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GAME NIGHT: Jack Quinn nets a hat-trick and registers four points as the Buffalo Sabres beat down on the San Jose Sharks, two TOP teams in the Eastern Conference need overtime/shootout, the Boston Bruins get ANOTER win at home, the Edmonton Oilers and Connor MacDavid VERSUS Colorado Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon
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If you like throwing on multiple TVs, watching as many games as you can and completely immersing
yourself in the world of the NHL, then the NHL boy was tonight perfect for you 13 total
games on the schedule.
Only six teams were idle and man, it made for some great stories we had, had tricks, we
had shutouts, we had playoff battles.
It was a good one.
We're going to cover it all coming up on Lockdown NHL game night.
When that final horn sounds, you know, it's time for Lockdown NHL game night, all the
post-game reactions to every game across the league, every single night, with insight only
the hosts at Lockdown can provide.
Prepare to experience game day reactions like ever before, only on Lockdown NHL game night,
14 every day.
Welcome back to the Lockdown NHL game night podcast part of the Lockdown podcast network.
The number one sports podcast network.
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We'll have more from them later on in the show.
I'm T.J. Shalott play by play broadcaster here in the Charlotte, North Carolina area
and tonight I'm with fellow play by play and writer for Yard Barker, Alex Wheaterspiel
and with the help of a handful of our local experts, we're going to go ahead and make
our way through the packed schedule tonight.
I don't want to waste any more time on the intro and getting things started.
I just want to jump into it.
Let's lead off with the Buffalo Sabers and the San Jose Sharks.
Both teams really punching above their weight class in terms of expectations this season,
but the Sabers, they are just too good right now.
They double up San Jose six to three, Jack Quinn, the big gun for the blue and gold,
four total points including a hat trick in this one and my instant takeaway and then I'm
going to flip it over to you, Alex is just that Buffalo was a bigger team.
They were a faster team and you could see San Jose was trying to use some of their smaller
size and their speed to counteract it.
They just did not have it.
Buffalo was just too good tonight.
The Buffalo Sabers, I think are no longer punching above their weight class.
I think this just is their weight class.
I am fully on board with either Buffalo or Tampa coming out of the Eastern Conference.
That's my prediction.
It's going to be one of those two out of the Eastern Conference.
I'll stick with Tampa since that was my preseason pick, but I think Buffalo is going
to be similar to Vancouver a couple of years ago.
Remember that first year under Rik Toket, or I guess technically second year, but first
full season under Rik Toket, those are the vibes I'm getting right now for the Buffalo
Sabers under Lindy Rup, hopefully the stuff that happened after we don't need to draw
that comparison.
You know what, I got Buffalo coming out of the East, I think they're just going to keep
going.
Carolina would be my number two.
I'm not sold on Tampa Bay.
I was talking to someone about that today.
There's something I feel like that bubble is going to burst for Tampa Bay for some odd
reason.
I don't have faith in them going the distance, but that's the way it goes.
As for the San Jose side real quick, I mean, Maclin, Celebrini, 33 goals on the year.
He got another one here tonight.
He for sure would also scored an Alex Weinberg as well, but just not enough.
I mean, geez, Jack Quinn had three goals himself in this one to go along with Alex Tuck,
Beck Malin Stein and Jason Zucker.
So Buffalo clicking on all cylinders, Alex Lyon looked real good as well.
I mean, he made a number of really difficult saves.
You look at the stat line doesn't look like he was too busy with 17 of 20, but he certainly
got it done while Yaroslav Askerov ended up getting handed the loss in that one.
So six, three Buffalo, they take down San Jose and we're going to go from one New York
hat trick to another Alex Lafranier with a three goal game for the Rangers who extinguished
the flames for nothing in the world's most famous arena tonight.
Lafranier getting goals in each of the three periods and all of a sudden, he's starting
to heat up for this retooling Rangers team boy, wouldn't that be something of Lafran
year? What was really holding him back was playing with our Tammy Panera in this whole
time.
