The Athletic Hockey Show - Arizona Coyotes playing their first games in Mullett Arena, Brad Marchand returns to the Boston Bruins lineup earlier than expected, and poor early returns on the offseason's goalie carousel

Episode Date: October 28, 2022

On a new Thriday show, Hailey Salvian and Sean Gentille are joined by bestie Dom Luszczyszyn to discuss the Coyotes' first home games in Mullett Arena. Then, Brad Marchand makes his return from injury almost a month ahead of schedule to a Bruins team that already has had a strong start. Also, Sean is very excited for this week's Taylor Swift-themed power rankings, the early returns on the goalie carousel has been less than stellar, and to wrap up, a five-round Halloween candy draft that may tear the crew apart.Save on a subscription to The Athletic: theathletic.com/hockeyshowSubscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3BKz27u Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? It's another edition of The Thri-Day Show on the Athletic Hockey Show. We've got to figure out a different way to introduce that because I hate saying show that many times in a row. You just call it Friday. It's Friday on the Athletic Hockey Show. There you go. There you go.

Welcome to the show, Haley Salvean with Sean Jantile. and we've got a third co-host today. It's Dom Lus Chishin. Welcome to the show. Always a pleasure to be with my two besties. That's right. We initially pitched this Friday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show

as three of us. So this was the fun, youthful edition of the athletic hockey show. It was supposed to be me, Sean, and Dom, and I invited Dom and he said, no, thanks. I don't want to do a podcast full time.

And then this show launches. No, no, no, no. And then the show launches and Dom goes, wait a second, is it too late? Can I join? Don't gaslight your audience. That's not what happens. This is deceptive. This is not what happened.

First of all, they pitched it as a show with just Haley. I said, I'll pass. That's not true. And then I found out that Sean was there also. I'm like, I mean, it could have been the three amigos. That's a different show altogether. What's the problem with doing a show with just me? It's just, if it was just me and Sean, I wouldn't do it either.

If it was just me and you, I wouldn't do it either. The fact there's three of us means there's less work for me to do. And that's always my concern with the podcast. No, this was like, this was, it was a tautology, I believe, is the rhetorical classification for it. Like, what? The fact that you, yeah, right. The fact that you didn't do it meant that I got roped into it.

Like, if you would have said yes, it would have just been you to. And do you guys want to know who my first choice was? was actually Shana. Yeah. Neither of us. It's fine. All right. And now here we are.

And your first choice still is Dom's dog. Yeah. Yes. Sweet, sweet Ocean. No, you know what? Ocean and I are in a fight because last time I saw her, she was eating my hair. And it actually kind of hurts because she was pulling it. Anyways, the dog is really cute.

We're not in a fight. She's great. She's only done that to me when I do push-ups. That's it. Otherwise, just no hair. Oh, yeah. Just do a real chill, real chill doing push-ups. So annoying when I'm trying to hit my 50 to 100th reps and the dogs biting my hair.

Just remember. It's my one workout a week. Remember Haley. Remember Dom. There are no bad puppies. They're only bad owners. It's true. All right.

So it's the three of us today. We're going to just go around the league and talk about whatever. There's a lot going on. So the first two segments of the show, we're just going to be with Dom. And then the final segment, Dom's still here. But we're going to ditch hockey and we're going to do a Halloween draft. We're going to do the draft now in our third segment because people aren't really getting past the trolls riddles and sending us questions. It's not true.

The riddles three are getting, we're getting some. We're getting some questions. But the draft is fun. I have a big comeback I need to make after last week. So we're going to do a Halloween candy draft. And I am going to win because I'm just going to go with what I know fans like. because I don't really eat chocolate or candy, so I can't really pick my own favorites.

Just pandering. More bullshit from you. Okay. Yeah. That's right. What are we starting with? We're starting with the Arizona Coyotes. I'm, we have, we're at the end of our rope here.

Like, it's finally happening. They're going to play in their 55 capacity, you know, community rink in Arizona. It's, it's finally going on. Mark Lazarus is there for the athletic. He put together like a pretty nice what's going on piece with that whole with that whole situation this afternoon, but there's

four games, four home games. Those poor visiting teams are stuck getting dressed on the, like, behind a curtain? Yeah, like behind pipe and drape on a I don't know, it's a dressing room?

No, no, I was saying no word of a lie. I wasn't saying no, that's incorrect. That is what we would set up. So I worked for the Toronto Marley's when I was still in university doing game day operations. And we would bring the kids in to do the Scotia Bank skater

or the intermission games and stuff. So the little kid that comes out with the Marley's flag. Like that is what we would put the kid in with his family to get ready for the Marley's like Scotia Bank skater. When I saw that clip, I was like, this is back of house

at the RICO Coliseum four years ago with the Scotia bank skater. Does Rico have a bigger capacity? Oh, for sure. Probably. Oh, wow. That's really not here or there. Like, I like, I like joking about this because it is.

It's funny. I think we've had like the predictable reaction a couple days ago when people saw the pipe and drape come out and everyone's like, this is A, B, A, and C. I think everyone, everyone knew the way that was going to go. Mm-hmm. But people react that way for a reason. It's because it's, it's absurd. And you can, I think it's possible to think that.

There's a compulsion, I think, on the part of Arizona Coyote's fans or Coyote's people on Twitter or whatever to take any bit of criticism of this situation as some sort of like indicator of bias against the team or against the existence of the franchise in the valley or some sort of like old school pro original six. bias. And that is, like, personally, that's, I couldn't be further from the truth. I hope stuff works out there, like, badly. And if it doesn't work out there, I hope they stay in the southern United States, like, move them to Houston, moving to Kansas City. I don't get, I don't want to see that team end up in Hamilton. I don't want to see that team end up in Quebec City. I don't want that at all, because, like, what do, what do I care? But it's possible to hold both of those stances at the same time, that this situation is a joke. and worthy to be made fun of,

but also not some like, you know... Trying to dump on this Arizona. Not some like existential question about, you know, hockey and where it should be played and who owns the game and who does. Like this is farcical. In a best case scenario, they're going to be doing this for three seasons, but that, you know,

it is what it is. Like this is a situation that they've created. This is a situation that's, that they've been dealt, you know. And these are kind of the, these are the repercussions of it, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah, they're not mutually exclusive to what you were saying about how this is a complete joke makes the league look terrible, but also still wants it to work in Arizona or the southern

United States. I think Houston seems to make the most sense. I mean, this has been like a decade plus of it just not working. It also doesn't help that the product on the ice has been terrible. but at the same time. And getting actively worse by design. This is one of the worst teams on paper we've seen in a very long time. And I'm going to be amazed if they even fill a 5,000 seat arena at this point with what's on the ice.

