The Lowdown with Lowetide - April 17th, 2026 - Hour 1

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Welcome to the lowdown.

Today's show Euler's flattened Vancouver play the ducks in around one,

and the hockey gods are smiling on Fort Edmonton today.

Now above those injuries, and by the way,

Calvin Pickard has been recalled already from Biggest Field Condor.

Probably insurance, but one never knows.

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It's a busy day, as you know, we're on a YouTube.

It also sports 1440 AM radio online at iHeartRadio,

radio player Canada, and sports1440.ca.

And after the show, we're on Apple and Spotify podcast.

So you can tune around, walk in the sunshine with the dog later on today,

and listen to the high jinks of this particular radio program.

And we're delighted that you do.

You can text us at 833-401-1440.

That's 833-401-1440.

We'll be talking today to Steve Lansky,

from inside the truck podcast.

We're going to talk about the Edmonton orders.

The fact that they got a little bit fortunate to play the Anaheim Duckson round number one.

And some of the other teams did not.

Hello Minnesota Wild, hello Dallas stars.

And we're also going to talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs,

because we haven't really, and what a season, what a mess,

and what an off season to come.

So we'll talk about that.

Declanations coming up at 1240 today.

This is the original edition of Declanations.

And we always run it an hour early in respect for the brilliant idea that Declan Kruger had.

All right, we're going to talk Otis Connects.

We're going to talk Otis Ducks.

We're going to talk about Doc Pickard, Leon Return,

McDavid Art Ross,

Maple Leafs, and so much more NNBA, don't worry.

It's time now for the introductions.

His Calgary Flames,

end of the season with a win versus LA last night.

The City of Edmonton, and all who live in it,

should thank him by making this Josh Fenwick Day.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Josh Fenwick, everybody.

Josh Fenwick.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Because again, as a guy that works in the City of Edmonton,

covering the Edmonton Oilers, primarily,

I did not want to watch another King's Oilers.

No, nobody did.

Series. And then on the flip side, it's like,

yeah, I believe now they have the fourth best odds to get the number one overall pick.

So they sort of tank their tank, their tank, essentially.

But this is where the flames have been all season.

And I think that was a nice way to go out.

They had an injured goalie.

They started Lars, who drives a pickup, and they won.

First guy to inflame his history to go from ECHL to AHL to NHL,

and win all three starts.

Nice.

All right.

They've used in,

you know,

everything knows.

Go into history.

They really do.

They know what's up.

Yeah, I know it's up.

All right.

He's feeling like today is magic.

As he gets ready to watch Hornets buzz and the Warriors warrior

in the warmth of the Suns.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Declan Kruger.

Declan Kruger, everybody.

Yeah.

All right.

Let's have a Friday.

Are you looking forward to the NBA action?

Yeah, of course.

Of course, of course.

How about the 76ers?

Hey, listen, I'll tell you, man, what an absolute,

like the 76ers.

I think they're going to get like really close.

Curlstowns, I know.

Yeah, by Boston.

But what a perfect matchup for them with that Orlando team

and Palabon Carraft.

Since he signed that $240 million contract,

has not done a thing.

I will say this.

Anybody out there,

if you sign me to a $240 million contract,

I will work my ass off.

And that's a promise.

Anybody out there?

All right.

One of those connects last night.

A few things I want to talk about.

Colton Doc, I know they got him in a trade

and we didn't really know him

that well, but he's really having an impact.

I loved the line last night.

I love Samansky.

Obviously, I'm a big Fredrick fan.

But Colton Doc is a different kind of a guy.

And I think that, you know,

I hope he stays healthy through the playoffs.

He's already one of the fan favorites

and he will be absolutely a fan favorite

by the end of the year.

If he plays in the postseason,

like he has in the regular year, it's fantastic.

But David had a chance at 50 goals.

And of course, he passes the puck everywhere.

Did you see the no look pass to Matt Savoy?

Oh my God, he is so talented.

And Savoy catches, by the way, in the summertime,

every August, I do a reasonable expectations,

a point estimate for each player

among the Edmonton Oilers.

And it's August.

So who the hell knows who's is even going to play,

but I do it.

And it's a fun exercise.

I projected 37 points for Matt Savoy

and Dan, if he didn't nail that right on the hammer,

right on the hammerhead.

So I'm quite pleased with that.

I wanted to brag a little bit.

I rarely do, but today I felt like I would.

I told you about the Pickard recall.

Who knows?

We'll find out as days go by.

I have a feeling Leon is closer to being ready

after what we saw yesterday.

At practice, looks like he's moving well.

The question I have, when I look at this team,

I really like the Samansky doc and Frederick line.

And I think,

Mick David should stay with Savoy and Zach Hyman.

And that gives Leon all kinds of opportunity

to play with, you know, Newge or Pod Colson.

He often plays extremely well.

And Caspery Captain,

he ups his game when he plays with Leon.

So there's another option there.

The others could have four lines that are going.

I thought I was interesting.

The third pairing last night played quite a bit.

Looked good.

I think they're ready.

I think this team is ready.

I don't know that the coach is going to be as creative as you'll

want him to be in terms of the lines.

But the pairings are set.

And as long as Connor Ingram can, I think,

play five out of six games.

Is that fair?

You know, you got to give him a rest at some point in time,

because it's a long playoff season.

But looking forward to this team and playing well.

Just one more thing really quickly before I ask my learned friends.

Their opinion on last night and then we'll get to the ducks.

Mick David, when in the art, Ross, congratulations to him.

I don't know that he'll win the heart.

But I have a feeling we're going to find out some opinions here today

on declinations.

Declan, what's coming up at 1240 on declinations?

Yeah, so really, really excited for this one.

We're Josh and I are going to be doing our top five heart ballots.