I don't think that's likely to be the case that is starting to filter as a joke around
Rangers Twitter.
I will say this here are the stats on Lafranier since returning from the Olympic break.
Six goals, four assists for ten points.
The Rangers are plus, oh, I think seven with him at five on five plus ten overall in
these seven games in Lafranier is now on pace for his second 50 point season of his
career, which I know you're like 50 point season, but the flashes that he has shown make
me think there's maybe more to mine there and Lafranier might just be playing his way back
on to the Rangers for next season.
So great, great night for Lafranier and one quick note on the Rangers, I've been very
praiseworthy of the flames all season.
I thought the coaching staff's been really good.
I think they've done a great job in general with a team that doesn't have a lot of talent.
I think you're finally starting to see the cracks really form because the Rangers have
not looked faster than anybody all year and the Rangers were skating circles around the
flames for large portions of this game.
Kind of like what you were talking about last night with the Rangers and Flyers and the
way they forechecked sort of the intensity and pace they played with.
We haven't seen that all season from the Rangers and I don't know if that's a, that should
be, you know, hey, this is a sign that the Rangers are taking a step in the right direction
or if that's a sign of just how deeply depleted the flames are post-straight deadline.
Well, I think having that happen in back-to-back nights, especially, you know, against a Philadelphia
team and a Calgary team who, yes, they're neither of them are playoff teams, but they're
still okay teams.
It's not like they went back-to-back against, you know, like Winnipeg Vancouver and back-to-back
nights.
It was still, it's something to build your, your system around and to, you know, hang
your hat on going forward if you're a Rangers fan.
You can see some of that brightness, but not to be overshadowed.
Jonathan Quick gets the shout out.
21 saves in the game.
Dustin Wolf wasn't terrible.
Either 25 of 29, but when your offense doesn't score as a goalie, it doesn't matter how
many people you make, you're going to lose that game if you give up even just one.
So by the way, Rangers, they've obviously won back-to-back games over Philadelphia and
now Calgary, they're outscoring their 10 and 2 in those that they won.
So all of a sudden, man, they're Rangers.
Maybe they're starting to buy in.
It might be a little too little, too late, but we'll see moving forward.
And speaking of shout outs, by the way, in a battle of what I'm calling the cold weather
avatars, the Minnesota Wild and the Utah Mammoth, Minnesota, snuffing out the mammoth,
five nothing, thanks to five different goal scorers and 25 saves from Philip Gustafson.
Let's go ahead and hear from the host of Lockdown Wild, see what he has to say.
The long national nightmare is over.
The Minnesota Wild have finally beaten the Utah Mammoth in regulation.
The first time that they have done that since the mammoth relocated from Arizona, the
wild had only beaten Utah one time in six games against the mammoth, and it was a shoot-out
win for the wild.
But now tonight, on the strength of goals from Carole Caprizaff and Matt Boldy, and how
about this?
Bobby Brink, in his first game in front of his hometown fans, he leaves with what looks
like a scary injury as he gets slammed into the boards, he comes back and scores a goal.
Not only that, but newcomer Michael McCarran went nine for twelve in the face-off circle,
and Nick Felino recorded an assist on Ryan Hartman's goals.
So all of the newcomers playing a big role, all-and, Philip Gustafson with yet another shut-out.
For more on the Minnesota Wild, make sure you follow Lockdown Wild wherever you listen
to your podcasts.
You got to give props to Minnesota.
And Caprizaff with 37 goals, Boldy with 36 goals, I mean, both of those guys now, I mean,
they're top five in the league in terms of production, and they're getting some great
back-stopping out of Gustafson.
This is a team that looks quiet and calm on the surface, but man, they look like a raging
fire underneath.
I really like that Bobby Brink acquisition.
I was glad to see he came back into the game.
I think that's a gut potential there.
You play him on your third line somewhere in your middle six, and I think you're going
to get some scoring depth that you otherwise would probably really need.
