Hurricanes Show They're ROAD WARRIORS Amid Injury Chaos

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_03 (00:31):
Well, the North Carolina State Fair is over, and
the Carolina Hurricanes arefinally back home after a
grueling couple of weeks on theroad.
The Canes started the road tripin San Jose minus Jacob Slavin
and Piotr Kochekov.
And they lost Shane Gossespare,Andre Miller, Eric Robinson, and

(00:53):
William Carrier along the way.
Despite all the setbacks, Canesmanaged a respectable 4-2 record
on the trip.
What stood out for the Canes?
What areas are still work inprogress?
And what should we look forwardto as the Canes regroup after
the trip?
Joining me as always to talkCanes, Aaron, and Katie.

(01:16):
Ladies, how are we tonight?
Good, right?
Well, good.
We're gonna be talking about alot of uh interesting things.
Of course, this trip was uhquite the trip.
We couldn't have written ascript of so many injuries.
Uh I don't remember uh playersfalling like this uh so quickly

(01:36):
over a road trip or even athome.
Uh so it's quite the thing.
Um I guess what I wanted to dois maybe kick it off by talking
about the trip.
How did we feel about itoverall?
Those six games.
Uh we we talked a little bitafter the first one that they
had won with San Jose, and wewere hopeful that they would at
least do 500 and maybe better.

(01:58):
And it seems like they did.
So why don't we kick it off?
And, Aaron, what were yourthoughts?

SPEAKER_01 (02:04):
Well, it was certainly an eventful road trip.
A lot of good things happened.
Um, Alexander Nikishan got hisfirst goal.
You know, we we had a couple ofother fun moments, uh whether I
know we're gonna get to later,talking about some milestones
and things that the Canescrossed on the way.
But like you said, it was kindof overshadowed a little bit by
the sheer number of injuries.
Um, and even just even beforethe the trip started, realizing

(02:25):
that, you know, Jacob Slavin wasnot going to be available, Piotr
Kochekov was not going to beavailable.
There were a lot of things thatcould have gone very wrong.
It, you know, I think a lot ofus at the time looking at the
injuries as they began to mountup, you know, we were thinking
maybe are they gonna come backwith a couple of wins in
California?

(02:46):
And and maybe the and maybe notall three because the kings can
be a handful at times.
So I I think that there was thatsense that we didn't know for
sure how this was gonna go,especially because they did want
to rotate um Brendan Bussey inand you know, not rely on
Frederick Anderson for theentire trip, even though there
wasn't a back-to-back.

(03:06):
Um, but honestly, I think thatfor what they were facing and
for what the circumstances were,the Keynes wrote themselves a
really positive story.
Um, people rose to the occasion.
Um, Bussey was fantastic.
Um, the young guys coming inmade an impact in a positive way
on the lineup.
Um, it's not what you want.
And I thought that it wasinteresting that uh Rod

(03:28):
Brindamore's comment after itwas all said and done was
looking at the number of uh kidson the defense and so on, it's
not sustainable.
You can't expect to keep winningat this pace with everything
that's going on.
But all things considered, underthe circumstances, even if it
didn't always look like Keyneshockey, the fact that they
managed the the win rate thatthey did was very good.

(03:51):
And of the two losses, you know,uh I think Sebastian Aho put it
best, he repeated it today afterthe practice.
They were right in the gameagainst Dallas.
They were in that one till theend.
The only loss that was reallysignificant in terms of they
weren't really in it was theloss against Vegas.
That's pretty impressive whenyou look at everything that was
going on.
So I think it's a very positivething.

SPEAKER_03 (04:13):
Yeah, and and you know that uh for sure, they the
the Dallas game, I think whattwo goals were kind of as they
call friendly fires.
It was a tough one, particularlythat one by Ehlers was uh a bit
of a but the game that reallycaught my attention, of course,
was the game against Colorado,which was just a barn burner.

(04:34):
That was some kind of hockeygame.
Oh my goodness.
And I'm sure Katie, you werejust uh all over that.
So uh with that, I'll lead intouh what your thoughts were on
this trip as well.

SPEAKER_00 (04:46):
I thought they had a great trip.
Um, I'm perhaps gonna be take ita little bit more with a grain
of salt.
It's technically a 4-2-0 trip,but two of those wins came
either in overtime or ashootout.
So a lot of the games wereclosed, not just the games that
they lost, but the games thatthey won as well were very

(05:06):
close.
But you kudos to the Canes forsticking with it and being
determined and eking out thosewins because those points are
going to be important as as theteam goes along and the fact
that they've got them banked nowand they can build off of that
as they move forward.
I also thought that there wasout of necessity and both out of
choice, some tinkering thatBrenda Moore did, some for the

(05:29):
good, some perhaps not aseffective as we would have liked
it to be, but it gave I I thinkit gave the team a lot of
information moving forward, andthey'll be stronger for it as
those forward lines start togel, as the defense gets more
experience playing together,especially with the new absences

(05:49):
that have emerged as they mixand match and try to find the
right balance.
I think I think it's going tomake them stronger in the long
run, having to face a little bitof adversity.
I would not call this a lot ofadversity just yet, but a little
bit of adversity to get to apoint where they can become
really dominant moving forward.

SPEAKER_03 (06:11):
Yeah, and and and one of the stories, of course,
was the goaltending.
Um Freddie, Freddie was lightsout.
He was he was amazing.
And we really got to see uhBrandon Bussey up, you know,
close and personal.
This guy was uh he was in threegames.
He uh he came and stepped up,and and I thought he was he was

(06:31):
outstanding in those games.
You know, his numbers lookreally good.
He's got a 2.34 goals againstaverage, 9-11 save percentage.
So those numbers are solid.
You know, and we talked aboutthis uh in the last podcast that
uh McKeens were were ravingabout this guy and saying, look,
he's one of the best goaltendersoutside the NHL.
And he looked like that.

(06:52):
To me, he looked like a goaliethat's ready to play.
And and for sure, he made Idon't know how many uh 10 bell
saves.
Like he had breakaways on him,he had you know all kinds of
high danger chances, and he wasjust gobbling them up and and uh
and making great plays.
So I think the goaltending wasgreat.
Uh what did you think about Busyand and Anderson, uh Katie?

SPEAKER_00 (07:18):
Um I thought Anderson looked just like his
same steady self.
There perhaps a goal here orthere that you know it'd be nice
that he would have had and madethe Kane's job a little bit
easier.
But for early early days yet inthe season, he looked good.
And then Bussey lookedexcellent.
Um there was a hockey vizgraphic that showed um his

(07:39):
saving area, and if you look inthat high danger area right in
front of the crease, it's a lotof blue, and blue for a goalie
is good.
It means that when teams aregetting chances and shots close
in, that the goalie's makingthose saves way more often than
not.
And that's definitely what youwant to see.
You don't want to see that he'sbeing taken advantage of down

(07:59):
there either on initial shots orrebounds or that sort of
opportunity that uh teams liketo look for, especially when
they know that the goalie who isin the crease is inexperienced
in the NHL.
So I I thought he put up a verysolid performance.
I don't necessarily think thatmeans that he's gonna steal
Kochekov's job once Pyotr ishealthy.

(08:22):
There have been a lot of peopleon X talking about, you know, oh
well now, you know, we don'tneed Pyotr or Busy's our backup,
or he's like, come on, guys,it's three games.
You're really gonna oustKochekov because Busy had three
solid games.
Let's be realistic here.
We've got to have a much largersample size than that before we

(08:44):
can come anywhere close tomaking such statements or
declarations.
So good on Busy for his strong,um, for his strong play,
especially as it keeps Andersonhealthier and fresher.
But um it'll be it'll be veryinteresting to see moving
forward now that it looks likePiotr's about to come off the
shelf and be ready to play inthe near future.
How exactly the team manages theuh goalie rotation?

(09:07):
Because with three goalies,there's gonna be lots of
decisions to be made.

SPEAKER_03 (09:13):
Well, and and the key decision right off the
get-go is you know, are theygoing to keep Brandon on the
roster?
Uh, you know, because once Piotrcomes back, uh the question
becomes, you know, what happenswith Brandon Bussey.
Uh I I, for one, believe theyshould keep him on the roster.
I mean, he's not an expensiveguy, and they've got cap room.

(09:33):
And I think the most importantthing is that uh, you know, we
know they're gonna have setbacksand injuries, and the more they
can rest a guy like uh FreddieAnderson throughout the season
and not be concerned about theirgoaltending, I think is good.
Bussey to me looks like he's atremendous third goaltender, and
he may he may be a guy that uhgets more playing time depending

(09:55):
on how he does.
So um not a bad situation atall.
And we have to see how PPioter's gonna do.
We haven't seen him at all thisyear.
Uh he's a guy that uh last yearwas not his best year, and he's
he's gonna have some pressure onhim now for those starts.
I mean, and that's a good thing.
That's that's a good thing.

(10:16):
And uh hopefully he can find hisgame, and then if well, if
you've got three of these guysgoing, that's uh that's a good
story.
Because I remember sometimes asyou do when we only had one,
yeah, because the other guyswere in turn, or sometimes none,
because we had Tokarski and ofcourse uh Spencer.
So Spencer Martin.
So um yeah.

(10:37):
Anyway, uh good story with thegoaltending.
Um, you know, I wanted to talk alittle bit about the forward
crew and what we saw.
And and I thought it would beinteresting to kind of take a
look at it in a little bit of adifferent way, and that is to
kind of break down the linesfrom a perspective of, you know,
who are the players that aregetting it done?
And it looks like it's beingdone in duos, and I know you're

(11:01):
all over this, Katie, and and uhwe've talked a little bit about
this in the past.
What do you think about theforward crowd and what are these
these duos that you think are uhare really getting it done for
the Kings?

SPEAKER_00 (11:14):
Well, if you look at the top nine, it seems like each
line has a duo that has reallystarted to gel and established
an identity for their line.
That you have Aho with Jarvisand the way that they're
clicking and connecting with thegoal scoring and the point
streak, and they're doing it ina lot of different situations.

(11:35):
Um you look at the Stahl line,which is the Keynes identity
line.
No surprise, he and Martinookare dominating possession and
that sort of thing, and theyhave the best goals for a
percentage of any of the lines.
Again, not really a surprisebecause of the the role that
they play on uh on the canes andand what they're trusted with.

(11:56):
And then you look at howStancoven and Blake very, very
impressively are creating a lotof chemistry.
They're learning each other'sstyle of play, anticipating um
where they're gonna be, and andreally just bringing that
bulldog mentality to that lineand pushing play forward,
driving play, and just the thetenacity that they're bringing.

(12:20):
So those those three lines withthose duos on each with each duo
on those lines has been veryimpressive to see.
And it will be interestingmoving forward, both with injury
and with uh just creatingchemistry to see what Brenda
Moore does as far as completingthose lines with the additional

(12:41):
winger.

SPEAKER_03 (12:42):
Yeah, and we'll get into a bit of a discussion on
that.
Um, you know, Sebastian Aho, youknow, he's he's off to a good
start.
He's had some key goals, ofcourse.
Seth Jarvis has been incredible.
Aaron, what are you seeing withSeth Jarvis this year?
What's changed?

SPEAKER_01 (12:58):
I think honestly, what changed for him, um, you
know, I don't know if you guysall watched the uh the uh face
off inside the NHL special withSeth Jarvis in it.
You know, I think we talkedabout that a little bit before.
But I really I was struck by howdetermined he is to get to that
next level and to, you know,prove that he does in fact
belong in this league and thathe's, you know, he is worthy of

(13:21):
all of the things that arecoming to him.
So you see that mentality thathe's putting in on the ice.
I'm sure it's the same thing,you know, on practices and and
the off-the-ice stuff too.
But um, I see a tenacity that Ididn't see before, I think, to
make, you know, get those secondand third opportunities to not,
you know, get muscled off theplay as easily as he used to
back in the day.
Um, but I also see that he's youknow, he's very adaptable.

(13:45):
You know, it seems like he'sbeen very good at figuring out
what Sebastian Aho is doing andthen playing off of that.
And Aho's the kind of centerthat he does not play well with
every winger out there.
You can't just rotate wingersnext to him and have it all
work.
We've talked about this manytimes.
There have been many wingersthat, you know, could have been
top-line wingers with the canes,but it just didn't gel with with
Sebastian Aho.

(14:06):
So I think having Jarvis be thatguy, that guy that can just read
off of him and know what he'sdoing and and figure out how to
maximize those opportunitiesthat are getting created and and
then set you know Aho up forthose opportunities as well.
We saw this in that really nicegoal the other day.
And just being that having thatconnection, that that uh mental
connection that that allows themto thrive so much together on

(14:27):
the ice.
So um, you know, it's it'sputting Jarvis in a position to,
you know, set an NHL record forthe most game-winning goals in
the first four or five games ofthe season.
I think it was first four, if Iremember correctly.
And then he's had more he's he'shad uh um, I think he's had
seven goals so far on theseason.

(14:49):
Yeah, so you know, this is whatwe want to see from Jarvis.
We all wanted to see a big yearfrom him.
He's gonna be so key to theteam's success.
So the more these two can build,and then you know, like Katie
said, rounding out that trio,we're gonna get to the to the
subject of Ealers in a littlebit, I think, but that's the key
is to to figure out how to turna duo into a trio.
And I think I really liked howum both of them have been trying

(15:13):
to do that, both Aho and Jarvis.
I think that they will breakthrough.

SPEAKER_03 (15:16):
So yeah, I mean, Aho's been off to a good start.
Um actually he's surprised me alittle bit because he usually
takes a little bit longer to getthe engine going.
So this year he's jumped offquickly.
Uh with Jarvis, um you know, oneof the things that I start to
see with Seth Jarvis is thathe's taking more control of the
team.
Uh like he's a guy that becauseof his the character that he is

(15:40):
and just the personality he has,he's just he's just everywhere,
right?
And everybody loves him.
He's he's and and he he's backseverything up with outstanding
play.
And I think that's that's reallysomething that that is going to
be kind of critical over time ashe he again he's starting to get
more and more attention on himwhen the can't play.

(16:03):
Everybody wants to talk, ofcourse, to Jarvis.
They want to see what he's upto, and and of course, he's
producing at such a great rateright now.
And the other thing that we'veheard about Jarvis, and we heard
about this on the broadcastquite a bit, is that he has
improved his speed, foot speed.
And this is uh this is you knowusing some kind of a special
technique with uh what was itthere, ribbons or or resistance

(16:25):
bands.
Yeah, resistance bands, that'swhat it was.
Yeah, resistance bands.
I wanted to get that.
Um but yeah, uh he wasdefinitely uh definitely working
hard to improve that part of hisgame, and you know, it shows.
And he you know, he's not gonnascore, you know, 90 or 100
goals, but uh, you know, I thinkhe's definitely on track for 40
or more goals this year, whichwould be huge for the Kanes.

(16:48):
Now we talked a little bit aboutuh Jordan Stahl.
I know Aaron, you're reallyexcited about uh about Jordan
hitting 300.

SPEAKER_01 (16:57):
He got uh goal number 300 and goal number 300
and one.
And you know, we were all on hattrick watch for Jordan Stahl,
which is always such a funnything when that happens at the
beginning of the season.
Um and he also um I believe itwas the other milestone was that
he hit his 900th game as a cane.
We all know that he's been inthe league a lot longer than
that and has played many moregames than 900.

(17:17):
But that was still a specialmoment for the team because you
know it puts him up there interms of how you know how many
games a Canes player has played,he puts him right there.
So um I that was great to seeboth of those milestones get hit
in.
I think it was uh backsubsequent games, it wasn't both
in the same game.
But um, you know, uh because webecause we do kind of laugh
about the the stall lines, youknow, getting lots and lots and

(17:39):
lots of chances, but not reallyalways cashing in.
It was a great moment for theteam.
And I know that you know,because they do really love
their captain, that was a greatmoment for them to get to
celebrate.
So um, you know, and uh it wasjust it was a lot of fun.
I think that um I'm not sure umif if Martin Nook was more
excited on the ice, it seemedlike.

(18:02):
But it was it was it was reallyspecial.

SPEAKER_03 (18:04):
As you know, and they're they're tremendous uh
part of the canes uh DNA forsure.
Um yeah, so it's so great to seethat.
And and it was fun, by the way.
Speaking of these milestones, itwas so much fun seeing uh Brent
Burns with his 1500th game andall over that, of course, and uh

(18:24):
and a lot of the canes uh gottogether with uh with um with
Brandon and uh and some of theother folks like Natus and I
think Truri as well.
So that was kind of I thinkthat's great stuff, and and I
really like to see that becauseuh you know these are good
friends, and yes, when they geton the ice, it's war, but
they're gonna be friends.
One final thing on the on theduos, um the Stank Open uh Blake

(18:49):
thing, we did hear somethinginteresting, and I think it it
is a part of why it's startingto work for them is that they're
becoming very, very closefriends.
Uh those two guys are are thickas thieves now.
And and I think, you know,again, that kind of uh
camaraderie really goes a longway.
And we're seeing the connectionon the ice as well.
They're making a lot of playstogether, they're looking for

(19:10):
each other.
Um you see it more and more allthe time, and I think that's
gonna be great.
And and both of these guys aregonna grow together, and you
know, they'll have their bumpsin the road for sure.
But uh, but that's exciting.
Now, uh, when we talk about whatwas working with the duos, we
know there are some concernswith uh with some of the other
areas.

