The Hockey PDOcast - TB’s Top Players, NYR’s Misery, WPG Ending StL’s Streak, and Monday Night Takeaways

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Steve Peters to get into the biggest takeaways from Monday night's games. They talk about the Lightning's top players, how miserable the Rangers are to watch, Winnipeg ending the Blues winning streak, and how cool Quinton Byfield's highlight reel goal was. Then they answer mailbag questions about players going from bad teams to good ones, and the pros and cons of defensemen who primarily carry the puck for their respective teams. 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.

Progressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey Pee-Ocast. My name is Dimitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Steve Peters. Pidi, what's going on in? Yeah, I can't believe it's now we're down to five games. I look at the schedule this morning and you go kind of snuck up on us. We're just talking 10, 12, 15 games. And this is it. Demetri, this is it.

We get a week, week and a half of this left and to see who can get in. five games too many for me i'm enjoying some of these races certainly and there's a lot of fun stuff to sort out between now and the start of the playoffs but i think i'm ready for it in particular the game we're going to talk about today uh st louis winnipeg for monday night gave us a bit of that playoff feel in my opinion as well and got me really excited for it so our plan for today is we're going to go through some of the biggest takeaways from monday night's games we're going to answer a couple mailback questions on the back end it'll be a fun show like it is every time we have pd on let's start with the first game of the night

the lightning went into New York. They delivered one final, in my opinion, death blow to this miserable Rangers season with a 5-1 win. They scored the three-goal flurry in under two minutes in the first and kind of ran away with it. From there, I've got a lot of takeaways on this game from both teams. I wanted to start with the positive stuff from the lightning end. You kind of saw all their most important contributors and big players really come to play in this one and sort of show why this Tampa team is so scary. in the first period when they weren't playing that well.

I think the shots were like 10-1, New York at one point before that three-goal outburst. Hegel and Sorrelli really got them going the way they typically do. They've been such drivers for this Lightning team this season and on the penalty kill in particular, where it seems like every time I watch the Lightning, those two guys short-handed either change the game or create a goal or some sort of a scoring chance

that pulls Tampa Bay into the fight, and that's exactly what happened here. They had this sequence. I tweeted out the full clip of it online. They like played keepaway against the Rangers power play for about 30 seconds. And then finally, Hegel brings it into the zone, rings it off the bar, draws a penalty, and Tampa scores on the ensuing power play. And those two guys are just such a delight to watch the way they play off of each other,

the way they hound the puck. It's just an endless motor. They're such dogs. And it's pretty clear when you watch them play why we love their game so much. Yeah, I think the biggest key with the Tampa Bay Lightning right now is their best players are the best players. And when you're getting ready to get whatever playoffs, series you're looking at for them, whether it's Toronto or Florida, you're looking at a team that their best players are playing great. Gensel Point, Kutrov, all get three point games. Vasselowski's been

unreal. You'd say what you want about the Rangers, and I thought the Rangers stunk last night, like their effort was poor. Their frustration is high. It's a team that just wants to go and get this season over with. But there were flurries, and there were opportunities for the Rangers to get back into this game, and Vasseliski was fantastic. So I think this bodes well for Tampa Bay is going home right now. They got four straight at home, and they are playing their best hockey getting ready for the playoffs. And as we talk about these teams as we're getting ready for these great playoff matchups, I think it's a key to look at who's playing well right now, who's not injured right now. Tampa Bay has no major injuries right now in their best players are playing

their best. So I think this win against New York, to your point, they were toying with the Rangers, like a cat with a little toy patting them around, like the Rangers. I don't know what they are going to do in the off-season, but this is a team I had potentially competing for an Eastern Conference final in September. And they're rotten. They have dug such a big hole in what this franchise has become. I don't know how they get out of it over this summer. Let's put a pin in the Rangers part of it. I got a lot of thoughts that I'm going to get off my chest here in a second.

I want to finish up with the Tampa portion of this Kuturov. Here's a couple stats for you. He's played 73 games this year. This was his 16th game out of those 73 with three or more points. I think he's been held out the score sheet just 11 times by comparison. He's up to 115 points, which ties Nathan McKinnon in the Art Ross race, and that's in 217 fewer minutes played this season than McKinnon has. He needs only quote unquote 12 points in the final five Lightning games to hit the

thousand point mark for his career. I wouldn't be knowing him remotely surprised to see him do it just because he wants to. And that's a milestone and a goal for him to achieve 12 points in five is obviously very lofty. But I think he can do it. I mean, he's got 22 points in his last 11 games played. And I've said this. before but I you know if given full health I think leonra's idol's been the most impactful and best skater in the league this season and I would have had him at top of my heart trophy

ballot I still think I would we'll see if he comes back and plays a couple games before the playoffs he's stuck at only 71 games played right now and if you're of the mind that you don't really want to include goalies on your heart ballot because they already have their own award in the vesna and you're just not going to do it and when we see a lot of of voters approach it that way. I really think Kutraub is very live for that award because he's been so consistent this season and he's just such a driver of offense similar to what he did last year. But once again, I mean, they're averaging five and a half goals per hour with him on the ice

this season. It's just an endless onslaught of chances and goals and it all funnels through him. So he's just been incredible. And I'm almost running out of superlatives to describe his season because it feels like you watch this game. Even on some of those power plays if they don't score, he's just such a magic. magician on that half wall and he's just consistently setting guys up kind of playing the role of puppeteer getting everyone into the right position and then threading a cross seam pass or getting

it into the slot to point or working it down low and then heading getting it back to headman and he rings it off the bar on this game on one of those sequences as well and so it's just such a delight to watch him and and what he's doing right now offensively is obscene yeah it's funny though because we've changed our heart vote from a month ago as leon fricelyt for i said for sure then we swayed to McKinnon has to be McKinnon. And now Kutrov over the last two weeks has become a serious contender and it has to be in the conversation. Hellelbeck. I agree with you. I don't think he is going to be in the heart conversation. He might get one of the top three. He might. Man, he'll win the Vezna for sure. Kutrov, though, when you watch him play, when you watch him watch him watch him a few weeks ago, and I think what surprises me the most about him is his ability to play both sides of the puck. When he is at his best, he is stealing pucks from his opponents. He's got a little chip on his shoulder. We saw him play. I watched a game a few weeks ago where he gets bent into the third period because of a turnover. and he turned the puck over and it created a goal. And Cooper knows him so well, he was able to push the right buttons to get him to react. If you see that Kuchar up that's playing both ends of the ice in the beginning of this playoffs,

man, I don't know. Tampa Bay looks really good. I'm curious to see what the matchups we're going to get in this playoffs. Man, is he fun to watch. Right now, he is playing some of the best hockey of his career right now in Tampa. That's why this team is so dangerous coming into the playoffs, a team that a year ago looked tired. The year before that just struggles to get in and gets injured.

and you go, okay, this might be end of the Tampa Bay Lightning. And here they retooled. And the big thing, Demetri, we didn't talk about is how well they retooled their bottom six. And I think bringing in Yanni Gordon, Oliver Brookeshann right now has really made this team. They're a serious contender right now in the Eastern Conference for me because of what they've been able to do throughout their lineup. Yeah, I think Kuchraal has been much more to my eye involved defensively this season in terms of effort level and hounding the puck. But also an important thing to keep in mind is that, a part of the defensive sequence, and I think this should be accounted for when you talk about someone's defensive acumen, is actually getting the puck out of your own zone. And when you watch this lightning team play so many times over the course of a game, the puck comes kind of near their defensive blue line to Kutrave along the wall. And he makes a brilliant, either pass into space for Brayden Pointe to skate into it or set someone up and all of a sudden they're moving and transitioning to the other end up as opposed to getting stuck in hemmed in their own zone because he turns it over or does something. So I think.

that's a feather in his cap as well. You mentioned Vasilevsky earlier. I just wanted to quickly shout him out because especially when they went up three nothing, I think people who might have missed the first period tuned into this game in the second saw the shot counter and we're like, wow, the Rangers already have 30 shots or whatever. We're thinking that it was a really one-sided game. I think that was partly score effects because it was pretty even early on. And then after Tampa went up, the Rangers had a few power plays and kind of stat padded their shot total, I guess. But Vasilevsky in this game, as he's done pretty much since the holiday break, has been a complete wall in net.

And it's amazing watching like how effortless he makes it seem because of how big and athletic he is where it looks like a high danger chance and then it just like hits him squarely in the chest and he just gobbles up the puck. And he stopped, what, 38 out of 39 shots in this game and it was incredible again. I've got him down for a 941 5-1-5-sate percentage in 34 games since that Christmas break. And so I did a big section on him with our pal Kevin Woodley last week. and Woodley was in particular breaking down for the goalie nerds out there, some of the adjustments to technique that he did this summer in overhauling his game.

And I think that was a really cool listen. So if you haven't heard that, go check that out. But I think that kind of describes why you're seeing what you're seeing right now from Vasilevsky. You mentioned lightning as being a scary team. There are two points back of the leaves for first in the Atlantic. They play each other head-to-head in Tampa Bay on Wednesday, I believe. They have another game next week against the Panthers. There are four points up on them.

for home ice in round one if they do meet each other. And you can find them anywhere right now between like 11 and 13 to 1 to win the cup. They're outside the top five in terms of cup contenders. And I know it's going to be a pretty dangerous path regardless of who they play in the first two rounds. But they look so good right now at both ends of the ice. Them, the Jets and the stars are the only teams in the league that are top five in both goals scored and goals against. And so I think they deserve to be like in that firm tier of top contenders. and for whatever reason, they're not really being treated as such by the market.

So I love that. All right. Let's get to the Rangers. You mentioned watching them play. They're just dreadful to watch. And maybe that's nothing new for people that have been following this all season. But to my eye, everyone just looks so checked out. Everyone's playing for themselves.

They're so slow and disconnected. Some of it is personnel because they're just on the older side and they don't move as fast as they used to. I think some of it is coaching. and either lack of buy-in or lack of adjustments or just giving up on this season because you look at the Gulf in ice between their forwards and defensemen at all times and how much open space there is to skate into

how disorganized they are. There was a game last week. They played against the Minnesota Wild, which was one of the more dumb games I've watched all season. It was high event. There were a lot of goals. The Rangers wound up winning it in overtime, but there was two or three times

where they just have every skater on the ice on the same side, and there's all this open space for the, the other team to get the Puck two and then be one-on-one against Shasturkin. It's such a mess. And it's such an unlikable group to watch too. Like there's nothing redeeming about it. It's a miserable experience and they have whatever four or five games left.

They're going to miss the playoffs and deservedly so because this team just is not very good. Yeah. And it's changed so much when they opened in camp and it was a team that had a lot of hope and a lot of, you know, experience. And you go, okay, this roster can win. I really believe that. And Shisterkin was going to have to play great because he needed the big contract. And he was going to be the guy that helped push them over the edge. And Shasturkin's going to be back on his greatness.

They've been rotten. And it's just it's so chaotic. They've given up three plus and seven of eight, four plus and five of eight. They have three regulation wins in 16. Bad, bad, bad, bad hockey team. And all of the things that you look for their positive, Shisterkin, he's a man on his own. This team has, there's no synergies that are no system. There's no effort.

And you look at the coach and you just go up. And maybe this is me. Just looking at on TV and the defeated look in Labuolet's eyes, I don't want to play for Lavoielet. I don't. I don't think, hey, I'm going to go, I'm going to war. I'm blocking shots for Peter Lavoilette because I'm not. I think the comments that Chris Dori made halfway through the season shattered this team and you might as well put him out of the league and the playoff race at that point because that's where it changed. And I blame this squarely on Chris Dury and Peter LaVolette.

I think he's going to go. I think they're going to make, but not Drury. Somehow he'll keep his relationship with Dolan for one more coach. And Labelot's got to go. This team's given up. And now you look at what they have as a roster. I honestly, I don't know what this team is. I don't know.

Gabriel, Perot is exciting. He's fast. He brings you some offense. But what's the rest of this team? Unfortunately, he's a badger's not turning a wheel. He gets the goal last night, but he's done. Kreider's done. I'm not sure.

And by the way, Ranger fans, I just have to throw this out to meet you because I've had it with this with Matt Rempe. Can we stop the parade for Matt Rempe yet? Like, watch him last night. And it's almost comical. Like his inability to make pucks with the plays with the puck, his inability to receive a pass, shoot a peck,

all of those little things. If you want him to go fight, great. Like he'll win his fights, but he has got to become a better player if he's going to be an effective fourth line player for the New York Rangers. And we're going to talk about another big guy later

that's also six foot eight that makes a difference offensively. It makes a difference for his team. And it's not Marempie. Yeah, yeah. It's, my thoughts on this are well documented. It's crazy, especially watching opposing broadcasts every time they go into New York or play the Rangers.

It's like they're obligated to talk about how hard he's worked on improving his skills and how much he's improved. It's, uh, yeah. The live you let note is interesting because I think this generally applies league-wide to every coach. There's kind of this like obviously the first year bump when a coach comes in, brings in their system. It's a fresh start. Everyone's trying their hardest to get in their good graces or a nice time, right? you see that coaching bump, whether it's in season or starting a fresh season in September.

But then you hit that kind of shelf life for them. And it's generally, hopefully year three or year four. Sometimes it can happen as soon as year two. And you're sort of seeing that here. And this has been, I don't want to make it unfair because I do think this applies to every coach pretty much, except for a very few select few that have been able to hang on and reinvigorate themselves and integrate new players. but Lavia let's hit that shelf life hard at pretty much every stop, right? And you watch like the end of the each tenure and how bleak it is and how similar to what

you're seeing from the Rangers right now. It's like everyone just seems kind of checked out, very apathetic and no one is having a good time. And that's exactly what's happening here. I'm very curious to see what happens with that first round pick that they traded for J.T. Miller before the deadline, right? Because it wound up going to Pittsburgh. Eventually, it's top 13 protected.

the Rangers do have the ability, even if it is top 13, I believe, to convey it this year and avoid having this kind of unprotected 2026 first, especially with the talent at the top of that draft. I don't really see them doing that regardless of where that pick is because knowing the Rangers is the type of organization that's probably going to head into this summer being like, all right, we're going to make some big changes and we're going to be back next year. I don't really see them sort of waving the white flag and being like, all right, we're going to we're going to, you know, give away that pick and so or keep that pick

because we know we're going to suck next year. I don't really see them acknowledging that appropriately. And with a few changes and especially in you coach, maybe that can happen for them and they can bounce back to a level of respectability. But right now it's a really tough watch. Let's get into Jets blues, which as I mentioned off the top really felt like to me like a playoff style game. Right?

It was pretty low event. There was so little space on the ice. I thought it was a great sign for the Jets that that was the case and yet they look great to my eye. They dominated in that environment. They held the blues to just 14 shots on goal and only four high danger chances along the way. That was without Nick Eelers and Gabe Valardi.

Now Alex Avalos stepped up on that top line with Connor and Sheffley and his forechecking and motor and crashing the net has been a really nice fit with them in Valardi's absence. But especially when Eilers comes back, this is going to be an entirely different team with that second line driving the offense. And so for them in this game against the Blues team that came in having won 12 in a row, I thought it was a really impressive effort from the Jets. Yeah, I agree.

And one of the things, though, and again, these head-to-head matchups late in this season are very important for these teams. And I think this is a potential playoff preview. And I had all of the things we've talked about with Winnipeg were there. And the biggest checkbox again in this game, Hellebuck was good. I know St. Louis didn't have their normal offensive output, but Hellebeck was good. I mean, he made three or four outstanding saves. I'm sure you've got the high danger numbers, but he was good. And he made some saves early, especially on Foxa, that made turn the transition of this game.

Injuries are going to be a big part of this series. Holloway being out is huge for the St. Louis Blues. I'm concerned about what that loss does to this team. I think he's the prototypical St. Louis Blues player. I think he's important to get in the lineup. They're calling them week to week right now. that's a concern. Volardi being out of the lineup for Winnipeg,

we thought would have the same effect, but to your point that they've been able to continue to roll and play some of their best hockey. I think this was more important for Winnipeg to get this win than it was for St. Louis on the loss. I think they have hofer in the net, so they're saying, oh, they can come back with Bantington. We've won 12 straight.

We're tired. We're worn out. We're injured. This is going to be okay. We're going to be fine when we come back to this matchup. But for Winnipeg, this is a big psychological boost that goes, okay, this is a team that people are starting to doubt that we can compete against, and here we are. We were fine. We pounded them. We outshot him badly,

and we were able to compete against this team at home. So our home ice, we should be fine against the same list. So I think it was important for the one to make jets to get this win this late in the season. Well, especially within the context of that Central Division race, right? All of a sudden now they're five points up on the stars. Their next game is that head-to-head in Dallas on Thursday night. If they take care of business, they're setting up around one matchup against presumably the wild. I still think even after this loss, the Blues will probably finish ahead of Minnesota into standings.

And so that would set up a matchup against the Wild who's the most beatable team in the West right now. And it would give them home ice throughout, keep them away from the Aves in round one and set them up for a nice confidence builder and a nice path moving forward to make a long playoff run. So I think it was really important for the Jets there, especially with how this game was played now. The Blues are a different team in terms of like pace and pressure maybe than some of the top teams in the West. And I still will have to see how Winnipeg handles themselves in a matchup against Colorado, for example. They're going to have to answer some questions for me there. But given the way this game was played, I thought it was a really great effort from the Jets. They were so structured.

They were throwing the body around. It was a very physical performance. And so I think full marks to them for that. From the Blues end, I mean, other than their 12-game winning streak ending, I'm not going to necessarily hold that against them, especially with the Holloway absence. It's just in general, I think you'd agree with this, how tough it is to have a streak like this in the NHL and why we see it so infrequently because the NHL is so competitive. And the regular season schedule is such a grind that eventually after every handful of games,

no matter how good your team is, you're going to sprinkle in a stinker here or there. And the blues for the most part haven't really had that during this entire stretch, even predating this stretch. And so for them to go that long, it's just a really different. difficult task not to have a game where you just don't have it the way they did in this game offensively where they only generated the 14 shots. And so it's one of those where the streak's over, now you move on. They have a game coming up in Edmonton, I believe, and they're going to be competing to get that wild card one spot at least. But yeah, I'm not going to hold too much against

them because this kind of stuff happens, especially after you've won 12 in a row and played as well as they have during the stretch. But one thing about this stretch, too, and I'm not trying to take anything away because winning 12 games in a row, I don't care who you're playing. That's a good. impressive, but four games against playoff teams, and two of those were Minnesota and Montreal, the last place. They play Colorado twice. Other than that, you're playing every team outside of the players. Again, amazing to win 12 and a row. I don't care, but what's going to be important is what you just said. They play Edmonton tomorrow night, like on the road, from when it played to Eminton and then they play Seattle, that's three straight road games. They're going to need to get wins. And I think it's

imperative that they get wins because I think, I agree with you. I think they're going to finish above Minnesota, but they need that boost going into the playoffs. If they lose again to Edmonton, now it's going to go, uh-oh, we've played two really good teams and we've lost to good teams. And then they'll finish with Seattle and Utah at home and they might get some wins. They have to, I think they have to compete against an Edmonton team that probably will still be decimated with injuries. I think this is a really big game for the St. Louis Blues tomorrow.

You know they're going to come back with Bennington and you expect to see them compete a little bit harder than you did against Winnipeg that they had a little bit of a letup, I think. I don't think you saw the best of the blues against the Jets, but I think it's important that they come with it all tomorrow night against the Edmonton Oilers. I agree. Not to sound like a broken record. I know you and I have spoken about this,

but I just, I had to reference it in a game where Winnipeg controlled 74% of the expected goals of 515 and really tunted the ice and dominated. Logan Stanley somehow finished below 30% in 515 expected goals share. And until they rectify that, and it sounds like Neil Pionk is on his way back.

Hopefully, common sense will prevail. But I think they can get away with it in round one against Minnesota, just because they have. have so many minutes with certain forwards where you're not really going to be threatened offensively. But as soon as you start getting into round two and play in Colorado or Dallas, there's just going to be no minutes to hide guys like that in and the propensity for taking penalties and mistakes. It's just, it's going to come back to burn you. And that would be a real shame because we've had a long enough sample here for them to change course and reflect that reality.

And yet for whatever reason, they've been reluctant to do so. So I'm going to need to see that from then before I really feel very confident heading into any of those matchups. Let's, before we go to break, talk about the other game that I wanted to focus on, and that was Kings Cracken. And we can lump the Oilers game against Anaheim here as well, because obviously the Kings and Oilers are competing for home ice in that round one rematch of theirs. Both teams lost, so L.A. maintained their four-point lead.

They still have another head-to-head against each other. It was only the fifth regulation loss at home this year. for the Kings, which is incredible. The only goal they scored, I wanted to quickly talk about it with you, was Byfield's goal early, which was just, in my opinion, an incredible feat of athleticism and skill,

and I posted the clip of it, and I'd say 90 to 95% of the people were like me, and they were just like, what on earth just happened? How did he do that? That was one of the most incredible goals I've ever seen. There was 5% of fans,

a lot of them, Oilers fans preparing for that, round one matchup and caring about the Kings losing that were like that's a penalty and listen like technically by the letter of the law it was I think he broke two NHL rules on that play because he essentially played with two sticks and he also clearly held Shane Wright's stick at the same time though the rule of cool for this stuff applies in my opinion and it would have been an absolute travesty if they had called a penalty and deprived us of that highlight I mean he's getting boxed out or fronted if you haven't seen it by Shane Wright he with one hand sticks his own stick out, knocks down a point shot, essentially kind of redirects it to himself and then spins around

and, uh, and tucks at home past Joey to court. And it was, I mean, Byfield has 20 goals now. He's been much better offensively as we've documented in the second half. Yet for two or three years now, it feels like he probably has the highest percentage. It's maybe him and Owen Tippett, in my opinion, the highest percentage of their goals are just like all time highlight real goals and the coolest things you've seen. And he keeps doing it. And so, um, it's awesome to see him. keep being productive and kind of using and leveraging his physical skills the way he has more frequently. But that goal was just, I mean, it was absolutely incredible.

I agree. Penalty, probably, but you can't because I agree with the rule of cool. And what it showed for me is his, one, is compete level and his strength. That's a ridiculous goal. And I think that's one of the things when you look at what's going on with L.A. that gives them a little bit of an advantage. This L.A. King team is deep. This second line right now at Bifield, Fiala, and Lefriar, they're great.

they're great. Like this team, when they're on the ice, they're a threat to score every time they're on the ice. They get to the net hard. This is going to cause fits for Edmonton because you're going to have to deal with Copatar and Kempy. We hope. We hope Kempi's back.

We're not quite sure what's going on there with Adrian Kempi leaving early for personal reasons, unless you've heard something. I don't know what that is. But you're looking at this team that's going to get to the net very hard. And Edmonton Oilers with Skinner, gosh, you hope he's back and healthy and playing at his best hockey by the playoffs. This is the first time.

you can maybe give the advantage to the LA Kings coming into game one. And I don't think that's something you've seen before. I am surprised they lost at home. But Kemper was outstanding. It might be one of the best saves of the year, reaches back behind him and gets the stick on the one that was definitely going in. But this LA team is going to be incredibly dangerous to the Edmonds Oilers. And they might have the recipe finally this year to get over and beat the Oilers in the first round.

Especially because in that matchup, they're presumably going to be getting a lot of five-on-five minutes of Kempe, or sorry, Byfield and Fiala. against Oylers' bottom six players. And that's a matchup. They can certainly thrive in offensively, especially with their speed. The biggest weakness for me for L.A., beyond, like, when you get into these games, and I know they were sort of, they were pushing at the end, right?

Majority of the play was in the Cracken's defensive zone. For the most part, there were a couple times. Joy DeCord was tested, but it was a lot of perimeter shots and the Kings kind of passing the puck around. The outside, the game script for them is going to be really important because much like a lot of teams in the league, they're up, it's a bit of a different case. They're able to sort of get set defensively and then take advantage of you encounter opportunities. When they're down, they don't have very many

avenues for breaking through and creating looks. But their biggest weakness for me beyond that is the power play. And that continued in this game, right? They're 28th in the year in powerplay goals per 60. The only team's worse than them are less efficient are the Bruins, Flyers, Islanders, and Ducks, none of those playoff teams. Of course, they were 10th and third in this category in the last two seasons, but this year they've been dreadful. Every time it seems like it kills whatever momentum they're generating a 5-15,

and that happened in this game, right? They go up 1-0-0-0-9-field goal. They're out-playing the Cracken. They get nearly a full two-minute 5-1-3 in the first. They don't generate anything. They just, like, instantly slow down and become incredibly passive. Zaps all the momentum,

and then the Cracken comeback score, and it's an entirely different game. And if, you know, if they had generated something on that 5-13, it could have been entirely different game and they could have blown out the cracking but that didn't happen and I don't know what's going on

with that power play. The personnel should not be this uncreative or just lacking any sort of punch but yeah I think they need to fix something it's obviously at this point going to be difficult to do so in season

I don't know do any takes on on the King's Power Play especially in the series against the Oilers I know the Oilers power play hasn't been what it has been the past couple years but we've seen in this match up, it's just going to be a massive edge for the Oilers where they get a couple of power play opportunities.

They're probably going to create something which I said to make David if those guys are back, whereas the Kings go on theirs and it's just an entirely different story. Yeah, and in the playoffs, you need to score, first of all, but secondly, you need to create that momentum. It's got to be one or the other. Even if your power play is not successful, but you hem the team in and created scoring chances it gets the crowd into, it gets the team into it, and you can live with that. But they're old for their last nine.

They haven't scored a power play goal in their last four games. They need it to be better against you because of what you said. Because Evanton thrives on that in the playoffs. That boost them and that got them through the playoffs to the finals last year because their power play was, oh my gosh, they're on the power play. We have no chance.

And you knew it before the puck even dropped that you're in trouble and you're going to get scored. And that's how lethal that was. It's funny you say that about the L.A. Kings because I know I know we'll plug my show, but inside the coach, I've got the power play coach of the L.A. kings on tomorrow. Yeah, I was going to say, you know who's running their power player, right? Yeah, Neil Brown. And I'm a huge Newell Brown fan.

And I, Neil Brown was one of the guys. got the Arizona Coyotes power play back on track and he's been in Vancouver. He was in Anaheim a year ago and he's a guy that I think he's outstanding at what he does. So I can't wait to ask him. And I want to see what's the problem. Why are they owe for their last nine? Because we know, you and I both know if you're going to have a good power play, they need good players.

They got good players. So I'm curious to see. They are going to have to find the answer to that by game one of the playoffs against Evanton-Ongo. They are going to have to at least be a scoring threat on the power play. Don't need to score, but you need to get that moment. momentum and you need to have the guys getting those opportunities. It has to happen.

That could be one of the things that tilts this series in the favor of the Hamilton Water. Well, listen, everyone should watch that show and should subscribe to you on YouTube. I don't want to pour cold water on it, but I get the feeling that Newell's not going to have a very profound answer for you when you're asking that question because I've watched this King's Powerplay

and they haven't really shown anything. So I imagine if he had it, he probably would have already deployed it. I know. I know. I'm a try. Yeah. Well, it doesn't hurt to try. All right. Let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we will close out the show with a couple mailback questions that we have from the PDOCast Discord. You're listening to the HockeyPedocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.

We're back here on the Hockey PEOCast, joined by Steve Peters today. PD. We spent the first half of the show kind of breaking out some of our takeaways from Monday night's games. Let's get into the PDOcast Discord mailbag here. We've got a couple questions from our listeners that are fun, thought-provoking questions. So Brandon asks, how do you properly evaluate a player struggling on a bad team? We've seen some examples recently of guys changing situations and rediscovering their form, while others have been more of the same on their new teams.

Now, I'm curious for your take on this. You were obviously with the Coyotes organization for many, many years during your time there, you saw some bad Coyotes teams and some young players in particular kind of struggling to adapt to NHL and then go on to have productive careers at their second or third stops. you've also seen the coyotes during a couple years when they were good go out and you know they brought in taylor hall they brought in phil kessel they made some trades on on that side of things as well so you're certainly familiar with uh with high profile players switching teams and getting varying results what's your take on this in terms of how do we evaluate players on bad teams especially teams that have been bad for a long time now i think everyone accepts that they're bad and then players who clearly have skills struggling there and being potential trade candidates for uh for other parties you're not for other parties. it's funny because I think there's a couple things to unwrap here one you can look at players and I think of Dylan Strome and when Dylan Strome came to the Arizona Coyotes drafted right behind McDavid and Eichael and clearly the third best player in that draft I mean but a distant

third and the expectations on him were so high because of the guys drafted above him and the expectations of Dylan Strom in Arizona were too high and I think the expectations were too high for a young player that didn't didn't have the game that those other two players had he didn't have the speed that do those two players add. I know he put up numbers in junior, but he's playing with McDavid. But now you see what he's doing for the Washington Capitol. He's the number one center. He's playing with Alice Ovechin, assists on the record tying goal.

He has a role there and he has a fit. And I think when we're talking about these players, I think it's most important to recognize the players fit in the role that they have. And sometimes you rely on the people around them. Connor Bedard was generational, going to be a generational player, going to be a generational player, unbelievable, best player since McDavid. Well, I mean, he's got his second 20 goal season. Great.

He's leaving the Chicago Blackhawks in scoring, which again isn't the greatest feat with a team that struggles to provide offense. But you're not seeing that dynamic offensive outburst from a player that was going to be a generational talent. Why? Because he needs someone to help distribute the puck to. He needs someone to help make him better. He's a guy that needs better players around him to be better. So I don't know if you can evaluate a player like that that needs to be in the right surroundings. Where a guy like Macklin-Sellibrini, for example, is a guy that can do more by himself.

And that's the kind of player he is. So when you're evaluating these players, you have to see what the environment for that player is. And just because you take a good player, Taylor Hall, and put him with the Arizona Coyotes, mid to below mid-team, doesn't mean that player's going to be great. Because he doesn't play his style of hockey

didn't fit into the hole that they tried to put him in, square peg round hole. Because Taylor Hall was still just coming off an MVP season. He was a good player. And he can move the puck. He can shoot the puck. But he didn't fit in with the players around him. He didn't fit into the role that they tried to put him in on that team, and he becomes less of a player.

So it's so important when you're valuing these guys to see, does that team have that player in the right spot? Are they continuing to play? What's the guy we talked about here? A lot is Lane Hudson. Early in the season, people are like, Lane Hudson, oh, gosh, you can't play, can't defend. Well, do you want Lane Hudson to defend? No, you keep putting him in that one D role. Keep letting him carry the pot.

Keep making a power play player because that's the hole he fits into. Now, you're at game 77. you're going, oh, that's what Lane Hudson is. So you've got to put these players in a position to succeed in the right spot with the right cast around them. And sometimes, yes, the change of seniority helps. Absolutely. Because you're in a different place where people have different expectations and a coach has a different thought process on who that player is. Because of one more thing, Dimitri, once a coach begins to dislike you, it is incredibly hard to change that coach's mind.

And I've seen Wayne Gretzky, there were a couple of guys on the Wayne Gretzky era teams where they would walk in and Wayne just did not like them. And they'd walk on the bus and he'd mumble under his breath that I don't like that player. And you can't get out of that hole. No matter how good you play or what you bring to the table, once you're on the other side of that coach, you cannot dig yourself out

and you need to find a new place to play. And that can help. That new, that new energy, that new, that new forum, that new line mate, whatever that may be, that definitely may help. The tricky thing is that while you'd like to think that it would be a fresh

start and a clean slate for young players. The hockey world is so small and connected. And I found that it can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy sometimes, right? Where if a player either rightly or wrongly shows bad habits or draws the ire of their coach, then they go to a new organization. They get treated a bit differently as well, right? Because presumably that coach has reached out and talked to his previous coach or other people around the league already enters it with a bit of a bias. and then as soon as some of those habits pop up again, it's like, all right, we're back to this, that player gets buried,

but all of a sudden they're on their third or fourth team and they're out of the league where they just get kind of pitch and hold into a specific role. I'll let you jump in here a second, but the Strom example is a great one, right? Because we spent on Sunday show talking a lot about Ovechkin's goal and breaking the record

and the role that Strom has played in all this the past three years since he came in to essentially replace what Nicholas Baxter was doing for Ovechkin. And I was joking about how you could see on his face, just the visible anguish he has whenever he has to shoot. And he, like, hates it. He would so much prefer to pass it and set the table for Ovechkin. And so all of a sudden, you put him into this spot where it's like, all right, yeah,

you can just do what you do best and what you love doing the most, which is play the role, distributor, set other guys up, get it to the greatest goal score in NHL history. And a guy's going to look pretty good and thrive in that spot, whereas otherwise previously, especially as a third overall pick, if he's being tasked with carrying an offense or being a guy who scores goals and has to do everything. everything offensively. That's just not necessarily how they're wired or who they are as a player. Yeah, it is interesting.

And I think that's why the role plays is so important. But you talk about guys getting a fresh start. And I think that happens. I think what happens to fans and general manners and coaches that always ends up being look at their draft pick. Where was this player drafted? And once they're drafted and they're in your roster and wearing your jersey, it doesn't matter where they're drafted.

It just doesn't matter. Like Barrett Hayton was drafted high in every while. He didn't pan out, didn't pan out. If Barrett Hayton's the number three center for the Utah Hockey Club for the rest of his career and he's a 3C, when he helps him get to the playoffs, then who cares when he was drafted? Because he fits into his role. But when you get those guys, and I'm thinking of another Arizona guy was Brandon Gormley, first round pick, 13th overall in 2010. And just didn't pan out. It just didn't become the player you wanted him to come.

So you trade him to the Colorado Avalanche for Stefan Elliott, another high pick for the Colorado Avalanche, two guys that struggled. Well, we'll give him new scenery. They both played okay for the first few games, but then they, they, become who they are. That's who they are. And within the next year or two, they're both out of the league. So you can, you're right. I think it's, it's, you look at the draft pick and how high they are drafted so importantly as well, this guy was drafted. So he was good at 17. So he must be good at 21. No. You start to become who you are. And I think if everybody could walk away from their draft pick, once they're drafted, I think that would definitely help in how you're analyzing these players and do

they need a new fresh start. Well, maybe this is who they are. to better answer this question and kind of the root of it, I'd say the players who are the most vulnerable to being on a bad team are defensemen or kind of middle six players who play more of a defensive role, right? Because if they're on a bad team, one of the hallmarks of bad teams is they're never in the right position. They never have the puck. You just wind up being out there and you're just spending the entire time in your own zone defending.

You're also, you know, if the other guys in your team aren't holding a lot of up there and the bargain, your defensive metrics are going to wind up looking bad. And then all of a sudden, that's the light you get cast in. And a good example is I actually have two that involve the blues going in both directions, right, from this season. One is Cam Fowler, who when you watched him in Anaheim this season, look terrible. And I thought he looked done to my eye. He wasn't moving the same way he used to.

He was struggling. He only had the four points in 17 games. His 5-15 metrics were all in the toilet the way they were for a lot of the ducks under Greg Cronin. And then he goes to the blues. He's got 34 points in 48 games. He's playing the third most minutes on that team. His 5-1-5 metrics are all up. He has a 54% shot share at 5-1-5 on the Blues. You see that goal he scores the other night in overtime to extend the streak at the time against the Red Wings and what a display of skill that was. And he clearly still has something left in the tank. And so him playing on a Ducks team that was going nowhere and just struggling the

way a young team does was probably not representative of how much he had. left as a player, and he's shown that during his time in St. Louis this season. So I think an example like that of especially a defenseman playing a lot of minutes on a bad team is probably going to look pretty bad by the metrics, and that might not be fair to do who they actually are as a player. And the other thing, too, and you brought up a really good one, is atmosphere. And what is like in the locker room? And I'll say it.

I think I've said it before. What's going on in Anaheim with Greg Cronin? He's a hard guy to play for. There's not a lot of guys happy in the Anaheim Duck Lockroom right now. He's difficult to play for. he demands a lot out of players. It's old school, old time hockey. And I think that you could see that in the way this team drops their shoulders and has a

frustrating attitude at a time. So you get camp follower from that. And then you put them in a St. Louis Blues locker room where now, hey, you're the guy. You're important to us. I've got a coach who's a player's coach. I've got a team that believes in itself. That atmosphere going to the rink is incredibly contagious. And that's the fear you have with good players on bad teams for long periods of times.

Again, I'm going to go back to Connor Bidar. How long can he lose? How long does it become, hey, I'm Connor Bredart. I led this team in scoring the last two, three, four, five years, and yet we haven't made the playoffs yet. How important is that going to be versus, hey, I want to help our team get into the playoffs. We shot in Evanton. You had five first overall picks and they still couldn't make the playoffs because it became

too easy to lose. We understand how to lose. We know how to lose. We don't know how to win. And those are the biggest fears you have for these teams that have these high draft picks over long periods of times that don't go through these rebuilds the right way. and it becomes, I know how to lose. I'm good at it, but I got a lot of points.

I was good on the power play. I got a lot of chances off the rush, but I still lost. But I was good. And that's the fear I have for Conradar. Like, how much longer can he continue to lose? I know it's only even two years. So relax. This young core in Chicago is really good.

But if this goes on another two years and they're at the bottom of the Western standings, it's going to be hard for Conrad to dig out of there in Chicago. Yeah, that's why there's a lot of pressure, especially with all the cap space they have this offseason to add at least one. if not multiple guys who can put him in a better position and succeed offensively. The other example that I had, and it was going the other way with the blues, was Brendan Sott. And we had a running joke this season where our pal Thomas Drance was watching him play.

And he was like just personally offended watching him play live because he was just giving no effort on the forecheck. And that was such a staple of Brendan Sade's game at his prime when he was at his best and he just wasn't putting in the effort. And then like 24 hours later, Elliot Freeman reported that he was getting healthy scratched. and was asking for a trade. Obviously, the Blues wind up terminating his contract. He goes to Vegas. And in 25 games in Vegas, 5-on-5 metrics through the roof,

57% of the shots, 64% of the chances is fitted perfectly there. You watch him, once again, engaging in puck battles, winning them, competing. And so it's interesting sometimes with a fit and a coach and a situation,

a player can become unhappy. All of a sudden, their effort level drops, and they go to a new spot, and it's an entirely different story. So it can kind of work both ways there. One more question here on the way out. Crowbite asks, are puck carrying defensemen overrated?

I can't help but think that I pretty much never would want my defenseman carrying the puck outside a couple special talents. Now, you mentioned late Hudson there earlier and what he's been doing for the haves, the end-to-end rushes, the goal he scored against the flyers over the weekend. He's vaulted himself into that category, probably, of the special talents who you would want doing that. He does that for the haves routinely. I think this is a really fair and smart question because I kind of agree with the premise of this from the listener, right? I understand it's flashy, it's really cool, it's fun when you watch, top defensemen move up and down the ice and carry the puck,

but just thinking about it logistically for me, most defensemen should probably be better suited playing in a distributor role where they defer to their forwards, get the puck to them, and then let them cook. I think defensemen are much more dangerous off the rush and the offensive zone when they're off the puck, coming in weak side as a trailer, taking advantage of open space, getting lost. There's very few guys.

It's pretty much like McCar, Hughes, Werenski, maybe Lane Hudson now, a couple others that can actually successfully and continuously carry a team's offense as the primary on-puck transporter. What do you think about this, Pedy? Because you have to watch a guy like Oliver Ekman-Larsen very closely for a long time, right? and there was a point there during his prime where he was just rattling off these 20 goal seasons and was playing 25 plus minutes and doing everything for the coyotes offensively.

I'm curious for your take on this. But it's interesting. And I think that the delineation here is puck carrier versus puck mover because I think the puck moving defenseman is critical without that puck moving to defenseman and the ability to transport the puck up the ice, whether that is through your feet or through your hands and moving the puck, I don't think you can win without it,

especially in today's game because of the defense and the defending of teams at the opposing blue line is so good, you have to come with four guys. And if you're not coming with four guys, you're not going to get opportunities off the rush. You just can't because everybody defends their blue lines so well. So I do think you need that guy, whether it's the guy that transports or, to your point, comes in late, like at Kail McCar, Rorinsky. Hughes can help transport that puck. Do I want a punk carrying defenseman that can get up and down the ice?

Heck yeah, absolutely I do. Do I want Lane Hudson on my team? Without a doubt, I want that guy that has the ability to weasel his, way through, especially on regroups, maybe not from breakouts as much from that neutral zone regroup where the puck's dumped out into the neutral zone. I can get that puck and now I can get it back up the ice quickly with my feet or with my hands.

So the carrying defenseman might be overrated. The puck. Moving defenseman is essential. You're not going to win without that player. And I think that that another example is Eric Carlson and another guy that I've talked about on this show many times. I don't like Eric Carlson as a guy on my team anymore

because he is much more concerned from the red line. And all these guys we talked about, Keel McCar, Zach Morinsky, those guys and Evan Bouchard even, these are guys that are defending. They're all plus on their side of the plus minus ledger, and I know it's an overuse step, but they can still defend. And I think that that's just an important that you need to have the guy that can go both ways. Josh Morrissey, a Harley, those guys are the guys that I think are going to be incredibly important. And you cannot win a Stanley Cup without a guy that can transport the puck either by his feet or by his hands. You're not going to win. You have to have that guy.

there's media members in Edmonton right now just punching the air hearing you talk about Evan Bouchard and is defending I agree with you obviously the delineation there is very important I was just thinking about this through the lens of the question of like specifically defensemen who carry the puck from their zone into the other zone and facilitate offense that way there's so few guys who can get away with it for a couple reasons right one I think it slows your team down and it makes sense because

inherently defensemen start off at a disadvantage in terms of where they are on the ice because it's like they're getting the puck behind their own net they're getting it deep in their zone and so by the time they work their way up the ice the other team can get their guys back can get set into the defensive structure and all of a sudden you're playing against a set defense as opposed to an odd man rush where your forwards are moving up the ice and catching them on a two-on-one or a three-on-two and we know how dangerous those looks are and then you get into the spot where if your defenseman is the guy furthest up the ice, he turns it over. All of a sudden, there's so much responsibility in your forwards to come back and play

defensively. And if they don't hold up there into the bargain there, you're going to get burnt and it's going to look really bad. And I'd also say, I'd imagine for forwards it's not particularly fun. Like, I think the Canucks players certainly love playing with Quinn Hughes, Blue Jackets players love playing with Wrenski, Aves players love playing with Kel McCar. But for the most part, if you're not one of those defensemen, it kind of sucks for your forwards because all of a sudden they're just sort of hanging around waiting

they're not getting to play with the puck as much they're just watching you while the defenseman just has the puck on their stick for extended periods of time and it's just you know you're not moving the puck as often i know like darrell belfry from a skills perspective talks so much about the value of puck touches specifically right and making sure everyone's involved early on in the game getting the puck on their stick getting a feel for it getting to a rhythm so that they can then execute later on in the game and if you just, everyone's just watching a defenseman skating up and down with the puck and consistently weaving around, it looks cool. It attracts a lot of attention, but ultimately it's probably a net negative in terms of how

efficient the rest of your team's going to be. Yeah, one point I want to make about what Cal McCarris specifically is when you talked about a defenseman coming from a disadvantage on just pure land, they're starting by their goal line. One of the things Colorado does is they defend man on man and you're going to get a Kale McCar can end up at the top of the zone, top of the circles, because he is so good with his feet. I think that he is absolutely the exception to the rule when we talk about the ability for these guys to get up the bucket. And one of the things Rick Tocket used to say in the locker room,

Rick Tocket believes in playing fast. That's been his mantra from Pittsburgh to Arizona to Vancouver. He wants to play fast. That's how he wants to play. But he doesn't mean that he wants you to skate fast. He means you want to move the puck fast. He wants to get that puck up the ice quickly. And that means he wants his defenseman to move the puck quick.

And you want it on your stick and off your stick. To your point, yes, you've got to be, the puck moving part is much more important than the carrying part for that defenseman and their ability to get the puck up the eyes quickly. Because if you're not paying with speed in the National Hockey League in 2025 and you're not playing with pace, you're not going to win. And you're not going to win a championship unless you're getting and playing with pace. And that starts with the defensemen getting up the puck up the ice quick. And those Penguins teams that won the back-to-back cups are probably the best example of not having the fastest individual skaters will play. playing faster than any other team because of the way they move the puck. Yeah, the other thing on McCar is he's such a freak as a skater that he can lead the rush

and be the highest for this guy up the ice and then still come back and be the first guy back defensively because he just covers so much ground. And like he had him and McKinnon do these like chase down blocks where they just get back defensively and just immediately stuff whatever rush counter works against the abs. All right, PD, that was fun. Good show. That's it? That's it.

We got to get out of here. We got the 50 minute time restriction. for radio, unfortunately. I know you and I could go even longer. I'm going to let you plug some stuff here, let the listeners know about the YouTube channel, about the show. I remember last time you've had guys like Bill Armstrong.

You had what? Owen, you sorry. Once was on. Yeah, I was thinking I got Owen Tippett on my mind because I was still thinking about a highlight real goals. But yeah, Dave Tippett, you got Newell Brown coming on here. Let the listeners know about that.

Yeah, I think when you get guys like Newell Brown and I had Scottie Allen, the penalty co-coach for the Washington Capitals, I think it's not names that people know, but they still have interesting stories, and they can tell you, they take you behind the curtain of their teams. And I know Newell Brown is going to have those stories about the LA Kings.

I'm excited. It's inside the coach's room on YouTube. And not only that, I break down playoff base is what I do. And once the playoffs start, I'm going to start comparing these teams on video. What does this team have to do against this team? We're going to do it every single day

on what they need to do between game one and two. So jump on to inside the coach room. Don't miss it. And I'm S. Peters Hockey on X. All right, buddy. We'll keep out the great work. It was fun having you on as always. That's all for us from today.

Join the PDOCAST Discord, get in questions for future mailbags as well, give us the five-star review. And we're going to be back tomorrow with the great Emily Kaplan. I'm dragging her away from her from TV responsibilities and getting her on the podcast. So that'll be really fun looking forward to that. Thank you for listening to the Hockeyediocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.