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Episode 13: NHL Second Round Preview
17 Plays1 month ago
The NHL Playoffs never disappoint and the first round certainly did not. You can argue with the fairness or validity of the format (and we won't disagree) but the NHL gave us a great two weeks and has left us with four second round matchups that we cannot wait for! We'll let you know what to watch for and decide if our pre-playoff Stanley Cup predictions need any updating.
Plus, a lot is going on in baseball! As the preeminent Mason Miller podcast, we have to lay the scoreless inning streak to rest as we look toward the next one. Rob Thomson is out as the Phillies manager as they tried to scoop up a freshly available Alex Cora, and what do the Tigers do now that Tarik Skubal is down. Was this the right path for them to take? All that and more on Episode 13 of the Coastal Launch Sports Talk.
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Transcript
Introduction & NHL Second Round Discussion
00:00:01
Cody Atkinson
Hello and welcome to the Coastal Launch Sports Talk. I'm Cody coming to you from the bayous of Houston, Texas.
00:00:09
Justin Daulton
And I'm Justin coming to you from the magic of Orlando, Florida.
00:00:12
Cody Atkinson
And today we will be your destination for the NHL second round. We did our NHL first round preview. The first round is over and we are here to preview. the second round, we're going to do our best to get through it.
Tampa Bay Lightning's Unexpected Loss
00:00:27
Cody Atkinson
Justin is working through the nine shots of grief right now. I mean, stages, five stages of grief. I said five stages, ah nine shots wouldn't make any sense, but I believe in him to make it through the show, largely on the back of the upcoming Tampa Bay Rays. So we're going to get through it.
00:00:44
Cody Atkinson
We're going to preview the second round. Justin is going to let it out and we're going to have a good time today. So With our trajectory set, it's time to sit back, lock in, and get started with the rundown. This is the Coastal Launch, and we are ready for liftoff here on episode 13. Nine
00:01:01
Justin Daulton
All right, man.
00:01:01
Cody Atkinson
nine shots of grief, Justin. I need a chuckle.
00:01:03
Justin Daulton
Nine shots. Yeah.
00:01:04
Cody Atkinson
I need at least one chuckle, dude. It feels mean if you don't laugh.
00:01:08
Justin Daulton
We're were're alive. Yeah, yeah. we're We're alive over here, man. You texted me last night. There wasn't much conversation. and I don't think you anticipated much conversation. but yeah the elephant in the room the Tampa Bay Lightning season comes to a sudden and abrupt ending last night to the Montreal Canadiens. Tip of the cap to that to that team up north. They played one hell a series against Tampa.
00:01:30
Justin Daulton
um Probably, and ashamedly to the NHL, this series should not have been around one game. And i that's where a lot of Lightning fans and and in Canadian fans as well. saying that this this series is going to be the closest series that we see probably the entire NHL playoffs.
00:01:47
Justin Daulton
I think the the split time that I saw was 22% of the Canadians were led for the duration of this playoff series, the Lightning around 7%. So it goes to show that for more than 70% of the series that it was tied or scoreless.
00:02:02
Justin Daulton
um so
00:02:02
Cody Atkinson
Oh, gosh.
00:02:03
Justin Daulton
So that that just goes to show how tight this series was. No game was decided by more than one goal. Four, what was it, five out of the seven games went to overtime.
00:02:14
Justin Daulton
And then, obviously, last night, being a heartbreaker, Vazzy plays one hell a game. Let's two, honestly, really good goals. For the most part, think we talked last week that the goals that were going in against Vazzy were just stupid goals. Like, one bouncing off the dude's belly.
00:02:27
Justin Daulton
Another one that was just off a really bad rebound that wasn't even Vazzy's fault. So, last night, being, hey, he let in two really good goals. And the Lightning just couldn't get that second goal in.
00:02:39
Justin Daulton
I know that you were you were scoreboard watching last night. You weren't necessarily watching the game. The stat that that you and I talked about last night before I basically shut down for the night to to start my grieving process was nine shots on goal for the entire game for the Canadiens.
00:02:54
Justin Daulton
so i mean vasi stops seven pus out of nine which is insanity that that's, you know, what we're talking about here. The just couldn't, couldn't get it figured out. Couldn't get the puck in the back of the net for the lightning.
00:03:06
Justin Daulton
a It's tough, man, because for most of this series, I never felt like the Canadians were the better team. And this isn't, you know, this isn't like Canada losing. They are the the better team.
00:03:17
Justin Daulton
age just never felt like the momentum was with the Canadians for most of the series. It was the younger guys, you know, fighting above their weight class against the lightning, you know, experience versus inexperience. And it just never felt like the like you neverfo tampa could get their momentum going enough to score enough goals to get enough you know going in their favor and that I think that's a hard pill to swallow for me um for this playoff series where you know there's so much potential you know you don't have to face a Florida this time which has been our Achilles heel you know no Toronto this time around which was one that we lost a couple years ago now so it's it's tough that it comes to the hand of Montreal it hurts that it's a a division rival you know we couldn't get the one seat to face a long card which still would have been a divisional opponent
00:03:58
Justin Daulton
but it just it just never felt like it went tampa's way the series and you know kudos so to montreal man like they got it done when they needed to and that's what sucks is that this should have been the eastern conference final and i think most of the and nhl fans would agree that this should have been the eastern conference final because no one wants to watch carolina just sleepwalk through the eastern conference um buffalo's playing on vibes alone we're going to talk about them in a little bit here as well um but like just none of these teams feel like they're playing with the same tenacity that the that the bolts in the halbs are playing with and It's just, it really sucks that this is the result of it, both from a Lightning fan, but also from a hockey fan that I really wanted this to be the Eastern Conference final because I think it would have been and insane, because you're you're talking about a trip to the Stanley Cup finals at that point, It would have been insane to watch it um with that added pressure or
00:04:48
Justin Daulton
because the pressure facing buffalo on the other side wasn't enough for me i never felt the pressure like you know it feels like this team like whoever goes through from this from this matchup very well wins the eastern conference because i don't see anyone touching either one of these teams so you know watch out buffalo um if you ask me watch out of carolina watch out philly so it's that's a that's a tough team there in montreal that you got to go face and the bell center was rocking for the for the games that we went up there to to montreal but i don't know if you
00:05:20
Justin Daulton
and a let get environment something that i've rivaled what I've seen in Emily Arena but yeah ah officially you know 24 hours later officially in the grieving process of the NHL season um but I'll be watching the rest of them you know I can't not watch but it's definitely definitely still sour taste in the mouth for sure um from a not the way that this season should have ended for the Bulls
00:05:25
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:05:44
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, I know there are a lot of there are a lot of Dallas Stars fans that are going to definitely second that sentiment you said about just the structure of the playoffs. and um it's It's incredible to get these matchups right out of the gate. It's such a blast, but from a fan perspective, it's like it should have been a
NHL Playoff Structure Criticism
00:06:03
Cody Atkinson
better season. It's just that the...
00:06:05
Cody Atkinson
you know The format, the structure of the playoff doesn't lend itself to saving the best matchups for later. and you know that's ah That's a larger discussion, a larger issue that I think, truthfully, most um hockey fans are are on the same side of, which is kind of an interesting...
00:06:21
Cody Atkinson
thought like I think most hockey fans are on the side of 1-8 makes more sense. and um For whatever reason, the NHL thinks this is what's best. and you know so So be it. But it it is definitely ah it's a disappointment to get this one out of the way so early.
00:06:36
Cody Atkinson
What I will say to your point about the rocking environment in Montreal is that Montreal versus Buffalo might be, from a crowd perspective, just the best series of the whole playoffs because buffalo's crowd is rocking they've got jet they've got the atmosphere inside the stadium they've got it outside the stadium they've got that rollerblade gang skating around getting knocked out by ufc dummies like and then montreal their crowds electric and and so apparently we're i don't not from up north never really never been to buffalo or montreal but apparently they're actually pretty close to each other they're drivable um across the border from each other so um there's going to be a lot of opposing fans
00:06:55
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:07:19
Cody Atkinson
with access to the the opposing stadium too. So you're going to just see a lot of crossover there. And from a crowd perspective, I think that's going to be um one of the best matchups we possibly could have gotten, but it it it would have been um a whole lot cooler to to get that game seven comes down to a one score in the last five minutes to get that in the Eastern Conference Finals. Although i I will say I definitely think Carolina has more of a chance than you're giving them credit for. I'm a big Carolina fan or i'm not a fan. I'm a believer um as we've kind of discussed in our prediction. So we'll see where that goes. But I got a couple of questions for you with this, with this series. um
00:08:01
Cody Atkinson
First one, Hedman, did he, did he play at all? Like, did he get in or is that kind of one of the keys to the series is that he wasn't able to get in
00:08:09
Justin Daulton
No, he ultimately did not make it in. He was skating yesterday morning with the with the possibility of joining for for Game 7, but did not ah end up making it onto to the roster to finish off the series. So it seemed like all sort of signs were pointing towards whatever. It would have been Buffalo, obviously. So it seemed like all signs were pointing towards the Buffalo a series when Headman was going to debut.
00:08:33
Cody Atkinson
Okay. So, so that's probably from a, from a lightning standpoint, that's probably one, you could, the one reason you could look at and say, maybe this is, this was kind of, uh, one of the things that swayed momentum in their favor, um, two, where,
00:08:51
Cody Atkinson
how do you feel going forward? Like, is this a team that, is this a team that comes back next year? Was this a last shot type of situation? Like, what do you, what's this, what is the future looking like? Do we think like, are you still, far are you still, is the window open? I guess is what Yeah.
00:09:09
Justin Daulton
I think, I mean, it's the, the race, not the race, the lightning have been in in an interesting window, right? That this window has been open for 10 years now, right? For since 2016, that this window, this championship window that started with the Blackhawks, you know, Stanley Cup finals loss all the way down to now, right?
00:09:19
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:09:25
Justin Daulton
We're four straight years being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. This window is still open. The guys that are on this roster are, there's a mixture of old and new. They've still done a really good job of building up the the culture and the talent in Syracuse and bringing them up when it means the most i think the question marks start you start looking at the guys that are getting older you start looking at the victor headman's you start looking at the nikita kucheroz you start looking at the andre of vasileski's and like you know something that the the lightning haveve been really good about is moving on from veteran players when they are on that down sill downhill slide and they can get something in return for them you know you look at you know what they did with ben bishop you know when they eventually did go to andre vasileski uh that's you know that
00:10:09
Justin Daulton
i remember you and i talking about that and be like what are they thinking right Ben Bishop is an all-star goalie and all NHL goalie. He's a guy that led you to the Stanley Cup finals. And now you're now you're going straight over to this young kid that has never started in the NHL outside the backup capacity.
00:10:23
Justin Daulton
So I think that's the question marks, you know, do we make bold decisions and move on from, from this core that's led us here? I think there's a lot of questions around Victor Hedman, you know, taking the last month off and even into this first round of the playoffs and not being present. Right.
00:10:39
Justin Daulton
and that's your captain that's an emotional piece that's not there and i think you know there's conversations around does headman continue to wear the c or do you does does he pass that on um to someone else so i'm not 100 sure um you know what you know what's going to happen i don't know um the cap becomes a question mark because these younger guys are going to want their money at some point especially the brandon hengel is great in point you know they're going to want their money soon so i think that's you know at some point you're going out to make a decision on you know what are you gonna do with this young, this young core that's around in you know, you're gonna be like, all right, let's move on from these older guys that aren't producing, you know?
00:11:18
Justin Daulton
And it's tough to say, cause Kucherov putt
00:11:22
Justin Daulton
trophy run you know bass he is very much in the conversation for the business so that it it's tough to be like would blow it up a couple years ago i was ready to blow it up and they proved me wrong and they kept the window open so john cooper and breezebaugh the gm is going to they got a tough offseason ahead of them because a lot of injuries happened this year a lot of issues with this roster happened right we you know you talked about it i think on the breakdown last week of you know the lightning one of the most penalized teams in thehl
00:11:53
Justin Daulton
and then you saw in this in this playoff series not able to execute on the powerpoint when we went on the powerpoint so there's a lot of offensive struggles that we need to sure up and you know there's some chance of moving some pieces around and i think if you want to keep the window open you have to adjust and i think this is the time to do it because you can still get things back for the the veteran pieces that are looking like they may be ready to be moved on from
00:12:19
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, no, that makes sense. um a Last question. So, i like we said, I didn't get to see the game. i did a little scoreboard watching. ah how Can you walk me through how the Lightning managed to only give up nine shots on goal? or Were there numerous attempts and Montreal was just spraying them, or was the defense just that...
00:12:43
Cody Atkinson
ah like that lockdown that the ice was fully tilted on Tampa side and Montreal couldn't break loose. And then, you know, I guess maybe in in that sense, when Vazzy's sitting around not seeing shots all game, maybe that just kind of, you're not as sharp when the ones come your way.
00:12:59
Justin Daulton
I think it's, from my perspective, it's a little bit of all of the above it's the defense did look really good. And that was something that I talked about when we went into the playoffs is that this defense is the, the Achilles tendon of this team. And, you know, Vazzy is the brick wall that he is. So don't, you know, just, we need to play, you know, mid-level to to good defense and we're going to win a lot of hockey games.
00:13:21
Justin Daulton
And that's how we, that was our recipe for, for success all season. So it just, like I said, are at the beginning, this team Had a lot of momentum, had a lot of things going in their way, and we just could not execute. And that's that was the instances of it last night, is that we had puck possession for most of the game in our offensive zone, you know, taking shot after shot after a shot after shot, and just nothing fine in the back of the net.
00:13:46
Justin Daulton
So that was more so just we had the puck for so much and the defense held them down. there wasn't any dumb penalties it wasn't anything it was just a clean aeyap for the most part in it just didn't it's just one of those things that you had to look at is like just didn't go our way and you know I truly do believe that this lightning team is better than what we saw in the last seven games you know this is probably a series that could have ended in in five and or or even six and you know doesn't even go to seven so and it's just could not execute what it meant the most and that's what you saw
00:14:20
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, that's the crazy thing about this series, dude. I feel like it could have ended in five or six either way sometimes. Like, whichever team had the momentum and had the ability to s snap, like, just grab the series by the throat, wasn't able to do it.
00:14:27
Justin Daulton
mm-hmm
00:14:33
Cody Atkinson
Like, I think it was Montreal went up 2-1, and then they were up 2-0 in game four, I think it was the one.
00:14:39
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:14:39
Cody Atkinson
um Tampa Bay comes back, steals the series suddenly.
00:14:41
Justin Daulton
came back. Yeah.
00:14:42
Cody Atkinson
there yeah Yeah, ties it to two All the momentum's back. in their side because they just need to win their two home games and then Montreal manages to take game five and you're like, well, they're going to close it in six because like they're going to win this at home. And then Tampa takes game six and're and then immediately you're like, well, I'm not picking against Tampa and Vasilevsky at home in game seven. And then Montreal, it was whatever you thought. that This was like ah the meme of like, don't let them know your next move.
00:15:10
Cody Atkinson
You know, you know, those where it's like just doing it the exact opposite of what you would expect to happen.
00:15:10
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:15:15
Cody Atkinson
That was the series from start to finish. um because i think what montreal won game one right so like from start to finish this series was whatever you think is about to happen the opposite is what's going to happen and that's what made it so electric um i think i think the elephant has been acknowledged i think i'll let you have your piece now but um incredible series it is it is a shame we didn't get it later it's a shame that if we got it later we might have seen headman but um you know shout out to montreal i it
00:15:46
Cody Atkinson
It kind of was, in a way, I feel very vindicated in the prediction of just, I said the penalty minutes and the power play was going to be the difference. And Montreal really capitalized on that over the course of the series.
00:15:58
Justin Daulton
Yeah, absolutely.
00:15:58
Cody Atkinson
And I don't know hockey that well, so I feel pretty good about that.
00:15:59
Justin Daulton
All right. Before i before I shed tears here ah for the end of my season of my beloved lightning, um I want to, I want to give it over to you because your, your self-proclaimed Mason Miller podcast has officially come to an end.
00:16:15
Justin Daulton
So I'm going to let you, yeah.
00:16:15
Cody Atkinson
It has come to a close.
00:16:17
Justin Daulton
So I will, I will let you take that and and take the party shot for the the Mason Miller podcast.
00:16:22
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, this will be the last Mason Miller segment for at least a bit. um as we were it was the craziest thing. I was texting you about it as we were uploading the video. i you know i'd I'd created our description, sitting there waiting for it to process and checking on it to make sure it goes live as it's going live and we talk about Mason Miller's scoreless inning streak he gives up to against the Cubs and the scoreless inning streak comes to an end but it did not come to an end without controversy have you seen have you seen the video of this foul ball what is what's your case what's your claim fair foul yeah
00:16:54
Justin Daulton
Yeah, yeah, i did.
00:16:58
Justin Daulton
It looks foul. Every camera view that I've seen of it, I mean, you're not standing on top of it, right? So it's tough to say, you know, but if you're standing on top it, which is the umpire was, he was on top of it just as much as the third baseman was, maybe you see chalk and maybe you call it and maybe you're good.
00:17:04
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:17:14
Justin Daulton
Maybe you're not. I don't know. But every camera view that I saw, sure did look like that ball was foul to me.
00:17:19
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it looked like it was foul. And and funny enough, the umpires union or the major league baseball or whoever puts these statements out, came out and said that was a mistake. It should have been foul. So people have been arguing this idea of they' they've almost been looking at it from like the football point of view of like, did it break the plane? So they're looking like, what's the ball hovering? Like the part of the ball that was touching the ground was touching foul, but maybe it was hovering above the line.
00:17:45
Cody Atkinson
And so it broke the plane of fair and, and the MLB kind of came out and said, that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works. The part of the ball touching the ground, if it's not touching the chalk, then it's foul, which is good. didn't know that. So that's a good, good clarification, but It does not matter if ball's hovering over the line, if the part of it that's touching the ground is touching foul. And so it should have been a foul ball. And and with controversy, ah our boy Mason Miller's scoreless streak ends at 34 and two thirds, which is what it was when ah we discussed last week. His his outing against the cub was one Cubs was one inning pitched, two earned runs, three hits, and one strikeout.
00:18:28
Cody Atkinson
Since then, he has had two appearances, and so the new scoreless streak is two innings pitched.
00:18:33
Justin Daulton
Thank you.
00:18:34
Cody Atkinson
He's given up one hit, one walk, and four Ks. So the strikeouts are back up. ah My commitment to the people of this show is that I will not make this a segment again until he has passed at least 20 innings. So well we will not be doing a a segment of it's back at five. Now it's at six. I will save you all that. But if he gets above 20, we'll start the discussion again um because i think it's fun. And if he gets above 20, then you're looking at one score, like one inning giving up a run amongst 54, whatever, at that point. So that would be pretty crazy. But yeah, ah we talked about it last week when the K the k numbers dropped.
00:19:17
Cody Atkinson
It started like the opportunity for baseball being baseball was there to happen. And that's what we saw. There's just a little trickler that technically goes foul. The umpire rules it wrong. And a couple more, you know, not Not high, like soft contact hits, a couple more soft contact hits, load the bases, ground out scores a run and a wild pitch scores a second run. And and just like that, all of our dreams are are crushed. We are still a Mason Miller pod, but the segment is dead until he reaches 20 innings pitch scoreless streak, in which case I will bring it back for the love of the game. But that's all I got on that, Justin. I don't know if you got any other thoughts on ah Mason Miller.
00:20:01
Justin Daulton
No, not really, man. Just a tip of the caps to the guy, man. that's regardless of it Regardless of it being a good call or not, like what he did between regular season last year to playoffs last year to World Baseball law Classic to the beginning of the season, that is ah that is a stretch of dominance that needs to be acknowledged.
00:20:04
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, tip of the cat.
00:20:17
Justin Daulton
and I'm glad that matches us, but I've seen the national media also giving him the his flowers for it, and theres deservedly so. so mean yeah No other notes from me. We'll see you in 18 games from now
00:20:29
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:20:30
Justin Daulton
for him So that'll be about it.
00:20:31
Cody Atkinson
Exactly. And, and he He did get in a reliever of the month, which was good to see. Obviously well-deserved. And that was a game they were leading by four, so he did not give up the game there.
00:20:43
Cody Atkinson
So from a Padres perspective, he's still he he he still hasn't given up a lot.
00:20:44
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:20:50
Cody Atkinson
He doesn't have a loss this this season that was, that still turned out to be a W. So shout out to him. Sometimes you have a cushion and, and that allows you to, to give up two runs and and maintain hero status. So I ah certainly wish I was rooting for a team that had Mason Miller.
00:21:08
Justin Daulton
We did a month ago when we watched the World Baseball Classic, but we're not there anymore.
00:21:10
Cody Atkinson
And I loved it.
00:21:13
Justin Daulton
so Only other note that I do want to mention, because I saw pop up in the national media side of things, is that there was a lot of chatter around should a reliever win the Cy Younger.
00:21:13
Cody Atkinson
now
00:21:22
Justin Daulton
and if there was ever an argument for it. mason miller is the argument for it I know it's happened before and I don't have the the name in front me when it did happen before, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on as the regular season goes on, especially if we talk about not blowing saves, you know, we're talking about scoreless streaks, anything like that.
00:21:38
Justin Daulton
I think there's a lot of chatter around, you know, can Mason Miller be a guy that wins the Cy Young Award, especially in an NL and National League where there's not a ton of great pitching to talk about in terms of, you know, the guy that's going to walk to run away with the Cy Young Award.
00:21:55
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it'd be a different story if he was in the AL with, I know you were looking him up before the pod, Jose Soriano. it'd be It'd be a different story there. You're like, I'll take Soriano Cy Young over over Miller. But in the NL, I think he's got a good shot.
00:22:09
Justin Daulton
Yeah, you're you're talking about the only other competition he really has is and Skeens is at a rocky ah rocky start to the season.
00:22:14
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:22:15
Justin Daulton
So it's, you know, what does the conversation look like as we get down the stretch and into into postseason play? I know that postseason doesn't contribute to awards, but all know that voting does. So it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the season goes on with Mason Miller and obviously with Paul Skeens being maybe the one and two for the Cy Young, which will be ah fun conversation to have.
00:22:34
Cody Atkinson
but It certainly will be.
00:22:37
Justin Daulton
All right, man. Shifting over. Sticking with baseball, which I think we're just going to be a baseball podcast for a little bit with a little bit of seasoning of NHL right now. Phillies fire manager, Rob Thompson.
00:22:50
Justin Daulton
we talked Another thing that we talked about as soon as we posted the pod, it's going to feel like last week's podcast all over again after talking about Alex Cora.
00:22:56
Cody Atkinson
We're running it back.
00:22:58
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:22:58
Cody Atkinson
Mason Miller, managerial firing. We're running it back.
00:23:03
Justin Daulton
So some things that you read now for me here, because I appreciate it because I was grieving this week, I didn't have much contribution to the rundown. The four seasons that he's been the Phillies manager, lost the World Series.
00:23:14
Justin Daulton
That was to the Astros.
00:23:16
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, that was 2022 to the Astros. I think he came on in the middle of that season, but yeah.
00:23:21
Justin Daulton
Okay. Lost the NLCS the following season and then lost in the NLDS twice after that.
00:23:22
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:23:27
Justin Daulton
the the gap between Cora and Thompson definitely feels a lot wider than, you know, what, what probably could have been perceived as, you know, when you start talking about World Series competition there, but in terms of where Alex Cora was, you know, Alex Cora, I don't think you have the numbers in front me, but Alex Cora definitely has to have more wins than what Rob Thompson has with the Phillies in comparison to the Red Sox.
00:23:50
Justin Daulton
the and that wasn't the question here more than anything is the question is that Was it deserving? You know, we talked about it last week. you know what what You know, you're talking about firing someone that's basically a week three of the of the NFL regular season, a budget of football terms.
00:24:04
Justin Daulton
So is it, you know, is it too early to make these firings? you know is it gonna be worth your while to do these things now i still don't believe that this is the right time to be firing your coach at least with the the red sox you fired everyone and then with this one it definitely seems like it's more just putting it on the bench coach rather than the whole staff so i'll kick it to you to see what your thoughts are but it's to me i'm gonna keep standing on it that i still feel like firing someone in april or in may which is it seems way too early to do that
00:24:35
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think this is a reminder of just how cutthroat the league is because, like, I know technically his seasons are trending in the wrong direction, but it's like it's World Series, it's Championship Series, and it's two-divisional series. Like, his worst outcome so far has been making it to and losing in the NLDS, which I don't know all of them, but at least last year was to the Dodgers.
00:24:59
Cody Atkinson
like it's not it's not like he's going up there and losing to teams because because one of the arguments right is like look how loaded the phillies roster regularly is right with bryce harper with kyle schwarber uh with ah alec alec bohm uh jt real muto you know we we talked about the rotation in the preview with was it wheeler um
00:25:00
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:25:25
Cody Atkinson
I'm losing them right now, but we, we rattled off kind of a top three for them in the, in the preview. And so this team is stacked. And, and part of the issue is like, if the team being that stacked, the expectations are often world series or bust and you get the closer you get, the more fans realize that you can't, that you're not getting there, but he's only had four seasons and the teams he's running into and losing to are arguably more stacked. No one has beat the Dodgers in the playoffs in three years. It's not his fault that that he keeps running into them.
00:26:01
Cody Atkinson
um So for me, i'm with you. i I don't think this was deserved. I think he has an incredible resume with the Phillies. And I think he's one of four or five big market, high paying teams that are off to slow starts. And that just happens.
00:26:21
Cody Atkinson
That's baseball. Like you can start out cold as a team and then you can get hot down the road. And I, and I don't think this is anything more than that for the Phillies. I don't watch them regularly. So their fans may be screaming at the, at their TV right now, talking about these guys don't know how bad it was, but yeah,
00:26:41
Cody Atkinson
ah to To me, this is a man who has met expectations for four years and and hasn't done so for the first month of this season. I'm shocked. The main thing I was trying to point out by comparing him to Alex Cora here is that before he was fired, they offered Alex Cora the position.
00:26:59
Cody Atkinson
they they He partly was fired because they wanted to replace him with Alex Cora, which is still a little bit wild to me because we looked at Alex Cora last week. And to me, there's just such a large gap between perception and results in the sport of baseball with Alex Cora. if If you take the view that I think both of us do of like his two best seasons of science but included scandals.
00:27:23
Cody Atkinson
his two best seasons, MLB has a report out about sign stealing during that season being not only investigated, but discovered and punished.
00:27:24
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:27:33
Cody Atkinson
And that's his, you know, 2017 bench coach for the Astros in his 2018 World Series as the head manager for the for the Red Sox. And I think probably more more people are giving him credit for the for the success he had during the scandals than we are.
00:27:52
Cody Atkinson
which is maybe the the perception difference. But to me, looking at Thompson's resume, it kind of blows my mind that they wanted to let him go for Cora, um who has had basically the same resources in Boston, was doing worse, and and hasn't hasn't been to the World Series since 2018. Thompson there in 22?
00:28:11
Cody Atkinson
don't know.
00:28:13
Justin Daulton
Yeah. I will say, i pulled it i pulled it up for you just so that way you could have it.
00:28:15
Cody Atkinson
don
00:28:19
Justin Daulton
2025, loss to the Dodgers in the NLDS. 2024, losses in the NLDS to the New York Mets. 2023, loss in the NLCS the Arizona Diamondbacks.
00:28:31
Justin Daulton
And then 2022, as you noted, loss in the World Series to the Houston Astros. So it's not like they've...
00:28:36
Cody Atkinson
I'll give you the Diamondbacks. That's a team they should have beat. I remember that now. That was a team they should have beat, in my opinion.
00:28:42
Justin Daulton
daxs rain diamondbacks rangers was That world series which was It's snooze.
00:28:43
Cody Atkinson
that was done That was a disgusting World Series.
00:28:47
Justin Daulton
Yeah. But other than that, I mean, you're talking about obviously Astro's winning. That's the Braves World Series, right? In 2023? Oh, they
00:28:56
Cody Atkinson
No, wait, what do you mean? 2023 was the ranger' one right twenty twenty three was Rangers
00:29:03
Justin Daulton
ah they have it on they have it here on they have it on here twice. I apologize. they
00:29:06
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, Braves was 2021.
00:29:09
Justin Daulton
They have... 2021. Okay. That's weird.
00:29:11
Cody Atkinson
I believe.
00:29:11
Justin Daulton
i don't know why they did that. don't know why. ESPN not reliable. Sorry. i don't know what they're doing here.
00:29:18
Cody Atkinson
Classic, classic ESPN.
00:29:20
Justin Daulton
Anyway, that's how their last couple seasons ended. It's not like they lost outside of the Diamondbacks. They lost to really good teams. That team is nothing to joke about. Obviously, losing to the Dodgers, we know who they are.
00:29:33
Justin Daulton
And then, you know going on from there, losing to the Astros in the World Series. Astros very much had the better team that season as well. so you know Losing to
00:29:40
Cody Atkinson
The Astros hadn't lost a playoff game going into that World Series. They were, they swept every round going into that World Series. The Phillies were the only team to take a game off them in the playoffs that year.
00:29:51
Cody Atkinson
That was a heck of a series.
00:29:51
Justin Daulton
Yeah. That was the the Bryce Harper bomb, wasn't it, in Philly that they that they took from them?
00:29:59
Cody Atkinson
I'm going to be honest. I think I blacked out the, ah like I blocked out the the ones where the Phillies won. I only remember the Jordan bomb. This game is flipped upside down.
00:30:06
Justin Daulton
I do. I think that was dig two with the Jordan bomb, if I remember correctly.
00:30:08
Cody Atkinson
Um, Well, the Jordan bomb that I'm thinking of is the one that that was in that was in the finale game six.
00:30:11
Justin Daulton
Okay.
00:30:16
Cody Atkinson
But he had multiple signature bombs in that series, in that playoff run.
00:30:16
Justin Daulton
Okay.
00:30:21
Cody Atkinson
So um there there might have been one in game two also, we're being honest.
00:30:25
Justin Daulton
if for some reason of game two sticking out my head, but it has also been four years since that, since that world series.
00:30:30
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:30:31
Justin Daulton
So, all right.
00:30:31
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:30:32
Justin Daulton
Um, uh, last topic I have for you this week, man, it's something that we added in here late, um, to read school, um, officially today going, uh, under the knife to remove loose bodies in his elbow, something that's not going to to sideline up for very long. Uh, I don't think there was a recovery time that I saw at least today.
00:30:51
Justin Daulton
So something that, isis been only being know for about a month month and a half probably for some recovery, some light work down in AAA, wherever their AAA affiliate is in Detroit. But theres there's some thoughts that you had in in regards to what the Tigers probably should have done last year and then going into this year and then obviously conversations that you and I had around the World Baseball Classic.
00:31:11
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, this is like, it's clear as day and has been for a couple years now that the Tigers are not going to sign Tarek Skubal to a long-term deal. they it If it wasn't clear before, when they went to arbitration this year and the numbers, I think, were 13 million apart, if I recall. Like, he was asking for 32 million. They were offering 19-ish, which is what they tried to offer to David Price like a decade ago.
00:31:40
Cody Atkinson
um it was disrespectful for for the Tigers to do that. And if they were if they thought they had a chance before, they certainly didn't do themselves any favors. And so the question, because i I have a buddy here that's a Tigers fan, and we go back and forth on it all the time too, and the the the idea is like if you're not going to sign him long term, why didn't you trade him in the off season and get an insane amount of value to build, to, to, to build on this window and try to keep it open.
00:32:09
Cody Atkinson
It's like Shohei walking out of the angels the angels had nothing to show for it and they suck and have for years they did while he was there, but you know, you could have gotten an army for, for Shohei.
00:32:21
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:32:22
Cody Atkinson
And I think you could have gotten the same for, for Scoogle. And I think something like this with just the frailty of pitching elbows, right? We put them through more than what the human body is meant to get put through and everybody's elbow falls apart at some point.
00:32:36
Cody Atkinson
And I just don't see, i don't see why the tigers didn't get what they could bet. Best case scenario. I'll just be clear. Best case scenario is you would have signed him to a long-term deal a long time ago.
00:32:49
Cody Atkinson
Well, last off season, the off season before that, the off season for that. And you'd have him in a tiger's uniform, for his entire career. But that wasn't gonna happen. So why did you why would you not get something back for him?
00:33:01
Cody Atkinson
and And that's kind of my my philosophical question to you is like, what do you think?
00:33:02
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:33:06
Cody Atkinson
Do you think it was right for them to hold him and try to get it this year? And this is just a consequence of that risk? Or are you in the same park where it's like, if you're not gonna sign him, get something back before he gets hurt?
00:33:21
Cody Atkinson
Cause March to trade deadline was just nothing but landmines really, if that was your plan.
00:33:27
Justin Daulton
Yeah, I think for me, and I'm a big proponent of it, you know I cheer for a baseball team that is the king of ah moving on from players. I do not get emotionally attached to players unless you're for some reason named Yanni Diaz.
00:33:40
Justin Daulton
So, you know, um i I will always be in the camp of move before move on from a player
00:33:40
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm. Fair. Mm-hmm.
00:33:47
Justin Daulton
before you can either a not afford them which is what the Detroit Tigers are dealing with or b their production starts to decline which is what the Rays did with Blake Snell and and Tyler Glasson they're the reason why they're not the one and two guys in LA that's why they're a four and five guy and sometimes not even in the rotation in LA so when you look at you know what Detroit should be doing going forward
00:34:07
Cody Atkinson
e
00:34:12
Justin Daulton
is it either a you've built a team around him to be successful and you can buy up the trade but trade deadline i don't have the numbers in front of me if you want to pull up their season record for me real quick while while i feel dead air it does
00:34:23
Cody Atkinson
I mean, they've definitely had decent success this year. theyve I'll give them credit. They tried to build a team around them. They had fra they they did sign Framber and in Verlander um to their credit, but
00:34:33
Justin Daulton
yeah so i mean ultimately for me like at the end of the day like if you if you don't have the team are you going to sell and if you're gonna sell are you going to sell school that's the question and if if i if i know for a fact that my season is dead and I don't think I'm going to be able to get to the number that that school's agent wants to get to I'm sure these conversations are still happening in the middle of the season so whatever that number ends up being come July when the trade deadline gets here if you're still 13 million dollars off you need to trade him and you need to trade him to where the point where that he can't walk and go to LA that needs to be the conversation right now you need to get him to a team that can afford him and can pay for him whether that's a Houston
00:35:14
Justin Daulton
or a Texas, or or is it Toronto that is missing a big arm?
00:35:15
Cody Atkinson
not used in
00:35:20
Justin Daulton
what where Who can afford that big arm that can pay him the contract that he's looking for that's not named the LA Dodgers? So that's the that's the control that you have as the as the Tigers organization. And you may be the team that holds MLB back from going into a lockout next year.
00:35:36
Justin Daulton
Like you single-handedly, this decision right now can really change the direction of MLB season and offseason next year. So to me, wherever you're at come July, you need to make a decision. And I think you have to move on because why wouldn't you? You have a generational pitching talent.
00:35:51
Justin Daulton
So let's get something back for him. me If not, you're stupid because he's not going sign with you.
00:35:56
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, they're currently sitting at 18 and 18. um So not looking good for them. But I will say, I do think they tried to build a team around him to make a run this year.
00:36:07
Cody Atkinson
um I just think with with the frail like i said the frailty of of the the pitching arm, you know, I don't know that that was the best idea because what are the odds that, like, they tried to build around him, but like,
00:36:20
Cody Atkinson
you probably didn't do enough anyways because you did pitching you Fran Berber lander, but you didn't do much on the hitting. And that has been a weakness of this club for a while.
00:36:30
Cody Atkinson
and, and it shows you're sitting at 18 and 18, obviously it's still early, but now with him going down for a couple months, really, I bet they really wish they could have got value before there were signs that his elbow was hurting.
00:36:41
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:36:43
Cody Atkinson
And so, um, It's a real shame. I think it's ah a good philosophical question. I know it's when the Astros have kind of gone through, they let a bunch of guys walk for nothing. And then they traded Tucker and they got pieces back. And, you know, I think from seeing that the way they hit on that trade, I'm i'm definitely for, you know, if you don't think you're going to win this year and you don't think you're going to sign them long term, just get something back.
00:37:06
Cody Atkinson
But I also do hope after we you know come out the other side of this pending lockout that we have a a financial structure that's more um suitable to keeping guys in their first uniform for their whole career so it's not...
00:37:21
Cody Atkinson
um it's not a matter of of when anymore. It's a matter of if. Because right now it's a matter of when does that said player leave and go to the Dodgers or the Mets or the Yankees or the Phillies. and And I would like to get that out of the game because I think it would be good for maybe go for baseball if if a guy like Tarek Skubel or Paul Skeens stays home for their career and and you know excites a fan base for 10 to 15 years.
00:37:47
Justin Daulton
Yeah, I mean, it's something that we see in the NFL, right? we You don't get a lot of it in the NBA. So it's something that see more in the NFL of players sticking around long-term and wanting to play for the team that took a chance on the drafts, and especially those those back-end guys.
00:38:03
Justin Daulton
So it's something that you see taking hometown deals we talked about nico you know for the texans taking these hometown deals that that second contract that he took uh to to build the roster to be competitive for the next couple of years so stigley restructuring his contract this offseason right was something that we talked about to to bring in talent you know so it's it's something that these guys are willing to do and i think that by doing whatever is going to happen in the mlb this offseason that's only going to allow for the a parody which is something mlb is needed for a while
00:38:33
Justin Daulton
we were doing really good with it for a while there but then if we We allow Dodgers figure out how to do 20-year deferment contracts. And so you get parity, and you also get it to the point where players are going to want to stay for their teams long term.
00:38:41
Cody Atkinson
Yeah,
00:38:48
Justin Daulton
So it's only everything that's going to happen this Aussie will only be good, in my opinion.
00:38:56
Cody Atkinson
yeah I agree. um I think anything that, assuming something comes from the lockout and we don't get a lost season and no real movement, you know, assuming we get anything, I think it will be better because I think we're in a As far as the entirety of the league being interested in um believing in what's happening, i you know I think we're losing that.
00:39:20
Cody Atkinson
And so, yeah, I think whatever comes from this lockout will be will be a good thing. But Tigers might be having some some remorse right now. Or non-sellers remorse, I guess.
00:39:30
Justin Daulton
Some buyer's amores for sure. Let's get Nonsense amores. I'm going to jump into the wrap-up. That's it for the rundown.
00:39:39
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:39:39
Justin Daulton
um My shining hope in my sports fandom right now is the Tampa Bay Rays, which if you've been listening to the pub, as we all predicted, if you've been listening since week one on this podcast, I've said that I had no faith for this season.
00:39:45
Cody Atkinson
As we all predicted.
00:39:53
Justin Daulton
I was like, let's buy a new let's build a new stadium, and that's what we're excited for. And boy, am I wrong. As we recorded today, watching them play tonight, just an electric brand of baseball, man, that the Rays play.
00:40:07
Justin Daulton
And the the guys are having fun. Kim and Nero playing around with the broadcasters today with the fans.
00:40:17
Justin Daulton
that's but in front of second base is having fun talking about as he struck out broke his bat and he was like yeah the curb ball was too much i couldn't see it couldn't track it and so like when you're winning when you're winning 501 you can be that way so but the the record was i think i told you was 22 and 12 as the as the game into today correct yeah
00:40:25
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:40:34
Cody Atkinson
God, that's good. the the Dodgers are twenty one and thirteen going today. you're You're like a game up on the Dodgers.
00:40:43
Justin Daulton
Yeah. So third best record in baseball and only one game back of the Yankees who has the best record in the American league.
00:40:44
Cody Atkinson
That's crazy.
00:40:50
Justin Daulton
So knocking right on the door there. i think every, I would think, we would we The Rays would be winning every dis division except for two with the record that we currently have, which goes to show how stacked the AL East is and how much we're going to beat up on each other all season long.
00:41:07
Justin Daulton
ah
00:41:07
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:41:08
Justin Daulton
I wanted to get a stat in there. oh Sorry, breakdown for the week. the As we reported last week, we beat the Guardians in the first game of the series. Last week, split the Moraners, so we went 2-1 against Cleveland. as a whole there sweep of the giants over the weekend and then today like i said we wrapped up a win over toronto uh each week i'm committed to bringing you guys at least one stat from the tempeh race to showcase how wrong i was and how happy i am as a fan of this team nick martinez who is going has come into the season um as the number two guy in the rotation obviously we talked about drew rasmussen and i talked a lot about mclanahan coming back and being that like four or five guy depending on where he falls in the rotation um nick martinez was a guy that we brought over this year um and is now sitting at 1.71 era and that is fifth best in the mlb um which is insane for for the rays right the a guy that
00:41:56
Justin Daulton
you know, you're going to go Rasmussen to Martinez and eventually you're going to go on McClanahan and that's your one, two, three punch. That's a pretty good one, two, three punch. If you ask me, it's, it's a, it's something that you can look forward to, to an NLDS where you only need to win three games to move on.
00:42:11
Justin Daulton
you're going throw Rasmussen, Nick Martinez, Shane McClanahan for your one, two, three in a divisional series for a chance to go to an ALCS, NLCS, whatever, whoever you root for, you just got to win three and that you got to feel pretty good at that.
00:42:25
Justin Daulton
You're going to roll out a guy who has a 1.71 ERA. And even in the back end, McClanahan's getting better. He threw five and two-thirds scoreless his last half. um ended up going to full six ins but you know it was like the last two hitters before he actually gave up a run and that game so it's someone that's getting better as the season goes on and we obviously know both of you and I know Rasmussen is going to give you quality starts all season long as long as you get run support for him so feel really good about where I am as a race fan especially you know nothing to stop after third best record in the MLB second in the AL and you're only on only one game back from the Yankees and that's you know every series against the Yankees is going to huge for this whole season and
00:43:07
Justin Daulton
a event the the inevitable yankee slide in in July and August might be something that really helps out the race.
00:43:14
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, it'll be really interesting to see, you know, how long the Rays can keep this up for. There's still the question, right? Like, is this a full season thing they can do or or does the does the clock strike midnight? But I'll definitely be rooting for them. would be really exciting for the Rays to be to be back up, especially if it's at the expense of the Yankees. I mean, that's something I'm always going to root for. So Rasmussen, Martinez, McClanahan.
