The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Hockey Show: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Comparisons
Fri, 13 Dec 2024
Roy and David are back after a couple weeks up to catch up on all the latest around the world of hockey! Ian Kennedy joins the hockey show to discuss the growth and potential expansion of the PWHL, and the gang also explores whether Paul Bissonnette is built like Dwyane The Rock Johnson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
You're listening to DraftKings Network.
This holiday at T-Mobile, I'm joined by a special co-anchor. What up, everybody? It's your boy, Big Snoop D-O-double G. Snoop, let's talk about T-Mobile. Okay, cool. This holiday, get four lines for $25 a line, plus four iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence and the all-new camera control on us. Let's get cracking like a breakfast egg. You can use those eggs to make some eggnog, Snoop. Respect.
And people do love T-Mobile, where you can save on every plan versus the other big guys when you switch. You know, y'all can take some of those savers and buy some Snoop merchandise. Always a great stocking stuffer, Snoop. We up out of here. Hold your horses, Snoop D-O-double G. Let's remind people one more time. Head to T-Mobile.com and get four iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence on us.
Plus four lines for 25 bucks.
Now drop that joke. With 24-month bill credits for eligible trade-ins and four new lines of auto-pay, well-qualified customers get taxes and fees and $35 per line connection charge. Contact us before canceling entire accounts to continue remaining bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreements due 999.99. Credits end if you pay off device early.
See how you can save on wireless streaming versus the other big guys at T-Mobile.com slash switch. Apple Intelligence requires iOS 18.1 or later.
This episode is brought to you by Bleacher Report. How do you follow sports? From college football to the NBA, Bleacher Report brings you the latest news, live scores and epic highlights from your favorite leagues, teams and athletes all in one app.
Dive into exclusive shows hosted by your favorite athletes and original Bleacher Report series with breaking news, rumors and predictions all season long. Download Bleacher Report to personalize your coverage.
Hello, welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork of the Hockey News is to my left. Rose Arias is in the other studio, busy posting thirst traps on Instagram. What the hell was that?
That was not a thirst trap.
That looked like a thirst trap to me.
Rose just posted a picture of herself looking beautiful, and you just got to throw her up to something.
Hey, listen, man. She felt like she looked cute. And she posted a picture.
Felt cute. Posted a picture. My hair was beautiful. Go see.
Natural, right?
Yeah, natural. Natural. No makeup, not anything. You were just being a dad.
That's a hot take right there. I am being a dad, yeah.
Yeah, that's my hot take. You're being a dad.
Yeah, well, when you get people sliding into your DMs, that's your fault. Okay, well, you deal with that. We'll deal with slap shots. Let's start with the hot takes. Dave, go ahead.
All right. Hot takes for last week. Let's see. Where am I?
You're in the hot take section.
Yes, hot takes.
Slap shots.
All right. So my hot take is Colorado Avalanche are now my pick to come out of the West after making the trade from Mackenzie Blackwood last week. This guy is, as we see some footage of him just making some ridiculous saves this year, this guy played out of his mind for San Jose this year. He's actually been kind of an under-the-radar elite goaltender since his time in New Jersey.
He never was really on a really good team. He goes to San Jose, uh, playing excellent on a team, a decent Sharks team that doesn't really defend that well. Now he goes to an Avalanche team. They can score, as we know. They can defend a lot better than a Sharks team defend. And they may be getting Gabe Landestad back at some point.
They've already got a pretty stacked roster with Ranton and Kael McCarr. I think the Avs are going to go to the Stanley Cup Final now.
Okay. Wow. So Edmonton's not going to repeat. Do you think Edmonton and Colorado will... Well, I don't think they're going to end up in the conference final.
Well, they could, right? Because they're in the different divisions, I think. But either way, I don't think... Right now, until... It's like last year. They've got to get their back end shored up. Because if they can't keep the puck out of the net, no matter how many times Sidney Crosby and Leon Dreisaitl, who's scoring like a maniac this year... Sidney Crosby. Oh, Conor McDavid.
Sorry, Roy, I'm just infusing superstars. Why are you doing that to me? That's what the NHL wants. I see Conor McDavid a lot less than I see Sidney Crosby on my TV. That's very unfortunate.
We love Sidney Crosby.
Don't you ever, ever say that ever again. Blasphemy. Jeez. Rose, keep posting the throw straps. All right, Roy, do you have a hot take for us? I do. Now, for the past couple of episodes, I've been saying that a couple of coaches might get fired, and... That hasn't happened yet, so I might be wrong about this as well.
But I'm going to take it a step higher with a general manager that just might be fired as well. He might be short on time, and that is Kevin Adams in Buffalo.
Yeah. Yeah. Shut up. Get off the pot time.
Yeah. I mean, he's been there for five years. His best season was a couple years ago. They had 91 points. They were still fifth in the division. I mean, that's how competitive the Atlantic Division is. I mean, that's pretty rough. They can't even get a wild card out of that. He's been there for five years. He's been there since COVID, June 2020. Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs in 14 seasons. No.
In five no seasons, he hasn't. Brought them there. A lot of talent has left. Reinhardt left. Eichel left. Brandon Montoya left. Linus Ohlmark left. And all four of them. Forgot about Ohlmark. All four of them ended up being champions. Now, look at how the Eichel situation wound up. And how the Sabres...
Completely botched that one as far as his injury is concerned like that's just like why would you want to go there? It's not exactly this and he said so like it's not a destination like places that have palm trees now He was taught you that was a shot across the barrel for both, Florida and Tampa Like you're not a good team. You're not a good team.
You brought back Lindy Ruff like as much as I like the move that hasn't worked out at all and They've progressed since that 91-point year, and it's gotten worse this year.
Well, he thought they were figuring it out, but what have they lost, like eight in a row right now or something? Yeah.
He's saying nothing is off the table. They're in sell mode, just like the Rangers are in sell mode. But they're in sell mode. But he's saying, and this is a quote, that he's not about to, quote-unquote, panic. That's a panic move, right?
I'm sure the fans love hearing that. What are we, rebuilding for the sixth straight year? What are they doing in Buffalo? Nothing. They've got some really good young stars. Tate Thompson is, like, amazing. Yeah. They've got some pieces there. But, yeah, like, you've got to build around it.
Yeah, and he hasn't done a good job. So it's, in my opinion, it's just short time right now. Borrowed time, actually. Borrowed time. Yeah. It wouldn't be surprising. Yeah, the five-year plan is not working out in Buffalo. So that's not a good situation. The wins of the week, David. Wins of the week.
All right. Hi, Rose. The wins of the week. My win of the week goes to Flyers rookie Matt Vey Mitchkoff and an unnamed Flyers fan. As we see the video here, Mitchkoff got thrown out. He got a game misconduct late in their game earlier this week against Utah. As he's walking out, some Philly fans are awesome. Some fans are like, hey, I've got a spare water bottle for whatever reason.
Why would somebody have a water bottle at the game? I don't know. Yeah, how do you bring that in? Maybe it was water bottle giveaway night is the only thing I can think of. But he's got his water bottle and he's got a Sharpie. And Mitch Koff, this awesome rookie who's playing amazing this year. Credit to him. Credit to the Flyers. Torts is getting a lot out of him.
But he signs the dude's water bottle. He's getting tossed out the game. I thought that was awesome. I think that's a win all around. I really like this rookie and I like what he's doing in Philly.
Torts at the presser, they brought it up to him. He had no idea.
No, but he laughed about it. He liked it too. So credit to Torts. You never know what you're going to get from Torts. I'm glad I haven't had to cover him on a beat just because he's probably scared the bejesus out of me.
I mean, we've seen his antics while he was Rangers head coach. I mean, you can ask Brooksy. Not a good situation between him and the New York Post, I'll tell you that. All right, so my win of the week. It's that time of year, around Christmas time, right, in the minors and major junior leagues, that the fans come in. And they throw teddy bears onto the ice. I love the teddy bear toss.
The teddy bear toss.
It's great.
It's that time of year. It's every Christmas. And in this situation, we're looking at the Berry Coats and the Ottawa 67s.
That's not very teddy bearish.
The 67s had scored. And apparently there was...
Actually, what happened was... Did I just see the Grinch involved in this?
Yeah. What happened was that one of the Colts players blocked one of the 67 players from getting... I love the Grinch.
He's like walking around.
Yeah, he blocked one of the players from celebrating the goal. Guys, this isn't very Christmassy, guys. He blocked one of the 67 players from celebrating the goal. And... And chaos ensued. Chaos ensued. So, yeah. So, again, for the audio audience, a goal was scored during the teddy bear toss situation. The fans were tossing teddy bears onto the ice.
One of the players got blacked from celebrating, and that caused a brawl while teddy bears were being tossed onto the ice. A line brawl while teddy bears are being tossed onto the ice.
And it is exactly what you're picturing in your head right now. I promise you.
Yes. As John Forslund says, that's hockey, baby. Oh, God.
That's just one of those things that's just like disgusting and awful when you look at it on the surface. But when you add the context of hockey, it's just it's home. You know, it's perfect. The only thing missing was like and probably best that we didn't see this and maybe I shouldn't even say it. But, you know, somebody like taking a teddy bear and using it as a weapon and like.
Oh, that happened last week at one of the Titty Bears. Of course it did. One of the players, one of the away players was not happy that his team allowed the goal and then the table.
Oh, I saw that. He was like shooting them back into the stands.
He shot the Titty Bears back into the stands. That's not cool. Now, keep in mind, these Titty Bears are donated to children. to charities and to hospitals. So this guy is tossing with his stick. He's shooting the bears back into the stands. I think he got suspended again. Yeah, he did. He got suspended again, which is rightfully deserved considering the context. Like, what are you doing, man?
Fight another man. Don't take your frustrations out on a beautiful little teddy bear. That's going to make some kid very happy.
Yeah, don't take your anger out on the kids.
I have a win of the week. And mine is a jump. So instead of Kadri, he should be called Fadriel.
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah. Look at it.
Okay.
One, two, three.
Yeah, I just saw that last night. That is an amazing goal by Naz and Kadri.
There you go. That's my win.
You're going to love it because this kind of works with my next video, my fail of the week.
All right. So to describe this for the audio audience, it was Lightning at Flames. Nazem Khadri had taken the puck away from one of the Lightning players who was barely first on the ice. And he had to leap over him. And then I don't think it kind of. No, that was mine. Yeah. Yeah, it didn't look like Conor McDavid. That's his fellow of the week, actually. That's David's fellow of the week.
But yeah, Nazem Khadri hopped over. Was not balanced, by the way. So he had to spin, unbalanced, shot it on net, and scored for the Flames. It was a great goal. It's going to be one of the goals. It probably was the goal of the week, actually.
Yeah, it was good. Good on Nazem Khadri. All right, fellas of the week, David. All right, mine, we just saw it, if you want to roll it back. It was also against the Lightning on the road in Alberta. This time, they just decided to not defend Connor McDavid. I mean, he came from his own blue line, took a beeline straight down the middle of the ice, cut through everybody.
Vasilevsky's probably like, what the hell's going on? I see four of my guys, and suddenly I'm facing a breakaway.
I'm like...
Puck, blue line, McDavid gone. Bye-bye. Four guys surrounding him. Nobody touches him. He barely moves as the puck is just kind of flicked over his blocker. I don't know. This guy is like the best hockey player in a generation. Maybe we should keep an eye on him. Maybe we should defend him. I don't know. But not a good look for Tampa. They're not having a very fun trip through Alberta.
It doesn't look like.
Now, keep in mind where McDavid received the puck. He received the puck at the faceoff that it's nice. And he split three. Three players there. So, yeah, not good defense at all. Defense optional. Defense optional. My fail of the week comes from one of the suspects in the Paul Bissonnette jumping. Here he is talking about describing Paul Bissonnette.
I don't let you know that whenever you see this guy, if you see this guy and me fighting in a parking lot, you'd say, he's going to beat the fuck out of him. He's got a lick of fat on him. He's fucking tremendous. He's got a giant tattoo. He's put like Dwayne The Rock Johnson. My uncle's 50 fucking year old. Is he a white guy, black guy, Hispanic?
