The Athletic Hockey Show - Are the Buffalo Sabres a legitimate Stanley Cup contender?

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

The Buffalo Sabres continue to be the NHL's hottest team, Sean, Frank and Sean ask if they truly are a Stanley Cup contender this season, they discuss the fading Detroit Red Wings with their playoff hopes quickly vanishing, they breakdown the controversial goaltender interference and ejection of Nathan MacKinnon on Connor Ingram and the Edmonton Oilers beating Western giants Vegas and Colorado in back to back games.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, but up is the Athletic Hockey Show for March 11th, 2026. I'm Sean Gentile. Here with Sean McAndo, Frankie Crato. Frankie, I caught whatever you had last week. I think I caught it over the TV broadcasts. Oh, man. I didn't know that diseases could be communicable that way, but it seems to have happened.

Did you, like, I did a late night panel. It was a late Habs game in San Jose. and I sounded horrible. And all I was thinking was, thank God that this is like an 11.30 p.m. start in the Maritimes and 12 a.m. start in Newfoundland because that's where most of our viewership is in that region. Like, hopefully they're sleeping and no one's listening to this just god-awful voice I have. You're a busy guy. The bad news is if you can catch whatever Frankie has over the TV, half of Canada is going to be sick. Oh, yes.

Look at those ratings, baby. Look at them. Friday. Oh, the PR, the release came out. Yeah, thank you. It was, you know what, man, it's a lot of, it's a lot of hard work from a big crew of people for weeks leading up to that day. And honestly, like, I think I've told you guys this before, but like, they plan a nine-hour show. And just assuming that there's no trades that are ever going to happen.

So we always have something to do. And as trades come in, we'll knock things off that are of lower significant. against. I think this might have set a record for like most things we actually use in that nine hour show because nothing was happening. So credit to everyone and Duffy nailed it again. The Rolodex was so good. The Daniel Dale thing was hilarious. It was, it was great. Do you have like, do you have stories of stuff that was ready to go that never got used that like, like, you know, there's like trapeze artists sitting in the back that this is like new. This is news to me. I'm surprised you haven't actually told us this that there's like, you know, six hours worth.

What the extended DVD juggling, juggling contest that we never see or whatever it turned into. There's no, there's no like circus freaks like in the back, just like in a cage waiting to like get rolled out onto the set to see, you know, what we're going to do to kill some time. Are you sure? Are you sure there's long? Some guy with my air for O'Dog to fight. Yeah, that would be great. That's probably coming. Like there's going to be a hologram of like. like a bear that at some point we're going to have to wrestle. But no, the one thing that got dropped, the Quizmaster comes up to me and he goes, could you make an argument, you versus Carlo, could you have a debate where you argue to keep the playoff positioning as is?

So like the divisional thing with the wild card. And Carlo's going to take the one through eight approach. Can you argue that? I looked at him and I said, Mr. Quizmaster, absolutely not. I hate, hate, hate this stupid playoff format. I think it's dumb. I think you can't explain it to a casual fan or a non-fan. Like, you can twist my arm on some things.

You cannot twist my arm on this thing. He goes, understood. No problem. Don't want to make you uncomfortable. Comes out to me 30 minutes later. He goes, don't worry, it's dropped anyways. The quiz master, the quiz master knows all for the most part, with the exception of who he was talking to when it comes to.

when it comes with a playoff format to pay it. Like you are firmly on one side of that, my friend. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, like, we're getting some crazy, we're going to get some crazy finishes here down the stretch. Like, I will say that. It's going to be really compelling hockey here. Um, because it's tight. It's tight in the east, tight in the west.

And, um, I don't know, man. We'll see the sprint to the finish who's hanging on. Let's start with that. Let's, let's, let's talk about the, about the, about, about, um, at the Eastern Conference specifically. There's 13 games last night. I mean, basically everyone wins. The wings are kind of the lone exception.

But the teams that are in the mosh pit, you know, for the wildcard spots in particular, everybody ends up winning last night. It's Montreal. It's Columbus. It's, you know, Pittsburgh squeezes a point out of Carolina in a game that they shouldn't have. Islanders beat the Blues 4-3. You know, I think that's the way. I don't know if I was ready for this is probably the best way to put it.

I said this in relation to the penguins on the radio in Pittsburgh and wherever else, whenever they started dealing with the Crosby injury and then the Malkin suspension, I was like, yeah, there are all these teams that they're trying to keep pace with. Like none of them are that good. It's not that big of a deal. And now here we are where we're talking about night after night, you know, the Sends are rolling on and on. Like all these teams who are in this race in the Eastern Conference,

they're all up and operational and very, very relevant at the moment. I think if you are the Detroit Red Wings, you are me going back for a puck, trying to break it out, and you're hearing like the heavy, heavy footsteps of someone who's coming to get it for you and you might turn it over and you're hearing it. That's how I would equate what the Red Wings are going through right now because it's only one game. It lost one game. And keep in mind they're coming off a, pretty decisive win over New Jersey on the weekend. So it's not time to panic yet, but

no Larkin. Cop only played 10 minutes last night. So that means now, you know, J.T. Comfer is your number one center. And we're into March. And historically, March has been a disaster for them. Like this is where they fall off. And if you look at what's going on around them, Boston continues to win. Columbus continues to win. The senators continue to win. win. And the thing is, like, you know, goal differential can tell us a story. It's not everything, but it can tell us a story. And of all those teams that have a realistic chance of making the playoffs, the Red Wings are a minus two. Like Boston's a plus 13, Ottawa's a plus 16. You know, even Columbus is a plus four. It's like, it kind of tells you where you're headed. Like,

I think Detroit, they're in hang on mode or they might be in hang on mode very, very soon here. And they're also in disaster avoidance mode because anytime you're talking about a playoff race, obviously everybody wants to get in. But for the Red Wings this year, especially, you know, last week we just saw them give up a first round pick to lock down this current playoff push. If they were to miss, it's disaster. And it's got to be a lot of tough stuff to think about. And they're not there yet, is the best thing I can say. So I guess make sure you lock it down because not to get out over our skis, but if we're sitting here in a month and the playoffs are starting and Detroit's not there,

yikes. If Detroit's not in there and everyone can look at their Puckpedia page and see that they have $12 million in cap space that they didn't spend at the deadline. I thought come out of deadline day, they were one of the best. biggest losers of all, honestly. I know, you go out and get Justin Falk. That's a nice player. I know prices were high. Maybe you don't want to go and send back half your system for Vince Trocheck or whatever it would have taken. Understood. But you got to do something. You got to do something, especially when you're that team in this situation, after 10 years out of the playoffs or whatever it's been, with that amount of money to spend. Because we always knew that center depth in

particular was going to be an issue for them. You know, you're talking about, you're talking about Andrew Copp and J.T. Coffron, Good Days being your two, being your two C and three C, that's not good enough for a playoff team when everything is going right. And you know your one injury from Dillon Larkin away from having a, from having a center depth chart that looks like a lottery team. Well, guess what happened? Now here we are. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a mess. I liked the move for Justin Falk. Like, if you ask me, what do they need to address first, Sean? I would have said, address your decor first because Larkin's healthy, cops healthy, you can get by. Is it, is it perfect?

No, but it's NHL playoff salvageable, in my opinion anyways. But they weren't going to be able to get by on that decor without having an improvement there. Like you were asking a lot from ASP and, you know, JBD and all the other initial names that they have there. I'm just joking. Travis Hammondick, right? TH, yeah. Right. So they needed the Falk Trade done.

But the thing that will drive their head coach crazy, Todd McClellan, is if you watch back what happened last night, okay, Florida's pressing, they scored the goal, they tied up. There is 30 seconds left in that game. And you have guys that you trust on the ice. And Lucas Raymond's a hell of a player. But he takes a skate, like behind the net, off the rush. The puck gets turned over.

And sure enough, it's like, if he just. kind of did a little bit of a loop or a stop in front and busted his butt back. It's like, that goal doesn't happen. So that's not, you know, that's not fourth liner. That's not Dominic Shine messing it up for you. It's like it's a big player on your team making a costly mistake. And like those are the things that Todd McClellan has been like harping on with this team from game one, game one of the regular season where it was like back and forth, odd man rush, breakaway.

everywhere and they did it in like such a critical moment and that would drive him crazy. And it doesn't get any easier. Tampa up next, you know, in in Tampa, then at Dallas. So and then they've got Calgary in between, but then next week, you might as well say the playoffs arrive now in Detroit because next week they host Montreal, Boston, Ottawa in a row. There it is. That's, I mean, that's, that's three games. I mean, I mean, you win all three of those games. You're kind of locked in at this point.

You lose all three. It's very bad. It's not good. Chances are it's going to be somewhere in the middle, but how it shakes out and do those games end in regulation, do they not? That's going to tell a real big piece of the story. Yeah. And I'm usually the last guy who's like, make a trade just to make a trade.

Like, I think that's for the most part, for the most part, that's a bad way to go about your business. If you're that Red Wingsworth roster in the situation that you're in after years and years and years and also the last few years of the way stuff's falling apart on them in one way way or another. Got to do it. That's it, man. It's like you've had it so many times.

Two years ago, it was like the last night of the regular season and it was like gone. Why was it gone? Lost six in a row in March at the worst possible time. And what happened didn't have Larkin. Like, man, when you, when this team doesn't have Larkin, it's hard for them. They can do it for a little bit, but it's, that's, that's, that's, that's the engine that drives this thing. That's all the horsepower. It's in 71.

