He’s joined by Vegas Golden Knights insider Gary Lawless to discuss Mitch Marner’s arrival in Vegas, the team’s early chemistry with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev, and how Vegas continues to build around its championship core.
Then, Jeff Paterson (Rinkwide Vancouver) checks in to react to the Canucks’ season opener, including Thatcher Demko’s performance, Quinn Hughes’ play as captain, and early takeaways on Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil.
Finally, Stefen Rosner (The Hockey News) joins to break down Matthew Schaefer’s NHL debut and the new era under GM Mathieu Darche with the New York Islanders — plus how Schaefer’s skating and transition game are already changing the team’s identity.
From Vegas’ balanced lineup to Vancouver’s big start and the Islanders’ youth movement, Jeff and Zack cover the league’s biggest early-season headlines.
Watch new episodes of The Sheet every week on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel.
Chapters:
00:00 – Opening: Early season surprises & JC Tremblay story
03:15 – The flip-puck goal trend and Jack Eichel’s smart play
06:25 – Gary Lawless joins: Vegas Golden Knights insight
12:30 – Mitch Marner’s impact in Vegas
18:40 – Peterborough stories, Neil Young, and hockey history
21:05 – Eichel-Marner-Barbashev: NHL’s best line?
24:30 – Vegas depth, blue line needs & Alex Pietrangelo update
26:45 – Jeff Paterson joins: Canucks’ season opener reaction
29:00 – Thatcher Demko’s elite form
32:00 – Filip Chytil, Arshdeep Bains & young Canucks standouts
35:00 – Power-play struggles & Adam Foote’s first win
38:15 – How Vancouver’s mindset shifted this season
42:45 – Stefen Rosner joins: Matthew Schaefer’s NHL debut
45:30 – Patrick Roy’s coaching approach & Schaefer’s confidence
48:10 – Islanders fans embracing Schaefer mania
50:30 – Barzal back at center, Cal Ritchie outlook
52:45 – Expectations for Mathieu Darche’s Islanders
54:10 – Closing thoughts: early season takeaways
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[Music] Friday, October the 10th. One game in, Josh Norris is injured and Sabres fans are booing. And I don’t know what’s happening with Alexander Gorgv either. Uh we’re not going to talk a ton about the Buffalo Sabres today. Uh we will talk a little bit about what we saw last night. Um a resounding loss at the hands of the New York Rangers and some of the fallout, most notably the the Josh Norris injury. We’ll find out how long that is and what the response is from the Buffalo Sabres. Uh but things have not gone swimmingly already um for the Swords, as we like to say. But um hey, Zach, am I allowed to get ahead of myself here a little bit? Am I allowed to do something really here really quick before we uh bring in guests and have conversations about Vegas and the Islanders and the Vancouver cast? Am I allowed put my hand up nicely, teacher, and ask if I can jump ahead on the program and and and do something just because it tickle tickles me under the under the chin. not mine. You can do whatever you’d like. I just follow act as fast as I can. That’s right. You go where you you go where you’re put, Zach. You go where you’re put. Um uh the QOD today. Um the QOD is essentially what’s your biggest surprise a couple of days in. I know it’s early, but let’s get ahead of ourselves. You’re like, I’m trying to get ahead in the show. So, the um the QD is uh is brought to you by uh the Ninja Krispy, and we’ll get a little bit more into that later on the program, but I wanted to I want to present you with my two biggest surprises that I’ve seen so far this year. It’s a similar play, and last night it resulted in a goal. You’ve heard me talk about flipping pucks at Goenders before, and we’ve now seen it in two nights in a row. So, let’s really quickly rewind to open to uh no to Wednesday night, the Battle of Alberta. Blake Coleman flips one in on Stu Skinner. Let’s just roll this one here first. All right, let’s just see. Blake Coleman. This will end up being the game tying goal. Coleman comes in just a little flip right at Stu Skinner. Plays it like a bag of toys and next thing you know, we’re all tied up again. It’s a little simple flip to the goalender. The point that I’ve always made about these plays is you should do them more because you know where the puck’s going. No, no one does. Not even the goalender. That results in a goal. Okay. And then so I’m I’m feeling pretty good about myself. It’s like, “Oh, okay. That’s that’s great.” Zary flips it in and Blake Coleman’s there to to tap it between Stu Skinner’s legs and we’re all tied up and the Calgary Flames end up winning this thing. Uh and then last night in the Vegas San Jose Sharks game, Jack Eel takes it to a whole new level. Jack Eel pulls out the JC Trombllay. I’m going to get into him here in a couple of seconds. Let’s see for those who didn’t stay up to watch this thing last night. Let’s see how Jack Eel handles things. Newly minted $13.5 million contract. Steps over center ice and just plunk drops it in front of Alex Nadulkovic. Nadulkovich and it goes in. Now, you might look at that and go, “Oh, wow. What a soft goal.” That’s a hard shot to stop that really. Anyone on the ice knows a you got to short hop it if you’re the goalender. You got to get out in front of it like you’re a second baseman. But I’m constantly surprised that more players don’t do that. Just step over center ice and flip it at goalenders. Now I mentioned JC Trombllay a sec couple of seconds ago. Uh oh yeah, that’s the Oh man, shades of Patrick Stefen. The easiest empty netter. Oh, the easiest empty netter. And then here’s Jackel with the flip. Oh, it’s such a smart play. So, JC Tromblé, who uh was a defenseman for the uh Montreal Canadians in the NHL and then Quebec Nordics in the WH. Do we have a picture of JC Tromblé? This was this was a a what I’m talking about here is what JC Tromble used to do on the regular. This guy had incredible hands. Like he was a defenseman in that era who had the hands of a forward. And Red Fischer said outside of Bobby Yor, he had the best set of hands in the offensive zone of anybody in the NHL. I agree with Red Fischer on this one. His hands were incredible. What JC used to do is just what you saw Jack Eel do. He says it added about 25 goals to his career just from flipping pucks at net minders and just have them Oh yeah, man. And just have the puck bounce in front of a goalie because no one knows where it is. There’s a chance that this thing may come in. Now I want to make your weekend, Zack. I want to make your weekend. I want to make everyone’s weekend in the chat. I want to make everybody’s weekend is watching live on YouTube or listening to us on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s how I want to make your weekend. My favorite thing about JC Tromblé, now you’re not supposed to do this, but he did and it was awesome. JC Tromblé gave himself his own nickname. Now, you’re not supposed to give yourself your own nickname, but he gave himself his own nickname. You know the nickname that JC Trombllay gave himself? No. But hopefully it’s good because he gave it to himself. Yeah. Yeah. He gave himself his own nickname and his nickname was JC Superstar. True story. Oh god. I’m telling you, Zach, just stay alive and you’ll see some crazy stuff. and you’ll hear some crazy stuff. And today you head into the weekend knowing that JC Trombllay gave himself his own nickname, JC Superstar. And he is the man responsible for the idea of flipping pucks in front of net minders. And as I said, he feels it added 25 goals to his career. All right, uh time for the uh time for the blueprint right now. What’s coming up on the program? The blueprint is powered by FanDuel. Make every moment more with North America’s number one sports book, FanDuel. And coming up on the program today, it’s kind of like reporters day. We might end up doing a lot more of these if if if they really work out on Fridays, just like shotgun style, like a bunch of reporters and insiders one after the other. Uh we’ll talk to Gary Lawless, uh insider for the Vegas Golden Knights. We’ll talk about Mitch Marty there. We’ll talk to Jeff Patterson uh about the Vancouver Conucks. Good opener, great opener by Philip Heedle yesterday. Thatcher Demco was excellent. Steph Rosner from the hockey news and the excellent Elmoners newsletter. We’ll stop by. we’ll talk about even though it was a loss uh Matthew Schaefer’s debut with the Islanders yesterday. Um in the meantime, uh do you have a do you have a favorite so far two two days in or a surprise? Maybe it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins uh 2 and 0. Maybe it’s how competitive albeit in a couple of losses. The Chicago Blackhawks have been early on. Or maybe it’s just the woes of the Buffalo Sabres getting booed their home opener and dropping a tough one to the New York Rangers and Josh Norris gets injured, again as someone as someone pointed out on Twitter today, I should have I should have grabbed it for you. Um I don’t want to I’m not going to make fun of the guy. Injuries nothing to make fun of. Um, as someone pointed out, Josh Norris has played four games for the Buffalo Sabres and only finished two. Oh, I didn’t even realize that. Yikes. Um, non-cont yesterday, too, was tough. It’s a face off goes down. You could tell just immediate immediate pain. Um, but if we’re talking surprises, the one for me right now or the some of the most entertaining has been the Bruins. The Bruins two and 0 here to start the season. They may not predict again. As we all predicted, as we all predicted, can’t go 82 and0 if you don’t go two and a good competitive kind of fun young guys. Um I texted you last night after I saw Fraser Minton score. I’m not ashamed to admit it. And I just say Fraser OT goal. Of course, the Leafs are cursed. This is the way it is. Time for me to give up cheering on teams. I’m I’m just going to watch cheer for hockey. But are you going to come over to my side of things? Be the uh teamless fan, just cheer for players in good games. You going to come on, you know, snuggle up next to your boy Jeffy here on this one? I think as hard as I tried, I would always still be a fan of the Leafs, so it wouldn’t matter. But no, the Bruins have been fun to watch. It’s not just surprising. Okay, two and 0 and they won and whatever. Like anybody can start 2 and 0. It’s just it’s been fun to watch them. You turn on any game, you check out the highlights, whatever it is, it’s entertaining. Yeah. Uh it has been 14 games on the go around the NHL last night. Um tonight, exactly zero games. I don’t want to gross about it because it it just feel like I’m sort of, you know, nitpicking something to to to grumble about, but in your opening week, I know it’s all based on building availability and it’s a very very sensitive calculus that Steve Hatipetros uh and his team I’m assuming he has his has a team behind this because if Steve does this all himself, holy smokes, what an undertaking that is um putting together uh the the NHL schedule for 32 teams. I know it’s all based on arena availability um and when teams want to play and when they don’t want to play and competition from either Major League Baseball, you want to program around it, football, uh college football. Um I remember talking to to Doug Mlan about to talk about um uh about his scheduling and what he would request and what he wanted to stay away from. and college football was obviously a big one, but he also said uh what Canadians can’t wrap their minds around is we don’t want to compete against high school football that you want to stay away from high school football as much as you can because there are so many people that go that it uh that it puts a dent into their attendance. Um Gary Lawless we’re going to get to here in a couple of moments when he uh when he chimes in. Also, as I mentioned, uh we will be talking to Steph Rosner from the Elmonters and Jeff Patterson on a really interesting game by the Vancouver Conucks. Just to sort of get into Vancouver here for a couple of seconds before we uh we bring Gary aboard, Zach, just let me know when when Gary’s uh chimed in. Um all the questions about Philip Heedle through the preseason answered, look great. Uh game one looked great again. Now, a pair of goals yesterday, the first one, the puck hits Kevin Ball in the head. I you can understand the irony of Philip scoring a goal off someone else’s head, not his own considering his history of concussions. Uh but he looked great. Thatcher Demco looked fantastic. Quinn Hughes had the one turnover. Um but whatever. Uh when you play high-risisk hockey like Quinn Hughes does, that’s going to happen sometimes. Um he looked great. Uh, as a lot of people mentioned on social media last night, was it the best of all possible games for Evander Kane? I don’t necessarily worry about veterans early in the season. Uh, so I’m going to reserve judgment on Vander Kane at this point. Jonathan Leer Mackey scores. So early on, and again, it’s a game you have to have because Calgary’s on the bound on the uh the second half of a backto-back. Uh, you have to have it, but all you can do is play the games that are presented to you. And that was um a game that Vancouver had to win and a game that uh that they did win. Uh so a good start for the Vancouver Conucks. Um the weekend should be full of hockey action uh as it is every Saturday. Essentially the league is a is a Thursday, Saturday, um Tuesday league for the maximum amount of games. Everybody in sports wants to stay away from Mondays. Hockey is no exception. Um people generally stay away from Sundays. Um, and basically they run a ton of games on Thursdays as we know and they run a ton of games on Saturday. All day long is fantastic. We’re all glad that hockey is back. Um, and we’ll see plenty more of it coming up this weekend. But give us something on the Friday. Give us something today. Right. Again, the poll question, uh, what are the biggest surprises through the first few days of the NHL regular season? Uh, my pleasant surprise has been two flipped pucks towards goalenders that resulted in goals. Shades of JC Trombllay. I wonder uh how Vegas insider Gary Lawless will answer this question. Uh Gary joins me now from as one person just uh who’s listening and watch or what may be watching the show right now uh just texted me Gary Lawless Peter Mafia. Gary Lawless Peter Mafia. I was delivered just uh on Wednesday night. Pete Dalade, the the great and longtime voice of the Pets, son of the great Gary Dalade. Great family. Great family. The the voice of the Pets when I was growing up. I should rem I should mention uh Tim and Christa. They’re other kids. Good people. Uh he delivered a hoodie to me on Wednesday. So this guy Jay Rowan from Peter Peter Bro, he owns Sandbagger. It’s a It’s a It’s a hard cocktail that you can drink in uh in Canada. And he just expanded to the US and into Vegas. And he did a Sandbagger open in Las Vegas this week. And they got a plane from Peterborough. It flew from the little airport in Peterbr. They didn’t have to drive into Toronto. They chartered a plane Peter to Vegas. Yeah. They stayed at uh one of the hotels on the strip. They played a bunch of golf. Uh but anyways, they got tickets to the game and at the last minute, uh Pete decided to come. He didn’t have tickets, so I gave him my tickets. He delivered a fantastic TPT pet before they were TPT was the transport trucking company that originally owned them. That was the sponsor. Yes. And they weren’t maroon, they were black and a bit of a goldy color. Uh he delivered me a hoodie on uh on Wednesday night. That’s awesome. That’s what they would have been a uh a development team for the Montreal Canadians which was uh one of the origin stories of the the Peterbr piece or the TPTs as you mentioned. Yes, that’s and then Scotty Bowman was uh was one of their first coaches there and uh went to the Memorial Cup. They lost uh Pat Casey was one of the players and we could go on and on forever and ever. But anyways, I think there was now correct me if this is this is better for a question for Scotty. I believe uh and I think this did happen in Peterbr. The Plagger brothers both fought they fought each other under the stands. Have you ever heard that story? That’s a Scotty question. Yeah. Yes, it is for sure. Uh so I knew Barkley uh a little bit better than uh than Bill. Uh but uh I I grew up kind of hanging around Quortha Golf and Country Club. I was worked in the back shop there. And uh on certain days you’d you know Mickey and Dicki Redmond and their dad Ed Redmond would show up to play. Other days the players would be around. And of course they had this great amateur tournament every August, the civic uh holiday. I don’t know what they call it now. Uh but and Pete Mahavage had an old restored Bentley and Pete would roll in in this openair Bentley and uh and play the tournament and he was a good player. not good enough to win that tournament. But, uh, that’s enough Peter Bro history for you. Well, let me throw one more. And I’ve always been trying to find out what the stories are, but so so many people are are no longer with us. The New York Islanders had their first ever training camp there in Peterborough. This was beaten. This would be 1972. I think there were like 75 players that they brought out. And some people’s, let’s just say, how do we say this delicately? significant others had to be asked to leave for extracurricular reasons from this wild training camp with the New York Islanders. But I digress from Peter Bough stories. Well, just before you go, like that’s the Toronto Maple Leafs had a camp in Peterborough. They would play, they practice at the memorial center and stay at the old Empress Hotel. And that is the setting for Scott Young’s great book uh Boy at the Leafs Camp, which you know is the it the first one is Scrubs on Skates. Then it’s Boy on Defense. That’s Bill Spunka gets introduced to the readers. And then Boy at the Leafs camp is when Bill Spunka makes the Leafs. And then uh the last one in the series is that old gang of mine which uh he wrote about Scott wrote about them uh they were in their 40s and uh for some reason team Canada needed uh to put cobble together a team at the last minute minute to play in Europe and it’s uh they’re divorced they’re smoking they’re drinking too much and uh if you read the first ones like these your heroes are shattered it’s uh clay feet and all that it was really Good. Yeah. Scott Young, of course, the father of uh Neil Young and if we’re going to go story for story with with the Young family. Johnny Bower recorded a Christmas song called Honky the Christmas Goose, which is legendary. And they used a bunch of studio musicians from Yorkville at the time where Neil Young was hanging out. And if you look at the original credits for Honky the Christmas Goose and the musicians, there is listed an N. Young. I’ve never got it confirmed. I don’t even know how to get it confirmed, but there’s a I I’m wondering if Neil Young was actually the guitarist on Johnny Bower’s Honky the Christmas Goose. These are the things, Gary, I’m going to be I’m going to be blunt with you. These are the things that kept me single for a lot of years. I’m just going to be honest. Like stuff like this, like being fascinated with Honky the Christmas Goose, kept me single for a number of years, my friend. Is there an R James on the uh because famously Neil Young and Rick James were hanging out in Yorkville together and then drove to the West Coast in a hearse together. In a hearse? I had heard that one. Oh, that’s Yeah. No. Yeah. Have you not read Neil and Me? I have not. No, I have not. Oh, you got it. Yeah, that’s Scott’s great book about uh about him and his son and their uh That’s awesome. their fractured at times fractured relationship. Really good stuff. Okay, so let me draw another one here. So Neil Young noted San Jose Sharks fan last night. San Jose Sharks facing off against the Vegas Golden Knights and Jack Eel made my day and this is a tribute to JC Tromblé. The flip puck in front of Alex Nadulkovich and I was given a little sort of history lesson about JC Trombllay before you came on and and how he popularized that move to some extent. He said that it added 25 goals to his career doing that very thing that we saw Eel do. Uh before we drill down on the Vegas Golden Knights here, um I’m surprised that more players bluntly don’t do that because it’s a hot potato. No one knows where the puck is going. To me, it just it’s just a smart thing to do. I guess coaches want the puck in quote unquote safe areas, but to me it’s a it’s a high percentage play because no one knows where that thing’s going. And we we s we saw Conor Zeri do it on the Blake Coleman goal the night before. Yeah, and actually the Sharks did it a couple times to Akira Schmid after the Nadulkovich goal went in and Schmid uh the first one he he he did not handle it. It wasn’t an easy handle for him. He did make the stop but uh you know I don’t know why they why they don’t do it more often. Uh probably because I want to make better plays. Uh it also what well and also it confuses the forcheck, right? when you can’t see the puck, when the puck is up in the air, uh when can you cross the blue line, etc., etc., it becomes a little bit of a if someone’s trying to get in heavy on the for check, it’s a difficult uh it slows you down, right? So, and Jack Eel is uh uber talented. He can do lots of things other than flip the puck. We see more of of it of defenseman flipping the puck out of the defensive zone which has become uh quite quite fashionable in the last Jim Dory Jim Dory whose nickname was literally flipper uh old Maple Leafs defenseman from the early early ‘7s there as we uh continue with our historical series here. Yours truly, Jeff Merrick alongside uh the historian Gary Lawless. Uh also occasional Vegas Golden Knights insider but mainly a hockey historian from the Peterborough area. Um, I look at the Vegas Golden Knights and I say to myself, that top line with Barbashev, Eel, and Marner has all the potential in it to be the best line in the NHL, period. What do you say to that? Well, how long are McDavid and Dryidle going to play together this year? like there that it’s uh that’s a pretty it you know listen I think Jack and Mitch and Ivan are going to be dynamite uh and best line in in which sense are they going to be the the best offensive line or are they going to be really hard to play against? You have two silky you have two sulky trophy candidates, guys that can score 100 points, guys that could win a hard trophy. And to the point about McDavid and and and uh McDavid and Dryidle, I wonder now with the addition of of Jack Rosc, whether they’re trying to construct a third line, like a solid third line with Ryan New Hopkins, which would necessitate separating Conor McDavid and Leon Dryidle to go strength down the middle. That’s so I I don’t know that I know it’s it’s always uh for Knoblock and for every other coach that’s been there, it’s the in case of emergency break glass moment like okay we need a goal just like Quenville would put Kane and Taves together. It’s like okay we need instant offense you put Leon and Connor together but I think like long term probably better off to separate the two. That’s why I look at that that EAL line and say that like as a as a proper line that you’re not gonna outside of, you know, barring injuries, obviously, you’re not going to mess with, they could be the best in the NHL, both ends of the rink. Yeah. So, I won’t I won’t quibble with that. And it it’s the the what McC has done is he’s put together uh four really good lines so that you know Bur Cassidy doesn’t like it’s not like they are loaded up on one line when they have uh Marner and Eel together cuz if you’re paying attention Dorafia has four goals already. Uh he’s on the second line with Hurdle and Sod and the line of Carlson Smith and Stone. Uh they they have been dominant for stretches. They get the puck in the offensive zone. Uh really hard to get away to get it away from them. And then just when you think you’ve you’ve you know you’ve broken out and you’re you’re going up up up ice and you’re going to start to have some fun, Stone will reach in and and steal the puck or Carlson will will track you down and and take the puck from you and all of a sudden they’re going the other way again. And the Sizzinss like Brett Hen scored on the fourth line last night. He had 23 last year. He’s already got one. He’s with Sizz and and Kolasar and they look really good as well. So, like I I think it’s the best I think it’s the best line that doesn’t sacrifice anywhere else in your lineup. And because that’s that’s how you lose in the playoffs. It’s not it’s not your good guys kind of, you know, getting ground down. It’s what you don’t have. You can’t play your third line or you can’t play your fourth line or your last pairing. and then all of a sudden uh in a seven game series the other team is able to take advantage of it and you’re looking for your golf clubs. So, uh the depth and the balance is key. Uh last one for you because we gush so much about Peter Brow, but it’s one of my favorite topics. Um as as I’m off to quote, um Peter is a hockey word. Peter Burrow is a hockey word. Uh let me ask you one one more question though about the Vegas Golden Knights. We know that um this is an organization that does not sit on on its hands. This is an organization that unlike other organizations understands that in a salary cap universe was mentioning this yesterday to Colobby Cohen. In a salary cap universe, if you have a chance to improve your team, even the slightest, you have to do it. You are obliged in a salary cap if you even if it’s a tiny little percent, you have to do it. And Vegas understands that better than than most teams in the NHL. Um you’re Kelly McCrimman. What area are you looking at right now? I know it’s so early. I get it, but is there an an area that if you’re Kelly McCre and you’re saying, you know what, I have my eyes on this area. Well, it would have to be the blue line. And, you know, I I think he’s going to give them time to if he has any worries to he’ll give them time to alleviate it. But you know, Alex Petrangel isn’t playing this year. And you know, there there’s that’s 22 23 minutes a night uh of the hardest minutes against the opposition’s best players. Uh huge in the dressing room, huge on the bench. Like, you know, things are going bad and Pro is like everybody just relax. We’re good. Look, let’s let’s get back to what we know how we know how to play and we’ll be fine. He’s, you know, there’s just so much going to be missed with with him. And then on the ice, great in his own zone, physical, uh, and then can skate the puck, can shoot it. Just did so much for this team. You know, I I would have to think that if they if they if they if they run into any trouble, it would be there and he’ll do and Kelly will do something about it if he if he thinks he needs to. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Uh, thanks for sharing your expertise on the Vegas Golden Knights and more Peter Burough stories, please. Always interested in the town stories. Thanks, B. Gary Lawless, Vegas Golden Knights insider. Uh, you can watch them on the intermissions in your Vegas Golden Knights game and you can listen to them on radio as well. Uh, before we get to Jeff Patterson, this segment is a presentation of Prime Video and Monday Night Hockey. Your exclusive home to the NHL streaming games nationally in Canada every Monday. Prime Monday Night Hockey opens next week, October 13th, with a big double header. It is Detroit in Toronto, followed by St. Louis in Vancouver. More on them in a moment. Also on Prime Video, Faceoff Inside the NHL season 2. Subscribe with a 30-day free trial to Prime Video to watch Monday Night Hockey and the new season of Faceoff. Download the app or go to primevideo.com. With that, we bring aboard our good friend Jeff Patterson, who I would imagine like like many Vancouver writes right right now enjoying what what must be uh the sun shining brighter, the beer a little bit colder, everybody’s smiling, the teeth are a little shinier after a pretty convincing win by the Vancouver Conucks last night. A little bit of rust on someone like Evander Kane, but playerto player, uh Jeff, that was uh as much as it was a game they had to win. Calgary’s on the back to back. You can only win the games they present you with. And Vancouver looked really good last night. Yeah, but you lost me at the sunshine in Vancouver. It’s October and uh we’re we’re we’re digging in for a few months here. But uh no uh look, I feel whole this morning. I was at the rink to watch uh regular season hockey again. It uh it was a great thing and the Canucks do a nice job with all the pageantry of opening nights and ceremonies and then the team backed it up. Uh but as you said, the Flames had played the night before. We know the story there. Uh they looked a little more battle tested even if it was just their second game of the season. I think the Conucks kind of had to dip their toe uh into the water and that’s where you see the value of that Demco who only faced 18 shots. But sometimes it’s the situational saves you get and in a scoreless game and at one- nothing Demco was sensational. And I I’ve said this from the first time I laid eyes on him out at UBC and summer skates, and I get that that’s all they were, but just to see him back on the ice, happy, healthy, uh looking free in his motions, he has looked sensational through training camp, through the preseason, and then looked like he was going to pitch a shut out before the late Morgan Frost goal last night. But, uh, this is a guy, Jeff, that, uh, made his season debut last year. His injuries well documented, season debut on December 10th, his first win of last season, December 16th. He had two victories at Christmas time. He’s halfway to that total after opening night. He has the ability to truly change the conversation, I think, about what’s possible for the Vancouver Conucks if he gets back to his VZN caliber. And he’s not there yet, but boy, all signs are trending in a massive direction. It’s just we’re all going to keep an eye on him after every, you know, is he going to be on the ice at practice today because of the health issues. He’s got to come through every single game and be ready and available for the next one. And he taught us a new word last year. Pop was it popus? We all got to all got to know the the the poplatias. That’s a new one in all of our vocabulary. You know, I was on sec I do a weekly hit on secaris price and I was I was like look I don’t want to get sort of carried away about one performance but you know watching Demco yesterday and there’s like this this is shades of Ian Clark from years past like econ economy of movement around that Demco. I always maintain that Carrie Price was the most most athletic goalender of his generation. Not because he’s making big wild saves and rolling around the crease, but he got to position quickly and efficiently and move post to post quickly and effic like that. To me, as an athletic goalender, how quickly can you get to position to make a save look boring. It’s hard to make saves look boring. It’s the NHL. But, and again, I know it wasn’t the heaviest workload. He didn’t face 40 shots last night. But part of me is looking at this and going like all the same reasons that we all looked at Carrie Price and said that’s a great goalender I saw at least last night in Thatcher Demco. Well, I always laugh when I hear people say, you know, he looks big in the net. Well, that was 6’4 wearing all that equipment. Of course he does. But but like I understand that saying because we also see big guys that don’t fill all the holes in the net and teams that have goalending, they know it. And the teams that don’t, they know it, too. And boy, the Vancouver Ducks feel good about what they’ve got as a one-two punch. And you know, workload is going to be a massive issue here. And I’m curious like if I’m making the call coming off last night, I come right back with Thatcher in Edmonton against the Oilers on Saturday night. And then go to Kevin Lankin against St. Louis on Monday. And then you sort of set the ball rolling because the next games after that are a pair of backto-backs to start a road trip and they’ll split those. And then five games in Demco would have three starts, Lanken would have two. And I think you’re kind of, you know, pushing uh the rock down the road in that sort of pattern that if in a perfect world, if that can stay healthy, you know, he’s probably getting 60% of the starts and they go a 6040 sort of split here because really it’s not what that does on October the 9th, as good as he looked. Uh they need him down the stretch and then ultimately uh this is a guy who’s going to turn 30 in December. He has four playoff starts on his resume, which is wild. three of them in the bubble and then the one game against Nashville before he left that series two years ago. So, he knows it. He’s talked about it. He burns to play playoff hockey and he burns to change this narrative that he is injuryprone. He knows that injuries are a part of his story, but he doesn’t want that to be the focus. He wants to get it back to where we’re all raving about his on ice performance. And so, uh, through one game at the very least, so far so good. you know, it’s um we looked at the preseason and everybody that we had questions about like pretty much to a player uh they jumped over those hurdles, right? Whether it was Heedle, whether it was Mancini, whether it was Elas Person, whether it was Jonathan Leaki, Braden Coots, like everybody looked good. And in preseason, you always have to wonder, okay, what’s a mirage? And I don’t know if we can really judge what’s what was a mirage from the preseason, but I look at, you know, Leer Macki and that goal last night like, man, that guy can that guy can shoot flat out. It’s the hardest thing to do in the NHL. Score goals. He can do it. Uh Philip Heedle looked fantastic. You know, was the first one a gimme? The puck hits Kevin Ball’s head and it’s a it’s a tap in. You got to play to the whistle. Um, but based on what you saw in preeason, and again, it’s only one game, and then what you saw last night against the Calgary Flames, does it look like any of what we saw in the preseason was a mirage? Or you can you can take the you can take you can take the trapdoor. Hey, it’s still too early, Merrick. Well, it is too early, but look, Philip scored twice for the Canucks after the trade and then they shut him down on March 15th. He had two goals last night. So, uh, nice start for him. And really, he should have had the hattick. There was a puck in the blue paint there in the third period that was just sitting waiting and somehow squirted out the other side. So, uh, his speed is undeniable. Uh, you know, he’s been reckless at times and I think put himself in some bad spots. And I know that the Canucks have worked hard with him, done a video, bunch of video work here trying to figure out ways that he can just put himself in better situations and avoid harm’s way. You know, running headlong into big strong defenders in the National Hockey League when you have a history of concussions. Uh, that’s not playing particularly smart. So, um, yeah, you’re right. First goal was a a bounce. The second one though, you know, head up all the way, pulls away from the defenders, a couple of nifty stick handles, and then picked his spot and and scored. And at that point, three nothing and the Conucks were off to the races. So, uh, really nice start for Heedle. U, you know, Arste Baines, uh, the story is well documented. Local boy makes good, makes the NHL, but in 21 prior NHL games, he had one point and he starts the season in the top six role. And great pass. Great pass last week. It really was. In fact, in in real time, I saw the three on the jersey and I just figured it was Quinn dishing. And I was like, wait a sec. That was 13, not 43. Uh, but there are a lot of people out here. It’s it’s quite a talking point of, you know, should he be in a top six role here, skates well, thinks the game well, has figured it out at every other level. He led the Western Hockey League in scoring one year. It’s been a high scorer down in Abbottzford, but in his limited time, usually lower in the lineup in the NHL. Had just the one goal against the Penguins last year, otherwise didn’t have a point. That was his first assist in the NHL. So, bit of a keeper for him. Um, but you know, can he hold his own? And that’s going to be uh the mantra here for a young guy like Braden Coots has been earn another day. I think that applies to Arsh Baines. He’s probably earned another spot opportunity to stay on that line with Heedel and Connor Garland. They were really good last night. But it was the Flames. It was the back half of back to backs in that third period. Canucks took advantage of a tired team and you had to do that. They’ll be the tired team some nights, but there will be stiffer competition ahead starting on Saturday going into Edmonton. Oilers will be a little grumpy after what happened to them. So, uh, you know, let’s see how it goes. Uh, and just speaking of Coots, you know, a Sherwood Park boy going back to Edmonton. He played there in the preseason, but now you’re playing for keeps. But one thing to be able to protect him on home ice. It’s a little different when the Oilers can throw McDavid and Dryidle or the two of them out and gang up on the kids. So, I really curious to see how the Canucks go about uh spotting Braden Coots in his first road game in the National Hockey League. Okay, I want to be uh grumpy grumpy media here for one second. Ah, the power play stunk. Ah, the Vancouver P. Yeah, it was a win, but the power play stunk. I know I’m you know never criticize never criticize a win is the old saying around the NHL but uh the power play Jeff the power play I liked grumpy media guy usually I’m the one being accused of that but I’ll play along uh yeah power play didn’t look very good uh quit use but look they score five goals and Quinn doesn’t figure in the scoring I had to look it up they got to five goals 12 times last year point in every single one of those games so that’s how rare a five goal performance from the Canucks without a point from the captain Um, and so he’s going to have to wait to make connect history cuz his next point, his first point of the season, will move him past Alex Edler. He’ll become the highest scoring defenseman in franchise history. It’s not the highest bar in the world. Uh, the amazing thing there is that it’s happened in 500 fewer games than Edler played as a kak, which just tells you the greatness of Quinn Hughes. He’ll get his point. I don’t think anybody here is worried. But yeah, uh, Aander Kane on the first unit power play when Jonathan Leeraki is dealing right now. I think people want to see the young guy get an opportunity there. Kane didn’t really help himself. There were a couple of careless passes last night. We’re all still trying to figure out what his role ultimately is going to be on the power play. Um it looked all right in the preseason, but yeah, last night uh again, I think they can sort of overlook it. They know they’re going to need it. There’ll be games where it has to win them uh hockey games, but uh they get by last night. Uh and and really it was funny because in my timeline on social I saw Flames fans freaking out about their power play and the fact that Zay Perk is sitting in the press box for the first two nights of the season and they generated I think they had three shots on goal in eight minutes of power play time in a tight hockey game. Uh it was a tight hockey game for a while there. So um yeah, I mean put it on the to-do list. It’s early. Uh I don’t think anybody’s worrying about it, but uh you know if it’s not Aander Kane, is it going to be Connor Garland? Will it be Jonathan Leer Mackey? Uh, so I do think the dust has to settle there before the Conucks really figure out what they’re doing with their uh, top unit on the power play. You know, first week of the season, we’ve seen uh, a couple of rookie coaches, you know, get their first wins. Dan Muse with the the Pittsburgh Penguins, uh, Marco Sturm with with the Boston Bruins, and now you can throw Adam Foot into that mix as well. uh hasn’t been very long um with the the head coaching title, but is there anything that you’ve learned or gleaned or think that you know fans should should know or understand about how Adam Foot is going to run this operation? I think we’re all still in find out mode ourselves. This is a guy with such limited experience as a head coach. I mean, you got to go back to a season in the Western Hockey League 5 years ago and that didn’t go so well for him. Um, you know, I think uh I certainly and I I don’t think I was alone thought that he was just going to go with Rick Tocket to Philadelphia and those two would continue on their way. Uh Kucks uh convinced him uh to be the guy and take a chance here to be a head coach in the National Hockey. I think uh he’s been terrific to deal with in the early going again. Hasn’t lost a game that means anything. So, we’ll see. Uh you know, you say grumpy media. We’ll see about grumpy coach after you know there’s going to be some losses. He’s not going to win them all. I think he knows that. He’s been around the game long enough. So, let’s see. Vancouver, but so far so good for him. Uh, you know, it’s funny. You know, he’s cut from the same cloth as Rick Tocket. You can understand why Rick Tocket wanted to bring him along as an assistant, but now he sort of has to set out and be his own guy and he’s formed his own staff here. And, um, yeah, I mean, I think he wants to be a little more aggressive uh in parts of the ice than Rick Tit was. uh certainly wants to get the defense involved more in the rush. They scored five last night and no defenseman had a point. So, you know, for night one, uh maybe they didn’t get the defenseman involved, but they still won the game going away. I I I think it’ll take a little while here before we could truly identify trends. It’s all sort of talk uh at this point. But, uh again, the you know, it’s funny. And I’m sure you’ve seen uh like the vibes out here are good and they are different and and to a man the Canucks from the day first day of their team golf tournament that kind of signified the start of training camp. You know, they made it clear they they’re hellbent on putting last year behind them, turning the page and not allowing the dysfunction that really did them in last year to seep into this season and and stay with them moving forward. And and I would say they’ve done a pretty good job of that. Winning will help obviously but they want to prove that last year was last year and that they are a better team ultimately uh and that they’re better prepared in the event that uh you know the inevitable adversity hits them and last year they didn’t deal with it very well. Uh they want to do a better job of that this time around. A lot of expectations. We’ll close on this. I got about a hot 60 left. Um Elias Person first of all the hit yesterday the the weaguer hit. I mean, it looks to me like Patterson is trying to initiate that Peter Forsberg bump back hit that we’ve all, you know, associate the great power of Swedish power forward with. Um, a any problems with that hit and secondly, um, how do you one assist? How do you evaluate EP 40 uh from last night? Yeah, no problems with the hit. Uh, it was, you know, that awkward couple of feet from the boards and the collision and the way he went in. Didn’t love that part, but he himself said, “Hey, contact game.” I dropped the puck off. Probably should have put myself in a better spot. So, yeah, just happy that he returned to the game and and then obviously the other the Elias Patterson hit on Connor Zer on the other side. Again, just awkward the way he went into the boards and you know, I like the way the officials handled both of those though, apply the major and then review and and they reduced both of those calls and I think ultimately those probably were right. Um, look, as for Elias Patterson, the forward, uh, the juryy’s still out. He had nice assist on the Brock Ber goal. It came late. It was garbage time, but uh you know he he’s opened his account as you say at least uh with an assist. He was on the score sheet uh all four lines scored last night, but uh they need more and he knows that. Um you know, it was a sort of mediocre preseason. Uh he looked like a veteran that was kind of pacing himself. He’s been invested since day one of camp, but when you’re getting paid close to 12 million bucks, you better be invested. Um you know, he understands all the noise around him. Uh but really he couldn’t prove a whole. If he led the NHL in scoring in the preseason, it wouldn’t really matter. People would have said, “Okay, like show me when the the lights are bright.” Um so, you know, again, I’ll give him a passing grade last night. I thought there were some decent defensive plays. Uh he was the first guy out killing penalties in the absence of Teddy Bluger. It’s not the sexiest part of the game, but somebody’s got to do it. And if that’s an area that he contributes, uh you know, they need offense from him. He knows that. We know that and we’ll see if it comes. But, uh, I would give him a passing grade on the first night of the regular season. He’s one of those guys, again, like I don’t cheer for teams, I cheer for players. He’s one of the guys that I really want to see bounce back and and have a great season. And if he does, that answers a lot of questions for this year’s edition of the Vancouver Conucks. Jeeoff, always a pleasure. Um, enjoy the Edmonton game. You’re right. Should be a big one for Coots and a big one for the Vancouver Conucks. Thanks for uh sharing expertise with us today. Much appreciated. All right, Jeeoff. Thanks. There he is, Jeff Patterson, uh, who joins us here on the, uh, the program, uh, breaking down the Vancouver Conucks. And really, again, like all you can do is play the games they present you with. It was a backto-back for the Calgary Flames. A little bit drained from the night before, but one quick thought on the Flames. And I know it’s only two games, but Nasim Codri is already playing like a guy that wants to play for the Stanley Cup this year and is probably looking at this year’s edition of the Calgary Flames and saying, “Yeah, you know what? This is probably going to be a rebuild. Am I going to, you know, probably going to let go Raspus Anderson at some point here? Are they going to take that proverbial step back before they step forward? He’s probably going to end up on another team if the offer is right. I wonder again like last year about the Dallas Stars with Nasim Cadri. It seems to fit what Jim Nil wants in his team. We shall see. But Cadri is making it very very obvious that and he always plays hard. felt like first couple of games codrey’s out there every single shift really battling hard see what happens one of the stories we’ll follow uh where does Nasam codadri end up by trade deadline this year in the meantime all eyes uh on Matthew Schaefer last night albeit in a uh in a losing cause um New York Islanders first overall draft pick recording an assist in his first NHL game uh here for comments from the hockey news and the excellent Elmonsters newsletter uh Steph Rosen joins me on the program. Steph, first of all, how did you put on your evaluator hat, your scout hat? Actually, if you’re a scout, you have to all be wearing wearing black, so we’ll give you a pass on the on the scout fit look today. Give us your thoughts on day one, Matthew Schaefer, NHL. This was a a big moment for that man, young man in his family. Yeah, one thing you notice about Schaefer, no game is too big for him. He treated that game as if it was a regular game. You talked to his dad, you talked to his brother, you talked to his teammates, they were all ecstatic, they were all nervous for him. He said, “I’m just playing hockey. You know, I don’t care going up against Crosby Malcon. Like, it’s cool, but we’re all playing a game of hockey. We’re all trying to win. And I thought he played really well. Played a tie over 17 minutes. He gets the assist, but his skating, and fans outside of the Islander fan base are going to see this. He is an unreal skater. Allows him to do so much in transition. Escape the Done, close gaps. I mean, he was exceptional. He earned minutes six on five late in the game when the Islanders are trying to score late in the third period there. But overall, it was a successful first game. He’s just going to keep building on it. One thing we’ve learned is that this guy is a very very fast learner. But yeah, he looked like a tenure vet out there for sure. Let me uh let me share something. I was mentioning this on the show either yesterday or the other day before. I got a note from a coach. I sort of did like a montage of the Schaefer back checks that we’ve all seen. One against Mishkov and one against Matt Rempy and it’s like the guy’s the road runner. I I saw this plenty, you know, in uh in minor hockey in in the area and saw it plenty with the with the Erie Otterers and now everyone NHL fans are getting a look at what this guy can do. And I had one coach text me saying, “You know why he’s backing so hard? Because he’s caught deep too much.” Uh, what does Patrick Wad do with this? I mean, it is such a calling card for for Schaefer joining the rush, getting deep because he knows he can get back, but this the NHL, man. Like, you know, you’re not playing against Oakville anymore. You’re not playing against Sudbury in the OHL. You’re playing against the Rangers and the Flyers and the Penguins. Patrick W commented on this at all? He has it. But I think with him putting Scott Mayfield with Schaefer, that was a sign that, you know, let Schaefer do his thing. You know, he’s going to jump in on the rush and do all those things. He has a stable defensive defenseman behind him, that will eliminate the fast breaks. Now, we saw it in the Flyers game. You know, a couple goals went in, including the game winner where, you know, Mayfield got caught and Schaefer was up on the rush. And that’s something they have to work on and communicate. That’ll come over time, but that’s the plan with with Scott Mayfield being a mentor on and off the ice, having a defensive defenseman on there to stay back and let Schaefer do his thing. So, we’ll see how long that lasts. Again, first game, Schaefer looked really good. Mayfield struggled and and they lost. Not blaming it all on Mayfield, but there were mistakes made and goals went in the back of their net. But yeah, he hasn’t commented too much. He lo he wants Schaefer to feel comfortable playing his game. He doesn’t really want him to change. He said, of course, he’ll have to adjust things that he got away with in juniors, he’s not going to get away with at the NHL level, but yeah, I think the plan was have Mayfield there to pretty much allow Schaefer to play his game and then he’ll learn. He’s a fast learn, but that’s the plan right now. Um, what are I’m going to move off Schaefer here in a second. There’s there’s more to get to, but such a fascinating player and and young man as well. Uh, what are Island Islanders fans doing with this phenomenon? How many Schaefer jerseys are we expecting uh to to see around the rings? Like, give me a sort of snapshot of what Schaefer Mania is with with the Islanders fans. I’ll give you a perfect thing. They are auctioning off his second period jersey from last night. I think it’s up to 14K. What? Already? Yeah. I think it’s it’s high. It’s up there. I gotta look back at it from one of my friends was texting me saying like, “Dude, it’s so much money right now.” So that tells you all you got to know about game. It’s ridiculous. Um, but yeah, the biggest thing for Schaefer is that any fan he meets, doesn’t matter the age, but mostly kids, he goes down on one knee with them. He talks with them for he he has to actually be stopped because he’s taking too long. Um, he cares. And I think young player, young fans, especially in a fan base where last handful of years they they’ve been competitive but not good enough and this is a new age, a new era. Those are the kind of fans you want to get in the door and Schaefer is the perfect person to kind of market that. So, he’s been incredible. The fan base loves him. I think he’s going to struggle. The fan base knows that. I don’t think they’re going to get on him like they got on maybe another defenseman they just traded away early on in his career. But, um, yeah, he’s beloved and the way the Islanders have just treated him from start with, you know, the cancer ribbon on his jersey, the initials on the jersey, and the way the fan base every time they see him just show him the love. I think it’s a match made in heaven. We’re going to see it’s going to be tomorrow night against the Capitals for home opener. The the momentum that he’s going to get from just the fan base roaring when they announce his name. Yeah, for for sure. Like he’s an an instantly lovable lovable guy. Uh I guess a lot of this is, you know, informing this next question. A lot of it, I guess, is going to depend on on wins and losses and how he’s playing. Um like how far do you think the organization is looking at Matthew Schaefer? Are they doing it in sort of increments of five games of of 10 games? see where he’s at, what the decision is going to be for his development, and I’m trying to figure out a clever way here with you, Steph, to ask if they’ll make him available for the World Juniors. Yeah, it’s a great question. I would be shocked if he was made available for the World Juniors because I think if the Honors want to do anything this year, Schaefer is going to play a huge part of it. You’ve already seen their transition game last night. I’ve never seen the Islanders play a faster brand in hockey and it’s a collective effort for sure. But I think Schaefer kind of sets that the way he plays, the way the just the way he skates and moves the puck and I think it is a they all take it day by day. It’s how you talk about it. But we spoke to um his dad last night and his dad was so proud of the way that Matthew Dart and Patrick W have gone about how they’re going to develop him. Like they didn’t get it too much into specifics on he’s going to play every day, you know, what are the minutes going to be, but want to win hockey games and Schaefer Pro is able to handle it. he’s going to get more minutes and the more minutes he’s going to get, the rigorous role is going to be. So, right now he’s starting on your bottom pairing defense, but I wouldn’t be shocked come halfway through the season if he’s potentially on the top pairing or middle pairing or top power play because they want to win games. He’s showing to be a an absolute gamecher for them. Yeah, he’s uh he’s a special player and a special kid. Um certainly anyone that’s that that’s that’s come across his acquaintance all all sings from the same hymbook. Uh what do you think of Matthew Barzell as a center, again? Yeah, I think I think this is a kind of a obviously Brock Nelson not being back, right? That’s you know Patrick Wat could talk about how they how they played in the Eastern Conference final runs and Barzal being a center. Barz’s back at center because they didn’t get a 2C. Now I think and we’ve talked about Callum Richie. You think we both agreed that going to Bridgeport playing games is the way to go. And I think once Richie proves he’s hurt right now. We’ll get an update probably tomorrow, see where he’s at. He’s skating on his own. But once he’s ready, I think Barzel goes back to the wing. However, I do think Barzal, you saw the assist he had on Pome’s goal yesterday, which was he looked great transitioning up the middle of the ice and the things they did. I think you learned, you know, talking with him and a couple of players, how much he’s learned from Bo Horvette about the 200 foot game, the little things he picked up. His biggest mark has been his struggles in the faceoff that it’s and he won seven of 10 yesterday, one game, but 70% is pretty good to start your season. So, yeah, I think he’s good there. I think he’s comfortable there even though he hasn’t played there in a couple years. Um, but I I do think it’s a stop gap. Once Richie’s ready and proves to be a 2C, I think Barcel goes back to Horvat’s wing because I think, you know, he had one of his best years on the wing. So, I think that’s where he’s ultimately going to end up. But for right now, I mean, he’s not a bad stop gap. Yeah, I’m uh again, he hasn’t played an NHL game yet, but I mean, I’m I’m still shocked. I wonder if you are that and I know you gota you got to pay if you’re going to get someone like like Brock Nelson. I’m I’m still stunned that that the Islanders were able to get Cal Richie. Cal Richie in that deal. how good this kid is. I mean, we’ve talked about it and I I feel like Lou was talking about other people were talking about how he was untouchable or or quote unquote untouchable from a lot of other teams out there and the Islanders found a way and you got to you know, you got to give to get um I didn’t get to watch Richie obviously too much in juniors, but seeing him at rookie camp and training camp IQ, but I mean, yes, he’s a big body. He’s physically mature. His hockey sense is off the charts defensively like where he’s especially in the D. I think that’s the biggest thing especially for for coaches and and building trust is well what can you do away from the puck well you know what can you do in the defensive zone and every time you know you see him look over his shoulder in the D zone you see him back check you see him do all the right things where if he gets an NHL chance like I don’t think it’ll take too long to be a number two seed because he’s going to earn those minutes defensively and then we know his offensive game is going to be a good one so he looks like a guy that is a a sure top prospect but he’s a future number two seed I think for this team for a very long time. Okay, let me close with this one, Steph. I mean, you’re right there. You thumb on the pulse all of it. Like you blanket coverage with the Islanders. So, here here becomes my question. Yeah. What would you consider, or maybe a better phrase this way, what would the Islanders organization consider a successful season? And maybe what would you consider a successful season for this team? Yeah, I think it’s making the playoffs. I know that’s kind of, you know, people don’t want to say just make the playoffs and get in, see what happens. But that’s what Dart said during his introductory press conference. You never know. He think he looked back at last year’s team and said this should have been a playoff team and yeah it would have been a playoff team if their power player penalty kill was 10% better and they had a ton of injuries but Darch believes that he improved this roster and I think making the playoffs is a huge goal I think forget for the veterans here that want to make the playoffs after missing last year the young guys that you have whether it’s Schaefer whether it’s Richie whether it’s another year of Holstrom Ciplov Shappenov making the playoffs is so important for their development and getting a taste of what that’s like and getting a taste of you know maybe falling short in the playoffs. So, I think they would call that a successful season, but also if they don’t make the playoffs, it’s seen the development from guys. And I’m just talking about guys at the NHL level. We’ve talked about Bridgeport so many times and how that has to be a spot where college players and feel comfortable developing. So, I think a successful year if they don’t make the playoffs is Richie takes a step, Schaefer takes a step, the guys in Bridgeport that struggled last year take strides, and the guys that are coming to Bridgeport are getting put in an environment where, hey, Bridgeport made the playoffs or Bridgeport was a hard team to play against. Rocky, two guys, three guys took strides like that. That would be a win for me is that your guys that developed, your guys that you wanted to develop developed because it’s all about the future with this team. I really do believe that because that didn’t happen at all. Like you can make the argument guys took steps back in in in Bridgeport like it was like by the end like who wanted to like bluntly who wanted to play there? No one. 100%. No one. 100%. Yeah, that was it. It sucks and that’s not the attitude you want your prospects having but you know you’re not just losing games when you go to the rink every day. you’re getting killed. Um, and that’s that’s a terrible mindset, especially for an organization where now you have a prospect player to be proud of. You can’t mess these guys up. Like, these are your future. And if you don’t hit on these guys, and we’ll see about, you know, Ekkan and HS who are are playing well and Procarov, like you you need these guys to succeed. Eisermanman, uh, Danny Nelson, you need those guys to come here and develop correctly because there’s been too many players and maybe those players like Abellas or Walstrom or Del Cole weren’t ever going to be good enough to be NHLers, but you didn’t really give them the the best shot to to prove that they are those guys. So, you have to make sure you get it right this year. It’s a great point. You know, we always talk about, oh, how important drafting is. Developing is just just as important just as just as important a piece as as the uh the identification of a player. Uh, we’ve kept you for too long, Steph. Always a pleasure to catch up. Uh, man, it’s great to have you on the beat covering Matthew Schaefer because you know it’ll be covered properly. Thanks so much for stopping by as always and we’ll uh we’ll check back regular. Thanks, pal. Appreciate it, man. Thank you. There he is. The great Seth Rosner. Uh, you read him at nhl.com hockey news. Um, you should subscribe to the Almoners newsletter. It’s fantastic, man. This guy doesn’t sleep. I swear. like he’s he he really is Zach one of the best and one of the uh like when you when you look at Steph you’re like okay yeah this guy’s going to be in this industry for a long time and is going to be a major star major major star like him here today too that’s nice good yeah Steph’s great all right so the QD the question of the day biggest surprises brought to you by the Ninja Krispy have a didn’t play. There we go. Meet the first of its kind. The Ninja Crispy portable cooking system. The power of a full-sized air fryer in the palm of your hand so you can cook big or small batches. Just prep it, crisp it, serve it, and store it all in one. Meet the first of its kind, the Ninja Krispy portable cooking system. Now you have the power of a full-size air fryer in the palm of your hand. Prep it, snap it, crisp it, serve it, all in one container. This glass air fryer is PFSA free, thus no harmful chemicals while cooking. It includes a small six cup and larger four quartear container. Whether you’re whipping up quick single serve meals in 7 minutes, sharing crispy snacks on the go, or serving a crowd, the Ninja Krispy makes it easy. Cleanup is simple. All accessories are dishwasher safe and designed to nest for easy storage. Check out the link in the episode description or go to sharkninja.ca. I’m off to London for a minor hockey tournament after the show here today. I could use the Ninja Crispy portable cooking system. Nonetheless, what is our QOD today? Well, great city, great university there. I some would say the best university there. No, wrong. No, that’s that’s that’s in that’s down the 401 in G. Sorry. No, wrong. Okay. No, sorry, Purple. Uh, sorry. You went from one. You can take your seeps in and your soggy mat land. You can take all of that crap. No, no thanks. Not interested. Daylight, dollar short. Last call. Time to go. Uh, all right. Uh, question of the day. I don’t know if Look, this is how you know it’s a Friday and there’s no NHL games. Yeah, there’s it’s very rare that you get this from our chat. I don’t know that they understood the assignment here, but the question of the day nonetheless. What are the biggest surprises through the first few days of the NHL regular season? So, we gave ours I put the question in the chat. Um, here are the answers. I’m just going to read them for you. Let’s go. Jeffrey Wilder, do you think the Leafs are too big making them look slow? That is one. They first first of all, first of all, Montreal looked a lot faster than Toronto. Montreal. I know like Leafs win that one. Never critique a win, but Montreal should have won that game. And they did look significantly faster than the Toronto Maple Leafs. I I think honestly I think that’s a I think that’s a great point. I really do. Montreal quick and you saw what they did to Detroit last night. Jeez. Um our friends at Flames Nation came in and just so willingly participated and said, “Oilers suck.” Thanks to relaxation. They got three anticipation. How can you how can you how can you be proud of like those three goals? So you that got you back into the game and got you in a position to beat the edit. I mean full value. I mean goal is a goal I guess but like look at those things. One’s off a skate, one’s off a goalie mishandle on a on a on a dump in. The other is a baseball swing. Three of the goofiest goals back to back to back to get back into that one. But listen, I know if you’re a Flames fan right now, you’re heading into heading into a rebuild uh with this team. First of all, Morgan Frost looks great. Morgan Frost looks great with Calgary. Um but I I get it. Like all the attention’s on Edmonton can be they be the team to bring the cup back to Canada. All eyes on McDavid and the cont I I I get that it’s tough. I I I understand it. But others are good. But good on the Flames for beating him in the in the in the opener. Good on them. Yeah. Uh we have conflicting responses here. Uh one bill Beck, the other one I I lost it here, but uh the one uh was the surprise, the biggest surprise is how successful the third jersey releases have been. And then Bill Beck says, “Why does every surprise third jersey suck?” You can’t win, right? It’s just to do with that one. It’s, you know, it’s kind of like music. Like, I can’t say that a song is bad or an artist is bad. Someone likes them. I can’t say a jersey is bad or a jersey is is good. Like, there all it is is just a reflection of your taste. That’s it. But there’s no like and get all philosophical, you know, there’s no transcendental signifier or transcendental signified. So, it’s all a matter of your own tastes and what impresses you or what makes you tap your toes. I I don’t know. I like the Kings reveal and I like that jersey. I’d still want it to be purple and gold. I like how they did it. I I I still love the purple and gold more. I still do, but you know, some people dig it. I mean, everybody seems to be like the rush to black um for every NHL jersey. I like what the Rangers did. I really I like that. I like I think that Ranger look is really good. Some people, plenty in the chat, I’m sure. It’s like, “Oh, dude, it looks awful.” You know, it’s like we’re playing with the the Crayola crayons here. Like, no, but I think it I think it looks great. The only thing that is unassalable is the Minnesota Wild, Minnesota Stars look is the best in the NHL. Fight me on that. That should be That should be the full-time kit for the Minnesota Wild. I really, really, really, really liked the Red Wings ones last night, seeing them. He did. Yeah. This is one of those ones where it’s like the uh in theory verse in practice where like you saw the pictures and they were okay or like they were nice, but it was like, “Okay, how is that going to translate?” I felt that way about the Rangers ones. When I saw the Rangers and the Red Wings wear theirs in game action. Yeah. When it was on TV, I was like, “Wow, they did it right.” Like that looks good. just everything about the execution, the design, the colors, they popped. I thought those looked good. I loved the Red Wings ones last night, though. But yeah, I again, I agree with you with the Kings ones. The the surprise, how they unveiled it was really cool. Okay. The jerseys specifically, Jeff, jerseys looked really good. Not sweaters. Are you no longer Canadian? I hated sweaters. Sure. I hated the helmets. like just like just terrible. I hated the homeless. I was I was so glad also didn’t like them. Uh but yeah. Well, I don’t know how many I don’t know how many people are taking their fashion cues from either me, you or me. If if it’s any of the three of us, it would be. I I would give the I would give the hat to probably. Yeah, it’s good. I think you’re fashion leader. The other one here, which I guess maybe is uh maybe this was a YouTube error. This is why we got these coming in this way. But NY Boost says, “Are the Canes finally ready to shake the boring tag?” So I guess we could kind of switch that around and say, I guess from the first couple of games of the season around the NHL and from what we’ve seen of the Canes so far, hey, are they ready to shake the boring tag? Jeff, KAR Miller is going to win the Norse Trophy, right? For 164 goals. How good did KA Andre Miller look last night? Give that man the Norris. Now voting voting shouldn’t even begin. Just give him give him the trophy. He looked great. But the thing is, like we’ve talked about this before, what is the one thing more than anything else that the I shouldn’t say than anything else. What is one of the main things that the Carolina Hurricanes do with players? They shine up defenseman. They shine like that the the way that they play and that system that they play that that shines defenders and and it makes defenseman rich. Brady Sheay, Brett Peshy, like we always talk a lot about what Florida has done with S Van Lefave and how there’s a lot of, you know, your Brandon Montours and your Oliver Ecman Larson’s um that have sort of gone through and then found their riches elsewhere or found a lot of success in Florida that has led to to really healthy contracts for them. Uh most recently, uh Nikico Mikola, but Carolina’s right there, too. Carolina’s got a history of doing this. They shine up their D real nice. and Kandre Miller. Early audit. Call Corey Lavallet. Ask Corey. Looks good. How good does Kandre Miller look? Yeah, take a number. They all look good. Carolina. Oh, in the chat here says, uh, who knew Adam Fox was the one holding back Keandre Keandre Middle. It’s just the way they play, man. Like honestly, like if if you’re if you’re if you’re a defenseman that wants to like shine up the career for a bigger contract, go in on a league minimum with the Carolina Hurricanes. Get all polished up real nice. It’s the Carolina Hurricanes defenseman car wash. Come out looking shiny and squeaky and ring the bell. That’s the Yeah, you’re a Dmen who needs to do the uh bet on yourself year. Head on over to Carolina. Bet on yourself there. Yeah, it’s true. I’m sure you’ll come out on the other side feeling pretty good. Yeah. Uh, I’m I’m I’m I’m happy for Kandre Miller, too. I just remember I was standing beside his mom when the uh when the Rangers drafted his drafted her son and the the story is a great one. There’s always so many great stories about sacrifices uh that families make for their uh for their children and that is a fantastic one. Anyhow, uh okay, good stuff from the uh from the chat there. Also want to finish up here. I don’t know what you got coming up coming up for this one cuz we got no games tonight, but here we go. The sheet is powered by FanDuel, home of the same game parlay. Make every moment more. I like that blue, by the way. Uh, make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel. Proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Okay. No NHL game day. Non-game day. What do you got? I like themes. I like bringing everything together. Oh. Spent the whole week, you know, getting excited about the season starting and then now we’re three days in. So, it’s too early and we’re talking about surprises and teams that have really shown up that we maybe didn’t expect to in certain ways. So, with no games tonight, I’m taking a look at make miss playoffs from a team that has had a hot start. The Boston Bruins, do they bounce back? Make the playoffs plus 320. Miss the playoffs heavily favored minus 400 for this season. Jeff, I really want to see Jeremy Swayman bounce back in a big way. I really want to see Charlie Makavoy stay healthy. He’s one of my favorite players to watch. David Pastnak is going to be David Pastnak. He may win the Rocket Rashard trophy this year. Um, I just don’t know that there’s enough there there down the middle for the Boston Bruins to make it to the playoffs. So, even though they’ve had the great start and you’ve loved them and and remarked upon them already, I just don’t know that there’s enough from the shopping cart to come home to feed a family. I just don’t I just don’t see it. I like that saying. I’m happy to be wrong. I’m happy to be wrong. And I’m I’m happy I’m happy to be wrong about um the Boston Bruins because I want to see Hampus Lynhome have another great season. You talk about like underrated last players with Yeah, it’s you know what the Bruins um the Bruins in in some ways, you know, haven’t quite been the same since the uh the Svetchnikov hit on Hampus Lenhelm a couple years ago. I use that as a demarcation point for for the Boston Bruins preit, post hit. Anyhow, anyhow, right, you like him to be in or no? Uh, no. I just thought it was interesting that it was at plus 320. Like, it’s not really me thinking, oh, the Bruins will be in. It’s just this Atlantic I’m I’m way more on your side with where the sends are at. I I don’t know long term what this ends up being. Like, goending is going to be an important thing. I don’t think that they changed too much in the off season. I think Montreal got better. I don’t think Toronto too much of a step off. You look at Florida like Barov out all year. Kachchuck out for a long time. Tampa could kind of be one of those Havarian teams where it goes really one way, really the other, which just what it it’s just like all of that to say, why wouldn’t the Bruins be able to squeak in, you know, like do they could hang around? I don’t know, man. It’s uh donut team, no center. Right. The other the other thing that I that I that I think we should that we should mention um because you mentioned the the Ottawa Senators a second ago and someone who had a great preseason and translated it into a great game one is Shane Pinto. Pinto looked great in the preseason and looked fantastic last night for the Ottawa Senators in the win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’s I know he’s a big um he’s a big favorite of the morning show, Morning Cup of Hockey and there’s relationship there between between him and the guys that he’s and he’s been on before. A great interview. Um he’s really good and he’s having a great start to the season. He kicked it off in training camp where he looked fantastic and he’s just carried that all all the way through. Um all right. Anything else you want to uh share with anybody? Any uh by the way had a great time last night. We do these events at at Dell Manor and got a chance to sit down and talk to Jim McKenna uh for an hour who told the hilarious story about if you haven’t seen the movie Face Off, you really really should. It’s from the the early 70s. It’s kind of a a cult classic and how he is in it. There’s a lot of like footage they use from the NHL and Jim was supposed to be in it as an actor. Art Hindle ended up getting the role who’s an actual actor. um and football player. Uh but he told the great way that he’s never seen the movie Face Off. He went to the premiere, but he dropped acid before before the movie. Kind of freaked out a little bit. Started the night. We started the night with the dropping acid story before going to the Gallup premiere. How he taken acid before before the So he’s never seen the movie. To this day, he’s never seen the movie. It is a cult classic. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, Zach. If you haven’t, I got a few copies of it. I can happy to give it to you. It is the the wonderful thing about it is they use actual game footage from the NHL and how he told the story about the cameras like the camera crew going around from, you know, Vancouver and Oakland and LA. Uh this would have been 71. So the Seals would have been there and then back through like Detroit and Toronto. And because the hockey players partied so hard, they like outpartied the camera. Anyway, just a great time with Howie. One of the the one of the the and he’s 78 years old and he’s still in tremendous shape and you know, um through his work with Alcoholics Anonymous, he’s done a lot of great work for a lot of great people uh for a very very long time. Just a delight to to hang out with. Howie, just one of the one of the one of the best guys you’ll you’ll ever meet. Was uh and he he talks openly about, you know, how alcohol affected his career and how it, you know, wrecked what was going to be a really promising career in the NHL. I thought the story about, you know, it took him a number of years until he realized his best friend Boris Salman took his job, the number one power play on point to try to make, you know, just a great night. Thanks to everybody at Del Manor and thanks to to Jim for for coming out and hanging out for an hour with us. So, that was that was a lot of fun. I know it was sort of that Jimmy’s from a different vintage and and much before your time, but uh as a broadcaster, too. He was he was tremendous. I just I just love how he great guy and a lot of fun to tell Manor last night. I don’t know if he if he took much out. He was cool. Yeah. Yeah, the stories were it it was fun. I mean, just even the way he told stories and kind of dove through everything in his career to where it led him and the experiences he had and some of the people that he was around and with like Don Cherry through certain points, roommates roommates for like two two years in Rochester. Yeah, it was fun. Uh, and definitely I have to go and watch that movie. I had never I had never even heard of it. Actually, you might have brought it up once or twice here, but I’d never seen it um or realized exactly what it was, so now I got to go watch it. You got to go watch Face Off. It’s I’ll be bl like part of it is kind of cringe, but it’s like that good like, oh, that’s cringe, but it’s so awesome. And it’s like you’ll see like and there’s like tons of NHLers in it. And as I mentioned, like a lot of the game action is actually from um the NHL. So, a good movie. It’s fun. It’s about a hockey player and his romance with a with a with a musician and she thinks that hockeyy’s too violent and you can see all the how that storyline plays itself out. Cheesy premise 100%. I get it. The premise is like total cheese ball, but it’s just a fun movie. If you get a chance, if you get a chance, go see Face Off. Get yourself a copy of Face Off and check out Cult Class. I will. All right. Uh, thanks to everyone who stopped by today. Uh, you just heard from Steph Ross a couple of moments ago. Uh, Jeff Patterson and the mayor, the real mayor of Vegas, uh, the one and only Gary Lawless. Uh, on behalf of Zach, uh, Merrick signing off here. Tip your Zamboni driver. Thanks for the buns and the use of the hall as we like to say around these parts. And, uh, have a great weekend. No games tonight. Games on the weekends certainly, but back to talk about them Monday at 1:00 Eastern. And don’t forget the full lineup uh is back in full effect on Monday as well. Morning Cup of Hockey, Johnny Lazarus, Kobe Cohen, nine o’clock Eastern. And how about that, the addition of Elliot Friedman and James Van Remdsteike uh this year to the roster of of MCH. So major bumps there. Um and then uh DFO Live um with Talia Remuk and Carter Hutton. So bump up in quality there as well. It’s a hot lineup. Glad to have you aboard. Don’t forget Daily uh Daily Face Off uh Insiders edition uh Wednesdays at 3:00 Eastern as well and more announcements about new shows and new talent joining the network coming shortly. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend. We’ll talk again on Monday. Jeff Merrick along with you. Hope you enjoyed the program today. If you did, or maybe even if you didn’t, they can’t all be gems, folks. Uh please hit the subscribe button. Also a reminder, every morning 9:00 a.m. Eastern, Johnny Lazarus, Colobby Cohen, I call them the impact players. You might know them as a tandem that makes up the Morning Cup of Hockey. Also, DFO live at noon Eastern this year. Your host Tyler Yurchuk alongside Carter Hutton. Full days worth of programming right here on Daily Face Off, your favorite YouTube hockey channel. And as a reminder as well, Zach Phillips, our producer here for The Sheet, said
3 Comments
I have Barbachev for the Rocket Richard this year .
Glad that Lawless sorted out his work visa problems. Heard that his America Shit Posting on social media got him in trouble damn near stripped of his visa and deported.
So much fluff in these podcasts just get to the point..