The Athletic Hockey Show - 5 NHL teams that have disappointed so far this season

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Hailey and Sean present five teams, who have disappointed the most, as we approach the quarter mark of the NHL season, presenting two teams from the Pacific, and one each from the Metro, Atlantic and Central divisions.Hosts: Hailey Salvian and Sean GentilleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? Welcome to another Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Haley Salvean and Sean Jintilly here with you. Sean, seems like you had a little bit of a 2012 throwback evening posting on social media about how great the Washington Capitals are. What was going on there? We're getting right into it, huh?

I think I think blue sky has arrived. That's the point. my big takeaway from the last couple days. Lots of people out there looking for a Twitter alternative for a lot of different reasons. Maybe you don't want your tweets being scraped to train AI monsters. Maybe you don't like your replies getting buried under bots who pay for stuff. Maybe there's any number of reasons you could be running and hiding from Twitter at this point. Maybe you just want a functional website where you can talk to people about stuff you want to talk about.

and watch sports and yap about it. You just want to make jokes about Emerson Edom, you know? That's all I've ever wanted, really. But I've gone all in on Blue Sky, the Twitter replacement app over the last five days, let's say, as have a lot of other people. It's the number one app in the app store right now. They're whatever.

I think the number of people using it is doubled or triple from like $5 million to $15 million over the last month or so. This is real. There's momentum that's kind of taken over. And a big part of it, not that there weren't people using this consistently before, because there were. But a big part of it is that the sports media dorks have arrived. That's what's happened over the last four or five days.

And of course, I'm in that group. But I'm also talking about Dom, who signed up this morning. Yeah, but he's already complaining about. meaning about it. He's like, why do I have to have so many social media apps? Mina Kimes showed up a couple days ago. Like that was like that was like one of the big ones. Mina Kimes and an NFL NFL reporter from. Yeah, she was like the first person I followed on Blue Sky. Right. She's very important to me. A hundred percent. A lot of the NFL folks showed up. Like it like there's in hockey hockey people are there in mass too. Yeah. My thought with Blue Sky was like I So I tried to, not to make this a blue sky pod, I tried to sign up the other day and realize that I'd already done it when everyone kind of started deciding like I'm going to leave Twitter when Elon Musk started it or bought it.

And so I was like, what the heck is somebody, somebody stole my username. Like I put in like, Haley dot salvean. They're like, this is already in use. I was like, what? I had no idea. There can't be another one. I signed up last year. I had no idea you were on it. So I was like trying to...

Everyone was making lists of who to follow and I'm not on any of them. Okay. That's not true. You are. I made a point, like I didn't really want to join Blue Sky as a work account. I just wanted it to be like, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to tweet.

Well, I'm going to, what are we? I'm going to post really weird. You want to say shit posts. Whatever. Let's just say shit post. That's fine.

We know what you're talking about here. My header picture is Moodang. You know, my profile picture is me on a rooftop in Nashville with a cowboy hat on. That is not a serious account for me. It'll be a great vibe. I think right now we're in the middle where it doesn't need to be that serious, but also there is a migration that's taking place.

And last night, you know, it was kind of a nice test run for it because there weren't a gazillion games, but the ones that were, you know, the ones that were actually on the schedule were pretty tight. We had Toronto, Washington, we had Pittsburgh, Detroit. You know, Carolina was playing Utah. Those are kind of the three ones that I was bouncing around back and forth. And I do not remember the last time I sat on my couch with my phone in my hand, flipping between games and seeing what my friends on the internet were saying. It's been years because Twitter was unusable to the point for a variety of reasons that I just had no,

interest in doing it. And last night was the first time I think that I scratched that itch in a very, in a very real way. Because it was, it was wild. It was like throwback to, throwback to 2011 or whatever, where, you know, I'm making jokes about, you know, a bunch of crap on John Carlson's jersey. Like, it was, it was very much, it was very much a throwback, a throwback kind of night. Yeah. And I loved it. And I hope it continues. And it seems like there's, like I said, legit forward momentum where it's not just super online, you know,

posters anymore. This is what needed to happen. This is what needed happen for blue sky to hit critical mass or any of these are present. Is that it needed to emerge is the place you go to watch sports and live events. And I think it's better equipped than any of the other ones, certainly better equipped than threads, the Facebook, you know,

brand-bought hellscape in its own right it's way better equipped for that it's got like a chronological feed a bunch of a bunch of people you want to talk to like i if you are looking to replicate the fun part of the twitter experience from 10 12 years ago like this is as close as you're going to get yeah i think in uh 2010 i was tweeting like I love Justin Bieber and stuff, so I can't really relate to the, like, 2011 Twitter throwback thing. It's like, you know, My World 2.0 just came out and it was very excited about the Never Say Never concert documentary. However, I love that for you. Drinking sitting at bars with PBR 24-ounceers and getting into arguments.

