00:00Well, the series isn't over, and I'm in no mood to, you know, hammer them.
00:07I just, like, I thought middle of the series, you know, after game three,
00:13that's when we made our list of fun words, and I don't know that they have this.
00:18But they won four, and last night, for a lot of it, was right there.
00:24But, yeah, I mean, walking out, I fell into a couple of different conversations, you know,
00:31quick reaction to the game, you know, a couple of listeners who asked me,
00:35and I'm like, they just needed more saves, I think.
00:38And, you know, their goals, they were fortunate.
00:40There was a lot of pressure, but they're not scoring these,
00:44and this is where it gets to Tuck and Thompson, and I might put them in that order.
00:48Like, they're not scoring these open net from the slot, bing-bang kind of goals that Montreal is.
00:55I mean, what is the tally now even for the series?
00:58Like, 21-13 in goals, I think it might be.
01:01Like, their goals are coming from just consistent pressure and screens,
01:05and, you know, that's the way they do it.
01:07Almost a lot of their goals in the series have been on screens, and that's fine.
01:12But it's different from what Montreal is winning with,
01:15and that's, you know, often now their top guys are getting off.
01:19Their top guys are going.
01:20They were definitely going last night and welcomed Demidoff to the party
01:23because he makes the play on the fourth goal.
01:26Like, it's gross that it goes through him, but that play he makes to stop
01:30like he does on that rush and shoot it, like, as quickly as he did,
01:35is elite talent and then, you know, pick the corner on the sixth goal
01:40because he hadn't scored all playoffs, that guy, yet.
01:43And that's a prodigious talent.
01:45And, like, they got him going, and, yeah, the top line is now going,
01:50and our top guys are just ghosts.
01:53They are, yeah.
01:55And hockey and the conversation that has proceeded today even sort of cautions you.
02:02I mean, you can ignore it, but I feel like being careful about how hard I want to be
02:08on those guys because I don't know what kind of shape they're in right now.
02:11Well, that's the thing.
02:14I think maybe more of Thompson than Tuck for this.
02:17But, I mean, the crowd, being in the arena last night, you would know from Game 2.
02:22Game 2 was his disaster game.
02:24The crowd is very restless now on Thompson.
02:27Like, the spotlight is squarely on him, and it's not happening.
02:31Either end of the ice.
02:32Like, every facet of his game is suffering, and everybody notices it.
02:37And it's almost hard to believe that he isn't hurt.
02:42Really?
02:43Like, he's not dealing with some sort of pretty bad injury that would cost him games in the regular season.
02:51It's almost hard for me to believe.
02:52I don't want to go all the way to assume that, but we'll find out whenever it ends.
02:57It's just so off.
03:00And the thing about it is hockey gets stuck here.
03:05You know, what does he say to Paul?
03:07It's none of your business.
03:07He's wrong, actually.
03:10He's wrong.
03:10It is the public's business.
03:12But hockey is not going to tell you.
03:16And the team doesn't want you to know, because then the other team will know.
03:20The player doesn't want you to know.
03:22The player, what is in his head right now, Thompson?
03:25Like, if only these people who are so agitated with me knew.
03:29I mean, this could be wrong.
03:30But it's hard for me to believe he isn't dealing with something significant.
03:34Because it's just so off.
03:37So, he won't tell you.
03:40They won't tell you.
03:41Do they not have an obligation?
03:43I mean, is it just all out the window in the playoffs with injuries?
03:45I mean, the Flyers get done, and there's their list.
03:48And the Bruins get done, and there's their list.
03:50And if the Sabres lose, here comes their list.
03:52And what happened to sort of their being an obligation?
03:56Hockey just decides not to care and not enforce it.
04:00So, we're all left to wonder.
04:01And maybe Tuck is the same.
04:03I don't know.
04:06You almost have to hope so.
04:09I mean, but that cuts both ways.
04:12Like, you want, I think, for your own peace of mind with them moving forward.
04:19You know, Tuck, they don't have to move forward with Tuck.
04:22I mean, that decision could be made for them if they let it.
04:25Because his contract is up.
04:27But you want to be able to explain away their failures by saying they're not, it's not that they're just
04:36not up to the moment.
04:37Or that Montreal is so, has some otherworldly plan for dealing with players who have produced consistently all year long
04:47and even year over year.
04:49That they're not just failing to come through.
04:51There's got to be something else that is ailing them that's causing this.
04:57So, like, and that can be a faulty premise at inception.
05:00And you have to know that.
05:01But, right, but I think if you really, I have an easier time with Thompson than I do.
05:06Tuck, I just, I just never noticed Tuck.
05:11I just, I'm never seeing him in plays.
05:15I saw him in the play last night on the third Montreal goal because he's the one chasing Hudson down
05:21toward the net front.
05:23And then the pass comes across.
05:24And, of course, Timmons is out of position again.
05:27And, I don't know, somehow I got friends texting me, somehow Timmons is a minus seven and they only gave
05:31up six goals.
05:32I don't know what happened.
05:33Does Hudson not walk around Tuck?
05:35I think so.
05:36From the point after they draw?
05:37Yeah, yes.
05:37And he sort of flails at him.
05:39So, but, like, Thompson is more prominent.
05:43And I was talking to Owen before I came to work today.
05:47And, like, I'm surprised nobody has really gone and tried to do a deep dive, like, looking at all the
05:53footage that there is to try to figure out when something could have happened to either one of these guys.
05:59And, like, a part of that would be, I feel like Thompson is still getting teed up for one-timers
06:05and you're seeing him shoot that shot.
06:08But, he couldn't lift the puck over the goalie last night when he had him sprawled.
06:13He makes that move and is going to wait him out.
06:16And that play, I think, you're hoping to flip it over the goalie.
06:20You've waited him out long enough.
06:22You're still in position.
06:23You've got an angle.
06:24And he's going to be sprawling.
06:25You've got to flip it up.
06:26And he couldn't.
06:27It wasn't close.
06:28Right.
06:28Like, he almost didn't even eat his glove.
06:30Right.
06:30It was just along the ice.
06:32Yeah.
06:32And I'm thinking, okay, how many wrist shots have I seen him take?
06:37Right.
06:38Is he taking wrist?
06:39Maybe he's got something, whatever is bothering him on his hand, his thumb, his wrist, his forearm, his elbow, whatever,
06:45allows him to use the hammer, the slap shot.
06:50But the wrist shot maybe, and that would be stick handling and everything that you've seen him sort of get
06:55tangled up with, it would sort of explain all that away.
06:58And I don't know that I'm right, because I haven't gone through either and looked at whether he's taken any
07:04wrist shots versus slap shots.
07:06But I just wonder if there's some limitation there, or if he just couldn't get the puck up in that
07:12moment when he had the goalie down.
07:14Well, it's just almost, like, last night it felt like it's almost every shift.
07:18Yeah.
07:18There's some play that you can't believe.
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