The Hockey PDOcast - Monday's Games, Leonard's Immediate Impact, and Prepping for Playoff Opponents

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Steve Peters to go through takeaways from Monday night's games, including Calgary's chances of catching up to a playoff spot, Cale Makar's goal scoring, the glass half full vs. empty interpretation of Dallas' recent play, and Minnesota's offensive woes. Then they take some mailbag questions about Ryan Leonard's immediate impact, Byfield's importance to the Kings, most disappointing teams, and how teams prepare for their playoff opponents. 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 Peeley Ocast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Steve Peters. Peti, what's going on, man? Yeah, just watching these races as we go down to the last 10 games and some are tightening it up and some teams are starting to fade. Very exciting. We're in the final month. It is April 1st. No April Fool's Day jokes here. We're going to have some fun, but we're going to keep it real. And I wanted to start off. The plan for today's show is we got some really fun mailbag questions from the Piedo gas Discord that we're going to get to in the second half. I wanted to start off today talking about some of the main takeaways from Monday night's games that we saw.

It was a pretty small schedule, I believe, only four games around the NHL, but some notable developments for not only the wild card race in the West, but also just playoff races in general as we start to down the stretch here, kind of get our minds around how teams are looking heading into the playoffs, what the matchups could look like, all that fun stuff. Let's start with the game of the night, which was in Colorado, between the flames and the a VALVs. And it featured a massive third period comeback by Calgary to go into Colorado, steal two points when it looked like they were completely dead to rights. They were down two nothing and the third, about halfway through. Shots were 24 to 12 for the abs. The abs seemed like they were in complete control. And then all of a sudden, within a 32 second span, the flames get two goals from their fourth line. My guy, the Lomburgity, comes through.

Adam Klavka scores as well. Then we got a remarkably fun. One of the more fun three-on-three overtimes I can remember, it felt like it was just going back and forth for five minutes. They were trading chances, no stoppages. The Flames ultimately win in the shootout. But the thing that I really liked about it and why I wanted to start off today's show talking about it

was it felt like such an on-brand victory for this Flames team, right? We've been talking all season about how, despite whatever talent deficiencies they have and their expectations heading into the season, they've been so uber competitive grinding out these types of games they never give up or give in regardless of how an underman they are or how bleak it looks throughout the game and to me that's so impressive because it's one thing to do that early in the year when everyone has hope and it's a fresh season now that we're 70 games in and they're still doing this we've seen a bunch of teams in these spots both this year and in the past fade in similar situations and this flames still has an uphill battle to actually actually catch either the wild of the blues and get into the playoffs, but for them to be hanging around like this and still viable in this wildcard race with two and a half, three weeks left in the season to me is quite an impressive feat by them.

Yeah, and they do it different ways, and they find different ways to come on and get out of these holes or competing the way they are. You're talking about their top end players, you know, cadres having a year. Huberdo's having a great year after his struggles last year, but last night they did it different. Last night they did it with your guy, the Lamborghini. And Clapkin, they played. The fourth line, buries them out this time.

And sometimes it's Wolf. And last night, it was Lidar. And the R was unbelievable. You really have to give him the MVP of the game here. Because through two periods, Calgary wasn't there yet. Calgary hadn't shown up yet. Calgary hadn't had nothing in the first two periods. There were no really glaring scoring chances.

And they struggled. And it looked like Colorado's going to cruise to an easy, easy victory. Scottie Wedgwood would look good. like he always does. He's five and always the last five. He looked good. And you go, okay, Calgary's not going to score. Their top guys aren't playing.

And then they got their forecheck going. They got a little bit tougher. They grind it out along the boards. And you're going, Clapka, dude, he was, he was outstanding. What a fun guy to watch. Yeah. When he gets his motor going, he's a fun guy to watch.

So that's what you're right. With Calgary, what I think they showed last night is, again, it's a different way to stay in it. They never quit. And the third period, you go, okay, they were actually really good in the third day, that great opportunities. And to your point about overtime,

that's what overtime should look like, three and three. That's what it's designed to be a couple of posts, a couple of great saves, chances both ways. That's what I want to see in three and three. I'm tired of bringing it back. Please fix that, Gary Batman, so we don't have to go back and forth

behind the red line. But that was exciting as a game as you're going to see. And, you know, Calgary stuck on for the two points. I know it's bleak and I know the chances are mathematically incredibly difficult, but they're impossible if they don't win last night. Yeah, it was a big one. That over time, you're right.

I think that was the key there. It felt like both teams were just pushing forward constantly, and there was no sort of regrouping or retreating. They were just gunned and after it and try to win it. In those five minutes, the flames are up to 82 points in 73 games. Now let's do some math here. They're five points behind the blues. There's six points behind the wild.

They do have two games in hand on both. And I think their upcoming schedule is interesting. It gives them some light at the end of the tunnel because they have a tough back-to-back tonight in Utah, of course after having played in Colorado last night. But then you look ahead to their next six games after that. Home versus the Ducks, home versus Vegas, at San Jose, at Anaheim, home versus Minnesota, home versus San Jose as well in Minnesota is one of those two teams.

They are catching. We're going to talk more about the Wilde, who also played on Monday night themselves. But that is a pretty doable schedule for them. And so I will be watching it because I feel like they're very, very live here amongst those teams. I had a couple notes on the abs as well. Did you have anything else on Calgary, you are around them? No, but I do want to say, though,

that's interesting when you talk about that schedule, and one of the things Utah has been up and down, and they're clearly out of it now. So that's a winnable game against each other. Just returning home, and they struggle and they get home from the East Coast. And that's all, I know they play in Chicago, but you had the two in Florida and they're coming back.

That's a winnable game. And when you look at the way they finish, you talk about their playoff teams are Minnesota, and we'll talk about them later. They're struggling if they didn't have the great start. they're not in. But Vegas twice, what will Vegas be playing for?

By the time they play the Calgary Flames the last part of the season, and the LA Kings too. The other Kings are playing the Evin's no others. Get excited for that round for the fifth straight year. What are they playing for

in the last game of the year? Like honestly, I know the cards are stacked against them, but there's a chance. There is. It's, you know, at this time of the year, especially you look at the sharks

and the weekend they had where they just got absolutely blasted by both the Rangers and the Kings, I believe they've given up like 19 goals against in their past three games. So I feel like the sharks and maybe the predators, especially, anyone that has them on their schedule over these final couple weeks, there's no gimmies in the NHL certainly,

but those feel like ones where you should expect to get two points out of it. On the a abs, the note that I had was, I thought obviously it was a highlight real goal, but the goal McCarr scored to open the scoring in the first period was what makes him so special, right? like everything he does is so sped up. But then you kind of break down that play and how he,

with McKinnon having the puck on the wall, how he sort of instinctively drives the middle, gets open and then that inner slot, then he gets the puck from McKinnon. He freezes weaker as the shooter. He fakes like he's going outside a little bit, totally spins him around, and then beats the goalie cutting back in,

cleanly, um, was a screen for Lidar at and they needed that because Liddhar was playing so well. But here's a stat for you. The full list of, of NHL defensemen to hit 30 plus goals since the 1986-87 season. Now, I was born in 1991. So this is even before my time.

This is a long stretch of seasons. 34 by Kevin Hatcher in 92-93, 31 by Mike Green, of course, in 0809, and 30 by Paul Coffee in 88-89. So McCar needs, what, two goals in his final seven games to join that exclusive company on route to winning the Norris this year. and we've been talking about this sort of elusive, like, defenseman hitting 30 goals and McCarrett had 28 goals a couple years ago himself, but it feels like that's very doable for him here.

And so I think that's quite a cool stat because we've been also so preoccupied with the, the big goal stat, which is Alex Lovetchins chasing history this season. But this has been one of those feats that's been so rare at that position. And it's a different NHL now, certainly than it's been in the past, but still for a defenseman. hit 30 goals is so incredibly hard to do. And McCar is on the precipice of it. Yeah, but watching him play, and we talked about Quinn Hughes and what he brought to the

offensive, the Vancouver Canucks and how elite he is at moving the puck. But there's something just special about watching Keaul McCar. You watched that game last night. And at times, when McKinn and McCar were on the ice together, I know it may be cliche, but they play at a different speed. There was a moment, and I'm not kidding, that I thought something was wrong with my because it went so fast. I'm like, oh my gosh, those guys just, they bring something different to the game. And that goal where he fakes out Weiger in front of the net and he drops that

shoulder like he's shooting. Everybody bit on it. Everybody in the building, everybody on TV, that was a remarkable play to make at the speed that he makes it at. And I think that's what's amazing to me the most about Kail McCarres, not just the plays that he makes, but the plays that he makes at speed. And his ability, we're talking about a defenseman getting 30 goals, a defenseman, getting 30 goals in the National Hockey League. Jacob Trickren's absolutely on fire right now getting 20 and you're going, oh my gosh, Jacob Chikwin, that's 10 more goals. That's incredible.

I'm interested to see where the Colorado Ravanch land in this year's playoffs. And it's, again, I struggle with them having to play the Dallas stars off the top. And we're looking at that matchup right away. I think that's two heavyweights in the first round. And I'm so sad that we have the matchups we have this year. It's starting to really look like we need to go to 1 to 8

so we can start getting some of these matchups later in the playoffs. But if Colorado is in, doesn't play their best. They could be out seven games into those playoffs. And if we don't get to see McKinnon and McCar making another great run, it'd be just a shame for this game. Because I tell you what, Colorado, they can either win the cup or they can lose in the first round. That's what this year's playoffs look like.

They certainly can, and it would be a shame. I will say, obviously, it's to a whole other level when it is McCarer-McKinnon, but since the deadline and since they loaded up, it's been throughout the lineup as well. Like they're coming in waves. We know about the sustained offense zone pressure in the cycle game, but how the quickly they reload, like they, they pin you, and then you get the puck out of the zone for a couple seconds,

and you're like, all right, it's chance for a stick exhale, and they're right back in with speed and the numbers advantage and attacking again. And like they've lost the back-to-back games here at home, right? They lost over the weekend on Saturday in a one-goal game to the Blues, and then they lost this game. And I know that in this one in particular, those final 10 minutes of the third period, they kind of took their foot off the gas a little bit, not to take anything away from what the flames did themselves to force that issue,

but, you know, they clearly didn't play. their best for a short period of time there. But it still feels like within those two defeats, I came away from it feeling like, man, it took Herkulean efforts from those two teams to win those games by one goal because that's how well this SAA team has been playing for about a month now

and how big of a feat or accomplishment it feels like for someone to beat them. And so when you talk about a playoff setting and having to lose four times in seven games, that feels like a pretty tall task for anyone, regardless of what they have on their own end of things, right? For this, to just corral this team and control them for that extended to a period of time, you might be able to do it for a period here or there the way they did in this game,

or you may be able to do it for a game or two, especially at home, but to do it four out of seven times feels like an incredibly tall task against how well this Ave team is playing right now. Yeah. And the biggest thing when you talk about this Aves team and what they did at the trade deadline is what this did to their depth. And I said one of the things earlier in this season, when you looked at them winning the Stanley Cup,

it was their bottom six that really helped to push them over, as it does with both teams. I think when you're going to win the Stanley Cup, you're going to have that depth in your bottom six forwards and your last pair of defensemen have to play exceptional to win a cup. You can't get there on just your top six. And what they've done now, you've got Logan O'Connor and his speed on the fourth line.

You got Charlie Coyle on your third line. Marty Natchez, I don't care. He's playing at another gear and another speed since he got to Denver. I don't know if it's the altitude or what. And Brock Nelson's been absolutely elite. They're so deep through their top 12 forwards. And then you get to the back end. and it's more the same.

And the goaltender. This is the best going tandem that they've ever had in Colorado with a one-two punch. I mean, they've had some goaltenders in the past. You can talk about Gartersi Kemper. Whoa,

that's Pavel Fransuze erasure during the Fransoos Kemper era. I loved Palo-Francuse. Such a shame as Creole. There you go. But the lumberyard, I tell you what, their one-two-punch back-end

is elite. This Colorado Adelins team stocked up the right way. They fit pieces at the trade deadline. They filled holes at the trade deadline. And arguably this team right now today, I know they lose the two games. But if they're not one of the favorites to win the Western Conference, I don't know who is. Because Dallas, I know Miko Rattonan is finally starting to heat up and starting to get the points that they were hoping to get from Miko Rantan.

But unless they get elite goaltending, I'm not sure where they're going to get or how they're getting by this Colorado Island. Well, let's talk about that Starr's team then because they played in Seattle for a second straight game. and they've won six in a row now. They've gotten points in nine straight games, so they've been chugging along. You look up, and I know we're all sort of bracing ourselves for anticipating this round one heavyweight tilt that you mentioned between the stars and the abs.

But I will say there's eight games left for both the Jets and the stars. The stars are only four points back. They have a head to head on April 10th. And so all of a sudden, I think the door is open for that a little bit. The Jets are so consistent that it's still four points at this point is going to be tough to overcome. But the stars, you look at their schedule, and they've got six to their next seven at home against pretty soft competition.

They do have that head to head against Winnipeg. So that'll be something to watch for. And obviously the outsized impact of whoever wins that race, it's not just the president's trophy and home ice throughout, but also a round one matchup against the wildcar team, as opposed to the abs. The good news for the stars here, and I'm kind of of two minds of this, I want to focus on the positive. Over the past two or three months, we've really seen Jason Robertson get going.

Right after his slow start, he was hampered by the offseason foot surgery, was looking quite slow. He's really worked his way back into game shape. He has 60 points in his past 48 games, which is fourth in the league behind just Kutrov, McKinnon and Dry Sightol. But even bigger and more recently is why Johnston really starting to cook as well, right? He started slow himself. Last 25 games, he's got 19 goals.

That gives him 30 plus goals in his age 20 and 21 seasons. And he's so fun to watch. You watch those past two games in particular in Seattle and the goals he scores. Despite not being the fastest guy, his timing is impeccable. He always gets to the right spots. And his hands in tight are just so lethal. And so he remains unbelievably fun to watch. And now all of a sudden, you mentioned the Ranton piece.

They've got that top line with Robertson cooking. They've got Wyatt Johnson on the second line. And then they've also got another second line, essentially, with Duchet and with Marchman. and they've been very consistent all season as well. And so that gives them a lot of scoring options to outscore whatever defensive deficiencies they have. And so they've been getting these points, yet I feel like they haven't really been playing very good hockey throughout this stretch either. And so I don't really know how to wrap my head around it because all that matters is you get these points, especially when you're in these seating battles and making sure you have home ice at the very least in round one against Colorado, if not getting out of that matchup entirely. Yet I still want to see them play better because you look at the shot counts.

these games and the way they're playing against some of these teams. And it's a tough formula to keep kind of repeating if you want to keep actually winning these games. Yeah, and it's funny because, you know, I just counted the star's ability to catch the Winnipeg Jets. I guess I just had a foregone conclusion that the Jets are going to win that, win that division. But when you talk about the way the stars are playing, you even look at their game against Seattle last night. I know they played Seattle twice in Seattle, the four game road trip out west, and they

win all four against some good teams. you got Evanton and Calgary up top, but the game in Seattle last night is kind of what we talked about last night with Vlodar and Vlardar carrying the mail for Calgary early. Casey DeSmith was light out in the game against Seattle. He was the first star again last night. If you look at who was the best player on the ice last night against Seattle and the 3-1 win, it was Casey to Smith. And when you talk about Dallas, the couple of fears, I know they have the guys that can score, Roberts that can score. I think Sagan's going to have to come back and be healthy. I think we talked about the depth of the Colorado avalanche,

if they play Colorado, that they're going to need to have the scoring depth because Wyatt Johnson's been elite, but I think he need to have all four lines going, Sagan being back. But the loss of Miro Heiskin and on the basket, the back end is, Harley's been great.

Harley's stepped up, Harley's had a much better season than I was anticipating. He's filled the void and he's been great on the back end. But are they deep enough back there? Are they deep enough on the back end to get over a team that, that if it is Colorado, they can blow the doors off you. And are they strong enough and fast enough on the back end and deep enough without a player like Miro Heiskenen that logs the minutes he has

and can play the way he can play in the National Hockey, can they get over the Colorado Avalanche? And to your point, they've won these games, but if they look that great, and they look like a team, Colorado loses last night, but they look like a powerhouse. Like they look, oh my God, look how fast this team is from 1 to 20 through their roster. They're flying. Dallas doesn't look like that.

Delt just finds a way, which, I know you need to find a way to win, and those are teams that can win too, and they find their way through the playoffs too. You find ways to win. But I just don't have that look at this Dallas Stars roster and go, oh my gosh, they're gearing up for the playoffs. Look out. Like they're rolling.

They're going on all cylinders. And they're the team to look out for. I don't feel it. But maybe I'm just wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. I still think when you look at Colorado in Vegas, you look at those two teams right now. I haven't seen enough of the Jets lately.

But when the Jets are playing, the Jets are great. It's just, to me, it's going to be how good Hellebuck is in a playoff situation this year because they can go all the way again and win a cup with Hellebuck. I don't like them with the St. Louis Blues Blues in the first round. So let's see how that first round. I think that's a fair take. I think it is a real red flag because despite the fact that they have this nine game point streak and the six game winning streak, over the past nine games, they've been out shot 318 to 220. Now that is averaging 35 shots allowed per game, which is dead last in the league during that time. to put them to perspective in the first 50 games with Hayeskin,

and they were giving up both 26 shots per game, which was seventh lowest in this league. And the last four games, they gave up 36 in both those games in Seattle. They gave up 48 to Calgary. Calgary had 107 shot attempts in that game. And then they gave up 44 to Edmonton. Now in that Emmington game,

they were up early, and it was a bit of a different game script. But I'm with you. And Harley played 25 minutes again on Monday night. He's been averaging over 25 during the stretch without Haskin. He's been immense. but beyond that, a better team with more scoring talent than Seattle, if you give up all those looks in tight and you give up 36 shots,

they're going to score more than once. And Dallas has the horses to score a bunch of goals on their own, but it becomes pretty tricky to play that way, especially if you're playing Colorado in round one. Do you want to talk quickly about the wild here before we go to break? Sure. Because we've teased that a little bit. They stole a huge point for their purposes.

In New Jersey, there was a brutal turnover out front. right to Matt Boldie. He scores to at least give them the one point to temporarily keep them ahead of St. Louis for the first wild card in the West. They're one point up on them now. But there's some pretty gnarly stats on them since the start of February, which obviously coincides with Carol Caprisov's absence as well, right? The last time he played was January 26. Since the start of February, they're 10, 11 and 2. That means the Blues have made up 15 points on them in that time in the standings. They've scored 48 goals in those 23 games. which is dead last in the league. They scored 27 5-on-5 goals in those 23 games. Vinnie Histroza, who good for him, got claimed off waivers on February 5th, is third on the team in scoring since February with five goals. They've been kept to zero or one goals in 10 of those 23 games.

Obviously, Caprizov coming back completely changes things, and he was playing so well in the first half of the season before these injuries started to take a hold on his season. him and Joel Erick as well are on this trip. It doesn't sound like they're going to play the next two games. They'll probably hopefully come back into the lineup when they return home. But you look ahead to their April.

They've got a huge back-to-back on the road in Calgary and Vancouver, two teams that are trying to catch up to them into standings. And so we'll see. But man, you watch this game and they score on kind of like a deflected point shot and then that give me turnover out front. But for them to generate goals right now seems like on almost impossible feat.

and that's going to have to change if they're going to do anything. And, you know, selfishly, I said on the last show, I'm going to be in Vegas for the start of the playoffs. I'm going to probably watch at least game wide, if not game two as well, of whoever the Golden Knights round one matchup is. And selfishly, I would much prefer to watch this Blues team of the way they're playing for one or two games against Vegas, as opposed to having to sit through watching the wild try to scrape together one or two goals just to hang around and stay alive. Now, it's remarkable that they've been pretty much a 500 team during this stretch, considering all those goal stats, I said. It's a very odd brand for them.

But yeah, any notes on the wild or what you saw from them last night or even throughout this time period in general? It's funny because as we often do in this and on podcasts and radio, we give our predictions preseason. I said this is a team that isn't going to make the playoffs. And I said it was they weren't going to make the playoffs due to injuries because this is a team that has had injuries, mostly to the defense. We talk about Spurgeon and Prodeen over the last few years.

And I had no way to foresee what Philip Gustafson would do the first 20 games of the season. He was Vezna Trophy goaltender. He was elite in the first 25 games of the season. And they put the Minnesota Wild out to this tremendous lead in their division. And then they came back to reality. And the injuries did start to hit. And unfortunately for Minnesota, the injuries hit to the wrong players. And when you have a team that can't score, can't win.

And you've given up five goals twice in their last five games. this is a team that I still believe the way St. Louis is paying. They're going to pass Minnesota. And for you Winnipeg Jets fans, that's a big deal because Winnipeg against St. Louis to me is a matchup. I don't want to play St. Louis in the first round. I just scares the hell out of me how good they're playing, how good. Bennington is playing how big they can play, how hard they get to the net. I want to play Minnesota, even with Correll Caprisov back in the lineup.

And they're expected both Erick and Caprisov here in the next several days. I still want to play Minnesota. And I still think that they're deficient on their. ability to defend right now. Gustafson's going to have to lead the way in the playoffs. I'm just not sure their playoff tested and ready. I want to play them in the playoffs. I think they're going to continue to slide.

And if Calgary had any more runway, just any more. Like if the season was five, six games longer, I think Calgary Flames catch Minnesota. I think that's how poorly they are. But unfortunately, for Calgary and Vancouver, they've amassed such a lead in the first 25 that I just don't think they're going to fall out. Yeah, either on the one hand. A Winnipeg, Minnesota series would I think be fun just from the perspective of they've had a lot of bad blood between the two of them over the past couple years involving Ryan Hartman. And so I think there'd be a lot of nastiness and physicality in that series.

It would be a great setup for the Jets just because either the Wild or the Flames try to score enough goals against the Jets D and Hullabuck, it seems like an impossible task for them. And so I think it would be a great confidence builder for the Jets to start their postseason, kind of getting the monkey off their back, getting over that first. hurdle, building up their confidence a little bit before a round two match up against whoever comes out of that Dallas-Colado series. So I think that would be great for them, whereas St. Louis would obviously pose an entirely different set of challenges. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know about this wild team. It's unfair to evaluate them without Caprizov and Eric Snack, of course. They're going to be an entirely different team with them. But even how to rely on they're going to be on Caprizo to create everything in a playoff setting, it's a bit easier,

especially with home ice if you're the Jets to sort of load up defensively a little bit on and make sure you have your best players out there, play those minutes, and then just win all of the other ones. And we have as great as boldie's been, it's going to be just very, very difficult for this wild team to score enough goals to make me feel like they can make any series, whether it's Vegas or Winnipeg competitive enough where you're like, all right, this could be a long series or even potentially an upset. I just don't really see that this season. Yeah, and when you look at how they've done against Minnesota this year, Winnipeg's 3 and O, they've all scored him 6 to 2.

I give the nod to the Winnipeg Jets. And I know what people say might not matter, but that travel from Winnipeg to Minneapolis, I mean, you could almost take the team bus across, well, getting across the U.S. Canada border right now might be more difficult than you think.

But that travels, it's an easy travel for them. You're in the air less than an hour. I really like this for the Winnipeg Jux. For all the reasons you said, I think they need to have a first round that they can, I don't want to say easily win because it's the playoffs. And nothing is.

ever easy. But the matchup with Minnesota is one that you can go, okay, I think they, Winnipeg Jets have an advantage. I think they have an advantage because they can defend better than Minnesota has on the offensive side of the puck. So I think that's incredibly important. If the Winnipeg Jets are going to have a long playoff run this year, like a lot of Winnipeg Jets fans hope that they do, they need to have that. Because coming up next, you're going to get Dallas or Colorado. And so you better be ready. And that's why you can't slip out of this top spot. I think they'll hold on. I think they need to hold on. And I think they play Minnesota in the first round. Get over and get ready to play one of the juggernauts in the league.

All right. Let's take our break here, Pedy. And then when we come back, we'll jump back into it. We're going to dip into the mailbag, take some listener questions. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.Ocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right. We're back here on the Hockeyedogicad. Join by Steve Peters today. Petey. Let's get into the PDOC Discord mailbag. Let's do the plug here for the Discord, rather than at the end, There's about 1,400 fellow sickos in there. Get in there and join us during the playoffs. It's going to be so fun watching the games of everyone.

It's going to be electric in there. And also, we do these mailbags every once in a while so you can get your questions in there and interact with the show as well. Here's the first one. What does Quinn Byfield need to do to get more attention from everyone else and not just the PDOCass? Now, I'll let you jump in here because I don't know what more I could do here personally. I've been all over this for weeks now. I keep talking about it, not only the importance right now for the Kings,

but ahead of a round one rematch against the Oilers and how this could be one of the differences legitimately this year for them and actually getting through this matchup, as opposed to the past three years where they've fallen short. But what more does he have to do for people to start realizing how well he's playing? Yeah, one of the things about quitting Byfield in this LA King team, and we've said it here in Arizona, why people don't notice? Because, hey, it's a reality.

The East Coast Wies exist. They're not on national TV. They play too late. and teams, when you are going to watch a West Coast game, you're going to watch Connor McDavid and Leon Drysaddle. So people aren't watching Quentin Bofeld and what he's doing this year. Like when you see his five-go-all five-game stretch from early March to the middle of March, this guy's impressive.

Like the ability for him to get to the net, the blue paint, his shots elite, his speed, his size, he can separate players from the puck along the wall. He is exactly what the L.A. Kings want to play like. This is a, he's an L.A. King style player. And this L.A. King team is different. I know that the Oilers have been, you know, you gear up all year for this matchup for the LA King, Edmonton Oilers and who can finally get over. Can the LA Kings finally get over on the Edmonton Oilers?

And some of the players that they added. And then Warren Fogel is a guy that I think is really important for this team of the LA Kings. I think we talk about that style that grit that the Edmonton Oilers is missing. The LA Kings picked up. And I like their speed and skill with Fiala and Kopitar and Kempi playing elite, but Quentin Byfield is the secondary scoring guy that he's a guy that through a seven-game playoff series, you can look up and go, oh my God, he's got 10 points. Like, this guy's involved in everything.

He touches all aspects of the game. He's going to be on the ice all the time. Like, he's going to kill penalty. He's going to be on the power play. He's going to play 15 minutes, even strength. He's on the ice. Like, he is going to be a difference maker on this team. And you can't just go, okay, we got to keep an eye on that top line, that Kopenthar,

a Kempy duo, we got to keep an eye on them because coming out next is Byfield. And so I think this is something that the Kings have been waiting for from Quentin Byfield, that you've been waiting for him to step into that 2C role and be, okay, he's now the guy. This makes this LA team extremely dangerous coming into the playoffs against Evanton this season. Well, last 24 games since the start of February, 23 points. He just had that 10-game stretch where he scored goals in eight of them. He had this game last week against New York where he drew three penalties himself. Now, that might not be as big of a competitive advantage.

for the Kings given the state of their power play, which I think is like 28th or something in the league this season. But this line of Byfield Fiala and Lafairier, 275 and 175 minutes, they're up 16 to 5. They're controlling 60% of the shots, 59% of the high danger chances. And ahead of that matchup in round one, I think the reason why this matters so much is you're probably going to get some combination of De No's line against McDavid and then Kopitar's line against Dreisel. Right. And given the state of this Kerrador's forward group and how top heavy they are and how much the bottom six has been struggling, especially with their footspeed, you're going to get a lot of matchups, especially if the Kings have home ice where Byfield and Fiala with Laferrier are out

there against either Henrique's line or Yanmerk's line in the bottom six. And so if the Kings are actually going to have aspirations of winning that series, I think it's going to be completely necessary and it's an entirely hinge on whether that line can manufacture a couple extra goals to just swing a few of these games in the king's favor, which is what they've been lacking in these previous matchups, right? So that and then the combination of how good they've been at home and having home ice for once in this matchup being the two differences for them as like actual reasons for why they could win finally, I feel like are very viable.

And so you mentioned the secondary scoring, if anything, like I think when Byfield needs to be their primary score in that series. Like he needs to carry them. He needs to keep being more aggressive. Obviously, the speed is always going to be there. But just pushing the envelope and using that shot and trying to create more and score more himself is going to be one of the biggest X factors for me in that series. And I think they're in a better position to do so than they really have been for this

past four-year stretch. Yeah. And you brought up a really good point is the standings. And this home ice, I don't know if it, I don't want to say it didn't matter as much in the previous few seasons, but it matters a lot this year. And those matchup for the LA Kings are critical in keeping byfield and getting one of those two lines away from the, you know, the top six in Edmonton. And you're two points separated with nine games to go, but their home records elite.

I mean, it's the best home record in hockey. They only have four regulation losses all season at home. Like that's, that's, I can, I, four home losses? Are you, that's insane. So yes, it matters. And I think with nine games to go, L.A. has to find a way to get home ice. I think it's incredibly important for their playoff success

and getting into the playoffs. They've got Edmonton head-to-head coming up here the last week of the season. That game is going to be massive. And it's in Edmonton. Edmonton needs to win that when they have Colorado at home. But they finish with Seattle. They got Seattle twice.

They've got a pretty favorable schedule. You got Winnipeg. Edmonton's on the road to Winnipeg. If L.A. gets home ice on this one, they're going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be a series of the favorite. And that for an Edmonton or another team that expected to find their way back into the Stanley Cup final could be a rude awakening.

And I think fans of Edmonton have expected this way. Everybody's going to get healthy right in time in the playoffs and we're just going to turn on a switch and we're going to go. I'm not sure it's going to work like that because this Evanston, we talked about L.A. and people not seeing Quentin Bifield, this L.A. team, we talked about it earlier. Calgary can beat the other ways. L.A. can do the same thing. L.A.

L.A. can beat with skill. They can be with speed. They can beat with grit. They can defend. This L.A. team is good. Like, they're fun to watch. This is a fun hockey team. And if you haven't seen Kevin Fiala play lately, he's one of my favorites.

I like to watch Kevin Fiala and I put him on Minnesota and they're exciting again. But this is going to be a matchup that I think if L.A. is going to finally get over the Mitziners, they've got to start at home. They do. The Oilers do have three more games somehow against that San Jose Sharks team we mentioned. So that's a good opportunity for them to beef up a little bit. Yeah. But these two teams do have two more head-to-head matchups in April.

And so not only for for home ice advantage and seating purposes, I'm also just curious to watch those from like a terms of engagement perspective as well to see like how much they reveal in terms of especially, you know, when the Kings are at home, the matchups, how they want to play that and whether they want to save a few things for that postseason series to unveil or whether they just go all out. And I imagine there will be the latter because these points are so,

incredibly valuable. All right, next question. Which college kids are you most looking forward to see and get a taste of the NHL this year? And could any of them be impactful in the playoffs? Now, this, I don't want to give you your answer. I'm curious to see what you have to say for this. But for me, the way I interpreted this question was of specifically Ryan Leonard coded question to talk about Ryan Leonard and his upcoming debut here on Tuesday. But do you have any either notes on Leonard or any other college guys that you're excited to see make their debut here down the stretch?

Well, for me, there's two guys and you hear him in the news all the time is Gabe Perot going to the Rangers and Ryan Leonard going to Washington. It's hard to make changes to your lineup this drastically this late in the year. And I know everyone's excited to see Ryan Leonard in Washington. I know what. But these guys have been playing against college kids all season long. Like the step from college to the National Hockey League is massive. It's massive. The style of play.

In college, your top players are your top players. and they're very, very good. But teams aren't deep. They don't play systems. They make mistakes, and it's a mistake league. And it gives these top-end players more opportunities. And then they can kind of play at will. You can't do that in the national hockey.

You sure as hell can't do it with nine games to go. And so I think for people's expectations, what these two players are going to provide to their teams, I think they have to temper their expectations. Now, you look at what Leonard skated in the morning skate. He's playing with Stroman Protis to start. You put him with Stroman Prost. that your expectations are he's one, he's going to be able to keep up with the speed and pace that this Washington Capitol team plays at.

And he's highly gifted. He can play a 200-foot game. Ryan Leonard's expectations are very, very high. And I think he is going to help this team, but it's a hard step. And you don't want to disrupt something that's working. Don't fix it if it's not broken. The Washington Capitals are on their way to a president's trophy. Does Ryan Leonard disrupt that or does he help it?

I'm not sure yet. I'm excited to see him play, but I'm also tempering my expectations. expectations early. I'm not. I'm all in. I'm planning on fire here. Let's go. Listen, I'm, I completely, I think everything you said is valid.

I think this might be a unique case, though, because it feels like his skill set is so immediately translatable to just dropping him into the NHL. He's such a dog. He's such a puck hound. I think you watch the way the caps play. and not only is kind of a more of a committee approach than a lot of these other teams that are so star-driven, but also they feast on mistakes you make on the counter

and their rush game is so nasty. And that's a great point by you that the college game is so mistake-driven. I would argue that Leonard's skill set is going to be able to create more of those mistakes from the opposition for the caps stepping in, right, just with his tenacity and puck pursued and throw-it-hits and getting under your skin and drawing penalties. And so he's not necessarily going to have to step in.

I know we had the back-to-back 30 goal seasons in the Densia. I don't think the expectation is he's going to come in and just be their top goal scorer. But if he's playing with the Zeus from Belarus, Alexei Protis, and Dylan Strom, and just causing mistakes and chipping in that way, I think he's going to be able to play from a Pace perspective and a style perspective. And I think the other thing to note here is I argue the biggest, obstacle for a player making their debut like this, especially in season, is just kind of acting like you belong there or feeling like you belong there, right? And not like stepping in and being

too cautious, worried that you're going to make a mistake and lose minutes or be scratched or deferring to vets too much. And in this case, I don't think there's going to be any imposter syndrome. I haven't seen anything from Ryan Leonard so far today in his career. That would lead me to believe that he's going to feel that way. I think he's going to step in and play his game immediately from day one, and that's going to yield results. So I'm really excited about this. They have nine games here for him to get his feet wet a little bit before the postseason,

and it's a tricky task in game 75 or whatever to be making your NHL debut in the middle of a postseason hunt. But man, this feels like a bit of a rare exception of right place, right time, right player, right team. Yeah, and I talk to the, I've got a friend that is on the staff, the one of Washington Capitals. And he said this is special year. It's a special locker room and they're just different.

And I think that will help embrace Ryan Leonard into the shoe mom. I agree with you. He's going to be a dog on the bone when that puck drops. Like he's going to be over exuberant. We'll see how he does with the nine game schedule playing like they do. The daily schedule is different than National Hockey League. You don't practice four days a week. You're playing four days a week.

And so we'll see. I think he's got the skill set to play both ends of the ice and he's going to help a team that plays that way. Perot in New York, they put him with J.T. Miller to start. He's just going to have to get to the net. just get to that and work hard. But the other guy we didn't mention, just briefly, one guy that I wanted to mention is a guy coming out of the Urily Minnesota, Jimmy Snuggaroo, that we talked about maybe coming out the year before. He's going to the St. Louis Blues. They've got them penciled in on their third line. This St. Louis Blues team,

similar to Washington is they play a certain way. They play a certain style, and they've got, they're clicking right now. And we talk about don't fixing it when it's not broken. Jimmy Snuggruh is going to get thrown into a lineup in a third line. I think it's a great role for Jimmy Snuggaroo to fit into. I think this is the other one besides, the Ryan Leonard that I'm looking forward to the most. Is he seeing how Jimmy, Jimmy Snuggrood, can he slide into the St. Louis blues right away?

I think he's going to have to play. He's just going to have to work. If he works and he gets up and down the ice, I think Snuggaroo is going to be just fine in St. Louis. So those are the two I'm most excited about seeing make the transition this week. In both those cases, two coaches I'm really high on that I feel like are going to do a really good job of putting these players immediately in a position

to succeed, both in the lineup and in terms of just like all the habits. Imagine Leonard's time on. You mentioned talking to the kids. Caps employee and kind of the vibe around the team right now and everything. I saw a video of the Caps out at a bar. He's like hanging out with Alex Ovechkin, singing bands and maker dance,

their team song. And imagine that timeline. Like you're in college and then 24 hours later, all of a sudden you're just hanging out at a bar with Alex Ovecgin. What a whirlwind ride. Life's amazing. I think he's going to be awesome. Yeah.

Okay. I think our final question, we'll see if we have time for one more at the end, but which team is the biggest disappointment this year? Now, this is a final one because you could take it any number of directions, right? I think it's entirely dependent on your personal expectations or perspective. Also the timeline because some of these could be TBD heading into the postseason and us worried about red flags right now on them.

Some of them could be like them just being completely out of it already. What do you think are the best cases for most disappointing team for you this season based on what you expected from them heading in? There's two in the West for me. And one of them is obvious. It's a team that I had being a team that could compete for the Western Conference title. and that's the National Predators. With all the moves they made in the off season with Stamco,

some March is so Brady Shea, I said, okay, UCSarles is going to put this together in the back end, and then Roman Yosey man, this Nashville Predator team, they're ready to be back. And then they weren't. And this is one of the worst teams in hockey. And I think that, for me, was my personal biggest disappointment. And the other disappointment, you're going to love to hear this one is the Vancouver Canucks.

They know, one step away from the Western Conference final last year. And to see all of the issues and turmoil this team had on the ice and off the ice, and injuries. And I really wanted to see Thatcher Demko step into a new role this season. He's a guy that can compete for a Vezna Trophy. When he plays, he's unbelievable. I had this Vancouver Canuck team

easily making the playoffs in the Pacific Division. And I think this season is just one that they would rather forget in Vancouver. So those are the two teams I have in the West. Who do you got in the West? The prize are obvious. 30th and point percentage this season. They were 12th last year.

And then they went out and spent $185 million on July 1st. And they're right up there with the sharks for me in terms of like the teams that you'd most want to play right now down the stretch just because it's the easiest two points you're going to get. I had the Canucks, of course, as well. They've got a 10% playoff odds or so now. It's a combination of how ugly the playing style is. The off-ice drama, of course, everything that's happened surrounding the Canucks this year. I just think from start to finish, it's been a miserable experience. and that's unequivocal.

My TBD was the Edmonton Oilers. And that's why I said sort of expectations, right? Because there are goalers who away from winning the Stanley Cup last year. We'll see how they fare in the postseason. When McDavid comes back, I'm not going to write them off. But we spoke about the dynamic in a King series in round one, the way they've looked recently. They're getting an MVP season out of Leon Dreisaitle in the last year.

he's going to be an $8.5 million player. He's going to go up to 14. Next year, next year is the last year of McDavid's deal. This was such a huge year for them to win the cup. And you look at how they've played, and especially the offseason they had, right? Where you lose Holloway and Broberg, certainly, and we've spoken about how good they've been for St. Louis.

You lose Ryan McLeod, who's been one of the few silver linings in Buffalo. You lose Warren Fogle. You mentioned his grit. I mean, he's got 25 on five on goals this year. He'd be second on the Oilers in 5.15 scoring just behind Leon Dreisaitle.

McLeod would be third on the team in 5-1-5 points. They look so much slower and less scaled on the wing. And a lot of it was self-inflicted errors and they legitimately got worse while they're in their cup window. And so a lot of that could be quickly forgotten if they look like themselves again in the postseason. But for right now, I feel like it's been a disappointing one

they're what like 10th 11th 12th or whatever uh in point percentage right now that wasn't where we're expecting them heading into the year the Rangers as well I would argue right like somehow still alive in this eastern conference wildcard race a couple points out despite the fact that I think there's a compelling case to make that they've been the most like unprofessional on ice product I've watched from a not a truly terrible team this season like they have better players in their record suggests yet you watch them play and it's just not really a functional NHL style and they're still getting

by. So I'd say they're up there as well. But yeah, there's a couple really interesting cases to make for most disappointing team. Yeah, Edmondson doesn't run the first round there in there for sure. The Rangers, again, another team I said that could win the East. And with the team they had assembled in what your expectations were, Schisturkin's

in a contract year, he's going to have to play elite to get the big money. Well, he gets the big money and they trade all the guys away that I thought we're going to help them get to the Eastern finals again. And then they disrupt it. As many of the problems you talk about the Vancouver Connects in their room, and that might have been player-driven. May not.

I don't know. I'm not in that room. But the Rangers did it to themselves. I mean, that was management. What are you doing? They blew up their own room. And so all the difficulties they had to even be talking about the Rangers even being close right now, is surprising to me.

But when you watch them play, on paper, they're right there on points. But we watch them play. They're not there. I'm sorry. They're out in the first round if they sneak in. Detroit and Buffalo, I kept waiting for the Izer plan this is the year. This is the year. It's the year.

Ottawa, Buffalo and Detroit. It's the year. Finally, Buffalo stinks, so it's not a big surprise. Ottawa takes that step. Ottawa's in the playoffs. Ottawa's in. In Detroit, we were expecting to be there. McClellan takes over.

They go on this run. Detroit's there. They've been a disappointment. Pittsburgh, sorry to everybody. Pittsburgh is what we exactly thought they were going to be. I don't like the way the Pittsburgh Penguins are built. I didn't like the way they were coming into the season built. I didn't think they made enough changes.

I think they're too slow. I think they're too old. So when you talk about disappointing, this is who the Pittsburgh Penguins are. Yep, that's why I said expectations are very important for framing this question. We actually do have a couple more minutes here. So I'm going to quickly get your take on one more question. It was specifically for you.

It says, I'd love PD to talk about how team scout slash prep for their playoff opponents. What do they look at? What don't they look at? Yeah, this is hard. And it's hard for teams. I tell you who's liking it right now is the Evanton Oil or an LA King video guy because they know where they're playing. And when you have 10 days to prep for a team, you can get into the week. And what I mean by that, when you have several teams, you have to scout, you're going to go back through how you played them during the season, how your games went.

But you're going to go deeper in every goal that they've given up over the last 10 days, 10 games, every goal. They've scored over the last 10 games. How are they scoring them? We're getting to the neutrazone. How are they forechecking? How can we beat that forecheck? So you're going to be very deep into their systems, like very deep. You know, hey, on this third line against the Minnesota Wild, every time we rim the puck, we get out.

And so you're going to be line specific. you're going to be player specific. Hey, when this guy's on the ice, he's going to cheat to the offensive side, our weak side D's got to step up. Hey, so in your meetings, you have time, you have three or four days of meetings.

You can prep all of these little details. Faceoffs become incredibly important. Faceoffs in a game, one three, 82, unfortunately, you don't have time to go that deep. You just can't. You can't study how these teams is scoring

and getting opportunities off the faceoff or how they're exiting in the defensive zone on faceoffs. When you're getting ready for a team for the playoffs, you can go super deep on how this team is exiting, the zone so you can prepare. But I tell you what, that's preparing for game one.

You prepare for game one. You'll spend two, three weeks preparing for game one. And then you have 48 hours to fix it all for game two. So this is incredibly important. And it's easier for the teams that have fewer teams to match up. Imagine having to do that for three teams. And you've got to go back through their entire season. And then a lot of that's, well, since the trade deadline, they've played this way.

Before the trade deadline, they played like that. When we played them in December, they were doing this. And you have to be ready for. every eventuality on game one. And from game two through seven, I still believe, and I said this to you before, games two through seven of a playoff series shows who can coach in national hockey, period.

If you can make adjustments in 48 hours that can change something that you got beat or that you were able to take a exploit in game one, and you can either maintain that or fix it for game two, that's when coaches are born. And that's when I say, okay, this guy, wow, look what they've done to their neutrals on. Look how they're changing, how they get to the net. look at their power play chain.

Like that's where a coach becomes a coach. And for a video guy, there's not much sleep in the next two weeks because you have to get all the stuff on paper. All the analytics you talk about, they've got to go through every one of those for every player, every line, hey, this line when they're out, they do this. It's exhausting. And this is difficult.

But the video coaches make a difference right now. This is their time to shine and this is when they can make a difference in how their team's performing game one. Shout out to the video coaches. Really well said, PD. that was awesome. All right, we're going to get out of here. I'll let you plug some stuff on the way out.

Let the listeners know where they can check you out. Tell them about the inside the coach's room. I know you had, you're obviously doing all the goal breakdown and stuff, and that's really cool, but you also had a nice log interview with Bill Armstrong as well. So let the listeners know about that. Yeah, check out inside the coach's room on YouTube. I'm trying. Demet, you know how this is trying to do this all by yourself.

I do try to give you the perspective of watching hockey through the eyes of a video coach. I break down goals. All of always chase is going to. to be on there. But I also teach you the game. There's so many people that got into the four nations that they need to understand the game, the rules and how to watch a game. I've got a 20 minute video up there for brand new hockey fans that if you want to get into the playoffs, check that out. And we're going to have some more interviews coming up and just grinding out and it's S. Peters hockey on X. So check it out. Awesome, buddy. Keep up the great work.

Like I said, I think last time I had you on, I'm very excited for the postseason for a variety of reasons, but one is to have you on now as a regular guest and kind of be breaking this stuff down and going through all the goals scored and all that fun stuff. that you do on the YouTube channel. While you're on YouTube and you're subscribing to Inside the Coaches Room, make sure you subscribe to the HockeyPedioCast channel as well. I'm working on a couple new mixtapes. They were going to post extended cuts up there.

Go smash the five-star button and leave us a nice little review as well, wherever you listen to the show. And that is all from us today. We'll be back tomorrow with our pal Kevin Woodley talking goalie. So that'll be really fun. Thank you for listening to the Hockey, podcast streaming on the SportsNed Radio Network.