The Hockey PDOcast - One Stat for Every Team Heading into the Olympic Break

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Shayna Goldman to highlight one important stat for every NHL team heading into this week's Olympic Break. 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.

Progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Philipovic. Welcome to the Hockey-Pedocast. My name is Dimitri Philpovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Shana Goldman. Shane, how it's good on. Hey, thanks for having me. So we had a fun show ahead today.

You know, last time I had you on, it was right before American Thanksgiving, and we did this gimmick where we just bounced around the league, rapid fire style, covered every team. At that time, on brand, talked about what each team was thankful for. at the time, we've got about two games or two nights left on the NHL schedule before the Olympic break, and then we'll be off until February 25th. The roster freeze is now in effect. We'll talk about the resolution with the Panarin saga and he's straight to L.A.

when we get to that section. But I wanted to summarize where we're at right now, get a snapshot of the league. And so what we're going to do is we're going to go through every team in the league, and we're going to give one stat for each that essentially kind of breaks down either where they're at so far in their season, maybe highlights a key development or something we just think is cool. It can be on an individual level or on a team level. We split the teams up evenly 50-50, 16 of them each. I tried to as fairly as I could give us a nice balance of good and bad teams amongst us. And so we're going to go division by division and break it all down. Let's start with

the Atlantic. And I'll give you the floor here for your first Atlantic team. And then we're going to go through all of them as we go from Atlantic to Metro and then into the West. Okay. Let's start with Florida, right? Like, let's start with the reigning champs. One thing that's stood out to me so far is that Profishe's goal saved to have expected is a minus 7th in 38 games. It is the sixth worst in the league, I think, and Tarasov has a goal saved off expected of

7.4. So that really stands out to me because we've seen kind of middling, regular. season's from Brobrovsky over the last couple of years. Like we, I don't want to say expected at this point, but we know he gets through the regular season and turns it on when it matters the most and he's playoff Bob, which has taken on a whole new meeting. But you have to get to the playoffs. And I think the big question for the Panthers coming into this year was, could they turn

that on sooner than the playoffs? Because we all kind of knew come new year, whenever they were to get Matthew Kachach back, it was like, that's going to be the time they're going to have to really make a push for the playoffs. And it feels like they're all kind of struggling, but the goaltending is a big part of it, that I wonder if we see them start going with maybe a more even rotation, that might make sense at this point. Take a little off Brofsky's played.

He's played a lot in the last few years. Maybe that's contributing to it with the consolidated schedule. I just look at it and go, if you're the Panthers, you need a lot more from him if you're going to get back in the mix. I doubtably, I believe he has a 900% percentage just once in his past 15 games since December 15th. And with the well-documented scoring struggles and all the forwards and Seth Jones, that have been out, they've needed better, and Teresovs clearly outplayed him.

So I do think that's a pretty logical fix, at least for the short term. You're going to get some time off, so maybe he'll come back and be rejuvenated post-Olympics. But that's a good one. I've got the Tampa Bay Lightning, their Florida counterpart, and I wanted to highlight Darren Radish. Now, the reason why I think he's so compelling is we've seen teams really change their approach on the power player over the past couple years, right? Everyone's kind of shifted from the traditional old-school way of just, like, having defenseman at the top of the umbrella, hammer a shot as hard as they can into traffic and then

try to get a rebound from that. Now teams are much more deliberate and thoughtful about working it down low, trying to use that either triangle or get it into the slot the way a team like Dallas does better than anyone. I think Tampa's had to adjust their powerplay one because Braden points either been out available or not at his usual level for a lot of the year. And so instead now they essentially just try to set up that Kuturov on the half wall to Radish one timer. And it's such a throwback He's such a throwback. One of my favorite stats this season is NHL Edge has him at 62 shots of 90 plus miles an hour. The second highest total is Evan Bouchard with 38 and he's the only player.

Over 30. Two more of them on Tuesday night in an exhilarating game against the Sabres led to two huge goals. And the third one was a rebound for Bjork Strand in the power play. The other one, he hammered home himself with the empty netter. Mike Kelly had this stat where he's got 12 of his 17 goals are one-time variety. and that's twice as many as anyone else in the league. And so I love watching him bomb away right now. He's got the hardest shot in the league,

and he's one of the biggest threats in the league from a distance, and it helps that Kuturab is the best passer in the league as well, and it seems like he's just serving it up on a silver platter for him. And I think enjoying having that option, right? Because for years we saw Hedman there, and he's a left shot, and so it makes that one-timer a bit more awkward to facilitate, and now it's just bread and butter for them, and they're just going to time and time again,

and it's been wildly effective. Who knew that Darren Radish was going to be the right shot that they've needed? Because that's been the focus in Tampa Bay, right? You lose Stephen Stamco's, you don't have the right shot from the circle, and it feels like they've been trying to replicate that. But what a time for this to happen to him. He's like a pending UFA this year in Tampa.

I already said, like they're not thinking extension right now, like they're focusing, and it makes sense because who knows if it's sustainable, what's that going to cost? And they have, you know, some long-term plans to figure out, who knows what they're going to do at the deadline. And, you know, maybe they bring in someone they want long-term. Like, I like the decision to wait on their part, but he's been exactly what they needed in that power play over the last month has been sick.

And you look at it, you know, I think we're all wondering with headman back now, he's played two games coming back on Sunday during the outdoor game, whether he's going to step back into that spot. And he might at some point down the road, is there smart to ease him back in with his workload. But we've seen Radish continue in these two games. I believe he played like 30 minutes against Boston and then 26 again against the Sabres and had 20 combined shots and those. And so why mess with a good thing while it's working right now?

All right, you're next up. All right, let's go Detroit. And I was a little bit torn on where to go with this, but then inspired by their last game, that really great win over the abs. Let's go with Maurice Sider. He's a plus 14.2 net rating. That's ninth in the league,

fifth among defensemen. And it is powered by a plus 9.1 defensive rating. And that number stands out for a million reasons, because when he is on the bench, this team looks a lot different. He's crushing it with Edvenson on a nightly basis and with him injured, you're still seeing how he is, you know, the guy of that pairing, right? He does a little bit of everything.

He can block past. He retrieves. Poxy-block shot. Great positioning. He can be physical. And he's chipping in offensively a lot more this season. You saw it last year with the power play as well. To me, this is someone that is like Norris Calver without a doubt and is going to make a really

interesting fight for that award, too, because Cal McCarr is where the award has been trending in recent years and that all-around threat. but that all-around threat that has a lot of offensive pop versus someone who's an all-around threat but has more of a defensive slant, totally different conversation. And honestly, with the way the Red Wings are in the standings, like, he should be getting some heart trophy hype.

Like, he should be, I'm not saying he should necessarily win the award, but I think at this rate, he's showing he could be top five on the valley. You see him head to head against McKinnon the other night. And while the aves had the advantage in shots, like in terms of quality, he helped keep it even. And he was so good that entire game at the year, like a 61% expected goal rate in those had 10 minutes. And Detroit was up 1-0-0 in scoring.

So like, let's keep getting that hype going on a national stage. And, you know, heading into the Olympics, it's always interesting who's going to get the attention. Obviously, it's going to be USA, Canada, Czechia, teams like that. But when you're on a team like Team Germany where there's not a ton of NHLers and Germany doesn't even have to win against the Canada or U.S., but if someone can have a standout game, say Leon Dreisaital scoring or goals against Canada, Canada, that's going to, you know, you're going to take notice of it. If Sider can help limit the damage in his minutes against those really big teams,

it'll be interesting to see how, if at all, the national conversation kind of ships more towards him because he's earning it more and more every game. He's been phenomenal, doing it in such a high volume of minutes and now doing it without Edmondson around as well. I think it's just been immensely impressive. All right, let's stick with the theme of big defensemen that are dominating. And I'm going to go to the Buffalo Sabres. And Mattia Samuelson's glow up offensively has been a revel.

his first five years in the league, seven goals, 43 points. This year alone, 11 goals, 34 points. His 11 goals are tied for the eighth most at the position, 27, 5-15 points, is the fifth most. They're up 64 to 44 in his 5-on-5 minutes. During this stretch where they've gone 21, 4, and 2 since that December 9th turnaround, he's playing 2420 per game, which is just behind Rosam Stalin for tops on the team, and they only really functionally use four defensemen for the most part, and they've been leaning on him a ton and you could see it in that game against tampa that was so fun and i referenced twice already because i enjoyed it so much he was flying around uh scores the two goals had a beautiful backdoor setup to pey and crebs that just missed and i just feel like his feel and touch

has been totally different than anything i saw like i loved his range and his reach and some of the defensive stuff and he's still doing that but i didn't really see these types of offensive chops in his game on his tape previously and he's just kind of blown away my expectations for him so There's so many fun things in Buffalo right now, but he's near the top of my list of reasons why they've been so successful. Yeah, I love that one. He's been excellent this year. And, you know, that contract's really team friendly. It was one of, there was like that trend at the time when you saw guys like, you know, Josh Norris and Stutz.

So I think they were jumping out of these big, you know, seven, eight year extensions right out of the gates off their entry level contracts. And he didn't have a ton of seasoning, but he also got one. But it was in a much different price range, you know, it's what, four and a half, four, two, five, something like that. it's a contract that you can have is that third pair guy. So even though he had a tough last season, it's like, okay, but that contract can still work out in the long run. And I mean, he's definitely outperforming it now. Okay.

Let's talk Leafs. Let's get dramatic. We're not doing middle fingers per 60 as much as we all want to. Let's talk about their penalty kill, which right now ranks dead last in the league with 11.74 expected goals against per 60, which is something else. the goal attending is saving them. I think they're only allowing, it's like 5.44 goals against per 60,

which is huge difference. But it stands out for a million reasons. One, this team was really good at killing penalties last year. They had a really aggressive power kill in recent history. It's not that long ago. Lane Lambert ran the penalty kill last year. The other part of it is you think about how much the Leafs have changed direction in recent years and what they've prioritized

and it's being hard to play against and being more defensively responsible. And you hear all of that touted. And then it doesn't, you know, come through on the penalty kill. And while your goalie is technically your best penalty killer, you don't want to put this much on them on a nightly basis, especially because they've been without their number one for a lot of the season too. So it just,

it's a problem. And you can see it like Derek Laland is running the penalty killed this year. And while yes, he did a great job with Tampa Bay, one back-to-back cups, it's so interesting to see how his profile has changed. Because I was curious when he was in Detroit if it was just going to be a matter of maybe this is someone who's meant to be more of an assistant and associate versus a head coach.

And we could see him get back to his strengths of just being a good, you know, penalty killing coach. That's what he built an original reputation for. And it just doesn't seem to be the case. And, you know, Lane Lambert used to be in that role. I think we were all kind of facing that same question with him after his time is Trots, you know, number one assistant for so long, struggling with the Islanders. And now he's found his footing in Seattle after getting a chance to go back to his strengths

with the Leafs last year. So that's super concerning for me when you look at how they've built this roster. It's interesting that they made a change for the power play coach, but not the penalty kill coach. It just feels like if any team is craving an entire overall of the coaching staff, it's them. Certainly. All right, Montreal Canadiens. So last couple of games, and it really started last week with this game against the abs, which they look great in. We've seen Marty St. Louis make a bit of a switch with his deployment of his pairs where he started playing,

Lane Hudson and Noah Dobson together much more regularly 5-1-5, and then using Matheson and Gully to face the other team's top line with Suzuki in those match-up assignments. And right about 185-1-5 minutes of Dobson and Hudson playing together this year, but 35 of them have come in just the past three games. They're up 16 to 6, 64% shots, 65% expected goal share, playing with the Demidov-Slovsked Slavkovski line as kind of a five-man unit recently. and I love the idea of a team like this leveraging two of your best players of the position

to just create mismatches and really kind of double down on the edge you have in the offensive zone. Similar what we see with like taves in the car or some of these other top pairs in the unit rather than splitting them up, just kind of loading them together and maybe it's not a long-term thing or you want to use it situationally moving forward.

But for the time being, I love seeing them kind of bank more reps together and it's been as dominant as you'd expect. And so for a really fun, high-scoring have, seem, it just adds another sort of, I guess, option for them moving forward. And I've really enjoyed watching them together. And I'm going to be curious to see how much more we see of it, especially heading into the postseason, because I do think it's something that if you're playing against them, it's going to be really tough to deal with and almost impossible to win those minutes.

And that's a huge edge for them. All right. Let's stick with high scoring. And talk about the Boston Bruins, which is not a sentence I would have expected to make heading into the season. You know, we know they have one of the best players in the world in David Poshna. But the rest the roster kind of lacks, but here they are scoring 3.32 goals per 60 in all situations this season, which puts them eighth in the league. If you look at just 2026 alone, in all situations, they're scoring four goals per 60. Five on five, their goal scoring rate is second in the league. The expected goal is a little bit lower at 11, the 11th best ranking, sorry, and you expect them to kind of outperform that with Pachanak, but maybe not have that trickled

down through the whole team. Then the power play is doing a lot. lot of work with it. They're scoring 13.5 goals per 60 on the advantage in 2020. It's second in the league to the Tampa Bay Lightning. And their expected goals is actually slightly higher in his first in the league. It is not what I would have drawn up for the Bruins. But their season has been honestly fascinating. They've had so many swings in both directions. We saw them in the beginning of the year coming out, winning these high scoring games and seeing Swamen lock things down on the back end. But now they're giving him goal support. I mean, listen, you're putting up five against the Tampa Lightning in the stadium series game. That's impressive alone.

because Timba Bay has one of the best defenses and goaltending in the league. And here they are. So if the Bruins are going to stay in the playoff fixture, it's going to come down to whether they can outscore everything else. And I like their chances right now. Do I think it's the most sustainable strategy of five on five? Maybe not. But I am so intrigued to see how they approach the deadline because it did feel like they

have this really smart retooling plan and started it last year. And they're bringing in some young blood. Can I see them go completely off course and go, you know what, we're in the playoff picture, let's just start buying and get kind of radical out here? 100%. And kind of here for it. I just want to see what happens. They've been so fun to watch offensively to your point about coaching. We've seen it with Dan Hughes in Pittsburgh. I think Markle's terms done a phenomenal job. Obviously, the players are all playing very efficiently, but they're doing a lot of stuff in transition and off the rush that I think is leading to some of that. And watching guys like

Fraser Vinton take the steps they have as well, I think it's been really rewarding. So I love the shout out for their offense there. We'll end with the Atlantic Division here. got the Ottawa senators. I just did a deep dive on this team with your colleague Julian McKenzie, who by the way at the end of it told me to say hi to you, so I'm passing along the message there for Julian. We love Julian. He just to hammer at home, and we talked about it a lot there, you can't overstate how ridiculous the divide between their defensive process and underlying numbers and the results they've gotten for it have been due to the goal tending and the inability really to just get a save with any kind of regularity. They've got an

872 save percentage amongst all their goalies this year, the league average, as low as it is, is 896. If they had just been getting league average goaltending this season, they would have given up 33 fewer goals against, which would put them in that essentially Colorado, Tampa Bay tier, atop the league defensively instead of where they are in the bottom 10. And that's incredibly tragic because their first or second in expected goals against, depending on what are going to look at. They don't give up shots.

I mean, their last six games, they face Colorado, Carolina, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, and Vegas. And those are the first second, sixth, tenth, and 12 teams in shots generated this year. And they held them to 19, 20, 18, 27, 16, and 18 shots combined. And went four and two. In the two games against the Canes, they gave up eight goals on 37 shots against. And so it's been a nightmare for them. And it's a big reason why they're on the outside looking in and one of the few Atlantic Division teams that's really struggling this season. Okay. Let's shift gears and get into the Metro, you've got the first team off the board. Okay. Let's talk about the Canes.

We all know they're one of the best teams in the Metro. We expect that every year. But they were without Jacob Slavin for a lot of this season. And I think they managed much better than expected. Goaltending had a lot to do with it, the strength of the system. But at the end of the day, I don't think we were getting true Keynes hockey enough without Slavin in the fold because as much as they've turned over this roster in the last couple of years, they're able to do that because they have these two

amazing cornerstones of each position. It's Aho and it's Slavin. Since Slavin's return though, I feel like we're seeing the best version of the hurricanes this year. And in a short time, he's already earned a 63% expected goalery. And they're only allowing two expected goals against per 60

and two goals against per 60 in his minutes. And those are both the best on the team at five on five. And they're generating a ton in his minutes too. So it just, it ranks really highly. It's a reminder of what a step shut down defenseman he is. He gets hype about it, you know,

in the playoffs, when people remember him or like when Four Nations comes along and, you know, he's going to be an important part of Team USA at the Olympics here. But it's just a reminder of how important he is. Like, the Canes might be winning games without him in the lineup, but nobody fully replaces Slavin. Like, he to me is

everything and more. Like, the hurricane's backbone and allows them to kind of have iffy goaltending at times, right? Because he's so outstanding in his it. So that's just like the picture of consistency. And I think about what they're going to do in the second half with him at full speed. And I think we could really see some separation in the metro. Yeah, that's what makes it so impressive that there's still atop the Metro and at top the East, despite all the injuries they had in the back end. And kind of even when he came back, they were really easing him back in and managing his workload and sitting one occasion. And so it's wheels up from here for them. All right, Columbus Blue Jackets. Since Rick Bonas took over, they've got a nine and one record to pull within four points of the aisles for third in the Metro. They've got two. games in hand on them. They have two head-to-head matchups against the aisles in February and March.

And so they're very alive. They're up above 50% playoff odds right now. Certainly picked, not to discredit any of this run, but, and they did beat Dallas and Tampa Bay along the way. It was a pretty good point of the schedule to do so. They played a bunch of home games, I believe, seven of the first 10 under bonus and beat up on teams like the flames, Canucks, play the Blackhawks, the Blues. Defensively, though, just 24 goals against. in 10 games. They really essentially evened up the goalie distribution towards the end of DeAnvison 10 year. We saw Jet Greaves starting pretty much every night. I think he started like 24 of 33 games during one point. It's been 50-50. In fact, I think Elvis has actually played one more

start than him so far and has played much better than he had previously. It's a fun story. I'm very happy to see the Blue Jackets back in, you know, consideration for the playoffs and playing like they did last year. I guess one of my issues is like I don't love some of the usage stuff necessarily because we've still seen guys like Barankov and Ken Johnson not getting the minutes I think they deserve bonuses relying on veterans. As you'd expect, we're seeing a lot of Matthew, Olivia. Charlie Coil has been phenomenal and deserves all the minutes. But I'm curious to see how this goes once the schedule gets a bit tougher for them. But it's been a really fun story so far. Yeah, I'm definitely curious to see like how bonuses defensive structure is going to help the goaltenders too because greaves plays a

ton like if his workloads lightened on a nightly basis will that help him sustain this across full season because we haven't seen that happen yet but the usage is definitely an important point because we know coaches have their tendencies um okay so I'm with new coach this year totally different vibe totally different energy let's talk Pittsburgh penguins um let's talk about abgeny malkin because to me, there's so much going right for the penguins right now, right? Like the goaltending, I think they're finding a little bit more consistency somehow. And the penalty kill has been a great, great advantage for them. They hold their structure well. They don't allow many chances against. Sydney Cresby still Cresby. They have Rust back. Raquel's healthy. But Malkin playing at this

level is, to me, like the biggest difference maker from year to year. He's scoring at a rate of 3.68 points per 60. It's a combination of him scoring more on the power plan at 5 on 5, and it's his best scoring pace since 2017-18. So it's a last year with contract. I don't think any of us know what the future holds for Malkin for the Penguins, but it does feel like he's making a very good case

to go for it again next year. They can somehow maintain this. It's this really interesting mix of like the new with the old there, and it feels like we're seeing that. Crosby can have anyone on his line and make them gold, but you're seeing this like new look connection now with Chinikov and Malkin. And it's, it's just great for them to have this one-two punch and to have a much deeper approach. And then you have something like Kindle who can, you know, carry that third line.

I think the Penguins are one of the biggest surprises of the season. And Malkin might be the biggest reason why. I mean, there's so many to choose from two. He's been phenomenal. And him and Chinikov, the chemistry, they have Ben Kindle, certainly, Manta and Brazo. There's been so many fun moving parts there. All right, the Philadelphia Flyers. I'm going to talk about their power play, which is 26th in the league this year in terms of efficiency.

I guess it technically represents an improvement considering they were 30th, 30 second, 30 second, and 32nd the previous four seasons. But it's a team that still obviously needs to get better at it. We know how they struggle to score goals. And in particular, you know, Matt Bay Mitchcoff has been a big topic, a discussion, a very hot button one here recently with his usage and relationship with the organization and with Rick Talkett. And you look, he's seventh on the team in PowerPlay Ice Time. per game playing two minutes and five seconds out of the 450 they get per game and that's down about a minute from last year and I do feel like a lot of this just wouldn't be a big topic if they were just giving him more usage there not that he's necessarily been incredibly productive

but with that skill set you figure that's probably their most realistic path towards creating a few easier power play goals and I'd like to see that ramped up a little bit really feels like this is Tockeet, being stubborn, digging his heels in. Also, we know coaches, you generally use power play time to reward players for how they're playing elsewhere. And so maybe that's part of it. But if you are concerned about his cardio or what kind of shape he's in, that's fine at 5-1-5. I do feel like on the power play, though, it's less of an issue. And that could be an easier outlet for them to get more out of the player, keep everyone happy and get better results along the way. So I'd like to see that fixed a little bit down the stretch here. Yeah, I definitely agree with

you, especially because just getting power play points alone, like we see that as a confidence booster for young players, right? Like, it's two very different paths. A lot of prospects take and usage has to do with it just to get a feel for scoring more consistently. Like, it can go a long way. All right, let's talk about the Rangers. And the Rangers with Adam Fox specifically. So I'm going back through November 30th. I know we play the 31st of December, January 2nd, and part of the 5th, but we're going to group it all. Since he first left the line. of the Rangers have a minus 29 goal differential. And I know goal differential isn't anything,

but the great Saracivium uses it as the perfect vibe check for teams. And I have to agree with her that if you have a negative goal differential, I don't want to give you the time of day. Minus 29 is pretty awful. It's terrible relative to the east. I know the West, you know, the blues and the Canucks are almost double that. So, you know, that's a tough go for them. But you see the difference in the lineup with and without Fox.

And while not, you know, there's only some. many defensemen that have his all-around skill, and I know his stock took a hit. If four nations, I've heard it incessantly, but you can't have it that one defenseman leaves the lineup and everything crumbles, right? They were having scoring issues in the beginning of the year, not finishing their chances, but at least they were creating some looks, right? And the defense to start the season wasn't that bad because Gavrokov and Fox were eating really big minutes. And you also had a healthy Shasturkin, which you didn't have for part of the time Fox was absent. But with Adam in the lineup, you just see how

poorly constructed the rest of the defenses, right? Like it gets Gavikov and then everybody else below that. That bottom four does not have much upside, much puck-moving skills. That's a huge miss. And that's why someone like Scott Morrow getting more consistent minutes is a good thing for them. So at least you can learn on the fly because he has a little bit of that in his game,

even though it's not near the ceiling of an Adam Fox. But you really can't have it that if one player leaves the lineup, everything falls apart. and it feels like the Rangers were held together by glue to start the season. And then without him, it's just been a disaster. You're telling me Adam Fox is good. He's short. Stuff I've seen.

He's slow. He's not loud and brash enough. You know, it's always so interesting to hear the comparisons. Like I think about Nikita Khrushchev a lot and how he gets compared to McKinnon and David and sometimes doesn't get the credit that he deserves because he's slower and methodical. But, you know, it works. It works on defense. he might not be Quinn Hughes. He might not meet Caleb Carr, but guess what? No other defensemen in the league are

or Kim McCar or Quinn Hughes. Certainly. Okay, the Washington Capitals, I think people who are listening to be not very surprised to hear me highlight Justin sort of there here. First couple months of the year, he was an analytical darling, driving, sparkling results five on five under the hood, but he wasn't really producing. I believe he only had three goals, nine points in his first 34, 38 games since New Year's Eve. nine goals, 17 points in 16 games, both lead the team. Fifteen of those 17 points have been primary. He's drawn nine penalties. In that time, him and Leonard have combined for 19 between the two of them now with the state of

the capital's power play. Maybe that's not as big an advantage as you'd hope for, but still reflects a player who's a handful to deal with with just how he moves and how smart he is out there. They're up 17 to 8 in his 5-on-5 minutes. Pretty much when he's been out there with at least one of Protis or Wilson, they've been dominant and that gives them a legitimate top of the lineup type of difference making line. And so he's been a revelation for me, been phenomenal, really stepped in in the absence of Pierre-Lucuba and has been one of the bright spots and an otherwise perplexing capital season.

Okay, we got one more Metro team each year before we go to break. So I'll give you the floor for the Islanders, I believe. All right. How about Eli Seroken's 44 goals saved 12 expected to lead the league? He has 27 quality starts so far and 34 appearances. is 79% of his games. He has been fantastic. And he's an interesting one when we did player tiers originally. We had him ranked a little bit lower than he should have been. And every single person we talked to had glowing reviews of Ilya Seroquan.

And, you know, just a reminder of what he's been playing against. Because I think a lot of people forgot how much the Islander's defense dipped after Barry Trots left. They tried to get more offensive. And, you know, as much as we know him to have that identity of being a stingy team, it just really hasn't been the case in recent seasons. As much as the instant impact of Petroquois helped tighten things up still just wasn't there. But Sorokin has been fantastic behind that team. And now this season, it's a completely different style.

They're much more rush-oriented, which sometimes leads to more dangerous looks against. You know, the five-on-five defense is not perfect. The penalty kill is not where it should be. Their bottom five in the league and expect the goals against. And Sorokin just continues to hold it down on a nightly basis and give this team not just a chance to win, But like a chance to be a playoff team when we didn't see that being a possibility considering

their retool either. This is a kind of goalie who could not just steal some games, but steal a series. So it's going to be interesting to see how the Islanders move ahead at the deadline with that in mind because when you have a goalie in his prime playing at this, you know, level, you want to take advantage of it, I would imagine. And he's just been lights out every single night. And, you know, speaking of, we mentioned before the Leafs and their penalty kill, It's interesting that it's Bob Boosner running that PK on Long Island after running the Red Wings last year, too.

So the goaltending is doing a lot to mask what's going wrong in front of it. It certainly is. I'm going to end with the New Jersey Devils here. I don't know why I keep being stuck with these guys and why I do this to myself. But alas, they got shot out on Tuesday night by the Blue Jackets. If you for some reason watched that Blue Jackets Devils game as opposed to focusing on Islanders, Penguins or Sabers, Lightning. I'm so sorry. That shutout dropped their 5-1-5 goals per 60 to a league worst, 1.8-9.

I went on evolving hockey and at a quick glance. There's been 584 seasons since 2007-2008. That is the 30th lowest total, and four of those 30 were during shortened seasons. They played 56 games, 0-5-1-5 goals 13 times, 1-5-goal, 19 times. Today, before the roster freeze. they acquired Nick Bukstad, and it's hilarious how low the barred are clear for improvement is because theoretically he's replacing Luke Lindenning. And you're looking for any other team, you'd be like Nick Bukestead's been on the ice

for 1.3-5-15 goals per hour this year. That's not good. He's not going to give you anything offensively when he's on the ice. And he's replacing Luke Lendening's 0.84 515 goals per hour, so it actually is an improvement in that regard. So I guess take that with a silver lining if you want. Okay, Shana, let's take that. take our break here and then when we come back, we're going to jump right back in.

We're going to get into the West. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.O. cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back in the Hockey Pedyo guest. I'm a Shana Goldman. We're bouncing around the league, giving one stat for each team that encapsulates their season so far. We did the East before the break. We're getting into the West now.

Let's start with the Central. What's your first pick? All right. Jason Robertson has a plus 62 goal differential in all situations, which is second in the league to Nikita Kuturov, who has been on an absolute tear. Jason Robertson, to me, has been one of the most valuable players in Dallas all year because when they opened the season, the power play was doing a lot for them. He was contributing to that. Fire on five offense was really lacking, and that was part of what got them eliminated last spring.

Their offense was underwhelming against the Jets, but they made it through, and then it really burned them against the Oilers. So Jason Robertson was the driving force behind their offensive uptick at five on five, as much as Ransom and why Johnson were contributing. A lot of that was more power play-based. So it's an interesting situation because the stars are obviously all in. They should be. I think Jason Robertson takes a lot of flack for his game undeservingly should be on Team USA. Should be a long-term player on this Stars team. I think the playoff struggles get overhyped sometimes.

I think he was actually really good last year when he was healthy enough to be in the lineup and make a difference. He stood out at time. So it just is a reminder of just how good he has been offensively. He's more than just a good shooter at this. point in his career. And he's someone that I think deserves a lot of credit for what he's doing in Dallas. This is supposed to be one of the best contenders in the world, you know, to the abs. And we, we all expect to see, well, the wild, they're shaking things up. But, you know, like, a lot of us expect to see Dallas versus Colorado around two. And if Dallas is going to do this again,

I think Robertson has to be a part of it. So with his contract situation in mind, I feel like he is probably the most interesting player to track in Dallas. I'll go with the Utah Matt and John Marino. So in their last game on Monday night against the Canucks, he plays 18 5-15 minutes. Utah wins those minutes 4-0. He registers three assists. He's played 17 games since the holiday break. The mammoth are up 23 to 2 in his 300 5-on-5 minutes for the year. Him and Nate Schmidt as a pair played 650 minutes together. The mammoth are outscoring teams 48 to 19. Now they're getting great percentages as you'd expect with those numbers at both ends of the ice, but they're also dominant in terms of chances, expected goal shares. So they've been a phenomenal pairing

for them and a big reason why Utah is my clear pick for Wildcar 1 in the West and is going to pose a very tough round 1 matchup for whoever wins the Pacific essentially. All right. Let's go at Minnesota and let's go with Quinn Hughes, who has been on the ice for 5.46 goals per 60 in all situations in Minnesota. We think about the wild. We think they're pretty mild most of the time. Good defensive team.

They don't thread the needle enough offensively. And Quinn Hughes is completely changing that. he has 32 points in 25 games. The team is outscoring opponents 60 to 34 in all situations at 5 on 5. It's 40 to 28 in his minutes on the power play. There was a little bit of a burst in the beginning and then it slowed down, but the power play is back on track again. They're generating a lot more on the advantage when Quinn Hughes's quarterbacking play. And I just feel like he is one of the best defensemen in the world, obviously, but he is elevating Brock Faber.

he's elevating this team's power play at five on five he has such a dynamic skill set it's showing on a nightly basis every single shift he's on the ice he's just in so much control it was such a smart addition for the wild to go for it and now i'm fascinated to see what they're going to do because i you know i think this team still needs a little bit of help at center do they finally go for it and make bold changes which they really haven't done you know in years since maybe the fiala trade right like i can't think of any other like true blockbusters but you know in between fiala and and Quinn Hughes, that it feels like this year and next year are their best chances to go for it until a contract is figured out for Quinn Hughes and he's been everything and more for them.

He certainly has opened up their power play so much. And Brock Faber, you can tell, is having a very good time thriving offensively next to him and all the opportunities that's created. The Colorado Avalanche, you know, I had Brock and Allison. I've talked about it a lot, his goal scoring. He's top five in the league since essentially mid-November. I think more topically, though, you know, a lot's been made of Colorado's kind of relative struggles since the new year, how pedestrian their 500 record was in January.

And I think a big part of it, and listen, haven't had Gabe Lannisog for pretty much all of it. Devon Taves just came back. But I feel like Duane Taves's absence really hurt Kail McCar. And this is holding him to Kail McCar's standard of being by far the best defenseman in the world. And he was a prohibitive nor his favorite. Since then, 15 games since the new year. They're up 15 to 12 and his 5-15 minutes. So still winning them, maybe not to the degree you'd expect or they would.

were previously, but the expected goal share has dropped to 48%. The high danger chances are 59 to 40 in favor of the opposition. Been a bit sloppier defensively. Isn't scoring the way he normally does, especially on the power play. It's really been a year-long trend. We've talked a lot about Colorado's struggles and why they're dead last in powerplay efficiency. When he scored 30 goals last year, he had 12 power play goals, and it wasn't just stuff in the point.

He was attacking downhill and getting into very dangerous areas. He's getting fewer shots on target there this year. from less dangerous areas, way fewer chances, and he's only scored two goals on the power play in 53 games. So it's Kelmikar. He's going to turn it on

and start scoring goals. And this is a blip on the radar for a team that's pretty clearly cemented atop the league. But I think that does explain why their numbers have been a bit below what they were in the first, whatever,

40, 45 games. I like probably a minute. Could have gone one former Islander, but let's talk about the other. All right. Winnipeg Jets. Have an 18% chance of reaching the postseason according to Dom's model.

And there's a lot that goes into that. You know, the defense has not been in a stout as we know them to be. And, you know, obviously not having Samberg in the beginning of the year and Lowry contributed to it, but it's still not as good as it should be. Their offense is underwhelming. They're outscoring expectations. They were in October. They're back to doing that again.

The goaltending can go a long way. But you look at this team and I think it's going to be a really interesting deadline for them because they don't. have the brightest future. They really don't have the best long-term outlook right now, and they have to be realistic and figure out what can they do to turn their fate around, right? Like, the best teams that figure out when Teresa will do it at the right time and take a proactive approach and it can, like, save them from needing a more dramatic tear down. So while the Jets could try to gole their way into the playoffs, they'd be one of the worst five-on-five teams to make

the postseason. Those teams generally don't go on long run. So really underwhelming stuff in Winnipeg this year. It'll be really interesting to see if management can change course from their usual tendencies. They tend to take a more quieter passive approach. You could say that's what they did this offseason to be nice instead of saying it was just outright bad. So yeah, I'm going to be interested to see if they can turn this around and start reloading for next year because it just feels like even if they were to slip into the playoffs, this is a team that just cannot do much damage if they get there. 18% seems very generous. I know that the West is open, especially for the wildcard spots, but man. We're a screysm.

from the bottom of the barrel there. Okay, then National Predators. So Stephen Stamco starts the year, one goal in his first 14 games, four goals in his first 22 games. Since then, 23 goals and 33 games. Only McDavid has more than him. He's tied with McKinnon for second most in the league. The 20-70s now matches total from his entire first season in Nashville. He's tied for 14th in the league, I believe, with some heavy hitters like Dreisaito, Reinhardt, Shifley. And most importantly, I think what's changed and helped us bounce back is he's just working harder around the net and in tight. Like he's not necessarily just standing in the left circle waiting for that patented

one-time bomb. He's getting in tight. That's reflected in the high danger attempts that are way up from being down last year. I believe he's top 10 in inner slot shot goals tied with his teammate Ryan O'Reilly. And that's the way Nashville has to play to be productive offensively. And I'm excited because, you know, if he keeps scoring at his pace the rest of the year, he's going to come right there, neck and neck and neck with a ginnla and sackic all time with 625 goals and he's going to start getting into some rarefied air after hitting 600 this year.

It should be in the 700s already if he didn't have all those leg injuries and tie missed for a variety of reasons, but he's still going to get there. And so it's been awesome seeing him turn back to clock and be a lethal goal score again. Yep, definitely agree. All right, let's go to Chicago and let's talk about Conrad. He has 126, 20 plus mile per hour speed burst this year. And that's, if you're missing a lot of time. Last year in total, he has, had 70. It is one of the most noticeable differences about his game is what work went into his

off season. I think he made the right decision to just like season and did start getting prepped for this upcoming season and work on his skating because he's much more dangerous off the rush this year and we're seeing him get to the quality areas where he can let his shot do its damage.

His shot is incredibly dynamic. He's such a great offensive threat but I think a lot obviously has been made about his production relative to his draft slot. It's just what comes with being a first overall pick. But when he's in the lineup, the Blackhawks feel completely different. I think it was so clear when he was sidelined how much they missed him. And it's a big reason why. If this is what he did, you know, at this point in his career already to take his game up a notch, I really want to see

what he has in store for this upcoming off season to take his game to the next level in the next year. Certainly. Let's end with the Central here with the Blues. You know, Doug Armstrong, joins the Blues organization before the 0809 season, I believe, becomes their GM after a couple years. They've got the succession plan where he's going to become the president of hockey ops. Alex Steen's going to take over as the GM full-time for next season. And the reason why I note that is in those 17 years, the Blues highest pick has been 10th overall when they took Oliver Duvorski a couple years ago. And really, for the most part, their first pick every year has been in the 20s where the high teens at the best. They're currently sitting in.

31st place in the league, which gives them the second best lottery odds. It guarantees the top four pick now with the state of the Rangers. They're going to have some stiff competition for that, but they've done a phenomenal job of stealing defeat from the Jaws of victory this year with some very suspect goaltending. And if they, as has been rumored, trade guys like Falk or Shen or even a bigger one like Rob Thomas or Kyru, certainly, they're going to be very live for a top five pick. And it's a team that's clearly not the second worst team in the league in terms of personnel. They're going have a lot of cap space. They've got young players coming and already playing at the NHL level. And so I think they can turn this around pretty quickly and get back to where they've been in

the past. And it might just be a one-off. And it's probably for the best for the organization to get that type of talent at the top of the draft. Okay. Let's end with the Pacific. Who's your first pick? All right. Let's stick with the bottom of the standing. Let's go with the Vancouver Canucks. The only team to have a worse, all situation goal differential than the Blues are the Canucks at a minus 58. They have a 22% chance at the first overall pick. And that would be huge here for them some luck because, oh my God, do they need it? I feel like anything that can go wrong in Vancouver has gone wrong over the last year. You know, you can debate the Quinn Hughes return all day. But at the end of the day, it just feels like this team

needs to completely tear things down. Some of the contracts are tricky. Demko's extension, you know, is coming up. And he just can't stay healthy. It's so. unfortunate to see. The offense has underwhelmed. The addition of Phil Piedel to the JT. Miller trade, it's like, it's such a tough one. And I keep thinking about again, because he came back into the lineup for what six games and he's sidelined again. He has so much skill and so much potential if he can stay healthy. But the fact that they have two pretty important positions, 2C and 2C is even more important in Vancouver because the 1C position isn't where it should be with Pedersen, but you're in theory starting goalie as well to have those durability concerns.

It just feels like it's so easy to see it become like a house of cards and everything just come crumbling down in Vancouver. And you know, you look at the coaching this year and the systems and all of that seems to lack as well. So good luck Vancouver. Good luck to management there. It's it's so chaotic. It's so entertaining at least, but it's just it's kind of said. So I don't know if this front office. has the traps to do what they need to do around that. Yeah, if anyone needs a franchise changer to at least inspire some hope and give people a reason to tune into their games, it's them at this point.

The Anaheim Ducks, the only teams who generate a higher shot volume than Ducks this year are the Aves and Hurricanes, about 30 shots on goal per game, 64 attempts. And their two leaders are 22-year-old Carter Goce, 20-year-old Beckett Seneca. And I want to focus on Goce in particular because he's on pace for 37 goals, north of 300 shots on goal. he's third in the league and shots on goal behind McKinnon and McDavid, fourth in his attempts, first on a permanent basis. And him and Seneca have been so good when they've played together.

I know they're not necessarily playing full-time together right now, but it really gives them a legitimate offensive building block moving forward and has been so exciting. And I just love watching Cutter Gochier shoot the puck. And I said he's on face for 37 goals. I expect that to be the floor for him moving forward. Like he can rip it and he shoots it at such a high volume that he should be 40 plus moving forward.

And so I think very exciting. exciting for this team's offensive upside moving forward. Yeah, definitely. All right, let's go Vegas. Let's talk about Mark Stone, who I think two of our, one of our favorite players in the league, right? Like, everybody loves Mark Stone. He brings it offensively. The defense is elite, the energy.

No one loves scoring goals more than him, except for maybe Alex Ovechkin. Right now, he has a plus 12.7 net rating. I think we're seeing the best regular season we've seen for Mark Stone in a minute. And he did miss time this year, too. And, you know, when he was sidelined, you look at how that power play was faring without him. And it felt like they, that power play was a lights out when he was in the lineup. And they tried to get Marner to play his role and it just wasn't working out. And, you know, he plays his position so well that he was able to feed past as a hurdle

and D'Orfiev consistently. And they were beating goalies night after night. As much as it looked like a drawn-up play that seemed pretty predictable, it was still unstoppable. He's so smart, so deceptive. But I, I'm very curious how he is going to look long-term on Mitch Marner. 's wing with Marner shifting to center because they've been trying a couple different combinations for that second line. On paper, Marner has all the skill in the world to be a good center, I think.

And you know, you separate him from Eichl and then you have two lines with really good puck distributors and, you know, that'll allow hurdle play 3C and they can still keep that deep approach they'd have if Wild Bill was in the lineup. But the one issue is that line with Marner at center. Sometimes they had some defensive flaws in a couple of the different combinations right now. It's Dorothy of Marner and Stone. and I wonder if he can be that stabilizer, right, that can allow both of them to play at their sulky levels.

We've seen it in years' pace. You go back to the Golden Knights, like very early on, and it was Chandleri, and Mark Stone, and the wingers were able to do a lot to make Chandler-like a Top Sixthenter when he really wasn't that. So, you know, it doesn't have to be as dramatic here, but if he can be the one that helps that transition for Marner,

so they can solidify their play up the middle and really throughout the top nine. BLE Kings. Now, I'm not going to talk about Panarin for them here because we've got a proper trade breakdown coming on the feet tomorrow with Harmon Islands. We're going to get into that fully then and unpack all of it after out a bit of time to digest it because it happened right before we went on the air. But boy, do they need his infusion of offensive talent and creativity. I've talked about how this team just does the absolute bare minimum. And there's probably no better encapsulation of the state of the West in the Wild Guard Division than the fact that they are currently 7th the West by points percentage and just one point.

out in terms of total points because they've got 14 regulation wins, which is tied with the Rangers for second fewest, four wins only by three plus goal margin, which is tied with the Canucks for dead last. Their games essentially are always tied and generally one, one or two, two. And so having someone with game-breaking talent and juice like Panarin, I think is going to go a long way. And so I'm very excited to talk more about that and examine all the machinations, but they desperately need it because right now it's just been a tough watch and they've been about as mediocre as anyone in the league. Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? Here's a team pushing him for that playoff spot, the Seattle Cracken. None of us saw that one coming.

And I think the goaltending goes a long way there. Philip Grubauer has rebounded this year. He has saved almost 24 goals of David who have expected. He is seventh in the league. And the fact that he's playing this well is allowed for them to have a more even rotation between him and Joey accord and it's exactly what this team needed honestly because the defense they're getting better it's the offense they're outscoring expectations but like they're not the most thrilling team on a nightly basis let's say so if they can have steady goaltending it goes a long way and i think it's a big reason why they're fighting in the pacific division for these playoff spots i i think that they have that potential to be a disruptor for a team like the kings or you know someone else that we expected to be

in the fold, right? Like, say the mammoths slip out somehow, or if the predators have a chance of jumping in, the Cracken could be the one to end that. And I think that's just kind of been their identity since the beginning of their franchise, really, is just that disruptive energy. And now it's the goaltending to, you know,

you have Decord who has been good, pretty consistent over the last couple years, but to have Grubauer, who has been really rough at times and between injuries and just his level of play, you think back to that first year and a reason they played so poorly was that the few chains that got past their defense he was not coming up with timely saves i know his game against santa him wasn't perfect but it just feels like a much better foundation for the crack and to kind

of build forward with definitely okay the san Jose shark celebrini is fourth in the league in scoring he's on pace for 123 points in his age 19 season and if you look at it especially you know within the context of the team he's got a point on 48.5% of all shark's goals, a primary point on 37.7% of all shark's goals. That's pretty much right in line with Connor McDavid, who leads the league in scoring and stacks up favorably to McKinnon and Kuturov. Now, you know, all these guys are phenomenal. Those guys have more to work with, I think, around them than Celebrania. I think that's fair to say. And he's been downright exceptional as far. He's going to drag them as far as they're going to go this season. And the West, as we talked about,

is wide open. So I know they took a bit of a step back on their past couple games, but he's must watch every single night and it's been clearly a top five player in the league. So I think incredibly exciting moving forward. We're down to our final teams here, respectively. So we're at the finish line. Who's your last team? I guess it's the Oilers, right? Yep.

Let's talk about Zach Hyman, who, you know, last year we looked at the Oilers and McDavid and Drysaller are doing their thing every single night. But the supporting cash really lacked. And it started at the very top with Nugent Hopkins and Hyman. And while they rebounded in the playoffs, which was really important, obviously them losing Hyman at the end there was just a total killer. They needed both of these players to come into the air a lot stronger because there were so many other depth question marks around them that you can't have it that you're starting at a

disadvantage with your fourth and fifth best players. And it feels completely different for Hyman this year. Last year he scored at a pace of 1.92 points per 60 in all situations. He's already up to 2.83, which is much more on target for what I think, you know, the Oilers have expected of him. And while that 50 goal season, obviously was a. bit of an aberration. Like we don't expect him to be at that level. I think it should have reset and recalibrate our expectations for him because, you know, since he's been in Edmonton,

the shot quality has gone up a lot. And this is someone that tends to score below expectations. Some years, you know, it'll be his risks and snapshots. It's the biggest gap between reality and expectations in the league. So that finish is always a problem. But when you're playing with Connor McDavid on a nightly basis, your shot quality is going to be even better because you're probably getting some of the best setups in the world. So we look at seasons past and his expected goal total is around 50 or 57, right? Last year it was down at 41, which was a, you know, pretty significant dip, especially because it was only in 73 games. This year, in 38 games, his expected goal total is already at 31. So yes, he's below expectations, but it just shows

that he's generating more this season. I think that's a big reason why we're seeing him already with 22 goals compared to 27 last year in total, is that the shot quality is there, the more he's generating chances, the, you know, higher percentage chance of him scoring on him because he's not the perfect finisher. All right, the Calgary Flames. I had some McKenzie Uighur stats. I feel like that's way too depressing a note to end today, Sean, show on, because I think we generally have been pretty optimistic and highlighting bright spots. So let's go with Zach White Cloud. He comes over in the Rasmus Anderson trade. He's played seven games since arriving his usage, as you'd expect, playing with Kevin Ball was bumped up pretty significantly from where he was at in Vegas,

20 minutes and 11 seconds per game 5-1-5, nearly 23 minutes, all situations. And they're getting outscored at 5-on-5 with him on the ice, partly due to the talent level around him, but they're crushing it in terms of the underlying numbers. And I'm excited to see him in this expanded role. I think he's a phenomenal player. I'm going to keep until we get to the trade deadline. I know we got a roster freeze right now, but I'm going to keep fantasy booking him on all these other contenders because I feel like you'd be a perfect second pair right shot for a lot of these good teams. And so it's nice to see him thriving and playing as well as he has over the first couple weeks in Calgary. All right, Shane, that was a lot of fun. We ran through the entire

league, hopefully brought up some nuggets that are pretty enlightening for people in terms of where teams are at right now heading into the Olympic break. I'm going to let you plug stuff on the way out. What are you cooking up over at the athletic? I'm going to have some Olympic stuff. And I'm also been working on a series of like the best and worst case scenarios for like up and coming players. So next one is going to focus on Slavkovsky and Shane Wright, which I'm excited about just how much Slavkovsky has grown and kind of what's gone wrong for Shane, right? Like I'm excited to look into this one a little bit deeper. Well, I will certainly be reading, keep up the great work,

and looking forward to having you on again soon. Subscribe to the PDOCs Patreon feed if you want extra content. As I said, we got Harmon coming on tomorrow to break down the Artembe Panarin trade to L.A. I had a sense deep dive with Julie McKenzie that I referenced earlier. Also talked about Darren Radish off the top, a big newsletter feature on him and everything he's doing in Tampa Bay. So a lot of good stuff there. Give us a five-star review wherever you listen.

And that is all for today. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPedogast streaming. on the Sports Network.