He's an Hispanic guy with black hair and a black beard. And he was pushing and shoving just as much as everybody else. But that's whenever I showed up.
So that's an automatic L. The reason why that's an automatic L is you think that Paul Bissonnette is built like The Rock. Well, he's a Hispanic Rock, apparently.
Really? He made that comparison? Well, first he said he was like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, then he said he was like his Hispanic guy.
Yeah. I mean, that's kind of like saying Brett Goldstein looks Hispanic because he has a beard on Ted Lasso. Of course, he shaved it off for shrinking. But no, man. First of all, that's racist. Second of all, that's stupid. These guys aren't exactly cracking the atom or anything. I mean, they were drunk at the time, yeah.
It seems like that's their M.O., is they just travel around getting drunk, starting fights, and in this case, they just started the fight with the wrong guy, because there were six of them, and the six of them couldn't take down Biz. Yeah. And he got, what was it, he took some, he gave some more, is that what he said?
Yeah. Of course, Biz in his career is probably used to scrums.
I would imagine. You spend a career getting punched and punching, and he has some experience. And he's also like, we've been around Biz. I wouldn't say he's Dwayne the Rock Johnson, and he's not going out for Too Fast, Too Furious. He's fit, but he's not that fit. Well, nobody's that fit. He's not fitted like that. I feel like this is going in a downward spiral.
And I'm trying to say, like, Biz is, like, built. He's a tough dude. He's not The Rock, but nobody's The Rock. But Biz, I wouldn't. Biz could probably flick his finger and knock me out cold. I would not want to mess with Biz. So these guys, I'm glad they got what was coming to them.
Keep in mind, he's in that DraftKings commercial. He's in the shower. So if you want to look at how fit he is, then you can look at that commercial. Not throwing the Rock Johnson, but good for a hockey player.
Yeah.
Yeah. Rose has a fail.
Yeah, it's not a fail of the week.
And it's not you getting pepper sprayed? It's not a fail of the week.
Look, no, it's not a fail of the week. It's just a fail. Go.
What am I watching? Okay, so a woman right now is trying to close the door with her foot.
Rose, nothing to do with hockey. Absolutely not. It's just some lady who tried to close her door and failed like three times. It's hilarious. I love that one. The fake booty bump. And then she's basically... She left the window open, by the way.
That's the other thing.
You know what? As much as this has nothing to do with hockey, I'm okay with Rose putting some nonsensical video and us spending 30 seconds on it. Because that made me laugh.
You're very welcome.
Yeah. Very Rose.
That's very Rose. All right. So. I'm on brand. This week in hockey, what have you noticed?
Let's see. I've noticed that the Panthers are out West. Yeah. Yes, they are.
Late times.
Yeah. I've noticed that I don't enjoy West Coast games as much as I used to. No. Because now I'm writing until 2 in the morning, and then today I had to wake up early. But what am I noticing is, as I kind of glance through the standings right now, I'm really enjoying watching the Washington Capitals, and I'm afraid of what's going to happen when Alex Ovechkin comes back.
Oh, yeah.
Because they're already playing so well. The moves they made in the offseason were great. Obviously, the move that they made at the draft getting Logan Thompson, Jacob Chikrin has been great for them. It's just it's fun. And I don't think we saw it coming. No, absolutely not. That's almost what makes it better.
And I'm sure you're more than happy to see OV having a much better season than your buddy Sidney over there in Pittsburgh because those just always kind of tied into each other. But it's interesting because right now the Capitals are leading the Metro. They're ahead of the Rangers.
That is a whole different situation with the Rangers.
I'm not selling off the Rangers just yet just because they've got some good players and they've got an amazing goalie, but they've got to figure their shit out right now.
Keep in mind, though, the Capitals, although this is a shorter time frame for Florida when it happened to them, playing without the best player on the team through the injury has still played extremely well. It's exactly the same thing Florida had to go through. And once OV returns, it's going to be. That's a really good point. Yeah. It's going to be really, really interesting in the Metro.
So there's that. So, hey, it's a fun time right now in hockey. So we're talking about the men, though. We're going to switch to the women because we are going to talk to Ian Kennedy of the Hockey News. I'm excited for this. We've been meaning to get to the PW for a while. Yes, yes. And I'm glad that we're going to have him on.
