0:00 - Brett's not panicking about the Avs. You heard him say it all day yesterday. But you know who else isn't panicked? The team! If you listen to everything Bedsie and the players said postgame after the Game 1 loss, they sounded calm. They didn't sound dejected or worried.

14:22 - Avs need to rattle Carter Hart. He's playing LIGHT OUT so far. The Avalanche need to put shots on net ASAFP. Pepper the net, get in his head. 

31:20 - A texter asked us, "how can you say the Avs have looked good this playoffs?" then explained his reasoning. Brett disagrees. The opposite is true.

0:00 - The Avs lost to Vegas last night in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. Oh boy. Here we go again. But Brett's not panicking this morning. The Avalanche played a solid game last night, but couldn't execute in key moments. It was a razor thin margin. The final score doesn't do justice how close the game actually was.
Do you agree with Brett? Or are you hitting the panic button today?

14:40 - Nathan MacKinnon said it himself postgame - lack of execution doomed the Avs. Bednar also said he likes the way they played, but they need to tighten everything up. The devil's in the details. There's still lots of belief in that locker room that they can respond in Game 2. 

32:00 - Why did the Avs look sluggish? Why was some of the execution lacking? A lot of it can be boiled down to the absence of one man: Cale Douglas Makar.

0:00 - It's finally here. The Colorado Hockey Avalanche will play a hockey game tonight. How are we feeling, Avalanche Territory?

14:55 - Brett Kulak joined PHD yesterday and they asked him what surprised him about this Avs team after he was traded. This is a guy who just played in 2 consecutive Cup Finals with Edmonton. Think he knows what it takes to make a deep run?
Also, Nathan MacKinnon said Brent Burns is basically a bear because he sleeps all day. 

32:38 -  Are you nervous about Avs vs Golden Knights Game 1? Do you still have residual trauma from 2021?
Speaking of trauma, the Cleveland Cavaliers choked away a MASSIVE lead over the Knicks in the 4Q of the Eastern Conference Final Game 1 yesterday. Serious, that was a legendary all-time choke job. Hard to believe.

0:00 - Best two words in sports: Game 7. Buffalo vs Montreal was, as the Scorsese meme goes, Absolute Cinema. Shoutout former Av Alex Newhook for the OT game winner! He's scored 2 Game 7 game-winning goals in the same playoff series. 
Speaking of absolute cinema, how about Wemby carving up the Thunder on the road in Game 1 of the WCF? Wemby has been just as good as advertised, if not better. He's only 22 years old. Strap in, y'all. He's gonna be a problem for a LONG time.

14:51 - Just how bad is Cale Makar's injury? It definitely looks like a shoulder, but it's not officially confirmed yet. Can you afford to sit him if he's not ready? Should he push through no matter what?
After that, people are saying that Nathan MacKinnon is on some sort of revenge tour right now because of the Olympics loss. His silver medal and that stoat plushie are fueling him on a reign of terror through the NHL. Brett says that narrative is false. MacKinnon is motivated because he's MacKinnon. If he won a gold medal with Canada, you're saying he'd be less motivated to win Lord Stanley again?

32:18 -  The Nuggets are probably going to let Valanciunas go. They STILL need a backup center. Or...do they? If they keep going through backup center candidates year after year and can't find a viable option, maybe that's because they don't need one. Their Jokic-based system doesn't require one.

0:00 - Coach Bednar spoke over the weekend about why the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in all of sports. It takes SO MANY factors to win. Some of them are in your control, and a lot of them aren't. 

16:17 - SGA won his 2nd-straight NBA MVP over the weekend and it got Brett thinking...Jokic isn't very involved in Nuggets roster decisions. At least not publicly. Should he be more involved? He's the 3x MVP who's about to sign a super duper max extension. Maybe he SHOULD be more vocal with the front office. 

34:14 - The NBA on Amazon Prime broadcast was pefectly primed to announce the NBA MVP in prime time (pardon the puns). Then, Shams tweeted out the announcement at 7:50am MT. Why would he do that? Did he have ulterior motives for spoiling the MVP announcement like 12 hours early?

