GAME NIGHT: Montreal Gets by Ottawa, Flyers DOMINATE Caps, Predicting FUTURES of Each Franchise

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The only two games on tap for Wednesday would initially seem like a quiet night in the

NHL, ended up being one with plenty of action.

We'll come into another episode of Lockdown NHL Game Night.

As I said, back with you, another episode of Lockdown NHL Game Night, I'm Mike Oste,

a digital journalist in the Pittsburgh market, most notably with Yard Barker, and I host

the podcast Mike Drop.

It's played on Series XM, and I'm joined alongside for this edition of The Show by T.J.

Shalade, a professional hockey play by play man and a colleague here with Lockdown.

Welcome again to Lockdown NHL Game Night, part of the Lockdown podcast network, now the

number one podcast network.

And T.J., we went into this night thinking two games, bubble teams, maybe it'd be a slow

night.

What are we going to talk about, and we both are skilled in talking if need be, so I wasn't

really worried about filling time no matter what went down, but yet we had one really

close game, one important close game, and another game that, yeah, there was separation,

and it wasn't really close, but it's important nonetheless.

So we had some action on this hump day two game slate and this weird quirk, the NHL schedule

is going to be a lot of games tomorrow, but only two on this one.

And only two on Thursday too, so they go right, or maybe it's three, but they only have

a couple the following night.

So the scheduling's all kind of out of whack, but yeah, I was, you know, I was pleasantly

surprised by the games that we did see, you know, they put on a big show being the only

attention in town, and even that Philadelphia Washington game, yeah, it was 4-1, but you

take out that kind of time goal, it was still a decent contest, even though Washington didn't

bring their best.

So I'm sure we'll get talking about that in a bit.

Yeah, 100%.

And there, there are a lot of games on the March 12 slate, by the way, there's only the

two on Friday the 13th.

So Friday the 13th will have the two, there's a lot of games on the Thursday slate.

But on this program, we just have these two, and we're going to start with the better

of the two games, it's fair to give it to the better of the two games, Montreal getting

by Ottawa three to two, I have a team of end up getting the game winner there at the end

of goal and assist, three shots on goal for him, he kind of stood up and led the way.

Some could argue this is a team that doesn't really have a true superstar, but maybe you

could point to him as one of the better players on this team now around 50 points on the

year.

And Ottawa looked like they were going to get this victory early on in this game.

They hadn't lost a game in regulation in a while where he or from their locked on

host will tell us all about that streak now being snapped for them as they're trying

to play for their lives.

But Montreal is a team that's trying to show that they can actually make some noise and

actually can end and be a playoff team and do something when they get there.

So what do you make of this result here?

Ottawa was kind of soaring up the charts until they meet the rival in Montreal.

Yeah, I think this is a little bit more about Montreal that it does necessarily about Ottawa.

Right now with this win, Montreal is 82 points on the season.

They're tied for second in the Atlantic with Tampa Bay who seems to be everybody's

darling pick to come out of the east.

If not Buffalo, it seems like everybody's putting their money on Tampa Bay to be the team

representing the east.

Sure.

I think this was a good game for Montreal.

They played really smart and they took over right away.

Ottawa shot themselves in the foot right out of the gate 30 seconds in gold tender interference

call.

That allows the power play Slavkovski scores on the power play to make it one nothing.

And ever since then Ottawa's chasing the game.

So I think, you know, Montreal did everything they possibly could do taking the opportunities

in front of them, seizing those opportunities.

Getting out in front plus a good night from Jacob Fowler who made 32 saves.

Yeah, 100%.

I mean, they got the victory they did in regulation.

They were the better team throughout the game, but it's been a while since Ottawa lost

in regulation.

They were a team that some thought Brady could chuck doing so well in the Olympics.

That could pivot over to the NHL.

He was hurt a lot in the first half of the season and they could make a run.

They've been one of the surprise stories of the season you could certainly say.

So on the Ottawa side of things, a tough fight in there, but it does appear that maybe

they're going to fade out.

And we will now hear Marlotte Don Senators host on his thoughts on Ottawa's regulation

lost to Montreal.

That has to just sting in general, let alone what it does to you in the standing.

For the first time since February 3rd, the Ottawa Senators failed to register a point in

a game after they lose 3-2 in regulation to the Montreal Canadiens.

I'm Brandon Pillar from the lockdown Senators podcast.

And this is a tough one to get no points from as the sends out shoot the Canadiens 34-23.

They push at the end of the game with the goalie pulled, but credit to Jacob Fowler, he

makes all the saves he has to make.

And that's the difference in this one as one save that all Mark is not able to make leaves

at Juicy rebound for Ivan Demidov to score and that's the game winner.

Another one where the sends deserve to win this one, let alone get at least one point,

but it's a tough bounce and they let their rivals win.

We're going to get into this game much more in the postcast and of course on tomorrow's

episode of the lockdown Senators podcast.

It's your team every day.

And the weirdest thing about the Senators too, it almost feels like that while they've

been kind of a team that's been hanging around and feeling like maybe they could do something

this year and kind of above expectations, they have not been getting the national conversation

or any love.

I feel like a lot of casual fans probably aren't aware of what he just said that it had

been since February 3rd to lose in regulation.

They have been one of the hotter teams in the league to even be relevant right now and

not really fully getting their just due probably for that, which is probably the life of being

an Ottawa Sanders fan.

But TJ, looking at this season now, overall for Ottawa, assuming that they don't get

in and then don't really go anywhere, do you look at this season as a quality successful

year to be a bug, bug expectations or do you look at it maybe kind of what are locked

on host is kind of alluding to there that maybe it's a what if story that yes, nobody

thought they'd be here, but they've blown a lot of games.

And maybe this even being one of them that they feel like that forget expectations, they

should have maybe 10 more points, five more points and then there are playoff teams.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, there's 62 and two in their last 10 and out of every team, both sides, whether

you're talking Eastern Conference, Western Conference, they have the highest goal differential

of any team that's not in the playoffs.

They're playing at a plus 15 for you to be at a plus 15, you could be in at least a wild

card spot.

So that tells me you're winning games by a whole lot and then you're also losing games

by a whole lot and you're just kind of up and down.

Now they've been playing a lot better as of late and look, the season's not over, you

know, they've they're only what five points right now out of that final wild card spot that's

occupied by Boston.

Now the Bruins are going to play tomorrow night.

So they might increase that, but five points out is far from a far cry out.

So they just got to keep doing what they're doing.

Again, they're 62 and two this, you know, it's not like they're on a losing streak.

This is just their first loss.

They won their game prior.

So if I'm Ottawa, you know, I am looking at this.

We're playing above expectation, but we're going to keep shooting for as much above expectation

as we can be and that's going to be punching our ticket to the playoffs.

Then once you get in, it's winning around and then once you get to that point, it's, you

know, coming out of the East as the Eastern Conference champions.

That's how you have to have your mindset, right?

Yeah.

But right now they are playing above expectation.

Now what is the future hold?

That's a different story.

I'm sure we're going to get to that a little bit later.

Yeah, that's what you call a tease there in the radio business.

We're going to talk about that.

We're going to get into that in our third segment of the show again, T.G.

Shalod, my gosh, the year locked on NHL game might only two games on this hump day Wednesday,

but two important games nonetheless.

And I do kind of want to wrap up the Canadian Senators' conversation with going to the winner.

Montreal now, 36, 18 and 10, 82 points.

They're a little bit different of a story than Ottawa, certainly better positioning in terms

of the playoff race.

But they're also a team that no one's really predicting to do anything.

You mentioned Tampa Bay, Buffalo, even Pittsburgh if they get a healthy Sydney Crosse back, people

even bring up Detroit and the Red Wings if they get fully healthy and Gibson plays well

enough in net.

And they're actually behind Montreal in the standings, but they're on the national conversation

shows a lot more often.

What do you think of Montreal's legit chances to do something throughout the spring and then

even into June if they could potentially make a deep run, or is just getting there kind

of enough for this team?

I think it's going to hinge mostly on goal tending, depending on what they can get out

of Fowler and Jacob Dobish, that's going to be a huge factor because I do think they

have the right pieces in place as far as forwards, defensive and are concerned.

We'll talk about this more later too, I'm sure, but I love it, Marnie San Luis doing

with that team, and you can just see he coaches the exact same use to play.

