Starting Slow
00:12 I'm Ryan Lambert from the Perfect Takes Newsletter and the Hockey News. I am Sean McNeugh from The Athletic. And boy, it was an eventful week for being, you know, the week where people play games like four through seven or whatever, you know, half the teams are up to now. It's very newsworthy. But that's how it goes. It's, this is always the first tough stretch of the season where it's like. Like, all right, we got past the first few games where we can overreact to everything. And now you kind of look up and you're like, oh, there's like 17 months of this left.
00:51 Cool. Yep, that's right. No, I was literally writing last night about like, boy, the kings do not look good at all, huh? They just don't look good. Okay, well, they have 80 games left in the season. So that's, you know, that's just the cost of doing business, I guess. But let's start first, I suppose, with really like the worst news imaginable for the New York Rangers. Igor Shasturkin kind of jams his leg on the goalpost, doesn't give it all.
01:26 And he's done for the year. Yep. Holy moly. That's, I mean, it's awful in every way. It almost, it, the. thing that makes it even worse for Rangers fans is like this has been a whole week of miraculously good injury news on everyone else and then they get the the absolute worst case scenario I mean this has got to be when you're talking about players a team can't afford
02:00 to lose yeah he's up there with like McDavid yeah I mean even McDavid you go well they got dry sidles got to win another MVP or you know Bouchard's got to go nuts. I mean, there's, well, I guess, okay, so let's start there. Yep. Is this actually the end of the Rangers? Because it's in a, they've had a good start. Mm-hmm.
02:26 Sure. Okay. They've had a good start in large part because their goalies have extremely high, say, percentages. Yeah, and shooting percentages, but yeah, that's. Yeah, well, you know. Yeah, I, I'd love to. be the contrarian or go against the grain or whatever and be the guy who's like, well, actually, maybe they're not done because dot, dot, dot.
02:52 I just have not been able to get there. Like I, you know, they looked fine on Sunday night against the Canucks, but, you know, whatever. They didn't look like a team that was shutting it down or anything like that. Yeah, they're, they're 48% of the expected goals, I'm sorry, 51% of the expected goals, which is fine, but 47, 48% of the scoring chances, the high dangers is like 50, 50. And to your point, they haven't really, you know, you don't look at their schedule and go, well, they played the Hurricanes 12 games in a row and look how they did. You know, they got insanely good goaltending. from both him and Dylan Garand. Garand, Garand, you know, again, I watch the games on mute,
03:46 so sometimes I get these things wrong. But, you know, this is one of those situations, I think, where you go, okay, the critical consensus on this team at the beginning of the year was they need Igor Shosturkin to have a Vesna-worthy season. They missed the playoffs by a pretty good margin last year, and he was seventh in Vesna. voting. They looked around and they said, only six guys in the whole league better at this position
04:13 than him. And they didn't come close to making the playoffs. So between Garand and Corpusallo, who's out another three, four weeks on his own as well, I don't see a lot of answers coming. So what do you think is most likely a month from now, let's say? Dylan Garan is still the guy you know Corpusolo's Corpusillo's coming back but Garan is the guy he you know
04:47 let's say any range from he's the new hamburger who's just fantastic to like he's held down the fort to even maybe he hasn't been good and Krister is just you know I don't know this is this is our guy this is what we're rolling with or that
05:05 the Rangers have acquired a notable goaltender to be the starter. Yeah, and I mean, people immediately were like, well, Connor Hellabuck, and it's like, the Rangers are not in the position organizationally to be giving up futures, and they don't have like a ton of like unbelievable futures or anything in the first place. But like futures and a guy off their roster to, you know, turn themselves in, create for themselves a situation where next year they're asking either Shasturkin or Halebuck to waive their no move.
05:42 Well, I mean, and presumably it would be Halebuck. You're not going to carry $20 million worth of goaltending, even though it would be extremely cool to see arguably the two best guys in the league sharing the crease. But the other piece of this is I'm sure Connor Hullabuck is eager to get out of Winnipeg and get going, but do you want to wave? you're no trade to go to a place that's going to trade you again. So you've got to do all this again in a year, hopefully under more cooperative terms. But you're like you would think Connor Halibuk wants to go somewhere, buy a house, plunk down and say this is, you know, say to his family, this is where we, we finish the career for the next few years.
06:30 So I don't even know if he'd be interested. To me it's just It's just Like Pundits who are like Well I don't have like an imagination I can't see anything Like I can't imagine a world outside my immediate vicinity
06:46 So I was just looking at the rumors And I saw Connor Halibuck's name And I said to myself well that's a goalie Yep And you're like yeah okay So fucking what You know like
06:58 There are other goleys out there You know like the Montreal's situation is becoming more interesting, let's say, just in terms of Jacob Fowler comes in and plays exactly how I would have thought he would play. And Dovish seems like he's going to be their guy up there as well. And so where does that leave Sam Montenbo? Well, maybe he can play for the ring. Montembo's a guy that everyone's been trying to trade for months now. And that would probably make sense.
07:33 not going to cost you a ton. It'll maybe cost you more than it would have a week ago because Montreal is going to twist the knife a little bit, but that one makes some sense. What about, let me throw the other one at you that I've heard suggested, which is one of your favorites, good old Jordan Bennington in the final year of his contract. Again, it just becomes what does he cost the Rangers? My thing is, and this is to your point, like, Montembow probably doesn't cause, like, he might cost you like a third round pick or something, right? Just like get him off. Because Montreal is not desperate to get rid of him, obviously, but they're in a situation where they kind of probably shouldn't want him around. Like, just hanging over the team is like, this is a guy we've got to play every eighth game or something, you know? So, and just typically you wouldn't want to carry three goalies anyway. So my, that's, that's my thing.
08:36 It's the hardest thing in the world to do. Yeah, well, I just think, you know, unless you're Edmonton and you don't believe in any of your goalies, so you're like, well, if we carry nine of them, we don't have any problems at all. Exactly. One of them has to be good, right. It adds up to two goalies. That's exactly right. And so it just, it just doesn't make sense for me that they would, again, like, unless Binnington cost them basically nothing. And frankly, I think St. Louis should.
09:04 should want to just be done with all that. It just doesn't make sense for me. Because at that point, again, like, why wouldn't the Rangers just go like, okay, and this is kind of my take on it, is go out and sign a Peter Morazic, a James Reimer, one of these guys who's on the beach right now, waiting for the phone to ring. I did see some people suggest Jonathan Quick, who I believe works for the organization already. Yeah, I think that was Emily Kaplan had something where she said, you know, he's happy in retirement. But if they were to ask, he might consider it.
09:46 So on here, here's what I'm thinking. If I'm Chris Drury, well, look, we're not making the playoffs, right? And that's not a knock on any of the, you know, Garand and corporate. Well, maybe it's a little bit of a knock on Corpusala. But, like, I don't think Dylan Grant's bad or anything. I just think they're in a situation where it's like, we all know what this is now, you know? And so you just, you give Jonathan Quick a contract because you want to talk about like Marx, you know? Like the way they talked about Jonathan Quick, even last year when he wasn't very good in New York, you would have thought this guy, you know, delivered them.
10:29 a Knicks championship. You know what I mean? They're just like, oh, my God, Jonathan Quirk. And so here's the gimmick you can run. Let's sign Jonathan Quick. Oh, you know what? They're making the best of a bad situation. This guy's a fan favorite.
10:42 He's a lifelong Ranger fan, blah, blah, blah. And that kind of distracts from, does he help them at all? Well, no. Who cares? In fact, he might help them be worse. And then, but then if you're Chris Drew, you get to go, well, I tried. And, oh, it turns out we had the, we can. came up with the 29th worst record in the league.
11:03 Oh, we're picking in the top four? That's crazy. Well, anyway, we'll see you at the draft. I guess, yeah, I hadn't really thought about it, but I guess there is an element of this where it could give the ranger's permission to bottom out in a way that they weren't comfortable with before. Either in the eyes of the, like, the fans in the media or just ownership, right? Chris Durry's got to go deal with James Dolan's kid.