Andrew, first round pick, they traded, sorry, Sean. The first round pick, they trade it, not, no protection on it, not conditional, anything like that. Obviously, they're not going to drop down to bottom five or something, given where they already are on the standings. but there's no, hey, we got to make the playoffs protection or anything like that on it. So that's an issue as well. It's only been 10 years. Yeah. That we don't.

And, you know, there's always Buffalo, right? You can always point to the Sabres and say, oh, wait, no, you can't. Because the Sabres are about to go 16 and 0 and win the Stanley Cup. You got, you got to think about that. Like, if this ends for them, if the Sabres end up breaking the futility streak, like, where does that spot, or does that particular spotlight turn? Dude, I'll ask you guys straight up, straight up right now. Are the Buffalo Sabres a true Stanley Cup contender?

I kind of think they are. Me too. After that game in Tampa, yes. Okay. I would have been an iffy on that before, or sorry, not in Tampa, the game against Tampa in Buffalo. I'm on board now because that was the game of the year, not just in terms of of, you know, all the goals and everything. But the bad blood, the atmosphere,

oh my goodness. That was, uh, and, and the fact that the way that the Sabres came back to win that. I'm, I'm all in. I'm on board. Okay. Part of me, part of me thinks that, that what the, okay, what the Sabres are doing is unbelievable. Part of me does think that like, we're jumping to like crown them and anoint them a little

early. Like, they've, they've played incredible. but, you know, like, this is not like that the sabres are just going to fall off a cliff. This is that, you know, it's not easy to win in the playoffs. And we always talk about experience. And, you know, they haven't done it yet. So, you know, we're always kind of skeptical of it. But part of me is like, just get in there and be naive to the whole thing and just do exactly what you're doing.

Because it is awesome to watch right now. They're fast. They're hungry. And, you know, Tampa, Tampa was the Florida Pan. Panthers before the Florida Panthers came around. They'd push you, they'd shove you, they'd try and fight you, and it was the top guys that were doing it too. You know what Buffalo said?

No problem. Rasmus Dalin, he'll be right in the middle of it. Right after getting Tomahawk chopped by Evgeny Malkin, he'll stand in there. And guess what? We brought in meat, brought in Sam Carrick, he's fought already. We brought in Logan Stanley. He fought already. Like, if there was one thing that you looked at and said,

maybe they're not tough enough, which was a valid thing last year when all you talked about was how no one stood up for each other. It's like they have completely flipped the script in Buffalo. And I think it's valid to say that they are a true Stanley Cup contender. This is a great tweet from our buddy DJ Bean yesterday. The best rivalry in the NHL is the Buffalo Sabres versus whoever they're playing that night. That is great. It's true. Each, each night is must-see TV for them. I got, I got the alert yesterday, or whenever that was two days ago, during during the Tampa game, my buddy, Greg the Sabres fan, he's like, you need to put on Sabres lightning.

I'm like, okay. Came through, baby, every single night. Dude, I'm not even joking right now. Like, the center ice package, if it's not like a team that I have to watch because I'm calling their game the next day or something, my first overall pick right now is Buffalo. And I would say that for the last couple of years, I like to build like a do not watch list.

Oh, for sure. And they would have been top five on the do not watch list for the last couple seasons. And now they're first overall. I can't wait to watch Buffalo play. It's wild what's going on. Because they were a bummer. I mean, they were just, you know, not just that they weren't entertaining, but you just felt sad watching them.

Like in your core, you could feel it. And I love this. This is the story of the year. That was the game of the year. I saw somebody had a stat like their record in mid December. They were like 14 and 18

and they got to 40 wins before they got to 20 losses or whatever. Like I mean some this is this doesn't make any sense. There is no way you could go back in December and tell someone when they're firing Kevin Adams and say they're going to

be a wagon the rest of the year. Again I guess we can dust off the Lindy Ruffa that we all needed. Remember a few years ago and the devil fans were chanting, fired Lindy and he goes on and gets him into the playoffs and into the Jack Adams talk and everything. Here we go again.

Maybe this guy, maybe the old guy knows what he's doing after all. Or maybe he's just smart enough to get out of the way and say we got something really, really special going on. It just happens in sports sometimes. Maybe it doesn't make sense. Don't analyze it. Don't worry.

Don't tell me that their expected goals is like 27% at five on five. just ride the wave, see how long it lasts. Yes. And, uh, and enjoy it. And I mean, I don't even have to tell Sabres fans enjoy it. Like, they're way ahead of us on this. I think they have earned it. There was guys lighting darts apparently in the arena last night in the 300 section.

Like, if that's not Buffalo, I don't know what is. That's Buffalo. After the lightning game, I think everyone needed to like, to like what he is. They needed a dart. Yeah. It was like, just like Fridge needed a dart. at the Olympics. Everyone needed. Been there.

Been there, brother. I would actually, I feel like I remember seeing like the Fandul odds at the start of the season, like who would be the first coach fired. Was it not Lindy? It was right up, like Lindy was going to be the first coach fired. Instead, it's like they're going to throw Lindy a parade over there.

I mean, it was somewhat surprising that when they made the move from Kevin Adel, Adams, a lot of people were thinking, Lindy's going to go too. All sale change. Yeah, get the, you know, let the new GM pick his new guy. And if it had happened, everyone would have gone, yeah, of course. This team stinks. I think that's my only complaint about the Sabres, really, is that they pulled this together after I was finally, like, out on them forever.

Like the way the first couple months of the season went for them, the run up to Adams getting fired, after years and years and years. years of like maybe kind of as a bit being like no this is it sabers are going to pull it together you know tage thompson's going to be a complete player and blah blah owen power is going to gonna gonna gonna look like the number one pick and blah blah blah blah blah blah all all those things we've we've fallen back on for however many years i was finally off i jumped ship i was done like in november i was like this team is hopeless and everyone needs to get traded and you strip it down to the studs and just start over.

And they've proven me wrong. So I do have some degree of resentment for the Buffalo Sabres there. That's what is a lot of people would. A lot of people would. And let me pose this to you guys, okay. I think if you were going to pick one thing that would hold the Sabres back, you would say, can they win or compete for a Stanley Cup with their goaltending? And we're talking UPL, Lion, Colt Nellis, like, can they do it? And I guess I would point to the landscape of the Eastern Conference and say, okay, Vasilevsky plays for the lightning, but Montreal is going to roll out Dobish, probably, or Montembo. Carolina's going to, we know Carolina's goalie situation come playoff time. It's like,

we've seen it. Pittsburgh's going to roll out Sheeloffs. The Islanders are going to roll out Sorokin. He's really good. If the Red Wings get in, it's John Gibson, who's had a great season, but he's been, you know, in and out of the lineup because he's been nicked up a little bit. Boston, you know, Boston's going to go swayman. And then if, you know, if Columbus gets in, it's Elvis. If Ottawa gets in, it's Linus. I guess the whole thing of what I'm saying is like, outside of like two goalies,

you're kind of like within the ballpark of what everyone else is rolling out there in that. Are you not? Yeah. And are you that scared of a Tampa matchup, you know, which is one of the few where I would say the goal. After that, after that game a couple days ago. You just put eight goals. Yeah, but Yom Hanson was in net.

I get that. But also, we scored eight goals against these guys. All right, bring in a better goalie. Was he going to stop all eight of them? We can score on these guys. They should be afraid of Tampa, but I don't know if they're going to be. And so it's like that game was good enough for, you know, to convince themselves if nothing else. See, the thing with that game is, because they had also beat Tampa a week earlier.

But that was one of those, okay, we went in. We played the good team. in their building, they slept on us a little bit. Maybe they didn't show us the respect, whatever. You got to that game Sunday night and you could tell the lightning we're like, now we're going to go into your building and you're getting the real lightning. And we're going to do all the stuff that we do before the whistle, after the whistle, you're getting our full game.

Let's see how you handled this. And the Sabres just went, all right, bring it. Let's see how we handle it. And we got the game of the year. It was so good. You're right. You're calling it on our. already, game of the year?

Well, I guess... Who's going to beat that? Who's going... I mean, of the regular season, it's done. I mean, we can engrave the trophy. Like, there's... We're not seeing anything like that. So, so, GGB, you don't think that the Saturday night Leif's

same game coming up has any chance of topping that? I mean, I, I, the way things are going, any leaf game could be, because I've just never seen a game where all 10 guys in the ice are shooting on the same net at this point and I think we could get there with the Maple Leafs but the less said about them the better. Yeah, you guys get to watch Easton Cowan on scoring right now. Everything's, everything's fixed. That's crazy.

What a concept. I look forward to when Easton Cowan is on the ice. That's about it. That's very measured, measured praise there. Cap Sabres tomorrow night. That feels, that feels important. That feels like, that feels like an impossible. game for Washington at this point.

Be watching that one. All right. We're going to hit a break. We're going to come back. We'll talk about the Nathan McKinnon Goaltender interference incident from last night. A couple other things. Stick around.

All right. We're back. Mackin, you called Tampa Buffalo the game of the season on Monday night. It's true. We had maybe the goaltender interference call of the season on Tuesday.

Nathan McKinnon gets the gate for running into Connor Ingram, 37 seconds left in the second period of a game that Colorado ends up losing 4-3 to Edmonton. We'll talk about that shortly. We'll talk about the result of that one for the Oilers shortly. Man, it's shocking to watch the video and know that that resulted in McKinning getting tossed. I mean, you got, Mackney, let's start with you. You got darn-all nurse attached to him. I think, think that should have been enough of a mitigating factor to change the result there. And clearly,

Jared Bednar and the avalanche did as well, what are your thoughts on this? Because it's hard for me to look at this and not think that some pretty egregious mistake was made. I mean, my thoughts are, first of all, as much as you hate to see an injury, I'm so glad that we get to have a goaltender interference conversation that's not about a goal being waved off and everybody, nobody knows what this is. I mean, this was, it's a confusing part of the NHO rulebook that we have two things called goaltender interference that are very, very different and treat it very differently. This was old school goalie interference.

This was a guy getting trucked. And look, here's the deal. Nathan McKinnon is going to the net. he's at full speed, which very often you want forwards to do, but he's on his way to the crease. And as a forward, as any player, if the puck isn't already in the crease, you're not allowed in there. And you're kind of responsible for whatever happens. That's usually something we talk about when it gets to a goal being waved off. Oh, you had your pinky toe in the crease and you bumped the goalie and now a goal isn't going to count.

he is going at a high rate of speed towards the goalie. Now, does he get bumped by Darnell Nurse? Yes, he does. Absolutely. And that's what causes the injury. It's what stopped him from being able to cut across the top of the crease. Well, it stopped him from being able to cut across. And it certainly resulted in, I mean, look, we can't, we don't know what would have

happened if there hadn't been contact. I'm sure Nathan McKinnon would say, oh, if there had been no contact, I was just going to back off and miss them completely. It is a little bit like if you're driving down a residential street at 100 miles an hour, and then you say, well, but some other car hit me, and that's why I plowed into whatever I plowed into. So it's not my fault. It's not, but it is, because you put yourself in that you're not supposed to be speeding down the street, just like you're not supposed to be going straight at top speed towards a goalie and towards

his crease. So I wasn't watching it in real time, so I didn't get to see it and have to figure out what I thought the call was going to be. They called it a major on the ice, which they do now because then you can reduce it. I wouldn't have been shocked if they had reduced it, but I'm not completely blown away by the fact that that stood because Nathan McKin, you're not allowed to go full speed Edigoli in his crease and the fact that Darnell Nurse does what defensemen do and makes contact with you does not mean that you're suddenly absolved of any responsibility for a situation

that you created. But I would love to hear the defenseman's perspective on that. Yes, please. From Frankie. Okay, I know what you're expecting me to say. I'm just going to defend defensemen no matter what because that's what I was and we can do no wrong. But if we kind of look at the way this rule is written, if you skate in by your

self and make contact with the goalie, like on a normal goalie interference where there's a goal, it's coming back. If you get pushed in, chances are that is staying on the board. And so with this one, it's like, darn out, yeah, McKinnon's flying. And he always does that, though. That's just, that's what he does. Nurse does, like when Nurse goes down, he kind of nudges his hip a little bit and that sends him into the goalie. So I think that's the main reason why the impact is as high as it could be or or as it was like for me mckinnon in a split second he can get out of the way we see him do it up and down the ice but when you start to make contact with him that's when i think it starts to go south so i don't know i i probably i would have done this i would

have said let's look at it as a five and we're probably going to bring it down to a two because he makes contact with him for sure but he was also kind of nudged along a little bit and I think that would have been the fair compromise. Yeah. And just, I mean, that is, that is the key, right? It's kind of like the old Simpsons clip where Bart's like swinging his fist going, you know, I'm just going to walk like this. And if you run as a forward, you don't get.

And again, I usually say this when it comes to goals being wiped out, but you don't get to just say, I'm going to skate at full speed towards your goalie. And if anybody touches me, it's not my fault anymore, whatever happens. It doesn't work that way. That crease is protected. you've got a goaltender in his crease, he should be safe from getting trucked, even if there is an element of contact with the defenseman. So I didn't think it was a terrible call for it to stand as five minutes. Now, I mean, there's not going to be, I would be shocked if Department of Player Safety gets involved or anything like that, which they look at everything.

And when it's a five minute penalty, they'll have a look. But five minutes, five minutes in that game, that was as much a penalty as that deserved. Even given, you know, even outside of the country. Because, I mean, Nathan McKinna wasn't looking to hurt a guy. Nathan McKinna wasn't, you know, this was an old school. I'm going to run the goalie sort of thing. So, but I think, I think the five was okay. Fair enough.

Like, yeah, there's no way anyone would review this thing. Brandon Hagel, like, punched Rasmus Dalin multiple times while he was on the ice, and he got a $5 fine. Like, that's the equivalent of it. Like, maybe not. Maybe it's like a to tune. On the, on the anniversary of Todd Bertuzi, which was interesting symmetry from the hockey gods. Yeah.

No, for sure. I mean, listen, I think you bring up a good point. Goalie is, like, in his crease. Yeah. Nowhere, like, not even a smidge outside the paint. So you're right. Like he is entitled to that ice. McKinnon hits him.

Maybe there's a happy medium. I know Jared Bednar wasn't happy with it. Oh boy. Bednar sold me, I guess. I bought what he was selling out after that. Wait, well, hold it. So an NHL coach thought his team didn't deserve a thing.

Can you imagine such a thing? Okay. Well, I mean, then we had to take a look at that. I feel like I was the only player where I took a penalty and the coach was like, yeah, probably deserved it. Like every other coach I see like arguing with referees and I'd be going to the box and I'm like,

there's no way he's arguing that one. He can't. He's trying to get it turned into a double minor. Yeah. You mean Babs wasn't plead in your case? Interesting. Yeah, keep them in there. Keep them in there.

I mean, we did have. Also, Bednar is clearly, clearly hurt over the results of that game, right? It ends up being a four three loss for for the abs. It ends their five game winning street. McDavid, of course, breaks the top. nine minutes left in the third. This is certainly after McKinnon made his exit. How do we feel about the Oilers?

I feel like big game against Dallas, obviously, but then they play a couple bottom feeders. I think, you know, if in a few days from now we're talking about potentially the oilers beating the two big bears of the Western Conference and then stacking up a couple other ones, all of a sudden things kind of look different for them. Yeah. Here's the thing with the Oilers.

They have some horrible games, and they've had some horrible games. And we've seen them play hockey that is not conducive to winning. Like, just sporadic defensively, goaltending, not making any saves. It's looked disastrous. But we've also seen this group, largely this group, like these are the guys that have kind of done it, right? they've played really good last year against Vegas, and they did the same thing against Dallas, and they went to a Stanley Cup final.

And it's like when it's largely the same group intact again, they know how to do it. Now Paul Coffey's back in the mix. Like there's that defensive voice, if you want to call it that. I know he was more of like a different kind of player, but like, yeah, they're like now the band is kind of back together more than it ever was at any point this season.

And so, you know, they beat Vegas in a neat and tidy game. They just beat Colorado. They're going to have Dallas coming up. And then they've got some interesting games against like St. Louis, Nashville, and San Jose where, you know, they're not all easy games. Like San Jose and Nashville are fighting for playoff positions right now. You know they're getting one point out of those last three.

This is what's going to happen. They're going to beat the stars. They're going to beat the stars and lose to the blues. Like that is the most predictable stuff that's going to happen. I look for me with the Oilers I'm it's a lot like Detroit that we talked about in the first segment this is the time of year where your entire opinion can swing on the last two games and you know this time next week I might have totally different opinions about most of these teams yeah sue me this is this is what's going on it goes it's that time of year the other thing is that

division stinks you know the ducks are a fantastic story. I'm saying that about the Metro last week. The ducks are a fantastic story, but I don't know that anyone necessarily buys them as legit contenders. The Oilers could we have a couple scenarios in play here. One is that the Oilers could play the Golden Knights in round

one, which we've all assumed that was the round two division final pretty much since the start of the season. That could actually happen in round one, which is fascinating because, you know, our friend, the playoff format would serve up a heck of a matchup there.

The other thing, and I didn't even realize this until somebody asked me about it in the newsletter a couple days ago, there is a real chance that Utah could cross over from the central as the wildcard team with a better record than any team in the Pacific. So you would have a situation. You talk about the format where the team with the best record in that group is the four seed and the three teams with the worst records are above them. A situation that's always been in play with this format but has never come close to having. It's never happened.

How would it? I mean, what are we even doing here? But yeah, the fourth place team in the Central might have a better record than the first place team in the Pacific and still be a row team throughout the playoffs there. It makes no sense at all. And meanwhile, Connor and Grimm is hurt. He's in the protocol. You know what that means, Frankie?

What is that? Leonardo, Leonardo, Genoni time. It's Janoni time. Make it happen. The path for Edmonton is what saves them here. Like, clearly, having it go through the Pacific, and by the way, like, Anaheim, they're a really impressive team. They beat up on the jets tonight.

Like, they were flying, or last night. They were flying. I think you cannot discount them. They have a good goal. There's a lot of youthful speed and energy in that lineup. But like Edmonton's kind of, they should be an experienced group. They should know how to do it because they've done it. And when they all put it together, they're a tough team to beat.

It's like the combination of putting it together mentally and then having two of the best players in the world just kind of go out there and say, we'll call game on you. That should be really tough to beat. But it hasn't felt like it's been that difficult to beat for a lot of teams this season. and you just wonder if they could put it together at the right time. I've been out on the Oilers, which is good news for the Oilers. Just as the Buffalo Sabres. It's not always.

Frankie, where are you at the rest of the week, man? What are we doing? We got some sports center and then Sunday in Montreal for Habs Ducks. And then in Montreal next week early for Bruins. Bruins Habs. Bruins Habs. Yeah, that'll be a good one too. a little disgust rivalry.

One of the real underrated rivalries of the sport. Did you guys know there was an original six group of teams? Is that true? I don't know. I thought that NHL started with like eight or 12. Interesting.

You learned something new every day. That's right. Historian. Frankie boy. Take it easy, but we'll see you next week. Okay, boys. Pleasure chatting. All right, we're back.

There goes Frankie. Sean McIndoo. I'm going to tell you something I've learned. What have we learned, Sean? This is courtesy of the NHL's invaluable morning skate email. What you get every day? Okay.

I'm going to cop out and say that I feel like this is something I should have known already. Maybe if I read this email more closely. I'm sure it's come up before. This is borderline fake stat. This is a borderline fake record. Sean McAnew, Alex Ovechkin enters when, Tuesday, two tallies shy of joining Wayne Gretke as the second player in NHL history with 1,000 career goals in the regular season and playoffs combined.

What do you think of that? You know what? That seems like that almost seems legit to me. That seems like something that should be noted. I'm going to say real stat. I think it might be real. This is one of these things where, you know, sometimes you. you get questions from people who aren't really sports fans. And usually they're, they're either,

you know, it's not that they're dumb questions, but they're, you know, there's stuff where you're like, well, there's an obvious answer here. And one of the questions that sometimes comes up is someone will say, like, how come whenever we're talking about stats, we always only talk about regular season stats? Like, even though the playoffs matter more. And I mean, the answer is that's just how the data is laid out. And it just is kind of easier for us. But, yeah, yeah, Yes, playoffs plus regular season combined, that's a real stat. And that is impressive. And, you know, Gretzky is still ahead, but getting to a thousand is a big deal.

And if he can pass Gretzky, that is also a big deal. Absolutely. You know, should it be as big a deal as regular season, which we did last year, obviously, this time? Maybe it should be. It's not for what, you know, because that's how it works. There's some like alternate universe where this is the record that it's, everyone's waiting for him to. Yeah.

And look, I get the other part of it is we understand that players individually can't put their, you know, don't make the difference of how many playoff games their team plays. Although we selectively forget that whenever it helps a narrative for a player being a winner or not a winner. But absolutely. I mean, this is, you know, we're not, we're not being queued here and mixing in, you know, exhibition games in September, All-Star games or whatever. These are real, important,

NHL meaningful games. Games that count more than regular season games, in fact. Goals that count more than regular season goals. There you go. So, yeah, I'm going to go for what may be one of the first times in the history of this show, I think the real stat,

fake stat jury is coming back with a real stat. Gretzky has 1,016, combined regular season in playoff goals. Obedson's got 998. So. Can you imagine if that were the record we cared about, if that were, if in this alternate universe where 1,016 is the big number because you're combining regular season and postseason goals. Well, I mean, if you're the Washington Capitals and you want Alexander Ovechkin to come back for another year, you've got a couple of weeks to convince us all that that's the real stat. Because I don't think, I don't think he's getting the 18.

goals he needs, although, you know, with Ovechkin, you say that, and then next thing you know, you know, four hat tricks in a week. Someone just needs to tell him that that's the record, and then he'll, he'll magically find gear seven, and, you know, there we go. I wonder what they'll, like, you know, obviously they're not going to do the whole big ceremony like they did when he, when he broke the record last year. I don't think so. I wonder if it will feel like that.

I can imagine them doing something, and I can imagine them doing something. I can imagine them doing something in D.C. If that record were to happen at home, I can imagine them blowing it out a little bit. When you've got the scoreboard for how many meaningful goals you've scored the NHL and you've got to roll over to a fourth digit, that feels worth celebrating to me. Yeah, and if that were the record, we would be doing, we would, what does Alex, what does his next contract look like? or what does he come?

That would be in overdrive. You know what? I'm making the call right now. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I'll send a few emails to get this to happen. But you're going back on the road. John, you're going back on the Ovechkin.

Yeah, it's cool. Until 1,016. Yeah, I'm in physically great shape right now, so I can definitely. You seem like a plane ride would be a fun thing for you. Apologies. Apologies to the people I'd be stuck, stuck between. Speaking of fake things There we go

I learned this week that much to my surprise the Winnipeg Jets were maybe not as dead as we all thought they were they kind of look a little bit dead again after losing in regulation For the ducks The Ducks is rough

But still Last night was a weird night Because Everybody Lost in that race which means if you're the, I mean, the good news is this is the time of year where it's so frustrating to be a team chasing because you're just one point here and then another point there and then you lose one regulation game and everybody else wins. This was kind of the night that was set up perfectly because everybody was losing and then Winnipeg lost two and maybe that's just the missed opportunity. But I do, you know, there is that theory that says, we know this is a good team.

because they were the president's trophy winner last year. So they've got the remnants of that, and they've got the best goalie in the world. And nobody else seems to want to run away with the spots. I mean, it's largely the one wild card spot seems pretty open, whether it's the sharks or the kings or the, the crackin have been holding it all year. And yet everybody, like, they're not good.

Nobody wants to give the crack in that spot, right? Nobody wants to, we've all been giving that away all year long. And, you know, meanwhile, the Cracken are sitting and going, like, we've been in the playoffs for like 60s three days. For the duration of it, basically, yeah. But I'm rooting for Winnipeg, be a hell of a story. And I got to be honest, if I got to, you know, whoever gets this spot is going to play Colorado. And I'm sorry, I know I just said we're all doubting to crack it. But if it's, if it's Seattle, Colorado, I don't.

I don't think too many of us are, and, you know, even given the history, that one might be Colorado and three. Colorado against a red hot, a red hot Winnipeg Jets with Carter Hallibuck. Okay, hold up. Now maybe you got my attention a little. A little something for Colorado to do while Dallas and Minnesota are bashing each other's heads in for seven straight games. That would be all right. So I'm rooting for you, Winnipeg. I'd be feeling a lot better

if there were two points of the bank last night but credit to the ducks man ducks are 20% odds Dom gives the Jets to make the playoffs the Ducks playoff odds are up to 97%

like we we need to just accept that this has happened for them this year and I accept it because I picked them to make the playoffs at the beginning of the year I think I might have too actually

and I feel very, very smart, even though, you know, don't go back because I'm sure what I wrote was something like, I mean, clearly they would only have to be a wild-handed, yeah, back-handed. They could be the eighth seed. They're definitely, I mean, they're not going to win the Pacific, ha-ha. You're right. It might end up that way. But, oh, can we just, let's just fast forward ahead.

Anaheim, Buffalo, Stanley Cup final. Are we all good with that? We can do this in, in, at the end of April. We can get the exit of the long summer that Pierre wants. And it would be to be a hell of a series. Who says? John Carlson versus Colton Perrette. Oh, no, sorry.

Maybe not. The two big winners of the NHL trade debt. Mackinney, what are you up to the rest of the week? I'm going to, I've got a piece that I have written that's going up soon-ish, where I have taken, in fact, in fact, I'll throw the number at you. How many of the first round picks in this year's draft, just this year, have changed hands, do you think? Oh, my God.

You mean it in the 20-26 draft? In the 20, yeah, this summer's draft. How many have changed hands? Three picks from this year's draft, first round picks from this year's draft were traded at the deadline. Okay. That brought the total. 11?

Very good. 12. There are 12 altogether. And I have ranked them. based on regret. Can you give us a hint as to the identity of number one? Let me give you a shocker. Okay.

Number one is not the Brandon Carlo trade. That's my teaser. I am shocked. That's my teacher. Although I think when you see what it is, you'll be like, okay, yes, I get that. And then I'm going to work with our buddy Harmon on a, we're just going to basically do a tanking ranking, so to speak. I saw that.

I saw that kicking around. I love a good tanking ranking. We love a power tanking. So let's see where that goes. You guys should do it every week. Just every single week, we just cut and paste the last five spots from your ranking with mom. And then just a video clip of him and me nodding going, yeah, that looks about right. Yeah, this is right.

Let me ask you this. How, let me ask you this, how low did Buffalo get in your rankings? Oh, man. I think we had them, I think we had them in last place one week, like, as kind of a joke. But I'm, I'm like 99% sure we drop that. We drop. Look at this guy now. Well, like, typically, like, if a team has a really bad week or whatever, like, we won't drop them all the way down, but they, but there was that, they had that stretch when they were not, they weren't statistically the worst team in the league. They didn't have the worst record in the league.

They were Buffalo. They were Buffalo. And the vibes were bad enough where we were just like, F it. Yeah, they're number 30. I'm pretty sure we did do that. I had them in the bottom five once. I also had Anaheim in the bottom five.

Remember when they lost nine games in a row? Yep. It was after everybody was after everybody was buying them too. Yeah. Everybody was like, cool. Yeah. Yep. And they were like, no, we, good team, Quinville.

Quinville comes in, this stuff, this is a potential wildcar team. This league. Then they went in the tank for three weeks. No sense. Never does. Never does. Glad to have you around to navigate it with me, my friend.

How about that for some sincerity? For some sincerity. I like it. That's it. Thank you, buddy. And thank you, producer Jeff. I'll be back Thursday with Haley and boy, Shana. Everybody, Domless Chishin. There's only two games tonight.

It's Habs. in Ottawa, which feels important, in Washington and Philadelphia, which also feels important, because it involves Eastern Conference teams, which, you know. Oh, hey, I get to watch. Cool.

Congratulations. Just shake up the snow globe every single day for the next month and pretend like, pretend like any of these things matter in the moment. They won't. I'll handle watching the games.

You get to bed early tonight, okay? That's your... Got some bad news. I got to drive somewhere tonight. Uh-oh. Driving a state. college PA, baby. Let's go. Thank you folks for listening. See you tomorrow.