The Hockey PDOcast - Jets Winning Streak, Kings Nuclear Top Line, and Team Playing Styles Impacting Top Players

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Steve Peters to talk about the Jets winning, the Kings new look top line, this week's minor transactions, and how team environments can negatively impact the way their top players look. 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.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dmitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Steve Peters. Peti. What's going on, man? You know, we're just back in trying to get from that high of this international play and get back down to Earth to regular NHL hockey as we prepare for the playoffs. So it was a little bit of a transition, but I think I'm ready for trade deadline and playoffs. I mean, you think that transition is extreme. You just recorded a show on your podcast. with our pal Rick bonus, someone who I've been quite critical of on this show in the past. So I feel like transitioning from talking with him for an hour to talking with me for an hour is going to be interesting for you as well. So it's all about transitions. It's the theme today.

Yeah. I have a question for you because I want to give you a little bit of love here. You've been blowing up online recently with the video breakdowns. You've been doing the goals. I thought the one that you did on the Four Nations final and in particular Connor McDavid's overtime winner. And I think people were very interested in how. how, you know, Team USA had played so diligently defensively, pretty much in the entirety of their two games against Canada. And then in the worst possible moment, had about as big of a defensive breakdown as you're going to have where the best player in the world is essentially just left on an island unattended by himself and is able to convert and make them pay and seal the tournament.

You had a great breakdown of that and kind of how it all unfolded. I love these video breakdowns you're doing. I imagine the 20 plus years or whatever of experience you had doing video stuff for the coyotes is lending itself quite nicely to creating content now. It's funny because that particular goal, I did commit myself which probably shouldn't have to doing every

single goal of the Four Nations tournament, and by the way there were a lot and that takes a lot of work. But on that one goal, hey, let's face it, I got a lot of followers from Arizona and Utah. People that aren't really savvy into hockey, but this play with Connor McDavid scoring it went north of the

border. And you've got a lot of Canadian intelligent hockey fans looking at this play. And what really hit me hard is people going, well, you're wrong. You're wrong. It's this. It's ABC. It's D. And it really challenged me.

And I guess I had to go deeper. And some really good hockey people that I respected started questioning some of the things that had broken down. So I got on the phone. I called coaches that were there. I called coaches that I'd worked with. And I said, let's break down this play. So ultimately I ended up doing a 12-minute breakdown of that goal later.

that I went back and addressed it based on how the teams were playing in defensive zone systems and what USA had done in the other three games and all of these things. But two things came from that. One, it is hard when people, well, my peewee coach said it was this guy. Buddy, I appreciate that. And I'm glad people are interested. I really, really am. But I don't go tell an accountant how to do his taxes.

I don't. You know, so, hey, I'm all, I want the comments. Hey, I saw it differently. Great. great. I like to just don't call me an idiot. Say, I think it's this because of that. That's fine. We want that kind of discourse. So I think that's what forced me to do that. And too, I think what I noticed because of the comments on that particular goal is you better be right and you better put the time in the work. So an interesting goal. And unfortunately for for TMA, they did not defend that as well as they had played that entire tournament. it's always interesting because there's certain sort of rudimentary things in terms of where you need to be on the ice at all times that kind of apply generally unilaterally but also in terms of defense's zone coverages in particular teams vary so differently in terms of what the expectations are kind of the communication or who's to who's to blame so i find that stuff always fascinating when you're when you're doing stuff for the coyotes i mean you and i i love having you on because not only do you have that experience but i feel like i always get you to to give us a little bit of story time. We've spoken about sort of the extent of your job in terms of the challenges and the replays and all of that in terms of cutting up video and putting it together and especially

how teams sort of process it maybe over the course of a full 82 game season, but then especially once you get into a playoff setting, what's that kind of process like in terms of the video work? Is it as simple as sort of the coaches expecting certain things so that they can either do it on their own time or then hammer it with the players in days off or kind of how does that sort of process work? I think the listeners would be interested to know kind of a little bit of a peek behind the curtains. Well, it's interesting because you could really see how important video is in this Four Nations and the process of players learning their position and how to defend things or how to play in the neutral zone. It's a circle. You play a game. Excuse me. You practice. You learn

how to do it. You watch the video so you know how to do it. Then you play a game. After the game, you go watch video again to see if you did it right or wrong. Then based on that, you go practice it again. And then you play a game again. And then you video again. It's an ever going to circle. Four nations, they didn't have that. They didn't have a familiarity with your teammates.

And I think you could really see the component of that practice and that video time is gone. So you're right. As soon as that game is over, every single coach, you jump on a plane. It's 1130. It's midnight. And you're flying to Ottawa. You're looking at video. All four coaches are looking at video.

they're breaking down specifics in a game. And what is so hard for coaches to do is find the relevant pieces of video. Because you could sit there for two-hour meetings and show these players everything. What you have to find. And Rick Tocket was a perfect example. Rick Tocket came into a situation in Arizona where the team was bad. It was a bad hockey team. And he wanted to fix everything.

Our video meetings were incredibly long. Guys had too much information to grab onto. They couldn't get it. They couldn't grasp it and they continue to make mistakes. When Rick Tocket finally goes, Okay, today we're working on one thing. One thing on video. We're making it a one topic video.

It's one thing. We're going to practice that one thing, and we'll try to fix that one thing. So you've fixed one thing at a time. And that seemed to be the best way for players to digest this. Because I think people think they're superhuman. They're just kids. They're getting information just like peewee hockey players are. They'd have a short attention span.

I've seen high school coaches and junior coaches try to do half hour and 45 minute video sessions. In the NHL, we go 10 to 15. That's it. Guys, they're too antsy. They want to go do other things. So as important as video is, it's finding that time when to use it, what to use it for, and how affected it is going to be for your team that day. Yeah, I feel like finding, identifying the actionable items

and then communicating it properly so you can actually, like, get the most out of it, is an incredibly important skill for a coach, certainly. All right, here's a plan for today. We're going to unpack the only two games on last night's light schedule. We'll take some mailbag questions from our listeners at the end as well. I thought there were two interesting games, right? The first one, Jets versus Sharks. We don't want to spend too much time talking about the sharks.

We've already covered them probably more than we have any reason to this season here on the show. But for the Jets, it was the second straight game where they created a tying goal in the final minute with their net empty to come back and win. They extended their winning streak to 10 games. An incredible stat is through 58 games this season, they now have three separate winning streaks of seven games. eight games and 10 games in counting. It's a special season in Winnipeg. They're nine points up on everyone else in the West. You certainly, if you're going to have that at the streak,

you have to have games like this where you're probably kind of fortunate to pull out the points and come back to win. My big takeaway from it, though, and watching it, especially at the end, was just how immense Josh Morrissey was. And you're talking about sort of the return to action to play, right? And for some players, it being a launching pad, because that experience was so great.

They come back to their team. They incorporate some of the stuff they maybe saw in practice from other stars around the league and they benefit from it. For other guys, there's going to be a bit of an emotional letdown, right, where you're playing these

incredibly high stakes, emotional games and you come back to your team and it's tough to get back up to that same level, especially immediately with so little downtime. In between, Morrissey's an incredible example because he misses, arguably, the most important game of his career to date,

right? And watching the interviews afterwards, you could see just how devastated he was, but I thought he made a really, you know, salient point that shows what a great guy he is where he was like acknowledged that as he was, as his condition wasn't improving, he just felt it would have been selfish on his part

to keep himself in that game, considering he didn't know he had it, allowed Thomas Harley to step in and he played such a big role for Canada in that win. He misses the first game back from the break because he's still not right. This is his return. And in the final 1123 of this game,

Josh Morrissey played 7.52. He was just out there the entire time. He scores the goal at the end of regulation. And then he's out there for overtime to help create that overtime winner for them. They win two, one. He plays an instrument role. He's pretty clearly, even if you look at the betting odds, the fourth guy kind of in the Norris conversation. It's Hughes, McCarr, Werenski.

And then it's a pretty big gap. But Morrissey does feel like the logical fourth choice there. But he's had a phenomenal season. And I wanted to give him some love because I thought, especially late. I mean, he didn't even look. I said he played 752 of that final 12 minutes or whatever. Like, you wouldn't know it based on watching him.

It's always incredible how some of these best defensemen can just stay out there and keep their legs moving. And you wouldn't really know that their legs are probably burning the entire time and they're barely getting any fresh oxygen in. But he just keeps going. Yeah. Do you think, though, it's unfortunate for him. Not unfortunate.

That's the wrong word because people jump on and hammer me about Winnipeg. But playing in Winnipeg, you don't get the national attention. you don't get the international tension, you don't get the U.S. media attention that some other defensemen are going to get. And for Josh Morrissey, he is, see, and this is why you need more than one trophy, because he is what the Norris should be. He's a guy that does provide the honest. He can't get the puck moved up the ice. But he's going to be out there when you're up by going, you need to defend, and you need to play in those big situations. He's going to be out there all the time.

And I think that that's what the prototypical defensemen and the national hockey, league needs to be right now. He's got to be able to defend. He's got to have a good stick. He's got to protect the net front. But he's also got to be able to get the puck up the ice and be a guy that can be effective in the offensive zone. Josh Morrissey does all of that. And to think what he did last health-wise for the last five, six days, plus the travel, it's amazing how he was playing for the team. And I think that that really is the message from the Winnipeg Jets. This is that whole team. That's what the Jets are. They're like, who are you guys? I know the names are familiar.

Kyle Conner, Mark Sheffley. I know we know the names. But you don't hear much about him. You don't think much about them. You look and they're in first place in the West. And you go, oh, my goodness. Like, the Jets again. And Morrissey's one of the guys.

And it's funny because Rick Bonas talked about what his importance is inside the locker room, not just on the ice, not what kind of a player is, but the personalities in the room that everybody plays for each other. And Josh Morrissey is one of those guys that helps bind that room. And that's what I think is the real. real success that you're seeing in Winnipeg is this collection of personalities that they finally got it right. They got the chemistry right. They got the feelings right in the room. And that's what you're seeing coming out of Winnipeg right now. Well, and I have to give Rick

bonus credit for all the flack that I've given them over the years in terms of player usage. And I feel like sometimes not getting the most out of some of the skill guys, there was a period there, right, especially after the jets sort of turned over their roster where Bufflin retires and Truba leaves and Tyler Myers leaves, and they had committed financially to Josh Morrissey, where he was really struggling, I think, to sort of adapt or turn the page to whatever this new version of the Jets was going to be. And Rick Bonas came in, I think a big point of emphasis for him was freeing up, just realizing how immensely skilled Josh Morrissey was and then freeing him up to play that game, right?

And then you even watch on Monday night, aside from the goal and then the overtime winner, he had three or four plays that I saw where he's just. so slick in terms of just subtly bumping the puck over to a teammate while under pressure that allows them to then be in an advantageous position. And he just does that so many times. It might not even necessarily show up on the stat sheet in terms of an assist or creating a goal. But he's time and time again just essentially improving the conditions of the play for his teammates. And so just allowing him to tap into that skill and play more freely,

which is something he wasn't really doing previously the past couple years. He's really just taken his game to whole new heights. and I love watching them. Similar to this Jets team, I feel like he's a big driver of that, but pretty much across the board, you can see that continuity they play with and just how precise all of their puck movement is,

and he's essentially the catalyst for that. The one final note I have on the Jets, and then we're going to move on and talk Kings Nights, is I got to say, I love this Jets team. I think they should be treated as a serious contender. They're clearly, I mean, atop the West,

and I think they're going to add at the deadline as well and really bolster their case for me to take them fully seriously heading into the playoffs because they still have a lot of questions to answer when they play a team like Colorado again, potentially or Dallas in round two or whoever they have to play on their way through the West. They need to be ambitious about what they do with the left shot on their third pair because you watch these games and I know people are going to be listening to me like a third pair defenseman isn't that big of a deal. For whatever reason, this organization has been infatuated with Logan Stanley for years.

and he can do no wrong in their eyes. And you watch these games. There was the game on Saturday against St. Louis, where he steps up to try to make a hit along the boards and leaves his other defender on an island, two on one. Robert Thomas goes and scores. And his decision-making and processing in those plays

just is not quick enough, unfortunately. And I get the appeal of like a big crease-clearing defensemen who can soak up block shots and do all that, you know, dirty work. I get all of that. But for the way this team plays, he just kind of sticks out like a sore thumb every time I watch them play. And I feel like doubling down on that and adding another player

who fits in within the scheme of their team is going to be huge because you're going to get into a spot. And that's why I brought up the video work component with you and why I'm so interested in it because in the regular season, there's so little practice time, right? And you're just going from city to city. You're playing three or four different opponents in a given week. You're going to go through kind of a rudimentary scouting report.

If it's a divisional rival, you already kind of know who their best players are, how they're going to operate on the power play. there's nothing that's going to really kind of surprise you in the regular season. In the playoffs, though, some of these matchups become so instrumental. And whatever weakness you have as a team, the opposition is going to find a way to strategically leverage it, especially in their home games where they have last change and they can control the matchups a little bit. And so if you're playing a team like Dallas, let's say, that's so deep up front,

their third line, maybe even their fourth line with guys like Sam Steele, have legitimate skill that can beat you if you give them openings and opportunities. And so there's no way to really hide any play. layer on your team in that type of matchup. And so this is something that's going to rear its ugly head if they don't address it. And I think they have legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. And so if they're going to go down that route, that's the one thing that I'd say about the Jets that they still need to answer for me before I can just like fully, just unabashedly

go all in on them. Yeah. And it's funny because this team prides themselves on their defending. I mean, they're number one in the league and goals against. And clearly part of that is Connor Hellebuck. Absolutely. but they defend extremely well as a group, as a team. And you talk about how you're scouting these guys.

I always said that coaches games 1 through 82. It's a motivator. It's a cheerleader. You're playing three and four. Guys are hurt. You're just juggling lines and it's a little bit different. When you coach is starting game 83. You're coaching.

You're playing the same team, three, four, five, six, seven times in a row. You need to coach. You got beat through the neutral zone. What are we going to do to fix that? I can't get on the forecheck. What are we going to do to fix that? That's when a coach shows me that they can coach. And you're right.

When you look at the Winnipeg Jets, yeah, the 6-7 guy kind of, not only does he standout physically, yeah, I'll probably pick on that side of the ice a little bit more as I'm trying to get. Again, no knock on Logan Stanley.

It's just today's NHL. You want to win. You've got to be able to defend and you've got to have that fleet of foot guy that can still continue to move the puck up the ice. And I do think if the Jets do get that. And I don't think they need to replace with a superstar. They just need a steady defender that can continue to move the puck.

This team is definitely a playoff favorite in the West. However, until Connor Hellibuck gets a win in the playoffs, I don't know if you can go all in on the Jets. And if he does, and I think this is the year he does. I really, really do. I think this is the year the Jets get over and get through the first round. But until they do, that's in the back of your head. And for a goal that to go into game one of the playoffs,

in the back of your head, and every article and every tweet coming out, says, yeah, but he hasn't won the playoffs. That gets into your head, man. I'm telling you it does and you've got to get over that. If you can get over that, if you're Connor Hullabuck and the Winnipeg Jets, that you can defend and not give up 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, like a tennis score against Colorado Avalanche last year. If you can do that, you might have an opportunity to go very far in the playoffs this year.

They've got to get through that initial round and see where they go from there. Let's talk Kings Knights. If you were watching that game, it's the late game, It's the only one on. If you fall asleep during the second period, I really don't blame you. It was a rough watch, especially because Vegas was sort of, you know, by design, taking away the neutral zone. They were forechecking really well. And L.A. just couldn't make a single pass to get out.

And essentially, they were just sort of playing back and forth in the neutral zone for 20 minutes. Nothing really happened. It was not the most aesthetically pleasing product. But then something really interesting happened in the third, and this is why I wanted to specifically talk about it, Jim Hiller puts Adrian Kempe up on the top line with Quentin Byfield and Kevin Fiala and that line went absolutely bananas on Vegas with their speed. They were buzzing around. They were attacking downhill.

Vegas really seemed to be caught off guard by it and had no answers defensively for it. It's a line that we haven't seen at all this year. I believe they played six minutes total at 5-on-5 as a trio before this game. They played over seven minutes. In just that period alone, they score the two goals. They created four high-danger chances. They drew a penalty. they were just a nightmare for them to defend.

And the reason why I bring this up, it's an important as we start thinking about the playoffs is what have we talked about with the Kings for three, four years now? It's when you get into a playoff setting against the team like the Oilers, whatever the game looks like, there's going to become a point where Edmonton just has guys

that either on the power play or if they stacked them together a 5-15 in a 1-1 game can just create a goal out of thin air. And L.A. has not really been able to reciprocate. They just don't have someone who can, as a quote unquote game breaker, they can just take that over and put the team on his back. And I'm not saying any of these guys are that for them, but if these three are a potential option for Jim Hiller to go to

as sort of a nuclear breaking case of emergency, and they can do what they did offensively in this game against a very good defensive team in Vegas, all of a sudden that creates a very interesting thing for me to monitor and to keep watching moving forward. I'm not sure if we're going to see them full time because I'm sure they're going to want to balance the lines and have various combinations

and obviously have one of them, especially Kempe playing with Kopitar for long stretches. But man, the way they looked, it was almost unlike anything you really see from watching the LA Kings at all. Like it was so it was so foreign in a way. And so I just loved watching that and I want to see more of those three guys playing together. Yeah, it's funny. When Tom McClellan had that team with the one three one,

you're like, oh my God, they're so boring through the neuter and they slug up and on the ice and Kopatar will eventually get a goal. and they might win some hockey games. That was a fast hockey team in the third period. They have four shots on goal in the second. That was miserable. And for those that are on the East Coast, if you stayed up, good for you.

But that's what this L.A. team can be. And I think not only do they have the speed. And I do think that line together was fun to watch. And I like watching fun hockey, fast hockey. I love Kevin Fiala. I know when Minnesota had to let him go with the contract situation, they didn't have enough money to keep him. They wish they would have because he would fit in fend,

fantastic with what they're doing. I love the kid. I think he's a really, really good offensive player. Byfield, sneaky good. I mean, some of the plays he made last night, subtle again, you talked about the subtle plays that the Jets were making. That's what Byfield did, too. Just little subtle plays in the offensive zone that led to bigger things. So when you put

those three guys together, you know, you took a take about putting McDavid and dry saddle together in Edmonton. It's like this. If you're behind, we need a goal, we can throw those guys together. But I do like their balance. And, L.A. and I like what they did with bringing some size in there. Warren Fogel I thought was a big piece missing from what

Edmonton did last year to this year. I think he's the guy that they miss. Taylor, you know, Tanner, you know, another guy that I think can bring a little bit more of that size. I like this L.A. King team a lot. That matchup, you know you're going to have to go through at Edmonton at some point. And did they do it right this time? I think a lot of it's going to fall on Darcy Kemper, who has been up and down as he has been ever since he left the Stanley Cup champion in Colorado, Avalanche, where he's great games played unbelievable saves last night, but there are those squeakers that seem to get by him. They will go as far as

he goes, but this LA King team is absolutely for real. They're balanced offensively, and this team again, when they're defending well, which they're going to have to do against the Edmonton, this is a team to look out for in the West as the playoffs get closer. Well, Bifield was just scintillating. I mean, he had four assists

in that game. It gives them 10 assists in six February games. The backhand to Fogel on that goal was some Joe Thornton, Leoddrys-Sidal, vibes to it. Like he's drifting to his right. He's got not only one defender in his back pocket, but pretty much the entirety of the Vegas defense with their attention on him and kind of in the lanes. And he just fires this rocket backhand through four sets of legs right on the tape.

And Fogel has a nice finish there himself. But it kind of shows you the tantalizing skill, I think, in terms of that game-breaking ability that Byfield when he's on like that can just kind of turn the game on its head. And I think that's huge. I think they've really stumbled upon something, especially with him and Fiala playing together. They were previously playing with Alex Lafayrera and that line at success, and there's just a level of dynamism to those two guys that the Kings are sorely need of. The reason why I wanted to also talk about the Kings is just something to keep an eye on down the stretch. They're all of a sudden three points back of Edmonton in the Pacific with two games in hand on them.

They're five points back of Vegas with three games in hand on them. And of their 27 games remaining, 17 of them are at home, which I believe is most in the league. in terms of home road splits. And the reason that's important is they're 19, 3, and 2 this year at home. And they've been playing really, really well there. And so there's an opportunity here for them to make a bit of a rise up the standings in the Pacific. And you talk about sort of jockeying for position and seating and all of that. There's probably no bigger beneficiary in terms of the alternatives than L.A.

if they can get out of around one matchup against Edmonton, for example, and potentially win the Pacific and get one of these wildcard. teams that are sort of struggling to get in, especially if it's the Canucks, for example, I think that would be immense for them. And so if they can stack together some points here and keep the good times going at home, I feel like that's going to increase, I guess, my positivity about their outlook the rest of the way. I still have, I still have questions. Like, you look for the season and they're in the bottom 10 in pretty much every offensive metric, whether it's expected goals or inner slot shots or even possession time. And they're going to defend well, but

they're going to have trouble in some of these games when it slows down a little bit and they can't create off the rush and what they're going to do is ultimately going to dictate their fate. So I'm going to need to see it before I believe it. But this is a step into the right direction. And they're certainly well positioned here to keep winning games and keep moving up and solidifying the spot. So I want to watch that moving forward. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to keep an eye on the Kings.

And unfortunately for them, I know you talked about the games in hand and where they're at against Vegas. I still think this is a team that's going to finish probably. and third. And I know they've got the two games head to head against Evanton, one at home, one on the road. In April, too, that's going to be pretty exciting. Yeah. So those two games are going to dictate the season. That's going to be it, but all

is going to do is who's going to get home ice, I think. I clearly could be wrong. I still think Vegas sculled the nature of the team in the Pacific that everybody's going to be chasing when all said and done. But for the LA Kings, you get concerned because we talked about playing fast and we talked about Kevin Fiala can move

and Byfield can move. I'm not sure we're players. We saw Drew Doughty and I know Canadian fans loved him in the Four Nations, but he is not the Drew Doughty that he was of games past. And he's not going to be the guy that's jumping over the boards when you're seeing Connor McDavid coming over anymore. And I worry about how this team is going to finish towards the end of the season. I worry about Darcy Kemper and his ability to make those big saves at the right time.

I like L.A. I just don't know if they have everything that's going to be able to get them over the hump against the Edminton & & & & & & & Lair's. And you know the road to the Western Finals has to go through Edmonton. some point for this team. I feel like home ice. I mean, I'd still pick Edmonton in a series regardless of where they were playing. They could be playing in outer space.

And I would still pick them. It doesn't really matter. I do think at home, though, for this team, if they can get Gavrikov and Mikey Anderson, for example, out against McDavid and Philip to know as well, those guys, no one's going to stop McDavid, but at least they can pose a little bit of a roadblock and make life more difficult for them. And then all of a sudden, if you're going to tell me that Byfield, Fiala and potentially Kempay as this nuclear offensive line is going to get to play against some of

Edmonton's bottom six that is struggling with pace and looks much slower this year. I think there might be some opportunities to attack and win their minutes there. So I feel like the home games for them, especially with the stat that I just said of how well they've performed there compared to the road would be massive for them in terms of at least giving them a chance in a matchup like that. All right, Bedi, let's take our break here. And then we come back. We'll jump right back into it.

I got a few mailback questions that I want to rattle through with you before we close out today. You're listening to the Hockey Pedyo cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey Peeley cast, joined today by Steve Peters. Petey. I want to talk to you about a player that, from your neck of the woods, you're very familiar with Yuso Valamaki who cleared waivers this week after Utah sent him or exposed him to waivers. We're going to talk a little bit about a couple of the transactions, you know, minor ones we've seen so far this week, but I think everyone after the Four nation's break in anticipation of next week's trade deadline is waiting for stuff to happen.

We've got a couple of breadcrumbs here to talk about. So we're going to get into that while I have you. Were you surprised to see that he cleared and no one picked him up because a 26-year-old defenseman like him who's owed a modest $2 million next year with the amount of teams, a recurring theme on this show as we talk like whenever it's like, all right, what's this team's weakness? Who do they need to dress? Well, a defenseman who can move a little bit would be really nice for them to add.

there's so few of those guys that are available on around, and this would be theoretically one of them, yet there were no takers resuprised by that, and kind of what have you seen from them not only this year, but I think dating back to the coyote seasons as well. I was, and I think what's hard when you watch Ussel Valamacki's game is he's kind of a tweener. You want him to be, he's offensive, moves the pucks well.

He's had time on the power play, but you want him to be a little bit better. He has the footwork and the speed where he can keep up with players in the defensive zone, but at times, his sticks not in the right place, and he can't, he doesn't have the strength to put guys into the wall. So I think you want him to be just a little bit better on both ends of the puck. It's good.

He's a really good hockey player. Like, I like Yuso Vailnaki, but he's a guy that doesn't get noticed. And I think when he lost his partner and friend and the young player he came into Arizona with J.J. Mosier, I think he saw his game take a step backwards a little bit. I think his confidence waned a little bit. Utah has just moved past them.

Their defense at Utah is better than they expected. Marino is back in healthy. Derzies back in healthy. Olamata getting him from Detroit when they had those injuries. He's been outstanding. Surgachev has done everything they've asked him to. Ian Cole has been better than expected. And Michael Kessering, the young kid is, he's one of the most offensively dynamic,

fun young players to watch the people don't know. Watch number seven on Utah. The guy moves the puck. They just ran out of room. And so I'm not surprised they sent him down. That's not surprising. You're right. The surprising part is that nobody said, hey, let's take a chance on this kid.

Because he does move well. If he does keep well, good teammate, guys like him. And he's got a real positive attitude. It works extremely hard. So I did think there would be somebody that would take a chance on a guy that they could have in their system for years to come. Yeah. I mean, two years ago, what, 2020, 22, 23 season, he put up 34 points in 78 games. still 26, as I said.

I'm with you. I think that's a great point you made about him being a bit of a tweener because, you know, just what we talked about with the Jets in part one here, for as much as I disagree with using a guy like Logan Stanley, for example, you can at least see the logic from a coaching perspective, especially for a third pair type of guy of needing to fit some sort of prototypical role on the team, right? And so either it's going to be someone who is immensely gifted offensively

and you're going to use in a sheltered role where you're playing them against the other teams, you know, tertiary competition and also offensive zone starts and kind of trying to get a few extra offensive opportunities there or someone who's going to exclusively going to be just like a big guy who can stand there and rough people up a little bit and play 12 minutes and not really do that much, but give you some sort of an element there. And Valmacki's kind of caught in between there where he doesn't necessarily excel at anything. And so I think coaches sometimes struggle with finding a specific. role for a player like that because he's clearly a good player in the aggregate, but you can't

necessarily point to one thing and say, all right, this is what he's going to bring to our team than none of our other defensemen have, right? And so it's a tough spot for, I feel for him because I think over the past, whatever, year and a half or so, he hasn't really looked like the same player he was previously after that devastating injury he had in Dallas, I believe, when he took the puck to the face and, you know, then get the treatment that he should have gotten and the NHLPA stepped in And then, you know, if you haven't familiarized yourself with that, go and look it up online. The details of it are are quite gruesome. And certainly it makes sense that he struggled, I think, physically to come back to the level he was previously.

The other note that I'll have, and you mentioned kind of Utah getting healthy defensively and it becoming a bit of a numbers game or logjam and the reason why they sent him down, the usage for him this year has been interesting for me because he's played 638 minutes at 515. He has not had a single regular partner, the entire. higher season. He's basically split up the minutes evenly with 121 with Kesselring, 95 with Koliath, 92 with Kohl, 82 with D. Simone, 78 with Matta, 70 with Surgachev, 64 with Bertuzzo. And that's incredible where he's, what, that's seven names I just listed that he's played a regular shift with over the course of the season. And considering the timing and chemistry

that's required for some of these defense pairs to really kind of gel and play together, he hasn't gotten the benefit of that either this year, where they've been essentially just moving around playing with different guys, whoever's been available over the course of the season. And I feel like that just makes evaluating him incredibly difficult. Yeah, and beyond that, you've got to start looking to the future in Utah.

And what are they going to do long term? Because not only the players you talked about, Kalsalli rings to the young Marino's got a long way to go. Sergeyev's under contract, these guys are all going to be there going forward. But then you have to go look what they have down in Tucson. And you talk about Maverick Lamarru, was a guy that they gave a chance to very early in the season until he got hurt.

You got Max Zuber that they've been high in, Ardum Duda that they've been high in. And then their first round pick for your years ago, Dmitri Simashev playing in the K. And he's a man over there playing against men. So you start to get worried for you, so velumachia. Where is your fit short term? I don't know unless there's injuries. If you're going to see him again, and the long term, you have to really concerned.

And I think that's what happens to younger players. You go, okay, I'm going to be here for the next four or five years. I'm good. I'm playing all these minutes. I'm getting points. I'm on the power play. And then things change. And the style of the game changes that you played.

Your partner changes and things around you are changing. And sometimes you just can't keep up. So I think you so Val and Mackey, and this is really hard for me to say because I like the kid and I like the player. He's going to play in the NHL again. I think he's skilled enough. I think he has enough talent and he has enough tools to play in the National Hockey League again. I'm just not quite sure if it's going to be in Utah.

I think that's fair. The other move we saw that I mentioned was the ducks acquiring Billy Huso. And it's interesting because once the trade happened in the Pidiokas Discord, there was a lot of speculation of whether it was, you know, a sign of things to come, whether it meant that either John Gibson trade was imminent or whether he was hurt beyond what was reported and he was going to be out. And that's why they did that. And honestly, I don't think that it was a harbinger of anything, really. And, you know, just try to connect the dots between this move and something bigger following,

a science kind of like a certain logic or rationale in terms of a process. And unfortunately at this point, what we've seen from Pat for Beacon, the Ducks doesn't warrant that, in my opinion. I feel like it was purely, you know, with the relationship he has with Steve Eiserman as simple as him doing him a favor and taking them on and giving them a bit of organizational depth in the HAL. And that's all it really was. There still might be a John Gibson trade at some point between now and March 7th, but I feel

like this doesn't necessarily signal that that's imminent or it's going to happen. I'm frustrated. I think you and I have spoken about this previously. We spoke about Greg Conan. I think the biggest issue I've had with the Ducks is they've had this immense abundance of cap space for years now. And unlike what Mike Greer has done in San Jose, they haven't really leveraged at all to acquire interesting future assets or anything.

They've just kind of gone by, stopgaps, giving favors to other teams by taking problematic contracts off their hands along the way. And so I think that's been really frustrating. The interesting part of this for me is, from the Red Wings perspective though, right? Because Huss was an expiring contract, but he was taken up about 3.6 million or so of cap space,

buried in the HL. Andrew Kopp was announced today that he's out for the season after he had his surgery. And so all of a sudden now the Red Wings have a ton of cap space to play with between now and the trade deadline. We know that Steve Eiserman, as recently as this past deadline, was very in the mix on guys like Stampkos and Gensel and clearly trying to add firepower to this Red Wings team.

They've been playing really well under Todd McCullin. They're sitting in the first wild card spot in the east. And so I'm very curious to see what they're going to do moving forward here, if they're going to actually use that cast face, if they're going to take a big swing to add someone and help their team because all of a sudden now they're pretty live in the east in that wildcard position. I think they have to do something. And I think they have to do something that makes a splash.

And they're going to have to go after somebody. And I think the pressure is starting to get on Steve Eisenman, then the Izer plan to get results. And I think right now where you see where they're sitting in a playoff spot, we've talked about Ottawa, we've talked about Buffalo, and we've talked about Detroit for years. One of them is going to take a step. Oh, they're getting good and they're doing the rebuild the right way.

We said it, and then nobody wins. Well, now you're seeing Ottawa start to finally take their step forward, and you're seeing Detroit take their step forward. They have to make the playoffs. And right now in the East, that is a jumbled mess. And anybody can put three or four games together, and you're in, and somebody loses two out of three, and you're out. So I think it's imperative that Detroit does.

find something to help them over the hump this year. And you've getting great play. Lucas Raymond's been absolutely on fire to bring cats getting points. I do think they're going to have to get that offensive guy that can help that veteran guy that has some experience that you can have confidence in on either side of the puck. I know it's hard to find. And I know it's hard to find at the deadline. But even if it's a rental right now for the Detroit Redmings,

they have to get into the playoffs. So I expect them to be active. I expect them to use that cap space to help. them get into the place for the and finally see if the Azure plan can actually work. Yeah. And with the caps space they have too, I think

a luxury for them is it frees them up for a lot of options, right? Because they won't need retention or involving a third party broker and having to pay for that. They can pretty much just add whoever they want and multiple pieces of that. So I'm curious to see what they do there. All right, we've got a mailbag question here from Brandon

that I want to ask you about. Brandon asks, can overly defensive slash low event systems kill player motivation and their compete level and by extension reduce their impact on the ice. I feel like some teams look somewhat listless and disengaged when the game becomes too much of a slog. Now, I know that Brandon is a Canucks fan. And so I imagine watching this version of the Canucks team under Rick Talk at the way they've been playing, especially with Quinn Hughes out recently and Elias Pedersen struggling to the degree he has.

This is what's on his mind. And I think that's very fair. You watch the Canucks most recent game on Sunday night in Utah. and I believe they had eight shots on goal heading into a third period in that game and looked completely unthreatening offensively and that's been a recurring theme for them this year. I'm curious for your take on this in terms of the approach

and how sometimes, especially more skilled players who we talk about fit and situation and circumstances and how you watch a guy like Martin Natchez and he goes to Colorado and all of a sudden he's playing in this up-tempo downhill system, playing with Nathan McKinnon and Arturie Lekin and flying around the ice, playing 24 minutes a night, he's going to look entirely different than he might have looked

previously in a different situation for a lot of players. I think that's an important part of the evaluation in terms of what you're asking them to do and then whether it fits what they're best at. I think that's a fair question for this Canucks team because they had a lot of success playing this way last year, right? Getting out to early leads, sitting back defensively, opportunistically attacking off the rush when they could counter, but not really ever pushing it or getting themselves into trouble. They haven't been able to. to replicate that this year. And I feel like it explains not to absolve the players themselves individually because I feel like

they haven't necessarily played up to their standards beyond pretty much Quinn Hughes. But I feel like that's part of this formula as well in terms of explaining what's going on with them offensively. But I think that's exactly what you said. It depends. It depends on the roster you have in the locker room you have. And you look at Colorado. They want to let their horses run.

You want to open the gates and let them play. and playing like that when you're good enough to play that way and skilled enough as a team to play that way is fun. It is fun. Once you're in the offensive side, blue line, you guys do what you want. And you see that in Colorado, how active that team is inside the offensive blue line.

But you can only do that when you have the players that can play that way. And I think that's why when you mentioned Vancouver specifically, you know, Philpheal likes to get up and down the ice. Bester is an offensive guy that likes to get up in the ice. Pedersen, DeBrus, Garland. These guys like to move. They like to be offensive. They like to be dynamic and creative.

of, I mean, you're defending, you can't be that way. And I know Rick Tocket, because I've been in the room with him, and Rick Tocket wants to win. And that's the bottom line. And you have to win with the players that you have the ability to put on the ice on a nightly basis. And if he thinks that they're going to have to defend and slug it up between the blue lines, that's what he's going to do to win.

Now, does that create frustration in the locker room? 100%. These guys want to go. They want to skate. They want to have fun at the rink. But you can't do it all the time to win. and I go back to Arizona Coyotes and Dave Tippett got labeled a defensive coach

because the team we had at that time wasn't very good. You know, Marty Hansel, who I love, Marty Hansel and Redeem Verbata, very nice players, but that's your top line. And you're trying to get through the Western Conference with those guys leading the way. You better defend and you better slug things down through the blue line. You better slow teams down.

Adrianne Coen on the back end and Roosevelt on the back end. You have slow down. That's who you have. That's your team. So you have to understand. the circumstances and that team won by binding together and understanding they had it to defend. They didn't have those horses. They didn't have the offensive upside guys.

They knew to win. They had to play like that. Vancouver, they've got the guys that can go. And that frustration ultimately is going to build and guys are going to be unhappy. And we've talked about this on here, Dimitri. If you're unhappy in the locker room, that makes it very hard to continue to win. And it gets mired in that down feeling, that desperation. It's no fun going to the rink.

You can't have fun. So absolutely it makes a difference in how you approach the game if you are able to play that way. But lastly, it's 82 games. And as a fan, you're watching your team muck it up some night. There's guys that are hurt. There's guys that are tired. There's been a seven game on an eight game road trip. Those guys are tired.

And guess what? They're going to have to play like that tonight. And there are nights that a coach says, hey, let's just get through this one. We've got to get through this one. We'll regroup and get back home. Let's just dump it in. Dump and chase. Let's get it.

the glass and out in our zone and let's just do the best we can try to win one nothing. And there are nights like that for every single team, even the inventory has played like that some nights. I love the idea that there was someone, let's just say in Utah for this example, that watched the Thursday night game between Canada and USA and was like, man, hockey's amazing. I love this. I'm going to get into it and got a cheap ticket to go watch that Sunday night game against the Canucks in Utah. And then it was like, wait a second. I've been duped. This is an entirely different sport.

This is not what I signed up for. I think that the reason why I brought up this question, and listen, I don't want to relitigate the Eleus Pedersen thing for the 500th time this season because you watch the Four Nations and, you know, he's not right physically. Like he's not moving the way he used to. He's reluctant to shoot.

He's passing out of shooting opportunities. I think there's something clearly physically wrong with him, even beyond whatever knee tendinitis he has or whatever has been reported. and it's made clear that especially he wasn't able to prepare for the season the way I think he would have liked to because of that injury. But this environment and the impact, the detrimental one it can have on players, is something that Daryl Belfry spoke about on this podcast a lot last year where puck touches are so important for skilled players, right?

Especially early in games, like just feeling the puck and getting opportunities to play with it early on to build up that confidence, to get yourself in the flow of it, and then the impact it can have or the dividends it can pay in your game later on as the game progresses. And so if you're playing in this type of environment where everything is, get the puck, get it out, play between the blue lines, don't really try to push the envelope offensively. You're never getting out on the rush. This team average is less than five rush chances per game, which is really hard to do in today's NHL. If all of a sudden, once you do get the opportunity in a scoring position, it just feels so, so different than it might otherwise be if you've had it, a bunch of times previously.

You know what I mean? Like you get it and then all of a sudden you're out of rhythm. You're either forcing it. You're not knowing whether when the next time opportunity is going to arise for you to actually be in a similar spot. You overthink it. You maybe pass out of a shooting position and you squander that opportunity. And that's the only one you're going to get in that game.

And that's what you're going to be measured by and judged upon, right? Whereas if you're a guy like Natchez, for example, in Colorado, you can have a rush opportunity, a two-on-one, or three-on-two, whatever. And you can essentially just get into your bag and try, whatever move you want to do. And if it doesn't work out, if you miss the net, or if the puck gets intercepted and it goes back the other way, it's not that big of a deal because you know that maybe on your next shift,

you're going to get another crack at it. And so I feel like from a decision-making perspective for a skill player, that's the type of impact that we're talking about here where it's tough to quantify, but it undoubtedly plays a role in your decision-making and the way you look out there. And so for a guy like Pedersen, beyond all the health stuff, I just, I feel like that's an important part of this equation. And that's something that Canucks are going to have to try to decipher themselves between now and July 1st when his no move clause kicks in.

And I would be very wary of, I think, holding how he looks right now against him and making some sort of a rash decision and a trade. Because I don't think this is representative of what he actually is or could be as a player and has been in the past. Yeah, but I do think it's tough. And you talk about the not just the speed of the game and getting those opportunities, but it's the pressure that builds up because you're getting the lack of opportunities. So what Pederson, for example, is not going to get that four or five grade A looks right now. So there's even more pressure on him and not just for himself individually, but is the coach watching him, are the fans watching him, and the media watching,

all this more pressure on all of those players, the chances aren't coming. The shots aren't coming. So when I get an opportunity, I better score. And you're not getting that indebt. Denver. You're not, one, to your point, you're going to get another opportunity, but two, the pressure's not there. Because if Naceous doesn't do it, well, McKinn's going to do it. We're all just going to play a super fast and have a great time and we're all have smiles on our faces and have fun. Because that's what playing fast is like. It's fun. It's fun to play fast. It's not fun to defend. It sucks. It's hard. It's hard work. It's physically demanding. It's mentally demanding. It's no fun. And you see that on the players. It starts to wear on you. You're getting four, three, four, five shots of period. It's draining. It's hard. It's hard. hard to do. So absolutely a player like Patterson, when he gets the puck on his stick in a

dangerous scoring area, the pressure is immense for him to finish, especially this season. When every article, can he still play? Is he still got any offense left? Is he, do we really spend 11-6 on a guy like this? Every time he gets the puck, it's going through his head. So I don't know how you shake that. I don't know what his mental makeup is. I don't know. You're talking about the physicality. Again, I don't know what he's physically feeling. or mentally feeling. But the expectations on this player in that market are immense. And the pressure, every time the puck touches the stick, it's there.

So it is partially the defending part. But there's a lot going on in that Vancouver right now in that Vancouver room that hopefully they can get that black cloud out before they make the stretch to the playoffs. All right, P. I think that's all the time we have for today. I'm going to give you a chance here to plug some stuff because you've been, as I said, off the top, churning out some really quality content, especially on YouTube with all the videos,

and I want you to let the listeners know all about that. Also, what they can expect moving forward. I feel like as we get into the postseason in particular, I think part of the Four Nations and why, you know, you talked about all the commentary on the videos you're doing and the input and everything, everything, you know, the spotlight on it is so heightened because it's like this individual game.

Obviously, the stakes are high, and so everyone wants to know what happened and it leads to a lot of discourse. And that's really fun for us here in the media game. The playoffs are going to be a great opportunity for that, especially as you go on and the games start to dwind, everything becomes so much more important. And each goal gets like micro-analysed and everything.

And so I feel like I can't wait to see what you do there. Let the listeners know about where they can check you out and what you got going on. Yeah, it's on YouTube. It's on inside the coaches room. Check it out. And it is those goal breakdowns too. But I said we've got interviews. We interview coaches, players.

And I'm trying to get more of that beginner hockey stuff. I just did an off side. I've got icing coming up later this week for the new fans that just found it during the Four Nations to try to learn things without having. ask questions. What is a gap? Good gap, bad gap? What is it? I'm trying to teach those things on video too, but you talk about the playoffs. And I think that's where things like this really come in. We talk about that's where the coaches make a difference. I think that's where video makes a difference. What players are playing good, bad? What do they need to do from game one to

two? How do the event owners come out of this loss and improve for game two? And we're going to take a lot more deeper dives into those things between game one and two for a lot of these playoff series as playoffs continue. S. Peters hockey on Twitter to catch the short clips and inside the coaches your mind wherever your podcast and on YouTube. All right, buddy. We'll keep up the great work. I'm really looking forward to you. Become a regular this season here in the show.

Come playoffs. I'm going to be bugging you even more to come on and do some of those breakdowns and adjustments in series with me here. My plugs are, everyone, please go give us a five-star review wherever you listen, smash that button, give us a nice little review. Also join the PDIO guest Discord. Took the question from Brandon here today.

We're going to keep doing that moving forward. So if you got any questions for us, drop them in there, join us and be part of the conversation and part of the PDOCS community. And that's all for today. We'll be back Thursday with more of the PDOCAST. In the meantime, thank you for listening to us here on the SportsNet Radio Network.