One of the things that I saw, I will say the center ice actually does look pretty cool in like a relative to what's happening here kind of thing. but I think the Sun Devil logo with the coyotes, like the Kachina, like, looks really cool. One of the things that really stood out to me from Mark's story was the alumni wall. And there's like, what, there's 32 spots that they have a spot for every single team. Or maybe there's just a, yeah, there's 32 plaques with the logo of an NHL team to honor the Arizona state hockey players who've made it to the NHL. And Joey DeCourt is the only one whose name is up there. played at Arizona State. And he's a great story too.

Joey DeCord's great. I covered him when he was with the senators. But yeah. I just think it's probably a cool thing for the Arizona State players. Like you can feel that much closer to what the ultimate goal is. I don't know. Like there's something really cool there to be for them. Again, like I totally agree.

And also like Arizona State. 15 years from now, 20 years from now, like the amount of money that they put into that program, the amount of resources, like, look at this, like, this is an unbelievable college drink, right? Like, we can sit here and say that it's kind of silly to have an NHL team plan there, but that's really good for Arizona State, which is a gigantic school, huge, huge, one of the biggest in the States, right? And it's also, you know, the program of choice moving forward for a growing group of players from California and from Arizona and, like, from Texas.

go and have, whatever. You know, good facility, like good. Good facilities, like, great weather. It's a party school. It's always like, on party school list. It's always like top five. There's a million reasons that's going to be a really attractive place for 18-year-olds to go to. And also, like, the positive, you know, the positive aspect of what of these next three years is it is going to, it's going to like consolidate, you know, the hockey playing.

population in the valley. Like that's all good. Like I am completely on board with the logic of trying to get to Tempe. Like I've had that explained to me multiple times by multiple people and it and it's stuck. Like I believe it that the location of the Glendal Arena was a non-starter. Like there was catastrophic. It was far away from the, it was far away from the fan base. You're expecting people to drive an hour to games like back and forth, you know, not going to work.

sold like i get it they needed they needed to be in tempi and it is going to be a cool environment for fans and it is going to be kind of you know this this unifying event for people who do care about hockey here all true i'm psyched about that part of it that does not mean that does not preclude us from looking at stuff like the dressing room situation and being like that is a joke like both of both of those things are true right and the nchl signed off on it in the pa signed off on it all well and good, you know, more power to him. But there was no other option, right? And there was no other option because of a set of circumstances that the coyotes are to blame for and that the city of Glendale is a blame for. And like, it took a lot of work to screw up

a situation this badly. And now this is the only way out of it, right? But there's nothing wrong with just looking at that and being like, this is, this is farcicle. This is farcicle. Like you're going to have people taking, you're going to have players taking golf carts from from a separate building over to the rink for for three years. Like that's unbelievable. That's like unbelievable. Who gives a shit about it on the fan end of things, right? They don't care.

They're going to have a blast. Like on, as far as that's concerned, great. But from a player standpoint, it is, it is still impossible for me to grasp that this is something that, you know, is in play with an NHL rank in 2022. Wild. And look, I think the away teams are only in that weird little thing for four games. Yeah. And it doesn't matter.

Like, like, it's not going to kill these guys because they have to get dressed behind a pipe and drape. It's just unbelievable that that's... I mean, yeah, it's wild. That's the situation. We'll see how it all turns out. It's got to work. Somehow it has to because they're... We're going to find out whether it's...

Whether we're even going to see two or three more years of that probably pretty soon. Like, the arena deal in Tempe is not done yet, by the way. No. And it hasn't been approved. there's some movement there that apparently we're going to have answers on by the end of the year. Like it's not a slam dunk yet. It seems like it's moving in the right direction if you think they should build an arena there. But it's not done yet.

So who knows? Maybe that's when the fun's really going to start is if Tempe doesn't pass that doesn't pass the arena deal. Then what happens? Like, I don't know. All right. Let's move on. Sorry, coyote fans. We're not being mean to you.

We're just talking about the situation. Okay, big, big news. By the time this show airs, Brad Marchand will have played a game for the Boston Bruins a month ahead of schedule, which is really significant. I feel cheated. I feel lied to. I'm very upset because Jim Montgomery said the other day, don't expect him. Don't expect him. He's ahead of schedule, but don't expect him Thursday or Friday.

And here we are, morning skate and Brad Marchand's on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk. And we're hearing that he's in today. He's not playing back to backs. He's going to play around 16, 17 minutes. But this is really significant. I think the one question I have is, what do you guys feel? I mean, first, we'll go to Dom. But, like, first, the impact of having Marchand back.

But also, like, how do you guys feel about teams easing guys in like that? I think that's, we don't always see that. Yeah, we don't. I think it's the smart thing to do, especially with Marchand's injury and what he's coming back from. I am still amazed that he's back a month early. I'm amazed that Jim Montgomery lied to all of us, point blank. Did he, wait a second, do you have like an extra, did he like say like, gotcha. It may have been, maybe Fluto, maybe we're throwing the wrong person on the bus because

Fluto tweeted yesterday, like, don't expect him Thursday or Friday, so. Was that not a direct quote from the coach? I don't know. Can we get Fluto on the phone? Yeah, we need a fact check here. What's happening? ASAP to figure that out. But yeah, I think the NHL is better when Brad Marchand is in it.

He is a hilarious heel and a villain, and he's the best. He's the best. I'm already excited to watch a highlight real goal followed by some ridiculous antics that no other player could pull off. His quote today in the locker room when they were asked about his timeline, he was like, yeah, they told me that it was going to be late November. And I said, yeah, we'll see about that. And here he is. He's back, and I'm excited. Double hip surgery. This is very funny. This is him talking on Thursday. Yeah, that's him talking on Thursday morning.

Told me it was going to be the end of November. I was like, it's not going to be the end of November. Yeah. Yeah, like literally like, yeah, we'll see. It's one of those things where you come up with a joke. And it's like, you know, yeah, we'll see about that. Brad Marchand, probably. And that's like actually what he said.

