The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 258: Pretzels and Puke

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

Alex Prewitt joins the show to help hand out some early season superlatives and take a closer look at the most pressing questions that have yet to be answered thus far. In this episode we discuss the biggest disappointment (5:15), the best line in hockey (13:11), the most frustrating injury (19:55), the most pleasant surprise (24:05), the first coach to be fired (30:20), the biggest storylines to follow moving forward (39:50), the Rocket Richard Race (49:45), and whether this version of the Red Wings can match the gold standard set by the Tanking Buffalo Sabres (54:05). 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. A reminder that we’re hosting a daily fantasy listener league contest over at FanDuel every Thursday this season. While you wait for the next opportunity to play to come around, go over to fanduel.com/PDO and tell them we’ve sent you. They’ll hook you up with a bonus $5 to play with after your first deposit, which will surely come in handy throughout the year. See you there! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me as my good buddy Alex Pruitt. Alex, what's going on, man? Just watch Toronto, Winnipeg, so now I need a beer. So now I'm having a beer. Now I'm talking to you. There we go. That sounds like a pretty good night. It's great.

Hockey's on. You know what? We're going to have to like keep side-eye and caught while this is happening. Yes. It depends with that while we're talking. Yeah, that's not ideal. Yeah, that's not ideal. I mean, we have been pretty blessed, I feel like, with,

the past couple days, I guess in the past, like, what, 24 hours, we had San Jose in Nashville, then we had Winnipeg, Toronto, now Tampa Bay, Colorado. Like, it's a pretty nice little window of games there. Dude, it's been great. Looking at you tomorrow, we get, this is going to go up, we'll get Washington, Ed in Pittsburgh, Calgary. I don't know, watching Calgary.

It's a bummer it has to have a World Series. More people probably aren't paying attention to the States, But yeah, they did a good job of, like, really stacking these awesome matchups on back-to-back. And good for NBC for finally realizing that they can go cover games in Canada. Yeah, no, it's a really, it's great that I guess they're not really pushing the rivalry Wednesday thing anymore per se, but it's great that the Wednesday doubleheader doesn't have like the Blackhawks, Rangers and Capitals with all due respect to those teams. It's nice that the national audience in the States is being treated to, I mean, obviously the first game with Winnipeg and Toronto had a great. Great collection of talent, but even this Colorado, Tampa Bay game, just like I'm not sure how many people get to see Nikita Kutrov and Nathan McKinnett at all times. So, you know, two of the more

exciting players in the league getting more eyeballs on them. And, you know, I only watched that first period before we started recording, but the pace it was being played at was so high that that that's the type of stuff that NHL really needs to be pushing where it's like if you're a casual fan or you're someone who's sort of on the fence about hockey and you're just tuning in on a Wednesday night from the couch and you see that first period, I get the feeling you're probably going to stick around and keep watching more of it, which is exactly what the league needs more of it does feel to me like Colorado's been on a little bit more nationally at the beginning certainly than they were last year for understandable reasons but I mean when they are

you get you know a third of the game you're getting one of the best lines in hockey on the screen and yeah you're right like against Tampa Bay who's I don't know where they're where they are in your watchability rankings but they got to be top five for me on a pretty consistent basis yeah no they were they were definitely uh they were in that top range with the the Toronto's and the Winnipegs of the world um okay so today you and I are going to do a bit of a I guess this is officially the three-week mark of the NHL season. So it's still, I mean, most teams are kind of in that 10 game or so range played so far, which I'm starting to look at the numbers a little bit more.

But, you know, we still generally kind of need at least another couple weeks before we can really, really buy into some of the early season trends. But that's not going to stop us. Screw that. Screw that. Let's have fun with small sample sizes. Yeah. So obviously small sample size caveats out of the way.

So please don't yell at us. Montreal's going to win the cup. well pierre mcguire today i mean didn't hesitate to call tampa bay colorado a stanley cup final preview so he's uh he's fired up wow what moves is he think joe sackick's gonna make pierre's the best honestly i've talked about this before on the podcast and i make fun of him on twitter all the time but i promise to people it's coming from a good place like he has his stick he does it well and i think he's great for the game because it's this like genuine enthusiasm and excitement like his main selling point i feel like was

Kail McCar is the best defenseman in the NCAA. It's like, what does that have to do with the Stanley Cup final this season? That's a crazy thing to say. We've talked about him before that I've spent time with him. I mean, nobody works harder than, I mean, the guy's up at like 6 a.m. every morning onto another city and works, you know, if he could, he would work eight games and seven days. But I would like it if there was maybe a little more variety in the guys we get him. But I think Boucher is awesome.

I don't know how you feel about him. I think he's been really good at that number two between the manager's role. for them. Yeah, and I really thought AJ was awesome last season and now she's doing Islanders games, I believe. Oh, cool. I was over there at Barclays tonight and then just left before the game started.

That's what we do here in the PDOCS. We don't watch the games. We just go to the rink and then leave before it starts. Oh, no, when I went home where I have three screens where I can watch more games. But I also didn't really feel the need to watch Florida Islanders in person, although it looked pretty good. Florida came back from down 2-0 and won an overtime, so good for them for finally getting on a win.

We'll get into the Panthers here when we start our, so we're going to do super superlatives, early season superlatives. We're going to do early season questions, overreactions, all that good stuff. So, um, grab bag. Yeah. Um, okay, so here's, I'll start off with this. Who has been, because it's all doom and gloom here in the PDO cast and we're a glass half empty, uh, type of show. What's been the biggest disappointment for you? That's why you brought me on.

All right. What's the biggest disappointment for you this? season and that can be taken any number of ways whether it's a individual performance whether it's been how a certain team's doing or whether it's just simply been a trend you've noticed around the league you can have your way with with that question and then I'll give you mine oh man you go first um oh that's so I had a couple teams here um just because yeah that's where my mind went initially. Yeah, I mean, it's so early with most guys having played like

seven or eight games. I mean, generally the guys who are underwhelming from a especially point production perspective are doing so just because they've been a bit unfortunate with the bounces and we don't want to ding them too much for that and I'm sure that a week from now it could be an entirely different story. So I'm going

more with a team perspective and I have to say I had the kings here and it's all relative I guess. I wasn't expecting them to be a cup contender by any means, but I feel like out of all the teams that I've watched so far this season and I watch an unhealthy amount of hockey, it's the Kings have been the most depressing team to me because at least like when you watch the Red Wings and we'll get into them a little bit later,

like it's very clear that they've embraced the fact that they're going to stink this year, they're going to go for Jack Hughes, like they're fully embracing that rebuild. With this Kings team, they went out. They thought they were going to try to make the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they made the playoffs last year. They go and bring in Ilya Kovych as a free agent, so they don't necessarily even have to trade anything off their roster to get him uh you know they have this top end talent with copatara and

doughty still there and even jeff carter and jonathan quick and i know quicks missed some time but you watch that team and a lot of what ailed them towards the end of last year and particularly in that first round series against um against Vegas is their foot speed as a team is so horrendous and when you look around the league like a team like montreal or even ottawa so far has less talent than the Kings do, but so much of that is sort of compensated for amassed by the fact that they have a bunch of young, quick guys who at least can kind of throw teams off on a nightly basis with their speed and their pace they can play at. Whereas with this Kings team, like some of these games are just such a slog. I was watching the game on Saturday afternoon.

