The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 121: Live from Music City

Episode Date: December 10, 2016

J.R. Lind joins the show to discuss how the Predators have managed to snap out of their early season funk, how David Poile's team-building philosophy dramatically changed on the fly, and how PK Subban represents the type of star that the franchise has never really had before. Every episode of the podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher and can also be streamed straight from this website. Make sure to subscribe to the show so that you don’t miss out on any new episodes as they’re released. All ratings and reviews of the show are also greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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.

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My name is Dimitri Filipovich. And joining me here in my Nashville, East Nashville, Airbnb living room is my good buddy, J.R. Lynn. J.R., what's going on, man? Hello, I don't get to this side of the river very much. So this is as much of the trip for me as it is for you. Well, we can go through it together.

We are, it's pretty intimate. We're sharing one mic right now, which isn't something I generally do. So hopefully the audio quality is passable, but... Yeah, it's very 1950s in here. Yeah. I feel like we should have like a live band or something. I don't know.

Yeah. So we're going to talk about the Predators, which makes sense. It seems on-brand. Sure. Yeah, it's perfect. And you follow them pretty closely. I don't know. Do you write about them pretty frequently these days?

Not so much anymore, but when I can, I just don't do a lot of sports these days. But I write a lot of tweets about them. Two and a half hours every other day. You craft some well-thought-out tweets. I know that for sure. It's an interesting team because I feel like heading into the season, there were, so expectations were so high especially after the PKK Superbent trade I mean people

like myself were saying that they were probably going to be like the funnest team in the league to watch and they were like the trendy sort of was like them versus Tampa Bay it was like the trendy Stanley Cup final pick and it's like maybe I mean both teams are very good and it very well could happen but it definitely at the time seemed like it could be like a little bit of like wishful thinking where it's like we want this to happen

just because these two teams are probably going to play exciting hockey and it's going to sort of prove that you don't need to you know play this old school physical bump and Ryan style to make it work in the NHL these days. Yeah, and I felt sort of like the expectations were higher outside of Nashville, maybe than they were inside Nashville, and I don't know if that's because of years of first-round exits or years of watching the Titans go 3 and 13 was kind of put a damper on our attitude.

But I was actually out of the country for the slow start. They started winning when I got back, which was fantastic for me. but judging by what I was hearing and seeing from that start, I think they were 3, 5, and 2 in their first 10 or something, but there may have been a lot of problems with maybe rhythm because there was a, you know, Yosi was played for Team Europe, and I think they did a lot better in the World Cup than people expected. He was at a training camp for a lot longer,

and, you know, that's a guy who played with Shoe Weber for, you know, the better part of three or four seasons. And there was, you know, and also there was an adjustment last year after Seth Jones was traded. Yep. With those pairings. And when Ekholm got back from the World Cup, especially Suban and Ekholm played together. Yeah. And Pete K seemed really like playing with him.

Yep. So then it was, okay, well, a lot of people thought Ekholm was going to play with Yosie and, or maybe Suban was going to play with Yosie. And then Yosie was playing with Ellis, and then Ellis has been hurt two or three times. So, you know, I think there was maybe a learning curve, particularly on defense. You know, the third pair of Matt Irwin and Yonick Weber was completely new. Yeah. I know you're a charter member of the Matt Irwin. Matt Irwin is the only one who played a new guy there for a while.

Matt Irwin played on the first pair with Roman Yos. He was like, half on my back, boys. I got us. I got us. Matt Ruhn's going to carry it through. But, you know, there were some changes in the forward lines because they completely revamped the fourth line from, from sort of. was Paul Gostad's homeland for many, many years. Yes.

And then they had to do some other things. Then Colton Sissons got hurt. And I think in November, obviously they were great. They were, I think, the best team in the league. Yeah, and there's scoring a ton of goals like we expected them to do. Yeah. And, you know, 2010, Pecker-Renet showed up, and that was fantastic.

And it's been a little slow here to start December. So maybe the jury's still out. I think they're, it's a lot. it's still a good team. These guys, Philip Forsberg is not going to score a goal a month for the rest of the year. On the other hand, he, I think, is second in the team at points. So, you know, part of that is maybe because Victor Arbenson has decided he's going to be an all-star this year, I guess, more goals than Patrick Hank.

