The Athletic Hockey Show - Ryan O’Reilly traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Patrick Kane catches fire ahead of the NHL trade deadline, Stanley Cup contender checklist with Shayna Goldman, “Corsi!”, and more

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

The dynamic duo is back together on this week’s Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show as Ian and Julian discuss Patrick Kane’s 5-goals-in-2-games outburst with the NHL trade deadline quickly approaching, the Arizona Coyotes taking Jakob Chychrun out of the lineup until he’s dealt at the deadline, players yelling “Corsi!” after meaningless shots at the ends of periods, and the guys close things out with the Jack Adams Winner of the Week award and a round of Multiple Choice Madness.Plus, The Athletic’s own Shayna Goldman joins the show to discuss her Stanley Cup contender checklist, how the Toronto Maple Leafs’ blockbuster acquisition of Ryan O’Reilly impacts their championship credentials, Mat Barzal’s indefinite absence due to injury, and much more. Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowTake advantage of MANSCAPED®’s best valued bundle and save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code NHL23 at http://Manscaped.comTry Peloton risk-free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at http://onepeloton.ca/home-trialGo to https://www.chime.com/nhlshow to sign up for a Chime Credit Builder Visa Credit Card today! Thanks to Chime for supporting the show.Get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase at http://athleticgreens.com/NHL Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. We are back for a Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Feels good to be back in the Monday chair. It's Ian Mendus with you alongside Julian McKenzie. We have a lot to get to. Shana Goldman's going to pop by Julian and chat about her Stanley Cup checklist and what you need to kind of have on your roster. If you want to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender,

We got like a lot to get to trades on the weekend. Like there's a lot to get to. I'm a little rusty at this Monday podcasting. It feels like a while since I've done this with you. I've missed last week. So what do you have Lazarus last week? So I had Lazarus? Yeah, not just that.

Because like Lazarus was on with me last Monday. But I also filled in for you on your Thursday show. So like, yeah. I've just, I've been playing the rule of Ian Mendez for like, way longer than I thought I would. Oh, it's like, you know, when you go to the, uh, the, uh, a Broadway show. And it's like, the role of Ian Mendez will be played

by Julian McKenzie. Hushed falling. And people are like, yes, thank God, the understudy, is taking over this the way it should be.

Yeah, bad. As a former theater kid, I appreciate that reference. Oh, you, okay, so you're a theater guy.

Now, high school drama or what was your high school drama? Do you ever have the lead in anything? So in high school, I was part of a Shakespeare

theater group. We were called the Bardotlanders. And my graduating year, I was Macbeth and I was Othello. Look at this. Is there some video evidence we can share on social media? I don't think there's any video evidence. There's probably, there's probably some photos around, but like, you'll probably never see them. It was a really fun time, though. I think, I think if it wasn't for, honestly, if it wasn't for doing theater, I don't know if I'd be doing

like TV or podcast or anything like that. I learned how to enunciate. It kind of gave you the, yeah, the confidence to kind of deliver. You know, deliver. speak in public and have some confidence in speaking. Yeah, yeah, I can see that for sure. It was a good foundation for me. So, you know, if I knew that being in theater would one day put me in a position where I'd have to fill in for you, Ian twice in the span of like under a week, like, especially how I felt about Ian Mendez back in high school, man. Oh, exactly. I wish I could time travel back to the 11th grade and tell you, hey, this is really important. What were you guys the bardometers?

The bar dolitors. So like of the bar. Bar dolitors. Bar dolitors, yeah. It was a great time. It was cool. We were a great little troupe that, you know, put on two plays a year. We got to go to Stratford, both Stratford upon Avon in England and Stratford in Ontario.

We got to do some trips, got to do some fun times, some fun plays. And yeah, your boy was Macbeth and Othello in his graduating year. He did pretty well for himself. There we go. I like it. I like it. All right. See, each week we learned something new.

about the people sitting in these hosts. Oh, is that exactly. You just taught me, taught me that you were a theater kid. That, yeah, you know what, that's great. When you're able to have that sort of, because boy, it's really tough. I think public speaking is one of the hardest things.

Like, there's a lot of people who would tell you they would rather, like, go skydiving than have to public speak. Like in terms of what scares them more, right? Whereas I would be, like you could put me in front of a, give me a microphone in front of 50,000 people. I wouldn't, I wouldn't bat an eye.

I wouldn't jump. I have a hard time jumping off like a, you told me even I had to jump one story off of something and I'm landing into a big pad. I'd be like, no, no, no, no, I'd rather speak in front of people. I'm not a heights guy. Same way. I mean, I, I'm not as afraid of heights, but if you're telling me, jump out of an airplane at like 50,000 feet or talk to 50,000 people.

I'll find a way to get through talking to 50,000 people. Just let me have like some kind of script in front of me or whatever. If I say like one joke, I'll be I. Like me jumping out of an airplane and you got like the clips or whatever. You make sure you know you up there. Like when am I pressing the clip to let the balloon go to or the parachute, I guess the balloon. See, look, I don't even know the terms. I don't even know how it would work for me to jump out of an airplane.

Do you all trust me to do that? Let me just speak to 50,000 people. Well, I think you had balloon on the mind because once you get 50,000 feet, that's too high for an airplane, but that's where the spy balloons reside. That's true. That's true. They're above the stratosphere. That's probably just that's why you have balloons. Exactly. Yeah. Hey, I want to talk to you about on the weekend the Maple Leafs Friday night, late Friday night, they pull off a splashy trade with St. Louis getting Ryan O'Reilly. reason why I called it a splashy trade. How about Ryan O'Reilly in his first game with Toronto, he's got the water bottle, and he thinks he's kind of dousing his head.

Kyle Bacoscus tells the story in Hockey, in Canada. He mixed up the water bottles. He's dumping red biosteal all over himself before he realizes, oh my gosh. How great, have you ever made a mistake like that with food or you took a bite of something, or you drank something, and you're like, Oh, that's not, because you know what the worst thing in the world is?

Yeah, what? And you tell me, and I'd love to hear from listeners, have you ever made this mistake? And there's nothing more crushing in the food world. You take a bite of what you think is a chocolate chip cookie only to discover its oatmeal raisin. No, I think what's worse is. It's the biggest disappointment ever. No, I don't think it is because I don't hate raising cookies like that. I think what I was really younger and I went to a Chinese restaurant,

my family and I had like a scoop of what I thought was some kind of weird like ice cream or avocado paste and it ended up being. Massabi? Yeah. That was, that was what? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow, what is this? This is hot.

This is, this is, oh man, that would be a great prank for your friend. Try this pistachio ice cream. Yeah, I don't remember pistachio hot ice cream being this hot. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God's it. Yeah. I think that's probably the worst I could think of with a food-related mistake, but like,

or anything with, like, drinking or anything like that. But, like, I always find it kind of weird. The idea that, like, athletes think, like, okay, like, one way that's going to get me through is I'm going to douse myself in water to get going. And so I imagine red biolsteel, like, your hair is going to be sticky. Your face could be sticky. Like, that's not cool. I think, though, of the worst drink you could probably douse your,

yourself in would be like a grape crush grape soda right like that would be the absolute stickiest worst more than like orange crush just even i i feel like grape would be worse wouldn't it would it i i don't i don't know what's funny let the listeners decide i haven't had a a grape crush you know like in years like for me since you were maybe a high school actor yeah that's probably that's probably the last time i had one it's like for me a crush like i I, I, I, I, I'm an orange guy. I'm a very big, like, orange crush. I think orange Gatorade is the best flavor.

Like, I drink orange juice. Like, I'm a big, or, I went to Syracuse. I'm a big orange guy. Don't tell me you went to Syracuse because of your passion for orange. No, but like, it fit, it helped. God, you could have gotten to Florida then, I guess. Yeah, seriously. Could you imagine me if I had gone to Florida for a year of school?

I probably would have turned out very different than what I turned out into now. Yeah, I think so. So look, look, Toronto makes it. And we'll talk to Shane a little bit later about maybe the O'Reilly trade and how that all kind of impacts them. But it's interesting. On the weekend, Toronto, they beat Montreal on Saturday. And then Patrick Kane turns out scores a hat trick on Sunday. Kane scores two on Friday here in Ottawa, where I watch the game.

So five goals and two games for Patrick Kane, as people. people thinking, what are we got here? Like heating up for the trade deadline. But if you're Chicago, are you now at the point? We've seen Jake Chikrin and we've seen what, Gavrakov. We've seen some people start to get pulled from the lineup. Should Chicago be doing this now with Patrick Kane? Like regardless of what, even if they are not going to trade them, just say, look, we just, for right now, let's just take you out.

We're just going to make a decision here, but we just don't want to risk it here with you moving forward. Like, the thing is, as what we've been led to believe all along from talking to Mark Lazarus, is that this is really Patrick Cain's decision. And the more we really delve into it with Patrick Cain, we keep hearing like, okay, we're the Eminton Oilers interested in Patrick Cain, the New York Rangers, we know about that debacle. People in Toronto are wondering like, oh, hey, should the, should the Leafs have been on Patrick Cain all along when it seems as if maybe they weren't actually in? the question I have now is who actually is interested in Patrick Kane. I was trying to make the point with Mark last week that like a player of his caliber, a three-time Stanley Cup champion who may be the greatest player who has ever played for his franchise. Like in terms of the star power that Patrick Kane has,

even if he's not playing at the high level, we expect him to play, in terms of a story news value, he's being sort of underrated in that regard. Like we've hyped up Bull Horvatt when he was available on the, book, like, well ahead of the deadline. Timo Meyer is going to get a lot of play up until he gets traded, right? Even Luke Shen. I've heard people talk up Luke Shen as like a guy who could get like a pretty decent return.

But like Patrick Kane is there who has had all the success. But like we're, we're in turn, again, strictly off of the name recognition in the brand value. I understand he's not playing at the high level that some people expecting to be at this year, even though there might be some other factors that play into that. But even then it's kind of like we're kind of. I don't know. Like, I feel like if this was any other league, we'd be like, whoa, like, this guy is, is playing really well.

Like, Kevin Durant is, like, you know, dealing with injuries or whatever. But, like, we still regard him as, like, one of the best players to ever play the game. When he's like, oh, you know what? Like, I want out or he could be available for trade. Like, is Kevin freaking Durant? Like, we make a big deal about it. But, like, for Patrick Gane, it's like, okay, whatever. Maybe we want him.

Maybe we don't want him. But maybe it's the cap hit. It's whatever maybe Chicago might want to do. And the fact that, like, there's not a lot of students. who are interested, that also plays into that. So I guess I'm answering my own question, but like, it is just really fascinating to see a guy like him with the name that he has and the ability that he has.

And I think those the last two games, especially the game gets strong. I've shown it that, like, when he wants to play and if he's healthy enough, like, he can give a lot. But like, the buzz I find has just been a little, again, purely from a story news, name brand value has been very underwhelming when it comes to Patrick King. So, like, if he gets scratched for trade related reasons, I guess that means like, okay, something could happen, but like where? Like, who's going to take on that salary?

Who's going to take on this player? Like, it doesn't feel as clear cut as like Timo Meyer probably going to a metropolitan team. I'll tell you, the one team I'd love to see him go, and it probably won't happen because we've talked about it too much over the years is Buffalo. Like have him go home, Western New York guy. And, you know, listen, you just talked about going to

you know, to school in Syracuse. You know Western New York. You know the passion they have for hockey and for their own. I've seen some Sabres fans there too. Yeah. And so, you know, Patrick King going back to help the Buffalo Sabres make the playoffs again for the first time in a decade. Like that's the storyline I want to see.

I don't know that that's even what they need. But I'm just, if you're asking me where I'd like to see the guy end up, if he's going to get traded, that's where I'd like to see him end up. I think that'd be great. Yeah. I feel the same way. too. And I just, for Buffalo, just a little note on Buffalo, like, I'm really happy to see them, see them with the success that they're having this year. This is a team that had to rebuild their rebuild. Like, I'm tired of seeing them have all the talent that they've accumulated and then just fall short of missing the playoffs. Like, whether it's, whether it's saying, hey, maybe Patrick Kane is the answer or maybe getting something else. Like, I hope the Sabres do whatever they need to do to ensure that they make the playoffs this year because I'm tired of them missing the playoffs. underwhelming, and their fans deserve a good quality team that could be really good.

I think they deserve that. I just want that said about the Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, and you know what? And the Sabres are engulfed in what I think is a great race here, Julian, where if you look at the Eastern Conference wildcard race, and you think about the fact that the sabers are in there, the caps are in there, the Islanders are in there, Detroit is in there. Ottawa has all of a sudden before this game on Monday afternoon against Boston.

They've basically gone seven one and one in their last nine. They've put themselves back kind of into the conversation. Like this is going to be fun. Like as much as we sometimes talk about, like last year, for example, the Eastern Conference, there was no playoff race. We knew the eight teams at Christmas time. This could be a fun race because I think,

and then Florida's in there too. Like there's basically five or six teams that are legitimately saying we have a chance to make the playoffs here. And it's going to be fun in the last six weeks of the season, seven weeks. I love playoff races like that where every game as the season goes on, like it just grows in value. And you're down to like the final weekend and your teams at a shootout. And you need Scott Clemenson to save, to get a win for you to get in the playoffs.

Like I love that idea. I did not think we were going to get a Scott Clemenson. That's 2007. Right. Like it was because the Islanders needed to get, it was sorry. Yeah, the Islanders need to get into playoffs and they needed a shootout win over. But I think, was it not Wade Dublovitz? Was it Wade Dublovitz? That was the goalie?

Maybe. I think he beat Scott Clemenson in, I think here's what I think happened. And this is just solely off memory. Yeah. It's the last game of the regular season. And the Devils didn't start Marty Brodoer. They started Scott Cleminson because the game didn't matter to them, but it mattered to the Islanders.

And I think Wade Dublovitz was the. goalie and the game went to and I think the devils tied it with like five seconds left. I remember that yes. And then went to a shootout and Wade Dublovitz won and the islanders clinched the last playoff spot and the Leafs

ended up getting knocked out. Yeah, because the Leafs that on the last day of the season. The Leafs I think that weekend beat the Canadians because the Canadians needed to win that last game to get in and then they lost like embarrassingly. So like that essentially took them out of it. So the Leafs had a chance and they

needed, they need the Islanders to lose. If that's how I remember it, this was 2007. I was in high school in 2007. This whole thing is just one episode of your high school life. Yeah. Back when you were crushing grape soda, watching Scott Clemenson while rehearsing your Hamlet lines. Oh yeah.

