The Hockey PDOcast - Early Season Surprises, and What's Caught Our Eye

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to recap what's been going on in the NHL over the past week by talking about the things that have caught their eye while watching games. 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.

Progressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the HockeyPEDO cast. My name's Demetri Filippovich and joining me is my good buddy Thomas Trans. Tom, what's going on, man? Dimitri, I'm doing well. I'm coming you from Chicago where it's like 25 degrees. It's gorgeous out here. A welcome relief for me from the West Coast rain.

Very rare in season that I'm like, oh man, I need to chase good weather. and go east. But that's happened. That's happened on this trip. It's been a ton of fun and obviously looking forward to seeing Connor Bedard later this week. No need to rub it in. We've got atmospheric rain here over the weekend, flooding. It was quite a mess, but it was great because I was sick and I just got to sit at home

on the couch and watch hockey and football. Oh, we can apologize to everyone, which is start off the bad, just to apologies to everyone for not having any new shows on the feed last week. I had the flu. It had me down for the count. one of the things you quickly learn if you're lucky enough to have a wonderful partner who works with children every day

is at the start of every new school year you basically just get served a cocktail of all the worst germs going around town and so it got me good but I'm bouncing back here I had a little IR stint last week and other than not being able to record my schedule was pretty much the same

I was just sitting on the couch watching an obscene amount of hockey and jonesing for this very opportunity to talk about what I was seeing so that's what Tom and I are going to do here today. Tom, we're going to do biggest surprises over the past week, kind of stuff that caught our eye and watching games, just impressions in general of the stuff we watched. I'll give you the first sort of pick or selection here of what you want to talk about right out of the gate. Yeah, I think I want to start with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Are you cool with that?

They were number one on my list. So you can tell them we're best buds. Yeah, absolutely. Um, Hegel Sorelli and Nick Paul together. Now, look, obviously if you put a trio of, of my guys past and present, on a line, I'm going to have, I'm going to have fun with it. But watching that line work through the first, what, we can change of the season, just, I mean, the face melting level of pressure that they put their opponents under how preposterously successful they've been.

dominating play five on five. That's probably the line that I'm having the most fun watching in hockey right now. Like they look like an absolute nightmare to have to match up against. And there's this fun contrast, I think. It's like almost like a pitcher that can throw, you know, 101 miles per hour, but then also has a devastating change up or, you know, a really good like running back one, two,

where you've got, you know, the Montgomery and Jimmy. Gibbs of it all. When you've got point out with Kutrov and Gensel, and I want to take nothing away from how fun that is, you've got this trio of just, you know, high skilled puck dominant wingers. And then you've got, you know, this like dog pound line where where you unleash these three guys. And I can't think of a more fun, hilarious, sharp sort of contrast and styles between to team's first line and second line in the league right now. I think it's powered a lot of what Tampa's been able to do

through their first several games, and I'm having a blast watching it. Like right now, the Tampa Bay Lightning Top Six is one of my favorite things in hockey. Yeah, the amount of dog on that second line should not be allowed in the CBA. They should have some sort of stipulation that prevents,

has to have at least one sort of passenger or a player who's willing to step back a little bit because those guys just go full throttle in 55 and five minutes together. So far, they're controlling roughly 70% of the expected goals and 80% of the high danger chances. It's, they've been amazing to watch. I thought that game they played towards the start of last week, right? It was, I believe it was the first game on this Canucks road trip that they're currently on. And you could tell they were going to come out of the gate to start that trip.

Rick Tocke was going to have them very live and competitive. And all of a sudden, the game started in Tampa just through a massive or a series of massive haymakers at them. And the Canucks finally got their footing a little bit. But then being able to ratchet it up to that level is something I honestly did not expect to see that much of from this lightning team heading into the season. So you've got that Kuturov, for my money, like you've got in a league right now where every team pretty much has one player who's worth the price of admission. You've got guys like McDavid and McKinnon who are just like changing the bounds of what's physically possible that we thought in terms of how guys can move and skate on the ice. For my money, Kuturov is still the single most like beautiful player to watch in terms of the way he operates. rates, you noted this in a tweet of yours while watching that Canucks game, like how he sort of

strategically steps back from scrums. And I think sometimes people can see that and be like, oh, he doesn't want to engage in these battles. Like, he's kind of loafing there. And instead, it's completely calculated. He's just turned it into a science where he's like, all right, well, if there's four guys over there, I'm not going to become the fifth guy. I'm just going to stand back here because the puck is eventually going to come out. And all of a sudden, I'm going to be on end. And so he consistently pulls off little tricks like that. I love watching like, He drops 100 assists last year, right? And then all of a sudden, as any great player does, it's like,

all right, my new challenge this year is I'm going to win the Rock and Richard. And I would still put Matthews, despite his slow start as a runaway favorite for that. And there's going to be countless others who are probably going to score more than Kuturav. But he's got seven and four games so far. He's already attempted 40 shots in those four games. You can tell that especially on the power play without Stam goes around anymore, he's prioritizing his shot a little bit more. He played a game against Otto over the weekend where he was just like one time.

everything, just to at least keep the opposing defense honest. And so the way the puck moves with him pointing Gensel, and they're still stealing each other out, but they look so good playing off of each other. And it's such a beautiful brand of hockey. And so you compare that as you perfectly put with the way the second line competes. And all of a sudden now you've got this top six that is remarkable to watch.

Yeah, they have both my attention and curiosity in the early going. You never know how a team's going to lay. it out, how it's all going to fit together. But early returns, like stylists, the stylistic meld between the first and second line, the way that Gensel, you know, at the very least from day one is thinking the game, the same way point in Kuturov do. It's incredible. And as for the Huck following Kuturov around the surface thing, I mean, how do you have a 10-year

career and never have a bounce go against you? Like, that's honestly how I feel when I watch Koochav. I'll play. It just feels like he's in, like has a level of command over what's actually happening that honestly, I think dwarfs anyone else in the league. Truly I do. And yeah, just a remarkable watch. One thing, one thing, radish on their power play, top power play unit. I know we talked about this a little bit. How would they replace Stephen Stamco's? Work in progress. Work in progress, right like you know start looking at lists of expiring right-handed forwards now because that that's something they're going to need they're going to need to find an answer there and they're going

to need to find a right-handed forward you know on the on the sort of i'm not negative but you know the more realistic side of the ledger i do think tampa's going to need a lot from that top six of five on five because i think their power play you know it's still going to be great they still have so much talent. Victor Edmonds had a killer start to the year too, right? Like looks elite. But they're going to need that wrinkle. They're going to need that club in their bag here.

And right now they don't have it. You know that meme of the guy sitting on the couch drinking a beer? And he's like just lounging. And then he's like pointing himself like surprised that someone called on him. That's raddish on the power play as the trigger man at that left circle. Because it's like, Kucharov passes it across and we're just so used to see that seamless one-time motion. he gets it. He's like, the puck stops. He's like, okay, what do I do now? And he's like passing and bumping it back up to headman and completely eliminating the purpose of everything

Kucharov just created for them. So yeah, the power play hasn't even gone going yet, which I think leaves room for improvement and a realistic one at that. On the note of the top six, one thing I want to note, and you mentioned headman there, is I really like what Cooper is also doing with sort of mixing and matching the utilization where he's clearly, he uses that top line as sort of the offensive zone unit, right? And he's pairing them with headman pretty much primarily. and then Moser, who's playing with Edmund, that he's using Chernak and McDunna with that second line

mostly, and that makes a lot of sense. And then he's got this fourth line with Gergensons and Glendening, who are notorious for making sure nothing happens when they're on the ice, despite the fact that they can eat defensive zone draws. And so, I think that gives them a lot of options. I think other than the power play fix,

in terms of having our curiosity and interest, one thing I'm intrigued to see is if they're able to sort of leverage, I think, that sherry salary, right? Because it's like two million for another couple years and whatever pick capital they have left to try and add a legitimate wing driver. It would be nice if it was a one with shooting talent as well, although those players are pretty rare because I like that third line, right? Like I think geeky can certainly play. It's going to be up to like not taking dumb penalties for him and kind of managing

that line of being physical but disciplined. And then we like Asimon. He drives everyone crazy. So all of a sudden you've got a depth chart that makes a lot of sense. I just think there's sort of one player short there. And if they can address that and you know, a third lineish winger is probably the most manageable position to address in season

because those players are more readily available. So I'm curious to see how aggressive Julian Breezbois is there. But this is a team that we thought was going to be very top heavy and all of a sudden now I think they have more options than either you or I probably predicted them to have heading into the season.

For sure. And a higher ceiling. I mean, if it's this easy to diagnose the piece that they need. You know what I mean? Like if we're really talking about bottom six power play specialists who shoots right-handed as sort of like the thing right now

that if they can address, we're going to be looking at them as, you know, a team that's maybe successfully pride open their window at least a little bit. Maybe more than we thought they might going into this year. I mean, that you're in a very, very good spot. Geeky, by the way, also, there's some pace issues, I think, as he adjusts to the NHL game, but he's going to get there fast.

You can just tell. Looks like a monster, like just looks like a beast, or at least a potential beast in waiting for the lightning. I think the early returns from that Sergachev drade are looking pretty auspicious from a Tampa Bay perspective as well. Yep. All right. Let's move on to the Washington Capitals are next on my list. A team that I think everyone was interested to see because they made arguably the most off-season moves

or turnover for their roster of any team in the league. They played three straight, really impressive games, I thought. Over this past week, they beat Vegas, Dallas, and New Jersey consecutively. I think beyond the results on the scoreboard, though, one thing about them was despite making the playoffs last year, right? It was very smoke and mirrors. It was goal-tending driven.

It was puck-cluck, like goal sequencing, whatever way you want to put it. it, they clearly outperformed whatever their underlying numbers were. And in particular, offensively, right? And I think part of it was just out of necessity because they didn't have the personnel and the horses. So Spencer Carberry had them playing a very sort of low of end, grind it out. Let's keep these shot counts in the low 20s for both teams and kind of increase the variance.

And they were on the positive side of that. All of a sudden this year, they're up from 29th and 5-on-5 goals to first. I wouldn't expect that to continue. You know, its early season kind of sample size. but they're sixth in expected goals generated. And they had 37 shots on goal against New Jersey in their most recent game in particular. And that's a number they got to just three times

all of last year to kind of highlight the disparity stylistically between the way they're playing. They've got a ton of depth. It's shame Matt Roy got injured pretty much after one game. But still, you look at that forward group and what they're able to get, kind of like pairing duos and bumping Mangiopani down now and he's playing really well himself.

Pierluke Dubois, this is like the lowest sort of bar you can clear as a pro athlete, but he's trying, and I'm saying that unironically. Like, if you watch that New Jersey game, he's winning battles off the puck. He's making these hustle plays to extend possession that creates goals for Tom Wilson. It's very exciting if that's going to continue. Hopefully this isn't just the honeymoon thing for him and then you stop, but you put all that together and all of a sudden there's a team that's not only much more interesting to watch, but I think is legitimately a problem to deal with because they just have so many different

options they can throw at you. So I know your guy Alexi Proto, you watch him, especially in the penalty kill, it's so sort of jarring to see such a big person moving so fast with extra open ice, which is kind of been a really fun wrinkle for me to watch. So yeah, you put all that together and it's a team that certainly

got my eye and I'm tuning in as much as they can to them moving forward. It feels like they've gotten back to something they've typically had in sort of the later stages of this OVet can window, but, but I think lacked last season where they had just a lot of professional

polish on the back end. I mean, you know, you think about the like that that Jensen Orlov pair from sort of much of this decade until last season when Orlov departed and Jensen wasn't quite as effective as he'd been in the past. And just the like simple polished puck moving professionalism that that pair was able to bring, it felt like, it felt like, like they lack that now you're seeing with you know chikeren van reamsdyke um i mean they had van remsdyke but but adding in chikeren certainly to the mix i just feels like it's given them this group you know you bring in sandin van ramesdike chikrin um carlston you sort of threw it together and this team's defense in particular seems so much more involved in the play than they did at any

point last season, specifically offensively. I obviously forgot to mention Farivari, which is a massive oversight. What a great player to watch. Just a ton of like confidence and real two-way ability. Like these guys are not specialists good at one thing. All of them can kind of bring a little bit in both areas and are bringing a lot offensively are like very aggressively involved in the play. It feels like that's been something that at least.

Because you're right. They're not going to sustain this level of certainly offensive production at five-on-five. But the way that their defense is involved in the play, it feels night and day versus watching them last season where they felt a little stuck sometimes. Yeah, especially if you don't have that much foot speed up front, which I still argue they don't really have. It helps when you have a guy like Chikrin Who and you watch that New Jersey game. There's just plays where he can just take the puck from his own zone and sort of in a one-man rush just instantly transport the puck and get something dangerous off. And then that kickstarts and it allows your forwards to then start grinding the way they want to. And so it makes a lot more sense based on the way they want to play with the pieces they actually have now. Okay. Who's next to your list?

So I was skeptical when this team went out and signed this guy. I thought, I don't know. I don't know if that's a fit that really makes sense. And I'm not, you know, capitulating on this take necessarily yet. but I have to say the early returns have me looking at it completely differently already, certainly more open-minded to the possibility that this is the sort of player that this specific team needed. And I'll stop the suspense act.

Brandon Montour and the Seattle Cracken. How good is Brandon Montour been? My goodness. Like that Cracken team couldn't buy a goal to save their life last season. And obviously it's early. and we'll see sort of what it looks like as the sample expands. But bringing in Montour and having an additional, you know, dynamic puck mover so that all of a sudden you're getting the same game from, you know,

Montour and Alexiac that you've often gotten from the Crackin with like Dun and Larson on the ice. Right now in the minutes where, you know, that Cracken top pair, what's been their top pair for most of their existence to this point. Sitz is still present where you've got, you know, Montour, sort of with that green light to break down low, you've got the Crackens shooters, the wingers in particular covering high,

but also using the fact that they're covering high to get off interesting shot perimeter shooting chances. And you just look at what like they were able to do in that second period against Philadelphia. Was that over the weekend? No, late last week. that felt very, very different from some of what we'd seen from the crack in last season, you know, and honestly felt a little bit more sustainable to me too than the success that

they had in their second year where, you know, the structure, the discipline was evident, immediately obvious. It's not that they weren't playing good hockey. It's that they also weren't playing hockey that was worth as much as they were scoring. And right now, especially in Montour's minutes, it feels like that team's an actual threat, like an actual threat to bury you on a shift by shift basis. I think that's been, it's been an eye-opening debut, you know,

10 days or so for Montour. That fit looks great in the early going. Well, he's the exact kind of shot of adrenaline that they needed, right? And in particular, like a chaos agent and a sort of freelancer that they'd been lacking for the most part. Totally. I really like, that's a great call on your part. I mean, he's really stood out.

He's very involved. And it's a big difference maker for them. It's interesting, though, like, I had Florida on my list here. And once we started the show at Tampa, I was like, all right, well, I'm going to pivot to Washington because I think we should move on from the state of Florida here. We don't necessarily need to devote the full show to them. But in watching them over the weekend, I was also thinking, like, because I'm ready there with you, the Montreur has been excellent and very eye-opening. And yet watching Florida, I'm like, man, it's so impressive to me that they don't really miss him despite that. Like, we'll see as the season goes along.

I think they're going to need to add another player that can eat meaningful minutes there and not necessarily just have everything on Forasling and Ekblad's plate if they want to go for a third Stanley Cup run. But man, like, how many teams could you just remove a player that we're speaking so highly of there, especially at an important role where he's playing 23, 24 minutes a night? And them not really miss him. It's just such a well-old machine and engine that they can essentially just keep going despite that. And in addition to all their other absences in the lineup over this past week or so, right? No Barkov, no Kachuk.

Yet they're still winning games. They nearly put 50 shots on goal against Vegas over the weekend. That game they played against the Canucks was one of the more entertaining back-and-forth games I've watched so far in this young season. And so for them to be able to keep doing that, monitor is amazing. And yet they've just been able to essentially just keep going without really missing a beat. Yeah, I think that game had a pretty. unique dynamic for an early season game and that Vancouver hadn't won yet. So you actually got, you know, desperation is too much, but you got a Kinnock side that was pretty serious as the

game went along about making sure they won it. So the game turned into a bruiser. And I think on the Florida side, you had a bunch of players playing a little bit higher up the lineup than they typically have, getting, you know, a meaningful opportunity to show what they could do, you know, for like Anton Lundell in a top line role. And, and, you know, And so I think they also matched that, you know, it would be easy for the defending Stanley Cup champs to not match a hungrier team's fire in the belly, but the Panthers did. And so you got, especially in that third period, like a brand of hockey that we very rarely get to see in October. And I think that's what you were responding to because I certainly had the same reaction. I want to talk about Lindell because in that game, if you go watch the sequence leading to his goal, right?

That was awesome. Now, I've always been a little bit lower on Lundell, I think, than consensus in that, you know, he always looked to me like a player who played a little bit more in straight lines, maybe didn't have that sort of offensive top end from an upside perspective that I think people just assume you have when you're as productive and as useful and as like big a part of a winning team as he has been this early in his career, right? It's like, oh, well, he's a, you know, killer third liner on a team that's made the finals in consecutive years.

And I remember he scored a clutch world junior's goal like this is a future star. And I always sort of looked at him and thought, you know, this guy, I think is a little bit more limited than the conversation around him offensively. But if you go watch that sequence on his goal, the nuance with which he operated on the half wall

was awesome. Like awesome. So deceptive. Didn't tip a single pass with his eyes. Not that he was making, you know, like sort of passes that set up prime scoring chances through traffic. It was mostly, you know, just sort of working the puck around the zone. But it was like two or three consecutive no look passes.

Absolutely incredibly difficult to figure out where he was going at any given moment. And then the Canucks end up sort of cheating into the middle of the ice, allowing him to take a step. And he looks past the whole way until the second he shoots it. And it was just a very mature veteran skilled goal. And I just thought that was wildly impressive. It was like, Lundell, I was not familiar with your game. It was one of those moments, you know, a happy learn to putt moment for me where I, where I,

you know, not that I'm like using one play to reassess what I think of a guy's ceiling, but I do wonder if there could be a gear of five on four utility for a player like Lundel that I hadn't sort of factored in. and then you start to get into like, okay, well, could he be one of those Bo Horvatt types where, okay, he's not an elite five-on-five offensive player, but he can be a huge part of a really good power play. And that gives him, you know, that 60, 70 point sort of upside going forward that, you know, not that I didn't think he had it, but that I thought was going to be difficult for him to get

to given how he wins at even strength. I'm now sort of thinking he might have that kind of upside, which is, I, a higher level than I'd expected and also one of those little things that you learn about a guy or learn about a team when they're forced to cope with significant absences, right? Like when Barkov goes out of the lineup and Lindell's tasked with stepping up, you maybe see a little bit more about what they can do. I think we've seen that from Lindell and Barkov's absence and the ability of the Panthers to be a tough out night tonight with no Barkov, no Kachuk in the lineup,

not to mention the key departure on the back end. in free agency is, is wild, like genuinely, very impressive. Hard pressed for me to think that that team's not the number one team you wouldn't want to face in round one of the playoffs if you're an Eastern Conference team this year. Yeah, that's that mapping, right, where a lot of players and the game moves so fast and is so difficult and there's so little space that for like 98% of the league, and you can still get away with us and be productive, you're just so preoccupied with what you're doing on the ice and where you are currently positioned. that that just like encapsulates everything for you. Whereas there's that one or two percent on top, the elite guys, that got good grasp on that and then are more worried about where the other guys on the ice are

and kind of like mapping and planning ahead for moving them. And that's kind of what you're describing with that power play sequence. So that's a sign that like there's at least elite instincts and untapped potential there. If you go watch that play though, part of it is also like Reinhardt is such a beast and is so well established in the middle of the ice there, that Tyler Myers, like, clearly the game planning was,

under no circumstances, leave Sam Reinhardt in the slot there. And so as Lundell is coming off the wall, Myers is like, uh, I'm not going to leave Reinhardt here. And so Lundell's essentially able to step into a shot and take advantage of it, but that speaks to Reinhardt's greatness as well. And, you know, in Barkov's absence or since he's been hurt, one treat that we've gotten kind of like a silver lining is Paul Maris reunited Ryan Hart, Lundell, and Luce Therinen, a line that was just the true delight

during their runs in a cup final two years ago. We didn't see much of it last year en route to winning the cup. And so now he's been playing them and watching that Vegas game. It was just a sort of nostalgic moment of a reminder of like, man, these guys just have such good chemistry and play so well off of each other. So all of that's really fun to watch. But yeah, the way they've been able to essentially keep going and just having this sort of fast-paced attack without all those guys just makes them the special team that they've

been the past couple years. Any other notes on the Panthers of the Cracken here? Do you want to go to break? No, let's go to break. Okay. We're going to go to break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back into it and keep chatting with Thomas Drans. You're listening to the Hockey PDOCast streaming on the SportsNet Radio Network. Hey, it's Big Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets,

weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. All right, we're back here in the HockeyPedio. Ocast with Thomas Jans, Tom. We're talking about surprises over the last week with things that have kind of caught our eye. You were mentioning before I went to break Brandon Montour in the Cracken in their most recent game I was watching over the weekend.

