The Athletic Hockey Show - Minnesota Wild's Kirill Kaprizov to miss 3-4 weeks, Team Canada's IIHF Women's World Championship roster announced

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Hailey and Sean return to discuss the Wild losing Kaprizov to injury, and the roster announcement for Canada's IIHF Women's World Championship team. Next, they comment on the recent decisions some teams have made regarding Pride Nights, before diving into a listener mailbag.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/NHLSHOWGo to Indochino.com and use code AthleticNHL to get 10% off any purchase of $399 or more.Try Peloton risk-free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at onepeloton.ca/home-trial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. All right, everybody. We are back to our regularly scheduled programming. It's Friday. It's time for a regular Friday show. I know Sean Gentile and I, we're on the deadline show together. Then we had one show after a week where we disappeared.

But we're back. It's a normal show, kind of. I did. I think we're both. We're both here. It's Friday. We're both a little busy with things that we can't really talk about right now. Because this is the fun thing about the Friday show if you're new here.

We record on Thursday nights. The show comes out Friday morning. So we do have some things that will be released in the next 24 hours that we cannot talk about right now. So I guess that's the... One of us does. Yeah, I don't know if that's both of us necessarily. My fun Your power rankings

Yeah right Guess what The Bruins are number one Can you believe it? Oh come on No the The ridiculous variable That I'm bringing to the table here

Is that I'm recording from The lobby of a courtyard By Marriott In what location? That's none of your business Or anybody else's And They're playing lobby music

So I'm If it's not going to show up on the end recording in either way, regardless of how it happens. But, but, but, as I hear these songs, I'm going to call them out. Right now I have the cores playing,

breathless. If somebody starts screaming at the, like, at the receptionist, can you turn the camera and then point your microphone in that direction? I mean, if, like, turn this into some kind of like, got you? If a Karen shows up,

Oh, boy, I hate Karen's. Look at this Karen. Check out this Karen. Yeah, nice lady at the courtyard by Marriott at this undisclosed location. Do you know how many clicks we would get? Yeah, we'd be able to quit. Karen correspondent. Anyways, it's Friday.

It's Haley Salvin and Sean Gentile. It's another day. The fun never ends. So we're in one of these weird periods of the NHL schedule where I'm frequently looking around. and being like, I'm bored. And I know that the trade deadline day was kind of boring and the lead up to it was super busy. So, sure, this is nice.

Like, this pocket of time is nice for the people that had to work on every single trade that happened over the last two weeks. But it's also kind of boring. There's not a whole lot to talk about. I'm sick of talking about how good the Bruins are. They're pretty good, though. They're very good. The Eastern Conference wildcard race is interesting, but we've been talking about that since

the preseason. And that was one of my topics to watch this year was, I think the East is going to be really interesting. We can't keep talking about that. We cannot. So we're bringing back the mailbag. Oops. Oops, another mailbag.

Yeah, sure. However, we do have a little. It's not an all mailbag because there is a little bit of news that we can talk about. No, no, no, no. No, no. No, no. It's news. It's, it's, it's intro with.

One quirky Friday anecdotes. You're in a hotel lobby. And then it's news you can use from the Friday show. Collective sol is now playing December. And so this brings us to news you can use. Creel Caprizov is out three to four weeks with lower body injury. Not great. He's obviously the best player on the Minnesota Wild, very important.

I feel like we've successfully avoided the conversation. like, well, if Connor McDavid didn't exist, would Caprizov win MVP? Mm-hmm. Kind of thing. We're not going to do that today. No, that's a thing people tell themselves to generate, you know. When they need something to talk about.

Yeah, right. I'm not willing to do that here. However, we can talk about, like, what this means for the Minnesota Wilde, who are in a, you know, they're in a playoff spot right now. they're in a fight to either win the Central, be competitive to win the Central, stick in a wild card spot.

However you want to frame this, I mean, they beat the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night. So they are tied in points with Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Central Division right now. So there's some important games in the next three to four weeks here for the Minnesota Wild, and they're going to be playing them

without their best player, Sean. What do you make of this? What does this mean for the Wild? This is a team that doesn't have, offense to spare, right? Like, we saw it, we saw it from them at the deadline. Like, I, look, I like the work. I like the work they've done, you know,

Billy Garron's been dealt a pretty brutal hand with the contract situation, huh? It's a king Bill Garan. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about it before. Ice cream! This man loves ice cream. We love it. Anyways, continue.

It's been dealt, been dealt a tough hand, right? With the cap situation. So the amount that they could have improved and the amount they could have added was always going to be a little kind of kind of question. Well, they go out and get Oscar Sunquist who's the definition of a deadline ad. It's a defense first, you know, fourth liner. Great. They don't have offensive spare, though. They're second from the bottom in the league and goals four per 60 at five on five.

Offensive, their offensive numbers just are generally. brutal across the board no matter how you slice them they're um they're rough they don't they don't have much to get back here when you when you throw out a player for four weeks is up over a point per game you know 39 goals a season crazy good enough that people are maybe like you said pretending that that he'd be a hard trophy option over connor macdavid which is laughable, but the fact that that's even, you know, a possible discussion point, even as I said, well, let's throw it out there for argument's sake kind of thing is wild and shows how good he's been, but also how important he's been to their bottom line. Because like I said, they bring a lot to

the table. They're a playoff team right now for good reason, but they don't have offensive production to spare. And he's their number one weapon there, their number one option by a factor of, you know, 50. So yeah, it's not good. Yeah, I mean, this is a team, as you said, they're kind of star for scoring. So they are 26th with 2.75 goals per game. And 31st with 106-5-on-5 goals this season.

