The Hockey PDOcast - The Capitals, the Canes, and Big Stories From This Week

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to talk about the stories they found most interesting from this past week of hockey. They discuss the Capitals, the Devils run through Florida, additions to the ‘Our Guys’ list, Marty Necas’ hot streak, and a bunch of other developments. 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 Filippovich. Welcome to the HockeyPedio cast. My name is Dimitri Filippovich and joining me in studio. There's my good buddy Thomas Duran's, Tom. What's going on, man? Not much, buddy. Just coming off of watching Connor Bedard's return to Vancouver,

which didn't go great for the Blackhawks, I'd say. Yeah. It was a tough game, but look, it was a great week of hockey around around the league and I'm excited to talk about all of that. So you came into studio today and you're like, so we're talking Blackhawks, Canucks from Saturday Night, right? And I'm like, absolutely not. Well, so I've got roughly 31 other teams or 30 other teams that I've got ahead on my list of things that I think are more interesting to talk about right now.

Mostly because you and I have spoken a bunch about the Canucks and last week we spoke about Badaard as well. I do just want to update based on like the Badaard, the version of Badaard where it was like he's leveled up as this two-way player. The goals will come. wasn't quite what we saw in Vancouver and hasn't been I think what we've seen over the course of this like scoring slump that he's on and scoring slumps have their own gravity to some extent

I think he's in one of those vortexes right now the shifts are too long yeah he's doing some of that like David Pasternak stuff which is fine if you're David Pasternak but it's not a way to get out of a rut I know but if you look around here Conradar right right how are we going to get out of this how are we going to generate offense who's going to score here

I feel like you have to feel the weight of your shoulder, like on your shoulders of the entire world being like, if I don't do it, no one else will. A hundred percent, except, except it's, it's, it's like the secret. The secret is, is if you simplify and, you know, keep your body between, do the bark-off thing, keep your body, stay on the right side of the puck, stay beneath the puck, keep it simple.

He's one of five guys in the league whose shift length is, is over a minute right now, you know, and it shows when you're watching play. He doesn't have juice and key attacking moments. If you play the right way and simplify, the offense comes two. You know what I mean? So the moment you start cheating the game for offense, you're also going to

score less. It's just that you're also going to get more frustrated and you're going to lose more. He just, it feels like he's in one of those vortexes. He's going to get out of it. He's way too talented. He's way too smart. He's way too conscientious. But yeah, Pard's struggle. the Kinecks played poorly. That was one of those rare games where I honestly felt like the crusty old beatwriter in the press box where I was like, this is bad hockey. But I did feel that way watching it. Well, let's set the scene. We're back here on another Sunday evening. We're

in the Sportsnet 650 studio. Obviously last week, people that listened to us on Sunday night know that we were sitting in a cozy cabin on Vancouver Island waiting for freshly made pizzas from the uni to be made slightly less cozy today, although this is a really nice setting as well. And I love doing these Sunday shows with you. Our listeners really enjoyed it as well. I don't know if it's everything's sort of being framed through this lens of now that we've gotten into this rhythm of doing these shows every week, I'm kind of keeping tabs as the week goes along of like after every night, I jot down a few things in my notebook of like, this is

what happened tonight. This is what I enjoyed on this slate. So I'm kind of viewing it through that bigger picture lens, I guess, a bit more so than I otherwise would have in the past. But I feel like this was an especially fun week of NHL hockey. It felt like every night the slate was jam-packed with fun storylines, important developments to keep track of moving forward. And so we're going to get into all that and kind of go through our main takeaways from the week that was. As riveting as Saturday Night's contest between the Blackhawks and the Canucks was, I think we should start with the Washington Capitals.

Yeah, let's do it. Obviously, you and I have spoken about them a couple times during these shows in the past, but they keep doing it. They had a highly entertaining week yet again. And they sort of inexplicably blew a home game late against the Leafs that they really should have put away. They had an empty netter overpass. Leaves came back and scored and then won an overtime. But it was still a great sort of process from them, I guess. And then they went into Colorado.

And I think everyone was incredibly hyped that this Avs team is getting healthy up front, right? It was Balanchushkin's season debut after missing the start of the year. They've gotten Lekin and back. They've gotten Drew Ann back. Even guys like Miles Wood and Logan O'Connor who missed a bit of time, pretty much their forward group. other than Ross Colton and obviously Gabe Landisg is fully formed. And they came in and what I thought was incredibly notable was they showed us that they could win a different type of game. And maybe that was sort of a sign of them acknowledging and respecting the opponent they were facing on that night.

But we'd seen them win games earlier this year back and forth, high scoring, high event, right? Where the shots were in the high 30s for both teams. And in this one, I believe both teams were like struggling to get to 20 by the end of the game. It was actually pretty low event. There were a few goals. But their effort was incredibly impressive, in my opinion, especially what they did to Nathan McKinnon. Because their defensive game plan was really good against him.

They smothered him. I believe McKinnon ended that game with just three shot attempts, zero shots on goal, no points, of course. And that's a very rare, even when he's not scoring performance to see from McKinn where generally he's in the teens, in shot attempts, and it's all over it. They were really in a space, had a great game plan for it. And I love what I see from this team.

right now. Obviously, we can talk about the fact that some of their scoring is still juiced by the high shooting percentage. If you were picking this year's PDO team, a lot of people have been gravitating towards the Jets because they're winning so much through the first couple of weeks. It's probably the capitals because they're just not going to keep shooting at this rate and scoring at this rate. But man, they can beat you in so many different ways that they've established now. They have so many contributors and scoring options. And I think it's really tough not to be impressed by what you're seeing from this Washington Capital team right now. Yeah. I mean, they're very sharp. Spencer Carberry deserves a ton of credit. And I appreciated that one thing I appreciated about the game plan, because you're right, the game looked different than a lot of the other Capitals games that we've watched over the course of the season in terms of the pace at which it was played. But it still was recognizably Caps hockey. And I liked that on the road, at altitude against the most imposing, aside from McDavid, top of the lineup, gear that any team in the league has, right? It felt to me watching it like the aves weren't going, or sorry, the Capitals weren't going to get out of their game worrying about hard matching McDavid or overcomplicating it or getting away from what they wanted to do, which was play a balanced lineup and if you if you had to eat a ton of minutes where it's like mckinan against

Trevor van rheimstike like that's fine yeah that's that's why the abs we're sorry the caps with their sort of relatively flat quality of defender one through six in the lineup are it's such a luxury right now where they're able to really just sort of play the same game no matter who's on the ice and then when you're on the road facing again that mckinin mccarr axis that Yep. Picks their teeth with everybody else. You just roll. You just play your game.

That was sort of one of the, my big takeaways watching that contest was it felt like, it felt like there's this, you know, you talk about sort of the stylistic flexibility, but it's also that deployment flexibility, that personnel flexibility that I feel like this Capitol's team has at the moment.

And I don't know that there's anyone else in the league that does. Every contender we talk about needs a defenseman. Yeah. And this cap's, team rolling one through six with guys you're not worried about throwing over the boards with McKinnon on the ice. It's something we've talked about, but like, Chickren's been in and out of the lineup. And in some, Matt Roy missed a bunch of time. Yeah. In some ways, we haven't seen it, but watching that game, that's what I was struck by. It was like, this is the team that doesn't

have a hole on the back end. And in that game, it really showed. Well, and down the middle as well, and part of that is, they acquired Lars Eller this past week, right? And obviously, I think, should be tempered considering the stage's career he's at, but just slotting into this lineup now and kind of the way they've constructed it. We've spoken about how they were like running nicked out essentially as their number one center in terms of pure usage. And part of that is like them feeling comfortable using him and his line with Radish and Duham against the other team's best and being like, all right, they can just start and eat up these defensive zone starts and still come out ahead and tilt the ice for us going in the right direction. And that's a great luxury. Pure Luke Dubois, we're going to keep talking about this. The honeymoon. period's not over. No, he's working. One of the goals they scored in that game. He, like, wins a battle at his own blue line, knocks Sam Malinsky off the puck, brings it down

ice, sauces a backhand pass into the slot for someone, and they score. I'm like, wow, look at him. He still hasn't stopped trying. This is impressive. So we're going to keep tabs on that. Connor McMichael. Yeah. Is up to 11 5-on-5 goals on the year, which leads the league.

To put that into perspective, the Predators have 19 as a team, the Red Wings have 20, and he has more than half of that. Okay. That's just sad. But you, that is sad. And I tweeted that at the time. And obviously a lot of that was like Red Wings fans being like, hey, leave us alone, all right? And it wasn't even meant that.

It's meant to sort of apply the context of how for an individual that is so impressive. And then you watch that game. I mean, rips one off the bar and in on his first goal, second one, steals the puck. And then just like dances around Sam Gerard. And I think he believes goes backhand and scores again. Like he's flying right now and producing remarkably well. this team is just so watchable for me. Like we talk about the watchability rankings.

They might be up to number one for me right now because there's just no dead air. Like I like all of their minutes. Whoever's out there, I'm like they're providing something. They're contributing. And then we won't get into the broadcast. I mean, Joe Beninati, like one of my favorite play-by-play guys, I miss the days where he was doing the national games. He's such a legend.

And so like put it all together. And the product right now you're seeing from the Capitals, I just think it's so easy to like get excited about and latch on to. Well, I do think that's where, too, the Lars Eller acquisition is going to help them now. My mileage on Larzeller is probably 99th percentile, right? I mean, you were in Seattle with me covering that avalanche. Yeah.

Cracken series. You cannot stop talking about him. Well, because he was like one of four serviceable avalanche forwards. Yep. Outside of the top line. And but even when I saw Pittsburgh roll through or when I've watched Pittsburgh get sort of boat raced on a regular basis, he was sort of a guy who stood out for just being able to hang.

And, you know, I think this Caps team, first of all, I do think there's talent below, like as injuries inevitably crop up up front. And I still think they're going to be able to get your LePierre Miroshenko guys in and be totally fine or, you know. That said, a lot falls on perpetually underrated Nick Dowd. And I actually think bringing another guy who honestly is just Nick Dowd, right? Like having sort of two guys doubling up in that area. I mean, same sort of rule that we talked about with the defense applies where, you know, they've got this flexibility personnel-wise now too down the middle of their forward group and

in that bottom six. I mean, they don't have the superstar player that I do think you need in the contemporary NHL, just given where Ovechkins is sort of at. but if you're going to be in that next tier, right? Having a team where right now you look up and down the lineup and feel like it's relatively flawless is a pretty good way to approach it. I'm not going to stand for this Alexei Protis erasure

that you're trying to web here because I would argue purely from an aesthetic and like, oh my God, how is this guy doing this at this size? It's pretty sick. He falls into that bucket for me. His playmaking this year is outrageous. And obviously Ovechkin gets the headlines, but it's not about the name on the marquee. It's about that superstar level impact.

You know it when you see it. There's seven or eight guys who can do it at that level in the league today. And the caps don't have one at the moment, but it hasn't mattered for them just given how well constructed and how it's not just how well constructed the roster is, although that's part of it. It's how thoughtfully they play with a team that's, you know, at the moment anyway, looking. pretty airtight in terms of its construction. Well, and what's interesting about them is you look ahead to their schedule. I know you and I hear on these shows like to sort of like talk about what happened, but also pan out a little bit ahead to things we're excited about in the coming week.

Their schedule right now, they have this back-to-back in Vegas and Utah. Then they play Colorado at home again. Then they play the Devils. And then the following week, they go to Florida for the back-to-back against the Panthers and Lightning. And then the Devils again to close off that week. And it's like, if you're still not buying in, I feel like over these next 10 days, we could really get a definitive answer on how we should feel about this team. Obviously, every early indication is very positive.

But this is going to be a stretch where I want to see them play against these teams and how they fare, because so far they've been checking every box I'm looking for. Do you think it's a huge bummer, like, that the Florida back to back now is such a gauntlet? I mean, we saw what happened to the Jets. No, no, no. I mean, for visiting NHL teams. It is. It's November.

You know, you roll through as the Winnipeg Jets. it's like, guys, we have been playing some great hockey. Like, it would be awesome to just play some golf and go fishing and have a couple pops on a patio. And then you get down there and it's just like, oh, man, these teams are so nasty. Well, it's like what the California one used to be. Right. During the heyday of the sharks, the Joe's horn sharks, and then ducks and with Gets laugh and right. And then even the kings of that time were really good.

I, okay, that's a great segue here. That sort of Florida trip, because I also wanted to talk about two teams that just went through that gone. lit to differing results, I argue. The Devils had a really fun back-to-back in Florida, specifically in Sunrise against the Panthers. They come out ahead 10 to 3 in the aggregate of those two games. What really stood out to me and that, and I'm not necessarily worried at all about the Panthers

because they followed that up with a highly impressive performance to close out the weekend against the Jets. But the warp speed in particular, like we've talked about Nico Hesier in the season he's having, but the warp speed of the Brad Hughes pairing, which isn't necessarily a surprise because we've seen them cook for a couple years together now

but in that second game in particular and I know you were noting that that second period specifically of the second game between the two teams scintillating is something that like if you want to hook someone on hockey it's like go and watch that this is hockey played at its highest level

bottle it market it mass produce it let's get that out there you could see that a bunch of their production did come on the power play and they didn't necessarily score much against that sort of bark off for his laying shutdown combination where the Panthers and Palm Marines can just throw that at anyone, as we've seen in the past

couple years and feel good that they're just going to completely smother them. But I felt like those two guys did look like they were slightly on their back foot against the speed that Devil's combo was able to throw at them, where there are a few times where they're making their like traditional sort of breakout pass and trying to get the puck up the ice the way the Panthers do. And then the Devils will just cause a turnover in the neutral zone and immediately flip the ice and it'll be just brat flying down the wing after a Hughes pass. And the Panthers were almost a little bit shell-shocked by. They were like, oh, my God, we just weren't expecting an escalation in pace to this degree.

And so that was incredibly exciting from a devil's perspective, right? Because we've spoken about that his shear line. And if you're going to get this level of five-on-five artillery from that Brat Hughes combo, all of a sudden it's like, man, you can just throw so many looks at opponents. And that's exactly what we saw in those two games. we shouldn't move on without just talking about really quickly the backhand pass that Brat sent in was it the first game? It was he circled up the ice along the wall

and you know what that was actually that highlights it because what happened was they started off that game and the Panthers were hard matching Barkov and Forzling in particular Forksling comes off the ice Kulikov's pair comes on a pair that you and I spoke remember last year in the Stanley Cup final it's like these are minutes for the Oilers to exploit and immediately you can see Jasper Brad just start like salivating and he like takes Kulikov for a ride in the offensive zone freezes the entire defense gets it to Hughes for that tap in and it's like yeah this is what's going to happen if you don't have

arguably the best defensive defender in the Lee out there they're probably going to score the cross seam backhand saucer pass is something we see the best players in this league do on a regular basis it never gets old I have never seen it move north-south that dramatically. Or, like, high, like, I've never seen it executed. Through traffic in, like, with height on it. Yeah, I've never seen it executed from that angle. Yeah.

It was just so dramatic. It honestly, it's usually lateral east-west and this was purely top of the zone net front. Yeah, like, it was one where I had to hit the go back 15 second button like a couple of times just to really figure out what it happened because watching and really, real time. I was just, what, what? Yeah. I honestly thought it had like pinballed off a defender or it was, it was a blink if you miss it, bit of skill to watch it on television. And that's just sick. Just so sick. Incredible stuff from the devil's top players. It was. The devils are already up to 21 games. And I noted this towards the end of last week. I'm like, man, this season is flying by so much. They've

obviously played the most of anyone. Yeah. Started the year a bit early. But we're getting already dangerously close to that 25 to 30 game range where you and I start to take all the numbers and everything we're seeing very seriously. I will also note not that we're huge fans of especially meaningless fights, I'd say. I still have a soft spot in my heart for like one where it's like, all right, this was just naturally, organically within the flow of the game and it's just a duel between two guys. I generally prefer when it's two guys who are like, I think of like the Jamie Ben And Jerome McGinnla fights, right? And like, it's like two captains just, like, standing up for their team

and just trying to spark, get a spark going. But in these two games, I got to shout out former Kinnok Jonah Gajovic because he had one of the best fights I've ever seen against Brennan. A friend of the podcast, Brennan, where they were just throwing until pure exhaustion. And Gadjavich in particular, I think they were his helmet over, he like couldn't see. And then the next game goes out and has another spirited one against Curtis McDermen. who's a terrifying human being if not a good hockey player

and he's like man this is full marks for Jonah Gajewitch right now he is earning his paycheck I'm very serious too don't be surprised if you're talking about

Gajovitch and like a run of goals I'm serious at some point I'll be a little bit surprised I know of course you would I mean what he's got seven in a hundred and twenty seven career games but you know, and I'm not talking like,

I'm talking about like the, some of those like Tom Sistido seasons under Tortorilla in Vancouver. Tom Sikido, of course. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, just a run at some point this season. Don't be shocked. As much as he's going to remain in the league

because of his willingness to check him and his ability to check him and the fact that he's a great guy and on and on. I've seen this guy practice at length and I've seen him work on deflections and the hands and tight stuff. Like there are mitts on this guy, not just for chucking. He obviously isn't like playing regularly enough for it to show through. And thankfully the Panthers have enough depth where they're not playing in the top six.

Totally. The Canucks were with top six D-100%. I'm telling you, if don't be stunned if you look at the end of the year and you're like, he played 50 games and has six goals. And it's like, hey, like on a per minute's basis, he was pretty productive. Well, PDO cast listeners know that I say this. completely unironically. He's got big shoes to fill in Ryan Lombard. The Lombardine's departure in terms of like that fourth line guy who doesn't necessarily play every night but has enough

skill to stay in the league and then is also willing to do some of the dirty work and kind of infuse the team with energy on the rare nights where the Panthers don't have it. And that's what he was trying to do. And so he's genuinely elite at that too. Yeah. Like he brought all his good vibes with him to Calgary. Yeah. Oh, Lomburgini's the best. The little final note on the devils and and as we kind of put a bow on this idea of of that Florida gonlet, they go in on Saturday night, right? And they have a bit of a deflating effort, especially in terms of result, against the lightning. And I wanted to shout out the lightning because they started off the year really hot.

They kind of took a bit of a step back during a road trip. And then they just went away for a very early biweek and just were out of our lives for like seven or eight days in a row. And I was like, oh, I feel like I haven't watched lightning play in a while. And then I realized it was their biweek. They come back, Braden points out. and they beat the devils and the jets, eight one aggregate in those two

without brain point. And just a reminder of how much dog is on that roster, right? Like Sorelli's stepping up now, playing with Hegel and Kuturov, them just not missing a beat. I still feel like the defensive numbers for the season haven't been that great for them, but I feel like the lightning are on the right track here. I think they're a forward away still.

I think they're probably going to address that because they've got that Connor Shiri money. They sent down. They have a couple second rounders that they got from the circuit chef trade. They have ways to add to this roster creatively. I'm going to like them a lot more once they do that. But I have a very soft spot in my heart for this lightning team right now because I feel like the past couple years, especially the regular seasons,

have been a bit of a grind because their motivation hasn't been there, right? Yep. They've had really poor performances along the way I think of that game. They played in Carolina a couple years ago where they're just like completely listless. it's like oh man they're just saving themselves for the playoffs but there's nights this regular season where you watch them and they're just going so much harder than they really have any of the

previous couple regular seasons and I like that and it makes sense because they've proactively changed some of the personnel with the Gensel signing with the Surgachev trade adding Connor geeky Higles leveling up as well along the way and so it's just a different more fun collection of players

and they've had the past couple years and I'm not sure how far that's going to take them because ultimately they're probably going to have to play a Florida in round one potentially again and that's just going to be a nightmare matchup for anyone but man I what the lighting have done here I do think is worth noting in terms of trying to get ahead of it and what Julian Breezwat did as opposed to just bringing

Stanco's back bringing the band back together that's won cups before and just kind of transitioning into this different era of hockey the way we've seen the sharks previously and then the penguins more recently do they are I mean there's a lot of teams they're fun to watch obviously because of Kuturov and the skill

stuff they do but it's also funny to watch them play this year versus previous seasons where you know like the precision of the power play was like one of the things that stood out. And now you watch it and you're like oh they're trying Mitchell Jeffey on the in the Stamco

spot like I don't like that very much but then you're watching Sorrelli and Paul and And, you know, some of the dogs on this team just outwork their opposition. You're watching Connor Geeky be just a monster, right? And sort of figure out how to be a monster. Like, Esamont is another guy who I think.

The most hated player in the entire NHL. Yeah. He had this sequence with Nino Nieder Rider in the Jets game. When Nader Rider was just outraged and like the camera paned to him and he was just like in disbelief and what had just happened. And I've heard this time and time again watching these games, but also speaking with people, they're just like, man, that guy's face just bugs me so much. I hate Michael A's Siamont. And that means he's doing his job. Yeah. That's a good thing. That's a, that's a feature,

not a bug. That means he's got the, uh, the Connor Garland disease. But the, the, so it's, it's that high level of dog that I just can't resist from a viewer's perspective. Like, if I'm flipping through games or deciding what to watch, like I'll almost always check in on the lightning first, just because I know, I know, I know. I'm going to see just a ton of one battles and a ton of fun creativity, but with this hard style of hockey that they play. And the moment they add a right-handed shooter worth being up high with Kuturov and Hedman, then we'll know they're cooking and serious.

So this probably won't happen because I doubt, based on recent history, Llamarillo is going to be willing to go his direction. And the Islanders, even with Matt Barsal out, keep competing. They had a very impressive performance in Vancouver. They lost in Seattle, but it was another close game. Regardless of your mileage on them, they're just going to hang around this season. And I think there is an opening for that eighth spot in the east. And they're a good bet for that.

If he became available, though, I can't think of a more perfect player for exactly what we just described the lightning need than Kyle Paul Mary. A right-hand shot, an efficient shooter, also plays a style of hockey that I think would ingrati-jured himself to John Cooper. and he'd actually trust him. And so he'd be locked for that top six role, but also would help on the power play, and he'd be such a good fit. But I don't think he's going to come available, although he is a 33-year-old impending UFA.

So I'm going to monitor moving forward. All right, Tom, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back into it. We've got a few other fun storylines from the week that was to talk about you're listening to the Hockey-O-cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.

All right, we're back here on the HockeyOcast with Thomas Jens doing our Sunday recaps. Do you want to quickly talk about Meechkov? because last week it was right in the middle of his healthy scratches, right? He missed the two games, Tortorella and the Flyers did a bit of a quick reset on the fly with him. And the reason why I wanted to notice, because obviously you and I were unbothered by it at the time, and I thought it was totally fine and justifiable. He comes back and he had a monster week.

He has the head-to-head against Celebrating to start it off. He's got the goal and the breakaway, the assist, the beauty shootout goal. I also loved you were kind of noting how despite whatever 5-15 struggles he was incurring recently just his attitude and style of play was something that you like the panache but also it's like John Torrell is not going to go away from this guy because he's not like he's just kind of like

floating through like he's being involved and you see it at the end of that game I loved him mixing it up with Celebrini even though it was like a penalty then and it's like oh maybe in the grand scheme of things pick your spots a little bit better and a close game near the finish. But I just love the idea, especially with these two guys who are clearly going to be at the top of the Calder conversation and the season having this random game in early November where they're just going at it. And so I

really like that. He was jawing with Giovanni Smith and then Eric Johnson had to quickly step in and help take care of business and be like, all right, please get out of the way, don't get hurt. It's a good sign that challenged and scratched. He's fearless. He responded this way, right? Like that's, and again, that's not a surprise to me based on what we've seen from him, the body of work, the edge that I think he's played with since game one, since the puck dropped on the flyer season. And, you know, like that hasn't, hasn't exactly been the season I think some Philly fans would have hoped for given the progress the team made last year. But the fact that Mitchcove is already at this level, the fact that he's responding to, you know, a hard ass like Tortorelli. as coaching and then coming in and playing easily, like easily his best week of the season was this week. You've got to take that to the bank and just laugh and laugh if you're the Flyers.

Well, follows that Sharks game up with the O2 winner against the Sends to really just steal two points in that game. And the pair of assists against the Sabres. He has a two on O, which he just perfectly sells that he's going to shoot, even though it was clearly just setting up the goalie for the pass across the Kineckney, love the chemistry between those two. And yeah, just everything you want to see from a young player experiencing whatever initial adversity they're having in this league, right? Because that can go two different ways.

And we were never worried long term, but just seeing that immediate bounce back in response is really cool. I don't mean to squirrel away from Mitchkoff because he deserves our rumination. But I do want to ask you, given that you brought up the points that the flyers stole from the Sends. Yeah.

How close are we to looking at Sends results the way we've been looking at Cain's results for the past few years? Like getting Sensed right now feels a lot like getting canes has for the past few years. Yeah, they played a couple really good games last week, right? They went into Boston, which we talked about. Then they went in Toronto and just skated them off the ice and shut them out.

Then they had the game where they were up 27 of 4 in shots late into the second period against the flyers. Over the weekend, they did have, speaking of the Keynes, they went in Carolina, they got humbled, which is totally fine. They still got a couple games here against Vegas and Edmonton coming this week, so they're completely on my radar for like, watching closely. But yeah, that was going into Carolina and then the Keynes just being like, let's settle down a little bit here. Yeah. Was I think also notable. And maybe if you want to talk more about the Keynes, I'm very happy to. I just want to note that the more I'm watching

this season, the less convinced I am that Edmonton is like the true talent big dog. Like last year, no matter what it looked like. At this time last year, when everyone was freaking out about the Oilers, I was like, I'm pretty sure that's the most talented team in the league. And I still think it. But the way the Keynes are playing now, now obviously they're not as talented as McDavid and Drysettle, nobody is. But the way that they're playing now,

I'm watching these games and increasingly I'm leaving every Kane's game I watch with the sneaking suspicion that's growing louder and louder as the year goes on that this is just the best team in hockey. and in the past it was like this is structurally one of the, like there were more qualifiers that needed to be put on it. I just think the canes might be the best team in hockey. I think that's a very

fair argument. As much as I love the contributions they've gotten from jury and Blake and Eric Robinson. Eric Robinson, Jack Roslitt. I still think they're one forward like impact forward short. I agree. I think the dream, we had a mailback question on Friday

if if Gennie Malkin eventually shook loose. I think that would be an unbelievable situation, although he'd probably be playing on a line with Marty Natchez. And right now with the way Nichis is kind of carrying the puck and being puck dominant, I'm not sure stylistically they'd obviously make it work. And it's like, all right,

he's replacing his Perry Cook in his enemies minutes, bump him down a little bit, have him in a more scoring role. I think it'll be fine. What do you think about someone like Michael Granland? Yeah. I'm, I just feel like Michael Granland's exactly where he should be.

Eh, you think Rod Rendonmore would be like, eh? Hmm? You think Rod Rendonmore would be? be like, I do. Yeah, probably. I do.

I think Michael Granlin's exactly where he should be. The thing is, is I just think the canes need to be, and I mean, I suspect they will be, if they're going to add,

given their, you know, depth of prospects and, and on and on, like, I think they should be swinging. Like bigger game hunting, yeah.

Yeah, I think they should be swinging for the guy. This year's Gensel. This year's Gensel. This year's Gensel. Yeah. Right. I think,

I think they should be swinging. for Marner. You know, like I think they should be swinging for, not that the Leafs are going to trade Marner in season, but even keeping your powder dry because that's the guy you, that's the type of guy who you should go get. And,

you know, for all the people rolling their eyes at the idea of Mitch Marner as an elite player, like his penalty killing on that team. Oh, Rod Ridenmore would be playing him 28 minutes and night. Right. And he'd actually fit their stress hockey approach, almost perfectly while adding that, you know, enhanced veneer of skill.

All of that said, the way that they're playing right now, I mean, Eric Robinson's on pace for 57 points at the moment. It's incredible. Yeah, I was just thinking adding someone who could play down the middle in a scoring role but wouldn't necessarily need to be on puck the entire time and could, like, create some high danger looks for people. I thought Granlin made sense for that, but you're right. It probably wouldn't be their like preferred route.

No. But Marty Natchez, man, the way he's playing right now, the game was just on here in the, studio before we went on air. Another, what, four-point game for him? He's got this 13-game point streak now where he's got 10 goals and 17 assists in that time. The hurricanes are 11 and 2 in terms of wins and losses during this streak.

Another guy who just died his hair blonde and then just started to completely excel and turn his life around, like another podcaster. That graphic was unbelievable. You love to see. Yeah, he's been on fire ever since. And listen, correlation causation, who knows. but it's tough to argue with the results right now. He's flying.

Like he's an instant. If you're looking for a zone entry, obviously McDavid, McKinnon, right, Barzow when he's healthy. Eelers, my boy. But man, Natchez is right up there vaulting into that tier of like, immediately you can see the fear, the opposing defense, just like takes two steps back and he just walks in and then can bump it up to Gossus Bear or whoever at the point.

And they're just in the zone, like flawlessly. His slickness, physical skills, just like offensive toolkit has always been incredible. I have occasionally watched him and been left a little cool about his hockey awareness, like to the point where I always like in the back of my head, I don't know if I've ever vocalized this, so please don't get offended. But, you know, in the back of my head, I always thought like, this is Apex Daniel Sprung. No, the Apex, Apex version, don't get me wrong.

Yeah. But I think one thing we're starting to see is a little more of that. And I think that's why partly his role has increased. I don't just think it's Rod Brindamore recognizing that this wild horse is on a heater and he's got to let him run. I think genuinely what we're seeing is Nakesh, Naikash play the most complete hockey of his career. And once again, the secret. I think that's partly why the offense is flowing the way it is. In addition to obviously the hurricanes completely redesigning and imagining how they're going to try and attack as a team.

Yeah. Now while it's a glowing report on them, if we're just doing the full exercise of summarizing the week that was, they did treat us to, I think, the first true canesing of the season as well, harkening back to their roots where they had this game in Utah, where I believe it was 1-1 at the time. Utah just scores three goals in like two and a half minutes. And then there's 11 straight minutes essentially, consecutively, of Hurricanes power plays. And they just don't score. It was a great defensive effort, shot blocking and all of that. by the Utah Hockey Club in Mamalco was amazing in that game, but just a reminder that they're not necessarily immune to it, but I think it's fine. Like Jarvis is out. It was the end of a road trip. I'm not holding that against them, but just want to note that for a posterity.

All right. What about this as one sort of final exercise here before we get out of here? A quick look at retroactive hour guys, because you and I did this at the start of the season, this fun exercise, right, where we're like, all right, these are the guys that certainly some, big names, some young guys, but then it's a bunch of random guys that we're just irrationally excited about. And speaking of that Utah team and that game, I'm just watching it.

And I'm like, man, how was Michael Kesselring not on my list? I feel shame. I want to almost get our producers to like go back and just try to like insert this section that I have on Kessel Ring and just pretend we didn't add it Pozok and just be like, no, that was in there all along. Go back. It's in the archives. Listen to it because I feel shame for not having them in there. Now obviously. Me too, man. This has been like a, a, a big step he's taking the season, especially with the injuries. I believe he's third on that team in usage now. Yep.

But he's massive and he's flying and he has also got like a great, I don't want, not energy or attitude, but like just like his approach. Like he's just like, yeah, I'm begging fast and I'm going to go for it. And like he's scoring goals off the rush where he's out on a break. Like he's setting up dancing between guy defenders. He's doing it all. And so he's been really fun to watch. He's, he's one of the.

guys to like Brandon Prust was a little bit like this back in the day where because they look like and do a job that we don't typically expect skilled players to do the fact that they have some high skilled attribute like Prust was quietly a very very talented playmaker especially in his prime and some of those years in New York and Montreal we sort of are like oh wow what a great play but it builds up and if you're watching them play consistently you notice that like yeah that's something that that guy has in his bag. You just don't see it on the power play, so you don't think about it. First off, Kessler Rings, Kessler's carrying is like that, but I think so is his passing. I think he's a, yeah, Marcus Patterson's a little bit like that too, where you'll see Marcus Pedersen make some passes that are genuinely creative despite having a relatively simple meat and potatoes role in game. Kessler Ring has some of that. Back in the day, man, I saw a Kesselring play in Penticton, and I was so high on him and Dimitri Samarokov. I was like legitimately like, holy cow, I think the Oilers might have a couple players here.

Yeah, one for two ain't bad. Yeah, that's not bad. I love your Penticton stories. Always good stuff coming from that. I'm telling you, like, there's always something that comes out of that tournament that matters down the line. There certainly is. You're grinding at these Browswick tournaments. You're just...

I go to every game. Yeah, that's great. I mean, yeah, especially for those, right? those are one of those where just being in person just seeing random traits won't necessarily always translate to the next level

but you can see like certain habits especially and yeah I don't know about the Pedersen comp I see what you're saying in terms of like he's sort of billed as a pure defensive defenseman and clearly has modern day

skill to get the puck to where it needs to be I'd say like Pedersen is a version of Kesselring or like he just took a bunch of NyQuil and he's going to go to bed and he's like really slowed down a little bit Whereas Kesselring just drank four energy drinks.

Yeah. Pounding Red Bull. Yeah. Okay, another guy here for me. Maxime Sipikov. Yeah. I don't know how you can watch an Islander's game for those that are watching these Islanders games and not just come away blown away as like this guy is just popping off the ice every time he's out there.

Now he's playing with the aforementioned Palmieri and Brock Nelson in a scoring role. I think he's fourth on the team in points with him on the ice. 5-15, they're dominating. And he's just so visible and so involved and always making cool plays, throwing the body, just carrying the puck.

I really like what I see from him. And it kind of came out of nowhere, right? Because he was playing overseas. This is his first year as a 26-year-old coming into the NHL, you don't know what you're going to get. But just in terms of guys who have made an immediate splash, I feel like, I don't regret not having my list because I was not familiar with this game at all.

But through the first month of the year, I've really been blown away of what I've seen from him. Yeah, it's a good one. You have any others, just random guys that you've been watching and you're like, man, I like what I'm seeing here.

Oh, man. I honestly, I think the Kessel Ring is a good one. Kessel Ring, I feel like, is the one that I have the most personal regret over, not including,

on my list. But no, honestly, I think I don't have, you've put me on the spot. No, it's okay. Next week, you come back with a few others. I will. I will come back with a few others

because at the moment I'm drawn a little bit of a blank. I'll give you a last. I feel like I just like the right guys. No, you do. I mean, I think our preseason list was quite apt. Yeah.

Sam Malinsky. Yeah, Sam Malinsky's. Who, there's been at least three times this year where I looked up and I had the abs game on. And I was like, was that Kail Makar? No, that was Sam Malinski. You can tell he's practicing with him

and watching Kail Makar tape because he's incorporated that little shimmy at the blue line, right, where he like feints going one way, catches the defender leading and then goes around him to create an opportunity in the offensive zone. And so obviously a different caliber of players certainly. But I really like what I've seen from him just aesthetically with the way he's played. Do you have any stuff as we wrap up here, what to watch for next week? We kind of noted the Capitals' upcoming schedule and how it's just rich with high leverage,

important games within the NHL's hierarchy. Do you have any stuff that you're looking for this week, whether it's the way a team's played and you want to see if it's for real, whether it's big tests, whether it's any sort of storyline that you're looking at. Well, one of the games I'm most interested in is, is going to have happened by the time your listeners hear this, but will be off. And that's obviously the capitals going into Vegas as they continue this gauntlet Western Conference trip. That to me, very top of my list, I'm just fascinated to see how, like, I'm fascinated to see like protists's size holds up against this Golden Knights team that's looking increasingly like a buzzoff.

Vegas is going to be watching that and being like, how is this guy not on our team? How did we not steal this guy for a fifth when he was nothing? He's a dream player. Yeah, no, you know what? You're not wrong. So, yeah, there's a clash of styles, actually, that I find particularly fascinating when I consider what Vegas, Washington should look like. And then obviously the big one for me looming this week is. devil's hurricanes.

That's going to be a fun one. Hard to think of two teams that are playing faster hockey at a higher level at this point in the season. We haven't seen them play yet. Feels inevitable that they're going to bump into one another in the playoffs. There's just a ton of meat on that bone just generally. So to me, considering sort of what I'm looking forward to most on the NHL slate this week, like I've had that one circle.

for a bit. That game's going to be awesome. That's a great shout. I think for me, it's honestly, and we've kind of referenced this earlier tangentially at least, but even though there's still so much season to be played, and it's not necessarily a reason to tune out or be disinterested in the regular season because we're loving what we're seeing, it does feel like for the most part, I'd argue that like seven teams in both conferences, I feel pretty confident are going to be in the playoff list by season's end. And so what that leaves is an interesting race for the eighths and final spot. It might not necessarily be the eighth seed in the respective conferences,

but just the eighth team that's going to make it, and then depending on how much they move up in both, right? And so in the West, this Flames team that we really enjoyed with their competitive level, you watch over the weekend, and Dustin Wolf has his first career shutout against the Predators, although the Predators aren't scoring against anyone. But his eight percentage is now quietly up to 921, and we were talking about the Calder Conreras.

conversation earlier, right? And it's like, all right, Mitch Kov and Salabini will certainly be in there. Dustin Wolf is eligible. And he's probably going to keep splitting starts with Lidar, so maybe his workload won't get up there. But he looks awesome. And he's got a 9-21, an incredibly fun story to talk about. So he's keeping him in there. And then in the east, that Islander's team, who you're inexplicably high on based on our conversations in recent days. And the senators, who obviously will have a big test here after getting humbled by the hurricane. games, they're going to play the Oilers and the Golden Knights, and that's going to test that in particular their 5-on-5 puck possession that they've had so far this year and this new look defensive identity, but it's going to be a, you know, a measuring stick type of week for them. And so if they come through this with, I don't even care about the wins and losses right now, although every point matters, but just like if they look like they keep hanging and their skating pops off the way it's looked in recent in recent games, then I'll be like, all right, I'm,

I'm going to be watching closely and I'm going to really invest in this. On the Islanders, I just look at them as a team that's got one of those five-on-five profiles where they're controlling play and outscoring opponents at like not a great level, but a playoff caliber level, you know, almost like L.A. Kings East or something. And their issue has been isolated almost entirely to special teams. Well, if you're maintaining that level without Barzell, I think there's another level they can get to, to at least be in that sort of spoiler mix,

fighting for a playoff to the spot to the bitter end and, and, you know, maybe even making it. To me, that's sort of the level that they're at, just given the, like, honestly, I think the discipline and sort of structural polish that Patrick was, been able to put on them. Like, I'm really impressed. And not just because they completely flatten the connects this week.

Two other things real quick. One is I get to watch the New York Rangers play live this week on Tuesday, and I'm thrilled. to do that. Kandre Miller and Evan Bouchard are totally fine.

I just want to, I just want everyone to understand that like playing top of the lineup defense in the NHL is brutally difficult. You are going to be made to look silly 15 to 20 times a year

minimum by the most lethal offensive attacking players on the planet. And sometimes you get a burst of them. Sometimes that'll happen a bunch of times.

over a brief span and you know you'll just be setting up matthew nyes with sick passes and it looks brutal those guys are still excellent excellent excellent players and this conversation is going to move on so so fast in in both uh in the case of both guys well to the islanders note i think it's important that like sorooken was fine last year if you looked at underlying numbers yeah i think is like boxcar stats weren't really representative the way he was playing but obviously he fell out of favor a little bit because they were just using semi-unabralamov much more than him down the stretch. And he looks back, like he played this game in Edmonton recently where I was like, man, they had no business hanging around in this because, and then he was just making so many great

saves. So he's back to kind of his form from previous. And I had this question in the PDA guest discord because someone kind of noted, it's like, the Islanders are, I think we'd agree, one of the slower teams in the league, right, based on their roster construction. And when Barzal is not flying out there and my boy said, book. of, it's like kind of more sort of ground and pound and a bit slower. Yeah, Engval can move. Of course. No, they have individual talent, but I think like their preference as least historically has been slower or lower event, right? Kind of this more defensively oriented hockey. The difference between them watching them and like the predators or the penguins, two teams

that we've been railing on for their lack of foot speed so far this season is they, and maybe this is a byproduct of them being at the stage for longer is like they're very aware of their limitations as a team and they play accordingly and within its limits. And so that could be frustrating to watch sometimes. But just if you're trying to grind out wins and be competitive and stay afloat, they're able to get away with it because they play within those bounds, whereas it feels like the predators specifically haven't realized that they're at that level right now with how slow they are. And so they keep trying to play up tempo and like pushing for offense and then just getting stuck up ice and other teams are just getting whatever transition opportunities they want

against them. And it's a bitter pill to swallow for a team like that that had higher expectations heading into the year. But I do think that's like the important distinction between why it's working for a team like the Islanders and why a team like the Predators is just struggling to acclimate itself. Yeah. The Islanders are both aggressive below the hash marks and have guys back in the neutral zone, which is a tough trick to pull off. It requires an incredible amount of team level discipline, but they're doing it. And I think that's a large reason why they're making it work and sort of effectively turning games into half-ranked games as opposed to getting burned by their inability to defend 200 feet.

Any notes on the Seattle Cracken beat? I got nothing today. I got nothing this week. Tough week. Well, they had a couple wins, right? They beat the Blackhawks. They beat the Islanders. Joy to Court keeps playing well.

The Blackhawks are a stone-cold mess. I've got more notes on guys like Lucas Reichel at the moment. Yeah. But Chicago, man. They just got to stop playing NHL hockey like it's roller hockey. It's wild. Well, I was trying to tee you up on the Cracken, but I think this is a better tease. People can just go read your work at the Athletic and see your notes on the Amher.

Excuse me. I'll have notes on the Cracken and I'll have some R guys, R guys sort of retroactive. Second Chance my guys for next week. I love that. All right. Everyone go listen to Tom's show, Canucks Talk here on the SportsCard Radio Network. read as we're covering the Cracken on the Athletic. I will be back in a couple days.

We'll have another show here on the feed. We'll be back with Thomas, of course, next Sunday for another one of our weekly wrap-ups. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoyed today's show, go smash the five-star button. Wherever you listen to the P.D.O.cast, leave us a nice little review. It helps a lot. It means a lot.

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