Eastern Conference Playoff Race Heats Up: Teams We Were Wrong About & 3 Stars of the Week

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On today's show, we'll dissect the Eastern Conference playoff race, talk about teams

we were completely wrong about, and our three stars of the week.

You're locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the

Lockdown podcast network, your team every day.

Hello and welcome inside this Wednesday, March 11th edition of the Lockdown NHL podcast.

I'm Ross Levitan from Lockdown Senators.

It's a battle of Ontario edition alongside me is Mike de Stefano from Lockdown,

and Maple Leafs, Mikey, the trade deadline is coming gone.

Teams are soaring in the standings, especially in the Eastern Conference, but before we talk

about the teams that are soaring, are the Leafs ever going to win another game?

No, no, they're not.

They're floundering.

That's how I was going to say the battle of Ontario, it's not much of a battle right now.

Things are completely flipped where you got the Ottawa Senators heading to the playoff

race, or at least in a playoff race, at least we won't pull a team USA manager, it's

not locked up quite yet.

That was a wild take, then to go ahead and lose to Italy, banal man, they might not even

make it now.

But anyway, I feel good about them.

I'm just saying, I do feel good about your Senators, I think that they'll squeak in, boss,

and I think falls out of it, but yeah, at least it's not a good time right now.

They've lost eight in a row here.

The cat that's scoring 11 straight games, he hadn't scored a goal in a Maple Leaf sweater

since January 27th, wow, January 27th, it's been like 43 days since he's put the puck

in the back than that as a Toronto Maple Leaf.

Did it, the Olympics for Team USA, was able to come through, have a great tournament,

but book ending, you know, that gold medal performance, it's been just pitiful hockey

out of this team, out of him personally.

And man, it's a sink right now, and it's coming to a player of Maple Leaf fans are like

embracing it because they're embracing the tank.

They want the 18 wheeler off a cliff to happen, but it's ugly to watch, I'll tell you this,

ugly to watch.

I don't know if you watched that, Andy that Montreal Canadians game last night, Habsleaves,

that first period, they ran out of rank, it was like 18 to 5 in shots.

The shot attempts was like 32 to 7.

It was gross, just absolutely gross, but this is Maple Leaf's hockey in 2026, I can't believe

that we're here.

I mean, we're going to get to a little bit later today, teams we were so wrong about,

and I'll leave them out of my list, but you talked about things you were wrong about,

who had this team being a bottomed weller in the season, like nobody.

This was a team that everyone thought was expected to and would eventually figure it out and

find themselves in the postseason, it ain't happening.

They sold off at the deadline, they haven't won a game since they come back from the Olympic

break.

It's not good in Toronto, it is not good.

Yeah, 3, 11 and 3 in their last 17 games right now for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but

worse record since January 13th, worse record in the Western Conference, they'd be two points

out of a playoff spot.

That's the disparity right now between the East and West.

Every night when the East plays against the West, it's a complete bloodbath all over

the place.

I've never seen such a lopsided imparity out of these two conferences.

You remember the last time it used to be the West was big, tough and mean, and now they're

completely lifeless.

There's three good teams in the Western Conference.

If you look at the top 13 teams in the NHL right now, three of them are in the West and they're

all in the Central Division.

That means 10 different Eastern Conference teams would be leading the Pacific Division in

points.

Yeah, although that Oilers win didn't do anything for you, you'll think that was a turning point

for the Oilers.

I mean, it's a tale that we've told so often, but they're goal-tending stings, and that's

it.

They're great.

The other night.

Jerry looked good last night against Colorado.

He made some big stops.

Yeah, and that's tough coming in cold.

We obviously hope Connor Ingrams already got run over by Nathan McKinnon.

That's a guy coming in with a lot of speed and a lot of power.

He leaves.

Jerry came in and he looked good, but I mean, I've seen Tristan Jerry play too much hockey

to be fooled by a two-period stint of brilliance, but who else, Connor McDavid, score in the

winner in that game?

Yeah, I've been to play with anybody, but they just haven't been consistent enough to earn

the right to be a top 13 team in the league right now.