One quick note on Utah, obviously, look, this has been a tough stretch for them.
They lost last night in overtime.
This is what I think they call a schedule loss.
You get stuck with the Minnesota Wild on the back end of a back-to-back.
When you played long the night before, this is a tough one for Utah.
I'm sure their fans would are getting a little antsy because this is a team that needs
to lock it down because, again, last night, they were the only playoff team in action
but you can't squander too many points in this league.
They're going to have to find a way to get back in the wind column, but in theory, this
probably is more of an issue of the schedule than anything else.
They do have six points right now between them and the nearest team for that first wild
card spot out in the West, but that can deplete real quick.
You go through a couple of games like this.
You think that you're just having a few back-to-back rough games and all of a sudden, it could
be dangerous.
They're not in a comfortable spot where they can just be like, man, we'll move on.
They've got to act that way in a way.
You've got to just forget it and move on, but at the end of the day, Utah, they've got
a tough schedule coming up for their remaining games.
They're going to have to, like you said, just lock it down and figure out who they are
and what they want to do and how they're going to attack the playoffs.
Speaking of playoffs, there were two expectant teams to make the playoffs that were taking
on each other.
Carolina and Pittsburgh, they needed to shoot out to find a winner on Tuesday and it was
the Hurricanes who toppled the pen's five-four.
This was a game.
I was watching this one pretty close, insane offense.
39 of 43 was Stewart Skinner.
43 shots.
Carolina sent on Stewart Skinner.
He just couldn't get the win in the shootout.
Pittsburgh, they ended up forcing over time where the games ended up coming out on top.
Stankhofen, Jan Kowski, Jarvis, and Nikitian Allscoring for Carolina, Manta and Rust with
the pair for Pittsburgh.
I think this is one of those interesting, could be first round matchups that I like or
maybe even a second round, depending on how everything shakes out.
I can see both of these teams being there in the second round and it could go either way.
I really liked the way these two teams matched up tonight.
Every point the penguins get without Crosby and Malkin together over these five game
stretch and then, of course, a little bit longer for Crosby, who is, I think, already
back in practice incredibly.
That's a win in my opinion for the penguins right now.
One quick note, man, I'm just for Carolina, they better hope that Bussie is the real deal
because Freddie Anderson cannot start playoff games for this team.
Six quality starts for him in 26 appearances this season, according to hockey records.
That is not going to get the job done.
I think the Freddie Anderson era is officially very much over.
He just doesn't have it anymore.
If I've said it once, I've said it a trillion times.
The Carolina hurricanes historically do not respect the goal tending position.
They never made big acquisitions in goal tending.
They always just patchworked it and figured that Rod Brenda Moore in his system and away
his guys grind up front.
They'll just take care of it.
It has not worked for them.
They have not won a cup since 2006.
It's just even Brandon Bussie fell into their lap.
He was a waiver claim on his way down to Charlotte from Florida.
He was going to be the third goal tender in their system and they kind of struck
gold with him, but they've got to figure that out this year.
Go out and get a guy who's somewhat proven and make him the backbone of your team, especially
if you don't go deep into the playoffs this year because it's just stop disrespecting
the goal tender position and just assuming that any old guy, whether it's Freddie Anderson
or whoever you want to put in there that they've been put trotting out there over the last
few years, it's not working.
Make sure you've got Brandon Bussie.
He's going to be a key piece, pair him with someone who's got a little bit of experience.
Please, I'm not even a Carolina fan, I just, I want to see them do that because I feel
like that's the one thing that'll take them all over the hump, but with the way in
Carolina, they're going to increase their lead over Pittsburgh and the Metro.
There's now nine points separating first and second place in that division, but we've
got a lot more coming up, we've got nine games, in fact, but the Sabers fight off the
sharks, uh, or was it make David or McKinnon who walked away a winner in that Edmonton
Colorado game where you've got those answers and more coming up on lockdown NHL game
night.
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Alex, I want to talk about what I thought was going to be one of the better matchups
in the night.
I think it really kind of did work out to be that way.
It was a tight one.
It was a pre-playoff preview, if you will, but Dallas and Vegas both team sitting in
second place in their respective divisions out west both have deep playoff run aspirations.
Stars get it done two to one over Vegas despite the fact that Vegas got on the board.
First thanks to Jack Eichel's 23rd of the year.
But then it was Oscar Beck and Jamie Ben who sealed the deal for Dallas.
Jake Ottinger, 26 of 27 and a great performance for him, Eden Hill on the other side, 14 of
16.
Which team do you think is the better second place team here between these two?
It's hard not to pick Dallas at this point, right?
Like Vegas, I think they are a sleeping giant in some respects because we know what they're
capable of, but they haven't fully found their game this year.
And at this point, I'm not 100% sure they will.
I know a lot of that has to do with health.
Dallas on the other hand, they have had long stretches of looking elite at times.
And they've done that even when Jake Ottinger hasn't always had his best stuff.
And part of that is because they've all of a sudden cultivated this two gold tender rotation
that we didn't really think we thought it was going to be a clear one too.
It's really a one A, one B.
So I think I'm more bought in on Dallas.
I don't think that's a huge hot take.
I'm not down on Vegas, per se.
I don't think that they're incapable of making a run this year.
I think they've got some stuff to figure out more importantly, they've got to get healthy.
Yeah.
And honestly, tonight was a little bit of bad luck in having watched this.
The puck luck wasn't necessarily on their side.
I think about the Jamie Ben goal and just it was about, I would say waist high on most
of the guys as it bounced off of a skate hop up in the air and you just have guys swinging
sticks at it.
And somehow Jamie Ben hits it just enough to bloop it even higher and over the shoulder
of ill.
It just was, it was one of those nights, man.
If you're Vegas, you just kind of go, what do we got to do?
I mean, we're playing one of the better teams of the league here.
We're skating with them.
We're keeping up with them and they're getting all the luck.
But hey, you know what?
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good as they say.
And Dallas is certainly very good.
So they get the victory and they come out on top two to one.
But let's go ahead.
We'll take a look from two teams that were near the top of the West to a contender in
the East.
The Tampa Bay Lightning.
First to the Blue Jackets and on Tuesday, it was the visiting Blue Jackets who pull it
out five to they got a pair of goals from Connor Garland, plus another Kyryl Marchenko
goal.
He's got goals and back to back games and points in five straight before we go any
further.
Let's hear from the lock down Blue Jackets host J Forster with more.
At two words for you, Connor Garland, which I went five to over the Tampa Bay Lightning
in just an extremely good team effort.
But Connor Garland is the story.
Back to back two goal games.
You have two against the Kings.
You've got two tonight against the Lightning as well.
But just everyone chipped in, right?
That was a really, really solid full effort.
It looks like a completely different team that played against the Kings last night played
against the mammoth a few nights ago.
I'm Pro Vrov.
It's another goal.
He gets close from close to a 10 goal campaign.
He'll be the third Blue Jackets, a defenseman to hit double digits in goals.
Chromachenko with back to back power play goals in back to back games and Dante Fabro with
the empty netter as well.
You love to see it.
The Blue Jackets held the lightning to only 18 shots on goal.
Like a four goal, a four attempt.
Sorry.
Four shots on goal in the first period, eight in the second, six in the third.
That's all they gave.
The lightning.
Great.
Great win out of town scoreboards and not go in the Blue Jackets way as of right now,
but doesn't matter.
They got the two points.
That's what they needed.
We're going to unpack all of that on the next episode of Locked on Blue Jackets.
Yeah, you can't be scoreboard watching too much at this point.
You just got to go out there, get the two points that are in front of you that you can
earn and hope some things fall in your own favor.
With this game, I mean Columbus, they're going to stay two points out of a wild card spot.
We're going to talk about the other teams that are ahead of them and how they did here
tonight.
On the other side, Tampa Bay.
Now, there's a little bit more space between them and Buffalo with Buffalo getting the win
here tonight and Tampa Bay remaining idle at their point total with 82s and others four
points between the two teams.
Tampa Bay.
I said it.
I'm not.
That's my hot take.
I am not sold on the Tampa Bay lightning.
I just feel that they are going to collapse at one point.
Will they make the playoffs?
Absolutely.
Might they win a series or two in the playoffs?
Maybe.
I feel a collapse is coming from this Tampa Bay team.
That's my hot take.
The way I feel about Carolina, generally, one thing I'll note on Tampa Bay, I don't want
to move off of my my preseason pick for the Eastern Conference.
I will note though that it feels like the Olympic break really did come at the wrong
time.
Since coming back from the break, they are two six and oh, do you want to guess which
team they have those two wins against?
It's the same team.
Oh, boy.
Let's go Vancouver.
No, although boy, a Canadian team that's got a huge market that's really upset at the
moment.
The Toronto Maple Leafs.
So, yeah, and that's it.
Those are their only two wins since coming back from the Olympic break.
Look, I talked about it in room.
I mentioned I thought the Rangers and Jets were going to be two teams that might have
a chance to kind of, I didn't mean to make the playoffs, but maybe work their way out
of being a bottom feeder because of the chance for the reset because of the Olympics.
Keep a bay.
It seems to have gone the opposite way.
And that is always a concern that when you're red hot and then all of a sudden you stop
playing hockey, you've got to recapture that a little bit.
So that's where Tampa is at the moment, two six and oh in their last eight games.
That is tough.
And, you know, especially going up against the Toronto team that they haven't won since
before the Super Bowl.
The Seattle team are more recently than Toronto.
We're going to touch on them here in just a second.
I want to look at two games that went past regulation.
We're going to start things off with the Islanders and Blues from St. Louis.
Thanks to Matt Barzall.
The Islanders picked up two points.
They helped keep pace with Carolina in the Metro.
Gil Martin, host of Lockdown Islanders as always with great insight into this one for
us.
The New York Islanders overcome a three nothing deficit and beat the St. Louis Blues
four to three and over time.
Islanders now a perfect ten and oh in games decided in O.T.
Matthew Barzall with the game winner.
Islanders defense was bad early in the game.
They're down three nothing looked like they were down four nothing, but they challenge
and have the fourth goal overturned for offside.
And then the second turning point of this game.
The Blues take a double high sticking minor in the Islanders' cash in with two power
play goals to tie the game at three a piece again.
The resilience of this team overcoming their defensive deficiencies and some big saves
by Ilius Arok and keeping them in the game until they find a way to win.
For more in depth daily coverage of your New York Islanders, check out the Lockdown Islanders
podcast.
This is exactly how a game should go between a team like the Islanders and a team like
the St. Louis Blues in the sense that if the Blues somehow find themselves out in front
with a lead, you're the Islanders.
You're a much better team.
You're sitting in third place in the Metro, taking on a Blues team that's way down there.
You want to talk about bottom feeders.
They are pretty darn close.
You're much more talented than they are.
You are a better run team this year.
You should be able to capitalize and come back.
It's hard.
Don't get me wrong.
This is still the NHL, but this is what I expect.
When a team like the Islanders falls down three nothing, I still kind of expect them to
win.
And that's what they did tonight.
Great shed, by the way, getting a point in his first game against his former team.
I was a quick turnaround for him, going from St. Louis to New York and almost immediately
playing the team that he won, a Stanley Cup with also congrats to braided the Shen and
the New York Islanders.
So the other game that went past 60 Boston beats L.A. 2.1 in overtime, thanks to Charlie
McAvoy and the Bruins continue their home win streak.
It's now at 13 games with more on the contests.
Here's the host of Lockdown Bruins Ian McLaren.
After a coffee and sig in night, the Boston Bruins have said that L.A. kings to bed early
with an overtime win at home to extend their winning streak at TD Garden to 13 games.
Both goals came from defenseman in this one.
It was Mason Lorai who got things going with the first goal of the game in the third period.
And then Charlie McAvoy winning it in style in overtime off a beautiful feed from David
Posternau, who had worked hard to keep it onside.
McAvoy finished it with a beauty backhand move on Darcy Kemper and then celebrated in
style at the glass with some lucky fans.
Big two points for the Bruins who are trying to keep their playoff spot.
They're still second wall card and looking to keep things going in a couple nights against
the San Jose Sharks will be back to recap it all on a brand new episode tomorrow of Lockdown
Boston Bruins.
So the L.A. kings will stay idle at 73 points.
That's going to give Seattle the chance to increase some distance for that second wild
card spot in the West.
We're going to check in with them here in just a little bit.
But let's go north of the border.
Two storied franchises, Toronto and Montreal.
They took the ice at Ploss Bell.
Habs with a better Canadian team tonight winning three to one.
Habs they scored two in the first and that would prove to be just enough.
Nielander scores for Toronto to make it a two one, but then they tack on the empty
netter.
Thanks to Jake Evans and this Toronto team is just falling apart.
We made jokes about him that, you know, the Seahawks and the NFL of one more recently
than they have.
But it's true.
They are just true.
It's true.
It's right.
No, you're spot on.
I just wanted to note one thing.
You mentioned last week when we talked the sledgehammer taking the sledgehammer to Toronto.
I'm not sure that's strong enough at this point like this is we've kind of gone back
and forth all year.
Who's the worst original six team that they've all taken a turn out at bearing points being
totally embarrassing.
I feel like maybe not the Red Wings.
They've been pretty consistent all season, but even the Bruins had a bad early stretch.
Boy, Toronto stinks and I like I hate when analysis is as simple as Toronto stinks.
Everybody looks miserable in Toronto right now.
I don't know how Craig Marui still has a job at this point, other than maybe because
he is a former Toronto player who is extremely well regarded as both a coach and a player
player.
But I don't know how Austin Matthews is, I mean, I think he's starting to get some criticism,
but man, I don't know.
I don't want to say it out loud, but I got to think that they got to maybe take the sledge
hammer to Matthews position in the locker room as well.
Ain't straight losses for Toronto and I don't understand, you know, I expected them to do
a lot more.
I truly expected them to blow things out.
I said it.
I was like outside of Austin, Matthews, I feel like everybody should be gone.
Me lander was one of the guys that I had mentioned at the time that I remember.
I just don't understand.
They're just what were they doing at the trade deadline?
That was the time to recoup some assets and then begin building this off season.
And now it seems like they have to start that rebuild or that re-tool or whatever you want
to call it this off season because this roster as it is is not going to be the roster next
year.
I wonder if they didn't trust Brad tree living to make major moves.
That could be.
But then, you know, you know, look, look what happened to Buffalo when you get rid of the
GM in the middle of the sea.
Maybe do it.
Don't make excuses.
Just do it.
But, and also, who knows what the market was like.
Teams could have been just trying to, you know, jerk them around a little bit and just
trying to offer them garbage for, you know, big name players and stuff.
And so maybe they're just passing something there because they could smell that they're
desperate.
And I get that.
You don't want to just give stuff away for the sake of giving stuff away.
But coming up, McKinnon versus McDavid, abs versus oilers, plus we've got Seattle looking
to keep pace in that increasingly loaded Pacific division while Detroit looks to remain
on top of the first wild card spot in the east with a win over Florida.
More unlocked on NHL game night after this.
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All right, we still got a bunch to get to.
We're going to try and buzz through these real quick.
So let's start with the battle of the superstars, Connor McDavid and the oilers battling
it out with Nathan McKinnon and the avalanche.
Both had big moments in this game.
It was the visiting oilers.
