The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 210: East Coast Bias

Episode Date: December 6, 2017

Dom Luszczyszyn joins the show to help navigate the Eastern Conference, discussing topics such as: 2:25 The Bruins top-heavy construction 6:25 The Sabres losing ways 11:25 The Hurricanes as a preseason sleeper 15:50 The Blue Jackets splits 26:30 The Panthers dreadful offseason 34:20 Cory Schneider's bounceback and the Calder race 38:30 How Mat Barzal's emergence changes things 48:40 Erik Karlsson's looming free agency 52:30 The Flyers losing streak 57:30 The Penguins slow start 61:40 Tampa Bay's devastating top line 66:35 Is there an obvious trade for the Leafs to make? 71:55 Have the Capitals lost too much? Sponsoring today’s show is SeatGeek, which is making it easier than ever before to buy and sell sports and concert tickets. They’re giving our listeners a $20 rebate off of their first purchase. All you have to do is download the free SeatGeek app and enter the promo code PDO to get started. Also sponsoring the show is FanDuel, the PDOcast’s one-stop shop for Daily Fantasy Hockey. They’ve set up a contest for listeners of the show to compete in, which will be running every Thursday evening. To join in on the fun, just go to fanduel.com/PDO and make sure to let them know that we sent you. Every episode of the podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, and Stitcher. 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 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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Welcome to the Hockey PTOCast. My name is Demetri Vilpovich, and sitting across from me is my buddy Dom. Dom L. Dom L. What's going on? Are you from Edmonton? No, I'm not. But I am...

I don't want to mess up your name, so I'm just going to go with Dom L for now. That's fair. That's been the... It's been the moniker for me over on Edmonton radio. They just call me Dom L from the Athletic, which is fine. Yeah. I'll take it. It's pronounced loose chishin for those who are wondering.

But the thing is, I feel like for a while there, maybe we discussed this last time I had you on, but there was a bit of a battle between you and the other Dom for Dom supremacy and hockey Twitter. But I feel like the other Dom is going to be doing way bigger and better things than any of us. Probably, yeah. Too busy to be.

I don't know. I think he's like 16, 18, 20. He's around that age. He's definitely not 16. That was a joke. I'm sorry, Dom. He's a pretty smart fellow though. I don't know what I was doing at that age, but it was not what he's doing and he's, you know, actually studying stats. I'm almost positive he'll surpass me. I'm having my mom in the sun right now, but one day he'll be like the GM of the Leafs. He's coming for you. He definitely is.

So we did the Western Conference sort of kind of look around. We bounced around, talked about all the teams and everything with Tyler Delo earlier in the week and we're going to shift out east for this one. for this one. And we're going to refine the process because what I learned doing part one was it's very easy to get sidetracked and lose track of time. That's especially true with Tyler. Yes. And we spent, I think, 50 minutes or so in the Pacific Division. And then we're like, oh, crap.

We actually have to get into the interesting stuff here, but we're running out of time. So we hastily went through the Central and I don't want to do that this time. So what we're going to do is I'm going to, I promise I'm not texting right now. I'm looking on the phone. I'm going to set my timer. And we're going to do four minutes. on each team in the Eastern Conference, whether they deserve those four minutes of our time or not,

we're going to give it to them and we're going to try to make... Some of them we're going to really be like trying to kill time and scrambling for topics, but I feel like we'll be able to make it work. Four minutes isn't that long. How do we spend four minutes on the Detroit Red Wings? Well, we don't have to worry about that yet because we're going to start with the Boston Bruins

because we're doing the alphabetical order here. Okay. So I've hit the timer. All right. We'll get to go. The Bruins. So, do you think this is a fair comparison? I feel like when I was thinking about this, I feel like they're kind of like Calgary Flames East.

That feels accurate. Yeah. From my perspective, because I do get a lot of, why is Calgary so high, why is Boston so high? So it feels good. They're very, like, top heavy, and they have some, they have some good D now. Charlie McIvoy has been pretty great this year, and I think a top four with him, Char for one more year. Krug and Brandon Carlo is pretty solid, and it's pushed a guy like Kevin Miller down the

lineup and adam quaid is injured too so that's you know a positive right oh we don't we don't condone injuries but yeah we don't condone injuries obviously performance as a performance wise yes it is a but they have been dealing a lot of injuries up front and it's been surprised they're still like having a top 10 coursey team despite that which is pretty good yeah i think top heavy is the right word for them which is why i use that the flames comparison you know i noticed um charlie mackabois is actually leading the league in uh five on five ice time pretty good is which is pretty crazy considering that he's a 19-year-old who had zero NHL regular season games under his belt before this season.

Obviously, he played in the playoffs for him last year and looked really well doing so, but they're really just kind of, they're definitely not dipping their toes in the water with him. It's like, all right, Charlie, we need you to do everything. Everything, yeah, I think he's facing top. Well, he's playing with Charo, Charo, but I mean, I can't, I mean, I probably could look this up, but I feel like it's probably been at least, what, like a decade since Charo wasn't the one leading them. I think it's definitely them, too. And I think he's a positive course he riddles all,

which is tough to do when you are the top guy and when the second pair is a guy like Krug as well. Right. So very impressive season for him. I think once they're really healthy, they can hopefully move Pasternak down to the second line with Krati and then get those pairs going. They have Krati, Pashton, Bershron,

and hopefully they got young guys like Bjork, Debrusk, Hinen, step up. I think they could be a good team. I know some people are down on them. for whatever reason. I'm going to do my fan power rankings probably today or tomorrow and I just know Boston will be much lower than they should be.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when they top-load that first line and put past their neck with Bergernaq with Bergeron and Marshawn, obviously that's probably not the most optimal way to use them just because then it really leaves you kind of vulnerable

when they're not on the ice. But, man, I was looking when those three guys are out there together, they're like a 70% target team or something. It's just absurd. It's like the other team just shouldn't even fall. I'm trying to get the fuck because it's not going out. That first line is insane.

Yes. Okay, so we have a minute here. Tuka Rask, that's the elephant in the room here, because he is now 30 years old. He has three years left on his deal after this one at $7 million a pop, which is pretty pricey. And the problem with that is that he's been getting worse every single season since 2013. You're talking to a very proud Tukarask fantasy owner in a keeper league. He's my keeper goalie. Well, when did you get him?

I got, I traded for him last year at the trade deadline because the Bruins had like the high, yeah, coursey, low Pio. I'm like, all right, they're going to turn around for the stretch drive. I'm going to have two grass. He's going to rattle off some wins. And he did do that while allowing like three goals a game. So that was not fun. Yeah, because I was going to say, if you had him back in 2013, 14, I'm sure you were a loving life

when he was like a 930 goalie, but, no, I got him at the very wrong time, which is now. And apparently there's a goaltending controversy as well with. Is there? I mean, Kodom was starting, like, I think he started like three games in a row, and now they're alternating a bit. I mean, they're going to go to Rask eventually once he finds his game, but, like, the fact that they're not. Yes.

I actually used to be a Kadobin fan, like, after his first run in Boston, and when he was in Carolina for a while, but it's been a few years since that point. All right, we're here. We're four minutes. We're one team in. Doing well. Buffalo Sabers. All right.

This is going to be, this is going to be one of those. It's going to be, how do we talk about this for four minutes? Actually, you know what? I think there's plenty to talk about with this team because I hate both how many games I've watched that theirs this season and myself for that fact. Why would you do that to yourself? It's, I don't, I don't know what, like, what's happening. I feel like every time I'm just like looking and their Buffalo Sabres are on my screen and it's always just a, it's a miserable, pathetic experience. Man, this team is, wow.