(19:31):
If we look at at the scoringside, we've got some key players
without a goal.
Um Nikolai Ehlers has notscored, and Andre Svechnikov,
his story is even bleaker thanthat.
Um let's start with Andre.
Um Katie, what have you got tosay about uh what's happening
with Mr.
Svetnikov?

SPEAKER_00 (19:51):
Well, I'm gonna start off with one thing that is
a positive before we get intothe plenty of critiques that
there are as far as he isconcerned.
When you look at his hockey vizshot map, the majority of his
shots are coming from right infront of the net.
So at least when he is gettingshots through in attempts on
net, he is doing it from closerange, he's doing it from places

(20:13):
that are dangerous, he's usinghis size to get to those areas
and create opportunities he justhasn't cashed in yet.
So at least there's thatparticular silver lining in
what's going on.
The problem is there's just notenough of it yet.
He's not getting enough of thosechances.
And it's going to be harder forhim to find that footing because

(20:34):
he's been bounced around due tothe lack of production.
He started up on the secondline, then he got moved down to
the fourth line, and now withthe injuries, he's up with the
stall line.
And so each place he has tofigure out his line mates, he
has to get reacquainted withthem, he has to figure out where
he's going to be.
But it could end up being a goodthing for him because he has

(20:55):
played with the stall linebefore.
I do think, you know, he stilladds some size and as well as
some skill to that particulargroup.
So once he gets comfortableplaying with them again, maybe
it will help open up someopportunities for him to feel
like himself once more.
Because I think that's been thebiggest thing when I've looked

(21:16):
at him is he doesn't feel likeAndrey Svechnikov out there.
He is playing with the with theheart and the determination that
we know he is capable of, thatwe saw in the playoffs just this
last season.
And so I I want I want Svech tofind his heart again.
I want him to find that raisond'etre of his hockey game, of

(21:39):
his reason for being who he isand and providing that to the
team because he is he is sounique that the canes are
lacking size for their skilledforwards.
He is the one who can fill thatparticular role.
And until he finds his stride,it's just a big gap right now in

(22:00):
their offensive production.

SPEAKER_03 (22:03):
Aaron?

SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
I would agree with that.
Um and I think that I think thatthere's a lot going on with
Andre Svechnikov.
Some people have been pointingout on X that some his slump in
production to a certain extentgoes back into last year and
possibly even further than that,especially at five on five.
You know, um his five-on-fivegoal production, um, I believe I

(22:25):
I would like to credit theaccount, but all of a sudden I
can't remember which accountbrought this up.
But um, he had eightfive-on-five goals um dating
back to March of 2024.
So we're we're talking ahundred, his last 100 games.
He's only had eight five-on-fivegoals.
So that's not the kind ofproduction.
Now, obviously, he's stillscored a lot because he's put up

(22:47):
a lot of uh points.
He's he's still done a lot onthe power play, he's still done
a lot, you know, in othercircumstances, you know, three
on three overtime, that kind ofthing.
He's he's not um he's putting upa lot of assists, so his his
desire to pass the puck is verystrong, you know.
We know that, unfortunately.
Um, but he's just not had thefive-on-five production that he
has needed.
But when to me, when I look atthat though, when I when I break

(23:09):
that down and look at that, um,you guys know that I'm a big
believer in how time on icereally impacts production.
And I was looking back throughsome of that, you know, and um
Svechnikov has played almost allof his career with the Kanes as
a second-line winger.
He gets second-line minutes.
So when you really break downhis production, though, he's

(23:33):
producing for most of hisseasons, I believe four of the
seven seasons, at or above a70-point pace.
Injuries have cut those pointsshort, but he's producing at
that pace most of those seasons.
There are three exceptions.
His rookie season, he did notproduce at a 70-point pace.
Everyone would be talking aboutthat.
Um, the COVID-shortened 56 gameseason, he had fallen off right

(23:55):
before the season ended.
I think he would have probablycome back up because they
usually do, but he was a littleshy of that point pace.
And then last season, lastseason he was only on a 54, I
believe, point pace, 54 or 55.
I can't remember now, but it wasone of those.
So he wasn't getting, you know,even with the minutes he was
getting and even with the timehe was getting, he wasn't
getting there.

(24:16):
But I also think, gosh, youknow, we're ex we've been
expecting, we're used to Spetchthat produces at a first-line
winger pace while playing on thesecond line.
So that's been kind of a, youknow, the canes have have
benefited from that.
And last year he actuallyproduced more like what you
would expect from a second linewinger.
So I think that maybe we need tojust kind of look at those

(24:38):
expectations that we have andsay, how much of this,
especially post all theinjuries, especially with
everything that's been going onwith the deployment, how much of
this could be corrected by justa run of good luck on the power
play?
You know, getting himself backinto the confidence that says, I
can score, because you know,nobody puts up that amount of
points with second-line minutesunless they're very, very good.

(25:00):
So that's that version ofSpechnikov has not gone away.
And the people that are out on Xcalling for him to be traded,
you know, because he hasn'tscored in eight games, they're
not looking at the picture ofwhat's going on here.
Whatever he needs to get in andfix, whatever's going on in his
mind, he has to remember that heis an elite player.
And there's no reason whatsoeverthat he can't get back to that.

SPEAKER_03 (25:22):
Yeah, I guess where I am on this is that last year
was not a great year, I didn'tthink for him.
Uh he had a great playoff, buthe did not have a particularly
good year.
And look, he's an$8 million guy.
Uh he was a second overall pick.
He's got to do much better.
I mean, I that that's just it.
He's got to do a whole lotbetter.

(25:43):
And the Canes need him to do alot better.
I mean, that's the other side ofit.
And Katie, you're right.
I mean, it's a small, smallforward crew for the most part,
and he's a guy that comes in andcan make a difference.
He's not getting it done.
It's simple.
He's not getting it done.
And he's got to find his wayback.
And they're giving him chances,for goodness sakes.

(26:04):
Uh he's on the he was on thefirst power play for a long
time.
He, you know, he was put on thesecond line for a while.
Now he's with the dads, andthey, you know, they really
helped him last year.
Like he struggled.
He went with them, they kind ofgot him back on his game.
And I think that's the hoperight now is they can they can
shelter him quite a bit, right?
They can protect him.
And all he has to do is go outand you know add a few hits here

(26:29):
and there and try to score agoal.
But I'm I'm I'm not particularlyhappy with Svechnikov right now.
And, you know, the longer thisgoes on, it becomes more
difficult for the Keynes.

SPEAKER_01 (26:41):
They need to be.
I I think that's true.
I think that's true.
But the one thing that I wouldsay is that, you know, listening
to uh again, listening to Rod inthe postgame this morning, um or
post practice this morning, hehe was talking about, you know,
that that this is really just,you know, um that Svechnikov
does care too a little too muchat times when he's going through

(27:01):
these kinds of things.
And you know, that's the thatthat that's when they start
talking about they're grippingtheir stick too tightly, you
know, they're they're trying tomake everything happen.
They're they're just they'refrustrated, and the more
frustration builds, the harderit is.
But you know, one one littlesign of maturity that I have to
say here, you know, that that uhwe we should probably notice is
that even with all of the thingsthat are going on, he still

(27:22):
doesn't have any penalties.
Um and that that is one of theonly uh areas of concern I had
about uh Jackson Blake is thathe's up there at the top.
We tied tied for the top withwith eight penalty minutes.
We we you we don't want uh Blaketo start taking the
undisciplined penalties.
But uh but in terms of Spetch,you know, I think that I
honestly think that maybe heshould have just stayed on that

(27:43):
second line just a little bitlonger because they were coming
up against two um relativelyeasy teams, and he got yanked,
didn't he, in the beginning ofthe San Jose game.
So, I mean there was I I thinkgiving him just a little more
time to gel with Stancoven andBlake would have been maybe more
positive.
I'm not sure why the decisionwas made to switch Hall up there

(28:03):
that fast.

SPEAKER_00 (28:05):
So um, I I definitely agree.
I'd like to have seen him staythere longer, but I'm gonna
disagree just a touch in thewhile we don't want him taking
undisciplined penalties, I dothink the fact that he hasn't
taken any yet shows that hedoesn't have confidence in his
power game.
And when that is the mosteffective, it's when he's

(28:25):
playing at a power forward wherehe's combining size and strength
and skill together.
So, no, I don't want himspending two minutes in the box
every day.
But at the same time, I want himto have that self-belief in who
he is and the raw physical giftsthat he has that make him such
an effective player and go outthere and use it and use that

(28:49):
body because he he doesn't havea lot of hits on the season.
I think it's almost like five.
Yeah, five hits.
And he he's got to he's got tobe a bigger physical presence in
that.
And I think I think if he canlean into that side of his game
and say, okay, look, the pointsare gonna come eventually.
I I can't control that.
What I can control is how I goout and play.

(29:10):
I can go out and play with thesame kind of enthusiasm that
Blake and Stenkoven are playingwith.
But since I'm a big boy, I cango out and I can be a lot more I
can be even more impactful inthe corners and make it life
miserable for the other team toplay against me and get the puck
away from them and find my linemates and create those chances.

(29:32):
And being on the stall line,will they already a good puck
possession line.
The Jordans are going to havethe puck a ton, which is going
to give Svetch a lot ofopportunities.
So yeah, it would be nice if hehad had more time on that second
line.
But again, if he can get back tohis identity of a power forward
and go out there and play toughphysical hockey next to the next

(29:54):
to the stall, uh next to Stahland Martinook, it it could help
jumpstart him, and that's whatI'm really hoping for.

SPEAKER_03 (30:01):
Well, I'm I'm happy he's with uh Stahl and
Martinook, frankly, because heplayed well with them last year.
And uh and you know, to yourpoint, Katie, and and this is
kind of where I I was not sohappy with Fetch, is that you
know, when players who driveoffense are not scoring and not,
you know, doing muchoffensively, usually they lean

(30:22):
on the other parts of theirgame.
That's really the way it works,right?
So, you know, they're theyimprove their defensive side or
they're laying the hits on, oryou know, they're doing
something.
They're contributing in someway.
And you can sit there and say,yeah, the goals are going to
come.
They're going to get theirpoints.
But he's making something happenout there.
And that's been the back to thiswhole question of, you know,

(30:42):
what's really going on withSvetch.
And yeah, maybe he's beatinghimself too much up when he
looks in the mirror and says,hey, you're not getting it done.
But ultimately, he's got tostart to do that.
And he can.
I mean, we don't know of aphysical injury of any kind.
I haven't heard of anything.
Um, so you know, the only personthat that's kind of holding
himself back is him.

(31:03):
So we need him to start to getout there, get in the game, get
his face into it, you know,start making things happen, and
and ultimately successfulfollow.
And I keep coming back to thesame thing.
The Canes need Svechnikov to beSveznikov.
I mean, last year in theplayoffs, you heard the the
announcers and they were justgoing crazy.

(31:24):
They were just, you know, sayingthis is the power forward, you
know, that you really want onyour team, and and he's on the
canes, and we've been waitingfor him to do this kind of
thing.
And and he just was dominant attimes.
And how do you go from being sodominant to to struggling like
this?
And I actually expected him tocome out this year, you know,
out of the gate and justcontinue on.

SPEAKER_01 (31:46):
That's why I said Well, one thing, one thing I
think that that people havediscussed is that you know he
actually had a very goodtraining camp in preseason.
He was looking great.
And then he took that um reallyawful hit, you know, in the last
game against Nashville.
And and some people have pointedout I now I don't think there's
a physical injury because Idon't think they would be
letting him play, you know,especially since that was before
all the other injuries happened,so they could have you know sat

(32:08):
him out if he needed to sit out.
But um, but just because itwasn't a physical injury doesn't
mean that it didn't kind of, youknow, give him a little bit of
that mental setback of, youknow, maybe I should be reigning
things in a little bit more.
I don't want to end up withanother injury, I don't want to
end up sidelined again at animportant moment, you know.
And and I mean, I I know frompeople who've suffered those
injuries before that thatgetting over the fear of a

(32:32):
relapse or a subsequent injuryis very difficult.
So it I it could be that that'sin his head.

SPEAKER_03 (32:38):
So I think you're onto something because you know
he did have that really seriousinjury.
Uh that he it took him quite awhile to come back from it.
And and you know, maybe it'smaybe it's lingering in his
head, you know, like who knows,right?
And you're right.
Uh these guys sometimes they'renot the same when they come back
after these injuries.
So we just have to wait and see.
Um, I hope there isn't somethingelse like personal or otherwise

(33:01):
that's that's underneath allthis.
Uh, you know, I hope that he'sfine in that regard and and
he'll find his way through itfor sure.
It's only eight games, and andthat's not a season playing
stretch of the imagination.
Now, the other guy that's kindof getting tight with his hands
on the stick and will continueto do so, and probably more so
in the coming days, of course,is Nikolai Eagles.

(33:22):
Uh one of the things you wouldhave hoped is that he would have
got a goal quickly and get theyou know, get that off his back
and be able to the monkey offhis back and be able to go
forward, but um not the case.
And I I still am waiting for himto be a little bit more
dominant.
Uh you know, I saw him do somethings with Winnipeg that seemed

(33:42):
really, you know, they wereincredibly impressive at the
time, and I haven't seen so muchof that with the Canes.
What are your thoughts on that,uh, Katie?

SPEAKER_00 (33:50):
I think it's just a matter of time.
Uh coming to a new team, youjust need to be able to adjust
to get to know not only yourline mates, but all of your
teammates and the systems andhow they're played.
Um I think I think we shouldstart to see it pick up a little
bit more.
I remember a couple of seasonsago when they were talking about
Jonathan Druin having joined theAves and after the first 10

(34:12):
games, everyone was ready to tryto ship him off.
He's done, he's no good, youknow, get him out of here.
Just nonstop talk about that.
And it was about game 12 or sowhere it's like it all clicked,
it all made sense, and he tookoff and had a fantastic season
two seasons ago.
I expect something like that tohappen with Ealers as well.

(34:35):
I think over the next handful ofgames, it's gonna be like, okay,
click, I got it.
I understand now.
I've been playing with Aho andJarvey long enough that it makes
sense.
He's already starting to pick upthe assists.
I think that will end up growinginto goals.
And watch out.

(34:56):
If that line starts humming,where it's not just Aho and
Jarvis doing met marvelousthings, but Ealers is getting up
to their level as well, they aregoing to be uh one of the best
top lines in the league forsure, because they're they have
so many weapons, both in theplaymaking as well as the goal
scoring department.

SPEAKER_03 (35:15):
Well, that brings up an interesting question because,
of course, uh back to uh youknow the social media
discussions on several differentplatforms, uh they've been uh
suggesting that ELERS should bemoved off that line.
They're suggesting otherchanges, and that brings up an
interesting discussion is is dowe think the wingers are in the
right places?
Like we talked about the duos.

(35:36):
Do we think that the folks whoare currently manning those
other spots on those lines arethe right ones?
Uh or should there be some othermoves that uh that we think as
uh coach of the of the squadshould be done?
Um Aaron, what are you thinking?
Are the lines the way theyshould be?

SPEAKER_01 (35:55):
I think that there's always room to to to change
things up in some senses.
I'm not as quick to do that, Ithink, as as uh Rod Ben Moore
usually is.
But one of the things that'sinteresting to me is that Ehlers
is, you know, basically stapledto that line.
And I don't think he's going tobe moved off of the Aho and
Jarvis line.
I think that they want that lineto work.
I think they need it to workbecause, like Katie said, you

(36:16):
know, that would be such athreat.
The Canes have not had anoffensive threat on their top
line.
You know, that they they've had,I mean, obviously Aho and Jarvis
have been really good, but theyhaven't managed to get that trio
that when you see them come overthe boards, your first reaction
is, oh no, the way it is whenit's McKinnon and company.
So Natheus, yep.

(36:37):
Um, so we we we think that Ithink that that's part of it.
But now one of the things that Ifind interesting is I think that
in a previous season, if if RodBrindemore had acquired Nikolai
Ehlers Wednesday Vincent Trochekwas still on the team, I think
that there would have been somerotation.
There would have been, oh, youknow what, let's take the
pressure off.
Let's put him on the second linefor a little bit.
You're not gonna do that whenyou're easing Logan Stankhoven

(36:59):
into playing center at the NHLlevel in his first season
because that is way too muchresponsibility and pressure for
a 22-year-old who is playingcenter for the first time in the
NHL.
You just can't.
And that's one of the thingsabout the Stancoven line that
we're gonna, I think, have torealize is that they're not
going to be putting people thereas randomly as they have done in

(37:20):
the past.
I mean, I think we all know thatwhen the when the center
rotation was uh however manygames of Kokeni and then however
many games of Jack Drury andthen however many, you know, the
the the wingers also rotated alot on both of those, you know,
in both of those scenarios.
But you're not gonna see thatwith Logan Stancoven at 2C
because he's just now startingto play center in the NHL, and

(37:41):
Rod Brindamore is very carefulabout that, you know, especially
with a player that he obviouslyhas a lot of um high hopes for.
So you can't put Ealers next toStancoven.
So he's gotta play next to Aho.
It's not gonna happen thatthey're gonna do that.
I don't think, I mean, it couldhappen at a shift here or there,
but you're not gonna do that fora game on purpose unless there's
some other circumstance going onthat that you know we don't want

(38:02):
to think about in terms ofinjury.
Um that creates a problem,though, in a sense, to me,
because one other winger that Ithink we've talked about is
whether Taylor Hall belongs onthat line with Blake and
Stenkoven.
And I think the reason TaylorHall is on that line primarily
is because he's a veteran playerwith a lot of experience and a
lot of savvy and a lot and theability to, you know, not only

(38:24):
keep some of the more predatoryopponents at bay, but also to
negotiate with officials whenneeded, because you know the
officials are gonna be morewilling to engage in
conversation with a seasonedveteran and with a lot of than
with two 22-year-olds who are intheir mind maybe causing some
havoc.
So you've got to have thatpresence.

(38:44):
So that also kind of I thinkties their hands a little bit.
Um now, if Svechnikov can gethis game back and they can put
him back with them, um, he'scertainly not new to the to the
NHL.
He's been this is his eighthseason.
So he can he can take that role.
But apart from Svechnikov,you're not gonna be putting the
the one thing I want to just getout here right now, for all

(39:05):
those people out there that arealready doing this, you will not
be putting Bradley Nadeau withLogan Stankoven and Jackson
Blake at this juncture, not now.
It's not going to happen.
It may never happen because ofthe size issue, but even if they
decide that's not going to be abig problem given the strength
of Nadeau, please stop tellingRod Rindamore to put Nadeau with

(39:28):
Stancoven and Blake.
They're not going to listen toyou.
It's it's a lost cause.
Same situation.
You can't have three guys withthat little experience in their
current roles and that age, thatthat young of an age, uh on a
line together that that istaking that much time on the ice
and having that many minutes.
It's just not going to happen.

SPEAKER_03 (39:47):
But you know, Aaron, it's creating a bit of a problem
because Bradley Nadeau is not afourth line.

SPEAKER_04 (39:53):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (39:53):
No, he's not.
Um he's being wasted on thefourth line.
Um he's a player that is clearlyready to play in the National
Hockey League and is certainlyhas the respect of uh Brendan
Moore and the offensive sidebecause he had him on that top
power play.
So that tells you a lot.
I think they got to try tofigure out how they can get

(40:13):
Nadeau up higher in the lineupsomehow.
I I really do.
And and I don't know how that'sdone yet.
I I don't.
I mean, you you're pushing thebuttons to say, hey, he
shouldn't be on the second line,he's not gonna be on the first
line, where does he go?
I think at some point Nadeau'sgonna have to get a look on one
of those lines because he's justtoo good to be on the fourth
line.

(40:34):
And I think he's a better playerthan a Taylor Hall.
Okay, I think he's a guy thathas a bigger upside, of course,
for sure.
And I'd like to see him playingand getting the minutes, and and
that's the challenge you've got.
And I understand why all thefolks are screaming on X and
other social media platformsbecause I'm not happy with him
playing on the fourth line andgetting you know light minutes.

(40:57):
I mean, even in short play, hegets opportunities.
He's a guy that's around theclock, he gets great shots.
I mean, he he is an offensive,you know, jam.
He can really play.
And again, I don't think heneeds to do a whole lot more in
Chicago.
And if he goes back there,that's fine.
But boy, his defensive play inthe last game was probably the
best of most of the forwards.

(41:18):
I mean, he was tremendous.
Uh so I don't know how muchadditional work he needs there
as well.
But again, it's a it's achallenge that Rod's gonna have
is to figure out how to castthis forward crew.
And of course, there's morecomplexity that could come into
this later because we fullyexpect at some point that Tulski
is going to try to bolster theforwards.

(41:39):
He's already been talking aboutthat.
So, what does that mean?
Who moves, who goes, and howdoes it change the forward
lineup as well?
Um, again, uh the lineup looksgood.
It doesn't need a lot of changeright now.
I mean, they're winning games,that's fine.
Uh, you can always improve.
And I think the challenges thatwe we are gonna continue to see

(42:00):
are I mean Stankoven has gotsome work to do.
You know, he's got to improvehis face-off side for sure.
Uh, you know, he's been spendingtime with Roding to get a little
bit better in the dot.
You know, he's been sitting at,you know, somewhere around 45%.
So he's got to do a lot betterin the face-off dot.
And and you know, he's stillworking, you know, to figure out

(42:22):
how he's gonna do his defensivework.
And and one of the things thatwe do see occasionally with that
line is they're beingoverpowered, they're being
outmuscled.
And that's it, that's a concernfor me, a big concern.
And particularly, you know,these are the easy days.
This is the early part of theseason.
Wait till we get into the thetough, you know, kind of final
quarter and into the playoffs,that's completely different.

(42:44):
And I I think that's somethingthat's got to be addressed
somehow.
Um because we just don't have abig enough forward crew.
Uh, you know, if you talk aboutour like five of the top six
forwards aren't big guys, right?
So uh this is this is somethingthat's gonna have to be
addressed.
But anyway, uh some concerns upthere.

(43:06):
We'll see how it plays out.
I don't see Rod making anychanges.
He's not gonna move anybodyaround right now.
I don't see that at all.

SPEAKER_01 (43:12):
Not at the moment, no.

SPEAKER_03 (43:14):
No.
And so, you know, for those ofus who would like to be armchair
coaches or GMs or whatever, Idon't think we'll we'll have a
chance to do much.
Now, if we want to take this astep further, of course, one of
the areas that has beenincredibly painful has been the
power play.
And it's just woeful.
Um, I you know, we've gonethrough stretches where the

(43:34):
power play hasn't been verygood, but I don't think we've
gone through a stretch whereit's been this bad.
Um, so they're two for 29, sothat's a a massive 6.9% success
rate so far.
I don't know what the leader is,it's probably somewhere around
35% or something, it usually is.
So, you know, that it's a littlebit of a gap between them and

(43:57):
and the top of the league.
So a little bit of work to do.
Now, they've been missing theghost, uh, gosh despair, of
course.
Uh we hope he's coming backsoon.
But but what are we seeing withthe power play in general,
Katie?

SPEAKER_00 (44:11):
I think there's a lot of indecisiveness that
happens on the power play.
I think it's very much keepingtoo much to the perimeter.
Um it's and and it's justcontradicting the way that the
canes are playing five-on-five,which has been so successful for
them, you think they just leaninto that even more on the power

(44:32):
play.
You you look at the hockey bizchart for their five on five
production, and the majority oftheir production is this dark
red splotch right in front ofthe goal, and they're finishing
their chances.
I know it's crazy, the canes arefinishing their chances.
Five on five.
Why is it not translating theirtheir highest skilled players

(44:52):
that are creating all this fiveon five when they have more
space and more opportunities totake advantage of defenses?
And so it's it's it's reallykind of baffling because when
you look at the the hockey vischart for the power play,
there's this big blue spot infront of the goals.
What how is it going from lotsof chances five on five to very

(45:15):
little chances on the powerplay?
And they're just they're I thinkthey're just trying to be too
perfect.
They think that all of a suddenthey need to become Connor
McDavid and Leon Dreisidel outthere instead of being McCain's
and working working the productin, getting, you know, not just
w shooting from the point likethey used to do when Burns was

(45:37):
on the power play and createchances, but chances, you know,
yeah, try to snipe it, but snipeit in such a way that if it
doesn't go in, it creates arebound, it creates an
opportunity.
Get the guys like Blake or whatshould be Specznikov's role as
the power forward in there,battling for loose pucks and

(45:57):
either getting them back out tohis to the other players for
additional chances or banginghome the rebounds if that
opportunity is available.
They just they need to be alittle bit more lunch pale when
it comes to it and a little morestraight line approach until it
starts working.
All of this looking for theperfect pass, trying to make

(46:18):
that one extra perfect play soit's a slam dunk of a goal that
is just not working, and theyneed to they need to reset and
re um re create the power playin a more meat and potato sort
of approach.

SPEAKER_04 (46:37):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (46:39):
Um I agree with all that.
Um I I think uh there there wasa I think it was, I don't
remember, but I think it wasAdam Gold the other day said
they should just put the stallline out there, and he was only
half joking.
If it wasn't for this beatissue, it would probably have
already been done.
Um but I mean I I think thatthere's uh you know, there was
an interesting uh article thatwas just posted shortly before
we sat down to record um by RyanHenkel.

(47:01):
Um, and he said that there's twoproblems that that we haven't
really touched on with Katie'suh discussion.
One is that they're only winningabout 44% of their power play
face-offs.
And that is not good.
You have to win power playface-offs, especially since the
other problem is that they'renot very good right now.
After a good first two games athome, they have not been good at
entering the zone if they losepossession.

(47:23):
It has been very hard.
It's been a battle they can'tseem to get through.
And that may be part of wherethat size issue comes into play.
You have a lot of skilledforwards, but they're very small
for the most part.
It is hard to get through fourlarge penalty killers on the
other team if your skill guysare on the smaller side.
It's just gonna be that way.
Um, the first unit has had moretrouble than the second unit,

(47:44):
which is interesting because youknow there's small players on
both.
But um the other thing is thateven though the Kanes have not
suffered the indignity of ashort-handed goal against yet,
um, they are close to uh thebottom in terms of giving up
short-handed chances.
I I think uh Henkel said thatthey were in the same rank as uh
right near the Calgary Flames,and we all know the Flames

(48:04):
haven't been doing well.
So um so you don't want to begiving up those short-handed
chances and you and you don'twant to be um taking, losing
those face-offs because then youcan't get back in the zone.
Um that's definitely um limitingtheir ability to do the one
thing they really, really needto do that they're not doing,
which is to get in front of thenet.
They need to get in front of thegoaltender.
They need somebody who's there,the net front guy to screen the

(48:28):
goaltender, to, like Katie said,pounce on those rebounds.
And that's where I look at thethe even the ideal units with
Ghost of Spear back and and youknow, sorry, Ghost of Spears
Halloween.
Anyway, um when got with with uhwith Shane Ghost of Spear, he is
coming back.
I believe that that they're Ithey're not positive that he's

(48:48):
gonna play tomorrow, but it willbe either tomorrow or the next
game.
So that's actually really goodnews.
But having ghosts back on thepower play is gonna mean that
they're gonna have some of thoseproblems go away.
He is better at you know gettingthe those zone entries, he's
better at helping to prevent thebreakaways, you know.
So I think that's gonna helpwith the first unit a lot.
Um you know, so it's it's thedefensive issues have definitely

(49:09):
impacted the power play, theyjust have, and not having the
personnel.
Um, I think that uh when Rod wastalking about in his postgame
today, he did say that, youknow, having different players
out there all the time has beendifficult because he feels like
they can't even get to what theywant to do.
But my question though waslooking at the the players that
he wants out there, even, youknow, who is the net front?
Who is the net front and how dothey get that net front?

(49:32):
Even if they're rotating off,you know, which they usually do.
You don't want a static powerplay, you don't want people in
fixed positions.
But somebody has to have thatjob that that, you know, you're
not standing from a distancesniping beautiful goals.
You're just there to muckaround, like Katie said.
You know, you've got to be theperson.
We had Stefan Nason in that rolea couple seasons ago.
There have been other playerswho have taken that role.

(49:53):
So somebody has to be willing toget in there and do that.
And they just need to figurethat out.
I think once they figure thatout, it's a lot of other pieces
will fall into place.

SPEAKER_03 (50:02):
Well, I think you're right.
And and a couple of things thatI see is that I mean, we used to
have lots of shots from the blueline.
Of course, Brent Burns, if hewas out there, it was just wail
away like crazy, right?
Um, we don't get as many.
And and that's something, youknow, that I I'm finding
generally inserting on the powerplane.
Um, the difficulty getting intothe zone, of course, we've had

(50:24):
that since uh Marty Nate justleft.
And you know, he was tremendousat that.
And and you know, it'sinteresting that Logan Stankoven
seems to be pretty good.
You said that the second groupis getting in a lot.

SPEAKER_01 (50:34):
They're getting in easier.

SPEAKER_03 (50:36):
Um but I think there was an expectation that Nikolai
Ehlers would would help withthat because he's a guy that you
know has had success in the pastin uh winding up in the zone and
getting into the offensive zonequite nicely.
Uh just hasn't been able to getthat done.
But if you look at the idea of apower play, successful power
play, usually has one of twothings or both.

(50:57):
And one of them is that uh theydo have those big guys in front
and and are able to deflectpucks.
Like a lot of deflections arethe way you score these goals.
And so you've got your uh yourpoint guys firing away and and
there's deflections in front.
The other thing is, and we'vetalked about this repeatedly, is
having somebody on the flanksthat can really fire the puck.
Okay, and Aho can and does onoccasion, but he doesn't get

(51:20):
free enough.
Jarvis is not that guy.
He gets some that way, butthat's not really what his forte
is, I don't think.
So you've got a situation whereyou really don't have that fear
factor, right?
Like, you know, the Ovetskinsout there, or you know, you've
got uh what used to be StampCoast and other guys that used
to just wail away and and youknow, they put fear into you.

(51:41):
Uh the canes have not had thatfor an extended period.
And we all kind of hoped a guylike maybe Svetnikov could be
somebody like that, you know, abig guy that could fire the puck
or whatever, but it's just nothappened.
So again, I think that's athat's an item that that they're
missing.
And these, you know, it'sgetting tougher to score goals
like that.
These goalies are so good,they're big, they're good.

(52:02):
You don't just get an easy goal,it's usually a greasy goal, it's
deflected off somebody, or it'slike the other night, it goes
off a guy like Riley and intoyour net, and and who knows,
right?
Um so they're I think they'vegot to solve some of this.
The makeup of the power playright now, I think, is is a bit
of a concern.
And I think even you know, evenwith uh Gosses Fair when he was

(52:24):
there, the numbers weren'tgreat.
I mean, you know, he's missedthe last five games or whatever,
but previously he, you know, thenumbers didn't uh didn't look
that good either.
So he's been having a greatseason.
I think you know he startedprobably with his best year that
we've seen.
And uh, and I was really excitedabout that.
So I'm hopeful he can come backin and and bring some excitement

(52:46):
to that power play, but they'vegot to solve this.
Um and it's it, you know, it'sit's a concern.
And you know what if we lookback for so long, how how long
have they had these challenges?
I mean, two years ago, I thinkit was unbelievable how bad the
power play was, and then thegoing into the playoffs.
So something is not kind ofgelling with their view of a

(53:07):
power play or how they do it,I'm not sure.
But uh this is something they'regonna have to address.
So we'll see.
Um now, power play, forwards,goals.
Now, they're interestinglyenough, the canes are near the
top in goals per game, um, whichis kind of an interesting thing,
despite all this we're talkingabout in the power play and and

(53:29):
some of the forwards not gettingit done, they're still getting
goals.
So it's great.
Um, but I think the story rightnow is is the decor.
You've got uh Kayandre Millerstepping up, and I thought he
was playing tremendous hockeyand seeing big.
Excellent, you know, 20 plusminutes a game, and then he
goes, and it just gets worse.

(53:50):
Um, and of course, uh GossasBear went down as well.
So, and he was playing the besthockey that I think he has as a
cane.
So, yeah, you know, it's kind ofa series of events that if if
you could write a script and saythis is the worst that could
happen, I think it's happened tothe Kane.
So that's what happened.
What have we seen?
What did we like?
Uh why don't you kick it off,Katie?

SPEAKER_00 (54:12):
What I've liked is I've liked how Nikishan has
stepped up and really taken someextra minutes because at the
start of the season he wassheltered there with Ghost.
They were getting, you know, thefirst two games the Keynes got
to choose the matchup, so theywere very selective in it when
they put him out there and uhthe types of looks that they
were giving him.
But with the with Slavin beingout, Miller being out, Ghost

(54:36):
being out, a lot of theresponsibility felt to him fell
to him as being the third most10-year defenseman on the blue
line behind Walker andChatfield, which is crazy to
think of.
But Riley's brand new this year,and then you had the rookies
coming up or you know, theprospects coming up.
So that that has reallyimpressed me how how well he has

(55:00):
has shouldered that.
And it means that he's also hadsome mix up.
He started with Ghost, Ghostgoes out injured, so he has to
have new partners.
And I think he's played with twoor three different D partners
along the way and and shown thathe can adjust his game and he's
playing the heavy game we wereexpecting.
He has lots of hits and he'svery steady and and heads up and

(55:21):
smart hockey.
I mean, not super flashy.
It was great to see that onegoal.
That one goal showed not justthe skill, but the vision that
he possesses when it comes tothat end of the ice.
And in more subtle ways, thatvision is what's serving him
well in his own zone.
So that I think that's what'sreally stood out to me is the
fact that Nikkei seems to becoming into his own defensively.

(55:45):
And then as he grows and getsmore confident, that will allow
him to activate more readily andmore frequently up in the Ozone
and provide that particularwrinkle to the Kanes game that
they really need because theyhave not been getting the
offensive production from theirD Corps due to all of these
changes that have been going onthat they normally have enjoyed

(56:06):
in the past.
So um looking forward to seeingwhat Nikishan has to um has to
offer as he grows and gets moreconfident moving forward.

SPEAKER_03 (56:15):
Yeah, and and of course, uh he's been killing
penalties as well and and uh anddoing a solid job of that.
And and I think the biggestchallenge, and you see it
occasionally with him, uh, stilltrying to figure out the system.
You know, am I supposed to behere or there?
And you see it happen.
He kind of, you know, where am Isupposed to be?
But for the most part, uh, youknow, he's getting more

(56:36):
comfortable, and as he does, ofcourse, uh he's he's certainly
starting to show some of thetalent that we expected.
One thing with Nikisha, Noah,and we've started to realize
this, he's not he's notnecessarily fleet-of-foot.
Um, because we've seen him losesome uh some races coming in, uh
forwards coming in fast, and andhe just can't turn quick enough

(56:56):
and can't catch up.
So he's just got to bepositionally sound, and I think
he's realized in a short periodof time, this NHL is a lot
faster than the KHL.
I think it's all part of thelearning for him, but he's
definitely uh definitely comingalong strong.
And you know, the bigger thingtoo is is uh as we've talked
about many times, he's stilltrying to figure out the

(57:16):
language and and uh and that'sgonna be a a a big bonus once he
gets more comfortable withEnglish as well.
Now, are there folks uh Aaronthat you've seen uh on the blue
that have uh you've been pleasedwith?

SPEAKER_01 (57:30):
Well, I think we have to give the flowers a
little bit to Sean Walkerbecause of how much he has had
to do and how well he has doneit, you know.
I mean, there were people thatwere um, you know, not that
pleased that the Keynes wereplanning to use Walker as
heavily already this year, justwith the the new acquisitions
and everything.
And then um to have him be stepup and just take over things,

(57:53):
you know, as as part of thatfirst pairing and just be, you
know, solid every night thathe's been there.
And it's just I think thatthat's been great.
And Mike Riley, too.
He's you know, we should talk tohim, uh talk about him as well,
um, being a good veteran andjust, you know, you you don't
notice him, and that's a goodthing.
You don't notice him a lot, um,you know, occasionally, um, but
not, you know, just again, justvery a veteran presence,

(58:14):
somebody that can steady thingsdown when the young guys get a
little bit flustered or whateverthe case might be.
Um, as far as the young guyscoming in, it was great to see
Charles Leftless Lego get somesome ice time, and he played
very well.
Um and then uh um I know yourguy, um Joel Nistram, you're
gonna probably want to talkabout him.
Um he's been great too.
And now we have uh um Vensoricalled up for the possibility

(58:37):
that Gosta Spear might, if hecan't go.
So um, this has been a lot offun for you, Tom, I know,
because these are your guys,these are the ones you talk
about.
So um I'm gonna turn thequestion back to you.
What have you liked about yourWolves uh players that have come
up?

SPEAKER_03 (58:52):
Well, for sure.
And and uh interestingly enough,Nick Bass and I were talking
about uh Joel Nistrom uh lastsummer, and uh and I thought I'd
just play this piece from Nickbecause uh boy, he had it right
on.
Let's listen to Nick.

SPEAKER_02 (59:07):
Uh Joel Nystrom, I know Darren York's incredibly
high on him, and he has verygood reason to be high on him.
His two-way game is among thebest in there.
Um, kind of like how Moro isjust really good offensively,
and Charles Alexis Lego reallygood defensively.
Joel Nystrom is probably thebest of both worlds, where he is

(59:28):
good defensively and goodoffensively in both regards.
He is playing as a top pairingdefenseman for Far Just Dead,
which is one of the better teamsin Sweden.
He's an exceptional defenseman.
He gets some power play time,even though it might not be the
biggest.
I like his offensive game, hisstating is good.
Everything about Joel Nystrom issomething to like.

(59:48):
He is playing this next yearwith Far Just Dead, but after
that, I would not be surprisedto either see him somehow snag a
role with the Hurricanes nextseason, not this upcoming, but
the season after, or he gets atop pairing role with the Wolves
and he has a lot of ice timethere, and probably is the first
one on the call-up sheet if aninjury or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:09):
Okay, so yeah, I th pretty cool stuff from Nick.
That's great, great stuff.
Um, interesting thing about uhYuel Nistro um 1602 his first
game, and he played 132 on thepower play and 424 uh killing
penalties, and then 1757 hislast game, and that was more

(01:00:29):
time on ice than uh both Legoand And uh and Riley in fact
almost double uh what CharlesAlexis Legaux got.
So I knew that, you know, withuh the way things were going, I
I fully expected Legault wouldhead back to Chicago.
But you know, if you watchNestrom, um Nestrom is a guy
that, you know, we talked alittle bit about him before.

(01:00:49):
He's he's just confident on theice.
Like he just goes about hisbusiness, he doesn't get
flustered, he's uh he's quick.
One of the biggest things abouthim, and and Nick talked about
this, his skating is amazing.
Like this guy can really, reallyskate.
And interestingly enough, in thelast game, you started to see uh
Nystrom alongside Nikishan.

(01:01:11):
So they started to be the pair,and I think that's the pair
we're gonna see in the next gameas well.
Um because again, Nikishin, youknow, he's doing his stuff, but
uh Nistrom can cover quitenicely.
Um and he's a smart headyplayer.
I mean, that's one of thebiggest things you see with him.
The interesting thing is both ofthese guys are 23 years old.

(01:01:33):
So it's not like you're talkingabout a 17 or 18-year-old.
Both of them have several yearsof of uh kind of major league
hockey under their belts playingwith men.
Uh so it's I think that's uhthat's a key point of this.
And so I think I think I'mexcited about Nestrom.
I think he's kind of quietlycome into the mix and uh and is

(01:01:55):
is a guy that uh is gonna isgonna push for a position with
this Keynes team.
Uh at some point, uh, even youknow, as they go forward,
they're gonna start to thinkabout that.
What have you seen when you'vewatched him out there?
I mean, I've I've been effusiveabout him, but what have you
seen?
Have you seen anything that youreally thought, hey, this guy
looks like a player?

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:17):
I I think it's more about what you haven't seen than
what you have seen.
Because, like um, Aaron wastalking about with Riley, is
when the fundamentals are found,he's just taking care of
business and doing what he'ssupposed to be doing and you
know, not not being noticeablein the wrong ways.
So with someone who hasn'tplayed before, especially what

(01:02:38):
was impressive was the storyabout him getting called up in
the first place, apparentlymaking it to the rink in time to
to sub in for Miller because itwas um it was in that Colorado
game, wasn't it, when he came inwhen Miller took warm-ups.
It, you know, the initialthought was that Miller was
going to play, and then it waskind of decided, you know, no,
we're not gonna risk this.

(01:02:59):
We're gonna pull him, we'regonna play it safe, and on he
comes to to take his spot.
You know, having barely arrivedfrom the airport, I don't think
he even got a chance to stretch.
I think they said they didn't hedidn't even stretch.
He got to the rig, got in hisgear, and it was time for the
game to start.
So, you know, make major propsand kudos to him for for that

(01:03:20):
and just coming in and andholding down the fort the way
that that the canes needed himto do so, um, especially
considering what a what amarathon that game was because
it was back and forth.
It was a heavy, heavy game,especially because the can't the
canes got out to that lead andthen they were under the gun the
entire rest of the game.

(01:03:40):
And you know, Nestrom helpedmake sure that they weren't
going to be completelyoverwhelmed and helped help them
get to that overtime where theycould secure that second point.
So yeah, good kudos to him.
Well done.
I'll be very especially if Ghostcomes back, I'll be interested
to see how they use him and umtrust him moving forward.
But it's definitely a good goodum couple games to build on.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:04):
Yeah, and a right shot guy.
Now, interesting, both he andCharles Alexis Legaux.
One of the benefits that theyhave right now, of course, these
guys are running the samesystem.
So Pam Abbott's got these guysuh you know ready to go.
And and I'm sure when you know,when the call comes down to
Abbott uh from uh Tulski andwhoever else is talking to him

(01:04:25):
saying, okay, who should we bebringing up?
Uh, you know, these guys arethey're being schooled the right
ways.
So I think it's great.
And and to take that to the nextlevel, the guy that uh we also
talked about, Dominic Vinsori,is just he's off the charts
right now, this guy.
Um he's got uh he's he's gotseven points in his first four
games.
He's terrified.

(01:04:48):
Um we've seen Dom, you know,exhibition games, we've seen him
for a few games last year.
What did we see when we saw him?

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:57):
Well, I think he's a very smooth skater.
That that just that jumps offthe page at you, you know, when
you see how fluid he is on theice.
You know, he just makes skatinglook easy.
He doesn't make it, you know,there are skaters that remind
you that ice is slippery, andthere are skaters that don't.
And he does not.
He's a very smooth skater.
And and I think he's very fasttoo.
Um, I don't know, I haven'tlooked at his edge stats, but he

(01:05:18):
seems like he's quite fast.
So um, those are the kind ofqualities you want um from a
skate, somebody.
And then he seems to have a verygood hockey IQ as well.
He seemed like he knows where tobe and how to get there and does
his job very well in terms offiguring out you know what's
going on and what he needs todo.
So those are the qualities youwant to see in a young
defenseman for sure.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:39):
Yeah, I mean, one of the things with Dom, of course,
he, you know, he was uh he cameout of Boston University, he was
a Hobie Baker nominee two yearsin a row.
Uh he was a hockey EastAll-Star.
He was a whole bunch of things.
He was just a tremendous playerin college.
And I think one of the thingshe's had to learn is, you know,
as a smaller player, um, how doyou, you know, it's quickness,

(01:06:01):
it's leverage, it's, you know,there's a lot of different
things they have to do to, youknow, to be solid in the
defensive zone.
And that's something he reallyworked hard on.
And in fact, he was doing uh alot of penalty kill work as
well.
Uh, of course, he's known forhis power play, but also doing
some serious penalty kill workalongside his partner last year,
who was Charles Alexis Legal.
So I hope he gets in.

(01:06:22):
I'm a huge fan of Dom.
So I think he's I think he's atremendous player.
And one thing that if if Ghostcan't go, uh Dom is a tremendous
power play quarterback.
Uh he's he's magic back there.
So, you know, I would likehopefully see him and and his
buddy uh Bradley Nadeau.

(01:06:44):
So yeah, lots coming out ofChicago, and it's interesting.
The other day uh in the podcastwith uh Andrew Rinaldi, uh, of
course, we talked a lot aboutDon and also uh, of course, um
Ul Nistro, because he hadn'tbeen called up yet, he was just
getting called up, so he hadbeen playing some games with
Chicago.
The caves are loaded on the bluewith prospects.

(01:07:05):
I mean, if you think about it,they're uh they're bringing in
players that can play.
So this is exciting.
Um at some point, we'll have thefull defense back.
That'll be kind of interesting.
Something we don't really wantto do.
We look forward to it.
Um so yeah, for sure.
Um, so it's been kind of aninteresting run.
Uh the goaltending's been great.

(01:07:27):
Uh, you know, some challenges upfront we got to work on, and of
course the defensive concernsbecause of injury, but uh but
they're hanging in there.
And boy, now we have to lookahead and see what uh what uh
the future holds.
So as we kind of wrap up thediscussion, I thought maybe we'd
just uh take a look at what's instore for us and uh how we think

(01:07:49):
things are gonna go in thecoming days.
Maybe you could kick it off,Aaron.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:54):
Well, I think that, you know, right first up, I I
believe they have Vegas.
And uh, you know, uh after thatgame that they didn't do so well
in, I think that there's gonnabe some desire to, you know, uh
turn the tables on on uh theGolden Knights and and maybe get
um get the win out of this one.
Um it is a hard task.
Uh Brenda Moore mentioned Eicheland uh um Marner being big

(01:08:17):
threats, you know, and thatthey're gonna have to to try to
shut them down.
And and you having a that iswhere having a core of an
experienced defenseman can be alittle bit more tricky.
Um but you know on home ice, Inever count the canes out.
I I don't think that uh thatthat's something that we want to
do.
They have two home games, Ibelieve, and then a couple of
quick roads trip games, and thena couple more at home.

(01:08:39):
So they're gonna have four oftheir next six at home, and I
think that that's gonna be a bigindication um as the injured
guys start to come back into ofhow they really are doing.
Um one thing that um, you know,Katie brought up the Colorado
game and and how you know theygot off to such a strong start
and then it got chiseled away.
One thing that somebodymentioned, and again, I just I

(01:08:59):
just don't have it in front ofme, but um the Canes have been
scoring very well in firstperiods this season so far,
which is a little unusual forthem.
That's not usually their best,you know, scoring.
They they they oftentimes playto a standstill in the first and
then they start scoring.
Um, but it has been fallingapart more in second and thirds,
and the second periods have beenparticularly difficult for them.

(01:09:20):
So um I think that that's gonnabe something to watch for is you
know being able to play thatfull 60 and continue to get
chances and continue to score.
Um I know a lot of that isprobably the artifact of not
having their defensive core, um,not having their guys.
But it is something at home.
Again, like I said, I nevercount them out at home because

(01:09:42):
having home ice, having thematchups, getting the time that
they want with the players theywant on the ice.
I would think that that's whatI'm gonna be watching for a
turnaround.
You know, can they keep thescoring going into the third,
second and third periods andkeep the um the other team from
taking advantage of their lapsesin those periods because that's
what's been happening a lot.

unknown (01:10:02):
Yeah.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:06):
Um, I think what I really want to see is I just
want to see the Canes take careof business against the teams
that they need to just go aheadand put away.
Um they've had quite thegauntlet this past week with
Vegas, Colorado, Dallas, nowVegas again.
Um once they get into that, youknow, past past this Vegas game,

(01:10:26):
there there are a few more teamsthat have been struggling.
And I hope that the Canes reallycome out and like Aaron said,
play the full 60, but not justplay the full sixty to a a
one-goal game, one goal lead.
I want them to play where theyreally truly dominate from the
beginning of the the game to theend of the game against the

(01:10:47):
competition that they should bebeating like that.
If they are if they are really atop team, they they don't need
to play with their food, theyjust need to go in, do their
thing, um, use that as anopportunity to get the power
play rolling and and build sothat they are are stronger when
they do have to face those umhigh-end teams once again.
So I I think that's what I'mlooking forward to over the next

(01:11:09):
stretch, is just seeing how theCanes are able to refine their
game now that they're home andonce they have a few more um You
know, you don't want to takethem for granted.
They're easier opponents, butthey're still an NHL hockey
team.
So they they can win on anygiven day, but these are teams
that they should beat, and theyshould beat handily if they are
playing to their identity andplaying for the full 60.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:33):
Yeah, and and you know, again, uh Home Ice is is a
welcome opportunity for theCanes.
They've been away for almost twoweeks.
That's a tough slug.
And uh now they should be as ateam much closer and much
tighter, and they talk aboutthis a lot that these are great
team bonding situations, andthat's a great thing because uh

(01:11:55):
we know as the canes gettogether and start to uh to
really uh you know gel as ateam, they are tough to beat.
And even sitting right now, likelast week, it was interesting to
see the athletic with theirpower rankings with the canes at
number one.
So that was kind of a that waskind of a wonderful thing that
uh you know we can enjoy.

(01:12:15):
We don't know if they'll be backup there anytime soon, but that
was uh that was exciting.
In any case, um yeah, they'regonna have a a lot of home games
over a short period of time.
Uh, and I think that's theopportunity for them to uh to
kind of get back on track, getsome injured players back.
And we're hearing, I think, somepositive things on a lot of the

(01:12:35):
players.
Um we've heard that Ghost isclose, we've heard that uh maybe
Kayandre Miller is not that faraway, right?
And also that uh Robinson andCarrier are not going to need
surgery.
So uh that means it's probablyweeks away as opposed to uh as
opposed to months.
So good news on that.

(01:12:55):
Um so yeah, we'll uh we'llcontinue to track this closely,
and I'm sure uh as uh as theystart to get some of these home
games under their belt, we'llhave a chance to to talk about
that and and see how it's allkind of progressing and
hopefully uh in a good way.
In any case, for those of youwho've been uh watching or
listening, as always, we'redelighted that you spent time

(01:13:16):
with us.
Um if you like this episode,please press the like button.
And of course, uh if you havecomments or you'd just like to
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(01:13:39):
getting together with you realsoon right here on Storm
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