The Athletic Hockey Show - Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending concerns rising, Dom Luszczyszyn on Johnathan Huberdeau and the Hart trophy, NHL trade deadline teams to watch, listener questions, and more

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

First, Hailey and guest cohosts Sean Gentille and Dom Luszczyszyn discuss what the level of concern is for the Toronto Maple Leafs right now with both Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek sporting sub-.900 save percentages since the calendar flipped to 2022, if Marc-Andre Fleury would be a good fit for the Leafs, a potential suspension for Auston Matthews, and more.Then, the group talks about Dom’s Johnathan Huberdeau piece, examining whether the star forward’s underlying numbers are those of a true Hart trophy candidate, why Auston Matthews, Johnny Hockey, and Igor Shesterkin should be considered legit MVP nominees, the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche as the best teams in the league right now, which teams are the most interesting ones to watch one week away from the NHL trade deadline, whether the Vancouver Canucks should trade JT Miller or not, potential Calgary Flames moves, and more.Plus, to close things out, Hailey, Sean, and Dom open up the mailbag and answer listeners questions, including which one trade would they like to see happen this season, whether the Tampa Bay Lightning winning a third straight Stanley Cup is more likely than a fourth consecutive interim head coach making it to the Stanley Cup Final, what the San Jose Sharks could get for Tomas Hertl in a non-rebuild scenario, which NHL arena has the best food, and if they could create a new NHL award, what would it be and who would win it this season.And now, you can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's up everybody? Welcome back to another edition, or a Monday edition, of the Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Haley Salvean here without Ian Mendez today. I don't remember why he's not here. But that doesn't really matter because I'm here with my friends, Dom, Lus Chishin and Sean Gentilly. They're going to be here with me for the next hour. Dom, you've got the Sien Tower in the background.

You've got the Canada hat. You're wearing red. Sean, do you have a rendition of Old Canada prepared for us today? I do. I have a cute up break. here actually. Yeah. Are you going to be on pitch and like actually not read the lyrics this time? It's going to be a little bit better than the first time you did it, right? I want to know if I could just whatever use my version, my audio without Custin's because I'm saying, I've said it last

week or whatever. I'm saying it again. He was the problem. I did great. Prove it right now. Do it right now. Do it. Chris has the audio. He can just, I don't like look. I don't I don't I don't I don't work for free that was a special that was a special that was a special that was a special post-olympic dispensation what if the anthem was sponsored by a our friends at our friends at Meridian yeah would that be fine I think that again I think that would be disrespectful my my main goal coming into coming into that whole ordeal is just not get not get screamed at so I took off my hat and I tried not to make a total joke of it I did my best I don't know I

I don't know if Constance can say the same, but whatever. I'm a man of integrity. You guys were very clearly reading the lyrics off your computer screen. I wouldn't either confirm nor deny that. I had them on my screen because I didn't want to forget anything. But I know the lyrics. I'm aware of the change that happened a few years ago where... What was it?

What's the line? They made it more inclusive. They made it more gender inclusive. I'm aware of all that. All right. That's great. Craig legitimately didn't know the words, though. In fairness to the American duo, I probably wouldn't need the lyrics to the American anthem. Yeah, just in case. I don't know if I do, honestly. Yeah. It's a way more complicated. It's a longer song. It's a very long song. That would have been even worse. If you had me and cousins trying to sing, then the Star Spangled Banner. Because that's... Really? It's like a notoriously tough song to sing. There's like, he changes and stuff. We could... Yeah, just ask the Heritage Classic Anthem singer how tough it is to sing. Yeah, let's do a play-by-play recap of the Heritage Classic.

What happened in that game? We'll skirt over the anthem. We're done talking about anthems, but I did want to talk to you guys about the Heritage Classic, leaves, loose, the sabers in front of the Darling's Canadian women's national team with their gold medals. Mary Philippe Poulin, another golden goal. She's the goat, et cetera, et cetera.

Dom, what's the level of concern for the Toronto Maple Leafs right now? I saw a stat post-hiting on Instagram the other day of the Leif's goaltending since January 1st. I think Campbell has an 884 or something. Marzik has an 882. And then I looked at the records of both those goalies, and I was a lot less concerned. Because I think Campbell was still 9-4-2. Marazick was 8-4-0 or something. And considering they're getting 880 goal-tending, I think you take that.

knowing they won't be giving you 880 goaltending forever. They have a problem in that right now, obviously, and that could completely derail any playoff chances they have. But we saw what Campbell can do at his best, and I think it's a matter of getting his confidence back up to that level and hoping it's good enough, considering the rest of the team in front of him has usually played well enough. Is it like a safer bet that?

that Jack Campbell's going to turn it around, or would you rather they go and use some of their draft capital or other assets to get a goal? I know Pierre LeBron was immediately on the, I think they need to go and look at Mark Andre Fleury, even though the Leafs are not on his list of teams he would like to go to. Like, is it a safer bet that Campbell's going to turn it around or that Mark Andre Fleury is going to accept a trade to Toronto and be good for them? What's Flurry's safe percentage since January 1st? It's nearly as bad. He's hit some kind of wall in the last month because they don't want to play Lankin in the last month. Yeah, because Lankin is awful.

Lankin's not good. Yeah. They've been rolling him out way, way, way too much. I mean, he's been, he looks tired. I don't know if that's, I mean, whatever. Could be conserving energy. Maybe. I don't know, but I don't, I'd be more worried about him now than I was, you know, six weeks ago.

I think the one reason to get Flurry is that a goalie tandem of Campbell and Flurry has possibly the greatest vibes of any goal-tending tandem in the league because Campbell is a gold retriever and Fleury is the greatest of all time in terms of vibes and being a good person. So just, I think it's like, except for, except for the years 2010 to 2014. But I think you took that. The vibes were off. The vibes of him playing goalie were off, but he was still a great person probably during those times. I can only imagine. I have said this before and this is more about the flames, but their backup, Dan Vladar is like if he was in Toronto, it would be like Jack Campbell level. Like this is the nicest man I've ever seen.

He seems like a sweetie. I have seen him in the hallway after losing a game being like, hey, how are you? Have a nice night. Like literally just will always say hello. Always ask how your day is going. Like he introduced himself to the media on like day one. The other day when they lost, who they lose to Washington? And it was like Alex Ovechkin scores two goals.

He ties the army of yager. and, you know, people are wondering, you know, what happened in this game? And, like, can you take any positives? What happened? And I forget exactly what he said, but it was something like, you know, you go to bed tonight, you shake it off and the sun rises again tomorrow. And I was like, oh, my God. That's a growth mindset.

Motivational, yeah, that's like. Wow. Like, if this was Leaves Media, this would be all over Twitter. Like, Dan Vladar is the nicest person in the world. I wanted to be my motivational coach, Jack Campbell vibes. Okay. my question about Campbell and his mindset and what a, again, what a, what a sweetie he is, I, are the, I haven't seen me, like, I haven't seen Leap's Media turn on him for that. I kind of figured that would turn into a thing at some point, like, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once the, once, I can picture that happening, and then I can picture them in the same, like the next sentence

saying, it's why the Leafs need to get Mark Andre Fleury. Yeah. Okay. So, I, this is, this is so nice. Because he's so nice. Yeah. This is a question for both you guys. Like, I know you, I know you looked at, Dom you mentioned Campbell's record and Marzik's record.

