Episode 8: Hlacar-izard! We Choose You!

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

0:30Andrew: He.

0:32Justin: Seven in a row. Seven in a row. Seven In a row.

0:39Andrew: Points and 12 straight wagon hot rod.

0:43Justin: I. I don't even know what to do anymore. If we take our sample size of the last five games, we will never be defeated again.

0:50Andrew: They're going to run the table on the OHL, is that what you're saying?

0:54Justin: We lost two, we got one shootout loss, one OTL, and that's it.

1:00Andrew: That's it.

1:01Justin: 64 wins.

1:02Andrew: Yeah. Get us. You know what? As an Oilers fan in the NHL, I would like that team to get a stomach bug, poop their pants for a game, get embarrassed. Well, they already did, but they got superpowers, and then. Yeah, exactly. Become the Soo Men of that league. Because that's what we're dealing with here is mutants.

1:22Justin: Yeah.

1:24Andrew: Yeah. It doesn't matter who plays together. It doesn't matter who gets suspended or who gets injured, who comes back from injury. No. This team just gels.

1:31Justin: They just work.

1:32Andrew: Yeah.

1:32Justin: The whole team works together. Yeah. It doesn't. Yeah. Whoever's out on your line, it just works.

1:37Andrew: Beautiful.

1:38Justin: Okay, so we played three games. We played three games. We won all three games.

1:42Andrew: Do you remember when we used to do the segment the good, the bad and the ugly?

1:45Justin: Vaguely.

1:46Andrew: Very vaguely.

1:47Justin: Yeah.

1:48Andrew: That was many moons ago. Many, many episodes ago.

1:51Justin: I have the template still, but I don't know what it does.

1:54Andrew: Right. I couldn't tell. Do anything bad or ugly about anything.

1:58Justin: Yeah.

1:59Andrew: At this point, we have to do

2:01Justin: three stars for all the games. This again. Again. I'm almost running out of good things

2:05Andrew: to Sam O'Reilly want to criticize something at this point.

2:10Justin: I'm not. I'm not so equipped verbally with the positive. I was going to say this is

2:15Andrew: an extremely positive podcast.

2:17Justin: Yeah.

2:17Andrew: Because they're not giving us anything to

2:20Justin: complain about, and I don't want to anyways.

2:22Andrew: True.

2:22Justin: Okay. So game one was against the Erie Otters.

2:26Andrew: The Erie Otters.

2:27Justin: We won six to two. What's your first star?

2:30Andrew: My first star. Matthew Lechar.

2:34Justin: Yeah.

2:35Andrew: Matthew Lecharazard. The man evolved into his final form in this game and made the Erie Otters look like little brother. So he had two goals in this one.

2:49Justin: You.

2:49Andrew: He took over. He looked just like. I mean, he looked like a seasoned vet. And it's this early in the season, so I'm excited about his development.

2:59Justin: Baby. Matthew Charmander started this game. Exactly.

3:03Andrew: Yeah. He Skipped the Charmeleon. Yeah, the Le Charleon. We never saw it.

3:08Justin: He didn't need it. You know, he just powered right up. He was also my first star. And because how could he not be? I did write that we came in hot and ready and the Le Charizard created a little crispy edge for us.

3:21Andrew: He did he. Yeah, he scorched him.

3:23Justin: Yeah, it was good.

3:24Andrew: Yeah.

3:24Justin: My second star for this game was that a. We scored first and we won.

3:30Andrew: Nice. Breaking the. Breaking the streak.

3:32Justin: Breaking the streak. But it does seem like maybe if we score first, we have to score three to make it work.

3:38Andrew: Okay.

3:39Justin: It's just the trend.

3:39Andrew: Yeah.

3:40Justin: Because I think that happened in this game and it happened in Sarnia as well.

3:44Andrew: Okay.

3:44Justin: All right.

3:44Andrew: Not to get ahead of ourselves. No, but that is what the data. That's the data.

3:48Justin: That's the data. That's what we have our advanced analytics team here at the Aud POD network. Analyzing.

3:56Andrew: We're analyzing. We ran it through the. Yeah, exactly. The. the Aud POD data computer. Anyway, that's funny that you say that because obviously we were watching the same game and my second star was the Swick start.

4:13Justin: Oh, sorry.

4:13Andrew: I meant the quick start.

4:15Justin: Let's see what you did there.

4:17Andrew: 40 Trent Swick. He is he. Like I said, I called him in an earlier episode. He's the big man on campus.

4:24Justin: Yeah, man, he's back.

4:25Andrew: He's going to hit the over on the point totals from episode one when we. Or episode two when we were making.

4:30Justin: It's almost embarrassing now, the number that you gave me.

4:33Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Right. He's just. He's going to blow it away. He is a man amongst boys. We kind of knew that coming into it that, that, that was going to happen. I just didn't think we were going to see this kind of offensive production this quickly. Yeah, this out of the Andrew Tommy Kut also like, I mean, the guy is just putting up two and three points and like if he doesn't, it's like you can remember at least two, like, you know, 10 bell saves on him or he hit the post or like, you know what I mean? Or they had a goal. A goal called back every single game. He's just like a leader and he's also a great big dude who throws his weight around and creates space for the other players on that top line.