But, yeah, I mean, the expectations were high, and I think they should have been. And I think they lived up to him in November. but right we kind of saw what they're capable of when everything's when everything's coming it's it's interesting you bring up the uh the ekholm suban pairing because i remember as soon as the trade happened in the summer i was just like i let my mind run wild a little bit just like oh my god yosie and suban like what what could they be capable of but i do think that we saw a little bit of early on but it probably does make sense to split them apart and have suben or yosi play with a guy like at home just because he is sort of like i feel like echolm is like your quote

unquote stay at home defense man in 2016 right? Right but that's like that's the type of player right right right rather than being this guy who like can't skate and just like sits in front of his net and blocks a lot of shots like and that's what people sort of think that a stay at home defense man is yeah that's like not in 2016 that's not that's just not a good player that's not that's not that's not anything so matias at home is like much more I feel like a little bit more

conservative like he like doesn't try to like you know do anything too crazy he's cool with kind of sitting back and and playing playing good d and it allows a guy like subeen to sort of go on his rushes and stuff like that. And I feel like that's a pairing that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, and that's what Suban was saying towards the end of the preseason when LaVuette started to really settle the lineup up, was that Suban said something like he feels good about knowing that Echholm is behind him. And what's bizarre, I think, sort of struck people in Nashville,

and this is telling sort of how hockey has changed so much, so quickly, I think, is that back home last year even was on that pairing with Ryan Ellis and that was like the energy like high offense pairing yeah you know

because Zekholm will you know he'll drop down in the slot and he scored three or four game when he goals last year where you're going where are you going man especially since you're beside Ryan Ellis who you sort of expect that from you know

that home's a big tough guy but he you know he also is willing to sort of join the play when he's got to. So, yeah, I think the pairings are interesting. It certainly, I would assume, present some matchup problems for opposing coaches when your choices, do I want to face Romanyosia? Eckholm is such a fascinating player to me because I feel like, especially last year after the Seth Jones trade, people sort of started talking about him,

and it became one of those things where it's like everyone was saying how Matias Ekholm is so underrated. and it's like the whole like louie erics and they're like like well if everyone's saying he's underrated maybe he's properly or a little overrated because everyone is like on the bandwagon but like uh i know for myself i i track a lot of games especially for defensemen in terms of zone exits and just seeing sort of um tendencies and systems and stuff like that at home's always such a irritating player to me just because he shows these flashes like you just mentioned of like brilliance and you're just like wait what like where did that come from was that roman you know no that was matthew's i was matthew's i cool oh and then he has like these stretches where he's just perfectly cool just sort of like dumping it out off the boards and just like being that sort of stay at home defenseman and and i don't know maybe it's it's something where he still is kind of rounding into form and and you know bursting onto the scene in terms of being a high impact player so maybe it's one of those things it's going to take some time or or maybe you're just expecting too much like not every guy can just sort of be playing at like 110 percent in terms of just pushing the pace all the time

As a guy, you know, up in Vancouver, when Dan Hanhuis left here, and people in Nashville just dumped on Hanhuis, and the same thing happened with Kevin Klein for a large part of his time here, is that when you're a team like Nashville where, you know, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter or Shea Weber and Roman Yose are your first two defensemen, well, there's naturally going to be a big drop off to three, right? So, you know, Kevin Klein and Dan Hammers were not 2008 to 2011, Shea Weber, Ryan Suter. Yeah.

You know, and who was? But by playing those guys sort of in the middle of the pack, you allow them to develop. And I think we saw that a lot with Klein, who turned into a real contributor in maybe the worst trade in National Predators history. Yeah. The return was Michael Delzotto. Which is really funny because Michael Osato is now a really good player in Philly again. Like, I don't know what happened. We try not to think too much about that trade. Yeah.

Yeah, and then Klein left, and then your third defenseman is Seth Jones, who really should be a first pair of defenseman, and probably would have been. Right. I guess not maybe because Suvin would have been here. But, you know, we've really been blessed with a really good defenseman in Nashville, and I think sort of people are maybe harder or forget the back half of those defense parings in Nashville, because the top half has been so good for so long. And you can go back to like chemo team and then guys like that.

Yeah. Yeah, they're definitely not a, not short on defense. Yeah, it's, Nashville's an interesting team just because they have all these guys where, um, I just like, I feel like I'm higher on them than the general public because I'm sure like they're appreciated in Nashville in terms of predators, fans to watch them. But like, I feel like the casual fan in New York or whatever, like doesn't really know who. Kevin Fiala, for example. It's like, maybe if they're like a draft, not there, remember that he was a first round pick and, you know, he's on their radar.

