May 6: Road Teams Have Thrived in These Playoffs, NHL Awards

NHL Playoffs, Joe Pavelski, Colorado Avalanche have struggled in Game 7s, managing workload during regular season to maximize play for the postseason, Jared Bednar still growing as a coach, Valeri Nichushkin put Avalanche in a tough position, Alexandar Georgiev played way more games this year, comparing Vegas and Seattle in the playoffs shortly following expansion, NHL Awards

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now it's our turn too. Sorryfor those words, but with our balls
on the table. Remember, Kats, this is not how you play hockey.
It's just ruling. I like it. You go. You know what?
My scream to go back to Canadagla blur Game one, Yeah,

(00:26):
game one. Hello, Welcome intothe Hockey Show, Colorado's biggest invest live
hockey radio show right here on myHigh Sports JJ Durrez. That's me.
Hello with me is always my loyal, trusty co host Ryan BOLDINGAMNHL dot com.
Hey, that's me. How areyou doing. I'm good, I'm
here. I'm full of Santiagos,this episode, this issue, this addition

(00:50):
presented by Santiagos Fuel for your belly. It's been an interesting week for us.
Right last time we were here inthe studio, we were talking about
the potential of having two hockey herein Colorado. Well that was put to
arrest pretty quickly. But there's stillbeen ten NHL playoff games that we're played
since we last We're in here doingour radio show, so plenty to talk

(01:12):
about. I'm worried that we're noteven gonna be able to fit everything in
with everything that happened this week.I mean there's a lot, a lot,
so much to talk about, startingwith the avalanche and going all the
way through what's happening currently right exactly. We got to talk about the week
that was, and then we alsogot to talk about the week that is
to come, right, So lotsto fill here in this hour, So
let's get to it, starting withour matinee money, the way we start

(01:34):
every single show, my matinee moneypicks. Of course, no matinee games.
Only one hockey game on today.That's gonna be later on tonight where
Edmonton takes on the Vegas Golden Nights. You know, I've been loving those
over under shots lately. Leon drySital has a nice minus one ten on
three and a half shots. Imean, that guy's been on a tear
since the playoffs began, and I'malso with that. Gonna go ahead and

(01:57):
take his over on points at oneand a half feels like that's definitely something
he can achieve on a regular basis. I mean, he's basically done it
so far this playoff. So Ilike the over three and a half shots
for Leon dry sidle to minus oneten and over one and a half points
for a one twenty. I don'thave the games in front of me,
and I don't remember exactly how longtheir series went. But even if if

(02:19):
he has played nine games, he'sgot fifteen points, it's you're approaching two
points a game, pretty close.So I feel like that's pretty easy,
easy money, Thank you, thankyou. I'm gonna go ahead and put
my money on nothing. And I'mgonna put my money on nothing because I'm
out of money. Boom boom.Remember I went over twenty six or whatever
it was, Well, it didn'tget any better. So I haven't made

(02:43):
a single beat in the second roundbecause I'm putting myself in time out chasing
those odds. Every team I betto win lost every game I bet them
on. So taking a break,sports book jail, I call it taking
a break. He's locked up.They won't let out. But yeah,
I mean, it's been a veryunpredictable playoffs so far, right, It's

(03:04):
especially you know, you look atthe top four or the two conference finals
from last season, the Avalanche versusEdmonton, the Tampa Bay Lightning versus in
New York Rangers. Three of thosefour teams already eliminated in the first freaking
round. I mean, talk aboutparody, talk about turnover. Yeah,
this whole postseason has just been nuts. You know, some teams who were
expected to win have done so,but a lot of teams who are expected

(03:27):
to win lost. A lot ofteams who were expected to have easy wins
have had to fight it out.It's impressive, it's impressive. What's going
on. Parody is the word.And you know, I think some coaching,
some coaching is going into that.But we all also know it's a
war of attrition out there, andthe healthiest team will win the Stanley Cup
typically, and there's a lot ofteams with a lot of guys missing.

(03:50):
Yeah. Yeah, And goalies havebeen an interesting story right. It's almost
felt like the best goalies haven't necessarilysucceeded guys out of the woodwork or guys
coming out. You know, lookat Philip Brubauer really stealing the show in
the Avalanche series. He's done agood job so far. In the Dallas
series. Goaltending has been an interestingstoryline so far. These playoffs were Schmid,

(04:12):
let's say, two of the bestgoalies in the entire NHL, if
not the whole world, out ofthe playoffs just striking in Vaskilevski. Yeah,
right, the best goaltending tandem ofthis regular season Lioness Allmark and Jeremy
Swimmon out of the playoffs. Right, You've got guys like Vanda Check losing
their starting job to a Kire Schmidt. You've got whatever is going on with

(04:35):
the Vegas Golden Knights, and they'rejust steamrolling ability to win with Ui or
anyone in net. Laurent Brusois isfive and oh and his last five appearances
dating back to Game two of thefirst round. So why would you go,
why would you say his first namein an English accent and then say
Brusois like all French and not becausesome American in there, Lawrence Broussi reflect

(05:00):
or Laurent. Well, you knowthis show, we love to stay on
theme, right, we like toparty over here on the Hockey Show.
And there's two happenings today in theworld. One of those is the coronation
the crown of England being given toits new king. So with that I
wanted to kind of stick to theplayoffs and ask you a themed question.

(05:20):
That question is who would you crownas the current king of the NHL playoffs
so far? Again, this isin um celebration. I guess celebration.
Who cares about that stuff? Ilike your topical topics. Thank you allow
myself to introduce myself. Yeah,I think you know, just it's it's

(05:46):
hard to say with the amount ofplayers left, just one right, do
you want to pick a goalie?Do you want to pick a forward?
Like? What are you gonna do? I have to say, you know,
looking at the top two point scorerswho are sharing first place currently,
Leon dry Sidle Matthew Kitchuck, it'sprobably got to be them. I mean,
dry Sidle is scoring at an outrageousclip. He could be the first

(06:11):
player in years to score his fiveconsecutive goals for his team. But also,
I'm going to give an honorable mentionto a guy not at the top
of the points chart. But that'sJoe Pavelski. He played one game in
the first round, got knocked outon an unquestionable hit, comes back,
scores four goals. I've been I'vebeen fonding over this since it happened.

(06:33):
First game Dallas against Seattle. Seattlewins. Joe Pavelski scores all four of
his team's goals. Two of themwere redirections. Deflections and both of those
were against his body. So thefirst one, I mean, he's facing
the shot down in the slot,but he ends up turning his back to
the play and deflecting it. Andthe second one, the puck is being

(06:54):
shot from behind him and he likesbaseball style bats it but with the momentum
of the puck like it's incredible,incredibly athletic play. I mean, that's
what he does best, but he'staking it to another level. Yeah,
and then he scores again and cametoo, and you're like, man,
this guy was just sitting there forfifteen days, just building up goals,

(07:15):
just ready to burst, Like,somebody let this man out here so he
can just burst goals all over theplace. Yeah, goals everywhere. And
what's been fascinating with that is duringhis time out, who stepped up Tyler
Sagan And we're seeing Tyler Sagan ofold. We're seeing Tyler Sagan look healthy.
I mean, I think back toNathan McKinnon's season this year, right
and how many times he would,yeah that he had a little bit of
an injury there. But towards towardsthe stretch, right down after the All

(07:38):
Star break, I heard him saythe words I feel really good a lot
of times, and correspondently, yousaw it in his game, right,
You saw him the first seasons feltgood since he's had major surgery, right,
and it's showing. And you know, I think when you're when you're
getting older. He's not very old, but when you're getting older, you

(07:59):
know, it can be hard tonot be winning. And I think that
when things are exciting and you're winningand you have a shot, you know,
you kind of get that youthful likecontact high from everybody else that's excited
and you're ready to go. Wealso saw kind of going back to your
goalie point. I mean, JakeOttinger I think is one of the best
goalies in the postseason remaining just gottorched in that Game one. Like there

(08:22):
was almost no goaltending At one point. I joked on Twitter they should just
go six on six, no goaliesbecause everybody was scoring. Yeah, it
was a fun game to watching.Yeah, Jake Ottinger even got bailed out
a few times by the post.So Seattle really came out firing at during
Game one. But to answer myown question, I'm gonna go with Leon
dry Sidle. I mean it's sofar this playoffs, he's turned it on
to an amazing level. And hetoo scored four goals the other night and

(08:46):
also lost. His team also lostthat game, and they were also the
only four goals for his team thatnight. So funny parallels there. But
yeah, Leon dry Sidle, Ithink has just done amazing stuff so far
this playoff. So far, thisplay out, I really want to enter
that caveat because we've talked about Dallasa lot today already. I think they
are the front runners right now.I think they are the team that is

(09:09):
I guess, the team to beat, and they have all their pieces just
buzzing right now. You mentioned goaltending, we mentioned some forwards. They've got
great defensive unit there in Dallas.I like what they're bringing to the table
and I like how they're playing rightnow in the playoffs. So with that,
today's also the Kentucky Derby. Afun day, right, so many
happenings for the rich lead of theworld. I used to back in my

(09:33):
younger days always attend the Kentucky Derbyparty that they throw over at the Convention
Center. Just a blast of atime. I did dress up, Yeah,
I do my best I mean whateverI could throw together. Did you
wear a big hat? No?No, too big of a head,
but no. Yeah. If ifyou're single and ready to mingle, definitely
go down to the Convention Center today, get yourself a ticket, and have

(09:54):
yourself some fun. But with that, who is your dark horse? Who
is the horse you are betting on? Now that we you know, because
we come into the playoffs and wetake our favorites, right we say,
Oh, for example, I chosethe La Kings and the Boston Bruins.
Well, that is out the windowat this point. Now I'm allowed to
reset since I do a radio showand pick a new horse. My new
horse right now is the Dallas Starsand at a plus five fifty odds right

(10:20):
now to win it all, Man, I think that's something I might have
to dabble in. There's a clumpthere just looking at these odds of teams
that have potential, and then andthen there are the outliers, and I,
like I legitimately don't understand Seattle isplus sixteen hundred right now, this
series has tied one to one.Yeah, just knocked off the defending Staler
Cup champion Florida Panthers. Literally probablythe lowest points from the regular season that

(10:46):
are still left in the playoffs,or that we're even in the playoffs,
and here looking at the odds,they are the second favorite team at a
plus four fifty. Yeah, andlook what they've done. I mean,
they're up to nothing. They knockedout the Boston Bruins. I didn't think
it was possible. I thought Bostonwas going to pull the Avalanche card and
just skate through. But we knewthe East was going to be vicious,
you know, maybe some missteps therein management, some player health, you

(11:09):
know, maybe clutching the stick toomuch. What Florida has done is amazing,
is it, though? Or didthey did we just forget about their
President's Trophy from last year because theyhad an up and down regular season?
I mean, can't we just chalkthis up as a not so good regular
season and then they just turned onand became the team that we expected of

(11:30):
them all year long. Maybe Idon't think this is like, you know,
Edmonton entering the playoffs as an eightseed whatever, right fifteen years ago,
that was and kind of steamroll inthe competition because they had a bad
start, but were really a numberone seed at that point. I don't
know that Florida was that, youknow, but they were in the same
boat as the Avalanche. We weretalking at one point this season about the

(11:50):
Florida Panthers being on the outside ofthe playoffs as the President's Trophy winner and
the defending Stanley Cup champions being onthe outside of the playoffs at about the
halfway point the season, and thathad never been done in NHL history,
Like that kind of an epic collapsefor lack of a better phrase. But
I mean what Paul Maurice did toget that team into the playoffs is one

(12:11):
thing, you know, Like theykind of fought and kicked and scratched and
backed their way into the postseason andthen just took it to Boston, took
it to Game seven one. Rightnow they're taking it to Toronto. I
mean, this is supposed to beToronto's year. They're feeling so good at
coming out of the first round andwe can get into it later. I
have lots of thoughts about this series, but you know what, Florida,