I thought they'd be better than this. I mean, is it humanly possible for them to be worse? right like uh the thing i was writing today which was i was a little late for the pediocas we're just full disclosure you kept me waiting you big time me i did not big time me i was just a little busy i had things to you i was writing my monthly trends piece and i'd highlight two teams that are hot who teams are cold and last month buffalo was a team that was cold this month buffalo is a team that is they're they're they're still trending down like they're a cliff i think they're a team that the team that got my model has decided as the worst since like the preseason like the one that's

dropped the hardest and um my editor when i first started doing so at the hockey news he said when i first said this idea is like yes it's fine just as long as you're not doing like the same teams over and over again and like in this case like it has to be like a special case and buffalo has just been that that they're been a special case they're they are a very special team they're a special team i mean speaking of their special teams uh this is why i'm a broadcast professional by the way that segue right there really good bro I'm impressed they've played okay so they've

they've played 152 minutes at 5 on 4 this year with them being on the power with them having the five guys and the other team having four it's good that you're clarifying this because I know that it's bad and it doesn't seem like they're plus one in goal differential in 152 minutes of having one extra player on the ice they scored one more goal than our opponents they scored eight power play goals and they've given up seven I get that like it's a new coaching staff

but I don't know how you take last year's power play which was like, I think, top five or something like that. I know when they changed coach in Washington, I'm pretty sure the coach just says, do exactly what you did last year and they're fine. You could have done that with Buffalo. They were tinkering a lot with it. They have, I think, Eichol on one unit, O'Reilly and another.

The second unit looks like the first unit minus Eichol, and the first unit, like they're doing, I think was Eichel, Reinhardt, Kane, Victor Antipin, for some reason, and one of their other terrible defensemen. Right, right, right. So when you're two, like Buffalo, why would you use 3-4 or 2D for your power play setup when you only have one good defenseman?

Yeah. Arguably. Well, I'm definitely on the power play. On the power play, yeah, he's definitely there. Yeah, it's, I feel like every time I'll also look like Marco Scandella is playing like 26 minutes and night and it's like, what is it going on here? What do you think is going through the heads of Phil Housley and Jason Bottle right now? I mean, you know, just a few short months ago they're competing in the Stanley Cup final.

they're on the predators and the penguins two of the best teams in the league and I'm sure you know they expected that they probably wouldn't be back there this year but I feel like they'll so this is probably not what they sign up for I can't imagine the like I guess there's other factors involved but just to say I'm leaving the Pittsburgh Penguins of National Predators to go to well it's an opportunity it's an opportunity to yeah of course definitely a higher position of promotion but still I I mean, I feel like a better opportunity would have came up,

especially if they stayed in those franchises, right? Yeah, that's the tough thing about the sport is that, you know, you've got to be selective and pick your spots. Because if this thing really goes off the rails, I mean, the both guys are young enough and thought of highly enough that I'm sure this won't be like the last opportunity they get, but it's a bit of a tough one. 10 seconds left here.

Jack Eichol, I just want to say when he gets crapped on by people, I think fewer things, inferiority me more than hockey right now. Because people, like, you list like, oh, man, this is how productive he's been, blah, blah, blah, this and that. He has zero secondary assists at 5-15 this year. He has 15 primary points. It's basically all, if they're scoring, it's because he either scored or directly guided the puck into the net for someone else. He needs a lot of help. I feel a little bad for him because especially he has that McDavid.

Yeah. Yeah, he's tough. Okay. We went over four minutes on Buffalo there somehow. Can we go a little bit more over for like one second? Yeah. Do you remember Zemgus Juergenson's All-Star? Yes.

I was on the Zemgus train. Like, that team was that bad. The Zemgus train has gone off the rails. It's gone. He's not, I can't believe he was ever. He's definitely one of like, if you made, if Down Goes Brown, we'll make a list one day of the worst all-stars. And he's definitely there just for his contribution, I guess, that year. John Scott.

He's a legend. Yes, it's true. He's top. He's the MVP. He was an MVP. It's true. Also, one of the nicest people I ever met. Okay.

Carolina Hurricanes. Interesting team. Yeah. Interesting team. Yeah. So I think the thing that's especially interesting is, you know, when you and I did the preseason sort of projections and we were laying out how we thought the standings would shake out, we were both obviously high on Carolina. You know, justifiably so based on the fact that their underlying numbers have been great for a few years now and they have all this young talent that's coming together at the right time. Seems like a very smart, well-run organization.

And once again, I feel like we're doing the same dance all over again where, you know, 5 on 5, 5, very good team. There's a lot to like. They're fun to watch. I love the way they play. You know, Bill Peters has them playing a fast style, a lot of tempo, a lot of puck movement. The results still haven't really been there. And it's weird because, like, they're good. goalie performance has been better than in the past.

I mean, you know, 5-15 right now, they're 19th. And it's sort of like when you're talking about the kings and their shooting percentage where as long as they're not like bottom three to five in the league, it's a step in the right direction. So what, like, why, I mean, other than the fact that hockey sometimes is weird and the Metro Division is just a brutal, brutal place to play. Why haven't they had as many wins as their, numbers suggest they should.

It's always tough with Carolina because there's a spectrum of, I guess, the whole shot attempt ratio spectrum of how much it works and they're like at the extreme end where I mean, you look at, they played twice against the Rangers, I think, this weekend and lost both those games. It feels like Carolina is the fancy stats team and the Rangers are the complete opposite of them. Right. They took them.

They won both games pretty handily. And like it just, it makes you think, like, is there something? There's obviously something we're missing because we don't know everything. But like, what is that? How much are we missing from this equation? Because Carolina keeps putting up these nice numbers and not getting there. I mean, it's gotten to the point it's been going on long enough that, I mean, I don't want it. I don't want this to be taken out of context and be, you know, it's like a hot take, clickbait thing where it's like shot.

quality versus shot quantity, but I don't know, does it, does the fact that the hurricanes are a league leading 55% shot shirt team pass the smell test to you? I mean, I think, like, I think, I think they'll be fine. Yeah, yeah. Like, there's still a bit of the seasons to go. One of the things we did mention preseason was whether Scott Darling could take them to new heights. And I mean, their goaltending is up, but a lot of that is Cam Ward, who's been pretty good. Which is weird. And also another thing about my fantasy team is that Scott Darling is the other goalie. So things are going not great in Fantasy Land.

Yeah, it sounds like the team is not very good. Well, maybe it's just the goalies. It's just the goalies. I'm currently second in points and somehow four and four. So love head to head. Head to head is a great time. And I'm basically the Carolina Hurricanes of fantasy hockey apparently. Well, you know what people love listening to us right now.

People love when people talk about their fantasy team. Oh, yeah, for sure. Sorry. All right, we got 30 seconds here left in the hurricanes. I don't know. What else is there to say? I feel like they're young. Yes.

Fins need to, they're like, they've been very good, but they need to be taken to, like, another level, I guess. They still don't have that superstar player, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I'd say, like, you know, like a Sebastian Ajo, for example, has been, last I checked, he was a bit snake bin this year. Yeah. um he'll be fine like he's obviously supremely talented i mean yeah he's he's shooting seven percent

this season uh terra vinen has been good he went he rattled off that hot streak you know he's got to maintain that yeah it's a good team they're really fun to watch um even if things do get better for them this year um you know i'm not sure at this point if they can make a lot of noise in the metro division just based on no hanifin has been really good this year he has yeah yes yeah yeah yeah they have man they have uh they have a good collection of talent um all right Columbus blue jackets we're on the clock um I think this might be the most interesting team in the league to me one of them yeah and you know what's really annoying my editors don't want me to write that much about the Columbus blue jackets because

you know if they don't capture much attention of the Canadian fan base yeah fortunately for yourself working at the athletic you have a you have a go-to spot too I do um I, last year I was the de facto blue jackets beatwriter somehow because they opened up that spot and they didn't really have anyone writing there yet. And I think Myrtle connected the managing editor with me and I just, for some reason, just started writing all these, this Columbus Blue Jackets content. And it led to one of the worst takes I've ever had. Worst, I can't. It's actually, it's actually amazing to witness this name. because I wrote this, after the expansion draft, I wrote that losing William Carlson,

not a big deal. And his numbers last year just weren't impressive at all. He didn't get points. He didn't shoot the puck at all. He had like barely one shot per game. He wasn't driving play. And this year he's doing the opposite of all those things. And it just is weird.