Ian Kennedy of the Hockey News is going to join us next to talk about the PWHL and them in the second season right now. And we're going to take a look at how the season is going. We're going to talk about the differences between season one and season two. Ian Kennedy is coming up next.
I'm trying out for the PW Women's Hockey League.
I'll be there for that. Learn how to hit. You have my support.
It's the holidays. People are shopping for great gifts. One of the great gifts that I always like depending on is something experiential, like going to a sporting event. There's nothing like it, especially when the stakes are ratcheted up high, especially when it's a game that everybody wants to go to. Well, sometimes those games are sold out.
and you have no other option than to go to the secondary market. Well, go to the industry leader. That's right. For my money, it is the absolute best one out there, GameTime. And guess what? GameTime is focused on togetherness this holiday season. That means when you bring people together at live events, the experience is that much better. Makes for the perfect gift.
People listen to me when I say that. And they have this amazing new feature, Game Time Picks. With Game Time Picks, it helps to make curation easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and more. And it's got that beautiful toggle option, all in pricing. Toggling this feature shows up the total amount up front. No surprise fees at checkout. That is huge.
Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code DAN for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime.
The Professional Women's Hockey League has started its season. This is the second year that they have been in existence. And they have names now. They have uniforms. Can you believe that?
Yeah, uniforms and everything.
It's really great. It's great. Just like Major League.
They're cool looking, though. I gotta say, they did a pretty good job.
Yeah, I think so, too. Ian Kennedy of the Hockey News joins us. He's the author of Ice in the Veins, Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck. He covers women's hockey and the PWHL in its second season has names. So it has branding. Has there been any positive increases as far as money is concerned into the league with this new branding?
I mean, the fans are eating this stuff up right now. The merchandise, even in Season 1 when there wasn't any, the PWHL had a very difficult time keeping things on the shelves, and they were out of stock almost immediately. But I think it was pretty impressive when we saw the home openers over the last week, and you saw how many jerseys were actually in the stands already. That was...
Really remarkable to see that kind of presence right off the bat. So it's a big thing for the league definitely to have those names and logos out there. People are attaching themselves to the identities already. We're getting lots of fun stuff coming up out of it. So it was definitely a big step forward for the league from their generic city names last year.
So one thing I wanted to ask you about in terms of, I guess it kind of falls into that rank, the attendance numbers. I know they've gone up from year one to year two. I believe I read that they're averaging about 1,000 fans per game more than they were at this time last year, which is pretty impressive considering that's about, what, a 20% increase.
I also know that there have been games where they've done larger venues and they've gotten some really big crowds. So how excited have they been by the attendance numbers and the way that they've been increasing year over year?
I think they were excited from year one. They exceeded all expectations right there and then. But season two has really got off to an exciting start with the attendance levels. I mean, Montreal had to move into a bigger venue and they brought just over 10,000 people to their first game. Toronto had to move to a bigger venue that seats...
You know, just over 8,000 and they're pretty much selling that out every game. So that's really exciting. But when you look at the neutral site games, whether it's at Scotiabank in Toronto or this season, they're going to go out to Vancouver and Edmonton and they've already sold out both of those venues. Quebec City's over 17,000 for their game. Seattle looks pretty full. Denver looks pretty full.
It's all really positive. The market's been there for professional women's sports for decades.
a decade right now or longer but hockey's just catching up and we're seeing that the the people are ready fans are ready for this not just in the six markets they're in but obviously there's lots of talk of expansion coming as soon as next season and the attendance numbers in some of those games this year are really going to be deciding factors for what markets get new teams
All right, so we have added attendance. We're going to have added teams coming up soon. Aside from the branding portion of it, in a business sense, what has the league learned?
I think they're learning every single game. There's a lot of items that they're still catching up on, from social media to the broadcasting being a huge aspect that they're still trying to figure out. We saw a really early season switch from... some YouTube games to Twitch, which was not really well received by fans.
But I mean, in Canada, they've got Amazon Prime, CBC, TSN covering pretty much every game that there is. And in the United States, it's a little more regional. Nessun up in New England and
We've got some great coverage in New York with MSG, but they're still looking for a national broadcasting partner in the United States, and I think that's going to be probably dependent on expansion again because you can't have a national broadcaster that's not a national league. It's a regional league right now, and I think that they recognize the need to switch that as well.
Has any of the national broadcasters... Do you have a lead in who would take the product? Would it be ESPN? Would it be TNT? Or would it be someone like a USA?
Historically, ESPN Plus was the broadcaster for a lot of women's leagues in the past, including the previous iteration of the PHF. So I could see ESPN being right in on that conversation, but One thing that we have seen a little bit of a trend is that the PWHL is following the NHL's footsteps and a lot of the business decisions.
And I think that we might see them targeting similar partnerships that the NHL have. And so, you know, anybody's guess right now, but I'd say the ESPN Plus or ESPN in general is probably the leading contender at the moment.
You mentioned expansion before. One thing that kind of crossed my mind as I researched a little bit, thinking about the expansion idea, is that a lot of the teams seem to be struggling to hang on to their reserve players, which I would think would make it difficult for expansion just because are there enough players to fill a couple more teams?
Now, I know that might tie into the fact that the reserve players don't get the same benefits and pay that the rostered players get, but is that something that could impact expansion, do you think?
The talent pool is the number one thing the league's looking at. They've mentioned this a number of times. They feel like they've got the on-ice product right. And I believe that too. I think that a lot of people, men's hockey fans in particular, that watch this league are really excited and surprised by the level of play that's there. It is elite. The skill level is right off the charts.
But there's a huge wave of talent coming online. Maybe not in this 2025 draft, but the 2026 draft is just loaded. I mean, pretty much the best players from the United States national team right now, like Carolyn Harvey, that was... You know, USA Hockey Player of the Year last year, Layla Edwards, who was the World Championship MVP.
There's a huge group that's going to be coming in over the next two years. And that's probably what we're looking at in terms of expansion. I don't know if they'll do two teams this year because of that. the talent coming in, but there's definitely globally enough women's hockey talent to expand this league quickly and still keep that level of play high and some parity across the board.
Well, I've already said that the National Hockey League has done a bad job of promoting its players. I mean, Lord knows I'm tired of seeing Sidney Crosby on my television. They've been doing that for 20 years. How can the Women's Hockey League, how can the PWHL learn from the missteps of the NHL?
Uh, I would say that they should not follow the NHL in pretty much any way. That's my personal opinion. Uh, I think that, you know, avoiding watching what the NHL does and then doing the opposite might be better, but, uh, they have the good thing about this league is they have an incredible amount of intelligent, uh, big personality people. I mean, we're not talking about, uh, women here.
This is a league of people with master's degrees, doctorate degrees. They are all university students that have come out of there. They're really well-spoken, articulate people. They're fun. I mean, if you look at their social media platforms, they are actual people. It's not that kind of
you know, the NHL, I find that a lot of players get programmed to be these little robots and give you the same six word answer every single time, like pucks deep, you know, all that stuff, all the cliches are there. But when you talk to these players in this league, you're getting really thoughtful, insightful answers.
And I think that the marketability for that, uh, to let fans see the players in this league as people, not just as hockey players, which is what a lot of research shows us that, uh, Fans want to know those players better. So I think this league has a huge leg up on the NHL in that regard, for sure. And I think they're going to embrace that and really lean into it.
Should the players actually promote themselves? Players like Sarah Nurse have done an excellent job of promoting themselves.
If you go on Instagram and you type in Whoever, Emma Malte, Callie Flanagan. I mean, these might be players that some people don't know, but you're going to see them doing fun things and you're going to see them engaging with fans. They're in the community all the time. Brands are really latching on. We saw Sarah Fillier just signed an exclusive deal with Upper Deck the other day to put out...
unique merchandise and specific cards for her. And we're seeing these partnerships coming more and more. The market, again, is there. And the brands also see the big personality of these players, the relatability of the players. There's a huge market that's being filled right now that was empty before.
And it's a really exciting time, not just for the players, but for businesses and brands and hockey in general.
