The Athletic Hockey Show - A fight for the Central Division crown, the Winnipeg Jets' tumble, Auston Matthews returns to form

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

It's a return of the bestie hour as Hailey and Sean are reunited with Dom Luszczyszyn to dive into the playoff outlook for both Conferences, including the fight down the stretch for the Central's crown, the Jets' spiral allowing playoff hopes for team like the Predators and Flames to stay alive, Auston Matthews starting to look like himself again, and more. To wrap up, in celebration of baseball's Opening Day, a draft of ballpark foods, obviously 100% without controversy or yelling.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Athletic Hockey Show. It's another Friday edition of the show, Haley Salvean. Sean Jintilly here, and we've brought back our bestie, Don Luce Chishin for today's episode of the program. Dom, welcome to the show. It's been a while.

What have you been up to? Tell us what your life? Not too much. Just my furniture shopping today. saw a $12,000 chair and was wondering who is costly buying? No. What did the chair look like? Was it like an abstract chair that is really uncomfortable?

Or was it really soft? I don't know if you've seen like the, it's a chair on, I saw it on TikTok and I bought one that looks like it for like 70% off for like 200 bucks. And this store had like the vintage version and like actually designed by the guy or whatever. It was $12,000. And it's just a, it's a stupid wooden chair. But it's vintage.

It's from 1960. And I looked at the tag and said $12,000. I'm like, who in their right mind is buying a $12,000, not very comfortable chair? People who just want to show that they're rich. Like, imagine walking into that person's house and they're like, this chair costs fee $12,000. Like, you know whoever buys that is going to bring it up constantly. It's like Jake Gyllenhaal's million dollar couch. Sean is logged off

That was a Taylor Swift reference Sean If you didn't understand that I don't like oh my God No I don't because I don't engage with Taylor Swift critically Anything else? You were complaining about her on Twitter the other day Oh I was not Her poll thing

It was like what can we learn about polling from Taylor Swift? He just said pass Which is a form of engagement It's a form of engagement It's a form of engagement engagement, no? You could just not engage. This is going to be a really fun show for Sean. I choose not to make a choice.

Not making a decision is making a decision. Yeah, we are going to talk about hockey. We are just introducing our guests and asking about his day. Sean, hello, how are you? Seems like you're in a great mood today. Yep, doing great. Ready for baseball season. Pittsburgh Pirates, 67 wins. season in coming.

Are they bad? And yeah. Pirates are terrible, yeah. And I have a $2 million couch, just FYI. Nice. Thanks, the athletic. From IKEA. Special IKEA couch designed by the original IKEA guy.

Yeah. Craig bought it for me, actually. Costans bought me a $2 million couch for doing such a great job. It was my bonus. It was my bonus for interviewing Ryan Miller twice in the last 18 months. That's like Homer getting that big head as a bonus or whatever it was in season. He was like, what am I going to do with this big ass head? Okay.

Well, yes, it is Blue Jay's opening day. Blue Jay specifically very excited for baseball season. And we have a fantasy baseball expert on the show today as well at seems. Oh, God. I forgot about that. But this fantasy baseball customizable rankings and projections tool also available on the athletic. But we are going to talk about. coffee because Dom's had a ton of stuff come out. Hey Dom, should I, should I draft Boba Chet?

I know maybe like seven baseball players. I just made the sheet for Jake. Listen, listen, I'm serious. If we, if we segue from Taylor Swift related furniture talk into fantasy baseball, I'm going to snap. I'm going to absolutely lose it. If we don't start talking about 16 stats here real quick, You are a host of this show. You, you are capable of, like, taking the reins and navigating the conversation. I'm not a lot. I sit in the second chair on. You are a co-host.

No. Second chair on both of my shows. I don't actually have any decision-making. I don't feel uncomfortable. I'm not a couple. This is really funny. I just, like, Sean, take the lead. No.

Get us going. Yeah, Sean, what do you want to talk about? Let's go. 16 stats. Which stat do you want to talk about? Six. Go. Oh my God, which one is that one?

I don't know. I don't read your shit. What are you talking about? That is, stat number six is about Minnesota suddenly being in contention for the division title despite losing Caprisso. We don't need to talk about Minnesota. That's enough. That's enough. That's enough.

No, this is actually a good spot. I'm going to pick this back up. I think this is a big thing. So obviously, we're in the final stretch run of the NHL season. lots of playoff spots are already locked up in the Eastern Conference, so we're going to get into the kind of fight between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Florida Panthers a little bit with Dom. We're going to look at the race for the Central Division lead,

who are the best teams in the West. I don't think anybody is clinched in the West yet, have they? Vegas can clinch tonight, I think. Right. So lots still open in the Western Conference. The Winnipeg Jets have absolutely kicked and left the door open for the Nashville Predators and California. Calgary Flames. You guys can, you know, make your statements about the Winnipeg Jets later on in the show.

This is the part where the host does the rundown of everything we're going to talk about. But yeah, because we have Dom-on. We'll go through 16 stats and a bunch of Dom's kind of playoff preview. Odds work. But we do want to start with 16 stats and we will start with the fight for the Central Division. Big game on Wednesday between the Aves and the Wild, the Wild win looks like they're the favorites to win the Central? Is this a surprise? And do we think that matters at all for the avs, you know, playoff race run? Oh, God, I can't speak. I'm pretty shocked that they're the favorites now. They, I think, were, there was a point during the season where I had them ahead of the Winnipeg Jets and playoff odds. And I thought, oh, people are going to yell at me for

that. And that looks pretty good right now, especially with them. somehow being the front runner with their win over Colorado last night. I didn't think this was a possibility, like, well, not a possible possibility with Capriest out, but Matt Boldie has been absolutely ridiculous. He was a bit like, I think, unlucky earlier in the season. Now he's in a prominent role and he's putting the team on his back and now Minnesota's, I think, got a 40% chance of winning the Central and it's still tight with Dallas and Colorado, but they're in the driver's seat at the moment.