11:29 Now, which by the way, crazy coincidence that he was the most qualified person to run the hockey team. Yeah, isn't that wild? Yeah, now you go to him and you say, look, boss, we really, we had something here. We had actually got this. I mean, you saw it. We started four and one. But darn it, you know, we lost our guy. I guess now we have to go in the tank and print up another letter to the fans.
11:59 You got to give me my... Would this be Drury's third rebuild by now? Well, so here's the thing. I think this is all part. The letter two was last season. It was in 2026. Wow. And obviously that was just to soften the beaches for the Panarin trade, right?
12:16 They were like, look, we got to trade this guy. He's not going to... We don't want to bring him back, blah, blah, blah, because the price is too high. I wonder if they would say that knowing where prices went this summer, but, you know, hindsight's 2020. It's just, the letter was in this calendar year. So it's so easy to just be like, this is all part of it. Like the, the number of excuses that have lined up for Chris Drury to say, might as well
12:47 try to finish 30 second is, is really, again, my take, beneficial to them. Whether they see it the same way, I kind of doubt. but it's just the opportunity is there to throw your hands up and go, look, we tried. If we had Shosturkin, we feel like we could go on a bit of a run. But now, even if we make the playoffs, we're out in the first round. Is anybody happy with that? Might as well just, you know, see if J.T. Miller wants to waive that no trade.
13:22 Yeah, yeah. But this is a team that's five and two right now. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. If they, let's say they beat the lightning tonight, does that move to date? Like, you're, you tend to be a big sample size guy, so I'm guessing like. Only, only 76 games to go on this one, I think, at that point. Yeah.
13:43 I mean, I guess I, it just feels like they have to write it out until they get down to, like, at least 500. You can't pull the shoot when you're like. Oh, yeah, for sure. But that could happen sooner than later. Again, it's, honestly, it's the fact that it's happening. alongside the Corpus Sallow injury. You know?
14:01 Like, him being out a month in addition means they're going to have to, unless they go out and just sign a veteran or trade for one and give up relatively little, they're going to be in a situation where they're giving their AHL starter NHL games. Right? And how long of a timeline do they want to do that for? I don't know what the answer is But I got to think to your point given the start They don't want to do that
14:36 But we'll see I guess It's brutal for them Because again I'm not going to sit here and say I was like I was totally wrong about the Rangers They can go on or no of course not Let's be real here But this just gives them a little bit of flexibility I think.
14:59 Like, narratively. You know, we'll see. Okay. Let's stay in the metro here and talk about a bunch of teams that are off to pretty bad start, starting with the Philadelphia Flyers. Because this is
15:19 all you can really talk about at the beginning of the year, in my opinion, is teams that are putting themselves behind the eight ball. Where it's like, even if I believed the whatever, five or six teams that we're about to talk about who are off to slow starts, even if I believed they were good, now the pace they have to, like the flyers are going to have to play at like a 115 point pace
15:42 to get to 96 points or whatever it is, right? So that's why it's, um, that's why it's interesting to talk about the flyers and not so much like whoever, the mannath who look like their world beaters all of a sudden. So let's talk about the Flyers. What's going on there? Yeah, they stink. Ooh, yeah. Yeah, congratulations to the Flyers on being this year's early train wreck team.
16:14 The competition was tough. We all figured the Red Wings would be up there. I mean, the flames are worse. You could argue the Blackhawks are worse, but those are teams that didn't make the playoffs. And the fly, like, I... I may have said it last week. If you looked at that metro last year and you're like, well, that's crazy that the Flyers and penguins both made the playoffs, let alone play at each other, at least one of those spots
16:44 is going to be free, but it's going to be the Penguins. Like the Flyers, you could at least look at and go, oh, young talent, you know, on the way up. Yeah, sure. And instead, it's just been disaster, start to finish. I don't think anything has been good. Maybe some things have been worse than others, but this is just a total mess.
17:09 And this is starting to, we're not there yet, but this is starting ahead in the last year's Canucks direction. Because remember, nobody thought the Canucks were going to be the worst team in the league last year. Not too many of us picked them to make the playoffs, but they were expected to be like an 80-something point team. and then it just, it all fell apart and never got put back together.
17:35 And I don't know. I mean, what, what do you highlight as the problem? Like if you're, you're Danny Breyer, I've just called you into my office. I'm Concast, the entire entity of Comcast, and I'm like, fix this. Where do you even start? Well, okay. I've been, I wrote about this last night. And I think it's publishing either today or tomorrow on the hockey news.
18:06 Like, the problem is that there are like 50 different angles of attack here, if you want to say here's what the problem with the Flyers is. Is there a goaltending bad? Yeah, it sucks, right? Is there, like, shooting percentage bad? Yeah, it sucks. Is their expected goals percentage under 34 right now? Yes, it is. Is their scoring chance difference minus 83?
18:40 Yes, it is. And this is in seven games, right? Are the veterans scoring? No, they are not. Are the kids scoring? No, they aren't. Does the coach have any answers at all? No, he doesn't.
18:55 and so like what do you say? This is a problem of team construction. This is a problem where the coach doesn't have any answers. This is a problem where guys are hurt. This is a problem where because of the expectation that they should be vaguely playoff competitive this year
19:20 after what they did last season, which was a total fucking fluke. they can't just go okay let's have fucking Porter Martone get out there and play 21 minutes because who gives a shit right they want they need they feel like they need to be competitive but for me I think it was in the athletic and the daily inquire they both sat down with Danny Priere and he basically said like look this is a young team
19:52 and we warned people that this could have And it's like, you don't want the word warned in your, in your, uh, GM's first statement of the season. Mm-hmm. My opinion, you know, um, I, again, like, I think this is just kind of every problem being a worst case scenario at the exact same time, basically. Like, you check the record. You can, you can go back and listen to when they hired, uh, Rick Talk.
20:25 or were never that month where they were going to hire Rick Tocket and they just weren't doing it, you can check the record. I think I said on this show and certainly in print, who knows where, are we sure Rick Tocke's a good NHL coach? Are we really sure about that? I feel like we did this the year he got fired in Vancouver. And I was like, I, you know, I kind of think he's still good. And then, you know, last year I didn't get to take a victory. lap last year, but last year went in the column of, yeah, pretty good coach.
21:01 This year, not so much. Well, yeah. I mean, you remember to tell Dan Vladar, go out there and be 915 for us all year, Big Cat. What do you say? Ladar's like, well, will that trick the front office into giving me? Yes, it will. It absolutely will. Yeah, do you want $25 million all you got to do?
21:23 So, yeah, it's just true. truly, um, what I would say it is, Sean, and this is again, something Rick Tocket knows all about. We're getting to be into finger pointing season. Well, don't look at me. I'm the,
21:41 is that guy over there? You know? And so, I don't, you know, we've seen some reports that Rick Tocket is not on the hot seat. Oh, okay. But I do have, I do have to, yeah, right. But I do have to,
21:58 because again, if you're Danny I'll put it this way Danny Breyer was so sure that this roster wasn't good enough that he was willing to blow up the entire NHL salary
22:12 infrastructure to sign Leo Carlson right? Like he's like we'll pay him more than Connor McDavid. What do we do shit? That's how desperate for help they were
22:25 and then they didn't get Carlson and they were like forget it then. We don't care. We'll just call it a wash. I don't think there's been a team that has looked this bad with this bad of a record in the salary cap. It's not like, oh, you know, a loss is a loss and hey, you know, we need to just get out there. But we're playing pretty good.
22:52 Losing two. No, they stink top to bottom. I'm looking at their page right now or like that at their, well, yeah, their page on. hockey reference. How many players do you think they have that have multiple goals and multiple assists this year? So more than one, more than one goal and more than one assist. Oh, the answer, I looked this up last night.