A lot of that's come with Matthews and Marner in God mode and kind of not getting anything from anybody else. Like the Tavares line's been. rough. I know the young ball line's been productive but they're not scoring goals. Like that's sort of the other that's the other end of the teeter-totter, right? Where yes,

you know, the team has been playing well in front of them, but a lot of that has to do with those two guys being insanely good since January 1st. And like maybe that's that could be sustainable. Those guys are awesome, right? Maybe they just kind of carry that through to the end. But I think that's kind of the concern And whenever you look at, you know, the post-January 1st splits across the board for them,

is that they're really getting carried more by Matthews and Warner, even than they have been in the past. I think when you just look at, like, one-line teams don't make deep playoff runs. And you can't really outscore your problems. And the Leafs, I mean, they've done that in some games. Again, Dom was mentioning, you know, yes, this is their save percentage, but they haven't lost that many games. So the Leafs are finding ways to have that top line outscore. the issues that they're having in goal. But is that a realistic thing that you can have happen in the playoffs,

especially when you look at how difficult the East is going to be to get out of? Like, you know, one through eight, those teams are scary in their own ways. You know, Sean and I were talking about this before we got an air. Like the Eastern conferences, kind of a beast to get out of. You've got the haves and the have-nots. And you can't really have that many, you know, deficiencies. if you want to make it out of the conference and not having great goal-tending

and only having one productive line or kind of two big deficiencies. Yeah, and I think that's why it's always important to look at baselines for every player and what you can realistically expect from them. Matthews and Marner, two of the best players in the league. Matthews is challenging McDavid right now for Best Band League with how well he's scoring goals

and how well he's playing defense. But they probably aren't as good as they have been since January 1st. If you just look at their base line, line, they're playing a bit over their heads. The goalies are playing well below what you'd expect from them. And then the second line has Tavares and Nielander. You expect them to be a lot better than they are. So you kind of just hope all those pieces can come together at once because when they do, the Leafs are one of the scariest teams in the East. It's just that there's a lot of times where one of those pieces

sort of comes undone and it sort of looks like a deficiency. I don't think the Leafs are a one-line team, but they're sort of just playing like one right now. And maybe that's a thing where they actually might need another forward because their problems in the past playoffs have been scoring goals and not defense or goaltending. Or maybe that's a thing where they know their forwards are deep. They know they can be better in the playoffs and they have to shore up on goaltending and defense

because it's a legitimate problem over the last two months. Wait, you're actually not allowed to say the teams that are deep and forward could add another forward. that's not something you get yelled at for saying that in these parts, I think. I feel like every team's like, yeah, they probably need another defenseman. No one says that about Florida, who is a one-paring team. And I don't think is as deep as some of the other contenders. But because their forwards are probably the deeps in the league, it sort of gets glossed over.

How are they going to weather the loss of loss of Matthews for 10 or 15 games with the suspension coming up? Oh, come on. That's an active. That's an active pure. That's not how I'm going to throw the question. Pure savagery by Rasmus Dahlian. I saw someone, I think, post like a highlight reel of past cross checks of the head that just got a $5,000 fine.

The Chara one on Gallagher. Did you see that one? I don't know if he oversold it, but that dude's head snap back. It could have been like a super cut of Mark Stahl against Sidney Crosby and like the 2013 playoffs still. Like, your thing, like that play should be suspended. it has never been suspended for before. So it would be really funny if they suspended Matthews for it.

Oh, he's getting suspended for it. Yeah, which is ridiculous. Well, I mean, does Matthews cross-check him in the head if the original penalty is called? It doesn't matter. I mean, if he's still going to get suspended, he still cross-checked a guy in the head. I'm just saying, like, maybe you call the original penalty

that happened on that play. In-person hearing for us in Matthews. Ten games. Ten games for Austin Matthews. What did you say, Dom? I thought it was a phone hearing. It is a phone hearing. Yeah.

He's just being troll. I'm saying it should be an in-person hearing and he should get between 10 and 15 games. You'd really talk about a good American boy like that. Yeah. What are you doing here? What are you doing here? He doesn't play for the coyotes yet. It's not 2020.

Yet. Listen, by the time it's his yupp for a UFA, the coyotes won't be in Arizona anymore. It won't be a problem. No, they'll still be playing. Do we really see Austin Matthews being okay with play? playing in a college arena in the middle of nowhere. Like he's on the cover like GQ and stuff and he's going to go and play in a college rink.

He didn't even want to do that as a teen. He went to Switzerland. His goal, his goal since he was a little kid has been to play in a ring that looks like it's attached to him all. Yeah. That's what he's always said that he's wanted. Yes.

Most personal friend. All right. We're moving on from the leaves. You're going off the rails. What did you expect from us? Got on. I know. You read the power rankings?

They're never on topic. She may not have. I don't want to make any assumptions there. I don't read the power rankings. No, I read the comment section. I like make my coffee on Friday mornings and I go right to the comments. And then I screenshot the really mean ones to make sure Sean saw them. Oh, that's a really good friend right there.

I had someone yesterday tweet, how dare I put the cane's third instead of second or first. I had them ahead of you this week, so I got out in front of it early. And it was like second or third like, I had him second. It's the other guy. Unreal. I feel like there's a lot to unpack there, but we're going to, we're going to skirt right over the canes, which might upset some people. That's okay.

Sarah Sivion has her own episode of the show. She can talk about the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday on the round table. I just feel like, I feel like nobody talks about the Carolina Hurricanes. Yeah. You know? Right. I think my favorite, my favorite running bit is taking the screenshot of Sarah's column she wrote and just like scratching over it and like writing little things. And instead it's really stupid. But I have a lot of fun with it. She might be for it. Big ups. Big ups Eric Tulski. Yeah. We love Eric. We love Sarah. We love the Keynes. It's just, it's just a funny bit. I just think they're the second best team in the league. I'm sorry. Who is the best team in the league? Are we all in agreement that? it's Colorado right now? Or do you guys have, like, Florida up there?

We both had Florida number one. We both had Florida. I think it's, I think it's close between the two. I'd still lean towards Colorado, especially with the way Kemper is playing recently. He's been good. He's been good for, for. He shut the flames out last night, and they haven't been shut out all season.

He looked solid. 46 saves? 46, yeah. Yeah. He had a really good game. And he got pulled last time they played in against the flames. He got pulled in the second period, and the backup had to come in. but he looked really solid.

He's vengeance. Yeah, well, it's interesting to look back on that. Like, did anyone expect their goalie picture to be this good when, you know, it's the Seattle expansion's coming and then all of a sudden, you know, Philip Grubauer is signing with Seattle and the abs are like, oh, crap, we need a goaltender. No, Dom thought they lost the good goalie. Do I have them? I don't remember where I had them.

I just know Camper was injured a lot and they paid a lot. and they paid a lot to get him. The package that they gave up for him made me nervous at that point. Like I felt like it was kind of an overpaid. But also like back then in the context of what was happening in the goaltender market, I understood why they did what they did

because the merry-go-round was spinning, right? And they were last. And they needed to make a move or else they were going to have pulled in the bag. So I get why they did what they did, even though it felt like a lot. And it's paid off because he's been really good for a few months now.

paid off handsomely considering how well the other guys do in Seattle. It's the literal worst goalie in the league after being a best-in-nominy last year. Wow. Interesting turn of events. So one of the teams you just mentioned there, you know, I guess Sean thinks Florida's the best team. Dom thinks Colorado's the best team. But I want to stick with the Panthers for a minute, Dom. You've had your Hebrew heart candidate story come out on Thursday.

We did chat with Shana about the process you guys were going through. to work on that story last Monday and she talked about why she didn't think Huberto was a you know the heart trophy candidate you guys went into it it was a great piece can you maybe just walk us through the piece and what you guys kind of ended up on like is jonathan huberto a legitimate heart trophy candidate or not yeah i i can see why people do think so because they have always looked at the points leaderboard and that is all they've been ever done. And there's a, people want a war stat and for some reason they treat points like it is one. And then they sort of like gloss over at plus minus like, oh, he's plus 23. He means he's good

at defense. Everything's all rosy and fine. And that's sort of how a lot of awards have been given out in the past. And Huberto is having an incredible offensive season. But I think there's two factors that don't necessarily disqualify him in my mind. But, don't make him one of the front runners or honestly someone I'm really considering all that much. I think his defensive numbers are a legitimate problem in terms of his candidacy for it. I don't think it takes away from him being an elite player. I think he's one of the best wingers in the league. But the style of game that he has, he's a rush-oriented winger.