Boldie's unbelievable. I mean, there's a, I was with Michael Russo in person. We watched some random game together a couple weeks ago. I think they were playing the coyotes. And I can't remember the exact number that he gave, but he was like, boldie hasn't scored into a non-empty net in, it had been weeks.

And it was, was what and it was like the damn broke right after that right and he has one of those guys I know he hasn't even you know whatever hasn't played two full seasons yet but he he he looks the part you know what I mean like he's he's such a he's such an he's such an eye test guy where you you've if you watch their games and you see like the amount of the amount of bad luck and kind of snake bit and stuff he was dealing with it just never it just just didn't make sense. Like he's such a clearly talented dude physically physically so impressive. And then like it but now the pendulum is swung so far in the direction. He's got 11

goals and 11 games. Got a hat trick mix in there multiple multi-gold games. I mean this is two hat tricks. Two hat tricks. I've seen there. Yeah. This is great this is crazy stuff mixed in there for him and it's also something that Minnesota needed right because they relies so much on Caprizo for so much of their output. And with him out, it would have been easy to write him off. But Boldie's, man, he's taking the baton. Really crazy stuff from him. Yeah, I feel like Minnesota's always lacked a star player.

And then when Capri Sob came, they suddenly became a team to watch. And now they have two. It's not ideal that they're both wingers. But the way they both create offense has been really good for the wild. Boldie, before the streak, one of the things I touched on was he was pretty unlucky. But the big thing with this streak is he's also creating. a huge volume of chances. His expect goals per 60 went from 0.85 to 1.57, so he's taking like twice as many chances

over these last 11 games, and he's delivering. Bodie scored against the coyotes, and that was on March 12th. He had gone since January 26 without scoring on an actual goal tender, which is just bananas. And now the dude can't, you can't miss. It's coming at a good time for the Minnesota Wild without Coriel Caprizov. But sticking in the Western Conference, it seemed like the West was all but locked up, but the Winnipeg Jets have just completely crumbled. You both took that on the teeth.

There were many tweets, many comments, even stories about the lack of respect being put on the Winnipeg Jets. That very team has only one. seven games in their last 21. They have kicked the door down for the Calgary Flames and the Nashville Predators who were sellers at the deadline and who have, you know, who is it, Matt Dushan, Roman Yossi, Philip Forsberg and Ryan Johansson all out of the lineup currently. They are still in playoff contention in the Western Conference.

In fact, they are two points back, three points back in the Winnipeg Jets with a better points percentage than the flames. guys do you have thoughts on what's happening in Winnipeg right now? No thoughts, no thoughts. I don't think this is a really interesting development that has happened. Is this what you thought was going to happen, Dom? Like, is this why you underrated the Winnipeg Jets early in the season because you said, because like you thought like they're just not that good?

Did we underrate them? It seems like we properly rated them got yelled at because it seems like it seems like. It seems like I don't want to say, I'm going to try to award this properly. It just feels like, be careful. Yeah, I think I wasn't super high on their best players. I haven't been for a long time. We're seeing one of them come at odds with his coach right now for good reason. He's played terribly.

I like the player. I just think the mythos around his ability. is way higher than what it should be. And I think that's the problem with Winnipeg is that their stars aren't as high end as their point totals as their reputation as they're made out to be. And I think that is coming to Roos now

with a lot of those guys just struggling to deliver when it matters. Also, this goes back to some of the logic we kind of discussed. I think that a lot of the early season, you know, dialogue around the Jets surrounded or surrounded

Connor Hellebuck and he's gone in the tank and his last 17 starts this is since February the 16th just barely above 900 and save a percentage and his goal saved above

expected is minus 1.6 and that so you have a team that's super reliant on their goaltender a lot of their there's nothing wrong with that and that's and that was the point that I think both

of us made in power rings or elsewhere that like goaltending counts it's fine it's fine if you have if you have a elite top shelf goaltender that you can rely upon right but he's also just one guy and in terms of process if that's what your process is is like shoot a high percentage and hope and hope your goaltender is consistently elite throughout the course of a full regular season that's not the foundation that you want to build a house on right so you have words six weeks into Connor Hellebuck being below average. And I think that's a big part of it too. Like, yes, Shifley's been whatever, but we kind of knew that about Shifley. And we kind of knew that Josh Morrissey couldn't keep shooting 25% or whatever. His on-eye shooting percentage

wasn't going to be bananas over the course of a season. The variable is that Helibuck's been bad too. So the end result is what? Like Haley, like you said, they've left the door open for Nashville and in Calgary, which is just, it's nuts. Yeah. And the other variable, obviously, is the Rick bonus factor. Marotte, Attesh, who does a great job covering the Jets for us, had, you know, a really great way of kind of putting it in his story after the Jets lost to the San Jose sharks the other night.

He said, like, the bonissons is over. And there is a lot of what's going on in Winnipeg where the players, are just not executing some of the numbers that I found last night were in the last seven games they've been shut out three times. Mark Sheifley has zero goals and nine games. Blake Whaler has zero goals in 21 games.

I don't believe he's scored a goal since Valentine's Day. Kyle Connor's zero goals in nine games and Pierre Luke Dubois one goal in 10. So there's a ton of issues with these players like actually producing and doing their job, but they're also at odds with a coach who has had these very specific issues happen as early or as recently as last season in Dallas.

Like Saad had a thread of all of the things that are reminding him of the Rick bonus era coming to an end in Dallas. It's, you know, one of your star players or one of your most important or most well-known players being publicly at odds with the coach. Oh, we saw that before. Really puzzling lineup decisions. Really strange player deployment. Really strange, like time on ice things.

Like Blake Wheeler, again, who was not scored in 21 games, is playing. on the first line right now with Mark Schifley. And there was a moment in the game against San Jose where Mark Schifley put a great pass onto the tape of Blake Wheeler who fanned on it and missed. And the question is just like, why is Blake Wheeler on the top line if he hasn't been able to score a goal since February?

So there's this really weird mix, this really great mix if you're a Jets fan, I feel for them, where the coach is the issue and so are the players. And there doesn't seem to be like an easy. fix because it's like coach get it together, players get it together, and everyone needs to get on the same page or their season is just going to completely go to shit and they're going to miss the playoffs and I mean the Nashville Predators are going to be the 18th.

I mean, think about all the things that we've rattled off of the Winnipeg Jets in the last 10 minutes. We're talking about a total collapse by the players at the top of the lineup, zero goals and how many games for all those guys. Yeah. Connor Hellebuck, you know, who looked like a Vezna finalist for the first however long of the season has fallen apart. You have public sniping from the coach, very obvious lack of communication as to what the problems are, A, and B, what the potential solution could be between Shifley and bonus, because that was the other big thing to come out of that last ridiculous loss was that Shifley was like, no, we can't be, like, we, we. We got to wait, we got to pick our moments and wait for the right time and like, in like, wait for the quality chances.

And bonus, meanwhile, is down the hall saying throw whatever against the net. That's the only way to get out of this is a kind of, you know, go with quantity over quality. Like this is crazy. Anything that, any, anything that could have gone wrong really, realistically in the last few weeks has gone wrong for them. And that is how we're talking about the Nashville. Predators who still have a 20% chance to make the playoffs according according to the Dom according to your numbers that came out today the Predators yes yeah and the Predators should be the Nashville Predators could be as high as a 28% by the time you listen to this depending on if they beat Pittsburgh to

tonight I guess or yesterday whenever I don't know how time works right now we'll just say Thursday that's the beauty of Friday. Try not to say today or yesterday or whatever Just say Thursday, because you can't go wrong. Is it Thursday or is it Friday? It doesn't really matter. It's Friday. Yeah. That's the beauty of this show.

If Nashville wins Winnipeg's chances will be below 50%. They'll be at 48. Very interesting. Okay. I like what we haven't mentioned the flames. We haven't mentioned the flames at all. We're just like, yeah. Right.

So this is kind of like brings to the final question is I think we all can probably agree that there's three teams going to be in this like really. sad yet fun fight for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference between Calgary, Nashville, and the Jets. Who do you guys think is ultimately going to win that spot? Because the flames have the easiest strength of schedule in the league down the stretch. They've got seven games left. They're playing Vancouver on Friday, Anaheim over the weekend.

But the flames also don't really have the, like they can't use the like easy strength of schedule as this, like, great thing because they have struggled against bad teams this season and the flames haven't exactly been great consistently this year. But they did have a really good win against the LA Kings last week or not last week, this week. So I don't know. A UC Soros just had a lights out performance against the Bruins. And then the jets are crumbling.

So who do we think is going to win that spot between those three? I think I like Calgary. just because at some point they have to look like the team we all thought they'd be. That's not true. I'm holding out. We're holding. They've got points in nine of their last 12. So the flames actually are.

With the five of those OT losses? No, too. They're such a cursed franchise. This is the portion of the podcast where I remind people that I pick the Calgary Flames to win the Stanley Cup at the start of this season. They still can. They still can, baby. I think the fact that Winnipeg has to play Nashville and Calgary still on their schedule. So that's what makes all of this very spicy.

Yeah. Game 79 for the Flames is against the Jets and then game 81 is against the Preds. I hope it's the Preds. I really do. That would be so like the Preds without Matthew Shane. Yes. Their depth chart is so funny right now. Their lineup, I look at it and I'm like, oh,

David Boyle David Boyle at long last at the end of his 55 year career or however long he's been a general manager it's like it's 40 years he finally decides to sell finally like he's like

okay well I'm going to give Barry Trots like a decent raft of draft fix here on my way out makes the decision that they should have made for the last two or three seasons and they back into the playoffs because the Winnipeg Jets self-destruct in the Calgary Flames can't win more than two games in a row. In a row. It's impossible. I hope it happens.

I really want to just imagine if all the top guys are still hurt and they roll into the playoffs with a top two center duo of Cody Glass and Tommy Novak. Tommy Novak has 34 points in 42 games. Renaissance baby I love the Preds Let's go Going back to the GM meetings A couple of a couple weeks back It was like

You know it's David Boyle's last set of meetings And everyone's That was like everybody's day one story right It's like this is You know Farewell to David Boyle Congrats on a on a career You know

On an admirable career And whatever else And like Also like see you never like this like your team's irrelevant like like kind of almost like the tone was apologetic I think in the way people are talking to him it's like boy what a horrible way to go out for a guy who's been on the job for as long as he has because they're definitely not going to make the playoffs right and now and now it's you know March 30th and we're we have to seriously consider the fact that

yeah one C Cody glass is going to carry this is going to carry this team in the end of the postseason It's amazing. Yeah. Ryan Johansson's not going to be back. He's done for the year. I think it was an Achilles. He got cut on the back of his foot, I think. I actually, I'm sorry, I have no idea what happened to Ryan Johansson.

I apologize. That was completely wrong. I don't know what. He just totally start making up injuries. Ryan, Ryan Johanson fell in a bat of chocolate at a candy factory and was sucked into a pneumatic tube. No, he got cut on the Achilles, didn't he? Yes. Skate blade in the lower.

leg out 12 weeks. At the end of February, he had surgery on it, so he's out. Duchenne is week to week. The Philip Forsberg injury timeline has been really hazy. I haven't seen any like real updates on Roman Yosey

either. So you've got like all these really important players. I guess Yose's day to day at this point, but Forsberg has still been pretty muddy. So you've got all these really important players at the top of the lineup who are out, but you've got UC Soros again, 35, 35 saves against the Bruins.

Cody Glass, I believe. 1C. Cody Glass gets the game winner against the best team in the league, Boston Bruins. So we were living in the best timeline. In the east, Sean and I've spent... Are you doing, hold on a second, but before I jump to these, are you doing another awards watch? Are you doing another like awards recap kind of thing? Yeah, you should get the start of every month, so probably next week.

Okay. Where is there like a preliminary idea? of where UC Saros stands in the in the Vezner rankings because that dude I mean that's we should say like we're talking about how the hell how are the predators doing this like it's like that's how like he's you know that one is usually like pretty easy because I just straight up go to evolving hockey and just use their goals saved above

expective and Saros is second to Sorokin but like it still feels like it's going to be Allmark just because this is a GM award and I think people just decided that like at the start of the season but So annoying. I'm sorry. I know that Linus Allmark is having a great season. The Bruins are the Bruins, but that's really annoying. Can we just give Ilya Sorokin some respect? Give him his flowers. Like, come on. The gap is close enough to make it like stomachable for me, right? Where it's like by the letter of the law, like what I vote for, you know, Linus Allmark? Like, probably not. But it's not some, I don't know. To me, it's not it's not super. I just think where would the Islanders be with? without Sorokin? Like, where would they be without Sorokin? And I think that should be the tie break at this point. Like, their stats are close enough, as you said, Sean.

Like, they're, I mean, Sorokin's goals saved above expected is, like, over 10 more than, than Allmarks. 47.8 on evolving hockey. 40, almost, almost 50 goals saved above expected for Sorokin this season, and Allmark is at 35. That's actually the second highest in the analytics. behind, I think, one Henrik Lumpus season.

One of the issues is whether the public data is underselling the Islander's defensive ability and sort of propping stroken up. And that's something I've mentioned the last few awards watches is that if you go to like ClearSight analytics, their website shows like the top five. And Allmark and Soros are close at like plus 30, plus 31, but Sorokin's at plus 25. So ClearSight thinks that. Well, they take out things that are just like. you know, if the puck

just kind of trickles to the goalie. Like they take out things that aren't actually a shot attempt, whereas the NHL tracks everything. So maybe that's part of it. I think the big issue is that we using public models don't know any pre-shot movement, anything like that. And the Islanders are have a reputation being a strong defensive team.

So to believe it's just Soroken when a better data set suggests that, we're operating by like 22 goals, then maybe the Islander's defense is a lot better than we're giving it credit for. And it's not just Sorokin. And maybe it is a lot closer than like the race we're getting credit for. Right. I mean, Saro should be in that kind of final.

Yeah. As Sean's original point, like, yeah, the question, how are the Preds doing this? You know, there's like a working theory that once they kind of started selling, they just started playing more free and without pressure because it's just like whatever. and they've had this like really great spark of knowing that like hey we don't have the pressure of needing to make the playoffs

because we're sellers right now and they actually started playing really well but at the end of the day like it's that might be something but it's UC Soros. Yeah. If they make the playoffs do you think someone Galaxy brains a Saros MVP pick? 100%. For the heart?

For the heart. Somebody will do it. If they make if they make the playoffs? Yeah. Absolutely. I hope not. Since the trade, no. Since the trade deadline, Saros, according to evolving hockey,

is like a little bit under seven goals saved above expected, which is, you know, he's been the best post-deadline of the guys who we assume are going to be in the mix there. So, yeah, it is funny. It's one of those classic things, Haley kind of said this. Like, the weight's been lifted off the shoulder. Everybody can play like free and easy hockey.

And so, yeah. sure but it's a lot easier to do that when you have a guy who's played the best hockey in the league in the last month or so so those are kind of the big ones in the west talking about you know who's going to grab that final spot in this race for the central i think it's going to end up being between the kings and the golden nights probably for the top spot in the pacific slash the western conference that's the way it's looking right now at least but let's take a quick break and when we come back we're going to dig into the Eastern Conference a little bit more and talk even more about the Pittsburgh Penguins. That's right. More penguins playoff on top. But they continue to be always a treat. So let's take a break.

We'll come right back. All right. So Sean and I have talked about the Penguins quite a bit on this show. So we're going to try to save the opinions that we've already shared about what is wrong with this team, what Ron Hextall is done wrong, etc. but we are going to look at their playoff odds because the penguins are playing the Preds as we already mentioned in the first segment tonight, that's on Thursday night.

So I guess that was last night. Now Dom's confused me. They're playing on Friday. And then that's not true. They're playing Thursday. And then the Florida Panthers are playing the Montreal Canadians. The penguins only have one point up on the Panthers

after Florida beat the Leafs in overtime on Wednesday night. So this is another huge evening on the schedule for this Eastern Conference playoff race. Almost every single spot has been clinched in the Eastern Conference. Basically, the wild card is still technically open and the Tampa Bay Lightning have not yet clinched.

I don't believe they have a chance to clinch yet. The only clinching scenarios on Thursday night is for the Bruins to clinch the President's trophy, which is incredible, and the Golden Knights to clinch a playoff spot in the West. But the only real kind of battle in the Eastern Conference right now is between the Islanders, Penguins, Panthers, and I mean, Islanders to a lesser extent. It's between the Penguins and the Florida Panthers. Dom, what do you got for us on these playoff odds and the stakes involved in these games on Thursday night? Yeah, so it's pretty low stakes for the Islanders.

