The Hockey PDOcast - The Golden Knights Coaching Change, The East Playoff Race, and Other Stuff That Caught Our Eye Over The Past Week

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to discuss the coaching change the Golden Knights made on Sunday, the Eastern Conference playoff race, and other stuff that's caught our eye while watching hockey this past week. 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 Filippovich. Welcome to the HockeyPedioCast. My name is Dimitri Fulpovich, and joining me is my good buddy Tom Bistrans. Tom, what's going on, man? Hey, buddy. I'm doing well. I'm, yeah, excited to do the show today.

There's a lot of surprising stuff that's unfolded across the league with, you know, hilarious ramifications that I think we can get into both for the rest of this season and, obviously shaping some of what we will expect in the off season. I mean, torts, come on. Let's go. This is as wild as it gets. So yeah, let's talk it all out. Well, listen, the Sunday special has become a weekly staple,

not only for you and I, before our listeners. And full transparency, we probably weren't going to do one this week, just because of the travel logistics with us going to Denver for the conference and everything we've got coming this week. And then this news broke on Sunday afternoon and we're like, all right, let's do this. We're just doing it Monday morning and we're going to talk our way through all of those ramifications.

You just tease there and then we'll cover some other stuff the way we typically do on our Sunday specials. But I think we can safely devote at least the first half of today's show to the Golden Knights and they're firing of Bruce Cassidy on Sunday, the hiring of John Tortorella as at least a temporary replacement for the rest of this season. I think my first note on it is just unbelievable timing, right? it comes on a Sunday afternoon.

There's eight games left in the regular season for this Golden Knights team that despite all of their well-documented issues is still sitting rather comfortably in a playoff spot because of the state of the Pacific Division around them. And I think even by Vegas's well-documented, ruthless

standards and history in terms of totally removing emotion and the human element and just pursuing winning or at least in their eyes, increasing their odds of winning or increasing their proximity. towards winning the Stanley Cup, this one still feels like it's totally out of left field for me. And we're going to go through all of their struggles this season and everything that's gone wrong for them to get them to this point.

But it feels awfully desperate and awfully reactionary for me. And I know they've played 74 games or whatever this year. So it seems strange to say it's reactionary when you've seen this big of a sample of a pretty consistent performance that's been underwhelming and disappointing. Yet it still feels reactionary. Well, I think it is clearly a Hail Mary, right? I mean, I don't think there's any question about that. Would you call it a project Hail Mary? I don't know.

I don't think it seems like it's a feel good space buddy comedy romp, right? This feels, it's a Hail Mary, but it's more like a Armageddon type Hail Mary with Steve Buscemi walking in and seeing guns drawn in space and saying, what did I miss? It's more of that type of Hail Mary, if we're going. you know, with the space movie analogies here. The, this is, you know, like we saw Lou Lamarillo do this a few times, usually promoting himself. But for the most part, we don't see coaches fired at this point in the season. So that part of it is already a huge surprise.

But, you know, especially because the Vegas Golden Knights are going to make the playoffs, especially because you watch them play and it hasn't been like atrophying structure or habits that have caused them to sag. you know, to sort of the middle of the middest, well, the worst division in hockey. I mean, they've been very mid this season. And a lot of it's been goal tending. And a lot of it's been, you know,

finishing luck and percentages. But I'd add this. A lot of it's been a diminishment of team speed. You know, like a slow atrophying of team speed with the Rasmus Anderson trade being sort of, you know, a final declaration of that where you, where you lose White Cloud, you add Anderson in a vacuum Anderson should be the better player and yet you know Vegas really paid a huge premium to get even slower on the back end and and it feels like you notice it right like every time you watch them play you feel it that sort of in the lack of speed and how that's aided and abetted their congenital inconsistency across this season so you know like it is a shock but this is a team that

if they were going to do anything, did probably need some kind of shakeup. Like the hell, it is the Hail Mary. It is a desperation move. It's hard for me to suggest that they didn't need one, given the age of their core, given how important every season is for this team.

Like they can't really waste like, oh, well, we didn't have it this year. Like they, they've paid so much to bolster this team. So many of the players on this team are over 30. You know, like, I think this move reeks of desperation. And yet I think that level of urgency is called for in their case.

Yeah, I mean, they've pretty much been all in every single year of their existence in the NHL so far. But I think this year, especially you look at it and they've got like 120 million they're paying out in salary on their roster. They've got a lot of questions moving forward because of the age of the group that you mentioned. also the fact that, you know, William Carlson's only played 14 games this year, but he's been such an integral player for them. He's entering the final year of his deal. Mark Stone, their captain is as well, and still at this point of his career, the wither without use splits when he's available or seismic for them. And then not only the Rasmus Anderson trade, but the deadline, they kind of acted as if they were bolstering or rounding out the edges of a contending group, right? Like you make that Nick Dow trade, you make the Colsmith trade. They're sending out a bunch of seconds and thirds. they even added, you know, at the in the offseason when they traded away Nick Hay because they didn't want to pay them.

They bring in Colton Sisons and Lozahn. Both guys are also impending UFAs and they give out another pick in that trade as well. And so they've been bleeding along the way here. And they are all in. Last time you and I spoke, I think was it last Sunday when we did our stakes tiers and we talked about Vegas? And I sort of didn't know how to frame it because I generally don't like talking about this stuff this way. I like to focus more on the stuff we can quantify, typically. But in watching them this year, I did come away feeling like there was just a lack of pushback

because you'd watch these games. And listen, it happens when you don't trust your goaltending and you give up a bad goal against right out of the gate. You're already down. You're like, here we go again. And the shoulder is slump. We see that for a lot of teams. But they were going away pretty easily in a lot of these games and not really exhibiting a lot of fight or hunger to actually get back into it. And now ironically, the last game, Bruce Cassidy coaches, they're playing at home Saturday night against the capitals.

They go down 3-0. They come from behind. They score four straight goals, two shorthanded, wind up losing in a shootout, but still carve out a point in the way. And in a sense, it was a very fitting final game for Bruce Cassidy in Vegas because it really just encapsulated this entire year for them where they out shoot the caps 23 to 11 at 5-on-5. They play well enough to win. And yet they get a loser point. they lose in a shootout and their goalie has an 8-10s-8 percentage. And that's pretty much the crux of everything that's gone wrong for them this year

at a risk of oversimplifying it. And so it was a very fitting final game for Bruce Cassidy in Vegas. Yeah. And look, Bruce Cassidy, in my estimation, is a top five head coach in this league. Right? Like I think Bruce Cassidy's an incredible bench boss. Obviously, you know, he won a cup in Vegas. he was a transformative figure for that franchise.

So, you know, there is that element of ruthlessness that also, I think is prominent, right? Like is a key factor in this where it's like, man, even that guy gets tossed overboard in Vegas's ruthless and relentless pursuit of victory. So, you know, that's said, that's that I've been pretty critical of torts over the years on this very podcast. But, you know, my criticism is almost. almost always been about the fact that every John Tortorella season is the same, right? The idea that he seems to, with his player usage and obviously his personality,

wear down his teams over the course of a full 82 games, they always start hot. I think his deployment generally, both both territorially and in terms of the matchup game, is exceptional. I think one of his best strengths as a coach is, too, that he gets guys out on the ice against the right opponents, but also is smart enough not to be too dependent on it and ruin the flow of his teams. Like he's really, he's got really good feel in game.

His teams do play hard. They block a ton of shots defensively. His teams play really well. So there's a lot of things that I actually quite admire about towards game to game and bringing him in effectively with eight games to prepare for a tournament. You know, you're bringing him in. solely as a tournament coach.

Like exclusively, he's a tournament coach with no apparent commitment beyond let's see how it goes in the tournament. You know, there's some part of me, and maybe it's just a morbid curiosity part of me. But there's some part of me

that thinks, if you are ever going to bring in John Tortorella, this is like the controlled experiment circumstances in which I actually don't completely hate it. You know, it still feels very NHL in a way that I'd almost be dismissive of. But the idea of torts being, you know, hey, let's get a, let's get a sort of injection

of energy and passion and change with an aging roster that we think is better than the talent is looked, a guy who's going to, you know, make sure that everyone's blocking shots. Hopefully that does more to help our goalies. And, you know, let's see if we can sort of ride that zaniness to, punching above our weight in the postseason in a way we haven't been able to throughout the regular season. Look, do I really think it's going to work in my heart of hearts? Like, no, because I don't think John Tortorella is too puck moving defensemen, right?

Which is fundamentally what Vegas needed more. But, like, I can't dismiss it out of hand. Like, it might just be wild enough to pay off. And you mentioned him being a tournament coach, because he's been out of the NHL for a bit here. his most recent work experience has been at a tournament level, working with Team USA at the Four Nations, and then at the Olympics and obviously has the built-in connection with Jack Eichol and Noah Hanifin from those teams. Listen, when the Golden Knights hired Bruce Cassidy in 2022 and then immediately won the cup, we were talking about this a lot of the time, but the biggest difference that he made and instilled into the team

beyond just having a healthy Jack Eichol for the first time because the year before he had been acquired mid-season and still wasn't right was structurally changing the way they played, right? They became the most aggressive team in zone in terms of fronting and blocking shots and making it a great environment for their goalies to essentially just absorb shots before they ever reach target. And then they became this type of not prototype, but team that really exemplifies the current NHL that we've steered towards even more aggressively since then, which is a quality over quantity team, right?

like those teams under Peterborough that were always great in the regular season and then fell short in the playoffs, would do so similar to the Cains by running into a goalie that had a ridiculous say percentage and beat them in a seven game series because they were funneling all their offense through point shots and their defensemen and kind of trying to compile stats that way. And instead they became this team that just dominated a high danger area in front of the net at both ends of the ice. And despite everything that's gone wrong this year, you look at their underlying profile and that dominance in high danger area. is it still there. Like they're one of the best teams that controlling shots in front of the net and in the inner slot

both offensively and defensively and it hasn't led to the results they've wanted. But that's why I'm having a tough time reconciling this because like typically when players tune out a coach or you know, their message just grows stale, you can see markers of it

in this stuff where like the process erodes they're not playing as well and then you start losing. And in this case that hasn't happened. They just haven't been turning shots into goals or turning shots against and the saves essentially. And so that's why I'm struggling to view this as like, well, changing the coach is going to fix everything. I'm sure guys are going to bounce back because

there's going to be inevitable regression. And we see this dead cat bounce whenever there's a coaching change. And it's a sprint towards the finish line right now. I think it's much more doable for everyone involved. But I have a tough time kind of putting all of this on the plate of Bruce Cassidy and being like, well, he ran his course in Vegas and just wasn't doing the job as well as he had previously. because all the markers are still there that were there when they were successful. 100%. Well, look, I don't think the league's going to hold this against Bruce Cassidy either, right? Like, I think this guy's going to be now the hottest coaching candidate in this summer cycle.

And he should be. I mean, I think the results in Vegas and in Boston have spoken for themselves largely. I think this is a downgrade, right? Like, this is a downgrade for Vegas. but it's also potentially that shot in the arm. And, you know, we see the new coach bump all the time. You know, why not try to engineer a bump like that right before a playoff run if it can carry you in May and June?

You know, you might as well take a shot. The West, especially on the Pacific side of the bracket, if Vegas is assessing like, hey, we need to do something because we think we have a path to making the conference final and then anything can happen. You know, I get it. like I get that. But I, you know, I also think they've downgraded at head coach.

And I think some other team, you know, whether it's the summer or maybe sooner. I mean, like Cassidy's such a good coach that I actually wonder if another team might follow suit. You know? Yeah. Well, see, I want to table that for a second and circle back to it. Just to hammer this point home, sport logic offensively has the Goldenite's sixth and expected goals, second and inner slot shots, defensively, second and expected goals against, first and inner slot shots allowed, special teams are third on the power play, seventh on the PK,

all their 5-1-5 shares are top 10, yet the results are staggering, right? And that's obviously why they made this decision. And that's why I view it kind of like a very reactionary move to PDO just going in the toilet, which is a very apt for this show and the show's title, 24 regulation wins in 74 games, which is 25th in the league. they've lost 10 more games than they've won. Overall, pretty much propped up entirely by the loser point. They're 14 and 26 and one goal games. The Canucks are the only team that spent more time trailing than this season,

which is a remarkable stat. And their goalies have stopped less than 88% of the shots they faced. If they had just league average goaltending, similar to what we talked about with the Sends, they'd be the first or second team and goals against this season, essentially, just having an 896 percentage. First game out of the Olympic break. break. They score six goals versus LA and all their guys who played in the Olympics weren't even

available for that one. Since then, they've played 16 games for 10 and 2 record. They're tied with the Blackhawks for least goals scored on a permanent basis, a 93.9 PDO. And you put all that together and this is how you get here. And I've seen some people say, well, you know, optically, you watch a team and it didn't look good. And I think that typically happens when the PDO is that low. Like, I think a lot of our takes are generally, reflected by whether we see pucks going into the net or not at either end of the ice. And when they're going your way, things look bad. When you're riding a good wave, things look good.

And that's what kind of happened here. I do think, I'm curious for your take on Tortorella coming in, like what the biggest beyond not having the personnel on the back end, like what you actually can functionally do here beyond just having a fresh voice. Because one of the biggest issues that I view for them is, you know, William Carlson has in place since November 8th. And that's probably been the most. most consequential loss aside from those games stone missed earlier in the year because it's resulted

in forcing Warner to play down the middle and you look at his underlying numbers and they've still been sparkling and so it's not necessarily an issue but I do think from a team build perspective you bring this guy in you're paying him $15 million this year and you're doing so under the assumption that you got this elite play driving winger that's really a one-of-a-kind player at his position and then now all of a sudden he's not actually playing that role. And I don't think they're necessarily going to change that now because William Carlson is still not available to them.

But that's something I point to where I'm wondering if Bruce Cassidy could have done something a little bit different there to get better results out of this team. Yeah. I mean, I will say that while the PDO part of this is the like headline item for why they've struggled since the Olympic break, I really don't think we should ignore. You know, somewhat like the Mike Sullivan Pittsburgh Penguins. last year where they kind of felt like a half-court team at times. Like once the game opened up,

it just felt like they were in trouble. And, you know, I mean, their top four defensemen in Ice Time, you know, Hanifin, Theodore McNabb, Anderson. I mean, there's just not a lot of speed there. Like, you know, not that Hanepin or Theodore slouches in terms of how they move, but there's just not the same level of pace

when you compare that to what the best teams in the NHL tend to have, you know, up front, or sorry, on the back end, in terms of their top four. So, and I don't know, like, what, there's no solution there that I see on the horizon, right? I mean, there's no, like, playing Dylan Coughlin Moore or something, or Ben Hutton Moore is not going to solve that. So, I, that's sort of where, I mean, this is a big ask in terms of what torts can do. You know, up front, what sort of generally, like I think Marner, I mean, more than anything, I guess with Marner, you could just up his ice time. You know, maybe the issue's not him playing center, but maybe they could just, because that's, well,

that is another thing that Torts will just reliably do is just crank up the ice time. And if you look since sort of the Olympic break, right, like Barbishab's far and away, their number one guy in terms of ice time, granted he played all 17, some of the Olympic guys, are lagging a little bit, but, you know, more Eichel, more Marner. That's going to be the answer here. As much stone as he can get, but probably not until the playoffs start. That said, like that was coming anyway, right? Like all of that was going to come in the playoffs anyway.

You know, I wouldn't exactly be criticizing Cassidy for playing Dorothea marginally more than Marner five on five post-Olympic break, you know, when he's not grinding for his playoff live. given the sort of importance of saving those reps, saving, saving some wear and tear for the playoffs, right? So, and I mean, it's hard for me to sort of figure out exactly where torts can have a huge impact. More Marner would be the one thing that I immediately expect, though, right?

And, yeah, I mean, Cassidy's deployments, like, matches torts, matches what Torts is going to do anyway, pretty well, right? with the high degree of specialization in terms of the territorial deployment, the acquisition of Nick Doud, how that clearly fueled it. Like a lot of what Cassidy was doing is going to be a pretty close match for how Tororella is going to want to play. Maybe amps up the aggression a bit, like in terms of the forecheck,

but they'll probably block more shots, but I don't know. I mean, I'm with you. I'm with you that this is unlikely to see. succeed because the problems go well beyond what Cassidy had done, but it's got a chance and there's no, no player personnel changes you can make at this point in the season. So, I mean, I get it, I guess, but yeah, I think a reactive desperation move is absolutely valid and fair as a caption of this coaching change. You're saying it's like that meme where

John Chorrella is saying something and the reaction is like, oh, you're sweet. And then Bruce Cassidy saying the same thing. And it's like, hello, human resource. 100%. That's what you're hoping for anyway, but I mean, I think Cassidy is a heck of a coach. Okay, well, here's one thing. Their loss is going to be someone else's gain here. I have no idea what the heck happened to Tomazs Hurdle recently.

Like, if you watch those Olympics, he was bizarrely inefficient. Early on in the tournament, he was getting chances, but he just wasn't converting. And then he got bumped down that Czechia lineup. Comes back from the Olympics. In March, he's played 15 games, one goal, two assists, outscored 16 to 7 at 515, and the last game under Cassidy

he played less than 12 and a half minutes. And that's probably the most fixable thing at this point based on the personnel they have available beyond Aiden Hale not being catastrophically bad. And maybe we should do like a worst contract show in the off season because I imagine he would be up there considering he's in year one of a six-year extension that pays him $6.25 million.

Now, he's got a massive signing bonus this summer and then only makes $1 million in base salary next season. So maybe there is a way to get off of that potentially, given how few goalies are available in the market. But man, it's been pretty ugly. All right, let's spin this forward then. So I mentioned that they're pretty comfortable in a playoff spot. They have 80 points in 74 games.

Hockey stats has them at 84% playoff odds. I don't see as bleak as it's been. I don't see the Kings necessarily catching them either because they've been just as poor in a lot of these metrics. Yep. I don't also see them catching the Oilers at this point given the way the Oilers have been playing. And so it feels like they're pretty firmly locked into the three seed starting off on the road in round one against the Oilers.

And we saw that series last year. I know there's different players on both sides. We'll see what tricycle status is. But I worry about that for them in terms of a lot of that speed on the back end, having a hold up against the Oilers forwards and their ability to kind of turn the puck around pretty quickly and attack downhill. And we've seen that. They've lost their past couple meetings against them. and I think it's going to be more of the same. I think you're right.

I think that's a nightmare matchup. Maybe Edmonton rolls, runs hot enough that they're, you know, able to open on the road against the Ducks. I think that would be a better matchup for them. Yeah, but then you've got the Ducks offense going against Aden Hill right now. I think that could lead to some pretty crooked numbers. So. No doubt.

Yeah, I will say the... You still like it better for them than face staring down McDavid in the play. Yes. Yeah, that's fair. especially if William Carlson's not going to be there because he was kind of their only real salvageable option against them last year. Pretty nice get right spot

for John Chororella to get comfortable in this job. Home against Vancouver. Home against the Calgary Flames who have been red hot, the hottest team in the league, but still. And then they go on the road at Edmonton, at Vancouver, at Seattle. So we'll see how it goes.

I do think, just reflecting on the last time we saw Chorderel in NHH. that sort of shop-locking heavy defensive zone structure probably to your point will be very similar in terms of the same message because I imagine any coach coming in right now, especially with such a high-profile, big name, well-paid, established veteran group. You're not necessarily reinventing the wheel. You're just kind of trying to bring in a fresh voice. And maybe that's ultimately the gist of it here, right? Because Cassidy had remarkably, despite the fact that it feels like he was hired for this job and fired by the Bruins very recently, he was the sixth longest tenured coach already. before being fired. Yep. And four years is an eternity for an NHL head coach with the same job. And so just bring in in someone because he has have a reputation as kind of being abrasive

or grinding on you, right? Because he's very disciplined and a bit of a hard-oh, yes. And at some point, especially with the composition of this roster, I think it's understandable that you might have a bit of a rift there, although everything that I've read from your colleague Jesse Grazier covering this team. who's as plugged in as anyone on their beat, he does not seem to think that that was an issue here and that it wasn't, you know,

that classic example of Bruce Cassidy being tuned out or anything. And it was just, this is just the reaction as kind of like a last-ditch effort to try to get something out of this group. Yeah, I think that's, I think that makes the most sense. You know, the other thing Torterella's flyers did really well was they were a pretty fun rush attacking team.

You know, I don't know that he's going to have the personnel to pull that off with this group in Vegas, but maybe, right? I mean, maybe they can find a way to create more catching teams leaning, sort of like those Flyers teams did when they were a lot of fun, those sort of first half of those last two seasons that he had in Philly. So that would sort of be the other wrinkle, I guess, to look at there. And then, yeah, I don't, I mean, I do wonder if Cassidy is one of those short life short shelf life coaches and I don't necessarily think that's a negative by the way like

I know there's this idea that it's so tenure so rare I mean on the list of the longest tenured coaches where does um where does uh like there's some guys who've been there for just two years now who've got to be close to the top 10 right I mean that's hockey does not have long tenured bench bosses for the most part and I don't think that's a drawback Neither just soccer. I think these dynamic games where you need so much emotion and you need so much to be coming together in your favor all at once. And like we're outworking your opponent for a short stretch,

especially in the regular season, means so much to team performance. I don't think it's a problem necessarily that coaches don't sort of last for 10 years unless they're Cooper. I think that's fine. And I think if Cassidy's a really good four or five years, year window coach. That's great. You can build an exceptional career out of that. I think he will continue to. He obviously already has. And yeah, I mean, I think he's one of the best coaches in the

league, like flat out. I can't think of a very long list of names of coaches that, you know, I'd be more excited about it if I were a fan of a contending team. I'm looking at the top 10 list of longest 10 year's coaches. Here's who I want to know where they rank. Where does Carbury right. He's seventh if you include Andre Turney dating back to his days in Arizona before the organization relocated. But top 10, you've got Carberry, you got Andrew Brunette, you've got Ryan Huska, you've got Chris Knoblock, who's been there for less than three full seasons. And that's what

kind of what makes. I think John Cooper and Jared Bednar are different in many respects than pretty much any other coach. But I think that almost makes what Rod Brindamore is done in Carolina even more impressive because the gap between him and then Marty St. Louis and Andre Turney is like four years essentially and he has been a coach who demands a lot of his players and yet you have not seen any single drop off along the way from them at least in the regular season and that makes it remarkable that he's had that longevity with that same message over and over again now maybe the way Carolina's constructed their roster in terms

of how often they move off of players but also generally preferring these kind of like cost-effective workman-like players as opposed to big-name stars probably makes it easier to have that type of a relationship. But yeah, it's pretty remarkable to think about, you know, the last time Bruce Cassidy was let go, it lasted eight days before Vegas scooped him up.

And I'm not sure if we're going to see something at this point because I can't really think of a playoff team that would make the switch at this point, unless it's a rebuilding team or a team that's on the cusp that, yeah, give it to me. You ready? Yep. This is pie in the sky, but the storylines would be delightful.

The Edmonton Oilers. Oh, wow. I mean, McDavid was recently pretty critical of Nautblock, but I don't even think indirectly. I don't think that was subtext. There's clearly an affinity for how the coaching worked at the Olympics. Cassidy was part of that team Canada staff. you know that that would if Edmonton doesn't win

and go pretty pretty deep right I mean there's going to probably be there's certainly on the radar to be an organization that makes changes not just behind the bench by the way and that would sort of be the argument against it is does Bowman have the latitude to throw the sort of Hail Mary that that the Vegas Golden Knights

you know have that they have that least the organizational sort of buy in top down where you can do these kinds of things. Does Bowman have that level of weight still in, in, in Edmonton? I don't know. But I mean, can you imagine that's the possibility of a second round, even a first round series? Cassidy on the other side against the,

against his former team and torts, like let's go. That would be, we deserve this as as hockey watchers. Yeah, I think it's fair to be skeptical of some of this stuff. and all blocks done this year in terms of usage and I think over tinkering in general and just like a lack of stability with a lot of the combinations he's used yet I had the oilers on my rundown for topics in the back half of today's show because I've actually kind of liked the way they played recently and I had some notes on that but I'm with you and especially this offseason if it results

in a for in a round one or round two defeat I think that's a pretty obvious one I had both buffalo and Utah on my list unsurprisingly because they're always on my mind for different reasons but in terms of a team who gets a taste of the postseason this year, and then decides to try to kind of like level up in a serious way and approach winning time and do so in an aggressive way. I think you could do very interesting things with both of those rosters. So those two would probably be on the top of my most logical fits, but I like the Oilers one out that you've ordered it out.

Yeah, well, just the storyline's too good if it were to happen in season. And, you know, I would, I agree with you. Like, I don't think knob blocks the problem there either so much as I think Cassidy's elite. Like I think it's a very short list of names where, where you'd read me where I wouldn't be like, that makes sense on some level, right? So that's also where the Utah Buffalo, you know, that would be kind of the like the Andrew Burnett firing bringing Paul Maurice, right? Where your team's ready. They take a big step forward. and you also raise the standard simultaneously while bringing in a new voice.

You know, I do like those types of moves generally. And then, and then of course you've got the, I think the Buffalo angle is even more unique, given Ruff's tenure there. And sort of what he means beyond just being the current coach of the Buffalo Sabres team that's going to end the playoff drought. So, you know, it's. But also pretty non-committal public. about being there beyond this year.

Yes. Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying. Like there's a potential potential natural jumping off point there in the event that you know, he calls his own shot after a pretty remarkable season. So yeah, no, I like those possibilities, but

the Edmonton, the moment this happened basically, I just started thinking, man, well, I wonder about the Oilers and I wonder if they could do a coffee cat. Tournament coach move, except Brad and they could be looking at it as a long-term thing too. Cassidy is good enough to justify that sort of thinking, I think.

Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, to put a bow on it, even if they, and I do expect some sort of a regression to hit on either end of the ice or just a coaching bump in general that we see, it's tough to see Vegas coming out ahead here, long-term, regardless of who their next coach is after Tortorella, just because it'll almost certainly be a doubt great tactically. And so that speaks to how high I am on what Bruce Cassidy can do with personnel like this.

All right, let's take our break here. And then we come back. We're going to close out this week Sunday special. You're listening to the Hockey, Podio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here in the Hockeyedogast, remember Thomas Trans for our Sunday special, doing it on a Monday morning because we had to talk about the biggest golden nights news and the coaching change. Let's switch gears here and run through a couple other storylines from this week.

I've got on my rundown, the Oilers, who we referenced before the break, the blues, the haves, and then a couple individual standouts that have really popped for me when watching their games this past week, which of those is most interesting to you personally? Sorry, can we go back? I've spaced out. Okay.

I'll just do the jump back in. All right, we're back in the Hockey-Doccast, joined by Thomas Transfer, Sunday special. Tom, let's switch gears here. Cover a couple other subplots or storylines from this past week of hockey. Here's the list that I've got. The Oilers, the Blues, the Habs,

and then a couple of individual standouts that have really popped for me would watch in their games this past week. Where do you want to start? Well, honestly, I feel like the Eastern Conference Playoff race is soaking up a lot of my attention. Like, the games that I find myself drawn to

when I'm selecting here have been like a lot of Ottawa senators, a lot of Matthew Schaefer, a lot of Eric Carlson, and a lot of the Boston Bruins can't keep getting away with this. I feel like those have been the games and

the storylines that have just occupied the most of my imagination of late. But I'm happy to hear you talk about any of those other topics and I'll riff. No, well, let's do it. So the Blue Jackets had a really tough weekend. And they had these games against the sharks

and the Bruins that I watch closely. On Saturday, they gave up the game winning goal with 125 left in regulation, get zero points out of that against San Jose. And I think alarmingly, Maybe not because they're really good, but Celebrini Smith and Chernishov just absolutely shredded them in that game and scored that game winner. And then on Sunday, they look like they're going to bounce back at home. They're up 3-0 in the third period against the Bruins after a great opening 20.

They blow that, lose in a shootout. And getting one out of four points there is really tough, especially since the next two games on their schedule are a home-and-home against the hurricanes. And I know they played them recently and played really well against them, but that's still a really tough thing to be kind of stare. and down and it's so tight that you got to get every single one of these points. And on the other end, the Bruins, just keep doing it. I'm with you. We keep talking about it, waiting for the other shooter drop. But man, they had an awesome week.

I know they had that stinker at home against the leaves. Then they go into Buffalo, win four, three in overtime, handle the wild at home, six three. And then this comeback win to get two points up to a 90% playoff probability. I mean, that line of Zaka, middle stat and Arbitzen is absolutely cooking. It's just, it's wild. I was just to put the two together I was watching the game against the wild

and Mark Castellick had an awesome scrap against Michael McCarran and we saw a Michael McCarran's capable of because he's an absolute unit against Cory Perry recently and Castellick like overpowered him and held his own and then he went up against Matthew Olivier and it's like oh man there's even further levels to this

because I've never seen someone just want to get off a ride more desperately than him by the end of that fight and Matthew Olivier is just an absolutely scary human being. But yeah, I don't, I'm very curious to watch how the blue jackets look at home and home against the hurricanes because that's going to be a pivotal one for them. And they must be kicking themselves after these past 24 hours or whatever. Yeah, no doubt. And so, you know, I thought also the lightning senators game right on that Saturday, where I just think the senators ran out of juice against that lightning team.

Like, I just don't think they had enough. And I don't feel like they have enough given the state of this blue line, given the Shabbat injury. That was a hilarious game, by the way, too. I know that was this week. That Senator, I know it was like a week ago today now, right? But that Senator's Rangers game was like the pinnacle for me of hilarious games this season where the Rangers are just getting absolutely wrecked. But the Senators lose Shabbat.

Now you've got the situation where you've got Cleven and Spence playing huge minutes. And it actually, so they didn't have enough juice to last against the Tampa Bay Lightning and it did feel like they started to give up and bleed those rush chances when they needed to open it up late. Which I just think

is the state of their blue line. The, you know, Yakim Chuck, I think is he's had his moments offensively. I think he's been key for them in some respects just because they've needed some level of scoring threat, but also you could see

the seams on that 3-2 Tampa Bay goal. Yeah, he needs to work on his skating big time. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I do, I sort of was thinking about that game and thinking about what we're seeing from Clevin and Spence in particular, especially Spence now that he's been playing 25 plus minutes a night. And it almost reminds me of what we saw from Tampa Bay earlier in the season where their

defense was this hodgepodge of no-name guys, but you're watching it. And you're like, I think they've got something in Radish. Like, I think they've got something in Desti. do and then it sort of matters and strengthens their team by the time they return to full health. The problem is the senators are out of runway, right? The lightning had that experience in November and now it matters in the spring. The senators don't have time to get these bodies back. It doesn't seem like they will get Shabbat back unless they make the playoffs and go for

and win around. Although Sanderson does look like he's close and man, they're going to need that. So I've really enjoyed this. The competitors keeping it together with sort of sticky tape as sticky tack as it were as they try and hang on in this playoff race. So yeah, the storylines out east have been, I think, some of the most fun. Like that playoff race for me is way more interesting than watching whatever the Kings and the National Predators are doing. Oh, undoubtedly. Yeah, I actually really like what I see from Cleven.

And we love Jordan Spence. And it's awesome to see him and get an expanded. role, but I think it just highlights further, like, how valuable Jake Anderson is. He doesn't put up the points that the other guys in the Norris discussion do, but he's such a workhorse in terms of not only being able to play 28 minutes and not tired at any point, but his skating on retrievals and coming back defensively when their possession breaks down to the Ozo. And I mean, he sort of puts everything together. So that would be massive. A team in that race, the Flyers, I had on my note, in my notes, so eight one and one in their last 10. Now, unfortunately, those two losses were

to the Blue Jackets who they're competing with for one of those playoff spots. Four of their first five games in April are against, twice against the Red Wings, one against the Islanders, one against the Bruins. So they're going to kind of control their own destiny. I think they're up to 35% playoff odds now after this stretch, which is ahead of the Detroit Red Wings in that race. They're tied with the Red Wings and Senators in terms of points. And the thing I wanted to highlight for them is our guy Owen Tippett.

I don't know if you saw his game on Saturday in Detroit. Oh, yeah. But it was, if you ever want a reason for why we're so intoxicated by this guy, just watch that game. I mean, the hatrick is one thing. The third goal coming down the right wing, outside in on Ben Chirot, and then bar down past John Gibson.

Really kind of had a fourth goal in that game at the end. He passes it to Kuturi, and I get it after the Red Wing scored a couple goals to make it within one, just taking the sure thing. But I was like, I was yelling at my screen while I was watching that live, being like, pass it back to tip it,

get in the fourth goal. Last 11 games for him. eight goals, 12 points, the 11 games before that, one goal, two assists. It's the full Ointipid experience. But I will say more recently, him playing with Zegris and Denver Barky, that line has been phenomenal for them. They had another huge win against the stars at home on Sunday. And so I wanted to shout that out because it's a topic very near and dear to our hearts.

Well, and the martone effect, too, right? I mean, they are getting a guy who at least has a chance. to make a difference, like to be a really good player right away to their lineup. And that is a, you know, that is a wrinkle that the senators and the Red Wings and most of these other teams aren't going to have.

Like that's an edge in this race. Not that he's got fresh legs, given that he played U-20s and finished his college season, but he certainly got young legs and he's got a lot of skill. And that's a, that's a conceivably significant ad for a team that's running hot at this point. I don't think Rick Tocke's going to be careful or hesitant to throw them out into top nine deployment right away. And they need some help on the wings, I think, especially on that left side.

But yeah, love seeing Barkie have success. I love seeing that typical game against. I mean, he's going to nuke once every 10 games or so. And when he does, he looks like he's one of the best wingers in the world. And if we ever get, you know, a season in which he does it, every five games instead of every 10 games. I think people will be shocked by what that upside looks like. Like I think there's an 80 point season in him, maybe more.

If he can ever just sort of slightly increase the frequency with which we see those apex performances from him. Yeah, I always say, like, if you aren't really familiar with the NHL and you just popped in for a random game and you catch him and tipping on one of these nights, you could very easily be convinced that he's the best player in the league. And he sure looked like that on Saturday night on ABC. so that was a nice look for him. Eric Carlson, who we talked about a couple weeks ago,

because the pens are also in this race. 15 games in March, 24 points, which is behind only Nikita Kutrov in scoring for the month. He's got nine goals in March. There's only 32 defensemen in the league that have scored more than that all season. And I also loved, like, he had that play against the stars and a loss where he still had three points, where Leon Bischel takes his stick and skates away with it,

and then it winds up scoring. And he just absolutely lets a ref have it about as vocally and publicly as you're going to see during an HL game. And the official sees the replay and he's like, my bad, you're right. And it was an awesome interaction. Obviously, it didn't help matters for them in that game, but it was still really fun. You could tell

that the ref knew that they messed up. And I thought it was one of the worst non-calls in the season. But you could tell that the refs knew that they messed up because Carlson had that outburst and they didn't assess him for an unsportsman like. Yep. You know, like you're getting called if you're not

dead right. And the ref, like, if The ref doesn't feel bad about the call. They're calling you for unsports. You also do get a little more leeway if you're Carlson, though. I think if Ryan Shea did that, I think that would be a pretty quick two minutes, maybe even an injection. But also, I think if the, you know, I think if the rep was like, I don't think you're right, man. Like, you got to cool it. I think they'll almost always assess the guy regardless of the statute of the penalty.

I think that one was like, ooh, yeah, my bad. but Carlson's been amazing. I loved the stepdad's t-shirt. That was incredible, an incredible bit from him. And I mean, this is great. Like this is how does Carlson tilt? If Pittsburgh holds on here, if Pittsburgh holds on here and if Carlson stays hot,

how does that tilt the Norris race in your mind? I don't know. I'm recusing myself from it. There's just way too many guys having all-time seasons that would otherwise win in pretty much any other year. I had a lot of notes on Evan Bouchard. I think what he's doing is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, Lane Hudson recently as well.

Like, you go on and on. It's also a great time. It seems to be a 35-year or 36-year-old defenseman named Carlson because John Carlson's really impressed me as well. He's only played seven games in Anaheim since that trade, but he's playing like 25 minutes a night. He played nearly 29 on Saturday in Edmonton has seven assists in his last three games. The 5-on-5 numbers with him on the ice are off the charts.

And I think you can see the proof of concept in terms of, of how he almost like levels up their offense in a way. And in that game, they were down three nothing. So score effects are on their side. But like the push they're able to mount and they keep trailing. I heard some stat where they've gone down one nothing, a shocking number of times this year. So it's not a great situation to find themselves in repeatedly.

But when they have to push as the game progresses, their offensive gears is freakishly high. And he helps a lot of that with getting pucks through from up high, keeping it in, really kind of sensing open. open spaces. So yeah, it's a great time for 36-year-old defenseman named Carlson. Still holding out some hope for former first-round pick of the Blue Jackets, Gabriel Carlson, who's playing in the Swedish league. He's got six years to get his act together and come back over and fit in. Do you want to quickly talk Habs?

Yeah, let's do it. Last five games, seven three against the Islanders, five two against the Hurricanes, two one against the Blue Jackets, went into Nashville this weekend, and absolutely put the boots to them for one and then follow it up on a second leg of back to back in Carolina with a 3-1 win. Their next game is at Tampa, which I'm going to be watching very closely. It's impossible not to be incredibly impressed by the way their top players are playing. The top lines numbers are obscene. Lane Hudson since the Olympics has taken his game to another level. Some of the stuff they can do when they have their best players on the ice,

especially off of offensive zone draws where they get that defenseman coming down the circle downhill and it's an immediate scoring chance is so fun to watch. And I don't know. I love watching this team so much. I'm still not sure what the ceiling is this season. And I still think it's a longer game for them clearly. But you can see why they're going to be very dangerous. And I think these two games against the hurricanes are a great example of it. Right. Where they get outshot 78 to 37 in those two games. They outscore the hurricanes eight to three. And their top players are just so much more likely to turn their chances into goals. And we saw that in those games. And I think that's a real thing. Yeah, I think the Slavkovsky factor going on to that line with Coffield and Suzuki has given them a cutting edge at the top of the lineup that's damn sharp. I mean, like that top line feels as dangerous as what anyone is, anyone else is trotting out at the top of their lineup aside from the Edminton Oilers when they're healthy. You know, I don't know how else to caption it. I think the level of dominance that they've exerted since being put together has been astonishing, right? Like, it's shocking to me.

Yeah, I mean, I remember, it wasn't that long ago, like 18 months ago after the Carrier trade before Gouli got hurt that last season. And it was like, they might be on to something here. And now that's their third pair, right? Like, this team's becoming deep, fast. and now that top end, I really do think Slavkovsky up there, like, I think that if we're having a conversation dim in May, and it's like, well, that became the best top line in the East, I'm not going to be stunned by that.

I'm not saying they're there yet, but I feel like there's at least a chance, like an upside case to be made, that with those three, with that trio together, you know, the Canadians might be throwing it a, beat, no one can hit. Yeah, they're right up there with Kutrov and Hegel and generally Sirelli with them. And then when Zach Benson's playing with Malenstein and Carrick, those are my top three right now in the east. Yeah, too, the Zach Benson's a fourth liner because of where

he takes line rush's discourse is going to drive me nuts. At the end of every game, he's still top six in Ice Time. But yeah, anyway, let's move on. Well, to your point about that top line, they put Slavkovsky back with Cawfield and Suzuki at March 6 in Anaheim. 12 games since then. They're up 15 to 5 at 5-1-5 in their minutes. All three guys are top 10 in the league in scoring. And they're chasing some individual accolades here down the stretch as well, right? Suzuki needs nine points in his final nine games to hit 100 for the year.

Caulfield's only two goals back of McKinnon for the rocket and needs four more in the final nine to get to 50. And then Slavkovsky is probably going to get 70 plus points this year. And his playmaking has just been off the charts compared to what I was previous. and defense. And I mean, he's just so fun to watch right now.

And then Hudson post Olympics 515 up 22 to 10, 63% expected goal share and doing a lot of it playing on the right side with Jaden Strubel. Yeah.

I really did want to talk about the blues. So let's put a pin in that and then we can circle back to it if they have another good week because I want to talk about snug root and some of their young players. I really like their forwards

and then the Oilers as well. I'm sure we're going to have plenty of time to talk about that. But I'm glad we got to do this before a busy week for us. I'll let you plug some stuff here on the way out. Check out all of my work at the athletic and, and of course, Canucks talk grinding away toward the end of the season

on SportsNet 650 every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, noon to 2 p.m. Pacific. All right. Well, assuming I'm able to get to Denver in time, our next show will be with Jared Bednar, so really looking forward to that. Give us a five-star review wherever you listen, subscribe to the P.D.O. gas Patreon. for extra shows moving forward. And that is all for today. Thank you for listening to the Hockey Ocast

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