Thanks to two goals from Ryan Nugent Hopkins who take down the league's top team.
Four to three and Connor McDavid scores his 36th year.
That was his moment in the game, Nathan McKinnon receives a five minute major for a collision
on Connor Ingram.
Now, a lot of people are saying he was pushed into him by Darnell Nurse.
Either way, it was a five minute major.
Ingram left the game, did not return.
Tristan Jari came in and took over at that point.
Ingram was good on 15 of 17.
It was almost two periods through the game with Jari coming in.
He would go 11 of 12.
But both guys kind of play in different roles in this one.
You've got McDavid scoring, getting some help from Nugent Hopkins and Roslovic.
On the other side, McKinnon, kind of public enemy number one right now for Edmonton.
I feel like at least once a week we have what I'm going to jokingly refer to
was the Stefan game of the week from SNL.
This game just had everything.
If this, if there were a game and I'm, you know, I'm in Jacksonville right now
right now, I'm with a bunch of casual hockey fans.
Like they're starting to learn to love the game.
This is the one I would have pointed them to tonight.
If they weren't too busy watching the World Baseball Classic and the mess
between Italy and the USA, but this was the game I would have had them watch
because this one had it all.
It really did.
I mean, it really did.
Ross Colton scores with 32 seconds left in regulation,
but it turned out to not be enough.
You know, Connor Ingram getting hurt with that whole Nathan McKinnon thing.
We're going to hear about this for the next couple of days.
To see if there's any supplementary discipline there.
You've got Connor McDavid scoring.
You've got Marty Nature scoring.
His 29th is he approaches 30 on the area.
And McKenzie Blackwood played a decent game as well.
Turned it aside, 20 of 24.
This game pretty much had it all.
We got a couple more games to get to Anaheim.
They look to keep their lead over Vegas in the Pacific.
Following the Golden Knights win, they've got to win themselves.
And they do just that by grounding the Jets four to one.
Winnipeg scored the game's first goal.
Anaheim then answers with four straight,
including a goal and a system Ryan Paling.
All the scorers in this game for the ducks have less than 10 on the season.
So you want to talk about depth scoring and just getting scoring contributions
from everyone in your lineup.
That's the way you've got Washi with his second of the year.
Paling's eighth, Kalorn's ninth, and Lakom's ninth.
So that's some great depth scoring for Anaheim.
It's nice to see because when you're on a team like Anaheim and your stars,
your guys that normally bring in all the stats and rake in all the headlines
or having an off night, you got other guys who can step up.
And yes, I realize that this is a Winnipeg Jets team that's
one of the worst teams in the league.
But you still got to play him.
You still got to get your two points.
Just another night where the Winnipeg Jets are not generating.
Anywhere near enough opportunity for themselves.
It doesn't matter that they allowed four goals.
They did not create enough opportunity in the offensive zone.
That's the reality for Winnipeg right now.
It's been the reality all season.
They've relied essentially on three scorers all year.
And this is what happens ultimately when goal-tending can't bail them out.
You're not going to win a game when you can only get 13 shots on goal.
Just the way it's going to be when your opponents are firing 34 at your net
minor. That's just not a balance that's sustainable.
You're going to have to figure that out.
And I'm sure that they're aware of that.
And that's something that they're going to look into changing
somehow this off season.
But let's go ahead and move on as we take a look at Detroit and Florida.
We talked about Detroit trying to battle their way and make sure that they can
retain control of that number one wild card spot, especially with Boston
winning tonight.
And they will retain it, but they still lost this one.
Florida, thanks to Carter Verhagi, two goals in the final minute and a half
to help Florida claw their way to victory.
Florida has now won their last two games.
Patty Kane, Justin Falk and Marco Casper scoring for Detroit.
It was Vinnie Hineshchoza, Niko Mikola, and Verhagi with two.
Hineshchoza also had an assist in this one.
So the first game back for John Gibson.
He turns aside 24 of 28, but the party was spoiled as the Panthers get it.
You know, this is probably the first time all season that I've really been
concerned about Detroit's playoff chances.
It's a little tighter than I'm comfortable with.
I picked them to finish third in that division.
That's where they sit right now.
But Montreal is playing much better than the Red Wings are in my mind at the
moment side.
I'd like to see Detroit rally a little bit post-deadline, especially with
the Justin Falk acquisition.
I know he's not the player he used to be.
But I still think adding some defensive depth there.
They've got to find a way to get in.
Otherwise, this cannot be a repeat of two years ago if you're Detroit.
Just can't happen.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And one more game.
Let's just close things out.
A couple of teams vying for that wild card spot.
Seattle playing host in Nashville and coming into Tuesday.
The Kraken, they had a three point lead on the Predators.
And after the game, well, now it's down to a one point lead as the
Preds score four unanswered to take down the Kraken four to two.
Seattle would get those first two goals of the game.
Capocaco and Maddie Beneers.
But then Nashville turned it on.
Tyson Joe Street, Shaefer, Ryan Ufko, and Steven Stamco's
Stammer.
Now with 31 goals on the year, the Ageless wonder for the Preds.
Meanwhile, you'll see Saros, 43 of 45.
Talk about a goal-tending performance in this one.
And I watched a little bit of this game here as the late game.
And it was, he was all over the place.
I mean, these were not 45 generic from the wall shots that he could see
a mile away.
He was definitely tested as Seattle was doing a lot of stuff
creativity-wise for their offensive group.
But he stood tall, gets the win, Joey DeCord, not as good.
23 of 26 in this one.
Classic turtle Derby from the last wild card spot in the Western
conference. I would like to think that there's going to be
San Jose's to take, but we'll see.
Seattle had a real opportunity tonight, let it kind of fade away.
And boy, I can't decide, will Nashville fans be happy upset
if the team winds up being in a playoff?
What's the honor right now for this Nashville team,
a middling team that goes and gets blown out by Colorado or Dallas?
There's not much to game for Nashville being in that first wild
card spot because they don't really learn that second wild card spot.
For San Jose, it's, hey, here's some experience about how this works, right?
For Seattle, it's, hey, some experience about how this works, right?
For Nashville, for LA, what's the benefit of being in that wild card spot?
Just being sacrificial fodder for the Colorado avalanche, I think.
Yeah, no, I agree with you.
If I'm a Nashville fan, though, I remember looking back at the standings in November.
And I was talking to a Sabre's fan at that time.
And obviously this was before the firing of Kevin Adams.
And he was, he was very well as me.
And you know, I'm a Buffalo fan.
We haven't done anything.
We haven't been in first place in a decade, 15 years, whatever it was.
And blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm like, look, at least you're not Nashville because those guys are playing awful.
And sure enough, they've turned it around a little bit.
I mean, now they're a middling team.
I think that's a little bit of a win considering where they were to start the year.
But I also don't know.
If I'm a Nashville fan, I don't know if that makes me angry.
If that makes me upset.
Am I mad because we're going to miss the playoffs?
Or am I happy because, hey, we kind of got close and we probably shouldn't have.
It's, it's a toss up there.
But Nashville loses or excuse me, Nashville wins this one.
So they do get the two points as Seattle falls in Washington.
But that will do it for us another episode of Locked On NHL Game Night.
And make sure you check us out each and every night as we bring you the insights and recaps to every NHL game tomorrow.
A much lighter night on the schedule.
We've only got two games going.
So we've got a lot more time to talk about the crazy races and, you know,
what to expect heading down the stretch and some of the just chaos going on in the NHL right now.
And while you're at it, check out the every day or club by going to the shows notes and seeing all the added bonuses,
the Locked On NHL podcast will bring you.
So for Alex Wheeder's field, I'm T.J. Shalott saying so long.
We'll see you next time on Locked On NHL Game Night,
part of the Locked On podcast network, your teams every day.

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
