The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 260: Getting Over The Hump

Episode Date: November 6, 2018

Alan Wells joins the show to discuss the Tampa Bay Lightning, how they can fight off the downswing phase of the cycle successful NHL teams go through, and how they can finally get over the hump and shed the mantle of being the team that always falls just short in the postseason. In this episode we get to the succession plan from Steve Yzerman to Julien BriseBois (6:00), Ryan McDonagh's bounceback season (12:20), squeezing the most out of Mikhail Sergachev (19:20), the new phase of Steven Stamkos' career and a potential move to the wing (26:00), how to keep your window for contention open (45:12), and the jockeying for position in the Atlantic Division (55:20).  Sponsoring today’s show is SeatGeek, which is making it easier than ever before to buy and sell sports and concert tickets. They’re giving our listeners a $20 rebate off of their first purchase. All you have to do is download the free SeatGeek app and enter the promo code PDO to get started. Also sponsoring today's show is PuckPedia. It's the ultimate resource for hockey fans, containing salary cap information, basic and advanced stats, draft and transaction history, news feeds, game previews, and injury updates. It's also the exclusive home of the Agent Leaderboard, which shows who the top agents are and lists which players they represent. Regardless of what you're looking for, it's got it, which means that you no longer need to be switching between multiple different sites in the pursuit of information.  One final note: 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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Welcome to the HockeyPedioCast. My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me for the third or fourth time now, making him not only a vet, but amongst the leaderboard of most frequent guests, it's my good buddy Alan Wells. Alan, what's going on, man? Not much.

I'm just happy to join the crew of multiple guests, and I'm trying to stay ahead of Charlie O'Connor. I feel like he's my direct competition. Like he comes on to do flyers coverage, so I'm just trying to stay ahead. or caught up to him. So I think we're, I think we're even now. Yeah, I think he's been on twice maybe,

but I do need to have him on again, just because the Flyers in typical Philadelphia Flyers fashion are a bit of a circus and plenty of talk about with them. But, I mean, obviously what you have going for yourself besides your great coverage of the team and being one of my favorite sort of hockey minds and thinkers out there on Twitter is you cover a very interesting and very successful hockey team.

So generally, there's a big appetite to, you know, for listeners to hear about the lightning and discuss them and how they fit in with the top of the league's hierarchy. So there's plenty of good stuff for you and I to get to. So I get the feeling that, you know, with this current core, this team has, we've got a good run here on the PDO guest of you and I talking about them at least a couple times of season. Yeah, for sure. And probably probably a little undercover because of the market and all that. So yeah, it's always good to come on and catch everybody up on what's going on to Tampa. So obviously, I mean, listen, I'm not, I don't have my head buried in the sad.

Obviously, when you compare them to some of the Canadian markets, especially the Leifes and the Canadians and so on and so forth, it lags a bit behind. But I do wonder, you know, now in 2018 with how publicly, how accessible everything is in the public and the fact that, you know, this Lightning team isn't sneaking up on anyone. They've been one of the most exciting teams to watch in the league for years now. But, you know, they've also been winning a ton of hockey games and making long playoff runs. and they had last year's All-Star game and they have a bunch of personalities in the team. Like, do you still feel like they are undercover in the grand scheme of things?

Or do you think that that's one of those things that is kind of, it's leveling off now and this is a team that is getting the recognition of the Zerms? I think it's definitely coming around, right? When teams are good, they're going to get coverage. They kind of force their way into the spot. Like, they probably don't get the depth that some of the other teams have. And just, I mean, the economics of the market size here.

I mean, we don't, you know, we have one paper in Tampa. And we have the athletic now, which is great with Joe Smith there. But we just don't have the, we don't have the variety of coverage. And when they make their Canadian road trips, sometimes we get some, we get some coverage out of Toronto or Montreal or whatever. But it doesn't seem to be sort of constantly at the surface the way it does with other teams. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing for the team. I think they kind of like to fly under the radar, and it's nice for the players to have some anonymity in their in their day-to-day lives and stuff. So I think it ends up working out.

Yeah, and I guess it's kind of one of those, it's a bit conditional from the perspective that, like, while the lightning are this good, I imagine they're going to get a lot of attention. Maybe if things fall off and all of a sudden they lose some of these stars and stop being as relevant in the grand scheme of things, maybe people will talk about them less. Whereas with the team like the Ottawa, senators, the Montreal Canadians, regardless we've seen in the past of how big of a mess they are. and even if they're not close to a playoff picture, like they're still going to be getting a healthy dose of coverage and people discussing them no matter what. So I guess that's kind of, it is a bit of a conditional thing from the media coverage perspective.

Yeah, and I think sort of like the, almost like the attendance and the fan base size, it's, it's, that stuff grows kind of cyclically over time, right? So, so the lightning will eventually not be good again. You can't sustain this forever. But hopefully that that next kind of down period,

the floor is higher than it was the last time they went through that, right? That's what these cycles of winning do. They build the fan base. They build the attention. They build the interest. And you just sort of keep your high points get higher and your low points kind of get higher as well. So it's good to see them considering where they were, you know, eight to 10 years ago that there was some concern about the health of the franchise, you know. So hopefully those days are behind them.

And, you know, the league seems interested in them as a market with the All-Star game. and talk about even an outdoor game and all kinds of stuff. So it's good to see. Okay, so I mean, here's a deal. Like they're 10, 3 and 1 to start. They're pacing everyone in the Eastern Conference. They've got that plus 12 goal differential, which likewise, I think they're only behind the National Predators

who are off to a hot start themselves in the league. So it's sort of the neat, the teams we'd expect to be at the top of the league are and the lightning by no surprise have been dominant. I'm sure, you know, with some of the injuries they've had, they could hit an even higher gear and I don't think they're too worried about that at this point of the season but that's all to say like I don't think you know extrapolating these first 14 15 games of theirs and dissecting them and wondering how good they are like that's not necessarily an interesting thing to discuss with this team I think taking a step back and looking at it from a bigger

picture perspective and sort of looking ahead to the postseason and some of the challenges that are ahead to come in in the offseason and in the future years are a much more just kind of relevant and fascinating discussion topic for us. And that sort of bridges us to one of the first things I want to talk about with you. And it was what happened before the season with the timing of Steve Eisenman stepping down and sort of the handing over the car keys to Julian Breezebel, which we've been expecting for a while now. And I guess the only thing that kind of caught people off guard about it was the timing of it within happening less than a month before opening day because I think the actual transatlantician.

action of it itself with Breezebaugh getting this job and being elevated to GM of the team was seemed like kind of a, you know, foregone conclusion. It was just a matter of when, not if. So I guess that the fact that it happened as close to the regular season as it did was, I guess, kind of one of the only things that didn't really pass the sniff test. Yeah, it was, I mean, sort of in, in true Steve Eisenman fashion, the way he ran the franchise. He just dropped major news on everyone unexpectedly out of nowhere with no, preparation or time to sort of get yourself situated for that. So, I mean, that was sort of writing character for him.

It definitely was a weird time in terms of when stuff like that happens, you know, traditionally. That's not, that's not normally when it happens, but also from a certain perspective, he had just gotten the team through another summer, had gotten Kutrov signed long term, you know, got the long term deal with McDonough, whatever, you know, people's opinions are on that. he had sort of kind of done his thing for the year, gotten them through the draft. And so it's a weird time in some ways, but also in other ways it kind of, you know, he kind of did what the GM does.

And now it's now it's up to the coaches and it gives Breezebaugh, you know, a full season of time to prepare for next summer and figure out, you know, what his strategy is going to be. And if they want to, you know, whatever they want to do with the trade deadline, he's got plenty of time to figure that out. So, yeah, in some ways, it was kind of strange. in some ways I understand it. And also obviously he stayed on, you know, as an advisor in a limited role. So it's not like he just disappeared. He'll be around. He'll be around through next summer. So hopefully it ends up working out well where Breezebaugh kind of is in control, but still has Eisenhower to fall back on if he has questions or needs input on stuff and

then he can, you know, take over fully on his own next summer. Yeah. I think obviously it'll be a much bigger deal if people weren't sort of universally on board of the fact that Brisewell was one of the lead candidates to he was sort of the next the guy waiting in the wings as the hottest young assistant GM that was primed for an elevation and role after Kyle Duos got his gig with the Leafs and it seems like I like you'd be pretty hard pressed to talk to anyone around the league and in any hockey circles that would really say bad stuff about Brie's one and sort of what he's capable of as as a guy running a team like it seems like for the most part during you know in the internet era it's pretty much everyone is divisive

and polarizing and you can if you look in some corner of the internet you'll find people talking poorly about someone but with breeze while it feels like he has like a hundred percent approval rating which is which is remarkable and well deserved based on his track record thus far yeah i mean i think they were the the team is fortunate that they sort of had that you know heir apparent ready to go and that he hung around he had opportunities and he had opportunities these the last couple years, I think, and, you know, just didn't, didn't find the right situation. And, you know, Eiserman kind of stepped aside. I don't know how many more summers they had with him as, as it hanging around as an assistant. I think the, I think there would have been a

compelling opportunity at some point for him to, for him to jump to. So yeah, I mean, having that person in-house who already knows the organization up and down and has been there for years and a part of, every contract that's on the books for them, you know, he's, he's had a hand. and so nothing, nothing is new or surprising. And he gets to kind of hit the ground running. Well, what I'm curious to see, and we won't really have an answer for this for a while, we're going to have to give it a few years to play out. But, you know, sometimes when two people like that are working as closely together as

Eisenman and Breezewell were for years, it's sort of natural to assume that, you know, they're on the same wavelength and they'd run things the same way and agree with everything. And then, you know, sometimes you see, like in Washington was the best, most recent example with when George McPhee left and they promoted his assistant GM and Brian McLehlellan did a gig and it seemed like he, you know, took the team in a completely different direction and actually did a much better job than I thought he would and obviously resulted in then winning a Stanley Cup last year. And, you know, another great example, obviously in a coaching perspective is with Mike Sullivan being John Tortorell as assistant coach and sort of how differently

they've gone about doing their jobs as NHL coaches. So I don't know, like it's, it's, there isn't much to quibble with in terms of Eiserman's time with the lightning. There's a few contracts and a few decisions, but I mean, no one's going to have 100% success rate. And it feels like for the most part, people thought of him as a top three to five GM in the league. So I'm very curious to see with Breezoa taking over this team and that succession plan, whether there's going to be kind of, there seems to be a vision in place with his team, whether it's going to carry on or whether things are going to diverge a little bit. And I guess there's no real answer at this point. It's kind of a weight and see approach in that. Yeah, for sure. I think we'll see that over time,

and I'm sure they'll have differences. No two people in that role are going to approach it exactly the same, but all the sort of understanding of what we had publicly in terms of his role was that he was very heavily involved in the cap and contract side of things. And that's what we really see the most publicly is how they sort of manage the cap situation. And so I would expect to see that stuff be fairly consistent, but it would definitely be interesting if it changed or if maybe there were a couple contracts that he wasn't 100% on board with. If, you know, you see him try to try to do something, you know, move a player. And then you wonder, you know, maybe he wasn't, maybe he wasn't totally bought in on that one. But, yeah, I would expect to see some consistency in that area.

And then a lot of the other stuff, you know, happens behind the scene. so it's it's tough to say how what the overall impact will be well i guess one of the most the final big kind of uh moves that eiser made izeran made while he was fully overseeing the team and i guess you make a good point there like it's quite possible that breeswell had a big hand in this himself but it was the acquisition of ryan mcdonat the trade deadline last year obviously and then giving him what was i don't know a pretty divisive contract this summer just because whenever you're paying a guy who's about to turn 30 years old for seven more seasons at a pretty lofty cap hit. It's slightly concerning, and especially with how he looked towards the end of last year, Tampa

Bay. I thought there were some red flags, but it's been fascinating to see this year. I think one of the most interesting subplots on this team has been the fact that Ryan McDunner, for whatever reason, whether it's some psychological elements and adjusting to a new team in a new city or just being, quite frankly, healthier, or, you know, playing with Anton Straumman now. full time instead of a lot of Dan Girardi minutes. Like for whatever reason, he is, by my eyes and by the numbers, looked significantly better.

And considering Victor Henman's injury early on and sort of the fact that this team is playing the long game come the postseason and doesn't necessarily want to just completely ride one or two guys, the fact that Ryan McDonellough looks like Ryan McDonough, again, is quite a big revelation, I think, so far early in the season for the lightning. Yeah, absolutely. I, uh, I came, I came out of Will Hot on, on Twitter when, that when that contract first got announced and I had to take a few days and really dive into it

and come up with a sort of a more kind of nuanced position on it. But yeah, those seven-year contract that starts at age 30 for a defender, that's tough at, you know, six and three quarters. I mean, that's, it seems like there's, there's no way that doesn't go bad at some point. It's just, it's just a matter of when it does. But yeah, I think you hit it exactly, right, which was that last year he really didn't look like himself, and it's hard to know with a player that age, whether it's the first signs of a decline

or whether it's just injuries plus that New York team, that Ranger team was a nightmare, and then getting traded, playing somewhere new for the first time, you know, and all those adjustments and all that stuff. So it's hard to know, how much of last year was a, was a trend or just a blip. And that for me is what sort of made it a little bit concerning. And I was surprised that they would be in a rush to get that contract done a year early

because they could have waited until next summer to get that done. And I wasn't sure really what, usually when you do a contract a year early like that, you do it because you think you're getting some value by getting it done ahead of time. And I wasn't sure exactly what the risk was to the lightning of waiting a year on that deal. They obviously didn't get less term. I mean, he was never going to get more term than that. And it didn't feel like they really pushed down the value that much either. I think most people were thinking, you know, five years and, you know, six and a quarter, six and a half at the most kind of thing.

