The Athletic Hockey Show - Potential first round NHL playoff matchups

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Hailey Salvian, Sean Gentille and Max Bultman play a little 'Would you Rather', taking a look at the current division leaders, Toronto, Washington, Winnipeg and Vegas and their potential first round matchups. Plus they discuss Alex Ovechkin, 3 goals away from setting the all time goal scoring record in the NHL, and Jalen Chatfield's controversial takedown in a fight with Connor McMichael on Wednesday night.You listen to us. Now, we want to hear from you. We're asking you to fill out a quick survey about you and your podcast habits by going to theathletic.com/athletic/survey25.Hosts: Hailey Salvian and Sean GentilleWith: Max BultmanExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the athletic hockey show. I'm Haley, along with Sean Gentile and our friend Max Boltman this week. We are back. It's been a while. Today on the show, we're going to talk about Alex Ovechkin. Of course, he continues to close in on Wayne Gretzky's goal scoring record.

And then we'll take a look at the current NHL playoff picture because somehow the Stanley Cup playoffs are only 16 days away. I don't know if you guys saw this, but I had quite the jump scare. The NHL Twitter account posted something, like, in all caps. Just the Stanley Cup playoffs are 18 days away. I was like, what do you mean? I took a phone call from one of our coworkers, let's say, last night. And he asked if the playoffs had started yet.

I'm not going to say who it was. We all know exactly who that was. A hockey colleague? Possibly a previous hockey colleague. Yes, it's a, it's a fellow who you both know and like, we'll just leave it at that. He was like, hey, did the playoffs start yet? I said, nope. Pretty soon, though.

I don't know. I'm all out of whack. He said, what are you doing in Raleigh? And I said, what do you think I'm doing in Raleigh? And he said, did the playoffs start yet? And I said, not quite. I'm not sure if he was joking or not, but 18 days away, is that where we're at? It's 16 now, but the 18 days away was like, what?

What's happening? I don't know. I am not lost. I am not locked in my life. Oh yeah. Max is like, only 16. I was going to say, these could be some of the long, 60 of the longest days of my life, depending on how the next, how the next few turn out.

Yeah. No doubt. So Sean's on the great chase watch. Sean has t-shirts made. It's Sean's great chase. Are we, hold on a second. Wait a second. Are we,

are we locked in on? Are we calling it that? No. I know that's what the league's called. I think it's really funny to call it what the league's calling it personally. I don't usually do. It was like,

remember, I don't know why this, remember when it was the bubble and it was everyone was like, it's the, it's the Honda Canadian division. Mac and you brought that off. The Enterprise rental car,

the number one, place to rent your car. North Division. It's the New Amsterdam Division. Yeah. New Amsterdam Bodka Division. I think it's funny to call it Sean's great chase. Yes, it is. Sponsored by Flavortown.

Sponsored by Budstream.fart. I'm on my as of this moment, I'm still in Raleigh, North Carolina, but I will be back up in D.C. shortly. Great. Recording the pod before flight. So Sean was in the building for Ovechkin's 890 second goal. That's three game goal streak to move

within three of breaking Wayne Gretzky's record of 894. Sean, do you want to just start what was that game like last night? Are you starting to feel the vibes from people? Like, did fans in the building think he was going to get four? or wanted him to get for, I should say. I feel like publicly, something leveled up with this game. And I don't know if it's because Betten was in the building or, you know,

Gretzky was, we thought maybe going to be in it, that ended up not working out. There's more media picking it up. We saw some, you know, there's definitely was a full press box last night. I don't think that was the case necessarily in Boston.

I think this was like the day where people have, or that that was a day where people are like, okay, this is not just possible, not just more probable than not. Like we are in likelihood territory that this, that this kind of happens. And we saw it in the press box. We saw it publicly.

There's signs up at Ben Chilli's, Ben's Chili Bowl in D.C. Like, everybody is like, like, as of, as of yesterday, after that goal against Boston, it seemed like something happened, a light flipped on for a lot of people. And it turned into like, okay, this dude's going to do it. And he's going to do it soon.

He's almost certainly going to do it this season. So, yeah, I felt that. I've felt that in the building last night for sure. I think what it is, too. Laz and I talked earlier this week about how the best thing that could have happened for this race is that the time pressure, like the season's coming up and it's going to be close whether he does it this season or not, right? That was the best, because it was starting to feel like, yeah, of course he's going

to get it. In addition to that urgency, my bet would be on what's clicked is, it's now within range that he could do it in a game. Like any game you see, like, you're not going to probably see a six goal game ever, right? But you've seen four goal games live. So you know it can happen once it's within four. Now it's within three. Yeah, you see a hat trick plenty of times. So now it's like every time you go, that could very well be the night.

And I think that's probably the, I don't know, the thrill factor, I guess, of it all now. Yeah. I saw on nhl.com today that Wayne Gretzky will be in Washington for the game on Friday against the Blackhawks. And that's kind of part of this growing contingent of people who are following to Sean's point. Like I saw Ovechkin's wife was in a box with Gary Bettman and Ted Leonis last night. I saw there was a clip going viral actually, people being like, Ovechkin's wife just dapped up Gary Bettman. And it was just kind of like a high five. that literature report strikes again.

