So we have a little bit of breaking news to get to in the hockey world.

That's really for my friend Rob Brown here, who covers this team in his neck of the woods.

Nikolai Ehlers, six-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.

He was the really last remaining top free agent on the board.

Again, I'm not a hockey expert.

I don't really know much about his game. I know hit that when you

pull up the free agent rankings, he was the number one guy in the list. And now he has made a home

in Carolina. And our reaction off the air before we came back here was, yeah, the Panthers are,

excuse me, the hurricanes are doing their darndest to try to load up the farm to beat the Panthers because we all saw how that series went this year. It was very one-sided. And Rob, I don't know if Carolina can beat Florida in a seven-game series, but I think they got a lot better today. That's for sure. I think they got a lot better. Honestly, I think they've gotten a lot better during this run-up. They've made a couple

of moves. They added, and I'm blanking all the kids' name of the kid from the Rangers that came

down a couple of days ago, kind of a big loser. Like I think that Carolina is taking, yes, I think

that Carolina is taking the approach of if you can't beat them, join them when it comes to the Florida Panthers, right? Like we, we know what Florida's style of hockey is. It's bully ball hockey. It's one of those styles of hockey that if they win the Stanley Cup, we celebrate it. And if they lose the Stanley Cup, we call a bunch of A-holes for playing the way that they play. But they've won the Stanley Cup now back-to-back years. and realistically speaking, they're going to be the odds-on favorite to win in a third time. And I think Carolina knows that because they have now matched up with that team and been the last team that they beat twice in a row on their way to the Stanley Cup. So I think Carolina has kind of looked at this and said, all right, let's play their game.

Let's go get a couple of bruisers. Let's go get a couple of goons. Let's send them out there. We're going to attack Matthew Kachuk. We're going to attack 37-year-old Brad Marchion. We're going to go get these guys. We're going to hit them like they hit us and see if we can throw them off the game. The problem is people who are used to being successful because they're in fights, they know how to fight. You're like if a dude's running around hitting people at a bar, the best way to get them out of the bar is not to try to go fist to fist with them because that's what that guy does. And it feels like Carolina's leaning into that. Listen, I like this team. I'm pulling for this team. But at the end of the day, as I said the day after the cup, you're not going to out Florida man, a Florida man. Florida man is a myth and a legend for a reason. And if you try to out Florida man, a dude wearing jorts and a wife beater and ugs in a bar, you're not going to out Florida man, that guy.

So I am interested because I think Paul Maurice and Rob Brindamore are two equally

exceptional head coaches.

I just think Florida figured out their style of hockey, their culture.

They got a bunch of dudes that fit that culture.

They home grew a lot of them. They went out and got a lot more like Brad, the rat, put them all together, and it worked. And I feel like Carolina is trying to replicate that. And unless you get a bunch of dudes who know and love that style of hockey and are willing to get hit in the face to play it, you're not going

to out Florida, Florida.

So I don't dislike the move.

I still really would like to see one more guy out front.

Like, I don't know, Marty Natchez, that have been great, right?

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