The Lowdown with Lowetide - Jason Gregor (Sept 21)

0:00Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT, with AI grounded in your context to get work done and done right. It's a new workday. Turing Lowes Pro Savings Days Save more in the products you count on to get the job done right. Get a free two pack of DeWalt 20 Volt Max XR 8 Amp Hour batteries When you buy a select DeWalt 20 Volt Max Power Tool, plus save up to 35% on select major appliances, the right products, the right deals, ready when you need them. Our best lineup is here in Lowes, Valetue 925, while supplies last. Selection varies by location. The AI looking very dapper on a lovely day after a great weekend, Jason Greger. How are you? I'm great, man, you. Now you were down to the ring today. That clock seemed a little, not like overly unhappy, but there were things he didn't like.

1:00He just said, well, it wasn't a pretty practice. There's lots of miss passes and it reminds me. I remember way back when during when the orders were, they were an OK team in like 20 set 2007. And I remember back then, you know, teams would practice and lots has changed like this. Visiting coaches used to watch the home team practice and was not considered a big of a deal. Now it's like, oh my god, you can't do that. But I remember watching the Red Wings practice one day and I'm sitting there and I'd taken some notes and as I'm watching the practice and I'm like, they never miss a pass. And for me, like I'd watch the orders practices and there was miss passes at the time. So I've just asked that. Babcock was a young coach second year in whatever. And he just said, well, that's not me. Because that's that's our leader guys. Like they kind of set the standard that you don't miss any passes. And so, you know, I think that's something that, you know, McDavid might have to to to become a little bit more vocal on because now none of these guys can make passes like dry stomach, David in a game. But in practice, when there's rarely people covering you, right, like you're on, you're doing flow drills

2:01up and down the ice. Those passes should be on the tape. They should be flat and and it just, you know, it's kind of an ugly practice. Now it's in training camp. You know, some of these guys have yet to play a game. So they've been training camp for nine. I know it's only five or six days, but then you throw in the captain skates for eight, nine days. Some guys are probably just like, oh my god. Can we get can we get going here? So that might be part of it. We'll see by yeah, the coach made it clear. Like hey, today wasn't up to to the standard that he would like. The the the opportunity is coming for Ike Howard with nuke and Zach Heimann. You know, he did not show well in the first game. Now he was on a depth line. But the the opportunity is still there for him, but it's time it's I know it sounds ridiculous game too, but there's not a lot of preseason games. Howard's got to show something. Yeah, I just I don't know. I the Matt Savoy injury gives Howard a longer rope. What whether whatever now he can play more preseason games. Here's my understanding. So tomorrow night's roster, you're going to have New Gen Hopkins and Heimann and Howard and probably

3:03Walman and Murphy. You'll have a few more NHL players. Then the game in Vancouver is going to be like kind of bear minimum. I don't think you'll have a ton of them. And then the other guys who can play their second game, that'll be the home game against Calgary on Saturday. So that's kind of what I'm hearing. And and I tweeted it out on the weekend because I got like the new exhibition rules and what deems a like a meal. Vinnie is considered a veteran because he's a second round pick in the last three years. That's never happened before. And now it's a first round pick in the last five years. So I coward is considered a veteran for preseason games. Right. And then you've got a hunt Seth Griffith is a veteran because it's 400 NHL or a child games combined. So suddenly they have more guys, deem veterans, because you need eight of them. And so that Vancouver game will definitely have some of those type of players involved. So because they've got a skeleton roster in Bakersfield. They got they sent the two goldies down Johnson and Day. More cuts will be coming. Do you anticipate that after the second game? Maybe the odd one after the second game, but because the Vancouver