So credit to the Vegas scouting staffer grabbing that one. Right. ultimately though I mean I mean you never want to just lose talented players like that and you can never have too many of them but they haven't really missed him too much I mean they haven't I was slightly correct about that

but like I mean Carlson's been so good that you well they're one of those teams that has just like when I look at their forward group there's just so many fascinating like just chess pieces there that they can move around and it doesn't feel like they really need to be tied into you know they're like kind of the anti-Boston Bruins

we were saying earlier it's like I can just move everything around and it doesn't really ultimately matter and the weird thing for me has been it's been such a kind of night and day situation from last season because even when they were winning all those games last year it was you know we were kind of suspect of how good they really were and they were sort of more of a middle of the pack five on five team than anything except for that one run like they were their expected goals right was like top five for like two months and then it just went back to normal but for the season as a whole it was definitely sort of middle of the pack and it was a lot of the fact that especially early in the year their power play was just clicking

at a, you know, insane rate and it came back down to earth. And this year, they're probably sucks. They're league worst. They're league worst. It's so bad. And actual goals, which is bizarre. And they've been like a top three, five-on-five team in pretty much every single category. So it's, I mean, I guess it's probably a more sustainable recipe for future success.

And then obviously you factor in the fact that they probably have the best goal in the league. And there's a lot to like about this team. Their power play should be a lot better when you have Zach Rowanke and Artine Panarin on it. It's so weird that they've added Artis. him to Pannarin like it's like Brendan Saud for as I think he's a great player yeah but he's like a five on five guy if anything and Pinaran is also a perfectly fine five on five player but you figure like oh man he's gonna be like such a nice little addition on his power play and it's just been bizarre how stagnant has been our tank Pintneran has been incredible a five and five this year

you're talking about the whole chess piece scenario with Columbus any line that has peneran on it like they had like I think there's like three lines where he has like a 60% shot share and they're like just different players. I think right now he's with Panera, it's Panarian, Anderson, and Pierloog de Bois, which is like a weird. It's a very Columbus Blue Jacket's line.

It's a very Columbus Blue Jackus line, and it's working really well for everyone. Yeah. This is going to be super random, but, you know, I think you feel like listeners enjoy when we provide these just random anecdotes that they might not have paid attention to.

Josh Anderson this year has been one of my most pleasant surprises. You know, he was a pretty good player last year, but he definitely kind of profiled more, is sort of a third line type. And then this summer there was a lot of kind of noise made about him. Like the Blue Jackets went out of the way to protect him in the expansion draft. And then they had that kind of like nasty dispute about his contract and it looked like he might hold out.

And then he missed the start of the year. And then he comes in and I was looking and I mean, you'll appreciate this. He's 11th in game score per hour this year. Sandwich between Kuturi and Goodroll basically. Like it's and it's weird. because obviously they've bumped up the lineup and he's been playing with better players and he's getting more opportunity, but he's also taken advantage of it. And what I've noticed particular is his individual shot rate has just gone through the roof.

And it's just, I guess, hey, kudos to him and the Blue Jackets for believing in him because I didn't see this coming. Yeah, I wrote this exact thing in the, I guess, in the Carlson piece about the expansion draft because, I mean, the Blue Jackets also paid a lot. Expansion due, say, stay away from these players. And I just, I didn't see it because the line they're protecting, Carlson, Anderson, Like, they weren't very good last year. I think when people talking about Columbus having the best fourth line in the league last year, it was because their third line wasn't that good and the fourth line was performed much better. I don't know why they wouldn't switch it.

Right. This year, it's completely opposite where all those guys have been unreal. They've been unreal. All right, we need to switch gears here because we're running a bit long. Seth Jones is also very good. Yeah, just had that out of it. Yeah, so is Zach Wrenzki. Detroit Red Wings.

You know what? We're going to do like three minutes here because we somehow did five minutes on the Sabres, and I feel like eight minutes combined on the Sabres and Red Wings is good enough. That seems very fair. Especially after the Red Wings gave up 10 goals on Saturday. And it was actually kind of felt a bit bad because you were watching some of the press comments is after. And like you can see the pain in Henrik Zetterberg and Nichols-Kronwell's faces, and they were like legitimately embarrassed.

And I mean, justifiably so whenever you get up 10 goals. Especially to a team that's been so offensively styled as the Canadians. It's like, oh, this, especially when the fourth line is doing the damage, I think Jacob Delrose had a four point night. Yeah. Yeah, Nicholas Delorees is running wild on you. Never want that. Yeah, never.

That's a sentence I thought I would never really say. So what do we, what do we say about this Detroit team? You know, they got out of the gates, winning more games than I would have expected. And then... They did it last year or two. Yeah. I mean, okay, let's start with a positive. Dylan Larkin has been very good this year.

Yeah. And which has been nice to see because he had, you know, the disparity between his first and second years in the league was just way off. And everyone was buying into the sort of sophomore slump thing and whatever. And he's obviously made changes to his game and whatever he's done is worked because he's bounced back to that rookie season form. Other than that, I mean, I don't know. Especially this team's blue line.

I mean, it's bleak. It's Sabres-esque. They also have Anthony Amtha, who is really good as well. That's two guys who make the future seem a little brighter in Detroit, but the rest of the lineup has just been... I think it's remarkable that David Booth is playing for this team. I think it's remarkable that David Booth is playing for this team. I haven't even made a projection for David Booth yet.

He had a multi-goal game. Come on, man. I just haven't even bothered to put replacement forward. Yeah. Well, so like where do they go for the rest of the season? Because the problem I see here is that I mean, it's what we've been talking about with this team where they kind of might just need to bite the bullet a little bit and just ride this thing out. Yeah. Because they don't like have any very obvious places they can go in terms of like dumping contracts and actually like getting assets back for them. It's a lot of like just wait for some of these contracts to expire and it's going to be an ugly couple of years. It's going to be a very ugly couple of years. I guess Mike Green is an pending free agent and he should generate quite a bit of interest,

especially around the trade deadline. Yeah, that's a... So they could get something like that's about it. What's Zetterberg's situation? Is he retiring a Red Wing or can he send him to like a new home? Well, I think he's, I think he already said that, um, he said in the summer, I believe that he was going to go play overseas. Mm-hmm.

Because he has that like Marion Hosa type contract where conveniently he'll stop playing when he's making $1 million per season. It's very convenient. Imagine $1 million being like a pay cut for you. Well, it is when you've been making like seven or eight for the past decade. I would love to be pay cut to $1 million. Yeah, let me see. Yeah, so he's making $7 million this season and then he makes $3.35 next year.

Oh, wow. And then he makes $1 million for each of his last two seasons of his contract. What a pity that $3.35 million. You take that? I think I would if Myrtle's listening. But the thing was Zetterberg is, you know, he's 37 and he's obviously not what he might have been in his prime, but he's still like a super productive player. Like he probably shouldn't be. I think this year he's dropped off.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm more so thinking of last year. He was surprisingly effective, especially with what was around him. Yeah. This year, I think, because I was looking earlier on the weekend, I think he's dropped off a bit. Right. I think he'd be fine if he was on a team where he was more of like a complimentary role as opposed to having to play 20 plus minutes and do everything.

Yeah, yeah, very true. All right, we actually made it four minutes on the on Detroit Red Wings here. I'll take a quick break to hear from a sponsor and we'll pick this discussion back up on the other other things. Anyone can develop high blood pressure. Fact, 7.5 million Canadians live with hypertension every day. The mission of Get Down BP is to bring everyone together with the goal of getting blood pressure. down in a fun and interactive way. So join the community at getdownbp.ca to learn more because getting blood pressure down

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Seek purchase just because you've listened to today's HockeyPedocast. All you have to do to claim that reward is download the CKKKK app, enter the promo code PTO, and they'll give you $20 off your first Seekkeek purchase. Now, let's get back to the show. All right, Florida Panthers. Thank God Dale Tallon's back. Thank God. Yeah, I mean, he did get them of Guinea-Dadonoff. So, props to that. You think he was, um, he was hanging out in Russia watching the games and, um, making all the phone calls and making it happen? I'm just going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he got one right.

Right. Good for him. Yeah. I mean, if you had of Guinea-Daddonov and Jonathan Marsh or so and Riley Smith, I think he'd be better off right now. Yeah. Yeah, it's, uh, I mean, it's tough. because I get that, you know, they might have had just a mandate from ownership to shed salary.

The problem is... They did in the pettiest way possible? And they did it in a way, like, I just find it hard to believe that that was the best way to go about it. Like, they basically made it seem like Riley Smith was this disastrous... Pile garbage. That had no redeemable value, and it's like, well, listen, even if you think Jonathan Marshall's So is a really good player who's playing on a ridiculous contract right now for this season. It's the price you have to pay to get rid of a guy like Riley Smith.

It's like, what? He's a productive middle six guy at worst. At worst. And I mean, if you combine Marjorsoe and Smith together and average it out, I mean, you got pretty good value from both of them. So, I mean, I just don't know what the point was because now they're stuck with disastrous depth that is dragging down this incredible core. that they have.

I mean, Barkov and Huberto are unreal players that probably don't get the credit they deserve for how they've played this season. Eckblad, there was concern last year that he couldn't be a number one defenseman because he looked just kind of bad without Campbell, but I think he's stepped up a lot this year. And they have Trocheck,

who's been good in the past, but this year I think his 5-5 numbers have tanked a lot, but he doesn't have... He's playing with... He's playing with, like, nobody's. Yeah, a lot of Jamie McGinn. Yeah, it's tough. I think it's hard to make an argument that they're better off now than they were in the past,

despite what you might hear in the media. So, I don't know, what else is there to say about this team? I mean, I thought Mike Matheson would be better, but he's not like his contract value better, but like he should be not as bad as he's been. That's been a big problem because I thought the D would be a bit more solid than it has. And Matheson hasn't been great this year. Pissick, who we obviously love as analytics folks. And he's, I mean, their first pair has been good.

It's just the rest has struggled. Alex Petrovic, who they had to protect. They just had to protect. It's a mansion draft. It's been a healthy scratch. It's been a healthy scratch. So weird team, very strange. Could have been competitive in a very weak Atlantic division,

but instead they're part of the Atlantic problem. See, I'm feeling, I'm personally, I'm loving this. I'm relishing in it. And I'm also, I'd like to point out, I told you so. In the preseason, when we had the chat, I feel like you were higher on them and you were saying that, you know, oh, Redeem Verbatta is going to do, you know, certain percentage of that and dad now who has admitted that very good i mean he's out now but he was

amazing with that with that top line um you know you thought that at least they'd be able to present some percentage of what they were getting out the door coming back in and i mean i didn't expect them to play michael haley as consistently as they've had yeah um i think they're better than they've shown i think their their shot rates are pretty good like not like okay yeah at least they give up a lot which isn't great. I thought Luongo would bounce back and he has, but Rhymers regrets a bit. I don't think they're going to make playoffs, obviously, or anything.

I don't think it'll be a struggle team and hit 90 points, but I think. Which is crazy because that Atlantic Division is so underwhelming and bad. It's there for the taking, and they just can't. A team with Alex Barkov should be better than this. Yeah. Okay. The Montreal Canadiens. I mean, listen, they're averaging 10 goals per game over their last one games. So I think the offensive concerns are in the rearview mirror. Yeah, they've got super snipers like Jacob Delaroz and Nicholas Deloree in the cut now.

So they're back, folks. And Kerry Price has been much better lately. Which obviously changes things dramatically. Changes things a lot. They might be able to get back to where I expected them to be. be to start the season, I thought they'd be one of the better teams of Atlantic, and they've been on a bit of a hot streak, so they might be able to still get there. They're a weirdly built team because they have some decent, skilled forwards and a defense

group that does not fit the mold for their identity. No, no. You know, it helps that Schlemco is back now, and it's kind of weird. Like, the entire Brennan-David thing was weird because even, if you're skeptical of him for whatever reason I feel like he's got utility as like a third pairing defenseman and it's just like especially the teams like

Buffalo and Arizona passed on him on waivers and he got back to Edmonton was weird to me I don't think it's weird that Arizona passed I think they have a pretty solid yeah especially with trickering back now I guess I guess the Buffalo thing was inexcusable yeah I'm not sure what was going on there

um especially since I I feel like most of their defenders are strong on the right side and Davidson, I think it's a left-handed D, if I'm not mistaken. I mean, like, how optimistic are we about this Canadians team? Because, you know, obviously early in the year, they were one of those teams. It was generating a lot of a lot of buzz about shot quality and sort of how, you know,

why they weren't scoring and whether that was legit or not. And, you know, they've obviously positively regressed quite a bit since then. As usual. As usual. and the fact that Carrie Price is back now and looks like Carrie Price once again is huge. So like we just said with the Panthers in the Atlantic Division, I mean, I think there's a, like, what's a reasonable argument to make in terms of like they're standing in that division's hierarchy? Like, I think there's a case to be made that the third best team. I'm going to fourth because I like Boston.

I guess. Yeah, but I don't think Boston's like head and shoulders better than them, I'd say. Especially with the goal-tending difference. The goal-ting difference is big, but I mean, Boston was outplaying teams with like an HL lineup. So, I mean, I still think that Boston isn't getting the credit they deserve. I think they'll be better once they're healthy. I think the house will be better once they start regressing.

I think they're pretty close, but I still would give the nod to Boston. I wouldn't really think twice about it, really. I think twice about everything. All right. Let's move on. New Jersey Devils. Oh, man. Why do you say, oh, man?

I feel like that. New Jersey Devils fans are vicious. Because someone on this podcast, not any names, it might have been me, said they were the worst team at the start of the season. Yes. And they're not. You had a reason to say. they're definitely not the worst team

you know they're obviously I guess they're you can make the argument they're closer to that than they are to what their record says they are right now yeah I would say that for sure but I didn't I didn't expect whoever Yesper Brad is to be Yesper Bratt all-star right he's got I mean he's obviously come back down Earth he's come back down there but he still like he's got pretty good numbers here but I mean he also didn't expect

Brian Gibbons to be on a 35 goal pace Sure didn't. Sure didn't. I didn't expect Will Butcher to be this good. I didn't expect that, like, they don't even have Kyle Palmieri right now, and they're still doing, like, okay. So it's just, they're a strange team. They're getting results somehow.

Well, okay, this is what I will say, though. And I remember we had this discussion in the preseason with Corey Schneider. Yeah. Because your model was accounting quite heavily for what had happened. happened the year prior and well or not quite heavily but it was basically treating it as if it was you know equally valuable as what he'd done in the past sort of I'm more valuable yeah really because it was the most recent sample and we put you and I both raised the point where we while that's true because that's how the model works mm-hmm it's quite conceivable that based on the fact that he'd got

been like a 920 to 925 goalie for his entire year's career and he had this one blip in the radar and what's over 30 now he's 920 there yeah what a surprise that Corey Schneider is back to being Corey Schneider. So that's huge, obviously, because if you're, I imagine that if your model had projected him to be a 920 goalie, once again, they probably wouldn't be the worst in the league because that's just how results work. I mean, listen, they're playing a much more exciting style. They have, like, Taylor Hall has been remarkable.