I thought they defended a lot better last night defending you have to and playing Colorado.

If you don't defend your screwed, like you got to make sure that you're checking that

box off, and I thought they did that, you know, a lot better than they had last night.

I don't think it's a coincidence that when they defend better, they somehow get better

goal-tending.

We all know that those two things go hand in hand, so it's not all on the goalie, but a

lot of it is on the goalie.

He's got to play better clearly, and he did make some tough saves last night, so I'll

give credit where credit's due.

But I don't know, man, like it's the amateur oiler is like the, at some point, you just hope

that they can turn a corner and find some level of consistency.

They made that trade for Conor Murphy to shore up the blue line.

I'm so shocked that they didn't get a goalie, and the fact that they're going forward with

Tristan Jarias, their number one, and just hoping that, like, defensively, they turn it

around and find the level of consistency, and that helps Jari play in, like, interior

it should.

But that's a hell of a roll of the dice for Conor McTabed, who is two years away from

saying, Saiyanara, you're wasting one of them with this incompetence in that.

It's, it was an interesting decision for Stan Bowman to say the least.

Yeah, I'd say so, and you look at McTabed's career, like, he's never really had a true

number one goalie with Edmonton, like, he had the end of career Mike Smith for way too

long, and it's just been really tough sledding, if you're an Edmonton oilers fan, just knowing

how good that team has the potential to be, and it just feels like it's being a bit wasted

right now.

And teams are climbing and trying to get in the mix with them, like Anaheim.

They've won eight out of ten games.

I'm going to see them this weekend in Ottawa, really excited.

It's such a young, fun, but coming group, and they haven't even added John Carlson to

the mix.

He might make his debut Saturday in Ottawa, or Sunday, I believe either Montreal or Toronto,

wherever they're playing Sunday.

Man, they're fun.

They're fun to win.

Yeah, it's been a week since the trade.

Yeah, I don't know if he was coming off an injury or something, but they said that he's

expected to make his debut this weekend.

I know that he hung around Washington for an extra day.

The team, I guess, went for a nice little team dinner.

Yeah, he hasn't played since the Olympic break.

Okay, okay.

So he's been out.

Yeah.

That makes him sense.

Yeah, he got hurt on February 5th against Nashville, and he played seven minutes in

that game before leaving.

And I did get a point in his last game as a member of the Washington capitals, but that's

a nice pickup for Anaheim.

But let's focus on the Eastern Conference because I tweeted out last night and it seemed

to have caught fire on social media.

But how ridiculous is this?

In the last 10 games, Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo and Columbus all have one regulation loss.

Those are teams that are trying to climb, well, Buffalo's case, they've already accomplished

that.

They've climbed there now.

A division leader like they've been unbelievable, but they were a team that had to climb out

from the depths after starting the season really poorly.

But for Columbus, Ottawa in particular, like they've been attached at the hip all season.

They were the two bottom teams in the Eastern Conference, and they've kind of climbed together

throughout.

And you look at how their seasons are going.

They're trying to chase the Boston Bruins, who guess what?

Have two regulation losses in their last 10 games.

This might be the most dominant playoff race we've seen in a long time.

Yeah, I mean, it's tough to pick up wins in the National Hockey League, but the East seems

to be doing it a lot more easier than the Western teams.

That's for sure.

It's been a good race, and I think it's pretty much down to, I guess, those final 3-4 teams

like Detroit, Boston, Columbus, and Ottawa.

Those four teams are battling for the final couple positions here in the post season.

I think that's pretty much where your battle's coming down to.

I mean, your boots on the ground pretty much, you're going to be there this weekend watching

Ottawa play.

You watch them each and every night.

What's lead to the turnaround?

Is it as simple as goal-tending?

That's my list.

But that's all these teams.

You look at the way that Jack Reeves has been playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

I mean, we've always been talking about how John Gibson has turned things around in Detroit.

He's been spectacular this season in Buffalo, Alex Lyon has been the Lyon King again, rising

to fame out in Buffalo now, and putting them in the top spot in the Atlanta division.

It's crazy what a good goalie can do for your squad.

Yeah, it really is.

And when you look at how all three of these teams have been able to climb, and I'm looking

most like with Columbus, yeah, it's goal-tending, but also like Rick Bonus' record is outstanding

since he came in.

Yeah, Rick Bonus is goal-tending though.

The old ad and show me a good goalie.

I'll show you a coach of the year candidate, you know what I mean?

That's kind of the old saying there.

It's like it for whatever reason, Jack Reeves and Elvis Merzlikens decided once, you know,

Dean Everson got let go, they're like, all right, now we can play.

Now we can play and now we're going to go out there and stop every puck we see.

And it's led to the Blue Jackets, find themselves, now just two points out of play-offs, but

now I believe you and I both, did you have Columbus in the playoffs?

I'd have to go back and look.

I think they might have either been just in or just out.

I like their team though, and I do too, man, I like their team.

I like the mix and I like their future.

I think that want to say I had them in there.

I believe I had them as a wild card team.

Because I...

And Shadow to Don with Delk is he's been active this year.

He goes out and gets Mason Marchman who has 11 goals in 22 games for them.

That's incredible.

And then I really like the Conor Garland pick up four goals in three games.

But he's obviously a long-term piece with his extension kicking in next season.

So it's half the amount of goals he had all year in Vancouver and two people.

Wow, that's incredible.

And obviously they're led by Zach Ranske, 68 points.

And that's where as a Senators fan, I'm a little nervous right now.

James Sanders sends out week to week.

Yeah.

And unconfirmed reports that it's a separated shoulder.

Although that's better.

I'm learning than a dislocated shoulder.

No surgery.

Could be as little as two weeks.

Could be as long as eight.

So yeah, that's tough.

But what Otto is doing right now in terms of shot suppression is incredible.

Imagine telling somebody that started the year James Rimer would get a shut out in the NHL this year.

The guy didn't even get signed until January 12th.

Now it was against the Vancouver Canucks and they missed some wide open looks, especially in the third period.

Remember that old clip of Cody C.C.

missing the net in the bubble with the leaves?

Yeah, Jake Nebraska at his moment of that in the game.

They primed us such a great job broadcasting the games and they had the back angle.

And he's walking in down Main Street wide open on the week side.

And this guy hit the air Canada logo on the advertisements like three stanchions down from behind the net.

It was truly a remarkable play.

I'll have to send it to you later.

People haven't seen it.

It's incredible.

But yeah, Otto was going to have to battle through it without Sanderson who's obviously so elite defensively.

But how wild is this Mikey?

In James Rimer's last five starts, these are these are the shots against.

He made 16 saves in his in his shout out against Vancouver 16 shots against against Philly.

And then these are the impressive ones because Caroline and Colorado are two of the teams that take the most shots in the National Hockey League.

Ottawa held Carolina to 19 shots twice and 18 shots against the Colorado avalanche.

Like what they're doing is terms of team defenses is truly remarkable.

So if they can keep that going, I mean, they got as good a shot as anybody.

And you look tonight, Mikey, send tabs like this is going to have a playoff feel to it in nation's capital.

Habs on the second half of back to back though and Ottawa played in Vancouver on Monday.

Quick turnaround to come three time zones to come play back at home tonight.

So I think it's going to maybe be a bit of a weird one.

Just like the last game, Ottawa played Montreal where the sends held the Habs to 16 shots and the Habs scored six goals.

That was the last time we saw Levy Merrill line and play an NHL game this season.

So it's a it's a big one tonight for the boys in Ottawa and in Montreal.

But if if you're looking and this can lead us into teams you're wrong about, I'm not doing the victory lap yet.

But I think I might have been right about the Detroit red wigs.

No, yeah, you're not loving what's going on in Detroit now.

No, no, what's going on?

I'm saying that that's the team if I'm Ottawa because I look at the out of town scoreboard every night and Boston finds a way to get points.

But Detroit's the team and saw a tweet recently showing the March record for the Detroit Red Wings over the last number of years.

Yeah, and it's been brutal for them.

So that's what killed them, right?

Like the Detroit in March is what is what?

Decadalized in November, November.

Yeah, big time, big time.

And I don't know what's worse.

Probably March because you have hope at that point.

Yeah, Ottawa was actually the team that killed Detroit three years ago.

When they were coming, they were looking really good.

And then Ottawa beat them shut out the US open.

They beat them 6162.

I think it was a nice straight sets victory on back to back days and they could never recover.

But this time Steve Eisenman does go out at the deadline, pays a high price, but gets a guy just in fall.

He's been helping them out, but not enough last night.

They're up a goal against the Florida Panthers with a minute and a half left.

And they found a way to lose that game in regulation.

The most shocking part to me was when it was tied Detroit was actually on a rush with 10 seconds left.

And it ends up in the back of their net five seconds later and they lose that game.

That's that could come back to haunt them not getting a point out of that game.

Because now they're not in the top three seed and in the or sorry,

they are, but not in points percentage.

It's the Habs now in points percentage third in the Atlantic division.

Ottawa's got a game in hand on on Detroit.

Habs have two games in hand on Detroit Boston also with the game in hand.

So Detroit's in a precarious spot of the teams that are in a playoff spot right now.

But we'll see how things shake out there with the teams that will and won't make the playoffs in the Atlantic division.

The best division in hockey, I think it's fair to say top to bottom.

You could say the essentials more top heavy than the Atlantic division, but one through eight maybe one through seven with the Leafs throwing in the towel, but that that's as tough as it gets every night.

Well, I don't tell you for the teams on the outside looking in here on the East, you know, we're talking about, you know, your boys out in Ottawa and we're talking about the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The teams, actually Columbus is pretty tough.

So this is good for your Ottawa Senators.

The teams with the hardest schedule left this season, Pittsburgh number one, Boston number two, Columbus number three, number six.

Where's Ottawa?

Ottawa's number nine.

Yeah, let me sense they're all in the East, right?

Is there any way even with the hardest schedule because they all play each other?

They stay Dallas, Dallas because they got Colorado and many play still.

So they're, you know, that's those two tough games.

They got Buffalo still speaking of which just while we're on Detroit, their next two games are Tampa and Dallas.

Yeah, so yeah, they've got tough games.

And then they also got, you know, Buffalo again, they have Tampa twice.

And we got a lot of out of the witty.

It's going to be a big game.

Yeah, so hey, you know, for the Senators, if you're just taking a look at the sketch, it's like, yes, there's more wins out on the board that you can see for Ottawa.

And then you do for, for the three, four teams at the, the sends are chasing right now.

I hope so, man, the stress level is very high because Ottawa doesn't have their own first round back.

Like it's playoffs are complete bust for the season.

But the boys have been playing very well.

Other teams are playing well across the National Hockey League.

And we work very wrong about some of them.

Next we'll discuss who those were.

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We've got game night after all the action and a brand new episode of locked on NHL daily here on the locked on podcast network.

The number one sports podcast network says the Eastern conference race heats up.

We're starting to see some separation all across the standings now in the West.

We get a quick conversation about the West that'll lead into some teams.

We were completely wrong again as it stands right now.

The Utah mammoth was 73 points there.

The first wild card spot, but there's no chance they're moving up.

They're 12 points back in the division of Minnesota for third now.

However, they would be tied for Anaheim for first in the Pacific.

Again, the Pacific is the least nine on one night.

Anaheim's only got 75 points.

Oh, I didn't update it.

I have a tab open from a fresh guy refresh.

Yeah, they're they're a wagon man.

Yeah, I like the ducks.

I like watching ducks, but that's not a team I was wrong about.

I was high on the ducks coming into the year.

So I'm I'm going to stick to it on that.

And I'm I'm really curious to see how it shakes out.

Imagine Edmonton Vegas round one dude.

Like I yeah, that'd be interesting.

I mean, those are two teams that are kind of that have been underperforming though.

Like again, like if we get into like the teams,

they didn't necessarily make my list in terms of teams that I was wrong up

hell, but I thought that those two are definitely going to be a lot better than they've been.

I'll say that like I thought Edmonton Vegas, you know,

we're going to be the top two teams and run away at the Pacific division.

And we'll see how the third team kind of shakes out.

But they have just really struggled to find any semblance of consistency this year.

It's it hasn't been great.

And I will see again, Edmonton, a nice win yesterday against Colorado and

gutsy win.

You could say, does that spark something?

I like what they did defensively can they carry that over, you know,

the rest of the way possibly.

So, you know, I'll be curious to see what the Oilers look like over the next few weeks.

Like that's a team that I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on.

And seeing if they've truly turned that corner.

So I think last night was a big statement win for them.

Yeah, it certainly was team.

I was wrong about the Winnipeg Jets, a team that Anaheim just beat last night.

Now it's ugly.

Did you did you hear and shout out to the Winnipeg crowd last night?

They've always been one for good chance back and eight back in the day.

Captain Rogan when they're playing against Ryan Guetzlaff and the Anaheim

Ducks Katie Perry chance for Corey Perry.

They're always clever in Winnipeg.

But last night they were frustrated.

They were upset.

The Jets were getting outshot enormously.

And there was in unison.

Shoot the puck.

Share the puck.

Change going to geared geared in their own building.

They finally shot the puck.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And I mean, I understand that at the end of the second period, what were the shots?

It was it was in the 30s to into the the the single bridge at that point.

I mean, the end of the game, 35 to 13, the shots on go after two periods was 28 to seven.

Yeah, that's that's unacceptable.

I got a text from my brother in law.

I was at the game.

One, he wants to fire our Neil.

He says, I never want to see Taves Flurry or Demelo in a Jets jersey.

Again, Demelo's wash.

I'm disgusted.

The Jets are in no man's land now.

I need a top three pick.

They're going through it in Winnipeg right now.

And they were the president's trophy winners last year.

So I know.

And Connor Hellbuck was good last night.

Like this is the odd story because it feels like especially in the East where

whoever's not getting good goal tending is done.

But like the Jets have gotten perfectly fine goal tending all year.

They just can't score.

They are the definition of a one line team.

Well, yeah, I mean, it just it's they can't score.

Are you called it?

Like they just listen to 179 goals on the season.

Like they just can't get, you know, any amount of scoring going on in this season.

And obviously it's a team that sold to the deadline.

They moved off into pieces.

So we expected this, you know, it's a to look ugly down the stretch.

But there's a difference between ugly and just like disgusting.

And obviously based on the reaction, Jets fans are purely disgusted of what they're seeing on on the ice.

And I mean, the coach seems disgusted too.

The guy's coming out each and every night.

Just kind of calling out the players like he's he knows he's as good as God.

And he doesn't care anymore feels like he's just going out there.

He's going to run everyone out of his eye.

It's not good enough like what we're doing.

It's embarrassing.

You suck like it's it's brutal.

Um, but yeah, it's more roster construction than anything.

No, like you can you can say that you can coach players up.

But this is the one that needed a number two center going to the year.

And they felt like adding Jonathan Taves and Gus Lakequist was going to solve the problem.

And and and it was such a heralded story.

The Tays come back to his childhood team and just didn't go right.

And I'll like the guys have played hockey in what three years, two or three years.

Yeah.

And he would have been a perfectly fine fourth line center that can win face-offs.

He's 61% the dot.

But did you think that he was going to be a top six savior?

That that was tough.

That was tough to rely on that.

But like, well, the thing is though, like who'd they lose?

Nikolaealers.

No, no, no, nothing.

They were.

They mean so like they need a second center last year too.

Yeah.

They still want to present trophies.

So it's I know.

But it's hard to believe that Nikolaealers meant that much to the Jets where they fell off

that far.

Yeah.

Another second line center last year was Vlad Nemesikov and he overperformed.

I think he had 40 points.

Yeah.

And he's fallen right back down.

He's got 13 points, dash 11, 39% in the dot.

Like, it was never going to be a long-term fit.

They drafted Culpers Fettie as a centerman, but he's really become a winger.

And you don't see him moving over.

I still don't think he has the foot speed to play a 200 foot gant down the middle game.

But he did his game, but already they're keeping him in there.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

But like, they're top-line sick.

Like, they're still getting their cookies.

Mark Schythe, who's the first star of the week in the National Hockey League last week.

He's got 78 points.

Yeah.

If you told someone that the Jets would have a 71 point producer and a 71 point producer,

Kyle Conner.

And that Conner, Halibut, would have a 2.74 goals against average and 42 starts.

He'd be like, yeah, they're probably battling for a playoff spot, but it just hasn't gone

that way.

No.

A 2.74 goals against average.

And Conner, Halibut has 16 wins in 42 games this year.

That's an incredible stat line.

Yeah.

They can't score.

Who are you wrong about?

The Buffalo Sabers.

I think we're all wrong.

The Buffalo Sabers, you know, like, this is a team that even to start the year, they were

horrendous.

But the last two, three months, they've been the best team in hockey.

Like, since the start of the calendar year, ever since they fired their general manager,

this team just flipped a switch.

I don't know what happened, why it happened, but they flipped a switch, and they've become

the best team in hockey.

And they're an absolute wagon.

And if you need a proof, go back and watch that Sunday game against Tampa Lightning.

That was the game of the year.

It was the electric.

They were, you know, like, the fights on the ice, tons of goals.

They was the first game since 1994, with 15 goals and 27 or more penalties since 1994.

So that was just a throwback game, wild wild outcome.

And the Sabers came out on top at home, and they took over the division with that win.

They're now four points up on Tampa Bay for the division lead.

So it's Buffalo Sabers.

I did not have in my Atlantic division, you know, power rankings being anywhere near

the top, yet here we are.

And, you know, like, this is a team that I can conceivably see challenging Tampa in the

east and potentially getting to like getting out of the east and getting to a cup final.

They're playing that well.

They're scoring.

They're defending Alex Lines, playing out of his mind in net.

The Buffalo Sabers have been very impressive.

They're plus 35, goal differential.

I mean, they want eight in a row.

That's after winning what, 10 or 11 earlier in the year, like they're just an absolute wagon.

So we're all wrong about the Sabers.

Yeah.

I mean, we're completely wrong about the Sabers.

It's incredible what they're doing.

They've got depth.

Their young kids are coming through as well, like, they're 33, 10 and 2 in their last 45

games.

That's five points clear of anybody else in the National Hockey League since November

21st, like what they've done since that the date be fired.

No, I just clicked the random one and go back to the date where they fought, like bump

ahead of mine.

I think they was December 15th.

Yeah.

Check the record there because it's even more impressive December 15th pulling it up

right now.

That was a Monday.

They're 10 points clear.

The league.

They are 26, 5 and 2.

Yeah.

I'm like, no, you got to go back to that date because that's the impressive, impressive

date.

And what's wild is they're doing this with a power play that's ranked 16th in the National

Hockey League.

A penalty kill that's ranked 11th in the National Hockey League.

It's just a five on five.

They are an absolute wagon and all credit to them.

I am somehow hoping that they win the division and we get out of a Buffalo for all time

sake because it's one one in playoff series right now, but yeah, sure.

I'll take that.

I'll Buffalo round one and then, you know, buff and Tampa round to you.

I don't know.

I don't know too.

I'd like that.

I don't know.

But the crazy part is like there is no, no coaching change, no personnel change.

Like this team just on a dime decided that they were going to play and elevate and arrive

and they've arrived.

They've arrived.

And I don't know if you heard the clip from Rosmos D'Alene, just like the joy in his voice

when he said that when they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, he's like, we're

here.

We've arrived.

You know, I've been waiting for this moment.

It's been a long struggle here in Buffalo, but we're finally here and we arrive.

Like that was their statement to the NHL.

We are here.

We are legit and we are coming for you.

They just slayed the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They took over the division.

Sunday was truly like a powerful moment for the Buffalo Sabers and they follow it up by

doubling up the shark 63, the very next game.

So it wasn't, you know, they didn't get, they didn't suffer that emotional letdown that

sometimes you have after a big game like that.

They're staying, you know, in the zone.

I'm very impressed with what I'm seeing at a Buffalo credit.

Shout out to Lindy Ruff too.

He's got the Jack Adams locked up, like not even close.

Yeah.

Another year where John Cooper probably get one, but doesn't.

I got one more thing on Buffalo after a break that won't get to our three stars of

the week.

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Welcome back locked on NHL your team every day and the Buffalo Sabers are a wagon for sure.

And usually no matter what when Montreal or Toronto comes to Buffalo, that building is 70%

leaf fans.

The leaves are in Buffalo next week.

Will we see a record low number of leaf fans in the building?

Yeah.

I think so.

I think so.

Yeah.

I don't like leaf fans care to travel at this point like apathy starting to set in here for

the Maple Leafs.

So yeah, and I think that the Sabers, you know, the product that's being put out there,

I think you look at a lot of the season ticket holders who've used the leaves as kind of

their cash cow to make some money out their tickets.

I mean, that might be a hot ticket right now in Buffalo.

Like they could sell that thing for a pretty penny with the way that they're winning games

or maybe the season ticket holders want to go themselves to watch a winning product.

So yeah, I think going for I think the Sabers, like that home crowd will remain a home crowd

the rest of the way.

All right.

You're three stars of the week.

Let's start with number three.

Yeah, number three.

I'm going to give it to give it to give it to I couldn't decide so I'm going to give

it to two, two people, two former Ottawa Senators, two former Ottawa Senators, two former

Ottawa Senators.

That's my way of cheating to combine it as one.

Do you know who I'm talking about?

I'm assuming Mika's advantage out is one.

Mika's advantage out is one.

He's got eight points on the week, three goals, five assists, and the Rangers, a wagon,

all of a sudden, apparently, like they want three games here when they don't need to really

be winning games.

But yeah, he's got eight points, you know, he's starting to finally figure it out.

It's kind of too late, but whatever, he's figuring it out a little late.

And you want to take a stab at who the other former senator is, what a good week.

Would that be Philly franchise?

That would be the Gus Bus.

Philly franchise.

Absolutely.

Look at what he's done for the Minnesota wild.

He starts just two games, but two and a half, he's got a nine sixty four, eight percentage.

He's allowed just one two goals over those starts.

He did get a shot out last night against the Utah Mammoth, but 54 saves on 56 shots.

He's been pretty stellar there, you know, the many soda wilds, they're, they're coming,

they're coming, buddy.

Yeah.

It's a three horse race.

Like don't, don't sleep on them, tell you, everyone wants to annoy the avalanches, the

winners of the West, and they put the Dallas stars in there right after.

I think it's Minnesota.

I think it's Colorado one, Dallas, Minnesota, to A to B. Like don't, you got to put them

in that mix, man, especially when they got the gold tennis cook in the way that it is.

So Philly franchise gets my third star.

Yeah.

Well, I like that.

I'm going to go star number two, Nikita Kutraub, who is not slowing down at all yet again.

He was averaging two points a game this last week since Wednesday.

And Mikey, that actually drops his point per game since he went on this incredible heater

that he's been on.

Kutraub with two goals and six or two goals and four, I miss the page here, two goals

and six assists, eight points in four games.

He is remarkable and he's not doing it on the power play, only two of those points with

the man advantage.

This guy is an absolute treat to watch each and every night.

He's up to 104 points on the season.

And that is his fourth consecutive hundred point season.

The reason why he didn't get a hundred points five years ago is that was the COVID year

where he only played 47 games.

This guy is a true top generational talent.

We usually see it with sentiment.

This guy is the best winger in the game, right?

And it's not even close.

Yeah.

It's him and then the day, right?

I want to say, was it today, six years ago, when the NHL shut its doors?

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're 11.

Well, yesterday, I saw yesterday was when Rudy Gobera was his paws all over the

spot.

Yeah.

And it was either like a day or two after that, I think, when the world shut down, it's

crazy to think.

I went back and looked at the, the make, because technically, the Leafs didn't make the

playoffs that year.

Oh, yeah.

Our Leafs, we went back and looked at, okay, what would the roster look like the last

time, at least, didn't make the playoffs?

It was horrendous.

You look at that team.

It's crazy.

Alexi Lafranier is my number one star this week.

Yeah.

I mean, I still don't know if he's going to turn it around because he has these pockets

of games where you're like, okay, now he looks like the true bona fide number one star,

you know, star winger that that he's supposed to be and had a hat trick last night for the

New York Rangers.

He's got five goals this week in the last four games, eight points in the last four games

and you're thinking to yourself, okay, where has this guy been all year for New York?

And what are we going to get out of a moving forward?

So, but Lafey, to me, he's had a good week and again, just like because the advantage

at it's it's showed up a little too late for the Rangers, but either way, quality week

at a hand, five goals leads the NHL.

He gets your first, my first star.

Yeah, no, he's mine as well and then that hat trick had to feel good for him.

Like he's been through so much and it's the skill is there, man, and it's too bad that

he hasn't been able to reach his potential because he is a super skilled player.

And I mean, it's confidence, man, I think it's just your confidence when it comes to

Lafey.

Like he's a type of guy where if they move on from him and he ends up in the right environment,

I do think that he's someone that'll really pop off like who will arrive and thrive

in the right environment because it's there.

He just needs the right coach kind of cultivate it and give him that confidence to unleash

it.

I truly bet.

Still only 24 years old.

So there's still lots of time out here for Lafey and there he did get that contract

though.

He's making over seven sheets.

So I don't think Rangers fans care about development.

They want to figure it out like that's not going to even look like a lot of money in

a couple of years.

Do you see the album wallstweet of what like three years from now, how much cake these

guys can be making?

I mean, it's not point to the bubbles.

God, I kind of come down a bit.

I think I'm a pack.

Do the cap is projected.

It's like right now it's projected to get to I think it was like one 29 and a half,

basically 130 million in the next three years.

It's currently 95 and a half like it's a 30 million dollar increase on the cap in over

the next over the next three years, like so that's $7 million contract that guy signed

a couple of years ago.

In terms of percentage of the cap, it's going to be a fraction of what it was when they

signed those deals and the cap was like 83.

It's interesting to think about as free agency kind of looms at a couple of months.

And this is a big contract that is going to go around.

That's for sure.

Yeah.

The stick of shocks going to be wild.

And I think we're going to be dealing that over the next couple of years, but it's great

for the league.

Just means that they're all doing well, more eyes on it, more people caring about the

product.

And that's music to our ears here at Lockdown NHL.

Honorable mention to Ross was dolly and I did have him as my number two star.

So make sure I give dolly and an honorable mention as well.

Why do people hate him so much?

This guy, Matthew's got suspended years ago on a Malkin as well.

He gets jumped last weekend against Tampa.

He must be like this sneaky, like a sneaky assassin.

Like this guy must be, I don't know if he's, you know, juking at guys with a stick, you

know, like I'm out there in plain sight as, as like a dirty player or if he's like mumbling

some Swedish swear words or some Swedish, you know, not nice things to people.

I don't know, but it does feel like he becomes an enemy when he's out there on the

AI.

So Ross was dolly and I appreciate the game.

I appreciate his game a lot plus 10 this week, dolly, through four games, a plus 10.

Yeah.

He has an absolute stud.

And like keep in mind that he's playing 25 minutes a night, playing against top tier

opponents on a weekly basis, he's plus 10 and a game where, you know, the, the lightning

and and sabers went toe to toe and an eight, seven hockey game and still the guys plus

10 on the week.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

Happy for sabers fans.

They've, they've waited a long time for a jack out sneaky Joe locked on sabers.

Yeah.

He's waited a long time.

I know.

I know.

Yeah.

No doubt.

So go check out locked on sabers.

All the great shows across the locked on NHL podcast network for Mike DeSteffan over at

locked on leave summer off 11th hand from locked on senators.

And this has been your Wednesday edition of the locked on NHL podcast, your team every

day.

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