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KRAKEN WEEKLY: I wanna soak up the sun (10/16) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's Matty Beneers. Find the soft spot. Score!
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Jordan Eberle!
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Overtime! And then Montour settles, shoots, scores!
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: This is Jordan Eberle, right wing for the Seattle Kraken.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: This is Brandon Montour.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: This is Bobby McMahon.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: This is Matty Beneers, center for the Seattle Kraken.
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: This is Berkeley Catton.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: You're listening. You're listening. You're listening to Kraken Weekly with
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Mike Benton.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: All right, folks, we're back doing this again, Kraken Weekly.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Of course, you can catch this every time via the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app. Just sign up for free to get it
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: at sportsradiokjr.com. Great place to get it each and every week.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Guests filing in from across the nation, and we do
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: not disappoint you once again this week, Mike Benton. Everett Fitzhugh,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Al Koniski, also Doug Pleggins, a good friend of ours,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: will be joining us from the Florida Panthers Radio Network.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: The Panthers are the last one up on a trip
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that honestly couldn't have gone better than planned so far.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But what's in store for the Kraken when they face
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a Panthers team who looks a bit more rejuvenated? And
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: also the Mackie Samaskevich factor going back in there for
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: his first game. Doug Pleggins joining us in just a bit.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: For now, here's the buildup heading into tomorrow as well
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: with the Kraken coming off once again another thriller down
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to the wire in Tampa Bay.
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: Off the boards, tracking it down, Mahura now leaving it.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: To front top, Ococo in front for a Berkeley cat
• 1:29
  Speaker 6: and shot!
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Scores!
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: Myers oversteps the puck, Ryan Winterton takes hold of it,
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: now Gaudreau near side.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Off the bar! Scores!
• 1:42
  Speaker 6: Seattle goes back to back to back. It's a 4-2
• 1:47
  Speaker 6: Kraken lead.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Here comes Seattle. Two on one. Down the far side.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Ben Myers scores. Here's Montour. Near side of neutral.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Sends it in for McCann.
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: Catching the pass. McCann cuts.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Shoots. Scores. There's a foot raise for the puck. Flipped
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: out to center.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Winterton over the blue line.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Scores. Down for Samuskevich, to the high slot, on a
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: bite and shoots! Scores! Ville Odovainen!
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: His first goal in the National Hockey League has given
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: the Kraken a 2-0 lead with 11.06 to play in
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: the second period.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Well, Seattle wins this draw initially at the offensive end
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: of the ice, but the puck actually pops out to
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: the neutral zone. The main control on the offensive end
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: of the ice. Puck gets back to Mahura, slides it
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: across to Odovainen, who puts a great shot on net.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: It's 2-0 Seattle. Here's McMahon.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Left-handed shot. Scored his third of the season earlier in
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the game. McMahon, left side. He's got speed.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Back to the middle.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Shoots.
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: Scores! Bobby McMahon, the winner on his stick. And the
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: Seattle Kraken survive and advance out of Philadelphia.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It's a 3-2.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Win in the shootout. Well, why not?
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Why not the guy that's the shooter on this team?
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Why not the guy that got the scoring started tonight?
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: He gets the scoring ended here with the shootout winner. Crackin' win, 3-2.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Vince Dunn plays it off the wall. Angles it off
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the board. That puck off the back skate of Matty Beneers.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Here's Kucherov.
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: A shot and a massive glove save by Philip Grubauer.
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: 28 seconds in to preserve the score this time. Here's
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: Vince Dunn.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Shot.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: Tip.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Scores!
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: Vince Dunn, a point shot, Matty Beneers crossing in front,
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: he redirects it home and that will be the 200th
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: point of Matty Beneers' career and the Kraken tie the
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: game 3-3 with 4.19 to play.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: In the third.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Well, it all starts with a face-off win at the
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: lightning end of the ice. Matty Beneers goes to the net,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: presents his stick. You can see he's looking for a
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: screen and a deflection. He's right in front of Vasilevsky,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: and Dunn puts it, but waist high, something that he
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: could redirect, does just that, gets past Vasilevsky, under the bar.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: This game's tied at three. All right, so you get
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: a point out of it. It could have been much worse,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: but facing a Tampa Bay team, 4-3. You drop that
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: game in sudden death. Over time, you walk away undefeated.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Not feeling too bad right now at 3-0-1. It is
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: still early very much in the season, but we're seeing
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: some pretty good returns at the stage of the year.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: So Everett Al joining me right now. I'm on the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: West Coast. They're on the East Coast. Fellas has a sunshine.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: More importantly, how was Busch Gardens? That looked unreal.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: My stomach is still turning. I have to say a
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: couple of things. Number one is I thought I was
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: a roller coaster guy. I am a roller coaster guy,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: but I need some. It's a small world sprinkled in between.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: I can't go one after another. I got to say
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: my broadcast partner, Everett, he was a champ. He did
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: every ride. He tapped. He never tapped out like I did.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: I was very impressed.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I love you too. Random citizen.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: Hi.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: How jealous is Wesley of you, by the way?
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Al, Al, oh, number Wes, no. We're a few years
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: away from Wes being jealous.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: Al realized that he is a theme park guy, not
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: a roller coaster guy.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Two very different things. It was awesome. It was great.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You know, Alan Piper and JT, every.
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: Year they go to Disney and they have a really
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: fun time. And I'm always regaled of the tales of
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: how much fun it is and all the stuff that
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: they do. So to be able to be included this time,
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: and I say included like they don't invite me.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: They invite me all the time. I just financially don't
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: want to make that commitment.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Investment, though. Investment.
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't want to make the investment. But no,
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: it was fun, man. It was a really fun day.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: I enjoyed seeing it through their eyes and through their perspective.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I lost my sunglasses. Oh, no.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: I had a couple of oblique life flashing before my
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: eyes moments.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: I think more accurately, one of the rides took your sunglasses.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Rides took your sunglasses.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was that.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: I put the buckle on the shoulder harness, and the
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: guy came to do the test and popped right out.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: So that was one of the first ones. And then
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: the very last ride, the scariest ride, we did it
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: for a second time, and the harness wouldn't click.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Like there's a green light that has to go on.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I wasn't showing green.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: And I looked at the gal, lovely, lovely young lady,
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: and I said, listen, I don't have to go.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I am happy to get out. I don't need this.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: And she goes, no, got it. And I'm like, are
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you sure?
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Take a walk in the wild side.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So it was fun.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: It was a lot of fun. I did realize that
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: it's not called throwing up if it never leaves your mouth. Yeah.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: If anybody's looking for the definition, I know.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Severe indigestion is what Al had. That's all.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: So, Al, try this case on for size. Your next
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: trip to Disneyland, or maybe even Southern California, would you
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: rather spend one whole day on the teacups or one
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: whole day on the wildest 360 over at Magic Mountain?
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: The teacups.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: The teacups, really?
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to feel nauseous either way,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: but I don't think I would have a close throw
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: up situation on the teacups.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: I have not been to Disneyland. I have not been
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: to Disneyland since I believe before Amy and I got
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: married and we use somebody's past from near my parents,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: neck of the woods. And that was back in my
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: late twenties, to be honest with you. So I don't
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: know how I would hold up these days in my age,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: in my forties here. But it sounds like a very,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: very tempting proposition.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: It's not that I don't want to go on them.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I do want to go on them. It's just my
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: stomach disagrees. All right.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Well, hey, one thing that we can't disagree on here
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: may be is the fact that the Kraken are out
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: to a great start, and it's basically unprecedented at 5-2-1.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: So I'll begin here first off with the general state
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: of the Kraken because they come off since our last
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: show a win over the Red Wings, a win over
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the Capitals, and they played a pretty impressive third period
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: here to get this done. A win over the Flyers.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Maybe it shouldn't have gone to overtime, but you saw
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: some maturity. And then the Tampa Bay game where they
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: had to duke it out punch for punch with one
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: of the great juggernauts here of this era in the
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: NHL and get that game to overtime. So at 5-2-1,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I'll begin just with this general assessment. How much are
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: you grading the Kraken right now based on their overall
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: game and if they're getting caved or are they not
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: getting caved in here? Maybe a fair question, but it's
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: only October 16th. It is still chaos reigns supreme time
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: right now in the NHL. So you have to bank
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: your points and you have to ask your goaltending to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: be a rock solid pillar for you each and every game.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Check.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: They're getting that. Are you getting the penalty kill right now?
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Taking care of business. Check. They look great. Are you
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: seeing some young kids grow up right now? Villiota-Vinan, first goal.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: He scored against Philadelphia of his NHL career. Maybe you
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: don't like that turnover he had against Tampa Bay, but
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: he's looking more and more like a playable player right
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: now in this lineup as a right shot D. Check.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Berkley-Catton looks phenomenal. Check. So maybe it's early, but you're
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: seeing some growth and maturity out of this Kraken team
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: that looks dialed in to what Lane Lambert is asking
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: out of them we await the news on Brandon Montour
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: we hope it's okay but yet as of right now
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: you could picture a lot lot lot worse than 5-2-1
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: and a road trip at 3-0-1 where you knock off
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: three wins in a row and push Tampa all the
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: way to the brink Guys, take it away.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think Mike pretty very, very well said. I
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: am happy with this stretch the Kraken.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Are on through eight games. I think the last two games.
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: You're right, should they have gone overtime with Philly, say
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: what you want, a desperate team that hadn't won a
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: game yet. Those are going to happen. You're going to
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: play in those kind of games. Tampa, regardless of, you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: four straight first round exits, they are still one of
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: the best, you know, dynasties, whatever you want to call
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: them in the last, you know, 10, 15 years.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: In our league.
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: So that's always going to be a tough out. John
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: Cooper is, is for my money, probably the best coach
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: in the NHL the last 15 years. You know, you're,
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: you're going to have those games. I I'm not going
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: to put a lot of stock in the village out
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: of vine and turnover. That was his fifth NHL game.
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: or maybe his sixth NHL game. I promise you he
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: doesn't make that mistake at game 26, right? So where
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: the Kraken are right now, I'm happy with it. I
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: think a lot of it has to do with, you know,
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: you're bringing Lane Lambert back in for a second season.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: The turnover was low. Guys know what to expect.
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: Guys understand how to play under his system. They know
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: what to do. There's not a whole lot of a
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: learning curve there.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: For the players.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: I do think though, and, and I might get in
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: a little bit of trouble saying this, there's no such
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: thing as a good loss, but I'm okay with the
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: loss in overtime to Tampa because I felt the last couple.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I'll say it. I can say it. I'm fine with it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: I'm fine with it because I feel like the last
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: couple of games, Philadelphia, maybe a little bit of Washington,
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: but definitely Philadelphia and Tampa. A lot of sloppiness was
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: creeping into the Krakens game. They were maybe cheating a
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: little bit, getting away with a few things. And I
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: would rather this lesson be taught early in the season. Like,
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: Hey guys, listen, you got a point from one of
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: the best teams in the league, you know, but Hey,
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: if this were a March Tampa team that is firing
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: on all cylinders, that game probably is going to go
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: in a different direction. So I'm okay with, With that
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: loss last night, there was a really good practice today
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: in which they worked on cleaning up some of those things.
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: So all in all, you know, you're 3-0-1 on the
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: road trip. You're 5-2-1 through your first eight games. Again,
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: a lot of parallels between year six and year two.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: And so far, the Kraken are on their way to
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: what appears to be a strong season. You need a
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: good start. We talk about good starts to games. You know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: Al and I, we were discussing how many games into
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: the year until you can stop saying it's a small
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: sample size and this is who this team is.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: We're getting there.
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: I think we agreed 10, 15-ish games. So by the
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: time you're going to Finland here in a weekend or
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: two weeks here, by the time you're off to Finland,
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: you should know how this team and who this team is.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And so far, I'm loving who this team is. Yeah.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: And I think part of the reason why we talked
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: about the number of games is because you get outside
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: of that. Well, you've played Calgary twice or, you know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: you got lucky in a game year, you know, after,
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: after 15 games, you've played some tough teams. You've played
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: some not, not so tough teams. You've been in some
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: close games and you've pulled it out. So I think
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: you start to get a sense for, what this team
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: can do after that period of time. But, you know,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: so far on this road trip, you've won the games.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: You're supposed to win Detroit, Philadelphia. You've battled and won
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: in one of the games where you could win, which
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: is Washington. And you've battled and come up with a
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: point in one of the games where maybe, maybe it's
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: a 50, 50 game with Tampa Bay, but you got
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: a point out of it. So I think if this
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: team continues to win, the games are supposed to win.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: And I, comes up with maybe 50% of the games
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: they could win and battles in the other ones. You've
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: got a team that's going in the right direction. Is
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: this team a playoff team? It's too early to tell.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: A lot can happen over the course of 84 games,
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: but I like what I'm seeing so far.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: We're going to get to our mailbag segment later on,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: and there's some comparables, I think, not just from 2022-23,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: but also some that folks want to get at, maybe
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: in comparison to last year and how the difference, I think,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: rolls out over time. And we'll jump into that later.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: I first want to go back to one of the
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: stories within this last week. Philip Grubauer versus Trevor Zegers.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: My goodness, was this entertainment? And I told Travis Moger,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: our producer back in studio, in the third period, I
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: cannot wait for the post-game scrum for Philip Grubauer. And
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: here he is with the media, and he did not disappoint.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: It seemed like they were getting very aggressive in front
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: of him.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think.
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: the whole game, right, it started first or second minute.
• 15:25
  Speaker 7: They kind of, Guy Cutsby threw the crease there behind
• 15:30
  Speaker 7: the play, but that's, they're desperate, right? They're what, 0-5, 0-6, so, no,
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: they're going to play with grit and try to get
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: every point they possibly can and credit to them, they
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: made it hard for us.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: As a goalie, when do you take it upon yourself
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: to kind of protect your crease.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And when do you say enough is enough?
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: Like, you got to stop.
• 15:51
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, like, Before that situation, there were probably
• 15:55
  Speaker 7: like six things. I started in the first period there,
• 15:59
  Speaker 7: and then the first shot of the second period, they
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: come in and stab at me, and then the second shot,
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: they stab at me. And then after he speared me twice,
• 16:08
  Speaker 7: I think you go back in the day, you get
• 16:12
  Speaker 7: your face punched in by somehow, and sometimes you've got
• 16:17
  Speaker 7: to stand up if the refs don't really protect your
• 16:22
  Speaker 7: grease so um they did a great job after that
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: but all i did was like punch him um he
• 16:27
  Speaker 7: stabbed me twice punched him back and kind of thought
• 16:31
  Speaker 7: it was funny but they couldn't let it go um
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: so i don't know is that kind.
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: Of what the team's been doing as a whole since
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: the season started i mean we hear them talk about
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: standing up for each other and and not taking not
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: taking it.
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: As much yeah it's a huge part of the game
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: right if somebody gets hit or like uh there's a
• 16:47
  Speaker 7: dirty place somewhere and like you need somebody to step
• 16:50
  Speaker 7: up that's what the team is all about and we've
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: done an amazing job this year you kind of threw
• 16:55
  Speaker 7: the puck back at him it looked like what was
• 16:57
  Speaker 7: uh what was that about yeah he stared me down
• 16:59
  Speaker 7: and then like was yapping at me so i just
• 17:01
  Speaker 7: like rolled the puck back at him and then he
• 17:03
  Speaker 7: i guess shot it back right so yeah i it's
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: a younger place i don't know if you call it
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: a little if his feelings got hurt there but it's
• 17:13
  Speaker 7: all good like i thought it was funny it's part
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: of the game too and It seemed like they couldn't
• 17:17
  Speaker 7: let it go. Did you know it was him right
• 17:20
  Speaker 7: away that ended up scoring the goal a little bit later?
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I knew.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I walked away with the win.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Game, set, match, Philip Grubauer. My goodness, was that entertainment.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: And my goodness, did he absolutely drop some bars. in
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: that post-game scrum. But to me, it wasn't just about
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: looking for the finishing touches on that feud. For me, again,
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: it was all a part of a bigger thing that
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: has taken over this team. They're playing with a different
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: attitude this season. Guys, your thoughts on that feud?
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that, you know, Grubauer is exactly right.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: We could see it from up top. The one that
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: stood out to me was a glove save that Grubauer
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: made where he covered the puck up with his hand
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: on the ice and Trevor Zagris skated right through his hand.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: And when I say skated, he just left his foot
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: on the ice and it went over top of Grubauer's
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: glove hand and Grubauer was like, hey, what's going on,
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: you know? But I think that's part of Zegers' game.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: He tries to get under your skin, whether it's a
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: goaltender or a player. And I think that Grubauer had
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: had enough of it by the end of the game.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: So I'm not surprised he reacted. I'm surprised he waited
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: so long. Yeah, I love it, man. I love when
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: goalies get squirrely. I love when goalies get froggy.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Philip Grubauer has always been a passionate goalie. It's interesting.
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: We've got two goaltenders that don't fit the goaltender mode, right?