But like, sometimes I watch him play and just like, I don't know, like, I feel like sometimes his, maybe he's like needs to tone it down a little bit in terms of his speed. Like it looks like, it looks like he's trying to do stuff. And it's a stick behind him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's like, it's like, you know, he's like learning how to like, I just like,

he's like learning how to use all of those different individual skills he has. And once he puts it all together into like a cohesive unit, it's going to be. scary good. But like right now you see the flashes where he's just like he's so fast and he has the skills with the puck on his stick but then like sometimes he just overskates the puck for some reason. And you're in Colorado game, which I think was probably

the best game he's played in Nashville. What surprises me about Fiala so much is that he plays a lot bigger than he is because he's not I mean it wouldn't be hard because he's the size of a number two pencil but the sort of power that he

or he'll stand up to guys sometimes. Not in open ice. Yeah. When he's kind of down low, he'll muscle around a little bit, which is nice to see. But, you know, he's also like, what, 19 or 20 years old? I mean, yeah. Yeah, that's right. And for once, Nashville has a skill young Ford they can afford to be patient with.

Right. Because if, you know, if Thiala had been here six or seven years ago, he would have been on the first line right away. Right. but he didn't have a choice. And, you know, now with guys like Forsberg and Johansson and, you know, even Craig Smith to a degree depending on, again, if it's a two-week period where he's on the team goals are like a two-week period where he's on the team. Fiala can, they can protect him a little more, and they can shelter him, and they can bring him along a little more slowly.

I think Victor Arbinson has helped with that a lot because I think Victor Arvinson plays a lot like Kevin, they would expect Kevin Fiala to turn into. So if they need a Fiala type higher up in the rotation, they can use Arvinson, which I've been high on Victor Robertson for a while, but he's really, so he's blossoming this year for sure. Well, so this is a question that you might be able to answer better than I am, but like, what's your, what's your feel on, is it all David Poil or is it, like, it seems like very, very kind of convenient that pretty much as soon as Barry Trotz leaves town, all of a

sudden this team becomes more offensively minded, but it's also like now they, it makes sense because they have sort of the tools to play that type of game. Like we're seeing in their system now with guys like Fiala and Arvidsen and you go on the line, they have legitimate forward prospects now and like Philip Worsberg bosoms into the star and all these guys. And it's like you look at the list of high-end forwards this franchise has had over the years and it's pretty short. Well, it's certainly, you know, uh, uh,

certainly better now than ever, instead maybe for the period when Korea was here. But, you know, I think, I think we should give David Poil some credit. I think he knew, and honestly, looking back, I think we all knew that Trots' last year was going to be Trots' last year,

unless they made the playoffs, which, you know, I think they won, like, 12 of their last 15, and they almost, you know, it sort of scared us a little bit. But, you know, I think a lot of that was, well, he knew it was going to be labellet. And I think everybody sort of knew it was going to be like going to be in here because of the U.S. hockey relationship. And, you know, a lot of times when you let one coach go, you go the complete opposite direction. Right.

And obviously that's what they did. So Poyle started to build that team a little bit more to what Lobelette would want to. do. And another thing about what's happened here that I think David Welsh should get a lot of credit for is that he's completely changed what he thinks. Now, part of that is, frankly, like the franchise is stable financially. We don't talk about, you know, the joke used to be that Nashville fans could calculate where the average attendance was versus the 12 or 14,000 that they needed from the lease,

you know, and we could do it in our head. when they announced the attendance at every game. But, you know, I don't, I mean, they're going to sell out 41 games this year. I don't think about that anymore at all. And it used to be sort of all-consuming. But so with that, he's been able to do things like, you know, make these player-for-player trades, which is not just a change for him. Is it really like a change for hockey?

I mean, you know, Seth Jones for Ryan Johansson was a huge trade. And then obviously P.K.C. Van for Shea Weber was a huge trade. you know, and he's done some things with deadline deals that I've worked out. I mean, I guess Forthburg for E. Rat and Lata was maybe the best example. But I mean, even the Legwan trade. Right, David Legwant, who was a guy who's been here a long time but wasn't going to come back. Yeah. You know, and you trade for Calli Yarncro and Patrick Eves, really enough, who then went to Dallas.

