The Hockey PDOcast - Ovechkin’s Historic Week, Shake Up in the Atlantic, and the Stanley Cup Market

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to discuss this week's biggest stories in the NHL. They reflect on Ovechkin's run to becoming the leading goal scorer in NHL history, a troublesome stretch of play for top contenders in the Stanley Cup market, the playoff teams in the Atlantic Division, and the Blues continuing their winning streak. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey-Pedio cast. My name is Dmitra Filipovich and joining me here in studio for another Sunday special. My good buddy, Thomas Trans, Tom, what's going on in? Doing well, buddy. How are you? I'm doing great. It's my favorite part of the week. I love these hangs between you and I so much. I know the listeners really enjoyed as well. This time, regrettably, without any squeaky toys in the background, though. No Wallace. People loved Wallace's cameo last week. He's not around for this one.

one, so less background noise. But we're going to have fun, nonetheless. I've got a series of topics here that I want us to run through in terms of the biggest developments around the NHL this week. Obviously, the one we have to start off with is a current event because it happened today. Earlier today, this morning, early afternoon, Alex Kovetchin broke Wayne Gretzky's record for most regular season goals in NHL history.

And I have a lot of thoughts on it. I think in general, though, my summation is everything about the that moment was so poetic, right? Yeah. Like him ripping it on the power play from the left circle, just overpowering it past Ilya Seroquen. The game was broadcast on TNT. Thankfully, the Caps had their home feed

with Joe Beninati and Locker doing a simulcast, and we got to hear the goal call after from that feed. And I'm really glad we did because it wouldn't have felt right, obviously, if Joby wasn't the soundtrack for it, because we're going to be seeing this clip replayed for years and years. It's going to go out in history, of course.

And for my money, I mean, Joby-B is the best play-by-play guy in the biz. I had legitimate goosebumps just watching that clip back, even though I knew how it turned out, and I'd seen it live and countless other times on replay already, but it was so cool. And in the celebration, right? I initially, you and I were chatting about this.

My first thought was I kind of wish that we had seen sort of that vintage violence, leap into the boards that OV did for his first, whatever, 500 career NHL goals, treating each one like it was the biggest goal ever scored. And he was the happiest man on earth because he was put on this earth to score goals in the NHL. But he could give us that headfirst dive, Sally that was reminiscent, of course, of the cup celebration in the fountain as well.

And so it was a really cool moment. It worked out perfectly. I'm really glad. I thought if he had scored on an empty net on Friday night against the Blackhawks, it still would have been cool because it was in front of the home crowd and it would have been a hat trick goal, right? And so I think like just the scene with a visual of all the hats on the ice while the team celebrating would have been incredible.

But I'm kind of glad that he reserved it for this moment and scored in such trademark fashion like we've seen him do so many times over his career. It really was the perfect goal for Ovi, right? And I think the word poetic, you know, like obviously, I think is on the mark, apt, perfect. I love that Dylan Strom picked up an assist on it. And Tom Wilson, right? So it's like, you know, Tom Wilson has been the running mate forever.

And then Strom, in a lot of ways, represents the capital's ingenuity, their ability to keep this team stocked with talent, right? You get the bad break with Nicholas Backstrom's injury, and you bring in a playmaker like Strom, who was non-tendered by the Chicago. Cock of Blackhawks, you know, and sort of take a free flyer. And, you know, not that anyone's confusing Strom with Prime Backstrom. But he's doing a pretty darn good job. Yeah.

It's a really, like, high quality cover band. Yeah. You know, you're watching it and you're jamming out, and you know you're not seeing the real thing, but damn it, if you're not going to have a great time. Well, so he came in the past three years to essentially replace Baxter on his way out, right? And he's functionally not only filled that role, but like he exists on the ice. and I think he could probably do more, but his primary motive has clearly been to funnel looks to Ovechkin

and just set the table for him, right? And he, like, behind the net, he set up that first goal, he scored on Friday night. He's done that so many times. And there's even been moments where it's like he's gone to an acomical extent to accomplish it where, like, we've seen the clips of like him. He's like coming in one-on-one against the goalie, and he's like not even looking at the net.

He's like almost looking to the side waiting for Ovechkin to come as a trailer so he can feed him instead. And he's done a phenomenal job of that. he like you can see on his face he he experiences legitimate anguish when he has to shoot because he's like he's like I've failed ovechkin I failed myself I failed the capitals organization that's given me this chance and so he's been remarkable in that final 70 seconds or so of uh of that game on Friday night against a black o'clock after the goal he went back in yeah and ovechkin had four shots at it to to get the hat trick and to set the record there I think three of them originated because dylanstrom

won an offensive zone draw and got it back to him and like set the table for that and so i mean he's done such an exemplary job of like allowing this i think to happen and extending this window and also maximizing it while ovechkin's obviously still playing at this level yeah so i thought even the even the scoreline right the ovechkin from wilson and strome felt loaded with you know deeper meaning and deeper symbolism got to give a shout out by the way the fact that with monumental they had joe b and company doing a simulcast basically, like not for public consumption, just to make sure that they captured this moment in the irreplaceable voices of that local broadcast team. Like, because that was done, they've been doing this on all non-regionally broadcast

caps games for like, they're in the chase. And, you know, I just think that's, like, that's an act of love for a fan base. And it's the sort of thoughtfulness that sometimes you don't get from teams, corporate masters, just understanding how important it is to have. have that soundtrack for this moment for Caps fans. And so I just want to shout out everyone involved because you need permissions to do that from the league. You need permissions to do that from the national rights holders.

And you obviously need the commitment from the regional team to put in those man hours and compensate your staff for it and on and on. It's just like everyone understood the assignment. So in a world where so often we don't get that from, you know, sports products or leagues or teams, gold star for all. Well, earlier this season, I had this, like, big rant on one of our Sunday specials about how much I hate the altitude broadcast. And I'm like, what a disservice it is to have, like, these generational talents in McCarren McKinnon. Right.

And then the soundtrack for that, when you watch back these goals on all these mixtapes or highlight reels years from now after their careers are long done, it's going to be like, oh, God, so grating and so frustrating. And in this case, Joe B is such a legend and does such a good job of encapsulating it with the energy and the tone and everything. It's just phenomenal stuff. The other poetry, and of course, passing Gretzky with 895 in the exact same number of games played, which is cool, obviously. Ovechon is going to smash past both that actual 895 total and the games played. But at this moment, it's like a very nice benchmark as well. And then I think also the passion and the flurry that this came in, right?

Where we spoke right after the Four Nations, because the Caps came out of the Four Nations strong, and Ovechkin looked much more spry. And it makes sense, right? He had time to recover from that broken leg, of course, but also. But it was worlds different. It was worlds different. He'd gotten two weeks off. There was a law made of the fact that he, like, stayed.

And I think he went to Miami or he stayed in North America somewhere and trained during that time and, like, clearly took it seriously. And then he comes back from the Four Nations break. He leads the league with 16 goals in 22 games. He has six goals in his past five games to, like, emphatically get this. And I love that because so often we see when, when legends of the game are chasing these historical milestones. It's like on a bad team, the entire team, and this was our fear about the Caps last year. It's like everything is done under the guise of let's just make this happen for this individual, sacrificing the team element.

This Caps team is one point out of first in the entire league at this point. So that's a checkmark for them. And then Ovechkin himself doing it in this capacity is cool. It's not like, you know, a vet on his last legs. It's like crawling towards the finish line. Like he just smashed past it the way. we become a custom to from him. The

originality of Ovechkin I think is something we'll always remember and I feel like the goal chase represented it. The, you know, everything from like the yellow skate laces

on to... The tinted visor early on. Yeah, like... The chain hanging out. And the style of play that that team had, right? you know, the idea that Ovechkin was too much of an individual and you can't win playing running gun and all the sort of permutations, the fact that Adam Oates takes over in their

five-on-five numbers tank, but, you know, he changes wings, right? He starts playing on his strong side, has some incredible success doing that, and of course they install the one-three-one. Ovechkin's success in that spot over the course of the next decade, I don't think you can write the history of how we got here without that tactical tweak. He ends up winning his first Stanley Cup with Barry Trots coaching, a pretty far cry from the Bruce Boudreau, Mike Green, you know, Alexander Semin running gun caps. And then, you know, he's sort of become reinvented in this Carbury team, on this Carberry team as, you know, an NFC North lineman looking guy, right? who it just feels like he's done it his own way the whole time and in a league where we so often hear about playing the right way and there's a clear ethos about sublimating individuality to fit

within this team environment and you know sometimes criticism of the caps organization for catering too much to ovechkin and and how it's sort of gone down across the last 15 years and now it's just like greatest goal scorer of all time Stanley Cup winner there's nothing else that this guy could possibly achieve, except of course to add another Stanley Cup to his mantle in the weeks and months ahead. There's something original about him

that I think adds to our appreciation of this moment. Well, and what else I appreciate about it and him getting here is as the league shifts, as we talk about so much to offensive efficiency and the players just coming into the league, so much more ready-made and better,

I think we're going to see, I mean, you've already seen Austin Matthews, to this point of his career, like his, all the, all the paces he's on in terms of, like, goals per game and all this stuff. It's like, I think we might get, over the next 10 years, players who come in and maybe exceed what Ovechkin did on a per game basis, but I think that's missing what made this career so special. And it's the longevity and durability, especially with the playing style he had early on in his career, like the fact that he never missed games unless he was resting at the end of the season or suspended for a game or two

here or there is truly remarkable. And obviously, you know, he misses his rookie year in 0405 because of the lockout. He misses 34 games in 2012-13 because of the lockout. He misses nearly 40 games over those two seasons because of COVID. He has Dale Hunter season mixed in there where it took away some of that offensive shine and yet he still got to this point. And I think there's certainly fans of the game who are relatively new to the sport as the NHL gets more popular or they just started following or got back in recently.

recently and they know Ovechkin as just this spot-up shooter at the left circle. And I highly recommend going back and watching highlights from Ovechkin's first, like, three seasons in the league. Oh, yeah. Because he just came in and was an absolute freight train barreling towards a net, just overpowering whatever defender was in front of him. And oftentimes just like steamrolling the gole along the way to his goals. And it was just an entirely different physical specimen. And so he had this first arc of his career as the most frightening rush player in the league. And then he also had the second arc of his career as the most lethal.

Stationary attacking force. Stationary spot-up shooter, right? It's like, it's so cool. It's like an NBA player coming in and just being this like fast break dunking machine. And then all of a sudden when he gets 30, like becoming the most efficient three-point shooter in the league. It's just such an impossible feat for one person to accomplish both. Yeah. there's an

there's a you know not to say that he's LeBron and bring up the like Sid versus OV thing because it doesn't matter right it's not Sid or OV who's greater that the truth is is that these are two of the greatest skaters we've ever seen

but there's a LeBron like longevity element I've dropped LeBron comps by the way now in back to back Sunday special so that's not great but the like this this season is going to be the first complete season of his career, right? And I'm talking like, you know, not counting the 48 game seasons right, during the 2012 lockout or the 45 game season, you know, the bubble season post-COVID.

This is going to be the first season of his career where he doesn't hit 150 hits, right? So from that perspective, I mean to be throwing your body around and have the puck as much as he has throughout his career and to have been this durable and this productive and to have shot at this volume because that's the other that's the other part of this that i i you know there's this idea i think in in hockey the idea of the sniper right and i always found it curious to contrast ovechkin who overwhelmed with volume right his shots on goal clip was sky high so sky sky high high and look he shot at a good clip but there's a gap in my view anyway when we think of like what a sniper is we're thinking efficiency between like stampos right who who was all efficiency

and accuracy and just making impossible shots and ovechkin who was i'm going to shoot this at your head good luck right and and by the way i'm going to do it eight times a game yeah and when you sort look back at early career ovechkin and see you know 425 3992 447 528 shots in a season. 528 shots in a season. To put them to context. So nuts. Nathan McKinnon is on pace to lead the league this year with 330 over 82 games.

Like just put that into perspective. Right. Of like it was him. And then all the stats from that era are like whether it's goals or shot attempts or whatever. Like it's like him. And then like Eric Stahl and a couple other guys. And they're so far behind that really it's him and then everyone else in the league. And that's how big the gap was.

Right. And, you know, to add that to add. context to that, right? There were two full seasons in Ovechkin's first 13 in which he wouldn't have hit 330. Like it was every year, 350 shots as a baseline. And yeah, so to have been that puck dominant, that durable, that physically imposing and assertive, and to have done it this well for this long, tip of the cap, unbelievable stuff. We'll never see us like again. We might see someone break the record. We will never see his life again. Not in this fashion. No. The craziest stat to put a bow on this. And I saw this Sabres fan tweeted it. I don't have it up

right now, but a shout out to them. Ovechkin was 594 goals back of Gretzky. The last time the Buffalo Sabres made the playoffs. 594 goals. There have been like 21 guys in the entire league's history that have ever gotten to that total. And that's like him starting from scratch essentially the last time and still getting there. Do you want to do a couple other caps notes? just while we're here because obviously I think we were all so riveted by this that we were paying extra close attention to the caps over the past couple days and past week or so in particular as this was closing in I wanted to talk a little bit with you about Ryan Leonard as well we've seen him play four games now I think it's been an incredibly encouraging entrance into the league for him because

I think there was a fair question of like all right this guy's coming from the NCAA where he's just so much more physically dominant than his competition and he's coming into a spot where there's 10 games left in the season. They're going to be entering the playoffs. What's that going to look like? I was very confident that he'd be totally fine because if you knew anything about him as a player, he's not one to defer or lack confidence.

And I think that's such a big hurdle for any young player to overcome. And he's jumped right in in these four or five games. He's already got three combined penalties drawn and taken. And I love that as well because I think he's just going to be such a chaos agent for so many years in this league. He's played 57 minutes of 5-15. They have a 57% expected goal share in that time. So he's slotted in really nicely.

And I'll let you jump in here. The only other thing that I wanted to run by you was also our guy, the Zeus from Belarus. It got a bit lost in the shuffle because everyone was just, it was such an electric atmosphere on Friday night. He got hurt in that game. I was incredibly worried watching it live. I'm so used to seeing this in the NBA

with like that exact mechanism and how he looked after it. I was like, oh, man, he popped his. Achilles. Like, it was just like it looked like a non-contact and he just like couldn't get off the ice. It turns out it's just, quote unquote, a cut that he got from a blade. He's going to be out week to week, but it's certainly a much better result than what it could have been. So I think that's huge moving forward.

Hopefully you can come back in time for the playoffs or near the start of them. And then Ryan Leonard, do you got any notes on either of those two while we're on the caps? Just that, you know, I've liked, like Leonard immediately, especially. past the eye test of looks like an NHL player. Yeah, he belongs, yeah. And I think there's, what's, what's so impressed me about him when I've seen him play in the past is how slow things move for him in traffic, right?

He is, and there's a lot of players for whom, like, they're all special, but there's a lot of players for whom the game will appear to slow down or they're just like, you know, split second faster than some of their opposition to, like, loose puck. or a bouncing puck batting it down. What made Leonard special when I'd seen him is he was repeatedly the first to pucks in the dirtiest areas of the ice, like in the blue paint, and that it sort of manifests itself or shows itself, not just in terms of him being able to, you know, Gabe Volardi,

lose pucks in the blue pain or deflections, but also as a passer, right? And I don't know that we've seen that yet, but how could we, right? Like, this is the highest level that this guy's ever. played at. I think you're going to know when Leonard's about to break out when you start to see moments like that on scrambly plays in offensive zone attacking situations. I don't know that I've seen one yet that really looks like him. What I've seen is, you know, his pace looks legit, his details are advanced, and he can already hang. But that next gear where I think he'll begin to break out is when it starts to look like Ryan Leonard Hockey off of down low actions where, you know, he's playing.

pulling off tight area plays right in front of the net in the greasiest possible areas of the ice as a playmaker. That's sort of what I'm still waiting for from him, but I know it's coming. Like, I guarantee you it's coming. What a, what a luxury item ad for this number one team in the Eastern Conference to just be able to put this guy into their lineup. Absurd. Just add a media juice. All right.

This is my segue. I want to talk to you quickly before we go to break about the Stanley Cup, Stanley Cup, The Owrights market. Yeah, the market for winning who's favored right now. Because I think there's something really interesting happening up top. So heading into Sunday, the two favorites, the co-leads in their respective conferences, where the Dallas Stars and the Florida Panthers at plus 550, then you get into a tier of the Golden Knights and Hurricanes at plus 850,

the Aves plus 950 Oilers still at plus 1,000, and then caps, jets, and lightning at plus 1,100. And what's so interesting to me about that is those two teams that are favorite, I obviously understand the logic from the totality of the resume where they're at in the standings, what they figure to look like heading into the playoffs. And yet I'd argue with what 10 days left in the season, neither is looking very good. Now I think for different reasons. We'll talk more about the Panthers in a bit.

I think that's a bit more intentional maybe on their part. And I wanted to talk about that certainly. You got a Katz conspiracy theory? I certainly do. but the stars, I think you can't overstate, have you been following this? It's been happening for a couple weeks now, but I think this weekend was like,

it has to be the nadir because if this continues, we really need to recalibrate what we're thinking. They went into this weekend and they gave up 81 shots on goal on Saturday and Sunday at home to the penguins and then ate in Minnesota.

81 shots on goal. I think the broadcast was saying on Sunday that the Minnesota Wild hadn't reached 40 shots in a game since like November, and that makes sense if you watch them play, certainly especially without Caprizov. Yeah.

Since Hayskinin got hurt, the stars have given up 879 shots on goal in 27 games. That's by far the most in the league. They've only taken 689 by comparison themselves. And you watch that game on Saturday. They get outshot 40 to 24, as I said, by the Penguins. They had this catastrophic sequence, right? Each point matters so much for them right now

to get away from that as matchup in round 1 and catch the jets. And they're within striking distance to do so, less than two minutes left Thomas Harley on a breakout just like runs into Cody Cici it was wasn't even necessarily Cody C C C C Cic's fall

though he kind of seemed like he was like aimlessly just like hanging around and then went to retrieve the puck while Harley was still going after it but of course like a comedic sequence like that involves Cody Cici the Pange score and right after that off the turnover

on Sunday when they got out shot 41 to 25 by the wild it was 17 to 4 into third and the wheels just completely came off. And this has been happening for weeks now where they have these segmented brief moments of offensive flourish from their guys, especially like why Johnson's been playing so well. But then there's like 10 to 15 minutes stretches of gameplay

in between those sandwiching them where they just don't have the puck and they're just getting buried by the other team. And it's gone from being a red flag to me to being like, all right, this is. bordering on disaster. Now, there was the report that Murrow Hayskin is expected to, over the weekend, to play in round one, which shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise.

But, man, I don't really see what the fix is right now to turn this around beyond him coming back and looking like Mero Hayskin. Put it this way. Let's just take the three teams that are outside the group, right? So, like, because it's kind of a wider chase pack once you get to, like, the avalanche through hurricanes. Yeah. Right?

There's that six teams, but there's three teams elevated above. Dallas, Florida, and Edmonton. And does it really make sense for Dallas and Florida to have space between them in Edmonton, given that the right side of the Dallas defense, you know, has to be at least as big a question mark as Edmonton goaltending? Surely. I mean, I'd argue a bigger one because Rowan, if it's facing Colorado, that's such a weakness compared to how they play.

Skinner and Pickard against the King's offense. It's like, all right, well, we could patch us together. We've been seen that. We're talking to King's offense for most of the season? Are we talking the King's offense for the last three weeks, buddy? That's fair. Brother, give these guys their dude, the most explosive team in hockey. I do have Kuzmanko on my list of guys I want to talk to you about later.

Sure. Anyway, the truth is, I think my global take on the outright's market is as follows. If you really believe that Dallas or Florida is going to win it, bet them game to game, right? Bet them game to game because plus 500 plus 650, I think, or, you know, I think those are, I think those are overvaluing them a little bit. I think the, you know, avalanche, Maple Leafs, Capitals, Jets, Golden Knights, Hurricanes, tier, I guess Tampa you can throw in there too. That, that makes sense to bet once you're getting into 10 to 1, 11 to 1, 12 to 1 odds.

I'd probably fade the maple leaves at that price, but otherwise I think that's totally fine. But why aren't you going further down and looking at the blues? Plus 3,300. Yeah. Like, that's the bet to make. I've got a plus 4,100 on Vandal. So shop around. Yeah.

Shop around is the lesson, of course. But you can get them anywhere from 33 to 41 to 1. And boy, oh, boy, that to me is the long shot bet that really makes sense to place. know they'll have a tough round one matchup, but I mean, that team's playing legitimately excellent hockey. Well, that's why I was going to say, I thought this weekend was such a blown opportunity for the stars with those two games against the Penguins and Wilde and considering like they were in control on one of them.

The other one, they really should have at least squeezed out one point, especially with Winnipeg going into Utah and losing on Saturday as well. Dallas is only three points back now with the same number of games played. They have the head-to-head next week, which we'll talk about in Dallas, between the two teams and their schedule is pretty light. They play Vancouver, Utah, Detroit, and Nashville the rest of the season. And that's pretty doable. But now that you're talking about it, I'm thinking about it, with St. Louis seeming like the Wild Card 1 team, I wouldn't even necessarily feel that confident in this version of the stars if they wound up coming back, winning the

West, and then having a face St. Louis in round one. It's certainly, I think, a more palatable matchup than Colorado at this point, but it still wouldn't be like before I was thinking, all right, Whoever wins the West is going to face Minnesota in round one. That'll be pretty good. Actually, no, wait. I'm off there. Whoever wins the West will- Who will surely face Minnesota.

Okay, you're right. Yeah. So, yeah, so my original point stands. That's what they want. So that is such a massive blown opportunity to not gain at least a couple of points here and make this matchup on next week, like the most important game of the regular season. Obviously for us, given the stock that we've had in Utah and Columbus, It's been a tough few days for the team, the aspirins.

Humbling for the aspirants that we'd sort of hand-selected. But I did watch that Utah win over Winnipeg with great interest because the speed profile of that Utah team, I'm pretty convinced that, you know, now the blues would not be a walk in the park, but I'm pretty convinced that the Utah Hockey Club was a bad matchup for Winnipeg if they'd had to play them in a seven-game series, Just because of their team speed, I think that's where Winnipeg can be a little bit vulnerable, as if you're able to attack with the top nine and a defense corps that can skate and move as a group the way that Utah can.

I thought that showed a little bit on Saturday. I know they, I don't want to step on our toes in our pre-show meeting. You were saying that next week, the last Sunday special of the regular season, you wanted to do at least a little segment like saying goodbye to the teams that have been eliminated. Yeah, all our favorites. Consideration, because it's an excuse to talk, Blue Jackets and Utah. But my question for you was like, how just disgustingly high are we going to be on this Utah team at the start of next season? Well, and Columbus.

But the other part of it, honestly, why I thought of it, Dim, was I was watching the opposite of a PDO cast favorite team play on Saturday live in Vancouver. Of course, watching the Canucks play, the Anaheim Ducks. And I was just, it was percolating as I was checking it out, that the Ducks are going to have improved by 20 points year over year. right and the widespread hockey narrative around them is going to be what a great year over year step for the ducks and I was like we need to figure out a format to discuss this because that is not the story of this team is that how people are talking about the ducks people will once the final standings are set

well how many how many games do you how many people do you think are as outraged about ducks conservative tactics as you and I are that's fair you know I can't imagine a lot of people I've been watching So I just want an opportunity to discuss this because that was like the whole basis for it. I was like they can't keep getting away with this. Yeah. They certainly can't. Someone needs, Greg Crona needs to be held accountable.

Yes. Tom, let's take our break here. And then we come back. We'll jump right back in. We're going to close out this week's Sunday special. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.O.cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. Video cast doing our Sunday special with our pal, Thomas, Trance. Tom, I do want to talk to you about the Atlantic Division.

Maybe that is, that's fitting because we, I teased that we were going to talk Panthers before we went to break. The Panthers, who are listed as the co-favorite right now, have lost five in a row after losing in Detroit on Sunday. Now, their lineup was hilarious. They obviously, Barkovs hurt, Kachs still hurt, Ekblad suspended. They didn't have Bennett, they didn't have Reinhardt, they didn't have Foresling. We were treated to this defense group of Mikola and Jones first pair, Matt Kierstead, Nate Schmidt, second pair. Jacob Magna Balinskis, a third pair. They had Rasmus Aspland, former Buffalo Savers great, centering the third line.

The top line was for Hagee, Rodriguez, and our guy Jesse Pooley, R.V. Now, I assume that, and maybe it is a bit of a leap of faith, but once we get to game out of the postseason, the Panthers are going to have as close to as possible their full rotation of guys and are going to be relatively at full health. One would assume. There's an interesting thing happened. right now though the senators who have been penciled in as the first wild card in the east are now just two games two points back of the florida panthers for third in the atlantic the panthers seem very

willing to lose games right now i don't think it's been for a lack of effort previous to this because they had a couple games in ottawa uh in particular where they certainly played well and just didn't get the results to show for it offensively um but i'm curious for your take on this like for this team, how much of this is just prioritization of making sure everyone is rested and firing on all cylinders once you get to the postseason, because that's the only thing they care about at this point. They're trying to get back to a third straight Stanley Cup final. How much home ice matters for them? Because I think we know that having the luxury of sending Barkov and forcing out there against other teams' top line is massive. Although I would argue that

for this team, they don't really care about where they're playing in terms of, like, I feel pretty confident that they're going to be able to go into any building in a big game. I think they would like to view themselves as underdogs. Obviously last year they were the favorite at least all the way through the east. But the year before, I think they took, they had a certain chip on their shoulder, right, about like the way they were discussed and how they were viewed heading into that postseason and then like using that as a bit of a launching pad for their run. I don't know what they're doing here, but I'm fascinated by it. Do you think it's as simple as like, They, now that it seems like the Leafs and Lightning are going to be the first two teams of Atlantic,

they want to get out of a Lightning round one matchup and sit themselves up for round one versus the Leafs. Do you think it's not that McAvillian at all? What are you reading the T-Leaves here with the Panthers? I would think there's got to be some combination of things. I mean, it's not like they can intentionally not have Eckblad in the lineup right now. Right. I would imagine that Barkov and Kachuk are legitimately banged up to an extent.

So, you know, maybe it is that. Maybe you want to avoid the lightning round. You prefer to go a little slower. But my, you know, don't ruin the Battle of Ontario for us, Florida. I think we want the all Florida matchup, the Battle of the Alligator Alley, and I think we want the Battle of Ontario, right? It would be very leapsy, though, to be like, yeah, this is the year. We won a division.

And then you get the panther. I'm still playing the Panthers anyway. That would suck. Yeah, and then the home ice advantage question is an interesting one, because I think it mattered a ton and shaped the Stanley Cup final because the Edmonton Oilers had the best player in the world on one of the great individual playoff heaters we've ever seen in the history of hockey. I mean, McDavid won the Consmite in a losing effort,

and there really should have been no question about it, anyone who was like, but what about Barovsky? It's like, come on. come on. So when I think about it that way, it's like against the oilers specifically, Florida having home ice advantage was huge. Does it matter that much against the Leafs? Does it matter that much against Tampa? Doesn't matter.

I mean, maybe Tampa's the closest. Yeah, just to try and defend Kutrov as best as you can with your two best guys. But I think the window's closed on that already. So at this point, look, if they're sinking like a stone to avoid the lightning, that feels like bad juju. That feels like something that they'll regret. The senators, on the other hand, on Thursday they played the Lightning. Yeah. And Allmark had one of the better goalie performances.

Unbelievable. He was remarkable. Like so many in tight saves. Then on Saturday they shut out the Panthers, I think Anton Forrest where I get a 40 save shutout. And then they shut out the blue jackets again on Sunday with Allmark back in net. Their team save percentage is up to fifth best in the league for the year. As I said, they're only two points back of Florida now. Which especially, remember how the season started?

Yes. They couldn't buy saves for like six weeks. Yeah. That wasn't the answer. Yeah. So that's how good it's been for them to get up to fifth. Incredible. Yep. And you look up ahead of their schedule. Columbus again, Montreal, who's playing really well. We'll talk about them in a second. Philly, Chicago, and then Carolina at the end of the season. And we've already seen in past seasons when the hurricane spot is set, they're just going to play all their HL guys and young guys.

And that's going to be a meaningless game for them because they're locked to second in the metro. Jackson Blake, 22 minutes, baby. Yeah, but that's a lot of attainable points the rest of the way for Ottawa. and if we just said is true about Florida, where we might see more of this version of their lineup, all of a sudden, I think the pendulum swung quite a bit to that actually being a very realistic scenario, whereas as recently as a week or two weeks ago,

you would have been like, no, we're pretty set with these three tall teams in Atlantic, and then Ottawa is going to play the winner of that division. Now, obviously they've been leaning heavily on their goaltending, but I do think Ottawa's team defense is pretty impressive overall. I think that team is, I mean, I was calling them Kings East for a little bit earlier on this season. And now, of course, Ottawa's spiked and become a little bit more reliant on their

goaltending and the kings have spiked and are scoring everything. They're shooting at the net. But, I mean, I do think that there's a lockdown element. And if this team's also getting hot goaltending, I mean, I think Ottawa's not a team you want to face in the playoffs. Like, I think any of these Atlantic Division teams, whoever they face, whoever, Ottawa faces in round one, not predicting that Ottawa like beats the lightning if they end up there, or necessarily upsets Toronto if they end up there. But between Kachuk style of play and how I expect that to play up in the postseason, the idea of having your top player never find

sort of like a forechecking turnover because they're always on the ice against Jake Sanderson and then the way that that team can play overall, not to mention what we've started to see from that Batherson Peron line across the last month. This Ottawa team's feeling to me like a genuine sleeper in this Eastern Conference bracket. Yeah, they can play at a certain pace and defensive style that, in that head-to-head specifically with the Leafs, I think, has given the Leafs a lot of trouble this season in their whatever three meetings or whatever they had that I can at least recall. But, yeah, against the Lightning, I think that would be maybe a nice.

a different one and they probably need to rely on Allmark the way they did in that Thursday game and he's proven that he's up to the task certainly so I think that would be a very fascinating matchup. The haves are the other Atlantic team I want to talk about with you. Heading into Sunday's game against the Predators, they're playing while we're recording. They are up to one at the time though. I had them at like a 77% implied probability to make the playoffs and if anything that feels low. I know that both the Rangers and the Red Wings are only four or five points behind them. Yet both those teams have pretty tough schedules.

There is a head-to-head between Montreal and Detroit in Montreal this week, so that'll be a fun one to watch. But the haves a won four in a row, including a dramatic come-from-behind in the final second Suzuki ties it against the Panthers that kind of started this skid for Florida, and then Suzuki wins in an overtime. They absolutely just dog-walked, the Bruins. And then they beat the Flyers as well. I think the individual performances here of both Suzuki and Hudson are worth discussing for us.

Because both guys have been so good and so productive. Suzuki in particular since the Four Nations, only Rob Thomas has more points than him. He has 31 points in 20 games. That top line with him in Caulfield and Slovkowski has been so good. Yeah. In that stretch at 515, their metrics have gone into like that 58 to 59% range across the board, which is incredibly elite. And then Hudson himself is running away with the Calder at this point.

I think for a long time, it still would have been interesting to see if the flames made the playoffs, how much love Wolf got there. But kind of halfway through the season, even though Hudson was doing really cool things, I think you and I both shared the belief that like what we'd seen at this stage of his career from Celebrini was just so high next level in terms of like how refined it already was

in his way to just like win battles and create, that it was like, all right, well, he's the highest pedigree guy, and he's already doing this and just blowing away our expectations. I think he's going to get the love for it. It's going to take something truly special from one of these other guys to take that from him, and that's exactly what Lane Hudson's done here. The narrative heft added to his case of the Habs powering into the postseason. And that back-to-back against Florida, where he had like six assists in the two games.

I think that's mostly sealed it for him, right? I think it's, at this point, I think he's overwhelmingly likely to win, despite the fact that Mitchcove's been on fire. And despite the fact that I think if we were to say who's the best rookie, right, it would still be Macklin Celebrini. And then, of course, Dustin Wolf continues to be really remarkable himself, too. Really great rookie class. I think that's something we will look back on and say.

I mean, there's four or five guys first year players this year who, have been just sensational, but I do think Hudson, what he's come to mean for that Habs team, the way I think he's actually improved his defense over the course of this season. You know, one thing I wasn't sure about with Hudson coming in was because the line is pretty thin. Like, the line is pretty thin for shorter offensive defensemen between being Bokvist, right? or in that sort of tier of guy, who's the Smith? Yeah, Ty Smith.

Right? Or being like the Quinn Hughes, the guy who actually transcends and can do enough and can escape well enough. And I wasn't sure about how the edges would work. When I saw him live at BU,

you know, he's sharing the ice with Macklin Cellebrini and they rifted, right? Like they had like an absolute hive mind going on. You very rarely see that sort of chemistry between a defenseman and a forward, but they absolutely did.

Thought this game the same level played off. other it looked like a blast. Like it looked like it must have been so much fun for those guys at that level. But I wasn't sure if that would necessarily play. And early on in the year, I thought, you know, I'm still not sure if this is really playing so much as what he does well on the power play, his ability to more or less hang, even if he's not going to be, you know, elite escaping and a top end contributor defensively, not necessarily going to be the guy who can snuff out attacks quickly enough.

that his size doesn't get exposed because that's really what you have to do. It has to be like in and out against you because, and this is true for, you know, even guys like Hughes. Like the longer you're down low, the more difficult or the more likely you are to be running into issues as a result of your size. And I think over the course of the season, you've just seen Hudson improve by miles, especially at that. The winning quick battles, getting out quickly. I think his lateral mobility and edges play. He is escaping.

I think he is driving a fair bit of offense. I don't know that he's a defensive driver yet, but I'm more and more convinced. Good enough, I think. Well, he's good enough and I'm more and more convinced the more I watch him take this trajectory improving over the course of the year that he's going to be, right? That he's going to get there. I think he's sewn it up. I love this Habstein, man.

I really enjoy watching them play. The home games, the crowd is just so good. The crowd's unbelievable. Yeah. But the, the emphasis on rush attacking, the emphasis on possessing the puck, there's some like old school Jacques Martin habs in terms of the way they break out as a team, maybe a little bit of roller hockey going on. Like they're sort of moving up the ice as a five-man unit.

It feels thoughtful. They feel like they play a thoughtful style for a fast young group. And I quite enjoy that aspect of watching them play at the moment. Yeah, I echo your reservations. especially early this season because you need to reach such a rarefied error as a defenseman to be able to get away with like on puck generation right right like for a lot of defensemen just quick passes and like deferring to your forwards and giving them the puck in places they can make stuff happen offensively is the way to go yeah the guys who break out of that mold

are the three top guys in the Norris on the Norris ballads this year, Quinn Hughes, Kail McCar, and Zach Wrenski. It's such a high bar to clear to get into that stratosphere. And Hudson's doing that. I saw Spoor Logic has him behind only Quinn Hughes amongst defensemen in end-to-end rushes this year. He had that one, which was a great example of that

against the Flyers, which is a beautiful goal where he just weaves around guys and then picks his spot. He's got 64 points this year. he's going to pass chelios bork and howsley three pretty good defensemen for getting into the top four or whatever amongst rookie defensemen for points and he's playing a tonne at five on five i think he's 35th in the league in five on five ice time per game and they're winning his minutes it's he's doing everything you want to see so i think it's been incredible and suzuki himself as well has been phenomenal like carrying them offensively and in big moments in particular like i think it's been really cool the the little toe drag pass that he had off the run was exceptionally cool. And honestly, the mirror image of the Burakowski goal against Vancouver, which was fun to see. We're seeing a little bit more of that.

Ah, yes, the Berkowski goal against Vancouver. Who can forget that classic? It was an awesome goal. It was an awesome goal. Jared McCann set it up. It looked exactly the same. Go look it up. They're going to be referring to that in literature in the future.

As seen by the Burakowski goal. No, I... they're a really fun team and Suzuki's so Suzuki's shooting efficiency I think at this point

too is just like a real feature the there's an element to which Caulfield's excellence five on four sort of causes him to be used in a place where we don't see it as much as we might

in another situation but I think it's enough of a weapon you could build you know a PP1 around it That's how highly I regard his finishing talent. I think it's been awesome to watch him on this heater. Suzuki's also such a crafty player. Yeah, yes.

I saw that he's taken one penalty in 1,100, 5-on-5 minutes this year, given his assignments. That's incredible. You know, what's happening here, I should say, and we'll talk about him more next week. But I'm happy for the HABs here. I think it's a really cool story. Unfortunately, it's come at the expense of our Columbus Blue Jackets.

Yep. who the wheels are just completely come off here. They've been shut out six times since March 6th. Today's April 6th. They're running a Jack Johnson, Eric Granson pair in the year 2025. And it's going as you'd expect? I think, yes. I think the goaltending has been downright embarrassing.

Yeah, that's pretty bad. Past 15 games, the starter they've used that night has had an 868% percentage in those 15 games. And that culminated with Neil Tarasov getting hooked after 4. a half minutes on Sunday where Dean Everson was like, all right, I've seen enough. Let's put in Elvis who's been an absolute disaster in his own right. So it's a shame. I think it's still, unlike what we said with the Ducks, I do think this has been a legitimate step that you can build on for the blue jackets, certainly, especially where they came from, but not the way you want to, you want to see them close out. We've got about five or six minutes left here. Do you want to talk blues or do you

want to talk kings or do you want to kind of rapid fire through both of them? Yeah, let's rapid fire through both. What do you make of the Kuzmenko thing? I mean, I would certainly buy into, I'm skeptical of the player. Yeah, me too. He's looking for a contract. I would add this. He wants to get paid

at this, I would add this. Especially after the Kucenka's only gave him the two-year deal. Because I think the key with Kuzmanko is that it's all about the contract and not that he's working in a contract year to make sure he gets paid. But, that if you get Kuzmanko at three million, right? Because he's at 2.75 with the retention from Philly. Perfect. Middle six

specialists can do some really crazy stuff in terms of threading passes through traffic, some of what he can do while spinning. Yeah, against the Jets. He had that like old Etchkin style, like bank pass off the board, spun around and then set up the goal. Yeah. He does weird stuff too where he'll like be spinning and then he'll release a pass, but it's not like a spin pass, like an old school Gabriel Perrault-style French connection spin pass where it's like, and at the tail end of the spin, it's like he'll release or pass the puck sort of like contrary to his own motion and it's settled on the ice and it's just completely, like he does incredibly creative stuff as a passer down low, especially from down low, though he's eating off the rush

right now for the Kings, which is a little bit of a surprise. Yeah. He's a legitimately, the goal he scored, who was their opponent last night, the wrist shot goal, the second one that they had against... I played Edmonton on Saturday. Edmonton. The second goal against Edmonton. That wrist shot, the problem with that wrist shot is that it takes him so long to dock it up. It's not like a quick release.

But man, when he has time to unwind and launch it, that is a serious missile. And, you know, I think his net front work on the power play too, which actually hasn't been the foundation of this scoring outburst for him with the Kings. is really good. He's really good at getting a stick loose in traffic and just like serving as a backboard, especially if you have a pretty good playmaker playing off of him. Ideally, ideally from the flank actually, which is how he scored so many, you know, tap-ins off Pederson. And so the key, though, is the speed is not there. In fact, he might be one of the slowest players in the league. And there are real defensive gaps in his game that prevent him from getting the sort of usage that would

bump him up the lineup. But if you're able, especially if you're a team like the Kings that need a burst of offense, there's genuine creativity there. There's some specialist skills that can be utilized five on five, but especially down low on the power play. And I think at the right contractual value and for the right team, the right team, by the way, is one that completely drives play independent of him and struggles to finish. And the Kings are exactly that template. Carolina would be another, like Ottawa would be a good fit. Imagine Rod Brindamore hanging out with it. No, you're right.

Rod wouldn't play him. Also, also, the idea of Kuzmenko adjusting to stress hockey where you can't carry the puck, just like, no. So you're right. Scratch Carolina off the list. But one of those teams that can legitimately drive play and doesn't need any help doing so, I think he's actually a good fit. If he's slotted correctly in your lineup, that's what's happened to him in L.A.

Especially playing with Kopitar and Kempay, right? Oh. It's been really good. They're up 30 to 4. and they're 175 515 minutes. So it's been a great start for them there. Quickly on the Blues, who extended their winning streak to 12 games

after beating the abs again on Saturday. We're not spending too much time on it today because we spent our opening of the Sunday special last week talking about the Blues, but I just wanted to note that because they extended it. And last week, you and I spoke in particular about the contributions from this class over the past handful of years

of mid-to-late first rounders in that game. Bulldo continues his scoring ways. he has two just beautiful snipes. Neighbors scores a goal. Snuggerud, by the way, who lost in all the talk about Ryan Leonard and his entrance into the league, I think it's made a couple of really nice

set-ups so far in his three games he's played, and he did so again here on Saturday, and so they're getting great contributions from all those guys throughout the lineup. There are two points up now on Minnesota with four games left for Wild Card 1, and so, yeah, the Blues just to keep it going. I mean, defensively, I know they gave up a couple goals

to the aves here, they're really not giving out much. I think they've given up 14, 5-1-5 goals during this 12-game winning streak. So the blues just keep rolling. And the more and more viewings and reps I get of it, the more I'm buying in. I don't think they're a true talent, literally winning 100% of their games team because no one is in the NHL.

But there's like legitimate foundational stuff beyond just percentages working in your favor, which is like driving the success. I think they're doing a lot of really, really good stuff. They're playing phenomenal hockey. Yeah, that blues win was very, very impressive. And again, I think the, you know, there's the Cam Fowler of it all, right? And his sort of rejuvenation. But I think more than anything, my main takeaway, as we watch, who's powering this, right?

Specifically who's powering it? It's not like Pareko's been the key guy, stirring the drink or Falk has been, you know, it's like, wow, the right side of their blue line gives them this edge. Or even Braden Shen, who's played really good hockey, right? And adds, you know, faces a lot of tough matchups and adds some physicality and clearly has a lot of weight in terms of how that team carries itself. But it's neighbors, it's Bullduke, it's Holloway, it's Broberg. You know, it's guys like Torpchenko becoming really excellent on the penalty kill, right?

I thought he was a little bit more of a one-dimensional player, but watching him kill penalties now, especially when they've got them out there with faxan it's just like so much lankiness so much length um but it's younger guys who have sort of stepped up and i think stirred the drink for this montgomery team and when you combine sort of the coaching change the confidence that bennington is clearly taken from his four nations experience with the all this group of super talented young players kind of all hitting at the exact same time for the blues it's not just that I'm taking them seriously now. I'm kind of taking their retool seriously in terms of...

Yeah, the building blocks. Yeah, like I thought this team... Not only was I selling their stock two and a half months ago, but I kind of thought that they were a directionless group. Yeah. And that's really more than anything where I think we have to quickly readjust our priors on this, given the age of the players and the clear pedigree of the players that have driven this late season surge.

Really fun week of hockey ahead. Monday, blues at Jets, Tuesday, Golden Knights at Avs. Wednesday, we got Toronto at Tampa Bay. Thursday, we got a rematch, Keynes at Caps, which could be a round two matchup, and they had a very feisty game last week and also Jets at Stars, and then Friday, Wild at Flames. So I'm really excited to watch all those games

and then get back together with you next Sunday and break it all down. Everyone follow. Thomas Strands online, read his work, at the athletic as this Canucks season comes to a merciful end. This is a blast man. We'll be back next Sunday. It'll be our last, as we said, a regular season show for the two of us.

So we'll get into some fun stuff. Then I'll be back in a couple days myself with a new week of shows. Thank you for listening to the Hockey P.D.O.cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.