Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - NHL SQUAD SHOW: When Will Alex Ovechkin Break The Goal Record?

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Welcome to the NHL Squad Show! Today our hosts Gil Martin (Locked On Islanders), Ian McLaren (Locked On Bruins) and Eddie Garcia (Locked On Kings). Today we’re talking about Alex Ovechkin getting closer and closer to the all time NHL goal record, and who could be a surprise trade piece at the trade deadline in a couple of weeks! Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to Indeed.com/LOCKEDON right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.Trade CoffeeGet 40% off your first order with Trade at drinktrade.com/lockedonnhl. Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more!FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Four Nations tournament is history and it made history. We're going to talk about that. The playoff races resume and the NHL trade deadline is just around the corner. We've got all that and more coming up on today's NHL squad show. You are talking puck with the NHL squad show. From the Oilers to the stars, Golden Knights and the Panthers, the Rangers, Avalanche, and yes, even the Maple Leafs. The Locked-on podcast network brings together all its local. experts to provide the scoops, breakdowns, and comprehensive looks at all the NHL, with plenty of

trash talk to go with it. Don't miss the hard hits and glove dropping hot takes on the Locked-on NHL Squad show. It's time to drop the puck. Gilmartin here and welcome everybody to the NHL squad. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage and join us as we get you ready for another wild week across the NHL. We are part of the Lockdown podcast network. your team every day. I want to welcome my guest today, Eddie Garcia of Locked on Kings and Ian McLaren of Locked on Bruins. Guys, it's a busy time in the NHL. Let's sort of put a bow on the Four Nations right now. Eddie, we'll start with you. How surprised and impressed were you by the way this tournament played out? A little bit surprised, certainly pleasant.

surprised. You know, talked about it on previous squad shows. I was really curious to see how that first game, Sweden, Canada was going to set the tone. And it certainly did. Just great hockey action. Of course, the physical play was something I wanted to see, you know, was keeping fingers crossed. No one would get hurt even though that's not realistic. If you're going to play that kind of passionate, hard hitting physical style of hockey, it's just the price you pay for it. But it was great. It was just, I felt so good for the sport. So many eyeballs watching this that normally wouldn't, just the chatter in different areas that normally wouldn't get the hockey talk.

Whether that sustains, you know, any kind of an audience going forward, we'll see. But at least for one night and for a couple of weeks, it was just something that built to a great crescendo. And, you know, the championship game was just great hockey. It was really a pleasant surprise. And I really loved it. And I think the only thing now I'm concerned about,

that the NHL might do something to screw this up and try and do it every year. You know, like when we had the Winter Classic, it was like, oh, this is amazing. Everybody loves this. Let's do like five of them now. And it was like, no, no, let's just keep the plan. We'll do it every other year. But it was just great for hockey. I was really, you know, sometimes it's hard being a hockey fan.

But I was really just happy for the sport and just really enjoyed it as a hockey fan. Ian? Yeah, I mean, my one complaint since the tournament was announced was that they didn't make it at least six nations. I think the NHL kind of missed an opportunity without having David Posternak represent Czechia, the world champions with games being played in Boston. And similarly with Montreal, they could have showcased the Slovaks and Yerai Slavkovsky as well. I think maybe they could have made it.

The six nations have a couple of games during the day. people will watch afternoon games during the week. But also sensational hockey, it was kind of, I don't want to say a letdown, but a bit of a reality check going back to regular season games on Saturday afternoon after watching the final on Thursday, which was just absolutely electric. But yeah, overall, a success, it'll be nice now to have that rotation between the Olympics. in the World Cup, I'll be interested to see kind of where they place the World Cup moving forward, whether it's in season like this event was or go back to having it in September as it was previously.

Injury concerns always an issue. You know, Shea Theodore gone for a while. Matthew Kachuk out for who knows how long. Just to name a couple of guys, Charlie McAvoy on the Bruins. It'll be interesting to see now to how it has kind of a lot. an LTIR effect on the trade deadline, which is next week. But overall, especially as a Canadian, obviously very gratifying to see Connor McDavid score that goal there last week.

Did you guys expect all this tension between the United States and Canada? I mean, I almost can't believe I'm saying that sentence. I can start there. Yeah, Ian might be better to start, but yeah. Yeah, I certainly did as a Canadian with the, not to get too, deep into it, but, you know, the talk of the 51st state and governor calling our prime minister, the governor and things like that. Certainly up here, there is a lot of, um, yeah, bitter feelings, resentment towards even just the connotation that that would even be something

that that we would want or that's even possible. I know on the weekend, there's, there's been some criticism for our, uh, even Wayne Gretzky up here for when he came out as the auditorary captain for, for team Canada, not wearing anything Canadian, waving to the Americans, giving them the thumbs up before the game, uh, even Bobby Yor penned a column in a paper up here in Toronto in defensive wing, Gretzky, uh, you know, we kind of both know where those guys stand politically. It was interesting that Bobby Orr didn't come out in defensive Canada, but in defensive way in Gretzky.