Yeah, their five-on-five game has been brutal. Not great. And, yeah, this is a subtraction of one of their best score. Yeah, they're what? He has 39 goals. He's their best player. their top tier offensive player who drives the bus on his own line as a winger, which is always tough.

There are very few guys that can do that. I think when it comes to that, he's also a really great playmaker. I think maybe people don't quite realize that about him because of the goals and because of the flash that he brings when the puck is on his stick and he's driving. And he's driving the net. The guy is maybe not prime Patrick Kane level playmaker, but he's close enough. He's as close as we're going to get.

on the wing, on the wing these days. So, yeah, it's brutal. It's a brutal loss for a team that, you know, like I said, doesn't have a lot of ground to give when it comes to either offensive production or points at this point in the playoff race because it sounds crazy, you know, and maybe it is, but, you know, the margin is probably a little smaller than you think for them. So I guess the bright side for the Minnesota Wild is that they have a 10 point cushion for a playoff spot right now.

There's a lot. That's actually, you know, I got to say that's, that's bigger than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was at least down into, down into single digits for him. Yeah, so they've got a 10-point cushion that they can use over the next three to four weeks. And this is, I think, I believe Rousseau wrote this exactly, and learn how to score without their go-to guy. Of course, the glass half empty take is that, oh God, this is another Minnesota sports story. What the hell is going to happen? Is this how the Calgary Flames sneak into the playoffs?

I don't think so, but we'll see. I think. 10 point is a lot. Yeah. But also four weeks is a really long time. It's a long time. Yeah, three or four weeks with a lower body injury. The team announced that this evening here on Thursday. And the fact that they're announcing that is the time frame, like straight off the bat is typically not a great sign.

It's not great. So that's the news you can use. Actually, you know what? One more little news you can use. The Canadian Women's National Team that's going to head to the Women's World Championships in Brampton has been named. That was named this afternoon.

They're looking to win back to back, to back gold medals at this women's world championship. Sean and I will have to make a little wager on this world championship. Sure. Do we want to talk about this now or do you know to say it's for the mailback because we did get a question about it? Oh, we did. I didn't see. What was the question?

The question was, thank you for, it was a part of a larger question, but Julia asked us a series of questions on Twitter. A lot of them were really good and really smart, so we'll go back to what she said in a little bit. But Haley, she was just asking for your thoughts on the Team Canada roster and asked if Lauren Gable has been. snubbed specifically. Okay, so the Canada roster got released today. I think some of the most notable names on this list are Natalie Spooner. So she was not at the last woman's world championships because she was pregnant with her first child, a son named Rory, who was born in December.

And yeah, born in December, she got on the ice for the first time in practices and just, you know, skating and conditioning four weeks postpartum. and then she played in the last two PWHPA showcases, which would be around 11 and 12 weeks postpartum. So essentially, she's come back to playing hockey with the PWHPA fewer than three months after giving birth and then now making the team Canada roster like just over three months by the time the Women's World Championship rolls around in a couple weeks. So Spooner's a big one.

And she is a huge power forward, like one of the best in the game. She brings a really great net presence. And her and Sarah Filier and Melody Daou were probably the best line at the women's world championships in Calgary, which was in 2021 in August. That line was electric Daoos, not with the team for family reasons. But I do wonder if we'll see two thirds of that line put together. in filier and spooner. So that's a significant addition.

Rebecca Johnson's back. Claire Thompson's going to be on the team. So she missed the last world championships in Denmark because she was in medical school trying to get her bearings in her first couple weeks at school. We did a big feature on her and the athletic if anyone's interested in reading about Claire Thompson, her story and her path. But she is back on the national team. will be a big presence on the second pair, probably next to Aaron Ambrose.

And, well, and she's not on the ice scoring big goals or shutting down Team USA. She's going to be hitting the books and studying for, you know, whatever subject she's in right now. Right now, she told me that she's doing the gastrointestinal unit right now in school. She's on the poop unit. Oh, yeah. So her and I were talking at the last World, at the last PWA showcase in D.E. I was like, what are some of the things you're learning about right now? She's like, um, a lot of poop.

I was like, oh. Poop, poop stuff into that nature. Awesome. So, I don't know, I think it's a good roster. I think Danielle Serdaki being on the roster is really interesting. There's a couple, that's the kind of big young player that's going to be on this Canada roster. Obviously, Mary Philip Hulence here, affiliate, Brian and Jenner, like the usual suspects that

have been there, done that are all back. So there aren't a ton of surprises. And I'm not surprised that Lauren Gable's on the roster. I mean, she got brought back for one of the rivalry series. Elizabeth Shigarer was also brought in for a rivalry series. They got kind of a shot there this season. But Lauren Gable hasn't been on like a major senior national team roster since the 2019 Women's World Championships, which was the year where Canada lost in the semifinals and finished

with a bronze medal, which is the single worst finish that they've ever had. had in a major international tournament. You know, I think the national team spent a lot of time looking at roster construction and not just making the team, you know, the best possible players, but like having the best, like top six and bottom six, like actually constructing a roster that could win. And I think with some of the personnel that they have, like if Lauren Gable's not going to be playing on the top line or the second line, can she play that third line role? Well, probably not because that's Rebecca Johnson.

and Blair Turnbull and Emily Clark, who do that really well. And do you really want her on the fourth line? Well, you've got Laura Stacey and Jamie Lee Ratra and Kristen O'Neill. Like, this team has an identity, and they've been winning with that with this roster of players. So there wasn't really a great opportunity for Lauren Gable to jump in and steal a spot. And that's what she had to do, right? Like, there aren't a lot of holes. So Lauren Gable was in a situation where she would have to jump in and steal a spot from somebody.

