Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth, Win over Toronto, New faces making a big impact + more

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Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth, Win over Toronto, New faces making a big impact + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I can feel it coming in the air tonight. Oh, Lord.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: You're listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 792.1 FM.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, Lord. Can you feel it coming in the air.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Tonight?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show. It is that time,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Wednesdays at 1. We go between the pipes with Adrian Denny.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Aladdin Industries and Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling make it possible.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Our Utah Mammoth insider is right here in studio with me.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Hi, Adrian. OC, thanks for having me back, man. How
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: are you? Doing all right. Doing great.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: We'll look back, and we'll look forward, and we'll look
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  Speaker 2: at last night with this Utah Mammoth.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I want to go a couple of games back, though.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: What the bleep happened to this team in Boston?
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: It's funny because if you looked at all of the
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: analytics on the game, the expected win a meter from
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: money puck.com had the mammoth at like 80 to 20,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: the whole game, um, expected goals in the game favored Utah. Um,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: so two things, analytics don't factor in game management. and
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: momentum and, you know, saves that should have been made
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: by both Grover Milka and Sebastian Kosa. It just was
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: an off night in the middle of a five-game trip.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: You know, Mike Fulta and I were talking. Like, the
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: experts say that you're probably going to have five or
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: six clunkers a year. And the funny thing was is... everything,
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  Speaker 3: but the, the game and the key moments in the game,
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  Speaker 3: they did a pretty good job of first 10 minutes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And then, um, Boston got a power play goal and
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  Speaker 3: then they got three and scored one all year. So
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  Speaker 3: it was just kind of the averages, um, I guess
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: catching up, but not a, not a fun Thursday night, but,
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  Speaker 3: but we were all amused looking at all of the,
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  Speaker 3: cause I'm a big expected win a meter guy, especially
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: when the mammoth are losing. Like, Hey, but see the
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: expected wind meter. Hey, but, but you got to manage situations.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: They're down for one, but the expected wind meter says
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  Speaker 2: they're coming back.
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  Speaker 3: You got to push back, which is why Utah is
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: five and two, because they've really been good in situations
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  Speaker 3: of countering momentum. Last night, Toronto made the game three, one.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Four, four, two.
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  Speaker 3: I'm trying to do the recount in my head. Nevertheless, OC,
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  Speaker 3: the Mammoth had three, three goal leads and Toronto trimmed
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  Speaker 3: it to two, three times, twice. The Mammoth got the
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: three goal lead back instantly, right? The pushback was there.
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  Speaker 3: And then late in the game, it's five, four key moment.
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  Speaker 3: Goalie makes five huge saves in the final 90 seconds,
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  Speaker 3: six on four. So it was just kind of the
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  Speaker 3: way that they were able to manage the game that
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  Speaker 3: went the exact opposite in Boston when they lost six
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: to one.
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  Speaker 2: In between, they had a nice little response in Buffalo
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  Speaker 2: as well. So this team, like Adrian mentioned, 5-2 right now.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: They continue to score goals. You're getting a nice balance
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: of production. You know, guys that are newcomers on the roster.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Vincent Trocek, once again, proving his worth early in this season.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Mackenzie Wieger hasn't been around for long. He's proving his worth.
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  Speaker 2: Daniil Boot, these guys, obviously, you know, there was no
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: doubt that Petrochek and Uyghur were going to be staples
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  Speaker 2: in this franchise. Daniil Boot is still very young and
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: handled being sent back down last year with, I think,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of grace. And it's proving itself. He's proving himself,
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  Speaker 2: paying dividends and showing those dividends now on NHL ice.
