Breaking Down Carolina Hurricanes Projected Playoff Lineup + Senators vs Canes: Defencemen Rankings

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On today's show, the regular season is over

and now the real fun can begin.

We take a look at the Carolina Hurricanes' projected line-ups

for Game 1 and rank the top 10 best defensemen in the series.

This has great control and you're listening

to the Lockdown Center podcast.

Your Lockdown Senators,

your daily podcast on the Ottawa Senators,

part of the Lockdown Podcast Network,

your team every day.

Welcome, you are locked on to the Ottawa Senators.

I'm Ross Levittan alongside Brandon Pillar today

is Thursday, April 16th and Pillsie.

We finally have Game 1 scheduled

Saturday 3 p.m.

We're leading off the playoffs.

Sends Hurricanes the first game of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs.

I kind of like it, not going to lie.

Obviously, prime time, Saturday night is always great.

But to be the first game,

there's going to be a lot of eyeballs on this game.

You get to be ready right away during the day.

I mean, our Sends fans on the West Coast,

this is going to happen at noon on Saturday.

So you got the whole day ahead of you.

I'm fired up.

We've been waiting so long to get just Game 1 scheduled.

Like we don't even know when Game 2,

3 or 4 is going to be,

but Game 1 first, let's go.

We need the full schedule though.

I got heaven and earth to move to get to Ottawa.

Let's go hurry up.

Well, Ross, if you're going to move heaven and earth,

I don't think it matters what the schedule is.

Like you're you're moving.

Having an earth regardless.

Every hour gets closer to hell.

That's true.

You did not say you would move hell.

No, I can't.

One dimension.

You can't handle.

No, Devils in the details.

And I need to know this schedule right now.

But 3 p.m. on Saturday.

You mentioned it.

There's going to be hockey fans that are craving playoffs

that may not have had an interest in this series.

And they're going to set the tone for the entire Stanley Cup playoff.

So 3 p.m. on Saturday.

And we're expecting this to be as tight checking of a series

as there will be across the first game.

These two teams are mirror images of each other when you look

at the way they play.

They love getting shot attempts.

They were they suppress shots better than any other team

in the national hockey league.

Carolina, the fewest shots allowed per game this season.

Ottawa was third in that category.

This is going to be a battle of the trenches.

And who's going to blink and make the most mistakes?

This is going to be an all out war.

Ross, we knew going in.

Obviously the top team in the east is going to be a tough matchup.

We've seen the Carolina Hurricanes have been a real problem

for the sense in years past, even this season.

They got the better of us overall.

But looking at the lines and breaking it down line by line,

diving into the analytics.

That really opened her eyes to be like, oh, man,

this is going to be a very tough series.

And there's Carolina Hurricanes fans on Saturday.

I don't think anyone thinks this is going to be easy.

We are obviously the underdogs.

But there is nothing wrong with having confidence in your team

especially with the way the Ottawa Senators play.

Like Carolina's advanced analytics are very good.

But so are the sense.

Like it's not like,

I don't think anyone thinks this is going to be easy.

We are obviously the underdogs.

But there is nothing wrong with having confidence in your team,

especially with the way the Ottawa Senators play.

Like it's not like,

like there's not really easy advantages for either team.

They're so close in so many different aspects that.

I don't think either team can be fully confident in here

or should say that they have the clear edge can either side be confident

in their team.

Sure, absolutely.

You expect nothing less from fans,

but it's funny to see the brand new sparked rivalry

of Twitter discourse online.

Hey, it's great to see you want a little rivalry.

And this is the first time the sense of played the Hurricanes

and the playoffs.

They're not in the same division where every other matchup

in the Eastern Conference is a divisional opponent.

So there's built in natural rivalries from playing each other

more and competing for the same spots.

But this is going to be an absolute war.

And you talk about the way they play.

How everything is similar.

Well, our friend Jack Richardson pointed out on Twitter.

The points percentage over the last 30 games of the season.

Identical between these two teams.

733.

And if you go through the last 31 games like Josh points out.