23:17 There is not a single guy. Their leading score, Travis Kineckney, who has missed two games, has three assists. Yeah. And if you're waiting for me to say, like I just said three, that he has three points. if you're waiting for me to tell you who he's tied with, he's not. He is alone. That's exactly right. Their leading goal scorer is Mitchkov.
23:39 He's got two goals and zero assists. And is a minus seven. He's playing badly. I mean, that's really the big story to me is like if they were getting smoke because, you know, Travis Sandheim took a step back and whatever, like, Christian Dvorick's not doing much. Well, I mean, Sanhimes a minus 10. I know. So, like, if you're doing all that, you go, okay, we still got Porter Martone, we got Mitch Kov, we got Trevor Zegris, who's young.
24:08 None of those guys are producing. None of those guys are doing anything. Well, yeah, well, and so let me say two things. First of all, and I think this is important to note, like, even though they are not winning these games and they're not looking good losing these games. They're not letting the fucking kids off the leash at all. Martone's playing 13 and a half
24:37 minutes a night. Mitchkov's playing 15 minutes a night. You know? Zegris is up to 18, but even then, like, that's not that's not like tops among forwards or anything. Like,
24:54 just like if you're going to let the guy, like, if you're going to suck, let the kids rip. Let the, let Let them go out and fucking... Yeah. Like, have fun on the power player or something. Like... Like, to some extent as well, where it was like... Yep.
25:09 Like, Rick. Although, I mean, if I'm Rick talking, maybe I'm like, yeah, okay, give me some actual job security. Like, give me, you know, before I start doing that, because... Well, okay. How about the fact that he's still got fucking three and a half, or whatever, three plus years left on a Five-year deal. Like, that's, that's why I think he's not on the hot seat is they just signed this guy. And if I remember right, it's like five million bucks a year.
25:39 It's not like they got him off the fucking discount rack, you know? And so, like, that's his job security is, what are you going to do? Pay me to sit at home for 3.75 seasons or whatever. Like, it's not, it's not reasonable that they would do that, like, unless they really want to light some money on. fire, which I guess the flyers probably can. But with that having been said, I do think that they are like going to be looking to make some changes here. And again, Breyer's going, oh, we're young, blah, blah, blah.
26:14 I got to pull up their puckpedia page here, but I got to think we're in a situation where they're going, who's an old guy we can trade? Like a, like a, not that he's super old, but like like a connectnie, like a, like a Sean Couturier, where they're going. where it's like how would you like to wave a no move clause? How would you like to be the kind of guy
26:36 that does that for us? Because these guys aren't moving the fucking needle and if we're going to pretend they're young, they're not that young. I looked it up last night. They're like 10th youngest team in the league. It's not like they're,
26:50 you know, they're playing a bunch of fucking 21-year-olds. So to me, like maybe I am trying to move Sannheim. Maybe I am trying to move Connect me. Just because it's like we've got to do something here.
27:07 And if, again, what kind of a pace do they need to play at to even be a 95 point team the rest of the way? I, you know, I can't do the math off the top of my head really quickly. But let's say it's 110 points. You think there's 110 pace team for 77 games or whatever the number is? I would feel surprised. I don't. They don't.
27:34 So shake it up. Maybe you can work your way back into it. And again, they've had a tough schedule. Carolina, twice, Boston, Ottawa, you know, blah, blah, blah. You can go down the list. But they stink and they probably can't change anything about the coach and maybe not about the roster. So I don't know what to tell you.
27:57 By the way, Dan Vladar full no move through 2030. No, I'm sorry, 2020. On this year, though. Because this... Uh-huh. Sure is. Okay. All right. Cool, cool, cool.
28:13 No move. Not even no trade. No move. They can't send him to the miners. They can't wave him. None of that shit. Not great. Not great.
28:23 I don't have... Tough. Nope. Ideas to fix this. This is... I don't think they do either. So, I mean... Do you just sit back
28:37 and hope it sorts itself out, like say, hey guys, this is adversity, work through it. What choice do they have? They're a minus 106 shots team right now in seven games, minus 106. That's hard to do.
29:03 Yeah, that is... They're getting out shot by like 15 a game? Is that how that math works? Yeah. I think it is. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Holy moly, man.
29:20 I, you know, I wouldn't have given Vladar that contract, but that's just me. Let's move on to a team that's actually even worse than the Flyers. The 05 and O Flames. Another very, very bad team. But this one, I mean, they stink, but they're supposed to stink. And here's the other thing. 50% of the expected goals in all situations. So this is just like a talent problem, which everybody knew about.
29:56 You know? They actually, yeah. It's not like they're any good. And it's not like anyone expected them to be good. But they have been just super unlucky. And this is all part of, you'd rather be, like, play well and be unlucky. Mm-hmm. If you're in their position, if you're rebuilding, which they obviously are.
30:21 I guess you would, but also. So, look, they've got a shot at the first overall pick this year, a very good shot. That's right. Yeah, you'd like to be good and still losing. You know, you'd love to go 0 and 82 while having all the numbers say that you deserve much better. But I think this early in the season, yeah, if you're going to stink, stink, you know? Sure. I'm obviously with you.
30:51 And like also maybe, hopefully if you're the flames, this convinces someone to come along and be like, yeah, we'll take Ryan Strom off your hands. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's the thing. Calgary has. We'll take Jacob Middleton. We'll take, we'll take Zach White Cloud. They've stripped it down, right?
31:06 Like, you're not getting, which in a way makes it, it, like there's no rush. Not that you ever rush to trade a guy, but there's nobody on this roster you're getting a first round pick for anyway. I guess you just, it's kind of that thing of do we, like, how much of a loser do you want to be? And how much damage does that potentially do? And in the case of the flames, it's not like they have a blue chip 18 year old sitting on the roster who's now got to suffer through all this losing. It's, uh, yeah, the closest thing you would say in St. Perak, right?
31:44 And like, you know, he seems like Conner's area, maybe, but obviously. obviously not. Well, the other thing with Zary is he's like 25. Yeah, he's older than you think, yes. Yeah. The only other guy, like Matt Faye Greed and Idaar Sunyev, like these are young-ish players on that roster. I know for a fact that Sunniyev is a rookie this year because he played college hockey last season, so I just remember that.
32:16 But it's not like you're looking at Idaer. Sunyev, who was a third round pick maybe, going, there's our future All-Star. You know, he seems like he's a really good young player and that's about it. So this is, look, my only criticism of the Flames, like, approach in the last couple of years is that they were outwardly saying it was like being reported that their plan was, but we got to be good when the new rank opens. and this team just feels a million miles away from that. That's their stated goal. So for me, I think it's great that they suck. They should be trying to get all these first round picks
32:59 and as high as possible, right? I think that's exactly what they should be doing. But I don't know if they think that because I'm looking at their upcoming draft picks. All just a one first rounder every single. single year from now to 2030. A bunch of second rounders mixed in, but seconds aren't first, you know? So, yep.
33:31 I feel a lot, like, if I'm a flames fan, yeah, you're always kind of hoping that you're the miracle team, maybe, but I'm, I'm okay with this. What's, okay, of the three teams we just talked about, flames, flyers, Rangers, what's, What's the podium look like for misery right now? I think if you're a flame strain, you went into the year going, we're going to be bad. Right. There was, nobody was under any illusion. And the Rangers, you know, you can say, look, we were, we were supposed to be vaguely competitive.
34:09 But a guy who's like a top five player in the world went down. What can we do? You know? Whereas if you're the flyers, you're like, we thought we'd be good. and we're as bad as the Calgary Flames, I'm going to jump in the damn Scoople River. Yeah, to me it's pretty clearly Flyers 1, Rangers 2, Flames 3. And I think there's big gaps between each of them.
34:38 Well, we're not done yet because we have some other teams that are bad as well. Oh. How about these Los Angeles Kings, 02 and 2. Now, granted, they got games in hand on literally everybody in the league except Columbus. But they don't have a win. They look okay, I guess. But their problem is exactly what you would have fucking guessed the King's problem is. They can't get anywhere near the net.
