The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 254: The 2018-19 Watchability Rankings

Episode Date: October 1, 2018

Sean McIndoe joins the show to help compile our annual Watchability Rankings. In this episode we put together a list counting down from 31 all the way down to 1 based on the entertainment value each team figures to provide viewers with this season. Here's a good rundown of the methodology that guides the list: “If you’re sitting down on a random Thursday night and there’s a plethora of games to choose from, which teams are you prioritizing seeing (all other things being equal, putting rooting allegiances aside)? Talent is obviously king, but style and likelihood of engaging in a back-and-forth, fast-paced affair are just as important. It’s important to remember that sometimes being a very successful hockey team in terms of wins and losses and your place in these rankings can be inversely related.” 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. We'll be doing weekly daily fantasy listener leagues over at FanDuel this season. If you go to fanduel.com/PDO and tell them we’ve sent you, they'll hook you up with a bonus $20 to play with after your first deposit. The first contest will be running on the opening day of the season during October 3rd's four-game slate. See you there! One final big thank you to Chris Bradford for the new artwork, and Ketan Jogia for the new theme music in advance of the new season. 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 package. 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. Before we dive right into today's jam-backed episode of the HockeyPedio cast, I did want to touch on a couple of pressing housekeeping notes now that it's October 1st, and the regular season is starting up this week. For those either follow me on Twitter,

over the past couple weeks, you may have noticed that I've parted ways with SportsNet this season. Now, how that affects yourself personally in terms of being a listener of the show and the PDOCAST moving forward, the answer is not much, really. We're going to still keep cranking out this show,

hopefully two to three times a week as the season gets going. We're going to have the same great guests on, and if you've been enjoying the show over the past couple of years, hopefully nothing's really going to change. Now, obviously, with it being a bit of a tumultuous, this time and me kind of going out on my own.

All support from you guys is even more so greatly appreciated. So if you can take the time to share the show, to leave positive ratings and reviews on iTunes, tell your friends about it, steal their phones and subscribe to the show, all of that is obviously going to go a long way towards keeping this show up and running and making it successful. Now, with it being the first week of the season, you know, it's a great time for obviously preview content and doing fun stuff. So on this show, on today's episode, we're doing the watchability rankings,

which people love on an annual basis. We're going to be doing the positional rankings with Andrew Berkshire coming up here, and hopefully we're going to do some other fun preview stuff. In terms of other work, you can go on Reddit. I'm doing, depending on when you're listening to this, on Monday afternoon, October 1st, I'm going to be doing an AMA out there. So even if you're listening to this after the fact, I'm sure you can check it out and read some of the questions and answers, and hopefully you'll enjoy that.

I'm sure we're going to get into a lot of projections and previews and predictions and all that good stuff there. And the other thing is I've partnered up with Fandu this season. And we're going to be doing weekly listener contests, kind of like we did for stretches last year, where on a given day, you basically look at that day's slate of action and you just pick a line up that fits under the cap and you go head to head against myself and other fellow listeners. Now, we're going to do that for week one here. Actually, for the first day of the season on Wednesday, there's only four games, but it'll be still a fun slate, and the fact that the regular season's here is pretty exciting. So I'll be tweeting out the link to that, but in the meantime, if you do want to get in there and lock up your spot, because I believe there's only 20 openings, feel free to either tweet me or DM me on Twitter, and I'll make sure to pass on a personalized link to you. In the meantime, if you haven't subscribed to FanDul, just go.

to fandal.com slash PDO and sign up and I believe you get $20 off your first deposit, $20 in addition to your first deposit, which is a pretty good deal. And with that said, now that it is a new season and there's new beginnings, I decided to give the hockey PDO cast a bit of a facelift. So our good friend Chris Bradford has gone ahead and given us some new artwork, which I'm sure you're going to notice if you follow at PDOCAST on Twitter or if you are looking at your iTunes or SoundCloud or wherever you tend to listen to this podcast. He obviously has done the past couple renditions for us and I'm a big fan of this latest one. He's told me that I am sitting in the press box in the penalty box there with friends of the

podcast, J.F. Barubei and PA Parento. So for those he that wasn't for a long time, you're probably going to get a kick out of that. And also, the other thing is, as you're about to hear here we have a new intro song and a new outro song for the PDOCast um i know it's a bit of a change we've had the same one for the past three years but i figured it was time for to mix things up a little bit so i had my good friend ken jogia from the band st ivory go ahead and cook some stuff up for that so hopefully you're going to enjoy that and you're about to hear it so with that said let's get into today's show progressing to the mean since 2015 it's the hockey pediocast With your host, Dimitri.

Welcome to the Hockey P.D.O.cast, my name is Dimitri Philipovich, and joining me is my good buddy, Sean McIndo, who I feel like I haven't had on this show in way too long. I feel like it's been over a year and a half or so. So, Sean, what's going on, man? Hey, not too much. Thanks for having me. It's good to have you back on a podcast. I feel like it's been a while since I've gotten to hear you on one of these things. Yeah, it probably has been. So ever, ever since I was cruelly abandoned by my podcasting partner. Yeah, no, it's good to be back in it.

That damn Dave Lozo. So I'm excited for today's show because obviously having you on is one great thing. But the other thing is we're doing our annual watchability rankings here in the Hockeypedo cast. And it's kind of typically been one of my personal favorites to do over the years. I've done it in the past with Jeff Merrick and I think Craig Custin's last year. And I figured you'd be a good person to have on to help to kind of guide our way through this and try to figure out where we stand. I was talking to you before we started recording. and it really, you know, kind of note it's kind of like the actual NHL,

but there's like a bottom tier of four or five teams that are very clearly going to be the least watchable, a handful that are very eminently watchable and near the top. And then it's just, I don't know, like a 25 team middle. It's pretty bonkers how, I guess it's going to be kind of personal preference what we do there in the middle. That is. I mean, that's the NHL today. It's the 25 team middle. And if you're in there somewhere.

But yeah, and, you know, this is, it's, it's, It's interesting to me because I've heard your shows we've done it in the past. I think everyone has their own view of what it is to be watchable. And the thing that I really found when I sat down to make this list, what surprised me a little bit is that the difference and the distinction between a team being interesting and a team being watchable. And obviously there are some teams that are certainly both of those things. but there are also teams to me that are very very interesting in the big picture this year and and you know where the the to see how their season plays out and what sort of decisions they make as an organization and who develops and who does it and who stays and who goes

and all of that is very interesting and yet I have little to no desire to actually invest three hours a night watching them yeah and uh you know that's and and so I'm I'm sure that I'm sort of saying that to to in anticipation that I'm sure there are some teams that people might be surprised ranked somewhat low on my list because they'll say but you know that's that team's going to be fascinating yeah they might be fascinating isn't necessarily the same as watchable even though you might you might think that there's going to be more overlap there than there really is yeah no we don't want to there's certain teams where we don't necessarily want to devote two three hours a night

to watching them. We kind of want like a weekly progress report and that's about it. Yeah. Well, I mean, I was on Friday night there, we had an event for the athletic here in Ottawa and we were talking to some fans. One of the questions was like, what do you do when your team is not expected to be very good? And, you know, I can, I suppose I should probably take it personally that I was aimed at me as a, as a Mapleese fan as if I would have expertise there. But I did. And, you know, my advice was, among other things, you don't actually have to watch the games. Like, you can be a good fan and be interested and be knowledgeable and be intelligent and yet not devote three hours, three times a week to sitting there and watching a team that you don't enjoy watching. And that's probably not the sort of advice that certain teams and the league itself would want me to put out there.

But yeah, I mean, as hockey fans, sometimes we wind up just watching teams out of force a habit because it's what we're supposed to do. You know, find something else to do or flip the channel and watch a team that's maybe a little more interesting on a night-to-night basis. Yeah, no, that's well said. And I think the other thing we should point out here is that there might not know. So there's a big difference between watchability and us saying the team is actually going to be good as well. And we're going to get into a few of them. I think the Islanders are a great example of that particularly, I mean, last season where you could make an argument they were the most watchable team in the league just because it seemed

like every game they played would wind up being like some sort of a six three or six four affair with wacky twists and turns, but they obviously weren't very successful and didn't make the playoffs. So there's a little bit of that. And it's good that we do get into methodology here because I know that everyone's going to have their own definition and, you know, there's going to be obviously people who disagree with us wholeheartedly that we have their team too low. And I feel like very few teams are going to be like, oh, you're going to be.

guys are way too high on our team i'd have it quite a bit lower myself but everybody you know your your own team is always your number one most watchable team yes and we get that but we're trying to we're trying to step back and uh see see some forest instead of instead of just trees here right and the way i approach this was and then you know we do have nights on the on the calendar like generally saturday nights are pretty hectic where there's like seven or eight games going on at once but i'm just going through this from the perspective of let's say all the teams are playing at the same and you have your chance on Game Center to watch any of them, sort of in which order would you prioritize checking these teams out,

all things being equal. So with that said, let's get it started. I'll kick us off here. 31. I very clearly had the Ottawa senators here. I don't know. Do you disagree with that or do you have them a bit higher? You know, I had them 31 as well.

I don't know if I'd say very clearly. But yeah, yeah, they're my 31. and I mean, maybe I gave that away a little bit with my sort of preamble because I do think if we were doing rankings of the most fascinating teams for this year, I would have the Ottawa senators easily in my top five. I cannot wait to see how the season plays out. I can't wait. I mean, obviously, it's been well documented all the kind of off-ice drama and nonsense

that went on with this team for the last 12 months, especially over the summer. but, you know, just even beyond that, you know, who do they re-sign? Who do they trade? They've got big names that they could trade. You've got this whole situation with a coach who's being told not to coach the way that he wants to coach, and is he on the hot seat? You have to imagine he is. And just all the other stuff going on.

I think this is a really, really interesting storyline and maybe an interesting soap opera to watch over the course of the year. I just don't think that's going to translate very many nights to wanting to sit down and invest those three hours in watching them. I mean, this is a team that, you know, 15 months ago or whatever it was, when they were one goal away from the Stanley Cup final and everything was going great, even back then, people were watching this team going, oh, my God, these guys are boring. This is, I mean, that was a whole thing here in Ottawa that people got very frustrated because the outside world was watching this. team for the first time and their reaction was was how dull they were and that was when they were good. So, I mean, to imagine, you know, Guy Boucher coaching for his job with a bad team, I don't think it's going to add up to a super high entertainment value.

And even if they do, I feel like I'm kind of the one voice in the wilderness that thinks that maybe this team could be a little bit better than people think. But even if they are, I mean, I think that's, they're going to do that by playing Gie Boucher hockey and boring everyone to death. And I just don't, there's pieces here that I want to see. But it doesn't add up to something that I think is going to rank very high on too many lists of watchable hockey. Well, yeah, and I think that that competency you refer to there might actually be to their

detriment in this case just because, you know, you can make the argument, well, if things really fall apart here, there could be a bit of a train wreck factor where it's like, oh, you kind of can't look away and everyone's going to be talking about on Twitter and you want to be part of the fun but i think like i don't think these games at least to begin are going to be necessarily even that exciting or that open it just seems like there's kind of a slog and i'm kind of curious we're a take on this um you know as a philosophical thing when you're doing these rankings like how much emphasis are you placing on individual superstar factor because i know like last year when i was doing this with craig um i'm i think i maybe value it maybe a bit too much or quite a bit

because obviously, unlike with a game like basketball, for example, you know, any star is not necessarily going to be out there that often. And if you're tuning into a game just to watch one guy, there could be a lot of stretches of the game where you're sorely disappointed. But at the same time, like with this Ottawa team, as much as I love watching Mark Stone do his thing in the neutral zone or a potential end-to-end rush from Matt Dushin while he's still on this team, it doesn't necessarily, like you take away that one superstar

and Eric Carlson and all of a sudden, it's just, it's a bit of a kind of empty husk around it and there's not much to really necessarily fully invest yourself in with this team yeah no i mean i i i agree there are a handful of players there's a handful of superstars in this league that i will watch a game just just for that player and there's also a handful of of younger guys who may or may not project to that level that i'm curious to to watch uh but yeah you're right there's there's not a lot of that on the senators and, you know, for both them and some other teams on the list, is there that train wreck factor? Yeah, there is.

But the thing about train wrecks is you don't actually want to watch them as they're happening. You know, they're, even if Craig Anderson has another season like last year and this team's losing 7 to 1 every night, okay. I mean, that makes them interesting from the big picture. But again, do you want to sit there and sit there and watch it? I mean, maybe if the building's half empty and the fans that are there, chanting for you know Eugene Melnick sucks and and all of this stuff and it really you know there's this atmosphere that this there really is a disaster brewing here yeah maybe maybe then that becomes something you can't look away from but I don't think that it gets there and even if it does I think

that's the sort of stuff that's that's more fun to argue about the next morning than it is to to watch as it's playing out I think that's fair okay so we both at Ottawa at 31 and you know it In their defense, I believe Craig and I last year had the Vegas Golden Knights, either at like 31 or 30, or we were really, really low on them. And then quickly, as the season started, we were like, wow, we were horribly wrong. So there's always room for growth here. Yeah, we'll be wrong about a lot of these teams. Yes.

Well, that's the thing when we haven't really necessarily seen the latest incarnations in the play, so we're doing a bit of a guessing game here. Okay. So let's get into the top 30 here then. Who do you have after the Ottawa senators in your list? So after the senators, I stayed in the Atlantic. I've got Detroit, similar situation, not as interesting a team to me as far as the big picture, but a team that seems to have reluctantly kind of embrace the idea of doing a bit of a rebuild

and taking a step back and not a lot of star power there and just not a team that I see an awful lot that, you know, I'd like to watch Phillips-Adina a little bit. I'd like to see, you know, what Dylan Larkin can do if he can kind of move to that next team. here, but not a lot here that really grabs me. Yeah, that's true. And obviously, you know, it's kind of a bit of a bummer that Zadina will start the year in the HL, but I'm sure we're going to see them up shortly at some point here. Yeah, no, the thing with Detroit, it's interesting.

And, you know, we do have to have teams here in the 30-29 mark. And that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have any redeeming factors. But with them, like, there's certain guys, like you mentioned there with, you know, Mantha and Larkin and Zadena and Rasmus. in and so they have some young forwards and I'm very curious to see their development and progression and what they look like at this level at the same time.

Another thing that I find myself coming back to a lot is teams with bad blue lines are generally pretty unwatchable just because like when hockey's played at its best it's a beautiful free-flowing transition game where you're going end to end and when you have a team that can't really get out of its own zone because

you know they have Nicholas Cronwall trying to pass it out and just banking it off the boards and turning it over it just winds up being sign out kind of this ugly neutral zone affair and I don't typically prefer watching those types of games so with a team like Detroit um that really kind of docks them quite a bit in my books I had item 29 personally I had the Canucks that 30 but um I definitely see your argument for why uh you would have them okay I yeah I actually had the Canucks up a a bit higher I don't I had them towards the bottom of my middle tier I don't know exactly when that probably in the mid 20s or so just

because with them, it's a very similar situation. It's just with a couple of their younger guys, specifically Brock Bessor, specifically Elias Peterson, those are guys that, you know, I want to watch a little bit more because I feel like if things break right, those could be top tier guys. There's a lot of teams where they say, well, we got a lot of prospects. And it's like middle six guys. And that's good. And you need those guys and you can't build a winner without having those guys.

but, you know, do I want to sit down and watch to see if this guy is going to be a top nine or a top six? You know, that's more something you can step back and do in the bigger picture. Whereas some of these guys, there is this element of, yeah, these might be special players. And I, you know, I'm not convinced that the Vancouver is as close to being where they want to be as maybe some of their fans are. But I've got them a little bit higher just because I do think they've got two guys that could be. special and I'm curious to sort of watch and see them up close and see if they're if they're

at that level. Yeah, well that's fair. I mean, we obviously saw what Bester was capable of last year when he was healthy and Pedersen has been the you know as as exciting as advertised in the preseason and has kind of been the breakout star in terms of it seems like every time the Knecks are playing there's a new gift of him embarrassing someone and doing something ridiculous with a puck on a stick but I've also watched some of the

other portions of those games and man this team has a chance to to be abhorrently bad. And I wonder, maybe, yeah, you're right. I mean, maybe just those two guys alone and just watching them ascend might be enough to kind of wait through everything else. But I feel like this is still a team that weirdly sees itself as being more competitive than it has any right to do so on a kind of objective manner. And there's going to be a lot of Brennan Sutter jammed down our throats and a lot of J.B.

And it's like, I don't, I just play Pedersen 20 minutes. Let's just see that. You don't want to watch that night. million dollar fourth line in action. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's, it's going to be rough. It's going to be rough. The Canucks are, you know, and I'll kind of agree with you here.

And there's other teams on my list that I think fit into this category where you talk about watch, even watching a team can mean different things. There is watching the team where you're sitting in front of the screen and your eyes are glued to it for three hours. And then you got the teams where it's like you're watching the game in the sense that you got the game on, but you got the laptop open. You're doing a few other things. And then you hear certain names and you kind of look up at the screen.

And you're right. The Canucks are kind of that team where if you hear Pedersen, if you hear Besser, that's when you look up and you watch that shift. And then when you hear Sutter or whoever are beagle, the eyes go back down and you kind of check out for a couple of minutes until the good guys are back on the ice. Yeah. Do you know, because I do live here in Vancouver and I actually live really close to the rink. Last I checked the two people they were advertising as kind of like the big. faces of the franchise on the on the building outside of it when you drive by where uh Brennan Sutter and Troy stetcher wow um yeah no things are I might have to

move the Cucks down a few spots just based on that that's face of the franchise Brandon Sutter I mean he's no Mark Borrietsky of course talking a sit-down videos with the owner but it's a it's still not great okay so we've talked about the Red Wings and the Canucks here and the senators so who do you so you had Detroit at 30 who do you have a 20 Yeah, so I had 29 and this is where I start to get into kind of a traffic jam, but I have the New York Rangers. Again, rebuilding team, they seem they accept it, they understand it. More talent there, certainly, than some other teams, partly because they haven't really done the tear down.

I think they're going to be more interesting to me as the season goes on and we get closer to the deadline because I think they have the potential to be among the biggest players there. but just early on I mean this doesn't seem like a team that really has its sights set on a playoff spot and it's it's kind of in a sense I like Henrik Lundquist a lot but a rebuilding team with a great goaltender can sometimes be the worst possible combination because that's how you get a whole bunch of those sort of two one low scoring games so you know again more more interesting to me in the big picture than than they are on a night-to-night base No, I definitely agree with that, especially after what we saw from the last year and sort of the fact that they do actually, unlike a team like the Canucks, for example, they seem kind of content with embracing this rebuild and with the letter they sent their fans and how they operate at the trade deadline in the summer. And so it seems like as the year goes along and maybe they trade away a Matsu Corrello or they trade whoever else that doesn't have a long-term future on this team, there's going to be openings for some of these young guys to potentially kind of grab our attention.

And I'm kind of curious. It seems like, you know, obviously with a new coach, that's a potential factor where there were so many reasons to quibble with the system. Alainvignon was deploying in sort of how he was utilizing his guys. And it seemed like, you know, like most NHL coaches anytime a young guy would make a mistake, they'd get benched. And you hate to see that. So hopefully with the new coach, maybe they'll be a bit more fun or a bit more progressive. And there is the Henrik-Lunculus factor from a potentially kind of homicidal perspective where you could see him just absolutely losing his mind and murdering his teammates at some point,

and you might be one of those things where you need to be able to quickly flip over to a Rangers game if that's happening. That would be good to say. Every now and then, I just not even suggest, but I just, in passing, will make reference to the possibility of Henrik-Lunquist being traded someday, and Ranger fans will flood my mentions and tell me it's absolutely impossible. And if I understood anything about this team, I would know that there was just no possible

way that a rebuilding team would ever trade a goaltender in its mid-30s with a massive contract for several more years. I'm not totally convinced. I'm just, you know, I'm just leaving it out there so that if someday it happens and somebody says nobody ever thought this would happen that, you know, maybe not. Yeah, someday. Yeah, no, that's fair. I mean, there are definitely guys, like the problem with this team is similar to what I said

with the Red Wings where unless Kevin Shaddirk really has a dramatic bounceback season, which is certainly possible. It sounds like he's healthy now, and there's no reason to believe he completely just fell off the map in one season. But beyond him, there aren't too many puck moorers in that blue line, so it could be a bit of a slog for them. But like I said, if they're finally going to play a battle with Bichnevich enough and play them on the top line with Mika Zbinijad, and they have some of these young guys with

Heedl and Leah Sanderson, former first round picks that are making the team. So there's reasons for optimism. But you're right, I think on a night-to-night basis. I actually had them 29 myself, so we're in lockstep there. So now we're getting into kind of a bit of a logjam here. Do you want to get into a few of those teams? Yeah, I guess we can sort of jump in because this is the part on my list where I start hitting some teams from last year's playoffs.

And the first team, which is to say the lowest team from last year's playoffs to me is the Minnesota Wild. You know, six straight years of making the playoffs, six straight years of not really doing much once they get to the playoffs. They bring in a new GM. That GM basically doesn't do much of anything. And I know I've mentioned that before and I had Wild fans push back on me and say, like, well, what's what's Paul Fenton's supposed to do? If a deal isn't there, it's not there. He can't, you know, the old cliche about you don't make trade just for the sake of making a trade.

And I get that. And I understand it's, you know, it can be hard to break up a roster. But I just, I don't see anything in this team that makes me think that they're going to be anything other than kind of the archetypal middle of the pack team that maybe makes the playoffs and maybe doesn't, but doesn't really matter all. that much once they get there yeah no i think that's definitely fair i mean that central division is going to be an absolute slug fest and um i think i think minnesota is pretty good um they similarly don't necessarily have uh you know an obvious superstar they're going to be tuning into watch they have a bunch of really sort of over tier interesting players like i do love watching mickle grandland play when he's cooking with the puck it's really fun to watch and you know they they definitely

have a very effective player in Jason Zucker and, you know, Need a Rider and so on and so forth, but they don't have that kind of signature guy, like, who's even the most exciting player to watch on this team? Like, it might be like a Matt Dunbarra, Jared Spurgeon rush out of their own zone with a puck. Like, it's, it's, they're one of those teams that I think could be very effective, but might not necessarily be, you know, super attention grabbing or super, um, exciting to watch on a night I'm not flipping any channels for Jared Spurgeon. So, yeah, I mean, they could be, they could be a hundred point team.

Yeah. That just, you know, they're not. I mean, kind of like they've been the past few years. Yep, exactly. That's it. I mean, I just, I feel like, you know, this is a team that is, we've seen this. We kind of know what to expect. Maybe not.

I mean, Lord, no, we could say this about any team on our list. In today's NHL, anyone who acts like they know for sure what's going to happen. hasn't been paying attention because there's there's always going to be teams we're radically wrong about one direction or the other but i just yeah i feel like with the wild i you know i've seen it i know what to expect that this is this is kind of the same team that it's been for the last little while and i don't see a lot to get excited about yeah i think that's fair um i have um i'm i'm perfectly cool with where we have minnesota on this list i have uh i have the new jersey devils next yep i have them after the wild uh and in fact

I'm kind of curious where you're at on this because I had the Devils and the Colorado Avalanche kind of close. I had the Avalanche a few spots higher. But those, to me, like those two teams are kind of connected in the sense that you've got one team in each conference that went from dead last into the playoffs, shocked everybody, had the MVP candidate, snuck in as a wild card, went out quickly in the first. round and and now most people seem to think about the same maybe a step back I've got at Colorado a little higher just because I you know that I think maybe a little bit more of that star power up front but you know I think you can flip back and forth on those two teams did you did you have them similar or is there a gap I think there's a bit of a gap like I you know if we're getting I I I guess we're at like 26 now with with New Jersey I'd have Colorado

maybe like around the 21, 22 range. Like they're definitely in this little tier here. I would say, you know, with the team of Colorado, and this is kind of random observations, but I think they do kind of tie into this list, especially when you're nitpicking. It's like it does feel like at least home games for Colorado might be more watchable.

I don't know why, but it always feels like those games sometimes, maybe because of the altitude or what's going on. It's always a bit wacky. I do like their jerseys quite a bit. if you're watching their home broadcast on altitude they're the biggest homers in the league at this side of jack edwards and i actually enjoy that it's like they've got john michael is wearing tuxedos and randomly losing his mind at calls that he feels like went against the colorado aflans so like there's like little like kind of endearing things for me just as a as a hockey

der that watches way too many games that it's kind of stuck out to be last year which would bump them up this list a little bit and obviously nathan mcgin himself and you know you could certainly make the same case for the devils and taylor hall it's like those guys are among the amongst a handful of players in the league that actually do move the needle in terms of watchability because it's like every time they're on the ice it's it's a highlight real waiting to happen and just the power and speed that they that they play with is breathtaking and kind of hockey at its best so i have the devils just because beyond hall um like i like nico hishier quite a bit and he's really fun to watch but if they're going to be playing on the same line there's going to be like two-thirds of new jersey devils games where i don't necessarily

really feel like tuning in whereas with the Colorado Highlandjeal, they can spread it out a little bit and that's kind of the differentiating factor between those two teams for me. Yeah, and I'm curious to see what Philip Gerbauer does as well as a starter because I think he will be if not immediately pretty quickly the starter in Colorado and I'm sort of curious to see that which is why I had them a couple of spots up but

not much further. Okay, let's take a quick break here to hear from a sponsor and when we get back and this is what we call it teasing in the industry. I'm going to blow people's minds a little bit with a team that I have at 25 that in years past would have been shocking to think of. Sponsoring today's episode of the Hockey PDOCast is Seatkeek. Getting tickets can be far too complicated. There's hundreds of websites out there with varying levels of reliability and it's ultimately hard to know who to trust. And that's why Seat Geek's the way to go because they essentially are one-stop shop for you doing all the heavy

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and enter the promo code PTO today. That's promo code PDO for $20 off your first Seekkeek purchase. Now let's get back to Sean McIndo, the watchability rankings, and the HockeyPedio cast. Okay, Sean, I have the Chicago Blackhawks at 25. Yeah, I'm looking at my list. I had them, I want to say about 20th, so not, I had them a little bit higher, and part of that is on me because I have trouble letting go sometimes, and I'm having trouble letting go.

Chicago Blackhawks as being a not a top tier team. I'm not picking them to win the Central or anything, but, you know, there are still a lot of names there. I think there is the potential and obviously still the star power. Patrick Kane's a guy that you're going to watch no matter what. But yeah, I had them higher, but I see where you're coming from. Yeah, I mean, obviously for like years there, if we were doing this exercise, that would have been a lock as a top five, definitely top 10 team.

it's beyond the Patrick Kane and like I like Nick Schmaltz quite a bit I like Alex the Brinkat I'm not necessarily sure I'm tuning in to watch Jonathan Taves at this point although even when he was at his peak I'd argue that people weren't necessarily tuning in just to watch him play

but yeah it's this team beyond that I mean on the margins it's pretty bleak and on the blue line they're just asking for so much from Duncan Keith at this point of his career that I don't think he has enough in the tank left to support that or merit that and you know hopefully a guy like henry joker harjoo is going to be able to step up but beyond that it's the blue line's really bad um i feel like there's going to be a lot of cam ward on this team hopefully uh cori crawford can make a healthy and speedy recovery and eventually get back and maybe that's

going to help this team out quite a bit but it's i don't know i i i think a lot of it is name value and sort of living in the past if if people are having them beyond like if you're having them the teens on this list, I think it's time to kind of recalibrate a little bit because just purely based on paper, I don't think the names and the talent level on this team warrants it anymore. Yep. And I've got at, I'll skip one team, we'll come back to them. I've got at 25 on my list, another team that I think falls into that category, which is the Anaheim Ducks, who kind of feel to me, even before the Corey Perry injury situation, situation have felt to me like they were potentially this year's Blackhawks in terms of the team

that's been good for years and years and we kind of take them for granted. But when the window closes, it suddenly closes quickly. And obviously the wild card there is John Gibson, who may be good enough to drag them into the playoffs and keep them at roughly the same level, even if everyone else falls back. But that is kind of one team where I just feel like within a month or two we're going to be saying, yeah, they weren't as good as we thought, and maybe they end up being a team that we're not as focused on as we think we might be. Yeah, when we saw last year, they, you know, they're obviously in that first round matchup where they got just brutally swept out of the playoffs by the San Jose Sharks. Like, it was, it became very glaring that they weren't very well suited

to keep up in, in today's NHL from a speed perspective. And I know in the offseason, Bob Murray was saying that they wanted to focus on getting faster and all that. And kind of, I do feel, I mean, it's self-inflicted, obviously, but there wasn't necessarily that much they could do financially in terms of wiggle room. So they kind of brought back most of the same team. They're expecting a couple young guys in Sam Steele and Maxim Comtois to step up. And, you know, you've got the Andre Cashers of the world who could move up the lineup and really infuse a bit of that speed into this team.

But for the most part, you're right. It's a lot of the same names from last year. And it's not the most entertaining hockey to watch. like I think with John Gibson healthy and if they can get a full season out of Ryan Getslaff, like they're going to be a good team and they're going to be right there in the Pacific Division. But from a watchability perspective, I'm perfectly okay with having them at least somewhere here in the 20s. Okay.

The team that I skipped, the team that I have at 26 that kind of closes out my lower tier and part of me wishes I could move them a little bit higher. But I think this is about as high as I can go as the Montreal Canadiens. another rebuilding team, whether they know it or not, another team that's not expected to be very good. Clearly, you got the carry price factor. I'm curious to see Max Domi and see how that plays out. There's pieces here that are fun, and when Che Weber does come back, he's always a guy that's fun to watch.

But I think, again, this is another team where the outside stuff and the big picture stuff is a lot more interesting than the games themselves. Oh, I agree with that 100%. And last week's show was I did a bit of a fantasy preview. And I sort of made a point of how they do have a bunch of those guys in Domi and Druin and Charles Doudon's of the world and Arturi Lekkinin, where it's like last year was just horrible luck for them from an offensive perspective. And there's a big time regression case to be made for them or at least that they're going

to be a bit more effective this season. And so up front they do have a lot of those guys. that I'm curious to watch a little bit, but there isn't that star power, and for the most part, I can't see myself making a, you know, strong personal choice to tune into too many Canadians games unless they're playing a team that I'm more interested in watching this season.

Yep, sounds good. So were the halves of the team that, before we started talking about the ducks, you said you were going to skip? Yeah, that was the team I skipped. So I'm now caught, I think I'm caught up to 22 on my 21 or, yeah, 21 on my list. Yeah.

That sounds about right. So I think now is a good time for us to have, like I have the Los Angeles Kings. Yep. That's my next team. Coming up here. Yeah. My next team. I really want to watch Julia Colchuk and see where he's at.

Beyond that, good team. You know, they're sort of in that zone of being a mix of, You know, some guys that I'm not that interested in and some guys that have been so good for so long, I probably take them for granted in terms of the Kopitars and Dowdies and those guys. You know, I think they'll be fine. I will watch occasionally, certainly, you know, just the novelty factor with Colvertrip being back is going to be a story early on, but I couldn't find a spot any higher on my list for them. Yeah, no, they seem like the perfect candidate for if the NHL ever adopted the idea of a red zone-type change.

channel where you're just only tuning in for like the end of games and power plays and three on three um i'd watch them because once they have once they load up and you've got copatar and carter and cobalchuk and dowdy all on the ice at the same time like i i do want to watch that i'm not sure how much i'm tuning in to watch uh kowlifford throw his body around so yep yeah no you're right and obviously there was a lot of a lot of a lot of always made last year about how you know they were going to be they're kind of remake their offensive system and their defense were going to jump up a lot more and they were going to be much more excited to watch offensively and creative. And there was a little bit of that, but I do feel like it was kind of a bit of an overly convenient narrative that people just went along with.

And as the year went along, they kind of went back to their old ways. And I don't, yeah, when the top guys aren't on the ice, I'm not necessarily tuning in to watch the Kings. So I kind of lump them to this tier with the Blackhawks and the ducks as those teams from a handful of years ago. They were great that now just based on sort of how the aging cycle goes in the NHL or on the downswing. Yep. I've got 18, 19, and 20. I've got a group of three teams that are sort of a, maybe we can talk about as a group because it's three teams that are all young, not necessarily expected to be good, but might be, and have some exciting players. I've got 20 Arizona, 19 New York Islanders, 18 Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, let's get into all those. Okay, let's start with Arizona first. I don't know if they're in sort of the same zone for you

or if they're spread out. I mean, to me, Arizona, I'm like a lot of people. I look at the young talent and I go, they've got to be a team that at some point moves up. And if there's, and to some extent, this is, I could say the same thing for the Sabres where, you know, thought they were going to be, thought both teams were going to be good last year.

And then they got off to bad starts, especially in Arizona's case, and the season was another write-off, and the pieces are there, and you sort of feel like I think after last year, everyone's trying to figure out, okay, who's going to be the next New Jersey or the next Colorado that doesn't just move up a couple of spots, but moves all the way up and jumps into a playoff race, and both of those teams feel like they could be there, you know, and good young players that are fun to watch. And then the Islander is a little bit different situation because I feel like people are really split there. obviously, you know, losing Tavares is huge.

Some of the stuff Lula Amarillo does is very curious. And yet there's some indication they could be better. And the Matthew Barzell factor has, you know, moves them up out of the lower tier almost almost on its own. So, I mean, I could almost move those three teams around in any order. But this is where they wound up for me. Yeah. No, I think lumping those teams makes a lot of sense. With the Islanders, if you use.

could tell me, if you guaranteed me that, obviously I'm going to have John Tavares, but if their games are going to follow a similar tenor to what they did last year, like I feel very confident bumping them way up this list because they were just, I feel like I watched so many Anders games last year and maybe they go against your train wreck theory, but they had enough offensive talent themselves where it wasn't purely a train wreck. It was just kind of this unhinged lack of defensive effort from both parties whenever anyone was playing them. It's hopefully Barry Trots, and listen, they might be more. more effective because of it, but hopefully from a watchability perspective, he kind of doesn't

suck the fun out of that by really trying to shore things up too much defensively, and I'm sure he will. But I don't know with the talent they have on this team, how capable he's going to be of actually accomplishing that. And it's going to be a pretty uphill sledding compared to what he had last year in Washington. But you're right. Matthew Barzell is one of those guys. I'm comfortable putting him in that tier with the McKinnons and the halls that we mentioned

earlier from a watchability perspective. So he's must-watch television, and you do have certain guys here that are exciting to watch. The Sabres, I wanted to, I desperately wanted to bump them off this list higher because, you know, whether it's Eichael or Dahlian or even Casey Middlestad, they have so many young guys now that, especially early in the year, like I feel like they're going to be must-watch for hockey fans just to kind of get a feel for what they're going to be capable of this season. But once you get into some of these other teams that have more of those guys and are going to be better as a collective,

like it's tough to move them too far up this list. But considering we're getting into the teens here and the Buffalo Sabres are on this list, I feel like, you know, their fans are going to be pretty excited about that. I mean, and again, the Sabres, you know, I keep coming back to it, but they're another great example of the team where the interest factor for me in the team and the season is much higher than maybe it is at the individual game level. because I feel like I look at this team and I'm going, this has to be the year. It has to click this year because what the hell happens if it doesn't? If they start off with another October where they get to the end of the month and they're already six points out of the playoffs,

I mean, what the hell do you do now? Because, I mean, you know, certainly a coaching change would be an option. But, you know, it feels like you need more than that. I mean, it feels like the fans in Buffalo are, you know, they deserve more than what they've had for this team and how many times can you kind of put the football down and then yank it away once the season starts so i'm i'm i'm very very interested to see how their season goes i just uh you know it's it's more of a bigger picture thing for me yeah and uh yeah yeah their fan base deserves it it's whenever i say anything

nice about them on those podcasts like winds up being on all these sabers fan message threads and they get into these wild conversations about it i love but I mean the enthusiasm there. You see the ratings on NBC every year in the postseason. Like Buffalo is always pacing it. So they're craving it right now. I love Sabers fans. And part of this is also me being selfish because I've said this before.

But as a Leafs fan, if the Leafs and Sabres are ever good at the same time, especially with good young teams, look out. That rivalry will shoot to the top of the list in the league. I mean, that is going to be, it's good. I mean, it's insane. when both teams are bad and the games are meaningless and still you know half the building is leave fans and half is is Sabres fans and it's and the games are all sorts of fun if they ever I mean guys they ever met in the playoffs turn out

the lights it's it's going to be something else so yeah I co-signed that um again this next here I've lumped similar to how we did uh with like the Sabres and Isles and the coyotes in terms of these uh sort of emerging teams that have a bunch of young guys but might not necessarily be that good. I have on my next tier a couple teams that are going to be good. Like their bubble playoff teams might even actually make the playoffs. But I'm not overwhelmed or necessarily kind of thrilled by the start level talent they have in terms of watching them on a night-to-night basis.

And one of the teams that I have here is the Calgary Flames, for example, where I do like the top of their roster quite a bit. But I just had trouble moving them further up this list just because there were teams I like more. Yeah, I've got the Flames at 11, which is higher. You know, again, partly just this, a lot of talent, a lot of guys that are fun to watch. Johnny Goodrow would be near the top of that list. Mike Smith is fun to watch, you know, for both good and bad sometimes. Sometimes he's more fun than Flames fans might want him to be.

But, yeah, I mean, I don't think there's a lot of separation between some of these other teams I have them ahead of. But I, yeah, I'm looking forward to to seeing the flames this year. So, yeah, no, I mean, I had them here with like, I had them here with the Panthers. Where do you have, where do you have the Four of Panthers? Yeah, I had the Panthers down at 15. So, again, yeah, that's similar sort of team. I've made this prediction in a few spots where I think the Panthers, the Panthers are the one team in the whole league

where it feels like everybody agrees on where they're going to be. They're going to finish fourth in the Atlantic because there's the big three, Toronto, Boston, Tampa, and then there's the four teams that are all going to be anywhere from bad to completely terrible, and the Panthers are going to finish fourth, and it's just a question of whether that's a wild card fourth or not. And I think they could be better.

I think they break into that top three and maybe pass one of those teams. So I like the Panthers this year. I think they should be fun to watch, but still, you know, I wound up kind of middle of the pack with them. Wow, that's a, that was a take and a half. That's top three. Usually you think, which I'm assuming you're thinking,

the Boston Bruins are the team they're going to do? People will notice that whenever I make that prediction, I don't actually name a team that I think they're going to, I'm trying to be, I'm trying to make a go on on a limb and yet leave myself as much wriggle room as I can. Yeah, I mean, at number one in Atlantic, you've got the Tampa Bay Leafs, and then number two, you got the Boston Sabres, Boston Bruins, and then you've got the Florida Panthers at third.

Absolutely. That's it. Yeah, no, I mean, there's obviously, I guess the argument for the Panthers here, and you laid out a bunch of it is also the fact that they seem very comfortable, just completely riding those top guys. So, you know, when we're talking about the Los Angeles Kings, for example, and I'm like, oh, well, I want to watch their top line, but that's about it. I don't know how much those guys are necessarily going to play. With the Panthers, it's like either Barkov or Trojik is pretty much going to be on the ice at all times.

And we don't necessarily, especially towards the end of last year, it's like you can just kind of forget that bottom six, especially the bottom line. So if they're going to be playing their top guys a ton, then they're obviously going to become immensely watchable and kind of enter that top 15 where it's where you had them, whereas, on my list, I have them more in like the 17 range, but it's obviously kind of nitpicking at this point. Pretty close. Yeah. The Dallas stars I had coming up here, and the talent suggests they should be higher,

and maybe I need to watch, like, one regular season game with them, and all of a sudden I might feel very comfortable blift-wopping here and moving them up quite a bit. I'm not sure what they're going to look like under Jim Montgomery's system, but I'm a bit scarred based on what Ken Hitchcock system that did that last year. I'm in exactly the same boat. I had them next on my list,

and I'm kind of like, you know, the spurned X here, because I would have, over the last two to four years ago, I would have had them, if not number one, on my list, way up high. And then they went and hired Ken Hitchcock,

and he kind of dealt them up a little bit. So I'm, I got burned by that, but I'm willing to go higher if they, if they can earn it back yeah i mean like yeah the names here like they should be so much more fun right like they've got obviously up front um whether they load up that top line or not with with say again banan radjlov that's as fun of a line as there's in the league and now they have valen et chushkin

coming back and i'm curious to see what he looks like you know there's a lot of buzz about jason spencer having one last kind of bounce back season here i mean you've got john clingberg mayoral heism gonna be making the team this year like there's there's so much to look forward to but them actually embrace it and go back to playing a bit more of that uptempo style that they played in like 2014-15. I'm not comfortable moving them further past this list. So they're in here, but I mean, we're getting into the top half of the league now. So, I mean, at this point, we're getting into the teams that are definitely going to be

appointment viewing for the most part. Was there anyone? So obviously you had the flames and the Panthers a bit higher than I did. What were a couple of things that I did? Yeah, I mean, I've got the Panthers 15 and then start. Sabres Islanders down there. The one team we've skipped is my 16 team, which I had a really hard time placing

and just ended up dropping right in the middle of my list. It's the Carolina Hurricanes. I'm, you know, I feel like we could take the clip from any of the last four or five seasons and play it for the Carolina Hurricanes. The pieces are there, good young talent. If the goaltending holds up,

this should be the year. and I've actually, you know, I have made this point a couple of times in the Carolina hurricanes, and I have to phrase it carefully because if I'm sloppy with how I say this, people are going to hear it and they're going to freak out. But there's pieces of where, when you look at where the Carolina hurricanes are right now, there's a lot of similarities to how we were all talking about the Winnipeg Jets this time last year. And that's not me saying that I think the hurricanes are going to, are as good as the Jets. That's not me saying I think the hurricanes are going to suddenly become a 115 point team

and go to the conference final and all that. But my point is that when you look at the Jets, whenever it comes to predicting what's going to happen, there's so much revisionist history that goes on and there's so much hindsight bias that jumps in. And a team like the Jets, right now we go, yeah, of course they were going to be good. They're stacked with all that talent. Of course they were going to make that leap into the top tier. but a year ago, we didn't know that. And it wasn't, of course.

It was, when's it going to happen and when's it all going to click and is it all going to click? And do they even have the right people making the decisions? And I think the hurricanes are a team that could, and I'll underline the could, could see that sort of jump. So I'm very ready to move this team far up my list, especially with new coach, new-ish, GM, you know, all of those pieces in place. I think there's a lot of possibility here for things to change maybe more dramatically than they typically do for these sorts of teams. Or there's also the possibility that once again we all think this team's going to be better than they are and they end up being like the 18th best team in the league for the fifth year in a row and we go back to square one next year. No, 100%. I mean, yeah, you laid out of the case great there.

With the new coach, I'm curious to see whether part of it was Bill Peters' system. or whether it was the goaltending itself. And obviously, if they can get even something resembling league average season from the combination of Scott Darling and Petter-Mrasic, I think the sky is the limit for this team. The skater talent itself is honestly scintillating. Like, there's so much talent here with, you know, you're putting a Svechnikov into this lineup to go along with Ajo and Tara Binen

and Martin Eckash. And, I mean, you go on down the list. We're not even getting to, you know, Jordan Stahl and Justin Williams are still effective and fun to watch. I mean, and then the blue line where they can, they're one of the few teams in this league during a time where I do think there is a shortage of, um, competent defensemen in the league that they have hoarded a solid three pairs where regardless of who's in the ice, they're going to be fun to watch and effective. So it really does kind of, not to over simplify, come down to the goaltending and there's a very strong case there to be made that, that they're going to

be this year's, what, Winnipeg Jets. I don't know if they're going to be that good. But, um, definitely like it seems like this is the year that they're going to bounce back into the postseason and completely ignore everything that I've said for the past four seasons about them because I basically regurgitated the same words over every year it's it's cut and paste yeah so we're into a we're into the top 13 here and I was looking at it and this is I think this is the cutoff point where we get into the teams where like I'm really excited to watch all these teams for one reason or another and obviously towards the top there's like four or five that are truly elite, but otherwise, like, all of these teams are immensely redeemable and are

going to be really fun. Yeah. Who do you, so who do you have, because we pretty much at this point do have a lot of the same teams still left. Yeah. Who's the team that's the lowest? I'm at 14 on my list because I do have Calgary a little bit higher than you do. 14 for me, Boston Bruins, really good team, just super competent, super, you know, good players,

some of which are a lot of fun to watch, some of which are good partly because they're less fun. You know, like a guy like Patrice Bergeron is absolutely, to my mind as crazy as this sounds still underrated in the league for as good as he is, that doesn't always translate into making the games more interesting because he's the guy who's going to go out and shut down your team's number one center and have him take him out of the,

out of the play. You know, I like the Bruins a lot. I just can't work them any higher, partly because they're just, you know, like I say, just two, it's such a good, competent, well-built team, you know, that they're, I can't actually move them up much higher than that. And then 13 for me is another team that maybe fits into this category, a little bit wider range of possibilities, I think. but I've got the St. Louis Blues

one notch higher because again I think this is a good team I think there's maybe more interesting team big picture because Doug Armstrong is very clearly pushing chips into the middle and said this team needs to be better

than a bubble playoff team so I think that's going to make them interesting but yeah I've got I've got those two teams a little lower than maybe I would have thought when I started making this list. I just couldn't find spots higher for them. Yeah, no, I had the Bruins 13, and you're right. I think that top line with Pashtenac and Marshan is incredible to watch and with McAvoy and even

Krug and, you know, just I feel like we've been watching him for so long at this point, and it feels like your eyes should be accustomed to it and trained to it, but at the same time, like, I don't know if you feel this, but it's still amazing what just seeing Zedino Char out on the ice with his reach does. Like, it's still so jarring. at this point, even though we've seen it's so many times, just it's still a bit of a spectacle for me to watch him do his thing, especially in the penalty kill where he doesn't really need to move and it seems like he's covering like two or three guys at the same time.

So, yeah, no, there's definitely pieces there to watch and they're obviously going to be one of the top teams in the league, but some of that effectiveness might sap some of the fun out of watching them, whereas three teams that I have lumped together ahead of them in the blues, as you mentioned, the blue jackets, and Vegas are kind of teams where the collection of talent is just so intriguing to me that I think from a watchability perspective, I'm going to want to watch them because there's like a solid three lines on all of those teams where whenever they're on the ice,

I'm going to want to be seeing what they're doing and how effective they are. Yeah, I have the blue jackets at 10. And I've said this before and I've written this before. I have, I think the blue jackets for me have the widest range. of possible outcomes in the entire league right now. If a time traveler appeared in front of me right now and said, I'm going to tell you what happened with the blue jackets, and he told me they win a Stanley Cup, I go, yeah, that doesn't shock me.

If he said the whole thing just becomes a total train wreck, and Paneren and Bobrovsky salt through the season and don't want to be there, and Tortorella blows up and the Seth Jones injury ends up being a bit, and they bought them out totally. I could see that happening too. So the Blue Jackets might be the most interesting team in the league to me. Big picture, that should probably translate to being maybe a little higher on the list than I was able to get them.

But I ended up having them in 10th. I have the Golden Knights 4th. I still, the novelty hasn't worn off for me. I still think, and I say that being very aware that this team may take a big step back, but I just you know the novelty factor the crowds

the crazy pregame ceremonies the fact that this team is an expansion team that instead of coming in and saying let's shut it down and be boring and try to win 2-1 opened it up and speed and skill

and everything and the fact that they've added pieces I'm I'm in I'm on board at these guys I want to watch them yeah I was thinking like if you're telling me Vegas home games I'd be like oh yeah they're they're their top five for me. And then I was like, but on the road, they're wearing those,

there's those swanky white gloves. So I think, uh, you know what? There's a, there's a case to be made for both their home and road games. And you're right. I mean, I'm very curious to see how patch ready looks on the team. I think he's going to have a monster bounce back season. And I feel like, I guess maybe having them and I have them at 10th. So it's not like I'm down on them by any means, but I,

it is a bit of an emotional hedge for that regression. But at the same time, um, part of what's going to make them watchable this year is I really do want to see how, uh, opposing coaches spent their offseason game planning for them and trying to figure out how to slow them down because it was very clear that they just had no they had no kind of bounce back or defensive tactic against their speed and their transition game and sort of what they were throwing at opposing teams last year and now that we know we know the NHL coaches typically like to suck the fun out of games and make them as slow and boring as possible and as as few events happening as possible so I'm very curious to see whether they're going to have

adequate defense for that and then if so kind of the chess match starts and what adjustments gerard galand and the biggest gold knights themselves make so you're right there's a lot of watchability there i just think that some of the other teams i had i like them a little bit more but they're right there and with the blue jackets i don't know how you feel about this but they're getting into that annoying tier for me now of every time i talk about them there's going to be at least a couple idiots out there who go oh you know wake me up when they went a playoff round or something like that And I know that you wrote about last year after Ovechkin won the cup about sort of who the next player is that it's going to take that mantle of being the yeah but guy. And the blue jackets are kind of taking the mantle as that team where it's like regardless of how much success they have in the regular season now, everyone's going to be like, oh, well, you know, let's see them beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in a series first before we give them credit.

And those are two very separate thoughts. Like you can enjoy what they're doing in the regular season while also acknowledging that they might not necessarily beat Sidney Crosby and I've got. you walking on a playoff series. Yeah. Well, I mean, when this, especially when, you know, playoff series are as much a coin flip as they are. Yeah. I mean, this still never won a playoff series.

And, and, but, you know, to me, the flip side is that, in a sense makes them more interesting because there's a sense of urgency there. And there's a, you know, a sense of like, hey, I mean, if not now, then when. And if it is, if it isn't now and we have to take a step back, I mean, how many times can you step back? without rewarding your fans before something big has to change. And, you know, I don't know. I think they're going to be a real good team this year.

I lean, you know, in my range of possibilities, I lean much more towards the positive than the negative. But there's also a chance that John Tortorella is, you know, strangling one of his players on the bench four games in. And especially, you know, out of the gate, it's always fun with them because they've had so many seasons that started with optimism and got torpedoed by just terrible starts that, you know, we always say, you know, geez, it's three games in, don't panic.

Columbus is kind of one of those places where it's like, oh, maybe you should panic. You start off 0 and 3, man, maybe you do panic because you've been down this road before and you know how quick 0 and 3 turns into 2 and 7 and then your whole season's scrapped. Yeah, no, I mean, the worst thing you can be in this league is mediocre relevant and it feels very unlikely that they're going to be that this season. like either things are going to go great and they're going to have an awesome season and we're going to watch them kind of go all in and try to make a push with this team or things are going to completely unravel and all of a sudden

if you've got Artemmy Panarin and Sergei Babrovsky has potential trade trips in season all of a sudden things could go really interesting in a completely different direction the top 10 here so we're getting in there now I have the three I have the three teams in the metro lumped together here in the Flyers capitals and penguins and I couldn't really decide on an order, so I just did lump them together. Yeah. I actually had the Flyers 12, which is the flight, when I first sat down to kind of do this, the Flyers were one of the teams where I was like, oh, they're definitely going to be top 10.

Right. And I ended up pushing them down to 12, and I'm not really thrilled with that. I think there's a strong case for them to be higher than that. I had the Penguins 9, I had the Capitals 7. So kind of the same as you, a little bit more spread out. You know, the penguins, just the sheer talent on that team, especially up front, will always be watchable. And we've talked about some teams where it's like one loaded line and then you can kind of take your eyes off the game. Whereas the penguins, if they keep rolling their lines away, they do, I mean, there's an elite forward on the ice for basically, you know, 80% of the game.

And then the kind of, I mean, the defending champs, you know, obviously it's going to be, it'll be fun to kind of see what level they can maintain over. Vetchkins, one of those, to this day, remains one of those, can't take your eyes off of them, guys, and certainly the other pieces, and is, you know, because Netsoff has kind of already made the leap, but can he leap even further and really definitively join that top tier of forwards? And if so, what does that do to a, you know, a team that, you know, potentially extends their window? So, yeah, I had to set seven, seven, nine, and twelve. But, but, but yeah, all very, very watchable teams. Well, yeah, with the Penguins and Capitals at this point, it's kind of self-explanatory. I feel like we don't necessarily need to like, it's like, yeah, of Etchkin and Crosby. I want to watch those guys as much as possible.

With the flyers, there is this weird, like, combustibility element with them at all times. We're from a game to game basis, from a week to week from a month to month, where, you know, we saw last year, they're just, like, ripping off massive winning streaks, fallen by losing streaks. and now we throw gritty into the mix and all of a sudden. Best mascot in the league. There's just so much going on. A ton of talent can score a bunch. Goaltending, maybe not.

Yes. You know, maybe this ends up being the team that's winning every game six to five or, you know, maybe not. I kind of threw out in my piece today. If there's, we don't usually see teams trade for starting goaltenders once the season starts, but if there was going to be a team that was really good everywhere except in net and, you needed a GM who happens to be a former goalie himself to say, you know what, I got a shot at a cup right now. Let's go out and get a top name. Man, they could be, they could be, they're,

they're fun to watch big picture and little picture. I like the flyers a lot this year. Yeah, 100%. At 6th, I have the, uh, the Edmonton Oilers, which is like the biggest testament to Connor McDavid possible because that's it. I've got him eight. and it's the Connor McDavid factor. It's almost entirely for Connor McDavid, who is just, to my mind, not just the most interesting player to watch right now. He is very close to being the most interesting player,

I think, to watch in the last 10, 20 years in the NHL, more than Sidney Crosby, more than some of the other guys. Like, the chances of him doing something, that just drops your jaw is starting to feel higher and higher

every year Yeah, no, I mean, every time he hops with the boards, there's a very high probability of you witnessing greatness and it's like a spectacle to watch him

do his thing on the eyes at this point just what he's capable of with the speed and skill and if you told me you had to Edmonton Oilers at number one on this list, I'd be like, I disagree, but I can't fault you for it

because if you're just going to go from it, from the perspective of like I just I need to watch every single second of Connor McDavid games this year because there's nothing like him in the league I'd be like you know what fair enough that and and the Oilers are an interesting team too because again they're another one of these teams that you know what happens if it starts bad you know if they have a bad October I don't think anything's off the table as far as players coaches GMs everything so you know there's going to be that element as

there is that sense of urgency every game or at least there should be. But it's, yeah, it's mostly just, just Connor McDavid. I mean, I'm, I'm old enough that I saw Wayne Gretzky in his prime and I saw Merrill Lemieux in his prime. So I'm not going to go crazy and start saying that Connor McDavid is the most entertaining player I've ever seen in my life. But he's, he's in the conversation already. And I can't wait to see where it goes as he gets a little more experience in the league. Yeah. I mean, I'm old enough to have seen Jonathan Chichu and Danny Heatley in their prime. There you go.

Very similar. Simpler times, yes. Okay, so my top five here in some order is the Predators, Sharks, Leifes, Lightning, and Jets. Yep. And I have them in my top six with the Golden Knights in there. And I had, you know, I've got the Leafs 5, Lightning 6. I mean, we're into the territory now where I don't think there's a lot to choose from. So I've kind of got those two Atlantic teams grouped together.

you know, leaps a little bit higher, just the Tavares factor and, you know, that this, that you've got kind of this novelty of seeing this guy that you, in some sense, never thought you'd see in another uniform. And here he is going to the hometown team. And the lightning, obviously, I mean, just so stacked with talent, so good everywhere that, you know, again, drop in at any point in the game, any scenario, there's going to be all world talent on the ice for this team. and they should be all sorts of fun. Yeah, I've got the Predators 5. I've got the Lightning 4.

I've got the Leifes 3. And then I've got the Jets number 2 and the Sharks number 1. All right. So we agreed on number one because I have... Are we overreating it just based on a recency factor? Like just I guess that's part of this, right? It's like I want to watch Eric Carlson and the Sharks. You know.

Yep. Yep. I think certainly we are and maybe a month in will kind of say, okay, we've seen how he fits in. but now we want to go back to watch and the predators and jets and leaps. But, you know, for now, yeah, I mean, the sharks are the one kind of can't miss team and not just because they have a new guy

and you want to see how he fits in, but it's been a very long time since we've seen a team have two Norris caliber defensemen on the roster at the same time. And I wrote a piece about this in the summer when it looked like we were going to potentially see that situation in Tampa where Tampa had emerged as the leading contender to get Eric Carlson and potentially put him on the roster with Victor Headman. And when you look at the cases in

the last 20, 30 years where this has happened, first of all, there's not that many. And second of all, almost all of those teams won Stanley Cups. So, you know, when you look at Chalios and Lidstrom, when you look at Pronger and Niedermeier, when you look at Stevens and Niedermeier, like those sorts of pairings. And when I say pairings, I mean, I'm talking two guys on the roster, not necessarily playing together, but when you have two guys like that, it turns into a Stanley Cup. And when you factor that in with some of the talent up front, Joe Thornton's just, I'm such a Joe Thornton guy.

I just enjoy watching him so much, even as he's hit a point in his career where he's obviously not the same player he once was. I'm just really interested to watch this team and see where he's. they can go with it. And yeah, you know, a month from now, we might go, but we were overreacting a bit. But this is, we're doing the rankings now. We're not doing them a month from now.

And right now, San Jose is topping my list. So who do you have number two? Did you have the Jets as well? I had the Predators 2 and the Jets 3. But I mean, flip a coin between those two teams. That the central should be so, so interesting. And man, I know that we always, we, it's the same. Same thing kind of with the Leafs and the lightning.

We always say, well, I can't wait to see these teams in the playoffs. And then just 82 games later, something completely different has happened and you don't see it. But I would love to see the Predators and the Jets go again in a playoff series because, you know, the Jets are so stacked up front. Patrick Lainey is going to be going to be just all sorts of fun to watch this year. I feel like this is the year that the Torch kind of gets passed and he becomes the new Ovechkin, even as the old Ovechkin is still kicking around. The old Ovechkin is still in the Ovechkin. And then the Predators, yeah, I'm a huge P.K. Suban guy.

And the fact that even though they've got the reigning Vesina winner, do we really feel confident about their goal tending? Or is it maybe a situation where they've got to win a few four, three games? But I think, you know, I ended up not intentionally, but I ended up with kind of a West heavy top four. And I do think we're past the days where the West was the good conference and the East was the bad one. But I think the most exciting and interesting teams for me are Western teams this year. Right.

And I think obviously, so for you, if we lump the Vegas Gold Knights into this kind of top six here, the common uniting theme here is just the sort of relentless pace and speed that all these teams can play with up and down the lineup. Speed, scoring, you know, and I know I've been banging this drum for years, and I know that there are hockey fans out there who love a good one-nothing game. A one-nothing end-to-end is the best kind of hockey you can have, but most of the one-nothing games in the NHL these days are not that. They are slogs. They're terrible. They're blocked shots and lucky bounces and neutral zone turnovers, and it's unwatchable. And, you know, I want teams that are, have the same.

skill, aren't afraid to use it, and to me, there's nothing more fun than a hockey game between two skill teams that kind of look each other in the eye and go, you know what, you want to go, let's go. You know, we're not afraid of you. We're not going to make our whole game plan around slowing you down because we're faster than you. So let's see which one of us can go faster and let's see who's got more skill and let's go head to head.

And usually you get a good period of that and then the coaches freak out and say, we can't do this. but every now and then the teams just decide that they're just going to kind of throw down and that's that's to me where this sport hits the level where you're sitting there going there's nothing else in the world it's like this yeah and it's up and down up and down the lineup as well right like even i feel like most teams in this league at this point like the top six they kind of embrace like okay you know the top end of our roster needs to be able to play this certain way but there's still that kind of traditional prevailing logic about

the bottom six, especially the bottom line, where it's like you slow it down a little bit and you grind it out. Whereas with all of these teams we've seen that up and down, all three pairs, all four lines can play the same way. And it's breathtaking to watch. And I'll take it one step further. You were talking about the predators and the jets and needing to see that rematch. If we just see that entire Western Conference second round with Vegas and San Jose representing the Pacific, I'd be perfectly okay with that as well. It seems like that that top four would be really, really fun to watch again. and how much fun would it be?

And I mean, I hate to even say it because we know it's the NHL. It's not going to happen this way. But, I mean, imagine we had San Jose Nashville or San Jose Winnipeg in one conference final and you head Washington or a Pittsburgh against a Toronto or a Tampa and just talent and speed. And let's go and let's play four or three games in the playoffs. And then what would that do to the rest of the league? Because we know this is a copycat league where teams look around and go, okay, well, this is how we play now to actually.

actually have some teams kind of open it up. And, you know, I'm not sure, even as a Leafs fan, I'm not sure I trust the Leafs in that group because it's Mike Babcock and, you know, he's the one guy that I could see sitting there going, no, we can't do this. We can't win four or three. It's got to be two one and try to do it that way. But, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I almost, I feel like I've been burned enough times that I shouldn't even get my hopes up.

But it's hard not to because there is, there are a lot of teams in the league right. now that is currently constructed if they wanted to could really go go guns blazing and turn it into a really fun product to watch. Mm-hmm. Sign me up. If you get a petition going, I'll definitely fill it out. I'm very excited about that, and let's hope it happens in this spring. Sean, let's get out of here.

Plug some stuff. What are you up to these days? I'm at the Athletic these days, so if you have not subscribed, please do so. You will find all of my written content there this season. And I have a book coming out at the end of the month. It's the Down Goes Brown History of the NHL. It is a, as the name would imply, a look back through the entire history of the NHL, all 100 plus years. But with an emphasis on kind of the weird and strange and unusual stories that even if you're a diehard fan, you may not have heard or maybe you've heard in passing or maybe, you know, somebody mentioned it to you once and you weren't sure if that actually happened or not.

it's it's sort of that that that that view where you know let's let's find the fun stuff that maybe at the end of the day didn't decide a Stanley cop or didn't even matter all that much but but just caught your eye as a fan and yeah that's coming out at the end of the month people can pre-order now and and I think I think people will like it I think if you're interested in history or you've got people you're looking for Christmas gifts for people who are who are interested in that kind of stuff I do think people will enjoy it because it's got everything in there, but it's designed to be a light read. And nobody wants to read a history textbook.

So it's, and certainly if you've read my stuff over the years, you know, that that's not the kind of approach that I would take. So I hope people check that out too. Well, it's going to be a must read, I'm sure. You're a must follow on Twitter. And hopefully this episode of the PDO cast was a must listen for everyone out there. So thanks for taking the time to chat. And let's hopefully get you back on the show as the season gets going. Sounds great, and I can't wait to hear from all the people who think I rank their team

two spots too low. Send all of your hate mail to at Down Goes Brown. Thanks, Sean. Let's talk soon. All right. Thanks, man. Cheers. The Hockey P.D.Ocast with Dimpilipovich.

Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey PDOCast. Acast powers some of the world's best best. podcasts. Here's a show we recommend. There's so much going on in Latin America. Literally, they're to die because all, absolutely, all is collapsed. The quantity of deram is impressive. It's

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