On the Sheet: Brent Wallace on the Senators Playoff Hopes, Foegele Addition, and more

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Listen, big one tonight, big one last night for the Ottawa Senators, big one tonight for

the Ottawa Senators, the host of the coming in hot podcast, your definitive source of

Ottawa Senators information is Brent Wallace and he joins me now, us now rather.

Brent, first of all, we've been focusing on last night's games so much from the Rangers

point of view and how futile they are.

And part of me in the back of my head is like, you want to give like the Ottawa Senators

from credit here?

Like they went into a really emotional night, it was a bandage ad night and all that and

just shot the Rangers down and did it for a good chunk with only four defenders.

How did you look at last night?

Yeah.

Oh, a couple of things.

One people worried about Igor Shastirken and goal because Ottawa had never beaten him

in regulation at MSG.

I think it was 401 with like a 966% of his two shutouts.

Then there was, yeah, no Jake Sanderson, they had lost Dennis Gilbert who was recent call

up.

They're playing Lassie Thompson who last played in the national hockey league in 2022.

If there was a chance they may lose the game, it was last night.

But the way Travis Green has this team playing defensively, again, they just added a shot

on goal, which I'm a little annoyed by because they gave up 10 shots on goal.

That's a little disple- I asked if it could be challenged.

They gave up 14 to the Leafs the night before.

I think they've allowed 28 or more shots once in the last like 28, 29 games.

Like they just don't give you anything.

Yeah.

It's remarkable.

And you know, the other thing about the Ottawa Senators too is I still think that they

have a lot of players that can play up higher and I think about Montapalo specifically on

the blue.

Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you.

Are we seeing Karri Yakum truck make his debut tonight?

Do we know yet?

So he's been called up and so has Jory and Donovan, Sean Donovan's kid.

Yeah.

They're both expected to play because there isn't anybody else.

So unless they go 5D or Chris McDermott returns as a defenseman, they're playing.

Okay.

Thanks for making it.

So we'll see the NHL debut of 2D on the sends blue lines tonight in a game that is arguably

the biggest game of the season for Ottawa.

It's a little bit critical.

I had an NHL executive tell me that an Easter conference executive was Steve Steyos.

Tell.

It was not Steve Steyos.

Although, although what I'm about to say, what I was about to say, what I'm about to

say, we'll make you think it's probably as he says, but he told me at one point that

of all the teams that are milling around in the Eastern conference right now, the one

that worried him the most was Ottawa because they're underlying numbers and the way they

play have been so good all season that if they could get a save in a critical game and

the playoffs, they could easily be the biggest disruptor in the Eastern conference.

What's he you to that?

I agree with them.

We used to make fun of Travis because he'd come out after every game and they would lose

because they would give up five goals and be like, I liked our game and we kind of chuckle

because yeah, you actually played a pretty good game, but you never got any saves.

And now suddenly you're starting to get some saves like James Rhymer's now 4-0 and Linus

Allmark in his last 18 games has that magical 897, safe percentage you were just talking

about.

He's 12, 2 and 3 in his last 18 starts like they're now getting goal tending.

They've got lines that all contribute last night.

It was their third and fourth lines at scored in Pinto and Fogo.

Warren Fogo has been outstanding since he's arrived from LA at the trade deadline.

They are deep as a team.

If they can be healthy on the blue line and have Jake Sanderson, I don't know what the update

is on Thomas Shabbat.

He was in a sling at the end of last night's game.

He's out for a while obviously.

If they can be strong defensively, they're as good as any team to play play off hockey.

That's such, I'm so happy you shouted out Fogo because like for all of our winners and

losers or report cards and all that shit that we do at the trade deadline, like sometimes

it's the Warren Fogo trade that ends up being one of the top five moves of the deadline.

He's been awesome for Ottawa after the deadline.

He can't be stopped.

You can't really hope to contain him kind of thing.

He has found his scoring tetra reminds me of what's it to know that went from LA to Montreal

and then started to score as well.

He just probably needed a change of scenery.

Playing with Lars Eller and Fabian Zetterland and sometimes Travis will put Zetterland and

Fogo along with Tim Stutzler on a line and they could find ways to score goals.

It's just a way like that fourth line is pretty good the way they can contribute and

Warren Fogo has been very impressive.

Was that like, I know that Steve Steyos has the reputation of being one of those general

managers that is, and I guess Brad Triliving is like this too, there's a few.