Now, ideally, we'll also be doing our top five NBA MVP ballots.

I don't know if we're going to have time for it to be honest,

because there's a lot to get into with the hard stuff.

But yeah, I spent a long time last night looking into a lot of numbers,

like good hour plus, around an hour.

So yeah, really, really excited for declinations today.

What are your thoughts on last night's game in terms of,

I mean, I look, I think everybody felt like the others would,

would, you know, dogwalk the connox and they kind of did.

But did you see anything that was worth mentioning from that game?

I mean, it's one of those games.

Like, first of all, Shadow Matsavoy had trick in the opening.

Like, what are we talking about here?

What a performance, my goodness.

It is, listen, let's just call it what it is.

There's an element of it being that Vancouver connox roster

in the last game of the season.

You know what I mean?

Like, let's just be real.

It was kind of the Abbotsford connox a little bit out there.

Still an unreal performance.

It's great to get the wins.

You don't have to play LA again.

Now, obviously, other jobs were done in the Anaheim Nashville game.

But yeah, no, listen, good win.

Great win.

Stack the score sheet.

Get a hat.

He gets some assists.

Lock up that art Ross.

It was a fun one.

What about you, Josh?

Any thoughts on the game?

I know you're probably watching the flames

and there are no name gold tender.

No, I saw, I saw quite a bit of the,

the Oilers first period.

And second, as well, before I sort of went,

this is over and then

went on my merry way with the rest of what I was doing.

Yeah.

As much as a hat trick is really cool from Matt's a voice.

And I've been very high on

since the Olympic break as I think many people

in the city of Edmonton have

shed out to Connor McDavid

for basically giving him the three easiest looks

that Matt's a voice ever seen in the professional hockey league.

Like possibly any league.

That's always rippin' it up in junior year.

Yeah.

So that that was an incredible performance

by David as well.

So all in all, that's what you wanted to see

from the Edmonton Oilers going into.

The playoffs was one where they said,

all right, let's turn it on here.

Like let's, let's amp up the intensity.

Let's, let's do what we got to do.

Of course, it was against the conucks

who are leaps and bounds, the worst team in the NHL.

And it's not particularly close.

A win is a win.

When we look forward now to Anaheim,

I know that the first reaction for a lot of folks

is wow, they don't have to play, you know,

the Kings, they're filthy.

Well, Anaheim houses Radco-Gudas and Jacob Truba.

So there's going to be, you know,

I don't know if you saw what Radco-Gudas

did to Austin Matthews.

Well, he'll be on the ice.

So this is a team, the Anaheim ducks

who have a daughter town.

They're not, they're not there yet.

I think they're a year away.

A year from now, I think they would be more formidable.

But they're tough.

They have some skill.

Dostal is a goal-tender.

I've been watching since he was in the HL and he can stone you.

He's a goal-tender who could get hot

and make this a seven-game series.

I don't think it'll go that far.

Do we want to do our predictions for the NHL,

each of the series during the show today?

Is that something we want to do maybe around 120?

Yeah, that sounds lovely.

Okay, we'll hold off on giving the prediction.

But there are some really nice players on this team

that we're going to be watching for many, many years.

And I think that your favorite player is Leo Carlson.

Is that correct?

Me?

Yeah.

Who are you talking to?

No, my favorite player is not Leo Carlson.

Okay, I said you asked me that.

Declan's favorite player is Leo Carlson.

I like Leo Carlson's game a lot.

Favorite player is a little bit of a stretch though.

That's what I heard.

No.

This was out on the street.

Let's draw after the road.

So Anaheim Edmonton, that's, you know,

I think that's a break for the others.

Not all series were, were breaks for other teams.

The central we knew was going to be a mess.

And I just want to take a moment here to go over there.

We'll talk about it at 120.

We'll do our predictions at 120.

But when you look at the wild versus stars, game one tomorrow,

that's wildly unfair that they have to play each other

in the first round.

It really, I'm not saying they, you know,

they both deserve to play the Toronto Maple Leafs in round one.

But those are both of those teams have a chance

to make the final if they didn't have, you know,

one of them getting eliminated in the first round.

I just like, I'm, I'm, I find that to be a little bit

unacceptable that those two teams are playing each other.

This is my thing because I know there's a big talk.

There's a lot of talk about going back to 1v8 and stuff like that.

And the majority of the years, it doesn't change anything.

But you have a year like this year,

where it absolutely would affect it.

And this is my thing, low tide.

Like what would have stopped the wild

for the last eight games of the season of just

completely mailing it in and say,

hey, we'd actually rather be wild card two

and play like, right?

Like that's a real kind of argument.

Yeah, and I said, you know what?

There is a world in which that would happen, you know,

in the NBA, it would happen.

That's the world in which it would happen.

It does not happen in hockey, in my opinion.

No, I mean,

but it's on the table with the playoff family.

Oh, yeah, no doubt like it is a thing

that they could have decided to do.

But like, I just don't think that's a thing in hockey.

They used to.

The oilers tried to win as many games as they could

at the end of 2014-15 and they still end up with McDavid.

I think that there's a little superstition in hockey

that if you give up, you're never going to be able to get it back.

So they never really go stone cold like they do in the NBA.

But the NBA is a different animal.

It's a lot about matchups and that sort of thing.

Presby Oilcris says McCurdy says a third-parent

partner should be Emerson Stashtani.

Well, we had Kevin on Wednesday and he was worried about the third pair

and there are some things that are, you know, problematic,

but that you're never going to have everybody running perfectly.

I thought last night I ran the numbers.

Walman Emerson at five on five played 16-0-1,

10-3 shots at 84% expected goals, 8-1 high dangers.

