KRAKEN WEEKLY: Excitement of the quarter pole checkpoint, and Thanksgiving! (11/24)

Mike Benton, Everett Fitzhugh, and Al Kinisky have the Nov. 24 episode of Kraken Weekly, joined by Tom Gazzola of Edmonton Sports Talk, and including head coach Lane Lambert's comments after a road trip shootout loss at the New York Islanders. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Jordan Everly.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is Vince Done.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Jaden Schwartz. This is Jared mccamnon ya, this
is Ryan Lindren.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
This is Maddie Banier's.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to Crack and Weekly with Mike Benton. Happy Monday,
Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. For our friends north
of the border, you might just call it Thursday coming
up here, Well, whatever suits your fancy. Welcome to Crack
and Weekly. Glad to have you along with us. This
episode dropping weekly of course every Monday, via the Crack
and Audio Network and the iHeartRadio app. Again, sign up

(00:32):
for free to get it at sports radio kjard dot com.
The Crack is still here. We are past the quarter
pole checkpoint of the season and they are still pressing
for first place in the Pacific Division. And we have
a lot to get to coming off a road trip
where they picked up five points out of a possible eight,
ending back to back in Pittsburgh and on Long Island.

(00:54):
Everett fits you al Koniski of course with us here
every week. But we're also going to be joined by
Tom Gozola. He's the host for Edmonton Sports Talk. We're
gonna dive into the Oilers, why they're right now ten
nine and five through twenty four games of this season,
goaltending and also a big question when it comes to
playing or not playing Connor McDavid and Leon dreich Seidel together,

(01:20):
plus a look at the Dallas Stars that we're coming
up to open a brief two game homestan Wednesday. It's
Edmonton after that on Saturday for a one pm matinee,
and we'll talk more about what's ahead here with Tom Gozola.
Additionally getting to the state of the Krack and defense,
some offensive concerns. Will also goaltending, which deserves a lot
of props, kudos, flowers, whatever you want to give them.

(01:42):
They have certainly help stabilize matters at this point. Plus
also your mail bag questions. You can find me on
Twitter and ex at Benton Underscore Micro taking those again
and we'll get to more of your reaction coming up
here in just a bit. A flashback to the four
game road trip. Opening in Detroit the back and fell
forward to but then at visions of a rebound in Chicago, the.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Dard hoops it up to the line we're held in
by Monteur. Monteur back to the blue line of shot tep.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
Stools Brandon Monteur above. From the blue line, it's redirected
out in front and the Seattle.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Cricket are on the board.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
Oscar Fisker mull Guard will leave the handshake line.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
That will be his first goal in the National Hockey League.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
Oscar Fisker moutguard right in front of Spencer Night and
it looks like it may have gone off him and
then ty Carcie yeah, into the back of the net.
But the point there is that it was a big
shot by Montour. A couple levels of screens in front,
Oscar Fisker Mollguard's one of them. Ty Carci is the other.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Here is Shane right again below the goal line. Cat
takes it away on the left wing side. Chris that
call over him Cat top.

Speaker 6 (03:00):
It shoots ten scars, Shane right redirects the puck in
in front, has a.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Seattle cracking tie.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
The game two two twelve forty seven to play in
the third.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
Well much much with the ty cart Chak goal. It's
right out in front and he's waiting for the Spencer Night.
He gets his blade out as the Riker revenue shot
comes and hits the top of his His blade finds
the back of the net.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
This game's tied.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
It to Aston Marshmit far point, Evans walking to the
middle back hands it off to Marshmit. Now Montour takes
his turn. Montour left circle, Montrey back to Jayden, swords.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
On the power flame, skins the cracket A three two
lead to eighteen to play.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
In the third well, it starts with Mason marks from
up top, finding Montour jumping down the wall. Montour is
thinking shot the whole time, but he sees seventeen on
the back door where he loves to hang out. He
puts it right onto his tape in the back of
the net, cracking three Chicago tears.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Sidney Crosby left side. Now for Carlson down the slot.
Shot bluffs Sane Bye Gerbauer. He'll hold on im. Shane
turns away from many many ears.

Speaker 7 (04:18):
This one flipped up the boards, knocked down by a Marchman.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
But he gives it right back, and we'll steal it
right back.

Speaker 6 (04:23):
Marchman fires scores, they said.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
March Ben puts.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
The cracket on the board, won nothing, eighteen thirty six
to play in the period. He was so excited when
he celebrated that he toe picked and the face planted
on the ice. I'm sorry for laughing, bush cracking on
the board and want nothing.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
Well, it was Marshman that kept the puck in at
the offensive blue line there, kept it deep and then
hung around the top of the circles and got a
gift from the Penguins defenseman which was the buck and
shot from the top of the circles. Beats Het Bershov.
It's one oh.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Cracket on the left wing, gives it up to Mason
Mershman backside from an ear settles shoots.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Stoos Maddy Baneers from the right circle as he tucks
it up over the shoulder of Miroshav and in the
seattle cracket tie the game in the third two to two, seven.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Twenty four to go in regulation.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
Well, it was everly in front of the net, had
dumb but tied up that gave Maddy Benier's space behind
them bottom of the circles over on that right side,
he got a fantastic feed from Marchman had all the
time and the day to roof it. This game's titles through.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Center left side over the blue line gets row to
the line Montor walks in shoots.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Stoos Montymnia in over time in Pittsburgh. It's a three
two seattle crack and win.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
What a great feed that Mantra received just inside the
middle of the blue line of the offensive end. He
has tons of time get his space up. He beats
brushov low cracking win three two, bring on the funnel,
cakes right circle to the corner, shut right on to
cord in the gold crease.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
Everybody collapses on him and the pod stays in the
blue pain.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
The cord comes out clean on the other side. Al
Szekis couldn't find the puck. Shane Wright two on two
drops to Newman.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Across the cat and for a drive on the left side,
and that one handled and held by David Retta.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Anders Stevenson lost a face off Schaeffer left side, Barzel,
Schaeffer back to Barzel, Fanning on the shot. Barzel to
the high slot, sends it across.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
One of same by towing the cord on Bawhormat goodness.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
This one cleared all the way down the ice.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
We're going to a shootout here on Long Island, Paul Mary,
Now for the Islanders, I'll marry alrighty.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
It's the signal except the buck on the forehead. He's
got speed, left circle, far side, clus back to the middle.

Speaker 8 (07:05):
Hey shot, he scores and the Islanders get the extra point.
They win this game one nothing in a shootouts.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
So there you have it, the cracking getting five points
out of a possible eight after a four to two
loss at Detroit, bouncing back three to two win at Chicago,
three two overtime win at Pittsburgh, and then taking the
Islanders all the way into the shootout where they fell
one nothing. The final at Ubs Arena with Joined Decord
picking up his seventh career shutout and blank by David Ridick,

(07:39):
where the Kraken are still looking for their first win
in the second leg back to back situations. Right now,
it is a skid of seventeen consecutive games going back
to twenty twenty three to twenty four in that situation,
and certainly offense a big part of this. We'll talk
about this in a bit of course with Everett. Now
before they join us, here's a look at AHL Coachella Valley,

(08:02):
and let's just say they had a young defenseman who
was pretty familiar here with the Pacific Northwest and made
a big name for himself on the stage which reached
national levels.

Speaker 7 (08:12):
Firebirds got the best of Owen Say in their first
matchup of the year back in late October, as Cayden
Hamill takes a penalty and Calgary goes to the power
plane before we get to the man advantage time for
Desert Texas keys.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Of the game.

Speaker 7 (08:27):
But before we do that, we're gonna have a fight.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Caden Hamill dropped the clubs with alce come yea Edgar,
Cayden Hammel, you best be ready for.

Speaker 9 (08:37):
This one waiting for the first plots of the time
star throws.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Are you not under tame?

Speaker 9 (08:51):
That was a very entertaining stop fan me not something
he would expected from Caden Hammel.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
But Outscandon Jolt got a pretty good bunch.

Speaker 7 (09:04):
We'll go over to the dressing room.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Hopefully he's okay.

Speaker 7 (09:07):
So how about that Caden Hamilt.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Taken down one of the.

Speaker 5 (09:13):
Toughest guys in the American Hockey League.

Speaker 7 (09:15):
Not only that, dropping mcgloves and saying, hey, let's go
out of the scrum.

Speaker 9 (09:19):
Yeah, out of the scrum. And Alex Kallan is a
tough customer. Had a great colte with Travis Howell last
night Cayden Hamill does a phenomenal chopping standing up for
himself in that one.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
How about that call from Evan Pivnick and Grant Fear
for the Firebirds broadcast side yep? Are you not entertained?
That fight by Caden Hammill went viral last night. Matter
of fact, it reads Sports Center as well. Caden Hamill's
the former Reverence Silver Tips defenceman fifth round draft pick
of a Kraken. But if you ask many, there's a
new set of Candaan Hammel which came out in that

(09:53):
fight taking on one of the toughest competitors in the
AHL and Alex Gallant of the Calgary Wrangler. Hammill had
no more than fifty six penalty minutes in his career
for the WHL slip between the Silver Tips and the
Kamloops Blazers, and then he is no stranger to dropping
the gloves. He did so from time to time in

(10:14):
his WHL career. It's a new level when you take
on a guy like Alex Gallant, and Hammill had the
upper hand in untilt that went down one fifty nine
into the game and was a precursor to an offensive slugfest.
Eventually Calgary won it in sudden depth overtime five four,
but the Firebirds had contributions all across the board. Edward Shallegh,

(10:35):
who was back from injury, got his first goal of
the season led the Firebirds. Also with Ty Nelson, each
had three point nights. Nelson had three assists on the
back end. Jr Avon, John Hayden and Ben Meyers also
scored a goal each for the Firebirds. Underhead coach Eric Laxtall,
Coachella Valley is right now eight five and three nineteen points,

(10:57):
eight back of first place Colorado in the Pacific Division
and led by Jagger Fercuses nineteen points in sixteen games.
Perhaps if he keeps us up, it could be a
matter of time before he earns his first call up
to the NHL. All right, Cracking are back home this
Wednesday again to game homestand we're opening up at Climate

(11:17):
Pledge Arena seven o'clock for the Kraken and Dallas Stars.
On the FM dial for the flagship Side ninety three
three KJRFM and all across the Global Credit Union Cracking
Audio Network airtime six thirty post game from Tom's watch bar.
Just like as well on Saturday, We're on the am
dial that day Sports Radio nine to fifty KJR and

(11:38):
again still across the Global Credit Union Cracking Audio Network
one pm at NA, going down at Climate Pledge Arena
for the Kraken and the Oilers twelve thirty airtime and
once again post game at times jumping in by the Witch.
Could it be back back and recap. Also have a
little bit of down time because for years must be

(11:59):
on Dallas. Good, I want to say, pointed this out
on radio the other day. Good time to bring him
in with al Kiniski as well, and at the right
time too, because Thanksgiving here, I think Fitz has got
family in town.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
On top of that, I do my in law has
just got in this morning. My sister in law and
her partner are coming in on Wednesday. So it's gonna
be a packed house in the fifty household this week.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
I'm gonna gonna have around the table Thursday.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Let's see, we'll start with two, four, six, seven, and
then we'll probably end with close to twelve or fourteen.
We're gonna have a dinner with the family and then
we'll bring uh, we'll bring some friends over later for dessert.
In a late football game.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
All right, So who's cooking? Who's cooking?

