The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: The Hockey Show

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Roy and David go over the Panthers road trip. From Too Man Men, Sara Civian gives us her Top 5 worst NHL jerseys, and Shayna Goldman discusses Matthew Tkachuk's turnaround and how William Nylander's contract extension affects the offseason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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and grab a DiGiorno Classic crust pizza from the grocery store today. It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno. Hello, welcome to The Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork is right there. He happens to work for The Hockey News. This is gonna be a college themed episode.

We have John Butcher-Grass, who as some of you may know is an aficionado of college hockey. We also have the Division III National Champion, Miami Hurricanes. We have three members from that team on with us today. But before we do that, we're gonna talk about the week that was for Florida Panthers Hockey. It was not a good week. We're gonna start on Saturday. that was for Florida Panthers hockey. It was not a good week No, we're gonna start on a Saturday. They lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. They had a very slow first period

They gave up a goal in the first 20 seconds they mounted a comeback but fell one goal short and Just was not the best first period for the Florida Panthers We saw that a couple of times over the past month. They had a very dominant second and third period, but it just wasn't enough because they got goalied. No, they did. Well, first of all, if you can't fall behind four-nothing. That's the other thing.

That's, you know, first and foremost. But yeah, they ran into Vesna Vasilevski, and he's been maybe not as consistently on that level as he had been for a while, but oh my God, he was amazing hands panthers That was ridiculous. It was absolutely ridiculous I mean it the shots and goal between the second and third periods were what 38 to 5 it just happened to be that 50 shots Yeah, unreal and just happened to be that the five shots that the lightning had three of those went in the net Yeah, it just wasn't great. It's one of those nights

Yeah And then last night it was even worse. Now granted, the Panthers were injured and they came in with five days rest, so they had rink rest on them, but it was just an embarrassing effort. It was rough. They ran into a red hot Nashville team that's now had points in what, 15 or 16 straight. Kevin Lankinen kind of picked up where Vasilevski left off and the Panthers have some questions to answer. All right, joining us now is John Butcher-agross. It's the NHL on ESPN. We are not starting with the professional ranks. We are starting with college hockey because the college tournament

right now is going to start March 28th and the first and fourth is going to be in St. Paul, Minnesota and if there's one person I'm going to go to for college hockey is John Butchagross. I'm going to turn that right now. So, as far as selections of the tournament, that's going to be on Sunday, by the way, the selections for the tournament. Who do you think the tournament is going to stack up as? What teams do you believe are going to go where? Well, right now, of course, the NCAA hockey uses a pairwise system. It's strictly computer.

So, once everyone plays their games and all the conference championships, which are this weekend, and you get an automatic bid if you win your tournament conference championship. So that can always obviously skew things. So there's 16 teams who make the tournament. There's a pairwise system in the computer, one through 16.

Obviously a team in the Atlantic conference isn't usually rated in the top 16, so one of those people are going to win their conference, either AIC or RIT, and so now there will be 15 teams. The top 15 teams will make the tournament. The CCHA winner, that's going to be a team again that's not in the top 16, so they're going to get an automatic bid. So now you're down to 14 teams.

The top 14 teams in the computer rankings will make the tournament. So that's how it's decided. So there's no committing, no really too much debate in terms of like we see in basketball. So, and right now, you know, Boston College number one overall seed, they're in their conference semi-finals,

even if they were to lose tonight in their conference semi-finals, they have such a big point system. They're gonna be the number one overall seed no matter what. I'm doing the Providence Regional. There's four regions of four that make up the 16 teams. I'll be in Providence and looks like Boston College is going to be there. They try to get teams, attendance is a bit of a factor.

It's not a true, you know, what is the most fair thing in the tournament. It's pretty fair, for the most part fair, but they do want fans in these, you know, arenas. They're not campus sites. Some people think we should go to campus sites to make the atmosphere better. Um, but for now we're on these, you know, these neutral sites. So I'll be in Providence. That's where BC will be.

Uh, Springfield, Massachusetts has another regional Boston University, which is currently number two in the country will likely be there. Whether they fall to a two seed or stay a one seed. And so that's how it kind of works. Some East teams do have to go West, some West teams do have to come East, but they do try to make it somewhat population and attendance, they do factor that in.

So yeah, the big old school blue bloods are all right there this year. BU, BC, North Dakota, Michigan State is back. That was a powerhouse back in the day. Now they're back, they're playing Michigan for the big 10 championship tonight. They could be one seed. So it's kind of cool to see that. You're still some Cinderella's Quinnipiac Bobcats

last year of Hampton Connecticut won the national championship. They'll be back to try to defend their title there. They have enough points. They're going to get in. So, so yeah, that's kind of the situation right now as we stand, but again, conference championships this weekend. And there could be some adjusting in terms of one, two,

three, four, then two seeds, three seeds, four seeds, and how they match up. So looking ahead, John, we're about three weeks away from when we get to the final, or the Frozen Four, excuse me, the Frozen Four. Get it right, Dave. At the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Avi, I mean, you mentioned Boston College

and the great season they're having. Denver's having a great season, Quinnipiac, we'll see if they can defend their title. But at this early stage, if you had to pick your frozen forward, can you say who they'd be? Yeah, it's tough because this kind of reminds me of the Oakland, Kentucky college basketball game last night. And I saw Jay Wright give some analysis. He says, it's hard for 18 year olds to beat 24 year olds.

And that's been the issue in college hockey, where some of these teams from the ECAC, who really can't match up recruit to recruit with Boston College, Minnesota. And those programs, they started to become an older team. We don't want you to your 20 years old to go play junior hockey until you're 20 in the USHL. Then you can come play college. If you go play Canadian junior, you can't play NCAA hockey. But the USHL is a junior program that you can play play college. If you go play Canadian junior, you can't play NCAA hockey, but the USHL is a junior program

that you can play until you're 20, show up on campus when you're 20, and play through your 24. So we started to see Union win a national championship for the first time ever in school history in 2014. Shane Goss's pair was on that team. We mentioned Quinnipiac, they won their first national championship.

Again, they have older players, and that's what happened with Kentucky. You play a team with 23, 24 year olds, especially with the fifth year thing and the transfer portal is tough. Like you know, Calipari, you got to recruit differently. He's got to have a few older guys to supplement with his high end first round draft pick talent. That was BU's issue. That was BC's issue. They got too young and they would lose to these older teams.

So that's why it's kind of tough to figure out. Now, B.C. this year, they have three freshmen, three first round NHL draft picks. Will Smith of the Sharks, Ryan Letter of the Capitals and Perot of the New York Rangers. And, you know, Smith leads the nation in scoring. Keller Gauthier, the sophomore who got traded to Anaheim from Philadelphia. And that interesting story during the NHL regular season. He's a sophomore. He's a leading goal scorer up there. So maybe BC is going to kind of buck that trend of a younger predominant team who can go all the way. But we'll see. Older teams generally went out

and they can beat these multiple number one draft pick teams who play one year and done or two and done. Magled Celebrini of the Boston University. He won hockey East player of the year and rookie of the year. Is he aligned to win the Hobie Baker Award? Yeah, it's good question Roy. He's only 17 years old. He's gonna be 17 the entire college hockey season. That's rare. That's crazy. Yeah, he accelerated so he could get to college earlier Noah Hannifin did that. We don't often see guys be a freshman in college before they're drafted. You know, they'll get drafted and then play like Will Smith

and Ryan Leonard and Perot. They were all drafted last summer at Nashville and now they're 18 years old playing college hockey at BC. My guess is Will Smith could come back and they all could come back, but I think they're proving that we can dominate college hockey, we should probably go to the next level. But I always say come back for one more year college hockey. It's really only seven months. You're not coming back for another year.

You're coming back for seven months. You turn pro this time next year and then maybe you could play in the NHL and or the AHL and then get your first training camp the following fall. So, you know, Celebrini is going to be the first pick of the draft in Las Vegas at the Sphere in the end of June where the draft is going to be again just 17 years old, dad is a performance coach with the Golden State Warriors. So he grew up around sports, around Steph Curry, around athletes, around Draymond Green. His dad was big performance based, not only the dry land drills, different things you can do, but also just the mental aspect. He's composed, he's intense, he's fast, he's exciting to watch. And so yeah, he's got a pretty good chance to win the Hobie Baker.

One more Hobie Baker finalist I want to ask you about, and it's a Florida Panthers connection. Jack Devine with the University of Denver is having a standout year. He's been putting up a ton of power play goals. It was a seven round pick of the Panthers in 2022. And look what he's doing now, John. Absolutely. Again, you never know because you play multiple years in college. And have you reached your ceiling and can you take it to another level? Absolutely. Again, you never know because you play multiple years in college and have

you reached your ceiling and can you take it to another level? That's the reason why he was the seventh round pick. He probably didn't have the physical skills, whether it's explosive skating or something like that, to meet the difference or a smaller size or maybe slight frame. That's something to look at as well. But the same reason why Braden Point wasn't a first round pick and Nikita Kucherov and Brad Marshand but those guys all turned out to be really good players Kucherov's a Hall of Famer Marshand might be, Point might be you can get guys late for sure and they can be those late bloomers especially they have good hands and know how to score like Jack does so yeah Denver can

score Denver's problem is keeping the puck out of the net so they're very high explosive offense and they're fun to watch and Jack is certainly a big part of that. On to the NHL, the Panthers have not been playing well lately. They've been dealing with injuries and you were here Saturday for Lightning and Panthers. You saw how that first period went. It was not great. The second and third period, I mean, you saw what happened. It was a little bit better, but you know, Vasileski.

But last night they played Nashville and it was not a good game at all. They pretty much was embarrassed. Alexander Barkov was not in the lineup. He was injured. I don't believe that will change the prospect of the Panthers possibly winning the Stanley Cup this season. What say you? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, three losses in a row. They still got two games hand on the Bruins. So if they win those two games in hand, they got more points in the Bruins 98. So they're gonna be right, you know, right go down to the wire for number one overall seed in the east, Boston, Florida, New York, and

Carolina, who's coming on really strong, they've won five in a row, they look like a what a team that improved themselves at the deadline with Kuznetsov and Gensel. Wow, they made the biggest jump from what they were and what they are. And what they are is to my mind is there's only three teams that are going to reach the cup finals in the East. That's either Florida, Carolina or New York. Those are the only three teams in my mind that have a chance to reach the Stanley Cup finals.

And I think it really comes down to Carolina and Florida in the conference final, which would be an epic Stanley Cup final. Barkov is so important. We know what he does in the faceoff. They couldn't get the puck last night, so you don't have possession. You don't start with the puck. You don't have the puck more. Ekblad, just that big body on the right side that they need, just kind of slots everybody where they should be slotted. That's a big thing for the Panthers defense is slotting guys where they are. But yeah, Barkov is key. And that's why health is so important. Bob seems like he's why health is so important. You know, Bob seems like he's on top of his game.

Seems like he has that aura of a guy that could win a cup in net. But yeah, just get Barcoff back. These are a bit of the dog days. You know, the Panthers are bored. They want to start playing playoff games, games that matter. There's only 11 games left for some teams. They have 13 games left.

So they just want to get going. Don't get hurt. Let's enter the to get going, don't get hurt. Let's enter the playoffs healthy. We don't care about home ice. We know it didn't matter last year. History shows home ice is 50 50 either way until game seven. Then it ticks up a little bit, but they even, they bucked that trend as well in Boston last year.

So they know the most important thing for them is health, not where they're seated. And, but it would be nice to finish first because then you're playing one of those teams in the wild card, like someone like Detroit or the Capitals, but also if you win your division, you might play the Lightning. And that would be, like you just mentioned,

Vasilevski, he stole that game in four, but I still think as the Panthers came on, they were the better team the last couple of periods. Over seven games, the Lightning will not beat the Panthers four out of seven times, I don't think. Butch, you mentioned another powerhouse team in the Eastern Conference the New York Rangers that I wanted to ask you about just because a Matt Rempey so much fun awesome fun to watch little old school hockey and b when this team gets healthy on the blue line I think they're going to

be scary for Carolina and for whoever gets them in the first maybe round or two what do you think? Yeah Truva and Lindgren both hurt They got to have them. Uh, Keandre Miller plays an interesting game. I'm not sure if he matches that well up against the Panthers in your face confrontational hockey. That's not his game. He probably prefer like a freewheeling Toronto Maple Leaf series. That's where Miller would be better. And then you're right. Truba and Lingren are more valuable in a Panther series. So it's funny how,

but they are, that shows how diverse they are. Adam Fox is obviously an elite defenseman. So they got him as well. Niders coming along. So yeah, they got a pretty good D, but sometimes five on five, they give up a lot of goals. And so that's a team some people still don't believe in. They still think they're a bit of a mirage. And maybe it's just that New York Centric and some of the stars they have, Panarin's having a great year. My goodness,

the guy's having a career year. We mentioned Fox is phenomenal. So Benidjad's up and down. So I still think there's some hole in the Rangers. I would like the Panthers in the best of seven there too. I don't see the Rangers beating them four out of seven unless Igor steals a couple of games, which he can do. The second wild card spot in the East is up for grabs

and the Red Rings just got back Dylan Larkin. Patrick Waugh has ruled the Islanders into contention. The Sabres are playing themselves out and since the Devils fired Lindy Ruff it's been a charge forward. What do you think is gonna happen at the end of regular season here? Yeah the Isles are toast. They've lost six straight. They had kind of a soft schedule there so I think they had been a bit of a mirage which they were. The Capitals again they're kind of an interesting team. They So I think they had been a bit of a mirage, which they were. Yeah, the Capitals again, they're kind of an interesting team.

They have a couple of games in hand on Detroit. If they win those two games, they're in front of Detroit. So it's kind of, you have to be, it's like a golfer when you watch Augusta, a guy's played three fewer holes on Sunday and those Eagle holes are coming up. You might be a couple behind or one up. The guy who's trailing him knows,

I need to get in front of him by a couple of shots, because he got those easy holes coming up. And that's kind of like, we have to keep in mind games remaining. But again, you got to win those games. And the Capitals are a minus goal differential team. So you have to assume they're not going to win those games.

They might go one and one. But what makes things more difficult for the Capitals, it looks like Tom Wilson is going to be suspended today. And it might be like five, six, seven games. And when they lose him for that, right. And the first time with a stick, but again, like a sixth time that he's met these people. So he's probably going to get five or six. So that's half the rest of their games.

And so that could make it really difficult. Larkin's back, as you mentioned. I think Detroit's going to sneak in as they are. I think there'll be the eighth seed, which means the one seed will get them. And I think that there is incentive to be the number one overall seed to play the Panthers instead of the Lightning. I think teams would rather,

to play the Red Wings instead of the Lightning. I think people, again, I don't think the Lightning are that dangerous. They're a terrible five-on-five team this year. But when they got Vasilevsky and those, and Anthony Duclair has been a great addition for that two more goals last night. He's given them some dynamic speed. If I'm him, I found them I definitely try to resign him. But if I'm him,

that's a good spot for him back in Florida. Obviously, he's got ties to South Florida not too far away still tax free. So Duclair I think has really helped that team he's given to him and Dumba have given them a little bit of mojo that makes them in my eyes just a little bit dangerous for that for that two seed in the east is it again? It looks like the two seed is going to get the lightning. I just want this regular season and let's just start playing play I know now these 70 games is enough. Let's go. Yeah, let's go. Amen John budget Ross of ESPN Thank you for joining us to talk about college and professional hockey

Anytime boys, you're my favorite hockey show on the web. No, man, that's so sweet. I appreciate that. Don LeBretard. How do people always go missing in the mountains? Don't go to the mountains. And by the way, I don't want to bring racism. This is the most white people thing ever.

Going missing in the middle of the mountains. It's the strangest thing. You go by yourself, you don't take a radio, you don't take a phone. You're missing for four days and they find you like 10 years later covered in snow. And it's like, don't go by yourself. If you're going to go on a trail, don't go by yourself. Stugats. Put it on the poll. Is it the whitest person thing ever, I believe is what you called it,

going into the woods by yourself? Is going into the woods by yourself? I can't disagree with that. So black people don't camp? Yeah, black people don't hike, they don't camp, they don't go out into the woods. This is the Don Leventhal Show with the Stu Guards. The Miami Hurricanes club hockey team won the D3 National Championship this season, and it was quite a turnaround. Last season they only won one game but since this year, since November 2nd, the Miami Hurricanes have only lost once. Once! That's crazy. It went perfect in the postseason and it was

just an amazing situation. Now they're gonna go back into D2 so today we have the coach Tommy Mello, we have the goaltender Ethan Gainey and we have the captain Chris Gugelis. It's just been an amazing season for the Miami Hurricanes. Coach, give us your feeling. You're going back into D2 now. You're going to face the Florida Gators. You hated the rivals.

What is it like going from such a low from last season to such a high now, and now you're going to go back into D22. Well the turnaround is fantastic. We keep talking about it in the beginning of the year. We didn't have the buy-in last year and this year all of the new freshmen coming in we had to sit down with them and they all bought in and were held accountable for everything. And the team got really tight. They weren't only teammates, they were friends. And it really showed on the ice. They worked hard for each other.

The turnaround was fantastic. We got some quality players that came to the U. And it's just fantastic to watch. So I wanna talk to Chris about what Coach just said, being that you had, you know, coming from one year to the next year, the buy-in that needed to be there and the dedication from the team.

As the captain, how big of a role was that for you and how much did you have to go to your teammates and to get everybody in line before everything started to fall into place? Yeah, before the year I kind of went to the seniors and some of the older guys on the team that have been around the team the last three years and I kind of just wanted to like push the fact that this year we really needed to change the culture of the team and like being our last year here winning one game

last year, I didn't want to go out doing that again like no one enjoys showing up to the rink every weekend just to get our butts kicked every week so we like our biggest our biggest thing was just changing the culture making everyone like come to the rink and our main focus was to win not just to be there and mess around. So that was the biggest part. Chris, you and Ethan are both seniors so this is your final year. You're going out as champions. So what is that feeling like going out as champions and getting your degree? Let's start with Chris.

Yeah, it's a little bit of a love-hate relationship to work this hard to turn the program around and leave it when it's finally good is kind of a tough situation. But I mean, where else would you want to go out but on top? So can't be that mad. What about you, Ethan? Yeah, I mean, definitely bittersweet, as Chris said, but you can't ask for a better way to go out, especially going off of the season before, as you said, but you can't ask for a better way to go out, especially going off of the season before, as you said, with one win.

And even the season before that, you know, I was just going back through some old messages. And actually, back in 2021, 22, we had made playoffs, I believe, with six wins or something like that. And then we didn't end up going because we didn't have enough players to come to playoffs and so I think just that change alone and then getting us to this point was just such an incredible Thing to see especially going out as Chris said, you know, it's bittersweet, but we'll take it Do you guys feel like you're passing the torch with so Ethan

Yeah Definitely. I mean for a while Listen, I'm not gonna you know beat around the bush for a while. I was Probably the only goalie that that would come to some things and now this season I was lucky enough Listen, we have our starting goalie, Harlan Jackson, who is the one who got MVP of the finals game. You know, I'm lucky enough to be able to be comfortable taking a role as coming in when needed as opposed to what Harlan was able to do during these playoffs despite

being the only goalie on the team in previous years because it's about winning and it's about the buy-in. It's not about individuals playing time and that was the difference this year that people bought into as Tom was talking about. It wasn't about you, it was about the team. What about you Chris? This question of passing the torch, especially for you as a captain,

must be pretty special. Yeah. I know there's a good group of older guys that I have all the faith in the world. And Max, he was treasurer last year, assistant captain, and he's taken over the role as captain next year. And like I said before, I got all the faith in the world than him and that he can lead the team

and all the younger guys that kind of learned what it's like to be a part of a successful and well-organized team. So I think everyone's headed in the right direction and all will be good. So obviously guys, there's a bit of a New York connection with the team. I see Chris has got his Yankees hat.

I see Ethan's got the banners behind him and awesome. Not having a Jets one back there. Oh, thank God. But Tom, apparently you travel from New York to coach the team, which must be awesome for your frequent flyer account. But I'm just curious, like how does that work? Because it sounds incredibly challenging and obviously you guys made

it work and then some. Yeah well it's a unique situation to say the least but we have a good group of assistant coaches that take care of the skills process with the practices and I fly down on Thursdays and if it's a travel day we meet up on the bus and Friday we go away. If it's home we just I'm there until Sunday until the games are over we usually play on Friday and Saturday and travel back. It's a little bit of stress on the family but now after a national championship I think they're all between us. Nice. To little Libya. Right. So Ethan in addition to being a goaltender and you kind of alluded to it that you've you know gone from being

kind of the main goaltender to one of a tandem and I know that you also when you're not playing goal helped out with the broadcast. You did some play-by-play did some color. What's it been like from your perspective doing so many different things on a national championship winning season? Oh yeah, it's been awesome. I've worked with Justin Cohen. Oh, that guy. Yeah, and he helped put together along with his friend James this broadcast, which has been incredible

because we used to stream on a service that would charge anyone who wants to watch $9.99, I believe, a game and it made it tough. At that point, only real hardcore fans would be paying for a game and so we felt it was so important to get this, this free stream on YouTube. And then being a part of that and doing the games, we get compliments all the time about that live stream. We have instant replay on it. We have an actual working score bug, which you'd be surprised how many YouTube streams

do not have a working score bug. And so being a part of making that has been incredible, but then also getting both sides of it, it really does help so much for the broadcasts, knowing everyone on a personal level, obviously. Most play-by-plays wouldn't be fortunate enough to also be a part of the team, but I do truly, because they're my friends too, I'm not a part of the team, but I do truly because they're my friends

too. You know, I'm not biased necessarily on the call, but it's more like I have these anecdotes that I could tell literally because they're my friends, not just because I heard it through the grapevine. Tom, you've won the championship. Now it's on the recruiting. How's that going? So that's been fantastic with the we've had some help from some students who, boy I tell you they've been great. They've been helping out with the social media. And as Ethan said, the broadcasting has been great also. So the U is not a hard school to recruit with because a lot of kids want to go there.

But we're getting a lot from the Northeast region. So hockey is part of their culture. So with the social media, and we have our name out there, I'm getting a lot of contact from kids early on, and I'm just telling the university and I'm telling them come to this school, it's a fantastic school school and then we'll talk hockey but with that all in play the recruiting has been pretty easy. Chris as the captain you were able to lift all the trophies first that you won this season describe that feeling of lifting the trophy and then handing it off to your teammates as you celebrate.

Yeah it's awesome it's obviously something you dream about when you're little. Not exactly lifting the trophies we did when you're little, but more like lifting the semi-cup. But when you're in the moment and you're working for this all year long in the past few years, it feels great. It's a little selfish. I get to do it first, but it feels even better handing off to the next guy and getting to see their face. Do you guys party afterwards? We had some fun.

Yeah, you don't have to give the sort of details, but I bet you guys had some fun. Yeah, we had our fun. The Division 3 champions to the Miami Hurricanes, Simon Mello as the head coach, Ethan Gany as the goal tender. He also broadcasts. And Chris Kogelis as the captain. We appreciate you guys coming on. Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us.

Thanks, guys. Thank you.