The Athletic Hockey Show - Remembering Chris Snow, can the Lightning survive without Vasilevskiy and is Jack Hughes a hart trophy contender?

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Ian and Julian pay tribute to Chris Snow, the Assistant GM of the Calgary Flames who passed away Saturday after a long courageous battle with ALS.The guys discuss if the Tampa Bay Lightning can weather the storm without an injured Andrei Vasilevskiy for two months, they debate if Jack Hughes could be a Hart Trophy candidate this season, the Vegas Golden Knights surprising ranking as the seventh best team on the Athletic's count down of teams from worst to first and on the heels of the NFL producing an animated game, should the NHL follow suit with a bigger franchise than Big City Greens?Plus, Ian and Julian send love to colleague Aaron Portzline who is battling stage five Kidney failure.Please consider becoming a donor, through direct/living donation or by declaring yourself a donor on your driver's license. Below are links with more information. You too can save a life!Ohio: https://lifelineofohio.org/U.S.: https://donatelife.net/Direct donation: www.osuwexmedlivingdonor.orgFollow the Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowNuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at Nuts.com/hockey23Visit BetterHelp dot com slash NHLSHOW today to get 10% off your first month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome to your Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mendez. It's Julian McKenzie. And I got to tell you, Julian, if we were power ranking the months of the year based on sports, based on weather, based on the vibes, I think I'm taking October number one, man. Like hockey, NHL's about to start, right? NHL regular season starts this month.

Baseball, we got the playoffs all set, NFL's in the high gear. Look, I understand. We have lots of listeners from around the planet, right? We have people in Europe, people in southern United States. So I get that the weather might be different, depending on where you are.

But October is usually pretty good. Like, it's usually pretty good where you live. So, you know, toss in some Halloween. I'm just saying, I think you can make an argument this is the best month of the year. and we're just kicking it off. So you know what? You're probably right because of the fact that the NHL season starts,

usually the NBA starts a little later. Pretty much most sports are on around. A lot of sports are on around now and they're either in high gear or they're about to start. Like it's, I can understand that June would be in second place. Yeah, name a better month is our challenge. Yeah, name a better month.

Because like June typically is the Stanley Cup fund. It was a good chance you're getting the NBA finals. I mean, the draft, I guess, after that in the NHL. Like, it's championship time. But, like, even then, like, it's not the same. It's October, baby. Yeah. This is it.

We'll get the World Series at the end of the month. Like, I don't know. You know what? I was ready to combat you with a whole other different month. But October seems to be this great time where every. seems to come to a head at the same time. This sensory overload, overload of sports.

Like I, damn, I can't beat you. I can't do it. I can't. We'd love to hear from the listeners. Name a better month from October when you weigh everything in. Sports,

weather, up here in Canada, we got a little Thanksgiving action to go with Halloween. Like, it's actually April. April is second. Yeah, our producer Jeff has said,

don't sleep on April. Because they got the masters and the playoffs start then. And usually the first rounds of the NHO playoffs are amazing. And then you have the NBA playoffs. So baseball too. Starting off then. Yeah, April. You know what?

I'll say October, April. I'll still put June in that top three because of the, at least of our business for us. I'm trying to think if Christmas around like December, I mean, not really. That's where a lot of stuff gets dead, right? Like, it's not really the most ideal time. So, yeah, I'll say March is, March has to be fourth.

I think even March madness on its own carries a lot of energy. But I'll say October, April and June, that's your top three in terms of sports months. I'll agree to that. Yeah. But anyway, hit us up, the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. Hit us up on Twitter, comment section, whatever. Name a better month in October. we'll hang up and listen, as they like to see in radio.

Because I'd like to hear if anybody can take a run at this. Look, what I love about October is that it doesn't matter who your NHL team is. But I feel like out of the 32 teams, at least 25, 26 of them, you got a little bit of hope and optimism, right, in October. And even for the handful of teams that you know are going to have a tough year, there's something you can hold on to, right? Prospects, whatever. Like this is just an exciting time. But I got to tell you, Julian, that move Connor Bedard put on last night in Detroit. And I know it's just a preseason game.

That was a jaw dropping. Are you kidding me moment? Now, he didn't finish it off with a goal. But that move that he made it the blue line to just walk around the Red Wings defenseman. That, man, that's unbelievable stuff right there. It's a great move, but Logan Cooley had a much better. cooler move earlier in in Australia

and like we cared about it for one night. None of us sought because it was in the middle of the night and he scored in North America. Logan Gully scored. And he scored all that goal. Here's the point. I love the Connor Bedard

Renaissance. I love what's happening. I think he's going to be an incredible talent. I want to see him score one of those goals in a real game. And if he scored in preseason we'd be raving over that too. I'm waiting until the regular season starts before we really put the hype into overdrive here. Because right now he's showing us a lot of stuff. I want to see it.

I just can't wait to see it. I'm not saying, no, he's not going to be able to do it against big boys. Like I'm just trying to temper myself because I really don't want to put myself in a position where I overhyped Connor Bedard. And then somehow I'm, I'm disappointed for some reason.

But he's going to be really good. And I love the move. It's just, you know, I wish you would have scored that. And again, if you missed it from the global series games when Arizona and L.A. played against each other, Logan Cooley, again, in the middle of the night for us in North America, scored an even sicker goal where he danced around basically an entire opposition and got a goal in. Like, that's still going to be the best move of the preseason. If we were, if we cared so much about ranking goals from the preseason, you know, I still think the greatest,

Pre-season, like, and again, maybe somebody else. Oh, I know what you're going to say. Maybe somebody else will have a better answer than this. And maybe you do. Greatest pre-season goal I've ever seen was Pavel Burray. Yep, that's my answer. Pavel Burr. And here's my question.

Somebody should do a deep dive on this, either Fluto because he covers the Bruins or Drans or Harman in Vancouver. Why the hell were the Bruins playing the Canoxone in a preseason game. Like, geographically speaking. Why wouldn't they? Geographically speaking. You don't see that now.

You don't see Anna. Hold on tight. It's Anaheim and Montreal coming up next. That's actually a good point. Why are they playing each other? Yeah. How does it work to schedule preseason games? You usually, honestly, you do it geographically for the most part, right?

Like, you often will play the teams kind of within a two-hour flight. I mean, we do. We see that now, but like, why, but like in terms of, like, why was there a time when Vancouver, Boston could be a thing in preseason? That's what I'm saying. And what led to that change. I don't know. Maybe the Bruins, you know what used to happen is often teams would go away to like the Rocky Mountains for like a quote unquote getaway team bonding.

So maybe the Bruins did that. Maybe they went to Whistler to golf and hang out, right? Like they needed to get the chemistry between Don Sweeney and Ray Bork. They had to kind of build some chemistry. But that goal, so if you don't know what we're talking about, you probably, I think if you just Google Pavel Burray skate to stick, that should come up. It's the greatest. Somebody's going to have to do something more impressive than Logan Cooley or Connor Bedard to knock that off the perch as the greatest preseason goal of all time, in my opinion. I want to say that, I mean, I'm not an avid NHL EA Sports HL game player anymore, but I remember.

in NHL-O-6, they had these controls, at least on the PC version, where if you hit a button, you could do certain moves, like a spinorama move, or between the legs goal, or the stick-to-skate goal. And, like, that was initially my first exposure to that. It's like an elementary school kid knowing that, like, if I got my guy on a breakaway, I could pull the Pavel Burray. And then eventually seeing the highlights of Pavill-Burie do it, like on a sports air, top 10 for like preseason goals or something. That blew my mind. Like that is like the speed, the, the, the wherewithal to do such a move like that,

the fact that it hasn't really been replicated since. That's kind of surprising to me. You've seen guys do between the leg stuff. We've seen spinorama stuff. Why don't players do more of the of the skate goal? Like, why is that not more of a thing? And I'm trying to remember in my brain first thing in the morning. Like who's the last guy we've seen.

to do that in an NHL game. You know what? I think part of it is you have it. It's based on time and space, right? Like, like, you need to have, you need to come in on the perfect angle. You need to have no defensemen sort of, uh, bothering you, harassing you, whatever. I just think it's so hard to pull off. Like, you know, if you think about Tom, like Thomas Hurdle went between the legs for San Jose.

What was that against Marty B. Ron, I want to say? And yeah. Even that, it's like, We haven't seen that replicated too often since. And that's been what? More than 10 years, 15 years, maybe, at least 10 years anyway, I think, right? Since Hurtle went between the legs, wasn't that like 10 years ago? This is 10 years ago?

Wasn't it? It's 10 years ago. And that was when he had that, like, massive, like, multi-goal game. Oh, my God. That, please don't say that's 10 years ago. Please don't date me. I don't know. That's crazy.

Also, I'm trying to find a goal. that has skate to stick. And like, like I haven't seen it replicated that way. There was a goal that occurred last year where Sydney Crosby, I think on a, it gets the Carolina Hurricanes, he gets this pass that goes off his skate and then goes to stick.

So it's like more or less the opposite. But like it's, that's, that's as close as I've found so far. Sunday of this week will mark the 10 year anniversary of Thomas Hurdle's four-goal game slash between the legs on Marty B'err-on.

Ten years ago Sunday. It really is ten. But they mean, Marty B'Rourne was playing, so it has to be ten. That's ten years? Yeah. What?

I don't believe. That's crazy to me. I didn't realize it was that far back that Thomas Hurdle did that. That's insane. Yeah. And that concludes our little segment, Ian and Julian,

give an audio breakdown of great preseason and early regular season goals. being able to show you the highlights. We talk you through them. What's better than that? But yeah, Google it. If you're a younger hockey fan and you're not familiar with it,

the two things we want you to Google here, Pavel Bore skate the stick and Thomas Hurdle between the legs. Really cool goals. And now officially old school goals. Because Hurdle happening 10 years ago. I can't believe that. I'm not going to over. I'm not going to over, I'm not going overdo it on me going crazy on that.

That's, yeah. You know, I, I do want to take a moment, though, and we will very briefly turn this conversation in a little bit more of a serious tone. And the reason why we're doing this is there's a couple of stories that I think, certainly were emotional, saddening, poignant, all of that this weekend. And I want to give you some space, Julian, because because you work in Calgary, because I think you're, you're sort of intimately in that space. fear, you understand better than most the impact of Chris Snow.