So yeah, I wasn't surprised at all. Just the way things are going up here. And then it was fueled, you know, in that first game between the two teams with the the Kachuk brothers and the fighting and J.T. Miller, the group chat and all that. So I wasn't surprised at all. And I was glad that Canada did obviously come out on top just to preserve some of that Canadian pride for sure. I guess I would say I was a little bit surprised by it.

I'm not as immersed into it as much as somebody would be in Canada, obviously. I will just say from a sporting standpoint, I don't have any bitter feelings towards Canada at all. As a matter of fact, I'm very grateful for Canada for inventing this wonderful game. That said, the whole atmosphere did add a little bit of a layer for me of us against them, which I kind of really didn't have going into it. And I'll be honest, when the USA lost, I was a little bummed, but I certainly wasn't angry or I didn't lose any sleep over it. I was just more happy that it was great hockey and that it was a win for the sport. But I would say it just a little bit got me invested in it, a little bit more than it would have been otherwise in kind of a feeling of us against them, even though that's not, it was very much on the surface.

It's not very rooted deeply inside me at all. Yeah, I think it brought a lot more attention to the tournament as well. like obviously if the tournament wasn't this politically charged would the USGM have been on Fox News prior to or the phone call before the game a lot of media coverage probably heightened because of that well yeah because of the booing I guess that was part of the anthems that started I think in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago so yeah it definitely definitely heightened the tournament from and we'll see what the NHL is able to do with that added attention and and try to to build on it, I guess. So let me ask both of you this, and it's great. We have one American and one Canadian, so I guess this is the perfect question. Here we are in 2025. Do you think there is parity right now between the United States Hockey Program and Canada's?

Well, USA Hockey's obviously made a ton of strides, right? We've seen it from the World Junior level, you know, trickling down. And I know that I'm sure Ian can talk more about this, the, the, of, you know, where the game is in Canada and, you know, the place of Canadian hockey players in the NHL now. And I know there's been talk about how, you know, goaltending in particular is something that we haven't seen more and more non-Canadians or are being, you know, having better, they're doing better at the goalie position, for example. So, yeah, I mean, I got to give a ton of credit to the U.S. Hockey Development Program and how they've been able to

develop players and really emerge as a hockey power now. Yeah, I mean, for me, there have been international tournaments in the past where there was no question that I thought Canada was going to win. Now, this event was a complete toss-up between Canada, USA for me. US easily could have won. Obviously, it went to overtime. I think in terms of the highest end talent, it's pretty even. at the moment.

And at the junior level, even U.S. has been succeeding more than Canada at the World Junior Tournament. The goaltending was a question. I pointed out several times that the top three goalies in terms of safe percentage heading into the tournament. We're all Canadian and not one of them was at the tournament, including Darcy Kemper on the Kings. Logan Thompson left off because of some beef with his old coaches in Vegas, apparently. I did have no faith in Jordan Pinnock, really going into the final, but he stepped up huge and was one of the reasons why they won for sure. But that certainly the goaltending era of the past where he could rely on Patrick Waugh,

Martin Roder, even Kerry Price. Those days seem to be behind us, and that's definitely adding. to the kind of leveling of the playing field. Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, 20, 30 years ago, I think nobody would have said anybody but Canada, maybe the Soviet Union if you go far back enough, but it's interesting to see where we're at. I still think Canada has a deeper talent pool, perhaps,

but the top of the pool is pretty close right now, I'd say. Yeah, it's, it's close for sure. Yeah. All right, we have got a lot more to discuss on. today's show. Alexander Ovechkin just keeps getting closer and closer to Wayne Gretzky. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the playoff hunt and the trade deadline, all that and more on this week's NHL Squadcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Indeed. You just realize your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just

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need. So let's talk a little Alexander Ovechkin, a hat trick. He is getting closer and closer to Wayne Gretzky's goal scoring record. One thought that crossed my mind, and I don't know if it across too many other people's minds. But when it comes to Gordy Howe and Wayne Gretzky, they also played extensively, well, Gretzky one season in the WHA. Do you think that should be taken into account at all when determining this all-time record?

That's a good question. Yeah, I never thought about that. I think for me, mostly it's the fact that Ovechkin has scored at this rate in this era of the NHHs. is just unbelievable. I think it's so hard to compare eras, but if you were to put Ovechkin or McDavid or Crosby back in the era that

that Wayne Gretzky played in, it would just be kind of night and day, I think. So it's really hard to compare the eras and, yeah, the different ways it was set up in the past, but there's no question that what he has accomplished is just unbelievable. nobody thought this record would ever be touched. And right now, depending on how many more seasons he plays in the NHL, he's going to demolish it, really.

And I don't know if anybody currently maybe Austin Matthews, but I don't think anybody would be really on pace to touch it. So, yeah, going back to the Four Nations, Russia not there. It would have been cool to see the Russians there as well. But to see him playing at such a high level this late into his. career is is really unbelievable. Yeah, I think because he probably should already have the record if it were not for lockouts and COVID and all those kinds of things that maybe that evens it out in some weird way. But yeah, it's, you know, I had been mentioning this before. He had so many games

where he was just getting one. And I'm like, if he can just get a couple of multi-goal games, I think he's got a really good shot at it. And here he comes up with finally his second hat trick of the season, but it's been fun. I'm a little bit curious that maybe Ian could touch on how maybe Canadian fans feel about an Alexander Rovetchen breaking a record held by Wayne Gretzky, a hollowed record like that. For me, I've always really enjoyed watching him play. I love the joy he plays with, just the passion he has.

It's always been a fun player for me to watch. And I think I'm really curious to see how this maybe affects the capitals down the stretch. They've got a huge lead in the metro. So you wonder how do they kind of stay motivated at the end of the year if they're not playing meaningful games? Maybe this goal chase keeps them kind of invested in every game and trying to maybe do this for OV. And of course, he's going to break it next year. But just to see if he could do it this year and have that kind of celebration and have that kind of goal race towards the end of the regular season, I think is something really intriguing to watch. Yeah, I agree.

I think obviously the motivation is there to get the job done. for him. But they're also, like you mentioned, the best team in the East. So I think maybe they'll have that extra motivation of how great would it be to win the cup in the same year that he breaks the record. Crazy. You just mentioned as well that lockout year. He was robbed of his actual rookie season because he was drafted in 2004.

And then that next season was wiped out. So he'd already have the record now, even without COVID. Now, in terms of, you know, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record, for me, it doesn't really matter too much. He still has the points record. And as I mentioned earlier, there's still, yeah, there's not, Wayne Gretzky maybe isn't the most popular Canadian at the moment. Anyways, so I don't think people will be too upset. It's just really hard to not respect what Ovec's. has done. I remember, I think the first time I saw him live was a game in Ottawa, like way back in

the day. I think it was his actual first appearance on hockey night in Canada. And he had four goals in that game. Easily could have doubled that. He just looked like a whole other plane of hockey existence. And I don't think, whatever country you're from, you have to respect him as as the greatest goal score of all time. It's just, it's kind of inevitable. Do you think he does it this year? certainly looks like, yeah, you got the hat trick over the weekend. The Capitol's offense is really flying right now. You know, they have, there's really hitting on all cylinders. And I really do think with what he's got 14 to go, 13, 14 to go, probably double that in game.

So, yeah, he has to score once every other night. I think he does it this season for sure. Yeah, like I said, if he could get a couple of multi-gold games, I said, I thought he definitely had a great shot at it. So this hat trick helps. And look, if you watch that game against the Oilers, they're clearly looking for him at the end of the game. They had it comfortably in hand. And the way they're playing, I wouldn't be surprised that they had more of those types of games, right?

Towards the end of the game where they're ahead, the other team's goalies out, and OV is the king of the empty net goal. So I think that's certainly going to know. Every empty net situation, he'll be, you'll be. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And they'll be looking for it. as you said Eddie, so no doubt about that.

The NHL came back this weekend. How did it look to you after watching Four Nations? Was the caliber of play a little bit of a come down, or were you just happy to have NHL hockey back or a little of boat? Well, if you saw the Capitals play, they were fully rested with no players involved. They looked amazing with a couple of blowout wins. But I mean, and I think Ian touched on it. I think we all understood.

And I know I had some friends tell non-hockey friends, hey, this isn't how it's going to be. If you do decide to check out some more hockey, just know that it's not going to be quite like this, maybe until the playoffs. So I think it was inevitable that there would be a bit of a letdown or a bit of a company. I mean, I think we all just expected that.