I wonder how good he's going to be. Also, I'm incapable of saying his name the same way every time. I think I fluctuate Marchan, Marchand. And I blame. him for that and I blame NHL media at large. How do you pronounce his name? No idea. Let us know in the comments. We don't know. Or shone.

Sounds right. Yeah, he's 34 double hip surgery. He's coming back a month early. I am extremely curious whether he'll be as good he's been in the last few years, but it doesn't seem to matter because the Prince are six and one without him. Inexplicably.

You were, I think, one of the only... You took it on the teeth and I think I was one of them who was like, what is, what is he talking about? When your season preview came out, the Bruins were rated very highly. And I was like, everyone's hurt. This is the scene from Space Jam and everyone's on ventilators and stuff. And yeah, I was the one being like, are they going to stay afloat? What's going to happen? I thought they were going to be okay.

I didn't think they were going to be six and one. Yeah, I thought they'd be okay. I thought it would be a lot more than seven games. One of things in the preview was going through the. the schedule and figuring out how many games they would actually be projected to win with or without Marchand. And because it was only supposed to be 20 or so games, it was only like one or two wins. And after that, my model at least thought this was one of the best teams in the league.

And even without Marchand, they've already looked like that. So bring him in, bring McAvoy back in in a month. And this team is looking like a cup contender again, which I'm going to be honest, when I saw my model spit that out, understanding what everyone else is saying, seeing the betting market at around like 96 points. And I, 104, I was also like, all right, model, what, what are you doing here? Why are you leading me astray? Why are you trying to make me look, like a crazy person? And, no, that was classic. It was classic Dom stuff in the, in the Bruin season preview where you're like, yeah, I don't know. We'll see about this. I mean, a lot of it,

a lot of it has to do with with creachy like the model was high on creachy's ability to you know whatever pick up where he left off and basically happened you know like he's been he's been good charlie charlie coil has been competent as a third line center and like linus old marks you know top top 10 15 goalie in the league like that combined with with all the burson stuff and the fact that hamis lindolms you know he's back Doing work and all that stuff. Like, there you go. Yeah.

I'm, I'm basking in the glow of, like, being associated with that season preview. I'm like, yeah, totally. New the, knew the rules we're going to, nailed it. Knew they were going to be a top three team from the gate, for sure. As if you didn't tweet that Dom's model knows more than doctors, very tongue and cheek. No, tongue and cheek, totally sincere. Sean's, I was being serious. Yeah, for sure.

John's little sentence previews for all of them were so funny. What was the leaf one? Like, I'm not associated with this. I don't want to be a so. It was the Taylor Swift thing. I refuse to be part of this narrative. Yeah. I thought that was clever.

I'm personally basking in the globe saying that Jim Montgomery was going to win the Jack Adams this year in our season. I stole that from you, by the way. I've said that all over the place. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. We had the season preview all 32 things, and we were doing the award predictions.

And yeah, looking through. And you can think it's Brindamore. There's no way that Mike Sullivan's ever going to win Jack Adams. So just forget about that guy. And I was like, yeah, if they can get through these injuries, it's going to be Jim Montgomery. And I feel incredibly smart right now. Yeah, Jack Adams is always the coach that exceeds expectations and overcomes injuries as well. And I think the Bruins were like a perfect storm for that where the expectations were extremely low for the talent level on the team.

And you have the new coach bump as well that he should get a lot of credit for it because this team looks good through seven games without two superstars. I mean, the narrative was totally in place with Montgomery. He's coming back from a horrible end to his time in Dallas. Like he's trying to bounce back from that, you know, by all accounts he has. And then you throw in the injury stuff. Like this is this is over. This is sewn up. Yeah.

Like he's got it. Unless they fall apart and we really have no reason to think that they will. Like, barring, like, it's, it's done. It's October, it's October 27th. So congratulations, Jim Montgomery. Yeah. You've won the jack out of. Unless the, they decide, like, the way that things ended in Dallas,

they probably shouldn't be giving him award. But they also, he's back in the league coaching. So he's going to win. It's done. It's over. Everyone just give up. Sorry, Mike Sullivan. You're never going to win one of these, even though you probably should.

It's amazing. He has none yet. It's crazy. Wild. Him and Crystal Teng. It's been a hobby horse for me. Been a hobby horse for me for a while. Oh, yeah.

Pittsburgh guy lobbying for Mike Sullivan. Makes sense. I don't know what you're talking about. All right. We'll be right back after the break, and we're going to get into some Canada talk. Dom had his 16 stats. Maybe we'll talk a bit of Taylor Swift. Maybe.

That's exciting. No, thanks. Yeah. We'll be right back. You guys can. So by the time this show is airing, again, we're recording it on Thursday. It launches on Friday. It's Friday.

It's the Friday show. Dom is here. And today's very exciting because it's Power Rankings Day. And the three of us are doing Power Rankings. And it's the Taylor Swift edition of the Power Rankings. So when you wake up in the morning and you're listening to the show and you're listening to Midnights by Taylor Swift and you're reading the Power Rankings, there's going to be some beautiful. there's going to be some beautiful sweet symmetry in your life. Sure.

Everyone's face right now is so perfect. I'm just beaming with pride. Sean is like, oh, my God. I'm not saying that. Cool. So Sean did his emo song for each team in the league story, and now we are doing a Taylor Swift lyric for every team in the power rankings. Off Midnights, exclusively.

We're not going too far on the discography. We've got to pay homage to the new album. There's a new album? Yeah. Have you heard about it? Have you heard it? No, haven't. No, I'm a good one.

No. Yeah. Moving on, because Sean doesn't want to talk about Taylor Swift for some reason. No, you guys, you guys can. I'm not engaging critically with it. As I've said, several times in several different venues. Several other mediums. It's for other people who are not me.

Haley, what's your favorite song? You guys can knock yourself. Lavender Hayes hits off the top. Right off the top. Love it. The first synth beat? Oh my God. It's a great entry point into the album.

And the vibe. Absolutely. Anti-hero and karma are good. Karma grew on me. I didn't love it at first. You have to just ignore that it's corny because you just expect Taylor Swift to be corny. Yeah, like this album is pretty. She owns it.