That might not be the same. Like, things have changed, but man, it was nice. It was nice. It was nice watching hockey with my friends last night. Yeah. Okay. So, on to the show now. Also,

I'm Sean Gentile on Blue Sky. Okay. Okay. That's enough. That's enough. That's enough. You can't spend seven minutes talking about Blue Sky. You want me to spend 45 minutes talking about,

about the crash out of Twitter and whatever else. I can do it. I will. No, this is the hockey show. Okay. We are well over a month into the N-H-H-H-R-E-H-R-E. all season. So we do have a plan for the show, I promise you. Some teams are actually nearing the quarter mark of the season. The Devils have played 19 games already. Some teams, of course,

have only played 14 or 15. Shout out schedule makers. They have a very hard job. I'm not being mean. But we're getting close to that. Are you in the playoffs by Thanksgiving line as well? So we're getting, we're at the point in the season where it doesn't feel like we have to preface everything with, Well, it's really early still. Like we're seven weeks into the season, eight weeks depending if you start back when those European tour games were happening. So it feels like a good time to kind of look at the teams that we're most disappointed in at this stage of the season. I think we've spent quite a lot of time talking about which teams we think are legit at this point or at the very least having a fun and exciting start.

We talked about the capitals a lot last week. Sean was watching them last night. fun team. They're built well. Like, it's nice to watch them get like rewarded for going out and adding good players. Like, who would have thought that going out and adding good hockey players in the off season would have made a team better? It's great. It's, you know, good job in Washington. Fun team, fun to watch. They look great. We talked about them a lot last week. Despite the crash out in the third period against Toronto last night. They, they were, it's fine. It's fine. They still Spencer Carberry was pissed, but that was still, you know, 66% of a good game from them.

And most of all, they're fun and entertaining and watch. So yeah, we're still there on them. Yeah. I wanted to do a jet segment this week, but you stole that on the Wednesday show with Frank. So instead of talking about. Should we just? Okay. So.

We're going to talk about the teams that are very disappointing and make us sad. It's getting negative. Enough about these Washington capitals being good. We're going to do one team per division, which team disappoints us the most in the Atlantic, the metro, the Central, and the Pacific. Sean, do you want to start in the east of the West? Let's go West. We're switching it up. Okay.

Yeah, why not? Central seems pretty, pretty easy on the biggest. disappointment. I tried to force myself to take someone other than, other than the predators here. But, um, I can't. Like there's,

there's not a ton of like we got, we got the Barry Trots rebuild, you know, kerfuffle that happened that happened last week, which is a whole other topic, I suppose. But, man, nothing sums it up better than this for me.

At the start of the season, during our fantasy draft, during our athletic staff league fantasy draft, Shana Goldman, who knows her way around a fantasy roster, right? She's won awards for fantasy writing. She drafts Brady Shea. Okay, but that was, Shane and I were messaging on Slack about this because I had circled Brady Shea as well, but I had to grab a goalie because I missed the goalie run,

and it was like, oh, if I don't take a goalie now, I'm going to just have nobody and it was like Darcy Kemper that was all left and I knew that if I didn't take Brady Shea there I knew Shana would do it because he was kind of like big fantasy like sleeper pick right

she also very creatively changed her name from Hey Shee to hey Shee right spelled like Brady Shea well guess who dropped Brady Shea fantasy wise I saw him on waivers Yeah I picked him up today because I

because I have a bunch of defensemen who were hurt. But still, that lets you know how bad things have gotten where a player like that, Shana fits with a nickname. She likes him from his time with the Rangers. There's any number of reasons that, in the canes, of course,

but like there's any number of reasons for Shana to just keep the dude on her roster just so the name would still fit. And she couldn't even bring herself to do that. And some of that's a testament. to me, I think that's a testament to how bad things have gone overall with Nashville. We thought that dude was going to come in, rack up power play points because he's playing with, you know, you add him to a group that was already good last year with Forsberg and

Ryan O'Reilly. They're adding Stamcoast. They're adding Jonathan March. So like, like what's not to like, at least from a power play standpoint? And they've been bad enough there where you can't even justify that much. So, yeah, I, everything that's that's gone wrong that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. And it's, it's getting late real early for them. Yeah, well, that was kind of what we, I wouldn't, I don't think it's what we expected.