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: These guys will talk to you on a game day.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: They'll laugh. They'll joke with you. They're normal people. Philip
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: Grubauer and Joey Decord are normal people. They're not your
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: average goalie. So it's been fun.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Remember Eddie Belfort? Don't even look at him on a
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: game day. Don't even look at him.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but I think, too, going back to what you
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: were saying and some of those questions there, Mikey, this
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: Kraken team is not going to be pushed around. They're
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: not going to be um, taken lightly. They're not going
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: to have pot shots thrown their way. I don't care
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: who you are, Trevor's egress, you know, economy, David, whoever
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: you are, right. You're not going to be up in
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: our kitchen trying to, to get the goat. So, um,
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: I will say this though, Alan, I differ as, as
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: on this, on this point, as an NHL fan, I
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: love Trevor's egress. He's one of those guys that you'd
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: love to have on your team.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: He's annoying.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: He's a rat, probably not as skilled as Brad Marchand,
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: but he's Brad Marchand, right? Like he's the guy that
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: you hate playing against. But if the Kraken had him
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: on your team, I feel like that little, you know,
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: that needling goes up a little bit. But I thought
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: it was great. I thought it was innocent. I don't
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: think this is going to carry over when they meet
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: again after Christmas.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: But that was I.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: Will say that was a fun little early season, a
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: little sweet treat for the fans.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed that.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: How many times have we seen this team get pushed around?
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: How many times have we seen them take the extra
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: jab in the crease? I mean, that to me was
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: first and foremost rule number one that was broken. Do
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: not touch the goaltender. And then all of a sudden
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: you see Pandora's box open, and then you see Philip
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Grubauer trying to take this under his own self and
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: try to deliver some kind of street justice as well.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: And don't forget, there was also a part of this
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: where he mentioned that there's like a certain line of,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: you know, justice that reigns in the NHL, whether it
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: goes from the department of player safety to the officials,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: to the players themselves. And he mentioned nothing was being called.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: So if nothing's going to be called, then that is
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: all on the players to police the entire situation.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: And they did.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: And that's the unique that's the unique part about our sport, right,
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: is that you have players. Players are allowed to police themselves.
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: They're allowed within reason to be physical, to give it back.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: I also think and I'm sure Al probably feels the
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: same way. Not everything needs to be called. Not every hook,
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: not every slash, not every cross check, not every hard hit.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Needs to be called. I do think that there is
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a fine line.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: I think that there is this delicate dance and balance
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: that has to happen. And, you know, if you're a fan,
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: obviously you're slighted, you know, they slashed somebody on the
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: hands in the third period, I'm going to be ticked
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: off about it. But if you miss it in the
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: third versus missing it in the first, which one am
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: I going to be more upset about?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: So I do think though that this team toughness that
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: Al and I, and you and, A lot of folks
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: have been talking about these last few years.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: You're seeing it this year. It started in preseason.
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: It started with the Calgary game and when Berkeley Cat
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: and then Mackie Samuskevich and all those guys were getting
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: into it, standing up for each other. Matty Beneers was
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: in there as well. That team toughness is more than
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: just fighting. It's more than just dropping the gloves. It's
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: standing up for one another. It's winning.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: It's battling toughness.
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: It's Philip Grubauer not waiting for his teammates to come
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: in and take issue. It's him taking issue and saying, listen,
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: I don't need them to fight my battles. I will
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: happily fight my own battles. And he did that the
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: other night.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it also sends a message. In the last
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: example you just made, it sends a message to the
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: rest of the team. Hey, this guy crossed the line
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: and yeah, I'll take care of it this time. But
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: you should know that when you see this happen, I
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: also want you to take care of it. I think
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: when you see Matty Beneers and Berkley Catton standing up
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: for each other, it's like, hey, everybody's doing it. This
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: is who we are. And it's infectious. It grows. And
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: it becomes part of who you are as a team.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: And it absolutely has an impact on the outcome of
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: the game.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: It certainly helped the Kraken when they were able to
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: push their way through in that third period and stave
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: off a Philadelphia comeback. It helped them at least squeak
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: a point out of the Tampa Bay game. Goaltending is
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: certainly a big part of this. And this is going
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: to be also a part of our poll question, which
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: we'll tease before this next break because we have this.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: We have Doug Pleggins also ahead. But goaltending is a very,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: very important part of this picture from the foundation of
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: the regular season. The penalty kill as well. And you
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: take out the Vegas game, which ended in complete catastrophe
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: as far as special teams. You've seen the Kraken inch
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: their way up now on the penalty kill, and they
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: look fine again. Against Tampa Bay previous night, the Lightning
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: held to 0-3, six shots on the power play. Philip
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Grubauer was terrific. If not for him, they wouldn't have
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: gotten to overtime, 31 saves. Team goaltending as well right now,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: the Kraken, fourth in the NHL in save percentage, which
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: brings now Joey Decord into the picture. Yet I'll first
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: off begin with this. Is success more banked on for
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the penalty kill from goaltending out or from the structure
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: around the goaltending? Hmm.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: That's a good question.
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: Um, you know, I'll say I'll, I'll, I'll hedge, I'll
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: go column a column B a little bit of both.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, your.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: Goaltender is your last line of defense, but you know,
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: if on the penalty kill, you're doing what you're supposed
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: to be doing the system, you're denying the zone entries,
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: you're keeping everything to the outside.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: You're not allowing shots through the middle. It's hard work.
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: You're battling on the boards. I think for me, that
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: is where the success generally comes from. Now, Philip Grubauer
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: last night, night before, he made some spectacular saves, five
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: on five, five on four, four on five as well.
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: You know, you don't want your goaltender having to do
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: that every night.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: But I think It's.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: Probably more on the structure side of it for me
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: than the goaltending side. But, I mean, again, your goalie
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day, he is your most
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: important player for a reason.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: He's your last line of defense.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: When the system fails, when the dam is broken, you
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: need your goalie to make big saves. And so far
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: this year, more often, a lot more often than not,
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: your goaltenders have made some big saves.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and that's the right answer, Fitz. It's
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: some of both because if you give me a penalty
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: kill that doesn't allow cross ice passes for one-timers from
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: the top of the circle and doesn't let pucks get
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: through the net, I don't need a goaltender because I've
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: got perfect structure. But the opposite is also true is
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: if I don't have that and they do get passes
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: through the middle, they do get pucks to the front
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: of the net. I need a goaltender that can make
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: some big saves. They can make a big save on
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: that backdoor pass, not five times on a penalty kill,
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: but maybe once on a penalty kill. He comes up
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: with a big save and Grubauer absolutely did that a
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: few times in that Tampa Bay game. So it's both.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: And if you don't have both, you're not going to
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: have a good penalty kill.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: It wasn't on the penalty kill, but first save of
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: the game, Grubauer stretched out.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was another kind of slow.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: 20 seconds into the game.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I'm one of the best players in the entire planet.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: So I remember we were talking, I was like, I
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: don't know if he wanted to stretch that far that
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: early to begin the game.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Before we get to break and Doug Plagans again, right
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: around the corner here on Kraken Weekly. Move was made
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: earlier today. Ty Nelson recalled from AHL Coachella Valley and
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: just based on the numbers well-deserved for him. Only one
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: guy was better as far as point production in Coachella
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Valley last season. His name was Tyson Jugnoff. But Ty Nelson,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: 11 goals, 35 points, 63 games. Pretty impressive for his
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: second year and now off to a four-point start in
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: five games in Coachella Valley. To me, it says a
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: right shot defense need. And I looked into this. There
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: really is no clear indication of him versus Jugnoff being
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: called up. You hope that Brandon Montour is okay to play.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: So far, no news is good news. We'll wait and see.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I didn't like how he had that awkward stride over
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: the blue line that we didn't see him ever again
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: in the Tampa Bay game. But I think in Ty
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Nelson's case, when you bring him up, what do we
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: make of it? And if he plays, what's his role
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: out of the gate?
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Ty Nelson is a guy that we saw in
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: preseason put the puck in the net on at least
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: two occasions, two very different goals. But he likes to
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: jump into the slot looking for passes and he can snipe.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: but he's also a physical guy as well. I look
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: forward to seeing both parts of that game. The fact
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: that he's a right-shot defenseman, that's great, but it's his
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: offensive ability, it's his physical abilities that I'm looking forward
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: to seeing.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the guy.
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: I'm going to say overall because when it comes to call-ups,
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: you want to see what you have, and he was
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: my pick. for the first call-up of the season. I mean,
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: obviously you've got Fisker-Molgaard, you've got Yanni Newman in that
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: category as well.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: We've seen those two guys.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: I had him pegged as that first call-up overall coming up.
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: So you don't like it that it's under these circumstances
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: with Brandon Montour taken out of the game. I will
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: say we did see him on the plane yesterday. He
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: told us what happened. It was kind of a freak
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: thing where... Wasn't a hit, wasn't anything malicious, but he
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: came out, tried to test it, didn't work. Today at practice,
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: not on the ice, but he was on the bike,
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: and he was working out with the trainers there. So
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: he did kind of give us a wink and said,
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: we'll try to give it a go and we'll see.