0:00 - It's official: the Avalanche will face the Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final. How do we like the matchup? How does Vegas stack up to Minnesota?

14:15 - Happy NFL Schedule Release Day! (yesterday) What did we think of the Broncos schedule release video? How about the schedule itself? The first 6 weeks of the season are a friggin GAUNTLET. 

31:55 - Brett saw the trailer for the new Will Ferrell Netflix show "Hawk" about a washed up golfer attempting to make a comeback. It got Brett thinking...are new comedies just plain bad these days? Are there not many good movies anymore? Or is Brett just getting old?

You guessed it. Today's entire Appetizer Hour is about one thing and one thing only: the Colorado Freakin Avalanche beating the Minnesota Wild in Game 5, winning the series, and punching their ticket back to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2022.

0:00 - What a comeback for the Avs! They immediately went down 3-0 in the first period, tied it late in the 3rd period with quick back-to-back goals, forced OT, when won it in OT. My goodness. That game was anything but pretty, but all that matters is the final score. Happy Trails, Minnesota Wild!

14:51 - Mackenzie Blackwood started in net, got shelled for 3 goals in the first period, so Bednar pulled him and went with Wedgewood the rest of the way. And it worked. After the game, Bedsie said the abysmal start was everyone's fault. It wasn't just Blackwood. It was everyone around him too.
Also, the Avs are proving in these playoffs that they can win every type of game: high-scoring, low-scoring, physical, slow, fast, you name it. You know which teams have that kind of versatility? Championship teams. 

31:21 - You'd better root for Anaheim and Vegas to go 7 games. The Avs need all the rest they can get right now! We need guys like Lehky and Malinski back for the next round.
After that, Nathan MacKinnon caught up with the TNT crew after the game and answered the two burning questions on everyone's minds: how's his nose, and why was he swimming in a hotel pool with flippers?

0:00 - Here we are 2 days later, and Brett still can't that Michael McCarron did what he did in Game 4. Hockey is the only sport in the WORLD where the players are not only allowed to police themselves, but it's encourages and ALLOWED. And yet, he spent the whole game flopping and yapping at the refs. That's certianly a choice.

15:21 - The Broncos will start the year by playing the Chiefs on Monday Night Football...on the road...in KC. Is that a disrespectful move? The Broncos were within spitting distance of the Super Bowl, and yet they didn't earn a home game in Week 1? That doesn't feel right.

32:08 - The Rockies an into an immovable object last night named Paul Skenes. That guy is unbelievable.

0:00 - ONE. MORE. WIN. That's all the Avs need to punch their ticket to the Western Conference Final. They beat the Wild last night in Game 4 and looked COMPLETELY different from Game 3. Much improved. Way more focused & bought in. 

14:51 - Josh Manson got in a scuffle with Michael McCarron last night. He rammed his stick into the side of McCarron's head/neck area. DURING THE GAME, in an intermission interview, McCarron said Manson's a dirty player. Again, he said that DURING THE GAME. That's crazy! He doubled down on the dirtiness in his postgame comments. And honestly. GOOD. You need a pest that gets in your opponent's head.

31:21 - MacKinnon caught a slapshot right in the face. Stopped that puck with his nose. Next period, he was back in the game. Even got the game-sealing empty-net goal. Hockey players are truly built different. 
After that, we learned today that the first Monday Night Football game of the season is scheduled for September 14 between...the Broncos and the Chiefs! Hell yeah, brother. What a way to start the season. But, Brett said this is an indication of something larger...

0:00 - Well, it's not gonna be a 2nd round sweep for the Avs. They fell flat in Game 3 and lost to the Wild 5-1. Why did the Avs play so poorly? What was the cause?

16:31 - On Friday, the Nuggets held their End of the Season press conference at Ball Arena. Josh Kroenke, David Adelman, Jon Wallace, and Ben Tenzer all addressed the media. What did they have to say about the disappointing end to Denver's season, and more importantly, what happens next?

32:34 - The Avs lost Game 3. No need to panic yet! It's playoff hockey. Minnesota is a good team. So, how will the Avs respond tonight? If Minnesota evens the series at 2-2 heading back to Denver, will you be concerned?