The Athletic Hockey Show - Catastrophic Red Wings loss puts playoffs in doubt

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

15 games in the NHL on a chaotic Tuesday night separated the legitimate playoff believers from the dreamers. Sean, Frankie and Sean dissect a disappointing Red Wings home ice loss in regulation against a red hot Ottawa Senators team, they discuss the playoff bound Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators, why Zach Werenski should be considered a Hart Trophy nominee alongside the favorite, Nikita Kucherov and the goaltending failures in Vegas and Edmonton and Cole Caufield having a shot at being the first Hab to ever win the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard trophy as the leading goal scorer in the NHL.Host: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what up? It's the Athletic Hockey Show for March 25th, 2026. I'm Sean Jateli, joined by Sean McIndoo, Frankie Carrado. Fellas, I'm stunned. I'm stunned at the 15-game night in the NHL actually delivered. We had real movement, real games of consequence between all those teams, plenty of playoff implications and all that.

So we're getting out of business early, man. I don't want to waste time on pleasantries. McIndoo, what was your big moment coming out of the full slate last night? The Detroit Red Wings on home ice in a must-win game against a team that had played the night before. Kind of. The rage didn't exactly make the senator's sweat on Monday night, but Ottawa had played the night before, had to travel in. The Red Wings were sitting at home, all rested, ready to go,

and they lose in regulation, a real loss. And I tell you right now, I have seen enough. The Ottawa Senators are in the playoffs, and I don't think Detroit's making it. This was a disaster of a home ice loss for the Red Wings. Buddy, disaster, like catastrophic. Think about what has gone on here. The Red Wings didn't have Larkin.

They got Larkin back. They have beaten the Ottawa Senators three times already this year. And Ottawa didn't have Sanderson, didn't have Shabbat, didn't have Jensen. They played the night before, and they couldn't take advantage of any of that. The biggest game of the year. The Red Wings are the team that's been in a playoff spot, the longest that seems to be spiraling right now. That is a catastrophic loss at the wrong time. But give a lot of credit to the Sends, man.

Like that Carter Yakumchuk steps in. He has a between the legs assist that leads to a goal. And then he takes his time, walks it in, and rips one for his first NHL goal. That's big stuff, man. Like, they've, here's my, my big thought on the Sends is that they have played really, really stingy defensive hockey for a long time. and it hasn't wavered. And the last piece of the puzzle

was just to get the goaltending that they needed. And Linus Allmark had a great game last night, and now they're missing some of the big pieces on defense, and this whole time that the team was carrying the goaltending, like now it's time that the goaltending carries a little bit of things here. And Allmark did his job last night in a big way. And when you say they needed the goaltending, they did not need the goaltending to be,

phenomenal. They didn't even need the goaltending to be okay. They needed the goaltending to be not terrible, not the absolute bottom dregs of the league. And it's been a lot more than that lately. This is a scary team that somebody's going to go up in the playoffs and a lot of people who, for valid reasons, have not paid a lot of attention to the senators for most of the year, are going to be surprised when this team is an extremely tough out for whichever one of the top seats they end up playing because they have had all of the pieces for a lot of this year other than that goaltending.

And if it's there, just average, just average goaltending. Look out. And it's been good enough against the teams that they're in the race with too. I go back to the outcome for them against the Islanders last week. I mean, that's a crazy last, you know, final seconds goal from Brady Kachuk, which is huge in and of itself, but it also gives them a regulation win over the Islanders, right? And here we are again talking about another regulation win this time over the Red Wings, because that's like the standard line here when we talk about playoff race, races,

and we talk about teams making up how difficult it is to make up points down the stretch. Well, three-point games. There's loser points. There's lots of teams that are involved. The way around that is to beat those teams in regulation and get two points when they get none. It's pretty easy when that happens. And that's what we've seen from Ottawa for the last. The senators have as many regulation wins as the Carolina hurricanes.

I mean, they are right there. And the thing with Ottawa has been, they've been cooking for a couple of weeks now. but it felt like every night they would get a big win, and then you sit back and you look at the scoreboard, and everybody else would win, or everyone else would at least get a point because of those three-point games. And so you're sitting there going, man, they're just not making the progress. Last night, it finally clicked into place.

Boston loses in regulation. You look around other teams that they're chasing are losing in regulation, and that is what sends them up the standings, and yeah, maybe it's only two points gained, but that's what they needed. And they're now holding down a spot, still some work to do. But boy, when you look at some of the trends around the rest of those teams, it's not hard to see who's fading and who's staking their claim. DGB, to your point about the goaltending, like they're 9-2-1 in the month of March.

That's with 895 safe percentage. That's not like, it's not anything crazy, but it's good enough for them. And like about everything that's going on around the league and last night was last night felt chaotic. Like Montreal beats Carolina. Columbus wins. The Islanders lose. Ottawa wins. Boston loses.

And then you go to the Western Conference. It's like, hey, Nashville keeps winning. The Jets win again. Vegas loses. Like it almost felt like, remember in dumb and dumber when they're sitting there and they're like, we got no food. we got no clothes. Our pet's heads are falling off.

It's like the Canadians win, the senators win, the Red Wings lose. Our pets' heads are falling off. Like it was complete, complete and utter madness. And my takeaway now with the two teams that feel like they're in a little bit of a free fall in the Eastern Conference is Detroit. And it's been trending that way.

Like they're three, five, and two over their last 10. And the Islanders, who are basically, they're 500. They're 500 over their last 10. But as you guys know, 500 does not cut it when the best teams recently are all in that fight for a playoff spot. Yeah, because it's, you know, we don't love where the islanders are for sure, but they're also a point behind Pittsburgh and two points behind the islanders or two points behind the Blue Jackets. 500 doesn't cut it. And they have one more game played than both of those teams.

But it really is wild. you know, that we can sit here and say a team like New York or Detroit or whatever. We don't like the way they're playing, but also, man, it's still, it's still so close, and it's because of these regulation outcomes now. Like Pittsburgh couldn't scratch a point out of Colorado last night, like didn't come particularly close, right? And same goes for, same goes for New York, same goes for Detroit. So it is.

It's, it's interesting. Frank, you mentioned, you guys mentioned the Preds. Do we want to look over at the Western Conference? I mean, the fact that they're not just in the mix, but kind of, they're three points in a playoff spot now, boys, after last night's results. I think people were waiting to some extent for the Pacific Division's crumbiness to come to roost, and I feel like that's finally what we've seen of the last week or two. Like, we knew that the kings and the

Cracken were flawed to a very, very real degree. And if this feels more like the Pred's benefiting from that than anything else to me, to me at least. Five, five straight wins from that. Good guy. You got to give the Predators so much credit considering the way the season started

and how essentially everyone was up for grabs over there. Like, they were open for business. And there's, like, there's a lot of pride in that room with those. guys saying, like, we're not going to go down this way. And they've played really well, but it comes at the expense of, you know, the L.A. Kings who have fired a coach already this season. So maybe we, we knew that it was headed this way. And crazy to think that L.A. has a minus 27 goal differential, like, for a team that is supposed to be, if anything, stout, defensively,

doesn't give up much. You can live with, like, not having huge offensive upside. But my, goodness. For them to be a minus 27, it is not, that wasn't on the bingo card for them. And then the Seattle Cracken, hot and cold, like, good start to the season at different moments have wavered and now two, seven and one over their last 10, not even Bobby McMahon can save the Seattle Cracken DGB. Scoring at a 90-gold pace or whatever, or whatever he was with them until the last And how about this for how fast things can change? And this is weird because usually in an NHL playoff race, things don't change fast, right? It's that, oh, hey, we just went 8 and 2 in our last 10.

Oh, we gained one point over the teams we're chasing. And that's the feeling we're used to. Five games ago, five games for each team ago, the San Jose Sharks were three points up. on those Nashville predators. That's crazy. Five games later. Five wins for Nashville. Five regulation losses for the San Jose Sharks.

They're now seven points back. Let's pour one out for one of the great stories in league this year. The Sharks are not making the playoffs, which means McLean Celebrating, I'm sorry. You can't be on heart ballots because your team did not sneak into the playoffs. Good season, kid. Try again next year. See it in the fall.

Yeah. Yeah, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they would have. I think if they make the playoffs, he pushes his way onto a decent amount of ballots. What I was, what I was interested in as far as the celebrating heart talk was concerned? It's like, what would have happened if they would have just missed? Like, what would have gone on if they would have finished two or three points out of the picture? Not valuable. You're not valuable if your team misses by one point.

And you may not be valuable if your team makes it by 30 points, but if your team makes it by one point, you sir, are extraordinary value. Even if you get swept in the first round, we don't talk about that part of it. You know what it would have been like? It would have been like the Matthews 69 goal season where if he score 70,

he wins the heart. Because he got 69, he's only a heart nominee. So he didn't win it that year. But 70, you have to win it. Sounds like Sean McAnews Vote in Celebrini no matter what. You're Macon-Colabrini for Hard Dad Under.

I'd need to get my vote back, buddy. The random selection of who gets to vote has just not gone my way for six or eight years, but maybe this year. Maybe this is the one. This should be the year for you. And you know what? I was kind of thinking of it being the year for someone.

I was watching, I was calling Habs Hurricanes last night. And so much talk at morning skate in Montreal was about how do you play against the hurricanes? How do you beat them? Like what's the recipe? Everyone knows the brand of hockey, right? Like there's such a brand of hockey associated with the hurricanes. And last night in the first period, it was like signature hurricanes hockey where Montreal couldn't touch the puck.

They're under duress. They're high flipping into the neutral zone. Carolina's jamming it right back down their thrift. Roots. Eventually it's a 2-0 lead. And here's where, like, I think Montreal has grown so much. And this is why, like, we don't even talk about them missing the playoffs the same way we talk about Boston, Detroit, Ottawa, the Islanders. Like, we haven't really mentioned Montreal as one of those teams that could fall out.

Because for that 40 minutes that came after the first period, they took back the game. Like, against Carolina, who makes it so incredibly uncomfortable for you all over the ice. Goalie Dobish played great. You know, they played on the power play, which helped keep the flies off, but they didn't score on it. But then you're like, man, if that young, exciting team can respond

like that against a veteran team that has been on the precipice of winning for a long time, we're right to not talk about them as one of those teams that is when we're missing the playoffs. Because, yeah, they're resilient, but they can back it up with the way that they

actually reset themselves in a game where it was nowhere near going their way in the first 20 minutes. But Frankie, I've heard whispers and maybe you can confirm or deny that there may be a scandal brewing in Montreal based on last night's game. I heard that after that first period in the intermission, Martin Saint-Louis went into the dressing room and he flipped the calendar ahead a couple of days and showed it to Cole Cawfield and said, look, Cole, it's Saturday night again. and that activated Saturday night coal mode. You can't be doing that. You can't have Saturday night coal seven nights a week. The rest of the league is doomed if we're going to do that

because this guy might win the Rocket Richard become the first Montreal Canadian to win the award named after the greatest Montreal Canadian. These kids on fire. It's fun. Yeah. Yeah, he's exciting, man. And he's, he encompasses everything that's exciting about the team and the Bell Center and the atmosphere.

And you're right. Like the last time a Canadian's player won the scoring title, it was not called the Rocket Richard Richard. And it was Gila Fleur. And it was in the late 70s. I believe it was 7778. And it was named the Rocket Richard Charter trophy in 98, 99. He's got a very realistic chance. Like, I was going back through the numbers since the beginning of last season, he has.

has the third most even strength goals in the NHL. Like he's got 10 power play goals this year, which is good, but it's not like that's where he's making his living. And then goals per 60 minutes, he's number one in the NHL. He's like 2.10 or something like that, like 2.06, 2.10 goals per 60. Like he's incredibly, incredibly efficient with his shot selection, his ability to beat goalies. And I had Sport Logic dig this up for me before yesterday's games. So the numbers have changed a little bit.

But out of the three guys going into yesterday's games who had 11 goals since the Olympic break, it was Caulfield, Cutter-Gocchie, Nikita Kuthraw. Caulfield was 105th in shot attempts. I believe it was 56 shot attempts. Gochier and Kuthorov were both in the top 15 in shot attempts. Like they were in the 90s. So it's not like he's just like getting pucks and wasting them and shooting them from wherever. He's just, he's a really efficient goal score.

And yeah, he's, he encompasses everything that's exciting about that Bell Center right now. It's crazy. He's two points behind McKinnon. It's 46, 44. That's where the goal total is at. And that includes McKinnon scoring last night, too. So, like, he just continually is making up ground. I said it last week, you know, when we were putting together power rankings,

We're just trying to figure out, you know, players to watch. That was the gimmick last week. Like one player to pay attention to on each team. And it's obviously Caulfield for Montreal for that specific reason. Like you're, it's crazy that he was at that point he's down by six goals. I think I want to say it was 46 or I think it was five. It was 45 to 40 was the edge that was the edge that McKinnon had on on that point. if you look at the way

Coughfield's played and Frankie, if you look at the way that he was doing it, like you said, with tons of even strength goals, like not, you know,

just an efficient way of going about his business, you have to take it seriously that he could make up that ground. Because at that point, after the Olympic break, he'd scored nine goals, right?

There were eight times in nine games, which was three more than McKinnon over that stretch. And McKinnon was playing great. Right? So he's finding a way to make up ground even though McKinnon's playing better. And that's continued into this week. So yeah, he's two goals behind him with, you know, tons of momentum on his side.

We need to take it seriously that this dude's going to overtake him. Yeah. And they've got that top line reunited, like they put Slavkovsky back on the top line. It's been nine games now that they've been together. They had a 13-point combined night on Saturday. They had another big night last night. Like that, that line's a problem. The next level for that team is when.

when they don't have to worry about should we or should we not put Slavkovsky with those guys? Because if we don't have them with them, then we're a deeper team and it helps out our second line. So, you know, we'll kind of see how that tracks. But they got another big one tomorrow against the Blue Jackets. So that'll be exciting. And man, the Blue Jackets, they just, they keep winning games. It's something, man. Let's maybe save that for segment two.

We can talk a little bit more about user conference, maybe get into the Blue Jackets. stuff with it after the break. All right, boys, we're back. We should talk about the Columbus Blue Jackets. I feel like we've given them a decent amount of run here. We've talked about them periodically over their methodical climb for the standing since Rick Bonas took over. But yesterday was a big deal for them.

They beat the Flyers in regulation. They occupy a top two position in the Metro for the first time this season, period. They jumped Pittsburgh, who again lost in regulation to Colorado. The last time Columbus ranked in the top two in the metro was 2021, and it was October of 2021. So it was four days into the season. At some point in the last month, I was like, okay, this team's for real, as long as they can find a way to get enough points necessary to push their way in. I'm on board with them.

It's pretty crazy what's gone on. Rick Bonus is a wizard. He's clearly got the magic touch when it comes to communicating with these players. But if you look at the guys that are having a lot of success in the last few months for Columbus, of course it's headlined by Zach Werenski. And if we talk about the Hart Trophy, of course we're going to talk about Nikita Kutrov. There's a pretty compelling argument to be made for Zach Werenski and what he's done for that team. But, like Charlie Coils played really well. Corrill Marchenko's probably been their most consistent forward all season long start to finish. Olivier's got 12 goals in the last couple months. Marchman, you know, has 17 points in the last couple months. You know, Boone Jenner's played fairly well, like half a point per game. And my takeaway with that is the guys that are hard to play against are point producers now on that team. and that's an imposing proposition for other teams where it's like those guys aren't just

like buried on third and fourth lines. The guys that are kind of big and physical and can lean on you, they're also guys that get points and that's helping them and making them a difficult out for a lot of teams that are playing them. Isn't that something that bonus is particularly good at though? I feel like that, especially in the late era Rick Bonas is. turned into a guy who's who's who's who's we saw in Winnipeg certainly he's good at getting points out of the entire lineup right like you're in it from a variety of different player profiles it's a

big part of the jet success and I feel like it's something that he's poured it over to Columbus yeah he's he's been fantastic and I I wrote a piece last week about the Buffalo Sabres where I said this is this may be the single greatest bandwagon team in history and I stand by that, but boy, in any other year, this Columbus Blue Jackets team would be at the top of the list because they're a fantastic story. And guys, 26 years of Columbus Blue Jackets history, do you want to hear a sentence that has never, ever been uttered in the NHL? What's that? Welcome to Columbus for game one.

Never ever have they had home ice in a playoff series. and the playoffs started today, which they don't, but they're right in that running. And, you know, I don't know about in Pittsburgh, Sean, that I don't feel like the blue jackets necessarily rank all that high. But going the other way, the Penguins might be number one on the blue jackets list. They beat them a couple times in the playoffs. It's a little one-sided.

It's a little one-sided, but Columbus hates, Columbus hates Pittsburgh. Well, we're not going to get into the Bill Simmons comments, are we? Remember that? Oh, no. Like, have we, have we gotten how far the blue jackets have come this year? Like, that was mid-November where they're bad, not off to a good start. And Bill Simmons out of nowhere drops this bomb and goes, most irrelevant franchise in North America, the Columbus Blue Jackets. Their biggest rival is the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Penguins don't even know they exist.

Essentially, I'm paraphrasing. But that's, that was the gist of it. It's the mad, it's the madman exchange with, with, with, with, with, D'n Draper and what's his face in the, in the elevator. I don't, I don't think about, I don't think about you at all. And that's, that's, that's absolutely the vibe between, it was, it was, it was, it's Sid versus Brandon Dubinsky for a while. That was like the thing that, the Columbus held on to.

And it was just not, that, that was a, that was a one-way street. There was only one car on it. If, if, if the blue jackets don't have a cardboard cut out of Bill Simmons in the, dressing room like major league and they're tearing a piece of clothing off each time that they win. Hey, you know what? We've all been saying that the turning point of that season was hiring Rick Bonas. Maybe it was the Bill Simmons comment. Let's go back.

He was right. He's correct. They're just, they're, like, look, we're going through all these, all these numbers, right? Like, never hosted a, never hosted a playoff game. Here's, here's a good one. The only other season of Blue Jackets, Blue Jackets ranked in the top two. of their division after the 70th game played was 2016, 2017. So like, they're in it in a way that

they basically have never been before. That's incredible. It's incredible. Yeah, what it ended the dream that year. It was, it was, this is beautiful. And, and I'm not, you know, in fact, I'm going to get way out ahead of myself here. And I'm just going to run this by you guys, okay? And I'm not making, this isn't a prediction. Don't come yell at me if it doesn't happen.

Tell me I jinxed anything. But if... It's not how it works. If, if the two hottest teams in the Eastern Conference can get through their division and they meet in the conference final, if we get Columbus versus Buffalo in the conference final, tell me what you think of this, okay? This is what I'm calling it. Yarmogeddin.

What do we think? God. Oh, my God. That's the best to do it for a reason, man. It writes itself. If we get those two teams playing against each other, the, you know how broadcasts will have a camera outside before the game getting like scenic shots? The tailgate scenics that they are going to get from both of those fan bases are going to be unbelievable.

It'll be NFL-esque and it'll be happening in the NHL. And Bill Simmons can take his Columbus Blue Jackets take. And he can change it to the Charlotte Hornets or the Washington Wizards or, sorry, Sean, the Pittsburgh Pirates and stuff it. Because the Blue Jackets and their fans, they deserve this because that is a loyal fan base. When they had that downseason, was it two or three years ago, they had a downseason recently. And season ticket holders went up. They went up like fans, and just like Buffalo, like they've stuck by their team through some really, rough times, but both those fan bases deserve what is happening right now for their teams.

Absolutely. I want to talk about the MVP race a little bit. Frank, you mentioned Nikita Kutrov a bit ago. Let's touch on that because I feel like we're doing like a wrap up here to an extent. We're doing like a survey, just an important stuff that's gone on around the league over the last couple days. I feel like now there's been some kind of movement. There's been a pro-Kuturav move here over the last few days where people are really starting to, you know, not just note the play and not to say, wow, this is impressive and productive.

And look at this. He's had a 45-game point stretch on par with, you know, Wayne Gretzky and Mary Alemue, which is true. That's something that happened last week. I feel like the dialogue is shifted now where it's actually starting to talk about him potentially winning the Hart Trophy. It's not just, wow, this is a crazy, productive, impressive season from, you know, a Hall of Fame player. It's more like, okay, this is, this is true MVP stuff. Call me crazy, but I feel like there's been some kind of movement there. Oh, no, you're not crazy.

This is, this is very legit. What does he have 104 points in his last 50 games or something like that? Like, it's, no, I voted for Kuturov two years ago as my number one guy because he has, had like 51% he was in on 51% of all of Tampa's goals that year like and you know what he's doing in a league where you know McKinnon has had his stretch McDavid has had his stretch and now Kuturov he does it in such a different way right like he's not he's not thumping down the ice with his feet like he's not blistering past four players like McDavid does but he's so methodical and everything he does, and Tampa's been a really consistent team this season.

I think it's hard to argue, like, how much he carries that team. Now, the one, I guess the one argument I'll make against Kutrov, and it's not really anything to do with Kutrov. I brought up Zach Wrenski before, and Craig Button's kind of been banging this drum a little while now, but if you look at who, like, Werenski plays with, like, he's playing with Siverson, you know, there's Dante Fabro, there's Prover. Kutrov, like, you know, Kutrov is always going to have that, that notion that, hey, he's around Gensel, and he's around Point, he's around headman and slings, you know, really good team, some of the best players in the world. Like, what Rerensky's doing with Columbus, where he doesn't, you know, he's not Kail McCar playing with Devon James.

That's, he's going to have, like, he's going to be a top, he should be a top three guy. But I think, as of right now, it's tough to argue that Kutrov's not number one. And look, I mean, some of this MVP stuff does get into, I don't even want to say the narratives, but it's a long season. And the Hart Trophy is a season-long discussion. And I think that sometimes with a guy like Nathan McKinnon, people get a little bored of the same guy being at the top of the list. Connor McDavid, you know, similar in a way. And you look at the Oilers, the season they're having, I don't know, is their best player, a league MVP. I mean, there's clearly an argument for it. But Kutrava is up there, but you're

right. Like, Zach Wrenski should be in consideration. Ross Musdalen should be in consideration. And I've mentioned this many times before. There hasn't been a defenseman, even be a heart trophy finalist since the year 2000, is completely wild for a position that when you're building a team is the number one thing you look at. Does this team have? that stud all-purpose blue liner. And with Dahlene, you look at not just how well he's played this year and how important he's been, but everything else that's gone with it, with, you know, the, the situation that he's had in his personal life and everything like that and everything that him and his family

have had to overcome, that doesn't, that isn't supposed to have anything to do with who wins the heart trophy. But it's kind of hard to ignore. And I think you're, hopefully this is the year that at the very least, can we, we got a goalie to win the MVP last year. Can we please get a defenseman at least to be a finalist this year? And you don't have to, if you're a voter, you don't have to choose between Werenski and Dahlene and then the rest of it is just the four leading scorers in the league. You're allowed to put both of them on the ballot. I check.

Put them both on there. Let's get one of them as a finalist. It's about time someone started sticking up for defensemen. that wasn't a defenseman. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, it's, I think the timing on all this is right too, Sean. Like you said this a minute ago, but just to reiterate, like, the heart is a narrative-based

award in a way that, in a way that a lot of the other ones aren't. Like, people are comfortable, you know, we're looking at, we're looking at, uh, it stats when we're talking about the Selke or, you know, save, like, it's a lot easier to fall back on that stuff with a lot of the other awards. The heart's different though, because if it, if it weren't narrative base, we would just give it to Connor McDavid every year. And that's, that's not, that's not what happens. It's not what happens in other sports either. LeBron James has won four MVP awards. You mean to tell me that that dude hasn't been the most valuable player in the NBA three more times than that, like over the course of his career?

People get tired of voting for the same people and people get tired of hearing the same stuff. And I think, I think what we're seeing this year is a coagulation of narrative. that are going to push other people towards the top. You know who changed the course of sports history? And I don't even know what league it was that was the first to have an MVP award. But whoever it was that sat down and said, I'm going to use the word valuable instead of just best players. Outstanding or whatever.

That guy changed the way that we think about sports because, you know, you're right. If it was the best player award, Oh, congratulations, LeBron. Here's your 15th, your 15th trophy. Here you go, Connor McDavid, 10 years in a row. You're the best player in the league. Each and every year, we can give it to you in October.

That's not it. And that leaves that wiggle room for, you know, what exactly does value mean? And it's not spelled out. When you get your ballot, it's not like they give you a whole paragraph saying, this is what we mean by most valuable. It becomes this whole thing.

Well, you know, Taylor Hall had 80 points, but he got the devils into the playoffs. So, you know, maybe he's the MVP this year. And then, you know, you go on down the list. It's a weird, it's a weird award. It leads that wiggle room. You know what's nuts? If I look back at, like, the points leaders from when I played in the league, like 80 to 85 points was like, oh, my God, that guy's a stud.

Are you kidding me? A point per game? It's, it's so crazy how it's changed so much. But if McDavid, like, you can't count out McDavid because, obviously, he's been very, very good. And if he continues to score goals similar to the one he scored last night for 400, he probably needs a few more of those and maybe he puts himself more at the top of the list. But it's a great fight. Like, it's a great fight for the Hart Trophy.

And McDavid, McKinnon, Kuthorov, Werenski, Dahlene. Like, I don't know. There's just, there's a lot of names that are circling around it. I like that it's not one definitive name. Like, I think the ballots are going to be really interesting. They're going to be all over the place. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's going to be great.

It's a great fight, Frankie, and it's a real fight, not a pillow fight, which brings us back to McDavid and the Civic Division. And boy, I'll tell you, I mean, we said McDavid, MVP, and we had said earlier, I mean, you got to make the play out. The Oilers are not a lock yet, and the Vegas Golden Knights are really not a lock yet. another, you know, the Oilers got to win last night at least. Vegas didn't. And here we are where is it even, is it possible that for all of this talk about how lousy the Pacific is, that it could be, you know, an L.A. or Seattle or somebody, if they win their games in hand, they are right there with the Golden Knights.

How, what level of panic should we have in Vegas? Because that team cannot get a save. Everyone said throughout whatever most of this season, if they get half decent play from Aden Hill, that's a dangerous team. Well, I mean, this is March 25th, and it hasn't happened yet. He's at 869. Aden Hill is since the Olympic break. He's underwater and goals saved above expected. That's a flawed team in a lot of ways, but the goaltending is the primary issue here.

And I think everyone is written kind of in pencil. Like, yeah, as long as, you know, they, he gets, as long as the goal tenant gets right in one way or another, you know, they'll be worth, worth taking seriously and worth paying attention to. And it hasn't, it hasn't happened yet. No. And think about this. If they even had a smidge of belief, they wouldn't have signed Carter Hart. Mm-hmm. Like, they don't have Carter Hart.

Um, and they have to go with Aiden Hill at this point. And Akira Schmidt is not, like, that's not a playoff. Like, that's not a playoff viable option that helps you get to a Stanley Cup. So they have no choice now. In fairness to Akira Schmidt, like, he's been better than Hill for the last chunk. But you, like, if you're a serious playoff team, not you. Right. And now, okay, so Ottawa's got the worst safe percentage in the league.

Florida 31st, well, Florida's out of it. And then it's Edmonton. And then it's Vegas. Like, both those teams are right there. Like, that's a lot. That's a lot to have to overcome when you don't play hockey the way the senators do. like Edmonton is not a good defensive team and Vegas used to be but it feels like when Vegas was good and they won that Stanley Cup it's not like their decor was fast but they were a little

more mobile and they were big they could clog things up but they've you know there's some different personnel not having Petrangelo is obviously a big deal and they're they're older now and that doesn't help their their shoddy golden. And Rasmus Anderson has not been the answer there. That's been a bit of a bust. And yeah, I mean, just, I'm stating the obvious here, but, you know, as a fan this time of year, you kind of check the standings and you look down at the bottom of those standings at the wild card races. And who are the teams holding down the wild cards? Who are the teams sitting in ninth, tenth place?

Keep in mind for teams like L.A. and Seattle, as rough as it's been lately, they've got two paths to the playoffs. They can catch Nashville for a wild card or they can catch a Vegas for that three spot. And it's the same over in the east where the metro teams that are chasing have two paths in. The islanders have got two paths. Even the Flyers who, you know, that was a tough one. That's a rough, rough loss from them last night. They've got two paths in versus the Detroit Red Wings. Only one.

The Red Wings can pass as many Metro teams as they like. it doesn't help them get in the playoffs. They've got to pass Atlantic teams. And this is another artifact in this weird playoff format, which is a whole other discussion we won't do today. But just keep that in mind. That sounds like August to me, buddy. There are a couple of different, well, Gary Bedman's already said it's fine.

So we don't have to worry about it. But I'm looking at the, you know, Dom's model has got, I think it's the Oilers at 87% chance to make the playoffs, Vegas at 88. So we're not overstating it to say that, you know, these teams are incredible. crisis or something. They're both heavy, heavy, heavy favorites to make it in. But boy, I look at 87% chance of making the playoffs, and I see 13% chance of absolute catastrophic failure by a team that should be a Stanley Cup contender, potentially not making it in one of the worst divisions ever. That's the kind of thing that gets a whole lot of people on the unemployment lines.

because teams have to radically rethink what they're doing. So you talk about the stakes being high about make the playoffs, don't make the playoffs. They feel even higher than that in Edmonton and Vegas, because a lot is going to change in both of those markets if one of these teams stumbles down the stretch and actually gets caught by the Seattle Cracket or the L.A. King. I just wish the teams that were chasing them were a little bit more interesting.

That's kind of, that's like the big asterisk here. It's cool that the Kings have a game at hand on Edmonton and Vegas. It's cool that Seattle has two games in hand on both of those teams. We're talking about four points to make up in L.A's case, six to make up in Seattle's case. I would love to sit here and say like, here they come, get ready. I just, I'm not. It's tough. I'm not.

Vegas and Edmonton play each other twice, including tomorrow night. They play each other twice down the stretch. If those are not three-point games, that does potentially open a door. And Seattle also gets Vegas twice more in just about the final week of the season. So if you're the cracking, you're sitting there going, we don't have to pass them next week. We just got to stay within four points. And then it's going to be, the ball will be in our court. It sounds like Sean Mackin do loves the Seattle Cracken.

I think that's where we land here. That's the only reason. Many leaf grates, Bobby McMahon, and Jared McCann. That is why DGB loves the group. Long time, long time Leaves legend, Jared McCann. That's right. The one that got away. The one that got away.

One. Frank, you're one. Yeah, the one of the one. Just the one. Many. Just the one. Frankie's sticking in Montreal for a couple of days, are you? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we got the Blue Jackets here tomorrow and then back home. And Montreal will be, actually, they've got to play Carolina again on Sunday. They have a back-to-back Saturday, Sunday, Nashville, Carolina, and then into Tampa next week. So busy for them and busy for everyone. Busy for all of us, buddy. Schedule's ridiculous. Whatever. All right.

I'll be watching Blue Jackets, Canadians tomorrow. I think that's my, I think that's SG's Game of the Night. All right. Love it. I'm going to try to watch other feed, though. That's gutless. Columbus. Columbus feed.

Take it easy, bud. All right, we're back. There goes Frankie. Sean McIndoo. Here's something I learned. What have we learned, Sean? It's courtesy of the NHL PR Twitter feed. We love a great fake stat around here as we always bring up.

This is one of the greatest. It's about Nikita Kutrov. I know we talked about it in segment three, but who cares? Can't be talked about enough. He's going to win the heart. as we discussed. Nikita Kuturav passed Paul Coffey and Bobby Orr

for the second most consecutive 80 assist seasons in NHL history as he continues to build a gap at top the points list this season. Again, second most second most consecutive 80 assist seasons

in NHL history. He is, which he's got four now. and also he's fourth in most 120 points seasons, which is a significantly less fake stat. Second most consecutive 80-point or 80-assist seasons is wild work. I salute. Do they even bother to tell you who's first in the tour, or is it just a sue?

They don't. That was why I paused because I was like, wait, here's a list in front of me. Gretzky's at the top. They didn't even do the full list. It was just most 120 point seasons in the graphic below this. So they couldn't even commit to the bit and say who had the most can say, I mean, we all know it's Gradsky, but they didn't even go with the graphic there. They went with the graphic for the actual relevant thing, which is 120 point seasons.

And again, he's got four, which is six most tied for six most all time. That is a real stat. Consecutive 80 point assist seasons is very regrettably, as funny as it is, it is, it is not. I have to rule that a fake stat. I learned that I've got to do something I don't like to do, which is give some credit to the schedule maker in the NHL. We talked about how much fun last night was. 15 games last night.

And I'm not going to give last night an A plus. I'm going to give it an A only because of the two teams that didn't play. One was the Rangers, that's fine. They don't want to be playing, so nobody wants to be watching. but the other team that didn't play last night was Buffalo and I mean it can't be an A plus night without everyone's favorite team involved but we get three more

15 game nights over the rest of the season and it's each and every Saturday night from here on in 15 games no 16 game nights but 15 games each night and you know what yes that leads to a few you know a few of those like two game Fridays that nobody seems to like, but I don't mind it because it's 15 games. I'm saying Saturday nights, but it's day games two.

They have packed Saturday night. This league is planting a flag and saying for the next few weeks, we're going to own Saturdays, and that's the way it should be. I like it. This is going to be a lot of fun heading down the stretch. Are there any 15-game Thursday nights? I don't think so. I think it's just the Saturdays.

You're not a Thursday guy? I mean, I don't, you could play 100 games on Thursday night at this point. I wouldn't care because that's the night we do power rankings. And it's just, it's busy, it's busy and kind of annoying no matter what. So it doesn't matter to me. How much do you guys do it? Because I sit there and write my, when I'm writing the Monday rankings, I have been accused sometimes of, you know, you don't pay enough attention to the Pacific teams or whatever. And, you know, not this year because for obvious reasons.

but I got to be honest, man. You can have the greatest story going. If you've got a 9.30 Eastern game on a Sunday night, you're not getting prime real estate. It's not happening. And I can only imagine for you guys, yeah, when they pack the schedule on Thursdays. It's like whatever's written,

whatever's written is written. We'll make adjustments for the placement, maybe based on the result, but we're not changing. Anytime you're reading a power rankings and you see like this team's garbage, they stick, they're terrible, although they did look good last night when they beat the Avalet. They look parenthetical, like, although they did beat, you know, the wild six to three on. If the editors ever hang us out to dry and leave the whole, if they win, put this. If they win, please put their absolute unit and nobody can beat them. And if they lose, please put this paragraph about how they're a.

paper tiger and just, uh, just figure it out. No, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, we've had, we've had 15 game Thursdays, right? But like,

who, nobody, nobody wants that. Give us, give us 15 game Saturdays. It's the weekend. Finally, come on.

These are to spread out the starts. Yeah, they can't do it early, right? Because Saturday's college, college, and, uh, uh,

you know, even, even the last little while busier for March madness and, and stuff like that. But now it's, now's the time. take your shot. I don't know what the logic is

behind not doing the full 16 games. Maybe they just want to keep that as like a special thing that they Yeah, I'm sure it is. Earlier in the year. But 15 games on a Saturday, there's going to be a lot of Saturday mornings where you wake up thinking, you know, one thing about the

playoff race and by Sunday morning it's going to look an awful lot different. And that's cool. This has been Sean McIndoo's salute to the league office and the league's Shill's for the NHL. It's a weekly feature here

where I pick something this league does right. Yeah. Coming up next week, goal interference calls starring just just the Brazellers. Bristol clear.

And the playoff format. Kind of fun. We love it. And also the best officiating in the world, don't you forget. Thank you, buddy. Make sure the check clears, Gary.

Mm-hmm. You just send a briefcase of money for me. That's right. Not much of a check guy. Thank you, McIndoo. Thank you, Carrado, in Montreal somewhere. There are only two games tonight. There are not 15th. There's Boston's...

There's... Rangers Leaves does not... If you're watching Rangers Leaf tonight, get help. Yeah, so you'll be watching Rangers Leaf tonight. Oh, yeah, I'm all over. Boston and Buffalo, that's the fun one. That's a good one. Boston Bruins need to do some work. I feel like we didn't talk about them much in the mix of Eastern Conference teams that

losing to the Leafs is humiliating. How humiliating. That's terrible. Couldn't be me. Thank you, buddy. Do you have a post going up today? I got a post up to date about, well, about those very same Leafs. How to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs when they are not worth watching.

whatsoever because it's the maple leaves have not played a stretch like this in 10 years where they have no playoff implications nothing to play for this is new for some of these younger leaf fans so i found a grizzled crusty cranky old veteran in the mirror and uh he's got some tips for you on how to watch uh an absolute tire fire of a maple leaf's season playoff that's that's one that i'm going to read and midway through, I'm going to say, why am I, why am I reading this? Because I'm not going to watch the Toronto Mapleies. I like McIndo's work that much. What can I say? Take it easy, bud. You too. Thank you, folks. That'll do it for us. We're back next week, the three of us. I am back tomorrow with Haley. Enjoy the game. Again, there's only just a one. Talk to you soon.