Everybody's on the phone all the time, but Steyos is like involved in everything.

He's involved in a million conversations going on around the NHL.

As best as you can ascertain, was it like specifically they wanted bottom six speed, like is

that what they were at?

They needed speed.

100%.

Like, and I brought this up earlier as one of the things that Travis kind of talked about

earlier during training camp was they're not fleet of foot, they don't have a lot of

great skaters and you can tell with the additions of like Warren Fogo, even Lars Eller

helps put some speed if you will on that fourth line.

I know you're talking about a guy that's 36, it may not be, but he's actually pretty

good skater.

They just added some more guys who can skate Jordan Spence is another one in their lineup.

It changes the dynamic of this team in the way they play with Travis, because Travis,

as you can, it's a four check that is in your face all the time.

So here's the thing about teams that you know, like for example Ottawa goes in MSG last

night and just like steam rolls in New York Rangers, like okay, that's a team that's

like, they're not trying to get in the playoffs going backwards, like they're skating forwards

into the playoffs.

And I decided to try red wings, the red wings still without Dylan Larkin when you talk

about important game statement games, however you want to phrase this one, like this is

another opportunity where the Ottawa senators can show how serious they are, right?

I know they're dinged up, you know, Thomas Shabbat, it's never easy, but like this is,

again, like this is one of those games where it's like, if you want to make the playoffs,

it's right there for you.

Like, and if they get some help from the out of town scoreboard, it's right there.

It's right there.

All they got to do is win.

And so it, well, I guess they need the other teams to lose, so thanks tips.

No, no, no, no, but if they don't win, it doesn't really matter what, what the

calendars are doing and what Columbus is doing, so like take care of your business and

you get a little help from the out of town scoreboard, it's right there for you.

It's right.

So a couple of things.

One is they, no matter how good they seem to be, like in the last 26 games, so January

13th, there's 17, five and four, they're the fifth best team in the national hockey

league.

Columbus Blue Jackets are ahead of them.

Like, they just can't seem to gain ground, right?

It's just wild how good they are.

But here's the thing that we all seem to think.

Lena Saltmark will get the start and go, he didn't play last night.

He has yet to really steal a game, maybe once against Vegas earlier in the year against,

yet to steal a game this season.

This is the game for him to step up with your D being depleted, with guys on the back

to back, being in Detroit who has, who has been the better team all season on their

3-0 against Ottawa, to make a statement, to steal again.

Let's see what Lena Saltmark can do.

The problem is...

It's a good time to do it.

Okay.

I was going to say the problem is, and I, I, I, he has, as far as goalie skill goes, top

five skill in the NHL, like there are so many goal tenders that like, you know, work so

hard and just like, look at Lena Saltmark and go like, I wish I had like that skill as

a goalie.

He just sort of, that he just sort of has.

We haven't seen the bite down on the mouth guard goalie yet, you know, the, the Jeremy

Swamon performance against a threat Red Wings on Saturday was like, no, boys, we're going

to win this F and game.

We haven't seen that from all market, but to me honestly, I've never seen that from

Mark.

Never seen it.

No, I agree with you.

Like, you, you want that fire, right?

Yes.

Just give me that one little bit of fire that, boys, there's no chance, they're scoring

tonight.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what you want.

And I agree with you.

And I never want to question anybody because I, I'm not inside Lena Saltmark's head whatsoever,

but you, you just, it doesn't appear on the ice.

I believe he's competitive.

Just not the fire of I will slash your ankles if I have to, I'll believe Smith.

If we should, I mean, we should find a challenging year for the guy.

I mean, you know, he's, you know, no, but I'm talking about, no, but the thing is like,

I'm talking like even historically, like he's, he's, no, I agree in that like, look,

down, look down the ice that John Gibson and go like, hey, buddy, I'm not letting them

in.

I'm not letting them in.

You've seen his playoff numbers.

I mean, I think his playoff numbers are indicative of that very thing that you're talking

about.

But, you know, they're catching the trade at the right time.

The trade, I saw his 24th in the, the NHL, since the Olympic break in five on five offense,

a lot of that slur can be an out, but he's out again.

So, so maybe they can, they can put up a good defensive effort against him.

I think I wanted to ask you about Brett was like, so Ottawa is on pace, I think, right

now for 97 points.

I think I saw that from Bleacher Report earlier today.

And that would set, that would break the record for most points by a non-playoff team.

And so the question then becomes, if they do miss out, like, how do they process this

season?

Like, what is the, what is the ultimate review of this season?

Is it just that, all right, the Blue Jackets happen to out kick our coverage and, you

know, win here, win there, it could have been different or like, what do you think is

the reaction if they don't make the cut this year?

It's just simple and easy.

The goaltening is just going to get blamed.

And I guess Steve Stales may have to wear some of that where they gave Lena's, uh, levy

Mara line in a contract after you played just 12 games last year to be the back up.

And he wasn't very good and he struggled at the beginning of the year.

They waited until January or end of December to find James Rymer and bring him in who had

just played in the Spangler Cup and wasn't playing.

I think that's a major miscalculation.

The other one is, and they're penalty kill and it may be a byproduct of goaltening as

well, but they're penalty kill at the beginning of the year was historically atrocious.

They made a change January 25th and put Mike Yo in charge.

And since then, I think it's eighth overall in the league.

That was 50 games into the year.

Those two things, I think, were what the problem is with Ottawa.

Ottawa, if you look, I believe compared to last year at this time are two points, three

points ahead of where they were last year and they were in the first wildcard spot last

year comfortably.

So I think it just comes down to those two things and I like, I think they're just going

to roll again and see what happens with Lena's next year.

I mean, it's the first year of his four year extension.

I just don't think much changes if that's what we're looking for.

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Hi friends.

Sean Linda from Two Black Guys with Good Credit here, whether you're running a non-profit

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Give a thought on the general manager of the team that the senators are facing off

again tonight and that's of course Steve Iserman.

Now he did do something at deadline this year, you know David Peron comes in and Justin

Falk comes in as well, but at the same time, I don't know that that's going to be enough

for the Detroit Red Wings this year and let's say many people have made the same point.

If his last name is an Iserman, the heat is on.

But if the Detroit doesn't make the playoffs, comma again, I'm going to have to think that

it's Iserman watch time and I've had people say, yeah, the heat will be on and I've had

people say, no, you know what, he'll have one more year.

But we all know the ill, we all know the illitch family too.

And that rink hasn't had fans in it after the second week of April, since they open.

Yeah.

No playoff games.

It's little seizures, right?

Nope.

I, I, he may have bought himself a year based on the performance of this team.

Just being able, like for a long, long time, right?

They were top three.

They were second in the Atlantic in a very tough division.

I think he may have bought himself a little more time with that.

That's, I mean, I, I, I couldn't tell you, but it, I think he may have earned it.

I, I, I think he had a big mess to clean up.

And if we saw it with like Steve Stales trying to clean up those messes isn't easy.

They, they, eight years is a long time.

I, I give you that.

They blamed everything on the goal tending last year, right?

Like everything was like, we would have been there if, and, and John Gibson had like

five guys playing goal, right?

Was that last year where he had like five different guys in goal during the season?

I think James Rimer was part of that group.

And he was.

And they end up blaming, blaming the whole thing on, on, on the goal tending.

And then that was cleaned up.

Now, as one person told me yesterday, um, he did make moves at deadline, but they have

the built-in excuse of the Larkin injury.

And I say to that, you know what, maybe that coupled with the last name is enough to

keep the torches away from the castle.

But it's only going to be a matter of time here, right guys?

I get.

Well, they did lose Andrew cop too.

So they went, they went to, they lost their top two centers for a while.

That, that'll have a little bit of an impact.

But yeah, like I don't think they're, I don't think they're a better team than Ottawa,

despite where they are in the standings.

I don't think there is deep.

I think they've got some holes.

I, I don't think they're, it's play is in your face style of, of hockey that Steve

would know from playing his days in Detroit.

But I think he's earned himself a year.

Well, see, they, for a good portion of the season, they were kind of a very top heavy

team as well.

But, uh, Stathletes has them at 37% probability to make the playoffs Detroit.

So not great.

By the way, Ottawa is at 72% courtesy of our friends and Stathletes.

It's, it's a specious formula to calculate all of this, but nonetheless, the numbers are

always interesting.

Do you want to, I found really strange with, uh, betting sites is that Ottawa was a head

of like Montreal and other teams in a playoff spot to win the Stanley Cup.

I found that one was so I, I, so I laid about like, that seems really weird.

But yeah, they were like, I'm sorry, overall to, to win.