35:08 They don't play with, like, a lot of what you would call pace. They're more, I guess, is permissive the word? They don't lock it down nearly as well as they use. used to. A lot of scoring chances against. And what do you know? They, they, uh, their goaltending sucks. Who, who'd have seen that coming? You know? So I don't know what they're, yeah. I mean, I, I, I don't know either. It's, it's been, it's weird, because the Kings are a team that nobody has liked for years now. And, and, you know, obviously I'm not disparaging the fans. I'm saying that, like, from the outside, nobody's looked at the Kings and been like, this is a team that can do some damage.
35:55 this has been the classic get into the playoffs and get smoked in the first round. But because of that, they've always been a team that you write out of the playoffs and then at the end of the year, they're there. And you're like, oh, God, really? You guys made the playoffs? Cool. You're going to play Colorado? Awesome. You're not winning a game, are you?
36:16 No. Okay. And so I don't want to write them off, especially after four games. because I could see them plotting their way to another 94 point season and then getting their doors blown off by whoever they face in round one. But yeah, I mean, this is this is not good and it does. It's kind of the worst case scenario,
36:45 but certainly within the range of predicted outcomes, right? Like, it's not, it wasn't hard to envision them starting O2 and 2. and having all the exact problems we're talking about. Right? But I think we've talked about this before. Like, look at how old Ken Holland is. Look at how old all the guys he brought. You don't bring in the guys he brought in this summer,
37:12 including Peter Lavie, Alet, going like, well, we make the playoffs, we don't make the playoffs. It's all the same to us. Let's just let the trip fall where they may. They were, you know, capital G, capital F, capital I going for it. And it turns out that, like, again, it's only four games. They got fucking 80 of them to go. But there is nothing here that is encouraging about this team.
37:36 I think that's a good way to put it. Yeah, it's... And this one feels, again, kind of like the flames. This one feels expected-ish. I still think they'll be better than we think. I mean, obviously losing Kopitar was massive. Yeah In theory
37:59 Panarin replaces that in his first full year But that's that's tough Man And they he Did you know this? He leads their team in time on ice right now Really like a not just for forwards but Correct.
38:13 Yeah he plays more than Dowdy Who by the way is second on the team in time on ice And if you're wondering at home Yeah those guys are 34 and 36 years old Huh Interesting Yeah, like, my problem with it is this It is basically that
38:33 Like, if you're not going to be that good Let Brant Clark play 21 minutes a night, not Drew Doughty. You know what I mean? Like if you're not going to be that good, Let Quentin Byfield or whoever, you know, Be the guy who's carrying the big minutes And maybe they get killed. You want to put them in a sink or swim situation?
38:57 I think that's great. You know, maybe they sink, maybe they swim. Either way, everybody on this team is like 38. This is the oldest team in the league. And they have a coach that I, okay, where would you rank, like, put Peter Levillette in a coaching tier, S, A, B, C, whatever it is. Yeah, I think he's a B. Upper B, right?
39:21 Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of what worries you in again. It's four games in L.A. but like Lavell that's one of those guys that the book on him is he'll help you to start. He's got a shelf life. So you expect year one to be the good year. And then maybe you get diminishing returns from there.
39:42 And yeah, not so much. And the other thing too is like if you look at the standings, and again, it's fucking four names. But a lot of teams in the Pacific are off to, you know, with the exception of Calgary, basically, a lot of teams in the Pacific are off to better than expected starts. Right. Seattle is in a playoff spot as we speak, for example. Vancouver, I mean, they look bad, obviously, but they're doubling up L.A. in points right now. You know, San Jose, we expect to be pretty good all year. Anaheim looks great.
40:24 Vegas is looking pretty good, but they're, you know, that's expected. And Edmonton doesn't have a regulation loss yet. So the Kings can start a little slow and maybe go, well, who cares? But they are not getting any help from anybody else in that division with the exception of Calgary, who they should have finished ahead of anyway, you know.
40:51 That's my thing with the Kings is. again, just the pace you have to play at, even if you drop five games, the pace you have to play at picks up kind of quickly. Two other teams that suck. I don't think anybody's surprised by this. Chicago. And by the way, I should say,
41:16 what I'm saying, they're off to bad starts, they suck, whatever. They are the only team. in the league that would be that would need multiple wins to get back to 500 right now. So yeah, they stink. Remember when people were like, I don't know, I mean, they added Patrick Kane. So remember that? I don't remember people being too excited about that other than nostalgia play.
41:49 Well, again, and boy, did you see they at they were like, hey, we're bringing back any Olchuk as a fan ambassador. Yes. Yeah. Man, what a fucking life ready, old chuck. Real break in case of glass like, or a break glass in case of emergency guy of like, hey, we need a little bit of fan goodwill. How would you like $40,000, Eddie? You come through, you shake some hands.
42:16 You maybe try to do a little song and dance to keep people from looking at the on-ice product. That would be great. Thank you so much. But yeah, you can say, oh, they don't have butard, well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sorry, man, the season is, I'm calling it right now. The season is over in Chicago. Okay.
42:38 See, I will not go that far. It's over. It is fucking over. And I'll tell you. In that division, the season is over. To me, the thing about the Hawks going into the year, the question was always, can they tread water long enough that
42:59 Connor Bedard can get back? And you said that thinking that we are talking a month. Now, as we're recording this Tuesday morning, we think Connor Bedard might play tonight. It hasn't been confirmed, I don't believe. That's a game time decision, a later today decision. and maybe you know the answer by the time you hear this.
43:26 We do not right now. But, I mean, it sounds like his return is very imminent, which is significantly earlier. So even despite that, though, they're one and five. That's right. That's- With a minus 14 goal difference. The only team's worse in the entire league are Philadelphia and Calgary. Yeah.
43:50 He's, boy, he better hit the ground running, man. You know what? Maybe I shouldn't say the season's over. If he can play at 150 point pace, they might have a chance. There you go. To be the eighth place team in the Western Conference. So you're telling me there's a chance. You know what?
44:12 I'm sure if I went to Moneypuck right now and looked it up, they would tell me, in fact, Chicago has a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs or whatever it is. Let's have a little looks a year. Chicago has a 5.4% chance of making the playoffs. We did it. You know? No, but they got Patrick Kane, so it's actually cool. You guys like that.
44:39 It is cool. You like that here, right? No, it sucks. You gotta have something, man. Come on. What do you do? Like, you're telling me you're not, you don't have your little face pressed up against the TV when your favorite wrestling show brings back some guy that you remember from before and the theme music hits? Not really.
45:01 This is real jingling keys. We're doing it. We're shaking them around. You like that, right? You like when the keys jingle? On behalf of people who do like when the keys jingle. Oh, fucking. It's a pretty good bit.
45:19 Well, you know, I like when I'm talking to my dad and he covers his face and I go, where did my dad go? What? And then he takes his hands away and he's my dad's back. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm glad we're on the same page. That's Eddie old trick.
45:35 It's a great magic trick that all dads can do. And it's cool that when teams spring back former players. Can I say, by the way, I was really upset when Duncan Keith took my nose. He hasn't given it back. You should pursue a lawsuit or something. Hello, the police. Yeah. Yeah.