You mentioned the incoming class of talent and how the influx could really help the league, but right now the rookie class has been doing really good as well. You mentioned Sarah Fillier and what she's been doing in New York, Dominique Petrie in Minnesota. Just wanted to get your thoughts on how great the incoming class has been this season.
Spectacular. I mean, Fillier has just blown the roof right off the league. She's... Pretty much doing it all right now. And I think that's just a testament to the fact about women's hockey is that there's as much talent, high end talent outside of this league still as there is inside the league.
I mean, you look at the USA's national team and there's like 10 players that are still in the NCAA and every single one of them. could step in and make an immediate impact, like Abby Murphy, who, if she declares this year, will be undoubtedly the first overall pick.
But the league is filled with great players that have just come in, whether it's veteran Europeans like Ronja Salvalainen or Daniela Pejava, along with those domestic players, whether it's Hanna Bilka, Kayla Barnes, Daniel Serdakny, who was the second overall pick just behind Philly A. Big body, really intelligent. Scored the golden goal for Canada this year.
I mean, the league is continuing to get better. And anyone that watched last year and is just tuning in this year, it's really clear that There is no gap now. Fourth line to first line is pretty level across the board.
There's good players up and down lineups, and we're seeing really excellent professional hockey players that aren't able to stick on rosters right now in year two, and that's just impressive.
You mentioned last year, and we know Minnesota won the championship. The way too early predictions here. What do you have?
I look at someone like Toronto and I see the depth that they have up front. Once they start to click, I think they're going to be a really difficult team to deal with. They've got basically two lines of senior national team players. Minnesota keeps finding a way to do it early on, but there's some dark horses.
I mean, Ottawa last year was probably a team that had more bad luck than anybody could have imagined. at all predicted.
And an overworked goalie.
100%.
I mean, you can't play one goaltender the entire season. I think that she got a game and a half off or a game and a period. That's it. But it's anybody. And I think that's the really interesting part about this league is Minnesota last year came into the playoffs on a horrific slump. Wins it all. This year, it could be the same thing. The parity is...
right there night in, night out, where whoever was last place last year could consistently beat the first place team this year. So it's really exciting. It's like every fan base doesn't have to go through that. This is our year gig. It really could be any team's year. Probably right now for the next three or four years, we're going to see that parody.
He wrote the book Ice in the Veins, Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck. And he writes for the Hockey News. He covers women's hockey. He is Ian Kennedy. Ian, thank you very much for joining us.
Thanks for having me, guys.
This episode of the Dan Levitard Show with Stu Gatz is sponsored by Liquid IV. The holidays are not a sprint, ladies and gentlemen. They are a marathon. It's a stressful, busy weekend, right? There's a lot of traveling, a lot of kissing babies, shaking hands, a lot of stuff. We'll see you next time. True to fruit flavors that keep you hydrated.
Find all your favorite hydration multiplier flavors on the website from acai berry and lemon lime to pina colada, or choose from the line of sugar-free flavors like raspberry, melon, white peach, and green grape. Tear, pour, live more. One stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than with water alone. Stay hydrated through the holidays with Liquid IV.
Get 20% off your first order of Liquid IV when you go to liquidiv.com and use code DAN at checkout. That's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code DAN at liquidiv.com.
Folks, listen up. Smirnoff knows there's no I in football. Football's a we thing, an experience that is best joined together with good drinks and good folks. Smirnoff is the world's number one vodka and is the official vodka partner of the NFL. And this year, there are more opportunities to watch football and make delicious Smirnoff cocktails than ever before over the holiday season.
From Thanksgiving to Black Friday and Christmas, Smirnoff and the NFL are with you every step of the way. So this holiday season, when you're enjoying the game and your cocktails, please make sure you drink responsibly. Take a minute, make a plan, never drive impaired. Smirnoff, we do game days. Please drink responsibly. Smirnoff, number 21 vodka, distilled from grain, 40% alcohol by volume.
The Smirnoff Company, New York, New York. Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age.
All right, it's time for our Panthers update because that's the team we cover. Yes, it is. So if you got any complaints about that, you can kiss my ass. Or you can pay us to cover another team, I guess.
I guess.