And it doesn't look like she did that. It looks like Sardaki did. looks like you know Jamie Borbonnet came in and stole a spot from Megan

Mickelson or an Ashton Bell who were no longer on this roster who were at the last world championships and Victoria

Bach and Sarah Potomac Jesse Eldridge they are no longer on this roster they've been in the fold they were kind

of at the last world I was surprised the CD Montan turnover from the last world roster right I mean

there were five six five six switched over spots there? I don't know. I don't know shit about that, but it seemed like it was more than you to anticipate for a defending champion team. Absolutely

for a team that's won, you know, the last three major international tournaments, but I think that's I think that just speaks to the depth of talent that team Canada has on their roster, right? Like, Megan Mickelson is 38 years old. She was at that last

world championship when Claire Thompson couldn't be there. Jamie Borbonnet got cut but they're also in the middle of this new Olympic quad. So does it make sense to bring Megan Mickelson in for this one? Or should you reintroduce Jamie Borbine into the fold? You're probably going to go with a younger player who has a bit more potential versus, you know, the veteran at this point in, you know, between Olympic stages. And yeah, I think it's, you know, for when you get Natalie Spooner who's back and playing at a level

where you think she can make an impact, someone's going to have to get cut to make room for Natalie Spooner. And someone's going to need to get cut to make room. for Rebecca Johnson. These are players who have been in this program for over a decade now, some of the longest,

tenured, most decorated players, whether it's NCAA or the International Women's game. And I think... It's only been, like, it's been six months or seven months since the last world. I mean, the changeover

because of the compressed schedules. The schedule's all weird, yeah. Still crazy. I know. The schedule is all strange. So, you know, I think a lot of people are often looking for,

you know, explanations is why is Lauren Gable not here and why is Elizabeth Shigar not here? Is it because they play in the PHF? I just think that this is a country with a lot of really good women's hockey players and there's so few opportunities for these women to showcase what they can do, whether it's a short-term tryout camp, whether it's Troy Ryan and Gina Kingsbury scouting them in the PW or scouting in the PHF or scouting them in college. They don't have a lot of chances to make these teams. And sometimes, like, again, someone's got to get cut for Nat Spooner.

If she's healthy and ready and she's good to go, she's making this roster. So that's a good question, Julia. Thank you. And she is. That's what's, again, to circle back to what you said originally. Like, my God, this woman was, she gave birth in December. Yeah. December 6th is her son's birthday.

Also, by the way, I don't know if you can hear this. Vanessa Carlson. That's what playing in this hotel. Love that. Ooh, good lobby. So yeah, that's the news you can use. I know we dipped a little bit into the mailbag, but let's take a quick break.

And then we're going to go full on mailbag for the rest of this show. Because I forgot to mention, I have a wedding. I'm supposed to be off today. I'm doing wedding festivities this weekend. And I'm supposed to be with the bride right now. So never question me, listeners. I love you all. Let's go to break.

And as for me, you're fine. Go to break. Yeah, let's go. All right. That was nice. Let's go to break now. On that note. And we're back here to start of our oops all mailbag segment.

But before you did that, I did want to specifically address what's gone on in the league with the Pride Night situations over the last week. And what's certain to continue going on over the next month. So talked a lot about the Minnesota Wild in the first segment. It's worth noting that they pulled the plug on their own Pride Night plans where they were going to wear jerseys. Didn't do that. No player involvement there. That's obviously sad and infuriating and troubling and problematic. And we are working on stuff here at the athletic.

That's not something that's going to go unaddressed or unreported upon. we're working on a series of things and one of them's probably going to be live by the time me folks listen to this. So it's on our radar. We're talking to folks about it. But in our capacity, I guess, on this show, it's gross and sad. And it should be embarrassing for the teams and for the players and for the league. Right. Like this is this is an instance where earlier in the season

with the Ivan Proveroff situation with the Flyers you got to wonder if there wasn't some kind of Pandora's box that was opened up by when Gary Bettman left it all to personal choice and whatever and now not coincidentally a lot of locker rooms are exercising that personal choice in the form of pulling the plug on pride juries entirely which is horrible. It's one night out of 41 where the men who play hockey in this league can send a signal to an underappreciated, underserved portion of the fan base that they matter and that they're seen and they're actively choosing not to do it. So we'll see what their reasons are. We'll see what other teams join in this parade of bullshit and cowardice.