46:01 Finally, the Red Wings, it's like a whole thing with them. Yeah. What were your thoughts on the Montreal fans? I feel like that's the most interesting Detroit thing so far this year that actually happened as opposed to waiting for this to happen. Yeah. Hey, I'd be working the fucking refs too, you know what I mean? I'd be in there going, oh, I love this guy. Because even if I don't actually love them and want the team to give up a bunch of assets to get him and all that kind of thing, it is fun to just fuck with people. right like this is a team in your division twist the knife fuck with them you know that's that's just good clean fun and and tom mclellan being like i'm not going to talk about it anymore guess what big dog you're you're got a game tonight you're talking about it after i don't care i don't care so here
46:56 here's my question was that smart montreal fans screwing with a division rival or was that Montreal fans kind of showing their bellies that, yeah, no, no, we want the scraps of the crap. Like, we, we actually do want this guy. And even though we would absolutely lose our minds, if anyone ever did this to us, we, we want that guy doing it to you to be on our team. I mean, this is the sport of hockey, Sean. The number of guys in this sport where their whole selling point is, well, I mean, he's a huge
47:35 piece of shit, but you want them on your team. You know what I mean? Very fair. Very fair. Brad Marshan. Tom Wilson. The number of times it's like, well, that guy just elbowed an opponent in the face like fucking
47:54 macho man Randy Savage, you know? And then all the fans of the team that he plays for, that guy in this exam, example, they're like, yeah, but you'd fucking kill them on your team and you're, you know what? You're right? I would.
48:11 So it's the same thing. And this is what Larkin said. It's the best atmosphere in hockey or whatever the quote was. He should be saying shit like that. And they should be trying to, again, if I'm the Canadians, I do want Larkin. He's a good player. He's not as good as anybody would like him to be, I think. But he's a good player.
48:32 And so Montreal, especially given their mediocre start, should be like, okay, what are we going to do here? Do you think he would consider Montreal? He kind of sounded like, I mean, I'm reading an awful lot in. In one of those, like, what is he supposed to say situations? If he was like, no, tell him to go to hell. I mean, he certainly can't do the whole no, I'm a red wing. I don't, yeah, I don't want to hear that. Well, I mean, the impediment to it is he doesn't want to play in Canada.
49:11 Now, what if Dylan Larkin came out as a blockhebequa guy? Okay. He's like, he's like, I actually don't agree that I play in Canada. Yeah, everyone's been speculating about my politics. It's time to find it. Yeah. Hell, that could be a good reason for him to go to Edmonton, too, you know? But, yeah, to me, it's all in the game a little bit, you know?
49:42 You're going to be the Red Wings, and you're going to be like, I don't know, are we going to trade them? Are we going to sign our 22-year-old defenseman who we think is a future cornerstone of the franchise? Are we going to bring back Alex to Rickett? Montreal fans are going, we're just going to fuck with you then. If this is going to be your attitude, we're going to do it. I think it's great. I like that. Still no, nothing on Edvinson, by the way.
50:08 Insane. Just nothing going on. Crazier every week. They're one three and one and they're like, we got to hold the line. Just give them the fucking money. We're going to blink first. Oh, my God. What a stupid fucking sport.
50:24 Anyway, that's all the teams that are more than one game away from being 500. So let me ask you this to wrap up this segment. Then we'll take a break. Which, give me a quick ranking of those teams. The Flyers, the Flames, the Kings, the Red Wings, and the Blackhawks. One, two, three, four, five, most likely to make the playoffs. Give me Kings won. I agree.
51:01 Give me All right. Kings one flames five. And now I'm going to kind of, I mean, I'm going to say Flyers 2, Wings 3, Hawks 4. I go I go wings to Flyers 3, but I think we're, you know, we're in the same ballpark on all that. Anyway, yeah, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. This week's episode is brought to you by our good friends at MintMobil.
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55:57 All right, we're back. And, well, you know, we talked about, all the teams that are bad in the first segment. Here's a question. Who's doing well? And I think the answer you'll find, Sean, is more teams than you would think. There are a couple of teams that are like middling and like unexpectedly. But the number of teams that are doing well and surprisingly so is kind of high, I think.
56:29 So let me start this by saying what the current playoff picture is by points percentage. And I'm not doing the fucking thing I personally hate of like if the playoffs started today, blah, blah, blah. But if I told you that this is the Eastern Conference playoff one through eight, you know, two months, it's more than two months, isn't it, six months in the future. Ottawa, Tampa, Boston, Carolina, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington, and Toronto. Apart from the Rangers, you're like, well, that sounds right to me, isn't it? I don't think any of it sounds crazy.
57:13 I mean, there'd certainly be some surprises. And I don't think anyone would have all three of Boston, Pittsburgh, Toronto in there. As I said in the first segment, I think a lot of us were bearish on Pittsburgh. That's the one that means bad, right? Yeah, we were down on Pittsburgh. Yes, that's right.
57:37 We were, a lot of people were down on Boston, like somewhat surprisingly for a hundred point team. Like, people were just like, nah. Yeah, that never made a ton of sense to me just because I don't think they're great or anything, but they have a goalie and they have Posternak and they have McAvoy. And it's like, okay, that alone is. probably worth like 35 points in the standings, those three guys. Yeah.
57:59 And then, you know, the Leafs are, they're fine. They, uh, they got a lot of ground to make up. It's like, I said 35. I meant 25. I don't want people to think I, you know. Don't yell. Um, I, I mean, I'm not stunned by anyone being in there other than probably the rangers. Just the Rangers for me.
58:23 Yeah. It's, it's more who's not there. right. No Florida. Well, no Montreal. No Montreal. No Buffalo. If you thought Buffalo, if you thought Buffalo was going to be a playoff team this year, you know. So you're thinking not even playoffs for Buffalo.
58:37 Like not like step back 109, but. Yeah, I think given everything, and I've said this before so I'm not telling tales out of school here, but given what they lost in the summer and just like kind of didn't replace them with, not that you know,
58:52 not that Bo Byram is light in the on fire in Chicago, but they just like, you know, they were like, what if we got Chicago's like fifth best defenseman to replace him this season? And I just, and I thought, again, I just thought the goalies all played out of their minds last year. And now they're not doing that. And here we are, you know, I thought they'd be like a bubble team. And if that, you know, if you told me they were seventh or eighth or something, I wouldn't
59:19 have been shocked. Because like, UKL has been terrible. He hasn't been like, not living up to his. you gotta think the Hellibuck stuff starts up again. But again, we've been over a dozen times. Like what happened there with the no trade clauses kicking in and what have you. It's tough. Mm-hmm.
59:38 So, yeah, like obviously we all kind of expect Florida to be better, although, you know, their injury situation maybe complicates things. And certainly you would have expected Montreal to be better, but only been four or five games. So it's not, you know, there are 500 team. It's not like it's a fucking disaster for them. So it's, yeah, I mean, it's surprising. Again, I've kind of been banging the drum. I think the senators are legit good, especially if they get gold.
01:00:09 Yeah, I don't think they're five and one. Yeah. Yeah, they're not going to play eight 33 the whole way. But yeah, they'll, uh, they look like a playoff team. Tampa Tampa is interesting because they looked awful on night one. and everyone was like, here we go. Here's that window slamming, and they're like, okay, I guess we'll just roll to four straight wins. Yeah, four games in a row, no problem.
01:00:31 But, yeah, other than that, I don't think there's anything shocking here. I thought the islanders might be a little bit better. I know you did too. Yeah, I did. And we're still not seen it from the Devils, which is interesting, given how we kind of kick that football every year. Yep. Yeah. But, you know, the thing is the metro is pretty weak, right?
01:00:58 Like, with the exception of the Rangers who we're expecting now to take a decent size step back and the penguins, there's only two teams that anybody would be like, I feel very good about them being a playoff team. You know, Caroline and Washington? Yeah. And Washington, and the reason I say that is Washington's, you know, they, they weren't a playoff team last year so you know even
01:01:26 even then but everybody they added this summer yeah so you know again if you told me six months from now oh the islanders actually did make it and in fact they're their
01:01:41 third in that division I'd go yeah that checks out great okay no problem so yeah I just think it's interesting how like totally plausible it all sounds two weeks into the season, you know? And it's not exactly the same in the Western Conference because there's two teams where it's like, what?
