The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Devils Hot Start and Utah Taking the Next Step ft. Sheldon Keefe & Bill Armstrong

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Jeff Marek welcomes New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe to break down the club’s dominant start to the season, including the tremendous play of Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, what’s driving their early success, and where they still want to improve as expectations climb. Then, Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong joins the show to discuss Utah’s rise as a destination city, the organization’s push to go big-game hunting, the continued development of stars like Logan Cooley, and the impact of adding JJ Peterka. Jeff also takes a spin around the league with thoughts on the Rangers’ recent struggles, Nikita Kucherov hitting 1000 points, the Capitals rallying for Ovechkin’s 1500th game, and more from a busy night in the NHL.#TheSheet #NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #NJDevils #UtahMammoth #JackHughes #JesperBratt #LoganCooley #NHLNews #HockeyTalk #DailyFaceoffSHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Shark Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system/FN101CGY.html?utm_source=Better+Collective&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=H2+Air+Fryer&utm_content=EN👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://primevideo-row.pxf.io/c/5560083/3303015/20020Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two players Two players at very different points in their career one at the beginning and one nearing the end And I don't know what's more impressive from what we're seeing here My inclination is the younger one

But I'm curious what you think about this. Having a, oh, and hello, by the way, welcome to the sheet once again, Monday, October 27th. Great to have you aboard. Today we're going to highlight the two hottest teams in the NHL, the Utah Mammoth and the New Jersey Devils. Bill Armstrong, GM of the Mammoth, and Sheldon Keefe, the head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Both are aboard a little bit later on. So having a quick look at your points leaders around the NHL. Eichel in at number one, tied with Nick Schmaltz, another story there that we'll get into with Bill Armstrong.

a little bit later on. That's great to see, by the way. But then in at number three, Macklin Celebrini with 15 points. William Nealander tied 14 points with Nathan McKinnon, Carol Caprizoff, and Yvgeny Malkin. Evgeny Malkin who has 14 points so far this season. Those are the two that I'm curious about here. Your thoughts on both of these. What's more impressive to you? What Malkin is doing or what Sellebrini is doing? For me, just for me, it's Sellebrini because we never see things like this out of a teenager. And as far as Malkin goes, I don't think he's going to remain top five in scoring all season long.

I kind of don't think we're going to see that from Macklin Sellebrini all season either. But if you have a look at what Malkin does, he tends to, at least the last couple of seasons. So this is perhaps no surprise. Start hot. 11 points in five games last season. He's had another great start right now with 14 points in top five in NHL scoring. Macklin Celebrini is a special player. Macklin Celebrini is like a, not to heap too much pressure on, you kid.

But Macklin Celebrini is kind of like a more offensively gifted. Jonathan Taves. Rightly or wrongly. He's going to be compared to Connor Bedard, wrongly, because they're different players. But Macklin-Cellibrini is that three-zone player, great defensively, great offensively, amazing instincts on both sides of the puck. Real smart player, a real enthusiastic element of the game that he brings. And there's a moment in the, that overtime against Minnesota yesterday, where

San Jose sharks didn't touch the puck The sharks did not touch the puck And who was it Lillia Grin was out there with Alexander Venberg For the entire 347 of overtime San Jose was able to execute one change Because Minnesota didn't let go of the puck They grabbed it and they kept it

Until McElaglibrini touched the puck You got a breakaway And then it was over And because you know I'm a stickler for these types of things the first thing I think about is how did he score the goal where did he score the goal and sure enough

it's something that we talked about a lot last year and we'll do it again right now if you're watching us on YouTube if you're not you've probably seen the highlight but go back and watch it again watch where Celebrini scores here where's that shot Zach we've talked about it for a long time here on this program and elsewhere it's a triangle goal

from Maclin Celebrini he's in full stride head up and still has the wherewithal to go, I see a little triangle there on Jesper Walshatt. That's where I'm going. That is such a gorgeous goal. It's perfect. It's right along the ice.

And what makes it even, and I don't think he's thinking this for one second, I know I'm just making this up in my own head. I'm making up my own little story here. But what makes it even more poetic is who, more than anybody else in the NHL, popularized the triangle goal. And for those who don't know, the triangle goal is that area to the right side of of a goaltender between the right skate and the heel of the

goalie stick, the heel of the goalie paddle that leads all the way up to the pads which makes a tiny triangle. And that's where guys shoot now more so than ever. They're not actually shooting five hole. They're trying to hit their inside of the right skate. And that's what Celebrini did yesterday. So against the Minnesota Wild

and the poetry in this one is the player who popularized the triangle goal more than anybody else. In the NHL, Matt Sukarello. Anywho, Minnesota is in a tough way right now. St. Louis is in a tough way right now. You can look at the San Jose Sharks and say, like, yeah, they've only got a couple of wins on the season,

but this isn't a season for wins and losses for the San Jose Sharks. This is one of those seasons that we have these with teams, where the only question you have about them is, are the kids getting better? Celebrini, clearly getting better. Will Smith, getting better. Michael Misa, congratulations. First career, NHL goal, many more.

to come. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. Two players are the different, complete loggerheads in their career, both doing impressive things to kick off to kick off this season. Actually, the look at the top ten is pretty intriguing. Whether it's Eichael, Nick Schmaltz, has turned himself into a great story to kick off the campaign this year. I don't think anyone thinks he's going to remain tied

for first place with a scoring lead with Jack Eichel at 16 points here right now. But he's in a contract year. Oh, timing's everything in life, right? Timing is everything in life. Nealander Malkin Caprizov, for those of you, even though he hasn't started his new contract yet, even though Caprizov signs that massive deal. There's some that you better earn it.

You better earn it. Well, already Carl Caprizov is earning it, even though the Minnesota Wilder in a tough spot. Nathan McKinnon, Mark Stone, the injured one. Dylan Larkin, who's had a great start to the campaign this season. And Mark Schifley, who is playing like a player possessed. and inspired to do a couple of things here. One, get the Winnipeg Jets deeper into the playoffs,

and dare I even say, won a Stanley Cup, and two, get himself a position on Team Canada for the Olympics. He was not thrilled, and I'm not surprised. I don't blame him that he didn't go to the Four Nations last year. Very much wants to make it on Team Canada for the Olympics this season. Okay, in the meantime, let's get the program underway here and get to all the things we want to talk about here. The show is, as always, and the blueprint is, as always, powered by Fanduel.

Download the app today and play your game. Coming up on the program today, here's the plan. We are going to talk to a couple of very important gentlemen who are helping to shepherd two very important teams through the early part of the schedule. Sheldon Keefe is a head coach of the New Jersey Devils. He's going to join me here in about 12 minutes. Bill Armstrong is the general manager of the Utah Mammoth. They've won seven in a row.

Jersey's won eight in a row. Both teams are hitting their stride early, plenty to get to by way of roster construction and expectation for Bill Armstrong as far as Sheldon Keefe goes. A few of the things to keep in mind here with the New Jersey Devils is just how dynamic that top nine looks on a consistent basis to say nothing about Jake Allen. And I know coaches, a lot of coaches would just say that's out of my purview. that's not in my lane.

But one of the great stories kicking off this season with the New Jersey Devil's record being where it's at is they're not doing this with Jacob Markstrom. They are doing this with Jake Allen. We'll get Sheldon Keith's thoughts on the goaltender. Coming up in a little bit here. Alexander Ovechkin, game number 1,500. Also, he's on goal number 899.

Scoring Friday night against Columbus, nice face-off win by Dylan Strom, set play Ovi scores, beats Jet Grieves, was a big night for Ovechkin, It was a big night for the Washington Capitals. They laid an egg the next night against the Ottawa Senators. And we almost saw a goalie fight. No, we didn't.

Officials. Linus Almark and Charlie Lindgren. And we'll talk about Kuturov getting point number 1,000 as well. Why don't we start there, Zach? Before we get to Sheldon Keefe was going to be buzzing in about 10 minutes here. Quick thought on Nikita Kuturov, one of the most entertaining players in the game, both on and off the ice. there's always going to be

the cap conversation around him just like there'll always be the cap conversation around Pat Kane and the cap conversation around Mark Stone I thought that nobody handled it better and more comedically than Nikita Kuthorov did because you can remember during that Tampa Bay

Stanley Cup run he was the best interview and that goes a long way when you talk about the Tampa Bay Lightning because John Cooper is always the best interview with the Tampa Bay Lightning But Kuturoff was money every time he got in the mic and was best with the T-shirt after they won the Stanley Cup. Just a cherry on top of all of it.

So Kuturov gets 1,000 points. One of the questions has always been, who's the best Tampa Bay Lightning player, much like it is for every other team. And I think rightfully, and he's 136 points away from the all-time Tampa lead in points from Stephen Stamcoast. Who, by the way, is having a really bad season. shh, it's really bad. Is Nikita Kutraoff, the best Tampa Bay Lightning player of all time? You have to whisper that around. It's a delicate subject, but he's got, he's got two points.

He's got two points in 10 games, one goal and one assist. This is after everybody said Tampa was dumb to let him go. Mind you, he was coming off a 40-goal campaign. So, like, I don't know too many teams walking away from 40-goal. goals scores, but nonetheless. Kucharoff, the best Tampa will be a lightning player of all time. I say yes. What do you say?

I say yes as well. I think one of the things that's really interesting and gives support to it, ask NHL players who their favorite player to watch is or learn from or whatever it may be. It's like almost always Nikita Kuturov. People will have different answers for varying reasons, but he's always at least honorable mention, which I think goes to say, here's the best players in the last. the world telling you their favorite player is this guy. He is, it's a treat every time you watch him.

And it's just like, he does something unexpected every time. And sometimes it's not the highlight real thing that's unexpected. You know, we've seen the plays where he drives behind the net on his back hand. He's protecting it to the outside and then throws a no looker to a guy back door. Sure, that's a highlight real thing. But it'll be the play where he drives down the wall and just stops up to turn back the other way. puts the puck between his feet and the defender's six feet down lower into the corner where it's like that's not going to go on the highlight but just the ability to create space

and open other people up and do things that other guys can't do and seeing things where he makes passes Jeff sometimes I watch him like how did you see that because the guy who got the puck didn't even see that he didn't know that was possible for it to come to him but it's all it's awesome I do agree with you best Tampa Bay landing player of all time and and this This is why I always say that there's an obligation for general managers to talk about their careers when they're done and maybe even write books. Because one of the great conversations, as you sort of present the alternative history of the national hockey league, what if? Now, 2019, Alison Lukhan was just on the program. She covers the Seattle Cracken now.

Allison was talking about she used to cover the Columbus Blue Jackets with the Athletic and the 2019 series with Columbus and the sweep of the president's trophy winning Tampa Bay Lightning Kutrov was suspended in those playoffs as well like there was a

there was a whole lot of chaos kind of with the Tampa Bay Lightning at that time and one of the discussions and just think about how different the hockey world is if this actually goes anywhere Okay, much like there was the conversation of Joe Thornton for Roberto Luongo, one for one, when the Boston Bruins were shopping Joe Thornton, which was very much a discussion.

There were discussions, I've talked about this before, there were discussions between the Edminton Oilers and the Tampa Bay Lightning about Nikita Kucheroff and Leon Dreisle. How different is the NHL universe if that goes somewhere and Nikita Kucheroff is playing with the Oilers with the Connoissell? McDavid and Leon Dreisidal is playing with the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's things like that that, A, are catnip for fans, and B, are like a legitimate part of the history of the game, right? Where were all these conversations? And how did they, obviously, this one ended up nowhere, but how did you get to what you talked about and who turned it down and all these different types of things, which is

why I always maintain that it's important for managers, I think, to write books or document what happened in their careers as the stewards of the game of hockey. we keep hearing do what's good for the game I think that's great for the game we hear from everybody else we have players books we have referees books we have tons of coaches books

Burke you wrote a GM book Jason Ferris wrote a great book on the history of general managers which I recommend for everybody one of my favorite books of all time behind the moves it's fantastic it's been out of print for a couple of years

and tough and a little bit expensive to find but man is it ever worth it I just think the GMs need to write books to talk about what happened while they were running team X, Y, and Z, or X, Y, and Z for a friend's state side. Anywho. Or what didn't happen, for that matter.

That's it, like, the great, like, how great are the stories about, you know, the greatest trades that never happened, right? It's like, it's, it's an overflowing well. And every manager can write volume after volume of book just based on trades that started and went nowhere or got derailed or thought they had a deal

something happened and then it was off I don't know man give your fans get your fans cat in it like seriously make it interesting let us know what almost happened in the in the NHL to that point a little cross promo for the network here

the six inning stretch show with Lindsay Dunn and Whit Merrifield Whit obviously longtime MLB player he told the story that he was told after the fact that he was almost traded to the Seattle Mariners to the point that the equipment team for Seattle had his stall ready with his jerseys, his bags, all the gear, everything,

and they were prepared for him to be a mariner. He didn't even know the trade was happening. Like, could you imagine how far down the line it had to have gotten? And then he found out, somebody on the team, one of his friends, had told him, hey, dude, you were almost traded here. And he's like, what? I was? I didn't even know. There's all these things you find out.

You don't even know about. You know, I want to get into, I want to reach out to Scotty Bowman soon and get Scottie on the program. One of my favorite stories, he'd be able obviously tell me this with a lot more authority when he was in St. Louis. He was so mad. And it was either Bob or Barclay Plager. He was mad at one of them and called them up and said, that's it. I've had it. Enough.

I'm trading you. Pack your bags. Go to the airport. When you get there, call me. I'll tell you where you're going. So you went. Called Scottie back and he's like, I changed my mind.

Go home. Hey, never mind. Had enough time to breeze. That's right. I had to get a little cool, cool down. Cool down time. So yeah,

don't worry about it. You can actually come home from the airport now. You're really not going anywhere. Chal, and Sheldon keeps going to be joining us here in a couple of moments. Just give me the heads up when Sheldon buzzes in. Do you want to do the hits? Do you want to do the hits that we saw?

Like, I don't, I don't, it's tempting sort of to turn because you could, every, every program into an audit on hits. But I was, I'm trying to, I'm trying to parse here a major difference between the Taylor Hall Rupert Hins hits and the Tom Wilson Ridley-Greg hit. Which one do you want to show first here? Let's start with the Wilson. one because I think that this one ends up with no penalty and it's a little bit easier. And I kind of feel like you and I are on the same page with this one. So starting with the Tom Wilson hit on Ridley, Greg, the other day. This was a blowout by the Ottawa Senators, but it's still early.

And Wilson runs over Ridley Greg. And there's nothing. I don't think there should be. Greg is sort of leaning over a little bit. But I think what the mitigating factor is here with the Taylor Hall. Hall hit, which was penalized, and even people were screaming for a suspension on this one, is I got to look at it from behind just to see, like, his elbow is down, his shoulder is down, like the elbow is talked. He's getting him on shoulder. He comes up a little bit on him, but as long as he's not on the head, you're fine.

I just wonder if it's how many strides right before the hits. but in both instances both guys had their feet planted so and I'll ask this is more of a question than it is me making in my own personal statement on the sit on the hits what is the amount of strides what is the amount of distance that you need between planting your feet and making the hit for to be legal because so how much how much coast time you're asking right because that's Tom well right Wilson on Greg he coasts for a long time before a long time and Taylor Hall, sure, there's like debatable, but I think that that's

got to be it, right? Because Taylor Halls is just less. It's, but even to his credit, he's planted. Like, he doesn't, he's not having the wheels turning all the way through and just blowing up hints right through the hit.

He plants, he gets ready for it. He gets his legs into position to kind of go with an explosive, powerful stance through the hit. And that's the other point, too. by the way like the Wilson one I think there's two parts to why he doesn't come his his body never leaves the ice um one as Spencer Carberry told us last week he is a mountain of a man so just natural gravity is going to pull him down uh and two just the size of him versus Ridley Greg not to

not a knock on Ridley Greg just the two people involved in that one when moving at that pace and Wilson expecting it Greg not he's not going to go up the Taylor hall one is more like equal mass against equal mass so in my opinion when they go into each other it's much more likely for both guys to end up in the air like i don't think it has anything to do with the speed he's going in at with charging at him or him leaving the ice at all i think it's just based on impact there's two bodies colliding and you go up so that eliminates the the charge for me there too you know what i wonder i wonder if now we're in an era where or once upon a time everybody would be prepared for contact at all times and so they'd be ready for hits now that we're

starting to see more physicality in the game the last couple of seasons that this season specifically I just wonder if it's just going to be an adjustment period where players have to go back to assuming that on every play not only are they eligible to be hit but they will be hit and sometimes quite violently I mean how many times have you watched a game and you've said oh man I can't believe that he wasn't like he could have blown him up on that I can't believe that he wasn't prepared. Like, it happens every single game. Like, I just wonder if players are now,

have now completely defaulted to, I'm not expecting to get hit. So when I do get hit, it seems a lot harsher than it should be. And I should brace myself. You know, this is one of the things you should talk to Sheldon Keefe about, right? When, uh,

is, do we have Sheldon aboard yet? Let me know when, when Sheldon's going to be popping on. So, um, that, that I do wonder about if at the, end of the day here, we just have a whole generation of hockey players that are defaulting to

hockey is more of a skill game than a violence game. And now that more of the hitting is coming back into the game, maybe they're just flat out, not prepared for it. I'm not sure. But our next guest will be standing by here in a couple of moments. And the segment is a presentation of Prime Monday Night Hockey. Prime Monday Night Hockey streams all national regular season Monday night. Games on Prime Video in Canada and is available free to Prime members in Canada.

Stream Prime Monday Night Hockey exclusively on Prime Video and experience thrilling goals and dramatic plays from the NHL. Monday nights are hockey nights. Don't miss a moment of the action. Coming up tonight, Atlantic Division matchup, Bruins are in Ottawa to take on the Sends. No Linus Allmark on this one. He's got the full day off. Check out the link in our description for the Prime Monday Night Hockey schedule on Prime Video

or go to primevideo.com slash NHL. Also on Prime Video, faceoff, inside the NHL season 2. Subscribe with a 30-day free trial of Prime Video to watch Monday Night Hockey and the new season of Face Off, download the app, or go to Prime Video.com. And with that, we'll default to the coach of the hottest team in the NHL. They are the New Jersey Devils. Sheldon Keefe is handling things behind the bench for the Devils.

Once again, this season he joins me now. Sheldon, first of all, thanks for taking time today. congratulations on the early success. It's all coaching, right? Oh, as we know, there's lots more that goes into that. And we've been really lucky, you know, the guys have gotten off to a good start here. Our special teams and our goaltending have been outstanding and that's carried us through lots.

And then we've had some great individual efforts along the way. So, you know, all that stuff has helped us here while we continue to button up our structure and all that, those sorts of things. You mentioned the goal-tending, and I was wondering about this, too. Some coaches, you know, are sort of hands off with the goalie. You know, goleys are voodoo. You handle the goalie. I'll handle everybody else.

Jake Allen has been phenomenal for the New Jersey Devils. And so was Nico Dawes. But Jake Allen has really turned heads. He's always kind of been the goalie's goalie. You know, whenever he's done with the game, it's going to be still doing goalie camps. maybe he'll be a goalie instructor, but he's like the goalie lifer in the NHL. Do you have a thought or two on the veteran

who is a Stanley Cup champion himself, Jake Allen? Well, I mean, you kind of covered it there. You know, he's so dialed in on his own game and his own preparation, yet he's got incredible leadership qualities to help the entire team and individual players on the ice off the ice. So a great luxury. for me to have as a coach and I said all that

without even talking about the fact that he keeps the puck out of the net and seems to simplify the game for his teammates when he's in there. So he's been great. We're very lucky here between he and Jacob Markstrom to have two veteran guys

that, you know, I would say just get it in lots of different ways and they help drive things. It's very unique to have two veteran guys like that. that have just have such great leadership qualities to match their skill level on the ice. Eight wins in a row.

Jack Hughes looks great. Jesper Bratt looks fantastic. You know, we're seeing, you know, some of the best of Tim O'Meyer. Nico Hescher is always, and always should be in the conversation for the Selkee trophy. Dustin Mercer, welcome back.

Connor Brown with five goals. When you look at your top nine, Sheldon, specifically, what does the coach see? Well, you mentioned a lot of the names. we've come to know and expect there. You know, I think, you know, the Arseni Gritsuk is a name that I think has really, really helped that group, you know, come together.

And Cody Glass, for that matter, is injured right now. We've been playing without them for the last few games. But, you know, that line of Gritsick, Glass, and Brown had given us a third line that had been very productive, but also playing against other teams, you know, top players at different times, which, you know, with Nico,

he's sure who takes on a lot of those matchups as well that really allowed me to use Jack Hughes and his line freely and get some favorable matchups and that really seemed to help get their game going and now we've got to you know as you mentioned

we've got three lines going really well and with Glasses injury we've used Mercer in the middle here recently and Gritsuk moved up to play with Nico so we just got great depth and that's really shown early on here. You got lots of to play, of course, and it seems, unfortunately, every game we play, we seem to be losing

a guy to injury and such, but the depth has certainly helped us. Off the devil's page for one second. I was talking about this before you came on. Every night there's big hits. It seems as if, you know, physicality has re-entered the NHL. We saw it last year. We're seeing it again this year, whether it's Wilson on Hins from the weekend, whether it's Taylor Hall on Rupert Ahens, whether it's the heat'll hit last week, last Sunday in the Vancouver Washington game. I wonder about players. Like, you've got kids that play hockey.

I've got kids that play hockey too. And I always tell them, be prepared on every time you're out there, expect that you're going to be hit. And if you get hit, you'll be prepared. But if you don't get hit, that's a bonus. Do you find that perhaps now, like there's been a whole generation where everything things about speed and skill, speed and skill, that players are still understanding or preparing themselves to be hit every play, or is the default setting still for a lot of guys, I'm not

going to get hit while I'm out here? You know, well, it's a great question. I do think, you know, of course, there's far more speed and skill-oriented players that are entering the league and playing high-level competitive hockey than there are, you know, bruising physical players that are going to drive through you, I still think, as you just alluded to, with some of those names that are still in the NHL, and there'll be more to come, you know, that are going to run through you each time. You've got to be aware of these guys. And I think defensively, you try to teach your guys to be physical and get players stopped as much as you

can. So as a coach, you're always emphasizing the physicality. I think it's just such a vital tool to be able to utilize in our game defensively, especially, to get people stopped. You just, you've got to be aware. But yeah, it's interesting. You know, I've got two boys playing and ones in his first year of contact here this year. And my older guy, a couple years older, has been through it a little bit. And I still see, you know, more than enough big hits out there, you know, players have to manage that and be aware of that.

Constantly got to still be coaching. it, I think, whether it's live on the bench or through video, just be aware of your surroundings, be conscious of where you bring the puck and where the contact may come and don't be surprised if it does arrive. In my case, both my boys played lacrosse before getting into contact hockey. I think all those sorts of things, you know, allows you to play with your head up and be conscious of your surroundings. But, yeah, I think it's, I don't think it's ever going to disappear fully. So you got to make sure we're still reinforcing this.

And I think a lot of the best skills coaches and things out there are very conscious of these things and always have those defenders and such on the ice that are going to, you know, make you have to keep your head up and be mindful of how you control a puck and use your body to protect it. Let me get a quick question from the chat here. Walt 619, what do you attribute to Pallat's resurgence? He's playing physical again and is engaged. and on that Hughes Brat line.

You know, and it was, you know, years ago, I would look at Andre Palat and go, like, he's like Marion Hosa Light. That's kind of how I see Andre Palat. What do you attribute this, this resurgence to Andre Palat? Yeah, you know what, Jeff? I mean, I struggle with the word resurgence when it comes to Palli. I think he's pretty consistent in who he is, you know.

As he's gotten older here, he's had to, you know, really lean in more. on his play off the puck and forechecking and earning puck's back and being around the net and all those kind of things that just so happen to be things that, you know, the Hughes and brat pairing can really benefit from. So that's why I think the line works and he works, you know, all the way back to our end and the way he tracks. And a lot of the things he does off the puck benefit our team and his line mates on the puck. And I felt the same last season. So I don't, I don't look at this necessarily as a resurgence. It's early in the season here, first of I mean, we're making any sort of proclamations about any one player or any team at this stage.

It's a little bit, you know, preliminary to do such a thing. But, you know, we've been happy with how Pally's fit. He didn't start on that line early on through training camp and such. But then we lost Gini Dadoff early in the season. And, you know, we put Pally back in that spot and the line just hasn't missed a beat. Maybe the answer to this is Nico Heeshire, since he does so much. But who would you say your most versatile player is right now? Like when you mention Andre Palat, like, that's when I think back to the Tampa days,

it's like he could play anywhere up and down the lineup. But who's your most versatile guy right now? Well, yeah, I mean, Nico's an easy answer. Is he just so many things? He touches the game in so many ways. But, of course, he is a center. And, you know, he does so many things as a center. he's great defensively, takes on all the heavy

matchups, and he also generates offense and scores himself. But when I think about versatility, a lot of times I'm thinking more about the wingers that can move around and play different spots. And, you know, I look at Dawson Mercer as a guy right now, as I mentioned, you know, we had an injury

to Cody Glass and a lot, we needed a center. And Merce was able to step in there, as he did last year in the playoffs. You know, we didn't have Jack Hughes. We needed immersed to play center and we think he's a better winger he thinks he's a better winger he feels a lot more comfortable there but what needed we got to put him there so i look at him i look at you know connor brown i think is is a guy who's new to our team here not necessarily new to me is my time with him in the marlies which made such a great impression on me and i followed his

career very closely so we're lucky to have him now but he another guy that he takes he can take on defensive responsibilities play low in your lineup but i think he's got a good enough skill set and head about them to play with, you know, top players if needed. So, you know, those guys come to mind for me. We've, you know, certainly Gritsick, this guy is everything that we've given him, left wing, right wing, bottom lines, you know, fourth line, third line, second line, power play. Like, he's done it all here in the early going for a guy coming over from the KHL.

It's still learning not just the game, but the language. I've been so impressed with him. So that gives me great options as a coach. me, let me close with something that I asked, Spencer Carberry on the show, actually, exactly a week ago. I asked him, what, what are, like, what is a non-negotiable that you have for your players? And his answer was, I'm paraphrasing here, something along the lines of, for all of our, all of our forwards, it doesn't matter who you are, first line, second, line, third line, fourth line. The non-negotiable is you have to be willing to go to the front

of the net. You need to go to the danger areas. You need, you need to do that, or you can't, or you can't play here. Sheldon, what are some of or one of the non-negotiables that you have for players? I know everyone's different. So this guy can play like this. That guy can play like that. But like what does a Sheldon Keefe non-negotiable?

Well, I mean, that's a good one for carbs there for sure on the offensive side of it. For me, if I had to just give you one thing, it's everything that happens without the puck. I mean, the defensive structure is,

you know, no matter where you play or in the lineup or who you are, it's adhering to that. So the big thing I would say is how we come back to our net and how we protect our net. That's so vital. You get a little more offensive leeway for different players on the other side of it. And they're going to make their reads. But defensively, when we don't have the puck, every single player has to be accountable to our structure and protecting our net.

And that's, I would say that's the top one, is to help keep it out. Your team's hot. Your team's a lot of fun to watch. Winners of eight in a row. Good luck tomorrow against the Avalanche. Shelton, thanks so much for this. You got it, Jeff. Thank you.

Good luck to the boys, too. Good luck to the boys. Hockey coach, Hockey Dad, Sheldon Keefe, head coach of the New Jersey Devils. We thank him for his time and thank the New Jersey Devils for making him available as well. This really is, Zach, a fun hockey team to watch. And I always say this, you know, making sure that, you know, knock on wood and he stays healthy. Again, this is a Devils team that's never had a hundred point score. Never.

Never had a hundred point score. Jack Hughes came close with 99 a couple of years ago. but provided he stays healthy we may see it for the first time just stay healthy yeah fingers crossed on that one I think we will see it to your point about a fun team to watch

yeah I don't know if you've ever seen the meme people in the chat probably will get this on at least it's like the basketball player on the bench where he's got the disappointed face that was me watching the devils play the Leafs where I was like this sucks and then I was like it's entertaining at least

I think, well, getting our shit kicked, but kind of fun to watch in some ways. So, all right. Yeah. You know what the impressive thing is to you right now with this eight game winning streak? It's odd. They're doing it without Quinn Hughes. Sorry. We're sitting right there.

Come on. It's like the most obvious joke. Come on. I'm not even 100% sure that that ends up happening. I know it makes for a nice story. where they all want to play together. But you don't I keep coming back to on that issue? If Quinn Hughes goes to New Jersey,

and by then Dougie Hamilton's going to be done, whose power play time is Quinn Hughes going to end up taking? Well, Luke. As we've seen, yes, as we've seen how they're handling things now, maybe it just alternates. Maybe it's situational. Maybe Luke's better with one thing

and Quinn's better than the other. Yeah. Okay, you won't want Quinn out there for the full two minutes on a power play. Okay. Well, you also, if those guys, this is one of those ones where, if you've got those guys, you can just play them both. You could find a way to structure that where they could both be out there. Like, I'm sorry, one of the forwards, but reality is going to come where you're going to look at Quinn Hughes

and likely at that point, just based on maturity development, whatever, Luke Hughes, they will be better offensive players or good enough at least to go out there over one of the forwards that you have. And then if you have the ability to go two defensemen on the A's who are that good offensively, I think you're just got to take it. And you play the whole two minutes. You're not going to give anything up defensively.

And you're going to fill the back of the net. And then you're going to have three Hughes brothers with 100 points. You're going to go from no New Jersey Devils players with 100 points to three on the same team. Okay. So you're talking me into this one, and now we're going to have to talk down Vancouver Canucks. Oh, speaking of the Vancouver Canucks, don't look now, but you know who looked good? Lucas Reichael over the weekend. Second line center spot. Lucas Wrykel looked good. You know what else looked good this weekend for the Vancouver? Leas Pedersen look good. Four points in two games. Trying to hang on to anything at this point right now. I know.

River Canucks, right? I know, I know. The boys on the morning cup of hockey talked about it there a little bit as well, though, and it's one of the things I think about, and Rosie talked about it. Barnaby, actually, it's kind of weird. I think everybody across the network had brought

it up at some point today, but Barnaby on Leavesoni Take brought it up. You know, you see these guys who come into the NHL, and it's like, okay, they got a sick game. One game, they did really well, put up a bunch of points. What happens the next one? What happens when you don't put up the points what what's your game like then yeah just wait wait on wrichael and i think

that's kind of the problem with peterson right now all i'm saying is like all i'm saying is like he he looked good i mean there was everyone was waiting he was waiting the entire nchal world knew this guy was getting dealt somewhere all i'm saying is i was impressed with lucas wrichael i thought he did good that's all i'm not saying he's going to you know i get the vancouver conucks on his back and go to the playoffs all i'm saying was i think lucas wrinkle look good this weekend just an observation and i thought elias peterson not vintage peterson but look good yeah hey look that was a sneaky little news news drop too like it's just looking at my phone it's like oh lucas wrinkle on his way to vancouver okay what the hell yeah you know the you know the the crappy

thing about it was it was like an hour after we went off the air with pan yoda and we were talking about like where lucas wrichael's gonna go i'm like okay well that segment lived that segment lived for about an hour. It was relevant for about an hour of hockey talk. I write all these down of like what can we talk about and what are things to be putting out after the fact and like clips to be going off of. And it was like I had it on my list and was just delete like an hour later sitting on my computer. Gone. Thank you. Can't do it. Yeah. Good try. Punt. Yeah. See you. See you later on that one. We're standing by for Bill Armstrong, the, the general manager of the Utah mammoth, winners of seven in a row. And again, when you talk about,

fun teams to watch. Utah mammoth are a lot of fun. I'll tell you what, there was a play last night. I'm not sure if you watched the Winnipeg game. Late in the third period, Dylan Gunther scores what turns out to be the game-winning goal. But on that play, J.J. Paterka is in a puck race with Logan Stanley,

and it turns into like this physical battle between J.J. Peturca and Logan Stanley, who is like six foot a million. And you think to yourself like, okay, this might just end up being bug meets windshield. And Paterka wins it. Paterka wins it and it helps

set up Dylan Gunther who makes like another perfect shot because he's Dylan Gunther. And the Utah mammoth are off to the races and have beaten the Winnipeg Jets and they've now won seven games in a row. And when you talk about again fun teams to watch put the mammoth

right up there amongst the tops in the NHL. Like Loken Kooli looks so. good. J.J. Paterka looks good. Karel Vamalka looks really good. The other person, we're standing by for Bill Armstrong, we'll get into this with him a little bit too. Very low-key, because I don't think he's much of a self-promoter,

and he's a pretty, like, understated kind of guy. Corey Schwab's done a good job historically with coyotes slash mammoth netminders. When you think of, like, the Darcy Kemper's and the Aden Hills that have come out from Carter Hutton, you know, in San Jose when Schwab was there. Like our boy Hutz was there with Corey Schwab as well. All I'm saying is he doesn't get a lot of headlines.

Corey Schwab doesn't, but he's been pretty instrumental in the careers of some pretty high-end Stanley Cup goaltenders. And I'm happy for Vermilke here. I really am. Yeah, they're fun to watch. It's nice to see, like, this excitement around the team, a buy-in, the fact that they were hearing, and it seems like it's going to be the case, and how it was happening in the summer as well, but that they're going to go after some of these guys. I also just enjoy that they're, like, these young guys around each other's age, there's this happy, excited energy about them, and they're not just skilled players right now. You're seeing, like, a buy-in to the actual side of the game that's like, hey, we're not just going to skill our way through things and get more points.

then the other team we're going to where we can just do that because we just have that much talent like they're actually playing hockey like they're doing things that you will take to win games when it matters most like you can see that there's a future to that and they're rough

right like they don't get pushed around like I love Jack McVane I really really like Jack McVane Lost and Krause as well this is Liam O'Brien who will fight anybody

essentially, you know, walk into our barn and Liam Leaim O'Brien will fight him. Like, it is a really good mix. I'll tell you what, Logan Cooley, that was the Montreal Draft, is Lafkosky draft. There were a lot of teams that had Logan Cooley number one. Like, full stop.

There were teams that had Logan Cooley number one. I know managers always hate it when you go back. When I used to work with Doug McLean, and I always bring something like this up because he was obviously thinking about, you know, Kopitar and Gilbertry. you're like oh god here we go with the redraft okay yeah no one's got a hand on the wheel but everybody knows three years later who they should have drafted first second and third everybody's a genius

general manager never had a never had it and i and i get it um but that was a great pick that was that was a great pick for the coyotes it really really was and you're starting to see this guy start to take off and listen um as the st louis blues stumble as the minnesota wild stumble the team that's like okay we'll take that spot okay we'll take that playoff spot are the are the Utah mammoth like look I know Dallas has had their issues so far this season um but they're going to be right there as are the avalanche as are the jets who else is going to be there mammoth are banging the drum right now that it's going to be them and it's tough when it's it's tough to argue against that specifically

knowing that this is an organization that is not going to sit on its hands. Like there were times previously where we all know that the coyotes just couldn't do things because financially they just weren't able to do that. Now those days are done and this is a team and Ryan Smith has talked about this. The owner has talked about this plenty about providing this team, this manager, Bill Armstrong with whatever he needs to get this done. We are standing by for the GM of the Utah mammoth, Bill Armstrong. In the meantime, I will remind you as well about our friends at Bauer with this,

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My kid used it this weekend in Rochester, two goals in the final. No big deal. For more information, check out Bauer.com. Um, this stick really is, uh, really is a work of art with the, with the two with the, the, uh, the dual kick points. Anyhow, thanks to our friends, uh, at Bauer hockey. Uh, with that, we'll get to our next guest. He is the general manager of the very fun to watch, Utah mammoth. He is Bill Armstrong and he joins me on the sheet. Now, Bill, thanks so much for dropping by today.

First of all, um, I don't think I've ever had, I've had the chance this season to congratulate you on the logo and not only the logo to the mascot. I'm just going to ask you a frivolous question to start. How much input? would the general manager have on the mascot? Absolutely none. My big thing is to stay in the lane, stay in my lane, you know, and don't get too far out of it. But I'll tell you a little bit just quickly about our company.

And you have such pride when we work for SCG and Ryan Smith and Ashley Smith. We were revealing the logo that day. And at the same time behind the curtain, they were redoing the bottom bowl. and I just finished my drive-in from the practice facility where they were a quarter of the way done. They were doing three major things at the same time, and they crushed it. When you showed up for that press conference to release, you know, the mammoth, it was done first class. It was absolutely amazing what they've done. It's a great company, Ryan and his wife, do an amazing job.

And, you know, he lined up in front of the players, said, we're going to do this, this, and this. And he's delivered on all of them. So it's unbelievable to work for them and be a part of the organization. Let me ask you about the practice facility because, you know, one of the, one of the things like, how did, again, I'm not there, so I don't know, how did this thing go up so fast? It's, I don't know. We were putting a shovel in the ground and 12 months before that, you know, and now we're walking in. But I got to tell you a quick, a GM story. I try not to like lounge around and, you know, this is just beautiful area.

this incredible, you know, workout facility. But the other day, everybody had left and I had a chance. It was almost like a spa, you know what I mean? The running treadmill going in the water, the cold and hot tub and the steam. It's an incredible facility. It's first class all the way through. And, you know, it's two rinks. It's, I can't believe what they've done in a small period of time.

It makes our organization, an elite organization, the way it was done. Um, does this recent success surprise you at all? Or is this sort of, and again, I'll preface all of this as we all do at this time of year. It's still early. But does this run of success from your team surprise you at all? Or is this this sort of like, even going back to the Arizona days. Is this just like the culmination of all these building blocks? Yeah, it's a culmination of the building blocks. We've been chipping away at a long time. We had a guest coach come in one time and see us somewhere in the middle of the rebuild. And he's like, wow, you guys are. hard on each other, behind the scenes about winning and, you know, where you expect to be. He goes, you've got a hell of a team. You're not ready to kind of get to that level of winning that you think you should be at. And I'm like, yeah, but we're pushing. We're pushing now because when it comes, we're going to expect it.

And we've always been hard about the way that we practice, about the way that we prepare, and we deal with analytics and pushing how good we can be. You know, and we've got shooting coaches. we've got strength coaches, we've got stick handling coaches, you name it. You know, there are no excuses in this organization. We have the best of the best, and we push it every single day. You know, interesting you mentioned, you know, no reason for excuses here. Ryan Smith seems to be singularly focused on providing you in the organization with every reason and every resource to take away all the excuses.

like there's never going to be a player that drives back home and says well we would have been successful if this didn't happen or if we had the resources to do that like is that something that you feel in your role is that something you see around the organization that you have an ownership group that's like okay what are the excuses let's get rid of them yeah that's exactly what Ryan's done and he's really created an organization you want to come to work for and bleed for but you definitely walk in that every day just saying there's no excuse you know from you know the way that the practice rink the two rinks are designed and how we can move back and forth uh you know after 15 minutes you practice on one sheet over to the new ice or you go to the our delta center and they put brand new um ice technology in with two new um um deemitifiers upstairs like everything's done properly everything's done right there's zero excuses in our organization it's great to be a part of that I think our players enjoy that. The expectations are high inside the mammoth.

And I do believe that's why you see some of the results that we're achieving now. You know, a couple of like really great highlight moments from this weekend around the NHL. You know, the Macklin celebrating the overtime goal was beautiful. The first time San Jose touched the puck in the overtime. But to me, the play of the weekend was last night. And it was, it's 2-2. it's the third period. You know where I'm going with this one, I'm assuming.

Yes, Jay J.J. Paterka going into the corner in a race with Logan Stanley, who is just like, pardon the expression, a mammoth player. He's massive. And Paterka wins that physical battle. Ends up being another goal by Dylan Gunther and the Utah Mammoth win the game. And just looking at, you know, Paterka just like left everything on the ice, including himself. Like, he's still lying on the ice as Gunther is celebrating. What did you see in J.J. Paturca when he was with Buffalo?

that made you go out there this summer and say we need that guy here i saw a player that wanted to win um that has elite talent um you know those guys are hard to find you know and it was tough to give up but josh don't he was a big part of this organization uh we loved him from the inside out he's an unreal kid along with michael casserang those those two players were extremely tough to give up for our organization uh but when you get a chance to have a game breaker um that you can trade for and put in your top two lines, you know, you've got to go for that. And we saw that in JJ. We saw a player that wanted to win, wanted to be in the big moments and would provide the effort. And we certainly know he has the talent. And that line is just getting going. I still think

there's a lot of growth in that line. They haven't found complete chemistry just yet. But you can see some of the output that they've had and how dangerous they are off the rush. I would have to say they're probably one of the fastest lines in the National Hockey League. When you look at lines and you've seen so many over the years both as a player manager I've always been of the belief that the most successful lines

exist when you have three players that can do three distinct things. And I'll go back like old school and think of like Trachey did something different than Bossy who did something different than Gilles. And that's why that all worked. Do you in your mind follow the same philosophy? Yeah, I do. I don't think they can all do the same thing

they trip over each other. And I think that's a great, it's a great point by you. And they've all got to do a little bit different. But sometimes you do build lines where, okay, you're not, they're not going to the net, and you've got to sit down and have a chat with them. And I think our coach, Andre Tournai, has done a great job. It's like, hey, Dylan Gunther wants to play with Cooley. Cooley wants to play with Dylan Gunther and Peturka wants to play with both you guys.

Somebody's got to go with the net, you know? If you all want to play together, somebody's got to go to the net. You know, if you want bread, you go to the bakery, you want money, go to the bank. You want goals. You got to go to the front of the net. So it's that simple. So, you know, if you guys want to play together, somebody's got to go to the net. And I think they've done a really great job of responding to that and really kind of, you know, they've got speed. Speed's hard to defend. You know, speed catches you when you're dead on the end of a shift. And, you know, they're going the other way, 500 miles an hour. You know, you watch those guys in

practice. It's crazy what they can accomplish with the speed. And that's one thing systems can't really defend against the speed. And so I think, you know, we're a fast team, you know, from Michael Carconio and on a fourth line to JJ Petirka or Keller or, you know, in Smalti, they can all push the pace. So I do think that we're getting to be an elite skating team and we're going to continue building on that. I don't think our team is fully complete. I think we're about 60% built.

We've still got some kids coming and still want to push even more. the one thing that we do wonder about this year's edition of the Utah Mammoth now that they're as other teams sort of are having a hard time getting it together you seem to be quite content to take those spots and to take those points thank you very much given where this organization has been and now what it has the ability to do I have a hard time believing that in your mind that this team is anywhere close to done should we expect the mammoth to be an active player this year? Well, every morning as a GM you wake up,

the first thought that goes through your head is how to make your team better. You know, so we're, you know, we definitely have a ton of picks still to go, a ton of assets and prospects. You know, we're pretty flexible organization. We didn't tie ourselves up with deals that were, you know, huge free agent deals in the summer. We do have a lot of flexibility. So I do think, you know, if we ever have a chance,

we certainly won't look a way to add to make our team better. We're always going to look to improve. You know, obviously there's a timeline and you've got to be smart about it. You know, there's some things you get excited about. And then you're like, I'm not sure I want to go down that road for the next seven or eight years. So, you know, we have a timeline of our age of our kids. Like, you know, I'll tell you, we started the game yesterday. We had Simasheff was 20.

you know, Cooley's 21, Gunther 22, and J.J. Paterka, 23, and the old guy in the line was Sergathev at 27. So we're going to stick to that timeline in that time frame and try to acquire players that can help us win in that timeline. You mentioned Andre Tourney a second ago. I used to love watching his practices when he ran the Ottawa 67s. Now, mind you, he had a really highly skilled team. You know, if it weren't for COVID, you know,

we were all waiting for this great showdown with them and Peterborough, these two powerhouses in the OHL and oh, it just would have been fantastic. Unfortunately, we never got it. But I used to love watching his practices. And what I really loved, Bill, was watching how he talked to kids, like how he talked to young athletes.

And you just talked about that demographic, that main demographic that your team fits into. And I look at that and I say, you know, this is a perfect NHL team for Bear. What have you noticed about him with this team? team. Well, he set the culture from day one coming in. We're going to practice hard. We're going to work. We're going to go to work. And that hasn't changed to where he is now. And he's done a great job at, you know, raising the kids the right way and making them accountable, making sure they had to earn their ice time and their situations that they got put in. And, you know, Logan Cooley is a prime example of earning his ice time and earning his way through it and raising him right. And that's that's on bear. He's done a great job. you know, and there are some lean years there and he was able to communicate and not leave scars and that's what he does best. And he's got a motivated young hungry group here that are pushing and that has a lot to do with the way that he practices and relates to the players.

I want to ask you about another coach. Corey Schwab. Corey Schwab is not a big self-promoter. I know he doesn't get talked about in the circles that he probably should. should as far as being a goalie coach. And this goes back to the coyotes and even back to San Jose. Like he's helping with Aiden Hill Stanley Cup, Darcy Kemper Stanley. Like he's really graduated and developed a lot of goaltenders that are around the

NHL that he still has his fingerprints all over. He's pretty laid back guys, you know. What do you think everybody should know by now about Corey Schwab, the great goaltending coach that never gets talked about at all? yeah he is a great goaltending coach and he's he's certainly helped a lot of goaltenders go the right way coming out of here and you know whether he's working with anti-ranza at the time and just making those guys the best that they can be it's a big part of his teaching technique in the way that he works and he you know he provides consistency every single day he's extremely protective of his goaltetters in the meeting one thing that you left out is he's got a little

a little stubbornness and a little bit of a temper, which I do like. He definitely has the voice of the goaltender and definitely sticking up for the goaltender in those meetings for sure. But his consistency in what he provides and he brings out the best in those goaltenders. And I think the goaltenders trust him, you know, that they know that he's not trying to change your style. They're just trying to perfect it. I remember having a conversation once with Doug McLean when we worked together and we were

talking about meetings, you know, with the goal. attending coach and he would say that that Wamsley after after every goal he'd always say oh that was tipped oh that was deflected oh that was tipped and Doug would always say does every tip have to go in does every single tip have to go in is is Corey the well that was tipped or he was screened or he was deflected is it is it like that that type of feedback from the from the goalie coach well he definitely let you know you know about that side of it what what they were experiencing And I think that's the strength of Schwabie is that he definitely rolls out his opinion and he sees it through the goaltender's eyes. I think he's pretty good at getting his goaltenders to work hard and be honest in practice.

I always said you can see a lot in practice in your goaltenders, whether it's pregame skate. You know which ones are dialed in. And that's what I think his strength is, is getting his goaltenders to compete in practice and get the right structure. And then they show up on game day and they get it done. A couple more for you before I let you get on with your afternoon. I'm just going to put this out there and see how you react. Nick Schmaltz leads the league in points, Bill. It's a great thing.

Yeah, it's a great thing. Well, Nick's unreal kid, you know, I've known him for a long time. You know, and he's a quiet kid too. You know, he's got an intercompetitiveness about him. He put a lot of time and effort into working hard this summer. And I think the thing that you love about what he did was, attacked it the right way. He got bigger and stronger, and he put a lot of time into being better around the front of the net. I think he led the slot chances last year in the National

Hockey League. So he went back and cleaned it up, and he showed a tremendous amount of finish this year around the tough areas in front of the net. But that's a credit to him. You know, confidence comes from a source, and his source was his work ethic and what he accomplished this summer. It's great to see. last one for you. Who do you think that as much as, you know, Petrka and Kooley and Surgachev and Clayton Kelle, you've even talked about Clayton Keller,

Clayton Kelly, like all the headline makers on Utah all get discussed. Who do you think that we're sleeping on on your team? Like, I love Jack McBey. You have some guys that, like, play hard. I love Jack McBain and Lawson Krause and Kevin Stenland. Like, who do you think that we're all missing here? Take a swipe at the media, Bill.

Who are we missing? Yeah, well, we got some heart and soul guys like Sean Dersie, you know, that just bleed behind the scenes for our team. You know, he's injured now, but when he's in there, man, it's all in. It's all in blocking shots any way he can to help us win. The kid that you probably are not aware of a little bit that he's not going to put up huge amount of points, but, you know, he's, to me, he's like Pareko. we drafted him with Simashev. You know, he played won a championship in the KHL.

He's a huge man. He goes about 6.5, 2.30. He's the best skating big man, D. Man. You know, and, you know, he was covering Cairo and the other night, McKinnon. And, you know, they kind of had that look like, hey, this guy's still with me. He's a big man that provides a great shutdown. So he's not going to stand out and, you know, and tear the world apart.

But we need him to shut down the other. the team's best lines and he's a big man and when you watch his skating you're like wow he can move he's massive he's he's a large large human being um bill thank for the thanks for this your team continues to be a lot of fun to watch keep it rolling looks good to shake things up in the western conference thanks for stopping by today oh thanks very much for having me appreciate being on There is. Bill Armstrong is the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes. Simashev is massive.

You get a chance to stand next to this guy. Get ready to get ready to look up. We thank Bill for stopping by today and thank the Utah Mammoth organization for making him available. We've kind of highlighted, Zach, like two of the more fun teams to watch. Like, there's a few. To me, the destination television team is still the Montreal Canadiens. just because they have so many players that can bring you out of your seat. But like, if you haven't seen the Utah Mammoth play this year,

go out of your way to watch them. If you haven't seen New Jersey, you know, no one's perfectly healthy, but New Jersey is a lot of fun to watch too. Anything out of that, Bill Armstrong interview that caught your attention. Well, maybe other than my favorite quote of all time now, that I'm going to carry with me forever, you want bread, go to the bakery, you want money, go to the bank, you want goals, go to the net. It's good one, eh?

I like a good hockey cliches. I like a good hockey cliche. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fiddlers fiddle and dancers dance. Yeah, cows don't make ham. Yeah, keep going, keep going, keep going. Yeah, that's the one that I'm going to teach nephews and my kids and all going to just be recycled forever. Oh, man.

Yeah. No, you know, the interesting thing is the way you kind of close that off when you ask him about players that were not necessarily talking about. And obviously that's one of them there, but like Dersie bringing up and. and the heart and soul and bleeding for the team and everything. It's very evident that he plays that way, but then you and I had just talked about before he got on that there's buy-in from the other guys. We watched J.J. Petrka go in there.

Turca. You know, dealing with damage to his face to make a play to lead to a Dylan Gunther goal. And you watch Cooley and Gunther and those guys who are the more skilled guys of that team, the skilled guys maybe you could say of that team, going in to corner battles, taking hits, you know, like committing to.

it and it's just like you know if you've been in locker rooms you've been around things before that those guys like sean derzy because they do what they do it helps facilitate that culture through the rest of the guys you need that player to make sure that the other people will buy in and it's kind of funny like you hear about that it's like yeah you see it through everyone else and then you hear where that guy is and obviously watch him play but yeah sean derzy is one of those guys he uh also came through a team close to here. I was wondering when you'd get there.

Keep going. No, that's good. I think we're good. Okay. What does this mean for the Maple Leafs? What does this mean for the Maple Leafs? Okay. See, the thing is, Jeff, by the way,

I'll just quickly say, I don't actually always think about that stuff, but it's funny now because each person that has any sort of time, Like, I'm aware of it. I'm aware of what's going on in the NHL. I've now gotten to a point here where I'm making sure that we're bringing, like, it's got, it has to be brought in up.

People need to know that there's a connection. Grandpa's, uh, tell us about Frazier Minton. Yeah. Move on. We have other things to do. All right. We got to do is we got to wrap up the program here today.

And two great guests. That was a lot of fun. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game. With Fanduel, it's the NHL season, and Fanduel is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Bet Slip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Mr. Puck Drop, No Sweat.

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Don't just be a dummy like me and bounce around everything. What are we thinking today? Two games on tonight's schedule. We got St. Louis at Pittsburgh, Boston. at Ottawa here tonight. This is honestly one of those ones that you know each day I've come on here. Maybe it's just because there's not as many games, but I've kind of said to you,

I'm surprised this team is this favored in this position or whatever. This just makes sense to me. Ottawa minus 172, big favorites against the Bruins. St. Louis, slight favorites here tonight against the penguins. This is just a good night to sit down and watch a couple of games, watch the World Series. It's easy, easy television viewing for everybody tonight. It is.

One thing that I want to point out here, Joel Hofer gets to start for the St. Louis Blues. Joel Hofer is 6'5, okay? Large goaltenders. It's had some real successful seasons. A couple in the NHL and a couple in the American Hockey League right now. he's having a miserable start to the season like really bad

like his safe percentage is 789 albeit only after three games but 789 and as one person told me on the weekend he's never seen a big goalie play so small I like Joel Hofer a lot I hope that things work out for Joel Hofer I mean, he's kind of been like the era parent in St. Louis for a couple of years here.

I don't know why it's gone off. The wheels have gone off so early for Hofer this year. But you wonder at which point when you start seeing a safe percentage of 789, like what that does to you mentally. And maybe he's tough enough to block it out. I hope so. But it looks like he gets to start tonight against Tristan Jari and the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are playing with Fountain.

of youth man. You have Gini Malkin, and we talked about off the top of the program today. So, you know, as funny, Gregor and I were talking about this on Rundown recording last night. And like, I don't think the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to continue just like this. But let's say the Pittsburgh Penguins, like, around trade deadline time or around a playoff spot. Do you go, are you really going to go to Sidney Crosby and say, you know what, we've got to do what's right for the long-term plan here? Or do you say, Sid, we're going to try to get you in one more playoffs here? Everybody knows what the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing. Yeah.

Does all of it hit pause because they're around a playoff spot? Like, I don't think Malkin's going to be top five in scoring by the end of the season. It's fun story right now. It's great. It's fun to watch them play. I know. It's curious. Like, we've seen teams play against their manager before or against their organization.

As a matter of fact, there was once a team. where they had five hockey players who I believe they referred to colloquially as the Muscoca Five who all refused to waive their no trade clauses because they were going to make the playoffs. Dumb to dumb to dumb. Who could that have been?

Zach. Anyhow, I digress. Miscocca, California? Yeah, sure. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll go along with that. Like, what do you do for the Penguins? And this continues all season long.

I know we're just talking about, like, you know, 10 games in here, but like, what happens that this continues? How much does that change everything? Not long term, but for this year, right? There's an old saying by LBJ. I was mentioning this on the show as well. Plans are useless, but planning is everything. Plans are useless, but planning is everything.

You have to have a plan going into the season, but really what you're doing is you go with whatever is working and however the season takes you. And you just react to it. Like you can't be rigid. You can't let the cement harden around any of your ideas. The Pittsburgh Penguins suddenly find themselves in a position where they might make the playoffs. And here comes trade deadline.

Well, you behave as if you're about to make the playoffs, don't you? No, no. So, so, hang on, hang on, hang on. Hang on. Hang on. The wild card here is Sidney Crosby and what you owe him as an organization. Yeah, yeah. that's fair but i think what you end up doing your your conversation because in that instance you would technically have like three possible possible ways to approach it one would be you go in

and try to make something happen you're in the playoffs which would be trading pieces and stuff that's off the table you cannot do that if you're the penguins respectfully you just cannot you can i know what you're at with sid and malcon and all these guys you can't do it because you're going to sacrifice like it's not saying to him hey you know think about the long term it's literally just being like dude this might hurt us next year like by going and doing that not long term by trying to make some of these moves so then the others would become tell sid this is how i viewed you tell sid hey we're okay with trying to make the playoffs here with you guys making the push you've done it all season long but we're not going to go out and go crazy and add pieces and then the

other option is Sid, you're close, buddy, but not this year. Florida Colton, they're looking for Malkin. And then you have different conversations. Not an expiring contract, we've got to get something for him. But I think if you're close or in the wild card at that point, then I think it's more of like, hey, you know what, this can help the young guys. They get to be competitive. They get to be in a playoff push.

And then maybe you actually do make the playoffs. that's good for them too because you get to go and compete but the conversation has to kind of come down to like hey sid are you okay with making the playoffs and that being the extent of it maybe you make a miracle run maybe but you make the playoffs or do you understand where we're coming from and we tap out here i think that i don't know like i know sid has to mostly be the one to approach you with it but i think when you have that conversation because if you're in that position you will like it's going to be there

those are the two options you cannot go with the third one no matter how much I love Sid and want to see him in the playoffs and how much respect they have they have for him you can't do that

you cannot do it for the organization's sake I think it'd be a fun situation just as someone that it's not there I think it'd be fun for the Penguins fans just like one season out of nowhere

bam here we go that's fine they can make the playoffs I have no, I don't think that that's that bad for them, but like you're not calling and trying to get some rental or like some guy with a year, like to make the team, like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think it would be fun if they make the playoffs. You're like, oh, yeah, this team stinks. And then all of a sudden, boom, there's the penguins.

What the hell? Cosby's in the postseason. Here we go. Rock and roll. Okay, on that, we'll wrap things up. Thanks so much for joining us today, either on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Thanks to everybody in the chat as always. And again, subscribe if you haven't already

to our daily face-off YouTube channel. If you've already done so, thank you. If you haven't, what is holding you up? Thanks to the New Jersey Devils for making Sheldon Keefe available. Thank you to the Utah Mammoth for making Bill Armstrong available. And thanks to you for making some time

in your day available to watch or listen to this property. Tomorrow, 16 games. So we'll be doing a little bit of a different program tomorrow here on the sheet. So stay tuned for that, 1 o'clock Eastern. Johnny Lazarus, Colby Cohen tomorrow, morning cup of hockey, at 9 o'clock Eastern. And then at noon, is Tyler back tomorrow?

He Remchak? Erf was in forum today, not sure, along with Carter Hutton tomorrow. That is DFO live starting at noon Eastern. Thanks for the buns and the use of the hall. We're back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern Florida sheet. Thanks so much for joining. I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month.

I can't get up my head, lost all ambitions day to day, because you can call it all right. I went to the dark man and tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, nah, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but I knew. It's me and myself And how this is going to be fixing my mind I do want to break

it I turned on the music I do want to music fixing up and up and I don't get you sometimes losing

having on the days that we're wrong Thank you.