5:17Justin: Although like, obviously he is super offensively useful on this Kitchener Rangers Tommy Kut he's a utility player. He does everything. He back checks well. Like he's. He's always in it.

5:26Andrew: Yeah. He's just straight up a leader. It's really cool. His story. I'm looking forward to following him because he has the size and I think the work ethic to succeed at the highest level. I'm really excited to watch his career in the sense of not getting drafted and then not getting drafted. And then getting drafted.

5:45Justin: Yeah.

5:45Andrew: And getting drafted late. And no. Knowing what I saw last year in limited games that I did watch, I could see that, like, that was a player and that was a. A potential big winger that every team is looking for. So I was surprised to see him go later on in the drafts. And obviously, once again, I will mention I'm very sad that he's with Vegas.

6:04Justin: I'm happy for him because, I mean,

6:06Andrew: it probably one of the best places to play, I'm sure. And as far as, like, income tax and, you know, weather and all that kind of stuff is pretty good. However, I'm not looking forward to seeing Tread Swick in the quarters in a Vegas Gold Knight jersey, so.

6:22Justin: So with the shiniest helmet, here's hoping

6:25Andrew: he doesn't end up there, but ends up with a long career somewhere else. Somewhere more favorable. Somewhere copper and blue. Blue and orange, perhaps.

6:35Justin: I was thinking he would look really good in red and white.

6:39Andrew: Team Canada,

6:43Justin: also. Yes. Also. Yes. Okay. What's your. What's your third star?

6:47Andrew: I had to go with the penalty kill. I think that the special teams are rolling. It was a weakness in those first games, just generally the special teams, both sides. But the Penalty kill was 4 for 4 in this game. They just look composed. I think that's the thing. So I think the reason why I'm questioning it with the third star is just that if we had our special teams figured out early on, would we be undefeated? That's all I'm saying.

7:17Justin: It does feel.

7:18Andrew: That's all I'm saying.

7:19Justin: That's pretty close. Yeah, I. I didn't. I didn't write down specialty teams for this game. Yeah. This is the only game I didn't write down anything about special teams. Well, I will be honest.

7:28Andrew: Yeah. Special teams are involved in all three of my three stars.

7:31Justin: Yes. Yeah, I. I mean, again, not to jump ahead to Sarnia too much, but nobody could stop talking about the special teams. Yeah. Against Sarnia. Yeah.

7:39Andrew: So, yeah.

7:40Justin: Okay. My third star. I got a call out. I have to read this off my computer.

7:45Andrew: Oh, it's a quote. It's a quote. We have a quote. Do we have a hater from.

7:51Justin: Well, not directly at us. Okay. But the Erie Otters Tracker on Twitter. Oh, he wrote on Friday pregame.

7:59Andrew: Okay.

8:00Justin: If the Otters Soupy the weekend, which I think they can because I believe that Kitchener are frauds, they'd get the top spot in the west. Who's top spot in the West, Andrew?

8:11Andrew: Well, not Lil bro Erie.

8:13Justin: That's for sure.

8:15Andrew: Little Bros had McDavid. Couldn't win nothing.

8:19Justin: What's this? Now you're just suddenly calling us frauds? Yeah.

8:22Andrew: Organization.

8:24Justin: All right.

8:25Andrew: To draft a generational player and let

8:27Justin: him break his hand in a fight again. How about you do that? All right. You think we forgot that?

8:31Andrew: I didn't know that that happened.

8:33Justin: Wow.

8:34Andrew: Yeah. So lil bro. But yeah. No, we don't want to hear it. Yeah.

8:43Justin: Keep your. Keep your opinions about us to yourself.

8:46Andrew: Yuri. Keep my team's name out your mouth.

8:52Justin: Okay. So game two against Yuri. We won. This one was tighter. We won four. Three in overtime. I'm jumping in here with my first star because all my first. All my stars tonight. Is this true? Yes, it is. All my stars. Yeah. I had to fact check.

9:07Andrew: Checked on the fly.

9:10Justin: All my stars tonight. There's a theme. They all have to do with special teams.

9:14Andrew: Special teams.

9:15Justin: So the first one is obviously our first shorthanded goal. Beauty the season. Okay. From Elena's.

9:22Andrew: Nice.

9:22Justin: It was a beautiful goal.

9:23Andrew: Yes. He scores those. That's pretty much all he scores.

9:26Justin: Did you notice that? Goals. This is.

9:28Andrew: No. Beautiful.

9:29Justin: Oh, beautiful.

9:29Andrew: Go. He's like the. He like pretty much only gets beauties. Yeah. Yeah. And. And he has lots of opportunities for other types of goals. But the ones that go in are like the most high skill ones.

9:40Justin: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

9:41Andrew: Yeah.

9:41Justin: But overall it was a great pk. Like the whole. The pe. As you said in the last game, we un. Undefeated like our PK was. It just feels like a different unit and was like three, four weeks ago.

9:53Andrew: Yeah. I'm not quite sure what changed but yeah. The juice has it rolling. So the. The coaching staff just literally around. They went from zeros to heroes on special teams. Yeah.

10:03Justin: It's a. It's great.

10:04Andrew: My first star.

10:05Justin: Yep.

10:06Andrew: Our guy. The original AudPod guy. Jackson Parsons.