They were a 0-1 goals, but that's, you know, that's the reason

that you pay attention to things like expected goals versus actual goals

is that there can be an outlier GA in this case against Walman Emerson.

But it doesn't necessarily indicate what's going on when they're on the ice.

Now, I know they were playing Vancouver and Vancouver isn't very good.

And Stashtani is available there, but they have played Stashtani not at all in recent days.

So I don't think it would be, I don't think it would be fair to Spencer Stashtani

to play him in game one of the playoffs.

And Walman, you know, he might be hurt, but if he's healthy enough to play last night,

I think that you'd probably run him.

I don't know that there'd be another better choice.

I really do like Damien Carfagna down in the minor leagues,

but he's left handed.

He's the guy I didn't, you know, think enough to call up.

So I don't very much whether he's a part of it.

And, you know, they do have Alec Ragula, but, you know, he's still playing after a season

where he didn't play very much at all.

So I do want to talk about this right now, only for a minute.

And then we're going to do NBA in the second segment in rumors if that's okay, gentlemen.

I want to talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs a little bit.

Word today that they're going to interview Matt Sundine for a position,

which I think is the kind of thing you do when you've done bad, you know, it's like a friend

of mine years ago. He had his mom and dad, great guy, great people.

Dad was a dreamer and mom was the person who sort of made sure the dreamer didn't get too

carried away. One day, dad in the summertime, he comes home with a boat, like a little boat

with a Johnson motor on the back and they couldn't afford it, but he did it because he wanted

to make his kids have kids are thrilled. Mum says send it back, right? There's got to be a hard

ass in the in the group. I think the Toronto Maple Leafs right now are in turmoil and they're trying

to find a good news headline and it's Sundine and that's the way it's going to be. Hey, we got Matt

Sundine. Everybody loves Matt's. Well, Matt Sundine has he been an AGM in the NHL for a long time?

I don't think they I don't think that he has. I think the the Toronto Maple Leafs should do

what they did when they hired Kyle Lewis get a forward thinking general manager in there

like New Jersey did today with Sonny Mata and get a forward thinking guy who understands

analytics but also understands the hockey and how it's played and the ins and outs and how to

handle people and then leave the general manager the hell alone and the Maple Leafs could never do

that. Not ever. Everything becomes a story in Toronto. Mitch Marner was a story and now he's gone and

he's in the playoffs. Maple Leafs are in the playoffs. It was an absolute I'm thinking of a word that

rhymes with the bird and starts with a T season for Toronto. You want to read about what happened

and how it happened. I recommend James Myrtle's piece at the athletic called the Maple Leafs

accidental tanks highlights an organization at odds with itself. The Leafs are a mess. Lots of

organizations are lots of pro sports organizations are because the individual who owns them or the

people that own them can often disagree and with with management and they want to change the course

immediately. I'll give you two examples in Edmonton. In 2012 on the way to the draft,

the owners were the reports on this that and the other and they're going to do this and this and this

not far before the draft. Darryl Cates hired Craig McTavish and Mark Spector wrote I think the

best article he ever wrote about this particular subject years later he got a really good contact

and he wrote the piece and I'm sure he pissed off the others something fierce. But what happened was

the amateur scouts gave the recommendation of the player they wanted and I believe it was Ryan Murray

and Cates, Steve Tambilini and Craig McTavish said thanks very much and they draft it now,

Yakupop. Now I think now Yakupop was the right guy but it shows that interference from ownership

does have an impact and the autos haven't won a thing since then and it happened again this winter

and I'll tell you I'm I'm absolutely certain this is the case even though I have no proof. Paul

Coffee came to Edmonton because Darryl Cates wanted him here because he was tired. I was too tired

of those ridiculous outlet passes and the defense not playing a strong structured defending game.

So again, the Edmonton owners are a team that hires people but doesn't trust them and then the

owner has to step in. What what Toronto Maple Leaf should do and what Darryl Cates should do is hire

people you trust and are qualified and then leave them the hell alone and I I really thought

that Darryl Cates had done that with Ken Holland and I am more and more convinced that he's not doing

it now that Stan Bowman is here and that's a damn shame because you you can't win if you have more than

one person who's the boss. So Darryl Cates is the boss of the entire organization. Nobody's going

to talk about that in any other way but you have to let the hockey people be the hockey people

and you have to let the the business people be the business people and you have to be the owner

and that means you are not going maybe every summer you review or something like that but not

during the year and by the way I agreed with Paul Coffee coming in. I think he's done a wonderful

job. I just think it's a matter of business. It's a bad damn idea and the other thing that Darryl Cates

should do is make sure that his analytics people are being listened to across the board. There are

examples of that good and bad in the organization right now. It's something they have to do moving

forward and if you want the worst case scenario read the Myrtle piece and have a look at what the

Toronto police look like today where I'm not even sure Austin Matthews are going to be back in a

year. All right. Okay. On the way we have declinations. Tell us again at 1240 you and Josh are going to

give your heart ballots and your yeah. So the idea is to give both our heart and NBA MVP ballots.

Now if you are a math person that's four instead of the usual two we do so we'll see how time

plays out for it but that is what we want to do. We'll try to maybe get you in early. How's that?

Yeah whatever you listen. You know what low time says stuff and then he never delivers on it.