What are we doing? That box situation, the box situation, it's the Lenovo center in Raleigh now. It's no longer Pancy Arena. It's interesting. I was over, I was over for a bit by where Gary and, you know, the rest of the VIPs where they're kind of like the sunken loge boxes where they're not, it's not the traditional skybox.

Like they're, they're like in the lower bowl. They're right there. Yeah, they're mixing with the Hoy-Polloy. Like you can, you can access. those from just like the main concourse and it made for it made for some interesting stuff last night but yeah the the vibe overall was I felt like there were a lot of people there who were rooting for like a five four hurricanes win where a vetchins scored four times like that's that's kind of that's kind of what it felt like there were there were a lot of caps fans a lot of caps fans

from you know maybe because there's a decent amount of caps fans and you know Tidewater virginia and like northern North Carolina. And that's like for a long time, sort of the local team and a lot of people, you know, shifted downwards. So there are local caps fans in Raleigh. There were also a whole lot of people who,

who made the drive down. I ran into some people in my hotel who were caps fans in Atlanta who drove up. So like, I think that's an element here too is that the road shows on. Yeah, it's not just Gary Bettman and Wayne Gretzky. It's fans who want to see this and be part of it. Yeah.

Definitely. That's cool. So what's interesting is like, is a Ovechkin Hattrick against the Blackhawks coming tomorrow? Maybe. Would it be at a matinee game on Long Island against the islanders? Maybe. I found this fact.

So Gretzky has been alone in first, the NHL goals. His record passing goal was against, the Vancouver Canucks in 1994. So that's when Gretzky passed Gordy Howe. But Gretzky's 894th and final goal, so the one that Ovechkin is trying to pass, was scored while he was playing for the Rangers against the New York Islanders.

In New York, it was at MSG, but like UBS Arena didn't exist, so who cares. It was in New York in 1999. So maybe Ovechkin's kind of of bound to break it against the Islanders. I think that actually be kind of cool. Maybe not if you're an Islanders fan. And isn't there also, Haley, weren't you saying before the show?

Like, there's a couple stats that could line up really tightly, right? If he does it in a certain fashion. Yeah. If he does it in two more games, then they'll have scored that range of goals within the exact same amount of time. and then they're all, if Ovechkin does it this season, he'll have broken Gretzky's record in the same amount of seasons. They would have,

Gretzky played 20 years in the NHL, and this is Ovechkin's 20th year, which is just kind of crazy. This makes me feel ancient, actually. And if he does it as a game winner, then they have the same number of game winners, right? I think Sean pulled that stat, right? He's currently tied with Yager for the most game winning goals of all time.

He's got, they both have 135. So that's not a Gretzky Ovescun parallel, but there's, it's just wild how many records, how many records are, could be broken by this guy can,

or parallelism or whatever. There's like, there's a bunch of interesting stats and whatever that can, that are kind of in the mix here. So yeah, conceivably he could set the game winning goal record on the same overall record set and goal against the team that Wayne Gretzky,

set the game, set this or closed out his career against. Like there's, there's a wild amount of stuff that's, that's, uh, kind of floating around in the ether here. Like him and Graski have this, have the same amount of first period goals, period. They're, they're, they're tied. And in, in the number of first period goals they, they scored in their careers on and on. It's just, it's wild. How many things are, how many things are, how many things are in flux and how many numbers are, uh, are coming up in the next few days here, potentially. All I ask is that it not be Go ahead. Yeah.

I, that was, I felt some amount of gratitude over that early last night because it was, I'm sure we'll talk about other elements of the actual game at some point. But like, it was a Hurricanes Laffer. They scored, they scored. It was four nothing at one point. So we're sitting there watching it in the press box. It's like, okay, the empty netter is out of the equation, probably. Like, right?

Because that's it. That's, that's, that's me and Matt. Ack and do yesterday. We're trying to dream up all kinds of worst case scenarios for the most like anti-timactic, like dud, dud outcome. And I think, you know, uh, empty net goal against, you know, the islanders on a, on a, on an afternoon or the blue jackets or whatever. Like, that's, that, that seems like, that seems like the winner here potentially. Yeah. My dream is OT winner against the penguins on the last game of the regular season. I think that. I'll let Sean go home before. them.

That would be, you know what, though? I think, like, if I would hate for him to, let's say, like, score two against the Black Cox tomorrow and then not score again until the last game of the season, that would make everything just feel so agonizing. But, like, maybe he goes out a cold stretch and gets, and doesn't score for the next two games, and then scores one. And then he breaks it against the penguins. Like, if you stretch that out a little bit more, fine.

but if he scores another one tomorrow or two tomorrow and then takes until the end of the season, that would be, I think that would be agony. I think everyone would get sick of traveling for that specifically. I think that would at least be a cool story. Like that to me is preferable. Look, I want this to happen selfishly. I want this to happen tomorrow. I want it to happen in Washington and I want to go home. But you've been on the road for two days.

