THE OTHER SIDE: Derek Lee from the Hockey News

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1:01What drop was both 35 seconds ago. So we will let you know as though, although I'm sure you will be able to hear from the crowd when something happens here. We've already got a player down early for Saskatoon. He's headed to the bench. I'll try not to do too much play by play because we do have guests waiting to talk here to you on Inside Sports. Our next one being Derek Lieve from the hockey news. Excited to have Derek on the show talk a little bit of Anaheim Docks. Derek, thanks so much for jumping aboard. How's it going? Hey, Brandon, thanks for having me. I'm well. Yeah, pleasure. It's all ours. This Docks team, I mean, I've heard them describe this plucky. I watched them play and they are a beautiful mix of youthful excitement and exuberance and just while a bunch of New York Ranger veterans is really the other half of the equation from afar. But just tell me, how have they ended up setting a top the division with just a handful of games left?

2:03Well, it's kind of like the forest scump code. It's like their box of chocolate. You never know what they're going to get. But they've been a really exciting team. I mean, they just had a really exciting game yesterday and over time against Calgary. But a lot of it has been because of the goal-tending. I mean, they have Lucostosal. They had John Gibson last year. Both of those guys were spectacular. Gibson goes out this past off season and comes P.M. Marazic and he went out for the season with the hip surgery. But Vili Hueso, they picked him up last year to kind of be the third goal. And now he's kind of established himself as the back of now that Marazic's out and they've gotten terrific goal-tending from both of those guys. And that's been a big part of it because they face a lot of shots, but Dostal and Hueso have been able to kind of clean up some of those things and then the offense is just go, go, go. So it makes for a lot of exciting games, but maybe Joel Quenble would like them to clean up a little bit defensively in their own zone. Yeah, bottom three in the league and goals against Per Game if we're split in hairs here. But

3:03they're a fun watch anyway. And there's so far ahead a schedule right now. It would seem to me that I think there's a lot of forgiveness in that. If you had told me they were a wild card team this year, I would have said that was a good year by the docs. And instead, here they are looking to take down a division title. So goal-tending a big part of it for sure. But so too, I mean, like let's talk about Carter Goche, for example, 36 goals on the year. He has been better than advertised since coming over from Philly, in my opinion. Yeah, it's been him. And then especially Beckett Seneca too, I think has been the X factor. There wasn't a really kind of expectation for what he was going to have going into the season. So I think a lot of people thought that Goche was going to be that go to goal score because of the potential and the goal scoring prowess that you showed in college and juniors. He had a great world championships this past summer. But Seneca, I think, has really been kind of the play driver for most of these games because

4:03that's a 50-60 point guy that you didn't really expect to have at the beginning of the season. It was going to be Carlson. It was going to be Goche, Torre Terry bringing the Kyle Graham and Chris Crider. But Seneca, it was like, okay, is he going to go back to juniors? What's going to happen because he left that weird spot where he can't go to the AHL and he's just taken off. I mean, even during the pre-season, he looks kind of okay. But as soon as the regular season started, he just jumped right off the page. And if I'm looking at it correctly, I think he's still in the lead for rookie scoring. I mean, the Calder is going to be Matthew Schafer's to lose. But Seneca has been just tremendous contributor for Anaheim all season. Yeah, he sure has 55 points in 72 games and sometimes Derek, we think that the rookies run into a wall at a certain point in their inaugural NHL campaign. But I don't get the sense that Seneca has hit the rookie wall, right? Like the production hasn't necessarily tapered off greatly since the beginning of the season, has it?

5:05No, I don't think so. I mean, he turned 20 a couple of months ago. So there's kind of some of those plays where you're like, okay, probably should have done that. Maybe you need to get it deep or you maybe need to bring it back a little bit instead of trying to do these crazy plays. But that's what makes some special to is he's able to make these kinds of plays at 20 years old. He's attacking guys off the rushes, doing these crazy beaks and dangles around NHL defensemen. So it's the production, like you said, hasn't been as much there. But I think the good thing is that guys like Grandlin and Trauteri, those guys have been able to pick up the slack when Seneca has done the same for them in the past, this past near during the season. Derek Lee on the line from the hockey news, talking ducks with us ahead of this matinee show now, 130 tomorrow afternoon here on Chad. Tell me a bit Derekable Leon or pardon me, hopefully on Leo Carlson's game. What makes him such an explosive special player? I think it's just the way that he kind of, he does, it feels like

6:08he does things on the fly like he'll pick up the puck in the neutral zone and it's kind of like Seneca in a way. You don't really know what he's going to do sometimes. He'll pick it up and he'll just do a series of moves between two or three guys and then he'll set up, say, Goche on the one timer and it's just amazing to see how much even from the first couple seasons he's kind of gotten a little better at that. He I think he does need to work a little bit more on once again to his own, his cycle playing things like that. Off the rush, he's just a tremendous player. He has such great vision and a lot of the talk when he first got drafted was about how his skating wasn't that great. I think his skating is fantastic. He looks like he's picked it up a little bit this season and he's only going to get better. Just going through some of the other players, Mason McTavish is such an interesting case because he's been healthy scratched and not too long ago, right? Tell me what's going on in terms of his development and maybe what's causing I wouldn't say a leg but I

7:09don't know that he's quite the third overall pick that that people were hoping for yet anyway. Yeah, that's a little bit interesting. I think the the healthy scratch definitely it's a wake-up call for any player, especially a guy that's young like McTavish. He's been playing on the fourth line lately in a little bit in a wing position too as well. But I think that's kind of helped spark him getting back to kind of those basics. We saw Greg Cronin do that with kind of Coach Shae last year and while that may have not been a popular opinion, I think that actually kind of helped to Coach Shae maybe iron out some of the things I need to work on kind of the same idea I think with having McTavish down there. He's been a little bit better now since those healthy scratches. He's getting points. He's a little bit more engaged in the play. I think the thing that people want to see more from him is a little bit more engagement. It's not that he doesn't have a bad work ethic or anything but I think it seems that he tries to rely just on a lot of the skill where he can lock things up a little bit more and then become kind of people of elected and maybe

8:11has like a Brady contract mold where you have that skill but you still able to be kind of an educator and use his size and strength. Directly on the line from the hockey news down in Anaheim covering this team and I'm curious what your take is on Joel Kwenville and how I guess responsible he is for having this group playing as well as it has been for the better part of the season. How much of this is coaching, Derek? Well, I certainly think it's got an impact on the young players for sure because last year we saw that Cronin relied heavily on a lot of the veterans like Frank Fertrona, Ryan Schoam who's not even known the team anymore and those guys have kind of been phased out a little bit where a lot of the production this year has come from the young guys, come from Carlson, Gochie, Seneca, Jackson Lakoma has taken another step as well to you. So it's those guys that have been leading the charge as opposed to the veterans and it's not like the veterans haven't been doing anything either. Guys like Kallor and Criter Graham and Jacob Truba has

9:11been steady on the blue line as well. So the veterans are still doing the things that they've done in the past, but now it's year headed by the young guys and then you also have guys like Old and Zell Wager and Pavlovichikov that are still trying to find their stride. So you've just got this nice mix of veterans and youth but the youth are the ones that are at the top. Yeah, Zell Wagers from more or less around here, you grew up playing in Forteskatchewan just a half hour drive from downtown Edmonton and I'm curious about his development in your eyes too, Derek, is he's a four-second round pick in his own right? Yeah, he's certainly an offensive-minded guy. It's hard for him to find that offensive kind of those, I guess, opportunities now because they have John Carlson that they brought in at the trade deadline. So now you have Carlson on one powerplanet, you have Lakoma on another powerplanet. Zell Wagers actually been used a lot on the penalty kill this year. I think a lot of that is just trying to get guys more engaged and make sure that they have roles outside of

10:14maybe what they're prototypical approaches. So it's been a little bit of slow burn for him, I guess he did that rough couple of games last week where he was maybe a little bit guilty of puck-watching. Just try to get engaged a little bit more defensively. So we'll see how it goes for the rest of the way because guys like Ninja Cove Zell Wager and pretty much most of the team they don't have at playoff experience. So it'll be interesting to see how they adjust to that once the the playoffs are starting to get rolling. Yeah definitely will be. Oh I just lost my train of thought. I was going to ask you, oh I was going to ask you about the about that Carlson trade. Your reaction to that because that was the one that kind of happened late the night before the deadline and certainly caught me by surprise by the time I had woken up to it on deadline day. Yeah I mean that just came out of nowhere because you think about what they were looking at. It's they've got goodest and true fun. They've got all these other guys on the blue line like Ian Moore drew a house and there's so many guys that they need to fit into there. So it was

11:17maybe okay maybe they can get another impact for dad to that top nine or maybe you just you just let it roll and you see how they do in their first time in the playoffs and then you kind of reset in the summer and you kind of take note of what you have there. But yeah to get John Carlson that's just been a terrific addition for the team. He's been really great on the power play I think just the way that he moves the puck it's something that they didn't really have on the blue line before. I mean the column is a great puck distributor in his own right but aside from that they didn't really have a lot of guys that can take the pressure take bumps and then move the puck out with pressure on the backside. So I think the way that the team has played since Carlson has come in has just been completely different. That's so interesting to hear. Derek Lee from the hockey news on for a couple more minutes here with us on inside sports tonight. So we've talked a lot about some of the individual players here and I wonder you know if there's do you think inexperience

