The Steve Dangle Podcast - 19/20 NHL Mid-Season-ish Predictions

Episode Date: January 2, 2020

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake make their mid-season-ish predictions for the 19/20 NHL season. They run through their picks for the Hart Trophy, Stanley Cup, and more. Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

panago pizza presents s s d p the steve dangle podcast with your host steve dangle adam wild and jesse blake let's go okay so mid-season predictions i'm gonna ask you guys a little bit about who you think is going to win divisions and stanley cup and stuff but let's start with the Hart Trophy because that's the MVP-ish. What do we think? I'm taking back the term. Taking back the term most valuable player.

Because the most valuable player right now is Jack Eichel. To his team. Most valuable player ever. Jack Eichel. Ever. Ever. We're talking about the season he's having. Yeah. And they played without him last night. You see what happened?

Lost 6-1. If the Buffalo Sabres find out, we don't know right now if they're going to make the playoffs, but if they find a way to sneak into the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, Jack Eichel wins the Hart Trophy. In a walk. As of

earlier this week, he leads the Buffalo Sabres in. Goals 5-on-5. Goals. 5-on-5 assists. Assists. 5-on-5 points. Points. Penalty Drawns, face-off wins, face-offs

taken. In the league, I don't have those stats in front of me. Those stats alone put him so far ahead of his teammates that he's the definition of the term most valuable players to his team.

And the awards across sports love the oh, we didn't expect you to do that, guys. Or the oh, we didn't expect you to do that, teams. Consistently great doesn't mean anything anymore. It's the, oh, you shocked us. Jack Eichel coming out of nowhere and dragging the Buffalo Sabres to a playoff spot.

Hard trophy. Easy. Easy for the voters. Easy narrative. Dominant. Going to do it. So if you're not expected to play us and you drag your team to a playoff spot, you deserve to be in the heart conversation. That's how awards voting works.

It's true. What if you are the top team in your division but bottom 10 in league scoring? i'm gonna go super duper hipster and i'm gonna throw out a name that might end up on three trophies this year and i'm talking the vesna the heart and the stanley cup darcy kemper wow darcy kemper i'm gonna continue to oh you know what i'm gonna give him the same kiss of death i gave to sebastian ajo one of the most underrated players in the entire national hockey league no No one ever talks about this guy, no one ever spoke about him, and then he signed in Arizona, and it seems like now that he's better, people are talking about him even less because he's

not with Minnesota. Darcy Kemper is the best goalie consistently in the National Hockey League right now. He is. His numbers say it. That's not a lie. And the Coyotes are pretty un-magnificent. That's why they went out and got Taylor Hall, because they needed an X-factor that'll hopefully wake both him and Phil Kessel up, but right now, the reason they're in first right now

As the Pacific kind of sucks. And also, Darcy Kemper's the best goalie in the league. I'm all who you got. I said before the season started that I thought Boston would come out pissed off. I said they would be mad. They lost the Stanley Cup Finals. It's understandable. Those guys have a lot of pride in their team.

It's very clear. They played for the crest. They're a hell of a lot of fun to watch, as much as I hate to say it. And I think, if you give it to anybody other than David Pasternak... Now, I could you could have said you could have said Leon Drysaddle or Connor McDavid or whatever. But I think what matters in this MVP voting is that you are like if you're far and away the best team in the league and you're the best player on that best team, that counts for something. And that usually counts for something on the MVP voting. If you look at Nikita Kucherov, to me, the best player on the best team is part of is the major reason they got there.

Pasternak is having one of those seasons where I could absolutely see him winning the heart. And honestly, it's not that far-fetched. It's just that people are like, Pasternak in the heart? Like, I don't. He's a winger. I don't know. Normally it goes to, you know, three guys and they're either a goalie in Montreal or one of the centers in Pittsburgh. Or he's randomly in Chicago.

But I think, I think outside chance has got to be David Pasternak at this point. I say maybe Art Ross and potentially Hart Trophy. Damn. I like it. Are we doing standings too? Let's do a quick. Let's just do a quick. Sure.

Quick picks. Atlantic Division, who do you think wins? I think it's pretty obvious. Boston. Okay, me too. Runaway Boston. Metro. I think I'm going to go with Carolina catches fire towards the end.

They surge to a division win. They storm surge their way in. I think they will go the farthest in the playoffs of any team in the Metro, but I think the team that wins the Metro will be the Washington Capitals. I agree. They've done it before. They've been there. Okay, Central Division.

Central. Tough one. Hard to go against the St. Louis Blues. But the Colorado Avalanche exists. Going again. They sure do. Picking Colorado is my pick. I think Colorado, again, will go further in the playoffs,

but I think the Blues probably edge them out in the regular season. I'll tell you why I think Colorado. Colorado is three points behind St. Louis with a game in hand with all the injuries they've had. Not having Mikko Rantanen, I think Gabriel Lanneskog's missed some time. Kadri Kadri's out Grubauer

Grubauer's missed some time This is a team Of depth and survivors Yep And they're surviving At a high level And not that St. Louis Hasn't had some injuries

But nothing like that No I think Colorado Is on a Well they're on a tear Right now And I believe that Colorado will catch St. Louis

And they will win the division Excellent pick And Pacific Specific Well After ranting and raving About Darcy Kemper For as long as I did

I'm going to pick The Calgary Flames Wow Really? Really. I'm going to pick the Calgary Slimes. You're that impressed with them under your award? Part of the reason we were shouting for Bill Peters to be fired before we knew he was a terrible guy

was that that team is too good to be that crap. And then they ripped seven straight wins with their new coach, which is incredibly hard to do. They won the division last year. The Pacific is weak. Calgary is not far behind anyone, really. And I think by the end of the season, they'll catch them. Jesse. This is a good year for us Torontonians because this year,

the season's going to end with Edmonton winning the Pacific Division. They're going to get real hot. They're going to get real good, and then they're going to flame out in the first round of the playoffs. Edmonton's going to have a great regular season, win the Pacific, and then lose in the first round, and we're going to jump for joy. Oh, interesting. That's my prediction.

I'm going with the Vegas Golden Knights. And I'll tell you why. The Vegas Golden Knights last year sort of got robbed. You know, they got robbed in the first round. No one was expecting Vegas to... They had a 3-1 lead in the series. They were going to the second round. Vegas is tied with Arizona right now.

The only reason that Arizona's ahead is because they've got a game in hand. And Vegas is hot. Vegas has a ton of depth, a goaltender who will not age. And that's the most important thing. Marc-Andre Fleury has won how many cups? Three? Two? Three?

Three cups. He didn't win the third cup with them? No, he did. Yeah, yeah, no. But he was only a starter for one of them. Okay. But, like, he got them to the playoffs. Right.

And, like, you know what I mean? And there was one where he was, like, tandem with Murray. He won playoff games in all three cups. Yeah. And then goes to the Stanley Cup Finals his first year in Vegas. And last year, you know, bad luck in the first round. It happens. Hi, Tampa.

And so I think Vegas is, not only are they a team that's very good, they've been there. They've done that. Now, there are guys that Mark Stone and Max Patrick. Mark Stone has gone deep into the playoffs. Patches did earlier on in his career. But I think they're hungry. I think they're talented. I think they're far more talented than the Coyotes, just in raw talent.

Even though that's a little bit more balanced out by Taylor Hall. I think you can't deny Vegas. They're the perfect. They're as close to me. as the perfect team as you can get. Who's your Stanley Cup pick? Well, first off, give me the conference finals in the East. Just quick.

Conference finals in the East? Conference finals will be Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes. I think it's going to be a revenge match between the Bruins and Hurricanes. Wow, okay. I'm going to say, because I never bet against Toronto, Toronto-Washington. Oh, yeah. That'd be good. That'd be, oh, believe me, that's what I want.

In the West, Jesse. The West, Colorado, Nashville. Interesting. I think the two best teams in the series that I want to see is Colorado-St. Louis. I don't think it could be Colorado-Nashville. They're both in the Central. You've got to pick from each other. No, no, no.

One of them can just be a wild card. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's possible. It's just unlikely. Okay. No, it can happen. Okay. Which is why I want to say Colorado-St. Louis, but I think they'll both be too good to have

that happen to them so I will say no they'll play in the first round together because that's how the NHL works knock out your

best teams early Colorado Vegas hmm also my pick Colorado Vegas that's what I think and Stanley Cup who do you think

I'm going to say the team that I said in my Sportsnet YouTube channel preview I think the Stanley Cup final is going to be

Colorado Carolina and Carolina will win wow James Reimer will lift the cup above his head and let me drink

out of it and we'll be best friends Jesse I'm going with Carolina-Nashville Nashville wins Nashville

Nashville you say Toronto gets their heart broken in the third round again yeah damn but overjoyed

if Toronto makes the third round yeah that's pretty good I'm gonna say that's a tough

one because the further on they get the more heartbreaking the loss is but at least it's not Boston in game 7

right I'll take it I'll lose any other way just not that way seriously Toronto and Colorado,

I think Colorado's going to the finals. Ooh. I think Toronto wins because I do not bet against Toronto. I've always said that. I've always said that.

We all want that. Yeah. S-E-P The Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W-Y-L-D-E and at Jesse Blake.

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