The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL opening night is upon us, player rankings with Dom Luszczyszyn, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

On the debut episode of The Athletic Hockey Show, Ian Mendes and Hailey Salvian kicks things off discussing opening night’s five game slate, how concerned fans should be about COVID-19’s potential impact on the season, Mathew Barzal’s three-year deal with the Islanders, Corey Crawford’s abrupt retirement from the NHL, which teams are the safest bets to win their respective divisions, corporate sponsors for each division, and more.Then, The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn joins the show to break down his 2021 player rankings, including how this incredibly unusual offseason impacted his projections, the insights he got from NHL GMs, executives, coaches, and analysts, the song search game hidden within his team previews, fantasy hockey team names, and more.And, to close things out, Ian and Hailey work through a round of five Multiple Choice Madness questions.You can get 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.

Hey everybody, Ian Mendez here. Welcome to the debut episode of the Athletic Hockey Show, a brand new NHL podcast coming your way three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays with a crew featuring myself, Haley Salvean, Pierre LeBron, Scott Burnside, Sean McIndoo. Now, coming up on this very first episode of the show, we'll tee up the biggest storylines heading into this first week of the regular season. We'll discuss who's the safest bet to win their division.

And if we're actually going to be referring to the divisions by their, corporately sponsored names. Our first guest is going to be senior NHL writer. I hope I get this right. Dom Lashishin. No, I didn't. I know I didn't get that right, but Haley's going to fix that for me coming up here

and he's going to, Dom's going to drop by to look at a player in team rankings heading into the shortened season and we'll talk some fantasy with him as well. We'll wrap up our show with a little multiple choice madness featuring questions like which new edition is going to have the biggest impact on the Montreal Canadians and what has the potential to be the biggest soap opera or dramatic storyline in the league this season. As I mentioned, though, Haley Salvean, a crucial part of this podcast.

My pleasure to bring her in as my co-host on this very first episode of the show. What is going on in Calgary, Haley Salveen? It's very cold here. I was not prepared. I mean, I was. Everyone told me, I hope you like the snow and the cold. But, no, it's good. I love Calgary.

It's been a really great transition so far. And not a whole lot going on today. just really happy to be here with you and, you know, happy to have our chat with Dom coming up. I'm not going to give you a hint on the pronunciation of his last name. And I thought it was perfect that we didn't prep the proper pronunciation because it's way more fun to watch people struggle to try to pronounce that last name. It's lecission. I know it's lecision.

But anyway, we'll ask Dom for sure when he drops by. So listen, you and I kind of did a little bit of a job switch and it kind of involved each other. One of the best notes I think I got from somebody was, hey, Mendez for Salvian with the athletic in Ottawa. It's like the Newndyke for a Ginla trade where Calgary is getting this up-and-coming rising star in Haley Salvean, who is the Jerome McGin-Lah. And I'm like the old, grizzled veteran broken down centerman who's got a little bit of traction left in the tires than Joe Newindyndyke. That would seem like a fair. You must be loving this deal. You're Jerome McGin-law.

I've got to say I'm very happy with the Jerome McGinla title, especially because I'm here in Calgary. Like it just, it's the perfect fit. It's the perfect way to say it. And I think you said that one day. And before we got the comment. So we got that comment. And you're like, that's what I said. That's exactly what I said. So no, I'm very happy to be Jerome McGinla. I'm very, very happy about that. I'll take it. Now, have you noticed you spent one season covering Brady Kachuk? I don't know you've only had about a week covering Matthew Kachuk. Any differences that you see so far in the Kachuk boys? I mean, it's funny because that's probably the biggest thing that everyone said to me about this. And Sean McIndoo, who's going to be hosting with you as well, his tweet was pretty funny. He's like, you know, Haley's a rising star.

And if you wanted to cover your hockey team, you're going to have to draft one of the Kichucks. And it started this really funny kind of thread underneath of people being like, well, does Winnipeg count? Like, can we have her somewhere where Keith played? What about, you know, Taryn? Can she go to Virginia? And started this really funny discourse of, you know, I'm only covering one family specifically. You know, I'm not a Sends reporter, not a Flames reporter. I'm just covering the Kachucks because I also covered the Memorial Cup that Matthew Kachuk one.

with the London night. So I'm realizing my brand is not what I thought it was. I'm going to send you off to Atlanta where Keith played like six weeks back in the day. Then you can cover sports down there. All right. So I think we're pretty excited about this because coming up on Wednesday, Haley, it is the return when we didn't know we were going to get hockey again, right? There was a point there where the NHL and the NHLPA were dragging its feet and we were like,

oh no, January 1st and then middle of January. But here we go. Wednesday, January the 13th, they're going with a quintuple. header, I guess we call this, five games on opening night. Do you like this approach? Or do you think the league should have said, you know what, let's just do two marquee games. Let's do, and let's be honest, it would have been the habs and the leaves in the early

spot. And then, I don't know, you do something else in the later spot? Or do you think this is the right thing, get five teams up and running on, five games scheduled for opening night? No, I love it. I think it's incredible. We haven't had hockey for some teams who weren't part of the return to play for well over 300 days, probably about 10 months.

now. There's fans who obviously got to watch the play in, but even that was months ago. I, as a hockey fan, you know, I obviously cover the Calgary Flames now. They're not on opening night. So I'll have a little bit of prep for the next day when the flames play the Jets. But opening day, oh, I'm just going to have a spot on my couch where I'm not going to move. And the fact that there's so many games I can watch, it's going to be just like the return to play in the playoffs where there was hockey from like 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. And you just didn't move. So I understand, I think maybe in a regular year, you just have really big, you know, two marquee matchups for the start of the season. But in a weird year, everything's packed in. May as well just

get right to what's going to be a really, really hectic season with a ton of hockey. But hockey fans, I think are going to love that. And, you know, you talk about embracing the weirdness. How about like Pittsburgh and Philly starting at 5.30 on Wednesday? Like what's up with that? Like, who came up with the idea and said, you know, a 530 start time would be a great idea to restart the season. Doesn't that seem odd? Like, just the timing of it? It is a little different because when you think, you just think 730 Eastern. That's just when hockey starts. It's a 730 game. But I feel like the Penguins and Flyers, they always used to play at these really weird times.

Like they'd have those afternoon NBC games at like noon or one o'clock. I don't know what it is about the Penguins and Flyers specifically that they always get put in these like really weird start times. But I guess that's kind of what they just had to do to maybe fit everything in for the network wise. It's a weird time for sure. But I'm still going to be watching come 530 because I'm not going to be anywhere. I'm not going to be doing anything, but sitting on my couch.

Yeah. I got to tell you, As I think about this more and more as now that I've moved into the role of a writer, you could talk me into 530 start times. Like the game ends at eight. Now I got a couple of hours to kind of put something together that maybe could be read that evening. Like you could maybe talk me in to 530 start times on a more regular basis. But then again, maybe that's just me becoming an old man.

Like the Joe Neuendike here, you're like, you know, this guy's eating dinner at 515 and then looking for his game at 5.30. Exactly. Eat dinner at 3. You have it like scheduled out, like dinner at 3 p.m. You know, digest, relax a bit and then watch the game at 5. And then you can be in bed by 10. See?

That's the ideal old man schedule, Ian. Exactly. 10 seems a little late to be honest with you. All right. Hey, you know, I think one of the things we all have to embrace too, Haley, is and if you, and depending on some of our list, might be fans of other sports. One of the things in other sports you've had to kind of get used to is the idea that

games could be postponed and things could be moved and your, guess what, your fantasy team might be impacted because, and we're seeing it with the NBA right now, and we certainly saw it in the MLB and the NFL, is that there's been some COVID concerns and that's, look, we don't want to harp on it because I think we're all so excited for hockey to come back that we don't want to harp on it, but I think it's a legitimate storyline going into Wednesday night, the fact that Columbus and Dallas and I think even Pittsburgh really kind of had, there's some issues there about COVID. How much concern should we have that there might be some games postponed, Haley?

And do you think there's any lessons we can learn as fans and media from what the other leagues have gone through without playing inside a bubble? Yeah, well, you know what? I think with Columbus and Pittsburgh, I think their original practices that were canceled, it was what they called out of abundance of caution. I think it was, you know, they had, somebody had a close call or there was potential exposure. So they wanted to make sure that everyone was safe. And I think that's obviously the smart and the proper thing to do.

If there's one person on your hockey team who may have come into contact with COVID-19, we all know how quickly that will spread if he indeed contracted COVID and they had practice as is. So obviously with those two organizations having the abundance of caution, that's, that's the proper thing to do. And I think that's something that most teams are going to be doing with, you know, all the protocols that the league has put into place to have this season go off and have the sign off from all the different, you know, governments, provincial, the cities kind of just saying, yep, we can go ahead. So I think that's good. Obviously it is, you hope that there's no positive tests coming from those teams. But with the Dallas stars, having those six positive

tests on players and two with staff, I think so far, which is a good thing. I mean, as good as it can be because there are already positive tests. We haven't seen that huge ripple effect of those initial tests. You know, we haven't seen news releases coming in the days previous saying, okay, two more players or two more staff, three more people. So it seems hopefully that it's contained to that initial positive test group as of right now. That could potentially change because that's what we saw in both the MLB and the NFL seasons. things kind of spread quite quickly, you know, with the Miami Marlins, you know, I think that was probably one of the first organizations in sport that had, you know, an outbreak of sorts.

And we saw just how much that impacted the team schedule, the schedule of the teams who were supposed to play there, the teams who were supposed to play the teams that had played in Miami recently. It just had massive ripple effects through the MLB. And it was a bit of a mess for a little bit there with Major League Baseball. And we saw, we've seen it with the NFL as well, but, you know, the thing that the NFL has that nobody else does is they play once a week. So if you're quarantining and you're postponing a game, you could realistically move your game from Sunday to Tuesday or Sunday to Wednesday, which is some of what we saw. The NHL does not have that ability. So in terms of what we can learn, I think the biggest thing that the NHL needs to learn from these experiences that the other leagues have gone through is, is, you know, athletes are not immune to this.

And you just got to run a tight ship. I think you just have to be prepared to do a lot of tinkering if teams lose some of their players. I just, you just have to make sure that your players and your team are being, you know, extra careful. They're not in a bubble, but you almost have to keep it, you know, go to the rink, go home, go to the hotel, go to the rink, go home, you're on the flight, you're getting regularly tested.

You just have to be careful because I don't know. really what else they can do. Yeah. You know what? And I think one of the things I've learned and I've just, you know, wrapped up kind of a seven year run at, you know, on radio. In the last nine months have been trying to fill a daily talk show without a lot of sports. One of the things I've learned, I think a lot of our listeners are like, yeah, you know what?

I just want to talk about sports again. Listen, I appreciate. And I think it's important that we hit on the COVID stuff because it is absolutely one of the biggest storylines going into opening night. But what's really cool, Haley, is actually we have like legit, tangible. newsworthy storylines to sink our teeth into, including one that came to pass on the weekend. Matt Barzel gets a three-year contract with the New York Islanders. Now, I got to tell you, if I could pick one of the least enviable positions in sports,

I'm thinking negotiating a contract with Lou Lamarillo in a pandemic would be at the top of the list of things I wouldn't want to do. In fact, I wouldn't want to do a contract negotiation with Lou Lamarillo if he was like Scrooge McDucking it into a big pool of money. money. Like, this guy is probably the toughest guy to negotiate with. So Barzell gets a three-year deal at $7 million per. And what I want to ask you, and I think what we really need to discuss, is, is this the norm for RFAs in the next little window where usually if you're an Islanders fan, you'd be like, I want Barzell at seven years at eight or nine million per and lock them up.

He's our guy. But there's such an unknown landscape, isn't there? Like with the COVID, um, kind of altering the way that teams do business. Do you think this is what we're going to see in the next couple of years that these young stars in their early 20s, they're not going to get the six, seven, eight year deals, Haley. You're going to see these sort of bridge deals until everybody understands exactly what the landscape looks like 18 to 24 months from now.

Definitely. I definitely agree with that. And, you know, with the flat cap, we don't know how long we're going to be stuck at 81.5. Teams don't know how long they're going to be stuck there. Um, you know, some people have said realistically it could be flat at 81.5 for the next four to five seasons. So can you really be shelling out an eight year, you know, max, you know, huge contract seven years, six year when you don't even know what your cap situation's going to be like midway through that contract. So I think you're right when you say that we're going to be seeing a lot of those bridge deals. And I think for the players too, though, it's, it's probably better for them to, to get that bridge and, and, and, and, of bet on themselves in a way. I think Matt Barzell, three years from now, could potentially make more money than the Matt Barzell of right now. I think he still probably could have been making Miko Ranton money, which is reportedly from Arthur Staple, what Barzal was looking for around

six years at $9.25 million. It's a lot of money, but I don't think there's that many people specifically with the Islanders who would say that's unreasonable for a player like Barzell. But definitely, I think, you know, these bridge deals are going to be really huge for the next little while. Because if you look at the Islander's cap situation, even on this three times seven bridge deal, they're still technically three and a half, four million dollars over the cap. They're going to have to use LTIR. They're going to have to put, not try, they're going to have to put Johnny Boytruck's $6 million on LTIR. Lou Lamarillo couldn't really offload any of those big contract.

again, Arthur Staples said that was something they tried to do. They tried to free up money, but no teams are buying. Who has the cap space to take on, you know, a huge contract that the islanders are trying to get rid of to sign Matt Barzell long term? So I think, you know, that's just one example of what is going to be a really big thing throughout the league. And there's going to be teams who have the cap space like the Ottawa senators, like the Detroit Red Wings, and they should really be weaponizing that cap space because it's at a premium.

right now and it's, I think it's going to continue to be for the next three seasons at minimum. Yeah. I always thought NHL players should be a little bit more like the superstar. So I'm talking, and Barzell might very well be in that mix. I've always thought if I was a young NHL star in my early 20s, I would almost try and do what NBA players do, which is, you know what, just give me a two year deal, three year deal, whatever. And then at the end of that, I have the leverage and I have the ability to, you know, call the shots.

