Trades, Shutouts & Reckless Speculation

Chris (00:01)
Welcome everybody to the Uncle Pucker New Jersey Devil podcast on today, fine Tuesday, November 5th, a day that will shape America for years to come. Of course, you know, I'm talking about the NFL trade deadline that was today where I found that my Vikings really didn't do anything. But that's all right. I do. I have to live with my six and two Vikings with my roster as is. This isn't the Vikings year. Next year is the Vikings year.

Bobby (00:22)
Now we gotta live with that. For a whole year.

Chris (00:29)
When they have JJ McCarthy in, that's the year. They have a ton of salary cap money. They can go get some players next summer. So that's the year. Tim.

Bobby (00:39)
I'm sorry, I'm confused. Why would you say a six and two team? is potentially not their year. Couldn't it very well be their year?

Chris (00:43)
Because I I don't think they can win the Super Bowl this year. I'm just saying that night I just think Sam Darnold. I like him. He's playing very good for the Vikings, but he's very inconsistent now if he can put it together and you know the next two or three games they should they should win but I just think when you're going up against even the Packers the Detroit Lions, know Philadelphia I'll even put in like there are some teams in the NFC that are really good that I don't just don't know in the playoffs at the Vikings to pull off a win. That's all

Bobby (00:48)
Okay, fair enough.

Fair enough.

Chris (01:13)
Tim, who are you a fan of?

Tim Wood (01:17)
I'm a Ravens guy. I was a really big football fan. He used come down to Maryland as a kid. My grandfather...

made me watch like old, old Colts games. Cause he's like a racist old guy. He's like, that Johnny United's he's a great football player. So when, when the Ravens getting down, was like, sure. I'll be a Ravens fan. And then when the Superbowl and I was like, I've been a Ravens fan for life. So, so yeah, so now they're, they're fun, man. They're, they're, they're a fun team to watch. The Lamar Jackson's probably the best football player in the league right now. Not necessarily quarterback.

Bobby (01:40)
Yeah, that's perfect.

Chris (01:50)
You know, I get so much shit because I don't like Lamar. I just, I don't like him. He's fantastic, but there's just something about his play that I don't like and I don't know what it is and I never have. I love that they got Derek Henry and I think that that's going to make them extremely scary. I do think they can win the AFC. They can beat Kansas City, but I...

Tim Wood (02:15)
Yeah, their biggest issue is their defense kind of sucks and they'll be killing someone. It'll be like 40 to 15 going into the fourth quarter. Then you go and get a drink and then it's 40 to 25 and then it's 40 to 37. And you're like, what the hell just happened? They can't close out games. So that's been their biggest problem. They got some third rate cornerback from the Rams. forget who it was.

Chris (02:19)
Yeah.

Who do think is winning the Super Bowl this year?

Tim Wood (02:45)
I'm gonna be the Chiefs again. Like, do you see the Devils admin posted in the pregame? was like, hey, we know we're up against Monday Night Football, but why watch that when you can watch us instead of the Chiefs getting a late flag to win the game? I was like, that was very good. That was a good job.

Bobby (03:01)
Yeah, that was good. That was very good. Yeah.

Chris (03:04)
It's true too. mean that game last night, like you just knew as soon as they got the ball. I was watching the Manning cast because I was right after the double game. So I flipped over to the Manning cast and Kansas City had gone like three and out in their possession right before the overtime. And Payton is like, I would think that Tampa is happy with this. know, Kansas City didn't do anything their last drive. They're going to stop them. And then you just got to go down and get the field goal. You can win this game. And all I'm thinking is

is Peyton Manning on crack? Like, this is Patrick Mahomes. Like, I have no doubt in my mind they're gonna go right, I don't care how bad they were the whole game, they're gonna go down to score touchdown, because that's just what they do. And that's what they fucking did. So, I don't know, I think Detroit's winning it.

Tim Wood (03:36)
Thank

Yeah, you know, their right tackle has been basically false start in the entire season and never gets called for. Yeah, every time it's like, and that happened in overtime. I was like, well, there it is. yeah. So yeah, so I think Raven's Chiefs, really kind of the cream of the crop. There's a big mushy middle in football this year, I think. I don't know there's a lot of.

Chris (03:55)
Tell her he's terrible.

Yes. Yeah, and they didn't call it.

Watch out for Buffalo.

I think this could be Josh Allen's year. But our listeners are here to talk about the Devils! The Devils who went up and finished their Western Canadian road trip up in Edmonton, the Western Conference champs last night, and Bob, I texted you before the game and I remember exactly what I wrote like this. I love that Jake Allen's starting. I totally would have started him. I would not have started Jacob Markstrom in that game. Yeah.

Tim Wood (04:18)
Yeah... Me...

Bobby (04:42)
I read that wrong. could have sworn you kept saying you're so uncomfortable that Jake Allen got this start and I was like no he's gonna be fine but I guess I'm wrong because he was more than fine. Man, I gotta learn to read. Apparently I gotta learn to read.

Tim Wood (04:48)
You

Chris (04:55)
I was so wrong. I was so uncomfortable when I saw it. Markstrom had played great, Played great in Vancouver. He played really good in Calgary too, even though he got the L on it. But I was not happy with Jake Allen going into this game and holy shit was I wrong. He played the best game as a devil.

Tim Wood (04:59)
You gotta learn to read,

Bobby (05:18)
God, his saves were just tremendous and so timely and he totally stole that game. The whole team played well but he had a hell of a game. was like that split pad save kind of before the first goal from Mason. That was just a thing of beauty.

Tim Wood (05:28)
Yep.

Chris (05:31)
There's, go ahead, Tim.

Tim Wood (05:32)
That it's all right that yeah, just that that whole first period like was just like hold on to your butts like it was just absolute chaos. You know, it's like the end of Ghostbusters is like cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria. And it's just like my God and he just he just bailed us out that first period.

Chris (05:37)
Yeah.

Mass hysteria. And that's what it was.

Bobby (05:45)
Mass hysteria!

Chris (05:50)
There's zero chance that we win that game last year. There's a zero chance. Not only is our defense not playing as good as they did last night, and I know they gave up 31 or 32 shots, but they really did have minimal high danger chances, would think Edmonton did. I didn't look at the numbers, but I would think the Devils had more high danger chances than Edmonton in that game. I thought our defense played really well. We can go over a few of the numbers real quick. Going into the game,

Tim Wood (05:57)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (06:19)
Jake Allen was 2-1-1 with a 3-2-5 goals against and an 8-7-6 save percentage with one shutout. Calvin Pickard was 3-1-0 with a 2-4-8 goals against average and an 8-97 save percentage and was 4-0-0 against New Jersey going into that game. Like you said, that Henrique wide open in front of the net and he roofed it up, hit the crossbar.

dodged one there and then with 1442 left in the first, or was it the first that Nason scored? Yeah. Nason scored from that was just a such a nice goal. mean, Jack just controlling the puck, bringing it in his own, getting it off to Brad who got it to Carter who did a lot of hard work and got the puck right in front of the net to a shrieking Nason for a beautiful goal.

Tim Wood (06:52)
Yep.

Chris (07:09)
But man, I'll tell you, Nason and that line, that Nason-Cotter-Hala line, they do so much of the good work, right? The good, hard work. Like, having a third line that's that fucking good is just, it's so nice to see. I mean, this team, I feel like they're right there. You guys feel the same way? Like, it's real close, they're figuring it out, and they're gonna get rolling real soon.

Bobby (07:35)
Yeah, 100 % I think this team's ready to pop and people are to see it. Nason, like you just mentioned, I think he's on a career trajectory right now for goals. He's scoring even faster, clipping into last year, which was his fastest to six goals or whatever he has. The whole team, like it's funny because you asked my expectations of this game on the last show and I said I want a Vancouver-like game, maybe with the margin not being as big. The Devils took it literally and they just cut it in half. Sorry, six-nothing shutout, we'll give you a three-nothing shutout.

Chris (08:02)
Hehehehehe

Bobby (08:05)
You know it was just it was just a phenomenal like they played with such like energy they were so fired up they were sticking up for each other they were doing everything there was a lot of running gun to it. You're talking about you know the eastern conference for the western conference champs and like I told you I think the team really really want to beat them at all costs and this game we win this game mcdavid's internet like that's not a factor we still win this game this was just a will to win type of game.

Tim Wood (08:05)
Hahaha.

Chris (08:25)
I agree.

Tim Wood (08:28)
Yeah, I agree with that.

Bobby (08:31)
And a lot of things had to go right. Some of those saves were miraculous and you get lucky on some things, but that's what happens when you're a good team. And then those things should play out throughout the whole year. And I really think, like we said, going into this week, this could be the kickstart week.

Tim Wood (08:45)
Yeah, and you know that that whole, know, like it like we said that first period was absolute chaos, but you know, it was trading chances like just for Brad, like his stick broke when he had a wide open net. And then I don't know if you saw the GIF of Jack like falling over in the crease is hilarious. yeah, it's like, he's like, but Brad hit Bouchard shaft with a wide open net. So he had two gorgeous chances in Missing Boat. So it wasn't like we were going to be

Bobby (09:01)
Yeah, he's like shugging while he's falling. That's like the, yeah.

Tim Wood (09:15)
losing 4-1 without Allen. It probably would have been like 4-3 or 4-4 or something like that. So it was just back and forth trading chances and then getting into the second period really kind of calmed down a little bit. We're a little less offense, a little bit of a calmer game.

Chris (09:17)
Right.

I a talking about like sticking up you know it was I think Hamilton got that cross check you know in the in devil's defensive zone and the whole team all five guys got into that scrum just to you know no punches were thrown but everybody was there to just let Edmonton know that we're not gonna put up with this shit yeah Dylan in there yet Mercer in there he sure was in there.

Tim Wood (09:44)
Yeah.

Bobby (09:48)
That's what I'm talking about.

Chris (09:54)
So that was awesome to see like, you know, that was exactly what we talked about on the last show, right? Like they're not soft, but they need to just stick up for each other a little

Bobby (10:03)
Right instead of just one guy trying to push off the rest of the pile from emminton you guy or two comes over each time that happened that's all you're talking about just sticking up for each other you know it's two or two if it's three on three until the pile gets pulled apart you know.

Chris (10:09)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (10:10)
Yep.

Chris (10:14)
You talk about chaos in the first, Jake Allen had seven high danger chances, high danger saves 15 minutes into the first period. So, yeah.

Tim Wood (10:16)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.

That's crazy. Yeah, he was locked in, you know, and he was like that too. When was last game he started? The Tampa game, actually. He had a very good kind of first 10, 15 minutes, and then the floodgates opened. So I was watching this game, I was like, man, I was like, really hope he can kind of keep it together because the last time we saw this, he just absolutely fucking fell apart.

Bobby (10:48)
He's kind of the microcosm for the devils in a way, right? In that, you know, he's five starts, he's got two shutouts already. And it's kind of that up and down that we've been dealing with this early part that hopefully will go away.

Tim Wood (10:54)
Yeah, and then.

Chris (10:59)
And that save percentage is blown up or lowered because of that fucking eight goal game against Tampa. Like that killed them. You know, that was the game that fucking killed them.

Tim Wood (10:59)
Yeah, and then what? Eight eight and four.

Yeah.

Yeah, his goal save above expected are on the positive side now. He's at 2.2. This is, know, and he's 10th in the league now, you know. So I think, you know, obviously, statistically, when you have like early, you know, early season kind of fluctuations like this, you know, those numbers are going to fluctuate wildly. So Mark's room is way down there. He's in 42nd. But I think that will start to normalize. And just the kind of pattern of how this team has played since they got the shit kicked out of them by Tampa. They put up a very good game against Detroit. You know, they got goalie by Talbot in a rough game.

rough goal against Marsham. You they kicked the shit out of Vancouver. They kicked the shit out of Anaheim. You know, they had a rough five, yeah, rough five minutes against Calgary. Yeah, they came back to get that point against Allen. There's rough five minutes against Calgary. And then this shutout. So you look at those that kind of, like, you could see the upward progress of this team and where it's all coming together.

Chris (11:46)
came back to get that point against the Islanders.

And this next week is week and a half. This is a big part of this schedule because they have the next game is Montreal. They should win that. Then I think we have back to backs with the Islanders and the Sharks. We should win those, hopefully. And that would put us on a four game win streak going on a road trip down to Florida where I think we have back to back against the Panthers and then. Okay, so.

Bobby (12:27)
It's Tuesday, Thursday, but yeah.

Chris (12:29)
But it is, okay, so two in a row against the champs and then Tampa, right? Again. So this is a big week and half. This is going to tell a lot about this team moving forward, especially that back half of next week. How do you do down in Florida? Those are three really tough games.

Bobby (12:33)
Right. Yes. Yes.

Tim Wood (12:35)
Yeah.

Bobby (12:46)
the end.

Tim Wood (12:46)
Yeah, I actually personally think like this next game against Montreal is kind of a real barometer game because it is, it's almost like a trap game. know, like they were playing really well, they're coming off a good win, they're coming back home. They just need to absolutely kick the shit out of Montreal and just really kind of keep this gas pedal down. It's a trap.

Chris (12:54)
It is.

I hope it's not, but you're right that Montreal game is definitely a trap game.

Tim Wood (13:15)
because of that yet because of the pickup that way and then suddenly they're kind of rolling at home than that what's the islanders nancy knows that it back back so he's got to keep rolling through this

Chris (13:21)
Yeah, you can't drop one to the sharks. Like, you cannot fucking do that. That's so deflating when you go in and lose to a team like that. We were worried about it against the Anaheim Ducks and they smoked them. yeah, I'm hoping.

Tim Wood (13:26)
No.

Yep. Yeah, I mean, that's where kind of like last season. That's where I think things went bad, you know, and they when they lost to the the sharks that hadn't won a game the entire season where I think we their first first win and I was just like, no, we suck again.

Chris (13:50)
Yeah, yeah, we did. It so bad. I'll tell you, last night too, Luke really impressed me. There was that one, I think it was in the third period. I can't remember who the oiler was. It's not one of the big famous ones. Last starts with a P, I can't remember. But he had, the puck was right, I don't remember who he is, but he had a beautiful wide open right in the slot.

Tim Wood (14:11)
Podzlinski.

Chris (14:16)
and Luke just had his stick tied up, he couldn't do anything with it, they just pushed it wide past Allen. Like that's exactly what we need to see from Luke. we get the offense will come, but be responsible defensively, tie those sticks up, block shots, doing a lot of shit that we didn't see him do last year. And I was really happy to see that because he just single-handedly saved that goal.

Bobby (14:39)
Well, yeah, that was definitely his best defensive game. And I think it's already easy to forget that him and Pesci really just got in the lineup. I know it's been a few games now, but everybody else had camp and all those other games in the beginning of the year. So big strides for Luke.

Chris (14:53)
Absolutely.

Tim Wood (14:56)
Yeah, he, you know...

You can tell that he did a lot of work this off season on his strength. He just looks bigger, stronger. And it's funny seeing the juxtaposition of him versus Quinn. He's just like a foot taller than Quinn now. It's wild. yeah, that pairing with Pesci, the offense hasn't been there for Luke yet. And that's kind of his bread and butter. What I like that's happening is he's really got this buy-in on the defensive end of the puck. And that's what we needed to see from him. The offense will come. I'm not worried about that.

Chris (15:09)
yeah.

Yeah.

Tim Wood (15:28)
In terms of some numbers, he was the best defensive for the Devils last night in expected goals and all those fun things.

Chris (15:36)
Let me ask you guys a question. Is Jack Hughes, is this something to get worried about now that he's just not producing the way that we are used to him producing? Or is this just he'll get it going, it's coming off surgeries, everything else and just, or is it something else?

Bobby (15:49)
Nah.

You I'm not, I think it's just a little bit of timing. mean, he's slightly off the, you know, point per game pace as of yesterday. had like 12 points in 14 games. it's, and he hasn't played that well and he's still got the 12 points as a line. It's just not fully working yet. Although it looks like him and Brad are both getting going. But again, don't, you know, you're going to stick a plot up there. I don't know how long you're going to do that and expect that line. Everybody wants that line to lead the team.

Chris (16:03)
Yeah, I think he's got 12 points, yeah.

You're gonna go to Pilate again.

Bobby (16:26)
Pilots not on that line to lead this team offensively.

Chris (16:28)
Okay, this leads to my reckless speculation. Who is the biggest disappointment in the entire NHL thus far? There's really only one team, guys.

Bobby (16:43)
Biggest disappointment for a team. Okay, I thought you.

Chris (16:43)
Yes, a team that all summer long everybody talked about. All summer. These guys won the offseason. This team is Nashville. And Nashville, which, I mean, let's just call a spade a spade, right? They suck. And poor little Stephen Stamkos, he just doesn't fit in there.

Tim Wood (16:53)
Nashville, it's definitely Nashville.

Yeah.

Bobby (17:06)
Right.

Chris (17:07)
So why not pull the trade now and get Stamkos into the Devil uniform, give them Pallat and, I don't know, Nemmich, I don't care, give them, and we get Stamkos to play with Bratton Hughes. How's that for some reckless speculation?

Bobby (17:25)
You know, it's an upgrade for sure. Stamkos isn't a player he was either, but it's definitely an upgrade, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Chris (17:35)
Of course it's not, it's just fun to think about.

Tim Wood (17:37)
No, that is very, that's wildly entertaining to think about. know, the thing with Jack is like, like Bob just said, I mean, he's got 12 points in 15 games. know, he's not, he's not like, if you look at like Trevor Zeigars' numbers, he's got a goal and two assists in like 10 games. So he's picking up the points. Like it's so funny that they were like, what's wrong with Jack? And he's almost a point for game player. Like we're like, we're like so used to him. I remember last year that absolute terror that he went on where he's putting up three, four points.

Bobby (17:39)
Very fun.

Chris (18:05)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (18:07)
game. Like we know that he can get to that level. So we're kind of that's why we're all like, what's wrong with him. But I think it's a combination of two things. Like I think, a yeah, coming back from that shoulder surgery, he's got his timing a little off, you can get a full, full summer of full body training, you know, and that will throw you off a little bit. And I think he went through the first couple games being a little tentative saying

you know, let me see if I, you know, my shoulder will hold up, you know, and I'm holding my breath every time he gets hit, you know, just seeing if he's gonna, he's gonna crumple on the ice. But that's why I think, you know, getting, getting, you know, dummy by, what was his name in Detroit? And then again, getting hit by Romanoff on, on the Highlanders. I think from there, he's played a lot better. The other kind of side thing is I saw Christie Flannery and, and, Bill Spalding kind of, kind of piggybacked on each other on Twitter. Christie said,

Chris (18:32)
I know.

Tim Wood (18:56)
Jack was seven for 10 in the dot and Bill said he's over the last three games. He's been over 50 % in the dots. I think that ties into a larger thing where Jack is really buying into a lot more of a defensive kind of posture. Like he's on the, he would cheat a lot for offense. You he would be the first one flying the zone. And that's kind of, know, that Lindy rough system was like, let's send our horses going. But you know, he's back, he's deep in the corners. He's in front of the net. He's really covering things. He's below.

He's below the offensive player. on our side of like our goalie side of the puck. So I see that a lot from Jack. I think the offense will come, but if he plays this way and the team continues to succeed, I'm fine with him putting up 85, 90 points instead of 120.

Chris (19:40)
I agree. I agree. Especially if we have a few guys in the 85-90 point and it's being spread around. I'm totally cool with that. And you said something they talked about a lot going into this season and during the, you know, up to where we are now. And Sheldon Keefe using the phrase, you know, doesn't want this team cheating for offense. And it's one thing to just say it, but this team truly does not.

cheat for offense they have stayed in this system especially this last handful games you know even if you know you got a rush if it's your time to get off the ice to get off the ice they are then they're backing each other up they're knowing where everybody is but they're not making the stupid play if it's not there they're chipping it out they'll ice it they'll do whatever they have to do but they are not cheating for offense and I know in last year watching the playoffs that was the one thing the Florida Panthers did

better than anybody else. They stayed within their structure, no matter what the situation was on the ice. They stayed within their structure and it always ended up working out for them in the end. And you can kind of see this is what Keef wants from these guys. And I think we have the team that can do it. I really do. just, more and more I watch this team and especially you talk about the Calgary game. What, five, six minutes left, they let those two in. You easily...

Bobby (20:41)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Wood (20:55)
Yep.

Chris (21:04)
could have walked away from this road trip with three shutouts in a row. Like that's how close we were. I mean, this team is fantastic defensively. and, and, you know, you're getting the scoring. Like it's, you can be the Islanders, right. And play great defense and not be able to score. You can be Edmonton, which can score at will when McDavid's on, but they let in four or five a night. Or you can be the team that scores the three or four, gives up the zero or one. And I'd much rather be that team. And that looks like where we are.

Bobby (21:25)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (21:34)
and that it's really awesome to see.

Bobby (21:36)
What I'm hearing from you in that is that not every single piece yet of the puzzle has been there at the same time. So for example, like we just talked about Markstrom and his saves, you know, above expected being in the wrong direction. Now, if we were just getting his normal share, which I believe we will, right? Think about how much better off we would have been. So, you know, we didn't have him going while this defense is figuring it all out. And the offense is also figuring out how to both play more responsibly, right? And still maybe figure out.

when they turn it up the other way. This might still all be new to them too, right? Like you played a lot, Tim, with systems. Could they still be in that growth period where they're like, yeah, I'm gonna be responsible and I'm gonna figure out when to go, but get better at it as the year goes on?

Chris (22:09)
Yes.

Tim Wood (22:13)
Yeah, yeah

Yeah, and it's the other thing you have to get is you have to get confidence that like, this system actually works. Like if we do do this, then that's gonna snowball and everybody's buying in and everybody's doing their job and doing their job right and where they're supposed to be. And you're winning games doing that and you're like, all right, like, you know, this kind of works, know.

Chris (22:26)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (22:41)
Then you see guys jumping in front of pucks like Jonas Seigenthaler I thought was dead for a second there at the end of the second when he was lying there in the ground. was like, I was like, you fucking maniac. What are you doing? Like, yeah. Yeah. But, but you know, there hasn't been, I haven't seen any real like extraordinary defensive breakdowns. I mean, the first pair that it's a game was pretty loosey goosey. But the other thing I haven't really seen since Detroit game.

Chris (22:44)
He took a dude

Bobby (22:45)
Yeah, that's right.

Chris (22:49)
And he took that in the ribs? Like, it looked like he took it in the fucking ribs, man. Ugh.

Tim Wood (23:09)
I haven't seen a goal that was like, man, he's got to stop that. You know, that, that soft goal from Kane, that was like the last goal that, that either of these goals have given up that I was like, fuck these guys. But like Marksram was great against Vancouver. He was good against Calgary. you know, fun, you know, a by Coleman and then that two on one where Seigenthaler did his best Severson impression. Like,

Chris (23:13)
Yep.

Tim Wood (23:33)
And then, you know, they're off to the races, but that's kind of what you were talking about. They fell out of their structure. They were getting frustrated by his neutral zone trap that Calgary's running. They're trying to force a transition game. And then, you know, they gave up the one flute goal and then suddenly they fall out of that. Then they give up a two on one. They give up the second goal. So, you know, it's it kind of it's snowballs and you just got to got to stick with it. And to your point, I just went on for a long time.

Chris (23:57)
No, no, that's great. Jake Allen actually said, I don't know if you guys heard after the game, they were interviewing him, and he said he really liked the way Markstrom played against Vancouver. they were talking and asking, like, so he was, Markstrom told him, know, he was playing a little bit further back, a little deeper than he had been earlier on. And said he was able to just track pucks better and everything. And so Allen went into this game thinking, okay, I'm going to

do that i'm gonna try playing a little deeper today and see and they both ended up with shutouts over so apparently fired a break i'll see and make jake a mark from the goaltender coach and we'll be all right

Bobby (24:37)
Eh, he can handle both.

Tim Wood (24:40)
they go save a little cash on the side and higher kaiyar co-opter

Chris (24:40)
There you go.

man, I miss Erica.

Bobby (24:45)
I had the pleasure of watching her at the pregame on NHL last night. Yeah, that was great.

Tim Wood (24:48)
Yeah, yeah, that was good. Yeah, that was... my God. It was the MSG feed. This is what I don't get. It's like, why put... Yeah. For the...

Chris (24:50)
So you guys got the game on NHL Network. Who was calling it?

Bobby (24:57)
I got the MSG MSG feed. Yeah.

Chris (24:57)
you got the MSG feed.

so you had Spalding and Danico? Okay, I gotcha, I gotcha.

Bobby (25:04)
We did, but the pregame was NHL Network.

Tim Wood (25:07)
The pregame was NHL Network and somehow I was watching the Nashville Kings, the Predators Kings game for a little bit. was like, what's going on here? But it's yeah, it's just like this D plus production, kind of a career fourth liner in studio with someone else who I didn't recognize. I'm talking, going around the league a little bit, then they throw it to the Nashville Kings game. And then we get the Danico and Spalding broadcast. it's like, why?

Bobby (25:14)
Yeah, they kept throwing long clips of that, yes.

Chris (25:18)
huh.

Tim Wood (25:35)
then why is this on NHL Network that nobody has? Like, you know, I don't want to get in trouble for this, but I've now signed up for the free trial of Fubo. I have to remember to cancel this four times with four different burners because like, because I don't get NHL Network here in my cable system. I just don't. You know, I think it's only, you know, like I worked in the television business and like the kind of the barometer of the size of a TV network was the number of homes there. And NHL Network's always been in like 20, 25 million homes.

Chris (25:36)
Yeah.

That sucks.

Tim Wood (26:05)
nationally. Like that's like, what the fuck are you doing NHL stop this, knock it off. And then they do the same shit. Sorry for the rant. They do the same shit with the international games. It's like, I had no idea that Florida and Dallas were playing in Finland. The only reason I knew the Devils were playing in Prague is because you know, they're the Devils. Like, like, what are we doing? And they're only on the NHL network. And the NHL network isn't streamed anywhere. It's like, why are you doing this? Like you're actively limiting it.

Chris (26:11)
No, it's fine.

Right.

The fact that they don't have a streaming service is bizarre. Like, how do you not have an NHL streaming service for those games? Yeah.

Tim Wood (26:40)
It makes no sense to me. not to mention the hilarious direct response advertising that you see during the games, because that's all the NHL network is, is direct response advertising. It's like, you know, 8,000 ShamWow commercials and then like, you know, this dogma commercial, which I'm thinking about picking up, to be honest. it just, sorry, rant over, but fuck the NHL network. It's a stupid product.

Bobby (26:53)
Yes.

Chris (27:03)
Alright, fuck the NHL Network, I'm with you on that. Before we get into some other things though, we gotta just talk about that Meyer goal. mean, how beautiful was that fucking... Mercer and Meyer, the two of them together, what a great play. Just Meyer with that little wedge shot up in the air, caught by Meyer, dropped it down to the stick, and it was such a beautiful goal.

Bobby (27:03)
Ha ha!

Tim Wood (27:18)
Yep.

Bobby (27:27)
Kind of inside out and yeah, that was something else, man. It got me thinking a little bit like that. think I have the solution to the first line problems. I think that if we can simply clone Mercer to be on both the first and second, I believe that would help both lines. I don't know who we talked to about that. It's probably some kind of, you know, some salary thing they got to work out. Well, they should do that.

Chris (27:41)
Well,

I think

Tim Wood (27:47)
Well, let's see how the election goes and maybe Elon can get working on that. But no, honestly, the power play goal and then that goal are just absolute works of art. we can talk about like, was a, pass that Mercer threw to Nico was better than anything Daniel Jones has ever thrown in his career. Like he just put it right in his hands and then Meyer with the wherewithal to knock it down and then make that move, make the room around Pickard.

Bobby (27:51)
That would be good idea.

Chris (28:05)
No, absolutely. Absolutely.

Tim Wood (28:17)
Just absolutely beautiful. I couldn't believe it. Like the degree of difficulty on that type of pass is insane.

Bobby (28:22)
He was in tight too by the time he had that glove down and bringing that puck down. He had very little time to make that move.

Tim Wood (28:26)
Yeah. Like it's, like the new kind of style gloves, like, you know, older gloves, you could kind of open up your palm a lot more and really get a grip on the puck. The newer ones kind of are a lot, a lot more closed. And these guys go through new gloves so much that they're not really like, like crazy broken in, like in high school, like I didn't have palms in my gloves. so it's hard to kind of grab the puck like that. Like he was, literally was a wide receiver just over his shoulders, grabbing the puck. I was blown away.

Chris (28:43)
Right.

Yeah, was a degree of difficulty, yes. And then to be able to get it down, get the inside position on the D-man and make that, just get that shot off was, that's highly difficult.

Tim Wood (29:03)
Yeah, yeah, was reaching for the Jurgens, you know. Is that good? Is that good? I already had my pants down after the power play goal, which is just like, like just an unbelievable like passing play is, know, Hamilton, Hamilton to Hughes to Hamilton to Nico to Brett. Like it's just so perfectly orchestrated.

Chris (29:05)
Yeah, that good, huh? Just stick it right inside a whole big jar of Vaseline?

Yeah.

It was beautiful and it happened quick too. was like first 30 seconds into the power play. They were like, all right, Emdinten sucks on the PK. We're going to make them pay right now.

Bobby (29:27)
Beautiful.

Tim Wood (29:32)
Yeah.

Bobby (29:35)
Again, how does that happen? Weren't they like lights out in the playoffs last year? Like foot like beyond the best like stats you get in a playoff year and now they're dead last.

Chris (29:38)
Yeah.

How does that happen? mean, there really is no rhyme or reason, I don't think, to why certain teams go through certain things. Like we just talked about Nashville. Like you look at Nashville on paper, there's no reason for that. They should not be good. They're just for some reason not gelling. They're not playing good together. They're just, I don't know what it is, but yeah, with Edmonton, same thing. I mean, look, I love watching Edmonton lose no matter what. So when they're bad on the penalty kill or whatever, I get a lot of joy out of that. But you're right.

Tim Wood (30:10)
You

Chris (30:15)
It's like, and how is it that like a team can, you know, press a team, keep, you know, all the offensive play in their zone and just hem a team in the whole game and then they get a power play where they get an extra guy and they can't even get over the zone. Like I have seen it so many times. How's that happen? You were dominating the whole game. Now you have an extra guy and you can't get out of the neutral zone. So yeah, I don't know. Tim's the, yeah.

Bobby (30:38)
This sounds like a Tim question.

Tim Wood (30:40)
i will i think i just thought of something very clever and so we'll find out if that's true or not but power power places thanks power place really cut it

Chris (30:46)
We'll let you know.

Bobby (30:52)
No pressure. Wrong! Sorry.

Tim Wood (30:59)
Fuck you guys, I'm going home. Power plays really thrive on confidence. You you start, you put one in, you put another one in, you're moving the puck well. You you watch what happened last, like with last year, like they weren't getting the puck in the zone and they weren't retrieving the puck. They'd get like a shitty chance and be out of the zone. And then suddenly your power play is over one, then over five, then it's over 10. And you know, that, that's I was out of control.

Chris (31:05)
Right.

Tim Wood (31:25)
Penalty kills are just pretty you know our thrive on balls like you need to have a fucking set of balls in the penalty kill to Really get out to the point quick get out to that guy quick You know you need to have that extra hop in your step penalty killing is actually fucking exhausting You know when you have your head in the swivel, you know you're taking quick strides like bang bang bang You know getting getting the guys kind of keeping your head around to see there. You're sticking the lanes It's it's wild how hard penalty killing is but you need to be able to throw yourself in front of shit on the penalty kill

So that's, it's, you know, kind of fundamentally, I think that that really happens. Obviously you need the talent, you know, on the penalty, on the power play to be able to do it. You know, need to, penalty killing is kind of a bit of an art. You know, you look at guys that have been doing it for years that are just artists at it and a lot of, oftentimes you see guys that kind of rise to the top of like, you know, the shorthand goal leaders, you know, every single year.

Chris (32:18)
Alright, well let's do, I got a couple other things to go over, but first we gotta do some commercials. So, let's do that first. look, Raycon's back. Alright, Do you know what the most exciting thing about Black Friday and Cyber Monday is? Is when you can get the best prices on pretty much whatever you want, including Raycon, but you get the best Raycon prices year-round!

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Bobby (34:21)
Say ears. Say ears. I know, I'm joking. Rears.

Tim Wood (34:25)
Do tell me more.

Cheers.

If you're not

Chris (34:40)
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Bobby (35:02)
I'll drop in.

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Chris (35:10)
Yes.

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Chris (36:25)
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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, visit dkng.co.ice copyright NHL 2024, all rights reserved. Thank you. All right. I have an article here I want to go over with you guys and get your opinion. And then I would love to hear Tim's power play breakdown. All right. So this article is written by Jonathan Bailey from Pucks and Pitchforks. He's wrote...

Tim Wood (37:36)
I am an article reader.

No.

Chris (37:49)
Five New Jersey Devil trade targets to help replace injured Curtis Lazar. So I thought this could be interesting. So he writes here, the New Jersey Devils are expected to be without stud fourth line center Curtis Lazar for a while after the team announced on October 31st that Lazar had undergone a procedure on his left knee and would be out for an indefinite period of time. Lazar himself also posted from his personal ex account that he is already looking forward to seeing you all later on this season.

though neither the Devils nor the player himself have indicated what later this season will be, and based on the nature of Lazar's injury, will likely be months, not weeks. With fellow fourth-line forward Nate Bastion injured, the Devils are in a real bind when it comes to bottom six forward depth. Is boxer on skates Curtis McDermott, a player who plays forward and defense but excels at neither position a suitable replacement for Bastion, particularly when it comes to killing penalties and not being a defensive zone liability? Probably not.

Is Justin Dowling, a career AHLer with 102 total NHL games to his name at the age of 34, a good enough answer for a Devils team that perhaps a general manager desperate to prove that the 2023 playoff run wasn't a fluke? That too is unlikely. The Devils already had an opportunity to claim forward Nils Amund off waivers from Vancouver, but they and 30 other NHL teams chose not to, and now the 6'2", 24-year-old Swede has been safely stashed away in the AHL.

Therefore, if the Devils want to add an NHL caliber center to replace the injured Lazar, they'll need to turn to the trade market to do so. And he has number five, Jake Evans from the Montreal Canadiens, which we will be seeing on Thursday night. He writes, the Montreal Canadiens are having a horrendous start to this season. Budding superstar Yura Svlkovski has already missed some time due to injury and sharpshooter Patrick Lainé has yet to appear in a game after suffering a knee injury towards the end of the preseason.

Combine the injuries up front with the lackluster defensive play and you get a Canadians team that sits 30th in the NHL with a record of 4-7-1. The Habs minus 17 goal differential is the second worst mark in the NHL trailing only by the San Jose Sharks. Veteran center Jake Evans is a plausible trade candidate early in the year. Evans has one year remaining on a three-year $5.1 million contract he signed with Montreal on October 3rd, 2021 and carries an affordable $1.7 million cap hit.

The 28-year-old center is currently averaging a career-high 1.76 points per 60 minutes, so it is likely the Canadians will not want to sell Evans for cheap, especially so early in the season, as teams always grow more desperate toward the NHL trade deadline in March. Evans has scored north to 25 points twice in his career, potted a personal best 13 goals in 72 games back in the 21-22 season. So he has some offensive upside.

Comparatively, scored a career high 25 points with the Devils last season and has never produced more than 20 in a single season before that. So what do you guys think about Evans to replace Lazar? That interest you guys at all?

Bobby (40:54)
doesn't wow me so I don't know enough about him in all honesty wasn't blown away by what you're mentioning so I'll have to hear the other five before I can rank them for sure or the other four.

Tim Wood (41:04)
Yeah, in the same boat, honestly. If this guy, if you made him up, I would have probably been like,

Chris (41:11)
Alright. Alright.

Bobby (41:13)
Love it.

Tim Wood (41:13)
no i'd say it's a lot of said you know the cast for brad on on twitter mention this guy someone someone to pick up now i think about it but he elisa matri all so i think he he knows the canadians a little better than most people but

Chris (41:26)
I will definitely be looking at Jack Evans on Thursday night just to kind of get a feel from him because I have no idea, same as you guys. Number four, Johnny Appleseed. That's a real person.

Noah Cates from the Philadelphia Flyers. Raise your hand if you know who Noah Cates is. I don't see. you do. OK. So Philadelphia Flyers forward Noah Cates, like Evans, is a free agent at the end of this year. The key difference between the two and perhaps even more appealing for the devil's perspective is the fact that Cates is only 25 years old and will be an RFA. There is more long term appeal to adding Cates rather than adding Evans, though there are other factors to consider.

Bobby (41:46)
Bye.

Chris (42:06)
First and most obvious is the fact that the Flyers, like the Devils, are a young team. The two franchises are also metropolitan division rivals, so they'll, yeah, you're probably not gonna wanna trade with that. Cates is making, let's see, 2.625 million against a cap, so would a raise on an already healthy number be something the Devils are willing to consider after having the player for only part of a season? Cates is 25, and he would likely perform better at both ends of the ice on a more competitive team like the Devils.

Further adding to the trade appeal is the fact that Cates can play left wing in addition to center. Once Lazar and Basham return to the Devils lineup, Cates can flex over to the left wing and give New Jersey a more traditional checking line. He is far more suited for that role than Tomas Tatar is, for example. It is more than likely that the Flyers will listen to the Devils or other NHL teams if a reasonable offer is made. Does Cates do anything for you guys?

Bobby (43:00)
No, he's a flyer and he's wicking 2.6 million Nah You're reading this and I might I just keep going okay, what's wrong with Nolan foot? You know if we're gonna talk, you know some reinforcement on the fourth line, but maybe we'll get to that after But yeah, not for me

Chris (43:02)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (43:05)
Yeah, that's pretty.

Chris (43:17)
Tim?

Tim Wood (43:19)
Yeah, same boat, keep rolling through these guys and I'll see if I keep my pants on.

Chris (43:25)
Number three as Scott Lofton from the Philadelphia Flyers again Let's see Devils general manager Fitzgerald likes to trade for players with team control of or term Lazar came to Vancouver from Vancouver with term Markstrom has term Alan had term Paul Cotter has term this is deliberate as Fitzgerald's aiming to bring in certain players and certain profiles with the hope they can help the Devils contend for a Stanley Cup over the course of multiple season Scott Lofton 30

is locked in with the Flyers for two more years at $3 million cap hit and his much greater offensive output makes him a better bargain than his teammate, Cates. Lofton, who wears the A for the Flyers, is a well-respected leader in the locker room and does a ton for the community. He's a player the Flyers have rejected offers on in the past, including one that allegedly included a first round pick. Why are we even talking about this then? That would be a steep price to pay and one that the Devils probably couldn't afford or make possible.

given their previous transactions. everybody has a price and the Devils can meet it with prospects too, not just picks. Lofton, like Kates, can play wing and center and contributes on both the penalty kill and the power play. He's Eric Holla-esque player who can do a little bit of everything, contribute to the locker room, and remain relevant once Lazar returns from his knee injury. This one is admittedly far-fetched at this time, but if Lofton makes sense for anyone this early in the season, it's the Devils. I wouldn't mind that one.

Bobby (44:49)
I don't know, dude. Right now I just feel like I can just go like hand pick any five fourth liners from the NHL and throw them in a list like this. I'm just, nothing's really doing anything for me with the length of the injuries we're talking about and with a couple guys that we have, you know, I'm not there yet, honestly.

Chris (44:56)
Okay.

Tim Wood (45:02)
Yeah, I mean, I...

I like the idea of potentially, you know, exploring the trade market for replacement, but I don't know enough about the fourth liners around the league to like, you know, know what their game is and how well they've replaced. And like, it's almost like, you know, there could be a replacement level guy, you know, like Dowling looks fine, you know, like that, like that's the thing. It's like, like, what do we, what do we need? Like Lawton's a good name, you know, the three millions, three millions of decent chunk of change, but I think he's been kind of...

in and out of the doghouse with with I think Lawton's been in and out of the doghouse a little bit with Tortorella.

Chris (45:39)
Everybody at some point is in the doghouse with John Tortorella.

Tim Wood (45:44)
That's a fair point. That's a fair point.

Chris (45:45)
So number two he has Klim Kostin from the San Jose Sharks. Says Sharks newcomer Klim Kostin is certainly not the sexiest name on the list. I don't know, Klim Kostin. It's kind of sexy. But he has some appeal, especially for certain factions of Devil fans who call the team soft to no end. Hmm, not us. Kostin, 25, is a 6'4", 231 pound former first round pick who has bounced around a considerable amount in his short NHL career but has shown flashes of potential here and there.

Tim Wood (46:09)
Ho ho ho.

Bobby (46:10)
Wow.

Chris (46:14)
Although the Russian forward has played only 162 NHL games to date, we have enough of a sample size to quantify just how good of an addition he can be. Over the course of an 82-game NHL season, currently averages 12 goals, 11 assists, and 23 points a season, as well as a whopping 193 hits. The 25-year-old has one year remaining on his contract at a reasonable $2 million cap hit, and though he has almost exclusively played left wing, Kostin was drafted as a center.

He has played 14 regular season fights to his name and has taken on some tough customers in his short NHL career, such as Nick Deloria, Pat Maroon, Zach Gashin, Brendan Lemieux, and Eric O'Brandsen. Kostin should be a name that the Devils are looking at independently of Lazar's injury status going forward. So this dude likes Kostin. Anything?

Bobby (47:06)
Okay, see.

Tim Wood (47:06)
Yeah, go ahead, sorry, Bob.

Bobby (47:08)
You definitely got me there at 64231, right? Pretty exciting to hear about and his points are up there kind of with what Lazar done. So I did pick up at first, but then to be honest with you, this is not a trade deadline deal. This is a trade now deal and you're talking $2 million. That would essentially put our fourth line as it stands now at over $5 million to $2 million players and a million plus for McDermott. And I just think that's too much for what we're doing with the fourth.

Chris (47:08)
Anyone?

Bobby (47:36)
fourth line and again I still think we could just kind of patchwork it till the guys get back.

Tim Wood (47:42)
I really like the way you kind of frame that with how much the line is making. I think that's an important way to look at things. I remember this guy from when he was on Edmonton a couple years ago. He's definitely a fan favorite, but that's because he's 6'4", 230, and a fucking menace. And if we need that type of player in, which I don't know if we necessarily do. Like Bobby said, it's like, what's wrong with Nolan Foote? What about Hallinan?

Chris (47:57)
Right.

Tim Wood (48:11)
Howlin' in to big boy, Foote's a big boy, they could come up, they probably have a little bit more offensive upside. We've been burying these guys in the NHL for so long. The other thing is, anything over a million dollars or even a couple hundred thousand dollars, I don't think we the cap space for anything like that. Something would need to go the other way.

Chris (48:28)
I prefer foot over all four of those guys, but I don't prefer foot over Nico Sturm from the San Jose Sharks. So he's got Nico Sturm. Of every center on this list, Sharks Center Nico Sturm fits with the Devil's Knee to a T. He's a big, he's physical, he's excellent at face-offs, he can score a little bit, and he's elite defensively. If the Devils are to add a bottom six forward of any kind, Sturm must be the number one priority. I do agree with, I do like Sturm.

Tim Wood (48:42)
Alright.

Chris (48:58)
Briefly, teammate of Devils Forward, Timo Meyer, Sturm has won no fewer than 55 % of his face-offs since joining the Sharks in 2022. The 29-year-old scored a career-high 14 goals, 12 assists, and 26 points with the Sharks two seasons ago. But as the team has gotten worse, so has Sturm's offensive output. He won't have that problem in New Jersey. He currently has two goals, two assists, four points, and 13 games with the Sharks. He's averaging a career-low 10 and

Bobby (48:59)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (49:27)
little over 10 minutes of ice time on the Sharks team prioritizing its young players. Once a Stanley Cup champion with Colorado in 2022, Sturm knows what it takes to win a championship. It was Sturm's avalanche that defeated Devils forward Andre Pallott in the finals that year, though Pallott had a few cups of his own. It would be hard to find a better, more underappreciated bottom six center than the undrafted Sturm. At six foot three, he has the requisite size needed to bolster an average New Jersey Devils bottom six.

that just lost a 6 foot 4 bastion. The Devils can work out who moves to left wing and what not later as Sturm should clearly be at the top of their wish list. Now he doesn't have any of his contracts so I have no idea what Sturm makes. Bob, do you have it?

Bobby (50:11)
I don't, but I can try to look it up in a second here if you wanna talk.

Chris (50:13)
What do you guys think of Nico Sturm? I'll look it up real quick. You talk about Nico Sturm.

Bobby (50:20)
That is the best name by far that you've mentioned. It's also a name that I'm familiar with. He's also a $2 million player right now. He's in the final year. So that would be a big get to and we'd have to look at our charts. I know we're under a million Tim to answer your question. I don't know exactly what it is. We're under a million available, but injuries play into that too, because you can put a long-term injury. This is almost a type of move that I would make as a deadline move for a playoff run. So...

Chris (50:25)
Okay.

Tim Wood (50:39)
Yeah.

Bobby (50:48)
to possibly slide him in would be great. I just feel like it's still going to create kind of a logjam when Lazar is back. But I don't know. As soon as you mention that name, that's the guy, said, Stanley Cup, got some pedigree, got some history in the league. We could do a lot worse and get that guy on the team for sure.

Chris (51:03)
What does Nate Bastion make?

Bobby (51:08)
Nate, yeah, he's just over a million. I'll just go back. He's on injury reserve.

Tim Wood (51:08)
Million and change.

Chris (51:13)
Send Nate Bastian to San Jose and grab Nico Sturm. And then takes care of your logjam on the bottom.

Bobby (51:21)
You could potentially, yeah.

Chris (51:25)
What do you think of that,

Tim Wood (51:28)
Yeah, mean, started like Bobby said, like Sturm is Sturm and this article is actually well written in the sense that it got to like the guy that we should be targeting, you know, last. I agree. You know, he kind of checks all the boxes, you know, the face off percentage of penalty killing, big body, you know, he's affordable, you know, if there's maybe, you know, a third rounder for some retention, you know, and an LTIR or something like that, you know, with Lazar. I don't know, like

Chris (51:38)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (51:59)
I don't know why Fitzgerald doesn't use LTIR for things. Like if Lazar is going to be out for months, like, like do it immediately and open up cap space. I don't know. There's no, there doesn't seem to be any negative reason or any detrimental reason to do that. It opens up a roster space, opens up money.

Chris (52:06)
Right.

Bobby (52:16)
Well, yeah, I just answered Sorry to answer your question. Chris is 1.35 is bastion 1.35. Lazar's one. So you're talking you're sitting on 2.35 million. That could be long-term right now Tim That's that's a big chunk of change with our five hundred thousand. That's three million

Chris (52:16)
I mean, look at the... was just gonna say... Okay, so...

Right. That could be. But, he left six million on the fucking table last year when he never even put, got the LTIR money from Hamilton. I mean, you're talking about, what, six, six and a half million that we just didn't use. And we didn't do shit last year. I mean, I think that Fitzgerald was sleeping in a cave somewhere waiting to wake up from the winter. But, I like the Sturm move. I mean, just the thought of, of, Nico Heescher, Eric Halle, Sturm,

Tim Wood (52:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris (52:57)
and Hughes down the middle and I know not in that order. I'm just throwing the centers out there. I mean that is a really deep middle. That's one of the best middles.

Bobby (53:04)
It is and then I like your, you know, if you could, if you could do this from a trade situation, like if Bastion could go back that way and you bring him over, they got laser playing on the wing with the tar and so he could swap in easily on the faceoffs of some, because they're both good face off men. So that would be, yeah, like I'm saying this, this feels more like a hockey move than, than this problem. I think this problem is still gets addressed with our own players.

Chris (53:15)
Mm-hmm.

Tim Wood (53:18)
That's.

Chris (53:21)
And then Tatara McDermott can swap out and have Lazar and Sturm. Yeah.

Bobby (53:34)
in the miners, I would seriously look at that as a hockey trade.

Chris (53:38)
I like that move.

Tim Wood (53:39)
Yeah, and that's the other thing. you know, Lazar is in the center or, you know, he's kind of been a bit of a patchwork center. He's a righty, Lazar is, you know, which I think can be kind of important in some defensive zone situations. But the way Halla takes faceoffs on that side where he turns a stick over, you know, I don't know if that necessarily matters because it's harder to win when you're a lefty on the right side. It's harder to win a faceoff going back that way.

Chris (54:06)
Right.

Tim Wood (54:08)
But the way Holla turns the stick over like Luzard's 47 % in the dot, which isn't the worst thing in the world, really having everybody over 50 % in the dot would be important. Then you can deploy those guys and situationally put them out there in the defensive zone with a minute left. I like that move. just like you said, not even for...

Chris (54:18)
Huge.

Tim Wood (54:31)
of filling the gap, it's like, you this could be a guy that could really, they could really need them fits and Greer know each other really well and worked together before.

Chris (54:38)
Yeah, that's true too. We've done deals with San Jose, they have a good relationship. Let's make this thing happen.

Bobby (54:44)
Yeah and if Lazar is you know being a right wing is his strong suit I mean then you're just shifting Tatar over and he's good at the blend. He know he just put him anywhere he's one of those warriors so that would really work out well.

Tim Wood (54:56)
Yeah. I like that move.

Chris (54:56)
Do you guys kind of feel like the two guys... Well, let me ask you this. I'll ask him more in a question. If you had to pick any guys, to me I have two, two guys that right now just don't seem to fit where they are, who would those guys be? In your guys' opinion. It's Pilat. Right. That's it. No, I agree. And again, I don't know where else you put them.

Bobby (55:14)
Well, I know my first, obviously, Pilat. Yeah, don't think the tar is where it should be, correct.

Tim Wood (55:17)
to palad guitar.

You swap them. You put Tatar with Jack and Jack and Brad. But I don't know. You know, at this point, I see Tatar and being almost interchangeable. You know, they both kind of do similar things in similar ways. You know, they're a little bit more defensively responsible than those other two guys. Maybe Pilat does some little things that we don't necessarily see or see on the regular that may be a little bit better that help Jack and Brad.

Chris (55:28)
How do you think that would work?

Yeah.

Tim Wood (55:54)
plot hasn't been as bad the past couple of games, you know, offensively he's, he's a fucking ghost and it's an anchor on that line. You know, like

Chris (55:58)
Yeah, I know.

Bobby (56:01)
It's a word I was about to use, an anchor. Yes. It's just not working.

Chris (56:05)
Well...

I think I don't know Stephen Stamcoast would look great there. That's all I'm Let's bring Stamcoast just call Just call Barry Trotz and be like look it's not working. You know, it's not I know it's only nine ten games in for you guys But you know, it's not working. He's not happy there He goes to bed every night in his lightning jersey just crying into his pillow. He's miserable Let's bring him over here. Let's get him playing with some

Tim Wood (56:09)
Like he's, he

He only scores on the power play, Chris. We talked about this.

You

Bobby (56:35)
It's not working. Eat half the salary. Retain that. Send it over to us.

Chris (56:38)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (56:40)
He realized that realized that bachelorette parties suck and like Broadway is just crowded in Nashville and country music is the worst and yeah

Chris (56:43)
and he hates country music and you know he's yeah I'm with you he just fucking why he thinks that the Titans are suck and since they got rid of Derek Henry you know it's nothing to do with them yeah I'm with you man let's just get him over here

Tim Wood (56:59)
Roman Yossi is like alarmingly good-looking. I couldn't deal with that in the locker room. That's crazy.

Chris (57:01)
And you know, how do you compete with with Peter Forsberg's, not Peter Forsberg, whatchamacallits mustache, Forsberg's mustache. How do you compete with that? It's just too good.

Tim Wood (57:09)
filip force work you can't you can't that guy that guy is just mister november

Chris (57:15)
So I think we just made the deal. I think that Stephen Stamkos has to come here. If we're not gonna get Sidney Crosby for fuck's sakes, then I want Stamkos to play with.

Tim Wood (57:19)
Yeah.

You

Bobby (57:23)
Your list is so easily attainable. It's amazing. I love your list. They're very reasonable.

Tim Wood (57:27)
I know, right? I can't believe Fitz hasn't pulled the trigger on this stuff, to be honest. Like, what's he doing?

Chris (57:28)
It's very realistic.

If you could have one of those guys for one year, just this year only, right? Stamkos or Crosby, who do you take?

Tim Wood (57:42)
Crosby.

Chris (57:44)
Robert?

Bobby (57:45)
Crosby is the better player, but I was just thinking about fitting on this team right now. I would still go Crosby. I would go Crosby. Yeah, I would definitely go Crosby.

Chris (57:52)
Crosby would fit in this team so good. Him centering Jack and and Brad. my God. It would be and then that. Now go ahead.

Tim Wood (57:59)
Yep. That line would be insane. Sorry, go ahead. Crosby was so nasty for so long. He missed a couple of years with injuries and his concussions and then COVID. He'd be pushing 2,000 points probably if it wasn't for all that. Same with Ovechkin, would probably be pushing 1,000 goals if it wasn't for...

Chris (58:17)
Yeah, you're right.

Tim Wood (58:25)
for some of those shortened seasons. So Crosby is so fucking good. And he put up 94 points last year. Like it's unbelievable what that guy is still doing.

Chris (58:30)
I

And I don't know if he'll, I mean, I know he just signed the extension, but I honestly do think that if things start going sideways in Philly or Pittsburgh longer than, you know, this goes on till Thanksgiving beginning of December and they are dead last or close to bottom of the metropolitan. I seriously think they're going to start unloading people. And I think Crosby could go. I mean, if you were looking to dump and rebuild, well, you got to get rid of him then, because nobody on that team is going to give you.

Tim Wood (58:48)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (59:02)
more back than Sidney Crosby. So to me, I think you have to fuck.

Bobby (59:06)
And nobody deserves a chance to win that last couple years of this contract now either than him if he wants to go and break his legacy there, which is hard to do for athletes when you played that long and been that good. if that's really the, what's he got? Three years now? Was that the extension? Or this year and two more, I think it is what it works out. So mean, that's a long time for an aging player who might be like, no, send me somewhere where I get another kick at the can. And I mean, we're a team. Right. No, they're not going to make the playoffs. Right.

Chris (59:09)
Right?

Tim Wood (59:16)
Mm-hmm.

Chris (59:18)
Yeah, sign it through your extension.

Tim Wood (59:23)
Yeah. I believe so,

Chris (59:23)
Yes.

if he's not gonna he's not even gonna make the playoffs it's that's it they're not he's not even gonna make the playoffs so if he just want yeah no it'll be his third year in a row you think this guy's just gonna relegate his final three years when the greatest players to ever put on skates he's gonna relegate his final three years to 82 games a season that's it

Tim Wood (59:34)
Yeah, no, they're not and that that's gonna put that's gonna piss him off this year. Sorry to start interrupt Yeah

Bobby (59:50)
Nah, there's no way.

Tim Wood (59:51)
Yeah, no, and he'll wind up in Vegas somehow.

Bobby (59:53)
And I think he signed it and he wanted to stay and for all the right reasons, I'm sure, and he wanted to help the team for all that reason. But yeah, they're not going to actually push forward. Now he's got decision to make and he could pick his team.

Chris (59:53)
Yeah.

Kyle Dubas... Kyle Dubas blew so much smoke up his ass it was coming out of his fucking ears and he thought that they were gonna make some moves and get younger and no, none of that happened.

Tim Wood (1:00:11)
You

i'd i'd honestly i do not think i'll do this is a different idea what he's doing eight but i mean look at the hex all buried that team but called it was just did nothing to shovel themselves out of the hole

Chris (1:00:17)
it's obvious.

And the crazy thing is like, Dubis was in trouble with what he was doing in Toronto. Like he got himself fired there, like he was just, and they brought him in, like they, get firing Hextall cause you're right, he had to go. But why Dubis? Like why did you bring that guy in? Like it was, he did nothing.

Tim Wood (1:00:33)
Yeah.

Yeah, he's just fallen upwards. It's unbelievable.

Chris (1:00:45)
Carlson was his fucking big move like how the hell is that gonna help your team, you know?

Tim Wood (1:00:52)
He literally, yeah, he brings in Carlson who is basically a replication of a guy they already have and you can only put one guy in the first power place. Like what are you doing? No, no, yeah.

Chris (1:01:02)
and neither of them can play defense anymore you know and you look at like Carlson I think he was coming off the Norris Trophy right when he was at San Jose he had a hundred points or whatever you're talking about a team in San Jose that was so bad that Carlson never had to play defense on that team every time he got over to boards it was go score a goal just go score just help us out here so he didn't even have to play defense so that's where all his points came from and he wins the Norris Trophy for the best defensive player because he had a hundred points

Tim Wood (1:01:12)
I think I said this 100 points, Susan. Yeah.

Right, right, They need to add a different award to the defensive side of things.

Chris (1:01:33)
Yeah, they do. The Ken Danico Award. The Dano. Alright, before we wrap it up, Tim, you have some stuff you want to talk about the Devil's Power Play?

Bobby (1:01:34)
For sure.

Tim Wood (1:01:38)
There you go. That's what I like to say. The 10-0.

Bobby (1:01:40)
to Dano.

Tim Wood (1:01:45)
Yeah, you know sure and you know I kind of nerd out on on power play and structure and stuff like this and and there's this guy named Jack Han who's like a kind of a systems expert and He was on one of my favorite podcast called the PDO cast which is which is really good Yeah, sorry, do you sound like my fourth favorite and the Uncle Puckers my first my first three?

Bobby (1:01:59)
You said the Uncle Pucker's wrong.

Chris (1:02:00)
Hahaha

Bobby (1:02:03)
As I thought.

Chris (1:02:06)
Sure.

Tim Wood (1:02:10)
No, and he was talking about the power play that Jeremy Carlton has kind of put in place. So I've been watching and kind of noticed a few things. And just wanted for, if anybody's interested in kind of actually knowing how it's kind of working. So basically, the first thing that I've noticed is they are still doing the slingshot drop pass as a zone entry, but as opposed to it just being, you know, it's not.

A, traveling as far as it was. Like Luke would be dropping it from the red line to like the middle of defensive zone. And that is just too much of a gap to allow guys to kind of reset up. Because the point of that is the back guys off and then have someone follow up with speed. What they're doing now is they've shortened the distance on that. And now it's a two man rush with Brad and Jack coming up. And I'm just using the first power plug unit as kind of like the template for what I'm talking about. So they have those guys.

kind of rushing up as a two man and you know, for the football people, it's basically becomes a read option where, you know, the guy with the puck kind of reads the play and if he needs to dump it off and then there's another guy along the boards that can be a sent then a secondary dump off and then it gets into the zone. know, so you'll see our zone entries are a lot cleaner. The second thing is, is they really, that structurally and positionally they line up in a one three one, which is basically the kind of standard formation. You know, there's the defenseman at the point.

Two guys on what are called the flank so Jack is so facing the goal Jack's on the left flank Bratz on the right flank Then there's a guy in the bumper which is in the middle and then again then a net front guy So Jack's on the left rank left flank Bratz on the right flank Nico and Nason are the guys that are net front and the bumper so what I was noticing before they they switched Timo and Nason is the entire right side of the power play was completely ineffective because

Teemo was a lefty, they had four lefty forwards, and so they didn't have a one-time option in that bumper position. So what that really did was not having that option in the bumper, it presents no danger there. So the top of the penalty kill box was able to cheat up towards Dougie, which then took out his shot away as well. So it really kind of led to them having to play a little bit of a two-man game down low, which kind of wound up being a lot of kind of shitty chances and wanted guns.

So now when they switch those two, what it does then is, when the puck's on Brad's side, Nason's in that bumper. So he's kind of the right-handed facing one-timer shot. So now Dougie's available as an option, and Nason's available as an option. When it gets over to Jack's side, you'll see Nico and Nason switch. So Nason then becomes net front, and the net front guys also kind of plays along the goal line as well. So those two switch. So Nico then becomes that one-timer threat in the bumper.

and Nason then kind of pops out along the goal line. The wrinkle that Colton has added is now Jack and Brad are basically two freelancers. So this is kind of something that's almost taken from like a lacrosse motion offense or also like a basketball motion offense, and also the Oilers power play where McDavid just kind of does whatever the fuck he wants. So Jack and Brad are kind of freelancers and they're flip-flopping sides. So you'll see what happens is that that just

allow so much kind of optionality in their plays. So what you're really trying to boil it down to is creating two-on-ones and three-on-twos with guys in little kind of micro sections of the power play. So I really kind of noticed that no-send bumper thing when he scored a power play goal against Tampa. was like, was like he popped out into the bumper. He's usually the net front guy. And then Nico's scoring a lot of his goals from that bumper position.

in how he's scoring on his power play goals. But then also, now, Nikos then can also pop out and become a flank guy and Bratt can become the bumper guy. And that's exactly. it's like, so just all of these guys can, like the three kind of main guys, Nikko, Jack and Bratt, can all play those flanks in the bumpers. And then another goal that was really interesting was when Nason was the net front guy, he kind of popped out.

Chris (1:06:05)
She had Bratton the bumper for his power play goal last night. Yep.

Tim Wood (1:06:27)
along the goal line and that's when Jack snuck in that little back door and then tapped one, I think it was against Vancouver for like the fifth or sixth goal. So Jack snuck in the back door. So that's just another kind of little two-on-one that they created with a defense and that got pulled over because when you're defending a one-three-one as a penalty kill box, it's almost more of a diamond. It's not like a box. So the two guys are on the flank. So there's really one guy that's sort of in front of the net.

Chris (1:06:32)
Yeah.

Tim Wood (1:06:54)
So he pulls, pulls, Nasen pulls him down and then Nasen can feed the puck through to him to Jack. So there's a lot of cool kind of optionality going on and I'm really loving what I'm seeing kind of with the motion that Jack and Brad have, this kind of freelancing ability. It is kind of reduced the amount of bombing that Dougie does, but I think kind of overall it's a much more effective power play. So that's really kind of it.

Bobby (1:07:20)
That was a dynamite analysis dude, like seriously that was awesome and what I learned about Tim today is that he's got this uncanny ability to actually watch the hockey game like with one eye on the puck and one eye on actual other players because that's pretty amazing to notice all that like I just watched the puck.

Tim Wood (1:07:31)
Yeah.

Chris (1:07:31)
And you know, the one thing about the Devil's Power play going back last year, and we talked about it a lot, was just how unbelievably predictable they were on everything. They didn't move, you know, they moved the puck, but they were not moving around. They were not making, you know, doing anything to, like you said, create any kind of options. And options are the main term. Like you saw it last year, right? The drop pass way back.

I mean, Hughes coming up through the middle, he'd throw it to the right side to Tafoli, who would pretty much get creamed at the blue line, dump it in, and then they'd chip it out. This is giving them so many more options, which is what you're saying. Okay, I can pass it into Bratt and come in on the rush. I can dump it in. I can do a couple of different things now that they are, because of what you said, options are the key. I knew that the power play was looking a lot different.

Tim Wood (1:08:06)
Yep.

Chris (1:08:28)
couldn't really how you just explained it like Bobby said now like I'm going through like remembering power plays in my head. It's exactly what they're doing and they're creating options and creating open guys and I think it's it's and like you said with Bratt and Hughes able to now kind of freelance a little bit and they're able to get creative and and and again you're seeing it where everybody knows what everybody else is doing. He sure got out of that bumper spot got over to the flank Bratt comes in and they get the goal.

Tim Wood (1:08:53)
Yep.

Chris (1:08:57)
you know nobody's just sitting on their hands and it's a dirt they're very well coached right now on every angle

Tim Wood (1:09:04)
Yeah, it is. And one other thing, like last year talking about, is very static. Like, Brat was on the left flank, and the two options were Brat to Dougie for a bomb, hopefully it hits somebody and goes in. Or they pass it over to Jack, who's kind of doing that high circle and coming into the zone and kind of running downhill for, well, 90 % of the time, it's a wrist shot into someone's shin guards, and then it's going the other way.

The other thing that's happening and they're also maintaining a lot more in-zone possession because of Nason. last year they had so many kind of one and done opportunities where they get the shot or get the look that they're looking for and it hits somebody and they lose the battle and then the puck would go around the zone. Nason's winning those battles and they're retrieving those pucks and getting them out. The other thing it does with Power Play 2 then is it gives Luke and Teemo a nice little kind of dynamic and Teemo scored a nice Power Play goal off of a

Chris (1:09:58)
Yeah, I like that second unit too now with Timo on there. You know, think I'm really looking forward to what this team is going to do going forward because I just think they're just now kind of the tip of the iceberg of what they can do. And I think they're going to start putting it together. I mean, as far as complete teams go, they are playing a lot of complete team hockey. I watched the Rangers and I don't know if the Rangers are in a playoff spot. They don't have Igor Shostrkin right now.

Tim Wood (1:09:59)
Off of pass from, pass from Luke too. Yeah. Yeah.

Bobby (1:10:10)
getting started.

Chris (1:10:27)
like he's just playing out of his fucking head and you know these guys are giving up so many high danger chances are given you know and I just you know you again we've said is with the Rangers right like how many times they just they lean on to start and just well we can play loosey goosey because we have him well in the playoffs that's not gonna work so I would

Bobby (1:10:48)
Well better get used to it because they're going to pay him $20 million a year to stay so you're going be leaning on him forever.

Tim Wood (1:10:52)
Yes, was gonna say, I was gonna go to 25. I think that's where it needs to go.

Chris (1:10:54)
Man, he might as well say 25 because he'll fucking get it. At this point, they're going to give him, and especially now where he's just making it very obvious and playing to see like, guys, I'm your fucking team. I'm your best player, period. And what are you going to do?

Tim Wood (1:11:09)
Yeah.

So coming up with Montreal, I think the type of game that I expect to see out of them, if they're going to kind of continue this momentum, is how they played against Anaheim. I see Montreal and Anaheim in that similar kind of upper dogshit tier. So I think I really would like to see that type of game. I really hope they don't fall into the trap and kind of get ahead of themselves looking out for it. They need to kind of take this one game at a time. But yeah.

Chris (1:11:38)
What are you expecting from Montreal,

Bobby (1:11:43)
kind of expect more of exactly what we've seen. I think that they're going to continue to just really, really want it and kind of show it in their play that they want. think Montreal is still going to play us tough too, because they always do. Might look touch and go there for a little bit and then eventually they're just going to take the game away.

Tim Wood (1:12:03)
Yeah, they got to watch out for Caulfield. He's tied with Nico for the goal lead, I think, or maybe he might be ahead of him now. Can't wait to watch 5'4 Bobby Orr to see how he looks. The shimmy shake and headfakes and some guy on Twitter compared him to Barry Sanders, which is fucking laughable.

Chris (1:12:09)
Yeah, Gold Caulfield is no joke.

I mean, I never saw Barry Sanders play hockey, but maybe they're a lot like each other. I don't know. But I think that it's best that Montreal, they're all just going to sit there on the bench looking around going, why did we get rid of Kovacevich? We kind of need him now, don't we? I so I expect I expect Kovacevich to have a big game. I want a goal from Kovacevich against Montreal. That's what I'm going to go with. Kovachkin.

Tim Wood (1:12:32)
you

Close.

Yeah, need some Kovachkin. Yeah, he's, Kovacavich has come back down to earth a little bit. He's been a little up and down the past couple games, but we still have a very good top four, top four day.

Chris (1:12:58)
I

Yes. Yeah, I still don't, I mean, you can't ask for a co-vice, I was to do any more than what he's doing, though. I mean, he's he's come in more better than advertised. You know, this guy was supposed to just be the seventh defenseman and poor Nemec can't get on the fucking ice. So.

Tim Wood (1:13:17)
Yeah, I'm starting to get a little, you know, people I think are over-inflating the Nemitz thing, you know, I don't know, yeah, get him, you know, I think, yeah, maybe send him to Utica, you know, just let him get some minutes. Utica fucking sucks too.

Bobby (1:13:25)
He's got to skate, get him out. Yeah.

Chris (1:13:31)
I say send him to Pittsburgh. That's what I say. There's a guy there, I he wears number 87, he's pretty good. I'll take him. god, that would be awesome. Alright guys, we're gonna, what, yeah, would be.

Bobby (1:13:35)
Who do you want back?

You

Second line center. All right. Sounds like a fair trade. Let's go.

Tim Wood (1:13:44)
How

By the way, have you seen how bad Utica is? Sorry.

Chris (1:13:51)
Did they win yet?

Bobby (1:13:53)
Yeah, I did. You because, yeah, they're-

Chris (1:13:55)
They were 0 and 8 last time I saw. So, yeah.

Tim Wood (1:13:55)
No, I don't think so.

I haven't noticed recently, but yeah, that's basically it.

Bobby (1:14:01)
I think they were 08 and then they lost in overtime or something like that, think. yeah, they might have won since then.

Chris (1:14:03)
to 08 and 1? Jesus.

Tim Wood (1:14:05)
Casey's killing it, but you know.

Chris (1:14:08)
Well, maybe we should send Nemech down, help him out a little bit. Bring Casey back up. But no, like Casey down there now. Casey needs to play. Casey needs to play. I like Casey's game a lot. I really am looking forward to when he's ready to come up to the big leagues, but he needs to play.

Tim Wood (1:14:13)
Yeah, exactly.

Bobby (1:14:14)
I'm glad he's killing it on an 0-8-1 team. Somebody's gotta do something.

Tim Wood (1:14:17)
Exactly.

Yeah, him and him and that big fucking Russian that we drafted, Salah, are going to be a beautiful team. They're going to be such a good pair together.

Chris (1:14:29)
I love that kid.

Are they playing together now in Utica? He's still out there? Okay.

Tim Wood (1:14:37)
no no no, Sly is still in Russia but I just picture them together you know because Casey Scy's thing and this guy's you know 6'7 I think the two of them together is gonna be adorable they're gonna so much like exactly I say so much twins content

Chris (1:14:44)
Yeah, that will be. It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito on ice skates. What's going on with the... before we wrap it up though, what's the... anybody have any news on the goalie that we took in the draft this year? The other Russian kid? I can't remember his name. Like is he... Yeah.

Tim Wood (1:15:01)
Yagora of your Gora. Yeah, I think he's doing better. I think his team last year the Omaha Lancers was historically bad. He's in it's a USHL so he's going to be you or BC next year. So he's got one more year in the USHL than be your BC. I forgot which one I think I think BU which is good. We'll get him under Pandolfo's. Pandolfo's guidance so so it'd be good but you know.

Chris (1:15:07)
Is he's where is he now in the age? He's not with the? USHL.

Okay.

Nice.

Tim Wood (1:15:30)
I hear nothing but good things. I Omaha is a little bit better than they were last year, but it's always hard to tell, you know, just basically looking at numbers, like, you without knowing the kind of context of the league, you know, the, I the USHL can be kind of, you know, there, there's a lot of haves and a lot of have nots.

Chris (1:15:39)
Sure.

I'm excited for that kid. I'm excited to see what he can become.

Tim Wood (1:15:51)
Yeah, you we have a good kind of succession set up goalie-wise finally for the first time in a long time.

Chris (1:15:58)
I'd like to dive into that a little bit on the next show. I'd like to do a little research on some of the goalies that we have in the system and we can talk about that. But I think we are going to wrap it up. It is my wife's birthday today, so I'm going to go hang out with her for a little while. we've been married 18 years. She doesn't give a shit.

Tim Wood (1:16:02)
Yeah.

What are you doing with us?

Bobby (1:16:15)
Podcast first,

Tim Wood (1:16:17)
I know, honey, that ad revenue is pouring in. I gotta get you a present.

Chris (1:16:21)
She does.

Bobby (1:16:21)
Yo, you think you get hundreds and maybe hundreds of listeners a month but you don't put it first?

Tim Wood (1:16:25)
Maybe 100 listeners or something.

Chris (1:16:26)
That's right. Now, she, are you kidding me? She doesn't care. She loves that I do this. Yeah. But, no, she's cool. But yeah, today's her birthday, but she only wants one thing for her birthday, something I cannot give her. It has to do with, you know, exit polls and everything like that. So we'll just keep it at that. So,

Bobby (1:16:33)
All good.

Tim Wood (1:16:35)
That's good.

Bobby (1:16:45)
Told you we can all give it to her. Millions of people give her one big birthday present.

Chris (1:16:47)
I did my part. voted early and often. voted lots of times, so I'm all set.

Tim Wood (1:16:47)
yes yes i drove up to pennsylvania and voted fifteen times so i'm doing my part

Chris (1:16:54)
There you go. I like that. did it. I did a few states I went to. I went to spread it out, you know. So it was fun. It was fun. I have like 15 I voted stickers. You should see my other jacket. It's just covered in them. All right, boys, we're going to wrap this thing up. Wherever you're listening to us, a like, a download, subscription.

Bobby (1:17:04)
stuff.

Tim Wood (1:17:07)
There you go.

Bobby (1:17:09)
You

Good times.

Tim Wood (1:17:12)
Alright guys.

Chris (1:17:14)
Five star review, positive whatever. And if you want one of these kick ass Uncle Puckers New Jersey Devil stickers, just go to theunclepuckers.com, go to contact, put your info in and I will send them out to you ASAP. For Tim and Bobby, I am Chris, we are the Uncle Puckers and we'll see you when we see you.

Bobby (1:17:32)
Bye bye.

Tim Wood (1:17:32)
All boys.