4:06game is where they've got to get all those guys in. I don't think it happens to sell Friday. Okay. All right. And I mean, they've got time in the NHL to work towards that. How is the like because I think after the game, I was, you know, the just monitoring the fan base. They were obviously very happy. Winnipeg didn't send their best or anything, but they're looked like there was precision. And it's always interesting when a new coach takes over. He's not going to do what Noblock did. You know, obviously he's got his own ideas. But I thought Doc in the middle, we had heard about it possibly in the summer, but he seems to like that line a lot. So Doc, Joseph and Formentin are our guys who might have a little edge just because a speed, but also penalty killing ability. And Doc in the middle is a, well, you can see why they want it. He's a big guy who can hit. It's very good. Positionally. That's the one thing. He's got a very good stick in the defensive zone. I was watching. I'm not like point shmoins. That's not what I watch for in the preseason for players. It's I was looking at where he was defensively. He can run over guys.

5:07He's big and strong. And it wasn't just in the game because today when I asked Babcock about Doc, I was very quick to point out that line was their best line of practice again today. So, you know, there's little things that you that you kind of notice. And like, I think the lines what we see now or what you're going to get early on. Now, how long do they last? I would say a week, right? Because he doesn't know what he has. Like, you know, I coward, give him some time early on. You know, Josh Samansky. Are they going to keep him as a 13th forward? Are they going to keep Max Jones and then let Samansky play a lot of minutes in the in the in the AHL, right? Or did they look and say, well, let's just keep the center around because the orders, the orders have and I wrote it today at orders nation. I looked at the starts in the NHL up until the end of October. Emton has probably, well, not probably they have the best, they have the easiest schedule to start in the whole NHL. They don't plan back to back games. They only play 12 of 14, 12 of their 14 games or against teams below them in the standings last year, which means basically non-playoff teams except for Anaheim.

6:08Um, an LA, I guess. And when an LA might have the like, so you just added two games to the schedule. You started the schedule or the LA Kings play six games in the first three weeks of the season. Six in the first 21 days of the season. Yeah, they're not going to be fresh. Yeah, like it's wild. Like, yeah, they'll be fresh, but it's hard. You want to play and it's hard to get into a rhythm when you're playing and then you're off for three days. And then you're playing and then they got a five day break in between games in October. So I'm sure the Kings aren't, aren't loving their schedule, but Emmington. I would think might have the easiest Vegas is probably close to it when it comes to start Minnesota by far has the worst start to the season. They've got five of their first 15 or at home and only eight of their first 26 are at home. So they're going to be road warriors early on. Have Minnesota gets through that and watch out for them because they would have a very favorable schedule. So Emmington has a lot of reasons out with practice time and whatever. And Babcock, he was very honest. He goes like, I don't know. And he's right. Like everybody's trying to say, oh, this is going to be the lines forever.

7:10They're not. And I wrote the article last week about it. There's so much time spent on lines that's no offense. Kind of pointless because say, hey, here's a line for tonight. All right. It doesn't mean it's a line for two weeks. It just means it's a line for that. It does appear that and we don't know how often they're going to run. David and Dr. Isadel together, but home games and those sorts of things and we'll see how it turns out. And Newge with Hyman on a second line. What? Let's take Howard out of the situation because, you know, he's obviously the candidate. But would you prefer to have a bigger guy like a pod koals as a guy or do you think maybe Savoy? Because of its quickness might be a good man. Well, in theory, you have Hyman who's a great pocket treaver. Newgen Hopkins is more of a passer than a shooter. Now he's not as good of a passer as dry settle, but he's still at like. But like passing is always being more of his forte than shooting, right? And he can transport the puck. So I and then Howard's your shooter, right? And he's quick. And now the one thing I noticed about Howard was he was really making a concerted ever

8:11to get to the net. That is clearly something I think the coaching staff has talked about is to get bodies to the net more often. And you know, that's music to my ears. I've talked about it. The orders of fencemen were number one percentage shot attempts that actually hit the net last year at 42%. Best in the NHL. But one of the lowest teams in rebound goals because they don't got a lot of bodies in front of the net. So not the fencemen's fault. They're like, well, why is he throwing the ball? Eventually you got to put a puck on net. Yeah. What he's done, dumping in the corner all the time. Like, how about get your ass to the front of the net? And so one thing I noticed from Howard in that preseason game was he made a concerted effort to try to fight his way to the net. I get he's more of a shooter. But I don't mind that combination. It could swap pod calls and and Howard. But I like, I know why they have pod calls and would dry settlement David because he's a puck retriever. Well, and they can like they can work along the wall. He and Lee on could do that. That's the thing. Like, you don't really need a like it helps having a puck retriever. It's more so a guy who can cycle because David and dry side are rarely chip and chase. Right? Like, they're so good.

9:11They can carry the puck into the zone around guys. Not a lot of players in the league can do that. So, you know, they'll switch out and try different things. You know what? Would I be shocked the way he played in one game? A foreman didn't got a game there or something? Capinan. It's another guy who's played up with dry side. So they'll have lots of options. Mike Babcock is admitted and I agree. I believe him. He doesn't know what his line combinations are right now. He's trying things and we'll see what happens. Like, BooShard was back with that common practice today. So, even though Shay and BooShard both had a really good game together. Any word on when Jason Dickinson might play in a game? Well, he practiced today. I think. Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the Enterprise AI platform for HR, Finance and IT. With AI grounded in your context to get work done and done right. It's a new workday. Therapy's biggest impact doesn't show up in some dramatic breakthrough. It shows up in the smallest moments.

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11:13That's growtherapy.com-startnow. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. There's a chance he could play tomorrow. I don't think he's playing Thursday. They could wait until Saturday if they want. So we'll see. If he doesn't play tomorrow, I'd be a little surprised if he's playing in Vancouver just based on what I've heard. So we'll have to see. But he was in practice. He took all the reps. He was up and down the ice. And I think that's just one of those early season. Let's be cautious. What if they send all the condors to Vancouver and they beat the Kanaxa team? What happens then, Jason? Wow. The Kanaxa are like, let's go. The Kanaxa are in a rebuild here. Yeah. They're, I'll say, I believe that Vancouver is much as, you know, the record matters a little bit for them. It's more about getting a better culture in Vancouver. And I really believe that with the sedines and Vanemahotra, they have at least are going

12:13to do some things better as an organization. It's not going to lead to a ton of more wins, but it might lead to four or five more wins, right? And if all of a sudden you become a 70 point team or 75 point team, at least you can say, okay, we're progressing. Yeah. They don't want another 58 points season. NFL weekend was wild. It feels like a bunch of teams are already like the chargers. I mean, I don't know what Kanaxa is going to do today, but probably doesn't want to talk about the chargers. Oh, well, we tried to talk about it last week in deck and iron agreement that they lose that game to the Raiders. Like they're the first team in NFL history in NFL history to lose, to lose both games at home against two teams who had a winning percentage of less than 200 a year prior. No, like it's, oh, sorry, should say second team. Yeah, 26. Yeah, the 26 and they only played three lead games and then they folded like, you know, now the chargers go into Buffalo. Like are you kidding me? Like, and they're banged up, right? Like now they're down. They've down two tight ends. They're down an offensive tackle.

13:15Watch his name, broke his finger, one of their best offensive players like it is. It's a colossal nightmare. And I'm like, Harba looks lost. No. Like why are they? You've got one of the strongest arm quarterbacks and you're just dimming and dunking all day long. What the hell are you doing? Throw the ball downfield. Yeah, it was there was Buffalo looks good. The bangles look good. But you know towards the Ohio and then over the Eastern seaboard, a lot of those teams are doing well. What about New Orleans, dude? Like, hey, don't sleep on the same and now they're scheduled. Yeah, it's good. It's gets pretty darn easy. Like that's, they could be two and all here. It's it's interesting. Interesting game tonight too, but Dallas, Dak, did you see that throw he made? Yeah, it was pretty good throw. Man, and Cleveland won a game, Jason. Hey, what about the jet? How do the jets lose that game? That's like, honestly. Like if you're a jet span, you're like, God, this is par for the course, but they had that game. That should be a game that they win. But yeah, good, you know what? Hey, the NFL, there's there's always some wild outcomes in it, but no question.

14:19Like the chargers, it like I know they had high aspirations this year. Yeah. If you have no expectations, you can accept being on to. You have high expected and not only Owen too. Owen to where you've lost by double digits in both games. And in a very tough division. Yeah. Against two team like you're already four two games behind the cheese. Yeah. Um, Elk's lost. They they they looked good. Then not bad as a weird. They were good until they got to the red zone. Yeah. And then it was just like all their problems from early in the year came flooding back. They could not punch it in the red zone. Is it place election again? A little bit of place selection. I thought a little bit of just, uh, I don't think a player's made the right place in the in the red zone either. Yeah, you throw two interceptions. That's not necessarily play calling, right? Um, so now the Elks had two interceptions in the end of those themselves too defensively. So it was a it was a defense win game by both defenses. They'd say they won the battle. But the red zone hurt them and just ridiculous penalties.

15:24Unness is like pre snap penalty. Something I know they've talked about. Mark Killam to his credit did not shy away from that. He's like, Hey, that's something internally. We got to take care of. And that now, Hey, you got Hamilton here. So every now and then I don't mind in the regular season a little bit of a wake up call because teams out that aren't that haven't been good for a while. I do believe there's a little bit of, you know, looking in the mirror, thinking you're good. You start to believe you're good and then their motion from the Labor Day and all that. I don't mind that lost a Toronto because yeah, okay, it maybe gives two points back, but they still control their own destiny. Yeah. And now you come home and you beat Hamilton at home, right? Then you go into the buy, then you play Hamilton again, right? And, you know, then you finish with Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. And by then who knows what happens? But every now and then getting, getting knocked down a peg or two for a team that isn't at the top, I think it's a good thing. What's coming up on the show? I've got a busy show today. Yeah, Kevin Woodley's going to be by Sean Brown returns to the show after a long summer off.

16:28He's, you know, Brown is just skipping training camp even. Do this kind of a lay cummer. We'll see you might have to get into run some laps around the mall here when he gets in. We'll talk about the Elk's obviously. Well, we'll talk and I'll deck and I might talk and I fell. Connor might just very quite I think Connors, I think Connors Mike's going to be, you know, malfunctioning a little bit today. We'll see. But and I will have Connormick David because all of the changes for the team now. There's one position that is still wide open. And there's really no front runner. The owners don't have a team DJ. Darnel Nurse was the team DJ for years. And I asked Connor about it today and he's like, well, we're all for one. He didn't really like the music of game one that their DJ thought is a little too much rock and ball. Right. He hasn't. So and I asked him like, who are the leading candidates? Didn't necessarily want to say about I'll have to dig a little deeper to find like interest. Who's going to step up because I'm telling you that's an important. Now it's a thankless job. Anyone who's ever done it, it's a thankless job because you're going to try to appease everybody. But it is an important job. You want to have good tunes in warm up, etc.

17:30So having the the resident DJ right now is a position that is up for grabs. Yeah, he need to be used to play head banger metal from Finland, I think. Yeah. Well, that was only he'd only get like one day a year. But he, yeah, when he did, it was just like unbelievable off the, like that. Yeah, Gatley was like, like real heavy. Blood metal. Yeah. Like, oh my god. Yeah. Pulling out of a. Oh, he like him and him and Brent's sake. Those two love that stuff. There's a lot to blonde haired clowns. There you go. All right, Jason, look forward to the show. Thanks. Thanks for having a good one. Guessing is for game shows, not your business. Workday is the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance and IT with AI grounded in your

18:33context to get work done and done right. It's a new work day.