The Hockey PDOcast - Rasmus Dahlin, the Seattle Kraken & creating offense

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Sean Shapiro joins Dimitri in today's pod to analyze Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and his impressive season. They touch on the Seattle Kraken, and they discuss how offense is created in the modern NHL. This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty. 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. 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.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Filippovich, and joining me is my good buddy, Sean Shapiro. Sean, what's going on, man? Not much, not much. I was, I don't know the full history of it, but I was thinking about this before you and I hopped on. You know the, you know, like that whole that Paul Rudd, like look at us, Jiff?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, well, like, I feel, yeah. First off, it's a gift. It's a gift. Don't say, Jeff. Oh, I mean, choosing moms choose Jeff, right? Yes, right. Well, what about it?

It's from the, it's from hot ones. Yeah, it's, yeah, but it's kind of, uh, it, I always kind of get a bit of that feeling when we hop on the podcast now. I mean, but especially after a day like today when, uh, other parts of our respective work careers have crossed paths as well. and I did do edit some wonderful Troy Terry content earlier. Just kind of like, look at us, man. It's a good time.

That's really nice. I feel the same way. The feeling is mutual. Although I was going to say, I was going to interview you by say, the man who must be utterly sick of me by this point because you're tasked with making my writing look pretty at E. B. ringside. Sometimes I just jot down my thoughts without too much second guessing.

And then I just leave that for the editors. So apologies, if that is. the case. But listen, it was about Troy Terry. So, I mean, how bad it could it really be? It was a pretty fun topic. I will say, though, I did a full block on Terry earlier this week here in the BDOCast, so I don't want to repeat that all over again. So we'll save that. People can go to E.P. Rinkside and read my article or just re-listen to the Ducks podcast I did earlier this week. Let's talk about another topic near and dear to my heart that you wrote about recently as well, and that is Erasmus Dali. And how you, you kind of framed your piece in terms of

conversation with him and everything from like I feel like a bit more of a sort of off the ice or or also on the ice but from like a fashion perspective and his personality and all that and I I think it's certainly an important one because we often talk about how we wish NHL players were motivated and enabled and and and allowed and or willing to show us more of that personality in any sort of form and so the way you dress and all that is certainly one way to do that and so I don't you You can discuss that if you want. I kind of want to talk about Rosemus Dahlin on the ice because I think you really see his personality there as well in terms of the way he plays. Yeah, I think Rest Smith-Dalien is, it's kind of funny because, like, I had to be a,

the former Starsbeat writer for a little bit. You got, you got roped into being a Dahlene, in the anti-Dalene camp for a little bit because there was the Twitter battle lines drawn that you weren't allowed to appreciate both Miro Hachin and Rasmus Dahlene in that rookie season. It was to serve your contingency well enough, you had to for some reason take shots at the other guy. And I'm glad that that was never something you wanted to do, but it was by when people weren't voting for Miro and all that stuff. It was at the time. But Rasmus Dahlene is great for hockey. Rasmus Dahlane is fun. Rasmus Dahlene is fun on and off the ice.

And we'll talk about on the ice, we'll talk about on the ice too, but just off. the eyes. One thing I love about Rosmas Dahlin is he's very, I love his confidence in the way he talks about how this sport needs to get better. And that's kind of one of the reasons I had it. So I had lovely folks at EP Rings, I guess lovely folks myself included, we get to kind of gave me a little bit of space every other week now where I'm just going to kind of be allowed to just dive into some fun random odds stories and calling it unnumbered thoughts. Just obviously a bit of a, I think Elliot Freeman's 32 thoughts, obviously. Elliot kind of pioneered that format, and that format's great,

and I'm, but not pretending to be Elliot. So A through whatever letter we get through each week. And I talked to Rasmus yesterday when Buffalo was in Detroit, and it's funny, I asked the Savers PR woman, who's a one lovely lady asking her, asking her why, if I could get Rasmus in the retort that she's probably pretty good at now is well which one because well there's only two of them now there's only two of them now but down down from three but is it's i'm not sure if it's uh rasmai or rasmuses i'm not really sure

what the plural of rasmuses is well i don't know how many i don't know how many people are asking for uh rasmus aspland media availability maybe the true true hockey twitter nerd degenerates but uh but i'm sure not many uh many mainstream folks yes that's yeah that's fair that's fair but so rasmus dalien we i love how confident he is about how he thinks hockey should be better and more personable off the ice last year when the uh i believe it was it was either the last game or the last home game before rick genera did his final game with buffalo um he was actually kind of the player catalyst that helped uh get those the custom skate graphics on the uh onto the player skates for warm-ups where Rick didn't know it was coming and it was a kind of it was kind of cool and

I and I've talked to the guys who have built that brand in Buffalo before and he's worked with them and so I and Rasmus kind of I could have asked him about that and a lot of times you ask a player about something cool and they're like oh yeah I did that and that's it that that's kind of all they say and they don't really expand and instead he was willing to just he kind of just took the conversation further he talked about why it's, hey, he looks at the NBA, he looks at soccer, he looks at these other sports where he's watching the World Cup right now. And guys are encouraged to have flair. They're encouraged to have personality.

And he just wants that in hockey. And he has no issue saying that. And I love that about Rasmus Dahlene. And you know what? It translates onto the ice. So good segue. Yes. Well, like I, first off, I can't stress enough both how miserable everyone involved, but

especially him. I feel like was during that shortened 2021 season before Ralph Krueger got fired where they were they were quite literally trying to jam a square peg into a round hole stylistically where they were a flawed team certainly not anyone not they didn't they weren't going to compete regardless I think they had jack Eichel and Taylor hall at the time and and they before they traded brand of montour as well but the one thing they did have was a lot of very prolific skaters who could move up and down the ice and for whatever reason they decided oh we're going to to run literally the slowest-paced offense in the league.

We're going to try to get into the zone and get the puck deep and grind it out and cycle it and play that way and try to grind out these games as opposed to embracing this fun style where our core is all young guys who move up and down ice really well. And Dahlene was just not suited for that. And you could tell he was in his own head. He was overthinking it. And that's a big problem for a player whose best attribute is his physical talent, right? like his ability to skate, his puck skills, that flare, the aggressiveness, like all of that put

into one package. That's what made him so special. That's what made him not only the number one overall pick in his draft, but one of the most coveted prospects we've ever had heading into the draft that year. And we didn't get to see any of that that season. And it was such a disappointing regression from him because, you know, he started off his, his NHL career, putting up a bunch of points his first two seasons. And it just went completely downhill in that year. And ever since Granato came and it took over, the best thing they've done is embrace exactly that. Just let Rasmus Dahlin be what makes him special. He's going to make mistakes. He's going to take some dumb penalties. He's going to get out of position. He's going to make turnovers. Whatever.

That's fine. That's what young players do. It's such a net positive though, because he's such an offensive engine for this team. And you're seeing that this year in terms of how special he can be and in terms of how good this team can be offensively when he's playing that way. And so just as a fan of the sport, I'm really thankful that it didn't go too far. You know, I don't talent will ultimately win out. But when you have a young player and you see that type of kind of regression in skills and you see bad habits developing, you always worry that it can go too far, right? Where their career can almost get ruined because some of their best years for learning and getting better are being wasted. And thankfully, it was a short period in his career and it seems to be in the past and he's

back to doing what he does best. And so it's really fun to watch. It's really cool. And I'm really happy it's happening. Yeah, it's, uh, it's into, too many, I'm glad the thing, too many times, a lot of times tell it does win out, but there are times where you get the supremely talented young, offensive-minded defenseman who goes through that and just gets broken, right? Like there's, there's, there's been, there's been example to get broken and they never, and they never become what they could have been. And that's the best, the best thing is that the, uh, that didn't happen. That, the fact that I mean, he was always such a confident guy and it was never going to be, I don't think he was ever not going to have confidence in his game, but you could have had his game broken more.

He could have had things driven out of him that he didn't. And I am so happy as a hockey fan that that didn't happen, that Rasmus Dalline was allowed to endure and remain Rasmus Dahlene. And it's credit to Donato for being to, to, to Don for doing a good job of being of helping kind of re-rescitate that. And also with how Buffalo has handled things and obviously it took a little while to get there, credit to Dahlin for not getting caught up in so much of the other off-ice stuff and kind of the ups and downs of that franchise.

And I'm sure it can't. And it's, I know people like, it can't be easy when that team's going through as tough time they are and you look up and there's 6,000 people there. Like, it's not like at the end. I know people want to say all their hockey players, but like you can look up and when the, when the building's pretty much empty and no one's caring, it starts to get draining. It starts to get, people, apathy is worse. Like people, people, booing is actually better than apathy because people booing, you're at least

like, okay, people still care. What happened in Buffalo is basically an entire fan. base just kind of decided like this isn't even worth our time and obviously COVID didn't help but well I'm going to say especially for a fan base that we've seen in terms of not only how they let's like the bills are good now and how they embrace them but also also like my interactions with sabers vans online is that they're a very passionate bunch like they genuinely care about their team and I don't blame them for that apathy when the product you've been served for so long with so many deep rooted internal just like issues keep propping back up.

I totally understand it. You know, that's a great point you make about kind of for a player like Dali, and what makes him special is that kind of thing where he doesn't really think twice in a way, right? Like he just gets up and goes and he needs to be aggressive and that will lead the mistakes. But if he starts second guessing that,

that's when he can really get into trouble because you're basically stripping what makes him special. And I'm sure as he gets older, he'll not only get better at picking his spots, but, but, you know, just with more experience in this league, he'll make less of those mistakes and he'll kind of know exactly when he should be going and when not.

But I'm totally fine with that. Like there was, because I'm writing about him for our site next week as well, so I was watching all these shifts of his this year. And he had this play in a recent game against Carolina earlier in the year where it's this 5-15 shift in the offensive zone where he takes a shot from the point. and then they get the rebound. And I think Casey Middlestad or someone is like along the boards.

And it looks like they're kind of in trouble because they're being pressured by a hurricane skater. And Dalian just bolts down into the corner, basically provides himself as a passing option for Middlestat. He gives it to him. They keep kind of cycling it around. He makes his way back up into the zone and then just skates right for the net and goes and posts up there and gets like a tap and opportunity to score as well. And the puck didn't go in, but it reflected that sort of instinct of his offense. where this is what the modern game is now. You need to have defensemen who are comfortable going down low

and being near the net and trying to score. They can't just be hanging around at the point at all times because that's too predictable and too easy to defend. And so in him and in Owen Power, who's more reluctant sometimes and picks his spots already at this point of his career, which is what makes him so remarkable that he's a teenager basically playing this first full season, and he already knows exactly what to do at all times.

But seeing the way those guys play off of each other is so cool and so encouraging for me moving forward for the outlook of this team. Another thing about Dowling that I really like, too, when you look at kind of the future of the game. And so he's, it's obviously he understands that's his own game too, but him and I were talking, and this didn't make it into the story because we were just kind of more of just going back and forth

and basically. And we started talking about Mo Cider and just kind of what I've seen in Detroit with Cider and obviously a guy who is supremely talented, young, exciting defenseman who was going through, even though he won the Calder last year, obviously it's a Detroit team and a rebuild. And Dalene just kind of gave me his unfettered just talking to me a little bit about just watching another young defenseman hoping that he does what Rasmus does, where he hopes

that he, that he continues to play an exciting style of hockey, that Mo Sider is allowed to be Mosider. And it's kind of cool when you see a guy like that. It's kind of cool when you see a guy like Dahlin looking at kind of the future of his position and knowing that he's part of the trendsetter, but is not, it kind of wants to see that across the league to. That was kind of a cool conversation to have with him as well, just between just kind of, in addition to some of the stuff I already wrote about with him, it was just kind of here to hear him talk about what he wants to see from most cider. and now he wants to see cider do a little bit of that.

And to kind of hear him be a fan of another young offensive dynamic defenseman who was trying to take that next step, it was really fun for me. Well, were you at that, were you at the Sabres Wings game, or were you just at like the pregame skate? I had a beer league game last night where I, uh, so I, uh, I was, I, so I ended up watching it last night, but I ended up watching the replay of it afterwards, but I had an,

I had an important beer league game, uh, against the, uh, We, the one team that is, uh, we'll call the, uh, the antagonist of the league. Okay. Which we, uh, we beat, we beat them in a shootout. I, uh, made, I stacked the pads going right to left in the third round of the shootout and we won. So I had important things last night. There we go. Nice, uh, nice little humble brag there.

Yes. Oh, yeah. So here's the thing, not to turn this into a full sabers deep dive, but I did, I just want to make this point in this in conjunction with this conversation about Dali. Yeah. The Sabres are 10, 12, and 1 this season, right? They started off hot. They had that eight game losing streak.

I think you can see a lot of the issues that are still in place, right? Like, they give up a lot defensively. Their goal-tening is still very hit or miss. Like, there's details they need to iron out. But for me, what I keep coming back to that's so encouraging and it ties into Dalyan's performance is here are some of their numbers at 5-on-5 in terms of offense. They're seventh and goals. Their ninth and expected goals generated.

and their 11th in high danger chances generated. And to me, that's a team that has something legitimately in place already to build upon, right? I think the toughest thing in this league is finding these building blocks that can create for themselves and others that can legitimately move the needle for your organization that are just like the linchpins of everything, right? That everything runs through them.

And those are typically the players who drive the bus, offensively for you. And they have that in place already in this nucleus, both in terms of, you know, Tage Thompson and Alex Tuck and J.J. Petirka and Jack Quinn and then Dahlian in Power. They have that in place. It's a lot easier to work on the details, to find, you know, kind of players on the margins that can improve your depth and limit the number of holes you have on your, in your lineup. And it's a also an organization that has invested quite a bit in analytics the past couple years in terms of their front office. And you'd think that that would be one thing they'd be well suited to actually fix in the coming years is finding some of these cheap undervalue depth pieces

they can come in and improve the bottom six, the third pair, which is kind of where they're really struggling and drowning these days in terms of those minutes. And so if they can improve that, they already have the toughest thing in place. And so regardless of where the rest of the season goes for them. I've seen such encouraging signs in terms of like the offensive nucleus and infrastructure in place and the way they're playing under Granado that I think there's so much to build on moving forward. And it's not just, you know, kind of one of those jokes where they start out hot. And then we're all running these, you know, magazine covers and headlines where it's like Sabres, 2027 Stanley Cup champions question mark. Like I think there's something legitimately in place here where

there's reason to be excited and it's not just a hope and a dream. I think there's a freedom too. We talk about the freedom with the players, but I think I think, I think Don coaching that team. I think he has a bit of freedom to know he has the security to not make the mistakes as a coach, but to allow his players to make mistakes. I think too often coaches, even when they've got young talent, I think too often they get into the mindset of they have to sacrifice the long-term greater goal for the short-term

can we win this game 2-1? Can we win this game 3-2 tonight? And I think we use with Don where he's been willing to live with it and go with that as a coach and everything like that. I think that really can't. I don't think that can be ignored here. I think that's another thing too, just as far as from a coaching standpoint, it's not like Dahlene or anyone's going to make a mistake

and all of a sudden Don's going to be thinking, well, I've lost my job today. I think too many times you get coaches who coach that. way and Buffalo doesn't have that, which is, which is vital. And I mean, how many coaches would have most coaches lose eight games and all of a sudden they start getting, it starts getting really, it starts getting really ugly. It starts getting really ugly. It didn't get ugly. Obviously, losses is ugly, but the style didn't get ugly. Well, here's a stack for you. So Daly and Power played together a bit at 5-1-5 because they had all these injuries on the blue line and Matthia

Samuelson was out for a while. And so they just felt their best option was paris those two guys up on the top pair and then just, you know, punting basically every other minute. And that exposed a lot of the issues that they still have in place, which is the depth and having other players who can at least just, you know, come out neutral in their minutes if they don't have their top players out there and they didn't have that. But when they've had at least one of those two guys on the ice at five on five this season, they're up 43 to 32. Without either of them on the ice, they're getting just massacre 20 to 9 at 5-15 in terms of goals, poor and against. And so that really, that's, that's the stat, right?

And I can see why I can see why there's been all these rumblings about them being sort of a, a recent entrant into the, into the Jacob Chikrin sweepstakes and whether they'd be interested in trading for him. And I understand the natural reaction of that is, well, this team's going to miss the playoffs again. They have a sub 500 record, as I just mentioned. Why would they be trading futures for any player? And I get that. They're one of the few teams where I actually think it makes sense, depending on the price, of course. I don't, if it's too outlandish, then it's not worth it.

But to get a player who's 24, 25 years old under contract, so he fits in the timeline with all these other players, they have so many assets in terms of draft picks that they've taken the past couple of years and futures as well coming up that they can sacrifice some of them in a trade without necessarily bleeding themselves completely dry. And it fits a legitimate need. Now, him, Dali, power, and Samuelson are all left shots. so that's not ideal in terms of constructing a depth chart. But I can see why they'd be interested in it.

And so I'm all for price permitting. I think it makes a lot of sense. Right shot a right shot defenseman in this economy. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. All right. Well, before we go to break here, is there anything else on Dahlian or the sabres that you wanted to get to

or anything related to this, I guess, before? Because we want to talk about the Crackin as a little bit, but I feel like we can probably say that for the second moment. I think we can save that for block too. I think the one thing that's just interesting from a Buffalo perspective, and the long-term plan will just be, you're not going to, you need to figure out that.

You talk about having all the pieces, the one other big piece that will come up when it, when eventually gets to the point of, hey, they're supposed to win a playoff round or two will be the goalie. So that will be, that will be interesting because like Dalina, like Craig Anderson had an assiste yesterday.

on the 20, on the 20 year anniversary of his NHL debut. Wow. Like, I mean, he's honestly, he's given them more than I think anyone had any reason to expect it. Oh, yeah, 100%. I, Craig Anderson reminds me of, so I always think of Craig Anderson because like, I remember I was in high school in 2007, 2006, 2007, I was in high school and I was in Chicago for like this field trip thing. and they had like there was like the black hawks team store and like sometimes they

have like the used player equipment and there's a Craig Anderson like used blocker I remember I remember looking at it because like I was like looking at gear and all of that stuff and it's like like oh a Craig Anderson used blocker like I should have bought it because 14 he'd still be playing in the NHL 13 14 years later whatever it was but good on Craig so I think I thought that story he was going to end with and Craig Anderson is still using that blocker to this day because he bought it he he went he went back to the store and bought it himself well and listen like he should keep playing as long as he can play like this he should play as long as he wants like the vibe that i get is like he was just like sitting at home and then the sabers were like please craig come

back we we need you to play it every year and then he's like all right i'll do it for the kids and he's just like he's kind of just hang out with the guys they make him feel young again but it's uh no it's i mean it's a good story and and i love like rangerlander but yeah no i mean listen with like Devin Levi in college, and we'll see about Eric Portillo's status as well. Like, they have some interesting pieces there. But yeah, I mean, if there's a thing that you want to have unclear, it's your future long-term goalie because there's so few in this league that I would trust as anyone's future long-term goalie.

So who knows? Put someone in there and see if he works out for you. That's fair. All right, Sean, we're going to take a break here. And then when we come back, we're going to keep talking about a variety of different topics. So looking forward to that. everyone should stick around and listen to that. And we'll be back here with more of the Hockeypedio guest on the SportsNet Radio Network.

All right. We're back from the Hockeyedio cast here, Dimitri Philipovich, joined by Sean Shapiro. Sean, so we talked about the Sabres on the first block. We should talk about the Crackle a little bit here because they were also in your piece. And you got the chat with Mark Giordano about them when they were in town in Detroit there. but, you know, I kind of wanted to do like a full deep dive episode the other day right after that 9-8 game just because I was like, it'll be funny if I just, if I did a full 50-minute show, just like dissecting this game. But, but I, you know, I couldn't find anyone that was, that was depraved enough to do so with me. So we're going to talk about it a little bit here instead.

So where do you want to go with this cracking conversation? Well, what do we start? We can start with a 17 goal game just because it's fresh in my mind because John Rosen, who is, doing something. John Rosen is, his, covers the Kings now for the forum report and has also, so he texts and he, I've always, I've done some goal breakdowns in the past and John texted me the other day. I asked if I could help them out some of the stuff just from that game. And so I went through and watched, rewatched all 17 of those goals. So they're all fresh in mind for me right now. And it's, yeah, I, I believe I could score high.

blocker right now for uh you know what you know what's funny i um like i watch that full i watch like i game in its entirety live because i'm out here on the west coast so it was at a reasonable hour for me but then i wanted to see because i go on on sports and i was like five minute recap sometimes just yeah yeah yeah we stop after and i was like i'm very curious to see how they're gonna jam in these 17 goals into this five minute clip yes and it was really funny because like they were so tight on time that they would they would like show the goal but then instead of like like doing the thing where it shows the goalie kind of looking sad after and getting up. Like they were almost like like trimming each one.

So like you'd see the puck go into the net and it would instantly go to like the next clip. Like they didn't have time to linger on any of them. My, uh, I was listening to, I listened to the audio the other day because I had to do my, a good college friend of mine actually, Everett fits you was the radio voice for Seattle. Oh yeah. So good. And so Everett and I were at Bowling Green. He actually, fun fact, he actually at Bowling Green, he gave Andrew Hammond the hamburger nickname

actually. But so Everett, ever they post, he posted the audio of that. So I went back and listened to him calling all 17 goals and the audio clip. But it's just, it's, it's wild. Like, it's something where that game, I love how we're at a spot right now where we all just kind of accept it. Yeah, that was a game. Like it used to, like, if it had been, for whatever reason, we've moved past the spot where it's like, there's been now 16 think pieces. that came out the next day of like his offense too high or whatever like i like that people were just

like i crack it and king scored 17 goals it happened well i would say that cal peterson especially in the aftermath probably is is not as uh as cool in it but yes yes what i will say is that you saw a lot of like listen a nine game outburst a nine goal outburst like that for for seattle would be considered an aberration for any team of course regardless of how much goal scoring is up And that's sort of like an anomaly in every sense. But beyond, I think there was like the one goal. I forget who it was. It might have been Sprongs where like he shot it and then Cal Peters and kind of popped

it up into the air and didn't realize that it was still. And then it popped in behind him and went in. That one was like, you know, a truly unacceptable goal. For the most part, though, a lot of them, you could actually see how much improved this Cracken team is offensively in terms of where those shots were coming from because a lot of them were like, they'd get the puck behind the net. and then someone would pop up in the slot, and they'd quickly get it out to them for a really efficient shot,

which we know is like one of the best things you can do offensively in today's game. You could also see Andre Borkovsky, who's been remarkable for them this season. He's over a point of game, scores of two goals, including the winner and overtime. I went back and watched his nine goals so far this season, and pretty much every single one of them has come from that exact same spot,

right in the middle of the face-off circle, basically, where he's one of the best finishers in the league, and they're doing a great job of designing these, looks to get in the puck there. And so the personnel is better. The strategy and philosophy is a lot improved from last year where they were basically just shooting as many point shots as they could and hoping for the best and not getting any results.

And so the nine goals is one thing. But I think that really did give you a glimpse of why this team is so much more successful so far this season than they were in their inaugural year. Yeah. And the two other, the two things that stood out for me, too, about the Crackens' offensive creation too, is, and it's going to be overly cliched and everything. anything like that, but like their forecheck, they created, though, I think it was the, um, might have been, I mean, there's so many goals, but one of McCann, I don't think even technically,

I don't think McCann even got a point on this one. It's the one where he has the, the, the four check basically wipes the wipes out. And then he was, we want to be cocky coach speak. He goes, takes them out, F2, takes the puck, F3 scores, right? Like, but like, I think the whole, the way they, they turned the forecheck into offense is impressive. And then also in the, uh, in The first, it was the, Everley was obviously, I thought everybody was great in that game, by the way. But there was the, the other way you see just kind of the way Seattle, I think the way from the puck, I think it was the, I want to make sure I remember which goal it was properly. I think it was, I know, remember correctly, Beniers was the first goal. I'm trying to, like, what was it?

It was. I don't know. There were nine of them to pick up. Yeah, there was a ridiculous amount. The one where basically Pracking up Seattle has the puck

In the corner And basically It's the spinoff play And then do Dowdy basically gets Juked in the slot For the easy to happen And it's

And it was a play to me That just obviously It's pretty poor coverage By the Kings But it's a kind of a good capturing Of how Seattle moves away from the puck How they go to space

How they do all of that I thought it's like They're a good team This was like Obviously nine goals is an aberration, but they are a good team. They create and they make space for each other, and they do a really good job of making life easier for their linemates.

And I think that's kind of the biggest thing about the Seattle forward core, from my perspective, watching them is you see how they play, you see how when you're the puck carrier, it's easier because of what your teammates than doing and vice versa. So, like, that's the mark of a good hockey team. And I think they're, like I wrote in my column this week where it's like, obviously this whole Shane Wright thing is definitely a big story. But I think it's taking away from how good this Seattle team is. It's taking attention away from what we really should be talking more about is what this Cracken team is.

And also, I mean, there's also a little bit of a unfair bar that Vegas set because people will be like, oh, like the second year expansion. Well, this is an incredible second year expansion team. well yeah and and what I was saying at the time this was all happening coming to a head in terms of why isn't Shane right playing and people would say well this team struggled so much offensively last year like how can they not find a spot for him and then you actually look at their offensive or their forward group this season with the additions they made this off season and it's like well they're actually pretty deep in terms of like yeah you can you know you could probably jam in a sloth room on the fourth line but beyond that

like whose spot is he taking in this top nine? It's it's one thing to just suggest it. It's like, all right, well, let's tangibly pick someone. And not that they have any real superstars, I think Maddie Baneers can certainly get there, but they have a lot of really good NHL players, right? And so it's really tough to justify bumping one of them down or taking them out of the lineup entirely just to force feed a young player because you took him high in the draft.

So it was a very tricky spot. It's cool to see, right, go to the HL and produce. and I'm still very high and optimistic on his future, but like this forward group is pretty good. I'm not expecting them to necessarily keep this up, right? I think only the devil will score more than them at 5-15. I believe no one scores more than them across all situations. I think that's a bit aggressive in terms of a future projection or expectation from them,

and a lot of it is fueled by the fact that their first and shooting percentage in both game states. And so that's probably not going to continue. But I think there's a lot to like here, and they're certainly playing in a much more conducive way to at least being average or slightly above average offensively. And considering how good they already were defensively last year in terms of taking away that space, basically doing the opposite of what they're doing now offensively, how good they are at that, as long as they can get reasonable goal-ending and not just get completely

caved in, which to me is the biggest question of all here, as good as Martin Jones was prior to that game, I think still it's a big worry for me moving forward. but if they can make life easier for him and then keep producing this way, like they're going to be feisty all year. I think, I think it's pretty legit. Oh, yeah.

And it's a team too that I think it's, like I was, this is actually something kind of to connect. Like I talked to Mark Giordano. And obviously he's probably like, where was this last year? Jeez. Yes.

Yes. Like he's, and he's the, it's amazing to think that a second year franchise has an ex-captain just because he was, I still like, it's funny. Like he. Obviously, it's an honor to be someone who was a captain of two different NHL franchises.

But from a Seattle perspective, did you really need to name a captain of a guy? You probably were planning on trading the entire time. But that's another whole discussion. But, I mean, Jir Dano talked about one thing he said that's kind of, that was interesting to me, that's kind of stuck with me about the setup in Seattle. and he talked about kind of the way they're going to play on the ice combined with

the support and kind of of the feeling around there he used the word it's going to become one of the best most desirable places for players to go play and player it's easy like how many times do we hear that players always say something nice

about where they were before but to me the truth of that coming from Giordano is more so when I look at the evidence like we're talking about where if you're a if you're a player and you're looking at your options in the future and you're looking at how seattle plays and you look at how you make how your team's play makes your life easier with him without the puck and how you do that.

Like it's not wrong. Well, like it actually has all of that kind of bubbling in the right direction where this isn't just a, hey, they're good this year. This is a you're good and you start rolling into year three and four and five. Like, I see a lot going in the right direction for this. And maybe that's just the benefit. And maybe we saw it with Vegas, maybe that's just the benefit of getting a blank slate in this era. Maybe that is.

Like how many teams, how many GMs, how many ownership groups would, not ownership groups, but how many GMs do you think would say like, oh, I'd take a blank slate just to start over, knowing I wouldn't get fired in year one. No way I wouldn't get fired in year one. Like I bet a lot would. And I think that may just be kind of, and we're not going to see another expansion team for a while. I mean, but that may just be the reality of they got to avoid a lot of the mistakes, got to avoid a lot of the mistakes that other GMs have to work their way out of. How many times do you, like, I mean, it's like we always, it's funny how we've kind of polished a turd to look better in Minnesota where people are like, oh, well, look at all this cap space that's going to open up in a couple years.

And the cap goes up, well, it's because of how bad, so horrible decisions that they signed off on before. Yeah, that'd be a great exercise. Get some give truth serum to all 32 GMs and then ask them if you could just, if you could just completely get rid of every single player that you currently have right now and just start from scratch, would you do it? And I think, yeah, I think I think probably a surprisingly high number of them would be like, yes, please sign me up. Yes, yes.

Yeah, it is cool. Like I think the fact that they have, in my opinion, such a aesthetically pleasing jersey combination that their broadcast is as good as it is that the fans are as lively as they are in these home games that they play like i think it is cool to finally see finally after a year and a half not that it's such a long wait right but it's it is cool to see the the product on the ice actually match up with all these other things that the organization has done well early in its uh nchel stage so yeah i'm i'm all for it like the longer that this lasts the uh the better it is and i'm also all for

these wacky late Pacific time games as well because I'm up watching them and I love seeing people waking up in the morning and looking at the scores and being like oh my god what what on earth happened last night so that's always fun my uh but this I was looking at I was because I'm usually up pretty early because I got the little I get the little guy who's just recently turned to and so I was I actually some of those uh late west coast games have become I've been able to just kind of watch the third period like early the next day where I like I haven't I've I've intentionally not checked the score, and so it kind of becomes wacky early in the morning stuff. And so that's actually how I came across the score of this game.

My wife came downstairs and me and my son were watching the game. And she's, and she stopped and she's like, well, what sport are you watched? She just saw the scoreboard. She says, it's like, wait, are you actually watching a hockey game right now? Yeah, that's good. All right. Well, is there anything else on Seattle, do you want to get to? We got like 10 minutes here.

you know the daly and the crack and stuff we're kind of like my two big topics I wanted to hate with here but we can just use the rest of the show to just talk about whatever is whatever's interesting to us these days yeah let's let's go that I mean I'm pretty who do you who are you planning

and on who do you want to get that's in town next in Detroit that you really want to you really want to talk to her chat with because you mentioned that you've got this recurring piece that you're going to have up on early prospects every two weeks now it's going to be kind of like a notebook piece where you unleash some nuggets that you've accrued in your conversations with people.

Who do you really want to get? Who do you want to talk to you? What's interesting to you? Yeah. So I'm pulling up the schedule now to make sure I have this all fresh in my mind. I know it's to me there's a, I'm always a bit of a goalie nerd. That's just a reality of it.

So I'm really hoping that, I'm really hoping Logan Thompson doesn't have a weird I don't talk on game day policy. on Saturday because Vegas comes here on Saturday. So I'm really, I'm really, I hope because he's, I think that's, that's obviously such a great story with him in Vegas and to see where that's gone. The, another just kind of just a side note, just speaking on the goal to anything, just to slightly tease something that I've got coming on the substack tomorrow. I talked to, I had a lovely lengthy conversation, and it kind of connects to Seattle

with Magnus Hellberg yesterday, who was a super interesting dude who's been in Seattle, Detroit, in Ottawa, and all of them more in this story tomorrow, but basically, I wanted to talk to him because he's got the great pads, right? Like, it's the whole, like, called the sets,

and I've talked to the guys from Brian's about his pads and everything like that. But he and his fiance, I've been moving around the country right now, just with a dog that they adopted off the streets of Shanghai when he was playing in the KHL. it's like that's that's a

that's a quick tangent yeah pub pub shapshots go to the sub stack I love that well you had a little nugget in in that piece about speaking of goalies about Anton Hudobin yeah and I really really hope selfishly

that he is back in our lives at some point here maybe he can uh maybe he can come and uh and co-host this podcast with us at the very at least like I feel Like, let's just get him involved. I want to hear more from more from Prudobin. Yeah, he's, uh, obviously I know quite a bit about that situation being the Dallas connections. And he's, uh, I, I mentioned it just because with, we'll see what happens with the Peterson

thing and we'll see what happens with LA, but like, he's got a one year deal. Like, I know it's, it's not a very, it's, it's an unattractive $3.3 million dollar cap hit. It's going to be, it's hard wherever. And this Dallas can't really, Dallas doesn't really have, Dallas waived him, really have the caps space to, uh, it's, it's not a lot of, it's not. do much retaining anyway to make it work. So it's going to take another team. But if you can do the gym, get the cap gymnastics done and you can bring them in, it would be, it's one of those where we talk about fun for hockey, fun for all of us. It would be fun to have Hanson Hobin back in the

NHL space, the NHL world from a style standpoint, a personality standpoint. I mean, as you said, maybe we should, we should get them on the PDO cast. That would be a, does that, does that, that bubble playoff run, just the entirety of it feel like such like a like a fever dream to you at this point. I don't know. I don't know if it feels like that for you. But for me, it's just like it almost seems like it was another lifetime ago. And then sometimes when I'm thinking about some of these like stats that I'm looking at or or, you know, year over year things. And I'm like, oh, wait, that was like two years ago. Like what? It's just like it's always kind of mind-blowing to just think about how much has happened since then and how in the grand

scheme of things that two-year window is so short but so much has changed and that this is speaking about don't knowbin that's like probably the the biggest example of that where this guy is just basically like in the hl hoping for another chance to play in the league and he was like the biggest rock star in the n hl for that yeah yeah he was beloved and everything like Like, it's, it's only, it was only two years ago, believe it or not. That's the thing that I always, that's, that always surprises me. Like, I feel, I feel like that's always, that must be wrong. There's no way that's right.

But somehow we've all lived like five lifetimes since the bubble in Edmonton and Toronto. Like, we've all, but it's, yeah, I don't. I mean, yeah, I would, I would, I would, yeah, I would love to see him. Yeah, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think about other stuff. I mean, have you, okay, here's a, here's a topic for you. Yeah. Have you talked to Filipronic at all about the power of his mustache? Because his, speaking of, uh, you speaking of splits of like with and without,

Philopronic with and without ridiculously cool mustache is about as big of an extreme of two players offensively as you're going to find. Um, so I broke Philipponic streak. Philopronic had gone a thousand days without talking to media. Really? Speaking of two years, he had, was that something he was doing intentionally? Well, clearly he knew the numbers, so.

Okay. He had gone a thousand days without talking to media between, so like when NHL locker rooms reopened and everything like that, obviously some players were less thrilled than others. Philip Ronick is someone who, it's not that he's just, he likes to keep to himself. He wants to be by himself. he was quite proud of the fact he had gone so long.

I made the mistake of, I didn't know that this streak was going. I didn't know that he was trying to keep the streak going for so long. And so, and I was just trying to, I'm still obviously newer to Reds Times bound to Red Wings coverage. I've been trying to talk to some guy, to talk to more players, everything like that. And so not even thinking,

that I'm stepping on the line of breaking up Cow Ripkin style Iron Man streak. It's, I talked to him, and we had like a quick minute and a half conversation and everything, he was, it was five, but it was I, uh, the Ken Daniel's the play by play guy for the Red Wings, who is, uh, speaking of which just don't give him a quick plug. He, uh, he had an event today. Um, if you want to support something, and look up the Jamie Daniels Foundation.

He's doing a lot of really good things in memoriam for his son, who obviously passed away from unfortunate circumstances. And so he's checked that out. But Ken went out of his way to remind me that I was the one that broke the streak because he had been rooting for Phil to push to reach 2K. So that was, now someone else would have broken it before, but I'm the one who broke Philip Ronix talking to the media streak. the mustache though is it's it's an impressive stash it's and it was an impressive month um

David Perron told me it was an ugly mustache so that's a what a hater yeah I think it's jealousy yeah I mean it was incredibly cool and uh obscenely productive so um can't can't really hate on that in that regard and yeah I like blood Perron as a player so it was cool to see that I did no idea about the streak I want our pala Max Bultman feels about this. I got to ask him. All right. Well, Sean, this is a blast.

I'm glad we got to do this in the meantime. But while we work on getting Anton Hoodobin to join us on the podcast, which is something we're going to do. I'll give you a chance here to plug some of that stuff in terms of where people can check you out. And you've mentioned in passing some stuff that you have worked on and some stuff you are going to be working on, so you can let the listeners know about all that as well.

Yeah, for sure. So I've got the, I've been, I'm in various places now. I'm here, obviously here at EP Rinks. I'm at AP Rinkside where we're both, both of our writing can be found. Obviously, I've got some stuff there. I had, uh, actually had a pretty good, I've had a pretty good conversation with Rick Bonas today, actually about Blake Wheeler and the full captaincy taking away in Winnipeg and kind of a two-month post-op of how that's gone. So I'm probably going to have something on that up at EP ringside sometime within the next three to four days probably.

Also, as I said, to plug the substack again, got the, going to go write some nice things about the pad god, Magnus Helberg. Give him some love and tell some of the stories about him. And yeah, and then, and then kind of outside of that, just kind of keeping our eyes and ears open on stuff. I'm interested to see Vegas on Saturday. That's a team that just, I think, it's been,

it's good to see, like, I like watching these teams that are kind of like, are they good, aren't they good, which you have in Detroit, and to kind of see actual good teams come in and see how they test themselves from time to time. So I always like those matchups, because those are for me just measuring sticks to watch and see where it goes. Yeah. Especially a team that's so well structured where you'll quickly find out if the team you're wondering about how good they are, you'll quickly find out because a team is well

structured and as precise as Vegas. When they're on, you know, they can have their own themselves as well. But if they're on, they're going to just feast on that right away and it will become very visibly clear immediately. So that, yeah, that'll be interesting. Yes, it's funny. You mentioned Rick bonus. I had a listener message me yesterday and they're like, the Winnipeg Jets are leading the

Central Division and point percentage. Can we get a deep dive on them? I know you hate Rick bonus, but could you do it anyways? And I'm like, I do not hate Rick bonus. I hate what he did to our beloved Dallas stars for a couple years there. I will definitely admit to that. I'm on the record. I despise, I hate watch them a lot. I despise what they became. And I blame Rick bonus for that. But I have to give him credit, the Winnipeg Jets have been good. They just smoke the Colorado Avalanche in a recent game. And yeah, maybe we need to, maybe we need to give them some more time here in the PDOCest and and dive into them just to prove that I do not hate Rick bonus. Rick's a lovely human.

I also, I also have disagreed. I can also disagree with his coaching decisions as well. Yeah. All right, Sean. Well, this is a blast. We're going to definitely do this again soon. Thank you to the listeners for checking out the PDOCAS as always. If you enjoyed what you heard, you can help us out by smashing that five star button wherever

you listen to the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more. I believe I'm having Harmon Dial on. going to be hanging out in studio, chatting about a variety of fun things. So look forward to that. And we'll be back. So yeah, thank you for listening to the Hockeypedo cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.