So yeah, it was there. But it was also kind of good to have hockey back after, you know, two weeks off. It was like, oh, yeah, we got the season back again. So let's get into it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the first game I watched was Bruins Ducks, and you could certainly tell.

I kind of equated it to watching the Four Nations was like watching regular NHL action, coming back to the regular season was like going to a junior game because there's a lot more mistakes and not quite as crisp as you expect with the best players from every team playing on. I think Brad Marchion even said he kind of was still playing with the Canadian system in mind. So it was an adjustment for the guys coming back from the tournament, from the guys who had been off, you know, vacationing in the sun for a couple weeks. But I think as the playoff push continues the heat up, that we'll get back to that kind of a higher level hockey, for

sure. Do you guys think that the quality of four nations indicates that we just have too many teams in the NHL right now? probably and we'll probably have more yeah we're not going to shrug we're only going to expand so yeah and i mean it's it's good and bad it's not great for the for the quality of game it's obviously good for hockey players because more guys can get jobs but um yeah i think that's fair i think the the nchel does have probably too many teams but unfortunately as we know uh that's not going anywhere and it's only going to if if it's going to do anything it's going to get expanded.

So yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't mind if it meant a team in Quebec City, which should have happened already. But I mean, even if you look at the four nations, there were a couple of guys on team Finland that I wasn't quite familiar with too. So I guess it kind of depends on which countries you're picking from. But certainly with Canada, USA, it was, I mean, to try to compare it to NHL, regular season, New Jersey, Columbus, it's just not going to hit the question.

the same for sure and compared to let's say round two of the stanley cup playoffs how did it yeah true yeah very true yeah even uh the first round i think the first round is always usually my favorite just because of the amount of games and and kind of the parody there but yeah it's the playoffs this year i think might hit different too because of maybe some residual feelings from the the four nations as well i think my hope was going into the four nations that it would be somewhere in between regular season and playoff. I thought that was a realistic goal. And then to have it be, you know, even exceed that was pretty impressive. Yeah, for sure. No doubt. All right. We've got more to get to here on the squad show. The playoff races are heating up. The trade deadline is less than two weeks away. All that and more

coming up on this episode of the NHL squad. So at four nations, do you think there were any players who performed poorly enough that their trade value at the deadline went down? That's a great question. The first name that pops into my mind is Elias Pedersen. I thought he was really mediocre for Team Sweden. And I don't know what's going on with him. And, you know, if we talk trade deadline, Vancouver is a really interesting team out West. I'm curious to see what they're going to do.

He's got the no trade that's going to kick in. He's looked uninterested. They seemed like they made the decision when they shipped off J.T. Miller, right, that he was their guy? I don't know. Was it more of what can we get? What's the best deal we can get? Probably for J.T. Miller. He's looked great in New York and Peterson has still looked very mediocre and uninterested in Vancouver. So I would say that's a guy who didn't help himself as far as, you know, looking like a player that people want to invest in. Yeah, I'm trying to think unrelated or kind of related to that. that I still don't understand why Kyle Connor was scratched in the final game for Team

USA. That was kind of a weird one for me. But yeah, I don't, I'm trying to think on team candidate. If there are any trade candidates, I guess Brad Marshawn, but I don't think he's going to be traded. Yeah, I think Pedersen's, yeah, probably the safest bet there in terms of who didn't really impress in terms of trade candidates. I don't know if you're going to ask this question, Gil, but let me kind of flip it. And I'm really curious, as far as somebody who boosted their trade value, if the St. Louis Blues would be interested in trading Jordan Bennington. Is his value ever going to be any higher than it is right now?

I mean, I know that you can look at who the elite goalies are in the league and maybe his name's not going to come to mind, but the guy won a game seven, the guy won a championship in the four nations. Certainly when it's, you know, the big games, he's risen to the occasion. And there's certainly teams that need goal tending, Detroit, you know, maybe Carolina. Who knows? Maybe Edmondson is looking for a goalie. I mean, so I'm really curious to see if St. Louis, I don't think they want to trade him.

But if they would look into it and say, okay, his values pretty high right now, maybe we can turn him into something. In the regular season, he's been outplayed by his backup. His backup, Joel Hofer has better numbers than him. and he's younger, guy they can build around. So I wouldn't be surprised if that happens at all. Maybe McDavid wants to bring him to Edmonton to kind of rekindle that magic in overtime there. Yeah, very possible.

You mentioned Vancouver, any other teams that you think are on the fence as to whether they should buy or sell? And what do you think they should do? I mean, the Bruins? If you look at the east, I know Don Sweeney has made some comments, you know, is he trying to motivate the team or is he trying to prepare the fan base for,

hey, we may actually not be buyers at the deadline this year, guys. So, Ian, I would turn that over to you and ask you about that. Yeah, I talked about that on Lockdown Bruins on Monday. The fact that he says they're going to take a more cautious approach, that to me signals they're not going to be trading draft picks or anything like that in order to try to go for it this year. I don't believe they're a playoff team. and shouldn't be a playoff team based on kind of their numbers.

I'd put the Rangers in that category as well. We saw them go with picking up J.T. Miller, but they're still even further down the standings than the Bruins. They're actually tied in point percentage, but they're a team that really needs to decide. They've made some really curious moves this year, trading Capocago, who's been amazing in Seattle since being traded, but then adding J.T. Miller, they're not really getting younger,

but they're not getting much better. That's a team that really seems to have lost its way a little bit as well. I'd have to include the Islanders in that category. It's a team that is getting older. You got guys like Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmeri, who are on expiring contracts. The Athletic gave the Islanders a 26% chance of just making the playoffs, let alone doing any damage if they somehow managed to get in.

and yet Lou Lamarillo seems more inclined to add than to sell. Right. I think a lot of teams or a lot of fans as well are kind of looking at the capitals as that model. Like last year, they terrible underlying numbers, terrible goal differential. They squeak into the playoffs, get demolished by the Rangers. But then they come out in the summer and make some pretty savvy moves in terms of sightings and trades. I think that's kind of what in an ideal world. the Bruins would like to do,

although the capitals do have some more kind of homegrown talent and a guy like Connor McMichael or Alexi Prosts who've jumped up and really been contributors for them. But that's probably the retool model that teams are looking at right now for sure. Now, part of that retool model is you had a bunch of a couple of players on LTIR. So that freed up a whole lot of caps a cap to base. You know, that certainly helps. do you think the league needs to address LTIR and change the loophole, the way it exists right now?

I do, but it seems like there is no movement at all to do that. And I've heard comments about that as far as the GM saying the guys are too competitive. They're looking for any edge that they can get. And in the off season, they might be willing to consider it. But then the season comes around and suddenly they're like throwing it out the window. there's no movement for it. So I think they should absolutely fix it. But I don't think there's any,

any momentum to doing that. It doesn't seem to me. Yeah, I don't think so either. And, you know, teams, I don't want to say pay for it in the end. But if they, if teams are trying to add based on the LTIR, they're kind of hurting themselves in the future as well, if they're giving up a lot of like the Bruins, for example, a couple years ago, Taylor Hall was on LTIR.

They went all in and more by sending a first to Detroit for Tyler Bertuzi. And then they had to reclaim that by trading Linus Allmark this past off season. So there are kind of dividends to meet when that does come up. And we probably will see that even some injuries we saw at Four Nations. Jay Teodor, Vegas is probably going to use LTIR. We could see, who knows, if Matthew Kachuk's injury goes, last longer than expected. They could dip into it.

I think it's, yeah, there is a problem with being able to go over the cap in the playoffs, but you do have to pay for that down the road, I guess, if you're adding a big piece. So maybe they see it as balancing out that way. I don't love it myself. If you can have like a $100 million plus payroll in playoffs and you're limited to 80-something in the regular season, but I don't think they're going to be looking to fix that too closely. And if you're a GM, if you're a GM whose job's on the line, you don't care about having to pay for it later, right? So you're just going to try to take it down the world. It doesn't matter.

Right. Exactly. I mean, even if they just modified it. So let's say if it's $85 million during the regular season and make it $95 million for the playoffs, like should there be some kind of guideline for a playoff app? Maybe they just think now that since the cap is projected to go up. So, So far in the next few years, maybe it won't be as big of an issue because how many teams are actually going to spend up to the ceiling, the new ceiling. Maybe it'll just kind of course correct with the cap going up. Or, yeah, they could cap it at a certain percentage above, but really doesn't seem like they really think that there's much of a problem. Yeah, looks like they are full steam ahead with the status quo. Yeah, I think some changes would be a good thing.

Gentlemen, I want to thank you both for joining us today, and it's a great discussion that you both had. I want to thank you for making Locked-on NHL Squad. Your first listen today for your second listen. Find Locked-on Fantasy Hockey. Become a fantasy hockey expert and get the edge over your league mates with daily tips from our host, Steel, and Flip. Find Locked-on Fantasy Hockey on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. It's part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Gil Martin on behalf of Eddie Garcia and Ian McLaren.

Thank you so much for watching the NHL Squad Show.