You know what's, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. In grade seven, I think the very first play I did was Hamlet. I wasn't Hamlet, but like, I think that was the very, that's scary as hell. I don't know how you picked up all that, but Hamlet was the first Shakespeare play I did. No, you meant, what do you mean? I picked up, but you said you were in Hamlet. I said, I, no, I said McDeth and Othello. I didn't say Hamlet.

Oh, yeah, you did. Yeah, you know, it was just intuition. Hamlet was the first play I did in the grade seven. How did, I don't, how did you know that? Well, I don't know. Yo, you're, you're like, you're like Nardwar. I don't know what that means, but I'm just going to assume that it's something weird. Wait, how do you not know Nardwar?

How do you not know Nardwar? What? Is that some sort of, uh, have you not watched much music? No. What? Time out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. For our American listeners, sorry, uh, we're going to get real Canadian on you.

So, wait, you mean to tell me as somebody who you, you, you're a person born in Vancouver. You live in Ottawa now. Yeah. You were a Canadian fan growing up. You never watch much music in your life? You're not a much music guy? No, I wasn't a much music guy. What?

How? Like, I mean, like much music in the 2000. Is that the guy that was on much music and he would do the interviews? Yeah, like he was wearing the fancy beret, like the hat. Okay. You know what? I know. Like he had the little interview with Jean-Cquitienne.

He was all like, you'll ask about that. Yeah. Now that you, I would not have known the name. Yeah. Well, the cool thing about Nard, well, the thing what Nardwar is, is that he's very,

he's very deep, like the way he goes about asking his interview subject's questions, he'll always come up with this, like, random detail that, like, is super, like, you have to really know the guy to figure that out. Like, he'll,

like, especially nowadays, like, he's not on much music anymore, but, like, he'll talk to a lot of rappers, a lot of artists, and you'll be like,

So your Spanish teacher's name was such and such. Or your rapper name was like this name. And like the artist will always be like, wait a minute. How the hell you know that? Like what? Like are you the feds? Are you with the police? Like how do you know that?

So like you say like I know it was a lucky guest. But you say like yeah, you had grade seven crushing your your hamlet lines. That's very like, like, whoa. Like how do you? know that? How do you know that? That's crazy. That was a guess. That was a guess. That was a That was very much a guess. But like, you could have easily played that off and just be like, I did my research. Like I, I talked to your, your, you're, one of your teachers, your English teacher from grade seven and figured that out. You could have totally played that off. But also,

if you just want some fun, just look up like a Nardwar. And Nardwar is N-R-D-W-U-A-R compilation. And like, just look up like all the times he's like surprised people. And like, you'll see, Like, what are my favorite, like, you'll sort of like Jay-Z or like ASAP Rocky or, or, I don't know, like a bunch of other artist Doja Cat to like Tyler the Creator. Like, I don't even know how many of these names you know. Like, you'll just surprise all of them. I do, hey, I have teenagers. I do, I do know all of those names. But I didn't know Nardwar.

Anyway, now we've got, you know the off track and we've lost all of our American listeners. So let's bring them back in. Where were we talking about Patrick Kane and he was being. Yeah. So here, okay, this is what's fascinating to me, too. So Arizona has put Jacob Chikrin basically in bubble wrap for, you know, whatever, 10 days or so, right? They're like, hey, trade related reasons. We're protecting the asset, yada, yada, yada.

And don't look now. The Arizona coyotes, Julian, have only lost one time in their last 10 games, one time in regulation time, meaning points in 9 of 10. here's my question. How are Coyotes fans feeling right now? How is General Manager Bill Armstrong feeling right now? Like, have they put too much room between themselves and Chicago,

Anaheim, Columbus? Like, they're almost, what, seven points up on those teams? Are they, like, is this little hot streak for Arizona basically taking them out of the running to finish dead last overall? Like, it feels that way.

I mean, I guess. I mean, they have a, they have, you talk about, well, this is kind of wild to think of, just look at this right now. By only one point, Arizona has a better points percentage than the Vancouver Canucks. They might have taken themselves, like, completely out of, you know, finishing last place. Oh my God. Like at the same time, imagine if you said that in October, you would say that we're going to go into the trade deadline and the coyotes will have a better points percentage of Vancouver. You wouldn't have believed it.

And again, it's only by one point, but like, holy crap. That's insane. The only other way I would think of it as like a positive for Arizona is if the team is winning and fans seem to be enjoying themselves. I don't know if you saw in the last week that video that Bill Armstrong and Shane Donne did where they basically were in, not enticing, yeah, they were encouraging enticing citizens of Tempe. to vote yes on these propositions that would essentially assure

like a new arena would be built up in the area. I think that's the only bright side you can look at this. If they're not going to be last place, you have to find some kind of silver lining out of it and if fans are going to enjoy themselves, be like, hey man, like this team has something,

you know, vote yes on a proposition that will keep the team in the area. It's a good video too. It's, they seem pretty engaged and you see like the little like scale model of like what the arena is supposed to look like and all that. Like, I'll find it if I can.

But, like, that's how I would see it. Like, you know, if you're all right, fine, if we're going to get or take ourselves out of it, we're doing everything we can to ensure that, like, fans are enjoying themselves so they can ensure that they're down with this new arena idea. Is there, like, a room somewhere in Phoenix or Tempe or Scottsdale, like just a big warehouse where everybody's got bottles of arenas that they've planned

over the years? You know, I'm going to Arizona on Tuesday. I'll go find it. Okay. Okay. Let me know. Let me know how that, how that turns. Hey, I want to ask you about this because this was weird to me. And I have never heard of this until your colleague, Salim Volgi, who works for TSN,

does a great job covering the flames for TSN. Salim tweeted out on the weekend that random thing I learned today, I had no idea that this was no clue. He says, apparently it's common for NHL players if they're shooting a meaningless, long-distance shot in the dying seconds of a period to yell coursey as they shoot the puck. Julian, I got to tell you, I have not heard this, but you are not only, listen, you can back up Salim on this. So can you tell our listeners about this a little bit?

Tell, this is not happening. Come on. Okay, so Solomon and I, so here's the thing. So Solomon and I were at the Flames practice Sunday. and they opened up the room and it was actually pretty chill. We were able to, you know, just have some conversations with some guys. And both of us ended up in front of Chris Tanev's stall. And like, Solom is asking him questions about defensive coverage and he's answering them. And, you know, we're just having a chat.

And I just randomly asked Chris, like, how do you feel about advanced stats or like analytics or whatever? And he's just like, I don't know, I don't particularly care for them. And I'm trying to explain like, you know, I get it. Like, you know, it's kind of hard to explain. the concept of like an expected goal. And then he brings up the fact that like, yeah, like it's happened before. We're like, guys will have these meaningless shots. You're at the end of like a period or whatever.

And they will yell coursey. And the very first thing I've thought of, there's a video that the flames put up back in November where they miced up Jonathan Huberto and McKenzie Weager. This is when they played their first game back in Florida. And there's a play where the flames are coming. coming up on the attack. The play ends up in a save, but like Jonathan Huberto, who he has a sense of humor, and I don't think he was necessarily doing this like seriously. But like as the play like ends and it's a save, you hear Huberdo say, oh, coursey.