I don't know if you've heard. It's been an eventful month for me. So I, so I, I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind me to hang out at home for a bit. But I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, it's, it's hard. I, I, I just psychologically, I, I don't, this is like mac and do stuff where, where, where you end up working yourself into it. Yeah, you're doom spiraling a bit. Where it's like, you know, if this doesn't happen, you know, this seems like the most likely outcome. I feel like if it doesn't happen quickly, it's, I feel like if it doesn't happen quickly, it's, it's, going to happen against Pittsburgh. I will give him until New York. I feel like it could easily happen before then. But then the games in between Islanders on Sunday in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh at the end

of the season, I feel like it's not going to happen for some reason. Yeah. I'm not saying it wouldn't be fun. I just think that would be agonizing for everyone who's traveling around on this, on this great chase, great chase. What would people think of the media members on the great chase? literally just saying I really I want this to happen so I can go home. I mean, I can, two things can be true at once.

I can want, I can want that to happen and also realize it is supreme. Everyone's campaign loser, loser complaint stuff taking place as well. Okay. Anyways, one final interesting stat on this. Gretzky's 894th goal of his career was only his ninth goal of that season. yeah he was out of gas but like that like novechkins 895 would be what 42 for ovechkin it's we're just talking about completely different just a little different yeah seasons in turn in which they do this it's um pretty cool let's move on because i feel like i mean whatever this is the biggest story that people are going to be talking about down the stretch uh the toronto maple leaves clinching a playoff spot no thanks no thanks pass

I did actually want to get to, okay, don't, we're going to have to talk about that because it is newsy. But I did want to quickly get into the end of that game. Carolina wins 5-1. That third period got kind of crazy Jalen Chatfield, slewfoot slash body slammed maybe Connor McMichael. I think was more of a judo toss is how I would categorize it. Yeah, it's a three-point take down. Mm-hmm. Yeah, like five points for back hitting them.

Matt, I guess. The cane, I don't know what the scoring is, I apologize. The canes also clinch a playoff spot with that win. Is there a little bit of attention being drawn away from how the caps have looked lately with all the attention on the great chase, Sean? That's something I'm trying to balance in my own brain here. Like, do we care that they're one and four in their last five or that Logan Thompson? A is now injured.

He's going to be reassessed back in D.C. Spencer Carberry told us, after that loss upper body injury for him comes out, gets replaced by Charlie Lindgren, yada, yada, so we'll see what happens there. But also since signing his extension, Logan Thompson has an 884 safe percentage. And that's over more than a month of games,

or more than two months of games, because he signed it at the end of January, and we're in April now. Like, I don't want to say to have a Logan Thompson problem, but he's also not the, guy we saw in the first couple months of the season, right? That's an issue. Um, and they're picking a crummy time to play their crummy as hockey. And I, I think that's, I think that's kind of

what we've seen. I now, we should not overreact to five games. We should not at all. We certainly shouldn't overreact to five games that are taking place in this weird fishbowl crazy situation where, you know, it's literally one of one, you know, nobody's ever. bent or anything like this before. So I think, you know, it was Trevor Van Riemzdy. Or no, it was it was, it was, uh, Pierluge de Bois who said it. He said it last night. He was like, basically his paraphrasing, but I think it would be good for him and I think it would be good for us if this happened at some point in, in the next couple days. So there, I think they've really segued into let's get this done. So, so they can, you know, maybe move on to the next

phase their season for sure because they're not they're not playing well yeah that is a little more concerning to me than even just the record if if they're like acknowledging like we need this to at like that's kind of a scary place right not not not an unpredictable one not a not understandable one but one that would give me a little bit of concern you have two weeks to tune it up before the playoffs granted they're going to have the easiest playoff matchup in the league from what it looks like because the whoever makes a second wild card in the east is going to have one quite the turtle Derby. But yes.

And also like, you know, there's an asterisk next to that because it's Peeriluk de Blas saying it because he's, you know, he's like, honest, but also like, you know, there's, he's made some, he's, you know, he's, he's, he's, he's a good quote, peer,

peer look to why is like he says, he says, he's out there saying some stuff. So I don't know. I don't know if I would. Ovechkin himself, like I read the post game stuff. It was like, how does it field to now be three away and he was like same as yesterday or whatever like same as last time you asked so like I don't think that peer Luke Dubois speaking out of turn I feel like here's they also lost five to one like I don't think he feels good about it at all yeah and they got and they got

knocked around in a third period and then freaked out like that's what happened they the canes were doing chippy stuff the caps push back they got they got tired of it and then the game turned into into a total side show what here's here's just to go back to peer Luke two off a second. Like here's the way I should have said. I, he speaks for himself for sure. I would maybe, I don't know if I would extrapolate that over to the entire team. Is, is probably, is probably, is probably the best way to put it. But yeah, I also think, because now, we talked about the great Chase logo. We talked about all, all this stuff. We're doing post-game podium with

Alex Ovesckin every game now. So he's, he's sitting in front of the backdrop. He's sitting at the table. He was completely miserable last night. is as you as you would expect. But he's, yeah, he's like, how's, how's it feel to be two goals away from Greske? And he's like, feels the same. And like, anything else? And it was basically like, uh, nope, see you later. Like see you tomorrow.

That was that was kind of what happens. Then they roll the banner away and then bring out a normal one for. Basically, yeah. Hold on. You don't get to stand in front of this one. Yeah, he was in the tunnel, baby. He wasn't, he wasn't in the media room. He was standing by the Zamboni entrance.

Okay. let's take a quick break. When we come back, we are going to get into the NHL playoff race a little bit more and play a little game of Would You Rather? Very juvenile. It's going to be fun. I promise. It's not weird. It's not weird. That'll be next in the Athletic Hockey Show. All right. Welcome back to the Athletic Hockey Show. It's time to play a little game of Would You Rather for the divisional leaders and some of the others of two, three, seeds won't be completely ignored. But we want to look at potential first round playoff matchups. We're less than three weeks away from the Stanley Cup playoff starting. Some things look locked in, but there is actually quite a bit of movement, particularly

in the Eastern Conference to Max's point. Nobody seems to actually want to win the wild card spot. The wild card race is still wide open somehow. Are the red wings of the penguin still in it? No. Mathematically, technically. but it's hard to see. I mean, the revenues have the toughest

remaining schedule in the league. They've got three home games left and they're against Carolina, Florida, and Dallas. Great. It's hard to see a path for me. This is, this is like such an indicator of

what's gone wrong in this league over the, like, this is an argument against parity is that the Pittsburgh penguins have not been mathematically eliminated from the,

from the playoff, from the playoff of scum. And I didn't know that until yesterday. Yeah. Again, was out. We're still in it. That's repulsive. They stink.

Yeah. They're not in it. I mean, they would need to make them. They should be mathematically eliminated. Like, come on. How many games are left? There's seven games left. I mean, here's the question.

What's the cut line going to be? Because right now, Montreal has it at 79 points and they have eight games left. Like, I don't know that it's going to be 90. You're probably looking at a sub-90. point playoff team in the east. That's tough. Last year, the cut line was the Washington Capitals with 91 points.

Yeah. Yeah. So what? We need the Canadians have eight games left to get 11 points. That means they're playing it, you know, whatever. 1.3 points per game. They're playing over 82 is 106. I was about to say they're playing over at over 100 point pace, like over the next

over the next game. I don't think it's happened. Oh, man. Pathetic. I was just scrolling back. to see how the cut lines like slowly gotten worse and worse. And I did just scroll back to the COVID year and the Discover Central, the Honda West. I messed that up.

I thought it was the Honda North. It was the Scotia North division. That's my fault. Of course it was the Scotian North. Yeah, that was so stupid of me. Canada's four companies as we established. Rogers Bell, Scotia, and Pizza, Pizza, Canada. But in 2020,

It was the caps at 100 points. How is Little Caesars never sued Pizza Pizza, by the way? They don't have hot and ready. I have an actual answer for you. Their slogan is Pizza Pizza. What is, what's Little Caesar slogan? Pizza pizza. No, it's hot and ready.

No, that's the product. The slogan is pizza pizza. You really want to argue this with either of the two of us here? Are you sure about that? Okay, wait. This is like a small. over the last 35 years. I can feel people.

I can feel people turning this podcast off right now. Let me tell you something very funny. And then we can move on. In Fergus, Ontario, there was a pizza pizza, like on the main street, on tower or whatever. But then pizza pizza pizza opened like a chicken shop in the pizza pizza, and it was called chicken chicken.

That's funny. So you could get like a slice of, of pizza or like a bucket of chicken. But it was called chicken chicken. Big day in Fergus. They had a... It's when they opened the chicken chicken chicken. Tractor parade that day.

Honestly, people probably drove their tractors to chicken chicken. Sorry for a tough day. Yeah, that's Max's fault. What was I talking about? Oh, we're playing, would you rather? The playoff cutoff line is... Who is the host of this show? Okay.

So we're going to play, would you rather, that was ridiculous, for the division leaders and look at their potential first round matchups. So let's start in the Atlantic's. The Toronto Maple Leafs did clinch a playoff spot last night. They are number one in the Atlantic division right now. They've never won their division since being at the Atlantic. They did win that Scotia North division. And then they'd won their division years ago before the Atlantic existed. But in terms of this. current iteration of the league. They've never won their division before. It's their ninth consecutive postseason. And with the Bruins missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016, the Leafs now have the longest active postseason streak in the NHL. They're four points ahead of Florida, three points ahead of Tampa. It seems like the big thing here is that the Leafs need to win the division so they can

avoid playing Tampa or Florida in the first round of the playoffs. Two of their next three games are against the Panthers and the lightning. So those will be big ones for the Maple Leafs. But in terms of like their potential first round matchups, if they win the division and if the playoff star today, they will play the Ottawa Senators. So we could get a battle of Ontario back. And I did listen to some of the show yesterday.

And it seems like if you're Sean McIndoo, you don't want to play the Sons. I don't know. What do you guys think? If you're the Leafs, who would you rather play? Would you rather play the Sends? like a Tampa or a Florida, maybe the Montreal Canadians.

All these options are still on the table based on how things are still shuffling in the east. Well, I could see where McIndo is coming from because that is definitely the Chadenfreude is, you know, everyone would want to see the leaves, lose to the senators, right? The dude lays in bed and thinks of scenarios that are like worst case scenarios for the Maple Leafs. And that's the one. I think that's called anxiety. Yeah, I would say. So I would say so.

I have some experience on the topic as well. And I think that's probably. He has least least related anxiety. But, okay, so from the flip side, like obviously you don't want to walk yourself into a matchup with the Florida Panthers. Is there an argument,

though, that's like, at least that one has a little bit of upside where like, okay, they've been with Alka-Chuk, Eckblad, now Barkov, there's a little bit of health question.

But at least if those guys were to come back and play well and be healthy and beat you, least like, well, defending's the only cup champs got them versus, and if you win, it's great, you beat Florida. But if you lose to Ottawa, you're getting crushed. Yeah, I think in terms of them losing, I feel like, like, Leafs fans would probably rather lose to the Panthers than the Sends. But, like, you probably want to play the Sends because you should beat them, right? Like, Ottawa is playing, like, I don't know, the Leafs have been the favorite and lost in the

first round before. I think there's going to be a difference between the Leafs playing down to their opponent, so to speak, in the regular season or underestimating the Sends in the regular season and playing them in a seven game series. Yeah, I just like, I think like the floor, I mean, I'm not trying to say like, who do you want to lose to? I'm not saying, I actually think police could be potentially either of those teams, potentially all three.

But I'm saying like there's a higher ceiling on what you can achieve, you know, mentally by beating the Panthers and a higher floor by what the emotional hit is otherwise. But I've seen a couple of Linus Allmark games lately where he has looked unsolvable. Like he would terrify me for any team. And you add in the fact that they're going to have a fired up Brady Kachuk. Jake Sanderson has elevated himself, I think, into the Norris conversation, not to win it. So the Leafs are going to get goalied in the first round by Lena Solvon. This is McIndoo talking.

He's doing ventriloquist work with you right now, I think. Excellent. Yeah. And then this will finally be the year where the Leafs make some changes after losing the postseason again. I'm, you know what? If nothing else, I'm just excited to see Brady Kachuk in the postseason. Yes. It's going to be, I mean, especially with after him coming off of the Four Nations, I felt like he was one of the two or three, like, biggest storylines coming out of it was this is the Brady Kachuk moment.

You know, it was similar to Dylan Larkin. Honestly, a little bit, Jake C. Anderson, too. So, yeah, Brady Kachuk was one of the breakout. And the NHL needs him on the big stage. They do. Yeah. Sean, what do you think? Would you rather, if you're the Leafs, would you rather play the Sends?

Yes. Yeah. I want nothing to do. Like, let's not overthink this. This is what I started saying this to Mack and doing some capacity yesterday, man. The Panthers are the Panthers. They know what they're doing. They've got that vibe around them.

We saw them hit the switch in February after everybody wondering, like, are they just going to, you know, are they going to be a wild card team this year? What's going to happen? No. The answer is no. They showed that before the trade deadline. They go out and get Brad Marshand. Matthew Kachuk is going to be back on night one of the playoffs and ready to roll. There's no doubt there. The variable with them is like Bobrovsky still. And they've, and they lost a Spencer night safety net there. So I get it. It's not like, not. not everything's fine there. They're the defending champs, whatever. Tampa Bay's, and Tampa Bay is better today than they were three months ago. And they have six legitimate all-star caliber forwards, and they have Victor Headman, and they have Vasilevsky, you know, who's looked like himself at various points this season. Like, get me away from them.

I want neither of them. Give me the team that, you know, at times looks like a wild card team and at times looks like a lottery team in Ottawa that can't that has shown no real ability to do it over a meaningful amount of time you know no real consistency on on on on either side of stuff I this is a easy this is this is no brainer stuff for me Tampa is the scariest I agree yeah I think Tampa's the scariest as good as Florida is like they're just there's a little bit of that extra vulnerability especially they've gone on two deep playoff runs I'm not saying I would like rather play Florida I just I can

could see where McIndo is coming from. I, as a hockey fan, I would actually, I wouldn't love to see the Battle of Ontario and then have Florida and Tampa play each other in the first round. That will be wild. So that leaves us with, because yeah, that's where I'm at with those two. And for that leaves us with the capitals in the metro, the playoff start. today their first round opponent is the Montreal Canadiens. There's a it it's not like they haven't mathematically clinched the metro yet but I do have a hard time imagining Washington whiffing against like Columbus and Chicago and the canes passing them for first in the metro so that is a slight

like mathematical possibility but it seems like the caps of all but clinched first in the east and first in the metro. So at the playoffs start today, they'd be playing the Montreal Canadians. The New York Rangers did beat the wild in overtime last night. So the Rangers and the habs are tied in points, but the habs have the tie break and a game in hand. Rangers have the tie break. So the game in hand is doing everything for them right now. Sorry, Montreal has not the tie break, but they have the spot in the wild card with the game in hand for themselves. You're right, Max. But right now, what do you guys think?

If you're Washington, do you want the HABs? Do you want the Rangers? Because those are kind of the two real options, unless we think the blue jackets are going to steal a spot here. They're not. I want to say that if on the caps, I'd rather see the Rangers because I'm just like completely, I'm out on the Rangers right now.

Like I wish I would have been able to watch that game Rangers Wild last night. I was tracking it on Twitter in the press box because of Arthur and Russo. That game sounded like a complete mess, an entertaining mess, but it sounded like bad hockey. I think we've seen plenty of that from them over the last little bit. And we, you know, I don't want to keep talking about Igor Shisterkin. Like he's no doubt, no question, top three goal 10 in the league. We need to move past that. Like he's introduced some level of doubt there.

But also, I don't, if I'm, if I'm Washington, I want no parts of him in a first round either. So as much as, as much as I want to say it's the Rangers, as much as I would want to pick them to be my first round opponent. And as much as I love Caps Rangers playoff series too. I always love one of those, right? Those are always fun. I just can't. I can't get there. If you're Washington, you want a young team in Montreal.

Yeah. It would be pretty funny a year after, you know, Washington got in similar fashion, like late season. And then it's a short series against New York. It would be very funny to watch the script completely flipped one season later. Like the Rangers get in and then beat the caps. Well, or just like, okay, last year it felt like going into that series. Okay, Washington's like just extended their season by a week. That would be how it felt for the Rangers.

I think. They're like, they're the appetizer for the actual contender, which is the way everybody treated the caps going into that series. And they were for the most part correct. I think the Rangers are the ones that let everyone down eventually there. It would be funny if the rules were reversed. But it's just tough.

It's tough for me, though. Yeah. I don't know. It seems like we're all but confirmed to have a Carolina, New Jersey first round matchup. And there's, look, I think the canes have been one of the best teams. all season with or without Miko Ranton.

You know, Sean had said yesterday in our little group message, like the Cains were doing their thing against Washington and the Devils, they might get Dougie Hamilton back for the playoffs, but they're not going to get Jack Hughes back. Jacob Markstrom's been just fine. I just, you never want to go into a series saying like, oh, well, this is a shoe in, but I don't see any concerns. Like if you're Carolina, you're not like, ooh, I wish I could play someone else. Freddie Anderson may be taking the net back too. Our buddy, our buddy, Corey Lavalette, I was talking to him about that last night. He thinks that very real chance that Anderson took the net back from Kachikov for the playoffs whenever that comes, whenever that happens. Only allowed one goal against last night.

Yep. Only allowed one goal against last night. And it was Novechkin one timer on a five on three. So it's not bad. From the top of the circle. Yeah. Not many guys are going to stop that. Good luck.

Yeah. Blues and the stars are the only teams that have had a better last 10 games or as good at the last 10 games as Carolina. They're looking like all respect to Washington and what they've done. The Keynes are probably going to enter the playoff as the team you expect to come out of the metro. Yeah. Do we like the Canadians to get that second wildcard spot? I know we're mostly trying to do Would You Rather and we'll take a break and get to the West in a second. But Max, you did have a stat before we started.

The HABs might have the easiest rest of the way. Among the playoff hopefuls, yeah, I think based on like opposing points percentage, 5.06, it's the third easiest in the league after New Jersey and Washington the rest of the way. Like that's you're basically, if you look at what they have left, it's Chicago, Nashville, Boston, Philly, then, you know, Ottawa, Detroit, Carolina, Toronto. Like you like their odds to pick up five or six wins there, especially compared to, the Rangers who, you know, the rest of the way, it's not impossible, but Carolina, the lightning twice, Florida, and then, you know, devils, flyers, Islanders. I, I just like their path to five

or six wins more than I like the Rangers. Could be fun to see Montreal make the postseason. I just love, I love, I just sat there and dumped on the Rangers for like 90, for 90, full seconds. So I'm like, I think they're probably going to get in, though. We'll figure it out. That's the Ranger magic, baby. Yeah. Yeah. The Rangers, it is funny. The Rangers really, are like our caps of last season because I know when we still had our show like all the time, the three of us, the amount of times we flipped on like, I think we called it early in the year. Like, oh, caps are toast. This team is jinks.

It was like, oh, my God, they're making a run. Oop the runs over. Oh, they're doing it again. And that's been like we had a huge pod with Arthur about like what the hell is going on with the New York Rangers. This team is toast. They suck. And now they're making a push again.

So it is funny to see the way that the script is flipped a little bit. Will they actually make it in? I don't know. I'm into Montreal. I'm cheering for Cole Caulfield. We love a short king on this show. Let's take a break. When we come back, we're going to get into the Western Conference.

Would you rather? That'll be next on the Athletic Hockey Show. All right, welcome back to the Athletic Hockey Show. It's time to look at the Western Conference, which feels a little bit more locked up than the east. Maybe some shifting within division or the wild card to come, but like, I don't know if the Canucks or the flames are really going to be trying to steal a playoff spot

from the wild or the blues. They'll try. I don't know if they're actually going to do it. It feels like the wild and the blues have taken their wild card spots here. If we start in the central, the Winnipeg Jets are currently leading. that division. And if the playoffs start today, they get the St. Louis Blues.

Alternately, they could play the wild. If things flip around, what do you guys think? If you're the Jets, who do you want in the first round? Does it matter? Are they just going to win? Blues. Why is that? You want the wild, no?

Sean's probably saying the Blues because he thinks the Blues stink or something. I hate to break it to you guys, but. They're the hottest team in the league. Carl Caprizeov is going to be coming back soon. Joel Eric Teneck is in week six of a six to eight week rehabilitation. No thanks.

I'll take the same. I don't care. I get this is I took all my put all my chips in on anti-blue sentiment on the show yesterday. And I'll keep that. I'll keep that going. The real thing is they just have to lock up. I want no parts of the wild if they're healthy. they have to ensure whatever like the answer is just win the division and have it be one of those two

because the real risk here is that Dallas is only four points back with a game in hand. And if you end up with the avalanche in the first round. Yeah. Bye. Panic. Sorry. So I know it's more would you rather for the division leader. However, like if I am the Dallas stars, I would rather catch the jets and win the division.

because if I'm the stars without Mirro Hayskinnan, I want nothing to do with the abs. Nobody wants anything to do with the abs. But if you're the Dallas stars and you're having like this great season, they've won six straight. Like they're playing good hockey right now, even without Haskinen, even without Tyler Sagan.

But if Hayskenen's not back for game one of the postseason, I don't want anything to do with the abs in the first round of the playoffs without your number one star defender, even if you're winning games without him right now. I credit to what they've done. Like they're winning games, right? Like that's obviously. But they're last in the league in Shod Share since the start of March.

So without him. Without him. Their ex goal is at 5 on 5 is 44%, which is real close to the bottom of the bottom of the league. They're winning games. You know, they all count. I think Shane has said this. Like, it's good to be lucky, but they're also,

they're also lucky to be good. Like, right? There's a lot of, there's a lot of talent there. And I'm not taking anything away from Dallas. I've loved them for years. I think I picked them to win the Western Conference at the start of the season. I've been picking them to win the cup for the last three years.

We, we love them, but they're, the hockey they're playing right now is not hockey that lines up with their recent record. They have not been a particularly good five on five team without Hayeskin. And so what does that mean?

Found a way to make it work. We think he's going to be back at some point, you know. Well, so this is the update from LeBron in terms of Hayeskin and right now. So we had surgery on February 4th. He started skating last week. The initial timeline was three to four months for his return. It'll be two months on Friday since that timeline started. according to LeBron, though,

the updated timeline right now is anywhere from the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs to the end of the first round. So when we consider the fact that the stars are currently lined up to play the aves in the first round, which just sucks.

That should be a conference final, not a first round matchup, but like whatever they are, the two and three seeds. So that's, you know, that's more of a conference final qualitatively, not actually based on the standings.

But, yeah, like they could be looking at a huge, first round playoff matchup without their their number one i don't i don't i don't like that for them at all based i like i said we the records the records great but given what's gone on under the hood there i without hay skin in i do not like them against colorado without him at all no sean are you scared of the wild or is it more fading the blues just to circle back to that really quick um i think i just love caprice of i i think that's i think that's part of it i think He's just, he's got the juice.

And I think in the, in a first round matchup where he's, you know, at something close to 100%, all things being equal, I'm taking the team that has that guy. Right. Like, that's just, that's kind of it. And also I, Joel Erickson, too. Like, those are, those guys are difference makers to varying degrees. And we're all sitting here in the wilder dragon. And, you know, we were joking about that game against the Rangers last night, which sounded like a, again, complete mess. fine, but I'm not picking against healthy Kirill Caprizov against the St. Louis

Bliss. It's not going to happen. Eric Seneck is, you know, certainly Caprizov is the game breaker. Ericksonek is kind of your prototypical, this guy in a playoff game's a handful kind of situation. So I definitely get that. I just like, they'll run the blues of on and like the depth that they've shown in it. Cam Fowler completely rejuvenated.

They would put a little scare into me just on the on the mojo factor, even if the roster for the wild. And even just a hot team. I'm not trying to be like smart here. Was Caprizov nursing an injury last season in the playoffs? Because he had one goal. He had one goal in the first round. And I love Coriel Caprizov. I think he's great.

He was better in the 2022 postseason, seven goals, eight points and six games. But like last year in the postseason, Caprizaf had one goal, one point and was a dash three. Was he hurt? I don't remember. Did he just have like a bad playoffs? Was he nursing something? So that's where like if there's a healthy 100% and he's clicking for the postseason Caprizov, great.

If he's 22 playoffs Caprizov, I'd be afraid of the wild too. But he didn't have a great postseason last year. It's completely true. Maybe I made up my mind about him a little bit too quickly, right? But he's really good. He was on track. No, he's great. I'm not.

No, I'm not. He was. bashing him, but he had a 46 goal season last year and then only had one in the playoffs. He was a heart finalist before he got hurt. He, the stuff, the stuff he does for them is remarkable. Yeah. I'm just wondering, did he go into the postseason nursing something last year? That would be my concern.

My, my bigger concern is if he's gone, if he's gone into the postseason this year nursing something, how healthy is he going to be? Well, that's what I mean was, did he, is that a look at what he, like, what he, was he hurt last year and only had one goal. So if he's hurt this year nursing something and not totally healthy. I don't know. I don't know. No, he had four goals in his last three games at the end of the season last year in April and then just kind of went quiet in the playoffs. Anyways, I'm not trying to bash Caprizov.

I'm just, I don't know. I don't really want to play either of those teams if I'm the Jets. No. Honestly. Absolutely not. Neither. One team is the hottest team in the league right now. 10-game win-streek, they might have the juice or they'll fizzle out.

Who knows? And the other one has a real free of. An MVP candidate in like a fringe one seed that are about to come back. I don't think I want either. I don't think I want the wild. Okay. So if we're the Vegas Golden Knights, if the playoffs start today, they do have the wild. Does that scare you if you're Vegas too?

Or does that just more scare you about the Jets because they haven't gotten it done in the playoffs? I think the only team that would scare me as Vegas is a team that they will have to see eventually most likely. But that's Edmonton because the way Vegas is firing, they have the star power, they have the depth. They look really good. I don't know if there's anyone I'm worried about, but I don't know. I don't know the conversation's all that different other than the like the Winnipeg factor just makes you a little more nervous. They've had some of the playoff hiccups. And that's not Vegas's case.

Yeah. Yeah, for me, it's just the same discussion. It's a flip of the coin. It's a matter of preference. Like, is it, would you rather deal with Minnesota or would you rather deal with St. Louis? And for me, you know, I know I joked about it, whatever, truly not trying to slag the blues. I'll credit to them for what they've done.

It's been incredible, but pass on, on the wild stars coming back. Yeah. And then, of course, we have the Oilers and the King. Kings. If you're the Kings, would you rather play Connor McDavid or not? I don't know. What is the last three years oldest? Yeah, it's been a descending game count for how quick evidence to eliminate them. Do you like their chances better this year, though, than the last cop? Like, they have, the Kings have been really impressive this year, I would say. All right. I think that answers that. It depends on how Connor McDavid's, like, health is, I guess.

I think that's probably the very, if you can get him at 85% or something, then stuff gets a lot more interesting. And like, oh, there's, you squint, you can see it, I think, a little bit easier with the Kings, but we'd be fools to. Yeah. Pick them after the way things have gone over the last three years. That's a down-the-stretch battle for home ice at least, right? They're within two points of each other. That can still go either way. Is home ice like a significant enough factor that it could?

Yeah. that it could get you to swing or not really. And McDavid is out and the Oilers have said they expect him back before the end of the regular season. But again, according to LeBron, this was really timely. Like he had an NHL-star injury playoff, like what I'm hearing. Because there are like a lot of big names currently out or soon to be coming back. Obviously McDavid's at the top of the list. It doesn't seem like the Oilers expect him to play in this current road trip, which will wrap up

Monday night in Anaheim, but they're looking at some time within the last stretch of five games for his return. But that's like that's subject to change, he said, but that's what he was hearing on Tuesday when he was poking around on this. So we're probably going to see McDavid at the end of the regular season the last week. And you're going to have potentially healthy and rested Connor McDavid in the playoffs. So no, I don't. I'm sorry, Kings. I don't feel good about it, even if they end up getting home ice. I think that's it, guys.

The West is definitely more locked up. The only real change I feel like we could see is the wild and the blues flip-flopping on Wild Card 1 and 2. They both have 89 points. They've both played 76 games. To Max's point, the Kings and the Oilers who get home ice. And the real big thing to watch is who's going to win the Central. So stars have 1-6 straight.

They're only four points back. and they have a game in hand on the Jets. If I'm the Stars, if I'm a Stars fan, I want them to catch the Jets ASAP. Definitely. And hold it because I don't want anything to do with the apps in the first round without Heiskenen. Nope.

Thanks, Max. Wow. The gang was back. Always a blast. Wasn't that fun? Yes. Your listeners. Yeah, thanks, Sean.

Well, nobody thanked me either. You're the host. Yeah, what a thankless straw I have. All right. Thanks, everyone for listening to this episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. One more thing before we go. You listen to us now.

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Again, go to theathletic.com slash athletic slash survey 25. The link is also in our episode description. You want to check that out. Thanks again to Sean and Max. Thanks to everyone for listening to the athletic hockey show. Las and Max will pick off a new week of shows on Monday. Sean and I will be back next Thursday.