10:12Justin: I don't know if he was.

10:13Andrew: That game. I just talked all this trash about Erie. It was actually a really good game. Really close. Really close game. I thought the Rangers were going to blow it on two occasions. The second goal that Erie scored and the tying goal. That's. Erie scored. I felt a little bit deflated because I do. As much as I trash talked the Erie guy, I do think Erie is a good team.

10:34Justin: They are. I don't.

10:35Andrew: I actually don't have any problems with Erie. I think that they're a good team. I like watching Erie play hockey. They play good hockey. They're. They're competitive, they're fast. But Parsons stole a couple of those. Could have went in and could have ended the game. And I just feel like. I just feel like Jackson Parsons is still the guy, our guy and will always be the original AudPod guy.

10:58Justin: He will be. So, like, they also went with him for all three games this weekend.

11:03Andrew: I know.

11:03Justin: Kind of surprising.

11:04Andrew: I was looking at the goaltending statistics and he has like played the most games by far out of like the top 10 goalies in the. Yeah.

11:12Justin: Oh, yeah.

11:12Andrew: In the OHL. Like he's up to 11 now. Now don't get me wrong, I. I think this is a great way to deal with Shovel's development is to not like. And not only that, this is also the last. You know, this is the last time that, that Jackson Parsons is going to be a Ranger. Right. So like, you got to utilize a guy that talented when you've got him.

11:31Justin: Absolutely.

11:32Andrew: By the way, I don't know if I mentioned it, he went, he stopped 37 out of 40.

11:35Justin: Yeah, I know. It was. Yeah. Yuri. Yuri pelted us in that game for sure. Yeah. Yeah. We have a lot of good things to say because we won, but it was, it was a hard fought game.

11:47Andrew: It was a. It was a great game.

11:48Justin: Okay, what's your second start?

11:50Andrew: Oh, the dynamic offensive duo. They play on different lines, but I'm calling the offensive duo because I think they're two of the best finishers on the team. And that's Ellenus and Missile Javic. Yeah, they had. They combined for 11 shots and three goals in this game. They are just. It's the one, two punch. If Mislevic's not on the ice, Ellen is. Is on the ice and that's the guy that you got to worry about and it's vice versa. Right. At all times. So you've got these two elite drivers as far as, you know, being finishers. And I just don't know how you would game plan for these two guys in a seven game series because, like, I still don't think we've seen Elena's peak production. Like he's obviously producing very well. I still think there's another gear there as far as. Because I'm seeing high danger chances not go in. And Missile Javic is. Is just always finishing. It's.

12:47Justin: He's.

12:47Andrew: He's Unbelievable.

12:48Justin: It's way more shocking when he misses the net.

12:50Andrew: It is. Yeah, he is. He is an elite finisher, and he just looks like a guy that everybody in the opposing rink holds their breath. When he's going in there and he's got the puck or he's taking a

13:01Justin: shot, it's just like, oh, their vision is sort of unparalleled.

13:05Andrew: I think, like, the crazy thing is, is, like, right across the top two lines. Not only are they well coached and that they know where to go, they just know where each other are.

13:15Justin: Yeah. And they find the time and space

13:17Andrew: to make the things happen and when. Have a shot Luke Ellinas and a shot like Missile Javic, like. Yeah, that's just gonna propel you to be where they are in the statistics.

13:26Justin: And then you have other guys like Lamb and. And Reed just, like, with the bomb from the point in the passing, like.

13:32Andrew: Yeah, they're just. It's. It's just every. Everything's rolling.

13:35Justin: Everything clicks.

13:35Andrew: There's nothing that we can say right now. Really critical of. Of this team.

13:39Justin: My. My second star. Just continuing my theme. Power play. So the first power play, we got six shots on goal, and they were all good chances. Oh, yeah.

13:50Andrew: They were legit rolling.

13:52Justin: It was. It felt so good. It felt like there was, like, a high pressure moment. It was like, I actually feel like we might score on this power play. Yeah. I mean, we did eventually score on. On the. We got the tying goal and the power play. So it was, like, very important, like, defining moments in this game. But it was that first one. I didn't know what I was watching. I didn't even know who I was watching. I'm like, is this our normal power play? They were rolling that sometimes can't enter the zone.

14:16Andrew: They've clicked.

14:17Justin: They do.

14:18Andrew: Yeah. What's your third star?

14:19Justin: My third star hits to the head.

14:21Andrew: Oh.

14:22Justin: Not a big fan.

14:23Andrew: Well, that's gonna. Gonna be an issue later in this podcast. We're gonna talk about, however. Yeah, I totally understand that. I mean, there is. Sometimes I think there's an intent, and then I think sometimes there is a unfortunate timing because you're taking a risky hit. I think. I think one was a bit more of that one than the other one.

14:44Justin: Yes.

14:45Andrew: Without naming names and pointing fingers. But I do think that ultimately you got to make a safer play.

14:51Justin: Yeah.

14:52Andrew: And if a guy turns his head at the last minute or whatever, it's still on you because you are initiate.

14:57Justin: You're the one that's going.