So the NBA one's going to be me crying real tears about Luke and not being number one. So how's

that for a team? Well at least he lives on the second floor. Steve Lansky will join us from inside the

truck podcast at one o'clock. We have declinations at 1240 rumors on the way next and we're going to

dive deep a little bit on the NBA. Of course we'll talk about the others in the playoffs and at 120

today we'll give our predictions for the opening round series in the NHL our little round table will

happen at 20 after one. Low down with low tide on sports 1440 and YouTube low down on sports 1440

brought to you by Wolf GMC Buick. It's truck month. Check them out wolfgmcbuick.com. I have to confess

something that I walked all over the happy days theme which was the music coming out of the top

of the hour. Although Declan loves that song I'm really tired of it and then he goes and does

such a kind thing and play one of my favorite songs by the cure and now I feel bad. So I'm

apologizing to you for running over your song in the first segment. Hey I mean it's your show

so run over whatever you want. I know I felt bad though now that you played this song that I

clearly love and I mentioned many times that I love who doesn't love the cure. I was actually

going to play that one started off and then I had a little bit of a you know light bulb moment

and I was like hold on a second. Happy days. All right it's time for rumors brought to you by

great Canadian solar. Great Canadian solar has been helping homeowners and businesses harness the

power of the sun for 15 years invest in solar in yourself. Great Canadian solar dot com. Now we're

going to spend the next couple of days talking about you know who's in the lineup who's not in the

lineup is Leon going to play what about Jason Dickinson. One assumes that Connor Ingram is going

to start in goal. However Calvin Pickard has been recalled by the others on an emergency basis.

I think it's just to have a third goalie around. We haven't heard very much about Tristan

Jerry. We saw Ingram last night. You never know with goal tenders though. They're they're just

voodoo. It's like starting pictures. Actually it's like knuckleball starting pictures. That's how

unusual goal tenders are. So we can see. I tweeted out a second ago the puck pdf update they do this

every year and truly a brilliant website. I have to say the overages for the ebent and orders

minimal. So it's 250,000 in overages. They finished over the cap due to using LTIR and Matt Savoy

earned a 250,000 a bonus for time on ice. I don't think anybody's going to complain about that.

It's not as big a deal. There's still the buyouts to worry about. But the cap is going up.

I don't know. Gregor said on the show on Monday. He doesn't know how many NHL teams are going to

spend to the cap this summer. There's a lot of free agents. Some of these folks in terms of the cities

that they play in. They pushed the envelope for the ticket prices really to the edge. So are they

going to do that more again? I don't know. And then the opportunity might be available to a team

like Edmonton to go out and acquire a guy, a player who's overpriced and another team is interested

in offloading. And the orders might not have to not be able not have to pay full price in terms of

assets to take on the contract. I can see that happening a lot more of this year. Now I mentioned

that I wanted to talk about the NBA in this particular segment because we're just getting first

blush of the playoffs in the national hockey league now. We're talking about who might be in the

lineup, both the young being the lineup and that sort of thing. The NBA a little farther along

and my learned friends to the right of me as you play along at home know a lot about the NBA.

I'm excited that the 76ers are in. I'm also very realistic about their chances of I think they play

Boston on Sunday. So let me ask you both of you that we're wants to start first. First blush

in terms of the match up in terms of what you're seeing. Who do you who do you like as maybe

an underdog and who do you think is the favorite in a series who might have a problem based on how

things look like they're going to match up? Yeah, my number one bonafide go to on this.

Justin there by the way. Oh yeah, this is Josh. This is Josh. Give your last name and

you're Fenwick at Jay Fennel coach or on X. Anyways, the one that I'm very high on because

they're healthy now. I think they're better than a succeed suggests is the Minnesota Timberwolves.

I think they can cause a lot of problems for a lot of teams in the east. I really like the game

of Iodosomu and what he does. He's a solid two way guard. And then of course they have Anthony

Edwards who is literally like a rabid dog. There's not really in a good way. In a good way like that

in the kind of way that you want a rabid dog competitor. You know off the chain can score at all

three levels. It doesn't matter if there's a hand in his face or not like he he will go after it

and the wolves and nuggets have had some great bouts this year. So I think that's going to be one

an amazing series. And I think two the wolves as a succeed you know a succeed one NBA championship

once upon a time 1995 the Houston Rockets showed out. So they went into the Western conference finals

two years in a row. I like the I like the Timberwolves to upset a lot of stuff this year. I also

wouldn't be surprised if they lost in the first round because they're playing the nuggets. Right.

That's the wild versus the stars. All right. What about you? Yeah, the nuggets are the obvious choice.

We talked about it a little bit on Dunkin' with Declan on Wednesday. Like I don't know if the Timberwolves

can actually did I just say nuggets by the way I meant Timberwolves. You did see it. I don't know if

the Timberwolves can actually win the NBA title. But that is the only first round matchup where you're

like yeah I could see it if either team does. As far as other underdogs I I picked the raptors to

beat the cabs. It's probably not the best pick in the world. It's a it's a lot of you know believe

you do regret it. No like listen I'm going to roll with it. It's a lot of belief in what Darko did

to build this team's identity this year. It's a lot of disbelief in James Hardin's playoff abilities.

The one that I would have liked myself to like to talk myself into but I just can't do it. I would

have loved to pick the Hawks. I would have loved to pick the Hawks. They've really become like a

defensive-minded team with a real real legitimate guy in Jalen Johnson. I just think the Knicks are a

bad matchup. They just have too much talent. So yeah Timberwolves that's the that would be the 60

to lock in on. But I want to be very clear that's not a given because the nuggets the nuggets are very good they

have the legitimate best player in the world on their team. And he somehow still doesn't really get

the credit he deserves because of what SGA has done this year in Wembee and Luca when he was

healthy. So the other question I have is is you know whenever we talk about the NBA we we say

ah there's probably five teams who could win it. But now we're here and you know it's one thing

to fade the Celtics all year when we're talking about this but they're the Celtics and we obviously

know about Oklahoma City and there's great teams in the Midwest. What do you think? How many

teams could legitimately win it? I think there's five. Six if you include Minnesota and I think

Minnesota is a bit of a long shot but I think there's five. I'm going to see if I can guess which

five you're thinking of uh Celtics. Yeah Thunder Spurs. Yep nuggets. Yep. And then Pistons. Yep.

And the Pistons are despite being the one seed in the East they would be the last on that total pool.

Yeah see I would almost switch the Pistons and the the Timberwolves. How many California teams are in

there? Zero. Interesting. So the Lakers will make a big move and then they'll win the championship

a year from now. They made a big move already. It's just unfortunate. The Lucas down and Austin

Reeves and Austin Reeves is down and now their best player is 41 and like I said sort of ingest

on Wednesday is now their second best player is Deandre Aiden like this is a problem. Do you

agree with me that there's a big Lakers trade coming that will change the course of history?

Yeah I don't think it'll be a trade. Assigning. Well I think what they got to figure out this

LeBron thing like they got to figure what they want to do with him like he's not a max level

player anymore but he might be in some markets and the thing about LeBron is is he now a problem

just because they want him out of town and they can't do it without making it messy. So this is

what I was going to say like he is still a very good player, very valuable player, second best

player ever, right? But he stunts what this team should be by building like he stunts the reset

of building around Luca and letting Luca dominate the ball. Like I don't think they can really take

a next step with LeBron still on the roster but the other side of that hand is like how do you

go to LeBron and say we're moving on from you? Like it's LeBron James and he's still he was second

team all in B.A. Last year like he's still a very good player. So it's a weird spot to be in.

Who's the best free agent or this is a tired question. I'm asking you an impossible to answer

question on the fly and I apologize. Who's the best option out there? Let's say LeBron leaves.

Who's the best option out there for the Lakers to acquire either by trade or free agency that

could come in and make that team hole? That's a great question really. Oh god it might be

Christophe Spursingus. Yeah it's tough because the NBA always kind of does the thing we're like

you might think a player is a free agent but they're not because of the player option or because

like there's a restrat like a resigning on top of what they already have. That's I think

it might be porzinga because you get a big man with shooting and porzinga I can't really move

the needle for me. I know but he's better. He's an upgrade on a guy like I'll shelve this question

you know I'll ask you next week. You guys think about it. But it sure is hell ain't like

trea young and respectfully it's not James Harden either. James Harden. No. I can tell you

that James is going to be all in but he's going to be. He's going to be. Yeah. I'll be 13 on the

end. Him and Luke are him and Luke are too similar. No the same with him and Austin Reeves like it would

be an absolute. And perhaps probably going to re-sign in Washington on a max deal. Christopps is

a defensive anchor. JB Bickerstaff wins coach association of the war award 2025 26 season

distance head coach. Are you in agreement, gentlemen? Yeah. We've released our mock ballots on

socials a couple days ago. We're actually to update those with Kaden Luke of being eligible.

And we both had JB as our coach of the year. So well deserved. Right. And just before we leave

the NBA we're going to be taking a quick break and then declination is coming up and among the

things they're going to be doing. Declan and Josh are the heart trophy and NBA MVP is correct.

Yes. All right. Very quickly. Maple Leafs are interviewing Matt Sandin for hockey

operations role. This is a PR move. It's just the kind of thing you do. Ottawa did it with Alfred

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similar. Paul coffee came for a reason and he's done an exceptional job. I was initially cynical

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national hockey league specifically with the oilers the idea that you know 35 years later

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In terms of defense you'd be shocked because my god there were NHL coaches across the league who

had Paul coffee play for them for him who were frustrated by I'm Scotty Bowman in his book talked

about it at length and Paul coffees a smart guy. That's a fact and it's on display with the

Evanton orders right now. Kate Horton underwent Tommy John surgery. I knew it was bad when he was

crying when he came off the mound. The injuries in Major League Baseball for pictures are just

awful right now. They just are they're tragic. It's going to be like next year he won't pitch. He

might pitch like in like a ball in August or September of next year, but that's it. He's gone

basically we're a tupple a year a couple of years. I hate it. I really do genuinely hate it.

But that is they every pitch has to be thrown as hard as possible and the body just can't do that

the way it is. If the balls moved on from Jordan, the fakers can move on from LeBron from Dave.

Jordan moved on from the ball. Yeah. Jordan retired. Now to his credit, Phil Jackson's

contract was expiring Scotty was like there was some stuff going on there, but make no mistake.

Jordan retired. That was his second retirement. When did he go play baseball with the white socks?

Was that his first retirement? That was his first retirement. He could not hit a curve ball.

But then like again, something I learned from watching the last dance is they hitting

coaches like, yeah, man, he'd take like 500 at bats on the on the breaking ball machine. It was

kind of crazy. He had blisters all over his hands, but he just every day hanging out at the

breaking ball machine. Well, it's brutal. I mean, you know, don't sign with the major league team

when you're that age because they don't care about you. Well, he played in the minors. He didn't

play for the socks. No, but they signed him as a PR stunt. It just used him. Yeah. I had to run

stores, man, like, yeah, Ryan's a savvy business man. Sure. Not really, but yeah. Listen,

you kids out there when you're playing a professional sport and you decide you want to try

baseball, do it when you're 19, you know, or or not like L way, L way walked because he wanted

to play football and he was going to make a lot more money doing that. All right. On the way,

it's declinations. I'm looking forward to this heart trophy NBA MVP. Both guys go on at it next.

Low down with low tide on sports 1440 and YouTube. It's the low down sports 1440 for Wolf GMC

Buick, Alan Mitchell, low tide, Declan Kruger, declinations, Josh Fenwick, well known Mike

Trout fan. We talked about trout yesterday. And when I got to the car, did another home run?

Yeah, you know, first guy since Babe Ruth to have all the numbers he did. I don't remember the

mall off the top of my head. However, he had five home runs, one in at least one in each game. So,

again, like I said, yesterday, the levels of back were at with Mike Trout are have never been

seen before in sports. He hit flushing in the Bronx and they were not ready. It's time for declinations

brought to you by fairway divorce solutions. The clear road to a new life. There is a better way

fairway divorce.com. And now with top five NHL heart trophy for top five NBA. Ladies and

gentlemen, it's Declan, Josh and declinations. Yeah. So I think I'll give my top five heart

ballot here five through one. Then I'll let Josh go. Then maybe he can start NBA time permitting.

And then I'll go ahead and give mine. So yeah, coming in at number five for me, I won with David

Pastor Nack. Really good season man. Solid season. Yeah. Well done by you. I left him off the one

that I sent you, but I wanted to put him on. No, listen, yeah, 100 point player in 77 games.

The plus minus isn't great. That'll happen on a team like that. The biggest thing for me for

first of all is five on five numbers. We're very good. He was pretty much top seven top five

across the board and a lot of different categories. The big thing for me that pushed him over the

edge was his next leading score on that team Morgan geeky was 55th in the league and kind of

fell off a little bit and quite bluntly no one thought the the broons were going to be a playoff

team. Obviously we all ran back our picks from earlier in the season and they got there.

There were a hundred point team. So I wanted to show him some love. I had him number five. Okay.

I'm Maclin at number four. I'm never big on giving a guy on a team that misses the playoffs.

A heart spot because my thing's always kind of been like, you know what? If you miss it at 16

spot with 50 points or you miss it at 11 spot with 86 4.86 points like you still miss it. You

still at home on the couch watching when it matters most, but his season was just so undeniable.

He were putting him in grisky conversations when it comes to a teenager 45 goals 70 points.

He's not going to win it, but I wanted to recognize his season and show him some love. So I put

Maclin number four. I think that's fair. I didn't have them on mine for the reasons that you

mentioned, but honestly, if you're going to put somebody like that on the list, he'd be the guy

because he had such a splendid season and you can see what he's going to be. Yeah, absolutely.

Now my three to one, I think it's pretty obvious who the three players are. So I spent a lot of

time going into this. I looked at 18 different semi. I'm not going to call them advanced, but maybe

semi advanced statistical categories. We're talking per 60 per game, even strength five on five,

all strength, things like that. Then I actually have six more. I'll get to that as well with the

goal four percentages. It's all strengths, expected goal four percentages. But of these 18 categories,

I looked at Nathan McKinnon was first in nine of them. Nikita Kutra was first in nine of them.

Connor McDavid was first in none. Nikita Kutra was second in eight of them. McDavid McKinnon were

second in five each. Nathan McKinnon was last of the, this is of the qualify of these three players.

He was last in four of them. Kutra was last in one of them. McDavid was last in 13 of them.

So I'll go through them all here really quickly. And it is a lot of numbers. So try and keep up in

my apologies in advance. Even strength points. McKinnon led the league. Kutra was second in the lead.

McDavid was fourth in the league. Even strength assist. Kutra led the league. McKinnon was second in

the league. Connor was fourth in the league. Even strength goals. McKinnon led the league. Kutra was

fourth. McDavid was sixth. Five on five. Now this is different from even strength because that

obviously also includes four on four and three on three. Nathan McKinnon led the league in points.

Kutra was second. McDavid was sixth. Even strength assist. McKinnon and Kutra were actually

tied for first. McDavid was 12th. Even strength goal or five on five goals. Excuse me. McDavid

was second in the league. McKinnon was second in the league. Kutra was sixth. McDavid was 11th.

Now points per 60 at all strength. Kutra led the league. McDavid was second. McKinnon was third.

Goals per 60 at all strengths. Nate was third. Kutra was sixth. Connor was 20th.

Assist per 60 at all strengths. Kutra led the league. McDavid was second. Nathan McKinnon was seventh.

At even strength. Kutra led the league points per 60. Nathan McKinnon was second. Connor McDavid was

seventh. At goals per 60 at even strength. Nate was second. Kutra was third. McDavid was 22nd.

Assist per 60, Coach led the league wide margin, by the way.

Nathan McKinnon was second, McDavid was six, five on five.

And again, this is a lot of repetition.

So I appreciate you sticking with me.

Five on five, points per 60, Coach led the league.

McKinnon was second, McDavid was 16th.

Goals per 60, Nate was fourth, Coach was fifth,

McConnor was 27th.

Assist per 60, Coach led the league, again, crazy margin.

The difference between him and the guy in number two,

who his name was what, the same as Nate in the guy in number 10,

and Connor was 26.

Points per game, Coach led, McDavid was second, Nate was third.

Goals per game, Mcinnon led, McDavid was third.

Coach was fourth in the league.

Assist per game, Coach led, McDavid was second.

Nathan McKinnon was fifth.

Now this was kind of a telltale sign for me that wrapped it up.

The goal 4% edge at all strength.

Nathan McKinnon led the league.

Nikita Kutrava was fifth.

Connor McDavid was 29th.

At even strength, Nathan McKinnon was second.

Kutrava was eighth.

Connor McDavid was 69th at 55.4.

The 5 on 5 goal 4% edge, Nathan McKinnon led the league at 70.4 to 142, by the way, incredible stuff.

Kutrava was fifth.

Connor McDavid was 110th.

And he was actually 3% below expected.

Nathan McKinnon was 14 over.

Kutrava was 7th.

So my ballot went, McDavid 3, McKinnon 2, Kutrava 1.

I originally had McKinnon number two,

and I originally had McKinnon number three in Connor number two.

I flipped them, and I almost flipped McKinnon and Kutra.

I almost put McKinnon number one and Kutrava number two.

But what sold it for me was, Nathan McKinnon's teammates, Marty Naches, 7th in the league and

scoring, and then Kail McCart next at 29th.

Connor McDavid, I know it was only 65 games of drive, but still, it's not like he played

17 in Miss 65, he played 65 in Miss 17.

Dry was 9th, Bush was 11th.

For Kutrava, he was 15th, and Hagel was 37th.

And then kind of a deciding factor, you know, quite bluntly, one team was 41 and 41 playing

in the Pacific.

One team won the presence trophy, and the other team was a 50 win team in, you know, a tough

Atlantic as well.

So that's kind of how it all broke down for me.

The plus minus is also overall McKinnon 57, Kutrava 43, McDavid 17.

So yeah, I went, McDavid 3, McKinnon number two, Kutrava number one.

The power play numbers, heavily favorite, McDavid, and I want to be clear.

This is a year if McDavid gets it, 1,000% get it.

If Kutrava gets it, 1,000% get it.

If McKinnon gets it, 1,000% get it.

But I went, Nikita Kutrava 1, Nathan McKinnon 2, Conor McDavid 3, Maclin, Celebrini 4, David

Pastor, and Act V.

Yeah, so my number five is Cole Coffield, shout out to the guy, 50 point score on the

Habs.

50 point score.

50 goal score.

I mean, my apologies, damn.

I opened up, Declan had some stuff open on the laptop when I got in this morning.

Super helpful when I was just like perusing.

I don't have anything written down much like, uh, uh, uh, young Declan over here did because

I guess I what my heart just wasn't as in it as he was.

So I have to do better in the future of, uh, matching his freak, essentially, uh, led the

league in goals per 60 in all situations, very fun.

And uh, he has 13 game winning or 12 game winning goals, which is set first in the league.

My apologies.

Shout out to him.

I think that's worth.

I also have Maclin, Celebrini, I think plus eight on a team that's minus 41, absolutely

unreal.

Uh, franchise is all time leading scorer now and, uh, for a single season.

So I, I just think what you saw him do this year, regardless of making it to the playoffs

or not, I think he at least deserves a vote.

Can't be top three.

If they made the playoffs, he absolutely would have been one on my ballot.

But alas, here we are, uh, because Will Smith had 59 points and 69 games played.

Maclin, Celebrini has 115.

Know what?

So just, just shy of doubling him and he doubled up or more, everyone else in the sharks

shout out to Celebrini.

Three for me, I have Nathan McKinnon.

I know all the numbers that, uh, that Declan just listed off and everything.

They shocked me when I looked them up.

It was really impressive.

Really good five on five.

I mean, like that, again, I agree with, uh, uh, immersing yourself in all things soccer

ahead of this summer's World Cup, I'm Alex Abnos, senior sports editor from the Guardian.

Whether you're a soccer beginner or you know the game inside and out, we've got you covered.

From one of the fastest growing soccer newsrooms, the Guardian brings you in-depth World Cup

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Read, watch and listen as our journalists connect the dots between the games, the cultures,

and this political moment.

We'll have daily newsletters throughout the tournament, a global perspective, and a squad

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Plus, if you want to test your soccer knowledge, try on the ball.

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And if you're into stuff like this,

Well, I think the problem is, if you give footballers an inch, they would take a mile.

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Spring weekends are my favorite.

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It's not sold in Virginia and North Carolina, drink responsibly B-21.

Declan on the whoever wins, like of this top three, you can't be upset.

So I just sort of ordered it off.

I think we can't even had a super strong team, obviously the president's winning trophy

winning team, and he's obviously a huge part of that, my goodness.

Love his game.

This thing, all in all, he does have a lot of help, but again, if he wins, more power

to him, he's unreal.

Two, I have McDavid, sorry, oil fans.

I think he plays with the most significantly worse team out of the top three here, just

based on injuries, how slow they started, wishy washy, all the things, obviously like we

watched all 82 games of them this year, we very intimate in the knowledge of what a

crapshoot the other season has been so far.

But that stretch in December, basically from when you said he needed to start putting points

on the board for, what was it, 17 straight games, tying his career high or setting the new

career high for him in points and straight games, absolutely unreal.

Best player on the planet, Art Ross winning a player this year, however, my number one

is Nikita Kutrov.

I think he plays, well, I don't think I know he plays in the east, which is the stronger

conference this year and he plays in the Atlantic, which is these, in my opinion, the strongest

division this year, put a 109 points with the lightning, put up 109 points and coach just

like, he put up more points in like three weeks than a bunch of other NHL teams were able

to put on the board all season, like it was unreal what this guy was doing to me.

I think the lightning are much less without Nikita Kutrov playing on their team than the

Oilers or Appalachar playing with McKinnon and McDavid.

No disrespect to either of those guys, but I think Kutrov this year has been absolutely

unreal.

All right, it's 1250, low down with low tide, we're in declinations.

Do we have time for the NBA MVPs?

Yeah, I think we rattle them off really, or we had a more in depth conversation last year,

so I think we're last week we'll be able to rattle these off pretty quickly.

My number five, Kade Cunningham, only played 64 games was relatively inefficient in those

64 games he played, however, best player on the best team in the east without a doubt.

He had a great season, absolutely deserves to be in the top five.

My number four, I'm under rating him.

He should be number one on my ballot, probably greatest player in the world, Nikola Yokich,

but to me, I dropped him out of the top three and honestly looking at it, I hate myself

every day because of it.

But alas, this is my bed.

I must lie in it.

This is where I had him ranked.

I can't change it now.

So number four, Nikola Yokich leading the league in rebounds and assists as a center.

It's very harsh to hate yourself every day though, because I'm putting Yokich at number

four.

His greatest player on the planet, he honestly, he should win the MVP this year.

And I'm now showing media, not media bias.

What's the one where media fatigue or voters fatigue right there with Nikola Yokich?

Sorry, Nikola Yokich.

Number three, I have Luca Doncic.

I think clearly we have seen.

He played 64 games again this year, but how much lesser the lakers are without him, I would

say, Luca Doncic, absolutely deserves to be in the top three there.

Number two, SGA best player on the best team.

The pinnacle of consistency, super efficient.

I mean, he's averaging almost 30 points per game on 50, 40, 90 splits.

He shoots the two ball incredibly well, like if he's going to win this year, and I'm

not going to be upset about it, because I think he is the second best player on the

third best player on the planet, because the second best player on the planet is number

one of my ballot, Victor Wimbanyama.

The spurs are nowhere close to what they are this year without Victor Wimbanyama.

Maybe 54 win pace without him in 15 games, but in 15 get come on, man, like it's actually

more.

I honestly, I could give a rip.

One of the teams they played in those 15 games, like Wembee is absolutely unreal.

It's so impactful in the defensive end of the ball, which he was very right about.

We underrate the defensive side of the ball in the MVP conversations.

Does it have to be 50, 50?

No, but I think his gravity to me, I put him number one.

All right, Declan.

Okay.

I also have Cade Cunningham number five great season by Cade couldn't be higher than number

five.

Unfortunately, I think everyone who watches basketball knows that number four.

I actually last minute change.

I'm putting Wembee.

So I looked it up.

It's actually, and this is kind of crazy.

I'm not going to allow you.

It's actually a 55 win pace without him.

I outline the numbers barely top 15 and scoring.

He's not top 15 and field goal percentage is a seven foot five center among players to

take ten or more shots of game.

He's not top 25 in true shooting.

His defensive gravity is amazing.

I also think he's the second best player in the world by the way.

I have him number four.

The three, I have Luca.

I wanted to put up number one.

So badly, I was basically on my knees pleading and crying with you guys to agree with me that

he's number one.

Unfortunately, as the season unfolded, I can only put him number three.

Number two, I have SGA, most consistent player, and he's the best player on the best team.

And he's going to win it and he will to a large degree deserve it.

I wouldn't fully give it to him, but he's going to deserve it.

And number one, this is what sold it for me.

First of all, he led the league and rebounding and assists as a center by the Deandre Jordan

led the league and rebounds Chris Paul led the league and assist.

Think about how different those two players are.

Nikola Yokich did both of it, both of it, first player in NBA history.

And someone said, if you memory wiped the last five years with the men in black rays

and just gave us this season, Nikola Yokich would be MVP without a shadow of a doubt.

I agree with that.

He's my number one.

All right.

Great shout.

That was interesting.

He is.

He is the MVP.

I sold quite frankly.

I enjoyed that.

That was good.

I'm just sad Joel and B can't be there.

Well, he's got one already played more games.

Maybe he would be.

I don't know.

I think he's he's a little bit toast from what he was, you know.

It happens.

There are players who lose a lot of their career, their injury and he is certainly one

of them.

All right.

I enjoyed that, man.

Thank you.

I think I, I narrowly disagree, disagree with the hard trophy.

I believe I had McKinnon number one and then McDavid and then Kuchero, but I agree with

both of you.

I think Declan used percentage incorrectly instead of 1,000, but the point is that any of

those three winning it, I think you'd have to say, you know, yeah, what would be really

funny is if you just attacked us for how wrong our NBA ballots were.

Well, number one, I don't know the game that well and that's why we have you take that.

But number two, I'm just interested in hearing your conversation in regard to, it seems

to me that we have some of the greatest players have ever lived in the NBA and parsing this,

I can tell by your voices and your justification of why somebody's three or somebody's one,

it must be very difficult.

So I can enjoy it on that level, although I can't speak to it because I, I don't spend

as much time at the NBA as you, but I thank you for bringing that.

It's good information.

NBA viewership up huge this year, 89% or is it 189%, I think it was up 89% in relation

to last year.

No, that's good.

The people are recognizing the NBA.

Good.

It's fantastic because I think this was a great product that got put on the floor this year.

If you love the NBA regular season and the NBA playoffs, wait till the NBA off season.

That's when it gets real, really wild.

All right.

On the way, Steve Lansky will join us from inside the truck podcast.

We're going to talk about the others.

The game last night, once they had against Danahime, Stanley Cup chances at 120, we're all

going to do a roundtable.

We're going to pick our winners in the first round series.

And of course, we're going to have a lot of fun doing it.

So stay tuned.

Low down with low tide on sports 1440 and YouTube.

It's time for an update with Declan Krueger.

Emmercing yourself in all things soccer ahead of this summer's World Cup, I'm Alex Abnos,

senior sports editor from the Guardian, whether you're a soccer beginner or you know

the game inside and out, we've got you covered.

From one of the fastest growing soccer newsrooms, the Guardian brings you in depth World Cup

coverage that gets into the winners and losers on and off the pitch.

Read, watch and listen as our journalists connect the dots between the games, the cultures,

and this political moment.

We'll have daily newsletters throughout the tournament, a global perspective, and a squad

of Americans, including me on the ground with the U.S. national team.

Plus, if you want to test your soccer knowledge, try on the ball.

It's a game in the Guardian app and it's really, really fun.

And if you're into stuff like this,

Well, I think the problem is, if you give footballers an inch, they would take a mile.

Is it too much when it's this close?

It's a bit much.

It's a bit too real.

Maybe you can just talk with a slight delay.

Be sure to listen to our football weekly podcast for On the Move Expert Analysis, the Guardian,

bringing you the whole picture on soccer, search Guardian Soccer for more.

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That's the sound of a tree in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, releasing volatile organic

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Which is just a fancy way of saying, it's creating fog, and that makes the smokies smokey.

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