The Hockey PDOcast - The Developments Around the NHL That Caught Our Eye Over the Past Week

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to go through their main takeaways from this past week of hockey. We discuss how much we've enjoyed watching the Buffalo Sabres, Utah's impressive homestand, the Wild Card picture in the West, Nikolaj Ehlers' impact on the Canes to start 2026, the Rangers writing yet another letter and insight into what their future path forward is, the Blue Jackets since their coaching change, and the importance of Auston Matthews looking like Auston Matthews again. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the HockeyPedioCast. My name's Dmitra Filipovich and joining me as always on a Sunday for a Sunday special. My good buddy Thomas Trans, Tom, what's going on, man? I'm doing well, buddy. I've been traveling. I've been watching a lot of Canucks hockey. I think it's broken my hockey brain at this point, given that I've seen 10 consecutive losses. And those losses are of a variety of convincing that I'm just not used to seeing. It's true. one-way traffic. And also that's making it hard for me to evaluate the players that I'm seeing on other teams. Like I walked in and I was like, man, McDavid, what a freak show performance last night.

And you're like, yeah, but, and of course, you're dead right. It was a glorified scrimmage. I mean, that's the issue with it, right? Like all these evaluations, as you're saying, are almost write-offs because it's just not really a real proxy for what the other games. These guys are going to have to play are going to be. That's the competitiveness of these Canucks games right now. I actually had in my notes if you tried to bring up the Connox games. because I wanted to institute some sort of an embargo here. Yeah, yeah. And then right out of the gate, we already started.

Perfect. Let's go. What a relief. Yes. Okay, so last week, we went through our list of teams on tilt because of how their season's been going lately. And I think we were onto something with our list because in the week since, and we highlighted seven teams, one of them made a coaching change, the Blue Jackets.

One of them put out a public letter to their fans acknowledging how much their season's gone in the toilet so far than New York Rangers. and then for the senators, their best player came out in a post-game scrum last night after yet another loss and said, you've got to make more than 10 saves to win a game. And of course, Jake Sanderson is very correct there. It was a remarkable perfect storm too, right? Because the Sends are up 5'3 late. I think there's four minutes left. The Habs have had a million of these dramatic late game comebacks now. They pull the goalie, score two, when in overtime and win a game where they managed seven five-on-five shots on goal in 47-plus minutes. of play. Remarkable stuff. What a tough scene for the senators to lose that one. Let's, I feel like

last week we focused on like the negative stuff, right? Sure. And I think it was a useful exercise, but ultimately we're talking about teams that are really struggling. I wanted to start off today's show on the opposite end of the spectrum and focus on a couple teams that have been playing good hockey, killing it, but also near and dear to our hearts. And we're going to stay very on brand year because the first two teams I've got on my notes for today are the Buffalo Sabres and the Utah Mamet. Oh, let's go. Two teams we'd love to talk about. And I want to start. the Sabres. They lose an overtime against the depleted wild team on Saturday afternoon, but bank another point in the process. They've gone 15, 2, and 1 in their last 18 games are up inside the top

10 in points percentage. And they have a fascinating upcoming stretch here. They go on the road for five straight. On Monday, their next game is against the Carolina Hurricanes, which I think is going to be a very good test. They have two more head-to-head matchups to close out the month against the Montreal Canadians. The team, they're basically jockeying with a position to get into the top three. In the Atlantic, and I enjoyed watching them play so much this week. I thought that, I don't know how much you caught of the National Televised game on TNT against the Philadelphia Flyers early in the week, but it was an incredible display of everything I think I love about this team right now. Josh Dones, just relentless pursuit of puck. They need to have like the Jaws theme playing in

the background when he's back checking, because that's how confident I've come to believe that he's going to catch the guy and steal the puck from him. Our guy, Zach Benson, who really has faulted himself into rarefied air for, like, jerk puck all-stars. Yeah. I think managed to draw a penalty while he was technically still in the penalty box because during intermission, he goes out of his way to skate into guarded Hathaway's way, essentially draws a penalty in the process.

Rare stuff. I think, you know, Tate Johnson's going off offensively. They have a lot of stuff that we can get into, but the reason why I gravitate so much of those guys, I feel like they really exemplify the difference between this year's Sabres team and them realizing all the potential we had for them and the ones that previously fell short and were flawed versions of this group, right? Yep.

Because they're such connective players. They really are the connective tissue of this team. They play so hard all the time. They're so impervious to whatever is going wrong. Like they just go out there and play the same no matter what. They win Pucks, which is, would you say that's probably the most valuable and underrated skill? Absolutely. In today's game, like whether it's retrievals or just extending plays and just constantly being on the right side of it.

Those guys are as good as anyone in the league at that. And then they've got skill on top of that as well. And they're still a final watch. Yeah, that Montreal Buffalo and the Buffalo head jersey matchup was so elite. You know, you texted me during it and just like, how can you not be romantic about this? And it's impossible. It looks great. The style of hockey is aesthetically pleasing because of the skill, but there's an underlying doggedness.

that's sort of, you know, I think, substantive, right? This is not a young, skilled team without that sort of substance. They're also, as you noted, winning pucks, right? They've also got guys like Josh Done, there's these plays that you're seeing now to where, like, Josh Done will dump it in and win the race to the puck by such a margin

that he'll, like, look around and be surprised no one's on him. Like, he has time after he wins the puck. I feel like he's got to lead the league, in that particular moment on the ice where you wear guy wins race to the puck he dumped into himself and is shocked that he has time and space to make a play I see it not once a game

but I see it once a week and it blows my mind every time and he's gotten so good and I think part of this is obviously he's skilled and he's even exceeded my expectations on that front but he's the confidence is clearly grown as well and he's gotten more responsibility and so now on those he's like pre-scanning and then finding the guy and then doing a nice

little backhand pass into the slot or whatever to set someone up If you're sad of the Buffalo Bills right now, I feel like these guys got you covered. I also think we should shout out a couple of guys who probably aren't getting as much shine as some of the other players. But I do think Peyton Krebs playing legit top six minutes. His defensive game has come a long way. I don't think he's going to be an offensive stud at any point, but he's like a bona fide top nine center now. And I do think that option is useful for them.

And then obviously Noah Oisland, I think, has a serious upside. I mean, he's been really impressive despite, you know, a tough deployment from a quality of teammate competition. Well, our standpoint. This is why we're best buds, because I had that next on my notes. Yeah. But I'm actually going to zag the other way. Sure. So Josh Norris got hurt again, unfortunately.

It sounds like he's out week to week. He's not traveling with a team on this road trip. It sucks. In his stead, they were playing over these past couple games, Peyton Krebs, with Oselin and Dohn. And watching those games, I know he scored one against the watch. he made some nice plays. I think ultimately at this point in his career, he settled into being a useful player,

but one who's not necessarily from a skills perspective going to maximize all the opportunities that Don wins you and that O'SLN creates in transition. And that's why I'm very excited because during today's practice, I saw the second line they were using

and it has Consta Heleneas on it. He was not played in the NHL yet, but was their first round pick in 24. As a teenager, he's about a point per game. And he's been hurt for a bet So we didn't see him at the world juniors. And so I'm very excited to see what that looks like because Don and Oslin have become two of my favorite players to watch. I think Ocelain's phenomenal.

Like he was wasted when they were using him on the fourth line. He's so smooth. Every puck touch is a productive one for him. And so that's going to be exciting. And then that bumps, crebs down to the bottom six, specifically the fourth line, gets Jordan Greenway out of the lineup. And I do think, obviously, you'd love to have Josh Norris. But this is probably their highest upside version of their four lines is currently assembled. I mean, if this sort of look works out more or less, I mean, there's all sorts of different ways to play it that don't involve O'Sland going back to, you know, banishment between Greenway and Malenstein.

Yeah, I mean, I do think it's notable too and worth saying given how frequently we've hammered the table on the Zach Benson breakout coming and the fact that his lack of goal scoring is, I think, hidden the extent to which it has, in fact, happened from sort of the public's not. wider knowledge, but it is worth noting the five-on-five, he's playing top-line minutes, like the only guy's playing more or logging more ice time this month for the Sabres than him are Thompson and Tuck. You know, that's how essential he's become to this team, not that we didn't know that already from the on-off splits when he returned in early December. But yeah, I mean, this team looks like they're cooking. I do think there's still, like, I still think they're a veteran, like a veteran forward

short, a veteran winger short. you know, if you could, as you noted, this sort of highest upside line, it might be hellenious, but the ability to, the ability to just have another guy to help you hold leads and calm things down late in games, I still think would be a nice ad for them down the stretch. Yeah, that's fair, because the games they won this week, whether it was the Flyers game or the Habs game, I don't think they'd necessarily love the way they played closing out those with the lead, and so I think that's a point well taken. I also wonder, too, like, you look at that defense corps,

Right? And I think a big part of this story is you've really got Byram and Power playing like kind of top paracaliber guys. Matthias Samuelson continues to shoot the lights out, but, you know, more a second pair quality guy who looks great beside Rasmus Dahlin, who I think is absolutely in the conversation with Zach Werenstke for Best Defensman in the Eastern Conference, in my mind anyway. I mean, I think he's having a really, really special season and has been a key part of driving this. all of those guys, and I guess I'd have to double check it on Samison, but all those guys are 25 under, I'm pretty sure. So that's another thing where it's like another veteran defender, just like, you know, honestly, like an Ian Cole type. Like it doesn't need to be a huge name.

I don't want to push any of those guys out of the top four, but just someone with some sort of savvy and like defensive know-how to put into calm things down here and there or even just calm things down on the bench. And the same thing up front, I think would be a nice thing for Keckleline and to go shopping for between now and the deadline. While you were talking about Benson,

I just wanted to note, I think it was this week. It started off with a loss against the Panthers, but has his play where he just like out muscles Aaron Eckblad who must have what, like eight inches of height and like 30. Yeah, at least four pounds. Might be 50. In front of the net for a goal in that game against the Flyers

makes this unbelievable play on the wall. I glad might have had 40 pounds on him 10 years ago. when they were both the same age. Well, Aaron Ekblot has looked exactly the same from age 12 to 28 or whatever. Yeah, Benson makes so many of these, like, nifty plays. And yet, in the midst of that, I do, I do. I'm starting to wonder about the finishing just a little bit. Yeah.

Because there's plays where, like, he gets it out front, Thompson gets it over to him. He's got an empty net, and he just, like, cannot corral it. Which is fine, because he's going to make so many plays dry value as a playmaker, a puck winner, and he's going to get greasy goals around the net. I think that the combination is going to be a very productive top line player. And let's not forget he's still 20 years old, right? I mean, I would say the finishing thing is a limiting factor at the moment to some extent.

But I don't think we should take that to the bank as being something that will always be a limiting factor necessarily, especially as he enters his prime seasons given what we know of his work rate behind the scenes. Well, we've seen for different players, but like young guys when they come in the league, I think sometimes it takes them a bit of time to realize, like, slow the game down a little bit in terms of you don't always need to be going at, like, your highest gear all the time. And then once you get into that zone, I think the finishing opens up a little bit for you. And I imagine that'll happen for him as well once he gets into his mid-20s. Do you want to get to Utah now?

Yeah, let's do it. So they've gone 5'0 and 1 during this seven-game homestand-stand, got one left against Philly in a couple days, and then a really rough stretch where they're going to have to play Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina, Dallas to close out January. But there's seven one and one in 2026. A couple of really impressive wins this week, one where they just hammered the Leafs on a second of a back-to-back, then the Stars, and then the Cracken most recently on Saturday. And here's a topic near and dear to your heart. This Dylan Gunther line with your guy, Jack McBain and Michael Carcone playing with them, they've been dominating.

The game against the Leafs in particular, they played 12-5-1-5 minutes. Shots on goal were 20 to 3 for Utah in that time. Dylan Gunther just. went absolutely nuclear earlier in the week. It might have been at the end of last week, but Jack McBain standing up for a hit earlier in the year where Torpchenko caught Logan Cooley, knee on knee, before he wound up ultimately getting hurt in their next game, I believe, drops the gloves with him right off the opening draw

and absolutely fed it to him. And I imagine you were watching that like a Hughes or a Cuch parent when their children are playing against each other and you're just like looking through your fingers, hoping everyone is going to be okay along the way. Unfortunately, Torvchenko was not in that fight because McBain is a big, big boy. So I love that line. I want to talk Nate Schmidt a little bit with you as well because I think right now

he is authoring one of the more unique career arcs that I can remember. And I was thinking about this because I was watching them against the Cracken on Saturday. He has a monster four-point effort. The final goal he scored was so cool because he dumps it in essentially leading the charge, then acts as F1 for checking and then just hangs around in the slot and waits for Keller to give it to him before he scores it. And him and Marino have been unbelievable.

Yeah. So far clearly is their best pair. I think they're up 44 to 17 in their 5-1-5 minutes. Since the calendar turned to 2026, Marino's been on the ice for 16 goals for and zero against. I mean, there's obviously some noise in there. You're not going to sustain that level of dominance, but the fit makes a ton of sense.

And somewhat surprisingly, because I do think Schmidt has generally been best used on the right side. But they've looked great and they've added, you know, again, the connective side of it, right? Their ability to both move the puck end, in Schmidt's case, limit mistakes, while also still being sort of sturdy, a classic hybrid, you know, defensive pair for the contemporary game. I mean, they've looked apart and with how reliant this Utah team is on capitalizing off the rush, which they've done a great job of. So, yeah, I mean, you're starting to see their talent make a difference night to night from a

result's perspective. So here's Schmidt goes undrafted that as a college free agent, he makes his first full NHL season at 24 years old. He plays a couple years for the caps, like crushing third pair of minutes is one of those pro-typical guys where you're like, I wonder if this skill's going to translate higher in the lineup. I remember at that point when Vegas was going through the expansion process, I had a couple interviews with them at the time. And I was like, that was a guy. I was like, hammering the table.

I was like, absolute must, Nate Schmidt. And he wound up exceeding my expectations even in a bigger role. But succeeds in Vegas, gets that big, what, like six year extension from them. And then a year or two later, they get petrangelo and free agency. So they wind up, as they've done time and time again, just leveling up. They wind up trading him to Vancouver. He has one miserable year there. Goes to Winnipeg. Struggles, gets bought out. He's still on Winnipeg's cap sheet this season for $1.6 million. They could use his pace. Signs an $800,000 one year kind of rehab my value deal. Oliver Ekman-Larsen Memorial in Florida wins a cup.

Not only wins a cup, go back and listen to those post-game shows during that cup final. Every time we were starting off being like, Nate Schmidt made six unbelievable reads and passes in this game and was phenomenal and made a huge difference. And then gets... He did it before Oliver Ekman-Larsen. Like he set the template, right? Yes. And then he gets a three-year deal, 3.5 per from Utah. He's 34, turning 35.

at the end of this season, and is arguably having, he looks better than I think he's ever had in any point in his career, just like a remarkable decade journey we've been on with this guy. Yeah, he was my favorite player to watch in the bubble too, because he had a war cry whenever he was leading the rush, he'd go, woo, like he'd do a little Rick Flair woo.

And you could hear it audibly in the empty confines of Rogers' place. Like it blew my mind. It was so funny. And such a distinguishing, you know, auditory mark, like a signature. by Schmidt. You know, I think historically

puck management has been his only issue. I think he's always been pretty good as an in-zone defender. I think he's always been pretty good, not great, but pretty good defending the rush. And he's obviously always had good instincts for when to join it,

how to walk the line, all of the stuff you want to see from a guy who can contribute offensively without giving anything back. But I think that his effectiveness at some stages, especially higher up the lineup, and honestly, especially on his strong side,

I think has been his penchant for the loud giveaway. And I think that was part of why Vegas sought to upgrade on him. I don't think it's why it didn't work out in Vancouver. I think that was a different set of circumstances altogether. But I do think it's part of what led to his sort of diminishing trust from the Winnipeg Jets organization. And right now playing a top four minutes and playing with a, you know, a partner who is mobile in their own right, but whom is not as puck dominant, right? as a player type or a defender type, like John Marino, you're not seeing any of that. I mean, you're seeing him be part of what gets this Utah team moving vertically,

and when they're moving vertically, you see the returns, and the returns are ludicrous. Should we talk about Lawson Krause, top line, like, driver? Sure. I mean, what's happening there? Yeah, yeah. Do you even understand it? I mean, we've never seen, I've never seen Lawson Kraus as like a digger type guy who can compliment skill players, but right now what they're getting out of Keller and Schmaltz with

Krause on the right side is, I mean, that's been the best line in hockey in the month of January. I mean, even against the crack and I think it was short-handed, it was like him and Kemp and Stenland combined for like a Sebastian Aho Seth Jarvis type of short-handed goal. I was like, what is happening right now? But listen, we spent the first like three months of this season being like, ah, we're so excited about Utah and we haven't really seen that high level offensively. and it's starting to come together and so when Logan Cooley comes back

I think this is going to be really exciting the reason why I wanted to talk Utah with you though we do need to note though how much of this is Vege Melka just destroying things yes but really all really all year they've been a pretty strong

like puck possession low volume against team and that was partly why I think their offense was being dragged down a little bit but now I think they've found a nicer balance and it's ironically happened moving Gunther down the depth chart in terms of like the daily faceoff page not necessarily in terms of usage has been pretty consistent but like spreading it around I think has gotten in a weird way more out of all these guys and part of his like Gunther's just Gunther's so much better than

even I thought he was going to be because I felt pretty confident he was going to be like a 40 to 50 goal score consistently in his prime but I didn't really see this level of like dominance on puck in terms of it seems like whenever he gets that the puck's just always fall following him. Yeah. And he's winning so many battles. And then once he starts moving downhill, you can see the other team starts panicking. Yeah.

And he's doing it with as much as I love Jack McBain, like him and Carcone, that wouldn't necessarily be my dream pairing for him. Yeah. And yet he's just producing as like a top five, five-on-five skater this season anyway. So I think that's remarkable. Yeah. One last thing is he does have a little bit of that, like his finishing. hash marks down when he does have a lick of space.

Like if you get him a lick of a space, there's a little bit of like a muscle memory type automatic feeling to it. And this is purely a qualitative feeling to when Gunther finds top corner that does, reminds me a little bit of Robertson. And I feel like those two guys stand out for me where when I see those goals, I just think, oh, of course. Like, of course it's like it looks like a tennis serve as opposed to, you know,

the sort of more spontaneous goal scoring plays that we see for most players, especially five-on-five in this league. So let's talk about this within the context of the West as a whole, and in particular the playoff picture, because I feel pretty confident saying the top three in the central are locked up. And probably the top three teams in the conference. Yes, and then in the Pacific, the top two with Vegas and Edmonton, in some order jockeying for position.

And that leaves three playoff spots, right? but especially the two wildcard ones because I'm trying to sort of figure out what the ideal round one combination would be to draw like a fun series as a foil for the Colorado Alanche for example but even whoever wins the Pacific whether it's the oilers or or the Golden Knights and we've got this medley of teams I think Utah despite how close it is in the standings the market has them at like 70 plus percent playoff probability they're clearly the favorite and I think that's right I mean just look at the goal differential you know I like they're

they've got to be no worse than the sixth best team in this conference. And yet, because of the three in their own division, they're out in terms of, right? Because for some of these other teams in the Pacific, they could finish third in their division or one of the wildcard spots. They're going to have to be one of the two wildcards. They're going to be wildcar one, and they're probably going to play the winner. I mean, I believe that they are not fixed, obviously, because we've seen them show some youthful and experience.

I still am a little, I still need to see a little more from Andre Turini in terms of, of blunting how low the floor on this team can go when their rush attacking game falls apart. I do think when it's not finishing, I do think they can be a little bit vulnerable when their finishing game falls off. So I still need to see a little more of that, but I would strongly expect them to be the first wild card. I think they are clearly the six best team in the conference on True Talent. And then you get into San Jose, who's got 30% implied probability, which is amazing because of what our expectations were for them and what they looked like last year,

here's a fun stat for you. They're 08 and 2 in the 10 games. Macklin Celebrini has not gotten a point this season, and they've scored nine total goals in that time, watching him this month, and I know they just lost on a second leg of a back-to-back to start the weekend against the Red Wings, but he had another phenomenal game against the Caps before that.

And if you look at his usage, like they're ramping him up to basically, primarily Kovilchuk levels. Yeah. Where he's playing like 26, 27 minutes a night. I think he's at 2440 for the month since the calendar flipped it in the new year.

And so I think that's really fun. The, the, so their team's stats page is beginning to look a little burray in Florida, right, where he's 40 points ahead of the second leading score on his team. Part of that is because Smith missed some time and then Chernishov hasn't been up all year.

But that was the same for, I mean, Kozlov missed a bunch of time in that burray season. Did you see that? them chasing the game against Detroit this week, which was that Friday, where he had this sequence, it didn't result in the goal, but he had the sequence where he won a battle down low

to retrieve the puck, passed it off briefly to a teammate, and this was a little Mick Davidian and that the teammate immediately just gave it back. Like it was literally a teammate functioning and getting into position just to be like a relief sort of. And he skated outside, and a Detroit defender got on his back,

and he kind of launched like a falling wrist shot. It was saved, was an incredible chance and it was just manufactured out of a one battle a quick touch beats a guy to the net physical enough to hold them off still gets a high quality scoring chance on from as much of like as deep into the guts of the ice as you can get without it you know getting a little heated rivalryish and I was just watching this thinking my god like that when people talk about the crosbie comms I think it's those sequences right where it's just like the battle one, the skill play, the tenacity to have that inside position and still make a skill play

with leverage while being checked hard. I mean, that's the sort of heavy skill game that he's playing right now. In addition to, like, crossing the blue line and hitting, hitting, with, at speed, with possession of the puck and making those sort of pinpoint passes to the trailing D or to the opposite wing. You know, in addition to all the other high skill stuff, it's the stuff that he can do down low and inside that just feels absurd for a 19-year-old player to be executing right now. Yeah. And it's every night.

It's every shift. Like his level of consistency is insane. And that's what makes you think despite the fact that the roster is obviously so flawed and their way ahead of schedule. And I think they'd be smart to take a bigger picture view of this. And I think of that every time I hear them link to Kiefer Sherwood, for example. I still think ultimately like he, the level he's playing at, especially now that he's playing nearly half the game, allows you to dream a little bit.

If you get a heart trophy caliber season with a guy on an entry-level contract, I think you have to push in just a little bit. I really do. But I think that's next year. Yeah. Probably. I mean, I think the key, though, is you can buy to bolster a team that's in the position therein, especially with a goalie who's playing as well as Ascarov and a 19-year-old

heart trophy candidate. In my mind, you can buy in that situation provided that it's a long. term fit. Like it really has to be a long-term fit, not a rental. You can't afford that. Well, and the issue is I actually like their wingers, especially now that Smith's back, Regenda's giving them some valuable reps, love Chernishaw, you got the veterans, Topholi, graph is phenomenal. Like, I don't think that's necessarily the area I target in terms of what could give you. You'd rather see them be in the market for like a stud demon. Of course. Yeah. Okay, so in order here, we got Utah, who we agree is clearly at the top. Then you've got

L.A. and I've already. I don't need to talk about them. They could absolutely be one of these teams, though. Their floor is so high. No, I mean, they're second in terms of the pecking order here. They're considered to be not a lock, but a heavy favorite. And yet, as I said, every single game, they're like, it's going to be 2-1 or 3-2, and we're going to flip a coin, and we might win this one. Yeah.

Then you go Anaheim, who bounced back because, man, getting a couple games against that King's team is going to do wonders for your team defense and goal suppression. Although the Leo Carlson factor now is tough. And hopefully he's back for the Olympics and playing well and ready to go. Back at Seneca is just so cool, man. Did you see an overtime that stick lift on Fiala, I believe, and then sending it back for the Grandin winner? I mean, that's just phenomenal two-ways.

I come back to the Rattan & Comp. Not that he's there yet, but that's the guy he reminds me of most. I mean, the combination of just physical freak show with really slick playmaking ability. Like nuanced playmaking ability is so, so rare. And then you get after, so L.A. Anaheim, then you get to Nashville, who are ahead of both San Jose and Seattle here. Yeah. And they had a wild weekend because they go into Colorado.

They give them their first regulation loss at home, win 7.3. Ryan O'Reilly had probably one of the more dominant performances I've seen from an individual this year, had a hat-trick, primary assist on the power play, wins 15 of his 18 draws, handily wins the head-to-head assignment against McKinnon. It was just a baller performance from him. And then they go into Vegas. It looks like they're going to do it again. They're like up one-nothing with two minutes left in the second period.

And then all help breaks lose. Vegas scores seven goals and 20 minutes of game time or whatever. But it was the second leg go back to back. And listen, I'm coming around on this team. We've been talking about it for a couple weeks now. In the past month, they have wins against Colorado, Edmonton, Washington, Vegas, Utah, Minnesota. And I do think that's right.

Like I think they should be ahead. of some of these other teams. And I think they arguably have even more juice than a couple of the teams above them that we mentioned. So I would view them as right in that mix there, which is remarkable considering the way their year started. You got any other notes on any of these West teams or do you want to go to our break? Yeah, let's go to break. Okay, you're listening to the Hockey-Docast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right, we're back here in the Hockey-O-Cast doing our Sunday special with Thomas Drans.

Tom. Let's switch gears. Let's go to the Eastern Conference a little bit. Yeah. Do you want to talk, Rangers? because I know we highlighted them last week on our teams that are tilting, obviously since then they've been in the news because... They've sent another letter. Boy, do they love to write a letter.

Yeah. They are, they're like... Chris Drewie, going to become a colleague at the athletic doing game breakdowns? I was thinking they're like indulging in 19th century courtship, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a non-story for me because obviously you've been paying attention to their season. I don't, unless this results in like... Adam Fox or Vincent Trubb.

trading actual guys with Teram left. If it's Panarin and Susi, it's like, yeah, they're a bottom five team trading their UFAs. This does not warrant conversation or a letter, certainly. Yeah. Wake me up if Fox or Trochec or a guy at that level is involved, and my gut would be no. It is amusing, though, like they're 27 the point percentage. They're one of the worst teams in the league. And they're two points back of the devils and senators, two teams that we keep talking about as, like, high upside playoff teams.

And obviously, they're not going to have Fox and just Sturkin moving. forward for the next little bit, so that's going to impact their ability to bank points in the meantime. But the one thing I did take issue with in the letter was it seems like it was in the middle of it, but the framing of it was using the injuries to those two guys as an excuse. And I went through the game logs, and there's 17, 12, and 4 interest Terkins games where he's been a top three to five goalie in the league. That's a 94 point pace. They're 14, 3 and 3 in Adam Fox's games. and he, I know you love to throw in your shots on him, but I think he's been very good this year.

And a lot of the on-off splits, like, reflect that, whether it's their impact on the power play or look at what's happening at Gavrikov playing with Brayden Schneider. He's a great player. I've never been, my point was never that Adam Fox... He was comparing it to Quinn Hughes. My point was that comparing Adam Fox to the Hughes-McCarr axis was Syop. But now we've...

We've gone too far. We've absolutely gone too far. I mean, this is still an elite 1A caliber right-handed defenseman with incredible levels of power play utility and is an extremely intelligent defensive player in his own right. And even with those two guys, when they've been healthy, playing to their full capabilities, and it's 30 plus games, they've been a 500 team. Yeah. And so I don't really view it as like, oh, if only we get those guys back, next year is going to be different. Like there's obviously going to be very significant moves here, especially offensively, right? Like this team, as you described it as a half-core team, just has one consistent creator offensively,

and he's going to get traded over the next couple weeks. And so what that looks like next year, I think remains a big question. They're going to have 30 plus million in cap space, but looking at who's available, I don't really see who the obvious sort of replacement for that gear is going to be. Yeah, I mean, talk? Like, I don't know. I don't think that's going to meaningfully change their situation right now because they need someone who can create. Yeah.

And Tucks a nice complimentary player with size and speed. Totally. The Schisturkin of it all, I do want to just quickly talk about because you mentioned him as a top three to five goalie. It's like, I think we're seeing just how dominant he's been this year. His absence has, his absence should solidify his Vesnik candidacy, in my opinion. I think he's been propping up a team that's, you know, justifiably at the bottom end of the Eastern Conference at the moment. I do wonder, though, what the market would look like for Vincent Trojeck, if they're actually serious about doing something. I think it would be an insanely robust market. I think it should be.

Because he's got 5.625 left for three more years after this month, right? And the salary on that is dropping from like 6 to 4.5 to 4.4. And then you look at some of the center contracts, whether it's Wenberg signing for six times three. Christian DeVorek, 5.125, I believe, for five years. Yeah, no, he's a steal. It's one of those where even though he shouldn't be anywhere near Team USA's roster at the Olympics, a guy who's a lead at face-offs and a pretty good finisher and just like a solid middle-sixth center at the very least on a good contract, I think that's probably the most realistic avenue to like them actually creating some sort of a change. I'm not sure how that's going to make them better for next year when you're still going to have this core of Zabinajad and J.T. Miller, who are at 33 years old at that point.

What should Minnesota not surrender in terms of futures if they have a chance to land Vincent, trochev given their position. Right? I mean, is there an amount that they should be like, oh, that's off the table for it? Push it. Yeah. Do you got any other notes on the Rangers?

I feel like we've hit most of it, right? Not really. We talked about the drafting and development. Continued disappointment that Lefrenier hasn't taken the step that I expected him to. Like, I expected Lefrenier to look a lot more like a larger Seth Jarvis. You know, that was always sort of what I expected. I thought he was going to be a super high-end two-way winger. and you're just not seeing it night to night.

I really want to say one thing, the, I can't remember what the final score was. Was it 9-1 Carolina against Florida? But it was the Nikolai Euler's game. He's got three plus-point games since the New Year. Right. He's top 10 in NHL scoring since the New Year. And he only had one point, but he shredded the Devils again on Saturdays. Yes.

And it feels like when you watched them earlier, you could still see, because Eelers, especially with that Jets team, would do those individual four-As where he kind of just sets himself, skates himself to the high slot and releases that wrist shot, and it's pretty dangerous shot. And there's so many games over the years that we saw him break open for the Winnipeg Jets. And I felt like when I was watching him earlier this season, not that he was playing poorly, but that he hadn't really figured out how to integrate his individual game-breaking sorties into the offensive zone, into how the Carolina Hurricanes play stress hockey.

Even though the power play is kind of like playing high up. You know, it's not like it was, it didn't feel like it was kind of running through him. And I feel like they've sort of, when I'm watching them right now, he's in the middle of it in the way that he used to be in Winnipeg more frequently. I wonder if that's just like an adjustment for him wrapping his head around it because that's something that I was thinking as I was watching that Florida game. It was just like a higher volume of puck touches. Like genuinely, like more stuff running through him.

it felt like he was more sure of how to assert himself within the pretty rigid structure that the Carolina Hurricanes play. And I'm very curious to see what this sort of stretch run looks like. Because, you know, how many years have we talked about Caroline in the playoffs and the struggle to finish? And not that Eilers is of the caliber of the guy I'm about to comp him to, but, you know, on nights when it works, on nights when he has those three-point nights or over the course of the past month, now that he feels a little bit more integrated, there's part of me that wants to make the Marion Gabburick to the 2012 Kings comparison, or it was 2014 Kings comparison. And again, not that he's Marion Gabbitt, but can he have that sort of impact in terms of making

a team that has everything but the efficiency, you know, can he have that sort of impact going into this postseason? I think we're starting to see hints that that might be coming, that what we should expect from him over the latter 30 games of the season exceeds the sort of 30. five points in 50 games that he's had to this point. I mean, he's exactly what they need. And it's that exact element of like when things are stagnating. And like that,

that routery of looks that they go to time and time again isn't generating goals. And you're like, oh, man, the opposing goalie stopped 27 of the past 20 shots. And then all of a sudden he goes out there and he just does something that's so different than the previous 12 shifts. And that sort of turning the game on its head element, it was exactly what they needed. Yeah, no, it is. And it didn't, it didn't like get off to a running start. Again, not that it got off to a poor start. It just didn't get off to a running start where you could see it immediately.

But I feel like over the past month you've seen it every time you watch them play. And so I just wanted to shout that out because in terms of like really important developments in the East, I feel like that's high up the rankings. It is. You know what's another one? And you saw this guy in person last week. Oh, he was insane. Austin Matthews. Yeah.

Looking like Austin Matthews again. I think is very important within the context of the season, not just for the Leafs, but for the Olympics as well. Huge. Because him being an elite goal score, and he's got, what, 10 goals and 11 games since the Christmas break, and just watching him, he's got that gear again where it doesn't look like he should

because he's obviously bigger and had been more lumbering than a McDavid or McKinnon, but once he gets the defender on his back hip, just separates, and you can't get on the other side of it, and he's gone. And that game played against Colorado. Colorado, like some of the net drives and like him in space just looked entirely different than really the past calendar year for him.

And then the shot coming back as well beats Hellabuck with one, then he uses the threat of it. And I love Kevin BX's breakdown on Hawkingen and Canada this because he's obviously talking a lot from the defensive perspective of playing those two-on-ones and making sure you take away the pass generally to give your goalie a shot one-on-one against the shooter and I'll make a move laterally. That's probably one of those where it's like Matthews and Domi coming down two-on-one. I think Morrissey was right to be like,

I'm not letting Matthews beat my goalie cleanly with the shot. And then Matthews makes the play against a contested stick to get it over to Domey and it's game over for Hellabuck. Whatever you do you're wrong. It's just impossible, yeah. Yeah, whatever you do you're wrong when he's playing at this level. I also think you're seeing more of, and generally speaking, the way that Matthews converts, and he didn't lose this, even when he was struggling,

but his anticipation, his ability to play like shortstop as an F1, right? just batting pucks down shoulders, anticipating where pucks are going. Like he still was, even when he wasn't scoring the way he was, he was finding ways to create those sort of turnovers, finding ways to create new Leafs possessions where they didn't previously exist.

But what makes him special when he's really on is how quickly he converts those into just insanely dynamic. It feels like inevitable, yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly the right word for it. And like with a level of physical assertiveness, right, in terms of the way that he'll put a puck through a guy and sort of contort his body or like, you know, it's, it's really special. And that's what we're seeing again, where it's, he forces the turnover and immediately he's doing something insane offensively.

I felt like that, we were getting the first half of that equation in the first three months of the year. But obviously what makes Matthews special is when you're not just getting the second half of that equation, but getting it at stunning volume multiple times a game. And that's the level he's been at for the last month. Well, and as I said earlier when we talked about Utah, the one. sort of outlier here for them this week was in the second leg of that back to back. They got Spang 6-1, I believe. But the other games they played this week, the game where they won an overtime against Colorado, the game they lost in overtime against Vegas.

And then this most recent one against Winnipeg were three highly entertaining games. I really enjoy them. I did not enjoy watching this team earlier in the year. And I had a lot of notes on the Jets as well, because I know they want to blowing that game and they blew two goal leads throughout and only get the one out of two points. before that they'd had a four-game winning streak where they bounced back a little bit against beating some pretty good teams pretty decisively along the way and I think a couple encouraging changes for them are one corporate fetti just looks like he did last year I don't know

how much of that is health how much of it is finally playing with a talented player and gabe valardi and then Jonathan taves some of the net front stuff on the power play yeah and then I love like they're using him especially at the end of periods that they got an ozone draw they put him and shifley out there together, but they free up Shifley to stand in kind of the Ovechkin shooting spot. Yeah. And Taves still, even at this point his career, is so automatic at winning that drawback right where it needs to, and Shifley scored a couple goals off that exact set play. So I think that stuff's fun.

Logan Stanley, and we've been texting about this a lot. The Clapper goal he scored against the Wild. And then telling the ref emphatically, like, yeah, that was a goal, calling his shot. It's hilarious. I love the, it really is the meme of the kid in the school bus. look and then the two perspectives where like on the one hand him just scoring these bomb goals and going off offensively is like the ultimate hell yeah and that a lot of Jets fans are processing as oh my god

this is going to result in a disaster long-term scenario where instead of selling high on this commodity at this point before he hits on restricted free agency is going to result in us being the team that picks up the tab on it yeah although they're perch in the standings should it continue and i don't actually think it because I think the Jets are pretty good, despite their results across the last, well, not the last two weeks, but before that. You know, one thing I will say is I've become far,

I've become convinced that we need to look at gigantic human beings that play defense somewhat differently in terms of their aging curves. Because we're now at a point where, whether it's, you know, like Hal Gill, Zadano Chara, think through sort of the behemoths in this league. Tyler Myers is 34 years old and has probably had two of his best seasons just the last little bit. Nikita Zedorov's late or early 30s glow up.

Like I do think there's an element to which when we see players begin to reach the end of their aging curves, sometimes they're hurt more frequently. I feel like that hasn't been the case necessarily with a lot of these bigger defenders that have survived for longer in this league and even hit higher level. as they get to their 30s. You know, they might lose a step. Everyone loses a step as you, you know, go through the aging process. But no matter how much slower they are, their fundamental value, which is that they're

6'7 and can do a whole bunch of things as a result of that, that's consistent. That remains. Not to say that Logan Stanley should get paid as if he's going to be a 15 goal scorer on a consistent basis. But I do think he at least exists as a player type that we should judge the risk on somewhat differently than we do with players at other positions as they get into their 30s and even mid-30s.

He still has a 41% expected goal share of 5-15. Well, that might be a different. Okay, let me give you another example then. An expiring guy who, if his team trends badly over the next three weeks of actual game action before the trade deadline, which is actually six weeks away, Olympic break in the middle, who I would view as like an interesting fit for a team like San Jose

as a guy who you rent but extend at the same time would be like a Jamie Alexiac, right, who I think has higher levels of puck skills and has played at a more consistent level, generally speaking, than Logan Stanley. He's the sort of player that I'd look at differently as a 33-year-old defender than I would your average player. At this point, I'm open-minded to the behemus age differently,

theory and in fact I'm I'm going to proselytize on it that's fair I've enjoyed this Logan Stanley season it's funny it's hilarious he's shooting 17% in our contract year and uh I'm very curious to see how the Jets handle it goes yeah I don't have a lot of faith um um do you want to end on the blue jackets sure because they made a coaching change since who last spoke and bringing a guy rig bonus wizard of port moody let's go they have so Kent Johnson's ice time in the three games under Rick Bonus. 25, 1736, 1831.

Feels like he's getting more looks. Do we owe Rick Bonus an apology? In transition. I was not familiar with his game. You do not, in fact, have to hand it to him. Although I will say... I do. I'm handing it to him.

Well, part of why I've been critical of our guy Rick Bonus over the years is on contenders or playoff teams, some of the stuff that drives me crazy in terms of not not like hunting out edges in terms of usage and deployment and like tactical stuff like that, you can't get over, and it's going to be the death knell for your team. If you're a team who needs a shot in the arm from like a vibes perspective that everyone loves and you're just going to try to change the environment a little bit, I think he can absolutely be successful for them the rest of the season. Now, ironically, we said that exact thing about Dean Eveson when he took over this team, and then as soon as he was fired, everyone

waited to release all of their like behind-the-scenes footage of why she had to make this move as happens every time something like this happens. It's very encouraging that Ken Johnson's playing more and looking more dynamic, and Boone Jenner just keeps setting him off the rush, and I love to see more of that. Probably are at a point, though, where, like, this applies to how many 20 to 25 teams,

where they probably should just change their coach every single year? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of coaches that are not organizational builders, or organization builders, but are instead, you know, I think true. short-term impact types. And that's okay. There's huge value in that.

I actually think hockey would benefit from having more understanding of that. And I think some coaches are coming around to the idea that they themselves are like that. And again, I think in soccer, that's, you know, completely normal, right? In hockey, for whatever reason, there's this idea that you should have the 15-year head coach, and sometimes it works. You get guys like Cooper who've killed it forever in Tampa Bay. but I don't think it's a problem to bring in hired guns to take a look at things somewhat differently, especially if you do it, like, especially if you do it in this sort of situation where part of the immediate change is to begin to resuscitate the value of some of your asset holdings, because that is one of the risks that coaches do see players differently and evaluate players differently.

And, you know, sometimes you make a coaching change and a guy who was playing up the lineup goes down. And I do think for teams like in rebuilding or retooling circumstances or ascending circumstances or ascending circumstances. circumstances like we hope Columbus isn't. You know, I think that that's where you really have to be careful that the guy your hiring is on the same page as management and going to be giving opportunities to players like Ken Johnson that you need to have an understanding of what they can do going into the summer. Yeah, they won three straight since the coaching change. Now two of those were against the flames and Canucks at home.

Yeah, but beat the penguins in a shootout on Saturday. So, yeah, I'm hoping this is a bounce back to forearm for a blue jacket scene we loved watching last year. We only got a couple minutes left. I really wanted to... Do you want to talk Slovkovsky a bit? I've talked about him a lot. Okay, never mind.

Although I know that you saw him in person. Yeah, he just... And that was obviously a phenomenal performance for him and that line in general. That line in general was insane. He's been doing it for six weeks now. Yep. No, he's killing him.

As I said, off the top, I think you should throw out games against the Canucks at this point. I agree. But he had that awesome game against the senators. Yeah, no, he's been phenomenal. I mean, he's been a bona fide top line winger doing stuff that he was never doing. previously.

Yeah. And I think defensively, too, you're seeing him occasionally check back all the way like a center. I think he's actually the most responsible defensive player on his line. He's serving the function of the center on that team. And so he's playing sort of as the low man. I think he's actually really good at it, which I think is a hint to a path of unique value.

Like, you know, the, if he was like a girl guide, it's like, yeah, you're working towards your Mark Stone badge. and the the thing I'm seeing too is like he'll gather pucks beneath the net like beneath his own net and calm things down he'll like deceit like he'll make like fake passes he'll like buy his linemates time

or circle back and just yeah alleviating pressure and given where caponin and Demadov are lovely players right I mean caponin seems to arrive on time as a sort of congenital trait a little Thomas Holmstrom to that we I don't need to go

into what Demadov does that's special because it's like every touch is special. But man, he's been a big part of making that line work. And it's his defensive growth in addition to some of the skilled passing stuff that really stood out to me when I watched that line play in person, Montreal last week. Yep. No, I've been blown away. Entirely different. Just, I think, future for him, but also like for present day value, just I did not foresee this based on what I saw from as a player in his first couple years in the league. I mean, we've got what, two weeks. left of these shows before the Olympics, essentially. Yeah.

And so we've got to do one with Jack Fraser. We got to, well, we're going to do our fake trades for sure. Oh, God, I'm going to hate that Ian Cole to Buffalo trade that you're going to cook up so badly. I'm going to be like, why are you wasting our valuable time of this? It's going to be great. I can see it already. Yep.

It's going to, I mean, you've got big shoes to fill from last year. People love the, what about Lawton when you kept steering direction in Scott Lawton's way and you were just trying to force Scott Lawton trades. those players, obviously we did wind up seeing a move. Yeah. All right, what do you want to plug on the way out? Athletic coverage of the Canucks. And, you know, they're going to be the nexus of trades, I think, for a little bit here.

So lots of stuff unpacking what they should do, who could move. That's all at the athletic and then Canucks talk. Noon to 2 p.m. on 6.50 a.m. in Vancouver or download the podcast wherever you get your pots. All right, buddy. Good stuff. See you next Sunday. subscribe to the PDOCES Patreon. I've got a Josh Doe newsletter piece and then mixtape coming on that feed.

Nasty. This coming week, it was a five-star review wherever you listen. That is all for another edition of the Sunday special. We'll be back here together. Next Sunday, I'll be back on this feed Wednesday.

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