I was excited. It was the only game on. I could really focus in on a Saturday afternoon to watch Kings Sabers. And man, they just got walloped at home. I believe they got their 20th shot on goal in like the final minute and they were losing all games so like the score effects were in their in their favor and they just it's just such a listless team and don't even get me started into that uh they had a one performance earlier against the islanders i believe without hosicocatara before yeah i mean those are back to back at home and yeah you're probably looking at your schedule in october and it's not just them right they had they hosted detroit i think they went to montreal and ottawa and they won they beat detroit in montreal

they got pasted by senators yeah yeah right and you're and you're like and you're not And you think, okay, look at the schedule. All right, we're probably going to have a pretty good October and, you know, get off to a nice start and carry on some momentum. And hopefully Kovych gets settled in. And, man, they don't look a heck of a lot better at all, if not marginally worse than what we thought they'd be entering the season. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at right now, the 2, 6 and 1 with a minus 15 goal differential already at nine games, which is alarming. and that Pacific division hasn't necessarily been the improved slate that we thought it would in the offseason.

Like, it's, you know, San Jose started a bit slow there. The ducks have had time of injuries. Yeah, Arizona too. Arizona's been underwhelming. You know, Calgary's very hit or miss, depending on what night you see them. The Oilers are a complete mess. So it's like, it's not like that division is being, you know, taken by a bunch of other teams and the kings are just going to be on the outside looking in. They just themselves have been such a disappointment.

So that's why I kind of had them here. but I don't know. Yeah, maybe we can expand that honestly to the Pacific Division at large. I don't know about you, but coming end of the year, for me it's pretty clearly San Jose I won, Vegas 2, and then I wasn't really sure what to do.

I think you could probably have rejiggered most of those teams. You could probably even make an argument for Edmonton if Connor McDavid goes berserk again, which he's obviously capable of. But you thought L.A. would be in the mix, and Vancouver wouldn't be. Calgary, Anaheim.

I don't know. Roll a dice at this point, right? I don't think any of those teams have particularly stood out to me. Even San Jose, I caught them a couple of times where they were coming through the East to start the season. Obviously, they're going to figure it out, but, I mean, they were pretty underwhelming

from the get-go, I thought. Had a little bit of work to do in terms of figuring out what to do with Burns and Carlson together on the power play. And I like what they did last night, separating them for their top unit and wound up working well. well because you had burns in the trigger spot. I think he blasted one from that Ovechkin spot on the second unit because they kept crossing out there.

But even at the start, they still were going through a little bit of growing pains with the new lineup. So, yeah, I'm not been entirely impressed with the Pacific, but I guess that means that a lot of teams are going to hang around. I mean, even Vancouver is sitting there. I mean, it's a bummer what happened to Pedersen. But, you know, if we're playing with small sample sizes, all the teams are still in the mix. But I mean, if you, if you're like a from a bigger picture philosophical question, like, let's say you're running a team like the Kings or the Ducks. At this point, it's like you're kind of pot committed just because like four years from

now you still are going to have like $30 something million tied up in a bunch of guys who are in their mid to late 30s. So there's no reason to expect it's going to get better. But it's really tough to, I guess, distance yourself when I like, is it as simple as you just kind of have to ride it out? I would hope you can make the playoffs a couple times more, get some of that playoff revenue. acknowledging that you're probably not winning a cup with this with this team anymore. Like I guess at least with the Kings, they do have a couple of those rings with this group,

so it's an easier pill to swallow for their fan base. But it's a pretty bleak outcome just because, like, for the Red Wings. I feel like the Kings are approaching where the Red Wings were a couple of years ago, where it's like the rebuild is still not underway. And then when they eventually get there, it'll still take another couple of years. Like, at least the Red Wings are finally starting to have a bit of that upward trajectory with the draft picks and the incoming talent in the next couple years. With the Kings, it's like, when is this team realistically going to be a cup contender again in 10 years or something? Like, it's, it's pretty bleak.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I was going to ask you, who would you rather be managing right now, L.A. or Anahehan. Well, I think I would pick Anaheim personally because of the younger guys they have on the D. And John Gibson. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely in John Gibson. And, you know, I like what I've seen so far from, you know, guys like Comtois and Steele and some of their younger players. And, I mean, obviously, Recrell is pretty phenomenal forward up there. But, yeah, I mean, at the same time, right, you got, what, 16 million, 15 million tied up and combined in Getsloff and Kessler for the next three years.

And by the same token, you have about 16 tied up in Kopitar and Kolchuk as the highest you played players up front. in L.A. So I don't know, pick your cap hell, I guess. Well, the good thing is based on... Based on what we know about aging curves, all those guys will get better in the next couple years. So at least they have that. Hey, Copa-Tar did last year, I guess.

Yeah, he's a freak. Yeah, he's very good. Okay, let's do a... Let's zigzag here. Let's, we'll do one negative one positive. So let's do... Yeah, let's balance it out. Good karma.

Let's do the best line in hockey. So you posed this to me earlier. And I think the assumption everyone is kind of operating off right now is that it's that Rantanin-Landis-Cog-McKinnon line. Their numbers aren't great. Yeah. Like their underlying numbers aren't great right now, but I don't think it really matters because they're so talented and McKinnon can do so much with the puck.

And I didn't really realize until I watched him up close just how big and powerful Rantan is and what he can do in terms of retrievals. And, you know, Alanis Cox, obviously a pretty good two-way players. So, I mean, they're definitely balanced. And I think as of this taping before tonight's game, they were outscoring opponents 9 to 2 at 5-0. So they're certainly getting it done.

But I don't know. I would say maybe top three right now, probably. Are them the Martian pass or not Bergeron online? And I don't know who else would you put up there? I mean, I guess when they're firing on all cylinders, you have to give that line in Dallas with Radulov set big in, with Ben and Sagan. A nod there, like, they've been really, really good as well. So I think they're right up there.

But, yeah, I mean, obviously, from an underlying 5-15 perspective, you're never really going to be able to top what that line in Boston's been doing. And they've been generating a ton of points as well. And they really just dominate the game. And a very unique way, I got to watch them up close the other night, when they were here in Vancouver, and they were very, very dominant. They didn't generate any goals, but they looked like they probably could have had at least five or six if they guns and bounces.

Yeah, and that's every night with them. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, when you're controlling like 56 or whatever percent of the shots, you're going to have a lot of good nights. But yeah, no, with that Colorado line, you're right. If you look at just the shot share and stuff like that, they're not necessarily right up there, but then when you look at the overall production with Renton and leading the league in points, and McKinnon being right up there,

I believe he's like third or fourth. And I mean, listen, they're outscoring teams, 9-2 at 5-15, 18 to 3 overall with them on the ice with some benefit of power play action there as well. And Colorado has an interesting combination there because I think we need to pump the brakes a little bit based on their record and Pierre McGuire saying stuff like they're going to be in the Stanley Cup final.

But, I mean, listen, the recipe is pretty clear there, right? Like if you have one of the best handful of lines, in the league that is probably going to dominate on many nights, and you have great goaltending, like they've gotten so far from the two guys that they have there. And then there's some other young, interesting pieces. You know, as long as Eric Johnson's healthy on that blue line, I like at least one of their pairs. So, like, there's pieces there and there's a formula for success.

Now, ultimately, I'm not sure how far that can take them until some of these other young topics that they've taken come into the lineup like Kelmakar. But I like what I've seen so far from them, obviously, and they play a very fun brand of hockey and especially their home games, it feels like, I don't know if it's necessarily the altitude or the crowd or what's going on, but sometimes there is a little bit of a snowball effect there where it feels like when they have it going, the game can really get out of hand quickly for their opposition. So I really enjoy watching that team play, and I know the Colorado crazy's got a bit after me about Miko Randin and not being super high on our winger rankings that I did

with Andrew Berkshire recently, but you need to give him love and Gabriel Landisog as well. who's been on fire. So those three are right up there. I have them right there with the Boston line as the most lethal combination in the league. Yeah, let's give them a lot of love as a unit. I don't know. I kind of liken it in a roundabout way to like when a baseball team

has like one stud pitcher and you pretty much know that once out of every four games or five games or however your rotations work in that you're going to get seven and eight and two hits in one run or whatever and eight Ks and efficient work and such. You just bank that. That's just how it works

over the course of the season, and all you really need to do is play, you know, 500 ball for the rest of your rotation. And that's pretty much what Colorado has to do if they load it up like this, right? They know that most of the night, you know, 60% of the nights or whatever, they're going to, you know, win that power versus power matchup, but they can get it. And now that's a big thing for them this year is because they were so good at home. And that line, especially, was so good at Pepsi Center last year. And they weren't that great on the road. You know, how do they fare when they're getting the untrayable will match up. But, you know, they're by and large going to win that battle.

So you just need the rest of the lineup to round out, right? And, you know, you need guys like Barry and Johnson on the back end to step up. And, you know, like you said, you need some of the guys like Yost and McCar to come forward and, you know, Gerard to the back end. But, you know, if they do, I kind of like what they have. And I like their chances potentially in a seven-game series because they have, you know, multiple goaltenders, which, as you see in the past, is very important once you get in the playoffs,

is the ability to toggle and, you know, ride the hot guy. And, you know, it's a good sign for them of Arlenmops healthy and playing decently well enough because they do have group hour, a pretty capable backup. And, you know, if not a number one at this point waiting. So, yeah, I mean, with that line leading the way, you know, I like the chances, again, especially in a division that, you know, it's crowded, but I think there's definitely room for them.

you know, when they can deploy that line for, like you said, 20 minutes a night. Mm-hmm. You know, they got to be up there. There were a couple things that stood out. I'm going to hear what you think about them when I was doing some research for this, though. Oh, here come to sirens. From you? What'd you do?

I don't know. There's just sirens in the background. It's the PDO cast. You know how it goes. Surprise are not in my neighborhood. So here, two things that quickly stood out. One is that that Furland-Aho-Thervine line is currently plus six and five-on-five goals right now. Yep.

which is tied for top in the league or sorry, tied for second of the league behind McKinandran in Atlanta, which I'm sure we'll get to Carolina at some point, but my goodness, are they outsthooting the crap out of teams? Yeah. And then second is that two San Jose lines, the Donne's Boy line and the Pavelski line

are the league and penalties drawn. You know, their power play is like pretty average at this point, but I don't know what they're doing. I haven't watched a heck of a lot of them to pay attention that specifically, but if they get their power play clicking with the weapons they have there. They're going to do some damage just based on what those two lines are doing at 5-1-5.

Yeah, no, I like that call. Okay, here's the next one. Let's do a bummer. Is it a bummer? Yeah, the most frustrating injury so far. Which is a recommendation of yours. Do you have one that's been kind of the most just disappointing just because, you know, maybe it messed with some of the preces and expectations we had or because it hasn't allowed.

us to see something that you would have hoped we could see so far? Yeah. I'm sure your listeners up there are probably howling for Pedersen, right? And just on my purely entertainment standpoint, that stinks. I think it was going to have a heck of a lot of bearing on the end of season standings. But, you know, the way it happened and especially, you know, what we know about concussions and all that, it's just it's a bummer and especially given how well he's playing. But my answer is going to be long ago.

I think a lot of people kind of expected this to maybe be his last ride despite what his contract may say, but just given his health over the past couple years and the way he's been trending, it did kind of seem like he was gearing up for one more run and just to have him go down like that in kind of a freak way and, you know, a sprain MCL. He's still out and the team definitely still hasn't found his footing.

And, you know, Bugner's talking today pregame about how they keep imploring either Hutchinson or Rimer to grab the job and, you know, obviously neither guy's really done that yet. You know, good for Rhymer for getting a win tonight. But, you know, that's the thing. When Longo's healthy, he's still a game changer. And there's no shortage of goalies, you know, over the age of 40. And, you know, getting up there who are still succeeding from Anderson to Renee to, you know,

Lundquist in his late 30s. So, you know, I think if Florida wants to make a run, they certainly have the top six to do so. You know, if some of their backing comes around, they're going to need the goaltending. And my gosh, what a great story would be. if Longo came back and put it together from one final stretch because there's not, you know, probably many more popular guys. And there's also not that many

Hall of Fame goaltenders left in the league. It's probably just, you know, him, I would say Lungquist, and you'd probably make an argument for Flurry. But, you know, beyond that, there's no one where, like, locking into the position right now. So he is, in a way, kind of the end of an era. No, I agree. He was actually my choice for this as well.

So the Panthers got their first non-shoothout win of the season today. at New York against the Islanders. I also dinged them quite a bit because they lost the Detroit Red Wings, and I was hoping the Red Wings would go to 82 games without a win. So, you know, that they got into my negative books there because of that. I mean, listen, they are, I mean, Luongo got injured in the second period of the season. I believe before we started recording it last check,

the Panthers were 29th and 5-1-5sday percentage and 31st overall. And yeah, Rhymer's struggle, Michael Hutchinson. has been a train wreck. Like it's, it's for a team that we were excited about, potentially making some noise there as maybe the third, but probably the fourth best team in Atlantic, but one that could push for a wild card spot. Clearly, they're going to need better goaltending.

And I'm not sure what's reasonable, like what's fair to expect from Longo at this point just based on his age and the miles on his body and sort of these lower body injuries that he's been having the past couple years. Like, I don't think it's necessarily reasonable to expect that he's going to come back and all of a sudden be able to play like 80 to 90% of the starts.

But hopefully they can get at least something resembling league average from that position so that it allows what Barkov and Strochik and those guys are doing to actually make this team as competitive as we'd hope they'd be before the season. Yeah, I agree. I think we're just kind of waiting around for them to maybe catch fire like they did last year because they, like we said, certainly have the forwards for it. their backends kind of hit or miss, but they've done their cap situation well.

You know, credit the computer boys or whatever down there for doing that. They certainly situated. They chose these guys, and they certainly situated themselves to try and make a run over the next couple years. But, yeah, like you said, I mean, I wonder if, you know,

if Rymer and Hutchinson are panning out, if they take a run at one of the goalies that might get dropped down on waivers at some point, whether it's, you know, one of the guys in Carolina or Pickard or someone like that, if they, you know, look for a short-term fix, but I'm sure a lot of that might depend on, you know, what's going on with Longo's Health, too.

Okay. Well, let's now talk about the most pleasant surprise. Let's go, I'm going to go Carolina. Yeah, we have to. It's very obvious. I think it's pretty obviously Carolina, right? I mean, everything from their wackadoodle, Justin Williams inspired post-win celebration

to, you know, his line with Stahl and Fogel, is that how you pronounce it? I can't even get the guy's name right, but he's like leading to the league. Warren Fogle, yeah, he's been awesome. He draws penalties like a maniac, but, yeah, I mean, and, you know, the fact that they're getting goaltending from Curtis McElaney and, like, Darling's hurt, and they're, you know, outsthooting teams a bazillion to five every night. You know, I know there was a lot of noise before the season about, you know, the ownership

change and dysfunction and, you know, obviously the coaching change with Brindamor coming in, but, yeah, they've been a, you know, a very lovely surprise, and I'm glad they're doing well, because I remember visiting Justin Williamson's place last year after he had signed, and basically asking him, like, why did you come back? Like, what was the point of all this? After a couple seasons in Washington, you know, why come back and kind of help, you know, finish off the rebuild?

That's what the stage you were at. And he was, I remember him saying, like, yeah, I remember when, you know, things got good there during the cup run that they had. And it's a college area, right, with the triangle schools. And, you know, people packed the parking lot. like it was an SEC football game for hockey game. And that's kind of a different atmosphere. It's a unique situation where the stadium is put all the way out in the NC State campus.

But, you know, if fans get into it, if they get good and if they're doing, you know, kind of offbeat things that draw attention, like, you know, ramming their bodies on the glass after wins, then I think it's great for the game and it's great for a market that could use a victory on the ice. Yeah, I mean, I believe they're like north of 60% in terms of shot share, which obviously won't continue. They're not the 2007 Detroit Red Wings. But, I mean, this is a team that has been a great possession team for years and we've waited for them to get the goaltending to support that. And it still necessarily hasn't been ideal, but it's been passable enough. And they've shown this

extra gear so far and some of it might be, you know, based on the opposition. Like at the same time, though, there was that one game at Minnesota, who I think is at least decent, where they just completely took it to them for the entirety of the game. They had like 50 plus something shots on goal. And if it weren't for a sparkling performance by Devin Dubnick, they would have completely blown them out. They ultimately wound up winning an overtime. But yeah, they've shown this extra gear that we typically see from the really,

really good teams where they can just pile it on at certain times. And the other team just looks completely helpless out there and can't even retrieve the puck. So it's encouraging. And obviously now that, you know, they have a guy like Sebastian, who is a bona fide star, they can actually convert a lot of those chances into goals. It's a huge step for them. So listen, with Columbus and Philadelphia in particular,

struggling a bit out of the gate, you know, Pittsburgh and Washington will be there. But in what looks like a pretty tricky metro division, Carolina looks like they could be finally realizing some of that potential that we've been holding out hope for for years upon years now. So, yeah, I think. think they're clearly the most pleasant surprise and hopefully it continues hopefully it's not

one of those things where we wind up looking back made way through the season and go like hey remember those first couple weeks of Carolina that was fun I hope not because I mean like you said they've been they've been good out shooting teams in the past they haven't been 60% you know shot attempt share good so yeah I mean I I hope I hope so there's certainly room in that division for another team to work in there with, you know, the islanders and the Rangers rebuilding and, you know, Philly's not up to the great start and they, they're by all accounts going to have the same exact questions in net as, as Carolina is going to. So, yeah, I mean, I love the youth that they have there, you know, wondering if they still have a move in them, given the surplus of

right shot D that they have. And I know everyone's been Toronto seems to be howling for, you know, Falk to come up there and E-Lander to go. And, boy, if they were to get a piece like that, that is also going to help with whatever net mining problems you may encounter in the future. If you can score another forward of his caliber or anyone like him, honestly. Yeah, no, I agree. Okay, let's take a quick break here to hear from a sponsor, and we will continue with our superlatives on the other end.

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The coaching hot seat. Let's go with Coach. Most likely to, for us to. start hearing some traction of like, oh-oh, if this team doesn't rattle off a winning streak, this coach could be gone. We really should have done like high school style. We should have put more thought into this and like plan better and done like actual high school style superlatives or something.

Most likely to be class clown? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mark Verjevan. Most likely to be successful. I feel like that Carter McDavid has a bright future. He's okay. He's okay.

It's all about Sid still, man. don't you know well that goal he scored over time winter that was uh you know what it is funny because we are so and this is such a like a human nature thing that stretches beyond hockey but it's like that whole sort of shiny new toy and i feel like generationally we're seeing that right now where everyone just so excited about this new way hockey's being played if you go into any random broadcast these days it feels like the commentators will be talking about how the game is and as physical as it used to be and how this you know pace and speed and skill and undersized players is the new wave, and that's definitely true.

But at the same time, it's been kind of also fun watching guys like Crosby and Malkin and Ovechkin and sort of that prior generation of stars still kind of show that he still got it and still holding off some of that next young wave of talent as like completely handing over the car keys to the league. So I've really enjoyed that. Yeah, it also seems like every conversation that's had about, you know, Crosby versus the new generation kind of includes the phrase that like Crosby is not as skilled as the others, but he works harder. But he's pretty damn skilled too. Yeah, he's not bad.

I mean, poor Strom for getting a dress like that. But that was a pretty nice move. I think that did kind of showcase that he still got it at least a little bit. He does. And I mean, he, part of it is obviously sort of experience and being crafty, but part of it is also like a physical tool where he, he, when he has the puck down low, he is impossible to, it's impossible to dislodge the puck from him. And he had a couple plays there against Edmonton where he was just, you know, using that big booty of his to back up into the defender and create space for himself and dish it off to a player.

And he's still as good as it gets now that Henrik Sidney's no longer in the league. And Joe Thornton isn't in the lineup. Like he's the number one guy in terms of still doing that and health willing and him wanting to keep. booty play. Yeah, yeah, exactly, in terms of big booty play. And in terms of if he wants to keep doing it for as long as he wants, I feel like there's many, many more years of Sydney Crosby dominating the game, even at a slower pace just by that combination of skills, which is a physical skill. So he's still pretty good. So that's my answer. Sidney Crosby is on the coach on the hot seat. Yeah. Yeah, he's the coach on the hot seat. Tom McClellan comes to mind I mean things have Not been as good as you want them to be when you have the best player in the world

And yes, McDavid is for my money the best player in the world still But yeah, you got to think that at some point They either ownership looks at a change with you know in the front office And quits giving Peter Shearrelli the ability to trade top two draft picks or, you know, they look at behind the bench or they look at both or whatever it may be. But, you know, I know there's time left on Connor McAvers' contract. And it keeps saying, every time I say, you know, I want to say, like, don't waste his prime years. I keep thinking, oh, there's a little bit of time.

But, like, time's eventually going to run out. You want to see that there's a plan. And, you know, if certain pieces aren't working, then you've got to figure it out. So I could see, you know, McClellan being a scapegoat at some point. But I don't know. Who do you have in mind? I have Dave Haxdahl. Oh, sure.

Just because, you know, Philadelphia's in classic Flyers fashion has had a very topsy-turvy up and down start to the year. They're four and five. They have a ton of talent there. You know, even in, as we alluded to a tough metro division, I think most people penciled them in pretty confidently as returning to the playoffs and being one of the representatives. And I still believe in the talent there, but I've long been a skeptic of Dave Haxstall optimizing those pieces he does have because I do feel like he's blessed with

quite an embarrassment of riches especially up front and it's just it feels like with the flyers like they're always on the precipice of things just completely unraveling and it being a circus and I could see that coming into play especially because like I had Charlie O'Connor on the podcast last year we talked about this in depth but the flyers for years now have had very suspect penalty killing and they keep doing the same stuff and having the same guy running the penalty kill and refusing to address that and it's once again hurting them and the goaltending is pretty shaky once again and just based on like this question typically what you need to take into account is sort of expectations right and it feels like the flyers are one of the few

teams that we had high hopes for heading into the season that looks like they could potentially underwhelm so i would have him there One of the most fascinating things entirely to me is how the angriest man in hockey, definitely the angriest goaltender in the history of hockey, became its most patient in GM. Ron Haxthal hasn't really done a move. He certainly hasn't fired a coach mid-season. Hasn't really done a heck of a lot to deviate from this kind of slow build, nibble around the edges with middle six guys in free agency.

you know, build your bottom from within and, you know, get a goal tender to patch the hole because you have to have a guy in the net every so often. But, you know, short of that, he hasn't really done like the seismic, shake-it-up move. And I'm curious if that is coming, if he has that in him. And if that indeed, yeah, if that indeed involves making a change at coach, I mean, I like a lot of the pieces they have there. I think they probably need to make a couple changes on the back end and, you know, maybe some saturation up front.

But, you know, it's going to be interesting summer to them for them. with guys like Wheel and Simmons are up and if they are out of it, do they look for a buyer for Simmons? If you do that, maybe you try to bring them back in the off season because you get them on a multi two or three year deal because he's going to be 30, 31.

So, yeah, I don't know. I definitely haven't watched them enough to comment on what Haxall does tactically, but you know, certainly circumstantially that, you know, it seems like a place that, you know, coaching change might be natural if they're out of it by, you know, January or something.

Yeah. I mean, you just look at, and especially like the bottom of the standings, most of these teams with Detroit and the Rangers and Vancouver and so on and so forth, like they're teams that we expect to be bad, so I feel like their coaches will not wind up paying the price for those struggles. But, yeah, Mike, Mike Yo, maybe. Yeah, so the blues were under consideration for me for biggest disappointment, just because, you know, relative to expectations,

I was very high on them with their off-season moves, and I like them quite a bit as being in that tier below Winnipeg and that. in that central division and they've clearly had some struggles and the big issue ultimately comes down to the fact that it's what we saw coming where it's a is jake allen really going to be the solution there if you're considering yourself a cup contender i know the goaltending is a very unpredictable volatile position but we've seen time and time again that he's i'd say suspect at best and i like chad johnson quite a bit as sort of a you know quote unquote professional backup that can come in and give you 25 30 maybe even 35 really good starts but i feel

ultimately it's going to wind up coming down to either them addressing it via trade, which seems unlikely based on the money they've tied up, or Billy Huso, who's an interesting young prospect who's been killing it at pretty much every lower level so far. So I know teams are very, like this goes back to what we're just on all over the flyers, where it's like, you know, Carter Hart, based on what he did in Major Junior, might legitimately be their most talented option in that, but we rarely see teams trust, you know, 19, 20, 21-year-old goalies to step in and play big workloads for them at that stage of their development.

Like, it's for a very conservative league, it feels like the goaltending position is the most conservative component of it. And so ultimately, I wonder whether that's the right way to do business or whether based on what we know about aging curves and all that, whether teams are wasting some really cheap young cost control seasons from their goalies by keeping them in NCAA and in the HAL. Hang on, I'm still Googling Ville Huso. Oh, okay, now I see who he is.

I'm not too up to speed on my goaltending depth charts. Yeah, on the HAL ranks, yeah. Yeah, I don't really follow the San Antonio Rampage to on a daily basis. He might surprise you. I like Huso. He's one of my favorite goalie prospects out of NHL, which is, I guess, damning with fame praise, because that is a position that is pretty unpredictable.

So, yeah, I like my kill. I like a good call. For goaling process at the NHL, yeah. We are out of my depth. Okay. Let's do, let's do what are you watching for moving forward? What's like either a story or a development or something that is unresolved at this point that you are very intrigued to keep following over the next couple weeks and months?

the continuing emergence of Evgeny Kuznetsov in Washington has been particularly intriguing to me I think you probably could have made an argument that he was there I mean I think he was their best player for long stretches of the playoffs he probably should have won the consmuth he probably should have won the consmite

but you know yeah anyway don't need to relitigate that but I mean he you know he was even before that he was the first player in Oveshkin's tenure to lead the caps and scoring besides aveshkins. So, you know, he had already arrived, but I mean, he's possibly a top 15 player right now, right? Top 10 player at certain stretches.

Certainly top five as far as, you know, creativity and kind of that ability to just, I don't know what to call it, but just do whatever he wants. He can, you know, try lacrosse bowls and, you know, spinorama passes and, you know, ridiculous angle shots that somehow find their way to the top of the net. And to that extent, I'm just curious to see how a Washington team that did shockingly little in the office, not shockingly little, they did very little in the offseason, understandably little given what they did prior to that. But, you know, short of trading Gruber and dumping the Orpick contract and then resigning Orpick to a small value and bringing on you guys like Nick Dowden and Dimitri Asking, I didn't change anything from that roster. So, you know, I'm curious to see how that holds up.

You know, when springtime comes around once they, you know, whether or not they have the stamina to do what Pittsburgh did and make a second run, whether they have the mileage, whether they, or whether it just kind of the shine wears off. You know, I remember talking to Brooks Orpick about that before the season, but, you know, even he was kind of wondering what, you know, guys like Ovechin we're going to be like after a summer of drinking, like understandably. But Ovechin comes back and he's, you know, he's probably going to the cons of Mike again at this point.

You know, he's, he looks exactly the same, if not better. So, you know, I think when your, when your captain does that, you know, I know, I know in the past we've tended to, I think, place a lot of emphasis on the letter that's on a vestion's chest as opposed to the numbers that he puts on the scoreboard. But, you know, stuff like that does matter internally. And it has a positive, it's definitely had a positive effect over the past couple years. And I know for him to come back like that, a lot of people kind of took notice internally. definitely set the tone for, you know, because it could have gone south, right?

You could have got complacent. You have a new coach and, you know, you know, jive on the right page. But it seems like Todd Reardon has a pretty good pulse of the roster. And, you know, they're going to, they basically just need to weather the storm, right? They need to get through the regular season healthy. Because they know that they have the firepower. They've proven themselves they can do it again. So that's what I'm watching. Maybe that's because I just moved from D.C. And I don't get to see the capitals as much. Yeah, so the Kuznetsov thing is fascinating to me because you're right, he's been supremely dominant for a while now and seems like he's really taking his game to another level so far this season.

And what's interesting to me is, you know, before the year, I highlighted him as a player to watch for myself just because with Jay Beagle gone, you know, we heard all about how they were going to entrust a bigger penalty kill role to him. And I was curious to see how that would play out. but what's been kind of more interesting to me is on the other side of the special teams coin his role in the power play serving as sort of the uh i guess you could call it like the nikita kuturov to alexovitchin stephen stamcos has been a very pleasant surprise because now he just seems like for whatever reason um he seems more comfortable or confident or willing to act as a shooter if the opposing defense gives him that shot from the right circle on the power play. And if you have that going, and we all know about his playmaking and his

passing and, you know, Carlson at the point, Ovechkin on the left circle, O'Shee around the net and in the middle there in the slot, if you have, because Netsov shot there all of a sudden, it really becomes one of those things where it's like if you're an opposing penalty kill, you ultimately have no, you're just at their mercy and just hoping that they wind up missing their shots because they're going to get whatever look they want. And that's actually been one of, you know, taking a step back and looking at the league as a whole, what I really love is now these most lethal power plays we're seeing have that sort of one-two punch on the East-West circles

where it's like they can do the cross-scene pass. Both guys, if you overplay that pass or Shadow one of the guys, will gladly take advantage of the extra space they're afforded. And whether it's with Washington there or obviously Tampa Bay what they've been doing for a couple years, or even, you know, you see Toronto with Austin Matthews and a guy like Mitch Martner on the other circle, like you just go on and on.

These most lethal power plays have that one-two punch there in the two circles, and I've really enjoyed watching that as a whole throughout the league. I saw a picture, I forget what Caps game it was from circulating on Twitter. I was a bovetchen. He was on the power play, and he was just standing in a circle, and he had a stick raised. And I think people kind of interpreted it as he was calling for the puck, but I seem to do this before,

and I think he was actually like basically just saying pass it like give the puck to Carlson. He does it every so often just points to the point and will just basically take himself out of the play and very visibly be like past the puck to Carlson. I don't want it right now. And I'm not entirely sure why he does this, but it does seem to open stuff up for him maybe down the line. You often see this like at the start of their power play. He's like Carlson, you know, the very first time they set up in zone, he'll blast one from deep as opposed to, feeding Ovechka and the one-timer. And I think that's just to buy a little space if he feels like they're cheating over too far.

You know, he'll let one fly. And it certainly helps having a deep bomb of a shot like him, you know, work in that spot. But, yeah, I mean, you know, they've been imploring back to shoot forever. And I think, you know, having both him and his nets off action where they can pull his nets off into the half wall position and, you know, get him going downhill and let him use that shot, I think, is good. And, you know, I also like they've been doing a little bit more action where, you know, I think it's Oveshkin's call

when he wants to do this. He'll move up to the point and trade places with Carlson and put Carlson in the one-timer spot too. And, you know, that does tend to open stuff up from a one-timer position for Carlson. And it also gives Oveshkin a little bit of a decent look. So, you know, I think they were at times accused of, you know, getting a little too stagnant on

their power play and rightly so because it, you know, worked every time you just pump and pump eight in the left circle. And, you know, he scores 30 goals a year doing that. You know, why change it? But, you know, they do have so many weapons there. And, you know, we haven't even mentioned OSHA in the bumper spot. That's as good as a guy they've ever had there in that position since they, you know,

installed and kind of revolutionized power play with that one-three-one setup. So, yeah, it's certainly a lot of weapons to watch there. I kind of miss seeing them on a daily basis. So, yeah, I mean, the other thing is obviously a league-wide trend so far. And it's coming back down Earth a little bit, which might answer the question. but it's sort of this surge in scoring, right? Especially in the first couple weeks. We saw power play opportunities are up,

goals are up across the league, save percentages down. And, you know, we see this. We saw this last year quite a bit where I feel like a lot of it is just early season noise where give the coaches a couple weeks to really sink their claws into the team from a defensive perspective and try to make the game as minimally fun as possible. And eventually the games will slow down

and the offense will dry up. But, you know, with just the talent we're seeing around the league and the pace some of these teams play at, and what I mentioned there with the power plays and sort of how teams are being more creative with how they're using those weapons, it's quite possible that we see goals at least elevated a little bit, which might not be to the level they were early on and we're hoping for, but we'll stop mercifully those conversations about increasing net size and all that. Yeah, we're reducing goal equipment Now that they're all talking about how bruise they're getting

Yeah, I remember I was talking with the GM about kind of just the scoring uptick And, you know, you're saying it does seem every year like we go through this Where, you know, a couple of teams are scoring a touchdown Or putting, you know, seven, eight goals on the board And early on and then eventually it quiets down As coaches get more conservative and a little more, you know, risk averse And they start tightening up and they start figuring it out but this one does,

I don't know about you, this one does seem a little more sustainable to me, like it's lasts a little longer. And again, I'm not sure whether it's, you know, a combination of, you know,

the reduced goal equipment and, you know, they continued enforcement on, you know, slashing and crack down on that and, you know, more power plays and, or whether,

you know, teams aren't just playing defense and they're hungover from the summer or whatever may be. You know, I still haven't, and the GM was kind of puzzled, a little bit puzzled too,

that naturally through the first 10 games or so, you're not going to get definitive answer. But I don't know about you, I'm all for it. I'm cool with having 3.6 goals a game per team or whatever it is right now. Yeah, I mean, obviously you can have very exciting 2-1 games, but more goals means more lead changes and more events or highlights.

And that's ultimately a good thing for capturing attention and having people talking about it and enjoying the game. So I am all for it. And speaking of, you mentioned hangover, speaking of hangovers and goals, the natural segue here is to talk about Alex Lovetchkin and the Rocket Richard race, because that is also something that I've talked about

on this podcast many times already, but I will be keeping a close eye on and I'm very excited about because with that elevation, a number of goals scored, it feels like the top end guys have been really feasting so far. And, you know, Patrick Linae hasn't really gotten it going yet, but I'm sure he will,

and he'll rattle off a streak with like, you know, 15 goals and nine games or something like that coming up. But whether it's Ovechkin at eight goals and eight games or Austin Matthews, obviously scoring 10 goals in the first two weeks, or David Pasternak and what he's doing over there in Boston on that top line, it looks like we're going to be treated to a pretty special race where we could have a couple guys either hovering around or clearing the 50 goal mark, which as recently as a couple years ago seemed like it was going to be. an extinct feat. So say hypothetically I was going to Vegas soon, and while I was in Vegas,

I was going to spend some time at one of their legal sports books. My friend Dimitri wanted me to place a bed and I knew he was going to weather rock and Richard. Who would I be laying it down for? I mean, I'm of two minds of this. I think that Austin Matthews, and I would have said this before the season

before he jumped off at a hot start, was an interesting candidate just because, you know, obviously his 5-on-5 production was so insane in his first two years in the league. And if you're going to tell me he's going to be playing on that top power play with John Tavares there, he's going to have many more opportunities and hopefully he'll play a bit more. And if he stays healthy, he could have a monster goal scoring season and he's shown that so far. But the other side of the coin is Ovechkin has sort of earned so much, so much leeway here in this category that it's like, I would feel very uneasy placing a large sum of money on anyone other than him, just because it seems like you're setting yourself up for looking at that ticket at the end of the season

and going like, what was I thinking not betting on the goat? Yeah. I wonder if the decision's harder if I gave you Ovechkin or Matthews or the rest of, or everybody else. Because I mean, Nathan McKinnon has eight human strength goals and zero power play goals right now. Right. And scored double digits last year on the power play. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, and like you said, Poster Knox gobbling up everything on that line,

possibly the best line in hockey. But I don't know, for my money, after I spent a lot of time talking with Daryl, you know, that skill's coach who's done a lot of work with Matthews and kind of helped rebuild his shot a couple years ago, I think coming out of his rookie year. And, I mean, I'm just convinced that this guy's doing absolutely different stuff as far as, you know, his release and the way you can kind of drag the puck and put it in different spots than most guys. And it seems like the type of thing that's sustainable

because he can get it from all different areas. He can, you know, laser one from deep. And he's so good at picking pucks out of guys' skates and kind of quick triggering it, you know, in high traffic areas. And so I think I would probably go for Matthews, but I think it's going to be close. And, you know, like you said, like Ovechkin has, what, three, two goal games already. And the guy's going to score in bunches.

And what was it, a couple years ago? They needed the hatchet to get 50 in the last day. did it. It's like, yeah, I mean, what are you going to keep downing the guy, especially after you won a Stanley Cup and like drank the entire, the entirety of DC dry. Like, yeah, that seems like a fullest mission. Yeah, I wonder how many, like, it would have been a pro-journalist move to start the year having two articles ready, having the, you know, are the capitals and Ovechkin struggling from a Stanley Cup hangover and then having the sort of Connibur's, you know, now that the monkeys off the back, they're playing free and easy hockey. And, uh,

it certainly seems like the latter, although Alvecian scoring 50 goals, it's money in the bank, and he looks like he's poised to do that again. And with that power play we just talked about, he certainly has an opportunity to put up pretty ridiculous goal totals again. And until we see him not do that, I will keep betting that he will continue to do so. Agreed.

Is there any other categories we left out? here like I had a question here it's it's can the Detroit Red Wings challenge the tanking Buffalo Sabres for worse team in recent memory and I guess that uh although like the 2016 17 uh Colorado Avalanche while in terms of wins and losses and gold differential they were horrible like their actual underlying numbers weren't anywhere near as bad as that buffalo sabers team is still the gold standard and clearly they were trying to lose so we need to factor that in and this Red Wings team equally. I mean, they're 1-6-2 with a minus-19 goal differential. They came back to steal that game against the Panthers, who with horrible goaltending, as we mentioned. So, I mean, you watched that

game against Carolina, and I know we talked about how the hurricanes are legit and are piling up the shots against everyone, but the Red Wings didn't get the puck for the first, like, half of the game there, and the fans kept giving them the Bronx cheer, and Petter and Razick was just chilling in net, not having to do anything in his revenge game against them. And they're just they are a truly a truly bad bad hockey team. What a great revenge game. Is that a siren in your background that I'm hearing now?

That is a siren in my background. Oh, there we go. Revenge is a dish best served icy while you're just kind of chilling. Yeah. This might surprise you. I haven't had a single reason to watch a Detroit Red Wings game this year.

I did turn it on for about 40 seconds of that Carolina game. And for all 40 seconds, Carolina had the puck in zone. And I think Detroit tried to clear it like twice. didn't work. So I was, I had enough of that. I mean, like that Manta Larkin Nyquist line, when we look at their numbers, they should be better. Their PDO is like 72 right now. Yeah, but the problem is, it's a lot of, a lot of that is safe percentage. And if you look at what's playing in front of them, they probably will have a very low PDO just because there's

no reason to expect that they'll even be competent defensively. Yeah, no, that's fair. I don't think it'll I hope it's not that low. I hope they'll get bumped up a little bit, or maybe they'll shoot percentage will come around a little bit. But no, I mean, at least in terms of points percentage, like they're definitely tracking right now to challenge those Buffalo and Colorado teams.

And boy, I hope they get a good piece there. If not, it could be another kind of lengthy rebill. I'm curious to see what Holland does at the deadline. I mean, Vanek and Nyquist, they both have no trades, but they're UFAs and maybe you can convince them to, you know, wave it and maybe try to resign them if you want to get them on a short term, if you're going to continue to, you want to have, you know, culture guys around while you're making this rebuild on the cheap and you want

to get out of their contracts and get some assets. So, I mean, they have pieces if they want to, if they want to deal, but, you know, it's going to take some kind of background finagling to get those guys to waive it. So, you know, short of that, there's not much they can do, I guess, other than they keep playing your kids. can I interest you in a heavily used Justin Abilcator? Ooh, how about Cronwall? Well, that's the thing that's annoying because of the start of the year. I feel like guys like,

Erickson, Cronwall, and Daly were all out at one point. And so they were just playing, like, Joe Hicketts and Philip Cronick and Libor Shulac and these young defensemen. And I was like, you listen, they're going to suck this year. They're going to lose. Let these guys go through their growing pains. At least, you know, you give the fans something, like young guys to kind of, envision a brighter future around but then all of a sudden these older guys get healthy and all of a sudden you know a guy like philopronick who i really like is getting scratched then nicholas cronwall's in there

and it's like oh my god i can't that's the thing if i was a fan i would much rather watch the future a possible future and just hope then you know keep trying to relive the glory days or whatever or you know be forced to watch guys who got overpaid or you know overextended because you know what they did in years past well that's a thing i mean you look at there's so many reasons to be negative and sad as a senator's fan and then you watch at the start of this year and you know taba sabahs sabbat looks great and Brady Kachuk before he unfortunately got injured

was looking really good and Max Lajua and all of a sudden it's like you know this team probably still is playing over its head and we'll wind up coming back down to earth and bleak bleak stretches of the season are ahead but at least like there's something to hold out hope for it's like I'm not sure how exciting getting to watch Thomas Vannock is

and whether he's selling a lot of jerseys so So I don't know. I don't know about you, but if you're, if you're Ottawa and you're committed to sell, like, at the first sign that this goes south, shouldn't you try to do it? Because, like, shouldn't you try to get your tank on? Well, yeah, I mean, obviously you want to get Colorado as good of a pick as possible. So. Oh, that's true. I forgot about that. Oh, man. Well, but you're right. I mean, if you can recoup young assets and you feel like Matt Duchesne and Mark Stone are out the door anyways and you won't be able to retain them. Obviously, that's a, that's a no-brainer. But I feel like, you know, at least one of those guys will want them signing long term. because the senators have to save face a little bit and can't just completely gut this team all the way. So we'll see how that goes, but there's going to be plenty of time for us to discuss.

Let's enjoy the fact that they're actually playing a relatively exciting brand of hockey. So while they're not as good as their record would indicate, at least it's not as entirely bleak as what we're seeing in Detroit right now. They are, and man, Mark Stone is fun to watch as a least single player. I wish I, if I, yeah, if they had like a superstar tracker on, you know, game center or whatever and I could like you know set it set alerts to just track certain players that be I'd be down to watch the motto of you know if it was only one markstones on the ice yeah like an iso cam or something like that that'd be a lot of fun exactly yeah like the superstar

isocam where you can like you know pick players from a drop down menu and it'll tell you like every time you know it'll pick like one iso player per game and you can watch that those guys shifts and like basically NFL red zone it back and forth I am all for that let's uh let's get that going. Cool. Okay, let's get out of here. Plug some stuff. What are you working on these days? I know you have a Matt Barzell piece coming out that will probably be out by the time people listen to those, I think. Yeah, that should be out. It should have, by the time you're listening to it, should have come on that before. Keep refreshing Alex Pruitt's Sports Illustrated author page.

Let's see. Also on there, there's a story about Keith Kincaid that starts with the that he now eats a full soft pretzel during most games, like while he's playing. That's what I love about Alex Pruitt's articles. It's, every time I read something, there's always like a random nugget in there that I wonder. And I know I've picked your brain about this before, but like, do you just go, do you just go to the rinks and talk to people and just let them tell you something crazy and then you investigate it a bit further? Or do you, like, hear this from sources? Like, how do you, like, obviously, Keith Kincaid's a great story and the devils have been. been awesome so far and he's a big reason for their success. So it makes sense that you'd

write about him. But like how does something like that come up? Because ultimately it feels like that sort of personality of his was aside from the actual on-night's numbers was a big driving force behind that article. Yeah. I mean, it starts a little bit by just kind of seeing this guy who's tweaked a bunch of emojis before every game or after every win. I had talked to Keith a couple of years ago for a story I did on kind of the life of backup goalies. And he stood out because he very openly admitted that he once ordered chicken fingers from the concession stand in Chicago where the backup goal he doesn't have to sit on a bench and just ate them during the game.

And would routinely hide popcorn and sunflower season as water bottle. He's notoriously hungry. So kind of once I decided that I wanted to write about him, I started popping around Jersey and talking and just asking about people and are asking people about him and I think it was Damon Severson who said that you know yeah by the way like when he shut out Dallas the other night or beat San Jose a couple of nights before that

he was just coming over the bench during every TV timeout but he was coming over and like stealing bites of a soft pretzel that Eddie Lack was holding for him so like I mean you know talked to eat before about food obviously so I just went up and you know we chatted for about 15 minutes And like the first thing I asked was like, what the hell? So, you know, he explained it's carbs and salt. And I think he just kind of has a junk food palate by nature that, like Chicken Fingers is actually his favorite.

Andy Laksay tried to take him to a fancy restaurant in Switzerland. And so it's like never going to take him to a fancy restaurant again because he, you know, one of the most basic food. So, you know, that's that's Keith and Kate. So, yeah, I guess, I don't know, that kind of stems from that. So you got a story about that. Got a story about Todd Reardon and the new Caps coach in his transition. I would encourage folks to, you know, if you want to go back and read something on Nathan

McKinnon, the story we did. As our season preview, it includes the time that he threw up on the beach because he was training too hard with Sidney Crosby, the first time they ever trained together. Yeah. I feel like that training's paid off based on what I've seen. Now they spend every day together in the summer, and it's quite honestly a pretty unique in the sports world relationship to guys from the same, you know, very small hometown who have, you know, now since we're at the top of their sports.

So a little bit about that, a little bit about his rise with the avalanche last year and why, you know, ultimately it seems like it's, it is sustainable. So nothing else coming down the pike in the magazine, but yeah, a couple more, couple more weird web things kind of born from this ridiculous brain of mine. I feel like you're not really, you're not really selling the listeners on checking all your pieces. It's just pretty, pretty an enchilante, pretty, uh, whatever, if you want to check it out. I've talked about pretzels and puke, what do you want? Yeah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. And then obviously... There's your episode title, by the way.

Pretzels and Pughkin, much like Alex Lavechkin's track record of scoring goals, your track record of churning out quality pieces speaks for itself. So people go follow Alex Pruitt and check out his latest work. And Alex, man, it was a blast. I'm glad we finally got to do this again after a long summer and offseason of not chatting. And after you write a couple more interesting pieces, let's get you back on. Yeah, man. Hopefully you're coming to New York soon so you can come hang out in my new hood.

All right, I'm looking forward to. We'll figure that out. Maybe we'll do an in-person show coming up here soon. Oh, yeah. That would be awesome. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. All right. We'll chat soon. Cool. Cheers. The Hockey P.D.Ocast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at SoundCloud.com slash hockeypedocast.