The Hockey PDOcast - Winnipeg's Statement Win, Draisaitl's Dominance, and the Sens Winning Streak

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance for another edition of the Sunday Special to cover this past week's biggest takeaways. They discuss Winnipeg's statement win against Dallas, Draisaitl's dominance and the top of the MVP conversation, Ottawa's winning streak, Sam Bennett's next contract, and a couple of other quick hitters. 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 P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Dimitra Filippovich and joining me for another edition of the Sunday specials, my good buddy Thomas Jans. Tom, what's going on, man? Not much, buddy. Interesting week of hockey, I thought, across the board. Really feels like these sort of wild card races in both conferences are beginning to take real shape in terms of teams like the senators, you know, taking real control. I'd say you'd probably say the same about the Canucks, although we're recording this before they play the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday.

But at this point, given Utah sort of falling short on Thursday, the Canucks taking care of business, falling short in Seattle on Friday, excuse me, the Canucks taking care of business, both with a comeback win against the flames and with a really easy victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night, you know, it feels like there. pretty firmly in control to the point where, and again, you'll be listening to this after the results are in on Sunday night, but if Utah doesn't win that game, it feels like curtains for them at this point. And yet, you know, for the Canucks, they can kind of afford to lose it now. They're kind of in the position that the flames were on Wednesday, which shows you how quickly

this flips. It's going to be fun to track it right to the end. Yeah, we're going to talk more about the senators later. I got them in my topic rundown. Yeah, let's go. As you said, we originally told the listeners we're going to wait to record until later in the evening so that we could talk about a couple of the big games in the NHL schedule this Sunday, including that Canucks Utah game, also stars, abs, but because of some other plans, we're actually doing this in the morning, so we're not going to get into either of those. I'll circle back on tomorrow's show and cover them at more length. Sorry, buddy. That's fine, because we've got a lot of other fun stuff that we saw across the league this weekend, as you mentioned. And I wanted to start off with another game we saw

on Friday evening, and that was atop the Central, right? We had a big, clash on Friday night where it felt like with their games in hand and a couple head to heads left on the schedule, the stars could have made things interesting with the regulation win, kind of disrupting our projected round one matchups where we're all getting excited about rantan in versus the abs and talking about the Jets path moving forward. But instead what we saw was Winnipeg came out, just absolutely flying. I thought they delivered a huge statement win in front of, by the way, an awesome sold-out crowd there in Winnipeg on a Friday night that was on fire all night. It felt like, you know, especially after the first goal by Dylan Sandberg, which we're going to talk more about,

it was just electric and it was a great atmosphere and you love to see that. A couple things really stood out for me in that game. And I wanted to break them all down one by one with you here. The first was to my eye, Winnipeg looked so fast and cohesive as a team, right? We've been talking all season about this sort of concept of continuity with them, the same group and core of guys being together for so long. And that translating onto the ice, I think, their transition from the defensive zone to the offensive zone is always so crisp.

It was particularly in this one. They play so well as a five-man group, almost essentially regardless of who's out on the ice for them. There's support everywhere, right? And that's such an important thing when you're playing against a talented team like the stars. You saw a couple of, in particular with the top line that really cooked in this game and Kyle Conner scored a couple goals and Mark Shifley was awesome. They run such a simple yet effective play on their transition.

where like the middle lane guy often Shifley has the center, carries the puck up the ice. As he's approaching the blue line, he kicks it off to the right wing, and then he keeps his center lane drive, pushes the defense back with him, and it creates this passing lane for the guy, the blue line to either go cross ice to the left wing,

which is Kyle Connor, which is awesome, for a quick shot, or wait for the trailer defenseman to come along, and that's what they did on the Samburg goal, and really burned the stars a few times with that, right? I thought it was an incredibly impressive showing from the Jets, the latest and a long list of them this season. And coming out of the trade deadline,

we were both sort of lamenting the fact that they didn't make any big moves in this arms race amongst the contenders this season. And maybe they didn't need to because this group is, without many weaklings, the one move they did make, or they made two moves, but one of the more important ones was bringing in Luke Shen. Even with Neil Pionk out of the lineup, they didn't play Logan Stanley. They kept him out of the mix. They instead played Shen on the second pair with Dylan Sandberg.

played a third pair of Hayden Flurry and Colin Miller, and that feeds into the way they want to play. And so I thought you put that all together, and it was a really important viewing that we got from the Jets. Yeah, you know, we're definitely at the point where this Jets team is capable of having these knights where their best players aren't even on, you know, and yet you look at the game at the end of it,

and you're like, well, Kupari scored and Iafalo scored, and we've been talking about this. I mean, the waves that they're able to come at you with, I thought it was notable in that first period as they were really taking it to the stars. There was also the entry earlier on maybe five minutes before the goal, the Sandberg goal, where Eilers entered and did like just a little curl and fed it to Sandberg. The broadcast I was watching recorded Sandberg's one time in the 90s miles per hour on the shot. So maybe I don't know if he's like looking for it more, but I did.

feel like after that I was saying wow like I don't I don't know that I've ever seen him on cork one like that and then of course he scores on that wrister on the play you just described to open the scoring um yeah that was a what what stood out to me about that win from the jets in winnipeg over Dallas was the maturity of it right the the fact that they were completely pedal to the medal for the first 20 minutes and then they treated it like a big game like treated it like a big game and then we're kind of able to cruise and just punish mistakes the rest of the way and sort of nursing and in fact building on that lead. I mean, I think that shows you something, something you want to see, especially from a group

that hasn't had a ton of playoff success in the past, which is the, both the fastball, of course, but also, you know, that that sort of game management, that mature understanding of how to go about winning a game against a, you know, a high-quality opponent. I mean, their biggest threat in the central from a team quality perspective. Well, Sandberg in this one, plays 2307, which was behind Morrissey for team lead. He got the primary assignment versus the top line of Wyatt Johnson and Amico Randton. And he played the full lone power play or PK sequence that they had against that devastating stars. Powerplay, he obviously scores the goal, as we mentioned.

And, you know, it's interesting hearing you talking about bringing up that shot of his because I think this season he's, of course, been playing primarily with Neil Pionk, who's a bit more offensively oriented on that pair. And I wonder just in terms of fitting a role or sort of doing what he needs to to make that pair thrive, he's taken a bit of a backseat offensively as a result of it, and he's obviously very comfortable doing so. But now that he's playing on this pair with Luke Chen, and Neil Pionk's going to be out week to week, so I imagine at least another handful of games,

it's going to provide us an interesting sort of insight into whether there is a bit more, untapped offensive potential from Sandberg. This was obviously a great first impression. I do think just considering how smart a player he is, how big he is, and the fact that he has that shot that you just mentioned, there probably is a bit more of that. And it feels like the Jets would be very smart to get this guy signed long term yesterday because the price of the brick is just going to keep going up here.

Now they have good leverage in the sense that he only has 15 points this year. He's still an RFA. I imagine whatever they, whenever they wind up. signing him, even if it is this offseason, it's going to be a deal that we love as a team-friendly AAV for them. But I do suspect that a lot's been made of Neil Pionk's resurgence this year after a really poor year last year. And I think a lot of that should just be attributed to how awesome Dylan Sandberg is. And so now in this stretch of games where Pionk isn't around and Sanberg is just playing with Luke Shen or whoever they pair him with in his absence, I suspect the results are

going to look very similar. The Jets are going to dominate in those minutes. And it's going to be another sort of feather in his cap come negotiation in terms of like, yeah, I'm the one driving the bus here. I'm the reason why the results are the way they are. And so getting getting the deal locked up would be like priority number one for me for the Chats right now. Yeah, I wonder about something, especially now that we're what, solidly eight days past the trade deadline. Thank goodness, right? It feels like it's in the rear view mirror. But there's going to be a lot of material discussion.

this off season and into the playoffs, especially if teams like Winnipeg and Washington in particular have success here, about the idea of the in real time retool, right? And sort of the detonation of a model that we've seen for much of the last 15 years where teams kind of had to go to the bottom

for at least a portion of time. You know, even if it takes you a while. And by the time you're winning, the key guys aren't the necessarily like the Carl Alsners that you originally draft. drafted at the top of the draft a la the Washington Capitals. But, you know, the idea that you don't necessarily have to scorch, go scorched earth to build a high-end team.

I guess the stars are part of that conversation as well. And, you know, we've been talking about Winnipeg not going all in, but I mean, and, look, I think it's been partly the idea of their business model in a smaller market, partly their, you know, very conscious sort of copying of what, of what their organization used to refer to as the Nashville model, right? The idea of this sustainable mode of winning. But it, but it is something that's fascinating when you look up and down this roster and how many of their players are drafted by that organization, how closely they've hugged on to their first round picks and, you know, even second round picks. And now you're sort of seen with the Perfetti and Sandberg Wave, kind of

that begin to give them this extra gear that they've found this season. In some ways, I almost think they're a purer model for people to cite, to counter the dogmatist rebuild advocates of sort of how you can build an elite team without necessarily permanently going to the bottom. But it might be a trickier one to replicate because, you know, taking what we saw from the NBA, for example, with the cap, Skyrocket. Rocketing the way they did. Obviously sort of this player empowerment movement, guys taking shorter term contracts,

controlling their own situation a bit more closely and proactively. The Jets, as we've talked about, I think part of the reason for their success is bringing a lot of these guys back and cultivating this continuity. Right. And that might become more difficult. I'm sure teams would love to emulate that because we're just going to see organizations more willing, I think, as we've seen with the goalie market, to just like sign guys to longer term deals, to lock, that AAB so that they're not getting into bidding wars on the open market with more money available to everyone. But I think players themselves might become more reticent, especially once they

get into those UFA years to accommodate that, right? Yeah, although that's sort of what's so incredible is Winnipeg, which has had so much difficulty recruiting players, right? I mean, it's never a destination and unrestricted for agency. Certainly, you know, the contrast with a team like the Florida Panthers of the Tampa Bay Lightning could not be Starker has still managed to get their guys to commit to staying. I think that's sort of the sauce that's really tricky to emulate, especially if you happen to be managing in a market like Winnipeg. You just kind of have to tip your cap to this team, though, in terms of its construction, in terms of just how much depth they have, you know, even the three for one trade for Pierre

Luke Dubois, right? Like, in some ways, it just accentuated what was great about this team. Now, IAFAL has also become a hit so that we'd never refer to him as depth guy. But, you know, that, it's like the bones of that, or the logic of that trade, it still feels like contributes to the feeling of winning machinery that the Jets now kind of embody for me where it, obviously, we start with Helibuck and their great players and Shifeley and Eilers, but it really does feel like, they feel like a machine at the moment. Yeah, a well-oiled machine. They're playing so well right now and so fun to watch. You know, one final note on this game. And it's something that we've certainly spoken about quite a bit.

And it was really on full display in this one as a limiting factor for Dallas was just how deeply unsurious their blue line is right now. Now Bissell was out for this game as well. But I can't believe we saw a Matt Dumbo, Brendan Smith pair in the year 2025. S. Lendell is essentially having a function as the primary puck mover on his pair because he's playing with Cody C.C. in high leverage minutes. Thomas Harley doesn't really have any reliable insulation behind him when he activates in an offensive zone. and gets deep because he's playing with such a slow partner in Lubushkin and it's kind of a nightmare like especially in that first

period there was so much open space in the neutral zone for the jets to essentially just skate into and pick them apart and that's going to be a massive problem for the stars moving forward at least until Miro Hayskin and comes back in the playoffs on Hellebuck as he mentioned and I want to kind of use that as a segue to talk about the top of this year's increasingly interesting

MVP race especially amongst the top two based on the betting odds. But Hellabuck, of all the crazy stats he's had this year, I think his dominance within the conference is probably my favorite one. 28 games now versus West teams. He's given up 46 total goals against. In those 28 games, it's a 939, safe percentage stopping nearly 94% of the shots he faces. 22 wins. 21 games out of his 51 appearances with one goal against or less this season. He's got a 927 save percentage in a 901 league average league. we saw it in this game, right?

The Jets have given up 41 goals against this year in 67 first periods. So they're just getting out to good starts, and then that's enabling them as this game progressed to play the exact type of lockdown they want to play. Very impressive. Do you want to get into, do you have any notes on any other notes on this game or the Jets, or do you want to get into the MVP conversation? Ooh, we're doing MVP conversation before the Ottawa Senators? I have them later on, don't worry.

We're going to get to them. Okay, let's do the... I just think it's a natural segueue, because we just talked about Hala Buck. Yep. And I think the top three is becoming very interesting. Now, I've certainly got time for Wrenski if you watch how integral he has his Blue Jackets team and how much he drives the bus. Obviously, they've fallen off a bit here over the past week with a couple of poor showings. Certainly, what about time for Quinn Hughes.

Had he not missed that extended stretch of games you watch and come back and what he means to this Canucks team. Yeah, although if he drags this Canucks team to the playoffs, does that alter? in any way your appetite. I just feel like missing like whatever 15 games total or whatever is pretty tough, especially when the case is up top for, like if you want to go the hell of buck direction, I think there's a very valid argument. Yeah. I generally don't give goalies that much credence in this debate just because I think everyone

admits that they're the most valuable by default. And so that's almost sorted out in the Vesna. Now he's been so much more productive than all of his peers that I think it's fair for him. Like, it's having one of the all-time seasons, especially in this scoring landscape. But man, Leon Dreisdahl, who's currently the betting favorite? Do you see the game he had on Friday night against the Islanders and what he did to them? I honestly thought it was, like, we're sort of spoiled right now, right, with what guys like McKinnon and Kucharov, like you watch the best players,

they're able to just take over and do stuff that you can't even fathom. I thought this game, Dreisaitle played on Friday night, especially considering the circumstances, was the most, like, dominant individual performance I've seen in a long time. It felt like every single time I was out there, the Oilers were generating a high dangerous scoring chance. He scores both goals in such cool rock star Leandro Seidel fashion, right? Like a throwback slapper coming down the wing that beats Ilya Sorokin and then the overtime winner one-on-one against him.

Corey Schneider tracked this game and he tweeted this out. He had 12 controlled entries, 11 combined scoring chances. So combined either he taking them or setting them up. And you and I were texting about this, but I don't even know what the comp is for the way he looks right now. It's like almost some sort of Frankenstein version of a bunch of our favorite all-time greats.

It's like a Peter Forsberg level of power with like a Yarmor-Yager level of puck possession and like using his frame to shield off defenders, especially when he works his way up towards the blue line and then spins back the backhand, the passing. It's like Joe Thornton-esque. And then you put that all with, a 22% most efficient shooter in the league at a high volume.

It's preposterous. And I mean, the like, the lefty Stephen Stamcoast thing. Yeah. Right? And, yeah, the one time from the, like, yeah. Not only the backhand passing cross-ice while he's, like, shielding a defender, but then the one time from the bad angle, he's got, like, signature moves that are at the top of the game in completely different areas of the game.

And, and I mean, I, you know, Stamcoast for me is always, like, what I come back to. when I think about the purest sort of sniper in the game, and yet I almost, you know, usually you have to add some qualifier, poor man's, you know, watered down, stamp coast, right? Or like a lesser version of. And in Leon Dreisel's case, it's like, no, I think he's every bit the off-angle one-time finisher, right? Like, he's every bit as efficient as a sniper,

as Prime Stamcoast was, in addition to everything else you just laid out. And who do you trust in the entire league to raise their game more when the chips are down? Like he also might have the most dog. Yep. Yeah, the degree of difficulty too, right? Yeah. Like for like all the knocks that we might have had unfairly previously in terms of playing with McDavid,

power play, this and that, like effort, all of that is out of the window. Like he did this in this game playing with Connor Brown and Corey Perry as his wings. And if it were better players, probably would have had three or four assists on top of the two goals he scored. We're up to a point this season where he's played 700 minutes without McDavid at 5-on-5. The Oilers are up 31 to 24. In the 650 minutes McDavid's played without Dry Settle at 5-on-5, the Oilers are getting outscored 37 to 25. And just put that into perspective.

