The Hockey PDOcast - Our Updated Midseason Watchability Rankings

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Pete Blackburn to do a midseason update of their Watchability Rankings, ranking all 32 teams in the NHL based on the entertainment value they're providing us with and the reasons to tune into their games right now. 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 P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey Peeo cast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Pete Blackburn. Pete, what's going on? How are you, buddy? Doing great. I'm excited to have you on. It's been a while since we checked in with each other. And I thought a fun exercise to close out the week now that everyone in the leagues played about 40 plus games or so would be to revisit or revise our watchability rankings from the start of the season do a bit of a mid-season update based on where we're at with each team at this point of the year. I feel like I don't know if you feel this way, but obviously what we try to watch as much hockey as we can on on a nightly basis sometimes, like last night, for example, where

there's 10 games going on at once. It could be a little bit difficult. You've got to pick and choose, and I think that's where this type of exercise is going to prove most handy. But it feels like we're at the point of the season out for me where I'm pretty comfortable, despite how muddled the standings are in terms of my evaluations on who I enjoy walking. watching and who I don't particularly. And as we get into the stretch run here towards the Olympics, I'm kind of whittling down my list of teams I'm prioritizing, either because I enjoy watching them or because I think it's going to matter

as we hit the stretch run and we start talking playoffs just so I can get more viewings of them. Or you feel the same way compared to like the start of the year where you're just kind of drinking through a fire hose and essentially just trying to watch every single second of every team not knowing what to expect. Yeah. Yeah. Like I still, obviously with the standings being as close to they are,

you kind of have to keep an eye on more teams than you'd honestly like will want to at this point because they're all a little bit relevant. But there's definitely a list of like who I know I enjoy watching, who I am prioritizing and who kind of has a lot to show me in terms of like what I need to find out. So it feels like we're at a pretty good place right now. I will say like I broke mine into tears and there are only a few teams. teams that I would consider like unwatchable this year or like the lowest tier of watchability. Yeah, it's all relative. Definitely pretty much every team, although maybe with a couple

teams we start, there's fewer reasons to tune in, but everyone's got at least something, a team like the Jets, for example, we're going to get into who have obviously completely dropped down my list compared to where they were last year, even at the start of the season. The top line is so fun to watch that you kind of just out of respect, have to tune in just to see what. Shifley and Connor are going to do with the way they move the puck. But we're going to go from 32 to 1. I gave you some homework to put your list together. I tiered mine as well.

And so we can kind of lump teams together because sometimes it's personal preference. They're kind of subjective and a coin flip and a team being a couple of spots lower or higher. Doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's just part of the tier they're in. Let's start at the bottom though and work our way up. And hopefully we won't spend too much time on the bottom teams because the top ones are so fun. And I want to really get into them a bunch. here, who's number 32 on your list?

Or do you want to just go with like the bottom tier that you have for however many teams earn it? Yeah, I didn't really assign like particular numbers, but there are only two teams here. And I feel confident saying my 32 probably if I had to assign a number to it would be the Calgary Flames just based off of like where they are as a team. And the fact that there's not, it's not a lot of high event stuff going on over there. And, you know, they're lacking, you know, real. true superstar guys who you can kind of even if they stink and they're young there aren't that

many guys that I'm looking at to watch calgary games calgary games four and just the product itself is a bit lacking at this point i have a bottom tier of two teams as well i did split them up because i felt like i needed to have a 32 just to plant my flag as the least watchable team and that's the Vancouver Canucks for me. I genuinely post-Quinn-Hughes trade cannot sell you on a single thing worth tuning in for right now. I guess aside from if they go into a shootout and Kevin Lankin's in net, seeing if he can keep the street going where he stopped all 17 shootout shots he's face so far, which is probably

one of the most remarkable stats going in the league right now. But I want to pose a question to you that's kind of reflect why I have the number 32. Could you guess who their leading score at 515 this season is? I mean, Sherwood fell off after his start, but is it key for Sherwood? It's not. Their leading 5-15 score in terms of points is Linus Carlson with 16 points. Now, it's been a great story here locally, right? The run he had for the Abbotsford Canucks helping them win the Calder Cup last year

and then earns himself a nice little two-year extension last week. So it's a great story for him individually. But I think halfway through the season, that being the stat that I throw at you kind of tells you everything you need to know. they don't have a single player on pace to hit 50 points by the end of the season. Elias Pedersen missed some games, so that's why. But it's pretty bleak. Now, Crickie for sure, I know he's one of your guys,

and it'll be fascinating to see where he plays down the stretch, and that's going to decrease their watchability even further if you remove his energy from this lineup. At least now, like, on the top unit power play, he's just firing whenever he wants to. I think he's generating like 10 shot attempts per game recently. now regrettably, he got a couple assists in his past two games, which is hurting his Sy Young resume. I think he's still on pace for 32 goals and 11 assists. But I don't know,

I find this team not only the talent level, but in particular, like, they're bad defensively, but they're still, and this is maybe a credit to the coaching staff where the players involved, they're still trying trying to kind of grind out games as if they are competitive and ultimately losing because they don't have a lot of good players. But it's not necessarily even like a fun back and forth environment like some bad teams typically are where you're trading chances and getting in these high scoring games

it's just ugly all the way around and they've been the worst home team in the league this season and after they finish this road trip they're going to be at home for an eight game homestand in front of an incredibly bleak environment where the fans are checked out and it's half empty and so

there's not a lot to get excited about there I had the flames 31 and I honestly think they deserve to be higher because I actually enjoy a lot of the players on this team individually and even you watch on Thursday night against your Boston Bruins where they wind up losing, they still play a pretty high event, high volume game, right? Like they're generating a ton of shots themselves.

They're giving stuff up. It's not necessarily like this plotting, just completely miserable offensive environment. They just have the least talent in the league right now. And so they can't score goals and Dustin Wolves often hung out to dry. And so that's why I have them 31. But whether it's Coronado or Zeri or down the lineup, Clapka and Longberg, like I actually enjoy more individual players on this team than I do on the Canucks right now is just the entire talent pool is so lacking at the moment. Yeah, I mean, that's a

fair way of putting it. I don't want to say like I don't enjoy any of the guys on that team. Like Clapka is his game against Edmonton hockey night in Canada a couple weeks ago was electric and so like it's not unwatchable. It's just they're not getting prioritized over basically anyone at this point. And what else say about Vancouver is that you're right. It's bad. It's, horrible. It's bleak. But there is a car crash element to Vancouver that I am tuning in for on certain nights where it's, I got to know what this looks like. I got to know what this team's trajectory is. And even though you lose Quinn Hughes, which was probably the number one reason why you're tuning into Vancouver Canucks games, you know, they still did have an element of like, well, now I

want to see what, what Bouillon is going to be for them. You know, Ogrin had a pretty good start when he came over. So, like, there are elements that I do. I want to know, like, and like from a Sherwood perspective, like, yeah, his production's falling off. I want to know, like, if I'm still an idiot to be a believer in him being like a piece that really moves another team forward or whether, like, his price and free agency that he's going to command might be worth it.

So, yeah, like, I still have Vancouver on. my list of interests. The other team that I threw in my last year, and this is probably a little bit of recency bias, obviously, but like the Jets aren't really doing anything from you right now. And you mentioned the top line. Yeah, the top line's great, but like as it's been for, you know,

even going back to last year, it's, it's kind of sad that basically their entire team runs through the top line and the goal tending. And it's just, it just hasn't really been there. And even their top line, like,

for as good as they are, they don't bring a ton of energy, I would say, in terms of like, they're just kind of business-like. And from an entertainment and watchability's perspective, it's great from just the hockey sense,

but the product itself in Winnipeg right now is not very good, obviously. I was watching them against the Oilers on Thursday night, and there was a point in the game. I think there was like six minutes left in the second period. They were up 14 and 11 in shots. They were up three one. Logan Stanley,

Logan Stanley drills one off the bar and it would have been remarkable if he scored because I think that would have made him the leading goal score on the team aside from their three top line forwards, which is a story in and of itself doesn't go in and from that point on you have to go to like five minutes left in the third period and at that point the shots were what like 29 14 oilers so they didn't get a single shot on goal in the next 21 22 minutes a game time gave up three goals in that period and blue yet another game. They're 07 and 4 in their last 11 games. Last 30 games.

They've won just six times. And the wins during that stretch are they beat the Canucks, they beat the flames, the two teams that just had at the bottom of my list. They won at home against Columbus and Washington, which are more impressive wins. And then they beat the predators when the predators were at their absolute basement and the sabres right before they rattled off this winning streak. And so they haven't beaten a team that's been playing well in a long time now. and it's incredibly ugly.

The top line is still doing their thing, but you can feel the energy being drained a little bit, especially after Shifley didn't make Team Canada. And they're just, they're getting nothing from the other three lines essentially. And they're at the point now where they're 25 points out of third in the central. The aves have twice as many points as them this season. And so it is absolutely hideous now for the oldest,

slowest team in the league. I had them 29 on my list. I had this tier after the bottom two of, of three kind of disappointing teams that I would have had higher previously but because of the way their seasons have unfolded and watching them play,

I just from a personal preference perspective, dock them and that's the Jets at 29. I had the Los Angeles Kings at 30 and we can get into that. I'm curious where you have them and then I had the New York Rangers at 28. How high did the Kings make your list? Because you're probably not

as agitated watching them on a nightly basis as I am. I think that is an assumption on your part because I am I agitated watching the Los Angeles Kings. They made my second to last tier, which is like, I would say fairly, like, not unwatchable teams, but teams that I would classify as kind of disappointing or boring at a lot of different points. The Kings are definitely disappointing and boring in a lot of these games. I don't like their style of play.

I don't like the slog that they kind of put you through. And it seems like they shouldn't be that far off. But there's just something about that team and the vibes around it and the system in which they play that nobody really looks like they're having a good time. And I think I'm at the end of my rope with the Jim Hiller experience. And I would love to see a change there because that group is on paper a lot better than the quality that they bring to the arena every night. that's the thing they're still sitting in a wildcard spot so it's not like the bottom's fallen out from a result perspective but i just find like what they are and what they choose to be right now to be so deplorable compared to the personnel they have and what they could or should have been at the very least based on the assets they had a couple years ago half their games so far they failed to get to three goals so they scored one or two 23 times out of 42 games they finished with zero or one five on five goals they had this thing going with a power play where they finally get dowdy and Kopitar off of it and use their five best offensive players and finally start scoring goals. And it's like, I'm glad this took 40 games to figure that out.

Brand Clark is awesome. I was watching that game. And we're going to talk more about Celebrini and the statement he made in that one a couple days ago. But Brand Clark was one of the best players on the ice throughout that one. I think the shots on goal in his 5-1-5 minutes were like 15-1, L.A. Yet he's still just not as playing nearly enough for being featured as a focal point of this team. Quinton Byfield is playing a lot.

you still see like the speed and the rushes and his impacts are good and he drives play and draws penalties but he just does not want to shoot the puck nearly as often as he's able to in terms of where he has it on the ice and I was watching them against Tampa Bay and they blew that one late last week and it was like if you need a crash course on why I'm so disappointed by the Kings just watch that game because Tampa Bay who's the best coach team in the league clearly did their homework and they're like all right this team's defense corps has no puck moving ability aside from Clark. And so every time they get it in their zone, they're going to try to go off the glass and out or go up the wall and never actually try to do anything ambitious in the middle of the ice. And so they just kept just sitting on the wall

and just intercepting passes and keeping it in the zone. And it was just an absolutely brutal watch from a King's perspective. So I had the Kings and Jets here. And then I had the Rangers as well. Part of that is, you know, Foxx and Shusk in her out now. They've obviously been, especially at home, one of the worst offensive teams in the league. It feels like watching their games. You're going to get a couple moments of brilliance from Panarin, where he creates something off the rush, and it looks cool with an East West pass,

and it leads to a scoring chance or goal. But if he's not creating, there's not much there. And I do wonder if they keep losing in their 24th in the league in points percentage right now. If they sell him at the deadline or choose, you know, not to sign him this offseason, of course, how bad it's going to get from an aesthetic perspective following that. And so maybe it's me getting a little. preemptive here anticipating that, but I just feel like the disappointment in watching them play and the results and everything kind of fit nicely with this tier of teams that have obviously

not been as good as we expected heading in. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at as well. And I have them in this second and last tier. I also have Columbus, which is surprising and really disappointing to me because it was huge on Columbus last year and, you know, sort of the energy around that team. and I love a lot of the players that they have on an individual level there and like yeah maybe you could say there's you know should be some emotional regression maybe built in with that group

but they just haven't had the same sort of like energy and buy in this year and it's been disappointing to watch because it felt like they were on the cusp of maybe pushing through and now like I kind of look at you know some of their pieces and say like what needs to change and I don't know what the answer is but it maybe it's just a

down year but I've been like super disappointed by Columbus and the fact that I haven't really enjoyed them much this year. I would say the same to a certain extent about the Ottawa senators where it felt like they were ready to push through and yeah like they they were dealt a bad hand with the kachuk stuff and you know the goaltending has not been anywhere near where it needs to be and that's an easy way to explain. this off. But Otto was another one of those teams that seemed like they were knocking on the door and then here they

are big step backwards and now you wonder if it was just kind of a flash in the pan last year. Yeah, I still had Columbus a bit higher. I had them at 20 on my list just because Wrenzki is still so good and worth the price of admission and Marchenko as well and in Vegas

he scores one of those vintage goals where they kind of just throw the puck up the IAC, they're off the wall or try to like hit it off the back wall and he just skates into it and does something cool. off the rush. I think there's elements there. Part of the kind of unexplainable thing for them this season is I don't have the stat right now,

but they must lead the league a number of times. They were up by multiple goals, or especially late in the third period, and just completely collapsed and blew either one or two points in the process, and their season will look entirely different if that wasn't happening for them. I had the senators at 24th on my list. I'm doing

a, Drans and I for our Sunday special this weekend are going to do our tilt rankings in terms of organization. that are on tilt right now, and the senators are certainly going to be prominently featured, and they just got absolutely demolished in Colorado. Maybe we could talk more about that when we get to the abs later in this show. So we're at number 28 right now on my list,

and I had the St. Louis Blues, and there's more talent there than that ranking would suggest. And I do from a car crash perspective, as you noted with the Canucks, enjoy watching Jordan Binnington just get detonated. And then the combination of that and the camera just panning to the bench and Jim Montgomery just looking like apoplectic and not knowing what's going on and his reactions to this stuff going on are the absolute best. There's so much unintentional comedy there.

And I love the yo-yoing as well of like New Year's Eve. They go into Colorado just get absolutely demolished in that game. He gives up six goals against. he goes home, has a shutout against the haves, looks phenomenal, and then gives up seven goals on the road to the Blackhawks and just that up and down nature. I don't like their broadcast. They let the legend John Kelly go this past off season. He went and became the Kings play-by-play guy, and I've talked about this as a personal kind of nitpick, but I hate the Bomberito Romo cam. Every time I watch their games and they go to that for a replay, I'm just like, enough of this.

And so I often switch off of their games just because of that. where'd you have the blues? I have the blues in that second or last tier. So I'll finish off this second and last tier I can run through it. But I'm 100% aligned with you on the blues where like there is an element of you're tuning in because things could go horribly wrong and it could be hilarious or you could actually get a good hockey game. Like that's not a bad place to be if you're going to be a bad team, at least be entertaining.

So I have them a little bit higher. I would say than the teams that I already listed in this tier. But I also have Nashville's in here. Like I know that they've, they've rebounded a little bit. And I'm, I'm interested in Nashville as like, well, this thing seemed like it was really on, on edge of getting blown up and blown to smithereens. So that's honestly when I started to tune into Nashville because I was like, all right, well, what pieces can we pry off here? And where would they best be suited elsewhere? And then they started to become like a pretty respectable team.

And so I've been watching them a little bit, but it's still not an overly enjoyable experience. for me. And then this one feels a little bit disrespectful, but like Seattle really still does nothing for me. And maybe it's because of like the lack of stars, like true star talent they have to build around that I really don't take them seriously in terms of like the bigger picture. But when I do watch them on, you know, certain nights, it's not a bad experience. And I don't think that they are a bad team.

I think there's like a pretty decent group mentality there that provides watchable hockey. And they do get good goaltending. But overall, like, I just, they don't get priority for me because I just, I don't really take them seriously in the grand scheme of things. That's fair. I mean, their results. So November 23rd to December 19, they go one nine and one. They trade away Mason Marchman for a couple of picks. And since then, they've gone 80 and two to jump back.

in the playoff race, yet still offensively, the 31st and expected goals, 32nd and slot shots, 31st and inner slot shots. It's kind of a grind watching them. I have enjoyed Berkeley Cat and finally scored his first NHL goal. And I think it was against the Bruins and he scored a beautiful one as well in that. And so I'm excited to watch his progression. I think there's a lot of fun playmaking upside there. And they still have more young pieces than some of these other teams at the bottom.

But I had them 26 on my list as well. And it's just kind of that low event, kind of grinding it out in nature. that they play with. I had the Predators all the way up at 17th on my list, and I've really enjoyed watching them play recently. They're 14 and 6 in their last 20 games. The top of the lineup is legitimately fun. Ryan O'Reilly still has it.

Philip Forsberg is one of the most creative players in the league. Evangelista's awesome. They put Stampco's there to get him going offensively, and that's 600th goal he scored. It's so cool that it was a vintage one where he's just sitting at the left circle and just hammers one home. And that was incredible.

They're only two points out of about, a wild card spot right now in the West after where they were early in the season. And they just have a lot of guys who can skate well, do stuff with the puck, and they create a lot of offense. So it's giving me vibes of two years ago when they obviously surprised everyone

and made the playoffs. I don't know if they're necessarily going to be that good from a result's perspective, but I think there is more offensive juice here than it looked like there was previously. 25 on my list. I'm sorry to do this to you, but I have the Boston Bruins.

And I think there's elements here that I really enjoy. I was watching that game against the flames, and Pasternac is undeniable. He, the one pass to Linholm was certainly the, probably the top highlight, but he made this play as well in that first period

where he's kind of coming down the left wing and he does this little shimmy shake on cadre and just drops him and then brings it to the net and creates a scoring chance out of that. He's awesome. I like what I've seen from Min Kuzn-Mirad as well. There's guys here that I like and they've exceeded my expectations.

from where they are at in the standings and how good the power play is. But I still look at the roster and in terms of like relevance, long term and where they're going to be at the end of the season, that's what had them slightly lower on my list. Yeah, I mean, certainly based off of what I just said about a few other teams, I'd be an idiot if I said the Bruins or, you know, should be ranked way higher. And I take offense that you don't believe in their big picture outlook here. But I mean, I'm, I'm a little bit held hostage in terms of the way that I evaluate the Bruins because one, I'm a fan, and two, we are coming off of one of the most excruciating, unwatchable seasons of Bruins hockey that I've experienced in my lifetime.

So they could literally feed me anything this year. And if it was even slightly palatable, I would thank them for it. So what I've gotten from the Bruins this year has provided me with a lot of enjoyment in terms of they're playing watchable hockey. The buy-in seems to be there. Marco Stern has had a largely very encouraged. first year, first crack at it with this group that is very much, in my mind, a bridge group. This is not what I expect this team to look like a year from now. So in order to get that buy-in as a first-year head coach, I think it's very encouraging.

And then, you know, this doesn't apply to the team's watchability itself right now, but also the element of watching World Juniors and watching a little bit of college hockey and seeing sort of the jumps that Haygens has made, Ellers has made USA's best two players at World Juniors and Laterno taking a scoring leap at BC this year, which, you know, obviously relative to what it was last year, not that hard to do, but he's been scoring a good amount of goals at BC this year. So like I watch the Bruins with the mindset of like, I'm learning things about what this team is going to become and evaluating them based off of that as a fan. And it has been a very enjoyable experience at times and a

pretty frustrating experience at times as well. And Mason Lurai is made for this list in particular with the highs on the God. Something fun is going to happen for either team. When he's out there, the goal he scores was awesome against Calgary. He's bad. He's bad Evan Bouchard.

Like he's a budget Evan Bouchard, which is a really scary thing to be in the NHL. But like Evan Bouchard is awesome offensively. And like at times defensively. Like what at his best, Evan Bouchard is an awesome player. So when I say Mason Lurie is bad, Evan Bouchard, it's both really scary, but also, like, could be pretty good. Like, I would take that at points.

It just might drive me insane. I think that's generous. Maybe very, very bad Evan Bouchard, somewhere on the spectrum of Evan Bouchard. But I think comparing the two is, is, I get the elements of it, certainly. I mean, the mistakes can be incredibly frustrating. I do think, you know, Marco Stern. I've talked about him and Dan Mews and some of these, like, first time NHL head coaches getting results out of players who you wouldn't have expected

heading into the season. And so I think they're certainly on the right track there. I like a lot of the stuff that he's incorporated in his first year here. All right, let's take our break here, Pete. And then we come back. We're going to jump back into it. Keep going through our watchability rankings at the midseason. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.O.cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right. We're back here on the Hockeypedo cast, joined by Pete Blackburn closing out the week going through our midseason watchability rankings. Pete, I'm at number 23 on my list. And I've got the Chicago Blackhawks. and this was me kind of middling it because, you know, despite this recent run of games where they started finally scoring some goals and getting results and salvaging this stretch without Badaard, and it sounds like he's going to be back here this weekend.

I previously would have had them higher just because I kept wanting to get more reps of seeing Baderd play and grow as a player and how fun he was in the early going. And then how bad it was as soon as him and Nazar went out and how bleak their offense was. So it's kind of middling the two where it's not quite at the bottom. bottom of where they were a week or two ago and also not as high as they probably should be once Badaards firing on all cylinders. But I had to have them somewhere on this list. And so I kind of thought 23 was a nice little, nice little range for them. Yeah, that's about where I have. I had to, they probably gave me the toughest time in terms of how I wanted to place them because they've been pretty, pretty awful, expectedly without Badad and Nazar. But at the beginning of this year, that was really, really, really

encouraging about the direction of this team that those two guys were really driving the bus and producing and taking that big step forward. So seems like Badaard's back tonight this weekend. So, you know, hopefully they kind of pick up where they left off because I was encouraged and I was watching them a bunch and not just out of like how bad can this get kind of evaluation, which is a nice step forward for them. And it's cool seeing Oliver Moore Blossom as well. He made a couple beautiful plays when I was watching on T&T against the Blues when they put seven on Bittington. As I talked about earlier, number 22 on my list. And this is probably generous based on how ugly it's been recently, but the New Jersey Devils.

They're minus 30 at 5-1-5 right now, which is dead last in the league. They're 32nd and 5-1-5 offense. Last eight periods they've played over the past three games, they're down 15 to 1. They're going on the road now, and they're going to be playing on Monday against Quinn Hughes in the Minnesota Wild and that's going to be a spectacle. I just, on the one hand, I think the idea of what this team could be is still probably influencing my opinion in terms of why they're still this high. The results do not suggest that they should be.

Yet there's so many empty calorie black holes offensively throughout this lineup and there's large stretches of games or you can just tune out and not really miss anything. And it's incredibly disappointing to watch. It's been hideous. I'm very curious where they netted out on your list and whether you're higher or lower on them than I was. I'm a bit higher because of the car crash potential. The car crash potential there has been amazing. And maybe I'm a little bit biased because I was in Minnesota this week.

And I was staying with, I went with a friend who is a diehard Devils fan. And I stayed with his parents. And his dad is a diehard Islanders fan. So the Devils Islanders game this week with a 9 to nothing score line. was possibly the highlight of my NHL season seeing that play out. So Devils gave me plenty of entertainment on the wrong side of history in that game. But I would say I think where I'm at right now, I still like I'm kind of holding on to some hope with the Devils because I just feel like

it can't possibly get worse or more unlucky. Do I believe that they're going to be Stanley Cup winners at the end of this season? certainly not, but there has been enough to go wrong, both like last year and in the first half of this year, where you just hang on to some belief that it will not continue to be as unlucky and as porous as it's been over the past several months. I think we're through like 15 games now where the response to the result from Devils fans and people covering the team I've seen online is like, well, certainly this is the end of of this team is currently constructed,

whether it's via trade or coaching change or GM switch, and it just kind of keeps rolling over. And eventually we're going to get to that point. You could argue we already should have gotten there. But yeah, the personnel is a big issue, the coaching. I don't know what to make of it,

because on the one hand, I'm so down on a lot of the players and the way they're constructed as a team. Yet on the other, you watch them against Pittsburgh, for example. And I'm high on the penguins, but man, they made them look so fast as a team. Like, I don't know what,

happened to this team's defensive identity. The offensive woes are one thing, but they're just like not getting back in transition, not covering guys, so many blown assignments. And Sheldon Keith's just losing his mind on the bench. And it's, yeah, we'll see how it unfolds. But I'd certainly bump them down my list from where I had them previously. The next team on my list is the Florida Panthers. And they've played more entertaining games than the 21st ranked team, yet the volume of injuries

is just so tough to overcome. Maddukukukukukukukuk coming back will certainly help. but Marsh hands out now recently. And there's so many key minutes missing for guys who, you know, played exactly the way this team needs to play to be successful. And the results show that in terms of they have games like they had at home against Colorado last weekend where they can put it all together and look like that team again.

And then you have games like on the road in Toronto and Montreal where the wheels just completely come off. And so it's tough to evaluate them now because this obviously isn't the team that they're going to have hopefully by the end of the season. but right now it feels like they're just in complete survival mode and it's not necessarily that entertaining to watch. No, I would I would say that's fair. But it's also like it's one of those teams again where you kind of have to keep an eye on even if it's not, even if it's not particularly enjoyable or at its potential,

you have to keep an eye on it because you just, you know what they're missing and where it could potentially end up. I have, I have Toronto. Like Toronto has been a fascinating, fascinating. fascinating team to kind of keep an eye on because, you know, from my end of things, it feels like this is the team that Toronto fans have been asking for and kind of begging for for years. And seeing it come to fruition and seeing it in reality, I'm certainly willing to bet that they miss what they had a year, two years, three years ago over what the product is right now. And I know like there are certain things that could change. that would maybe put this in a bit more of a positive direction. And, you know, the tan of injury doesn't help. But it's just like, I feel like we're seeing kind of a neutered Toronto Maple Leafs team that is painful. And even as like the world's biggest Maple Leafs hater and lover of when things go wrong there,

I do want to see them be entertaining and hit their like their, their peak entertainment value. And I feel like they've just been a little bit neutered by by Craig Bureubi and the way that he has that team play. Like, Austin Matthews should not be blocking that many shots. And like, I guess I respect the commitment to that element of the game. But I want to see Austin Matthews score nearly 70 goals a year. Like, that's the Austin Matthews that I want.

Yeah, the first 30, 35 games were a tough watch. recently it's been more entertaining. I think Matthew's coming back post holiday break and starting to score goals again and look dangerous off the rush. I think it's been huge. I've really liked watching Bobby McMahon playing alongside him.

They played this and it was a 1-1 game, I believe, and winds up being 2-1 in overtime. But I wanted to shout out the overtime period. They played against the flyers on Thursday night because it was one of those throwbacks to when 3 on 3 OT was first introduced and no one really knew what to make of it.

Coaches were unable to sort of sink their claws into it. And so it was just like back and forth, break away and two on one after two on one until someone scored. And that's what we saw between the flyers and the Leafs. So I think that's really fun. It's ironic that it happened in a game where the two coaches were Craig Barubei and Rick Talkett. I can't imagine they enjoyed that very much. But from an entertainment perspective, it was really fun. I had the Leaf set 18th on my list. So I'm roughly there with you. I had the Philadelphia Flyers next 19th on my list. And it was awesome seeing the Zegris game with the ducks in town earlier this week.

There's been a couple of viewings I've had of Owen Tippett where his heat checks when he's feeling it. He looks like one of the best players in the world and you wouldn't be able to convince someone otherwise if they didn't know what his ultimate, you know, place in the league was or what his season totals were. If you just watch that one game, you'd be like, man, this guy's so fast and so dynamic off the rush, a scoring chance every time he's out there. So I think it's been a massive net positive for the Flyers in your wonder.

Rick Tawket. They're in the playoff picture. I think there's stuff here to be really excited about, but ultimately, like, some of the pace stuff and skill throughout the lineup is the reason why they're not as high as they probably should be if you just looked at the standings. Yeah, 100% on board with that. And like the, the Mishkov of it all has been a little bit, you know, a little disappointing this year, obviously from the outset when he shows up out of shape. And, you know, again, they're kind of one of those teams that you don't fully take seriously in terms of their big picture outlook, but like on an individual level, when you have Zegris with a bit of a redemption arc, and like I'm a huge Ointipid guy, but it is frustrating that, you know, knowing his ceiling that

he's not there a little bit more consistently can be frustrating. But overall, like the Flyers experience year, year to year, I mean, major, major steps forward this year in terms of their watchability because last year it was just I couldn't stomach watching most Flyers games last year. So major step forward and that's got to be a win for them. Certainly. I've got the Utah Mammoth next on my list and this is one of my more disappointing teams from an entertainment perspective because I was about as high as anyone on them heading into the year.

I was already planning trips to go to Utah and spend a week there and just watch a bunch of games during a homestand. And now I'm like, I'm okay, just staying at home, I think for the time being and watching from afar. I mean, Logan Cooley being out for this period, obviously. hurts them quite a bit from a watchability perspective. I think Dylan Gunther in his absence has been phenomenal and he's around a 40 goal pace this year. I think he's going to be a 50 goal score in the future. His release is so nasty and even without Cooley, they're dominating with him on the ice. So I think

that's exciting. There's stuff here to be excited about with the mammoth. But I think from like a playing style perspective, they haven't been as up and down in terms of North South hockey as I would have hoped like they're trying to grind out games a little bit more and they're a very low volume team and you know credits Andre tourney and that staff they're shutting stuff down defensively they're not giving up a lot of looks to the opposition but in terms of like game environment it hasn't been as fun as you think based on some of the personnel they have up front yeah so i i would agree with with the disappointment like i really thought they were going to be one of the more electric teams for better and for worse like the high event it's just that they're really the ceiling has

hasn't been there as much as I thought, at least not offensively. And so a little bit disappointing, but I would have them ahead of Washington. Like Washington, for me, there's just like a lot of magic that's been sucked out of Washington. And obviously last year, I think we all looked at it and was like, this is kind of a perfect storm of stars aligning and things going right for the capitals. And however much of it, you want to attribute to the Evechkin goal race, like that, that made them way more watchable, way more exciting. And, you know, the team really seemed to be bought in and

on the same page and just riding an incredible wave of vibes. That's certainly not as elevated as, as it was last year now. But like still a really watchable team. It's, it's fun to see Ovech can climb that number even higher. But it does feel like with every game in Washington, the stakes are a little bit lower. And the team is definitely not where they were in terms of clicking as a group last year. Yeah, I still had the capitals at 11th on my list, so I was higher on them than that, just because I think their highs are incredibly high. Now the lows have been very low throughout this season, and so it's been very up and down, and it's fitting that it's netted in the 16th best point percentage, so coming out middle of the pack of the league, kind of combining the two.

But I think this next wave of talent, and recently they put together this sort of Leonard-McMichael line, and they absolutely cooked the ducks earlier this week. I think they're so fun to watch. I just love watching Ryan Leonard. I think the sky is the absolute limit for him. Even in that game on TNT against the stars where they didn't play well, he had this moment where like he's at kind of center ice and he's faking a dump in and you can see Casey the Smith coming out. And instead he no look fires a puck on net and nearly beats him.

And he's just got like little wrinkles to his game that I think are super encouraging. Part of the ranking for me here is that they're my favorite local broadcast in the league. I just feel like I'm hanging out with my grandparents and having a great time with them. With them, I love Joe B's goal calls. The bang, the Mike Breen double bang that he uses is phenomenal. I love lockers, like appreciation of the opposing team, something certain Homer broadcasts don't really do where they just act like everything that the other team does

is a fortunate lucky break for them. And everything their team does is the greatest thing they've ever seen. They're very just... I don't know who you could be talking about there. They're just enjoyers and appreciators of hockey. And I love that. Go to Smokin'Halkin. ringside for updates throughout the game.

I love the flair that they have on their broadcast. I think this is a team that's going to benefit a lot from the Olympic break as well. I know that Tom Wilson is going to be representing team Canada and Logan Thompson as well, but I think a lot of these guys are looking a little worn out, and so maybe a couple weeks off is going to do wonders for their skating ability. Next team on my list is the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I think this is such a cool story because the past couple years, they were at the bottom of our rankings.

It was a miserable slog despite Crosby. his productivity. And you watch them now in Year 1 or Dan Mews. And it's this like Frankenstein roster of they bring in Brazzell and Manta. And they get 26 goals combined out of them for $4 million combined in free agency. You've got Ben Kindle out there looking incredibly smooth for a teenager, making beautiful plays up and down the ice. Malkin comes back last night, scores a one-time rip on the power play. Eric Carlson's flying around in vintage form against the devil's.

he looked phenomenal. They have the second best power play of the league. They move it so efficiently there. Speaking of like an older team benefiting from some time off, they come back from the holiday break. They rip off 7, 5, 4, 4, 5, 4 goals scored in all those wins. Since then, they're a top 10 team in the league. And I think it's a really fun team.

I don't really know how to explain it. I certainly should do a deeper dive on them as the year goes along if this keeps up. But I just love watching them play in the way they're playing under Dan Mus. And I think they're certainly just getting the most out of everyone involved. Yeah, I will say I am shocked at how high I had Pittsburgh just because of, I thought this team was dead dates heading into this season. I know everybody has been spending so much time photoshopping Sidney Crosby and every other jersey in the entire NHL. So the fact that it's not extremely sad and extremely bleak and just everybody trying to pry pieces away from them, I will even take that. but this team has been utterly fascinating in every direction,

both good, negative, like there was a two-week stretch where I thought for sure that this thing was imploding because they were losing games in truly unbelievable fashion. Yeah, the Sharks game was insane. Insane.

And I think were they the first team to lose like back-to-back games where they had like a three or four goal lead in the third period? Like that kind of coming undone, at the seams. And then they got it together. Like, obviously you're tuning in for Crosby. You're tuning in for Malcon. You're tuning in for some of these, you know, these veteran guys. But also like you mentioned Kandel, Brezzo, man, like how the hell is, like all of this working when it's like you called it a Frankenstein. Now you add Chinikov into the mix and like I'm fascinated where his career. Yeah. Stuart Skinner. Like guys that I'm just tuning in for to be like, I need to know what is going on with this.

person individually because you never know where they're going to be because they're so streaky. So guys like that are fun to just tune in from an individual level. But as a whole, this team's product is either very good or very bad and I'm into it either way. It's certainly been very good recently. I think they have so much offensive juice. And so, yeah, I wanted to bump them even higher. But I think 15, considering where were we out with them in previous years is a testament to how fun they've been 14 on my list, the Anaheim Ducks. talking about coming undone at the seams.

They've lost eight in a row. They've gone two, 10, and two in the past month, minus 29 goal differential in those 14 games. They're just giving up five plus goals against every game. Seemingly, the old guys on this team, who look rejuvenated at the start of the year, look slow to pucks. The young guys are making the mistakes you'd expect off the puck

in terms of awareness and getting back defensively and reading assignments. Leo Carlson, who last time you and I spoke, we were talking about this next, generation of superstars and his involvement in that. I still think the world of him. But past 10 games, he's only got one assist, zero goals, isn't getting a lot of shots on that anymore.

And I think part of that is like after his start, teams just started kicking him on a little bit more some of the stuff he was doing, just kind of barreling towards the net and through the neutral zone, there's more defensive attention and he's going to have to adjust. And I think he will. But right now it's been tough for the ducks. And part of him might just be like the goal to ending was so good early on that it was papering over a lot of the defensive woes that I mentioned and the offense was good enough to win them games and that's not happening anymore and they've really come crashing back down earth in

the meantime. Yeah, it's been sad because they were legitimately, you know, in the first couple of months of the season, if you had asked me, I probably would have put them number one on my watchability rankings. I was tuning in every night because that forward group is so fun. Their output was insane. And yeah, at the same time, they weren't, they're a young team and a new group that was still struggling to put it together defensively. So all of these games were extremely high event. And they're just electric. And since then, you know, the warts have shown and sort of the inexperience has shown. And so I still, like, I'm still hanging on to the ceiling there.

And I'm hanging on to the individual gravitational pull that allows. lot of those young forwards, you know, present to me. I think that another team that I would put in this, this sort of area is the Islanders, because the Islanders, while not an amazing team overall, like they're very competitive, they're very fun to watch and just the shaper of it all. Like, this year has really been an awesome year for young individual players basically turning an entire team around and making them, not only making them watchable, but really pulling the rest of the group together. Like the impact that Schaefer has had not only on the ice, but in terms of a group and how tightly knit that Islanders team seems to be. And I know that a lot

of those guys have been there for a while and they love playing on the island. But it doesn't show up in the way that it's showed up since Schaefer has gotten there. Like the way that Matt Barzell has been reinvigorated by what Matthew Schaefer has brought to that team has been incredible to watch. And I said this, I think last week, but I can't remember in the last long while a kid who has been as ready on day one for every facet that comes with being a number one overall pick and bringing it the second that he walks into a city, the second that he walks into a building. Schaefer has just been incredible.

He's been so good. I had them 10th on my list, which is remarkable. Our fight in New York Islanders top 10 in the league on a watchability perspective. They lead the league in rush goals. They scored a million of them against the devils in that game you referenced. And you can see some of the shooting ability and countering that they were doing in that. You mentioned Barzell. His performance on Thursday in Nashville was incredible.

Like he was setting up so many great. And that was a fun game between two teams in my high on. It was one-one, but so many chances back and forth. It's been fun watching broadcast, and they've been on a couple national broadcasts here this week. Talk about how, like, oh, the New York Islanders, they're so good defensively and their third and goals against, but they're quite literally the worst defensive team in the league of the season.

And the goaltending has just been incredible from Sorokin and Riddick. And part of that is because of the way they're playing off the rush. But I think people need to kind of reframe their expectations or perception of what the Islanders are in 20. and it's a much more fun team. So I'm right there with you on that. I had the, let's get into our top down.

I had the hurricanes at 13. I had the Red Wings at 12, the capitals as I mentioned as 11. Do you have any notes on any of those teams? And if you kind of disagree or vary with them compared to my ranking? Yeah. So, I mean, I have the sharks as my next team,

which I'll say, I just, like, I know that the Celebrini, the recent run for Celebrini, I think would kind of change things, because now we're talking about a guy who might be in the heart race. And so I'm going to be watching them a lot more.

But up to this point, the celebrini of it all has not made me put them above other teams that I'll watch from a team perspective. Because obviously, Celebrini basically is the sharks, which is fun of itself. But that's why they don't get precedent over some of these other teams. Like the Red Wings, I find fascinating because I really don't know where they stand. Like they could they could be the Eastern Conference representative this year. And I'm still I'm still like not I'm not super high on the Red Wings. I just think that the conference is so open. And like they're not they're not.

I don't dislike watching them. I'm just never truly blown away by what they give. I feel like they're like just good enough to be in around this top 10. Yeah. I think the top of the lineup is certainly really. really, really good. There's questions down the lineup, but in particular at home, like, I like their broadcast, and I think the environment. Oh, their broadcast rocks is really fun. So I think I had them 12th or whatever I said. I could go a couple spots higher, but they're

certainly approaching must watch for me. I had the sharks at seventh, and I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, and I think you hit this on your, a tweet during that King's game. I don't think it matters what time zone you're in. I think you have to stay up and watch Macklin Celebrity play, even if it's in the middle of the night because you just don't want to miss what he's doing live you want to be part of the ride and he's got this 12 game point streak

he's got 24 points in that time he's doing it in such a modern unique way as well right like the deception the motor all this stuff just getting wherever he wants on the ice watching him play off of Chernoshov now having another guy who can create kind of freeing him up off the puck

has been so fun and the last three games he's playing 25 plus minutes a night and so if you're tuning in a shark game you mentioned how he's the team well he's going to be out there for half the game almost and so that's a pretty good chance to watch as much of him as you can and from a kind of meaningful perspective they're sitting in a wild card spot right now i wouldn't necessarily expect that to continue because i think there's still a ways away as a team and building around him but they're going to be playing

important games within the context of the playoff standings especially with the shape of the west right now and so i want to be watching that um i got the golden nights i do want to say yep sorry i do i do Last note on Celebrini is like I definitely think that he's officially entered that territory, that rare air of player who when you see that they're on, like they have abilities to win games by themselves. And I think you're starting to see that a little bit more and more with him. But like I don't know how many guys you can count who can do that on a nightly basis. Like obviously McDavid McKinnon, they're probably the two most notable ones. but like Celebrini is right, right there in terms of like you see it kind of click throughout the course of a game and they might be down a couple goals late and you see

them deploy him more and more and you're like, they might win this game just because of just because this guy wants it more than anybody else on the ice. And I think you saw that with with that game against LA this week and it was incredible. You and I had this conversation about McDavid a couple of years. ago where there was a certain level of FOMO that I felt making any sort of dinner plans or whatever on a night dealers are playing because I didn't want to look at my phone under the table and see everyone online losing their minds about the coolest goal he scored in that game and we're reaching that point with Celebrating where I just I want to be able to watch it live

and react accordingly because something special is going to happen more often than not. Golden Knights and Nine partly and they've been so banged up but they're playing a lot of close games, pretty much 50% of their games are going overtime. So you're going to get a competitive close affair and that's fun. I have the Minnesota Wild at eight and you could argue they should be higher since Quinn Hughes's arrival because they're scoring a ton of goals and it's been as fun as you'd expect and they're in this neck and neck race with the stars which is going to have a lot of importance for home ice in around one of the playoffs. Do you got any notes on either of those two teams or do you want to get into I have like six left and I think they're all just

incredible. Yeah, I think I'd rather talk about the six left, but you're pretty much right on there. Where do you want to start? Because I think that I also have six. And it seems like we may have a lot of the same six. So at number six, the Buffalo Sabres, who following a 7-4 loss in Calgary on December 7th, were 30th in the league in points percentage. They've gone 12 in 1 since.

They're sitting in a wild card spot right now. Their upcoming schedule is fun. They've got a five-game homestead now. I think it's going to be a lively crowd. I think people are very excited, and I think deservedly so. You watch that game on Thursday at MSG, and you could see elements of what's so fun about this team.

Matthias Samuelson has absolutely rocked this year. He entered this year with seven career in Hitchell goals. He scored his seventh last night, and it's amazing just watching like a 6'4, 6'5 freak, contesting near the blue line on the PK, then works his way down the ice, coming down the wing, picks a corner, a short side and beats Jonathan Quick, Ryan McLeod, and what a dog he is, that empty netter he scores,

where he dumps it in from his own face-off circle and just beats everyone on the Rangers up the ice to retrieve it and score it. There's certain wrinkles that I want this team to explore between now and the deadline in terms of maybe adding another dog on the wing, someone like a Blake Coleman or even a key for Sherwood and replacing some of the Jack Whitman's because I don't think he fits within the context of this team, a bit less Jordan Greenway. ideally more Noah O'Sland, but there's so many fun components to this team

and you're seeing sort of the reasons why we've been so excited about their build for a couple years now and it's very gratifying seeing it finally play out this way. It for sure is, but it's still so frustrating that they didn't really change anything too much about this group, and this is how drastic it can look from one month to the next.

That's the craziest thing about the Buffalo Sabres experience is that when they suck, you look at them and you go, of course they suck. Look at this team. Look at these guys they have. We never should have believed in them. And then a month later, they can rip off like eight in a row. And you look at the same roster and you go, well, of course we should have believed in them.

And like, of course they've got all this talent. And when they're playing at their best, they can put it together. That whole experience is so frustrating and so insane. and I have never been able to look away. So it does bring me a whole lot of pleasure that they are seemingly heading in the right direction right now and looking amazing and vibes are at an all-time high. I think no city, no fan base deserves it more than Buffalo

than what they've had to put up with both on a league-wide basis but also within their own walls. So it feels very, very refreshing that we are seeing the best, of the Buffalo Sabres immediately after they pulled the trigger on firing Kevin Adams, even though it must be said that this heater did start when Kevin Adams was still holding office. So, yeah, I mean, I have the Sabres as my number five. I did have, I have the lightning at six because they're just right around there. And like their top top six is unbelievable, great unbelievably coached team.

I still, the hardest thing, the most trouble I have with the lightning this year is how the hell they're having this much success with the blue line that they have. Yeah, I had them at second just because I, when I watch them, I just marvel at how connected and well-oiled they are, just what a machine it is, right? Like their top five players in 500 by side this year are JJ Moser, Jake Gensel, Darren Radish, Yanni Gord, and Charles Edward Das too. They have eight straight wins. They're first in the east by points percentage.

It was a clinical performance earlier this week at home against the abs. I know the abs were a bit banged up with out Landis Gog and Taves and Blackwood's out. But it was just a masterclass defensively in terms of preparing for your opponent and kind of snuffing out what they love to do. And that Gord, Holmberg Gergenson's line was just in the back pocket of McKinnon the entire night making life miserable for him. And John Cooper has to win the Jack Adams this year, in my opinion. I know what the abs are doing is remarkable. And Bednar has deserved one for a while to you. And so it's a tough one.

to argue with, but given all the injuries and the state of the team, like for them to be playing this well, I think it speaks to a coaching and putting it all together. And Cooper has been the best coach in the league. This season, in my opinion, I had the habs at five. I'm curious to see where you had them because you said, oh, you had them, okay. So do you want to go on the habs? Yeah. So I have, I have the habs. I have them at four, but I think that if I was readjusting, I would put, slide the oilers to four. And that's not really a credit to the Oilers. It's just my sicko brain that just refuses to not watch anytime the Oilers play, basically.

The Habs are just like, they're electric. I love all of their young players. I love the atmosphere. I love their broadcast. I love just like, this is just disgusting to hear from a Bruins fan. But, I mean, they are what I wish the Bruins were right now. Their trajectory is unbelievable. They're so exciting.

And yeah, like they're certainly not perfect. But part of that is as to the watchability as well where, you know, this is a young team figuring it out. And at some point, they're going to figure it out to a degree where they lock into an elite place in the NHL and don't look back for a long time. So I want to be in on as much of the ground floor or development experience as I can. So I'm tuning into them pretty much whenever I can. Obviously, it doesn't need to be said, but like the Cole Cawfield, Nick Suzuki at the top. But like even the recent additions, like Philip Dino, I want to see what he's like back in his stint there. Texier, like, I want to see what he is in that city because I know that like they love, they love him.

And if, you know, that hits, then it's going to be awesome. So, like, the HABs just do everything for me at this point in time. And whether it's, you know, the entertainment, whether it's just the atmosphere, the pageantry. When the Canadians are good, it's so good for the NHL. The vibes are incredible. They own the Florida Panthers for whatever reason. And they beat them again on Thursday. At home, Texie A get a hat trick.

The Bell Center is just going bananas. The entire time, they're coming off this road trip where they beat Florida, Carolina. Dallas, they steal a point late from Tampa Bay, a bunch of sort of remarkable late comebacks, stealing victory from the jaws of defeat. Slavkovsky's development this year as a playmaker and the combination of him and Demidov recently, giving them a one-two punch beyond just Suzuki and Caulfield.

I think they have so much more optionality now and buttons from Marty San Luis to push. I think you're going to seize the year goes along. Some offensive zone minutes for Hudson and Dobson together as a pair and what that's going to look like. and the race in the Atlantic as well, right? With Tampa Bay up top, but then two teams like the Red Wings and the Habs

who benefits so much from playing at home, the idea that they're going to be competing for home ice in round one in the two, three slot, I think is going to be a really fun story to watch. And so I think they're a lock top five team for me in terms of entertainment value. I have the Dallas stars next, and I acknowledge the flaws with the roster, right?

There's just way too much Sam Steele. You watch them against the hurricanes earlier this week, and Harley's playing with either Lubushkin or Petrovich, and they just cannot get out of their own zone. And I get all of that, but the power play is just diabolical. And when they have their five best players out there, they can seemingly create any sort of high-danger opportunity they want. Robertson and Johnson are going to score 40-plus goals,

add Ranting in there, and I think all three guys are going to have 90-plus points. And the top end of their lineup is just so gifted offensively that it covers for a lot of those roster build issues. And I love the broadcast as well. I love the third black jersey they've been wearing on occasion. Even the Victory Plus intermission show that looks like it's filmed in a janitor's closet. Yeah, it's a hastily put together podcast. Yeah, there's a lot going on there.

But they're really fun. And I had them number four on my list. And then I said the lightning are two. I had the Oilers at number three. And then the afts are, I started this list. And I just put them in a number one before I did anything else. And then I worked. Yeah, same.

I mean, obviously, yeah. I have abs, stars, wild, and then Oilers. Because even with the Oilers experience, I did not enjoy watching the Edmonton Oilers for like the first month and a half, two months of the season. It wasn't even just bad. It was bad and boring and frustrating. And even still, I think that it speaks to the watchability of that team and the ceiling

of that team and like the gravitational pull of that team, knowing what they can be and how they operate that even when they're bad, you have to watch basically all of their games, whether it's just because of McDavid, whether it's just because of Dryside whether it was because of the goaltending you never know what they're going to get there whether the bushard mistakes like that team you need to be there basically every night and the broadcast is great so i had that's why i put the oilers so high but like i had the wild up there just because like i i need to know how good the wild are because that the the abs and stars are one too i need to know if the wild are going to be able to punch with those guys now they have quin hughes like

obviously, boldie, caprice off, Hughes, that is an unbelievable top three that I want to see every night, regardless of what division they play in, but I need to know if they can punch with the abs and the stars this season because those two are one, too. The abs are, there's so many reasons they're number one. I think first and foremost for me is I generally value on this list pretty highly like teams that play competitive games because I think that brings the best out of both and you want to see how it's going to finish. And the abs are the one team that's the exception to that because even if they're up

8-1, you can't tune away just because it's such an exhilarating rush to watch them. And the smackdown that delayed on New Year's Eve on the Blues, then the one they did on the Senators on Thursday where they finally lose a pair of regulation games in Florida. They come home. They have a couple of key absences. And you could tell right away, like, it was going to get ugly for Ottawa. And it starts with that Josh Manson fight against Cleven. He eats like a big punch and then just starts teeing off on Cleven.

And Josh Manson did not stop teeing off on the senators the rest of the game. He had one of the wildest box scores I've ever seen. I think he had four points, five shots, four blocks, three hits, seven penalty minutes. Like he was everywhere. It was an apex Josh Manson game. They played that entire game like they were down two goals with three minutes left in the game and they were just like rushing to get possession of the puck and then transition it so they could pull their goalie and create offensively.

Like that's the way they approached every single shift in that game. And no one's doing it like them right now. So I think there's also an element of like the games in Florida. where if they're struggling a little bit or losing on the scoreboard, you kind of have to watch just to see how they're going to respond to it, and you feel like they're always going to come back, even if they don't. So the abs are incredible.

And clearly, number one, it's a testament to how fun they are that their broadcasts is 32nd in the league, in my opinion, and yet still I'll watch it any day of the week just because I want to see how they play. I mean, I get why you would put their broadcast 32nd in the league. I get that a lot of people would do it. But, man, it's so insane that it adds to the element for me, whereas it's just like you will not believe. leave some of the stuff that comes out of that broadcast mouth. And yeah, I mean, like, the abs are

incredible top to bottom. And they can win games in basically any, any way. They can blow you out. They can win close games. They can grind it out. They can get in a track meet. It's just like the ultimate testament to like, this is the best team in the league and nobody else is really close. I can't see. I'm surprised to hear that someone who grew up listening to Jack Edwards, is appreciate the ABS broadcast. Yeah, I mean, that's it, man. It's not for you. It's for the hometown people.

And it's for the lunatics who escape the asylum. And I'm one of those lunatics. Give you a certain level of nostalgia every time you do it in. You're like, God, this is my childhood all over again. All right, Pete, that was awesome. We ran long on this one. We're going to have to cut it down for the radio program because we way overshot our time limit.

But for the podcast, I'm glad because we had so much to get into here. I'll let you promote some stuff on the way out. What do you want to let the listeners know about? What chaos is the primary one? We have daily episodes Monday through Friday, which is new. We usually were Monday through Thursday. Now, those are on YouTube, Monday through Thursday. And we're on Patreon for Friday bonus episodes and a newsletter that I'm writing every week.

And it is a ton of fun. So please check us out both on YouTube or podcast platforms and Patreon as well. Hell yeah, buddy. I co-assine that. Obviously, the P.D.O.cast is on the Patreon this year as well. also go there, subscribe to us, subscribe to What Chaos. While you're on YouTube, subscribe to No, What Chaos. Check out the PDOCAS YouTube page as well.

I just put out a 14-minute Maclin Celebrity Mix from just the past 10 games alone to kind of illustrate some of the stuff we talked about earlier. We'll be back Sunday night with your hands for our Sunday special. I hope everyone has a great weekend. And thank you for listening to the Hockey PDOCast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.