But I think when we looked at from the Keynes lens of how can Tolski let, you know, two of his top four defenders go and bring in these two. And I think the thought was, okay, well, he's bringing in Shane Garlanders. cost to spare. Like he's bringing in 2D for the price of just Brady Shea's contract in Nashville. And things are going pretty well in Carolina.

Like that was always the thought of like, you know, Brady Shea was great on the Canes as a top four defender. But like we can probably grab somebody for way less money who's going to do a somewhat similar gig, right? So that decision, I don't think we could have expected things to go as poorly as they have in Nashville,

but I do think like I looked at that decision by the Keynes and Tulski in the GM role now and said, like, I understand why they did this. Like, this is probably going to age better for Carolina than anybody else, just based on money and money out. And then you look at how it's working in Nashville and it's not great. Things are going wrong in the way that you thought they would. not necessarily not maybe not to the degree but in the in the fashion because like what do we say at the start of the season the single biggest concern that we had about them old good that but also like good as Ryan O'Reilly was last year he's still in much as he bounced back he was a legit first liner

last year which given the way things were trending from the couple years before that was legitimately was legitimately surprised mesh is well with Forsberg mesh as well with Nyquist like there was a lot to like about that first line. Who was playing behind him? It was Tommy Novak. It was Colton Sizzins. And you have these guys, you know, as middle six centers on a team with maybe not cup aspirations, but damn close to it. And you need playmakers and distributors for the Stephen Sam Cosses of the world and the Jonathan Marche Sos of the world. And those guys were either unproven in Novak's case or in season's case where you know he's he's a he's a bottom he's a bottom six piece you know that you can't that you can't really expect the playoff they started or right now colton

sisons because of because novaks hurt is their is their second line center he's playing with march or so and nightquist that that is that is not good enough and that's also you know that's where they started this season this isn't like they've had injuries and stuff on haywire and they're forced to play a guy out of positions like no this was their plan coming into the regular season and it's biting them in the ass now because they don't have more than one functional line at five on five and it's brutal to watch and you know like i said last week one of the storylines was you know how what is barry trots talking about when when he when he talks about a rebuild you know i guess i suppose we'll see but regardless of where you stand on that man this is a bad

this is a bad hockey team. Fewer, lower points percentage than the Chicago Blackhawks, which is incredible. Yeah. They, it's just, this was the team that everyone kind of crowned as the, like, raise the offseason banner, you know? They were the darlings of the summer. And everyone was, including me, it was like really excited to see the 20, 24, 25 National Predators. not great. The spending spree is looking like it was maybe it's maybe not going to work out.

So it's hard to imagine a team being more disappointed in this division than anyone else. Like Blackhawks, we knew they were going to be a little bit better than last year. But like nobody had, nobody thought they were in a powerhouse, you know. The blues are hard because Robert Thomas is out and that's a huge blow for that team. Like, there's no other, I'm not going to say that the abs are the most disappointing team in the central. We've talked about them a lot. They're a hard team to really make that kind of proclamation over, given how many players are out. So, yeah, I think it's the Preds here.

And, you know, you just look at some of the stuff that's going on under the hood, too, man. Like, this is just, you know, has Stamco has truly hit the cliff? like he might have he came because he came close last year yeah Tampa Tampa was was far and away a worst five on five team by any way you measure it with with him on the ice yeah but I think you have to consider how hard that transition is going to be for him to like that's a reason that's a reason not to sign him that's a reason not to sign them if if if if you're worried about the transition that a 35 year old hockey player is going to make and in in whatever else and and maybe you don't have the offensive depth that to support

him the way that you want, you know, that's a reason not to do it. They're getting outscored nine and three with him on the ice this this year at five on five. Not good and also a direct kind of continuation of what we saw from Tampa with him last season. So there's alarm bells that are going off all over the place. Sure. I guess I just mean we usually hear that it takes guys like a little more than 15 games to get acclimated to a new place. Like that's such a, that's such a significant change for Stephen Stamco's of, you know, being a life or in Tampa to being in that show.

Sure. Even if it's an adjustment period, though, that's maybe something we should have considered more. I'm saying myself. I wasn't expecting this guy to come in and be 2011 vintage Stamcoast, but also like. Sure.

And again, yeah, he's played a decent chunk of the season with a bunch of guys who maybe aren't up to the task as his center. But that's the kind of player he is. now. You know, he needs, he needs a playmaker, like a legit, a legit playmaker, a legit play driver on, on his line. If not, if not two of them. And we haven't even come close to see it. And that's a huge part of their problem. They're not getting offense from anybody

other than, you know, at times, Forsberg and, you know, Riley. But even then, there's a, there's, there's, their problems are vast and they're in there, and they are severe. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then I got. on the other side, Gensel is like almost a point per game player in Tampa. So those were those were kind of the big teams that we circled a lot in the offseason, right? It's like, and we talked about them in tandem a lot was Nashville and Tampa Bay and the decisions that they made. Also Nashville and Carolina given, you know, I think, I feel like Brady Shea leaving was like a big deal for Keynes fans. and then, yeah, of course, they go out and get Sean Walker and Shane Goss's bear.

So it's interesting to track those kind of bigger off-season moves and see how we feel about them, almost a quarter of the way into the season because right now the Keynes and the lightning are doing much better in the standings. And I think those individual players that we've highlighted have done better in terms of Gensel and like a Shane Gossis Bears is doing well. on Carolina right now too. And one more thing about the Pres, but before he move on, because this is a guy whose name didn't come up in the last eight minutes or however long. UC Soros playing well. He's not like, they're not getting bad goaltending.

He's sixth in the league and goals saved above expected. His save percentage is above 9-10. Like, they're below the Blackhawks despite getting some fairly high-end goaltending from from him. So that's not an excuse. What's going on with the skaters is the problem. And that's a whole hell of a lot more difficult to fix than just hoping your goaltender gets it, you know, whatever, bounces back after a rough start because that ain't what's happening.

Yeah, I think a big problem is their offense. And, you know, you touched on it like guys aren't scoring. When you're looking at their five-on-five production, no team's offense is worse than the Preds, 1.3-5 goals per 60 at 5-on-5. And then there are bottom three, bottom four. Yeah, fourth most goals against per 60. And that's despite having an around a 90% save percentage at 515. So it's not so much the goalie, but it's what's happening with the skaters at 515.

Let's take a break. We've been talking for about 20 minutes. When we come back, we'll get into the Pacific. And then we'll go into the Eastern Conference here on the Athletic Coffee Show. The biggest disappointment in the Pacific Division. I think we have... We disagree here, don't we? I think we have two different ones here.

Sean, do you want to go first? Actually, I'll go first. Because for me, now, we could say it's the Oilers, but I'm also not about to jump and say that the Oilers... There's a bit of projection here by me. Like, I don't expect the Oilers to miss the playoff, so I'm not going to be all that disappointed. by them. We also saw them do this last year. So I'm not, I'm not in freak out mode about Edmonton,

although you could make an argument that they're the most disappointing because everyone thought they were just going to tear through the league and go back to the Stanley Cup final. I'm not there yet. It's only November 14th. We'll do this again in two months. And if they're still at the bottom, then maybe we'll say I'm disappointed in the Oilers. For me, I think it's the Cracken. I didn't think that they were going to be world beaters this season, but I think the Krakken are the most disappointing in the Pacific because they went out and spent money this off season. And we had a lot of conversations since the Krakens' inception about the expansion draft

was done in a way to have cap space to make these kind of big moves. And there was maybe a bit of disappointment on, And then spending that big money on Brandon Montour or Chandler Stevenson, who I think people looked at as like, was this a year or two too late to be handing out like such long term big money contracts these guys. To be fair to Ron Francis, Brandon Montour has looked really good for the Seattle Cracken.

He's tied for second and points on that team. Chandler Stevenson is fifth in scoring on that team. So like the big money guys have not been really an issue in Seattle. I just think if you go out and you make those moves, you would maybe want the team to be a little bit. You'd want them to be at least 500, at 16 games into the season. They're 7, 8, and 1.

Philip Grubauer has not been good. He has one regulation win on his docket. This is a sub-500 hockey team right now that, you know, we looked at the crack in as, okay, year one wasn't great. Year two was very good. year three was maybe not great anymore. So like, who are the Cracken? Are we going to see them kind of just stagnate and be this team that we saw last season?