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Uh, that's gonna be a combination. I think my in
laws are going to handle most of it. My wife's
gonna make her mac and cheek. I'm gonna try my
hand in a few things. But I look over to
my left here and I have an entire whiskey bourbon
collection that I'm going to dive into as well. So yeah,
it's gonna be a fun day. Look at my chops.
I'm ready to go.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
If there was one thing that we know about this
podcast space, all three of us here have our sauce
spots for good bourbon.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
Oh absolutely, yep, yep, yes, is the answer anytime someone
mentions bourbon.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
When's the last time that we all got together here
for this. I think it was at your beach house
el way up north. I think he had about a
good long line about roughly I want to say, fifteen bottles.
I was ready here to just take the phone out,
record it, and then just let it go. As far
as getting your secrets out to good bourbon.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
Yeah, well, you know what, it's pretty easy. Just put
them all on the counter and handle glasses.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I have one rule in my house if you can
see it, you can have it.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
That's about it.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
So I got a relatively quiet household, I should say relatively.
There are two boys here in this in households, so
relatively quiet is basically the limit here of this. And
they're office school, no baseball practice for a week. Liam's
getting into basketball that won't start till next week as well.
So we're just trying to basically find enough time to
give them things to do. They're not bored, and they're

(14:17):
tearing the house down or tearing down the pantry, which
is also in our kitchen. But let's just go back
here and recap from this last week. I believe we
said last podcast, last episode of Cracking Weekly, would you
be okay? Is the bar set for five points out
of eight? Guess what? They got five points out of eight?

(14:38):
Win in Chicago, win in Pittsburgh, and enough to squeak
one point out at Ubs Arena on Long Island. So
here's the question, at this point of the season, with
us past a quarter pole and the Cracking right now
with a record as of today eleven five and six,
one point back at first place Anaheim, how satisfied are you?

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (15:02):
I mean I think when you set expectations like that
and they're metter exceeded. Obviously, you have to be happy,
and you know, I remember last season talking to previous
coach Dan Bousma looking at the schedule and looking at
it in terms of chunks, And I like that approach
because whether you call it chunk a month of schedule
or the four game road trip that we just came

(15:23):
off of, I like looking at the in chunks to say,
what are your expectations there during that particular chunk, And
I think five out of eight it was an excellent
goal for the team that they hit it. I think
that I can't decide on the Island if I was
disappointed in the game and then it was zero zero
at the end or if that's just cracking hockey. You know,

(15:45):
in terms of how they're going to play, we expect
to see a lot of three two games, two to
one games, overtime games. I didn't expect to see any
zero zero games. But there's our first one and we're
a quarter away into the season.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, I feel like the game on Long Island that
was cracking hockey. Baby. The way the way that this
team plays, the defensive structure, the attention to detail, that
hard checking style of game. That really was, you know,
kind of what I was expecting out of this team

(16:19):
in game two of that back to back, And I
think for me, when you look at the satisfaction of
where we are as going into the month of December,
you've won more than you've lost. You've got points now
and two for six of your last seven, so you're
four to one and two in your last seven games. Again,

(16:41):
I think this is the recipe. You win more games
than you lose, You get points in seven out of
every ten games. You find a way to win outright
four out of every six at least, right, that's going
to be the recipe for success coming into the year
or moving through the year, especially when you don't have

(17:02):
a lot of offense. You're winning a lot of two
to one, three two games. I'm looking at the schedule here,
you know, you go back ten games A one nothing
shootout loss, a three two win, a three two win,
four two four one, five to three, two to one, shootout,
two to one, four to three, a six to one.
We'll throw that one out, three one, three, two, four

(17:24):
to three. These are all one goal at most two
goal games. You haven't had a whole lot of stinkers,
which is really good. Yes, you know, I talked about
it last week that if you're gonna have a stinker
or two, you need to have it well placed. And
I feel like that that six to one San Jose
loss was probably your last stinker. Uh And and you've

(17:46):
gone out in the ten games since, and you been
able to pick up points in seven of those nine
games since then. So I'm I'm okay with where this
team is right now.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Allow me now to move on to this point because
I've heard it ever since training camp. I've heard it
through October, I've heard it through November, and we're almost
into December and we're at the Thanksgiving checkpoint. I want
us here to address this if somebody wants to go
out of their way and call this team boring, because again,

(18:19):
where do you get at when you talk about ultimate
success with where you want to go with this team
this year? And the definition of success for this team
was to be in the playoff mix. There's a lot
of season left, but so far, through twenty five percent
of the season, they're not just in the mix, they're
one point out of first place in the Pacific Division.

(18:40):
So yes, I know they cannot score a lot of goals,
so yes, I know in the last several games they're
coming up in the short end of shot attempts. Yes,
I know, last several games they're coming up in the
short end of high danger chances, and they're having to
survive the first period, survive the second period. But the
third period is where they really turn this dial up
a notch and they're making their move at that point.

(19:04):
Goaltending has been phenomenal. Defense for the most part has
been phenomenal. The penalty kill is getting better. And if
I go back to goaltending here and we'll dive into
more of this. The last time I could say that
the Kraken a lot of cheap goal it was a
road trip opener at Detroit. So you're playing with what
you are given right now, and the ultimate question is

(19:27):
are you giving your team enough chances here to win
every game. Some parts of this I understand there may
be luck involved, but that's hockey. But in other parts
of this, you are doing your best to play a
system that your coach outlined from day one, and they
have done it over and over and over. So I
know there's no top ends superstar skill up front. But

(19:49):
if you ask almost any Kraken fan, would they take
this from day one? The answer is yes. That does
not define boring. Winning defines excitement, and you're getting it
more and more and more.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
I love spicy Mike, My goodness.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Geez, Mike dropping walking off stage.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Listen. You know, I think at the end of the day,
this is a results based business. You're getting the positive results, right,
But I go, I'm gonna I'm gonna steal a term
from college football and basketball, the eye test.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Right.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yes, you're winning games. But when people talk about the
sex appeal of this team, when they talk about quote
unquote boring, you know what we understand there is no
counter badar. There is no maclin Celebrini, there is no
mcdamon or dry title or or McKinnon. I can go
on and on. You don't have that money making marketing

(20:51):
uh horse that you can ride. And I think that's
where people a lot of times are conflating and confusing
uh boring with success. Sure, yes, this team's gonna score
two and a half goals a game. That's fine. They've
won more than they've lost. We're gonna go into the

(21:12):
new year, hopefully still in a good spot for playoffs.
You go back to the nineties, the New Jersey Devils
one Stanley Cups playing this exact style of hockey. A
number of guys in that locker room have said, you know,
we're playing playoff hockey right now. This is how we're
gonna have to play in the playoffs, because, as we

(21:32):
all know, the NHL goes from a five to four,
four to three league to a three two two one
league almost overnight, right at the deadline. So once these
games start becoming three point games, the Kraken have been
are gonna have been playing three point games for sixty
sixty five games of the season, So they're setting themselves

(21:54):
up for success. And sure are they going to be
the most exciting team every night? No, okay, We've got
the self awareness to know you're not going to see
you guys dangling through fifteen guys. You're not going to
see you know, four or five, six, seven goal games.
But at the end of the day, we've said it before,
this is a results based business, and the crack and

(22:14):
are getting results.

Speaker 5 (22:15):
Would I would add to that that, you know, there's
a fan perspective which which we we absolutely need to
keep in mind. But I think that from a player perspective,
entertaining is winning. I really don't care how it ends up.
The winning the hockey game is entertaining. It's entertaining, you know,
being on the ice to be a part of that.
It's entertaining to you know, to be in the building.

(22:37):
So I think it always starts and ends with winning.
How you do it, though, yeah, it can be more
entertaining from one way one game to the next, depending
on you know, what that game looks like. But I
think you have to remember that when you structure a
strategy for a team, A defensively tight structured team strategy

(23:00):
work for the Colorado Avalanche, maybe not work for the
Edmonton Owners because y're so strong offensively, you got to
let those let those birds fly. Whereas this this cracking team,
very strong on the blue line, very strong in net
So why not create a strategy that's defensively minded and
use those assets that are stronger in those areas and

(23:21):
then when you get the opportunities you do.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
And I think too, you know what you said there
is perfect because a lot of times you'll see coaches
try to fit players into the system. But the Ley
Lambert is fitting this system around the place.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
So when you have a McDavid, when you have a
drive Title and a McKinnon and a ka Chuck and
a macar and a Rantan, when you have those guys, yes,
it's going to be an offensive system. Okay, those players
McDavid can fit into any system he on he's in
because of who he is, right, But this system that

(24:05):
Lane Lambert is coaching is developed for this team. That
is why you're having the success. If the Kraken had
forty goal guys, more than just Jared McCann, if they
had eighty ninety one hundred point horses, of course this
would be a more run and gun style offense. But

(24:25):
it's not so, and they don't have those guys. So
they're fitting this system to the players that they have
and that's why it's working. Do you want this system?
I don't think this system works in Edmonton. I don't
think this system works in Dallas or who else, Winnipeg?