Yeah. Like, it's cringe. Like, if you go on TikTok, you'll see, like, these young Gen Z kids talking about how Taylor Swift is, like, peak millennial. It's like, yeah, she is a millennial. She's owning it. I'm, like, she used to, like, shy away from it and, like, be self-conscious about it, but this is her saying, I'm corny. I'm cringy. And I'm going to say weird shit sometimes, and it's, and you're going to like it.

And we do. And make millions of dollars off of it. And we're all going to thrive, listen to her records. I was at Target in the States this weekend. My mom and I drove over to Buffalo, and I got all excited because I thought there was records and I was going to be a good friend. I was going to get Dom one of the vinals, and there was none anywhere. The Target exclusive edition, too.

I know. I was so excited. I thought I was going to be this great friend. I almost bought the CD. I was like, this is stupid. This is like more stupid than buying a vinyl. That's what happens. That's what happens when you exhaust the world's vinyl supply for your last re-release.

I'm sorry. I thought you weren't here. I thought you weren't taking part in this conversation. So, Dom, 16 stats dropped earlier today. We got a few lead items about the devils. Are you like the foremost devil believer? Truther? Yeah, not even a truther.

I feel like a lot of us are. We've all been on board with what they've done for years, but you're driving the bus. You know why? Because you love VTECV. VNichek. I love him. He's good.

What can go wrong? Fantastic. What could go wrong? Yeah, I have been blown away by their metrics to start the season. And I think at this point you kind of like don't care about most metrics. You'll have Colorado somehow last in goals per 60FI on 5 right now, which is obviously not going to continue. It's because they're bad. It's because they're bad.

They can't score the avalanche terrible offense, right? But at some point, the extremes make you want to dig deeper. And the Devils certainly did that because their XG at 515 to start the year was like 69%. Something like that. In all situations, even their power play is good. Their penalty kill is limiting chances at an extreme rate. So I want to see if that seven game sample was enough for us to view the Devils team as an actually good team. And it turns out that there aren't a lot of teams who outchance their points over a seven game sample over the last 15 or so years.

I went through it. And there are only 16 other teams. And they all made the playoffs. They almost all earned 100 points. And the devils look to be on track to be a very good team this year if they can overcome their goaltending, which is obviously the elephant in the room. I think the thing that bodes well for them too and you had the senior 16 stats dom is that like Jack, we haven't really seen. Jack Hughes start to fully pop offensively yet in the way that we saw him last year. And if his levels can kind of return to that and even start to build off of it because he is

getting older and he is getting more developed and maturing, etc. We're going to see another level for this team when Jack Hughes can start to produce as much as he was last year, if not more. Yeah. Once that happens, once the goaltending goes from like 840 to 890 instead, I think this team will start rattling off some wins. but at the same time, one of the comparables I found, if you lower the threshold a bit, was the 2017-18 hurricanes,

who famously fooled a lot of analysts because they had a great scoring chance of differential, but they couldn't finish and they couldn't get a save. So that could be the devils, but even if that's the worst case in error, you got the devils really breaking through next year. Oh, God, I'm so sick. I'm so tired of doing that maybe next year.

I keep saying it, I'm the idiot that keeps going like, you know who my dark horse pick is? The New Jersey Devils. I'm sick of that. I don't want to keep picking them as my like dark horse every summer. Oh, I wanted to rag on you for them for your, because you wrote up their bit in power rings last week and you said that the same percentage doesn't matter and all that. I wanted to rip on you for that, but you presented it in such a way where it is true where it's

like they can be, they can have bad goaltending and make it stand up basically. Like you said, 890 versus 8, 840. Like, they can be, they can have the worst goaltending in the league. And they're still doing enough, doing enough elsewhere to make it to make it kind of work. They just can't have, you know, they can have HL goaltending, not ECHL goaltending, basically. Yeah, which is basically what's happening now. Which is true. Like, that's the, that's the right way to frame it because I read that and was like, oh, damn, you got, got me again.

Like, I'm stuck. I'm stuck making excuses for the devils. It's year five or whatever, but it's true. Yeah, you don't expect any NHL goalie to be at 840, even with scoring going up. And the defense seems to be improving. John Marino has looked great so far. It's just make a save at some point.

Because when they just get slightly competent goaltending, they've won every single game so far. It's just three games where the goaltending has completely took a dump all over itself. You should just truly just like rotate guys in and out. Like just do it in like eight game games. You know, lean in, lean in. That's chef Louis.

Who cares? Is Bernier coming back? He was supposed to. Like he's supposed to, but last I heard it was supposed to maybe by the, by the holidays. That, like, whatever. That's a good redemption story if he does.

Find something. Where's Tukarski? Signed us and Tukarski for God's six. Is he in Buffalo? He's in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, sure. I thought the Penguins signed him. Trade for him.

Like, whatever. End this. End this loop. End this loop of us being like, oh, yeah, they can't. They're not going to get sunk by their gold tang again. They signed Vanekek for three years. This is what happened to me when I was doing the free agent frenzy show in the summer.

And I was like, well, I think the devils are going to be right because they got a goalie. And Mike Johnson was hosting it with me, and he's just like, they got a goalie? What are you talking about? I was like they got, they got Vanichick. And he made me feel like I completely botched it. And he was just like, no, like he's not, he's not it. I'll tell you what, got violently humbled by Mike Johnson on national television. Thanks.

Vanichick. It's what, it's what, it's what all the hot wannabe contenders are doing. They're going out and getting scrap goleys from the Washington Capitals. There's no better way to success than to sign guys who the Caps wanted absolutely nothing to do with after years and years of watching. Okay.

I'll hold on a second. Now, hold on a second. Is like the only good thing happening in Toronto right now. That is true. That is true. Against all odds. Against all odds.

So you know what, Sean? It's the rest of the team that sucks. It's early. Elia Samsonov has a 933 and six goals saved above expected in five games. And the leaps are four. and three.

Oh, my God. The one thing that was supposed to be a problem is not really a problem. Except for memory. Yeah. Matt Murray has gone exactly how people who are paying attention would have gone. When exactly his planned. Like, the senators fans, like, after the home open, the season opener and he looked terrible against Montreal, I saw a bunch of sense fans being like, this just in,

Matt Murray, like, pulls hamstring, can't play, goes to LTIR. And then like literally 12 hours later, it's like. an abductor groin injury and he's on LTIR. I mean, the galaxy, the galaxy brain take on that is that they signed Murray knowing that he would get injured immediately and be able to shell, we can shelve him into LTIR once the season starts. Ooh, baby, we're going to accrue so much cap's face with Matt Murray on our roster. Oh, Dubis, Brandon Pridom, you've done it again.

That's four D-CHAS right there. That was really rooting like for Matt Murray, the human being. I was like, I really do hope this works out for him as a person. And we'll see when he comes back. He looks like a nice young man. I feel like if he comes back, Samsonov steals the net. He can maybe regain some confidence as a backup and hopefully stay healthy. But it seems like he's wishful thinking.

This is year five. Maybe Matt Murray can stay healthy and regain some confidence. Like, for God's sake. Yeah. He's lost the benefit of the doubt. But maybe if the pressure is off of being the guy. Maybe he can have this end of his career as a backup who's being paid way too much money. Yeah.

Goaltending is weird like that. I think pressure, I think, is a big thing. Carter Hart in Philadelphia had a lot of pressure put on in last two years. This year, no pressure at all. And he's looked amazing. Yeah. So, I don't know. With goalies, I never try to be definitive.

Matt Marie looks pretty bad. if he turned out to be good, okay, sure, why not? I think I'm, I think in both directions, I'm like, once you are a certain way for like three or four seasons as a goal tenor, I'm like, all right, this is who it is. If you're great, like, if you're Henrik Lindquist or whatever, congratulations. But if you're, you know, 903, 906, 898 in three consecutive years or whatever, like, okay, I think it's, I think it's fair to start drawing some. conclusions. Probably not before that though, you know. I mean, we everybody's so afraid to make any

kind of predictions about goaltenders and that's it's and it's true. We should be. Nobody, nobody understands that shit. Look at Stu Skinner. World, world beaters, Stu Skinner. Yeah. He's only been on the ice for four goals against this season so far. Mind you, he's only had three, he's only played three games, but he's looked better than Jack Campbell so far. That's not too surprising. But Yeah, John Gibson had Lungfist-like numbers, and last three or four years has looked terrible. Yeah. It's just weird.

And we're at the point now with a guy like Gibson, where you just need to kind of recalibrate your expectations for him. That's where you were with Murray a year or a year or two ago, right? Where you're like, okay, it doesn't mean that he's never going to be able to do it, but you need to be honest about where he is. About where he's been and where he is, like over a three or four-year window. It's true for Gibson and it's true for Murray. I think this is actually an interesting jumping point too when we're looking at like this goalie carousel and how kind of bad it's gone to start the season.

There's a lot of guys who switch teams and lots of reclamation projects that aren't going super well. And I think this is a really good example for, say, the Pittsburgh Penguins to not mess around and just lock in Tristan Jari. Like, don't do it. You've got to, you've got to, he's what, 20. Don't go to the UFA pool. Just bring him back. Negotiate in season. Keep Tristanjari.

It's working. I think we're past the point of being like, oh, God, is he, like he still has to prove himself in the playoffs, right? But he was hurt last year. I think there's more confidence in Jari in Pittsburgh, no? I think so. I mean, there's,

he was, he had been pretty rough on the, in the last. Oh, he was bad in that Islander series, and then he only played the one game last year because the, injury but yeah you got you got worked against edmonton too but but that was a that was a pretty brutal effort by the guys in front of them um especially in the second period there that was terrible so we're still at the point now where one awful game can throw off save percentage it can throw off you know goal saved above expected like the sample size it's not a cop out like it still is really small but yeah jari jari is an interesting case like i don't know i think there's there every team is

trying to find the mid-ground where it's like, we like this guy a lot, but don't necessarily want to give him the Jack Campbell deal or whatever, right? Or the Matt Marie deal. Like, everyone's trying to, you know, you have a bullpenner who's a tick. Right. Who's like a tick above average. You're like, ah, it'd be great if we didn't pay this guy $6 million a year. And I think that's what everybody's trying to avoid because those, those are the goal. That's like, that is like one of the pitfalls that avoiding separates, like, good teams from great teams, is paying a mediocre, like, average starting goaltender, like he's something more than that.

There aren't that many guys in the league at a given time that are worthy of, like, getting the bag dropped, like, at their locker, right? And it's important to figure out whether you have one of those guys or not. Yeah. And I think Pittsburgh's in the process of that with Jari. usually you don't know because there's only like a select few and everyone else is like bunched around the middle it's with jari it's like the devil you know versus the devil you don't and the leaps were going through a similar situation with jack campbell himself last year and i think

and anderson i think the biggest thing with murray is that they probably figured he wouldn't be he'd be similar to campbell in the sense that he's not that effective but but he signed for fewer years. I think that flexibility is what they cared for. Absolutely. Campbell for five years is looked bad at the start of the year, looking pretty not great already. And with Jari, I...

That's front of the show, Jack Campbell, so you better watch it. I love Jack. That is the most golden retriever of a man of all time. He was a fan favor in Toronto for a reason, but his second half was just not great. And I think with goalies, you probably want as much info as possible. And with Jari, I feel like I'd be weary signing him too soon. I agree.

I agree. Yeah. I don't think they should do it tomorrow. But I think when you look at some of the goleys who are going to be unrestricted free agents this summer, I mean, Tristan Jari is one of the best pending UFA goalies out there. What are you going to, like, would you rather give Jonathan Quick that money? I mean, he's 37 years old. You got Jonathan Quick, Simeon Varlamov, Ben Bishop, Freddie Anderson, Jonathan Bernier, like they're, what, you want to go get McKenzie Blackwood, James Reimer? I mean, if the penguins are going to switch up their starter, are they, slim pickens.

David Critic, this is bleak. Depends on what they want to spend, I think. That's the biggest thing. It's all about price and flexibility. And if Jari wants the Kemper contract, for example, that would, that probably should be a non-star. But then again, this core is just win now. So big three retire. That's what it is.

And maybe that's the deal you end up seeing with Jari, right? A deal that's like maybe a couple years, two years too long. Like they did like everybody else on that team is signed, right? You go a little bit longer on the back end so you can save a little bit on the hit. It would be like maybe yeah, just go out. They should go out and sign quick. Yeah, just keep collecting guys from the 04 draft year. Just sign a bunch of 37-year-olds.

Sign me. I would love to see that. I'll play. I'll play. Have you played? Did you play as a kid? No. I played, I played like street hockey and stuff.

We got to get you on a rink next time you're in Toronto. No, you don't. I really want that, like more than anything. Not going to happen. Can I get a video posted on Twitter? Post it into power rankings. You've publicly humiliated me enough. Let's move on.

Another team that is signing guys for just a little bit too long is the Calgary Flames. They're off to a really good start to the season. Dom, you had a note about the Flames and 16 stats. Johnny Goddrow, Matthew Gajuk. They are still very good 5-on-5 players. Jonathan Huberto and his line haven't really figured it out yet. But I think the fact that the Flames' top line and their big guy on the left wing haven't quite figured it out and they're still 5-1 is pretty good

because they're not going to be a middling 5-on-5 team for long, not the way that we know Daryl Sutter coach is his team. What have you thought about Calgary so far? I'm not going to lie. I've not watched too many Calgary games. I think the record is impressive. I think what Cadry has done is impressive. I believe in this team.

I had them ranked pretty high. I see that their XG isn't great so far, but that'll probably be something that figures itself out as the new parts of the team start meshing better into Sutter system. And I don't know, I just, I love the decor on that team. I think when you have six or seven guys that are that good, Michael Stone, suddenly fantastic. Sure. He's such a good dude, too.

I just enjoy talking to Michael Stone. So we're having one. I wish nothing but the best for anyone who just is like a guy. and they just suddenly just pop off. That is amazing. Like, he was great in the playoffs. Great right now. Good for him.

I love, there's not, there's, I was just about to say, there's very little I love more than Michael, than Michael Stone randomly drop in bombs from the top of the circle. And watching people react to it for the first time being like, holy shit. What? Is this Al McKinnis?

Like, who are we watching? Can we actually petition to get him to the All-Star game somehow? This is the one- I'll do some fan shit. Give me Michael Stone in the hardest shot contest. Yes. Right now. Oh, man.

Is he going to win? Probably if anyone's listening right now. Hello? Hello? If anyone from the league is listening, invite Michael Stone, South Florida. That is absolutely what the, like, all-star weekend should be for the NHL.

Like bring dudes who don't make the all-star team to partake in this, in the skills competition. Like, Don, you started saying, We see it with the dunk contest and the three points of stuff, who cares? Like, bring those guys. Someone, someone who's insanely fast, who's, you know, a 13th forward because he doesn't have, doesn't have hands or whatever on some team. Like, expose these guys.

Like, like, give them, give them that exposure. Let's see, let's see the Randos. Okay, last question before we move on to the Halloween candy draft. Who is the best Canadian team in the league? And you guys can, I don't know if you guys want. to be like right now, I think when it's all said and done, like who's the best team? Who's the best Canadian team? Yeah, set the parameters of the choice here.

Like, how about it every second like at the end of the season? Or like right now. Or who has the most points at the end of the regular season? Like who do you just think has the best team in terms of construction, how far they're going to go? When you look at the Canadian teams, like which team is the best? How far they're going to go? I'd probably lean Calgary just because they're, I think, an elite. team and they get to play in the Pacific division, which is not as strong as, say, the Atlantic

division. So I think they'll be up there in terms of points. They'll probably win the first round matchup against whoever random team they play. And after that, who knows if they have the star power to compete with some of the other teams. But, yeah, I would say they probably go the farthest. I like how they salvaged their offseason after losing good. Drone Kachuk and

They're 5 and 1 looking Their numbers anyway Look not so great and they're still 5 to 1 So once they start playing true Daryl Sutter hockey I think we'll see One of the best teams in the league Yeah because they have they have a goalie They're still my pick

And their goalie isn't even looking good right now He seems like he's got he's like Right of the ship like a little bit over the last couple games But his start was was pretty rough I mean I pick I pick the flames to win the to win the cup. Like they were my, they're in my pretty season pick.

I pick Markstrom to win the Vesna. Like I'm all in, I'm all in on them. Like I like for better or worse. I can't, I can't bail on them. Yeah. After, you know, six games or whatever it's been.

Yeah. Like going back to like the goalie conversation where there's like really like eight guys you can count on, Markstrom is one of those guys. He'll probably have to solve his, his demons against the Edmond to Oilers at some point. But I think having that is a big advantage

come playoff time that. the Leafs probably don't have unless Elia Santonov is the guy. You know what I want? You know what I want? I want a round one replay of Calgary versus Dallas. I want like New Look stars against the flames again. The stars might be too good for that.

Let's just do it again. They might be. Yeah, I don't think they're going to be in the wild card spot. You know, they're not the last seed. Injuries happen. I'm just saying that's what I want. It doesn't matter whether it's realistic or not. Make that the Western Conference final.

But yeah, I'm still, I'm sticking with... Or the second round. I'm sticking with Calgary, like you guys have said, the five-on-five numbers aren't great yet, but I have faith that that'll rebound to some extent. I'm taking marks from over everyone else. It's the most well-rounded roster, and they have the easiest path, I think, to, you know...

Mine is playing Edmonton, who they haven't been up... Or Vegas. Yeah, Vegas looks good, too. We'll see what... happens with Vegas 80 or whatever games from now. I know Pittsburgh was on the back end of a back-to-back, but Calgary speedbag them a couple days ago. Oh, Pittsburgh had a bit of a boost in the second period,

but they just got wiped out. Yeah. Yeah. Flames look good, and their five-on-five numbers are very mediocre. And Markstrom, like Marksum had a good third period against Carolina and a really good game against Pittsburgh, so he's probably trending in the right direction. so we'll see we'll just see what he does if he starts against edmonton on Saturday because

he as dom said he has some demons with the oilers like i think they were just toying with him at one point like i think even the coach was messing with him i remember the one quote from uh the playoffs and he was talking about you know mike smith might be old but it's not like he played 75 games this season and that is exactly how many games marksham had played to that point and it was like Oh, man, they are just toying with Jacob Marks from right now. So I think you'll be fine. All right.

Let's do the candy draft. We're all on the same page. It's boring. I thought we were all going to have maybe different answers. I mean, the best team in Canada, whatever. Let's do the candy draft. I can talk about the Leafs if you want.

No, thanks. No, thanks. Let's go to break. The Leafs and Taylor Swift. Sean's favorite topics. Click, click, click, click. All right. We'll be right back.

Okay, we've talked about enough hockey. That's enough. on the athletic hockey show. Gross. Yeah, we're done. It's been 45 minutes, I think. So it's Halloween weekend. I'm not doing anything for Halloween.

I don't have candy. I don't have costume. I don't have anything to do. I don't have, I don't have costume. Yeah, I was trying to make it all matchup. If only your friend was throwing a Halloween party invited you to it. Yeah, we'll see about that. Oh, I think I have plans.

Yeah, I think I'm going to stay on my couch all weekend, but I'll let you know. Oh, my God, so lame. Whatever, we'll figure it out. I'm tired. Look at me. I'm exhausted. Don't say anything. So we're going to do a Halloween candy draft because we're feeling festive.

I've got my, once again, shout out to my little pumpkins in the background. I love fall vibes. I'm drinking a pumpkin spice coffee with pumpkin spice creamer from Starbucks. We're in the mood. It's fall. We're doing Halloween stuff. We're doing a candy draft. Five rounds.

We're snaking. Once again, Danielle, I mean, I was going to say our friendly producer, Danielle, but I don't know about that. Because I lost last week, even though she said that my draft was really good. Hey, you can redeem yourself this week. It's a new week. Yeah, whatever. I don't really trust either. I don't trust Danielle or Sean.

I think you guys were talking about what kind of candies you like the best and Dominer are screwed. Yeah. American candies. Yeah. The best kind. We have really good candies here. You got good ones, but you only got like five of them.

I'm aware of an American who like will take home as many coffee crusts as possible. Craig. Custons. Yeah. So, yeah, it's our candy draft. He's a candy freak. Yeah. We did a, I did a random draft order.

So Dom is the first overall pick, then Haley, then Sean with the third overall pick. So you guys ready? You ready for the candy draft? I'm ready. Okay. I'm going to kill you guys. Um, first pick,

uh, Reese cups. Oh, shit. No, there, Reese cups. Is that a Canadian

fucking way to, I'm just differentiated. Reese's peanut butter cups. I just dropped it. I don't think I've ever dropped an F bomb on this podcast before. I did it immediately after, after,

after you. What is your problem? You said, you said Reese's cup. Reese cup. You told them they don't, there was a plural. We were supposed to go quick.

It was a lightning round. I'm shortening it. We don't even know it's peanut butter. Everyone knows it's peanut butter. I blurted out a curse word. What do you want to do? Haley? I'm not good at going fast with this stuff.

Oh, my God. I don't eat chocolate. You should lose your pick. You should lose your pick. You're going to get stuck with Neko Wafers if you don't pick something. Reese's pieces. Reese's pieces. That's why I differentiate and said reasons.

God almighty. There's more than one. Don't yell at me. Kid cats, go. That's you again. Oh, it's me. Snickers. Shoot.

I'll go with a coffee crisp. Coffee crisp is good. I am going to go with a Mars bar. I believe they're called Milky Ways in the States. Ooh, go again. Give me a Twix. Damn it. Twix is good. This is hard.

I'm going to go with a butterfinger. Not my favorite. Classic. Classic third round mistake, I would say, when you're talking about the candy draft. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times. What, a butterfinger? It's the, it's, um, the, the inferior of that kind of format. Like the Fifth Avenue bar is much better than it.

Is that your pick? Uh, no. I'm taking the wonder bar. That is a Canadian, It's the best of the bunch there. I love that thing. And I needed to get it because I feel like one of you guys would have done it at some point. Wasn't on my list.

Wasn't on my list. Wow. It's because you know what? Because you're a loser. It's my sake. Peat and butter Eminems. That's your pick? Yep.

I'm just, I really hope nobody picks smarties. Who likes smarties? No one. I kind of do. Oh, my God. I think they're fine. Yeah, they're also different. That's a Canadian-American difference.

Smarties and Rockets. We don't have- We don't have Smarties better in America? We don't have Smarties. We don't have Chocolate Smarties, and they're down here, I guess, those are Rockets. Is that what they're called?

Yeah. There's no chocolate in American Smarties. It's just, like, granulated, or like pressed, like kind of pressed sour sugar. What? Yeah. What rockets are? They're little discs.

Yeah. Yeah, those, they're called Smarties in the States. Ew. Okay. Go. I like Starbursts. Ooh. It's fine.

Fine pick. Good, good pick. Going into the candy section, I'm going to go with Twizzlers. Ew. I love Twizzlers. I like Twizzlers. Nibs are disgusting. Nibs are, nbs, I can do away with, but twizzlers are leit.

Twizzlers are good, and they're also, they're also good for kids who have peanut allergies. So if you have, so if you're at a house where you, you get or whatever, where you get like a ton of trick or treaters, it's a very nice thing to put out some Twizzlers because if there's peanut allergic kids out there, they can actually get a nice little treat. Same goes to the same goes for Kit Katz. I'm fine on it. I feel like I love candy corn.

I feel like I'm the only person who's like, who's like completely 50-50 on it. Like I think it's okay. I like candy corn for like 10 minutes and then I get a tummy ache. I don't care for it. It's pure, pure sugar. So, Dom, Dom's taking Keating Corn. No, no. I'm taking, your final pick.

The Hershey cookies and Cream Bar. Wow. I remember when that was introduced. That was like, it was like a mid-90s thing. Because I remember it from when I was a little kid. It was like a big, a big honking deal. Me and my sister used to fight for those. Yeah, I can imagine.

Yeah. Not a lot of places are going to hand them out. Very happy with that fifth pick. I think it's a strong sleeper pick. Yeah, I'm upset with my performance thus far. I totally forgot about the Kit Kat in the first round and panic. You forgot about Kit Kat. You guys were screaming at me.

You guys were yelling at me. I was trying to think of the thing I was trying to say. And then I said Reese's pieces. Kit Kat was going for the number one seat and you forgot about it. How do you forget the potential number one draft pick? Because I'm gluten intolerant. and there's wafer in there. Do you guys realize that

my candies, I eat I eat winter green mince and skittles. Yeah, I do. I do realize. Why don't just cater your draft to what you like and enjoy and not trying to pander to the audience here? Because then she wouldn't be able to,

then she wouldn't be able to pander to the audience. Yeah, you idiot. That's her whole, that's the whole approach here. Yeah, people love a coffee crisp. People love butterfingers. So do I. So, yeah.

Do you? No, I can't eat peanuts either. Let's see, you actually can't eat any of the candies. Oh, I can eat Starburst. Starburst. There we go. Okay. Yeah.

What do you go with your fifth pick here? Something you can eat or something you know your audience will like to try to salvage this poor draft? You know what, Dom? You got so mad at Sean and I for making fun of your Blue Jays tweets when you don't even like baseball. So if you can just shut up about the candy draft. I need to clarify this. I love the city of Toronto and I hate the sport of baseball. I think those can be like mutually, I don't think they're mutually exclusive where I can cheer for a team even though if I don't care for the sport usually.

You were having a bad day and you got really upset with us. I was having a bad day. Like an hour after I texted on like, I was just grumpy. Yeah. Are you okay? Temper tantrum on fake Thanksgiving for you. Yeah. It was Canadian Thanksgiving.

Exactly. What's your pick? Yeah, Haley. Come on. You're not going to win this, so you might as well just name a candy. Aw. The humble Jolly Rancher. In honor of Daryl Sutter. Hey, don't call him that.

Does he not like that? No, I don't think he cares. It's a corny nickname, but. Yeah. I actually really like Jolly Ranchers. Me too. I love it. You know what I like more than Jolly Ranchers?

Sour Patch Kids. Oh, elite pick. That was, that's what we're. what I was thinking about between that and that and Twizzlers. I think you needed like one, one candy to go with the chocolate to really round things out. That's right. Do you guys want to know my actual favorite Halloween candies?

I love Laffy Taffy banana flavor. Oh, gross. That is so off the board. I love Laffy Taffy. I love Jolly Ranchers. I like nerds. I like Skittles. I don't, I'm not a chocolate person.

I love candy. I love can. I like an arrow bar. I'll eat a bounty bar. You know, I probably won't because I don't feel well. I think that's coconut and it's terrible. Terrible. It's like mounds, I guess.

Probably. Arrow was a surprising non-drafty. I was going to go Arrow, but I, you guys started yelling at me. I don't really get the point of it. It's just bubbly. Do you let the bubbles smell? Haley, Haley with the banana laughy-taffy remark there may have polluted the juror pool.

I think she just pushed Danielle out out of... I didn't draft it. That's not fair. It doesn't matter. Anyways. Whatever. The actual best things when you're going, trick-or-treating as a child is it doesn't matter what they give you.

It's the houses with full-sized candy bars. Like, I don't care what kind of candy bars. If you have a full-size, I'm going to hit up that house on my way back. And then not eat it? When I was a child, I didn't know about food allergy. I didn't care. Gotcha.

And the houses that would have, like, caramel apples, candy apples. Disgusting. Terrible. No, thanks. You deserve to finish last. Oh, yeah. Also, the houses that would give out, like, popcorn balls and pennies. Excuse me?

Yes. A popcorn ball? Yeah. Danielle, right? Did you? Dom? Did they do? No.

No idea. That's a weird Pittsburgh thing. It's not a weird Pittsburgh thing. It's apparently a Southern California thing, too. I didn't see them very often, but also as well, those things were like, when we were trooper street, we were told, don't eat anything that was on me. So, like, we would get them, but you would never really, you'd toss them. I'm sure we can still go to Target.

If you want to give out, like, manufactured, you know, sold popcorn balls, like, you know, I think we could. They're disgusting. Or those weird strawberry candies, but, like, the strawberry candies. with like the strawberry wrapper on those. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Bank candy.

Bank candy. Yeah. I like those. You know what I also used to like is the little marshmallow strawberries and bananas. This is, this is disgusting. This is Hayley. Oh my God. Haley just drafting like one candy after another that you find it like nursing homes and stuff.

Yeah. Haley is the NHL team that drafts a player in the first round and Bob McKenzie's like, who? Who? Yep. That kind of happened with Sean Mottaghan, actually, if I remember correctly. You guys were yelling at me. I panicked. I didn't think Reese's pieces was that bad.

I should have gone with the Kid Cat. It threw me off. It wasn't bad. It was just not a first round pick. I went rogue after the third round. I went rogue immediately. All right. So here's the draft.

Dom has the Reese's cup. Reese's peanut butter cups. So Sean doesn't start screaming. Reese cups. They're not Reese's? No, that's what Dom said. Rees cups. They are Reese's cups here.

Just go. Continue. I know. That's what I'm saying. It's Reese's peanut butter cups. I know. That's what I'm saying. There's no S on the end in America?

It's a Reese cup, but there's two. Dom said Reese cup. That's why I responded so violently. I said cups. I said cups. Reese cups. You said Rees cups. It's whatever.

And he threw me into a rage. Was it all by design to throw you off on your draft? I think I'd agree. Okay. Okay, quick recap. Dom has Reese's cups. Mars bar. Twix, Twizzlers, cookies and cream.

I have Reese's pieces, coffee crisp, butterfinger, starbursts, and jolly ranchers. That is horrific. Sean has Kit Kat, Snickers, Wonder Bar. peanut butter Eminems and Sour Patch Kids. Danielle, who's the winner? Dom actually has like four of my favorite candies in his draft. However, Sean actually wins. No, but that overtakes the fact that I hate Twizzlers.

But the other four are so strong, Dom is over. Oh, yes. Let's go. What a draft. Did I come in second? Do you wonder? Do you want her to say you came in second or do you want her to tell the truth? What went wrong?

I mean, Sean bought me a bicycle last week, so... Yeah. All right. Dom wins. It's unfortunate. That was stupid. I don't know why I said a Halloween candy when I don't eat chocolate. Thanks for the free win.

And I don't know what people like either. I was like, I'm going to pick stuff that people like. Yeah, good going. That didn't go well for me. Dom has a candy model. It's bits of. out a catch-all number for each team, but also, also for some reason, the Leafs won that one, too. Jeez.

Oh, my God. Leaves, leaves, Reese's cups. Jesus Christ, don't give them any ideas. He's going to change the Taylor Swift power rankings. We're not changing that. We would never do that. Okay. Well, that was dumb.

And fun. And fun. Not for me. That was humiliating. I think I shared too much about Laffy Taffy. Banana-flavored items. Don't stop. Don't even say it again.

Okay. Thanks, everyone for joining us. We'll talk to you next week on another Friday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. Just a reminder if you're not an athletic subscriber, you can join us at theethletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $1 a month for the first six months.