00:00Speaking of numbers, the number is 13.3.
00:0513.3.
00:06Care to guess what that number is, Brian Mitchell?
00:09Mm-mm.
00:10The odds for the Capitals to make the playoffs, according to MoneyPuck.com.
00:15Now, that is up sharply from the 6%-ish that we had last week.
00:22Are they suspecting people are going to rest some guys?
00:25They need the Flyers to lose, too, and the Caps need to beat Columbus.
00:30Now, Columbus is still in the race as well, so they will be playing with motivation on Tuesday night.
00:36Columbus has a 6% chance.
00:40Are the Flyers already in?
00:43No, they're not, but the Flyers are listed at 80% chance.
00:47It's hockey.
00:48Anything can happen.
00:50So, here's another question.
00:52How can the Flyers not be in the playoffs?
00:56They have not gotten enough points.
00:58I'm saying, if they lose...
01:00Oh, if they lose, too, and the Caps win, they're out.
01:03The Flyers will be out.
01:04Yeah.
01:04Okay, but if the...
01:06How is it that everyone kept saying that they would probably play the Flyers in the first round?
01:12I haven't gone that far yet.
01:13I'm just worried about getting in right now.
01:15Yeah.
01:16But they play, the Flyers do...
01:19That's what I was thinking about.
01:20I had two different Pennsylvania teams popping in my head.
01:24Oh, you're thinking about Pittsburgh?
01:26Yeah.
01:26Okay.
01:27The Flyers play at home these final two games.
01:30Tonight against Carolina.
01:31And then Tuesday against Montreal.
01:35And in case you're wondering who's any good,
01:41Carolina's really good, but they probably aren't playing with motivation.
01:45And then Montreal is good as well.
01:51So they're both good teams, but I don't know how much motivation they're going to play with.
01:55It is hockey.
01:56Anything could happen.
01:58Oh, we've seen it.
01:58But the chances of both two losses by the Flyers at home when they know they've got to win one
02:04and the Caps winning on the road at Columbus, who's still in the fight, it's not good.
02:09That's why the number's 13%.
02:10But there's a chance.
02:12Yeah, the Flyers can't get more than one point.
02:14Yes.
02:15Yeah.
02:15So at this point, we want to be in, right?
02:18We will take the playoffs.
02:19Hell yeah.
02:19Right?
02:20Yeah.
02:20Always.
02:21Even when you know it's going to be basically Mission Impossible.
02:24Hey, but like you just stated, it's hockey.
02:26Anything can happen.
02:27Okay, do you think totality of what we saw and the way things played out
02:32and what was said afterwards and what was done, do we think this was it for Ovi?
02:39I'm going to say no.
02:41I just, I saw stuff, I told you pre, like the night before, I'm thinking,
02:47okay, they got an event going on.
02:48They got something going on.
02:50Then you get to the game and there's nothing pointing to or showing that.
02:54I was going to say, what was their pomp and circumstance-wise at the game?
02:59When I got to the game, they gave a little poster that was folded up.
03:03I don't think we much, I don't think we ever.
03:06What did it say?
03:06We never opened the poster because we were like, I was like,
03:11wait till you get home and open it because it may have a message.
03:14And I never, I never saw, and every time I saw somebody else,
03:17it was still rolled up.
03:18I guess people like didn't want to know, in a sense, if something was going to happen.
03:23Don't tell me.
03:24No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
03:25But like as that game went on and then hearing Mark and say,
03:29I think he'll be back for another year, you know, friends talk to each other a lot.
03:37And sometimes you just, when you, somebody asks you a question, you talk freely.
03:41Maybe he was told he's coming back.
03:42That's why he said it.
03:45That's what I believe.
03:46Interesting.
03:46Because like, if you were to ask one of my friends certain things about me,
03:49if I hadn't told you, I probably told one of my friends what I was feeling or thinking.
03:55And if you ask my friend Gil, he probably would, or JP, they'll probably tell you everything I told them
04:01because they don't know if I'm supposed to be on air or not.
04:03They just, they repeat everything.
04:05Yeah.
04:05No, I always tell people, I'm like, do, if there's something that's serious or you don't want out there,
04:10don't tell me.
04:11Because I will mistakenly, just as a lapse in realizing, because I'm an open book basically,
04:18so I never worry about, like, if I'm telling you something face to face,
04:22I don't really care if it gets out on the air.
04:24It is what it is.
04:25I'm a straightforward person in that regard.
04:27So the Malkin angle is funny because I think the video that he posted,
04:35Evgeny Malkin, have posted to his social media from Saturday night
04:41might be the greatest video I've ever seen on the internet.
04:45Him and the Proto's brothers?
04:46It was him and Ovi and their kids in their huge-ass, beautiful mansion.
04:56Just a mess of kids.
