The Hockey PDOcast - Four Nations Rosters Breakdown, Part 2

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by John Matisz and Sean Shapiro to break down the rosters for the Four Nations tournament. In Part 2, they cover the selections for Team Canada and Team Finland. 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.

Regressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey-PedioCast. My name is Dimitri Filippovich, joining me for part two of our Four Nations roster selections breakdown show are my pals John Mattis and Sean Shapiro. Guys, we did Team USA, Team Sweden in part one. Now we're finally going to get to Team Canada. It's going to be a fun one. I'll see how long we go. Hopefully we save enough at the end for Team Finland because as a I was joking with you guys, I have an inexplicable amount of notes on them relative to the other teams. And I think people's interest levels in the personnel specifically. But let's start with Team Canada here. John, what are your takeaways from the forward group?

Because I think I'm personally very happy to see that guys like Kine and Hegel, who I've been making my personal pet side project to make sure they get on this team over that past handful of weeks. We've succeeded. We've done it. Their play is certainly warranted it. I'd add Sirelli in there as well in the connection he's headed with Hagle on that second line in Tampa Bay. So it's great to see that they made it over maybe some bigger names like a Stamco's, for example, that we're on lists heading into the season and people thought still might make it because of the brand name that he possesses. So I think that's exciting. What other takeaways do you have from this forward group between Canada? Well, just to hit on that point a little bit further, I feel like

Canada's forward group and those guys like Hagel, Kine, Bennett, to a lesser extent, Sorelli, it's a good representation of where hockey is in 2024 where Brandon Hagel, maybe the first time you see him, the first shift, you go, oh, this guy's a pest, this guy's, you know, a third liner, whatever. But then the more you watch him, and when you look up what he does as far as counting stats, underlying numbers, you go, this guy's a star, but he has that edge. He has that versatility and Swiss Army knife quality to them, where back in the day when they were picking these teams,

they'd have a guy like Rob Zamner, going away back, who literally was picked just a penalty kill and was just a fourth liner on his club team. Well, Hegel's a top liner on Tampa, but he can do so much. So then he slots nicely into Canada's forward group because you're trying to win hockey games. I mean, this isn't an all-star team, right? So that's the first thing that comes to mind when I look at the makeup of the team is like,

like say, Kinek, yes, he's annoying, yes, he's a pest. But he brings so much more to the table and he can keep up in so many other ways that he becomes this really valuable piece. So that's the first takeaway. And I guess the second would be between McDavid, McKinnon, and I guess if we go back to Makar on the back end, Canada's got arguably three of the top five players in the world right now. That's going to be something that raises their ceiling.

And then you've got a guy like Crosby, an all-timer, presumably in that two C spot. I mean, it's a bit of an embarrassment of riches as far as guys who, when they have their A game, are just next level megastars. And then, you know, obviously this all depends on how people want to do the lines and everything. But the way I have it set up is connect knee point, Marner on the third line. I mean, that's chef's kiss third line. Like just you can do so much with that.

And most countries would be happy with that as their second line any day of the week. So there's just a lot going on as far as player types in this group, a lot of speed, a lot of netfront presence, a lot of guys who can go retrieve pucks. Sorelli at fourth line center, I love as far as being the shutdown guy. I just, there's very few notes that are negative because there were so many options. And I think that they, they picked the right 13 guys as far as I don't have any major gripes. Yeah, I want to see Hagle Sorelli Kineckney as the fully earned it line. And then go with the Nova Scotia line with Marchand, Crosby, and McKinnon. I also really want to see Reinhart play with McDavid.

Not that he's in a tough spot on his NHL club in terms of play. with a prolific playmaker down the middle, but just in terms of how smart of a player he is and getting open and how efficient that shot is, like you look, it's like, all right, he scores 57 goals last year, shooting 24 and a half percent. People are like,

all right, well, that can't continue. Well, he's on pace with 57 goals, shooting 27 percent this season. And I think that's just true talent level, at least at this point of his prime, who he is. So McDavid commanding the attention in space that he does, and then Reinhardt's sitting in the slot,

it almost feels like an incredibly juiced-up version of all the success Hyman had. in that top line in Edmonton last year. And so I'd love to see that connection as well. I also think Seth Jarvis is a really cool story here. I know a lot was made of the fact that four years ago, he was one of the last cuts for the World Junior team for Team Canada. And then now you look, and he's though no players from that club are on this Four Nations roster,

but he is. And I think he's earned it with his play. It was cool hearing on the TNT broadcast yesterday. I think Brad Mershont kind of singled him out as a player. He's excited to get to be around and play with because he's heard such great things. And so that's quite a sign of respect for a young player in this league. And I think it's fully earned it awesome. Sean, do you have any other notes on this?

I think people would certainly quibble with Ann Bennett making this team, although I think it's probably going to be as a 13th forward. And I'm not sure what his role is actually going to be. But based on the pedigree of the Panthers winning the past couple years and sort of these intangibles of the energy and the hitting and the ability to frustrate people. And if things are going wrong, maybe just throw a big hit that kind of shakes up the tournament. I get the logic. I wouldn't have had him as one of my 13 guys,

but I'm not going to sit here and be like, I have no idea what they were thinking because I think it's pretty clear. Yeah, to be clear, you could have gone with probably 20 different Canadian forwards and it would have been hard to be like, oh, they got it wrong. Like, I think that's how deep this is. I do think there's part of it that when it came to the decisions, and I'm not even saying this is a bad thing. I just think it's a reality.

I think there was part of it where I think part of the Canadian roster structure was built on how do we beat the United States. I think part of, I think there was some intentional spot on that where you like you look at with and John went over Sorrelian Hagle really well. So I don't need to go over all of that again. But the whole point is you need guys who are going to be able to match up and be able to do that. Peneckney Bennett, like I think there was part of the Canadian management groups thinking, we see the Kachucks on the other side.

We see them bringing a bit of that element and everything. We need something more like that. I think it's, and it's not, it's not right. I'm not saying it's a wrong decision at all, but I just think part of the Canadian roster after those, like there was probably what, eight or nine players where there was no chance they weren't on the team when anyone came to the forward group.

And then after that, I think the rest were, I think part of it came into, hey, we know what Finland and Sweden effectively are going to be with what their talent pools are picking from. So let's pick a little bit of a roster that we know will help us better match up against the United States.

And I think that came into play here as well. Also, after tormenting the Bruins for the past two and up two plus years, I feel like Sam Mena just lives Renfrey and Don Sweeney's head. So when he had the chance to put him on this team, he's like, he'll be on this team, and I'm going to give him the bag this summer as well. When you mentioned the playoff runs with Florida and his influence on those, he was really good in the playoffs with Calgary too when he joined the league. Like he's always been a better playoff player than regular season player.

And if we're assuming that these four nation games are going to be playoff like, I don't mind the pick. And the one guy that I kind of have circle as like snub might be strong given I like the 13 guys they took. But I thought for Hagee was a nice fit as far as being someone you can put on any line. He's this kind of one shot player, but is also kind of an underrated playmaker, good defensively. Just like he would have been a good 13th forward.

But I don't know. I don't have any. Like whereas if you think a market. Shifley, fantastic season. He's actually looked okay defensively relative to previous seasons, but is his skill set redundant? I would say yes. So I would have rather, if we were kind of myself anyways, zeroing in on one quote-unquote snub.

I would put aside Shifley, I would put aside to Hyman and focus on Verhege. He's kind of my guy. Yeah, I think Shifley's also banged up as well. And then Sirelli having the season he's had, it's like, all right, well, if he's probably going to play fourth blind center or whatever sort of quote unquote defensive role i feel like he got phased out a little bit because of that what are you going to say sean i i want to say the one it's not a snub but i'm actually really happy but dard's not on the team because i was going into this i was so this is an nchl event i was kind of coming to this event i was a little bit of

the skeptic that they're going to make marketing decisions over hockey decisions and that's something that i was because like you've seen we've seen the NHL loves the picture of Gretzky and Howe playing in the same All-Star game, right? Like the NHL, and I don't know if the deal's gotten better with the IHF, but right, like, the NHL is not allowed to use Crosby's golden goal, right? Like, they're not allowed to use their rights to that. So in international events, I thought for sure, and I'm happy I was wrong, I thought for sure that hockey candidate in the NHL will be like, hey, we got to get Crosby

and Bidart on the same team so we can get that picture of this, this remember. when they were on the sit there this and so the fact they gave set jarvis the spot as the young player who earned it and everything like that i'm very happy about that because it was was earned as opposed to i was i was the curmudgeon thinking they're just going to make marketing decisions on that so i'm happy badard's not on the team that's all that's my that's very loud about the ford that's very fair the blue line taves macar marisi petrangelo fiatura preco and travis han sandheim i think this is where it gets interesting because i think when lists were released people were most taken aback by Sanheim and Pareko's inclusions in particular.

John, I know that you have access as well to a lot of the deeper underlying stuff, right? Asporologic data, a lot of the stuff you'll see even like a Mike Kelly, for example, posting on Twitter. I do find it interesting because obviously just from a pure measurable's perspective, the case is kind of obvious for why Team Canada's management group like these two guys, right? They're both incredibly large human beings who skate, very fast. And so they have that size speed component. But if you go a bit further and maybe even using the NHL edge data, for example, on the league's website, both these guys are kind of darlings

there as well, where they're like in the 90th plus percentile of the league at skating speed, speed bursts, amount of distance of the ice they cover. A lot of those defensive metrics you mentioned earlier talking about Team USA's group, right, in terms of like whether it's a loose puck recoveries or winning battles, block passes. They both rank quite highly there as well. And with Sandheim, they clearly prioritized him being a pure left shot, although he plays the right side on the flyers to accommodate Kamm York's handedness. But because they have so many right shots, it's actually a bit counterintuitive because we've been sort of just under the assumption that it's like, all right, right hand shots are so hard to find. There's so few of them.