14:58Andrew: And I'd be a I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't say that because I said that exact thing about the neon knee against Windsor. I said, you've got to be responsible for your body 100%. You've got to be responsible for your body. So that ties in with my third star which was surviving the two five minute majors. Yes, they did give up one goal on one of them, but ten minutes worth of.

15:20Justin: You know, they also drew some penalties in those as well. Are they able to sort of negate a few minutes of those? Yeah.

15:25Andrew: And this ties into it in that I said surviving new officiating because I felt like there was also just Sam O'Reilly thought it was. I thought it was actually pretty appropriate that there were blind refs sitting in Eerie.

15:41Justin: Yes, yes, there were.

15:42Andrew: There was a whole section for Halloween night because I couldn't tell if they were letting them play. Because they weren't. Because they were calling.

15:51Justin: They were calling a lot of things.

15:52Andrew: Yeah. On both teams. I'm not saying.

15:54Justin: Yeah, yeah, for sure. But there was a lot of penalties.

15:55Andrew: There was a lot of penalties.

15:56Justin: Yeah.

15:57Andrew: But then there was like some very obvious. I can remember at one point Ellenis took a trip, like got tripped and I was like, well, you gotta call that.

16:05Justin: Who didn't see it?

16:06Andrew: Right. And there was no call. So I, I just didn't understand the consistency. But there's gonna be games like that.

16:13Justin: Yeah.

16:14Andrew: And they survived it.

16:15Justin: They did.

16:15Andrew: And they didn't make it easy on themselves with the two five minute majors and misconducts and you know, now suspensions.

16:22Justin: Yes.

16:22Andrew: Yeah, of course we're referring to Lebrash and Botno.

16:27Justin: Yeah. So.

16:28Andrew: And those are guys that I like seeing out there.

16:31Justin: Yeah. They've been really good for the Rangers this year and, and not. I haven't seen any dirty intent.

16:36Andrew: I don't think they're dirty players. I think that this stuff. Lebrash is young and huge.

16:41Justin: Yeah, and huge. And he had a small guy when

16:43Andrew: he hit a small guy. Yeah. Not to excuse it. Once again, gotta be responsible. 100 and bought. No, I just think maybe it was a bit of a bad timing. You can't. It's a. It's a risky play. Don't make that play.

16:55Justin: I agree. A special shout out for this one. The Eerie broadcast. I really enjoyed it.

17:00Andrew: Yeah. I thought they were great.

17:01Justin: They did a great job. You know it's interesting because we get, we get the like single sided broadcast for every broadcast.

17:08Andrew: We do. Yeah.

17:09Justin: So it's like, okay. When they're in Kitchener, it's like, very Kitchener centric.

17:13Andrew: Yeah. And also the. The Kitchener guys are. Are honestly like the class of the league. I'm really.

17:18Justin: I agree.

17:19Andrew: I'm excited. I'm excited when it's a home game because. And this is the thing is I. I can't necessarily say the same for all the teams that I root for when I watch the home broadcast.

17:28Justin: Yeah.

17:28Andrew: Or. Or not even just the home broadcast, but just like sportsnet in general. I can't always say that I enjoy who they have in the booth.

17:35Justin: Yeah.

17:36Andrew: I'm grateful that the Rangers, the team

17:38Justin: that we're following, they have Jason, Dan and Sean are awesome as a Tommy Kut But this eerie team. I also felt like they. They were really cohesive. They were really good together, and I felt like they were like they. They were open to both sides. They talked about both teams, honestly, in positive lights.

17:54Andrew: I have heard some of these guys be super biased, and for this to be an American broadcast team, I was expecting it to be that way.

18:04Justin: I thought so, too. I did.

18:05Andrew: I thought they were super professional, and I thought they flowed.

18:08Justin: Well, I'm not calling out Saginaw, but I did rewatch the highlights today from a game against.

18:15Andrew: I mean, I guess if you're going to lean into it, lean into AudPod, like, just start a podcast or something, guys. All right?

18:22Justin: Just start a podcast. Don't. Don't, you know, put that on the broad.

18:26Andrew: Bring it to the broadcast.

18:28Justin: All right. All right. So Game three, Sarnia, Sting. I've already talked about it multiple times.

18:33Andrew: You have. Because it was fresh in our minds.

18:35Justin: It was fresh in our minds.

18:36Andrew: Yeah.

18:37Justin: We won six to one. Oh, it was a great game.

18:40Andrew: It was a great game. Remember, let's go back once again on this podcast, we admit things that we got wrong. We said this is probably the most even matchup on paper that we are going to have so far this year.

18:54Justin: Yeah.

18:55Andrew: Which it may have.

18:55Justin: May have been. I. I think it was.

18:57Andrew: I think it was.

18:57Justin: All the things that I believe to be true about this matchup were true. We just dominated.

19:03Andrew: And the Aud happened?

19:05Justin: Then we won. We won so much.

19:06Andrew: We won every aspect of this game.

19:09Justin: Yeah.

19:09Andrew: Yeah.

19:10Justin: So whatever it is, all those little things, we just had the edge in everything. It was amazing.

19:14Andrew: Yeah.

19:15Justin: So what's your first star?

19:16Andrew: Which brings me to the man responsible. The man's getting a new nickname.

19:22Justin: Oh, I can't wait.