Are they going to return to what we saw in year two? And so far, they're looking like last year's Seattle Cracken. So that's why I kind of look at them as a bit disappointing. You have the new coach, Dan Baosma, Jess Campbell's there. The Power plays look great, though. That's a Jess Campbell special team. Yeah. but yeah, I think the crack in our,

it's not like I'm horrifically disappointed in this team. I think the Pacific has actually been interesting enough. Like if we were doing the top five like surprises, I think the Pacific would have a ton of them because I don't think anyone thought Vegas was going to lead that division heading into the season. I think the Kings have been great. The Calgary Flames and the Canucks have the same amount of wins.

at this point in the season, Calgary beat Vancouver in game one. We were like, eh, don't care. Like, that doesn't change my opinion on anybody. And, like, the flames have had a pretty good start to the season. Oilers are fifth. Like, there's been a lot going on in the Pacific. I think if we're just thinking about, because I think so many teams are outkicking the coverage that we expected of them,

I think that makes Seattle's start to the season a little bit more disappointing. When you consider how well some of the teams, we thought we're going to be in the bottom of that division are doing. Are we officially worried about Maddie Baneers yet? Should we be, should we be concerned? He's got, he's got six five on five points in,

in 16 games, uh, play driving, you know, sub 50% like he's, he's been fine. He's been mid. Their whole thing only works if he's a start.

the whole model, everything the Cracken have done here over the last three years, it only hits if that dude becomes not just the best player on the team, but we'll say a top 12, top 15 first line center in the league. And he is not close. Yeah, I don't know if we can say that Maddie Baneers is a definitive number one center in the NHL. He's not. He is not. He is definitively not.

I know. I'm saying I don't think we can say that. I'm saying we don't say that. And that's a problem for the Cracken. Everything for them would fall into place if he were, you know, the guy who he seemed to be for the first. In year, too. You know, even in, yeah, whatever. Let's throw those, let's throw that little cameo he made the year before that too.

When he was, when he was, he played 10 games or whatever and looked like, look like a world beater. He looked like, we'll throw that in there. We'll throw that in there. A season plus worth of looking like a guy who was going. to be a true foundational piece moving forward. And it's not that he's been bad, but again, the organizations, you know, the framework for them was,

all right, we have a bunch of cap space, and we have a guy who looks like he's going to be, he's going to be a legit high-end piece. And now it's, the cap space is gone because they use it on Montorin Stevenson, you know, maybe wisely, maybe not.

Both those guys, as you said, have been good. but Benares hasn't been good enough. Shane Wright is a is a non-factor. And if those guys don't have, I don't think anyone thought that if you would have told me four years ago when he was like exceptional status lighting up

the CHL, if you would have told me that Shane Wright would be a third line center in the NHL, it would have been like, what are you talking about? A third line center in like a not a particularly good one too. And again, like he's, still a young dude.

He had a weird developmental curve, which we saw as he's bouncing between the NHL and the CHL, and then he's bouncing between no HL teams. Like, that's tough. That's a tough break. But also at some point, you need to show something. And I don't think that we're there yet.

In other words, it's 2024, and we're still talking about Jared McCann as being the Seattle Cracken's best player. And that's not, like, if you're good a player as he is, congrats to him. He's like, rounded out his game, you know, after a weird start to his own career.

Yeah. Dap, like, dapped to that. But if you're a playoff team in the Western Conference, you've got to have something more than him at the top of the lineup. And right now it seems like they don't. Yeah. Who, okay, but you, you disagreed with me. Like, you don't think the Krakken are the most disappointing.

Or are you on board now? I think the Krakken are about what I thought they would be. I looked at them and said, at the start of the season said, this is a pretty mediocre. This is a mediocre team. Okay, so who's your most disappointing? The Ducks. See, I just like, I'm not disappointed in the Ducks because I'm just like, yeah, there they are.

How after, this is year three of us, we're in Greg, Greg Cronin's second season, where theoretically he would have, you know, taught these guys how to play defense at some point. hasn't happened. Their last and expected goals per 60 at five on five, they would be last in actual goals at five on five if they weren't getting some decent goaltending from Lucas Dostol at various points. So, you know, goaltenters part of the team.

We're certainly not disappointed in him. He seems like a legit timeshare guy moving forward. So credit to Lucas Dostall. How many points do you think Trevor Zegras has in 15 games? Trevor Zegroes has three points in 15 games. What happened? Don't know. Can't say with any degree of certitude what has gone on there.

And he's, look, we know that he's, you know, the headliner when it comes to issues on that team. But he's not the only one. Mason McTavish. I'm going to white out Trevor Zegris from NHL 23. and just have the cover be Sereners. That's what they should have done in the first place, man. He didn't need to be there at all. Cutter Gochie.

Just one cover girl, please. You know, all these guys, all these guys who we expected more from because of the sheen that they had as prospects, none of them have leveled up yet. And at some point, some tough questions and some tough discussions are going to have to start around, let's say Mason McTavish, right? He's,

is he? At what point, okay, but at what point, like, is it all these players fault? Or is there something with the organization that's like not a talent? I'm not, I don't know. That's a good question. And I feel bad. I'm not in Anaheim every day. So maybe that's something to talk to like Eric Stevens about.

But I think that's the question. when we start listing five, six prospects who haven't taken the step. Is it the prospects fault or is there something like what's going on? I don't know. Like are we still blaming? Like Ryan Strom is third in the team and scoring. The pride of Fergus Ontario, Brock McGinn is fifth. That's not good.

I think it's great. I think that's great. I think that's awesome. Fifth on a team and scoring in 2024, Brock McGinn. I think that's awesome. The point of one shouldn't have let him. go. Oh, no. You've got a 31-year-old and a 30-year-old who are two of the top five scorers on a team

that's supposed to be filled with, like, young guns. Mason McTavish, three five-on-five points in 13 games. Five-on-five is over-raid. He's 21 years old. Like, what are we doing here? Frank Vitrano, breakout season. Like, let's not just blame the prospects. We'll blame established NHLers.

Frank Vitrano, kind of a breakout. season last year. He's done nothing to follow it up. He's regressed significantly. Back to the player that people thought Frank Vitrano was for for years and years. Yeah, right. Doesn't that just suggest that last season was like, oh my. I mean, there was plenty of stuff to suggest to suggest that, right? Like, like he was, he was a buyer-beware dude for most of last season. And, you know, unfortunately, Franheim, they're- He's shooting four percent versus like around 14 last year. so. Vitrano is he's a,

he's a shooter. That's it. Like, like he scores, he scores goals and punches. He gets really hot. He gets really cold. And he's,

he's really cold right now after a season, after kind of a season long heater last season for them. But the issue, again, for me, we can sit here and make fun of Trevor Zegris for having three more points than you and I this season. We can make fun of them for that. It's dessert.

I'm not making fun of Trevor Zegris. I am. I am. I'm disappointed in Trevor Zegris. Oh my. The amount of times I tweeted about him being like the greatest gift to the NHL, I'm embarrassed. We all defended him against the old heads there for a while and look at how he's repaid us. This is still a garbage.

This is how I become old man who yells at Cloud as I've been burned by one too many young child. Yeah. Complaint about Trevor Zeguress. about Trevor Zegris being on TikTok too much or whatever. This is still a garbage defensive team. That underline it, bold it, put stars next to it. That is the biggest issue for me. It's like it's not just that we're not seeing production from Zegris or to a lesser degree,

Mason McTavish. I'm not willing to blame Leo Carlson for anything because he's, he showed a good bit last year and he's only in his second year. he's a little teenager. But at some point when these dudes start getting into their early 20s and you're talking about a 21 year old or a 23 year old or whatever, you got to start to get a little nervous and you got to show some improvement. And I don't know how two years after we made fun of the ducks every single week for being as bad defensive as they were.

They almost haven't gotten any better in terms of goals against or process. It's a bad, bad sign. I wasn't expecting them to be good. I was expecting them to be relevant and at least like watchable in 10 o'clock games whenever I'm looking for something to do and they're not. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's always that sense of like, well, at least this bad team's fun to watch and you don't really even get that with the ducks.

We just thought one of those guys would pop. I thought we would see like some kind of breakout from McTavish or even Carlson or that Ziegress would get it back on track or that or that Cutter Goce would show something in his first NHL action or that some of the, those defensemen, you know, the the Mitchikovs and the own Zellwaggers of the world, like that one of those guys would look like a true

foundational piece in October and November this year. And it hasn't happened and it hasn't been close. Let's move on to the Eastern Conference now. Let's start with the Atlantic. I think this was one that we debated a little bit before we started the show. Mm-hmm.

And really, it comes down to Detroit. in Buffalo for me. I'm not overly disappointed in Montreal because we know that they're just fully in rebuild mode, even though it looks like they're getting kind of frustrated with how this season, a negative 21 whole differential. I almost pick them. That's such a, again, such a bad defensive team that I almost couldn't resist. I saw a report that they might be looking to beef up their coaching staff a little bit,

maybe to help with the defensive side of the puck. I'm sorry, I forget where I saw that. And I don't know exactly the legitimacy of it, so I do apologize. But I still think for me, it's Detroit and Buffalo because it's, once again, it was another offseason of which one of the Sends, the Sabres, or the Red Wings are going to take the step and make the postseason. And right now the Sends are the only one. Well, I shouldn't say that.

They only have one more point. But I would say, like, quantitatively and qualitatively, like just based on watching Ottawa, like that is the team that looks like they've at least taken a bit of a step in that direction. And that's with Linus Allmark not playing particularly well either. He's been fine. He hasn't been like the number one goalie savior. I think that Sends fans have been waiting for us since Craig Anderson, basically. So I think when like it hasn't been, I just don't feel like they've all been overly competitive in that space of like which one of these teams is

going to be a postseason team. I feel better about the Sabres than I did a couple, than I did a couple weeks ago. There's stuff happening there that seems positive. Tate Thompson back on track, you know, we're seeing, we're seeing certain things from, you know, Jack Quinn and whoever else. Like that, like they're, I think they're about where they, where they, where they, where they, where they, where they should have been. So ultimately, I didn't, I didn't go with.

I think it's Detroit. I think it's Detroit here. I, I get, I get it. I don't know if I'm truly disappointed with anybody in that division, but Detroit's as close as you can come. I think the thought with the Red Wings was, I think we made this point when we were buying and selling on teams in the off season. And it was like, they didn't really do a whole lot. Like, Steve Eiserman didn't go out and make a bunch of big moves that was going to make this a remarkably better team in the off season. Right.

And I think the thought was, if the Red Wings take another step, it's going to be because of internal improvements, Lucas Raymond having a good season, De Brinket having a good season, Dylan Larkin still being a top center guy. And we've seen, like when you look at the top of that lineup, like Lucas Raymond is leading the team in scoring. That's a good thing, although he only has one goal. De Brinket is playing well.

Larkin is playing well. Like their top four scores are all guys who should be there. in terms of Raymond to Brinket Larkin and Patrick Kane, even though he's not really in that young core group anymore. He's just like the old guy. That's great. So there have been those younger core pieces playing well for the Red Wings, but then I think that's what makes the lack of big moves in the offseason more disappointing,

or at least like frustrating for the Red Wings is like, where is that Brandon Montour, who's, you know, got a point per year, game on the blue line for the red wings. That's what makes the off season and this season now a little bit more frustrating because like what happened. It's another season of also just throwing more excited to the wolves like. Yeah, yeah. And he's shown much as we all like his profile in a lot of ways, he's kind of shown that he can't handle it. Like he took a step back last season and that's kind of continued here. He needs help and he doesn't have any of. He doesn't have any of But the biggest problem for me with them is just, like, yeah, your leading scores are Dylan Larkin and, you know, Lucas Raymond and whoever else.

I almost said Mason Raymond again. We should have rang the bell. Fun fact for anybody who's listening for the first time. I almost physically can't get Lucas Raymond's name correct on first reference. The only team that they're outscoring at five on five is guess who? The National Party. predators. That's it. Yeah. 31st goals four per 60 at five on five. Like this is a team, yeah, they're 500. This is a team that lives and dies on a power play that, you know, might actually be good. We should say that.

And we did say that in Powerangs last week. Credit where it's due, Detroit's power play might actually be good, sustainably enough to win them some games because that's the only thing that's kept them afloat here. This is a bad offensive team. Without enough. They spend a lot of time in the D zone. They spend a lot of time without the puck.

You know what? Their expected goal rate is 45. I don't think I'm that surprised. I expected a step back from them this season. Yeah, I know. But I think it's okay to still be disappointed because how many years have we been talking about the Red Wings taking in the next step?

I don't think they're capable. It's not disappointing. I think it's just frustrating because this is a team that I would like to see play meaningful hockey in the spring. Like, I am not a Red Wins Tater. In fact, I wish this team was doing better. Oh, they're not. Yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of where, like,

the pause came from is I'd like, I'd like Maxie to cover some playoff hockey, but I don't think it's happening. I think they were primed to take a step back after last season in a lot of different ways. And it's happened, maybe a little more dramatically at five on five than people thought.

But this is a roster that doesn't have enough high-end hockey players on it. It's that simple. You can't be playing Andrew Kopp and J.T. Comfer, who are nice players. But if that's- Those are good third-line players on a contender. If you're trying to cobble together a second line on a playoff team, with those guys primarily,

you're going to have a bad time. And I think that's what I expected last year. That's what I expected coming into this year. And while like, yeah, some of the numbers are ugly and they're certainly not even scoring as much as I thought they would. I can't see. I'm surprised about that in any kind of way. I think the Atlantic is tough because there's no one that is like overly disappointing unless you want to make the case that the, you thought the habs were going to be like at least a little bit better. I think in years previous to the point of the ducks, like the habs were the most fun, bad.

team. That was a really fun team to watch. But I still, I feel like it's Detroit for me and it's more just because like I'm waiting. I'm waiting for this team to take that next step almost in the same way as like a fan, even though I'm sure

some fans are going to be mad at this assessment. I'm just like frustrated. That's all. And they win last night. They beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, but I think to move on to the Metro. Whatever. Too bad.

teams. Right. Well, that's my, like, we're past the point of beating the penguins being a

meaningful win for a team. At this point in the season, it's, yeah. You want to talk about a team that doesn't have enough good hockey players on it. Like,

look at the rock, look at the lineup. The Penguins. Okay, but did you see the TikTok I sent you of Malkin? With his mom and dad? No.