And unfortunately, you know, after a really fun day of hockey, it's like, all right, there's only one game on here in the late slate on Hockey Canada Canada. It's Flames Cracking. It wasn't necessarily the most entertaining game, although it did have a fun finish to it

with the overtime goal by Jordan Eberle. But the Flames. They're 401 now. that was the first sort of loss they've had this season and they still got a point out of it. They're up 20 to 12 in goal differential. We have to talk about them here because it's obviously very in our respective faces,

especially mine in particular, after I think the last show you and I did with our watchability rankings. We had them 32nd. I was talking about how they were a good sort of flyer or best bet to finish with the least worst record in the league. They're off to an excellent start.

We should mention the caveat. So like third and shooting percentage, six and save percentage, obviously, I think outperforming not only our expectations, but what they probably should have so far. Yet their 5-on-5 metrics still look pretty good, especially in terms of chance generation and kind of the way they're playing from a quality perspective. And I think there are some encouraging things here to watch.

You watch in that season opener, the goals there he scores, obviously, and we're going to talk about him. But there's various young pieces and veterans that are stepping up here, then all of a sudden not only make them more watchable, but I think should be very encouraging for this team. regardless of if they go on a long losing streak or whatever coming up here. Yeah, they're playing good hockey. I sort of wonder sometimes early in the season,

and maybe my experience is the last couple of years covering the Canucks have colored this in that, you know, I think about that Boudreau season where the Canucks opened the year, very first game, you go up 3-0 against the Edmonton Oilers, and then the Oilers come back. And the Canucks couldn't stop bleeding after building, leads for like months, like for months, no matter how big the lead, the lead the Canucks had, they weren't going to hold it. The next season, obviously, they beat the Oilers trounce them in game one of the year and then hold on in game two. The Oilers reeled for five more weeks.

The Canucks obviously built an ultimately insurmountable lead atop the Pacific and it felt like it sort of set the stage for what we saw all year for both teams. Now, one game, is also just one game, right? Like it doesn't always mean something, but sometimes it does. And with the flames, I just wonder, you know, they go down 4-1 to the Canucks in that first game.

They come back and they really, like, shut Vancouver down. Like, it wasn't just that they got a series of lucky goals or fortunate goals. They had a game plan with which to attack Archer, she loves. They executed it with discipline. And they completely flummoxed Vancouver in terms of what Vancouver was able to generate while,

while generating chances of their own. And I sort of wonder how much, like, if Vancouver gets a fifth goal and it's 5-2, and that's the end, does, are they deprived of sort of this momentum that's able to snowball for them? And then they actually start playing really good hockey. You know, I always sort of wonder how those things happen sometimes in hockey. Like, are they, did that sort of. confidence boost from game one, give them something that they've been able to tap into.

From the looks of it, honestly, I think kind of. Like, I do. I think it kind of did. There have been some really nice performances from a variety of flames. Players, you mentioned Zeri, obviously. Mikhail Backland still just maybe the most underrated two-way center in hockey, right? Like, honestly, it's hard to conclude anything else. You know, they're getting a fair bit from guys like Manta.

even in his um even in just a couple sort of appearances like i think tyson barry's i think tyson barry's reputation is no longer no longer serves us well if we can if we talk about him with that in mind i think about that playoff game that he that he played in for nashville last season how reliable he was how much his presence actually unlocked mcdana in that game um you know just just just a couple contests not like he's playing a a huge role for the flames, but I do think there's something useful there. And I don't think what's useful there for the flames in Barry is necessarily what's been useful about him in the past where it's just, you know, an offensive specialist power play guy. I think he can do a little

bit more at this stage of his career. We've seen that from a lot of veteran defenders. I liked what I saw from him. You know, so no, look, I don't think the flames are purely a mirage right now. I think they're genuinely playing some good hockey, and I'll be curious to see if they can sustain it, because you're right. There is some substance to this run. I don't think they're not on fraud alert for me by any means with how they've been able to play the last, you know,

through five games to start the season. Yeah, we were talking about the amount of dog on that second Tampa Bay line. This line with Conner's area, Michael Backland, and Blake Coleman is not quite at that level, but certainly a very fun line to watch from that sort of competition perspective and Backland, as you mentioned. I mean, let me give you some five-on-five stats for him this year. 71 minutes, 27% ozone start rate, right?

They're leaning on them to do all the heavy lifting defensively. High danger chances, 1912 flames, goals won nothing. I mean, part of that is like, you know, getting some favorable goaltending, all that stuff, but like his ability to just suppress all of your offensive game plan, essentially, regardless of who he's playing against, is still in the top tier in the league for me. And so that line's been really fun. You're seeing Coronado sort of play his way up. Now he's playing with cadre on a scoring line.

I thought it's a shame Samuel Hansek is hurt right now because I thought he was quite impressive in terms of already navigating using his size and protecting the puck and winning battles at just 19 years old. Rasmus Anderson was on a huge heater. Kuzmanko has been productive as well. And the reason I point to those two guys is because they're probably, if the season does start to go south and kind of they settle into where we thought they'd be, those are probably their two most sort of realistically appealing trade pieces

because of contract status. sort of utility as well, right? And not really being tied up in like term or no move or being an owner sort of thing for another team to take on. Both guys are very manageable, especially Anderson, who would be obviously a very coveted piece. And so I think it's very encouraging regardless of the 401 start,

just the fact they're getting contributions from key players, both in terms of like young guys that you can build around, but also older players you could potentially use to kind of keep sort of adding to whatever rebuild they've embarked on. Yep. No, it's been a very, very impressive start and a real one. Like, I do think there's something there. I don't think.

I think already, I'm already willing to say that the futures we recommended on the flames to have the worst record are probably going to be dead, especially since they've gotten pretty solid goaltending performances from Wolf and Vladar. And especially because as much as I might wish cast it every summer, I don't think, you know, teams like the ducks or the sharks are poised to be in their company over. the course of this season. God, the ducks. I had them on my list, just a couple notes, but when you mention them, I just got to get this off my chest, man, watching them play. And the abs are on my list here, so maybe we can sort of pivot into talking about them. But I thought that was such a fascinating Friday night game, right? Because it's like Friday night,

I think most people probably hopefully aren't like sick at home. So they have plans. They're out. They're living their lives. They're having dinner. They're going out. They're having a good time. I'm sitting at home watching this game. And Colorado, obviously, And you text me at the start of it, right? You're like, what are the chance that our ducks here really kind of like ramp up the panic meter for the abs here after the abs will drop their first four games of the season? And then all of a sudden, like, those are playing well in that first period. But in classic Georgia fashion, like when things are going bad for a goalie, they just spiral out of control. He has one puck where he thinks he has it.

And then all of a sudden he actually doesn't have it covered up. And Leo Carlson just taps it in behind him. Then a second one where the puck goes out of play, Sam Girard thinks the whistle the whistle is going to blow. So he just dumps the puck out. Instead, the ducks just bring it back in and beat him with a shot. It's like, oh, man, this is going to get ugly. And then as that game progresses, Colorado just turns it up even more, essentially doesn't let Anaheim enter the offensive zone of possession for the final two and a half,

two periods or whatever. And they just lay it on them. I think final shot count was like 49 to 20. Lucas Dostal was the only reason they were in it wound up going overtime. And then last night, they played this game against the Kings where they muster 15 shots. its on goal and six high danger chances total. And after the game, I saw like a presser where Greg Corden's like, yeah, I don't know how to get these guys to skate harder.

It's like, you're the coach. Maybe, I don't know, some practice or some motivation as opposed to stories about whatever random thing that Aliyah Bushkin was complaining about. So I don't know what's going on with that team, but I think all of our worst fears in terms of like young talent materializing into something, and particularly for an organization that's trying to figure out the way they want to play and then kind of going in the wrong direction with that I think is happening. It's still early in the season. But I think our worst fears are kind of playing out right now with that team. Yeah. Even though we've got such excellent performances,

especially from Carlson, right? Like Leo Carlson is, you know, a beast in the making. And yet, yeah, that, I mean, that Aves game says it all. Look, the Avalanche, will give them their flowers and their respect, not that they're wanting for it, but the, um, you know, that was a 40 minute power play,

right? Like at some point, you'd like to see a team at least get a heavy shift or two, like to just spend a three minutes on the front foot. They were, they were truly on their heels for a wild amount of that game. And, you know,

it, it felt predictable. Ultimately, that the abs were able to win. So, um, Can we do New York Rangers power play? Well, I've got just one more note on the aves.

Or is that too well traveled? No, no, we can definitely do the Rangers. But the abs, so Ross Colton, six goals and six games, right? He's getting a jetpack put on him because he's playing with McKinnon and Randinen on the top line. He's working that bumper on the power play. I just really hope this isn't a defense against a dark arts position situation at Hogwarts where like you get that spot,

but it's actually cursed and something just sinister and catastrophic is going to happen to you after you get to enjoy a brief bit of joy because he's playing so well right now and just watching a play it's like really fun

but it's also man whoever plays those guys all of a sudden something bad happens so hopefully Ross Colton can buck that trend but we're talking about that you know

they clearly haven't been as successful as the Panthers have been in navigating it because they dropped their first four games we mentioned they gave up 25 goals against in the process but not only Landis Skokinichchkin but it takes out

now Lekinen in particular, I think, is a massive loss for them. And so they're trying to piece it together. That power play and this, I guess, a good segue into the next section about the Rangers is almost impossible to defend because of the options they have. And Colton is benefiting from it. But yeah, it's kind of keeping them alive right now until they figure out just a way to play with all these guys missing and hopefully they're going to get some of them back. But I thought that game the abs played, I think it was a primetime game on TNT against

Boston was pretty ugly. There's a lot of the attention was like, oh, Georgia Jeff just keeps giving up goals against, look at his goals save above expected, and you watch that game, and there's just so many defensive breakdowns down low in particular. Like they kept losing past her back door. It's like, this guy's one of the best goals in the league,

maybe have someone near him, and instead just keeps getting open, and so that's been a recurring issue for them. So it's just easy to place it all on Georgia Ev, and certainly he struggled. But until they figure that out, I think we need to adjust our kind of expectations for what they're capable.

of even with McKinnon, Randen and McArra. Yeah. Look, we know we know how talented this group is, right? I mean, that's not up for debate, but it doesn't feel like

their top gear is quite as unhittable right now. Like that, that five-man unit gear that they've had, you know, they had for much of last season, but it did feel if you were watching it, like it was more than McKinnon show than it had been in previous years. Right, right now it just feels like

their top five on five. gear is something that, you know, good teams can handle, right? Whereas in previous years, it felt like something nobody could. And I do think that's a meaningful distinction for a top heavy team like, you know, like the abs are.

They need to be crushing those minutes at the top. And as much as the goaltending is a huge part of the story for why they're not, it's not the whole story. It doesn't look quite as dynamic, you know, goalie independent. just from a chance generation perspective from a from a like lethal predatory attacking off the rush perspective that there's a certain amount of juice that you know if the avalanche have they haven't

quite found yet which is what makes like watching anaheim and it's like oh man they're just so impotent offensively right now they're not trying anything and it's like going against that defense i mean you have to test them at least a little bit because the cracks will show but um all right the rangers you brought them up we're talking top power of ways we got to see them on Hockenade and in prime time against Toronto. I know you were at the at the Canucks Flyers game time of, but I mean you got to see on a full display there. I don't know if they wound up scoring on the power play specifically,

but they had this one sequence where like Panarin gets two great looks and I think rings the bar on one of them. And then all of a sudden, Puck swings back around. He does that sort of set play with Crider where he kind of wedges it and it goes off the crossbar as well. It's like, man, they can pretty much just step into any single look they want. which is just so hard to do in today's game, especially with the predictability of you know,

kind of where all five of their guys are going to be on the PowerPoint. It's not like it's this immense sort of movement that's kind of throwing you off kilter, and yet still they can essentially just draw up whatever look they want. We don't get very much in the hard cap NHL the continuity, right, that obviously used to be typical in hockey, but man, that level of chemistry, if you get a lot of run together really does unlock stuff.

I mean, we saw it with the Caps Power Play several years ago. I mean, you'll see it in scattered places around the league, certainly. Colorado is an example. I think you've got some of it in Vancouver. But these guys, five on four, they are the NHL's foremost nuclear bomb. And I don't want to lose sight of just how preposterous they've been in the early going, just because we've seen it before. You know what I mean? Like just because we've seen, you know, Zabandajad and Panera and Fox and Crider, this isn't their first rodeo-tro check.

Just because we, yeah, just because it's not their first rodeo doesn't mean we shouldn't treat it like it's shiny and new because the level that they're at is still new. Like there's an element to which this might be the best version of something that maybe feels like an old trick, but very much is not. they are at a different level right now than the rest of the league, I think. I think this is a team with a unique weapon at the moment if you ever take a penalty against the Rangers. And I just wanted to call it out because it's one of my favorite things to watch. Like at this point, if I'm watching hockey and just sort of like checking scores and the Rangers are on the man advantage, like I'm going, I'm flipping the channel. Like I'm going to watch that. I'm going to watch those guys operate.

It gives me great joy. And obviously, I'm sure, causes a ton of coaches. around the league, sleepless nights when they're pre-scouting in advance of those games. Well, especially with Panarin's additional willingness to just be the trigger man that started last year, really, right? And you made a concerted effort of doing that. Playing with Lafranier, we've documented this at 5-on-5 has helped unlock a little bit, but even on the power play, his just willingness to step into that shot as opposed to always looking for the pass. All of a sudden, now it's like, all right, that's not another thing you got to worry about. He's scoring a bunch of goals. But then if you step up on him and leave Crider and Man there,

he'll do that little wedge play I talked about and that's one of the most dangerous plays in hockey then they can do the cross-ice one-timer there's a bin-a-jad trochick and that little man in the middle bumper spot I mean yeah it's it's almost impossible to defend right you almost got to just pick your poison and they're so good at sort of just isolating you in that way

and then making you pay and it's really fun to watch and I mean with the way they're playing like they weren't really on my list here but they've been scoring so many goals the 5-1-5 play is at a level where it's not only good enough but it's like it's really good right now and then just tricking with the way he played against the leaves particularly closing the door in that third period it's a really good team like that's not that's not used for a team that's been living around that eastern conference final bubble for the past couple years now but

this probably looks like the best version of them so far yep i i think so and and the emergence of lafrienei who i i thought was i thought had an opportunity to um break out not that he hadn't already, but just break out to an even different level this season. That looks like it's playing out and it's a scary, scary prospect. This is absolutely the Rangers team that I've taken the most

seriously, you know, going into a season. And yeah, early returns look just as frightening as I'd imagined. As much as I, we have time for one more and as much as I'd love to indulge you in the latest chapter of Bruins Black Magic with Kepke,

Castellick, and Beecher, just scoring 5-1-5 goals are preposterous pace. I love it so much. We should end with the National Predators, right? Because if we're talking sort of surprise storylines or things happening around the league trying to encapsulate or recap for people what's been happening around the league, we've got to talk about this Panthers team. It's the last team without a single point. They're 0 and 5. They've been outscore 23 to 10 overall, 16 at 5 on 5, which almost feels impossible. After all the money they spent in free agency and sort of the curse of the off-season winner, it's playing out that way right now.

Listen, they're 30 second and shooting percentage, 31st and say percentage. I think there's a bunch of things here that probably will write themselves, but they're digging themselves in a men's hole. And I'm kind of curious for your take on sort of what's happening here and how we explain this beyond just being like, oh, man, I can't believe that this is happening to them. Unfortunately, I think a lot of this is I can't believe that this is happening to them, right? I mean, every night you're, no, seriously, every night you're watching. Or even if you're just following along on Twitter, right?

How many nights has the save of the year candidate come from the Predators game, right? Like some of these misses at this point are inexplicable. But what I will say is momentum does have its own, you know, power in this game. And they got to get out of it now. Like they got to get out of it now. 0.5 and 0, you know, we know from the history of how rarely teams actually rebound from that, that it's, that it's, you know, something. It's not, you're already not, like, I never worry about teams that I think are pretty good

until you get to a point where it's like, they'll need to play at a 102 point pace to make it to 93, right? Like, they're not at that point yet where they need to play like one of the best teams in the league just to make the playoffs. So I do think it's not panic time despite that sort of history, that statistical history. the reason frankly that most 05 and 0 teams don't rebound to make the playoffs is most 05 and 0 teams are bad most 05 and o'clock and far worse and far less unlucky than this Predators team has been i i do like i wish i had something um for you where i was more like and this is why they deserve it but but i just don't really believe that that's the case in in their um for them like i think for them A lot of this has just been, you know, fit adjustment and poor luck. I still think there's an immense amount of talent up and down this roster and that talent's going to matter. I think there's just been a really incredible black swan streak of events through these five games that have caused them to dig themselves.

An early hole that in my view for a group this talent, it shouldn't be insurmountable. I don't even want to see us do like when they bounce back and can you believe they started 05 and oh it's like no I couldn't believe it while it was happening I still don't really believe it although obviously I can check the NHL standings page and I don't think I don't think it's a significant

like this is not even like an oilers 2 8 and 2 type hole where you know what they did to still get to not just 100 points but like comfortably get to 100 points Like that was ridiculous. I'm not expected. Not only am I not expecting that level of bounce back from the predators, but they don't need it. Like this is not even a hole of that size yet.

But man, you can see it from here. You can see it from here. So they've got to get winning games. They can't afford, whether it's luck or anything else. They can't afford to have this persist. Yeah,

you also mentioned earlier that sort of sliding doors early in the season, right? How some of these things can take a life of their own unless you stop them right away or you're able to build on them. And that feels like it's kind of, what's happening. The issue for them, though, is Winnipeg and Dallas are banking a ton of points. If you just look at the central

Utah, Minnesota and St. Louis are all looking competitive. Colorado will be at some elevated level. I wish we'd talk to Utah. Yeah, I'm doing a full show on Logan Cooley later this week. I didn't necessarily want to step on my toes there, but listen, you and I are doing this week in show. I think there's going to be a lot of Utah content this season, so I don't think you need to worry about a lack of it. There's been a lot of Utah content on my television screen.

what a great boon for the league that they've been able to go into a new market and actually play some of the most exciting hockey we've seen anywhere else. But your point is well made. Like the central looks like a gauntlet and Chicago. Yeah. Right? I mean, that's where we're at. And so that does sort of up the difficulty level of what the predators are facing here

in trying to put this 05 and 0 start behind them. I think they will, though. Like, when I've watched these games, I fundamentally do not see something that I'm looking at as like a fatal flaw here. I truly just think this is a wild run from a volatile group. Yeah, the one concern, and listen, we were really high on them last year and the way they played and sort of the infrastructure they built. And then heading into the season, it's like, all right, well, they're going to keep playing that way. And now they just have more shooting talent. What's not the like?

You get into this dangerous position, though. I think it was it like the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA? handful years ago where like you had this one surprising season right where it's like all these kind of castoffs and lesser known players that are just playing really hard in winning a bunch of games surprisingly and then you go from that to being like all right well now we're just going to add like big names and spend a bunch of money and then you go away completely from the identity you'd sort of like built your entire successful year on and that's not that that's what's happened here right but it does feel like it's sort of like obviously a different roster construction certainly i'm not concerned

about guy like Stamco's, Marshall's O, haven't been on the ice for a single 5-on-5 goal against. They're going to start scoring with them on the ice. I think a bigger issue for me as the year progresses is like that Carrier-Los-on pairing, which I think was really exposed in the Canucks series, is getting pummeled in defensive zone lapses again. Bottom six guys like Sizzins and McCarren,

who Brunette always winds up playing more than he should because he doesn't really trust Novak, Evangelista, Tomasino, and those young guys, they're getting rocked as well. And so I wouldn't necessarily expect that to write it. So I think they just need their top players to start scoring more. And they don't have a single player with even three five-on-five points yet. So if that starts happening and UC Star Wars starts making some saves,

it seems overly simplistic, but that's probably all it's going to take. Hopefully it happens for them before this hole just gets completely out of control. But yeah, it's been a bleak start. All right, we've got to get out of here, Tom. What do you want to plug? Check out my Canucks coverage at The Athletic. Check out Canucks Talk on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Tim, love doing this.

This was a blast, man. Thank you again to everyone for the patience as I get back to a feeling like myself a little bit here after a brutal week last week. We're hopefully going to be able to get back to regularly schedule programming on the PDOCs. The two of us, Tom and I, are going to be back next Monday morning for you to do another recap of the week that was in the NHL. I'll be back even sooner than that myself with another episode of the HockeyPedio cast later this week here on the Sportsnet Radio Network.