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00:00stanley cup playoffs start tomorrow as well regular season is done to the ice we go some
00:06ice advice or stanley cup playoff puck talk with chris meany of the nhl joining us here
00:13on this friday morning on the early line chris as always we appreciate the time thanks for being
00:18here on this friday to set the stage for the stanley cup postseason one of the best playoffs
00:23we see in any sport anywhere each and every year yeah absolutely thanks for having me guys happy
00:29friday i love joining you guys and yeah i mean you guys are talking nba a little bit earlier on we
00:35have uh the puck dropping tomorrow on the stanley cup playoffs it's uh it's a great time to be a
00:39sports fan love being here guys thanks it certainly is chris it really is let's start in the western
00:44conference look at the four playoff series that we have of course the winnipeg jets best record most
00:50points this year in the national hockey league they are the top seed in the western conference they
00:54won the president's trophy we'll talk about the curse in just a moment but a hefty favorite against
01:00the st louis blues vegas golden knights a favorite against the minnesota wild the colorado avalanche
01:06and a really great opening round set against the dallas stars and can connor mcdavid and leon dry
01:11sidle and the edmonton oilers finally get over the mountaintop they have a really good opening round set
01:18against the la kings chris as you look at our four opening round playoff series that we have out west
01:23to you what is the most competitive series that we are going to see oh my goodness i think i have
01:30to go with colorado and dallas i think the last time i joined you guys it was really just all over
01:35both of those teams i really liked what the abs did at the deadline of course they've made a lot
01:39of trades it's it's pretty rare to see a team you know trade for a new goalie in fact two goalies
01:44they traded for this year they traded a superstar miko rant in a way they get martin natchez back to get
01:49some depth down the middle and brock nelson as well as charlie coyle who's played in the
01:53playoffs every year of his career so i think that they're set up to have a lot of success and i
01:57as much as i like this dallas stars squad unfortunately jason robertson suffered an
02:02injury in the last game of the season for the stars his status is unknown and looking more at their
02:07numbers like this is a team offensively that can bring it with anybody they got great goaltending
02:12but their five and five play over the last two months since the four nations face off has not been
02:16great in fact they've allowed the most shots on goal they have the highest expected goals against
02:21straight up five and five per 60 and the abs don't give up a whole lot and they're second over that
02:26span in shots on goal but i do believe that's going to be a series that goes seven the stars have been
02:31knocking on the door over the past couple years in the western conference finals in each of the last
02:34two years i think that is the most competitive of the four but my goodness those four series that
02:39you brought up even the blues as a wildcard team you mentioned president's trophy and that's a team
02:45that i think could upset st louis could go on a run they only have four regulation losses since
02:51february 22nd that's the best mark in the league i think the best thing we can do look at as well chris
02:56is the word that you use competitive here because sometimes you look at so many other sports and it's
03:00a deviation of who's the favorite and who might be able to win a championship if we just look at the
03:05western conference finals there's four teams here at the fan blue sports book to one price which you
03:10might translate and say well yeah there's probably a minus 140 favorite a plus 320 favorite look at this
03:14the avalanche plus 350 the golden knights plus 430 the oilers plus 460 and the jets at a plus 470
03:20price talk to me about those top four teams and how lumped together they are and truly shows how
03:26competitive that western conference playoff is going to be yeah absolutely if i were to give you
03:30the top 10 teams in the league i think i'd have seven from the western conference and you can make a
03:35case for any of these teams i just mentioned the blues like even when they won the stanley cup they
03:39were the worst team in the league when the calendar flipped to whatever year that was 2018-2019
03:44they went on a run and won the stanley cup and i wouldn't be shocked um but you know i would say
03:51after colorado the vegas golden knights have a pretty decent path i like the minnesota wild they have
03:56struggled over the past couple months they've gotten a little bit healthier lately with kaprizov and yul
04:00erickson back in the lineup but vegas is just a couple years removed from winning the stanley cup
04:04and you know i like their path after the minnesota wild you know la and edmonton it's i think that's a little
04:12bit of an easier matchup having to avoid colorado and dallas but uh i think the team here with the
04:18the best value maybe the kings guys at plus 750 and i know this is round four in a row against the
04:24edmonton oilers and you know connor mcdavid and leon dry settle those are two guys that it's really
04:29hard to pick against but there's two reasons in particular why i like this la team one they're
04:34finally going to have home ice advantage they haven't in the past against the oilers they're the
04:38best home team in the league and number two is the goaltending you look at darcy kemper he leads
04:43the nhl in high danger save percentage using our edge stats over to nhl.com fantasy and you look at
04:48kemper since january 1st he's tied for number one in wins he's number one in save percentage he's
04:54number one in goals against average he's tied for first in shutouts he's allowed two or fewer goals
04:59guys in 25 of his past 33 games and two or fewer in 16 of his last 17 so he's red hot at the moment
05:05and i look at the oilers goaltending not so much we may see stewart skinner and calvin pickard
05:11mentioned the high danger save percentage those two goalies well below the league average and i don't
05:15think the oilers are fully healthy at the moment no at home for the rest of the way so the kings are at
05:20home and they're dogs and i think that they can go on a bit of a run chris only two teams around the
05:25national hockey league in the regular season allowed as a team fewer than 210 total goals as you
05:32mentioned the la kings and of course the favorite to win the heart trophy connor hellebuck and the
05:37winnipeg jets the jets 116 points in the regular season most around the national hockey league with
05:44the best record they won the president's trophy but is the curse going to be a thing once again our
05:50last president's trophy winner to hoist lord stanley's cup the chicago blackhawks in the 2012 2013
05:57nhl season chris that means the last 11 who won the president's trophy did not win the cup in fact
06:04only two of our last 11 have even made the conference finals most recently last year out east
06:10the new york rangers you see the jets there with the fourth best price to win the western conference
06:16crown chris do you believe the president's trophy curse will continue here in 2025
06:22it's hard to argue ben would you lay that out like that um but you know i as much as this i do like
06:30this jets team a lot i mean connor hellebuck i think should be the mvp you you talked about some
06:34of the numbers there they're pretty deep when you look at them on paper and some other teams in the
06:39western conference you're like ah i'm not gonna pick winnipeg but the thing for me with the jets is
06:44they didn't really do anything at the deadline they kind of stood put last year they were aggressive at
06:48the deadline it didn't work out for them and unfortunately nikolai ehlers is one of their
06:52better players he's considered week to week they should get gabriel velardi back in this series
06:56uh i don't think that they're gonna go on a run in fact i i think we're looking for an upset here
07:01we can take the st louis blues binnington against hellebuck we've seen binnington have success in the
07:06big stage we saw it in the four nations face off when those two went head to head as well
07:10i i like the blues and even if they get by the blues they got colorado and dallas guys that's a tough
07:15eastern conference with chris up next western conference playoffs in our previous segment with
07:21the nhl's chris meaning now we look at the eastern conference side of things as we get underway chris
07:28i asked you which uh series of our four in the western conference you considered to be the most
07:33competitive you highlighted basically all of them kings oilers stars in that matchup as well
07:40against the colorado avalanche even the st louis blues giving the jets a difficult time
07:45if the blues could be your big underdog in the western conference as we look at our four out east
07:50which underdog do you believe is the most likely to strike that opening round upset yeah look at those
07:57two canadian teams up at the top i mean montreal against the capitals and the ottawa senators against
08:01the toronto maple leafs the battle of ontario there i think the most competitive on the board there
08:06certainly is uh florida and tampa bay and much like i talked about colorado and dallas i feel like
08:13whoever gets out of that series will be the team that represents the eastern conference i mean those
08:17two teams are loaded you look at at florida and tampa and and the last five years one of those two
08:23one of those two teams have been in the stanley cup finals we had tampa three years in a row florida
08:26looking to get back uh for their third straight season but in terms of upset guys i mean the canadians
08:32like the capitals right i talked about st louis only five uh four regulation losses since the four
08:37nations faced off the canadians only five so they've been competitive they've hung in a lot of games
08:41they've been playing playoff hockey for quite some time i do think at the end of the day
08:45the capitals will win that series but i think the canadians will hang around if you wanted to do
08:49some series spread uh i could see that series going seven games uh given the situation in washington
08:56logan thompson's health is is questionable right now we don't know if he's going to be ready to go
09:01montembo's been playing really good hockey the canadians play uh with a lot of pace and speed using
09:05our edge stats are number three in terms of one of the quickest teams in the nhl but the ottawa senators
09:10have been they're they're an underrated squad and the maple leafs core although i think this is the
09:17best leafs team we've seen in a few years they haven't shown us that they can go on a run and
09:23and ottawa and brady could chuck the first time in the playoffs they have a horse in the blue line
09:27and jake sanderson who's going to play 26 to 28 minutes a night here in the playoffs they have a
09:31goalie in all mark uh who won the vesna a couple years ago he's a solid uh goaltender so i think that
09:37ottawa they bring a a nice bland of of skill and and toughness and and trotto will be tested uh so i
09:46think that the the sends are an interesting upset pick and the the one series i think that won't be
09:53that competitive is you know the biggest favorite on the board there's the carolina hurricanes against
09:58the devils uh unfortunately jack hughes uh not there uh some questions offensively defensively
10:04looks like dougie hamilton will be back but uh i think carolina you know you want to take them in
10:09vegas maybe uh you know as a series parlay you can get plus 115 chris i want to focus on the
10:17toronto maple leafs for a couple different discussion points here if we equate it to the nba the number
10:21two overall seed in the nba western conference is the houston rockets and we're selling ourselves
10:26you know what price points here they shouldn't be the number two seed they're not deserving of that
10:30the reason i bring it up here is the number two overall points team in the eastern conference
10:34was the toronto maple leafs we head over to the fan blue sports book hurricanes panthers lightning and
10:40capitals all above the maple leafs so let me ask you this question does a lot of this have to do with
10:45the maple leafs and their trials and tribulations in the playoffs or just the way the playoffs set this
10:49year we're not trusting the toronto maple leafs to do a lot of damage yeah it's a good question
10:54because the path is tough right i mean it just talked about ottawa hanging around with them and you know
11:00they get by the ottawa senators they're gonna have to play the winner of the tampa bay lighting in the
11:04florida series right and as i alluded to earlier those two teams are just battle tested honestly
11:10like what can you say about either one of them right tampa's looking like vintage tampa when they
11:14went to the finals three years in a row and florida's healthy sounds like matthew kachuk is going to be
11:18ready to go they picked up brad marchand who has a ton of experience so their top six is fantastic they
11:24have arguably one of the better uh bottom six in the nhl as well so i think that's part of it
11:29and honestly like again this maple leafs team they just haven't shown us they haven't proven to us
11:35that they could go on a long run they have the same core they've made some changes another coach
11:41different goaltending i do like the move stollers has been fantastic down the stretch christian of
11:45is a shutdown defenseman so they do have the pieces set up guys to have success but uh i'm not
11:51going to give them benefit of the doubt if if they if they do get by ottawa sure um that is going to be
11:56great for the franchise but having to face tampa bay or florida it's going to be a tough test for
12:01them ninth consecutive playoff trip for the leafs they have only made it to the second round once in
12:08the previous eight years 30 seconds chris meani on the eve of the stanley cup playoff starting give
12:14us your stanley cup finals prediction please yeah i have a final four of colorado and vegas in the west
12:21of washington and florida in the east i think the avalanche are going to win the stanley cup
12:25and i think they're going to beat the florida panthers i like nathan mckinnon this time to get
12:29the con smith last time the avs won it was kale mccarr i think you'll see a big playoff run
12:34nate chris beanie always delivering power number three up next
12:40you