Transcript
Speaker: All right, welcome back to the Fresh Cakes podcast.
Speaker: We actually recorded this episode yesterday, but I had a little surprise for our birthday boy Fresh, in case you guys didn't know.
Speaker: It was his birthday this past week, and I just got to look it for him.
Speaker: And I'm going to play it for all of you guys now, and then you're going to hear what he has to, yeah, and then you're going to get to hear his reaction to it.
Speaker: So here we go.
Speaker: Hey, Doug, what's up?
Speaker: Jonathan Papelbein here, 2007 World Champ with the Boston Red Sox.
Speaker: Red Sox all-time saves leader.
Speaker: Phillies all-time saves leader.
Speaker: Six-time All-Star.
Speaker: And I want to tell you happy birthday, my friend.
Speaker: Adrian also wants me to tell you to keep it on the Fresh Cakes podcast.
Speaker: It's the best podcast out there, apparently.
Speaker: And one last thing, you know it.
Speaker: Yankees suck.
Speaker: Happy birthday, Doug.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: That's amazing, dude.
Speaker: That's so cool.
Speaker: I don't even know what to say.
Speaker: That was so awesome, dude.
Speaker: And smart.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: I'm like tearing up, dude.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: As you guys can tell, if you couldn't hear, Jonathan Pavelbon is a fan of Fresh Cakes Podcast.
Speaker: So with that, we'll get into the episode right now.
Speaker: Oh, dude, you're the best.
Speaker: That was fucking... I'm like literally tearing up.
Speaker: That was so fucking smart, dude.
Speaker: Welcome back to the Fresh Cakes Podcast.
Speaker: I'm fresh.
Speaker: This is Pancakes.
Speaker: I'm fresh.
Speaker: Hello.
Speaker: Hello.
Speaker: Yeah, I can hear in the tone of your voice, maybe not your favorite episode.
Speaker: Do you want to run through it and then I'll let you kick it off, obviously?
Speaker: Yeah, I guess today for us, we're going to be talking about probably my least favorite thing that you've ever had to talk about on the podcast.
Speaker: The hurricanes getting swept by the Panthers, the Florida Panthers, that is, and the Celtics.
Speaker: And they're, you know, making it difficult for the heat.
Speaker: Yeah, they are.
Speaker: They're, well, I'll give you my opinions on that soon, but better news for me than you.
Speaker: I'm sorry about that.
Speaker: But yeah, obviously this is your topic, so I'm going to let you kick this off with my apologies.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I feel your pain now.
Speaker: You know, this is the team that eliminated the Bruins.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: Rough.
Speaker: Worried me when I saw that.
Speaker: And if you go back to earlier episodes, I literally said, I was like, I'm not looking forward to playing Florida.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: The Hurricanes didn't even win a game.
Speaker: I mean, they just got swept.
Speaker: And I mean, sure, they gave them a run for their money or they made it rough on them.
Speaker: You know, like all of those games, I think, except for the last one, right, went to overtime.
Speaker: Game one went to the four overtime.
Speaker: Game two went to overtime.
Speaker: Game three didn't go to overtime.
Speaker: That was just a 1-0 game.
Speaker: And then this final game where they got swept, catch up, tee catch up, scored in the last five seconds, dude.
Speaker: The last five seconds to clinch game four.
Speaker: T. Ketchum, man, who knew?
Speaker: The guy's a killer, man.
Speaker: On some level, you have to respect it, but obviously neither of us have any reason to like him at all.
Speaker: At all.
Speaker: Yeah, crazy series.
Speaker: I mean, even the games that it didn't go to overtime.
Speaker: I mean, like you said, there was five overtime periods over four games.
Speaker: And then a 1-0 game, and then a game where they scored with five seconds.
Speaker: So it was a hell of a series.
Speaker: It wasn't like a typical sweep that you would think of as a sweep.
Speaker: But they took both of our teams down.
Speaker: It's rough.
Speaker: Well, I can't help but to think, you know, and I hate like a would have, could have, should have.
Speaker: But I can't help but think would have been different if Svechnikov was healthy, you know, because we really lacked on scoring there.
Speaker: We could have really used him.
Speaker: And then the biggest what if I think about Presh is why did the Blackhawks have to win a random game in April to beat the Penguins to let the Panthers into the playoffs?
Speaker: Because they really didn't even belong there.
Speaker: They weren't going to make the playoffs until the Blackhawks randomly beat the Penguins in April.
Speaker: Yeah, it's crazy how that stuff works out.
Speaker: One little thing, you know, I feel like we would have just steamrolled the Penguins.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I believe that.
Speaker: I think if I don't like I said, I don't know how does a team not even like really do well enough in the regular seasons that they only made the playoffs literally because the worst team in hockey happened to beat the Penguins on a random night.
Speaker: And now they're in the Stanley Cup finals.
Speaker: That's why people always say like playoff hockey is just a different animal.
Speaker: It's just like.
Speaker: We've talked about this a little bit before.
Speaker: It's almost like a different sport.
Speaker: It's just like they already lay everything out on the line, but now it's like with reckless abandon, with no fear for their own safety.
Speaker: Like it's just a crazy intense game in the playoffs.
Speaker: And I guess that style worked for Florida's, you know, for their guys.
Speaker: It is what it is.
Speaker: They have a hot goalie too.
Speaker: Like on top of, you know, when you get a hot goalie in the playoffs, man, like that's just another beast to fight with too.
Speaker: Yeah, and that's coaching, right?
Speaker: Because we talked about during the Bruins series when the Bruins were beating them in the series before they came back and won.
Speaker: Lion, lion, you know, we were beating their other goalie.
Speaker: He switched to Bobrovsky.
Speaker: It was Bobrovsky, right?
Speaker: I believe so.
Speaker: Yeah, and that kind of changed everything.
Speaker: They went with the more veteran guy, and the guy's been standing on his head since then winning series.
Speaker: They beat the Maple Leafs too, an insanely good team.
Speaker: So they literally went through like the toughest possible schedule to get to where they are.
Speaker: You know, being the eighth seed, they had to beat the top three seeds in the East and they did it and not even, I mean, our, our thing went seven games, but.
Speaker: Maple leaves weren't much of a thing you guys put up, I would say a bigger fight than the Maple leaves, even though it only went four games, they were four hellish games.
Speaker: Um, but we'll see that goal.
Speaker: I just can't get over it.
Speaker: I'm looking right now at the box score for that final game and his save like percentage is 0.9 to three.
Speaker: That's ridiculous.
Speaker: Like we couldn't buy a goal from him.
Speaker: So that's like 92.3%.
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: Like, um,
Speaker: So we'll see.
Speaker: I almost wanted Vegas to win because I would have been curious if what the Panthers just went through.
Speaker: Again, even in the sweep, it was a rough sweep.
Speaker: Would they have anything left in the tank for the Stanley Cup?
Speaker: But now they have extra time to rest.
Speaker: They're just waiting on if Dallas wins another game, they're sitting pretty just hanging out.
Speaker: Who do you think is going to get that series?
Speaker: Do you think Dallas is going to come back?
Speaker: Because Vegas just needs to win one more game.
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: I, you know.
Speaker: Vegas has our previous coach, which is a little annoying that they're about to go to the Stanley Cup finals, but he's kind of an asshole.
Speaker: You know, it doesn't necessarily the best way of coaching.
Speaker: We had players that left, went back to like Czechoslovakia for a year and then came back when that coach left.
Speaker: But obviously he's a good coach.
Speaker: I mean, we had success with him.
Speaker: We just hated him.
Speaker: But I hate Dallas more basically because of Tyler Sagan.
Speaker: So, you know, who was a former Bruin and he's just a menace and an asshole.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: I remember what a sigh of relief it was for Boston to get rid of him.
Speaker: And he was a really good player, but not the type of guy you want on your team.
Speaker: Dallas doesn't seem to care about that.
Speaker: But I don't know.
Speaker: 3-1 is tough to come out from.
Speaker: No, they're Dallas, dude.
Speaker: Their fans are throwing trash on the ice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You remember when you said that?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And I don't know.
Speaker: And this is why I told you, I was like, Fresh, you have to remember, most people that are Dallas Stars fans are also Cowboys fans.
Speaker: So do with that information what you will.
Speaker: Yeah, which, yeah, can't wait for football to come back, first of all.
Speaker: But, well, you know, we got to see this thing through.
Speaker: But, yeah, Cowboys fans, weird fan base.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I feel like half of them are not from Dallas.
Speaker: They just liked the team in the 90s or something.
Speaker: But, no, it's got to be Golden Knights.
Speaker: It's just, I don't know, think about –
Speaker: like hockey places, you'd want to see like maybe a Canadian team, maybe a Northeast team, maybe a Michigan team.
Speaker: But Vegas, the desert, and Florida, the tropics.
