The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Bold Predictions for the 2025-26 NHL Season ft. Shayna Goldman, Jonny Lazarus, Tyler Yaremchuk, and Meghan Chayka

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that.

Starting point is 00:00:35 And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Okay, I've never done one like this before. Welcome to the sheet for this Friday, October 3. This show is going to be a little bit different. Glad to have you aboard today for it. I've got a number of special guests coming up over the course for the next 60 minutes. And I say that, knowing full well, that I am so self-indulgence. It's not going to be 60 minutes of the program today. 60 is a suggestion.

Starting point is 00:02:00 We know we're probably going Broadway here. But Fanduil's Futures Day is back. Yes, it's returned. This time it's all about the NHL. I think the Cup finally makes it back to Canada. Hmm. Know which team is taking the division? Hmm.

Starting point is 00:02:14 On Futures Day, you can bet on Stanley Cup champion, division winners, points leaders, and plenty more on Fanduel. Hit the lines and make your predictions for this NHL season on Futures Day, October 3rd. That's today, on Fanduel. sports book and like Zach we're just going to have a lot of fun with this one

Starting point is 00:02:32 we got four really special guests like people that are really wonderful to deal with and talk to really jazzed Shane is going to be stopping by Shannon Goldman the Too Many Men podcast and the athletic as well going to be joined by Tyler your Remchuk as well whom I'm guessing

Starting point is 00:02:49 may be getting more nervous as the days go by and by and Nick Alburger keeps reminding everybody where Connor McDavid he thinks wants to apply his trade somewhere there was some meeting that was moved didn't you see that i saw that i saw that room that was booked and they changed it was booked and then they changed it but i let's just see when we get there um so that's going to be a johnny lazarus a morning cup of hockey return this week so looking forward to talking to laz although he might be a little bit broken

Starting point is 00:03:17 hearted as well the rangers today sending scott more on game pro to the hartford hl hartford squad and we'll get his thoughts on that and get his predictions as well and make and shake is going to stop by the program to round things off, one of the co-founders of Stathletes. So looking forward to all that. In the meantime, it's going to be all about predictions. And we're going to get predictions from you, Zach. We're going to predictions from listeners, people tweeting them in,

Starting point is 00:03:43 emails as well, maybe some from the chat. If you want to freestyle it, let's start off with a couple of tweets with some predictions. Go like wherever you want any topic, well, we'll hockey, with whatever you want, whatever you have. hit us what we think is going to happen this season. Normally I've always felt the predictions of the bane of my existence, but much as I've softened on things like Game Show Friday with Wushinsky, predictions are just flat out fun.

Starting point is 00:04:09 And if they're true, save the tape. And if they don't come true, forget we even had this conversation. Before we get to Shana, what do we got? What do we got? All right, let's go with our guy Sing Z here. First of all, you put a tweet, asked people to sign them in. Sing Z. Jesper Bratt scores 100 points

Starting point is 00:04:28 and the Devils go to the cup finals. So if Jesper Brat scores 100 points, he'll be the first New Jersey Devil to ever score 100 points. That to me sounds, with all due respects things, it sounds like Jack Hughes territory. I can see Jack Hughes getting the 100 points and being the first in Devil's history to hit the century mark. As far as Devils going back to the Stanley Cup finals,

Starting point is 00:04:52 not sure that I can see that. although they're clearly one of the best teams in a very improving metropolitan division. You know, with what's happened to the Florida Panthers, Alexander Barkoff, and to say nothing of the beginning of the season injury for Matthew Kachuk, the way I've been putting it is maybe it's time to come back from Niagara Falls on the Florida Panthers. Like, is the honeymoon over?

Starting point is 00:05:16 Is that it? Is it too? And then we're done. And if that's true, if that's true, Zach, then it's kind of jump ball in the east. And you might just say if the New Jersey Devils can stay healthy because they got power players at every single position down the middle on the blue line in net and also on the wing and they got a really good coach in Sheldon Keefe.

Starting point is 00:05:39 Maybe they make it to the Stanley Cup finals, but I think I'm more more on Carolina in that one. Okay, well, let's go one more quick one before you get to Shana. Okay. Because you just said the east is wide open. So maybe, as Zach Geekneck says, the Boston Bruins will make it back to the playoffs. Not so.

Starting point is 00:06:02 Listen, it's weird because we're just so used to seeing the Boston Bruins make it to the postseason. We're just so used to seeing the Boston Bruins, you know, not flounder, but we said that about the Detroit Red Wings once upon a time too. For fans that have been, you know, with hockey going back to 2011 when they won the Stanley Cup in Vancouver, it's been all about the Boston Bruins make the playoffs and do a lot of damage. I keep, you know, I'll tell you what, man, I keep coming back to that one play and the Brad Marchand break away on Sergey Bobroski a couple of years ago and how everything might be different if he scores that goal.

Starting point is 00:06:36 Maybe there's no two-year run for the Florida Panthers. Maybe they finally do pull the trigger and get rid of Bobrowski and there's no Florida Dynasty. And maybe we're still talking about the Boston Bruins being an elite team. But that's part of the fun of sports. that's part of the fun of hockey, the alternative universe of what ifs. And if that guy would have scored or that shot would have been blocked, what would have happened to various organizations. But I'm not so sure that I can see the Boston Bruins making it back into the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Nonetheless, let's bring aboard our first guest. I want to kick things off in style with someone that brings the sass and brings the salt as well. And I know she's very excited about the New York Yankees for the, obvious reasons um she's shannon goldman the too many men podcast and also the athletic and she joins me now no stranger to this or any other broadcast that i'm part of because i drag you everywhere pickle what's going on how are you today i'm great i'm amazing after last night um can i tell you i did not do my usual superstitions on tuesday what's that so like okay so i i have a certain shirt i wear for yanky games it was my playoff show last year i watch the game on a certain screen i sit in a certain spot and

Starting point is 00:07:49 I went to see the beaches on Tuesday and I had to watch from my phone and it was fine and then I lost service on the subway, couldn't watch the game and they went down by two. Well, they went down two to one and I'm like, that cost them the game. I knew it. So I really buckled in the last two nights to save the season. So you're welcome everyone to bring us to this moment. Me versus you again, here we go. Didn't you have to wait for the Olympics.

Starting point is 00:08:14 You know, the nice thing about all the bets that you and I have between each other is always about the same thing. Who's sending dill pickle chips to the other one? I know, and I still owe you. And you still owe me, but that's for a different conversation. We're going to have that conversation offline. I'm already up a bag on you here. But I like the way that you, because, listen, the streets are paid with gold in America.

Starting point is 00:08:36 You have the tastiest snacks, more so than here in Canada. I will admit that we are inferior when it comes to quality snacks. You find some really obscure ones. I want you to know that I respect and appreciate you. that amongst other things. Nobody finds more obscure snacks than you do. Usually ones that involve Dill Pickle. So thank you for that. So we got Dill Pickle bag right on this one too. Yeah, why not? I mean, this is the thing. The Trader Joe ones, they didn't even come out with them. Everyone did Dill Pickle. So I was waiting for them. They never did it. So I will send you

Starting point is 00:09:06 two bags if the Blue Jays win. But when they lose, I need two bags of Miss Vickies because I cannot find them enough. Those are really good, too. They do good halapino. They do good, they did good salt and vinegar. They do a really good job. Okay, as far as predictions go, so one, we both understand that it'll be the Jays over the Yankees, so we'll just park that for now.

Starting point is 00:09:26 We'll bracket that conversation. The same thing is, I believe that. I do think that's what's going to happen, but I also didn't think the Yankees were going to beat the socks. Jays aren't going to win a game. That's their thing. They'll get there. They'll squander all of it, and they won't even win a single game.

Starting point is 00:09:41 But as far as the upcoming NHL schedule goes, the upcoming. NHL season. The first one, I'll just lob one out there. I'm curious your thoughts on this one. And it's more of an awards question than a games question. Just because I have such high expectations for Utah. And normally the way these things go is, whichever coach can take an okay team and make it good

Starting point is 00:09:59 or get them into the playoffs or actually do something, generally that coach gets coach of the year. My first prediction is Andre Tooney wins the Jack Adams as coach of the year. Do you have a thought on that before you blast off on your first one? Um, I, I think you make a good point, but I also feel like lately the coaching award has been like on a year delay like Spencer Carberry is fantastic. He should have wanted two years ago, not last year. And so that led to Dean Evanson getting snub last year when I thought he should have been coached

Starting point is 00:10:28 the year. So if the blue jackets are in the playoff picture and I don't think they have to necessarily make the playoffs, right? Just be in the playoff picture again and show that growth. I'm giving it to him. But I do like that pick a lot because it's different than what we normally see, right? It's not a new coach boost. It's, I've been with this organization for a while and the long game paid off.

Starting point is 00:10:48 I was still stunned and I think we all are. Although, listen, maybe if Tampa has some regular season success, maybe finishes first in the division, first in the conference, maybe John Cooper finally gets a Jack Adams. Like, isn't that the one that we're all sort of stunned by? Like, here's a guy that's going into the Hockey Hall of Fame, never won the Jack Adams. It surprises everybody. They're the two guys for me. Cooper and Bednar are the two guys for me that every year.

Starting point is 00:11:11 it's like, why are these guys not getting nods? And the answer would be, well, they have the best players in the world. Okay, but you have to do something with them, right? To help Tampa's core click at this level at this point in their careers, that is something. And to do something when you don't have a ton of depth, the same with Colorado. Look at all the turnover on the roster and coaching the rest of the team to be, I mean, a Stanley Cup favorite every year. Does that not count for something?

Starting point is 00:11:34 Coaching, everyone thinks that coaching stars is easy. You know what's easy? coaching hungry motivated hockey players that haven't achieved anything and are trying to get somewhere stars with millions and millions of dollars in their bank like it's the old you know

Starting point is 00:11:48 Brett Hall would sit there on the Detroit Red Wings bench you know and they would go down a puck and he would just like you know nod over to Scotty Bowman let me know when you want a goal Scotty let me know and it's like yeah we get it we get it like a rookie player a younger player would never do anything like that

Starting point is 00:12:03 but it's hard because then you have to manage egos too and this to me is part of the genius of Scotty Bowman. And it was always said about Scottie that all the players hated Scotty Bowman for 364 days of the year and on day number 365 they got the rings.

