The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Hockey Show: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Comparisons

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Roy and David are back after a couple weeks up to catch up on all the latest around the world of hockey! Ian Kennedy joins the hockey show to discuss the growth and potential expansion of the PWHL, and the gang also explores whether Paul Bissonnette is built like Dwyane The Rock Johnson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe Kings Network. Hello. Welcome to The Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork at The Hockey News is to my left. Rose Arias is in the other studio busy posting thirst traps on Instagram. What the hell was that? That was not a thirst trap. That looked like a thirst trap to me. Rose just posted a picture of herself looking beautiful and you just gotta like throw her

under the, up to something. Hey listen man, she felt like she looked cute and she posted a picture. Felt cute, posted a picture. My hair was beautiful, go see. Natural right? Yeah, natural. Natural, no makeup, not anything. You were just being a dad. That's a hot take right there. I am being a dad, yeah. Yeah, that's my hot take. You're being a dad. Yeah, well, when you get people sliding into your DMs, that's your fault. Okay, well, you deal with that. We'll deal with Slapshots.

Let's start with the hot takes. Dave, go ahead. All right, hot takes for last week. Let's see, where am I? You're in the hot takes section. Yes the hot takes. Dave, go ahead. All right. Hot takes for last week. Let's see. Where am I? You're in the hot takes section. Yes, hot takes. Slapshots. All right.

So my hot take is Colorado Avalanche are now my pick to come out of the West after making the trade for Mackenzie Blackwood last week. This guy is, as we see some footage of him just making some ridiculous saves this year, this guy played out of his mind for San Jose this year. He's actually been kind of an under-the-radar elite goaltender since his time in New Jersey He never was really on a really good team. He goes to San Jose Playing excellent on a team a decent Sharks team that doesn't really defend that well now He goes to an avalanche team. They can score as we know They can defend a lot better than a shark sting defend and they may be getting

gabe landisdod back at some point they've already got a pretty stacked roster with ranton and and kayle mccarr i think the abs are going to go to stanley cup final now okay well so edmonton's not going to repeat do you think edmonton and colorado will well i don't think they're going to end up in the comments final uh well they could right because they're gonna end up in the Commons final. Well they could right because they're in the different divisions I think. Yeah. But either way I don't think right now until it's like last year they got to get their back end shored up because if they can't keep the puck out of the net no matter how many times Sidney Crosby and Leon Dreisaitl who's scoring

like a maniac this year. Sidney Crosby. Oh, Connor McDavid. Sorry, Roy, I'm just infusing super stars. Why are you doing that to me? That's what the NHL wants. I see Connor McDavid a lot less than I see Sydney Crosby on my TV. That's very unfortunate. We love Sydney Crosby. Don't you ever, ever say that ever again.

Blasphemy. Geez, Rose, keep posting to those traps. All right, Roy, do you have a hot take for us? I do. Now, for the past couple of episodes, I've been saying that a couple of coaches might get fired and that hasn't happened yet. So I might be wrong about this as well, but I'm going to take it a step higher with a general manager that just might be fired as well. He might be short on time and that is Kevin Adams and Buffalo. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, should I get off the part-time? Yeah. I mean, he's been there for five years. His best season was a couple of years ago. They had 91 points. They were still fifth in the division. I mean, that's how competitive the Atlantic division is.

I mean, that's pretty rough. They can't even get a wild card out of that. He's been there for five years. He's been there since COVID, June 2020. Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs in 14 seasons. No. In five of those seasons, he hasn't brought them there. A lot of talent has left.

Ryan R left, Eichel left. Eichel left, Brandon Montell left. Linus Ulmark left. And all four of them. Forgot about Ulmark. Yeah, all four of them ended up being champions. Now, look at how the Ikels situation wound up. And now the Sabres completely botched that one as far as his injuries are concerned.

Like that's just like, why would you want to go there? It's not exactly a destination. And he said so. Like it's not a destination like places that have palm trees. Now he was taught, that was a shot across the barrel for both Florida and Tampa. Like, you're not a good team. You're not a good team.

You brought back Lindy Ruff, like as much as I liked the move, that hasn't worked out at all. They've regressed since that 91 point year, and it's getting worse this year. Yeah, well, he thought they were figuring it out, but what if they lost like eight in a row right now or something?

