GAME NIGHT: Penguins SOAR, Islanders DROWN, Celebrini's ELITE companions, Torts 'era' begins

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For a night with only five games, we've got a lot of stuff going on both on the ice and

off the ice to talk about from history being made, defensive collapses that's plural and

a massive firing for the second day in a row that will shake the NHL now and this summer.

That's all ahead here on Lockdown NHL Game Night.

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Night 14 every day.

Welcome in everybody.

Another edition of Lockdown NHL Game Night, part of the Lockdown podcast network is here

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I'm Alex Wheeter-Spiel and he's TJ Shalot.

Together we are professional hype men, both of us are in the play-by-play scene across

a litany of sports, TJ most recently in the American hockey league.

So there are a few players tonight who you've actually called their names before when

they've scored a goal or made a big save.

One in particular I'm thinking of, we'll talk about in this first game coming up.

The Penguins and Islanders is probably where we should start and Arthur C. Loves was by

the way who I was thinking of there.

I didn't know of you.

I didn't know if you could read my mind.

I didn't know if you could read my mind.

I was sitting there thinking I was like, could be Anthony Stolars.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She loves, I've kind of put, she loves out of the back of my mind after him and his

avatarsford conucks knocked us out last year in the Calder Cup finals.

So I try not to think about him as much as I can because the nightmares will come back.

And I was just a play-by-play guy.

I can't imagine how the players felt last year, but yeah.

She loves has certainly been NHL ready for a couple years now and I think Pittsburgh's

very happy they grabbed him.

What I am, we will be very curious about is how he will hold up in another playoff series.

I haven't been super impressed with him at times this year.

I wasn't super impressed with him tonight, but also he is one of the most playoff veteran

NHL goalies you'll ever come across for what he did for Vancouver when that your

demo code was heard a few years ago.

So let's get into this one because this is one of those defensive collapses that I was

talking about.

The final score in this one was eight to three.

And I did a double take because I, so I missed the first period of this game and apparently

I didn't miss much.

It was scoreless after one and I, I jumped in for all 11 goals, but it was all Islanders

in the early stages of this game, at least on the scoreboard.

The penguins were peppering.

They were peppering.

They had some pretty good chances in this one.

And at three one after goals from Anders Lee, Matt Barzell and Braden Shen, the penguins

went to work.

Ricardo Raquel with a shorthander that may have changed the course of this game, made

it a one goal game.

In the course of that second period alone, down three one, they would enter the intermission

up five, three, the penguins would include two goals and three primary points from Anthony

Manta, who what a pickup for Kyle Dubas, Anthony Manta is a guy who has been known around

the league, depending on which insider you listen to is sort of the one of the ultimate,

hey, this guy looks like he should be a stud and never quite materializes.

Even in his best seasons in Washington, never quite materialized.

The player Detroit thought they were getting when they drafted him in the first round all

those years ago.

Well, he's on the cusp of a 30 goal season and the penguins, how about this, an eight

three win tonight and all of a sudden, they are in the driver's seat in their division

to get that second place spot, potentially over the Islanders and the blue jackets.

I know you don't get extra points for the size of the win, but they did it in regulation,

which is exactly what I might add every other team in this playoff race was hoping for

TJ.

Yeah, for sure.

And funny enough, it's still not the largest win that we saw here tonight, which will

get to later.

But yeah, I mean, you know, we're kind of talking off air as where I was watching the game

and I see, you know, after Braden Shen scores that goal to put the aisles up three to one,

you just see the happiness on their faces and they look like I don't want to say that

they felt like they had it in the bag, but they are cruisin.

I mean, we're, you know, midway through this game and they've got a commanding three

one lead.

If only they knew what was coming less than two minutes down the pike, Ricardo Kel gets

that shorthand of goal and then blows the roof off that place.

And I think this was just a classic case of Pittsburgh and even the aisles to a certain

point, especially in that first period, just not ready to go right from the opening

puck drop.

Just a little bit sluggishness.

Usually you see this from non divisional teams who haven't seen each other in a while.

You know, there's kind of, it's like the early seconds, the early rounds of a boxing match

as you're just kind of feeling at your opponent, you're not really wanting to put on the brakes

too much to what you're doing, but you also don't want to fire the cannons full throttle

because you don't know what the counter is going to be.

It felt like that at the beginning, but we know these teams know each other well.

We know these teams have seen each other a number of times this year.

They don't need that feeling out process.

So that's what leads me to believe that they just weren't ready to go on time.

And York got started slightly earlier, but Pittsburgh got started a little bit later,

but by much, much more locked on New York Islanders, Gil Martin has some thoughts on that,

by the way, he, he took the words right out of my mouth and I'm going to let him do it again.

Here's Gil.

New York Islanders had a three to one lead midway through the second period and they were

on the power play.

Funny thing happened on the way to a big win over the Pittsburgh penguins.

They stopped playing defense and it wasn't just the sixth defenseman.

The team stopped picking up players gave up on man rushes left guys unattended in front

of the net and gave up seven.

Yes, seven consecutive goals to lose to the Pittsburgh penguins in a very big game.

Eight to three.

The Islanders do not have a lot of time now.

They need to regroup as they face the Buffalo savers tomorrow in Buffalo and without a shadow

of a doubt, they cannot play the way they did against Pittsburgh and hope to win.

They left Ilius, Arokin out to dry gave up high danger chance after high danger chance

and lost a must win game.

For more in depth, daily videos on your New York Islanders, check out the Lockdown Islanders

podcast.

Yeah, I think Gil was spot on there.

The numbers back up what he has to say, by the way, I don't know that there's a model

out there that had good things to say about the Islanders tonight.

Natural statric, which is probably the most famous of the public models tonight, 23 to

six at five on five.

That's not even including special teams.

The penguins outchance the Islanders in just high danger chances.

I don't think I've ever heard of 23 high danger chances in 53 minutes of five.

That is an absurd.

You're basically almost once every other minute.

You're making your goalie work outrageously hard.

That's what it looked like.

That is what it looked like tonight for Sorokin who is obviously a leading candidate for

the Vesna.

Not for long if the Isles are going to play like this in front of them.

Yeah, and exactly kind of what Gil said is it wasn't just the six defensemen that were

out there.

The forwards too.

You know, back checking was just a little bit sluggish.

There was poor passing across that would lead into turnovers.

They weren't getting deep penetration into the offensive end either.

They weren't playing a good cycle game.

It just seemed like everything kind of was falling off the wheels, not only defensively,

but they also couldn't generate any offense, which was making things 10 times harder

because you know, that's a seesaw.

So when one side is not doing well, the other side really has to step up and they just

could not get it done.

One fun fact here, only three players on the penguins did not register a point tonight.

Igor Chinacov, who's been pretty darn good for the pens as of late, was the only forward

to not register a point.

I'm sure he'll take it considering his team put in eight on the night.

But the penguins.

I mean, that was huge.

Now they're second in the Metro.

That could change.

Again, they've got a little bit of momentum.

As Gil said, the aisles have to now go into Buffalo and take on a very good sabers team.

These were two points that they needed to get tonight.

Pittsburgh will be facing off with Detroit tomorrow, by the way.

So they're still or today as it is one of the morning Eastern standard time as we record

this.

But both these teams with major back-to-backs and worth noting here before we switch

to our next game, the Pittsburgh penguins with the 10th easiest remaining strength

of schedule.

The aisles with the hardest remaining strength of schedule by points percentage will be keeping

an eye on that storyline, particularly going to be important tomorrow, because that is brutal

to have to go in and face a rested Buffalo team in Buffalo off of this loss.

All right, before we go to break, we're going to have to talk about what was maybe the weirdest

game of the night on a night when there was a lot of weirdness.

But the Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks actually played a hockey game to that.

I don't know if you're aware of this.

There's a reason why I don't think many folks were aware of these guys had a hockey game

to play.

It's because just I don't even know if it was an hour before the puck dropped.

The Toronto Maple Leafs relieved their general manager of his duties.

Brad Tree Living is no longer the GM of Toronto David Morris, Judy from Lockdown.

Toronto Maple Leafs has the word on that.

A bombshell has been dropped in Toronto.

I'm David Morris, Judy from the Lockdown, these podcasts.

Brad Tree Living is out as general manager, Keith Pelley, confirming the news.

MLSC's decided to pull the plug on the Brad Tree Living era after just three seasons.

He didn't even finish three seasons.

This news obviously comes as a shocker because the season hasn't been finished yet.

But honestly, with the way that things have gone, the lack looks like a lack of direction.

Really, if you ask me, with the way that this season has kind of all imploded on the

Leafs, with how the trade deadline was handled, how last year's trade deadline has really

come to bite the Leafs really hard now considering where their draft pick situations are going.

A lot of reasons why the Leafs have decided to do this move.

Obviously, a little bit surprising that they're deciding to do it now, but hey, if you know

you're making a move, why wait, make the move, get yourself going in terms of where you

think this team needs to go.

Where is it going to go?

I was going to address the media on Tuesday.

We'll discuss all that on for Wednesday's show, but tonight's show will obviously dive

more into the Brad Tree Living news.

Make sure you tune into the locked on these podcasts, I will break it all down, tune

in where you get your podcasts.

Remember, keep locked right here, unlocked on Leafs.

And the crazy part is it kind of looked, TJ, like the Leafs were feeling the weight

of the announcement before the game.

They got off to a very slow start in this one against Anaheim, worked their way back

from down 313 third period goals, and then even then gave up a late goal, kind of stopped

playing late in the game there, Leo Carlson finds one for the second time, Carlson by the

way, one of a couple injury notes in this game.

He left briefly, came back, finished the game, Cutter Goatie did not finish this game

for Anaheim, though he did score his 38th of the season in this one.

Toronto would ultimately win this thing in overtime, five, four.

And yet, it's hard to take much of anything from what happened in the game as of important

here because all of a sudden now, this Leafs team has essentially announced to the world,

we don't know what's next.

Yeah, for sure.

I think the importance really lied on the Anaheim Ducks, and this one to get two points,

they do end up getting one point.

They're the leaders in the Pacific, and it's a tight Pacific.

I mean, coming into tonight, you have the third place team in the Division Vegas was

only six points out.

So I mean, it was very tight there.

That's where the, I think, where the importance lied.

But for the Maple Leafs, yeah, this was a game where you could kind of tell, especially

in the early going, as you mentioned, guys, I think we're still feeling a little bit

of the guilt.

They tell you all the time that when a coach gets fired, when a GM gets fired mid-season,

the players, they feel that more than anybody else because they feel like they let their

coaches down.

They let their general managers down by not playing up to the level that they expected.

In most cases, I mean, if you're a bottom-dwelling team and the talent just truly isn't there,

players will feel guilty a little bit, but you can't blame them if the roster is not

constructed right or doesn't have the marquee players, but that's not the Toronto Maple

Leafs.

They have the marquee players.

They have the knee-landers earlier in the year.

They had the Matthews, you know, they have the construction.

They should be a much better team.

So I think they were feeling it a little bit kind of warmed up to it and got back to,

you know, their creatures a habit.

They start playing some hockey.

They warmed up there in the third and then ultimately win it in overtime.

But, you know, I can't fault the least for giving up that goal that was late in the third.

According to the broadcast tonight, and I was listening to the Anaheim broadcast when

I heard this, that was the ninth time this season that Anaheim has scored the final two

minutes of the third period, which according to them is an NHL record.

So it seems like everybody who plays Anaheim and gets in that one goal situation late

in the third is going to give up that goal there, that good at doing it.

So I don't blame the Maple Leafs, especially considering they fought hard.

They got some great play out of Anthony Stollars in the overtime.

He made a couple of, that's six with six frames, stretching out and making some toe saves

to make sure that the Maple Leafs would get the win.

Worth quickly worth noting here, the Anaheim ducks have the second easiest remaining strength

of schedule based on points percentage.

It's one thing, I'm going to be keeping an eye on, you know, it's kind of shocking at

this point in the season.

I think we'd be looking at magic numbers and the reality is, the magic numbers aren't

really that magic yet, we'll just talk about Pittsburgh a few minutes ago.

Their magic number is still like 14.

They would essentially, if other teams win out, they have to win seven of eight.

So not a lot of magic there, same idea with Anaheim, they still have some work to do.

That said, they're going to get to more on the Brad tree living situation on the dayside

edition of Lockdown NHL.

So you'll want to tune in for that pod.

We're going to talk about one of the best games the night, maybe the best game of the

night.

San Jose and St. Louis as a little bit of revenge for the sharks after a disaster just a few

days ago.

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So San Jose and St. Louis, who thought this one would be a playoff essentially a playoff

game at this stage of the season in late March, because that's exactly what it was tonight.

Both of these teams despite a recent six game losing streak for San Jose despite the disaster

of a season.

For St. Louis found themselves fighting for playoff positioning tonight potentially.

And two points was the most important thing.

And if you could find a way to squeak one out, that still would be a potential victory.

And St. Louis snatch defeat from the jaws of victory essentially five four final San Jose

scores with about 32 seconds left in the third period.

Adam Goddett his 16th of the season San Jose led four to two in this one.

St. Louis started really applying the pressure, worked their way back into it, ultimately

though tying it at four, they gave up that late goal and then went empty net had a chance,

shot went off of their own player, Philip Broberg off of the face up with 3.7 seconds to

go.

And that will do it.

A lot of storylines to break down on this one Maclin Celebrini had a monster first

period.

He became the fifth fastest teenager to score a hundred points in a season and the sixth

teenager ever to do it beating out Mario Lemieux who did it in 73 games.

Maclin Celebrini does it in 72, I believe was his five was either 72 or 73.

I'll double check that in a moment.

But San Jose gets the win and TJ again, it's so strange to me.

I thought San Jose was cooked after the six game losing streak, but battling back in

the third period against Columbus the other night and then doing it again here against

St. Louis.

These are a couple of huge pickups for the sharks to keep that dream alive.

Yeah.

And again, coming from those youngsters, the Maclin Celebrini's, the Will Smith's, the,

you know, the guys that you expect some of your veterans to have that, let's go.

We can make this, we can go kind of drive, you know, that fortitude.

You don't really expect that from guys that are spending their first couple of years in

the NHL, you expect them not to be weathered to have experienced that.

And this is that San Jose resilience that we've seen all year.

They've been punched above their weight all season long.

They're still relevant in March going on April.

And I'm sure if you would have talked to any sharks fan back to beginning of the season

and said, Hey, they're going to be relevant at this time of the year.

They would be more than happy to take that.

And on the other side, we all thought the blues were dead before the Olympics.

I mean, they were so far out of it.

They just look like they couldn't do anything right.

There was all this talk about Bennington being traded at the deadline.

And here they are.

They have the second best win percentage after the Olympic break.

Only Buffalo has been better.

This has been this was a fun game because this looked like a playoff game.

Like you said, this looked like an early round playoff game where you got to evenly match

teams and the sharks pull away with the victory.

I think their speed once again was just too much for this St. Louis team to handle.

You saw there were stretches where St. Louis was chasing the puck a little bit.

They would win the board battles, but they couldn't catch up to the loose pucks once

it came loose because the sharks just had the speed to get to those loose puck battles

along the wall.