Nico Hishier has been great, and I was actually having this discussion with someone the other day about his year and the Calder race and you know Bessor's obviously getting a ton of the attention out because he's scoring like

four goals a game and you know Clayton Keller got all the buzz early in the year and obviously Matt Barzow has been picking up quite a bit of steam and his year I feel like he's gonna have a tough time

cracking into that top three because I can't really see him getting the counting stats with those guys but I feel like he's gonna be one of those guys that for the next handful years people like you and I are going to love because he basically I mean he draws a ton of penalties he creates a ton of chances and he's like a 5-1-5 wizard so but uh what are your Calder I guess

rankings right now on the subject I mean you'd have map Arzal has to be number one right yeah yeah for sure like just I mean obviously how productive he's been and just like just thinking about this on a macro level like just how much his presence and the evolution has changed the islanders season as a whole. Their power play is good now. Yeah. Apparently. And now they have like two legit scoring lines and all of a sudden, you know,

you can't load up on Tavares. I mean, we'll talk about Islanders in this year. So let's not do that yet. But, you know, his year has been awesome, even though, you know, his box car stats might not be blowing you away. What did you think of the Vatman trade? I thought it was an overrated forward for an overrated defenseman. And it seemed pretty fair to me.

I'm not really high on Adam-on-Rique. I think he, most of his stats, were inflated by ice time. Battenen inflated by, I guess, the situation he's in. And I don't think he, Vanden was pretty good. I think in his like first or second year. And he's kind of tailed off since then. Right.

But, I mean, it's better than a lot of the other defensemen. Well, I mean, those minutes they'll be giving him, like, who they would have been given them otherwise. Like, it's a pretty dramatic improvement even if you're skeptical of Adam Martin. Simon &atton number one defenseman, right? Like, so, yeah, we'll see how he goes in this pairing with Green. the New York Islanders Should we count those like 20, 30 seconds We talked about Matt Varsal for four minutes here

Maybe Okay, well let's have the full Matt Barzal Conversation So good He's so good He's so good He's so good

And the thing that I love about watching him play Is that he's hitting that level of Top offensive player Where He's super comfortable just holding on to the puck for an extra second like most guys especially when they start feeling the pressure from a from a defender quickly try to get rid of it and not turn it over because they know they might result in them getting benched and bars al's just so comfortable like

i think it was a game against the ottawa senators on hockey in canada canada maybe last week or two weeks ago where he set up a goal and he was just like he was just dancing around he like cycled by himself around the opposite zone and it's like stuff like that i mean just he just he's protecting He's just waiting for a passing in open or for two defenders to come on him and someone's wide open and sure enough, he set up an easy goal for a teammate and I mean, him and Eberle have been awesome together and

that whole line, even what Andrew Ladd is good now. Yeah, they've revived Andrew Ladd. Yeah, that second line I think is around 55, 56 coursey. They're leading the team. So not bad. Barzell really just exploded last month. He had the seventh highest

game score. So only ones above him was Goddrow, McKinnon, Kuturov, St. Louis's entire first line. And that's it. Just the entire first line. Those three people put together as one. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, and I want to give Nick Letty a bit of love here

because, you know, I did the, I did defense rankings with Andrew Berkshire recently. And we were doing like mostly, like, we did like the top 10 guys and then we mentioned a few names after and he's not in that tier. But I got questions about him and he's, he's an awesome player and it's been good to see that I mean last year that pairing as a whole with him and Hamanick was just in a weird funk

and letty's been super productive this season so that seems clear who the problem was yeah especially based on what's happening in Calgary yeah um yeah I mean it's kind of here's my question for you Adam Pelick may be a fine player yeah why have the Islanders

made such a weird priority to he comes up really good on my mall I don't even know what he does but yeah he looks really good I'm just wondering it's just so weird because like they made like a big stink about protecting him in the expansion draft and then they like sign him to this massive long term

deal obviously it suppressed the average salary quite a bit but it was just like I was like what do I need to be doing more deep dives on Adam Pelop apparently like he shows up well here so I got to try to think of why I don't really understand it.

I've never really looked at his numbers, but I mean, maybe they're good. If I recall correctly, I think preseason I was higher on the Islanders than you. Is that? I think I had them above the Rangers. Right, right, right. You did.

And the Flyers as well. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't down on the Islanders, but I think you were definitely more optimistic about them. And I guess I didn't account for the fact that Matt Barzal would come in and completely just change the entire optics of the situation.

They're, what I haven't projected for now, I think? I mean, you should have them projected pretty highly. Yeah. I got them with 99 points now, which is a pretty good season. They're back to where we thought they would be three years ago. We thought they'd be like the next big team and then they fell flat on their face. Yeah, there was a lot of stopping and starting. Yeah.

But now after some trades with Edmonton, it looks like they're back on track. That's all it takes. The other New York team. Mm-hmm. Daily face-off list David DeHarnia is their number one center right now. I just, I don't understand this team because... There's some weird stuff happening here, man. It's just, it's always weird.

I mean, obviously because of Benadjad being out right now, um, throws a monkey wrench and things. Um, but they have some weird players playing in weird spots in the lineup. Yeah. At least they finally have moved Pavel Bouchonovich up. I know. Yeah. Because, I mean, I know a lot of Rangers fans

were screaming about that last year. Well, though, even this year, I mean, the best is, like, Twitter is such a divisive place where it's really hard, even if you think something is super obvious and you say it, there's going to be, like, some dissenting opinion on whatever it is, right? Like, there's always going to be someone, a contrarian point of view. And I remember earlier in the year, I was like, man, next time Palo Wuchnevich plays four line minutes, I'm going to personally strap El-envenio to a rocket and firearm into the sun. And I've never, my approval.

rating on that on that tweet was 100%. Like there was literally not a single person that jumped to my mentions and disagreed. Everyone was like, yes, it's absolutely preposterous how he's used and he's been very productive and he's playing more and that's good to see because he's super talented and this team desperately needs that.

Yeah. Yeah, it's, I also mentioned this in the in the defense rankings, we were talking about Ryan McDonough. And it's been a bit disappointing that they started the year with Shaddenk and McDana for like a game and a half and then they had that horrible game against the Leafs. Was it just a game and a half? It was a game and a half.

I think it was the second game of the season. McDonough and Shaddenkirk were on the ice for a few goals against when they gave up like four goals and Lankwas got pulled in Toronto. And they just like went away from it and I don't think they've really revisited it. I mean, I feel like they should. I'm a Shattankirk truther, but I mean maybe he doesn't have the foot speed to handle the minutes McDonough does. for some reason Nick Holden does I'm not going to argue

yeah yeah I was gonna say like if that the first point might be true but based on who else they're playing in those minutes I don't think that they're better replacements I mean maybe it's better to have split them up yeah split them up because I mean Shancker has been

fine with Shea I'm not I don't really know for sure I haven't looked too deeply but I mean seems like an okay top four if McDonald's propping Holden up weekend at Bernie style yeah

yeah no so yeah it looks like uh over the full season McDonan Changerger played 40 minutes together how did they go the Rangers have had 55% on the shots but they've only had 38% of the goals so I imagine I think I can see why that experiment was pulled after 40 minutes

yeah um yeah yeah they had a a 95 PDO in those 40 minutes so uh I can see I'm shocked they were taken apart then. Is there anything else to say about this team?

Their fourth line is Paul Carey, Bounevez, and Jesper Fast. Great name. Cool. Great name, Booneviz. I mean, do you think... Is Lungfiz back? I actually don't do much

Rangers research, apparently. They're not an athletic-covered team. Subscribe to the athletic. Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to pull up his numbers right now. Yeah, he's 9-17 this year, which isn't obviously back to his prime, but better than last year. Yeah.

Seems reasonable. They're playing him quite a bit. He already has 23 starts. Well, I wouldn't get Pavelectric considering their start. I mean, it's amazing because it feels like Rangers' backups have generally been pretty good regardless. They wanted to really test that. They're testing the theory of whether it was system-based or whether it was actual players. All right, let's take another break here to hear from a sponsor, and we will finish with the final six teams of the Eastern Conference on the other.

sign. For those of you that might have missed it last week, the hockey PDO cast is now partnered up with Bandew, which is pretty exciting because they're going to be running a weekly contest for us, PDO cast listener league of sorts. It's going to run every Thursday evening for that night's slate of games. The contest is going to open the night before, so you're going to have 24 hours to sign up, get settled, pick your team, and make sure everything's all lined up for you. We ran it last week. It was the first time, first go-around, and Crit hit Hobbit

took the first place spot with Chris Russell as his highest scoring player, and that was obviously the game against the Leafs where he actually had a heck of a game and then ultimately scored on his own net and cost Oilers the game and led to all the back and forths and debates that have dominated the hockey world

for basically the past week. So that's always exciting. And second place was C. Denny 99, who had Mike Smith in his revenge game at home against the Arizona Coyotes, which is always a pretty good spot. And he rewarded him with a shutout and gave him second place. So yeah, we're going to be doing this every Thursday. And I'm looking forward to seeing all of you guys there.

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So you get to have all the fun and all the perks of fantasy hockey when it comes to drafting and the competition and picking your team and seeing how you do as a GM without any of the season-long commitment, which is pretty cool. So yeah, just go to Fandall.com, click the join button and use the promo code PDO. And as a new user, you also get entry into the NHL break, contest, which will be giving away thousands of dollars in cash prices guaranteed to pay out after you

make your first deposit. So just visit vandal.com, sign up with the promo code PDO and get started. And with that, let's get back to the show. Okay, the Ottawa senators. So this is what I want to talk about with them. I don't even want to talk about the team. I don't even want to talk about their place in the standings or what we expect them from the rest of the year. I want to talk about Eric Carlson for a second here.

So I've noticed that. that a big talking point, like this always happens where something happens and then everyone just talks about it for like at least 48 hours or 72 hours or whatever and then we move on to the next thing when something happens, right? Yeah.

And first of the Chris Russell thing happened recently and the Oilers have been generating a lot of that attention. But then, you know, Drew Dowdy comes out and talks about his impending free agency or I guess to come in next summer. And then Eric Carlson gets asked about it and he says something along the lines, I'm paraphrasing,

basically that he's not going to give Ottawa hometown discount that he's going to get what he's worth. I don't understand I'm not calling anyone out. I just don't understand how these are stories. I know. And I've had this

discussion with various people in hockey and they're raising legitimate concern about whether Ottawa is actually willing to foot the bill on what Eric Carlson is worth. And that would be mind-blowing to me if they let him walk uh i can't imagine what this team would

look like without eric carlson i think they might be one like the they'd be a bottom three team no doubt especially since their goal-tending situation is riding precariously on a 37-year-old um yeah i am very here for the max contract revolution um i was a little disappointed that conner David didn't go for the max deal because he deserved it. He's a good Canadian boy who's trying to help his team win by taking a discount. I just, I see the NBA. Like, it's different in the NBA because the stars deserve it because they have a bigger impact. But I mean, there's certain players where they get the max.

There should be no question. I think McDavid's won. Carlson, it's different because it's of the age thing. But I think, like, he definitely deserves it now. He also seems like he's going to be the type of player that I feel like will probably age pretty well. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like he, like, he, like, he plays a ton of minutes,

which is a bit concerning as he gets older, but the style he plays and sort of how, just like how smart he is and the puck moving, and he doesn't seem to take too many hits. He's also Swedish, so that affects this. Well, I mean, he's definitely going to be beautiful for the rest of his life. There's something in the water over there, they got the long deputy. Yes, but, I mean, like, I guess with a big player like this

and the fact that they rarely ever become available. I guess that's why people are sort of salivating it, the idea. But it's just like, how do you even, how do you even sell that to your fans? Like, I feel like they would legitimately, like, you, as a team, you have to do some pretty crazy stuff to lose fans. I think that would be a grounds for switching teams as a fan if you were a fan of the senators and they let Eric Carlson walk.

We saw the senator, they have a lot. a big arena, so that's obviously an issue. But we saw them struggle to sell up playoff games. If they trade Carlson to be a franchise altering moment, and I mean, can they, like, they, Ottawa isn't a very big market. If they, if they do something like this to piss off their entire fan base, I mean, like, how do you come back from that? I think there is no coming back from that. Okay, Philadelphia Flyers. So how many, they've lost at the time of recording right now, we're recording this on Monday. What are they lost?

10 a row? They have a 61% chance of making that 11 tonight. That may be obsolete by the time you hear this, but just so you know. Well, I'd say there's either a zero or 100% chance of them continuing that based on it. And how about we'll just edit this version tomorrow. We'll edit this version tomorrow morning. Where you say either 0 or 100. Yeah, okay.

That's why I wanted to get both those numbers in so that I have the audio soundbite. I'd say 0% chance, 0% chance. Zero percent chance. Wow. Yeah, whenever you lose that many games in a row, there's no shortage of things to point your finger at or to blame. Here's where you don't point the finger at the top line, because the top line has been exceptional. Yeah, I was going to say that's the one positive that the big. summer move they made was switching

Drew off to the wing and bumping Kuturi up and that's worked do you think that maybe they need to like that line has been amazing but I mean they might need to do something because without Kutriere Wayne Simmons has really tanked yeah but I mean he's playing with I don't even I think he was well right now he's playing Patrick Patrick and and Jordan wheel. Yeah, neither of those guys have been all that great this year. No.

It's also weird, like, I wasn't very high on, I mentioned this in the Western Conference podcast, I wasn't very high on Braden Shen in the past. It'd be like, it was a lot, like, he came in just being in a great spot where he was just like the triggered man on the power play and he was getting a ton of his production that way. And then they trade him for Yorio Latera. He goes to St. Louis. Now he's riding shotgun with Schwartz and Teresanko and killing it. And it's like, they're talking.

center it's like what is what's not even just their top center he's like he's legitimately the slowest player in the league you're i even no matter what you thought of shen like before he got to st louis because i know a lot of like even i was skeptical of his ability right getting yori letter back was just a bad yeah i think there was a pick involved as well but yeah there was there was there a person involved with that there might have been but even if that's like the player getting back like yeah st louis has so many so many forwards mitre yaskin or just like some Get someone who isn't lettera, who was in the same spot Shen was and was a tire fire. Like he was so bad.

Yeah, Shen has been amazing. I didn't see it coming. A lot of people in Flyers land didn't see it coming. It's weird because he looks elite. Yeah, it's a good metaphor for the flyer season that we spend most of the time in the flyer section just talking about. How good Braden Chen's been on the booth. Yes, the Simmons thing has been both alarming and a bit disappointing, and I wonder whether, I mean, the thing is he's one of those, like,

kind of hard and soul guys who's a fan favorite, and I feel like it could be tough to pull the trigger on a move like this, but, you know, he has a one-year left on his deal, and I feel like he profiles is the type of guy that you could still get teams around the league to bite on because, you know, he's a big physical guy, and he's good on the powerplay and all this stuff. And I wonder if, like, for this Flyers team, it would make sense for them to cash in now while he still has value. I mean, he is approaching 30.

It doesn't seem like the type of physical profile that's going to age well. It is tricky, though, because I feel like his value can recuperate a bit. Right, right, right. Like a Vander Cane. Yeah. Especially if he starts, like, getting a bunch of power play goals. Put him with Couturee. Yeah.

Get that value up a bit. Pump them up. Yeah. Yes. yeah it's weird it's i don't know the fires we could do like a 50 minute show on this like there's so many i like i like some of their players but it's like i mean obviously no team should lose 10 games in a row but like this team especially doesn't seem like it's a team that's should be doing that like they should be better i i don't think they're that good i don't

think the 10 game losing streak is evidence of that necessarily like it's just a result right it just happens yes It's weird that happened to the Flyers who won 10 games in a row as recently as last season have been a complete mess since. I think the weird thing for the most part too is that their goaltending has actually been decent during this losing streak last night. Like Elliot's been pretty good, especially a 5-1-5. And usually if a team loses that many games in a row, you'd expect, like it was like the coyotes at the start of the year where it's like they just can't buy a save. And that really hasn't been the case. They're a weird team.

Fires are a weird team. Pittsburgh Penguins. It's interesting, we did this based on alphabetical order, but the final four teams are the Penguins, Lightning Leaves, and Capitals, which are like the most, I guess, interesting, or like the biggest names

or you make argument of the best teams in the conference, so it's... Yeah, they're around there. We're going in for a nice little stretch run here. The Penguins. They were struggling to start the year, I think they're back. Sean Tierney, post-Strecht.

some charts every day and he had a rolling differential for five games and you can basically see the Stanley Cup hangover for the penguins. There's just a rocket up and now they're doing well. I think we should talk about Phil Kessel. For all the thrill I mean we are we are recording this podcast in Toronto so we are and Phil Kessel has never looked better than he does now probably and he's had some really good stretches in this city he's got some great stretch in Pittsburgh but he's just on another level right now.

Yeah. And we didn't even get those Phil's in the best shape of his life articles before the season either. Phil's always just in the same shape. Always in the best shape. So a question I've been getting quite a bit on Twitter. And I don't know if you want to answer this. Has Crosby been playing better lately? Or is it just, has you just regressed positively in terms of it?

Because at the start of the year, especially for his lofty standard. he wasn't producing at the same rate that we've come to expect and he's gone on a bit of a tear here recently. I did write about this, I think, around 20 games in because for Crosby, it wasn't just that things weren't going right for him. He was just, he was legitimately not playing very well. And plus minus is terrible. Yeah. But even if you strip away some of the garbage from it, like just look at five-on-five goal differential over. 20 games his previous worst was around like minus 8 and he was like minus 16 at 5 on 5.

Right. And there were a few like there were a few instances where it's not going to be his fault, but still at the same time when if it piles up like that there's going to be issues where it's telling some of the story. Yeah. And I mean his shot differentials weren't very good. He wasn't getting points to the same degree and it was one of the like I would, I would, went through game score 20 games a time and it was I think one of the worst stretches of his career if you take out the Mike Johnson years it was the worst stretch of his career right but he's back now as expected and that's always the tricky part of writing a a hit piece on Cindy crosbie's you know he's gonna be back and it's gonna be one of those things it's not gonna age well like and I try to be as careful as possible with writing because I'm like it's Sid yeah he's gonna be fine it's all relative it's just it's all relative and he was good he was just not Cindy Crosby good So, okay, he has 16 points in his last nine games,

which now he's back over a pointing game for the season as a whole. I will say three of those games were against the Sabres. Yeah. And they were all multi-point games for him. So you need to factor that into account. But yeah, I mean, listen, regardless of who they're playing, you can only play the teams that are in front of you, and they're doing well. Okay, one final thing on the Penguins here.

Let's fantasy book here a little bit. What? If you were running the Penguins, and then heading here into the middle of the season and the trade deadline like it seems pretty clear they're the type of team that's probably going to try to make some moves on the peripheries

they're not going to bring in a star but you know especially someone for the third line for example is there a name that you think would be a very interesting fit on this team a name I don't even know who's available I need like multiple choice options you got anything for me

well like what do you so what do you think this team needs They need a third line center who's not Riley Sheaen. Yes. That would be ideal. Yeah. All right. You know what?

I'm going to think about this while we keep going on and talking about some of other teams. And I'll provide some options for you to pick from. Let's talk about the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here, I'll give you four minutes to wax poetic about their top line while I do some of this research. Okay. You want me to talk four minutes by myself? You know what difficult that is for me? I'm not a chatty person.

But, I mean, that Kucherov, Stamkoz Nemesnikov combination, as sirens blaring in the background, gives you plenty to talk about. You are correct. Nikita Kuturov is, I mean, we're just talking about Cindy Krosby. I'm going to throw a hot take out there. Is that something has happened in Toronto. Yeah. Go for it.

Give me a hot take. Hot take. I did tweet this recently, but I feel like Nikita Kutjurab is a top. top two player behind McDavid. And he's just been that good, not just this year, but last year. He had a run comparable to Cindy Crosby's Unreal 2010-11 season. We had like 66 points in 41 games, and Kutrov had that's the amount going from last year to this year. And just the way him and Stancox have played, they've been a wrecking ball.

And obviously there's some shooting percentage. stuff going on there but I mean Kutrov is still just such an unreal talent and it's just amazing it took this long to get him and Stancoast together because I remember when they made the Cup final

I was following a lot of Tampa Bay people and they were saying get Kutraop and Samko's together just makes sense and here it is playing out on paper and they Samcoast looks like he's playing the best hockey's career as well they look so good that they've temporarily

switched those lines. I think last game they had Johnson in Kutrov's spot to get Johnson going, and he did get going because everything Lightning due this year has just gone pretty well. Even Dan Girardi has a career resurrection. Yeah, what's going on there? I think it's just a matter of going from tougher minutes probably and the rangerous system, which we probably don't fully understand to some softer minutes in Tampa Bay, plus some better support up front maybe as well. But it's still weird. Yeah.

Taobay did say they had analytics that suggested Dan Girardi would be fine, and apparently they had something to it. I don't know what they were looking at, but... Yeah, I mean, I'm all for accepting new data points and looking for explanations. I apologize if I need a bit larger sample here. to buy into Dan Jarri's actually useful I mean

the other thing is thinking about it this way like I feel like a lot of the criticism for his time towards the end there in New York was the fact that he was

being relied upon to play so much and it's like if he's playing as like a third regular third pairing guy it's like all right even if he's

struggling it's tough to take too much issue with it it was mostly when he was like playing top pairing minutes of Ryan McDonough that was the problem

yeah anytime you have a guy that high up you just the first step is try them out lower and see how that works and it's working okay for Tampa Bay their forwards are just so deep where they just trade Jonathan drew away and just it doesn't even matter because they have yanny gourd yes they've got johnson clorin palat namestikov point stamcoose kutrov others who don't matter as much yeah but those eight are just so stellar this year. They, they're the team to beat for me, I think. Yeah, I think so too. I mean,

yeah, I get asked this a lot, especially when you, like, hang out with, um, I think if you're, like, a dinner party or you're out for drinks with people who are, who are just like casual hockey fans or whatever. And they're like, oh, you're a hockey guy. Like, who's going to be in the final this year, huh? And it's like, well, I think Tampa Bay is the best team in the east, yeah, in the west. I don't know. Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets. That'd be a, that. That would be a very fun. That would be such a fun final. It'd be probably bad ratings-wise, unless, you know, the NHL actually did some star marketing.

Yeah. Because there's some very exciting players between the two teams. But, you know, they don't do that. Yeah, they haven't given us a lot of reason to believe that would suddenly happen. They have the All-Star game in Tampa Bay this year and the image they have to get people to vote for the captains had no Tampa Bay players. Not even the second best player in the league. Not even Kutrov, not even Stamco's. Both of them, one and two in scoring, not on the All-Star poster.

Yeah. Yeah, that's too obvious. Too obvious, right? Okay, the Leafs. The Leafs. Um, where do we start with this one? Um, I feel like, you know, you're the right person to talk to. You do a lot of the, uh, the grades for Leafs games after all.

You're following, following them pretty closely. Um, let's start with Matt Martin, who has been. much better this year. Is he, yeah, is Matt Martin actually good? Matt Martin is actually not terrible, which is the growing consensus last year. But he has been, he's been what I'm sure they expected when they gave him that contract. The contract is still not good because they have so many wingers in the system and because it's that much money on the fourth line.

But assuming he's got intangible upside that we will never understand. stand in the room. Plus, he's actually playing well on the ice this year. I think he's been a big surprise. But once you have those guys going up, there's always the guys going down. I just feel like Leo Komarov has been a weird player this year where his line has struggled. They play the tough minutes, obviously, but he just hasn't contributed very well to that. And, I mean, those are the two contentious players on the Leafs. Everyone else is just, an offensive superstar other than Domic Moore

but everyone just has their scoring upside Matthews is entrenching himself among the best players in the league um mariner is getting back up to speed cadry is a legit like a legit second line center on a contending team because usually those guys are first line centers

right and that's where I probably have cadry and he's just been really good the last couple years since about cop came along um here's my question for you then why have the Leafs traded for Ekman Larson yet? Who would you trade for Echman Larson? I think you know my answer who would you trade for Echman Larson?

Oh, it pains me to say this because I'm a huge fan of him but I think it's got to be William Lander and listen this isn't this isn't one of those things where like this isn't like Jeff o'neal going on the radio and talking about how william nielander is actually not that good or whatever like if you're trading him for a player of eckman larsons caliber it's one of those things where like i know i know fans always love to fantasy book these trades where it's like some poop pooh platter combination of like two guys that don't matter and a third round pick for someone else's

star but realistically speaking here you're probably going to need to give up a premium asset to get Ackman Larson. Yeah. Value-wise, it definitely makes sense. Especially with Nielander about to make more money than he currently is. Yeah. Value-wise, it makes sense. The age discrepancy is what would bother me because Nielander is 21 years old, I think.

Not well, Ackman-Larsin isn't an old man. He's not an old man by mean... 26. Yeah, I would still wouldn't be comfortable with that five-year jump. Right. But don't you think this team... I do think this team... The next couple years is its sweet spot here?

It is, but at the same time, we saw what happened in Edmonton with them ex-sisting talent. This would obviously be different because they'd get something fair. You're getting an actual player back, yes. But it's still a guy... I feel like Martin Neelander and Matthews is the core. You've got to build around, give them their age, and...

Right. I think there's a different avenue to get defense and they can, I understand the balance issue, but I think they can change hockey in a way where they have the most lethal offense the league and that should be enough to get what they need. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm with you. Like, I generally, my team building philosophy is just acquired as much talent as you can and let everything else work itself out after.

Like, I hate when teams go way too aggressively trading and drafting and signing guys for just needs because you never know what like as soon as you fill one of those needs all of a sudden something else opens up and then you're like playing this game where you're constantly chasing something and that's a tricky spot to be in but it you know we're not breaking news here but it does seem like just based on the composition of this team that's like it's definitely one impact defenseman would make this all of a sudden a far more fascinating team in terms of cup contention the big thing they needed was a number one defenseman and I think and then they got Ron Hainesie and I think they're there.

I think Morgan Riley has elevated his game to be at that level this season. It wouldn't hurt to get someone else to I guess boost him up but I mean the D as it is right now

is fine it's not obviously top 10 but I feel like the strength of forwards offsets that. Yeah, that's fair. The Washington Capitol is the last team on our list here. They're an interesting team.

They're a tricky team because, you know, it's pretty clear that they're a shell of what they were last year in particular just based on it's very tough to give away as much depth as they did in the summer and still, you know, remain firing on all cylinders like that. Yeah. But then you watch this team and what stands out to me, it was particular when they were playing the leaves and Hoccan in Canada. I won a Betcha Gannata's Hatrick last week, I believe. Like the top end of this team is still so dynamic and so dominant offensively sometimes

that while they're not what they were before and they actually have like red flags on this roster now, that's sometimes there's going to be nights and stretches where their top guys are good enough to kind of deem that irrelevant. Yeah, they're a very top heavy team. They've got three very good defensemen. four very good forwards and then the rest is just a bunch of question marks. And a very good goal. One of the best goalies in the league, right?

So like that should be enough to get them in playoffs, maybe possibly make some noise, but the bottom of the roster needs to be short up a lot or someone needs to step up. They're also playing without Andre Berkovsky right now and that's a big hole to lose, especially since he's one of those top end guys. You also hope that Jacob Vrana will get into that group as well.

he's been really good i was actually at the toronto washington game and i saw brana in person and i mean i saw zytezev get absolutely run over by someone going fast i'm like oh there's zytezv again yeah and then i saw as jacob brenum like never mind yeah probably would have been the same with any other defenseman yeah yeah no he's definitely i mean he's got a tantalizing a combination of skills um yeah it'd be so it'd be so funny if like like this was the year. Like everyone's kind of off the capital scent in terms of like picking them to be their cup favor and stuff.

This is finally the year they do it whenever everyone's kind of given up on it. I mean like it's tough because and the Metro Division is such a slog, but then I don't know, they're still, they're like they're one of the teams that's at least giving themselves a chance to be there when it matters most. Yeah. The big thing about what the caps, because they have to replace people and they did that in the free agency. and I'm not really confident with the guys they targeted,

like Alex Chis and Devonte Smith-Pelly. They're like, I feel like there are better options available to fill out the bottom portion of the roster, and we're seeing why these things matter. Like, it's always like, oh, it's just the fourth line. It's just the third pair. But, like, these things, like, it adds up over time. Well, that's the thing whenever a team signs their superstar

to a big contract, and then it's like, can you win when a player is making this much money? It's like, yeah, assuming you make other smart moves. Yeah. Like the problem is never that the superstars are making too much money. It's that you're paying other guys who aren't good. That's the problem. That is definitely it.

Yes. All right. Let's get out of here. All right. I feel like we covered everything we needed to. Plug some stuff. Where can people find you? What are you working on?

What can they expect? All that good stuff. You can find me at the athletic writing about various teams. this week I will probably be out by the time this is over by doing a piece on how teams and players are trending over the last month so two teams and two players that are hot two that are cold and then I also have in that piece a bunch of charts highlighting how players have changed by my model so which players have gone better or worse for the month and I always I think that's a pretty interesting way to look at things like you see like you see If you go to the Islanders chart, you see Matt Barzell looked like a average second-line center last month. And then there's just this big blue bar of how much he's added in value. It's also because rookies are difficult to project as well. And when he explodes like that, I'm just like, I'm like, what do I do with this information?

So since he's so young, so it gets age-adjusted as well. And then tomorrow Wednesday I'll have a fan power rankings piece. So can't yell at me because Zer, you're your range. rankings based on an algorithm. And then later this week, I'll have something on New Jersey Devils defenseman Steve Santini. Wow. Now, if that doesn't get you excited, I just don't know a lot more. It should.

It's an exciting piece about quality of competition and Steve Santini. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it. Dom, thanks again for coming on to chat and taking the time, and we'll get you back on sometime down the road. Thanks for having me. The Hockey P.D.O.cast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich. and on SoundCloud at SoundCloud.com slash HockeyPedioCast.