Yeah, he's saying nothing is off the table. I'm like, they're in cell mode, just like the Rangers are in cell mode for some reason. But they're in cell mode, but he's saying, and this is a quote, that he's not about to quote unquote panic. That's a panic move, right? I'm sure the fans love hearing that.

Yeah, well. Wait, what are we rebuilding for the sixth straight year? What are they doing in Buffalo? Nothing. They've got some really good young stars. Tage Thompson is amazing. They've got some pieces there, but yeah, you've got to build around it. Yeah, and he hasn't done a good job.

So it's, in my opinion, it's just short time right now. Borrowed time, actually. Borrowed time. Yeah, it wouldn't be surprising. You know, a five-year plan's not working out in Buffalo, so that's not a good situation. The wins of the week, David. Wins of the week. All right.

Hi, Rose. The wins of the week. My win of the week goes to Flyers rookie Matt Vae Mitchkoff and an unnamed Flyers fan. As we see the video here, Mitchkoff got thrown out. He got a game misconduct late in their game earlier this week against Utah. As he's walking out, some fan, some Philly, you know, Philly fans are awesome.

Some fans are like, hey, I've got a spare water bottle for whatever reason. Why would somebody have a water bottle at the game? I don't know. Yeah, how do you bring that in? Maybe it was water bottle giveaway night is the only thing I can think of. But he's got his water bottle and he's got a Sharpie

and Mitchkoff, this awesome rookie who's playing amazing this year credit to him credit to the Flyers Torts is getting a lot out of him but he signs the dude's water bottle he's getting tossed out the game I thought that was awesome I think that's a win all around I really like this rookie and I like what he's doing in Philly. Torts at the presser they brought it up to him he had no idea. No no but he laughed about it he about it. He liked it too. So, you know, credit to Torz. You never know what you're going to get from Torz. I'm glad I haven't had to cover him on a beat just as he's probably scared the bejesus out of me. But yeah. I mean, we've seen his antics. He was a Rangers

head coach. I mean, you can ask Bruxy. Yeah. not a good situation between him and the New York Post, I'll tell you that. All right, so my win of the week, it's that time of year, around Christmas time, right, in the minors and the major junior leagues, that the fans come in and they throw teddy bears onto the ice. I love the teddy bear toss. The teddy bear toss.

It's great. It's that time of year, it's every Christmas, and in this situation, we're looking at the Berry Coats and the Ottawa 67s. That's not very teddy bearish. The 67s had scored and apparently there was Actually what happened- Did I just see the Grinch involved in this? Yeah. What happened was that one of the one of the Colts players blocked one of the 67 players from getting He black wanted to play is far. This isn't very Christmasy guys. He blocked one of the 67 players from

celebrating the goal and And chaos ensued sued And chaos ensued. So yeah, so again, for the audio audience, a goal was scored during the teddy bear toss situation. The fans were tossing teddy bears onto the ice. One of the players get blacked from celebrating and that caused a brawl while teddy bears were being tossed onto the ice.

A line brawl while teddy bears are being tossed onto the ice. A line brawl while teddy bears are being tossed onto the ice. And it is exactly what you're picturing in your head right now, I promise you. Yes, as John Forslund says, that's hockey, baby. Oh, God. That's just one of those things that's just like disgusting and awful when you look at it on the surface, but when you add the context of hockey, it's just,

it's home, you know, it's perfect. I don't know, the only thing missing was like, and probably best that we didn't see this, and maybe I shouldn't even say it, but you know, somebody like taking a teddy bear and using it as a weapon and like. Oh, that happened last week at one of the teddy bear tosses. Of course it did.

One of the players, one of the away players was not happy that his team allowed a goal and then the teddy bear came in. Oh yeah, I saw that, he was like shooting them back into the players, one of the away players was not happy that his team allowed the goal and then the table. Oh yeah, I saw that. He was like shooting them back into the stands, right? Yeah, he shot the teddy bears back into the stands. Now keep in mind, these teddy bears are donated to children, you know, to charities and to hospitals. So this guy is tossing with his stick. He's shooting the bears back into the stands. He got, I think he got suspended again. Yeah, he did.

He got suspended again, which is rightfully deserved considering the context. Like what are you doing, man? Fight another man. Don't take your frustrations out on an beautiful little teddy bear. Yeah. It's gonna make some kid very happy.

Yeah, don't take your, don't take your hang out on the kids. I have a win of the week. Oh. And mine is a jump. So instead of Kadri, he should be called Fid. Oh really? Oh, yeah. Look at it. Okay Yeah, I just saw that last Goal by as in country

There you go. That's my way. I love you're gonna love it because this kind of works with my my next video of my My fail of the week guys so to describe this for the audio audience, it was Lightning at Flames, Naz and Kadri, taking the puck away from one of the Lightning players who was barely first on the ice, and he had to leap over him, and then, I don't think it kind of- No, that was mine.

Yeah, it didn't look like Conor McDavid, that's his fail of the week, actually. That's David's fail of the week. But yeah, Naz and Kadri hoppedped over, was not balanced by the way, so he had to spin, unbalanced, shot it on net, and scored for the Flames. It was a great goal. It's going to be one of the goals. It probably was a goal of the week actually.

Yeah, it was good. Yeah. Good on Nazem Qadri. All right, fellow of the week David. All right, mine, we just saw it, if you want to roll it back. It was also against the Lightning on the week, David. All right, mine, we just saw it if you want to roll it back. It was also against the Lightning on the road in Alberta. This time, they just decided to not defend Connor McDavid. I mean, he came from his own blue line, took a B line straight down the middle of the ice,

cut through everybody. Vasilevsky's probably like, what the hell's going on? I see four of my guys and suddenly I'm facing a breakaway. We're like, puck, blue line, McDavid, gone. Bye bye. Four guys surrounding him, nobody touches him, Vasthaleski barely moves as the puck is fought, just kind of flicked over his blocker. I don't know, this guy's like the best hockey player in a generation, maybe we should keep an eye on him,

maybe we should defend him, I don't know, but not a good look for Tampa. They're not having a very fun trip through Alberta, doesn't look like. Nah, keep in mind where McDavid received the puck. He received the puck at the face-off that it's nice. And he split three. Three! Like, three players there. So, yeah, not good defense at all. Defense optional.

Defense optional. My fail of the week comes from one of the suspects in the Paul Bissonnette jumping. Here He is talking about describing Paul Bissonnette Okay You see this guy and me fighting in the parking lot you'd say he's gonna beat the fuck of him He's not a lick of fat on him. He's fucking true. She got a giant Johnson Is he a white guy black guy hispanic?

he's a hispanic guy with black hair and a black beard and he was pushing and shoving his watch at everybody else okay but that's whenever I showed up so that's an automatic L the reason why that's an automatic L is you think that Paul Bisonin is built like the rock well he's a hispanic rock apparently really he made that comparison?

Well he first he said he was like Dwayne The Rock Johnson then he said he was like his Hispanic guy. Yeah I mean that's kind of like saying Brett Goldstein looks Hispanic because he has a beard on Ted Lasso. Of course he shaved it off for shrinking but yeah but no man, first of all, that's racist. The second of all, that's stupid. I mean, that has- These guys aren't exactly cracking the atom or anything. They were drunk at the time, yeah. It seems like that's their MO, is they just travel around getting drunk, starting fights.

And in this case, they just started the fight with the wrong guy, because there was six of them and the six of them couldn't take down Biz. Yeah. And he got, what was it? He took some, he gave some more, is that what he said? Yeah, of course Biz in his career is probably used to scrums and having five guys. You spend a career getting punched and punching and he'd have some experience and he's also like we've been around Biz.

I wouldn't say he's Dwayne the Rock Johnson and he's not going out for too fast too furious, but I wouldn't. He's fit, but he's not that fit. No, well, nobody's that fit. He's not fitted like that. I feel like this is going in a downward spiral and I'm trying to say like Biz is like built, he's a tough dude.

He's not the rock, but nobody's the rock. But Biz, I wouldn't, Biz could probably flick his finger and knock me out cold. I would not wanna mess with Biz. So these guys, I'm glad they got what was coming to them. Keep in mind he's in that DraftKings commercial. He's in the shower. So if you want to look at how fit he is then you can look at that commercial. Not throwing the Rock Johnson but good for hockey player. Yeah. Yeah. Rose has a fail. Yeah it's not a fail of the week. And it's not you getting pepper sprayed?

It's not a fail of the week. Look no it's not a fail of the week, but it's not an amazing fail. And it's not you getting pepper sprayed? It's not a fail of the week. Look, no, it's not a fail of the week, it's just a fail. Go! What am I watching? Okay, so a woman right now is trying to close the door with her butt. Rose, absolutely nothing to do with hockey apps, absolutely not. It was just some lady who tried to close her door and failed like three times. It's hilarious. I love that one. Rose, nothing to do with hockey, absolutely not. It was just some lady who tried to close her door and failed like three times.

It's hilarious, I love that one. The fake booty bump. And then she's basically... She left the window open, by the way. That's what I'm saying. That's the other thing. You know what? As much as this has nothing to do with hockey,

I'm okay with Rose putting some nonsensical video and us spending 30 seconds on it. That made me laugh. You're very welcome. Yeah, that's very Rose. That's very Rose. All right, so. I'm on brand. This week in hockey, what have you noticed? Let's see, I've noticed that the Panthers are out West.

Yeah, I see all the late times. I've noticed that I don't enjoy West Coast games as much as I used to. No. Because now I'm writing until two in the morning, then today I had to wake up early. But what I'm noticing is, as I glance through the standings right now, I'm really enjoying watching the Washington Capitals and I'm afraid of what's going to happen when Alex Ovechkin comes back. Oh, yeah.

Because they're already playing so well. The moves they made in the offseason were great. Obviously the move that they made at the draft getting Logan Thompson, Jacob Chickren has been great for them. It's just, it's fun. And I don't think we saw it coming. No, absolutely not. That's almost what makes it better. And I'm sure you're more than happy to see OV having a much better season than your buddy Sydney

over there in Pittsburgh, because those just always kind of tied into the other. But it's interesting, because right now the Capitals are leading the Metro. They're ahead of the Rangers who, you know. That is a whole different situation with the Rangers. I'm not selling off the Rangers just yet, just because they've got some good players

and they've got an amazing goalie, but they've got to figure their shit out right now. Keep in mind though though the Capitals although This is a shorter time frame for Florida when it happened to them playing without the best player on their team Yeah, through the injury has still played extremely well it's exactly the same thing Florida had to go through and Once OV returns it's going to be. That's a really good point.

Yeah, it's going to be really, really interesting in the Metro. So there's that. So, hey, it's a fun time right now in hockey. So we're talking about the men though. We're going to switch to women because we are going to talk to Ian Kennedy of the hockey news. I'm excited for this.

We've been meaning to get to the PW for a while. Yes, yes. And I'm glad that we're going to have him on. Ian Kennedy of the hockey news is going to join us next to talk about the PWHO and them in the second season right now. And we're going to take a look at how the season is going. We're going to talk about the differences between season one and season two. Ian Kennedy is coming up next. I'm trying out for the PW WomenW. Women's Hockey League. I'll be there for that. Learn how to hit. You have my support. Howdy folks, it's Mike and guess what? It's Miller time. The holiday season brings around lots of joy and also lots of family, lots of family gatherings at your home.

You're inviting people in there. You want to make sure they're happy. lots of family gatherings at your home, you're inviting people in there, you want to make sure they're happy, why don't you make their time at your place a Miller time? Pass around that beautiful white can of Triple Hop's Brewed Miller Lite and watch the smiles adorn those faces. Make Miller Lite the official drink, the official beverage of your holiday get-together. You know why? Because it is a perfect beer for the holiday season. You'll take a sip, you'll look around, and you'll think immediately, yeah, I made the right call. It's got tastes that you can depend on. No games, no gimmicks, just great beer for people who like beer. Making memories at year-end gatherings? Tastes like Miller time! Go to MillerLight.com slash Dan to find delivery

options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Celebrate responsibly, Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Fewer calories and carbs than premium regular beer. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go The professional women's hockey league has started its season. This is the second year that they have been in existence and they have names now. They have uniforms. Can you believe that?

Yeah, uniforms and everything. It's really great. It's great. Just like Major League. They're cool looking though. I gotta say, they did a pretty good job. Yeah, I think so too. Ian Kennedy of the Hockey News joins us.

He's the author of Ice in the Veins, Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck. He covers women's hockey and the PWHL in its second season has names, so it has branding. Has there been any positive increases as far as money is concerned into the league with this new branding? I mean, the fans are eating this stuff up right now the merchandise even in season one when there wasn't any they the PWHL had a very difficult time keeping things on the shelves and they were out of stock almost immediately but I think it was pretty impressive when we saw the home openers over the last week and you

saw how many jerseys were actually in the stands already. That was really remarkable to see that kind of presence right off the bat. So it's a big thing for the league definitely to have those names and logos out there. People are attaching themselves to the identities already. We're getting lots of fun stuff coming up out of it. So it was definitely a big step forward for the league from their generic city names last year. So one thing I wanted to ask you about in terms of, I guess it kind of falls into that rank, the attendance numbers. I know they've gone up from year one to year two. I believe I read that they're about averaging about a thousand fans per game more than they were at this time last year, which is pretty impressive considering that's about what 20% increase.

I also know that there have been games where they've done like a larger venues and they've gotten some really big crowds. So how excited have they been by the attendance numbers and the way that they've been increasing year over year? Any type of, I mean, I think they were over, they were excited from year one. They exceeded all expectations right there and then. But season two has really got off to an exciting start with the attendance levels. I mean, Montreal had to move into a bigger venue and they brought just over 10,000 people

to their first game. Toronto had to move to a bigger venue that seats just over 8,000 and they're pretty much selling that out every game. So that's really exciting. But when you look at the neutral site games, whether it's at Scotiabank in Toronto or this season they're going to go out to Vancouver and Edmonton and they've already sold out both of those venues. Quebec City is over 17,000 for their game. Seattle looks pretty full.

Denver looks pretty full. It's all really positive. The market's been there for professional women's sports for a decade right now or longer, but hockey is just catching up and we're seeing the the the people are ready fans are ready for this. Not just in the six markets they're in but obviously there's lots of talk of expansion coming as soon as next season and the attendance numbers in some of those games

this year are really going to be deciding factors for what markets get new teams. All right so we have added attendance we're gonna have added teams coming up soon. Aside from the branding portion of it in a business sense what has the league learned? I think they're learning every single game there's a lot of items that they're still catching up on from social media to The broadcasting being a huge aspect that they're still trying to figure out. We saw a really early season switch from Some YouTube games to twitch which was not really well received by fans, but I mean in Canada. They've got Amazon Prime

CBC, TSN covering pretty much every game that there is and in the United States it's a little more regional, Nesson up in New England and we've got some great coverage in New York with MSG, but it's still they're still looking for a national broadcasting partner in the United States. I think that's going to be probably dependent on expansion again, because you can't have a national broadcaster that's not a national league. It's a regional league right now. And I think that they recognize the need to switch that as well. As any of the national broadcasters, do you have a lead in whom would take the product?

Would it be ESPN? Would it be TNT? Or would it be someone like a, you know, like a USA? Well historically ESPN plus was the broadcaster for a lot of women's leagues in the past including the previous iteration of the the PHF. So I could see ESPN being right in on that conversation. But one thing that we have seen a little bit of a trend is that the PWHL is following the NHL's footsteps in a lot of the business decisions. And I think that we might see them targeting similar partnerships that the NHL have. And so, you know, anybody's guess right right now but I'd say that ESPN plus or

ESPN in general is probably the leading contender at the moment. You mentioned expansion before one thing that kind of crossed my mind as I researched a little bit thinking about the expansion idea is that a lot of the teams seem to be struggling to hang on to the reserve players which I would think would make it difficult for expansion just because are there enough players to fill a couple more teams now I know that might tie into the fact that the reserve players don't get the same benefits and pay that the rostered players get but is that something that could impact expansion do you think the talent pool is the number one thing the league's

looking at that they've mentioned this a number of times they feel like they got the on ice product right and I believe that too I think that a lot of times that they feel like they got the on ice product right and I believe that too. I think that a lot of people, men's hockey fans in particular, that watch this league are really excited and surprised by the level of play that's there. It is elite, the skill level is right off the charts, but there's a huge wave of talent coming, maybe not in this 2025 draft, but the 2026 draft is just loaded. I mean, pretty much the best players from the United States national team right now, like Carolyn Harvey, that was a USA hockey player of the year last year, Layla Edwards, who was the world championship MVP. There's a huge group that's going to be coming in over the next two years.

And that's probably what we're looking at in terms of expansion. I don't know if they'll do two teams this year because of that, the talent coming in, but there's definitely globally enough women's hockey talent to expand this league quickly and still keep that level of play high and some parity across the board. Well, I've already said that the National Hockey League has done a bad job of promoting its players. I mean, Lord knows I'm tired of seeing Cindy Cross me on my television. Like they've been doing that for 20 years.

Like how can the women's hockey league, how can the PWHL learn from the missteps of the NHL? I would say that they should not follow the NHL in pretty much any way. That's my personal opinion. I think that, you know, avoiding watching what the NHL does and then doing the opposite might be better.

But they have, the good thing about this league is they have an incredible amount of intelligent, big personality people. I mean, we're not talking about uneducated women here. This is a league of people with master's degrees, doctorate degrees. They are all university students that have come out of there. They're really well-spoken, articulate people. They're fun. I mean if you look at their social media platforms they are actual people. It's not that kind of, you know, the NHL,

I find that a lot of players get programmed to be these little robots and give you the same six word answer every single time, like pucks deep, you know, all that stuff. All the cliches are there, but when you talk to these players in this league, you're getting really thoughtful, insightful answers. And I think that the marketability for that, uh, to let fans see the players

in this league as people, not just as hockey players, which is what a lot of research shows us that, uh, fans want to know those players better. Um, so I think this league has a huge leg up on the NHL, uh, in that regard for sure. And I think they're going to embrace that and really lean into it. Sure. The players actually promote themselves? Like players like Sarah Nurse have done an excellent job of promoting themselves. If you look on, you know, if you go on Instagram and you type in whoever, Emma Malte, Callie Flanagan, I mean you're gonna,

these might be players that some people don't know but you're gonna see them doing fun things and you're gonna see them engaging with fans They're in the community all the time Brands are really latching on we saw Sarah Philly. I just signed a exclusive deal with upper deck the other day to put out unique merchandise and and specific cards for her and We're seeing these partnerships coming more and more the market again is is there and the brands also see the big personality of these players, the relatability of the players.

There's a huge market that's being filled right now that was empty before and it's a really exciting time not just for the players but for businesses and brands and hockey in general. You mentioned the incoming class of talent and how the influx could really help the league, but right now the rookie class has been doing really good as well. You mentioned Sarah Fillier and what she's been doing in New York, Dominique Petri in Minnesota. Just wanted to get your thoughts on how great the incoming class has been this season.

Spectacular. I mean, Fillier has just blown the roof right off the league. She's pretty much doing it all right now. And I think that's just a testament to the fact about women's hockey is that there's as much talent, high end talent outside of this league still as there is inside the league. I mean, you look at the USA's national team and there's like 10 players that are still in the NCAA and every single one of them could step in and make an immediate impact like Abby Murphy who if she declares this year will be undoubtedly the first overall pick but the league is filled with great players that have just come in whether it's veteran Europeans like Ronja

Salva-Lyon or Daniella Pejsova along with those domestic players whether it's Hannah Bilka, Kayla Barnes, Danielle Serdacni, who was the second overall pick just behind Fillier. Big body, really intelligent, scored the golden goal for Canada this year. I mean, the league is continuing to get better. And anyone that watched last year and is just tuning in this year, it's really clear that there is no gap now. Fourth line to first line is pretty level across the board. There's good players up and down lineups,

and we're seeing really excellent professional hockey players that aren't able to stick on rosters right now in year two, and that's just impressive. You mentioned last year, and we know Minnesota won the championship. The way through early predictions here, what do you have? I look at someone like Toronto and I see the depth that they have up front. Once they start to click, I think they're going to be a really difficult team to deal with.

They've got basically two lines of senior national team players. Minnesota keeps finding a way to do it early on but there's some dark horses. I mean Ottawa last year was probably a team that had more bad luck than anybody could have at all predicted. And it overworked Ole. Absolutely, a hundred percent. I mean you can't play one goal center the entire season. I think that she got a game and a half off or a game in a period That's it But I'm it's anybody and I think that's the really interesting part about this league is

Minnesota last year came into the playoffs on a horrific slump wins it all This year, it's it could be the same thing. The parody is Right there night in night out where? Whoever was last place last year could consistently beat the first place team this year. So it's really exciting. It's like every fan base doesn't have to go through that. This is our year gig.

It really could be any team's year. Probably right now for the next three or four years, we're going to see that parody. He wrote the book Ice in the Veins, Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck and he writes for the hockey news. He covers women's hockey. He is Ian Kennedy and thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me guys. Dugats here right now my friends over at Simply Safe are extending their massive Black Friday deal for our Leviton show listeners. Simply Safe is the home security I trust to keep my home and family safe.

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bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.co slash bball. All right, it's time for our Panthers update because that's the team we cover. Yes, it is. So if you got any complaints about that, you can kiss my ass. All right. Or you could pay us to cover another team, I guess I guess the relocation would be a little pricey Yeah, yeah, you can't afford me the Florida Panthers

Apparently are slated to host an outdoor game at Lone Depot Park next season yeah, and I'm kind of excited. We're going we're gonna go And I'm kind of excited. We're going to go to outdoor games. We're going to outdoor games. I mean, I don't know if it's going to be outdoor as, well, the roof is going to be open. It's going to depend on how the weather is when we get there.

But this is cool, man. We've been talking about this for a while. I don't know if I ever actually believed that it was going to happen. So I don't think I've actually kind of processed in my brain that it's happening in South Florida. We're going to go, we're going to see the, the Panthersthers going to be the center of the NHL universe for a little while. Whether we don't know yet whether it's going to be a winter classic game.

We don't know if it's going to be we know it's not going to be stadium series. That's what we've been told. I mean, that's later in the season. So I'm not sure, but it's happening. That's what's really cool about it. I'm curious who the Panthers are going to play. I've heard a couple of teams thrown out, but nothing for sure yet. I'm curious who the Panthers are gonna play. I've heard a couple teams thrown out but nothing for sure yet I'm pumped dude. This would be awesome. Yeah, that's gonna be great

I thought I was gonna be tab but they listen Gary Bittman like we've had definite Criticism criticisms about your tenure, but yeah our goal our new goal. It was our old goal was the Stanley Cup We got there this one. We will have to skate on that ice Our old goal was the Stanley Cup. We got there. This one, we will have to skate on that ice. Holy shit. Okay, all right. Okay, we'll see, we'll see.

We will see. We will see. All right, so the Panthers faced the Seattle Kraken earlier this week. They wanted a shootout. And before the game happened, Josh Mahura and Brandon Montour received their rings finally. Yes, well deserved.

Obviously, we missed the hurdog. And Montour was amazing. A fun game, maybe great for Joey DeCord, stood on his head for Seattle. And then the Panthers put some fireworks up in the shootout. The Panthers only needed basically Alexander Barkov, Sam Reinhardt and Sergey Barazski. Barkov turned DeCord, he gave him a brain pretzel on that one. Reinhardt, he had no chance of stopping Reinhardt after that happened to Barkov. He might as well just go into the locker room. Yeah, it's one of

the best backhands in the league. Barkov has a ridiculous, I mean we've seen it for years how good he is on the shootout, but right here when he made that little fake move and you freeze the goalie mid shootout, that's that's that game over. As a goaltender, it's it's the worst and he had no chance here on the Reinhardt shot. And the Panthers defense has been very good. They were very good in this game, but last night in Vancouver, they lost four nothing. And the defense kind of stifled them as far as shots are concerned,

but the rush defense was not good. And that's basically how the Canucks scored their goals. Yeah, hopefully it's a one-off, as Paul Maurice said after the game. We'll find out in their next game in Calgary. But yeah, very unlike the Panthers to see them giving up that many rush opportunities. JT Miller returned from injury after a month and got two assists and the first star good for him and the fans absolutely loved it. The Panthers will face the Flames tomorrow. Ryan Longberg will get his ring and

we are done for this week. We'll see you next week for the end of the year, the last episode of the year. See you then. Okay, goodbye. Howdy folks, it's Mike and guess what? It's Miller time. The holiday season brings around lots of joy and also lots of family, lots of family gatherings at your home. You're inviting people in there. You want to make sure they're happy. Why don't you make their time at your place a Miller time? Pass around that beautiful white can of Triple Hop's Brewed Miller Lite and watch the smiles adorn those faces. Make Miller Lite the official drink, the official beverage of your holiday get together.

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