The Kevin Karius Show - Mar. 11th, 2026 - Mark Spector

0:00The hustle doesn't have to hurt. If performance pressure is making it hard to breathe, growth therapy helps you navigate stress, set boundaries, and actually feel like yourself again. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity, or availability, and get started in as little as two days. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments, you just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges you're facing, growth therapy is here to help. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans, including Medicaid in some states. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com-startnow to get started. That's growtherapy.com-startnow. Growtherapy.com-startnow. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

1:00Hi, this is Pablo Tore from Pablo Tore finds out, and today I want to talk to you about boost mobile. Because we spend a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places, and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes, they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost mobile, says switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan, can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit boostmobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience lower speeds. Customers pay $25 per month, as long as they remain active on the boost mobile and limited plan. Savings claim based on a January 2026 boost mobile survey of 1,000 Americans with single line unlimited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the boost mobile and limited plan. For full offered details, visit boostmobile.com.

2:17Last, it was quick and had it all. Yeah, at times, it reminded me it was a little bit almost like Milan, like in terms of how fast the game was, how hard it was executed. I'll tell you what, McCarran McKinnon, they pass the puck to each other harder than some guys shoot. Like, they just rip the puck at each other and catch it like clean and move it along, man. It's you know, they're good. Everyone knows that. And the orders played well too. It was fast. Fast hockey. Yeah, for me, like, you know, I just said it was a playoff game, you know, off the off and that's how it felt and the momentum swings and everything. The year, yeah, the buy-in, I thought, you know, the buy-in from the orders with block shots and hits. I mean, that's what it takes to win. And, you know, a lot of times they haven't had that this year. No, that's exactly what it takes is that you said it perfect. This, you know, and that's why there's 19 games left. So,

3:17yeah, it's just starting on some nights to resemble playoff hockey because here we go. Teams are starting to, you know, we're at the quarter pole here. It's time to start figuring out what playoff hockey is going to look like and give the all credit there. They, you know, hopefully for their sake, this one lasts. This little spurt of good play and the kind of thing you want to see and the orders team we've expected since November, if they start now and do this through the end of the season, I hate to tell you, but that's going to be more than enough time to have a good playoff. Right. Yeah. There were more than just one, more than just one turning points last night. We get to the big thing in the game and that was the McKinnon drive hard to the net and white boat cornering room looking at that in person. I mean, that was a violent collision spec just on TV, but man, in person, that must have been even a little bit, a little bit more violent to see it in person. Yeah, it was, I mean, I haven't seen the goal of getting hit that hard in a long

4:19time. Yeah. So for one, I mean, I see that people around the league, you know, the certainly on social media when I was having a beer after the game, it was everybody was saying that, or, you know, his toes were pointed in a different direction. I heard bedner. I don't care if they're goalies heard. I love that much. I think what, to me, what everyone's missing, I keep seeing the still shot of McKinnon whose toes are pointed a little bit north of Ingram. Ingram's falling forward into his path, right? And a goal is allowed to fall forward into his own crease. Like just because his path is, is not right at Ingram, if his path is right through the blue paint and it was, you know, he's, he's not allowed to run into Ingram if he's fallen over for making a safe. So I don't know, you know, is it five? I don't know. Was it a double minor? Was it two? I'm not sure, man. I mean, it's a tough call for the rest, but I guess I'd say to you, it reminds you a little of 2011 when, remember, in the, in the final, when Aaron Rome knocked Nathan Horton out of

5:23the Stanley Cup final Vancouver Boston with that head hit. Horton never came back and they kicked Aaron Rome out for the rest of the series. And at that point, I thought, you know what, that's fair, right? Both teams lose the player. And last night, I thought that's fair. Ingram, if Ingram came back in the third period, I thought, ah, that's not great. But he's done for the night. And so is McKinnon. And I don't have a huge problem with it. I can see how Colorado doesn't like it. Sure. So for me, and as I've been saying, spec, to me, a lot of it has to do with the depth of where Ingram was. He's, and as you say, he's kind of going forward. But, you know, he's two and a half feet from the top of the blue, you know, when this collision happens. And, and for the most part, every collision that we see in the crease is at the top of the blue. And that's, I think that's where they went towards the five because there was a little more room for McKinnon to go. And, you know, everyone's bitching about, you know, from the Colorado side that Nurse had something to do with it. I don't know. Nurse took another shot to the head too. He could have been

6:24concussed in my mind. I thought that, I mean, McKinnon skated right through Nurse 2. Yeah. McKinnon was, he's such a powerful man and skater that I'm not sure that Nurse had a lot to do with his path, frankly. I didn't, I don't think certainly the rest weren't convinced he did. It's a hard play. You just, because we're not arguing about, about what McKinnon did. We're arguing about what he might have done had Nurse not pushed him. And that means we're kind of hoping and thinking and looking at the angle of his toes. And I don't know. It's, listen, man. Yeah. Colorado's got such a good team. They've won so many games. They've got everything going good for them. Last night, they got the, you know, what they consider the short end of the stick. Hey, guess what? It's the two games season. Sometimes that happens, right? Yeah, for sure. Maybe in the bigger picture is how Tristan Jari performed, because they need this guy to get his game back. And especially now with, who knows what's up with with Conor Ingram, but man,

7:26he was good in the third. He was. And that's a really big moment for him. You know, he, he wasn't going to admit it. I'm not sure if he's a little nonplussed by all this stuff that's been flown around on the internet about him and the team and all that, but it's, it hasn't been a great assimilation for Jari here since he got here. His, his game hasn't been good. The team in front of him hasn't been any good. And this team's just like all our listeners, they're looking at the new goalie going, this is the guy that's supposed to get it's a, a Stanley Cup. Yeah. Right? So last night was like, the team was immersed in this, this, you know, Titanic battle with the best team to lead. They're holding their own. It's a heavyweight fight. And all of a sudden, Jari's got to come in and finish this thing off. And for him to succeed and deliver the two points and make big saves and, and show up for the team when they needed them and when counted on. That's a, it's a really big moment in this whole Tristan Jari order thing. This is something that hopefully

8:31of his sake, you know, he can stretch this into something. You must have been thinking what the hell's going on here for on four when they open it up here with 30 seconds left. Like, it should be, let's just get to the third man. We don't need Jari to face too high quality chances in the last 30 seconds. Yeah, they're always still struggling with that. I also thought when the goalie was pulled, they made a couple of of irresponsible plays at the end of the game that kept it alive. I'm not talking about McDavid missing an open net. That just happens. But I thought they made a couple of passes in place that breed life into Colorado's attack there. That's still going to be Edmonton's Achilles heel is the, is the kind of cute play they always want to make. But hey, that's the team you got. Yeah. Yeah. I think what you're saying even at the very end after, you know, the Connor had the puck in the corner, just eat it in there, right? Instead, they throw it out. Now it's 11 seconds left and Colorado's still on the rush. And did you see how fast and how hard Connor was coming back? Because he knew he goes, I should have just, I should have just eaten that puck in the corner.

9:33Eat it. Throw it behind the net. He threw it towards his own zone. And the night before, it was Bouchard who made a play on that moment, really a similar moment, right? In Vegas, you know, short a power play. You know, the other teams got no chance at nothing. And he throws a puck cycle of the slot. Now it's the one goal game. So listen, let's take a part. It's a pretty fine work like the Davis scores the winner. The team was good. McDavid's playing some version of her here. And he's gotten it out after Milan and playing unbelievably awesome. He had three draws in the first spec, correct? Yeah. Didn't take another. Yeah. So I don't, don't ask me what's going on there. No one's talking about it. No one's, I mean, it's a state secret. If McDavid's nursing something, you know, you couldn't, you couldn't get that out of an oblock with true serum. Well, and you know, it's funny. He said, well, not funny, but Coolak is the guy that gave him that little slash on the hand that they got the

10:35first power play of the game. You know, yeah, it was a little pretty minor slash, but hey, that's it's on the hands. What's that? It's on the hands, right? You know, and that they get called everywhere in every game. I watch games across the league all the time. That call gets called. And sometimes it doesn't get called. I'm not telling you they're completely consistent. But but whatever. It's just you slap a great player on the other team's best player across the gloves. They're trying to get rid of that because guys have busted hands and fingers and wrists over the years. And that's just the way the games play. If you don't like it, go play another game. Well, he's got a 19 game road point scoring streak going 35 points. That was his 75th career game winning goal. And again, that was against, yeah, it's a, it's a power play goal. That's against Taves and Makar standing, you know, Makar's on the one side and and Taves is just basically turned into a turn style and a little pirouette and bang, bang, great, given goal on the game winning goal for sure. Hi, this is Pablo Tore from Pablo Tore finds out. And today I want to talk to you

11:36about boost mobile because we spent a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost mobile says switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit boostmobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience lower speeds, customers pay $25 per month as long as they remain active on the boost mobile unlimited plan. Savings claimed based on January 2026, boost mobile survey of a thousand Americans with single line unlimited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the boost mobile unlimited plan. For full offered details, visit boostmobile.com. The hustle doesn't have to hurt. If performance pressure is making it hard to breathe, growth therapy helps you navigate stress, set boundaries and actually

12:38feel like yourself again. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, growth makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty, identity or availability, and get started in as little as two days. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges you're facing, growth therapy is here to help. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans, including Medicaid in some states. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com-startnow to get started. That's growtherapy.com-startnow. Growtherapy.com-startnow. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Mark Specter with us here on sports from sports from sports that on sports 40. Evan Bouchard, last night's back again, made some great plays. He's putting himself into

13:43this Norris trophy, three finalist conversation. He is playing at the best level that we've seen him in the regular season, probably in his career. Yeah, I'm, you know, I mean, that's subjective, but I'll tell you what, he's not going to play much better. He is playing awesome. He's playing huge minutes and really, really steady hockey. I mean, he gives you 26, 56, just shy at 27 minutes last night. Two assists plus two. You know, find me, I mean, three shots on that, three block shots. You know, that's, you know, param up against McCarr, what McCarr, like he played better than McCarr last night. He played better than McCarr last night. He did, for sure. McCarr had one block shot, no points minus one. So yes, he did. You know, there you go, head to head. I mean, I do recall the Vancouver series, Quinn Hughes probably wasn't the player than he was now, but Bouchard was five times the player Quinn Hughes was in that Vancouver series, too. He's, he's, you know, A stacks up,

14:47like, I guess I just say one of the, you know, I'll make it short, but when I was running, not running. When I was a president of professional hockey, so red as association, we even, our votes out completely. There's as many votes from the West as there is from the East. And the point is it eliminates, it's not Eastern bias so much. It's guys go to bed out there because the games in the West are late. And there are people who see Bouchard on the highlights. And there's a lot, if Bouchard makes a good play, it might be on the highlights. If he coughs up a goal and makes a terrible play, it's always on the highlights. And some of those highlight voters look at Bouchard, like he does that every night. And they're uninformed and they need to get better educated to eat to watch more hockey. That's what gets Bouchard, though, to me is, is he makes a gaff and everyone talks about it. He makes a great play and they go, oh, look, a big David, look what he did. So, I mean, again, and he had a bad stretch and a bad start to the year. But I'll tell you what, last time I go, I don't care that much, which you didn't

15:51October, November anymore. I will last 50 games back. I mean, and he might have had a hiccup in between there, but he has been really, really good. Just what about the fact now, you finally get, you finally getting some resemblance of some consistent lines. And I know Henry Kansomansky could be interchangeable here, but Doc and Frederick were working good together. Now Doc got hurt last night. You get some resemblance of some defense pairings. And Emerson was, you know, finding more and more of a niche. And now those two guys get hurt too. So it's, well, I mean, injuries happen. That's now you find out, right? So, so Samasky will go to, I mean, if Doc can't play, Samasky goes to a wing and Henry looks like he's ready to come in, hopefully for his sake. You know, I'm a huge believer in more play for the bottom six. And I get it. It's hard for, it's hard for no block, Kev, because like that line he played in his fourth line last night,

16:53Samasky between Frederick and Doc. None of those guys kill a penalty. And traditionally, that's a place where a head coach gets his fourth line guy some ice time is killing penalties. So that's a little tougher for them. It's hard to get him out there. They're a reg, they're obviously not in the power play. And they're not the penalty kills. So you got to give him five on five time. And and sometimes it's hard to find a more than seven or eight minutes of that. I get it. But I'm a total believer in two things, right? McDavid and dry settler running their own line. You know, now you got Dickinson running a good third line man. Dickinson looks like a nice player. And a fourth line that gets to nine minutes, man. That's what I'd like to see. I get it. Doesn't always work out that way. No, it doesn't. And I get where you're saying like if Henryk slides into there instead of Samasky, then that's one more penalty killer for you. Yeah. Like your fourth one should be penalty killers. And that's you're not going to figure that out this season. But listen, like like the first two guys over the boards right now are Dickinson

17:57and captain. You know, and he's still using McDavid a lot in the PK. And I think that has to do with Henryk being out. But your entire third line is penalty killers. You know, and Savoy has been one of your best ones all year. So yeah, it's, you know, and really on this team like, I guess, you know, you're probably never going to get it. Like we're asking for a traditional allotment of ice time, Kevin, on a team that has two players like McDavid and dry settler, that's not traditional. You know, most teams with great players, two great players like that would all have the same issues that we're talking about. So, you know, no blocks doing the best you can. How about that? Yeah, you're heading home today, Speck. I'm coming home today. Yep. I'm coming home team team slept here last night because it was such a late game. Oh my gosh, kicked off at eight, 20 or something, 18, 18, Speck, 18, 18. Yeah, that's whatever. That's a life in the West. Yeah, I'm coming home. I'll be ready for the show tomorrow morning. Do Gregor this afternoon. And in between, I'll fly from Denver to Edmonton. And, and that's about her, buddy. What a life.

19:03What a life. Oh, yeah. Life a glamour, man. Life a glamour. Well, I have fun in that Denver airport. Remember, you know, we talked about it, the intricacies and the tunnels and everything. Oh, yeah, yeah. I got that place down, man. I think I put a blindfold on if I might get in that joint. Yeah. Hey, just a quick one about tomorrow. I mean, Dallas, I mean, they can't be humming better than what they have been. 12-0 and one in the last 13 beat Vegas last night, two on. Unbelievable. I watched a good chunk of that game. You know, who was really good in that game was Autinger. Vegas well deserved a point in that game, if not two. Autinger was excellent. And, um, hey, listen, they're also doing this with a root pay hints and Nico ran. That's great. Yeah. Basically the two best forwards. So, you know, I guess I tell you, you know what, I don't mind all of this. They've been beating everybody else. If you're the orders, I mean, they are missing two guys. They're going good. They're due to lose sometime. I'll tell you what,

20:05the oil's looking like, the oil's real happy with what's going on here. This was a big road trip. When loser draw in Dallas, you've really put your stake in the ground here a little bit, beaten Vegas, Colorado. So, hey, why not keep her going? Sounds good, expect safe travels. We'll talk to you tomorrow. All right. Hi, this is Pablo Tore from Pablo Tore finds out. And today, I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile because we spent a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost Mobile says, switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit BoostMobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers pay $25 per month as long

21:05as they remain active on the Boost Mobile and Limited Plan. Savings claim based on January 2026, Boost Mobile Survey of 1,000 Americans with single line on limited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the Boost Mobile and Limited Plan. For full offered details, visit BoostMobile.com.