Utah Mammoth Faces DANGEROUS Opponents as the Wild Card Situation Intensifies

With the playoff chase heating up, we're going to talk about which teams you should actually

be concerned about if you're a Utah mammoth fan.

Hello everyone and welcome in to locked on mammoth.

I'm Tom Callahan, joined by Robin Leonio and later on in today's show, we're going

to talk about contributions coming from up and down this Utah mammoth lineup, including

Alex Kerfoot, his return has been huge.

We've talked about it on the show a lot.

We're going to dive into it today.

But for now, I want to talk about who to watch out for because quite frankly, Robin and

I on yesterday's show, Robin, I was listening back to the show as I always do.

And I thought to myself, holy cow, we gave people a lot of teams to watch out for.

And that is exactly how tight the Western conference wild card race is.

We're not hitting about all those numbers.

We're 100% accurate.

However, Robin, yesterday, we talked about Nashville, Los Angeles, Seattle, Winnipeg,

San Jose, and of course, the other teams in the Pacific that we have to keep an eye on,

Anheim, Edmonton, and Vegas.

That's a lot of teams, Robin.

So what I'd like to do today for the folks who are everydayers, the diehards, and maybe

even some new folks.

And if you're new, welcome.

I want to break it down.

Of those teams that I just named, who are the actual threats?

Which teams?

Because I don't think anybody is quite as nuts as we are and watches as much hockey as

we do.

But if someone's going to say, hey, I want to focus on one or two other teams.

Who are the teams that I should be keeping an eye on?

And Robin, one of the ones that still continues to surprise me, although they're cooling off

again.

And I have no idea.

This team is all peaks and valleys.

There is no happy medium with the national predators.

They've lost three in a row.

They're starting to fall back again.

Other teams are catching up to them.

But Robin, that is what makes to me Nashville crazy dangerous because I feel like they are

streaky.

They're kind of crazy.

And as we talked about with their remaining schedule down the stretch here, Nashville,

I think more than any other team that we reviewed, the predators, if they beat the

teams around them in the field, could make enough of an impact where they could end up

and they do play the Utah mammoth, by the way, down the stretch, could make enough of

an impact where they're one of the teams that can actually leap-brog Utah, if not really

make it pesky for them.

It could make it certainly very interesting, Tom, and Nashville is an interesting team

because when they made those wins, when they were on the hostage, it came out of nowhere

and all of a sudden, like, oh, hello, were there in a play-off spot?

Because you and I were like, no, there's no way.

We forgot that if the Pacific Division beat itself up, then Nashville could somehow

sneak its way in.

But like you said, with its remaining schedule, it will be very interesting to see if they

fall back down or if they actually make a fight and even rival that of Utah's.

Now, the predators and the mammoth, each have 74 games played, and that is the most out

of all the teams in this little pack.

I'm not as worried, Robin, for the mammoth, just simply because when you talk about

it, an 82 point to 77 point that gap doesn't worry me for Utah because I think there's

a cushion there, but it does worry me if I'm Nashville, especially having lost three

in a row.

Everybody behind me has at least one, and all the way up to San Jose, which has three games

in hand.

That's a lot of potential to shuffle.

But again, Nashville mentioned for Nashville specifically, those games are against teams

that are below you right now.

So if they take care of business by that, they actually beat these teams, then yeah, of

course, then, but with where things stand in the Western Conference, that's also not

guaranteed.

Well, no, what if Nashville's running out of gas, Robin, is the other reason why, like,

I'm not saying watch out for good, for Nashville, it could be watch out for bad because what

happens if they drop like a hot rock and all of a sudden, every team that plays them

is picking up points against the preds.

The fact that the way their schedule plays out includes so many teams right there in

the thick of things.

I mean, and as I mentioned, it could benefit Utah too.

They do play one more time, but Robin, Utah, I mean, I'd be concerned, Nashville could

be handing points to the wrong teams.

Handing points and it's very specifically to the two teams, it's Los Angeles and San Jose.

Right.

Right.

And the Kings are hanging around their pesky, and in fact, the Kings are the team most

primed to leap frog, the predators, but the sharks, that's the other one.

And I mean, out of all those teams, and we can pick a few more certainly, I mean, we're

going to have to talk about Vegas, yeah, and you have to, but the sharks are the ones

where I'm just over here going, you know, and I, you, I know you're a big time sharks

observer.

And I want to ask you your thoughts on this, they have the most games left.

They have the most unlikely story, because of where they've had to come from, but they

do have Maclin, Celebrini, and they seem to have this crazy moxie that they just have

a swagger, right?

And that counts for something.

It does count for something and it's like, I feel like on the, the, the, the, the, the

San Jose sharks could very well get in just off Maclin, Celebrini's co-dails and the

himself, which would be, would be something for his sophomore season, right?

But it's what's interesting about them is they are also very streaky.

The San Jose sharks lost a huge chunk of their last games, including, I think it was like

one of the games was against Nashville recently, or the 63 game against Nashville, and they

just could not beat the, the Buffalo Sabers for whatever reason, and the two games they played

against Buffalo.

Like, and those are the top of the division now, Rob, and the Sabers are not the doorman

anymore.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm not saying as a knock to Buffalo, but I'm saying that like, because

of how hot the sharks were, you think that they'd be feeling the momentum in fighting

in each of those games, but it didn't seem like they did.

That's why I don't know what that, what, what, which version of the San Jose sharks were

going to see in that down the road.

If you're seeing that can celebrate any 100% perfect chemistry with Will Smith and Tyler

to Foley, but I'm, then I would, I honestly, Tom, I would be scared.

I would be like, oh, my God, this team is going to fight.

I feel like nobody wins or loses decisively like the sharks, and Tom, what do you mean by

that?

64 of their 71 games have been decided in regulation of the clump of teams outside

the wild card, kings, crack and jets, sharks, blues.

The 33 regulation wins for the sharks is the most.

But so is the 31 regulation losses.

They actually have a better win percentage than Winnipeg, a little bit worse than LA and

Seattle.

I look at that and I think to myself, boy, if, if San Jose can win some of those games

in regulation, that bodes so well for them because that keeps those critical, I'll call

it the third point out of the hands of other teams, and they have the most time, the longest

runway to get their act together and push on in.

Even though they have the biggest gap to overcome, I don't know how you can not, but they

do have those, as you mentioned, those three games in hand at the time we're recording

this show.

Right.

By the time you guys are listening to this, I'll be probably too, because they play a game,

they're going to be playing a game after we record this episode.

They play the blues.

We won't know what the results of that game will be yet, but they're upcoming games against

Nashville.

Again, we talked about Nashville.

There are two games between those two teams.

Back Tom, those two games alone, depending on again, how, what Los Angeles does, those

two games alone could very well decide who is in and who's out.

Yeah, it easily could.

And Robin, I know you've watched Celebrini a lot.

I know you've been paying attention.

Here's my question to you.

Is Maclin Celebrini the type of player in year number two, the kind of player that can

carry this team on his back and into a playoff room watching enough to get in there?

Yes.

To do a run, of course, not quite yet.

He's still very young, but I do think he's got enough to get it in.

It does hope he's got to, that he's got the support of his best linemate and Will Smith.

Right.

Like, whatever it is that they worked, that they, how they communicate with each other,

it's like them.

It's wild.

It really is.

I think that's why alone, they, even though they still have the highest amount of points

to overcome to get back in, they still are the one I'm still watching for the most.

I, I think that's a great pick.

I really do.

And so you've got LA Seattle, Winnipeg, and then Anaheim Edmonton, Vegas.

I want to talk about Vegas here on the other side of the break because I think we have

to John Torturella has revealed a little bit more of what he wants to see out of Vegas

and Kenny stop essentially the free fall for the Golden Knights and then we'll give you

a maybe one more team to keep an eye on.

So we'll talk about that here in a second.

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Tom Callahan, Robin Leonio here with you and we are taking a look at the teams in the

Western conference, the wild card chase, trying to give it the teams to focus on.

We're going to talk about Vegas, want to say thank everybody for making us your first

list and each and every single day when it comes to this locked on mammoth podcast and

this Utah mammoth hockey team and of course you're making locked on the number one sports

podcast network.

Robin the every dayers have been chatty in the every day or discord and we'll tell you

more about the every day or club in just a little bit, but I know the the feeling has

been cautiously optimistic for this Utah mammoth team here lately.

So we say hey, it's basically the Pacific race, although national is crept into it now and

currently occupied as a wild card.

I don't know that I feel confident national will still be there in the end, but I will

say that Vegas, with a new coach coming in here, let me give you a gambling pun.

This is the biggest crap shoot out of all of these teams because one of two things is going

to happen.

So clearly Vegas hit the panic button, right?

You're not changing your coach with eight games left unless you're freaking out and you

think that something is so wrong in your room that you are in the process of flaming out.

So you bring it on Torrella.

Eight games is not a lot of time.

Torrella says, I want to see this team play faster.

I want to see them play quicker to which I kind of laugh because I'm like, this is an

old and slow team now.

This team six years ago might have been able to play with speed, but we'll see what Torx

is able to do.

Robin, I think that Vegas, this is either going to go really well like seven and one down

the stretch, new coach, huge injection of life, or Vegas could kind of sputter and maybe

not even make a wild card.

And if that happens, then what you do, like it would be honestly wired to see what Vegas

would do it.

I've never really understood Vegas's moves like that.

I mean, what's interesting is I think about like some of the coaches that they've gone

by, right?

Like I remember when they first fired Galant, I was still like, that was a bit of a

shocker because they had not, because they had not really, they've only what missed.

I think that was like when they missed the playoffs the first time, right?

Like there was the first playoff miss and it was just barely in like their entire existence

because that was like four years, like four seasons.

And then they hire Pete the Boer and get to the, and they get to the conference finals

a couple of times again, because that's what Pete the Boer does, right?

Or firing him because of all that drama, and then Cassidy comes in, right?

So it's like, and wins a Stanley Cup and wins a Stanley Cup right now, like immediately,

immediately like Pete the Boer gets fired Cassidy comes in and they want to stand the

cup.

Wouldn't mind seeing them in.

Same colors.

Same.

Right.

All right.

Wouldn't that be something?

Right.

All right.

Wouldn't that be something?

But it's interesting that they made this decision now.

John Torterrella has got a, especially because we already talked about it.

He's got mixed opinions on people have mixed opinions on how he is as a coach, besides

being as a person as well, by the way.

But if they miss the playoffs, you're right.

What do they do?

Because they only, they've only given him a two week run away.

Short term, I do think he can come in and have a positive impact and kind of just shock

them back to reality and not only get them in, but get them going.

I don't know if they went around.

I don't, I don't think Vegas does win around.

But Robin, everybody's eyes are going to be on Vegas.

They have to be.

We all have to watch what happens to Vegas because whole if it doesn't go well.

It's going to be one entertaining shipwreck.

Oh my goodness.

It's already entertaining.

I mean, this is nuts like this is like how quickly they've been slowly moving down in

those standings.

Yep.

Yeah.

And sliding and sliding and like, so I look, I understand the move.

Like if they, if, but all at the same time, I was still wondering, were you not just

going to give him the, you know, just like, give him the end of the season and then

give him the boot right after that?

Or do you just have that high of high of expectations or the same?

I mean, look, I get it.

This team just got much more or less last off season.

So I know you have high expectations.

Everyone's got high expectations for this team.

But with how crazy the Pacific division is right now and like, and by crazy, I mean,

how cluster it is, I don't know, Tom.

Well, that's, that's one to watch out.

Robin, I'm going to give you one more team to watch.

I haven't gone to bat for them in a long time.

However, they've been hanging around and hanging around and they have a gold medal winning

gold tender.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the comeback story of the year.

My Winnipeg Jets are back, and we're back, I'm locked on there, Robin Leon, he was

like, nope, we are not going to do this.

Thanks, Robin.

No, we are doing this.

My Winnipeg Jets Robin, my Winnipeg Jets, they're, they're back, they could sneak into

Wildcard because they have Connor Hellebach because, yeah, they forgot how to play defense

earlier in the year.

But I'm just telling you, my team to watch.

So I'm just, I'm telling you, I got a feeling they're going to creep up out of nowhere.

You know why?

Because absolutely nobody's talking about nobody at all.

So that's my other team.

I'm going to watch the Jets down the stretch here.

I feel good about Winnipeg and what they can do, the damage they can do.

So Robin, is there anybody that I didn't talk about that you want to talk about before

we talk about Alex Kerfoot and the contributions coming from up and down this man with lineup?

I mean, the thing I'll say, Tom, because like, even though we're talking about teams that

are kind of right there on the bubble, I think it is still important to kind of mention

like where teams are and how much momentum they're going to be that a team can have going

into the postseason, especially if the team that could be a first round matchup for

Utah.

If we don't know at this point, still, like, I'm again, Anaheim is, they see Anaheim

is surging.

So there was a decent chance, but what if Edmonton, like somehow surges and overtakes them?

It's like, it's, again, there's a decent gap, right?

There is a decent gap at this point, but you don't know.

Or Utah falls and it has to face Colorado or even Dallas, if whatever, whoever really

ends up at the one in the central.

I think that's where my, my brain has been going towards Tom.

They're going towards those top teams, because I'm already ready for the, you know,

the first round.

I'm already, I'm already thinking playoffs.

I mean, it's, we hope it's going to happen.

I feel pretty likely it's going to happen.

I think money puck had it like 93 or 94% the other day.

It would, it would take a colossal collapse not to happen.

I hope that doesn't happen, but, you know, Utah basically, I think if they are slightly

better than 500 down the stretch, they should be just fine.

That said, what it's going to take for this mammoth team to get in and do some damage

is contributions from up and down the lineup.

Alex Kirk would have missed almost 50 games this year.

Actually, I think it was a little more than 50 games.

Now he looks like he's starting to put it together.

Robin, do you remember when we were talking about, you know, pending his return?

And I think a lot of people kind of overlooked it.

We did not, but how important the return of his veteran presence to this lineup was

going to be to the forward court.

Now, understandably, it's easy to highlight him when he scores twice last time out.

But Robin, I really believe that these veteran players that oftentimes get overlooked

are forgotten about like the schmitz, the coals, the, the curve foots.

These guys have to show up in the big moments and make an impact.

And this is their time.

And especially in the absence of a guy like Brandon Tanaev not making that impact,

I think that's why it's so important to have the return of a guy like Kirkfoot.

And Kirkfoot's, I mean,

how a his role is been so important because of those things, because he does those things that

we don't really talk about all that much.

I mean, we do talk about the physicality.

We do talk about those things in the back end.

But you and I know, Tom, that at the end of the day,

we still always want to talk about the top six guys.

We always want to talk about the scores, the ones you are making, the more heavy,

duty impact, even if it is a physical guy, right?

If it is like, let's say, like a gigantic bane or a loss in crowds.

Right? Because they're because they're still out there and you notice them.

Yes.

Kirkfoot is doing in the way where you don't have to notice them,

but when you do notice them, you're like, all right, he's doing a great job.

When you don't, he's like, okay, he's doing his job.

It's like, you never really have to worry almost with them.

Like he's like, and I think that's the important part with them.

It's like he's never really had terrible games.

Robin, would you know that Kirkfoot was on a four game point streak if I didn't tell you?

No.

Three goals to assist five points last four games.

And is starting to get increased minutes.

So, and it's gone up almost every game.

So March 20th against Anaheim, 10 and a half, and then the 22nd and 24th, 12 and a half.

And now the 26th and 28th, almost 14 minutes, 1342 and then 1355 against the kings.

I think you can see Andri Torney is putting the trust back in Alex Kirkfoot.

I think that they need Kirkfoot to be a big contributor right now.

And other guys, I'm going to circle like those mid-tier guys that need to contribute right now.

This is where you need the Carconees and the Krausses and honestly wake up J.J.

Pettorca because you're becoming a mid-strat guy that the Kyler Yamamoto's,

those guys need to make something happen.

And they're the ones who can make this transition to a playoff team so much easier

for the Utah Mammoth. They've got to show up and I want to see them show up.

But you know what? I just want to highlight Kirkfoot because I'm loving what he's doing

and how he's doing it right now. And I just hope he's able to continue to lead on that front.

And look, they need more hits. They need to create them in from the puck.

They need more forechecking. They need more smart puck battles.

He's a guy who can lead him in that. And I hope he does because they need it.

They really do. I mean, this Utah team, we've talked about what their identity should be,

but we don't get that all the time. Right.

And that's why someone like Kirkfoot is all that important to be able to kind of impose that.

Vegas fires the coach with hate games left. Utah works on his culture.

So I don't know.

That's that's kind of I don't look let me be clear on this. I don't want to fire the coach

for the games left. I don't think there's a world in which I would do that.

I don't know, especially now. Yeah, I just wouldn't do that. I don't know. But I mean,

hey, if we do have to go shopping in the summer, it's nice to have that name on your list.

So we'll talk about all that stuff a little bit later on. But Robin and I are here with you.

The entire week long is we're leading up a nice little chance to rest here and recoup a little

bit for this Utah man with hockey team, but plenty of action for us to keep an eye on in this

Western wild card race as well. You can always drop comments on the YouTube side. Robin,

if they want to reach out to us on social media, where can folks find us these days?

You're we're available everywhere on social media that's at locked on mammoth that's at locked

on mammoth. You can finally personally and active mostly over on Twitter at Robin underscore

Leonio. And you can find me on Blue Sky at Tom Talks and on Twitter at Callahan on air.

And as Robin's flag will tell you in the background, it is time to bear down. And there you go.

Get ready for what you know what we're watching the tournament and all that we're having a lot

of fun, just like everybody else at March Madness. My bracket is only still alive because of Arizona.

So they better win it all. But yeah, that's all I got going. Everybody else is is gone. I did a

horrible job this tournament, except for Arizona. So all right. Well, thanks for joining us everybody.

We'll catch up with you again tomorrow and look forward to chatting some more Utah man with hockey

with you for Robin. I'm Tom. Thanks for being a part of locked on mammoth.