And I think like Sasha Barkov like laughs. Oh, what a shock. Wow. Oh, that's course. That was like the very first thing I thought of when Chris Tannav said like, yeah, there were guys who do this. And I think making Chica guys. in the mentions. It was like, I've never heard players do this. And I wonder now, like, was this like a secret thing that wasn't supposed to go out? Like, I, I have no idea. But like,

at least one NHO player is saying he's, he's heard this or he's seen this. And there is video evidence to suggest even in a joking matter that players will do this. I've never, I've never heard of it. But in, in fairness, I've never asked about it either. I've never thought to ask about. I've never heard it. So you know what? Maybe this is a maybe this is a long form feature that you need to chase down here. If this is really going on. I wonder now. I wonder because like well now at any, now like later after we do this, the flames are going to play the Philadelphia Flyers, I'm basically going to spend that entire game like counting down the final seconds to be like, okay, is someone going to yell

coursey when they fire a shot? And like if I hear like a faint noise from up in the in the press box, I'm going to be like, oh, oh, someone did it. Maybe that is, maybe that turns into a thing. Like, maybe that's like a thing. Like, would be cool if, like, fans who, you know, are up on advanced statistics, like, they see a player shoot from, like, you know, from however far, uh, in the dying seconds of like a second period just from distance and they just yell coursey. Like, wouldn't that be like a funny, like, little, like, quirk?

I can see Seattle doing this. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're like, they're, they're, they're with, like, numbers and, and, and, and, and trying to get fans to see all that type of stuff. So, like, I can see them do it or, like, some other new team that wants to be cool. All right, Julian, time to bring in our guest on this Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey show.

We say a happy Monday to Shana Goldman. We're just about 12 noon. So I was just, the reason why there was a little hesitation there, I was like, is it good morning? Is it good afternoon? Is it good day? Whatever it is, we say, welcome to the Monday pod. Shana, how are you on this Monday?

I'm good. I'm very awake, very energized, never felt better, really. Yeah, I love it. We can feel it, feel the energy coming through. I love it. It's technically morning where I'm at, Ian. I just want that point. That's a good point. You are two hours in, you're in the mountain time zone, right? I'm sorry, 11 is morning by far. I would say good morning until like 1 o'clock. Yeah. Yeah, we're good with that. There we go. Listen, we were really excited to have you on here because, you know, last week you had, the piece where every year you kind of look at what teams need to win a Stanley Cup. And essentially it's a checklist. It's like kind of 10 things that the last 10 or 11 Stanley Cup winners have had.

This is if you want to kind of a predictive look at Stanley Cup winners, here's the checklist. And this year you decided to kind of go with like a food theme, right? Like with a, you know, who's got a five-star meal, who needs to add a pinch of salt, that type of thing. Before we get into this, what is Shana Goldman's favorite, like you got one place to eat a meal? Where is Shana going? Oh, that's so tough. It's tough. My favorite restaurant closed, but it was a place called Ginza and it was like Asian fusion food and it was like the best sushi you could get anywhere and now no one even comes close. So I'm still scrambling for the replacement.

Oh, damn. Was that one of those pandemic closures? Um, it lasted, I think, through part of it and then it closed. And I, it's supposedly reopening, but I've heard that for a year. So I have no idea. Okay. We're going to get it going with this conversation. We're going to get that restaurant open again. If you're listening, we want it back open just for shame. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Exactly. Exactly. But, you know, but so when we look at this, the check, and you know, maybe what I'll do very quickly, I'll just give the, the listeners a very quick, a rundown because this was, you know, this was Dom who kind of, right, who found the, yes, we'll call it elements.

Ten elements. Ten elements, okay? So I'm going to just rip through these really quick. And then we're going to kind of give you a chance to kind of, you know, kind of weigh in on the teams that sort of check a lot of these boxes. So very quickly here, in the last, ever since Chicago won their first of three Stanley Cups in 2010, Dom has gone back and found these, these are the common elements here. Number one, an elite first line center.

that's amongst the very best in the world. You also need an elite first-line winger to support said elite center. You need two other top-line wingers on each of your top-two lines. You need another top-line center to play behind the elite center. You need two more top six forwards

for depth in the middle six. You need an elite number one defenseman, but that's not enough. You need another number-one defenseman to play behind him. You need another top pairing defenseman to help kind of anchor the second pair. You need another top caliber defender in the third pairing to what Dom says, and you say to crush soft minutes. And then you need, as if that's not enough, a top 10 caliber starting goalie.

So that's kind of the checklist of what you need to have. And as you look at the teams as we sit here kind of, you know, whatever, 10 days or so out of the trade deadline. there's a couple of teams here, Shana, that don't really need to do too much, right? Right. That's nice for them, you know. No, it does sound like when you read it out, it's like, wow, that's a tall ass,

but, like, think of last year's avalanche. And so this list originally dumped it a few years ago, and, you know, we've updated it since. So the avalancheer factored into here and raise the bar too. But when you think about like that, that second elite defenseman, it's having someone like TAVs, like having someone ready at your roster.

So who has it the best right now? It's the Boston Bruins. Is anybody surprised by that? And, you know, you look at who they have. It's Patrice Bergeron, who people were upset, isn't the elite center. He's not elite center, but he's on the lower end of the range of a contender, which, I mean, he's 35 years old and he's still amazing. So, you know, there's really no issues there. You have Poshnuck, you have McAvoy, you have Martian.

Like, that's an incredible core. And then when you go deeper, you look at what Hampuslinholm is doing. You look at Grizzlick how well he's playing in Zoc. and DeBrusk, and it's like everybody's really maximized there. And the important thing, too, is sometimes a player might not have a checkmark, and it's okay because the rest of the lineup can make up for it. So say you're the Vegas Golden Knights and you really never had that elite 1C, it was fine in years past because you had Markstone pressure already on each side of them.

It makes up for it. Boston doesn't need to make up for it. They legitimately are the best. I'm intrigued about these teams that are classified as a five-star meal. So you have Boston in there, you have Toronto in there, Tampa's in there, Vegas is in there. Carolina is in there. And the New Jersey Devils are in there. And they've probably been the biggest surprise of any team, especially in the Eastern Conference. Maybe you could argue Seattle in the West. But I think among all teams, maybe New Jersey has been the biggest surprise. And they check off literally a lot of boxes according to this checklist. Would you say when you were going through every team and you were figuring okay, like which team checks off those boxes, were you surprised that?

all to see New Jersey fill them out so well. I know they've had the surprising year that they've had, but like legit with like Jack Hughes playing well, Yesper Brought, Dougie Hamilton, all those guys. Like, like, what were you thinking when you realized, oh, okay, we can put the New Jersey Devils in that top tier? Yeah, so sorting the tiers is really tough for me because, you know, I kept like rearranging them. It's not like I have like a final tally and it's just simple. It's just me trying to like place them. And New Jersey, the thing was, I guess I have the advantage. I did the list for them last year, too. I did it specifically for them, and then I did the non-playoff team.

So I kind of knew where they were going to stack up, and I knew who was overperforming this year. So I had an idea they'd be in the top two tiers, but it was nice, like once you see the list together to see how well they rank, and we anticipate them moving up, right? Like, if they get another high-end winger and someone like Pilat moves down a slot, and Eric Haolo, who arguably shouldn't be there, you know, moves down a slot too. Anytime you can add someone at the top of kind of slots, everyone else more appropriately. the part that's, you know, surprising to me was how Alvanichick stacks up. Like I knew he was having a good year. I've been watching him play all season and he doesn't have to do too much because that defense is so strong.

But it was nice to see how his numbers match up to and how he's exceeding expectations. You know, it's funny too. And Toronto's on the list. And you published this article before they went out and made the trade for Ryan O'Reilly. And I'm wondering, as I look at the Toronto checklist, I'm like, well, they don't need a center. Like they're pretty strong there. Like was this like if you're Toronto, you're Calduba. And I know, they're not done yet.

They still have a little bit. They have some, believe it or not, they do have some cap flexibility if needed. Is this the move that makes them better? Yeah, absolutely. Like with Toronto, they don't need too much. But I think the thing is like David Camp being slotted more appropriately lower in the lineup is going to be good for them. And I'm a big fan of like his shutdown game.

The thing with Ryan O'Reilly is he doesn't suddenly get them some huge. checkmark in that top six forward slot that he would be in. And it's because his numbers in St. Louis are really bad this year. So his actual numbers are dragging, but as projected does get them to the range that they should want. And we, you know, the context around it is, generally speaking, if someone doesn't line up to their projections, we can expect them to get there or we can try to figure out why they're not. The reason is probably his environment. Yes, aging is a part of it. And I think the environment has kind of exacerbated that a bit. But I think when he has more support, it's going to help him play up to the projection. So we have that range knowing this is where

he could be and this is where they generally are. And it's based on three years worth of data and we're adjusting for, you know, recency and age and all things like that. So it's kind of a good gut check of like maybe this player is higher should be higher than he actually is or maybe this player is lower than he actually is and things like that. I want to jump to the just needs an extra pinch of salt category, which is just below five-star meal. Dallas is in there. Winnipeg is in. And in there. Edmonton is in there. And two names that, two teams that intrigue me the most. Florida's in there, a team that last I checked still outside the playoff picture, but they're still kind of fighting. They've been kind of underwhelming, I guess, for considering how last year went

for them and all the changes they had. And the reigning cup champions, Colorado is in this category. For people who might not get why, they might like, you know, speed through the article and they're like, oh, why would you put Colorado in the second tier? They were the defending champions. why is Colorado in need of just a pinch of salt? So Colorado is a tough one because I think the goal for them, I'm not their management staff, but I think the goal for them was letting the center line center position kind of just be status quo for now,

see how comfort can do there, see how new hook could be there, and figure it out. And they assumed they would have two really high-end wings to support them in Gabriel, Lancashog, and Valen-Chu-Kin. They didn't expect everyone to be broken. And so it's been tough for them to truly assess whether or not they need to address that position because, like I said earlier, you can get away with, you know, someone that's not up to par perfectly

for the, you know, two-see position if your wingers are so good, it's going to elevate them. That hurts them. The other part is Lanniscag has not played it all this year. We assume his projection is that he's going to be, you know, the top six forward they need with flying colors. We don't know for sure. And generally speaking, we'd have him higher as the top-line winger, but I slotted him a little lower just because we don't know. There's rust, there's getting back from injury, there's

all of those factors. The other thing I hurts them is defensive depth because Eric Johnson's out. Sam Gerard's numbers are not up to par right now. Byron, we know, can get there. His actual is dragged down by the fact that he was hurt for much of this year. So it's all things that, you know, revolve around their injuries. Do we think that they'll get there at their peak? Probably. It's Colorado. They had a couple, you know, red axes and gray check marks last year. And by the time the playoff, you know, rolled around. They wear golden black, the best of the best. So I'm not entirely worried about them being a team that needs a pinch of salt,

but it wouldn't surprise me if they make a move and for everyone to get healthy otherwise. And also, did you think about like pinch of salt feels like it's from a cookbook from like the 1970s? Okay. I feel like you need to update this with like a splash of saracha or something. Something a little more spicy. It's not. It's his name.

He had the names last year because we did this story together last year for the regular season and the postseason. I did it myself. He came up with the names and I rolled with him this year because I didn't have better options that I could think of on the fly. I really do need that, though. Like a splash of Saracchu would be so funny as the name, a little bit of crushed red pepper. Yeah, exactly. We need to update this. Yeah, for the playoffs, I'm going to have to.

There we go. I don't know why I keep thinking of like Gordon Ramsey, like every time I think of all of these different like categories or whatever. Maybe it's just because like whatever I think of cooking TV shows, I think of Gordon Ramsey. Well, he did mention. I think it was originally, are you going to be on Hell's Kitchen or in Kitchen Nightmare? Like which one are you? Like are you going to be on Master Shepherd Kitchen Nightmare? I think that's what Dom used in the original.

So you're completely on the right track there. Oh, yeah. There you go. Wouldn't you love to take like the Columbus Blue Jackets or the Arizona Coyote's roster to Gordon Ramsey? and then just watch him analyze it. Oh, that would be. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me take you up on that.

Shana, as the Calgary person here with the expectations that were thrust upon this roster, it's no surprise. And considering how they've kind of underwhelmed to this point, it's no surprise they're under the category, not ready for the oven just yet. If I were baking the Calgary flames and they came out the way that they look right now, how do you think Gordon Ramsey would react? he would yell that they're, I would say that they're so burnt and I could see him like smashing his hand like on, you know, the plate of salmon when he smashes it and throws it against the wall.

That's what he would do. I also think if he was in like kitchen nightmares, he would fire the head chef immediately. That would be, because maybe you have the right ingredients, but I, that's a thing right here. I look at every underperformance. You look at how the actual values fall short or you look at the fact that the players who have good numbers aren't getting the right minutes. generally it's not the ingredients then. I would say it's the person putting them together. Just maybe you need a refresh.

Maybe, you know, you don't want your, your restaurant stuck in the 80s and the 90s. You need something a little new, fresh, and a little bit different. That is the most creative searing of Daryl Sutter I've ever heard in my life. Jeez. And, hey, by the way, for the listeners and for the two of you, have you ever watched the video of it's Gordon Ramsey? speaks to kids versus Gordon Ramsey

speaks to adults. Yeah, the greatest thing ever. It's amazing. It's been neamed all over. Like, I've seen Flames fans take that video and like,

yeah, put like, like, like, like, Gordon Ramsey will talk to, like, a kid and they'll put like a player

that, like, he really likes. And then, like, a player that, like, he doesn't like, he'll, like, yell at them, like,

you sack a shit, like, I've seen people do that. Like, it's hilarious. Oh, yeah. It is, it is,

it is, the bread and put them around like Peltier after his first game and be like, you're an idiot sandwich, you know? What are you? Oh my gosh. We got so many ideas. It's good. Hey, a little bit of news to get to on this Monday, Shana, as, and Kevin

Kerr's has tweeted this out, the New York Islanders have announced that Matt Bargell is out indefinitely with a lower body injury. And obviously, look, they were, Lou was very aggressive. They went out. They got Bo Horvatt. The feeling was they still needed to get something. When you look at the Islanders now and then add in this piece of news that Barzell is not going to be available for the, let's call it the foreseeable future, whether that's a couple of weeks, rest of the season, I don't know. How do we, how should we view the Islanders right now?

I have like 100 bones to pick with the Islanders. Like, first of all, why is it that every single player that they have wanted in the last year is a center when they have so much money tied up and they're centered up? They're like, it's fine. Codry, we're going to sign him to be a center and someone will play on the wing that we're paying like a center. Like, centers are more valuable. So that mistake, number one. With Horvatt, it was a really interesting choice to go for him. And the fact that they signed him, it made their return better.

But I think that they locked themselves into something when they should have considered flipping him again, honestly. Like, that's what I would have done if I were the jam. I would have been like, let's see if we can make this work. And if not, let's move him to a team, especially because we see the centers dwindling on the market. You probably could have gotten even more than what you originally, you know, spent on him. But that's too spicy for the islanders. They don't do things that are fun and exciting. The issue for me was that they were making these moves with Oliver Walshrom-Hurt,

and I don't think he's taken the step forward that we would have expected from him. And, you know, there's a ton of reasons why, and I think usage the last two years is part of the conversation. But, you know, they need a top six winger. Now you're down him. So now Josh Bailey's in your top six. That's a problem. So you need at least one more top-six winger. And then you still could use another one because the forward depth just isn't there.

I have fewer issues on defense with them. Honestly, it's not perfect, but when you have elite goal tending, you can kind of make up for it. And it sucks that they can't maximize on Sorokan season. But like, if I'm the Islanders, before even going for Horavada, I would have considered it and now absolutely with the Barzell-injury and Martin, I'm selling

players like Mayfield. I'm selling Parolema. I would have done this last year, not for nothing. And don't even, I don't even care that they don't use the draft picks. They're not going to. That's fine. They're not great at drafting anyway, and that's totally fine because their focus is right now, based on where their core is. You take those pieces that you get back into trade

and you flip them this summer for pieces you actually need. And ideally, they could follow the path they did with Bo Horvatt as it's not a player that Lula Amarillo had before. Although that connection is there from the draft pick. Like, go for someone totally new, totally fresh, totally different, and try to approach things better next year. Are you saying that the Islanders should be selling yet? Just saying this as we're recording this right now, they're in a wild card spot. Okay. I don't think they're, I think that the hard part for the Islanders is that their core,

is built for right now. And when we look at their paths forward, maybe you get another two, three years out of this window if you do nothing to it. They don't have great young players coming up the ranks and things like that that you can, you know, immediately start handing out spots to and it doesn't feel like they've done a great job developing those players. But I think, honestly, you have to look at yourself and not just go, we want to make the playoffs, but what are we going to do in the playoffs? And now you're without Barzell. You're already without Wallstrom. We don't know his timeline because why would we? It's the Islanders. Your team isn't performing up to par in general, why not? Why not better yourselves for next year instead of going

for it and screwing yourselves even further? I just want to say, as someone who also covers a team that is very quiet about injury timelines, just like, oh, it's the Islanders, because we're not going to know, that just like kind of triggered me for a little bit. Anyway, sorry, not to cut you off. Sorry. But no, no, no, you know what, though? It's interesting because Julian, you kind of looked a little bit shocked or incredulous that Shana said the Islanders should be selling when they're holding down the final wild card spot in the playoffs. I want to ask both of you

this question because this drives me nuts. I think the league should be sorting the standings based on points percentage. Because if they did it on points percentage, you would see the islanders don't have the last wild card spot. They're behind Buffalo and they're actually behind Detroit

and they're, you know, Ottawa's right there with them basically in a virtual tie. And so is Florida. Like, do you, do you both think that the league should just change that up because like a team like the islanders for example have played five more games than the sabers like that's crazy sort of by their schedule didn't help it you should absolutely and if you're a general manager you should be looking at it both ways and look at it and go we've played more games we blew the opportunities they've gotten so lucky that teams like the capons are losing and you know that buffalo didn't have

I think what was it the first game in California they lost like they were They're so lucky about the teams around them falling down, but that's not how you want to make the postseason. If you do that, do you honestly think, I hate the attitude for a lot of teams of like just make the postseason and see what happens. I think in some cases, and I get at the Kings won that way, it works and it makes sense. And you could look at the team and go, if you're Detroit or you're Buffalo and just make the postseason and see what happens, I think that's a great attitude to have because you don't expect them to be there. When you're an expected contender, based on the timeline of your core and what you did before this, that's not good. enough. You need to figure out a way to make it good enough for next year because you only have so many years to maximize with these players. What do you do for your team like Calgary, though,

who everyone thought was going to be contending team at the beginning of the year, they've taken those steps back and they might still miss the playoffs, but there seems to be this, not maybe not a universal belief, but some people still believe that if this team actually gets into the playoffs, they have a style that could work to at least win around maybe two in the postseason, right? Like, And they're in this kind of weird, mish, mushy middle where they're on the outside looking in as we speak. But like, if they go on a bit of a run, they can put themselves in. And again, it just kind of affects their trade deadline plans. Like I, I don't know.

Like I've seen the teams who have gone who have just said, you know what? Like let's just get into the playoffs, see what can happen. Remember the Canadians in 2021? They just got it by the skin of their teeth. They make a run out of it. The St. Louis Blues in 2019, they do it. Like, I don't know. It's just, it's so hard to win in, in, in.

the NHL and if you just catch fire and you get it and you were able to hold on to the fact that you want a Stanley Cup for a long time. There's not a lot of teams who could do like what Tampa Bay did and go to the finals consecutively and win consecutive championships or the Pittsburgh Penguins as well. So like I don't hate the idea that, you know, if you could just get in, you get in. That being said, like if you're a team that's just going to be mediocre when you probably could do better by yourself to, you know, take the step back, sell off pieces and be an even better team once you retool, you should probably do that. But for a team like Calgary, like, you're kind of in this window where you kind of have to go for it. That's at least how I see it with the core that

they have. And I don't know, they kind of have to go for it. They have to do something. So it's a bit of a nuanced take, I think. Yeah. Like, when you look at, I think the two teams that are the perfect examples of this in recent years are the Blues and the Predators. I think every year you could have looked at them and like, you are not good enough. Just be honest with yourself. One deadline, you step back. You trade one or two pieces. You get a couple things back. You use those pieces for future assets that are going to help you.

Like, that's it. So simple. You don't go, well, UCSaurus is going to drag us along the way. Like, he will. That's great. But you're going to lose in round one. I think they're the teams that could have stepped back. I think the islanders are a weaker roster.

By roster strength alone, before we even account for like playing styles and things like that, roster strength alone, I think the islanders are weaker than the flames that I would say they need to step back. They have incredible goal-tending. I get that you want to maximize the line. that, but he has no support. So it's going to weigh on him at a certain point. With the flames, they actually invested so much in this year. I can see the argument for just make the playoffs and see what happens because I think they have a better chance when you consider the Pacific

division and everything in the West versus the East. The East is tougher than the West. And I think that has to be factored in. I also think it's interesting because you were like, say the Devils, a rush-based team that doesn't have that hard hitting style that, you know, you talk about in the playoffs, everyone would be saying you're not good enough for it. But the flames, you play this style, you might be able to make it work. That's true to a point, but I also look at the flames and I go, are you, you still have to do something. Can you add a player then that's not a rental? Can you invest in this team? Because they look at how much they did in last year to invest in this team for these next like three, four years. I get trying to capitalize on it. But then I still think they

need to do something else. And I still wonder if it's even going to matter if they do anything because of the coaching. But the bright side for them is you look at how they're playing right now. We know the Coleman line is so good. That third line is outstanding. They should probably play a couple more minutes a game though, but even as is, that's very good. It looks like they kind of figured out a better combination with cadre and that line has some potential. And then you look at the top line with Linholm and it's like, okay, right now they have three lines that are in theory very good, getting off to encouraging starts. Can they do something more consistently? They have a week to figure that out and see where they go from here.

And if you see maybe they found the right balance, you figure out just how to boost the team a little bit more. The Islanders are playing poorly. They're collapsing in games. It's two different situations for me because we get like the vibe check on where they are right now versus the islanders to start the year. They were great at coming from behind.

Look at them. They're down 3-1 to the avalanche. They're coming back. Like it's totally fine. So I think that they have two different situations. That's hard to go like apples to apples to apples. But in some cases, yes, just make the playoffs and see what happens. When you're the islanders, don't do it.

You're going to be like, the Blues and the Predators in a couple years. That's very well said. Yeah. Listen, if we're doing vibe checks, I want to get your vibe check on the Pittsburgh Penguins because, when I read Josh Yoey's open, anytime a columnist writes an open letter to management and ownership, you're like, something's off the rails here. And it's funny you mentioned Calgary being so good with their third line.

I feel like when I look at the penguins and I listen to Penguins fans are like, our bottom six is a truck. We have the worst bottom six in hockey, blah, blah. Like, like, what are the Pittsburgh penguins, like to you? Are they a playoff team? I mean, they're kind of a little bit above that grouping of the Washington's in Florida. Like, they're a little bit safer in terms of where they are in the standings, but not by a ton.

Like, what are the penguins right now, Shana? I think they're better than Washington. So I bet, you know, I was like saying it in November. I'm like, I feel like the capitals are the team to miss this year. And a lot of my friends are like, no, no, no, no, no, it's going to be the penguins. I'm like, no, no, no, no, it's going to be the capitals. The capitals have the injuries. I think their core is older.

We see them underperforming. And I think with the penguins, I see more potential. And it's the Crosby effect. It's the Malkin effect. It's the Litan effect. It's really tough for them. The players, like, do Milan are underperforming. And I think you could see better usage for guys like Pettersen to, you know,

Marcus Pettersen to step up and play a little bit more. They just need help. They really do. Like, they need to figure out their goaltending situation. I don't think they can be confident. Even if Trishon Jarry comes back and is healthy, I don't think it's enough. I think they do need to figure out their bottom six. Jeff Carter's underperforming.

They need a little more boost on that third line. I get why they would go for it, though. Like you have three years of Crosby, Letang, and Malk, and few teams have that top three that you want to try to maximize. So I do understand it. And I think the problem with them is like it's just the inconsistencies. Because we can see them in games dominate and look like the penguins that we know them to be, but then you see them collapse against the islanders after taking a lead,

you know, lose to the devil. it's pretty concerning, you know, they're just not, it's just not enough. So I think that they're a team that's going to add. I liked how they approached last year with the ads like Raquel. And I wonder if they can find like another player like that that's legitimately like middle six caliber to take this team up a notch. Because I think sometimes we get so, like there's a difference between a middle six, which a lot of times on a good team is third line, right?

Like a middle six team on a bad team, their second liner, on a good team, you know, their third liner versus a depth player. I think depth player sometimes, I think replacement level, fourth line. I think they need middle six to boost the third line and get them where they need to be. All right. Before we let you go, one of the things I love doing when you write a kind of a national piece or a piece that kind of looks at the league, you always look at the mentions and the comments and you get one fan base in particular.

Haley and I did the attendance piece back in the fall. And I mean, we had Flyers fans coming over the top. We had just fan bases all. People get angry because they feel like their team has been kind of sold short. So when you wrote the Stanley Cup, this latest, the checklist piece, was there one or two fan bases that kind of came over the top at you and were upset with the way that their team was viewed through this lens? So it was kind of funny to me like, I expect Canadian fans to be upset with me.

Blues fans are always upset, even if you're nice to them. for this one in particular, it kind of seems like it's the teams that they expect to be good being like, you just don't understand like my team or the model's broken and that's like always the answer.

It felt like there was less of one fan base because like even now Islander fans who would be upset if anyone said anything wrong about the team they're kind of like we suck, we know it, we need to do something. We're total shit. Like they just accepted it.

That's how Alder's fans would react. That's not what I've seen from them in the past. Notice that Islander's fans listening. They could be a little. you know, territorial. Yeah. Like I think I, in the chicken story I did, which was a national piece,

the Islander fans were like, this is wishful thinking, but we know management's not going to do it. We're totally cooked. I think now it wasn't even one fan base. It was the anti-Dom fan base, being like the models bed. We're team not Dom. Or I think I got called an Islanders fan recently and a lease fan. And I'm just like, I'm neither.

Or like, you know, are you just Dom's like mouthpiece and things? things like that. Like, people get so upset, you know, as if the models the end all be all. When it's just their jumping off point and we're literally in the intro, I'm saying, this does not account for team styles. We're purely talking roster strength. So I think this time it was less one team being upset and more just any mention of anything Dom does. I like picking on Dom as much as the next guy, but like it always annoys me to no end whenever he like puts up those post like, oh, you know, the checklist or or the salary one where it's like, oh, this guy has the worst contract in the league or whatever. And people just love to rail on Dom. And I just think

it's unjust, honestly, for both of y'all. Like, you guys do a lot of great work for us and and sift through the numbers and make it easy to understand. And I wish people would just appreciate what you guys do a little bit more. That'd be nice. Yeah. I'm just, don't mind me. I'm just taking a couple minutes. I'm just setting up a parody Twitter account called Dom's mouthpiece. Okay, just setting that up right here. We're going to tweet from that. Hey, Shana, thank you so much for dropping by. I think it's a lot of fun to be able to look at kind of the Stanley Cup contenders,

what they might need, and then obviously just being able to look at that Islanders news that came down today. Thanks for dropping by the Monday edition of the podcast, and it's past 12 noon, so I can tell you, have a great afternoon. Thanks so much for having me. I hope you have a great afternoon, too. Still morning for me. All right, great stuff with Shana. As always, and time to wrap up the Monday pod.

Let's see if I remember how to do this properly. Julian, having not done the Monday show in a couple of weeks, we hand out the Jack Adams Award for the person who did the best job behind the bench the past seven days. I'll tell you what, we got the two teams that accumulated the most points last week are two teams that we never would have thought would be there. The Arizona Coyotes and Andre Tourney and DJ Smith and the Ottawa Senators, Both of them, seven out of a possible eight points.

Then again, Jared Bednar, the aves did that too. They went 3.0 and 1. What are we thinking here? I feel like maybe Andre Tourney deserves some love. Yeah, I think for these awards, I always like to lean towards the guy who is least likely to get it because Jared Bednar has a Stanley Cup ring.

He does not need a Jack Adams winner of the week from us. DJ Smith and Andre Turing Yi, you know, are a little tough maybe they could use one of those. The fact that the Arizona Coyotes have put themselves in a position where they're more or less kind of taking themselves out of the sweepstakes for Connor Bedard. But hey, you know what? It's a draft lottery.

It's entirely possible. They still, you know, shoot up and put themselves in a position where they get them or, hey, maybe they end up at number two and they take Adam Fantilli anyway. Like it's still a bit of a crap shoot, right? But I like the idea of seeing the coyotes play well. you know, they have pieces that maybe they could build on for years down the road. And you can't just be objectively terrible. We really thought this team was going to be like pretty bad.

Maybe not Chicago bad, but like pretty bad. So I think any time they get an opportunity to rise above themselves, you know, I'm willing to give them some props for it. So I'm going to give it to the Arizona Coyotes and Andre Turingi for his job last week. Yeah, and not to mention, as we said earlier, like no Jacob Chikrin, right? Like it's arguably your best player, certainly your best defenseman, it feels like. And you know, you're winning games. And let's not forget, one of those wins was over Tampa Bay, one to nothing, right?

Like they beat Tampa and Nashville last week, too. So in addition to Columbus. So, yeah, I'm with you. Give it to Andre Tourney. I think it's remarkable what he's been able to do. I'm sure in the face of so much adversity playing that small. By the way, so you're going down to Zona, are you going to watch, you're going to see a game there this week? Yeah, so the flames are on a three-game road trip, Arizona, Vegas, and Colorado.

So I'm going to be on that trip. And have you been to that rink at ASU? Never, never been to any of those cities. So you got to, oh, never been to any of those cities. Okay. Well, you got to give us a full rundown on next Monday show if you're with us on the Arizona, the intricacies, the weirdness, the fun stuff from the rink in Arizona. Absolutely. I'm down. I'm bringing my notebook and I'm taking notes.

Okay, there we go. Rapping up, as we do, it's a little multiple choice madness on this Monday. Now, I'm going to have full cards on the table. You tell me, love to hear from the listeners too. I did not watch a minute of the outdoor game. Carolina, Washington. What about you? I almost forgot there was one.

I did like a whole bunch of shows last week and I did not mention it once. I remember asking some of my colleagues at another podcast network. I'm a part of. If they mentioned the stadium series at all, they said no. And I'm wondering about it. Like, let's be real here. For the stadium series, is it just going to be a thing where the NHL feels it's just best to market to those two markets that are involved?

Is this not something cool that, like, the league would want more people to see? I don't know. Like, I mean, I guess it's cool to see those guys doing it. I guess it's for those fans, I guess. But when you're, we're thinking so much of, like, you know, watching them on TV or watching them on streaming. Like, I don't know. I feel like that's something you should big up like a little bit more and have a little

bit more more hype. I don't know. That's just my feeling about it. I'm with you. I didn't watch very much of it. Also felt like there wasn't a lot of, you know, hype around it, all that stuff. But look, here's my question to wrap up the pod. Because they played in a football stadium there.

We've seen it in baseball stadiums. We get it. Okay. What I liked is when the NHL went and they did the game in Tahoe a couple of years ago. I know that that was the one where Gary Bettman's like, the sun is our enemy. Whatever, okay? But I thought at least that opened up the idea, okay?

That opened up the idea that they could play in a kind of outside the box location once they went to Tahoe. So here I'm going to give you four options here. If the NHL is going to play an outdoor game and they really were like, let's go outside the box and you get four options here. Would you like to see them play? A, on the ice at Lake Louise, which would just be just picturesque with the mountains. B, on the Rideau Canal here in my backyard in Ottawa,

longest outdoor skateway in the world. C, Central Park, right in New York City in Manhattan. D, let's go with one of Nature's Wonders. Is there any way they could play the game with the Grand Canyon? That's insane. As a backdrop. Or, E, I'm going to just leave this open. You want to pick somewhere else in the world?

front of Mount Rushmore, whatever. Like, I don't know wherever else you're thinking. Where would you, Julian? The Azteca. Can you imagine? Did you imagine? And you just have the Mexican fans there. Julian's ideas, yeah, they're going to play in Chichen Itza.

And like, what? Like, yeah. You know, it would be pretty lit. It'd be lit. I have to pick Lake Louise. Driving to Lake Louise is breathtaking. Imagine playing on that surface. Like, it's something.

it's everything you dream about in terms of playing ODR. And it's, it's beautiful. Like I didn't, I, when I went to go drive up to Lake Louise, one of the first weekends, I was, I moved here. Um, it wasn't frozen yet. But just looking at the, the water, the mountains, it just, it was one of the most beautiful things I could see. Like me and one of my best friends we drove up and it's just, I just couldn't believe it. So the idea that like, if, there was a way we could put a rink in the middle of Lake Louise and find a way to get fans to

sit in and watch and find a way to not harm nature in the process, I guess. Like, I think you'd get one of the most beautiful, scenic, picturesque moments in NHL history, honestly. And you get two really good teams. You could put a Battle of Alberta there. Like, oh, you have to go Battle of Alberta. You have to go Battle of Alberta. And you couldn't put, like, the, flames and predators or something, right? No, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

So my vote goes to Lake Louise. You know what? Is there any way you could see them doing it with the Grand Canyon as a back? So I looked this up on it's like, what do you think the nighttime temperatures that the Grand Canyon can get to? And you know what?

I looked at it, you know, because they got obviously the elevation. Often temperatures are below freezing overnight. at the Grand Canyon. Nighttime temperatures can be chilly dropping between 20 and 30 degrees Fahrenheit. So that's, you know, minus 5-ish. Yeah.

I don't know. Maybe. That's feasible, but like if you could generate the snow, if you could generate the ice. I feel like that's still going to be quite a bit of upkeep, especially in the day. Well, no, no, but, but like, look, they did it at Lake Tahoe.

Like, you just create an outdoor rink. I'm not, right? Like, although then again, Central Park might be amazing because they do have rinks there at Central Park. You could just... You do Central Park. You get one of the cast members of friends to show up as like a guest or something like that. Matthew Perry was at a Sends game.

Yeah, he's a big hockey game. Yeah, why not? You know what? Knowing the NHL, they would end up, like, we have secured Gunther to drop the pot. We're like, come on. Who? Who? Don't you...

Seriously? Who? Who? Who? Gunther from Friends On the coffee shop I don't actually like this show

This is This is gonna get me canceled This is gonna get me canceled I actually don't really like that show I think it's fine The few times I've watched the show It's funny I think it's overrated

No one's gonna disagree with you there Okay But Friends is almost like one of those It's like mass consumption Fast food Like you don't have to like it But you just have to know about it And I feel like you're not knowing

I don't know, I don't know, okay, you're not knowing about Gunther is worse, is worse than me not knowing about buddy from much music. Oh, you better stop that. That is not true. That is not true at all.

You're talking about some random bit character on a TV show. Nordwar is a cultural institution. You know what? We're just going to leave it there. I guess we're just going to have to. We're like the listener decide. Yeah, I think you should know

who Gunther is personally. But I think you should know who Narwar is. There we go You know what we should do? At the end of every episode We're going to do this. You're going to yell out Corsi to wrap it up.

Yes, yes. Every show should have like a signature sign up. I think it should just be you After I read everything out here I'm going to have a final line here. I want you to just yell out Corsi. Okay, I'll do that. We'll get to see if that sticks.

There we go. We'll get it. All right. Listen, this was a lot. There we go. A lot of fun. Thanks for listening to the Monday edition of the pod. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform.

Leave us a rating and review. We'd appreciate that. You can follow us on YouTube at YouTube.com slash at The Athletic Hockey Show right now. Get a one-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month. Visit Theathletic.com slash hockey show.