The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Hockey Show: 'Hey F***ers, Listen Up'

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Hockey is finally back as the NHL kicked off its regular season this week ns Roy and David are here to celebrate the start of the season. They kick the show off with some hot takes from the first few days of games, as well as winners and losers of the first week. Then, Shayna Goldman of The Athletic and the Too Many Men podcast joins the show to discuss The Athletic's predictions for the season, how she sees things shaking out in the Metro Division and the Seattle Kraken's historic hiring of Jessica Campbell. Plus, the boys recap the first two games of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers season, discuss the Carter Verhaeghe contract extension and share their concern about Aleksander Barkov's injury. Also, Roy finally saw the Stanley Cup! AND SO DID PRINCESS CLAIRE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. and Cajun hot nuts with seven grams of protein per serving. More than any other nut. Hampton Farm In-Shell Peanuts are 100% USA grown and a great snack for game day. Find us in the produce section of your local grocery store or online at hamptonfarms.com. Get nutty with Hampton Farm's Peanuts. The official snack nut of the tailgate. Hello, welcome to The Hockey Show.

My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork is to my left. He writes for The Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork is to my left. He writes for The Hockey News, the Florida Panthers started the season a little bit bittersweet because they got the rings. They did. They raised the banner. They did. And they won the first game.

They did. Against the Boston Bruins. It was nice. But they went to Ottawa and lost their first line center. That sucked. Yeah, that sucked. We'll get into that in depth a little bit later. But we're going to start with a couple of slap shots here.

These are hot takes. And we're going to try this out for a little bit, see how it works. We're trying something different. We're going to listen to Rose for a change. Yeah, this is a Rose idea. So if it doesn't work, blame Ethan. Because Ethan's here. Ethan's in Rose's seat this week.

Ethan's in Rose's seat this week. Ethan's in Rose's seat this week. So yeah, that's the situation. Ethan already broke his laptop this morning, so he's already having a rough time. Wasn't my idea. Yes, it wasn't. But you're Rose. Yeah, but right now you're Rose.

You're in the chair. OK, so I take the fault for Rose's ideas. That's right. The backup quarterback goes into the game and throws an interception. He's going to get it. That's the backup quarterback's fault. Yeah.

No, but you're wearing the helmet. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I mean, yeah, maybe you're the kicker. I don't know. But anyway stop shots Hey, how you doing? All right, so in Tuesday's home opener for the Florida Panthers We saw a bit of a situation that led to Max Jones slashing an official Yeah, it was by accident and You still you can't do that. You can't do that. can't do can't touch the referees absolutely can't do that. Yeah here it comes Blame him. I don't know what rod you rod was doing I mean obviously he's trying to piss him off and that was probably the best case scenario

No, it's flat to the linesman obviously, but I mean that's a rod readers is probably thinking this is exactly what I wanted to happen Yeah, that's oh god. that's such a bad look. TJ Luxmore was the referee that was closest to the play and ended up giving the unsportsmanlike penalty to Max Jones. He figured it was incidental contact. I mean, be in control of your stick, dude. That's suspendable. He needs to be suspended for that.

He didn't get all the... Intent doesn't matter. You gotta set an example. You gotta say you cannot accidentally intentionally you've got to be aware you cannot Because we're lucky though that the linesman didn't get hurt. Seriously really got a hard slash to a part of his arm That's not padded. They got padding there any discipline for that outside of the only two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct That's it. Nothing from the league. No, we would have heard about it by now. Oh my good god. How does he get away with that? This was just a prime example of what the last two years of Boston and Florida has been, which is Boston trying to bait Florida into being dirty, into playing rough. Florida just playing their

game going on and kicking their ass and winning the game 6-4. I mean, it was the perfect example where Eadrod just kind of baited them They slash an official they go on the power play They didn't end up scoring on the power play but still it just this has been the story of Florida and Boston for two years Now am I wrong? Yeah, and we're gonna get into that later because Boston They did not keep their cool in this game. No, they didn't not whatsoever David your slap shot I feed me a one-timer. I'm gonna take my slap shot. There you go My hot take my slap shot is a Lexus Lafreniere on the New York Rangers. I think he scores 40 goals this year

I think he might actually score 50 goals this year. Oh, wow I think we a big year in coming for a Lexus Lafreniere We saw a lot of that during the playoffs last year his confidence grew by leaps and bounds He's starting the year playing well with the Rangers. Obviously, he's gonna get a lot of that during the playoffs last year, his confidence grew by leaps and bounds. He's starting the year playing well with the Rangers, obviously he's gonna get a lot of ice time, he's gonna get power play time. I think this is gonna be his breakout season. Look out for Alexis Lafreniere.

The fact that he did against the Penguins is even better. And that's gonna be, I'm gonna bring that up in a little bit. But now let's go to the wins of the week, at least for opening day. Our wins. Our wins. Yeah, we have W's alright So I'm gonna start with the canadians Defending the Maple Leafs first game of the season one

Nothing on the back of Sam Montalvo. I mean I got some stats here and This is interesting because he had 47 saves. All right, that is an NHL record For most saves in an opening shutout, opening day shutout. Most saves in a season opening shutout. Yeah, look at that, he was pumped too. Good for him, good for Sam. Yeah, good for him. It's the most saves in a shutout versus the Maple Leafs

in the Canadian's head-to-head history against the team. And that is a very, very long time. And the Maple Leafs were shut out for the first time since November 20th, 2021. And that doesn't make any sense to me, but that's what the stat said. Was it Cole Coughfield that scored that goal for them? Yes.

Wearing the number 13 for the first time? Yes. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. And the Blue Jackets played at the Wild. They had their moment of silence. And their home opener is against the Panthers. Tuesday.

