The Athletic Hockey Show - Jake Virtanen sexual misconduct allegations, Seattle Kraken become NHL official, Adam Vingan talks Nashville Predators, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

First, Ian and Hailey discuss headlines from around the NHL, including the sexual misconduct allegations brought against Vancouver Canucks forward Jake Virtanen, the Seattle Kraken officially becoming the NHL’s thirty-second franchise, and the possibility of Rod Brind’Amour becoming the team’s head coach, which team has inspired the most confidence as a potential Final Four participant, and much more.Then, The Athletic’s Adam Vingan joins the show to talk about the impressive turnaround for the Nashville Predators, Juuse Saros’ MVP-caliber performances as of late, John Hynes’ work behind the bench, the disappointing play of Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene respectively, and more.Plus, to close things out, Ian and Hailey run through a series of Multiple Choice Madness questions.And, don’t forget, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And we're back for our first episode of the athletic hockey show here in the month of May. I'm Ian Mendez alongside Haley Salveen on this episode of the podcast. We'll chat about the disturbing allegations surrounding Vancouver Connects Forward, Jake Vertan, and where we go from here. The Seattle Crackett, officially part of the NHL family, are some teams going to be trying to work out some side deals before the expansion draft? and what team are you most confident will reach the final four if you had to pick right now. After a huge win over the Dallas stars on the weekend, Adam Vingen joins us. Talk about the Red Hot Nashville Predators and how they turn their season around.

And in multiple choice madness, an important question, if you could change the definition of one NHL award, what would it be? So we'll get to all of that coming up in this jam-packed edition of the podcast. Haley-Salvian, as we bring in, I got a multiple-choice question to ask you right away. Haley-Salvian, what's more painful? A potential broken toe or a mind-splitting migraine? Unfortunately, you've dealt with both in the last seven days. Yeah, I've just been broken, I think, for the last week.

Probably the migraine, to be honest, because you can't really, to me, once I get migraines really badly, I can't look at a computer screen, which is obviously very important for the job. And there's really nothing you can do but go and sit in a dark room. Whereas with the toe, you can still be a member of society. You're just maybe not going for walks or doing many workouts. Like I said, last week, it's all upper body when you have a broken toe. But I would definitely say the migraine is worse. Now, you have dealt with migraines.

And again, I do have a ton of respect for you to be able to come and do this podcast when you're dealing with this. That speaks volumes about your toughness and your professionalism. But I need to know. Haley, yes, you suffer from migraines, but you may have also done some things over the weekend that possibly kind of took you down this path, you know? Yeah, I've gotten migraines since I was a kid and they would happen. semi-frequently, and it's so funny because I'm not a child anymore, but when I get them

and my parents call me and they're like, what's going on? You sound like crap. I'm like migraine. And immediately they're like, you weren't eating properly this weekend. Where are you? Because it was usually like if I was outside all day as a kid, you're at like summer camp, you don't eat lunch because you're running around like a psycho kid in the sun and then you come home and then you feel like crap for a couple days. That was me. So my parents, like a child, will still be like, did you not eat properly this weekend? Um, so usually that's the first thing that my parents say to me, there's no remorse. It's just like, what did you do? Hey, do your parents ask you to, did you drink enough water? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a classic current move. I've got this like giant thing here

beside me this morning. Um, but no, you know, I ate fine. Um, I, so yesterday. So yesterday, I hit my head off my car door, which probably didn't help. Like, it just sounds ridiculous saying this out loud. There's no context. I literally just hit my head off the door. I don't know how it happened. And then the day before that, I was cleaning my kitchen at three in the morning, like normal functioning adults do. I had finished filing a story on the Flames game, felt stressed about all the things I had to do this week. So I started cleaning my kitchen and I went to go put something away in a bottom cupboard and stood up forgetting that my top cupboard was open and just hit the top, smoked the top of my head on the bottom of my cupboard door. And I fell and got a little

dizzy. And I was like, oh no. It's like three in the morning. I'm hitting my head off cupboards and And then I hit my head off the car door and here we are today. Okay. And if people are listening to this podcast and hearing the faintest little chirp of a sound of the background, the only thing that people want when they have a migraine is complete silence and darkness. Not only do you have to do a podcast, Haley, you're doing it with what appears to be your smoke detector intermittently beeping in the background. What is going on at Haley's place here?

Come on. I don't know. And it's, my landlord was over the other day to, to check in. And there was a bit of mail that came here because they had lived here previously. So we came by to pick up the mail and just make sure things were going fine. And then that beep started happening while he was here. He was like, do you want me to check on that? And he like took it down, made sure everything was okay. And then it stopped. And then, yeah, this morning it started. You can see beside me, Ian, I've got my broomstick that I've been using to just hit it. hoping it would stop and it hasn't worked. So it's, luckily we have a wonderful producer who will try to edit those beeps out. But yeah, it's a tough day. Our producer, Chris Flannery now has to, every four minutes or something, has to go and just find a little bit and just blip it up. Yeah, you'll probably see it like

a heart monitor, like just a little sign of life from my apartment. Yeah. Just probably an accurate description of what's happening in this condo. today. Yeah, well, listen, I mentioned, Haley, lots of things going on in the hockey world. And listen, we're going to start with a rather serious topic. And that is the allegations surrounding Vancouver Canucks Forward, Jake Vertan, who is now away from the team after allegations surfaced that he may have been involved in a sexual

assault of a young woman. And obviously, we have to tread very cautiously here. We are very short on details. We are very aware of the legalities involved with all of this. I thought Thomas Drans did a very good job on the weekend, writing this article, doing it, I think, with the right tone that was required to do this, to kind of get the story across. I like the fact that our comment section was stopped or halted.

I think that's important because this is not the time for allegations and reckless speculation from those of us who don't know what's going on. This is a time for us to put the attention on what may. have happened to this young woman. My question to you, Haley, is how do you analyze this situation? Where do you see this kind of going from here? And are we reaching a point where we need to be better in the hockey world about addressing these types of stories? Yeah, well, I think the most important thing. And like you said, I think Drans did a really good job in his story about this. And I think he took the right stance in that, you know, like you said, this is not the time for, you know, reckless speculation for sweeping, you know, assumptions and the typical stuff that, you know, you can see on Twitter, even on the best of days.

You know, I think that this is something that goes beyond hockey. I think the fact that he is a hockey player in this alleged incident, and I say alleged. just because that's legally, technically what we're supposed to say. And I don't say alleged to say I don't believe the woman who's come forward because I think it's important that we do believe these women who do come forward with allegations like this. But I think it's very important that we separate the sport and what he does for a living and how good or not good he is with what happened here because this is someone's life. This is a very serious thing.

And, you know, some of the things, it's the tiniest little things for me. Like I see stories like this and people will be like, Vatan and who scored like five goals and 20 points and blah, blah, blah, games this season. Like that's probably not needed in this story. That has absolutely no relevance to to this situation and what happened here. And, you know, things like people saying, oh, well, we should have bought him out in the summer. or why didn't we trade him or do this like that? That's not it. It's not it.

This is, again, this is a woman's life. This is, again, a very serious thing. It's very concerning. And I think that the, you know, one thing that Drans kind of said in his story was, you know, this is going to be the first kind of major incident of this nature in this post Me Too movie. movement. And I think we're seeing the NHL handling it, the NHL and the Vancouver Canucks handling it a lot quicker and a lot better. There was no questions. You know, the very next day, the Canucks made a statement. The league sent a statement to Glacier News who, who broke the initial

story in the paper. I know there was some stuff on Twitter. But I think the league and the Vancouver Canucks, you know, really had they had a statement and he was put on a leave of absence, almost immediately. So there was no, there was no pause. It was just right away, you're out, we're handling this. And they brought in an independent investigator to look into these allegations. So, you know, I've got to say, I think the way that they're handling this right now is the right way. And I know there was some questions. I know some people didn't really like that Travis Green was just saying no comment, no comment, but there's really, there's nothing else he can say again. You mentioned the legalities here. And there's nothing that the club can say other than the

statement that they put out that I'm sure was vetted multiple times by a legal team. So it shouldn't fall on Travis Green to answer for this. You know, there's nothing he can really say until this is all all done with. You know, I look at this, Haley, I think where I look at where I'd like to see the league go is, you know, every year, NHL teams have rookie camp and development camp. And in those camps, the players get media training, they get nutrition tips, fitness tips. You know what I would like to see mandated across the league? The minute you're drafted in, when you come into that rookie camp,

you have to sit through a one or two-hour presentation of, consent. And I'm telling you, this is really important. We have to change the hockey culture and we have to change the culture in young men. And if we could make this mandatory, say, listen, even if you had to spin it as we're trying to do some preemptive training so this doesn't happen to you, whatever it is, let's start using these moments where we teach the kids about nutrition and we teach them about media training and we teach them about concussions. Why aren't we teaching them about sexual assault? Why aren't we teaching them about consent?

Look, I would love to do, I go to high schools and I try to teach young men in Ottawa about this with some really cool programs. And I've reached out to some hockey associations here. And I've said, you know, if you're 15 year olds and 16 year olds would be open to it, I'd love to do a talk on this and why it's important. The onus is on young men. And there's nothing more of a, like kind of that, that male culture, testosterone culture than a hockey locker room.

And if we can get that going, this is, this is what, this is me pleading to the NHL and the NHLPA. Educate your young men. Use your platform. Don't be reactive, be proactive. And that's kind of my, my 10,000 foot view of the situation. Yeah, because there's media training. There's social media training now.

And, you know, I agree that, you know, there is a lot of testosterone and, you know, I think some of these kind of cultural issues or societal issues, you know, they can definitely be put under a spotlight in the NHL because it's the NHL. I do believe that a lot of this is a microcosm of society. I don't think it's a hockey specific problem. I think these are things that happen all the time. If you work in finance, if you work in the media, if you work wherever, like they're, you know, and this woman wasn't even working in hockey. She was just, you know, somebody who lived in Vancouver. But I do think that, you know, it is a microcosm of society. And certainly we can see how, you know, big it gets under the microscope in professional sports as a whole. And so, yeah, I think something that's proactive, you know, I'm sure there's going to be people who see that as a bad thing. and say, like, why are you making them all out to be bad guys? But, you know, if it helps protect at least one woman from a situation like this,

then I think there's some, there's definitely some benefits to it. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think there's absolutely a room for this in professional sports. You know, I remember years ago, Haley, the Kansas City Royals, okay, so in Major League Baseball, they, and I think they were one of the first teams. In spring training, they actually brought all of their players to together and they did a seminar on the evils of pornography. And I remember people were thinking like, oh, what, like, what the hell is this?

Like, why are you doing it? And their whole point was, as young men, you need to stop objectifying women and holding them to certain standards. And it was the Kansas City Royals. And I thought, what a forward thinking organization and something that that pro sports team should be doing more of. So that would be, you know, that would be my wish here moving forward. Speaking of moving forward, Haley, there's no.

easy way to do this, but there are certainly other stories for us to talk about in the hockey world. And welcome to the family, Seattle Cracken. They officially, the checks have cleared, their payments have been made and gets open for business. You can actually make a trade if you're Ron Francis. So if you recall, Haley, that last expansion draft with the Vegas Golden Knights, George McPhee took some general managers for a ride, right? Like he used that leverage and got himself a ready-made contender. My question is, how does this play out? Now, Ron Francis can start making trades.

Like, are you think we're going to see the same type of thing? Teams are going to be working to make side deals, or did they learn their lesson from the last time around? Yeah, it's interesting because I think that you would think that teams would learn, but I also think if we look at what's going on in the league this year with the flat cap with, you know, there's just been, I think the trade market has been a little bit different this year. So I wonder if teams will just kind of abandon the let's not make them good right off the bat like we did with Vegas and say, like, wait, but there's somebody who wants to play ball

with us. So I think there's going to be that interesting kind of dynamic going in that, you know, Shirley Ron Francis is going to be wanting to make deals to make his team. better. And there's going to be some teams who probably weren't able to to make some moves that they wanted to that are going to maybe say like, oh, well, we don't want to do the Vegas thing again, but, you know, we've got a player who we've got an additional player who might play ball with us. So I think it'll be interesting. As an aside, a complete aside, Ryan Clark, who covers the Cracken for for the athletic he's great he did this story a couple of weeks ago where he spoke to like the original you know group for the expansion teams way back when and just showed um

essentially like if we had the rules that Vegas and Seattle had now like our teams would have been so much better like just the difference in what Vegas and Seattle were able to do with the expansion draft versus, like the Minnesotas and of the world, like the other expansion teams, you know, several, several years ago. It's completely different. And it's really interesting. I mean, I read that story from Ryan and I thought it was great. Just to look at the differences, I don't have it up in front of me here because I just

thought of it, but it was really cool. Oh, yeah. I mean, basically, like, if you were like when Ottawa and Tampa, in Florida and San Jose came in the league the early 90s, you were getting like the third best goalie or the fourth best goalie from every organization, maybe the 13th best forward, maybe the seventh best.

Like there was no, none of this, there was no salary cap, right? There was no, there's no consideration. So teams like Ottawa came in. They won 10 games in their first year. Vegas went to the cup final.

Like if you want a better illustration of the discrepancy between the two, that's it, right? So I think it's going to be really interesting. And I saw, look, Elliot Friedman, I watched Saturday headlines and saw Elliot talking about the fact that Rod Brindamore doesn't have a contract extension in Carolina. And the reason why I bring this up is obviously Rod Brindamore, Ron Francis. There's a connection there. Do you think there's any way that Rod Brindamor?

And look, and I like the fact that Elliot reported Rod Brindamor, he wants to go back to Carolina, but he wants 100% security for all of his staff. That's his assistants, that's his trainers, that's his medical team. All of those people, if they're taking care of, then I'm taking care of. But the door is slightly ajar for maybe Rod Brindamore to explore some options. If I'm Ron Francis in the Seattle Cracken, boy, I'm all over that, aren't I? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it'll be, it would, it's really hard for me to look at that little crack in the door,

because I just don't. It's actually a cracking in the door. Oh, God. Cut that out, Chris. No. Edit that out now. He's not going to. Don't do it.

Ian will be upset. That was his joke of the day. You know, it's hard for me to look at that, though, because I just think Rod Brindamore is, you know, synonymous with the Carolina Hurricanes. I mean, you know, it's just over 200 games coach now, I believe, for. for Rod and, you know, you think of the culture that he built there. We had Sarasivian on the podcast and you think of the culture he built and, you know, the way the players respect him and, you know, the way that that team has been able to play

under Rod, I think it would be shocking to see him not with the hurricanes. And I think it would probably be devastating is probably a little bit over the top. But I think it would be tough for players, for fans, for a lot of people in the organization to let him go. So I think it's probably the utmost importance that Carolina gives Rod Brindamore what he wants for him and his staff. But I mean, it could be interesting.

I mean, that's definitely an opportunity for Seattle to come in and say, hey, we have a position here. But then it's also that thing where, so are they taking Rod and his entire staff and wiping the entire Carolina Hurricanes coaching staff in one swoop because that's what Rod said he wanted.

So was Seattle going to come in and take everybody? I don't, this is going to be, it's going to be interesting. And I think he's coming from a place where he's got a ton of leverage, right? And it's not, it doesn't sound like Rod Breedemore is looking, like you say, he's not looking for cash necessarily. He's looking for some other things, some security for people around him. Now, I want to know from you, Haley. If, let's say Haley Salvean had a ton of leverage with the athletic.

and you're you're about to negotiate a contract and extension and we're not I'm not going to ask you for like money or term like what are you asking for like for me I would say you know what I would say I'm like you know what I want I want business class travel anytime I have to travel like like what would be on your list of things that you'd be like you know what look this isn't about money this is just I'm gonna I'm gonna see what would what would be what would be on your list because I'm thinking when we if the world gets back to traveling again, I got to tell you that would be a huge perk if you could somehow negotiate into your deal. Like I know for some people in the media, they have, they do have a closet if the flight is longer than X amount of hours. Like let's say it's

longer than three and a half hours. They have to travel business classes. Would you try and slide that in the negotiations? Oh yeah. And like I would try to make it kind of like the NHL CBA in the sense that like my hotel has to be a certain, has to be like a certain, like rating, like really good hotels, has to be close to the rink, business class, if it's a long flight,

like sitting in economy, if you're going Ottawa to, I mean, there is no, there is no business class when you're flying from Ottawa to Toronto, something small like that, but those flights,

I traveled quite a bit last season, I think I did about 15 games. And the longest flight I did, did was actually the flight out to Calgary. And Bruce Garriach, who's who's on the Sends beat, he used like all of his arrow plan points to upgrade himself to first class for that flight, because it was the longest one of the season. So like Bruce was sitting first class. And I was like at the back of the plane. And funny story, the flight home. So we did Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and the Sends sent down Eric Brantstrom and Marcus Hogberg.

From Edmonton. And I'm flying home from Edmonton. The team's flying to Philadelphia or New Jersey for another road swing. And I'm in Edmonton at the airport and Eric Brantstrom and Marcus Hoggberger behind me in the security line. And I was like, oh, hey, guys. it hadn't been announced yet that they'd been sent down, but they're at the airport with me. And I'm like, I'm not going to tweet anything like these poor guys. It's like four in the

morning and they're stuck with me at the airport. The point of this story is that all three of us were like at the back of the airplane on the four-hour flight home from Edmonton to Ottawa. All three of us randomly at the back of this plane, poor Marcus Hogberg is so tall. He's like trying to put his legs in the aisle to strut. out so he's not crushed and the stewardesses had to keep asking him to move. So yeah, that was a terrible flight. I felt horrible for them because they're stuck at the back of the airplane with me, these professional hockey players. So yeah, I would say that business class would be, I just rambled so long for no reason. But business class would be important for me to

avoid those back of the airplane uncomfortable for four hours. And especially post-COVID, I don't need to have three people beside me and someone reclining into me. I don't need that. I don't need that many people near me. You know what? All I'm thinking about is you missed a golden opportunity. If you took the photo with Brandstrom and Hochberg in the airport,

you guys could have totally recreated the Edmonton airport photo of Connor McDavid in that couple. And you guys could have totally reenacted it. But would it be me that was McDavid? Like me, the really awkward one with the two. professional athletes making me feel uncomfortable. Yeah, for sure. You could have totally done that.

Hey, we were just talking about Rod Brindon Moore and the Carolina Hurricanes have a chance to potentially win the president's trophy. And yet there's probably not a lot of people, Haley, that would say, you know what, if I'm super confident that Carolina is going to be in the final four, and the only reason why I say that is because they're in a tough division. They've got the defending Stanley Cup champion, Tampa Bay Lightning in there. The Florida Panthers are part of it. And I post this question on Twitter and I got a wide range of responses here.

And the question I asked was right now, first week of May, like, what's the one team you're like the most confident if you had to put some money down or make some sort of bet and say like what's the one team you're the most confident they're going to get to the final four? When I threw this out on Twitter, Haley, we had a lot of people selecting Toronto feeling like because the, the, rest of the division maybe isn't as elite, that the Leafs have the easiest path to the final four. Lots of votes for Colorado, but also lots of votes for Vegas. But they're in the same division, right? Only one can emerge. So I ask you the question, who are you the most confident in that they're going to get to the final four right now? Who would you pick be?

I know it's tough because for everything that we've said about the hurricanes, but I think if there's a team in that division, And Sarah Sivian recently did a story about how crazy that division is because it was like as good as Caroline has been, like look at Florida and look at Tampa. And the Panthers since acquiring Sam Bennett at the trade deadline have been pretty good. They're only two points back of the first overall in the league the last time I checked. So, you know, in the east is such a, I don't know what's going to happen in the men. mass mutual ease. So I think if there's going to be one team that we pick, it's probably going to be from the north or the west division.

And I agree with fans who are saying Toronto, because it is technically the easier division to get out of, but the Leafs also haven't had a ton of postseason success. So, you know, it's hard to just throw all your eggs in the basket when we look at what happened last year and years previous. But, you know, I do think you look at this Leafs team and the moves that made in the off seat at the deadline, excuse me. And, you know, that's probably a team that could end up being the,

the final Canadian team to get out of the North Division and get into that final four. So I, I am leaning towards saying the Leafs, but I also think that in the West, Mark Andre Fleury has been great for Vegas. They have Mark Stone. Like, that's just a good team. But I also think that Colorado is a team that, you know, they were, so close to beating Dallas last year with their third string goaltender. And I just feel like if they can stay healthy specifically in the crease, that's going

to be a team that doesn't want to have that kind of disappointment two years in a row. In Kalma Karr has taken another step forward. So to me, I'm leaning more Colorado. I'm bad at this. It's so tough. I'm going to say, I'm going to say Colorado over, yeah. I'm going to say the abs this year. Yeah, it's tough.

Like, it's really hard to figure out who's the one team that has the best chance. Again, I probably agree with you that Toronto has statistically the best odds, but they haven't want to playoff round in the post-lockout era. So how can we go ahead? Yeah. So I still think the defending Stanley Cup champion, Tampa Bay Lightning, might be the best bet. And I really think Carolina is good. I think Florida is pretty good, too.

but I guess if Tampa gets all of their guys back healthy and everything is ready to go, I mean, how do you not pick the Tampa Bay Lightning? Haley, I'll tell you what, I think a couple of months ago, I did not think we were going to be having this conversation that if we were going to be having Adam Vingen on the show, it would be to talk about the disastrous season

of the Nashville Predators. And before we bring Adam on though, Haley, don't you think this is a remarkable story, a team that I think was left for dead like in February, early March, and now huge win over the Dallas stars on the weekend and the Nashville Predators are in the driver's seat for a playoff spot. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I would call it remarkable because the Predators are always this team to me that seem to, they should be better than they typically are.

So, I mean, I think that they were probably expected to be in the fight. So I don't know if it's remarkable or it's just, oh, they're actually playing okay. but I mean, maybe Adam can actually speak to that a little bit better. But for me on the outside, I've always looked at the predators on paper and said, like, they should be a little bit better than I think they have been. Well, let's bring them in. Adam Vingen does a terrific job covering those aforementioned Nashville Predators Force with the Athletic.

And he says he's a big fan of the show. So let's bring him in. Adam, welcome to the athletic hockey show. Great to have you on. How are you today? Good. Ian Haley, it is a thrill to be here. Thank you for having me. All right. So let's get to it.

Look, huge win on the weekend. And as we start to look at some of the probabilities, like the Nashville Predators are now at a 77% chance to make the playoffs when you look at some of the statistical modeling that's out there. So I ask you, are you as surprised as certainly I am, as I just talked about? I was surprised if you had told me end of February, early March, Nashville would have a 77% chance of making the playoffs. How surprised are you, Adam? You're in this every day that Nashville has turned this around.

I'm shocked because it was bad. And Haley mentioned it before that on the morning of March 15th, I believe it was, the Predators were 11, 16, and 1. They were 26th in the NHL. And I had already written a couple of obituaries about the team. I've already written a couple of stories about rebuilds and trades. And, you know, I was, I was functioning into offseason mode almost in terms of preparing my content. But since that date, I have it up right in front of me. They're 17, 6, and 1.

The only three teams in the league that have a better record points-wise since that date are the Vegas Golden Knights, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. So, yes, I can certainly say that I am shocked. And Haley's right. You know, the predators have been a team that's been in the conversation over the past few years of being a championship contender. Of course, the high watermark for the franchise was 2017 as an eighth seed in the Western Conference qualifying for the Stanley Cup final and losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. But since then, in the postseason, they've been trending downward. Now, the following season in the 2017-18 season, they won the president's trial.

trophy. But they lost in the second round to Winnipeg. The following year, they lost to the stars in the first round. The following year, they lost to the Arizona Coyotes in the qualifying round. So missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014 would have been rock bottom for this organization, at least in its current state. But at the end of the day, they have ended up where I ultimately thought they would at the beginning of the season. When I was thinking about where this team would be in January, I said, they'll battle it out for the fourth spot. They'll be a bubble team. They'll be in the mix right until the very end.

They might make it. They might not. And even though it took them bottoming out and then ultimately, you know, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, they all they are where ultimately I thought they would be as a bubble team in fourth place with a greater chance of making the playoffs than the Dallas stars, but still not a 100% certainty. It's funny that you mentioned the record since March 15th because the predators were what I was kind of referencing for the flames fans who were grasping. I hope.

I was like, well, they could be the Nashville predators. They could. But it's looking like the flames are almost completely out of it after their loss over the weekend to the Oilers. You know, just following up on all of this, Adam, would you say that UC Soros is one of the, main reasons this team has been able to turn it around and go on this run? He is the reason, in my opinion, and I do not want to forget about a lot of the other strides, or gloss over some of the other strides that this team has made over the past six, seven weeks. This is a team for the past couple of years that has lacked an identity.

You know, I've watched this team for six plus years, and over the past few, like, are they a skill team? Are they a physical team? Are they some sort of hybrid? You never knew what you were going to get from the Nashville Predators on a night-to-night basis over the past couple of years. And now you see a team that's hard to play against to use the hockey cliche that has this relentless forecheck that's causing fits for the opposition. John Heinz deserves a lot of credit for getting through to this team at an incredibly difficult time. And you have to think about what John Heinz himself has gone through. He inherited the team in midseason in 2019-20, after the Predators fired Peter LaVuette.

The team was on the outside looking into the playoff picture at the time. He takes over a team that admittedly was fragile at that particular time. helps them get into a position to qualify for the return to play. As I said, they ultimately lost. But he didn't have a full training camp, even this season, because of the abbreviated schedule. He had a pandemic to deal with at the start of his tenure. He deserves a ton of credit. I'm very curious to see if the Predators make the playoffs.

If John gets some Jack Adams buzz, I think he deserves it. But back to the initial question. I wrote a story today, Monday, based off of a tweet from our friend Mark Lazarus about, and that's going to go to his head. We know how much Mark appreciates and cultivates his Twitter following. The fact that I wrote a story based on the tweet of his surely won't go to his head. But he mentioned after the game on Saturday, the Predators game, that UC Soros deserves to be on some hard trophy ballots.

And I absolutely agree. In his past 20 starts, which dates to March 18th, he's 14, 5, and 1. He has a 183 goals against average and a 9-4-5-safe percentage. And to put the Predators' playoff odds into context on March 18th, which Soros came back from two weeks off because of injury on March 18th to start a game. They had a 4% chance, according to Dom, of making the playoffs on the morning of March 18th. Now they have a 77% chance of making the playoffs. That does not happen without UC Soros. So if I'm ranking the reasons, and there are a couple,

he is number one with a bullet in terms of why this team has been able to get into the position that it's in. Okay. So obviously Saros has played a huge role. But Adam, I think a lot of fans on the outside looking in would love to know, what type of role are the $8 million centerman playing on these team? So I'm talking Matt Duchet and I'm talking Ryan Johansson. How much have they been contributing in the last six weeks to Nashville's success? Well, Matt Dushan, to start with him, missed at least a month.

It might have been five or six weeks, actually, with an injury. Ryan Johansson has missed a couple of games over the course of the season. The Predators, by the way, have only had one player, one skater, appear in every game the season, and that's Colton Sizzins. So they've dealt with a ton of injuries as well. But as I'm looking at their stats right now, Ryan Johansson has 18 points in 44 games. Matt Dushan has 11 points, four goals in 30 games. And I think Matt Dushain has looked better since coming back from injury.

He's made some spectacular passes. He had a pass in the third period against the stars, setting up, of all people, Eric Good Branson for a slam dunk two on one, and it went right through Good Branson's legs. That's not Matt's fault. He put the puck where it needed to be. But when Matt signed with the Predators a couple of summers ago, it was years in the making. It was a heavy courting, flirtation process, whatever you want to call it, between the Predators and Matt Dushain. So when he went to free agency, it was almost inevitable that he would end up here.

And no fault of his own, he had a career year split between Columbus and Audubon. had 70 points, had 30 plus goals, had a shooting percentage of 18%. So perfect time for Matt to find that. But because of all of the hype, I guess you could say, all of the endless speculation over the years that Matthew Schaim would end up in Nashville, when he ultimately did, you know, there were these incredibly high expectations. And for the most part, he hasn't met them. And Ryan Johansson, too, you know, he, you know, he had a fabulous 2017 postseason. He had 13 points in 14 games. He had this freak thigh injury.

He suffered from acute compartment syndrome in the Western Conference final, missed the entire Stanley Cup final. That summer signs an eight-year, $64 million contract. It made a lot of sense at the time. But neither of them have lived up to those contracts in terms of production. And, you know, without the two. of them, this team isn't going to get very far. Now, they've gotten a lot of contributions from other players. We mentioned U.C. Soros, Roman Yossi, you know, had a slow start to the year, but

is starting to look more like the Norris Trophy winner that he is. They're getting a lot of contributions from younger players, specifically Ellie Tolvinen, who has 11 goals this season, Mikhail Granland, not a younger player, but has been fabulous for them. Callie Yarncroke, Luke Cunning has come on recently. But as we know, the highest paid players are the ones that get teams to the quote unquote promise land. And I've had people tell me in the league how skeptical they are of a team that's led by Ryan Johansen and Matthew Shane of winning a Stanley Cup. You know, there's been a lot of discussion among the fans in Nashville about how the predators can find a way to dump one of those guys on Seattle in the expansion draft.

whether it's by making a side deal or what have you. You know, I wrote right when Matt came back that this is his final chance, I think, in Nashville, despite the fact that he's only in the second year of his contract to prove his value to this organization. If this team does not make the playoffs and Matt goes out with a whimper, you know, I think there might be a point of no return with him among the fan base. To Matt's credit, though, I think despite the points not necessarily being there, He has played a lot better since he's been back from injury. He's been a lot more noticeable.

Ryan Johanson has been fine. But are they the long-term solutions for this team? I'm unconvinced. What do you think the long-term solution is? And I mean, I know that's a really open-ended question, but do you think that this is a team that if they don't make it, you know, they don't make it out of the first round or Dallas makes it in that four-slot? What do you think the next direction for the Nashville Predators are?

Is this a team that needs to take a step back? and retool for their long-term future? I do believe that that should be the case, whether or not they decide to do that remains unclear. When you think about their contract situation, they have a lot of money tied up in long-term contracts to older players, Roman Yossi, Ryan Ellis, Matthew Shane, Ryan Johan, You know, they have two big contracts expiring next summer in Philip Forsberg and Matias Eckholm. They have a lot of younger players that have, you know, the blessing in disguise for this team this season,

if you're looking at it from that perspective, from the injury standpoint, at least, is that it has required the predators to finally give some of their prospects some good long looks. Last I checked, they've dressed 12 rookies this season, which is the most in the league. you know, Ellie Tolvinen was a hot shot prospect three, four years ago. Did not live up to that billing, but has been really solid for them this season. You look at some of the other depth players like Yacoff, Trennan, and Tanner Geno on their fourth line. A couple of players on the back end, Alexander Carrier, Jeremy Davies. the future is not as bleak as it appear to be in January.

In February, they also have a very good prospect playing in the AHL, Philip Tomasino, who would have been in the OHL this season if the league would have played. He's been, I think, close to a point per game player, if not more than a point per game player in the American League this season. So there is help on the way there too. But as I said to start, this is a team that was built to win a championship. And even if this run that they go on, culminates in a playoff birth and they play Carolina in the first round and they lose,

you know, ultimately that's not what this team is expected to do. So how do you look back on this run if they don't do anything about it in the playoffs or even miss the playoffs? You know, David Poil is in an interesting situation. You know, he's been at this for a very long time. He's only managed one team to a Stanley Cup final across four decades.

the fire still burns, you know, within David to win a championship. But, you know, at what point do you have to take a long look at this roster, the ages of the top players, and think about retooling. Now, if you would have asked me the same question in March, at the beginning of March, I would have said, blow it up. You know, you use the trade deadline to trade everything that's not bolted down to the floor. But now I think you could probably get away with more of the, Boston Bruins-like retool on the fly, you know, missed the postseason for a couple of years or maybe not be as good as you once were, but you still maintain, you know, a strong core and you just build around them.

You know, so maybe that's the avenue that they take versus bottoming out like you've seen from the Colorado avalanche in recent years or the Buffalo Sabres, which is the cautionary tale. So maybe it's not as dire as it once was, but I still think this team. needs a refresh of some kind. All right. Final question for you here, Adam, as we bounce around the National Hockey League, we know, and obviously in Canada, no fans are allowed in the stands, but in various American cities,

fans are starting to come back. So paint the picture for our listeners. What are games like right now at the Bridgestone Arena? It is, for people who haven't been there in quote unquote normal times, one of the best arenas to go to, terrific fan base, lots of energy, college type of field to it.

Right now, May of 2021. What's a game like at the Bridgestone Arena? Well, their most recent game Saturday against Dallas, which is, which was, excuse me, their most, their biggest regular season game in recent memory. They have increased capacity of the Predators to 33%, which equates to about 5,700 fans. They are not publicizing attendance figures, but that is what we've been told. It's 33% or around 5,700. you know for the building being one third full it was really loud on Saturday night

perhaps perhaps we're just having to get used to having people in the building again the predators have always had fans in the building or people in the building even when they started the season when the general public wasn't necessarily loud in the building they did have you know friends and family and maybe some you know first responders you know for example, one night, they offer tickets to the local health department, you know, for people to come see one of the early season games. And it's been building ever since to this 33% threshold. But it was loud. I mean, when Eric Hall has scored the overtime goal on Saturday, it did sound like a close to full building, even though it clearly wasn't.

So the predators have done a great job of maintaining that atmosphere, even with limited fans in the building. I'm curious to see what happens if they make the playoffs. on May 14th here in Nashville, basically the COVID-19 restrictions in terms of businesses are going to be lifted. So I believe it's up to private businesses now to determine, you know, how many people they allow in or what their protocols are. And that gives the predators the freedom, I think in conjunction with the NHL, of course, to decide how many people they would have in the building if they make the playoffs.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50%, which would be around, you know, 8,500, 9,000 people. But it's been great to see it build over time. And the atmosphere on Saturday was as close to a normal sporting event as I've attended in some time. Well, listen, we're looking forward to maybe watching the Predators get into the playoffs and making some noise and maybe in front of some more fans.

Adam, we love your work. I always love your Simpsons references that you drop. into the columns. Hey, listen, thanks for taking a few minutes to join Haley and I. Have a great day and we'll talk to again real soon. All right, Haley and Ian, thank you so much for having me. All right, that was a ton of fun catching up with Adam and talking about how the National Predators have turned their season around. And we were talking to Adam about the fact that maybe John Hines is going to get some love for the Jack Adams. There would be UC Saros for the Heart Trophy or maybe even the Vezna Trophy. And that brings us to multiple choice madness, Haley.

and it brings us to question number one. Because as you know, we like to debate the wording, the exact wording and the spirit of an NHL award. I ask you this to kick off the show. And we always love to hear from our listeners in the comment section or on Twitter. I love it when you weigh in on our multiple choice questions. So here's question number one, Haley.

Which NHL award desperately needs kind of like a reworking or a rewording of its definition? is it A, the heart trophy, B, the Calder Trophy, C, the Norris Trophy, or D, the Selke, which is for the best defensive forward. Which one needs to be reworded, reworked, made more clear? Well, I think maybe based on the conversation we had on last week's podcast, you would think, you know, the Calder could maybe use a little bit of work.

But I also don't know if that's an award that we need to make even more restrictive. that already has the 25 and under your first season. We did have some people weigh in on that conversation last week saying that I was suggesting people make their own criteria and break the rules. It's not what I meant. I just said, if you have a ballot, think critically about casting your ballot. And I don't think that is blasphemous by any means. But honestly, I don't think the Calder's that bad.

I, I, the ones for me, I think the Norris trophy is one that gets me a lot because, and I read a story and it was Drew Dowdy who spoke about this and I really respected what he had to say, although I do think he was also using it to give respect, but also throw shade as Drew Dowdy does. But the one thing he said was like if you look at the people who were winning the Norris trophy, Eric Carlson, Brent Burns, whoever it may be. These are not guys who are a PK1. These are not guys who are, you know, defensive shutdown players, but they're winning the award for best defensemen. So I think there needs to be clarity. Is it the best defenseman and by

definition, the best defender? So they're good on defense? Or is this the best player that you think plays the defensive position because I think there is a difference. And I'm not saying that Eric Carlson wasn't a good defender. I think you can make the argument that there are players who were better on the defensive side of the puck than Eric Carlson, even potentially in years when he did win the Norris trophy. But I think there's guys like Mark Giordano. He's been, this year, we are seeing signs of regression. He is 37 years old. It's natural. And he did win a Norris in 2019, but, you know, he's one of the guys that if you had to, you know, and that's, this is what drew out he said too.

He's like, if there's a guy that you have to pick to play in a game with you that you need to shut guys down, I'm going Mark Dierdano, guys like Chris Tannov. He, and I, this isn't updated, but the other day, he was number one in the league in fewest expected goals against, which means that he has allowed the fewest scoring opportunities he's against of per 60 minutes played of any defenseman in the league. And but because he doesn't have those offensive statistics, he's not a power play one guy. He's not going to score a bunch of goals. His first goal was a fluky goal from his blue line against the Winnipeg Jets this year. Like, this is not an offensive player, but he is arguably one of the best defensive players out there right

now, especially for the Calgary Flames. So, you know, it's one of those things for me with the Norris. I think there needs to be either more clarity on what we're voting for or there needs to be a best defensive defenseman and best offensive defensemen, in my opinion. Yeah, and maybe it's the Bobby Or Award, right? Like for the best offensive defensemen. I agree with you there. You know what, I'm going to go heart trophy, Haley. Because people always get tripped up.

The definition of the heart trophy exactly is it's the award annually handed out to the player judged to be the most valuable to his team. and that usually sets off all sorts of debates, right? Well, I don't know. Like, it sort of then becomes not a team award, but it becomes a question of can you win the award in a season in which your team misses the playoffs? And again, I get tripped up on this.

I just wish the Hart Trophy was like, who's the best player? That's it. Who's the best player? I think that's what a lot of people vote for too, right? Like they just say like, this guy's the best, but it's like, ah, but is he the most valuable to his team? I know, because that's,

the problem is certain teams are stacked, right? So certain teams have four or five players who are really good. And so maybe Nikita Kuturov's value in Tampa isn't as important as, you know, another guy, Mark Stone, maybe in Vegas or like however you want to look at it. So it's a really tricky one. I just, I wish that we didn't have this debate that sometimes that people do. But I think some of these, all of these awards could maybe use just a little bit of tweaking or fine tuning.

I think with the heart, one of the examples for me when you look at just at least recently, like one of the more perfect examples of like this guy was the most valuable to his team was when Taylor Hall won the heart a couple of years ago. I mean, he was somebody, I think the next best player on the team. Like I think there was like 40 point difference or something between Taylor Hall and the next best player on the team. So that was a situation where like you take Taylor Hall off that team. and you don't know where they are.

Like that was one of the situations where the separation was so big that you could just tell how critically important he was. And I think Nathan McKinnon was somewhat similar last year. I think the separation between McKinnon and the next best player statistically with the avalanche last year was pretty big too. Yeah. And, you know, I had my ballot last year. And I voted Nathan McKinnon over Leon Dreisdell for the heart

because I thought, you know, if you take Leon off the Oilers, they still have Connor McDavid. So when you're thinking of like the most valuable to a team and you look at it that way, like is Leon Drysidal the single most valuable player on the Edmont Oilers? Because if you take him off the team, they're still probably fine because they have Connor McDavid. And I had him on my ballot. I wouldn't just say like Leon's bad, like not voting for dry sidle, but I thought that a guy

like McKinnon. I thought a guy like Panarin, pasta. I thought they were, you know, more to the definition important to what their team did last year. All right. Well, listen, you brought up Taylor Hall. And Taylor Hall is part of question number two in multiple choice bad as Haley. Which player do you think has maybe enhanced his reputation the most since the trade deadline? Is it A, Sam Bennett, B, Taylor Hall, C, Jeff Carter, or D. Jacob Vrana. I'll go first on this one. Jeff Carter, by the way, has four goals and 10 games in Pittsburgh.

A pretty good start for him. A lot of people wondered how much tread was left on the tires. Jacob Vranna had that nice Peter Foresburg-style goal on the weekend. He's been playing pretty well. And I know Sam Bennett's been money, but for me, Haley, it's Taylor Hall. People were running Taylor Hall, left, right, and center. Can't win with this guy. He's no good.

And guess what? He's gone to Boston, five goals, five assists. I feel like I'm seeing him in my Twitter timeline virtually on a nightly basis with some wizardry that he's done. It looks like people are realizing, oh, if you play on a good team and you have some good structure, the better players become better. So I feel like Taylor Hall, and look, I know Sam Bennett's just been dynamite in Florida. But to me, I think some people are waking up and realizing, oh, Taylor Hall is a pretty good player. So that's my answer. What about you?

Yeah, I think it's hard to argue with that. When you compare what people were saying, and especially when you look at what the return was for Taylor Hall. And I know that there is, you know, the very important caveat that there were some reports out there that Taylor Hall essentially strong armed Buffalo into the deal with Boston saying, like, you know, I won't lift my no trade clauses unless it's for the Boston Bruin. And so it did kind of leave the sabres in a situation where they couldn't really get too, too much value. when there was really only one player there for that trade. But I'm going to say Sam Bennett. And I know that's maybe a little bit of blissful ignorance or bias, because that is a player that I did cover this year.

And it's someone that I've been keeping tabs on with the Florida Panthers. And it is a story I've been working on. So I've been watching that a little bit more keenly. But I think Sam Bennett went from, you know, he was a bottom six player. He was a disappointment. you know, this is a guy who was drafted fourth overall, and he never, I don't know how many times I wrote or said the statement, he has not matched the production that the,

his production hasn't matched the pedigree of being a fourth overall pick. And that was the thing about Sam Bennett. It was he's bottom six player. He didn't pan out. This isn't how the career was supposed to be. Then he goes to the Florida Panthers, gets his fresh start because he did request a trade. He gets his fresh start.

because he said, I think that I'm a top six player. I think I'm valuable. I think I'm a good player. I'm not getting the opportunity. Move me. We're somewhere I can get this opportunity. And I think a lot of people thought, like, no, it's not the opportunity. It's just you.

And now he's been playing exclusively with Hubert O. He had most of his games with Anthony Duclair. He's played a little bit now with Owen Tippett. But Sam Bennett's a player who has now surpassed. his scoring in 28 games with the flames in 12 games with the Florida Panthers. So I think this is a guy. And you know what? We can talk about shooting percentage. We can talk about, you know, this is a guy with a chip on his shoulder. His shooting percentage is higher than his career average. He wanted his fresh start. Of course, he's going to start hot. But you just look at, you know, what he said that he believed he could be.

He didn't get those opportunities in Calgary. He's now getting them in Florida and look at what he's doing. So I think that Sam Bennett's a guy who's gone from, you know, bottom six player who only shows up in the playoffs to someone who's, you know, I think if you ask Florida Panthers fans, I think they're pretty, pretty happy with, with the addition of Sam Bennett. All right, Haley, this week, Ryan Miller of the Anaheim Ducks announced he'll be retiring at the end of the season. Here's the question. Is Ryan Miller a top five U.S. born goalie in NHL history. A yes or B, no. You're up first. It's a good question. I think that he at least deserves to be in that conversation. I think there should be like fair debate about it. I don't know

if I could say it without a doubt yes. I'm not going to pretend to be a goalie expert by any means. but I think if you look at Ryan Miller's resume and everything that he accomplished in his 18 seasons with the sabers, the blues, the Canucks, and now the ducks, I mean, he has the most wins by a U.S.-born goalie in NHL history. That's 390 victories after his win. The other day, I believe it was his final home game against the L.A. Kings, and I thought it was awesome.

All the Kings came and did the handshake. with Miller because it was his last home game that he was going to play before his retirement. Yeah, he has 390 wins. Forgive me, I don't know if they've played since then. I know that I'm looking at something from April 29th. But, you know, I think you go down as the winningest goalie, winningest U.S. goalie in the NHL. And I think you deserve to be in that conversation like 100%.

Yeah, it's a tough one because I look at it and I say, to me, he's not top three, because for me on that top three, I got Mike Richter, Jonathan Quick, and Tom Barrasso. Quick and Barrasso, each won two cups. Richter not only won a cup with the Rangers in 94, he was just dynamite in the World Cup of hockey in 1996, like almost single-handedly stole it. So for me, those three guys are like just a cut above. Then you got Tim Thomas sitting there, and he won his Stanley Cup.

And I know that maybe his star didn't burn as brightly or for as long as it. everybody else, but it certainly burnt, I think burned brighter than Miller's did at any point. So, you know, I look at Tim Thomas. It comes down to John Van Beesbrook and Ryan Miller for me. I'll give the edge to Ryan Miller. He's got more wins. He didn't take a team to the cup final like the Beezer did. But he was so good for TBOSA in the Olympics in 2010.

And I think, I'm pretty sure he won the, he won the MVP. Tournament MVP. That's the thing that kind of pushes me towards it. wonderful career for Ryan Miller, probably the skinniest hockey player I've ever seen in my life. Pads off, I've never seen a player more slight than Ryan Miller. I guess you haven't seen him pads off yet. No, I've seen Matt Murray with his pads off from the Pittsburgh days. I cannot stress how slight Ryan Miller was.

And you would just look at this guy and think, how is he doing this? And he was a workhorse. I got nothing but respect for that guy. I put him in my top five. Some goalies are so shocking like that when you don't know what they're going to look like with the pads off. Shannon Zabodos, unreal, elite, elite women's hockey goalie. She's going to be in the hockey Hall of Fame. No questions asked.

The first time I met her and spoke to her, I don't know why. She's just so good. And so, I don't know, the way she is in the crease, like there's no holes. She takes up the crease. She's so athletic. She's so dominant. Tiny. tiny, really lovely.

Yeah. And I don't know. I was just like, I don't know what I was expecting because she's very intimidating. Her presence in the net is crazy. And then Shannon Zabodas, I was like, oh, I don't know. I was just, you never expect it when you see them with the pads off. It's just so much equipment. And they look so huge and intimidating.

Totally. Some of them are just so small. Yeah. And that's what Ryan Miller was for me back in the day. Okay. Two more to go here in multiple choice. Madness, Haley. Look, Connor McDavid's running away with things could get to 100 points, yada, yada, yada.

We all know this story. Here's my question, though. Which non-Connor McDavid stat would be the most impressive to you if one of these players could achieve it down the stretch? Is it A, Austin Matthews, hitting the 40-goal plateau in a 56-game season? Is it B? Brady-Kachuk, potentially becoming the first player in NHL history to lead the league in hits and shots on goal in the same season, or as you'd see,

Adam Fox and the New York Rangers, potentially having more assists than any other defenseman has points. I'll go first on this one. I'm going to go Adam Fox. You know, when I was a kid. Okay, good. I stole yours because that means it was the right answer. You never go first when I don't know what I want to say.

Exactly. Haley, when I was a kid, Wayne Gretzky won the scoring title. I'll never forget this because I used to get I don't know if you ever collected Were sticker books like hockey sticker books A thing when you were a kid or no Like the little sticker books that you could put the players in

No Stickers yes I'm an old man so okay So I used to collect these sticker books And I'll never forget the one year like 85 86 It was like Topps or Opeche or whatever the sticker pinini Maybe whatever the brand name of the sticker book was And like Wayne Gretzky He led the league in points, right?

But if you took all of his goals out, like let's say Wayne Gretzky ended with zero goals, he still would have won the scoring title in 1985-86 with zero goals. He had 163 assists. Nobody else had 160 points. And I'm like, wow, that's crazy. So to see Adam Fox in the verge of doing that, Fox, by the way, he's got 42 assists right now.

Victor Hedman only has 44 points. Tyson Barry only has 42. points. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Adam Fox, with a couple more multi-assist games, could end up with more assists than any other defenseman has points. That's mind-blowing to me. So I'm going to say Adam Fox having more assists would be the most impressive to me. But it sounds like you might be agreeing. I do agree. And I'm fully on the Adam Fox for Norris bandwagon this year. And I don't know if you saw this Ian, but Dom Luce Chishin had this pretty funny graphic that he posted on Twitter

earlier last week where he was breaking down the Norris trophy race and it was you know leads all defensemen in points Adam Fox elite play driving impacts and other nerd another nerd shit

team is literally better with him on the ice versus off plays against the toughest opponents starts more of his shifts in the D zone has even more block shots he even included plus minus Adam Fox led Victor Hedman and all other defensemen in all of those categories. But Victor Hedman is Victor Hedman and Adam Fox is not.

But I'm very, very impressed with Adam Fox this year. You know, again, I think I'm fully on him for the Norris Banwagon. And I think that stat is just like you mentioned with Gretzky. I think it's a great stat. The one thing I'll say, you know, I think Austin Matthews, his goal scoring, clip has been incredible. So, you know, just maybe to disagree with you to make this more fun, even though I fully agree. You know, I might go with Austin Matthews. And I think it's, what's even more impressive is that he went through a couple weeks where his wrist wasn't 100% and we could see

that his release wasn't quite the same and he wasn't scoring at the same clip. So I just can't imagine what Austin Matthews goal totals would be if he didn't go through that wrist injury this year. I mean, he had it last year at the All-Star break, but if it didn't flare up again this year, some of the goals that guy scores, the one where he hit it out of the air. Against the abs. I watched it so many times. I was like, I don't understand what just happened. Like, I'm the girl that hits her head off the cupboard and like the car door.

So you watch Austin Matthews have this coordination. You're like, I can't even put a dish away without putting myself in concussion protocol. So I think Austin Matthews. is probably one of the more impressive ones for sure. Okay, last question, Haley, multiple choice madness. We're talking about the Seattle Cracken. They're officially in the NHL. Here's my question to you, Haley.

Who should the Seattle Cracken's opening night opponent be next season? Should it be, A, the Vancouver Canucks, B, the fellow kind of quasi-expansion cousins, the Vegas Golden Knights, C, maybe one of the California teams, right? kind of get that Pacific Coast thing going right away. So pick a California-based team. Or D, an original six opponent rolls into Seattle for the first game ever. Haley, who should the Cracken's first opponent be in the NHL?

I'm not sure, like, who's going to have the best rivalry. But I think it has to be either Vegas or Seattle. Seattle is going to play themselves. It has to either be Vegas or Vancouver, in my opinion. And I think you need, like, I love when the season opens and you have those rivalry games. It's one of the things that I think is maybe a little bit. I know this season when everything started, I think Sends had like five days before their first game because everyone else was like playing each other. And it was like, Leaves, Habs.

Like, Battle of Alberta. And Sends just had to wait for a while because everyone was having their big rivalry games. But I think that's the best way to start a season. And I'm not sure who's going to be the biggest rivalry for the Seattle Cracken if it's going to be the two expansion teams going after each other or it's going to be Vancouver, which is, you know, relatively close to Seattle. You know, I think that could be a really, really fun rivalry. And I think, you know, they're both going to be in the Pacific Division, I believe. So I think that'll be a really fun one in my opinion. And Vegas is in that division too.

I'm going to go with Vancouver. I think that will be really fun to have, you know, just really, really hit up that rivalry immediately. It's going to be good for marketing. It's going to be good for fans, good for TV. So I'm going to say Vancouver. You know, and I agree with you. I think the Vancouver-Syattle rivalry is going to be off the charts.

It's going to be a lot of fun. But there's also an argument to be made that, well, you know that that game is going to have a ton of buzz when it's Vancouver, Seattle. So maybe have that later in the season, right? Maybe the first game doesn't have to be the sizzle fact. The first game's going to have a built-in sizzle factor anyway, right? So maybe you go another route.

Now I looked it up like Vegas's first game ever. The first game Vegas played in the entire league was on the road. They were in Dallas. And their home opener was against Arizona. So I'm like, I guess like Arizona, Vegas, I can see them trying to create the rivalry there. The one that I thought was really interesting, Haley, I looked it up. When the Florida Panthers came into the NHL. Their first opponent, it wasn't, I thought their home opener would have been against Tampa, right?

Wouldn't that have made sense? Get some Tampa hockey. It was the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. That's the first team. Throw them into the fire. Yeah. So I, this is what I think. I think maybe you go down the road of an original 16th.

And I say, and hear me out on this, the Montreal Canadiens. And the reason why, you start off with a game against an iconic franchise. you start off with arguably, you know, arguably one of the most storied franchises, but there's a tie in here. The Stanley Cup final between Montreal and Seattle in 1919 got suspended due to the Spanish flu. And wouldn't it be something if you come full circle out of another pandemic and we close the loop on that, Montreal, Seattle, post-pandemic? No?

How do you even find these things? What do you mean? Googling Seattle like influenza. What do you mean? I have no ability to do anything else. The Spanish flu? Yeah. What are you doing?

Yeah. So anyway. Live during the Spanish fluian? I was not, Haley. Okay? I was around for the like blades of steel and the original Nintendo stuff. But no, I'm not so old that that I was around for that. So okay.

I can see, I can sense some hesitation with the Montreal Canadians pick. But listen, we'll leave it. No, I think it's great. Like you actually did research for this because I'm just like, yeah, give it a Pacific Division opponent. It'll be super fun. So good for you.

Good for you. You make me look bad. No, you didn't look bad at all. You just gutted out this show with a migraine and you toughed it out. And I don't think any of our listeners could tell based on the energy and your voice and the content you brought. So Haley, tip of the hat to you for fighting through this. And have a great week.

And, you know, fingers crossed you feel a little. bit better here the next couple of days. Yeah, thank you. I'm going to go and hit my fire smoke detector thing a couple more times with my broom and hopefully it stops. There we go. All right. And thanks everybody for listening to this edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. Reminders, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating and a review. We would appreciate that. Annual subscription to the Athletic. They're available for $3.99 a month when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show, Scott Burnside, Pierre LeBron. They're back in these seats.

It's the two-man advantage edition of the Athletic Hockey Show that comes you way on Wednesday. I'll be back to the Down Goes Brown, Sean McAdoo.