Can Scott Wedgewood or Mackenzie Blackwood CAPTURE Vezina Glory for Colorado Avalanche?

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, go find Lockdown Fantasy Hockey. Steal Rodin and Flip Living Stone provide daily fantasy tips to give you the edge over your leaguemates all while making you a smarter hockey fan. And lockdown fantasy hockey on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Scott Wedgewood got some votes for the Vezna last year. What are the chances and abs goalie can get even more this season? Let's talk about it. Lockdown Abilance coming out. Your Lockdown Abilance, your daily podcast on the Colorado Abilance part of the Lockdown

1:04Podcast Network. Your team every day. All right, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Lockdown Abilance part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day on your host, Chris Maselli joining me as always, Mr. Zach Pearson. On today's episode, we're going to say nice things and continue that segment about the Vancouver Connux is the team we're going to discuss today. Literally minutes ago before we were about to hit record, we got the sad news that Barry Melrose passed away. So we're going to talk to him. And like I said, we're going to start with the Vezna. We've been doing awards all week. And today it's for the goalies. And I think this is going to be an interesting conversation to see where this goes because in just talking about the abs goalies in general, it's a fun debate, fun topic. And then that leads to, could either one of these guys stretch for the Vezna. Yeah, like it was closed last year.

2:07I think it maybe went in a different direction with Scott Wedgewood, obviously. But you know, can Mackenzie Blackwood get in that next there? So. Well, and real quick, as an NHL goalie, a real NHL goalie, I have some investment opportunities if you're interested. Let us know. Yeah, I'm not part of this investment plan. This shark tank episode that we need to get a financial advisor. I need one of those. You're a goalie that plays a wide receiver. I heard exactly why do you receive a goalie? Very, very good. Just carry that around and you'll be fine. No, I do, I do wonder, will one of the avalanche goal tenders be able to push for this award? It's kind of long odds. But if Wedgewood has a season like you did last year and the avs have a season like they did last year, man, what a cool push it would be for Scott Wedgewood to get some additional votes. Or Blackwood.

3:07I was going to say you're like, Blackwood would be even more exciting. Yeah, you're just throwing Wedgewood out there. Like, yeah, it's just recreate what happened last year. I think this is where it might be difficult for either one of these guys to push through because you get the general vibe that the avalanche wants Mackenzie Blackwood to really take the bull by the horns here and be their number one goalie. And he's been fine. He's been great for the apps. What happened last year, but his thing is injuries. He battles injuries and when he's out there, he's great. The injury thing, the injury part is a factor. And you have a guy like like Scott Wedgewood who took advantage of that and rose to the occasion. You want him to do that again next year. I'm sitting here like, of course, I hope that he performs well whenever he's out there. I want anybody that's wearing this uniform to perform well when they're out there.

4:11But I'm I hate to say it because he's so likable and he's one of your guys that you root for more than any other guy on the team. But it's just like, I want to see it again. I'm not just sitting here like, Oh, yeah, it foregone conclusions. Scott Wedgewood's going to put up those numbers again. Yeah. He wouldn't be a journeyman backup gold tender if that was the case. Like he would have found a home years ago and taken a number one spot himself. So I think it's him being in a backup position is the best role for him. Thanks for that. Having said that, I think the abs, they are going to play this tandem. I wouldn't surprise me if it's like a 50 50 split. You know, on one hand, it's like I think the average want McKenzie Blackwood to be that guy on the other. They don't want him or Scott Wedgewood to just be, you know, take the lion share of the

5:13starts and just be burnt out by the end of the season. Burnt out. That is the word that I wanted you to say because talking about the Connor Hellebuk trade and him asking to get out of Winnipeg and everybody saying Connor Hellebuk doesn't perform in the playoffs. Winnipeg rides that guy through the entirety of the regular season. Every opportunity they can possibly get to put it out there. Does Hellebuk want to be out there? Probably. I mean, gold tenders are weird, man. They want to be in the net every single night back to backs, whatever. But you will get yourself burnt out. Does that affect Hellebuk come playoff time? It is more than possible. Good. I would even say it is likely. So you don't want to have a guy burnt out. I agree. I think, unfortunately, it damages the chances for either guy to get a Vesna. Right. But I think the halves absolutely are going to go with that 50-50. Close to 50-50 split as long as both guys are healthy.

6:14And one is not doing well. Yeah. Or as close to it as possible. I can't anticipate it's going to be like, you know, 46 games of P60 games for one, you know, and 24 now for the, like, I don't see that. I mean, 60 games for anybody is a lot. But I think this is like one award where I don't think the avalanche really care if they win this or not. I think they would rather have, like, we were just laying out two goalies that are carrying you throughout the season. And two goalies that are fresh for the playoffs. Hunter Pratt. Yeah. So it's a weird one. If something does happen where one of these guys needs to, you know, be the starter night in and night out because of injuries or whatever the case may be, I think that's like the one way where they could get a lot of votes.

7:15And I think that's one thing that hurt Scott Wedgewood was, I can't remember how many starts he had last year. Here's the voting from last year. But that was, he was fifth overall. And I thought fifth was, is again, considering his career to this point, great. That's great. It's great. And he got two first place votes on top of it. So two firsts, two thirds, three thirds. No, this is like a tongue twister. Two firsts, three seconds, two thirds. There you go. For 21 points, so in fifth overall. So just to remind everybody of Vasyl Lesky. So, and that's the thing. Let's get into that. This is another thing where it's like, can anybody take over Vasyl Lesky, Sorokin? We're talking about hella buck. He wasn't even in here for this, this vote. injuries. Yeah, as you can see, he was injured a lot. Yeah. So he figured a healthy hella buck, he's in that top three all day long.

8:19Vasyl Lesky's in that top three all day long. If the rangers improved Shasturken is in that conversation. It's tough. It's tough. It's as tough of a group to crack as all the other ones we're talking about with the heart and the Norris. So, because we've done it for every other one, on Fandool, your top four are all less than plus a thousand. Okay. Connor hella buck is the number one on Fandool right now, plus 500. Okay. Logan Thompson, plus six, Egor Shastur, Kand plus nine, Vasyl Lesky plus nine fifty. So yeah, I mean, those are going to be hard ones to take out. So Rokins the next closest, it plus a thousand. And then he dropped down to Mark's drum at 14 tied with Swaman. And so it is, it's going to be tough to break kind of those, those top four, Logan Thompson also excellent season last year. Yeah. Oh, it's a credit to him. He could continue to do that.

9:19The lumber yard are both at plus five thousand. Wow. Yep. Wow. Pretty long odds. And they're relatively far down on that one. And I don't think it's ironic that they're the same number. I don't either. As we're just talking about, like they're going to split the time relatively evenly, unless one of them doesn't lose a game, you're probably not, if you're splitting the time, you're probably not getting the votes that you need. Yeah. So I think this is a more tough group to break through than something like the heart. Yeah, I mean, we talked about it about McKinnon, McDavid, Kuturov. But someone can have just this ungodly season and unseek them. Yeah. I just feel like it's tougher in the goalie position. I do too, especially because I feel goal tenders are. We're a weird group of people.

10:21Anybody willing to stand in front of a hundred mile an hour slap shot is just a weird person. The only position I've ever played in any hockey I've played is Gultender. Okay. The only position that I've tried to play, I've been put in other spots whenever I've played, like roller hockey and stuff. But Gultenders what I go for. Nobody wants to be in that spot. They don't want crap slapped at them. They don't want to have to stand there and try to stop the shots. And then you also are the one who wears the L. You literally take the L like losses is a Gultender stat, which I disagree with, but it is wins is also a Gultender stat, which I also disagree with, but it is. So you have to be a weird person, but I think it gets in your head and it's very easy to become a streaky Gultender. We see it in a lot of different guys. And so it is, it's such a hard, I think it's so hard to crack that kind of super elite

11:22and on seat one of those guys, unless, because the guys that are up there to win it, especially like a Vasylevsky, you don't really hear about him being that kind of street light. And that's why I think he consistently is in that conversation. He's not quite as much of a streaky Gultender or a head case kind of guy. Not like a certain blues Gultender who is an absolute head case. Stuff like that. So I don't know, it's really difficult to on seat some of those top guys because it's such a hard position, I think, to always stay in your groove. It's just difficult. It really is. Yeah. People around subtext, a couple of comments about it. Nick said my reply on a Twitter post about everyone's hot take for this upcoming season. And I was dragged relentlessly about it is that Mackenzie Blackwood is going to win the Vesna this year. You'll have your usual suspects, Vasylevsky, Hella Bucks, Shastirkin, Serokin, but Blackwood

12:25100% has what it takes to win the thing. So go ahead and drag me here as well. I firmly stand by it. I'm not going to drag you because I agree with you. I think he does have what it takes. He just has to show that he can do that. He has to get there. We haven't had that season where he crosses over. Celebrity last year had that season in his second season where he crossed over. And it's like, okay, now we expect that from him every year superstar status, heaping everything on him. I'm not saying Mackenzie Blackwood is going into that stratosphere. I'm just saying, I think everybody is waiting for him to have an amusing air quotes that season where it's like, okay, he's arrived and agreed. If he does that, yes, I agree with you. He can be in that conversation. He's just going to do it. He's there. Huge. I agree. Let's see here. Thought we had another one here. Bear say something. Yes. There's four guys that are almost guaranteed in that conversation every year. Hella Buck, Basiliscus, Rocan and Schusterkin.

13:27Hella may have hurt his chances depending on how the trade requests plays out. Thompson is knocking on the door for some reason. I think if Blackwood can find his groove and stay healthy or Wedgewood has a repeat season either one should be in this discussion too. So agreed. Hella Buck, that's going to really affect him a lot. How quickly does he get traded and how much of an impact does he have on the team he goes into? I'm just going to team. Right. Because if he goes to a team and pushes them up over the hill, pushes them over the top, he isn't instant. There's enough in it. I mean, he already is on Fandool, but throughout the whole season, he has the opportunity to lock that up depending on the trade. And then finally, Joey says, Vesna is Swaman if the Bruins have a good season. If they don't, then it's Hella Buck. Yeah? OK. I mean, two very, very solid choices to win. Yep.

14:27So there you go. The Bruins will be interesting to watch this year. It will be an interesting team, but we're going to, well, in a little bit, we're going to talk about the connox. We haven't done the Bruins yet. No. You will do the Bruins. Yeah. We're going back to the East Coast. Yeah, we're going back to this. Yeah. Maybe they do. All right. Let's get our break in and we come back. We're just going to touch on the Barry Melrose news. Very sad, but he's got to get talked about because he was a big deal in the world of hockey. So we'll do that next. All right. We're going to talk about ODO running a business. You shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together in one app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. And that's where ODO comes in. ODO is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing.

15:27Everything works in one place. ODO is one platform to manage, grow, and scale your business. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone work towards the same goal. And that's true in sports, just like it is in business. Great organizations win because operations matter and that's why you should get ODO. ODO is one platform to manage, grow, and scale your business. Try for free today at odu.com slash the hot dawn. That's od.o.com slash lock-down. Go check out ODO. All right, yeah, like we said in the opening, not within the last hour, I think it was announced that Barry Melrose passed away. And this stuff like this, you're not, I don't know, I was just, I was just sitting there, I was watching the football game and you know, just get an update on my phone.

16:30And it's just like, I literally live out and I'm like, oh, no, like really? And my wife, she's like, what happened? She thought I was talking about the game. And it's like two teams I don't care about in the game. I'm like, no, like Barry Melrose passed away. It's tough to really kind of encapsulate like what he meant to hockey after his playing. Like he played, but he meant more to the sport, like post career. Oh, totally. And though that's like, that's where he was just beloved. And he, like, you know, his time on ESPN, even if you didn't like hockey, I got to feel like if Barry Melrose was on TV, I was on like part of the interruption or something like that, you stopped and listened to him for five minutes. Because he was so fun on top of being incredibly knowledgeable on the game and a great coach, by the way. He was just that kind of fun personality that, you know, was fun to listen to