19:25Andrew: That's the V8. It's always a juice, but it's also the hot rod engine that we're dealing with. Right. Here it is. The juice. He is V8 this week. All right. Which is a disgusting juice. All right.

19:40Justin: All right.

19:40Andrew: But it's good for you and it turns you into a man.

19:44Justin: All right.

19:44Andrew: I never finished a V8 in my life.

19:47Justin: Yeah.

19:48Andrew: Which I don't know what that says about me. But anyway, the depth scoring. Vermeulen's bumped up to Line 2 because of suspensions.

19:55Justin: Scores.

19:56Andrew: Mercer 2 points, a goal and an assist. Right. Grizz Golia.

20:00Justin: Right.

20:01Andrew: Penalty shot.

20:01Justin: Yeah. Right. Buries it. Yeah. Right. Chromiak. Yeah. Right.

20:06Andrew: Reed, three points. It doesn't matter who has to step up because the Juice has the boys rolling.

20:13Justin: Yes.

20:14Andrew: What's your first start?

20:15Justin: I mean, my first star. It ties into a lot of.

20:18Andrew: There was.

20:18Justin: There were three guys I wanted to specifically call out for the hardest working guys on the team. Nice. And that's Romano, Grizz Golia and Chromiak.

20:27Andrew: Lunch Pale guys.

20:29Justin: the Aud POD analytics team

20:34Andrew: worked really

20:34Justin: hard on this and they spotted at least 10 high danger scoring chances that those three guys created in the first period. Yeah.

20:44Andrew: So they were just all over it.

20:46Justin: It was. They weren't getting the. I mean, they all ended up scoring. They all ended up scoring at the end of the game.

20:51Andrew: Yeah.

20:51Justin: And the Aud But it was. It was not just like a fluke goal. It was hard work that those three put into individually, their own efforts.

20:59Andrew: No one's going to question the effort of this team. No. I'm not sitting there now. They've been winning, no doubt. Right? They've been winning, but like, even if they had lost a couple of these close games, it's not for lack of effort.

21:11Justin: No. So, yeah, they play hard to the end. Yeah. That's great.

21:14Andrew: What's your second star?

21:16Justin: So my second star is the officiating. So it's a good little bounce back this.

21:22Andrew: We give credit when credit is due, sir.

21:25Justin: So, A, I thought this game was a really good game. I also felt. I tried to look at it from the perspective of Sarnia. Obviously they got beat pretty bad, but I felt like the officiating was extremely fair to both teams. There were. There were penalties called. There were things called, but everything seemed warranted. There was no moment where I was like, oh, I can't believe they called that. Everything felt like. Even the offsides, everything. It was. It was such a clean officiated game and I really appreciated that that wasn't

21:52Andrew: a part of the fact that the officiating wasn't in the narrative.

21:56Justin: Yeah. Is.

21:56Andrew: Is a. Is a good thing.

21:58Justin: Yeah.

21:58Andrew: Funny flip side of that. My second star is the special teams.

22:02Justin: Oh, yeah. Good.

22:02Andrew: Because they had a shorty. They had two power play goals and a penalty shot goal. We're only missing a empty netter and we've got the. The six different types of goals you could score in this game, including even strength. Basically. We had all these opportunities. They capitalized on them. That's why it was 6 to 1. Yeah. Like you said it. They were penalties. It was a penalty shot. It was called correctly.

22:30Justin: It was.

22:30Andrew: And the Rangers capitalized. And that's the difference between winning 6 to 1 and, you know, maybe winning 2 or 3 to 1 with an empty netter or being close game because it was a fairly even game as far as the officiating. Yeah. And they just took advantage.

22:46Justin: Yeah, it was great.

22:47Andrew: So I just loved seeing that.

22:48Justin: That shorthanded goal was amazing. Like it was just. It just materialized out of nowhere and they just saw. Mercer just saw.

22:56Andrew: He read the pass.

22:57Justin: He just thought so.

22:58Andrew: Well, he read. He read the blue and he's gone. Which is. Yeah, it's so satisfying because you know that everything tightens up. Right. When you're a goalie and you see the guy at the opposing blue line read the pass and streak in.

23:11Justin: Yeah.

23:12Andrew: You've almost beaten yourself, I think, in your brain because you're just like, oh, man, this isn't supposed to the hell. Right. Like, it's just like, you know, like I, for whatever reason, there's got to be some sort of. There's no data on it. I, I'm. I'm pulling this out of my butt. But it's like the. Aud feels like psychologically you're. You're watching your team set up on the power play and all of a

23:34Justin: sudden, oh, somebody's made a huge. Somebody.

23:39Andrew: Somebody's made an incredible read.

23:41Justin: Here he comes. Okay. What's your third star?

23:44Andrew: The Elena scrap. Oh, yeah. Okay.

23:47Justin: He. We don't need that.

23:48Andrew: He tuned him up. Yeah, we don't need that. Going back to what I said against when I was talking about Erie.

23:54Justin: Oh, yeah.

23:54Andrew: And trash talking to him about, you know, McDavid breaking his hand in a. In a scrap. You don't need high skill players fighting now. However, I watched that Andrew Went back and watched that Andrew shift for Melanis and he was kind of taking Sam O'Reilly do what on that. On that shift. And I understand that maybe you're just like, you know what? You're not going to do this to me. Yeah. And I respect that.

24:16Justin: Yeah. And I thought he Stood up for him.

24:18Andrew: And I think that guys recognize that, and I think that that's one of the reasons that somebody. Not saying that Ellen is a small or anything. He's not. But a smaller guy in the NHL, Sam Gagne would always stand up for himself. I remember one time he fought Jack Johnson, who was huge, got tuned up, but people stopped taking advantage of him because he was willing to just Sam O'Reilly know what? Like, you're gonna have to throw down if you keep doing this. So I hope that it stops there. I liked the fact that he stood up for himself. And he said, listen, you're not gonna, like, slash me. You're not gonna poke me in the corner. You're not gonna get away with this crap. And if you're gonna talk some trash in front of the bench like that, I'm just gonna drop the gloves because Ellen has dropped the gloves first. Like, it was. He was like, let's go. Yeah, right. Maybe. Luke, if you're listening, we need your hands.

25:09Justin: Your hands make magic. Yeah.

25:11Andrew: You score nothing but beauties. Let's keep the fights to an absolute minimum.

25:16Justin: All right?

25:17Andrew: There's guys on the team who can handle business. Let them handle it. What's your third star, Justin?

25:23Justin: I. I don't have one. I've been. I just enjoyed this game so much. I got nothing to question. I was like, this is a great one. I just enjoying it. I don't. I don't have anything bad to Sam O'Reilly I laughed a lot. When Sean Furfaro asked the Juice after the game about his feelings about the top 10, the CHL top 10, and the. Aud the Rangers not being in it. I. That made me laugh out loud that he asked the coach that. And of course, in classic Jews fashion, he laughed at him and said, I don't care.

25:54Andrew: Yeah. Which is why we are not worthy.

25:57Justin: No, we are not worthy.

25:58Andrew: Love the Jews.

25:59Justin: Oh, yeah.

26:00Andrew: V8 this week. And we will continue to stand the Juice constantly throughout the season. Because to Sam O'Reilly ahead of schedule, I mean, like, you'd need a time machine to figure out where we are. Yeah. Like, yeah, the boys are the top team right now. I mean, Windsor is playing right now, and they have games in hand while we're recording this. But as of right now, when we're recording, the Rangers are the top team. Yep.

26:25Justin: Top in the league, top in the West.

26:27Andrew: Yeah.

26:27Justin: Nothing more other than the fact that Brampton is still in the top 10 and is fifth in their division.

26:35Andrew: Did you see during the Eerie. During the Eerie games, the graphic of the matchup tonight, they had us at 11 and they had eerie at 7,

26:44Justin: because that's where we are in the OHL ranking.

26:47Andrew: And I'm like, what are you watching at this point? Like, how much do you have to do to move up at least into the top ten?

26:56Justin: Yeah, come on, Come on. Even this week, after three more wins, we are eighth.

27:03Andrew: Listen, OHL Admin. OHL Admin, Powers that be, Galaxy brains over there, tell us, what are you looking at?

27:14Justin: What are you seeing?

27:15Andrew: What is the criteria that needs to be met for this team to enter the top five even? Tell me. I'm not even saying that they need

27:24Justin: to be top three. I don't. Number one. I get it. Just.

27:28Andrew: Yeah, okay, fine. You're.

27:29Justin: You.

27:29Andrew: I don't know if you're saying strength of schedule. I don't know what. What you're looking at. Home games, away games, power play, the shorthanded goals against. Are you still holding the shorties against us? Yeah. Just consider us, all right? I've gone from let the sleeping giant lie to, like, you know what?

27:47Justin: No, come on.

27:48Andrew: Give us some credit. These boys deserve a little boost.

27:51Justin: Seven in a row.

27:52Andrew: You tell me. They're not looking at it. They're looking at it.

27:55Justin: Right?

27:55Andrew: So they know. They know.

27:58Justin: Feeding them.

27:59Andrew: Oh, it's feeding them for sure.

28:00Justin: It's bulletin board material. Why do you.

28:02Andrew: Absolutely.

28:03Justin: Why do you think? He passed Charmeleon. Yeah, exactly. Straight to La Charizard.

28:07Andrew: The Juice doesn't care about it. They don't care about AudPod, like, it's at this point. At this point, we shouldn't have, like, local reporters writing about how the league is not promoting us and not not giving us any credit because it's just. It just seems like bias favoritism.

28:25Justin: 100%. Okay. Only two games to talk about this week. So we have a game on Friday against Sudbury, and then we have a game on Sunday against Saginaw. We've played Saginaw, but we have not played Sudbury.

28:37Andrew: That's true. And we are going to be there.

28:39Justin: Sudbury. Also ahead of Brampton.

28:41Andrew: The Wolves.

28:42Justin: The Wolves.

28:43Andrew: Wolves.

28:44Justin: Yeah. We're going to be there.

28:45Andrew: We're going to be there.

28:46Justin: Sudbury.

28:47Andrew: So we got the Aud the Aud The Wolves.

28:51Justin: The Wolves. So we got two players to watch. I. I don't know. I couldn't find, like, it. I was looking. I know.

29:00Andrew: Trap game. I know. Incoming trap game.

29:03Justin: I'm worried.