They entered the day at 93%. They could be as low as 90% or as high as 97%. depending on if Pittsburgh and Florida both win, they're down to 90. If Nashville, Montreal win, they're basically set at 97%. The bigger jumps will be Pittsburgh and Florida. If they win or lose, depending on how it works out, there's a 40% difference between where each team could be. So Florida, if Florida's, yeah, it's huge right now because every point matters. Florida starts at 36%.

If they lose in Pittsburgh wins, they drop to 14%. If they win and Pittsburgh loses, they're up to 55%. And then if Pittsburgh win, Florida loses, Pittsburgh's up to 85%. They could be as low as 45% if Florida wins and they lose. That's all in regulation, by the way. If there is loser points in there, then there'll be somewhere in that range. And if both teams end up winning, then it's 70, Pittsburgh, 37, Florida. A lot of numbers.

Sean's eyes are glazing over. Basically, win good, lose bad. No. Both these teams stink. They're both bad. Florida and the Penguins are both playing embarrassing hockey right now. I was at the game last night against the Leafs, and for a must-win game, they sure looked pathetic.

And they won. And they won. God bless them. If it wasn't for that goalie, that would have been done. Alex Lyon. That was not going to be a game. Looks like one of the worst goalies I've ever seen live, and he had 40 saves. It was a classic Leaps game.

He robbed Matthews and OT also. It's like, who is this? The Penguins had a goalie loss against Detroit on some level, right? Like, this is what happens with the Penguins. Like Casey DeSmith, as soon as he has any sense that, you know, he might have to start three games out of five. He self-destructs, and that's what happened with them against the Red Wings, which is just a brutal, brutal loss.

where you're losing to if you're them, if you're losing to, an irrelevant team. Who did the Panthers lose to earlier this week before they lost to the, before they beat the leaves? Was it also Detroit?

What is Detroit? It's, it's unbelievable. It's all blurry. The only reason they won last night is because Paul Maurice freaked out on them. That's it. Oh no, they lost to the Sends.

They lost to the Sends. Beed them five to two. So, yeah, an irrelevant team. Neither of these, like, both of these teams, to varying degrees, incapable of like reaching out and actually grabbing hold of this of this of this playoff spot like neither side little playoff race neither neither neither team wants it like Pittsburgh Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh's underlying is are fantastic but they can't score and their goaltending's been horrific you know from Florida's so same team they're the same team just good underlying numbers loser energy loser energy extreme like top heavy you know superstar drag dragging the rest, superstars dragging the rest of the roster basically to success. Did you guys see what Big Walt had to say with the Panthers?

Yes. Sure did. Sure did. Called them soft and basically said like, Brady's, the Sends are better, basically. It's like, sons don't have a whole lot of talent, but at least they work hard. I wonder how much.

And I think that's kind of what Paul Maurice was calling him. He was saying in his own. saying in his own way, that they were soft. Didn't he just tell them all to fuck off? Mm-hmm. He said the F word, yes. I think he, well, he used, yeah, there is, it was, it was, a, he used the adjective

form and I think he could pick, guess, guess what he called him after that. It is, it is fine, though. I mean, Paul Maris isn't the coach of that team. The, um, the, the, Panthers are taking it on the teeth lately, I know you talked about this, Sean, on your show on Tuesday, but like Brooks Kepka showing up in the in the track suit with no undershirt on and then calling Aaron Eklad a pylon. And like Brooks Kepka just went full suburban dad who hated Dionnef enough, you know? He was hydrated. How many dads in the greater Toronto area used to just scream pylon at Dionne Funnuff?

My dad did. My dad did. I saw Brooks Kepka in that track suit. I feel like you're speaking specifically about one suburban dad screaming about it. Oh, I have literally, I have very, you know, not the matching track suit, you know, in the VIP box. But I've definitely seen an adult man call another,

call an NHL defenseman a pylon. Well, Craig was trying, Craig was trying to say on Tuesdays. That they're friends. I listened and I was like, Craig. Maybe it was just, right. Like maybe this is Brooks Kepka like busting, busting his friend's chops like from the, from the

He said he's friends with some guys on the team, but not, I don't think so. No, he said, but not, I'm glad. Kepka's a dick. I said, I said, I said this a couple days ago. He doesn't care. Yeah, he doesn't care. Like, he's started fun. I like Brooks Kepka.

I started liking Brooks Kepka once he started making fun of Bryce and DeShambo. It's not, it's not, I mean, like, that's a hell of a, hell of a choice. I listened to the Tuesday show and texted Sean immediately about the incorrect things that he said about golf. Brooks Keppga will be at the Masters. Playing the Masters, okay. Yes. Good for him. And Liv doesn't play in Saudi Arabia, Sean.

That's just how they're just they play in the United States. They're just funded by Saudi Arabia. They're just funded by Saudi Arabia money. Anyways, Dom, you had a couple thoughts in 16 stats specifically about the Panthers. I mean, they won the president's trophy last year. they should be a good team. But yeah, things aren't going well. We already did touch on some of them.

But like what are the biggest things that you found as like a reason to be concerned about the Panthers? The biggest thing is that when they are not healthy specifically at center, they seem to absolutely crumble. With Barcov and Bennett in the lineup, they are 30, 18 and 4, which is pretty good about what you expect from Panthers and then if they're just missing literally one of those guys, they're 7, 13, and three. Which is they've been without Bennett consistently for the last. Yeah. You know.

It's both them like it's overlapping. It's like there's no overlap. And so either Barkov's out or Bennett's out and they have just played a lot more games without a top six center than they probably wanted to. And it's not just a few games of surviving with both of them out. It's just won out for extended years of time, and they've struggled in those games. And then they looked like it last night against Toronto. They just needed a heroic performance from Alex Lyon to come through.

And maybe that's the thing that sparks them. Maybe that heroic performance from a third-string goalie is what gets them going. Can you imagine if five years ago someone told you that Sam Bennett was going to be that a team, season probably kind of literally was going to hinge on whether San Benno was in the lineup as like a top six center and that's where the Florida Panthers find themselves that too just like I mean it depends how far back we're going he was the fourth overall pick he was supposed to be that guy for the Calgary Flames I'm saying like I'm saying like mid period where he was where he was looking like oh when he was on the fourth line he was being misused and all that stuff no this guy it's wild playoff Sam Bennett was always fun playoff Sam Bennett yeah regular Sam regular season, Sam Bennett less so. Yeah. It's like the meme of Doge, the one that's really like big and buff. And then there's the other one that's very meek and small.

Sam Bennett in November versus Sam Bennett in May. Yeah, exactly. Okay, two more thoughts or stats that we can go through as it relates to the Eastern Conference. Austin Matthews is back. He's back, baby. I'm going to go use the bathroom. Sean, just, yeah, this is Sean. John's little break time.

This is American hero, Austin Matthews, and you're taking a bathroom break? When you got to go, you got to go. Disgusting. Dr. Ian Malcolm once said. Something was off with Austin Matthews for most of the season. I think most people could see that when they watched him. And it wasn't even that he was bad. It just, he wasn't dominating the game in the way that people got used to seeing.

We know now that he was dealing with a hand injury. Jonas kind of had that. that exclusive or he had that first. There was other bumps and bruises, injury stuff that he was dealing with. But in the last couple weeks now, he's stringing together games where he's scoring multiple goals. He's producing more.

He's been great on both sides of the puck. Like, yeah, Austin Matthews is back. And whatever concern there might be about the Leafs post-dedeline as Sheldon Keefe tries to mix and match the deep hairs and the lines and figure out what works and what doesn't, the kind of trump card for people, I think, with those concerns. It's like, well, at least Austin Matthews is clicking at the right time. Yeah, it's good to see.

And I looked at three different things that I think make Matthews special. And those are things that didn't exist to start the year. He is a guy who takes a lot of shots, a lot of good quality shots. He finishes those shots. 15 shots. Sorry, Dom. 15 shots against the canes last week. 15.

His previous high was 12. I actually also looked at Ovechkin. and Ovechkin has hit 15 once as well. So it's a very rare thing to take 15 shots. And that I think was like the exclamation point on people wondering whether he was back. Him taking 15 shots like, oh, yeah, he's back. And they still lost that game. They sure did.

Yeah, so it's those two things and him being able to suppress chances, which wasn't happening as much earlier in the year. Dom, what's your level of concern with the Leafs post deadline? And do you want to explain why you hate Luke Shen? I don't hate Luke Shen. There is actually a photo from my childhood of me with Luke Shen when I was. Wow. When you were like 13?

I guess so, yeah. Around the peak like teen years of like obsessive hockey watching. Yeah. Yeah, I don't hate Luke Shen. It's just I like. You don't want him in. the lineup. I would prefer someone who can move the puck a bit better, but I don't know, he's, he's fine. My concern level was much higher last week. I think they played really well the last

four games or so. I think they're really come together. My concern was, I guess, maybe chemistry related where they just weren't clicking, but they look a lot better now. Jake McCabe has played really well. He's, I think, been a strong defensive presence. Fine. O'Reilly will come back and hopefully give them an offensive boost. I'm still a bit worried that their scoring is too top-heavy, but I think they're a very strong defensive team, which is something you haven't been able to really say about the Leafs in a long time. Yeah.

It'll be interesting to see who the 6D are going to be in the postseason, because Sheldon Keefe has a lot that he can work with, and it doesn't. It seems like the, like, finding out where, you want T.J. Brody the most seems to be like the, the heart of that conversation, right? Like if T.J. Brody is best with Morgan Riley, then your D pairs are going to look way different.

The guys who might fit, the guys who might be in the press box are different. But if you want him with Jake McCabe and then you want to free up Morgan Riley to be more of an offensive zone, start guy, shelter him a little bit, then maybe who plays with Morgan Riley is a little bit different. So there's still time, but I feel like Sheldon Keefe needs to figure that out sooner

rather than later. Moving on from the Leafs talk, final question on the East. The Carolina Hurricanes are without Andres Svetnikov. They are without Max Pachorette. Their biggest issue in the postseason last year was goal scoring drying up when it mattered the most. And there without two guys who were supposed to provide a ton of goal scoring for that lineup.

Guys, how do we feel that the canes heading into the playoffs? Not good. I feel like there is some serious upset potential there without Svetnikov. I think he embodies a lot of that team's identity, and he is one of the few players who can reliably score, and they just have not looked right without him. They're usually one of the best possession teams in the league, and they're still good. They're just not possessing the puck as much.

They're not scoring as much. Their power play has looked horrific without him. Underrated. underrated part of what they've lost with him out of the lineup for sure. Yeah, they've scored 1.6 goals per 60 on the power play without him, which is worse than a lot of teams at 5 on 5. It's just been real bad. And if they get the Islanders in round one against Sorokin,

I can see some serious upset potential there. And maybe they won't upset them now that I believe in the Islanders. That's the key to Islanders is they only succeed. with doubt and spite. But yeah, I'm concerned for sure. Because what, he was hurt on March the 9th.

First full game of them was for Carolina was March 11th. They're four, five and one since then. They've been outscored 34 to 24 in all situations. And it's diso, it is, I think it is, Kane's fans must just be, like,

it's a tough to fathom level of disappointment. This was supposed to be. the year, right? Like, Sean, we had Rod Rendemore on the show. Like, this was, this was the year for the Keynes. It's just been this, like, kind of cascading, you know, instances of disappointment, right? Where you have, Pati already gets hurt.

That's disappointment one. Comes back, gets hurt again. They, you know, say what you will about whether they should have gone for, like added big at the deadline or whatever, or whatever. didn't. That's another, another level of disappointment. And then this Svetnikov thing. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's brutal. And for a team, like, I know we joke about it all the time, Dom, like you, you and I do, we joke about it on the show, you know, umf per 60 or juice or whatever, whatever you want to say. Zip. They have Zip. They have Zip. I mean, they don't have Zip.

I feel like we went on in pep. Well, they could have. It could have with Patsuretti or is Fetchnikov. You know, that's sort of slightly less tangible, like goal score capital G, capital S at the top of the lineup with Patchyuretti being involved and then Svetchenkov kind of leveling up. I don't know. I don't know how you overcome that. I don't know how you overcome it in any meaningful way on a level like commensurate with the expectations that they carried into the season. Right. Like maybe you can drag ass past the islanders, but it's tough to look at that team now for. for as much as they do well,

and for as much as we like the process, and for as much as we like that roster, if it's healthy, it's tough to imagine working out for them. That's a disappointment. Yeah, I think it's important. Like, they still have an ACHS, they still have AHO,

you still have Brent Burns. Like, there's still a lot of talent and skill in that lineup. Yeah. How is anybody on Earths? Like, they, like, they would have been, it would have been an interesting, prospect breaking down his series with them in the Bruins basically a month ago. It was the perfect

Eastern Conference final. It was yeah. So we'll see. I feel like that was a good Eastern Conference, Western Conference breakdown. It was pretty substantive, honestly. Where things are going. Go team. So we're going to go to another quick break here and in honor of opening day. We are going to draft our favorite ballpark foods we'll be right back all right so as we're recording this on Thursday afternoon

first pitch has indeed been thrown between the Toronto Blue Jays your Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Alex Alec Manoa on the mound whose Blue Jays? It's not a Blue Jays podcast everyone's this has been Jay's talk

with Haley Salvian you've all been duped there's actually another hour of the show where I break down like Kevin Gosman should have been the opening day starter. I'm just kidding. I don't care. I do care, but it's fine. We are going to draft three rounds of ballpark food in honor of opening day.

Danielle has done the honors of, you know, picking names out of a hat because we can never figure out how to play rock, paper, scissors. It's a disaster. Excuse me, last week's draft champion, producer, Danielle. That is true. I just want to say that Sean was last. I was second and I think that's just really important for everyone to be aware of. You guys did a good job.

I had two songs swiped out from under me like the pick before I was going to take. You swipe songs from us consistently. It's not true. Danielle took two songs and I wanted to take. To the Victor goes the spoils. That's the way it goes. I accept it.

You guys doubted me. you said that it wasn't my scene. You guys didn't think I knew any of those songs and I came second. It's like Google Ballpark Foods. Yep. This is stalling. I know it's not stalling.

Just pick one. Don't start yelling. What do you like to eat? What do you like to eat? Okay, so Ballpark Foods with me with the first overall pick, I am going to go for the humble helmet nacho. There's nothing to humble about a helmet.

I love nachos at a ballpark and I love specialty souvenirs. I love the big helmet. You'd wash it out. You'd take it home. You put it on your bookshelf. I do have one party foul that I need to bring up because I love a helmet nacho. I ordered a helmet nacho. And let's just say that a person that I was with took my helmet nacho and mixed up the nachos with. the cheese sauce, so then all the nachos got soggy, and it was disgusting, and I'm still upset about it. Does anyone have a thought on how gross that is? That is a red card. Red card? Don't. A red card. Yes.

Three strikes. You're out. You're ejected. There's so many things happening right now. Anyways, it's fine. I pick the helmet nacho. I will graciously take the hot dog at number two. Any thoughts?

What do you put on the hot dog? Yeah. Ketchup mustard. I go classic. I think there's a hot dog is the only reason I would go to a baseball game. Looney Dog Night, that's it. I don't like baseball. But a dollar hot dog, I'll go for that.

We've been over that. I don't even like baseball at this. Okay. But the one time that Sean and I made fun of you on Twitter. Yeah. The one time Sean and I made fun of you for talking about the Blue Jays, you got so personally angry with us. Very upset.

Because you guys are like an annoying little tag team and I don't know if like having a podcast with Sean has just made you a more cynical person but guys are just mean bullies sometimes.

Oh my God. Whatever. Hot dogs. They have a I don't know if in Pittsburgh they sell the all you can eat seats but that was always unreal. You should come down

you should come down for that. He ate a lot of hot dogs in the P&S. NC Park. All you can eat, it's a couple years ago. I'm not sure if that still exists. Okay. It's your turn. Beer. No, that's not a food. That's not a food. That's not a food. That's not food. That's not food.

That's not attitude. Danielle, you can't eat a beer. If you're chewing on your beer, something's gone wrong. Has anybody? No. No. Yes. Food for breakfast. Food. I'm... Absolutely not. I've chosen to drink instead of eat plenty of times in my life recently. And how did that go for you? Badly. Okay, whatever. Specifically, I want to really, like a 24 ounce, like, bud heavy or something. I don't want, how many ounces is it

turn into food? Yeah. Great question. Three, three beers counts as a meal. Okay. I thought, I thought about this. Okay. With my, so we're, we're spinning back around. Next pick, ice cream cone. Not a commemorative. I even had a butt heavy, a bud heavy in an ice cream cone. No, I don't want it in a hat. I want the cone with the beer. Does that mean in a hat is still up for grabs? Yeah.

You know what? I would say that soft serve in a hat is still up for grabs. I'm talking about an actual scooped ice cream cone in a, on mine. So I think soft serve in a hat is still is still up for grabs. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And I want to make it clear that my second part.

I just want to say that my helmet nachos are the loaded kind. They don't just have cheese on them. I think it's important to note that there's like jalapinos, there's cheese, there's sour cream. Right. It's not just, it's not just casso. Okay, I just want to make that clear. Dom, what's your second round pick?

Before I make my second pick, I want to make it clear that my hot dog is a hot dog. It's a hot dog. Nothing fancy about it. You can put ketchup. You can not put ketchup. I don't care. Standard size. Is this a foot long?

Like, what is this? It is, it's just a hot dog, man. Is it? Is it grilled? Not a sausage? Brother, is it grilled or steamed? Answer the question. Okay.

I would like to monopolize all hot dog options. Just say hot dog. No, hot dog and sausage are two different things. Honestly, that's a fair point. If I get soft serve in a helmet, then sausage is also fair game. Okay, what's your pick? Soft serve in a little plastic. Almond.

Okay. With sprinkles? Yes, with sprinkles. Or if he doesn't want it, it doesn't matter. With rainbow sprinkles. I'll tell you what, you can't break this down any further. You can't say I get soft served with sprinkles. Because Dom doesn't want him.

So this is where this activity gets difficult for somebody who's gluten intolerant, which is why I love a nacho, because those are corn. So I'm going to go rogue. I'm not going to pick things that I eat because I can't eat anything. Seems illegal. That's not true. I'm thinking of things that I would like order for a friend what they would enjoy

But you're not eating it What I would like to have This is a farce You just want to win the draft No Well yes of course But I can't eat anything Have some integrity

I'm not gonna pick like a freezing here I'm not gonna pick like you know A snow cone Where I just didn't draft anything if I didn't watch it Mm-hmm it's true That's called integrity I've eaten this food before I just can't eat it anymore.

You can't eat it again. Not if I don't want to get a tummy ache. Okay, so hold on. Your choice comes with a tummy ache. No, I'm just kidding. And when evaluating, I would get very ill. Everyone also gets a tummy ache. It's not just a tummy ache.

I'm not getting into detail about my gluten allergy, okay? Whoever picks Haley's draft needs to consider that they will have a tummy ache. They're going to literally blow up after eating a hot dog and soft serve. Ample available. level toilets. Shut up. I'm picking a pretzel. I'm picking a pretzel, okay?

That's, you can't even eat it. I was going to get, I was going to take peanuts, but then you were rude. So I'm going with the goddamn pretzel with some like salt on top and I want the cheese dip on the side, maybe a jalapeno cheddar. I'm going with the pretzel. This sucks. And then and then I'm taking a bag of peanut.

nuts and I'm going to throw the shells on the ground. I win. I was going to say like a freezy, a popsicle. You should have. Then you guys were mean to me. Unbelievable. Next. I will take pizza.

Pizza is pizza, hot dog, that's hot dog. Ice cream is ice cream. That's my draft. That's pretty good. This sucks. Like, whatever. You could take Cracker Jack? There's eight.

There's eight things. There are eight things. No, thank you. Stay hydrated. Maybe if you would have like taken, you know, a pretzel with your first round pick. You literally picked back to back so you can't bitch about me taking the pretzel. With the ninth overall pick in the ballpark food drafts, I select Feduccini Alfredo. Shut up.

Someone funny. Is that a joke? Yeah, of course it is. Chicken tenders. I don't think they're like truly a classic ballpark food, but whatever, right? I think that's a good ballpark food, yeah. It's pretty solid. It doesn't, it seems like kind of a.

What about a French fry? Needs a protein mix in there. I don't know. With your beer. Yeah, chicken burgers. I'm okay with that. Okay. Danielle, who's the winner?

Give me a second to deliverate. Please. I feel with Haley's, I think it's probably Haley I'll give her the way No, no, absolutely not No Haley with an asterisk is great

That's such bullshit Did you consider the tummy egg? I mean, I did not consider the tummy egg because I figured that's a one person deal but across the board Nobody said we were allowed to pick beverages and nobody said that I had to pick things that I would personally eat.

Okay. It was happy eggs aside. Vote on it. Vote on it this way. If you had three trays in front of you, each with the three picks that we made, which one are you walking out with? Forget about gluten intolerance or whatever.

Air quotes, gluten intolerance. It's me. It's me. It's me. Just say it. I think it's, I think it's, I think it's probably Haley. That's fair.

She just dabbed on people. Dabbing on a podcast. Visual medium. Yeah, that's fine. I concede. But you know what, brother? I got a beer in an ice cream cone. Life is good.

For anyone who's interested in seeing my dad's favorite baseball snacks, he has a bag of popcorn next to his lazy boy chair in the living room that is bigger than my dog. So it's a garbage bag size serving of popcorn with a glass of wine He's living right It's opening day baby That is all the time we have for the show Dom thank you for coming on

And dealing with us as usual Thank you everybody for listening Give us a draft idea for next week Give us some questions in the comment section If you know how to find it I'm not going to explain it I think if you know how to find it, that's great. If not, it's fine.

We will come up with something stupid regardless. Sean, do you have a parting thought for our listeners? No. I'm just going to go have a beer and some ice cream. I think that's where I landed. Go Pirates. Goodbye. Bye, everyone.

And just a reminder, it's been fight week. What? No, I don't know about all that. Go Pirates. Yeah, that was a joke. This is a Blue Jays. podcast. Thanks everyone for listening. And just a reminder, it's been fight week on The Athletic as we've been diving into fighting in hockey. And it all wraps up with a special roundtable discussion on

the athletic hockey show dropping on Saturday. And if you're not an athletic subscriber, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $1 a month for 12 months.