Oh boy. That's gonna be emotional and wow. Oh man. I'm telling you, once they do that in Columbus, Columbus might win like six to two in that game they're gonna be it's gonna be an emotional night they're gonna carry that one with them for probably the entire series so there's gonna be a lot of you know a lot of emotions that night there's gonna be I mean in the stands I'm just kind of

like play it out in my head and the results of the game really it's kind of secondary right yeah yeah like not dry eye in the house. Let's go to your W of the week. Perfect segue. My W of the week is to my brethren in the goalie union, just all of you, congratulations. I feel like it is becoming our time. Our time is if I'm gonna benefit from it.

You got pads. We got Jeremy Swamen getting his contract. He's getting 8.2 million. And Lena Solmark, doesn't get the same term obviously, he's a little bit older, but Lena Solmark gets the same 8.25 million from Ottawa. And then he got Igor Shosturkin, supposedly turning down an $88 million offer, what would have been the richest goalie contract ever handed out. He passes, he's like, nope, no, I'm going to hold out.

I think it's awesome. We obviously know why he's holding out. I mean, he's waiting for that cap to go up. Yeah, well, dude, right now the power is in the goalie's hands, and I love that. Look, you could argue, but you can't win without a good goalie, you can't get through the playoffs without a hot goaltender, and Igor Shosturkin

is probably the best goalie on the planet right now, so the fact that he's turning down the most lucrative offer ever offered to a goaltender probably, definitely, surely going to get a even bigger offer. So I'm just, that's my win. Good job on you goalies. Our time has come and just don't forget the little people. So just touching on Shastrkin, I was listening to the 32 thoughts this morning and they were talking about the situation, you know, Freage and Kyle Bacoskas. And basically he was saying that about the situation, you know, Freage and Kyle Bacoskas, and basically he was saying that

the Rangers kind of don't seem inclined to make Shusterkin the highest paid player on the team, even though Shusterkin wants to be the highest paid player on the team. He's probably the best player on the team, right, especially with Panarin on the wrong side of 30. I just am curious, like, with the cap situation going up, right, so they said that Panarin's number is 11, six, four, doesn't that mean Shisterkin would want something like 12, 12 and a half, plus the fact that he said he wants to reset the goalie market? With Bob making 10, 11 wouldn't really be a reset of the goalie market entirely.

12 would though. And Bob's soundtrack was handed out, what, five years ago, six years ago now, 2019. So absolutely, I think Igor's probably going to get 12, 13, is probably in the area of what he wants. Maybe he wants a bigger number, who knows. Yeah, 2019 numbers is definitely not gonna be 2025 numbers, yeah.

He can do that though. He has been one of the most consistent goalies in the world for a long time. Before he arrived in the NHL, he was tearing up the KHL with SKA. He has been consistently good. Like, the track record is there So I yeah, I got no problem with this and I know you're congratulating Swainman

But if he had waited one more night And saw that corpus solo performance And saw what old mark that old market 8 to 5. I think was the next day like Swainman could have cashed in a lot more if he had just waited a little bit Well, he's young enough, he's gonna have to wait until that next contract, and once that happens. It is the goal, his next contract. He's signed for eight years.

Well, who knows? He'll get the veteran minimum, who knows? Swainman making 8.25 million, if he continues on this path in two or three years, that's gonna seem like such a bargain. All these contracts. It's gonna seem like a Panthers contract. All these contracts are gonna seem like such a bargain

because the cap is expected to go up so much in the last few years. It's about time because... And there's no restructuring in hockey, right? Like they can't in a few years guys be like, pay me $13 million because that's market value now. Like this is what they're stuck with. No, I mean compared to all the other sports... Well, like NFL, every other year there's a play like restructuring Ty Retails contract. I mean it's not just that, the players are just underpaid compared to all the other sports.

Well, yeah. And the other day, I know we don't have this sound, but Paul Maurice said at Panthers practice the other day when he was talking about Carter Verheide's contract, he's like, I know hockey players and hockey coaches are overpaid and let's start with that. And I'm like, maybe compared to like Joe Schmo, but in the hierarchy of professional athletes, they are severely underpaid. Yeah, I want to talk about the long-term contracts for the Panthers later in the show because they got basically everybody they need locked up and build around them. Bill Zito's the man. But I know you want to get to, we got our fails coming up and I know you're excited to talk about your fail of the week.

So let's clear the path Okay, let's stretch. Let's get nice and ready here. So Roy Drum roll. What is your fail of the week? So long me, please All right, so smiling the the Pittsburgh Penguins Big guy curb stomp What about the Pittsburgh Penguins? They got curbs stomped. Six-nothing. By the aforementioned New York Rangers. Yeah, so Vincent Trotrak had two goals.

Alexis Lafreniere. That was a shorty, I believe, that Breiter goal right there. Yeah. Alexis Lafreniere, a goal and two assists. Timmy Penneran, three assists. Cindy Crosby, minus one, two penalty minutes. No points? Oh, I guess not. No two pill in a minute. No points? Oh, I guess not, because they got shanked.

No, they got shut out. No points? Solo on me again, please. Yes. That was my big L of the league, the penguins, failing. That's it, that's all, that's all I have to say, thank you. Dave? He's got me, there's like a movie out right now

about people who are like, when they smile at you, you're cursed And you like get killed in a gruesome way. I think it's called smile. That's what I'm when I see Roy I I'm oh my god somebody's gonna die. Yeah, that's the penguins franchise at the moment. They are dying Dying nicely done. Yes Mike Sullivan possibly losing this job a little bit later because I got to talk about Mike Sullivan possibly losing his job a little bit later because Shana Goldman from the athletic is going to join us in a little bit, but Dave, what's your what's your L? That's a nice tease. Hey, thank you. My L is another big opening night loss

This one is the Edmonton Oil or as I get the L into their Edmonton oil So much hype about the Oilers this year and rightly so like a lot of people have them picked as their Western Conference Champion, maybe winning the Stanley Cup this year. And they went out and they, what was the word you used? Curb stomped? Curb stomped. They got spanked on their home ice. American history X.