I'm like, this is, yeah, so how would you, why not?

So this is, this is interesting to you.

So let me, let me, let me, uh, start to finish this one on, on, on, on this note, Buffalo

Montreal, Ottawa Detroit were those four teams that we are all waiting to take that next

step.

Now, Montreal got their first Ottawa get into the playoffs last year as well.

Buffalo is like, never going to lose another hockey game.

Um, and the Detroit Red Wings, we just had the conversation about when you look at, you

know, ready for the big shift in the, in the Eastern conference.

I don't know that Buffalo is as good as we've seen.

Like this is insane going back to early December, but how would you, like, if you're placing

them on a ladder, like, who's on which rung here?

It's a good question, but I've always thought Buffalo's had really good pieces and you're

always want, like, and I'm sure you guys sat there and went, how was this team not in

the playoff spot or at least competitive, um, and I don't know what it was that kick started

it in Buffalo this year, but I think they have a pretty good team, uh, can they hold

on to it?

Like the Alex Tuck thing will be certainly interesting to watch.

I, I like Montreal if they had better goal tending, um, it's, I'd probably say the same

for Ottawa right now.

Ottawa needs a bigger top six or at least a better, they need an addition to the top six.

I, I just always thought Detroit wasn't as good as they were and I, they, and like, you

've seen great regular season teams that can't make it in the playoffs because they just

score on the outside.

Like the Rangers last year when they were in the president's trophy were never really tough

to play against.

I don't think Detroit's tough to play against.

They'd be last for me.

Yeah.

Um, it's hot and clean and weeping when hearing that comment, uh, man, it's not that he

doesn't want them to.

I just don't know that they have the personnel to do it.

Yeah.

I, I, I think it's, I think it's construction not coaching and I'm, I'm with Brent on

this one.

I, I don't think the, uh, the issue there is coaching whatsoever.

Um, listen, this has been great.

Tonight's going to be a fascinating one for the Ottawa Senators, uh, to me, it's one

of the most injured.

By the way, this is a team full of underrated players.

Let me just close on this, whether it's Dylan Cousins, whether it's Drake Batherson,

whether it's Shane Pinto, whether it's Artem Zube, who's like the most of, of the underrated

players.

Who's the most underrated guy for you?

It's, it's easy because it's Michael Amaudio, but on our show, Yorkie loves, we've made

a song about Michael Amaudio.

Um, he, he's, he is by far the most underrated player in that group, um, like that whole

third line of Shane Pinto and Nick Cousins and Michael Amaudio, they know how to play

the game.

They keep pucks alive, like crazy, the offensive zone.

They probably could have more goals if Amaudio didn't have cement hands, um, but he's,

like that, that group is really fun to watch.

All right.

Well, uh, we'll be tuned into love Shane Pinto, man.

That's a, that's a good, uh, when you have, you know, when you have Shane Pinto on your

third line, you're, you're, you're, you're doing all right.

Right.

You're doing, right?

Like people are saying, they've got to get them up to line up.

I'm like, you don't want to move someone like that up to line up if you can have that

kind of deep, because you can't win in the playoffs if you don't have deep centers.

That, but the thing is, and, and, and, and, and Pinto, all of our going to first for

shitsurken.

Oh, that, but here's the thing, which, which is the line that, that gets you places in

the playoffs?

It's your third line.

Right?

Third line.

You're, you're, you're, I keep going, right?

Like the Blake Coleman with Tampa Bay Lightning, you know, last season with, you know, the,

the fins in March and like, it's your third line.

The guys that always get big contracts after the playoffs.

The third line.

It's so true.

It's so true.

That's what you're looking at.

It's so true.

It's so true.

That's what you're looking at.

Get in so much trouble.

Uh, he may be the most underrated guy on that team right now.

It's more fun.

It might be that.

Um, okay.

You be well.

We will, uh, we'll catch up soon.

Fascinating.

One tonight.

Ottawa Center to the right red wings on the board.

Thanks.

All right.

Thanks, Brent.

Be good.

I'll switch 16.

I'll stop.

Not everyday this week.

Everyday this month.

I can't get out my head.

I'm still in Beijing's day to day.

I can't get out my head.

I'll stop in Beijing's day to day.

Cause you can call it all right.

I went to the dark man.

He's talking a little medicine.

I'm like, no, I'm in there.

It's fine.

I'm not against those methods.

But I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

I know I'm not.

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