29:03Andrew: Yeah, Trap game. Home on a Friday night. Everything's rolling.

29:08Justin: We're there.

29:09Andrew: And a cupcakes coming to town.

29:11Justin: We're there.

29:11Andrew: We're all for one, right? Yeah. Trap game.

29:15Justin: Actual players to watch. We got Kieran Walton, who is a Winnipeg prospect. Leads their team with six goals and 17 points.

29:22Andrew: Okay, so that's good.

29:23Justin: So he's good. He's like. Seems he's. He's on it. He's got a linemate, I think Kacha delic.

29:30Andrew: That's for sure. Not right.

29:32Justin: Holly said that wrong.

29:33Andrew: And we apologize to you, Kacha.

29:35Justin: He's interesting because he takes. He already has 62 shots in 12 games, so he's taking over five shots a night.

29:42Andrew: I'm like, this guy is like. Yeah, I'm just video game numbers with

29:46Justin: the shot attempts, for sure. So I'm excited to see where he's taking these shots. I don't know. Everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, so. But he doesn't have that many goals, so I'm like, either he's due for some regression or he. Or he takes low, low danger shot. So the next game is against Saginaw.

30:00Andrew: Yes. On Sunday on day game, 2:00pm how exciting. Yeah. It's a matinee.

30:05Justin: So since. Since we last. Since we last saw Saginaw. Because now we have previous games to talk about. We do. How exciting.

30:11Andrew: Yes. We have data.

30:17Justin: Saginaw Wind has gone three and four since we last saw them.

30:21Andrew: The slide.

30:22Justin: The slide.

30:22Andrew: Yeah.

30:23Justin: Misa. I mean, still on a tear. Yeah. He. 26 points in 13 games. Unbelievable. 17 goals.

30:29Andrew: This is a team. I'm surprised that they're not just crushing because the high end talent is there.

30:35Justin: Yes.

30:35Andrew: Yeah.

30:35Justin: Yeah. Obviously they. They're missing some. Either some gel or the talent drops off a lot.

30:41Andrew: Yeah. I mean, they won the Memorial Cup, Right. So I would think that maybe they've lost some depth.

30:47Justin: Yeah.

30:47Andrew: Just like. Yeah, I don't. I don't know.

30:49Justin: I tried to look up, like, news about Saginaw.

30:52Andrew: Yeah.

30:53Justin: And it's literally every. Every piece of news is game preview. Misa highlight Mesa point streak. That's like, right. All anybody's talking about. Yeah.

31:02Andrew: He's a. He's a beast. Yeah.

31:04Justin: So Misa centers aligned with Epperson and Nick Sam O'Reilly also are benefiting from Misa being the best player in the OH right now.

31:15Andrew: Every time you say his name, like in that sentence, for example, Misa being the best player in the ohl right now, I imagine that you're just saying it like jar Jar Binks, Misa the best player in the hotel right now.

31:34Justin: It just.

31:35Andrew: The more you said his name, the more it started hearing Jar Jar Binks. So I don't know. I think he's too young. He never dealt with that growing up.

31:43Justin: If he was our age, he would

31:44Andrew: have definitely had a much harder life. Much harder. Like our generation in general. Much mercury. Yeah.

31:54Justin: Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So, Sagana, we play them on Sunday. The greatest Ranger of all time.

32:06Andrew: The gross, that was pretty good. We didn't even rehearse.

32:10Justin: Not even a little bit.

32:11Andrew: Improvised.

32:12Justin: Who's going first this week?

32:13Andrew: It's me.

32:14Justin: It's you.

32:14Andrew: It's all me, baby.

32:16Justin: Paint us a story.

32:17Andrew: Oh, I'll paint you a picture and I'll tell you a story Or I'll tell you a picture and paint you a story this groats. Well, he was born in Kitchener, Andrew Whoa. Homegrown wow. He played, this is your first hint, middle linebacker at Eastwood Collegiate with future super bowl champion Marcus Koch. He played with Kitchener Jr. B.

32:43Justin: Okay.

32:44Andrew: For a year before being drafted 9th overall by the Kitchener Rangers in the 1981 OHL Draft. He played in the 1981-82 OHL All Star Game and led all rookie defensemen in scoring. Despite being known as a defensive defenseman, he was voted the second best defensive defenseman in the league that year. He played in all 68 regular season games, scoring six goals and 42 points. He had 11 points in 15 playoff games. They won the 1982 OHL championship. He was drafted fifth overall by the Washington Capitals, immediately making the all rookie team in his first year and finishing third in Calder voting. This man never played in the minors a single game in his Andrew life. He finished top 10 in Norris voting 16 times in his career.

33:40Justin: What?

33:40Andrew: He never won it. He was quoted as saying, yeah, it seems like that award goes to the guys who score points. That doesn't mean he didn't score points. He scored points, 50 of the Aud times in his career. He was a five time All Star. He was a three time Stanley cup winner. He was the 2000 Con Smythe Award winner. He played for the Washington Capitals, the St. Louis Blues, the New Jersey Devils. Interestingly enough, he was awarded to the New Jersey Devils in an arbitration case as compensation for the St. Louis Blues signing restricted free agent Brendan Shanahan. He refused to report to New Jersey initially and it eventually reported three weeks late. After one season, he was named captain. He is a first ballot hall of Famer. He retired with the most games played of any defenseman at the time. He's only been passed by Zaden Ochara and Chris Chelios. He's Finished his career with 1635 games played, 196 goals, 908 points, 2 7, 85 penalty minutes. He played another 233 playoff games where he scored 118 points and had 4, 402 penalty minutes. He infamously caused more head trauma than a slip knot concert. He was quite literally the most fearsome pure defender to ever play the game. His name? Scott Stevens.