Yeah. It was not really good for some. The crown jewel of that train. But, you know, Calli Young Croc, Cali Young Croke. It's called Cali Iron Hook. That's my favorite translation. Yeah, he's a guy who, since he's been here,

has played really all 12 places in the Ford Rolls, which is going to make him pretty attractive, I think, for Las Vegas next summer. So that, you know, those kind of things pay off, and it's not just sort of stockpiling, draftics and that sort of thing. And they've been smart in the draft. Fiala is a great example of Seth Jones.

I don't know that they had much of a choice there. Right. And people in Nashville sort of grown when they took Seth Jones originally. Because, oh, you know, finally have a top five draft pick in Nashville and he takes another defenseman. Yeah. In hindsight, you know, like, you know, who came behind him then would have been four would have been.

That was a really good. Yeah, that was a really good draft. That was the McKinnon, Drouin, Barakov, Chess Jones. Oh, I was laying home, go on down, and that was a good draft. But, no, I mean, I think the Seth Stone's pick was sort of like at that point of the draft was kind of obvious. And it worked out, and it's a good reminder that, you know, draft picks are just assets. And you don't necessarily need to. You finally got the number one center, which you've never had except, no, I mean, really career,

or maybe Jason Arnard early on. Yeah. And even if you go deeper, like people said, well, Nashville will never take another Russian again after Radzlov. I'll roll my eyes at that one too. But, you know, they took a kid, Valor Kamenev. Vlad Kavanaugh, yeah, he's amazing. Who is a big, big body.

And I really thought was going to stick this year. And they may, you know, depending on what it looks like, they're going to have to do with the expansion draft. If it looks like it's going to be an grope, you may bring KMNF up and give him some more time because he is a big kind of two-way center. And it was really, really impressive in the preseason. Still a very young guy.

But so his change in thinking, you know, I wish I could ask him what it was if it was because he changed coaches or if it was, you know, he put together the Olympic team and sort of the way you put Nashville together and it ended up being terrible or whatever clicked with him or he just got people around him sort of talking him into a different way of thinking

or maybe he just evolved on his own, I don't know, but he's certainly been more willing to take risks, I think, than in the past. And maybe you go back to Souter where he did sort of the safe thing and kept him instead of trading him at the deadline that year. But, you know, I don't know. I think it's certainly encouraging and, you know, it's interesting to me.

We've been talking for maybe a half an hour. We haven't mentioned Pecker-Rene at all. And he was, you know, he was the first start of the month in November, and rightly so. And in November, he looked like 2010-2011, Pecker-Rene. The last couple of games, he has not looked great. But, I mean, he got pulled last night to Dallas. We're talking on Friday here. Although I don't know how much of that had anything to do with him.

Right. It was just not putting bodies on Dallas. And Dallas looked really, really desperate for a win. I mean, especially early in the year, like, when we were talking about how things weren't jelling it, like, he was definitely their best player in terms of just holding the fore and kind of keeping them afloat there. So I think that, you know, I definitely, like people like myself got a bit carried away last year just because, because of his down season, and I think there was a little bit of a pushback to, you know, the whole All-Star thing and stuff like that.

Oh, yes, he was an All-Star. The game was also a national. I know, exactly, exactly. Yes, yeah, yeah. I mean, John Scott was also. Yeah, right, John Scott was also too. How dare you disparage the sanctity of the All-Star game with Pecker-Renay. I mean, John Scott is here.

Yeah. But no, it's, it's, it, the David Poeell thing really is interesting to me because often, you know, these sort of hockey lifers that he's been around for so long that some guys just aren't willing to adapt or change their philosophy or change the way they do their job. It's gotten them to this point why they obviously think that they figured out the secret you know like just what they need to do to build a successful hockey team and he has had success in the past but it's I think it's a testament to him that they've gone about it in a completely different way and it's also now it looks like it's going to be another successful team.

I guess some of it is probably just like a lot of guys in this league don't have the luxury of that sort of like a leash, right? Yeah, and he's got a pretty long leash, obviously, at this point. I think, you know, you say he's barring just something catastrophic. I think he's probably the GM in National until he doesn't want to be. Pretty not sure. And it may even be a situation where he takes some sort of like president of hockey operations role even when he wants to step back. Something we haven't sort of talked about here, though, is he's, he's. did not go to the Olympics the year he was the GM of team

USA. He didn't travel because in Minnesota he got hit in the face with a shape of a slap shot. And I don't know if the disappointment of that or if maybe a light click for him that he's not going to be able to do this forever. I'm not going to cycle analyze the guy, but there was certainly a change after that season to the way that he approached building his team. And it could be due to any number

factors, but it really is something interesting because the staff around them hasn't really changed either. It's still, you know, it's still Paul Fenton is still in charge of the draft here and David's son Brian still involved in sort of the same staff. I mean, the scouts are more or less the same guys that have always been. Right. God bless him, our Northern European scout who keeps finding Patrick Hornquist and Peckereny and playing in like a cave in Finland or wherever they found them. But, uh, So, I mean, all credit to him. And, you know, we're getting older, and I think that could be part of it, too.

Like, I've got a, I've never won a title of any sort of description. So not here, not in Washington and not even as an Atlanta flame. Well, I think that they've done an awesome job. You mentioned the draft and who's responsible. I think that we should give some love there because it has been a team that other than the Seth Jones year hasn't really, you know, been bottoming out every season and, you know, accumulating all these top five draft picks and they've had to find a way to get these guys in the second, third, fourth round, wherever they've come from.

Or rounds that don't even exist. Yeah, yeah, exactly. In the ninth round or something, we don't have to hand that anymore. And I do think a big key to the success is, like, they've shown that they're perfectly cool with taking these undersized guys that other teams aren't, like, falling over themselves to grab, whether it's a guy like Victor Arvinson, who, Like, was it either once or maybe twice just went completely undrafted. Yeah.

For whatever reason. Like, people forget, I mean, it's now it's like he, I'm not necessarily surprised he's blossoming right now because like he's pretty much in his prime. Right. Yeah. So it's, but like guys like that where it's like, I mean, just in 2015 I'm looking right now, like they took a guy like Anthony Richard from the Q from the Q, from the Q where in the fourth round and he's like an undersized guy who was just like putting up like two points a game or something like that. Ridiculous. Right. And it's like, why not in the fourth round?

Like, it's not in a lose. And if he turns into being a skilled top six guy, like you've all of a sudden just like won that draft. Arkinson's such an interesting case because he, like you said, I mean, he was passed over a couple of times. And really his first couple of stents in Nashville was very much the human forecheck. You know, he could come out and he will skate very fast in one direction. And he still does that.

He still skates very fast in one direction, but now he's also decided he will shoot from everywhere. Yes. And, you know, if it doesn't go in, it's... I mean, you know, he'll take blind slap shots from, like, no man's land and, you know, try to shoot it from behind the goal line. What are you doing? But it bounces around.

Something happens. So it just astounds me that it's falling for him this year. And, you know, I mean, last year, he was still shooting it. You'd have eight or nine shots a game, you know? You're crazy. That's Patrick Hornquist kind of stuff without doing what Patrick Hornquist did here for so long. Right. Standing in front of the net and kind of just slapping at every rebound.

Yeah, he's an interesting guy who's probably playing above his head a little, but that's good because kind of in the injury part of the season here, maybe more so than I think people expected or wanted him to send a guy like Mika Salmaki who was supposed to be. sort of your fourth line guy. Played really well in the playoffs last year. Colton Sissons, your kind of,

your new Paul Gostad, except the guy he can score. It's been out for a while. Ellis, you know, they don't even give us updates on him. It's a little nerve-wracking. But, you know,

essentially signed Adam Party off the street to play. Yeah. Well, I'm sure he'll still be better than Matt Carl was early in the year. He retired, right? He did, yeah, yeah. So, it's, It's one of those things where I don't even want to necessarily make fun of him just because it's sad that his career is over. Well, you talk about Matt Carl and a guy like Mike Barrow or, you know, party mayor may not be like this.

But that's another thing that Boyle's done is he's been willing to sign these sort of reclamation projects to these one year, $1.1 million deal. We sort of joked about it for a while. But, and it's like, okay, like, I mean, I think Cody Hodgson was a guy that was like that. And, you know, there have been four or five others. And you're like, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, who cares? Yeah. You know, just wave them.

Who cares? Like one out of every five works out of your. It's a positive thing. And I guess it's pretty topical because on the day we're recording this right now, Cal Clutterbuck got a five-year deal for $3.5 million per. And that's the whole argument against moves like that because, like, while I'm sure people in the room love Calcutterbuck and he does all these little things, which, you know, add up over time.

Like, you can make all these random and tangible comments about stuff he brings to the table. But, like, when you sign deals like that, it sort of ties your hands from taking these, like, lottery tickets, right? Because, like, all of a sudden you've locked down your fourth line when you're paying him and Casey Zazica's, like, $7 million combined. And it's like, well, you can't go for these kind of high upside guys for the minimum, right? Yeah. Friends is just the Reed Boucher off waiver. Yeah. And I think he's played one game, but it's like, why not?

You cares. Pay him for three weeks, and if it works out, it works out. You wave him too. I don't think, I don't think Reed Boucher is going to stink the entire operation if he doesn't work out. I mean, that's certainly not going to, you're not taking a $3.5 million dollar, you know, salary cap hit because of him. Yeah. You know, Calderblerblake, I tweeted this at you break before I left my house, but he's making half a million dollars less against the cap than Roman Yose. I mean, that's absurd.

Yeah. That's absurd sort of. in both ways. Roman Yosie only makes $4 million against the cap, and Clark wrote makes three and a half. But you've got to be smarter, I think, and that's why I'm so encouraged, sort of the Nashville's fourth line is finally,

you know, guys in their, a lot of times still on their ELC or not in their first real contract and not Paul Gostad or Eric Nystrom, who were both fine for what they did. Eric Nystrom, of course, holds the national record for goals in the game. Yep. It's scoring four goals and gets Calgary in a game they lost and maybe the most natural Predators thing that's ever happened.

But you just necessarily have to pay those guys more than you have to pay a 21-year-old. Right. And if you're only playing them four or five minutes a night, then what's the point of that? Yeah. Yeah. And one thing you definitely can't say about the Predators, they have four lines that can all play. Yeah. That's in today's NHL, that's unless.

Like if you have any weak spots like that, if you have like a couple guys in your fourth line that can't skate and can't really contribute any. thing? Like, the good teams in the league will find a way to expose that in the four to six minutes they get out. It's like, it's just going to find a way to work itself out. Let's talk a little bit about the central division because I think it's a, it's fascinating how like jam-packed it is in the middle and then obviously like the aves, I think we can sort of just qualify them from the playoff conversation. And then the Blackhawks are running away with it a little bit, but I think anyone that sort of looks at underlying numbers realizes that, you know, they're, I don't want to say they're fraudulent, but they're definitely riding a fortunate wave right now bounces.

And I think that I don't think that they're as good as their record indicates. So I think it's like, I don't think for a team like the Preds, it's like, oh, we have no chance to catch in the block off. And there are been times in the British history where you go on a little run there in November and December and you're like, oh, and then you look up and, you know, in the past it was Detroit's, you know, 17 points clear somehow or Chicago. I think the Central was down from last year. and I don't really know why that is.

I think the Western Conference as a whole, like it's pretty clear that the Metro Division is like the power broker in the league right now. Which is bizarre. Yeah. Right. And I think part of it with the Central may be victims of their own success. People in Dallas talk about this, that their slow start was because they had so many guys in the World Cup and everyone could have been.

But the Central as a whole really had, because there was so much talent, missed a lot of guys who came in late to training camp or maybe were banged up a little earlier than you expected. So, and, you know, with the 26th best goalie in league history,

Corey Crawford out for a couple of weeks with appendicitis. Yeah. You know, it's, I mean, Scott Harlein gets us nightmares in Nashville, but is he going to get the lead nightmares for a couple of weeks? Yeah.

Well, very well, good. I mean, and it is interesting because they do have like the high-end talent Just like guys like Cain and Panarin are like, it's very conceivable. Like they could be like getting outshot all game and outplay. And then all of a sudden they just like have two shifts where they just like quickly score goals. It's like, well, we played a good 58 minutes and that's all for naught. So it's, I still think that, you know, the Central Division is like open there for the taking though.

Like I think the blues are once again going to be very formidable. They're also one of those teams that don't really have very many weaknesses up and down the lineup. And you can just like grind it out. And Minnesota is sort of. same way and Winnipeg is getting the goal attending like they are yeah their skaters are very good so I just Winnipeg is a this is probably true for everybody in the west but you feel like you don't see them for a long time and I understand why that is because of the way of where Winnipeg is sort of their schedule is bizarre they go on these like 13 game road trips and then they are home for like six weeks

and then they're you know yeah so I was kind of poking through their schedule last night you know they went back to back and get to Chicago and St. Louis this weekend on Saturday and Sunday which is, or Friday in, whatever it was. But it's, you know, that's tough to do for any team and for a team like Winnipeg where you go, this is not a team that's supposed to be very good. Right. Obviously, you know, their goal-tending situation improved pretty dramatic

when they finally realized that Pavich wasn't the answer. But, you know, I think Dallas is they get healthier. Dallas looked real good last night. Yeah. I mean, you know, you're going, Ben, Speza, and Sagan, across your first line. Yeah. I mean,

okay. That's pretty messed up. You just have to tolerate that, I think, for a while. That's the thing. I mean, Dallas right now is, Dallas in National League tied for 5th and 6th in the Central Division, right? Yeah.

And you look down in the Pacific Division, it's like, oh, okay. It seems like there's definitely like still an imbalance in power in the Western clients. Yeah, the Pacific is bad. The three Canadian teams, I assume we're in the basement there.

Well, actually, Edmonton and Calgary are one, two right now, which is mind-blower. Oh, okay. See, how much I follow the Pacific Division. Yes. Yeah, no, that is bizarre. Yeah. So, you know, you've got to get the top five. You can't just take 17s from the Central and the Champ from the Pacific, although that would be.

Why can't we, though? Who's to say we can? Why? Edmonton versus the Central Division. But, yeah. I don't know if it, like you said, St. Louis is the St. Louis team they've always been. And I think Chicago is probably going to be Chicago-e as long as, you know, how long taste is going to be out. That kind of thing.

And when you look at, you know, Nashville is sort of like glum because of the injury thing, but compared to the teams you expect to compete against, it's not been that bad. Yeah. I don't know that you want to go with random like fourth defensemen instead of Ryan Ellis for a real long time. Right.

I mean, and the other thing is, you know, you could play Erwin there with, I mean, I played with Yosie for a while. But the problem is, like, who's going to play with Yonick Weber? And you figure Anthony Beto, who's just fine in that role. And, of course, he gets hurt for a time.

So it's Adam Party or it's, you know, somebody from Milwaukee that I've never heard of. You don't want that to be a problem for a long time because you take a lot of things away when you take Ellis out of the question and it's not just what he brings. It's sort of the way that you build your team. And especially at a time where you said,

okay, it's all finally coming together now, that all of these guys are working together, everybody's skating where they should be. You know, Mike Fisher finally gets to be a third-line, for the first time of his career, which is what he should have been his entire career. Right. And then, you know, now he's got to play in the second line. Yeah.

You know, that's what with injuries, it sort of bumps everyone up into a spot. They probably shouldn't be. Well, I mean, that was the great thing. Last year, when they traded, was it last year they traded for Johanson? I guess it was. Yeah, it seems like it's been. I know, guys, it's been here pro. Is that, is that Fisher got to, the question was it whether Rivera or Mike Fisher was going to be the first line center anymore.

neither one of those guys has any business being a first line center at this point in their career. You know, you could play Rivera on the second line with sort of protected minutes and you can let Mike Fisher do what he does. But that really showed after Johansson got there and you put those guys in that role, you know, Mike Fisher was incredible in the playoffs. And a lot of that, I think, was a testament to he finally, I mean, probably really for the first time ever, got to, be the center of a line that he belonged on and being forced to play up a little bit.

Everything made sense, yeah. All right, one final thing before we get out of here. We should talk a little about a bit about P.K. Suban. Okay, yeah, sure. We touched on him a little bit. We did, yes. But I just like, I'm curious as a local, just like how had the first couple months of the PK. Subban experience been?

Because as someone, you know, viewing it from the outside, it's been a blast. Sure, yeah. Watching him just go to the Titans game, take. You get a shirt off. Take a shirt off. It blows my mind that people get on his case for the fact that he's young and having fun. Like, it looks amazing. Like, I wish I was having as much fun in life as he is.

But when he did, I don't know why you would do that at Alowitz. Do they still exist? I don't know. Yeah, they do. Okay. So he wouldn't do that in Alowitz's case. Yeah. I don't know that it would get the attention.

If anyone would, though, probably would be. Yeah. But, so I try to think of, like, what the analog to that would have been in Montrose. all and I don't know that there is one impact game, I don't know. But he, people here just thought that was like the coolest thing in the world. Yeah, that was amazing.

Yeah. He did that. And, you know, his first 72 hours here, he was singing Johnny Cash at Tutsis, and then he, like, and that was sort of like an organized team thing. Tutsis is across the street from the arena. It was pretty easy to. Yeah.

But, you know, then like later, there was the cell phone video where he just like came to Tutsis and saying Juicy by Notorious VIG. But, you know, people here, I think, love him, and I think a lot of that is, this is a town that necessarily is used to people being stars. I mean, it's what, you know, natural manufacture stars. It's called the country music industry for a reason. We, we, these people are packaged and created and they come out and we expect them to act a certain way. And, you know, if that's outspoken or. brash and it's just something we tolerate.

But it's also a situation where people, you know, if I see Garthburg said, Kroger, we don't, you know, we don't bother. Because these people are our neighbors. They all live around here. So we want people

to be sort of outgoing and bubbly and different and, you know, this is a town that likes fun things that also sort of as a hockey culture has become a lot less self-conscious and defensive about it and

we've been in the league long enough now that we don't feel like we've got to do things that if you'll forgive me and your listeners will forgive me that will placate Canadians that we don't worry about what will you know what will not Bob McKenzie because he loves you here

but some old stodgy Canadian maybe you got to think of us if we do this or that or that. It doesn't matter this is what we we have created the culture exists now so PKCC ban is a perfect part of

sort of what going to a hockey game in Nashville is like which is you know it's loud all the time and they're screaming and it's pretty much just like a big party and we like people to get excited and I can't think of like in the history of the Nashville prayers I can't think of too many

like big personalities on this team right it's like you know it's a lot of sort of stereotypical Scandinavians. Yeah, yeah. The ice cold Scandinavian predator. And, you know, the biggest star here was, was Shea Weber, who, you know, was great and was great in the city and did lots of good things.

But it's not, you know, he's not P.K. Super Bowl. Right. Yeah. He's a much different sort of star than that. And like you said, we've just never had that guy. We haven't, to a large degree, even had that guy. with the Titans. So to have a guy who... Well, maybe the Titans now have PKK Zuvat as well.

That's right. Sure. Well, and it works both ways because Titans players now come to Predators games. Delaney Walker is a big Predators fan. Avery Williamson, who is just sort of a normal kind of middle linebacker. There's nobody special, but really got into the

Preds during the playoffs last year and they would like, I mean, he was sitting in like the 200s. It wasn't like he got, oh, we'd give my tickets, you know, free and sit down on the front row. Like, he was just up in some random seats and he, you know, stand in the crowd during the game. And there's Avery Williams. And he became sort of like the mascot for the Predators playoff run, which is going crazy.

So to see that is very interesting because for a long time, the only guys from that culture, from the Titans culture, would be the punters and kickers. from Minnesota or whatever. But now it's just, you know, just... Everything. Mountains of Titans fans.

So, yeah. I think it's sort of changed the way we see. I mean, this is what hockey and Nashville should be like, to me, is someone who is excited and happy and a big sort of personality that, you know, is on the ice. what it is like to be in Bridgetown Arena, particularly for a game against Chicago or in the playoffs where it's so loud and it's just, you know, you're dying at the end of it, especially if it goes to three overtimes and it's 2.30 in the morning. And, you know, I think Joe Hansen's that way in a different way. He's sort of quirky.

Right. He's a weird guy. Yeah. He's kind of a strange dude. You know, he kisses a stick and it's a... I feel like most hockey players are pretty weird dudes, though. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. He has like this weird sort of Twitter relationship with Carrie Underwood, which is, or Instagram relationship with her where they're like make fun of each other and like, I don't know.

But, you know, I like that because these are guys in their 20s and that's what it should be. It's not like these old sort of boring cats that we got used to here. Right. It's a team that has personality now, I think, more than anything else. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, Suban came at the perfect time just because. the franchise as a whole has gotten that sort of facelift we were talking about the job poyle was done in terms of making it like younger more exciting more

offensively inclined and and it those are all things that I think of and I think of bkis who vans and with you know and he's a guy who cares about things like this and I don't have a problem with that but Nashville as a city uh is booming and and a lot of big corporations are relocating here I mean Bridgestone is obviously headquartered here and he was in a Ridgestone commercial. There we go. That's brand synergy right there. Two or three leagues like coming here.

So, you know, and a lot more of that is going to happen. As, you know, Nashville is a relatively cheap place to operate versus maybe New York or L.A. So, and we have people here that know how to market. Yeah. Well, I've enjoyed the P.K. Suban experience and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. J.R., where can people find you all? online. Well, you can find me at J.R.

England on Twitter. That's easy enough. And Patch.com slash Tennessee slash Nashville or just go to patch.com and find Nashville. That's where I am these days. Cool. The Hockey P.D.O.cast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud. At soundcloud.com slash hockeypedocast.