The Hockey PDOcast - The Playoff Battles To Watch in the Final Week of the Regular Season

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to go through the most interesting playoff battles to watch heading into the final week of the regular season. 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 Hockey Pediocast. My name is Dmitra Filipovich and joining me for a Sunday special here on a Monday morning, final week of the NHL regular season. My good buddy Thomas Trans, Tom, what's going on in? Dmitri, I'm excited for the playoffs. The playoff picture is slowly coming into shape. Not quickly enough in my opinion. No, I agree. As someone who has to do playoff previews in a timely manner. We have a pretty quick turnaround. Now it looks like the Eastern conference portion of the schedule is going to be pretty

much wrapped up by Wednesday evening. Hopefully. So that's going to allow for a nice little buffer period on Thursday to do our annual round one previews. The West really could bleed into late Thursday night at which point the turnaround is going to become unmanageable. But you know what? That's just a personal beef,

not actually a big deal. I think the East, we're fortunate, like, I think we're mostly fortunate to have avoided a scenario where you know, as a result of Detroit falling well short, basically, I thought there was this unfortunate scenario where like the eighth best record would be outside the playoff picture while the ninth best record was, you know,

in third place in the Metro Division. I'm glad we've avoided that eventuality. Still technically true. I mean, if you look, the Red Wings are tied for 14th in the league and points percentage with the Vegas Golden Knights who are in pole position in the Pacific division. So that's not ideal. No, well, and that's the, in the West. I mean, maybe, maybe Vegas is going to be favored over Utah in a first round series. I think Edmonton will be. Yes. So, but I mean, there's no question that there's a possibility that the, you know,

wild card Utah mammoth are favored in their first round series, unless it's Edmonton, the wins the division, I think. Here's a crazy idea. I think the Kings should play a play in game against the ninth seed in the east. And then the winner of that should be the second wildcard in the West. Yeah. Well, first of all, we need that just to get the pro tie and Tom Wilson. Yes.

I mean, what a show those three put on this weekend. So, yeah, I mean, it does feel a little bit absurd. Like, the Washington Capitals and the Columbus Blue Jackets, not only are going to have more points probably at the end of the season than half of the Western Conference playoff bracket, but, I mean, are clearly better on true talent. So, yeah, the extent to which this ended up being unbalanced between West and East this season is, you know, deeply unfortunate.

We're going to get into all that today. You know, it's our first show together since the set of Denver shows that we did where we had Jared Bednar and Chris McFarland on. So we're going to try to keep the momentum going. We didn't get any coaching news to react to coming out of the weekend. So that's a little different compared to what we've been dealing with over the past month or so. But we did, as you mentioned, have a weekend where we at least whittle down the number of

teams mathematically available or alive and in the hunt. For the playoffs, we've only got four days left on the regular season schedule. And so I thought a fun exercise for us today would be to kind of work our way through all the permutations and, like, situations to watch for. Sure. This week in terms of not only who's going to get in, who's not, but jockeying for position and potential matchups. And that's some of the storylines involved. Kind of like a primer for the final week of the regular season. Let's start with the seating in the Atlantic because despite the fact that we know who the team's playing in the playoffs are going to be, I'd argue that.

I'd argue that both from an entertainment perspective, but also from a quality of competition and likelihood of advancing deeper into the playoffs, it might be the most interesting and consequential race still left to be sorted. You've got the Sabres, 106 points and 80 games, the HABs tied with them with one fewer game left, and then the Lightning with two games left and two points behind.

And so it's still up in the air. The Sabres are in a good position. especially if you look at their schedule where they're playing at the Blackhawks who lose to everyone. And then they're closing out at home against the Stars team that's already locked into the second seed. So there's no real incentive for them to play. And I imagine especially with some of the injuries they've had to hints and Hayskin, and they're going to play it safe and probably going to have a Texas Stars lineup for the most part in that one. So the Sabres seem like they're in a good position to lock that down.

We can get into whether that's ultimately a good thing, depending on how the wild cards shake out in the East. but I'm curious we were taking starting off here in terms of how all of this is going to play out what the most fun combinations are in terms of round one purposes and then who this is ultimately most meaningful to because I think you could argue that the Sabres, the prestige of not only finishing first in this division in their returns to playoffs but also with how crazy that home crowd is and how it presumably will be right out of the gate. I think that's a massive edge for them.

And then also, you know, we're both really high on the senators and we're talking to talk more about them as we get going here. But I think ultimately staying out of that two, three between the haves and the lightning and allowing them to duke it out in round one is probably the most optimal outcome for them, just avoiding that right out of the gate. Yeah, I think the benefits of it, it could be a bit of a Pyrick victory if you avoid Montreal and Tampa Bay and end up playing the senators because I think the senators, frankly, are not that far back from those other three teams.

I mean, the senators had a sub-900, five-on-five, save percentage and are going to make the playoffs. We've seen how hot they've run despite just an absolute massive defensive injuries, compounded even more of late now with Clevin additionally hurt after he was so immense for them in holding the fort when Sanderson and Shabbat were out. So, yeah, I mean, I think the key is, is if you get Boston, I do rate Boston as being a different beast entirely than the Habs, the Lightning, and the Senators. But those four teams with Buffalo factored in, I think all of them are real threats. Like, I think all of those teams are sides you could conceivably imagine getting to the conference final.

And that, first of all, that's super exciting for a division that's kind of been owned by the state of Florida with, you know, not, not no suspense. I mean, the Maple Leaf certainly made it interesting. And it's not as if the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Florida Pan. The Panthers have always had a cakewalk to the conference final, but it has been those two teams every year. And it does feel, I mean, I still think Tampa is probably the team we should favor to come out of the division. But Buffalo is absolutely in their weight class, maybe deeper, has owned them in their previous meetings. Montreal, I mean, what more can you say about this Habs team? They're exceptional.

and it feels like that Slavkovsky-Cof-Field combination I mean, I think you could argue that they might have the best top end of the lineup going five-on-five in this division now, which is something I wouldn't have imagined even 40 games ago, as high as I've been on them all season,

and then you've got this, you know, shot volume suppression engine in the senator. So I think there's obviously incentive and I'd love to see Buffalo in the division. I'd love to see them have an excuse to raise a banner regardless of what happens. But I think the real prize is actually somewhat outside of their control in that it depends on sort of whether or not you're able to see Boston, right?

Or, well, and more likely Ottawa. But, I mean, really, it's coin flip territory. Plus, I guess mathematically they still could catch the hurricanes, right? They have the tiebreaker. So win two hurricanes are resting guys now. I guess there's still some possibility. They jump into the one seed in the east. If you went through the runtime of just how much time we spent speaking about each club last season,

would you put Sabres, Mammoth, and Ducks as top three, despite the fact that none of them made the playoffs last year. And it seemed ill-timed on our part, yet maybe prophetic in terms of setting up our listeners for what's to come this year with all three teams, of course, looking poised to make the playoffs and being some of the most exciting clubs in the league. I feel like that's a big W for us. I agree with you. And, you know, I'd say like, I know Lindy Ruff's going to win the Jack Adams, but I would say, I don't know that, for example, of the coaching jobs in that division, would you rate him ahead of Travis Green? Would you rate him ahead of Marco Sturm? Would you rate him ahead of Cooper? You know what I mean? Like, he's going to win the Jack Adams. It's such a great story. I'm not criticizing it by any means. But, you know, I like, the Ducks have had the success. And, you know,

I still watch them and think, man, they don't check it all. You know, the Utah mammoth have had the success and, hey, they're super dangerous off the rush. And, you know, there's still a ton of deployment stuff and stuff left off. And we feel a suboptimal. Yeah, there's still some change in the couch cushions, as it were. And I feel the same about Buffalo. So, you know, like, as much as these teams now appear to be ascendant, I actually still think there's levels for them to go in terms of deployment decisions, not to mention the youth of some of the best players involved. I do too, but beyond the sort of convenience of the story and it being a very easy thing to latch on to in terms of why Lindy Ruff should win that award.

The one thing I will give them credit for is embracing the personnel they had. Yes. And then being true to it to the point that a couple weeks ago, we had those stories of like rival executives and clubs wondering about whether their style of hockey is going to work in the playoffs. And that remains to be determined. but I think part of the success and charm of this team was kind of doubling down on that strength and just leaning on their four best defensemen to play a very aggressive exotic style

and just giving them a green light to attack constantly. And we've seen in the wrong hands, a lot of coaches fumbled that. I mean, I'd even argue that what we've seen from the Utah Mammoth, that's one of the things that's been a frustration or sticking point for me is I wish they played more like that because they have the personnel to do so and instead they buttoned down things a little bit more.

give them credit for that in terms of like understanding your own personnel and then playing to its strengths unabashedly and having the success where only the abs have more regulation wins in the season incredible and that's you know look lindy rough hockey has always been aesthetically appealing hockey and yeah the way that those defenders interchange with their forwards right there's there's some like johan kroif to their game and enabled to like credit to them by how dogged guys like McLeod and Benson and, you know, I mean, even Tage a lot of the time are in terms of getting back and covering for defenders when those turnovers do happen. So, no, I mean, Buffalo is the best watching the league and they have been all season. It's going to be thrilling to watch them play, you know, especially, I mean, whether it's Montreal, whether it's Tampa.

Well, I guess it's not likely to be Montreal in the first round, but whether it's Tampa, whether it's Boston, whether it's Ottawa. I mean, great jersey matchups. Those crowds are going to be insane. I want to see them play Boston, I think, because I want to see Buffalo get like 10 playoff games at least, given how long those fans have waited. But, I mean, regardless, the environments, the jersey matchups, the players involved,

it's going to be, you know, a smorgasbord. And not to relive all of the Chris, all the Chris Knobloh conversations from previous post seasons. But I did think it was notable, like, we've had a lot of frustrations in terms of deployment and usage in terms of where guys are slotting in the lineup up front

and then they play that game last Monday against the lightning, a big one at home, they come out and win and you look and it's like Jack Benson led the team in 5-1-5 ice time, and I think Lindy Ruff is pretty hip to it. At this point, I imagine we'll see a lot more of that in the postseason and we'll be more excited about it. I also think we know

from how he reacted to the Tampa game, where Oestland and Benson just saw in-game adjustments and not acknowledging what was working and what was in the most playoff like game that that team has played and in fact that any NHL team has played in the regular season this year he leaned heavily on you know the guys who really mattered i also liked that um norris donne benson line we saw for a stretch last week that was that was like an entire pound of dog give it to me yeah josh donne ran wild

against the blue jackets in that game they really put a nail in their coffin other nice thing for the Sabres is while they still have something to play for and they could kind of handle their business in that final game against the Hawks today is they'll by the time we get to the playoffs, they'll have only played like two games in 10 days essentially because they've had a very light schedule down the stretch. And so I think that's nice for recharging the batteries for the defensemen and how much they're going to lean on them to Habs for a second they close out at the flyers. And we'll see on that.

I watched them very closely this weekend. Unfortunately, no adops and got hurt in that game on Saturday. in the loss of the Blue Jackets. We did get to see the NHL debut of David Reinbacher in the next game on Sunday. And I thought Marty St. Louis did a nice job of easing him in. If you look at the usage, right? Yeah. He came in Jack.

I essentially stayed away from Barzal and the Islanders top forwards, kept them out of the defensive zone, I think put him in a spot to succeed. You mentioned that top line as well, not to keep beating this drum excessively, although I think it's going to prove pretty prescient heading into the postseason. But man, you see that's Lefkovsky. assist against the islanders where he's kind of cycling it high in the zone he's holding off bull horbat who is pretty tough to do yeah so against and just using his reach to keep the puck away from and cycles it around and hits Suzuki out front and stuff like that is what we've been talking about

all season i think it adds an entirely different dimension to not only that line but this team so i think that habs lightning round one series if that is how it shakes out is going to be an immensely fun one and it would also be cool if the habs started at home because as we've talked about that home crowd. We'll see what the Sabres faithful have to offer in round one, but it's right up there in terms of atmosphere and excitement and when they score them just going absolutely nuts. Yeah. The present, I mean, nothing like playoff hockey in Montreal and, you know, Marty St. Louis versus the Tampa Bay Lightning is a fun little subplot. And then from a hockey perspective, like just from a raw hockey perspective, the notion of the Tampa Bay Lightning entering a playoff

series where I'm pretty sure you know I'm pretty sure their depth is going to have to carry it because I think they're going to have a tough time matching Montreal at the top of the lineup well and the habs are going to like if you watch that last game two teams played last week and they scored in the final minute yeah the habs are going to be very willing to engage in a strength on strength

for sure Suzuki versus kuturov yeah combination and at that point like the lightning depth and especially brayden point who's been in and out of the lineup and not his usual supremely efficient self where he's kind of flying around creating all sorts of turnover is he created a huge goal in their most recent game in Boston to help win that one in regulation. But I think they're going to need, you know, if it's going to be him against Leonzol and Gonzalez on that second line, those guys to really step up because that's probably where the series is going to be decided. If it's, if it's them going up against, you know, either the Demitov line or DeNo or kind of further down the Habs lineup. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, at this point, we've seen Suzuki Slavkovsky Koffield for 520 minutes, 33 goals, 4, 14 a game. like good luck yeah i mean that's better than two to one as a ratio it's preposterous and you know i don't know how many times we've seen the tampa bay lightning sort of get into a series where you're like okay you know is is our kutrov and company going to be able to just like hold the fort against the opposition's top of the lineup right i mean even with the florida panthers it was often that bennett kachuk you know take chances and and play smash mouth hockey and probably injure somebody on your team line. They kind of carried the day as Barkov just frustrated everybody else.

This feels like a totally different animal than we've seen the Cooper-era Lightning match up against. And I say that with due, you know, compliments to those three, you know, young vets in Montreal. And for the lightning, because of the fact that they have 40 regulation wins, they close out at home against the Red Wings who have been eliminated and the Rangers who have been playing better, but are obviously tanking. At least they're trying to. Yeah, they're having fun. If they win both those, they will have home ice in round one.

So they have a lot to play for it. So it'll be an exciting week in that regard. Now, we kind of alluded to this, but let's get into a little bit, the ramifications of the wild card in the east and those two Atlantic teams, right? There was a huge swing on Sunday, I thought, where the Bruins win in regulation in Columbus. Ottawa loses an overtime against the Devils, which puts the Bruins back up. Yeah. By one point in that, both teams have one left.

Do you see that Senator's defense? I did. Well, they sat because Coach Car got banged up on Saturday. And they sat Sanderson. They sat Stutzelah as well. What's interesting here is the Bruins close out at home against the devils on Tuesday. So the senators will kind of know what they need and whether they have a chance to move up to Wildcar won with their final game against the Leafs on Wednesday. And so we'll see what kind of lineup they wind up using. But I'm with you in terms of the two alternatives for whoever things.

finishes first in the division, like not to discredit the Bruins for a remarkable season and getting in here against our expectations, but 25th and expected goals for 25th and expected goals against 28th and both inner slot shots loud and inner slot shots against, whereas the senators, to your point, Vanduel currently has them as the third most likely team in the east to represent the conference in the stand-the-cup final just ahead of the Buffalo Sabres who are first in her division. That's right, by the way. Like, I don't know what else to say.

I mean, if they get 910 goal tending, 9.05 goaltending, they're going to be impossible to break down. Like, I don't know what else. Well, not to step on the toes of the playoff preview I'm going to do, but I will say this to that point. I think it's more likely they get that as efficient and lethal as the Sabres offense is. It is a bit more straight line. in terms of you're going to get quality looks,

but you kind of know where they're coming from. If they wind up drawing the hurricanes, for example, if they finish Wild Card 2, there's a lot of stats that suggest that Linus Almark is going to have a very tough series there because his biggest weakness has been second chance shots and rebounds and kind of stuff around the net, and that probably is one of the few weaknesses this senator's defense has had,

and the hurricanes are going to be just licking their lips all over that. Whereas, you know, the Sabres have certainly improved in that regard this season, and it's been a big driver of their success. but I think the hurricanes are still one of one in terms of their ability to replicate and generate a ton of those regardless of opponent. You know, the Spence 26 minutes last night, you know, last night against the devil's.

Mantipalo, I think, has shown that he can be trusted. And obviously, we know what Zubb and we hope Shabbat's healthy enough and we hope Sanderson can hold on, you know, if the playoff run goes long. sounds like Clevin is pretty iffy, you know, to return, at least to start the first round. So that's a really tough blow. We know how impressive he was. I mean, you know, this seems like one more right-handed defender from just being so stacked

and so hard to break down on the back end. But, yeah, I mean, it seems like they can kind of just plug anyone in and keep playing their style of hockey. I feel like they've kind of reached that level as a systems team, which is a little bit Carolina Hurricanes like. And yeah, we'll see if they have enough juice, right? We'll see if they have enough juice. I bet they're all exhausted too.

I bet you this has been an especially emotionally draining season. It's been a grind. Yeah, it's been a grind the whole way. But they're level, the way they control play. I mean, they don't need that much luck to go their way to perform like one of the best teams in the league because they kind of

are won five on five. Yeah, they've been doing it for a while. They're 26 and 4 since January 25th, which is third best points percentage. They've been in a top five, five-on-five team across the board. Defensively in particular, I mean, they're giving up 23 shots a game. In that time, to your point about Jordan Spence, it's been, speaking of a W's, it's been really fun to see guys like him and Sam Malinski this year off the top of my mind kind of step up in bigger roles because I know we always have those questions of like

this third pair of defenseman who plays very carefully curated minutes that we're really excited about it as offensive Jews, can they step up the lineup and against tougher competition with different responsibilities. Can they still look the part? And then you watch what Spence has done here as, as Malinski's done in Colorado this year. And last 20 games since Sanderson initially got hurt, he's leading the team in 5-1-5 ice time playing like 22 and a half minutes, all situations, over half a point of game, 60 plus percent expected goals and high danger chances. He's been phenomenal and I think is going to be a very intriguing RFA this summer in terms of what that next contract is going to look like. But I know even they were a bit

dubious in terms of ramping that up early in the year and he had some healthy scratches and was kind of stuck in that LA King's role that he had previously and then now out of necessity he's like he's shown that he's very capable of this and is a reliable top four guy and I think that is that's really exciting you had anything else on on any of these teams do you want to maybe close out with red wings let me let me ask you a genuine question uh you know going over my awards ballot starting to make calls to a variety of my league sources and you know asking their opinion Should I be considering Shane Pinto more strongly for Selke? Yeah.

You think so? Yeah. I think you deserve some love. Yeah. I mean, I think back to when we were talking about Team USA selection. Yeah. And I remember I kind of floater him out as like, well, if you want to bring Trochik because of this very specific role in terms of having that center who can kill some draws and stuff, it will want to work it out for them. But I thought Shane Pinto would have been a perfectly fine solution there while giving you a bit more.

more youth and juice offensively. And so I think that is totally reasonable. Let's end with the Red Wings. Okay. Who missed out here, of course. A very disappointing end to their season, I believe they went 8, 11, and 3 post-Olympics. Some of the same stuff recurring, I think, specifically,

like just rode the wheels off, John Gibson a little bit too much, I thought. And I know there was an Olympic break there in between, but he wound up starting 25 with their final 28 games. and left a bunch of them early with injuries. The Larkin injury at the deadline killed them because you look and I know he had that hat trick last week and scored some power play goals. But he was like a sub-40% expected goal guy

if I won five while giving you nothing offensively. I thought he was going to be 40 games in, 50 games in. I thought he was going to be top three on my Selke ballot. And I don't know how I go there given how it's season-ended. Yeah. The blue line like Sider and Edmondson were amazing. cider in particular. Yes.

Like the team's result should not discredit. What a remarkable individual season you had. Did you watch that third period against the flyers earlier this week? Yeah. When he had five assists? Yeah. Or he was five points and they get a goal in forces. But it was the, uh, it was specifically the pass to cane.

That's just wild stuff. I mean, honestly, reminded me a little bit of the feeling that I have watching Slavkowski, uh, having like figured it out and added this like layer of nuance and deception and. skill to, you know, the 99th percentile physical traits that he always had. Like, it felt like one of those plays where it was just like the read, the speed with which he made the pass, the deception, as he retrieved the puck at sort of that half wall. I mean, that's really scary stuff if he can keep making plays like that going forward.

He also has some stuff that he's had for a while now, of course, but just seeing it even in closer detail defensively where not only guys are kind of staying away from his defensive gravity. but his ability to essentially just kind of close stuff off and immediately remove a guy from the puck is absolutely freakish unfortunately the depth beyond that whether it's Jacob Bernard Docker and Albert Johansen or then the Falk chariot pair and that trade in particular killing them with what it looks like for all the all the talk about the the red wings draft lottery luck 1.1% odds of that pick winds up fifth overall well also I mean yeah but also their drafting just hasn't been very good. And we're now at a point where, you know, for example, they have Benson in the lineup

instead of Danielson. We're probably having a very different conversation about them. But, you know, they don't have that, like, they didn't have that second wave of depth guys. You know, ASP ends up getting reassigned. They felt the need to trade for Falk paying more than they acquired when they traded Philip Roneck just a few years ago. You know, I think a lot of that was like the right stuff, but you actually have to identify the players to provide that sort of secondary wave of support and with sort of Casper not taking that step. Danielson doesn't look high end enough. You know, ASP wasn't able to, you know, be sort of the, like the bridge. Yeah, or at least relied upon.

Enough of a bridge that you could afford to not trade a first and a second for a guy who came in and was a brutal second pair with Ben Chirot. Like, they just didn't get enough of that sort of secondary push as the injury is piled up to your Larkins and your cops and your sort of like that sort of veteran layer of, of insulation that Eiserman is built. And yeah, I mean, I think that team should be massively disappointed. They should. And especially because the Sabres end their drought, the ducks are going to end their drought,

and that leaves them at 10 now. I think the sharks are going to be second at like seven years in a row without making the playoffs. And so that's a really tough to swallow. But the sharks, like, we have a very good sense of what the sharks are going to look like when they're good. You know what I mean? I feel like we're starting to get that sense, maybe.

with like at least Sider Edvinson, but I mean, that, you know, Larkin's getting older. Like, their best guys are not young. I mean, I just don't know that we can look at this Red Wings team and be like, I have confidence that in three years they're going to be something significant. Whereas, you know, with a team like San Jose, I think we know exactly what it looks like when they get good.

Yeah, I think it's tough because on the one hand, I get that like it's a recurring issue for them from March 1st on the past, couple years and the sequencing of it of like faltering down the stretch and in particular in the manner they did which is showing the seams that were very self-inflicted for the most part in terms of not figuring that out in the meantime makes it that much more difficult to stomach on the other hand as I said they're tied for 14th and point percentage of Vegas who's first in their division they're one regulation win behind the oilers for 13th or 12th or whatever in the league like yeah I think a lot of it is that post-olympics they ran out a guess the three best teams in the

league we're in their division unfortunately that doesn't include the lightning or one of the three to five best teams in the league yeah and so it's kind of a a byproduct for me of being like a victim of your situation not that that makes it easier to stomach but i don't think it's necessarily as catastrophic um as like it would be otherwise if you just take a remove emotion and take a bigger picture of you in a vacuum and be like all right where did things shake out this year like i do think there are building blocks especially with the year cider had where he kind of vaulted himself into being a top five defender. That's a legitimate thing I think to hang your hat on and be excited about

moving forward. It is, but I mean they need... Yeah, it's a missed opportunity. There's no way around it. And I just don't know that the path forward is all that clear. You know, they're still too reliant on guys that are old. And so given where Montreal's at,

given where Buffalo's at in their own division, given where teams like Anaheim, Utah and San Jose are at, I mean, they've been rebuilding for an awfully long time for us to not have a really good sense of what the next great Detroit Red Wings team even looks like at this point. I think that's very fair.

Let's take our break here and then we come back. We're going to jump to the Metro and then get to the West. You're listening to the Hockeypedio cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockeyedogynast. We've covered the Atlantic, all the playoff permutations there. Let's get to the Metro and in particular to third seed because Carolina

at one is locked in. Pittsburgh is locked into the two seed with home ice, which is remarkable. Unbelievable. You get to the third seed where the Flyers have 94 points and 80 games. The Capitals are still mathematically alive, 93 and 81. And they have the regulation win hammer as a tiebreaker. And then the Blue Jackets are still mathematically alive,

around 5 or 6% playoff probability with 92 and 81. Those last two teams, the Caps and Blue Jackets, close out their respective seasons on Tuesday in Columbus, which should be a fun game. The Flyers ultimately here, especially after that very emphatic win on Saturday in Winnipeg. control their own destiny. Yep.

And they close out home against the hurricanes. Or as we mentioned. We'll be resting people. I love that they're not resting like the full team though. They're resting like specific lines one at a time. It's very hot. And you and I were joking before as well. And I think this is the biggest credit possible to Rod Brindamorne in their system. Oftentimes as we just saw it with Pittsburgh, for example, and countless other teams here,

there's that sort of exhale once you lock in your spot where you're not playing the same guys. The motivation isn't there. and you see a totally different performance. And for the hurricanes, they're a one of one in terms of anyone that's playing is probably going to be

forechecking their tail off and having a 55% expected goal share at 515 to the point where I think you and I could jump in there and look the part. And so it's not an easy one by any means, but they have that and then they close out home against Montreal

who may or may not have someone to play for. So I don't know, do you want to talk flyers? Do you want to talk caps, blue jackets, want to put it all together? I think all three are pretty interesting. So, yeah, I mean, I love that Crosby's going to get in, obviously.

But I also love that Crosby's going to get in with actually a pretty interesting path. Now, Washington on True Talent, I think, is significantly ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers. I mean, I think it's a... They're the seventh most regulation wins. They're like pretty much there with Dallas. It's a massive gap in oppositional talent.

And obviously, Washington won both those games, but now, you know, what? The Flyers are one win away from clinching, win one of the last two. They need two points to to winch it, yeah. Regardless of whatever the other teams do. Right.

So, you know, I think the caps have probably run out of luck, and it's kind of the opposite of that Spencer Carberry season where they made the playoffs mind with them, you know, minus 28 goal differential. Like, they're a top 10 team in the league, and they're probably not going to make it. And they, like, had all this backweighted production, right? They're leveling up.

They're better now with, Elia Protois in the lineup and with Cole Hudson arriving and being Well, they're also 14, 7, and 2 since PLD came back. And I feel like that's a big monkey wrench in their season. Totally. So, yeah, this is like the caps of my miss, but I mean, I think we're looking at them as an ascendant team.

I think we should be looking at them as an ascendant team. And I think this show that we've seen with the three towers, you know, not since the days of Antropov, Ponakarovsky, and Sundin have three bodies like this, cycled like this, with this level of skill. I mean, give it to me. Like that game on Saturday was... Tell me more about their bodies.

They're all gigantic. Yeah, the pro-d-iron is as cool on ice as I thought they would be on paper. They're so cool. And then throwing them with Tom Wilson, I mean, it's just high-scale, unbelievable. You know, Cole Hudson's one-man highlight machine, I think there's an argument to be made that he's arrived in the league more advanced than his brother. Who's going to be on minorist ballot? I mean, what are we,

what Washington has accomplished here, regardless of whether or not they make it, is sensational. Like, this is unbelievable. This is defying gravity at a rate that, you know, I don't, like, I don't, people will point to, like, Dallas and, like, other successful retools and on and on.

But, like, Dallas had, you know, one transformative draft class. And it kind of, they, they had some other heads. So I know I'm not trying to, like, oversimplify it. But Dallas had this one transformative draft class. class that covered up all manner of sins. The Washington Capitals just like move after move, just keep hitting it out of the park

and restocking. I don't think we've ever seen anything like it, but I mean, they're an ascendant retooling team in a way that I just don't think anyone else in the NHL is. Yeah, they also got all those reps because of the PLD injury with sort of playing high leverage minutes down the middle. Ryan Leonard's point production is starting to come around recently and it a huge weekend. you're seeing some reps for Mureshnachenko. They have a bunch of other prospects.

They can deal with a ton of cap space. So I think not only incredibly exciting, but I'm personally excited to see what friend of the podcast, Spencer Carberry, does with it in the offseason in terms of preparation knowing this is what he's working with. Heading into next year, quick note on the Blue Jackets, who, as I said, are still mathematically alive,

but their offense just completely dried up at the worst time. They've gone 3-8-1 over their past 12 games, 23 total goal scores. in that time. And it feels like in particular, the Bruins just killed them, not only because they took one of those playoff spots in the east from them, but also those two head to heads in Columbus recently, where Columbus blew that 3-0 lead two weeks ago. Yeah. And then on Sunday, a vintage 25, 26 Bruins win where they get outshot 35 to 22, but still take those two points. And so it's pretty brutal for the Blue Jackets who seemed like they were in a good spot and had that

post-coaching bump, but the offense just fell apart and a lot of the usage stuff we could point to as well. Let's get flyers. I mean, has a coach of a worst team ever been more soundly criticized and then made the playoffs? Genuinely, I feel like this is a story unlike anything I can remember. Can you even think of an example? What a performance from Rick's receipts. Unbelievable. Now, they, as I said, need two points to clinch their position regardless of what happens in that Blue Jackets Capital's game.

That win in Winnipeg on Saturday. Unreal. Where they had the disappointing game in Detroit previously and then they just come out and immediately that Porter Martone goal where, especially throughout that first period, he had Adam Lowry in the Torture Chamber on numerous sequences. And he's been a point per game since he arrived. I like how everything is settled in as well, right? Because they found this nice combination they've had all year. with Zegris and Tippett. Now you get this Martone with DeVorek and Kinec combo.

And that's allowed, I think, a lot of the pressure to come up with me. That Kinecass. Oh, unbelievable. And he's so good off the rush as a playmaker. And then Mitch Godd as well, who not to forget about that, since Merton arrived, he's been playing with Noah Kates in, with a lot of offensive zone starts. They're up 8 to 2 in his minutes as well with like a 65% expected goal share. And so I think it's really allowed their four group to come into place.

the Katrilla line at a monster performance and a fourth line role against the Jets and so I actually like their forward group quite a bit right now. Me too. Still probably it's like a high end center short of being where we want them to be long term but I mean Martone looks like a dude. How funny, what a good bit by the way. Martone coming into the NHL and immediately he's like over 15 minutes a game.

Well he leads the team at forward usage. Right. And by one five since he arrived. Yeah. Right. So I mean that's just such a good bit. Like it's just such a good bit that it's not a young player thing.

Now it's going to be a European young player thing. Yeah, I mean, I think the conversation around Rick Talk has been so absurd all year. Obviously, I know the guy and think highly of him, but it's an objective assessment more than it is like personal fondness. He knows what he's doing. And when you factor in and...

Was that up for debate, though? Like, obviously you have certain parts of the internet or whatever, like, are they just going to quibble with it? I think... I think the amount of conversation about Mitchkov playing on what side, on the drama around Mitchcov and how like, I guess that's proof that Tocket was responsible for what happened with Miller and Pedersen in Vancouver. You know, I think the amount of people who talk about like Clayton Keller breaking out after

Tocket left Arizona is if Clayton Keller didn't naturally become 22, 23, 24 and improved as a young man. I mean, people do Kessel too. Kessel after he got traded to Arizona. his production went down. It's like he was 38. Like, what are we talking about? No, I think this conversation's been real. I think it's been completely absurd. I just think that no one,

no fan base has had a worse handle on their own team than the Philadelphia Flyers fan base this season. I feel that very strongly. I don't know if I agree, because I think that the right conversation was obviously a floor raising coach who is going to probably turn your team to a top 10 defensive environment the way he has.

Sure. I think they're ninth and expect the goals against and don't give up in her slot shots. And it's going to make your team better and competitive and probably a wildcar team or in this case, they're in the metro because of the state of that division. But in terms of what the ultimate upside is, especially over a three to five year arc, I don't think anything has necessarily changed there. Now, having guys like Martone come in and immediately flash high end offensive skill and be relied upon like this, I do think raises that floor or ceiling potentially moving forward.

but despite the success and it's been a great run post-Olympics like I still think in terms of game-changing foundational pieces and upside like there's still work to be done. So I don't think that's necessarily changed the conversation for me at all in that regard like beyond the extremes.

Yeah, I mean, in terms of their like big picture team building strategy I agree but they're very clearly exceptionally well coached and now the question is can they get the sort of talent required to actually compete for a championship and that is not going to be easy, especially with, you know, other than Martone, I don't know that their 2025 draft class has trended the way you'd want.

Well, which is what they're going to need because even, let's say, the penguins take a step back next year. Sure. Because they decide to do so and they trade away guys or whatever happens injuries or just naturally. Yeah, natural regression, I think, is very possible with that penguins team. If you look at the metro, the hurricanes are just always going to be. And Washington looks terrifying. Washington, I think, is set up very nicely. The Islanders have work to do, but

with Schaefer and Sorokin, I think the floor is pretty high and they're going to be hanging around the playoff bubble, at least the blue jackets will see, but as we've talked about numerous times, have so many pieces and upside if they handle that correctly. Like, I don't think that regardless of the season's outcome, much has necessarily changed in terms of that bigger picture conversation. No.

But I am exceptionally high on what Merton's done so far, and I think it's been really exciting. Well, me too, and critical. And now, yeah, I mean, I think the question for the flyers is simply, can you find the hardest thing to find in hockey, right? Which is a genuine star center in the next two, three years to support Martone and Mitchkov before they get prohibitively expensive. And you're running very short on time on that two years, right? I mean, I think this is a team that at this point, basically all weapons should be fired if they get a shot to land one of those dudes, right?

Like if they get a shot to land, you know, a Matthews type guy, you know, who ends up trying to change teams. If whatever guy shakes loose, and I don't mean to throw Matthews his name around recklessly. I'm just bringing up, like, an example of a stud player. Maybe he hasn't had his best season. But we know that like contractual control will enhance as he gets closer to expiry. And also his team's direction is very much up in the air. Like that's the profile of the sort of, you know, J.T. Miller like,

Jack Eichel like buying opportunity that occasionally presents itself. Quinn Hughes like Matthew Kuchuk like. They need to be the team that wins that bidding. And I mean, they do have good assets for it. It would be better though if their 20, 25 class had trended a little more, in a little more of an exciting fashion.

I do think as well beyond the superficial storylines of Battle of Pennsylvania and Penguins Flyers, if that's where we get in round one, I think from like a tactical X's and O's perspective, it's also one of the more interesting series. in terms of strength or strength. So looking forward to that one. Do you want to close out with a quick John through the West?

I want to close out with something. We got to note this, man. The Chicago Blackhawks will finish second last every year of Connor Bedard's entry-level deal. That's a problem. That's not good enough. I kind of came out of left field. What do you mean?

I thought you were going to make a point about the flyers. No. You want to pivoting? to West. Sorry, I was taking up, I was trying to follow your lead. I just like, we're going to talk about the playoff teams.

The Chicago Blackhawks have the same number of regulation wins as LA Kings. Which is what, 17? Yeah, it's like 19 or 21. That's really bad. No, I mean, fair, but like the point is, which is, by the way, I'm not saying is a testament to the Blackhawks being better than they are.

You shouldn't be able to. Now, I know, like, people will be excited about what what Frundell's done and on and on, and quite rightly. I mean, it's not like Chicago. goes doomed forever. But I think there's some hard conversations that have to be

had if you draft a player like Badard and he does what he's done as quickly as he's done it, even though he faded a little bit after the injury in midseason this year and finish bottom two in the NHL every year of his entry level deal. Like that's a failure and a massive one. And we shouldn't

be, you know, cutting Davidson and his regime the slack of like, well, they were rebuilding. It's like this is a, this is at a level now where, you know, I think we should look at the dysfunction and underachievement as ingrained. He should be on the clock in every, he should be on the clock last year, but this year should be a much bigger issue, I think, when we think about sort of what rebuilding should look like and what reasonable timelines should look like in the NHL. I think that's fair. I still stand by the fact that that came out and over.

Fair enough. Yeah. No, I mean, okay. You're not wrong. I guess a natural segue is the Central then with the Black Coss Division What you were saying, let's move it to West. I was talking about teams that matter.

I was like, I want to talk about this. Chicago. Well, the Central's been decided. The afts are the first seed. They'll play a wild card too. We'll see who that is. They have home ice throughout. The stars have clinched home ice

in that round one. Two versus three with the wild. I don't know if you watched that head to head last week, but it's going to be... Matt Poldy, what happened? Matt Poldey blacked out there. Matt Boldie legitimately went like Brick Tamland in the Anchorman News Newsroom fight. Like that was incredible.

Just prison yard style shanking someone on a scrum. What's going on, man? Yeah, that was an amazing game. We'll see on the stars. Unfortunately, Hayskin and got hurt in that one. And both him and Hints are out. I really hope we get to see it at full form because that could be an amazing series. I still think that central bracket where you're looking at, McCar, Haskin, and Quinn.

Like, I really do think that's a... whoever four checks most and hurts the other stars to star defensemen most not injures. I'm not saying plays dirty. Like I'm saying whoever puts bodies on the other team star defensemen the most on retrievals, I really do think is going to be the side that wins, you know, or comes out of that side of the bracket. I don't really have any other notes on the Central. The Pacific probably should close out today's show because that's the one that still

got the most room for jockeying. Sure. also like, Yakman. Well, Golden Knights are 91 and 80. Yeah. Spoilers have 90 and 80. The ducks have 90 and 80.

And then the Kings are still somehow alive to not only finish as Wild Card 2, but move up into one of those three spots if they went out. And I was looking at their schedule and they close out at Crackin, at Canucks, at Flames. I feel like they've played the Canucks head to head 14 times in the past month. Three games in the last 10 for the Canucks. Yeah, no, I mean, I was doing a bit on the radio about. how the Canucks, you know, can save us from having to watch LA Kings hockey in the postseason.

And obviously the Canucks are not up to that task at all. But I also would say... Came out with two huge wins to close up to California trip. Yeah. But I will note, you know, the Kings at least aren't as objectionable when you get to watch Artemey Panarin punking people. I will say. Well, he did score the only goal, so that's a point well taken.

Yeah. But watching that game on Saturday afternoon against the Oilers, it was... Brutal. It was a tough watch. It was a tough watch. Which I think the Kings were very happy about. I know. Because they won one nothing in regulation.

They got their preferred matchups of the byfield line with Lafairier and Moore and then Dowdy and Anderson against McDavid full time. I think we just need to accept that the LA Kings are going to be in the playoffs and that their seven game series is going to have five games go to overtime. Because it's going to be a five game series that they lose. But they're going to take every game to overtime. It's going to be so painful, man. I'm not excited about it at all.

Well, the Kings have those three games on the road, and one of them is a back-to-back situation. But ones they should be favored in against your teams who are out of it. And if they win out, the Ducks have at Minnesota at Nashville to close out. And if they don't get, like, let's say the Kings went out, I believe the Ducks would need three points there to make sure that they don't fall into Wild Card 2 and play Colorado in round one. And if that does happen, we get most likely Edmonton versus L.A. We're a 47th straight season. God.

Yeah, I don't know. You know what? Would you take avs, ducks if you had to have another round of Oilers Kings? Yeah, it'd be fun. Yeah, I'm okay with it. That's tough for the ducks. Yeah. I think with their defensive concerns, now the abs are going to be willingly engaging

them in a back and forth track meet. Unfortunately, I think they're just far superior in every regard. But that is at least the type of environment that the ducks need to and want to play in. so it would be fun from our perspective, probably short. The Golden Knights went into Colorado and had a really fun overtime win on Saturday. I don't know if you got to catch that one, but yeah, we'll see. This could probably go down on the wire because a lot of these teams play on Thursday evening, and it's within a point or two across the board.

So the Kings look like in there a pretty good spot because hockey stats has an 84% playoff probability at this point. The Preds are at 22%, and then the Jets and Sharks are still mathematically alive, but like sub 1%. So it feels like, we do have the eight teams. I think the jockeying is important though, especially with the looming threat of if you miss

out here or lose a couple of these games, you go from a Pacific Division matchup to starting off against the aves in Colorado. Yeah, brutal. And that's the case for Utah as well. We need to be careful because they've lost a couple here and they're still in a good spot. But I think you and I

have both just been working under the assumption that they've been locked into wildcard one and we'll play whoever wins the Pacific and they actually need to take care of business. They play the Jets and Blues to close out and they need a couple points to avoid the abs. No doubt. Yeah, I mean, you need to avoid the Aves and also the Pacific

Division. I mean, I don't know. Like, it's so tough to watch, man. I really find these games tough to watch. Like, watching... I thought that Golden Knights' Aves game was really fun, but I think that probably speaks to it not being two Pacific teams

and the Aves just probably making everyone look fun. 100%. And, you know, Vegas won the game. So that's cool. But, like, You know, you watch Anaheim falling short against the Canucks and Edmonton. They lost a, who'd they lose to this week? Edmonton? Yeah, they lost the Kings. They lost the 0-1 game, right.

I don't think you forget that one. I tried to. I tried really hard. Yeah, unfortunately, Panarin putting Bouchard, a Bouchard giveaway on tape just before Norris ballots get cast is tough. Yeah. That was a badly timed giveaway, not because it cost. the Oilers a goal against, but because it was like the game winner on a Saturday night on the day that ballots went out.

Like that's such a brutal. I don't think it should matter, but like it will. I'm just saying. Well, it will. I think if you're leaning one way or another in that specific case, I don't think that. No, I know. No, I disagree because it's like, okay, well, how much do I wait the scoring? Like, he's actually been really good this year.

And then you are like, I'll watch the game and figure it out. Like, I just want to watch and see it then first period. it's like, ah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm saying, like, that was as badly at time to a giveaway for an awards candidate as you can have. That's all I'm saying. I want every voter who approaches their ballots that way to identify themselves so the way you can strip their votes.

If you're going, all right, he's been great, these 80 games. But then I tuned into this random Saturday matinee against the Kings and turns it over to Demi Pernary. That's it. I'm just saying that's like the, if your issue is the loud giveaways. Yeah, but that's been the case the entire time. I know. But the argument is, he's clean those up. And then you have one, the day of war ballots go out.

Like, I'm sorry, that's just life. That's not award voters being wrong necessarily. Although it's not how my process works, but that's just life. Yeah, I don't know. I think I'm just like, I watched San Jose struggle to put away the Canucks on Saturday. Watch the ducks. I watch the ducks. Yeah, waste a point for no reason.

I've watched a lot. lot of Vegas, just like sort of slow moving magma and their style of hockey. And then the Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard show, and it's like, there's six guys. Like the Oilers have six guys. And then, you know, Stan Bowman's just done such a brutal job. And that roster's so flawed. And it's so frustrating to think that they've, like, they're going to have a shot because McDavid's going to play 30 minutes.

But, I mean, what a all time. Like, the Oilers are an all time wasted opportunity. And it just sucks to watch. Like, I feel like Drysidal and McDavid deserve better every time I tune in. And that's despite the fact that, like, R&H, Hyman, Bouchard, like, some of the main guys, some of the main cast of characters are, you know, excellent. And, like, guys like Samanski are playing well. And I do think the reps that Podkoles and in Savoy have gotten with McDavid in particular are very valuable.

I mean, that team just isn't it. They're just not it. So I just find the Pacific, like, deeply depressing. Yeah, we'll see how the matchup shake out. Yeah. I think there's a really fun combination and then a less one, less fun one, and hopefully we get the former. All right, buddy, that's all the time we have for today. What do you want to promote on the whale?

What are you working on this week in the final week of the Canucks regular season? You know, a bunch of, a bunch of season ending stuff for the Canucks. I've got a, I'm writing a sort of thinking about the Mike Gillis era column this week too from, you know, because he's been in the news with the with the Maple Leafs. presidency open the you know where do the Canucks go from here

I've got a lot of columns like that in and of that theme across this week and then looking forward to previewing the playoffs with you buddy so should be fun looking forward to it as well check out theathletic.com

and all the good work there I'll also be are you going to have a write-up on if the Canucks can can work their way back into this King series and make it two one oh man

you think it's going to be a three-nothing sweep I think it's going to be a three-nothing sweep all right um this is a lot of fun panarin's like destroying them every shift it's it's actually kind of fun to watch yeah him and kempi have been really good um all right that's all the time we have for today uh if you enjoyed today's show give us a five star review wherever you listen subscribe to the pdocast patreon as well we're coming off a huge week last week we did write-ups in the newsletter on chinocob and benson deep dives on the ducks and penguins we've got madison uh to keep awards talk going we're going to construct our all nchl teams for the 25 26 season, which should be a fun one.

So subscribe and join us for all your extra content ahead of the postseason. That's all for today. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPediocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.