Which we know that building must have been going nuts. That building must have been so rocking. And Winnipeg goes out and just puts the pank pank on the Oilers. Look at that guy, he was probably at the final two. Yeah, six nothing. So I'm not saying the oilers are going down the the penguins behalf at all But just kind of one of those oh Situations there in Edmonton. I'm sorry. Did you say the words pink pink?

Yeah, I think I did is that am I not allowed to say that I'd never heard that before Ethan. Have you heard that? I haven't heard that before, but I just want to say, the Oilers, it has to feel like deja vu all over again, right, with the way they started last year. Yeah, it's not a Coast Cap fight. Coming off a cup final loss in game seven, they're as close as you could possibly get. Everybody's staying in the cup final champion pick, apparently.

That was a bad start. Like that, it can't get any worse than getting shut out on your home ice when you have the most high-flying offense in the league. That has to feel like what do we have to do to get off to a good start? And I know it's one game, but opening night, you always wanna come out and look hot,

look fresh the way the Panthers did, the way the Rangers did. That has to be a deflating loss for the Oilers. I predict that the Oilers will be really, really, really good looking after they go 0-3. It reminded me of the 2007 Miami Heat because they won the championship. The home opener, they played the Chicago Bulls. I was in the building for that one. They lost by 40 They got killed that night. Didn't they win like 15 games that year though? The Oilers are not gonna do that Sean Barry in that year, Dwayne Wade got hurt. Yeah, that was like the Kassib Powell and trying to remember some of those

I interned with the Heat that year. That was like my break into the industry Yeah, and that was a great, great, great season to start working in pro sports. I remember because I was in the building and during the fourth quarter we left early to go to Bubble Gum Shrimp at Bayside. Nice. Yeah.

We'd been there in a little while. Yeah, we got solicited by a stripper who was passing out flyers for a strip club. And my friend Tommy, he said he said no I don't want that she threw the pamphlet at him like like like like like one of those playing cards like just threw the pamphlet at him. A disgruntled stripper. Yeah yeah she was not happy with that. Maybe she was upset about the Heekins. I mean she was probably upset by not being in the building but yeah she would have been

even more upset if she was. Well I imagine a big heat win, you know, leads to a bit more lucrative night in that, you know, in that region of the employment in Miami, in the clubs, in the strip clubs and everything. So the Panthers. Yeah, all I know is I enjoyed the, the peel and eat shrimp. Somebody said Ethan's here, get them back on track.

All right, we will get back on track. So before we go to Shana, get back on track. So before we go to Shayna, we had a meeting of the minds with a guy named Stanley. Finally. Finally. On Tuesday, David and I, we had a little meet and greet with Stanley. The media did as well. And we were in the Sawgrass Room at the Amherst Bank Arena. And look at that guy. Just looking all shiny and beautiful and I'm not talking about David. I'm talking about the Stanley Cup Yeah, that that that was great because for me personally I've been chasing that trophy down all summer all summer I wouldn't my chance to celebrate with that trophy just like everybody else did for no apparent reason

I was the only one and maybe Chris Cody who did not get to celebrate with that trophy and I finally got to do it. It happened. It happened. It finally happened and so did our families. Yes which was really cool too. Yeah that was really cool because on Wednesday uh well your family actually did it earlier didn't it? Yeah well it was when the Panthers did their Fan Fest training camping they on Wednesday, well your family actually did it earlier. Yeah, well it was when the Panthers did their FanFest training camp thing, they surprised everybody and the Cubs showed up and I was there to cover practice,

my family was there to watch practices and all that. You were gonna come, we had been talking about it, so as soon as they said, oh we're gonna go do the, I'm texting them, I'm like Roy, where are you? You gotta get here right now, it's the Cup. Yeah, I was in South Miami. Oh my God, dude. I was so far away.

My heart dropped. So thank goodness that it came around again. It came around again. You had a chance to see it. I know Claire had a chance to see it, which is so cool. That happened on Wednesday. Aneed, my wife, and Claire, my daughter, apparently the Stanley Cup was in Miramar,

and they were able to see it. And that one, that really, really. Thanks, Milton. Yeah, it took a hurricane to do that, unfortunately. An act of God. Yeah, but we're thinking of everybody right now who's affected by the hurricane. So hopefully you guys get back on your feet,

Claire and Nied. The fact that they were able to share a time with the Stanley Cup, something that's been my passion for the past 32 2 33 years because I was I was a sabers and blackhawks fan before that yeah a bit dominatoshi fan Yeah, uh, thank you. I was following his entire career Yeah, the fact that they were able to share that moment with the Stanley Cup really filled my heart with joy 100%. And that that was awesome. So I'm hopefully when I show

Claire the picture when she's older, and she's fully appreciated that, that that'll be a great story to tell. Well, it's like you said to me the other day, when you're when you're talking about Claire and seeing the Cup, and it's this next generation of fans that are now being introduced to this amazing, just a great team, the Stanley Cup has been around town, it's just a totally unique time to be a Panther fan.