01:02:04 Really? But I'll just read them quickly. Minnesota, Winnipeg, Jesus Christ, Utah, Edmonton, Anaheim, Vegas, Seattle, Colorado. You're obviously saying where the sharks or the stars, everybody else. you're like, yep, that totally makes sense. Yeah, and even the sharks who are, I mean, first of all, there's two 600 teams, the sharks and predators that aren't there. Like the West has had a lot of success, but, you know, I think the sharks,
01:02:35 a lot of people were kind of wait and see. Dallas is the big one, but they'll be five. One point out of being in that mix. St. Louis was always a weird one. They're hanging around. Seattle's been good. Seattle's been good against bad teams, but they did be,
01:02:58 but they did be watching. And that's exactly right. Sure. Yeah. Hey, Seattle has been good with their, and you know what I always say, Sean,
01:03:07 I think the things the Seattle crack and do well lead to a 107.5 PD. So I had them in my rankings yesterday. Is it an early story I was not buying, but, I think that's a pretty good way to phrase it. Yeah. Yeah.
01:03:23 Does anyone stand out of the time? You know, I mean, are we, how close are we to going, dude, they might be a side show off the ice, but the oilers are legit scary good as opposed to just good good. Yeah, I mean, you know, the thing, the thing with them is you don't obviously trust their goalies at all. and they're saying, so far they're saying, we're actually showing you why you shouldn't trust us. Fourth were a safe percentage in the league as a team. But, I mean, McDavid and Drysidal just look like
01:04:02 they're both having their MVP caliber seasons right now. Right? Like the best McDavid, this could be the best McDavid season the way things are going right now. This could be the best drycidal season the way things are going right now. And those are two guys who have won. the MVP, right? So, like, the fact that they're delivering career best years, I don't know,
01:04:26 like, to whom you would treat, did Mike Babcock figure something out that nobody else did? I would be skeptical of that kind of a claim. I don't, I don't think it's, like, I think it's Babcock, but I don't think it's him figuring it out. I think it's McDavid and Drysidal sticking their necks out for him. Getting, getting, getting, getting. You might be right. They have the extra motivation. Maybe more pushback than they thought they would get and being like, all right, well, we got to go absolutely bonkers to start the year because we know how this goes if we start slow. And they looked very weird in those first two games against Vancouver, but they've really settled it down since then. And again, like those first two games, I just go, well, I think you're going to need better than 730 goaltending or whatever the number was, right?
01:05:19 Like the number is actually, they have the fourth or fifth, whatever I just said, where a safe percentage in the league that's actually trending up in a big way lately. It's up like 120 points from where it was in the first two games of the season. So, you know, I think it's going to be hard for the big guns to keep up this level of scoring pace, blah, blah, blah. They're 4-0 and 1. You got room to give. that's fine.
01:05:51 You know, like, if you're not 900 the rest of the way, I don't think anybody's going to hold that against you. You have some room to fall and still rack up a ton of points and be really good and probably win the MVP if you're one of those two guys. So, you know, like people keep saying the depth is a problem. The depth is a problem, but not when the top two guys are playing like this. And, you know, the depth is a problem, but also Nugent Hopkins. and Hyman have been, you know, they have had the injury. We talked about it last week how, you know, four out of the top seven forwards are injured. And it's like, yeah, but that means your seventh guy is injured and your top two are still there and all of that.
01:06:36 But it's a factor. If you're going to talk about depth, you do have to mention injuries, I think, as well. Yeah, totally. But yeah, I mean, this is, well, I mean, I was going to say like Evan Bouchard looms large here because they've got two all-world players, but if he could move up and become a third. I mean, he had almost 100 points last year. Maybe it's more that people like me.
01:07:03 What's he on pace for right now? Yeah, people like me were sleeping a little bit offensively at least. Yeah, no, he's not good enough to have made like the Olympic team or anything like that. I mean, you know, guys. Yeah, no, that clearly is he's not. Yeah, he's on pace for like, it looks like about 170. 70 points right now. Okay.
01:07:28 I'm glad we didn't have him and Matthew Schaefer. I'm glad we had Colton Barreco instead. I'm happy. This is good. Well, you had to get Drew Dowdy in there. I'm laughing. This is funny to me. And the other thing about Bouchard kind of going less said, I think, he's playing 25 minutes a night almost.
01:07:51 2452. So it's not like they're just going, you know, get out there on the power play. Like, he's eating mega minutes and he's like, and I'll score it 170 point pace. How's that grab you? You know, like, it's crazy, man. He looks fucking awesome. He's so sick. So, yeah, like I said, I think the oilers aren't this good, but that's because they don't have a regulation loss yet.
01:08:18 So that's why I think they're not this good. Okay. That's fair. Five games in. And again, I can totally. see the goaltending being a problem when McDavid slows down to 140 point pace.
01:08:32 Yeah. They're going to start losing games, but not a ton in my opinion. Can't be doing that. Anybody else you wanted to talk about in this little group here? I don't think so. Well, let me ask you about Winnipeg.
01:08:48 Okay, yeah. You buy it? I don't buy it as in they're going to compete. for first place in the central. I just, they just don't have the horses for that. But it's nice
01:09:03 to see them off to a good start. And tonight's, nice game against the wild is a fun one. It's kind of like a little early season. Let's see just how spicy are we talking here kind of deal. So
01:09:17 I'm kind of interested in that. The other thing to mention with Winnipeg is you're starting to hear whispers and rumblings about Is Karahelbaugh can actually just come back to the team after all this? Oh, have you heard any of that? Because I kind of hadn't.
01:09:36 It got talked about on 32 thoughts. Okay. For example. And let me see where I saw this. I got to really quickly check here. I know I saw this this morning. Basically, like, Helibuck reportedly wants to return to Winnipeg, but his teammates
01:09:56 don't want him is the headline on hockey feed.com, which may or may not. But this is NHL insider Dave Paddata saying on the Barnburner podcast
01:10:12 and Hello Hockey podcast that Whispers are starting to circulate. He may be, Hellebuck may be reconsidering his position. But maybe his teammates don't want him back. And then here's Elliot Friedman.
01:10:30 Nobody actually wants this to happen, not Hellebuck, not the organization, not the players, and not the fans. The goaltender would essentially be forced back by circumstances rather than any genuine desire to reconcile. So. I mean, hard to argue. It's out there. But I mean, I, yeah, I mean, it's probably true that nobody wants this to happen.
01:10:55 But I don't know. I mean, he's being forced back to. by the fact that he has a signed contract. I think some fans would take a little enjoyment out of that, probably outside of Winnipeg. I don't think if you're a Winnipeg fan, you want this. No, if you're a Winnipeg fan, you're giving him what I call the Dylan Larkin treatment.
01:11:18 Fuck you. Although, you know, when Larkin scored the goal at home last week and everybody cheered for him, I was like, man, can you guys stick to the gimmick here, please? What are we doing? Don't cheer for that guy. No. Don't cheer for the guy.
01:11:34 You were just booing him mere minutes ago. And now you like him? Come on. Just because he scored for the Red Wings, that's costing you a draft pick in theory. Need you guys to be serious. I'm with you. Thank you.
01:11:52 Buing him after he scored would have been hardcore. That would have been fantastic stuff. I don't, you know, I don't blame them for not. doing it, but that the situational awareness would have been fantastic. That, you know what, you put it better than I could have. You got to have some situational awareness there. The puck goes in, your instinct is to cheer. I get it.
01:12:16 But you got to see who's the number on the back of that shirt. Or even, that's a guy I can't cheer. Even you wait to like the goal announcement and then you go right back to the full on booing, not a smattering. Or you have one guy in the front. row with a sign that says we're doing this because you're increasing your trade value. Yes, exactly. Yeah, explaining that.
01:12:40 You make the subtext text. This is why we're doing it. Yeah, for the record. I mean, it would be a very, very small font on the sign, but I feel like, you know, we can do this. Yeah. Yeah, the Homer Simpson writing the thing on his hand. Yeah. All right.
01:13:02 Hey, you mentioned the Predators. They're off to a pretty strong start here, 2-1 and 2. And they just traded for Jaden Struble. Was it Pierre LeBron had an article last week that was like, that makes 10 trades for Chris McFarland since he came aboard? Yeah. That's fucking crazy. It's a big salute to Chris McFarland this episode.
01:13:23 Honestly, like... Because this guy is working the phones enough for three. three GMs. It's partly why, like, I, I haven't been as critical on, on John Chica as others have, because I like it when it, I mean, you guys know me. The very few things drive me crazier than a new GM coming in and doing the whole, oh, I got to get the lay of the land. I got to, you know, talk to people.
01:13:50 And, um, I like it when a GM hits the ground running and, and Chica did, McFarland's like Usain Bolt right past him it's it fucking rocks man I mean I'm gonna I'm gonna dispute that the predators are off to a good start that's the loser point propaganda they're two and three but
01:14:11 sure yeah lots of moves now you know not huge ones but all right can I say by the way he's made 10 trades since he got hired on June 3rd the entire league has made only 76 besides him.
01:14:33 And a bunch of those are like, oh, we're going to do a pick swap in round six of the draft, future considerations, all that kind of stuff. Like actual trading NHL players and stuff like that, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but like it's a lot less than 76. I'll put it to you that way. And I'm happy to do it. I think this is so fucking sick that he's doing this. Because like you say, every year, well, this guy who everybody agrees sucks and should get traded. I mean, what do you want me to do? Trade the guy?
01:15:07 Yep. What am I? I got to have this job for another 14 months before I think about something like that. And McFarland just gets in there. He's like, get this shit out of here. It's just footprints in the back of half his fucking roster. Who cares? Get lost.
01:15:26 And it feels like more to come. is the other great thing. But what I like about this, and this is something they've done a few times, is like, how old a guy is Jaden Struble? 23, 24? You know, he's an NHL player, and he wasn't going to get that opportunity in Montreal. And so, Struble's 25.
01:15:48 But they're just like, well, then fuck it. Let's just go out there. We'll make the trade. We'll give up, what was it, a third round pick? A second round pick. And let's just get a guy who we think can help on the lower end of our roster right now, who's 25, and maybe he's got something more to give than he's shown. I think that's a great way to do it if you're Nashville and you're kind of doing the thing of like every one of our guys over 30 has a no move clause. And in fact, they can trade me.
01:16:22 And every one of our guys under 30 is we don't know if they're any good at all. Yep. So just cycle through the guys you don't know if they're good. Struble's signed through this year and that's it. And if you don't like them, you don't have to fucking keep them. This is just like an interesting way to do it
01:16:42 because nobody does this. Yep. Right? Nobody in the league does this. Ten trades in four months. Good Lord. It's like every two weeks. Is that how that math works?
01:16:56 Every two and a half weeks? I mean, he's no Phil Esposito. but it's still pretty, it's pretty impressive. Yeah, I think it rocks. Again, big shout out to Chris McFarland. And I guess we only have one more piece of news here. And it's not even officially official as we're recording this. People seem to be expecting it to be announced today.
01:17:19 Dave Haxstow, currently an assistant coach in Colorado with the Avalanche, looks like he's going to be the new head coach at Arizona State. Yeah. after all that, uh, BS that's happened the last few weeks. And, uh, I'm surprised they got this prominent
01:17:39 a coach to take that job. It, that feels like the best possible case for the, like the program and the players. That, because I mean, I, I,
01:17:50 I think there was a non-zero chance that that program was not going to continue in its current form, uh, in the fallout of the, this whole mess, so the fact that they were able to get that, get it a little more, you know, get somebody with some credibility to come in and, and that, that is big. Yeah, and, okay, so I can, I can give you a little peek behind the curtain here on this process. It was down to, allegedly, you know, nothing, nothing really confirmed.
01:18:27 Bradbury, who until the last, I think, two years maybe, was also the head coach at North Dakota, which is where Hacksdoll coached before he joined the NHL ranks. And this guy, Grant Patone, who, you know, another, just a college coach for a few years who, you know, hasn't had a job in the last, I think, two seasons. Or at least a head coaching job in college, I should say. But there were always like there's a third candidate out there. And who is it? And who is it?
01:19:03 And the answer, apparently is it was Dave Haxstall. But they had to like, obviously get permission from the avalanche and blah, blah, blah. And I saw people going like, well, why would he take this job? And it's like, he's getting a big raise. Yeah. That would be a good reason to do it. I don't know. Obviously, I don't know the details of his salary at or with the avalanche.
01:19:27 But at Arizona State, he's going to be able to make high six figures, maybe even seven. Like, that's an endowed coaching position. That is, you know, what that means is like a rich guy gives a bunch of money, like a lot of money, like millions and millions and millions of dollars. And the interest on that money pays for some or all of a coach's salary. and there's a growing number of endowed coaching positions in all college sports, but in college hockey it's growing as well. And so, yeah, like Arizona State, that's not really money that's coming out of their wallets necessarily to hire HACS stole. That being said, there is some amount of special.
01:20:24 speculation that like the reason that their old coach is still an interim coach has something to do with the donors really like him. And to that point, the endowment on the Arizona State hockey head coaching job is called the Greg Powers head coaching position at Arizona State. So like that that's how much they like Greg Powers there. They named the endowment after him and then saying, said, this is the endowment that will be paying you. But the other thing is, under NCAA rules, when you make a coaching change, guys are allowed to enter the transfer portal and transfer, you know, wherever they want. And I think Arizona State doesn't want to open that possibility for reasons that I think should be obvious. they don't want a situation where
01:21:23 two thirds of the one third two guys any number of guys on the roster right now leave because I believe under it gets complicated but I believe under the rules of the house settlement they would not be able to replace those players that might not be till mid-season but again like it's
01:21:53 It's the combination of the house settlement and the transfer portal that opens when you fire a coach automatically. I don't know where those two things intersect. So you call Dave Haxstow the interim coach until the end of the season. And then you fire, in theory, Greg Powers, the current coach. And then however many guys want to transfer out, get to transfer out, but they could have transferred out anyway. You know what I mean? If they were doing transfers net like went in the portal now, how many of them would actually switch teams, given the timing? I'll say this.
01:22:34 I don't think the number is zero. Okay. I think that, you know, there was the news, was it last week, two weeks ago, two weeks ago, I think, that seven players signed an anonymous letter through a local attorney, I believe, asking for, the coach to not be the coach anymore, Greg Powers. And so that, I don't think that's what kick started the decision necessarily to put them on leave and all that kind of stuff. But they've played four games already. They haven't looked horrible despite all the ups and downs. But it is, it is just getting time to be like put up or shut up.
01:23:20 people thought they were going to hire a coach for this past weekend and they didn't but now it's looking like oh there maybe there was stuff for a hackstole to to sort out or to sort out with hackstole I should say so yeah the you know they're
01:23:42 they're in a really weird situation where they are they haven't really played anybody all that good and their two and two and one of their wins was in overtime and blah, blah, but they have much bigger things to worry about. And hopefully with this Hacksville hiring, again, could be announced today, could be announced Wednesday. They are, I guess I can say this with some amount of confidence here is I think he'll be there this weekend when they are at. my alma mater, UMass Loll, where
01:24:23 I will hopefully be able to talk to Dave Haxstole and be like, so what's this all about? This is crazy, right? But I have also in the past had, let's say, difficulties getting time with the Arizona state coach on the road. Maybe there is
01:24:49 you know, extenuating circumstances we'll talk to them, blah, blah, blah, but that's, I hope to, I hope to be able to talk to them if they may, they might not make them available, I guess is the point. But I will be at Dave Haxstowl's first game
01:25:04 if all goes expected, as expected. So, should be really interesting. And, oh, this is the other thing I want to say. I know Dave Haxstow is like a funny joke in the NHL. And so when I said, like, when this got kind of, like reported.
01:25:20 I was like, I think he's going to do a good job there. It's a really weird situation, obviously, to step into, but this is a guy that over a timeline can elevate the program. And a guy replies to me,
01:25:33 I'm reading this as satire. And I was like, let me go look up David Haxoul's record at North Dakota. Because I, it was more than a decade ago. I guess I don't really remember with him.
01:25:46 And obviously it's North Dakota. North Dakota has a different, reputation in college hockey, legacy, whatever you want to say, than Arizona State does. But under Dave Haxstall, North Dakota went 289, 143, and 43, and went to the Frozen Four seven times and 11 seasons. Now, did they win a single game at the Frozen Four? Okay.
01:26:12 No, no, they didn't. But, I mean, you want to talk about a high floor or low ceiling coach? Does the floor get any higher than that? And the only reason he left was because the flyers called him and said, do you want to be the coach of an NHL team? And he said, no problem. Now granted, people were already getting mad at him for always the bridesmaid, never the bride. You know?
01:26:39 But I would struggle to find a coach in the history of college hockey besides Dave Haxstole, who's like, oh, seven out of every 11 years? Yeah, we go to the Frozen Four. It's no big deal to me. That shit's easy. I don't think you can, including Bradbury, the previous coach at North Dakota, who I believe did win a national title there. To me, between the college record and, you know, record of success or whatever you want to say, and the prestige of we've hired now a two-time former NHL coach to lead our program through the darkest times imaginable pretty much.
01:27:21 Like, I think this is a really good hire for them. So I'll see them on Friday. Very cool. Yep, yep, yep. And I guess that's it. That's all the news. Oh, you know what? That's not true.
01:27:37 Frozen frenzy is tonight. Every single game is on at the exact same time. Not at the exact same time. Staggered. Every 15 minutes. This is what the sickos always say they want. Well, I guess what I'm saying is couldn't it have been yesterday and started at 1 p.m.? Instead of...
01:27:56 Yeah. Like, I love that it's staggered. But it's, you know, what if it started at even 5 p.m. and made it a little less staggered. You know what I'm saying? Or, again, we're all sitting at home. Right, there's not a game from 940, 9 to 945, and then 945 to 10.30 and then 10.30. It's sort of, it's every 15 minutes for a good few hours, and then it's,
01:28:25 From six to eight-thirty, it looks like. I like it. It's fun. Hey, it's certainly better than the alternative of they all start at 708 on the button, you know. But let me ask you this. What's the one game you're most looking forward to in tonight's schedule? For the newsletter today, we did a draft. I got four of us together.
01:28:53 We drafted the games. And I gotta say it was Like there's no terrible games Ish Because I don't count Crackin Flyers is terrible Because A, the Crackin are decent And B, I love a train wreck
01:29:09 Like for entertainment value An 0 and 7 Flyers team on home ice is up there I think the best one is Dallas, Colorado, for sure Yeah, it kind of And also it's game one of a home-in-home, so that's kind of cool, too. Ooh, I didn't realize that.
01:29:29 That's sick. Yeah, okay. And the, but I like, we talked about it earlier, Minnesota, Winnipeg, that's a pretty good game. Yeah. I'm kind of like that. Yeah. Notice it's all in the central, by the way. What's that?
01:29:42 Yeah. Notice it's all in the central. Let me, let me just check what we, the other one that we didn't draft very high because we didn't realize it was what it could be was the, the penguins and hawks. If it's Bedard's game back, that's a big one. Caps at Hurricanes is a good one, especially since
01:30:02 Caps are the only team to beat the hurricanes. Right. And now they get a rematch. And Sabres at Habs is a pretty good one too, especially given that both teams could kind of use a win.
01:30:19 Well, yeah, I mean, what's interesting to me is I do think there are two bad games. but it's nobody's fault. Yeah. It's Dux Flames and Oilers Kings. Yeah, it's funny. Those could get ugly.
01:30:35 In Oilers Kings went like kind of middle of the pack in our draft and then one person drafted them and then the other three people were like, that was last on my list. I never want to see these teams play again. Sure. But you know what's weird? You know what the number one game is? purely in terms of record. It's the lightning and Rangers.
01:31:02 Cool. Yeah. Another, another relatively, you know, a 715 start. But let me shout out this one. I think this late game, the Joe Thornton Bowl between San Jose and Boston at 11 p.m. That's got some entertainment value for me. Those are two pretty good teams right now. So, yeah, I think, like there's, you know, when you say every single team is playing, there's a lot of opportunity for there to be a good game or two on at the same time. But I mean, that that 815, 830 all central setup is so beast to me. And even frankly, Nashville Golden Knights like at 845, that could be something. Nashville's playing pretty well.
01:31:52 That wouldn't end up going last in our draft just because... You people are not. Just because people had other reasons to pick other games. But that's, I mean, if that is the worst game, and it's not Oilers Kings is. But if that's not the worst game, if that is the worst game, that's a pretty good slate. Yeah, I like Leif's mammoths. I think, or mammoths, I think that has some potential. You know, I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you the Bo Horvett showdown
01:32:22 and between the Canucks and the Islanders. Orvat Bowl. Yeah. Bull Horvat. Maybe that's what they could call it. I think it, there we go, the Bo Bowl. I think the probably number one thing on that is Canucks fans get to watch a transformative first overall pick and be like, all right, eyes on the prize. Right, yeah.
01:32:45 And also settle down Elias Patterson because you're going to screw this up single handling for us tonight. By the way, this is a little note I had in my column on the flyers, which again, I think. is either today or tomorrow going up. Hopefully it's today, so I don't have to go back and fix all the stats. Pedersen has more points than the entire Flyers team has goals. Good Lord. Remember talking, oh, we've got to fix this guy's brain. We've got to rethink.
01:33:16 We've got to change the entire way he approaches the game. He gets out of town. They get an actual good coach instead of Adam Foote. He's like, what if I outscored your entire team? Fuck you. I didn't even think of the Tocke connection there. You're right. That is excellent.
01:33:34 Hell yeah, Lise Patterson. Yeah. Again, a guy I've always been a mark for. I've always been a Patterson guy. So it's a big salute to him. I hope you get straight into a good team soon. Why don't you hit him with the plugs and let's get out of here? You can find me at the athletic.
01:33:48 I'll be on with Frankie and other Sean tomorrow on the athletic hockey show. I've got some columns coming up this week that I'm still trying to figure out, but it looks like we're going to have the return of rules court with other Sean and Shana. And we're going to go through, I want to say eight more of your weird suggestions about about how the NHL should change its rulebook. That's probably going to happen on Friday. Yeah, great.
01:34:22 One of us has a Pulitzer, so I would check that out. And one of you also wrote a book? Yeah, a whole book all by myself. Yeah, nobody else wrote it. Just you. No, just me. And then for me, perfect takes up, beehive.com, all kinds of takes over there. I will be having a free, I don't know if I've said this too often on the show before,
01:34:48 but even if you don't want to pay me for my takes, which you should obviously want to do, It's only seven bucks a month It's actually The value you get in terms of the quality of your takes rising Is actually kind of irrefutable But even if you just want to just sign up with it with your email account You can get one free post a week on there every Thursday So, you know
01:35:13 Even if you don't want to give me money Because you're a freaking cheap skate or whatever There are still free takes to be had over there if you want them And then the hockey news you know, I'm writing there a few four or five times a week, whatever the number is just as it kind of strikes my fancy. And so you can check that out over there as well.
01:35:33 And then you head over to patreon.com slash puck soup where we do all kinds of bonus episodes, including one last week where me and Sean talked about the most, you know, the vagus odds for the most likely expansion destinations for the league. And we talked about like why or why not such a market would be a good idea, the history of those markets vis-a-vis NHL or WHA or whatever it is.
01:36:01 And generally we learned a lot about population sizes of metro areas. Yes, we did. So check all that out. Thank you for listening. We're going to go right now record a mailbag over on the Patreon. So we'll talk to you next week with another main show. Thank you again. Bye-bye.
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