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Right, you change this system around your personnel.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Kracken as of this point, second best in the NHL
two point five goals a game five on five goal ratio,
eighth best in the NHL again at this point of
the year, as compared to back in September, if you
were told by Thanksgiving, when you're getting ready here to
put turkey or ham mac and cheese, stuffing whatever on

(25:12):
the table, would you take the Krack in second place
in the Pacific Division points percentage at six three six,
any way you have it? Without question, the answer would
be a resounding yes.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
I would have taken the Crack in in the second
wild card at this point, right, I think coming in exactly,
I think coming into the year. My goal on on
day one of training camp, the floor for this team
for me was playing meaningful games as late as possible.
Right game sixty, game seventy, they had to mean something. Okay,

(25:53):
you couldn't be ten points out at Christmas, you couldn't
be twelve points out going into the Olympic break. You're
not going to overcome that. As long as this team
were in a position to be playing meaningful games, they
were having the conversation of should they be buyers at
the deadline? Right, that was the floor. That was the

(26:14):
absolute low point for my expectation. And now that the
fact that they're in second place in the division within
spitting distance of first, They've beaten some really good teams,
they're they're finding a way to stay at the top
of a very crowded group in the Western Conference. I mean,
this is all exceeding my expectation, not necessarily my belief,

(26:42):
but my expectation of where this team should be should
have been. If you look at the way it was constructed,
you look at the personnel, I expected this team to
be battling for a playoff spot. Now this team is
currently you're looking at again twenty two games in potentially
raising a division banner in the next six months. That

(27:04):
for me, is a huge improvement over where that expectation was.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
And I think also the nice part about this is,
as compared to roughly last year, when so much of
the conversation was centered around what's wrong here with the
core of all of this, we're now talking about how
do you fix batters around the edges? And you had
to admit a course, goal scoring has been an issue
on this team. They're twenty ninth right now in the
NHL and they just couldn't get anything at Ubs. We're
going to hear to end that to back in that

(27:32):
one nothing shootout loss after the game. Cracking ad coach
Lane Lambert meeting here with the media to.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Assess the offensive production from your team tonight.

Speaker 10 (27:41):
Well, we didn't score any goals, so.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
We didn't.

Speaker 10 (27:46):
Didn't find a way to capitalize. Of course, neither did they.
You know, I thought our goalie was really good. I
thought their goalie made some good saves as well.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
But you know, it's just.

Speaker 10 (28:00):
It's a common theme right now, shot volume or lock thereof,
and you know, we passed up too many shots again,
so at some point we got to figure this out.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Why do you think that is?

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Is it like a hesitation you're seeing in the group
or what do you kind of point to.

Speaker 10 (28:13):
I think we're looking for something better, and I don't
understand why. You know, we've got to shoot the pluck
the only way you can score goals. And I've set
it over and over again at leased.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
To put pucks on net.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Cracking had four shots on net in the first period.
They had six shots on net in the second, eight
in the third, just one in overtime, where it was
heavily dominated by the Islanders for pluck possession in that game.
So I'll tee this one upfits. I know that you
want to get here to this? What do you do
to solve the offensive issues? And I mean folks may

(28:45):
ask what can you do by trade? Well, no one's
getting dangled out there right now on the market. Your
options sort of work with what you have. You hope
that Jared McCann is coming back here very soon, if
not Wednesday, But as to this point, you've got to
fight for offense, the base and the ugly way.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
You know. I want to actually start off by just
can we can we admit and appreciate just how low
key hilarious Sley Lambert is, Like he it's not what
it right some of his one liners. And again, if
you're you're in we're in the rooms every day, we
know exactly what he means. But to the outside person

(29:25):
who may be watched that that is funny. Like he
his comedic timing, I think unintentionally is spot on. I
go back to the question I asked him in DC
a couple of weeks ago. I was like, Hey, did
back to back have anything to do with it? And
he was like, I don't care, uh that you know
it was a back? It was just dude, that's absolutely hilarious. No,

(29:48):
So I think I think how do you generate more offense? Listen,
at the end of the day, there's no one being
dangled like you mentioned, right, And unless you're willing to
put together a big package of prospects and current roster
players to go out and get that that offensive unicorn

(30:08):
that everyone seems to want, you have to work with
what you have. You know, shooting the puck. That that
that's that's it, he said it. The only thing that
I can point to is shooting the puck more. And
I think that this has been something that we've talked
about in the entirety. I think of this franchise's existence

(30:28):
is these these selectiveness there we go, selectiveness of this
team's shots.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
They there's a reason behind that usually but that fits.
I'll let you go on.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
But it seems like they're looking for the clear lane.
They're looking for the bar down, they're looking for the
sexy goal. Like what happened and what was it? Detroit? Right,
You look at the goal that was scored for not
em not if any, the red wing Nate Danielson who

(31:01):
scored the goal and goes off of eskate off of
his leg in the back of the You look at
Oscar Fisker mouleguards first NHL point. It goes off his knee,
off Carcier's knee into the back of the goal. So
those are the kind of goals I think this team's
are going to have to score and not being too
selective and right now, when you look at Seattle twenty

(31:22):
ninth with two point five to nine, so just over
two and a half goals a game, if you can
find a way to get that to three, you'd be
twenty at the NHL. If you can be in the
top two thirds get to three, I think a lot
of this issue, these issues are solved because the defensive structure.
I'm ready to say through twenty four games, twenty two games,

(31:44):
the defensive structure is fine. It's not changing. If you
can find a way to get point four more goals
per game, you're fine.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Four games on the road, an average of twenty two
shots on goal of game, there's no doubt this team
to put more pucks on net. But I would say
it differently. Rather rather than saying shoot more, I would
say making better shooting decisions, because sometimes the pass is
the right play, and the last thing you want a
player to do is start gripping their stick too tight

(32:15):
and thinking, well, as soon as I cross the blue line,
I got to put the puck on that because coach
says we got to shoot like that's that That's not
the answer. So better shooting decisions is what I would say.
I would also say, let's get Copocaco and Jared mccannon
back in the lineup. You know, let's remember that this
team sits fifth in the league right now for goals
by defenseman at thirteen, so let's make sure we're shooting

(32:38):
from the point as often as possible. Yeah, those goals
are going to continue to come, those greasy ones, although
we did have our first game where it was all
all snipes the other night.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
But I think full of shooters out.

Speaker 5 (32:49):
I think that's I think that's unique for this squad.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I was Vintareek.

Speaker 5 (32:55):
I think this is make better shooting decisions and and
you know, shot shot mentality first is absolutely what you
want to be thinking. But don't force it. Don't try
and force pucks on net. That just shouldn't be. So
there's a fine balance in there. I think shooting more
also can lead to block shots, so it's not just

(33:17):
shooting more, it's not just making better shooting decisions, but
it's making sure the puck gets through to the net.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Right.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Yeah, I can go off legs and skates and stuff,
but if it's getting blocked five feet away from the
shot at the point every time and they're going the
other way, okay, you're shooting more, but that's not helping either.
So better shooting decisions and better I don't know, better
shooting angles for lack of a better phrase.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Here's what the point I wanted to get to that
fits brought up because so many players, and this is
especially in the last roughly five ten years of the NHL,
offense is not treated as if you get pucks on
net and more shot volume you know, necessarily means success.
A lot of players are being taught in different systems
where a shot is almost like a turnover to where

(34:06):
if you don't score on that thing, the puck's going
back down the other way and it might as well
just be like a dead giveaway. So how much do
you maybe I think, connect this here to previous thinking
and maybe more you know that is required to kind
of unwire some brains. And I'm not saying good to
the extreme where you're Carolina and you're dumping about you know,

(34:28):
eighty ninety shot attempts a game on net. But you're
looking more and more to try to incrementally build the
habits of shot first rather than pass first.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
Yeah, I think that, you know, it doesn't happen overnight.
I think that there has to be commentary on film
with players. I think, you know, when when the player
sees that they were in the slot for you know,
a second, which is all it should take to get
a shot off, and they opted to try and pass

(35:01):
through three players to the right of the left to
hit that scene pass when they were right there on
the slot. There's a great example. Yeah that when that
pass is there, take it, but when it's not there,
put the puck on on net. That's that's a huge
one for me. You're right, Mike, it's going to take
some time. I think that, you know, between film and

(35:22):
practice and the crack and have a few days to
do that here over the next you know. Yeah, I
think that's there's gonna be a lot of discussion around that.
I also think you have to remember this team has
some young players on it right now. You think about
you think about Oscar Fisker, Mulgard. You think about Yannie Newman,
and you think about Birthday Catton lots of times. The

(35:44):
tendency when you're a young player trying to make a team,
trying to stay on a team is well, rather than shoot,
I'm going to dish it over to Jordan Everley, even
though there's three guys between you and Jordan Eberley or
Matty Benier or whoever, and you tend to overpass. And
I think that the coaches need to kind of get
in the ears of those young players and say, listen,
you're just as good as shoot as any the other guys.
If you get a chance, rip it, you know. And

(36:06):
I think they've done that a little bit with Yanni Newman.
You saw I think last I checked during the game,
he had three shots on goal last game, so he's
definitely shooting the puck more. I think getting into all
the youngsters years and saying the same thing would be
good shootouts.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
This has been a topic in the last twenty four hours,
roughly from the responses I got here from Twitter and
x where the krack nd fell the eight and fifteen
all time in shootouts after the loss at Ubs Areena.
I mean, you go through some theories of you know,
do you go lefty, righty, lefty, keep the goalie guessing?
You know, who do you deploy out there? I mean,

(36:41):
I'll tell you this, and just going back through or
through this. Chandler Stevenson went back out there because he's
been successful before and shootout attempts. Freddie Goodreau went out
there because he's got some of the best individual skill
on this team in this situation, plus his numbers as
well and all he told him has also scored before.
But yet, how much of a concern do we put
into this thing?

Speaker 3 (37:01):
I think you should just go to the top of
the hash marks and just shoot as hard as you can.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
That's personally just it's entertainment, entertainment.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
You know what I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm
I'm done with the shootout. I'm over it. Just from
a fan perspective, you know, I would.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Rather You're not the first person I've heard this from also, but.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Go on play seven minutes of overtime. Yeah, and if
it's still tied, then then then we're tied. Then then
we're done, right, seven minutes overtime and then you know
we were we myself and Hal and JT. We're we're
arguing about this on the bus the other day about disgusting.

(37:43):
Disgusting if you go to a three two one points format,
three points for a win, two points for an overtime win,
and then if it's a tie, each team gets a
point and then you go away. But I'm not concerned
because I think so few games have gone to the shootout.
What do you say, Mike, eight and fifteen all time? Yeah,

(38:05):
in shootouts. So this is now year five eighty two
times four plus twenty two. Right, we've had twenty three
of whatever that math is games in a shootout. I
don't care. I hate the shootout. I'm over, yep, I'll
get your trustee calculator. No, I'm not concerned. I think, honestly,

(38:27):
it's frustrating. I get it. You're running the good goalies.
You're running the hot goalies sometimes goalies. You know, there
are some goalies who are really good in the shootout.
We could go back to what they do in college
hockey and in junior hockey, where each team ends every
practice with a shootout. You can do that as well, right,
But I think my concern meter for the shootout is

(38:51):
probably a two of ten. I don't care.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
I'll toss this here to EL. I would certainly agree,
And I think I had this conversation previously with with
with one of our colleagues on this, and I mean, listen,
I get it back in two thousand and five, this
game came out of the lockout. There was no hockey
for a year at the NHL level. I mean, they
were start for attention. It felt like the game's attention
meter was on the brink, so you had to find
a way to bring back more fan interest, get rid

(39:16):
of ties. This was one way to do it. But
I mean, guys, two thousand and five was twenty years ago. Here,
I certainly feel you and agree that there are different
solutions out there that we can start to implement that
kind of give this more. I think of a well
rounded and I think more of a nutritious, filled to

(39:36):
the end result here.

Speaker 5 (39:37):
To a game. Yeah, the shield is just a unique
skill that you don't even get to see in a
regular hockey game, Like if you get a break away,
you're not attacking the net the same way you are
on a shootout. So let's just start with that number two.
I agree with Fitz that that that's One of two
things I think should happen is extend that five minutes
to seven minutes. The other thing, and we've talked about
this as well, is don't let the team take the

(39:59):
puck back into the new zone. Once you're across the
blue line, you can't bring it back. I think that
that will force play a little bit more. It'll keep
it exciting because there'll be turnovers and you won't be
able to go reset back in the neutral zone or
throw it back to your goaltender at the other end.
It becomes less of a game of keep away and
more of a true game of hockey, which I think

(40:19):
at the end of the day, that's what the fans
want to see. They want to see hockey played in
its purest form, as if both teams just got two
miners each and it's three on three hockey.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, this is great. We're going to get to Tom
Gazola in just a little bit here to take a
look at Edmonton and Dallas. But I mean, I think
it's overdue to give as much props as we have
to give here to goaltending. Where would this team be
right now without Joey de coord this guy on the
shelf without Matt Murray, and from what we've seen, it's

(40:49):
more revealing here in this last week without Philip Grubauer.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
I posted the stat last week teams with three goaltenders
that have played five or more games with the save
percentage is at nine hundred above. Nobody else has it
except for Seattle. And by the way, those say percentages
are now nine o nine for Decord, nine to twelve
for Grubauer, at nine twenty two for Murray, even though
he's on the shelf. So this is a strength of

(41:15):
this team, and whatever strategies are deployed, whether it be
defensive structure or offensive structure, need to start from between
the pipes because that's that's that's a strength for this team.
So it's been consistent. If you want to say the
San Jose game was a dip, okay, but I think
it was a dip in the whole whole team. But

(41:35):
consistently through the first quarter of the season, gultenating has
been one of the strongest parts for the scracking team
ten out of.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Ten no notes I think overall for Grubauer, for Decord,
for Murray. You know, I know that Grubauer was a
big question coming into the season, just given the last
couple of seasons. But I mean, I think he has
been you know, right now without having seen how he
will perform for the next sixty games. I mean, he's

(42:05):
already got my vote for most improved player, right. I
think Philip Gruenbauer has been nothing short of phenomenal this season.
And I think also what people are really are sometimes
may not realize or maybe they do what they don't
understand just how big this is. There are three goaltenders
on this roster. That is three personalities, that is three egos.

(42:28):
And not to say that these are egotistible guys, but
it's just, you know, we all have an ego.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
They're wired to put their hand up saying wins.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
It might turn one hundred percent. We're just wired as that.
So that is not that is not a commentary on
them as people. That is just an overall fact, right,
And the fact that Colin Zulianello, our goaltending coach, has
been able to manage that, to get these guys on
the same page. They are constantly cheering for each other.

(42:58):
It is a next man up mentality. You know, you're
absolutely gutted for Matt Murray who was out six weeks
and I remember talking to you were talking to him
back in preseason and he was saying, this is the
best that he's felt in ten years, and you're gutted
for him. But now you've got Decord and Grubau were
playing some of the best hockey that we've seen this
season and a lot of the success. The defensive structure

(43:24):
is working, but at the end of the day, the
last line of defense is your goaltenders. And ten out
of ten no notes again the San Jose game, I
get it was a dud, but other than that, I've
got no issue with how these three players have been
performing all year long.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I remember you mentioned Dave Lowry's name back in the
twenty twenty two to twenty three season as the best
behind the scenes hired that this team made. That just
took him up an extra notch. I would argue Colin
Zulianello has been the best low key higher from this
last summer, which has now taken this team up a notch.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
Yeah. Yeah, he's all business and just like Fitz says,
he knows all three of these goaltenders well, he knows
what they need, what they don't need, and he feeds
them appropriately. I mean, you know, every goaltender wants to
play eighty two games. Like any goaltender that doesn't want
to play eighty two games, I don't want my team.
But they can't. Everybody knows they can't.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
But you have to. You have to.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
They have to be like racehorses, just raring to go.
They want to play every game. And so in Colin's position,
he's going to figure out, you know, how to dole
it out, how to you know, make sure each one
of them is ready that's not playing, and when they
do get their chance, reinforced. You know, hey, this went
really well. Keep this up. And right now he's got
all three balls in the air, so to speak, and

(44:47):
he's doing a great job of it.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Krack and have their second matchup of the season coming
up with the Dallas Stars on Wednesday. After that it
is Saturday, the matinee against the Edmonton Oilers. Well, it
was going to be a matter of time, but we
finally got him. This is Tom Goazola joining us now
on Crack and weekly now with Edmonton Sports Talk these days.
Also you can see from time to time on NHL Network. Tommy,

(45:09):
you're doing great workout there in Edmonton. Great to have you.
I first want to ask you, is there such thing
as a back to back Cup final hangover here? Because
I mean, what level of concern are be looking at
right now? On a scale of one to ten as
far as the Edmonton Oilers at the quarter pole of
the season.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Let's call it alert status red Mike around here. So
I don't know, nine to ten. It's unreal because last
night on the postgame show they lose to to one,
a couple a late goal and then the one great
opportunity where Jack rosselvik Kent put the puck home past Vasilowski.
I was like, oh, what to say, but he just

(45:47):
slammed it into Vassilevski's pad. By the way, Zach Hyman
was on top of Vassilowski, You're trying to jump over him,
and then it goes back the other way and Jake
denzil wins it for the lightning. So it was kind
of heartbreaking. And the night before after the Washington loss,
people were losing their minds. The anger, the vitriol, the
fire of this guy, trade that guy. It was NonStop

(46:09):
for the entire show, and then postgame last night it
was like, well, you know, they tried hard and they
almost won and it was a tough situation. It was
such a calm postgame from the fan base in our audience,
which was incredible because I'm like, what happened to being
angry and frustrated like people were twenty four hours prior
to that. But it just kind of speaks to where

(46:32):
the team is at here in Edmonton's it's nine to
nine and four or nine nine to five is the
record now. But I said to Sean Bell, who was
on the postgame with me last night, I said, Belsie,
it's weird. I don't like that people are saying there
are building blocks from this game and we're not that
mad and not that upset about it, because it doesn't

(46:54):
seem right to be appraising such mediocrity. Kind of like
the fire, I kind of like the chaos. And maybe
that's just me being a sick puppy when it comes to.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Pre and posted.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
You miss me in June, don't you.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah, it's fun, but it's a weird spot that they're
in and really, like you, you take a step back
and you go, well, where are they in the standings?
Not in a great spot, but they're not really out
of it. So I think it's because the expectation is
built up over the last couple of years, going to
the Stanley Cup Final, losing to the eventual Cup champions

(47:27):
four years in a row. It's kind of built this
expectation with the fan base. I think that's natural with
the fan base too. But yeah, people are They weren't
mad last night. They were just disappointed, you guys, And
that's scary, scary place to be. I don't like disappointment.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
My mom My mom still says that all the time.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed, Mom.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
That's what some reflection kicks in, and you're like, I
need to be better.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
Because when you're disappointed, it's something that I did, Like,
I can't put it back on. You're mad, that's good,
that's on you. But if you're disappointed, that means I
screwed up, all.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Right, Tom, How surprised are you with the whole level
of parody and the cluster of team still kind of
running together at this point of the season, especially in
the Western Conference.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Very surprised. There's a huge mushy middle. It feels like
I don't know how many games are what the percentages
I didn't look at it that have gone to overtime.
So we've had all these three point nights in the NHL,
and it feels like when I look on the out
of town scoreboard is like ot ot shootout, and it's
just it's it's interesting in that regard. I thought to myself,
I'm driving home from the studio yesterday, and I thought,

(48:38):
these teams like playing to get to overtime. Do they
all want to, you know, inflate their stats with the
Betman point or the loser point, whatever you want to
call it. And I was like, no, Hockey's not that
type of game. You can't script it like the NFL.
That's a joke, by the way.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
But.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yeah, it's it's been interesting, like you're not really out
of it, even even the bottom. And it's been a
weird season that way. Maybe maybe teams start to break
away and and and we start to see some separation,
but really to this point, everyone's kind of clumped together,
and it makes things hard to read when it comes
to two team, especially within the division. And then you know,

(49:16):
go outside in the conference and you go, I don't
know how these teams stack up because they're all kind of.

Speaker 11 (49:21):
Average yeah, yeah, three months ago who had Calgary at
the bottom of their being goal card. Yeah, that's that's
that's really surprising what's going on over there. But you know,
talking about goaltending, and that was a big part of
the Edmonton discussion certainly through the first month of the season.
Has that tamp down a little bit? Or is it
still part of every postgame discussion when there isn't a

(49:43):
dub on the on the card.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Every night is a goalie discussion. It's unreal. And and
like your old Palawaukee Engage, who's in the studio behind
me doing a show right now as we as we discussed. Yeah,
he brought up something the other day that's that's really
interesting after the Washington game and and he said that
he sees Stuart Skinner as being broken and I'm thinking

(50:10):
to myself, like, oh man, like, that is not a
good place to be. And he compared it to the Yips.
The Yips, yeah like, and he pointed out the Devin
Dubnick situation in Edmonton about a decade ago. Dubnick was
broken and the team was a mess and they had
Dallas Aikins as the head coach and that obviously didn't work,

(50:30):
and Dubnik was in this awful place professionally and he
was having a tough time away from the rink and
he was just starting his family. Like it was just
this this storm of negativity around him that you know,
they fired him off into Nashville for Matt Hendrix and
then it didn't go well for Dubnic in Nashville. He
went to Montreal, had to ask to you know, leave

(50:51):
the team, take care of I think he had his
first child at that time with his wife, and there's
so much stuff going on. Then he goes to Arizona
and he's working with Mike Smith and Sean Burke and
he resuscitates his career, becomes an all star year after
year after year, and Mini and so Joaquin goes. I
see a lot of similarities in this scenario with with

(51:13):
Stuart Skinner compared to what Devin Dubnik was going through.
And I was there front center doing working for Oilers
TV at the time, and I was like, that's not
a good place to be. So I'll give Stut's credit,
Stut Skinner and Calvin Pickard credit because for the first
two or three weeks of this season, more so Skinner,
those guys. They they gave these Oilers a chance night

(51:34):
in Night Out, but they weren't getting any run support.
And that's still a problem for this Oilers team. They've
only scored more than three goals six times this year
through twenty three games, and that's pretty alarming considering the
firepower that this team does possess. So the goal oh see,
there you go, And how do you win games if
you can't score a goal, if you're not gonna run

(51:56):
run support, and you're trying to make all these saves
and the Oilers defensively or an absolute calamity, I mean,
so spotty, from the blue liners to the five man unit.
When you include the forwards, they can't break out pucks
and they get hemmed in, they give up ten bell chances,
they barely generate you know, high scoring or high danger
chances of their own. And then so the goalies just

(52:17):
finally they broke. And that's a discussion night in night out.
I mean, we see people proposing trades for goalies every night, saying,
call up Connor Ingram, who's only two to two and
two down in Bakersfield right now, his goals against average
over three, it's around three and a half is save
percentage sub nine hundred. So he's trying to figure it
out too down there, and there aren't a lot of

(52:40):
simple solutions, and so the goaltending issue comes up every night,
and I don't think it's as easy as just trying
to fire off stew Skinner somewhere else and try to
get somebody else to come in and it'll all go away,
because there's so many problems outside of the goaltending around here.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Tommy. I know we talk a lot about McDavid and Drysidle,
those are the two big catalysts, but you mentioned the
offense and knaw block the other day, I think it
was last week, said something to the effective you know,
McDavid and dry Sidle have to be McDavid and dry Sidle,
then the other guys you know, need to step up
on paraphrasing, but essentially, as what we said, how much
has the gauntlet been laid? How what is the feeling

(53:19):
in that dressing room about the other players doing more?
This reminds me a lot of those nineties bulls where
it's just Michael Jordan gets the ball, everyone back away
and we're gonna We're gonna see what happens. What is
the feeling inside the organization, inside that dressing room about Hey,
McDavid and dry title can only do so much at

(53:42):
a certain point. We're going to need the other players
on this roster to step up and chip in some offense.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Yeah, secondary scoring has been an issue that feels like
for a long time, Everett, it comes up. I mean
the last couple of years they have had Corey Perry's
kind of rise up. He almost had twenty goals, he
had nineteen. Last year he finished with nineteen. Jeff Skinner
actually finished with sixteen. Same with Victor Arvidson. Like they
had weak starts to their oilers' tenure and then they

(54:10):
kind of picked it up as the season went on.
Oddly enough, that's when the team started to wake up too.
So the secondary scorer here, like you know, Ryan Jjohenapkins
was playing well before he got hurt. He was contributing.
He was one of the bright spots on this team.
They didn't have Zach Heyman until about a week ago.
He's been good, but he's playing catch up as well.
Like he was skating, he was in training camp, couldn't shoot.

(54:33):
It was healing up. The severely complicated, dislocated risk that
he suffered against the Stars and the playoffs, and then
there was hope that Andrew manja Pane would come in
and give them a little bit of an offensive boost.
That has come and gone. He's been pretty streaky at times.
And then Jack Rosslovic after a few games, he's kind

(54:54):
of settled in and he's been a secondary type scorer
for them and actually been a pretty good signing. And
see he's hungry for his next contract. So there's been
guys that they went out and got and guys that
they've kind of brought in from the farm, like of
Matt Savoy, where it just isn't clicking offensively. You can
see he's doing the right things and he's in the
right places, just hasn't put it together and figured out

(55:15):
how to make it turn into points on the score sheet.
Ike Howard got sent down. I mean, it's tough to
put a lot on a guy that just want to
hope Baker is twenty years old and say, okay, kid,
go score us twenty Yeah, learn how to play pro
hockey at the highest level on a team is supposed
to win a Stanley Cup.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Well, the annoying part is when you have a twenty
year old like that, and then you see the other
twenty year olds around the league and what they're doing. Obviously,
you know Isaac Howard is not Celebrini, is not Badard. No,
but it can be hard sometimes and not say, well,
they're guys doing it, why can't our guy do it?

Speaker 2 (55:47):
So, yeah, he's not those guys.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Yeah, exuple guys.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
He's a good, great player. He'll be a good NHL
R I'm sure for a long time, but he ain't
there yet. So it's been a lot of that. And
like Vasilli pod Coles and he's a third fourth liner,
he hasn't really chipped in. Trent Frederick Guys has been
a thorn for Oilers fans, and rightly Soor just scored
his second goal of the season. He's been a bit
of a shell of his former self. So there's been

(56:11):
a lot of disappointment when it comes to forwards and offense.
Evan blue Shard until you know, a couple of weeks ago,
wasn't putting any points up on the board, and that's
that's a problem for a team that lost I think
it was like sixty three goals due to guys being
moved out in the offseason.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Tom goes All joining us right now on the Beacon
Plumbing hot line here for Cracking Weekly. More on that, Tom,
when I'm kind of using this here to frame this
for people who are still learning this game around here,
and why teams do this? When Conor McDavid and Leon
Dry side a load up on one line together, you
get a superstar line, a duo that can do a

(56:48):
lot of damage. But then you also have the trade
off where you can spread them out, play one guy
on one line, one guy on the other end, spread
the offense out, more ships and more opportunities. So what
kind of impact and workload does that put on them
their ice time and the guys also playing behind them.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
I love that you asked that, Mike, because that's a
big talking point too, those like they separated them the
other night for the Washington game. They have to go
eleven and seven, by the way, because they're down a
couple of bodies and curtisals are Noah Felp. They have
seven defensemen on the roster. They're up against the cap
right now.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
The Boilers have been going eleven and seven since Gretzky
was Edmonton, and I cannot remember the last time Edmonton
played twelve and six seriously between injury and cap reasons
over the last eighteen years.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
And still watching mister Rogers back then.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Gosh, man, well, hey, how about the Knights that they
had to dress like nineteen skaters because of cap implications? Right,
You're like, what are we doing here? So there's been
that and uh and then McDavid and dry Sattle. It
took seven minutes for Chris Nablock to reunite them in Washington.
That's how bad things were boring the other night. And
people get frustrated around here because they're like, those guys

(58:05):
are supposed to drive their own lines. That's the term,
that's the hot word, buzzword, whatever you want to call
it around here. It's like, well, Leon drives his online
Connor drives his own line. Go find competent wingers for
both those guys, and you got a top six. Yeah.
In theory, that's great. In practice, it's been spotty at best.
So the nuclear option as we call it, they rely

(58:28):
on a lot. Obviously, they have those two killing penalties
together this year, which puzzles a lot of people, myself included,
because prior to that they would come on at the
end of a penalty kill and try to take the
momentum back after a good PK and that was a strategy,
but that's changed where those two are now killing penalties
and that's a head scratcher. And then at the end

(58:49):
of the night, we're watching them minimum twenty three to
twenty seven minutes on the time on ice sheet when
you're looking at the game log. So it's frustrating a
lot of people. And then guys get cold on the bench.
They're not out on the ice for like literally ten
minutes at a time, and they they end up with
minimal minutes and their impact. People are going, why aren't
they getting depth scoring, Well, it's because they're rolling out

(59:10):
ninety seven to twenty nine with whoever else is kind
of going that night, every second shift. And it's become
this this issue. But it isn't a Chris Knoblock problem.
It has not been a Chris no Block only problem.
It goes all the way back to when Todd mccollin
was the coach. When he figured out that he had
two super superstars on the on the roster, he would

(59:32):
go to that and then it continued with Ken Hitchcock
when he was briefly the coach, Dave Tippett did it,
much to the chagrin of a lot of the fans.
Right Croft kind of went away from it early and
then went right back to it. I mean, it's it's
the default, you know, break glass in case of emergency
type of play, and I think it's always going to
be the case when these guys are on the same

(59:53):
team together for the part their careers.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
That's hard from a players standpoint too, Like externally to
the media, they're I was going to say, hey, I'm
happy to be playing with so and so great hockey player,
but I think internally, as a player, you want some consistency.
I'm not saying for eighty two games, but gosh, it'd
be nice for twenty games to have the same wingers
you know, don't work with, to get some chemistry with.
And when that's changing constantly, like oh, our center is

(01:00:17):
going to play with McDavid for a few shifts. Oh
they're out killing penalties, so someone else is going to
be my center on the next ship. That's hard to
get some flow going in a game, and certainly over
a bunch of games doesn't. It doesn't give you any chemistry.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
No, And you can tell when they're out there with
anyone else or on their line from the morning rush
that day, they're just like, well, those guys don't look
like they have any any flow together whatsoever, and it
shouldn't be a surprise at all. So Leon Dreysaddle even
made a joke about it doesn't matter what we skate

(01:00:51):
in our in our lines in the morning, because we
know it's going to be switched up by the time
we get to the game. He's joking about it. Yeah,
and you're going like, should you be saying that publicly?
And he's just saying he's spitting facts.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
So the follow up questionaire here is does even care?

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
I don't think so, you know what I mean? They
know it's when they get called out. Those guys they're
true superstars, and they just they roll with the punches.
They've been through so much crap in this market over
the years, the ups and downs that I think they're
so just used to and and fine with handling whatever
is thrown at them, like all right, well, let's go

(01:01:29):
to work and dig dig the team out. And sometimes
they cause the problems too.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
So yeah, Tom, I want to I want to switch gears,
and I want to enter the part of the interview
called tick Mike benton Off. So you cover the league,
you know the league, you're you're in the Pacific Division.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
The one word that we the one thing we hear
about the Cracking all the time. This team does not
have superstars. They're not exciting, they don't have this.

Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
They don't have that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
I want to get yours.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
I'll be over here sipping coff.

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
Yeah, I want to get your view on the we'll
call it sex appeal of the Seattle Kracket. They're winning games,
They're off to their best start in franchise at at
the time of this recording. Uh, the Kracking are coming
off of a three to two win over Chicago in
which they got three goals in the third period. So,

(01:02:21):
last time I checked, winning is sexy. And apparently the
national media don't think this team is that sexy. So
from your opinion and from what you're hearing up north
and around the league's what is the general sex appeal
of the Seattle Cracking. Well, I like this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
We're getting dicey here. No, No, this is good. I'm
I think they caught a lot of people's attention a
couple of years ago when they knocked the Avs out
of the playoffs, and that turned a lot of heads. Now,
like you can go up and down the roster, and
if you don't know the NHL or haven't paid attention
to it in a little while, you're probably going, well,

(01:03:00):
I've heard of so and so. You know, Oh Jordan Everley, Okay, yeah,
oh Adam Lars Like I'm pointing out for more oilers here,
but uh, Tanev was kind of like a cult hero
for a while because of his his pictures that he
would take prior to the start of the season.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
But to me, when I look at the cracket, I
honestly just see a team of like really good players,
Like it looks like line one is solid, line two,
solid line is three, solid line four solid good defense
with good defense with good defense, Like I don't I
don't see superstars yet, Like I'm looking for Maddy Beniers
to become one. I like what he didn't obviously great

(01:03:37):
rookie year. Have they gone out and made sexy free
agent signings. I'm not gonna lie. I appreciate Chandler Stevenson.
I liked him in Vegas, Like, thank you I'm somebody
who's like, wow, that guy plays good hockey. I appreciate it,
but he's not gonna go and and rip down the

(01:03:58):
ice at whatever it's like thirty seven kilometers an hour
as we say in Canada.

Speaker 5 (01:04:03):
Currently, his expected goal share is not very high, which I.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
Don't even know expected goal share is so like I
read that the other night. Yeah, a lot of folks.
I'm not gonna call anyone out, but there's a lot
of people and in the media core that rely so
heavily on the advanced stats, and I'm like, watch the
guy play. I mean, like, just look open your eyes, Like, yeah, sure,

(01:04:31):
his advanced stats, his goal shots per sixty share cube
on a Thursday probably isn't that good. But watch the
guy play. I mean, he's one of the best players
every single night on the Guys. He's your best face
off guy. But just because his high danger thoughts per
twelve is not good, Like I'm sorry, I'm over it.

(01:04:51):
I'm over it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Oh well, don't get me started, because you and I
could have a nice argument about saves expected or oh
yes expected.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
As a goalie, my expected goals against is zero. Okay,
because as a goalie, I expect to give up zero.
So I don't understand, well, is expected goals was five
and a half over five?

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Do we want to push this show to three hours?

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Like essentially with with the goal like, I'll say this
one thing about the goalie expected What you're telling me
with an equation and a Excel spreadsheet is that you're
not getting one or two extra saves a game that
you need.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Just say that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
That's all you're telling me, really, and like if you
want to break it down to its most finite point
and find a way to equate it to numbers, okay,
But essentially you're telling me you're not getting one or
two extra saves a night. Your team's losing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
There.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
It's as simple as that. So there's that. But what
like to come back to, like the sexiness of the
Seattle Crack and I have since their inception into the league,
I've just looked at them as a team that has
has built on a solid foundation and then eventually, like
those sexy piece is will come in, whether it's via
free agency or you draft a couple of studs that

(01:06:04):
eventually turn into two superstars. And I think that's a solid,
safe way to start a franchise. You're not gonna Golden
Knights this thing every time you have a new expansion franchise.
That was a lightning in a bottle situation. I know
they have an aggressive owner and they've they've been able.
They were what were they called the misfits right their
first year toys, Yeah, and then they they're super aggressive

(01:06:26):
management team is you know, moved out a lot of
great pieces, brought in a lot of great pieces. That's
it's tough to sustain that. To their credit, for the
most part, they have. But the way the cracket have
been built I can appreciate as a fan of the game,
someone who grew up playing it, watching covering. I just
eventually the Kracking will be a sexy team. And when

(01:06:48):
they're rattling off ten game winning streaks and have one
of the top players in the league or one of
the best goalies in the league, people will pay attention.
And especially if they're knocking off the defending Cup champs
and in the first round of the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
In the meantime, they're gonna get points in six of seven.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
That sounds pretty good to me. And I'm not good
at math.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Evidently you've already seen Edmonton has seen Dallas once this year.
The krack and have seen them once this year, and
you know they come as advertised. But as far as
what Dallas is doing at this point of the season,
and they have a lot of players who are back
in all of this and begins a meeko ranton in
to you, what are they doing that again makes them

(01:07:28):
such a big threat in the West.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Man They have a lot of good pieces, Let's start
with that. They have a great head coach, a guy
have a lot of time for and Glenn Gullotson, and
it feels like they're no nonsense whenever they're in town
or we see the Oilers in Dallas, it just seems
like a team like, Okay, we know we're good, we
have a game plan that we trust, we have goalies
that we trust, or you know, Jake Ore being their starter.

(01:07:53):
That's a guy that I would look at every day
if I was a player, I'd be like, I think
we have a good chance of winning tonight. And they
just they've done a good job of just playing hockey
the right way and understanding who they are, what they are,
and what they're capable of. And it's pretty pretty straightforward
to me like, we're good. We know we're good. We
have the pieces. Let's go do things the right way

(01:08:14):
and not you know, get convoluted and full of ourselves
and shoot yourselves in the foot. They just to me,
they're very straightforward and they have the guys and the
horses that can get the job done and they run
I just I mean, and the media market there is
you know, you're not crazy, like in Canada. You don't
have people that are you know, at a gas station

(01:08:35):
telling you what you need.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
To do with your for check.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Flights.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Yeah, exactly, part of part of like, I truly believe
there's something to that, Like when it's like NonStop every day,
that could be tough, like a wear on guys, especially
if they're not built for this type of hockey climate.
And I feel like in Dallas's just everything's so nice
and easy, very comfortable.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
I remember seeing Alex Wenberg one time on the street
about three blocks away from Climate Pledge Arena, I presume
where he was living at an apartment complex, but it
was just outside walking his dog and it was right
by the corner of a CBS pharmacy and I thought,
you can't do that in Vancouver. In edminton in Calgary
and definitely not Toronto or Montreal.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Yeah, like, can you imagine just like going to the
rink and what are you gonna do after practice? I
might go hit some balls at the range. There's an
ease to that, and then it's like, well, you guys
play the best team in the league tomorrow. Yeah, but
we're good too, so I like our chances. It feels
like Dallas has that vibe every time I traveled there,
when I was traveling with the Oilers, I was just like,

(01:09:44):
this would be a great place to play, and I
think that kind of environment can lead to success. So
that's just kind of how I look at the Stars.
They've been good. They put the right pieces in place.
I think Jim Nill is a great great GM appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
You're always welcome back here, mamble touch base again here
pretty soon. Thanks man.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Always a pleasure. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Good to hear from Tom Gazola joining us here on
the Beacon Plumbing Hotline again. Tommy doing great work with
Edmonton sports Talk radio and also with NHL Network as well.
I just want to touch on Dallas and Edmonton a
little bit, guys, as far as our own takes on
this Dallas, you're gonna get the first game back from
Miko Ranton and after the one game suspension, and then Edmonton.

(01:10:25):
I mean, hey, hockey players have long memories, and you're
gonna get a team that is still, you know, a
bit top seed turvy. They they laid the hammer down
on Florida to end their road trip here, but I
would bet that they're remembering how this first matchup went
back in late October. So you've got Dallas, who is
playing terrific hockey right now. You've got Edmonton who just

(01:10:48):
it seems like they're always one or two big games
away from flipping the switch despite their goaltending issues. What
makes you confident? What's your biggest concern here for these
two games coming up.

Speaker 5 (01:10:59):
I think just in the same way that Edmonton is
going to think about the last time they came together
with the Crack and the next time they play, I
think it'll be the same for the Cracket. In that
Dallas game, that two to one lost down in Dallas,
they had thirty one shots on goal, which you know
see above, that's a high not a high water mark,
but that's a high amount of shots for this team.
But they still came out on the short end of
the sticks. So for the same reasons, they're going to

(01:11:21):
want to get that get that one back and and
equalize that series.

Speaker 3 (01:11:26):
Yeah, I think with Dallas. You know, the for Seattle,
I mean, Dallas is coming off of a back to back.
They'll be in Edmonton on Tuesday, and the crackett are
now too eight and three against teams in game twos
of back to backs since last season, So you're trying

(01:11:48):
to buck that trend. I think. I think Dallas now,
you know, they've got I've got what two four, six,
one and one in their last eight games, seven to
two and one in their last ten. I mean, that's
gonna be the toughest one for me for the Edmonton Oilers.
I mean, listen, I said this last week, and the

(01:12:10):
saving grace is that these these standings are pretty bunched
up here as I pull up the standing sheet. So
Seattle right now sitting in second place at twenty eight points,
Edmonton three back at twenty five, They're tied with San
Jose one back of LA. You're getting to a point
in the season and maybe in another four weeks, maybe
we get to the Christmas break You're getting to a

(01:12:31):
point this season where the teams behind you are going
to have to start going on runs if they want
to keep pace, if they want to keep up, they're
gonna have to win five of six, they're gonna have
to win seven of ten, whatever it is. Edmonton's coming
off with seven out of fourteen points on this last
seven game road trip, right, I don't think that's good
enough for Edmonton. And you're right, Mike. The second you think,

(01:12:53):
all right, the Oilers have figured this out, then did
they lose a game? Maybe they shouldn't have lost on
that road trip. They were two three and one in
those six games, right, so that that are two three,
three and one, sorry, those in those seven games. I
don't think that's good enough for this team. And and
goaltending still continues to be an issue, But I'm not

(01:13:15):
gonna say that it's a must win. But I think
if you're trying to prove that this Kraken team has
taken that next step, if you want to try to
silence a lot of those voices that are saying this
team's not sexy enough, they can't score enough, they're a
paper tiger. This team's not gonna do it. You gotta
beat Dallas in game two of a back to back,

(01:13:38):
and you have to beat Edmonton again in a matinee,
and you're building you know, are these must win games
this week? I don't think we're there yet, but I
think they are definitely you probably should win these games.
I mean minimum three out of four points. You beat
one and then you lose another overtime shootout whatever. Of

(01:14:00):
these two games this week, you need three points.

Speaker 5 (01:14:02):
Minimally, and something in common in both of those games
that the Kracking have played against Dallas Edmonton as of
late that the Cracking we're zero for three on the
power play in both games. They've got to be better
on the power play. I'm not saying it's got to
be three for three, but they're going to be able
to get a power play goal if they're given three
opportunities in a game, at least in one of those games.

(01:14:23):
That's going to push them over the top.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
Let's get to our mailbag segment here, as we promise again,
you can find the Krack and Audio Network at Crack
and Audio Net, myself at and Underscore, Mike Everetts at
the Voice fits Alconiski is at Alconiski as well. First
question here from gort One saying, what priority do you
believe the crack in front office are placing on making
a playoff run this year? Meaning are they willing to

(01:14:48):
sell potential long term assets or top draft capital to
add a short term piece that helps secure a playoff
spot here for this season. I go back and tee
it up here for you guys by saying it's early.
There are no names out there being dangled, and again
we heard a lot about maybe Tage Thompson, but the

(01:15:08):
Sabers are saying he's not going to be available. But
here's again the tricky part, because you're facing right now
a season where you're playing above expectations and the low
bar was to just be in the mix, and you're
pushing for a division you know you're pushing for number
one right now in your own division. How much do

(01:15:28):
you want to disrupt the core with what is making
this happen right now? How much do you want to
give up future pieces that might be helpful years upon
years down the road, like they have said they want
to put into place.

Speaker 5 (01:15:45):
I think you do a little bit of scratching at that.
You're obviously not calling thirty one teams, but maybe you're
a little selective and you're making a few phone calls
to a few particular gms to find.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
It because we all know what they need, right yeah,
right right?

Speaker 5 (01:16:00):
And and I think this team doesn't need goaltending, they
don't need defenseman, they need a top six forward. The
question is going to be what do you have to
give up to get that to get that top six forward?
And who is that top six forward? But I think
scratching the surface a little bit to find out if
that top six forward is out there and what it
would take to get them is worth the phone call.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
Yeah. I mean you're always going to listen, you're always
going to inquire. But Al said it perfectly, and I
said it last year. Everybody loves to say crack and
should go get this guy, crack and should go get
that guy. Okay, Well, let's work the problem backwards. If
you were another team, who on this crack and roster
would you want? And those are the guys that you're
going to have to give up to get that piece.

(01:16:43):
So if it doesn't make in my opinion, if it
doesn't make your team better but demonstrably better, then then
I think you know, it's not worth it. The mission
has always been since day one. This is a marathon,
it's not a sprint. You know, you do you have
a lot of prospects in the cupboard. I am interested

(01:17:03):
to see with all of the centerman at least as
of right now centerman that we have in this organization.
You know, do one of the prospects get floated that
we haven't seen yet? You know a lot of potential.
Do you sell high on potential? I've always wondered that,
but it's got to make sense and right now for
what you would have to give up off this current

(01:17:26):
roster unless you're bringing back a forty goal scorer, unless
you're bringing Miko Rannon, unless you're bringing Zach Hyman. Right,
I'm just picking out guys who you know that can score,
unless you're going to bring back, you know, Martin Ahius,
one of those type of players. I don't see a

(01:17:47):
trade worth it. I don't see a deal just to
make a deal worth it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:52):
You only have three options. You've got you've got draft picks,
you've got prospects, and you've got current players.

Speaker 3 (01:17:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:17:58):
Right, So it's some combination of and I think when
you're talking about draft picks and prospects, it's a little
bit less painful, certainly on the draft pick side because
you don't know who that is. But when you start
talking about prospects, especially you know, the players that I
think this organization is expecting to see in cracking jerseys
in coming years, that gets a little more painful. And
you know, you start talking about top pairing defenseman to

(01:18:22):
get top line forwards, that's a little bit painful. So
it really just depends on what that other team is
looking for.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
And say, I'll say this too also fits if I
can tee it up for you and kind of bridge
all of this. It really depends upon how much how
far do you want to go to add all these
big pieces again, because it depends upon you know, how
you weigh the kind of window that you're in. Are
they in a win now window like Vegas the answer
is no, Like Toronto the answer is no. Like Edminton

(01:18:51):
the answer is no. So it really kind of begs
a team to weigh these out and say, what's the
best we can maximize this season without giving up the
long term window that we want to get to down
the road.

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
Well, yeah, I mean, and listen, if we knew this
cracking team was one or two pieces away from being
a cup team, then get fine. You know, we'll make
that decision. But I think I want to have this
conversation January tenth, when hopefully Jared McCann has been back
for six weeks, hopefully, when Coppol Cocko's been back for
six weeks hopefully, right, I want to have this conversation

(01:19:29):
when you get those two guys back and they're contributing
on a nightly basis, and see what you still need,
because again, January tenth, you're going on that long road
trip out east. Let's say, let's say, hypothetically speaking, hypothetical speaking,
Jared McCann, Coppol Coco have been back for four weeks. Okay,

(01:19:53):
let's say in four weeks they each have ten goals
and you know, pick your number of assists. Well, then
there's your problem, right, there's a half a goal of
game you got back. Now you are a three goal team,
you're a three to one team, a four to two
team as opposed to a two to one team. Then
maybe you're going into the deadline, you're looking at your
assets and say, okay, maybe we don't need to be

(01:20:14):
as active as we should be, or maybe we can
afford to get rid of these pieces to bring someone
else in. But if you're still waiting on a McCann
or a couple of Cocko to come back again, this
is a hypothetical scenario, then your needs change. So after
the new year, when the crack can go on that
long trip out east to New York, I think then

(01:20:35):
we can maybe start to have that conversation of all right,
who in your top who in your middle six to
bottom six are you willing to part with? Who in
your bottom payer defense, in your top prospect pool, in
your draft pool? Who are you willing to part with
in order to get that piece you need right now?

(01:20:57):
So let's wait and let's have this conversation and again
when you know, hopefully when you have those guys back
in your lineup.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
One from Daniel on Twitter and next saying is the
Yannie Newman, Shane right, Berkeley Catton line. A thing I
noticed they were on the ice together while listening to
the radio broadcast Plus one. Daniel, thank you very much.
Wasn't sure if that was a temporary situation or not.
What are your thoughts on the kid lines? I think again,
you want to maximize your playing time here, But again

(01:21:25):
this goes back to if you do this from a
full scale, permanent situation, Yannie Newman, Shane Right, Berkeley Catton
are only staying there together as long as Lane Lambert
has enough trust and confidence for them to be effective
at both ends of the ice heavy emphasis here defensively
as well, and you're not putting your team at risk.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
Yeah, I mean, I think as we've seen with Lane Lambert,
he is very trusting in the groupings that he puts together.
I didn't hate that line. I thought they did a
lot of really good things, uh in that game. But
I do think I don't know if we're going to

(01:22:06):
see that line together to start a game or or
for a lot because of what you just said, right,
I mean, you need to have the trust there. I
think as as Newman and Right and and Berkeley Catten,
as they continue to to grow into their roles, I
think you're going to see a lot more of that.
But I wouldn't quote unquote call it a thing yet,

(01:22:29):
but I will say I didn't mind what I saw
when they were together.

Speaker 5 (01:22:33):
Yeah, when you look at the bottom six from that game,
Catten with Newman and Gudrou in the middle, and Kara
with Bright and Winterton. Gadreu is the old man of
those six, He's the guy that's in his thirties, and
the rest of the rest of those guys are still kids.
They're there, they're they're not that far out of out
of Coachella. They're coming up. So it's tough to just

(01:22:55):
take three of them call them the kid line, not
bottom six, as young as a group right now. Yes,
can all change when Compococco and jere McCann come back,
But for right now, I think Lee Lambert is trying
to find the right combination of those six people that
puts the best players on the ice and generates more
shooting opportunities, more scoring opportunities. And you know, for a

(01:23:16):
guy like Berkeley Catt and I think we're learning. I
think I've seen enough to learn that he probably can
be effective on the wing as well as in the middle.
And I'm okay with him being on the wing right now.
I think we've seen Shane Wright on the wing. So
to have guys that can be utility players like that,
to say I can go wing or center. Let let's
put the best two lines on the ice that we

(01:23:39):
can that makes them more valuable.

Speaker 3 (01:23:41):
And I think too this all goes this could all
be tied back into the trade conversation, asset conversation, because
right now, organizationally, you're looking at Matty bine Er, Shane Wright,
Chandler Steves and Berkeley Kat and jac O'Brien. There's five
centers right there, right all five of those guys potentially

(01:24:01):
could be should be top to at worst top three centiment.
So if you can move Catton to the wing, we've
seen Shane Wright play the wing a little bit, it
opens yourself up to a lot more possibilities, like you
just said, down the road, and you can find a
place for all of those players who you expect to

(01:24:22):
be big point guys for a generation to come. You
don't have to beg the question, well man, this guy
can only play center. I'd really like it if you
could play the wing. But he can't, Well, now you
have to move him out, or now you have to
put him on our fourth line because we need to
find room for him on the roster because he can't
play wing. I love Berkeley Katton on the wing. I

(01:24:43):
think he's looked good there. I think Shane Wright has
shown some promise on the wing as well, but he's
had to play on that side. I'm all for trying
these guys out, and I'm all for that flexibility to
plug and play guys where you need them.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
Time to get to our three stars here for this
past week, and I'll start off once again. My third
star is going to go to Riker Evans, who has
been a revelation offensively so far through his first eight games.
Didn't score in the Islander game. No one did, matter
of fact, but six points first eight games and it
was a tough offensive week. But guess it was your
leading scorer for this past week. It was him four

(01:25:19):
points four games. Could you have seen this year from
Riker Evans? It was something special? And then you go
to the Islander game as well, after he had a
pair of assists in that win. In a thriller at Pittsburgh,
he had two block shots, had a hit as well.
In nineteen minutes and forty one seconds of ice time.
Unless your name is Adam Larson, Brandon Montour or Vince Dunn,

(01:25:41):
that's your most hused defenseman on this roster. At nineteen
forty one, he was reliable he's been dependable, and I
think he's been terrific here and this road trip showed
me a little bit more. As far as what you
want out of Ryker Evans your second star, my pick
is Matty Benier's. If you can get more of what
you got out out of the Pittsburgh game, you're going

(01:26:02):
to be in business with this guy helping drive your
line as your number one center. And the more and
more that you can get timely goals like you got
from him out in period three is defensive game which
continues here to improve more and more if you can
kind of coax face off wins as well from him.
Didn't have maybe the most ideal dig against the Islanders,

(01:26:23):
but he's showing more and more of the kind of
player that he wants to turn into. He had grade
five on five shot attempt metrics and both wins at
Chicago and Pittsburgh incremental improvements are right now for me.
What defianes Matty Beniers in the first star number one,
it's goal attending. I couldn't give it to one guy.
I had to give it here to both. Joey Decord

(01:26:45):
rebounded after a subpar game against Detroit. Looked great after
the first period against Chicago and was as good as
you can ask in the Islander game, where unfortunately he
had no offensive support. There's not many leaky goals getting
by Joey. That's a good thing. And there have been
rare goals that we have seen recently that gru Bauer

(01:27:06):
has given up. And if you can get the kind
of defense that they can build around for gru Bauer
to spell the cord when he's got to take a seat,
you're in business. And so far goaltending is helping drive
this bus here on the cracking side. First our effort
combining here to both Joey, to Courd and Philip Greenbauer.

Speaker 5 (01:27:24):
So some of the same names. For me, Mikey, I
had Matty Veneers as my third star, points in three
of five games, fifth on the team, and shot blocks
right now, that really surprises me. I wouldn't have guessed
that he'd be in the in the in the top
five for blocking shots in this team last year. So
twenty two on the season so far. And by the way,
the four guys that are above him all defenseman, so

(01:27:46):
defense defense, and then it's Matti Mniir. So you know,
a leader to me is someone that obviously is getting
the job done offensively when you need to, but also
sacrificing himself. We've seen that in the on the on
the road trip for sure. Second star, I'm going to
give it to Grubauer. I really wanted to give him
the first Star, but I think that misplayed puck behind
the net in Pittsburgh knocked him down a spot. Still

(01:28:09):
my second star. He's got a nine to one six
save percentage over the last four games. He's been playing great.
He relieved Matt Murray in that in that center of
a game. Uh two point sixty six goals against average
and the over the over, the the four, the three,
the three starts he's had. I really like the way
he's played played. I just don't want him to think
that he always has to play the puck, because Joey

(01:28:32):
always plays the puck. Do what you do best, stop pucks,
and I think you're fine there. My number one star
is Joey Decord. Two point two goals against average in
his last five starts nine oh three in that same series,
plus the shutout in Long Island. Shutouts are always things
that stand out for me for goaltenders. Being able to
keep that zero up on the board to give his chance,

(01:28:53):
his team a chance to win with this one goal.
That's huge. He's my number one star.

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
Yeah, this one was a little tough for me. There
were all a lot of areas, a lot of ways
I could have gone with this one. I think my
for me, my my number one star or my my
number three star. I'm going to go cracking defense overall.
I think in the in the three games on the road,

(01:29:18):
the four games on the road, you only allow eight
goals in those four games. So I defensively, especially in
game two against the Islanders, I mean I couldn't single
out one person because they all played so well. They
were all blocking shots, like you said, even though Matty Benier's,
you know, was a ford. I'm just gonna go the

(01:29:39):
sixth defenseman. Those are my that's my number three star.
This was a hard one for me. But I'm gonna
give Mason Marshmiant my number two star. I think that
I'm giving I'm giving Marshman my number two star. He
has quietly been putting together points in four of his
last six games. He had a goal and two assists
on the trip. He had some good looks in that
game against the other night, so I'm gonna be amort.

(01:30:04):
He had the important goal, the very important goal again
against Pittsburgh, unforgettable, Selly and an onforgettable. I think the
celebration is why I'm giving Mason marsh Remember two stars.
And then and then Mike I felt I was terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:30:20):
Three me three, me three.

Speaker 3 (01:30:22):
I felt so bad for laughing, but it was just
I needed to put the Benny Hill music to it right.
Just but he got the goal and again plus two
on the week. I'm gonna I'm gonna give it to
to march Man and then again I'm with you, Mikey
my number one star. I couldn't single either one of
them out. Joey gets the shutout. Grubauer made massive saves

(01:30:44):
this week. I'm gonna go goaltending as I think I've
done twice already as my number one overall star of
the week.

Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
Thanksgiving plans. We know who's coming over. Fitz has got
the party of the thing about sixty four going over there.
Al's got to believe the intimate gathering. I got the
intimate gathering as well. So as far as food on
the table, if you could pick one big one or
one's gotta go. I'll go with this one. We have

(01:31:13):
tried turkey and ham over and over. We love it.
But my kids won't eat turkey, and my ten year
old has asked, can we try steaks? I love steak,
Amy love steaks. My seven year old will try it.
It's going down here for Thanksgiving New York's trips, my
dad's mac and cheese. I don't think we're going with

(01:31:34):
the canned yams though. That one's gotta go. But we're
doing roasted sweet potatoes on top of that.

Speaker 5 (01:31:39):
I think about the question a little bit differently, Mike.
I think about it if I sat down at the
table and I started looking around, what's the one dish
that I would be like, this is ridiculous, I'm leaving.
If it wasn't on the table, and you know what,
for me, that would be the gravy.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
Gravy.

Speaker 5 (01:31:57):
Listen, Turkey's turkey. We haven't a couple of times a year,
no one goes, oh the turkey, it's the best in
the world. Like it's usually pretty good, but you got
to have the gravy on top. I love stuffing. I'll
eat stuffing from anybody's table like a little bit. I
like a little bit of gravy on. I'll put the
gravy on the beans. I don't care. I want the
gravy on the table. The gravy has to be on
the table. The one dish that I could do without.

(01:32:18):
I don't need marshmallows on top of my vegetables, Like
I just still need those things. Just invented that, by
the way, someone that didn't like vegetables.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
Yeah, I love. I make a really good sweet potata
casserole and it calls for marshmallows, and I will.

Speaker 1 (01:32:34):
That's different though.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
No, no, no, I've put I've put I've put nia
marshmallow on my castle. I'm with you, I am in
the Turkey is supremely overrated category. I will still eat it.
It just gets dry at it. You can baste it,
you can put all the stuffing you want, you can
put all the juice needles you want into it. It

(01:32:58):
still is overrated. I think we're gonna that's butter. Yeah,
all right, I've done the champagne glazer, all the gravy
in the world. It's still dry. So I think turkey's overrated.
The one food that I can do without on Thanksgiving,
and it's not if it's there, I'm gonna eat it,
but like, I don't need it mashed potatoes. Like I

(01:33:19):
like mashed potatoes, but I think between the sweet potatoes,
between the stuff ping and the greens and the macaroni
and cheese, I got enough starch on my plate, and
mashed potatoes just takes up a lot of unnecessary room.
I'm not gonna not eat them. But if someone's like, hey,
we don't really need mat ptatoes, I'm like, great, neither
do I.

Speaker 1 (01:33:38):
My turkey goes in there anyway. If I'm having turkey,
something else goes in there. Butter goes in there. You
just can't eat it straight up. And I will at
least say this with turkey, you can make sandwich this year,
but eventually it just goes all into my dad's mac
and cheese at the very end of it.

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
We're doing a big ham for Thanksgiving this year.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
Oh love it, love it. And as far as take
is concerned, folks, if you're asking me medium, I'm rare.
The only way to go unless you ask. My wife
loves it well done. She will not have it any
other way, and she is completely unapologetic about it.

Speaker 3 (01:34:09):
There's anything wrong or if you're Alkiniski. You want it blue.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Still it's still moving, just.

Speaker 5 (01:34:19):
Taking the fridge ten minutes for weed. I'm good.

Speaker 3 (01:34:21):
That's it. That's it, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
Looking forward to this. It's nice to have a little
bit of time off here with some balance. We're gonna
start craving hockey again here pretty soon, but just two
games here for this week. All around Thanksgiving. Al had
a nice seguae. It's Gravy Boat Night, by the way,
plus the third Jersey Night going down here for Wednesday.
So get your tickets now if you have done so
at NHL dot com slash Cracking. More details there as

(01:34:44):
well that I'll do it here for us though, big
thank you, Tom Gozola forever at for Al. I'm my cappy. Thanksgiving.
Talk to you later.

Speaker 5 (01:34:52):
You're home for the Cracking.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
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