And to have our kids, which is just crazy to even think about, our kids, the Panthers or Stanley Cup, this is all mind blowing. They only know winning hockey down here here I saw a kid at the game the other night and I'm like you have no idea you know well that's the thing like that kid is us as dolphin fans in the late 80s early 90s like they didn't get a Super Bowl but they were there a whole bunch of ASE championship appearances they were so hopefully these kids don't feel

the heartbreak that we've been feeling in our football fandom for the last 30-odd, some odd years, but yeah, I didn't mean to take that in such a dark place, but stop hurting me, dolphins. Please, please. Oh man, yeah, that was amazing. And the fact that, I mean, this Stanley Cup has been in this state because both teams have been the Stanley Cup final for

Five consecutive years the the road to the Stanley Cup has come through, Florida It doesn't always stop in Florida what three times in five years. Yeah Well, yeah, but they brought it back to Tampa eventually. Yeah, on a boat, I'm sure. But either way, state of hockey. The state of hockey is Florida. All right, coming up next, we are going to talk to Shana Goldman from The Athletic and the Too Many Men podcast. I cannot wait because she is an encyclopedia of hockey knowledge and can't wait to hear

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The official snack nut of the tailgate. The Athletic has released its predictions for the 2024-25 NHL season. We have Shana Goldman from The Athletic and from Too Many Men. Oh, that's a beautiful podcast man I'll tell you right there. That's a great podcast. I'm a big fan as well So we're gonna start with the Florida Panthers considering that they won the Stanley Cup

On the on the prediction side You guys have them at a hundred and four point seven points. That's ranked fifth in the league I'm gonna round that up to 105. Thank you very much ranked fifth in the league. I'm gonna round that up to 105. Thank you very much. Nice job. 92% chance of making the playoffs. That's also ranked fifth in the league. 8% chance of winning the president's trophy. 29% chance of winning the division. 17% chance of winning the conference. And 9% chance for repeating as Stanley Cup champions. That's also fifth in the league. You want to explain how you came up with that tabulation though, Shayna? No. That's a Dom problem. Dom builds the model and he does

all the projections for this. And our job is to make them make sense, contextualize them and to pick them apart if we see something that maybe doesn't add up a little bit. But a lot of the data, it's based on three years worth of data for skaters and for goalies, it's five years worth of data. It's weighed for recency and adjusted for age. So that's why some players look the way that they do in the preview. So you'll see guys like Boquist,

they don't great out very well in each minute. And it's because of what they did in recent years. We can try to understand what they're gonna do in Florida and assume, you know, Nate Schmidt is gonna be sheltered a lot, and that's gonna work well for him, and we know that worked for him last year, and account for that, but you know,

a model does its job, and then we do everything around it. It's always funny to me, because everyone always looks at the number, and they're like, that's it, that's the bottom line, and it's like, wait, but there's more. Yeah, there is more, because we are not accounting for injury, and what happened last night to Alexander Barkov kind of affects those numbers

Yeah, just a little bit. Um, that's something that moving forward in the projections will be accounted for so everyday Dom updates them And he'll put in a player's injury the length of injury So with these preseason previews like we were trying to project for that. So say Drew Doughty, it's like if he misses X time, this is what it looks like. If it's longer. So all of that does get wrapped in there. But with the Panthers, you lose Barclough and that's going to throw everything off Kilter, which what works for them is their depth and they have a lot of center depth. So someone like Lindell we know can step up and play a bigger role if they need them to.

And you know, they have this versatility within their lineup that Sam Reinhart, like he's played center before, so has Evan Rodriguez. So you can have players shift into different roles. And I think that's a huge strength of the Panthers. And it's the reason we like them so much, right? They have all these options for line combinations that maybe we don't usually see that they have in their back pocket to help, you know, mitigate any injury loss. It's going to be very difficult to mitigate this one because he's that important of a player and he plays in all situations in the most important minutes. But they do have some really good talent to help keep everything afloat while they're missing key players. Just look at last year, what they did with that Montor and Eklat to open the

season. Shane, I wanted to ask you about the Calder prediction or whatever we're calling it. Yeah, predictions, right? Stomping over my first words of the interview here. I like Mitchkov. I'm very excited to see him this season whenever that ends up happening in Philly. But last night we saw Macklin Celebrini's NHL debut, kind of a funky goal, but still found the back of the net. I'm really excited about San Jose just in terms of the youth on that team. Do you agree that Mitchkov is perhaps the Calder leader in the clubhouse as we enter the season or are you more on the celebrini? Train, you know, I'm just curious what your thoughts are

Yeah, the Calder trophy is actually one of my least favorite to talk about and like analyze No, no, no, it's my least favorite to analyze because we don't have Like a guideline for it and it's kind of just based on like rookie vibes You look at like the Norris and we're saying like, okay, you need to play in in all situations you have to kill penalties you have to go up against top competition and play number one minutes Right for the call there We don't have that every year like well this guy does this and this guy does that and you're you know Comparing apples to oranges like the Bazaar versus the favorite conversation last year So it's gonna be interesting to see how it shakes out this year because you know someone like Lane Hudson might get his name in

The mix and he looks really good so far in a very short time in Montreal but now you're comparing a defenseman to forwards and you might be comparing his offense because it feels like a defenseman needs to score a lot to even get his name in the rookie race but um Mitch Croft for Celebrini I think is going to be a really fun race because you have a ton of skill there my pick going into the year is Celebrini because I think one he's the bigger name and that recognition is going to work in his favor too. I think that a lot of people can be biased when it comes to Russian players and nitpick their games in ways that maybe won't apply to someone else. We hear a lot of Russian players in the early years get, you know, beat up for their defense,

even though the Americans and the Canadians might have the same issues. But I think the fact that San Jose has so little going on outside that top line, we're going to be so drawn to seeing what Celebrini does in his minutes that I think it might get more attention versus Philly. When you have someone like Kinect who's going to be getting some attention as well. And I think already we just see with Celebrini that he's so comfortable at this level, you know, to pull off that that first goal, which was a pass attempt, right? A spin around a pass to try to do that at the NHL level in the middle of a game

is really gutsy, and it shows a comfort level to do that at this level already that I'm very excited to see what he looks like in game 60. Amen. Getting back to Alexander Barkov, he was the clear-cut favorite to win the Selkie Trophy. If he is out long-term, who takes the mantle now? Yeah, that's a really good question because it feels like, you know, we've been, not we,

but people have been lazy with their analysis. Yeah, we've been. Yeah, we've been lazy. No, no, no. I'm going to say like the voters of years past, they was like, okay, we know Jonathan Taves, we know Anzai Kopitar, we know Bergeron, let's just pick one of the three. And I know it's morphed into more of a two way award. And it's always interesting because guys like, you know, Adam Lowry was getting hype last year when he was just a great shutdown center. So it's nice to see it still can be judged that way.

But there are definitely other names that are going to emerge. Like if Jordan Stahl repeats what he did last year, maybe he gets a little more hype. Or if Seth Jarvis, very rare for a winger to get selkie hype. But if he can do what he did last year away from Stahl a little bit more, maybe that'll help him. Austin Matthews could gain a little bit of traction he's killing penalties he was very good defensively last year but i look at a guy like nico heesheer i've been waiting for him to get his moment and last year just didn't happen because of the injuries it's like here's a patrice berger on less field can anyone step up and barkoff ran away with it i i really wonder if he sure

could be the guy because he has all the two-way talents but he's just that good of a shutdown center and can go up against top competition with the Devils being better in general and having a little bit more I don't know injury lock, better coaching. I think it's gonna put him in a better position to succeed. We talk about the Devils and the Jack Adams award right now and the favorite is Sheldon Keith. He's going in, he's implementing a new system down there in New Jersey now, and leaving the Devils is Lindy Ruff, and the Buffalo Sabres are 0-3-0 right now. They have the two international games against...

It's pretty rough. Yeah, it's pretty bad in Buffalo right now. So why don't you talk about the Jack Adams candidates right now? All right. So I think new coaches get a lot of hype because it's easiest. It's more, you know, you have the more tangible results. They walk in the door and see what they do. I think some coaches get knocked when they have elite talent like Jared Bednar's never wanted. John Cooper generally isn't in the race because you look at the players that they have and go, it's not the coaching, it's everything else. And obviously it's a mix of both.

Someone like Keefe is going to get a lot of hype. I'll be interested to see what Craig Berube does if maybe Toronto has a better regular season and just looks like a bona fide contender that has a playoff shot. Maybe he'll get a little bit of hype. But I'm looking at guys like Turingney in Utah, sorry, like Arizona is like floating in my brain. Utah, I think he was such a good coach last year and I think that they're going to be in the playoff mix, and that's going to get him a little bit more traction in the conversation. I think someone like Andrew Brunette,

he could have gotten a little bit more hype last year. So those are the guys for me I'm watching. And even just a full season of Chris Knobloch. If Chris Knobloch was there all year last year, he probably would have gotten a little bit more hype in the race, but since it was only a mid-season coaching change, someone like Tocket was already the winner before Nalbock even took the job because we saw how well Vancouver did out the gate.

So looking over the predictions, I see a lot in the Metro that jump out at me, which is I know in your backyard between let's see here, we've got Carolina's the biggest disappointment, got the Devils as a dark horse contender, got Mike Sullivan as one of the first coaches out. I'm really excited to see what the Metro has to offer this year. Obviously, the Rangers are super high. Pittsburgh, I know Roy is very excited to see their demise potentially. Washington, I think, could be a fun team to watch this year. Just kind of wanted to get your take on the Metro and what you're excited to see kind of play out this year. Yeah, there's a lot of good teams and it's really competitive. So I think that makes for a more exciting time.

Last year, we had the Flyers as the surprise team. And while I think they're going to be better than last year in some ways, because we're going to see more progression and development from their younger guys, I don't think they're going to be as much of a fixture in the playoff conversation. For me, I'm watching a team like the Devils. Can they rebound? Some people are chalking them up as like, yes, they're going to reach the Stanley Cup final. And some people have a ton of doubts. I feel like there's no in between with the takes on the Devils, can they rebound? Some people are chalking them up as like, yes, they're gonna reach the Stanley Cup final. And some people have a ton of doubts.

I feel like there's no in-between with the takes on the Devils. The Islanders are an interesting team because you wanna see what kind of full season of Patrick Wollock look like when he had such a great impact on their defense. And you saw what happened last night and the response goals back and forth, you know,

can they be better in the third period? Can they defend leads better? It's gonna be a really interesting question moving forward The Penguins and the Caps it's like the end of an era for two different franchises And it feels like the Capitals last year We were all counting out and we didn't account for Spencer Carberry and what he would do with a pretty diminished roster And you know, they got a lot of reinforcements So I feel like they're more of a team to watch, but it does feel like everyone around them

got better as well. And then Pittsburgh, like you said, like, what's gonna happen there? It's such a big question because everyone wants to see, well, not everyone, but a lot of people want to see Sidney Crosby go for it one more time. No, no, no, we don't. You know, listen, I love watching Sidney Crosby play.

I absolutely love it. He's still one of the best players in the world. There's no doubt about it. Do you want to see new teams get in the mix? I personally do. I think we've seen a lot of the Penguins for a long time that I don't mind us zoning in on a new fresher option out there. But I'm curious what he can do and I'm curious if the team could be a little bit better around him.

What's the impact of just changing an assistant coach? Something they really probably should have done last year when you saw how horrible their power play was, I don't know, week one of the season. It was like everything was screaming at them to make that move sooner. Did they wait too long and now everyone's a year older so you kind of screwed yourself? Like maybe. Well Pete Blackburn had the line of face-off, one of the lines of face-off on Amazon Prime. He said that the Capitals vomited into the playoffs. Oof.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. He's absolutely right. So real quick though, out of that division though, do you have three playoff teams? Do you have four or five playoff teams? What are you thinking? Okay, definitely, well, definitely three. Well, obviously, three would be the minimum. Yes. Okay, definitely. Well, definitely three. Well, obviously.

Three would be the minimum. Yes. Okay, let me think. Five would be the maximum. I'm gonna say the Rangers, the Canes, and the Devils, because I'm going to cheat and say, yeah, one, two, three, in. I'm gonna say the Islanders definitely make it.

Oh, wow. I like that. That's real metropolitan right there. Yeah, I bet on them last year to make it, and I think they're gonna do it again, especially if Siroken is healthy enough down the stretch. I feel like that's gonna be a good sign for them. Trying to think about the Atlantic.

I'm gonna say one Atlantic team gets in as a wild card. I'm gonna say it's gonna be four and four this year. That's, here we go. That's what I'm going with. It's cheating a little bit, but I'm gonna say the Penguins just miss out and it's going to be on goaltending. And I'm going to say the Capitals don't make it because everyone around them got better. So I'm going to say the Islanders are the team that sneaks in. It's going to be very tri-state area heavy

with the Carolina Hurricanes at the top. I like it. It's travel, easy travel though, which I think we can appreciate after last year. Yeah, just take the bus or the train. It's all good. Finally, a bit of history was made this week in the NHL with Jessica Campbell in Seattle becoming the first woman to be a NHL assistant coach and Yeah, say that the Kraken are pretty much the most progressive team in the league. Why don't you go over what's going on in Seattle? Yeah, they are definitely progressive. They have they hired the best people for the job and And everyone wants to say, oh, it's a diversity hire and this and that. Like, no, this is the best person for the job.

There have been mediocre white men excelling, not excelling, just surviving in the NHL for oh, so long. So we don't need to be judging now that someone who looks a little bit different gets a job because we have watched a million men strike out and nobody has any questions about hiring them again. They it starts at the top. You know, you have Alexandra Mandrucki as the assistant GM and that's a brilliant mind in hockey right there.

And not only is she a woman, but she's a nerd. So you have two things that the hockey men hate all together and she's doing a great job there. But it trickles down the entire organization. And I think it's fantastic. And with Jessica Campbell, it's it's great to enjoy the hype of what she's doing and the historic moment But I love just when this is gonna be normal and when you look at I think was in the third period you saw her Drawing up a plane all the players huddled around her with the whiteboard

Yeah, you're still gonna go that that is what I want to see all the time like that to me was the most normal moment Of the game that we can all just focus in on and just go, wow. Now, when that starts happening on the regular, that's the day I'm personally pumped for, but it's a great start. Yeah, no more Mike Babcock's of the world getting jobs for their fourth time. We don't need to manifest that ever.

Anytime there's a coaching opening, we hear all the insiders saying his name. Don't even speak it into existence. There are other people out there besides Quenville and Babcock and the Bowmans of the world. Like, we can get a little creative. There are not only 35 men to choose from. Yeah, no more Bill Peters. Exactly. Amen to that. Shana Goldman from The Athletic and Toon Mayman. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Shana. Hey, it's Mike. I'm talking to you from the road right now because I am literally traveling to

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Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, bonus bets expire 16 a quick Florida Panthers recap. Let's go over the week that was, and the week that was was, eh. Mick's bag, but now it's kind of like a vomit bag after the way the second game ended with Injury to a very important player. We'll get to in a minute. Yeah, I'm gonna treat this like a ma Rashad on inside stuff would

rewind oh, yeah The Florida Panthers got their rings and it was a Private ceremony because it was going to be public at Amherst Bank Arena The fans were going to celebrate with the team getting these rings, except there was a bit of a storm coming the state's way, unfortunately. So they had to move it private. They moved it to-

Look at that ring, man. Yeah, that's beautiful, man. They moved it to the Royal Memorial, to the practice facility, the building next to it. And it was nice. It was actually a nice building. It was the first time I actually been in the actual, like it looked like a place where you could have

a high school graduation, it looked nice. So everybody was at a table, everybody got the rings, it was in a box that had a damn video monitor on it. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Personalized boxes, everybody's name on it, it was fancy, man. Yeah, the's pretty cool. Personalized boxes, everybody's name on it. It's fancy, man. Yeah, the rings were beautiful, and the players were surprised when they opened that box.

They looked really, really nice. So nice, and well-deserved. I mean, we know that the last, what, 10, 20 years, whatever, that the championship rings have gotten bigger and bigger. Pretty ridiculous looking. Basically gonna be like a, what do they call them? They put four-finger things. Brass knuckles. They're gonna be like brass what do they call me to put it with four finger things

They're gonna be like brass knuckle rings at some point for sure, but I love the personalized touches I love that. There's palm trees in it. I love that. There's a rat in there They got a championship belt, which is pretty quirky, but it's important That's a WWE belt that they bestowed on that's a new thing that every sports champion in North America At least is again in a WWE Championship belt. That's a nice thing to do. Good job Paul Levesque for that idea. Good job by him.

I like that they had the word freedom in there. Freedom, yeah. Back to the parade, that was the thing that Paul Maurice screamed out to the players as he turned around and faced them with his bag to the crowd and yelled freedom like Mel Gibson on Braveheart I don't get the reference, but you know that's okay. Okay. Well there you go. Yeah, I blocked that guy out of yeah Yeah, I understand

Tuesday the Florida Panthers opened the season against the Boston Bruins they Raised the Stanley Cup banner. It was a beautiful banner If I do say so myself, it was pretty cool. It's a gold outline The actual banner is white and it says Stanley Cup champions on the top You got the Stanley Cup in the middle the logo a little bit below it. It's in the year. It's beautiful. It's perfect I love that it just hung above the ice for the entire game. Obviously, they're gonna move it yeah, it's gonna be between the conference championship banner and Roboto Longo's retirement number

I'm just like I think that's a great thing about this was and Paul Maurice references either the other day or after the game or Whatever that the ceremony was just Quick simple they brought out the cup The guys gathered around it barkie gave it a kiss as he handed it back to Phil Pritchard They put the banner in the sky and that was it and they went and played hockey And I just thought like Maurice said you know with everything going on He felt that was right and and I felt like that was perfect and and you know it would have been cool to have a bunch of fanfare and stuff but it was simple as quick it was easy and it was absolutely beautiful to see that banner hang in there. You know who appreciate who appreciated that short the media not in the media but the

Boston Bruins they were hanging around in their locker room for 15 minutes as opposed to what 20 or 25 which is how these things used to go like it was celebration time and the Panthers kept it quick and that was good on them but I'm sure the Bronies did not appreciate the ass-kicking that the Panthers gave them. Well nobody would blame it yourself you know I'm just saying. Yeah you should have signed Swainman earlier yeah yeah because he wouldn't have missed training camp if he would have been in that. He could have been in that. Fans wanted him in that.

They sure did. They were chanting, we want Swainman. That was awesome. That was awesome. That was the moment where I'm like, this fan base has arrived. Like, we're making fun of other fan bases now. Like, that is awesome.

Yeah, Adam Bulknerst got hit in the face with a puck. He left early. He did not play on Thursday in Ottawa. No, hopefully he's gonna play on Saturday. Yeah Yeah hopefully. But at least that means that he's close enough that it's nothing serious. Yeah hopefully. Following the game we were surprised as a group of media because Bill Zito came in with Cardiff-Raghey and announced the contract extension eight years. Eight years Cardiff-Raghey joins the Panthers core that's now signed long term Barkov, Kachuk,

Forsling, Reinhardt, Lundell, all these guys locked up through the end of the decade at very team friendly numbers which I know makes us all very excited. Yeah I want to go through this list here. Carter Verhege now has nine years left on his contract with his extension. Gustav Forsling was the guy that was signed before him. Actually was it before? No, no. Sam Reinhardt was the one that was signed before him. Actually, was it before? No, no, Sam Reinhardt was the one that was signed before him. Reinhardt was signed July, Forsling was earlier in the year. But it's all in this year. Yeah, it's all this year.

So both Forsling and Reinhardt have eight years left in their contracts. Alexander Barkov has six years left. Matthew Kachuck has six years left, and Anton Lindell, who was the guy that was signed before Gustav Forsling, has six years left on his contract. So those guys are all locked up and I think the Panthers are pretty well

in set to build the team around them. Yes, it's the numbers that they're locked up to that's kind of the big deal. Barkov's the biggest one at 10 million and look, Barkov, Kachuk, Reinhardt, these are all guys that should be getting that double digit number. But Kachuk's 9.5.5. Ryan Hart's 8.25

What I'll be Lundell's at 5 million Forsling Gus Forslings on 5.7 million for Gus Forslings for the next eight years Well, we're talking about they're making it up on the signing bonus though, right? Well, that's that's how Bill Zito Structures a lot of these contracts, which is very friendly to the players He structures it as like a 1 million dollar salary and the rest is all given as a signing bonus Which the players then receive as a lump sum. I don't know if it's the first day of the league year, or if it's like September 1st, but I know that they receive one big lump sum,

as opposed to a salary, which if there's a lockout, or if there's some kind of thing that stops play, a pandemic, that could impact when you're getting paid your salary, not your bonus. Your bonus money goes straight to you. So that's something that Bill Zito has structured a lot of these contracts to make it a bit more player friendly.

One defenseman locked up long term though. Well two if you count Kulikov. Kulikov's locked up through 2028. And I have to imagine that Ekblad, they're gonna pay him. I would assume. I know that he's an interesting trade candidate that they might open up some salary cap You know by moving on from Ekblad, but he seems like a guy that

Even if he doesn't get a big extension the way these other guys have he might take a cap-friendly deal for them To stick around because he wants to be here long term. I know that his plays decline He's the kind of guy that could be the odd man out, but it seems like everybody wants the same thing, which is him to be a Panther for life. Am I wrong on that? What's the sense in- I mean, when you say everybody,

everybody internally, yeah, like the team wants him there, he wants to be there, they're gonna have to come, you know, meet in the middle on a number. I don't know how high they're willing to go with Echblad. I think he's such a big part of the team on the inside and he's been around forever that you've gotta, and Bill Zito does right by his guys. It's what he does well.

It's why he's such a beloved general manager on the player side. But yeah, look, at the end of the day, it's a business. So are they going to be able, because they've also got Sam Bennett, who we haven't talked about, who's also going to be a agent this summer they're gonna need Sam Bennett Sam Bennett like he's such a crucial part of this lineup

like when when Sam Bennett is out of the lineup that Panther it changes a lot yeah well they're very deep down the middle the centers have so much drive and what Florida does that's why Barkov and Bennett and Lindell are so important to driving this team which is why I think the priority would be to Bennett over Eklblad. I was reading the athletic season preview for the Panthers the other day, and they were saying that, like,

Bennett's not an ideal 2C, but eventually the plan is for him to be a 3C, would it not be, and have Lundell kind of move up the ranks? I don't know if they look at it in terms of a hierarchy, I think, because Bennett right now is, like, a perfect fit on that Kachuk line whether it's for Haiti or Arreda's whoever they pop on there I mean they had Teresenko there for a little while like you know it doesn't really matter. If Lundell supersedes Bennett at some point or

overlaps him or whatever the word is then that would be awesome. I want to talk more about actually how they're going to deal with the replacement of Balkov in the short term because of his injury, but we're gonna do that because Thursday he got hurt. Yeah, thank you. They lost to Ottawa 3-1. Now, listen, don't let the score fool you because the Panthers were so close to scoring an old mark in that game after the first period.. I mean if you look at the coursey numbers, I mean look at the shot attempts here

49 I'm sorry 85 shot attempt 85 shot attempts. Yeah, they like 31 blocks or something, right? Yeah I mean, I'm looking at the Finwick right now to show the shot attempts without blocks. It was 52 So yeah, yeah, that was a lot of block shots in this game. Over 50 for the first two games of the Panthers it's a trend that we saw last year that I know you kind of tracked. Yeah. So it's good that they're getting putts to the net and that they're controlling the puck a lot and that's all good but they've just got to get to the results. 12 high danger chances in that game too. So yeah I mean mean, they put forth the effort. I mean, it was great. He was great. He was great. Absolutely great. High pressure in that game. But with

an empty net, Bob was pulled for the extra man and with Alexander Barkov in high slot, he had a chance to get a shot off in traffic, but his stick broke. Now, if I'm Alexander Barkov, I'm changing sticks. I'm changing stick companies. If I have Bauer, I'm switching to Warrior in this situation. I'm going to CCM because that one led to a troubling sequence of him trying to stop a empty net chance from happening with Tim Stootsla. And Stootsla ended up scoring.

But both men fell. Stootsla ended up landing on Alexander Barkov and both of them ended up scoring but both men fell Stucla ended up landing on Alexander Barkov and both of them ended up sliding sliding into the boards skates first with Barkov colliding and now we don't know what's going on. We don't have we don't even have what he what he injured yet So yeah Jameson. I just went to his Twitter to see Jameson Olive and He basically said that with no practice today, we won't know until at least tomorrow. Yeah, Friday's morning skate would be the first time that we hear from Maurice.

I did see somebody post a picture of Barkie walking, and I heard he was walking afterwards okay in the locker room, so. Oh yeah, that's good. That could be huge, no boot, no crutches. And that's a great thing. Without assistance, but that was scary, man. I mean, especially seeing Barkov,

it looked like he was crying for a second there. That really terrified me. Yeah, the head shake. It looked like he was saying, no, I can't put any weight on it. But again, in the moment, right? Like you don't know exactly, you don't wanna take any chances, so I get that.

You wanna get off the ice, get your state off, see what happens. That's why you don't wanna jump to any conclusions. You just, this is what we see. Barkov gets hurt, he doesn't wanna put any weight on it, he's hopped off the ice, Maurice doesn't know anything, they're evaluating him, fine. There's no jumping to conclusions.

We know if it is X, Y, and Z, what that will mean, but there's no point in assuming that's the case until you know anything. Remember the final last year, game two. Barkov took that hit from Dry Cytle and we were freaking the bleep out like yeah, Florida's up 2-0 in the series but Barkov. Yeah, we thought he had a concussion. We thought he was done for elite, who knows, if he's in the protocol.

A game or two probably, yeah. He was on the ice. There was no penalty on that, right? No, I don't think so. He was on the ice the next time they practiced. So, I'm not saying, we don't know, But let's just hope. And I know Rose is listening. Let's just hope and pray and whatever we need to do. That's a boy.

I'm good if he holds out for a few games. Let's just say that. I mean, it's early in the season. It's the second game of the season. Yeah. You don't need him in Buffalo. Buffalo. You just don't want something that requires surgery

or that requires an extended time to recover. We just don't know. just hopefully you know for Parkov and the Panthers sake it's nothing long term. Tomorrow they play the Buffalo Sabres uh not really much to talk about their Buffaloes 0-3 and 0 right now so Parkov can take that one off. Yeah you can take that one off so let's get into a moment of puck zen let's go back to last season during the Stanley Cup final we have a moment of Puck Zen. Let's go back to last season during the Stanley Cup final. We have a couple of videos and we're gonna need the sound for this one Ethan because we have Paul Maurice. We have two videos that came from Face Off inside the NHL from Amazon Prime. Yeah I mean it was a beauty. He is a beauty. I can tell you that right now. We came to the conclusion of, we found out, there was a still shot, right,

of everybody paying attention to Palmaris on the bench. The players, the staff, and the fans next to the bench. Everybody was just locked on. Yeah, we were trying to find out what exactly did he say, and he said this. You f**kers, pay attention! Nobody's f nobody's fucking thing you get a three one lead and now you want to make plays The plays pound their indeed so in game seven they got nothing left That ain't now that made me. Oh that would make me

Skate to the boards the production f****** and even Swamen, huh, like even the other goalie's looking up, I'm sorry, that's a... Yeah, that's an F-bomb. That's an F-bomb. I mean, you heard the video, Rose took out the audio of him saying the F-bombs. I guess in my head, I just give Paul Maurice the credit,

but sorry Ethan, I'll make you do a little extra work there. You just wanted to make my job harder, it's okay. Yeah, exactly. We have one more video and we have it in the locker room of Paul Maurice, who doesn't know anything about goaltending. He says he doesn't know anything about goaltending. I think we're going to have to call him out. Next time we go to a practice, we're going to have to say, Paul, you always tell us you don't know anything about goaltending. Talk to Tally, talk to Addie. This video, the evidence says otherwise.

I don't know, that's what it was. Yeah, I mean, no, hold on. Let me explain this one right quick before we do this, all right? So he's taken one of the goals. It was either store laws or it was store laws as Pats, okay? He took the block and he took the glove and he went through a little bit of visual aid

of what he wanted the Panthers to do when facing Stuart Skinner. He wanted them to shoot up high. and he went through a little bit of visual aid of what he wanted the Panthers to do when facing Stuart Skinner. He wanted them to shoot up high. Let's play the video. Oh, this is tough for an old man. All right, look it. You get in tight, he comes out like this at you.

So don't get in that tight on him. And the play is not here. Under the bar. Are you guys good here? Yeah. We're good good men we're a good team let's go and enjoy what we do yeah and they definitely enjoyed what they did that was good for man he was down in the butterfly he had the gloves out in front of like that was he he knows he knows more than he's letting on yeah

you're not fooling us anymore Paul that was the hockey show for this week for David Jork for Ethan whatever the f**k your last name is. For Rose Arias who's not here. Shana Goldman. For Jason and Gino in the back. We will see you next week. Okay goodbye. Hey it's Mike Ryan and there's so many great things about football. My favorite thing is the random occasional year or my team is good. That makes football a lot better than the normal experience. But one thing that routinely makes football better, Miller Lite. Yeah, Miller Lite. The perfect supplement to your football weekends.

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