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LAST CALLS - 001
103 Plays12 days ago
Varada, Luke, and James check-in after the Sens 2OT heartbreak loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
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Transcript
Opening with Camus and the Senators' Slogans
00:00:00
Speaker
At the tone, please record your message.
00:00:05
Speaker
We start here as we do every post game analysis with some quotes from Albert Camus on the nature of the absurd.
00:00:17
Speaker
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.
Absurdity in Life and Sports
00:00:23
Speaker
This should be our season slogan. The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.
00:00:34
Speaker
That's, again, a seasoned slogan for the ages. Or my favorite, he must give the void its colors. Imagine that with ah on a bus shelter with a picture of Brady Kachuk over it.
00:00:50
Speaker
We start here because in a series that we knew would be a ah essentially a bunch of one goal games, i one coin flip after another, with each team asking themselves, what if I hadn't whiffed on that shot?
00:01:07
Speaker
What if I hadn't shot it directly into Anderson's glove?
Playoff Hockey as a Metaphor for Life
00:01:12
Speaker
What if I'd scored on a penalty shot in overtime? Both teams will be asking themselves,
00:01:22
Speaker
what if for the entirety of this series because this series could be two nothing sends right now it's two nothing canes but that's almost meaningless information in the void what we're experiencing right now is not just the nature of hockey it's the nature of our dumb absurd lives so when i say Act like you've been there.
00:01:49
Speaker
I don't just mean act like you've been following this team into the playoffs before. I mean, act like you've been a living human being your whole goddamn life.
00:02:01
Speaker
You know that this is the deal. You know that this is just God's dice. So we're down to nothing. Do you think that has any meaning relevant to relative to the fact that we just experienced a double overtime game with a bunch of missed open nets?
00:02:18
Speaker
That's the essence of it. Run into it. Run directly into the absurdity. The two nothing is a meaningless figure. It may as well be hieroglyphs that you can't interpret.
00:02:30
Speaker
Let that information go. Let the experience wash over you. This is playoff hockey. This is what we wanted. a double overtime that we deserve to win and didn't.
00:02:44
Speaker
That's the good stuff, baby. This is playoffs. This is what it's all about.
Comparing Playoff Matchups to Life's Randomness
00:02:48
Speaker
How do you think the fucking Dallas Stars feel? That's a really, really good team. And they have to play the Minnesota Wild in the first round because of just the way that the conferences are set up.
00:03:03
Speaker
You know, how do you think a team with 115 points in the regular season feels having to play another team with 115 points in the regular season in the first round?
00:03:14
Speaker
That's just the way the cookie crumbles, man. We are not in the most absurd situation. We're just at baseline absurdity right here. And Camus' point was you can't run away from the absurdity.
00:03:29
Speaker
You can't address the absurdity. You can't mitigate it. All you can do is give the void its colors. Act like you've been here before because you have.
Coping with Playoff Disappointment
00:03:40
Speaker
All of you have stood at an OC Transpo bus stop in the middle of February just trying to get to work for a job that you're not even sure if you like. That's life, man. You know, you chose to watch that game last night.
00:03:54
Speaker
You chose to do that. You didn't have to. It's not like you wouldn't have gotten your tax return if you didn't stay up and watch double overtime loss. You got to let it wash over you. This is it. This is experience, man. You're just fucking surfing the wave.
00:04:10
Speaker
A big swell is coming. You're just skipping stones. Next thing you know, you're riding the wave. That's playoff hockey. It's absurd. You know what's equally absurd? Sens could win this series in six.
00:04:23
Speaker
That's the way this works. A bunch of coin tosses, a bunch of one goal games. So, okay. Give yourself 15 minutes to feel bad. Uncle Virata is giving you permission to give you to to take 15 minutes and go feel bad. Take a walk around the block.
00:04:40
Speaker
Put your headphones on. Listen to something that nobody knows that you listen to, but gives you genuine pleasure. Go sulk. Don't listen to sports radio. It's not ah it's not a place where healing happens.
00:04:57
Speaker
But go sulk for 15 minutes.
