00:00Wednesday morning right here on The Grid. It's a hump day here. Absolutely love to see it. Hockey, baby, is back in our lives. And yeah, you know, I'm a Flyers fan here. I just might actually get into Flyers hockey much more than I have in the past because I'm seeing signs of life from Rick Tockett and the boys. You know we're not seeing signs of life? You take a look around the NHL. The world's most famous arena is Madison Square Garden. I'm going to tell you right now, I don't do research on that, but I'm probably sure some of the highest ticket prices paid during the regular season, preseason, and postseason are probably from
00:29Rangers fans in the garden. The Rangers, Joe, have played three games at home. He said, oh, they're not doing well. They lost all three of those games. How about not scoring in any of the three home games in the garden they played this year? They lose two to nothing to the Oilers last night. That is astounding, and that is historic.
00:46And history, Donnie. The Rangers, at least they can say last night, they made history because they became the first team in NHL history, and we're talking a couple of years here, Donnie. It's been around for a little while here, to get shut out in each of its first three home games of the season. It has literally never happened before, and of all places, Madison Square Garden, they were unable to find the back of the net.
01:15It goes from bad to worse with the Rangers. It really does.
01:18My goodness. That is a crazy story, man. Three straight games of not scoring at home here, and also you understand, once they get that fourth game in that building, that pressure is going to be so ratcheted up for them to score in the first period.
01:29Otherwise, who knows when that streak is absolutely going to end. I'll tell you who's playing good hockey right now. That's Cole Caulfield of the Montreal Canadiens.
01:36They went 5-4 over the Kraken in overtime to improve the 3-1 on the season.
01:40Caulfield, the American, playing in French-Canadian Montreal, doing damage.
01:46Yeah, that's it. We have our good friend Andrew McGinnis. He's a big Canadiens fan, and it feels like, Donnie, I mean, a 5-4 game, too.
01:54Starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, we ought to start considering a lot of overs with the Canadiens here, who started the season now 3-1.
02:02So, that's pretty impressive here, but ultimately, they've got to maintain here, and I know Andrew will be the first one to tell you that.
02:11All right, let's get the energy high right now. It's your boy, Donnie Wrightside. It's Joe Ranieri.
02:15Now, we're going to welcome in Andrew McGinnis into the show, the host of the Pre-Scout. Andrew, what's good, my friend?
02:21Good morning, guys. How are we?
02:24Feeling good today. Ready to go. Now, we could spend the rest of this segment talking about the Philadelphia Flyers and the run to the Stanley Cup, but we're not going to do that right now.
02:31Now, as Joe also brought up, a big Montreal Canadiens fan. Cole Caulfield, you got to like what you're seeing so far.
02:39You know, I've waited a long time for this, guys. A long time.
02:43And I'll tell you, I've gone through a lot of tough games, and the biggest thing was last year, October, November, December were brutal.
02:51So, even to be off to this start that they are right now, 3-1, feels really good.
02:56But I'll tell you, Donnie, you talk about Cole Caulfield, and I love the guy.
03:00Overtime winner yesterday.
03:02Yvonne Demidov ties it up to send it to overtime.
03:05But the biggest thing with this Canadiens team is the depth.
03:09I mean, if you're the captain, Nick Suzuki, who I might add, guys, has never missed an NHL game since he's been in the league so far,
03:17you got to think you can take that big, deep breath because he knows that every single night,
03:21he doesn't have to be that guy that makes something happen, and the team can still win.
03:26You know, you think about these NBA teams where you know that certain player has to drop 35 or 30 in order for their team to have a chance.
03:33That's how Nick Suzuki felt for a long time, and now he can sit back.
03:37He's still playing well.
03:38He quietly has five assists on the year, five or six assists, but still, they don't need him to do that anymore.
03:44They have so much more talent on this team.
03:46It's a great feeling.
03:47All right, not to throw a wrench into the Flyer Canadian, you know, fanfare here,
03:54but let me remind you guys where the cup sits not too far down the road from me.
04:00It's in South Florida, and the Panthers are in Detroit here tonight, Andrew.
04:06Looks like we got five and a half sitting around here.
04:10And listen, it's one thing to beat Toronto in a couple of games.
04:14I mean, who doesn't beat Toronto besides Toronto?
04:16But what are we thinking here?
04:18Panthers lost to, yes, the Flyers, but you and I both know they take a night off every now and then.
04:25Ooh.
04:27Yeah, you know, especially early in the season with the whole rapid revenge thing.
04:31Like, I'm not a huge revenge guy, but I think early in the season, maybe it ended up mattering.
04:35Look, if you're a quotes person, you can appreciate that Paul Maurice wasn't happy there, Joe.
04:41Hey, he's a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion coach, but the quotes from him, you know, wasn't happy with the sloppiness.
04:48They didn't take care of things on their own end.
04:50The puck distribution wasn't there.
04:52So, over the past few years, guys, I've really, really got into the team totals.
04:57And whether it's betting the team total overs to get a better price or a team total unders, it's really seemed to be the best way to go for me.
05:05So, in this one here, I'm going to try and pick a spot here where they're going to play a shut-down brand of hockey.
05:12As Joe, you know, that's what's led them to their success.
05:15No Barkov, no Kachuk.
05:17Marshawn, he was at an interview talking about, hey, we're comfortable in tight games, comfortable in low-scoring games.
05:24So, minus 142, 145, wherever you look here, forget about that number.
05:28Let's go under the two-and-a-half team total for Detroit.
05:32Detroit, I think that if Florida has success and they win this hockey game, then they're going to keep the total under.
05:39They're going to play a really good defensive game.
05:41And if you shop around, you can find anywhere between plus 100, minus 105 for that one.
05:46I think defense is the name of the game here for the Florida Panthers today.
05:52Team totals in hockey, team totals in football, team totals in baseball.
05:55That's music to my ears, Andrew McInnis.
05:57Now, not music to the Buffalo Sabres ears.
06:00They haven't won a game yet.
06:01I don't know if this is just a cursed franchise.
06:03They're going to take on Ottawa tonight.
06:04And it looks like a game that's roughly a pick-em across the board with a total between six and five-and-a-half.
06:10Buffalo, the cursed franchise.
06:11Do they win tonight and sort of get the party started this year?
06:16Donnie, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I've got an answer for why they keep throwing out these prices for the Buffalo Sabres.
06:22It's like, I mean, look, I don't know what's going on here.
06:27Who do they think the Buffalo Sabres are?
06:29I mean, against the Boston Bruins, they were only minus 105.
06:33You know, in some of these games, they're close to pick-em.
06:35Now they're saying, Ottawa, hey, you know what?
06:37We think you have a chance against them as well.
06:40Here's the deal here, guys.
06:41I told myself I will not bet another New York Rangers game money line until they win.
06:49And I definitely will not bet another Buffalo Sabres money line until they win.
06:53But I do think we'll see goals tonight out of them.
06:57I'll tell you what, guys.
06:58If you go down the list of this Ottawa Senators team so far and you look at Linus Olmark and his results so far in net, they've been giving up goals.
07:07So I think Buffalo is going to sacrifice some defense for offense.
07:11They've got to generate some offense here.
07:13And I think Ottawa is going to rally around their injury right now with Kachuk.
07:17Batherson's back.
07:18Give me the over one in this one here, over six.
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