and, um, and, uh, what's the word I'm looking? Homophobia. That's, that's the word I'm looking for over the next, over the next month or so. Um, but in the meantime, yeah, it shouldn't go unmarked upon and, uh, no. We see it and we're, and we're trying to do what we can on that. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we're not just trying to defer to like when a story comes out. We just want to make sure that, you know, once the story comes out, we'll be able to

talk about everything that we've been able to find as, you know, people like Sean, you know, look into this further. But like, that doesn't stop us from saying what Sean said. And that doesn't stop us from saying that, like, people deserve to feel safe. Yeah. Whether it's players, there are significant others, staff, fans, like anyone in the building, anyone who likes this game, you don't even have to be in the ring to want to feel safe in this space and in this sport. And everybody, like, that is just like a right that everyone should have to feel safe and comfortable. And okay being a hockey fan and sometimes it is so hard to do that and I'm sorry for the people that like consistently struggle to feel safe and welcome in such a stupid thing which is just like a

sport like this is just a game at the end of the day right and you should feel like you can just watch a game and feel welcome and safe and there is a thread online I recommend from lexie brown J.T. Brown used to play in the NHL. His wife made a big thread. And that's why I say, like, players and their partners, because there's a pretty enlightening thread from Lexi. I mean, she's always been very vocal. She's great at using her platform to speak about these things. And this is a person who didn't always feel safe and comfortable at her own husband's hockey games. So I recommend you take a look there from Lexi. And if you were experiencing this, if you live in Minnesota, you live in what other cities has this happened in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia and you just want to. New York. If you just want to go to a hockey game and be yourself and feel like you're welcome and you can't, I'm very sorry. We are very sorry that that is the reality in which you face in this sport. Whatever the reasons, these decisions are being made, right? Internally, externally, whatever the reasons are, whatever the excuses that are being given, the outcome of this is that a lot of people are being A, hurt and B, told what the teams they care about think of them

and that's a tough, that's a tough spot to be in. So we're sorry and I don't know. Trying to have your back, I guess, in whatever capacity we can provide it. So anyways, with that said, let's answer some mailback questions. Yeah, so let's let's, let's. Let's start with an easy one. Who should replace Ron Hextal as the Penguins general manager next year?

This is from Josh Can tweeter. I got it go on. I got a good answer. Yeah, give it. Let's go. Pal Dubas. It's so stupid. Not him.

Are you serious? Are you serious, though? Do you think Dubas is going to get fired? You think it's impossible that he does? Do you think Dubas is going to get fired and then immediately get hired in Pittsburgh? I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. that the Leafs lose in the first round to Tampa Bay, even though Tampa looks terrible right now.

We'll lay out some facts here first off before we do any of that. Ron Hexel has one year left on his deal. Mike Sullivan has been given a contract extension by the Fenway Sports Group. Ron Hexel is not. One year left, whatever, GM makes $3 million, $4 million. And he's about to, he is on track to enter the last year of that contract. without a new one. And Kyle Dubus,

not a dissimilar situation. I don't know. Well, Dubas, this is the final year of Dubus's contract. That's what I'm saying. He doesn't have a contract either. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Dubas does not get a contract extension if the Leafs lose in the first round of the playoffs again.

Like that's something that everyone knows. Like, Dubus has talked about it. He was told, like, we are not going to, you know, give you another deal and Dubus has talked about how this is all performance based. So if they lose in the first round, yeah, maybe they decide like this isn't working what you've put together. It's not going to work. We're done.

But like he's done some good work this year. Part of me wondered after we saw the Ryan O'Reilly trade and bringing in Sam Lafferty and Jake McCabe. It's like, did Dubus do enough that if they lose his job is safe? I think that's the question, right? Because at some point, at some point, game seven. season on the line, the players that he gave this money to need to eventually just do it. And sure, Dubus gave them the money and Dubus picked these guys and Dubus put this roster together.

But eventually these guys who are so good in the regular season have to just do it in the postseason. Absolutely. And I'm not saying that Dubus should be fired. My reason in bringing that up is that if he is, or if he is not brought back, he should get a job. You think he'd be a good fit in Pittsburgh. He'd be a good fit anywhere. He should get a job in 30 seconds. So you think he could be fired, but he's still a good GM and could get hired immediately.

That's why I say it. He should get hired by who, he should be, if for whatever reason, the lease decided to move on, he should be candidate 1A on, 1A and 1B and 1C on everybody's list moving forward. Right. Especially with future GM Barry Trots off the table. Yeah, right. And if the penguins do decide to move on and they can't hire him, they should move on and hire Eric Tolski from the Carolina Hurricanes. Okay. Next question.

I like that idea. I feel like I always hate when we do these conversations. I heard this on the radio actually. I think it was Jeff Merrick. I always hate the like, does X player get enough credit for things? But I actually heard people talking on the radio about how Tolski maybe doesn't get enough love for like some of the moves that this team is made. You know what's funny is I almost think it's the opposite because obviously. You think too many people talk about it.

I don't think Don Juan L gets enough credit. Yeah. Okay. The canes in general don't get enough credit for anything. Why is nobody talking about the Carolina Hurricanes? Why is nobody talking about the Carolina Hurricanes? Do you think the canes are a legitimate, or do you think the Carolina Hurricanes, and this is the great thing about a mailbag is because it brings up topics that we find interesting? And we just ignore all the listener questions.

do you think the Carolina Hurricanes are the Boston Bruins like single biggest threat at like winning a Stanley Cup? Yes, I do. Even more so. A lot of people have been complaining. There was a lot of complaints that the Carolina Hurricanes did. They didn't do enough at the deadline.

I was like, well, we were all waiting for the Patrelli replacement. Where was it? Like, sure, that would have been nice, but the Keynes didn't really need to do anything. It's a lot tougher to improve on a team that doesn't have any glaring holes. Yeah. It's, they went out.