The senators and Hurricanes both with 46 points.

Ottawa with a plus 39 goal differential and Carolina at plus 29.

So you you Hurricanes fans can rightfully say we've been the

better team all year.

You can have the smaller sample size.

If you'd like, I would argue that it's relevant because it's

leading into the series.

What stat state is your team at now.

But you know what you earn by getting that extra great play

from October to January.

You got home ice.

So that's where your advantage comes in.

But if you look right now at the form as they would say in

footy.

What form are you in?

I think the Ottawa senators form right now is as good as we've

seen.

They figured out after some tinkering that having stutzlin

could chuck on different lines helps this team get further

scoring depth down the lineup.

They've had now the consistency of those lines.

All the injuries were on the back end, right?

We've seen these forward lines barely change over the course

of the last 30 games.

And that gives me the confidence that they're going to hit

the ground running because if you remember last year game

one was a mess.

The Ottawa senators were horny for playoffs.

It had been seven years.

And they took how many penalties in game one.

We'll get the keys tomorrow on our full preview ahead of

Saturday.

But discipline in this series is going to be incredibly

important going up against a ridiculously potent power play

for the hurricanes.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, discipline in the playoffs is typically a very

important factor, but especially when two teams match up

as tightly as these teams do because five on five like every

puck battle, every neutral zone transition going your way

or against you is probably going to have a major impact

like this.

This is going to be shift by shift hockey and it's going

to be stressful, but it's going to be so good to watch.

And let's look at the Ottawa senators quickly.

It's a day off for the boys after they won their final

regular season game going into the postseason now on a

six one and one stretch over their last eight games.

And if you look closely at the way this team is built,

you can see that depth go throughout the lineup.

The top line of Tim Stutzla with Drake Batherson and

Claude Giroux.

They've got a 59.2 expected goals percentage that could

chuck cousins Ridley Greg line.

They're at 65.6 among the best in the national hockey league

all season.

The Pinto a Maddo cousins line.

They're at 62% expected goals.

And the line that has the worst is the fourth line at 46%

with Ella Vogel and Zetterlin.

But they've actually got the best goal percentage of actual

goals that are scored.

So I think that this is going to be an absolute battle.

And we'll dive into the lines in the next segment for the

Carolina Hurricanes because they were on the ice for practice

today after they had the day off yesterday.

They finished their season on Tuesday.

So they're back on the ice and we'll dive into each individual

line and get analysis on that.

I do want to touch though on the February game in Carolina.

I didn't want to use the in Ottawa game because the

sense had last changed.

They had the matchups.

But if we're going and it makes sense that Rod Brinnamore

would go back to this because just thinking of how you

would coach.

It makes sense to do it this way.

But I looked at the line matching of that game.

And it was Jordan stall and his checking line up against

Dylan Cousins Brady could chuck and Ridley Greg.

So they on their whiteboard.

They've actually got the Cousins line as the Senators top

line.

That's what they matched up with with their shutdown line.

Then it was Sebastian Ajo going up against Tim Stutz

law, leaving the Logan Stan Koven line going up against

Shane Pinto.

So you look in like you could see a world like these are 50

50 battles the way these lines are matched up.

And then the fourth lines match up pretty well against

each other too.

There's no clear edge like there's no way to match up your

lines up against the opponent's lines either way where you're

like all right.

This is where we're going to take advantage.

This is where we're going to get our cookies like.

And the same can be said for the defense bears like it's.

I know people have issues with the playoff format but.

It's this lining up like this is pretty awesome honestly.

Oh man, is it Saturday yet?

Like let's go.

Let's get the show on the road and let's get the puck to

drop on Saturday afternoon in Carolina.

Okay, let's look at the hurricanes lines on the other side.

We'll wrap up today's show continuing our ranking.

So if you missed it yesterday, we went through the top

goalies in this series.

We'll look at defenseman today and forwards tomorrow.