35:15Justin: Yeah, I knew Scott Stevens was coming. Yeah. Today middle linebacker. Cuz he on ice.

35:21Andrew: If you could put a middle linebacker on ice, that's Scott Stevens.

35:25Justin: Yes.

35:25Andrew: There'll never be another one like it.

35:27Justin: For better or worse.

35:28Andrew: Wow.

35:29Justin: Great pick. Great pick. Definitely deserves to be on the Gro list.

35:34Andrew: Yeah.

35:34Justin: Has to be.

35:35Andrew: Yeah.

35:35Justin: My nomination for the Gro is also

35:40Andrew: a defenseman, a couple defensemen.

35:43Justin: He holds a very unique record with the Kitchener Rangers for playing the most games as a Kitchener Rangers ever.

35:51Andrew: Interesting.

35:52Justin: 324 regular season games over five seasons, 45 playoff games. He was a member of that 0203 Memorial Cup winning team with our friends and grot nominees Derek Roy and Mike Richards. Who is this? In his 324 regular season games, he has 99 goals, 200 assists.

36:16Andrew: Wow.

36:16Justin: He was known for his intelligent and visionary play on the ice. He went on to score 38 points in those 45 wow. Playoff games.

36:28Andrew: Almost a point per game.

36:30Justin: After leaving the ohl. He went on to win the Calder cup twice with the Hamilton Bulldogs and the Binghamton Senators in 2007, 2011 respectively.

36:43Andrew: I think this is going to really bother me when you say his name.

36:45Justin: He got about a hundred. He didn't quite get 200 NHL games. His NHL career wasn't there.

36:50Andrew: But these are my favorite kinds of players.

36:52Justin: He was by far a dominant Ranger. That team, that 202-03- Ranger team was unbelievable.

37:00Andrew: Next level.

37:01Justin: So crazy. And. And this guy had not a small part, had a large part in this. And my nomination for Groat this week is Andre Benoit.

37:13Andrew: Oh, Andre Benoit, Yes. A journeyman in the NHL, but a absolute stud in the O. Love it.

37:21Justin: He was killer in the O. I love that.

37:24Andrew: That's a pick so important. All time, most games played. That's. That's a. That's a great.

37:30Justin: Only 15 players have ever played five seasons in the NH or in the.

37:34Andrew: Oh, with the Rangers or in general.

37:37Justin: Oh, with the Rangers, Yeah, with the Rangers, yeah. Yeah.

37:39Andrew: That's awesome. We know that you're out there. We know you're watching, we know you're listening and we really appreciate it. Now just Pick up the phone, call us. No comment. Or email us or make a response video or whatever.

37:55Justin: We can call us idiots for not picking your groat.

37:59Andrew: Your groat. We want to hear from you. We want you to tell us who your groat. Groat is. And it's okay if we've already nominated them. We still want to hear from you. We still want to hear why you love this particular player and why he should win the whole tournament.

38:15Justin: Okay, so we want to do some

38:17Andrew: our typical class of thank yous. Her thank yous.

38:20Justin: So we have, of course, Ken Born

38:22Andrew: Ken Born Now we have stickers and we got postcards. I hear that Ken Born might be going to a Rangers game, and Ken Born is going to a Ranger. I'm excited. I'm coming. Coming to meet Daddy Born, of course.

38:33Justin: We have our prodigal producer, Liam oh,

38:35Andrew: the phenom, as always.

38:37Justin: And we're at the Kitchener Public Library this week, so we are to them for hosting us once again.

38:43Andrew: We love being here. They now know us by face. So I walked in and she was like, yeah, you're here to record. I'll just let you. And I was like, it's under. It's under Justin name. She's like, it's fine. I know. I know you guys. So at least this is what.

38:58Justin: This is what Cheers was all about.

38:59Andrew: What Cheers was all about. Instead of a bar, we're at a library. So I think that makes us either nerds or just healthy. I don't know.

39:11Justin: Nerds. Nerds. Nerds. Check us on the socials.

39:16Andrew: You can find us on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter at the AudPodcast. If you have an interesting story about the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, the Kitchener Rangers or Kitchener Cambridge Waterloo, you can email us@theaudpodcastmail.com we'd love to hear from you

39:33Justin: and we'd love to hear your growths through any of these channels.

39:36Andrew: Any of these channels.

39:37Justin: That's. That's us for the week. So please subscribe. Do the things that the Soo to do at the end of podcasts.

39:43Andrew: Yeah, do all those things, like subscribe, engage, follow.

39:47Justin: We like it all. We appreciate it all.

39:49Andrew: We need it all.

39:50Justin: We need it all.

39:51Andrew: We want it all.

39:52Justin: And as always, you can find us

39:53Andrew: at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. See you at the Aud