Yes, guess what? Yesi, Pooey, RV is their, is their 12 forward. And Chan Gosses-Barre is a third pair, is a third-payer defenseman. In a way, they had a tougher job than, say, the New York Rangers did. Because New York Rangers had money to spend, an owner who was into it, as far as Kane was concerned, in enormous holes at the top of their lineup, very obvious, plug-able holes where, you know, you had, a player like Vladimir Teresenko who was on the market. And you had a player like Patrick Kane who wanted to go to one spot in one spot only.

And they went out and got him. So credit to Chris Derry for doing it. But I think their spots, their pressure points, their spots for improvement were a lot easier than kind of adding, than having to do the calculus if you're Carolina. I'm like, is this, is this person better than what we have? And blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm with you. Absolutely.

And the other thing, too, is that it's, this wasn't a team that should have gone out and like grabbed. Okay, so everyone always talks like, you know, the canes aren't a team that like bringing in high-cost rentals. Okay, so let's let's have them go and look at some guys with term. We know that they kick tires on Tim O'Mire. Who else was like the valuable guy with term that they could have gone out and grabbed other than like, you know, some of the ones, it sounded like they were potentially circling the Calgary Flames, kicking tires on like a Linholm-Backlin to Foley potentially. I saw mixed reports on that. from some of the insiders.

Yeah, but the thing is, is like, this is also a team. They've got cap space to use right now because of patch ready, but they've also got some big contracts to sign in the next couple of years. Sebastian Ahho is an unrestricted free agent in 2024. Jordan Stahl is a UFA this summer.

You know, you've got, I mean, Martinuk's not like a huge unrestricted free agent. He's got two more years left on this deal. You know, Jacob Slavin only has a couple more years left. Brett Burns, like, they've got, they've got, I mean, I don't know if you're going to re-sign Brent Burns for a long-term contract. He's already 38 years old. However, like, they need to be strategic with their spending, right?

Like, this is a team that's got some big deals that they're going to have to sign in the next couple of years here. So I think it makes sense for them not to go out and just say, like, we've got money to spend. Let's go do it. They have a philosophy on the kind of players that they like and they have a philosophy on the kind of financial. That's the one I was looking for.

Sorry, Sean, to cut you off. I was scrolling through cat friendly trying to find the other one. It's not, it's not Brent Burns that we're worried about. It's Seth Jarvis. He's a restricted free agent for a new deal in 2024.

I wonder what kind of payday he's going to get. As someone who's not making the decisions and someone whose money it is not, of course I was like, yeah, go out and get, they should have gotten Teresenko. They should have went out and gotten whoever, you know, go all in. But there are plenty of reasons not to do that. It's just different, different philosophies, right? So I don't know. I feel fine about where the, about where the

Carolina hurricanes are. And I do think they are the Boston Bruins' kryptonite. Okay. Next question. All right. Our next question is actually from Julia. She was, she asked, he asked the original question in the first segment, like your thoughts on the team Canada roster. But that was the third, kind of the third part of her overall query here. This is Julia, Julia speaking. She said,

more serious and funny, so feel free to pass it over, but what are you enjoying in hockey right now? I'm getting the sense that you're a little burned out. And maybe that's just because it's late season that every day brings a new shitty hockey culture story, as she says, extremely valid.

And she says that it's not meant as a criticism because she watches games all the time, but it's just been kind of bummed out recently because of her team's moved in other stuff. stuff and she's just interested in hearing what brings someone, someone joy amidst, amidst the shitty feelings. Julia,

first off, I agree with your premise, which like, we're at a point in the, in the schedule that's just post-trade deadline, pre-playoffs. It feels like all the playoff spots are, are kind of locked in,

which is a bummer and something we've, you know, discussed ad nauseum here with the playoff format and all that. So that stinks. And also the pride stuff and whatever else stinks too. So yeah, it's it's tiring and it's kind of a dead spot in the schedule that's typically, you know, resolved by April, which is good. April comes and the playoffs come and everyone feels a little bit better about stuff for better or worse, right? But what I don't know, what I've enjoyed, I think over the last month has been Connor McDavid.

I know, like, I kind of have had fun ragging on the Oilers and Ragged on McDavid specifically, because, you know, why not? It's a good time. But what he's done over the last month is just, it's overwhelming, right? It's five straight multi-goal games. He's got 10 in his last 12 or whatever it is, playing at a level that we just haven't seen from him or anybody. So knowing, I think, that we are seeing Pete Connor McDavid maybe right now, this is like his version of Sydney Crosby in 2010, 2011, like right before the concussion, you know, knowing that we're seeing an all-time player, it is absolute best, has been enjoyable for me and probably more enjoyable than I thought it would be. And I think part of that is because it no longer feels that the Oilers are wasting him. And I think that's been true for a while. Right? I mean, the Oilers are probably like what, probably like the biggest contender to get out of the West. If you had to put money on right now.

I think you have to take them very, very seriously for sure. And adding Matias at home at the deadline and Nick Boudstad, like those are savvy moves that are going to help them. They're a better five on 15 now. And they're in their veteran spots where they needed to get better. So it feels like they're a threat. and it's not just because of him and it's not just because Leon Dreisadon.

