The Athletic Hockey Show - Eastern Conference wild card heats up, Hobey Baker Finalists and Danny Dekeyser on Red Wings bright future

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

Sean Gentille and guest co-host Max Bultman take a look at the tight race in the East for the wild card with the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers gets tighter. Plus the guys analyze Hobey Baker finalists Adam Fantilli, Matthew Knies and Logan Cooley and what wild card teams do the division leaders not want to face in the first round.Former NHL'er Danny Dekeyser joins Sean and Max to discuss his decision to hang up his skates, the positive outlook for his former team the Detroit Red Wings and how the balance of power is set to shift in the East to the Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators. Plus, Danny shares his passion for working with kids at his hockey camp, now that his playing days are over. Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at http://LinkedIn.com/nhlshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hey everybody. That's my, it's my great impression. How we doing? This is a new episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. We are the Tuesday Boys hashtag Tuesday, boys, threesies. Craig is absent this week. He is on vacation.

I don't want to go too far into where he is spending this week, because that's really nobody's business. He's an overshare when it comes to that stuff. Max. Maxie, we can talk about. We have Max Bolton here with us in Craig's place. He's here. He's more fun to talk to. You can tell people where I am. Better friend, cooler person, better at this portion of his job, certainly.

And we're happy to have him. Hi, Max. Hey, Sean. How's it going? Are you in Mexico? Whoops. Whoops. Not today. I've actually never been to Mexico. I feel like I should have been in Mexico by now. Like 27, 28, you should have been to Mexico. I don't think I could have handled going there in my early 20s. And then by the time I was around 30, I was like, I... Well, that's kind of the risk, right?

Like, I'm approaching 30 here. I got to get to Mexico before it becomes, ah, you know? I've said this before. I think I've said it on... I had to have said this on the show at one point or another. I feel like I got old during the pandemic. Like, I was up for so much more shit when I was like 30. to or 33 and now I'm like,

I'm just going to go to bed. We got a good show for you, partially because Craig is not here, but it's also because Max is here, and we also talk to Danny DeKaiser, 10-year vet. It seems like he's done, but man, he had some good years with the Red Wings,

and he's doing a lot of fun stuff. Now he's moved on to some coaching, and he's doing some media stuff. Great insight on the Red Wings, great insight on what it means to be an NHL defenseman. and a little bit of insight on Max Boltman's rec league tendencies because he somehow ended up playing hockey against him, which we will discuss.

But before we do all that, it's the only thing we are allowed to talk about, I think, at this point. The only thing that's worth talking about on any kind of daily league-wide look at this sort of things is the Eastern Conference Wildcard Race. it's April 4th. What the hell else are we going to talk about? I feel like we're still a little bit too really to go all the way into a word talk and whatever.

Like we need to get all this ironed out. And I feel like it's just a daily kind of thing. So Max, where are you at on this? Do you have a pick what's going on when we're talking about the penguins and the islanders and the Panthers? And also to maybe a slight lesser degree, the Sabres. What have your vibes been there over the last week or so? The vibes are it's a Mario cart race here where people are jumping from way out of it to write the favorites. We got the savers with the red shell.

Yes, exactly. There was a point. The Panthers were in Detroit like a week and a half two weeks ago. And they had won like four or five straight and they looked good. And it was just like, okay, these guys are going to surge pass and they're going to be the first wild card. And then I think they lost three or four straight. That's right. It was like, oh, they're done.

You know, it tanked them, whatever. And now they're surgeon again. The penguins have been, you know, you know this better than anybody, like a complete an abject disaster and, oh, okay, it's going to be fine seemingly every other week for the entire season. And then there's just the islanders who were just kind of, just kind of islandering along, like no Barzal, just making it, making it work. But still very vulnerable.

Like, at any given point, they can get knocked out of this. I feel like any time we've internalized a team. as like kind of having a decent foothold here, they've done something, you know, to blow it up. Like people were, last week,

it was, you know, the islanders are on the upswing, right? We can kind of maybe, maybe not quite write them in pen, but they're getting close. And now they've lost two straight.

Their percentage odds, according to Dom's model, are like a little bit ahead of Pittsburgh's. It's 70 to 68%, which is crazy. They have that, they've played one more game, at least one more game than,

than, everybody else. And it's like we can't, we can't take them for, for granted in that, in that spot either. And it seemed like a week ago that we could. And that is what happens when none of these teams are that good. Like, that's what it boils down to. And I think people, you know, you know what, it's the NHL, right? So of course, the bottom of the playoff picture is going to be kind of, kind of mucky and kind of mediocre. But I think this is a good, this has been a good reminder of what it means to be a half-ass team in the NHL, right? Because, you have three or four teams that are gunning it out for this and neither of them are that good.

So of course there's going to be some volatility over the course of over the last few weeks of the season, right? Because because they're not good enough to go on runs. That's just, that's it. Like they're not good enough to take advantage of opportunities. What needed to happen, and I guess technically could still happen, but I'm not a believer in it. What needed to happen was Buffalo needed to grab this thing by the horns and just, run with it a month ago. I kind of thought it was happening. I did too.

Like last week, right? It felt like it. But I just think that at this point, the math is not, not quite favorable enough. They basically have to, you know, win their next two. And one of these is against the Panthers. So I guess that's a massive swing game. Yeah, it's huge. But they basically need to win their last two to be like a serious contender.

And then they got to keep winning once they do it. So, but that's the team that would get you excited. I mean, the sabers are great. And again, the odds are not in their favor. It seems like they're going to finish on the wrong side of this, but you never know. They're a great example of what it means to be, you know, even though it's, look, fans in Buffalo will take it. The future is bright, all that stuff. But on ice right now, this season, they are mediocre.

And this is what it means, right? Five straight wins, four straight losses, five out of six wins, five out of six losses. Like, this is a streaky team. And that's the difference between being somebody who can spend April making tweaks and kind of biding their time and getting healthy and one that needs to scratch and claw for every single point, you know, down the stretch. All of these teams have some kind of fatal flaw, all of them, at least, maybe multiple ones in certain cases.

Like you look at the Panthers, Sam Bennett goes out of the lineup. They go in the tank. Sergei Babrofsi gets sick. It's like what happens now, not that he's any great shakes to begin with. Pittsburgh's goal-tending situation is messy. Their bottom six sucks. The Islanders, you know, for whatever reason, God bless them being able to do this without Matt Barzell,

but they rely so heavily on Sorokin that you can't quite, there's something about them that stops us from really kind of digging in, right? And that's the way it goes. And that's what this is like, it feels like every night, it's a reminder where every team going back for a couple weeks, it's like, man, if they can just do thing X, they're going to be in the driver's seat and none of them can get it done.

It's been wild to watch. Yeah, no, it really has. And I think the whole way I've kind of felt like this is going to be Islanders and one of the other two. Yeah. And I think that's kind of still where I'm at. But I don't know. I mean, Pittsburgh, I'm so mad that I picked, I picked them to go so far this year because I felt like there was this vacuum in the east and you're just going to go with the Trident True to find a way to fill it. And that did happen.

It just happened with Boston and not Pittsburgh. Yep. And I kind of can't get over the fact that I feel like they should find a way to do this here. Even as even as bad as the bottom six has been, like you said, the defense has been disappointing. To me, it's Jari. It's just like if Jari was right, this would be no problem. I mean, I still don't know that they're probably still a wild card, but they'd be a dangerous wildcard with Jari and the way the stars are playing. And it just isn't happening.

and I can't decide if I want to keep doubling down on it or if I want to spite them and say they're the one that's out then, you know? Guess what, brother? We're going to talk about this more in the third segment, honestly, because we have a whole other Eastern conference playoff picture-centric segment we're going to do because the comment section is broken in. I can't read what anybody said. Fun look behind the curtain.

But before we do that, and again, before we get to our buddy Danny to Kaiser, we need to talk about the Hobie Baker Award. Because this is something that I feel like Craig and I have neglected probably more than we should have over the course of the last month or six weeks. It's easy for us to do that, though, I will say. It's easy for us to kind of take a mulligan on talking all that in depth about NCAA hockey when you guys on the prospect show are doing such a good job of tracking it and covering it. And yeah, maybe it's like framed a little bit differently. It's not necessarily NCAA focused. It's a little bit more of a holistic approach there.

But it's easy for me to be like, all right, I'm just going to, I'm going to learn whatever I need to learn about college hockey from, you know, from Wheeler and Pranman and Max. So here we are. It's April 4th. The finalists are out, right? Yep. Yes, officially. And it's Adam Fantilli and Logan Cooley and Matthew Nyes. So I know superficially about a lot of these guys, maybe a little bit more about Logan.

and coolie because he's a he's a he's a he's a he's a he's a he's a he's a pittsburgh kid obviously it's impossible not to know about fantilly because you know he's number number two number three prospect this year and nize honestly i feel like we learned a good bit about because he's a leaf's guy so we do have like some you know these aren't just these aren't these aren't these aren't these aren't these are guys with high pro like high profiles and high ceilings as prospects but um i want to hear from you like who's who's the guy is it got or And are people going to, specifically, are people going to galaxy brain themselves in a voting for someone other than Fantilli? Because that seems like maybe that's what's happening.

That's my question, too. Because to me, it should be a slam dunk for Fantilli. And to me, like, he has been outstanding. He has, I mean, he's the leading score in the league, or in the country by like seven points, which isn't crazy. But he's also the leading goal scorer in the league. He's also a complete player. Sorry, Jason Poland from Western Michigan. Actually, shout out to Western Michigan, Dan Dekaiser episode.

He's the leading goal score in the league. the league, but after him, it's Ventilly. He's a complete player. Like, he's tough. He plays defense. To me, he just is, when I've watched him, he just looks like the best player in college hockey to me. And I think the fact that you have a final trio that's him, Logan Cooley, and Matthew

Nyes, who are all kind of elite prospects in various, you know, maybe Nye's not quite the category of the other two, but still an outstanding prospect. I think maybe that's a good thing for Finale. And again, we have the Leafs. we have the Leafs Elevator Clause here too, where it's, that's like we talk, we talk, we're, whether this guy is in an A prospect or a B plus or whatever, like we've talked about this guy, a significant amount over the last, over the last couple months, because that's how it works, right?

Unfortunately. And I think there's something probably favorable about that for Fantilli when, okay, that seems to be if that's how the voting block is, is going. It's not, they're not going to do the Jimmy Vessy thing. Like what happened with Kyle Connor. People are going to call me a homer here for bringing up this other. Michigan hockey snub of the past. But you are.

You are. You are. Whatever. But I think that one was a slam dunk. And I think this one is less of a slam dunk, but I still think Fantilly should should be the guy. What interests me, though, is like, you know, people have pointed this out. Like the, the Hobie Baker is not listed as like definitionally, you know, the best player, the most of standing. Hold on a second.

Like this shit, this is why voting for awards sucks. Honestly. I agree. It's stuff like this. Just stupid. like pedantic semantic horse shit like this where it's like you know maybe one of the conjunctions is different

than it should be and people just parse over every part of these award descriptions and it's insane and it's why it's why I hate doing it so whatever proceed yeah but I mean that's the conversation that I was having with a couple of people a couple of friends of mine from earlier this week and we're going through this criteria and I get it like you want to have this kind of multi-dimensional award, but when you start going through these, it gets

really hard to actually if you can really truly judge a lot of these things, like Godspeed, but it seems like kind of more we want to say that we base it on this and anything, right? Number one, strength of character on and off the ice. How many voters have met more than three of these guys

for more than five minutes? Of the serious candidates, right? It's crazy. Contribution to the integrity of the team and outstanding skills in all phase of the game. That one you can see from wherever, right? It's also, also it's like, they're elite NCAA athletes. Like how cool are they really going to be off of these? Scholastic achievement and sportsmanship, which I think we're guessing at.

We don't have to. Nobody's reviewing transcripts. Like seriously, are you, are you Max Bolton and looking at Matthew Nyes's transcript and seeing how he did in, you know, Psych 101? Right. No. And finally, this one is hilarious to me. compliance with all NCAA rules, including being a full-time student in an accredited college,

you can't put in 50% of more of the season. So everyone meets that criteria, right? I mean, I can't imagine how you wouldn't. I guess so. We're just guessing at the other stuff, right? I mean, I'm not a voter, so I guess I can't say we. And I'm, like, as someone who does vote on some awards, I realize that it's so annoying to be nitpicked over your awards ballot. It sucks. It will be the reason that I eventually give up my bet. Every part of it, every part of it stinks. Yes. But it's just, it's just, like the categories on this one are just driving me insane.

Right. So I don't know. It seems to me like but the finalists all being younger guys who are super productive and super high prospects, it seems like this is going to go Fantilli's way and even if it doesn't

like they're all great players. That's not what I'm here to talk about. But I don't know about that man. I can sense a little bit of Logan Cooley disrespect here and I think this is probably probably a bias you have in southwestern Pennsylvania. I love Logan Cooley.

Logan Cooley from West Mephlin, West Mifflin, PA. Shout out Century 3 Mall. There you go. Century 3 Mall Chevrolet, Lebanon and Churchill at Pittsburgh. It's for the local crowd. I know you don't hate Logan Cooley, but what kind of season has he had in Minnesota? Outstanding. Yeah.

I look at the box scores. I'll check the highlights when I can see him. But let's talk about him for a second. Yeah. I mean, and for a smaller guy, like the speed factor here is huge, but he's, to me, he's so complete, right? And that's like what jumps out at you. When you've watched Logan Cooley, really going back to his underage year, like, this is a competitive player who it's, it's not, you know, 5, 10 soft skill. There is the soft skill, but it's, it's all kinds of skill. And there's compete in the unbelievable pace.

When I've watched him this year, he's dynamic. And it's, Minnesota's always kind of fun to watch games at their place because they have the big ice. And everything pops. I think it's going to go away soon, but maybe kind of an enjoy it while at last thing. That sucks. It's a cool little quirk. It's probably infuriating to play against because I can guarantee they know how to use it better than the teams that are coming in. But it's cool.

That's still so crazy and so funny that that's even a thing. As someone who didn't really grow up around college hockey, you know, it just wasn't a thing in Pittsburgh back then. It's still just, it's still very funny to me. No, and I think it's those quirks are going to get lost. And the last thing we have that's kind of like that is baseball stadiums with different dimensions, right? But it's a cool quirk. It really is. And he pops on, is my point.

I think guys usually look faster on the small ice because it's just, you're covering way more ground. But I think the fact that it pops on the big ice says a lot about him. You know, Minnesota is an unreal team. I think they're probably still the favorite, even though Michigan got him in the Big Ten championship game. They're probably still the favorite to win. the national championship and having Nyes and having Jimmy Snuggarood helps a ton with that. That's so sick, man. Like, in Minnesota, we're talking about, I mean, talking about Nyes.

We're talking about Cooley. We're talking about Jimmy Snuggiero. Rock Faber, who came back when he could have gone across. Oh, my God. Yeah, who is Olympian, Olympian Brock Faber. Yes. Okay. So this is all, this is all good.

I love this, I love this segment because I didn't have to do shit. I have to say anything. I don't need to pretend like I know anything. I can just wind you up and let you take it away. Before we move on to our interview with the Kaiser, I'm not necessarily asking you to kick someone out of the top three because it certainly sounds like you think all these, those three dudes are deserving.

But who is there someone you would put in the finalist group? And is there a strong number four? Like who is, who is at the top of the next tier here? That's a great question. I would need to think. It's probably the answer is probably just whoever the best defenseman in college hockey is for your mileage, right? Maybe it's Lane Hudson would probably be the guy, I think. And I get that, you know, we're talking, but the production for a freshman is pretty insane.

He's gotten that BU team to the Frozen Four. I think that's probably the one for me. Love it. Talking next to another pretty good defenseman, Danica, guys are joining the show. So enjoy that. And again, we will be back. After that segment with another look at the Eastern Conference playoff picture, I promise it's different.

Enjoyed, Danny. We are thrilled to be joined by 10-year Red Wings Defenseman. I can't believe you're in the league that long, that makes me feel so old. Danny DeKaiser, how are you doing, man? We got a lot to talk about. The first thing I realize, though, is we're getting you a day before you're running a coaching clinic. Like that seems like that's a big part of your life now, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm doing some camps, doing some clinics with the kids and whatnot. And it's been going good. I got some buddies here. Obviously, you know, I'm still living in the Detroit area here. So hockey's very prevalent here in the area. So, especially youth hockey. So I got some buddies that have some youth teams that they're running in the area here.

So I help out with them a little bit. And then I do some of my own stuff as well where a lot of my friends now have kids that play hockey. So run some camps and kind of help them out with some stuff as well. We talked to a lot of guys who've recently retired there. Like we talked to Ryan Miller recently. And it's just, it's always fun to me seeing how, you know, the approach is different for different guys after their finish. Like some guys need to decompress. Some guys jump back into stuff quickly. I think what we've seen from you and correct me if I'm wrong is, you know, you're doing the coaching thing. You're doing work with the Red Wings with some in-house media. You know, this is, you

you kept yourself busy, like, pretty quickly. Was that part of the plan whenever, whenever you decided you were finished there back in the fall? Um, I mean, not really. I just, you know, I kind of was just going to feel it out as, as things went. But, you know, as things move along, especially, uh, that was, you know, kind of November-ish when I started doing some of that stuff. So, um, in the wintertime here in Michigan, if you don't have something to do, you got to get are crazy pretty quick so I realized that pretty fast and that you know I just needed to do something that kind of stay busy and whatnot but I do have I got three three young daughters that they definitely

keep me busy yeah you're busy yeah sometimes it's nice to have stuff outside of the house to do as well I mean so is the media thing is that a name at all like you know I've seen you on the game day live in between periods and it seems pretty fluid from where I said is that is that a goal or is that just kind of filler filled the time right now yeah I mean you know I actually I really enjoyed doing that. Going into it, I didn't really, they kind of asked, they reached out and kind of said, hey, you know, if you're interested in this, we got some openings this season. So, you know, they, most of the schedule they had set, so I'm kind of filling in this year.

But, yeah, I actually enjoyed doing that. And it's, it's been pretty fun for me. So, I mean, I don't know how far, you know, how far I want to take it. We'll have probably some discussions that after this season with them and maybe leading in the next year about, you know, if there's anything more that they want me to do or if they want me to kind of stay in that role. But I'm pretty much fine with either way. But yeah, it's just nice to stay busy to do that stuff,

kind of stay involved with the organization still a little bit, kind of be around the ranks, see a lot of familiar faces and that kind of thing. So it's been good. How's it been? I mean, so you were more outsiders, real first kind of full-time defense partner when you guys were in the lead together. And now you see him from a different angle and watching it from a different kind of, you know, different needs in your current job from what you had,

current role from what you had. What's it been like to see is transform? What's jumping out at you about him? I mean, yeah, I was curious to see how he was going to play in his second season here. Because, you know, sometimes you see a lot of guys, they come in and busts through the doors their first season with a great year. And then some guys kind of fall off a cliff or some guys their game comes down. But, I mean, he's been excellent. You know, I think anytime there's higher expectations for you when you're coming into a season, it makes things a lot different.

So, you know, last year, obviously, he's a high pick. there's, there's expectations still, but last year it's his first year, you know, he was, I don't know, 19 or 20 years old, whatever he was, and everybody was kind of seeing what he could do. And then he had the season that he had, and then everybody expects that, you know, year after year. So that's when things can get a little bit tougher on you as a player. But, you know, I think he's coming to this season and he's played very well. He's a great defenseman. He moves the puck well.

He sees the ice well. You know, he's big, he's strong. His body's just going to keep developing as he gets older, too, because he is so young. still. So that's going to be the other thing, his physicality. I think it's already, or he already plays a very physical game. He's strong in the corners. And he's just going to keep getting stronger as he gets a little bit older as well. So he'll just keep maturing and he'll keep playing well. He'll keep munch in minutes. And he's, he's going to be, you know, probably the ace in the hole here for the wings for a long time to come.

You live this a little bit, but it's kind of always fascinated me where you come in and when you're a rookie or a second year player, in your case, because your rookie year was so short. It seems like you can kind of do no wrong. Everything you do is amazing. It's a bonus. Like, yes, amazing. This is going to be the future. And then it seems like in year two right away, the standards that you're held to go kind of crazy. They get, and you come into the year, I'm guilty of this too with cider. It's like, oh, he should be a candidate for the Norris by the end of the year. I wonder if sometimes it gets a little crazy, how quick that that switch flips from like everything's a bonus to the way to the world kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah, I think so for sure. Like I said, just having those higher expectations, sometimes players can put too much pressure on themselves to perform. Sometimes, like I said, you see that with guys in their second year after a guy signed a big long contract and that kind of thing. Sometimes you can put too much pressure on yourself. So as things go, you just got to kind of, you know, stay mentally strong, stay tough, kind of play your strengths out there.

And, you know, when you're trying to do too much, you kind of just got to scale it back. And instead of trying to make a breakaway pass every time and make a great play that leads to a goal, sometimes you just got to make the simple play, the easy play, you know what I mean? So that's sometimes, especially for young defensemen, a lot of young defense want to come in and put up a lot of points right away. You know, I want to play on the number one power play unit and put up a lot of points, score goals, get a lot of assists and all that kind of thing. So sometimes you can get caught up in that type of thing, too, with wanting to put up too many points where sometimes you just got a,

the first few years, maybe, you know, scale your game back a little bit because you're playing, especially now with Moritz, he's playing against top line, top, you know, one or two lines every night. Whereas, you know, last year, he was doing that for the second half of the season as he kind of developed. But, you know, first half of the year,

he's kind of a little bit more in a sheltered role and stuff until he kind of gets the feel of things. And then now you're coming and playing against, you know, Crosby's, Watskins, McKinnons, yeah, who draws, all those guys. And night in and night out in the Atlantic, it's the toughest division at hockey. So you've got to be ready every night and you just got to come ready to play.

I think people hear like, you know, the top pair of defensemen, you know, they just did, you know, we know what top, what like top line competition looks like. But, you know, I don't know if people appreciate entirely like the leap that you're making from, you know, whatever, sheltered third pair of minutes or second pair of minutes. And to level up and be a dude who's playing, you know, 22 minutes a night. in all situations against against those guys in the Atlantic like night in night out. That jump from, you know, into true like 1A usage seems steeper,

I think, than people give it credit for, right? And I feel like that's part of what we've seen from side of this year, right? Yeah, yeah. I think that's probably the biggest thing that a lot of people, maybe just the everyday fan don't realize, is that, you know, you're coming into this season and you're playing against those top line guys.

and sometimes you're going to have off nights, you're going to have night three or minus three, where you're struggling a little bit. And it's a third game in four nights or a back-to-back, that kind of thing where you just don't have it. You know what I mean? So that's definitely, I think, for a defenseman, the hardest thing is when you're coming in,

you're getting those harder matchups, and you're playing against those top line guys. Yeah, for some of the goal scorers that are young goal scores and they're coming on the league in the big season, then they're playing against the top line pairing. That's tough too. But I think it's more,

noticeable for a defenseman when you're out there. And if you're not playing well against the top line guys, those guys will light you up. Whereas if you're a score, you might just not be scoring, but you're not necessarily going to be responsible for goals against and that type of thing. So I think for as a defenseman,

especially young defensemen, that's probably one of the biggest aspects of growing your game. How about what the Red Wings overall this year and what you're seeing from them? I think the kind of the story of the year has been what kind of step are they going to take? And there was obviously that February flourish where it seemed like, I don't know, they're going to make a run at this.

But overall, like, what are you seeing out of this team? And what steps have they taken or not taken? Yeah, I mean, I like a lot of the guys that they brought in from the offseason last year. You look at that Billy Huso has been great. He's been stellar all year. So I think, you know, kudos to him on the year that he's had because, you know, it takes great goaltending in this league. You've got to have a great goalie.

And, you know, the team. team definitely feeds off that. If goalies are letting in weak goals, it really deflates the team. But when they're making those big saves, timely saves and just being solid for a whole year like he has, you know, it can give a boost to the whole team. So I think, you know, for the Red Wraings, they're going to be fine. They're going to keep, you know, they're going to keep drafting well. You're seeing a lot of their draft picks from the last few years starting to inflect into the team now, Casper the other night. Edmondson, you know, he's going to get a chance to make the team next year as well. So those guys, they're going to keep growing on and getting better. They're all

right now. Even Cider and Raymond, those guys are just, they're going to keep getting better. They'll get better every year. They'll keep rolling their game. And, you know, you'll see more of these younger guys like the Casper's and the Edfinsons coming in. I'm sure Steve is, he's got, you know, some draft stock and some capital going into this year. So it'd be interesting to see if he uses that for picks or makes trades and brings in some, you know, some known players or whatnot. But I'm sure he knows what, what he's going to be doing there. So it would be interesting to see this summer as things go on. But I think they're going to be fine. In saying that, it's a tough division. So they have to be able to compete in their division if they want to make the playoffs

because all these good teams, I mean, you see even Ottawa this year, they're going to be getting better at Buffalo. I mean, those two teams probably, you know, Buffalo's still got a chance to make the playoffs, but Buffalo Ottawa, they're probably not getting in. But next year, I mean, those teams are going to be even better. And then you still have boss in Tampa, all these teams, Toronto that are, they're not going anywhere. So, you know, it's just, it gets harder almost every year, especially the last couple years here with the, with the emergence of the Buffalo and Ottawa teams as well. So they'll keep getting better. You know, it's just, it's a tough division. They'll have to compete in that before they get into the playoffs. Yeah, it seems like everyone was ready to say,

you know, the Boston's time was done coming into this year, especially how banged up they were and they show that it actually doesn't change that quick. Incorrect. That's not, that's not the way I mean, what they've done is unbelievable. Who thought, you know, there was people saying maybe Boston might not even make the playoffs this year. They are maybe setting a league record for wins. So it's pretty crazy. How much them have you watched this season?

Because I know, I know it's in the Atlantic. They come through a good bit. Have you, have you been able to catch much of what they've been able to do? Really, something since the jump there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've watched them a decent mile, you know, obviously when they play the Red Wings and

then they've had a lot of nationally televised games. games this year as well. So they just, you know, that team, they're just, I don't know, they just seem to get it done, those top line guys. You got Pastor Neck, you know, Bergeron, Marsha, and those guys who they just seem like they're not really, father time isn't really catching up to him, at least not yet. And, and then, you know, they get great she back and their two goalies are just a great one to hand on, you know, this year. They just seem to add. One thing about Boston is they seem to make those third and fourth line guys. add good pieces there.

You know what I mean? You can bring it in Bertuzi for them. I think he's going to be huge for them come playoff time. He's perfect for them, right? Yeah, he can slot in anywhere. You can play him up and down the lineup, playing with whoever you want and it doesn't matter. You know what I mean?

So I think he's going to be a great player there. And then their back end is fine. I think they have some good defensemen back there. They bring in an Orlov, you know, at the deadline and make some, like I mentioned, they make some other moves to bring in a couple of depth pieces there in the third and fourth line. So they're going to be tough. They're going to be tough team to beat come playoff time.

Too many thoughts on Hamas Lindel? He's been a guy who's gotten some Norris buzz. I feel like some undercover under the radar stuff. He's a guy who I feel like, you'd appreciate his game because there's a lot of, there's a lot of subtlety there and there's a lot of stuff that kind of goes unnoticed. But I don't know. Do you have a thought on him? Yeah.

I mean, you know, they got him obviously from Anaheim. And sometimes, you know, like he was with Anaheim there for a long time. And obviously, we've seen how they've played the last few years. They're in a rebuilding phase. kind of sometimes when you get stuck in that rebuild, you know, sometimes it's a little bit harder to come to rank. Your motivation isn't as high when, you know, you're really not going to be a playoff team year in and year out. So sometimes it's harder to play like that. And then, you know, he comes, gets straight to Boston, comes into a great situation there with a great team.

And, you know, he slots in and a great role. He's, I mean, he's a great player. He skates well and moves the puck. He's tall. He's long. He's like he's got a long stick, defends well. I mean, he's, he's, uh, he's your pro. typical two-way defensemen nowadays.

Totally. I wanted to ask specifically about Dylan Larkin, because he's a guy who you were with at the start of things for him. We've seen, you know, he's locked up long term now, but he was at an interesting point in his career where the question was going to be, does he stay in Detroit, does he end up going somewhere else? What have you seen from him growth-wise, I feel like over the last few years? Because it does seem like there's been some questions answered about him in his place, in the lineup, and his place in the league, honestly going forward for the next few seasons. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, obviously, you had the hat trick there the other night against Toronto. You know, Larks is a guy. He brings it every night. You know, he's been on, I think it's like his eighth season now already. It's kind of crazy or something like that. So he's been around now. Yeah, he's been around all time flies.

He's been around for a while. And he's, he's the engine for that team. And he's going to be for a long time, you know. So he's been through a lot of down seasons here, the last, especially the last few years. And, you know, for him, I'm hoping. when that the team gets into playoffs and gets a chance to give him some playoff success because he's just he's a good player. He brings it every night. He skates well. I've, you know, I've seen him play for a long time now. He loves the game. He's there every day. He shows up,

whether it's, you know, times like this with the last six games left or whatever and they're out of the playoffs. And he'll bring it every night. So he's the dude, the dude backchecked in the All-Star game. He's the first guy I've ever seen do that, right? That's, that's the Dylan Lark experience. Right, right. Yeah, he's a great leader. He's, he's great for those young kids, you know, that are coming into the locker room now because he's, he's been through it. And, you know, he's been on the team now for so long. He's been kind of through everything. He's played with, you know, Zetterberg and Dadsuk and those guys, too. So he kind of passes some dollars down from those guys as well. So it's going to be fun to see him. I'm happy for him. He's

a great guy. He's one of my buddies. And he's a great player, great guy, great person. All right, I got a double barrel for you here. The first one is, how nice is it to not have people asking you how your back is every day. And the second one is, how's your back? Yeah, no, people still ask me that every day. So, no, I'm not kidding. It's been good, honestly, like, you know, not playing every night. My back, it's felt great.

So I still do, you know, some stuff here and there every morning and workout just to get moving and whatnot. Because I just, my body feels better when I'm doing all that and get moving and getting the joints loose and all that. But, you know, luckily back. has been good and, you know, I got no complaints there and be able to play plenty of golf this summer once it warms up here a little bit. So I'm looking forward to that. Well, that's what matters. But in all seriousness, like you going through that recovery process, especially at that stage in your career, like had to be one of the tougher things that you had to have gone through, I would think, getting back to, especially to play the kind of game that you were accustomed to playing.

Like, what didn't people see about that process that? What was that? like for you. Yeah, I mean, obviously that was tough, you know, I had that the back injury there and I was I think it was 29. So I was not quite 30 yet. I was I was playing, had some good years there, playing well at the time and, you know, thought maybe I could I could play the 36, 37 years old, like some of these guys. So that was always the goal. But unfortunately, it didn't work out. It was just one of those things where, you know, I, I had the disc injury and had the surgery and whatnot and didn't really quite get the relief that I was looking for. And, you know, I had some nerve damage down the leg there that really, you know, kind of made some muscles not fully activate. And,

you know, it's one of those things where you think of like a career any injury for a guy. You think of a guy going head first into the boards, you know, crashing in and hurt his neck or something like that. But sometimes a career altering injury is one of those things where you just don't fully recover from something and you just can't quite play at the level that you're accustomed to. And I think for me, that was probably the hardest thing was I just really couldn't do. I couldn't play out how I was used to playing out there. So that was the biggest adjustment like that first year. And then on top of that, you know, kind of coming into the second year, I was, after the

surgery, I was hoping that maybe the strength kind of would fully come back. And it just never really quite did. So that left leg was always just a little bit weaker than the right. And it was mostly noticeable on the ice, which is unfortunate. that's just that's life that's how it is i was very lucky and blessed to have a great career and you know i'm very happy for that and you know at the same time was tough i had to you know do a lot of physical therapy after games you know post post game after games i was getting you know seven o'clock games sometimes i was showing up there at three thirty four o'clock just to kind of get

some need some kneeling done and get loose for the game so you do that you know 70 80 times a year it's like man do i really want to keep doing this you know what's the psychological too of that where you know you come up and you make your career off of being this amazing skater who can you know do it all kind of and then one leg just kind of isn't isn't quite what it's supposed to be i have to imagine it's not just a physical thing there at that point yeah yeah it's funny because uh you know like my my college days and and first half of my you know NHL career uh skating is kind of what i made by living off but but growing up in my teenage years i was i was a terrible skater so it was something that I really had to work at quite a bit. And I think that's part of why I was a late

bloomer, you know, was probably because of my skating. And I was like, you know, 15, 16 years old. And I was basically, you know, my dad was like, hey, you just got to keep working on your skating. So that was my main focus. And every day in the gym, basically, I would do squats and all, all types of leg exercises and stay after on the ice doing some explosive power skating type stuff. And And that's how I got to become a skater that that was. And then, you know, unfortunately, and especially in today's game, you know, if you got, you know, something that's hindering you and it just makes you a step slower, sometimes you get exposed for it.

So that's kind of, that's how that situation went. All right. I got, I wasn't sure if I was going to go here, but I am going to, because I can't pass up the opportunity. There's no chance you remember this. Uh, 2019, all-star break. I showed up to Troy Sports Center with someone that I was doing a feature story on it. It just was like, I do this skate on X day at X time.

I'm not going to say it because I know they still do it pretty regularly. And I walked in the locker room and you and Justin Ablocator were in there. This was my first year on the beat. And I was like, oh, I'm definitely not supposed to be here. It was the first time I had skated in five years since high school hockey. And you guys put on a clinic. I think I had a rush that I tried to slide a pass through and you swatted it like it was the most effortless thing I'd ever seen.

My question is, I know your dad was part of that skate for a really long time. I'm sure that's the connection. how often as an NHL player would you show up to like a community skate and what does that feel like to be an NHL player at a drop in? That's bullshit. That's not fair, dude. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the old Troy Sports Center skate. That's funny.

Yeah, every now and that I will because it's funny because my dad still skates. So I actually, I spent a while since I've skated with them. I got to get out back. And you know some of the guys that he skates with. Yeah. I got to get it back out there and play with those guys. But every now and then, you know, I'll just, I'll shoot them a text because I know which days they skate on and at one time or whatever.

And I'll be like, hey, you mind if I come out and, you know, nobody usually minds. So, yeah, it's fun. Great group. Yeah, great group of guys. And, you know, it's fun to get out there and skate with my dad sometimes too because, you know, that's just kind of a family type of thing. And it's fun to do that sometimes, too. You got to think of the writers who are showing up for the first time in five years.

That's not like, who cares about your family and your friends? Like, think of us. Like, come on. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. Well, I mean, I was probably, hopefully I wasn't going too hard out there. No, not at all. That was, that was what I mean. I think I wrote something about it after because I thought was the funniest thing in the world. It was like, it was like you guys were truly on like 30 percent and it was still just like double as good as anyone else out there. No, that's funny. Yeah, I'll make it out to some of those skates. I don't remember you being out there though, so that's fine. Well, you probably didn't even know me. It was my first year. We probably talked three times at that point and then we're in a cage, right?

I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. So I, but it just made me think like when that happens, when you stumble into a skate, like, do you have to fight the urge to do it? Or are you more trying to like, I don't want to look like a jerk and show people I've got a thing? Yeah, no, no, well, it's funny because sometimes if I'm out there, like with, with, especially with guys, I don't know. Like, I just don't want them to get my teeth knocked out by someone.

Right. Flip in a puck or like, you know, high sticking me or something because like, I'll, I'll get down and try to block Ovechkin shot all day long because, like, I know he can control it and I know they make a space like this big. So I'm like fairly comfortable. I might break a bone or something, but you get me out there with a beer league guy winding up. I'm getting out of the way. Well, we had it.

There was one. I went to a few of those skates shortly after that. And there was once, I remember, a guy had one of his like implant teeth knocked out, like, just like in a corner. And no one could find it because it's just, it's white and it's on ice. And I think he just lost it to the Zamboni that day. And I don't, those things are not cheap. I know. I know. I've seen that a few times. I still got all my teeth somehow, so I don't want to lose it.

That's not, that's like the news breaking during this interview. How do you have all your teeth? That's real. Honestly, I don't know. I've gotten lucky. I've taken a lot of high sticks and a lot of pucks, you know, around the mouth area. But luckily, somehow they're all intact. I think sometimes the shorter guys, they get them knocked out a little bit easier, like especially in the corners. If you get a stick or something, that I'm high. I don't know, being maybe a little bit taller or something, too. Just luck, I guess. Well, now you got the full smile. That's how you get the cushy media gig, right? Yeah, yeah, I guess. We'll see. Danny, thanks for the time, man. We'll let you go. I know you got a lot on the plate. You got the girls, you got the, you got the coaching stuff. And it is, what, the site is to Kaiserhockey.com, right? People can sign up if they're in the Metro Detroit area, you got a lot of program set up.

So you're busy, man. Yeah. We appreciate the time. Yeah, thanks a lot, guys. I appreciate it. And thanks for having me. And maybe we'll talk to you guys again sometime. Absolutely.

Sounds great, Danny. Take care. Okay. Bye now. Max, I knew you had a preexisting relationship with Danny the Kaiser because you covered him for a few years. I did not realize he was a previous opponent of yours on the ice. I just missed the best opportunity I'm ever going to have to try and get an NHL guy on my

beer league team. That's my takeaway, you know, 30 seconds after this interview just ended. I would have fumbled bag by me. I could have got him on the spot where, like, people were listening. It would have been great. Just text him. He's a good dude. He'll very politely tell you no.

I know. Good stuff from Danny. Like we said, he's doing a lot of different things. Not officially retired yet, but, you know, it seems like he is ready to, in some regard, move on to the next phase of his life. He's doing the coaching. He's doing the media stuff. And again, if you're in Detroit, DeKaiserhockey.com, he's got spots available specifically, by the way, Maxie.

He said that, he said that, he's doing the media stuff. He said that he makes a point of saying this on the site that he's the guy that runs these camps. Like this isn't a random outsourced coach that he brings on to do it. Like this is the man himself. So. Well, I think that's actually like that's big because you, you see all these camps like when you're a kid and it's like whatever hockey camp or whatever.

And then it's a three-day camp. And the guy on the guy whose name is on. He just sticks their name on this shit and doesn't actually. He's not there running drills and stuff. But that sounds like that's the case with Danny. So if you're in Metro Detroit and you, You got a kid, I feel like check out that site. There's plenty of opportunities.

He's running stuff, you know, like we said, tomorrow. So, cheers to him. We appreciate the time. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And we will be right back with the only good segment on the show, which is a little bit different this week. Stay tuned. Welcome back.

This is the only good segment on the show. As I said earlier, I do not have access to the comments on last week's episode with Breanna Decker. who was great. I hope you folks enjoyed that. She was a blast of talking to. Max Street,

you can trust me on that one. I will. I don't know why that's happening, though. I don't know what's going on with the comment section. They're trying to silence your listeners. I'm just glad. I'm glad to know,

Max, that you are also running into this problem. We're getting an error message when you try to bring up the comment section on our like test drive app version that we use because since we work there, we get work here. we get, you know, the beta version of changes they're going to roll out. Whatever, it's not interesting, but it seems like you folks can leave comments and we can't

actually see them. And I thought that it was maybe... Beta, yeah, yeah, I was, I almost, I've, I almost dropped the other part of the page. I don't know if I can say that on the podcast. But yeah, two real, two real soyboys here. I thought that maybe our bosses at the New York. Times Company had heard like the bit about the comment section and nipped it in the bud. Like I thought this was maybe a me specific issue with the version of the app that I was seeing. But it turns out that's not the case. You also can't say them either. That's good

to know. I was worried. So what we're going to do until that situation gets resolved, I'm sure it will be resolved expeditiously because God knows they take our, they take our request very, very seriously in these parts. We're just going to. go through the division leaders, all four of them, and try to figure out which of the realistic wildcard teams would present kind of the worst matchup. Because, you know, again, like we said in the first segment,

that's where we are on the schedule. It's April 4th. We need to really start thinking about that. Like, it's fair to start thinking about matchups right now. And am I saying this? Because me and Dom and Shane are working on the playoff previews are about to start working on them. And we really, really want some of these to get sewn up.

Like, yeah, yeah, that's why I'm saying. I'm trying to will these matchups into existence so I can start working on them and not have a bunch to do, you know, on the last two days of the season or whatever. But either way, let's dive in. We'll start up top where everything starts these days with the Boston Bruins. Max, is there a team out of, let's say, New York, Pittsburgh, Florida and you can throw Buffalo in there if you want to because they even though they are four points behind everybody they have two games in hand so if you want to pick them you can who from that pool is the worst matchup for Boston and is it anybody like are you just like kind of

auto passing them on to the second round so here's what I'm considering here I'm not auto passing them on first of all there is the the president's trophy curse the challenging NHL record curse, all these things have to be considered here. Which, by the way, they need three more wins in their last five games. Which they can do. They certainly can. They just flip the switch against Pittsburgh a couple of days ago. I think they're in that mode.

It seems like it's going to happen. So proceed. Sorry. My gut reaction is Florida is their worst matchup because Florida has the firepower to get them. I actually think Florida's gotten them a couple times this year. I'm not mistaken. And I think it's just the overall fear of you're a president's trophy winner, but you're running into a zombie president's trophy winner from last year who slept

off off the season and they wake up at the right time and maybe you get playoff Bobrovsky. The only thing that gives me pause is with the Islanders, like you have the Sorokan thing and you can always just go to the, they could get goalied well. But I think I'm going to go with the zombie president's trophy winner and the Panthers for them. That's interesting because I, you know, I look at the, the Panthers, they still have,

oh, they've got elements of the team that, you know, was a wagon for the, for most of last season. It's an offensively really gifted team. Matthew Kachuk is, you know, he's a heart finalist, or he certainly, certainly should be. All the underlying numbers are great. Yep. You know, the mix is still just kind of funky for me.

They need Anthony Declare to start to knock off some of that rust and find, because, I mean, whatever, easy for us. say because we didn't just miss, you know, 70 games worth of the season or whatever it was with an Achilles injury. So easier said than done. But if I think so much of their, so much of their potential hinges on him. And I just, I can't. This may be, this may be just bias, anti-Serge Bobrovsky bias because I feel like I always end up being like, I don't know about him. But I just can't, I can't sign off on it. I can't have the lightning. He's the guy who did the lightning. I know. I know.

it's it's like not the he's a volatile player man and like you know i just he could he could do it himself in either in either direction right he could he could he could uh self-destruct or he could drag them past them so and also Alex lion had been playing well but it's you know unproving yeah there's safe your net that was at one point amazing what is no longer there is it's now it is a steep drop down If I Brodsky is not right, you're right, it's over. Yeah, and they're, and they're, Sam Bennett still isn't playing, right? So they're missing that.

And that's why my pick is the Islanders, because are they a dynamic offensive team, no. Like, is Matt Barzell going to step back? Is he going to come back in time to be relevant at all? Like, maybe, maybe not. But Sorokin's the cheat code. And I feel like that's the only way that this is going to happen for Boston against any of these lower tier Eastern conference teams, right?

Like I think they're all stinky to varying degrees. That's what we said in the first, in the first segment. So if we're trying to pick somebody, we pick the goaltender. And to me, Seroquin is just like, he's the, he's the dude this year. And of course, the end result here is going to be that they are going to play Boston because, say, like, Pittsburgh gets, or Pittsburgh gets a little hot, leave frog the islanders or whatever happens. and of course that means Sir Okun's going to have three of his five worst games of the season and that's just going to be that. But I still think you got to just cross your fingers and wait for someone to get goaled. So that's that's where I'm at. I'll say this. They are way

more Columbusy if we're going to draw the parallel between that lightning, that lightning series where they got swept. The Islanders as a team are way more Columbusy than Florida is. So I think that that would be a point in their favor. But I would say them, it's a, it, My dream scenario, if you want the firework playoff, would be Florida gets Boston and the Islanders get Carolina. I think Carolina is vulnerable to everybody, but they're especially vulnerable to one of the three best goalies in the world. Of all the teams, I think that's the one. That's the one that I, that's the pairing I want to make. With where their lineup is at and where, we can just say, I mean, it's boring to say like the Islanders are the team that nobody wants to face because of Sir Okin.

But I think there's something, and we can talk about maybe how they match up against Pittsburgh or Florida in a minute here. But if you look at Carolina's lineup and what's happened there, not with the injury to Patcheretti, with the injury to Svetnikov, yes, they've strung to gather a couple wins of late, which is good for them because we're starting to wonder, do we need to start thinking about maybe not assuming that they're going to win that division? I feel like you're out of the danger zone as far as that's concerned now. But man, that lineup with the injuries that they have at the top of it

against Ilya Sorokin. That's like prime get goalied material, right? Where it's like they have two games where it's like he stops, you know, 65 of 67 or something. Because for as good as the Panthers are from a process standpoint, for as deep as they are, all these things that they bring to the table, you know, Sorokin is well equipped to withstand it. And if you don't have those sort of

blue chip goal scoring guys, which they're missing two of their biggest ones, you're just prime, prime candidate to get to get picked off. And it's so funny because we're talking about that I don't like the Islanders lineup as much as much as the other teams. And that's not even a knock.

That's not even meant as a, I'm not even trying to gas up the Panthers or gas up Pittsburgh. That's just, it's just the way it is. But Sorokin's the cheat code in both of these in both of these matchups, right? Yes. I'm looking at their forward lineup right now. And obviously the Svetna Cove injury transforms a ton of this.

But it is just not scary. Like Ajo is awesome. How it just can score big goals. Jordan Stahl. Like first line left wing right now is Jordan Martinuk. Second line is Stefan Nosen. Third line is Jack Drury. Fourth line is Derek Stepan.

Right. Yosie Pooley R. who couldn't stay in Edmonton is on the second line. He's a top six point. And it's not how they're going to do it. They're going to put 40 shots on you and try to be you three to one with an empty and other. And they didn't acquire Yessie Poye RV to be in this position.

They loved him as a depth forward. That's why they went out and got him. And that's what made it a good move. Because if you have Yassie Poye Arvi as your 12 forward, guess what? You're sitting pretty. If you have Yassie Pooley-RV playing on his second line, then talk to the Edmond Snoilers about how that goes, right? Like, it's, it's, he's over-extended in that role, nice of a player, nice of a player

as he might be. And also, this is something that needs to be said consistently around this time of year. The power play counts. It matters. And people understandably, over the course of a regular season, the focus that we put on five-on-five play is important. Like, I'm not knocking that. It is the best possible indicator of how good.

a team is, like capital G good a team is in all phases. But the power play still counts and it can still kill you in one way or the other. And the hurricanes without Svetchnikov have been brutal there. Brutal. So I don't know, man. I don't, I think they're, I think they're a prime candidate to get picked off by anybody. Honestly, at this point, because that is a different team than the one we saw six weeks ago or eight weeks ago. Yeah. Yes. I agree. And the other factor here is not only can they get goalied, I don't know that they can gole anybody. I don't think they can.

And it's, you know, Frederick Anderson is having a good, another good regular season. But it's just when it comes time to the playoffs, are you going to throw your faith behind him? Shout out to producer Jeff for gently reminding us of that fact. Producer Jeff speaking from Mrs. Saga, Ontario. Can't imagine why you would have strong thoughts about Freddie Anderson, but it's true. Like the dude just has it, he hasn't done it. So you can't pick him to do it. That sounds stupid, but it's true.

All right. Moving west. The Western Conference or the Central Division leading Dallas stars. That's who we're going to say at this point. On Tuesday morning, they have the tiebreaker over Minnesota, but also are losing out on points percentage to Colorado who's played two less games than both the Stars and Wild. We're going to give it to Dallas for the sake of this argument. Maxie, which wildcard team should they be afraid of?

I don't know that they should be afraid of either of them. Is this just going to be Seattle for both teams? Well, I don't think they should be afraid of either of them. I'll take Winnipeg here just because I'd rather use Seattle on the other one, to be honest. But like I don't think they need to be afraid of either. They are kind of the opposite, right? Like they have a couple of stars who I really trust to get them through when they need it. And they have Ottinger who I really trust to if they need to steal something,

Ottinger can steal something. And Miro He's the new answer for the guy who's like, isn't actually underrated anymore because everyone is constantly bringing up how underrated he is. He's a stud. I love him. I have no fear about Dallas, to be honest. I don't know if they're going to win this division. I think Colorado might come and win this division.

but yeah, I'll say Winnipeg here just on you never know what happens. Connor Hellebuck is in the other net. He's maybe the only goalie in the Western Conference who can scare, like steal a serious by the way, very mediocre for the last like six weeks or so. I don't know if people are fully aware. And no knock on Connor Hellebuck, right? The dude does the track record. He's a great goalie.

They ask him to do a ton. But the results for him haven't been there over the last six weeks. Now, who's to say that if they don't. it in and he snaps back into, you know, Vesna mode, which he was in for the first few chunks of the season. But yeah, I think I think that's

who I don't like against the stars because you have the Rick Bonn is bowl, by the way, which would be interesting as hell. And you throw a goalie in there, right? You got to have sod on specifically to talk about that.

Sod and Marat to give dueling like whatever on both on both sides of of the rick bonus equation that'd be interesting but yeah i think um and i don't know this is this is something i just kind of thought of next you can tell me if i'm wrong here when you have a team that's top heavy like dallas for as for as much improved as they are maybe up and down the lineup is as they are relative to where they were early in the season when you have a top heavy lineup, it just feels like they're more apt or more susceptible to getting goalied by a guy like Halibuck.

Like, yes, you have that elite, that elite talent can be a trump card in a lot of, in a lot of instances. But, you know, if it goes, if it goes dry against a dude that good, who is capable, who at his high end is that, is that capable? That just seems like it just, it's, it seems like. If you can find that one matchup, that one center that. that whatever, hints can't solve, then yeah, then yeah, I do get what you're going with. I just wish, you know, if Rick Bonas knew what buttons to push, he'd be pushing them right now.

But it is funny to imagine, you know, if nothing else, that dude knows how Pavelsky and hints and Robertson work. Yeah, maybe Adam Lowry can just smother them. But like, he doesn't have the dudes. He doesn't have, I don't know if he has the, maybe, maybe Lowry, but I don't know if he has, I don't know if he's got the matchup necessary to make, make that work. So we're saying the answer is the islanders. Yeah. So the Islanders? Yeah.

And I got to say, when it comes to the Vegas Golden Knights, don't like them against the Islanders in the first round. My problem, too. I actually am here for the expansion bowl though. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. I think that's fun. Vegas, Seattle.

I mean, Vegas has had to because of the injuries. They've had to revert back to being a little more like the actually likable version of Vegas. They still have the stars now, but they have to be a little, you know, more kind of gritty and, okay, they're doing it. They're pushing through. I like this version of Vegas. I still question the goal attending and Seattle might be the one of the deepest teams in the league. They do not have the star power, but they do have the depth. And I think that can win. It's true. We've been so focused on, you know, trying to keep weird. I think me and Dom talked about this in power rings at some point, but like the priority for Vegas should be.

to just win the division, stay, stay in first place there, try to avoid Edmonton, if you can, in the first round, because, you know, they're, first off, who wants to play the Oilers right now, but also Vegas should, should want to play them even less. So as long as they, as long as they can avoid that, I think they'll be, they'll be sitting relatively pretty, but man, crack in Vegas, let's go. I'll take it. It'd be fun. It'd be really fun, especially for Seattle, because the opportunity there that they've been compared quite unfavorably to Vegas so far in their existence because of how quick Vegas won. If they get their first playoff series against Vegas and they knock them off, that'll sell some season tickets. That'd be fun. I'm signing up for it officially

here. Is that it? We talked all for it. We're done. I think I think we picked some good pairs here. And we didn't we didn't just say the same wild care team in each one, which I thought we might do. So Yeah, except for the Islanders who are three of our four picks. Don't ask how that works. Maxi, thank you as always, buddy. This is fun. Always. Always.

This is great time. And again, thanks to Danny De Kaiser, who was awesome and excited to see what comes next for him. And thank you for listening to the Athletic Hockey Show. On the round table, we got Pizzo, Jesse, and Russo. They're joined by, of course, since we just talked about Vegas. Bruce Cassidy is joining those guys on the Wednesday roundtable tomorrow. And if you like YouTube, don't forget to subscribe to our show over there. It's YouTube.com slash at sign The Athletic Hockey Show.

You can also get a new subscription to the Athletic for $2 a month for 12 months when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. That's theathletic.com. T-H-E-A-T-H-E-H-E-T-I-C. dot com slash hockey show. Craig's back next week, I think. We'll see. We'll see if he wakes up and decides

decides if he would rather do something else. Who knows? We should be back. Hashtag Tuesday, boys, threesies. For Max, for Dana Kaiser, for Craig and Mexico, happy New Year, and goodbye.