He blows the zone early a lot. He is the last man back a lot. and I'm not a dinosaur. I have zero problem with that. I love that he focused on offense, and it works for the Panthers. He is putting up points at an absurd rate, and I don't think there's anything,

there's no issue with him focusing solely on offense. It's just that in terms of total value, you still have to consider that there's some defensive issues, and there's a lot of times where Huberto looks a bit disengaged. in his own zone and always looking to turn the play the other way. And I think that's by design. But when you also factor in his usage where he's playing secondary competition, he's behind Alexander Barkov's line on the depth chart, it makes it a bit easier to cheat for offense a bit and focus solely on that because he's not facing the toughest matchups every night.

Barkov is. And Barkov's own scoring rate isn't that far off. from Hubertos. And I think the biggest thing that has people putting Hubert over Barkov is that Barcov missed, I think, 15 or so games, something like that. And because Florida is one of the top teams of league, someone has to be an MVP from that team. And if Barcov missed time and they didn't really miss a beat, then it's got to be Huberto. But I don't think he's even the most important forward on the team.

And to be honest, I don't know if he is even playing that much better than Eckblad, who's doing the same thing as Barcov, taking down tough minutes in a shutdown role. on the first pair and putting up some strong offensive numbers as a defenseman. Right. I wonder, and I think that's something that do people just look at the standings and assume that Hubertow is the guy on Florida and not recognize that he is on the second line? Like, we can probably call it a 1A, 1B kind of thing that's happening in Florida right now on their forward group is that deep.

But I thought, I mean, I always thought Huberto was a really good skilled winger, but But Ekblad seems to be the guy on that team that drives the bus more often than not. It's just, it's always, it's always, Dom you mentioned this. I think people have. This is the most underrated player in the league. I've, it's just a bummer. It's just a bummer that Pranman was correct about. I'm glad, honestly.

I think people fundamentally struggle with the idea that a team can be as good as the Panthers and not have a top three hard candidates. let's say. Yeah. Like you look at, you look at the standings, you look at the points. Typically one follows the other, right?

If you have a great team and you have a guy who's top five in scoring or whatever, they check all the boxes. And in Euberto's case, like that's an open question. And I think people have trouble parsing that because that's just, that's how your brain finds order to this, to this sort of stuff. Like,

award voting is hard. It's really hard. And it's, and it's, And it's getting harder every single year. It's a brutal. He agonize over it. Oh, my God.

I mean, and also, absolutely. And then we see, and we kind of have a replay in its own way of what happened with dry siddle a couple years ago, where you have a player who's not the best guy on his own team. I mean, we can safely say that McDavid is better than Drysidal and Barkov is better than Euberdo. That's not, you know, we're not making leaps there. But then the calculus gets a little bit more complicated and people lose their minds over it. Because it is. It's stressful. It's a tough thing to have to parse. Was that like two years ago when Panarin was really good and Pasternak was really good, but people were like, well, the Rangers. Yeah, I think I think I had, I think I had McKinnon as number one. Then I had like a Panarin Pasternak before I had Drysidal and I had Hellebuck on my heart ballot.

And I remember being like, is this controversial? People have trouble deciphering value whenever players are playing with other guys. who have significant value. I think that just throws stuff out of whack, right? Yeah. I mean, like you said, you said it with Posternak. We do it every year with Marchand. We do it every year with Bergeron.

It's like, who drives the bus there? And it's not quite the same thing because Euberdo and Barkov don't play together. But I think that's, I think that's something that, you know, because of the nature of the award and because of the nature of assessing value, people are, people just have, people just struggle with it. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't even know if I have a vote this year, but I'm, but I'm, but. if I do, I'm not looking forward to it.

Yeah, it is getting tougher enough for every year because I feel like we have better assessments of value and we're starting to see players who maybe wouldn't get heart trophy consideration in other years really start to shine because the other parts of the game besides points get more play. And I thought Drysidl had a much better case than Hubert-Doh does this year because Drysiddle led the league in points by a significant margin. So he had to be really bad at defense to not consider him as highly. Hubertoe, he might lead the league in points right now.

I think he was tied McDavid. I don't know the exact order, but it's not by a significant amount. And the fact he plays on the second line, he has easier usage. He has the same poor defensive numbers. Those are issues that lessen his case for sure. And I don't think it's a bad thing to consider Huberto. I don't think it's a wrong thing to have him on your ballot. I'm just a voter myself.

And this is why I wouldn't have him. It's such a catch-22 with the way voting works now because we have all, we have so much more information now than they did 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago. And that's a gift. Like that, that makes voting better. It makes it a more kind of holistic way to, holistic way to do it. But also, it's tough.

Whenever you're staring at your ballot and if you agonize this over it as much as the three of us clearly do, like you're like, man, wouldn't it be great if this were 40 years ago and you could just look at, okay, it's 35 years ago. It's, it's great. It's Gretsky. It's fine. He's got a bunch or he's got a bunch of points. Or, you know, yeah, Chris Ponger has 60 points as a defenseman. Like, we can just vote for him.

Like, that's not the way it works anymore. That's the burden of knowing that there's all these different ways to assess value up. there. Yeah. And even in terms of where we are in this modern society, is we can go back and watch all the players' shifts and really dig deeper in a way that you couldn't really do in past years. You were just going off what you're watching that night. And if a team had a lot more national tension, it was a lot easier to notice some players doing these small little things. And with Huberto, it's not that he's bad defensively, it's just that he's a bit uninvolved defensively, and that leads to some poor numbers against.

And one of the striking things that me and Shane have found was when you see a goal against, you sort of like do a mental check of who is in the shot, who's at fault, who's close to the puck. Huberto is generally the farthest player away from the puck, and I think doesn't get as much blame because it's not directly his fault a lot of time. But the fact he's always so far away from the play is a bad indication in and of itself. The brutal part of these debates is that people take this as you think that Jonathan Eubertoe stinks or something. And that's what's crazy. He's always turn into like, oh, so you hate this guy or you think that player's crap. Like, you know, if I don't think Leon Dricythot was MVP two years ago, then I must hate Leon Dricythel.

I was like, no, I actually just thought Artemmy Panarin was more important to the Rangers or Nathan McKinnon who had like a, there was a big gap between the next best player in terms of production and value on the Aves that year. You're like, sorry. I have this, I have this guy's fourth instead of first in the league. Yeah. Wow. Really, really can't stand him clearly. All right. So I'm going to throw this one at you guys.

And we're going to move on from the heart talk. If you had to submit a ballot right now, who's like. your top three. We don't have to go all five. Who's top three right now on the heart list for both of you? Do you have an update coming, Dom? When's your, once's your, it's usually monthly? I don't know. I don't know if it's like, you know, again, and this is when you talk about, because I haven't been able to look and agonize over this, but when I just think off the top of my head. Johnny Goddrow is probably up there for me right now. I think he's putting a legitimate, and it's hard to kind of parse through who's the most valuable player on the flames

slash that top line on most nights. But Johnny Godreau has 78 points in 59 games, putting together a really good season, very impactful. He's playing the best hockey of his career. I don't think he wins the heart, but I think he's up there. And I look at Shisterkin from the Rangers. and what he's doing right now. And I want to say, like, like Austin Matthews. I mean, Matthews, Matthews is my number one. I know I just slagged him for a while.

I still struggle, oh, God, I struggle with the goalies for hard discussions every single year because they fundamentally, even a bad goalie has more value than, you know, an okay forward. That's just the nature. That's the nature of the thing. Like, if we wanted to give it to a goalie every year,

we could, just by the, by the letter of the law. So I struck it for his greatest just Sterkin has been. Is he not helping the Rangers punch above their weight right now though? And is that not showing how it, but is that not indicative of how important he is then?

I think that's, I think that's rid of Igor Shisterkin. What do the Rangers look like right now? I think that's how it has to be, right? Where the gap between where there would be without him versus, I mean, this is a special season from Igor Shastirken.

