The Hockey PDOcast - Breaking Down Four of Tuesday Night’s Games We Watched

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Steve Peters to go through our notes on four of the most interesting games we watched on Tuesday night. We break down what we saw from Devils vs. Maple Leafs, Panthers vs. Bruins, Blue Jackets vs. Stars, and Mammoth vs. Avalanche If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dmitra Filipovich and joining me, as always, seemingly, because we're doing this every week now. I just love having this man on to break games down. We watched the previous night. My good buddy, Steve Peters, PD, what's going on, man? I had just trying to get through all of these games again. And now I think, I know, Demetri, I get it. We're not even 10 games into the season. But I do start to think we're some trends now in some of these teams. And I think today's slate of games is a good example of that.

Some teams head in the right direction. Some teams maybe not. Yeah, there's some promising signs, some alarming ones. We're going to get into all then. There were 10 games on the NHL schedule Tuesday night. We picked four of them to break down here today. I unpack what we saw while watching them last night. I got up nice and early this morning to put in a couple of rewatches just to make sure I was on the right track here.

And let's start with devil's leaves. And I want to start off with this for the devils in particular. You mentioned the promising signs. I'm very fascinated to watch this home and home they have coming up starting Sunday, I believe, going into next week against the Colorado Avalanche, a team that we're going to talk about in one of the other games later on because I think it's going to be a fascinating test for the way they're playing right now. I think they're in the process of stacking together one strong showing after another right now.

They've won five in a row after starting the year with a loss in Carolina, which I'm not going to hold against them. They've outplayed one playoff team after another essentially, right? They beat Toronto most recently here, which we're going to talk about, 5-2 on the road. That adds them to a list that includes Edmonton previously, Florida, Tampa Bay. The Columbus game, to my eye, was really the only one where they probably didn't deserve to win, and Jake Allen kind of carry them early on against the Blue Jackets' offensive onslaught. but otherwise they've been the better team in all these games.

And so when you factor in quality of competition, the schedule, and the way they've been playing in these games beyond just the wins, I think it's a very encouraging stretch of games for the Devils here. I tell you what, this team is an exciting team to watch. I think this is what I expected out of the New Jersey Devils a season ago, especially heading into playoffs and then the injury of Jack Hughes really robbed us of the opportunity to see this team at their best. But you look at what they're doing right now offensively.

I mean, they're scoring four goals a game right now. They're second in the National Hockey League in goals four per game, and they're putting up big numbers against good teams. I mean, you look at Florida questionable if they're a great team right now, but we'll see this still, they've got 13 goals in the last three games against Florida, Edmonton, Toronto. I mean, that's good hockey teams. We're seeing a team that plays with pace.

We're seeing a team that has balanced scoring. I know Jack Hughes is leading the way, but this is a team that can hurt you a lot of different ways. It's an exciting team. And funny, you mentioned Jake Allen, because he's, One of the areas that I said, okay, this is going to be one of the areas that they're going to have a little bit of difficulties in is their ability to keep the puck out of the net. But they've given a part of two goals per game and three of their last four. This is a team that's doing everything right right now. Especially with Marks from out for a couple weeks and that just putting more of a workload on Jake Allen.

Now, Allen was awesome for them last year. It got that interesting contract from this offseason that kept the AAB down and gave them a bunch of term, which we rarely see. at that age, but he's looked awesome. Again, I mentioned that Columbus game earlier, and this one, you know, he wasn't tested that much early on necessarily, although some of the looks were pretty high-dangered ones, but that save he makes when they're up to preserving the lead, going left to right, kind of throwing the blocker out, doing a breakdance move along the way to put a little swag on it against Morgan Riley was phenomenal, and so he's been great for them.

I think what's encouraging is, I was kind of hinting at this, you go, across the board at pretty much every single area of the game. And it's not necessarily one of those things where there's just one thing that's carrying them and then a bunch of other vulnerabilities that you know are eventually going to pop up. At 5-on-5, they're top 10 in shot share and high-danger chance share on the power play. They're seventh in goals per hour generated on the PK. They're giving up the third fewest goals against.

The rush offense is looking much more reminiscent of the one we saw a couple years ago where they really burst onto the scene. third in scoring chances off the rush, fourth in goals created off the rush heading into last night, and then they put up at least eight or nine odd man rushes against the Leafs scored a pair of goals in transition as well. Now, we'll talk about this more in a second. This is a Leafs team that is in a tricky spot, I think,

in terms of the combination of personnel systems and kind of identity issues that they have in terms of the way they're playing, and they're 32nd in scoring chances given up off the rush, so they were definitely vulnerable there. But the devils took full advantage. I mean, they were pretty much getting every single thing they wanted to the point where one of those odd man rushes was, and I couldn't believe my eyes, a four-on-one,

where Luke Glenn Denning is setting up front of the podcast, Brendan Dillon, for a beautiful goal in transition. And I was like, man, when you got that going for you, it's really your night in this one particular area, and they were just cooking them time and time again. There were a couple others that fell just short, whether it was a pass that was just beyond an outstretched stick or a back check by the leaves that prevented an easy tap in

where Stollars was kind of swimming around because the East-West passing in transition was just so phenomenal for the Devils. And so it was a very prolific showing yet again and they've been doing this pretty much every night so far this year. Yeah, and kudos to New Jersey. I don't want to take anything away from what they're doing offensively and how well they move inside the blue line.

They're very active team. They're hard to defend against. There's no question about it, but you look at the other side of it. to me and you that the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like this is a team now that their second season under Barubi.

You want to see them tighten things up defensively. Like Cotter's first goal in the net front. Carlo and Matthews, poor change. Leaving Carter all alone in front of the net. Dillon, he's talking with that four on one. Where's McCabe going? Like that's a pee-wee read.

You look up and you see all of those sweaters from the opposing team. You don't go. You don't pinch. The drifting in the defensive on Jack Hughes on his goal, first goal of the second period. He gets through traffic again. We talk about movement.

Matthews, drifts, and the defensive's on coverage, drifts. And it's just one of those occasions where I don't know how well this Toronto team is defending in front of their goal tent. You've seen Stolars in the media talking about what it's like in the blue paint around him. And I tell you what, this Toronto team, they're going to score goals. Again, they've got the offense to put up numbers, but they've got to defend them. They've got to defend better. And you talk about the rush, but it's got to be their five and five as well. this team has to play better in front of their goal tender.

They certainly do. I mean, Jack Hughes has been on fire, and you mentioned the health, and, you know, he misses obviously a good chunk of games down the stretch last year, including their playoff series against the hurricanes. There's these recurring shoulder injuries, and so hopefully he can stay healthy

because you can just see the past couple of games now that he's firing on all cylinders. What a difference maker he is and kind of what a different brand he plays and pretty much anyone else out there in terms of all the dancing around with the puck. I mean, the hat trick is one thing, and he's got six goals in his past three games. Now he's firing the puck a ton so that upper body's clearly feeling good, 28 shot attempts in those three games.

But it's the playmaking as well, right? You mentioned that Cotter sequence where they're cycling the puck around the zone. Hughes works his way down to the goal line and then gets it back out front to Cotter, who's spun around. And there's honestly, in watching these games, I feel like Hughes is getting a lot of tension for the goals right now. He could probably have five or six more assists if his linemates just buried the opportunities that he's setting up for them. And that's a recurring bugaboo for him and a storyline or subplot on this podcast because I keep talking about how the connection between him and Brad is so elite. But that third member of that line is something that is a player that probably isn't or almost certainly isn't on this roster right now.

And that's a bit of a shame because it feels like that line should be automatic. offensively, but even with that drawback, what Brad and Hughes are doing, when you get them out there with that Luke Hughes, Brett Pesci pair, they're just kind of putting the clamps on you in the offensive zone in terms of the movement, the pressure, and eventually the dam's going to break, and it did in that second period with Jack Hughes finally scoring from the middle of the ice, and so it's just beautiful hockey to watch, and then you add the layer of the rush offense and that old school walk-in clapper that he scores on, it was all unfolded display in this one. Yeah, and the one thing to keep an eye on in this New Jersey Devil team is, and I see this year after year with teams that are playing well and good hockey teams and teams that go far in the playoffs is they're having fun playing hockey.

I mean, this is a group. Look at a smile on Jack Key's face almost every time he's on the ice. Like that is a guy that's dynamic. He's the leader in the face of this league. But they're playing fun. They're playing with pace. They're moving. That's a fun hockey game to watch.

I'll watch the New Jersey Devils play. And I don't say that about all 32 teams. some teams that get stuck in the mud. And this Jersey devil team is fun to watch. And I think if they can keep up this excitement and this pace, and I know what's hard to sustain that, it's hard to do that for 82 games. And you're going to have to look at teams like Carolina that try to play with that kind of a pace through 82.

And eventually you tire out. So we'll see what happens. They do have some injuries. And we'll see when Markstrom comes back. If this team can compete, they're one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference right now. They're one of the teams you have to look at for, hey, this team could come out of all of this mess and be one. one of the teams still standing when it gets to the Eastern Conference finals.

I do have one more thing to mention on this, though, Demetri, on this game. And I don't know if you're moving on. No, I got a couple of more. No, I got a couple of more. Yeah. Video guy perspective. I want to touch on one point in this game that I was concerned about. We talked about that goal from Jack Hughes through traffic in the movement, the front net coverage,

the Tanniv and Palat in front of the net. And then there's a goalie challenge. I'm not sure. I don't know how you saw this, but as a video guy, first of all, I didn't even see the contact. I didn't see anything that would say, okay, Stolars didn't have the ability to make this save. I didn't see the contact. And even if

that that Platt's in the blue paint, it's because Tama pushed them there. I didn't see the reason for this call and unfortunately it changes the momentum of the game. And I do think that you have to, you have to be careful when you make

these calls because Coda Glass scores on the power play on the challenge. So I am wondering where that call is. I am wondering where that call came from, if it came from Barubi himself, or it came from the video guys making that challenge. Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, obviously it's coming in light of the previous game

where there was a controversy about Anthony Stollars after the game talking about how he's not getting protected in front of his own net and all of that. And then so that comes, I'm with you. I certainly watching a live thought that it was going to be one that didn't go their way. Yeah, but I talked to, it's funny, we talked about this in the Stanley Cup finals last year when you took Bennett, it's crashing into the Evanton Oilers goal. and they challenged the goal that clearly,

I was the only where they stumbled on their feet and their feet got handled up and Bennett fell into Skinner. And the goal still stood and we're like, gosh, I'm not so sure it looked accidental. I called the video guy on that one in Edmonton. I said, what do you think? And he said, well, honestly, it was to protect our goalie. Like Skinner had been complaining about the contact for the entire series.

And we wanted to stand up for our goaltender saying that we're going to try do everything for him. So in that context, you might be right. and Stollar's comments to the media about being protected and about being run over and about the opponents getting into the blue paint, it might have just been a message from the coaching staff saying, hey, we're here and we're supporting it. It might have been. So it could have been just that simple. Unfortunately, they give up another goal on the power play that ensues after that.

Yeah, I got a couple more remote modes on this one, and then we can move on to Panthers Bruins. The first is just to put a bow on the Jack Hughes stuff and some of those offensive zone shifts where they were just kind of piling it on and putting the pressure on. are eventually breaking through. And, you know, they'd have the Luke Hughes pair out there as well. And you could obviously see the chemistry between the two. And I'm watching the Leafs broadcast on TSN and obviously love the combination of Gord Miller and Mike Johnson, two of the best in the business. And they have this really fun exchange where Gordon Miller is like, imagine having all three

Hughes brothers on the same team. And then there's this long pause. And Mike Johnson goes, I think some people are doing that right now. And so that one got me pretty good. Got a laugh out of me sitting at home watching. The other one is the Nico Hissier line, and I've been talking about this a lot with him and Dawson Mercer and Tim O'Myer and what they've been doing,

10-16-5-15 in this game. 95% expected goalshare, six and a half of those minutes came against the Matthews line. They didn't score themselves, but they had a couple really close calls off the rush, and they just continue to dominate. And so it's such a fun combination, I think, with what Hughes and Brad are doing,

and then sending those dogs out there and the way they're dominating right now, I think that makes a really impressive. And really, I think, like, complimentary one-two punch between the two. And then I guess do you have any other notes? You mentioned the Leafs. I mean, right now, they're three, three and one, 24 goals for, 25 goals against, goal differential.

So about as down the middle as you can be playing some pretty crazy firewagon hockey, in my opinion, which on the one hand, it's early in the regular season. It's October. They have a bunch of new personnel. I think it's fine. they've played pretty conservative offensively in the past couple years. And so I guess just seeing them attacking off the rush and their first and rush chances created is fun. The issue is that they're 30 second now in rush chances allowed and that only got worse on Tuesday night.

And they brought in a bunch of guys who theoretically are big and should be playing playoff brand hockey. But the issue is none of them are really that physical. And they're also slow. and so when you watch this and the broadcast was doing a really good job of pointing it out, they would dump the puck in or there'd be all these loose 50-50 pucks and they're just a step or two slow to it.

And so every time they try to go in on the forgic and kind of ground that devil's rush game a little bit and the devils would just make a pass out and all of a sudden be moving downhill in transition with numbers. And that was just to rinse and repeat in this game and that's been too common a theme, I think, for them in this first month of the season.

Yeah, this is a team that lost two. straight at home now during those two home losses. They're one for six on the power play, not good enough. And I know they're going to improve as they work together more. But this is a group that they should be better. I know Marner makes the big difference on the power play, but they still have a lot of weapons. And short-handed, you know, two for four, 50 percent penalty kill is not ideal right now

for a Toronto Maple Leaf team at home. And you talk about the goals against. And I'm going to harp on this for a while until they get it solved. Their 3.57 goals against per game, 27th in the league and goals against per game. It's not good enough. It's not good enough for a team that really is going to try to play that run and gun hockey. When you play with speed and pace, you're going to have to defend better because you're going to, you're going to give up opportunities in your end because you're trying to look for those offensive opportunities going the other way.

That's something they have to clean up. They just have to be better at protecting and defending the blue paint. And I don't know if that's just going to be through repetition, through video, or somebody finally gets to, has to sit and take a break because they're not defending in front of their net. But it's something that's wrong is going to have to clean up if they're going to make a run this year's playoffs. Well, and that's with Anthony Stollars playing really well. I mean, in this one, I know the devil's had that goal scoring onslaught in the second period that broke it open and tilted in their favor, but early on did at least four or five, like absolutely great A chances that Stollars

got across, including one short-handed from Brat to his year, I believe, and he's been playing really well. It's just, you know, you look up and down the lineup and the personnel, it seems like there's a bit of a mismatch right now in terms of the way they're playing and how those guys probably should be playing. I mean, you're not really getting any offense from essentially four of the six defensemen, the bottom two lines as well. The Matthews line, the top line, has come under fire. And I think deservedly so because you look and he's got four goals this season, but only one of them have come out five one to five. And this is a guy who a couple of years ago, like, had some of the best most sparkling five one five numbers across the league where the high danger

chances, expected goals were all just an absolute machine in the mid-60s. and now he's down a 41% high danger chances, 45% or 42% sorry, expected goals and that just needs to be better. They're looking for the right combinations. You could see that he had that play in tight in the second period where he goes between the legs to himself and nearly goes back in and that would have been an outrageous goal. Nealander has the play off the rush where he sells the shot, passes over to Machelli for about easy a tap-in as you're going to get.

Tavares is playing his old school bully ball hockey in front of the net. So the individual stuff is there, but then you put it all together in terms of how this team's been constructed and how they're playing right now. And there's just, I think, missing links in place. And so it's October. There's plenty of time to figure it out before the playoffs. But I definitely think they've got some soul searching to do in terms of what they're trying to accomplish here. You got anything else? I don't.

I don't. I do think there's plenty of time to recover. I like this Toronto team. I still think they're one of the teams that's going to compete for the Eastern Conference title. I really do. but when you watch them and how they're playing in their own and it's got to improve

and I know this team will score goals I still think they're missing Marner and I know that's not an excuse but the Micelli experiment he finally gets, Micelli finally gets his first goal but Micelli with Matthews just didn't seem to be

the miracle cure that they thought it was going to be to start the season. I think they're still going to be shuffling lines for a little bit to try and find that chemistry that they're hoping for and get that balance

throughout their four lines. All right let's move on a Panthers Bruins Brad Mershanes returned to Boston it was a very fitting game for him. I thought he was involved in pretty much every way. He plays 1937, winds up with the two primary assists.

The second one was a really beautiful one on a pass to Lusdreenen, which we can break down a little bit more if you want, draws a penalty early on, takes a penalty, has a good cry during the tribute. It was a very eventful night for him every step of the way, very on brand. And it was a pretty fun game between two teams that obviously aren't playing very good hockey right now, otherwise.

Yeah, I mean, And the story of this game was Brad Marchand. And right off the hopped, opening face off, he gets in a, you get a passing play to the front of the net, driving the net, and you go, okay, he's on tonight. But then he draws the penalty on the next shift. And I don't know. Like, I've watched it. I've watched that clip several times, but I'm not so sure he doesn't help that one a little bit. I don't know.

Brad Marchand might not play like that. What do? He wouldn't do that, Demetri. No way. No way. Especially in Boston. But I tell you what, he plays, he plays the same way. He plays with that emotion.

He plays hard. And I thought it was really telling. I'm sure there's a lot of pressure on this game coming back to Boston. And I'm sure he had to deal with fans, friends, people that worked on the building, you know, all of his friends back in Boston that they're on that team, he's even getting into the rink. And you saw that emotion just come out when they did the little tribute.

I don't know. We've seen those tribute videos over and over and over again, and you might get a stick tap in a little wave, but this was different. And I really think, I think that his emotions just started to flood out because it had been waiting. on him all week. And he started to show who he really was. And I think that's why they miss him

so much in Boston. I think that's why he's a great team. I think that that's why he's a guy you want to have on your team because he plays the right way. He plays hard and he does it every time over the board, it's trying to give your team an advantage to win. I thought he was outstanding in this game. And he is going to be a key trying to carry this Florida Panther team that is not the same Florida Panther team as they've been over the last few years. They don't have that magic. I'm sorry. I still think when Kachuk comes back, you know, in December or January, and I don't know, Barkov's out for the regular season. They haven't ruled them out for playoffs, though, right?

And so if you get Barkov back in the playoffs, I could check on the blast, maybe, but this is the first time that I don't look at them and go, okay, they're, they've got that it factor. They've got that dominating where they're smothering you and they're all over you, and they get this four to three win because they're dominating the Bruins and Swainman was great and just barely held on. It's not what happened. It's a very even game.

Two teams that are struggling for wins right now. And I don't see that same magic out of the Florida Panthers right now. Yeah. On the one hand, it's very impossible to evaluate them in terms of what it's going to look like without those two guys available. It is a bit of a projection with a lot of uncertainty, especially on the Barcaw one, in terms of him actually coming back and being something close to full health. I will note that there were large stretches if you go back to last regulars. season where they had games where they were playing like this for an extended period of time

where people were like, has the magic run out, has this team played too much hockey the past couple of years, it's really difficult to play with this motor nonstop with all the extra postseason games they banked the past couple years. And then you get to game one of the playoffs and you dial it up and it's an entirely different ball game and they showed what they did last year. So not saying that's going to happen again, but I just don't want to have, you know, short memory, I guess in terms of what we went through last year with this team. You're right. And I do think even going on the last stretch of the season,

the last 12 games of the season for Florida, they really struggled. They couldn't keep the puck out of their net. They couldn't regenerate any offense. Tampa Bay was rolling at that time. And I said Tampa Bay is going to win the series. Well, no, they didn't. And Florida turned it on and flipped the switch

and they became the Florida Panthers again. Can they do it again? Of course they can. But I do think it's going to be important that they get those guys healthy. And I do think Kachuk's got to be a guy that's in the line to provide Kachuk things. Barcov may not be there in the playoffs. Can they win without Barka? Yes, they can. They've got great goal ten. They defend as good as any team in the league. They have tight gaps to the neutral zone. They don't give their offensive opportunities and they're crashing at heart. So yes, they can do those things. I just think you look right now and right now through their game so far, they're 30th and goals for per game. And they're struggling to get those secondary scoring that they really are going to need to survive.

they will. I mean, they desperately needed this win. They had dropped four in a row on the road by a 15 to 4 margin and finally scored a couple goals here. Got some help with some positive regression along the way the courtesy of Antropique with one of the most inexplicable goals in the final 30 seconds of a tie game. You're going to see you had to rewatch that one a couple times and fortunately had time to do so because it was a play that was so outrageous

that it seemingly broke the scoreboard. And they had to go old school and just like use a timer to count down the final 30 seconds of that game after they resumed. But listen, they're going back for a four-game homestead now. And they're going to have to piece this together and kind of cobble it together and bank enough wins somehow just to hold on so that Kachuk can come back and then they can get into the playoffs because this is a team that last year and this is why I brought it up.

It was a different circumstance because they were healthier, but they were about as an extreme example as we've seen the past couple years of a contender that just did not care about the regular season. Like they punted things down the stretch to the point where they were dressing HL lineups to rest their guys, gave up standings points, obviously gave up home. He's had to start each series they played last year on the road,

and it didn't matter anyways. So I think if anything that's going to embolden a team to continue to do so, now it's going to be more difficult to do it without these two guys available, and they're going to have to scratch and claw. to make it in the Atlantic. I guess the one good silver lining for them is that you look at the rest of the competition and we just talked about some of the Leafs issues,

the Lightning certainly have their own set of issues. And so it's not like anyone here is necessarily distancing themselves in the early going. So I feel like just kind of treading water for now is probably okay for a team like this and they're going to have to do so. I think if anything, they're just going to have to be careful about not over extending

some of their guys because it's great that Brad Marshall, looks like he has this much juice and this was obviously a big game for him but probably not ideal to be playing. I'm nearly 20 minutes in a game. You don't want to necessarily be leaning on Gus Foresling over extensively either and so I'll be fascinated to see I guess how they manage that kind of dilemma of trying to get enough points and survive right now while they can but also making sure the guys that are healthy right now stay that way for when it matters most. Yeah and you talk about this this they just

finished this road trip finally get the win one win out of five and now they come home for four games. But you look at their opponents and how well those opponents are playing on the road. Pittsburgh's 3 and 1 on the road starting on Vegas hasn't lost a game on the road yet. It's like this, this is not an easy challenge for them. And even the Anaheim ducks right now are playing better hockey and 2 1, 2 1 on the road, 3 points out of 5 road games for them. And the weakest team that they're going to play in this four game homestand is the Dallas Stars, who at any moment could turn it on and be the team that's competing for the west. So this is, I think this is going to be a real important stretch. This is going to show me

This will get us to the 10 point mark, or excuse me, the 10 game mark. This is going to show me who Florida is. Who are they when they compete against teams that are playing really good hockey right now? And can they do it at home? We know that they've got the skill and the talent and the ability to keep the puck out of their net. That's how Florida is built. They defend extremely well. It's Ken players like Samiskevich, Rodriguez, Boquist, Lundell.

Can they help provide that offense? And you talk about that goal by Lu Shirean, that's a guy that's going to have to be one of those guys that really helps us offense. well, they're missing some of their top players. Yeah, that was a beautiful finish. God, I love Eto Lus Therina and so much. All right, Pedy, let's take our break here. And then we come back, we're going to jump over back into it and do the two other games we wanted to break down from Tuesday night.

You're listening to the Hockey Pee-Docast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey Peeley Ocast, joined by Steve Peters. We are breaking down Tuesday night's games, stuff we saw from a couple notable games in particular. Petey, let's get to Blue Jacket Stars, which I thought was a really, really interesting game for a variety of reasons. It was a very nice win. For Columbus, I thought, going into Dallas, winning 5-1 on the road, following up another strong showing from their most recent game on Saturday at home against Tampa Bay, where they outplayed them as well. They came out of the gate flying in this first period. And the stars eventually found her legs a little bit as it

went on, but what I loved about it is it looked like Dallas was sort of taken aback, I guess, and kind of visibly staggered, I think, by the tempo Columbus was just pushing at for the first 10 minutes. And it was amusing watching the Stars broadcast here, one of the best in the business. I love the combination of Razor and Josh, but you could tell, like, they're showing all these chances for Columbus and viewing it from the Star's home perspective. I think they want to be critical of them. Like they almost want to be disappointed. They're not playing better. Yet they couldn't really, I think, hide or disguise the fact that they were just impressed by what Columbus was doing. Marchenko in particular, they were just in awe of the pace he was playing at and some of the stuff

he was creating. And so I thought that was the correct way to go about it. Like it's on the one hand you expect better from Dallas defensively in the U.S. early going, get on the other, you can't come away from that and just not be, especially if you're not watching them every single night, just blown away by what some of these bluejacket skaters can do. Yeah, it's amazing. It's unfortunate for the Columbus Blue Jackets that they play in a smaller market. I don't think they're getting the attention from some of these young players to play with

the pace that they play at. Again, I talk about teams. We talked about New Jersey being a fun team that plays with pace and is exciting offensively. So it's Columbus. Like, this is a team that can really provide that quick strike. offense. You look at, you talked about Marchenko, he had six shot attempts. You look at Fantilli, Fantili ends up with

five, five shot attempts. Am I getting that right? You've got it. So they do have the young offensive speed that can get to the front of the net and they're creating those offensive opportunities from the slot area. Like their chances, and I'm sure you've got the numbers on their high danger chances. This is a team that gets to the inside. They use their pace. They use their speed. And I think Dallas was just not ready for that off the bat. They got

shot desperately in the first period. You're looking at the shots 14 to 5 through 1 and ends up 2-0 after the first period. And Columbus was just all over. The Dallas Stars team, especially in Dallas. I think they put them back on their heels early, playing with the pace that they play at. Marchenko's a freight train.

I mean, there were times in this game where he's just challenging and taking on multiple stars defenders, just kind of bowling into them with reckless abandon. In the first period, he's got this sequence that I wanted to highlight where he weaves through the neutral zone, gears up and just puts this move on Bishel that had such such force and anger behind it where he cuts inside and just rips this rush chance just seemingly out of thin air. And they're talking about it in the broadcast, but I love watching him attack on his off wing

where he's able to then cut back inside and utilize the forehand for that quick shot because he's just such a maniac that I think you have to back off as a defender and respect that if you allow him, he's going to attack the net. And so you give him a small window to attack, and he's going to take full advantage and break right through it. And that's what he does on stuff like that. And then he creates a goal off the rush on the power play in the third, setting up,

or just passing it across to Monaghan, who gives it to Varankov, and he buries it. I also wanted to shout out Adam Fantilli here. Now, last year, the only players with more 5-on-5 goals in him were Tage Thompson, Kyle Connor, Cole Cofield, and Morgan Giki. There was a stretch there. which we talked about at the time where Sean Monaghan was out of the lineup, and he had been playing so well previously.

But the silver lining of it was it created this opportunity at number one center for Fantili to step up and play with Brunerchenko and Voronkov. And I thought that the two of them did a phenomenal job of essentially taking Fantili out of his comfort zone or the way he had played as a rookie and forcing him to adapt to play the way they do with this kind of creative, quick passing style where you're just sequencing stuff and manipulating defenders with all this deception. And Fantilli had previously just relied on this raw power that allowed him to get through the NCAA level and score some goals off the rush as a rookie.

But all of a sudden now, he was playing with so much more detail and his decision-making and creativity improved as a passer. And I wanted to see what that would look like away from those guys. And Monaghan's back, we've seen Fantilli playing on a second line with Kent Johnson, who's a phenomenally talented player in Boone Jenner. And that's translated to this year as well. And so I think that's incredibly encouraging. He was showing that in this game as well. He had a couple sequences.

They were just phenomenal, I thought. Yeah, but you look at what they did last year. When they played together, it was almost like watching a peewee team because they were just so offensively talented and creative. And we talk about that fun and the speed and getting to the net. They were making highlight real plays, even if they weren't going in out when those three played together with Veronica,

and Tilly and Marchenko. And now you talk about this team, they're starting to get that balance scoring. And you've got their top two lines are outstanding. Like these are very good lines. Monaghan, getting there for Ronkov and Marchenko. He's Talga Markerchenko's ability to get up and down the ice. But Varankov's a guy, too, he can deliver the puck to the net. He can get those offensive opportunities.

And now until he's got a little more responsibility with Ken Jansen and Boone Jenner's. I love Boone Jenner. I like Boone Jenner for a long time. I think he's a guy that can help lead this team to different places. watch out. Columbus, man, this Columbus team right now can provide offense from different players. Defensively, you talk about Zach Rowensky that you should have been in the, you know, we talk about Norris conversation with Zach Rowanke. Proverov is helping out offense and getting the puck to that.

This team is good, but on top of all that, Merz-Lincoln's has been absolutely light. Well, he was in this game. Jet Greaves. Well, this game, I'm sorry. He's the guy, yes. Yeah, on the fantilly thing, and then we can talk quickly about Dallas, just watch the first goal he scores in this game and particularly the 20 seconds in the lead-up, I think the highlights typically don't do a good job of incorporating all this stuff, but the full shift is just is worth your time if you're a fan of hockey. He gets the puck off the wall. He's

kind of standing at the right circle. I think previously he would have forced the shot there against two defenders. He looks like he's going to tee it up. Instead, within that shot motion, sends it to the other circle for a much better chance for Pro-Brov, I believe. Then he scoots over to the opposite wall, wins a battle, keeps the puck in, then finds a soft ice again where he was previously, gets another puck off the wall, and just perfectly places a wrist shot in the blink of an eye past Jake Onger, and it was just awesome. So I think the combination of tools and now the way you see in the ice and feeling the game

is just such an X level, and it's awesome seeing him do it on a second line. For Dallas, they won their first three games, they lost their last three. I had a conversation with Thomas Drans on Sunday, where we were talking about this and he's more concerned about some of the defensive habits they're showing than I am because similar to what I said about Florida before the break, they were doing a lot of this stuff down the stretch last year. And then in the playoffs, they kind of showed that I think part of it was just an effort issue where maybe they weren't backtracking as hard enough. They weren't gaping up as tight enough because they just didn't really care with their spot

pretty assured going into the playoffs. And the postseason is just an entire, different ball game in terms of playing style and effort level. And so I feel like that's what we're seeing here because you watch a game like this or even their two previous ones against St. Louis and Vancouver. And there's just so much open ice. Like the gaps between their forwards and their defensemen right now are about as massive as you're going to see. And so opposing teams are just willingly skating into the zone and teeing off off the rush. And so they're giving up a bunch of goals that team say percentage isn't as good as you think, but I think part of it is because of the way they're playing. And sure, they have some, I think, personnel issues. They have some injuries as well.

But I feel like this team with the players it has should be and probably will be playing better than it is right now. You have to hope so. I think if you look at the Dallas Stars, this is the team that needs to be doing better. And I know, like you talked about some injuries, Dushain is a big, big loss for them. And they need to get his offense back. But this team isn't about their lack of offense. It's their ability to keep the puck up. out of the net. And I was the first to say, with the coaching change, look out for Ottinger. He's going to be outstanding. He got rid of the coach that was putting off the pressure on him. And this team is going to keep the puck out of the net. And they're going to be a hard team to score on. Well, they're not. They've been up 13 goals in their last three game.

They're 29th in goals against per game, three point eight three goals per game. That's not good enough. And it's a problem that started to seep in in the last quarter of the season last year in their ability to defend. And this is a team. team that wants the puck, they want to chase the puck, but you watch them in the defensive zone, and you will see two and three Dallas stars on their opponents. And you saw it against Columbus. You talk about that Fantilli goal to lead this thing off in the slot. Watch the Dallas stars drift to the left side of the play. We talk about where Proverroft takes that shot from, leaving Fantilli, the most dangerous player on the ice at that time, all alone in the

slot. This is a concern, and I'm not putting up the red flags quite yet, but Gulletson's got to get this under control. Like this, this team has to to defend better than they defended against a Columbus team that's good, but they're going to face better teams than this. Like, we tell they play Colorado, a team that's really active at getting to the front of the net, and has more speed and can cause more offensive headaches than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Dallas is going to have to correct this. This is one thing that they, if they want to be the Dallas stars competing in the Western Conference,

they've got to defend better than they did last night against Columbus. Well, we did see them play against Colorado earlier this year, and it was pretty ugly from a shot perspective. And Jake O'Drow was phenomenal. and they wound up winning in a shootout, but it was definitely quite alarming. So I'm going to watch for moving forward. Speaking on that Colorado team,

let's end with Aves Mammon. I thought this was an incredibly fun hockey game to watch. Some of the best up and down full throttle hockey you're going to see with two teams just willingly engaging at a pace that I think only a select few teams in the league can actually expect to keep up at for 60 plus minutes with this game going over time.

And it was beautiful. I mean, we had a couple stoppages for disallowed goals. you were talking about the review earlier. I'm curious for your take on the one that took what should have been Gabe Landisog's first regular season goal since March 5th, 2022, off the board. I didn't necessarily agree with that one. But beyond those two stoppages,

it was just continuous hockey. I mean, we got, what, 56 minutes worth of 5-on-5 hockey in this game with how fast these two teams were playing. They're just weren't a lot of stoppages or penalty calls, and I just thought it was awesome. Like, this is hockey distilled to its period. for them when you just get to see back and forth up and down five on five hockey the way these two teams played on Tuesday night.

Yeah, as a hockey fan, this was a fun one. And what you want to see is you want to see great offensive opportunities. You want to see speed and pace and teams playing at their best, and that's what this was. And it was great goaltending on both ends. Right off the hoppet, Cooley gets a great chance. Wedgwood reaches back with his stick. I don't know how many times the milk has stopped McKinnon. He had that breakaway where he makes two safe.

He stops the original shot and stops the rebound. Goaltenders were sharp. Forward's playing with speed and pace. You talk about the young players in Utah where it was Cooley, Gunther-Perturco, who had been leading the offense for the first three or four games. Now that's shifted to the Keller Schmaltz line, and they were fantastic. This is the fastest Keller's look this season. This was his best game.

I think he's starting to play with pace over the last two games. And I said after the first three, I go, oh, I'm not sure Keller's going to be on the short list for Team, Team USA come the Olympic time, but now his name's got to be back there. This was a fun game to watch, but you talk about speed again. And if you're going to compete in the Western Conference right now, you better be able to play like this. Take note, L.A. Kings, C.C. Dumlin, because this is, if you want to win, you're going to have to play like this. And that's what made this game so fun to watch.

Big reason why, and I think we spoke about this last week when we were talking about Utah, why they fell short of the playoffs, despite especially from Four Nations on, clearly playing like a playoff team, was just how many close games they blew. They had 20 games that they lost by one goal. And another issue I think you highlighted was their home play as well, right? Because in their debut season in Utah, it was a great crowd. But for whatever reason, they wound up winning just 44 points in those 41 games. Six or seven games so far, if you forget the fact that a couple of them ended with empty netters,

but they really were functionally one goal games. Six of them of the seven they've played so far have been one goal games. They've won four of them. They also have won four straight here at home. So I think two of the sort of bugaboos for them last year in terms of reasons why they fell short have been ironed out so far. So on the one hand, that's encouraging on the other, as we talked about on Sunday show,

regardless of their quality of competition, they seemingly play the same game every time right now. maybe the Sharks game notwithstanding last week where they can play the best team in the league like Colorado and trade punches with them, play uptempo, keep it a close game, ultimately wind up winning the way they did here, and then they can play one of the worst teams in the league, and it'll be a one-goal game where it's very close, and it'll be a coin flip. And so you'd like to see them separate themselves a little bit more against some of that weaker competition, but the fact that they can hang with a team like Colorado here, I think,

is speaks to why we're so enamored by them and whatever upside they have as soon as this season. I think the biggest stat that you brought up there is that home record, though, and last year just a couple games over 500 at home in Utah, and then they make the changes to the Delta Center. You got seating all around now. Their players are accustomed. Last year they moved from Arizona, and it was like playing road games for the first 10, 15 games.

Like they hadn't been accustomed to playing in Delta Center and acclimated to Utah. and now they are. They have more points than any other team in the national hockey league at home. They got eight points. They're four and no at home. There are some three and oh and two and oh teams, so they're not alone in being undefeated at home. But I think that's going to be the difference for this team.

If they can keep this up at home and play like this at home, where you're talking about playing with pace and not giving up those leads and still be able to drive the net and use their speed through their lineup, I'm still not sure. I'm still not convinced, Demetri, that this is the playoff team. I think they're going to be around it. I think they're going to be close. We've seen, you know, they beat one of the best, if not the best team in the Western Conference last night in a tight one.

So they can do it. Can they do it for eight to games? And are they going to be dips in Valleys because of that young talent? Are there going to be dips in Vemak's play? Because we've seen that in Vamelka over the last few seasons. So I'm not quite ready to say this team is in the playoffs in the Western Conference, but it's been a very good, if not a much better start than I was anticipating for the Utah Mammat. Yeah, you mentioned some of the looks for Kooley.

thought he had a couple brilliant sequences setting up Petirka as well, was getting more and more chances seemingly with each passing game. And I think it's only a matter of time for that line. And what makes the fact that Dylan Gunther already has four goals and seven games remarkable is he hasn't really even gone off yet necessarily. Like he hasn't had one of these games or he has a hat trick, obviously, or just a stretch where he has like multi-goal games for three or four games in a row, which I do expect with how often and how, you know, how efficiently he shoots the puck.

The craziest stat, though, is he's played 77 games since the start of last year. 12 of those 77 have ended it with him being credited with the game winner. That's 16% of those games. I mean, just a big name player scoring huge goals down the stretch. Dimashchev, who got a lot of attention on this ESPN broadcast, he had played under 14 minutes per game in his first six NHL appearances. He winds up playing 25 on 5 minutes in this game on the top pair with Miguel Sergachev, 12 of those minutes were matched head-to-head against McKinnon.

And I think you could see the pros and the cons, right? Early on, there's some questionable decision-making with the puck in zone. I think sometimes the awareness in terms of the timing and the speed at which the NHL game is played, there's going to be an adjustment period. And you're seeing that for him. On the other hand, some of the instincts and offensive ability, I think there's that sequence in this game where he works below the net. extends the play, he shakes off a defender, he comes back around, and he gets a couple

grade A scoring chances off of it. The ability to create like that is just so hard to find at that position. And so I like the idea of kind of throwing him into the deep end like this, giving him the usage against the highest possible quality of competition and using this as a runway to test out whether that's a viable option and whether him and Sirgachiv can be that top pair that you're looking for. And so I think this is a pretty encouraging game from him, despite some of the, you know, some of the mistakes.

He's a guy's 20 years old. He's six foot force, 200 pounds. He looks much bigger and stronger than a 20-year-old kid. And he's playing like it for now. Like his ability to skate and make up for some of the mistakes he may make and turning the puck over it or in the defensive zone are clear to see. I think offensively is where they want to see him start to produce. I mean, he's got no points through the first seven.

I don't think they're concerned. You talked about his ice time jumping from, you know, the second game he played. He had eight minutes of ice time. Now he's up at 20. I do think this is a guy that if you can keep him paired with Sergeantyev for years to come, look out. I mean, that is a solid top pairing for a team that's still growing, still finding their way. And there was a lot of pressure when they drafted Simashev, when they drafted him in the top 10.

There were a lot of shaking heads going, who is this guy? I did a draft show and didn't even have him on my board, but didn't even know who he was. That's how Bill Armstrong went for at that time we thought was a reach. But now you're looking at a guy that I think you talk about his pace and ability to skate and play with. guys and against Nathan McKinnon. I think he's going to be exciting player in Utah. I think the 20-year-old is going to grow. I think that the bar and the ceiling is very high for him.

So he's going to be exciting to watch. And can this team continue to defend the way they're defending and keep the puck out of the net like they are? I think if they can, they do have a chance to be closer to that playoffs. I have a couple notes on the abs here before we close out today's show. The 5-1-5 play for this team so far this season, they're just an absolute buzzsaw. I believe the Sergachev goal that they kind of was off of a turnaround.

I'll turn over in the in zone, loose puck and he hammers it was the first goal. The abs top line has been on the ice 4-5-1-5, the bottom six. I mean, you look at Ross Colton in this game, shots on goal 11-0-0, high-d-chance is 5-0, goals 1-0. They're just not, the bottom six isn't giving anything up. It's the strongest group they've had back there since the title run. And I think the little of the scoring for the second line is going to come together.

As I talked about earlier, Landisog scored a nice goal that wound up being taken off after a review. So you know what you're getting from the forward group, the 5-15 offense is awesome. My question for you is, what's going on with this team right now on the power play? Because you look at the results,

they've scored three power play goals in 46 minutes so far this season, which is 30th in the league on a permanent basis. The fans have been booing them at home about it. The players have kind of been talking about what's going on and not necessarily expressing concern yet, but I think they should because this is a group that for whatever reason last year got super stagnant on the power play in the first half and very predictable. Then they make the big trade sending out Ranton and bringing in NCHS totally changes things up.

All of a sudden now they start playing with that patented free-flowing dynamic movement in zone completely go off. It looks entirely different. And now they reverted back to the way they were previously. And I just feel like that's something they have to figure out. the 515 play has been so good that it hasn't mattered and they haven't lost it in regulation. But eventually, if we're going to take them seriously as a cup contender, this is something I think they're going to have to iron out in terms of getting better at.

Yeah, you talk about three goals. Nature has one. McKinnon has two and they don't have a power play goal in their last four. You don't see number eight McCarr on the score sheet on the power play yet. This is a team that right now you're old for their last 11. And this is a team that's got to be top top 10 power play. You look at the personnel they're putting it out there, and you hit it on the head. It's about movement.

And the best power plays in the league right now are teams that move. The 131, I'm sorry, it's getting old. People are tired of it. You've got to see action and you've got to see movement. You've got to see activity on your power play. The best power plays right now are power plays that move. And that means you need to see, you got to see McKinnon coming downhill from that left circle. You've got to see McCard moving his feet and getting off of that blue line.

You've got to see more movement out of the team because if there's no way the Colorado lunch should be 30th on the power play. And the national league. It just shouldn't happen. I know they only only have one opportunity last night, but they had no shots on goal on the power play. How do you have, how do you have a power play with that personnel on the ace and not get a shot on goal? I don't understand it. It's going to have to clean up. And it's going to be about McCart. I talk about him moving feet, getting shots through. That's what he does. He has the seeing eye shot that is the first goal for Colorado in this game,

his ability to move the feet, change the angle and get a shot through. It's not doing that on the power play. I know they've had some opportunities, a couple of posts over the last few games and they're getting some looks, but it's not enough. And they're going to have to be better special team-wise if you want to compete for a Western conference title. Yeah, well, if they're going to do that, I think they need to experiment with putting Valmatruchin back on the top unit because he's a guy who, with the big body in front in his hands and ability to pop into a bumper to receive that pass from McKinnon, had a lot of success in the

past. And now with Brock Nelson there, they're kind of utilizing him on that unit instead. But I'd like to see them make that switch because you look at the shot chart for this team, it's actually amazing where the 5151, if you just covered up the label of what scores data was, you'd think the 5151 was an elite power play. And you're like, man, this team is just getting it to the net front, middle of the ice. They're shooting from all the best, most dangerous areas. And then you look at the powerplay one, and it looks like an inefficient 5-on-5 offense

where you're just spamming shots from the point and not really getting to those high-danger areas. It makes no sense based on the personnel and the fact that they showed they can play it a certain way at 5-1-1. five, I guess maybe fewer rush opportunities and that's where they're most lethal, but still, they have enough guys that they should be able to break through those seams and get it into the high danger areas. All right, Petey, this was fun. It's always great breaking these games down with you. What do you got to promote on your way out?

You know, I'm still up to the whole start here on inside the coach. I don't expect something to come today. I'm putting some out on defensemen, Wyatt Kaiser, the Chicago Blackhawks, talking about how his season has started off. So make sure you jump over to inside the coaches room. There's going to be a lot of breakdowns and I'm really going to start getting heavy on them next Monday. All right, beauty.

Definitely get over there. This is a lot of fun, PD. We're certainly going to have you on again soon to break more games down as they come along. If you want to help us out, subscribe to the PDOCAST Patreon page to get access to our full catalog of show. Speaking of the abs,

I did a deep dive on them with AJ Havely last week. Also had Chris Meanie on to help you gain a bit of an edge in your fantasy pools against the competition. We got a newsletter out there as well on Monday on Emmett Finney and his success story getting to this point. So a lot of fun perks there. If you listen to the show, I promise it'll be worth your while. And I appreciate everyone that is subscribing.

Join the PDCast Discord as well. Give us a five-star review wherever you listen. And that's all for today. We'll be back Friday with plenty more. So see you back here then. In the meantime, thank you for listening to the HockeyPedioCat streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.