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On today’s episode of Locked On NHL, hosts Nick Zararis (Locked On Oilers) and Hunter Hodies (Locked On Penguins) break down the shifting power dynamics of the NHL as the playoffs approach.
In This Episode:
The Surging Sabres & Blue Jackets: Are these two young teams finally for real? We dive into the Buffalo Sabres’ lead in the Atlantic and the Columbus Blue Jackets’ incredible 16-2-4 run under Rick Bowness. Plus, why Zach Werenski is playing like a Norris Trophy winner
Dallas Stars’ Championship Window: The Stars have been one of the most consistent teams over the last five years, but with an aging core including Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, is this their last true shot at a Stanley Cup?.
Teams in Denial: We dissect why the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Philadelphia Flyers are in dangerous territory. From Adam Fox’s frustration in New York to the uncertainty surrounding Auston Matthews’ future in Toronto, we explain why these "retools" might not be enough
05:48 Columbus Rising in Playoff Race
08:47 "Playoff Chaos: Penguins & Stars"
11:05 "Dallas Stars' Aging Contention Window"
13:14 "Dallas Closing In on Avalanche"
19:03 Offseason Decisions & Hiring Solutions
21:53 "Teams Stuck In Denial"
24:45 Maple Leafs' Future Under Scrutiny
28:10 "Team Needs Reliable Starting Goalie"
30:47 "Locked On NHL Wrap-Up"
Buffalo Sabres & Blue Jackets are FOR REAL! + Why the Rangers & Flyers are in Denial
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The East is right with exciting teams.
The Dallas stars are reaching a tipping point in their window of contention.
And for the Rangers, the Flyers, and the Maple Leafs, tread lightly.
You're locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League.
Part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Thursday edition of Lockdown NHL, I am Nick Soros, the
host of Lockdown Oilers.
That is my good friend and one of the co-hosts of Lockdown Penguins Hunter Hodes.
We want to thank everyone that is making Lockdown NHL their first list of the day locked
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We're going to open up the show comparing the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabers
two teams.
With some cautious optimism about their playoff trajectories and our second segment, we'll
talk about the Dallas stars who won a big game in a shootout last night over the avalanche
about their trajectory as a Stanley Cup contender, how much longer they have in their window
of contention, and then we'll go to teams at the other end of the window of contention,
the Rangers, the Leafs, and the Flyers, and dissect why those teams are all in similar
boats and they got there in very different ways.
So to start out, we're all talking about the Sabers and Blue Jackets kind of the way
we would talk about an eight-year-old playing 10-year-olds in Little League like wow,
this is really impressive.
Can they keep doing this?
Is this for real?
And I think at a certain point, we do need to just be straight up and say these are good
teams.
I know the Blue Jackets weren't great until Rick bonus got there, but 16, 2 and 4, something
like that since he got there as coach.
The Sabers are first in the Atlantic.
They're four points clear of Tampa Bay who's in second place and these are two really
exciting teams, and these are two teams that haven't had these kinds of moments.
The Blue Jackets have had a couple playoff appearances.
They've won a playoff series before they won in the qualifying round in the bubble as
you pointed out a few weeks ago, and Buffalo, they have been to the playoff since Obama
was president.
So these are two teams where we're all kind of waiting for the playoffs because we want
to gauge how real these are, but more than anything, I think both of these teams are highly
exciting and very fun.
I 100% agree with you Columbus, Nick, they're on a 10-game point straight right now, 6-0
and 4, and their last 10, they're playing some really good hockey.
I was tuning into some of that game against Carolina earlier this week, and they just took
it to the Canes.
That entire game.
Carolina tried getting back into it a bit later on making it a 2-1 game, but the Blue Jackets
just blitzed them right after.
And I think they've been a lot better defensively since Rick bonus took over, which should not
be a surprise.
Rick bonus has been a very good defensive coach throughout his coaching tenure.
You back to some of those Winnipeg teams, Nick, really good regular season numbers, especially
with the way they were defending.
I know, obviously, what happened in the playoffs wasn't ideal, but those teams were still
really good when he was there as the head coach.
Nick, he's also turned Zach Werenzky into even more of a monster, which I didn't know
was possible.
Werenzky is playing like one of the best defensemen in the league this season might very well
win the Norris with the way that he is going, just the level of hockey that he is playing
on a nightly basis is absurd.
Joe Marchenko is also a lot of fun to watch.
Adam Fantilly continues to grow as a player.
And Nick, they're also getting great goal-tending, too.
I think Merz Leakens has been a lot better since Rick bonus took over.
Jack Reeves, throughout the season, he's also been good and they have a legit shot at
getting in here.
I remember when he went bonus first took over, they were at the bottom of the east.
They weren't playing very well.
You know, it was definitely time for coaching change.
And now their offense has been better.
We're also defending special up at our own zone and they're getting saves.
And again, all their elite talent is doing the thing, too.
The biggest thing for them though, Nick, is their schedule is really tough.
They want the toughest schedules to end the season.
So we'll have to see if they can get in even with that.
As for the Sabers, no, I do think the Sabers have what it takes to make a run.
This team is firing on all cylinders.
Their elite players are playing outstanding, whether it's Taj Thompson, whether it's Rasmus
Stalin, who's also playing like a top five defense.
Alex Tuck has been great all season, too.
And I think he's going to get quite a bit of cash this upcoming summer.
Everyone has just gelled so nicely together on that team.
Alex Lyon has kind of been the savior for them.
Ukepek Lukin has also been really good.
They have one of the best goal-tending duos in the league this season.
You know, there's a very real chance they get a more favorable matchup, excuse me, by
winning the Atlantic.
I think every one of us would want to see Sabers lighting if we get it in the second
round.
I think that's going to be seven games of pure hell.
Why not for the Sabers to potentially come out of the East?
It's so open this year.
Now that the Panthers are at the bottom of the conference, Toronto, obviously, isn't
there?
New Jersey is not making the playoffs this year.
You know, the East is really there for the taking.
I still think when everyone is healthy, I would take Tampa as the best team in the conference.
But Buffalo, not only as shown they can play with Tampa this year, they can play with
and beat them too.
So I just want to see a playoff series just for the shenanigans that we're going to
get.
But, you know, if Buffalo gets through them, you know, all bets are off.
I can easily see them coming out of the conference.
And if you're for Columbus, you know, maybe they get to, you know, they get a decent matchup
in the first round, second round, I think they might have to go through Carolina potentially.
But also, it depends, Nick, if they get into that two, three matchup in the Metro, or
if they get one of the wild card spots, that's what comes down to.
But I love watching both teams right now.
They're playing really well.
So the thing about, that's interesting and you just alluded to it about Columbus is they're
sitting first team out of the wild card, the last wild card spot.
They're one point back of Detroit.
They're also only two points back of the islanders and three points back of the penguins.
They are very much in the mix to get into the metropolitan part of this, which was something
we wouldn't have said a month ago.
And no, but that's just a testament to how good they've played over the last month in
change, where you rattle off a 16-2-4, you can erase the type of deficit they were facing.
And the thing I find interesting about both these teams, most of their offense comes at
even strength.
Columbus, 82% of their goals are at five on five buffalos, it's 77%.
You would think a team like Buffalo that has so much talent would have an elite powerplay.
They're 17th in powerplay efficiency.
They do have a top five penalty kill, which helps.
Then you look at Columbus.
Columbus is largely winning games at even strengths.
They're powerplay is 16th in league.
Their penalty kill is 24th, and this is a team that has the goods right now, and defense
is exciting.
And the thing that's interesting about a brick bonus coach team, and we saw this in Winnipeg,
we've seen this in Dallas, because his teams have such an emphasis on defense, it usually
makes your goalie better because your goalie doesn't have as much work on their plate.
So you only need to ask your Jack Greaves to make four or five difficult saves all game
and really kind of efficiency streamline the way your team operates.
And I think Columbus is really interesting in that in Buffalo for the same exact reason.
Neither of these teams really have playoff experience, you know, between Lyon and Peco
Lucan, and they have three goalie appearances in the postseason ever.
That was Alex Lyon, who made starts when Bob got hurt a couple of years ago for Florida.
And then neither of the blue jet mursleekens has a handful of starts way back in 2019 in
the playoffs.
For the most part, we're talking about two teams that have minimal playoff experience
up and down these lineups.
And I think that creates a really interesting energy.
And I know you and I are both, we're both football guys.
We're big believers in the nobody believes in us mentality.
And I think that really can come into play here for a team like Buffalo, and especially
for a team like Columbus, you know, the Blues wrote it all the way to a Stanley Cup in
2019 of nobody believes in us.
Okay, we were in last place.
Let's prove everyone wrong.
And you know, the speech Jake Taylor gives at the beginning of Major League.
Let's prove every single one of these people wrong because we can.
I think that has to you, especially for a team like Buffalo, where you rally that fan
base behind you.
I know Mike Tiktok feed has been rife with sabers at its to uplifting like music and fiery
speeches.
That is a fan base waiting.
And we know Columbus is when the jackets are good.
That is a rocking building.
I know you as a penguins fan can attest to some of those wars in the mid 2010s.
Even when they're not so good, that building still sells out.
They have a really strong fan base up there.
It also helps that it's right in your Ohio state.
So you get that influx of influx of fans, excuse me, coming in there.
That's a great building, man.
And you know, if they get in, it's going to be crazy.
Well, I know it's not Mark Andre Flurry and Bob having a beach ball contest like it
was in the 2010s, where it felt like every single shot could go in in the, I was going
through box scores for something I'm working on.
And I was, there were so many games that were six four, six five.
And it's Bob and Mark Andre Flurry is a two-future Hall of Fame goalies, and they were both
given up four and five goals a game.
And that was a playoff series.
It's just crazy to think about how the playoffs are so different from the regular season.
And speaking of the playoffs being different from the regular season, we are going to take
our first break on today's edition of Lockdown NHL and when we return, we will dive into
one of the regular season darlings of the last half decade, the Dallas stars.
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Thank you so much to everybody that is hanging out with Hunter and I on this Thursday edition
of Lockdown NHL, making Lockdown NHL your first listen of the day and if you're in every
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So Hunter, you and I are both students of the analytical community.
We look at the Dallas stars roster for much of the last half decade and say this is one
of the five to 10 best teams in the league over the last 10 years.
By points percentage, they have the six best points percentage of any team since 2019,
20, the year they made the Stanley Cup final.
They've been to four conference finals in the last six years.
They've only been to one Stanley Cup final.
They have one of the older rosters in the NHL that Jamie Ben Tyler Sagan window pretty
much at its end.
We don't know if Jamie Ben's going to come back next year.
We don't know if Tyler Sagan's going to come back next year.
Matt Dushan is not getting any younger, that older contingent.
But when you look at the younger end of this roster, Ranton is only 29, hence is only 29,
Jars only 27.
Miro Heisken is only 26 and it feels like he's been in the league for a decade and Jason
Robertson is only 26, though they need to sort out the contract situation there this
summer.
The third coach of this life cycle, Rick bonus, who we talked about last segment, took
them to the final as an interim coach for Jim Montgomery, Pete DeBorg out to new
a couple conference finals and then they have Brad Goulison now.
And you look at where they're at.
They have another looming first round match up against a really good team in Minnesota,
more likely than not.
And we're going to flip a coin.
And we're going to see who gets to go to the second round to play Colorado.
And it feels like if you're Dallas, you know, with that Robertson contract in flux,
I don't want to say it's now or never because we see teams break through 10 years after
the fact.
But this is as good a group as you've had in a while.
You have a lot of opportunity in front of you.
But can you get through Minnesota?
Can you get through Colorado?
Can you get through Edmonton or Vegas?
That's the question because they've gotten through the central bracket, Nick, a couple
of times.
They've just run into that buzz solve, and Euler's team that, you know, turned poor Jake
Othinger into a pumpkin at times and a couple of the series.
And I love Jake Othinger, man.
I think he's one of the best goalies in the game, especially when he's on, but there's
just not much you can do when McDavid and dry side will decide to go God mode in a seven
game series against you.
Both those series were a lot of fun to watch.
I don't know if it's going to be Edmonton this year if they get through the central bracket.
But you said it.
Anaheim Vegas.
Is it someone else, for example?
You know, Dallas, they just had a 14 and 0 in one run, Nick, like literally 14 wins
no regulation losses and only one overtime losses.
And I know the likely matchup is them against Minnesota.
We've been looking at this basically since November, but they have slowly, but shortly
started catching up to the avalanche.
Look at the standings right now.
They are only two points back of the avalanche for first in the central.
And now Colorado does have a game in hand.
So if Colorado wins that game in hand, they'll be four points up.
But Dallas is right there, man.
If they can potentially avoid that two, three matchup, you know, I like them even more
going into the playoffs.
What you're saying is something because I think this is one of the three best teams and
the entire league this year, in my opinion.
They're also on this run, Nick, overall, without some of their best players.
Rancidin is still not back yet.
He is going to be back, I think, before the end of the regular season.
Rodic Fox is on IR.
Rupé Hens is still out.
He's going to be back, I think, at some point, before the end of the regular season.
Again, two of your best players are hurt, but they're still mowing through the league.
Basically, it goes to show how good this team is, how deep they are.
They can run four lines with literally anyone out there.
The Lindell Hayeskin in pair is one of my favorites to watch.
You have Thomas Harley as a second pair defense.
And when he's a first pair guy on well over half the league, he's awesome.
And they're going to have to figure out the situation with Roberts.
And I still personally think, Nick, they will sign him.
I think they will have the cap room to do it.
I just don't think you can allow a player like this to either A, walk or B, trade his
rights to.
I just don't really think you can allow for that overall.
But Lichon, since having a great year, they have Maverick Bork on their top line.
And I love what Dallas did, they got to the end of the Ben Sagan years.
But they were drafting so well during that time, it allowed Rupé Hens to come in and
Mero Hayeskin in.
And the obviously you traded for Miko, Ranssen, you sign, Matt Dushane, it's just the organization
has done such a great job of, you know, holding more talent onto the team, especially via
the draft.
I do think Dallas, if I were to pick right now for Dallas, Minnesota, I would take Dallas
in seven games when they're fully healthy against Colorado, man, who I might go Colorado
in seven.
You easily see Dallas beating them again, like it's that close because those to me are
the three best teams by far in the Western Conference, it's really not even close.
I think Dallas overall is one of the three best teams in the league.
But, you know, I really do feel like this has got to be one of the years where you break
through.
You've gotten through the central bracket a couple of times, but it's time to take that
next step, especially Nick in a year where the Pacific Division sucks, man, like this
is NFC South level bad from that division.
You respect Bryce Young, the Panthers won nine games this year.
They're better than Vegas or the docs.
I mean, the Panthers have guys who play defense on their team, unlike the docs.
The thing for me about Dallas and it's one of the great conundrums because they're such
a good possession team in the regular season.
The last night, they got great performance from Montenegro last night.
The avalanche outshot them like two to one in that game and some game, that was fantastic
talking to overtime, especially was on bath salts.
I haven't heard bat salts dropped in a while.
That's a crazy one.
The thing that's crazy to me about Dallas is they are a good possession team in the regular
season, more often than not, but when they get to the playoffs, they have a really hard
time scoring.
You know, there's a team that consistently gets to a conference final and they're doing
it scoring two and a half goals a game on average.
And I know there were games in there where you lose and you get shut out and the average
is even out.
But you think about where our game is going and what's successful in today's NHL.
Dallas has, they've got the two top defense when you need and hardly and high skinned
and then you have Lindellan there as well, who's also, as a Lindell, who's also, I would
say, a little underrated overall.
And then when they get to the playoffs, they can't score.
And that was kind of the impetus for pushing the chips in on Miko Ranton in last year.
They haven't had a true game breaking talent.
Like we love hints.
We love Robertson who are both really good.
You know, Robertson's going to have a chance at 40 talks this year if my math is bearing
out in my head.
Once when he's healthy is one of the best transition players in the NHL overall.
And yet when they've gotten the conference final, McDavid and Drisidle have sung them
to some degree.
And Andrew hasn't been atrocious, but when the other team has the two genuine superstars,
it makes a real difference.
But the last thing on Dallas before we take our second and final break, I think this is
the best testament to why Gary Bettman is wrong about the playoff bracket and the playoff
at up.
It's unfair.
It's quotes Nick where he's like, I love the format.
It makes for a great first round.
You're right.
It makes for a great first round.
But can't we have better matchups like conference final wise down the line?
Everyone hates the format except him.
I feel like he'll defend whatever the owners want, which is why he's why he's had the job
for 30 years at this point is he's a very good punching bag.
And everything rolls off of him.
He doesn't us disliking him at large as a populist doesn't affect his ability to do his job.
And it's why he's been insulated for so long.
And look, this is as ridiculous that Minnesota and Dallas are going to play each other in
the first round.
It's silly that teams that like Nashville that could hypothetically be pushing for a playoff
spot if we were still in the one to rate format, but basically don't have a chance because
we have to do it by division now.
I think it would be a lot more equitable if we did it by the old one to rate format.
Well, I don't want to play in rounds.
We really don't need ninth and tenths playing seventh and eighth, but if you, if that's
the impetus to get it back to a one to rate, whatever, I would accept that trade off if
I had to.
All right, we're going to take our second and final break on today's edition of Lockdown
in Asia.
When we come back, we'll talk about where the Rangers, Leafs, and Flyers all need to
be really careful this offseason and not make too rash of decisions.
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Thank you so much to everybody that is hanging out on this Thursday edition of locked
on in a cell making it their first listen to the day.
And I'm lumping the rangers leave some flyers together here.
There are a number of other teams you could put into this conversation as well.
But all three of these teams are not where they would like to be in the pecking order.
The rangers thought they would be a one year reset.
They added Gavrikov.
They hired Mike Sullivan and they thought we will push for a playoff spot this year.
Maybe even win around depending on who we play in the first round the Leafs expected
to be business as usual.
They were expecting to be a playoff team to offset the loss of Mitch Marner was increased
with a little more depth and an improved goalie situation.
And the flyers thought they would take a step towards either being a bottom of the barrel
lottery team or pushing for a playoff spot.
And also of these teams are not where they want to be.
The rangers and Leafs are at the end of their respective life cycles.
Both of those teams have a bunch of playoff experience in recent history.
They have older, expensive, aging players and they don't have in-house assets to be
excited about.
They need to start working towards their future.
The flyers, they have a few nice pieces.
Mitch Kov had a very funny moment in the game against the ducks last night where he
goaded someone on the ducks into a missed, I almost had a misdemeanor into a fight that
wasn't a fight.
Then you have the flyers also Porter Marton didn't get nominated for the Holy Baker which
is something they were a little disappointed about.
But all three of these teams to me strike themselves as teams in denial about where they're at.
And I think denial is the hardest thing to break through because when you're talking
about sports, right, a general manager who has the final say on things, it can be really
hard to get through to those people that what they're doing hasn't been working.
You know, is Brad tree living even going to be the GM next year?
We've heard Christopher is safe there and we would assume Danny Breer is safe in Philadelphia.
But if you can't get through to those guys, if you're a fan of one of these teams, what
do you do?
What do you do sitting here?
You can complain online, you can listen to podcasts and read columns about where people
who agree with you, but it's got to feel pretty defeating right now if you're in one of those
boats.
Yeah, I think for the Rangers, Nick, you know, they keep saying, you know, this is a
read tool.
This is a read tool.
I just don't really see it when all their players are well over the age of 30.
You've seen Adam Fox very much voices, displeasure to the media.
He's not happy with where the team is at.
Nick, you saw the quote, and my future is something to discuss during the off season.
That's not something you want to hear Nick from the greatest defenseman you guys have
had in quite some time.
I mean, so he also forced his way to the Rangers.
If anyone forgot about that, he literally was like, I'm only going to the Rangers.
And that's the reason why he's there right now.
That read tool was really quick, just because also Penaer and also said, Hey, I'm going
there too.
Not for near all that stuff.
But like, say, say you don't get Gavin McCann, there's obviously a chance the Rangers
do.
Do I trust the Rangers to develop a player that they get potentially third, fourth overall?
Not as much as because they haven't done a good job of developing graphics as a way.
And I also don't think history is a very good GM.
Nick, I know your thoughts on history.
You can't stand him.
You're waiting for the day that he is going to be fired and that someone will replace
him.
I just don't think he has what it takes to get the Rangers back to where they were,
even just a couple of years ago.
And I mean, I think the longer that he is the GM, the better it is for every team in
the metropolitan division.
The Flyers are an interesting case for me because I don't think they want to rebuild, but
I also don't think they're really contending right now either.
They're kind of just stuck in that mushy middle, which is the worst place to be, I think,
as a team.
I don't think they've really picked a direction for where they want to go.
And I like some of their young pieces.
I think Mitch Cobb, once he's fully developed, I think it's going to be a hell of a player.
Tyson Forster, when he's healthy, he's been great Trevor Zegress is having a hell of a
year.
I think he's going to earn a pretty nice contract extension, but I think they saw
him to figure out their goalie situation.
You know, we're talking, he's fine, but teams don't really generate a lot of offense when
he is the head coach.
I just don't really know what direction the Flyers want to go with this summer.
They're just a very weird team.
I feel like they've been like that for the last couple of years.
The main beliefs are also going to be fascinating to me this summer.
Do they try to start, you know, Nick blowing this up a little bit, or do they try going
all in again for next season?
You still lots of errors there.
You still have knee lander.
You still have Matthews.
I've seen the conjecture from some of the top insiders that Matthews is going to have
a sit down conversation with some of the Leafs management staff this off season talking
about the direction of the team.
And Nick, if he doesn't like it, does he go on the trade market?
Again, that's a thing that I don't think it's going to happen.
I'm just bringing it up as a very low possibility because you never know, maybe he doesn't like
the direction where the Leafs management wants to go with the team.
Does Matthew Nies get traded?
He was dangled a little bit at the trade deadline.
I think the Leafs could get quite a bit back from him, but do they start doing Nick what
Pittsburgh did, you know, towards the end of Sid's tenure where they start accumulating
more assets going into this weed boat on the fly?
Or do they start to, or not really start, but do they continue to try and go all in even
though you don't have much money because, you know, they made better bet.
They thought they were doing plenty enough to replace him and it did not come close to
going according to plan.
So yeah, I'm really curious to see how all of these off seasons go.
I think it's going to be really interesting.
The off season represents an opportunity to reset, but you have to acknowledge the
reset needs to happen, you know, we've heard, we've heard there's no guarantees tree
living is even out in Toronto this off season that there's not really an appetite to conduct
a full on general manager search and maybe they hire a president to serve as a go between
between Maple Leafsports and entertainment network and tree living, which only ramps
up the tension and makes it even harder to do your job well.
I think all of these teams are in similar boats in the respect that they've had one tree
living's only been there two years, three's been there for five, three years going on
year three.
We generally see teams that win.
Their general manager's only been there three, four, five years and once you get past
that five year tipping point, unless you're Kevin Shovel Day of or Doug Armstrong, you
get fired or Jim Nill.
You know, if you're in a smaller market where you can kind of insulate yourself and convince
your ownership, hey, I can turn this around, you don't get long tenure general managers
anymore.
Even if you win, you don't get to hang around that long, you know, Don Sweeney's and
Outwire, you know, that's a one where he's been in Boston for quite a while.
I want to see all three of these teams kind of learn from their mistakes.
Understand why you're in the position you're in right now.
You cannot recreate Mitch Marner in the aggregate.
You cannot recreate Mitch Marner with Nick Walden, Matthias McKelley.
If you're Chris Jury, effort doesn't matter if you can't score.
Yeah.
You know, the Rangers always talk about, well, we have effort issues, we have effort,
like even during the game last night, during the bench report where they talk to Mike
Sullivan, I don't like our effort.
It's not effort.
Your line-up sucks.
The devils who have been in cancun mode for two months, I still have Jack Hughes, they
have he sure they have Brat, they have Timo Meyer.
Almost all four of those guys are better than every forward on your team.
You know, if you want to make an argument for Zubinish ad against some of those guys,
maybe I could entertain it, but the devils even in cancun mode smoked you.
So it's not an effort issue.
Your roster is not very good.
For the flyers, what do you want to be?
Do you want to be Rick talk it and win every game three to two?
Okay.
Well, you need to go out and get a start in goalie this summer.
You can't run back Samerson in Daniel Bladar if you want to be a defense first team.
The defense first mentality can work if you have a good goalie.
It worked okay.
The one year that the one year he actually had a healthy Thatcher Demko in Vancouver.
But if you don't have a guy who can make 50 starts, be a 2627 goalie, a 905 save percentage
goalie, you can't win with Rick talk it coaching your team.
All of these teams have formulas to improve their current situations.
It's simply a matter of recognizing it, accepting it and then being willing to admit you were
wrong.
It drives me crazy how unwilling people are like, it happened already.
It's done.
It's over with like trading for JT Miller was a bad idea.
Does it mean we need to make him the captain and make him the face of the team?
Like, yeah, but you're stuck with him because he's got the no movement clause, but you
can acknowledge, hey, he kind of stinks right now.
He's going to finish the or like 50 points and play half the games this year.
He's been very unimpressive.
The Rangers have outs.
The flyers can really double down on stinking and reorganize their team.
And the Leafs, if that means we have to blow it up entirely and we turn this into a bidding
war for Austin Matthews and William Nielander, if those guys express interest and willing
to go, it sucks because the hardest part of building a team is getting stars, but you
got to start over.
At some point, you got to start over and you need flexibility and right now, all of these
teams have varying degrees of flexibility.
You know, the Rangers are going to have a ton of money this summer to spend.
The flyers are, there's no one there.
Unless you want to roll the dice on the Patrick Linase of the world finding the revolution.
After you have the trade market, that's what you really have to do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
10 John's market is terrible.
Like once again, you know, chocolate.
I know.
But you're going to have to go to the trade market if you really want to make big upgrades
this summer.
Oh, absolutely.
Ken Johnston is intriguing.
Jason Robertson might be out there.
Brady Kachok, Austin Matthews, potentially available in trades based on if those guys express
interest and wanting to leave, but you got to have the assets to get them.
And that's the problem for the Rangers, the flyers and the Leafs.
The Leafs can at least, you know, there's a world where the Leafs could do a star for
star trade where they could turn Austin Matthews into something else.
The Rangers, you have Gabe Perot and three first round picks.
That's not enough to get you Brady Kachok.
Because you're the flyers.
You're not going to trade in each call off because he's your one NHL caliber prospect
who is proven in an ability to be good.
Porter Marton is interesting, but he's not proven at the NHL level and you've got a bunch
of draft picks.
If you don't have assets to execute these star trades, look at recently history, look
at what it costs to get stars.
You got to have assets.
And right now, none of these teams have a lot of them.
All right.
That'll do it for this edition of Lockdown NHL.
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Locked On NHL - Daily Podcast On The National Hockey League

Locked On NHL - Daily Podcast On The National Hockey League

Locked On NHL - Daily Podcast On The National Hockey League