17:34because he was funny. And when he was talking about the game, obviously knew it and was just insightful every time he talked. 100%. A guy who reminds me of kind of a career trajectory, which sorry to tie it back into abs and a current guy, but EJ, like, EJ kind of could take a little bit of that. And I think it's that same kind of idea. I didn't know Melrose quite as well because like once he was on, but I 100%. If ESPN was on and they were talking hockey, he heard his voice. And if you heard his voice, you knew it was going to be good information. And it was going to be entertaining to listen to. And it was, it's just crazy that that that happened. I mean, he's, it's like, he's synonymous almost with hockey on ESPN. So he has that. And I think he's missed there because, you know, when he announced he was retiring

18:37at Parkinson's disease. I think it was in 2023. I think he said was it 23? Yeah. Yeah. He was just going to retire and, you know, it's for more time with his family. Family and health and all that stuff that you should. It was a loss. Like we rail on ESPN and stuff like that. And I don't rail so much on the, the NHL, people that work on the NHL side of ESPN because I think they do as good as job as they can do. I might, my issues with ESPN are they have, they have like support outside of the people that the NHL people look at the MLP guys. Yeah. Yes. They don't, they are blatant in telling that we, they don't support the NHL. But Melrose, like he crossed over on that network and he would do those other shows. He would do, like I said, pardon the interruption and be on Mike and Mike in the morning all

19:39the time. And he was like, he did that one because like I said, he was fun. He's not just going to give you dry, canned answers. He was just knowledgeable in that way. He was a fun guest to have on. So it was almost like those other shows were forced to have him because people tuned in. People didn't use on. That's what the NHL needs. And that's kind of why I brought up EJ is I hope that more people take a cue from that and become that personality. That's magnetic, not necessarily polarizing, but entertaining. You don't have to be skit balis. But you can be entertaining and Melrose, but I never would watch him and be like, oh man, like he's getting me angry about what he's talking about. Right. He found a way to you, you enjoyed just watching him and it felt, it felt positive. Yeah. Right. It wasn't like bait. It was literally just, I love the game.

20:42I'm going to share that love and it works wonderfully. I'm so glad you brought that. We live in an era right now where it's like the more bombastic and crazy you are. Like that's like, and that's never been the radio shows or anything like that. I listened to. There's an audience for that stuff. There are there. There are. You know, bar stool exists. And but Melrose did it in like a, like it's weird, like an organized type of way. Like he'd be loud and he'd be fun, but he wouldn't be over the top and he wouldn't say to rockatory things. Like he was calculated and how he talked about it. Exactly. He was passionate about it. And I didn't even think of the word for it, but like he was just, he was, he was just melting. Yeah. Yeah. That really is the word for it.

21:43And I agree. Like that's the kind of guy that I like to listen to the most as well. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the kind of people. Peter McNabb is an excellent other person kind of like that. It wasn't like very knowledgeable fun to listen to. Yeah. And like those people, the Melrose is the McNabb's, they welcome you into the sport because they don't demean. They just love the sport. They don't take away from anybody else in it. They just love it. Yeah. And that's the best. It really is. And Barry Melrose has connections to where I live. You know, I'm in upstate New York. I'm just south of Saratoga. He was a part of the Adirondack Red Wings in Glen Falls, New York, which is a half hour away from where I live. He did not wait for them. He coached them. I think, I think he even had like an ownership stake in them if I'm not mistaken at some

22:46point. And then when he retired, that's where he retired to was he went, he went in the Adirondacks. And my knowledge lived up in Glen Falls up until today. So I think that's his family still up there. So he had ties to the area and lived out his days. Not that far from me. So he's always been in the area. He always goes to the Saratoga racetrack. Well, like I said, it was a big part of the Adirondack Red Wings when the Red Wings were here, which was years ago. He was part of it. So it's kind of a local story for me too. So he loved the area. I always wanted to, because I go up to the Adirondack all the time. In the back of my mind, I was like, keep an eye out for Billy and Barry Miller. And he could be a running team. Yes, right. Right. So never happened, but would have loved to meet him because I probably would have had three hours of hockey talk with the guy. He seems like that guy that if you, that's all it's on his mind all the time.

23:50Right. And that's in wanting to share it. Yes. Yeah. It's not a blocked off knowledge. You could go in knowing nothing about hockey. And he seems like the kind of guy that would just let me teach you about the best sport on the planet. I know. And you will sit and listen. Because you're being trolled too. It's not even like he forced you. You just would want to. Yeah. So. And some great hair too to top it. Top it all off. Yeah. I mean, I'm jealous of anybody. But there you go. So we're at. All right. So RIP to Barry Melrose will absolutely be missed. Everybody's put in like Gary Betman already put a comment out. The avalanche just commented on it like. It's a big loss. It is. It is. So. All right. I'm going to break in and then finish up with saying some nice things about the Vancouver Connucks. We'll do that.

24:53All right. Back west for this team on our say nice things about series. And it's the Vancouver Connucks. So. What do you got for them? Because there's a couple of things that I have that I thought were interesting. I'll share them with you in a minute. But turn it over to you first. That's the Vesna episode. Roberto LaWonga was awesome. And I associate him mostly with the Connucks. I know he played for a while with Florida. Like I think most of his career was technically Florida with the Vancouver in the middle. Yeah. That's just that's where my brain connects him more so than Florida. I really always enjoyed watching him play something about his face underneath his goalie mask. I know how like when you see pictures of falcons and their eyes are just like focused so hard on whatever their prey is. That's what he looked like to me in his goalie mask. His eyes somehow looked like more predatory, closer together, just ways are focused.

25:56Yeah. And I think that's that's one of the first things to just stuck out is I'm like, this guy's locked in locked on. Yeah locked on. And even. Yep. But no, I always really liked him. I was always a big fan of Roberto LaWonga. So I don't know that one. For me, I immediately go to Pablo Baray. Immediately. He, you know, and call him the Russian rocket for nothing. Like he, I loved watching that guy play. And that was kind of like, I remember Vancouver teams when I was younger, just being difficult to play against. Yeah. And now, you know, they're probably going to be the worst team in the league, which it's such a quick kind of fall from grace from them, because they were a player not that long ago. But they just seem to be like that team when they have a good team are just so difficult

26:57to play against. And it doesn't matter who the coach is, it doesn't matter what style they play, they're tough. And it's night and day. They're either tough or you kind of walk over them and teams are kind of walking over them right now. But I looking back, just kind of like going over their history, I found it interesting that they had a number of names throughout the years. And they were first known as the Vancouver Millionaires. Yeah. And they went through a series of names and then they came back to the connox. But can you imagine playing on a team called the Millionaires? And if you're making league minimum, I was going to say, what year is that, too? Because I think the players were millionaires. Oh, God no, when that, this was like in the teams, the 19 teams or something like that. Nobody was a million. Nobody. So back then, you're like, okay, where's this?

27:58Why are we called the Millionaires? But today, imagine today, if you're those couple guys that are on RFA or something like that and you're making 850 foul playing on a team called the Millionaires, that's like, well, that ain't me. I guess you got to trade me. But they, so they, they, they changed the name to the connox. They got that name from a comic book called Johnny Connuck. I love that you're tying it back in a comic book since you did this already, too. Yeah. And they, and apparently Johnny Connuck was like the Canadian version of Captain America. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought that was kind of cool that they referenced a comic book. But yeah. I don't think Hoover, I've never really, it's what it seems like. I don't really dislike, you know, I said, Poverbury, obviously Mark Messy played there, too. And, you know, growing up as, you know, the East Coast Ranger guy, like, it was sad when

28:59he went there, but, you know, cool when he came back. But the other guys, the sedans, the sedans are, yeah, probably the best. Huge. Yep. I mean, and the fact that two brothers played together their entire careers, all in Vancouver, because we've talked about it, like that kind of respect and that air that you get just from, I played for one team my entire career. Pretty cool. And these two guys did it as brothers for 17 years. And now they are the co-presidents of the conucks. Like really? Yeah. Cool. Yep. Yeah. Announced, it was May of this year, Vancouver announced that they were going to be co-presidents. So like that, I love stuff like that. And that just speaks to a cool part of an organization. And so I do really like that. And then I was looking at like their history of jerseys. I didn't realize how many Vancouver conucks jerseys I really like. There's so many that I think are great jerseys.

30:04I'm going to put some up here if you're watching on YouTube. First of all, when they did this one for the Heritage Classic, that's the millionaires. Sure. That's what the millionaires do. Yeah. Yep. So they brought that back. That is just awesome. That's fun. That is fantastic, Jersey. The colors of it. Obviously, the colors are great. The colors are great. Just has obviously the old school vibe to it. This one when it was their second reverse retro was one of my favorites. Which is just like that's the AHL team is from Abbotsford. Abbotsford? Yep. The Abbotsford conucks. They wear this pretty that hockey guy, but I love that. I think that's great. Who's that guy though? Like, I don't know. I don't know. This is a picture of. It's a player I don't recognize. Flynn. Q's I think. Oh, okay. Flynn something. Yeah, I don't know. Flynn writer. Flynn writer. Flynn writer.

31:04Yep. And then in the category of their so bad, they're awesome. This one rivals the avalanche outdoor game at the Air Force. Look at that bad boy. I'm on like and again, if you can't see it. It's it's it's like the Pittsburgh Steelers like. You know, the golden yellow, but with a red V that goes from like your belly button to over your shoulders. But it also like almost looks like it elevates up because of the fact that the black comes down the arms. It makes it look like it's like a super villain cloak. Like maybe this is what Captain Kinnok or whatever I said, Johnny Kinnok war. Maybe that don't know what he looked like. Johnny Kinnok's villains war is villains war. Yeah, this is what the villains are villains. Yeah, exactly. Um, I kind of want one of these.

32:06I don't know why that's it. That one I'll give you. That's bad enough that it's great. Right. So it's like, you know, hockey jerseys I love because you can just throw them on and wear them with anything. I don't know if you can do that with this. Like this. I don't know. I don't know. I love it. I love things that just look pretty bad. That's great. So bad in the world of hockey, hockey jerseys and this is right up there, but it's awesome. That is. And there's others. There's other ones. I'm going through them on. I'm like, wow, like I really like like what they do with color combinations. And I just think they they do a really good job with their jerseys. And I hit me. I'm like, wow, I think the canucks have the majority of jerseys they've come out with. I've light. This is why the hockey guy is such a big Vancouver canucks fans. Only reason. It's got to be. Got to be. I don't know. I don't know. So let me see if we got some comments here about the canucks.

33:13I thought we had. I thought that's what Bear said something. He did. Yeah. Bear said nice things about Vancouver. They have cool alternate jerseys. Thank you. Nailed it. There we go. Perfect. Thank you. Bear and I are on the same mind on that one because again, this is just like an epiphany. There's really think anything of it, but just looking up jerseys like, wow, I like that one. I like that one. That one's pretty cool too. Good job, Vancouver. Yeah. Coming out with pretty cool jerseys. On top of course what the avalanche are going to come out with on these home town things, whatever they're called. Yeah. I'm looking forward to see what Vancouver does this year because they seem to get it out. So there you go. That's fair. Good one to keep an eye out for. All right. That is going to wrap it up for today, everybody. So thank you for tuning in and making this your first listen of the day. It is always appreciated. We'll be back tomorrow with another award to talk about and another team to say nice things about. So make sure to tune in to that one.

34:13And yeah, see everybody tomorrow. He's Mr. Zach Pearson. I'm Chris Maselli. It's the lockdown avalanche podcast. We made it through another 24 hours where you are that much closer to puck drive. Go, Amps go. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, go find Lockdown fantasy hockey. Steal rodent and flip living stone provide daily fantasy tips to give you the edge over your leaguemates all while making you a smarter hockey fan.

35:19Find Lockdown fantasy hockey on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day.