00:43:39
Cody Atkinson
It's so interesting because, like you said, you if you know the results, you're going to feel really good going into a series with them. But if you're a casual and you're looking at that's the the rotation the the Rays are throwing out, like you also probably feel really good about it because you don't know any better at the moment. So that that'll be a really interesting dynamic. right Some of these guys are are in the process of making a name for themselves, and let's see if they can – If they can keep it up, right? Obviously, maybe not 1.71 the whole season, but if he if he's a ah three ERA guy, that's incredible.
00:44:15
Justin Daulton
Yeah, you're floating between that sub-250 range for the whole season. like you're You're in the conversation for the Cy Young. You have to be at that point. So and that's crazy that if you would have asked before the season, hey, you can pick three pitchers or one name out of three pitchers who's going in the Cy Young contention between Rasmussen, Nick Martinez, and McClanahan, I would have told you Rasmussen.
00:44:23
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:44:36
Justin Daulton
So that's... in
00:44:37
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:44:39
Justin Daulton
goes to show how incredibly good the race pitching staff is and the coaches and the development system that they have and, and the analytics who, I mean, the Rays were the Kings of the analytics before analytics was a big thing.
00:44:50
Justin Daulton
So, you know, that's, that's something to show that what they're able to do in Tampa and only means good things as we get closer and closer to the lockout potential and salary caps, you know, salary floor and all that stuff, whatever may happen. Right. And the Rays only getting better with new ownership going forward. Like,
00:45:08
Justin Daulton
yeah You got to feel good about the the future. And that's something I did talk about. say There are things to be excited for in the future. And it's showing now ahead of schedule. Even if we don't end up carrying of this through the whole season, there's something to be said about what's going to happen the next you know two to three seasons as we get ready for a new ballpark and more talent coming into Tampa.
00:45:29
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, absolutely, man. it' It's a good feeling to have a team ahead of schedule um when the reinforcements haven't gotten there yet. So speaking of exciting things, the Astros went three and three last week, which as we discussed the week before, they also went three and three, which was one of the better weeks of the season.
00:45:45
Justin Daulton
Thank
00:45:48
Cody Atkinson
So back to back. 500 weeks is actually a significant improvement for the, for the Astros. um And I wrote it down kind of ironically as a huge step in the right direction.
00:46:03
Cody Atkinson
um I'm not going to say a ton about the Astros because ultimately ah all jokes aside, the Astros are a little bit of a dead inside experience right now.
00:46:14
Cody Atkinson
Um, the The Astros have three pitchers that are really stepping up in Spencer, Arragetti, Peter Lambert, and then Mike Burrows, outside of some bad luck, has been a really quality starter and a guy that I think turns the corner here pretty soon.
00:46:33
Cody Atkinson
So long term, see the vision, right? If you have Arragetti, Lambert, and Burrows in the same rotation as Hunter Brown being back and Tatsuya Imai finding form in the U.S., now you have something to get excited about, something that can support the potent offense that you've been putting on the field. But the question is, how quickly can those guys come back, and can you keep it close until then? Because right now, outside of those three guys, you're running out. Lance McCullers, who's aging and
00:47:09
Cody Atkinson
you know, you don't know who you're going to get on a given day and you're running out to the running six man rotation with two bullpen days right now.
00:47:16
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:47:17
Cody Atkinson
I dead. That's crazy. Who does that? Like, so the the question remains, if you will get, if you can stay close enough for it to matter when the reinforcements arrive, um,
00:47:33
Cody Atkinson
Here's what I'll say. I told you I had a line of demarcation coming up. The Astros are playing the Dodgers right now. They play three. I think it's three against the Reds this week. They play Seattle and Texas next week. So your run of four here is Dodgers, Reds, Seattle, Texas,
00:47:51
Cody Atkinson
After that Texas series, I will tell you whether or not this team can hang around long enough for the reinforcements to arrive. promise you I won't say the season's dead, but I will bury them shallow enough that they can climb out and I will have to eat crow if they do. But i in two weeks after we get through this stretch, I think that'll tell us enough about whether they're close enough to claw back.
00:48:15
Cody Atkinson
or whether it's time to start running trade calculators to see how we can build a team for the future and and hope this thing spirals enough to get like the number one pick.
00:48:26
Cody Atkinson
um So that's what i promise you. In two weeks, I will make a decision on how I feel about this team. And I might bury them, in which case you will hate me for burying them so early in a baseball season. But, know, it's you got to put you got to put your you got to put your foot down, you know, stand 10 toes down when you're on the Internet like this.
00:48:36
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
00:48:43
Cody Atkinson
So we're going to give it a go. Outside of that, A&M Baseball, a little bit a little bit back down to earth this week, A&M Baseball had not lost a series. I think it was since March. like They hadn't lost a weekend series.
00:48:57
Cody Atkinson
They were on a heater because the pitching had stepped up, and and we really didn't get um the pitching we were hoping for this weekend. So ultimately this week, A&M goes two and two They win the midweek over Tarleton State, and they go one and two hosting Auburn at Bluebell. a Friday's game, which we were going to, got rained out.
00:49:17
Cody Atkinson
ah So we had a doubleheader. On Saturday, we did go to the second game, which was better to the two games. But the the thing is they had a doubleheader Saturday. Your starting pitcher goes out in game one and gives you one inning, six runs, and you have to just do whatever you can to get through that game without burning your bullpen for game two, which results in like an eight, I think it was, think it was 18 to five maybe was the final score run rule fashion.
00:49:44
Cody Atkinson
And then you have to bounce back from that and play again, 45 minutes later, they did their best. They missed a walk off by inches, fair foul decision on a liner that would scored the game winning run.
00:49:56
Cody Atkinson
Ultimately fall short of that. Come back Sunday. ah take the take Take game three. Salvage it Avoid the sweep. ah You'd love to see the fight in it, but... The pitching on this team, I've said it before, like the pitching is volatile, but you were getting the best of the pitching. And because of that, you were beating anybody. So if you get the best of the pitching, this team can beat anybody, but you're going to have weeks where you don't get the best of the pitching. And this team is going to look a lot more like a ah bottom half of top the top 25 team rather than the top five team. So.
00:50:27
Cody Atkinson
um that that That's what it's going to come down to. ah a couple of things on the offensive side. Chris Sikopian has a lower body injury and has been designated to the DH position. He's not able to play second right now, which creates a real hole in the lineup with the backup second baseman and then ah potential freshman freshman of the year. I think he was the SEC midseason freshman of the year.
00:50:51
Cody Atkinson
ah Nico Partita at third base also went down this weekend. Still waiting to figure out what that is, but It could get a little ugly here if if they they stay down and you have a couple holes in the lineup with this pitching staff.
00:51:04
Cody Atkinson
But I still like the the idea of them coming back, hosting at least a regional, if not a super, and and making a good run. But ah I would say this team needs more pitching depth if you want to feel like they have a championship ceiling.
00:51:22
Justin Daulton
All right.
00:51:22
Cody Atkinson
That's what I got there.
00:51:24
Justin Daulton
yeah i don't Yeah, I don't have anything else for you on that. you know its well We'll keep an eye on it over the next couple weeks. you know Two more weekend series before we get to going to play down there in Hoover, Alabama for the SEC tournament.
00:51:34
Justin Daulton
And then obviously we'll see where we land when it comes to College World Series time. So that wraps up the – that's it for the wrap-up for this week.
00:51:39
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:51:43
Justin Daulton
Notifications for you, Cody. Some stuff that we'll – basically it's called hat tip of the week. So things to talk about.
00:51:49
Cody Atkinson
yeah had tip of the week.
00:51:51
Justin Daulton
Golden Tempo, we could not talk about the amazing performance cycle and tempo had coming down from eighteenth place twenty three to one odds so in the kentucky derby i don't know if you watched it but i watched that final run insane what a what a run to come down for where it was to take the outside and and and win it all was was amazing to see also shout out to the first ever women trainer uh to ever win the kentucky derby so uh really cool there so we'll definitely watch as they go to is it preakness second where is it second that's in like a month
00:52:21
Cody Atkinson
I think it's, I think Preakness is second. I was hoping to look this up, but we kind of added this at the last second. I'm not sure if Golden Tempo is running Well, ah I thought I heard something about that.
00:52:32
Justin Daulton
How can you not now when you have the chance of the the triple crown?
00:52:41
Cody Atkinson
I might be completely off base. I hope obviously that Golden Tempo runs the Preakness. um We may have to circle back to that later.
00:52:50
Justin Daulton
Okay, second one, obviously we've spoken a lot about WWE in the last couple weeks. Something that happens every year at the Wrestlemania a lot of contracts that don't get renewed, to a lot of talent advocates let go.
00:53:02
Justin Daulton
Usually it's your bottom to your talent that just hasn't really cut it in terms of storytelling, all the things. This year, we've gone out that there's been a lot of bigger names that have been let go. can Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, two guys that have been around for a very long time get let go.
00:53:18
Justin Daulton
There's a lot of things swirling around today that I've been trying to keep my eye on is that Roman Reigns is not happy with his contract situation with TKO. So there's some some things there where he basically came back after WrestleMania saying that he's going to be full time all summer he's gonna be here for everyone in it raw be the guy be the flagship guy
00:53:39
Justin Daulton
Yeah. so basically showing that he's not going to be here for june so what does that look like in terms of does he stick around you know what the a lot of rumors going around say that tki t tk o whats to slash his contract in terms of also this other talent that left that's been let go so obviously you know thoughts and prayers go out to the people that are affected and getting let go but there's a lot of things happening in the world of WWE so not enough for us to do a full-fledged topic but I definitely wanted to talk about it a little bit here on the podcast um last thought that I have go ahead
00:54:13
Cody Atkinson
it's ah I was going to say, I think it's all speculation right now whether or not Golden Tempo will run the Preakness. So i think I think what I heard earlier today was somebody reacting to speculation that it's a quick turnaround type of thing.
00:54:26
Cody Atkinson
So ah hopefully.
00:54:27
Justin Daulton
Yeah. Last one on vacation before we get into NHL second round preview. Aziz Alshair, the Houston Texans middle linebacker. I know they don't really run a conventional middle linebacker, but for all intents and purposes, the middle linebacker for the Houston Texans signed a three-year extension, $54 million, dollars Total for that contract, $45.75 million guaranteed.
00:54:49
Justin Daulton
This is something that you and I talked about last week. So another note that came back around on us is after the draft, you know what does the future look like for you know the Texas going on and getting a linebacker?
00:54:59
Justin Daulton
I don't remember the name. If I can find the name real quick. on a Aiden Fisher out of Indiana and Wade Wood as were the two linebackers that we took in the draft.
00:55:05
Cody Atkinson
This, oh yeah.
00:55:10
Justin Daulton
so are these guys that could come up and take the spot of a disease Does, you know, is it Henry Tohoto that we're looking at? Whatever may be. But really happy to see Aziz get his money, get his due.
00:55:22
Justin Daulton
an undrafted free An undrafted free agent that got picked up by San Francisco. and then grew up in under the dyo ecosystem there and then the moment he could he joined houston doico spoken about how he's a father figure um to his ease and disease looks up to him uh plays very similar with style football to D'Amico uh very downhill very hard hitting uh and for better or worse in terms of the the fines that he's accumulated over his years uh but just want to be able to mention dude got his bag and it ended up actually freeing up some money this year for this coming season um it got us a where we had about twelve million dollars free and you saw that the texans go out get another linebacker for depth i don't have the name in front of me now uh to get to fill the last i think the 72nd spot on the roster was the only open spot on the roster so we do have some money to play around with to get the rookies taken care of and kind of move some things around obviously we'll we'll see the pay cut come down as we get to training camp and all that. But this week, the spotlight on Aziz for sure of of getting his bag and getting what he was due this season, the heart and soul of that defense. And, you know, we got a lot of, a lot of dogs on that defense, but he is the heart and soul when, when he's out on the field for, for the Texans, you, you can tell. So round of applause to Aziz Alshire for getting his bag.
00:56:37
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, shout out to him. I think, like you said, he has a worse, he probably has a worse rep around the league than he does in Houston because of some of these over intense hits that look worse when you don't know the style of player.
00:56:51
Cody Atkinson
But in Houston, he's beloved.
00:56:54
Justin Daulton
Yes.
00:56:54
Cody Atkinson
He's the heart and soul. He's the heart and soul of the defense. He's a, from an energy standpoint, he feels like a culture driver, um an extension of D'Amico basically at this point. And One of the talks going into the draft was we don't have a linebacker under contract after this year, and that's why people thought you might see them go linebacker early.
00:57:12
Cody Atkinson
um So it's good to see him be locked up so that you have a little more stability in structure of this defense going forward.
00:57:19
Justin Daulton
Yeah. I saw one last thing for Texans talk before we move on. There's only two players are out are that are now not under contracts going into the 2027 season. It is Tommy Togiai and Henry Togotogo.
00:57:32
Justin Daulton
That's it. So the window, as we talk about in sports, the window is open for this Texans team.
00:57:34
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, that's pretty sick.
00:57:39
Justin Daulton
You're probably going to talk about togi is probably gonna take a hometown deal he fits so well into the system toe-toe probably walks if wood has or aiden fisher pan out you can probably see toe-toe walk and you have yeah you have rookie contracts to work with um on the linebacking corps but you got to figure out this
00:57:56
Cody Atkinson
You could also just, So you can also just see them go high with a linebacker next year too, um or a free agent signing.
00:58:02
Justin Daulton
yep exactly
00:58:03
Cody Atkinson
Like there's there's plenty of options to replace. I think Toto is more replaceable than Shire.
00:58:10
Justin Daulton
Oh yeah. 100%. Whatever. I would much rather have about Aziz on contract than, than Toto. I still like Toto. I think I still like the way that Toto plays.
00:58:16
Cody Atkinson
Absolutely.
00:58:18
Justin Daulton
He fits the swarm mentality so well. But Toto is someone that I can replace. You go down any SEC roster, you got a linebacker that's NFL ready. But,
00:58:29
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah, I agree 100%, man.
00:58:31
Justin Daulton
uh,
00:58:32
Cody Atkinson
it's Exciting news, exciting times to be a Texans fan right now.
00:58:36
Justin Daulton
The window is open, as we'll we'll continue to talk about this summer. So it is all it's all on the shoulders of C.J.
00:58:40
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:58:42
Justin Daulton
Stroud.
00:58:44
Cody Atkinson
It certainly is. we'll see We'll see if that's good or not. But ah yeah, it's ah it's ah it's a big year for Strode.
00:58:52
Justin Daulton
Yeah. Well, that wraps it up, man. I'm going to kick it to you now for NHL preview for second round. Let's talk some hockey.
00:58:59
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, let's talk some hockey. I'm ready to get into it. um we So we did our we did our and NHL playoff preview a few weeks ago, and we said we're only going to preview the first round for now. We're going to go round by round. So we'll have our second round preview today. The second round started on Saturday. So um i I haven't looked, and I'm not going to look. I'm i'm pretty sure Philly, Carolina has finaled. Today's game is probably finaled by now.
00:59:25
Cody Atkinson
But I don't want that to affect the way that I –
00:59:27
Justin Daulton
Okay, I won't look, I won that was gonna look for you.
00:59:28
Cody Atkinson
Make my picks because it started it it started three and a half hours ago, so it should be done now. But so we have at the point of this recording, me and Justin are aware that Carolina is up 1-0 on Philadelphia and Colorado is up 1-0 on Minnesota. that are Those are the only results that we have that are impacting this decision. Carolina-Philly game two is almost certainly gone final, but the last time I looked at it before we started the pod, it was tied, so I don't know who won.
00:59:55
Cody Atkinson
so we're going to go for that. we what We'll start right there. We'll start with the game that started the second round, which is Carolina, Philly, Carolina coming off a 4-0 sweep of Ottawa, Philly coming off game six against Pittsburgh.
01:00:09
Cody Atkinson
ah Do you want to take this one away first? Give us your picks. Give us your thoughts. And then then I'll wrap it up.
01:00:15
Justin Daulton
Yeah, i like this I like this series a lot. If there's one that I was going watch in the Eastern Conference, this would be the one I want to watch. You're talking about the the immovable force that is the Carolina Hurricanes versus the nitty-gritty, disgusting team in Philly that is playing their own personal brand of hockey and it fits the city that they play in.
01:00:36
Justin Daulton
And it's one that – this is one that if you ask me, there's no way I could predict that this is a four-game sweep for Carolina. or if it's a seven game series like that's that's how widespread the series could go and i think carol's going you know We talked about it but the beginning with you know you know me not necessarily giving enough respect to Carolina.
01:00:56
Justin Daulton
I don't know if they can make it out of this series because that's that's just how nitty-gritty this Philly team is. and you know I don't think they anticipated this type of a team coming at them so early on.
01:01:06
Justin Daulton
I think you expected this with a Buffalo or a Tampa or even ah and or a Canadians coming to them in the Eastern Conference Final. ah If you ask me, I think Carolina thought they could sleepwalk their way to the Eastern Conference Finals now that there's no florida panther is involved in in this at all so I think that this is something that's going to be a very fun series to watch. I have no stats to back up any of my claims here, but i as much as I want to say Carolina sweep walks through, i feel really good about Philly finding a way to win this series.
Philly vs. Carolina Series Overview
01:01:38
Justin Daulton
They found a way to win in pittsburgh they fought off some so adversity against the penguins and you know the I am. Yeah.
01:01:48
Justin Daulton
they found a way to win and you know they have a tough test in front of them but i like this philly team a lot i think they're a team that can that can make a deep run i don't think they can go all the way but i think they' team i can make a very deep run
01:02:00
Cody Atkinson
So you see you're you're picking Philly?
01:02:02
Justin Daulton
i am yeah
01:02:03
Cody Atkinson
Oh, man, going with the upset. I like it. I have a lot of similar thoughts to you. um I wrote down that Philly plays a filthy brand of hockey, which is very fitting for just the personality of the city that they come from. that At every sport, it just Philly fans. You know a Philly fan. A Philly fan is a Philly fan. You know it when you see it.
01:02:28
Cody Atkinson
and And this team fits that vibe so, so well. And it has an incredible defensive identity. I think that's what this filthy brand of hockey has given them, is a defensive identity, which was enough to overcome an aging Pittsburgh roster.
01:02:45
Cody Atkinson
The problem for me, and I think you know that we're on opposite ends here because I have been a ah stout Carolina supporter in these playoffs, is that I think Carolina has just as strong of a defensive identity as Philadelphia, but with a lot more firepower on offense.
01:03:06
Cody Atkinson
and I was looking at I was kind of trying to look at some metrics to to support this, make sure that I was on the right track here. And and they rate out ah very similarly defensively. And so I went and looked at the Ottawa series. And in the Ottawa series, Carolina never gave up more than two goals in a game.
01:03:26
Cody Atkinson
and And that's against a playoff caliber opponent. I think if I'm not mistaken, they held – it Brady Kachuk that's on Ottawa? i get them confused.
01:03:33
Justin Daulton
Yeah, yeah.
01:03:34
Cody Atkinson
yeah brady They held Brady Kachuk pointless in that series, so not not a ah goal no nor nor assist. They they they held him pointless in that series, and i think that de I think they have the defense to match Philly, and I think Philly doesn't have the offense to match them. So my pick is going Carolina here.
01:03:53
Cody Atkinson
um I wrote, I guess when I was writing these notes up, I wrote, I've got Carolina easy. That's not really what I was trying to say. Sometimes there's a stream of consciousness typing, I guess.
01:04:03
Cody Atkinson
I don't think it's easy, but i do I do lean Carolina, and I don't have a ton of hope for Philly personally, but if Philly is going to win, it's going to be because they have the goaltending edge with Vladar.
01:04:19
Cody Atkinson
He had an incredible series against Pittsburgh. When I was looking at the stats of game two earlier, it was tied two to two and the shots very heavily favored Carolina, which means Vladar was making save after save after save. um And, and kind of Anderson was getting a lot off the hook being left alone. And so if, if Philly is going to make it happen, I think it's, I think it's the goaltending edge, but I'm going to go with Carolina. i really think Carolina's got a, got a cup run in without Florida in their way this year.
01:04:51
Justin Daulton
right, we'll see. we'll see
01:04:53
Cody Atkinson
yeahp Other side of the Eastern Conference, we we did a a decent bit of hyping this series up already. and In the front end, we have Buffalo versus Montreal, the electric fan base series. so I think you tipped your cap in the opener with who you think is coming out of this one, but let's see if you've got any surprises up your sleeve.
01:05:14
Justin Daulton
Yeah, it's tough, right? The wound's the wound's deep. the The wound is fresh with Montreal. Buffalo also kind of to blame with with coming up and winning this division and the Lightning not being the number one seed for the Eastern, or the at least the the winner of the United Division.
01:05:26
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:05:29
Justin Daulton
i the I don't think anyone was going to catch Carolina. So i think for this series, man, it's it's one that's going to go seven games. It's one that's going to go back and forth. It's going to be high scoring. It's going to be physical.
01:05:43
Justin Daulton
I think if there is a way and they if we had to do a keys to victory type of situation here, the key to victory for buffalo is get physical as soon as you can because montreal just played one hell a physical series against tampa i mean i'm talking about and you know this from playoff hockey standpoint too you don't fight in the playoffs and we were fighting in the first round with montreal and tampa so if you want to get to to montreal early and get some get get get some points on the board maybe you get a game or two on the board early buffalo has to get physical early in the series and get to the goal now because if you let montreal get into the flow state get into the rhythm that they need to do to face buffalo
01:05:59
Cody Atkinson
And
01:06:20
Justin Daulton
i think montreal can run away with this series very quickly because you're gonna going to a team that a that played a very good tampa team where buffalo did not play a good boxing team so you're talking about a team that has already been in playoff mode when when it comes to like this have the games they've been playing so that's where montreal has this advantage so if you're buffalo you got to start playing hockey as soon as that puck drops you got to get physical if not this is this is a series for me that's going end in four or five games and it's going go montreal's way break um but if buffo can get on the board this is another one that can go
01:06:54
Justin Daulton
six games maybe even seven if depending on where it where it all
Montreal vs. Buffalo Expectations
01:06:58
Justin Daulton
falls. But I do think this goes Montreal's way, and I think it goes Montreal's way very early, and Montreal gets a break before the Eastern Conference Finals.
01:07:07
Cody Atkinson
That would be something if this scrappy Montreal team can make a run like that in in the playoffs. And and I think i i'm not as adamant as you, but I lean in the same direction as you, where I'm going to go with Montreal here.
01:07:21
Cody Atkinson
I'm giving this series my can't-miss matchup of the round, which is an award that I obviously made up in and the spot. um But it means nothing. But this is my can't-miss matchup. We talked about it with the electric fan bases.
01:07:34
Cody Atkinson
um we We can look at the play styles. Montreal likes to play very fast, and that created an incredible product against Tampa Bay, and I think we're going to see a lot more of that against Buffalo. But I am going to lean Montreal in this. The stat that I pulled for for this one is Buffalo only scored one goal on the power play in their round one ah victory over Boston.
01:08:02
Cody Atkinson
Montreal had five. the The reason I picked Montreal against Tampa was because of penalty minutes and Montreal's ability to capitalize on the power play. And I think it's going to be similar in this game. Buffalo is seventh in the league in penalty minutes, um which is still lower than like where Montreal is and a few other playoff contenders. But these teams, these teams take a lot of penalties and Montreal has proven at least recently, to be better at capitalizing on these penalties than Buffalo has been. And for that reason, i'm going to say Montreal.
01:08:38
Cody Atkinson
That gives them the ah the the nod where we might see a lot of very even five-on-five hockey and Montreal capitalizes on the on the penalty. So I'm going with Montreal to make a run to the the championship here. And boy, would that be electric.
01:08:52
Cody Atkinson
If we, a Philly Montreal or Carolina Montreal would be a ton of fun. So I would be very excited if we get what we predicted here.
01:09:02
Justin Daulton
Yeah, absolutely.
01:09:05
Cody Atkinson
Flipping over to the Western Conference, we'll start with Minnesota versus Colorado. I'll get your thoughts on this after a nine to six opening game last night. I don't know if if you watched any of this. I got to watch the third period.
01:09:18
Cody Atkinson
what What a wild game this was. ah For anyone that was able to tune into this, that was something else. I can't wait to see what this series gives us. Let's see where you're where you're leaning towards on this one.
Minnesota vs. Colorado Challenges
01:09:34
Justin Daulton
Yeah, obviously the the fresh wound that was last night prevented me from watching any other sports. So i decided to watch Invincible instead.
01:09:40
Cody Atkinson
That's a good point.
01:09:41
Justin Daulton
um So I watched the season finale of event of Invincible, which did not make me feel any better for it for those of you that watch Invincible.
01:09:46
Cody Atkinson
yeah Yeah, I don't know why you thought that was where you should go for comfort.
01:09:51
Justin Daulton
Honestly, between the comfort of Invincible and the book that I'm reading, there's not much comfort in any of the media. that i'm consuming right now
01:09:57
Cody Atkinson
That's fair.
01:09:58
Justin Daulton
um But in terms of this one, this is the outcome that I thought was going to happen. I thought that Minnesota beats Dallas. Colorado advances, obviously, as well. We knew that pretty early on. um I think this was one that it's as opposite as I felt about Carolina. The immovable force that is Colorado and the run that they get to go on they are literally getting probably what, once again, you know Dallas and Minnesota basically playing what should have been Western Conference Finals.
01:10:27
Justin Daulton
Minnesota now playing again, which should have been a Western Conference final in round two. I think eventually that wears you down. And I don't think they have enough in the tank to beat Colorado because eventually you're going to keep playing at that level where Colorado had a sweep and they've had a week and a half off to get ready for either one of these opponents where they basically just had to fight and claw their way through the Dallas series. And I just don't think they have enough in the tank to go through Colorado to get into the Western Conference final.
01:10:54
Justin Daulton
And it's just that immovable force where I just don't think they have enough. I would love to be wrong because I would love to see Colorado fall here early on. I just don't see it happening.
01:11:06
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, in my heart of hearts, as a fan of underdogs, I am looking every round for an opportunity to pick against Colorado just because that's the story that I want is the mighty has fallen. Let's see who can take the throne.
01:11:21
Cody Atkinson
And coming into the series, I wanted to take Minnesota. It's the rest versus rust philosophy. And I i tend to side on the rust side of things where if a team's been sitting too long,
01:11:32
Cody Atkinson
you can see him get like if, if a team sitting too long in Minnesota punches Colorado in the mouth game one, that might be all the momentum you need to like, that might be the one game you needed to swing the series from Colorado to you.
01:11:45
Cody Atkinson
So I am making this pick with the benefit of knowing that Minnesota threw that punch in Colorado withstood it. And because of that, I do also think Colorado is moving on.
01:11:56
Cody Atkinson
I might have been, more inclined to pick dallas over color a good a dallas upset of colorado here because dallas was having so much success on the power play against minnesota because the power play is the one spot where colorado has struggled i i pulled some stats here where colorado is 15.4 on the power play against the kings that's something that dallas could to capitalize on but unfortunately minnesota is 14.3 against dallas so
01:12:25
Justin Daulton
Oh.
01:12:26
Cody Atkinson
A weakness for for the Avalanche is even weaker for the Wild. And then if you look at the penalty kill, the Wild killed at a 59%, where Colorado's killing at 84%. Obviously, different teams are going up against different ah ah levels of difficulty there. But and when you're looking for an edge, the the team with rest didn't get punched in the mouth in game one. Neither team can score on the power play right now.
01:12:53
Cody Atkinson
And only one of them can kill on the power play. So it's more likely Colorado breaks through and get something going on the power play than Minnesota. Or if this just is a five on five scoring is the only scoring you get. i'm going to go with Colorado on that as well. So unfortunately, i don't think the mighty falls this week.
Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton & Vegas
01:13:12
Cody Atkinson
I think Colorado is, is going on to play the winner of of Vegas versus Anaheim, which It might be the who had this on their bingo card game of the ceo of the playoffs. um I don't know. Can they keep it going? Can Anaheim keep it going?
01:13:28
Justin Daulton
Man, that's the question that ah that a lot of people are sphere here. So it's, it's, yeah, you, you, you the nail on the head, right? No one has this on their ringle card. No one predicted the Anaheim ducks getting through the getting through the Edmonton Oilers, maybe Connor McDavid. If you ask Connor McDavid, who has some really strong opinions about his team there at the end of the season, i everything in my being is telling me to pick Vegas.
01:13:53
Justin Daulton
because it's just it's the team that makes the most sense it's the team with the hot hand it's the team with the more star power star star power on it they have a good coach and john tortorella like they just they have everything going in their favor except that they're not the team that just beat the two-time western conference champions and that speaks volumes when it comes to momentum and playing with a emotion in this playoff series and ultimately that's what makes the most sense in a playoff environment if you're the team that can have the emotion can have the momentum going in it
01:14:24
Justin Daulton
vegas just played a very lo old like low down like low environment against utah that ultimately neither team really showcased that they wanted to win this series and it went what i think it went six games before it went final and it it probably should have went seven if you if you ask me and it just but it it didn't feel like either team wanted to win this and you know i started talking about it my boy over here where he is an anaheim ducks fan that You have to feel somewhat confident with the way that Vegas and Utah were playing that you have a chance to make it to the Western Conference is final.
01:14:57
Justin Daulton
And ever since I had that conversation, I'm kind of on board with this heart attack team, or heart attack kids in Anaheim, the the team that starts down one or two goals every single game and they come back and they're up.
01:15:08
Justin Daulton
and they find a way to win and they're winning in regulation they're They're winning very convincingly too. and they're playing a very well-rounded, you know, type of attack in the second and third period.
01:15:19
Justin Daulton
Defense comes alive. We talked about the goaltending dump for Anaheim at length ever since the, the, the Olympics. i you know, I picked an I picked an upset on the Eastern side. I'm picking an upset on the Western side.
01:15:32
Justin Daulton
I'm going Anaheim to pick, to beat Vegas. I'm, i don't know how far they go but i do have anahe beating Vegas, and I think it's going to be a very fun series. It's going to be, you know, Vegas is going to get hit in the mouth, and we're going to need to see how Vegas responds because Anaheim got hit a couple times by Edmonton, and boy, did they get back up.
01:15:53
Cody Atkinson
That's a bold pick there, man. So it is is is this you believe in this? Like, do you believe this? Or or is is Dallas so locked in that his Ducks can do it now? Because I don't think he believed last round, if I recall. He was just happy to be there.
01:16:08
Cody Atkinson
did are Did he give you Kool-Aid is my question.
01:16:08
Justin Daulton
I mean, and that was that was my award.
01:16:12
Cody Atkinson
Like, did he give you Kool-Aid and now you're buying in or
01:16:15
Justin Daulton
I mean, it's tough not to drink your friend's Kool-Aid sometimes, right? That's how cool begin.
01:16:18
Cody Atkinson
okay
01:16:19
Justin Daulton
Yeah.
01:16:20
Cody Atkinson
That is how Colts begin, yes. And how they end.
01:16:23
Justin Daulton
so i think it's a bit of both right i think it's it's tough to not attach your bandwagon to your friend's bandwagon and and hope for the best um you've done it for with me for years with the lightning and you're like all right let's go it's what's win of some championships and you know i've done it with you with the astros a couple times like hey hometown team let's go get a let's go get some titles i think like i said i don't think the ducks have a long run in them I don't think they make it into the Stanley Cup finals, but what a run for this young team to go on and to be two teams that they play quite a bit in in Edmonton and Vegas and have a chance to to really stake their claim and that they're a team that's here to stay and be in this competition for a while.
01:17:04
Justin Daulton
And, you know, there was this movie that you and I grew up on and it's something that needs to be said.
01:17:07
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:17:09
Justin Daulton
it's ah It's the Mighty Ducks, man, and the Ducks fly together and I'm not going to let my boy fly alone. going through this fight. So I'm going to stick my flag there for at least this round.
01:17:19
Justin Daulton
And then we'll see where i where I land when it comes to the conference championships and then the Stanley Cup. But for this round, I'm going to be a Ducks fan, man. It's going to be, i think it's going to be a fun series out there out West and one that I don't think a lot of people are going to give them much as much attention and love to as they probably should be.
01:17:35
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, this is the kind of the extension of maybe, i would say two of the series, at the beginning, two of the series that we were less locked onto. Obviously, as Anaheim started to pull off the upset, all of the world's eyes, all the hockey world's eyes turned to that series. But even to to the bitter end, we were not locked in on on Vegas, Utah. So I will be much more locked in on this rendition,
01:18:03
Cody Atkinson
than I was on the on the round before. I think this is going to be some can't miss because Anaheim absolutely has the opportunity to pull the upset here. i'm I'm not picking it. um my Coming into the playoffs, my viewpoint of Vegas has been that the switch in coach to John Tortorella was everything this team needed to make a run that you would not expect this team to make based on the season as a whole. The stat that I pulled going into the playoffs was that in the eight games under the new coach, they went 7-0 and 1 in those eight games. And so now if you extend that to 4-2 against Utah, you're looking at 11-2 and 1 in, that, 14 games since John Tortorella became the coach.
01:18:48
Cody Atkinson
And I think that's something that's going to be hard for Anaheim to overcome.
Stanley Cup Predictions
01:18:52
Cody Atkinson
I give Anaheim way more of a chance to win this series than I did in the first series because we both wrote them off about as – I think we wrote them off in Sharpie.
01:19:01
Cody Atkinson
um And ah and that this may be more in pencil than than in Sharpie.
01:19:02
Justin Daulton
Heh heh heh.
01:19:06
Cody Atkinson
But i will I will go to Vegas just on the the strength of – I feel like this team has a different juice than it had with the old coach and and it's just a team I have circled to to make a run that we don't expect and and to make the run that we don't expect, they have to get through Anaheim. So I'm going to stick with my original prediction and I'm not going to change it here that I think i think vegas makes a i think Vegas makes it out. I think we get Colorado, Vegas on the other side, Montreal, Carolina. I think that's i think that still offers quite a bit of electricity as far as ah conference championships go in in in a situation where the true conference championship that should have been played was played you know two weeks ago at that point.
01:19:53
Cody Atkinson
So um that's what I've got. i I'm going to keep my Stanley Cup predictions with what I've had. I had Colorado over Carolina. Again, i I'm all constantly looking for a reason to knock Colorado off, but I don't see it with Minnesota. So I'm sticking with Colorado over Carolina, feeling pretty good about those teams being the two teams coming off of sweeps in round one.
01:20:19
Cody Atkinson
I don't remember who you picked.
01:20:19
Justin Daulton
Yeah, I mean, you're going to Tampa and in Colorado, I believe is where I went.
01:20:25
Justin Daulton
i don't think we wrote it down. I think we did. I think we made the call on the fly. um
01:20:29
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:20:30
Justin Daulton
So
01:20:32
Cody Atkinson
It sounded like he might be switching that to Montreal now.
01:20:35
Justin Daulton
yeah oh, I'm for sure. yeah I think Montreal, you know, this series will tell a lot for Montreal and what the what they're able to do after such a physical series against Tampa.
01:20:46
Justin Daulton
I don't think Carolina has enough in the tank. i think there're I don't think they're going to be able to make it through. Obviously, already picked Philly to beat them you know in in this round. Even if they do find a way to squeak through, it I just don't see Carolina having enough to make it all the way through and winning this whole this whole thing and even make into the Stanley Cup.
01:21:03
Justin Daulton
finals so right now i'm gonna say that philly definitely doesn't have enough i think their magical run will come to an end against a montreal team that for all sense purposes have everything in their willpower everyone on that roster to to win this whole this whole thing um depending on on how this anaheim season series goes can tell me whether or not that i think that they can knock off colorado right now i'm goingnna ah correct Right now I'm going to stay with Colorado winning the the Western Conference and going on to play Montreal.
01:21:28
Cody Atkinson
Oh, how fun would that be?
01:21:37
Justin Daulton
But man, how how fun would it be to see Anaheim team that no one thought, no one gave the respect to, unless you're a fan out there in Orange County, to go out there and make a run and and do this whole thing.
01:21:50
Justin Daulton
So i will I will know more over the next week and a half to two weeks to see how Anaheim stands up against Vegas. And obviously what happens with Colorado? Do they have to play a long series against Minnesota?
01:22:01
Justin Daulton
You know, what does that do for them? Do they get some some chinks in the armor exposed? Like, what does that look like long term? But right now I'm going to stick with Colorado moving on. But I think the next two weeks will tell a lot in terms of what happens out West.
01:22:14
Justin Daulton
And then with it being Colorado versus Montreal, I think Montreal ends up running into a brick wall that they can't beat at that point. So I would have Colorado winning at
NHL Playoffs Excitement & Predictions
01:22:23
Justin Daulton
that point. And I think it's one of those things that Montreal gets put on a different path.
01:22:28
Justin Daulton
they go from this like fledging where we've been rebuilding rebuilding rebuilding to we a team minutes's going to be in this top kind the top conversation for a while and a team that a lot of a lot of teams are going to be chasing.
01:22:40
Justin Daulton
So i think that's what you're seeing, not just with Montreal, but you're seeing it with Anaheim as well, that you're your Colorados, your Carolinas, even your tampas your you know
01:22:44
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:22:49
Justin Daulton
your panthers you know all these things that have been relevant and winning for the last couple of seasons, you need to start watching that because these teams that are that have been silently rebuilding are here to stay and you're going to see it.
01:23:00
Justin Daulton
So it'll be very telling, but I think Colorado has a championship pedigree. Their window is open for this season. You've got to capitalize now if you're a Colorado fan, and I think they do it, but there's something brewing out there out west with Anaheim. So we'll see how the next two weeks goes, and that might change my my my pick going into the Western Conference Finals.
01:23:20
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, to your point there, there's the the the next wave of teams are announcing themselves right now in Montreal and Anaheim. this year, Montreal and Anaheim are announcing themselves.
01:23:32
Cody Atkinson
I think you still have teams like the Sharks um who may announce themselves here in the next couple of years. I think Utah was pretty close to announcing itself.
01:23:40
Justin Daulton
Yeah. Yeah.
01:23:40
Cody Atkinson
So the the next wave of teams is announcing themselves. So if if you're a team that's on the top right now, that's something to be paying attention to because you might be looking up at them and as soon as next year.
01:23:52
Cody Atkinson
If you're Edmonton, as soon as this year, you're looking up at them and you're you're trying to climb back and and And get back in there. But the NHL playoffs, like we've said, it never misses. ah It's been an incredible run. I think we have four incredible series this round. And no matter how this shakes out, I think we're going to have two really good championships.
01:24:13
Cody Atkinson
I will stop it really good because the championship we deserve was taken away from the format, but format aside, I think we're going to get some really good matchups in the championship and then obviously the Stanley cup.
01:24:23
Cody Atkinson
So stoked to see
Upcoming Coverage & Listener Engagement
01:24:25
Cody Atkinson
where that leads. We will be um your home for NHL coverage through the playoffs. I actually think the, um the draft lottery is tomorrow night.
01:24:35
Cody Atkinson
I was looking at a mock today, the draft lottery is tomorrow night. So we can, we'll give a nod to that next week as well.
01:24:39
Justin Daulton
Nice.
01:24:41
Cody Atkinson
Just the results there, but, We will be your stop for NHL playoff coverage. And and and look out next week. We're going check in on on the MLB. we we we we We gave you a preview. We had some thoughts, some bold predictions, some not so bold predictions. We're going to take, you know, 30, I think we're 35 games in now. So by next week, we'll be sitting around 40 games in. We're going to see how we're looking on that and maybe, maybe layer in some new bold predictions for the rest of the season. So, so keep an eye out for that. And as, as these seasons wind down to an end, we will be desperate for topics. So look, look for us to, to start launching some lists, some ideas, some just some, some, some good off season topics, some good thoughts, whether it be sports specific, upcoming season specific, maybe it's sports media or sports movie specific. It doesn't matter. We're going We're going to be brainstorming that for a couple of weeks. So look out for the, for the off season of
May the 4th & Sci-Fi Recommendations
01:25:40
Cody Atkinson
lists. If you know, Justin, you know, he's a fan of lists and we're going to utilize that to get us from the end of these, from the end of the and NHL series through to, to to football season, which I know we'll be excited to talk about since we launched basically the end of football season last year. So that's all I've got. Justin, you got any final words before we wrap this up?
01:26:01
Justin Daulton
Yeah, my parting shot, as I don't think we're getting video launched yet as we just work through some technical difficulties.
01:26:06
Cody Atkinson
Oh, true
01:26:08
Justin Daulton
But happy May the 4th to all those that celebrate my day, a celebration of tomorrow, Revenge of the 5th as the resident Sith here. But yeah, happy happy Star Wars Day to everyone.
01:26:20
Justin Daulton
Obviously, the MLB celebrated the race, had bobblehead giveaway today where Yande Diaz was the Mandalorian holding Rogu. That was a fine one.
01:26:27
Cody Atkinson
heck
01:26:28
Justin Daulton
uh so obviously a lot of teams around sports celebrating may the 4th um so big day for that um so definitely if you're listening go watch go watch your favorite star wars thing whatever it's a movie tv show whatever may be go watch your favorite star wars thing um and celebrate that um and then as we move on from star wars day and you know everyone has heard me talk about project hail mary as the lego is behind me um moving on to the next fandom that'll i'll give my recommendation on it and we can close off from there.
01:26:55
Justin Daulton
Everyone, if you are into any sort of sci-fi, high fantasy, anything like that, go read the Red or Rising books. They're incredible. I'm on the third book now. So I've been telling Cody about this for weeks.
01:27:03
Cody Atkinson
You're just soft launching a spinoff podcast.
01:27:09
Justin Daulton
good
01:27:09
Cody Atkinson
That's what you're doing.
01:27:11
Justin Daulton
go go Go read Red Rising, man. It's incredible books. I got everyone at work reading it right now too. So it's it's a great time.
01:27:18
Cody Atkinson
Oh, man. You just use that to soft launch a books and movies podcast. I like it. Thanks for joining us. Like, comment, subscribe. If you have some ideas on lists we can do over the offseason, let us know, but we'll definitely be pumping those out either which way. So thank you for joining us. I'm Cody.
01:27:39
Justin Daulton
I'm Justin.
01:27:40
Cody Atkinson
And we'll catch you next time. Peace.
01:27:43
Justin Daulton
Peace.