And, you know, I've always thought like if you, but that's only for like the super elite, right? Like the McDavid's and the McKinnons and those types of guys. But anyway, I think it's going to be, I think you're 100% right. The flat cap is going to be the most interesting factor, the kind of unseen factor that impacts a lot of teams here in the next couple of years. Another piece of news that happened on the weekend, and I think this came to as a surprise haly to a lot of people, Corey Crawford, who had signed a two-year contract with the New Jersey Devils, kind of abruptly announces his retirement. I look at Corey Crawford. I wonder if he's the most underrated goalie of his generation, almost like what Chris Osgood went through in the previous generation,

which was, you know, his team wins multiple Stanley Cups and they're like, well, you know, anyone could have won a Stanley Cup with, you know, with those Chicago teams. I kind of think that Cory Crawford gets overlooked. And I think the first thing, if you ask any Chicago or most hockey fans, hey, name the core members of the Hawks teams that won the cup in that window. You're going Keith, Seabrook, Kane, Taves, Hosa. Crawford doesn't jump immediately to your mind. I think he should.

I kind of think he's like a borderline Hall of Famer, to be honest with you. Do you think Corey Crawford has been overlooked in his, in his NHL career? I think that's probably fair to say. And if I looked at, you know, what the Chicago Blackhawk statement said about Cory Crawford, because he was such a huge part of those winning teams in the culture that the Blackhawks were kind of growing there with that core group. And the Blackhawk said, quote, We congratulate Corey on a Hall of Fame worthy playing career.

So I think like you said, you know, is he overlooked? Is a great kind of question? But I also think, you know, that's an interesting argument. Is Corey Crawford a hockey Hall of Famer? I mean, he has two Stanley Cups. He played almost 500 games, I bet around 488 games played in his career. His career say percentage is just under 920. And he missed 80 games over the last two seasons with concussion issues,

which is difficult to hear. But I mean, he carved out a very, very impressive career. And I'd be curious to hear from people, what about Cory Crawford does not make him a hockey hall of famer when you look at the success that he had in his pretty long playing career and a pretty successful one too. I'd be interested to hear people, you know, they can tweet at us if they want,

as long as they're not screaming at me, or really angry. But I'm curious to know, what is it about Cory Crawford that is not a hockey hall of famer. Why isn't he in that upper echelon conversation that we always have so often with different goaltenders? Yeah, it's funny.

Like, I can't quite figure out what the parameters are for a Hall of Fame goalie. Like, I think, okay, so he's got two rings. He should be in. But then Mike Vernon's got two rings. He should be in. And Tom Barrasso's got two rings and he should be in.

And Chris Osga's got two rings and he should be in. And like, I don't know. And then all of a sudden you'd be like, hey, surprise, Rogi Vashon's in the Hall of Fame. you're like, wait, what? Like, I don't know. So I have no idea. I can't get a really good read on goalies.

But I think that's a fascinating storyline because now New Jersey, all of a sudden, on the eve of the regular season, we'll have to figure out how they can kind of insulate McKenzie Blackwood there going into the season. So we got to also get used to the baseball style schedule coming to an arena near you, Haley, because you're going to see teams play each other two, three, four, and wait for it, LA and Anaheim actually play each other five times in a row. You don't even see that in baseball, but a five game series. Are we prepared for this?

And are you on board if next year, Haley, they're like, you know what? We like this baseball style schedule. And you're going to see Edmonton, Calgary play two or three in a row. You're going to see Vegas and San Jose play two or three games in a row. Because I can't quite figure out if I'm on board yet. I'm on board for this weird year, for sure. I think it's going to add just another layer of heat and intensity to these new divisions. Specifically, you know, we're both covering Canadian teams.

I mean, Calgary and Ottawa are going to play each other like three or four times in a row. You're going to have that Kachuk storyline, you know, is it going to boil over between the brothers? You know, what's going to happen with the Battle of Alberta? They play multiple times this season. The Flames also play Winnipeg 10 times this season. And we all know what happened with the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of that play in series. And I think there's going to be some intensity there too. And I'm really interested to see how the baseball style schedule plays out in terms of,

you know, something happens on game one. You're not going to have a couple weeks of breathing room before you play that team again because you're right back on the horse playing them the next day. Maybe you have a day off. Things are going to boil over. And I think it's going to happen very quickly with. some of these matchups. And like I said, it just adds to the intensity of some of these rivalries that we're going to see get even more heated that are going to get renewed. Maybe we're going

to see some new rivalries coming, you know, just the amount of times these teams play each other. I don't think there's many people who would say that the Calgary Flames have an intense rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Canadians because they don't play each other that often, but they could this year. And I think that's just going to be must see TV for fans. I I don't know if I'm on board for it next year. I think if we can get back to a normal kind of schedule, I would probably prefer to go back to as is. But for like a one year, one time thing,

just give me all of the chaos and I'm so on board for it. I'm really on the fence. I think I'm more of the opinion that let me see how this plays out this year. And if there's some really great benefits and even if you want to look at it from the perspective of, you know, cuts down, you know, travel and the carbon. footprint or whatever, however you want to look at this, I'm okay with that, but I'm curious to see how it plays out. And I think that's one of the benefits, if I can use that term of the pandemic,

is it allows us to kind of put things into like a little test tube and see like, oh, I wonder if we saw it with the play-in format last year and it got mixed reviews. And we'll see how it plays out with this. Another thing that's being put into a test tube by the suits on the Avenue of the America is there in New York City. It's the divisional sponsorship names, Haley. Without looking at any piece of paper or on the internet right now, do you know the four divisional sponsor names in the National Hockey League for the 2021 regular season? The Scotia Bank North Division?

I think it's actually, they even just dropped bank. It's just the Scotia North Division. But yes. Okay. That was the, is there one for Tellus? There is not. There's only one Canadian company in this and that was Scotia. Oh.

Nope. That's it. Well, let me help you out. Let me help you out. You've got the mass mutual east division. You've got the Discover Central Division and the Honda West Division. Is there any way that you will be referring to these division names by their corporate sponsor? I can't see my, I'm having a hard time enough just saying north, east, west, and central,

let alone, hey, by the way, don't forget to give Honda its plug and Scotia its plug. I can't see myself doing it throughout the course of the year. No, I am on board for the league finding revenue streams in a really difficult year. I think, you know, people who are in an uproar about that, it's a business and I'm totally fine with that, but I'm not calling it the Discover. See, I already forget what you just said, like, I'm not. Discoverage Central Division. I'm not calling it.

I am not saying Scotia North. You know, I think it's probably a bit more difficult for media members who maybe have broadcast partnerships with the league. You know, people at TSN, you know, they're probably going to have to call it the Scotia North division, you know, because they have a partnership with the Sends and maybe the league is going to say you got to call it this. but, you know, I don't have to do that. I'm not going to write it in my copy.

And I'm not going to, it's just not. I don't see myself referring it. Even with the All-Star game, do you call it? Do you ever call it the Honda, you know, NHL All-Star game? No, you just say NHL All-Star, right? So I'm on board with sponsors. I'm on board with them, you know, getting some revenue, but, you know, I'm just not going to refer to it that way.

I don't even remember that the All-Star game was sponsored. So you know what? That's a great point by you because I don't even remember that the All-Star game was sponsored or anything like that. So there you go. All right. I don't even know if it was Honda. I just, uh, someone can fact check me on that. Yeah. Well, hey, listen, as we look at these divisions, I, for me, if I look at like, if you, if somebody told you, hey, Haley, we're going to give you a 20 bucks and you could put it down on any team. You're like the most confident that this team is going to win their. division.

If somebody gave me 20 bucks, I'm putting it on Toronto. And I know that's not going to sit well with a lot of people. But I just feel like a combination of they, they're the most talented team in that division. As much as people mock them, they are a little bit battle tested. And they're a pretty good core. Now they've added some veteran pieces and Simmons and, you know, Joe Thornton. I think that they're the, the talent discrepancy between Toronto and the next team, in my

opinion is probably the greatest talent discrepancy between any division leader and the next team. I know people will say, what about Tampa? But I don't know, Tampa to me without Kucharov and some pieces there, I think if I had to pick, Haley, the team that I'm most confident will win their division before the start the season would be Toronto. I don't know if you think it's Colorado or Tampa or somebody else. I hate to agree with you, Ian, but I do. I think if you look at, you know, Dom, who's going to be coming on the show,

he did all of his season previews. And I think the way he kind of described the Canadian or the North Division, the Scotian North Division, uh, was kind of like a sandwich or like a hamburger with Ontario buns. And then everything else in the middle is kind of tiers. So if we kind of broke up that division into tiers, you have the Leafs, they're the top bun. And you've got the Sends who were the bottom bun.

And then you kind of have this tier of Montreal, all Calgary, Edmonton in the middle. Like they can be the condiments, I guess. And you can have, I don't know how you make, I don't know how you layer your burger. How is this division not sponsored by Subway? Come on, the Subway North Division. It's sitting right there.

It was. That's a missed opportunity. I'm more than happy to be a marketing consultant if anyone needs. But then you've kind of got, you know, that tier of those three teams. And then you've got Vancouver and Winnipeg. And then, like I said, you've got the sentence. And I think the degree of separation in the middle is very small. I think you could really see a lot of teams, you know, maybe surprise you.

I think, you know, Winnipeg in Vancouver, they're kind of been given that, you know, lower tier. But no one would be shocked if they do better. I think the flames have been given, you know, that third place ranking behind Montreal, but no one would be shocked if the flames can tend to get a little bit higher. But I also think that the degree of separation between that tier, and the Leafs, it's pretty sizable. And I think that's because of the talent on that roster. And this is just all on paper, right?

Like until we actually see these teams play against each other and we know what this Leafs team is going to look like and how they're going to respond to the schedule and to, you know, everything that's involved this season and everything that has happened to this Leafs team in the past, it's all on paper. On paper, I think the Leafs are the safest bet to win their division. I think we could also make the argument that the Colorado avalanche are probably the safest to win their division. They faced a bit of adversity last year. I think they had, you know, Stanley Cup championship dreams.

I think they thought that was within reach. They obviously were not expecting to get bounced from the playoffs where they did. So I think that's going to be a really, really hungry avalanche team. And you've got a kale McCar who has a year under his belt. You've got, you know, more players who are battle tested. And I think the, you know, I don't think the degree of separation is quite as big with the abs in their division. But I would, you know, I agree with you about Toronto. And then I would say Colorado is also a pretty safe bet to win their division.

Well, Haley, we, we had a choice of who we were going to bring in as our first guest. And, you know, for us, it was a, it was a no-brainer. We only had one name in mind. It was Scott Wheeler. Unfortunately, he's not available. So we went to our plan B, right? Is that fair to say? we went, but now I don't know how to pronounce his name.

I'm going to be straight up honest with you. I always thought it was Dom Lecision, our senior writer at the Athletic. Walk me through this, Haley. Am I pronouncing Dom's name correctly, yes or no? No, that's not correct. The only reason I know how to pronounce this name is like two, three years ago we did those puck talks and I had to get Dom to explain to me how to say his name, like over and over and over again until I finally got it.

And it's, should I say it or Dom, do you want to, do you want to let Ian try one more time? Do we need to? One more time, because you know it's very wrong right now. So you got to go one more time, knowing that what you said earlier was very wrong. So I can't, I don't even know. This thing looks like an eye chart to me. L-U-S-Z-Y. Like, I don't know.

I'm going with decision again. I have nothing. Haley, help me out. How do you pronounce his last name? It's loose chishin. Oh my God. That was so professional. That's the loose chisin.

Oh, my God. No. I just said it. I don't know. It's like, the way I think some, the way I think Dom explained it was like it's almost like loose chicken. But with. But loose chishin, not actually chicken. Loose chishin.

There you go. There it is. Is that right? Loose chishin. Yeah. Loose chicken. See, this is great fanatics. Loose chicken was my.

nickname at the hockey news. That's where that is from because they also couldn't pronounce it. Okay. Well, listen, it's going to be great to have you on here. And you're going to be on a regular basis with, with Haley and I. We need to come up with a nickname for this segment. I'm going to throw one at you guys already. You tell me, if you like it or not, we're going to call this segment Dom and Dumber. Because Haley and I will be the Dumber and you're dumb. Dom and Dumber. Yes or no? I personally love it. Done. Amazing. All right. Hey, let's kick this off because, of course, Dom, you're a senior writer here. And, you know, we're all pretty excited for the start of the season here.

And we're looking at season previews and we're looking at player predictions. And a lot of people doing their fantasy drafts, things like that. I think we want to know kind of how difficult has this been to kind of put some of your list together here in the absence of preseason. And it's kind of the traditional run up to the season as you're ranking teams and players. It's not, hasn't been extra difficult for me because I am going business. as usual and just doing it as if nothing has happened over the past year and saying, okay, these are the last three years as I'm going to always do my projections. So we're going to keep rolling with that. And obviously that's wrong. And there's this large gap of time for a lot of

players. And who knows how that's going to work? It might be older players feeling fresher. It might be players who are often injured feeling healthier than they ever have or could be younger players taking this massive step that a model looking at past data just wouldn't be able to predict. So I have gone business as usual and I'm just prepared to be more wrong than usual. So people should trust your model is what you're saying. Because everyone else is doing this as well and the goal is to be less wrong than them. We're all going to be wrong a little bit. Just be the least wrong.

That's the goal. So Dom, your player tiers came out this morning and if people haven't been able to check it out. I definitely recommend you worked on this with Craig Custin's. You guys had your panel of our writers going through, you know, a hundred different players. What I'm really interested in, though, is that you sent these tears out to about 20 or so people in hockey. I'm curious about the process, how much of your tears changed from your original rankings to after once you got the opinions of some of these people, because some of them are quite, you know, we've got a couple of curse words in here. We got a couple of,

like, why is this guy not included here? So I'm curious how much things kind of shifted once you got those opinions. We put a lot of credence into what the people inside hockey say. We had a wide range from general managers to executives, to coaches, to even analysts inside the game who sometimes you don't get to hear from. So that was a good balance to the people who really depend on tape and using their hockey knowledge and eyes and whatever. whatever. And before we even did that, me and Craig went through the model itself. Like, who do we want to move? We watch a lot of hockey. What do we like? And so we moved players down. We had Dougie Hamilton really high. And right away, I'm like, Craig, I know we're going to have to move them down. So let's

just get it over with. And I know Seth Jones is low. So let's get it over with. Let's move them up. And once we did that, we had a list we were comfortable with. And then after we sent it, most of the people we talked were like, this is a pretty fair list. There's not anything. think that's too egregious, but there's this one guy, and they'll go through and, like, say, this guy they really like, they'll do that a few times. And if that was a common sentiment, then we would have pushed them up. And we did that for, I think, a few players. Usually it was just one tier. We didn't move anyone up very drastically. And there were times where we stood our ground. I know there was a lot of pushback for Dougie Hamilton, and we already moved him down. And I'm

like, no, we're not moving him down any further. I believe in Dougie. I went back to all the analysts. I'm like, are these guys for real? Like, you have, you have better data. Do we still like Dougie? Like, yeah, we like Dougie, but like, I don't mind moving him down, but not with those players that are down there. And it was like John Carlson, Seth Jones. And I think they could see him being down, but not in that tier if those players were occupying that tier. You know, let's hit on Dougie Hamilton a little bit more here, because like I said, he seems like He's a classic lightning rod type of player. Is there any scenario, Dom, that you could see Dougie Hamilton at some point getting a little love for the Norris trophy?

I mean, he was getting love last year before he got injured. And he got votes, even though he only played 47 or so games. So I think what people want to see is him to keep doing it. Because that was the first year he actually got those big minutes. The knock on him all the time was, oh, his coaches don't even trust him to play these minutes. And he ends up getting those minutes and he crushes them like, oh, why weren't we always doing this? And that's sort of what we saw last year. He finally got power play one minutes.

Caroline had a great power play because of that. And he got penalty kill minutes for the first time in his career as well. And he got 23 minutes overall. And that's sort of what people were looking for. A lot of people, they want to see that big time on ice push and they want to see it sustained. So with a guy like Seth Jones, he's been eating. minutes for so long. And that's not something we've seen from Dougie. So to have it done two years, three years in a row, that I think will hush his reputation up a bit. Now, some of the other

tiers in your system, obviously, we're going to look right up at the top here with you had tier 1A in tier 1B. Naturally, there's no surprises with McDavid Matthews and McKinnon being in tier 1A. Although you guys did mention that there's probably going to be some pushback about Austin Matthews being at the top. And Leon Dreisidel. being at the bottom of that tier in 1B. Why do you think that dry sidle is that slight notch below those three in that tier? From everything I heard from other analysts is that all the defensive issues that I was reading about last year, the reason I kept him off my heart ballot, those are very real.

And it's not just a made-up figmentation of public data models. Like it's a real issue for him. and it's not enough to make him a bad player and not enough to make him not an MVP caliber player. He's definitely in that tier. It's just not with McDavid, McKinnon, Matthews. If you take McDavid off of the Oilers, does Dry Settle still put up those numbers? And I don't think that's the case. You know, you've got your upper echelon, as Haley mentioned, and it's the 3M's, McDavid, Matthews, and McKinnon.

I'm feeling like Dom, Sidney Crosby is going to take this. PDF of your thing. He's going to print it out. He's going to slap it into his locker in Pittsburgh and he's going to say, I'm telling you, I belong on that list with McDavid, Matthews, and McKinnon. What would your response be to people who think Sid Crosby should be at the top of that list? I mean, that is the most peak Sydney Crosby thing. I remember, I forget what year it was, but the hockey news, they do their annual top 50 players list. And they had Crosby, I think, second. And he had a quote about it saying that it bothered him or whatever. And then he had one of the best seasons of his career. And I can imagine he has that same drive still. That's what makes him

such a great player. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if he got right back up there to 1A. He doesn't have Jack Johnson dragging him down anymore. That was the big issue with his numbers last year. And he used to be able to carry the worst player in the league. And now that is not a skill he has. It's not a skill he should have. But that was the one thing. And considering how good he was, 2018-19, I wouldn't be shocked at all to see him get back to that level. Continuing to kind of go through these tiers here, they're just kind of the same way that Sidney Crosby is kind of a staple in the top couple of tiers and how we know that he can probably be that 1A guy. The Boston Bruins are just always there. They're core guys. They're

always just near the top. They're maybe not 1A. They're not the upper echelon, but they're always there as an elite group of players. Is there any chance? that some of these guys start slowing down, in your opinion, especially a guy like Brad Marchan? Yeah, Brad Marchan is coming off an injury that won't be easy to shake off, and he's getting up there in age, where you have to wonder if he will start declining, especially with Bergeron, the center he's played for so long up there in age as well, and declining as well. There will be a time when they all slow down, but I think Pasternak rising and becoming the player, he is becoming sort of helps shield that.

I think Ferserun has really not slipped completely over the past few years, but he used to carry the puck a lot more. He used to take on a bigger burden. Now he lets Marchand and Pasternak handle that a lot more. And I'm not sure if we'll see Marchand slow down the same way, but it's definitely a possibility. You know, along those same lines, where are we at when it comes to Carlson and Burns in San Jose?

have they have they passed that peak dom where you look at them and say do they have any potential to get into the mix for the norris trophy or are their best days for brent burns and eric carlson kind of in the rear view mirror i think for burns i would say it's probably it for him i think he's a bit older and his style play he's not as much of a driver as carlson carlson he's one of those guys who hasn't been healthy over the past couple of years i can really see him taking, having a bounce back this season after getting that health and getting back to the player he used to be because his big thing is rushing up the ice, carrying the puck through all three zones playing in transition. And he does some things that make fans very

upset sometimes. But the overall benefit is still there despite that. And I mean, he used to be right there in tier one as the best defense in the world. I don't think he can get there. But it wouldn't surprise me to see him in tier two or three. We actually, we had them in tier three to start. And a lot of the hockey guys were like, no, not him. You got to bring him down. And we're like, okay. So we'll see. I'm actually curious, what are some of the other players that prompted some of the bigger arguments? You know, was there somewhere you and Craig really butted heads on or with an analyst and you mentioned Carlson, you mentioned doggie Hamilton? Who is the player that, like, you're going to die on that hill for. I mean, the die on the hill player is definitely Hamilton for me. And for Craig,

it was definitely Seth Jones. And I love Craig. So like every single player, if he like said, you know what, I really like this guy. I'm like, okay, Craig, I believe in you. One of the guys we had in tier two was actually Matthew Kachuk. And it was all because Craig said, you know what, he brings such a different element. And it's very rare for someone to be so skilled and so annoying as him. And I'm like, Craig, you know what? The numbers aren't there, but I don't hate the idea, so I'm down. And then he got pushed right back because some of the people that we talked to were like,

I don't know if he's there yet. So that was one. But the big fight was Seth Jones and Hamilton. We were so far apart. And I think you can see in the writing that it's not just the people in hockey that are arguing amongst themselves with all the quotes. It's like me and Craig also arguing with our writing. I don't know if you can tell who wrote what, but if there's a pro-Hamilton comment, it came from me, if there's a pro-Jones comment and came from Craig and vice versa.

Well, as Haley mentioned, your player rankings, the tiers dropped today. On the weekend, you had, Dom, kind of the look at the teams that benefit the most and the least out of the divisional format, right? Because we're getting at least for a temporary season here, everything is going to look a little bit different. And if you're looking at this, the altered division, what are the teams, Don, that benefit the most that, you know, statistically, their odds of making the playoffs have improved because they got new division rivals? Well, at the athletic, every NHL article, it's always about how it affects the Leafs, because it's the Leafs, the Center of the Hockey Universe. And I don't love that trope, but it's hard not to say the Leafs right now because they go from being the third

best team in their division to the, I don't want to say undisputed best, but should be undisputed best because they're a lot deeper. They have high-end talent that a lot of teams don't have in that division. And I mean, there's just so many teams in the Canadian division where there's so many holes, there's so many flaws with every other team but Toronto. And before in the Atlantic Division, they had Boston, Tampa Bay, ahead of them. they had Montreal poking behind them. Now that's not there and they have a much easier path of going deep.

Is there a team on the other side of that that is kind of getting hurt by this divisional realignment and, you know, who could have been a contender in a normal season but is now going to have a way more difficult time? Because I think Ian and I've discussed before, you know, the New York Rangers probably should have been a good team, but now they're kind of in this really difficult division. and can they get past, you know, Boston, Pittsburgh, everyone else in that division? So is there someone who's been negatively impacted on the other side of the spectrum compared to the Leafs? There is one team, but that division, it's not from the East Division.

That one is really tough, but all their differences are sort of small because they were already in a metro that was supposed to be tough anyways. I think the biggest issue will be for Vegas because previously they had what I would call a free ride in the Pacific. They had Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver behind them, and then a whole bunch of teams that aren't very good. So to me, it's basically the Leafs and Vegas switching places in terms of path to the final four in the Stanley Cup because the Leafs were previously battling with Tampa Bay and Boston. Now there's not really much competition below them. Vegas previously had no competition and now they're battling with Colorado. out in St. Louis. You know, Dom, as we go through your team previews and predictions, we would be remiss if we

didn't bring up Dom's silly song search. Okay? So for the people who aren't familiar with this, this is, the creativity and the work that this takes, I just tip my hat to you. For anybody listening to us that has no idea about this, walk us through where this idea came from and how much work it took to put this into your season previews. So this started, this already even before last year's season previews. Anytime Blake Murphy would ask me for a chart, I'm like, in return, you have to add this one word to your article.

And it would be like just such a super weird word. And he's like, okay, I'm going to do it. And I took that idea and last year I put the entire tracklist to Love her by Taylor Swift in Tintrasurst through all the previews. So all 16 songs, even the weird sounding ones like paper rings. in Cornelia Street. I found a way. I told my editor, I'm like, do not change this sentence. This is a bit that I'm doing that will be revealed soon. And this year, I felt like people were expecting me to do the same thing. So I needed to take it to another level, obviously. And rather than just do one album, I did one album for every single team. And within every

team. There were four songs, five, six, sometimes three, three, like song titles from that album somewhere in the copy. And I told people that I was doing this and I said, whoever finds all of them first gets a reverse retro jersey, just a little friendly bribe from your favorite writer to read his work. Has anyone gotten close? Yeah, did somebody solved it, right? Yeah, it wasn't just one. There were, there were so many like halfway through there were people like is this right i'm like holy crap you guys got all of them got to make them harder so halfway through i started really hiding them as expertly as i could it still wasn't enough and the previews went up at nine a m and someone got the final two at nine 10 a.m so took him 10 minutes to find the last three albums i could never

good at that stuff like and how many words are you? Words are, like, if you looked at all 31 teams previews, like Ballpark, how many words were these people sifting through to try to find the answers here? Like, 75,000? It was 3,500 words per article, so 100,000. But here's the thing. You just need to find one. And as soon as you find one, you're like, wait, I know this. You just hit the old Command F and then search for the other ones. They're like, okay, here's the album. But some of them were so obvious that, I mean, I made it easier for them. And some of them were also, like, very early in the copy as well. But I still got to give kudos to the ones who found them all. There are, like,

10 or 15 of them. What was your favorite album that you put in there? I put Dan by Kendrick Lamar, and I wasn't originally going to do it because all the song titles were, like, too easy. And then I changed my mind. I'm like, I'm going to try to put the entire album in here. And I got nine. of them in there. And I would have went for all of them, but it was, it felt really weird using lust in a hockey sense. As we, as we, as we wrap up this initial segment of Dom and Dumber, we want to, we want to ask you a little bit about fantasy team names because, quite frankly, right now a lot of people

might be getting set. A lot of fans might be getting their fantasy roster set, doing drafts leading into Wednesday's games. So let me ask both of you this question. Where do, where do you both stand, Dom and Haley, on the idea of drafting a player for your team for the sole purpose of using that player's name for a terrible pun to name your team. Thumbs up or thumbs down? I'm the worst person to ask about this kind of stuff because, and Ian, you've ripped me for this on live radio in Ottawa. My names are horrible.

I named my fantasy football team after a player I didn't even have. My fantasy football team was, and it was named Bad Judeo. I thought it was very funny. Like, and I didn't even have juju-Smith Schuster. And then I wonder why I had the worst luck on the entire fantasy team. Like, I would have two guys get 95 points and I'd still lose because the other team guy would have like 100. And I had the worst luck and I screwed myself over with the bad juju name.

So I shouldn't have a seat at this table. So, Dom, what's your opinion on this? That's a cardinal. That's why he asked should you draft the player because you need the player to have the name. That's rule number one. This is why nobody invites me into their fantasy pools. Here's the thing. I don't love the idea of drafting for the name only because I think you got to be creative with what you drafted with.

You got to look at the team you have and be like, okay, what can I come up with from who I got and not plan ahead for it? I'm not a pun guy. Every single fantasy team I have is called the Dom Squad. It's very simple. But back in the day, I drafted Claude Giroux, and in true on-brand Dom form, I made a pun out of an album I liked, and my team's name was my gerudiful dark twisted fantasy. That's good. See, I like it. I like it.

So, yeah, see, I'm different than the two of you. I would be the guy 100% overreaching in a draft to take somebody for the pun ability, just to have the name. And I've never won, I don't think I've won any pool, NFL, MLB, or NHL in my life. Because I reach for the puns. I reach for the laughs. I go for the cheap laughs, the low-hanging fruit, and I end up last. Who's your guy?

Yeah, who's my guy? Like, see, like, I would draft. I would 100% like I would draft like if getting Malkin early and I would name my team Malkin cookies. You know, Malkin cookies. I would do it. I would take him ahead of Crosby and go Malkin cookies. And people would be like, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't know.

I just need the name. That's not even a good name. Malking cookies. You got to do better than that. Oh, I'm just, I'm just spitball in here, you know. But I would. I would 100% do a reach like that. He would definitely be available.

Like he would be available lower down, Ian. Like you don't have to reach. I know. You could just get him in the third round, second round. I don't know. See, I got this, like, I'm a big cookies guy. I might even go, I might even name my team Chips Aho for Sebastian Aho.

That's kind of good. That's better maybe than Malkin cookies. I don't know. That's better. And honestly, I respect the brand. If it's just all about the cookies and every year, if every year it's a new cookie theme,

name, that's amazing. But if it's always malkin cookies, then we have problems. Okay. Chips a hoe, I think, can work. And then each year I'll just look for somebody with some sort of cookie-related name, and we're good to go. I wish our listeners could see. We're

actually doing this on Zoom. The eye rolls coming from both of these two, they're like, oh my gosh, this is terrible. Dom's actually rethinking his agreement to join us on a regular basis here. I don't think Dumber is strong enough. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Yeah. The new segment is Dom and Idiotic. I believe we've moved past Dom and Dommer. We could do Dom, Dumb, and Dumber. And there's at least a tier. Clearly the dumbest one. That's my question.

That's just this episode. Every episode, there'll be a new dumb and dumber. I mean, if I'm the dumbest, one of you can be the dumb. I'm in. You know what? Listen, the only thing we can agree on is in this initial episode, I am the dumbest one. You got to pull yourself out of that whole next time we have Don.

I will. I will. Hey, listen, Dom, this is fantastic. It is a ton of fun to have you on here. We're looking forward to getting you on, like I said, on a regular basis. And listen, enjoy the start of the season. And we'll talk to you again real soon. Yeah, thanks a lot for having me.

I'm excited for many more shows to come. All right. And thanks again to Dom for joining us there. Haley, we're going to wrap up the show with something that I think we're going to be able to make into kind of like a regular thing, something I used to do in the radio business in Ottawa. That is Muddable Choice Madness. In fact, I like the alliteration because it's going to happen on Mondays too. So Muddable Choice Madness Monday.

Here we go. Got five questions for the two of us to tackle here heading into the start of the regular season on Wednesday. Let's start with number one. A little bit of musical chairs with the goalies in the offseason, Haley. Which are these goalies that's going to a new team is going to have the biggest impact in this upcoming season? Is it A, Braden Holtby with the Vancouver Connects, B, Matt Murray with the Ottawa Senators, C, Jacob Markstrom in Calgary,

or D, Cam Talbot with the Minnesota Wild? Who has the biggest impact? I don't want people to say that it's biased because I am here in Calgary, but I do think that Jacob Markstrom has the potential to have the biggest impact on this Calgary Flames team. They went out and they got what they believe is, you know, the true number one starter that they've been needing. I think there's, you know,

definitely a camp who believes that the flames, you know, goaltending wasn't an issue in Calgary, but they needed a little bit more to push them over the edge. That's a talented group who have playoff hopes, but they just couldn't get it done. I think there's a lot of people who believe that Jacob Markstrom is the guy who can help them do that. And so I'm going to say Markstrom, he was the MVP without a doubt in Vancouver last season. And if he can bring that to the flames and the flames team takes a step with their forward group, they've got. some good defensive depth. I think that could be a good flames team all back stopped by Jacob Markstrom. You know what? I'm going to go to Markstrom's old team, the Vancouver Connects. I feel like people,

and I understand, Brayden Holpey's had a couple of down years, but hey, this is a guy who's won a cup within the last couple of years. And when he won that cup for Washington, you think of that great save he made in the final against Vegas. Like, this guy's clutch. And I think the Vancouver Canucks going out and acquiring a goalie with Stanley Cup experience to kind of bridge the gap, shall we say, to the kids and Thatcher Demko. And I like this. I think Braden Holpey is going to go into Vancouver, him and his wife and those turtles,

and they're going to, they're going to domy. He's going to have a really good season. I think give me Brayden Holpey as the guy that's going to have the biggest impact. Okay, question number two, which Rangers rookie has a better chance of winning the Calder Trophy this year as the league's top rookie, a Alexis LaFranier or B, Igor Chesterkin.

I'm taking the kid. I'm taking Chess Durkin, Haley. I think he's going to have a chance to come in and sort of pick up where Henrik Lundquist left off and there is a huge opening there to be the number one goalie here. I think because they've got Panera and they got Zabanajad, they got the big guns already. I think Lafranier can just kind of roll in. But give me the kid. I think Shasturkin is going to be able to come in here and be pretty dominant.

And I think he's going to have a huge impact. I don't see another rookie goalie in the league having this type of ability with this type of team in front of him. give me him to be a little bit of a better chance to win the Calder than Lafranier. I'm going to disagree with you here, Ian, and I agree that Chesterkin has the chance to have a greater impact on the New York Rangers than Alexi Lafranier. But when was the last time a goaltender won the Calder? I think the last time was 2008, 2009 with Steve Mason. And we've just seen a dominance by forwards and defensemen. over the last, over 10 years since the last goalie won.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think if Alexei Lafranier has the same or even less impact that Shisterkin has as a forward, I just think that natural unintended bias to voting for skaters is going to come through. And regardless if Shisterken has a bigger impact, I think that if Alexi has a great season with the Rangers, being the first overall pick,

all the fanfare around him, the sweepstakes, I think he's going to win it. By the way, the other goalies, other than Mason, to win the Calder Trophy since the year 2000, Andrew Raycroft of getting a box off. So you're right, it is pretty much a rarity to see a goalie win the Calder. Question number three, multiple choice madness.

The Montreal Canadias, Mark Bergevin, pretty busy in the offseason with a couple of, well, actually four new faces that are coming in. I ask you this, Haley, which offseason acquisition is going to have the biggest impact on the Montreal Canadians this season? Is it, A, Josh, Anderson, B, Tyler Tofoli, C. Corey Perry or D. Jake Allen. I'm going to say Corey Perry just because with, I know, bear with me, just because I think

with everything that we already spoke about in terms of the baseball style schedule, the rivalries, the heat that's going to happen in this Canadian division, we've seen teams stocking up specifically on guys who can add some grit and toughness to the lineup. And I think guys like that in a year like this are going to be more important than they have been before. So I think that Montreal going out and getting a guy like Cory Perry is going to be really important in terms of, you know, you're going to have three games in a row against a rival team. You're probably going to need a guy like Corey Perry to ruffle some feathers, to stick up for some guys to come in in big moments and, and just make an impact in all areas of the ice. So while

Anderson to Foley or more, you know, you could call them probably more talented or high-skilled players and Jake Allen's going to come in and have an impact as a solid backup to Kerry Price. But I think with everything going on this season, I think Corey Perry specifically is going to have a really big impact on the habs. You know, I'm going to say it's going to be Jake Allen. And I think it's going to be because he's going to give Kerry Price a chance, Haley, to take some nights off. And especially when you look at this, it's going to be an accelerated schedule. you have 56 games and roughly every other night you're playing like 113 days or whatever it is. And you're going to have nights where you're playing three times and four nights and maybe it's against the same opponent.

And Jake Allen's going to come in here and offer Kerry Price the luxury of having a dependable backup that I think can win some games. Jake Allen is going to come into Montreal and not have a ton of pressure on him to be the guy other than just give Kerry a little bit of a break, give him the opportunity to potentially have some nights off. And I think that's going to be huge. So I think Jake Allen's going to be the X factor for Mark Beresvain and Claude Julian and the Montreal Canadians. Question number four in multiple choice madness. Alexander Ovechkin, Haley, is entering the last year of that mega contract he signed.

What was it? 13 year contract. That makes us all feel old. But he's technically a free agent at the end of this season. And maybe just maybe he finds a new home. So here's my question. I'm going to give you some scenarios here. we're going to talk about what's the most likely thing to happen to Alex Ovechkin down the road.

Is it A, he breaks Wayne Gretzky's record for goals of 894 at some point? Is it B, he plays for a team other than the capitals at some point in his career? Is it C, he ends his career in the KHL or D, guess what? All of the above are going to happen. Ovechkin is going to break Gretzky's record, play for another team, and wrap up in the KHL. Listen, I'll take this one first. and I've actually gone back and forth on this one in my head a bunch of times. And I wonder, was Zadano Chara rolling into Washington?

Is he going to kind of open up OV's eyes to, you know, it's pretty cool. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. Maybe you just need to go out and play somewhere. And I hate to do this because I'd like Alex Ovecgen is one of my favorite players of all time. And I would love to see this guy end his career in Washington. I just feel like the modern athlete right now, I look at Tom Brady in the NFL, Zadano Charlie, the NHL, like players that you thought would be forever, like just out of curiosity. I wonder what it would be like to go play somewhere else.

Ask Corey Perry, too. Like he's another guy who's, we thought he'd be a duck for life. So you know what? I'm going to say at some point, Alex Ovechkin goes and play somewhere else for one season just to see what it's like. Yeah, you know, I probably wouldn't have agreed with you had we done this a couple weeks ago before we saw Zadano Charlie, Boston. So I'm going to agree with you there. This is a really tough one because I think that, depending on how long he plays, I think three seasons ago, four years ago, no one's touching Gretzky.

But I think as we've just seen Ovechkin continue to score at the pace and the consistency that he has, I don't think it's impossible that he breaks Wayne Gretzky's record at some point. So I'm going to say all of the above. I'm going to flip-flop on that for the next however long. But I think if Ovi plays in the NHL for an even longer period of time, because I think he can, I think that record is breakable by Alex Ovechkin only. And I think, of course, he'd finish his career in the KHL. So I'm going to say all the above.

Okay. Fifth and final question in this multiple choice madness in our first ever debut episode of the athletic hockey show, Haley, what situation do you think? has the most potential to kind of spill over and become a soap opera where like, you know what, let me just go put in a big bag of microwave popcorn and I'm going to see how this plays out. I'm going to give you three scenarios. Is it A, Pierre-Luc Dubois in Columbus, B, Patrick Liney in Winnipeg or C, the one that's been kind of quiet lately, but don't sleep on this one.

Mark Andre Fleury in Vegas, Haley. What has the potential to be the biggest soap opera storyline drama intrigue this season? If we can get back to a place where there's like sword, Photoshop, I think that's soap opera material. I don't know if we're going to see a return of that, though. I think I think the soap opera maybe ended with that because I don't know how we're going to see something as like dramatic as that. Again, there's no chance lightning strikes twice with Mark Andre Fleury. Maybe I'm completely wrong here. Maybe it'll blow up again.

But I'm going to say Pierre-Luc Dubois, Columbus, because that's originally. been such a huge storyline this offseason. And I think we've just seen so many players leave Columbus and we've seen kind of their reaction to guys leaving. You know, the season after, after Panarin left, they had this, they had that big thing of like, you know, their whole video board intro was about guys who want to be there and like loyalty. I just, if Pierluke de Bois leaves like everyone else kind of did, I could see there being even more like loyalty to the team. Yeah, like bleed Columbus. I could see that happening again because it already did. You know what? I'm going Patrick Lainey in Winnipeg because look, DuPois's got two years on his deal now, but Patrick Lainey's going

in the last year of his deal. And that comment of, I'm here, aren't I? Was like, wow. He was like, you could see the blood dripping from his lip because he was biting his tongue. And I love Linae. I would have that guy on my team every day of the week. And I love the fact that he is very outspoken. He's very, he's refreshing, right? Like he usually speaks his mind. So when he is like, I'm here, aren't I? I'm like, who I'm putting the popcorn right in the microwave. I think that one, you know, a star player in a Canadian market always has the potential to be sort of magnified a little bit more than anything else. So give me line A for that. Haley, we are out of time. How did episode one feel to you, Haley?

It felt good. I liked the, the Dom, dumb and dumber. I'm very happy to come out unscathed. I just think that was a huge upset

for me because bad juju was really bad, but you followed it up with malk and cookies. So to come out as not dumber, after my bad juju admission, I think,

is very impressive for me. I'm very happy with the turnout. But it was a lot of fun. I'm glad we had Dom on. I'm glad we made it clear to him that he was our plan B. I thought that was excellent. And I just thought everything was really good. I'm excited to keep doing this throughout the season every Monday with you. Yeah, this is going to be a lot of fun. Listen, enjoy the opening week of the season. We'll hit you up again next Monday. And so everybody listening, thank you for listening

to this debut episode of the Athletic Hockey Show. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Leave a rating and a review. We would certainly appreciate that. We've got a great little deal for you, too. If you want to subscribe to The Athletic, you can get an annual subscription for just $3.99 a month when you visit Theathletic.com slash hockey show. Don't miss the next edition of The Athletic Hockey Show coming your way on opening day. It's Wednesday. It's Scott Burnside, Pierre LeBrun. We'll find out if they use brass bonanza as their theme song or if they switch it up. And listen, enjoy opening night. And I'll be back on this spot here on Thursday with Down Goes Brown, Sean McAard.