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  Speaker 2: And we're talking about these newcomers in a, in a
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: roster that has a lot of the same, but we're
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  Speaker 2: seeing some of the difference making a difference.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: McKenzie Weger's been unbelievable.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Like, and it's added to Mikhail Sergeyev's game to have
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  Speaker 3: a D partner like that. But when the math got
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Weger last year, like you, you looked at, you know, some,
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  Speaker 3: some defensive numbers and he'd, been top three in the
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  Speaker 3: NHL and block shots and hits, you know, over a
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  Speaker 3: five year stretch. And he'd also had a 20 goal
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  Speaker 3: season in that. And this year with, with the full camp,
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  Speaker 3: with the full off season, uh, we, we've said he
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  Speaker 3: went from the slowest team to the fastest team. And
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: it was, it was an adjustment that, you know, he
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  Speaker 3: probably was disappointed with how he played. And he said
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  Speaker 3: that going down the stretch in the playoffs, even though
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  Speaker 3: it was an addition, it was a, a, a big
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  Speaker 3: insertion of the lineup for, for Utah. But, but now
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  Speaker 3: we're seeing the real McKenzie Weger, who is, is all
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  Speaker 3: over Austin Matthews, like a grizzly bear last night in
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  Speaker 3: the third period. Like he was, he was.
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  Speaker 1: On top of him.
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  Speaker 3: And then you look at the other side of the
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  Speaker 3: ice and Mikhail Sergeyev is holding court over there and
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  Speaker 3: making it difficult in big moments of the game and
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  Speaker 3: big possession points, big shifts for Toronto.
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  Speaker 1: If they're not there.
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  Speaker 3: Holding it all down, Maple Leafs would have got some
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  Speaker 3: better chances and probably would have tied the game up.
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  Speaker 1: But Wiegers fought twice.
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  Speaker 3: He's got in on the offense, but he's just a
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  Speaker 3: big guy that you have to reckon with him when
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: you enter the offensive zone if you're facing the Mammoth.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: 5-4 was the final score, and as you mentioned, things
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  Speaker 2: got tight late.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed interminable.
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  Speaker 2: It was like a forever stretch of six on four
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  Speaker 2: at the very end, and Vemelka had to make some
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  Speaker 2: great saves. You're playing from behind. I don't know if
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: boneheaded is the right way to call the penalty taken
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  Speaker 2: by Gunther, but untimely at the very least. It was
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: troublesome to see it in that situation, and all the
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: momentum belonged to to the Maple Leafs at that point.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: But how big was it that final stand, surviving that
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: six-on-four onslaught for this Utah Mammoth team?
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: It was Karel Vemelka winning the team a game. And
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: you look at some of the goals that they got,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: could they have been saved? You don't like giving up
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  Speaker 3: four in a game, right? That's getting to the point
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  Speaker 3: where it's a little high. Could the goalie have saved
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  Speaker 3: one of those? But he was phenomenal. And that's, that's,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you look at goaltender numbers and you see
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: a good save percentage, you see a good goals against average,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: or you see the save percentage. That's, that's a little
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  Speaker 3: lower like the milk is was last night, but the
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  Speaker 3: saves he made in the big moments. And I'm looking at,
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  Speaker 3: at the shot chart, he had five saves in the
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  Speaker 3: final 80 seconds when it is six on four. And
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  Speaker 3: Vinny Trocek after the game said, Yeah, that's, that's what
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  Speaker 3: it said. He made five saves, but there were, there
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  Speaker 3: were a lot more pucks that were in his neighborhood
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  Speaker 3: that they got knocked away than, than he got credit for. So,
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  Speaker 3: so that was a big Corral Vamulka game for the Mammoth. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you win a one goal game. A lot
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: of the times you're, you're looking at your goalie and,
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  Speaker 3: and I think that that was a signature, you know,
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  Speaker 3: save for, for Vamulka really is, is the whole game is,
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  Speaker 3: is considered. And, Gosh, the penalties, man. Utah in that game,
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  Speaker 3: I thought Toronto had a great first period. I thought
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  Speaker 3: they were coming out playing with some of the momentum
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  Speaker 3: from a big win in Colorado on Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: They were fresh.
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  Speaker 3: They'd been up in Park City for the last couple days.
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  Speaker 3: They'd been practicing up there. They started with a decent
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  Speaker 3: game to open their trip in Vegas. They lost in
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  Speaker 3: a shootout, but I thought, oh boy, the Mammoths are
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: kind of back on their heels here because Toronto's really
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  Speaker 3: bringing it. And then They were able to take that
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  Speaker 3: early lead and go from there and then use really
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: their identity of speed and skill and what they're able
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  Speaker 3: to do off the rush in transition to kind of
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: take control of the game. Five-on-five scoring was 4-1. Penalties
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  Speaker 3: is what kind of made that game kind of messy.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: And that's where Toronto's got a good power play. Stayed
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  Speaker 3: in it with two power play goals. scoring one on
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  Speaker 3: a delayed penalty that would have been a power play.
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  Speaker 3: But the thing about those penalties, OC, was you're thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 3: it's the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like, you can see taking
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  Speaker 3: a penalty here or there against them because, you know,
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  Speaker 3: Austin Matthews, William Nylander, the new 18-year-old Gavin McKenna, like,
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  Speaker 3: they put you in compromising situations. But the penalties that
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: the Mammoth took, like, it was Gunther, like, really kind
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  Speaker 3: of straddling the neutral zone. And I've never seen him
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: take three minor penalties in a game ever. And then
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  Speaker 3: he took a penalty earlier in the, in the offensive end. And,
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  Speaker 3: and that was the one thing that really got to
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  Speaker 3: bear after the game was like, it's where we took
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  Speaker 3: the penalties.
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  Speaker 1: Like we just didn't need to do them.
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  Speaker 3: So I chalk it up to a night that they
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  Speaker 3: took some penalties that they're probably not going to take again.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Adrian Denny is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: show between the pipes. As we talk a little Utah mammoth,
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  Speaker 2: as you're looking at the things that will be tweaked
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: over the course of the season, and maybe that's one
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: of them. What else is there that this team, I mean,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: special teams have been a lot better at the beginning
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: of this, but Far from a finished product, nobody is
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: in the NHL right now. When these guys are trying
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: to tweak some things, what's top of the agenda?
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: I think 5-on-5 has been good. Top 10 in the
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: NHL 5-on-5. Power play has been leading the NHL for
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: most of this. We thought the penalty kill was there.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: First three games of the year didn't allow a power
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: play goal. New Jersey scored on a 5-on-3, whatever. You're
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: 13 for 14. going into Boston on Thursday. And then
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden their power play, which had been
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: old for 10 chalks up three Buffalo on Saturday goes
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: up one, nothing getting their first power play goal of
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the year. And then Toronto to power play goals. So
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: PK started off really strong. I can't with, with the
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: sample size that we have really dialed in other than
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that's a percentage that you want to be a little
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: bit higher there. And And then you're looking at goals
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: you allowed, and you're zeroing in on Pomelka and Sebastian Cosa,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: and you're like, well, pretty high-danger scoring chances that they scored.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: So easy, stay out of the penalty box, and just
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: see what you can tighten up there on the PK,
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: because to start the year, it was perfect.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: We were talking about him before we came on air here. Schmaltz,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Nick Schmaltz is off to a red hot start to
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: this season. Is it sustainable for Schmaltz?
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: It is because of where he's scoring his goals. If
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: his shooting percentage was say 40% right now, you're like,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: that's a little high. That's going to normalize down to 10, 15, 20%.
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  Speaker 3: But the difference for him, this year compared to the
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: first decade of his career is where he's scoring his
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: goals from five of his six goals have been scored
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: within close proximity of the net for his career. He's
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: about 25% for scoring goals within a close proximity of
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: the net. So relying on his shot. So when he,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: when he's creating offense and doing what he's done so far, it's,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: it's just something you're going to have to put up
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: with when he goes to those, those.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: High danger areas.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: If you're the opposition, because you're not relying on your
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: goalie to stop a one-time shot from Nick Schmaltz that
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: to start the year has gone in 40 to 45%
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: of the time. And you know, it's gonna, it's gonna normalize.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: And as I watch him and Clayton Keller, just, their
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: tenaciousness of hunting pucks when Utah is back defensively or they're,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: they're trying to strip an opposing player coming out of
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: the offensive zone to get the puck back to go
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: create some more offense like they did in Buffalo on Saturday.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: But those guys like defensively, like Nick Schmaltz was top
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  Speaker 3: 10 in the NHL and strips last year to, to,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: to put it to an elementary term. But the Keller's
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: the same thing. They're, they're a shutdown group that when
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: they don't have the puck, they get it back for
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: you and they get back to work. And that's been
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the best thing so far from, from Utah skill is
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: how hard they've worked to get the puck back. And
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I think we've seen a lot of that from, from
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Cooley and Gunther too, is, you know, you got skill guys,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: but these, these Utah skill guys are, And it goes
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: back to just kind of their their mindsets of just
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: being so obsessed with hockey 100 percent of the time
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: that they're not just looking for the quick highlight real play.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: They understand that we've got to play defense, too. And
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: number two, if we want to, you know, reach our
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: offensive numbers and we don't have the puck, we got
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: to go get it back.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And so they go to town.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: A guy, one of my favorite players on this team,
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: and we have not talked about him yet in any
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: of our Between the Pipes segments, but he leads the
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: team in plus minus right now. He's only on the
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: ice about 13 minutes a game, but Barrett Hayton has
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: been really, really good through this first seven games.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, man.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Last night, I could have been the best forward. Won
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: seven of his eight face-offs on the shorthanded goal that
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Sergeyev scored. he did three things on an ice sheet
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: that's 200 feet long that occurred on both ends. He
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: was involved in kind of stripping the puck away from Toronto.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: I think he took it from Gavin McKenna.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: And he did.
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  Speaker 3: He stripped the puck away, forced it around behind the net.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Stenland recovered it. made a straight line pass to Hayden
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: coming up ice. He's going in hard to the net,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: got denied on his breakaway, stayed in front of the net,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: created a distraction, got the Toronto D man, Nick Blake
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: and ship kind of turned around, which turned the goalie around.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Cause you got a big D man in your blue
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: paint is your goal. He's trying to make a save.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: And here comes Mikhail Sergeyev. Oh, I think I'll just
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: flip this in and, score a goal to make it
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: three nothing but force the puck free received a pass
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: created a scoring chance that he didn't score on and
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: then was still part of the goal being scored and
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: was the reason it was scored because he kept going
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: when he got denied he's he's been great and he's
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: got the longest scoring streak on the, on the team,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: which is four games. He's got five assists in his
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: last four games. So you look at that and, and
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: him and, and Anders Lee and Kyle Yamamoto, the last
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: couple of games have been really good last night. They
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: out attempted the Maple Leafs 15 to one and outshot
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: him six to nothing. So I've loved, loved, loved, loved, loved,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: loved Barrett Hayden early, especially the last couple of games.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Last thing before we let you go, Do you like
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: the frozen frenzy where they pack them all in and
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: it makes it so, I mean, you're watching a mammoth game.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: You can't see any of the rest of what's going
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: on around the NHL.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: That's what I was going to say, man.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: The only thing that sucks about it is we're playing
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: a game. It was kind of fun having hockey start
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: at four mountain time yesterday. So I'm in, I'm in
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: our mountain blue radio studios getting ready for the game
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: and hockey was on at four. So that was cool.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: It was on an hour earlier. And then, you know, um,
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: we go play our game and heck yeah, I'm looking
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: at scores every, every media time out. Cause it was,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: it was, it was just such a, an overwhelming thing.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: And I, I loved it. Uh, and then after the game, um,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: you don't usually have this by the time we get
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: off the air. And if you've ever heard hockey night,
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Utah on the radio, you'll, you'll understand. Sometimes we go along, um,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: for a while. And when we got off the air,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: San Jose and, Boston was still going and had 10
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: minutes left in the third period. So that was a
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: 9 PM mountain time start. So kind of book ended
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: around it, but yeah, I thought it was fun.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I like it. I like just the more hockey, the better.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: So don't do it every night, but it was fun
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: that way.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: It would have been fun if there was 15 games
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: and we weren't playing and you could just veg out
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: and watch all of them.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Adrian, it's always great having you come in. Appreciate your
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: time and your insight, my friend.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Sean. Appreciate you having me. See you next week.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: That's Adrian Denny. Between the Pipes, our mammoth insider, brought
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: to you by Aladdin Industries, Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling.