The Hockey PDOcast - Wednesday Night’s Observations, and Standout Players That Have Caught Our Eye

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Steve Peters to go through their takeaways from the four games we watched on Wednesday night, and highlight a couple of standout players that have caught their eye in early viewings to start the 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.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey P.D.O. My name's Dimitri Filippovich and joining me as my good buddy, Steve Peters. Pidi, what's going on, man? You know, it's fun trying to, the way too early predictions on this season, like the ebbs and flows of, oh, our team is terrible too. We're winning the cup in a matter of 24 hours. This first 10 days has been a lot of fun. All it takes is one game, the most recent game. And if it goes well, all of a sudden you're back on track. If you're struggling, then the sky is falling. But that's what's really fun about the start of the regular season.

And I think, you know, we're going to go through Wednesday nights late. There were four games on the schedule, watch them all, kind of our main takeaways from them stuff we noticed on tape. If we have time at the end, we're going to go through a couple of random slash niche names. I gave you a little bit of homework that have popped up time and time again when we've been watching these games throughout the first week or so of the season. But the Sabres, who are going to start with, the Sabres' Senators game from Wednesday, are the best example of what you're referencing there off the top, right?

Where they drop their first three games by a 10-2 margin, and those games were ugly in every sense. Now, on the one hand, there's the caveat that they're dealing with a bunch of key absences. They're starting goalie still hasn't played. Ukopeca Lukanen, Josh Norris, gets hurt in the first game. Michael Kesselring, their big off-season addition, still has yet to suit up. And Zach Benson, who I was incredibly high on and was one of my, my flag plant players for this season missed the first three games.

Now, I want to start with Benson because he made his season debut on Wednesday night. And it was this gruesome injury, right? He takes a puck to the face. He winds up being hospitalized. It's a scary situation. He misses the first three games. Comes back wearing the shield. You never know how long it's going to take to sort of integrate,

especially with how physical and in your face a game he plays. And I thought he really turned this game around for Buffalo. and you can see his impact and why he might honestly be their second most important forward behind Dave Thompson moving forward. There was a point in this game where I was jotting down notes because I knew you and I were going to get into it today on what was going on, and it seemed like more of the same for the Sabres. They look completely discombobulated and disorganized offensively.

Shots on goal were 19 to 4 for Ottawa after back-to-back goals for them. The senators had an abbreviated 5-13 power play about halfway through the second period and I'm like man here we go again with the Sabres it's going to be another ugly loss to start the year for them and then Benson and Ryan McLeod go out there I thought completely just

tilt the game in their favor they create the first shorthanded goal then on the next shift Benson makes this beautiful play where he essentially knocks down a pass from Thomas Shabbat goes skate the stick springs McLeod for a breakaway goal it winds up being stopped but

the ball kind of keeps rolling for them from there, they score four goals within a seven-minute stretch or so of game time and have an offensive explosion finally and get back on track. And so I wanted to highlight Benson, obviously, I've got a little bit of a bias because I talked so much about him in the preseason, but this was our first viewing of them. And you could see already the impact he makes and how different the Sabres team looks, what he's out there doing this thing. Yeah, I'm not sold on this Buffalo Sabre team yet. And I think one of the issues, as you just mentioned, they're inability to create offense.

And with injuries, that has been a problem. Zach Benson's a guy that they need to create offense. And you see the way he moves his feet. He's got an engine. He's got a motor. He can make good plays. He made his linemates better. And when you were on the ice with Zach Benson,

the Buffalo Sabers look better. And they looked like they were going to actually generate some offense. So I think that was a breath of fresh air for the Buffalo Sabers fans going, okay, maybe we can generate some offense. And right now this is a team that needs anything that can provide. provide some positive sparks. Like this is a team that's down in the dumps. It's tough times.

Dark Cloud follows them around. Zach Benson might be the ray of light. One of those guys that can help get them over the hump and get them on track. This is not a playoff team. Sorry, it's not. But they're going to try to make steps forward and his players like Zach Benson with his motor, playmaking ability, offensive ability. And he just keeps moving all the time.

I think that's one of the bright spots on the Sabre lineup. So the first three games, they combine for two goals, 24 high danger chances under 7 expected goals generated. This one alone, they score and pop off for eight goals, 15 high danger chances, 4.2 expected goals. And I'm generally not huge on kind of quote unquote momentum in games because I think it's very fleeting and it comes and goes and there's so many switches.

And it's an easy thing to point back to after if things wind up turning out a certain way. But oftentimes it could be sort of random. But just watching this one, you could feel the game sort of flip with the ice tilting in Buffalo's favor. And finally, once they started getting some positive results, kind of the floodgates opening and things working in their favor. And guys like Benson, I mean, he finishes this game with four assists

in under 17 minutes of ice time. He finished last year with just 18 assists. I'm convinced that he can, if he stays healthy, not only double, but maybe triple that this season and really have an offensive breakout in so many ways. But guys like Benson, and I'm going to add Josh Stone in here, as well because he had three assists in this game. Obviously a player you're very familiar with coming through the Coyote's organization

and then playing for Utah last year. Both of them, you could just see, you mentioned the engine and the motor, just the effort in retrieving puck's winning battles, kind of being playing the role of connectors for this team because they've got a bunch of guys who, if they get the puck on their stick in the offensive zone, they can be threats and they can score, but they need someone who facilitate for them and set the table.

And those guys do that. so well. Don't had a beautiful effort on one of the goals in that second period where he's behind the net and he just basically outworks a senator's player winds up retreating possession. It works its way around and they score. Benson had another one that I didn't talk about, one of those four assists where it's really beautiful. If you haven't seen it, go back and watch it. They're on the power play. It looks like the senator is going to clear it out of harm's way and Benson just comes flying it into the screen, stops it at the blue line and then one emotion, gets the puck down low to Dahlene and then they get at the Zucker and score.

And so those guys, they're like the defensive, it's funny you mentioned, I'm mentioning the point totals here for them. And you mentioned how they need a guy like Benson to create offense and facilitate. They also serve as sort of the defensive conscience, I think, for this team. And it's like it's night and day in seeing the effort level when those guys are out there versus when they're not. And so they were probably the two most important guys here. And I think something definitely to build off of moving forward for the Sabres. Yeah, one of the things with Josh Stone, and he's a player that I really like. and I know he was probably the lesser of the three players in the Paterka deal with Kesselring being the guy that hasn't been in the lineup yet.

But with Josh Dohn, you saw it. He got three assists. And really, he should have had four or could have had four. He ends up being the third assist on another play because of his one-on-one battle and his ability to make plays and separate the opponent from the puck. And on that power play goal, you're right. It's a really good play by Benson at the blue line. He's anticipation. He gets a stick on the puck right along the wall.

But Josh Stone's the one that makes that play along the wall. wall. And again, it's his ability to get in and win these 50-50 puck battles. Those are the kind of guys that you need in this Buffalo Sabre to locker room right now. And I mentioned it before. It's just a group that's a group that's easy to feel sorry for yourself because you go, here we go again. And we don't. Oh, no.

Poor us. You need Don't and Benson. And you need those positive guys. The guys that are out there working every shift, the guys that are smiling, they don't drop their shoulders when they get scored on. It isn't, it's infectious and it's much needed in Buffalo. This is a team that's, They're going to have a tough season.

They're going to ebb and flow as this season goes and you need to have those positive moments of time. And I do really believe those two players specifically are going to be one of the keys in trying to find something positive in this season. And Don has been a bright spot for them. Even beyond this game, you look at its underlying numbers and he's probably been their most effective five-on-five player through these four games. I think the Sabres are having a bit of, and this happens when you have that historical baggage of the playoff drought of being. sort of the punching bag of like that that snowball effect of when things go bad they go really bad for you and it's almost a defeatist attitude in a way right and you become as an organization just so desperate for competency and wins that I think you can sometimes sort of lose lose track of what matters and what doesn't and I think they're

having a bit of an identity crisis in the sense that when things look bad for them I feel like they really get into trouble and look like a mess offensively because they're trying to be something they're not, right, in terms of a lot of what we talked about with what Greg Cronin did to the ducks last year. And then now you watch how they're playing so far this season offensively. And it's night and day. And it feels like that's happened for the Sabres because they had that incredibly fun offensive explosion in 22, 23. And then after that, they tried to sort of take this next step by buttoning things up a little bit and playing a different style. And this is no doubt about it, a flawed, incomplete roster, even without the injuries.

being accounted for, but the one legitimate strength they have is they can play up tempo, they have youth, they have speed, and they should create chaos and thrive within it, right? And I think sometimes you just got to let your dogs run wild and embrace that. And you can't try to make this team play like the 2020s Kings, where you're just trying to kind of grind out wins because that's not what they're suited for. And so when they do that, the offense bogs down, they get frustrated. you can feel the life and the energy, you can just get sucked out of the entire operation.

And listen, it can be a frustrating way to play in terms of what I'm calling for because there's going to be nights where if you're trading chances, your shots don't go in. The other teams do. And it's a lopsided score. And it feels like everything is just really ugly and you've taken a big step back.

But I think that's still a much preferred alternative to me than the other way to play in terms of the process, right? Because there's no reason this team should, shouldn't at least be fun. Forget the playoffs for a second. Like this should be a young up and coming high scoring team and at times you watch them and it feels like they almost misguidedly are trying to be quote unquote hard to play against and just fundamentally misunderstanding what they have in terms of their personnel group and what that looks like for them. Because when they're playing this uptempo aggressive style, I think that's hard to play against for other teams. When they try to

sort of dumb it down and slow it down and play it conservatively, that's actually pretty easy for other teams to sit back against and then pick them apart methodically. And so I just want to see them increase the pace and the events, the variance that comes along with it, and live with the outcome and just trust that process because I do think that's the way forward for them. And it's interesting because you talk about a team we're going to talk about here in a few minutes, as Chicago Blackhawks, who do and have started to embrace that speed and fast and skill and that young push trying to create the offense.

And I agree. Like Buffalo Sabers still have to find their identity. I'm very concerned about the way this team looks with their body language. I think you saw it in Dahlene last night. And his net front play and the puck goes in and his shoulders just drop. And it's just this, here we go again. And I just, I keep bringing that back. But I do get a sense of this is just a mood in this room that they're going to have to break free.

And it is going to be that young dynamic. speed game that gets them out of there because they need Rast, Mr. Lee. They need own power to create that offense from the back end and they need to push the pace and get the puck up the ice. But right now, it just feels like it's still bogged down. This is and now I know you're the stats guy,

but I got to bring this and up and you check my work. The Buffalo Sabres are 31st in 5 and 5 on 5 goal differential. That cannot continue and they cannot keep up that pace as this season goes on. They are not defending well enough for a team that should be good at defending.

And I do think the offense will come. I love Tange Thompson. We know that he can score and put up numbers. I do think the offense is going to come for the reasons you mentioned. I do get concerned about their ability to play on the other side of the puck. And Anukapakalukin is a guy that needs to get back in this lineup. Like, their goal tolton has to be better. And I know they get the win last night.

And I know I talked to some Buffalo fans today that are excited. And we've turned this around. The first goal from Quinn bounces off the glass. Marilyn and drops a stick on another one. He mishandles another one. That's three. And so maybe this isn't, I'm sure they're glad they won. But this wasn't an offensive dominating game like the score would suggest.

It wasn't. I do think it was much more in line with the way I want to see them play generally. But I take your point in terms of, I think the net front defending in this game on both ends was absolutely horrific. And this is becoming a bit of an epidemic in today's NHL, I think, partly because we've seen this stylistic shift for just the general composition of defensemen around the league, and that's sort of one of the drop-offs that you're going to see a lot more offense, but defending in front, I mean, was it the first goal for the Sabres with Bowen-Biron-in-Byram in front, kind of floating in the wrong direction, leaving Tim Stutzlow wide open on a Sabres goal. There was Thomas Shabod trying to

retrieve the goalie stick behind the net and just being laid to his assignment with Alex tuck in front, and you're seeing that all across the league. It must be great fodder for you in terms of doing some of the goal breakdowns because I think there's very clear stuff for you to nitpick or point to as stuff that teams can improve at. It's one of those things in a very fast, chaotic NHL. One thing you can actually pinpoint and be like,

all right, this was the blown assignment, and this is what teams need to do differently. And watching these games, it feels like we're seeing more and more of that across the league. And those are the teams that are good. The teams that understand how to protect their goaltender and play strong in that blue paint area can box out and limit those screens,

tips, second chance opportunities. Those are the teams that are good. Those are the teams you see at the top of the standings all the time. And the problem right now, you're right. It is 100% a stylistic change in the way teams play in the National Hockey League. And you go 15 years ago, the defensemen stayed at the blue line,

the forward cycle, the puck, and they got to the net. Well, that's no longer the way to create offense in the national hockey league. Defending became too strong, too solid. So you've got to start being active. So you're seeing a defenseman coming in off the blue line attacking the net. You're seeing the given goal play from defense. And it's much more difficult to defend when your opponent is active in the offensive zone. So what did you do to counteract that?

You start seeing more man-on-man. Well, I don't like man-on-man defending. I don't think it's successful in this league. There are very few teams do it and do it well. And Florida and Carolina are two of them. But if you don't do it well, you give up too many opportunities in front of the net. And I think what we're seeing in the NHL is that you're right. There's the young skilled defenseman trying to be too offensive.

that forget how to defend and they're getting up the ice too quickly. Two, I think too much man on man, which ends up with defensemen at the blue line and forwards defending in front of the net, and something they don't know how to do. And third, you've got to give credit to the offense. Like, there are some incredibly high-skilled forwards in this league right now, and they understand you need to get to the blue paint to score. So I think when you put all that together,

you make it much more difficult for teams to defend the front of the net. And that's why teams like Florida, with a defensive core that is experienced and knowledgeable, and I throw another one again. team we're going to talk about to Utah. All those veteran defensemen, they're giving up fewer shots than almost anybody in the league because they understand how to defend in front of their net. You mentioned the Panthers there. Let's go to the next game. I don't want to spend too much time on this one relatively just because I've spoken about the Red Wings a bunch, including on the most

recent show we did this week. But it's a fascinating point of the schedule for the Red Wings because they're starting this stretch of home games now versus Florida, Tampa Bay, and Edmonton in three in a row. And they kick it off with a 4-0 on a win on Wednesday against the Panthers at home. I thought it was the second straight, really strong performance at home versus a division rival for the Red Wings. There was a stretch and they were running this graphic on TNT where about 14 minutes into the second period, at which point Brad Marshine scored to make it 2-1. The scoring chances were 9-0 for Detroit and they wind up holding the Panthers to just 21 shots on goal in this game. They generate four and a half expected goals themselves.

It was a really strong showing, I thought, from the Red Wings, especially, you know, they don't have Lucas Raymond available with Mason Appleton bumps up into a spot on the top line with Dylan Lark and Emmett Finney, who I want to talk a little bit more about with you here. But the Red Wings are getting contributions from some of these young guys that are integrating into the lineup. And so we'll still see it's a bit of a gaunt here that they're going to run through over the next couple of games. But these are the types of performances you want to see from them in terms of building something really competitive in that Atlantic division. And so I really like what I saw from them yet again on Wednesday night.

Yeah, I think this Detroit team, there's a lot of pressure in there. We talk about the Eiser Plan. We know this is an important season for Detroit, year after year after year. They continue to miss the playoffs. And I thought they were a team that played with pace. I thought they played quick. They're getting to the net, which we talked about how important that is. The Kane getting the power play goal.

It's the first power play against the Florida Panthers the entire season, so they're able to get pucks on the net. I like the way to Detroit played. And keep in mind, this is the team that the two seasons ago started off, five and one, just like they're doing now, and they missed the playoffs by one point. So I know we're excited about Detroit, but this is something that you're going to have to see over a sustained period of time. And one of the biggest bright spots, and you mentioned it, is they've given up 25 shots against or less in three other four games. And they're giving up three fewer shots against than they did a season ago on average.

And I know it's a small sample size, but that's important. And I think that's their ability to get the puck out of their zone, defend less, and move up. up the ice more quickly. And that's what you want to do in Detroit. They want to get these young players playing fast. And right now, their old players are playing fast too. So I do think things are looking exciting in Detroit. It is pretty early again. But this is a year that I think Detroit is going to be a team that we're talking about is going to try to compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Well, let's highlight a couple of those individual performances. I mentioned Emmett Finney there and him playing on this top line. I mean, I just love the details

in his game early on in my first couple of viewings of him. You certainly. Certainly just watching him would not know that he's a 20-year-old seventh round pick who had like 16 total games of professional experience in the AHL prior to this year. TNT did a really nice breakdown of his role in on Mason Appleton's first goal. And he's not the one to scores it, but just sort of this mature route pattern. He runs essentially where Larkin's on the wall as the center. So he steps in for him low and slow through the neutral zone, gets the puck, then works his way up to. towards the blue line, keeps it in, and is just very involved in that play. He's been awesome for them so far in a revelation. And then a guy I spoke about on the last show, Axel Sandine Pelica,

stepping in into his first NHL season as a defenseman playing with Simon Edvinson. There's the shift I wanted to highlight about three minutes into the second period where you can see just all the tools and why you should be so excited about a young defender like this. He steps up at his own blue line, breaks up a rush with his partner, then instantly just pushes the pace up the ice, executes a nice giving go to take it to the net. They get snuffed out a little bit by Nico Mikola, but still provides a scoring chance out of thin air. And then the secondary pattern of they regroup in the neutral zone,

and instead of just kind of aimlessly dumping the puck in, he lulls the defense to sleep a little bit, and then just sends a stretch pass up the ice to Michael Rasmussen, I believe, for a secondary scoring chance there off the rush. And so all that stuff, like these young guys actually contributing like this, is very exciting. The third pair is playing so much better since they put Jacob Bernard, our Docker in there. And so when you compare this Red Wings team to the one that you referenced

from a couple years ago, I do think those are important differentiators where you knew what you were going to get from the young guys atop the lineup. The veterans were really struggling. The system was a bit of a mess. And so their depth was really called into question. And all of a sudden now, I think you're getting contributions from so many different pieces beyond just Lark and Raymond and insider like you did in the past. Yeah. And that's what's important in trying to compete in the National hockey league. You can't have that top heavy lineup if you want to compete for a Stanley Cup. And I think one of the things you're seeing from Detroit is your ability to spread that offense throughout the lineup. You talk about the motor of Evan Emmett Finney. It's a guy that

I mean, he just goes. And I think he's a guy. You've been waiting for those young guys in Detroit to go, okay, we're starting to see it. I wish Raymond was playing. I really do because I think he's a guy that another guy that could really bring that spark and play that way that Tom McClellan wants this team to play. They He wants to play it with pace and they want to get to the net hard and they want to drive them the net off of turnovers through the blue line and you work that transition game. The young players are bringing that pace, but it's the veteran players that are stepping up now. Larkin's looking sharp early in the air. Patrick Kane gets the goal on the power play.

Those veteran players are the pieces that need to be better. JVR has got to be better because I do think the young players are going to be the key in providing that offense. It's how those veteran players respond around them. I don't want to oversell this. the Detroit Red Wing stand out. They're not ready. They're not going to make a run for the cup. I don't think they're that good.

I don't know if they're goal-tending strong enough. I don't know if they can make that run tell, but it looks great once, but can he be consistent? But they're taking a step forward. And they're a team now that finally, after years and years of saying, okay, they should be ready for the playoffs.

They should be ready for the playoffs. This is a make-a-break year. They need to be at or near the playoffs again this season. And right now, the early indications are they playing the right way. Some of these teams, I think, it's important to note that all, Ultimately so many teams are going to be able to actually meaningfully compete for a Stanley Cup in any given season. And so I think just having building blocks in terms of seeing contributions and involvement from young players,

and then in particular the way the team is playing in general, I think are very important facets to be deemed a successful season for some of these teams. And obviously with teams like the Sabres and the Red Wings that we've talked about in the early going here today, just making the playoffs after these extended droughts would be a massive step in the right direction. And so I just think seeing stuff like this from the Red Wings is important beyond whatever comes at the end of the year. I think it represents a meaningful difference, I think, for me, in terms of just playing style. And in particular, who's playing the role of drivers for them compared to some of the past couple seasons. So I wanted to note that. All right, Pete, let's take our break here.

And then when we come back, we're going to jump back into it. We've got two more games to discuss. And then we're going to end with a little bit of classic PDOCast fun. You're listening to the Hockey Pee-Ocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey Peeley Ocast, joined by our buddy Steve Peters. Pedy, let's get into Mammoth Flames. It was the first regulation win of the season for Utah. They beat the Flames 3-1 in their home opener, unveiled the new mascot, Tuske as well.

Shots, I believe, were 30 to 10 for the Mammoth before that late push by Calgary. It was a pretty dominant performance, despite the scoreline being tight. There's a lot of positives, I think, for Utah through these first four games. One potential concern for me is that we haven't really seen the offense get going the way I would have expected in terms of results. They have only got eight goals in four games. Their opponent on Wednesday, the flames are the only team scoring less frequently on a permanent basis than them so far this season. What do you attribute that to beyond, obviously, the small sample size of just four games? Have you been a bit surprised?

Because you mentioned before we went to break about their defensive system and how stingy they've been. And I certainly think we saw signs of that down the stretch last year, and that's something to build off for them. But with the firepower they have, especially with the investment they made in Paturka, I think you'd expect better results in terms of some offensive explosions from them. And I do think they're going to come as the air goes along, but we just haven't seen that yet so far from them. Yeah, it's surprising. And when you look at where this team is excelling right now, it's on the defensive side of the puck right now. The goals against per game, they're fifth in the national league.

If Amalka's top 10 and save percentage, goal, is against average and has quietly started off with a really good season and defending. This is the team that I said a year ago really struggled with their net front defending, but they're experienced defensemen that they have guys that have played a lot of games in this season. They acquired Schmidt from Nate Schmidt from Florida and you go, okay, another old defenseman, but Olimada, you've got surrogate. They're an old defense and they're limiting the scoring chances.

The problem is the only line that's generating offense is their young kids. It's with Petrica, Gunther, and Cooley. And that line, when they're on the ice, they're absolutely exciting to watch. They play with pace. They get to the net. They're playing like young kids want to play. They're having fun out there, moving the puck extremely well and getting great opportunities. But they're not getting the goals from the players that have led the way for this team for almost a decade.

And that's Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller. They have zero goals through four. Keller, last time he started off this poorly, was 1920. and he ended up with 17 goals on the season. He's a guy that holds the scoring title for both Utah and Arizona, a guy that puts up points and he's struggling. And it's not that he's getting a lot of scoring opportunities either. Keller's not getting the grade A opportunities that you're familiar with him.

He looks like he's a step behind right now. I don't know if there's injury issues there, but Keller doesn't look the same. Schmaltz does. Schmaltz, I'm not worried about Schmoltz. Smoltz is getting more chances. His second-most shots on goal by a Utah forward. He is getting his opportunities. and they're just not going in.

Like he's hitting post. He's getting great opportunities in the slot area. They're just not coming for him. I do think that that's finally going to break through. But if this team is going to be successful, and there's a lot of talk about this team being a playoff team this season, man, Clayton Keller's got to drive the boss. He's got to be the guy that you're looking at this.

They're talking about him for the U.S. Olympic team. Like he has got to start getting his offensive game in order. I think he's defending well. I think his feet are moving. I think his effort is there. It's just he's not creating those offensive opportunities. and it's a concern through four games. Well, that line did come through with a nice goal in this one on Wednesday

where there's a bit of a bubbling puck. Schmaltz gets it. He fires it back into the high slot to Brayette and who buries it. I mentioned the promising signs for pretty much all these guys, and I'm going to lay him out for you. Keller, I take your point about the goal scoring. He's doing a lot of Clayton Keller stuff. Otherwise, though, he's third in the league,

according to Sport Logic in offensive zone possession time with a buck on a stick. He's third in passes and. into the slot. Schmaltz himself is first in cycle chances. Logan Cooley is first in inner slot shots. Gunther is 34 shot attempts in four games. He's been firing the puck and I expect the goals to come from. And then Petrka, back goals in back to back games, the first in Chicago, the previous night, off a nice passing play down low. And then at this one, a much more expected goal from him in terms of intercepting a pass at the blue line, just burning up the ice and burying a beauty on the breakaway. and so I think that's going to come together.

I wonder if to get Keller going, maybe we might see him put back with Cooley and Gunther, a trio that had a lot of success down the stretch last year. But I imagine they want to keep a jerk up with those guys considering the investment they made in them and the fact that their goals and back-to-back games. Now, I think they have two things they need to sort out here offensively. One is the power play.

And they've scored just one goal in 29 games of the man advantage. They were top five post-four. nations last year. There's a weird thing going on right now with the usage in terms of like they're essentially playing PPP1 and P2 nearly identical amounts. PP1 is playing a bit more but not nearly as much as you'd like to see and there's been a bit of stagnation there. And then the second is you saw this the previous night in Chicago where they generated

just the one goal. The 5-1-5 offense when there's space to move and they can especially carry the puck into the zone is absolutely lethal and it feels like the other team is holding on for dear life. but when they're able to get back and get set a little bit, and Utah can't carry the puck in, I do think they can get a bit predictable or stagnant, and they just haven't really had secondary avenues for creating looks off of either dumping the puck in

or forcing turnovers once it's down low. And so I'd expect that to improve as well, but those have been two of the sort of missing links for them so far and the reason why they only have eight goals and four games. Yeah, this is the team that needs to find a way to score different ways to. When you look at their power play from a season ago, Dylan Gunther was elite on that power play off that left circle, a guy that could beat the goaltender clean right now. They're so desperate now.

And this is what happens to coaching staff. You start to move guys around. So now Gunther, they move from the left flank. They put him in the bumper position, hoping that he can create some more opportunities in tight for him. And they put Schmaltz and Keller on the outside because they find each other through the seams. This power play has to be better. And it should be better with the personnel that are throwing out there that have played so well together over previous seasons. And I talk a lot about power plays and how there's a lot of keys.

But one, you need to have really good players that two have played together for a very long time. And right now, Utah checks those boxes. I think this is the team that needs to find a way to break through on that. Because this can't be a team that survives on being one of the top five goals against teams in the league. I don't think that's sustainable right now for Utah. This is a team that's going to have to find a way to score if they're going to be successful. And I'm concerned, Dimitri, that I don't know, as you talk about, playoffs and is this team better?

I'm not convinced this is the playoff team right now. I'm not. You have the injury desert. I'm not selling my stock. Yeah. You're in? Yeah. Can I, once we get off this call, can I, can I buy some stock from you?

I want, I want even more Utah shares. You want some Utah. You're in. You're all in. See, I think they're not deep enough down low. I think with the Yamamoto antenna of a carconi, McBain, the bottom six right now is not not providing what I think they need to have. that secondary scoring. We already talked about their top line not scoring.

I think their way they're defending isn't sustainable throughout this time. And again, in the Western Conference, somebody's got to fall out. And is that St. Louis and L.A., maybe. But where's Calgary, Vancouver fit in? So I think it's going to be tough for this Utah team to sustain this and make the playoffs. But, you know, time will tell. It's four games in, Dimitri. I like what I'm seeing from obviously the offense is a concern, as we've talked about.

And I just think there's too much talent there, especially in the top six, for them to be at the pace they're currently at. I imagine that's going to have an uptick and they're going to have some more prolific offensive showings. And maybe they can't keep being this stingy defensively, but I did think they laid the groundwork for it down the stretch last year in terms of just being a strong puck possession team. The defense pretty well in front of their own net, I worry about utilizing Carl Belmalka too much the way they did down the stretch last year where he was pretty much their only available goalie. and I don't really trust the backup in Vitech Vantageek right now to spell him very often. But if they can figure this stuff out offensively, these guys just start producing the way I'd expect based on their talent level and some of the looks they're creating. I do think they're going to be a very, very dangerous team. And as we've talked about, they also have so much flexibility in terms of assets and cap room to add.

And I just think they need to show like the ownership is clearly showing a willingness to invest in this team. and we know that Bill Armstrong is going to be active if they give him a reason to buy. I think the possibilities are endless for them as the year progresses. And one of the things that I think that that's going to be a big telling point and can they make the players this year and can they improve this year is their record at home. And last year it's a team that you look at their first 10 home games and really they're moved from Arizona. It's not home.

They're still playing those games as road games. Now the Delta Center has been refurbished. Their seats on both ends. If they can compete at home and have, have a better than, better home record than they did it a season ago, then maybe you're right, because this team did play well on the road.

And they just didn't seem to find that same magic at home in the Delta Center. And you saw the Delta Center last night, man, it was rocking. Maybe it was just Tusky. I don't know. But there was a lot of excitement at home for this Utah mammoth team. And you're right.

If they can continue to play well at home, there's a chance. And one of their bugaboos last year, what you'd expect for a generally young team? was their record in close games. I think they had like 20 plus losses in one goal games. They were decided by just the one goal. And I know the last two wound up being three one scores with empty netters at the end,

but they've essentially just functionally played four one goal games so far. And so they've won two of them. And so that's something I'll be tracking as well to see if they can improve there as the year goes along. All right, let's end with Blackhawks Blues, the final game on the Slaef on Wednesday night. It was an 8-3 road win for the Blackhawks in which the Blues goal-ending just had a dreadful go of it with the mistake by Joel Hofer, a couple of soft goals, switching the goalies, trying to look for a spark. I think the biggest takeaway for me here for the Blackhawks was how encouraging Connor

Bardard's involvement was, because you and I did a show last week coming off their opener in Florida, and we noted some of the promising chances he'd had and how electric his shot is, but then the stuff off the puck and in his own zone and the competitiveness just wasn't really to the level we'd hope for. and I think it's very easy when you've been in the league for a couple of years and you just become accustomed to losing for some of those habits to seep into your game. In this one, the three assists are great and a couple of them were beautiful ones where he's changing the angle by manipulating defenders, dragging guys with him, and then firing the puck into open space for his teammates to attack from there.

The third one was what you want to see from him, which is getting involved down low, stealing the puck along the boards, firing it out front for a teammate to score from there and just retrieving possession and creating second waves of offense. But I mentioned the sort of involvement. I love just as much. And this might surprise people is like how engaged he was with the opposition's defenders. Right. There was that sequence early on where he crashes the net, pokes away at the puck. Tyler Tucker comes in and gives him a cross check. And he seems like he's a million feet taller than Connor Bardard. And Burdard is just standing there, staring at him, smiling in his face.

He gets involved later with Colton Braco up and down the ice. And sort of, I love seeing that stuff. Like the plays with the puck and the assisticame are great, and his skill level is through the roof. But in terms of this Blackhawks team, taking a step towards not being embarrassing in terms of results, I think this is going to go a long way.

And there's still clearly a lot of work to do. You look at his underlying numbers five-on-five, and there's still a mess. And the Blackhawks just never really have the puck. But these are the types of games that I think, you can build on beyond just the eight three final score. Yeah, I like to see the way he's digging in and his body language is better than we talked about a year ago where I thought, I talk about dropping the shoulders and dropping your hands.

I think we saw that with Badaard a year ago. And now you're seeing that little scrappiness after whistles. And I think it's important. And I think we got a credit Blashele a little bit with what he's trying to do with the culture there in Chicago. But there are still concerns. And you look at what Bader did last season through the first five. He had seven points.

This year he's got six, and he's hot. Well, last year I had seven. And this team that's still finished 30th or worse. You before that, he's three points in five, and still 30th or worse. This is the team that I think is still going to be hovering around the bottom of the league. And I think it's going to be inconsistent play by these young players. They have so many young players on defense that are, it's a rocky ride back there, man. And I know that Renzel is going to be a very good defenseman.

And he's showing the upside offensively, but they struggle defensively. They turn the puck over a tremendous amount of time on their breakout. They have a tough time getting out of their zone. They're another team that can struggle defending in front of the net. They're 29th. They're having a hard time. Look at me throwing out stats that aren't even real. But one of the things I want to talk about how well they're playing now,

they lead the league in shooting percentage with 16.7. That's not sustainable. They're first and goals for above expected. They're first and goal differential above expected. None of those things are sustainable. Like this is not where the Chicago Blackhawks is going to level off. I do think we're seeing them playing exciting. They're playing fast.

They're defending much better, and that's Blaschell's credit, too, playing a one-one-three through the neutral zone. They're not chasing their defenseman up high in the zone. They're playing more of a zone in front of their net. All of those things are great. Spencer Knight has got a goals against a 2.35 and a safe percentage of 9-20. But he's got a 1-and-2 record. Like, phenomenal numbers. They're going to have to just have those little wins this year.

I think it's going to be, hey, we had a good game. We competed better. A power play is better today. but we gave up fewer chances today. I think those are the little wins that Chicago's going to have this year. I don't think we're going to see big leaps and bound changes by this Chicago Blackhawk team. Yeah, it's going to be habits for sure. And I think watching what a guy like Frank Nazar is doing as well,

I mean, that finish and that that tribe he had was incredible. He's got so much juice. And so adding a secondary weapon to take a little bit of that pressure off Bidar and not just allow opposing defenses to completely hone in on just that one scoring line is going to go a long way as well and make life easier for everyone involved. So, yeah, it was a fun one. It was a bizarre performance by the Blues, certainly, and they were unraveling. I love the, by the way, I love, you know, Dylan Holloway scores the rush goal.

And then I think on the next shift, he absolutely just lights up Sam Renzel behind the net with a very clean, just beautifully executed hit. And the thing that I love the most about it is that Renzel just got up, dusted himself off, and everyone kept playing. And we didn't have any ensuing theatrics in terms of guys puffing their chests out and being like, oh, well, you know, I take issue with this clean. hit. It was a beautiful hit. You love to see it and everyone kept playing and we just got fun hockey that ensued. And so I really love that sequence. Two points on that. Rinsell, and I like Renzel.

And I know that there's a lot of Chicago fans that love this kid. One of the things you're going to see in the defensive zone, he has got to learn to make quicker decisions with the puck. And I know he gets lit up there, but we saw it through preseason with Renzel, turning the puck over too much, holding onto it for just a beat longer. And that it gives the opponent's time to catch up to him. And he's going to have to change that from his college play to the NHL, you've got to move the puck quicker. You're going to have to make quicker decisions with the puck because he does have the tools. He has a guy that's big enough, strong enough, but he can't get lit up on the breakouts consistently. And he was in the preseason as well.

So I think that's one point. And you brought up Naser, Frank Naser. I tell you what, I think as a hockey fan, that's what I expected, and maybe wrongly so, but that's what I expected Bedard. Like when Frank Nazars on the ice, you go, oh, my goodness. look at that guy go. Look at his speed through the news on. Look at the plays that Nazar is making. Like that's the exciting player that I wanted to see out of Badaard. I'm not sure that's what Baderd.

He's the guy that can distribute the puck. I don't think he plays with that kind of pace like Naser. And I think we're starting to see those, the player like Naser, man, that's what Chicago Blackhawks fan needed. They needed to see that, that pace Reichel playing like that, driving to the net with some skill. Now you're seeing,

oh, I get it. It's not just Badard. It's the supporting cast as well. And I believe that they are taking a step in the right direction. I believe this team is better. It's just not now. Yeah, these are so fun to watch, man. Okay, let's, let's end. I give you a bit of homework, as I said off the top, players that have stood out to you to the eye test or impressed you when you've tuned into their games this season. It can't be the obvious ones. As much as I'd love to talk about what Alexi Proto is doing following up on last year, Carol Marchenko and how insanely explosive he is, those are the obvious ones.

ones. We've got to dig a little bit deeper. I've got a couple that I wanted to throw at you. Do you have anyone off the hop that you wanted to throw into the mix here? Yeah, but I mean, we just talked about Frank Naser. He's got two four, two goals for six points. He is one that's exciting every time he's on the ice. But there's one that I've had a chance to see the Philadelphia Flyers play a few times. And Noah Cates and Bobby bring together. They're the best forwards for the Philadelphia Flyers right now. It's not Zegress. It's not, how am I doing this? Mietchkov. To get so many Russians, I had Kroll Marchenko on my note, so I went by Mietchkov.

But that Kate's Brink, that's how Philadelphia Flyer hockey wants to play. If you get a chance to watch Philadelphia Flyers, when Noah Kates and Bobby Brinker are on the ice together, they are physical. They separate the opponent from the puck. They get pucks to the net. They're finding offense. They're defending really well. They both have three points through three games, and they're exciting and playing the right way. And I stay on the east and Justin Brazzell with four goals.

a guy that Minnesota gave up on. Now he's a guy that big body guy getting to the net, and he's given that Pittsburgh team a little bit of a spark. So I think you do have all the regulars. Matt Boldy and Carol Caprisov have been lights out. Crowell Marchenko, keep an eye on him. Columbus is going to be a sleeper. That team is, they're quietly going to be a very good hockey team this year.

Marchenko might be the most fun player in the league to watch right now. What he's doing is just absolutely outrageous. Unbelievable, but we don't see him. And I think that that's one of the, it's just the reality of these small market teams. There's teams you don't see as much. And Columbus, when you see them play, you're going, my goodness, this team is young. They're fast. They're exciting.

They defend well. I think this team is going to be a team that can not only make the playoffs, but keep an eye on them. I really like them. Now, here's the problem with this segment, Dimitri, because you are the numbers guru of the North American National Hockey League. And you're going to throw some numbers at me. I know it because that's what you do, that you've dug deep and have some really good names for us. No, well, I'm proud of you. I think the Bobby Brink one was a great one.

I was watching Flyers, hurricanes over the weekend, and he was just immensely oppressive. I thought, you know, he winds up scoring a goal, setting up another one, but he was all over it and probably one of the best players on the ice. So it was cool watching him and Kate's get after it. I'll give you a couple really, really deep ones, and then I'll do a bit more of an obvious one after that. Here's the first one. Arseni Gritzhick for the New Jersey Devils. Now a 24-year-old coming over after four highly productive KHL seasons, he's ninth amongst Devils forwards in Ice Time.

He's playing on a third line functionally with Connor Brown and Cody Glass. Watching his vision and playmaking ability as a passer, he's got the three primary assists already probably could have five or six more. Honestly, if he was playing up the lineup, like he's just throwing dimes out there and setting up so many beautiful cross-ice passes. So you saw that in that. in that fun game against Columbus most recently. And so I'm going to be watching him because he's adding a really,

I think, important aspect of secondary scoring to this Devils team. Brad and Hughes, you know what you're going to get from them up front, his share in Meyer, but I feel like figuring out that bottom six and getting some offensive juice for them was a massive priority this offseason. And they bring Gritznik over. I think he's provided that. Adam Hedstrom, a 25-year-old, 6-7.

The 7 behemoth for the Rangers who has blown me away with his movement this season. He's moving like a mutant out there. Dare I say, and this is a bit sacrilegious because Alexei Protis really is a one-of-one. But he's looking a little protesey out there so far, obviously in a smaller role for the Rangers, although they bumped up his ice time a couple minutes this season.

And that line of him, Matt Rampi, and Carrick, has been really impressive to watch. They've been creating a ton of chances. It's from as a pair of cysts. He's got 12 shots. shot attempts, 10 of them, according to the natural statutes, have been registered as scoring chances. Seven of them, high danger. On the one hand, that's a massive positive, I think, for the Rangers.

On the other hand, I think it's a bit illuminating about some of their offensive struggles as well, right? Because there's been this storyline now of the three straight games at home getting shut out and what a historical footnote that is. And they've clearly been unlucky. They're shooting like 5% or something at 5-1-5 as a team. but I think it does kind of highlight some of the roster composition issues maybe with this team in terms of the speed and the fact that they're having a lot of ozone time and a lot of possession time and creating cycle chances but not much of it is coming off the rush. And so watching Ed's from fly around there. It's almost like objects are closer than they appear situation where he just comes flying in out of nowhere with his reach and dislodges the puck and then takes it to the net.

And so I've really enjoyed watching him. And here's my more obvious one. Cutter Goce and that line in general for the Ducks, I mentioned earlier, how much more fun they've been. They have the 12 goals in three games, including a crazy high-scoring affair against the San Jose Sharks. But that line of Goce and McTavish and Beckett Seneca, 22, 21, and 19 years old, 40 minutes of I-1-5, goals are 3-1, shots, 25, 16, high-danger chances, 21-8. And they've been really fun, and Gocee is kind of extending what he did down the stretch last year, where he just was a shot generation machine. He has three goals already, 16 shot attempts or 16 shots on goal in that time.

And so it's been really fun watching him build off of last year. And the youth of that line and the way the team is playing in general, it was just so much more conducive to not only being a viewer-friendly product, but also being more successful. They have a lot of stuff to figure out defensively. But I really love what I've seen from them. So those are kind of my guys that have really popped off so far. It's interesting.

Two other things. First of all, that Anaheim team, the way that is built with their use. young players playing as well as they are like Utah, but they're veteran depth on that team. It's a good hockey team. I keep an eye on those ducks. But the Rangers, the interesting stuff for me for the Edstrom, because I like watching Edstrom. I do.

I think he moves well for a big guy. I think he doesn't play the same style game as Matt Rempi. Obviously, he's more of a he tries to create some offense. He's trying to be a better player than that. But one interesting step from those two guys that are both six, what, six, nine, six, seven combined. Huge players. no penalties through five. No penalty minutes through five games.

Matt Rampi is a guy that spent so much time in the penalty box that they couldn't keep him on the ice. And now one of the things the Rangers can do, they could put that line on the ice. Because dangerous on an F1. Like both those two guys barreling down on your defense, and I tell you what, they can wear down opposing a defenseman by that physical play.

They're getting to the net. In front of the net, both those players are absolutely dangerous. You're right. I think this is a line. I know they're a fourth line right now. get their role in the game, but they're both staying on the ice. Incredibly important from the New York Rangers. If they want that line to be able to play, they've got to stay out of the box.

And Rempie, hats off to him that he's been able to do that so far early in this season for the Rangers. I can't believe I'm saying this. I felt like I was living a fever dream, but I just watched the game the other day involving Leandro Seidel and Carter McDavid, and Adam Edstrom was the most dangerous player offensively on the ice. He had so many scoring chances. Now, unfortunately, he didn't convert on any of them, and the Rangers got shut out again. but it was a very wild experience sitting at home watching that. All right, Pete, we've got to get out of here.

This was really fun. I'm going to let you plug some stuff here on the way out. Let the listeners know what you got cooking up. You know, I just want everybody to jump onto the YouTube inside the coaches room. It's been a slow start for me. It's hard to get back into this season, but we've got some stuff coming up here in the next few weeks. So we'll start breaking down some more goals. And more importantly, we're going to start breaking down some players on what they're doing well and what they're struggling with.

So you can kind of go behind the curtain and see the way I see the game. All right, buddy. Well, I'm looking forward to those deep dives on Adam Edstrom and our Senni Kretzuk. Hopefully they come. Yeah, it's coming. To the inside of the coaches. There you go. There you go. Off the list. We got a couple more shows on the way to close out the week. We got a double dip on Friday. Our pal, Dom, Lusdition's coming on. We're going to do some mailbag questions and some conversation about season-long projections. And then AJ Hathley coming on to close out the week to talk about the first five games of the Ave season. If you want to listen to those and all the shows we do

moving forward, make sure to subscribe to our Patreon page as well. We're going to do two shows per week on there. The link is in the show notes. You can also just search the HockeyPedioCast on Patreon and subscribe and join us for the ride. Also join the PDOCAST Discord server. Give us a five-star review wherever you listen, and that is all for today. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPedioCast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.