The Hockey PDOcast - Summer Series 2.0 Part 2 with Brenden Dillon

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Brenden Dillon to talk about lessons from watching playoff hockey, how the PK vs. PP special teams battle has evolved since he came into the league, the work he's putting in during the offseason, changes for the Devils this summer, and some of the most difficult opponents they went up against last season. To gain immediate access to the ad-free version of every show we record this season make sure you've subscribed to the PDOcast's Patreon. The plan is to ramp up the content for our subscribers even further heading into the start of the regular season, so if you haven't joined us yet now is a good time to do so at the current rate we've got listed before the subscription fee increases on September 1st to account for all of the additional perks coming your way moving forward. We've finally got some merch available for our listeners! If you'd like to get your hands on a PDOcast shirt or hat to rep the show, you can do so here. There's a discount code for all merch that comes with a Patreon subscription for those of you that are already members. We'll also be posting more video this season if you want to watch along with us while you're listening to the show. You can find all of those on the PDOcast's Youtube channel. The last plug: we've built up a nice little community on Discord, which you can join by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server. It's the best spot for you to submit any mailbag questions you may have for future shows, and it's also a great place to be part of the conversation whenever anything important happens in the NHL. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey P.D.O.cast. My name is Dimitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Brendan Dillon. Brendan, what's going on, man. Good to be back. This is a third time, fourth time.

You know what? I think the fourth time. And that's starting to vault you to some pretty hollow ground here at the PDAO cast in terms of guests. And I think, deservedly so. I love having you on every time. It's becoming an annual tradition here. in the summers and whatever the devils are in town to get you on the show a little bit and catch up.

You know, I'm thankful that we already put the work in over the past couple of years and built up this chemistry and connection because I would have been worried otherwise after seeing you on the playoff broadcast for Hockey Night in Canada, rocking your snazzy suit. I feel like if I hadn't gotten in on the ground floor when I had, it would have been a tough get at this point. But I feel like now that you've been on the pedogast a couple times, you were answering my calls, thankfully. And so we were able to make this work.

Hey, you know what? I'm a loyal guy, Dimitri. So, you know, I was on with you first before I was on there with, with BX and McLean and those guys. So, yeah, I mean, I'll have my agent reach out after we're done. Yeah, I was joking with you. We probably should have suited up, but it's the middle of the summer. It's really hot.

So we won't this time, but maybe next time. Yeah, I'm not surprised. You were awesome on there. You're a natural doing this media stuff. I do have to say, though, your teammate Jake Allen is phenomenal at it as well. been talking about it. Whenever I have Kevin Woodley on, because he's buddies with him, we always talk about it a little bit. But I imagine, I'm not sure if you guys have talked about this at all, but the second he chooses to stop playing, I imagine he's going to slide right into a full-time role

because he's a natural doing the stuff on TV. Yeah, I think, well, the amount of times Jake and I have carp pulled into the rink and talked hockey, texted about hockey, put in the locker on a roller, on the road, whatever it's been at dinner. He's definitely one of the closest buddies I got on the devils and great human being incredible incredible speaker as uh as you've seen on there and so i was taking all his his notes that he'd had over the years because i think he was on it a couple two or three years ago for the first time and uh chatted with me a bit about the opportunity and i said you know what don't think of it like a game seven think of it like a game six it's it's it might be a little bit nerve-wracking as it was but uh no it was uh it was great it was fun

fun to be on there um so i've got a fun list of topics for us to get through today and going to try not to step on the toes too much of stuff we've already talked about, although I was listening back to some of our previous hits in preparation for this. And I was like, man, those are, those are some good topics. I wish we hadn't gotten to that yet so we could get to it today. But we're going to run through it and see how much we can get through over the next, whatever, 40, 50 minutes. I wanted to start with this year's playoffs, you know, in reference to you being on the broadcast,

but obviously just watching from afar as well. I know that you're a student of the game, partly why we get along so well and why these shows are so fun with you. in terms of trying to like watch all that stuff and absorb as much of it as you can. And in particular, I mean, I think there's a lot of lessons to take considering, especially once you get to the Stanley Cup final,

it's the games being played at the most competitive level between the two best teams. And I think there's a lot of stuff to take that from there in terms of, you know, mixing into your game or trying to figure out what's gonna work moving forward. And you've obviously got the connection, especially with the hurricanes, with our guy, Nikola Eilers,

finally getting the mountain top and winning it. And I was incredible, excited about it as a as a long time euler's booster here in the show talking them up for years just seeing him kind of fit into such a natural spot and really get you know celebrated for for what a special player he's been for a long time now but finally getting the the team achievement as well and so it was really cool seeing that I'm I'm I'm sure you you sent him some texts after that and it was quite a moment for him oh man it's you could argue just there's there's talented players and free agency and how things work but that was just uh

just a seamless fit for for nicky he's uh i i just texted back and forth a little bit with him just sent him but congrats and um i'm sure he's uh he's doing the tour to denmark right now um even even the line you know i think he started on the aho line and then they had him a little bit on the the the blake and um stankelbin line and then i think it was kind of around i want to say january february when we played uh played carolina the last time before uh for the playoffs when they got rolling. And they had him with Martin Nook and Stahl. And I felt like people were kind of like,

oh, geez, a checking line to have them on there. And all I thought to myself was, wow, that's going to be an absolutely fantastic fit. You know, Jordan Stahl win the face off, Martin, nook go work, get the puck back, hunt, get on the forecheck, get the puck to Nicky and then let him dance and do his thing. Yeah, the speed, the skill, as he said,

you've been a big fan of his. I got to see it firsthand for three years in Winnipeg and, you know, a huge congrats to him for sure. You know, you're talking about how when you're on the broadcast, don't act like it's a game seven act. It's like game six, you know, game five of the Stanley Cup final. I was joking at the time because he was doing one of those pregame interviews on the ice with Kyle Bukakis.

And he's asking, Kyle's asking him about, you know, what it's like coming to the rank for the biggest game of your career. It's 2-2 in the Stanley Cup final. It really feels like, you know, it's up for grabs. And obviously Carolina winds up winning those two games. And he's just completely. stone face of the time like such a badass just being like just another game we're here to play hockey and uh you know oftentimes guys see that as a bit of a cliche but it really felt like he

genuinely meant that and then he goes out and has i think like three primary assists or something and in the biggest game of his career just plays an absolute rockstar performance and so um yeah that was that was incredible i thought that cane's team you know i was fixated a lot on their forecheck i think as others were it's been a staple of their game for years you and i have talked about how it makes them so difficult to play at times with how relentless they are and just keep buzzing around trying to force turnovers. And they certainly got more skilled with additions of guys like Eilers and tacking more off the rush doing that stuff. But you could really see it in that series. It felt like, you know, the high flips became such a big talking point. Some of the stuff that

does the defensemen, some of the turnovers that resulted in. And both teams were trying to leverage at their advantage. But the hurricanes really just excelled there. And I don't know, it's maybe a good good entryway for us to talk a little bit about the art of retrievals. And I'm sure you're watching some of that stuff in terms of like the puck being dumped into the corner, how that's being played by the defenseman, what you can sort of do to get yourself, wiggle yourself out of trouble. The hurricanes are doing such interesting stuff, creating these like two on one mismatches down low, where Hall and Blake would almost corner to the defenseman and force a quick turnover and then

Stanko and it would be posted up at the circle and it would become immediate shot from the slot. And that really, really caught my eye. I'm sure when you're watching it, you're like, oh, man, that's such a brutal position to put that defenseman in because there's no real outlet. And you're almost getting like the space is being taken away from you. And then after you turn it over, you're out of position because you're behind the net. And it just, they punished you every single time doing so. It's well documented how unique of a style of Carolina plays. Not many teams play like it.

I would say the Florida Panthers are probably the closest, you know, stylistic game to them in the sense of get the puck away from your net as quickly as possible. get it as close to their nets and just impose forecheck, impose, you know, your speed, your physicality, and, you know, eventually that team's going to crack. And Brett Pesci I've gotten really close with over the last couple of years. And it was just interesting between us playing them in playoffs last year and playing in the division three, four times a year. And it's a tough, tough team to play against. There's no way around it.

not only because of their forecheck, because of their neutral zone, because of how connected those five guys are when they're on the ice, but you have to tip your cap to Rod Brindamore because they're well coached. You can't just have four guys on the same page and a fifth guy off doing his own thing. If one defenseman is swinging in or surfing on a neutral zone and another defenseman sleeping and not doing it, that guy looks like a donkey and there's a two-on-one and scoring chance. Same thing on a forecheck.

If you're asking the D to pin, inch and be aggressive and go down the wall or, you know, get down on his winger. If he's not getting covered for that chipped puck or that bad bounce that goes by the forward coming back, again, looks out of place negative against them. And, you know, they just really do plug and play. It doesn't matter which players they bring in in free agency or trade. It's a big credit to them and identifying players that, you know, are going to fit into that that system. So as you talked about just the difficulty going back for pucks, not just a hard rim or a

soft chip with speed coming at you, but when that rim's going around, you know, all three of the forwards for Carolina know where they're going. The one guy's going to be sealing down the strong side. The other guy's going to be sealing for the back bump at the strong post. The other guy's coming in, the third guy's reading where that's going. If it reverses back, he's going to be there to support his other forward. If it's going up the strong side, they try to continue going that way they're going to be above and take away the speed through the middle. So it's, you know what you're getting. You watch the video on it. You watch other teams play against it and it's still a tough, tough team to execute against. So the way that you get around that,

I think I mentioned it when I was on Sportsnet there in Toronto for those couple days when we were kind of doing the Carolina Hurricanes, you know, hockey packs was they don't give up much. But when when they do, it's usually a breakaway or a grade A chance because there's been that little breakdown, a guy's falling down, or there's been a weird hopper, weird balance because there's so, so, so heavy man on man. That's all it takes. Like, you're truly relying on your buddy, whether that's your D partner or your forward down low, that he's going to have his guy. And when you're solid at it, when you're hard on that and able to be physical to end plays early, to get pucks turned over to go the other way. Um, it's super.

effective and they of course were the best at that system they were the best team in the league and winning the Stanley Cup for a reason but um for us has defense been going back and you're expecting it the toughest play in hockey is getting a fumbled or a flipped puck whether that's through the neutral zone or off the yellow getting that settled down getting your head up to make the next play and executing it and if you can do that and you can you can you can break them down you're probably going to get an odd man rush, you're probably going to get some sort of offense out of it, or at the very least, not being in your D zone for a minute or two. But it's tough to do.

It takes communication. It takes teams truly, truly working on it. And sometimes you just got to live to fight another day and not give up that great A shot from the middle that, you know, the Fortech is going to try and create. So Carolina Hurricanes hockey, you know what to expect and they're good at it. Yeah. The different types of challenges are so fascinating to me. We've discussed this a little bit, but I wanted to get into it a little further with you,

especially in light of what the hurricanes did because, you know, they've certainly got some, you know, crash and bang type of players like William Carrier, for example, who always just goes in. He's looking to take the body. Jordan Stahl was certainly a physical force in that series. But then you've got a lot of these sort of like high work rate, maybe undersized guys who aren't necessarily going in trying to punish you and take the body, but are going to be, you know, trying to craftily get the stick in the way

or kind of knock the puck away or even, as I said, create a little two-on-one situation where they can sort of force you into coughing the puck over. And, you know, there's certain challenges, I think, to each type. I think it's never great to know you're about to take a massive hit going back, especially if you're in a bit of a vulnerable position. But I know you kind of talked about and it's probably aged pretty well in terms of the take you had about how like you got like Mitch Martyr, for example, has always been someone you've had a bit more difficulty with because he's so crafty

and he's not never hit you necessarily, but he's always looking to kind of take the puck away or even bait you into, you know, I'm going to go here and then all of a sudden you think there's an open space and he quickly darts there and cuts it off. And that's exactly what the hurricanes did, right? And so I find that fascinating from a defenseman's perspective in terms of the preparation. And in one way, it might seem conventional to think like, oh, like you don't want to take that punishment, especially that game 100 or whatever you've played so far this season. but in a way I feel like some of that stuff where you're not necessarily throwing the body, but instead you're just trying to turn the puck over using your stick work is probably even more challenging at times.

Well, that's exactly. I feel when you have a team that has those different makeups, that has those different styles of player, if I was building a team or I'm looking at another team's roster, it doesn't matter to me if the guy's 5'6 or he's 6 foot 6, but that kind of competitiveness or aggressiveness or willingness to get into the corner and get into a battle. Like, you know, just for Brad, I watch him all the time. Like he's 5'5'10, you know, 5-9, 510.

And Bratter, it doesn't matter if it's Brendan Dillon coming at him in the corner or it's Quinn Hughes. Like he's prepared and willing to, you know, reverse hit, hold on to that puck, try to make the next play. Logan Stankovin, willing to get in there, get in the corners, Taylor Hall. I mean, he was throwing body around, you know, bigger than I've really even seen him doing most. his career and DeGala got rewarded for it. And I think most times as a player going on to the ice, you should know who you're on the ice against. You know, am I on the ice against an a ho, Sveshnekov, or am I on the ice against the Robinson and Carrier? Well, you can kind of pick your

percentages on what that four check is going to look like. But at the same time, even the stick checks, even guys coming in and being hard on those sticks, being hard in the corners or in the box outs. People talk about tough and physicality. It's not necessarily just dropping your clubs. It's getting into those one-on-one altercations, whether that's a boxout or a corner battle for the puck and being able to win that. And, you know, I got into, you know, the social media watching, you know, the Rod Brindamor press conferences and post-game in their locker room. And those are always the fun things to see as a fan and as players too. And seeing the messages that are getting sent through and why they're

working or what, you know, seems to be the focus is. And that seemed to be something that has always been talked about and their mentality and even, you know, friends of mine that are on Vegas and how far they went this year. Same thing, you know, just the importance of every sort of little battle or the importance of every little play, getting the puck outside the blue line as opposed to a turnover, making sure you're willing to get your box out or you're, you know, stay in your check throughout a defensive zone coverage. They're all so important. But, you know, I think those, those different styles on a team and on a forward line specifically can really be dangerous. Were you having during that series and maybe even shortly thereafter, were you waking up in

the middle of night, having nightmares with cold sweats, just putting yourself in the shoes of some of defending against some of those high flips. Yeah. Like I Shade Theodore did a phenomenal job for, especially like the first half of the series and then eventually started making some mistakes, but did about as well as you could possibly ask for in that spot. But it's just such a nightmare situation, right? where especially that late into the postseason, the ice isn't necessarily that good.

And so all of a sudden, you're trying to corral this bubbling puck at the highest leverage area of the ice, right? As you talk about your own blue line where if you mess that up, all of a sudden it's a two-on-one or even a potentially breakaway behind you with no one really to support you. And you've got this pressure coming at you. And all of a sudden you're being asked to make this play. And it's not just one time, but maybe 10, 15 times over the course of a game if you're playing as much as he is. and that's got to be, I imagine. I mean, I'm sure you get to this point. That's something you relish that opportunity

to kind of make plays in those spots. But at the same time, it would certainly keep me up at night if I was having to kind of do that over and over again, knowing where it could go wrong and all these different possible scenarios and then trying to do the best I can and just hang on whenever I'm called upon

to make a play there. Well, similar to the forecheck where they know where the puck's going, where you can use that speed of almost anticipation to go to where it is. Their forwards do the same thing. I mean, you see sometimes in neutral zones where their forwards back,

they realize that their D-Corps, whether that's Goss, spare, Slavin, or Miller, or Chaffield, get the puck. They're gone. They're out of the zone. They're expecting that to go out. So it's not necessarily that it's a bobbling puck and you've got to settle it down. It's this guy is right on you with the puck bobbling

and you need to settle it down and you need to make a play on it. And it's, we all signed up forward as defensemen it's it's not the most glamorous and and great you know just wave your hands in the air you made a breakout pass but when you're able to make those corral it get it to you know whether it's your D partner a safe spot within your forwards it's not necessarily going to make an ESPN top 10 or sports net top 10 but on the other end of it if you do bobble it if you do give it up as a turnover through the middle and they score that definitely will

So it's one of those plays that's super, super tough. You try to work on it in practice, work out in the off-season, just being able to have pressure on you. We'll make a play under pressure. That's the difference between the American League of the NHL. It's a little bit quicker. The difference between juniors, college, and pro a little bit quicker and a little bit more aggressive of the four checks and good sticks.

So it's tough play. I think for, especially as the game goes on, is the ace gets crappier, is the humidity, all these different factors to come into play. Bobbling, pucks and high flips, they're never a bad play, that's for sure. Yeah, I'm sure he won't mind at this point me bringing it up,

but I was talking with Siggy, Johnson Siglett, at the time he was prepping for it from Noah Hanifan's perspective, especially the Golden Knights swept the abs before and they had a bunch of time. It's like, all right, like, what do you see it on tape? Like little things you can identify that the hurricanes might try to do

and you put together this package of all these set plays and things. And it certainly involved the high flip, some of those two on ones down on your own zone. I mentioned like little kind of trademark plays that they, you know, wrote to great success through the East. And that's all well good. But I imagine there's a big gap between like recognizing stuff on tape

and being like, all right, this is probably a position I'm going to be in. And then actually executing amongst that pressure when you know the, there's absolutely no margin of rare. The ice is bad. You're mentally and physically fatigued. Maybe you're banged up.

and all of a sudden, you know, you've got a Logan Stanko and bearing down on you trying to force a turnover. It's like, yeah, I know I'm probably going to be in this spot, but now actually executing and handling the puck and making that pass is just an entirely different thing. It's probably what separates someone like myself watching at home and being like, all right, this is probably what's going to happen and then actually being on the ice and doing it.

Yeah, it's just exactly that executing it. And whether it's the coach or your teammates or a fan watching, on their TV, the expectation is that you're going to make that play. You're going to have that happen as a defenseman. And that's why that's part of the job. That's part of why you work on in a practice a million times, why you watch the tape and watch the video.

And getting to the NHL, the pressure is higher, the stakes are higher, the importance is higher. And that's what if you're somebody that wants to be a competitor, you love that stuff. You look forward to it. You know, you should be wanting to play against and measure yourself up against the best. So getting those opportunities to be in that,

you know, be in the Stanley Cup finals. I mean, you've literally grind for seven months just to get into the playoffs. Then you've got to go through three grueling rounds just to get there. And it's an intimidating play knowing that you're going to have to be under pressure going back for pucks, get hit,

execute, get over a stick. But it's, it's, it's, at the same time, you should be excited for those opportunities. And I know, I mean, he's a fantastic player, Noah Hannafin, from the breakouts to the offensive zone to his skating. But even then, you know, a lot of those, the Vegas team in general, I mean, it's when you're under siege for whatever it was, five, six games, it's tough to come back from. You know, I wanted to ask you about the PKK.

I imagine that's something you take quite a bit of pride in. And for the devils, you eat up a bunch of those minutes. And there's a certain set of chat. challenges involved with that in terms of like what you're trying to accomplish, right? You're not necessarily out there trying to, you know, outscore the other team, although we did see for large stretches, both the hurricanes and the Golden Knights penalty kills were either like drawing even or even outscoring the opposing part of play, which you're going to take every time and maybe no accident. They had as much success as they did in the postseason. But throughout the year, you know,

it's really kind of like a, you know, just get the job done at any cost mentality, really, whether it takes like knock a puck away or just eating a shot in front of the net or winning a battle and allowing your teammate to clear it and get off the ice and let the next guys do it, right? But I'm curious for kind of your approach, especially as the game's been changing, we talk a lot about, you know, offense is getting so much more diligent about looking for the best shots possible and all these egg advancements we've seen from an offensive perspective and then trying for someone like yourself to counteract it, right? I thought something that was very evident this postseason was some of the advances we've seen

on Power plays where, you know, we went from, I imagine this was still the case when you came into the league but like the the Shea Weber Zadano Chara power plays at the time where it was like set up that big bomb from the point and other than Derad Rattish really we just didn't see anyone doing that in the NHL this year and it went to kind of that

you know first the the Ovechkin one timer where you go from a John Carlson or a Mike Green back in the day up high just bumps it over and you get the one timer from the circle then we saw Kuturov come in and you know add a little wrinkle to it by sending that cross seam pass from one end of the ice to the other to set up a stamp goes. For example, I think more recently we've seen maybe because P.Ks have been so good

at taking some of those lanes away, an adjustment where teams are operating so much more from down low, right, where you're kind of getting that goal line guy to almost be a bumper player where he like opens up and you can either one touch a pass into the slot or you can bring it out to the front of the net or just kind of be a little bit of a pressure release valve for the guy on the wall. Are you kind of seeing that in today's game in terms of some of the reads maybe change changing a little bit what power plays are trying to do to create some of those openings and then how you sort of compensate for it because I imagine especially as a defenseman kind of defending down low making some of those adjustments and sort of figuring out like where the puck is

ultimately trying to go and get there before it does has changed quite a bit from when you first entered the league or even as you've been going through it for for however many years now you've been in the NHL yeah uh well as you as you mentioned I mean PK I love it I love being able to get out there and be up against, you know, the top players on the other team. And, uh, usually it's a big momentum shift positively or negatively if you're able to get out there and get a big kill and frustrate that the top end players on the other team. That's a big plus for your, your side on the other end. If you give up a goal, it's, uh, it's a big downer. You feel like you, you know, you let your team down. There was a, again, missed opportunity to be able to kill that