Starting point is 00:12:17 But he could manage like superstar benches like nobody else. But that comes from the sort of heft of having that Montreal Canadians dynasty and then translating it's what he did

Starting point is 00:12:30 with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. But I'm with you like coaching a superstar team like the Tampa Bay Lightning, I think that that's got to be, honestly, one of the hardest things to do.

Starting point is 00:12:42 Yeah, and go with Tampa specifically, right? Like, Nikita Kuturov is one of the smartest players in the world, and I think he knows how to make sure that shows on a nightly basis. He knows when to split up his lineup and have different options at his disposal. When Tampa won the cup, he knew the right buttons to push to have three unbelievable lines, right? And even a good fourth line,

Starting point is 00:13:01 you even look at the team today, and you go, look at Brandon Hagle's growth and development, look at Anthony Sorrelli, the player he's become, look at knowing that if you put Chernak back with McDone, after Turner had a couple bad seasons, that you're going to let Victor Hedman be the star that we all know he can be. Like, there's a ton of value to that.

Starting point is 00:13:17 And I just think he does it year after year after year where a voice could get pretty stale, right? You're the longest tenure coach. You're going on 10 years. Your voice isn't stale yet there. You're still getting different things out of your team with different assisting coaches along the way. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:13:31 It seems pretty award worthy to me. Okay. How much you're looking forward to Saturday speaking in Tampa based on what happened last night between Tampa and Florida. Come on. I don't care about free season. No, this does not sell. But after what you saw, like, honestly,

Starting point is 00:13:45 this is where they're going to go back and get, like, every, each team is going to go reach back into their history and sign like the, you know, they're Peter Worells and their Enrico Chaconis and bring back, like, enforcers from years past, like the closing scene and slap shot for, for payback for what we saw yesterday. And all these old enforcers, like Peter R.L. is going to sign P.T. Paul Louse.

Starting point is 00:14:05 He's going to sign PTOs for one game. That's the only way to make it interesting. Just have no NHL caliber players in there because preseason is dumb. This is not what it should be. This is not what it's about. I get it. You have a rivalry or you're fighting for a spot. But I don't want to see NHL players get hurt in preseason.

Starting point is 00:14:24 And we've had more than enough. So I'm pouring cold water on that. Nah, all right, Killjoy. All right. So let's get to some of your predictions then. So big ideas from Shannon Goldman coming up for this season. Prediction number one is what? so I wanted to be interesting and it's hard to come up with interesting predictions I was talking to Zach and I'm like maybe Utah making the playoffs I'm like that is vanilla we need to go bigger so I want to go very specific so Tournier winning the Jack Adams instead no that's more interesting that is a more interesting spin on it 100% I feel like me saying Utah makes the playoffs it's like okay cool next and that's no offense to Utah it's just like it could actually happen I'm going to say Mario Ferraro is going to be this big trade

Starting point is 00:15:04 Chip this year, I think that we're going to be, we always see, you know, these defensive defensemen. Generally, it's a right-handed guy and I get it. This could be Rasmus Anderson, but I think that situation's different and his next contract's going to be such a factor that it's not going to be this like massive haul and sweep stakes like it could be. So I think everyone's going to be looking at Ferraro. He's a cheap guy. And you have to look at him and go because he has not been very good in matchup minutes lately the last couple years. There's a reason they took some of them off his plate last year. But at his core, could he be the next Hampus Linholm where you take him out of San Jose and he gets that glow up with the contender and you just sell, you realize

Starting point is 00:15:38 there's so much more to his game that you just couldn't see there because he was being asked to do too much. So Mario Ferraro, to me, I see him going to San Jose. I'm sorry, to New York from San Jose. So the interesting thing about that is he has a personality that if he gets to the New York Rangers somehow or any large market teams, with all the respect, San Jose, you've had some really wonderful personalities and some colorful players. look no further than Joe Thornton. That guy's got the most infectious personality, like in the NHL. Then the secret will be out.

Starting point is 00:16:11 Like that Mario Ferraro is one of the best interviews, the most dynamic players. All of a sudden, he's behind the scenes documentaries, want to start to follow him around, as opposed to other players. Like honestly, I know we're all, and rightfully so, you know, we're all, we're all insane for Seth Jarvis content and rightfully so, like a fascinating guy and really entertaining. I'll put Mario Ferraro beside any of these guys. any single day of the week. Right away, New York will fall in love

Starting point is 00:16:38 with Mario Ferraro. Yeah, except they're not going to let his personality show. Come on, like, what, you're going to see it on a security camera with New York Ranger. Just don't allow things like that. No, but I think he'd be good there. I think you already look at their lineup and you go, there's a hole on the left side of the lineup.

Starting point is 00:16:53 There's the Greer Drury connection that is clearly there. So it makes sense from that perspective. There's the cheap contract. College guys. College guys. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. So that's a, that's a, that's a good one. Give us, give us, give us one more. We're going to go sort of shotgun style here. One more from Shannon Goldman. Make it spicy. Spicy pickle. Let's go. Rest Ms. Dahlia is finishing top 30 Norris voting this year.

Starting point is 00:17:18 This is his year. This is the moment. We are going to all talk about that he is a true number one defenseman. In player tiers, we have him top five for good reason. He's great in all three zones. This is not going to be a conversation. He's going to be so good that we're not talking about. It doesn't matter if the Sabres make the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:17:32 No, they're going to be in the playoff picture. They're going to be in the race in the mix. And that's going to be enough. And maybe he doesn't finish first because of that playoff status. But he is going top three finally. This is even maybe it's McCarr Hughes. And that third guy is Dahlene, because we're always looking who the third guy is going to be. I think it's going to be him.

Starting point is 00:17:49 See, yeah, because that was going to be one of mine, was Rasmus Dahline finally wins the Norris Trophy. Not that he's deserved it yet, but he's sort of been knocking on the door for a while. Like, the Norris is a little, like, there's a couple of trophies that are almost sort of reputational. And you have to establish your reputation first before you win them. The Selke is clearly that trophy. And I think to a, in a minor key, I think the Norris trophy is that too. But Rasmus Deline has been so good for so long.

Starting point is 00:18:15 And I don't know the Buffalo Sabres actually do anything, but you can be sure that, like, one, one ray of light is going to be Rasmus Delene. And to me, this is the year that finally voters notice any wins a Earth's trophy. Yep. I'm definitely here for it. And I agree with you. They're reputational awards. So you know, I am banging my head against the wall here. Year after you're being like, okay, let's make a criteria.

Starting point is 00:18:40 Let's talk about it. You don't know how to measure defense. Let's do it. And there's a way to look at the elements that everyone says has to be a part of it besides time on ice and block shots and points. Like, we can go deeper. And he's someone that even at this point checks a lot of the boxes, right? You should be able to move the puck out of your own zone. He does it.

Starting point is 00:18:58 You should be able to, you know, defend the blue line while he does it. You have to go up against top competition, does it? Play in all situations. You got it. Be a guy that your coach trusts in the, you know, biggest moments of the game. Okay. So I feel like the building blocks are there. If we can think about this critically and not just go, okay.

Starting point is 00:19:13 point sheet great number one you're going to be on my ballot you block a ton of shots let's go and let's be boring and go this guy deserved a five years ago you know the other play that our wonder bar to the buffalo savers are going to wrap up with a thought on this guy because all the talent in the world um you know last year when when step nason caught him and everybody you know cut their their skate laces on the buffalo sabers instead of doing something uh he got more than a little bit miffed and that's tage thompson who seems like he's really frustrated, and I do wonder about him if it's another season of woe for the Buffalo Sabres, but through all of it, could this guy win the rocket, Richard?

Starting point is 00:19:53 Yeah. Yeah, he totally could. I'm going to be really intrigued to see if he's playing center wing. I think that's going to make a little bit of a difference. I think if he's on the wing, it'll help him play to his offensive strengths more. But I do think we've seen the defensive growth from where he was a couple years ago. So if he's not a complete tire fire in his own zone, it's going to help him be in the offensive zone, which he needs to do a little bit more and focused on his shot, which is his most dangerous weapons. When Tage Thompson is clicking, he is one of the most electric players in the league. He is so exciting.

Starting point is 00:20:18 If the power play can get on the rails, I am absolutely in on that. One final question for you. This is one that I kind of have for a lot of people on the program today. And that is we talk a lot about cascading effects of new contracts. So Luke Hughes signs a deal, 9 million AAV. Carol Caprizov signs a deal, 17 million AAV. which of these two contracts has the bigger cascade.

Starting point is 00:20:45 I mean, with Caprizov now we're thinking about Kyle Conner and we're thinking about Jack Eichel and Adrian Kempay and that guy in Edmonton, I'm going to get to Talarie Rumtruck on that a little bit later on the program. And then with Luke Hughes, right away you think about Lane Hudson.

Starting point is 00:20:59 I'll also throw Philip Broberg his name into that discussion as well. Like which of these two contracts for you, Shana, has the bigger cascading effect? in the NHL. Oh, contract talk. That's so fetched. I love that we're doing that today.

Starting point is 00:21:15 I know, yeah. Let's see. I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to be a beach too. That's also fun. Listen, I like this stuff. Okay, I'm going to go with Luke Hughes. I think that GMs are going to look at the Caprisov situation and it's like, oh, you're Kyle Connor and you want that money.