I think this was a lot of fun.

If you're a blues fan, you really wish you could have just a couple more seconds.

Get it into overtime and at least get a point.

If you're going to lose, you want to lose it in overtime.

Get that point because it's going to be very important down the stretch.

But ultimately, St. Louis, they couldn't get it done in San Jose walks away with the

two.

Certainly wondering how much Joel Hofer who has been just, he was dominant in the nine

games he had started out of the break.

I believe this was his tenth start easily his worst in that stretch, including the late

goal to God debt, which I was a two on one, but it wasn't the greatest looking goal in

the world.

But again, St. Louis knows this from last year when they went on that crazy run to get

into the playoffs last season.

When you have no margin for error, that is literal, no margin for error.

They made a big one there late in the game in that one.

One quick note before we move on, do you know, so I mentioned Mario Lemieux?

Do you know any of the other four teenagers who have scored 100 points in their career, excluding

Celebrity and Lemieux is five and six?

You know what?

I looked this up earlier and I didn't commit any of them to memory.

I got too much going on up there that I got to write it down and commit it.

No, I don't remember.

Okay.

So the two that I think you probably would have pulled no matter what, Gretzky and Crosby.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

The other two though, Dale Hart, Howard Juck and Jimmy Carson, who I would not have,

I would, I would not have, no, a little, little before my time.

So it would not, it would not have known.

But those are your six players, six in a century of the NHL who have scored 100 plus points

as teenagers.

Macklin, Celebrity is in elite company.

All right.

Let's talk about the most lopsided game of the night.

You tease this earlier and it was, it wasn't even like, again, I had in the Pittsburgh,

like Pittsburgh was like sleeping and then woke up.

So Colorado was, they were awake from, from the moment this thing started.

I, I think I walked away after it was one nothing to, to wash some dishes and I came

back and it was five, nothing in the first period had ended yet.

Yeah.

And it was four goals while doing dishes.

It was four nothing before 10 minutes had a clips to that first period.

And that included two power play goals from Nozzam Kadri.

He seems to be fitting in nicely.

Probably the big story of the night though is Kael McCart gets hurt in this one in

the second period doesn't come back.

Not really sure how serious it is at this point, obviously, we'll have to pay attention

to that one.

Let's hear from Zach Pearson, Lockdown Colorado, Avalanche podcasters here would, he has

to say on this one.

The Colorado Avalanche were looking for some form of a bounce back after that performance

against the Jets and they found it tonight against the Calgary flames.

Another wins nine to two 11 different players recorded points and three players had three

or sorry five players had three points tonight.

There's a lot of scoring to go around led by Nozzam Kadri who has two goals both on the

power play and is tonight's number one star and speaking of that power play, possibly

the most impressive thing for the Avalanche tonight is three for four on the power play.

That 75% on a power play that for the whole season has been sort of a laughing stock of

the league and turned it on tonight against a decent penalty kill in Calgary.

Let's also not forget Scott Wedgwood who does make 27 saves on 29 shots for a 931 save

percentage.

A couple of them really good saves too, so come over and check out Lockdown Avalanche

where we're going to break down this whole game.

Just noting here TJ that so Colorado this is what so I finally we can actually have a

magic number conversation with them Colorado thanks to their tie breaker.

They need eight points and nine games, which I think they could actually do in their sleep

and on top of it, they have the fourth easiest strength of schedule.

So I think we can officially maybe you keep it in pencil, but I think we can start putting

it in pen.

The Colorado Avalanche are going to not only win the central division, win the western

conference regular season title, but they're very likely going to be the president's trophy

winner.

Yeah, they got Vancouver up next, they got two more against Calgary.

I mean, with how those teams have been playing as of late, that should be six points right

there.

I'm sure they'll get a collective of two points between Dallas, St. Louis, Vegas, Edmonton

and Seattle.

The other teams they got coming up.

I'm sure that that might be all but a Fordon conclusion here and this one, which is it's

exactly what you'd expect from a team like Colorado that's been far and away.

The best team in the league all year long and a Calgary team that is just basement dwellers

and just not great.

I mean, when it's for nothing by the midway mark of the first period and you know, you

watched some of how the goals were scored.

Yes, one of them was on a five on three, but the passing was just perfect.

I mean, it could have been a five on five, but the way they were moving that puck tonight,

they are dialed in.

Their communication is great.

They know exactly where their line mates are going to be at exactly the right time.

And then they go out and execute.

You know, it's one thing to have a system to have a plan to know how you want to attack.

It's another thing to know that and go out and execute that wall.

And NHL team is attacking you from the other direction.

I mean, you could do everything right.

But at the end of the day, you can't predict what your opponents are going to do.

And tonight, it was just, it looked like a varsity versus a JV team and Colorado.

This is, you know, that's big two points for them.

They're still, they've got a lot to play for.

It's a perfect way to describe it and a perfect way to take us to our next segment.

Because in many respects, that's what with the way things have been lately,

you would think of Vegas Vancouver, because Vancouver's looked like junior

varsity to everybody this season.

Would that be true in the first game of the John Torrella?

I don't know if I can call it an error yet, seeing as he's only signed through the end of the season,

but the John Torrella time that's next.

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So we really did.

I know in broadcasting, we don't often do this.

We don't save the best for last.

Well, not the best game,

but certainly the most bananas bonkers storyline of the night is John Torrella

against one of his many former teams coming in and coaching the Vegas Golden Knights

who have eight games remaining on the season.

Now seven after tonight's game in an act that Vegas appears to be taking

right out of the Lou Lamarillo playbook.

And Vegas actually does get the win started off a little slow tonight.

Did not look great early.

We're going to let you take the reins on that one in just a moment.

Evander Cain scored first for Vancouver.

They actually led two to one in the second period after a Brock Pester goal.

But you could start to see it when Rasmus Anderson scored to make it one one.

Vegas is speed, which as at times been in question,

but that's why they added players like Rasmus Anderson on the back end who can play 200 foot hockey

and rush it up ice.

Shay Theodore, these guys started to really take over the game for a Vegas team

that has I would say they're not slow it forward,

but some of their critical forwards are not exactly burners anymore guys like Mark Stone.

They ultimately get the win for two, including an empty netter.

Let's start with what happened on the ice.

John Torrella himself said he's not coming in to make like wholesale changes,

but they did get what they needed tonight, right?

They got a game where their goal center only allowed two goals.

It was the most important thing that could happen.

John Torrella, the timing of Torrella coming in still baffles me.

Eight games left in the regular season and maybe some playoffs.

I mean, that's not guaranteed for this Golden Knights team.

They're hoping for it, but it's not guaranteed.

That is curious to me, but at the same time,

if you drill down and you look at it in a microcosm,

maybe this was the perfect time to do it.

If you're going to do it late because they had Vancouver tonight.

They got a couple days off and they've got Calgary again at home.

So two home games to start the Torrella era against two just bottom dwelling teams.

To get things started before you go on a four game road trip with battles against Edmonton

and Colorado sprinkled in there.

So maybe that was the perfect time.

Get him in.

He said he's like you said he's not going to make any changes.

He's not looking to come in and really just upset the apple cart as they say.

But at the same time, there is only a minimum of eight games left in the season.

How much could you really change in that span?

But you did see him make some changes tonight during the game itself,

even during the broadcast as they came back and he was being interviewed by the bench side reporter.

He was talking about how they were slow and how things just didn't look like they were keeping up to tempo.

And then he wanted to make some changes to his sentiment.

So he started swapping out lines of the centers.

He started moving some wingers around.

So while you're not making a change to the system, per se,

you're putting in guys and situations that they're not traditionally used to being in.

They're playing on lines with guys.

They're not traditionally used to playing with.

So all of a sudden, you know, that started to take hold.

And I think that's when the success started a rise to the top in this game.

There were little sluggish because again, going back to that guilt.

Like we talked about with Toronto.

You know, do you feel a little guilty?

This is your first game now with a different coach.

How are you going to play?

You get through those butterflies.

Then all of a sudden, you know, he throws a grenade in the whole thing and kind of blows up the lines a little bit.

And sure, that could backfire.

But tonight it didn't.

They started to kind of galvanize around that a little bit.

And they ended up, you know, getting their stuff together at just the right time to pick up the two points.

Yeah. And it's worth noting here.

So this is this is the part of this that I will.

I will defend even though I do find the timing to be baffling.

Because I just think I would have done this.

I would have done this after the trade deadline.

I would have there were all sorts of opportunities to do it.

Vegas has been not very good.

And I'm going to say more on that moment.

But Vegas by record has stopping very good since the break, right?

Like they they have not gotten the gold tending.

They've gotten the worst gold tending in the league since the Olympic break ended.

And there are some layers to that.

But it's worth noting this is also the most talent.

John Torrella has coached in eight years going back to when Columbus upset that historic first round upset over Tampa Bay.

So I know that there are folks out there who are really curious and skeptical about this choice.

And while I get that, I will also say that Torrella is one of those guys who later in his career.

He had been more willing to take jobs where he was working with younger players.

Like this is not the old black and blue shirts.

Torrella where everyone's going to be in a shooting lane.

I'm not saying that DNA isn't still there for a Torrella team that they're going to block shots.

They are. They're going to block shots.

That's going to happen, but it's not quite at the same level that it was.

He's actually for all the criticisms of John Torrella.

That's one thing that he has adapted about his game.

He is more willing to allow his guys to play off the rush.

He did it in Philadelphia.

He did it at the tail end of his time in Columbus.

That was not what did him in.

In fact, the irony is what did him in in Philadelphia was the gold tending situation, which he has now been brought in to try to correct.

And you are a former gold tender, TJ.

So I want to get your take on this.

One of the, I thought one of the better analysis came from Jesse Granger of the athletic, who pointed out that as good as the advanced metrics look for Vegas this season.

And they look really good after the break.

There are two key notes here.

One, Aiden Hill, obviously, missed a ton of time with injury clearly doesn't look like he is shaking the rust off from that.

But two, that the structure of the nights as good as they are at limiting chances in tight.

They have not done as good of a job at creating clear sighted lanes for their gold tender, even when shots are coming from distance.

So it's a lot of, hey, this goalie, you know, Aiden Hill or whoever it would be, they've got a Kirish mid obviously Carter heart.

They've played four different goalies, I believe this season.

They're not necessarily seeing shots from distance as well as they were during the best of the Bruce Cassidy era.

And I think at a certain point, I do understand how any organization might say your job is to fix this.

And if you Bruce Cassidy can't fix this and forget the fact that it's Vegas who has a penchant for doing stuff like this, eventually the hammer is going to fall.

I guess my question, though, TJs is John Torrella got the track record to fix that specific problem of can my goalies have the best possible site of this puck and puck tracking.

I am skeptical that he's the guy who's going to fix that specific problem.

I think where he'll start, you can't fix your goal tending now at this point.

I mean, they've been working with their goal tending coaches all year, you're kind of sewn into who you are this season as a goal tender.

Now, could Aiden Hill come out next year or a Kirish mid come out next year and completely turn it on its head and have a fantastic season.

Absolutely, but you're kind of, you're pigeonholed into who you are right now.

So you need to fix out in front, which is something that I do think Torrella can do.

When you look at this Vegas D core, they are for lack of a better term.

And I feel awful saying this because on average, they're about six years younger than me.

They are old.

I mean, Anderson's 29 Davies is 29.

Hannah Finns 29 Hutton's 32 Lausanne's 28 McNabb's 35 Shay Theodore is 30 like that's an older team.

So what that tells me is these guys know better and they know that they need to foresee shots to the perimeter, not just long distance because a long distance shot from center blue line is going to go through three bodies before it gets to me into the crease, but push these shots to the perimeter on the wall.

Make teams just heave it at the net because they have nothing else and I don't see Vegas doing that that well that all season long.

They have just kind of been following the puck in their own defensive end and then trying to get in front of shooting lanes.

They'll try to block every now and then, but it almost seems like the blocks are working against them because that's when it'll tip off a skate.

It'll hit off a calf and it's going to make the gold tender's life a little bit harder.

Now, are the goalies stopping everything first shot with a clean angle that they should be no, I do think that's a little bit down for them this year.

I'd love to see some actual gold tender analytic stats.

I know some teams use in stat and some of the other different paid programs that they use to actually track that kind of stuff.

I'd love to see it for Vegas because I'd love to know how many you know shots through traffic, how many clean shots are getting through each one of them because when I look at this Vegas team.

I just see that defense a quarter of a step slower than where it needs to be and I think that makes all the difference in how the gold tenders are playing the puck because they're also thinking about if I leave out a juicy rebound.

I might not have the speed and my decord to come back and bail me out on that rebound.

So they're thinking more about where can I redirect this and in the process of, you know, how do I punch this in the corner?

They go, well, I got to stop the puck first and you know, you end up doing things two or three steps ahead, you forget to do the first step and it's in the back of the net.

We're all kind of all gold tenders will tell you that sometimes they're worried too much about what they're going to do with the rebound or how they're going to work on a breakout pass that they forget to actually stop the shot that's coming in first.

So I would love to see some of those analytical stats.

But if I was tortorella, that's where I would work is with the decord to make it easier on these gold tenders because you're not going to get a miraculous change out of the netminders that are there in Vegas that all of a sudden you're going to get a, you know, Patrick while that's just going to run you through the playoffs.

It's not happening.

Steve Valichette, did you hear we we need some of your analytics brother, we need your we need your clear sighted analytics on this show.

One quick note before we get out of here, no one's really been able to fill the Alex P. Trangelo role since he got hurt and his career is very likely over.

I know there was a little bit of ambiguity at first about whether or not he'd be able to come back, but it doesn't sound like he's really going to ever come back from from his myriad number of injuries that he's been dealing with.

But Shae Theodore, Noah Hanuffin, Rasmus Anderson guys all worth mentioning here, you know, you don't think of them as old in the traditional sense right like 30 29 29, but they've all these were also all top prospects right.

All of them have played a lot of hockey at the NHL level for a long time.

These were outside of Anderson, the other two were high high draft picks and Anderson obviously excelled as a second round pick in in that Calgary system.

So these guys have played a lot of hockey as well as the other part of it.

Like, you know, you mentioned Brad McNabb, he is no spring chicken. He does not look like he has all of what he had just even a few seasons ago.

I'm with you. I think I think it's tough because we're really talking about improvements on the margins here.

Remember, the metrics love Vegas, the possession metrics love with the Vegas golden nights have done. And on top of everything else, Bruce Cassidy might still have a job if his team's shooting percentage hadn't just taken a historic historic level of cratering all of a sudden out of the Olympic break.

Because those two things had to happen simultaneously for Vegas to be this bad. And that one feels almost a little bit more random than the gold tending stuff. So I don't know where this goes. I think Vegas.

I think everybody will be happy to get the two points tonight. I think you made a great point starting him off with Vancouver and Calgary feels like a little bit of a gift.

You got to take him where you can get him.

All right, folks, that'll do it for tonight's show. I'm sure they will have much more analysis on this, both on the dayside version of this show and on the respective programs locked on Vegas golden nights as well as some of the other shows that we have as well.

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