04:58Four or five little kids with Ovi and Evgeny Malkin,
05:03two of the all-time greats in hockey history,
05:07playing full-bore hockey with full sticks on their hardwood floors,
05:16rattling around, passing the puck around, clacking into each other,
05:22the kind of thing that would have had most dads saying,
05:26don't do that in the house, you're going to scuff up the floors,
05:30you're going to ding the sidewalls,
05:32you're going to be paying for that drywall.
05:34Instead, they're like, it's no problem.
05:37Go ahead and play hockey.
05:38We play hockey everywhere.
05:39They actually had what's kind of wild is that this house has a center sort of column
05:46in which you can walk all the way around it.
05:49So the game that they were playing spilled out from the hallway into the kitchen,
05:55into another hallway, and they're like going around the podium and everything.
05:59It was absolute madness.
06:01It was simple family joy, but with two of the all-time greats.
06:06Yeah.
06:07And I loved it.
06:09Totally.
06:09But I think if people were able to get inside,
06:15they would see stuff like that all the time.
06:17I know.
06:17That is what guys are.
06:19You know, I think the reputation that most guys get is not what they really are.
06:25It's sometimes what people assume you are.
06:26Right.
06:28Yeah.
06:28Well, I just think it was a really cool video if you saw it.
06:31Yeah, I like that.
06:32Here's the question on the phones, 800-636-1067.
06:36If you were at the game on Sunday, like Brian Mitchell was,
06:40which was great for him because he had a suite,
06:42he could watch the Masters, keep an eye on the game.
06:46If you were at the game, did you sense anything?
06:48What was there in terms of pomp, circumstance, souvenirs, memorabilias,
06:54video tributes on the Jumbotron?
06:56I know ESPN put out a phenomenal long tribute video to Ovi.
07:03So there was that.
07:04But what did you sense?
07:05Did you sense that it was indeed his last game?
07:09800-636-1067.
07:11His last game, I should say, at home.
07:13Because they got one more Tuesday night against Columbus on the road.
07:17Okay, so we'll get some calls on that,
07:20get some people's thoughts on how it went down Sunday at Capital One.
07:27Okay.
07:28I wonder, though, like the way they played down the stretch.
07:31Why couldn't we get this earlier?
07:33Would have been nice.
07:34Because if we wouldn't be waiting right now,
07:37they would already be in because they've been on fire down the stretch.
07:40Do we know what Ovi wants?
07:44He doesn't like a lot of fanfare from what I'm hearing.
07:47But if he wants a new deal,
07:50is it a two-year deal at age 41?
07:55And are the Capitals ready to go there?
07:58Would they do one more year?
08:00Are they basically ready to move on no matter what?
08:04Like, I would love to know
08:06what the organization is really thinking deep down.
08:11You don't want to chase a guy off.
08:13You'd prefer him to be an Otoff, as I call him,
08:16a one-team Hall of Famer.
08:19But if it's a two-year deal,
08:22and you're like, we're committed for two more years,
08:24and just to see the kind of decline accelerate over the next two years,
08:29as he is a more and more one-dimensional player,
08:32I'm not sure they'd be, you know, in favor of him.
08:35He played every game this year, though.
08:36I know.
08:37Didn't miss a game.
08:38I know, but the playoffs are different.
08:39The playoffs are different.
08:40He's got to be a two-way player in the playoffs for the most part.
08:42And he's becoming less and less of that all the time.
08:46Yeah.
08:46I think, listen, man, for everybody's benefit,
08:54one year is probably it.
08:56Yeah.
08:57Put one more year in.
08:58But what I will say is this.
09:00But if they don't give him one more year,
09:02then you miss the chance to send him off with a hero's send-off.
09:05But see, that's the thing about listening to Ovi
09:07and listening to people that have worked there and around him,
09:10he doesn't want that.
09:12I know.
09:12So if he comes back and plays one more year, guess what?
09:16Everyone was, like, upset because they don't know if he's going to retire or not.
09:20If he comes back one more year, revel in that.
09:23But the man doesn't want an event every damn game.
09:26I know.
09:27I know.
09:28So you just got to enjoy him for that year.
09:31If he does sign a one-year deal and stays and comes back,
09:36then next year every city he goes to for the last time,
09:40they're going to do something.
09:41They're going to do something whether he wants it or not.
09:44And I bet you that's factoring into his calculus of,
09:49I don't want this send-off tour.
09:51I don't want the rocking chairs and the motorcycles.
09:54Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, when he retired,
09:56had, like, the most over-the-top retirement tour around the league.
10:01You can do something without being obnoxious.
10:04Over-the-top?
10:04I know.
10:05You can have a, at the end of the game,
10:07but if he's playing a team multiple times,
10:10the last time he plays you, do something.
10:13Of course.
10:14Yeah.
10:14Okay?
10:14Yeah.
10:15So you find out what team you set up something,
10:18you have a tribute, a video.
10:20That's it.
10:21You don't need to do anything else.
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