It's not just because of the power player or whatever. The thing that frustrates me the most, I think, from an on-ice perspective or an on-court perspective or an on-field perspective in sports is when teams waste individual greatness because of mismanagement or bad decisions or bad luck or whatever when you see individual greatness that isn't appreciated in its time

and doesn't translate to team's success. That drives me crazy. And that's why I've ripped on the oilers so much because it has been some level, a very real level of ineptitude, stretching back multiple iterations of the front office. Can't be all in every year. You should be.

And Astridian Bree's Bois. He's been all in every year and look what they've done. And for as bad as things went for Jim Rutherford at the end in Pittsburgh and for as ridiculous as his exit was from that situation and sideways as things went before it happened, that dude year after year respected the gift of having that of having that quarter of players I say it all the time he knew what he had in sydney grisby he knew what he had in a guinea malkin and he might not have always made the right decisions and he might not have always made the responsible decisions but everything he did was meant to be done in service of the fact that he had those guys in their primes and at their peaks and he knew it and he acted accordingly so you know covering those teams and being in pittsburgh for almost all, for almost my entire career and in whatever.

I saw the way it, the way it can work and the way it should work theoretically. And to see what Ken Holland and Bob Nicholson and going back to the start of Connor McDavid's career from an executive standpoint to see the way they've wasted this guy is, is, uh, it's,

it's malpractice and it, and it, and it, it was driving me insane, I think to sit at the some level. So, so to see them finally dig out from under the, that at the same time as he's finding a way to hit a new level is fun.

And I'm excited to see what comes next. When it comes to the, you know, don't, you know, always appreciate the gift. I mean, we're seeing that with Julian Breezebaugh in Tampa, right? Like this, and he came out and he talked about it after his deadline moves where everyone thought, like, oh, my God, he gave up what for Tanner Genoa? It's a GM who, you know, I'm sure he'll never come out and say, I don't care about draft picks, but he doesn't care about draft picks. he cares about winning and he cares about adding pieces

that he thinks is going to make his team better and make his team champions. I appreciate that. And it was nice to see Kent Holland and the Oilers do the same thing with Connor McDavid. And I think, yeah, that's it. Like, that's what brings joy right now.

It sounds kind of lame. But it is watching McDavid. It's like every night he plays, there's just something that's just like, holy shit. Like look at what this guy just did. I think for a different answer, I think what's going to be,

interesting. I'm not going to go as far as saying this brings me joy, but I will say like at this portion of the season post deadline, it's going to be very interesting to see how these, these teams in the Eastern Conference continue to kind of track. As of right now, I have the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders making the playoffs as those two wildcard teams, but that's going to change probably five times between now and in the postseason. And between now and when we actually find out who's going to make it in the East. So I think the East wild card playoff race is going to be very interesting. That's kind of fun for me.

I like watching those teams. I mean, there is a, I think it was two days ago. It was on Tuesday. And, you know, the senators lose, but the Florida Panthers win. And so do the Sabres. Like, it's just like every single night. There's like all, and the Penguins will come back and win. So is the Penguins win, the Panthers win, the Sons lose, Sabers lose.

So every single night there's just all this little movement and this jostling of position in this really interesting wildcard race. So that's probably it for me. I've been really tracking that. It's been pretty fun. Also, tank battles. How shameless can Columbus in Chicago get about to find out, baby? So thank you, Julia, for your question. I think it's very thoughtful.

I appreciate the kind words. But yeah, this sucks. March 9th, everything is terrible. Yeah. This next one is from Anto. Talk us all out of the Bruins will win the cup and why it's still anyone's game. They hit a little bit of a lull in January.

Injuries? They're capable. They're old? If you look at, it didn't quite manifest. Yeah, they lost some games right before the deadline and made things kind of interesting. But, you know, they did a 10-game stretch where their five-on-five numbers kind of cratered.

they were, you know, underwater in terms of expected goals and it and actual goals for a stretch there. Mm-hmm. You know, it's, it's the predator, right? If it bleeds, if it bleeds, if it bleeds, we can kill it. And I think there's some proof of that that's at least, you know, theoretically possible. Injuries happen. That's why they went out and got Tyler Bertuzzi. Mm-hmm.

It's not crazy. Linus Olmark has not been a Vezna-Kalibre goal tender his entire career. He's been average in the past. He was average last year with him. You never know. Yeah. It's still anyone's game. It's wide open.

I like this from- Probably the other one is like Carolina. Mm-hmm. I mean, we just, we just spent, crazy, we just spent 15 minutes gas in them up. It's possible. That's the tough part of all this, is that like,

and me and Cussons always joke about it, but it's about gold tending. It's about gold tending. Look at the flames. Yeah. Yeah. My free season got pickup. Last year in the postseason?

Yeah. There were games where I was just like, oh, wow, they finally shut down Connor McDavid David tonight. Oh, but Markstrom was terrible and he couldn't stop a beach ball. Whoops. Some kind of Christina Aguilera. Good luck next year. Christine Aguilera.

What? Who? Christine Aguilera. Christina Aguilera? Aguilera. No, that's my, that's the Pittsburgh pronunciation. Oh, no. What's the other Pittsburgh thing that you do?

My car needs washed. Yeah, car needs washed. You need to wash your car. Yeah, whatever. My podcast needs done. My podcast needs recorded. I hate that. Anyways, next question.

I like this from Keith. I'm interested to hear what your answer is here. When you're going to a game as a fan, where do you like to sit? Behind the goal or center, center ice, lower bowl, nosebleeds, etc. Never behind the goal. Unless you are like obsessed with that starting goalie, I never sit behind the goal. I'm not a fan anymore. I haven't sat in the seats for a hockey.

game in a long time. But when I would go when I was younger, my favorite seats were either kind of in the corner between the bench and the goal. Yeah. So you get a good view of everything. Or like behind the bench of the team I really like. So when I was like a youth going to Penguins games, I would like be like, oh my God, we need to sit.

Actually, like a cross from the Penguins bench so I could see them. versus their backs. Calm, calm down. Or, but I think the best one is like, yeah, lower bowl. Not super low, though, because you want to be able to see everything. So lower bowl between the bench and the goal, kind of in the corner. I'm there. I'm there with you.

On the corner. Yeah. Lower bowl. Uh-huh. And either like on the glass or high enough up that there isn't anything in your way. Next song. Stereo Hearts, gym class heroes featuring Adam Living. Okay.

When I go to games, honestly, I don't stay in my seat all that much. I just, I'll get up. Oh, you're a roamer? Yeah, because I'm usually there having a, having a beer or three. And I don't know, I like standing up on the concourse, maybe if there's, if there's tables set up, some like bar, some like pub kind of tables where you can lean and have a beer. They have those of PPG. I think that's the move.

I'm not really pay attention to games when I'm in the stands, honestly. Really? You know what? I will always, I find this going a bit off the rails, I find it really hard to keep track of the score at basketball games in person. If I'm at a hoop game in person, I never know what the score is unless I'm like making it a point to be like constantly looking up with the scoreboard, but I'm watching the game that sometimes I'll look up and be like, oh my God, is that what's happening?

happening right now. I'm also, I'm also, way more going on. So I actually like focus. Much worse, much worse with that at baseball games too.

What are your favorite, your bad at checking the score? Bad at paying any sort of attention to what's going on on the field, absolutely. What are your, coming from a childhood of watching terrible, terrible, terrible,

Pirates teams. I hear PNC's nice. It's a great, it's a great place. It's a great place. So wander around and sit in different seats and big bar in right field and you buy some tickets on the on the big wall in right field. Those are usually very, very cheap, by the way, on the Clementi wall, they call it. Okay.

Really, really cheap tickets there. If anybody is looking to go to PNC, that's always my advice. Because it's a fun, it's a fun seat. You're up on a 21 foot wall in right field and the seats are typically super cheap. And you can walk around the river walk and do all that kind of stuff. You don't have to worry about paying attention to the product, which is of fate worse than death when you're stuck watching that team. I've been to a baseball game in Cincinnati, and I like that ballpark because you can sit up high and look across the river at Sweet, Sweet Kentucky. That is, it's Walmart PNC Park, basically.

It's very similar. It's like similar except a little bit worse. This is another question from me, not the mailbag. This is from my own personal mailbag. This is from the hail bag, Sean. Oh, God. rank your like games from the major leagues that you would most want to go to from i guess we'll go major four like nchl melb NFL NBA one to four in terms of like what game you'd want to go to

from these leagues like specific games no like i prefer to go to like an NBA game NBA NFL NHL MLB, like rank your in-game experience at one of those events as a fan. In-game in-person, it is the NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL. Watching NFL games in person sucks because the amount of TV timeouts, because of the weather, it is a major television. And if you're in Buffalo, all the people that are really messed up. I watched a man in the middle of December. in the middle of December

take all of his clothes off because he was sweating. Is that normal response, honestly? It was snowing. I was wearing a blanket on top of my jacket. Anyways, NFL last MLB. Yeah, football games are made for television.

It's product at this point. You know, people, they're not meant for people to have a good time watching them, watch them in person. So the other three, honestly, are pretty much interchangeable as far as I'm concerned. because baseball is fun because you can just hang. It's a good summer hang.

Hoops and NHL are better in person. And baseball is just like hanging out outside on a nice day. And football's, you know, weather sucks. You're surrounded by drunk maniacs. And there's 30 seconds of action followed by, you know, a five minute commercial break. And you have to commit to watching one game on a Sunday. A five minute commercial break. That's the other thing.

I prefer to put in a shift on a Sunday. just lay on my couch and watch whatever I want. You and me both, brother. Brother. That's right. Keeping their contracts in mind, who is more valuable? Tim Stutzla or Austin Matthews. All things being equal, I don't think there's much of a debate that Matthews is the answer here.

When you include their contracts, though, does the answer change? That's from QuadPup. This is what happens when Austin Matthews only scores 30 goals a season. I love that Stutz's the contract, though. Yes. Love it. Absolutely. The Stutz-L deal is great.

That was a good business by the Sends and Pierre Dorian to just say, like, we're going to lock this guy up before he blows up and he costs more money. That's what Kevin Adams is doing in Buffalo. Tage Thompson, Dylan Cousins, those guys are going to be worth those deals in a year. I mean, Tage Thompson already is. Dylan Cousins probably following suit. So, yeah, the Stutzel deal is great, but I just can't really get behind saying like, at the end of the day, If you're building a contender, do you want, let me pull up these contracts really quickly, actually. Whenever Matthews makes $12.5 million a year or whatever, it ends up being maybe the calculus gets a little different.

But I don't know. It's still lost in Matthews. I need another full year of Tim Stutzla, even at a cut rate, basically, that he's at now and moving forward to be sold on entertaining the discussion, I think. And we should say, Tim Stuttle is. currently making $925,000. So that deal hasn't even kicked in. I know, I know, I know, I know. So this is the question basically is, do you want Tim Stutzla at, um, eight years, 8.35 million?

Or would you have, or would you have Austin Matthews at five years, 11.64 million? It's, it's Austin Matthews. Sure. Think if you're building a roster from scratch, which one do you want? It's what?

It's the two, change? two million in change three in change I can't do math yeah we I've been eating cough medicine eating cough medicine Natalie Merchant by the way

playing in the lobby right now Austin Matthews I think this is his floor for the next few years He's not going to be worse next year than he is currently In his floor he's still an over point per game player and he's at 29 goals

this season and he's been hurt all year. Also, one of the legitimately outstanding defensive player, Stutzler, isn't that yet. I'm always hesitant to like, I'm always hesitant to criticize the Sends or Tim Stutzler. Yeah, because the fans hate your guts, yeah. Yeah, because you said that he dove that one time. Yeah, let's move on from that. The Rasmus Anderson one, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The one where Rasmus Anderson like kind of brushed up against him and then he like flung himself on the ground and Anderson was just like what the hell just happened here?

That one's legitimately funny. It happens. It's something it's something you see from young players. Like I'm not I'm not ready to nail him to the wall for it. Right. For sure. It happened. He's a very good player.

I just need a, I need another, another season or two from him to entertain this, the thoughts. seriously, I think is where I'm at. For sure. So Matthew's at 62 points and 29 goals and 57 games. And people are being like, hmm, no, no, no. I know. Crazy. And the thing with Matthews that you mentioned about the defensive game,

I think his work, like his work in the D zone and the neutral zone, you don't always notice it when you're watching a game and say, why hasn't Austin Matthews scored a goal in a couple days? or why is he not dominating the way he was last year? But this season, when he is out of the lineup, the Leafs and his linemates specifically miss the work he does in the D zone and in transition when it comes to just getting pucks out and up and hopping into the rush.

Like there's just all these little things that Matthews does in all three zones that helps his team even if he's not scoring. So, yeah, I think Stutz, all of this, none of this is saying that I don't think Tim Stutzla is a player. you can build a really good contending team around. Tim Stil's a very good. Very good. I was covering the Sends when they drafted him and I said,

I think this guy actually, you know, I think it was Corey Prominence. It's like, this is the guy who might actually end up being better than Alexi Lafranier. And this is when Lafranier was still like the next golden child. So I'm not a Tim Stutzler hater. I just can't really get behind like, let's show that Matthews makes $3 million more and wonder,

would you rather have Tim Stutzlatt eight? Something. No, I wouldn't. I'd take Austin Matthews. Yeah, it's reasonable. Do you agree? I agree. Laban on the Beats says rank the mascots based on the severity of the crimes you believe they are most likely to commit. Carl and the bear, he's done some terrible, terrible things. He's so sweet. It's just what he wants you to think. He's a chunky little polar bear. Just what they want you to think.

This is a great question. This is like the mascot hunger games from Lasz. his daughter. God, absolutely. This is like, Booy's cute, justice for Booy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Booy is a bridge troll. Right.

He definitely kills people. Stormy the pig in Carolina, he's He could not hurt anyone. He seems like, we need to protect. He seems like, he seems like a good dude. The Blue Jackets' bug thing is kind of creepy. Those eyes, they're red from

blood. Al the octopus. Eight arms just means he can kill more people, I suppose. Harvey the Hound has been around since 1983. How is he still alive?

I appreciate that the design hasn't changed on Harvey the Hound. Iceberg, so cute. Love him. Mickey Moose, harmless, just a sweet, sweet creature. I mean, the devil in New Jersey,

he doesn't actually do anything wrong. He just, just is their leader. Satan. The devil doesn't do anything wrong? He's never hurt anyone. People just look up to him. The devil hasn't done anything wrong.

It's something you just said. Sparky the dragon is a good dragon. It's Satan. It's the devil's mascot. Who is? You know what? I hate thunderbug. It's either Satan or thunderbug.

There. You happy? Okay. Or a yuppie. I think it's thunderbug. The last one I want to go into here, the last question I want to go into. Wait, no. Thunderbug has red and white fur growing out of its eyeballs.

Uh, what? I don't think that's biologically correct. What? This is the description of Thunderbug I see online. Fur growing out of his eyeballs. Okay. Oh, his eyes are so far apart. I'm not an entomologist, but I don't know that...

There's fur! Bugs have bird. Is Thunderbug a bird or a bug? It's a bug. Is Thunderbug a bird? Like, listen to what you're saying. His eyes, they look like they have feathers. If he was a bird, his name would be Thunderbird.

For the love of God. Big question from Kevin here. Have you ever eaten at Armstrongs in Castie Village? This is a very Pittsburgh specific question. One of the main things I miss since I moved to Columbus. Kevin, my man, I have eaten from Armstrongs hundreds of times. My grandma lives close by. Armstrong's was the go-to, like, oh, bringing food over for a family, for a family party.

Great wings, great pasta, great everything from Armstrong's. Hell yes. Do you think Al the Octopus has killed eight people at once? I think so, yeah. He could steal so much stuff at a store. The arms are four. Man. All right, that's it.

Something about Thunderbug, man. I think that's all for today. Goodbye. If you are an athletic subscriber, join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month for 12 months. Thank you folks for doing our job this week. Sorry about this one.

Haley's on cough medicine. We need to go. Have a good week. We'll talk to you next time. Thank you.