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dayers club all right Pillsy we have nothing but respect for

the Carolina Hurricanes they have turned themselves into one

of the NHL's elite regular season teams over the course of

Rod Brenda Moore's time with the team from the day he took

over they went to the conference finals then it was a first

round lost second round second round third round second

round third round and now they're playing the Ottawa senators

in the first round hell of a run for Ottawa born head coach

Rod Brenda Moore however I need to get ahead of this storyline

I think as the city of Ottawa we might have to disown that

narrative going into this series because I've seen it a lot

oh Rod Brenda Moore's going home Rod Brenda Moore grew up in

British Columbia so he's born in Ottawa but I don't think we

need a series long oh Rod Brenda Moore's going home storyline

yeah an absolute scandal that you've uncovered raw so now

that's out there Rod Brenda Moore not claimed by the city of

Ottawa no and it's almost like a one for one trade because

Steve Iserman was born in BC but grew up in Ottawa and that's

why his name's on a goddamn arena in Ottawa I don't see

any Rod Brenda Moore community centers kicking around

in our nation's capital and if there were we'd have to

change that to Travis Green community center because Travis

Green has done such a hell of a job with these Ottawa senators

he deserves all the credit in the world and I think that

he'll be up for the test Rod Brenda Moore one thing he's

really good at is adjustments as well as motivation and

Travis Green the sends coaching staff who green said the

other day the most cohesive staff that he's ever been a

part of they're going to have their work cut out for getting

the intricacies of back and forth and the adjustments that

make playoffs series so special best of seven you're

going to see them at least four times and as many as seven

math guy and if you want to win your game one and the

closeout game are going to look completely different so

how are you going to get yourself the best chance at success

and speaking of Rod Brenda Moore Ross Walt Ruff on Twitter

he covers the Carolina Hurricane said Rod Brin Moore isn't

ready to name a game one goalie just yet he said there's

a likelihood we see both Freddie Anderson and Brandon

Bussie in the series he also said Piotr Kacheckov isn't

an option right now but he is healthy so there's your

tandem it's going to be Anderson and Bussie I expect he'll

give the nod to the veteran Freddie Anderson and

then if things don't go his way then he'll turn to

Brandon Bussie but interesting that now we have confirmation

on at least the goalie duo that's going to start this

series and if you know anything about head coaches they

typically lean to the vet and Freddie Anderson had his own

net today at practice while Brandon Bussie shared one

with Piotr Kacheckov so I'm not ready to confirm it

will wait for Rod Brenda Moore to do that I would expect

it to be tomorrow if not maybe he'll play

the cards close to his vests but I would expect

Freddie Anderson to start in goal in game one the real

question for me there Pelsi is how long is the leash

should he need to go into his bag here's how the

Carolina Hurricanes lined up at their practice today

at the Invisalign Center so how did they get lines

at the Invisalign Center they must have been using

some X-ray glasses Sebastian Alho centering the top

line between Andre Spetschnikov and Seth Jarvis the

second line worth noting here yes Barry Cockkenyemi

was filling in Logan Stan Kovan did not skate but

all signs point to him being available for game one so

let's go with the assumption it's Logan Stan Kovan

centering Taylor Hall and I almost called him Jason

Blake it's his son Jackson Blake third line Jordan

Stahl between Nikolai Elers and Jordan Martinuck

and the fourth line Mark Jankowski with William

Carrier and Eric Robinson on his wings on the back

end it's Jacob Slaven with Jalen Chatfield

Kyandre Miller with Sean Walker and Shane

Gostis Bear with Alexander Nikkeeson

Pelsi what's your overall thoughts when you see

this roster shaken out this is a deep deep

team like we talked about earlier there's not one

line not really one defense pair that you can

point to and be like all right here's where we're

going to make the advantage I would say the

biggest opportunity for an advantage is in

goal Freddie Anderson Cain's fans have a

lot of faith in him but this year hasn't been

great for him now can he turn it around in the

playoffs remains to be seen but they've

done such a good job creating this roster and

I know kind of the typical knock on the

hurricanes is all they don't have that superstar

player which you could you could say is fair

but I think a lot of people would probably

say the same about the Ottawa Senators

like you look at Aho Sveshnikov

Jarvis like those hurt top line guys for sure

and they're all on the same line like that

line is going to be tough you you look down

the line up they've got deaf like getting

ealers on that third line with two more

shut down style guys install in Martinoke

and then adding some offense with ealers

there brings a whole different flavor to

that bottom six and then their fourth line

is tough to play against you so yeah

there's no part of this team that I'm

taking lightly no no there can't be

and all their lines have played so much

together when we'll go through the numbers

like they have the familiarity that Ottawa

doesn't mostly because early on the season

you didn't have Brady Kachok and all the

lines get thrown in the blender for quite

some time Ottawa's line that has played

the most all season is that Kachok

cousins and Ridley Greg line at three

hundred and twenty minutes the Hurricanes

have three lines that have played more

and one of them is one minute more

but the others are two hundred plus

minutes more so that a whole line that

stank open line they've been together

for the majority of the season they play

off each other extremely well they

all have speed they all have tenacity

they all have the ability to score and

that shows with Carolina having such

an elite goal differential all season

long so there's no part of me that's

taking this lightly the one area if

I'm looking at this from an Ottawa

Senators perspective that you might

be able to get into them is the

physicality there's a lot of smaller

undersized guys on this team and I'm

not saying they all play small I

know Seth Jarvis in particular plays

bigger than his frame five seven but

if you're looking like aho not the

biggest guy Jarvis Blake stank open

ealers these are all guys on the

smaller side they make up for it in

their bottom six martinux stall big

guys you look at their fourth line

lots of size there Eric Robinson in

the videos and I told you I watch

one game highlights at a ten of the

season for Carolina that Eric

Robinson can fly he is one of the

fastest players in those clips that

I saw and we know that William

Carrier is the mute non this team

I mean he's not a fighter he's not

that kind of guy but he is their most

physical player in his prime in

Vegas when he was playing on the

other side he would be among the

NHL leaders and hits every year and

I'd imagine that he was close to

the top of that category again this

season yeah one thing to note

Ross I saw one hurricane's fans

saying hey look I know it doesn't

seem like we play physical during

the regular season but this team ramp

it up in the playoffs so I believe

that yeah I'm looking at right now

last year in the regular season I

mean really you can only go by hits

for 60 because obviously the

players carry a 18.55

again this is hits for 60

a sweatshikov 7.2

stall Robinson in the

7.157.34

then you switch to playoffs

Jordan stall bumps his

number from 7 to 16.07

carry a from 18 to 21

sweatshikov from 7 to 13

and then Robinson up at 21

so there is some truth to that

that this is a team

Ross that has made the playoffs

eight consecutive seasons I believe

is eight or nine something like that

it's eight all under rodbrain

Yes so they know

you don't put pedal to the

metal during the regular season

and burn yourself out

do you have to play a certain

style of game in the regular season

to be successful of course they've

got that figured out but a lot of

these guys have been here for a

while this cord knows how rodbrain

he expects them to play

when it comes to playoff time

so there's a reason that

they usually win one round

even two they've been to the

conference finals a bunch

they know when to flip that switch

and if sends fans think that the

physicality is going to be light

Ross I think it's fair to say that

the Carolina Hurricanes are going to

go into playoff mode here and it might

not be as light as we think

No but I'm just saying look

at everything he plays a lot

bigger than his size as well

but just in terms of like

if that Stan Cove and Blake

and Hallline are out against

cousins Brady and Ridley

they're going to have them on their

heels and if you look at it the

Ottawa Senators this season

they were as physical of a team

as you can find in the national

hockey league the Ottawa Senators

ranked among the best teams

third most hits as a team this

is about 300 hits so

I'm not saying that Caroline is

going to wither under the pressure

they've obviously been here

done that time and time again

but Ottawa does have the more

physical team when you look

top to bottom here and the way

Ottawa plays they rely on that

physicality to get into the

forecheck and create loose

pucks create offensive zone time

and I saw some Hurricanes fans

were also noting that they don't

really have that pressure

as well so I don't really take

that at face value.

