The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 61: East Coast Bias

Episode Date: February 16, 2016

Much like we did last week when we asked '20 Questions' about the Western Conference, we similarly move around the East in an attempt to gain more clarity about what the landscape looks like at this moment in time. "Will the Capitals rest their players during the stretch run?", "should the Hurricanes be full-blown sellers at the deadline?", "what's been the main difference for the Penguins under Mike Sullivan?", and "why does Michel Therrien have undying love for David Desharnais?" are examples of things we get around to answering. *Every episode of this podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, and can also be streamed from our website. Make sure to not only subscribe so that you don’t miss out on any new shows as they’re released, but also take a minute to leave us a glowing review. *This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, an online accounting service designed to save time and help avoid all of the stresses that come with running a small business. They're currently offering a free 30-day trial to listeners of our show at Freshbooks.com/PDOcast (just remember to enter "Hockey PDOcast" in the 'How You Heard About Us' section). Thanks for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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

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of their vast array of useful tools to each and every one of our listeners. To give it a try, go to freshbooks.com slash PDOCAST and enter HockeyPEDEOCast in the how you heard about us section. That's freshbooks.com slash PDOCAST. Now let's get to the show. Regressing to the Mead since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Travis Yost, and Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Filippovich and joining me as my co-host, Travis, what's going on on this, uh, Presidency day quote unquote. Is this the only holiday? Like other than the obvious ones, is this like the one day where Canada and the United States share a holiday, even though they have nothing, they share a holiday,

even though they don't share the actual holiday? Is this the only time? Yeah. I'm sure there's something else and someone's going to be screaming at their phones right now saying the obvious one, but that's all I can think of really. So, so give me the groundwork of Family Day. This is just a a federal holiday in Canada and everyone just gets to basically chill? You know what? Actually, in BC, it's not right now. We had ours already a few weeks ago. All right, so there's no, wait, hold on, hold on.

There's not even consistency. No, no, it's not. It's, uh, I don't know how it works, honestly. I guess you just, like, pick or choose. I don't know. So is it a provincial outlet? I mean, do you get, like, are, our businesses closed in BC on their family day? Uh, no, not really.

I mean, like, maybe, like, super, like, small localized ones, but like all the all the big chains are definitely open. This is severely disappointing. Yeah. I mean, some people just don't really want to spend time with their family. I guess you don't have to spend time with your family, but it's like sort of in the title.

So I don't know. Oh, that's great. All right. So we shared, again, we shared nothing in common. But anyways, Thursday was such a success where we switched roles

that were replicating it one more time. Oh, my God. We're going to do the Eastern Conference this time. And again, there's a series of predefined questions. and you are not familiar with any of them. Yep. So there is, what we're going to do is we're going to run from the top.

You know what the one thing that dawned on me before we get into these questions? The one thing that dawned on me is that the Eastern Conference is incredibly boring. Yeah. There's nothing interesting about this conference whatsoever. There is. I guess there is like in the sense of the Metro's super tightly jam-packed, right? But other than that, I guess. All right.

I'm even talking in comparison to relative to years of class. Like the playoff race really isn't that captivating either. I think part of it is at least two teams who are in the playoff picture are like they don't expect to be like New Jersey specifically. Like they're just kind of floating around. And I have no idea if they're going to make it or not. But it's always a weird feeling. And they're not the only team. We'll get to them and Carolina.

But like they're not the only teams that are in very much in the playoff picture. And yet there's like, I don't know that either one of those teams. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Carolina will sell. And I don't know what New Jersey's plans are. But I don't know, it just kind of creates this weird dynamic where you've got teams that are like trying to chase down those seven, eight spots. But at the same time, they're balancing that with, do we really want to be good this year or should we slide back in the last 30 games? Yeah, but I'm sure the NHL kind of wants that, right? Like, I know it provides some sort of uncertainty come to trade deadline where teams might be more hesitant to be sellers or buyers because they don't know where they really are.

But at the same time, like, it just creates so many storylines. And I'm sure in the final couple weeks of the season, like it'll drive crazy traffic for them. Well, as you know, 24 teams are competing for the Stanley Cup. 24 teams can win it this year. Just like I really feel like that's a mentality of a lot of these GMs is that, you know, there's four or five that actually recognize that their team can win it. And then there's like 17 other GMs that are like, I feel like we're a piece away. And it's like, no, no, you're not.

You keep trying, though. Well, I guess they aren't technically a piece away. It just might be like one of the best players in the world. Yeah, you are Sidney Crosby away. But yes, a second line winger will, Ironically enough, the Pittsburgh Penguins might also be another Sydney Crosby away from being a Stanley Cup contender. Good point. Good point. You ready to get started? Yeah, let's do it. So I mentioned Carolina, and we'll get to a couple items right now, but I'm looking through the playoff picture, and Montreal is still floating in there in the Atlantic Division.

It's completely unsure of Carrie Price is going to be back at all this season. There are reports that he was out for the year, but those are apparently speculatory in nature. Carolina is like, I don't know, that's the one fun story I think this year is that this team is like hanging tough and they are way, they're scrappy team. I think that's the best way to describe and they play way

above maybe their talent level and I think a lot of that is system driven. But what I'm curious to know from you is if you were a standard Eastern Conference playoffs team and you could draw one of the two in a seven game series between Montreal and Carolina As they stand today, roster-wise, so no carry price. Right.

Who would you rather, who would you rather play? Oh, man, that's tough. I think it's pretty close in the sense that, like, Carolina, I feel like would be a bigger pain in the ass to play against because they do seem like a team that's probably going to be very, like, well coached and they're not going to kind of shoot themselves in the foot, whereas I feel like Montreal could just completely collapse onto themselves. But Montreal clearly has the higher upside just based on, like, the, you know, star players they have both at forward and on d right like they could easily just like if you're a

generic team in a vacuum playing them they could easily sweep you away whereas they could also themselves get swept like i feel like there's so much more uh possible outcomes there so i guess if you're not a very good team maybe montreal just because the the windows more open there i guess i don't know what do you think i think the i think if as it stands today i would rather play montreal And one of the big reasons for this is I think that Montreal isn't optimized. I really think Carolina has absolutely maximized what their talent can bring. Whereas I don't think that's the case from Montreal. But you can't correct for a subpar coach because that is ingrained in that organization.

Right. Like he is going to coach his team in all likelihood through the remainder of the season and maybe through the playoffs, well, assuming through the playoffs until he's either fired or given a five-year contract extension, whatever it is. But I don't know. It's hitting in my piece tomorrow, technically today since we're going to post it tomorrow. But I went through, I was going through some like pre-trade deadline stuff. And the thing I found most fascinating with this team in the NHL in general is, is there a player more? out of a forward.

Not just strictly talking about forwards. There is a forward who is used less optimally than David DeHarnay. Because why does he place so much? I'm trying to figure this out. And I'm looking through the piece tomorrow kind of looks like forward defensive combinations and how basically every forward plays with every defenseman on basically the three teams that I looked at. And one of them was Montreal. And DeHan is like a black hole.

Every player he plays with stinks when he's with him. And I know Michelle Tarin loves him. And Darnay constantly, constantly is a top six fixture. And I'm like, you can't correct for that because he's going to be in the top six come playoff time. And like at least, at the very least, I feel like Carolina is going to give you their best shot. Whereas I don't know that Montreal is going to put their best foot forward. That's the tricky part. Yeah.

I mean, the bizarre thing is at the start of the year, I remember specifically you and I, like, we didn't talk about the Habs at all when they were winning the 10th Street games. games or whatever. And then eventually we were like, okay, well, looking at this team, like, maybe they're sort of less flawed than it had been in years past because they were using Patioretti with Gallagher and Placanich on the top line. And then they had the second line with Eller and Galcernic. And then D'RNA was slaughtered onto that third line with Wiese and Fleshman. It made a lot more sense in that regard. It was much more easier to kind of, you know, stomach David D.R.N.A. as a player. And for whatever reason, they've just kind of went back to that old reliable with uh or the opposite of old reliable i guess with uh day rna playing way more

than he necessarily needs to particularly i've seen i've noticed on the power play where they're putting him like in positions where he has like good shooting lanes and it's like he has no desire whatsoever to actually shoot the puck so i don't i just i just don't know what's going on there i'm sure he has like some sort of incriminating evidence against either bergivin or a terrian or something like that i think i think that was our suspicion or theory last time right so i'm glad to see I'm glad to see it has not changed. I haven't seen anything to the contrary that would like change. So to get back to my question though, I mean, is there, is there a forward more out of out of place than there, and I?

I mean, is that is that fair to say that he's the most, the most confusing ice time and usage allocation for a forward in the league? Well, other than those instances where Patrick Wall randomly has Cody McLeod playing as extra conqueror. Yeah, I guess anyone with like, that's like relatively rapid. Yeah, no, that might be the top one. I'm sure there's, every team sort of, we discussed that with Luke Lindanning in the past where like every team or every coach has that one guy that they just inexplicably seem to love for whatever reason. And like everyone in their fan base is like, oh, my God, this again.

And it just can't shake it for whatever reason. So I'll get back to Carolina a bit because I have a curious thought about them. But let's just stay, we haven't talked an awful lot about Toronto this year for obvious reasons. They're terrible. They're not just terrible. They're terrible to watch. They're not entertaining. They play extremely low-scoring games. When they're at their best under Babcock this year, they're just kind of

like trading shots and really trading punches, but like every game feels like it's 2-1. And really the only thing that's been interesting is like Nazim Kadri and a couple other players and then whether or not Jonathan Bernier is going to blow up in any given game. But for the most part, they're probably one of

the most boring teams in the league. There was an interesting piece today I really was trying to go one podcast without an NBA reference, but I have to bring it up because there was a really good piece, and I forget who it was by, but it kind of investigated, not investigated, but it talked about the Philadelphia 76ers rebuild.

And that's become like a big story for, it spans outside of the NBA. Like the Sixers take, took tanking to another level. They've done it multiple years in a row. A draft pick didn't pan out. But they were as committed as any organization could ever be committed to tanking and rebuilding that way,

basically through the draft explicitly. And there's now a push, kind of a pushback from the NBA. First, it was getting basketball guys in the front office. And now there's going to be more hires apparently. Basically, I think the NBA is kind of sick of what the Sixers are doing. And like I don't object in any way to what the Sixers are doing whatsoever. I actually think it's the right way to go about it. But it does bring up an interesting question,

which is how long is too long when you're committed to the tank and rebuild? Because we kind of went through that for the first time with the Sabres last year where they pretty much tanked. Oh, they did tank. They get Jack Eichol, and then they accelerated their rebuild in the summer, so they're not really a tanking team anymore. So it lasted all of, what, six months at most? Toronto, you kind of get the feel after.

They kind of blew it up a little bit last year, but not all that much. But you kind of get the sense again. The trade deadline is just going to be a total yard. sale and they're going to try and coast into a top pick. My question, I guess it's a two-part question. One, how quickly can they reasonably turn it around? And two, this is a general question, but how long is too long for a rebuild? Like, obviously the Edmundth and oil is rebuilt is too long. Right. This kind of implode it and then rebuild it. Like, well, what's a, what's an acceptable time frame for that? Well, I forget who was discussing this? It was on some other

podcast where they were mentioning that like other own, other MBA owners are kind of fed up with what the Sixers are doing. I mean, obviously it kind of helps their teams in the sense that every time they play them, it's pretty much a free win for their team for their own team. But like, just in terms of attendance, right? Like no one wants to come watch the Sixers play. So I'll interject for a second. Just because you bring up a really good point, Adam Silver is kind of driving some of this. And you can rest assured if Adam Silver's driving it, that means some of the owners are as well. Yeah. Yeah. So I kind of understand like that point of view. I think that we've discussed this with the Sabres, as you said. Like, it's if your ultimate goal is to win the cup and you do it by any

means necessary. Like it's a cold calculated business and there's no kind of half-assing it or settling for mediocrity. I mean, some teams do that and well, like, that's the worst possible position you can be in as an owner of a team where a person running it or a fan of that team where it's like, okay, we're going to be just good enough not to get like truly elite game-changing talent in the draft, but we're also not going to be good enough to actually like realistically compete for a cup. And I don't know, I think it's like probably a maybe four or five years. Like I think after that, do you really start pushing the bounds of like just reasonable expectations regardless of your market, right? Like after a while, fans are just going to sort of tune out what you're doing

because it's like, all right, wake us up when you finally have something worth kind of investing our money in as people coming to the game and also people just generally curious about your team. I think the league, I think the league more than anything is, it gets first. And when I say the league, I really mean every sports league that has a draft. You're not going to ever see it in the NFL because the way it works, 16 game season, gate revenues, everything tied into that. But at least for the NBA and the NHL, I feel like a lot of the frustration is borne out of. They think the draft works perfectly because they think everyone's going to try their hardest.

Then the crappiest team will finish last and they will be, quote, unquote, rewarded for their last place. finish because it's, oh, they're the worst team. They deserve the first round pick. And that's, that's kind of why the draft worked for years. But then now organizations are realizing, like, huh, maybe it doesn't behoove me to finish 20th every year. And maybe I should really take the bottom out a little bit and get that draft pick because maybe I'll go instead of 20th, 18th, 20th, 18th, 18th, maybe it'll be 20th, 29th, 30th, 15th, 8th, and so on and so board. That's the ideal rebuild, right? You blow it up for a year. You get the draft pick. You kind of build around it and everything works. But it's just curious to hear a lot of the

smoke coming back against the Philadelphia 76ers. And we are essentially watching the Toronto Maple Leafs who are probably as progressive an organization as any in the NFL nowadays. And let's not let's not make, let's not mistake this here. The Sixers have incredible minds running the operation. This is not some like some Phoenix Suns operations in the NBA. This is usually this is some of the best of the best in the business are orchestrating

this and it's just a curious thing because you're going to see in the next couple weeks I'm sure the Maple Leafs are going to be trading away a bunch of their players and they are going to, for all intents of purposes, bottomed to hell out as much as humanly possible this year, get that draft pick. But then I mean, I guess a lot

of it is contingent on what they do this summer, no? Yeah. Well, I think the important distinction there Like for the Sixers, the tricky part is that in the NBA, the like elite total top of the end superstars are the ones that kind of dictate the outcome of your franchise ultimately, right? And there's so much luck with regards to picking first like in the right in the correct season or kind of having a guy fall to you, right? So like not to completely geek it up with basketball stuff for our hockey listeners, but like if the Sixers got like Carl, Carl Anthony Towns, like things would look significantly different for them right now. Now, instead they got the third pick or whatever and took Joliel Okafore and their outlook is significantly worse. Whereas in hockey for the Leafs, they can keep picking in that kind of third, fourth, fifth

overall range for a few years and getting really good prospects like Mitch Marner and whatnot without necessarily having to get a Connor McDavid to completely just change things for them. So on this Maple Leaf's question, how far are they realistically away with, let's say they do signed Stamco's versus they do not sign Stamcoes because I feel like that will also guide a lot of what they do, right? If they sign Stamcoast, I think they're going to throw more money out. So some people think that by not signing Stamcoast, they would throw, you know, have more money to throw around. But I don't know that that's necessarily the case. I think if they get Stamcoes, they're going to be in the position where, okay, we got one of the best players in the world.

Let's build around him now versus if they miss on him, for whatever reason, he signs a Tampa, he sounds with someone else. I kind of feel like they would just kind of sit on their hands tiny bit and kind of let next year maybe play out one more a year see what happens there. Is that wrong to think? No, that's completely right. I think just like with the Flyers, when we were saying, like, it's really easy to kind of tear it down and just get everyone out of the picture. But now that you have this money to work with, like, that's where the tricky part comes

in. We're like investing it properly and getting all the right pieces. And I think it's a no-brainer. Stamcois wants to sign with them regardless of what he wants. I think that that's just like a game changer for them as a franchise. but it does kind of speed up the process, right? Because if anyone's aware of it, their front office is going to be aware of the fact that like,

Stamco's probably going to peak somewhere here in the next couple of years as opposed to when he's 30 to 32 years old. So they're going to kind of need to surround him with the right players to make use of these years rather than patiently waiting and having him score 40 goals on a, or 40, 50 goals on a crappy team that doesn't make the playoffs again next year. Okay, you're passing your test so far. But this is the ultimate.

I am told you you spend some time with numbers and hockey stats. Who is the best team by adjusted possession last 25 games in the Eastern Conference? You got to give me a five-second answer. I can't trust you. You might Google it. It's Carolina, isn't it? No. That was, so Carolina is extremely close.

They're actually third, and it's mere decimal points splitting the top. But I found this curious. Pittsburgh is actually the top team right now. I should have known that. Last 25 games, over 54% are, should we be intrigued by what Pittsburgh's done really since the firing of the coach? And I mean, is this, are they emerging into playoff threat territory? They are playing better generally, period.

Yeah. Well, it's amazing that they're like on the outskirts there of the playoffs. Like every, every night, if someone else wins, they kind of fall out of it. And then when they play themselves, they jump back in. And I think they're ultimately obviously going to make the playoffs. They have too much talent. And the question is going to be whether they have like a, enough of that depth to actually win in the playoffs and kind of support guys like crosbie and malkin

and kessel but i kind of like what i've seen from them right like i think mike johnston got an unfair shake in the sense that all of the blame was put on him and i don't think that any coach really has that much of an impact per se unless they're like actively trying to submarine the entire process but uh whatever mike solvon's done it's worked and i think a lot of it has to do with the d where they got rid of scuderry they brought in daily uh they paired him with a really reliable kind of stay-at-home guy of the Paul Martin type and Brian Dumolin. And they called up Derek Pooley out their top prospect and Mata and Latang are both healthy at the same time for the first time in forever, it seems like. And that completely changes the game for them because a lot

has been made of how Crosby's been playing so much better lately. But it definitely helps that they have guys who can actually get him the puck in good positions to succeed, which is something we kind of outlined when he was struggling early in the year. We don't see it that much anymore. but I mean, I can't even begin to describe how out of place Rob Skadari was slash is in the NHL. I mean, this is like the equivalent of if you brought up a guy from just straight from the ECHL and just threw him in and said, you're playing 18 minutes for us tonight and then just see what happens. Like his his shot metrics are as bad as really I can remember for any player for any team in the last decade. I mean, he is, he was a tremendous drag. And that's the

curious part is that I get that they traded him and they reconciled and it was okay this isn't working out let's see if we can get a guy who can move the buck better who can skate better but isn't it kind of an indictment on Pittsburgh that they kept playing rob scadere generally period yes it definitely isn't that's too big of a man right that's too that's two that's two i'm sorry there's we talk all the time about everyone has their guys and just balancing the good to bad if you're a great team, maybe make four great moves, every one bad move. But I feel like Skadari has to count like five times the normal rate. Like that guy was so out of place. So bad. Well, the interesting thing is a lot's been made of how Carolina has this young D that has a lot of future, a lot of promise in the

future, right, with guys like Jacob Slavin and Brett Pesci and Falk and Hanifin and so on and so forth. And I think other than Hanofin, Jim Rutherford was around when pretty much all of those guys were brought into a picture, wasn't he? Yes. so yeah so it just seems like i guess it's fair to posit it you know it might have been just random luck of the draw but it seems like he should at least have a relative kind of understanding of what it what a good blue liner looks like in the kind of the direction the nchel is trending towards so it was kind of interesting to see that maybe it just was mike johnson being like i like i like rob scudery i want to play him a lot and and now that he's gone they're kind of using guys

that are more suited for for today's nchel i don't know what i don't know what the dynamic was there a month ago, maybe it was two months ago, you championed Braden-Holpi to win the Vezina. Is he still the Vesina frontrunner to you? I think he's going to win it because he's probably going to set the all-time record for wins in a season. I mean, listen, he's number two on my list right now.

I think Petter Mrazik's been better. He's played less, but I don't know. It's not unreasonable to say that Holti's been the best goalie in the league. So what do you make of the Mrazic kind of, I don't want to say emergence, because he always been kind of, it's really been more bad opportunity for him than anything else. I don't think anyone expected this type of breakout season, but that said, I don't know what to make of him. And not in a good sense and not in a bad sense.

It seems like... He's so legit. I've been huge on him for years now. It just, it's one of those things like, you know, goalies are voodoo and all this stuff where we can't really predict goalie performance from year to year. But this is a guy pretty much every single level he's played at, whether it was in the OHL or the HL. and now in the NHL that he's just been one of the handful of best goalies in that league when he was playing there.

So I feel like we have enough of a sort of sample size where it's not at the NHL per se, but it's just like enough of a track record with him being like, hmm, maybe regardless of who he's facing, he's just really, really good. I don't mean to, this was not a negative comment in any way. I just don't know where we talk about tiering goaltenders and it's sometimes hard to get a feel for you can't, to me it's an impossible position. power rank. You can get one in 30, but like two through five are almost interchangeable every year. And to me, the question of Marazaki is not, is he a first or second tier goalie?

He is, but I just don't know which of the two to put him in. And like he, like, I feel like the safe bet is, yeah, he's a second tier guy with a chance to pop up and and really be a dominant goalie in this league. But like, I don't know, there's a part of me that it's like, it's kind of like a, it's kind of a deviation from where he's been historically. But at the same time. He's just looked so damn good this year. He plays so well positionally, at least to my eye. It's like, I was watching, I'm watching a few nights ago. I'm watching Merzick. I'm like, man, I remember talking about the Braden Holpey thing. And I remember we were actually debating Hopi versus Lundquist. And, you know, to me, Lundquist is the gold standard of goal tending. But like, now you've got

Marizek in the conversation. You've got Rass still who he's playing really well. Carrey Price, Schneider. The gold tending in the East, that's the only thing that you can really say about the Easter conferences. Their goaltending is so comically better than the Western Conference. Yeah. And I mean, Flurry's been amazing this year. It's remarkable where... Steve Mason. Yeah, Steve Mason, really. And, you know, Brovsky comes back next year and healthy. There's no reason to believe he won't be at least really good. So that Metro Division has some remarkable goaltending. And I don't know, I think the thing about Mrazik is he is good positionally, but he's also like crazy athletic and aggressive. And I've made this comparison before,

but I feel like he's what Jonathan Quicks' biggest fans think Jonathan Quick is, where, like, he makes all these kind of electrifying saves and gets out after shooters and, you know, makes all the highlight real saves that you want to see from a goalie, if you're putting together a highlight package, but he also just makes enough positionally sound regular saves where it's like, it doesn't, it doesn't matter, right? Like, the big ones get all the attention, but he's saving over 93% of the shots he faces. So I think that's all that matters.

That's always been the lesson with Longquist, right? He's just never out of position, ever. He's never out of position, and he may not be the most athletic, and he's not the biggest, but he's just literally always square to shooters, no matter where the shooter is, no matter how many times you go east-west on the passing lanes to try and throw him off. He's always in position, and I agree. I mean, everything, I am the worst eye to goaltender, I guess observer that there is in the world, but, I mean, everything that I see from him when I'm watching and play,

he looks calm, collected, and we're getting very anecdotal here, but I just like everything he brings to that team. And I think it's going to be an interesting race because he's got a lot of, like, I think he's getting a lot of positive publicity and he rightfully should. But I do wonder if he can chase down Hoppe, just with that record now on the balance. Everyone knows Washington's an absolute bullet right now. And it's going to be hard to take that away from him, I think. Yeah.

Well, I mean, we have an anecdotal, but there's also the actual stone cold fact that he has the second best, 5-15 say percentage since 2010-2011 Tim Thomas so I mean that's a pretty good favor in his case as well hey well on the other hand you had Mike Smith 2011 didn't we talk about Mike Smith 2011-2012 amazing hey okay I have a quick question for you about the capitals while we're still here I know I know that I'm hijacking you're throwing a whole theme off but go okay so I wrote about this for tomorrow and we've discussed this on the show but are the caps potentially this season the first kind of obvious test case that comes to your mind of an NHL team using the final handful of weeks of the season to kind of get ready for the playoffs and rest their guys? Because we rarely ever see it with a loser point where

teams are just generally so jam-packed that they don't have the luxury of kind of looking ahead to the playoffs this far in advance. But it feels like they're a pretty smart team. And I'd be surprised to see, you know, Holti playing the percentage of starts that he has been thus far. and Ovechkin having to play over 20 minutes a night moving forward. Like I, do you think, do you remember anyone else doing that in recent memory? No, I want to see if they can actually convince Ovechkin to sit games down the stretch to be. I mean, honestly, if you think about it, what they're going to do is basically peel back. They're going to balance the minutes out.

You're going to see third and fourth lines playing a whole lot. And that's exactly what they should do. It's not, it's not exactly like the NBA where you can literally sit a guy out like a group of guys out. Like you see the spurs. They rotate out. Genoble, Duncan and Barker. in the same game for for Christ's sake in the last you know month of the season but I uh it is it is I think it would behoove them not the goal tending move is obvious rest hope be as much as you can

but I also think it would behoove them to rest Ovechkin in the in the in the off chance that he will let you rest in just rig his alarm clock yeah I don't I don't I don't think Ovechit strikes me as he strikes me as like one of the most competitive people in the world I don't know that he is going to be willing to sit games. But, you know, I don't know how many back-to-backs they have the rest of the way. I'm assuming that it's probably three or four. There's no reason he should be playing back-to-backs, right? Like, just sit them out the game, right?

Funny enough, they have five, and they have a California trip coming up. So look at this. You did your research. Perfect answer. So they did their five. Yeah, why are you going to play a Vecan against Anaheim? Just let them sit. Who cares?

Yeah, don't even show Anaheim. Who knows? It might be a Stanley Cup final preview. Forfeit the game. How about game forfeiture? Oh, just send it. entire team home. Just call on your HL team? Actually

Anaheim, we're good tonight. Yeah. We're just going to stay in L.A. All right. Move on. No, I would generally agree. Again, I don't think they can really feel it back too much, but yeah, Holti for sure. Ovechkin, I would say for sure, too.

Yeah, okay. And then everything else. Hey, before we, before we keep going, let's take a quick break here to get a shout out from our sponsor. Sponsoring today's show is FreshBooks, which is an online service that helps small business owners save time and keep track of all their financial in-and-outs in one tidy location. They have a lot of cool and useful functions, like keeping a tally of the time you've put into working on a project, or directly inputting and categorizing expenses from your online bank account to help avoid the clutter of receipts piling up in your shoebox.

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You've heard them both. So I'm giving you a chance to redeem yourself on one of these, okay? Yeah. First question, dark horse trade candidate. So I'll give you a minute to think, and I'll recap what I had suggested for the Western Conference. My Western Conference, dark horse trade candidate, was Joe Thornton. I think there is a non-zero chance that he could be traded. I don't know if you want to call it 3%, 7%, 9%. I don't think it's a 0% chance, number one. And number two, I think there are teams that would obviously be in the market and could

fit Joe Thornton in under the cap. A team like Anaheim is a perfect example. This is the exact move I go to if I am Anaheim and I want to build out my roster and I want to ensure that I am. if not the, you know, they're not going to be an nods on favorite, but they would be one of the two or three teams I would put at the top of the list with Chicago and L.A. to win the entire thing. I think that's the perfect move for them. So I ask you, this is your chance at redemption. Who is the Dark Horse Trade candidate in the Eastern Conference?

I'm going to go with, I think the Capitals need to make a big play to get another winger. because I'd say they could use a Rook defenseman because Brooks Warpix's been injured and even when he's healthy he's not necessarily a very reliable player but there just aren't really very many good defensemen available and it's not like the Rangers are going to trade them Yandel or anything like that so I think they could be a very interesting team for a guy like Ladd maybe or maybe even on a lesser scale like a guy like PA Parentor or something like that where they can bump down.

Vito Vito Vito. No, because... And parent, though, you're talking about literally the trade block right now. I liked where you were going. I liked where you were going. It sounded reasonable. It sounded like you had a player in mind, someone insane. But Andrew Ladd, like, this guy is literally...

I haven't seen Andrew Ladd link to the capitals. No, not, okay. So you did call the team. I'll give you that. But, I mean, he's so on the trade. He couldn't get off the trade book if he tried. Right. If he paid his way, he couldn't pay his way off the tradewalk now.

Okay, fine, fine. Okay, who is it? Who is what? Who's the trade candidate? That I think could be moved. So for Washington, I actually think, I do wonder if they go in the defensemen. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree that they need or should acquire a winger,

but I do think they will go out and get a defenseman. I think there are enough health concerns that they might want to get, or they might think that they want to grab a defenseman. I will name the player, but I don't like the movie. You ready? Wait, before, you can't just say, say, oh, I think they should go for a defenseman. Like, of course they should.

Every team needs one more defensemen, but I saw Washington Post, I think, article where it was like, oh, their two main candidates are Roman Polack and Mike Weber. And I'm like, how are those the two main candidates? See, I don't, I don't think, first off, I think Toronto's going to put a pretty big price on Roman Polack, which as insane as it is, I think that is a very real possibility. I wonder if Fedor Tutin is going to be the guy. that they go after. I think I also get the fork sticking out of

Fedro turns back? Yeah. I'll tell you what. I would be, I'll call, I'll say this. I don't know if he's been in the trade block, so you can veto this if you want. But I think he is a very likely trade candidate, and I do think if Washington goes down the road of,

oh yeah, we have enough health concerns on the back and let's get another defenseman, because we don't know if we're going to have six healthy, durable guys every night. Right. That's a road that they could travel. I don't like the idea. but I think it's a possibility.

Who's your dark horse guy? So he was the lightest horse in history like eight months ago, but no one is talking about it anymore because they've surged through the standings. I still think Eric Stahl is a very likely candidate to get traded in this next couple of weeks. Are you kidding me, Eric Stahl? Of course he's going to get traded. Yeah, I don't think that's a fair assumption to make the way they move through the play. You got on my case about Andrew Ladd and now you're throwing out Eric Stahl around here.

Are you going on next? Say, Dion, Phonof next. I'm living in this, I'm living in the present. This is much more fair. Carolina is a very real. I think Dionne Funnuff is going to get traded soon as well. I think the senators might acquire them. I think this is defendable.

I think people and I would assume that the organization as well is very serious as much as possible as much as they can be about making the playoffs. And that's kind of hard to do when you're trading away. Your highest paid forward, a guy who can still play really well. It just does not jive. Like it's, oh, yeah, playoffs would be huge, especially for a team like Carolina, who you know would love at least two additional home games

and all the money that comes with that. But that same time, I think they are going to be extremely process driven. And I, if you're going to rake me over the cold for that, fair enough. But I haven't seen much of Eric Stahl on the trade block in the last month. And I would almost guarantee that's related to the fact that they're surging the standings. But I do think he's going to get traded. Okay. So what do you think about this fit then?

because we I think it was a few months ago was obviously before the hands in trade where we're like hmm Nashville could be an interesting fit because they need a center and I think that's kind of off the table now but what do you think a team like Anaheim

like let's say they don't get Joe Thornton which seems probably like it. So Eric, why don't they get both? I think they might be able to swing it. You really are going with that theme of them getting every good center in 2010 right? No, they can't get both but they can legitimately afford either or

and Eric Stahl. Eric Stahl would make sense from the okay we can get a guy is a pure rental and won't have to give up nearly as much. And the only thing about that, though, is Anaheim is where their position of strength is, if they choose to, they can part with a defenseman and likely a very talented defenseman. I don't think they want to go that route if a guy is a pure rental. Whereas Joe Thornton is locked up for a couple more years.

His cap plate is high, but not like, I mean, he's providing pretty damn close to that value still. I don't know where that contract goes at the end of it. But I think San Jose in Anaheim are more likely trade partners in Anaheim and Carolina. Is that fair? Well, see, I disagree because I think that a guy like Eric Stahl might actually be more appealing to a team like Anaheim because they have a bunch of, I'm sure they have a bunch of prospects. They've drafted well over the years in the HL that wouldn't necessarily kind of cripple their team this year. And it might be good for them that Eric Stahl is coming out of the books because they do have to pay guys like Vatin and Lindholm and whatnot.

And it would make sense that they kind of go for it this year because they want to. once again have a really good team and the West isn't wide open, but like they could conceivably beat a team like Chicago or L.A. and win that cup that they've been seeking for the past few years. And then just let a guy like Eric Stahl walk and pay those young defensemen and kind of go back after it next year. I feel like a move like that makes quite a bit of sense. So I don't even disagree with that principle at all. But I was thinking about it from two different ways, which is one, if they acquire the player, he's not a sunk gas set going forward. Let's say they acquire Thornton. they go to the West Conference Final and they lose, whatever the case is. Right. They still have Thornton on the books, obviously. They paid a higher price to get him, but it's not like you can replicate him very easily around the league or internally. Right. And then 2016, 2017 comes, and Anaheim is still a Stanley Cup favorite versus kind of, it's kind of how much you want to give to get, I guess.

So I think both, I think both perspectives are fair on this. But my whole position is if Anaheim did go all in, quote, all in and they didn't win the Stanley Cup this year. It's not like, all right, kind of reset a bit. We don't have stall, but we didn't, you know, we didn't give up the farm. Now it's, oh, we gave up a at least one valuable asset, but we still have Joe Thornton next year. We still have Cory Barry and Ryan Getsloff next year.

And the window doesn't close to them. And I think that's, I think that's a really important distinction because I hate the idea of going all in for one season. To me, you need, if you're going all in, if you think you're in the position to go all in. And I think it's fair to say, Chicago and L.A. are already all in. But I think Anaheim is in a position to go all in right now. I think Dallas could be in a position to go all in right now.

I think Tampa Bay could be in a position to go all in right now. There's not that many teams, is my point. You're really talking about those tweener teams who could jump into that top of the pack. You don't want to say we're going all in for the next three months, and then we'll see how the chips fall in the next year. I think if the piece fits, he's going to fit for more than three. months. And if you can finesse a deal like that, especially in San Jose's situation, too, I think they, I don't know how, again, I don't know how the relationship is with Joe Thornt, but like that

kind of makes sense if you think about it, like clearing his cap off the books. And they, they kind of strike me as a team who wants to rebuild, but they're too good right now for a total rebuild. So I do think St.A. makes sense there. But I, I still think San Jose is a better trade partner. I just, it's my other point, though. Does Carolina have a need for another defenseman if that's the player that right well also think the distinction is like is it is the what you're going to have to give up to get eric stall necessarily constituting you going all in and it's the reason it's interesting is because from carolina's perspective like i generally agree with you where we just discuss this with the least right where it's like you you should bottom out

if it's going to help you help you get closer to winning a cup in the years to come right so carolina making the playoffs and losing in the first round doesn't necessarily do much for them moving forward, but they have the league worst attendance and there's all this talk about how they could be potentially relocating in the years to come. And I think that for them, specifically, it might be a thing where playing some competitive hockey and potentially making the playoffs and making a little bit of noise is a very valuable asset. You know what can fix that attendance? A publicly funded arena? Do they need a new one? I don't know. The last one might have been built eight years ago. I think it might be time for a new arena.

Yeah. No, that's a good. That'll rally the attendance. Dimitri, I think you performed admiral here, so we're on our final question here. All right, let's do it. What is the one playoff matchup? You absolutely dread coming out of the Eastern Conference. Are you going to say Washington, New York?

Yeah, I guess that's not. That's too easy, right? Like, that could be, it could be a good matchup. I mean, both teams in a vacuum are interesting. It just, whenever they play each other, for some reason, it just seems like they, like, dumbed down to a, lower level than they otherwise would be at. You're not intrigued, but you're not intrigued by games 35 of 42 of the seven-year series between these two teams.

Yeah. What about like a team? What about a matchup like Islanders, Islanders, Devils or something? I feel like Devils anyone would probably be the worst, right? That would, I think they're the poison pill that if they, but I have to say, though, there's a, so I'm not, I'm not going to kill New Jersey. Like, New Jersey, anyone would pretty much sink that. But I don't even think New Jersey is going to make it to be.

begin with. And I, in fairness to devil's fans, I think there are some bad matchups that they could materialize in the East, too. Like, I, I don't, I don't know how to feel about Detroit, like, as an, from an entertainment perspective. I think they're good. I just, they don't entertain me all that much. Is that fair? That's fair. I mean, they have a couple guys, right? Like, Dat'suk's still really fun to watch and Larkin's been amazing. And I mean, their blue lines so bad that sometimes they just, like, they just don't really have guys. They kind of push the pace. And Larkin's not on the ice and it seems like they play a really slow game. So could we get a like, hmm.

But hey, keep in mind, Kenny Holland is good for one stupid rental trade a year to make sure that he keeps that street going and I feel like that might be a sneaky Eric stall destination. Sneaky Eric's Detroit? Yeah. Oh, how are they going to fit that cap-wise? I don't know, man. I don't know.

Carolina will retain some salary and Detroit's going to give them like three good prospects, but because they're so loaded in their farm system, it won't matter. And all three of those guys will wind up being better than Eric Stahl by next season. And then they can trade for Jared Cowan and get like a $10 million cap credit or whatever the hell of that situation is. That's like one of the weirdest things in the league right now is if you trade for Jared Cowan, you get credit to your cap. I was looking at that for a while.

I don't get this. It's so red. It's never been a fixture of any trade discussion. I don't know. I could see like a Detroit. I could see a Detroit. Florida series, maybe not being as a... I want to see Florida in a high-paced matchup in round one.

Like, I want to see them draw... I'd love to see them draw Tampa Bay. I think that would be a fun series. I don't want to see them draw Detroit. Well, yeah, I mean, just purely, like, geographically, it'd be a good sell, and I think that, yeah, pace-wise, it'd be fun. I could definitely get by that.

And the last question, and this is one I meant to ask you earlier, but if you're the capitals, and we talked to the capitals quite a bit before, you're coasting to this seed right now. Do you want to play Pittsburgh in round one? I feel like they don't want to play Pittsburgh. I wouldn't want to play Pittsburgh, right? Yeah, but I mean, so you're pretty much then cheering for the Rangers or the Islanders or the Devils or even Carolina in lieu of Pittsburgh.

Like, Pittsburgh is the worst first round matchup for them, right? Yeah. Although they haven't necessarily had an immense amount of success against the Rangers either in years past. I feel like I would roll the dice against this range I I this rangers I'm a lot of the longquist though man lunkwist I look look hold on hold on hold on just about to clarify

yeah but I remember when we were talking about the vesina discovery we were doing the vizant discussion a couple months ago I was like look people kill actually it was a pdo discussion but I was like people kill the rangers this year and I get it they don't look nearly as good as they do last year and that's still true to this day they're just not as good as they were last year

but enric lunkwist is so freaking good that if he's in the lineup, it really does not matter all that much how bad the Rangers are because they're going to be so damn tough to beat. If that Rangers team can even skate to break even in shots with Lung Quist and Nett, it's kind of like how Montreal is. If they can break even and shot differential with Carrie Price in the lineup, impossible to beat or close to impossible to beat me. But that's, I don't know, I still almost think, even with that said, I still think I'd rather

play Pittsburgh, rather play New York than Pittsburgh. Yeah. no penguins like a freight train right now yeah and it's one of those things where crosbie and malkin could just like just win this series single-handedly and score a bunch of power play goals and it just like just gets away from you in a hurry and yeah no i could definitely see that being a disaster for them that's all i have you pass this test you pass this test for fun colors it was last test was like a 77 grade this is i give you like a 92 i knew i was going to be do good in the travis yos role because i was watching john oliver last night and he just a I was just outraged. I had to pause it. I went for a walk. I called my loved ones. I didn't know if the world was going to end. It was bad, man. There's not going to be any slander at Chapoet on this spot. No, sir. We're trying to, we're trying to want them up as a sponsor. Yeah, that's true. I said, just go. I said, just compost the free burritos and we're good. Yeah. That is all I have, sir. All right, man. We'll be back later in the week. We have some fun plans for future shows. So we'll stay tuned for that. And, uh, Until then, I'll talk to you later, Trave. All right, man. The Hockey PDOCast, online at HockeyPedocast.com.

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