The Kevin Karius Show - Mar. 26th, 2026 - Jesse Granger

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Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy

Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy.

And we are currently deep-diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic,

misborn, but here's the catch. Steven here has not read misborn before.

That's right, hey, hey, so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chip.

And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers,

and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.

News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fanfellas

wherever you get your podcasts. We welcome back Jesse Granger from the athletic

covers the gold tonight's morning. Jesse with Kevin Carious has always thanks for jumping on sports

1440 this morning. Really appreciate it. Yeah, good morning. Thanks for having me.

All right, I got to get this straight. I just found out and heard that you were playing in your

beer league championship game last night in Vegas. What the hell happened, Jesse? Let's hear

all about it. Yeah, it was glorious. I'm sure all the listeners are thrilled to hear about my

beer league game on it was it was fun. It was championship game. It was close game two to two

in the final moments and we scored the game winning goal with five seconds left. It was pretty

thrilling. You're kidding. Wow. Did you did you have the game winner or what?

No, I'm the goalie. Oh, wow. I was 200 feet away on the other end. There you go. I did not know

that. Well, big win between the pipes. Maybe explain to our listeners what like adult hockey,

beer league hockey is like compared to here where as you can imagine, there are like a million

leagues and million players going at it. What's it like down there? It's been really fun to watch

it grow from being just basically one ranked. There were two ranks in town, but they weren't

always full before the Goldenites got here to now we've got the Goldenites themselves have built

two facilities with two sheets of ice each. So we're now up to seven sheets of ice that are public

that's not including the like professional arena. So we got seven sheets of ice and

it is packed here in Vegas. I mean, I usually play at 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night because it's all

the Utah key obviously takes up the early spots and yeah, it's been really cool and they're in talks

to build another facility and then maybe even two more facilities because the demand is so high

right now is it's really cool to watch hockey grow in the desert. Wow. You know, like I remember going

down to Dallas covering the owners in, you know, the late 90s Jesse and, you know, to see the

Dr. Pepper centers down there that we're just starting because, you know, the stars were getting

going. I would imagine that's the same thing just, you know, a few decades later here in Vegas.

Yeah, it is. It obviously starts with the Utah key and the junior Goldenites are it's a great

program. They travel all over and win some tournaments obviously still trying to build from the

ground up, but yeah, no, it's and even like the adult hockey, it's there are there are leagues

every night in every rank across town on all different levels. It's it's a lot of fun. Yeah,

do you have a lot of Canadians down there that live, you know, full time that are playing too?

You know what it is? Canadians and also just people from hockey towns, people from Michigan,

Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, stuff like that. Like Vegas is a transient city. There aren't

many people that are born and raised in Vegas a lot. Pretty much everyone here moved from somewhere

and you get a lot of people that grew up playing hockey at a more traditional market and now they

obviously have a lot of more people to play with here in Vegas than they used to nine years ago

before the Goldenites showed up. Yeah, cool stuff. Jesse Granger from the athletic

with us on the Kevin Carishaw and sports 1440. Well, hey, maybe the way you're playing between

the pipes, the Goldenites could use you here. Yeah, the safe percentage, I think I'm keep it up

with those guys, apparently. What is it, Jesse? I mean, what have you seen because I mean,

it's not too long ago that Aiden Hill led this team to a Stanley Cup? Yeah, it's a combination

of a few things. I think Aiden deserves some of the blame. We're not going to take, even though

I'm the goalie guy, I'm not going to completely take it off of Aiden. I do think that Aiden has

had an up and down year and he hasn't looked quite himself. He started off a little bit slow,

then got hurt and missed quite a bit of time. And since he came back, he just hasn't looked quite

as explosive laterally as we're used to from him. And he's a big guy. So it's not like he's the

most nimble of goalies, but for his size, he's a really athletic goalie. And he hasn't looked

quite as quick, getting to his spots and just being a half second behind the play that can

give you problems with tracking the puck. And I think that that combined with the fact that the

Golden Knights just haven't been as good defensively as they've been in past years. When Aiden Hill

won that Stanley Cup, his numbers were tremendous, but that was clearly a product of everything together.

He was playing well himself, but he was also very well insulated behind Bruce Cassidy's

zone defense that keeps the puck out of the slot in the dangerous areas about as well as

anyone back then. This year, now they lost Alex Petrangelo. He was the best defenseman on this

team by a long shot. You lose him. That's a huge void. They've also lost Nick Hague, who was a big

body that battled in front of the net and cleared out lanes for the goalie to see. They lost

that white cloud in the trade for Rasmus Anderson. And they've replaced these guys with talented

defenseman, Noah Hanuffin, Rasmus Anderson, but they're more skilled defenseman. They're more

finesse defenseman. They're not quite as they're not bullies in front of their own net the way

Petrangelo and Hague and white cloud were. And I think that it's causing a lot more bodies to be

in front of the net. And now we're seeing goals go in from further out in the zone because the

goalie's not getting his eyes on the release as well. And that's just a product of you play that

zone defense. There are going to be a lot of bodies in front of the net. And if your guys aren't

strong enough to out muscle, be other guys and get it. I'm not not to say these guys are strong

enough, but they're just not quite as dominant as they once were. Yeah, it's a totally different look

with Rasmus Anderson coming in. How would you evaluate since he's come in since the deadline

and how he's performed here Jesse? Yeah, it's been a bit of a rough start for him here. I still

think he's trying to find his game. There are times when he has the puck where he really pops

offensively. He likes to activate into the point. He'll see him dive deep down into the offensive

zone and creates and stuff defensively. I think he's still trying to find his game here in Vegas.

His gaps have been not what he would like on, especially in transition, maybe giving guys a little

too much space, entering his own. But we've seen a lot of players join this team because they're

constantly making big moves, trades and free agency. And it usually does take a little while for

someone to gel. So I don't think we've seen the best of Rasmus Anderson yet here in Vegas.

Jesse Granger from the athletic with us on the Kevin Kerri show here in sports 1440. I just wanted

to maybe go back to the trade deadline. Do you think that the Golden Knights did enough where

their hands tied with cap and things like that? Maybe just your perspective on what happened

at the deadline by the Knights? Yeah, I certainly don't think they did enough. When you look at,

they haven't looked like a Stanley Cup contender this season and you look at Colorado and Minnesota

and Dallas and they all made more significant abs and they were already looking really good before

that. But I don't think it was out of choice. I think the Golden Knights, I think the prices were

really high at this deadline. And the Golden Knights don't have a first round pick in 2026. They

don't have a first round pick in 2027 and they did trade their second round pick in 2028 at the

deadline. Because they've made a lot of these trades, the one for Hanneson, the one for Anderson,

they've run out of the high end ammunition that they're used to having for these trades. And then

the fact that the prices were so high made it even more difficult. And like you said, the cap space

is also a challenge. So this is a team that was kind of up against the wall. They didn't have

a ton of room to add. And they tried to add some identity. They went out and got Nick Dowd,

who's a matchup fourth liner who can take tough minutes. They got Colesmith, who's a four checker,

which is something they needed. They needed a four check. And those guys have been okay, but

they also, they don't score much and that's kind of what you expect from them. And obviously,

the Golden Knights are really struggling to put the puck in the net right now and adding two

fourth line veteran guys who have never scored in their career isn't going to help you much in that

aspect. The hustle doesn't have to hurt. If performance pressure is making it hard to breathe,

growth therapy helps you navigate stress, set boundaries, and actually feel like yourself again.

Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who

fits you, not the other way around. You can search by what matters, like insurance, specialty,

identity, or availability, and get started in as little as two days. There are no subscriptions,

no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time.

Whatever challenges you're facing, grow therapy is here to help. Grow accepts over 100 insurance

plans, including Medicaid in some states. Sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay

as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com slash start now to get started.

That's growtherapy.com slash start now. Growtherapy.com slash start now.

Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

Howdy, howdy ho and welcome to fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the fantasy

fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Stephen, your bookish

internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon

Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn, but here's the catch. Stephen here has not read Mistborn before.

That's right. Hey, hey, so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single

chapter. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Stephen will

even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.

News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fanfellas

wherever you get your podcasts. How's Mitch Marner been in the last couple of weeks here, Jesse?

He's he's playing really well. I would say even though the offense isn't isn't working and he

obviously is going to get some blame for that being one of the one of the top guys, I think he has

really evolved their top guys. It seems like he's really trying to drag them along right now.

He's had some shifts where you can tell he's jumping over the boards and like I'm going to

single-handedly will us into some dangerous chances right here. And he's he's played really well. He's

back on the wing for the first time in a while. For a while there, he was playing center. And that's

first time he's ever done that in his NHL career. He fit in really well. Bruce Cassidy said,

I love him as a center. I thought he was going to be there for the rest of the season. They

they did ended up bumping him onto the wing playing on Tomas Hurtles line. So he's back where he's

a little more comfortable. And he's looked really good. Like I said, but the results aren't there,

but of all the top players on the gold tonight, if you want to place the blame for the lack of

scoring recently, I think Marners probably at the bottom of that list. Jesse Granger from the

athletic with us on sports 1440. You know, we've been talking about the Euler situation. It's

similar to the gold at nights in the sense that they're in the Pacific. And we've been talking

about in the sense that since Conor McDavid's been here, this could be the easiest pathway that

he's ever seen to the conference finals because, you know, the golden nights aren't the team

that they used to be. The order is certainly not playing like they were a couple of years ago.

Vancouver stinks. The rest of the division is way different with how, you know, the

Anaheim ducks are at the top of the heap right now. But do the gold nights feel like

things are still okay here. We got a lot of good pieces to the puzzle in place here, Jesse. We

got some great veteran leaders. We've got some guys that have been through the battles through the

wars. Do they still feel like that despite spottering here in the last 1415 games?

They certainly do. When you talk to Bruce Cassidy, when you talk to Mark Stone, Jack Eichel,

they don't sound like a team that has played as poorly as they have this year because, like I said

earlier, they haven't shown, if you just watch this season and this season alone, they've given

you no reason to think that they can contend that they can make it to a conference final, but they

can do anything like that. But we also have nine years of evidence of this team and a lot of them

have been here for most of that and they've been to four Western conference finals. They've been

to two Stanley Cup finals and they all believe that they're done a flip that switch eventually.

And the longer it goes without them flipping the switch, the more you kind of start to doubt

yourself. But I do think that right now they believe, hey, look, we haven't played our

the hockey we want to play. Fortunately for them, they're in what I've been calling the worst

division I've ever seen. It is horrific, this specific division. I mean, we're going to have a

team win a division without a hundred points for the first time since they went to four divisions.

When you look at their record outside of the division against other divisions, it's the worst

I can find and I went back a bunch of years. I finally got tired of adding up numbers and stops.

But I couldn't find a year where the gap was bigger between the divisions than it is with the

specific this year. It is a really bad division and that sets you up if you're the oilers organized.

I think both these teams, like you mentioned, are in very similar situations where we've done this.

We have the talent on the ice. If we can flip the switch, we will end up being coming out of this

in the Western conference final and you look at it, it's like you're going to be going against

the team that's been through some absolute wars because the central is stacked. So, yes,

I think that they have some belief and there's some reason to have belief.

You know, it's funny, Jesse, when you answer a question like that and insert golden nights or

insert oilers, we could be talking about the same exact answer, same team, same philosophy, same

outlook and no one would know the difference because it's exactly the same.

Like, that's what we've been talking about here for weeks and weeks here.

So, it's so, so, so, yeah. And it's also similar and that they're both struggling with the

goalies, like the oilers need better goal tending, the golden nights need better goal tending.

They, they both believe that they've got, well, I think Vegas has a little more faith in

Aiden Hill that he can flip the switch. We haven't seen it yet with Jari and Edmonton or

obviously Conner Ingram, but yeah, I think these teams are in very similar situations.

The one difference is the oilers have the best player on the planet. So, there's that.

There's that. Yeah. How do you think this one shakes out tonight, Jesse? What do you think?

It's going to be interesting. These teams do not like each other. We've seen it over the years.

This is an important game. This could end up, I think the winner tonight is going to be

great shape to host that. Now, obviously, these teams still are fighting to make a blast, but I think

they're probably going to both make it. And I think they're probably going to end up the two,

three. It looks like this game could be a big decider in who hosts that series. And I think it's

going to be, I think we're going to see some really physical hockey tonight. It's going to be high

intensity game. I don't know who's going to win. Both of these teams have been struggling, but

it should be a really fun game. When these two teams get together, we've seen it over and over.

It's there's some animosity there. It's some fun hockey. What's the rest of the gold night's

schedule? Shake, shake down here. Yeah, when you look at the, just the names on the paper,

it actually looks pretty good for them. They like they've got a winnable gold. Yeah, yeah,

they from here they host Washington, which will be tough, but then you get you get the canucks,

you get the flames. And then they've got a long road trip, but they start up in Edmonton,

then they go to Vancouver again, then we've got Seattle. And so there are some winnable games.

They wrap the season up with the two game homestand against the Jets and the Kraken. A couple

of games against the Kraken, which is a team that is chasing them in the playoffs. So yeah,

they've got some games that you shouldn't, when you look at it, you say, okay, that's a win. But

Winnipeg's one of those games and they just went up there and got beaten by the Jets. So it's,

I wouldn't put any, I wouldn't mark down any games as a win right now. The way this team's

struggling to score. Good stuff. Jesse's always thanks for coming on.

Congratulations on being the champions in the state and the bad, maybe heading up to a national

tournament here. That would be a lot of fun. Thanks so much for having me.

Howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy, and welcome to fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the

fantasy fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.

And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy.

And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Miss Born. But here's the catch.

Steven here has not read Miss Born before. That's right. Hey, hey, so each week you'll get my

unfiltered raw reactions to every single chip. And along the way, we'll do character deep

dives, magic explainers and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be

wrong. News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy

fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Adam Grant, host of Ted's podcast,

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