I think that's, I was like Hellebuck a couple years ago. go though, no? Like, if you got rid of him, it's better than Hallibuck. But I mean, if you take Hella Buck out for a couple games, what did the Jets look like that year? They were fine, but the Rangers, it's different level right now. Can Schisturkin and the power play for the Rangers just split the heart? Yeah, whatever. Power play Chris Crider gets 25. We're not going through some power play problems early in the season two. I remember Shana doing a story like, what's wrong with the Rangers power play? And she like went through all the video and

bizarre. And then they just went supernova. Figured it out. Bizarre team. Johnny Goddrow should be getting the hype he was getting. To me, I think it's absurd that there's a skilled, rush-oriented winger with a lot of assists doing... Primary five-on-five assists.

And who manages to play defense. Who manages to have positive defensive impacts. And gets the toughest minutes every night. I know. They were matching up against a McKinnon line last night. Yeah. Johnny Goddrow never, they used to have to shelter the Godrow Monaghan line. They were, they would score a bunch of goals.

Like in 2018, 19, and that's the big difference is, yeah, Johnny had 99 points, but him and Monaghan lost the team games. Well, they used to have to shelter a Godreau Monaghan line, and now they don't have to shelter Goodro. What's changed? Yeah, so weird. It's really funny. Just like personally, I never hear about how good Johnny Godro is.

So it's like, it's like, you know, he's not the top of my list. All right. Is he two right now? I think he might be two on my ballot. I think I'd have him fourth just outside the top three. I would go Matthews, then Chesterkin. And then number three, I feel like there's some voter fatigue on Connick, David. And I think because the Oilers aren't very good. And he hasn't been his usual dynamic self at five on five. I get it, but I think he's still, is he leading the league in points? He's with he's Tyler Hubertow. I don't know what the actual leaderboard looks like.

I think he's now leading the league in points right now, yes. And he's cleaned up his defensive game at 5 and 5 and 5 and he's still Connor freaking McDavid. McDavid's going to lose voter points because of his face and Instagram photos. That's my, that's my theory. People are just going to look at how miserable he is and be like, actually, I have a number three. He's not the MVP this year. Yeah. I think I texted Sean the other day, like, do you think Connor McDavid's okay?

He looks really sad all the time. Like you look at pictures of him where they're like smiling at an event and it's like, oh man, he's down bad right now. But that's okay. I kind of want to see this now. What, his Instagram profile? He just looks like, just looks bored. He looks bored. I mean, he's probably like, like he's a very private person, obviously.

So like smiling for pictures that are about to go out to like thousands of people. of people. Not too private to show for gambling websites. All right. Neither am I, though. All right. Moving on from the heart conversation, but I think that was a good one.

I think sometimes, like you guys said, heart trophy and, you know, those kind of talks can just turn into like why X person sucks. But that was great. You know, one of the other things I wanted to talk about were one week away from the tripe. Just leave that in. The what?

The what? The tribe deadline. I've been able to burn it too long. Josh Safdi was my muse when I talked about the trade deadline. Uncut jams. Oh, man. A trade that line. That's fine.

You know what? We don't even need to cut that out. Chris, just leave this all in. It's fine. I'm okay with that. Uncut jams. Just, it's fine. We're one, let's drop it.

We are one week away from the trade deadline. So you guys are going to be doing the trade grades again this year. You did them last year. Is it going to be a busy day? Or are you guys going to be like waiting, waiting, waiting? And then one guy, one domino is going to fall. And then everyone's going to jump at everything at like 2.35 p.m. I think the dam's going to break at some point.

Yeah, it'll happen around lunch. Because there's this really funny thing happening right now where like, the insiders are going on TV and saying actually nobody's going to get moved at the deadline and everyone's just in agreement that nothing's going to happen. Pierre Dorian, the GM of the Ottawa senator said it's really quiet and the phones are ringing, which I thought was kind of funny because it's like who's calling the Sends for right now. I can't imagine why Pierre Dorian's not that busy. Like I mean, Nick Paul is probably going to get some phone calls.

I think he's a great player. I obviously covered him. and I put them on the Flames list. That's a really good third line, debt player, good on a P.K., but I can't imagine why things aren't busy right now. Pierre Dorian's phone is not going to ring until Dubas calls and asks for Anton Forsberg, and that's going to be the answer to. Anyways, what are you guys thinking for the trade?

I almost did it again. You guys are in my head for the trade deadline. Whether or not it's a busy day, is there like any trades that you're looking for, any teams that you're particularly watching that you think are going to be interesting, maybe I'll throw a more specific one at you guys. I'm curious about the Rangers, you know, just talking about how good Chesterkin's been, their power play's been really good.

Is this the year that they use assets to try to go all in at the deadline, or do they wait another year because their blue line's really young and they do have some issues at five on five? Do you think you see a lot from the Rangers or is that going to be a quieter year at the deadline for them. I think the big question is whether Larry Brooks can manifest J.T. Miller to the Rangers. Can we make that happen? Here's a thing.

I feel like the Rangers have Ben Chirot written all over them. Oh. I think so. The flames are apparently in on that. Or not in on it. I don't know where that's at, but apparently they're still interested. I mean, the flames fixed Eric Good Branson. So.

They don't need Ben Chirot. A month ago, a month ago, I was writing a story about how to fix the flames third pair. And then I was like, oh, they played kind of good yesterday. Wait a second. Wait a second. And then they kept playing okay. And they kept playing okay. And Eric and Brancet's having a career year.

Like, he does Adorov looks very good. Like, he looks more comfortable with the puck. He knows when to jump in and when to stay back. He's more positionally aware. It's wild. And that's, I don't think Darrell Sutter's. getting enough attention in that. So it's like, but it's like we fixed, we fixed these guys, so we got to go out and get

some other. Yeah, we can maybe tool. Overpaid, problematic guy that we can try to turn into something. But don't you think if like Zadorav and Good Branson are playing this well, like isn't sure raw like baseline a little bit better? Probably, maybe. Yeah, I say he's probably baseline better than Eric Goodbranson, but like if it's going to cost you, it would drive me crazy.

They want Jacob Peltier, who is like, we just did a, we did a prospect ranking, and he's number two on the list for me, just because Coronado is like a newer, shinier toy. But Jacob Peltier is a very good prospect. I don't know if you get rid of that for a rental defender who won't even crack your top four unless there's an injury. That's the thing. We're talking about a six-seven defenseman right now,

and you're going to give up your second best prospect for that. I feel like he might crack the top four. they might drop like Shillington down. They're not going to drop Shillington down. They might. If they get a shiny Ben Chirot who can shut down opposing team's top players with cross-chucks and great force. I mean, Haley, you have a, you have a column that's going to drop on this soon.

It's already out. Is it already out? Okay. I wasn't sure if it published. There you go. We have, we've talked so much about what the flame should do and how this is. their year and how Godreau is going to hit you if like whatever.

All these reasons that the flame should go all in and also all these impediments that they have to making the right deal, right? They don't have cap space. They don't necessarily want to move some of their prospects. There's even though they should do it. Yeah.

Even though they should do it, there's reasons that it'll be tough. And if that's the hoop that they jump through, like if that's their all in move, Because they have like, because I mean, realistically, Realistically True Living has one bullet left in the chamber. He can probably add one player based on cap, money and money out, and then assets. And if he uses that on Ben Chirot, who would be a problem if they didn't have three functioning pairs right now, right? If they actually had defensive issues and they were trying to fix it.

I am going to cut you off, though. The problem with this right now, Oliver Shillington's out with a lower. body injury and now you have top four Michael Stone. And that's exactly why the flames probably need to go out and get a defender. I don't think it needs to be Ben Schrot. Like get a, I mean, I saw the flyers are apparently looking for a second round pick for Justin Braun. Second round pick for Justin Braun. Fine. If you're that desperate, if you're that desperate. I think teams probably want to give up a third for Justin Braun right now, not a second. But like, I would rather see the flames use better assets for a third line center because they're, I think.

They do not have one right now. They have been trying Dylan Dubey, you know, Trevor Lewis, Brad Richardson, Sean Monaghan is not a top nine player anymore. He has three goals at five-on-five. But he makes $6 million a year. Doesn't matter. And I feel bad because he was a, like he, you know, he's done everything they've asked. He's had the right attitude this year. But the injuries just caught up with him.

And he just can't skate. He can't do, like he doesn't look as confident when he's shooting. he doesn't have the linemates to get in the puck to shoot. So I honestly, and you don't say it as like an analyst and a journalist, but I feel bad, you know, saying things like they should buy out Sean Monaghan because I think he's a good leader in that room. He's a quiet leader. He's important to that locker room, but he's a fourth line center right now.

And so the flames are trying to have this shutdown line lately with Blake Coleman, Andrew Mandrupani, and Trevor Lewis. Is that right? No. Blake Coleman, Michael Backlion. and Trevor Lewis. And then their third line right now, their wingers are Tyler Tafoli and Andrew Mandjupani,

which looks like a pretty good secondary scoring line. But their center is Dylan Dubay, who's not very good on face-offs. He's not very good in the defensive zone. He has six goals a season. Or it's, you know, they're trying to throw in Adam Rozichka up there who doesn't have that many pro games.

And if you're going to spend something like Jacob Peltier, and you're going to do something to clear cap and whatever it needs to be for a 3C over Ben Shrott, in my opinion. If you can do both, that's great. You're going all in. Awesome.

But if your only move is Ben Chirot, I don't love it. Yeah. I don't like it. That'd be frustrating. As someone, my only, like the only skin I have in the game,

really is that I love to see when teams actually try to win. Like that's something that doesn't happen enough in sports, something that doesn't happen enough in the NHL. Like I like seeing, you know, teams to say like, screw it. Like,

this is, this is it. And then make moves that are, or that kind of speak to that urgency and also are correct. And that's, and that would be so frustrating to see the flames after years of being like, are they going to, are they going to do it? Like, like, what are they going to add? Are they worth adding to whatever?

If Sherat's the, if Sherat's the big deadline add, that would be, I would be, I'd be personally disappointed because I want them to be good. I want more good teams. And that would be a waste of opportunity from the flames. Yeah, there's so many good teams this year. I feel like it was the most stacked contending class in a while, and the flames are probably right after the abs in the West, and they have basically the new version of Kyle Turris on their third line. Kyle Turris used to be good, and then he just completely fell off a cliff. Monahan, same deal, and I feel like maybe there's a creative way to get out of that contract and add someone substantial to actually improve that. center death because that's the one thing, I think, holding them back relative to other contenders. Yep, definitely. And Darrell Sutter is so big about building up the middle and probably,

and that's why he went out and got, look, I think like Brad Richardson is completely fine as a fourth-forth line center. But his, I think he's been kind of nursing and injury. You can't really play more than a couple games a day, a couple games in a row. But anyways, we'll move on from the flames because I did ask you. guys about the Rangers. Do we think the Rangers are going to be doing anything at the deadline? Or is there another team that you guys are particularly interested in seeing what they're going to do?

I like the Rangers' current strategy of Let's Chesterkin win every game. I think it's working. I think they can stick to it. It's fun. Bold strategy. Let's see if it works out. Sean, what are you thinking about the penguins? Ron Hextall wants to keep his draft picks.

That's shocking. But my question is, why? Exactly. Why? Why? Like, if Gennie Malkins come back from knee surgery and is like a point per game player again, Sidney Crosby is still Sidney Crosby, Chris Lattang is probably not getting as much love as he should for the season he's having. Then you've got a great fourth line. I know Brock McGinn's out right now, but that fourth line's been excellent this season. Like you've got the foundation. You've got an amazing foundation. Is it a cup winning foundation? Maybe if you make the right moves at the deadline. I think that was always going to be the issue with replacing Jim Rutherford with Ron. Hextall is that say what you will about Rutherford. It's a maniac, right? Like he's not happy if he's not making trades. That played his advantage in Pittsburgh because if nothing else, and I've written this a million times so people who've read the Pittsburgh site over the years

are probably tired of hearing it. But like, Jim Rutherford understood the gift. He knows what it means to have Sidney Crosby and of Guinea-Mulkin and Chris Letang on a roster. And he, he, uh, he, uh, he, he, accepted the fact that there would be pain for that franchise down the line to bolster it in 16 and 17 and 18 and 19. And that's all you can do when you have players like that. Ron Hextall is on the other side of the spectrum. He's extremely cautious and there's a place for that, right? Like he,

there's something to be said for the work he did in Philly, especially at the start. But he's a fundamentally cautious person. And I don't know that that is necessarily the right mindset for that team right now. Because as far as I'm concerned, and I'm saying this from a place of whatever, I live where I live and I grew up where I grew up. So I'm biased to some extent. But I look at that team and I'm like, I'm like there is a spot on Evgeny Balkan's wing right now. Experian Capitan is not working out. Jason Zucker's hurt. Isn't there like a parade plan because he like drove the net last week. It was wild.

I was shocked to see it because like it's something. Yeah. Wow. Holy hell. Like Kisperi Kappen didn't do the Gretzky curl when he entered the zone. Right. It was it was wild to witness. There is a space next to Malkin that needs to be filled because this team is better

than people anticipated because Malkin's come back because Chris Lattang looks like Chris Lattang from 2016 because Tristan Jari doesn't look like the dude who almost single and he lost the playoff series last year on and on. There's all these reasons that the penguins are better now than people thought they were going to be, but they do have that hole and they need to fill it. And Yoey wrote something about it. He's written about it extensively, like over the last week, like it's time for Hexelil to do something.

And I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if it's a call to Rutherford, who's apparently looking to move Brock Besser and all this stuff. Like there's plenty of, if they want to get creative, they can do it. And I think they should. The problem with some of those guys in Vancouver that have kind of come out as guys who can be moved instead of J.T. Miller. Because I mean, I don't know how you move J.T. Miller right now. The West is so in my story today, I said the West is a bit of a mess outside of the flames and avalanche.

When you just look at what all these teams are doing, the wild have only won four games in their last 14. St. Louis is having another moment where they're like, we need to find our identity. again. And I feel like, I always check in with JR stuff. And I feel like, you know, the blues go through these moments where they look legit and then they have a moment where it's like, well, we don't know who we are anymore. They're trying to add. They're trying to add all over the place, right? And it's like, I don't know where that's going to happen for them. They have 900 in cap. Yeah. I mean, the flames have 700 in deadline space, but, you know, teams, teams get creative this time of year. But you keep looking at the West. I mean, Vancouver.

in Dallas are right in the hunt because Vegas is barely holding on. They're losing ground in the West. They don't look great. So I look at the Canucks and you think, do they sell anymore? Do you try to move J.T. Miller to the highest bidder or do you hold on to him and see how far you can get? Don, what do you think? I saw somewhere this morning that Vegas is, I saw somewhere that Vegas's playoff chances were at 56%. Wait a second.

Who said that? That was me. I said that. I mean, Sean, talk about this a lot with the predators almost every week of how they should just recognize what they are and sell. And with the Canucks, I think they have an interesting question with J.T. Miller, because this will probably be the biggest package they'll ever be able to get for him. I don't think they're ready to contend. I don't think that's, I don't think that should be a controversial statement, but I, I, assume some Canucks fan will be in my mentions later day like, what do you mean? They're not ready to contend.

Look at their record under Bruce Boutreau. That's a very chill group, Canucks fan. The problem was going like 8, 15, and 3 in the opening couple months of the season is that you went 18 or 8, you know, 15 and 3 the first couple months of season and you've got to dig yourself out of that hole. And you can't just forget those moments because it wasn't all coaching. Some of that was on the players. And I think future-wise, it's probably a better idea to trade J-T Miller. Miller, as exciting as this run has been,

I think it'll be disappointing when they run into Colorado in the first round and get the tar kicked out of them in four games. Yeah, because it's the first round and not the second round. Yeah, exactly. If they saw color on the second rounds, then, you know, maybe. It won. I'm stuck on that too, though, because I think, you know, there's nothing saying that J.T. Miller's going to fall off a cliff next season and be bad by the time he's a pending unrestricted free agent. But you would think that teams are going to be more willing to make a quote unquote hockey trade and give up more for J.T. Miller right now. It's just a question of are the Canucks thinking, you know, we don't want to subtract because we're in it. You know, I did see, and things are, they've been changing week to. week with the way that that team's been going. But when I was doing my trade board, I had J.T. Miller on it.

I think he, I mean, the flames cannot afford him. But I thought he was like the perfect when you think of who you want to fill that hole and put on a line with to Foley and Manjipani. You know, if you can put him up the middle, that's, that would be amazing for the Calgary Flames. But, you know, I saw one report a couple weeks ago that, you know, they probably want to move guys like Besser, Pearson. Barnard.

Garland before they look at moving J.T. Miller. But the problem with those guys is I'm pretty sure all three of them are RFAs. And teams like the flames can't really lock themselves into another arbitration or contract negotiation this season. Like teams are tight to the cap. And if they're looking for a rental, they're not looking for a guy that you have to negotiate a new contract with in the summer. Like how many contenders can do that right now? Right. And I feel like it should be the reverse.

I feel like they should figure out. out what they're doing with Miller and then take their cues from that. Because if you move him out, just get rid of all those guys. Get rid of Besser, get rid of Garland. Like, just do an actual, right? Like go with like an actual, an actual rebuild. Don't move that, don't move the ancillary pieces and then maybe hold on to J.T. Miller because then truly what's the point in having J.T. Miller, if you move out these other guys that are around them and you hold on to him for, you know, to run a skeleton crew for the last month of the playoff run, I don't understand that either. He's been so central.

When you look at the big games that they've won, like it's J.T. Miller scoring the big goals or making the big plays. I mean, he's having an incredible season. How far can he take them or how much can they get from him is the question. And I don't really know if anyone has that answer right now. I think it keeps changing. Yeah, he's been hotter than almost any player like last month. I think he's up at like a 90 point pace.

And I think, again, back to defense, I think his game has slipped in that regard the last couple years. And if you can get Miller a trade package for a 90-point player when he probably doesn't actually bring the value of a typical 90-point player, I think you have to try to consider that. And not to do a complete lane shift here, but we're talking about teams that we're watching over the next week. We can stay, whatever, we'll stay in the Pacific.

I think the ducks are really interesting. Like whatever they end up doing, they have so many potential pieces. And you can quibble the value of a lot of those guys. Like, are we going to sit here and talk about how great Josh Manson is? Like, probably not. But they have, they're out of it at this point. And they have a lot of potential pieces, whether it's Lindelm, whether it's Ricardo Raquel.

Like, there's four or five or six guys that are led by Lindelm, who's going to set the market, I think, potentially if they decide to move him. They're really, really interesting to me, too. yeah definitely although I'll all come down to the Nick Deloree sweepstakes I think I can't believe he hasn't been traded yet Rutherford was with the Panlins

was a foot away from trading for him like a half a dozen different times maybe it'll be Nick Deloree for J.T. Miller you never know Canucks fans turn off the podcast at this point if you're still here I mean that's almost as bad as trading

Sammy Blaze in a pick for Babel Buconevich, right? I was just, I was literally just talking about that. Like, the Rangers. Like, boy, boy, it would be great if they had like a, if they had another scoring winger. Imagine, imagine just giving one of those guys away for free. Yeah. Hey, Dom, are you going to get locked out of your Twitter account on Deadline Day again? Oh my God, I hope not.

Should I be the chart girl? I forgot. I can't even. That was, I think I'll make Sean do it because I think it'll be a lot. lot funnier with it. No. Hi. Well, I didn't say that. I thought it was funny because I just was like, this is really mean, but this is what Dom had

to say on this person. No. That was funny day. I mean, I just love. I think Sean will be more mean about it, which is funnier. I can be more mean about it and I can also pass it off as my own work, which I'm used to doing every Friday morning on Theathletic.com. Yeah, but honestly, honestly, we have Shana, so.

No. I think she'll just do the charts. funny because she's legit, you know? Yeah. Shana could be doing that on the own. You got to find a real, you got to find a real loser to tweet these charts out, baby. I'm your, I'm your guy. Yeah.

Speaking of the deadline, Ian and Sean are going to be hosting a live stream at 5 o'clock Eastern next Monday to recap the whole thing, and that'll go up as a podcast in the evening. Nice. All right, guys, so let's wrap up the show with a mailbag. I put out a call for questions this morning, and we've gotten a couple. let's just start, since we were already talking about the deadline quite a bit. Irish hockey fan wants to know, what is one trade you want to see happen this season and why? I want to see the Oilers trade for Luke Glendetting.

I just think it would be really funny if Ken Holland went out and got one of his old war horses. And I was like, all right, we're done. Secondary forward depth achieved. Oh, my God. That would be, you know that gift of Seth Rogen putting, duct tape on a cracked wall that's like blend denning to the oilers what does Sean been talking about that all season I'm telling you I'm trying to just I'm trying to speak this into existence it needs to happen especially since we had Rasmus Ristelan and to the Oilers taken away from us so heartlessly

by Chuck Fletcher last week that needed to happen and it's it's off the board now well if Sean's gonna pitch his trade that's been doing all year I'm gonna pitch mine which I actually hope does not happen but I feel like it is going to happen it'll make me upset it's talking Thomas Hurtle to the Boston Bruins. There's never been a more perfect fit. And as soon as it happens, I'm going to hate it. But it has to happen. Every week, if we don't have something good to say about the Bruins,

we just find a way to circle back to hurdle to Boston. Just wait. Can they make that happen? Like, is that a legitimate thing? I know Fluto and Corey Massaac did a story and looking at the trade fit. Is that actually realistic? I don't know how much a hurdle trade is realistic period at this point. It seems like they're pretty...

I think they're really trying to get something done. Which is a bummer. What are they doing? You don't know. Set hurdle free. Let him go to a happier home. What have they been doing for the last four years? Like, I don't know.

They don't think there's that much of them. Just keep locking yourself into long-term contracts. Yeah. They should... As I look at Logan Couture's cap-friendly page. I'm okay. How many more years

did Carlson and Burns have on their contract? The bad ones, the bad ones, Vlasic. We talked about that last week in the power rankings. Blasick was like four

or five years left. And he's 36 or whatever. Oh, no. Really? That's tough. It only gets worse. Yeah.

God. All right. Well, we'll see if that happens. Is Jake DeBresk ever going to get moved? I don't know. Does Jake Debrusk exists?

Is he a real person at this point? He may have an advantage to, the last. I put him as... Yeah, and he got a hat trick. They're pumping up his trade value real good. Shining apples in Boston right now.

Just move him. See. What, do you... Haley, you were trying to... You weren't trying to put him in Calgary last week, didn't you? Yeah, I did a list of players that, you know, could realistically fit for the flames. And I kind of was drawing some comparisons between Sam Bennett and Jake DeBrusk, just in the sense that, like, this is a player who might just need a change of scenery to pop. Everyone was so quick to say Sam Bennett was done

and then he goes to a team where he has a legitimate line mates line mates and he starts producing and I think Dom had an interesting stat that he pulled up about DeBrest that he leads the Bruins in high danger passing like passes into the slot. So he's creating chances but he's creating chances to like a Bruins third or fourth liner.

And that was one of the things that went wrong for someone, I mean, someone like Sam Bennett, someone like Johnny Goddrow two years ago. He led the league in high danger slot passes, but he was passing to Sean Monaghan who, you know, couldn't hit the net. So would Jake DeBrask actually be a difference maker on a team where he had linemates who could actually score and get him the puck? Yeah, probably. So I was interested, but I just don't know if the flames need another skilled winger.

They need a center. I think a big issue for Boston is that, and this is something you see, especially when you have a team that's good that has a situation like they do with Jake DeBrusk, or he's a good player that wants out and all signs of point of that for whatever, five years it feels like at this point. They're an Eastern Conference contender. If you're Boston, and this is totally hypothetical, but if you're Boston and Ron Hextall calls and says like, hey, what do you want for Jake DeBrusk?

Do you want to move Jake DeBrus to the Penguins? Like, Eastern Conference contenders want players like Jake DeBrusk. But if you're Boston, like, what are you going to do? You're going to make your chief competition stronger. A little bit better. I don't. So you automatically, and that cuts out how many teams, right? And then you look at the West, and there's only six good teams in the first place.

And some of them don't have cap. And some of them don't need wingers. So it becomes really, really complicated. I'm sorry. Can you guys hear my dog snoring right now? No. It's really loud. Anyways, Dom, did you have an ad?

Yeah. I liked your Sam Bennett comparison. I'm just wondering, because Sam Bennett went to Florida, you got to play with someone like really, really good on the second line. Does Calgary have someone as good as Jonathan Huberto that they can put DeBresque with? You can't touch that line. Come on. You're talking about Andrew Majia Pani, obviously.

Obviously. Whatever. Olympian Andrew Mangiopani. He was making a case. I mean, he had more goals than anyone at that point in the season, so whatever. Just leave it alone. Listen, me and you all had Zach Hyman on the team, it's fine. We got to take down those roster projections, man.

Because we never did the final one. I feel like Tom Wilson would have made that team. Yeah, our final. We cut Hyman because he had a bad week and then we put on Tom Wilson, which absolutely would have happened. We were. People were like trying to think, like, we're going to galaxy brain Tom Wilson on his team's like that.

It's not that tall. He literally might be on the team. Dude, I sat at dinner with Dom and Toronto in like November or December or whenever that was. And I was like, I think this is going to happen. Like the look on his face, like as you came to terms with it over the course of 10 minutes, it was just like,

ah, dude, this is. Yeah, my... This is very real. In my defense, I was wasted. What are we talking about? Was that that dinner that everyone had on the Monday when I flew it on the Wednesday? And I was like, cool. Oh, nice.

I think I told LeBron and I was like, you know, I got to the city like less than 48 hours after? He's like, oh, sorry, it was great. I'm like, yeah, I heard. Whose fault was that? I think that's, you should have come down on the Monday. Pierre LeBron. Is this thing on? How dare you talk about Pierre LeBron?

that way, the sweetest angel. We had a very lovely chat that dinner. And if you got there 48 hours earlier, you could have been a part of it. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure it was a blast. All right. We've got a question from Luke Morris. What is more likely, Tampa winning the Cup for a third year in a row,

or a fourth consecutive Stanley Cup final appearance for a team with an interim head coach. Panthers have an interim head coach. Okay. Last year was Dom to Charm. Who? Definitely the interim coach then. It's probably the interim coach, right? Yeah.

It's more likely that Florida makes it to the, it's basically we're saying it's more likely with the Panthers make it to the final or Tampa winning a third straight. Well, it's more likely Panthers win a cup over Tampa winning a cup, so if you do the math there, I think you've got to go with interim coach. All right, thanks for your question, Luke.

Next question from Emily. All right. Tampa is scuffling a little bit in the last couple weeks, too. Not that it matters. It's March. They'll find some way to trade for, you know, Chikrin or whatever. I wrote this in my story.

And we did mention Jacob Chikrin is hurt. He's getting an MRI. He flew back to Arizona. Andrew Cops also out too. He missed time from a concussion earlier in the month and he's out again. So those are two kind of players who were expected to be maybe move, maybe shopped at the deadline who are out. So that's something to watch for him that we didn't mention earlier. What were you saying, Sean?

I just love what I was, I mean, cop, I mean, cop, we're talking about Tampa. We had cop. Right. Yes. Me and Dom were trying to figure out whether it was more likely, like who feels more like a Tampa Bay Lightning third liner? Is it Andrew Cop or is it, or is it, or is it, or is it, or is it, or is it, or is it, or is it, or is it, or is a Cal's, oh, stasty.

Feels like, feels like they're going to go get, they're going to go get one of those guys. Yeah. I like Yarncrock for the flames. Every team should like Cal, he's, he's been garbage this year for the Cracken, but I'm willing to... Is that because it's a Cracken? Yep. Yeah.

That's the Dave Haxstall effect. He's the most like, the most like neutrally good player over the last, over the last five years. He's had like, most mid player. He's had the same. Wasn't there a Twitter thread being like, it's really hard to find a player who is like accurately rated? People are either overrated, underrated.

The perfectly rated player is Kelly Yarn Kroc. He's just good. And everyone's like, oh yeah, that guy. Yeah. He's pretty good. Nope. That was my boy. average player.

That was my boy Adam Gratz from NBC. He posted the prompt and after much deliberation he came down with Calli Yarncrock is the answer, which is correct. Yeah. Are we not talking about how much Seattle messed up enough or is this just like classic? Like is this what an expansion team is supposed to look like or did they just completely butcher things from the coach to the players that they selected, et cetera, et cetera. I think the better question might be whether we

tackled that debate, like that portion of the discourse too early in the season. Because I know, I know, I know, I know Curz posted like, did they, did they use too much analytics?

Yeah, which is not the, I mean, it's not the right prompt because you're just going to piss people off. It maybe is the right way to frame it because it's going to piss people off. But I feel like we can maybe have that discussion again. But they're so,

they're so bad. Like, I think it's just, it's just out of sight, out of mind. Like, that's where we are in the season, right?

where those teams they don't exist anymore. We're done talking about the senators. Well, it's wild to me because, you know, I think Ron Francis held his cards too long and was asking for too much. And now those players that teams were trying to keep are not going to go for that much. You're not getting a first and a third for Mark Giudano right now. You're going to get 60 games of Mark Diorado while driving his price down significantly. like, oops, oopsie-dazee.

The flames probably would have, and I don't know this, I'm just, you know, I think the price was too high for the flames to protect Gio in the summer. And reportedly the price was at least a first and a third-round pick. You were not getting that for Gio right now at the deadline. You're getting like a second, and you probably have to retain salary because people can't afford his six-plus cap hit right now. Like, that is just poor asset management. Thanks a lot, Gru Bauer, you know.

Yeah. It's all his fault. Oh, I mean, I feel you can make a case that the team is extremely demoralized early on from their goalie letting in. This is great. I knew it was all going to come back to Gru Bauer being garbage with you. I knew that was going to happen. I'm not, I watched so many Seattle games. Wow.

Why? Because I bet on the stupid team. I know. And it was demoralizing to me as some of the money on Seattle. And I can see it. I can see it in the eyes of these players' faces, obviously. I'm just a master psychologist here. But honestly, like, it was amazing how often they let in the first goal and the first shot.

Absolutely terrible goal, by the way. Like, completely stoppable shot by an NHL goalie. I love how. Be quiet. Let him finish. No. Wait a second. No.

No, let him finish. Data genius becomes Mr. Body language. As soon as there's money on the line. Oh, man, look at the way he slumped on the bench. That was the joke. But honestly, like, it was unreal how often that would happen. And then the minute Seattle gained any momentum whatsoever, Grubauer led another soft goal and they were down again.

Like, it was amazing to have that. And then when they got Yanni Gourd back, they had, they played well for a little bit. and then Gruberauer kept doing Grubauer things. They had some injuries, and then they are the team they are now. I wonder how much of that is the psychology of being on a terrible expansion team. I mean, and like Brandon Tanev has done, like, you know, he tears his ACL done for the season. That was like your offensive guy, which is probably an issue.

That is an issue. When you're building out your roster. I'm a huge fan, but probably not your. Two-prong issue there. I know there was that stretch wherever. I think Drigger had a shut out or something. And then he came out in the next game and immediately got hurt. That's when it was like, all right.

This isn't going to work the way that they wanted. It's been a bit of a mess. Yes. But yeah, the question I have is, do we think Giordano or Sharott will fetch more at the deadline? I mean, see, that's crazy to me. Like, wouldn't you rather have Mark Giordano than Ben Chirot? Yes. Yeah.

Like a million. Like, this is a man who... Like, he's still, like, worth... He can still be a top pair. D. But imagine Gio on, like, your second pair. Like, that's a man who can actually shut down top lines. He's still got it.

He's still good. He's leadership and intangibles and experience. But Ben Chirot has played a lot of minutes with Shea Weber and Dustin Bufflin and has been spoon-fed minutes on an awful team. We're going to see him get... He's going to get more than Gioradano. He's going to get more. More than Hampas Lindholm.

Like, he's, he's, he's the, it's gonna happen. And the flames are gonna be the ones to do it. Oh yeah. No, for sure. The only problem is he never played for Daryl. So maybe he meant, maybe that, that works, works against him. Yeah. Has he?

No, no, I was just trying to think, like, does that work against him? Like, I don't know. I think, Daryl Sutter is such a lightning rod in the sense that there's players in the league who either played for him or have heard from guys who played for him. And it's like, yeah, I think that's a fit or it's, God, no, I will not go play for Calgary. And I think, you know, you never want to make it seem like you're making excuses for a general manager who has shown that he cannot, you know, actually swing certain deals.

But I do think that is probably something that Bradtree Living has been dealing with in the last couple years. This guy's being like... I play for Daryl. Yeah, I mean, I'm a big fan. I like Daryl a lot, but... I like getting yelled at. It's fine.

Yeah. It's fine. Anyways, question. We did touch us a little bit with Hurdle, but we did get a question. Sharks management is adamant, brackets in stupid, about not wanting to rebuild. Assuming Hurdle wants to make the playoffs again as his career enforces a trade, what sort of non-rebuild return can the sharks get? Why do you want a non-rebuild return?

That team should rebuild. But he's saying the sharks don't want to rebuild. So if they want to make it a hockey trade, Is there like an actual player that they should try to get? Jake Debrusk. I was just going to say Debrusk. That's the obvious. Debrusk in a first?

Debrusk in a first. You send him to the Western Conference. You said I'm doing a non-contender. You know. You can get a bigger role there. Doug Wilson can feel good about adding a player who's, you know, 26 or whoever role he is. Is it 23 or 24? Oh, God, really?

I feel like he's been around forever. I think he's made the NHL. Actually, I couldn't be a high. He's the same draftures. He's a 94, isn't he? He was in the Barzell Shillington. Oh, 25, yeah. He was in the, whoa.

Whoa, he's so old. He was in the Barzell Shillington tweet draft. And he was the good part of it. He was the only good part of that. One question from Kevin. Which arena has the best food in the NHL? It's been so. I haven't.

I haven't. It's been so long since I've gone to games. They do barbecue and Raleigh a lot, which is great. I was always a big fan of that. Everyone likes to talk about the Montreal hot dogs, which is... They're not that good. Which is played out. I mean, I don't think they're fine.

I think the Montreal, it's like Montreal, everyone wants to talk about the Montreal hot dogs and everyone wants to talk about walking across the flames press box. It's not that scary. The hot dogs aren't that good. My personal favorite press box offering is R.C. Cola in the PPG Paints Arena Press Box. Okay, when I was in Pittsburgh, when I was in Pittsburgh, I texted Sean being like, what is R.C. Cola.

Like, I want a drink and I don't know what this is. And I'm scared. It's like Pepsi, it's like Pepsi, but worse, I think. It's like, what is the way I would put it? Yeah. I've talked about it. There's like a bunch of scouts watching me like stare at the fridge being like, uh, what is?

What are these options? It's just a, it's a weird contract with the, with the, uh, for the beverage. right. So you have R.C. Cola and Diet Right and Snapple and Dr. Pepper and other goofy stuff like that. Isn't Dr. Pepper a Pepsi product? No. Interesting. It never is. There was Nashville's press box food is interesting. They have like snacks in intermission. I think there was like gumbo at intermission one day. I was like, what? You just always have Halloween candy in D.C. too. That was always great. You just hammer some racist cups and stuff. Yeah. When Dom and I was at the Leafs game when the Flames game when the Flame

are in town and Domini spent a significant amount of time looking for a food vendor that we could not find. Did you ever find it? Alouette? I did. Yes, they used to, they have an alaouette where I used to live in Liberty Village and they have an unreal burger, an unreal chicken sandwich, and none of those things were on the menu at the Scotia Bank Arena. So that was a shit. So you spent like days trying to find it. Where do you live now? Give your, give your address and your apartment. Don't. Don't. Don't. Dom and I used to live down the straight from each other, but we didn't speak. Well, there was one time. It's probably for the best.

We don't talk about that. It's not podcast friendly. And I ran into Haley and she was walking Bono with the most panicked look in her eyes because Bono had the poops. Bono had the poops. Bono did. Bono did. Bono had the poops, just to be clear. And this girl was struggling for her life to deal with this.

Because I had two dogs. There was two of them. So one's pulling me. The other one's like standing there having the most embarrassing crap on the side of the road. And like Dom's walking by with his like huskies walking all nice beside him, like well trained. And Bono's like having a real problem. He's doing spin art on the grass. Well, in my mind, I was like, oh my God.

Like we work together. But I don't know him that well. And he's just going to judge me in my like crappy little dog. He's not crappy. I got some news for you. He probably did. It's like, this is stark embarrassing. At the time I said, oh, a poor girl.

And looking back now, I say, what a, what a loser. It was a real. It was right out front of my apartment building. It's like, hey, don't. In my mind, I was like, Bono, hurry up, hurry up so we can turn around. I don't want to have to have this conversation right now. Anyways. With my weird little coworker.

My weird little dog. who's snoring beside me. All right. Final question. Before we're done for the day. All right. This question comes from Emily. If you were able to create an award,

what would it be and who would win it this year? I would give an award for most assists so we could stop talking about Jonathan Hubert open. Call it the Gretzky. Sean? Oh, man. That's a tough act to follow. That was really good.

I mean, defensive defenseman is the obvious one, right? Yeah. Yeah. Where we can just cut the, cut the bowl and find, and not just say that it's going to Kilmokar because he's going to have 100 points or whatever. Give Christian. I don't know who I get that this year. Just kidding.

For the record, I think Sean's answered is the actual answer I have, and I think that's an award they should have. Yes. Do you have a name, like straight away on that? Best defensive defenseman. This year? What's the first name, the Langway guy? I don't know.

No, he won't be sell. Oh, everyone, everyone always wants to call it the Rod Langway Award. Yeah, but I'm talking about like this year. Is there someone who stands out for you? Because I haven't really dug into that. We did the story last year about players with the best defensive impact. And I think Tanniv was number one. Heiskinin was up there.

Wasn't there someone on Florida who was? Weiger. Yeah, Weiger had a good defense. Weger, McAvoy. Yeah. Slaven. It's the anti-Morgan Riley award this season. Yeah.

But you could call that to the language. McAvoy enough? Or is everyone just like, the Bruins are just good? And that's it. I don't know. You and me and Donald talk about Charlie McAvoy too much, I feel like almost, don't I think we talk about them every week. That's just me and Ian.

Yeah. We don't talk about it anymore. You know why? Because Boston plays in America. You guys don't care. That's right. That's why the Tuesday show was born. Do you want to end with an anthem?

Like Eric Good Branson No I told like if Chris If Chris wants to pipe in the anthem From a couple weeks ago I'll vendmo you $20 if you do the anthem right now Do we have Venmo in Canada? I'm not doing that because someone's gonna freak out on me

For being disrespectful to it I'm telling you Like I like it was already traumatic enough For me to have to do that I don't need to get yelled at by some trucker convoy freak For for disrespecting the Canadian anthem Oh right well Bye everybody Thanks everyone for listening

To the athletic hockey show But no seriously Dom this was great Sean this was great Ian should disappear for no reason more From the earth Jesus Aggressive I'm just kidding

Every time I miss a show He's like throwing like these little lob balls to make fun of me So it's fine He's not going to listen this far into the podcast And the people who did I did listen to the entire show. They get to appreciate that.

I did notice you weren't. I did notice you weren't on the podcast from most of February. What was going on at that point? The Olympics? I don't know if you knew. Whatever happened with that? Anyways.

All right. Thanks, everybody, for listening to the athletic hockey show. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave a rating and review. We'd really appreciate it. You can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcast to get all the bonus content

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