The Athletic Hockey Show - The Athletic Hockey Show NHL watchability rankings

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Hailey, Max and Sean break down the current state of all 32 NHL franchises on ice performance and provide a guide to what teams you should be watching. The crew breaks it down into eight tiers: Definite channel flippers; these won't be a priority to invest an evening of watching hockey; these teams are better than we thought; the enjoyable tier; watching and rooting for brighter times ahead for next year; the Bedard tier; really talented shit shows; very good teams we will watch; and must see TV. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Thursday. It's Haley, Salvi and Sean Juntili. Max Bultman here with you. We're recording this on a Wednesday, actually. So one could say this is the Worst Day show.

You're just asking for people to call us the Worst Day show. No, Wednesday. Why would you open that door? It's too close. It's too close. Worstay best day Listen, listen To our beloved listeners

Do not call this show The Worst day show Under no circumstances Are you allowed to refer to this As the worst day show Worst day? No, but Haley Sean and I were both high school bullies

And so we immediately only hear The way to twist something like that I was bullied in high school Yeah, by us Yeah, you got Max and I all went to high school At the same time I think there's listen I think Max and I went to high school

at the same time. What are you trying to say here? That's Sean's old. Max, hold on a second. No, no. Max, Max is a high school. Max is a high school bully is the least believable thing that's ever been said. Sean, it's not like, I'm like, I don't think I was a bully, but I also think that I'm

nicer today than I was in high school. I mean, most of us are, but. I'm sure that's, and I'm sure the thought keeps you up at night, my friend. am I nicer today? Am I nicer now than I was 15 years ago? I don't know. No, it's more like Max like goes to bed and then all of a sudden he's like awake all night thinking of all the mistakes he's made in his day.

Unironically, yes. Like, oh my God. Remember that day in 2013? What did I do? Yes, this is exactly. This is too real. Yeah, I didn't think I'd end up on a podcast with my bullies, but. You know, what's really funny to me is that most of the people that bullied me

in high school, just remain in Fergus, Ontario. I think it'd be way funnier. A lot of them are nurses. And it's just like, I hope you're nicer than you were in high school because you're now dealing with sick people. I feel like that's the meme, though, is like my bully like peaked in high school. But it'd be way funny if you're like, all my bullies are so successful now. Like they were just, they were right.

It was just like my bully was Ryan Whitney. Mike Mitchell from Doe Boys. Yes. His bully was Ryan Winnie. I've recently started listening to the doughboys. They're great. I think the bully to nurse pipeline is very real. Yeah.

Yeah. I hope you're nice to go too much farther into that. Yeah. Anyways, welcome to the show. We all had scheduling conflicts on Thursday morning when we usually record. So we're coming at you on Wednesday night. So we do apologize if something like crazy happens Wednesday night. It's not going to be in the show.

It's just not. I have been in Utica for the PWHI. the new women's hockey league is having a evaluation camp, which has been very cool. Sean's doing some stuff. I don't know what Max is doing also. I just, I didn't ask,

honestly. No, I'm pretty free tomorrow, but you're really, I can't do the show without you guys. Dude, we need a maxi solo bowl show. And so that's amazing.

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm pretty good until the Patrick Kane debut Thursday night. Oh. Is that? Oh, that's right? That's right. Patrick Kane's with the Red Wings. I haven't heard anything about that.

Yeah. Might read a story about it. Yeah. I love how everyone except for Max did a bunch of Patrick Kane stories. I mean, Max did some. I was going to say. He did all of them. He was in on the breaking news.

He was in on that story with Scottie. I don't think Max did a thing. Max has been in Sweden. I'm just a vessel. I'm a vessel to facilitate Patrick Kane stories. Noted lazy man. Max Paulman. Max doesn't hustle.

All right. So this week we are going to do a little bit more of a deep dive episode. Anyways, because we have talked about Patrick Kane a lot. Sean had a great story. Max had plenty. The Wednesday guys talked about Kane's debut after that got announced. So we wanted to do something a little different this week, and it's something we'll dip back into.

We talked about it when we launched the show. But some weeks, we're just going to talk about a specific thing for 45 minutes or an hour and a half. Depends if we can keep it on the rails. And this week we're going to do. you know, a watchability ranking. So we have several tiers. We're going to take all 32 teams. We've kind of slotted them into how they match up on a, you know, let's say there's

another day where all 32 teams are playing. What are our priorities here? That's Thursdays for the most part too, by the way. Oh, is that happening this week? No, I don't think it's happening again, is it? Oh, you know, I don't mean, I don't mean. Yeah, Thursdays there are always. Those are like the days when you're trying to set your fantasy team lineup.

and you're just... And you're like, what the heck? You're going to make the wrong call. Oh, those are the days. Those are the days. If you're a big time jackass, those are the day that you committed years ago to writing power rankings.

And it's turned into a... Do you know? Anyone come to mind? A golden cage. If you want to see, like, genuine rage, it's Sean at midnight on Thursday because he doesn't want to deal with. I woke up on...

Why did we do this? I woke up on Friday morning. last week and finished. It's me and Dom. Cursing every decision that we've made that let us to this. It's terrible. It's awful. Okay, so you have to watch the games and file it, obviously.

What time does Dom tell you what theme he's doing? Or do you decide what Dom has to do in his strange day-to-day life? I resent the implication that I don't play any part in deciding what the theme is. I'm sorry, I've seen too many Taylor Swift lyric. He was a Taylor Swift lyrics to truly believe that the- those out weeks in advance. That is a me and Dom thing. I know those are coming.

I know when those are coming because and I know that it's going to happen every two months because that's because Sean's a Taylor Swift fan and he knows. Yeah. The schedule that that woman's on where she releases a new re-recorded album every three months until we all die apparently. We could get it on that. Do you think we could start rerunning like the Sean Gentilly,

Patrick Kane feature? feature Max's version. If you think I haven't basically rewritten columns over the years, then my man, you are mistaken. My sisters are going to come for me after hearing me even say the minorest joke about Taylor Swift.

Yeah. Don't make fun of her. She's the time person of the year. That's what I heard. I'm unsure what you're referencing. Anyways, watchability rankings. We've got, I think we started with five tiers and now we have like eight or nine. So buckled everyone. As a veteran of the tiers process, that's how it's supposed to work.

You have like your initial things, then you realize at some point you're going to have some uncategorizable, you know, standalone teams. You got to mix it up. You can't just have, you know, six, five or six teams in a box. Some teams are special. That's okay. And some teams are wild. All right. Want to start from top down?

Start from a CTV to the, I, you know, I'm changing the channel. No, I disagree. I think we should go. I think we should start from the bottom and work our way up to the top. Yeah, build some suspense. I like that. Okay, okay. All right.

So if you want to be nice, we can call this the channel flippers. Yeah. If you want to be Sean and Max, who are the Bean Boys. This is like the literally never tier. So we've got the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks. And this is the one that I think people will either, it depends on what kind of fan they are,

either agree with us completely and feel heard and seen, or hate our guts. And that's the New York Islanders. Is anyone who lives outside of Long Island going to hate our guts for that take? I think some people who do live on Long Island will say like, yeah, I agree. You're right.

I hate them. In some ways, I think it's a point of pride for like, Right? Like that's kind of the, that's how they had their success a little bit by just mocking it up, right? Yeah. This is anecdotal, but I think there's been a little bit of a pivot there this season. Like I think, I think I probably because Sorokin hasn't been great, right? Like they're just sort of made without some sort of overriding element to lead you to watch it. Like last year, I would not have had the Islanders in this group necessarily.

because I like watching crazy goaltending. And that's what that's what L. Yis-Roken was providing last year. Dude was phenomenal. He was enough of a reason, you know, to elevate them from at least out of the, out of the bottom tier. But dude hasn't been as good this year. It's a good this year.

And we should say that this is our watchability rankings as of December 6th, right? Like this isn't like this isn't from last season. This is from start of the year to now. We're not projecting their watchability. Like we can do this again. We can revisit. but this is how we feel. This is based solely on how we feel today and how they played so far.

And the New York Islanders 5-4-0-T loss of the San Jose Sharks last night. It's not great. Another one of our bottom rung teams, right? Sean's very right about the because in the Islanders two runs to the Eastern Conference finals, everyone would bitch and moan about how they needed to be out. And I was on my couch living for the Islanders. I was all about them, wanted them to win every game. objectively.

I didn't have a real job in that. But I was just pulling for it, right? Like they were so fun to, not really fun, but like it was so pleasant to watch people melt down over that kind of hockey succeeding that I was all for it. But the second when you play that style of hockey that you drop from like good and messing everyone's stuff up

to just kind of doing it to do it, it actually does become unwatchable. And that's why I'm okay with them in this tier. Yep. And team that Dom and I argued about consistently, like for years where he because he you know was like I he was like he had he had no time for them for for really until last year last year he pivoted a little bit and no you know kind of ironically I'm I'm the one who's like I just we're done we're done here and then we have the last team in the league by points percentage which is the San Jose sharks they have a negative 54 goal goals goal differential they did beat the islanders last night you know what they're actually five four and one in their last 10 which is a bit of a run No, that's why they're here. Our sweet San Jose Sharks.

That's why they're here, Haley. Remember when they were losing every game nine to two? That's watchable, baby. Totally. I want to watch that. I don't want to see them go five. 100%. I watched the Penguin Sharks game from beginning and it was thrilling.

Thrilling hockey. I loved every second of it. Now they're just kind of like blandly bad. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think we need to dive in there. Columbus Blue Jackets. we have as a as a bottom tier team.

I just don't like the vibes in Columbus. And I hate how often I think our age group max of people likes to say vibes too much. I'm sorry, Sean. It's like the second time you've like really drawn that distinction in 12 minutes. We are not the same. It's okay. But I think sometimes, but that is how I feel about the blue jackets. Like Patrick Linae is getting benched and he's saying,

stuff like I didn't even know. It was shocking. It's embarrassing. I also understand that I haven't been playing great, but I'm curious what benching me in like shocking and embarrassing fashion does to make me a better hockey player. They're benching and waving their young players. They're benching Johnny Goddrow or scratching Johnny Goddrow after the whole Babcock thing.

You know, I know Babcock was kind of brought in because it's like they had too much of a country club atmosphere. So let's bring in the tough guy. That obviously doesn't work. And now the assistant coach is benching everyone. The team's not very good. Nothing seems to be working. I just think the vibes are bad.

And I don't want to watch. I didn't even know the Godreau thing. That's how much I'm not paying attention to Columbus. He got scratched. Everyone's getting scratched. And I understand there needs to be accountability. It's a results-based business. But the country club vibe didn't work.

The benching certainly isn't working. So I'm just not going to watch the blue jackets. They make me a little sad. And it's not just about the benchings either. The guys that are in the lineup are not playing that much. Aaron Portsline made this point last night. This is, you know, on Tuesday night. Adam FinCelley, 10 minutes.

Ken Johnson, eight minutes. You're a check, 10 minutes. Like, what is going on here? And then aside from that, and this is what separates them from some, of the other shit shows across the league is that the level of talent and even if you do consider fantilly and Ken Johnson and David Earchick and Johnny Goddrow and like whatever they're not a they're a mess but they're also not good enough at their high point to be worth it right so that's sort of it like

this it's not a team bereft of talent and they're certainly a disaster but they don't rise up to like this is an entertaining mess it's just something you're watching you feel bad about yeah and And for that fan base. Yes. It sucks. That's what I mean. Like I'm not going to watch them. It makes me like it's just a bit of a mess.

And Portie made this point. Like who are we kidding here? Like this season is not about doing well this season. Like turn the keys over to the kids and then maybe I'm going to tune in more to watch Adam Fantilly play 20 minutes alongside like Johnny Goddrow or something. Then maybe then maybe you'll get my attention. But not right now. Think of like the ducks like the last two years where they were terrible.

But Zegris was pissed. off everybody by doing whatever he could think of at all times and they're breaking in these young guys. And they're very watchable and they were horrible. The ducks are still watchable. The ducks aren't as bad. Obviously, like, well, I guess they're 400 hockey team. They're not great. But I think the ducks are more watchable than the blue jackets.

We have them, we haven't brought them up for a reason, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're a tier two. But my point is like Columbus, like this encapsulates that this ranking is not just about your, like Columbus did not have to be here. San Jose probably had to be here once they stopped losing 10 to 2. The Ducks did not have to be here because

Max personally doesn't like watching that. I'm joking. I'm joking. He loves the islanders. He's disappointed in them. Sean has a personal bone to pick with the flames who he picked to win a Stanley Cup a year ago and was embarrassed.

Holding a grudge. I know this is like not my generation's term apparently, but the vibes in Calgary are abysmal too. It's like night in, night out. I mean, like, we know there's talent on the roster to an extent, but there's nothing, there's nothing that's, there, there are, there are, Dustin Wolf running the show for the next. That's true. That's true.

And that might help. But they're a boring team, a mediocre, just midgrade team that has not fulfilled expectations over the last, over the last two years. And to me, that's like almost as bad as it gets. If you're mid and you're supposed to be a little bit better, but you're also not bad enough to be like truly entertaining, like what's worse than that? This is like a true neutral team that also has personally wronged me in the recent past. So for me, they're like, whatever.

They put them, put them in a space by themselves. I know I'm alone. I'm alone on that one. The middle is death and that's where the flames have been for a while. Forever. Okay. Then our, let's go up a tier now. Let's go up a rung.

We've got. they're fine, but like it's not going to be my priority. Yeah. And there's some teams here that in the past have, you know, much in Islanders like fashion, defied some of the talent on their roster, the lack of names on their roster. It'd been very watchable. I think we're talking about like Minnesota there. The Cracken last year certainly would qualify as that.

Loved watching the Cracken last season. And even St. Louis, like we can almost have called this team's like, 100%. Dom's model did love the wild. but these were like the Dom's model defiers. Yeah. These are the ones that kind of disappointed us. Maybe not the blues.

I don't think the blues have been like disappointed. The blues are the blues have actually been a little bit better. The blues are tough to place, I think. Yeah, the blues are kind of the outlier. But yeah, this tier is like it's not going to be a priority. It's the Cracken. It's the blues. It's the wild.

To me, this is the first year of three that the Cracken are in this group. Because last year, actually good. Yes, they were shooting 45% as a team or whatever, whatever, whatever that number was. It was way, way up there. So not the most sustainable thing. But whatever, man, they're scoring goals. They're filling it up. They got it. They got a, you know, a ton of guys who's who were in the 15 15 goal range, entertaining team. Year before that, they were fine in kind of a boring way, but they also had some of the worst goaltending any of us had ever seen. In that,

And they were brand new. And then on top of that, right, like you have the new, the new team factor. So the fact that they were rolling out Philip Grubauer and, you know, Chris Drieger and all these, all these two guys in year one who were just a fireworks factory every single night, that made them more entertaining. It might not have been for, it wasn't for the better if you're the cracking, or if you're cracking fans, but as a unbiased, you know, unaffiliated person watching these games, that was absolutely a part of it in year one.

It was like, let's see if Philip Grubauer, you know, hits the big red button tonight. Because they were, they were ridiculous in net. And it made them better from an entertainment standpoint at least. And both the blues and the Cracken are bottom 10 in the NHL and goals for.

Right now, each team scored 70 goals for to this point. At the Cracken have been outscored 92 to 70 through 26 games, which is wild. And then the blues are a little. bit more even their goal differentials minus four. So it's 74 to 70. But these aren't, you know, two electric, dynamic offensive teams at this time. And the wild of one four straight, a bit of a new coach bump, I think, for them. But this is one of those teams where as much as you

want to put them up high because of Caprizov, I just don't think this was a team that either of us said, like, if the wild were playing at 730, none of us are saying, let's hurry up, finish the pod because I have to go watch the wild game tonight. We're not seeing Pete Capriza of this year. No. And the rest of their forwards are pretty unremarkable, right? Like they're not, they're not above average in terms of entertainment factor. Matt Bolt is a blast, but he also went forever without scoring a goal.

So that alone for his, you know, I know I just sat there and dunked on the Crackens goaltending for a while. Minnesota has not been much worse than bottom tier Cracken over the last. a couple months, but you know, you figure that's not going to continue. There's just something about them where, you know, the on ice is, the on ice products has been blazé, I think. It's fair to say that those three teams, like for us, they're not a priority, but I think if you were to ask, like, they're fan base, like, those are three, or even people around, like, those are three teams that are having, like, frustrating seasons.

Oh, God. Right? Imagine having to watch that, having to watch the wild night in, night out, it's going to drive people crazy. I get it. It's just not something I'm going to willingly sign up for. Yeah. Especially now that like the drama there has passed, right?

Like there was a build, you know, and you're watching Rousseau Chronicle and Joe Smith Chronicle like, hey, something's got to give here. And then that kind of played out. And it's given. And now you're like, well, okay, on to whatever's next. Yeah. Okay. The next tier, let's move up. Better than we thought.

That's our, that's our tier here. In terms of record, yes. Some of these teams are better than we thought. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. So we've got the Nashville Predators, who I didn't know how to.

They're actually quite fun. And I didn't really know how to feel about them heading into the season two. They were one of those teams on paper. It was kind of hard to get your finger on the pulse of. So we've got the Preds, the Arizona Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, Winnipeg Jets, and the Washington Capitals in the better than we thought tier. They're watchable. Yeah. And I think like with the Preds, right, like the Barry Trots coming in as GM. And you remember from his first draft, there was kind of that quote that was out there about like, you know, don't draft me safe like third line guys. Like go find me some. I want guys who can score. And I've never really associated the National Predators with anything like that. And they're not there yet. It's going to take some time for that philosophy to seep in. But the predators are scoring goals as you. Like they are up there. And so.

I think they, they belong. I mean, they're, they're here because they're, they're interesting because they're better than we thought. Are they like a serious contender? I don't think so. Are they the team that I'm, I'm not going to turn off, you know, any of the games from our like top tier guys to flip to these guys.

But if they're on, I'm all over it because I want to see why they're, or whether they're going to keep this up, why they're better than I thought, et cetera. Yeah, definitely. If you see Saros plays the way he's played, the way he played for the last couple seasons, he's been also very average so far this season. So if he looks like 2021 vintage UC Soros moving forward,

like this might be a playoff team. I don't know. I don't think you can really rule that out. And that's worth something. Yeah, I mean, Philip Forsberg is entertaining to watch. He's like my sweet prince on my fantasy team as well. I went until I get hurt.

I've been there. Whatever. He's been good. So, Preds have a, they're more entertaining than we thought, I think. One team that has a better record than we thought is the Washington Capitals. I don't know if I want to, like, put a stamp and say they're going to be good and entertaining all season. But the Caps have been better than we discussed about them early in the season. I do, I do have to say, they are second last.

Actually, you know what? The Washington Capitals and the San Jose Sharks have each scored 52 goals this season. That's so funny. That is dead last, dead last in the NHL. Do you guys remember when we did their funeral? We did the Capitol's funeral. Yes, that's what I mean. Like, they're better than we thought when we sent a prayer.

All of a sudden, though, like they've lost two in a row. They're, I will say about them. They've played, they've got a bunch of games in hand on the teams that are ahead of them. And I think that's kind of what. You know, that's part of, that's part of what goes into this, but I don't know. We'll see. Yep. So we've got the caps there.

Flyers. I don't think that should be super surprising. Like, this is a, this is a torts team. I don't know if that's, I don't know if that's true. Like, like, he's, he's coached some. I listened to enough Tororella and Keith Jones interviews. I interviewed Keith Jones for my radio show last year. He was on this podcast last year.

And I was like, oh, hell yeah. I love them now. I don't know. I think that's why they hired him because Keith Jones is going to convince you to love the flyers. So I'm not shocked that the flyers aren't terrible. But they're definitely, I would watch a Flyers game. I would watch more of the Flyers this year than I would last year. That's for sure.

You play hard. They got a bunch of guys who are still carrying hot sticks, you know? Mm-hmm. Like a lot of, I don't know. I know you said that's what you expect from a tortee a tors team and I poo-poot it. But like to some extent, to some extent, you know, you're right. Like it depends on how much on what your tolerance for block shots is because that's still. Ooh, I love them.

Run through a wall. Still a part of it. But man, that team. He's a warrior. Woo. Sorry. Procedurally, that team is pretty good. right? Like that's a, that's a competitive team night in, night out.

It's why you hire John Tortorella, right? Totally. Now, we can debate whether it's the best thing for the franchise in the long run. But I have to say, I'm impressed. Listen. Kevin Kerr's last week, or in the last couple of weeks, has written the story about, you know, their prospect development. Everything sounds like it's in the right place. And you got to give credit where it's due to torts. Because like that team. Right, but development and being that. in getting a first overall pick are two different things.

I guess Sean's point. They got they got Cutter Goti and Matveh Mischoff on the way. Like if you can be like a, if they think, if they think that would be an interesting like fan pull though is to, I think Flyers fans and I've seen it on social. They're miserable. I think they're split. I think there's some people saying let's enjoy the fun well we have it. We were miserable last year, whatever.

But there's also. Absolutely. Why are we doing this? There's absolutely a section of that fan base that is miserable. I don't want the 13th overall pitch. You're like, that's, that's fine. Yeah. I get it.

But here's, I've, I've covered a little bit of this. You guys might. Oh. Oh, really? It will eventually level off. A lot. A lot. But, but it will level off, right?

Like, they're not going to finish it with the 13th pick. They're going to get a top eight or nine pick. And so being able to enjoy some of this a little bit, this is a great D draft. You got some good forwards in the last few drafts. You're going to get a good defenseman in this draft by virtue of picking in the top 10. Yep. This is, this is fine. I would rather.

be good a year or two too early, which is what they are while having Mishkov and like solid high some other high end pieces in the mix. I would rather be good a year or two too early than be stuck in the mud for for for a little bit too long. I also think it's I also think it's being good in the first two, three months of the season and leveling off as the rest of the year goes. I just beat the penguins twice. Like I think I don't know. I'm sure. Yeah. I'm on board with them. Is there another team in this tier that we wanted to talk about? We hit the caps, flyers. Arizona Coyotes, you know, I think a lot of people will only talk about that team as it relates

to their arena, but the on-ice product has been enjoyable for the Coyotes this season. They just beat the last five straight Stanley Cup winners in a row. So they're on a bit of a heater right now. There's a lot to like about the Coyotes on the ice instead of making jokes about their arena situation, which still hasn't been figured out. And then we've got the Winnipeg Jets in this tier. Yeah, I mean, Sean made the point when we were constructing this tier. Like the coyotes probably have the most interesting goal in the league this year.

And now alone. Connering him for Bessna, baby. Let's go. Logan Cooley, West Middham, PA. Shut up, Sean. Max, what were you saying? No, that was just, I was just teeing up, Sean, talk about Connor Engram. Like, that was the point he made him we were building these tiers.

And he's right. Like, every year there's a team or two that you're like, okay, they're getting crazy goaltending. Surely that can't last. And there's one or two of these guys that are like, watch me. And funny enough, Arizona was kind of that team last year too. Back up Karel Wemalka. Oh my gosh.

The amount of times we had conversations on the show being like, where would that team be without him right now? Do you have a thought on the Jets? I think they're doing it. I think it was just hard to know what they were going to be because all the conversations leading into the season was like, what are they going to look like? We don't know. And then they get the two big extensions for Hellebuck and Shifley.

They didn't make a ton of changes. Obviously, there were some. They signed, you know, Neederider. Two days ago now, I guess. And the Jets have been good. They're good. I picked them in that team draft. Really talented and really talented players at the top of that lineup.

Kyle Conner is a blast. Also one of my sweet kings. I'm going to name my fantasy team, Haley Sweet Princess. Okay. All right. Haley's sweet kings. The big thing about the Jets is that that's a deep enough roster. My team's just trying to glaze over it.

It's like the one that Yahoo Sports spits out for you. I was trying to convince her to make her team name as a friend. People noticed that last week. Let me tell you, my friend. People were standing me and Allison. That's right. No, they were shipping. They were shipping it.

I didn't know how to take that. One more thing on the Jets, Josh Morrissey. Yes. He is a guy who I have been waiting to come back to Earth, and he hasn't. And it's time for me specifically to give him the credit he deserves. That was not a flash on the pan. He's a top 10 to 15 defenseman right now. He's really, really good.

And that's, I did not expect it to continue. And it absolutely has. That group of skaters is, like, not hanging Connor Hallibuck out to dry. That's what's happened for them over the less, over the less. month or six weeks or what two months now. And I'm wondering if we were too harsh on the jets and they should be in the like enjoyable hockey tier. I just need to see a little bit more of them. It's fine. If we revisit this in six weeks like they could easily pick it easy they don't feel like the same team as the caps, the flyers, the preads and the coyotes though. But it's watchability.

Like if they weren't winning, would you really want to watch them that bad, I guess is what I'm saying? Correct. And you know what? That's a good point. And this is the problem with going bottom up though is because it's not compared to some of the teams we have higher. So that's fair. This isn't the power rankings. This isn't and this isn't the standings. This is something a little more ineffable here. Okay. Let's take a break. And, uh, oh, producer Jeff says they have a solid top nine. They're really balanced on ice and salary too. So Jeff, do you think they should be higher? Jeff's, Jeff's all about. Jeff, are you staying up to watch the Jets? He's all about Capgeek pages.

Specifically, he said, no, it's all good. All right, let's take a break when we come back. We'll start moving into some of the teams that we are, that are more watchable. Yeah, the upper tiers. These are better hockey teams. We're about to talk about it. So stay tuned.

Be bad. All right, welcome back. It's watchability rankings. Next tier here is watching for next year. So we've got the Anaheim Ducks, the Buffalo organization. This is the Max Bowman category. The Boltman-Pronman Memorial. This is teams that the other two wanted to, they wanted to put them in the lower tiers.

And so to the fans of these team bases. No, no, no, no, no. I would have had the ducks very high. Okay. Well, I got a vibe that some of these teams were going to get stuck. And so to the fans of these teams, I was your champion. Okay, but the Sabers have not been that. Watched them.

I pulled them into their own tier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Ducks, the Sabres, the Havs. For all the Islanders fans who were pissed at Max, there's going to be a group of Habs and Sabres fans who love him deeply. That's right.

So, yeah, the teams that we're watching for next year, it's the Ducks, the Sabres, and the Montreal Canadians. I think the ducks are watchable. And mind you, a lot of it is because of the prospects. And when they were, you know, they were better than we thought at the start of the season. A lot of it was because some of their young players,

We kind of knew they were going to come back down to earth again, but it doesn't make it any less fun. So yeah, I like this tier. I think the Sabres are an interesting team to talk about right now because there is some disappointment over how they've played this year. Tage Thompson is coming back, which is good news for Sabres fans. It's wild, by the way. That was really fast. That was really fast. But he's back already or coming back already.

The Sabres did not want to be in this tier, by the way. Their fans are not going to look. We joke. Their fans are not going to like it there in this. I was in Buffalo last night. I was in Don Granado's press conference. And like I've been in press conferences like that before covering a team like I've covered. But, you know, some of the, you know, the coach said something,

Granado said something. He was like, you know, we're a vulnerable team. And one of the columnists was like, I'd say fragile. And Granato was just like, yeah, probably. And, you know, like he's trying to roll with the punches. But like it's not a comfortable environment, right? And I do feel for the Buffalo fans who had high expectations, it probably heightened the pressure that led to, you know, stuff like that.

But I still look at this team and I'm very intrigued. I was there last night. Zach Benson didn't score, but he had a couple big time chances. I'm loving that they have this young blue line that, no, it wasn't good last night. Like, that's the reality. But I like watching all of these players. and I still think like this is a team that is going to be very good and I don't know when it's going to get there.

I do think they should have added a vet or two, but I still really like the direction of these guys. I still like watching them. It's been a frustrating year in a lot of ways for the Buffalo Sabres. As you said, Max, and I think the injuries are a big part of it too. Obviously, Tage Thompson, he was supposed to be out four to six weeks. That was on November 14th when he took that shot from Charlie McAvoy. And now Alex Tuck is out. And I don't think there's been.

Yeah. And I don't think there's an exact timeline for Alex Tuck. He missed a bit of time a few weeks ago, came back, and then now he's out again. So frustrating when it comes to injuries. And just not being as good as they should, right? It's frustrating in terms of, you know, issues that they're having as they struggle with, you know, a lack of finish. Some of their games have been. Devon Levi's not ready.

That's it. That's a huge thing, too. So much of their. That's not all of it, though. There's other problems with that roster. Of course it is. But so much of their, for what we're talking about, you know, so much of it hinged on him being, you know, to some degree, ready to start 50 games over the course of a season. He's in the H.L right now, right?

He's just, that's fine. That doesn't mean anything in particular long term. He would have been wildly young if he did succeed, right? Like, like, he's just falling back into a little bit of a normal, you know, agent. curve right now. All good, but that's stopped them from, they're one of those teams to me. We know that they're entertaining. We've had fun with them over the last couple years. That can only last so long. At some point, you need to go from being an entertaining team to a good team. And that is not happened. And for that reason, mind you, they were only entertaining for one

year. Like, let's, like, realistically. I think the starts of the previous two seasons. I think that's kind of a year. The Sabres last year were entertaining. right up until the end, right? No, no doubt. Yeah. I think the thing with this tier is that these teams are still, like, even though the Sabres have been a bit of a mess, I'm still going to watch the Sabres this year, especially if Tage Thompson's back.

Like, there are things to like right now and in the future about the ducks, the Sabres, and the Habs. And the Habs, I think we could have put in a really similar conversation as Philly. I think those two teams are very similar. I agree. The distinguishing factor for me, though, is Jerezlovsky and Kaden Gouli. Kaden Guli, I think, has been really good when I've seen. Slavkovsky's still kind of finding it, but still interesting enough.

They played Detroit the other night. I watched that game. Slavkofi doesn't score, but I find myself interested to watch him every time he's on the ice, and I think that elevates them. That's something the flyers don't have right now. That's the distinguishing factor for me. Yep. Last season, I said the Habs were the best, worst team to watch.

I don't think Cole Cawfield's been as like dynamic, maybe in scoring as many highlight goals as last season this year, but HABs are still in the, we'll watch you for your futures for next year. Okay, the next tier, it's the Bedard tier. Who's in this? Chicago. Did you hear?

They won the draft lottery. Oh, wow. And they drafted Connor Bardard. I wish there were some other guy named Bedard in the league so he could put his team in this tier as well. if there is like Chris Bedard who plays for, you know. Oh, sorry, no, it's a spelling error. It's the Jared Bedner, too.

Jared Bednard? He's a little frightening. Wasn't that like a Kelsey Brothers thing, Haley? Do you know what this is? No. Oh, you're our pop culture expert. I think there was something where Travis Kelsey or one of the Kelsey said the name. Did he say Connor Bednard?

I think so, but I don't know. You're the expert here. I only listen to New Heights when they're talking about Layla Edwards. Here we go. Or Taylor Swift. Sorry. Who's the first person? Connor McDavid.

I think. The Chicago Blackhawks. No, I need to know who that person is before we move on. Oh, my God. You guys talk about Connor Bedard while I Google this then. Wait. Who's Layla Edwards? Yeah.

Oh, wow. You don't read the work. Wait a not read Haley's work. She is a young up-and-coming star for the U.S. women's hockey. team who became the first black woman to represent Team USA on the senior women's national team level. Oh, let's go. She's a stud.

She made it on the Kelsey Brothers podcast, too. That's great. They gave her a shout out from the same town. And I, yeah, she's from Cleveland Heights, Ohio. And she went to a prep school. She's at Wisconsin now, won a national championship in her first year. She is six foot one with like insane hands. So she's the tallest player on Team Candid, Team USA, and she's not even a power forward.

Like she's all finesse and super high IQ. Like there's John Robleski, who I think we all know at this point in TDP. Now he's with the women's team. And he said that there is not a woman like her in the game right now. So she's super exciting. That's great. I'm so behind on women's hockey. I did a project story this summer on Chloe Primarano.

And that was like my biggest takeaway was like, I'm years behind other women's hockey. So that's great. That was like last year for me. I was like two years ago. I was like, okay, I need to need to smart enough. You helped me cover the Olympics.

Mm-hmm. I know. I'm saying like in the, that was two years ago. It was in the run up to that for sure. Sweet. Love that. So we've got the Bajar tier.

I think they could, you need to see that much. They could have, they could have been. I don't know if they would have been in this tier. if Taylor Hall wasn't... I would not be watching that team if Connor Bedard wasn't on it.

For sure. They don't have Taylor Hall and Nick Falino and stuff if Bedard's not there. I don't think they go out and try to get a bunch of NHL players if they didn't get Bedard. I'm trying to say that they would be that maybe this,

they would be in some different group if like Hall wasn't injured and their season maybe it unfolded a little bit differently. I disagree. This is still, this is still, it's just him.

It's fine. I respectfully disagree. Matt? I'm good with it. He's like, I don't want to get involved. I'll watch for Connor Bedard. I'm not, I don't think I'm as, I'm not necessarily watching because I think, oh, my God, like he's already, you know, a one-man highlight, really, anything like that. I'm just very curious to watch.

It's curiosity. Totally. It's not, it's not like. He's not in the McDavid McCar, like, this guy's going to do something that wows me every time he's on the ice thing yet. But I'm very curious. I think you know if you're going to watch a game, you're probably going to see something out of him too. Okay. This next tier, we're getting close to the top three.

This is our fourth tier. I almost at our fourth next tier. I've been driving. I've made a very long journey. I apologize. I can't speak today. So we've got the enjoyable tier. These are games that we would make an effort or at least flip on and watch.

watch them because they're either a good team or they're entertaining in a certain way. And this one's a bit of a mixed bag. I think we have some. Look, so we've got the Ottawa Senators and the Detroit Red Wings in this tier. But then we've also got the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vegas Golden Knights and the Tampa Bay Lightning in this tier. So this is kind of the tier of like, we don't have them as musty TV or like our top 10 teams we want to watch. but they're teams that like we will turn on

and watch and have a nice time. Like I would, I'll watch them and I'll think, well, that was a nice, that was a nice Wednesday night. You know? Okay.

That was a nice little day I had watching. I would say that this is like kind of the auto pilot. Somebody say something. I would say that this is kind of, well, you got,

got to give us an end to say something. Oh, says you. You literally take a breath and talk for six minutes and then we don't hear from Max for 12. I think. this is like kind of the autopilot tier to some extent where it's like we know that the hurricanes are a pretty good regular season team they started slow we knew they were gonna round into form kings just won a cop like they avoided hangover

kings the kings oh boy well nights for Freudian slipped there when i'm talking about when i'm talking about the staling cup Vegas won a stealing cop last year so you know whatever that's just kind of the way it goes the lightning who may be in a little bit more trouble than people give them credit for But, you know, there's still, nobody really cares what they do until, until April or so anyway. So I think that's sort of one sub tier here. The interesting ones are the Sends and the Red Wings, which I think is a step up for both of them, right? Yeah. And I think, go ahead, Max. Like, if you have, you know, we're talking about like enjoyable to watch, you're looking at like Carolina Vegas Lightning because they are tests for other teams.

And Detroit and Ottawa, they're in this tier because you're watching them because you're watching them because you, want to see them tested, right? And so they're kind of the two sides of this coin of like, you know, the other three are are a team for any team on this list to show us who they are. And then Redmond's six teams, we're constantly wanting to measure. Yeah. And I think the Sends to, um, they were obviously a team to pay attention to because there was just so much drama around the team.

And they're still, you know, low in the standings, but they do have, they've only played 20 games at this point. I feel like we keep talking about how few. games the sons have played and how how many games every team has played there's a pretty wide margin there but they're a 500 hockey team they're not terrible um they just

hire jac martin so now they've kind of got the three different coaches now so they've got DJ Smith who all the players love uh you get Jacques martin who brings the kind of experience and then you have Daniel Alphartson who's coming in and bringing something different so they kind of

almost have this like this like three pronged strategy going on. I'm kind of curious to see how that's going to work out for the team. They did get some bad news about Thomas Shabbat, so I do think that they might drop down a bit, but I think when you've got a team with a kachuk on it, you're going to watch it and something what's going to happen. The Sends Panthers game from last week

was, that was must-see TV. If we had to rank like games, we've watched this season and the ref going and saying, everybody on the ice 10 minute. major. That's gold. So I think the Sends are an enjoyable watch, even if they've been a bit of a mess. I think it's the mess that makes them kind of fun. They might drop off, though,

if they're going to really, if Shabbat's going to be gone for, it's going to be tough. All these teams have individually, maybe not transcendent players on their lineup, but like individual must see players, right? You can, whatever, go down the list.

You say Sends, Stutzla, Brady Kachuk, Red Wings, Cain all of a sudden. Dylan Larkins always a treat. The Brinket's always fun. Carolina, Ahos, Sveshachnikov, Vegas. I love, love, love, watching Mark Stone. Lightning. Jack, Michael, of course. Lightning, Kutrov, Braden Point, whatever. There are elite players that dot these rosters. I think that's a major through line here, too. Like I said, you're going to turn a game on with one of those teams. You're going to have a nice little evening. It's going to be a, it's going to be a, it's going to be a nice time.

I think we have them grouped appropriately. I agree. Okay. Let's take one more break. And then we have our top three tiers to go through. I wonder who it's going to be. We'll be your back. All right.

Welcome back. For those of you who've been listening and you're wondering, Max is a bully. He doesn't read Haley's work. They're friends. I literally. She's trying to steal his wife. Maybe that's why.

I remember the story, but I hadn't read it. Why? I don't know. I must have had something else going on that day. It literally came out on Max's wedding day. The Meet Layla Edwards story published while you were like getting photographed like in front of a mirror on Saturday morning. Like like putting your shoes on your show. While you were doing your first look with Allison.

Yeah. You're excused. I was not supposed to be. my phone for most of that day. Yeah. And all I remember was we were driving back from, you know, we were like doing pictures downtown. And I checked my phone like in the car while I was supposed to be giving her mom who was driving us around directions to see the Jim Harbaugh suspension from the Big Ten. And I, so I told the whole car that Jim Harbaugh had been suspended. And then like five minutes

later, I realized that I had caused us to miss a turn that was going to make us miss an entire. we were on like a tight schedule. So we missed an entire location from our photo thing because I checked my phone once. So I actually do think I have a viable excuse for not. Yeah, you're right. It's fair. It's fair. Yeah.

If Sean would have missed it, I don't, that's inexcusable. I mean, time, I was. What were you doing that day? You were at Chis having lunch. I was busy going up to strangers at Max's reception asking if they'd heard about the Jim Hart about the suspension. Sean was trying to. That actually wouldn't shock me.

Yeah, that would not shock me. I was antagonizing them for most of the weekend. Yeah. He desperately wanted to stay in town to watch the game. I was ready. It was like, no. Did you like that our efficient in his, like, in the speech at the altar, said in front of a vast network of family and friends?

It's pathetic. Maybe sick. Go roll tide. Yeah. Anyways. Next year. Next year. It's the really talented shit shows.

Who could it be? It's the Edmonton Oilers. Uh-huh. And the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah. Because we talked about it last week. We read the stats. The Penguins should be very good.

Power play very bad. That's my analysis. Way to go. and now I'll hand the baton off to you guys to figure out why. That's what a host does. Hello. I'm a seat on the left. I tee you up.

There was, okay, I got it. I must say as someone who watched the penguin's power play struggle to some degree, or underwhelmed to some degree over the last 15 years, it feels like, what they're doing right now is unprecedented.

It's unprecedented. They had a power play against the flyers on Monday night that featured multiple breakaways by Philadelphia. We are rapidly approaching the point where the short-handed team is going to have a better chance of scoring than the team that's, than the team that actually has the main advantage. And if we are, in three months or four months, if we're talking about the penguins as like an also-ran disappointment,

it's going to be because the power play completely, completely let them down. This is a top five, five on five on five, let's say. And they're on the outside looking in because this power play isn't just bad. It's creating chances actively for the other team consistently on a nightly basis. And to me, that is like chaos personified, where this is a team that is scoring more than enough goals at five on five. And then at five on four, it just becomes a total all-out, free-for-all shit show,

as we phrase it, as we phrase it before. This is as watchable as it gets. Maybe not for the right reasons, but it's there. And they're watchable because of the people that are on that roster too. Sidney Crosby, Eugenie Malkin, Chris Littang. We've talked about how the big three is there, Eric Carlson, like it should be a more watchable.

This should be a team. that should be in one of the top two tiers, right? They should be watchable because they're just a really good team. And I want to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. But they're in kind of the mess tier. And the Oilers are the next one, right? This is the team. Wait, hang on, because I got a stat to go off of what Sean's just saying.

I love it. So what Sean's describing there where like you're giving up more than you're getting on the power. There's a stat that actually tries to capture that. It's called net power play percentage, right? And it's shorthanded goals count for minus one power play goals when you're factoring in. So the Pittsburgh Penguins, they have calculated net power play percentage since 1977, 78. The penguins have the worst of all time right now at 4.5% net. Oh.

And that's with a 10.5% regular power play. So it doesn't take much to get to 4.5, but it's the worst ever right now. And that is combined with a top 5% percent. five on five team. This is a team that's top five in in in, uh, in goal differential at five on five. They're close to it and expected goal differential and they're close to it in goals for. This is a good team that is going to be done in by one of the most chaotic power plays that we've ever seen truly as much is quantified. What's the fix there? Because you think that they have the right personnel like people make fun of Eric Carlson for scoring too much on the

power play like what is it i'm a big uh time guy honestly like i think you know i i think it will change i just believe in the talent so much but it's crazy i mean it's shocking i i can't fathom an explanation for it and and they have a great coach like you know yo we wrote about sullivan today is a great story and and you know i i don't think mike sullivan could be on a hot seat in pittsburgh um with all the success he's had there so and i i don't think it's him anyway yeah so i don't know what to make of it other than it just has to work itself out because otherwise my brain will be broken. Jake Gensel is second in the league in five on five points.

Sidney Crosby is tied for third with Nikita Kutrov. It's unbelievable. And we're talking about this team. They have a very, very real chance of missing the playoffs based on the way it's played. I love it. They're currently 21st in the NHL. They have the same amount of points as the Montreal Canadians who are discussing as we'll watch them for next year. So it's not great. We thought that the, I think most people thought

that the thing that would do the Penguins in would be if Tristan Jari can't live up to his contract extension and he has been fine. He has a couple games where you're like, uh-oh, but Jari hasn't been the problem so far. That power play is brutal. The other team is the Edmonton Oilers. Oh, they've been a mess. But wow, Conner and David's been very good. I don't think we have much left to say. I think that I think really talented shit show says it all. It's that's there we go. It's the Oilers. How about this? They lost six of their first seven and then four of their five, then three straight wins, then three straight losses, now four straight wins. Yeah. And that's the four, we talked about this last week again, three straight wins for

the Edmonton Oilers, three straight games of multiple points for Connor McDavid. At that point, he had 15 points his last five. The team's still 30th in the NHL, though. So I shouldn't laugh. You know, somebody tweeted at me because I was on the radio and I kind of laughed when somebody asked me about the Oilers. And they tweeted me and said, like, how dare you laugh about the Oilers? They've been so bad.

Like, this isn't a joke. This is funny. This is serious. This is serious business. I'm deeply upset for Connor McDavid. Every time I see him dissociate on the bench, I weep a little too. I feel so bad.

But think about the psyche of the fan in Edmonton right now, where they went through everything they went through to get to having two of the certainly 10 most talented players in the NHL, probably five, two of the top five, not five of the top ten. But you like Evan Bouchard. Yeah, a lot.

as a friend. But if you go into the psyche of those Edmonton fans and imagine what that must be like and tend to see the clock ticking on Dry Settle's contract and even to a degree now on McDavid's contract, terrifying. I really do feel for them. They're in such a bad cap situation too.

There isn't really a great way for them to fix this roster right now because they need to stay flexible to be able to resign Leon Drysidal. Because at this point, you just give them a blank check, right? If you're the oilers, but you can't... Can someone tell me why they haven't played a game in a week?

Right. But that's why I looked. It was like, wait a second. They've won four straight. I'm like, look at a McDaniel. No, I can't. The schedule's wild. I thought they'd at least mixed one or two in.

The Leafs are having something like this right now, too. This time last week that he'd won three straight. Now they've won four straight. 12 points in 5 games for McDavid, by the way. Still, which has been true for the last six days. Hey, let's answer your question. Last time it was 15 and 5. So now it's the new 5.

12 is the new 5. What were you saying, Max? I'm confused. You were just saying, do you throw a blank check at dry sidel? I guess. But I don't, you know. I don't want to think about that. I don't want to put myself in the mindset of Emmington Oilers fans.

It seems like it's a dark. Self care. John's practicing self care. It's like me staying up all night thinking about the Bruins' Capp situation last summer. I have a lot going on over the next couple days, guys. I don't need to sit here and put myself in the place of an Edmonton Oilers fan. You could just like rage tweet at me if you wanted to. Yeah.

Yeah, I'll probably do that, actually. Yeah, you should. Leave my wife. alone. Get away from her. Let's talk about some very good teams. This is our tier two. It's the very good teams will watch.

I don't know why I named it that way. It's like 10 out of 10. 10 would do it. Yeah, I'm going to, yeah, I had a great time, not just a good time. This is the here. It's more than a nice little evening. This is more than a nice little evening. This is like I had all my favorite snacks from Trader

Joe's and I watched the Boston Bruins and the Dallas stars beat up on each other and score a bunch of goals and do super fun things while I ate white cheddar cheese puffs on my couch with my dog. And then I went to bed. It's very specific. These do feel like the like first round pick of like TNT ESPN, you know, network ESPN games where you can put anyone against these teams and someone is going to watch it. but if you put these two teams together,

and we're recording this on Wednesday night, I do believe, I guess, Carolina, Dallas and Florida are both in this. There, that's the TNT game. That's like a great example. So this is the New York Rangers,

the Boston Bruins, the Dallas Stars, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Florida Panthers. I thought the Panthers should be in tier one. They're pretty high on my watchability rankings, but I think being in the top two tiers is pretty good. You know what?

You know why Florida's not there for me? Kichuk, he hasn't been that good this season. Yeah, but he's still ratty. The Matthew Kachukh experience involves lots of goals as well, and we haven't seen that so far. We didn't see it at the start of the regular season last year. I think they might be a better team this year than they were last year. Their defensive process is a lot more sound.

They did great work with that glad and mentor out of the lineup. They got through that portion of their schedule with their two best, defenseman out of the mix by locking down defensively. Like in terms of actual goals against, in terms of the system stuff they were doing. Like everything was better with the top two guys. Yeah. What a feat for Dallas to be in this year.

I mean, for years, they were just the two one team. Oh, yeah, that's true. I was going to say, you watch your mouth. I love the Dallas stars. Oh, okay. I was just, I didn't know where I was going wrong there. But hey.

I take shit every week in the power rings for having them above some other Western Conference team. I have an item of the ads last week. People were mad at me. I took them to win the cup. Me too. Same bestie. I love the Dallas Stars.

Grind in that axe, brother. We're doing that where we can. There was a live stream of a bar in Florida. The Dallas Stars were at this bar. and there's like this bar always has a live feed and I saw that like Matt Duchenne was just like up on stage playing guitar at this bar in Florida last night and there was a live stream of it that people were like

what is happening just like a bunch of guys being dudes on the road I love it Matt Duchenne loves he loves country I wish there was something that I loved as much as Matt Dushan loves country music like he's all in I think that probably played a little rude something I mean a family

a hobby whatever so does he like like here's look me me and Craig had him on last year that he talked endlessly about his kids it was great stuff

and then and then he was also talking about you know playing guitar and stuff yeah so hobby hobby wise like he's got to figure and I swear to God that's part of the reason

he ended up in Dallas he's going from Nashville and Nashville because he just likes the city and everything so but yeah Dallas stars If you had to ask me if there's a, every team's on, who are you going to watch?

Dallas Stars are way up there. They just have so much talent. They've had one of the best top lines in the league for several years now. Mero Hayskinan, Jake Ottinger. There's just so many things to watch on a given night with that team. Toronto Maple Leafs,

they're not having the quiet, cool, calm, like, just be quietly successful season that Sean wanted. If people listened to this, every week. They'd know that Sean said at the beginning of the year. I want the Toronto Maple Leafs to just win their division, be very good, be one of the best teams in the East.

And, you know, we don't have to do this this year. There's been a lot, a bit more drama in Toronto this year. Is it possible? Is it possible for them, for them to do that? To go quiet. Not the way that it seems like every year, at least one of those big stars is not playing as, as they should. And that becomes a huge story of.

William Nealander has been one of the most exciting players to watch for me. this season, but Mitch Martin has looked like himself, even Austin Matthews. He's still scoring, but there was a dip there. People were saying, like, can he get back to MVP caliber? So, and their defense is just, they've got three

AHLers in right now. There's a, they're having a wild. For the rest of the season. A ton of injuries offensively, but every, every team has star players that get cold. Every team has stretches where they lose a bunch of games. every team has stretches where they, where they're dealing with a bunch of injuries.

It leads to them losing games. That's the way it goes. And they're not. No, they're, they're pulling games out in, which is like, I don't know,

that's what good teams do, maybe. But this is the thing. They're winning a bunch of games in overtime or in a shootout. Or they're winning the game, but the way that they did it wasn't great. So it's like, I don't know if we should be super happy with this result.

Honestly, the leaves have five regulation wins, guys. Oh, my God. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That is this, they have the same amount of regulation. The sharks. No, the sharks have more. Oh, my God.

Chicago, Seattle, Montreal, Toronto. Basement, five regulation wins. So we might have them too high, but I do think they're up there because it's the leaves. They've got Nylander. there are some games where you watch and there's a ton of skill, there's good goals, but like this is a team that's going to, and that almost makes them watchable because it's like they're going to come back and tie it and go to OT or something. But yeah, five regulation wins for the Leafs. If you're not, if you're not completely over them and over, over the dialogue,

then they're an entertaining watch. I'll say that much. Five regulation wins and Mitch Martin is not playing great and there's all these issues, but they're also six, two, and two in their last 10. So they're just a weird. They're just a weird, it's a weird, it's a weird Leafs team this year. You could have, we could have put them in talented shit show by that step. We could have. I'm just thinking like, you know what? You know what?

They're a talented shit show. You know what? Yeah. That's where they are. Jeff? They're with Edmonton. They're with Edmonton. Edmonton and Pittsburgh.

Talented shit show. Welcome to the club. Good job, guys. Bruins, we've talked about them. Very good team. We'll watch. Poss or not? He's like a...

He's great. Let me watch a few shifts guy. I think that counts for a lot. Yeah. I don't have that much of say on them. I just, to me, that's one where the tier header says it all.

Yeah, very good team. We'll watch. Yeah, we'll watch. Okay, final tier here. This is the musty TV. Something wild's going to happen in one way or the other. Either there could be a hot mess disaster or incredibly talented, big win, blah, blah, blah.

You're going to throw the TV. beyond if they're playing. And that is, right now, your L.A. Kings, my L.A. Kings. Your L.A. Kings, I think. The team draft,

my L.A. Kings. Yeah. They've been unbelievable in the last month. They've been, they were great in November. They've continued to play well. The Colorado Avalanche,

for obvious reasons. Kale McCar, Nathan McKinnon, Miko Ranton, tons of things to like. Vancouver Canucks and the New Jersey Devils. And I think the top two teams are there and the kings and the abs because these are wagons right now. And then we have the Canucks and the Devils who are teams that could pop off and beat a team like seven to two, but then also be a disaster.

It just depends on the day. The Canucks also still have the best offense in the NHL right now. Oh, the PDO is normalizing on them. 101 goals this season to lead the NHL. And the Colorado Avalanche have 90, which is third. Detroit Wedwings. Wedwings. Wedwings.

Detroit Wedwings. We just went to one of those. I went to a wedding in Detroit. In Detroit, 91 goals. But yeah. Where do you guys want to start? Well, so there's this kind of like, you know, truism from the aggrieved fans of West Coast team.

anytime their player doesn't get enough love or their team doesn't get enough love that the East Coast media doesn't stay up late enough to watch them. We literally have three West Coast teams here. Well, what I was going to say is, though, like, Haley, you know this, Sean, you know this. Like, you get home from a game. If you're covering a game, you can't watch any other of the early games. You get home at 1030 or 11. And these three teams, these Western teams here are the teams that I'm consistently most

excited to see on whether it's national TV or whether it's on ESPN Plus, when you're scrolling around. Like I'm putting on Vancouver. I am putting on Colorado. I'm putting on L.A. These are probably some of the most teams I spend the most time seeing because of the teams that I can see. So maybe there's a bias there.

But I love watching all three of them. I think what makes it interesting is these teams are all here kind of for different reasons. I think the devils are here. I was a bit more bullish on putting the devils in the must see TV because I think if you take Connor McDavid out of the conversation, I think Jack Hughes is perhaps the most watchable player in the NHL right now. The Vancouver Canucks are here because they have multiple players who are way up there. You've got Quinn Hughes.

You've got Elias Pedersen. J.T. Miller's having a good season. Brock Besser. And the team has been playing well. The Aves have some of the best players in the league and they're also one of the best teams in the league. And then the Kings are here. They don't necessarily have like a guy that you're turning on the TV to watch necessarily.

like that team's just very good right now. So I think all these teams are must-see in a different way. I think the Canucks, I think there's so much baked-in drama to what's going on with them. Just overall because of the start, but also because of the fact that they're 6, 7, and 0 in their last 13 games.

Like, this is one of the big, yeah, but one of the big storylines of the first chunk of the season here has been like, how long can they do it? What's it going to look like when it comes back to Earth, how are they going to rebound from the inevitable, you know,

down tick and all this stuff. And we're watching it on a nightly basis while we're seeing, you know, Norris caliber production also from like from Quinn Hughes. Like they're super compelling. I don't know that, but also for kind of a different reason than the other three right now. And part of it's because like the results are kind of starting to, you know, fade a bit. You want the, uh, the case in point here. the Devils and the Canucks played Tuesday night.

Here's what that game gave you, if you tuned in. Gave you six goals in the first period, okay? And then it gave you the Canucks who trailed five two after two coming back to tie this game in the third. And then it gave you the devils stealing it back, still in regulation with 34 seconds left, a six to five game. It had everything. It had offense.

It had swings. It had brothers going up against it. That's it. That's what it's about. And it gave us Quinn Hughes looking scared and confused on the bench again. Yeah. We needed an updated meme. Hey, how many games, by the way, and this kind of goes to the abs.

How many games, how many times you think Cal McCar has gone consecutive games without a point this season? Once. There's at least one stretch. Really? Once. Yep. Oh, I said, I met two games, so I was right. What?

And that happened for McCar on in at the end of October. So he has, the dude's just been on unbelievable heater. He's back up, back up at the top of everything. It says a lot. Do we think he should win the heart? Well, so that's what's crazy is like it was, it was 10 days ago that Quinn Hughes was in this spot. And of course, the guy who steals all his trophies, Quinn comes up and now he's on the heater and now everyone's talking about him for the heart.

Like these two guys are unbelievable. I don't know if they actually consider each other rivals or not, but certainly I think their fan bases are extremely proxy rival there. Totally. You can't talk about one. Even in a vacuum, if you talk about Kiel Makar, like, you're going to end up. Canucks fans are going to emerge and vice versa, honestly. I like them both.

I love them both so much. Uh-huh. There's this tweet. of Quinn Hughes on the bench. And it says Quinn Hughes is experiencing horrors beyond man-made comprehension again. We are so bad. He just looks a little frightened. And I wonder if he sees these and thinks,

damn it, get it together. I don't think so. No. I don't think he's all that worried. Yeah, he's doing fine. He's too busy with the horrors. Beyond man-made.

He's too frightened to worry. Comprehension. Is that the word? Comprehension? comprehension. The thing that I know I've said this a bunch, I think Charlie McAvoy is going to end up being the best defender who never wins a Norris,

like Chris LaTang. We're not afraid that that's going to happen to Quinn Hughes, are we? Someone's got to win one other than McCar. Like, you can't just give him. He will win one. Is there going to be years in which? I'm going to say yes. Is there going to be years like the last two where Eric Carlson pops off and wins it instead?

or, I mean, I doubt it's going to happen. I don't know. I think he wins it. I think he's a Norris trophy caliber winning defender, but I do just worry, like, is it going to be, you've got somebody popping off in years that it's not Kail McCarar and it's not Quinn Hughes? That would be.

He's been so good this season that, like, that's flipped me over into the, it's only a matter of time for him. Because it's, and it's, it's just the way it goes with individual awards. Like, people get. tired of voting for the same people over and over again. My biggest problem last year when we were filing our awards ballots was in the Norris. And I don't remember exactly who it was, but it was between, because I voted for Carlson. I had Kail McCar, I think third or fourth, because he missed a bunch of time, but he was still very good.

And I just, I don't remember who I was debating with, but I had this very long process to the point where, you know, Rob and Emily and everyone's like messaging me being like, hey, you haven't filed your ballots yet. I'm like, I know because I was trying to get Quinn Hughes in my ballot last year because I thought his numbers deserved to be there. But I don't think I did. But now I don't think there's going to be any question for people that he's, if he doesn't win this year, he's going to be on a bunch of people's ballots next season. I was just like you. He was my number six. And so he was on my all-star ballot, but not my Norris.

Yes. But, Sean, I think we've even talked about this, Sean. Like, you'd like to think that all voters are able to just completely stay in the lock-in of one season and truly do that. But we are all humans and sometimes there's a part of our brains that just says this guy's been here long enough in this range that he gets one as long as he has continues having those years. He's going to get one. Is that the right mindset as a voter? No, I'm trying. I constantly am trying to kill that part of myself.

my brain, but it's unavoidable for certainly me. That was a bit of a thing for, obviously, Eric Carlson had such a great statistical season, a great offensive season. But I do wonder how much of the, like, this is probably going to be his last. Like, let's just give it to him, even though his defensive numbers weren't great. I do wonder how much that played into the Carlson Norris win last year. I think that's a big part of that. I think we're narratives. I think everyone was like, that's a great story.

narratives like that are kind of inescapable and I think that's the way we organize our thoughts and I think that's something that we're kind of drawn to but it's just it's luck man Shaquille O'Neal won I always forget how many how many times it was he won one it was he won he won the MVP once Shaq did

that's once that's unbelievable and that never won it three times in a row either right because people should switch it up Shaq only winning one only winning one MVP over the course of his career to me is like the best shorthand for the principle that we all need to remember, which is like people get sick, sick of voting for folks. That's just the way it goes. It's not fair, but it happens.

To the point that they probably forget how little they've actually voted for them, right? Like in that scenario, we have the dry-sidal one. Yes. I'm constantly surprised that McDavid doesn't have more heart trophies because in my head he wins it every year, right? But that's just because in my head, he's always around it, but he actually hasn't won it every year. Crosby's got two. Yeah, right. Yes. Grattsky could have won 10 or in the Mew could have won 7 Like whatever

That's just kind of the way it goes Yeah Okay and to wrap up to speak of the Vancouver Canucks I just want to revisit something from last week Sean As I said Did not draft the Vancouver Canucks And the team draft

It was indeed the Calgary Flames Nobody believed me I picked them like that same day to went to make the playoffs. I think that's what it was. And I think me and Max were conflating two conversations that we'd had. Because Sean and I were both down to the Canucks and Jets on our separate ballots. And we went separate ways.

I took the Jets. He took the Canucks. He looks way better than I do. Did we all pick the flames to make the playoffs in that preseason ranking? I didn't take them. You did not? Probably. No.

I might have. Idiot. I don't think I did because I took the same. I think I had the same teams from last year for the West. and I hated it, but that was, that was just kind of the way I felt it was going to happen.

But you had the flames last year in the West because you said, oh, and I was, I substituted the Knoch's for the flames. That was it. It was, it was seven of the same eight teams from last year and then,

then the flames. Yeah. I might have had the coyotes. Sleigh. Oh, maybe. What are you talking about? Yeah,

I don't think, I don't think, I don't think it's going to happen that way, but I don't, I got to go pull it up. I got to go figure out who I really had before Haley, before Haley, before Haley finds it and announces it on this podcast.

That's why my man's driving to Connor Ingram for Vezna. That's right. That's the watchability rankings, folks. I think, at least for what we think is watchable, I feel okay with the rankings. I like moving the leaves back down. Producer Jeff agrees. He has to listen to Jonas and Myrtle talk about them all the time.

So he's an expert, I would say, based in Toronto. He would know. It's true. He's also saying that I picked every Canadian team, including the Nordiques. That's true. That's repulsive. Look at all these Canadian teams I picked. I hate it.

Yeah. Sean loves Canada and Canadians specifically. Some. That's it for this edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. We just want to remind you all to subscribe to the Athletic NHL's YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash at The Athletic Hockey Show. The show returns on Friday with the prospect series with Max Bull. Coltman, Corey Promin, Scott Wheeler and Chris Peters.

What do you do in a roundtable? We're having a party. It's World Junior season. Nerds Megatron. Let's go. Holy. Have fun with that. I love that.

Those are four. And we're going to have some takes on Hunter Bristepitz's omission. I promise you that. Let's get CP wound up. Let's go. Let's get him mad. All right. Thanks, everyone for listening.

Thanks, guys. Hope you enjoy the watchability rankings. Goodbye.