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: But I do think that with Nelson, you're bringing in
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: another offensive threat. You're bringing in, I think, your best
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: defensive prospect that isn't.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Here in your depth chart. You know, Ottavainen obviously is here.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: So I do think that if he does get into
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: a game, you know, he'll have an impact.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: But, you know, this is the right move. I was
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: joking with Alex today.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: I'm like, I feel bad for the kid that he's
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: got to come all the way across country on a
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: six-and-a-half-hour flight. just to go back across country on another
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: six and a half hour flight tomorrow night so hopefully
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: you know he gets in the game tomorrow and it's
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: worth it for him but um but no i i
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: think with Cale Flurry already here. That would probably be
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: my guess is the Kraken are going to go with
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: the Flurry Mahura or a Flurry Evans, something like that lineup.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Otto Weinen and Flurry have been playing really well.
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: Otto Weinen and Mahura have been playing pretty well the
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: last few games.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: So I like that pair.
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: Um, but yeah, it's, it well deserved for at least
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: him to get the call up and to, to get
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: a couple of days in HL per diem and be
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: around the team, uh, In a regular season capacity.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: I like that you threw the per diem in there.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: It's a little better than the American Hockey League. A
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: little better.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: The perks of this job, right? That's one of them.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: He deserves it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Steak dinner, we'll see if that's on hand here for
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Ty Nelson out in Florida. All right, our poll question
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: of the week. Again, vote on that at Kraken Audio Net.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Who's going to get more of the stars now in
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: net at this period? Is it going to be Philip Grubauer?
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Is it going to be Joey Decord? Or is it
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: going to be split them or close to 50-50 as
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: it gets? A, B, or C, vote right now. Polls
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: open at Kraken Audio Net at TwitterNX.com. We are right
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: back after this with Doug Pleggins from the Florida Panthers
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: radio side right here on Kraken Weekly.
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: Here comes Gakko, right wide across for Shane Wright, intercepted,
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: knocked down, Berkeley Cat scores!
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: This is Berkeley Cat, now back, Kraken Weekly with Mike Benton.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: All right, Everett now back with us in just a bit,
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: the Coachella Valley Firebirds. In the meantime, on the road,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: they're at Abbotsford for a two-game series opening up tomorrow,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: and while they've had a couple of players already up now,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: In the NHL ranks, they've still got plenty of talent
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: still percolating at that level as they're trying to rebound
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: from a 4-0 loss to Henderson back on Wednesday. Tyson Jugnot,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: despite not scoring a goal just yet, is your leading
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: point getter right now on Coachella Valley with eight points
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: in five games. Yanni Newman, Jagger-Ferkus, one point back. Newman
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: is your leading goal scorer right now. with six goals
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: in five games, already off to a red hot start
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: as far as shooting the puck. So with Ty Nelson
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: up now from the American Hockey League, the Firebirds moving
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: on now for a two-game series opening up tomorrow against
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: the Abbotsford Canucks at Rogers Forum. It's early, so you
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: don't put much stock into this. The Firebirds, though, two
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: points back at first place in the Pacific Division with
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: a 2-1-2 record there. through five games. Transitioning right back
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: now to the NHL stage, we go to the Beacon
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Plumbing Hotline. Kraken and the Florida Panthers have their first
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: matchup coming up for the season tomorrow. That will end
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: the five-game trip, and a good friend of ours, as always,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: joining us now on Kraken Weekly. That is Panthers Radio
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: play-by-play voice Doug Pleggins, heard on 104.3 WQAM and the
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Panthers Radio Network as well. Doug, great to have you again,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: my friend. Looking forward to seeing you when Florida comes
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: around these parts here. But, I mean, hey, first off,
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: when's the last time you had a summer as long
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: as this past one?
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: You know, it was, thank you very much for having me.
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: Always great to chat with you. It was longer than
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: we've been used to in South Florida, but I think
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: In just taking it all the way back to the
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: end of season press conferences and everything last year, you know,
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: last season, the way it went, I think, you know,
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: a lot of guys that were dealing with certain injuries.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: And when the team ultimately made the play, it didn't
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: make the playoffs. The kind of sentiment you took from
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: that was players realizing, you know, it wasn't fun to
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: be missing the playoffs. But the team had accomplished a lot.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: They'd been to three straight finals, one back-to-back Stanley Cups,
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: and there was some wear and tear. And, you know,
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: just looking at the captain, Alexander Barkov missed all the
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: last season. Seth Jones missed a big chunk of last season.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: Brad Marchand missed a big chunk of last season. Matthew Kachuk, remember,
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: he started last season late. A lot of the key
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: players were not available for all 82 last year. And
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: When you got to the end of the season, you
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: could tell. The guys weren't thrilled to be missing the playoffs,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: but they also knew they were going to have a
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: chance to rest up, heal up, whatever the case may be,
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: train the way they want to, get ready and be
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: back for what was, as we all know, a pretty
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: short training camp and a short preseason. And going into
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: training camp, you got the same sense that you'd gotten
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: from this team in recent years, whether they were coming
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: off winning Stanley Cups, whatever it was, They came in
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: with a complete business-like approach, exactly what you'd expect from
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: this group. And, you know, every year, regardless of the situation,
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: they've had a great ability to know that the slate
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: is wiped clean with the start of every season. Everybody's
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: back to 0-0 when the season begins. And regardless of
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: how you finish the previous year, it's all starting over.
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: And these guys came in with that professional business-like mindset
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: that we've come to really just be used to out
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: of this group in recent years, and they've brought it
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: into the season. Now in the early part of the
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: season here, they've dealt with some injury blows to some
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: key players. Fortunately, there is some light at the end
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: of the tunnel, and I'm sure we're going to get
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: to a little bit of that here in a few moments,
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: but But yeah, overall, this is a group that seemed
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: to use that long offseason to its advantage, and they've
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: come in ready to roll here in 26-27.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Doug, it's pretty clear that the Panthers are in a
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: win-now mode, and they are all in trying to maximize
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: as much as they can with what they have on
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: a very NHL veteran-heavy roster at this point. But given
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: all that time off, who do you think benefits the
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: most from it?
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: In terms of the time off, I mean, it's tough
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: to pick just one guy. I think everybody was able
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: to utilize that time to heal up. Like I said,
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: there were a lot of guys here that were, you know,
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: that had their season cut short last year. One of
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: the guys, the guy you feel the worst for, that
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: I think really had a ton of momentum actually coming
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: into the year, was the captain Alexander Barkov. He missed
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: all of last season. Remember, had the injury in training camp.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: First day that veterans were on the ice last year
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: in camp, he went down with the injury, missed the
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: whole season. That being said, once the offseason for most
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: guys began, it kind of felt like it was the
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: start of the season for him. He went over to
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: play for Team Finland at the World Championships and absolutely dominated.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Looked like he was in mid-season form, was the best
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: player on a Team Finland team that won gold at
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: the World Championships, which is No easy task, as we
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: all know. So for him, he had a ton of
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: momentum going into camp. And then game two in San
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: Jose has the freak incident and ends up going down
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: with an injury. And everybody held their collective breath for
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: a moment there. And Paul Maurice has kind of mentioned
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: that you kind of weren't sure what was going to
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: happen from there on. You find out then afterward that
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: it's only going to be six to eight weeks. And,
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: and as Paul Maurice said, when, when everybody got that news,
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: you kind of breathe a sigh of relief because after
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: last season, you're like, okay, six to eight weeks, we
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: can deal with that. You know, that's, that's nothing we haven't,
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: haven't navigated through before. So after last season, a six
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: to eight week injury absence feels, you know, relatively, you know,
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: it feels less daunting, I should say to, to navigate
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: through that being said, And I've mentioned this really anywhere
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: that'll give me the opportunity. And for a lot of
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: folks out there, I know we have people listening here
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: who primarily probably follow the Western Conference and Pacific Division,
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: and understandably so. But I know Connor McDavid does things
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: at full speed nobody else can do. I know Nate
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: McKinnon does things more explosively than anybody else can in
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: the league, perhaps. But to me, there's nobody in the
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: league who impacts every single shift, regardless of situation. more
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: than the Panthers captain Sasha Barkov does. I've seen Austin Matthews,
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: Artemi Panarin, Nikita Kucherov, Sebastian Ajo basically disappear during playoff
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: series because of Alexander Barkov. It's a matchup nightmare for anybody. So,
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: you know, right now the Panthers dealing with life without him.
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: The advantage, or I should say the bright side to it,
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: is that Not last year. He's not gone for the year.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: It was a six- to eight-week absence, and we've already
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: started the clock ticking a little bit on that time.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: So I'm hoping to see him back sooner than later.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Doug, as if having one good shot go to the
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Panthers in Matthew didn't make us drop our jaw enough.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: There was then June 21st of 2026 when the collective
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: jaws dropped all across the hockey world when the Panthers
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: got Brady Kachuk, his brother, via trade. And it cost
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: them the ninth overall pick in this last year's draft,
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: the 25th overall pick in this last year's draft. By
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: the way, Kraken connected the 2027 second round pick and
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: a conditional first round pick as well. So far, what's
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: the return on Brady Kachuk as a Florida Panther?
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was going to say, you can't tell the
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: story of that day because it's really, when you talk
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: about the Brady-Kachuk trade with Ottawa, you almost have to
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: tell the story of that whole day and the sequence
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: of events that went into it. And obviously, Mackie Samaskevich
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: was involved in the trade going out to Seattle. And
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: you wondered at that point in time when the Panthers
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: added another first round pick, it was either, you know,
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: it was either the Panthers, you know, adding another pick,
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: looking to stock the cupboard if they wound up making
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: the pick, or you felt like maybe Bill Vito was
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: up to something bigger. And that turned out to be
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: the case. And the Panthers used a package of assets
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: to acquire Brady to Chuck. And it was, you know,
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: one of the blockbusters of the offseason. He's coming in
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: fit like a glove. And going back to when the
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: Panthers acquired Brad Marchand a couple of years back would
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: have been the deadline of 2025. Everybody remembers, you know,
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: that the trade went through at the 11th hour. And
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: I remember the next day talking to Paul Maurice and
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: Brad was injured at the time, wasn't ready to debut
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: that day. But the next day when I talked to
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: Paul Maurice for the pregame show, just asked him the
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: simple question. Question of what went through his mind when
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: he found out that he was going to be adding
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: Brad Marchand eventually. And he said that Brad was a
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: guy that already had a little Florida Panther in him.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: And the same thing went through my mind when I
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: heard the Panthers acquired Brady Kachuk. This is a guy,
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: and not just because his brother was already on the team,
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: had a little Florida Panther in him. He's a guy
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: who's worn a letter on his jersey before, obviously. The
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: Panthers have a lot of guys who've done that. A
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: lot of veteran guys, guys who've been leaders, guys who've
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: been leaned on in that role throughout their careers. But
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: a guy who presents a really unique skill set, is
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: a smart player, has great hands around the net. And
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: as you know, he gets moving downhill. He's an absolute
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: wrecking ball and plays with a mean streak through his
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: game as well. Really excited to see as this season
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: goes on how He and Matthew continue to be able
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: to play together at times on a line. And I
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: can confirm to you, Paul Maurice did say somewhat comedically
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: during training camp, he was asked about putting the two
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: Kachuks with Sam Bennett And he joked that they may
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: all end up in jail before the puck drops. But
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: I can confirm they have played together at times this season.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: And everybody is still a free citizen. Nobody is in
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: jail up there at this point in time. And they
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: have played somewhat extensively together here early in the year
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: due to some of the injuries the Panthers have had.
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: It wasn't the line combo out of the gates. But
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: the Panthers have deployed that trio up front at times
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: here in the early part of the season. It's been
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: a great fit. And, you know, I know that Matthew
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: and Brady both, I'm sure, for a lot of the
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: other fan bases across the league, have probably gotten under
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: people's skin at times. They play that way. They play
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: with that edge and that emotion and that tenacity. but
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: I can tell you, off the ice, outstanding character guys,
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: which is a big part of what this Panthers team's
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: built around, and Brady, like I said, fit absolutely seamlessly
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: so far.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: That Paul Maurice quote was an all-timer, and I kind
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: of borrow the line here from Forrest Gump. A Paul
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Maurice press conference is like a box of chocolates. You
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: never know what you're going to get. Doug Plagan's joining
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: us right now.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: But you're always going to learn something.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: That's the thing.
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: He's one of those guys, when he talks, you're always,
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: it's going to, We're very fortunate here because we talk
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: to him every day, and every day he says something
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: that makes you watch things a little bit differently the
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: next time around.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: He is categorically renowned as one of the brightest hockey
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: minds here on the entire planet and the reason why
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: he has stuck around for as long as he has
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: stuck around. Doug Plegg is joining us right now on
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Kraken Weekly. Doug, you brought up Mackie Samuskevich and so
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: far early returns. It's kind of funny how things just
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: work out here for both parties because Mackie Samuskevich and
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Brady Kachuk will be connected forever as far as how
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: events went back down in June four points six games
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: three goals also on the Kraken side he's getting top
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: line ice time right now with Matty Beneers but I
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: think we all knew based on the makeup of the
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Panthers roster there wasn't much more room for him to
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: get more ice time hence his availability he was still
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: a first round pick so can you go back and
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: look on his time there in Florida and think about
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: the kind of potential that you always thought that he.
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: Had Well, I think first, if you're looking at it,
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: when the trade was made, I think everybody was looking
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: at it as, you know, this is one that, especially
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: the way everything played out, it worked for all parties.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: I think everybody who made a trade that day or
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: some form of transaction walked away from things feeling pretty
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: good about what they had accomplished. And with Mackey, I
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: can tell you everybody was excited for him to be
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: able to get an opportunity up the lineup, something like that.
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: The Panthers have so many you know, star players and
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: guys that are on the long contracts and things like that. And,
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: and a lot of those spots were, you know, they
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: were going to be tough, tough to, tough to grab.
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: So Mackie goes out to Seattle and everybody figured he's
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: going to get a little bit more of an opportunity there,
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: maybe get some power play minutes, things like that. And,
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: you know, He's got that connection with Matty Beneers going
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: back to the University of Michigan. I'm sure that they
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: were excited to be able to kind of reunite as
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: far as that's concerned. But looking back to, you know,
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: Matty's time here, first I can tell you from the
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: time he was drafted, you know, everybody was always excited
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: and figured the Panthers at the pick they took him
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: at in the 20s that year back in 2021 felt
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: like they got a real value pick, a real bargain there,
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: you know, at that later portion of the first round.
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: And his shot was what was always talked about, first
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: and foremost, that he had an NHL-ready release from the
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: time he was drafted. And then as you got to
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: see him play, you got to talk to him, you
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: realize that he's just a grade-A individual. He can fly
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: up and down the ice, great straight-line speed. He's a
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: smart player, mature beyond his years. great attitude at the
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: rink every day and was always taking in as much
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: as he could from all the veteran guys around him.
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: And the first Panthers Cup run, he was around for
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: a lot of it. And he was, you know, he didn't,
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: he didn't play during that run, but he was one
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: of the, you know, he was one of the guys up,
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: one of the black aces, if you will, that was
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: up and got to witness a lot of, you know,
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: what was going on and, really benefited a lot from
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: that and being able to, you know, train the facility
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: and just, you know, kind of take that whole experience in.
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: Then in 2025, played playoff games. He was involved in
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: that run. And it was, you know, another just year
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: of valuable experience for him. And just in talking to
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: Paul Maurice, I know that he's a guy that was
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: leaned on for offensive production everywhere he went. He learned
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: a lot, you could tell, in Florida. He played... It
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: would have been a big chunk of, would have been
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: a big chunk of the season, two seasons ago, early on,
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: played on the fourth line. I remember him playing a
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: lot with guys like Tomasz Nosek and A.J. Greer on
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: the Panthers' fourth line. And it seemed like that really
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: helped him round out his game. It just seemed like
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: he learned a lot about that 200-foot game and, you know,
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: making smart plays around the boards and just making the
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: smart plays in general and felt like that was really
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: good for his development overall, and I'd imagine he would
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: probably still tell you that all that time that he
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: played down the lineup with the Panthers really helped him
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: round out his game, and just being around that team. So,
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: like I said, I think Kraken fans have a guy
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: there that they're going to be excited to have, that
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: they should be excited to have, and And I think
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: that's somebody that we'll be able to really root for
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: for a long time. And hey, I know that we're
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: pulling for him to have success. He's a great guy.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: He's looking forward to this game certainly coming up here
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: as Doug Plank is joining us here on Kraken Weekly.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: And I mentioned after the home opener where Mackie Samaskevich
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: scored twice, but also played with speed and a straight
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: line edge. He looked like a Florida Panthers coach player,
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: kind of in the same vein as you talked about
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: already with guys coming in like Brady Kachuk and Kachuk.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: Brad Marchand. With these trades going on, of course, it represents,
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: and I'll get into the weeds here on this, the
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: evolution of the Florida Panthers here in the last 10 years.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: I start first off just with the fact that, without question,
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: they are now a destination city. and for one certain reason,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: you'll win, guys want to follow, they want to go
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: and win a Stanley Cup there. Similar vein as, say,
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: where the Red Wings were about 20 years ago, the Avalanche, etc., etc.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: But now we hear about players who want to take
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: on an extra level of empowerment and use their no-movement
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: clause to their advantage, where you have players, and I
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: won't name names for now, but they have reportedly three
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: to four destinations in mind and you have the hockey
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: world buzzing, maybe with an air of cynicism by saying, oh,
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: it's just Florida. Oh, it's just Florida. But yet you
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: have Gary Bettman now coming out and saying that there
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: may be talk about how these no movement clauses are
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: used because that's not how nature intended. And I'm just
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: kind of paraphrasing this. So, I mean, Doug, I would
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: love your perspective on this if you can. What's your
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: take on players saying, What's your take on players who
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: are actively trying to choose their own destinations?
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, it's a big thing that I'm not
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: sure we even have time to tackle all of it here,
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: but I can speak to just the way things have
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: evolved here and about becoming a destination franchise. First of all,
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: before my time, you go back to the, to the
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: two thousands, for example, and the Panthers were not a,
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: they were the total opposite of a perennial playoff team
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: back in that era. And we're talking, you know, we're
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: talking about 20 years ago and, you know, Tampa Bay
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: lightning had a lot of, a lot of rough lean
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: years back in that era too. Let's not forget that
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: once upon a time, they had a number one pick
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: that landed them Steven stankos well to have the number
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: one pick things probably didn't go real well for you
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: prior to that so you know that's that's the way
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: things things shook out there um but with the panthers
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: going back in time let's let's just go back to
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: first of all the the first building blocks that were
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: laid here and it's a huge cultural thing but the
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: first building blocks that were laid you know you have
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: Sasha Barkov gets drafted back in 2013. And Aaron Eckblad
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: is drafted in 2014. And those draft picks obviously hit.
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: And then as time goes on, you kind of fast
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: forward post-pandemic. And Bill Vito's first season as the general
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: manager was 2020-21. And his first moves were, a couple
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: of his first moves, I should say, were acquiring Patrick Hornquist.
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: a proven winner, a guy with an infectious personality, and
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: a guy who immediately commanded the respect of not just
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: the players in the room, the entire organization. Patrick walks
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: into a room and, you know, he's just one of
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: those guys that just people gravitate toward. And, you know,
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: obviously nobody could dispute his track record. He's won multiple
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: Stanley Cups. Then Bilvito acquires Radko Gudis. You know, if
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: he's on your team, He is one of the most respected,
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: beloved people on your team. And he is a veteran guy.
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: I know that around the rest of the league, you know,
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: he sometimes gets under your skin. He might play with
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: an edge. He's physical. He's one of those guys you
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: have to keep your head up against. But he's on
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: your team. He's one of your leaders, and he's one
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: of your culture setters. And, you know, a couple of
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: Bill Zito's first moves were landing those players. And then,
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: of course, the big move in the summer of 22,
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: landing Brady Kachuk, or Matthew Kachuk, as you say, excuse me,
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: after the Panthers had won a president's trophy, but then
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: they were swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in round two.
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: And the way that they played that previous year, it
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: was entertaining. They won a ton of games. They scored
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: a ton of goals. But the way that they were
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: ousted from the playoffs in round two, they figured that
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: clearly changes needed to be made. And, of course, you
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: make the deal for Matthew Kachuk in the middle of
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: that offseason as well. Paul Maurice also hired to be
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: the head coach, perfect coach at the perfect time for
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: the perfect group of players. that was evolving and Bill
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: Dito continued to surround or just plug in quality veteran guys.
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: You could, a guy you're familiar with out there, Brandon
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: Montour was one of those players came in, benefited from
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: a change of scenery, went to the Panthers, really realized
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: a lot of maybe untapped potential going to get in
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: Sam Bennett, who had kind of fallen out of favor
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: in Calgary a little bit. Maybe it was misused quite
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: honestly in Calgary came to the Panthers was, plugged in
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: as a second line center and things just took off
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: for him uh sam reinhardt getting him out of buffalo
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: the list goes on and these are guys that played
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: a certain way played a smart brand of hockey wanted
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: to win team first guys and again it was just
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: an absolute master class in how to construct a roster
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: that bill guido did and and also just a master
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: class on how to you know, implement and grow and
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: evolve a culture. And that's really what it's all about
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: here with the Panthers. So I can't speak too much
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: about what goes on elsewhere, but when players want to
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: go to the Panthers, it stems from that entire sequence
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: of events I just laid out.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: Doug, you hit on a lot what I wanted to
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: get to here next, but I wanted to frame it
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: this way for you because it's such a compelling question
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: of where the Florida Panthers were 10, 11, 12 years
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: ago versus to where they are now. To you, what
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: is a turning point for success long-term for an NHL franchise?
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: Turning point to success, I mean, it's tough to pinpoint
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: it with the Panthers. I mean, there are a few, obviously,
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: different key components along the way. Some of those, I mean,
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: you could say that the first one, like I said,
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: was landing Barkov. And Paul Maurice has said... He's called
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: it something he's referred to it as the Barkov effect,
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: which is basically when your captain, your all world player,
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: you know, the best two way player in the world
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: is and your most just your best player overall is
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: willing to do every little thing possible, including a lot
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: of things that do not show up on the box score. Essentially,
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: he's the top five player in the world with a
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: fourth-liners mentality and that he's willing to do anything possible
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: to help the team win. When that guy will do
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: all those things, it makes it that much easier for
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: everybody else to just fall in line behind him because
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: if he's doing those things, then everybody's going to. So
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: there's your ultimate culture setter and your leader. But you
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: can't tell the story of this era of the Panthers.
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: First of all, the Viola family ownership. They take over
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: the team. back in 2013 and, and everything filters down
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: from the top and what they built, you know, it's,
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: it was something that he was going to take time, but, uh, they've,
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: they've gotten this thing into an unbelievable position over the years,
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: hiring Bill Zito as the general manager, Paul Maurice coming
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: in as the head coach, like I said, perfect coach
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: at the perfect time. Um, you know, it's hard to
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: pinpoint one thing, but again, the Matthew Kachuk trade in
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: the summer of 2022, um, I think a big part
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: of it, too, is the Panthers are– Bill Zito's been aggressive.
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: And if you look at the teams that have won
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: cups in this decade, Carolina, Vegas, Colorado, Tampa Bay, the Panthers,
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: these are teams that have never shied away from the
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: big move or the big swing if they felt they
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: had a way to improve their roster and improve their
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: hockey team. So, you know, I think there are just
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: a lot of different factors over time. You really can't
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: tell the whole story without mentioning– you know, every single
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: one of those components I just brought up.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Doug, you're great. We've had you here long enough. Appreciate you,
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: your perspective. We'll catch you again soon, but in the meantime,
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: have a great show tomorrow. Appreciate you, man.
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much, sir.
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: All right, Doug, big thanks. That's Doug Plankins joining us. Everett,
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: now join me next. Our poll question, update plus your
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: mailbag questions right around the corner here on Kraken Weekly.
• 55:28
  Speaker 6: 335 to play in regulation.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Here's Matty Beneers. Finds a soft spot. Score! This is
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Matty Beneers, center for the Seattle Kraken.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: Now back to Kraken Weekly with Mike Benton.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: Big thanks again to Doug Pleggins for hanging out with us.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: And we'll look forward to seeing him when the Panthers
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: roll around into town later on this season. Bringing us
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: here to our poll question of the week again. Who's
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: going to get more of the starts in net at
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: this point? And as of right now, 57% of you
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: say split. Philip Grubauer and Joey Decord, or get as
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: near as you can to 50-50. Again, 57% of you
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: say as close as you can to a split or
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: on the dot between Philip Grubauer and Joey Decord. Voting
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: is still open right now for the poll at KrakenAudioNet
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: at Twitter slash X. Mike Everett, Al with you. Fellas,
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: I know that we have Philip Grubauer, who is on
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: a heater at this point, and he looks even better
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: compared to last year. But Joey Decord, again, has had
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: a pretty solid start here to the season. So, I mean,
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: is it really fair to say that there's maybe a
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: shift coming, or is this still stay the course and
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: plan to play these guys as close as you can
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: to 50-50 because of the schedule?
• 56:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I would say you want to stick to this split.
• 56:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, we've talked about this. Gone are the days of.
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: Grant Fuhrer, Mark Tannenbrodeur, Patrick Waugh playing 65, 70 games, right?
• 56:57
  Speaker 5: If you can do 40, 42, and 42, if you
• 57:01
  Speaker 5: can do 50 and 34, right?
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Something like that.
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: I can just see the gears turning in his head
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: trying to do that math.
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, the math is not strong enough. But no, you
• 57:16
  Speaker 5: want to keep, I think you want to keep that split.
• 57:20
  Speaker 5: as close as you can, just because you don't want
• 57:23
  Speaker 5: to tire these guys out.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: You're going to need them both, right? You're going to
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: need both goaltenders.
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: Both goaltenders in the last couple of years have had
• 57:30
  Speaker 5: some injury issues. Philip Grubauer is getting older. He's aging
• 57:34
  Speaker 5: like a fine wine, however, but he is getting some.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: More miles on the tread. Joey Decord last year had
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: some injury issues that.
• 57:42
  Speaker 5: He's fully healthy, but you don't want to overtax him.
• 57:45
  Speaker 5: So I think ideally you'd like to see one of
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: the goaltenders emerge as the go-to.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: Like, hey, I need a game. You have to win
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: me this game.
• 57:57
  Speaker 5: Great. Goaltender A or B, you're going. But I do
• 58:02
  Speaker 5: think the way it's going right now, I'm happy with it.
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: Both are playing well. And you don't want to fix
• 58:09
  Speaker 5: what isn't broken. The rotation right now isn't broken.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: So keep her going.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: It makes it very easy when both goaltenders are playing well,
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: because make no mistake, they want to play all 84 games.
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, unless their body won't let them, they want
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: to play all 84 games. So as the goaltending coach,
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: you have to decide what's the right game for each
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: guy to play in, who's best set up for this,
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: how are they from a health standpoint. If you go
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: through 84 games and you have two goaltenders that could
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: play in any game, and they're somewhere between 95 and 100%,
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: that's a great position to be in. And I think that's,
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: you know, again, small sample size, we're still in that
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: single digit, but that feels like where we're at right now,
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: where any given game, you could put either goaltender in
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: and feel fairly good that that goaltender is gonna keep
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: the goals against to three or less and give your
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: team a chance to win. There are nuances, though. You
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: want to put Grubauer in when you play Washington. Maybe
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: you want to put Joey in when you play Boston.
• 59:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know. There are some small nuances throughout the
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: season where maybe you pick one over the other, but
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: at this point, it's not based on performance.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Florida Panthers are up next to end this road trip
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: to crack and then back home beginning the 20th when
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: they will take on the Red Wings. And after that,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: plenty of home games ahead. Panthers had to battle to
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: hold off the Vancouver Canucks down to nothing, and all
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, Brady Kachuk went nuclear in that game.
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: 3-2 overtime win, and Kachuk tied the game with 13
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: seconds left in regulation. Needless to say, he is fitting
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: in on that Panthers team, and oh, by the way,
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: he's playing on the same line with Matthew Kachuk. and
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: Sam Bennett. Needless to say, you're going to have to
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: win this game tomorrow in the trenches.
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this is the team that plays in
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: the trenches. And the question is going to be, can
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: the Kraken avoid those trenches? Or do they get into
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: the trenches and win those battles? We talked about this
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: with the Philadelphia game, with the Tampa game. You know,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: get into the middle of the ice. How difficult it's
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: going to be when you don't have a Jacob Melanson,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: when you don't have a Curtis Douglas. Well, look at
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: last night's game against Tampa Bay. Who gets the middle
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: of the ice? Matty Beneers off the faceoff, great deflection
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: in the back of the net. So I think this
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: team's will to go to the trenches if necessary is
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: can can can set up a game tomorrow night with
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: the panthers where they can compete.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah there's there's been some sloppiness in the last couple
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 5: of games for seattle so needing to clean that up
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 5: tomorrow against the panthers is going to be paramount i
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 5: know i said it earlier in the show you know
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 5: they had.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: A good practice today um mood.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 5: Were mood was high spirits were high I don't think
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: yesterday's overtime loss is the end of.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: The world by any stretch of the imagination.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 5: Again, you salvaged a point against a really good team
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: in a game in which you made a few too
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 5: many mistakes you shouldn't have made, right? You got lucky,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: and that's okay. That's okay. But I do think that
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: cleaning up some mistakes, you're going to start getting to
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: a very meaty part of the schedule. Say what you
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 5: want about Calgary, Detroit, whatever, but you got Panthers tomorrow,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 5: Wings on Tuesday.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: Then you got Utah, Minnesota, Toronto.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 5: Those are all teams that have very lofty playoff expectations.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 5: Because of Gavin McKenna, Toronto is expecting to sweep their
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 5: way through the cup final.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Utah and Minnesota.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: Is he going to come off the bench, though?
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Buddy, I got my own thoughts.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: Out of the press box?
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 5: Utah and Minnesota, they're trying to take the next step.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 5: So you're now going to be getting into a pretty
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 5: heavy part of the schedule against playoff teams, against teams
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 5: that you're going to have to beat in order to
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 5: get to where you want to go. This year, I mean,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 5: we'll throw, what, Vegas, Tampa. Washington in that mix, all
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 5: three of those teams in Edmonton, all four of those
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: teams either were in the playoffs or were a point
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 5: or two back in the playoffs last year. And so
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 5: far you're three and you're two and two against those teams.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 5: So you're 500 against playoff teams, not a bad record.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: Another playoff team tomorrow. They should be a playoff team
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: this year. So you got to clean up some mistakes,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 5: but yeah, this is a game in which you need
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: to show up on time and, and it's going to
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 5: be a battle.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a grind.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: Let's get to our mailbag segment. And once again, you
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: can find me at Twitter and X at Benton underscore
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: Mike Everett's at The Voice Fits. Al Koniski is simply
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: at Al Koniski. And we take these each and every
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: time here on Kraken Weekly. First off, from the handle
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: PA Kraken Fan, with Brandon Montour out. I'll inject maybe,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: maybe not. And Ty Nelson getting called up. How do
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: you see the new defense pairings shaking out right now?
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: If he does get in, and Fitz, you hinted at
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: this earlier today, Maybe it's Cale Florey time just based
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: on pecking order. But in cases like this, I mean,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: unless you're talking about a guy who is like, say,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: a Matthew Schaefer, this is a sheltered third pair role
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: kind of situation. Maybe Billy Ottavainen gets moved up a
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: little bit here. And, you know, the Tampa Bay turnover aside,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: he's looked fine. But that all really depends upon Brandon
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: Montour's health at this point where you mentioned he may
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: try to get back in. For this game at Florida,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: the Kraken could certainly use him, but you're not asking
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: too much out of a guy like Ty Nelson. You
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: keep Dunn-Larsen together, depending upon if Montour plays. If he
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: does not, maybe that goes to Evans out of Vinen,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: and then Mahura and Fleury or Ty Nelson. But I
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: think for me, it's going to really, really challenge Lane Lambert,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: if Montour can't play, his ability to juggle ice time
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: and put the most effective pairs out there without running
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: them right into the ground.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we had a chance to see them practice today,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: Mike East, but we're 36 hours away from game time
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: and a lot can change in that time. But yes,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: Dunn and Larson stayed together. Evans and Fleury were paired
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: up and Odovinen and Mahura were paired up. But Ty
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: Nelson's not here yet. We don't know the status of Montour.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: So a lot can change between now and game time.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: But clearly they wanted to put those pairings together for
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: tomorrow if that is the way they want them for
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: the lineup. But it's not out of the possibility either
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: that Ty Nelson flies across the country and they put
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: him in as a part of maybe the third pairing.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: From the handle, sad C fan. Hey, don't worry. Be happy.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: Have we seen enough of a sample to deem this
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: team as contenders for the division? This to me is
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: a crawl before you walk situation. It's still a work
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: in progress. Edmonton's got their superstar powers already in high
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: gear and Mike Babcock's already got them looking like that
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: they're dialed in. Connor McDavid looks like he's a megastar.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: Leon Dreisaitl again, megastar. They're top two in scoring right
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: now in the league. And for me, it's up right
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: now to the Kraken to start banking points. And if
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: you can hang around here by December 1st, to at
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: least be in the playoff mix, we'll start talking about
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: that next step. After tomorrow, Fitz, you mentioned this, a
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: lot of home games, but yet you have some teams
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: in there which could be some hazards. You got Detroit
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: with a cracking handle, but yet they still have some firepower.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: The Maple Leafs, your only road game basically sandwiched in
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: between Finland right now is Calgary. and then he'd also
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: have a chance to face the Canucks and bank points
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: right there. Honestly, I like their chances against Utah. Minnesota's
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: going to be a bear, pardon the expression, but you've
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: got a marvelous chance right now to make a statement
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: and take that next step.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, if the playoffs started today, I could
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 5: be third in the division and they'd be playing Edmonton. No,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 5: the sample size has told me That this team is
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 5: going to be, not should, this team will be competing
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 5: for a spot in the playoffs. I think I've seen enough.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 5: Just to say that based on the personnel, the system,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 5: the structure, the goaltending, Al and I, 10, 15 games
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 5: into the season, that's when you pretty much are who
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 5: you are. And the Kraken are getting to that point.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 5: So I think this is a team that will be
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 5: a contender for a playoff spot. Division, way too early.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 5: I mean, Vegas, Edmonton, they're always going to be there.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 5: you know, LA they're Oh, and five to start. So
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 5: I think they're getting to a point where they may
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 5: be playing themselves out before it even starts all the
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 5: hype around San Jose, all the hype around Anaheim.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: They still have a good team.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 5: Despite some of the mismanagement, maybe this summer divisions a
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 5: bit early.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: I need to see the team play some.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 5: More tougher opponents, but I will say that the Kraken
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 5: not should, will be a team battling for a playoff spot.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's not much more that I can add to
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: that because I agree with everything that Fitz said. What
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: I would add is that from the small sample size
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: that we have seen, if this team is going to
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: go to battle against teams like Tampa Bay, like Washington,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: like we've seen, like Edmonton, even though it was a loss,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: they battled hard enough to earn at least a point
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: in that Edmonton loss. If they're going to battle with
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 3: the top teams in this division or the top teams
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: in this league, they're absolutely going to compete for a
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 3: playoff spot.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: From the handle Kevin Scrabbin saying, this team is playing
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: a hard, tough, entertaining game of hockey right now. What
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: do you see as different from the start of last
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: year to the start of the season this year? For reference,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: last year after eight games, they were 4-2-2. That from
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: Kevin Scrabbin at X. I'll begin with this. To me,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: they were warning signs of how they managed their periods
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: last year. You take a road game at Montreal, for example.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: A road game at Ottawa, for example, and they laid
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: two clunkers at Philadelphia and at Washington also. Berkley Catton
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: was just fresh off his NHL debut. He had an
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: injury to Riker Evans, an injury to Jared McCann, and
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: more pieces that had to fit into place that were uncertain.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: For instance, Yanni Newman, who had a short call-up and
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: he had to get sent back down to work on
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: his game, and Mesa Marchment, we were in the middle
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: of that, and that experiment lasted for about roughly three months.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: This time.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: The concerns are just the times that they've maybe laid
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: an egg. And to me, really, it's only once. That
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: was the Vegas game.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 4: Are there times?
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: That they're getting outshot?
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: To me, though, there is more certainty with this lineup.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: There's more definition of roles. The kids are moving along
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: a lot more. The And my eye test says there's
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: more maturity on this team to handle the rigors of
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: established competition. We're a ways away here from declaring this
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: team a bona fide playoff contender. But for me, at least,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: so far, so good as far as what I've seen
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: right now compared to last year.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: I think the big.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 5: piece of that is Lane Lambert now back for a
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 5: second season. And you have a roster that understands what
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 5: he wants.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: You know how to play his style.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 5: You know, the power play, you know, the penalty kill,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 5: you know, the four check, you know, the breakouts.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, Al, you played this game.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 5: This stuff doesn't change that often, but every coach has
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 5: subtle nuances on how they want to do things.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: You don't need to learn the subtle nuances, right?
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: Um, that is the biggest difference is that you didn't
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 5: have to put in a new system and, and that
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 5: for me, it's full stop. Lane Lambert is the reason
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 5: why the Kraken are better now at.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: Five, two, and one than they were last year for
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: two and two.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to add the same thing. I
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: would also add that, you know, last year, Philip Grubauer
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: took the lead as far as the 1A goaltender and
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: that helped them get into a playoff contention prior to
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: the Olympic break. I think this year, again, small sample size,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: but so far, it looks like you've got two goaltenders
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 3: that could do the same thing this year. And I
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: would always take two to try and get you to
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: the promised land rather than one.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: Let's get to our three stars here for this one
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: before we wrap this thing up, and I'll begin. My
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: third star is going to be Ryan Winterton. Five points
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: here for the last week. He had two goals. He
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: had a backbreaker against the Washington Capitals, and he got
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: the Kraken going against Tampa Bay. It's more than just
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: his fourth-line presence. It's also his ability to handle penalty
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: kill assignments that make such a big difference for me,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: and he's a big reason why this penalty kill has
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: improved so over the course of just roughly a few
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: games from what we've seen already. He's looked great. This
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: fourth line has carried a lot of weight here on
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: this road trip. Ryan Winterton is my third star of
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: the week. My second star goes to Berkeley Catton. And
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: maybe he's not at the top as far as production, like, say,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: Jared McCann, Chandler Stevenson. But he looks so good, so poised,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: so calm carrying the puck. I can't believe he didn't
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: score the other night against Tampa Bay. And his metrics
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: in his game right now are completely off the charts
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: on a positive level. He is developing into a player
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: who is driving a line. He's helping make Shane Wright better.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: He's feeding Kapo Kako. And we could be getting here
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: to a point down the road. The effort keeps coming.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: The points then come a little bit more. There's more
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: ice time to be had here for Berkeley Catton. And
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: a big reason why he has looked solid so far
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: is his ability to command the puck and At a
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: five-on-five situation, he's my second star. My first star, without question,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: Philip Grubauer. Stepping in for the shootout win over Philadelphia,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: getting the last laugh over Trevor Zegers, but it was
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: much more than that. I mean, him and Joey Decord,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: I can maybe count on one hand the amount of
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: goals that they should have had for the beginning of
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: the season. He's looked even more calm, more poised, and
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: when you have a team trying to get under his
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: skin like Philadelphia, There is no wavering of his game
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: and pushing back, and he got stronger, and he was
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: incredibly strong in the shootout. Then the Tampa Bay game,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 2: where is this team without him? Goaltending is such a big,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: big piece of this picture, and Grubauer stepping in now
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: for a couple of games recently with Joey Decord back
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: on the bench, and he's looked great, but Grubauer has
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: been rock solid in this last week, and he's my
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: first star of this week.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: I'll go. I'm a third star. I'm going to give
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: it to Jared McCann.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 5: Points in five of his last six games, three goals
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 5: and two assists in that time. He's got points in
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 5: all but two games this year. I think even though
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 5: he only has three goals, you're really seeing him in
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 5: the offense.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: He's getting primary assists.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 5: He's, he's doing those things that you expect him to do,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 5: putting himself in a position to score, you know, hunting
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 5: for the net, you know, very much like Berkeley cat.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 5: And the other night, a couple of goals that you
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 5: wish he would have had, he probably could have had.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: So I think he's really.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: Starting to come into the, the McCann that we're expecting
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 5: to see this year. So he's my number three star.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 5: I waffled so much with my number two and number
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 5: one star, my number two star was, By the thinnest,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 5: and I mean the thinnest of margins, is going to
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 5: be Philip.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: Grubauer for the reasons that you just said.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: He's kept this team in a position to win last night.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: Against Tampa, the other night against the Flyers, the Seagrass.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 5: Incident i mean philip grubauer really has been your best
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 5: player i i think arguably your best player this season
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 5: he was my pick for you know team mvp sixth
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 5: man whatever you want to call it unsung hero for
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 5: last year and he's continuing that and then my first
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 5: star again by the thinnest of margins.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: The entire fourth line. Give me all of the fourth line.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 5: 15 points in three games from that line. Freddie Goudreau
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 5: turning into the Krakens version of Connor McDavid. I mean,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 5: it has been so much fun to watch this line
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 5: play Finally.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: These last few games be rewarded.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 5: For the last 80 games of hard work that we've
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 5: seen them put through last year. First part of this year,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 5: they're killing penalties. They're winning face offs. They're providing an energy.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: They're providing a spark. And now 15 points in three
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 5: games from that line. Give me the entire fourth line
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 5: as my number one star of the week.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: Well, my third star goes to Chandler Stevenson. He's tied
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 3: with eight points for the team lead in points. He's
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: got a fifty eight point six percent face off right now.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: And he leads in the assist column with seven assists.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 3: He quietly is a guy that pushes the offense on
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 3: this team, whether it's key face offs, key playmaking abilities
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: or his leadership. He's my third star this week. Second star,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: same as Everett. I gave him second star on the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: fourth line. Winterton, two goals over the road trip.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: Goudreau, three.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: Myers won 15 points across the board. They're all plus
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: four on this road trip. This fourth line is clicking
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: right now. And I look forward to seeing that line
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: more than any other line in any game going forward.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 3: So second star goes to the fourth line. And the
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: first star, scoring depth. This team now has 13 guys
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 3: with four or more points on the season so far.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 3: It was 12 going into Tampa Bay. It's now 13.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: You know how many Florida has? Six. Tee that one
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 3: up for the game tomorrow night. Oh, boy.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: Can't wait for this one. Can't wait for this one.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: From Sunrise with Love, Everett and Al will be in
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: the booth. Again for the 3 p.m. puck drop. We're
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: on air at 2.30 for the Kraken and the Panthers.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: Can the Kraken go unbeaten in regulation on this five-game roadie?
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: What a story that would be. After that, back to
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: the comforts of home for a four-game road trip. Detroit, Utah, Minnesota,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: and Toronto opening up on Tuesday, October 20th. Once again,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: we're on air all across the Global Credit Union Kraken
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: Audio Network. Big thank you to Everett Now and for
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: Doug Pleggins for hanging out. We'll talk with you tomorrow.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: For Kraken Weekly, I'm Mike Benton.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: See ya.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: Your home for the Kraken.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.