Anticipation for Ottawa's Playoff Game
00:05:00
Speaker
And then let's move on. Playoff hockey is coming back to Ottawa, man. Thursday. On Thursday, the home team will be there. The home the home crowd will be there.
00:05:11
Speaker
Our home team is going to play in front of us. We will all embrace the absurd, which is what's required when you're taking a bus out to Kanata. And when we're there, we're going experience it together.
00:05:23
Speaker
Act like you've been there, man, because you have. All right. Go Sends. Go message deleted. Next message.
Reflecting on Missed Opportunities
00:05:33
Speaker
Good morning from beautiful lower Austria. I guess the problem with trying to talk about the situation right now is that you kind of get locked into either doing doomerism or doing cope.
00:05:50
Speaker
So I'm going to just try to do a little bit of both here. um
00:05:57
Speaker
obviously sen's not getting the bounces um i watched the highlights on my way to work this morning and you know it was just basically 10 minutes of lenis ulmark getting lenis hallmark making the most preposterous saves and then Ottawa hitting the post in the most infuriating manner possible.
00:06:21
Speaker
So, ah yeah, I guess once the Sens get like a single bounce ever, maybe we'll actually win a game here. um You know, maybe Timmy doesn't hit the post twice. Maybe Brady Kachuk doesn't shoot it right into Anderson's pads in overtime.
00:06:45
Speaker
Sens are right there, though. And haven't played a game at home yet. Got to get off that awful Carolina ice. um And, you know, at least I think we can say they belong in the series. You know, this is a Carolina team that's, you know,
00:07:03
Speaker
perennially scary good, as they say. And ah Ottawa is not getting played off the ice at all, depending on what XG model you
Ottawa vs. Carolina: Gameplay Dynamics
00:07:14
Speaker
ask. Ottawa actually had more expected goals than Carolina yesterday. of course you know we can raise the expected goal cup banner later um turns out it's only the actual goals that matter but i mean i don't know i i can't it feels like i'm doing the leafs series all over again where it's like well i think this is just a competitive series between two evenly matched teams so there you go um maybe we can get a bounce i think that's where i've landed is that uh
00:07:45
Speaker
sends are doing fine, um but not good enough. And, you know, let's get a bounce. How about that? get Get some bounces 2026, my new platform.
00:07:58
Speaker
Message deleted. Next message. Hello, James checking in here. ah Even though that game aged me a good 10 years, I'm really glad I watched it because ah the first period had your boy really down in the dumps. Like what the fuck team, like they are, they are making, they're helping make the Carolina city tropical storms look like fucking super men. Like, you know, like you got,
00:08:42
Speaker
ah whatever stink oven like bowling over fucking Brady Kachuk or whatever. like just like It was it was it it was like almost embarrassing to watch the first period and I thought like okay, they're gonna get fucking swept if they keep playing like this. like Just getting absolutely dominated and you know, yeah, absolutely maybe all marks best game, by the way, like.
00:09:15
Speaker
Guys. You got to win that game for all park, but you can't expect him to do that every game for you. It's unreasonable. He was he was incredible. We got Vezina all Mark last night and fucking lost.
00:09:31
Speaker
But anyway.
00:09:34
Speaker
During this, I think it was maybe at the very end of the first, but definitely in the second. miraculously the ottawa senators remembered that they're the ottawa senators and started playing like them and then even if you were the biggest hater in the world you could say the rest of that game lived up to the billing of these are two evenly matched teams going toe-to-toe personally i think
00:10:06
Speaker
Ottawa absolutely fucking dominated them for the last two periods and most of the overtime. um And these are the facts of the case and they are disputed. Put your stupid pie charts and ah Gantt charts away.
00:10:23
Speaker
i think that I can't. I think that face offs were like twelve one and like the shots. really were going Ottawa like I think that Carolina definitely got a lot of 10 bell chances which is not good ah for our boys in red white black and sparkly gold um but ah I thought that you know they they had that same
00:10:56
Speaker
sauce of breaking up plays in the neutral zone and like like staying calm when they're ah defending the cycle and stuff like that.
