The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Shayna Goldman

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

Shayna Goldman joins Jeff Marek to discuss what's going on with the Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers, physical hockey and stats, and much more...Reach 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.

If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at one you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Johnny Lazarus coming up from Morning Cup of Hockey, coming up in a couple of moments. But in the meantime, a pleasure to welcome to the sheet, Maiden Voyage for Shana Goldman, of course, from the Too Many Men podcast and The Athletic.

Shana joins me today. Hello, Shana. How are you? Oh, I'm great. Look at us reunited. Again, isn't it beautiful? Everywhere I go, I'm just like, honestly, I'm just dragging you like to raise my credibility. Like I just need a credibility shot.

It's like, all right, let's we got to get Goldman in here. I need someone to make me look smarter than I really am. Nice PHF puck, by the way, over the shoulder is that that one is that a new one no this is an old one they just get i keep moving them around i want to like change things up so it doesn't get a little bit uh stale over here ah okay very good well we do have i believe you have rebel rebel league over your shoulder i got that one over my shoulder too. Like if you want to sort of do like the hockey hipster by way of your library, you know, throw in a quick WHA book and boost the credibility. There you go. Winnipeg Jets, Houston Arrows, and New England Whalers.

Let me tell you about the Cleveland Crusaders and San Diego Mariners. Okay, so what is more interesting to you right now? Like I almost feel like we're just doing like,'re just doing the Sabres hour and the Rangers hour. But let's face it, these organizations are on fire right now. Which one is the bigger concern from your perch? And which one do you see coming to any kind of either resolution or change? Okay, I'm going to say the Rangers are the bigger deal right now because they had true hopes of contention, right?

Like they were a couple wins away from the Stanley Cup final last year, right, wrong, or sideways. Did they deserve it? That's another conversation. But they were there. They're betting on right now players at a different time frame in their career compared to the Sabres, right? They're betting on players as their second contracts. And in some cases, like Darlene, it's those third contracts. But it's a younger group.

I think the Rangers are a much more dramatic team with an owner who's much more inclined to push his managers along to make a move. And it doesn't seem like that's the case in Buffalo right now. So I would say they are the bigger story. They're the ones we're probably going to see more fireworks from, but I do think we should be putting the pressure on Buffalo without a doubt. Let's bracket Buffalo for a second and focus on the New York Rangers. All kinds of rumors this weekend.

I'm sure that they popped up on your mobile devices all over the place and made their way to your ears and your conversations as well. and made their way to your ears and your conversations as well. Listen, it's New York, much like if it was Toronto or Montreal or, take your pick, any of the sort of hot-button NHL cities. How do you think this one gets sorted out? Because, again, James Dolan could do anything. Dolan, as we've talked about before, could wake up tomorrow and everything can be completely different. Or, as we've seen now, it's just kind of and everything can be completely different. Or, as we've seen

now, it's just kind of the same outside the Jacob Trouba drama from last week. I don't know what needs to be done here. All I know is what I see, and it looks like a collection of players that have completely checked out. Like, glimmers here and there,

like, eh, attempted comeback against the Blues, but ultimately fizzling out. Even the game they beat the buffalo sabers listen i took more negative away from that one for the new york rangers who probably should have like if there was ever a moment where this would have been this should have been like a complete stomping of the buffalo sabers that was the time for the new york r, and they barely eked out a win in that one. How does this one, I don't know, end, but what's the next chapter in this one for you?

Is it a player move? Is it a coach move? Or is it a rare in-season general manager move? Why not a little bit of everything? Why not amp it up? Do you want to get like, should we go full dramatic? Like, hello, welcome to the new show, let's go. Yeah, so here's, because it's funny too, everything why not amp it up okay do you want to get like should we go dramatic like well hello welcome to the new show let's go yeah so here's because it's funny too because you're ready to

go off like the the high the the the high meter uh uh diving tower i'm just like dipping my toe in the pool i'm like maybe maybe they hire a senior consultant around uh around chris jury here you're like no no no no no no they're going in with a flamethrower, Al Pacino, scent of a woman style. No, I'm with you on that. Senior consultant, a senior advisor, someone to come in and settle the waters because the players clearly are unhappy and I think they're unhappy with everyone.

And while you can look at it and say, well, these players make millions of dollars, grow up, do your job, you would have a point, but you could also say, maybe handle things a little bit better because these are the consequences of their actions so i would not be surprised if there was a move like that but i think that there are fundamental issues with this roster and i think there's fundamental issues with the coaching which one you want me to start with

let's start with players let's let's start because i look at it and i say to myself maybe the only thing they can really do here even though they just moved Truba and someone took on the full freight, the only thing they can do here is Capo Caco. What am I missing? Well, I think he's one of the players you could move. Sure. If you're the Rangers, because there's a lot of no movement clauses and a lot of no trade clauses. And this is why those need to be leveraged better by general managers. If you're going to include those clauses, there needs to be some sort of, you know,

give or take elsewhere, right? Because it can't be that they have a too long, too expensive and too tough to move contract, right? Like that's way too many problems that they have. I think that I'm interested in their defense a little bit. I think it could use more change because you're seeing right now, you move Jacob Truba and he killed penalties. He played heavy minutes. He should not have played those heavy minutes, but they put them,

put him in it. And now you look at guys like Ryan Lindgren and that situation is very interesting to me because I feel like their hands are a little bit tied now because who else is going to take on those matchup minutes? Who else is going to kill penalties? If you move him, unless you have a replacement at the ready for him, which who's to say they do. But this is a player who's on a one year deal taking him to unrestricted free agency. I wonder if there's a different solution

than saying we'll just ride this out to the end of the year. And then if he walks, he walks right like I wonder if something can change there or to leave the player and try to change the coaching that I think is what's dragging him down as far as he's gone. So it's really tricky here because it feels like they should make a move for another defenseman, maybe a lefty. They could go for a righty. It really doesn't matter. Honestly, I think they need someone on the third pair that they can trust because I don't think they trust who they have. But Kako is definitely the tipping point of the trade block. LaViolette Drury, where is it hotter?

Okay, I'm gonna say Laviolette. Because listen, how often does a coach fall on the sword meant for the general manager, right? It's a last ditch effort sometimes to cover your own ass. But in this case, there are reasons to be upset with Laviolette's coaching. He has a coaching style that he brings from team to team. He plays a very aggressive system where your defensemen in particular are going to be heavily tasked in all three zones. You could say management did not give him an adequate roster to run that system, but you can also say the coach has not made any adjustments to maximize the players that he has. Instead, it's just, you know, what is

square holes, round pegs, things like that, like that is that is the situation they're in. I think you're seeing guys like Savannah jet and you saw true but and you're seeing lingering look a lot worse because of the system. And right now, I think they need to just go back to basics, the fundamentals are missing. If you went through, you know, lingering shifts, like I did when I wrote a story on him last week, I was watching some of his worst games of the season.

And there are mistakes that you don't expect an NHL defenseman to make as consistently as he is when his job at his core, right? He doesn't generate a lot of offense, is to protect the net, is to protect the scoring chance area. And you're seeing players skate by him. You're seeing his stick up in situations where it should be down like there are basic fundamentals that i think that are missing and i wonder if a new coach can come in and just simplify things and settle the waters you're not gonna make some you know wild changes in season to a team system but on the other hand

these are nhl players they know all different systems they know all different tactics if you can find the right buttons to push in the right combination of them and the right way to maximize these skill sets, it's different, right? The thing that I wonder about too is there was supposed to be a rebuild. Now it was a different regime and we all remember the letter, the note, the memo, whatever it was that cut a lot of guys off guard. Kevin Shattenkirk was on Morning Cup of Hockey and talking about how they found out about the memo,

that everything was about to change. But it didn't last very long. Like, it lasted a cozy few months, and then the Rangers just went on about being the Rangers. Do you think that there's an element of that now catching up to them? It could be. chris cratter chris cratter is supposed to be gone chris cratter is still there with term that's just one example you know when you sort of say you commit to a rebuild hello dogs when you say you commit to

mine's going to go off any minute here don't worry about it yeah i'll get our get our dogs barking to each other this will be this will be There we go. From Soville to Long Island. When you say you're making a rebuild but don't really commit to it, eventually that catches up to you. I know you might say, well, hang on, Merrick, then explain the Los Angeles Kings this year. I don't have an answer for that. But for the purpose of this conversation, it seems as if they wanted to go through a rebuild and then said, yeah,

no, we're the New York Rangers. We're not going to do that. And we're just going to kick this can down the road. And now here we are down the road and we see the can again. Yeah, well, I think that there's two ways to look at it with the rebuild because, you know, it's tricky because every team is starting at a different point, right? They have different assets to move, different draft picks, different prospects, and different teams in place in the front office to draft and develop players, right? There's each step of the process is so important within a real rebuild. They didn't go wrong in the way that say the

Sabres did years ago, where they went, we're going to sign right now players like the Molson deals and, and you go, but you're not ready for those contracts. The Akposo deal, you're not ready for that contract. You're not at the point to be adding supporting players. For the Rangers, they moved ahead quicker because they had a ton of luck. They got top two picks. But they got the prospects, they didn't develop them adequately. They got the high end talent in our time even Aaron, that's a huge free agent signing, you didn't support him properly. And then a lot of players along the way, got overpaid, Truba, Savannah jet, and you could argue

crater, but at the time, everyone thought the cap was going up. Truba, Savannah Jed, and you could argue Kreider, but at the time everyone thought the cap was going up. So it's a little bit trickier to navigate that one. And then you got elite goaltending again. So there's reasons why they put their foot on the gas and it worked to an extent, but I don't think that they've done the little things along the way to ensure that this is a more sustainable window of contention compared to some other teams in the league.

The Kings, the Capitals, those are the exceptions to the rule, right? Like it doesn't usually work that way. But then again, if you can take a step back at the right time, you can avoid that full-on teardown and you can make it work. And you're seeing it even with the Stars, right?

The blend of the bad contracts with the good. The Rangers didn't maximize those ELC years enough. They didn't prioritize those young players enough. Alexi Lafreniere took longer to develop because I don't think they, you know, prioritized his development at the NHL level. And I think Kako is another, like, story of that. So it's a tough situation for them to be in.

Let me jump from the Rangers to the Swords here. Have a few minutes left. Wait, wait, wait. I have a bone to pick with you. I have a bone to pick with you. What did I do now? Okay. Well, I pumped you up so much with that lovely story.

Allison and I were pumping you up. You didn't think I have to knock you down. The Bruce Arthur piece? Yeah, no, I know. You know what's funny? Because I'll tell you what. Pull the curtain back a little bit here. So Johnny Lazarus sends me a note yesterday saying, hey, just reading Bruce Arthur's piece.

Blah, blah, blah. Lovely and all that. But enough of people saying nice things about you. The next text to me just said, dick. I'm like, alright, that's good, Laz. That's good. I deserve that one. So you go. Take a whack at the pinata.

The other day, I listened to this podcast and I heard you talking about Gerard Gallant wanting an apology and does he deserve it? I have to say, I know I'm someone to jump. Go, go. No, no, no.

Finish, finish, finish, finish. I'm definitely someone who jumps to is the coaching the problem pretty often. I know that, right? But he had fundamental issues, did not adjust. And we had seen this whole story play out in Florida before.

That was a very stubborn coach who got burned by his own misgivings. Was the roster flawed then? Absolutely. But did he maximize it? Absolutely not. I would say, if anything, maybe management isn't as good at picking coaches as they think. So my point with Gerard Gallant is that as much as you look at this situation and say,

OK, you know what? Gerard Gallant has worn out his welcome here at the New York Rangers from a coach's point of view. And this is how coaches think. Coaches will always say the right thing, much like how backup goaltenders will tell you they support the starter. Guess what? It's not true. It's not true. And coaches want their successors to fail. I'm sorry, but they do because it takes the heat off them and throws it up at management. So my point about Gerard Gallant was from a coach's point of view, that's Gerard Gallant saying, see, it wasn't the coaching after all, not completely absolving him of any responsibility for what happened to New York Rangers, other than this is just how coaches can be

very snide. Listen, everybody wants to pretend it's one big happy family and community, but a lot of them will still jump over each other for a job, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca Do you think that they do? No! Do you think that anyone for a second cheers for their successor, whether it's a manager, whether it's a coach, whether

it's a goalie defenseman or a forward? Does anybody in hockey cheer for their successor, whether it's a manager, whether it's a coach, whether it's a goalie defenseman or a forward. Does anybody in hockey cheer for their successor? Maybe with a smile on their face, but they don't mean it. I'm with you on that. I just wanted to be clear because that one caught my ear and I was like, hold on, hold on, Merrick. You could have just texted me, insulted me. No, no, no.

You've done that before. I was going to. All right. You want to wait until they do it in front of everybody. I can respect that. That's good. A quick thought on the swords. I don't want to ask you about,

um, fool's gold in a couple of seconds. Thoughts on the swords. Oh my God. That poor team. Um, I spent my day writing about the Atlantic division and these up and coming teams that just simply can't get it together and actually come up right. The that we expect them and the Sabres are guilty of it. I don't love

management blaming taxes and palm trees for their misgivings. I think the tax storyline is so overblown. We forget that players get taxed on the road as well as home. I think that's a secondary thing, but it's not the primary difference. It's that they don't have a team. They're not putting together a team that's capable of winning. And when they have their players, they're saying, well, Josh Allen brings in stars. You sold your truck, your Josh Allen's. He had Sam Reinhart, you had Jack Eichel. Now they both have Stanley cups. The potential is there. They had so much potential in 2022, 23. They killed it emphasizing defense. And now this year you look at it and they look lost again. They need a top six winger in my opinion. And I think they should be looking at it via trade because they have all the pieces

to make it happen. And I think then you'll see players slotted a little bit more accordingly based on their skill set instead of Zach Benson being thrown into a role that I think is above his depth and the same with Alex Tuck at this point. So I think that if they make a big deal and move someone like, I don't know, Dylan Cousins, I think they're just selling low and shooting themselves in the foot. And it's just going to keep this perpetual process going on forever. Do you think, well, first of all, the Sabres story, we've been consistent on this show about it.

The Sabres story on the ice anyhow is players that have been rushed to the NHL. But the other thing that I do wonder about, I'm curious your thoughts on this one. As someone who has a peek under the hood all the time on all these teams, is there too much soft skill on this team? You've heard this before. I know you've heard it before. I can see your face.

I know. I know the look on your face. You just gave like, Oh God, Merrick. Okay, here we go. Yeah.

Too much. So, you know, it's, it's tough because I think that there's a way if you want to have hard skill, there's a way to do it, right? And I think that's what gets confused all the time. I don't need to see Dylan Cousins out there fighting.

It doesn't do it for me. That's not what I'm talking about. You don't know what I'm talking about. Exactly. Yeah, I think that there's room for adding more hard-nosed players. Like, I thought they were onto something when they added, like, a Jordan Greenway, like a heavy forward checkerer who could you know, be on that third line, but they picked the weakest player off the wilds line that was playing that style. I

think that there's a way to integrate it in because this is a team that at their best has all of the rest strengths in the world. And you can you can win being an elite rush team, but I think you need more in the panthers show that there's a way to blend that heavier style without sacrificing what makes you special. So yes, there is room for that, but you have to find the right players to do it. And that does not mean, I don't know, bringing in like a Ben Sherratt type and saying our problems are solved.

Right. No, I understand that. I'm just, you know what I mean? Like players that are willing. Hard to play against. Tough physically to play against. Yeah. Yeah yeah you want it that they're effective hitters if they're hitting it's not the sabers won the period by you know outing their opponent 20 to 10 i don't care about that how many times did they come away with the puck when they made

that hit can by the way just as an aside would you be um would you be with me on something here about hits and hit stats like i have a real I have a real hard time with hit stats. And by the way, somewhere along the way in hockey, body checking turned into hitting. We used to say body checking. Now we just say hitting. It's like a physical tactic, like this punishment. So the way that hits are counted, someone has the puck,

you make physical contact with them it's counted as a hit pretty much regardless of where the puck ends up a player can make a pass get hit that guy gets credit for a hit I think a hit should only count you should only get like a one beside your name under the hit

if your physical contact forced to change your possession otherwise it's just mindless slamming of bodies to the hit if your physical contact forced to change your possession. Otherwise, it's just mindless slamming of bodies, which is fine, but it doesn't do anything. It's a potato chip. It's empty calorie.

I know you and I love our dill pickles, but it's an empty calorie play. I want my hits to mean something, and in that case, I want to change a possession before I put a one beside someone's name with me or against me. I'm against you, but what I want to hit. I thought for sure you would love that. You're going to like this better. This has been my thing for some time. I have been playing this drum. I would like to see hits counted the traditional way.

I would like to see checks. the traditional way. I would like to see checks, maybe. Effective hits. Tracked in another way where there's some rule for it, right? A change of possession within X seconds of the hit. There needs to be something that shows that that hit separated a player from the puck. That hit did something to promote and facilitate play. I would like to have two numbers for it. Because I would like to be able to track the difference. It's like the same thing as

saying someone got 10 shot attempts on the ice every night, but only two are going on net. I want to know are they getting blocked? Are they do they just, you know, are they shooting from the outside and it's not getting through? Are they missing every time like you want to figure out the difference and that difference can give you a million things to take a deeper dive into. So I would say have both numbers and then you really can see who the most effective hitters in league are and who's just hitting to hit and not doing anything to progress

play. So see, that's interesting too, because you and I have talked about a lot about passing and what should qualify as an assist. And now you're extrapolating that and saying, yeah, let's not just do that for passing, but let's also do that for hitting slash body checking you know one of the most vivid things that you'll see and even go back to 70s this kind of started the change in the 80s you go look like when a puck is dumped in now it's just f1 scream as fast as that player can go it's body body body puck is secondary even if you look in this, I don't know when exactly this changed. Sometime in the 80s. I'm not sure why or when, specific year

or anything. But it was always puck first, player second. The play was on the puck first and the body was second. And then that, somewhere in the 80s, completely changed. I don't know why that it changed.

But now it's just turned into, and if you're with the Islanders, anytime you look at someone, you get a one. I'll tell you, there was a guy. Want to hear a story? This is the pre-internet age. It was, oh God, who was it? It was Dan McGillis. Okay, so the edmonton oilers you'll like this story pre-internet not everyone's watching all the games so dan mcgillis is a defenseman for the edmonton oilers and they want to trade them to the philadelphia flyers flyers wanted some

like snarl back there like we need a big big, we need tougher D, tougher D. Philadelphia, right? They never drafted and developed a defenseman. They used to always just buy them, trade for them. So Glenn Sather had the statistician at Northland's Coliseum inflate the hit count for Dan McGillis. So like every game be like six hits. So like Bobby Clark would look at that GM of the fight,

go, oh, wow, like, holy smokes. This guy's a crusher. This is like every single game is six hits, 10 hits. This guy's a damage. It was a nice player. He wasn't that guy, but because his numbers were so inflated,

they ended up doing the deal and they got a good defenseman. They just didn't get the guy that they thought they were getting because he just looked at phony hits. That's. Hmm. They should be watching the game nerds. That's well, but, but this is like, get the guy that they thought they were getting because he just looked at phony hit stats. They should be watching the game, nerds. But this is like 80s. I was watching like Entertainment Philadelphia. I've been to all these games.

When are you getting it? But yeah, watch the game, nerd. Okay, here's – I'm going to – a little bit later on, I'm going to play a clip on the show here from Chris Kelleher, who did a great interview with Laz and Colby this morning on Morning Kappa. Assistant General Manager of the Minnesota Wild. Minnesota fascinates me because they're skating with a $14 million hole in their salary cap. We've all known this and say, okay, you start

the season one skate behind your back. But they're playing really good. And Kaprizov is on a different level. And man, do I love Matt Boldy. And I love seeing Marco Rossi and what he's become now. It's taken a long time, but that's fine. That's development. But when you look at the Minnesota Wild, what do you see?

And then after you look at them and you check the numbers to make sure your eyes aren't lying to you, do your eyes match up with your spreadsheets? Yeah, absolutely. They have an identity and they stick to it. You have Kirill Kaprizov, one of the best stars in the game, playing at a heart trophy level, which is a sight to see. He's such an electrifying player. I love watching him.

Now, Matsugarello is back and it's like this dynamic duo reunited. You have that and you have elite defense. Now, they've had a lot of injuries. Middleton, that's a big blow. And now they have Brodine back. So the fact that they're getting healthy, they're going to go back to the identity that they had in the very beginning of the year, right?

Their top four on defense is so stout. And I think they've really figured that out. And it's the way you expect them to play. And then they have two really good lines going. To see Rossi's development, I think that's huge. It's everything they needed more. So as the team gets healthier, I think you're going to play and then they have two really good lines going to see rossi's development i think that's huge it's everything they needed more so as the team gets healthier i think you're going to see a lot more potential because eric's neck like he's a great center to have and getting that defense back in check is going to help and now obviously gustafson missed last night's game um i i still though i go but i need more i love i really love where they're going but i need more

and it's it's like third and fourth line scores. I'd love to see them make one or two deals for someone with just a little bit of pop to the bottom of their lineup. Everything is built to next year though. Like we all know this, like all this is building to next season when they get their $14 million back and the salary cap goes up in their position to resign Caprizov. Let me, let me conclude with this one. And the salary cap goes up in their position to resign Caprizov.

Let me conclude with this one. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Shannon Goldman, podcaster,caster broadcaster hockey writer bon vivant keeper of a burn book over her right shoulder you can't even say you haven't seen mean girls yet okay it's so embarrassing but go with me here i'm going i'm working on a vibe here shana what is the most interesting team to you right now in the NHL? Good or bad? Most interesting team. And you can't say Rangers or Swords because we spend so much time on them.

No. Boring, boring, boring. I'm over that. Let us talk about... There's two buzzing in my head right now. I want to talk about, dare I say, the Washington Capitals. Shoot. I'm all ears. Conor McMichael, let's go.

He's been so much fun. I had to write about them when their season ended last year. And it was, what's next for the Washington Capitals? And I was like, why should I agree to this story? What is next? Nothing is next. I think we saw the effect of a good coach last year in Spencer Carberry do a lot with the little.

And I loved the approach that management took over the summer. It was not the approach I saw coming. They went after reclamation projects like Chikrin who had fallen out of favor in Ottawa and you were wondering, can he play tough minutes? They went for Pierre-Luc Dubois, whose contract is such a weight, but look at him now as its second line center. And you're seeing the growth of those young guys, Connor McMichael on the wing. I think that's really helped his game. Protis is developing into a great two- way threat and Sandin was given heavier minutes, he had to play through them a little bit and now he can handle them. And it's it's just reinvigorating the aging core. It's not just that oh, they lost Ovechkin and they're still going

along because they're going along in a different way. But theory even with Ovechkin you're seeing it wasn't just power play and and special teams like winning the games. Their five on five play was really good. And he was helping their five on five games. So I'm very curious how he's going to look when he's healthy. And if this team can just snap back into their earlier form, or maybe if they've learned something without him, because I think it was a good opportunity to learn about what you have through these four lines and three pairs when your best scoring threat is out of the lineup.

And we know that Dylan Strome is a true you know, top line center. Now we know that Connor McMichael is a second line caliber player. Like there's a lot to like here. Okay. So here's one, one final thought for me on the Washington capitals. And here's why I like them. We live in an NHL where it's speed zone,

speed zone, speed zone, right? Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly.

And Martin Fair, very, probably one of the fastest players in the NHL full stop. But look around the rest of the lineup. These aren't burners. Like, they slow the game down and play their game. That's Dylan Strom. That's Alex Ovechkin.

That's Tom Wilson. Like, look around. They're good players. They're decent skaters. But they don't. I used to always say this about David Krejci. David Krejci wasn't the bullet. He was the vacuum behind it.

And that's what made him so effective. What if you had a team full of that? And I kind of look at that like the Washington Capitals. They play in this pocket that's not, you know, the fastest. No one's winning. Like, you know how so many teams will just like lob pucks and make races? Just make races. Just make races.

Just make races. That's the game. Make a race. Make a race. Make a race. Make a race. That's not Washington. That's why game. Make a race, make a race, make a race, make a race. That's not Washington. That's why I like watching this team so much.

They're not just, it's not track meet. It's not track meet at all. Agreed. Yeah, they're good off the rush, but they have more behind them. They're a good four checking team. They're good at wearing down their opponent. And it's nice to see from like, I don't want to say a no-name coach, but a coach without NHL coaching experience

to make his team greater than the sum of his parts because you're going to measure up the roster strength of Washington right now to say Florida and you're going to come out with Florida every day of the week. Now, I'm not saying I would take Washington over them in a playoff series at all, but I'm saying maybe the impact of coaching

is something we can learn about a little bit more in hockey because we don't know enough about it and see what effect they can have because they like the capitals are just this prime example of that yeah and listen carberry had a lot of those players that we see on the washington capitals when they coach in ahl hershey um you're the best had a people a couple of people in the chat asking where they can find your podcast too many men so promo a go-go shane the floor is yours um you know wherever you find your podcast just search up too many men and we're there we're on twitter at two dash many dash men and if it's blue sky

it's underscores um but yeah we tweet out all of our things we're on youtube we're on spotify we're on apple podcasts wherever wherever you want us we'll be there do the best um thanks as always good to be reunited thanks for having me I went to the doctor. I'm not against those methods. It's me, myself and others. It's going to be fixed in my mind. I turned on the music. I turned on the music. I turned on the music I turned on the music It's enough, they're mad

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