The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Hockey Show: Trades, Fifth Chances, and the Spicy Ramen Challenge (feat. Greg Wyshynski)
Fri, 31 Jan 2025
On this week’s show, the NHL trades are flying, the takes are scorching, and Rose is suffering... She pays the price for hijacking The Hockey Show with the Spicy Ramen Challenge, and it’s absolute chaos. Meanwhile, Roy is fired up over the latest moves, and ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski joins us to break down all the action. Who won the biggest trades? Who got fleeced? Can Rose survive the heat? Find out on today's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hey, welcome back to the Hockey Show.
My name is Rose, and... Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I told you this was not happening ever again. You are not introing this show, all right? I am the host of this show. I don't know why. Oh, because... Because you like hockey? Yeah, that's true.
Because you have experience in front of a microphone? Yeah, well, so-called experience.
All right, so... Not if you ask Darren Pang. Yeah. I need more experience. Guy, experience the experience. All right, Dave's here. Rose is out there. Ethan, quote-unquote, feels icky. That's why he's not here.
Ethan's a not-so-healthy scratch.
Yeah. We will get into why there's a bowl of ramen in front of Rose in a second. But first, let's start with our slap shots. Hot takes first. David, go ahead.
Alright, my hot take comes from out west in Vancouver, and it's not, I don't know how hot of a take it is, I think we all can kind of agree on it, but Vancouver needs to get their shit together. Look at this poor guy, Linus Carlsen scored his first NHL goal in Nashville the other night. Nobody Gave a shit. Nobody picked up the puck. Nobody celebrated. This guy just scored.
The Lions was like, just going to take this puck, give it to a fan.
Put it back in the penalty box. Maybe use it later.
We talked a lot about the beef between JT Miller and Elias Pettersson, and it goes back a long time, and it's nasty what's happening in Vancouver. The season is bad for a lot of people, but dude. What's going on? Even the worst teams in the league have appreciation for their rookies. This team is so distracted in Vancouver that they cannot pay attention to something like that.
They really got to fix this. That was depressing to see.
Yeah, that sucks. You're getting your first goal. You need to celebrate that. You need to get the trainer out to get the tape on there and wrap it around.
Even the trainers on the bench, nobody was yelling, hey, get the puck, get the puck. Are they that distracted that they can't find the smallest joys in their life? It's frustrating and it's sad.
Rose, I can hear in the background just talking like she's not on the air, apparently.
Last week, we told her not to turn her mic off.
Yeah. Well, she's got chopsticks right now. She's fulfilling a punishment for wrecking the first segment of... Oh, no.
It's super spicy ramen. Yeah.
And we put wasabi.
They put like a toothpaste tube worth of wasabi in there. Her nose is already being filled. Oh, man.
Come on.
Big bite. Big bite, Rose.
Be a big girl.
But you kept going with your hot takes. This is my hot take.
That's her hot take. Her hot take is the spicy ramen. Roy, how about your hot take, Roy? All right. This is Matthew Kachuk. I'm aware. Being Matthew Kachuk. Doing Matthew Kachuk things. And my hot take is this is good for hockey no matter what anybody else says. This is him and Joel Edmondson in front of the net with net front battle. He pushed Edmondson into the net.
And Darcy Kemper ended up getting it into. That's the goaltender for the Kings, by the way. This is Panthers-Kings from Wednesday. Those two got together. The goalie got into it as well. And then all of a sudden, as usual, a scrum happens. Matthew Kachet loves getting under the skin of goalies. Absolutely. He's still good at it. He is very good at it.
If you remember the Panthers-Devils game in New Jersey, and that famous shot of him getting in a chokehold, that's Matthew Kachuk. Just his head was sticking out of the giant scrum pile. Yep, with his mouth guard out of his mouth.
I mean, even back to his first season with the Panthers when they went on that amazing playoff run, the first round against Boston, he was pissing off Olmark, he was pissing off Swayman, he was getting under everybody's skin.
He doesn't...
Yeah, he's not malicious. He doesn't go out there trying to hurt anybody, but he does the little jabs, the little pokes. You saw even in that video of the Kings when Kemper stayed out of the net, Kachuk was looking away from Kemper, but he still threw a fist in his direction. So he knows exactly what he's doing, and he's so good at it.
Yeah, and he's back on the second line with Sam Bennett, and Maggie Samuskiewicz is actually on that line now for the Panthers. So we'll talk about that in a little bit, but I expect a lot more hijinks and chaos coming forth with that line, who is actually playing better now with that line being together. Rose is laughing again. She's laughing or crying. Oh, man. We take another look at her.
She's going hard, though. Do you have to finish that whole bowl, Rose? Is that what we're doing here? Before the show ends?
I don't know why you told me.
You deserve the punishment from what happened last week.
That's what they used to do with me when I said a bad word. I had to eat something spicy.
That's why you stopped cursing, huh?
You were the one cursing, not me. I have to bleep it.
She used to sound just like us, but she swore so much as a child that she developed this accent because her tongue is like permanently swollen.
Oh, that sucks, man. I'm sorry, Rose, but yeah, you deserve it. Win of the week. Go ahead, Dave.
All right. I'm going to win. For this week's win of the week.
That's a loss for you.
I'm going to the PWHL for this one. Young goaltender, Kaylee Osborne. Yeah. uh... we don't have the video that's okay uh... but when it was good that kelly osborne rookie goaltender she was spectacular cold a university uh... in college but now her second pro start for the New York Sirens. She picks up a shutout in her hometown of Ottawa. Really cool situation.
And again, just the PW season has been really fun. The rookies have been spectacular this year, and now a goaltender is getting in on it. So good for Kaylee. Good for the Sirens getting the shutout. And just a really cool situation that I thought the video was great. I thought they celebrated her properly. Good job on that, Sirens. But just really cool. Give some goalie love to the young lady.
Kick her butt.
Good that we're talking about women's hockey. That's great. I'm very happy about that. My wins of the week. I have two of them. Hints me saying wins because yes is at the end of win in that situation. The first one comes from the ass of Arturi Lekanen. He finds a way to make a difference from his derriere.
This is Avalanche Islanders and as you can see Lekanen on the video is able to score in front of the crease while On his ass.
Wow, he didn't even move his lower hand. That's impressive.
Yeah. That's still a good pass by McKinnon, even though he probably noticed at the last second that his teammate was falling, but he was able to get it there. Good job. That was a very good job. And, of course, the New York Islanders, which... I will get into, because I'm very upset with them. Yeah, this sucks. The second win of the week is Capitals Canucks.
Charlie Lindgren was heading off the ice for the extra man, but noticed that there was a turnover in the neutral zone, and he supermanned a glove save. That's amazing. That is a ridiculous save that might be save of the year.
He couldn't have done that, by the way, if he wasn't a southpaw. No. Just FYI. Most goalies, their left hand is their left hand. Yep. For Kemper there, not Kemper. For Charlie Lindgren. For Lindgren there. That was so sick, though. I mean, how often do you see a goaltender with a Superman save?
Yeah, I mean, you've got to be out of position. Thoroughly out of position to be able to have to be forced to do that. So good on them, even though the Capitals ended up losing in that situation 2-1.
Capitals pretty happy with their goaltending. Yeah. They just locked up, what's his name from Vegas, Logan Thompson.
Yeah, Logan Thompson.
Six-year deal for like $6 million. That could be a good deal for them. Yeah. And then I read that they're looking to lock up Lindgren as well.
Yeah, good one too in that situation. Not trying to be like Boston for the past few years. Yeah, well. They priced themselves out, yeah. Yeah, yeah, in that situation. Before we go to the fails of the week, let's check in on Rose.
Yes, thank you. I have my wig on.
Oh, God, she sounds worse.
But we know the wig is somewhere there. Her face is swelling up. I have a video because it's Barky smiling, so everybody wants to see Barky smiling.
Oh, this is from the power play goal from the Kings-Panthers game.
Yeah, look at that smile.
Yeah, that's how he celebrates.
That's my win of the week.
Yeah, Alexander Barkov was named captain of Team Finland for the Four Nations tournament.
That was also part of my win of the week, but you took it from me.
Yeah, well, you can't talk because your throat is closed up from all the spiciness from wasabi.
Go Finland.
Go Finland. Go Finland. It's America, Jack.
I don't care. I'm going to go for Finland.
What was that, Dave? I haven't heard Rose sound this bad since she got sick after the parade. That was a disaster. She couldn't leave the house for a week. But she's not sick. She's just wasabied. Wasabi.
No, it's not just wasabi. I don't know what this has, but I cannot even talk. Do I have to finish it for real?
Yes. Fails of the week, Dave.
My fail of the week. Sorry. My fail of the week comes out of NYC. Vincent Trocek and the Rangers just having a disaster of a season. But here's Vincent Trocek on a shorthanded breakaway. Oh, my God. The Rangers are going to tie this game. Wait. He's going to make a drop pass. Oh, God. Jesus, no. No. So that's bad enough, right? Then what happens? Carolina takes the puck, goes down the ice.
Is there skating here? I'm just going to score a goal because I don't know what the hell Shostakovich was doing there. So from Vincent Trocek. on a breakaway to the puck in his own net.
That's the type of stuff that makes a head coach want to backskate his players in practice.
That may have single-handedly derailed the Rangers' turnaround because they were 8-1-3 in January. They've now lost two straight in regulation. So I don't know, man. The Rangers, what are they? They're five points out of the wild card right now. I mean, this is a team that people were thinking was going to come out of the East this year. They were two wins away from the Stanley Cup final last year.
Yeah, on the complete opposite side, even though they're going to end up with my fellow of the week, are the Detroit Red Wings. They have won 12 of their last 16. They are surging right now. But the fellow of the week came from the Kings-Red Wings game in an own goal. This was bad. That was bad. Off the faceoff, Merritt Sider, miscommunication in front of the net, and put the puck in his own net.
That's a disaster. Even though the Red Wings won that game, that's something that you don't want to take home with you. So, yeah, he's going to be on his own goaltender, a steak dinner.
I feel like Nedeljkovic being the fun guy that he is, he's probably a little laughing under his mask there. I mean, you made me feel a little responsible, too, because you've got to seal that post. Yeah.
Yeah, the drink is going to be hard.
Rose has to drink the... That wasn't Nadeltovich, that was Camtel. Excuse me. Yeah. Rose has to drink the soup portion of the ramen. I can't believe that.
It's going to be in pursuit of...
I don't know if I want her to drink that. But she's going to have to.
She has to fulfill this punishment.
Watching them prepare this, because you're supposed to boil ramen in a pot, and they instead put it in a microwave bowl and just poured hot water on it and then mixed it up. No, you can microwave ramen.
No, you cannot microwave it. I have to do it. I'm going to show you how I did it. It's going to be social, because I did not do it in the end. I didn't know how to do it.
That's a disaster. What the puck's going to be very interesting later. I'm going to tell you that right now. Coming up next from ESPN.com, he's the senior writer for the National Hockey League. It's Greg Wyshynski. He's coming up next.
Greg Brzezinski is the ESPN senior NHL writer, and he's wrote a couple of stories regarding A, the trade that Colorado made last week, and two uniforms from the Four Nations tournament. A and two. A and two. Nicely done. Yes, thank you. So, yeah, quick note, as usual, the USA jerseys suck.
I was going to ask you about that. I saw you mention that. When you talk about them sucking, and I agree, I think they struggle because most of the jerseys that they make for Team USA are based on the Miracle on Ice team or the other team that won gold back in the 60s. And then whenever they try to modernize it, it ends up sort of looking like...
I don't know, like something from a video game where they don't have the rights to the United States of America, so they have to come up with something. In your mind's eye, what would you like a Team USA jersey to look like if these are unsatisfactory? I would have to go traditional in this situation.
I think the last time that they were good, and I could be off here, but I'm thinking early to mid-90s, like the Olympic year, the World Cup of Hockey, where the U or the A kind of had a flag thing. Going off. I thought those were okay, and I think it's kind of all been downhill from there. They tried to go to a crest. They go to color schemes. Like, what are we doing?
A lot of the font usage on the jerseys are bad, too.
Fonts are changing, like, every other year.
Yeah. They went from the Canucks font, which I don't like because it's being overused now, to whatever the shit that they're doing now, which is bad. So, yeah, let's not do that anymore. Maybe we'll do Comic Sans in 2026.
I would like there to be a couple variations. First of all, I would like to see what happens if we don't use the letters USA. What if we just put America?
Just the actual figure of America.
The Empire, maybe something on there. And then the other thing I'm wondering, too, is like, I think part of the problem is that if you have your primary colors are blue and red and white, right?
Yeah.
Like, you could have a white jersey, and every other jersey we've ever made is blue. We've never had a red jersey, and the problem is that those bastards in Canada have covered the market on red, right?
So, like, Russia probably also, you know, ties into that, too. And Russia, too, right? Yeah. They do still exist.
Don't want to be like the Ruskies. Yeah, two of our greatest enemies, both, you know, economically and in hockey, Canada and the Soviet Union. Like, they've cornered red for years and years and years. So, you know, if we wanted to kind of, like, change it up a little bit, I don't think that we're allowed to because those two sworn enemies of freedom are the ones that wear red all the time.
Canada is a sworn enemy of freedom in hockey for the United States. Let's venture into the actual league landscape. Elias Pedersen and JT Miller are currently not liking each other in Vancouver. What is the situation there? And which, if not both, are they going to stay on the team this season?
Well, it's a personal beef that has gone on for years. Like Bruce Boudreau, who coached Vancouver a few years ago, said that it was something ongoing when he arrived. So like there's been friction between these two. You know, I think we forget that this is a workplace, right? These are companies. It's like not liking the guy three cubicles over when he's over at the snack machine.
You're not going to the snack machine because you literally hate this person's guts and makes you feel terrible coming to work every day just because of something that happen between you or just a personality conflict. And that's kind of where Patterson and JT Miller are. I think it's probably a little bit more JT Miller than Elias Patterson.
Miller has a reputation for being a little prickly behind the scenes. Where it ends up, I don't know, because Miller has a full no movement clause. And so even though a trade with the New York Rangers came very close in recent weeks before kind of falling apart, You know, he's going to be able to control his destiny. And so, you know, Carolina obviously off the table.
We'll talk about the rent and trade in a second. There's some speculation now about maybe Colorado being a potential destination for him. They could use him to play behind McKinnon on the second line. But it's harder to trade him. Elias Pettersson's trade protection doesn't kick in until the summer. He has a massive contract. He's not played up to standards this year.
Maybe it's because he's got a guy he hates on the team and he's not feeling it right. So they're going to have to be really careful. Like, you know, they'll get a decent return from Miller. He's an older player and with a limited, like I said, marketplace. Pedersen, they've got a nail.
Pedersen is a trade that you cannot make unless you get a lot back that's going to propel you to whatever the next phase of your team is, because that's a player with an incredibly high ceiling. 100-point centers don't grow on trees in this league. Even with diminishing returns, he still has a ton of value and could turn a number of other teams in this league around.
Now, how much does both Miller and Pedersen are kind of having down years, especially when compared to the last couple of years? And, you know, you could blame the beef between them, the fact that the team is kind of meandering around. But how much does that play into, I guess, their value and what Vancouver can try to maximize from it?
Considering, you know, last year they were both, you know, basically 100 point guy. Pedersen was eight points, but they're both big goal scorers. And now it's like, you know, what am I getting?
Yeah, I mean, but I think it comes down to change of scenery, right? You know, you always see players that aren't maybe performing up to snuff that have in the past that maybe have hit their ceiling with a team or maybe just need to get out of a market and go someplace else that's maybe a little quieter. I don't know if you boys noticed, but the Vancouver...
Yeah, the Vancouver media could be a little boisterous sometimes with its coverage. I think teams look at the history of a player, their ability, what their scouts see, and aren't going to be turned off necessarily by... outside forces or beef with a teammate that might have affected a player mentally. I think both those guys have a lot of value around the league.
It's just going to be a matter of if Vancouver finds the asking price. And it's also a matter... Listen, if I was Vancouver, I'd trade Miller tomorrow. Without question. you know, if you can get a decent return for him. And then I see if Pedersen's okay.
Then I see if without the, if you suck the poison out, if he is back to being his normal self, because I think that guy is more talented than Miller. And I think he has a chance to be one of the best offensive centers in this league when he's on his game.
The big trade that happened last week, a three-team trade between the Avalanche Hurricanes and Blackhawks. Martin Nekes, Jack Drury, 2025 second-round draft pick and a 2026 fourth-round draft pick went to the Avalanche. Mikko Rettonen, Taylor Hall, and Nils Jundrop went to the Hurricanes, and the Blackhawks got a 2025 third-round pick. We know who lost that trade. Yay, Chicago!
Way to get your pick back! So why did Ratten end up being traded? Was he going to be a free agent at the end of the season and they couldn't afford him? Forever to be known as the Neal's Your Drop trade, by the way.
So Colorado had to make a choice here, which is that you're either going to sign Ranton into what he's looking for, and he shares an agent with Leon Dreisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, and Dreisaitl just signed the richest contract in salary cap history over the summer last year. And so he's looking for that kind of money on the open market.
He's looking to make more than Nathan McKinnon on the Colorado Avalanche. You know, Ranton said in a couple of interviews, I was willing to take less to stay. We don't know what less means. Less still means probably like $13 million. So the issue that they had is...
They have to pay Kael McCarr, who is the best defenseman in the world, I think, if it's not Quinn Hughes, within the next two years as his contract is up. That's going to be massive. They're already paying McKinnon. And they made the calculated risk that, one, the totality of their roster was not deep enough and talented enough to challenge for a Stanley Cup.
So you need to open up money to be able to make the rest of your team better. And you can't do that if you're paying like 35% of your cap to three guys. And then two, the other gamble they made was you mentioned Martin Natchez. They're making the gamble that Nathan McKinnon can make anybody like 85% of Miko Rantanen. And so far, they've been smart.
I mean, Natchez has had a great start for Colorado. And so those are the gambles they're taking. You know, if you ask around the league, I had a story on ESPN.com about the kind of behind the scenes of this deal. There's some people that feel like they were never going to pay Rantanen the money he was looking for. So I get it. But I mean, he's kind of a unicorn, man.
Like he's a really hard player to replace in your lineup. But I understand their logic there and not wanting to be too top heavy. Yeah.
So I wanted to ask you about the Islanders and their recent fire catching. Like all of a sudden the Islanders are the team, you know, one of the best in the Eastern Conference over the last couple of weeks. But they made a move. They made a move this week. And I know Roy's not happy with it. So I'm going to kind of let him guide this one.
You're going to have to explain to me why. Just red smiling. The New York Islanders decide to give... Oh, God, I want to say, in fact, I will say it. Explain to me why the New York Islanders gave this mother a second chance in this league. Why is Tony D'Angelo on an NHL roster today? It's generous to say second. Fourth chance. Well, yes. His 15th chance in the National Hockey League.
He's clearly a cancer in the locker room. He can't stick to a team because his teammates aren't exactly... Well, some of his teammates. In fact, he's playing with Anthony Duclair on the Islanders. I'm sure that's going to be interesting. But why is he getting another chance in this league when he clearly can't work with his teammates to save his life.
Well, first off, I checked the voting totals from the presidential election last November, and I will say that Nassau County is a safe haven for Tony D'Angelo. Okay, well, there you go.
He's probably got some like-minded individuals in most of the locker rooms.
I'm sure he uses a little... He's probably not one of them. His mail-in ballot from Russia, I'm sure that guy... The answer ultimately is that he's cheap.
He will work cheap. He is a guy that is clearly looking to play wherever he can. They were able to sign him for a league minimum kind of contract at a time when they had other defensemen that were injured. He is... The old saying about left-handed pitchers in baseball will always find a job, you know what I mean? It's the same thing with puck-moving defensemen in the NHL. He can put up points.
He's not an untalented player. The question always is, is that worth all of the other stuff? And Again, this was a player who had played himself out of the league to the point where he had to go to Russia to play for the first part of the season before coming back and finding a home with the Islanders. So, again, it all eventually sours. It soured with the Rangers. It soured with the Carolina.
It soured with the Flyers. Maybe it'll sour again with the Islanders. Who's to say? But, again, it's a risk-reward thing. And if I'm a general manager, no matter how desperate I am to address my blue line problems, I'm not taking the risk. But... So far, so good, I guess, for Tony D'Angelo and his latest stint in the NHL.
Wish. This is just another example of why the National Hockey League or the sport in general is not very welcoming to people who would like to get into the sport when people like this are actually on a roster or people are in the front office or head coaches that are in the league right now. This just is untenable.
No, I don't disagree. I mean, like, I think hockey overall has always had a problem broadening the tent to bring in more people into hockey fandom, to get more people playing hockey. And I don't disagree that when you have somebody that has that kind of history, and for those that don't know, I mean, he was suspended as a junior player.
for usually using racially insensitive language when he was a younger player. To have guys like that get fourth or fifth chances in this league is not necessarily a good thing. I don't disagree with you.
Yeah, very much like-minded individuals in this league.
It doesn't send a good message when you're trying to say, hey, we're inclusive, we're for everybody, but you can't wear pride jerseys, or we're going to keep bringing in guys that are repeated offenders. Yeah. You know, actions are one thing, or excuse me, words are one thing, but actions speak a lot louder. And I think clear, clear actions.
And it's two things. I mean, it's two different issues, right? Like on the one hand, it's, you know, what can the NHL do to to help influence that and help change the culture? And I think that they've definitely made some mistakes, in my opinion, in recent years. I'm pretty well on the record about the pride jersey issue. And then the other thing, too, is just hockey culture writ large.
I mean, that's the other part of it, too, is what happens behind closed doors. I mean, I don't think in any way that Tony D'Angelo is an outlier in this league. I think there's probably a lot of those guys that are in this league that we just don't hear a lot about mainly because they don't decide to make podcasts. But yeah, that's the other issue, too, is like, what is the hockey culture?
Like, if you're a young player that wants to, a young athlete that wants to get into hockey, you know, what does it look like on those lower levels insofar as making you feel welcome, making you feel like you have a path, and making you feel like you're not gonna be ostracized? And that's always been a challenge for the sport.
Well, I hate the end on that note. That was a very angry note for me because obviously I have the right to be angry in this situation. But, yeah, that's the end of this interview. I'm just going to go into the next segment very upset. Great, Wyshynski. Thank you for joining us here on the Hockey Show. Anytime, boys. Thanks for having me.
Okay, it's time to go over what happened this week, or last week, with the Florida Panthers. Before we do that, though, we got some news about the Four Nations Tournament. Earlier we mentioned that Alexander Barkov was named captain of Team Finland, which... Very Finland. Woo! Which would have made Rose sweat over there.
Very happy, yes.
In a different way. Matthew Kachuk was also named alternate captain for Team USA, so good for him. So that's the big news coming out of Four Nations for the Panthers.
Yes, no Canadian captain news to talk about. Yeah, f*** that.
Saturday, the Panthers... was at San Jose, and they won 7-2. That was a complete beatdown over the worst team in the league. But as I said, the Sharks are fun to watch. But seven different players scored goals for the Panthers. An excellent game from A.J. Greer. And Aaron Ekblad had a great game as well.
Yep, Bob was good in goal. It was fun, because the first period was a little tighter. Ford didn't start that game that well. Certainly turned it on in the second and third periods, which was nice to see on the road. But man, the Sharks, like, holy cow, since they traded Mackenzie Blackwood, it has been like, boom, straight down. Holy crap.
It's been a disaster for them, but again. Fun to watch. Another good draft pick, I guess. Yeah. The day after that, on Sunday, they played at Vegas, and we will forget about that one. I don't like going to Vegas. No. No. Not great. Things don't go well for the Panthers when they go to Vegas. Aiden Hill has quickly become a goaltender that I... Dislike. He's very good when he plays the Panthers.
He's very good. He's very annoying. And he's actually the type of goaltender that will get under your skin. That sucks. That sucks when somebody is doing that well and then they show it in your face and then punch you.
What I like about Aiden Hill is what I liked about Tim Thomas. And it's that every time the camera is close enough that you can see his face through his mask, he's almost always smiling. It looks like he has such a good time when he's playing hockey. And that's something I really like and appreciate. So in that element, I like Aiden Hill. Yeah.
Penalty for time.
Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
Okay. What are you doing? You interrupted. I'm trying to go over this game here.
What are you doing? Yeah, you got the penalty. What can I do? Keep going.
All right. Anyway, 33 saves off of 34 shots for Aiden Hill. The Panthers on five on five had 57 shot attempts and 13 high danger chances. They got healed. They got healed. They got healed. Absolutely. In all situations, 77 shot attempts, 16 high danger chances. The effort was there.
Yeah, that's really good. I'll take that for a road game on the second night of a back-to-back any day.
Expect the goals. It was 4.07 to 3.97 in favor of Florida. They should have won that game on the score sheet for their stats. But, you know, they don't play this game on score sheets. They play it on the ice, and that's not what happened. And Spencer Knight gave up two low-danger chances in that game. So it wasn't his night at all, especially on the Tanner Pearson goal.
Still, Spencer Knight's January was spectacular. Three wins. Let's see. I got it right here. 946 save percentage and 1.47 goals against. And that's after two games that kind of dragged those numbers down a little bit. The last road games against the Kings and the Vegas Golden Knights.
But man, between Knight's January, Sergei Bobrovsky's last couple of games, you've got to feel good if you're the Panthers about the way your goaltending is starting to round in form.
Yeah. The second game of the season against the Kings that ends the series for the year was at home. They won 3-0. Dimitri Kulikov's 1,000th game of his career. Paul Maurice's 1,900th game coached. But Paul Maurice didn't want the accolade because it was the 1,000th game for Cooley. All the spotlight is on him.
It was also Paul Maurice's 899th win. So, pretty cool.
He's the Lenny Wilkins of hockey at this point. Yeah, for sure. Well, because of losses. I know what you're saying. Yeah, that's the situation there. A little bit more on the W side, though. Yeah.
It was Sam Bennett's best game of the season, right? Oh, my God. Yeah, like seven shots, eight shots on goal. That line was humming. The Bennett-Kichuk-Samiskevich line, they were humming that night. Yeah. Also, Sergey Borovsky, his second shutout of the season. Yeah.
What was cool about the Kings game, just like on the road a few days prior, each game went into the third period with the Panthers winning 1-0. In L.A. last week, they had two little net-fronty, funky goals. Lost 2-1 this time. Closed it out with a 3-0 victory. The empty net goal by Matthew to Chuck. Just a strong victory. You've got to be happy about that starting homestand.
Great defense as well from the Panthers. Great floor check, as usual, for the Panthers.
It was a get-right game. We'll see how it plays out, but that felt like it.
Yeah. And we mentioned the second line, this new second line that Paul Maurice put together with Sam Bennett, Matthew Kachuk getting back together, but he put Matthew, I'm sorry, he put Matthew Samuskiewicz at the other wing. Yep. It looks like a good line.
Well, the speed element for Mackey combined with the confidence and the way that he's grounding into a very good two-way player, it's a great complement to that line. If he can keep it elevated, because we know what Bennett and Kachuk can do offensively. It's back-to-back weeks for that. Kachuk. You know what? Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting criticized by Rose for...
Well, who has a stuffed up nose right now? The Panthers following the game ended up in the lead in the division by a point over to Toronto Maple Leafs. But after the game, they waived Adam Boquist. What do you got on that one?
I think it's just a defensive logjam. And they're really happy with the play that they've seen from Toby Bjornfot, who came up from Charlotte when Epclad was out and when Mikolo was out and they needed that depth. I think Boquist, maybe, you know, he's young. He's RFA. He makes, you know, 775K. I just think that, you know, they're... The room isn't there. Florida's really happy.
They like that top six. Uvis Balinstas is somebody that they really like on the back end as a defensive player. And, yeah, I think it's unfortunate, but Boquest, you know, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get claimed. We're recording this. It's about noon on Friday, so we're going to find out within the next couple of hours whether he got claimed or not. But he's still so young.
He's like, what, 26 years old? So, you know, start of the year, power play one. There's an upside there. Somebody's probably going to claim him.
Tomorrow the Panthers have the Chicago Blackhawks who have lost 14 of the last 18 games, including last night when they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes. They quickly gave up Mikko Ratanen's first goal as a Hurricane last night. Oh, man. As much as I want to root for the Blackhawks to be better, and they really should be better, they're just going to...
have draft capital for probably the next three years. I mean, that bad.
It doesn't feel good when you don't see, like... And I'm not super following Chicago, but I don't see a plan ahead of me in terms of this rebuild. Like, they've got some good pieces. Well, they've got one really good piece, Conor Bernard. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know what the direction is right now in Chicago. And the trade... They get nothing but a draft pick out of that trade.
We'll see how it plays out with the deadline coming up in five weeks or whatever it is from now and an offseason. But they're a point ahead of San Jose at the bottom, bottom of the league right now.
It's not good. They won against the Panthers early in November 3-1. I doubt that's going to happen again. On Sunday, the New York Islanders come to town. As I mentioned earlier, and very profanely, especially with the Greg Wyshynski interview, I want the Panthers to win by more than 10 goals in this game on Sunday. There is zero, zero want for me to actually be positive for the New York Islanders.
And they've been surging. They've been absolutely surging recently. They have won, what? Six in a row now?
Six straight games. They're 8-2-0 in their last 10. They're four points back of Columbus for the final wildcard spot. They're trying to move. But karma might catch up with them, Roy.
I hope they hit that karma wall because they definitely deserve it. Panthers won 6-3 the last game. That was on Strong Island. Not as strong anymore. But that night was a 3.9 for Magic and Chuck. I'm really, really hoping that repeat performance happens.
We'll see. I'm anxious to see how you're reacting in the press box on Sunday.
Drop that pot.
What the fuck was that?
Drink that ramen. Drink it right now. We will see you next week, everybody. Goodbye.
Bye-bye. Hey, howdy, listener. Why don't you sit down here next to me? Let's have a fireside conversation in the winter. This is all theater of the mind anyways. The weather outside is a little chilly. Let's warm up. Let's cozy up. Not just to each other, but also to that beautiful white can of Miller Lite. That's right.
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