And boy, watching that unfold essentially in real time because of his wife, Kelsey's openness with this and just sharing with this, it was heartbreaking to watch the hockey world see this play out in real time. So just want to give you the opportunity, Julian, to talk about what has obviously been a very difficult weekend in your city. and really around the NHL. Absolutely. For those who are not fully aware,

Assistant General Manager for the Flames, Chris Snow, first off, for the last four years, had been battling ALS. I believe they were promoted to AGM in 2019, and then months after that, they received their diagnosis. And through various treatments, they had been battling the disease

and basically had been living a lot longer than they thought they would be. And seeing updates through him and his wife Kelsey, nothing short of inspiring to see for those two and their family. And unfortunately in the last week, Chris had gone into cardiac arrest and his brain was deprived of oxygen. And it got to a point where he was not expected to wake up. And this was something that was announced earlier last week. And through that process on, it has just been an emotional time around the organization for players, for staff. And on Saturday, it was announced that Chris had passed away. And it capped off what had been a stretch of days. You could add Sunday, too, because you got more reaction.

but hearing people discuss Chris in such a positive, inspiring light and the work that he's done for the organization, such an emotional time for everybody, such a difficult time for a ton of people. I don't know if you realize this, Ian, but the same day it was first announced that Chris had gone into cardiac arrest. earlier that morning, one of their younger players who was expected to make the lineup, Jacques-a-Peltier, was announced that he would be injured for some time, but also later that day, Michael Backlin was announced as captain of the team and had signed an extension. And that has been part of a big off-season headline with this team with all the pending UFAs.

And I'll never forget being at that press conference for Michael Backlund, I mean, we're hours away from learning about Chris. hours after the fact of learning about Chris. And Craig Conroy, the general manager, starts off by giving some thoughts and sentiments to the family. He brought Chris's son Cohen to the press conference. Michael Backlin had told me that he had that morning, he called Craig because he was excited about the fact he was going to finally announce the contract extension and the captaincy. and he hears Craig Conroy just not having that same energy and just being down in his voice.

And it turned out he was at the hospital with Chris and his family. And Michael had to go to the rink that day, to practice rink that day and not say anything about what happened. He kind of had to hold that back and just wait for everyone else to figure out what would have been going on. And you could see it on his face too at that press conference knowing that as happy of a day it is for him to wear the sea. For Chris, thinking of Chris Snow, obviously that kind of hung over everybody. So it's been a tough week for a lot of people in that organization. It's been a lot of tough times for media too. Like I've only been in the market for a year.

I only got to encounter Chris one time. But a lot of media members in the market have had such nice things to say about him. So many good memories of him too. And hearing from players and coaches talk about him. I'll never forget Ryan Huska talking about how he and Chris would get into fights because of how Chris would try to bring in analytics and eventually got to a point where Chris was able to explain why they're so effective. And Ryan essentially has become a believer because of him. And that's another thing. That's another big thing we have to mention all this too with Chris believing in analytics and working to a point where he has made them such an integral part of his job.

and of course with his work on contracts as well. And he worked up until the very end. This is a guy who was in Penticton for the rookie tournament with the flames, working through training camp before all this happened. This is just such a sad time, but I'm also happy that we are able to remember him fondly and celebrate his successes. I love the tribute that the team did before preseason game last week. and fans were able to applaud and show their respects for him as well.

I love the snowy strong stickers on the back of Flames helmets too. It's going to be a lot of, it's a tough time for a lot of people in the market. It's a lot, it's a tough time for Flames fans, especially and people who love Chris. But I just hope that Chris's family knows that the hockey world is, is behind them.

And we show that we want to, you know, offer a shoulder for them as, as they need strength and they need love. And we will never forget, forget Chris and his contributions to the league. And I, I implore people to read the column from Eric Duhacchick. I implore people to read the, the column from Haley Salvean on, on Chris as well. I think those are great reads and they will offer you more perspective as the type of person of the type of person that Chris was.

And we will never forget them. Yeah. And, and well said, Julian. And, you know, it was also quite impactful to see all the people, the baseball community, the Jeff Passons and some of the most prominent baseball writers weigh in because prior to joining the hockey world in sort of this front office capacity, Krishna was a writer and he was a journalist and he covered the Boston Red Sox and just had a real passion for sports. And I think you saw all of the love that came pouring out, not just from

the hockey world, the baseball world and other places. So very well said. Like you said, read the pieces by Eric and Haley, if you really want to, uh, to sort of capture the spirit of the man. There is one other piece of news we want to talk about here real briefly. And again, this is a bit of a gut punch to us at the athletic. And this is an update posted Monday morning by our colleague and our friend Aaron Portsline in Columbus. And I will just read Aaron's tweet because I know that it probably took a lot of courage to get to this point to go public with this. It probably was not an easy decision.

But there's a reason why Aaron Portsline is going. public here. So I'll simply read Aaron's tweet and it reads as follows, I am not well. I was diagnosed several years ago with a genetic kidney disease, but in recent months, it has started to take control of my life. I'm now stage five, kidney failure and relying on frequent dialysis to keep me alive until I can get a transplant. The Ohio State transplant team, my nephrologist, Dr. Rima Kang, and the dialysis nurses at Fresnius Kidney Center have been incredible throughout this process. The purpose of going public is twofold.

First, to let you know that there will likely be interruptions in my Blue Jackets' coverage for the Athletic at some points this season. My editors have been remarkably understanding and colleagues will pick up the slack if and when I'm out of commission long term. But more importantly, it's to raise awareness for the ways you can help. At least 100,000 people in America alone are waiting for an organ transatlantic. transplant and roughly 90,000 of them like me need a kidney. Did you know that most people can live long productive lives with one good kidney? I have been incredibly fortunate to have at least

nine people step forward to see if they are a match and be my donor, an incredible gesture, but we're still searching for a match. Consider yourself becoming a donor through direct living donation or by declaring yourself a donor on your driver's license. Aaron has shared Julian some links on Twitter. So by all means, please, whether you're, whether you're living in the United States and Canada abroad and you do have the opportunity to be an organ donor through your driver's license. Aaron is urging you. We are urging you. This is difficult news, you know, and like Julian, I've known Aaron Portsline, excuse me, I've known him. The two of us used to be in the same sphere in minor league baseball. Aaron would come up to Ottawa. I was working

in the Media Relations Department of the Ottawa Links, the old AAA baseball team here. Aaron Portsline would cover the Columbus, what were they called back then? The Clippers, Columbus Clippers. And he would come to town, and I just formed a great bond with this guy. And then now to 20 years later be working at the same place,

we always joke about our time covering minor league baseball together, but it got us to this point. And you're not going to meet, people in Columbus know this, but I hope everybody does, get the opportunity to meet Aaron Portsland, but like a more sort of humble, helpful,

down-to-earth reporter who just does such a remarkable job storytelling around that franchise. You and I just had Portsline on the show when? Two weeks ago during the Mike Babcock stuff. Mike Babcock. And you never would have known when we had him on.

And he never let on that he was going through this. We saw him at the draft that we saw. he never let on that he was going through this. So I think it makes his coverage and his work even more remarkable that he's been able to do his Sunday gathering columns and the podcasts and everything he's able to do. But my goodness gracious, I hope when you read and hear the words of Aaron Portsline, I'm an organ donor through my driver's license in the province of Ontario. And we're just asking if everybody can do the same thing because we have a colleague and friend that needs your help. And there's a very good chance in your life. You have a colleague or friend that is in the same boat.

Well said on Aaron. Portie is one of the best people in our biz. You're absolutely right in saying that he's helpful. I'll never forget the very first thing. The very, one of the very first things I ever, I think the very first thing I ever wrote for the athletic was an article about Cole Cawfield. And I went to Portie for some insight on a player comparable.

And he was so nice and generous with his time for a guy who was very new to the athletic at the time. And I will always appreciate him for that. I was lucky enough to go to Columbus last year and meet Portie and hang out with him and just get to know him as a person. He's such a solid guy. He's such a really good person. And I'm devastated to hear this. And I hope that people read his tweet and cannot. offer him some help because he's a great person and he really needs some help.

Yeah, well said. So again, we will ask you to go to Twitter and check out those links for where you can be an organ donor, but certainly our thoughts not only with the Snow family, but also with our colleague, Aaron Ports. All right, Julian, kind of going back now to some of the on-ice stories and storylines around the National Hockey League here in training camp. You and I have not done a show since the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Andrei Vasilevsky is going to miss what, probably the first two months of the season, at least

with a back injury. I mean, I don't know how you felt about Tampa before. How are you feeling about this piece of news? I mean, two months. So that's past Thanksgiving and that's supposed to be that threshold. That's supposed to be that time of year where if you're in a playoff spot, there's a good chance you're going to be in that playoff spot by the end of the year. If you're not in it, it's not

looking good for you. I wonder how much goaltending will be in Achilles heel for them between the start of the year and whenever Andre Vaseleski gets back. They're at a point now where they're going to have to rely on Jonas Johansson. Is Hugo Enfelt going to be their backup? Are they going to go down the waiver wire and look at options? Like a Yaroslav Vak is out there as a free agent.

People in Calgary have been wondering if Dan Vlodar as a trade option. Is there another guy they could get who could they could fit under their cap? Remember, they're more or less they're capped out on that team. So wherever they get has to be a cheap option. But I'm really curious about, I'm curious in general about how that Atlantic Division is going to shake up with all of these good teams who aspire to be playoff teams like a Buffalo or in Ottawa or Detroit.

But in Tampa right now, you are already a situation where you have all those guys who have played years and years of, of, of, of, of, of, playoff. hockey. They have a longer off season than normal last year. But even then, Stephen Stamco's, there's a bit of uneasiness about him not being extended and this. I'm very curious about the Tampa Bay Lightning as a story heading into this season. And the thing is, I don't feel comfortable picking against them because they're still a really good team. But not having Andre Vasselowski, who has carried this team for years and years to three consecutive Stanley Cup final runs. at least at the start, they have to incur some kind of, some kind of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, I, I, I, I, I, I don't know how it's going to affect it, but also at the same time, if you're Tampa and you know what you've proven in the playoffs, as long as you hang around, around a wildcard spot, around a playoff spot by the time Vasilevsky gets back, it could work out in your favor.

off and you have to work your way up, which they've tried to do before. But even then, like, I think it's just, they have to figure out some kind of stopgap and goaltending just for the next two months and keep themselves afloat here. I think for them, especially with how so many teams are going to look in that division, they need to, I didn't even mention Toronto and Boston all this too, but they really need someone who's going to hold the fort for them and keep them in a playoff spot. I have questions about Tampa Bay this year. Well, you meant And Jonas Johansson, who is going to at this point, assume, you know, the number one goalie job unless, look, Martin Jones maybe gets waived, right? And, and he gets picked up there or, you know, other goalie. Spencer, not Spencer Knight.

Spencer Martin, we saw, like, we've seen goalies. Yeah, Columbus got picked him up. Yeah. So we're seeing this type of thing happen. But here's the thing on Jonas Johansson. 35 career games in the NHL, Julian, and parts of five seasons,

kind of just been a cup of coffee guy. 35 games, 886 career save percentage. So that's a big risk. Now, I do think Tampa with, we got to remember, Braden Point coming off of 50 goal season. Kuturov had, what, 110, 115 points last season.

Stamco's going to be super motivated. We know that going into last year of his deal. I think Hegel's a great middle-six guy. You got Victor Hedman. It's not like they don't have the talent to overcome or compensate a brief Fazilevsky absence, if it's eight weeks, ten weeks. But it's like everything has to go right. Like they can ill afford another injury.

They can ill afford to there's not much. March and of era. And this is the first time, it feels like maybe in the John Cooper era where you kind of go into a season's in like, gee, I don't know. I don't know if Tampa's going to make the playoffs. But I just think they're too talented for me

to be pessimistic about them. And I'm a huge John Cooper guy. Like I know last year he kind of got into it a little bit with a couple of his stars and he benched them or whatever. But that guy knows how to push buttons. And we're going to see, I think he's a great coach. And I think we're going to see that come out here.

I don't think there's any doubt that John Cooper is a great coach and he could get the most out of his players. But we also have to remember, too, as talented as some of those guys are, like, they've had the mileage run on them. And, I mean, just trying to think of ages. I mean, Stephen Stampco is in his 30s. Dukutrov surely must be in his 30s or at least close to that. Victor Hedman has been in the league quite some time. These are not guys in the mid-20s, late 20s and all that. Like this is a Tampa Bay team, a veteran team that is older.

And in terms of the guys in the middle, I mean, yes, they have Anthony Sorrelli and young guys like Nick Paul too. Don't get me wrong. And Brandon Hagle as well, Mikhail Cirkerchev. But I think this is also a team in terms of their depth. It's changed from some of those playoff years where they were able to win the cup. And that's also going to play a role in how they finish finishing this division too. Like, at least in the regular season, on paper, are they better than the Toronto Maple Leafs as an example? they're probably better than the Boston Bruins.

They could probably still be a playoff team. But if that gualtending lets them down and they have to start from behind the eight ball when Audrey Vasaleski gets back, that is going to be a really tough hill for them to climb. Yeah. The East is going to be healthy. They're going to be super, super, super competitive. And success might be predicated on a goalie with 35 games and an 886 career save percentage.

So we'll see. Sometimes they, guys like this are just looking for an opportunity, right? Johansson's in his mid to late 20s. Maybe he just, he's 28 years old, but maybe he just needs a, he needs a chance, right? He needs to give him this. And give Johans, this. I can't tell you about the teams he played in front before that led to that safe

percentage. This is still as good of a team as he could play on to help that safe percentage go up. Like, it's not a perfect team. They've been through a lot. But this is a solid enough team where if he plays decently in front of him, I'm sure that team could play decently enough in front of him too. It should, it could, it could work, but they really, they really could use a decent second option because they have Hugo and felt behind him.

And I, off the top of my head, I'm sure he has fewer games played than Joe Hansen. Yeah. Interestingly, when Dom, Shana and Sean Gentilly kind of do their NHEL, season preview, you know, Julian, they count down from 32 to one, which teams, you know, analytically, statistically fit in to Dom's model and spit out where they're going to end up. Tampa Bay was kind of their mid, right? They're 15, which is unusual. We usually see Tampa as a top 10 team.

As we wake up this morning on Monday, we see in the rankings that the defending Stanley Cup champion, Vegas Golden Knights have entered the chat. number seven. New Jersey's in at number eight, Florida and Boston just behind them. I wonder, you think that's about right for New Jersey? Like New Jersey's top eight now in the NHL, according to the model, which I think is right for them. Like I love the talent level. I think a lot of my questions around them were answered. I think if Luke Hughes comes in and plays as well as we think he can, I think he might end up being in that Calder conversation. About right for New Jersey for you or do you think they're a touch too high?

I know. I think they're going to be a force to be reckoned with and now's the time to be high on the New Jersey Devils, man. They have a good mix of young and veteran talent up front. I think they're pretty good defensively too. I think they showed a lot in that play in those playoffs last year. They basically the window for them, it's an exciting time because the window has opened for them. That comeback against the Rangers in that first round series, the way they were able to turn a 2-0 series disadvantage into a win for them, winning that series with them, that for me, I'm willing to take them seriously.

And I don't know if it means that they're going to run all the way of the Stanley Cup final this year. I would love for that for them. That'd be great. But I think seeing a player like Jack Hughes up front, having Nico Heeshire in that center depth to, Timo Meyer signed long term with them. Tyler Tofoli, I still think Tyler Tofoli is going to be a great addition for that team.

I know that the part ways with Yager Sharon Govich, but Tyler Tofoli has proven in three markets that he's a number one. He's a top line forward. And if he's able to, if he has to be plugged into that role for the Devils, he will do fine, just fine in that role for that team. I think this is a devil's team that's slotted pretty right. I think they're definitely, I mean, I don't think there's any doubt there are a playoff team. But as a as a clear cut top 10 team in the league, yeah, I don't see any issue with that. at all. And Jack Hughes, I mean, I know there are some people who may wonder if he's a top 10 player or not. I'm, I, this might be the year we remove all doubt on that. He continues to

ascend upward as a, as a talented player at his position. And he shows that dynamic talent. This could be the, I mean, I don't think there's there, this could be the year where he shows, there's no doubt he is a top 10 player. And I would love to see it. I, I think he is, isn't he? Like, although these debates sometimes. You discussed this before. Yeah. I think these debates sometimes Because like, what I hate about these debates is sometimes it ends up, we end up criticizing great players who maybe they're 12th overall in the league. And we're just dumping on them that they don't have this or that. But boy, Hughes to me, legitimate.

I think if you go into a season and it's not out of the realm that you could see that guy winning the heart trophy, he's top 10. I could see a scenario in which Jack Hughes wins the heart trophy. let's say the Devils win the conference, win the division, and Hughes has 110 points, don't you think he would be in the conversation? Yeah, absolutely. He's probably a nominee. He's on a few ballots.

Absolutely. Yeah, he would be on there for me. So interesting there. And the Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup last year, end up at number seven, which obviously means there's a half dozen teams. So now we can start to put the pieces together, right? The teams that we haven't seen, the Colorado, the Toronto's, Carolina, They're all going to end up here ahead of Vegas.

Do you think Vegas would, not that NHL teams and athletes need motivation and bulletin board material, but do you think on any level, Vegas looks at this and say, wow, you've got a ranking system. We just won the cup and you have us at number seven. Good to know. I mean, depending on where you look at, they're not even favored to win their own division because the Emmettison Oilers exist, right? There's something about this Vegas Golden Knights team. actually, you know what's funny? I still think about this.

Like immediately after the Stanley Cup was over, they were not favored to repeat. There's just something about this team, the way that they're built, the way that they found a way to overcome adversity last postseason where now all of a sudden, and maybe it's because of the nature of the sport where it's so hard to repeat as a cup champion

where we've already looked to move on to the next. We're already looking to Crown Colorado as the best team again. or looking to give Connor McDavid that opportunity to finally win a Stanley Cup. And I don't know. There's something about this Vegas team with the center debt that they have. They have the number one defenseman in Alex Petrangelo. And look, Aidan Hill came up big for that for that playoff run and just they've shown that you don't need, you don't need the goalie to get you through the playoffs.

You need a goalie to get you through the playoffs. And I don't know if I like this disrespect for for Vegas. And maybe the ranking is so much disrespectful. but I don't feel enough people are towning them as a team that could repeat again. Like I could totally see them go on a run again and do it. Like I feel like they have the pieces to go on a long run, to match up against anybody and beat them. They don't need to win a division necessarily to get there.

But I just feel as if on this preseason content, and even from at the end of the Stanley Cup final, I just felt that some people were just really quick to kind of put them to the side. So if I was a player on that team, I would feel, I would feel away about that. Absolutely. We just want to come up. Like somehow, y'all don't rate us like that?

Like I, I would feel away about it. But somehow Vegas doesn't give off plucky underdog vibes, though. Let's be clear about that. Maybe they're, yeah, no, disrespect it. But I don't feel like, they're not that. They are not that. They're not the plucky underdogs with with Jack Eichel and Petrangelo and Stone and the, you know,

they got a lot of good players there. That's not what I'm trying. And it's not exactly what I'm trying to say here. It's more like the fact that like, you know, they won, but all of a sudden we're trying to figure out who the next. And then that's typical for us to do. But I really don't think it's impossible that they win again. Like I think they could think I think they could do it. Like I think they're that good of a team.

And I think they're built well enough that if they match up at a seven seven game series against a Winnipeg again, they beat them against the Emmets. And they could beat them again. I think they could do it. And depending on who they go up against in the Eastern Conference. to the stand like a final. Maybe they don't get a journeyman team like a Florida. Maybe they get a Carolina. I think they beat them again too.

Not again. I think they beat them too. Like I, I, obviously we have to play out the season and we have to see how stuff goes and stuff could change and injuries play a role. But I don't know why more people aren't smashing, you know,

whatever bets they want to put on or or whatever proclamations they want to say, I don't know why we're not higher on the Vegas golden nights. That's just me. Aiden Hill. Maybe it comes down to Aiden Hill. And, you know, no team. But Aiden Hill just showed you. Yeah.

You could put it in that he could win. But no team in the last five or six years or really since they came in has had as much, it feels like as much volatility or instability in the crease. And yet it hasn't translated into poor performances. It's like almost no matter who they put in there, Robin Lennar, Mark Andre Fleury, you know, whatever. go through the list of guys and now up into Aden Hill. It doesn't matter. Like the goalie for Vegas just does the job. And I got to give them credit because obviously they're either.

But and the crazy thing is they've had all sorts of different coaches, right? Cassidy, Dabor, Golan. It's not like they've had one coach with one system, you know, that that has just created this environment where goaltenders thrive. It's like different coaches, different goalies. It doesn't seem to matter. Like they have like five goals. last year play for them at some point.

Yeah. Trying to ring them off the top of my head. Like, your Patera is one of them. Logan Thompson. Thompson was great as a rookie. He was a very early candidate for rookie of the year before we got hurt.

Jonathan Quick was part of that rotation at some point. Aiden Hill was in there. Oh, geez. Yeah. Who else? Yeah, who else am I missing? A Hill, Thompson, Quick, Patera. There's a fifth goal in there that I'm missing.

Laurent Brassois. Thank you, producer, Jeff. Laurent Brassois was also in that rotation. Yeah. Unbelievable. There's a ton of goalies on that. They, again,

you don't need the goal. You need a goalie to get you through. Remember if you don't take anything else from today's show, take that statement to the bank. I want to ask you about the NFL on the weekend, Julian, they had the game in London. And it's an early morning Sunday game kind of North American time.

And so the NFL did a toy story animated game. Basically, the premise is kind of like what the, remember the NHL did this with Capitals Rangers and it was for the big city greens cartoon show, which isn't obviously as well known as a toy story or wherever. Look, the toy story animated game, great feedback. Sounds like kids loved it. Look like it went off without a hitch, I think. Good, good reviews.

I mean, do you think we're going to see another one of those? NHL animated games geared just for kids. And if so, if the NFL went Toy Story, what's going to happen? What would you like to see the NHL do? Like with a big, like a big time franchise, not like a, and again, all due respect to Big City Greens, it's not, it's not on that level yet, right? I don't think is a toy story. Shout out to fellow Syracuse alum, Drew Carter, who has called both of those games.

The Toy Story game and the Big City Greens game. Yeah. I think it was really fun to see. It was cool to see just the design of it and how they made it work for Toy Story. Really fun to see them use that franchise again. And if Disney isn't afraid to go into its bag and use a franchise that so many people know and love, there's only one franchise that in my mind, you can tell me if I'm wrong, there's only one franchise in my mind that would suffice for an NHL game.

Oh, Frozen. Duh. Like, how are we not? Like, duh. It's right there. You do an A. Shell game. You, you, I'm trying to think, what's a good, you could even do like Rangers Boston, Rangers Islanders, get two of your premier American franchises, and then have all of your

frozen characters kind of hanging around on a vast ice rink and let people, look, let it go. I get people got annoyed with the song. but you get the cast involved, you get the kids involved, it's right there. You could print money. It's a brilliant. Do it.

ESPN, do it. It's too bad. Olaf Colzig wasn't in the NHL still. That would just been easy marketing. Get an Olaf in there. And you're laughing. You know,

a great idea I saw somebody float out yesterday on Twitter. Somebody said they got to do an NHL animated game. Animated to the theme of Rattitude. and instead of players wearing helmets, they would just have a bunch of rats on top of their head kind of controlling all their movements. Oh my God. I admit,

you don't need to do this. You wouldn't watch that? No. No. It's rats. Why would I want to watch players with rats on their heads? That's weird. I think that's weird.

I don't know. Rattitude is an all-timer for me, though. One of the great. I think Frozen's a better idea. And I'm going to tweet about this when we leave the show to, Lion came. Is there any way you could do? You couldn't do this with animals, though, right?

Like, it couldn't, you could, or could you? Could you do an animated game where it's like, like, animals or it has to be human characters, doesn't it? I mean, I find like the, the, I don't know, like, is that the tone you want? Like, do you want, like, who is the NHL's? Who's scar? Who's scar? Who's the NHL's version of SCAR? Yeah.

Like, who's a player who we look down on, but also found a way to take out a respected player that we love? Who? I don't know. We're going to Brad Marchand territory here. Is Brad Barshaw the league scar? But, like, who would he have taken out that, like, like, do you, do you, have you ever seen a scenario where, like, like, what's the equivalent of Brad Barshaw putting a player up on a cliff? It would be, like, long live the king and letting him fall to his demise. Like, yeah, I don't know.

Like, that's thought, I don't know. Do you think of this thought? You know, you can't do animals. It's got to be humans. Yeah, he's like a Deadpool. Yeah, he's like a Deadpool anti-hero type of person. He's not really like a scar, vengeful person in that way. Like, I don't, I don't know if I think of Brad Barshall like that.

Okay. So we can't do animated animals. And it has to be a Disney Pixar, one of those dream works, human. But I think the NHL can do better than Big City Greens. All I'm saying. So absolutely. Love to hear from listeners on this. Any opportunity to get younger fans into the game, we've seen that through what ESPN

has been trying to do. Yeah. Nickelodeon is done with SpongeBob incorporating that into their games. The slime games. Yeah. Yeah. Like I think, I was surprised at first thinking, you know, why would networks invest all like, like try to make this combination work?

But it's worked. Yeah. And sometimes you're, sometimes you want to watch the Nickelodeonid broadcast compared to the CBS broadcast because it's just more fun. But yeah, I think it's really fun to see that it's worked out the way that it has. And if you're the NHL, you have to find a way to get in on that pie. Like you have to, I mean, no, sorry, you have, they've already done that, but you have to

get a bigger, a bigger franchise attached to the sport. Like Big City Greens, no respect to the show. You want a bigger show. You're absolutely right on that. Yeah. So again, hit us up, the athletic hockey show at G. Email.com. If you would like to see an animated game, which franchise would you like to see in that

game? What movie franchise? Maybe it's The Incredibles. Maybe, you know, something probably like we said, probably human related would work better. Although I wouldn't mind seeing Pumba and Timon as a defense pair. That's all I'm saying. Timon? Is it Timon?

Is it Timon? It's Puma. It's Timon. It's Tomew. Jeez. Wow. Excuse me. It's Tomeone and Pumba.

It's Timo. and Pumba. I've never heard Pumba and Timo. I've never hearing it backwards is weird. Timon Salani would be a great a great name. Timon Salani. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. The dad jokes have entered the chat.

Tap out. Tap out. The athletic hockey show at gmail.com, if you want to hit us up, that's what Patrick and Edmonton did. We got a couple of emails to read here. Patrick and Edmonton wants to circle back to our conversation we had last Monday, Julian, when Shana Goldman was in.

as Shana Goldman, marketing wizard extraordinaire. And Shana was all in on the idea of why don't they sell cowboy hats in Nashville, right, with a little bit of fringe, a little bit of, you know, color to them, whatever. Patrick says, when you were discussing teams in the NHL that should sell cowboy hat merch, there was a conspicuous and inexplicable absence of any mention of the Calgary Flames. And with a Calgary beat writer as one of the hosts, he's absolutely right. I was pretty surprised.

Other than that, love your show, great to hear Shane and making a guest appearance. That's from Patrick and Edmonton. Do they sell cowboy hats in Calgary? I'm sure they do. I just, I just have,

like, I've gone through like their team, like I've gone in their team store. It's just not something I've like, I don't know. Like, I probably should be thinking of looking for a cowboy hat. I'm sure if I text,

uh, their guy in charge of, their like merchant stuff. I'm sure I could find something. Like you're in Calgary, it's cowboy country. You would think. You would think.

I like off the top of my head, yes. And if there's, if it's a no, like that would be ridiculous. Like they should have something. I'm sure there is. Chris in Vegas writes to us.

Ian and Julian, you were talking about smarties last week. Your smarties discussion went over the head of everybody here in the United States because down here, smarties are the little roles of hardened. candy sugar pieces. P.S. no imitation M&Ms. tastes like M&Ms. It's from Chris in Vegas. So, Chris in Vegas, what you call smarties in the United

States, we have what are we called rockets, right? Yes. We call them rockets. Yes, we call them rockets. You get them, I only see those bad boys once a year now, and that'll be at the end of the month. So, yeah, rockets are what we call them. I didn't realize they were called Smarties in the States.

Like that's such a- Yeah, I forgot about that. Why is Smarties a name for candy? What do you mean? Like, Smarties has a name for candy. Like, it doesn't make you smarter for eating them, whether on either side of the border. Like, why Smarties as a name? What's the story behind Smarties as a name?

Like, is it something that, like, it'd be cool if like the backstory for, Smarties was just like, oh, well, the founder liked giving their kids candy because they would do well in school and they thought, oh, I'm going to make my own brand of candy and just continue this tradition. But like, why, I mean, that would be my guess. That would be a cool backstory, a fake backstory. But like, I don't know why Smarties has that name. Like Smarties. Why would you name a Candy Smartis? I don't think anybody is drawing a direct line between intelligence and the Fuji eat, right? Because, you know, I mean, I guess if we're going without, no, you know what? We're going to just lose sponsors.

If I give my real thoughts on this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If Nestle comes calling, like, what do we do with that? You guys, you guys fritter away that Nestle deal. Hope you enjoyed your two-minute bit. cost us the Ovalteen account what drinks Ovalteen you know you want that Milo sponsorship

yeah okay well listen we're going to leave it there do you think anybody will come up with a better and I also I think you come up with a better what did I say T-Mond T-M Solani I'm sure someone will somebody beat it I hope so because T-M-on is T.

T-Mond. I call them T-Mone, right? It's T-Mone is the Dave. It's not T-Mond. I think... T-Mont, what did I call it? Now you got, you're in my head. No, you called it T-Mone.

It's T-Mone. T-Mone is the correct pronunciation. This is worse than you judging me for not-liking friends. This is worse than you judging me for not-liking friends. Yeah, that's a good point. That was wrong of me. True. Okay.

Truce, Ian? Truce. truce, truth, there we go. Truths, until we do it again. Next month. Yes. All right. In the meantime, we love to hear from you, the athletic hockey show at gmail.com or hit us up on

on Twitter in the comment section. We love hearing from you and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating and review. We certainly appreciate that. You can follow us on YouTube as well. YouTube.com slash at the athletic hockey show. This season, Julian, we're going to be doing a lot of stuff over there. A lot of kind of live streaming shows on YouTube.

So we want to make sure that we point you in that direction. And then we can maybe there's even going to be a chance for us to show the odd time. Now I might be overreaching here. But next time we're talking about the T. Musilani, not T. Timu's Malaburay, the skate the stick. Maybe there's a way we can try to actually show that as we're talking. I mean, but maybe not. We could show T. Mussolani if it gets to that point too.

Yeah. We could. We could do all those things. But yeah, we were going to have a lot of fun this season. And look, we're only, it was a nine, guy, we're nine days away from the eight days away for the regular season opening up. Oh, I can't wait, man. I can't wait for next week. All this preseason stuff, like trying to find some storylines. Yeah. Let's rank the greatest preseason goals. Yeah. Yeah, you know, sub storylines have been a little, you know, easier to come by in some ways. But also, So look, I could only see so much stuff about roster battles for fourth line center in some markets. Is there, okay. Again, I know I'm trying to say goodbye at the end of the show. Legitimate question. It's okay.

We should have sent this note out in Slack, which is the messaging app we use with our fellow reporters. Is there any team in which there's like a legitimate battle for like a first line spot? Like or like is everybody's first line like we're pretty. good, we know what we're doing. Or is there some team that's like, I don't know who's on our first line. If it exists, it's definitely not one with like star power. Like we're not looking at a situation where it's like, man, like, what superstar? Could you put him here?

You put them there. It might be a team that is just very mid and they're trying to figure out what their first line is and it just isn't as interesting compared to, I don't know, watching Connor Bredard pull off some great moves in preseason. Yeah. No, that was awesome. All right. So listen, man.

Have a great week. You and I'll do this again next week. Yes, sir. For the regular season, we hope everybody has an awesome week. And we'll get you again next time. Gorsi. Corsi.