00:11:10
Speaker
One
Ice Conditions and Game Impact
00:11:11
Speaker
of the most... tip Tim Stutzel could have had seven fucking goals in that game. And that not to mention like other players. I thought Freddie Anderson was ah reminding us of the Freddie Anderson we know and love.
00:11:26
Speaker
um he was not great in that game because like three pucks were basically pulled off.
00:11:37
Speaker
Okay, to be fair, which I don't enjoy being, at least two pucks were pulled off the fucking line. There was that one early that Stink Oven pulled out and then there was like that Drake Batherson one that trickled through and because God is dead did not That fucking snow cone ice is killing Like, you can really see.
00:12:03
Speaker
I remember because Carolina is generationally frustrating at this point. You know what was most ah like infuriating the the most ah infuriating experience was watching Jason Spezza play in Carolina, where he'd be trying to do his art, and the puck would just, like, stop when he'd be dipsy-doodling?
00:12:24
Speaker
And they then they it's like there's a seventh man. the seventh Well, the the seventh man is the Sportsnet commentators for Carolina, but the eighth man is the fucking garbage ice. But I'm not trying to blame the ice. I'm just saying.
00:12:40
Speaker
There there were like. the There was a at least there was that other i think two big posts They're getting a lot of pucks by Anderson.
Ottawa's Resilience and Series Outlook
00:12:53
Speaker
And yes, you know raise the puck went off the post banner or the ice is shitty banner. But I'm just saying.
00:13:05
Speaker
I think that I think the tale of this game for me, if I'm going to. ah i Like, uh, assign my name to is It took Carolina having an extra attacker to close out that game.
00:13:25
Speaker
i After the first period, I was like, the Sens are going to get swept. like This is fucked. And by the end of the second period, I was like, holy shit, they might steal this one.
00:13:38
Speaker
um So that bodes extremely well for
Expectations for Brady Kachuk
00:13:42
Speaker
the rest of the series. I don't think they're going to they're going to forget, or they did forget for the first game in one period, but but they seem to have returned to their identity. I don't know if they're kind of figuring out Carolina a little bit better.
00:13:59
Speaker
um they're Carolina's really fast at moving the puck around, and They were they were really throwing the body super, super hard.
00:14:10
Speaker
But I believe it was the boy ah Graham Nichols who who did question, like, how long can they sustain that like mega intense physical play a team like Carolina?
00:14:21
Speaker
And that was on my mind halfway through that game where I i felt like they weren't bullying Ottawa ah nearly as much. And things were really starting to even out. um I hope that Vezna, Caliber, Olmark makes the trip back to Ottawa with the team.
00:14:44
Speaker
I hope that Leafs runoff, Freddie Anderson, is starting in goal. ah Very encouraging to see that.
00:14:55
Speaker
um um Dylan Cousins, like, wobbler go in. That was fucking awesome. ah You know, the boys that you want to be seeing do they thing, like Ridley Gorg and ah Michael Amadio were like, you know, living up to their billing as the like excellent support guys. Eller, great in the face-off circle.
00:15:26
Speaker
Giroux getting kicked out of every draw. like Let's hope that doesn't keep happening. ah But I think my big... And and good players looking good.
00:15:39
Speaker
Cousins look good. Bathurston look good. Stutzel look good. Brady... See me after class. This is my main takeaway.
00:15:51
Speaker
He's not been terrible or anything, but as a person that... I put a lot of money up when I'm hating. Okay? I've been waiting for a player like Brady Kachuk for as long as the Sens have been around.
00:16:10
Speaker
and um And the reason why is for the fucking playoffs. And I'm going need to see a little bit more from Brady. i I'm to need to see a little bit more. He almost ended it in overtime. We love you. We miss you.
00:16:27
Speaker
i want i want more. Okay? okay I have to put up with you having a fucking podcast with your your your dad and your dickhead brother.
00:16:42
Speaker
Do something for me. Put up with my shit for once. So pretty please with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car. Message deleted. End of messages.