Speaker: Like if that's the two teams in the Stanley Cup finals.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Good for them.
Speaker: Good for hockey.
Speaker: I think you made that argument.
Speaker: I think it's great for hockey.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's great for hockey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What were you saying about Carolina?
Speaker: They were like putting up ice rinks and stuff, even though it was like a small market team.
Speaker: Yeah, they did a lot for youth hockey here and to grow the sport in this state.
Speaker: So to look at like the hockey presence in the state now compared to like before the franchise came in, I mean, it's just night and day.
Speaker: So I think it's great for the sport.
Speaker: For places like Vegas and Florida.
Speaker: Yeah, I do think that is pretty cool.
Speaker: Feel bad for your guys.
Speaker: I understand what you're saying about Svatch.
Speaker: We had Hampus Lindholm, we found out after his foot, he was playing on a broken foot, led
Speaker: the national hockey league and plus minus meaning like goals scored while he's on the ice versus goals scored against you.
Speaker: So led the entire league in that obviously a pretty phenomenal player.
Speaker: And so you wonder about that too, but it's over now.
Speaker: It doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker: It does it.
Speaker: Not until, not until fall, not until the fall, but next year should be interested.
Speaker: Bruins have a lot, a lot, a lot of questions to be answered.
Speaker: Is Bergeron retiring?
Speaker: Is great.
Speaker: She retiring.
Speaker: Should they retire?
Speaker: They,
Speaker: a step slow this year when it gets that late in the season or more injury prone.
Speaker: I think we have more questions than you guys.
Speaker: I think probably you guys are better than us next year, but we'll see, you know, a lot to happen in the meantime.
Speaker: But I want to talk about curses because we were cursed and the Celtics were down.
Speaker: Oh three in the Eastern conference finals against the Miami heat rough, right?
Speaker: were the two seed there, the seven seed, I think, or the eight seed.
Speaker: Yeah, lost their first play-in game, but they were high enough seed that they got a second play-in game, won that, backed their way into the playoffs.
Speaker: So again, two Florida teams, very similar, like literally stumbled their way into the playoffs by accident almost.
Speaker: And they almost swept the Celtics.
Speaker: We won game four in Miami,
Speaker: Go back to the Boston Garden, and it's like, well, we have a losing record in the playoffs at the Boston Garden.
Speaker: You know, we've talked about that at the Cursed Garden.
Speaker: How's this going to go?
Speaker: But they pulled it off last night.
Speaker: Great win.
Speaker: Four starters with over 21 points.
Speaker: It was like a real team effort.
Speaker: It wasn't just like Tatum or Jalen Brown going off.
Speaker: It was like really everyone got involved.
Speaker: Pretty awesome to see.
Speaker: So halfway to history, no one has ever come back.
Speaker: from an 0-3 deficit in any part of the playoffs, not just Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaker: 0-150 when you're down by three games.
Speaker: What do you think about that?
Speaker: Any chance?
Speaker: I'm going to tell you what I think I told you the other night.
Speaker: I said, hey, the Red Sox did it at one point, came down, so it would make sense for the Celtics to do it, you know?
Speaker: Yeah, and we've been talking about that.
Speaker: I love that Marcus Smart said about the, you know, don't let us get one.
Speaker: because I was Kevin Millar's first baseman for the Red Sox in 04 when we came back from 03 for the first time in baseball history to beat the Yankees.
Speaker: And actually, after that quote, he said, we never lost a game.
Speaker: We won four straight against the Yankees, and then we swept the Cardinals to win the World Series.
Speaker: So I love that they're taking that mantra on.
Speaker: You know, tomorrow night, you win one in Miami, you go home to Boston, and
Speaker: Game seven.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So tomorrow night is a big test, but I've seen some people make this point and I agree with it.
Speaker: A lot of these teams that go down.
Speaker: Oh, three are more in Miami shoes.
Speaker: Like they're not the two seed or the one seed.
Speaker: They're the seven seed or the eight seed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If they even do force a game seven, that's a road game for them.
Speaker: Boston's in this weird situation where they're the better team, but went down Oh three.
Speaker: But if they do get to game seven, that is a home game for them.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: You know, we'll see.
Speaker: We'll see if that means anything.
Speaker: Boston's the more talented team.
Speaker: It's just like, can they keep it together?
Speaker: You know, their coach is like 34 years old.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: He's like your age, basically coaching.
Speaker: I am not 34.
Speaker: I'm not even 30 yet.
Speaker: So don't even put me in that.
Speaker: Closer to you than me.
Speaker: I'm ashamed to say, but yeah.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: We'll see how that plays out.
Speaker: Miami's coach is phenomenal, right?
Speaker: And, yeah, the Celtics have had it rough.
Speaker: They've had, like, I think it's three coaches in three years.
Speaker: With all this talent, you hope that doesn't, like, ruin what could be a dynasty because the last coach, he had some, you know, some behind-the-scenes fussiness with some lady that was in the organization or something.
Speaker: It's kind of like hush-hush a little bit.
Speaker: So he was a really good coach, but he fucked up.
Speaker: So he's gone.
Speaker: So now we're just get this new coach.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: So hopefully that doesn't affect their dynasty.
Speaker: Hopefully it wasn't like they could have won with like a more experienced coach.
Speaker: But we'll see, man.
Speaker: You got to win one game at a time.
Speaker: beat my coaches can only do so much sometimes, you know, like in certain situations, you just really need your veteran players to step up.
Speaker: And I think that, you know, like now that Boston's really like under pressure right now, they're actually like starting to versus like, it's like, like you watch those earlier games and like, what is happening out there?
Speaker: It's just Jimmy buckets, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, the Celtics are a very young team.
Speaker: Their stars are like, I think 25 and 26 or 25 and 24.
Speaker: That's a little young.
Speaker: They do have veteran guys on there.
Speaker: Al Horford is older than their head coach, you know.
Speaker: And Marcus Smart, who we affectionately call Greenman because he has green hair, he saw this thing.
Speaker: He took the coach's chair in the huddle at one point and sat down and started hyping up the team because he's a veteran leader for the team as well.
Speaker: So you love to see things like that, like veteran players stepping up.
Speaker: Will it mean anything?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: One game in Miami to force a game seven to have history on the line?
Speaker: You got to.
Speaker: I want that just because for you, obviously, and I don't want to see another Florida team go to, you know, anything special.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm out here with, I don't know, a vendetta, I guess, against all Florida teams now.
Speaker: Florida can't take us both out, right?
Speaker: You know, Florida teams are the same, Florida teams.
Speaker: But twice in two different sports, you know, because the Florida team took, you know, both the Canes and the Bruins out and we can't have that in basketball, you know, the Florida team do.
Speaker: Weird symmetry too.
Speaker: Like you were a two seed, we're a two seed, they're an eight seed, Florida's an eight seed.
Speaker: Like, interesting how that wound up.
Speaker: But we'll see, man.
Speaker: History on the line.
Speaker: So what do you think about this?
Speaker: This is the big debate.
Speaker: If you're the Celtics, all the pressure's been on you.
Speaker: You're down 0-3.
Speaker: It would be embarrassing to get swept.
Speaker: They staved that off.
Speaker: Now they won a second game.
Speaker: If you're on the Heat, does the pressure swing back to you?
Speaker: Like, oh, my God.
Speaker: If they win this game...
Speaker: like we're staring down the first team in history?
Speaker: Or do you think the pressure is still on Boston because it's an elimination game for them?
Speaker: I think it's both, actually.
Speaker: I think with the Heat now, you know, like winning two games like that and they're going, pushing down, Boston has that momentum.
Speaker: I think that the Heat might... I would be getting a little bit nervous if I was a Heat fan, like, oh, shit, like, is Boston about to, like, pull this off?
Speaker: And if any team was going to pull this off, it would be Boston.
Speaker: So, like, I'd be nervous.
Speaker: And at the same time, Boston...
Speaker: you have to win two games in a row.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's still win or go home for them.
Speaker: So there's always pressure from that.
Speaker: I do see the logic of like, Oh my God, what if we let this happen type of thing?
Speaker: And that can kind of get in your head.
Speaker: Jimmy buckets, AKA Jimmy Butler.
Speaker: Well, his real name is Jimmy Butler.
Speaker: Basically guaranteed a game six win and they are at home.
Speaker: So that's, that's working against us.
Speaker: But.
Speaker: We'll see, man.
Speaker: They're kind of becoming the teams that they were in the regular season.
Speaker: The Heat are shooting three-pointers more in the last two games at about their rate from the regular season.
Speaker: They were not a good three-point shooting team.
Speaker: And the Celtics are shooting higher in the last two games, which is about their regular – like they're becoming the teams they were right now.
Speaker: So that bodes well for the Celtics.
Speaker: When the Celtics are knocking down their threes, they win.
Speaker: I mean, that's just like pretty much a fact for them.
Speaker: Like when they have like when they're hitting their threes, they almost always win.
Speaker: I think it's like, yeah, if they shoot 40%, they're undefeated.
Speaker: If they shoot under 35%, they have not won a single game.
Speaker: You know, there may be a little in between.
Speaker: Yeah, it is kind of crazy.
Speaker: But so that should be really interesting, man.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: I, you know, waiting.
Speaker: I wish it was tomorrow already.
Speaker: And we'll see what happens with, with all of that.
Speaker: But, um, yeah, that's kind of it on that.
Speaker: That's, uh, you know, we need 20 CCs of better teams apparently, but, um, yeah, man.
Speaker: So I'm going to follow that up with this.
Speaker: Cause we're both super excited for football, especially college football and NFL as well.
Speaker: But, um,
Speaker: So this article on 24-7 sports that Penn State and Michigan had the two best atmospheres in the Big Ten.
Speaker: What do you think about that?
Speaker: I mean, obviously, that's accurate reporting, phenomenal reporting.
Speaker: Phenomenal.
Speaker: Ten out of ten on journalism there.
Speaker: I agree 100%.
Speaker: And the only thing I really disagreed with was, like, the teams they picked for the SEC, which are LSU and Alabama.
Speaker: I think that there are other teams in the SEC that have just the exact same level of atmosphere or even better.
Speaker: You know, it really just depends.
Speaker: Yeah, no bias.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then.
Speaker: But yeah, I can agree with that.
Speaker: But let's agree that on the Big Ten one, it was perfect.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because those are our two teams.
Speaker: And, you know, with the whiteout and everything like that, the Penn State does.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't love when we talked about this briefly.
Speaker: I don't love that.
Speaker: We're doing the whiteout against Iowa this year in week four.
Speaker: It seems like early to do it.
Speaker: I love it because that means you're not doing it against Michigan.
Speaker: And I guess like, maybe they're like, we've done it against Michigan probably a couple of times.
Speaker: Like maybe that's why they're doing it against Iowa, but like, you know, our heads are starting to get to football.
Speaker: We will be talking about baseball too.
Speaker: The podcast is kind of following.
Speaker: Maybe this is you're the same way, but for me,
Speaker: It's like I usually get through the playoffs, NBA and NHL, before I really dig into baseball further.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I think that our podcast will probably kind of mimic that.
Speaker: And it just sounds like you're agreeing with that.
Speaker: So, yeah, baseball, more on baseball to come, football stuff.
Speaker: You know, there's the DeAndre Hopkins thing, we'll say briefly, because there's not that much news.
Speaker: The Cardinals released him.
Speaker: He's one of the best receivers in the NFL.
Speaker: Patriots are on like a short list of six or so teams that would be going after him.
Speaker: We need a receiver really badly.
Speaker: So fingers crossed that next week I'm celebrating DeAndre Hopkins as a Patriot, but we'll see.
Speaker: You never know with old Bill Belichick, man, the guy that does what he wants.
Speaker: But, yeah, I think that's about it.
Speaker: Do you have anything to add?
Speaker: Any curveballs or anything for me?
Speaker: No, no curveballs.
Speaker: I was going to have a curveball for you, but I think I'll have to wait until next episode.
Speaker: So I'll just let you stay thinking about that until next time.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So now I have to be nervous about that for a week.
Speaker: So I'm not nervous enough about game six tomorrow in Miami.
Speaker: So that's good.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But leprechauns and clovers and all things green go Celtics.
Speaker: And that's it for me, man.
Speaker: You want to be ready to ready break?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You want me to start it?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: This is a tough debate because if I start it, do I jinx the Celtics?
Speaker: Or if you start it?
Speaker: I'll start it.
Speaker: I'll start it.
Speaker: I have good faith.
Speaker: You know, it's a good faith start.
Speaker: It's a good faith start.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'll take it.
Speaker: Ready?
Speaker: Break.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: We always do too.
Speaker: Yeah, we always do too.
Speaker: Let me go.
Speaker: Let me go in heavy here.
Speaker: Ready?
Speaker: Break.
Speaker: Maybe closer.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: Maybe closer.
Speaker: Maybe it's way off.
Speaker: We'll see.
Speaker: Maybe it's way off.
Speaker: We never know.
Speaker: Green things, clover's, leprechaun's.
Speaker: Green things, clover's, leprechaun's.