(12:33):
You're just like, what is happening? It's crazy. I've heard several people
say that Toronto's getting goalied right now, but I don't think I agree with
that. I just think the FloridaPanthers are just playing a physical They're just
playing their game. Yes, they'rehaving some good goal to ending out of
Sarah gay Bobovski, but that's nota surprise. Maybe it's a surprise in
the playoffs, but we know Sarahgay Brobovski's a good goalie. He's adequate.
He's more than adequate to get youat least a good run. I

(12:56):
don't think they're getting goalied. Ithink the team is just emerging as who
they actually are. I'm gonna saveit for later in the show. So
who's your horse? My dark horse? I'm gonna go with the Vegas Golden
Knights, and the reason for itis they, for all intensive purposes steamroll
to Winnipeg Jets. You know,I think people, myself included, have

(13:16):
slept on Vegas a little bit.They had injuries. We've seen year after
year some scoring trouble, issues atgetting there in the goal scoring department.
We've seen the Avs lose to Vegasand we've seen it was perfect timing on
my pause, Davy. We've seenVegas not play well against the Avalanche,
a team that's supposed to be,you know, kind of evenly matched competition

(13:39):
wise. But then Vegas just goesin steamrolls to Winnipeg Jets. They've got
like their third starter string goalie stealinggames. They are just firing on all
cylinders. And I my caveat tothat is the Hurricanes, who have the
best odds here kind of the samething. Like they had to fight it
out a bit with the Islanders andnow they're just having their way with New

(14:01):
Jersey, which is not a badteam, having the time of their lives.
No, there's something valiant about thatpick for you because you've been pumping
the Veggas Golden Knight's tires since theplayoffs began. I like that you're still
on that wagon. Um so yeah, I guess we'll get into more things.
We're gonna talk Avalanche hockey here inthe next segment. Obviously a heartbreaking
ending for them, but was itreally We'll get into that in a second.

(14:24):
Im coming right up. This isthe Hockey Show on Mile High Sports.
JJ Durrez, Rhyan Bold and CoachBailey behind the glass will be right
back. Hit me with that templeright now. It's sixteen minutes past the

(14:54):
Big hour? Is that right,mister Scribe, I think people are getting
really cranked. Thank you, misterscream or bringing us in the second segment.
As always, I need to giveDanny a shout out. I don't
know what song this is, butit went so perfectly with mister Scream.

(15:16):
Oh it's a Pennywise song. It'sactually a rare pick because this is the
one album where their lead singer issomebody else other than their normal finger.
Interesting. I don't know what theband for one album. I don't know
much about music, so I'm gonnaexplain this, probably very poorly. But
when that one's for you, JesseMontano, when music talk of the day,
when mister Scream goes ha ha right, the music also or the guitar

(15:41):
also kind of followed that same cadenceCadence look at me using musical words.
I'm out here being a musician andbig word guy. If you could only
stop punching his microphone for those ofus listening, what gives I gotta tackle
with them my hands one hand?All right, let's get into the Avalanche
Game seven. I'm ready. Imean Game seven's have been an issue for
the Avalanche for let's call it NathanMcKinnon's entire career, not pointing the finger

(16:07):
Nathan McKinnon whatsoever. I mean,if anybody showed up, it was Nathan
McKinnon. And I'll throw an AlexanderGeorgive and Miko Ranton in as well.
But let's just go all the wayback to December, maybe even November.
The Avalanche weren't playing so hot.We still hadn't seen gay Blayan discogue.
Multiple injuries were going on in andout of the lineup, whether it was
Valine Chushkin, Nathan McKinnon, youname it. Pick a player or any

(16:33):
player. It just never felt liketheir year, right. And then you
go back to Jared Bednar's closing commentsafter that Game seven lost to the Kraken,
and he almost said, you know, this was something I had accepted
earlier in the season. I'm nottoo upset now months ago. And after
he said that, I took astep back, and I'm like, you
know what, I remember a windowof time where Jared Bednar just wasn't acting

(16:57):
like himself. He was after awin, he was still kind of downtrodden.
At a morning skate, he hada very I guess emotionless feel to
him, and that's that's who Iam. I love reading people's body language,
I love reading people's energy. AndI remember thinking, like, something's
up with this guy. I don'tknow what it is, but there's something

(17:17):
he is getting eaten by, andI feel like I'm now figuring it out.
It was his acceptance that this justsimply wasn't their year. Yeah,
I think there's so much to unpackhere, you know, to rattle it
all off. It's like grab aword, grab a thought out of the
ether here and pull it down.And that could be one of the reasons.

(17:37):
Right. Ultimately, I don't havethis statistically in front of me.
I've heard it numerous times. EricJohnson also said it, and I believe
it to be true, but Idon't have stats to totally back it up.
But I believe that was the latestStanley Cup Final and NHL and prior
to COVID disrupting the NHL schedule,the season started around October twelfth every year

(18:06):
like clockwork, right, So theAvalanche contested the latest Stanley Cup Final in
NHL history by all accounts, andthen the season resumed where they started normally,
So the season started later the Avswent a long way. They won
the Stanley Cup. They had probablyone of the shortest, if not the
shortest off season in the NITIL history, not including the pandemic replay the playoffs

(18:30):
year, and had to get backinto the season. And so at one
point everybody's like, yeah, no, it's feels great, Like we didn't
even really miss time. We didn'thave a lot of time off. We
just maintained our fitness level from theyear before. Yeah, by drinking a
million bud lights. Yeah, atleast Michaelo Bultros. So then we get
to, you know, the stretchwhere they start losing a bunch of games.

(18:55):
That should have been the warning sign, right, but this team still
had too much talent to really countthem out. Ever. I mean even
now, I think, you know, they could probably still win. So
it kind of disguised what was alarger issue. And I think that is
pick a number that many guys onthe team had surgery following the off season

(19:17):
or were not one percent healthy whenthe season started, and I think a
large number of players started the seasonearlier than they should have given their recovery
and rehab, and that caused alot of problems a lot of disruption,
and it exposed a just a giantweakness, a gaping hole in the system's

(19:37):
depth that there is not the depthneeded to survive a massive amount of injuries
in the organization as it stands.It's just not And you could bring guys
in and they did that to avarying effect. Right, everybody loves mattinetto
here in Colorado. Didn't do muchanything. I would say, but what's
his role? Is his role toscore a lot of goals? I would

(19:59):
say, no, what is notBut his role is to score some goals
sometimes, and I don't think thathe did enough in that capacity. And
that's not to just totally dump onjust him, but I think there's a
lot of that. You know,you had a lot of warm bodies in
the lineup who were there to takeminutes away from guys like Nathan McKinnon,
Kail mkar Miko Ranton and who neededrest, but they didn't do much more

(20:22):
beyond take those minutes off their workload. I mean, we've all talked about
the loss of Nazam Kadri and AndreBurrikowsky at Nauseam this year, right,
But I think it's funny that youlook across at the Seattle crack and bench
in this last playoff series with theAvalanche, and who's missing Andre Burrikovski,
Right, just more of the trickle. Just like the Avalanche still dealing with

(20:45):
injuries that are probably lingering from theStanley Cup Final. Andre Burrikowski was still
doing the same thing. Amazingly,Nasam Kadre played eighty two games this you
can't believe it. I'm like,how is this the guy who was battered,
bruised, broken handed in the postseason. He's the one who made it.
I mean, there was a casualI think I've mentioned this a casual
one off moment in a conversation withJack Johnson where he said toward the end

(21:08):
of this regular season push that everyday I get away from the off season
surgery, I had the better Ifeel. And you're like, wow,
okay, Jack Johnson had offseason surgery. Andre Berrevkovski's dealing with injuries, you
know, like they're just the numberof guys who were hurt, who were
unhealthy. Valetushkin ends up having anklesurgery. Then he's having problems with the

(21:32):
incision site, you know, fittinginto his boot and it just snowballs from
there until he ends up missing amorning skate with a drunk Brushian Ukrainian woman
in his room, and now he'svanished. You know, I think there
are ways here and to point theblame on some things, and one of
them I would like to point outfirst and foremost is this team never seemed

(21:56):
like it was gunning for the divisiontitle until right at the end of the
year, and all of a suddenit became important. We had been asking
about it, It wasn't that important, and then Jared Badner said, well,
that was one of our longer termgoals for the season. And you
look back on it and you go, why, what was the benefit of
pushing so hard at the end ofthe season. Now, I say that

(22:18):
with the caveat of I don't particularlyfeel like a lot of those games weren't
fairly easily winnable for the team.But what did it cost you to get
there? It cost you everything?Well, and I don't think, you
know, like you're saying, theyreally flipped the switch once they smelled the
blood in the water, once theyrealize, Okay, the division actually is

(22:40):
attainable. Because Dallas was losing,Winnipeg slid their way all the way down
the standings. All of a suddenthe avalanche would wake up and they're like,
whoa, we are still in thisthing. If we could just turn
it on a little bit and makea push. And yeah, that the
goal was to play the Seattle crackin aka an easier first round matchup right,
and look where it got you.But hey, had they matched up

(23:02):
against say Minnesota Dallas, who's tosay it would have been any easier.
Yeah. However, I still maintainand this is based on something Kill mccarr
told me in the locker room afterthe Game seven loss. He said,
we had a lot of guys playingbig minutes in months where we shouldn't be
playing big minutes in And you're like, he's talking about himself. First of

(23:22):
all, we talked at nauseum withJared Bednar when Kail mccarr was playing thirty
minutes a night in December and January, and everybody's sitting there going this is
absolutely physically unsustainable. It doesn't matterhis age, it doesn't matter his talent,
and it doesn't matter his motivation todo it. He just can't do
it. And what happens he developsthat what I would estimate is a pretty

(23:48):
bad groin injury. You know,we see him postgame with his leg,
his bigh all wrapped up, aspandage around his waist. You know,
you're trying to stabilize the joint there, missed a lot of time. At
the end of the year, cameback said, I am not one hundred
percent. I'm as good as it'sgonna get. Don't forget he was dealing
with concussions too, from that elbowfrom Jeff Carter. I'm just gonna say,
if you're not playing him as muchas you're playing him, his body

(24:11):
isn't getting to the point where hehas a groin injury. Now, those
can happen and we don't know that'sit, see Pavel friend sus. But
those are the kind of little incrementalyou know, like nicks in a body
that eventually turned into longer issues cuts, you know, things you can play
on. But the longer you playon him, the worst they get,

(24:33):
or just the more unpredictable they get. Right, and the expectation was,
Okay, Kail mccar's missed a lotof this time. It's so he will
be one hundred percent out of theplayoffs. But his injury was so bad
he wasn't and he said, Ididn't have a good series. I feel
like I let the team down.And when the expectation is the only guys
who can do anything for us areNathan McKinnon, Miko Rontinen, and Kail

(24:59):
mccarr. I mean, you couldunderstand why a guy would feel that pressure
and feel that way in that moment, especially when he had to sit out
a game, right, Yeah.And I think some of that is coaching.
I think some of that is notbeing able to look and say,
can we take it easy in someof these games? Right? Can we
do some load management? We usedto see that with Sidney Crosby. Every

(25:22):
year the Penguins were dominant, theycome here late season every year. Sidney
Crosby never used to play here.They were resting him for playoffs. Right.
You kind of thought maybe that wasgoing to happen, but it just
didn't because these guys couldn't get tothat place. And so I'm going to
point a little bit of a fingerat Jared Bednar and the coach staff and
say you push too hard for somethingthat didn't matter. I mean, it

(25:45):
matters in terms of records, youknow, consecutive titles, and that's great.
I think it's great to see whatJared Bednar did with a team that
was outmatched all season long. ButI think that goal should have been amended
sooner. We've seen it from theTampa Bay Lightning in the past too,
right. They just want to squeaktheir way into the playoffs and then they

(26:07):
can start making their noise. Solook at Florida. That's a fascinating thought.
I'm with you. Maybe just atestament to Jared Bednar, still growing
and still coming into his own asan NHL coach. He has to kind
of mature and realize that regular seasonwinning isn't necessarily everything when it comes at
the cost of your playoff performance.Said, He expertly set expectations. Credit

(26:29):
to you. I like training camp. Thank you. He expertly set expectations
during training camp by saying, wehad a short offseason. We're going to
manage the workload of our players.We're gonna take it easy, We're gonna,
you know, dip our toe inhere as we go. And the
Abs came out swinging, had abig downturn and then it just kind of
turned into business as usual, youknow. But with guys just falling by
the wayside left and right with injuries. Darren Helm you know, came back

(26:53):
how many times? Left? Howmany times same injury. Josh Manson came
back, had that super physical firstgame at Minnesota where you're kind of like,
what are you doing? Didn't lastvery long, missed, you know,
however many games. I think heplayed twenty seven games or something all
season. Comes back for the playoffs. I asked him point blank, do
you feel like you need to adjustyour game because you've missed time and you're

(27:17):
rehabbing an injury that has taken youout of the lineup twice. He's like,
no, that's the whole point ofrehab. Right to be good,
ready to go, didn't look good, didn't play well out of the lineup.
And the other big one is whateverthe heck was going on with Larry
Nichushkin. Just you know, nomatter the situation, as murky as it

(27:41):
is for us in the semi noright, you have put your team in
a very poor position by doing whateverit is you were doing. Whether it
was noble, whether it was nefarious, whether it was a mixture, it
doesn't matter in this capacity, becauseyou let your higher team down being selfish

(28:03):
about whatever. And I get it. These people are human beings and they
have lives, and they have needsor wants or need to blow off steam
whatever it is. You know,maybe the pressure gets to you. Guys
on the first year of an eightyear deal. A big component on this
team does some Dennis Rodman type stuffin the middle of the postseason. Only

(28:23):
he doesn't just take some playoff gamesoff and come back and dominate. Right,
He's gone. Nobody knows where heis. Nobody knows what's happened.
Mark Kisla just tweeted out right whenwe started the show. He wants to
know the thoughts of ABS fans andI'm curious this from you and everyone anyone
who wants to chime in. Callersout there. Should the team consider moving

(28:45):
on from him after this or doyou stand by him? I still don't
think we know enough to make aWe know that he missed a morning skate
on a playoff game day and didn'tplay four postseason games because of it.
We know that he's a key componentthat played in the first and second line
of this team and was dependent onfor offense, puck retrieval, power play,

(29:10):
penalty kill. I think the oneway you move on from him and
this is an unforgivable situation is ifthe players think that it's an unforgivable situation,
if they feel like they've been stabbedin the back and they were left
by it a valuable teammate of theirs, then I think, yeah, you
absolutely consider it. But if theteammates, who probably know the situation a

(29:32):
little bit better, no Vulen thatyou can weigh better than we do because
he rarely wants to say anything tous, if they can say, you
know what, we want him back, we need him back, we welcome
him with open arms, and Ithink all is forgiven. But if they're
the one saying no, f thisguy, he's the one that you know,
really kind of screwed us over inthat playoffs, then you have to
think about it. But as fans, as as media members, I don't

(29:52):
know that we know enough to really, I guess make a decision yeahheartedly.
And I say that knowing full wellwe don't no the off ice situation,
but we do know the on icesituation, and that's his absence for four
games. So I mean that onehurts and then throw one more in there.
I mean, Alexander Georgiev was greatall regular season long, but he

(30:14):
shattered his previous games played in aregular season this year. So again,
maybe a little bit mismanaged time onice. I know you had to use
them in certain situations. Pavel Francuswas out, your next option wasn't exactly
very good, but hey, sometimesyou just gotta let it's another push the
players too hard for some things thatdon't matter. Yeah, I mean he
played with the final twenty games orsomething like that. Also, I think

(30:37):
probably the best player on the Avalanchein the entire postseason series, without a
doubt. That's a that's a fourgame loss for Colorado, maybe five without
him playing the way player indeed,indeed definitely the most consistent for sure,
brought it every single night and broughtthe same level of game. Maybe not
the level we saw from him allregular season. Could be the load management

(31:00):
thing. But we'll be right backto discuss some the other series that are
still going on. Of course,the NHL Playoffs still exciting, still going
on, even without your Colorado Avalancheinvolved, So we'll get into a lot
of that next hang out with us. We'll be right back on the Hockey
Show. What Go Colorado? WelcomeBack? It's the Hockey Show Colorado as

(31:48):
big as the best live hockey radioshow. I don't know if you knew
that listener watch her viewer the endof the show. There's so many great
ways you can catch this show,you call them. You can catch us
on a podcast, you can catchus on YouTube, you can catch us
on Twitch, you can catch uson FM radio. And if Twitter was
working right, you'd be able tojust watch us live on Twitter. Is

(32:10):
that Danny? Has that been figuredout yet? Or is Twitter website?
Twitter is still being a goose.We're working on an alternative option to Twitter.
Yeah, you guys should just sueTwitter. Let's just sue him,
and Twitter's really trying to. Ithink there's a lot of people that are
unhappy about it. But we're gettingclose to being back broadcasting either on Twitter

(32:32):
or live somewhere else. But it'salways on the website. It's always in
the app, a website too,the website and app. That's seven ways.
Geez, Louise. If you're missingus, you're blowing it, or
you just hate us. It's oneof the If you're not listening. Uh,
speaking of blowing it. We've alreadytalked about floor to defeating the Bruins.

(32:52):
We've talked h No, we haven'treally gotten into the Rangers going down
in seven against the Devils. Wehave talked Devils a little bit, and
of course the Apps going down tothe kracking. But there's still seven.
There's still series to go. Yeah, those were all game sevens, and
I think because when we did ourlast show, those were the teams that
were still remaining right there. There'sa little belief that I think all of

(33:13):
them were going to do it.At the time. Looking back on it,
though, it did feel like itwas over for the Avalanche. Game
six was that last hurrah. Thishas been the playoffs of the road team,
road teams coming and having a lotof success. I don't have the
numbers right in front of it.I know it's well above five hundred.
What do you think is a reasonfor that. I think we've been talking
about it slowly for years, evenon this show. Just the home ice

(33:37):
advantage, whether that mattered or not, you know, and I don't think
that it does necessarily. More fanstravel well, buildings all play the same
music. I've also heard a theoryabout the hockey player growing up. Right
when you're growing up, coming throughthe ranks of junior and Triple A,
wherever you're playing, you're often ina barn you're not familiar with. You're

(33:58):
often playing against a crowd, whetherit's your own or not. You learn
to tune that out throughout your careerbecause it's not like I guess your typical
sports, where you know you're playingin front of a home crowd and and
and you're feeding off of it.You're in your own little cage there on
the ice, and I think there'san element of deflecting that goes into praise

(34:20):
for home crowds, you know,like I think the fans were the difference
last year, Well what does thatmean? Were they the difference this year?
You know what I mean? Ithink it's just it doesn't really matter
anymore. And we're seeing that,you know, there's not a home ice
advantage, there's not a lot ofthat gamesmanship. Everything's kind of homogenized.
Everything's the same anymore. So there'sjust not a huge difference there. So

(34:45):
then the other conversation I wanted toget to is looking at the final eight
teams that are still in it twoof them are the two newest teams in
the NHL. So, Ryan,I want to have the conversation about expansion
teams. I know Seattle did itway differently than Vegas was able to do
it. Seattle almost did it alittle bit more naturally. It feels like,

(35:07):
right, they're trying to draft better, they're trying to bring up prospects.
But then here we are, secondround. They knocked off the defending
Stanley Cup champions, Vegas still floatingaround like we talked about a favorite,
one of the favorites still alive.Why our expansion teams this good, this
fast? And is that a problemfor the NHL. Should the NHL maybe

(35:30):
tweak its future expansion rules a littlebit to not allow a team to come
out of the gate this strong asfast. I think it's fine. I
think it's fine that they're doing that. You know, Seattle was not a
good team last year. They paidtheir dues. Vegas paid one year of
Dudes Vegas Toronto Maple Leaves fans areon the line. They'd like to talk

(35:51):
about. Dudes Vegas is the teamthat blew it for Seattle because they were
so good at taking advantage of thesystem. Teams were not ready for that
expansion draft. They couldn't move thebits and pieces around. For the Seattle
expansion, they could, they couldmove the bits and pieces around. But
the point of expansion is to makemoney. The point of warning a sports

(36:15):
team is to take money. Thepoint of operating a sports league is to
make money. Right. You don'tmake money if you handcuff an expansion team
to the degree that they can neverbe good, or that it takes them
a decade to be good. I'veheard. Now, I'm not a basketball
aficionado like you and Danny, butI believe Vancouver they had a basketball team.

(36:37):
Yeah, and they were an expansionteam, Yeah, Grizzlies, and
they were never good. Am Iright? Well, Pau Gasol was there
for a while, and you know, he's definitely, you know, the
Michael Jordan of our generation, butmaybe just didn't have the pieces around him.
Exactly. The point is I've heardexactly he said. I've heard stories

(36:57):
about how the NBA spansion rules atthat time were in place to keep an
expansion team from over outshining existing teams. But what it did is it it
hindered that team to the point thatthey no longer exist because it was not
a viable franchise. That's the problem. You cannot do that. You need
your expansion teams to be competitive asquickly as possible. So you're essentially explaining

(37:22):
to the layman's NHL fan, let'sjust call it a Dallas Stars fan who
maybe a little riled up to hisDallas Stars that he's been watching since he
was a little kid, are oneto one with this brand new hockey team.
You want them to understand that Seattle. Seattle's success is success for the
NHL, and success for the NHLis good for all hockey fans and hockey

(37:45):
teams and all hockey. Yeah,I mean it is better. I understand
the reticence of Avalanche fans to wantto root for Seattle because they beat your
team. Because there's bad blood.There's a Jared McCann kilmacars situation. There's
a Jordan Everleih Andrew Cogliano situation.There's hatred. I've had lots of people

(38:06):
say I had no problem with Seattleand now I hate them. And that
is the playoff format working. Firstof all, that's what it does.
Now Seattle will be a rival.Well, they not, even though they're
not in the division, they willbe a rival. But Seattle making the
postseason is awesome. Seattle going deepin the postseason is awesome. That's the
storyline you would want to root for. Right. The Vegas Golden Knights went

(38:30):
all the way to the Stanley CupFinal in their first season. Incredible hasn't
been done. They've been dominant eversince. Eventually, you know the clock
will run out on them because they'rekind of just floating prospects for current players.
Until that that line runs out,it'll happen. But it's good for
hockey. I also think it's justa lesson to hockey teams around around the

(38:53):
league. Right, you don't needto load up on stars. You need
to load up on depth, depth, and trickle in you know, one
or two young stars. I mean, look at Maddie Banier's I think he
really is the reason that they changed. Andre Berkowski's addition, while he hasn't
been in the playoffs, was abig reason that they succeeded in the regular
season. So have I got ridof some guys too, having a pinch

(39:15):
of star power. I'm not sayingMarch Giardano wasn't the answer, but like
some of the original the expansion Draftplayers are no longer there. All I'm
saying is you don't need super teams. You don't need to necessarily say we
want Sidney Crosby here to play withNathan McKinnon. We need Patrick Kane and
Jonathan Taves. No, what youneed is a strong depth. You need
Jonathan Taves did nothing in the postseasonfor the Rangers. Patrick Kane, Patrick

(39:39):
Jonathan Taves either. Should I sayJonathan Kane, Now you said Jonathan Taves,
Yeah, he didn't play either.Well, that's a pretty good conversation.
I think you're just a ton overwith the clock has decided that for
us. Yea, we ran outof time. We ran out of time.
We'll look at us. Um.Yeah, there you guys burning it

(40:00):
out with my takes. Burn itdown, baby, burn it down.
I'm all for it. This isthe hockey show right here on my eyesports.
Thanks for hanging out with us.We'll be back to the break for
the mixed bag skate and look intoNHL Awards to stick around with us.
JJ Durrez, Ryan Bolding, DandyBailey will be right back. I can

(40:28):
see play hockey and I form akate because is the two most fun things
in cold weather. Welcome back,It's time for the mixed bag skate.

(40:51):
Let's spark this baby up. I'mready before we do? Is it me?
Or is there a theme going onwith the music that I'm not catching
on too? I don't seems tobe a lot of you just feel outmatched
songs that I don't know. You'vegot the Pennywise shirt. I don't know.
There's always Danny's always an enabler whenit comes to your music choices.

(41:14):
Well, I asked Danny to playthings you just expect, and he always
says, okay. I brought himSantiago's I don't think I've ever turned down
a request from you, Jed.He probably requested things three times every week.
I'm like you, feeling this Dannyexactly what I was gonna say,
Yeah, make more requests. He'snot a telepathic I remember when I was.

(41:35):
You can't read mine. You know. That's how my whole media career
started was as a radio producer.I used to drive me nuts when people
would come in and tell me whatto play, especially because me, a
man of preparation, planning, hadalways two steps ahead of everybody. I
already had it built. I alreadyhad it ready to go, and then
some a hole comes in and tellsme to change everything that I had already
done. And I'm like, fine, because I'm a nice guy. But

(41:58):
Danny's obviously way nice. So he'sgot a smile. He loves two steps
ahead of everybody too, Did Isay too? I meant three? Three
strides behind on the music today.Ah, let's get to the mixed bag
skate. This guy's got prod ofshades done right now. NHL Awards Ryan,
I've heard of him. We've gotplenty. I've been there. I

(42:19):
was there at the year Cuba GoodingJunior was so high on whatever he was
high on that he rubbed Mark Messier'shead up on stage. What do you
think it was? It was Vegas, baby, somebody might have slipped something
for him. Um. Yeah.Only about half of the nominees are available
right the Heart, the Ted Lindsay, the Vezina, the bill Masters,
and the Jack Adams all are gettingannounced later in this upcoming week. The

(42:44):
ones we do have are the Norris, the Calder, the Selkie, and
the Lady Big. We actually alsohave the checkouts. NHL dot Com tricked
me, we'll get to the JackAdams too then, So yeah, let's
just start with the Norris because Iguess that's Cloe to our hearts since there's
an Avalanche player actually involved, wherelast year there were numerous Avalanche players.

(43:06):
I think in these conversations, nowwe just have Klee mccarr as one of
the best defensemen in the league.Now, this has been a funny conversation
throughout the end of the year,right, and it's been even curious to
me Riff of Mile High Sports andco host of the Hockey Mountain High podcast.
He even ran around the Avalanche lockerroom asking different defensemen what they thought
about Eric Carlson being the leader forthe Norris this year. Why because he

(43:31):
had a ton of points, notnecessarily good defense, and exactly where I
was gonna go. Pavel Francis saysthat, you know, maybe it's because
he doesn't really want to play defense, but because the team was so bad
that he was just focusing more onoffense than maybe playing defense. And that
was the one consistent answer you heardfrom a lot of the Avalanche players was

(43:53):
I'm not even sure what this vote, what this even votes for anymore?
Are we talking about the best defensemanor are we just simply talking about the
defenseman that has the most points.So it seemed the consensus from a lot
of the guys was why not createanother award? Why not create an award
where it's this concept the defenseman withthe most offensive points and then an award

(44:15):
for the best defensive defenseman. Imean, scrolling down, we have the
Selkie and that's for the best defensiveforward. Why wouldn't you have the best
defensive defenseman. Yeah, I thinkit's should be all around defenseman. It
shouldn't just be Eric Carlson had onehundred and one points, so he should
win. He was minus twenty six. Also, I don't understand how Kaylee

(44:39):
mccar's on this list. He playedsixty games. I mean, I think
if you were to ask thirty twoteams in the NHL, you can have
one defenseman, any defenseman. Takeyour pick. Kaylee mccar's probably thirty one
of those thirty two teams. PickYeah. I mean he had a one
point one zero points per game,right, which was only second to Eric

(45:01):
Carlson's one point two three. Iwould say he was a better all around
defenseman this year. Well, wewho would you say was healthier? Healthier?
Yes, Eric Carlson. But mypoint is what happened to Josh Norrissey.
Josh Morrissey, Norrissey for real?Not on there. I heard Elliott

(45:22):
Friedman and Jeff Merrick throwing Brent Burnsout there. Yeah, Adam Fox,
I mean he had he played eightytwo games, he had seventy two points
said point eight eight points per game. It's a popularity contest. It feels
to me he's more deserving than EricCarlson and kil mccarr. Yeah. I

(45:42):
mean, and that's the issue becausethis one, of course voted on by
the media, and the media doesn'tdo that good of a job of watching
the rest of the league. Imean you you can even tell from the
national pundits right, all of themare so East Coast bias. You and
I had discussions about starting our ownWest Coast bias network. Yeah, which
is a great idea. Still bythe way, WBN, WCBN, WNBC

(46:07):
deep cut Danny gets it. Idea. My issue. I'm going to defend
the voters here, but the issueis what are the criteria? And everyone
has their own. We already talkedabout this at the top. Is it
the most points? Right? Isit the most defense? I think it's
the best all around player, Buthow do you measure those things? Also,

(46:29):
I don't like voting for the NHLAwards because I find it to be
a massive burden that's very stressful andtime consuming where you're amalgamating stats from different
things and you're trying to determine thiscategory what's important, that category what's important?
And there's the Selkie is it takeaways? Right, there's a plus mine,
there's a line you're trying to walkto. You're you're a trying to

(46:49):
think outside of the box and notjust go with the run of the mill.
But at the same time, sinceyour votes are going to be put
public and you may be put onblast, you also don't want to ruffle
too many things. Well that's betternow, It was better than when it
was a secret ballot. But yeah, my pick is Adam Fox. All
right, all right, I'm gonnago with Eric Carlson. You would thanks,
Yeah, I don't know what thatmeans. Let's look at the calder.

(47:14):
This one seems to be already decided. Kind of feels like it's been
decided for a majority of the regularseason, Maddie Benier's own power, and
Stuart Skinner. Interestingly, Stuart Skinner, I guess I don't know if it's
my lack of attention to the EdmontonOilers or just simply what's been going on

(47:35):
this year, but I completely forgotthat Stuart Skinner is a rookie. It
felt like he's been involved in Edmontonconversations for a while now, and look
at him. He's getting starts inthe playoffs. Yes, they kind of
seem to be going back and forthbetween Skinner and Jack Campbell. But for
a rookie to be making that muchof an impact as a goalie, I
think he definitely deserves a nod.But obviously Maddie Benier's award here. I

(47:58):
think, you know, give Owenpower credit to be a defenceman in the
conversation for real, a defenceman onthe Buffalo Sabers, right, it's not
easy to play defense on the BuffaloSabers. To have a great career,
great career year to start your career, awesome. Good for him. I
don't think he's gonna be the winner. I think it's gonna come down to
Beniers or Skinner. I like bothof these people as people based on interactions

(48:24):
I've had with them. I've hadgreat interactions with both of them. I'm
very impressed with what Vaniers has donefor the Crack and he's playing on the
top line. Have you seen hisChipotle commercial? Yeah, I talked to
him about it. Do you likehis order? I've never paid that much
attention. I talked to him aboutit, though. He said he never

(48:45):
watches himself, so he doesn't watchlike highlights or game games stuff like that.
He never watched himself on TV.But the commercial came on during the
King's Oilers game and he was watchingand he was like, it was super
weird to see myself come up onTV. I don't know who's going to
win this one, because how doyou weigh what Beniers has done for the

(49:07):
Kraken versus what Skinner has done forthe Oilers. Now saying that, I'm
going to say Skinner has probably contributedmore to his team's success. Well,
you get more eyes time as agoalie, you do, and you have
more direct influence over the game.So I this one's tough. This one's

(49:30):
a tough one. I don't knowwhat you pick. I'm looking, well,
you just gotta put yourself in theshoes of the voters, and you
know they're just going with another popularitycontest. They don't want to be the
odd guy voting for somebody that isn'tin the top three. So I'm guaranteeing
a Maddie Benier's victory. Guaranteed thatbrings us to the Lady being best defensive
forward. Way, Frank Jase Sulky, that's the best defensive forward. Yeah.

(49:54):
Patrice Bergeron can't see his notes withhis dark sunglass. This is my
uh, not to Danny Williams ofcourse, um Nico Hisischer, Mitch Marner,
and Patrice Bergeron really feels again PatriceBergeron, Uh, it's his award
to lose, mainly because he's wonit so many times. It is sub

(50:15):
named the Patrice Jay Bergeron. Everybodyhas feelings for him right now because it
may or may not be his lastseason that we saw him, uh get
eliminated by the Florida Panthers in seven. Yeah, without looking at stats,
it's probably him and then the Ladybeing of course, that's just the most
gentle, gentlemanly player. I don'tknow how Kay mccar doesn't win this.

(50:37):
I personally think this award should bevoted on by the officials. Yeah.
Never forget. Nathan McKinnon won thisaward, and I believe he won it
in a season where he yelled athis own coach on the bench so hard
that the captain of the team andhis friend won Gay Real Landiskogue knocked him

(51:01):
off the bench trying to get himto stop, and had to pick him
back up off the bench. Evenif that didn't happen that season, I
wouldn't call him gentlemanly on the icewith his competitive drive. I just wouldn't.
So with that. Jack Hughes andZakopatar Braden point I bets Copatar.

(51:22):
I wouldn't know. I've never hadan interaction with him. Seems like a
nice guy. Yeah, worst interviewof the season I had Jack Hughes,
really yeah, he was rude.I had two witnesses, Peter Bough and
Bennett Rando. Both of them leftwith the same reaction I did, which
was, what the heck was that? Maybe you caught him on an off

(51:45):
day. I don't know. Yeah, you never know what these guys are
dealing with. Just like I saidat the top of the show, with
Jared Bednar right, there's always somethinggoing on in their lives too. You
can't throw stones at them for Iguess having personalities and having their own emotions.
But yeah, that's that one's aquestion mark ones. I know we're
happening. Maddie Benier's Patrice bergeron andthen of course Connor McDavid for the Heart.

(52:05):
But we'll get into the Heart nominationsas well as the Ted Lindsay Vesna
Masterton next week. What about JackAdams, Jack Adam, here we go.
I don't have it in front ofme. If you had to guess,
let's give me your Jack Adams guesses. Wasn't Bruce Cassidy one of them?
No? I'm pick based on whatyou would expect from how the season
went. Jim Montgomery all day,every day. Yep, that's one.

(52:27):
He's on there. That's my choiceto win. Okay, but pick two
more coaches? Who else is deserving? Bruce Cassidy I'll throw I don't know,
Pete the boor Cool, Lindy Ruffand Dave Hackstall. Lindy Ruff of
course, and Jim Montgomery. Now, personally, I do think Jared Bednard

(52:49):
deserves some consideration for this the team. The team won the division. You
just threw it. It's been awhole segment saying why it's his fault.
I'm not saying it was the rightdecision, but he won the division with
the roster of the cast of theWalking Dead. We had literal zombies out
there playing hockey. I think it'simpressive what he did. I think it's
impressive what Dave Hackstall did to gethis team into the postseason after having forty

(53:13):
four points. They had like aforty forty four point turnaround. And the
way they did it was with structure, was with the philosophy at which they
approached the game. That's how they'reexperiencing success. Potentially out coach Jared d
Narin Round one. We could doa whole segment about this. Yeah Lindy
Ruff, I mean yeah, fireLindy was a legit thing at the beginning
of this season, and here weare, they're about to get bounced by

(53:37):
the Hurricanes. But they did getthings on the way. We didn't talk
about the Rangers losing in Game seven, but they were the three seed and
New Jersey was the two seed,and that's kind of how it's supposed to
go. Well, and don't forgetNew Jersey was up, was down to
nothing after a two five to onelosses in that series and came back and
won it. So I wouldn't counthim out just yet, but if the

(53:57):
first couple of games or any indication, Caroline is in full control and we
kind of neglected them as a goodpick for winning it all right, I
mean, they've always been in contention. We thought a couple injuries, we're
gonna bring them down, but no, they're thriving right now, just like
us. We're thriving here on TheHockey Show, just mid playoff form.
We've got more playoffs to go.We're not even halfway through the playoffs.
So of course we'll be back nextweek to break down some more NHL for

(54:20):
you. Things are so bright herewe had to wear shapes exactly. We're
not hungover. We swear we didspark it up though, didn't we sparked
up that we burned that one down? Yeah, we did from end to
end. So thanks for hanging outwith us. This was a fun show,
The Hockey Show. We'll be backnext week. We'll see you later.