gain some momentum. Uh, but, but for us on the PK, similar to the power plays, you know, I think we're doing our homework more too. We're finding similarities as teams have success. Of course, it's a copycat league. They're going to find those, whether it's breakouts we saw, I'd say over the last, this last year's for sure. You know, D carries the puck up the ice, you know, whether it's a Werenskiy, a Heiskenen, does a drop pass back? And instead of just letting that player pick their way through, they're keeping going through the middle and trying to almost do a slingshot type play. and I definitely saw a few highlights and even when we were playing against the Columbuses

and Dallas's and in Colorado's where they try it with these high-end D. You know, Rasmus Dahlene does that really well. Yes, Dahlene, another player that, you know, there's probably seven or eight defensemen across the league that you just have to respect what they can do with the puck, how they can skate and create offense

and all those guys we just mentioned to be parts of it. And similar to end zone, the top top-end power play guys, you just name some of them in Kutrov, McDavid, of course, McKinnon. These guys, like, the toughest powerplace to be able to read off of are the ones that are just basically waiting for you to give something up. They're patient.

They wait for the look. Why Tampa Bay, I feel like, is so deadly with it is they've got, you know, they've got the right hands, you know, with Kutrov setting up on his offside. They've got the one-timer up top with Radish. They've got point for the one-timer in the middle. they've got Gensel down low who's got a great stick, his ability to be in tight. And just even those four guys, let alone, you know, the fifth that they can throw on there, I mean, pick your poison.

There's so many. And Kutrov can bomb away. All he needs to do is shoot at once and you as the strong side defenseman have to respect that shot because he can score from there. But at the same time, if the opening up top is there and you can shoot and bomb away, if you take away the four low options and, you know, sometimes teams will create. offense on their power play through just sending big bodys to the net you know bigger size guys the anders lees of the world um nick paul of course when he was there even some of the top end mark

stone these guys like they go to the net there's you know we're talking six three six four you throw another defenseman like myself six four in there now your your goalies are having to look around find the chaos next thing you know there's rebound it's in the back of the net so uh special teams in general are so so huge as you mentioned for carolina and vegas i mean it was a big for both teams that was huge to get them both to the finals. I don't know who ended up having the exact edge in the final series, but it's just such a momentum gainer or a killer. And for the aggression that you can have,

like I love aggressive penalty kills. I love when I'm able to step up in the blue line. Sometimes you can catch a guy sleep into the NeutraZone and really catch them through the middle. Sometimes in Zone 2, you know, the anticipation, you know, you're going similar to how we talked about being. connected early on. If you're going, your partner's coming with you, your forwards drop, but now

to protect the net front, it really messes with power plays. And I think the aggressive, the pressure, it usually makes them at the very least make a play they don't want to make, or it's a bad pass or bobbled pass, and you can hopefully capitalize to get it out of the zone. Well, I imagine your answer is going to, you know, involve that some of that prep you mentioned in terms of doing your home, we're kind of knowing what was. going to try to happen. But what I find interesting is sort of the discipline in terms of in particular, like sometimes maybe not chasing the puck. And I think back to, I think it was in

round one, it was like that Minnesota-Dallas series. And it felt like it just kept happening in that. And Eric Johnson was doing a great job who obviously has a wealth of experience in that particular spot defending down low in the PK over the years. Kind of like diagramming what the powerplay is trying to do to you where you're obviously trying to create a numerical advantage with a two-on-one or whatever, three on two working that triangle down low. But the defenseman's job sometimes requiring like the discipline of actually staying in front of the net and potentially, um, not providing a lane for the pass into that Jake Gensel slot or sorry, the, the brain point spot in the in the slot, for example, for Tampa where, um, that's probably the most dangerous one timer that your goal is going to have a really difficult time trying to stop. And oftentimes you see when the puck gets worked down to the goal line, I think it's like natural, huge. human reaction that'd be like, all right, well, that guy's kind of open and he's in a pretty

dangerous spot down low. He's one of the most skilled players in the league. I'm going to go try to take time and space away that we here talked about a lot. And then he's really trying to bait you into chasing him to set up that quick pass, which is the more dangerous one. And Eric Johnson was pointing out that in those spots, the defenseman's job is to probably just kind of stay at home and let the goalie handle that goal line guy. But if you do that, I imagine there's times where it doesn't look the prettiest on tape after if it doesn't wind up working for you, because that guy just brings it out, he's got space. And all of a sudden, if he just buries it from a tight angle,

maybe internally the coaches are going to be like, well, listen, that's what we talked about. You did your job. The goalie didn't make the save or whatever. It happens and it's not your fault. But certainly when you're like watching at home, it's like, oh, man, what does that defenseman doing? Why didn't he cover that guy?

There's so much space. And it all goes down, I guess, your assignments and what the game plan is defensively, but I find that kind of cat-mouse game of the coverage and potentially they're blown assignments or reads or guys doing their job in the other team just executing. better with the extra man to be one of the most interesting parts of this whole discussion. Well, that's playoff hockey in a nutshell, the adjustments and the cat and mouse and who's more prepared and able to really follow through with the game plan that they have.

And even as high end as power plays are, there's usually one player that thing is run through, right? So for Carolina, I mean, I feel like a lot of the time, Gostis Spare's got it up top, right? Ahos got on the half wall, I feel like for Vegas, things run through Eichol. And so when you can kind of of cue in on some of these things, I think that's for us as a PK

is just being dialed in. That's the best part about hockey is you've kind of got within your team, you know, you've got your team game plan, but you've got the power play, you've got the penalty killer, you've got the goal union, you've got kind of your offensive forward lines, you've got your D pairs. You've kind of got within a team, all these kind of little roles

and little groupings and unions. for the PK, when you're, there's definitely something that we said about veterans and where stick lanes are and being patient versus being aggressive. And there's so many reads that need to be done because the power play players for the most part are, you know, you can throw them out there in just a nice street hockey game in the summer and they'll be the one snapping around and saucing it through legs and finding those plays because they're so creative, right? So a lot of times, if a PK is in good structure, they're kind of almost going to have to go,

as talking about the offensive power play guys, they're going to have to go off script and try and find something or try and move us around to be able to break us down and find that passing lane or that backdoor shot. That's the most dangerous. So it's got to be talked about in video. It's got to be aware of certain plays. Of course, in a perfect world, a power play is going to run a play that's going to work. Boom, bang, bang. and it's in the net.

But as it gets into the minute, minute and a half, minute 45, and guys are starting to get tired and wear it worn down, that's when the breakdowns usually happen. And as you're mentioning, Eric Johnson, doing the diagrams, if you're in net front D-Men, before you go and rush onto that player in the corner, you know, are you leaving good ice? Are you taking away the most dangerous part of the ice and just going to pressure someone to pressure them?

Well, these are pretty good players in the national hockey. and they can make plays too. So it's a lot of fun. It's that, as you mentioned, kind of cat and mouse adjustments. What happens? Even throughout a game, you know, you'll have two or three penalty kills or power plays in the first period. Well, what's the first thing the coach is going to talk about in between.

Okay, here's what we've done, here's what's worked, here's what hasn't worked, and make your adjustments from there. So we're in the heart of the summer right now. We're recording this, what is it, July 23rd? I wanted to get into a little bit of your approach in the offseason in terms of the process. this time of year. I know, you know, I want you to back on for a fifth appearance. I'm going to pump you up a little bit here. But I think, uh, you don't need me to do so. But I, you know, I can speak from, from just our conversations. Like I know how much thought you put into this and

what an accomplishment's been, you know, the longevity you've had in the league in terms of just not only being on the ice all the times, playing all 82 games, but also getting that thousand game milestone trying to kind of reinvigorate yourself as the game around you is changing. And so I know you've put a lot of thought in this. I'm kind of curious in terms of. terms of what that off-season attack looks like for you when you're getting on the ice and, you know, either working on technique, trying to add little wrinkles to your game, whether it's tinkering with gear. I don't know. I don't know what the process is like for you, but I'm always fascinated to see, like, what the approach is. And maybe it varies from year to year. It's not

necessarily always static, but just like in terms of the season's over, you maybe take a little bit of that rest to get your body in your mind, right? And then you start thinking about next year. Like, what does that look like for you in terms of what you're trying to accomplish and what the game balance and then what your route towards doing so is. Yeah, well, I mean, first and foremost, I'll eat transfer you for all the nice things after, after, after, after, after, after off the pod. But, um, summer I feel like is just, it's the most important part of, of a hockey players year, you know, if you break it, break it down to the 12 month segment of, of, of, of, of,

a hockey season. It's just, it's when you get the most time to work on things. It's when you get the most time to get your body right. last summer it was kind of a gong show for me. I had had off-season neck surgery, so I was really behind the eight-ball for at least a good eight, ten weeks. I wasn't being able to really get on the ice and do much performance-based stuff.

It was more rehab. This summer's been fantastic. I've been on the ice a bunch already. It's been one of those things where you start getting that, you know, July first and then middle of July, and then by August you're just like, John Lake, like, oh, let's get this thing going, let's get camp going. And I've gotten myself into a really good routine. I'd say years one through five, it was get home to your buddies,

get partying and kind of celebrating year in the NHL for another year. And then the mid segment of like the years five through 10 where it was like, okay, geez, now we're in this thing. We've kind of established yourself like, how do I get better as a hockey player and not just stay in the league? and then you start, you know, your role and how a defensive defenseman for myself looks is it's not just be 240 pounds, you know, not be able to skate on the ice, flip every puck out of the zone, and hit everybody.

It's evolved into, okay, how do you find the middle on breakouts? How do you not just be physical and hit players, but how do you use your stick to surf and close quicker? how do you be able to complement a high-end offensive defensive partner by whether that's skating or finding their abilities on the blue line and getting them the puck more? I'd say some of the biggest years for me we're playing with Brent Burns and Eric Carlson in San Jose. I was fortunate to have such an amazing core group of people there

and also core defense corps. Paul Martin, Mark Edward Vlasic, Justin Braun, on Brent Burns, Eric Carlson, where they just, like, every day you learn something new from them and take that into the summertime. And I'm a big, I love being in the gym, I love getting in there. And, you know, whether that's just sitting on a roller and talking hockey with the guys before, you know, getting the competitive juices going on the squat rack or, you know, a couple bicep curls. But, you know, getting on the ice in the summer and really seeing, geez, I didn't realize

that player was as skilled as he really is or, wow, like, I could shoot the pocket. and I feel like, you know, all he does is dump it in and hit guys. Or, hey, geez, that guy, you know, there's a reason why I feel like he's on the first power play unit and threw up 30 goals last year. And it's just for me, the learning aspect of it. And I usually take about two to three weeks of just doing nothing, relaxing, hanging out with the family, seeing friends, golfing, and then I get right back into it. You know, I like to start off with a few weeks of beach workouts for myself, some chest, some

shoulders, some upper body. And then, you know, of course, you got to get into the lower body for, for the hockey stuff, which, which of course is our job. And it's, it's, it's, I never have thought about hockey as being a job. I've always thought about it of just being so fortunate and so lucky to do what I love. And I think for any young kid or even my own kids, it's like, if you love something, you know, you're going to want to get better at it. You're going to want to strive to get better at it. And I just, I still remember, and my dad loves to remind me, you know, as a six, seven, eight year old kid, like I was the one waking him up for, for the 530 AM or 6 a.m. practices. And I still am that way, you know, when I get to get to the rink early, you know, tape your

stick, get prepared for things. And you talked about equipment and changing things up year to year. I usually like to change one piece of equipment every year, whether that's gloves, pants, how I tape my stick, you know, the graphic on my stick, just something to look a little different going into the year. And regardless of if I had a personal year that I was happy with or not happy with, I still like to change it up because I truly think that, you know, getting out of just your normal routine is good. And it's almost like a refresh. Like, okay, hey, we got a new year. You got to reprove yourself again to not just your teammates or yourself, but to the league and that's that's something that doesn't just come with one good game or one good

practice you know it takes you know games and years and and it's why i have and i think the hockey world should have so much respect for the sydney crosbys and the connor macdavids and these players that we talk about that are elite but they're elite year after year after year after year after year and do it against the toughest competition and as i mentioned earlier you should want to compare yourself to the best you should want to be the best and you know even though I'm a Brendan Dillon, I love watching, you know, the Jacob Slavins of the world and love watching the, you know, the Zach Werenskis and all these top, top-end defensemen, offensive or defensive, just to try and see if I can try something in practice or try

something the next time I get on the ice to be better for myself and, you know, grow my game. That's a great way to put it. I co-sign that in terms of it not being a job, being fortunate to do this every day. That's what I tell myself when it's July and people are at the beach and I'm grinding Dominic James tape and trying to prep the next season putting in the work. This is where... A Filipovic mixtape. Yeah, those are blue collar hours. This is where we put in the work.

This is where we get better. This is where we create that sustainability. I imagine like the season is such a grind once you get into it, right? There's an element of survival mode where the schedule is so condensed. You've got these stretches where you're just seemingly playing every night and you're almost, you know, you're coming out of. of games and you're like, all right, we've got a game the next day. You're just trying to prep for it and get yourself ready for it. The practice time is so low these days. And I imagine that's a big frustration for coaches around the league and for players as well, I imagine as well, right? Like, it's

tough to kind of work on some of those skills. Of course, you're going through the tape and trying to do your prep work accordingly. But in terms of some of those skills, like it's a much tougher to kind of round those out and potentially improve in that capacity in season when all you're worried about is the next game as opposed to the benefit of this. season when you've got the time to actually log some of those hours. 100%. That's, uh, that's exactly it is, especially these last two years between the four nations and the Olympics. It was just, if you could get two to three legit actual practice days where you can, you know, work on your systems, work on, um, different positional drills. Uh, you were lucky.

And that's the nature of the beast too. This year we're going to add two more games. We're going be at 84 so if we thought it was going to be less of a crazy schedule we've already seen it yeah maybe there's a few more breaks in between but uh it's still going to be chaos and just when you think or you're sitting there gasped and tired you're the only team dealing with it well there's 31 other teams that are in the same boat so you can't use that as an excuse that geez you know we just traveled last night and other back to back oh we just played this team you know there's we got all these guys injured, you know, other teams are dealing with the exact same stuff. And I think, I think that's the grind and also the best part of the game. Like, I love that November

through February where it's just like games 20 through 55 of just, you know, your back's just mangled. Your hips are in one from the five-hour flight across, across the country. You know, you're playing it back to back with crazy travel. Because, you know, it really does show you what you're made of, whether your team's made of. There's going to be nights where, you know what, one line's got to kind of pick you up, or maybe the goalie's got to win a game for your team because they just don't have it that night.

And the best teams I've been on and the closest groups I've been on are those teams that kind of really enjoy those moments of, oh boy, you know, like these run back to back going into Carolina tonight at the Cup champs. You know, it's easy to mail it in, but at the same time, you can just look forward to those challenges

or those opportunities and have some fun with it. What's it like in terms of you go away after the season? You're kind of working on yourself throughout the summer. You're going to be converging once again for camp once that all starts back up. But in the meantime, obviously the offseason comes with a lot of change. And for example, for the temples this summer, right? You go out and make a couple trades. You bring in a bunch of guys sign Anthony Manta.

You acquire, you know, Evan Rodriguez and Desper Boquist. And there's a bunch of new faces, new skill sets, new personnel involved, essentially, the GM changes as well. Like there's a bunch of sort of turnover along the way. And so you're kind of removed from it a little bit, I imagine, in the all season because you're kind of working on yourself and doing your own thing. But also within that team concept, like kind of trying to then put that all back together is an interesting wrinkle to it as well, I think.

Oh, 100%. I still remember, I think it was my first year in the league full time with Dallas. And we had an older veteran team and myself. Antoine Roussel, Alex Chesson, Cody Eakin. We had probably five or six guys that were really just getting their feet wet full-time. And the veteran guys were so, so, so good to us, the Ray Wittneys of the world. Trevor Daly, Alex Goligowski, Eric Nystrom, of course, Jamie Ben. And I just remember how great these guys were, Vernon Fiddler.

And at the end of the year, I remember Eric Nystrom, his contract was up. And, you know, he'd hung out with the boys. And then, you know, he'd bought a bunch of dinners for the young guys. And I just thought the world of this group of older veterans. And I remember being like, hey, Dillie, you know, have a great summer. And, you know, hopefully we'll see again. If not, maybe we'll see you know, during the season. I kind of thought, like, what do you mean?

I was, borderline wanted to tear up. Like, you've been so good to me. Like, I'll see you in a couple months at training camp. Like, what do you mean? You're leaving? You're not signing back. And I remember that was the first time me really getting like a glimpse of like, hey, buddy, like, I don't know if I'm re-signing back with you guys.

I just don't think there's cap room and this. And I was kind of like, what? Like I just, it just didn't really comprehend. And then, of course, he left. He signed with Nashville at the time. I want to say, you know, at least, you know, every year you look at rosters, there's at least usually three to four new faces, whether that's trades or guys coming up or free agent signings.

And, you know, year after year, you, of course, you make close friendships with guys. You see, whatever it is, 260, 270 days. you're with this group of 23, three dudes. And you're going through tough times. You're on the road. You're going for dinners. You're getting to know their families. They're just everything about them.

And it comes to a point where whether that's for more money or more opportunity, I don't know, hockey careers are so short and so small that them being able to go and capitalize on that. And, well, you know, whether you see each other in the summer or you see each other at the following year at dinner in the night before that you play them. That's kind of the business side that you understand as you get older, you understand as, you know, whether you yourself get traded or you yourself go through a contract dispute and have to be able to move along or move forward with without your buddies or without guys that you really were close with.

So for the devils, as you mentioned at least, you know, three or four new faces. Anytime you do get new faces in a locker room, there's excitement. there's just a natural chatter and communication that comes with that. Guys are, hey, where you from? What's your summer looked like? Those types of things. And then practices too, you know, you want to be able to prove to these guys. You're a good player too.

You want to prove to them that, hey, we take pride in being a part of this organization, representing this organization. A couple of those guys, of course, Stanley Cup champions coming in from, you know, what was the benchmark in three straight finals a couple years ago. you know i got another guy that scored 33 goals last year so there's uh there's some excitement and i think there's no expectations we we've got a new general manager in we've got a you know three or four new coaches um it's it was a year last year that uh that i don't think anybody in the entire devil's organization can be happy with so uh lots to prove um and especially

any time you don't win there's going to definitely be more more change over and um that's uh that's is the reality. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that a little bit, sort of the reflections on last year, right? And I caught you mid-season. I think it was like end of January when you guys were in town here in Vancouver and you're kind of going through it. And we discussed at the time, like, some of the frustrations that come from, you know, when you feel like you're playing well, but the process isn't necessarily leading to results. A lot of the like kind of uncertainty involved as well. You guys had a ton of injuries, right? There was so much kind of personnel being mixed and match, particularly in the blue line. We talked about at the time, like all the different partners you'd play with and how that could be challenging at times because each guy requires different sort of things for you to mesh with as a partner in terms of what you're going to be asked to do, how you can support them and kind of figuring that out on the fly. You got any kind of reflections now that were removed a couple months from it in terms of sort of reflecting on last year and then obviously want to kind of put it in the rear view mirror and move on and you get these new faces, a lot of excitement.

It's a fresh season. So there's a lot going for you there. But just kind of like, how last year went, I guess, and sort of like the lessons you can kind of take from it and then apply to to whatever's coming in the future. Yeah. Well, the reality is we just weren't good enough in all facets. I think a lot of our penalty kill the year before, my first year, we were second in the league and it was a huge, huge positive for us. I would say it arguably between that and the power play won us games. I think our power play was like third in the league or whatever that year too. And, you know, the preparation and everybody being on the same page, you know, it just wasn't that way this year. I think our five-on-five play, we really struggled to score goals.

And I think when you play the devils, and it's been pretty well documented, you know, we're a rush team that has so many, so many high-skilled players that want to make that play that can make those plays. And, you know, teams would just kind of stay above. They would sit back. They would force us to have to dump pucks, force us to have to go in forecheck and it's tough to do when that's not your necessary bread and butter. So

hopefully we can add to continue to keep the rush game, continue to keep the speed we have. You know, when we play slow too, that's just something that it's so, so apparent that we've got so much speed. Everybody on our team can skate,

our forwards, our D, we can get up in the rush, we can use it. our forwards. I mean, I tell them every time in practice, like you guys don't realize the speed that you guys can play with. And just even, you know, taking a little bit of the Carolina high flip and pressure the D, make them, make the turnovers.

I think a little bit of that can help our group. And it's a fresh year. I think that's the exciting part when you go into camp. There's 32 teams that legitimately think they have a chance to compete, right? So it's kind of around that games. 30 through 40, 50 that, you know, there's the separation starts to become more apparent. And, you know, the frauds kind of seem to move away. And the real squad seem to, you know, kind of step their game up.

And for us as a whole, as I mentioned, we've got a bunch of new coaches coming in. You know, hopefully they can help and add to helping us get things, things righted and getting back to the playoffs. And, you know, the other thing, too, is just, I think understanding where we're at, like, you know, for how talented and incredible of a group as we have, looking at it on paper, like, you almost start to feel bad. Like, like, Nico He's here. I've grown and understood and just been such a huge, huge fan of his game and seeing it up close and personal. And the fact that I think he's been in the playoffs maybe three out of his eight or nine years, you know,

which is just, it's crazy to think. like he's such a good player and you know we we need to get in just to be able to like show that more you know jack hughes like an incredible incredible player so gifted and can can really control a game and i think especially him and seeing how well he did in the olympics and and you know we had a bunch of those guys that really showed well um on that stage and in playoffs like like those should be what we want to get and strive towards and get back in and in the meaningful games even down the stretch, you know, the last five, ten games of a season fighting for home ice advantage, uh, the rivalry games against your division. You know, I think that was another big downfall on

us. I think we went like 0 and 3 against the Islanders. Um, I think we were like 0 and 3 or maybe one and three against Carolina, Washington, we may be won 1. Like, you know, winning those interseason series is against your, you know, high, you know, highly rivaled teams are are so huge and go such a long way because whether it's a back-to-back and they're building and your building those are the fun ones to play when you've got the little five-year-old

that's wearing the Philadelphia Flyers jersey of the Rangers jersey, you know, telling you to go screw yourself. And, you know, you just want to win those ones not only because they're four-pointers, but, you know, to create that rivalry, which has been a great part about the league over the last few years is all those

you know, inter-season kind of rival games. I got to say in watching all your guys games last year one of the sober linings for me was how impressive I thought Arsani Gritsick was like I thought he was so fun to watch

and you know he's not your conventional rookie in terms of his age and all the reps he got playing in a pro league overseas but the adjustment is just as big if not bigger I imagine in terms of like the you know the cultural change learning a new language kind of adjusting on the fly in real time like that

and it's interesting and you bring it up sort of the his year's stuff in terms of like the individual play and then it not being recognized as much because you're not on those biggest stages at times I imagine that played a role in the perception of his rookie year as well right because because of the state of the team and not making the playoffs there wasn't as much attention placed on it but you actually look at some of the underlying numbers and the tape and it just absolutely pops off the charts and so he gets a three year deal I believe this summer as well and I'm really excited for what's coming for him because I thought

he was just such a a breath of fresh air for the organization it was just so fun to watch I know you guys had some fun times together as well. It seemed like you took him under your wing a little bit. He's, I mean, I think hopefully this is a hot, good take, but I think that's going to be one of the steals of the league in the sense of like just unreal contracts. Like, of course, for Gritsy, it's whatever, 9.5 million bucks, which is super well deserved, but he is a, like, incredible player.

Like how he shoots the puck. Every forward, I feel like that played on his line throughout the year would make comments. the speed, the creativity, plays hard. He's, you know, he's willing to learn. Like, you know, coming over, I always try to put myself in a player who's, you know, from Europe, from not North America's shoes, who doesn't speak the language, who's coming in and whether that's a coach barking at him or a player on his line, trying to, you know,

get something through to him and not understanding what's going on. His translator was around for the first month of the year. luckily we had a couple other Russians who were able to to somewhat break things down for him but he never truly was you know it's not like he's getting everything right away in a video session or right away in a meeting and I thought he was just great about it hit the way that he was with the guys

uh he everyone really loved being around him he was funny um he wasn't afraid to you know partake in in activities with the group and as opposed to just going and sitting in his his room in FaceTiming his buddies back in Russia. He was very involved, which I think led to success too because that just makes in itself

you want players that want to be part of the team or doing everything they can to have success, and he did. And yeah, I think for Gritzy, the sky's the limit. He's someone who, as you mentioned, coming over and making that adjustment,

I'm sure there was a period of it where he needed to, whether his rink size or the travel schedule or as how the NHL works. It's a unique. It's the best league in the world for a reason. But he's going to be a heck of a player and definitely, I think, showed, showed very

well. And as you mentioned, being on big stages, the more that we get out there and success we have, I'm sure he's going to be a big part of it. Yeah, I thought he was really impressive. Okay, let's end with this. I always love to ask you these types of questions because I'm just fascinated to hear about the way you kind of see it, what you're impressed. were in terms of being on the ice against some of these guys.

I think last time I asked you about the most difficult or challenging team that you guys had to play against. And I believe at the time, you said the Golden Knights. And it was a bit surprising because, you know, they weren't necessarily like the best team in the league by record or or anything, but obviously a take that I think aged pretty well considering their playoff run. I'm curious for your take now because a couple months passed since and had some time to reflect in terms of what the most.

challenging teams you guys went up against where for whatever reason whether it was just a bad matchup certain things they did that really kind of put you guys in uncomfortable spots or we're just the team that you're like oh man these guys are on the schedule we got to go up against them again it's not going to be a fun night out there yeah it's a great question because i i do think sometimes like it's funny when you look at the stat packs before the game and you know like there's some buildings like i want to say it's something crazy like the devils of one won in Montreal. I don't want to butcher it, but they've won a bunch of games in a row in Montreal for whatever

reason. Like, it's just, like, crazy. I want to say, I think on a negative side, I think when I got to the Devils two years ago, they had some ridiculously bad record in Carolina. Like, it was like they'd won one game in six or seven years or something crazy in there. So there's definitely some statistics behind there. that tend to whether it's getting your head

or just not work out for you. But I think when we played Vegas, it was one that really stuck out just because it was like four lines, three deep pairs. We had no room out there. There's no ability to go. I would say another team that really stuck out.

Of course, Carolina was great. But Colorado, we had a back-to-back early on in the season. And the game we won in Jersey. I mean, we were humming at the time. I think we'd won eight in a row. We won in overtime the first game, and it was just like they were coming at you. They had all four lines.

Their fourth lines had identity. They were physical. They were fast. I mean, their top end skill between the Brock Nelson, the McKinnons, the Landskogs, the Lekanins, they were just, they were clicking as well. And I remember going to Colorado. I think that was kind of the start of the spiral for us at that point before Christmas was like we got shelled like 8-3 or something. It was just not a good game. And that was another team that really stood out.

rightfully so they won the president's trophy they were a solid team all throughout the season um that that plays well and then in the last team i'd mentioned is florida like they're just they had they dealt with their bunch of injuries throughout the year but they just play so direct um they go to the net they shoot they create chaos and it's just like like over and over and over and over again and you know you knew what know what to expect you know that they're going to be hard you know they're going to be physical. And it's just tough to play against because they've got the skill to go with it. Like not only are they going to punch you in the face,

but they're going to be able to make that saucer pass backdoor or super skilled play off the rush. So it's, again, having a little bit mixed bag and being able to win in different ways I felt it was tough to play against. Larry, you went up against the you were most impressed by. And I'm going to do an editorial note here. You're not allowed to say McKinnon or McDavid or. or one of the usual suspects.

Yeah, one of the usual suspects. Yeah, I'm curious in terms of like someone who, you know, you're following the league or whatever, maybe you don't play them that often. Maybe it's in the, in the Western Conference.

And, you know, you see them on tape. You're, you see the clips online. But when you're out there on the ice with them, they're just either a step faster or a little bit stronger or a little bit stronger or have a certain level of like skill or deceptiveness or whatever.

You're just like, that doesn't necessarily translate on the screen. Like, actually being out there against it. I came away from it just more impressed in terms of what they were actually capable of in real time. Is there anyone that stuck out for you last year

where you're like, I feel like TV doesn't do that guy justice in terms of how dangerous or how good or just how difficulty is to play against. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, the usual suspects, of course, are always going to be up there because they are truly as good as advertised.

Someone that since I've been in the East the last two years, I would say has really stood out every time we've played it. Like, Pastronach is just, he's crazy how deceptive he is all the time. Like, he's a big guy. He just, he's just always, you know, he makes goalies look silly. He makes players look silly that are trying to check him. It's because he's so shifty and deceptive, but yet he's a big guy.

Like, you could try to box him out. You can try to finish him in the corner as hard as you can. And, you know, he's going to give it back to you. But at the same time, be able to make that. go play where you're like sitting there scratching your head like how did he just do that um you know i think he's he's just a hot high-end player you know another guy that um i would say he finally got his kind of coming out but like a tom wilson you know tom wilson is he's known of course he has the resume of oh yeah he's a big big physical you know suspended hits fights all this stuff but you know

the guy scored 30 a couple times now. He's found a way to impact the game with his stick, you know, with his speed and tenacity on a four check. It's just he's somebody that really, I feel like, has impressed me and I've had the fortunate to be able to play with. And I'll leave it with the last one.

I know you only asked me for one player, but loose terrain and I feel like in Florida, impress me so much. We'd engage you yourself with the PDO cast and the listeners. Yeah. I mean, I think those first two guys, of course, they're both Olympians. And so, I mean, Loisoran is too.

But I think for how he, like I remember this year, he like blew up Jackie's or the hit in the corner. But then at the same time was like making some incredible plays, like little ones in the corner where he's going in fumbled puck and then like finds the middle on a nice little back end sauce. And then, you know, is on the PK. He's affecting the game in so many different ways. I think he's like such a, such an underrated play.

player, you know, for the Panthers. Wow. I mean, listen, I bigged you up as a student of the game, but you certainly delivered there in terms of the shout-on. He's phenomenal. I mean, that line with Hamlon Della and Mershan and their most recent cup run was probably their best line, and he was phenomenal on that. I was hoping you'd say Brennan Hagle. Maybe it's, that's not even a hot take anymore because, you know, obviously he's scored like a top line player for a couple years now and has really elevated his game. But I feel like he must be one of those guys where he's got the work rate component where like he's just constantly moving and he's so fast and dynamic.

But I've been just blown away like how much skill he's continued to add to his game as well over his past couple years in Tampa where like he's becoming a go to score for them now. And I think even if he's playing on PowerPoint 1 this year like that could go up even further. So I'm I'm cheating a little bit because I'm not an NHL defenseman going up against him. But I imagine he'd be a guy that I would not love playing against and probably doesn't get the recognition because he plays on the same team as Kutraub and headman and Masselves. and all these other guys who were a bit more established. No, he's, it's funny because the way the question is, it's like when you ask for underrated players, it's like I, you know, I still think even with how high end all these,

you know, the McDavid's of the world and the celebrini's of the world, like I still think those guys need to even be like, you know, talked about more because that's how like they're getting every first pair of defensemen, every top end checking line, you know, you know when those guys are on the ice and they're still doing well. So it's similar to Pasternak. like you know i yeah he's a fantastic player but i can't just be saying saying him uh tom wilson the same thing but like same with haggle like he's an incredible incredible player i think the way of

of how his career has come about over the last three four years really has been a coming out party for him and has really he proved that he's you know not just worthy of of all the accolades and in the coming out but he he still sticks to kind of what got him to that in the sense of his his tenacity, how hard he competes, his aggressiveness, the forecheck, but has, as you mentioned, the skill to make those plays to gel and be able to play with the Jake Genssel's and the Kutrovs of the world. And I think that's the highest compliment you can give someone is when they make players better around them, right?

Whether that's, like for myself, I always tried to learn from the super high-end superstar offensive demon as well as the young up-and-coming demon and kind of be like a chameleon like like okay how am i going to help this guy and and i think when brandon haggle he's probably the guy that anytime john cooper needs to get a line going right it's like okay i got to get this guy going hey let's put haggle on his line he's probably going to drag them into the fight he's probably going to get you know whether it's created a power play opportunity because he's drawn a penalty or get it on the forecheck and create a turnover to be able to get a scoring chance and get a feeling it.

Incredible, incredible player. All right, buddy. Well, this is a lot of fun. Your fourth appearance in the PDOCast officially in the books. I haven't looked at your guys schedule yet for this season. I imagine you're usually here in town. February, February 3rd. February 3rd, of course, you're more prepared than I am for this doing the homework.

We'll get you back on then when you're in town. We'll check in and see where you guys are at at the midway point. But this was awesome. Always a blast to chat with you. And it feels like the summer is officially underway now. We've done this episode together and looking forward to our next chat. I guess, you know, I'll do it. I always let the guests at the end plug some stuff.

You got anything you want to promote? I got no plug. I mean, yeah, hopefully a great successful season for... What's your guys' season opener? We are playing Philadelphia, I believe, on October 3rd. So hopefully I'm snapping around and having a great start. And then in February, we're talking about how great number five looks for, Jersey and how good the team's looking and we're comfortably in a playoff spot so we can have

some nice fun positive talks. All right. As always, an absolute blast chatting with Brennan Dillon, who is obviously a heck of a hockey player, but just as importantly, an all-time PDO guest. Guess this has been part two of our summer series. We originally recorded this one with Brennan Dylan back in late July while this feed was still dormant. So I wanted to mix it in with the rest of the interviews we're doing as part of this year's

series for those of you that didn't get a chance to catch it on the Patreon feed when we first posted it. The summer series is going to keep rolling on in full force. Next week, we'll be posting the Dan Mews and the Scott Wedwood shows on this feed. I mentioned this at the end of the last episode, but if you'd like immediate access to all these shows as soon as they've been recorded moving forward, please subscribe to the PDOC's Patreon page. You can still become a member for the current price, lock it in for the full season all the way up until September 1st. After that, we will be raising the subscription price to help account for all the added perks and extra content. We're providing our subscribers

all year. That subscription gets you every single show we do right away as soon as we've recorded it and posted it in ad-free form. We're going to have at least one, maybe two free shows available on this feed each week moving forward as well. But we're going to be doing a ton of Patreon exclusive content just for our subscribers, at least a couple new episodes every week. You'll get access to a newsletter.

We've got show merch finally up and running and available for our listeners. There's shirts. There's hats. We'll be adding more designs shortly as well. And you get a discount code for all of it that comes to the subscription. So I've been rocking the hat all summer and it's awesome. So I definitely recommend one of those. The shirts are nice as well. If you want to rep the show, help support us that way. All of that is really appreciated. And I think you'll like it. The last thing I'll say is that I hope you also check out the PDOCES YouTube channel. We'll be posting full share. shows on there this season, far more regularly. So, you know, if you'd like to or just prefer to watch along with us and hang out while we're talking throughout the show, you'll be able to find that there as well to go along with all the player mixtapes we do. All right, that is all for today. We'll see you back here on this feed Monday morning. Thank you for subscribing and for listening to the HockeyPediocast.