Let's look line by line here quickly

the Ajo Spetschnikov

Jarvis line Pilsy

they're very good at creating

offensive zone pressure

Yeah definitely and just quick

update here uh the Stan Covein

didn't practice because he's sick

so it's not like some sort of

injury keeping him out he's just

gotten the illness that kept him out

and it's tough like honestly

it Ross uh that's the line

you got to put Pinto up

against when you have home

ice advantage for sure.

Oh yeah you think so okay

because I was like without a doubt

without a doubt that Stan Covein

line can fly too but I mean

I'm not taking anything away from

the other lines Ross but

those are their three best play

Spetschnikov Ajo Jarvis

and they're all on the same line

at the edge Pinto up against Pinto

Yeah I like that that's a very

fair comment there and we'll see

how the Atoa Senators can

match on the road too because

they're not going to have that last

change the Stan Covein hall

and Blake line

their best analytical line other than

the fourth line but they're playing

easier minutes. That's that line

though Stan Covein Blake and

Taylor Hall in 552 minutes

they have a 58.2 expected goals

for per game or per 60

minutes and then their actual

goals for percentage is 57.6

the best line of all four that

they have here and

it's the second best line in the

series in goals for

percentage not expected actual

goals behind the cousins

Kachak and Greg unit so all

through their line they're very

very good even their checking line

is a 56% expected goals

percentage but they're actually

very good. We'll see how it all

shakes out but that's the

Carolina Hurricanes and on the

back end they're dangerous as

well the Slaven and Chatfield

pair I'd imagine that's going to

be their shutdown pair going up

against other teams top lines

not a whole lot of offense with

that pair especially Slaven he's

known as the best defensive

defenseman in the national

hockey league so you got to be

aware long stick gets in lanes

and just frustrates the hell out of

you so they'll have to be aware

of that Miller and Walker played

among the most minutes

together of any deep air

in the national hockey league

they played 907 minutes

seven more minutes than auto

was top air so 12 most in the

league I should get that stat right

then and they're very good

together except when Tim

Stewart Slaff puts on the jets

and splits them and then goes

on the line matching

Ross um I would match

Timmy's line up against

Stan Cove and Blake and Hall

because I think you're getting

some speed matching up there

and then Hall's Rube similar

type players right veteran

guys that are still able to produce

so I like that and then you get

a little bit of a size

advantage uh obviously with uh

Drake Bathes and then Timmy

looking at Stan Cove and

Blake what how big is Blake he's not that big

of an edge there and then I think

you get that uh

cousins really Greg

and Brady line up against

Eeler's stall and Martin

I think those lines match

up really well up against each other too

so that's and then you just

match the fourth line so I think

that's how I would do it personally

but again that's when the sends

that home ice yeah we're going to see

a battle on the benches a battle

on the ice and a battle

off the first round series

between the senators and the

Carolina Hurricanes

let's rank the best defenseman in the series

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do our full weekend game preview

to talk forward in this series

we did goalies yesterday and now

it's time for the defense

I already posted this on twitter

because I wanted to see if we could

catch any fish on the hook

and we did I was curious because

there are some hurricanes fans

that are agreeing with this but

I don't really consider it

to be a hot take that Jake

Sanderson is the best defenseman

in this series.

yeah I think that's totally fair

and I don't know why they're

struggling with this the tweet

says unbiased and they're saying

oh Homer sends fans

says right there guys unbiased

so maybe the the capital city

thing and understanding unbiased

they're still working on that

but left all the books in

South Carolina yeah got

ahead to Columbia to get the

books two geologists like us can

tell you that but I think

the difference is

it provides that offensive

element to his game where Jake

Slaven just especially this

here just doesn't have that in his

bag now I am not taking

anything away from Jacob Slaven

defensively he deserves all

the credit for being a shutdown

defensive defenseman

that he can get I'm fully

willing to give credit there

but Jake Sanderson is

very good defensively as well

and then combine that with

Jacob Slaven I think

Jake Sanderson has to be

this series talk defenseman

and I already called

Jacob Slaven the best defensive

defenseman in the league

there's nothing to be taken

away from that but the gap

between them defensively

is so much smaller

than the gap offensively

let's put it to task

Jake Sanderson has six

points in his last four

games Jacob Slaven

has eight points

in 39 games all season

these players are not the

same Jake Sanderson

is a superstar and the

one and it's a fair comment

for people who don't walk Jake

Sanderson in Ottawa and saw them

at the Olympics they said well

Sanderson's better why was he

playing on the third pair instead

of Slaven and I would say

a team is built on roles am I

saying that he's a better

offensive defenseman than

Quinn Hughes?

No. Am I saying that he's a

better offensive defenseman

who is their second guy

Zach Ransky?

No. Those are the guys

that are going to have the

role to be the offensive

defenseman in an Olympic

setting where Jake Sanderson

excels is when he has that

responsibility in Ottawa

and he has that responsibility

of that while also

being as good as he was

in a shutdown role

at the Olympics on a 30

minute a night basis.

That's such a flawed argument

because let's use that same

argument for the Carolina

Hurricanes lines.

So is Chatfield a better

offensive defenseman than

Shane Gossis Bears since he's

higher on the D pairs?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a

hell of a player, by the way.

He's a problem.

And I think that Hurricanes

fans have the same or a similar

stat as we have with Shane Pinto

when he gets a point.

Apparently the record when

Jarvis scores is outrageous.

But I like the Pinto stat

better because it takes into

it when any player gets a point

for the Hurricanes they win because

they win all the time.

Yeah. Probably a sick record

no matter what player that is.

Yeah. Yeah.

So Jake Sanderson the number one

defenseman in this series.

If you're Hurricanes fan and you have a proper argument,

please put it in the comments.

We're all ears.

I want this to be an unbiased list.

And that's why at number three,

we have Hurricanes defenseman.

Shane Gossis Bear.

And one and two.

Jake Sanderson, Jacob Slaven.

Three Shane Gossis Bear.

And we debated this roster.

Because again,

there's one side of Gossis Bear's

game that's so much better

than Shabbat.

And then there's one side of Shabbat's game.

That's better than Gossis Bear's game.

That's the defensevers offense discussion here.

But I mean,

oh my god, you got to give credit to Gossis Bear.

50 points and 55 games.

Nearly a point per game defenseman.

So that certainly is impressive for sure.

So I think it's fair that he's number three.

Because the Carolina Hurricanes,

you look at the rest of their

decor and

they focus a lot on being really good defensively.

Before you get crazy with

me, Kane's fans, I'm not saying there's no offense

on the rest of your decor.

It's just that's the main focus.

So Gossis Bear being a guy that could really bring it

offensively is a big part of their roster.

And I mean, he does effectively.

Yeah, he does.

Yeah, he does.

And a lot of people point

and without looking,

hey, are all those points on the power play?

Is that how it's happening?

No, he does it.

All kinds of ways.

He only played 50 some games this year and at 50 points,

only 18 of them were on the power play.

So you have to watch for him at five on five.

And Kane's fans telling us these improved defensively.

Still an area.

I feel like the sense can take advantage of

in this series.

It was just too much of a hill to overcome

the offensive gap between the two right now

with Gossis Bear there.

I do think Shabbat is a slightly better defensive

defenseman than Gossis Bear,

but the offense was the tiebreaker

and you have to tip your hat to what he Gossis Bear has done.

Especially if you look at Gossis Bear's career

where he started out so hot and Philly

got a huge contract and ended up

having to be given with picks to get rid of.

It's crazy.

And then all of a sudden he just bounced back.

He was in Detroit where he put up almost a point for a game.

And then next thing you know,

he's in a system that just craves puck possession

and offensive opportunity.

And no surprise that he's thrived there.

So Gossis Bear III,

Thomas Shabbat at number four.

And this is where like the biggest gap for me on this is one and two.

And Hurricane's fans can get as mad as they want about this.

But that is how I feel.

And then from three to nine,

three to nine is pretty tight.