Imagine what a freak you have to be to relegate Connor McDavid to like the second best player on his own team. And I think like McDavid hasn't been right. He's been really struggling. Even at the end of the Four Nations tournament, you could see it obviously scores the golden goal. but that was one of the worst games he's played. Yeah. That's partly that. But man, like what Dreisel is doing right now is just insane.

He hit the 100 point mark to match McKinnon. Right now, he's going to eclipse 50 goals. Forget the 17-game point streak he's currently on. He's got a point in 39 of his past 41 games. That means that he's been held off the score sheet twice since December 5th. Last 13 games, Oilers have scored 40 goals. He's been on for 28 of them and scored 12 of them himself. He leads to the league.

in 5-on-5 points. He has 12 more goals than second place, Willie Nealander. He's only got four empty net points. It feels like the empty net has been the one thing that's been able to slow him down a little bit this season. I mean, I'll put it all together, and the package is just so unbelievable the level he's playing at. So he's one goal away from hitting 50 on the year.

Yep. Once he does that, he'll have 50 and four of the last seven seasons. And the exceptions are the 71 game campaign he played, which was pandemic abbreviated, in which he was on pace to hit 50 goals, right? The 56 game season, also pandemic abbreviated, in which he was on pace for 45. And last season, where he went 41, 65, and 106. Yeah. I mean, that's, like, we're talking about a baseline 50 goal scoring center.

I can't believe that exists. Like, that's his baseline. Yes. That's shocking to me. That's shocking. I mean, I know Austin Matthews, you could probably say the same about Matthews, right? So it's not as if he's basically one of one. But the fact that that's just who he's become, an 18, 19% shooter who elevates his game

and absolutely is one of the five best players on the ice. This is not a guy standing in McDavid's shadow by any means. This is a guy, in fact, this is a guy who I think has his own competitive gravity that has pushed McDavid to hit higher heights as well, right? And that's to say that working too hard to parse who deserves credit between these two guys misses the point that together they've become a sort of form of symbiosis that I don't think has just pushed them, but I think has pushed their team as a general rule. Like has helped a bunch of other guys also get to a higher level. in terms of their game. That's a great point. I think similar to what you could say about McKinnon and McCar in Colorado,

because everyone spends so much time looking at the Wauys and being like, oh, well, look when they're split apart, what's happening. And the reality is that. By the way, I'm like the number one offender of that. Well, not only do they drive each other, but I think, and especially in McKinnon's case, he's the creator of that environment, right? Like the force he plays with, the pace,

constantly pushing it up the ice, the gravitational pull. You put it all together. And I think that's the lead force for it. And now especially the level he's, played at since Nate just came and was able to essentially match him and even speed that up and give him a running mate to do so. You look at what, and I think Ranton is going to be totally fine moving forward, especially in this spot in Dallas he's in now. But like his some like struggles and not

necessarily being the player he was previously as soon as he's not part of that symbiosis. I mean, I think there's a reason why like McKinnon obviously leads the league in scoring is over 100 points right now as well, that's why he's third in this list. And I think a very worthy hard finalist. And I just think, like, you put it all told, it's an awesome class. Like, I haven't spent that much time talking about MVP. I don't find it necessarily that fascinating. But it feels like the cases of those guys right now, like, they're just elevating to such a high level.

Yeah, I think the real interesting discussion is, like, my problem that I run into with MVP, right? So it's player or judge to be most valuable to his team. and as a voter, right? The truth is, is that I've always excluded goaltenders, not because they have the Vesna, but because if I were to literally interpret what this is telling me, I would always have a goalie on the top of my ballot. Yes.

Right? Like there's no world. They're the most valuable inherently. Inherently. So, like, I have to squirrel it. And so I've sort of come up with, and honestly, like, you know, Whether it's in the Discord or on Twitter, like PDOCAST listeners, please feel free to tell me your opinion on this because I'm not an absolutist.

I don't think I've got the right mix. But sort of my rule is, a goaltender season has to be so historically spectacular, right? It's not a fair standard because, again, I would just be voting on this like it were the Vesna if I were to interpret the words literally. So you do need, as a goaltender, to hit a level of special beyond what. you know, he's customary. Like, I think you need to start 65 to 70 games, which I really hope Hellabuck does not, by the way. You need to be multiple standard deviations

above the league average, say, percentage. And Hellebuck, given the volume that he's played at, and given that he's a what, a 927 guy. 927 guy in a 901 league. Yeah, we're starting to get into Dominic Hachick, Prime Dominic Hachick seasons territory, where, you know, you, you play him so that he saves 2,000 shots this year.

Yeah, he's probably been worth an amount of goal differential that becomes something that truly like eclipses by a historical magnitude, even the best skaters in the league. So I think when I'm sizing this up right now, the hellabuck factors is as a voter, what's like looming largest in my mind. It's weighing on you. Well, it is because in some ways for, and I guess if you're, if you're, someone who bets on hockey awards, which I obviously wouldn't. This is some insight to keep in mind in terms of how voters think about this, or at least one voter does, which is that in some ways,

it's like hellebuck races against this standard of inclusion as a goaltender, almost independent of the performances of other players. And it's like, I have to decide how heavily to weight that and then get into parsing the dry-sidal versus McKinnon versus Werencki versus Werencki versus, you know, pick your favorite Dark Horse, Kutrov, or, you know, if Pasternak goes off for 50 points and in the remaining 18 games and the Bruins make the playoffs, right? Like, going to be pretty hard, I think, for anyone else to meaningfully enter the conversation outside of those dudes. But Helibuck in some way stands alone as a separate variable to, like, weigh before you get into the mix of, you know, parsing between McKinnon and Drycycle. If that makes sense. No, I think that makes perfect sense.

I think you said it really well. I think what Drey said, he's clearly been the best skater in the world the season and the level to which he's carrying the Oilers right now as well offensively while posting these sublime 5-on-5 results and defensive metrics and carrying guys who are obviously well below his level is just so undeniably impressive that I wanted to shout him out. And I've been really enjoying this absolutely torrid stretch. he's been on. All right, Tom, let's take our break here.

And then we come back, we'll jump back in. We're finally to talk Sends. I'm sorry that I kept that from you and the listeners for the past 15, 20 minutes. I thought that was a fun conversation for us to have. In the meantime, you're listening to the Hockey P.D.O. cast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we're back here on the Hockey-Pedocast for part two of our Sunday special. As promised, we're going to talk Ottawa Senators. The Sends now are 701 in March.

They have a six-point cushion on the second spot or second wildcard spot in the east. they're closer to second in the Atlantic, only four points back of both the Leafs. And the lightning, not that it matters for the purposes of seating in the East right now, but they've actually quietly passed New Jersey in point percentage in sneaky fashion. They have a 97% playoff probability according to Dom's model at the Athletics. So they've been playing really well. And I think the theme for them in watching Saturday Night's game against the Leafs that's differentiated this Sends team from previous seasons where they'd fly

last promise at certain stages of the season and then just crashed in sort of comical fashion in a sense, right, where like they were just let one mistake snowball into multiple and go on losing streaks and within games themselves fall apart. And the poison professionalism to prevent those things from happening this year, I think have been impressive to me. Instead of sort of spiraling that way, not only game to game, but within these games, you saw in this one, right? In the second period, Linus Allmark has this.

gaff where he misplays the puck is on his belly at at uh like near the top of the blue line almost matthews is able to put it in an empty netter they go down to one and i think in the past that might have been a death blow for them where it's like all right this happened everyone's posting memes about it it's over for the senators instead they come back within five minutes they score two goals go up three two and then lock it down in very business like fashion on the road in the third period. And it was just kind of the latest in a string of these for the senators where they've not only found ways to win, but done so in a very serious manner.

This was a team that was very unsurious previously. And so whether you want to give credit to the job Travis Green's done, which I think he's done a phenomenal job or players maturing, some of the players they brought in in the offseason, I think it's a bunch of those factors. But in total, I just think it's an entirely different version of, you know, some of these senators teams that we've seen in the past. Yeah, I think there's definitely a couple things going on with the senators. Now, there, first of all, we were talking about the impact of the four nations faceoff

and what we might see from some of the young guys entrusted with huge roles who starred. And Ottawa was one of our picks before the tournament, or at this sort of tail end of the tournament, given what Jake Sanderson accomplished, given what Brady Kachuk accomplished, to be one of the biggest winners of the tournament. And I think you've seen that. You know, since Brady Kachuk got back into the lineup March 1, the leading scorer among Senators players in that eight-game stretch is Sanderson. He's got 11 points in the nine games that this team has played since sort of the Four Nations face-off,

including just absolutely destroying it for them in the month of March. he's playing obviously huge minutes. He never has a bad game is one thing that I think the senators internally always talk about with Sanderson. Like there's no, there's an extremely high floor and he's beginning to find a ceiling to his game too. But there's a steadiness, a sort of an engine that he is able to provide in terms of getting this team going.

I think the other thing, obviously you're seeing Brady Kachuk make a huge difference in these games. I mean, he's on a pretty tidy little scoring streak himself. But I think especially with the Josh Norris trade recently, you've seen Dylan Cousins get airdropped into this lineup. And he really has basically just taken that Morris spot between, sorry, Norris' spot. With Batherson and on the power play, yep. Yeah.

And but Batherson and Perron, that is, that line, you know, I know David Peron dealt with some injuries early in the air. he's very reliant on his area game at this point in his career. He's not exactly a burner, but he is elevated in a massive way, and that line is kicking their opponent's teeth in five-on-five. And I think while some of their March streak has been less about some of what I liked from them earlier in the year, like I actually think there's been some slippage in terms of their defense game. Yeah, the game against Detroit, where it was like Linus-Ombar.

I had to stop nearly 50 shots, and they get by the skin of their game. teeth in the final second, yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. They literally, by the literally milliseconds away from allowing them to tie it. I actually think we're seeing some seams in terms of their five-on-five game. I don't know that it's been as impressive as it was earlier in the air, but because Allmark's been on his game in a way that they didn't have in the first half of the season, and because I think this team has a couple of forward lines that are really dangerous, really capable of picking their teeth with the opposition, they've been able to sort of win with, yeah, look, is it smoke and mirrors? Sure. But I think we know that this team

has that defensive baseline to their game based on what they've done over a large sample. So even though I think some of what we're seeing right now is, you know, not the stuff that originally won me over that we were seeing from them in November and December, I'm still buying. Like, I'm still buying this is a very dangerous team in the Eastern Conference. But I think that's kind of a hallmark I think that's a feature or not a bug in terms of how difficult it is to sustain these stretches in the NHL. You're not always going to have your A game. You're not always going to control a 5-15 and necessarily be able to execute your bread and butter. And finding ways to still be competitive and get points and squeeze points out of games where that's the case is an important step for a young team to make.

Like how much time have we spent on the show talking about Utah's struggles? to do so in close games and one-goal games against the Blackhawks, against the Cracken recently, where it's like you should be winning or at least getting a point, if not two, in those, and they're playing well enough to do so and then finding ways to fumble the bag. And that's not happening with the Senators team where that clearly was the case in previous seasons. And so I think that's an important step in this development and growth. To your note on Sanderson, so he scores the goal in the second period in this game, he leads the team at ice time.

Matthews played 1733 at 5-15. Sanderson and Zubb as a pair were out there for over 10 of those minutes, and shots were 4 to 1 Ottawa in that time. Perfect. And they're playing them, like they played them with the Pinto, Greg Amadio line and that frees up the cousins line, as you mentioned,

and obviously could Chuck and Stutzla to play more offensively. And so, yeah, I think it was an impressive showing. They've played a couple games now against the Leafs this season where I thought that they gave them quite a bit of trouble with not only the personnel they have, but the way they play. Yep. And so I thought that was notable.

I want to talk to you about the Leafs as well because they played two games this week, well, three really, right? At the start they played in Utah, they wound up winning that one in a shootout, but they went up three nothing in that game. And then Utah just completely took over and were controlling in both the third and overtime

and were sort of unfortunate to not win that game. And then they come home. They play against the Panthers. They play against the senators. In both games, they generate just two goals. They're playing from behind, kind of resurfacing a lot of the limiting factors for them in previous postseason runs, right?

Where, like, you're down, you need to find ways to get around these roadblocks and create offensively, and they're not really showing us enough solutions. Now, obviously Matthews playing at whatever percent he's adding, clearly being limited offensively and not scoring the way he typically does, makes that a bigger issue. but at the same time they knew that at the deadline and they only magnified it further by using all their resources of the trade deadline to bring in guys who aren't going to contribute offensively

and make it even more imperative that him and Martner and Neelander do and Neelander has been the issue though is like once you get into these types of game settings why is it going to be different and in this game like you talk about what Ottawa did previously this season defensively and how that necessarily hasn't been the case during this stretch the Leafs barely cracked two expected goals in this game, and that was sort of at the end.

They were in the ones for a long time. Since the Four Nations break, these are the Leaf's shot totals. 23, 25, 26, 21, 31, 27, 33, 17, 29, 24. And so we're getting to this spot now where, like, there was a lot of praise earlier in the season for Craig Brubay coming in and being more serious and disciplined and changing the identity of this Leafs team. And now it feels like you're almost bumping into,

to very familiar roadblocks offensively. I think we all sort of had a sense, though, earlier on in the year, of the extent to which Stollars and Hull were carrying the Leafs, right? Joseph Wool. You got Justin Hall in the mind. Did I say Justin Hall? Yeah. Former Leafs great. He used to carry the Leafs.

Former Leaves great. Him and Martin Marendmanian. Former Fifth Shortest Odds to win the Norris trophy. So, sorry, Joseph Wohl. Man, that's an easy mistake to make. We knew, I think, earlier in the season, just the extent to which Maple Leafs goaltenders were carrying that team or certainly hiding certain deficiencies in terms of the fact that,

objectively, this Leafs team has fewer outs and less juice than some of the teams that we've grown used to watching in this sort of core four era. And, you know, I think basically we've begun to see. see some of the seams there. I still think Stolars and Wohl are going to give the Leafs stellar goaltending down the stretch and into the playoffs. But I don't think they've been at their, well, I don't think Woll's been at his best, basically. Leif's goaltending hasn't been at its best. It hasn't been as sharp as it was earlier in the season across, you know, the last 10 game segment. And I think

suddenly everyone notices, hey, this team doesn't generate that much. Hey, this team tends to get out shot most nights. Hey, this team's, you know, giving up too many chances or certainly giving up up more chances than they're generating themselves. And yeah, I mean, that's, I think, been true for a lot of the season. I just think the goaltending excellence had really papered it over. And right now it's like someone turned the lights on at 3.3 a.m. at the club and everyone's looking around and realizing, you know, the damage they did. They're at 48.6 percent expect the goal share at 5-1-5.

That's the first time in the Matthews era, they've been below 50 percent. Right. At 5-1-5 offensively, they're generating shots at the 17th highest rate. 21st and chances 23rd in expected goals. And, you know, you're, you've seen this firsthand. It feels like Baroubae sort of talketing this team in a way in terms of the way they played. And part of that has been personnel driven, of course, by Brad Tree Living.

But the argument for it has been sort of better preparing them for postseason hockey, right? What it's going to look like, lower event, lower scoring, finding ways to win those coin flips. and I do think the goaltending and playing in some of these tight games is a bit different maybe in years past, but you're going to get into these situations like they experienced against the Panthers and senators this week, and you're going to have to answer a lot of questions in that way,

and I still have massive red flags about it. I think it's just until we see it, it's going to be tough to believe, right? And they're going to have to, at least right now, because of this recent downside they've been on, they might not even have home ice. in round one against Tampa Bay. You're going to have Florida looming potentially in round two,

and there's going to be a lot of those similar situations. So we'll see in this game, they tried to remedy it or kind of experiment and tinker with the lines, right? They split up Matthews, Marner, and Nylander onto three separate lines. But in that third period, you're watching it. And I do want to give the senators a lot of credit for the way they played it and approached it. Yet it's like, I don't know how you can come away with that

without thinking, man, there's just a noticeable lack of juice right now offensively. You don't really feel like it's really going to change or break through at any point. Yeah, and I just don't buy, I think, the idea that they're like playing a more mature brand of hockey. You know, and I didn't buy it in the fall and I don't buy it now. Like, I don't think that they're doing things that will help them win necessarily. I just think they're playing a more limited form of hockey with more limited personnel overall. Like, that's honestly my primary takeaway from what we're watching from this Maple Leafs team. Can we talk Chicago really quick?

I really wish we wouldn't. That's how you want to spend their final 10 minutes here? Well, I saw them last night, and I watched that Sharks game a bit. Okay. And so I think I have, I just want to quickly get into a Badaar take, and then I quickly want to get into a Lev Shunov take, and then we can move on. All right, if you insist. You've certainly talked about worst players on this show,

including the time you pitched me on a Zach Jones for Brian Dumlin trade, and then spend a bunch of time asking what about Loughton? So, okay, fair enough. So watching Baderd play in person on Saturday and on television, was it Thursday against the Sharks? Yep. One area where I think Macklin Sellebrini is more advanced than Baudard, and I think part of the reason that the conversation has gotten a little bit loopy in terms of who's

better, is I do think Sellebrini's skill set allows him to win more pucks to create scoring chances basically individually. Now, I also think he does incredible stuff, carrying the puck off the rush, whatever. It's not even about that. It's just in terms of like an opportunity out of nowhere that Celebrini is able to generate by being an F3 reading the play,

getting in on a guy's hands and lifting the stick. Like, I think he's more advanced in that area of the game. I think Badaard struggles with that, and because this team categorically cannot put him in prime scoring areas, it's like all he has left to generate. Like he has to work so hard to ever get the puck in a scoring situation. And I think that's been a major reason for his struggles.

And just as we look at, you know, free agency lists, for example, who could shake loose and stuff. It's just like, man, if there's no amount that they could pay Mitch Marner, that wouldn't be worth it. Just from the perspective of putting this guy occasionally in an opportunity where he doesn't need to individually steal the puck, beat two guys, and then score. The last thing, Lefshunov, who made his debut last week and I saw him live yesterday, there's a lot there, man. I was pretty skeptical about the pick.

I know there's a lot of, like, fans of other teams who have players drafted after who've been pretty excited about that. That guy is pretty impressive in terms of how he can read the game this early in his NHL career. Obviously, has the puck control ability and the size and the skating ability to kind of get wherever he wants. there's going to be another layer to unlock where he starts to look for his own shot and do that, you know, the evolution that even offensive defensemen like Quinn Hughes have to go through where you elevate, you know, yourself is an option effectively in your sort of like decision-making tree. Like that's going to be the next process because if that, like that guy's not just going to

be a defensive defender by any means. I think there's going to be a lot of juice there once he builds confidence and is a little more familiar with the patterns of the NHL. game. I mean, forget Martiner. Like, there's no price that would be too much for the Blackhawks to hire Celebrini in San Jose's PR staff because we're joking about it's on your show, but it's like, you look at the standings and where the two teams are, and then you look at all the content and it's like, badard sitting in a quiet room by himself, looking sad, whereas Celebrity's like on Tyler Tofoli's shoulders, having like slumber parties, just having the time of his life,

and you're like, man, the vibes are incredible. This guy's having so much fun. Whereas this guy is just having the worst experience of his life. Whereas Bedard is SpongeBob in the Dark Hallroom meme. Yeah. Yeah. It sucks. He's still amazing. I've got three more notes here that we're going to try to squeeze in.

I'll let you pick. Bennett extension talks, which Friedman talked about on Saturday night, talking about it and Canada panel. Well, it's lightning around it. Let's lightning around it. All right. So he says the pick talks back up. I think your mileage on Bennett has flipped dramatically after he became a Canadian hero.

Yep. I think you look at the lack of center markets. We talked about at the trade deadline. That's going to be even more true at this year's free agent period. Nine times seven is not out of the question. Especially with it happening weeks after the conclusion of the playoffs and us assuming it's going to be another long Panthers playoff run. And so I do think that number could get absolutely silly.

Now if it's with the Panthers, it's probably more like seven, right? What we saw from Brahege? You're looking at me weird. No, I think he's going to be able to do. demand what the market will bear. I don't know. The Panthers aren't going to pay that. They could always move Verhegey.

Well, they probably should, even though an extension hasn't even kicked in yet, because he's been a disaster this season and getting endless opportunities and it's probably going to pop off in the playoffs. I'm just saying it's like, it's like, we'll match you to the Verhegey number. You say that to Sam Bennett? Like, you sure that's getting it done? Yeah, but the way, like they did with Verhege and with all these guys, it's going to be a ton of upfront money, maxed out signing bonuses, $1 million,

dollar base salary for eight years. Sure. It's a very appealing proposition. But if you think you can get nine times seven and I think Bennett can get nine times seven, then the Verhege deal is literally leaving 15 million total dollars off. He has not hit 50 points once in his career. I know. You do not have to tell me about...

He's going to be 29 by the time that contract starts. I hear you, but on the other side, Canadian hero. So I'm just saying there's a lot of teams that would be thirsty to acquire themselves some Sam Bennett. I mean, I believe that Lucerne can very functionally play center. So far over there, I'd be more. much more intrigued by that and then going out and getting a juice a juice full winger like an Eelers or someone fun.

I mean, look, I think more than anything, it's a phenomenally interesting test of how much success the Panthers have had by sort of sticking to their principles and extending their window and elevating their ceiling as opposed to simply maintaining what they've got and minding their floor. And yet Bennett, it brings such. identity to that team with, you know, the pest stuff, the scumbag stuff, to quote Brad Marshand, which I thought was super cute, right? The, um, the scumbag stuff, like, how much do the Panthers ultimately feel like they need that mentality in that locker room? My guess is,

my guess is a lot. My guess is enough to sort of deviate from what got them here. The hurricane, seven game win streak, for all the time we spent talking about Rantan, the league leader in goals since the deadline my players are traded. Yeah, buddy. There's none other than Mark Jankowski, who has scored four goals on four shots for the hurricanes. Finally, our long national nightmare is over.

The hurricanes have found their efficiency sniper. I love this for two reasons. One, it's somehow another transaction that Barry Trots absolutely fumbled. Not that obviously this is representative of Mark Jankowski, I think trading them for a 2026th of this total fine. But as soon as, every deal he's made, it's just immediately aged like milk. It's been a disaster. And also,

J. Feaster must be somewhere right now, fist pumping after he, uh, infamously claimed that Mark Jankowski, when he picked him 21st overall was going to be the best player in the 2012 draft. So I love all those things. More seriously, though, since the deadline, we've seen Scott Morrow get thrust into a real role with Dimitri Orlov out of the lineup in four games, three points. The Hurricanes are up six to one in his five on five minutes. I know it's a player that you've been eyeing very closely for a while, I thought was certainly going to be atop the Penguins' priorities when they made the Jake Gensel trade last year.

The hurricanes hung on to him, and I think he's making increasingly difficult, even when they get healthy for Rod Brindamore and this staff to send him down. Because, I mean, we've seen what he's produced at in the NCAA and the HL. He's clearly already an NHL player and contributor, and so I'm fascinated to see how the rest of the season goes for him. Yep. Yeah, no. Well, the Jankowski, I mean, he must have stolen all of Jack Roslovak's store of a random North Carolina glow-up.

Ranting and leaving Carolina in the PDO immediately just going wild or like the bounces finally. Hockey's great for them. It's so funny. But yeah, I mean, look, that Carolina team, I think what we're seeing is that they are closer to being an elite team than it looked right before the deadline. And I do think that that will provide fodder probably for those who believe that they should have kept Miko-Rentan and given it a shot. And yet, you know, I think the truth is that they were probably best suited to just playing the value game the way that they do and adding another younger elite talent and sort of having, feeling confident that they got 150 cents on the dollar for, for Martin Natchez. I mean, now they have Manikowski.

anything is possible. Yeah, they're laughing. One final note to end with, Quinn Byfield. Three goals in his first 29 games has scored in six straight now. Another beautiful overtime winner to beat the aforementioned predators. Now, please do not go and rewatch this game. I think the Kings had six shots on goal entering the third period.

But Byfield and his glow-up has been delightful. He's, especially in that overtime, like he rung the bar before they had him out with Kempai to create that goal, whether it's with Kempai or with Fiala. His speed is so noticeable, and he's using it more and more frequently. The Kings are now 23, 3 and 4 at home. Somehow two of those losses came to your Vancouver Canucks.

But yeah, I just wanted to note that because I think increasingly with each passing day, it's like Byfield just becoming more must watch. And I brought this up on a show with Shayna recently, but especially with the vibes of the Oilers right now and all their flaws, I still wouldn't be comfortable picking the Kings in a series, even with home ice. But maybe if Byfield can continue this and they have the whole, home ice, I at least have to, like, give it a lot more thought than I have in previous seasons. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's good to see, right? Because we talked about the Jets and the capitals and what that means for the logic of rebuilding teams. But I still think the Kings are the most fascinating counter example, in part because they picked in the top 10 in three consecutive years, in part because they were so disciplined about selling Muzon, Pearson, Tafoli. like everyone who wasn't doughty, Dustin Brown and Copatar basically. And, you know, you get Turcote fifth, you get Byfield second, and you get Brant Clark eighth.

And now, now they're going into what year. They're about to make the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. As a result, sort of quick you turn out of that three-year gully in which they accumulated assets. And I think until this latest run, you would have said, yeah, and Byfield, Clark and Turcott have been at most bit contributors in terms of their run back up the standings. I still think the truth is that the logic of utilizing the natural gravity in the NHL system, which brings bottom feeder teams back up and top teams down back to the chase pack, is so powerful that really what the Kings tell us is that if you leverage it right,

even if you don't get better than a 30 percentile outcome from three top top. 10 picks, you're still going to end up in a better spot in terms of building a durable playoff team and perhaps a fringe contender. But ultimately, what they get from Turcotte, what they get from Byfield, what they get from Clark is still essential here going forward for that team to have the sort of ceiling required to do more than push the Edmonton Oilers to six games. All right. That's all the time we have for today.

We've got to get out here. Everyone follow Tom at the athletic, where he's doing his daily coverage of the Canucks, listen to his show here in the Sportsnet Radio Network, Canucks Talk. Bad news is we're going to be off next Sunday, no Sunday special next Sunday. I will be taking some time off. I'll fill in everyone with more scheduling updates on tomorrow's show with Jack Hahn, but don't worry. It'll only be one week.

The Sunday special will be back in full force on March 30th. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPediocast streaming on the SportsNet Radio Network.