Starting point is 00:21:30 That's nice, but you're not, our only hope in survival, right? Because Carole Caprisoff is that guy in Minnesota that it's like, he is this organization. it's not a slight to favor it's not a slight to boldy it's without him you're not near the playoffs like he is everything and more to that so i think that that can kind of separate things i think lukees is going to be the more interesting one because it felt like we were seeing a lot of these big second contract leaps a couple years ago jake sanderson owen power we saw it with dylan cousins josh norris and not all of those deals panned out exactly the way you could have hoped and i think teams wanted to pump the brakes on it a little bit but i think this is the no bet on

Starting point is 00:22:05 these guys now we're always we're already seeing it jackson comb getting getting the bag and now we're going to see it with guys like glean hudson as he should as his you know second contract i think that's going to have a bigger impact here these longer term deals especially for defensemen right because it's either you pay your guy now when he's going to be in his peak years or you're overpaying in free agency like everybody just did this summer pick your poison and one of them actually isn't poison it's actually good because this is how you should have been doing it the whole time i think that's going to have a bigger impact. You know,

Starting point is 00:22:34 it's a lesson of P.K. Suban, right? When he was asking him for five time five and he said, no, we're going to bridge you. Next thing you know, they're paying $9 million because they're scared of what happens when you go into the arbitration room.

Starting point is 00:22:45 It's a great point. All right. Have fun cheering on the Jays. Okay. I remember a great time. I already threw my outfit from the last two days back in the wash, doing laundry every day here. I know where I need to sit.

Starting point is 00:23:00 I'm back. And I'm locked and I'm ready. She's back. The show is back. We're back like a vertebrae. Sheena Goldman from the Too Many Men podcast and The Athletic. Always a delight to have on. Thank you. Sheena. Hey there. It's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada.

Starting point is 00:23:24 Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the live, eight music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons.

Starting point is 00:23:50 I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario, hockey rinks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting

Starting point is 00:24:19 it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me. to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Fall is here and everybody's getting back from vacation, headed back to school.

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Starting point is 00:26:25 That's a whole lot of good. Bombas has a 100% happiness guarantee. that means you're covered for life. Reach out to their happiness team for easy returns, exchanges, or replacements. Go to bambas.ca slash the sheet and use code the sheet for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S.ca slash the sheet and use the code the sheet at checkout. I'm very curious to see what Laz thinks of today's movement by the New York Range. He is Johnny Lazarus, one half of the impact players, our morning show here on Daily Faceoff, the morning cup of hockey.

Starting point is 00:27:07 He joins me now. So first of all, Laz, welcome back, although it seems like you've been working all summer. I mean, I follow you on social as we all do, and you're always doing something. First of all, what's it feel like to be young and full of energy and full of optimism and have like hope and, you know, not a whole lot of responsibilities other than, you know, what's going to amuse me today? How was your summer, Las? As you know, Jeff, I'll take this quote directly from you. I have you all fooled. I am not that full of energy.

Starting point is 00:27:35 I'm 10 o'clock at night. I am done. I am tucked in bed and I am snoring by 11. I used to be way more fun than I am now, that's for sure. But the summer was great. Everything's been good. I'm surprised you didn't ask where my location is because I thought you were going to make money off the bat. Are you in a basement?

Starting point is 00:27:54 I'm in my parents' basement. This is where I'll be for October. I moved home for the month, and I'm looking for an apartment next week. So, yes, I will be an official NHL troll for the month of October, tweeting live from my parents' basement. And I'm very excited to be back here. I also have some thoughts on what Shane has said, by the way. Shoot. Yeah, let's go.

Starting point is 00:28:13 Floor's open. So Mario Ferraro teammate of mine at UMass. He actually was the Pioneer. Best guy in the world, but the pioneer for the YouTube channels that Joey DeCorp started, Willie Newhander started. Mario had a YouTube channel called Youngest of Plugs that he would vlog. He'd go hiking. He'd show some stuff with Joe Thornton.

Starting point is 00:28:35 Like he was the OG of YouTube vlogging for NHL players that people don't really know about. Hang on. I thought he did it too because, I mean, I live like about 20 minutes away from King City where he grew up. And he was like a skate park legend. And I think that's where he first threw a lot of his videos on. Like, check me out on Mario Ferraro. I'm 12 years old, you know, destroying skate parks here in, you know, just north of Toronto.

Starting point is 00:28:57 So he was, even before he was doing like anything involving hockey, he was doing skate park videos. I love him. I think he's like one of the coolest guys in the league. And you'll love this too, Jeff. One of my favorite Mario stories, his rookie year, I think they were playing in Chicago and the guys had caught wind of his YouTube channel. So I guess he walked into the locker.

Starting point is 00:29:16 He walked in for video and Joe Thornton is like looking at the screen. He goes, what the hell is this? I'm just laughing at Mario, like doing his logging stuff. So that's the most underrated personality in the league by far. The best. Awesome. Just a tremendous guy. Have you seen,

Starting point is 00:29:33 by the way, have you seen Nealander's first episode on his on his YouTube channel? No, I haven't. I have done. Get used to a whole lot of naked William Nealander. Shirtless, pantless, wandering around the rink. Where's the laundry?

Starting point is 00:29:47 How come the lot? I just get used to it. You should just call the YouTube channel, shirtless Willie. Just call it. So don't watch it with my girlfriend. She might have a wandering eye. she just might get a wandering eye

Starting point is 00:29:58 that's all I'm saying before I get a couple of predictions of yours here this is a prediction day here on the program your thoughts on Gabe Perra and Scott Morrow going down more than a little bit surprising for a lot of Rangers fans more than a little bit surprising for you though more surprised about Morrow than I am about Gabe

Starting point is 00:30:16 I do think Gabe Perra should have a year where he's used to the pro schedule you know granted this a kid who played in college that played Friday Saturday nights two games a week didn't really have to do the long bus trips because hockey east the travel is pretty easy the furthest you go is really like Maine which is five hours so for Gabe to play top six minutes

Starting point is 00:30:34 first line power play touch the puck play 22 minutes a night you know and kind of just get used to the the grind of a pro schedule I think it's good for him I think it'll benefit him and for Scott Morrow you know he did it last year he's shown some promise has a lot of upside I really thought he would make the team for opening night

Starting point is 00:30:52 so I am surprised by him but I do think a year from now, both guys will be NHL regulars. I think they'll both make the team at a camp next year. And it's not to say that maybe they had called up in November or December and just stay with the team. Because injuries obviously happen. But I'm not as upset by this move

Starting point is 00:31:09 as some other fans might be. The guy that I would be very upset about is Noah Labba, who I don't know if you want to talk about him. He had a gorgeous goal the other day. That breakaway goal, you like that move in front of the net? Unreal. He's been super impressive. He's been unbelievable. and I will fight to the death to make sure he is a third-line center for the York Rangers.

Starting point is 00:31:29 All right, well, it's Fandil Futures Day here. And so a couple of Nicol and Dian predictions that I threw out, Andre Tourney for the Jack Adams and Rasmus Dahlin for the Norris Trophy. I've sort of stayed away from, you know, team predictions this year at individual points. We'll get to that with Megan Chica coming up a little bit later on. But in the meantime, what's got you feeling spicy as far as predictions go? I wanted to add to Shane as actually first. I do like Utah to make the playoffs, and I also want to add Clayton Keller 100-point season to that.

Starting point is 00:32:01 I think that makes it a little bit spicier. Clayton Keller, to me, is one of the most underrated guys in the NHL, trying to make the Olympic team too. To start the year, 30 and 60 last year, he's got 30-plus goal with the last three seasons. This guy's a superstar. So can I tell you a story? The New York Rangers, this would have been the Austin Matthews draft in Buffalo.

Starting point is 00:32:21 The New York Rangers were trying desperately to get Edmonton's pick, right? And they were, I can't remember what exactly was. It might have been like a combination of like Kreider and someone or McDonough in someone because the Rangers absolutely loved and wanted to take at, I think the Oilers were picking for Clayton Keller. That was your guy. Your team could have had Clayton Keller all. And we probably got craps out of that year. battalion no no no that that was uh wasn't that dallas for chicago draft because i remember the rangers i don't even think they had a first rounder that that year they're trying to get in that's why they're they were they were paying so high maybe they had like a low first i don't think they had a they had a pick but i remember like the rangers specifically trying to get in there because they loved clayton keller and for good reason i love clayton keller too um all right predict shones my friend i've got two of them um they are you know one of them is like a combined team player

Starting point is 00:33:21 point thing and the other one is just a player goals thing if that's allowed okay everything's allowed it's it's phandole futures day go for it so i submitted this to zach another team that i'm very high on this year is the anaheim ducks i think most people are they're a young exciting vibrant team um their top six is filled with you know younger studs like leo carlson cutter goche who should score 30 goals this year i mean this kid is money um finished last year with 20 had a slow start but leo carlson 80 points anaheim ducks to make the playoffs that is my first bold take. I don't even know if it's that bold, honestly, because I think everyone expects Leo Carlson to have a big year in his third year. And obviously, with the moves at Anaheim made,

Starting point is 00:33:58 like to me, their biggest thing is figuring out their power play and worst power play in the league last year. I don't think it could possibly be as bad as 11.8% or whatever they finished at. They bring in Granlin and Crider to help that top unit, which Leo Carlson will be in the middle of. And having Carlson and Granling kind of rotating on that right flank in the goal line, they're bound to pick up at least a couple secondary assists too. So I like Leo Carlin. Carlson 80 points and the Anaheimdux to make the playoffs. That's my first bull prediction. You and I have talked plenty about Jackson-Lacombe.

Starting point is 00:34:27 What did you make of that contract? I'm all for it. I mean, I think getting him now at that deal is kind of a bargain because, you know, he's going to be their top line D, first-line power play quarterback this year, I would think, right? And he showed a one of the promise last year.

Starting point is 00:34:42 He was at the USA camp too, I believe, right? He was invited to that camp for the Olympics. Lecombe, yeah. Yeah. So, again, like, you know, I think one, how many games did even play last year? It wasn't a full season. What do you finish with? I'm trying to find his stats here.

Starting point is 00:34:58 Oh, I guess, no, 75 games. Okay, so I'm wrong. I thought he played maybe 60, but the promise is there. And, you know, the cool thing about it, too, Jeff, is that he wasn't a first round pick. You know, so seeing a guy, I think a late second round pick coming in and getting a contract like this, especially like after Luke Hughes got his contract, it's a rewarding feeling, right? from year one to year two, he takes a massive jump. And then this year having that responsibility with Cam Fowler now being gone,

Starting point is 00:35:26 you know, I think he's going to be looked at as the next Camp Fowler, who was there for over a decade and running their blue line. So I think it's a deal four years from now. It'll look like a bargain. I don't disagree. The one guy that I did wonder about because there's others like, Neil Carlson, we mentioned, wonder about Olin Zellweger and Pavel Minchikov. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:35:47 There's a lot of work here for Pat for Beek to do, GM of the Anaheim Ducks. Lacombe was the interesting one to me because of all these young players, and they just did the deal with Mason McTavish, Lacombech had arbitration rights. And it seems like Pat Verbeek was very comfortable with the number seven, whether it's McTavish, whether it's Grandin, like teams always try to set like their ceiling for players.

Starting point is 00:36:12 Like I wonder, we mentioned Utah a couple of seconds ago. Like would it surprise you to see like Bill Armstrong, the first deal he does here is Logan Cooley? Just to set that ceiling, like, okay, that's our guy. No one's going over that number for all of these young players that are coming up for the Utah mammoth. Anyhow, Anaheim's a good one. I think I do like, the question becomes if they're going to get in,

Starting point is 00:36:36 then who bows out? And I really do wonder about the Los Angeles Kings bowing out because every year, Laz, as you know, there's one team that had 100 points that doesn't make the playoffs to next year. And I wonder if the L.A. Kings have that drop. in the Pacific, you're looking at Vegas, you're looking at Edmonton. And does Anaheim make that much of a jump?

Starting point is 00:36:58 I do. I think so. I think it's actually Vegas, L.A., Anaheim, Edmonton, and four. Four and four in Western Congress. That's a stunner. Okay. That's, see, that I like. That's spicy right there.

Starting point is 00:37:10 That's, that's, I don't think Tyler Rumpchek's going to like that. He's coming up here a couple of moments, but nonetheless. I told him on Wednesday. He knows. He knows what's up. What else? What else he got for us? One more bold prediction here on Fanduel Futures Day.

Starting point is 00:37:25 This is the only other one I have, and I don't know if this is a reach or not because this guy has not scored 30 goals. It's kind of like that Cole Cawfield's the best 40-gold score to never score 30, that kind of take. And to me, it's Drake Batherson, 40 goals this year. A big fan of Drake Batherson's game. For those of you who don't know, also,

Starting point is 00:37:45 this is actually a direct quote from Nathan McKinnon. McKinnon has told me that Batherson is the best golfer in the NHL. Batherson does spend the summers with Crosby, McKinnon, and Marchand training. He's brought along Shane Pinto. So he's gotten really tight knit with that crew and what a crew to belong to in the summers, right? But just looking at his goal scoring and his production, you know, his goal scoring has basically gone up nearly every year. I mean, you could say two years ago he had 28 last year, 26.

Starting point is 00:38:11 So like there's, you know, a little two-gold dip there. But this is a first line guy, first power play guy. I think Ottawa's top six is sneaky, one of the better ones in the league. And Batherson always finds himself around the net. He can deflect pucks. He's got a great one-timer. He's a shoot-first guy. I just think after the year Ottawa had last year,

Starting point is 00:38:29 what they're going to build on this year, Batherson's going to be a big part of that. You know who my Johnny Lazarus, Drake Batherson is and has been for a while, and every year I say it, and every year I get mocked for it. And I've already done it. I've already put it out there on Ocean. What's that? No, not Daniel Sprong.

Starting point is 00:38:45 No, he's off. KHL now. That's it for that. That's it for Daniel Sprong for me. But my version of your Drake Batherson, like the Johnny Lazarus, Drake, for Jeff Merrick, has always been Andre Svetnikov. And I don't know how he hasn't scored 40 yet. The most he's ever hit was 30 with the Carolina Hurricanes. And I always look at them and I always put it out there on social media and I just get torn as shreds over it. I always get torn as shreds when I put out anything nice about Joe Valano for whatever reason. I always get torn up. But Svetichikov to me is like, what was I? was the line. He said the best 40 goals scored and never score 30. Even if Petchikov has

Starting point is 00:39:21 scored 30, that's what it feels like to me. Like how this guy doesn't put up 40 every year is baffling. He had a great guy off last year. I know like eight goals. He should be money in the bank for the Carolina hurricanes. It's just like just can't put everything together. Sometimes it's a hospital bracelet issue and he can't stay healthy. I get it. But like that's that's a guy for me. That's my Drake Batherson. How does he not score for you? I like it. I like it. All right. Thanks, Bell. You have a great weekend. Glad, glad the impact players are back. Glad the show is back on the air. And good luck finding that apartment. I hear real estate's cheap in New York City. Oh, it's brutal. Thank you, Jeff. And you'll be getting the call soon. You know,

Starting point is 00:40:04 we love having you on. Anytime. Anytime. Oh, by the way, are you watching Penn State and ASU tonight? I will be for sure. Yes. How could you not? How many points? Does Gavin McKenna end up with this season? This season? Yep, Gavin McKenna. I'm going to say 64 points. I'll give them 27 goals and whatever the math is to get to 65. Spoken like a true hockey player.

Starting point is 00:40:33 Yeah. Got to drop the pants. You're the back. All right. Thanks, pal. We'll catch up soon. There is the one only joining Lazarus, part of the tag team that is the Morning Cup of hockey alongside Colby Cohn.

Starting point is 00:40:45 So this program continues. Fan Duel Futures. And I'd like to remind you again that Fan Duel's Futures Day is back and that is today. And it's all about the NHL. Think the Cup finally makes it back to Canada. Know which team is taking the division. On Futures Day, you can

Starting point is 00:41:01 bet on the Stanley Cup champion. Division winners, points leaders, and more. Hit the lines. Make your predictions for this NHL season on Futures Day. That's today, October 3rd, on Fan Dual Sportsbook. With that, oh, I can't think of any real big topics around the Edmonton Oilers.

Starting point is 00:41:18 Let's bring aboard Tyler at your remtruck and his blue jays. Hey, first of all, how are we feeling today? Because every day that goes by is another day where we say, is he going to sign today or not? Like at what point does it become uncomfortable for you, Tyler? Probably if he's not signed by opening day. I think that's a pretty reasonable benchmark. And it's probably something a lot of Oilers fans are considering as well. So, I mean, if it's getting to like playing actual games and that milestone moment of like the puck has dropped, the season is underway, he is unsigned, then for me it just gets a little bit foggy of like, okay, if he wasn't ready to commit to the two or three year deal now, is he going to wake up Christmas morning and want to do it?

Starting point is 00:42:01 Is he going to wake up February 1st and just randomly want to do it? Like to me, a potential date just becomes so much more vague, if that makes any sense. Like opening night just seems like such a good hard deadline to be like that. he should be signed by them. Right. I mean, yeah, we all have our different theories on, you know, what he's waiting for, what he wants to see. You know, I've sort of evolved away from the idea that, you know,

Starting point is 00:42:22 he's waiting to see, you know, what Bowman can do on the goalie market. I think that'll probably be some type of waiver wire acquisition for the Edmondson Oilers. I'm sort of warmer now to the idea that he wants his Miko Ranton or he wants like his Yari Curry to Wayne Gretzky. He's like, if I'm going to be here for a while, I want, you know, and listen, Zach Hyman's on the horizon. and he's coming back from injury. But it feels very much to me, at least, like McDavid was like,

Starting point is 00:42:46 okay, where's my rant in? Yeah, I mean, that's possible. The only pushback I have on that is like, man, Zach Hyman is a 50 goal score. And I'm not saying he's probably ever going to score 50 again. So maybe that's where McDavid wants to make sure that this team can remain competitive down the stretch. It's like, who's the heir apparent to Zach Hyman?

Starting point is 00:43:05 As he goes through the back nine of his career, who's that next piece? Again, that just creates a lot of vagueness in terms of when he could sign because like then what do you do if you get to the deadline and like that equal rantons don't pop up on the market every year i mean you obviously don't need me to tell you that like what do you do if by February there isn't that big swing and stan boman just goes listen Connor i'd love to trade two first round picks and whoever to get you that guy that guy's not there like it again just that's why i'd be so uneasy if he's not signed by opening day because

Starting point is 00:43:35 it's like all right whatever he's feeling whatever he's waiting for if it is that it's like that's that there's no guarantee that that piece just comes walking through the door a week before the trade deadline. Anybody jump out at you from camp so far? I know it's preseason, but still. I mean, listen, I was almost a carousin price like I want every Friday. And Vancouver's in a tough position because everybody you wanted to look good, all the people that had question marks around them, all look really good, but it's the preseason.

Starting point is 00:44:03 So like, sure, Victor Mancini looks great, Jonathan Lekker-O-Macki looks great, Braden Kutz, like the first round draft big looks great, but it's the preseason. But based on what you've seen, who pops for you? Darnell Nurse has three goals, but Zach Phillips wouldn't let me put Darnell Nurse for the Norris as my full prediction today. So I had to pivot off of that. But for me, I'm always drawn to the younger guys. Like, Matt Savoy just looks so calm and NHL ready. And, you know, his preseason wasn't impressive because he scored five times in three games and just dominated lesser competition.

Starting point is 00:44:34 To me, it was like, I watched him play with Neutron Hopkins. I watched him play with Hendrique. And I'm like, oh, this guy just belongs. And this guy doesn't need to be stapled next to a McDavid or a dry saddle to make things happen. So Savoy was really impressive and lower down the lineup. And a part of this is because I have, you know, a personal connection to U.Sports. Golden Bears, Alberta, season opener tonight. I'll be on the call.

Starting point is 00:44:54 But Noah Philp is my guy. Like, he's a big body, right shot centerman. He has good offensive touch. He scored a goal in this preseason where like his release, the way he just found a soft spot in the middle of the ice. And before you could blink, snapped it off to the back of the net. like he has NHL chops his skating's gotten better he spent all year last year in Bakersfield becoming a better penalty killer like he is a homegrown fourth line center and that's not sexy that's not flashy but when you're in a market like edmonton where

Starting point is 00:45:20 every trade deadline for the past four years it's like boy does this team ever need a fourth line right shot center that can kill penalties you got one at home now i think he's got to make the team and i've been really impressed with him he's looked great right like from i remember talking to someone from another team who's saying like i'll tell you we we hope the oilers try to sneak them down. We hope the oilers try to sneak them down because if they try, they're going to fail. I think everybody knows that. Like, there's, there's no way

Starting point is 00:45:45 that this guy's getting to Bakersfield. Not a chance. Like, everybody knows. But part of that's like the curse of being on a Canadian team, everybody knows. You're not hiding anybody on the Oilers or on the Leafs or the Habs or any Canadian team for that matter. You're just not. Yeah, that ties into the other, like, big debate in Oilers Camp is like, what are they going to do

Starting point is 00:46:03 with this blue line? Because, like, one of Emerson, regular, who they love. Like, they picked them up off waivers. They gave him a two-year deal before they ever saw him play a game in their organization because he was rehabbing an injury all of last year. Like, they clearly love Regula. They, you know, acquired Emerson last year from San Jose. Stetcher's the vet that everyone in the room loves and nurse plays well with.

Starting point is 00:46:22 But you can't keep all three. Like one of them you need to try sneak through the waiver wire. And it's a calculation of, I honestly think it's partially who's playing good in camp. It's partially which guy do we think actually gets through and can clear. Timing, right? And that that's the way for goal. bull tenders too, and you want to sort of time it. So if anyone is looking to pick up something that you have, you wait till later on to see

Starting point is 00:46:45 if that player is available and that team grabs him, then you can sneak your guy down. Like, it's a real sort of like art of sliding players down on the waiver, on the waiver wire. Generally, it doesn't work, but teams try. But the league is so well scouted. All right. So here we are. It is a fan dual futures.

Starting point is 00:47:04 What are you looking at as far as big predictions for this upcoming season, Tyler U. Remchuk? I got a couple for you, the one that I kind of really zeroed in on and jumped off the page to me. It's not crazy, juicy in terms of the odds market, but I think it's a bold prediction just because they were so good last year. But I'm taking a shot at the Washington Capitals to miss the playoffs. Again, they were an unbelievable story last season.

Starting point is 00:47:28 Plus 140 isn't the best juice on it from a betting perspective, but I do think it's a result that would shock a lot of people. you know, Logan Thompson was lights out the first half of the season. And then he was kind of, you know, just above average, the back half of the year. I look at that forward lineup. And there's no doubt there are good players there. But just look at the number of guys who had career seasons for them last year. I mean, pro toss and, you know, even Ovi.

Starting point is 00:47:51 I know he's been the one guy who's been able to defeat Father Time for however long. But at what point is Ovi just no longer a 40 goal guy? Is the goal chase? Does that take some wind out of their sales? I worry about Washington this year. I think there might be space for a step back. You know, I like Ryan Leonard, but I think if any team's going to be a disappointment this year, it could be Washington.

Starting point is 00:48:10 Like, I was going through the shooting percentages on some of those guys who had career years last year. They're not going to shoot that high. They're not 21%. Wilson, 19% from 19%. They're not going to, they're not going to sustain those shooting percentages at all. The one player that I am really curious about on that team, and you mention them, it's Alexi Protas. Because very, very quietly here, we're starting to see the beginning. beginnings of someone who one day is going to be in the Salky Trophy

Starting point is 00:48:37 conversation. You are starting to see it with Alexei Protis and it's just going to just stay healthy. It's going to continue. I listen, I don't know if you watched that Washington-Boston game last night, Ryan Leonard looked awesome. Physical, strong, go to the net. You know, like last year when he joined at the end of the season of those awkward growth moments, yeah, not anymore. Like he's skating with an authority. that he has him before.

Starting point is 00:49:04 I mean, Washington is an interesting story. I think we're all wondering about Ovechkin, specifically. And, you know, what's the story? If you're not hungry, you won't eat. You got the goals record. Are you still hungry? Right? Like, if this is going to be the final campaign,

Starting point is 00:49:19 what's it going to be like for Alexander Ovechkin? I think it's one of the more fascinating stories around the NHS. The one thing that I will say is, and I'm very, very confident in saying this, you want to bet darn this one's up? Oh, no, wait. that 500 to 1 Dylan

Starting point is 00:49:38 Dylan Strom has arrived that's the one thing I will say for sure about Washington is Dylan Strom has arrived and he belongs there and that's a great spot and he's

Starting point is 00:49:48 finally found a home after being you know selected third overall so many years ago okay so there's that we did sneak in a Darnell Nurse

Starting point is 00:49:56 for you so we at Capitals we got Darnell Nurse so you got one more before we let you go today yeah I mean the one that I locked in a couple of weeks ago, and the odds have really shifted.

Starting point is 00:50:06 Connor McDavid to score 50 goals this year. He's, again, one of those guys who, if he sets his mind to it, it feels like he can do it. When he scored the 60 goals a couple of years back, it felt like he just came into the year and was like, you know what, I'm in the mood to shoot. And from what we've heard of him through camp, so far, I think he's in the mood to shoot again.

Starting point is 00:50:21 He talked about how scoring goals is fun. So I like McDavid to score 50. And the other guy, you were talking about the 40 goals scores with Johnny. I'm really surprised to see Jack Hughes at plus 600 to score 40 goals. And last year, year before, both years, only played in 62 games. But if you pro-rate his goals out, it's about 36. I think that Devils team can maybe be a bit better this year. I think Jack Hughes can be in the 40-goal conversation.

Starting point is 00:50:43 And six-to-one odds just feels really, really good for that. Hughes, listen, it's not, again, hospital bracelets the story. Like, that's it. Like, stay healthy, 40 goal, 60 assists, first New Jersey devil to score 100 points. I don't think that's outrageous at all. I really don't. But again, stay healthy, protect that shoulder because the last two injuries are shoulder. It's the same thing.

Starting point is 00:51:04 Protect that. Bubble wrap that shoulder. Do whatever you have to do to that shoulder for Jack Hughes. 40 goals, not outrageous. And 100 points, not outrageous either. What are you doing this weekend in your Toronto Blue J sweater? Yeah, I mean, I got a great weekend lined up in the evenings. It's calling Golden Bears hockey games in the afternoons.

Starting point is 00:51:24 It's watching Toronto Blue Jays playoff baseball. They haven't won a playoff game since I was 19 years old. So I've been waiting a while for them. him to have some playoff success. I'm fired up. G. Bears, some of the best merch in Canadian University of hockey

Starting point is 00:51:38 hands down. It's fantastic. All right, continued success. And listen, by the way, how is it working with Hutz? I love him.

Starting point is 00:51:47 He's got one of the coolest backdrops of anybody in hockey media. I love the map. Yeah, the map. And as he sits on his kid's bed because that's where the map is. Yeah. I do think he's building a new setup,

Starting point is 00:51:58 but I want him to keep incorporating the map. He's awesome. I mean, the insight he can give, like, matter what scenario from around the league, I throw him. It's like, hey, Ducks looking to take a step forward. Oh, this goalie situation, he's, like, all the teams he played on were in such

Starting point is 00:52:11 different phases of, like, the rebuilding or contending cycle that he's got a lot of really good info he can lean back on. So I'm loving it with Hutz. DFO live every week at noon, Eastern. It's so good. I love when he talks about Sabres, too. Like, you can never get enough, like, ha, sabers story. Everything comes with a big, heavy sigh.

Starting point is 00:52:28 I love it. It's great. Continued success. Thanks, Tyler. Appreciate you stopping by. here on Fandual Future's Day. Thanks, pal. I want to remind you that she is powered by Fanduel,

Starting point is 00:52:37 make every moment more, with North America's number one sports book, Fanduel. And someone were more than delighted to have on the program today. She's the co-founder of staff athletes, which I first heard about, like it's like 15 years ago,

Starting point is 00:52:52 Megan Shika, where an OHL coach was rattling off all these numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. I'm like, you don't have a staff to come up with all this. And he's like, okay, keep it on the DL, but there's a group we work with called Stathletes and I got like the full rundown of your whole

Starting point is 00:53:05 organization. You can watch her with Fandul on TSN. You see her on ESPN as well. She's Megan Chica and she joins me now. First of all has anything sort of like when we look at preseason hockey, I don't know if you can take any of that

Starting point is 00:53:22 and say because of this we expect that in the regular season like doing what you do at Stathletes. Can you draw anything out of the preseason? Can you draw anything out of exhibition games? I mean, it totally depends. I guess you can see how people come out of the gate.

Starting point is 00:53:38 But I would absolutely say that it's more about player development, creating that competitive environment where you can actually promote or relegate the people you want to. So it's a totally different process in the preseason. And with that in context, I wouldn't say, don't tease too much. You know, if your team's not doing well, that's pretty meaningless. If they're doing really well, don't get too excited. It's way too early.

Starting point is 00:54:00 There's 82 games left. It's a long, long road. So Vancouver destroys Calgary the other night, so we all expect, like, you know, Quinn Hughes is going to have 120 points. And Elias Pedersen is going to be about $1005. He might. But you might want to take that from a preseason game.

Starting point is 00:54:16 Yeah, a grain of salt with all of it. You know, one of the things, like, so many years ago, this would have been, like, in the classic power forward era. So like in your Cam Neely, Rick Tocket, a little bit later on, John Leclair, like that type of era, the power forward's always popped in year four. The first three years where they kind of feel it out and then you have a look and in year four it pops. I don't know if there's a rule, a formula.

Starting point is 00:54:44 I know everyone's different. But like how do you know when someone's ready to take that next step here in 2025, much like we looked at, you know, Cam Neely, you know, year four, he's going to, he's going to hit it big with the Boston Bruins. When you're looking at analytically, I think you look at the, underlying data that actually drives scoring. So if you're looking at shot quality creation or they're passing to, there's different metrics that, you know, I've been partly stole from soccer and around other sports like expected threat. Do you move the puck into like high valued areas,

Starting point is 00:55:15 how so? And like, where are you in that creation? So when you look at a power forward, I know it's really boring, but I do have Leandro Seidel leading again this season with, you know, 47 projected goals this season, and there's reasons, right? Power forwards are able to get into those dirty areas. They can take contact, which we know the NHL is very rough now. And so someone like Leon Dreisel has those great underlying metrics, high expected goals, he's able to get his shot off, a great shot, very deceptive. And hey, if you're playing with Connor McDavid, who do you cover? You know, I think I'm going McDavid worst. So I'm glad you took us to Dreisel right away. I don't think I've ever asked anyone in your position this question before.

Starting point is 00:56:01 But like, how do you, when you're coming up, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, I see Leon Drey Seidel in his office on the power play along the goal line. There's like three players in the league that can score from there. So I look at that area and I say to myself, expected goals really low right there, except if you're Leon Dreisdell, like that shot for. from right along the goal line that he finds all the time. Like, I'm curious to sort of like, it depends on the players, certainly.

Starting point is 00:56:36 But how do you determine what is an expected goal? How much of it and how much of it. How much of it is based on that specific player in that specific area? Some guys are great in front of the net. Some guys are great one time around the, on the half wall. Some guys like Leon Dryhill or score from the red line. I don't have an answer.

Starting point is 00:56:57 I hope you do. I do. But that's a very nerdy question. I don't know how much time you have and or if your audience will like that. Go for it. I will preface it with my team presented at Harvard this weekend at Nessis. So we got to be really geeky. I think that's the challenge with this type of work is there's no one answer. Whether it's baseball analytics, soccer analytics, the beauty is in the beholder of whoever creates the model. And you can have data from so many different sources. So you're worried about accuracy, granularity, how it's tracked, what type of model you want to make from it. There's so many different applications of how you can build, even what is a basic

Starting point is 00:57:35 expected goal model. So a lot of the big drivers are location to the net. So the closer you get to the net, it's intuitive, right? You're able to do that. Unfortunately, the answer is now there's like millions of data points a game. So there's so many different ways to make expected goal models. Some can include shooter-specific models. know who the shooter is. So if Austin Matthews is in his like heyday shooting and, you know, he almost

Starting point is 00:58:00 broke 70, he would have a higher expected goal than Cody C.C. taking a shot. That's just the reality, right? So there's, there's different ways to bake the cake and there's no wrong way. There's only wrong ways to interpret it if you are a data scientist. So that's that's part of this too, right? There's the information that there's how you interpret it and what you do with it. Numbers don't numbers don't budge, but our interpretations of them do. Here's one thing that I've always wondered about. If you want to get like, if you want to get really geeky here. Super.

Starting point is 00:58:30 It's a Friday afternoon. Here we go, Meg. Why not? We've always, okay, I'm always curious about who the best passer is. And we've always used assists as the proxy. Whoever has the most assistable, they must be the best passer. They must be the biggest playmaker. I've always disagreed with that.

Starting point is 00:58:48 But always the only thing we've ever had as a proxy or as a way to demonstrate, whether this person's a good passer slash playmaker is assists. I've always been uncomfortable with that. Should I be uncomfortable? Correct. And actually I had a couple MLB executives say they really like the metric that we created, which was shot assist. I'm not sure if it's been, you know, somewhere else for the last 15 years as well.

Starting point is 00:59:12 But certainly who creates passes that lead to a shot right after? That's a shot assist. The other one you can do too is base the shot on expected goals. So we have a cutoff for scoring chances. It depends on the person. But typically it's a higher quality shot is a scoring chance. And so whoever creates a pass that ends up in a scoring chance, you get a scoring chance assist. So you're bucketing things.

Starting point is 00:59:36 Yes, there's going to be some bleed where it's like a little bit more too binary for some people that are very geeky. But for the average person that just wants to know, right, who passes to what ends up in a shot. So you're getting your teammate in a good position. And those are hard passes to make. And I'll give you a couple of really great examples. I'll actually give you three. One, Mitch Marner, great playmaker. For whatever reason, he not only, and I mean, that's a nice thing with tracking data,

Starting point is 01:00:01 is we actually can see all the passing seams. So where's the player looking? Where can he pass? And then where does he decide to pass? Because some passes are hard to make. And the players that don't have a skill to make them, they either don't make them or their pass gets intercepted. The players that make those difficult passes typically set up their team for higher quality

Starting point is 01:00:21 chances because that teammate is in like a highly coveted area right one that has a lot of coverage people are looking like no one wants to give the opposing team a shot from the inner slot that's not on that the coach isn't like let's get more shots than the inner slots and no coach you know so if they're getting it it's because they're able to see the ice differently and react really quickly so a Mitch marner a jack-eye goal who will be playing together those are like ultimate you know playmaking geniuses, see those slots, have the ability and skill set, and will hit those open seams. Now, you look at another player like Matthew Kachuk, part of his secret sauce is he can actually make passes from behind the net. So he likes to set up his teammates. Same with Mitch Marner. He'll

Starting point is 01:01:04 make those unique passes from behind the net. He has the wherewithal to see his teammates there. He also knows that they're going to that area. And he just has that timing thing down where he can teleport that puck there. He takes the punishment. He's not scared, especially the Kachucks are not scared of getting hit. They actually like it, right? So those passes with contact. There's a lot of playmaking models. I actually am way more into passing than I am into shooting because I think that

Starting point is 01:01:30 a lot of that hasn't been looked at in the NHL, but certainly drives a lot of high quality shots from that pass. So yes, you should be very worried about just looking at assist and assuming that's a great player. Yeah, I've kind of parked that. And I thought, like, much like you, like, okay, so the minute we get like sophisticated puck tracking technology, now we're going to find out, who's actually a good passer and who's a good playmaker and who's not. So here's, let me get it.

Starting point is 01:01:54 Let me do one more geeky question for it. And then I want to pivot to goaltenders quick. Okay, so I was having a conversation with someone from an NHL team a couple of weeks ago. So I walk in my dog and blah, blah, blah, blah. And just cold, he turns to me and says, you know what? You know what a big problem in the NHL is? I said, what's that? He said, too many defensemen shoot the puck.

Starting point is 01:02:12 I said, what? And he said, no, too many defensemen shoot the puck. And I said, well, they're not shooting to score. They're shooting to make rebounds. And he said, there, he said, if I was running a team, there's no way I would let my defenseman shoot the puck. It is the lowest percentage. It's not going to happen. How many teams are scoring rebound goals?

Starting point is 01:02:31 And I'd say, like, well, it's in the playoffs. We had a lot of rebound goals. And he's like, poppycock. I would not let my defenseman shoot the puck. I would not. Just distribute. To which Megan Shaka says what? Well, a counter example is a Carolina Hurricanes.

Starting point is 01:02:46 But, I mean, you can't just say, hey, defensemen, shoot the puck. and no one else knows what's going on. It has to be well coached in the system. So Carolina has the most shot attempts per game, over 74. They're actually, they might actually be the most shots by defensemen by a percentage and or in the top three. But the reason is, is because they're going for puck deflections, rebounds, tip-ins.

Starting point is 01:03:07 They're crashing the net as soon as they see an open scene with a defenseman with the puck. And they also have shooters that have heavy shots that are defensemen. So they're not just defensive defensemen that they're like, hey, just shoot. No, they know they have a great shot as well from the point. So it has to work as one and have a game plan and be executed to get that higher expected goal in and around the net. But certainly you can't say that over 82 games, they're not one of those teams that year over year gets great quality shots and scores and

Starting point is 01:03:36 win game. So I would disagree with him that that's a blanket statement. I would say there's nuances of building a roster. But that would be my geeky answer. Eric Tulski clearly knows something too. Uh, yeah, he's kind of a smart. Maybe. Maybe. You know what I've, yeah, I've always said this about Eric Tulski. This is, and I don't know whether this is impressive or ridiculous.

Starting point is 01:03:55 But when you look at all the things that Eric Tulski, GM of the Carolina Hurricanes, could be doing with his life, considering it's patents he holds, education he's had, a career past. He could have taken. He's chosen the one that he's chosen the one with the least amount of compensation. Like of all the things that he's done, like all the things that he could have chosen, I'm always impressed. He's taken the one that just seems like, you know what, I'm good at this. And this is a lot of fun. And I don't care what the money is going to be like.

Starting point is 01:04:30 I think there's a lot of change in sport too in terms of, you know, public good, general. I mean, sport is one of the most amazing vibes. I think of any pocket of industry. So in Eric Telsky's defense, he's now the GM, which top end people in hockey do get compensated well. And there's also a lot of good and joy that you can get out of your your job. So why not both? Okay.

Starting point is 01:04:52 So here becomes one of the questions. Who are the smartest teams in the NHL, you think? That's a question that I am absolutely not answering. But I would say that it's possible to tease that out by finding year over year who ends up higher on that, if that's their goal. Right? So they're smart for different reasons. There's entertaining hockey. There's winning hockey.

Starting point is 01:05:14 there's having big stars, different franchises, kind of hang their hat, different ways. And I mean, everyone wants to win the Stanley Cup. Let's not be mistaken with that. But there's constraints of money, resources, even location into what you can do. So I think smart is whoever optimizes for all of those conditions. It's like saying who should win the GM of the year. And one of the points that I've always made is, well, whoever wins a Stanley Cup, that's the GM of the year for a job to win the Stanley Cup.