Like Sean Walker is a good defenseman.

Good top four defenseman.

And we have him at number nine on this list.

But if we're going in order, next is Adam Zub.

What would you tell Hurricane's fans that have no clue who Adam Zub is?

He plays such a strong physical shutdown game.

We already talked about Jake Sanderson.

That's the pair.

That's all it was number one.

Whenever these two guys are healthy,

they are anchored together.

Travis Turing doesn't mess with that pair whatsoever.

And like Jake Sanderson is really good defensively.

But he's good offensively as well.

And then to have a guy like Zub,

just an absolute responsible shutdown guy.

Jake Sanderson can take risks.

And he can pinch.

And he can carry the puck from coast to coast and know that he's got a guy behind him.

That's going to be there.

If he gets caught out of position.

Then even if Jake Sanderson does get caught out of position,

it only takes some two or three strides to get back to where he needs to be.

I think for me,

it was close.

Zub and Miller.

I would say that's a very tight gap.

But I just think the way Zub is able to really shut things down.

It gives him the slight edge there.

Yeah, we just kind of alternated back and forth here.

When it was Zub, then Kyandre Miller,

then Jordan Spence, then Alex Nikitian.

If I'm zooming in, I know we said three to nine,

but really five through eight.

You could do any order there.

And I would hear you.

So there's a world where Jordan Spence is as valuable going into this series as Adam Zub.

Initially on my list, I had spent ahead of Zub, not going to lie.

Just because Zub on his own without Sanderson is was not nearly as effective,

whereas Spence and we've gone over this roster.

It doesn't matter where you put him,

what minutes you put on him,

what role, what opponents he's up against.

He is just so effective in all three zones.

So I'm really high on Jordan Spence.

I think probably Keynes fans will have a big issue with Nikitian being eighth on this list.

And that's fair, like he is a very good defenseman.

So I mean, look, if honestly five to eight,

you could probably put in multiple different orders.

And I wouldn't get too crazy about that.

Okay, so you're then looking at Alexander Nikitian,

who's down on the third pair with Carolina,

but we know that the Hurricanes roll three pairs pretty well through the entire game.

Slavins at 22 minutes and Nikitian and all those guys are like 1830.

Like they are very quick to turn over their pairs.

They're not going to shorten the bench very unlikely to see.

But Nikitian has an unbelievable shot from the point.

He scored 11 goals.

This is his rookie season in the NHL.

He did play in five playoff games last year.

And did not fare well in those games.

He had just come over from Russia.

He's a trouble to get him in the lineup.

And now he settled in after playing a full season and despite being a rookie,

it's those classic Russians that take a few years.

He was at one point considered the best defenseman outside of the NHL.

He was a very, very, very good player in Russia.

So he could be an X factor in this series.

He's a big boy doesn't fight,

but he did get one earlier this season.

And I remember I forget who he fought.

But after the game, the guy was like, yeah,

he told me he doesn't fight.

And then we looked it up.

And a bunch of fights in Russia is beating the wheels off of guys.

He's an enormous human being.

You have to be aware when he's on the ice.

And Sean Walker is a very,

let's say competent defenseman at both ends of the ice.

Formerly of the Philadelphia Flyers gets traded there and found a home next to

Kyadrey Miller, who they acquired last off season from the New York Rangers.

Jalen Chatfield rounds out our top 10.

I think it would have been a pick your poison between him and Tyler Clevin.

But with Clevin being unavailable right now.

We're obviously going to omit him from this list.

So the two defensemen out of the top six for each team that have not made this list

are Nicholas Matt and Palo and Lassie Thompson.

Pillsie, I think this was pretty unbiased.

Well, like we, it says right on the Tweet Ross unbiased.

So it's unbiased.

Okay.

And there it is.

Let's look at that.

All right, Pillsie, final thoughts on today's show.

Final thoughts for me, Ross, is if you're watching us on YouTube,

if you were with us in the postcast last night, you might be saying,

guys, you said you were going to start your playoff beards.

You're going to be clean shaven for tomorrow morning.

Some might say we forgot.

But the real reason is we decided that we're going to be clean shaven playoff beard starts

when we do our game one game day preview for the playoffs.

So expect to see us all baby face playoff beard set at zero tomorrow morning.

Yes.

And we're going to the shave is happening right after we record today.

But we are so fired up to hopefully get the schedule.

We ended up waiting on that.

We're fired up to get into the Carolina Hurricanes lines.

And we just had to get a new episode of locked on senators out.

So the playoff beard.

Definitely didn't forget.

They're beginning tomorrow.

I might have to hit a peloton here.

I'm going to have 25 chin staring you guys in the face on tomorrow's show.

I know the beard does a lot of work for both of us covering things up.

But it's a little glaring when my algorithm also caught me in a bad spot last night.

It was one of those compilation videos of men who hadn't shaved in a long time shaving

and then surprising their girlfriend with it.

Yep.

And I'm going to hear about it when the wife gets home tonight.

Do you think Lily's going to be like freaked out about you?

I love the baby ones are very funny.

Interesting.

Because yeah, she was like four months old last spring.

So don't think she was all there yet.

But she's definitely now.

I'm curious.

We'll see.

I'll get an update for you on the show.

And it.

Well, she'll see me before my wife's back.

So I won't be able to get any video content to that.

But hey, Lily's two for two making the playoffs.

As an auto as senators.

Yeah.

She's the ultimate slump us to November 25th, 2024.

Look at the sends record before that.

And after that.

And if you want to laugh, go check out the postcast we did.

Like minutes before I went to the hospital was the Vancouver postcast.

And oh boy.

That was rock bottom.

Almost as rock bottom is the January 24th postcast we did.

After Ottawa lost four one at home to the hurricanes and you press the panic button.

And the fact they're playing the team.

Yeah.

Oh my god.

That you press the panic button after the game.

How can you not be romantic about hockey?

My final thoughts on today's show is a prospect update from Luca Beckman.

This guy is unbelievable.

Beckman is now posted back to back shutouts in the second round of the QMJHL playoffs.

He had a 20 save shutout and a five nothing win over the Quebec Rampar last night in his last 10 games.

So all of his playoff games and the last two regular season games.

Luca Beckman has allowed seven goals.

He has three shutouts and he has a nine sixty four save percentage.

Insane.

And if we're just talking playoffs eight games nine sixty two save percentage and zero point seven five goals against average.

Like that is just insane Ross.

We I've been clamoring for to get French Canadian goal tending back on the map in our generation Ross.

That was the factory for elite goalies.

Luca Beckman might just be bringing it back here because he is lights out right now.

Oh man, I mean, what a what a storyline to watch for because we haven't had a senator's goalie play on team candidate the world juniors since Jeff glass in 2005.

The greatest hockey team ever assembled at that tournament and Jeff glass senators prospect was between the pipes.

But Luca Beckman is making a strong case because he was even good on the worst team in the league yet a nine oh five save percentage gets traded to the best team.

And now his record is twenty one one and oh since then not bad is six six shutouts in twenty one games with the the sags in Shakur to me.

So there you have it.

A little prospect update at the end of a preview episode will have our.

I was going to say final round up before the game one, but it's not because we got an episode for you tomorrow.

We'll go through our classic preview locked on players lineup breakdowns and everything and we'll rank top forwards and then Saturday crossover with locked on hurricanes.

Pock drops at three o'clock on Saturday.

Stay tuned to our socials at Central and Twitter locked on dot senators when we know the full schedule for games one through four would actually be one through seven that they would have the schedule for we will make sure to get that to you as soon as possible.

Otherwise we'll chat tomorrow on to on the episode of locked on senators for today we say goodbye.

Thanks so much for liking watching listening and engaging with the show make sure to click the thumbs up on YouTube really helps the show share with your friends.

Maybe got a colleague a family member a friend who is not the biggest hockey fan but wants to get into the playoffs.

Please point them in our direction and subscribe everywhere you listen to podcasts.

This has been another edition of the locked on senators podcast your team every day.

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