So I definitely think that they could cause a problem, you know, they could be one of those

teams that knocks out a very difficult lingering, maybe a New York Islander team, you know,

that everybody was pretty high on, or even that Pittsburgh team that you were just mentioning,

you know, maybe Montreal sees them early and knocks them out.

And it just changes kind of the whole landscape of the Eastern Conference, but they are

forgotten about, you know, I think these are the two less spoken of Canadian franchises,

you know, you've got Nick Hoover, who's just awful.

You've got Edmonton with the McDavid's and the dry titles and the back-to-back Stanley

Cup appearances.

You've got Toronto, who is, you see?

Toronto, like, you know, right, right, they're just going to be talked about no matter what,

right?

No matter what.

So you forget, you kind of forget about Ottawa, you forget about Montreal every now and

then.

You know, I think Montreal is quietly a very dangerous team.

Yeah.

And I will also throw those out there to any of our Canadian friends that are watching

and listening.

We are both Americans, so maybe there's an American bias to say that they're not talked

about enough, they're not in the national conversation enough.

They certainly aren't here.

Maybe in Canada, they are more obviously much more Montreal than Ottawa, Montreal is the

historic franchise with all the Stanley Cups, the most ever, Ottawa, not so much.

So Montreal, I'm sure, is getting talked about, Ottawa probably still feels like they're

kind of the undercard even in their country.

But if you compare it to, as you mentioned, the other teams from Canada and even how often

they're talked about in the US by US media, it's still more than Montreal, whom right

now is a better team than Edmonton and some of these other teams, certainly than Toronto

that's getting more of that national conversation.

When we return though, we have another game on the docket, just one more game on the docket.

We have a much, we have much more to talk about on this show, Philadelphia Flyers, they take

care of business, they handle the washing capitals and maybe Alexander Ovechkin is going

to continue to be sad.

He's kind of been in a sad state of affairs here since the deadline.

I feel bad for the man, just a little bit.

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Back with you, Mike Austin, T-D-Shellot, NHL game night and the other game on this Wednesday

two games only.

You know, we're not wrong, two games were played, a quirk in the NHL scheduling there.

The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington capitals and they do it in relatively convincing

fashion, four to one, adding insult to injury there late as well.

Ovechkin performs, ends up with an assist, got five shots on goal but did not score in

the game.

And Washington after trading Carlson at the deadline, Ovechkin's long time teammate

it appears they're waving the white flag, Philadelphia kind of doing the same thing.

These two teams normally contenders but not so much this year.

What do you make of this result, I guess?

It was pretty handily in the direction of Philadelphia and which one of these two teams,

because we still have a decent amount of games left despite selling at the deadline.

They have quality players they're not going to quit.

Which one of these two teams aside from this result, maybe has a chance to get in there,

get lucky, win some head-to-head battles, somehow crawl in the race because you have to imagine

they would so rather do that than not even if they believe they're not Stanley Cup contenders

deep down.

Honestly, I'm not sure if either one of them is really going to have the right answer

to be honest.

If I had to pick one I would say Washington, simply because they have the core, they

have a little bit of a head start too.

There are a few points ahead of Philadelphia so when you're comparing the two of them,

terms are from closer to getting in, it's the capitals but also at the end of the day,

the attitude around that locker room, I mean, clearly upper management was ready to just

call it a season.

They sell at the deadline.

We know about all the trades and we know about a benchkins upset with his best friend

going to Anaheim and all that other stuff and he's kind of playing like it.

He looks like he looks like a guy who's ready to retire anyway.

I think his, the end of his career is starting to hit him and he started those internal conversations

with himself and between that and all the players getting traded.

This team just doesn't have the heart to get into the playoffs.

I think if they had a little fire in their bellies and they had that heart, they might

be able to sneak their way in into one of those wild card spots but right now it's just

all doom and gloom in that locker room and I just don't think they have it.

Philly on the other side, they've got a lot of talent but they're missing too many big

pieces and they don't always put that talent together.

This is a great performance for them.

I mean, they give up the first goal of the game in the first period and then come out

and score four unanswered and they get it done by their young guys.

Zegris, Kineckney, Tipit, all on the scoreboard here tonight plus Alex Bump.

He's been making a pretty big impact since he was called up from Lehigh Valley not too

long ago.

So this Philadelphia team certainly has a bright future.

As does the capitals, I just don't think either team is going to be able to make it this

year.

Yeah.

I mean, either team is going to get there and I hate throwing that accusation out there

without actually knowing and being in these players' brains.

But when you say there's not hard on Washington side, it's fair.

That's how they play.

If Vetchkin doesn't score, they seemingly have no shot.

They put the offense around him.

He's the focus still and it makes sense to be that.

He was great the last couple of years in the spring, but it does appear that there's

something out of him, the motivation, the tenacity that we're used to seeing from Alexander

Vetchkin.

If you just watch the interview on Trade Deadline Day when he was told about John Carlson,

it was a defeated OVetchkin that he literally called it.

I believe his terminology was either the worst or the most depressing.

I forget which one of those, but he referred to it as the worst day of his career individually

speaking.

And he clarified, like obviously a big loss early in his career in the playoffs or the

sanguine, however, might have been worse than this.

But as an individual, just losing a friend, been there 17 years with them, won the cup

with them.

That was the worst day learning he had been traded at the deadline this year.

And it does kind of also scream once he gets over Wayne Greski for the most overall goals,

whether it be regular season playoffs, all of it combined.

He does have a ring, he's not going to get a second one, it's just not going to happen.

There years away from that.

There's really nothing for him to play for anymore.

Like the only hope I guess could be that maybe Russia gets back in the Olympics and he plays

on that team.

But he doesn't necessarily have to be in the NHL to make that happen.

Like he may be, you know, talented enough to get back in there if that would occur.

Even if he's retired from the NHL, who knows, we've seen no longer NHL players play in

the Olympics.

In fact, win gold in Pablo Datsuke and Global Chuck when the Olympic athletes from Russia,

they weren't Russia.

OAR, one gold, they weren't in the NHL at the time.

So it could happen outside of that.

I don't know what the motivation is for a veteran.

I think losing Carlson has popped his balloon a little bit for his career.

So yeah, I remember reading the story when they traded,

nicked out first in the morning.

And there was a lot of reports coming out that everyone was looking around and

going, wow, you know, the locker room was quiet.

And it's like, okay, well, maybe that was just one trade and it, you know,

it is what it is.

And then all of a sudden John Carlson goes.

And I think that's when the team's going, oh, so we are completely fire sailing the

situation.

Yeah, like that tells the team, we don't believe in you anymore.

We're going to send him to a younger team that's better than you out west that has a chance.

He's going to maybe teach them how to win because he's done helping you win.

That's really the message.

And I get it for the franchise.

It's probably smarter, but it feels like maybe Ovech can wait into the year thinking

that would not be the result here in March.

And it is, we're going to now check in though.

We will give it to the victor first.

We have both both hosts joining in this conversation here before we wrap things up.

But I'll start off with a locked on flyers back from the clunker against the Rangers with

a very decisive four to one win versus the Washington capitals.

Hi, I'm Rachel Donner from locked on flyers.

All of the Philadelphia Flyers goal scores were important guys to get on the board in this

game.

The birthday boy and team points leader Travis Kineckney, who found open ice, Trevor Zegris

with a fantastic two on O giving go supported by Owen Tippett, who then himself got the

all important empty netter to seal the win.

And of course, Jamie Drysdale, whose game has been steadily improving with a shot during

the second half of the season.

He's on pace to match or exceed his career high point total now.

Samerson got the start in this one and made some key saves as well.

Nikita Grobankin continues to impress with a balance of offensive pressure and peskiness

that gets under opponent's skin.

We'll have more on this game on the Thursday show.

And I think you kind of hit this too.

The point of Philadelphia getting young players on the scoring sheet is very, very vowed and

we're going to get into that more in our third segment of this show.

But they're not going to win the cup this year clearly.

This year, unlike, say, for some other teams that we mentioned, say Ottawa playing above

expectations, just to be close is a big deal for them.

Philadelphia win the year as they do all the time, thinking, okay, this is a new era.

Yeah, we're building.

We didn't get a top pick out of it, but we always expect to contend.

They didn't expect to be in this spot, whether you think that's full of gold or not.

In their eyes, they want to contend every year.

So this is a very disappointing season for Philadelphia.

We always know what their fans expect to.

This is a bad year.

But if you believe in this young group and you have something to believe in and they play

well down the stretch, even if they don't get in, that provides some optimism for the future

that I don't know if everybody thought was there a couple months ago because during this

pause and I rebuild, they didn't get a top draft pick out of it.

They're don't kind of doing it with mid-tier draft picks, but they're playing very well

as of late.

Yeah, they are.

And it's because they're getting good production from their forwards.

And that's where most of their youth movement is injected when you talk about the matchway

and each cobs when you talk about the Owen Tipets.

They're mostly forwards.

You look at their defensive core.

I mean, I don't know that you're going to get it done with guys like Jamie Drysdale,

Noah Juleson.

Here's their six.

It started tonight.

Drysdale, Juleson, Rasmus Rissaline, and Travis Sanheim.

That's a blue chip defense.

And he's a fantastic demand for them, Nick Sealer and Cam York.

Cam York's a little bit on the younger side, but he's a little raw yet.

That defensive core needs a little bit of help and they need a lot of help in the goalie

room right now.

You want to talk about a guy that's playing above expectations, Dan Vlodar.

I mean, this was a guy that was a career A H L goalie that is, you know, yeah.

He's had a couple of coffee here and there and he's played in plenty of NHL games.

I think it's, you know, up to like 40 or 50 now at this point, because he's been playing

all this year.

But him and Samuel Harrison are not your goal tending tandem for the future.

I think they need to clean up that back end and things will be a lot better.

And that's, you know, if you're a Philadelphia Flyers fan, that's what you look at this roster.

And you go, okay, the future is going to be brighter because we do have a lot of

these young players.

Now, it's a little surprise to see them ship off a guy like Bobby Brink being such a youngster

himself.

Right.

But, you know, they still plenty of youth.

So they probably figured maybe that was one guy that they could get a decent asset for

and not hurt the overall chemistry of the team and not hurt the overall age of the team

either.

Yeah, still a young team.

Yeah.

And it's just, it's just a crazy atmosphere there.

They're in Philadelphia with the expectations that are always churned.

And obviously a lot of pressure is going to be on next year for talking in company to

at minimum get this team back into the post season.

And we'll see what happens from there.

But there is a youth moment.

There is a little bit reason now for optimism.

I think more optimism is valid for Philadelphia's future than say it would have been if we were

talking a couple of months ago and they were having that rough start to the year.

As we wrap up the conversation from the flyers lost or from the flyers win in Washington's

loss, we will now bring in the capitals locked on host and I kind of also feel like

Dan Hommie's a, you know, another member of NHL game night here locked NHL game night.

He's on every one of these.

He's always joining the conversation.

So we'll get what we'll get what he has to say and into this thing on a rough loss for

Washington.

Capitals fans, the caps really needed this one tonight, but they've fall to the flyers

by a score of four to one.

Hi, this is Dan Hommie of Lockdown.

Capitals, well, this was an ugly performance by our team.

The capitals and bright spots right out of the gate, Ryan Leonard scoring a power play

goal.

His 13th of the season, he's riding a four game point streak now 34 points on the season.

But after that, it was ugly.

There was messy puck handling.

This was not pure Luke Du Bois finest hour.

He looked all out of sorts in this game.

There was also sloppy passing between protests and Tom Wilson and ultimately the flyers made

the most of their opportunities.

Kineckney, Zegris, Drysdale and Tipit with the empty netter were too much for the capitals

to handle.

Ultimately, in Lil Ja Grins' debut, he looked good out there.

All things considered.

I would like to see him paired back with Rasmus Sandin, huge hit out there.

Wilson on Kineckney, Kineckney trying to get to the troops rattled up.

And ultimately, the capitals tried to stage a third period comeback, but it wasn't to

be the running out of runway and their hopes of making it in the playoffs in the 26 season.

Yeah, I'd imagine those hopes are dashed.

We will see if they can manage to muster anything up.

We are going to now pause one more time and when we return, we're going to talk about these

four franchises that were in action on this very small two game slate hump day in the NHL

mid-March spring action.

Maybe this isn't the most rocking day in the NHL season, but these teams could be relevant

to the future.

We'll see which one maybe, the most relevant when we come back here in another episode

of Locked On NHL Game.

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Back with you, my Gosti Gichelot, Locked On NHL Game Night, and if you've been thinking

about joining the everydayer club, now is the time.

Again, if you get ad free shows access to our group chat on Discord and you also get

signed up before the NCA tournament tips off, you get to be part of a bracket challenge

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should be a lot of fun for you and all of us to have you aboard.

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Now, you can use Coach March to get your first month free as you have an opportunity to

join the everydayer club at really the best time of the year in the NHL calendar.

But TJ, as we round out the show, we had four teams in action.

All real bubble teams, Montreal and the best spot out of these four for this year, but

I would think smart money is on that none of these teams are going to be crowned Stanley

Cup champs.

I do think that Montreal's drought there since 93, they're not going to add another one

to their ledger of the most ever, Ottawa's not going to get number one, the flyers are

not going to get that first since 75, the capitals are not going to get another one for

Ovechkin.

That's just not going to happen this year.

However, we talked about there's a youth movement now in Philadelphia despite tons of

expectations.

Ottawa may be playing above expectations.

You do have Brady Kachaku, he's riding high and now is a marketable star.

This could be part of our conversation because of what happened in the Olympics.

You do have Ovechkin.

He hasn't announced his retirement, but would we be shocked if he does now with what's

going on there?

You could overgrat ski for the all time goals, playoffs, regular season combined.

What is there to do?

Maybe he announces it.

Maybe next year is a farewell tour, which gets you buzz for next year, but really how good

is this team for the future in the Montreal?

Again, they're the best right now, unlike they'd be winning a cup anytime soon.

Who knows, maybe one more star is needed, they get love in Canada, they don't get that

much press in the United States.

All of these four teams are on the board and something happens, whatever general manager

jobs are all open and he just a lot gets a phone call and you have an opportunity to pick

any of these jobs.

You get a call and you get first crack at it and whatever job you want, you can get which

one do you think is the most attractive job for the future and then how would you also

rank these one to four in terms of attractiveness as a GM building this team and you can take

into account other things outside of just winning that might be important to to a franchise

as I mentioned with now the the lore around Brady Kachuck.

Yeah, let's start with the rankings and I'll start from the bottom and work my way.

I'll tell you one job that if they they'd have to call me you know, they'd have to back

the truck up.

Leave it or not, it's auto okay, they do have a decent core with Tim Stutz, the Brady

Kachuck.

They have absolutely zero goal tendin going on in there is just nothing.

I mean, they they haven't been able to figure that out for the last couple of years.

They still have holes.

They also have zero first round picks and second round picks coming up in the 2000 point of

it.

Yeah.

So when you look at their prospect pool, when you look at the draft pick options they have

their core, which is very good is not good enough to get me interested and me okay, Ottawa,

you're out.

I'm sorry.

Also, they probably they're in Ottawa.

They're in the Ottawa market like I'm an American.

They probably won't hire me anyway.

So sure, sure, that's that's true.

Maybe that's the issue with the top marketable star, winning a gold medal on the country

they don't love.

Like that, you have that kind of dynamic going on that the guy they got to put in commercials

maybe the fans watching don't really love that much and there's issues with the team

and otherwise.

Absolutely.

My third team, so Ottawa for Philly would be third.

I like the core, you know, the Owen Tipets, the Zegris, the Mitchkov, the Sanheim, they

need gold tending.

And if I, you know, took that job, that was that's one of the first things I would do.

We talked about it last segment too.

I look also at their defense, but they don't have any fourth round or fifth round picks

coming up this year, which is hurts.

I know that they're not, it's not as bad as not having a first or second, but also you

get a lot of good deaf guys there.

You get a lot of pieces for your American hockey league team so that you can move some,

some chess pieces around and see how things work out.

But they do have two first rounders in 2027 and they have nine total picks in 2027.

So when I look at that, I look at their team in Lehigh Valley this year, who's kind of

a middleing team.

I could be persuaded now for me personally.

I'm also from that area.

So that kind of is a little attractive.

Yeah.

I was going to say you only have them third and you're from the area kind of a homecoming

of sorts.

You win a cup there and break their drought, you're a hero back home, you know, that could

be interesting.

Yeah.

They are.

Maybe your family and friends are going to raise their eyebrow at that selection.

I just, I don't see it happening.

It's fair though.

It's fair though.

Yeah.

And the market is a much better one than Ottawa, of course.

But a tough place to play, a tough place to be the GM and you can even look at it this

way, TJ.

You know, Ottawa, if you make a plan for parents, you probably got a three, four, five year

runway to do whatever you want, because that's better than what they've seen.

That's already above expectations.

Even to be close right now, you're clearly not moving off the executive board to Philadelphia

to be close.

You're on the hot seat.

Next year to get in, you're probably on the hot seat, like they're expecting the cup

every year.

And obviously it hasn't happened in a long time.

So you don't have much runway there.

Like you're going to have a job for two or three years, whether you're the coach or GM,

unless you're somehow making an Eastern Conference final appearance and their cup final

runs that they've had in in previous decades, have ended up in heartbreak.

So you're dealing with a fan base that is very starving, that is figuring the heartbreak

is going to happen even when they're at their best.

And you're saying they need gold tending, they've needed gold tending.

Maybe since Ron Hextal.

I mean, really, in all reality, like since then, even in their final appearances with

Lindross, and then even more recently, the net was still kind of their issue and held

him back from lifting the cup.

So I could see, I could, I couldn't see an argument of moving that up, but I could also

see where you're coming from.

Here's why you don't move them up.

Number two, and this might be low hanging fruit, but I have, I have reasons here.

Number two is Montreal.

I know they're already in a playoff spot.

They're third in the Atlanta, well tied for second in the Atlantic after tonight.

Yeah.

They have a great coach.

Marty Sanloy, I think he's a guy that, you know, you get players form.

He's going to squeeze every bit of juice out of that.

He garners respect off how he played to 100%.

100%.

They've got a good core too with Slavkovsky and Lane Hudson, Cole Callfield and Nick Suzuki.

I really like that.

They need gold tending help too.

I don't trust in Fowler and Jacob Dovish.

I would probably keep one of them around, but I would go looking for some kind of, some

veteran that has played a good amount of time.

Even if it's like a gap year, you know, if Bobrovsky does end up leaving Florida, I would

call him and say, hey, come play here for a year or two while we figure out our gold

tending.

Bennington.

I mean, he's basically going to be on going to be available here coming up 100 something

like that.

Yeah.

I would go out and reach, you know, just, hey, get us through this gap while we figure

out what we're doing.

And you're going to be the number one guy.

So I think Montreal would be in number two.

And number one is Washington.

I think a lot of people probably put Montreal first Washington second, but for me, I really

enjoy their young core.

What do you talk about?

Ryan Leonard, Connor McMichael, Justin Sordiff, Alexi Protis, Ethan Frank, the Dylan

Strom, these guys are fantastic.

And you still have Tom Wilson.

Maybe you get a Vetchkin coming back.

If he wants to do, you know, take a victory lap like, you know, a couple minutes ago,

you still have him.

I do like Logan Thompson.

I think he's a great number one goalie.

I don't know if Spencer Carberry, however, is the coach.

So I may look at you.

I want to make a coaching change there and see if I can get to the last one.

I just look at his last three seasons and, you know, he's kind of, he had 50 wins last

year.

They only had 30 some odd wins a year before.

So he's kind of going up and down.

And for the most part has had a solid cast of characters to put out there.

And I just don't know if he's getting the best side of his players.

So that's kind of my order.

Washington Montreal, Philadelphia, Ottawa.

If all four of those jobs were open and they were all at my feet saying, please come

fix us.

That's my order.

Yeah.

And I think it's a fair order.

I definitely would say Ottawa is for here.

I only could see the argument of, you do have a marketable star now that maybe has

more notoriety than say he would have had months ago.

And he also has a very popular podcast like he's going to be put in the limelight.

They're going to get chances in the national conversation just for Brady Kachuk.

But outside of that, the market's really tough.

It's even tough and can't even when they're a contender, it always feels like they never

just have enough.

They just never enough.

And it's going to be really hard to get free agents to want to go there, even if you

have the cap space to be honest, they kind of have that issue that say Winnipeg would

have as well.

Philadelphia just tons of pressure.

I don't think they got enough as well, young, core is great, but they don't have that

top traffic.

They don't really have that star to lead them.

They need more than maybe some people think and who knows how long the coach is going

to be there because there's already something that won him fired now off of just this year.

I could maybe argue Montreal one in Washington, too, just for the fact that there's no life

in Washington.

And if Ovechkin retires, and even if he doesn't, you only have one year max with him.

Their future kind of looks endowed in terms of who's going to be that top marketable star.

Even if you like the core behind them, they don't have any plan really post Ovechkin.

It almost seemed like the plan for a while was to let him have the record, do as much as

we can to help him get the record and contend a little bit, but never fully cashing and

now with Carlson out there.

He honestly maybe it'd be better for the franchise and you let Ovechkin do it every once.

It might be better for the franchise's rebuild to have him retire now.

One more year of him is almost kicking the can down the road one more time, but they will

let him do that if he wants.

Then Montreal feels like they may be closer, obviously a better team now.

And they're at least getting love in Canada.

We'll see about the US, but you put a gold tender there.

You get Bennington there.

Well, obviously maybe he would catch some fanfare going there.

Maybe he'll help out.

Maybe they will hate him from the USA gold medal, but they're that it's clear path.

It's a clear path of what they kind of need, whether you like the coach or not.

And then just quickly here as we end this show, Montreal is likely going to be in the playoffs

this year.

So I'll ask it this way, which one of these four is more likely to be in the post season

next year and out of the three out of these four that are not going to be in the post season

this year.

Who do you think is more likely to get back in the post season first?

Well, I think Montreal will be back next year, and I think Washington will be back next

year.

Okay.

Ottawa and Philly, it all kind of depends on what they do in the off season and I'm thinking

that Philly might sneak in whether if they have it above average year, if they really

punch above their weight next season, they just get some things clicking.

If they have a year kind of like Buffalo is having, and I don't mean necessarily in

the success of Buffalo's having, but no one expected anything from Buffalo.

And here they are.

If Philly has that kind of year, then I think they could be in Ottawa, I think is a little

bit of a long shot.

But Montreal, I think, is almost guaranteed to be in next year because they're only going

to get better with what they have.

That young court is only going to get better Washington.

There are questions.

I think Tom Wilson is the guy that you kind of look at as like the facial franchise, but

true.

It's a different face.

I mean, he's had a nice resurgence.

I don't buy into the whole conversation, I didn't go into the whole fame, but like he's

been okay the last several years as much more early in his career.

He really just seemingly was looking to be that physical force.

He's much more than that now.

He's a legit study, he's a legit star.

He can certainly put the puck in the net as well in generate offense, but him being your

best player feels like not nearly enough to know.

No, no.

And I think he, you know, he might not be your best player per se, but I think he's your

marketable face, right?

That's fair.

He's not the season ticket vouchers.

The fans love him the most if you take a vetchkin away 100%.

And he's leadership material, so you know, he's going to bring those young guys up the

right way.

Maybe a little physical, but still the right way.

Yeah.

He's here though, if the guy wearing the C ends up being suspended multiple times throughout

a year.

Like that might be something you think about before anointing him and putting that on his

jersey because that's still a possibility with Tom Wilson, no matter how many goals he

may score, how many points he may have that's still within him.

And it's almost like he can't hold it in too long and you go 10 games and he's just itching

to do something.

So that'll be interesting with somebody wearing the C if that is their life.

But yeah, in terms of marketable, they probably have to do it.

He would be the veteran and we will see although if I did predict, I don't know if Washington

gets back in the playoffs next year unless they do something crazy in this off season.

That'll do it for this edition of the show.

Keep it right here for more episodes of locked financial game after every night of action

in the NHL.

And of course, we have a team show for every team throughout our NHL YouTube channel here

throughout the locked on network.

And if you want complete coverage of your favorite NHL team, there is a locked on NHL team

podcast and YouTube show for you because we have one for every team in this show locked

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It's here for you each and every night of the regular season and playoffs wrapping up the

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So don't forget to like, subscribe and comment, even comment on a comment on these shows and

also download them wherever you get your podcasts.

That'll do it for this episode, this episode of the show for T.D.

Shalot.

I'm Mike Oste.

Thanks for listening and watching locked on NHL game night part of the locked on podcast

network.

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