No, it's the funny trend where it's like, it's like, it's like a dot, like you see the post and it's just like humans should feed their dogs every hour. They need more sustenance.

And then the camera flips and it looks like it's a dog who's making the post. So they did that. I sent you this. You didn't watch it. Why don't you watch the things that people send you? If I thought that it was getting involved of getting Malkin and come up on the podcast, I probably would have watched it. Okay.

But it was from the Penguins' TikTok account. And it was the text was like it's always. Sid Mario Yager Best Ever But no love for Gino Sad face And then the camera flips And it's Malkin

Being like, oops No? That's cute That's whatever I'm glad they're I'm glad they're having fun on TikTok This TikTok generation Folks,

let me tell you Yeah that team That seems brutal And I think they've been bad enough to qualify As a disappointment Certainly If only because of

Eric Carlson Kyle Zub is like Rob Rob kind of ripped Scott on Blue Sky because Wheeler was like talking about how Carlson is so great and Rob was like, do you watch the penguins? Yeah, Rossi called me at 1130 and basically like recounted that conversation to me.

I'm like, did you need to, this could have been a text. I don't think I don't think I needed to get called. I don't think I needed to get out of bed to take this phone call. Kyle Dubas put it on black on Eric Carlson being a superstar still. in his first off season, and it hasn't, it hasn't worked out. Yes, there were problematic moves around the margin. Yes, he gave 10 million plus dollars to Tris and Jari and Ryan Gray's, which seems like a mistake.

He made an understandable gamble, but a gamble all the same, and it hasn't worked out. Eric Carlson needed to be their third best player. He needed to be an offensive driver from that spot. and he hasn't done it, and he's getting victimized on a near-nightly basis along the boards.

It's as simple as that, you know? Yep. So I don't know. I don't think we need to spend much time. No, we don't. We've talked a lot about the Penguins on this show. Oh, yes, we have.

Across the athletic hockey show network. Right. But yeah, I feel like those are our most disappointing teams in each division. I wonder if we would have done just like most disappointing teams in general.

It would have been... different, but I think it's important to talk about every division. I think it still would have been the ducks for me. What is going on over there? Yeah. These kids. Oh, these TikTok kids. I'm telling you, man.

I'm a TikTok kid. I fell asleep watching TikToks the other night. It was embarrassing. Phone in hand. Not me. It couldn't be me. Hey, my name is Haley. Get ready with me for the day.

Fell asleep scrolling blue sky last night. My precious beloved blue sky. Yeah. Don't follow me on that if you want like insight. It's a great cell. It's a lady dot salvean on blue sky. Yeah, I'll just be posting pictures of the dog and jokes that aren't very funny. So.

Be used to that. Give me a follow. Oh, that's rude. pictures of the dog and jokes that aren't that funny. You don't think I'm funny? I think you think you're funny. Oh, right. I think you should just do the show with McIndoo and Frankie

because you obviously think they're funny. I think Frank's funny. Jury's out on this DGB fella. When he's actually active on Blue Sky, that's when we've won. I'm trying to nudge him. It's not happening. No, why would he care? He's got a family, you know? He's got kids to feed. He can't fall asleep posting about the capitals on blues sky.

He's got two teenagers now. I mean, they could give less of a shit about him. They don't care. They have better things to do than hang on with their dad. That's not true. That's true. It is 100% true. And he is and he is said as much. All right. All right. That's as you can tell. that was that's all we have in terms of talking about hockey. I'll listen to the 10 minute outro if you care to hear about McIndoo's family being mean to him. But for the next athletic hockey show, we have a prospect series coming up Max Boltman, Corey Prondman, Scott Wheeler, and Flow Hockey's Chris Peters have the next show that's coming up tomorrow on Friday. We are off next week. So Mike Russo and Jesse Granger are going to be filling in. It's going to be very humbling to see the

weekly streams go way up. Everyone loves Jesse. Whatever. Fine. It's fine. Oh, he knows so much about Gulles. Yeah. Who is that Mike Russo anyways? Never heard. The other guy I'm unfamiliar with. Thanks everyone for listening to this episode of the show. Haley and Sean here every Thursday, except for next Thursday. See ya.