The relocation would be a little pricey. Yeah, yeah. You can't afford me. The Florida Panthers apparently are slated to host an outdoor game at Lone Depot Park next season. Yeah. And I'm kind of excited. We're going to an outdoor game. We're going to an outdoor game.
Yeah, man. I mean... I don't know if it's going to be outdoor. Is the roof going to be open? It's going to depend on how the weather is when we get there. But this is cool, man. We've been talking about this for a while. I don't know if I ever actually believed that it was going to happen. I don't think I've actually processed in my brain that it's happening in South Florida. We're going to go.
The Panthers are going to be the center of the NHL universe for a little while. We don't know yet whether it's going to be a winter classic game. We don't know if it's going to be. We know it's not going to be stadium series. That's what we've been told.
I mean, that's later in the season.
So I'm not sure, but it's happening. That's what's really cool about it. I'm curious who the Panthers are going to play. I've heard a couple teams thrown out, but nothing for sure yet. I'm pumped, dude. This is going to be awesome.
Yeah, that's going to be great. I thought it was going to be Tampa, but hey, listen, Gary Bettman, we've had definite criticisms about your tenure, but yeah.
Our goal, our new goal. Our old goal was the Stanley Cup. We got there. This one, we will have to skate on that ice.
Holy shit. Okay. All right. Okay.
We'll see.
We'll see. We will see. We will see. All right. So the Panthers faced the Seattle Kraken earlier this week. They won in a shootout. And before the game happened, Josh Mahura and Brandon Montour received their rings finally.
Yes. Well-deserved. Obviously, we missed the herd dog, and Montour was amazing. A fun game. Maybe great for Joey Decord. Stood on his head for Seattle. Yeah. And then the Panthers put some fireworks up in the shootout.
The Panthers only needed, basically, Alexander Barkov, Sam Reinhardt, and Sergey Bobrovsky.
Barkov turned to court. He gave him a brain pretzel on that one. Reinhardt, he had no chance of stopping Reinhardt after that happened to Barkov. He might as well have just gone to the locker room.
Yeah, he's one of the best backhands in the league.
Barkov has a ridiculous... I mean, we've seen it for years, how good he is on the shootout. But right here, when he made that little fake move, and you freeze the goalie mid-shootout, that's game over. As a goaltender, it's the worst. And he had no chance here on the Reinhardt shot.
And the Panthers' defense has been... Very good. They were very good in this game. But last night in Vancouver, they lost 4-0. And the defense kind of stifled them as far as shots are concerned. But the rush defense was not good. And that's basically how the Canucks scored their goals.
Yeah, hopefully it's a one-off, as Paul Maurice said after the game. We'll find out in their next game in Calgary. But, yeah, very unlike the Panthers to see him giving up that many rush opportunities.
JT Miller returned from injury after a month and got two assists and the first star. Good for him. And the fans absolutely loved it. The Panthers will face the Flames tomorrow. Ryan Longberg will get his ring, and we are done for this week. We'll see you next week for the end of the year, the last episode of the year. See you then. Okay, goodbye.
It's the holidays. People are shopping for great gifts. One of the great gifts that I always like depending on is something experiential like going to a sporting event. There's nothing like it, especially when the stakes are ratcheted up high, especially when it's a game that everybody wants to go to.
Well, sometimes those games are sold out and you have no other option than to go to the secondary market or go to the industry leader. That's right. For my money, it is the absolute best one out there. Game time. And guess what? Game Time is focused on togetherness this holiday season. That means when you bring people together at live events, the experience is that much better.
And it makes for the perfect gift. People listen to me when I say that. And they have this amazing new feature, Game Time Picks. With Game Time Picks, it helps to make curation easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and more. And it's got that beautiful toggle option, all in pricing. Toggling this feature shows up the total amount up front. No surprise fees at checkout.
That is huge. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code DAN for $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime.
It is Ryan Seacrest here. Everybody needs some variety in life. That's what I love about Chumba Casino. They know how to keep things fresh and exciting. All their games are free to play. Like spin slots, bingo, and solitaire. You can claim free daily login bonuses too. And they release new games every week. So spice things up with ChumbaCasino.com now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.
Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply.