The Athletic Hockey Show - Boston Bruins cleared of legal misconduct in Mitchell Miller signing, Six ideas to make the NHL better and who has the best shot to land Connor Bedard?

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

T'was the Thriday show before Christmas, when all throughout the podcast, Hailey and Sean discuss the release of the Boston Bruins independent investigation into the handling of the controversial signing of Mitchell Miller. They take a look at Pierre Lebrun's six ideas that he would implement if he was commissioner of the NHL for a day, including conference playoffs, fixing the point system and moving up free agency. They discuss six teams in competition for the chance to select Connor Bedard first overall in the 2023 NHL draft and they present their predictions for what teams will qualify for the playoffs, as we approach the NHL Christmas break.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. Well, well, well. Who is it leading off the Threadday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show? I'm Sean Gentilly. I am the one of us who has a functioning larynx. Is that the body part? I don't know. Where does the voice come from?

Haley is sick. I don't know. Right? You're sick. Oh yes You've been sick You Oh yes

Will probably continue to be sick And you You ask for a break I feel like this isn't actually Going to change anything I feel like you're probably going to talk about As much as you usually do Despite the

Truly wild amount of cough drops And other various Medications you've gone through In the last little bit I have had so much buckley these many Tylenol colds. And I have a sweet, sweet pile. If you can hear the wrestling, the ASMR of my...

I don't do that. Lawsinges. Stop that. Yeah. No, no, no. Really fun fact about Sean Gentile. He's creeped out by ASMR videos. There are several of us. It's a reaction that a lot of people have, right?

I hear that stuff. It just makes me like, it almost makes my stomach hurt. No, thank you. If an influencer is anywhere close. to whispering. I'm not kidding. It gets weirded out. It's not just an influencer.

It's Mike's stuff. I think I might have misophonia, honestly. Which is funny because I usually, I chew gum while I record, which is very funny. Yeah. And you like pour glasses of water and stuff and people think you're going pee. That was one time on a podcast that shall not be named. But anyways, I have my cough drops. I have some Christmas cookies that my mom made,

the gluten-free varietal with little sprinkles on them. I'm good to go for the next. Great. 40 minutes. Before I need to go lie down. Because I also just had to write a story off the Leafs game. That's fine. We don't care.

Who cares about the Leafs regular season? It doesn't matter. They're second in the league right now. FYI. Whatever. People want to pay attention to that. Yeah. The plan for this show

Okay We're going to level up with everybody here This is December 22nd Christmas is close We both have Frankly Other shit that we need to do work wise I don't

I do I'm going back to bed Great I don't feel very good The upshot is that we're going to give you guys a break This isn't quite as long of a show As you're probably used to from us there is no interview.

This is the two of us. BSing, I guess, for about 40 minutes. Kind of a sneaky, interesting day in the league. Wait, I have a question. Should we do a holiday wish list for all 32 teams? Funny you say that. That is appearing on the site over the weekend. That is what the all 32 was.

Way to pay attention Okay, well I don't have a beat anymore And I'm not allowed to contribute to the all 32s I don't want to talk about why Neither do I and yet here we are You do the pan-th Yeah, but you, that's the thing You are asked to contribute to those

I am not Whatever That's showing up on the site Something bad happened That's showing up on the site over the weekend Um Or you know what be better. That's actually not true. It has already

appeared on the site. Oh. Way to pay attention. Old news. Whatever. I can't do everything here. But kind of a sneaky, newsy day in the league. A good day on the site. There's a lot of good content at the athletic NHL today and tomorrow and all that fun stuff. We're going to talk about a couple of those pieces, including Pierre LeBruns. If I was commissioner

for a day, truly terrifying thought to have Pierre in charge of anything of that size. My God. Commissioner Pierre. Make the summers longer. That's a big tent pole. That's like, it's kind of like the kid who runs. Half of the article.

It's kind of like the kid who runs for class president and says he's going to try to eliminate homework. Strong, strong vibes there. Yeah. But it was a fun piece from Pierre. We're going to get to that. We're also going to get to. I think this is something that you're going to see more and more of,

especially as beginning of the new year, just keeping tabs on the Connor Bedard sweepsticks because we're getting down to crunch time. Oh. And there are a half dozen contenders who have separated them. There's a lot of bad teams in the NHL right now. A lot of bad teams in six in particular that have separated themselves from the pack. So we have some bits on that.

And we're also going to have some, you know, standard holiday stuff on the back end. First, we wanted to cover some news of the day. One of those things coming out of Boston, it would be funny if it weren't so frustrating. An independent review released Thursday found no misconduct in the way that that team vetted the disastrous Mitchell Miller failed signing, I guess, is maybe the best way to put it.

I don't know. legally you don't have to consult with the mother of a bullied child isn't that what this is like this is just this is a classic example of like legally they did nothing wrong yeah morally they did in in there glad we got a lawyer to say that legally nothing bad happened even when gary betman was like he can't play here the most lawyery lawyer out there that is we need like who the most lawyerly lawyers to ever exist. And Bettenen, he's not the top of the list, but he's there. And that's all this is. This is ass covering by the Bruins. This is making sure that they're not legally, you know, culpable in any, in any kind of way.

The firm in charge of it recommended vetting processes like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, clear written policies for vetting off-wise conduct and a tracking system to ensure responsibility. third party resources and blah blah blah it's a whole it's a whole lot of nothing if it stops stuff like this from happening again

great but the damage is done I would say is that is that where you're at on it? Yeah I mean I think that I think the thing that comes from this I guess is the implementing of new

kind of checks and balances for the Bruins that was the other part of the announcement that came out today is that they have like a better plan moving forward and they're implementing these new things essentially. So you've got this independent team saying like there was no wrongdoing, but the Bruins are coming out and still saying like, well, we're going to do X, Y, Z to be better in the future. So I think, you know, seeing that in practice is going to be a different part of that conversation. My question I have with the Mitchell Miller situation is, he hasn't been bought out yet. So I guess that's the part for me that I'm more curious about in terms of the conversation of what's next

and what is he doing now. Because we haven't seen him get bought out yet. Yeah. At least we haven't seen the news that he's been bought out yet. And then what happens is he's still going to be... paid? I don't know. Is he going to go play in Providence?

I would assume not. I assume he's not going to have anything to do with the organization. But I wonder what's next. And part of me just wanted to say that I don't give a shit. I don't care. For sure. And we'll see. And that's a,

that falls under some. Like I know the buyout window isn't open right now. It's not. So whatever. I would imagine that's just, they're just going to keep monice until a buyout window open. and that's going to be the end of it. One of the upshots here, honestly, the really, again, would be funny if it weren't so gross elements here, is that they make this vetting process

sound like there were gaps in the organization's vetting process and they failed to do this and they failed to do that as if it actually needed to be something that was complicated, and complex in anything more than the two guys at the top of that organization and Don Sweeney and Cam Neely. One of them figuring out how to do that. I think that's the funny part, right? Is that Neely and Sweeney aren't named specifically in this, in the summaries here.

So you're just kind of led to believe that this is a thing that happened, but nobody's the blame for it. And also like, yeah, they had a... But also here's some recommendations to be better. And they had a system that was in place that they didn't follow. Like, how complicated could it be? Like, what is the line of communication? They basically need to put in writing that if you're going to sign somebody with a quote-unquote,

I mean, I'm not quoting anyone, but if you're going to sign someone with, like, a complicated history, talk to all parties involved in said history. Yeah. Put that in writing, so everyone knows that you have to do it because it's in the policy, not just like common sense. The issue, the main issue for them, and I've said this before, is that like, I shouldn't say the main, the main issue was sinus kid in the first place, but on top of that, they butchered the PR aspect of it so badly.

They didn't know, the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. So you can imagine, you know, they're basically saying these guys are disorganized. And we saw that, you know, front and center whenever this, whenever the signing happened. You're hearing one thing from Cam Neely. You're hearing another, another from Don Sweeney. They're basically saying, like, we don't, whoa, screwed up. But it's as simple as those guys just knowing what each other is doing. It doesn't need to be, it doesn't need to be more than that.

And the fact that it took a step below a goddamn congressional hearing to make this happen is, is wild. So we're going to see what happens with Mitchell Miller's contractual status, you know, down the line. Hopefully we don't have to do this again in two years and no other team steps in the same hole. But you never know. These are NHL teams that we're talking about. That's not all, Mitchell Miller. Yeah. The other thing we wanted to talk.

He's had enough air time. Yep. It's time to talk about our. boy commissioner Pierre Lebrun running the league from Lakeside at 1122 Boogie Wogie Avenue

That's a joke There you go That's a joke to me and crack out of haley I don't know if you're Maybe pay attention to that Don't use your inside jokes with me

I'll make that very clear Yeah This is the Friday show Don't think that I wasn't going to sneak that in here Just because you're holding the mic today this is Friday Pierre threw up a six pack of changes that he wants to see

in the spirit of the holidays he says after a lengthy pre- And we are going to We're going to steal it Sorry No we're going to steal it Well and we are going to not just steal it But like we're going to be the ones

Like we're the board of governors That's perfect No we're the check and balance For the commission We're going to tell you if this flies This is the Got it Pierre If I could call you that

He's never going to listen to this show, so it doesn't even matter. He's never going to know that this bashing happened. No one. Number one on Commissioner LeBron's list. It is, to me, the most obvious fixable, the most obvious fixable issue, easily fixable issue for the league is the point system. Pierre makes some great points here. And we've said this before. me and Sean McIndo and Ian Mendez have said this

in our little rules court round table that we do periodically. Any system is better than any point system is better than the one the league has right now. Literally anything. 3-2-1? Great. Two points for a win. Zero points for a loss.

Great. Pick something else and implement it. Because we've all had enough of this. It affects the question. quality of the play, it affects, it is fundamentally unfair. That's the, that's the biggest thing. The loser point is, is against the spirit of actual competition. So I'm pleased to see that Commissioner LeBron is making this such a priority. And I, well, this was such a wild,

this was such a wild point that he made in the story is a team could lose 82 games in overtime or a shootout. And while it wouldn't make the playoffs, those 82 would have been good enough for 21st in the league last season. Yeah. 21st in the league for 82 games without a win. I read that and I go, wow, that's stupid, but also,

wow, I really wish that would happen one day. That's what it's going to take for Betman to change that. Is being, like, embarrassed by the own system, right? We're coming to something close enough to that. The ducks,

the ducks have won, what, three regulation wins now? for Anaheim? Yep. They're not last place. No, no they're not and they have

almost as many regulations, can you believe that Almost as many wins as San Jose and Philly, San Jose. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, Columbus.

For as bad as the ducks have been, they're within shouting distance of, you know, whatever. Yeah. Fifth from last instead of last. We're gonna talk about them later. So whatever.

Yeah. The Blackhawks only have five regulation ones, too. It's really funny. Oh, they've lost eight in a row. They're horrendous. They're the worst again. I get really sad when I go down into the bottom of the standings. I don't. Anyways, I think we both agree to change that. So you want a three to one point system. I'd be fine with three to one. I think that's my preferred, but I'll take two zero as well. Brian Burke thinks it was a terrible idea Can you believe it?

Burkey doesn't like it No Pierre like Pierre points out The argument against the 321 system is that Is that there would be teams who are eliminated by Christmas Which is like Yeah I just I prefer the 321 Over like an old school approach

Which is two points for a win Zero points for loss of any kind Because you're basically Because like three, I just, I don't think you can do the old school like two points for a win, zero for a loss of any kind if you're going to have three on three overtime because that's a coin flip. Like that's sure, teams need to adjust and be better at three on three OT. That's a thing that we've talked about with the Leafs because they're three on three overtime as performance has not been very good. But like that's not, I just don't agree with having zero points if it's going to be three on three OT because that's not the same. game you're playing. So, I don't know. I think you'd have to go back to 5 on 5 if you're going to do that.

And then maybe it's not... It's overly complicated, so just go to... And then maybe it's not like sudden death. Maybe it's just like a full extra time if you're going to go to two points for a win, zero for a loss. That's never going to... So that makes three... That makes why 3, 2, and 1 is...

Makes more sense. Yeah, they're never going to play more overtime because the idea of teams playing full, you know, two full overtimes or whatever on back-to-back nights, that's a non-starter, right? Like, like teams just aren't, teams aren't going to do that. But so, yeah, I'm with you.

I like 3-2-1 more than, more than 2-0, but something needs to change. And if the, and if what we're trying to prevent here is teams getting knocked out, you know, by Christmas, like, guess what? The A, they already are. And B, like the stagnation in the middle, because of every team earning points

kills drama down the stretch anyways. Yeah. Let's move on to the next one because this is my passion. Okay. Number two, Commissioner LeBron, go back to conference playoffs. Please. I'm ready for it too.

I think the current system where you have top three in each division plus two wild cards served a purpose. I was... For what to have more Penguins capital? playoffs series. Yeah. That's why I was put in place.

And guess what? It worked. It's fine. Move on. Yet, the salary cap is still shit. In the NHL's business is not legit. I don't care about. Like, wouldn't you do that for like a bottom line reason?

Like, wouldn't you do that to be like, let's make as much money as we can off Crosby of Etchka in the playoffs? Who knows what the numbers look like if those guys weren't? I, it's some point it can't be. That was just me doing my best, like, agent. Yeah, and I don't care. Sassy Twitter agent. I don't care.

I don't care. I wanted to see lots of Caps, penguins, and I got it. Yeah. I've been satiated. And now we can move back. We can move back to the next name because, Haley, I know you've railed about this. Yeah, I hate it. Well, specifically, though, the idea, you pointed this out plenty of times is, like, the idea that you can win your division or have the best record in the conference.

and just because of this, you know, funky format. Your reward is to play against what, a team that finished three points back of you? Yeah. Or whatever it ends up being. Like, the Leafs had the best season and franchise history last year. Mm-hmm. And sure, we can do the whole, ha-ha, he-he, they can't make it out of the first round. Four ones the worst lead in hockey, whatever.

sure they need to perform better in the playoffs absolutely i'm with you but the reward for having that kind of season shouldn't be playing against the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion tampa lightning in the first round of the playoffs i think it should apply to every team other than the leaves yeah the leaves just have to play boston or tampa regardless i don't care where regardless and where they finish so there's no incentive they're going to make the playoffs regardless and they're going to play Tampa or Boston regardless, just because people are sickos. This is one of those things. But like look at the Atlantic, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but like look at the Atlantic right now and look at the situation that we're going to be in this season.

So the Bruins and the Leafs are one and two in the league right now. And then the Atlantic division of Boston, Toronto, Tampa. Like, we're just in a sit. And then Carolina, New Jersey, Pittsburgh's one, two, three. in the Metro, like we're going to be in a situation where a really good team that everybody loves to watch is going to be kicked out in the first round, regardless of how this shakes out, if the playoffs started today. Yeah, I mean.

And that's stupid. It's stupid. It's stupid and dumb. You just go back and forth. Like, this is the way it should work moving forward. They can have the conference system for a few years. Why would you go back and forth? Oh, you don't mean every year.

I'm not saying every year. I'm saying just like, do this for 10 years and do it, do the opposite for 10 years. That's okay. These aren't like, the NHL has had plenty of other playoff formats over the years, right? This isn't like sacred ground that we're treading on here. Like, change it. Who cares? Change it.

Change it to something new. And then when that goes still, change it back. And where we're at in the cycle now is where it's time for conference stuff. Let's go. Yeah. So if the playoffs started today. Or I guess this was three days ago. This is from BetMGM.

This was updated on December 19th. So the season ended three days ago and the playoffs are starting tomorrow. We'd have Bruins Islanders, which is whatever, devil's penguins, canes, rangers, leifes, Tampa. I'm not complaining about that. Third point from Commissioner LeBron. Here's one that I don't care about. Eliminate the trapezoid. Like, whatever, fine.

What does that even mean? What do you want, Pierre? That was kind of a joke. I don't care about it either. Producer Jeff said this about this point, like, before we started here, like, no goalies can play the puck anymore, right? Like, that's just a skill that's gone by the wayside. I recommend that they don't.

Unless you're Jordan Bennington. Going up against a stall brother. Get on out there, buddy. Yeah. Do your thing. So this is kind of in line with Pierre's second point about the playoff format. Like, fine. Switch it back.

It was just like he says, and sorry, Pierre, we're not trying to dump on you. We're not dumping. We're agreeing with him. No, I'm about to say something. He wants to eliminate the trapezoid and he's saying, oh, I guess he's saying this now, but I guess it's a clever measure to prevent some of the NHLs better about handling goalies from thwarting opposing teams forechecks. They added the trapezoid behind the net.

I read that at first and was just like, who even are the good puck handling goalies right now? But I guess he was talking about Martambril Durr. Tristan Jari, supposedly. Yeah, it made sense and it doesn't anymore. Right? So when I... Oh, so you agree with eliminating the trapezoid.

I don't really care one way or the other, but I understand Pierre's argument here, which is like... It doesn't make sense to have it anymore. I get why I was in place. It accomplished what it was trying to accomplish, and now it's irrelevant because it's... It worked so well, so you might as well try something different. Like, that's fine.

Right. I was very confused. It must be the Buckleys. Let's move on. Yeah, you're all hopped up on cough medicine. It's okay. Number four, Commissioner LeBron, allow teams to retain more salary and trades. Currently, they can retain 50%.

Pierce saying, like, whatever. Let's get Buck Wild. 100%. Why not? is basically the premise. Because they didn't want to allow any salary retention in the first place. So 50% is all you got. That was the nice, happy medium from Bill Daly and real commissioner, Gary Benman.

And like Pierce says, the league's biggest fear is money outside the system, right? So if the team keeping 100% of the salary can account for the cap hit, you know, who cares? Like if a team is willing to do this for whatever reason Then let them, yeah It's so funny But isn't this one of the things where This is going to benefit I mean it doesn't really

It's kind of tough because it's like isn't this one of the things That would benefit more like cash rich organizations Like the Leaves or the Rangers or whatever it may be But those are the teams that are spending to the cap typically and don't have the cap space to retain that much salary. I'm not against providing... But I guess they'd be... I'm not against the overall concept of providing measures that benefit cash-wrench franchises.

Like, it's not an inherently bad thing. Yeah, it could lead to, you know, craziness with like maybe in the cane situation, whatever. But I'm all for, like, basic... In general, I'm basically for... complicating the salary cap situation because you look at other sports, the NFL, maybe not quite NFL caliber salary cap gymnastics, but an NBA situation maybe where there's a little bit more,

it's a little bit more complex, there's a little bit more space for creativity. I'm all for that because, I don't know, I'm team chaos as DGB always says. And I think this would add to that. Yeah. I'm with you when it comes to, like, letting teams that have more money and they're spending to do that.

Do you remember a couple of years ago? I feel like I'm talking about the Leafs a lot. Yeah, me too. But do you remember? Okay, well, who cares? The second best team in the league right now? 31 other teams. And I have something to say.

Do you remember two years ago when the new CBA shut down the Leaf's use of their facilities in the offseason? because other teams were pissed off about it. Yeah, that's the sort of thing that just needs to... That's stupid. It crushes creativity. And I think that's like... Yeah. To go back to...

Like, if you want... Sorry, go ahead. To go back to hoops, you know, that's something Mark Cuban did a good job of exploiting it in the early days of the NBA salary cap, right? Is he realized it's something, at a club that he had in his bag because he's rich as hell and willing to spend his money. And one guy who owns that team versus... a consortium of hedge fund assholes.

He was willing to be like, all right, we're going to have the best, we're going to have the best locker room in the league. We're going to have the best, the best benches in the league. We're going to hire, you know, find all these inflection points and all these inefficiencies to take advantage of the money he had and the money he was about to spend. And the fact that, and that is crazy. And I know, whatever. I hate to throw flowers at the leafs, but it is crazy that they weren't allowed to do that. That should be something that's encouraged, right? Like, that should be a source of whatever. Like, if you're an organization and your prospects don't want to come to your city to train and get better and develop in the off seasons because they have somewhere else better to be or a better facility or better coaches, like maybe you should invest some money in that aspect of your plans. I know it's not, that's not possible for every organization. Not everyone. has the same cash flow or whatever. But that's such a silly thing for teams to get angry about and then the league to be like, yeah, this has to stop.

This reminds me of the, since we were talking about basketball with the WMBA. So the New York Liberty got fined $500,000. And this was the net donor. So Joe Sy, who now owns the New York Liberty and the WMBA. they violated the CBA because he had the audacity to charter private planes for his athletes. So he got fined for getting his players off commercial flights, which is something that WMBA players complain about all the time. It's like, shouldn't you want owners like him to come in with deep pockets and treat these athletes as professionals

instead of like fining them $500,000? Sure. But that doesn't benefit the current broke boy owners. That's what it is. Like these guys are trying to stop or trying to crush scenarios where they would potentially have to get into an arms race over stuff like offseason, you know, offseason facilities or whatever. And that's just bullshit. They don't want to, like they're saying, we don't even want to hazard the chance that we're going to have to potentially spend money down the line. We want nothing to do with it.

And that's, and that's the only reason. Lame. Happens at all. Five and six for Pierre. Okay. Number five. Yeah. Five and six for Pierre are classic.

I want to get to the cottage sooner. Yeah, this is classic media shit, extremely self-serving. I am very, very in favor of it, personally. Okay, but Sean, we are not the ones who get to go to the cottage all summer. We're the ones who are like trying to pad the website. You know? Yeah, that's true. But I still would rather, this is all about the first like week or two in July for me.

Like, like, let me, let me, let me enjoy that time. And I can go back to, you know, making the donuts for the, for the website in July and August. Yeah, I'm not a cottage guy. I'm never going to be one. So I'm making the donuts? Yeah, so to speak. Time to make the donuts. It's an old.

Have you seen, there's like a trend on TikTok now where people, you know, how cats, when they're, like, on a blanket, they'll, like, do the little thing. with their paws. And people now say that it looks like their cats like making bread, like making biscuits. No, I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about it. And it's like, please stop making orders. She's been working for hours. She's been working all day.

And it's like a cat. I was talking about a Dunkin' Donuts ad campaign that ended probably before you were born. So it's American and has been gone for possibly 30 years. So, no. I was not talking about a TikTok cat. The TikTok cat? No, believe it or not, no, not much of a TikTok cat guy.

Okay. Anyways. Move up to start a free agency. I don't care. I care about that one less than awarding the Stanley Cup by May 31st. That is the one where I'm like, there we go. That's something I like. Because that institutes like shortening the season, or is that just

moving the start day of the season up? It's starting the season earlier. Start it on September 20th. It's not shortening the schedule. It's just moving things up, which, again, fine with that. There's something perverse about being in a hockey arena in late June. I don't want any parts of that. I've had enough of it over the years.

Let's get in, get out, start my, you know, blow off summer where I have to think of random bullshit to put on the website. We can get that started sooner and end this season as quick as possible. So Pierre, as far as I'm concerned, he's six for six. I love it.

Let's make it happen. You know what? Let's make it happen. The court has adjourned Pierre. You've pushed, you've successfully... You've successfully pushed all six year changes through. Even though I was very confused about the trapezoe.

It's fine. I am now in favor. Is Pierre the best person on staff for this job? Is he the ideal NHL commissioner? To be the commissioner? From the athletic NHL. Oh, good question. I'll tell you what.

What would McIndoo do in office? He's my guy. He's got a rich history. Macandu is my guy. Yeah, I was going to say, like, he's got a breadth of knowledge. Very, very smart. He's very funny. he's also

He could use a little bit of that in the league's front office He's also more even keel than I think people realize too He's a grown-up Oh yeah He's got kids Let's get Mac and do in the office Because that's like the balance of

You know Evil magician Creativity with You know Steady Hand at the wheel stuff I'll tell you who I'll tell you who I wouldn't want in there Craig Custin's right

Get in the hell out of there You know what Get him off the masthead at the athletic I don't know about that Oh That was good Let's go to break Good job, Commissioner LeBron

We're gonna head to break All right, welcome back As the Canadian I'm gonna take the reins on this little part here Yeah, I don't care Because this is probably a bigger deal Not probably Here than it is for Sean

Not probably. Monday is Boxing Day in this nation. Apparently, you don't have that in the United States. No. You don't do Boxing Day? Yeah, we don't have the Queen on our money either. Right, you just, you know, freak out on Black Friday. Just English holdover bullshit.

So, the point is, Boxing Day means the start of the World Juniors. Shane Wright's, Captain Team Canada, Luke Hughes, Captain of Team USA. that starts Monday the 26th I guess who else is going to be for Canada could it be Connor Bedard could it be Connor Bedard never heard of them this is Connor Bedard season

like as far as I'm concerned I think we're at the point of the season we're at the point of the season now where we know who's really bad and who's just garden variety bad and there's six teams who have kind of separated themselves from the pack right that's where we are

yes our bosses at the website got the writers for those teams together along with the Arizona Coyotes and kind of did a status check on all of them to see if they're as bad as they are as they as their record is if they're on track to bottom out and you know maximize their chances and just to kind of figure out who you know it close to the halfway point of the season who is in a position to pick, you know, the third generational player of his generation, since that's something we have to say about every number one pick these days. Sure.

Yes. Another generational talent. Yeah. There's a generational talent every three years. Bad news. This one. Better than the last. Bad news.

Is Alexei Lafranier actually a generational talent? I don't know if I heard that one thrown around with him, honestly. I think also, I don't remember. I also think some folks had a little bit too much dip on their chip for him. clearly. Let's do it this way. Who do you think, who from these bottom six teams do you think is not as bad as their record? Is that a trick question? It might be. I mean, if you look at the way the guy's answered in the right-up period, it might seem like it. Like maybe Columbus, because they've had a ton of injuries, like Columbus might not be as bad as their 30th place

in the standings in terms of like I think Columbus is probably better than Arizona but they've had a ton of injuries and things aren't going their way but like they're also just bad we're splitting hairs because these teams are so horrendous

but I think the blue jackets have the top end is there for them and you can say like you would think that Johnny Goddrow and you know Patrick Lina or whoever Whoever, whoever ends up getting healthy and staying healthy for them, that they're going to drag them to enough wins, you know, to kind of keep them out of the, out of the, you know, pole position here.

The other, the other team that I think is probably a little. You think so? Huh? I don't know if that's true. I don't think the blue. I mean, like Boone Jenner's out now. It's a long. I mean, he's their number one set.

It's a long season. That's what I'm saying. And we're talking about, we're going to be talking about a few wins here and there over the course of the next few months that kind of. moves these teams from the discussion. So I'm with you on the blue jackets. Right. I also think San Jose shows signs of life periodically for better or worse. And I think that's Do you know who their number one center is right now? With Tomash Hurdle suspended and other injuries?

Who is it? Nick Benino. Bones. That's only for like another day. That was my Mike Sullivan. My Mark Sullivan voice. Bones. that was great

thanks coyotes are worse than the record is for sure uh the flyers are definitely as bad as as bad as you would expect so these are not they're all bad and they're all going to be in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes

things are not looking up here from the sixth here I ask you again coyotes flyers sharks blue jackets ducks blackhawks who from that team who from that group do you think is in a spot to improve over the next couple months

Is there any way things are going to get better For any of these teams And if so Who do you like? I feel like they're all just I feel like the only one who's going to get better Is probably the team that's not going to start selling off Which is probably Columbus

Because they were buying this summer But like Chicago's going to get worse Once they eventually trade If and when they eventually trade Taves and Kane And whoever else they want to sell off. Anaheim is going to lose Klingberg, obviously.

Whoever else they decide to sell off. San Jose is really interesting because so the thing that I'm really curious about with the sharks, are they going to smarten up with Mike Greer and trade Tim O'Meier High instead of re-signing him like they did with Tomash Hirtle?

You got to figure. that wasn't my career's decision we no no no no we talked we talked to him Craig and I did he's a very he's a serious dude and I get but I also

just based on his personality I get the vibe that he's not afraid to make some make some unpleasant decisions and also wishes and he did and he did say this much like he's like yeah of course I would have he would have rather come into a situation

where it's a clean slate right yeah he doesn't strike me is someone who's going to throw good money after bad and compound what's already kind of a no because they've said that they're open to they want to get rid of some of their bigger contracts and they're open to listening on Carlson and whoever it may be but when you look at that roster in the age and the contracts and players in team control or not like their most valuable asset right now is probably Tim O'Meer he's only 26 years old he's a restricted free agent not unrestricted So a team's going to give up more for a guy like that who's young, who's an elite winger in this league, and who isn't already locked into an eight-year, $11 million deal for a guy who's 36 years old or whatever it may be.

So I think the sharks end up getting worse. I don't know if the sharks will be able to actually sell off many pieces because they have so many bad contracts. And then the coyotes, I mean, the coyotes are much worse. Yeah. So again, my question to you is, was that a trick question? I think Columbus is the one that gets better. And maybe the flyers, because they seem like they refuse to rebuild, and they have a bunch of guys hurt too. So maybe guys come back in the torterella magic works again and they do well again. I kind of like the ducks. I don't know. Who do we think is going to get the dart? I like the ducks to answer that as the answer to that question because I don't think they can, I don't think they can get that much worse. And they don't know. don't have any real part to sell off. Klingberg's been terrible. John Gibson and so...

Someone's still going to get that guy, don't you think? Yeah, sure. But like, what kind of loss is that, you know? Probably, it doesn't seem like it's going to be all that much. Do you think they fire Dallas Eakins? I think they certainly don't bring him back. He's on the last year of his deal and it's impossible to imagine him in returning. What about Brad Larson?

Sorry. I see a sidetrack. road and I'm going to take it. The thing about Brad Larson is that I think he's in kind of a weird spot because he doesn't have the new coach sheen on him. He was, you know, kind of hired to coach a different team than the team they are right now. So that's a, that's an interesting one. But yeah, Anaheim, I don't think, I don't think things can get that much worse. And if they trade John Gibson, he's been terrible, like, whatever. Like, it's, it's not, it's not going to. Remember how good he was a year ago?

Of course. John Gibson? He was okay. I remember how good he was like three or four. People were talking about like asking if he was, you know, okay with the trade so he can go be the number one goalie for the Leafs. Let's fire up Tankathon. Yeah. Five rounds. Okay.

Who's going to get Connor Bedard? Sean, are you ready? I will do this. Sim lottery. Yes. Be-poopoo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-po poop-bo-po pooh. Computer. The number one overall pick goes to.

The Vancouver Canucks. Oh my God. Oh. Up six spots. And then Arizona and then Chicago. The poor sweet flyers get the seventh overall pick. Oh, man. Okay.

Round three. Be bo bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, pooh. Let's stop this. I like it. The number one overall pick, Anaheim ducks. Yeah, okay. They win the Conner-Bradarts sweepstakes.

So it's Anaheim, Arizona, Chicago. What's the question? The question is who you think will finish with the best chance, not who wins the lottery. Who finishes with the best odds? No, I'm doing right now who's going to win the Conner-Bradarts sweepstakes. Yeah, this actually is what decides it. So congratulations to Vancouver and Anaheim for... Okay, one more round.

Be bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo, bo. The Philadelphia Flyers. Wow, jumping up from seventh in our other imaginary, in our imaginary thing. That's right. What is your problem? It's like you haven't covered a rebuilding team before. I love Tankathon. It's a good website.

I fire this up, and in my head, I just hear, hello darkness, my old friend. because I covered the Ottawa senators when they were really bad, and I just lived on that thing. Anyways, so you don't care about who gets him right now. You care about in however many months the season ends up seeing. That's the only thing that we... Who has the most odds.

That's the only thing that we can predict. Like, you can't predict who wins a lottery. You can predict who puts themselves in the best position to win the lottery. Those are two distinctly different things. You don't think Vancouver has a chance to win the lottery. they suck yeah of course I do but but I think they're going to finish with like a six and a half percent chance to win a lottery versus 18 and a half which is what the blackhawks would have but as tankathon just highlighted having the best chances doesn't always mean that much that's the point of the tankathon is this black hawks and my little beep boops my three rounds did not win the carnibodont sweepstakes not once this is like so this is the point of the tank athong of the tankathon exercise. This is like predicting who...

It's to highlight that that doesn't matter. You've made your point. You're evading the question. Who do you think's going to finish with the worst record in the league? The Chicago Blackhawks. You didn't ask me that question. Yes, I did. Oh, you asked which team here is better than they look.

I'm like, they all suck. I don't know what you're asking me right. I was building towards that. Who's the worst team in the league? Answer the question so we can move on. It's Chicago, right? After the deadline, it's going to be Chicago. Of course. Congratulations, Chicago Blackhawks. You were going to have the best chance at getting Connor Bittard.

And you're going to get past because it doesn't matter. Great. Nothing matters. Of course not. What's going to break? Welcome back. One last segment before we get the hell out of here. Sorry about the argument, everyone. Whatever. Going on holiday break.

Sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable. What we want to leave you with. is not Haley making beep-boop-bop computer noises in the microphone. I think the funniest part was my little giggle after each beep-boop, because I thought it was just so funny and clever. I'm so funny. That's definitely a thing that funny people say, because they talk about how funny they are.

Yeah, whatever. We're going through each conference. We're picking out our playoff teams. This is kind of in line with a story that's going to run on the website this weekend as well. Like kind of a prediction, reassessment. That's right.

What have you. As we go into Christmas, Haley Salvin, who are your eight Eastern Conference playoff teams? Mm-hmm. Okay. Start at the top, please.

So, I'm going to go with Boston, Toronto, Carolina. This is an order, is it? It doesn't have to be.

Okay. Anyways, Boston, Toronto, Carolina, Tampa. Like, those are my locks. Those are my four locks to make the playoffs. And then this is where I get a little bit. You know what?

Where you get a little bit cowardly. No, no. Near lock, if we're going to do a tier. Like, I think the penguins are a lock to make the playoffs. Sparring disaster, throw the penguins in there. Those are my five locks. And then my like near lock, like my heart truly believes you're going to make the playoffs.

And I'm going to be very happy as New Jersey. I just, they've come down to earth a little bit recently. Yeah, they're three, five and two. Three, five and two in their last ten. In their last ten. Fourth in the conference right now. They're still, by the way, for whatever that's worth. They're second in the metro.

They're tied in points. and in second place and points percentage with a team you have not mentioned yet. Yeah, well, I'm not done yet. Oh, I know. Who's next? Wait, who are you talking about? Carolina.

I already said Carolina. Oh, okay. You have two spots left. I said Boston, Toronto, Carolina, Tampa. I got you. Those are my four locks to make the playoffs. Then my near locks. Yeah, don't play over the point.

Pittsburgh. Then let me finish. Pittsburgh and New Jersey And then The last two spots Probably go To the Rangers and the Islanders So you're just going one through eight

There's nobody There's nobody Maybe Detroit Like so Detroit is there I Don't have Maybe Florida But

It's a big hole for Florida To dig out of Who's your eight? Do you think? think the Panthers make the playoffs? Well, no. I mean, no, because we had to submit our thing for that, for that post a couple hours ago. And I didn't do it. And you're making fun of me for going one through eight, so I want to hear your eight. Where does it differ? Not making fun of you for doing it. I was just

reinforcing the point because those are my eight teams, too. The one I'm struggling with, though, is Caps versus Islanders. Yeah. So like the bubble ones for me is like caps, Panthers. Red Wings. I think it's either going to be the Islanders or the Capitals and Wildcard too. I'm fine eliminating

the Red Wings. I just don't think they're there yet. The question is whether Ilya Sturiken can continue to drag the islanders night in and nine out.

Pretty good. Goalies count. Power plays count. Might not get you. I mean, it'll help you in the playoffs. Lord of the Panthers didn't have

power play last season. That hurt them badly. But yeah, I'm with you. And it is destroying them currently, by the way. Florida's a top 10 league-wide five-on-five team anyway, you want to slice it. And they're getting destroyed because their powerplay sucks. Yeah. So I think we're pretty close.

Like, I think the way that the wild card looks right now, I think it's like who gets into the wild card too. I think the metro and the Atlantic one through three stay kind of the same as they are right now. I think that's, I think that's completely reasonable, you know? Islanders and, Islanders and caps are tied on points. Yeah. Islanders have a game in hand. Washington is, I, we said this last week with Tarek, like I was, I was done with them. I figured they were, I figured they were cooked.

There's seven, two, and one in their last 10, breathing down the next of the New York, of the New York teams, really. So I'm going to pick them. I'm going to pick them to jump the Islanders because I've said it before. I'm never going to pick against the capitals until they show me that they can't do it. I'm just not something I'm going to do. You are braver than I. I just say my bubble team. That's okay.

That's fine. Western Conference, I'll start out here. Yeah. This one is really fascinating. I struggle with this one more than the Eastern Conference one. We're going down in order. I'm saying Vegas, shore. Dallas, sure.

I'm ready to pencil them in. Same goes for Winnipeg. The Kings, they're 6-3 and 1 in their last 10. They've improved in some spots. They need to get a goalie. I refuse to believe the quick can, that they can keep doing... Their goal differential is terrible.

Smoke and mirrors. It's horrendous. They have truly one of the worst gullating situations in the league. We need to get Vimalco from Arizona onto the Kings. I said that in the power rings last week. So this is where stuff's starting to get dodgy, but I'm willing to count them in there. Kings, Wild, Dom, ironically, now hates the Seattle Cracken.

What? Can you believe it? Okay. He's like, that's like the... They're toast. He's the, they're his like fraud of the week. Okay. They have better points percentage than the Los Angeles Kings do.

And the Minnesota Wild do. But okay. Really what it comes in, I, if there's no doubt in my mind that Colorado is, yeah, is going to find their way in. It hurts to say this because this is the team that I picked to win the Stanley Cup preseason. You don't think the flames are going to make the playoffs? I'm, I have my doubts. Have you seen the Oilers five on five numbers?

I know they've got McDavid and Drysidal, but their stats are like bottom 10. Absolutely. We've been waiting for the flames to figure it out for months now. And I know that they have like one of the easiest schedules in the league. I was talking about the Oilers. I know. And now I'm talking about the flames. Like we've been waiting for them to put it together for weeks and we've come up with excuses. And we've said that, you know, yeah, it takes time for this for this group to gel. Brutal schedule at the start of the season. You know, things are going to get easier for them. Those are all points. Like they're all valid. points. Mm-hmm. But at some point, they're going to need to start stacking wins, and they haven't managed to do it. And either way, like, just the, I've...

They're five, two and three in their last ten. Yeah. And they've got only Pacific Division opponents from now until January 1st. And I think that is going to tell us a lot of what we need to know about the Calgary Flames. They beat the San Jose Sharks and two straight. They should. Mm-hmm. What are they going to do against L.A., Seattle, and Edmonton?

Those are the big ones. They've got a game against Anaheim tomorrow. 10.30 p.m. start. Eastern Time. They should win that one. I feel like I'm listening to the fan 590 here. Wow. The fan 960. Fan 960.

Wow. Sports at 960 to fan. Yes. Whatever. Don't make fun of me. I'm just talking about the flames. I know. I just got the,

got the call sign wrong. Those should be the three guarantees. And then what can they do against the teams within their division that are in a playoff spot that they currently don't have? And I think heading into 2023, like, wherever they, like, if they can get themselves into a playoff spot for January 1st, after beating the Cracken and the Kings, maybe the Oilers, then maybe we can change our mind. But right now, yeah, the flames haven't shown us that they are better than those teams yet, partially because they haven't played against a ton of them. They are pretty good playing within their division, but they've only lost to Seattle in Edmonton within the division, and I don't know if they've played the Kings yet.

I think we'll be able to figure a couple of things out about Calgary in the next couple weeks. Whenever we come back next you hear from us, we're going to have a much better idea of, you know, who the Calgary Flames are. That's what our topic is going to be next week. Yeah. Are the flames done or do we believe in the flames? I guarantee that's a, that's a talking point. And I think we'll look at that with the Panthers too, unless you're already ready to say they're toast. They're five on five numbers are spectacular. And it's just hard for me to believe that they're, I'm not willing to write them out of the wild card. I'm about. But they weren't in your eight. I know. I know. I'm saying, I'm not writing them off. I'm saying that they could be wild card too.

I just wouldn't bet on at this point because again, man, we're deeper in the season. than people think. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're almost, we're like, what, 10 games from the,

not even. Seven games from the halfway point for some teams? And we're three days from Christmas. Wow. Wild.

Wow. Okay. So who's your eight? Dallas, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Vegas, L.A.,

Seattle, Edmonton, Colorado. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I think the only way that the flames get in

as of right now is if, So what I find interesting is I think the aves end up jumping up into the central. And then you get either Minnesota or Winnipeg probably pop into the wild card. Right? Because once the abs get healthy, they're not going to be a wildcard team anymore. So one of those three central teams pop down. And then obviously, like what's more likely?

Like of these three teams, this is the way it's going to come down, I think. between L.A., Seattle, and Calgary who makes the playoffs. If we agree that Vegas and Edmonton are going to make it out of the Pacific. Like, which is... Pick two of those three. That's basically the race of flames are in.

Even though I don't think the Oilers have looked particularly good either. But they have the Connor McDavid. They'll make the playoffs. They've got McDavid and Drysidal. And Evander Cain's hurt right now. It's going to come down to the King's Gold Tending. How about that?

That's what the question is. Markstrom figures it out. I think you bet on Markstrom right now over Jonathan Quick. It's a trump card. I'm just salty. Like I said, I'm salty because I picked them to win the cup. And it looked like garbage for a huge chunk of the ongoing. Try talking about them four times a week on local radio.

No, thank you. But I'm with you. My eight was pretty similar. Yeah, I think we're on the same page. We are. Imagine that. that's it for us. We said that this was going to be a short episode.

I don't think that was. I keep trying to get out. End this. End this. My mom made tacos. Yeah, I have food waiting for me too. Okay. So there we go.

I need to go lay down. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. We will talk to you soon. Also remember, if you aren't an athletic subscriber,

join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for Haley, can you believe this? $2 a month for 12 months. Holy crap. Wow. You can also subscribe to the Athletic Hockey Show's YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash at sign the athletic hockey show. Max and Corey have the Prospect Series. It's coming up on Friday.

It's the perfect time of the year to listen to those guys. They know 99.9% more about the folks you'll see in the WJC than I do. That's for sure. and also the athletic hockey show returns Wednesday with Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger, and of course, the maniac himself, Michael Russo. Their guests are Bill Armstrong as a GM of the Coyotes and Dave Starkman from NHL Network, who will be live from World Juniors in Moncton. So enjoy that.

Enjoy your holidays. Thank you for joining us. Happy holidays. You said that already. I'm just saying it again. I'm reinforcing it because I really do want people to have a nice time. Yes. And we'll talk to you.

next week. Bye.