Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 104
Chip mixed his card games, Eric undersold Dylan Garand, and two Rangers goalies of the past get a reality check. Here's what we got wrong on the podcast.
Welcome back to the Blueshirt Bandwidth Podcast Ombudsman Report. Each week, Charlie Vidal will listen to the latest episode of the podcast and correct the record on anything Joe and Eric (or, in this case, Joe, Eric, and Chip) get wrong. If you aren't already, you can listen and subscribe to the podcast here.
Talk to Me at Game 10
Game 10 will be on Saturday, Oct. 17, in Columbus. Episode 107 will be recorded the following week (likely after Game 11 on Monday, Oct. 19) and released Thursday, Oct. 22.
"Flopping an Ace"
When discussing how the New York Rangers got away with sending Dylan Garand through waivers, Chip used the analogy of hitting on 20 and flopping an ace. Chip mixed up his card-game metaphors here, as "flopping" is a Texas hold 'em term for the first three cards that are placed face up on the table. Hitting, or asking for an additional card from the dealer, is something you do in blackjack.
Dylan Garand Numbers
Eric said that Garand has had mediocre numbers outside of a great playoff run. Garand has actually had two good playoff runs, putting up a .935 save percentage and 1.76 goals-against average (GAA) in eight playoff games in 2023 and a .922 save percentage and 2.59 GAA in nine playoff games in 2024.
His career regular-season numbers are a .901 save percentage and 2.90 GAA, while in the postseason he has a .927 save percentage and 2.21 GAA.
Rangers Goaltending Misses
Eric mentioned that the two of us had been discussing how Dan Blackburn and Dan Cloutier weren't actually that good. Eric and I discussed it on X last week:
Blackburn broke, but as @CharlieVidal pointed out before, he also was not very good
— Eric Kohn 🥃 (@iEricKohn) September 28, 2026
If you look at where Cloutier ranked among starting goalies in save percentage, he had only one season where he was above average and was flat-out bad in his other four seasons as a starter:
Blackburn had a career .894 save percentage in 63 games over two seasons before he got injured. His .898 save percentage and 3.22 GAA in 2001-02 were good enough to make him the goalie on the NHL All-Rookie Team.
When you're looking at a goalie through rose-colored glasses, you don't see that the red light keeps going on behind him.
How Many Periods Will It Take the Rangers to Score at Home?
Eric and Joe predicted that the Rangers would score in the first period, while Chip guessed the second. As we all remember, Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring for the Rangers just over five minutes into the game:
100 Goals from Newcomers
A listener asked whether the Rangers will have 100 goals scored by players who had not scored for the team before.
The total Evolving-Hockey projection for Pavel Dorofeyev (37), Oliver Bjorkstrand (13), Sean Durzi (7), Marcus Pettersson (4), and Joe Veleno (5) is 66, so you'd need some combination of Alberts Smits, Eeli Tolvanen, Igor Shesterkin, current AHL players, and overperformance to get you 34. Tolvanen and Igor have already combined for four goals, so we just need 30 more goals from newcomers.
Who Will Play First?
A listener posed the question of which unsigned veteran would play in the NHL first from the group of Vladimir Tarasenko, Reilly Smith, Jonathan Drouin, Patrik Laine, and Evander Kane. Among the five of them, only Smith and Tarasenko had positive xGAR from Evolving-Hockey:
Tarasenko is clearly the favorite of the group in hockeystats.com's projections. Laine doesn't even have a projection card anymore after playing only five games last season, and Kane might as well not have one:
