The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 217: It's That Time of Year Again

Episode Date: January 15, 2018

Jonathan Willis joins the show to dissect the All-Star Game rosters, and figure out who was deserving of their selection and who wasn't. 9:15 Metro Division 31:40 Atlantic Division 51:20 Pacific Division 1:05:40 Central Division 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 today’s show is Harry’s Razors. If you sign up with them today using the promo code PDO, they’ll send you a trial shave set free of charge that includes: 1) weight ergonomic razor handle, 2) 5 precision-engineered blades with a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, 3) rich lathering shave gel and 4) a travel blade cover. All you have to do is cover the shipping cost and that starter kit will be dropped at your door for free. 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.

Are you ready for the most ridiculous internet sports show you have ever seen? Welcome to React, home of the most outrageous and hilarious videos the web has to offer. So join me, Rocky Theos, and my co-host, Raiders Pro Bowl defensive end, Max Crosby, as we invite your favorite athletes, celebrities, influencers, entertainers in for an episode of games, laughs, and of course the funniest reactions to the wildest web clips out there. Catch React on YouTube, and that is React, R-E-A-X-X. Don't miss it. This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light.

These days, everything is go, go, go. It's nonstop hustle all the time. Work, friends, family, expect you to be on 24-7? Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill. Coors Light is cold-loggered, cold-filtered, and cold-packaged. It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. It is literally made to chill. Coors Light is the one I choose when I need to unwind.

So when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill. Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart. Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. The Hockey P.D.O.cast is brought to you by Get Down BP, which brings people together with a goal of getting blood pressure down in a fun and interactive way. Regressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey P.D.O.cast. My name's Dmitri Filipovich. And joining me is an all-star panelist here on the P.D.O.cast. It's Jonathan. What's going on, man?

Hey, happy to be here, Dimitri. So we're finally getting around to do this. We had some difficulties last week, arranging a time and making it happen. But we're here. And you know what? It's not the most time-sensitive thing because, you know, our plan was to talk about the All-Star selections and sort of discuss who was deserving and maybe who should have been invited instead. But we still have some time until the All-Star game itself. So it's going to be a good discussion here. Yeah, they announced these things far enough out in advance. And actually, it's maybe a little bit helpful in the case of at least one player because now we know he's not going to be there. So we can talk about replacements. That's what we call a tease in this industry, folks.

That's a tease right there by Jonathan. John, how excited are you on a scale of 1 to 10 that we will not really be talking about the Edmonton Oilers on today's show? Oh, definitely, like an 8.5. I can imagine. Like, honestly, I empathize with you because I know, obviously, your job is to cover the Oilers on a daily basis and you do a great job for that at the athletic,

but it is one of those things where I'm sure whenever you're now invited on a podcast, on a radio show or whatever, you sort of know how. know how the conversation is going to go and especially with things going as poorly as they have in Edmonton this year, it's always sort of hitting the same beats. So hopefully

this show for you will be a bit more sort of uplifting and optimistic. Yeah, I've, what's gone wrong for the Oilers this season? Would you like my three minute answer, Dimitri? Because I think I have it perfect now since November. Wow, you've really nailed it down to a science if you can do it in three minutes.

I would take me at least 33 minutes to talk about what's on. is just to hit the highlights. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, so here's the first question I have for you here. Do we care about the All-Star game? No, not really. Sorry, no, wait, you're three minutes in.

Don't shut down this podcast right now because we shouldn't care about the All-Star game. The All-Star game's amazing. I don't think, I think it's a spectacle. I think it's one of those things that you, it's kind of fun to debate the teams, and especially now that it's a three-on-three format, it's a lot more enjoyable to watch the game,

but the grand scheme of things, the All-Star Games always fought for relevance, and particularly in an Olympic year, I don't know, it's just one of those things that you kind of shrug your shoulders and it is what it is and you live with it, but it's not worth getting bent out of shape of it. Yeah, I would definitely agree with that last point.

And, yeah, you can make the case that it's not really, it's not an event that's necessarily catered, to people like you and I, right? Like it's more, more so for the young fans, obviously. And it is cool to see. And I do think that this change to the three-on-three format has been for the better. We'll see how long that lasts and whether sort of the novelty wears off of it or if we come up against the same challenges that we've had in the past with this event.

But it does seem at least for now that the players are more into it, which I think is the most important thing, because obviously before when it was just a regular game, like the talent level on the ice is incredible, but if the players aren't actually trying or they don't care, that has no significance, then it's sort of just, it's like you're watching like a practice or something,

so it doesn't really make sense. But I think for now they've sort of nailed it with this 3-on-3 format, and I don't know, I still kind of wish they were still doing a thing where they all pick each other's teams and stuff like that, but I understand with people always get Ben out of shape about that with the hockey culture. Or Phil Castle.

Yes. Or Phil Castle. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so here we're going to go team by team and we're going to discuss who's made it and then we're going to discuss whether we think those are the right picks or whether anyone else should have gone in consideration. And I don't know, I think there's a few important notes to hit here in terms of methodology. One, do you agree with the fact that, you know, we're sort of capturing what's already happened here, right? Because in theory, you're rewarding players for the season they've had through the first 40 games or so.

and sometimes, you know, a certain guy might, you know, his underlying profile might suggest that he's not as good as his numbers might look or that he's, you know, benefited from some fortunate bounces. But at the end of the day, luck doesn't really factor into this decision making because we're sort of trying to capture what's already happened, right? Not what will moving forward. Yes and no. When I put my teams together, I did look at the underlying numbers because to me, if a guy, like, you are rewarded. what's happened. But if a guy is riding, you know,

just an insane shooting percentage and the other areas of his game aren't that great, then you kind of go, well, yeah, he's contributing this goal scoring, but I still don't know that his actual value to the team. I did dock him for it.

Like, I'll be honest, I did dock him for it because I'd rather see a guy who's doing a lot of things well than who's excelling in one area that's a little bit ephemeral. right well okay so here's what i'll say is an example and you know we'll get into him more when we

discuss the flyers but you know shan kuturier for example this year has yeah 25 goals and 43 games and you know he's shooting like nearly 20% last i checked and i don't think anyone believes that sean kutriere is gonna be a 20% shooter the rest of the way because no one really is especially at the volume he's shooting at this year but i'm giving him like it's not like that's all he's doing like there's other obviously areas to his game and things he's doing for the flyers, but it certainly helps that this year is the first year that he has really started to actually accumulate the boxcar stats as well, and that works in his favor here. So that's sort of the type of thing I mean where I'm not necessarily in the back of my head

going like, well, you know, Sean Couturey's expected shooting percentages, 12%, how many fewer goals is he's going to score, and then is he an Ostar then, you know what I mean? Yeah, but just to like, Couturee is obviously a different example because he's a guy who who does bring all those other things. And I think both you and I are kind of secretly hoping to reward these, these really phenomenal two-way players who don't normally have the numbers. And I don't know, I'm speaking for myself here, but when I looked at Gatorier, like, that's a guy who played a phenomenal, phenomenal game in a lot of areas for years.

And it is kind of nice to reward a guy like that. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the other things we bump into here, it's tough, is like, you know, it sort of boxes you in that you have. to pick at least one representative from each team and that you have to have six forwards, three defensemen, and two goalies for each division. Like, because there's certain points where, you know, you think to yourself, man, this

guy feels like an all-star. And then you sort of look and it's like, well, who else am I going to bump off of it? And based on those restrictions, there's a few instances and one will highlight them as we get going here that just kind of make it tricky and guys don't make it just for that purpose. but in theory, like in a vacuum, if you're picking the best, whatever, nine or ten skaters in each division, they would certainly be in there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I actually drew it up so that I kind of knew what I would pick

if I wasn't limited to a guy per team, if I was able to, you know, just ignore the really disastrous teams. But I drew it up both ways, so I have an idea what that looks like, and obviously we'll get into it. Now maybe, you know, for a team like the Canucks, they obviously have Brock Bessor who's deserving and very well, should be representing this team. But, you know, maybe for the teams that are tanking,

we should have the representative be the player that's dragging the team down the most, since that's technically, you know, it is representing the team, of course, and it's sort of that guys might be the most valuable to their cause based on their intentions for this season. So maybe we'll consider that as well as we get going here. Welcome to the ice, Zach Rinaldo. I'm thinking the Knoxia having Nick Dowd represent their team. You know what?

Like, he's actually, he's fine. He definitely hasn't been their worst player, but he's one of those cases. where, and obviously I follow this just because I live in Vancouver and I watch more of the team and I'm sort of following the discourse that's going on behind the scenes and it's like every game, you just look at Nick Dowd's ice time and it's like, Nick Dowd played 18 minutes tonight. And he was out there for three on three. Like, what's going on here?

So maybe for a team like the Canucks, Nick Dowd makes sense as a, as a representative. Okay, so let's, we're going to start with the Metro Division here. And we're going to go in the order that I laid out, which might seem random. And it's probably outdated. I did it based on Interversive Standings, but I did lay this out last week. So I don't know if things have changed.

So maybe the teams have flip-flopped a bit, but we'll get to everyone eventually. And we're going to start here with the Islanders. So they had John Tavares and Josh Bailey represent their team. What do you think about that? Well, it's one of those things, too, where how much credit do you give Bailey, right?

Like, he's having a great year. but I'm kind of inclined to put a lot of the credit for it on Tavares. I think Tavares is pretty hard to argue against if you're just picking one guy from the Islanders. They've had some other great performances, notably Matthew Barzell. But to me, I docked Bailey because I don't really believe that he's the guy driving things. They're even the one point totals he probably deserves to get in. just because the Metro Division has such a phenomenal group of forwards, he didn't make it on my list.

Yeah, I thought that was a bit of a strange choice. I mean, obviously, you know, his assist totals are through the roof, and a lot of that is the position he plays. But off that line, I honestly, if I had to pick, if you're just purely saying, like, we have to pick another guy from that Tvera's line, I think Anders Lee has had a more impressive season, in my opinion. I don't know, maybe it's, maybe I just favor that sort of skill set more, and I appreciate.

I really enjoy watching him play. I think he's ascended to being right up there with the Wayne Simmons as the world as the best sort of finishers and most difficult guys to deal with around the net. And I don't know. I would have Anders Lee here if I had to, but I wouldn't have either guy. Yeah. And Lee is another one of those guys who's riding the high shooting percentage. Although with him, you know, like obviously he's a pretty impressive finisher.

And it's, but you just don't expect him to shoot 23%. but, you know, if he shoots 15, that doesn't shock you at all. With him, I think that's maybe just a facet of you and I valuing goal scoring more than assists. Like, I do value a playmaker, and that's obviously a very useful skill set, but a guy who can put the puck in the net is more valued. But, you know, having said that, I'd take Barzell over, over anybody if I'm taking a second Islander. Yeah, I guess, you know, to be fair, that five-point outburst he had the other day against the Rangers has happened after this.

Yeah. But, you know, he had already had one of those type of showings beforehand earlier in the season, and he's been remarkable in what he's meant to that team. I've talked about it on ad nauseum here on the podcast. We're not going to get into that again. But, yeah, Barzal would be a very strong choice. All right, the Carolina Hurricanes here.

Now, this was one that I had my eyebrow raised a little bit. Noah Hannifan is representing the hurricanes of this year's All-Star game. What are your words? your thoughts on that well i had there were three um when i sat down into this initially i went okay clearly sebastian aho is the guy to go like just just clearly he is the best player for a three-on-three format but when i started going through the metro i found that the forwards forward group was too strong to uh to give carolina a forward so then you're you're kind of on a

defenseman. And you can see where they're coming from with Anathan because he's a guy with impressive point totals. And I mean, we're talking about three on three hockey. Impressive point totals are what we're looking for. So I didn't hate it. I'll put it that way.

Yeah, it was kind of a strange. I mean, yes, he, um, like you see how it happens. It is strange, but you do see how it happens. Yes. And he's crushed it in terms of underlying numbers, obviously um, in a very sheltered role this season. so that clearly helps him out.

I don't know, it's just weird though, because if you're looking at that team, I understand that from the point total's perspective, he's not there and he probably never will just because of how valuable he is to the team in other areas of the game, but like Jacob Slavin is very clearly their best defenseman, right? Well, and this is why I didn't say

who I would have picked instead of him because I wanted to leave you room to suggest Slavin. Yeah, and you know, his point totals are not that bad. Like for a guy who doesn't get power play time, like he had 26 even strength points last year. He's on pace to be a little bit shy of that this year, but not very much. And that's a very good number for a defenseman.

So I agree. I think it would have been really cool to send Slavin to the All-Star. I think Sebastian Ajo is the pick here, though. And, you know, it might be a bit of a moot point because yesterday he took a pretty nasty hit from Mark Giordano. and we'll see if he's going to be out for any period of time. So, you know, it might be irrelevant at this point. But he's, you know, I'm looking right now, especially at 515.

He's been a top 15 to 20 producer at, you know, points, primary points per hour. He's been very impressive. And especially for that team that's been lacking star power up front other than basically Jeff Skinner for years now and guys who can really generate offense at a high volume for them, he has been very impressive in that regard. I would like to give him credit for that season, but if I was picking a defenseman from them, I agree. You know, I might even have a guy like Brett Pesci over and O'Han offense. So for me, it was a weird choice, but, you know, I will say, especially since we said earlier,

how this event is more catered to the young audience and sort of, you know, cultivating new fans and showing them, showing who the next wave of talent is going to be in this league and sort of giving guys credit that might not have gotten it before. a guy like Noah Hanofan is going to be an awesome player in this league for years to come. So, you know, if more people become familiar with his name, I'm all for that. So I can't get too upset with it, but he definitely wouldn't have been my pick here. Yeah, agree entirely. Okay, the Flyers.

Claude Giroux. Now, this is an interesting one because we just got into Sean Kachirier a little bit of the start of the show. And, spoiler alert, he would have been my pick here. and that might seem like a strange thing to say on the surface because Claude Jureu's tied for second in the league in scoring. He has 54 points in 43 games and he's been, you know, he's been riding the percentages a little bit. But for the Flyers, you know, the strings they've pulled here by putting Claude Jureau on the wing and playing with Sean Couturee has clearly been a net positive because for the past few years there, I don't know if people have noticed, but especially the final. five, Cloud Jeru's game had really dipped, and based on the financial commitment they still had to him, it was imperative that they figured that out.

So the fact that he sort of had a bit of a career resurgence here is huge for them. Yeah, absolutely. And it's, yeah, I don't have anything intelligent to add. You got to swept in and took it there. I love the years Drew has had, and I love the boldness in moving him to left wing. I yeah it's a phenomenal move it's paid off in spades for him so far well how about this one I'll give you the full you can you can talk about the penguins first here because I feel like I definitely stole your thunder a bit there with uh with the flyers you know what you know what

i can I can scrape some flyer stuff up here for you do you have only one player from the flyers going I think you have to if we're oh actually no you know what if we take if we let's say we took Josh Bailey off and we didn't put bars out, then we could have both Ketriere and Giroux here, which would, which would fit based on our guideline. Which is, which is what I did personally. Yeah. See, the thing is, when we get into the blue jackets, I would think I'd rather have Artemie Panarin at this event than Claudeau, which is the difficulty in making it fit here. Like, it's tough because you're right.

points do matter for an event like this and it feels really silly to not have the guy who's right behind akita kutrov and scoring at this event but i don't know like just based on when you factor in the circumstances i find claudjuru's performance less impressive this year than it might look like it's been but i don't know maybe i'm maybe i'm overvaluing that a little bit too much and maybe i just need to give them credit for racking up so many points so far. Well, and some of its power play, which I kind of struggled

with how to balance even strength versus power play for a three-on-three format, but I also kind of like the idea where it makes sense of rolling out guys who play together. Because I think three-on-three is one of those really intuitive. Like, you want to mix and match and see great players together,

but when there's an opportunity to roll out two guys who've been on the same line for the year and who, you know, are just going to instantly get each other at the three-on-three. I think it's kind of a fun experiment in what works and what doesn't work in that sort of format. So to me, having him and Keturié together for three-on-three, I thought it was defensible and I thought it'd be cool to see. Yeah. I mean, the only trick here is, like, we haven't even mentioned Jake Warwick yet.

Yes. Yes. You know, just in a vacuum, I think he's a more impactful, better player than Claudeau. Maybe he hasn't had a more impressive season, especially by just the super official counting stats. But that's another thing that kind of throws it in here. Like, can I just use all three of those guys in a three-on-three format? Yeah, no defenseman, just roll all the forward. Yeah.

The one thing I think works against Voracek is I do think finishing ability in the three-on-three is pretty critical, right? And Borchak is not a guy who has ever really been great at that. Yeah, I close on that. But, you know, if you're talking about dark horse candidates, I think you make a case. Like, the Flyers have like six guys you can make a case for. I kind of like the idea of sending Ivan Broverov. Yeah.

But, I mean, how do you do it when they're forwards or racking up those points, right? Like, there just isn't room. That's the most Philadelphia Flyers thing ever, though. Like, you could make a case for like a handful of guys, and then you actually look at their team performances. year and it's been just I mean I guess it hasn't even been overwhelming it's been overwhelming the fact that they had a double-digit win streak and losing streak at the same time so it's like yeah this

team is is is all over the place which is why they're uh I don't know I'm all in on the Flyers roller coaster ride and I am every year and it definitely hasn't disappointed this season they're fun yeah fun with what you want yeah and maybe that could that caters well to an event like this where you want fun stuff to happen all right let's go penguins right yes so Crosby and LaTang made it I passed on LaTang But I

I did it with my heart in my throat Like I Crosby for sure He can make a case for Kessel or Malkin And I tried really hard to fit those guys in I just with Chris Latang His health has not been It's a difficult division

I liked I liked a couple of other defensemen That we're going to look at better. You had to pick a guy from every team. I thought in New York, I really liked Ryan McDunna, and I really liked Seth Jones and Columbus, and that kind of cost Latang a spot for me. Yeah, we don't have to get into a whole discussion about Chris Latangang. It's very obvious that he, based on his play this season, has not been an all-star. And listen, some of that is, you know, the percentages have really done him no favors. I mean, that's true for pretty much everyone on the

Penguins, but him in particular is a big reason why his performance is cratered. Now, I will say having watched the Penguins quite a bit this year, I think some of the concerns about his game are warranted. I think some of that is a bit self-inflicted, and I have concerns about his game moving forward, but, you know, that's a discussion for another day. I think you mentioned Kessel there, and we need to give him some love here. I think, objectively, he has been the Penguins' best player this season from game one, game one to game whatever they played 46 games this year i think he has been their best player now

obviously um i think crosbie and malkin are two of the best whatever four or five players in the league still so it seems crazy not to have him at an event like this but we do need to give phil a little little bit of love i mean he already has 20 goals he's on pace for over 90 points he is having a historically great season on the power play which seems relevant because the power play is pretty much the only thing that's kept the penguins afloat so far this year as everything at 5-on-5 has seemingly gone to hell. So I think, you know, giving Kessel some love here is something that we should do. But it's really tough to fit.

Like, you want to fit on all three of those guys. But, like, we just talked about with the Flyers, it is a bit of a numbers game, so you have to make some tough choices. Yep. And in recognition of the kind of event that it is, I mean, how do you not go with Crosby, right? Yeah. Yeah. And lately, he seems like he's turned it up a bit.

That goal he scored against the flyer. against the red wings over the weekend where he lifted up a player's stick and scored the puck at the same time was the most Crosby thing ever. And I was like, yeah, this guy is still probably the best player in the world up there with McDavid. So it's, you got to have an event like this. But I think that Latang spot we could use more creatively. And, you know, if we have to pick another defenseman here, we will. I think, you know, you could make a good case for, okay, let's just do the blue jackets right now. sure should we just have

Seth Jones and Zach Wrenski at this event both of them if you're talking about keeping pairs together I guess you're not going to play two defensemen at the same time on this three on three event but it's it's tough to separate those two guys based on how much they play together

yeah and they're both they're both deserving players but of course we can't send Artemi Panarin if sending two defensemen from the blue jacket I'm okay with not sending Panarin and then sending either Jeroo or Kessel as we just saw

outlined. But here's my problem is actually not Benarren who wasn't on my list. Seth Jones was and Sergey Bobrovsky one. Yeah. Well, you have to, you got to put Bobrovsky there, right?

Bobrovsky's, I mean, I think Bobrovsky and Lundquist are the two goalies to send from this division. Yes. Absolutely. The Holtby thing seems like a bit of a name recognition thing. Like, he's been fine, but. I don't know what was going on there. Like, I mean,

Lundquist is. obviously Lentquist, but the Bobrovsky is a big name. I'll name himself, you know, like, to me, Holdby was just a weird thing. Well, Bobovsky is the best goalie in the league, I think, right now. So, you know, his numbers have dipped a little bit, and they've dipped down to the point where he's a 920 goalie this year, so that tells you everything you need to know.

But, yeah, I think Bobrovsky is the call here. And listen, Wrenski missed a bit of time there. I think a handful of games, and Seth Jones looked awesome without him. So, you know, I guess you could make that an argument for why Seth Jones is the one driving that pair, but then I'm not really looking to Doc Wrenski for that, especially when you watch him play. It's clear that he's holding up his end of the bargain. So I think... I mean, even strength goals. That's insane.

Yes. And that's, you know, I'm big into not really caring what defensemen do in terms of counting stats. It's very, it's very opportunity-based, of course, and just getting the shots and all that. obviously, you know, he is such a weapon for them in that regard and having another guy on the ice that, you know, especially if you're not sacrificing other areas of the game, if it's just everything else is fine. And then it's also the shot as a weapon in the offensive zone is a net positive. I'm all for that. Like, it certainly doesn't hurt. So I think Werenski is very deserving here, definitely more so than Crystal Tang.

Yeah. Okay, the Rangers, this is great. The Rangers, Henrik Lundquist, yes, definitely the only player on this team that deserves any consideration. erasion for this event man what a what what what I wanted to rant about this last night on Twitter like watching this team play is is so infuriating I feel like this season more so than any really just captures the full experience that's been watching the rangers during the henrik longquist era he's been so good this year which has been great to see after how much he struggled last year and everything around him has just been such a tire fire I'm gonna

I'm gonna just stick up for my my boy Ryan McDonough here but but yeah it i mean i don't get a lot of eastern conference chatter um just on online and social media and all that i i don't have a lot of it directed my way i was doing an interview out east um earlier this week or last week i guess now and they were asking me uh the tag the tease on the the interview was are the oilers the most disappointing team in in hockey this year and i had a bunch of people chime in about the rangers and i think the rangers and i think the rangers were playing at the time and I believe it was the game against the islanders actually so but uh but yeah it was like the third or fourth time and and there were three or four rangers fans just getting into it

in my mentions and I'm going oh my goodness but one of them described it as sort of this this cycle of of new york hockey during the lundquist era like it's uh they described it as groundhog day and and i thought you know that's a really good good comparison because man you just think this is a very meh team and they have one of the best goaltenders in in NHL history you know like an elite guy yeah yeah it's been disappointing to watch and uh that statement has been true for years now but uh let's uh you know i want to get into a discussion about ryan mcdona and whether what the team should do with him and whether they should trade them but we're already at the 30-minute mark here and we're not even done the first division so how about we you know we'll just table it we have time between now and the

and the uh and the trade deadline and i'm sure there's going to be plenty of discussions about that so let's save that for a rainy day. The New Jersey Devils, Taylor Hall, yes, sign me up for that. His team wins these events, so I'd certainly like to have him on it. He seems to win these and any lottery, Taylor Hall's money at, and he's been money this season on the ice. So I'm all for having him at this event. Is there anyone else on this team, do you think Warren's consideration?

No, no. New Jersey was the easiest pick, I think, in the league. outside of Brock Besser. Taylor Hall's having a great year. Nobody else there's putting up big point totals. Corey Schneider's not having an over, like he's been good, but not overwhelming. And, you know, you'd look at Will Blitzer based on point totals, but he's not.

And he'd be fine in this kind of event, but the totality of his game is not equal to some of the other defensemen we've talked about. Definitely, definitely, yeah, that's well said. And the Capitals, this is an easy one here. So they had Obatchkin and Holpe, we just discussed how, you know, Holby is a 9-17, C,

percentage this year he hasn't really been himself he's been fine but a guy like bobrowski's more deserving definitely i think you could maybe even make a case that corey schneider might be um but ovechkin's very obvious choice it's been great to see him have this type of a bit of a bounce back season it seems like every year when we're like hmm have we seen the best of ovechkin is he is he done being that just you know tour to four is just dominant uh score nope he uh he comes back and has a vintage season so he's been uh he's been really fun to watch this year yeah and uh with the fans voting voting him in as the captain you're you're stuck with him anyway but it's a fine choice like uh if the league had had its pick they probably would have done the same thing and and you know his personality is great

for an event like this because he is one of those players who's unafraid both for good and bad to to show what he's really thinking is there anyone else on this team like i don't think backstrom or because netsov have had the type of year that you know in past years they might have been obvious choices for this team and I feel like this year there's just guys that have been more deserving. Yeah, if Washington was hosting the all-star game, you could probably shoehorn one of those guys in or, you know, like John Carlson would not be out of place at the All-Star game. But when I look at this division, Novetchkins, the one guy who stood out. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, let's take a quick break here here from a sponsor and we'll do the Atlantic

division next. I'm directing this personal message to Patrick Line. Everyone else can feel free to keep listening, but it's for him. Although I might apply to your life as well. Patrick, I know you're a busy guy, you're working on your craft, I'm sure it's no accident that you're nearly a 17% career shooter in the NHL so far. You don't just magically rule out of bed one day and have one of the best shots the league has to offer without putting in your time. It's obviously your priority and it soaks up a lot of your attention and effort and you don't have time for a lot of the other stuff in your life. But my dude, you're 19 years old, you're a handsome fella, and there's really no excuse for whatever the hell is happening on the

bottom of your face right now. That beard's unruly. It's getting tanked. up in your chin strap. It's all over the place. It's 2018. And with all the HD cameras we've got, it's just a bad look for you. So here's the deal. Let the Hockey P.D.O cast hook you up with Harry's Razors. They'll send you blades straight to your house. You'll be able to get back to that Bond villain mustache look you had going on in just a matter of seconds thanks to their high quality razors. And I know you're probably not worried about the financials, but it's going to come in a great price too. So if you or one of your representatives goes to harries.com slash PDO, you'll get a free trial shave set to test it out and see if it's your liking and i get the feeling it will be for the low price of

covering the shipping cost you'll get a weighted ergonomic razor handle five precision engineer blades with lubricating strip and trimmer blade rich lathering shave gel and a travel blade cover that's harries dot com slash pdo and if you're someone out there who's been listening to this private message to patrick line a sign up for yourself uh it'll help you get your look to the point where it's uh looking as good, crisp and fresh as a nice Patrick Liney Rister. Anyways, now let's get back to the show. Okay. Buffalo Sabres.

Jack Eichel. And yes, I am, you know, I put out this chart the other day before the weekend. He has either scored or directly assisted, so basically just his primary points, on like 36% of all Sabres goals this year. Which is, I mean, he's running away with it, obviously, in terms of individuals in the league this year. And, man, he, it's weird because I don't hate their forwards, but it's pretty much if he, or I guess on occasion of Andrew Kane, like, if they haven't been doing anything, just no one else in this team has been generating anything. And obviously, the defense is a, is a major liability. And the goal prevention has been an issue this year.

But it's, it's so bizarre watching that team how anemic they've been offensively whenever Jack Eichle hasn't been generating something. Yeah. Well, O'Reilly's other duties kind of get in the way of him being a real offensive powerhouse, even though I think he's a superb. I love Ryan O'Reilly. But the rest of the forwards, like Sam Reinhardt has been a, his development curve has been really disappointing. And then when you look at the rest of their forwards, you just see nobody. And a lot of them are guys I'm okay with, but nobody with any offensive ability really. and that's exacerbated by the fact that their defense is a tire fire. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay, we've done like 90 seconds on the Sabres here. I'm depressed. Let's move on.

Yeah, so Eichols going to the game. Yeah. Oh, in more encouraging you, let's talk about the Ottawa senators here. Yes, let's move away from the disappointment that is Buffalo and move to the wonder that is Ottawa. So this might be a controversy. controversial opinion here, but actually, I don't know if it is. Like, Mark Stone has been unequivocally their best player this season.

Yeah, I don't think that's too controversial. Now, the trick is, if you look at the rest of the forwards in this division, it's like, who are you going to put Mark Stone ahead of, right? Like, it's especially, I mean, Matthews, Marshan, Stamcoast Kutrov, Barkov, like, yes, Eichl, we just said. It's going to be very tough for him to crack that list. But I think if you're just if you're going through team by team and you're saying, okay, who's been their best player this season? It's been Mark Stone.

Now obviously some of that is Carlson's missed time with injury and it's taking him time to get up to speed and I still don't necessarily think he looks like himself. And he has an 865 on ice safety. Yes, of course. That definitely does not help. Although I haven't checked, but I imagine Mark Stone isn't through the roof either. Oh, he's, I've got it up here. It's 893 for Mark Stone. but what he gets away with is having a 12 on-ice shooting percentage, right?

Yeah, that's helped. His own shooting percentage is high, but I will say that it has been for the entirety of his career. So he might be one of those guys, kind of like a Sean Monahan type, where it's just like maybe you need to raise the baseline a bit in that regard. But yeah, not 12%, but yeah, definitely way higher than the average. Yes, no, that certainly helps makes him look better.

But I do think, you know, just watching those games, he's been their most, on a night-to-night basis, their most impactful player. But I guess I don't have anyone else in his division that I can knock off and put him in instead if we're going to just do the six forwards. So I guess he misses the cut, unfortunately. And the other side of that is that this division's defense is not very good, which makes it easy to put Carlson there. Yeah, I would be okay if you had the three, I guess, man, Mike Green being here is,

is a tough look. Yeah, well, that's just it. You're kind of stuck with my green. Because I was going to see it. I think Morgan Riley and Charlie McAvoy, who have been sort of the two candidates discussed to replace Victor Hedman, are both buying choices.

I'll hold off. I'll hold off on the McAvoy. We actually get to Boston. Okay. All right. Well, we'll save that for a couple minutes here, but I'm okay with that. But I guess, yeah, and Carlson makes sense for an event like this. Yeah, big name, big name.

Yeah, one of the best players in the world, most exciting guys. It's good to have him. Good ambassador to the game, I'd like to see him. And I'm sure at this event, he will be asked about his contract situation quite a bit. So I'm sure reporters are happy he'll be at this event as well. So it all works out. Yeah, maybe Eugene Melnick can fly down with him and tell us all about how terrible the All-Star games. Oh, yeah, how exciting.

Just give him a Scrooge outfit. You can show up at every big. NHL event and blow it with some stupid off ice comment. I'm sure the league would love that. Absolutely. Montreal Canadians, Carrie Price. I don't, like, who would you have here as their representative? Because on the surface, like, I don't think Carrie Price's season has been otherworldly by

any means, but everyone's percentages have dipped. So it's like, who are you going to have there? Yeah. Yeah. If Shea Weber were healthy, but he's missed so much time that even if he were healthy now, it would be an odd choice. Like Max Pacheretti is always sort of the go-to guy when you're looking for a Canadian's forward. He's having just this wretched year. I think it's basically Gary Price by default.

Yeah, I agree. And this division isn't necessarily loaded with. Yeah, could we bump a couple guys off this team? and borrow some people from the Metropolitan? We probably should, and that, you know, that would definitely be representative of, you know, if you're using the All-Star teams as a snapshot of what's gone on in a particular season, that would be very fitting because the Atlantic Division is very, very top-heavy. And, yeah, we'll ring Jack Eichel, and then otherwise we'll just pretend that Buffalo, Ottawa,

and Montreal and Detroit don't exist. Yeah, I think that's fair. Um, okay, the red wings, um, their best player this year has been Dylan Larkin, but like we just said with Mark Stone, very tough to fit him in. I guess you just by default, it's Mike Green because he's their best defenseman, but boy, that's, uh, that's a rough look. I get, although I guess, you know, for, uh, for the Red Wings sake, if, uh, like if the teams were picking their representatives, like I'm sure they would pick him as well because maybe this, something like this, um, raises his profile a little bit. And at this year's trade line, I'm sure they're going to appreciate that. So if that bumps up whatever draft pick they're going to get by a round, maybe it's a net positive for them,

but it seems weird that he's going to be at this event. Well, and not that you really need to put too much fuel on this fire, but because it's the three-on-three format. But it's fun to have guys who have lots of things happen when they're on the ice at the All-Star Games. So Mike is definitely that kind of guy. Yes, definitely. He'll generate offense for both teams.

Yes, which is what you want. So, I mean, you take them by default and move on. Okay, Panthers, can we morph Sasha Barkov and Jonathan Huberto into one person and just have them play together? Because I like to see that. I really enjoy watching those two guys. Obviously, Barkov is the more impactful player based on everything he does and the position he plays. But if you're talking about just pure combos, one, two, they're as good as it gets.

And beyond them, there isn't that much else. to be very happy about on that team so um oh look at any trocheck yeah but it'd be very fitting if uh if he was killing it for my fantasy hockey if trochec was on this team and they just didn't give him anyone to play with it would be very representative of his season i like it yeah uh he's just out there one on three you're used to this vinny don't worry about it um yeah all right uh no barkov um very good this is this is one of those places where you you're kind of, it'd be fun to have an all forward combination. Just take all three of them from Florida, transplant them, boom, that's your, that's your three-on-three.

Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, obviously, Barcoff is the guy, right? Well, I mean, you are going to have an all-forward. I mean, if you play Mike Green with him, you got three forwards out there. Yeah, it's, are you getting a bit tired of this conversation we seem to have to have every time when we're talking about best players in the league and then barcoff comes up and you go oh man if you haven't if you haven't watched him play i understand he's in florida and you know he's not getting the attention he deserves

but boy he is he's going to be the next big thing it's like no he's he's already great and i think most people have already clued in on that i hope and i i think we don't need to like throw in those caveats anymore like when we're talking about the best players in the world sasha barcov is up there no questions asked yeah i feel like uh uh didn't Emily Kaplan with ESPN write a piece about the most underrated players, like talking to players. And I think Barcoff's name came up a bunch. I apologize to.

She's excellent, by the way, just on general principle if you're looking for hockey follow. But I apologize if it was a different article I saw. I thought it was her. But Barcov, I think, is a guy who does get, is starting to get recognition. I feel like he's in that special Louis Erickson category almost a little bit,

where he's so, not quite, he's not so underrated that. No, but he's, it's going to be, especially like, through his prior. He's a great player. He just is. It's going to be impossible to overrate him. Yeah. And it helps this year that he's already, you know, he's played 42 games this year.

And one of the, if you had any knocks about him, it would have been that he kept missing time. He was basically good for missing. It looks like, I don't know, like 10 to 20 games pretty much every year throughout his career early on. And this year he's been healthy. So that obviously helps in terms of bringing up the counting stats a little bit. So, yeah, he's, he's arrived and he should be at this event. And I'm all for it. The Leafs.

Austin Matthews, yes. Did you give any strong consideration to Morgan Riley might make this event as a substitution for Headman? Or Freddie Anderson, if you put someone else in from the Canadians and you need another goalie? Yeah, I think Riley is the guy who should go now that Headman is out. and honestly, it really pained me to leave them off the team initially. Jonathan, are you pandering to our audience? No, I think Riley deserves it. Because to me, what I want is I want a guy who does a lot of things,

and Riley does a lot of things. I like the player. I understand some of the caveats that people have with his play, but when you look at this division and the defensemen, who are up at the top end. There really are not a lot of complete guys. And so a guy who has a couple of warts like Riley, but who to me is being used in a lot of different positions

and a lot of different situations and is still producing despite it, I think he fits the bill. Yeah, it's going to be tough for him to, as we had gone here in his career, to shake the label of being, you know, an offense-first guy and being a bit risky and, you know, plays like the other. other day before they went on their buy against the senators when he had a very, very aggressive

pinch in the offensive zone. It led to a goal late in the game that cost the Leafs a big game against the senators. Stuff like that is obviously going to stick out, but he has really elevated this game this season, and the Leafs rely on him to do a lot, and he has rewarded them, and I think you're right. He'd be a fine choice here. And Freddie Anderson, we should give him some love too on a lot of nights, especially when they went through that swoon there for a couple weeks, he was their best player.

And there aren't too many sort of great obvious goalies in this division beyond Vasselowski. So let's give him some love a bit of here as well. Yeah, absolutely. If you're not stuck with Gary Price from the Canadians, I think he is a real shot at the team. All right, the Bruins, Brad Marchand made it. It feels dirty not having Patrice Berger on there with him. Doesn't it? Doesn't it feel just wrong?

And I wanted to send Bergeron anyway because I mean, but again, Boston's one of these teams because what do you do about David Pasternak, right? Okay, this is what we do. You have Bergeron, Marchand, Pasternak as a three-man unit and you have them as just represent this Atlantic division or have them to cede and be their own division and just have them play against all the other teams. Well, maybe maybe what we should do is they can play against Trojek, Barkov, and Huberdo. It can just be a six forward free for all. I'd like that. That'd be fun. It actually would be fun.

I'm talking myself into it. Yeah, maybe we should. Although, you know what? Here's the problem. I was going to say, man, it'd be fun if we just had a bunch of three men combinations, but then there's like certain teams you'd get to and it'd just be like, oh, God. Let's talk about Buffalo some more, Dimitri. Why the hell is Ben Wapulte out at this event?

Yeah, no, Marshand has been remarkable this year. That entire line has been. They gave up their first five-on-five goal against pretty recently. That was the nuttyest stat. I think it's like 17 to 1 or something right now in terms of goal differential. It's remarkable. I mean, and it makes sense. Other team doesn't seem to get the puck whenever they're out there,

so it's tough to score if the puck is always in your own zone. But, yeah, Marchand, in terms of most prolific player or the guy who would be the funest at this event, I think Marchand is the pick from those three, although we should just give that entire line love as well. but yeah and and and the uh the advanced stats guy and you just wants to throw bursuron into everything right yeah but i'm i'm skeptical you know it's i'm growing on uh marshand being his own entity here yes oh no yeah he absolutely is i don't want to take anything away from him yeah i just burseran is a guy who like really in a in a different kind of league i think burschon is a guy who

in his prime would have got real heart trophy consideration yeah And, yeah, so I have a chip on my shoulder about that. But you're right. Brad Marchand is absolutely good to go, and he's a fun player to watch. Yes. Okay, so you want to talk about Charlie McAvoy. You don't think he is a viable candidate to replace headman? He is.

He is a viable candidate. I like Morgan Riley a little bit more right now, and the thing about Charlie McAvoy is the Zadano Chara Time Warp thing. Yeah, he doesn't get the big charo with him. Yeah, and I, and I, I honestly, like if it weren't for the fact that Chara's 100 and it's not his kind of event, I would say put Chara out there. I just,

I wouldn't want to do that to Chara, which is why I don't bring him up. But, but yeah, anytime there's a defenseman who plays with Zendaydon Chara, it seems like there's this great start. Boston's got this wonderful up-and-coming defenseman. He's fantastic.

And then you take him away from Chara. And I don't think that's going to happen with McAvoy. McAvoy, I think, is the real deal. But at this stage in his career, I really do think that Charra is doing, I mean, he's doing things for Chara too, but Chara's doing a lot for him. Yeah, I agree with that. But Chara is just insane. Yes.

Speaking of this Boston team is the home of these guys. Like the fact that Chara, does he have, he's got one Norristrophy in his career. I don't know if that's the, that's how many he actually has. I should look that. Well, whatever he has, he should have more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's well said. And, um, okay, let's finish out this division then. So we mentioned headman. He's obviously a very deserving candidate. It was, was up there for the, in the Norse trophy discussion. If not the favorite, he'll be out, which is sad to see. But, you know, fortunately for them, it's only a couple weeks and it looked like it

could be a lot worse. Yeah. And he might, the nice thing there is he might still be in the Norris conversation. Yeah. Yeah. He only, uh, you know, they have their by week here as well. So like, he might only just. Like seven or eight games, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I think 70 games is enough, especially with his stats to a war in consideration. Anyway, especially since this is one of those years where there isn't a really runaway guy. Like, you know, Dowdy, Petrangelo have been great, but there hasn't been. No one's having been having an Eric Carlson season from the past or even what Brent Burns did last year.

So it's pretty open. Stamcoe Kutrov, obviously. Vasilyevsky, yes, he's got the best stats of any goal in the league this season. Probably will win the, he's going to win the Wesner, right, unless he falls off? Yeah, I think so. I mean, goalie stats are goalie stats. They bounce around a lot, so we'll see. But I think he's the frontrunner right now.

I mean, whether it's deserving or not, like he's going to lead to league and win, safe percentage and goals against most likely. So it's going to be, I have a tough time seeing the voting public not giving him credit for that. And I don't think he's a bad pick either. Like, I mean, we'll see what the numbers look like at the end of the year. But you look at the performance of his backups this year, I don't think Tampa Bay is really, like, I don't, I think Vasilevsky is, deserves a lot of the credit he gets, but I, I don't understand having reservations. Yes.

Yeah. I mean, and he's still, you know, based on his age, I think there's a lot of reason to be optimistic about him and his individual performance. Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything to really say about this team? Like, yes, the guys that made it are very obvious. I did, I guess I did want to mention the fact that, you know, he would never make this event just because there's so many other guys to choose from. And even though the lightning are at home, you know, they're overpopulating this event a bit. But Brain Point is fifth in the league in 5-on-5 scoring, which I just wanted to throw out there as a nice little nugget.

He's right between McKinn and Jureau and Gujarro and Tavares. So that's pretty impressive. Now, obviously, you know, his overall numbers aren't through the roof because it's just opportunity-based. But he's been awesome. And it just, yeah, this lightning team has so many, so many. many dynamic players, and we haven't even mentioned the Tyler Johnson resurgence, and you go on and on, and there's just so many weapons on this team, and there's a reason why they've been the best team in the league, and should we consider a favorite moving forward.

Let's alter our Atlantic Division approach. Let's have it, the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the rest of the division. That's who the Huberto and the Bergeron trio, sorry, the, yeah, the Florida and the Boston trios, they can play against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then we'll have. Kacharov, Stamkos, and Nemestnikov, they can be a unit. We'll stick Point Johnson. I like to stick Yanni Gord on that second trio as well, because he's a lot of fun. Although I guess we have to find room for Hedman if he was healthy.

Yeah. It's a moot point, but this is basically an all-star team. Yeah, no, they've been ridiculous. All right, let's do the Pacific Division here really quickly. And then, because I actually want to spend a bit more time on the Central. Why on earth would we rush through the Pacific Division, Dimitri? I know. I know.

there's so much quality there. Well, especially these first couple teams we're going to talk about. All right, let's bang through this. Coyotes, it's just like, it's all over Echman-Larson until further notice, I guess. Like, I don't know, should we consider-doch the fact that he's minus 40? Well, should we consider Clayton Keller as the representative? I mean, he has obviously slowed down quite a bit since his hot start. I don't know.

I'm okay Yeah, I... Honestly, we could just pretend the coyotes aren't here. They probably don't... I mean, I think the rest of the league generally pretends they're not there. I mean, do they deserve a representative?

Not particularly. Nope. No, I don't think so. You know what, Antirantah. You can make a case for Antirondah. But there's a lot of goal... There's some goalies in this division, so yeah. Nobody.

Yeah. Ekman Larson, I guess, just because he's the one name that fans are going to recognize. Okay, let's keep that spot open here. we'll try and fill it with a with a player from another team um so the knox brock besser uh i already already gave my case for nick dowd earlier in the show um but yeah no besser uh he's been amazing uh seems to be scoring every goals every other day and and i think his most impressive

thing is that he's given people a reason to tune into canucks games so yeah which they desperately he did yep and uh he could be fun of this event especially if you put him like we haven't he's been playing with thomas vannock and it's been fine i think especially in the offense his own. I really enjoy Vannex creativity with a puck and envision, but I'm going to be fascinated to see Besser an event like this playing with a natural playmaker. Let's say you put him with Johnny Goodrow, for example. I'm just curious to see. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm curious to see how, what that's going to look like because he's so good at just like any great goal scorer at getting to his spots and being ready to receive the puck and shoot in like one quick motion.

And that's the way to beat goalies in today's day and age. And so that's, going to be really fun to watch. And I guess watching him with a guy like that, then going back to watching him at Knox games lugging around, Thomas Vannick might be a bit depressing. But I guess it'll provide hope for the future if they can find a guy like that to play with Besser moving forward. In fairness to poor Thomas Vannock,

he is good at the one dimension that he brings. Yes. Like he is a good offensive player. Yeah, for sure. But anyway, it's obviously Besser. Yeah. Well, the thing is you've got to get to the offensive zone and you've got to get the puck,

and then Thomas Vannick is really good. unfortunately there are other facets of the game from the blue line in yeah with the puck from the blue line in so like one sixth of the game or if you're the canucks one 12th of the game so i promise you we wouldn't talk about the oilers so connor macdavid made it and let's talk about anahem ducks i am perfectly good with that uh so ricard rakel is representing this team um and i want to send getz laugh but you know with his health like i know he's healthy now i feel like rale's the right pick uh john gibson's I'm sorry.

I think John Gibson should be. Yeah. Yeah, well, hang on though. How much, uh, does, does Ryan Miller being just this amazing backup there take away from Gibson at all? I don't think so. I think Ryan Miller is a perfectly fine goalie as he's proven in the past. And I think he's very well suited for, uh, for this workload.

And, um, especially at this stage of his career. And there's a bunch of goalies around the league that have awesome, uh, say, percentage of his backups. It was like, you know, Carter Hutton is leading the league in Cervors, and Janice on Houdobin's right up there. Like, it's, I think, in a smaller sample, you know, if Miller had to play more, I think he'd get exposed a little bit. I think.

Well, it's two things. It's a small sample, and it's the fact that you do generally face weaker opposition, right? Yes, and I think, yeah, I think through everything, like the reason they're still afloat is unquestionably their goal-tending. And we should sort of, if we're representing the team. one of those guys should be there and Gibson has been their number one guy and I'm all for having him here especially like Mark Andre Fleury's having a great season but he's played 13 games But the problem is like Vegas is such a great story and to me there's there's there's trouble picking a bunch of the players on the Vegas roster like That's kind of why I agreed with the choice of flurry even though it was kind of a weird pick

Well, he's a big name and also And his numbers are insane a great guy and it's an awesome story after what he went through last year and or the past couple years in Pittsburgh so it's it's kind of cool but if you're going in meritocracy based on play in the first half I think Gibson should be the other goalie with Quick from this division Mike Smith actually maybe

yeah I was gonna say yeah I don't have Jonathan Quick on my team all right well let's talk about let's talk about the flames then so yeah you know Joddy hockey's an obvious choice here he's up there in pretty much every single metric you can look at and it's been cool to see that he's healthy and maybe I guess since the crackdown on the slashing to the wrist was pretty much because of him. It makes sense that he's been benefiting from it.

But yeah, no, Mike Smith has been a revelation this year. I was pretty critical of that move. I think it was fine, but I thought there might have been more higher upside options, but he's been tremendous. He's right up there in safe percentage, any way you look at it. And I think, yeah, now that I think about it, there's a very strong case to be made that he should be on this team as well. Yeah, I

Not to toot my own horn too much But I wrote a piece for Sportsnet this fall And when I was doing the research for it I kind of talked myself into Mike Smith So I'm pleased that call is going well for the flames Because So what was your What was your rationale for talking yourself into it?

When I looked I actually went through which teams he had played against over the years So I looked at the shooting If I remember correctly I looked at the shooting percentage for all the teams he faced and found that it was a factor in dropping his safe percentage

lower than it should have been. I think there's a quality of competition thing for goalies that you can make the case in some cases and Smith and Arizona just happened to be one of those weird extreme cases where the numbers worked out. But, you know, having said that, he's a 35-year-old goalie with age history. So it wasn't like it was a no-brainer pick for the flames.

Well, the interesting thing is that the start of the year, especially, the flames were not very good defensively, and they were bleeding a lot of shots against, and not necessarily, you know, stuff from the outside either, and he was holding up, and, you know, it's gotten better as he's gone along, and the flames have improved their underlying performance, but, you know, Smith's right up there. I think, Vasilewski's the only guy, the higher 5-1-5, say percentage of any regular. Crawford and Vasilevsky are the only guys with a higher overall, say percentage. Like, he's been the real deal. So, yeah, I think you're right here.

so can so obviously we're sending a drill we're sending smith can we just take hamilton and giordano and have them be two-thirds of the defense corps for the pacific division yeah yeah they should like i mean maybe lindholm and anaheim and the obvious guy in l a laa but uh yeah there wasn't a lot of i i had trouble picking defense and and when i started looking at calgary i thought man it's uh it's a shame that they're not, they're probably not, they're not sending a defenseman. I don't have them sending a defenseman just the way it worked out, but I, I really wanted to include both those guys. Yeah.

Well, we could, we could fill one of those spots with Ekman Larson, and I'd be perfectly fine with bringing the other guy as a combination over Brent Burns. So, um, yeah.

Well, let's get into the sharks. Brent Burns was her pick. And, uh, you know, his, uh,

his, uh, his numbers have come up a bit. Obviously, you know, it's, he's not going to repeat. what he did last year, even the year before, but it's getting better at the same time. I don't know.

I think Logan Couture has been their best player this season if we're just not taking into account position, although I guess you have to do for a thing like this, but I think I think Couture has been their best player. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think Burns has some pretty notable warts. but he's fine for an event like this. Yeah, the thing I knock him for a little bit is even strength point production. Like, you kind of expect him to be near the top of the league,

and he's good, but not where you expect him to be. I think he's 20th overall, tied, sorry, he's tied for 20th overall with Noah Hanifan. So, yeah, he's great for an event like this. Yeah, Noah Hanofin, as we talk about an All-Star. All right, the Kings, they've been rewarded for their balanced back season here by having Kopitar, Dowdy, and Quick.

Quick's a fine choice. Yeah, and I know people are tuning into the show and they're expecting, oh, we're going to rag on John McQuick. He's been very good this year. I do think maybe Mike Smith is probably more deserving. I think John Gibson as well, but he's been perfectly fine, and I have no qualms with that.

Dowdy might be the most deserving choice for the Norris this season, which is funny, but he's not, I mean, he can't win it because he's already, he's already, you know, he's gotten his turn. Yeah, it's not his turn anymore. And Quotar, the percentages have come back a bit, and he's benefited from that offensively, and obviously he's a tremendous player. So, yeah, is there anything else to add about this Kings team? I guess we should say that, you know what, yeah, there is one thing.

I spent a good 10 seconds thinking about, including Dustin Brown, and that it's not a sentence I expected to be saying in September. Yeah. I mean, he doesn't make the team, obviously, but he's had a great year. And so, yeah, shout out to Dustin Brown. Congratulations on rejuvenating the career. Yeah. No, you're right.

I definitely did not see that coming, especially based on all the trends in the directions they were headed in his age and the miles. And yeah, it's been a cool story. The Golden Knights, James Neal and Mark Andre, Flurry, we discussed Flurry. And, you know, his- Feels a weird pick. It is. It feels like it's one of those things.

things where people watch like the first five games of the season and haven't watched since. And it's like, yeah, James Neal, yeah. Remember when he scored a goal in every single game to start the year? He's been their best player, right? They played like 30 games since then. I kind of felt like it was, well, nobody knows who Jonathan Margezzo is. Yeah, which is especially weird after like he got that big contract and people were talking about him.

It's like if you didn't know about him, I feel like that news probably got you to search up his numbers and go, holy crap, he's been awesome this year. So they're playing in Tampa Bay. So I mean, they know who Marchesso is in Tampa Bay. Actually, they know who Riley Smith is too because they'll have seen him tons and tons in Florida. So send them both down. Yeah, yeah. The Neil one was a weird choice.

Marcia Soe should definitely be at this event. Yeah. But it also based on how, I mean, I guess it speaks to their sort of committee approach. Like obviously that top line has been doing all the heavy lifting for them. But other than Marci So there isn't like a, you know, like, well, Bill Carlson has scored a ton of goals, but it's sort of with other players, it's tough to make a case from, especially with, I know that your dog camp have been more for the shooting percentage.

And it's, they've done a bit of a committee approach and that's what's made them so successful and so fun to watch. So maybe that doesn't necessarily lend itself to an event like this where you're just going for pure star power. But yeah, Marshala should be on this team. Did you give any consideration to Nate Schmidt? No, no, I didn't. Like, I love Nate Schmidt, but just based on the,

other players we're talking about here. Yeah. It's tough to make the case that he's the best. You can't put him ahead of Ekman Larson and Burns. Cool. Yeah. No, I'm sorry.

I'm just going off, off track here and running the podcast. I'm not. I just, I was looking at their defense and I'm like, because I really tried to reward Vegas players. And it is hard to do because it's such a bike committee thing and they don't have the starback. Yeah, well,

it helps that they stop. playing Lucas Beza and Jason Garrison. So in terms of their blue line, that's helped quite a bit. Shay Theodore coming up and all those guys, yeah, it's been good. But yeah, let's get Marcia So on there. And I guess that's going to be it. All right, let's take a quick break. And then we'll finish this podcast up with the Central Division.

Anyone can develop high blood pressure. In fact, 7.5 million Canadians live with hypertension every day. The mission of Get Down BP is to bring everyone. one 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 has never felt so good. A community-based initiative fueled by one of Canada's leading pharmaceutical research-based companies in collaboration with hypertension Canada. If you're listening to the PDO cast, I like to think that means you're probably a smart individual,

definitely smarter than your average fan. Certainly at least smart enough to know that you don't need to be stressing out about how you're going to get tickets to the next game you're going to watch or how much you're going to cost you when you do finally find them. If you don't know what you're doing, buying tickets to sporting events and concerts can be stressful, but it really doesn't need to be because there's now an easier way to buy, and that's with Seekek. Let's just put it this way. Hagling with scalpers is like using NHL.com to look up whatever stat it is that you're interested in. Using Seekek, that's like pulling up Corsica and finding out everything you need to know in just a matter of seconds with a few clicks.

Whether you're searching for a last minute deal, planning a night out, or just need to find the perfect gift for someone, Seekkeek helps you find you find a lot. the best seats of the best prices and that's fully guaranteed. There's really nothing quite like seeing your favorite team on musician in person and Siki's going to help you get closer to action for a great value. As much fun as it is to obsessively refresh your Twitter feed and argue with people online, you know it's even more fun, getting out of the house and going to the game, hitting the rink and catching a game in person, having a couple beers,

yelling at people to shoot the puck, chanting the opposing goalie's name, all that good stuff. Do whatever you want. It supports therapy at its finest, just as long as you're not doing the wave, that is. And to put your mind at ease as if that somehow wasn't enough, Seeky's even giving you an extra $20 off your first purchase. All you have to do is download the Seeky app and enter the promo code PDO, and it's yours. You're welcome. Now let's get back to the show.

All right. The Colorado Avalanche, Nathan McKinnon, yes, I wrote about him last week. He should be getting very serious heart trophy buzz, and he's finally reached the heights that we've been waiting for him from the past few years, and it's been awesome to see. Did you give any consideration to, I don't know, like who else on this team, would you give consideration to Miko Ranton?

Nice and Barry. Rancen. I had both Rantin and Barry on my potentials list. Yeah, Barry's out now with injury, I believe, right? Yeah, that could be. I have to admit I'm not right. Yeah. Yeah, no, no.

Rantanin's been awesome as well, but it's very clearly, and one of the reasons why he, he is getting the heart trophy buzz that he is. And why it's warranted is because he's really been the driving force there for that team and their resurgence the season. So, yeah, again, it's an obvious choice. And I think you're absolutely right to put him up for heart trophy consideration.

He's in that conversation for sure. Can you believe that the NHL actually only gave the Blackhawks one representative finally? Wait, no. Yeah, it's crazy, right? Not even a missed. Wow. Yeah. But you know what?

Maybe Corey Crawford getting hurt to save them from themselves. Yeah. Because I shouldn't say it like that because Corey Crawford's a deserving candidate. Yes. Yeah, no, he's right up there. If Crawford was healthy and, you know, he's played, I guess he started 27 games, which is fine. It's a bit under what most of the other top guys in the league are at, who are like more so in the mid to high 30s.

But he's been awesome in those starts. And yeah, if he was healthy, there'd be a very strong case to put him as the second guy with Hellebuck there, but Kane is, yeah, Kane's been the only guy that I can think of. I mean, it's weird because even in the past, like even if they haven't been deserving, there's been a lot of traction for Jonathan Taze and Duncan Keith and so on and so forth. But no, it's, uh,

Kane's the only guy this year, which is, it feels weird, but I guess it's a signal of the changing of the times. Yeah, yeah, and end of the season that Chicago's had. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's fair. The Wild. Wow, Eric Stahl. Did you see it's his first time?

being at this event since like 2011 or something? Which I found surprising because I would have thought he would have been the hurricanes representative in the past. Yeah, the default hurricane. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, though I guess Jeff Skinner took that award a couple times. But yeah, no, it's, he's been awesome. He's been in last year as well and this year.

He sort of turned. Yeah, he's had a nice little rejuvenation. Turn back the clock. I was very skeptical of him as a free agent. And I remember when the Rangers traded for him, I thought that was bizarre. and I thought teams were overvaluing him based on name brand, but he's been good. And it sort of goes to show, like,

I think if you went into this season and you told people, especially in Minnesota, like, Eric Stahl is going to be our only representative. They'd be like, oh, man, what went wrong this season? But a lot has gone wrong in Minnesota. So I guess it's fair. Yeah. And to me, we talk a lot about parity in the league, and I think it's, um,

especially when you look at the central division and the metropolitan division it does not take very much slippage at all to just you know find yourself suddenly on the playoff bubble and wondering how you got there and i kind of think that's the case for a few teams in both of those divisions yeah i think i will say um i think nino nina rider is their best player and if we were going based on you know what would be the most fun choice you can an argument that Mikhail Granland would be very final watch of this event, but I'm not going to, you know, this isn't the hill I'm going to die on. I'm fine with Eric Stahl being on this team.

So, yeah, yeah, I was fine with Stahl. Stahl was my choice. I gave some serious thought to Matt Dumba. Because of the nature of the event and because he's a guy with nine even strength goals. There are two defensemen in the league with more than six, and I have now made the contrarian argument for both of them. Yeah, the only problem is it's tough to, like, which defenseman would you knock off from Klingberg, Petrangelo, and Suevang. Yeah, exactly. That's, and that's where I, uh, where I said, nope, no, can't fit you in.

And, and so just like Zach Werenski, I, I said, no, sorry, Matt Dunba. Yes. Um, the stars, Tyler Sagan and John Klingberg, um, makes sense. It's tough to argue with that. I feel like Tyler Sagan is having a, you know, a quietly, great offensive season, right? Like, not really talking about him much. Yeah.

He's going to score like 40 goals. Yeah. Well, that's true. Yeah, I mean, it's 21 and 44, so I guess it paces come down a bit. But, I mean, in today's day and age, if you're scoring over 35 goals, that's very, very good. And I don't really see people talking about him much. And that's true of this entire Star's team, right? Like, with Ken Hitchcock there, they definitely aren't nearly as exciting as they've been in the past.

But they're one of those teams. where as the year's gone along, I've been monitoring their play very closely because they're very dominant in 5-1-5, and they're hanging around that playoff spot, but I think they'd be a nightmare to play against in the playoffs, especially based on their flexibility up front and what they could do with either top-loading that line

and just going power versus power with Radula of Ben and Sagan on one line or potentially spreading it out and they could get creative there. So they're going to be a very challenging team come to postseason. And, yeah, but I think Sagan, again is the obvious choice from those three up here. Yeah, I didn't take a forward from Dallas. I took John Klingberg.

I couldn't, like, Sagan, Ben, and Radulov, you can make a case for any of the three. The contrarian me is dying to say Rotic Foxa, but I won't. But I actually put this list together shortly after watching Edmonton play Dallas, and they had Ben Sagan and Radulov all loaded up on one line

and they just rolled over there. It was, yeah, it was incredible to watch, you know, just as a fan of hockey generally, if you were a fan of the Oilers, not so incredible to watch. But I don't know.

I feel like any of those three you could make a case for, but there were other forwards. Because I did take Stahl, Kane and McKinnon we've already talked about, so that's three of the forwards. And there were guys I wanted in Winnipeg and St. Louis more than I wanted the Dallas guys. But, I mean, it's hard to argue with Sig.

So I guess you're saying you would have Braden Shen and Vlad Tarasenko? Yeah. Well, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here. Well, I only took one blues forward. I wanted to, I desperately wanted to fit Teresenko and, wait. And, uh, Shen. So you, but you took Tarasenko. Yeah, I took Tarasenko over Chen.

I thought you were going to say there. Yeah, yeah. I desperately tried to fit Teresanko and I'm like, what? Jonathan, what are you doing? I don't want to put it this way, John, but it's going to be a while before I call you again. This is a good time to tell you I haven't even clicked the record button yet. We're actually just talking about. Yeah, wow.

Yeah, the, I mean, Shenz had an awesome season, and I have to give credit words, I was very skeptical of him and how much he was relying on being on that awesome Flyers' powerplay as the Trigger Man. But he's been very good this year, and I'm all for giving him credit for that. But it just seems weird to have an event like this. and not have Teresanko who is as lethal a score as there is and would be great at an event like this. Oh, he'd be, he'd be, yeah. But I can kind of see where they're coming from with Shen. Like Shen had 27 even strength points last year.

He is 32 already this season. He's five shy of his career high for even strength scoring and worth the All-Star break. What a gamble by St. Louis that has paid off in spades in year one. And so it's a great story. I love Jaden Schwartz as well. But yeah, how do you go? How do you pass Tarasenko? I don't see how you can.

So that was a pretty, in hindsight, that was a pretty great couple hours there for them at the draft where they traded for Braden Shand. And then traded Ryan Reeves for Klim Koston, who looked awesome at the world juniors. And it looks like he could be a legitimate asset. So that was a tidy piece of a tidy piece of maneuvering from Doug Armstrong there. Well, I was like, I got to see Klim Koston play at the understores. 17s years and years ago and he was just

he was an incredible player to watch and I've always in the back of my mind because you know you know it's a six or seven game tournament so you don't wait it too much man when they made that trade I thought oh I know that guy I like that guy he's he's a special player he is a special player indeed and I would not to say the same thing about Ryan Reeves is a special player in his own right maybe a different way but I was I was just an odd odd decision I think I

feel like teams get themselves into the most trouble when they say you know what we have enough talent we need to start addressing some of the other other itches that we really need to scratch you never have enough talent never ever ever ever ever especially with the composition of that penguin's team and the success they had the past few years it's just odd fit all the way around the predators uh pk suban and pecorinne what do you what are your thoughts on that yeah uh yeah i think saban well i mean you you you have to take savann anyway but he deserves to go um but he he was the voted in choice so you're kind of stuck with him even if you didn't didn't want to bring him but he's absolutely a great fit he's a great fit

performance wise he's a great fit the style of game he plays and he's a great fit personality wise for this event he's perfect pecker rene really deserves to go i'm i'm a notable pecker renbasher over the course of his career but he's having a great season so yeah yeah and um i think let's say crawford was healthy and had played a few more games um then yeah you'd bump would you would you bump he would you bump he would you bump or would you bump Renee? Renee. Yeah, I think so too.

But he's a fine choice in the alternative. And, yeah, now, Suban deserves to be at this event. Like, listen, it's been really cool to watch his development as a player. Like, I always thought that the concerns about his game were overblown. But, man, the past, whatever, a handful of months dating back to last year and then this season so far in Nashville, like, he, he's right up there with the Hamas Lin-Holmes of the world as like

the preeminent shutdown defenseman in today's day and age and it's been really cool to watch like I thought that match up with him and McDavid and McDavid as he will against anyone got the better home a few times and had that break away and very easily could have generated a couple goals because that's what Connor McDavid does

but just watching them go back and forth and that duel there was like man I would watch that as a full all-star all-star break event just those guys going one-on-one. Yeah, it was an amazing, amazing one-on-one dual. And I feel like Saban, I kind of get a kick out of the way Savan gets covered in some quarters because there were people who didn't like him in Montreal and didn't like him basically down the line. And it's funny, because Nashville's one of those teams with such a deep decor that if you want to, you can trip over

yourself talking about how great Roman Yossi and Matthias Akomar and not even really talk about Saban. So I guess for the critics, it's kind of lucky he ended up. on a team with such a great defense score because but I mean I think he's the best uh the best defenseman on that roster and that's really saying something with the quality they have and the thing that I took away from that and you saw it last year during the playoffs um like how hampus linholm was playing him like there's no right answer to slowing down Connor macdavid other than oh other than hoping other than hoping that the reps can't humanly call every single penalty so you're going to get away with some like that's the best divets against them but like I understand a lot of

guys just don't have the physical capability to play this type of game. And there's obviously the mental component where it leaves you prone to getting burned and winding up on a highlight reel. But you have to play aggressively against him in the neutral zone. Like if you sag back and let him get a full head of steam, like you're done. Like there's, he's going to get around. You want to wear another. Your only chance is to break it up before it ever really fully materializes.

And that's what I took away from watching that matchup where there were a couple times where Sub-Benz was very aggressive with a stick in terms of contesting McClain. David as he was getting into the zone and a couple times actually broke it up and that's sort of the way you have to play but I understand why guys are reluctant to do so because it's it's very very tough to do well and some guys don't have the ability to do

that. They don't have it. Saban's one of the guys who does and I I feel like it's kind of an exciting time for the league because we're moving into this period where I feel like increasingly the coaches are putting the emphasis on playing aggressively when you're

in defensive position you know like really really pushing them at the blue line, really fighting to get possession back rather than kind of passively falling into a box. We're in a transition period. Like there's still the whole, you know, there's a whole class of defensemen who just never saw a retreat they didn't want to take. But I think they're getting phased out. I think 10 years, 15 years from now, they won't exist. And we'll see guys who, you know, aren't regarded as defensive guys, guys like Saban that's that's going to be how you play defense um and and not just offensive defense that's how you play shutdown defense because that's the smart way to do it yep 100%

co-sign um all right and last team here the win of big jets um blake Blake's Blake wheeler yes makes sense Connor Heller um you know the numbers back it up and he should be there but I think just what uh his emergence here has meant for the franchise is in and of itself uh worthy of consideration here just because we've been waiting for so long for the Jets to have a performance like this from their goalie. Hang on, they had Andre Pavlidge for years.

It's true. And in Balak's credit, he had that, the one year they made the playoffs, he had that remarkable second half of the season. So it goes to show you how much how important that was. And I think you know, if there's, I can't tell if they'd be listening to this and just hating themselves for it

or whether it would provide them optimism, but like for hurricanes fans moving forward if they have if they can somehow find a goalie who can give them this type of performance like they can have a very similar result to what the Winnipeg Jets are doing the season like the upside's very high there where everything everything was always there they just needed a reliable goalie and this year Connor Halliboy is doing that for them and they've taken off as a result yeah he's been he's been great it's good to see it gives hope to all those teams who've had miserable goaltending forever and and you know you because I've I've seen fan bases go through this. having watched the Edmonton rebuild, then you kind of go well, is it the defense, is it the forward, what is,

is it our special teams? No, it's your terrible goalie and your succession of terrible goalies. And just because the last three guys are terrible doesn't mean it's,

it's not your terrible. Yes. Yeah, no, it's very true. Jonathan, we did it. Man,

it took us 80 minutes, but we, uh, that was a, that was a bit of a marathon. We, uh, is this where I put my,

my hand up and say we didn't even talk about Mark Schifley? Well, he's out. Yeah. I mean, I guess you could give him a nominal, you know, credit here, but he wouldn't be playing anyway, so we'd have to find a replacement for him. And then. Yes. No, you're right.

I just. That's a sneaky way for you to kind of bend the system by just, like, add. Because obviously there's so much talent in the league in today's day and age. There's, you know, there's more players that are deserving of being in this game than there are spots. So yeah, I guess putting in a bunch of really great players who happen to be injured is a very convenient way to get around that system. Gosh, now we have to replace them. Him and Philip Forsberg. That's true.

Yeah. Yes. It's fun to do this exercise because it kind of makes you, I don't know, for me it makes me feel like an original 6 GM a little bit where you're just the talent is absurd. And the players you're cutting are so good. Yeah. It's a fun exercise. Well, yeah, and it goes to show how the game is in a pretty good place. the NHL sometimes goes out of its way to do very questionable things to hamper the fun,

but just purely in terms of the players that are coming into this league and what they're capable of, it's a great time to be a fan of hockey. Yeah, I completely agree. All right, this is a part of the show where you plug what you're working on. Where can people find you? And what are you doing these days? Yeah, so I am on Twitter at Jonathan Willis. That's probably the best place to go to get my stuff, writing for Sportsnet and the athletic

these days. and it is the Oilers by week. So this is, I'm very grateful to Dimitri for not making me talk about them because this is the week where I do long post mortems on the special teams and the even strength play and absolutely everything that has gone wrong with them. So if you feel like reading 4,000 words on what's happened badly with the Oilers, tune in later this week. I thought you're going to say this is the week where I stand in front of a mirror and do a lot of self-reflection and try and figure out where things went so horribly wrong. This is, I've installed a cushion on my desk to reduce the likelihood of concussion as I'm banging my head against it. This is, this is that week. Awesome.

Well, Jonathan, you know, best wishes to you. Hopefully you make it through the second half of the season, as trying as it will be. Thanks for being a good sport and for taking a time to chat. And I'm sure that we'll have you back on soon. Very much, my pleasure, Dmitri, and take care. The Hockey PEOCast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at SoundCloud.com slash HockeyPedioCast.