The Hockey PDOcast - Sens Making It Back to the Playoffs, Demidov in Montreal, and the Leafs Back-to-Back in Florida

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by John Matisz to talk about how the Senators made it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017, Demidov joining the Habs young nucleus as they look to become the 5th Atlantic Division representative in the postseason, the pair of games the Leafs played in Florida this week, and the Wild getting Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek back. 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 PEDEOCast. My name's Dimitri Filippovich and joining me from a swanky hotel room in Ottawa where he's on assignment covering the Ottawa senators a team we'll be talking about at length here today. It's my good buddy John Mattis. John, what's going on in? Not a whole lot. Very swanky surroundings here. The score only puts me up in five-star hotels. No. It's a quality hotel and yeah, I'm in Ottawa digging in on these. these sense. That looks like an executive suite,

the king-sized bed behind you, so you're living the life. I didn't know the score was going to get down like that. Well, I guess now you know. But yeah, no, it's one of my favorite times of the hockey season where things are winding down. And I feel like the last few years,

correct me if I'm wrong, Demetri, but the playoff races haven't been that exciting, whereas this year we've actually had some kind of dramatics. And I know it's starting to, it's starting to all tie up and we're starting to align the different playoff matches, but it feels like this year's been a little bit different with the excitement down the stretch. Yeah, for the most part, it feels like at least now we have nearly all 16 teams book.

There is some seating ahead, and obviously the flames still have a bit of a say in the Western Conference wildcard picture. But selfishly for my purposes, I'd like to do next week's big mega playoff preview of round one on Thursday night on the last night of the season so that we can get it out there and people can listen before the game start on Saturday. I was kind of dreading, waiting until the end of Thursday night for actual clarity and then having to, you know, rush it on Friday and speed up that process. So it seems like we're going to get our say there. But, yeah, I mean, this, you know, we're getting, we're recording this on a Thursday. It's officially one week left of the regular season. It ends next Thursday.

The past couple days this week have been absolutely chaotic hockey, right, for the most part, because teams are either out of it or we're kind of like, you know, playing out the string of the season. And I think the last two nights, we had that crazy. And the Cucks were still alive at the time, but that would come back in the final couple minutes and winning it overtime, 6-5. In Dallas, we had the same in Nashville with the Predators Islanders 7-6. We had last night's Minnesota, San Jose, 8-7 game. Flyers put up eight on the Rangers as well. I think on the Wednesday night schedule, there were only five games played, and they combined for 49 goals. So if you like goals, you like offense, you like sloppy defensive play, bad goal-tending.

The NHL has delivered the past two nights. we said how you're in Ottawa on assignment writing about this Senator's team and I thought that would be a natural place for us to start. I thought the theme of today's show, at least for the good majority, that would be kind of looking at the Atlantic Division, right? Because it's going to provide us with five playoff teams this season and the senators are representing some new blood in the NHL postseason, right? They clinched the playoff spot this week.

It's been a long road for them getting back there. I believe this is the first time they've been in the postseason since 2017, a run that famously ended with no heartbreak at all for them. I was looking this up. I think Thomas Shabbat played one game that season in the regular season. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but he's the only player that was on the Sends roster that season that's still on this quarantine to kind of show you. I mean, first off, it's been almost a decade, but also there's been so much roster turnover

along the way. So it's been a, and I imagine this is going to be the crux of your story, but it's been quite a journey and quite a winding path for them to get back here. Yeah. that a step further. So Shabbat's there for one game in 2016-17 and then doesn't play in the playoffs. He's there the next season as a rookie, 2017-18, and he's the longest tenured senator because he's the only one from that team still around. Brady Kachuk came the next year. So to Drake Batherson. And those are sort of the three long-term pieces. Of course, with Josh Norris now and no

longer with the team. But yeah, it's kind of crazy, right? Because, you know, obviously teams turn over. but it just seems bizarre that Shabbat. And Shabbat's kind of got lost in the shuffle, right? In the league and all these incredible defensemen under 25, he's kind of just become a guy in some ways, obviously a top four guy, but he hasn't stuck out as we maybe would have thought to start his career.

But nevertheless, undeniable turnaround off the ice in Ottawa. Like I think that's where my head goes immediately, where Michael Anlauer replaces Eugene Melnick, as the owner and you've got improvements of facilities, you've got just an overall update in professionalism. I don't know exactly how to phrase that. The public relations seem to be way more in check. And Steyos was a pretty good hire. I mean, has everything gone as planned in terms of every single move?

No, but I think the one thing you can say about Steve Steyos is that, one, he's, He seems thorough. He seems thoughtful. He seems to have a plan. And two, I think that he has the pro-scouting gene, for lack of a better way to put it. Whereas his predecessor, Pierre Dorian, certainly did not. Dorian could draft guys, but it kind of stopped there. And yeah, we're just a long way from the old Melnick-out billboards. I'm sure some listeners remember that when Sends fans really turn on the owner. and wanted him to sell the team. And then we're also a long way from the famous Dorian quote of, We're a team when he was on a broadcast and really couldn't think of anything positive to say about his team other than the fact that they exist. And, you know, there was that Uber ride with, you know, Shabbat was actually in the car for that. All those days are kind of long gone.

And on the ice, I think the turnover has been impressive, especially with the special teams. But, you know, there's a, there's a, a, a butt. but in all caps, underlined. I also think there's a danger in getting carried away with what we've seen with this team under Travis Green. The underlying defensive metrics are almost identical to last year. 2023-24 was kind of weird because it was a split of DJ Smith and Jacques Martin.

And under Martin, they went like full like, we need to be better defensively and sort of that was their whole focus. So it affected how those numbers turned out at the end of the season. But nevertheless, as much, as much credit as as green deserves and he deserves some I don't think he deserves as much as maybe he's been getting because you look at this team save percentage they're sixth in the league last year tied for 31st that's a pretty gigantic swing there and I think allmark specifically if he had say closer to 50 55 games played I think he'd be you know in the viz and the conversation

obviously behind hellabuck but he's been really good um and you know so it's like goalies are part of the team so we can't completely dismiss that variable, like good for Steyos for making that trade and good for Allmark for stepping up. But the Sends at the end of the day score the few of schools per game among the 16 playoff teams. Like they're deprived of

goals, they're 22nd overall in goals per game. So this is by no means a perfect team heading into the playoffs. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I would lump green into it. You mentioned the ownership change and also the front office angle.

I think from a coaching perspective, what Green's brought this season. And since they last made the post season, they've gone through. I think Green is the fifth coach now, kind of does musical chairs behind the bench, him bringing in a level of professionalism. And part of this might just be a lot of the players involved maturing and getting to a point of their career where they're taking it more seriously themselves. And that might have happened organically anyways. But there's no doubt there's more buy-in, right?

And you watch and you mention defensive metrics and how they were sneaky good last year, already, they just weren't really getting the saves to reflect it. But to my eye, at least, there's much more diligence in terms of structured defensively, guys getting back and making it easier on their defensemen, the defensemen being more active and aggressive, defending the blue line, especially Jake Sanderson, who can speak more about here at length in a second. But it felt like when you track them the past couple years, there was always this early season hype with them, right? They'd come out of the gate, they'd play well. You'd see the young players thriving. And you'd be like, all right, this is the year.

And then they would famously crash and burn in almost comical ways. And I've spoken about this, but whether it's within individual games or whether it's chunks of the season, there's been a couple times where it felt like things were going to go off the rails and history was going to repeat itself. And then they found a way to sort of reset and bounce back. Right. And I think that's a testament to everything involved.

That's kind of stabilized it. It's prevented that crash out we've seen from. in the past. And I just feel like, you know, both on and off the ice, right? You mentioned a lot of the organizational turmoil and shenanigans during the Doria and Melnik era, the amount of turnover within the organization as well. They almost turned into a meme. And this year, there's been spots here, but for the most part, it's been so much more professional and serious, I guess, removing all that nonsense. And I think that's a huge element to why they're in the position they're in right now. It's hard, too, to recruit free agents, right? If you are this sort of laughing

stock and if your facilities aren't up to snub like it's kind of an underrated thing in the NHL where you know if you're a free agent yeah sure the money you know whoever's offering the most money is you know probably top priority and then you know taxes and whatever quality of living but like sometimes it's like hey I've heard that they have crappy facilities like I'm just not that interested in going there stuff like that and there's but you know stales has done a pretty solid job surrounding the core with these sort of wily vets. David Pran isn't having an exceptional year, but like hang around the team for even a couple hours and you're like, this guy is embedded in sort of the leadership already. Nick Jensen has helped Shabbat rain free a little bit,

but, you know, again, you look at the counting stats, you're like, okay, Nick Jensen, whatever. Even like a Michael Amadio, like, for how much he counts towards the cap and like his versatility, like, sure. Like, so I think they've done a way. just a way better job of surrounding the young pieces who aren't even that young anymore, if we're being honest, with some adults for lack of a better way to put it. And even like, you know, taking a chance on Fabian Zetterland at the deadline. A lot of attention was paid to acquiring Dillon Cousins and rightfully so, and that's worked out well. But like Zetterlands, you know, over, if he, you know, becomes part of this long-term core,

is he sort of that sharpshooter like just a name off top of my head, but like a Dorothev type for, the senators where you know you've got that that sharps shooter that marksman who maybe you know isn't going to put up a ton of points but at least you can rely on them power play and and to sort shoot the lights that every once in a while well let's settle down there's only one palo duerfev no one's going to be like that he's in his own rarefite air they're in an interesting spot here right because they got this game on friday night at home against the montreal canadians who a team we're going to talk about in a second as well there's three points up on them for wildcard one the rest of their schedule. It's all at home. They've got games against the Flyers, the Blackhawks, a Hurricanes team

that has nothing to play for the rest of the season so they can solidify their spot there and hold off the habs. They also still could conceivably, we'll see, we'll talk about the Panthers as well later. We'll see what their aspirations and motivation is. We know that San Bennett's going to be out for the rest of the regular season. It felt like they were almost going to pull the plug entirely for these final three or four games and just sit and rest everyone in advance of the playoffs. They brought back a bunch of them, Forsling and Reinhardt and Barkov in their most recent game and look much more like themselves, but we'll see there's still an outside shot of moving all the way up into the top three in the Atlantic as well. So there's still stuff to play for there.

I wanted to talk to you about that sort of the biggest red flag, I guess, with this team statistically or the biggest drawback for them heading into the postseason in that offense. And you mentioned the goals per game. I'll take it a step further at 5-1-5 specifically because their power play, it's dipped a little bit. I think it's 14th right now. It was top 10 for the majority of the season. At 515, they're 29th in 515 goals per 60. Only the Red Wings, Flames, and Predators are less efficient there. And how much of that is the personnel, which seems like it shouldn't necessarily struggle that much, although maybe some of that bottom six talent, especially pre-deadline, and then playing guys on the blue line that don't really have a lot of puck skills may have something to do with it and how much of it is sort of a byproduct of Travis Green's system. and the way he's gone into play and the fact that if you're going to be a bit more structured

and coming back and being more defensively responsible, you're going to forego some offensive opportunities because the slot shots still look fine. As I said, the talent is certainly there to be better than this, yet for whatever reason all year, the 5-on-5 goals and scoring chances have been pretty hard to come by for them. Yeah, I mean, Brady-Kichick's injuries, you know, throughout the season probably haven't helped. I feel like Tim Stutzla is one of those guys where, and sometimes a tough, It's hard to tease out how much of this is like kind of just talking cliches or how much of it is actual truth. But you talk to Senators, players, and they point him out as someone who has taken Travis Green's coaching the heart as far as, okay, you're going to give up 10 to 15 points this year.

But the two-way game is going to improve because of that back check or because of your wallwork or because of your puck support and all these kind of things that, you know, when you add them up over the course of a game and over the course of a week, in the season, you know, those are wins. So like Stutzel is kind of their thoroughbred at this point, right? And so if you're reeling back him a little bit, that's going to impact things. And then like I said, I feel like to Chuck, even though he hasn't been out like all season by any means, that's probably, probably hasn't helped. Like since the Four Nations, he's clearly been dealing with something. So yeah, and like Claudeau-Jourou, like, you know, what does he have left in the tank? You just look at the lineup and there's nothing wrong with the lineup but

as far as like pure game breaking offensive talents they don't have a ton. Well I think they reflect that at the deadline right I think part of the logic for them as we spoke about the day of of flipping Norris for cousins beyond adding a little bit of flexibility

getting a bit younger all of that was the fact that Norris had really struggled offensively if I won five he'd only had the 12 points there in his 53 games played for the senators. Cousin since he's come in, leads the team in terms of on ice goal scored at 515 with 2.9. They add Zetterland as well. He had had at 27, 515 points in Zan Jose, which would be the third most on the senators this season.

So I think they did, you know, take some medium swings to address that. But obviously a Travis Green team, especially with the way Linus Elmark has played, is going to any sort of blueprint you want to put together for postseason success or an upset in round one is going to kind of hinge on that. That's why I wanted to talk to you a little bit about Jake Sanderson as well, right? I know he's a player who you have been really high on previously, especially looking at a lot of the sport logic underlying numbers that you're privy to. He's kind of been a darling there for a while now. You mentioned that this class of, you know, high profile, dynamic, offensive young defensemen

that have come into the league and how it's easy for a guy like Shabbat, for example, to get lost in the shuffle or get outshined. I feel like that's happened a little bit with Sanderson here as well, right? because he doesn't have the counting stats or the offensive profile to necessarily stack up in that higher tier of some of his peers. Yeah, you look at the stuff under the hood and, you know, he's eighth in the league and block passes. He's fourth in loose puck recoveries behind only Uyghur Wrenzki and McCar. He's a big reason why they've become so much better in the neutral zone in terms of his defending of the blue line. He doesn't, despite logging a ton of minutes, and I think he's 13th in the league in minutes play this year, he doesn't take penalties.

part of the reason why his counting stats aren't where they are because he has a 6% on high shooting percentage this season which is the 27th lowest market out of like nearly 600 guys who have played 500 minutes so that's partly due to it partly due to playing with Travis Hammannick for as long as he did and carrying him around while Artem Zube was out I kind of equated to like if you're a basketball player and you're like working on your vertical jump or something right

sometimes you wear those like ankle weights and you're like all right well if I jump with these then when I take them off off, it's going to be much easier, like guys warming up in baseball with their bats and they kind of have a heavier bat and then it feels more smooth to swing it after without it. That's kind of what happened here, right? It was like, all right, we're going to put you with Travis Hamnick. You're going to have to lug them around for a bit. And then after that, everything is going to be easier.

It feels like that's what happened there a little bit. But I feel like Jake Sanderson, it's very easy to lose sight of it. But it feels like he's been so good this season and he's been a big part of this recipe of that buy-in and everyone playing the way Travis Green envisions. Absolutely. and not for this to be like a pile on on Thomas Shabbat by any means, but like I think it's notable that Jake Sanderson's just completely jumped him on the depth chart and pretty quickly from when he exited college and joined the senators.

And again, no no shade of Chabot, but it's just such a credit to Sanderson. And like, what I love about Sanderson is he's able to, he uses his skating in his reach, like so seamlessly, like in concert with each other where, and it's on defense and offense. I mean, he's so good at escaping board checkers on retrievals. He's so good at, you know, turning something into nothing on a breakout that looks like it's kind of a broken play. Defensively closing it on guys, whether it's, you know, kind of gap control or angling them towards the boards on off the rush. I could just talk about that guy all day. And, I mean, the one, I guess, drawback to his game is I don't think he has, like, a ton of, like, high-end shooting ability, like a Jacob Chikrin or something where, you know,

guy who used to be on the Sends and Sanderson effectively has replaced. But I think that's okay. Like I think that long term, if you're the senators, you're like over the moon with getting this guy fifth overall on the same draft that you got Tim Stutzler and a couple other NHLers. It's quite the draft if you look back on it. And I just, you know, when I think of Jake Sanderson, I think number one defenseman for the next 15 years. And in some ways, he's, already in, you know, the sort of number one like true number one defenseman mold already, but like he's kind of

already, he's kind of still scratching the surface, like in terms of games played and where he can take this thing. And like you said, like being with Hamannock for so long, it's almost like we should be viewing his season in even a greater light, considering what he had to deal with. And now he was Zubb and obviously he can

he can do his skating and his escapability a little easier. Yeah, 700 minutes with Zuba 515, 54% expected Goal Share, 400 minutes with Travis Hammondick, 44% expected Goalshare. That kind of tells you everything you need to know. You got any other notes on the senators while we're on them and while you're there on assignment or do you want to move on to our next Atlantic team? We can move on. Well, I think you're going to be very excited as is PDOCass lore from those that have listened

to our trade deadline recap. you are right up there with Eric Engels is the biggest Habs fan. I know. We've got a 98% probability now of making the playoffs and being the fifth Atlantic team in. They're eight points up on the Rangers, Red Wings, Blue Jackets and Islanders. After winning six in a row. And similar to what we said about the Senators, the HABs have obviously been in the playoffs more recently because they had a nice little run there

when the pandemic hit in the bubble in 2020. And then in 2021 in the shortened season, they of course made it all the way to the final. But this is their first time back in the playoffs in a full NHL season since 2017. They have a few more guys here in place compared to the senators. I believe, well, especially like the 2020 one team that made it to that cup final. Suzuki was there, Josh Anderson was there, Caulfield, Gallagher, or Mia and Evans. But it's an entirely different blue line.

There's been a ton of turnover, of course, since Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon took over. I think it's a really cool story. I mean, I've been talking especially about how the home games are so electric, that atmosphere in the Bell Center is incredible. I'm excited to see more of it come to postseason. I think it's a very easy team, despite acknowledging that they still have a lot of work to do. There's a lot of deficiencies with underlying profile. It's a very easy team to root for and become enamored by.

And so, I don't know, I want to talk to you a little bit about them within the context of this Atlantic Division and what we're seeing from them, especially since the four nations, they've gone 14, four, and four, Suzuki and Hudson in particular. have really moved the needle and have played incredibly well. You look at their numbers pre that time. And then since the Four Nations at 515 and how effective they've been in driving the bus, I think there's a lot to like there and a lot for us to talk about. No kidding.

And like this season, I'm not super high on them. I'm just high on them long term. And anyone listening will know from that trade deadline episode that I misspoke and basically looped them in with the Dallas stars or was it the Carolina Hurricanes as a sustainable winner. But that's a future sustainable winner. Look out. Honestly, so we were messaging a little bit about Tage Thompson and how ridiculous he's been for the Sabres, especially of late.

He leads the league with 33, 5-on-5 goals. Bull Caulfield's second with 26, which kind of surprised me. And honestly, the rest of the top five surprised me. Cairo 24, Marchenko, 24. and Morgan Geeky? Yeah, Morgan Geeky 24. Well, that really should say David Pasternak. He's just used him as a backward on a lot of those.

Yes, absolutely. And yeah, so, so, you know, the thing with the HABs is like, I think that they've been building this thing brick by brick, pretty logically, pragmatically, whatever word you want to use. But it's sort of hinged on. on like, okay, who are their game breakers? Like, it's nice to have all these, you know,

okay, you've got a bunch of middle six guys. You've got some nice, you know, pieces on defense, like a googly, but like, okay, who's ceiling is high here? And obviously we've seen Suzuki take a step. Coffield take a step. But then you throw in Hudson and Demadov, who's on his way. And, you know, obviously the hype train is barreling down in Montreal with Demadob. It's gotten a little out of control.

But nevertheless, he looks like he could have. a superstar ceiling, superstar potential. So, and then you know, you've got Jacob Fowler, who knows what he'll end up being as a goaltender, but you've got Montembow and Dobish already. I just see there's so many pieces. And again, the missing component was the game-breaking ability. And if you have Hudson Demadov, that's such a good start in that level. And then obviously Slavkovsky, you know, what's the future hold for him?

because I think he still has that in him. And yeah, like, it's interesting because in a way, Gordon and Hughes, they've been batting very high batting average here in terms of what they've done. You know, Martin St. Louis, great hiring. A lot of their picks have worked out very well. They've done a good job in terms of looking at their team realistically

and either selling, buying, sitting, like kind of making the right choice there. They still have seven picks in the first three rounds, this coming draft. You know, they've taken a bunch of low-risk flyers, Monaghan, Doc, New Hook, Line A. And they kind of got lucky in a way where they passed on Mitchcov and then, like, kind of right or wrong the next year by taking the other Russian Demadov. So, yeah, they're just a fascinating team. And I feel like what we're seeing right now with them making the playoffs,

I don't want to say it's smoking mirrors. It's not like they're a team that doesn't deserve to be in the hunt, but I also feel like the capitals could make quick work of them because they're just not quite there yet. But again, the foundation is really strong and they've just so many pieces to be excited about. Well, something what they've done well under this regime is undoubtedly the asset management, right? You just think of the entire sequence involving the Monaghan getting his contract for a first and then flipping it again for another first

and kind of stuff along those lines. It'll be very interesting to see how they react to the success they've had this season. I think you bring up the capitals there. Probably the biggest lesson beyond how good their pro-scouting staff has been along the way is how they treated their postseason birth last year despite obviously kind of much more so than the habs of this year, but kind of crawling in and being the last team to make it.

And then realizing that still wasn't good enough and then aggressively in the summer improving their team as opposed to other versions of these teams we've seen where they treated like, all right, well, job well done. We're a playoff team now and resting on their laurels and then realizing the bottom falls out and coming to regret it. I think the biggest takeaway here, and I want to talk to you more about Demidov

is you mentioned the guys at the top of the lineup, the players that were driving the success. And since that Four Nations break, Suzuki's tied with Kutra for second in the league in points with 34 and 22 games. Hudson in that time is behind only Kail Makar amongst defensemen in points with 23. in 22. And at 515, they're up 21 to 8 in Suzuki's minutes, 56% shot share, 55% expected

goal share. Hudson similarly, up 25 to 7, 57% shots, 61% chances. So I think that's incredibly encouraging. And these are the reasons why you should be excited beyond just the wins in the present. It's the future of what that could represent. But as excited as everyone is about the habs and then being on the finish line here of making the playoffs, the biggest news of the week has undoubtedly been this sort of revelation, right? And it seemed like it might not happen this year that Ibnab, who was their fifth overall pick last summer, left his KHL team, signed in the ELC. It seems like he could realistically play next Monday and get a couple regular season games in before the playoffs as well. I personally can't wait to watch him because everything you've seen,

and especially in the draft prep last year, how good he already was. And then what he did as a 19-year-old in the KHL this year where he scores 49 points now to put that into perspective. for how hard it is for a teenager to do. In that league, it's the six most points per game in an age 19 season in the KHL. For context, Kaprizov at 42 and 49, Mitchkov had 41 and 48, Kuznetsov had 41 and 49. So that's a pretty high baseline. He's already cleared. And I guess what are the reasonable expectations here?

Neither are you or I are necessarily prospect guys. We're not diving into the KHL tape, but we're certainly familiar with his game and what he's capable of. I'm very curious to see how he slots in on the fly like this and what they're immediately able to squeeze out of it the rest of the way and into the post season. Yeah, I mean, they've got their top line pretty secure

with Caulfield, Suzuki, Slavkovsky, but with Kirby Dockout, it's been Capon and New Hook line A. So I see a pretty easy opening, a pretty easy spot to put him in in that Capitin spot and slide him elsewhere. Because I mean, it would only make sense to put him in the

top six with other skilled players and I feel like there is a good fit there with new hook in line A. I mean, it's it's so difficult to wrap your head around what he could be like in the short term. Like I think we can project forward and he's going to at the very least be a productive NHL or I think that's pretty obvious. But coming to coming to Canada when the season's so far along, obviously there's going to me a ton of buzz around them, you know, what kind of action does he get before the playoffs? What does it look like in the playoffs?

I mean, we've seen college guys go, like Brock Faber comes to mind. Kail McCar, I believe, was very similar, where they just inserted right in the playoffs. And, you know, I know you've talked about, I believe with Daryl Belfrey, maybe with someone else, correct me if I'm wrong, but where those first, like, five to ten games, a player can just play on instinct because they're not being, it's not being coached out of them, whatever the coach wants. it's just it's not even on the table yet it's just hey kid go out there and play and that usually is to their benefit and then you know they come back the next season and there's a bunch of tape on them and they've got to change this they've got to change that so you know I guess I'm talking

I'm convincing myself as I talk that maybe he can hit the ground running here but because we have that Faber and McCar historical reference point but we'll see it it's it's it's tough with the with Russian players because you mentioned you rattle a lot of all those names that had, you know, similar age 19 seasons. It's always hard with the, the Russian numbers because some games,

they play five minutes. It's like, okay, he played a game. But like, did he really get into the action? And then, so, you know, do those numbers all add up? Like, do we, should we be actually looking at Demadov as an even better player coming in

than like a Caprizov? Or, you know, if we look back, is he, you know, slightly worse in terms of production. So, yeah, it's really interesting. And, I mean, what a story. line to follow though to end the season here.

Yeah, I think you mentioned that second line playing alongside new hook in line A. Something Marty St. Louis done and obviously it makes sense to do so given the skill set. But he's been giving line A about like in the 70s in terms of a offensive zone face off percentage and sheltering them that way in terms of deployment. And our pal Jack Hahn did a really nice piece on his substack about something Demitaw is already shown on tape in the KHL of how good he is off of some of those offensive zone draws in terms of like the first step. the instincts and making a play off of it if you retreat possession. And so I think that would be a very natural fit for him. And then obviously his hands and creativity off the rush and the habs are a pretty aggressive team up ice in terms of sending players up to try to attack, especially with

their top guys. I feel like he could fit in there really nicely. And whether it's the rest of this season or heading into next year, I have no doubt that the Bell Center is going to completely fall in love with him. And he's going to be a sensation, right? because just thinking about it, even though there's been some successful playoff runs along the way and good Habs teams mixed in there, they haven't really had a talent of this sort since like maybe Alexei Kovalev. And at that point, by the time he'd gone to Montreal, he was already in his 30s, just in terms of like the puck skills and this sort of creation.

And so I think it's an incredibly exciting thought. And I'm all for the hype train getting completely out of control. All right, John, let's take our break here. And then we come back. We will jump right back in a way. We're going to talk about some other teams in the Atlantic. You're listening to the Hockey P.D.Ocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. Now, all right, we're back here on the HockeyPedio cast, joined by our pal, John Mattis.

John, while we're on the theme of the Atlantic, I want to talk to you about the pair of Leafs games we saw earlier this week. They played a back-to-back in Florida on Tuesday against the Panthers on Wednesday against the Lightning. And I want to take them one at a time because I think the first game there against the Panthers on Tuesday, was very interesting from a matchups perspective. I'm not sure if you noticed this, but generally we see in these types of matchups, Paul Maurice loads up both Barkov and Forsling against the other team's top guys, right?

And kind of leans them that way and then sends out whatever Lundell's line against the rest. In this one, though, he split it up, and I thought it was notable because he used Barkov with the Seth Jones Nico Mikola pairing against Matthews and Barnard 515. And then he had Forsling and Lundell instead out against William Elander and John Tavares.

And they won both comfortably, I think Barakoff in particular, the 5-15 shots were 8 to 1 in his minutes, 94% expected goal share. He reminded everyone just how good he is and what a disruptive monster he can be in these types of games. As I mentioned, the Panthers are most likely set in the third spot in the Atlantic, kind of playing whoever most likely the lightning in a round one matchup, although the whole nice advantage in that series could still be up for grabs because the Lightning and Panthers play each other

on the final day of the regular season. But I thought it was a very notable sort of wrinkle that Paul Marie's put together in that game. Something to kind of maybe file in our back pocket and see if he brings that back out in the postseason. But that was a really fun one. And I'm curious if you had any takes on it. I mean, my main note is Lundell looked, looks just so good in that second line center spot. Like when Bennett comes back, obviously the ice time changes.

But, you know, he gets a few extra minutes when Bennett's out. and I'm just blown away by the puck support, the strength shot. Like he brings so much to the table and he's matured pretty rapidly here as a player. And it all kind of gets wrapped up in this Florida team that's so swarming. You know, as we know from last year's playoff run, and the one before, the heavy four check. I felt Marchand looked good against the Leafs. He's healthy and it seems like comfortable. Like the whole like ruins transition or transition from the Bruins is over.

And also just as a, I guess a side note, what I kept thinking watching that game was like, is Carter Verheagie ever going to sort of wake up? You know, he's shooting 7.7% this season, which, you know, isn't terrible. but his previous 330 games, he was shooting 14.8. Like this is a massive, you know, he's shooting half what he has for his career. It's wild that we've gotten this far into the season and he's still, you know, not capitalizing on his chances.

Like it's one thing for it to be like first 30 games or first half or whatever, but the regular season's almost over. And the guy still looks snake button. I haven't done a deep dive into what's going on with his play. but that, you know, just watching the Panthers and kind of checking all the boxes and, okay, this guy looks good. Okay, you know, Marchand looks comfortable, whatever. For Hage, he keeps jumping out at me as like, what's going on there? I'll take it even a step further.

He scored 17 goals on 470 attempts first goalies this season, which is 3.6%. A lot of the, because you are obviously including the shooting percentage, including the shots on net, he's been incredibly erratic. This will happen, these types of shooting percentage tips. We know that in the postseason, he already. has quite a clutch resume with his overtime winners and everything. So it's very plausible that he'll flip the switch and start scoring more come the postseason. But his shot selection has been incredibly erratic.

The discipline in terms of penalties taken, it's gotten to a point where I'm very curious when they are at full health heading into the postseason. And, you know, Bennett will certainly be back. They're resting him for the rest of these games. I assume Matthew Kitchuk will be back. It's been pretty quiet on that front, but I haven't heard anything to the contrary. I'm very curious to see what they do with their forward lines. I'm almost at a point where I would love to see them go Barakov and Reinhardt

with my guy Mackie Samiskevich on the top line to give them a bit more juice offensively. You mentioned Marchand and him looking more comfortable. I don't think that's any coincidence that it came playing with Lundell and Lussela Rieden because those guys will make anyone very comfortable with the way they play in their sort of specific style and they've been quite effective in the 27 or so minutes they've played together so far. And then putting Verhege with Bennett and Kachuk would make more sense to me just because

I feel like he's been too much of a liability right now in the top line. And it's just not nearly efficient enough. But obviously a lot of intriguing options for Palm Maurice and the Panthers. And we'll see come the postseason. The second game, the one we saw on Wednesday, was an incredibly fun game between the lightning and the Leafs. It was almost, I don't want to say it was all-star game level because I think the connotation of that is that it.

it's poor effort and guys just aren't really trying. Although in the overtime, obviously there was some interesting decisions by Braden Poe and Victor Hedman on the overtime winner. But there was clearly much more effort than that. Gensel wasn't available. But, you know, despite the result, and I think there are a lot of good things from the Leafs to take from this game, I can't imagine.

I haven't seen any clips of the post-game interviews or what his quotes on it were. I can't imagine watching that game. The Craig Burube would be very happy with the way it played out because despite the win and the score, you know, Tampa Bay hits the post four times in like a two-minute span or whatever in the first period. Second period was very lopsided in terms of chances and shots and all of that. Tampa Bay looked frightening offensively and we're getting so many great A's.

I think they must have had at least 15 to 20 in the first two periods alone. They were off for whatever reason. Nikita Kutrov remarkably had 20 shot attempts and just two of them on net. Victor Hedman had 16 attempts and four of them on net. one of them was a goal. So they were getting their looks. You know, the leaves were blocking a lot. They were disrupting some of those shots, certainly.

Although, if you're the lightning, despite the fact that it was a pretty tough loss, because you would have had a chance to jump up to first and avoid Florida entirely in round one. And you don't get to do that now without loss. They were doing a lot of stuff where you're like, all right, like, this is definitely the way we want to play to be successful. And if our guys are just a bit more on with some of those rebounds and some of those slot shots, it could be a different story. Yeah, you know what's a wild game when a,

a defenseman on each team has a breakaway, like Ekman Larson in overtime and then headman in regulation. And I just, you reading off those shot attempt numbers, like, it's, I laugh because I just, I can't believe it. Even though I watched the game, it just seems unbelievable that Kutrov would have 20 attempts and also only get two on net. But yeah, you mentioned Burubei being upset with, or potentially being upset with the performance of the Leafs despite the win. I mean, I saw Cooper. He wasn't very happy after the game. they're now 0 and 4 versus Toronto this year. I never quite know what to do with regular season series when it comes to the playoffs.

Like how much stock do you put into it? But I mean, when you beat a team four times and you're in the same division, like there's something there probably, assuming both teams were relatively healthy. And Cooper was upset because they went down 2-0 off, you know, at least one of them was a giveaway by Hegel. And yeah, just a weird game. You even saw Braden Point fight. McMahon, just really bizarre.

And I mean, Matthew Nyes has like a career game. He's really flying high. Like he had this Michigan attempt a couple games ago, I think it was against Columbus. And like that just shows like the confidence and the swaggery's got right now. But the Hattrick Wednesday night, he goes between the legs during three on three right before his goal, trying to set up Matthews. But then Matthews sends it back to him or I guess it was Riley and. involved as well. Just great offensive instincts,

like great motor, a true power forward. And it's, I remember actually talking to you, this must have been two post seasons ago when Nyes came onto the scene. And there was a reader question about like, oh, like,

you know, what's a comparable for Nyes? And we were kind of batting around a couple of names, but it was just so early. And I wouldn't say I quite have a perfect comparable right now. But that's mostly because he's, and he's not, unicorn there's some players like him but like he's a pretty special player especially within the

context of the leaps where they've had such trouble finding pieces to build on top of their core four like there's no denying that nize is part of the core and part of the future assuming it doesn't get off or sheeted um but like he just brings such a different element and he's only 22 and i don't know he's just a treat to watch at this point yeah i get the reservation on the evaluation of him as a player just from the fit of playing with Matthews, right? Because in Matthews, obviously, hasn't been 100% this year. And that's partly what's holding down his goal totals. But it makes sense that, you know, Nyes, one of his strengths isn't necessarily going to be puck-carrying or zone entries or playmaking.

And so with a shooting talent like Matthews, it'd be nice if you had someone, you obviously have Martin on the other wing, but just had more guys who could kind of set the table for him and make life a bit easier off puck. so he has to do less and he can do what he does best, which is score goals. And this leaves team needs him to be the nearly 70 goal scorer that he was last year to be at their absolute apex. So I get that. But you watch a game like this and what he's able to do. And I think beyond the goals, and he certainly deserves a ton of style points for that overtime winner

and everything he did leading up to it, I thought that his puck pursuit in terms of making life difficult on Panthers' defensemen when they go back to retrieve dump-ins and play the puck's. That's one of my big concerns about this lightning team heading into the postseason, and you could see that manifest itself in this game. His work around the net and winning battles and being a handful and tucking in rebounds and cleaning up messes and all of that is just so incredibly valuable. And for whatever reason, he certainly seems to relish terrorizing the lightning.

I have him with seven head-to-head games against the lightning the past two years. He has 10 goals and five assists in that time. And obviously he had the hat-trick in this one on top of that. So, yeah, it was a pretty fun game. great performance from him and a lot of interesting stuff to think about if we ever get a rematch between these two teams in round two or whatever of this postseason. You got any more notes on that or do you want to close out by talking about the Minnesota Wild and some of the guys they got back on Wednesday evening? Just what I was thinking about the lighting and it kind of

sucks that they didn't get Isaac Howard. He decided to go back to Michigan State like Hobie Baker finalists ready for the NHL or at the very least the HL. Is he gone next summer? Does he test free agency? Like, I think that's a pretty significant story, you know, in the short term because they could use him in their bottom six, probably on the third line because the fourth line is just, you know, you've talked about it on this program,

like sort of a black hole in a good way where there's just nothing's happening out there. But that third line needs a little bit of oomph to it. And Howard could have provided that. But, yeah, does he walk? Does he go to another team? And they lose one of the only prospects that they've produced recently? or is this all not a big deal and he ends up signing with them next year?

It's something to follow, but it's just unfortunate timing for the lightning given they could use them in the lineup right now. Yeah, I think he certainly could have helped or could help down the road. I think what he did in college is impressive and obviously at the World Junior's as well. I do wonder, you know, at the deadline,

they made that move. They bring in Gord, but they also bring in Bjork Strand, who has another ear left on his deal and that just takes up another spot inside the middle six on the wing. And so whether that was a bit of a roadblock, but it is kind of hard to wrap your head around because we spend so much time talking about these tax-free states

and the advantages and benefits they have and how they're such a lure for free agents. And so it's bizarre to think, you know, when it happens to Winnipeg, for example, and Rucker McGrady doesn't want to sign there or gets traded, it's like, all right, well, this happens to a Winnipeg or this happens to a Buffalo, but for a Florida team to have this happen,

we'll still see there's a lot to be to determine here. All right, on the wild. So they got back, Kaprizov, and Joel, Eric Seneck. On Wednesday night, it was Caprizov's first game since January 26, Erick's first game since February 22nd. And now with the disclaimer, of course, that it came against the Sharkey's, it was just an entirely different offense, as you'd imagine, with those two. They get six goals out of the two of them. And I think my big takeaway was it's pretty easy to forget that Caprizov was trending towards like a 50 goal, 120 point season that certainly

would have had him atop a lot of hard ballots and probably as a finalist because so much times passed since and he's been out for so long with the injuries, but he was playing at such a high level previously and jump back in immediately look like Carol Caprizov again, had a couple snipes, was creating all over the ice. And I'm just happy that he's back and we get to watch him play because I was sort of dreading whether they play Vegas or Winnipeg in round one being like, ah, there's not that much, you know, I love Matt Boldie, but there's not that much to really see with this wild team and at the very least getting caprisal back gives you something to tune in for well and erick's dengue is one of the better matchup centers in the league too

so that's significant and yeah when i've been thinking about the wild not that i've forgotten about cabrizov but like he's been out he was out for so long that it was like oh the wild are what they are and you know him coming back we'll see what happens but then he arrives and you go oh like this is a top 10 player arguably in in the entire league and he's just so dynamic and I can sort of tilt the game in his in his favor, you know, at the blink of an eye kind of deal. And I still think that, you know, whoever Minnesota ends up drawing right now, they're tied with the blues with 93 points. It's going to be extremely tough. I just, I don't know.

The wild, it just drops off real quick for me in terms of their, they're like true talent. Yeah, that is the one race. still have left, right? For both of those wild cards in the West, because as you said, they're tied with the Blues. The Blues have won fewer game left, I believe for Wild Card 1 and determining who plays Vegas, who plays Winnipeg most likely.

They're also holding off the flames. They're five points up on them. Now the flames have two extra games in hand. They play each other head to head. In Calgary on Friday night, the excitement about that race took a bit of a hit on Wednesday night because the flames were up 3-1 with like four minutes left, and then they got

cut or go-chade and lost in overseas. time to the ducks and so that you know that point is huge because all of a sudden they could have been four points out with a couple games in hand ahead to head and I think the wild and the blues would have been sweating a bit more but that is the one uh race we have left the track so that'll be uh that'll be interesting to follow um all right let's uh let's get out of here um i'm going to give you a chance a couple minutes here to plug not only obviously what you're doing in Ottawa right now but also i know that uh you know it's been a couple days now you and i were initially planning on we're looking at the schedule and we're like all right we're going to do something towards the end of the week

the capital schedule maybe we'll time it perfectly because i know you've written a lot about the obetchikan goal chase and and everything that's ensued we're going to time it perfectly and then all of a sudden he does it in short order last weekend so we missed the boat on that but i want you to tell the listeners a little bit of because you did an oral history in his rookie season you also did a big feature on him getting to this point as well and the way he did it in uh in true ovechkin fashion so let the listeners know all about that. Yeah, sure. And classic Ovi, right, to mess up our plans there and really expediate things. Yeah, the oral history is of his first NHL season, so 0506. And I'm sure some people listening

weren't hockey fans back then. And, you know, not only should you read that oral history and go, you know, the score.com, Oveckin oral history on Google and you'll find it or just look in the app. Not only should you read that, but you should go to YouTube. and type in Ovechkin rookie season. And the highlights are just outrageous. Like even as someone who lived through that, I was born in 88, so I think I was in first year university in that season.

It was amazing to go back. And like the guys, nailing guys in his first shift in the NHL and breaking the glass, he's having these just insane rush chances, bowling over guys left and right. And in the oral history, we get into sort of the off-eye stuff

and how he fit into a pretty, pretty mediocre caps team, but that had some veterans that took him under the wing and some good stories about him on one fateful road trip where he has that coyote's goal, but also has the rookie dinner, which is always a good time. So yeah, there's that. And then, yeah, I just did sort of a legacy column on what this guy means to the game, how he evolved, and, you know, what Ovechkin has shown us over the years in terms of his authenticity and just willing goals or pucks into the net and just a one of one player in so many ways. So appreciate you letting me shout those out, Dimitri. Your best bet is probably to go to

Twitter where I've tweet out those stories. That's Mattis John, M-A-T-I-S-Z, J-O-H-N. There. Thanks for the little platform here, Dim. Awesome, buddy. Well, you know where else you can find Mattis's work? You can go into the P-D-O-Cast Discord. Join us there. We've got a new channel called the Contributors Corner where I've implored John to post more of his articles as they go up. So our listeners will have first access to it. So if you miss it on Twitter or whatever, you'll be able to see it there and keep up with everything.

John's putting out because it's really great work over at the score. John, this was a blast. You can help us out if you enjoy today's show by smashing the five-star button and leaving a nice little review. Wherever you listen to the show, we'll be back Friday with two more fun shows to close the week out. So thank you for listening to the Hockey, Hockey, Ocast, streaming, on the Sports Night Radio Network.