Rangers or anything basically with any of the players names or the coaches names or you know, Mike McKenzie or anything really because we will come up and of course Visit us@theaudpod.com and leave us a voicemail.

24:22Justin: Leave us a voicemail and also send us an email at hello@theaudpod.com and we

24:26Andrew: love comments on the episodes on YouTube and on Spotify and likes and thumbs up and comments on social media. We love when you interact with us. It really, truly helps the pod. Like you've no idea how much it helps.

24:42Justin: Yeah, it's, it's huge. It's amazing how one, even one comment can propel the episode just a little bit further. So yes, thank you to everybody who does that already and thank you for doing it in the future. Now at the end of this episode we are going to jump to our super cut of our all of our mini episodes. So if you weren't listening to all of the episodes post game, you can listen to them now. Special guest Babs. Thank you for jumping in to the car twice. Did he do it twice on this one?

25:13Andrew: Well, I don't know. He. He just manifested in the car the second time.

25:16Justin: The second time. I have no idea how he got there. Still. I think I should. He might have a copy of my. Should go check. Yeah. All right, Andrew. And on Friday night for round three, game one, you can find us at

25:32Andrew: the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. Auto Auto team.

25:43Justin: Hey Andrew.

25:43Andrew: Hey Justin. Nobody's okay.

25:46Justin: Nobody's there. Nobody's there. It's Just Andrew and Justin. Okay, this is game one, round two, round two, road to the Robertson against the Soo Greyhounds. We won 3 to 1. That's true.

26:00Andrew: I was thinking it was 2 to 1, but with 1.3 seconds left, 1.3 seconds left, which is very fitting because number 13 gave us the win.

26:08Justin: Gave us the win. Yeah.

26:09Andrew: Haeden Ellis showed out.

26:11Justin: Haeden Ellis was amazing tonight. Depth, scoring.

26:15Andrew: The kid. Exactly. We called it the kid from Buffalo. Right. He came, he showed out. Let's go, Buffalo.

26:23Justin: So first period, no scoring. Second period, two Haeden Ellis goals. Third period. I didn't actually see who got the game or the empty netter.

26:33Andrew: Oh, oh, oh, oh. O'Reilly. O'Reilly.

26:37Justin: Oh, yeah, that's right. I did know that. Yeah.

26:39Andrew: Lots of goals for Sam O'Reilly Oh, he's.

26:41Justin: He's so good. Andrew was watching on TV. I was at the game. So my knowledge of who had the pucks when important things happened is a little fuzzier.

26:52Andrew: Right, Right.

26:53Justin: But, man, it was a good game. the Aud was electric tonight.

26:56Andrew: Even on the broadcast, you could tell it was rocking.

26:59Justin: There was. After game one in the first round, I was a little worried that the Aud wasn't showing up the way that I am used to the odds showing up, but the odds showed up tonight. Man, the fans were into it. You know, the fans will always get after refs and goalies and whatever, but there was just some great moments of just the fans bonding over this game. Nice. This game really brought the fans together. I. I could feel it. That you could feel. The boys were. Were ready to go. And. And, yeah, the. The fans were into it.

27:30Andrew: They needed a big game in Game 1. They did a dominant win. I know it was only 3 to 1.

27:35Justin: It was only.

27:35Andrew: I know that it was 2 nothing for most of the game.

27:38Justin: Yes.

27:38Andrew: And I know that the third period. Yeah. Got a little, you know, a little scary there a little bit. But it, you know, I think it was more of like, let's lock it down and close it out.

27:49Justin: Yeah.

27:50Andrew: And. And the Rangers weren't taking any chances.

27:53Justin: No.

27:53Andrew: So. So I understand that the shots tilted a little bit.

27:56Justin: Yep.

27:56Andrew: But I. We got to give, you know, Christian Kirsch props.

28:00Justin: Yes.

28:00Andrew: Right.

28:00Justin: Like he sub two goals against.

28:02Andrew: There you go.

28:03Clip: And.

28:04Justin: And good. Good save percentage.

28:06Clip: Yeah.

28:06Andrew: He was right up around 30 shots.

28:08Justin: 30 shots and one goal against. That's pretty good. Yeah. Carter George is an unreal goalie.

28:13Andrew: Certainly is.

28:15Justin: This. This game could have easily. This wasn't quite the Sam O'Reilly that Saginaw games Went, no, this game could 6 to 1.

28:23Andrew: That's true.

28:24Justin: And. And if not for the heroics of Carter George, like, he stopped what, like three Sam O'Reilly like, amazing attempts.

28:33Andrew: Yeah, yeah. And I mean, and you know, Prid's had a couple amazing chances and one, he missed the net. But you gotta, you gotta give props to the goaltender and the positioning and there was nothing to shoot at when,

28:45Justin: when you're, when you hit the post or miss the net and it's your team that does it, you're like, ah, yeah. The goalie message has been.

28:53Andrew: He did so good.

28:54Justin: Yeah.

28:54Andrew: Well, it's funny because, you know, Pridz being the leading goal scorer still hasn't found.

28:59Justin: Hasn't even in with the empty net. He almost got it in and, and they stopped us.

29:05Andrew: I was kind of laughing like, you know, once I exhaled once they got got away, I was kind of laughing about that one because, you know, if you, your leading goal scorer still hasn't scored, but you've won five out of five games, you're like, okay, it's not a big deal. That's the best part about winning, is it all here's.

29:26Justin: All right, so we know he'll show up when we need him to.

29:29Andrew: I'm telling you, the longer he goes without a goal, the more he's going to score once it starts going.

29:34Justin: He also looked like a man who was going to score tonight. Like, he looked good. You know, the Soo is better than Saginaw. Much better. Much better. Their defensive core, very strong. We said all this in our preview. The, the Soo was gonna, they were gonna tackle our first two lines pretty well with their defense and their, even their, their forwards who are good at defense, like, they were able to shut them down pretty good. That's why Haeden Ellis is, is our savior in this game.

30:00Andrew: And, and you gotta, I gotta give props to Gabe Sheratt. He was, he was assist on both goals.

30:04Justin: Yep.

30:06Andrew: Bilecki played really well. Depth defense. You know, Cameron Reid had an unbelievable.

30:12Justin: Yeah. Was it Cameron Reid who broke the ankles? I sent you the text. I was like, one Cameron Reid textbook ankle breaking. If we can put that clip in, we will.

30:22Andrew: That would be unbelievable because it was like. Remember I was talking about him being AI and not being AI, like artificial intelligence Allen Iverson crossovers.

30:32Justin: Yeah.

30:32Andrew: Yeah. That was, it was. I was like, there it is. He is a basketball point guard and he does things where. Yeah. Ankle breakers, ankle breaker combos.

30:42Justin: I don't even know which game it is, but I play an NBA game on my Nintendo Switch. And one of the things is you break someone's ankle and they literally just fall over. And that's exactly what happened.

30:52Andrew: Exactly.

30:52Justin: Right here we're showing it. If we don't show it, Tim, just cut. But it was beautiful. Tanner Lam got an amazing breakaway. He got held up a bit. The refs were being a bit stingy with the. With the calls. They were. They were really like. They called two Ranger penalties and pretty much immediately after, called within the next two minutes, called a Sue penalty. There was not that much power play time.

31:16Andrew: No. The Rangers are the Rangers. The referees did not decide the game.

31:20Justin: No. And I am so grateful for that.

31:22Andrew: And the. Aud the Rangers benefited from some calls as well.

31:25Justin: Yeah. Like, it was some lack of calls.

31:27Andrew: Well, like, that's more what I'm saying. I was shocked.

31:32Justin: Yeah.

31:32Andrew: Did not get a roughing penalty. Yeah.

31:35Justin: Yeah.

31:36Andrew: And I loved what he did. I loved that he stood up for his teammate, and I loved that he got in the face, and I love that he tackled the guy.

31:43Justin: But I was like, that's two minutes. I. I don't know. I don't know who it was, but there was a Ranger player who hit a Soo Greyhounds in the third period in the Soo end, and there was a kid in front of me who went, yeah, get him, Woolly. Was that Wooly? It was not Wooly.

32:02Andrew: Just exciting.

32:03Justin: It was awesome.

32:04Andrew: I don't care. I don't care if you get it right. We sometimes get it wrong and we have. Sometimes we get it wrong and we have. We have. We're supposed to get it right. I mean, we're actually not.

32:14Justin: Have you been paying attention? Yeah.

32:15Rita: Yeah.

32:15Andrew: We're not supposed to get it right, but, yeah, I love the energy.

32:20Justin: Yeah. It was so good, this game. It felt so different the third period. the Soo obviously had a great pushback. The Rangers dealt with that really well. The Rangers kept on with the. Aud What became the winning solution against Saginaw with different choices when trying to enter the zone, not always trying to pass to the winger. Like, there were some great things that the. That the Rangers learned as a team from the last series that you can see that they're implementing in this one. And. And it's going to keep being successful if they keep playing like this.

32:51Andrew: And honestly, besides the late goal.

32:54Justin: Yeah.

32:54Andrew: Which, you know, wasn't even that late. It wasn't even that late. But, like, besides. Besides what was a good goal from a good hockey team? I was kind of like, well, that was a dominant win, I thought, from top to bottom. I was like, I think the Rangers outplayed them.

33:09Clip: Yes.

33:09Justin: They.

33:10Andrew: They shut it down and they locked it down and they didn't shoot as much in the third period. If there was one criticism, you guess you'd want them to be a little.

33:16Justin: Maybe push a little more.

33:17Andrew: Maybe push a little bit more.

33:19Justin: It's game one, but it's game one

33:20Andrew: and they were the better team and they look like the stronger team and it. And like we said it was depth scoring. You didn't even really have the high end guys going.

33:32Justin: Yeah.

33:32Andrew: So if the high end guys. Guys get going.

33:35Justin: Yeah.

33:37Andrew: I don't know, maybe it's not as long of a series as maybe that, you know, in. In my. Somewhat like I thought, you know, like maybe six games and now I'm like, I don't know, still maybe six games.

33:49Justin: Sure.

33:49Andrew: But I. the Soo is gonna have to make adjustments.

33:54Justin: Yeah.

33:54Andrew: I hope they don't because I'm a Rangers fan.

33:56Justin: Yeah.

33:57Andrew: But they're gonna have to make it.

33:58Justin: Just. I was talking to Babs and Chris Peters, names dropped at intermission. And we were talking about, you know, the line matching. Like when they go back to Sault Ste. Marie.

34:09Andrew: Yes.

34:10Justin: Like, that's a different. That's a different game.

34:12Andrew: Well, it's much harder that travel too. Like they go up there. It's. They don't generally in the last two years that we've been covering the team, they don't play well up there. No, they don't.

34:21Justin: So it's like when an NHL team goes to Denver, it's like something about.

34:25Andrew: There's something about the elevation.

34:26Justin: The elevation or something. Even though that's probably lake. That's probably sea level because basically right there. But yeah.

34:33Andrew: I don't know. Something in the water.

34:36Justin: Yeah.

34:36Andrew: I'm just excited that, you know, the naysayers don't have anything for Kirsch.

34:40Justin: Nothing. He looked great.

34:42Rita: He.

34:42Justin: He had some tough chances against him.

34:44Andrew: the AudPod nailed it on the depth scoring. Haeden Ellis, it's. It's been a long time coming. And I don't mean that as an insult. He plays his role so well.

34:52Justin: He does.

34:52Andrew: But it's been a long time coming that he was the hero.

34:56Clip: Yeah.

34:56Andrew: Because he is. He is a heroic player. He's an undersized player. He gets out there, he gives it at all. I never see Haeden Ellis sandbagging.

35:03Justin: Yeah. Ever.

35:04Andrew: I never see him taking, you know, taking shifts where he just floating around.

35:08Clip: Yeah.

35:08Andrew: He works hard. The passing on. On one of his goals was unbelievable. It was like. It Was like four guys touched the puck within, within two seconds and it was just unbelievable.

35:19Justin: The, the passing in this game was phenomenal by the Rangers.

35:22Andrew: Like, they're.

35:23Justin: Okay, the naysayers are going to say there was, there was one opportunity. I think Pridham had the opportunity and there was one too many passes. But generally this game, the, the passing was so spot on, you know, and

35:36Andrew: what I'd say to the naysayers is, all right, well, you're, you're not playing against Carter George.

35:41Justin: Yes.

35:42Andrew: So there, there is a, there is something so psychological.

35:44Justin: Yeah.

35:45Andrew: I was going to say there is something in your mind that you're like, well, we have to make the extra pass. This guy is phenomenal goalie. But every goalie beat by the extra pass.

35:52Justin: Yeah, for sure.

35:53Andrew: So I, I understand why the extra pass happened.

35:55Justin: Yeah.

35:56Andrew: And I, I think that there's guys, there's room for improvement for some of these guys. Like, I don't think, you know, I don't think Hums had his best game. I think he'll bounce back. You know, I, I think that there's a bunch of high end talent that will perform even stronger now.

36:10Justin: Yeah, I agree.

36:11Andrew: And, and they're up one nothing in the series.

36:14Justin: They are up one nothing in the series. And that's really all that counts.

36:16Andrew: That's all that matters.

36:17Clip: Yeah.

36:18Justin: And so Sunday game two, we'll be back with Road to the Robertson episode six.

36:26Andrew: It's true. This is episode five.

36:27Justin: This will be five. Yeah. So that will be six. And still no one in there. There's some diapers for you.

36:35Andrew: Oh, perfect.

36:36Justin: I'll take those. Yes. Just before we go, I gotta shout out my new bud, Josh. Josh, who I met at the beginning of the game. And then he also flagged me down as we were walking out of the parking lot and gave me a little if, if my, if I'm really on point tonight in this, in this post game reaction, it's because I basically got to practice on Josh to start.

36:59E: Perfect.

37:00Justin: So thank you, Josh. And your two kids really loved hearing your opinions too about the game.

37:04E: Phenomenal.

37:05Justin: Yeah. So I, I stole them all for this.

37:07Andrew: Good.

37:07Justin: Thanks, Josh.

37:08Andrew: Thanks, Josh.

37:09Justin: Game 2, Round 2, Road to the Robertson 85 win by the Rangers. The game started weird with a guitar and then the whole game was weird.

37:24Andrew: Yeah, well, it was, it was a weird game, but it was a fun game.

37:28Justin: It was fun.

37:28Andrew: I enjoyed that.

37:29Justin: This is how I like watching hockey. For sure.

37:31Andrew: We can kind of skip the first

37:34Justin: period, I think, a little bit. I mean, we got a goal. Sam O'Reilly scored open.

37:39Andrew: Samuel Riley. Samuel Riley along the boards is a menace. You know, he comes out of the, Aud of the corners and along the boards and he's gonna score a beautiful one that he kind of forces to the net and, and Prudham has a look at, but gets tied up and then O'Reilly finishes basically his own thing. But the second period started.

37:59Justin: I, I mean, we got like the end, end. The end of the first period, we got to talk about the fact that there was a missed too many men on the ice. And then immediately after the Rangers got called for back to back penalties and led to a five on three and, and managed to kill it off and then went into on that penalty kill. So like that was pretty significant at the end of the first there.

38:24Andrew: Yeah, the officiating throughout the game was, was pretty inconsistent, I think.

38:30Justin: Yeah.

38:32Andrew: But you know, the second period started out pretty good with the, the, the anstice goal. The, the artist got a, got a beauty. You know, it's been said many times on the broadcast and on this pod that he doesn't get a lot of minutes and when he does, he makes the most of them.

38:50Justin: This was just that.

38:51Andrew: Yeah. And the Aud was the story of the Rangers either getting called for weird penalties that I wouldn't necessarily call in playoff hockey games or just forgetting to play defense, especially allowing players behind them on, you know, turnovers from the offensive zone.

39:14Justin: Yeah, it was like Martin Marco Minosa got far too many breakaways.

39:20Andrew: Yeah, well, they had three breakaways in this period. Minosa had two of the Aud he scored on one of the Soo I mean, Kirsch also had a huge save in the first period.

39:31Justin: Oh, yeah.

39:33Andrew: I don't want to hear too much about save percentage in this one because this one pretty much all the goals against Kirsch were either power play or just like horrible turnovers by the Rangers for sure.

39:43Rita: It.

39:44Justin: There was nothing Kirsch could have done for the majority of those goals against. And you know, Carter George is on the other ending and let in eight, so. Or seven. Well, he let in six. He let in six. Right.

39:54Andrew: However, however, it was still, it was still. There was some weird stuff happening. Did you see that one that bounced off the glass and off the top of the net in the back of Carter George and stayed out somehow. I was like, there's this weird stuff going on in this game.

40:08Justin: Yeah, there's something in the air tonight.

40:12Andrew: Tanner Lam we got to give him his props. He forced a penalty with beautiful, nifty moves. That set up the humps power play goal.

40:20Justin: Yep. And then he went on to score himself, which was a beautiful top shelfer. And yes, you know, we've talked about him so many times being snake bitten in the first series, but Dylan Edwards showed up when he needed to today. He. He broke the tie twice in this crazy back and forth.

40:39Andrew: He also, he also I.

40:41Justin: He.

40:41Andrew: He took a penalty that I think was a penalty. He was pretty upset about AudPod, like, I understand why he was upset about it. Chase Reed mugged Christian Humphreys like, moments before, and then Edwards took a penalty. And then they called that Sam O'Reilly cross check, which I think only empowered Sam O'Reilly to score a hat trick in this one.

41:02Justin: Obviously, I will end you now.

41:04Andrew: Yeah, exactly. And then the other thing that I have a problem with happened at the end of the second period with the two roughing penalties to Ando on the same play.

41:13Justin: Same play. Was it a double minor? What do you.

41:17Andrew: There's no double minor for roughing. That is not a thing in the book. I looked it up in the. In the PDF. There's no double minor. So. So you called two individual two minute. And that's how it is on the score sheet, too, if you look in the log. So it says two. Two roughing penalties. It's ridiculous. They gave. the Aud like they also gave Brady Martin a roughing penalty on the sequence. It's either they both, to me, get two minutes and you even it up, or only you take one of them, which should be. You know, sometimes they do that to like, try and calm it down. But like the giving two. Two minutes to Ando, I was like, what are you, the kind of Mickey Mouse ticky tack? It was so type of, you know, what is this? I don't understand.

42:06Justin: I. Yeah. And, you know, Ando was obviously trying to get him to fight. I kind of get the penalty for that. But that was the only thing that I Sam O'Reilly didn't really. Well, that's.

42:14Andrew: And I would just take the one. You know what I mean? I. I don't. I didn't understand that. That, to me was kind of a microcosm of how this game went. And then, I mean, that was a weird second. I didn't know how things were gonna go in the third. No, the third was also weird, but. But much better for the Rangers.

42:32Justin: Well, in the end, it didn't start that way. No power play of the.

42:36Andrew: They did.

42:37Justin: Of course. Of course they did. Yeah. You get a weird power play call and then you get it into the beginning of the third. You're gonna score because why not?

42:45Andrew: Yeah. And. And then Edwards again responds on the power play.

42:51Clip: He.

42:51Andrew: He is. Yeah, he is inevitable. Dylan Edwards.

42:54Justin: He is.

42:55Andrew: And then we saw probably. This is. The funny thing is we saw probably the worst turnover of Jared Woolley career that resulted in a goal. And then we saw the greatest moment, Jared Woolley Kitchener Rangers career.

43:10Justin: Hirsch got enough of it. Hersh is tied up with the Greyhound

43:14Andrew: player stuck in the Priest. Ranger fans want a penalty or at least a whistle or something.

43:19Justin: He's gonna drag him right out

43:22Andrew: like a child by Jared Wilson.

43:24Justin: Probably is short ever so far.

43:27Andrew: Well, I believe he won a Memorial Cup last year.

43:30Justin: No, but.

43:32Andrew: But yeah, I think. I think the. Pulling the Soo player out of the crease, which, like, what was he doing in there? Why was he just like, get up, man.

43:42Justin: What are you doing? So a kid, a Kitchener player and a. And a Sue player were like, battling it out. Went into Kirsch, like, took every. There was a whole pile up happening. The kitchen arranger player, I think it was Campbell maybe, gets up, gets out of there and the soup layer is just like, laying on the ground. Oh, I'm stuck on Kirsch. I'm stuck on Kirsch. Oh, terrible acting classes. Woolly just goes in and takes out the trash.

44:10Andrew: Travis Hayes. Travis Hayes, yes. Travis Hayes goes into the. The. I think he's tied up with a forward, actually, because it's Ando and Woolly on the. Yeah, he gets tied up with Tanner Lam He goes in and then he just stays for no reason whatsoever. I'm watching the replay right now. There's. There's no reason why he's in there. His stick isn't tied up.

44:34Rita: He's.

44:35Andrew: He's got enough. He could easily, you know, army crawl out of there and get up and go. Yeah, he just stays there, there. Because they're down one. It's, you know, it's six to five, they're down one. And, you know, I guess you do what you can do to, you know, get a cheap one in the playoffs. I have no idea. But Jared Woolley wasn't having any of that.

44:57Justin: Yeah, no. I don't know.

44:59Andrew: Jason Hagel has, like, probably the best call of his career. He says he pulled him out of there like he was a child and won a penalty or at least a whistle or something.

45:10Justin: He's gonna drag him right out

45:13Rita: like

45:14Andrew: a child by Jared Woolley. Like he is a toddler. Oh, my God, man. That is what I Thought because when I'm up in the field with my son and he falls down, I'll just grab him by the jacket.

45:25Justin: Yeah.

45:25Andrew: Scoop him up. That is for sure the same vibe. It was amazing.

45:30Justin: It was so good.

45:31Andrew: And like you were talking about before, Tanner Lam with the timely response, I felt like the Hounds after that moment were just. Just holding on for dear life and hoping for another opportunistic power play or goal. And they would get one more power play.

45:47Justin: They got another opportunistic power play that shouldn't have been called. So, yeah, they did get it. It was a weird game. They wouldn't fight Kitchner. Le Char tried to fight the Aud the end. Ando tried to fight the Aud was so lame. It was so lame. The clock ran out. It looked like they might add, like, two seconds on everyone fighting at the end, whatever. Eventually they finally say it's over. And Dylan Edwards, all the players skate out to salute the fans as they often do. And Dylan Edwards skated towards the. The blue line watching the Soo leave the ice. And he said, go home. Go home. Pointing at them to get out of there.

46:26Andrew: And you know what? I think that's a good note to end on right there as. Let's.

46:31Justin: Let's.

46:31Andrew: You go home, I'll go home. We're already home.

46:34Justin: But.

46:34Andrew: But let's go to the Soo We're gonna take a flight up to the Soo and let's just get rid of these guys, man. Let's win them both. Let's win them both.

46:41Justin: Dollar, dollar bills, y' all Flying to the Soo We won eight to five. We're up for the series two nothing. Tuesday night. Tuesday night. We're in the Soo for game three. Keep an eye out here for road to the Robertson. Number eight. Oh, no. Number seven. Oh, dear God. The numbers are going to get hard here for a bit.

47:01Andrew: Just keep sweeping. It's just multiples of four all the time.

47:04Justin: Yeah. Winning six straight, it does make things easier for them. Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, we'll see you there. Game three, all ours. We went to the Soo and we took it home.

47:17Andrew: Three goals from Dylan Edwards and, like,

47:21Justin: one of the most beautiful goals by an amazing pass by bi.

47:25Rita: Like.

47:25Justin: Oh, yeah.

47:26Andrew: Incredible play. That's. That's one of the. The best plays. Like, one of the breakouts of the year. He carries it and then passes it. Tanner Lam and beats the defenseman and then receives the pass and then, like, one touches it across the slot.

47:42Justin: It was behind him. Behind.

47:44Andrew: Exactly. Backhand. One touch.

47:46Clip: Yeah.

47:46Andrew: It was crazy.

47:48Justin: Well, all the things you can't, all the things that you shouldn't be able to do, like individually, he did in all at once.

47:55Andrew: Yeah, there were people out there trying to stop him from, from doing that.

47:59Justin: That's the most impressive part. I mean this, okay, so this, this game. So this is episode seven, Road to the Robertson. Game three against the Soo Kitchener Rangers won four to three, taking the series lead. Three nothing. This game did not start with the feistiness that I anticipated after the end of game two.

48:23Andrew: I mean there was a fight eight and a half minutes in.

48:27Justin: Okay, was that a setup fight? Like, was that a pre arranged fight? Like sure, it was a text message before the game fight.

48:35Andrew: Well, I don't know if it's a text message, but I, I think a warm up fight. Yeah, I think it was definitely an arranged fight because in the, or maybe it was arranged at the end of the game because, because Le Char wanted to fight last game and they wouldn't fight. So maybe they said like, oh, we, we can you know, rain check, send you a guy.

48:55Justin: We'll Sam O'Reilly won't let you fight Brady. You won't, we won't let you fight Brady Martin, but we'll, we'll give you some meat to, to punch next game.

49:04Andrew: I, Jordan Shiron's pretty good hockey player, so I was surprised he was the one who answered the bell. But I guess you, you do what you can to try and get your team going. Unfortunately for the Soo it never really panned out for them in this one. They were chasing the whole game.

49:19Justin: Well, they, I mean they, they. Every time the Rangers scored, they scored immediately after. It just, it was a back and forth that way.

49:27Andrew: Well, it's actually, actually in the third period it was every time the Soo scored, the Rangers scored.

49:33Justin: Oh sure. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they never got the lead. the Soo never got a lead.

49:38Andrew: No, they were chasing pretty much the whole time. And, and as soon like, like, yeah, as soon as they had that tying goal, the Rangers just kind of put the pressure back on and, and I was, I wasn't worried. Just like you could just see the ice tilt. Even with Chase Reed's power play goal in the third to the Aud up, immediately the, the play went the, the other way. And the funny thing about Dylan Edwards hat trick goal which was barely sniffed at as a hat trick goal on the broadcast.

50:06Justin: Yeah, they, I, they didn't even acknowledge that he got a hat trick.

50:09Andrew: No, not until like minutes later. And it was like his third goal of the game. You're like, okay, yeah. Dylan Edwards makes this unbelievable pass to Ando.

50:20Rita: He.

50:21Andrew: Dylan is be. Is like, like next to the net, like, to the left of the net.

50:27Justin: Yeah.

50:27Andrew: And he passes it all the way through traffic to the point, and Ando plays it. It results in nothing. And then, like, moments later, Edwards is going behind the net and just, like, tosses the puck into the slot. Winklehoffer puts it in for the game. Own goal.

50:46Justin: He hoffed it into the net there.

50:47Andrew: Yeah, he right into the net. Carter George is, you know, Winkle hover. Yeah, it's, you know, don't. You know, I guess it sucks when you. You have a name like that and you score an own goal because you can really yell it with. With like, anger. Winklehoffer. Yeah, we have to mention Haeden Ellis had another goal on the Balecki. On the Balecki pass.

51:13Justin: We hyped up the Blackie pass, but we didn't Sam O'Reilly got the.

51:16Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. Haeden Ellis, of course. Is he kind of having a playoffs? I'm starting to think that Haeden Ellis is having a playoff, so I'm getting pretty excited about that, that he might be that guy who's like, you know, he hadn't had a playoff goal until, you know, the other night and he had two, and now, you know, is this going to become, like, you know, this is going to become like, one of those things where he just keeps scoring. I would love that. I'm rooting for the kid from Buffalo. Jack Pridham had two primary assists in this one. The first one to Dylan Edwards. He's kind of like. He's kind of bobbling the puck a little bit, and then he puts it on a. On a tee. Like, it. It may not look that impressive, but to. To put it exactly where a streaking, like, dive bombing, Dylan Edwards needs it so that Dylan Edwards can just pick it up and then shoot it right into the net. It, like, it's just not an easy play.

52:16Justin: It's.

52:17Andrew: It's not going to make a highlight reel, but it's just such an incredibly nice pass that if you've, you know, if you've ever tried to. To like, you know, make that play in. In like a. In a situation like that, you just know, like. Like there's, like, you have to get exactly the right, you know, speed on that pass or else it's going to be like in. In Edward's feet beat. Right. It's just. It's just like, perfectly timed. the Soo in sync right now. Obviously, last series, they didn't play together because they wanted more depth, I think scoring. But they've loaded up that top line with Sam O'Reilly Jack Pridham and Dylan Edwards, and what a combo. Yeah, it's just. It's just going that there. Of course, the third goal for the Rangers was that power play goal, which was clutch.

53:04Justin: I. I do. I do want to toot my own horn in saying that. When I. I said after Game 3 in the first series that Dylan Edwards was due and he was going to score seven. He has now scored seven since I said that.

53:16Andrew: Do you know that, like, you've almost tooted your horn as much as Edwards has scored. You weren't even. You weren't even on the pod and you got a shout out.

53:30Justin: That wasn't me tooting my own horn. I got my horn tooted. I. Okay. One other thing I wanted to talk about before we wrap up here. Okay?

53:41E: The.

53:42Justin: The slew footing. Okay, I know it was a Sue penalty, but, like, what was that call?

53:47Andrew: Well, thankfully, the Rangers didn't score on it because. Because these whiny Sioux fans in our comments, especially on Facebook, your whiners would be off the chain whining about, oh, it wasn't even a. It wasn't. It wasn't a slew foot.

54:04Justin: It wasn't a slew foot.

54:05Andrew: It was a Sioux foot double miner for slew footing. I don't know what. I don't know. But the Rangers didn't score.

54:15Justin: When did this rulebook come out? The double minor for roughing. The double minor for a slew foot.

54:21Andrew: This one. At least. At least this one in the game. Score is printed as a double minor. So there must be. They must be able to call a double minor. I just have never seen it. I thought it was either two minutes or five minutes.

54:35Justin: I thought it was an elbowing. It looked like an elbow.

54:37Andrew: It was for sure an elbow. It was for sure two minutes for elbowing.

54:41Justin: That's all it was. That's what it should have been. It was a penalty. It just.

54:45Andrew: For elbowing.

54:46Justin: Yeah. For elbowing.

54:47E: Yeah.

54:47Clip: Yeah.

54:48Justin: So weird. Hey, we're kind of on your side, the Soo but not really.

54:52Andrew: No.

54:52Justin: We're sending you home on Thursday.

54:54Andrew: The fact you're so. Yeah, yeah, we're on your side and in the sense that, like, yeah, weird call, but we have calls. So you're so whiny in our. In our comments that I'm glad that this is going the way it's going, more so than. Than just being a Rangers fan. All right.

55:11Justin: Yeah.

55:11Andrew: Yeah. I I just wanted to say that essentially, you know, the Rangers didn't put a lot of shots on that and yet they're beating Carter. George, if you want to talk about the, the, you know, save percentage and goals against average thing. And, and in the sense of wins are the only important goalie stat in the playoffs.

55:33Justin: Yep. And Kirsch has seven of them.

55:36Andrew: Mike Drop.

55:37Justin: Mic drop. All right. Rangers are back in action Thursday night for game four in the Soo We'll be back Thursday night after the game to be popping our champagne to round three, I'm assuming.

55:52Andrew: Yeah, I don't know.

55:53Clip: I don't want to.

55:54Andrew: I don't want to count our chickens before they've hatched. I don't want to count our slew foots before they've slewed.

56:00Justin: Before they've slewed. Yeah, the suit. the Soo still a good team. It's these. None of these games have been runaways in any way, so should be in for a good one on, on Thursday night. So. So there's gonna be a game five. So game four against the Soo Greyhounds Road to the Robertson Episode 8 the Rangers lost their first game of the playoffs. They lost four to two in regulation because you can't lose four to two in overtime.

56:30Andrew: And they lost because of the third period.

56:33Justin: Because of the third period.

56:34Andrew: About a seven minute stretch in the third period where the game was lost.

56:39Justin: Totally. Yeah. The Rangers scored twice pretty handedly in the first period. Second period. Not a lot happened. It was very much, we have a lead, we will keep this lead. And. And then, yeah, they just let their foot off the gas and the Soo were like, like, hey, we'd like to win.

56:55Andrew: Yeah. I think the interview with Quinn McKenzie in the second intermission, pretty much I thought, oh, that seems like a very positive, optimistic young fella right there. Yeah, I did have a moment where I was just like, man, he's. He seems pretty loose. Not nervous at all.

57:13Justin: Yeah.

57:14Andrew: And ultimately, yeah, Jordan Sharon, and especially Jordan Sharon, who had two draws. And Travis Hayes, of course, who was pulled out of the crease. His little, his little garbage man himself contribution. Yeah. What can you say? There was a meltdown after meltdown. Obviously the Soo were intent on forcing a game five. And I'm going to be honest, even after the three goals that the Rangers gave up, it did seem to me, even as a die hard, biased Rangers fan, that the Rangers were a little content to come back and play tomorrow night. They had to come back anyway and it just seemed like a little. There was a Little bit of like, okay, whatever, we'll get you next game. I don't. I'm not saying they're actually like that because they're gamers and they probably aren't like that. But the level of effort and intensity it was. They were just. We're not matching the Soo It was a lot of pucks being dumped in and being immediately retrieved by the Soo and then just keep away kind of hockey.

58:15Justin: Yeah. It really felt like even when they were up three to two, the Rangers were playing like they had a two goal lead.

58:21Andrew: Yeah.

58:21Justin: They didn't. They never went back to being like, oh, we have to score goals until it was too late. Until you're pulling your goalie and they had a couple opportunities. Kirsch saved it from being a 5, 2 game.

58:33Andrew: Yeah.

58:34Justin: After he, after he gave away the puck, he got a save of the game for sure. Coming around and diving through the air to get it. But George also playoffs. Yeah, totally.

58:44Andrew: Yeah.

58:45Justin: But George also had some crazy saves in that third period to. To keep them in it. The Rangers, although they didn't seem like they were playing with that great of intensity in that third period after they went down three to two, they also seemed like they also still got good opportunities because the Rangers are a good team that always get good opportunities. So. Yeah.

59:04Andrew: And ultimately the. The book I think on Kershaw is the high glove and that's what beat him tonight twice. And yeah, teams know. I'm not breaking the news to anybody. Maybe I'm breaking the news to some Rangers fans, although they seem to be hypercritical. So they probably know.

59:20Justin: They probably know too. Yeah.

59:21Andrew: But it, it was. Yeah. He's really got to lift that glove up. There's a couple times where I think it's just that absent minded like that the glove is resting near his pads and that's where guys are looking. Like guys are looking to go.

59:33Justin: Yeah. the Soo the empty top corner. Right.

59:36Andrew: So yeah. Hopefully we can not have defensive breakdowns. We cannot have a lot of penalties in game five because I think that's the road to the Soo forcing a game six is. They haven't really been capitalizing on the power play until that third period. Like they were 2 for 14 I think is what the commentators said.

59:58Rita: Yeah.

59:58Andrew: That the Soo were coming into this one. They were 2 for 14 coming in on this one. 2 for 15 now because they did not score on the Sam O'Reilly tripping penalty. And I think that in a game in up three games to one, the refs are going to Be extreme. Calling this game extremely tight. If the Rangers get a little sloppy and do things like hold and hook and those sorts of penalties. Stay clean, stay focused, shoot the puck more. I know that's a very basic thing, but more pucks at Carter George, more chaos in front of Carter George. That is going to be crucial because I don't know about you, but one. They went up three to two with less than a period left. I was like, carter George is going to close.

60:44Justin: Carter George, immediately after that third goal by the Soo had a leather flash, beautiful glove save. And it was like. Like, oh, he's locked in now. Like, yeah, he. He's always locked in, but really locked in.

60:56Andrew: You open the door this much for him to put to save the game and get a victory, and that's all he needs. He's going to come in and slam the door if. If he has to.

61:06Justin: He didn't let in a sloppy one this game for sure. Like those. Those two goals were pretty magnificent by the Rangers. Specifically that second goal. Who ended up putting it in the. Who ended up passing it it to Ellis to put it in the net.

61:19Andrew: It was La Char's goal, actually, the second goal. Are you thinking about the Ellis.

61:23Justin: Oh, I'm thinking about the first goal.

61:25Andrew: The first goal our Cat scored from Ellis and Lamb.

61:29Justin: Right? From Ellis and Lamb.

61:30Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Smurf 2.0 line.

61:33Justin: That lamb to Ellis was a stunning pass. And then the fact that he just. He basically one touched it to our Cat, who was just wide open by himself in front of an empty net was. It was great.

61:47Clip: Yeah.

61:47Justin: I mean, if I was like, this is awesome. The secondary scoring here is killer.

61:51Andrew: This is the thing though, is like, if you want to. Not to be negative or take a negative standpoint on this, but the secondary scoring has been there. Yes. Dylan Edwards, that line scored a ton last game and the game before and whatever. But in these closeout games, you. You're gonna need a goal from your big line. Like you're gonna need. And the fact is they didn't get one tonight and they're going home with a loss. That's the difference.

62:15Justin: Right.

62:16Andrew: It's great that the third and fourth line scored. That's awesome. We called that we can victory lap that. I'd rather that they didn't score.

62:23Justin: And the top two lines do all

62:25Andrew: the scoring if we're gonna win.

62:27Justin: Yeah.

62:28Andrew: So ultimately, yeah. Stay out of the box, get a lead, protect the lead, and we'd love to see like a two. And once you're up to Push. Right. Like push, push harder. That didn't really happen in that second period. And I get it, you're up in the suit. It could be hard. But this is what championship pedigree is about, right? Is winning these games. So like, I would love to be in a position as a Rangers fan at the Aud tomorrow night to be like just high fiving people by like middle of the second period because it's six to nothing.

63:02Justin: Sing at home.

63:02Rita: Home.

63:03Justin: Yeah. All right. So yes. Game five tomorrow night, Friday, April the Aud the Aud I think it's a 7pm Er, I think tickets go on sale in ten minutes from now at 10pm tonight. So it's like.

63:17Andrew: Oh, really?

63:18Justin: Yeah, yeah. They were not on sale yet. So.

63:20Andrew: Okay, there you go. Hopefully we will see you there. And hopefully if we get that, you know, that two nothing lead again or that two goal leads, maybe we'll go

63:29Justin: for the three nothing lead.

63:30Andrew: I was gonna Sam O'Reilly don't prove it to be the worst lead in hockey tonight.

63:35Justin: Right.

63:36Andrew: I don't understand that but for some reason people say it and it's. It was true tonight. Worst lead in hockey.

63:42Justin: Worse late in hockey. All right.

63:44Andrew: The two goal lead.

63:45Justin: See y' all tomorrow night. The Soo Greyhounds are out of here. No dogs allowed.

63:51Andrew: That's right. Back to the pound.

63:53Justin: Yeah. And Andrew here got a really nice new.

63:56Andrew: That's true.

63:57Justin: Thanks to. We have to shout out Blake and Trevor and Lana at Rangers Authentics for making the Jack Prism the Jack Pridham jersey happen.

64:05Andrew: Absolutely.

64:06Justin: Because Andrew got a thing about overagers. We won.

64:09Andrew: We won. Dominant win.

64:10Justin: Dominant win. It started not so great. Not great. With a quick goal by exactly what we said we should happen. We wanted a quick goal. We. We sometimes forget to specify who has to score that goal.

64:25Andrew: Yes. It was a bit of the Evan Headrick situation. My Christmas wish was Evan Headrick scores a goal. He gets traded to Erie, scores a goal. Immediately shifted.

64:32Justin: Immediately. First shift.

64:34Andrew: We wanted like first minute. We'd love a goal and unfortunately that happened. Yeah, unfortunately. Unfortunately it happened and it looked like it was going to be maybe a bit of a nervous game.

64:45Justin: Yeah. And luckily we got one back. Right away.

64:48Andrew: Right away.

64:49Justin: Very nice goal. Dylan Edwards, I think. Was it.

64:51Andrew: No, it was Arky.

64:53Justin: Oh, Arkad. How could we forget? Yeah.

64:55Andrew: Depth scoring.

64:56Justin: We're pretty jazz. the Aud was pretty rocking tonight.

64:59Andrew: That's what I was looking for.

65:00Justin: Yeah. The chanting with the clappers on the metal. Oh, man. It was the rocking. It was good.

65:07Andrew: the Aud was rocked. Talking a little bit More about the game. Oh, yeah, the game. Not just the crowd. The Rangers, you know, they did a good job of getting in front and clamping down and reducing chances. There was a couple scary moments. There was a. There was a post hit. There was a few giveaways behind the net. It never resulted in anything.

65:27Justin: Yeah, yeah.

65:28Andrew: Ultimately I was.

65:30Justin: I was happy.

65:31Andrew: Obviously. We talked about how we wanted to see a little bit more of like a foot on. On throat kind of situation. Yeah. But I was happy that they did close it out. I don't think, you know, they fully turned off the offense. They didn't park the bus. Let's say they closed out. They did what they had to do.

65:47Justin: Yes. And there were a lot of nervous fans in ahead of time. And I was liking to say that it's nice that the Rangers brought a win home because all these game fours are going to be on the road, so. Well, yeah, this was for us. This was a game for the fans.

66:00Andrew: That's true. We do have to talk about the first empty NETTER by Sam O'Reilly Yeah.

66:06Clip: He got smoked. Hey, guys.

66:08Justin: So you always check the back seat. Always.

66:13Clip: He drove the net really hard and unfortunately took a hard one off the post there.

66:18Andrew: Yeah. Right where you don't want to take

66:20Clip: the post but then gets another empty net goal.

66:22Andrew: He did for his trouble.

66:23Justin: Yeah.

66:24Andrew: One for each couple.

66:25Justin: Cracked peanuts in that basket there. Yeah.

66:28Andrew: No, it was.

66:30Clip: That situation was literally quite nuts.

66:34Justin: Babs, thanks for joining us. What did you see tonight?

66:37Clip: I just Sam O'Reilly lot of competitiveness lifts. I think last night they kind of thought they won the game and then that resulted in them losing the game because a two goal lead is the worst lead in hockey.

66:45Justin: That's the worst lead in hockey. Yeah.

66:48Clip: Yeah. So outside of that, manager just. They took care of business. Carter George also kind of kept them in that game for the Soo at times. He.

66:54Justin: That's true.

66:55Clip: Bailed him out. Penalty calls were interesting. I think the Soo kind of just. The game was over at the end of the second period where they got two tenors. And that too.

67:02Justin: Yeah.

67:03Clip: So that. That kind of really ice the cake.

67:06Andrew: And you might. You might. That's the name of the episode. I don't know how you knew that, but Icing on the PK Cake is the name of the episode because we did actually see the. Aud we call it, the vaunted icing on the penalty kill call.

67:23Clip: Yes.

67:24Andrew: That really set the rink off. And they were on the refs all night, which, I mean, you know, to some degree, I Understand why the Aud was on the refs.

67:33Justin: There was a. There was some weird. I'm not going to say bad, but weird calls that preempted that call at the end of the first period.

67:42Andrew: Very much so.

67:43Justin: And yeah, when they called the icing on the PK and then put the puck drop at center ice, the Aud no longer respected the refs.

67:54Clip: No, but center ice is where they're supposed to put it after.

67:57Andrew: That is true.

67:58Justin: That is true. I don't disagree with you on that. But that is where they lost the fan. Yeah.

68:03Andrew: That is by the rule book.

68:05Justin: Yeah.

68:05Andrew: However, by the rule book, you guys

68:07Clip: are a Kitchener Rangers podcast. But I will say this. They've almost always just lost the fans. It doesn't really matter.

68:13Andrew: Oh, yeah.

68:14Clip: Regardless of anything.

68:15Andrew: Oh, yeah.

68:16Justin: Yeah. the Aud fans, they. the Aud in that way.

68:18Clip: They're.

68:19Andrew: They. They want blood for. With the officials.

68:21Clip: Yeah.

68:22Andrew: I think there's a long history there with a couple officials.

68:25Justin: Yes.

68:25Andrew: And. And then therefore, now that has colored the Andrew relationship with the officials. With all of the officials.

68:31Justin: What else about this game? We're going on to face Windsor, Round three, Conference finals. Again.

68:37Andrew: Again. Windsor will be looking for redemption.

68:40Justin: Yes. Green Tree just wants to win a game against Kitchener. That's true.

68:44Andrew: He did get one in the regular season.

68:46Justin: He got one in the regular season.

68:47Andrew: We'll give him that.

68:48Justin: Let's not give him a playoff game.

68:49Andrew: Yeah. That's going to be a tough test. I expect it will be a long series.

68:54Justin: Oh, yeah. It's going to be good.

68:55Andrew: Yeah.

68:56Justin: Game one will be next week at some point between now and then Andrew and I. And you know, I don't want to commit Babs or not, but he might show up. That's how things happen here. We are going to do a recap episode and a preview episode for the Windsor series. And if you want to tell us any of your thoughts and feelings.

69:15Clip: Yeah.

69:15Andrew: You can go on our website, theaudpod.com and you can record. Record. At the top of our page, there's a place to leave a voicemail for us. You could be featured on the pod, or we will react to your voicemail or we will read it out loud. And ultimately we want to hear your thoughts and opinions about not just the series, but the upcoming series with Windsor. And we will react to that.

69:39Rita: Yep.

69:40Justin: Babs, if you were to call in to our voicemail, what would you Sam

69:44Clip: O'Reilly probably do a review of the back seat of your car. It's awfully clean. There's not a lot of crumbs. Given that you have young children, I would expect more. But Kitchener did a good job tonight of picking up all the crumbs. They definitely did a good job of delivering when they needed to.

69:55Justin: True professional right here.

69:56Andrew: This guy. This guy is real, Real Hockey media. And he has the past to prove it.

70:02Clip: Yeah, well, can you call me real Hockey media when I've done two podcasts in the backseat of someone's car?

70:08Justin: And with that, we'll see you in round three.

70:21Clip: It.