12:19might ultimately be sort of the biggest weakness with this team or do you think that that's almost something that they can weaponize right playing carefree the way that they have been all year really is it seemed to work for them. Yeah I don't think they they've really shied away from the moment that much this this season there's been a couple times maybe where they've they've had laws but we've seen that they've been able to they've done well against adversity I mean they've they've gone down I don't know how many times by one goal early in the game and they end up winning the game in the last minute or the last two minutes and they're or they tie it they go to overtime they win it so I think it inexperience it might be an issue a little bit but you look at the teams that they might potentially play like Utah or Nashville and those teams don't have that much to play off experience either in their own right so having that inexperience it can be that maybe a con but these guys have played in in big tournaments like the world juniors and the world champs and and say a tournament's things like that so they still have big game experience

13:21maybe just not the kind that you expect but they've been in these big moments before. Yeah that's absolutely fair to say with respect to the schedule coming down the stretch here Derek have you taken a deep dive into sort of the strength of the schedule it looks like there's a few Pacific division games so an opportunity for some four point nights and really I see the connox I see the flames I see the sharks I see some winnable games for Anaheim for sure. Yeah well there's a I mean there's a big one tomorrow against Edminson but like you said there's a lot of Pacific division opponents on the schedule and maybe a little bit of a weaker schedule if you want to call it of course every game and then NHL is going to be a tough one regardless of where that teams in the standings but it looks a little bit more favorable for Anaheim compared to maybe some of the other teams that are a person for those playoffs spots. What are you looking at heading into this showdown tomorrow afternoon what do you got your eyes on? Well I think it's going to be

14:22on the people that are going to be ten in the net whether it's I would expect Lukaszt will start to be in net for Edminson and I would I guess that it would be Connoingram for the time being in Edminson but I think that's the biggest thing is because both of these teams they have a lot of offense and it's always been kind of goal-tending hold up and especially I'm interested to see how the Oilers look without Leon dry saddle because that's a big part of their offense and it'll be interesting to see how they look without one of their main parts. Yeah the power play has been suffering I can tell you that for free Derek for sure. Hey really appreciate you jumping on where do people go to find your work? Well if you go to twitter or x whatever you want to call it D-E-R-E-K underscore L-E-E-2-7 that is my handle. It's pretty much the same handle on everything Twitter, Instagram, YouTube I post the post game interviews with Joe Kuenville after each game or every game on that so every home game and then select road games and then the hockey news

15:24.com or thn.com slash anaheim that's where you can find my work and my colleagues were Patrick present we post articles throughout the week and on anything that we find interesting and just anything on the team during game days. Right on really nice to chat with you tonight Derek thank you so much for the time and enjoy the action tomorrow. All right thanks Brennan. Absolutely directly checking in from the hockey news tonight ahead of this game tomorrow Edmonton Anaheim 130 freezing brothers Pock Drop here at Rogers Place which again we are live at that's the reason for the background noise still scoreless in this oil kings and blades game by the way but we will talk a little bit more about that and while the rest of this hockey matchup that we've got here when we get back to inside sports just a minute. The world moves fast you work day even faster pitching products drafting reports analyzing data

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17:27try it today at Starbucks is inside sports on 880 Chad okay so under down five on three and a half right now big shot block coming um scoreless yes just that was a nice chance by Saskatoon as we join you live from Rodgers place game one of the oil kings and blades playoff series they're in the first round of the western hockey league playoffs which get going right across the western league tonight few big series that will definitely provide some entertainment action um what is update on the blue jays here as well and now I've lost everything that I was trying to do give me one second one second bear with me here as I call up what I'm trying to call up

18:28middle of the seventh inning it's two one jays got those two runs in the fifth kind of a bloop shot over the over the outfielder's heads and as Jimenez has a triple Shay Langleyers has holbert for the athletics okamoto one strikeout one walk came around the score he looks good in the jays uniform I'm feeling it Caledon I'm I am enjoying seeing this new look jays team yeah and it largely it's kind of the old look jays team if you think about it there's I believe 20 guys from the roster on in the world series roster last year that are back again yeah for sure they retain a lot of players of course but sheds moved on but okamoto is supposed to be the replacement for bishet but I'm not sure if you know each player is individual anyway so I don't think anybody's replacing anybody obviously but it'll be relief pitching for me this year it's the same relief staff that they ended the season with and got one in the playoffs with Esco and that was a

19:32role of course to ride last year we'll see if it's a little bit more smoother this year louis varlins how many times do we see louis varlins in the playoffs they pitched them every single night it was hilarious thinking back yeah he's already been in tonight and Jeff Hoffman who this goose bumps not in a good way with goose bumps coming up on the other side we will be joined by the birthday boy cam moon we'll talk some baseball we'll talk some oilers well just talk because it's fun talking with moon and that's coming up next on inside sports this episode is brought to you by athletic brewing company no matter how you do game day on the couch in the crowd or manning the snack table athletic brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non-alcoholic beer styles you can enjoy bold flavors all game long no hangovers no buzz no subbing out for water in the second half stuck the fridge for tip off with a variety of

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