There's such a commodity. And then you look at this group and there's just already so many to begin with that I think they did want a peer lefty where they at least can play there comfortably in Sanheim. Do you have any notes on either of the two of them or kind of Canada's logic here in general of the way they built their blue line and maybe some of the emissions they made in doing so? I mean, it's pretty obvious that they were going for big.

I think five out of seven or six foot two or taller. And they also went big on Stanley Cup winners. I think four. Stanley Cup winners or maybe it's the other way around five winners for big guys. But nevertheless, that's clearly part of the calculus here. And they're trying to protect the poor goaltending really, right? Like I think that's certainly part of the equation where it's like let's lean a little more defensive versus offensive with our blue line. And I don't know. I guess Dobson has had an okay season. If he was having the type of season he had last year, okay, he's probably on this

team. Drew Dowdy, if he's healthy and looking like the Drew Dowdy of the past 15 years or so, he's on this team. And I guess if you want to, I don't know if Galaxy Brain's the right way to put it, but go through the process of what they're thinking here in terms of Dowdy, maybe they think, let's see what he looks like when he's back on the ice. And once there's an injury, he's first guy in. So it's sort of risk management. If they had taken him and he doesn't look good when he returns from injury, they're kind of stuck with him. But if you assume that one of those seven blue liners gets injured between now in the tournament and Dowdy's back in fine form, you just slide them right in there. And you have your veteran, a guy who's won for Canada, who's still playing at a high level, especially in the defensive end.

So Dobson and Dowdy were the two guys that I was wondering about when this was announced. And Sandheim being the main guy that I was wondering about on the other end as far as, oh, he made it. And there's just so many options. Like it's kind of crazy, right, with Canada's blue line depth. They don't have a ton of like beyond like Macar and maybe Taves. Like they don't have a ton of like elite, elite guys, but they have a lot of very good guys. I mean, Montour, Bouchard, Hamilton, Power. There's a whole list of guys that were barely in the conversation here,

but that a team like, say, Finland would be tripping over themselves to have on their team. Yeah, I definitely add Montour on my list as someone who I think whose play has warranted consideration and I thought would have been interesting within the grand scheme of this team and the way they want to play. Weiger is a right shot who plays the left side as well in terms of that versatility. I thought he was going to potentially take that sort of Sanheim spot. Interesting note I have here just because I know he's one of your guys as well, Sean. Do you know who the fifth highest point getter amongst Canadian defensemen is this season? Fifth highest point getter? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. Jake Walman.

There's, there's, let's, let's, let's, let's, his, uh, Jake Walman was, uh, traded away by Doug Armstrong to Steve Eisenman, who then traded him away again. So the, uh, I think, uh, I think the, uh, Jake Wallman is also technically still a man without a nation, by the way, since he was he was first and did not play at world championship. So he technically would be eligible for the Americans as well. So he's, technically could be the, I don't, I thought you were going to say, Team Finland's Jake Walman. We could get Yuri on the line and see if this guy passed for it. Seriously.

I think Bouchard is the name that I want to talk about. Let me quickly make a note on Bouchard and I'll let you jump in, Sean. Because I thought you were going to bring up, John, when you were bringing up your guys. And the reason why I want to bring this up is because I think the logic for why he's not this team is pretty obvious and easy to trace. Right. It's like, all right, well, we have Kail McCarr on the right side on the top unit power play. if Bouchard's not going to play that role, we want to get guys with diverse skill sets

that are going to be more defensively oriented. My issue with it is, and I think everyone by now knows, like, every metric you could potentially look at, paints Bouchard and his pair with that comb in a brilliant light. You'll see the highlights, especially early this season. The mistakes he makes are catastrophic

and usually wind up in the back of the net, whether it's a turnover or is, you know, not getting back on time, whatever it has you're getting walked. And so that's going to stick in people's minds. What gets held against him a lot of the times is, well, he shares the ice with Connor McDavid and Leon Drey's head a lot. And so that's choosing his numbers.

And it doesn't make him as impressive as some of his other peers atop the position. I guess my argument to that is, well, that's exactly who he'd be playing with on this team. It'll be with Carter McDavid and other superstar forwards. And I think he's a legitimate kind of force multiplier or sort of enhancer offensively in terms of obviously the shot, but ability to extend position. possessions, jump into the lane when it presents itself, distribute the puck. And so I thought he would have been a nice fit on this team, even though it does seem like he's blocked by Kelmikar, just because I like the forward group for Canada and I like

the team in general. But it's clear that America is going to have a big advantage in terms of defensive ability and in terms of goal suppression with their goalies, right? And so the one lane, I think Canada has towards beating them if they do go head to head, for the title is going to be just scoring more goals, like creating more offensively. And so I would have doubled or triple down there. And with this one position, brought a guy who could potentially help you do so and move the needle even further in that direction, as opposed to trying to beat Team USA at its own game with the personnel they have, because

I think that's the wrong tact to take, I guess. So I'm not too worked up about it, but I just think that a lot of the arguments for why Blouchard wasn't on this team don't really hold a lot of water. can kind of poke holes in it pretty easily. Yeah, the other one that I would have thought about a little bit more. And obviously, once again, I have a hard time poking holes with this defensive group at all. But I also wonder how close Dougie Hamilton was in the consideration as well. When you think about just kind of reliable, you talked about one of the reasons that Bouchard the knock against him is a little bit of that chaos.

Maybe that's the reason Hamilton would have been a little bit more considerative. You want some of that certainty on a third pair in this tournament and stuff like that. Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that the management group in terms of perceived risk profile didn't have a lot of appetite for it, especially in a short tournament where the margins might not be that big. And so players who are perceived as riskier are making mistakes that really hurt you. And I'd say Bouchard there, I think even Uyghur, for example, I think they just didn't prefer those guys. And so I don't necessarily agree with it, but I do get it. I think Preco is an interesting one because if you look at just the offensive numbers or even the offensive impacts he has, it's like he doesn't deserve to be here.

But then you look at what Team Canada is probably going to require from him in terms of usage and role. And like he's still an incredibly dominant defensive player, both using his reach to disrupt, block shots, just eat stuff up, obviously the size as well. And so I'm not sure he's going to be asked to do too much that St. Louis asked him to do, which is carrying the pocket. and being very pucked dominant in the offensive zone, shooting it and that stuff's inefficient. If he doesn't have to do that and he can just play a role of eating up some defensive zone minutes, penalty killing, and going up against the other team's top guys in those situational minutes,

I actually like him quite a bit. Obviously not as good of a player in terms of the full resume as some of the other guys they left. But just for that specific role as a sixth or seventh guy, I think it's pretty logical beyond the fact that obviously his GM, who's quite familiar with him, had a big role in baking this team. I think Morrissey Pareko is a pretty good pairing as far as what you're talking about, dim, where Braco doesn't really need to touch the puck.

Josh has that covered, and Morrissey is still good defensively, so it can be shut down-ish. I know if you want to have maybe two pseudo-shutown pairs, you could also have Theodore Petroangelo with also. So there's some optionality there where I think Morrissey is kind of the key to, I guess, the bottom four. I think he's definitely going to be in the lineup. He won't be on the outside. And he's out of those Theodore Petro Angelo, Morrissey, Pereco. I think he's the one with,

I would say, the highest ceiling or the most sort of to give shift to shift. Sean, the goalies, Bennington, Aden Hill, Sam Montembow, in place to guys like Logan Thompson, who has the best statistical resume out of the bunch,

Camp Talbot, Mackenzie Blackwood, Stuart Skinner, Connor Ingram's fall off this season, I think, didn't do that many favors, but they went with those three guys. I think obviously it'll be Bennington's job to start, and if you can hold up, I think they'd like to give them as many of those games as they can, although Aiden Hill obviously has that resume as well from winning the cup. What are your notes on these guys and kind of, I guess, one of you made the great point where a lot of the logic for the way they constructed the blue line and even the forward group and the bottom six was with having in mind that, you probably need to insulate whatever goal you have because you're probably going to have the worst one out of the four teams. Yeah, that was a good point by John.

The one thing that I want to know on the goalies just because no one, no insider or anything has gone and said it yet, did they ever figure out if Joey Decord was Canadian or not? Like, I just, I don't really, I don't care whether they made, whether they picked Montebbeau over Joey DeCord or not. That doesn't matter to me. But after we make this whole big deal of they're checking his passport

and they're seeing his citizenship. that is like, did we ever find out if yes, he is a Canadian or not? Like, do you know that, John? I think the verdict, if you will, was that they weren't going to pick him for this announcement because he's not eligible yet, but if he rushes a passport, he could be an injury replacement and represent them in February. So like right now, no, but in the future, yes. So like the door is, I guess, still open.

One of these guys could easily get injured. tired is Joey to cord's eligibility wired is Jake Walman's

finish eligibility there we go yes let's go oh man yeah but on the

goal he's that they picked since they I like it is the the the Benington it's going to be

Bennington's net to start right and then I it's it's three guys to me that are

boomer bust goalies. And it's the, you've got to, maybe that's why you maybe even play all three. Like I don't, I don't think they'll use all three. I think Montevue is not going to play in this tournament. I think that's more of the long term. But it's a, you just got to hope you get them on the right night because they could then be all world that night.

But if you get them on the wrong night, I mean, what's the schedule? Like Canada plays, I think either, I think Canada plays Finland to start or Sweden to start or whatever. Sweden, Sweden, yeah. Sweden, you can see, say Canada outshutes Sweden 37 to 12, and they lose 4-3 because of, that's the type of goaltending they have. Like, so it's such a boom or bust group, and that's why, and obviously I'm in Detroit, so I see him all the time, that's why I had a high curiosity about Cam Talbot as the number three,

just because Talbot was never going to steal a game for anyone, but Talbot was at least going to be solid enough where he wasn't going to lose games for a team. And I just, these, the two main guys are guys who can actually lose a game for you. And that scares me as a for your. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, boomer boss for goalies, though, that's pretty part for the course. Obviously, Team USA's guys wouldn't qualify for that, generally speaking.

But if there's going to be some question mark, it's like, all right, I think there's ways to paper over that, especially with, if you have a four group that just always has the puck and it is just winning a ton of battles, I think that's going to cover up a lot of those mistakes. You know, Montembow does have the best numbers from a goal save above us. expected perspective, partly because he obviously plays in the worst defensive environment. I did find it funny and amusing when I was putting together the list. I was like, oh, they all have like a 904% percentage, which is roughly around league average. But I think if you told Team Canada, they were going to get average goaltending in this tournament, they would probably take that. I think that's up for debate whether they actually will, especially in a couple games,

but it's a couple games. So just getting hot at the right time is probably all that's really going to matter. Do you guys got any parting shots on Team Canada, or do you want to go to break and then cover Finland on the way back. No, I'm all excited about how to nationalize a Canadian slash American and I'll finish passport. So I'm looking forward to that in the final segment here. All right. Well, plenty to look forward to then for the listeners.

We'll be right back. And then we're going to cover Team Finland and their roster. After break, you're listening to the Hockey-Pedocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here on the HockeyPediocast with Sean Shapiro and John Mattis. We've saved the best and most interesting for last team. Finland, Jake Walman's country of choice. I love the idea of someone just tuning in, not having heard the previous segments and being

like, wait a second, do I need to Google Jake Wallman, Finland? Now, they have only 33 players with five or more NHL games of experience this season, or 33 skaters, I should say. They're obviously a heavy underdog. I think they're plus 700 to win this tournament. There's a talent deficiency here, certainly, especially on the blue line, and we're going to get into all of that. I will say, though, in just thinking about how this.

tournament's going to play out and what these teams are going to look like. I don't know if you feel this same way and neither you can jump in here, but I think I know very certainly what team Finland is going to look like in terms of just like being incredibly hardworking and defensively sound and not really giving you a lot. The teams involved here, all three of them really, have the talent to break through eventually. And if they are given those rare opportunities to capitalize on them

and kind of take advantage and punish them. But I also wonder, like, I think everyone is going to approach this tournament from a full effort perspective, because it does mean a lot, as we talked about, and they're going to certainly care and try to do their very best. But you are going to have to match team Finland's work ethic, I think, right? Like, it's not going to be one of those things where just because you're more talented, you enter a game against Finland and can expect that you're going to win based off of that. And so I am curious to see, especially early on in the round-robin games,

how that sort of plays out because I think it will be, I think it's a big ask to be like, all right, a game one of this tournament, all of a sudden you have to treat it like game six of the Stanley Cup final. And I feel pretty confident team Finland will do so. And so I think it'll be interesting to see whether the other teams are able to match that. And if not early on, whether it's going to be enough for Finland to get a couple early leads and hold on

because I do think they are a bill to do so. Yeah, I think there's certainly a cultural aspect of this where at any tournament in hockey, Finland is just known as team first, hardworking, straight lines. It's been like that for decades. And I think they sent a message very, I guess, cryptically, when they announced the team and they had Essel Lindela as one of the six players to pick when Rupa Hintz was right there and some others were right there. I think that said, hey, we value defensive contributions. We know that he's going to be an important part of our blue line alongside Haskinen. And just as

a side note, to spell out, I guess, how much of an underdog Finland is. I saw Puckpedia posted a tweet today of the quote-unquote cap hits of all these teams. And Finland's at 117 million. And then Sweden way up at 156 million. Canada 172 million and USA 178 million. So obviously cap hit doesn't necessarily mean great player. Like there's not direct correlation, but it does show at least. to some extent, the talent discrepancy between Finland and the rest of the group here.

So those are things that come to mind immediately when I think of this Finnish team. And also in 2016, the World Cup, Team Europe made the final. Like, there's sort of the Finland of that tournament, even though Finland was in that tournament. But there's sort of the boring team of that tournament. Well, Finland's going to be the boring team of this tournament. Maybe it just works out in their favor with some. such a short time span and only so many games to prove your worth. Yeah, on the Finland front, like it's a team that I know way more about just because

the time I spent covering Dallas and I've gotten to know Yuri Latin and really well, who's the GM there. And one of the things that always stuck out to me from country size and the reason the country has to play this way is Yeri pointed out that the population of his entire country is smaller than the population of Dallas, right? Like the like the like the like the pot or sorry the Metsch DFW combined right? He's like yeah. And so from a finish from a Finnish cultural perspective, it's like finding, like think

about that from this perspective. And I'm sure there's there's very few population sizes in the world. They're like, I can find a hockey team this good from this few people. And I'm not talking five million hockey players. It's five million human beings. Right. So it's kind of buys. It's very.

the cult, based off the country size and where they are, like, this is how they have to be built, right? And it's, and it goes, it's, and you look at one of the things to me that's really, I'm really interested in obviously just having the, covering Dallas and covering most of his career, I'm fascinated to finally watch Miro Hishkin and play a top tournament against, like a top tournament like this, because one of the big things that, for Finnish hockey that they, that they've talked to, there's been great there's obviously Tim Usalani

they've had they've had some great forwards but like when Miro Hishkin was coming in one of the things that even

Latin had told me and multiple finish people said we've never had a defender like Miro Hishkin this this country has never

produced anyone like this and so I think so much of the identity is going to be built around Miro and that's probably one of the reasons

John why Esselendel is on this team was on the I mean not why he's on this team he was always going to be

on this team but why he was on that team in the original six players of, hey, we're going to build a lot around the foundation of the way these guys play the game. It's going to be an annoying team to play against. And on top of that, it's going to be a team that is probably going to surprise some teams because you're going to get, not surprised team. Everyone knows who they are. But like, I think their offense is effectively going to come from, it's going to be Barkov or Hints going against the rush,

or going against the, like, it's going to be one of those teams that we watch them play. and you're going to be possessionally wise, your head might be tilted in one direction for a lot of the game. And then, but somehow it's still only a two one game until late, and anything can happen. Well, I think about,

like they're probably going to spend at least half the game, or maybe depending on how they distribute the minutes, the entire game, with having like some combination of Alexander Barnacov, Miro Haskinen, and UC Soros on the ice. And so scoring through those three layers is going to be really challenging.

I think that's a really interesting point you make because I actually think of this as like a very grinding team in terms of the forecheck and potentially like having possession of the offensive zone but not creating a lot of chances and being frustrating because of that. But I am also like that that sort of stylistic argument of like actually playing possum and defending and then countering off of that could be something that infuriate some of these more talented teams. And I think also from a short tournament perspective, I think Finland may be the best set up from the chemistry perspective.

If you've got, is it five Florida Panthers on the team, I think? There's five Panthers. There's three stars. You've got, I don't know how they're going to set up their pairs, but you've got, you got Mata and Valabaki have played together on the same team in Utah. Like from a short tournament chemistry perspective, it's something that I think they step in and there's an advantage right there for Finland over some of these other countries, where you're going to have Finland, USA, the first game.

You're going to have some American players who have never played together before. And a lot of, that's not going to be the case with most of Team Finland. And I do think, I am fascinated. And this goes a note about Sweden. I am fascinated about the element of, for Canada and the United States, it's two NHL coaches being called in to run these, to pick these, to coach these teams in February. Right. Finland and Sweden have full-time national team coaches who are going to effectively be,

I'm sure who this is their full-time job is to win this tournament in February, right? Like it is not John Cooper's full-time job to win this tournament. His job is to win for the Tampa Bay Lightning. And so I think having that coaching element and that preparation element

in a short tournament might have an impact, especially early as that first game. USA Finland or whatever. USA trying to figure out some combinations, trying to get all stuff. Finland is effectively a group of players that have played together before in a coach who his entire job is to prep for this tournament.

I think that might come into play just by help with the short tournament. I think it's also a fun forward group. Like the way I have it right now. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Barkov playing with Ranton and Lekinen, which is a hell of a line and obviously Ranton and Lekinen have the connection of playing on the top line in Colorado as well. And just seeing Barkov and Rantan with like their size and skill on the eyes at the same time

is going to be incredibly fun. Then I have hints on the wing with Ophibbos. and Tara Vinen, and I think that could be a heck of a line. And then you keep Lundell and Lucerrinen together, as you said, and you play them with Capo Gaco, and you have a line that's going to actually win a lot of possession battles and just be very reliable for you. I'm curious to see, like, they didn't bring guys like Machelli and Tolvinen, who I think have a bit more offensive upside and Firepower, not that either have blown us away this season, but based on what we saw from them respectively last year,

they brought guys like Armia and obviously Hala instead. I think it's an interesting from a Sharks perspective showcase spot for Michael Granland, right? Because he's having an awesome season this year. He's got the 29 points in 26 games. 15 primary assists are tied with McKinnon and Jack Hughes. But he's also an impending UFA. And so if he's able to look the part in a competitive setting like this as well, I think if you're a buyer at the deadline, all of a sudden,

it becomes much easier to talk yourself into treating him as a luxury piece you can acquire, having seen it. And then line eight, right? He makes his debut this week. He scores a goal in the power play. I think everyone knows what he's capable of with the shot. So for the next couple months, seeing how he sort of rounds into form, and if he can give them a little bit of extra offensive juice,

will be interesting. So I think from a forward perspective, this team can definitely keep up. Now, the blue line, unless Miro is going to play 30, 35 minutes, which we'll see it's possible. He's shown that he's capable of doing so from a conditioning perspective. But you go on the line, I think that's where it falls apart, and it's going to be incumbent on UC Soros to be UC Soros. It's going to be interesting for the, like,

I think it's great for the Miro Hayskin profile, but I'm sure Jim Nill is not happy about the concept of Miro having to play 100 minutes in the course of like three games, like when everyone else is taking a break. So I'm sure as much as the GMs are thrilled and everything like that, I'm sure the stars themselves are not going to be thrilled with the workload that Miro Hayskian is going to be put through on top of what he already does with Dallas.

I think Jim Nell is just going to be watching these games through his fingers being like, oh God, please. Don't block a shot the wrong way. The note that I had here, so Finland also as their seventh defenseman, chose to bring Yanni Hockenpa, who has played 28 games this season. He started the year on IR. He's back on the IR.

And I just think bringing him over Henry Yokihariu, who has legitimately played top four minutes for the Sabres all season is one of the biggest burns I've ever seen. Like, that is incredible, in my opinion. Obviously, a very short list of that extra one HL defense that they could choose from, and they chose to go that route.

Can we do the mock phone call here where Leightening calls Yoki Haru and is like, listen, you're going to be your injury replacement. You didn't make it. The top seven defensemen. Your number eight, we really appreciate what you're doing in Buffalo. be on call and he's like, that sucks, man. So who are the top seven? And then he gets, Letting gets to Hawk and Paw.

And a guy who's played the whole season is being replaced by a guy who's played two games. And, you know, who knows, maybe he'll come back in the next week or two and plays the rest of the season, whatever. But like, that's quite the insults. Like, you're, there's only so many finished defensemen. There's literally only seven finished defensemen that have played more than five games this year. Yoki Harri was one of them. and they're saying, sorry, thanks, but no thanks. And I guarantee he is being told, too, to like,

you're our number one injury replacement because you're literally the only other option. So what a burn. What an unfortunate burn. I can imagine. So the phone call, too, would go a little bit worth. So it would be like, I'm going to do a terrible. I'm not doing an accent, but I'm going to tell the call would go something along the lines of this. It would be a year he would pick up, a year he would call and he'd pick up the phone.

He'd say, this is Yeri. You're number eight. and then he and then be ready and then hang up that's how that's how that's how that's how the that's how the that's how the fins operate on this uh i thought it was um and i'm not even going to try to pronounce the coach's name but i asked him yesterday look i asked the coach the other day on the on the on the call and he i asked him about like that chemistry and he's like it's like well we'll be very tough to play against and it will be good and like that's the like it's a very like militant uh style about this so I agree that that's how the phone call went,

but then my addendum to it is then he calls him back and he's like, oh, sorry, I thought I was calling Rohovok and I'm actually number nine. Because they clearly just do not want... They clearly do not want Henry Yoki Harri on this team and I honestly can't blame them because I can't believe if I did this, this is how down bad I am. I actually pulled up and went through the time of

looking at Henry Yoki Haru's with or without you this season and he's in every minute he's played with Ross Mastali and Orwell and Power in the top four, he's dragged them down along the way. And so it's a tough look for him, but I also can't really blame him. And hopefully for their sake, all six of their top guys stay healthy. And they don't really have to play number seven because I don't even think Yadhi

Hacompa is going to be able to be relied upon at that point. But it is what it is. The goalies. So the note that I have on Uzi Saros is I'm not even sure what the public perception of his season is, right? Because I think just the general stink of everything around the predators has probably infected everyone involved. And then you look and it's like, all right, well, he's got a 9-11 save percentage this season.

He's got plus 11 goals, save about it expected. In November, he played 13 games, and he had a 9-21, and his team went 4, 5, and 4. In that time, they lost 9-13 games, despite the fact they were getting 9-21, which in today's game is just absolutely absurd. And so I think Soros with his athleticism and his ability, as he's proven, to, like, be in these games where he absorbs a high volume of shots and looks great doing so. I think that's an interesting wrinkle to this. Kevin Lankan and both UPL are certainly very viable backups and I think can step in and replicate a lot of that. But I think a lot of this is going to be on UCSarrows to be superhuman.

And if there's anyone in the league that can do so at that position, he's near the top of my list to doing so. So I'm curious to see how he looks in this format and whether he's up to the task. Yeah, I'm really glad Finland has the quality goal-tending options because otherwise we'd be our, already saying this team is toast. But when you have Saros there, I think you're always in a position to steal a game.

And, you know, the amount of potential breakdowns from the Olimadas and Valamaki's of the world against really high-powered offenses in Canada and U.S., like the potential is there for some serious like two on-os from Center Ice and some really bad rush chances against. But that could open the door for quite the show from Saros or maybe. it ends up being Ukopekulukin or Kevin Lankanin, like three goalies that at certain points of the season, or I guess you could say the season as a whole have played quite well. With the goalie, too, I just can't help. But like you look, we go through the first names on this roster.

I know I'm going way off the beaten path here, but you go through a Yanni, Amiro, and Oli, and then there's Kevin. Like that's just the one, and I'm not trying. I know this is not this. We're trying to talk hockey, but I can't help. but as we're going through all of this, like when the roster was announced, because I was watching it with,

my six-year-old and I was watching TV with her, and she's starting to understand hockey a little bit, and she's pointing out that these names are not like any of the name she has with kids at school. There's no Yanni, there's no Miro, there's no, there's no Arturi at her elementary school, but there is a Kevin. So I know this is not where we're supposed to go with this,

but every time we go through the gold-tending, I can't help but think, like, of when Yerki Yokopaka was playing for the stars, he would put Kevin as his generic American name when he went to Starbucks. I'm sorry to me. I love that so much. I love the idea of the triumvirate of Uco,

UC, and Kevin. Good stuff. All right. We got a couple more minutes here before we sign out. We could do some plugs now. I'll let both you guys give you the floor. You can plug whatever you want. Let the listeners know where they can check you

about what you've been working on, what you've got coming out. You're both very busy. I'll let you go, John first. You plug some stuff and then, Sean, you jump in after that. Sure, I guess the thing to plug is I'm starting to do a mailbag at the score. We're calling an NHL inbox where you can email me your questions. And with the, I guess, slant or the brand of, you know, feel free to ask me a question that I can go ask a player or ask an executive or coach. So your best bet on that if you're listening and you're thinking,

there's always something that I've wanted to ask a player or a coach, and John can do that for me. Try me at J-O-H-N.m-A-T-I-S-S-E-Sat at theScore.com. Just my email there. And, yeah, that'll be my plug for today. Yeah, for me, I'll go and do a bunch of stuff, but I'll really go and plug the substack today. Go check that out at Shapshotshockey.com.

It's space where we've got a lot of kind of get to go off the beaten path on things. Do a lot of stars and wing stuff, obviously. just based off the audience I have built in. But today we had a good conversation. Bob Stern and I went all deep in on the Jason Robertson question. I talked last week to the folks from in charge of Victory Plus. And they're in all of that story next week about kind of where things are going and how that experiment for the Ducks and the Stars is working from the free streaming model

to see and how NHL teams are paying attention to that. So I'll plug this substack today. go check that out, Shapshotshockey.com. And that'll be my plug for the day. Good stuff. Or are either of you guys going to Montreal and Boston to cover these games live? I'm at least going to Boston. I'm not sure about Montreal, but yeah, I'll be in Boston.

I will be watching these from, I will be watching these from home. That's going to be my, I'm going to use it as a sit on the couch and enjoy it slower time for me. And then everything will be busy before and after. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited for these games. I think talking through all this stuff and all the machinations with you guys over the past two hours is getting the juices going.

I'm really excited to watch these games and I think it's going to be a spectacle. It's going to be really fun. My plug is the PDOCast Discord, which both of you are in. And I was going to say, John, when you were plugging your email and ways to check in with you and ask you questions,

both these guys are also in the Discord. So if you listen to the podcast, you want to chat with them, you want to keep in touch, just tag them in there. I've seen you both posts in there. I wish you'd both post more because I feel like,

the listeners would love that in your participation there. But no, the Discord's been awesome every night getting up to great stuff. And they're all watching the game. So please join us if you haven't already. And that's it. That's our final show for this week. We'll be back on Sunday evening with Trance to do our usual Sunday specials and recap the week that was in the NHL.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed this mega show the three of us did and is feeling more prepared for the Four Nations tournament now after this week's roster selections. And have a great weekend. And we'll have both these guys on again soon. And we'll be back on Sunday, as I said, with Drans. And then next week with the usual programming with more of the HockeyPedio cast here on the Sports Night Radio Network.