Ryan McClellan was made available to us in the D.C. and hockey media, responding to the

NHL's return to play playoff format, which is all we really know. We don't know how they're

going to get it done. We just know they want to get it done. And as we mentioned the other

day in our emergency podcast, who knows what this is going to look like.

But Mac agrees with, I think, all of us when he said this.

Realistically, I think the championships up for grabs, the format is the way it is right now.

You know, a lot of teams could, you know, upset other teams and anything

could happen, basically. And I think it would be, it would be entertaining, it would be compelling,

and it'd be fun to watch. I mean, if you wanted the teams that gets upset, you know, it might not be

as fun, but it could be wildly entertaining.

J.J. Regan, we talked about it the other day. It's going to be 24 teams shot out of a cannon. And I found it interesting that Mack is kind of here for it. He kind of likes that.

Yeah, he does. And this is an interesting perspective because he's a guy who won the Stanley Cup as a player.

So any talk about whether or not, oh, this one doesn't count or you don't have to go through the hard.

It's not as hard. Mac wasn't having any of that stuff. So he's here for it. He says it's up for grabs.

And that's as much as a general manager could hope for, especially one whose team looked like they were in the backslide before this pause. Ben Rabi from Caps Radio

joins us as well and yeah, there's going to be no asterisk. It's going to be just as rewarding,

he said, to raise the Stanley Cup. But even for a GM of a team that is a true Stanley Cup contender and has been for more than a

decade now, I think he's intrigued by this best case scenario of this worst case scenario.

It's interesting. This is an interesting test, I'll say as well, fellas, for all 24 general managers, because for the

most part, there's the odd exception, but for the most part, should they get going this summer,

every team, every lineup will be at full strength. This is the way you built your team in hopes

of making a potentially deep postseason run. No teams dealing with the injury bug. So as far as I'm concerned, as far as the GMs should be concerned, this is an even playing field. This is the way they dreamt it. This is the way they thought it up as far as who's in the lineup, who's dressing every night, at least to start out. So certainly an even playing field and you can make the case, fellas,

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