Starting point is 01:05:42 Give it a Bill Zito crying out of knowledge. Okay, last question. How do you measure goaltenders and who should we be paying attention to and is the obvious answer, Connor Hallibuck of the Winnipeg Jets? Well, there's so many ways to measure goaltenders and that's a nice thing about having a lot of data is, you know, where the shots are, where they are in that, what type of shot, what are they stopping. Connor Hallibuck's a really interesting case because he was well worked last year. He actually had the second most shots based in the NHL and he had plus 20 and what a metric goal saved above expected, which basically says, as like if you're zero, you're an average goaltender in the NHL. If it's positive, it means you're saving more goals than a normal goaltender would. If it's negative, you really have to worry. Connor Hallibuck was plus 20.

Starting point is 01:06:26 He saves what would be 20 goals for the Winnipeg Jets, didn't go in the back of the net. That would have gone in for an average goaltender. So certainly he won a lot of awards. It was for a reason. But he was also very worked. So I would be a little concerned if he sees that many shots that he's going to do the same damage this season. Okay, one final one for you And I can't read because I'm such a geek

Starting point is 01:06:46 What's put the Plymouth Whalers jersey on the wall? Oh my gosh, that's funny. You know what? Some Americans, they don't get the right jersey. They think that's a Dallas Star's jersey. I love that you're a geek job. That's why I came on, I haven't had a podcast in years,

Starting point is 01:07:01 and I saw your name and I was like, you know what? We're going to go completely off script and just talk to geeky. Yeah, it's totally true. My brother was drafted to the Plymouth Whalers. That's his jersey. Oh, is that his name? I know he played, but did he play any games with the whalers? No, he wanted to go college, so he went to some training camps.

Starting point is 01:07:20 And yeah, mm-hmm. Gotcha. I love it. Yeah. I miss the clinic whalers. Anyhow. Great jersey. It's just great colors, right? Like, seriously.

Starting point is 01:07:30 Pete DeBore's old team. Listen, continued success, best of luck. Thanks for hopping on. Really appreciate it. Oh, we're knocking at your door sooner than later. Thanks so much for doing this. Absolutely. Thanks, Jeff.

Starting point is 01:07:42 Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that.

Starting point is 01:08:25 And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournament. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think.

Starting point is 01:09:10 Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. There she is. Megan Chike of Stathletes. You can see her as part of Fanduel on TSN, sometimes on ESPN as well, all over social media. And Stathletes has been around. Like, Zach, I was telling you about one OHL coach

Starting point is 01:09:35 talking to me about Stathletes for years and years and years and years ago. And Megan was one of the co-founders of that highly successful analytics and insight company out of, I want to say St. Catharines or some of the Niagara area. Anyhow, you're all geared up.

Starting point is 01:09:54 Look at you. Got your Jay's jacket. Got your Jay's hat. You saw, you saw Shane with the Yankee's sweater, and you're like, all right, we got to go next level here. Yeah, that's enough. Yeah. And then I came on with his Jay's shirt,

Starting point is 01:10:06 And I was like, okay, let's do this up because one Yankees shirt was too many Yankees shirts on the show today. As every U.S. listener and viewer finds something else to do in the program. We haven't asked you. Like, what do you think as far as big predictions go? I want to get to some more tweets here in a second, too, but big predictions out of you.

Starting point is 01:10:28 All right, mine, you said bold, bold predictions. Bold. I know this is bold. Bold. The Maple Leafs go further this season than the Vegas goals. and nights. I wonder why I picked those two teams. Vegas isn't going to make the playoffs?

Starting point is 01:10:44 That's a funny one. Thank you. I can shut off the show right now. Workshopping that one for a couple hours since you told me about it. Get on. I think, listen, if I, okay, let me ask you this. How would Maple Leafs fans react to Vegas won the Stanley Cup? Because they could.

Starting point is 01:11:02 Poorly. And Mitch Warner got his name on the Stanley Cup. and he brought the Stanley Cup back to Toronto. Yeah, he would bring it to Muscoca. That's okay. It would be doing it on the road there next year, hopefully. That'd be great. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:11:18 Yeah. You could have Martin with the cup and drive you crazy. It would be really, really, really poorly received by people in Toronto. Like, there would be legitimate average. But I do have, like, reasoning behind my prediction. It's not just like scrimals. I think, I think, I think, I think Vegas wins a cup this year. like in our DFO

Starting point is 01:11:38 I don't know if we haven't published yet but like I've got Vegas winning a couple for Carolina okay part of it would just be the East is so open I think especially if you look at the Atlantic and coming out of there

Starting point is 01:11:51 I don't think you can give the Leafs a leg up in anything given the stupid stuff we've seen out of the last 10 years and all the times you've been like this is the easiest path they've had and then they squander it away but that said

Starting point is 01:12:05 yeah that's true Let's actually just take that from every single year I've said it, and let's just play it again. This may be the most wide open path, not easiest wide open path if they take advantage of it, for them to get a couple of rounds out of it. On the flip side, if you look at Vegas and what they may have to potentially go through, I don't think it was easy for them against Minnesota.

Starting point is 01:12:28 They got through, they made it happen. But like Minnesota put up more of a fight than I think most of us expected, different team construct for them there. But I don't think the West is very easy. I'm with you. L.A. takes a step back. They may have a little bit of a, let's air quote this, easier opponent if you're going to say that somebody like Anaheim squeaks in

Starting point is 01:12:52 or if San Jose goes nuclear and all of a sudden they make it be. Utah, like if I'm just going to say like somebody catches lightning in a bottle, you know what I mean like. And all of a sudden they squeak into a wild car. Hot goalie, hot goalie, hot goly for somebody. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. I'm not saying San Jose does make it.

Starting point is 01:13:09 I'm just, you know what I mean, where it's that team who's full of rookies in life and they, you know, that kind of situation, then maybe they get one of them. It's easier, but I think that they have a tough path in the West. And I personally have some concerns about goaltending in Vegas there. I don't know if they had anybody leading up.

Starting point is 01:13:31 Mike Carter Hart. Hill can be really really good. Carter Hart and Aden Hill. Carter Heart and Aden Hill. Yeah. he hasn't played in a long time no he hasn't so that's what I'm saying like who knows there and no no no no but no Patrangelo hurts

Starting point is 01:13:45 do like Hayden Korsak though they're missing Theodore for a bit right yeah I'll tell you what though like their top nine is going to be problems for everybody provided they stay healthy but I know like here I am saying like Toma Shirtle is staying healthy they have one of the quietest 35 goal scores in the NHL and Pavlore Fiaf people can't like

Starting point is 01:14:04 don't know that and probably can't announce his name but there it is and now you got like I'll tell you like Ikel, Marner and Barbashev oh and then

Starting point is 01:14:16 William Carlson playing with Stone and Smith and then you go down to Tomash Hurdle it's it's a problem with Dorifiev and

Starting point is 01:14:30 Brandon Sod it's a problem for every how are you losing a line matchup that's what you're coming back to like the wild card is always going to be health like if you're if if if you're the Vegas golden nights how are you losing a line matchup when you're rolling out those top nine good luck yeah I mean it's

Starting point is 01:14:48 good they look good man I don't disagree yeah Vegas looks good all right let's finish up with some tweets what do we got mr. Blue Jay who's your favorite Blue Jay of all time by the way uh probably Jose Bautista I don't know Joey Bats like Donaldson and Carnacion, like, that was, like, my prime time. I know that sounds like the same, that was not that long ago. But, like, that was, like, the best time. I was just going out of high school into university.

Starting point is 01:15:18 Those guys were making the playoffs every year. Like, they bring in Toulouitsky and David Price, like, loading up those teams. Oh, so good, so good. And it was so fun. Like, the team was easy to cheer for. Just everything about it made me way. more of a Jay's fan and brought me way more

Starting point is 01:15:37 into it like I remember growing up watching Roy Halliday and Gustavo Chasin and like those kinds of guys on the team but like once you got into that era it was just so much fun every single time we watched Jay's baseball but though that was

Starting point is 01:15:53 my favorite era so anybody really in there remember like the Edwing running around the bases I remember he hit that walkoff sorry this is Blue Jays nobody cares about this welcome a joke here Go ahead, Walner. Walk off.

Starting point is 01:16:08 I was in, I was in university first year, watching with all my buddies, and he hit that walk off against the Orioles. And I remember, like, 20 of my buddies running around everybody doing the head wing. Like, yeah, it was just like the coolest thing ever. I'll never forget that. Like, that was just awesome stuff. But my first job, like, first, like, real job,

Starting point is 01:16:31 or like I did work and got paid for it, was selling hot. dog's and jumbo coax at exhibition stadium and the only reason I took the job is so I could watch J's games for free. Made a couple of bucks, but like, I just watch Jays games, man. Oh, you want a hot dog? Yeah, sure, here you go. So I'm just here to watch a ballgame.

Starting point is 01:16:49 Oh, yeah. You're not really selling much. Like, no, I'm just here to watch the ball game. Here to watch ball game. All right. What do we got for for tweets here? All right, let's start here. Deco, dude,

Starting point is 01:17:03 Macklin Celebrini, was 100 plus points. I can't see it, but I would love it. Listen, one day he's going to hit the century mark. I don't know whether it's going to be in his second season. But I'll tell you, he is looking more and more like he is like the next great 200-foot player from Canada. I don't want to do like the, I mean, the closest thing you can compare him to is like maybe Jonathan Taves with more offense. But this guy is going to be like a mainstay on Team Canada international.

Starting point is 01:17:35 events to say nothing already's going to be for San Jose Sharks for years and years to come. It gets embarrassing hearing me gushing about Macklin Celebrini, but I just think the kid's incredible. Just an incredible hockey player. Yeah, no, I'm on the same page as you. Every time I watch him, it's impressive. Even

Starting point is 01:17:48 the way he plays away from the puck, even if he's not scoring, producing points, just how impactful and noticeable he is. And if people want to bet this, 90 plus points is the most you can do. It's on Fandual plus 700 right now. So you can find that there. All right. I like this

Starting point is 01:18:05 next one. Okay. Specifically because of the last part of it, and you'll see why, but I like this next one. What do we got here? Adam Nadeau. Jake Sanderson wins the Norris after leading the U.S. balloon line to a silver medal in a 10th three to lost that. Um, I don't know that I can see Jake Sanderson winning the Norris trophy yet.

Starting point is 01:18:29 I do see a Norris trophy in Jake Sanderson's future. although I've also been saying that about Miro Heiskenen for the longest time and he just happens to be caught in this era with Kail McCar and Quinn Hughes I know I went out there and said like this year Rasim Stalin breaks through him

Starting point is 01:18:53 and wins a Norris trophy man it's so hard like I look at a player a defenseman like and I sound like an old guy here and I am like Brad Park probably should have like piled piled up Norris trophies, but he just happened to be playing in an era where there was like, Bobby Orr and is Larry Robinson and Dennis Potvin and in other errors, he probably

Starting point is 01:19:14 would have, you know, won some Norris trophies. Instead, he didn't. And that's why, you know, Miro Haskinen specifically hasn't won any Norris trophies. And then you have that year where Adam Fox goes off and Adam Fox wins the whole thing. Anyhow, as for, listen, as for, and it pains me as a Canadian to say this, but eventually the United States is going to beat Canada, one of these things. We dodged it last year at the Four Nations. But if, you know, maybe you addressed Kyle O'Connor instead of dressing, you know, 35% of Matthew Kachuk. You know, one goal game where one shot could have been the difference.

Starting point is 01:19:53 Maybe it's a different outcome, but we shall see. Watch, watch, it won't even be Canada, US in the final now. It's all right. You know what it's like at the Olympics, too, right? Like it's not going to end up Somehow even without Barkoff It's going to end up like Finland versus Sweden Watch and Mikhail Granlin's going to turn into Muriel LeMew

Starting point is 01:20:11 They're going to go on the miracle run And somebody's going to figure it out Hot goalie, hot goalie, hot goalie, hot goalie, hot golly Give me one more Give me one more before I wrap Okay, one more here Let's see, which one do I think you'll like the most? Let's go

Starting point is 01:20:29 Or which one pisses me off the most Both are good choices. pisses you off the most All right, here Let's just go with this one I think you'll like this one Not entirely sure How to say the Twitter handle here

Starting point is 01:20:45 Mark Curricola Mark Curricola Mark Curicola Mark Curicola Mark Curicola Patrick Line will score 40 plus goals this season Remember we all thought

Starting point is 01:21:01 that Patrick Lainey would score 40 goals every season. Yes, I do. Because outside of Austin Matthews, nobody could score from distance like Patrick Lainey could. I've always described his shot as violent.

Starting point is 01:21:19 Like there's like hard, you know guys that have hard shots and then there's guys that have like violent shots. That's always been Patrick Lainey to me. I'll tell you what. I don't know that he scores 40 goals, but on the Montreal, Canadian's power play, that Demadoff to Line A play.

Starting point is 01:21:38 How many times are we going to see that this year out of the haves? And if so, then Linae is going to set himself up real nice for a real nice payday. I don't know that he gets to 40 goals. I'm not sure if that is sailed. Maybe it has. Probably it has for Patrick Linae. I would love it if it happened. I just know that we're going to see a whole lot of Demadoff to Linae on the power play

Starting point is 01:22:01 from Montreal. Like, Linae's kind of gotten to the point in his career where it's like the whole team just sort of, nothing revolves around. But like the idea is that Linae, if the puck is on your stick, that means we want you to shoot. That's when we're giving you the puck. It's kind of like how this is a bad example, but I use it anyway. Towards the end in Edmondson, the only time that Nail Yakopov got a pass was when it was time to shoot. Don't carry the puck. Don't think with it.

Starting point is 01:22:28 Just when we give it to you, that means it's your turn to shoot. now and that's kind of i feel where where where patrick line is at because again he still has a violent shot it's still ridiculous i just don't know that he gets 40 you think line he gets 40 no i don't i think he comes short but i could see the uh 30 goal season coming from him where he especially if they got off to a hot start dammed off line a clicking before everybody figures out the power play and how it's moving around and where the weak spot is and how they're exploiting it and all of a sudden he rattles off like 10 in the first 25 or so games and you're like oh shit Patrick Linae's back we all bite I bite every time I bite every time I did last

Starting point is 01:23:13 last last year we did this is so awesome they love in Montreal and then just yeah ghosted off yeah tapered off yeah but I could see like that 25 to 30 I don't think he gets past 35 can I sneak one more in here on you Yeah, of course. Because it made me laugh. Okay. So we had Stephen Ellis on the other day, and he said he wanted more goalie fights and chaos. He was going on.

Starting point is 01:23:38 Hang on. Ellis was going on about how much he wants goalie brawes and backup goalie brawes, and I made you pull up a picture from like 1973 with Gary Smith and Bobby the Chief Taylor and a brawl between the Flyers and the Canucks. And then there's a brawl yesterday. He got it. Yeah, he got his brawl, but he didn't get goalie fight it. And I'm like, where are you getting all?

Starting point is 01:24:00 You're getting all frisky about this one, Stephen. Yeah, but we did get one in the KHL the other day. So he at least got that one. He banked that. But he submitted the Hershey Bears win the Stanley Cup. And he also tweeted out of me that the Thrashers win the cup. So I was like, all right, you're going to get, you get included in today. We did ask for outrageous predictions.

Starting point is 01:24:22 And that qualifies because it's impossible. But I will remind people, again, to make myself sound old. There was a time. in hockey, where the American Hockey League was as good as the NHL. And one of the reasons why the NHL expanded in 1967 was to stop rival leagues from getting even stronger and taking over the NHL. This is why we saw, like, for the longest time, it's like, nope, we got a good thing going, we're making our money, we're not going to expand, this is great, and then other rival

Starting point is 01:24:56 leagues started to get a quality of athlete and quality of teams. that could rival the NHL. And that's why you had expansion, folks. That's why I had it. Specifically, specifically in the West. Right? Because you had the rise of the old Western loop when it was a pro loop that was really, really good.

Starting point is 01:25:18 Like Portland Buccaroos and Seattle, like these were good teams. And that's why you had expansion. Anyhow, apropos of nothing, the Hershey Bears will not win. Sorry, Stephen Ellis. They will not win this. They might win the Calder. They've done it plenty of times. They still have, for my money, one of the coolest logos ever.

Starting point is 01:25:36 The original Hershey Bears logo is still one of the coolest logos of all time, period. But you know what happened with the Hershey Bears? Let me go down a little road here with you. So Coco the Bear was the mascot. It's true. Coco the Bear was the mascot for the longest time for the Hershey Bears. And he looked like a bear. Bears are not like lean and shizzled.

Starting point is 01:25:57 Okay? This was like a bear with like a bear. with like a bear's belly and like look like a bear and then after a while this would have been like in 2010 maybe all of a sudden it's like I don't know like Coco started taking like started going to CrossFit or something and then like to promote healthy living or something like the bear got like Jack like torn up like a report card like real like I'm like it's not a freaking bear like all of a sudden this bear is like all like leaned out at the CrossFit game. games and shit. I'm like, what, what is this? Like, that's not,

Starting point is 01:26:32 that's not, that's not Coco. That's like Jack, you know, roided up bear. Like, that's not, that's not Coco.

Starting point is 01:26:39 I'm saying is, I appreciated the old bear. We like our bears chubby. We like our bears rotund. We don't need CrossFit bear. Yes, I have thought about these things. Spinich and Gary Roberts' workout plan.

Starting point is 01:26:52 Yeah, all of a sudden, like, he just stumbled into some, like, it was wandering through the forest and found like eight kettlebells or something.

Starting point is 01:26:57 And then all of a sudden, like just got shrill bells. Reddit. Coco, what are you doing? All right. Anyhow, we'll end on Coco. And I want to thank everybody here today for participating in the program. Fandual Futures Day. Thanks so much for our presenter and our friends at Fandual, official partner of the NHL.

Starting point is 01:27:17 Thank you for this is their idea. And I think we should make this a semi-regular here and not just do at the beginning of the season where it's fun. Maybe we'll do it halfway into the season as well. Thanks to Shannon Goldman for stopping by. thanks to Johnny Lazarus, thanks to Tylery Remchuk. Thanks for the great and highly intelligent, even though I couldn't coax an answer

Starting point is 01:27:34 about who the smartest team in the NHL was out of her, Megan Chica, for stopping by the program today. Thanks to you in the chat. Thanks to you watching live on YouTube, listening on your favorite podcast platform. Listen, man, we're talking about real games here real soon. The season is just around the corner.

Starting point is 01:27:50 It gets underway on Tuesday. So we're talking about real games here real quick. We have some preseason games still to get to. Like many of you, I'm finding Saturday's experience between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers to be interesting and perhaps violent as well based on what we saw yesterday, which we anticipate and kind of expect we'll carry over into the regular season. In the meantime, have a great weekend. The season begins next week. So you can make the argument.

Starting point is 01:28:20 This is your last weekend to chill. Get your affairs in order because you. The NHL season is around the corner, and it all kicks off next week. Tip your Zamboni driver on the way out. Thanks for the buns and the use of the hall. We'll talk to you again on Monday. I flip 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head.

Starting point is 01:28:53 I lost all ambitious day-to-day because you can call it all right. I went to the dark man You tried to give me a little medicine I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those men that's pretty new It's me and myself And now this is going to be fixing my mind

Starting point is 01:29:14 I do on the bracket I turned on the music I do on the blanket I turn on the music It's enough They're found And you sometimes losing I've been on the days that we're wrong

Starting point is 01:29:34 In the dead dark night Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here You know, my wife and I both have countless memories From spending time discovering Canada Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace,

Starting point is 01:30:04 dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent. And I feel like I'm always on the road. road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the

Starting point is 01:30:29 week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host. Bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.

The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Bold Predictions for the 2025-26 NHL Season ft. Shayna Goldman, Jonny Lazarus, Tyler Yaremchuk, and Meghan Chayka

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