So it felt like an overpay a year early. And I just wasn't sure. you know it wasn't like there was a potential like john carlson situation where he's going to come out and play on the top power playing unit and score you know 60 points or something and then they they all a sudden they're you know they're stuck with this this huge contract because that's not his role he's going to he's going to score 40-ish points or whatever 30 40 points because he's not going to get power play time with the lightning and and it just didn't seem like they really had to rush to get that done and i don't think it's a it's a terrible contract it's just a matter of you know

If it goes bad in year three, you know, then that's, that's a bad situation. If it goes bad in your, you know, four or five, then maybe you can live with it. You know, you can buy out the last year or two if you have to. So, yeah, it's just, that's one of those deals where, you know, the money that you're paying is for the front end of it. You're going to be paying for past performance on the back end of it. And you just hope that when you get to the back end that you can navigate, whatever you have to do to make the cap work much like they, you know, hopefully like a lesser version of the Ryan Callahan contract. Yes.

Yeah, that's kind of a bit of a scary comparable there. But yeah, no, you're right. I mean, it wasn't just a bit bizarre from the perspective of, especially after the year he'd had. You know, I know he has a lot of name pedigree, and they paid a decent price to get him in trade, obviously, and they viewed him as an integral part of his team moving forward. So it makes sense that they'd want to remove one headache

and not risk the idea of him hitting the open market during a time when, you know, we typically know that, defensemen of his caliber generally get paid pretty handsomely in free agency but at the same time you know when you're talking about a seven year nearly 50 million dollar deal for a guy who's going to be 30 at that point it did feel like they were kind of bidding against themselves a bit or at least sort of taking on risk without any real upside for like it feels like he would really need to play at his absolute best for a number of years for him to live up to that and those are the type of contracts that are always scary because you'd like to build in a little bit of upside with those deals and it felt like they were taking

on a lot of risk for no reason but so far so good and obviously um you know if they do eventually get not not if when they get a victor headman back here all of a sudden um you know it'll be having those two pairs is what they envisioned and it'll be huge come the stretch run and the postseason and mcdonough playing like this compared to what he was looking at last postseason um all of a sudden definitely makes this team much scarier to deal with come the postseason when most teams opposing teams typically do have more than just a one forward line to contend with and defend against yeah i mean and and they've been they've been sort of creative in the way that they've um run their defensive pairs they they have not i mean the the mcdona stralman pair has been

consistent but outside of that it's been it's been victor had been playing the most minutes and then just sort of a a rotating kind of crew that that plays with him Gerardy plays a fair amount with him, but he's not playing top four minutes. He's playing, you know, fifth or six most minutes at F5 on five. And they've been trying to get Sergachev more shifts. So, yeah, it's when they get to the playoffs, I assume just like they did last year, it'll be it'll be headman, McDonnor, or Stralman on the ice for most of the game. And that's, that's a, that's a nice, that's a nice luxury to have because those are, those are three guys

that you can that you can count on kind of to to be solid defensively but also also move the puck and get it in the offensive zone. So it's it's a luxury for sure. And it's it's going to be interesting to see how they try to manage those minutes during the regular season and make sure those guys are all are all fresh and ready to to carry a low when when the important time comes. So yeah, I mean luxury is the operative word there. And you mentioned Sergachev and I did want to talk about him with you because, you know, I'm obviously a very huge fan of his game and he showed a ton of very encouraging flashes last season. And, you know, for a team like this with a lightning where they're currently positioned on the one hand, you know, there's such an

embarrassment of riches that you can afford to have a guy stash like that under a third pair and really pick and choose when you play them and who you play them against. At the same time, though, you know, with it being not necessarily a foregone conclusion that they're going to be one of these top three Atlantic division teams, you never want to take that for granted. And injuries can happen. and there's certainly good teams they have to contend with, but you would like to see, you know, him get unleashed a little bit more, maybe, I feel like, or at least give him a chance to spread his wings more, whether that's on the first unit power player,

whether that's playing some tougher minutes just so you can see how he can equip himself because you never know with injuries down the line or unforeseen events, you might need to actually rely upon him to do so later on in the season. Like what, I don't know how to phrase this question, but what do we need to sort of see from him at this point? because it's always tricky navigating that and balancing that with young defensemen. It seems like NHO coaches just because of the sort of conservative nature and the fact that younger players with the skill set that he has might be seen as a bit more risky or turnover prone.

I understand why there is sort of a hesitation to give those guys the tougher minutes and especially more volume. But it feels like I'd love to see what he'd be able to do with that because obviously the raw talent is undeniable and some of the stuff you see, especially in the offensive zone with him kind of, you know, tippy towing around the blue line and making plays there. Very few guys are capable of doing. Like, I think the sky's the limit for him. And the sooner, the sooner the better we get to see that because of what we know about aging curves and sort of the need to eventually pay him down the line. So like where are they at with the development there and sort of what's his immediate future looking like?

So last year he had, depending on how you want to measure this stuff, but he's, He had maybe the most extreme deployment of any player in the league in terms of just constantly starting in the offensive zone. Just a huge percent of his shifts in the offensive zone. And then they really managed his minutes in terms of the competition that he faced and the quality of teammates and stuff. So he had a really comfy kind of situation last year. They controlled his minutes at five on five. They gave him a lot of power play time. just really put him in a position to succeed.

And I think that's, honestly, I think that was the right way to handle that for him in his first year in the league as a teenager. I, you know, it's hard to speculate on this stuff from the outside. But I would hope that internally they have a goal for him, for their top four to be, you know, headman, McDonough, Strom and Sergeathev by the time they get to, by the time they get to the playoffs. And so that's going to mean getting him more minutes, getting him feeling comfortable enough to play in in more difficult situations.

And they started off the year sort of looking like they've taken the training wheels off to a certain extent. He didn't have that. He wasn't even first on the team and offensive zone starts anymore. He was, at one point, I think he was fourth on the team and 5'5 time on ice. So that's the kind of stuff that you want to see. and you want to see them putting him in those positions and getting used to it because really that's what they need when they get to the playoffs. They can't have Dan Gerardi, you know,

sort of filling that fourth defender spot or Braden Coburn. It's really got to be Sergachev, and he's getting some time on the first power play unit with Havman out right now, obviously. That's a tough thing because they're, I mean, it's tough even in a development role to take those minutes from, from Edmund because he's so dominant and the other thing is their second power play unit

is pretty decent with Braden Point and Yanni Gord so it's not like they're not a threat and he's absolutely lights out on the power play. He just, the way he sort of commands the blue line and then just is totally

comfortable just cruising down into the into that soft spot in the middle if they give it to him and his shot is ridiculous so yeah he's a ton of fun to watch and I think you know, when you're looking at a team that sort of projects the way Tampa does and feels, you know, as confident as any NHL team can about, you know, the fact that they'll be in a good spot in the standings come to playoffs, if we're looking for things that they really want to focus on this year, for me, that that might be at the top of the list is making sure that his role is increased, that they're getting the most out of his talent and that he's, he is filling the role that is the most that he can contribute. and that he's not held back by the coaching staff from achieving something that he could otherwise. Yeah. I mean, obviously him progressing and potentially being used more heavily like that,

assuming he can handle it and thrive, that is a very fascinating X factor for giving this team an extra gear that they didn't have in the past. Let's take a quick break here to hear from a sponsor, and there's a bunch of other stuff I want to get around to talking about with you and neither anythings. Getting tickets online can be far too complicated. with hundreds of websites and varying levels of reliability, it's hard to know who to trust out there. But don't fear, because we've got Seekek in our lives to save us time, money, and make the entire process of purchasing tickets as smooth as possible. They do that by pulling millions of tickets into one easy-to-navigate place,

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Now let's get back to the show. Okay. So I did, I've been doing these ranking podcasts with Andrew Berkshire and we ranked centers recently and we got into a discussion about Stephen Stamkels was Braden Point and I actually, I don't know how controversial that at this point, but I actually had Braden Point ahead of Stephen Stamco's on my list and we got into, you know, a kind of side conversation about the idea of, which is something that the lighting of obviously dabble with in the past and especially

early on this season is moving Stamco's off to the wing and potentially taking a bit of the defensive responsibility off of him and freeing him up at this point of his career to, you know, take on a bit more of an offensive role. And obviously, Brayton Point so far has shown that he's fully capable of being a number one center. And it's a great problem for the lighting to have. But when you're sort of nitpicking amongst these top teams and wondering, you know, if they make it to the Eastern Conference final again and how they can finally get over the hump, you do need to sort of wonder about what the most optimal way is to deploy the chess pieces up front.

And I don't know, where do you stand on that whole topic of where Stamco's best used and sort of what this team's, you know, most optimal lineup is moving forward with those forwards? So I don't, I don't think it's like a critical thing that he, he moves moves to the wing. I think probably that's the optimal scenario at this point in his career. I think that that maybe makes the most sense. The only thing with that, though, is that if he does make that move and then you have a top line that is, you know, Braden Point, Kutjav and Stamcoast, like obviously that's a,

that's a ridiculous line. but you also it also sacrifices some of the balance that that they have when they have you know kutjav and stamcoose on the top line and then they have that that second line with like point gordon and pull out and that that when they run that top six it really it gives the opposition no breaks and it allows them in the playoffs to use that point line as as kind of the matchup line and then it frees up the Stamcoast line to take, you know, lesser competition and be able to kind of focus on the offensive end of their game. So I don't think it's as clear cut.

And then the other thing is, Stamcoast is very much of traditional kind of hockey personality and that he's very muted in what he kind of communicates to the media. But he's been pretty open about preferring to play center. And I don't, you know, it's almost, you know, that's certainly. like a comfort thing from playing there his whole life and there's some other things in terms of perception about your role on the team and when you're a captain and things like that so yeah i don't know i would have to i would have to think about it a lot to try to figure out you know or between you know his preferences and then you know sort of the way it impacts the balance

of the top two lines unless you know what they did early in their season was they they dropped Kucharound down to the second line, you know, nominally to reunite the triplets and play him with Tyler Johnson and Pallad. And so there's some opportunities there. I would, I would rely on that more as a kind of a thing to jumpstart the team when you need it. And I would, if I was, you know, John Cooper, I would think about having that point, Stam Kost Kutrov line in my back pocket when I, when I need a goal late in a game and things like that. So I would definitely be interested to see them. explore it more, but I'm not sure how much, I don't see any immediate pressure to try to get to it full time. But if they felt like that was one of the options when things kind of stagnate,

either in a game or after a stretch of games, they want to play them on the wing for, you know, a week or two or whatever, I think that would, I think that would make the lineup more flexible and possibly make them more dangerous at times. Right. I mean, that's important to note that ultimately, this is, like I said, a great problem to have and whenever you're trying to figure out some combination of these top six guys and we'll get into the bottom six as well which i'm a big fan of but uh you can't really go wrong it's just a matter of sort of trying to uh squeeze out the most potential out of these these group of guys and you're you're right i mean there is like a psychological element to that where we very rarely see

what we saw last year from a guy like claudeau for example where a top center for so long willingly and sort of gracefully takes that like it's understandable that there is a bit of prestige or a bit of ego and honor in play here where these guys take pride in being that center and you know we know how highly coveted centers are and it makes sense if you've been playing that your entire career that you kind of view that as an emotion even though it might not necessarily be in the grand scheme of things and it's it's also kind of tricky because this isn't your conventional if you're just thinking about it from an exes and o's perspective and chess pieces like typically it would make sense that stamp goes especially now it feels like he's

he's a bit more of a playmaker than a shooter. I'm not sure how much of that is by necessity or how much of that is intentional on his part. But at the same time, when you have a guy like Kucharab on that line, you typically want the game and the puck flowing through him as much as possible and you want him dictating and making a lot of the decisions and a lot of the plays.

And that's not very common. There's very few wingers you really say that about with the game spread out from down the middle. So it's weighing all of these things and trying to figure out whether it's a bit redundant having Stamco's point and Kucharov on there or whether you're better off having points sort of running his own line with Tyler Johnson like you're right there's so many you know things to weigh here and ultimately you know it's a great problem to have but it is something John Cooper

will I'm sure be losing quite a bit of sleepover toward as the season gets going yeah for sure and I think that's that's a key thing right is when I think about this stuff sometimes I I sort of think about like when you put point on that line like how much is he even going to see the puck like like sometimes it's just nice to have a guy like j t miller or bladne mesakov in the past who's gonna who's sort of happy to be sort of the third person on that line and and and be digging for pucks and be reliable in the defensive zone and and solid in the neutral zone and you know pick up a whole bunch of goals around the net um i i think so i almost think sometimes that's a that's a almost a better

fit and then and then you let kuturav and stamcoast kind of you don't even just you don't even really assign them position stamcoes can be the center that's fine but you just sort of let them do whatever they're going to do and they seem to they've both been been vocal early in this season about wanting to play together when when that line was separated that was again you know stamcoe's kind of joked with the media a little bit about about trying to get you know cooper to put them back together and and kutrov gave gave an interview in the in the russian media where he talked about wanting to be back with Stamco. So, you know, if those guys like playing together and feel like they have the chemistry

and sort of know where each other is going to be, I'm inclined to kind of let them, let them figure out what works best for them. And then I think, like you said, point is good enough to drive his own line. And I don't, you know, when you absolutely need to dominate a game, you can run those three guys together. But if, you know, over the course of 60 minutes, I think maybe you want to, you want to split that up a little bit and and let point do his thing because he's he's perfectly good enough to do so well and I'm sure this isn't um by accident with with the team uh planning ahead and taking a bigger picture of

you and trying to keep everyone fresh and healthy come the post season but last I checked their forwards uh in terms of their usage in all situations was remarkably evenly well spread out where it was most guys are typically in the 15 to 17 minute range and you're not seeing like in some instances with oilers, for example, where they're playing McDavid and Nugent Hopkins, an absurd 22, 23 minutes a night, like for the most part of this team, because of all these pieces they do have, can afford to really spread it out and not necessarily overwork or rely upon one line. So it's not one of those things where if you were just fully decided, okay, we're going to play Kutrov and Stamco's an obscene amount of time and point as a result is simply going to be

on the bench just because he's not with those guys, then it'd be one thing where I'd go, okay, well, it's of shame that point isn't playing himself and maybe you do want to get him those minutes. But in this case, with them really just rolling those lines, it does make sense to go with that more balanced approach and have him on the second line for now. Yeah, yeah, I think it makes sense. And, you know, they have been their top nine is is pretty, pretty balanced. I don't think there's a lot of teams that roll three lines that good. they still have a little bit of a traditional fourth line with Callahan back in the lineup.

They could really run four lines if they were willing to play Adam Ernie over Pawketter Callahan. They would have to figure out who's going to play the center position and things. But yeah, when Pilots back in the lineup, they could legitimately run like 12 forwards who would be in the top nine. for most teams, which is pretty scary.

I think if they weren't playing Ryan Calhouncom, the postseason, I think Pierre McGuire's head would quite literally explode on national television, which I guess would make for good TV. But yeah, so I want to talk about more with Stamco's, because he is obviously such a fascinating player. I mean, his highs have been so high throughout his career, and then with the injuries and a lot of it being just very unfortunate timing,

especially when they've happened and sort of the severity of them, it's been a lot of stop and start. And obviously he was, you know, relatively healthy for the most part last year. And definitely, especially early on, looked like he was back to being pre-leg injury, Stephen Stamco's, and was flying out there and creating a lot with sort of his penetration in terms of the zone entries and really creating space for others. But his, you know, his statistical resume, especially, you know,

the past two years is very, very interesting with his, you know truly generational and maybe once in a lifetime efficiency in terms of both volume and conversion rate on his shots really kind of coming back down earth and I believe it's he's shooting under 10% this year and I'm sure that'll spike a little bit and has already done so in the past couple games but you know what considering the opportunities he gets especially on that power play and how much Kuturov creates for him you'd expect that to be a bit higher and I'm I am wondering a bit as he ages here and gets into a different stage of his career, sort of how he will age and what he will look like as a player

and what that statistical portfolio of his will look like. And I don't know, like, where do you stand on that in terms of sort of this evolution of him from more of being a truly one-shot score to a bit more of a playmaker and sort of how that interplay works with Kuturov and what his future looks like. So I wrote about this in some depth. over the summer. And the thing that I thought was most interesting about last year is,

and you hit it exactly, that he's made this transition to being more of a playmaker and creating for others. He's also become a more well-rounded player. He was a sort of singular talent, both in terms of being a unique player in the league and just being really, really one-dimensional, if we're being honest.

His defensive game wasn't great. He scored a ton of goals, but that was kind of the one part of his game, and it was good enough to make him one of the best players in the league. So I'm definitely not downplaying at all. But he is sort of evolved into a player who still has that shot and still can get it on the power play when things are kind of set up.

But I don't think he gets that shot or gets the same opportunities for himself at 5 on 5 the way he did earlier in his career. And that's understandable. That's normal aging. And then you tack on the injuries he's had. And it makes sense that that would happen. I think the interesting thing about last year

was that he changed his game. Or I don't know if he changed his game or if it just happened naturally. He actually gave quotes in the media saying that he wanted to get back to being more of a goal score this year and stuff, which I thought was interesting, kind of made it seem like it wasn't, you know, an intentional or kind of conscious decision to make that shift. But in terms of value, like if you look at, you know, war or anything like that, like last year was one of the best seasons of his career. And a lot of that value came on the power play.

But also he was, he had a ton of assists at, at, at five on five. And so playing with Kutrov, obviously he played with Marty San Luis earlier in his career. So it's not that he hasn't played with talented players before. But they just, they seem to have that kind of chemistry where he doesn't, he doesn't maybe feel the pressure to score all the goals or the offense doesn't run through him 100% of the time the way that it did earlier in his career. And he's just sort of, I think the game sort of flows more naturally. And he's a part of a line more than just the guy who's dominating the game. And that's a change.

And I think we'll never see what we saw from him earlier in his career. And I think that we'll always look at his career even when it's done and wonder what might have been, if not for the injuries. But if he can sustain what he started to do last year, he's still going to put up a really impressive career. If he can keep that going for a little while. Well, and the thing is, and, you know, this is usually a negative thing, but I think in Stamco's case in particular, it's actually a very positive thing. And it's like, it feels like in hockey circles and an NHL, you know, it's really hard to shake narratives or beliefs about players or teams. And in Stamco's case, even if that natural shooting ability comes back down Earth and he's more of a mere mortal in the years to come because of that natural agent curve and because of the injury, of taking its toll. Whenever he's out there, just because he is Stephen Stamco's and what he's accomplished throughout his career, like teams are still going to have to game plan for that and,

you know, not necessarily shadow him, but sort of be aware of that at least whenever he's on the ice and maybe leaning a bit more towards him. And now that he has shown those different elements to his game and in particular, you know, the East West passing with him and Kuturov has been such a joy to watch and they really feed off of each other. That sort of thread of him as a shooter, even though it might be. not necessarily be as full of a reality anymore can still work wonders for him in the lightning just because it'll create extra space for others and also now that he is willing to make those passes

and capable of them all of a sudden you know other guys can thrive off of that as well so it's one of those things where um he can still as you mentioned find a way to be supremely effective and a top high end uh point getter and offensive contributor even if the actual skill set itself has deteriorated a little bit over time yeah i mean i think that's going to be the important thing for him. And that was one of the things that I'm really interested to see this season with the team is, was last year just sort of an anomaly for him? Or is this going to be sort of a trend where he's going to enter into sort of a different stage

of his career with a different way of being effective? And, you know, if he can do that, that would be a pretty amazing thing to see because that would be such a sort of draft. transition and change in styles, but still being able to be dominant, just in a different way. Yep. All right, Alan, let's take one more quick break here, and then we'll wrap up the show with a few other points that I wanted to hit before we get out here. Sounds good. I'm happy to announce that the HockeyPedio cast has partnered up with one of my favorite you websites out there, puckpedia.com.

For those of you, they're unfamiliar with Puckpedia. they recently launched and they're basically the ultimate source of information for hockey fans. I mean, whether it's salary cap information, player salaries, basic and advanced stats, draft and transaction history and news feeds, game preview, scores, injury news, so on and so forth, they have it. And when I'm prepping to do this show, they've really become a bit of my go-to resource for making my notes and figuring out what I want to talk about because they really really, have everything that I'm looking for and everything that I need when I'm researching and

preparing in one place. And it's super easy to use and user-friendly and easy to navigate. And it helps a lot having everything in that one stop shop so that you don't need to be switching between websites because I know that can be a bit of a hassle when you're going from one place or another trying to figure it out. And information is different and you can't figure out what's right and what's wrong. And it's just one whole mess. So you can avoid that by simply going to buckpedia.com and finding everything you need there. And, you know, for example, for today's show. I was looking up some stuff for the Tampa Bay Lightning and, you know, they've got the individual player pages. They also got the dashboard filter for Tampa Bay. So

everything was right there and it made my life a lot easier and it will make yours as well. And the one other thing that you actually have that really separates them from some other websites out there is they've got this agent leaderboard and it's got information of all the clients and contracts for each agent. And I love that. I mean, it's, you know, it's a, small little thing, but it's kind of cool. And for example, when Nate Schmidt signed his mega deal the other day, I got to look up that he's represented by Matt Keeter and who has, you know, Paul Stasney and Blake Wheeler and Zino Chara and so on and so forth and kind of a who's who of NHL players that he's representing.

And so it makes sense that he got Nate Schmidt a nice little deal there. So anyways, to get all your hockey information and use it one place, just go to puckpedia.com and you can follow them on Twitter at Puckpedia, where they are constantly tweeting out links and relevant news information as stuff comes across the wire. So anyways, we'll be talking much more about them in the coming weeks and months on the show, but I wanted to familiarize you with them a little bit

and spread the word because I use them to help prepare for this show and you should as well for anything that you might need in the future. So anyways, let's get back to Alan Wells in the HockeyPedio cast. Okay, so we mentioned earlier, You know, the cycle of your typical team, especially in a salary cap world, you know, there's sort of you go into way up and you're, you know, if you're lucky, least you kind of have that rep as a young, exciting team that's on the verge of special things. And then hopefully you have a, you know, two, three, four, even five year a window there to compete in conference finals and compete for Stanley Cups. And hopefully for your sake, you do eventually get over that hump. And we still yet to see that from Tampa Bay.

And we'll get into that a little bit here later. but then as we've seen with teams like the Kings and the Blackhawks and the Canucks, there's eventually a price to be paid for that success. And there's typically a down swing there where you inevitably wind up with a bunch of aging veterans that are assigned long term and aren't the players they once were. And you're just going to have to kind of accept that. And obviously, if you're a team like the Blackhawks or the Kings, you have a couple recent standards. Cup victories to lean on and remember during these trying times and it makes it certainly more palatable. Now, there's a couple ways to fight that off, obviously, and one of them is avoiding those long-term

deals, which is easier said than done at times, especially with the sort of loyalty component of it and the emotional attachment. But the other, and this is where the lightning have a leg up on a lot of these teams that came before them, is, you know, savvy drafting and finding guys outside of the first round because you're typically not going to be picking high if you're a really good team and whether it's you know there's a ton of guys that are already in their prime now and key contributors or you know about their stories but there is this next wave of guys you know with the matthew josephs and anthraurelli's of the world and i mean for a team this good that hasn't been picking very high for for a while like having guys like boris katchuk and alex volkov and taylor radish and mitchel stephen and so on

and so forth like it's a loaded pipeline of guys who conceivably could come up and play big roles on this team in the bottom six while still on entry-level contracts not making any money. And that's sort of one key factor that a lot of teams that do wind up on that down swing don't have the luxury of. And it feels like, I don't know, do you think that this lightning team eventually will have that down swing, but do you think that drafting and how well they've done it over the years extends their shelf life a little bit to actually extend this era of winning that they're currently in? I think it does. I think it helps. I think what I mean, you're exactly right in terms of how that cycle works.

And I think as well as the lightning have done to this point, the pipeline as deep as it is, it doesn't have the same kind of high-end kind of, I think, superstar kind of potential that it did even a few years ago. So I think no matter how good you are at that, you know, just they, you know, they traded the first round pick for Ryan McDonough last year. I mean, you do things like that when you're a good team. And if they, if they, you know, win the cup this year, then really who cares about everything else. But if they do, then they lose their first round pick, you know, in the next draft. And that's another year of missing out, you know, of not picking if you're a good team and you trade your first round pick. You're not picking until the late 50s, early 60s.

and it's it's tough to find you know the players that are going to sort of keep you at the level where where the lightning are but yeah they've done a great job of finding talent in the middle rounds you know sort of scouring for undrafted free agents right they they had marches so and ultimately missed on him but they've they've learned from that lesson with with yanni gourd and now they've got you know alex beret from from from the queue who's in syria cues and looks like another legit pro who's who's going to pan out. So, yeah, it's, they've, they've sustained it. And what they've been able to do is make sure that while they have this,

this super high-end talent on the top two lines, like that, that third line with Sirelli and Joseph, that they have some, some guys who are affordable, who can, who can tilt the ice and those guys might not score that much. I don't know that they have the ceiling of some of the guys who came before them, but they're going to keep the puck in the offensive zone and they're going to, you know, they'll score some. But yeah, it's huge to be able to supplement the superstar talent with guys who can compliment and almost as importantly, you know, be inexpensive.

Yeah. No, supplement's a great word to describe this situation. Because, you know, for most of these teams, it's like, you know, they have the one or two top scoring lines, then you're like, okay, well, if the other guys can just kind of hold the four to not get completely caved it and just by the top guys, a bit of rest, we'll take that and if they can just kind of play 50-50 ball, whereas with this lightning team, the goals obviously haven't been there. And I'm not sure what that finishing talent is and whether they ever will sort of match up with the shot data. But yeah, with Matthew Joseph, who is a heck of a player,

I love watching him and Sorrelli Forchek and create havoc on opposing defensemen. as long as you just have the puck in the other team's zone and you're just peppering the goalie and tiring out the other team's players, like you'll take that every day of the week and stuff like that is what makes this team, you know, so as effective as it is and as dangerous it is come postseason. Because when you look at it, assuming health, there are very few holes. And it's typically tough for a team that has the high and talented lightning do. And when you're paying those guys as much as they are to have that type of a situation where there aren't, a lot of spots for other teams to really take advantage of and pick on in playoff series. So I think that's a massive luxury and can't be understated.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And the fourth line, I think, is maybe not, you know, as optimal as it could be. I think the blue line is going to get really interesting this summer because they got a bunch of expiring contracts and they got a bunch of young players who are, you know, maybe, maybe ready to go for next year. So that's going to be one of those first big challenges next summer is when they've got the point contract. They've got to get done.

They've got Stralman, Gerardi, and Coburn expiring on the blue line. And then they got to figure out how to sort of fit all these pieces back together and come back. Obviously, they'll have headman and McDonough and Sergachev, and they'll feel like that's a start. But there's going to be a lot of holes. and that's what they've been good at so far is having guys ready to slide in and fill those spots. But that's going to be with where this team is in their cycle,

that's going to be in every summer thing where they are going to have a contract, a cap challenge to get someone signed, and then they're going to have very little money left to fill the remaining spots on their roster. And the best way that you can handle that is to have young guys who are ready to play because if you find yourself scrounging around for, you know, inexpensive veteran players, that's usually going to go poorly. Yeah. And at least there's an upside there.

Like, you know, when we talk about with a guy like Joseph, like, there's certainly strengths and weaknesses to his game, but we've seen him produce at lower levels. And if this is all he is, like, that's still a very useful and valuable player. But there is just based on his age and what we've seen in the past, there is that kind of, the door is open a little bit for there to be more. left in that tank and for them to squeeze out of him. And so that is an exciting proposition, whereas you're right. Typically with these teams, you see those Ryan Callahan, Chris Kuhniz types occupying

to end of the roster. It's like, okay, well, we know exactly what you're going to get from that guy. And it's not very exciting. And you're sort of, it is what it is. Whereas with these guys, at least, there is the potential for more. Yeah. And Sorrelli and Joseph are going to score more than they have in the first 14 games where they they dominated the shot and expected goal share and scored one goal.

That's the line. So they're definitely going to definitely. And how excited were you about that goal? Yeah, that was pretty great. It's always fun. One of the most fun things as a fan is to root for young players always. And especially young players that come into the lineup with a ton of energy and excitement like Matthew Joseph has and kind of surprise in camp.

You know, he wasn't really supposed to make the team this year. He's probably, you know, ahead of schedule by. you know, at least half a season or something. You know, you figured that, you know, there would be an injury in the middle of the year, and he would get his call up, and maybe he would have a chance to earn a spot. But that's one of the fun things to see. And so that line last year was the same, but you swap Matthew Joseph for Yanni Gord, and they were scoring a ton.

And obviously some of that is Gord's offensive talent. But Sorelli was scoring, too. And I don't know that he has the upside that he showed at the end of last year, where, you know, he looked, he was playing like, he was scoring at like a, you know, like a high-end second line, you know, low-end first-line rate. I don't think he's that, but, you know, he may have some of that, like, high, high-end third-line potential. And Matthew Joseph, too, and who knows, maybe one of those guys surprises us and looks more

like a top six forward than, then they initially project to be. But, yeah, that's, that's going to be a fun, that's going to be another fun. They've got kind of tandums on each line, right? They've got the Stamcoos Kutrov, and they've got, um, point. Point and Gord, and now they've got sort of Sorrelli and Joseph on that third line. And it's going to be fun to watch them just create havoc and maybe not always be the prettiest hockey and have the nicest kind of finishes around the net, although Joseph's first goal was a nice one, but they're going to make life rough for the opposing team when they're on the ice.

Yeah, no, definitely. And, you know, we talk, I talked about this quite a bit last year with the Washington Capitals, for example, and it feels like Lightning have taken that mantle a little bit from them now that they shed their playoff demons of sort of the natural successor of team that is really, really good and is still looking to get over the hump and finally win it all in the postseason. And you know, you cover the team and you do a great job doing so, but you're also a fan first and foremost and you watch all the games. And I'm kind of curious about that sort of internal struggle or dialogue that takes place where it's like on the one hand, you know, this is a really fun team to watch and they're doing great things in the regular season. And you

want to relish that and enjoy the ride because you'll obviously remember a time when that wasn't the case and you know that it won't last forever or at the same time you have it kind of this idea in the back of your head is like okay like trying to keep it into perspective of how much that regular season success ultimately really matters and whether they'll be able to finally do it in the postseason like how is how how does it feel going through that internal struggle on a day to day basis when you're watching this team and is there a bit of that consternation amongst the fan base because it's not necessarily to the degree obviously that it was with the Washington Capitals,

but it does feel like now that the Capitals have won, the Lightning are sort of the team that's taken their place a little bit. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think there's definitely that feeling in a fan base first in general. I think that everyone sort of knows what the goal is, and I think it's not just in the fan base, it's in the team. I mean, the team talks about it pretty openly. They know what their goal is. They know what the next step for them to take is to feel like,

you know, they've built upon the success that they've had, So, you know, I don't think that there's sort of any mystery around that. For me, what I try to do is I try to enjoy the regular season as much as I can because the playoffs, you know, this is this is the way that things work in North American sports where we have playoff systems. That's just the way we do things. But for hockey especially, just staking your definition of success on a set. seven-game sample is, you know, that's a, that's, that's, that's a rough way to go about things. Like, the, the amount of randomness and variance in that is, is, is kind of overwhelming. And it's, it's, you know, there's, you feel like just being the better team has, is not enough.

Yeah. In hockey, you're, you're really at the mercy of sort of what, what the shooting percentages are and sort of what happens in that, in that sample of games. So, yeah, it's, it's tough to sort of try to keep perspective on that and know that the regular season in some ways. And I know this is such an unpopular opinion, but it really is a better representation of who's good and who's not. And then the playoffs is sort of, we do this small sample sprint to kind of up the stakes and, you know, give everyone hard conditions. Yeah, no, you're right. And I'm obviously, I've been a big advocate and a big proponent of the idea of rewarding teams for regular season success and stacking the deck in their favor so that, you know, if you are going to insist on. this money grab situation of playing 82 games, which is preposterous in and of itself.

But if you really are going to do that, at least make it count. And, you know, we did see a bit of that last year, obviously, with the fact that, you know, the lightning coming out first in the Atlantic Division helped them avoid that first round matchup against either Boston or Toronto. And they got much more of a cushy opponent in New Jersey. And those two other teams really battled for seven games. And by the time Boston came into that second round matchup against Tampa, they were a bit of a shell of themselves physically.

So, you know, they certainly got the luxury of that and having home ice helps, but it is kind of, you are balancing that been there, done that formality of this 82 game marathon regular season versus, you know, enjoying the ride and then sort of keeping an eye on the playoffs and the seating and all that. So it's an emotional roller coaster. And obviously, there's so many factors they go into. And I'm sure being that close to the situation living there and also following the team on a day to day basis that only adds to that and heightens that. Yeah, and it's, it's, it's, the thing with this team is it, it's like, um, it's not even just the playoffs anymore now. It's like, it's like you don't even start. It doesn't, it doesn't feel like, um, it doesn't, it doesn't feel like this, they're approaching a successful season until they're like doing well in the second round, you know? It's like, even if they got bounced in the first round, that would, that would kind of feel like a nightmare season as, as sort of ridiculous as is, is, understanding.

you know, how things work in the playoffs. You know, you hit a hot team in the first round, and anybody can get bounced. But it, yeah, it's going to be, it's a tough thing to balance, but that's sort of the reality of the way it is. And so I don't know, as a fan, I just try to enjoy moments like, you know, Matthew Joseph's first goal and Braden Colburn scoring two goals the other night and just the sort of fun stuff like that that, that hope it happens during the season because once it gets to the playoffs, then it's not fun at all.

Yes, yeah, it's quite a ride. Yeah, I think it's going to be similar to last year, though. Obviously, right now they're sitting pretty with their early start and all the wins they've been banking. And it looks like once again, just like as we forecast it in the preseason, Tampa Bay, Boston, and Toronto are going to be those three teams that come out of the Atlantic. And it just remains to be seen whether four teams are going to come in as a wild card. But obviously, with the current setup, it's such an advantage to be first in that division

and get one of those crossover teams potentially in round one as opposed to having to go through that nightmare matchup against either the Leafs or the Bruins. So that's obviously incentive in and of itself. And I imagine that that's going to help sort of keep their sights set on the regular season at least for now and not fully be looking ahead at the post season. Yeah, and I think that's going to be an interesting thing to watch with, from a coaching perspective, is whether we can get any sort of, you know, indications or whether they're willing to talk about. at all as the season goes on in terms of how important they think, you know, getting that seating position locked in is, you know, they played Andre Vasilevsky pretty heavily last year. I think that based on sort of the work we know in that area, that's probably less than optimal. They talked in the offseason about getting those starts down, but, you know, you wonder as you get

later in the season and, you know, do you stick to the schedule with him where you're giving him all the nights off you're supposed to if it if it starts to mean the difference between you know playing the fifth place team in the metro you know or or playing you know the leaps or the Bruins that that starts to become a tough decision so it'll be interesting to see how they how they handle that and whether they continue to manage minutes the way they have and whether they continue to rest vasselowski the way they have yep no that's well said um all right let's get out of here all right plug some stuff obviously since it's been a while since i've had you in the show you have a swanky new job title since the last time we're chatting yeah

I am the interim site manager at Raw Charge. So SB Nation hockey's been going through a lot of changes, and I'm running the site. For now, hopefully long term as well, but at least for now, I think Raw Charge is probably, if not the best, one of the best places on the internet to go and get Lightning News. I think we have pretty comprehensive coverage.

We have a great team of writers there. So encourage everybody to check that out. Obviously, I'm on Twitter at LoserPoint. You can follow me for lots of yelling when Matthew Joseph scores a goal and occasionally maybe something insightful if, you know, maybe like once every two weeks or so. So yeah, that's where I'm at on Twitter at loser points and then follow the blog, Racharge. Awesome.

Well, I really appreciate taking the time to come chat out. I was a blast as always. And I'm sure we'll get you back on sometime down the line here as we get closer to their postseason. Sounds good, man. Thanks for having me. before we get out of here i did want to remind everyone that this season every thursday night we are hosting a daily contest over a fan duel for listeners of this podcast um i was actually at a personal

peter shirelli-esque run of sorts of finding new and unique ways to mismanage my team and underwhelm and not live up that hype um as someone who hosts a hockey podcast and does this for a living you'd like to think that i'd know a thing or two about this but i had gone 13th 15th 16th 17th place finishes in the first four weeks of the season. That's out of 20 teams. But this past week, I actually finished second somehow. Thanks to the idea to stack players against Ottawa Senators. I had Jack Eichler and Jeff Skinner and I believe I stacked the Ducks top line against the Rangers as well.

So a little pro tip is generally in these things. If you want to succeed, just pick porous defenses and then stack players against them. I hope it works out for you. Anyways, though, it's a blast and I look forward to Thursday night. every week now because I'm really enjoying these contests and I'm starting to get a bit of the hang of it. And here's the deal for those of you that haven't played yet or haven't heard about this. Every Thursday morning, I'm going to open up a contest for that evening's later games. I'm going to tweet out a link and the first 20 people that sign up get to play.

It's on a first come first year basis. And unfortunately, that's the maximum size pool I can open. So for now, that's all we can do. But anyways, when you're in there, you just pick your team and you compete against fellow listeners. And it's a really good time. We're doing only a $5 entry, but it's more so for fun and bragging rates and actually winning some large sum of cash. So keep that in mind. And yeah, if you don't have a Fandul account, just go to fandle.com slash pdo to sign up.

And I believe that if you tell them that we sent you, they'll actually sweeten the pot by giving you a $5 bonus to start off with. So that'll come in handy. You'll basically cover your expenses for your first contest. And I'm sure if you listen to the show and you follow hockey, you'll do well. You'll do better than me. And you'll probably win back some money and you just go from there. So anyways, it's easy, it's fun, and I hope to see more of you out there this Thursday. And with that said, we're going to sign off now with the outro music and hopefully be back later this week with another show.

The Hockey P.D.Ocast of Dmitri Filippovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockeypedocast.