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KRAKEN WEEKLY: Growth period underway (10/8) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's Matty Beneers.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Find the soft spot.
• 0:04
  Speaker 3: Score!
• 0:04
  Speaker 4: Jordan Eberle!
• 0:09
  Speaker 5: Overtime!
• 0:10
  Speaker 6: And then Hawthorne settles.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Shoots. Score!
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: This is Jordan Eberle, right wing for the Seattle Kraken.
• 0:16
  Speaker 4: This is Brandon Montour. This is Bobby McMahon. This is
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: Matty Beneers, center for the Seattle Kraken.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: This is Berkley Catton.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: You're listening.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: You're listening.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: You're listening to Kraken Weekly with Mike Benton. Well, you know,
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: the season's underway finally, and we have news to talk about. Plus,
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: we have finally hit the road. That is where we are,
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: at least two out of three of us here for Kraken.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: You can find this, by the way, once again, podcasted
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: on demand via the iHeartRadio app. Just sign up for
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: free to get this at sportsradiokjr.com. Mike Benton, Everett Fitzhugh,
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Al Kaniski, and a lot to get to with the
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: Kraken 2 and 2 now on a very, very young season.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: We'll have Max Bultman from The Athletic joining us a
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: little bit later on to discuss the Red Wings and
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: a lot going on with the Red Wings where you
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: could say maybe it's not just a news cycle kind
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: of offseason, it is a soap opera. He'll check in
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: with us. We'll check in with Coachella Valley and who's
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: on the rise after a big week. We'll get to
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: our three stars of the week plus your mailbag questions
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: as well. Before we jump into things, here's what you
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: may have missed from the first four games. And there
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: were plenty of twists and turns. Cracking on the power play.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: McCann has shot Eberle on the rebound and he scores.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: The Seattle Kraken take the 1-0 lead on a power
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: play tap-in from Jordan Eberle, the captain, 10.50 left.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: Hips it through center. Chandler Stephenson hops around.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: White cloud, a backhand on, and he scores!
• 1:49
  Speaker 7: What a goal.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: By Chandler Stephenson.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: He hops around White Cloud, who lost his footing.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Goes forehand, backhand, 5-0 on Dustin Wolfe.
• 2:01
  Speaker 6: And McCracken ahead by a 4-0 score.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Bouchard back to dry side with a one-timer and a
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: massive left-pad save by Philip Grubauer.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: That was the save of the period right there.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: McCann, his shot.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Off the stick of Eckholm almost slid in as he
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: caught Levine leaning.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Now the Kraken get it.
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: They score!
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Bobby McMahon under the crossbar, in and out.
• 2:23
  Speaker 6: Stickless Joey the Cord for a moment.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Now Montour will kick the stick back into the goal crease.
• 2:28
  Speaker 6: And Joey the Cord picks it back up. Now Matthew Samoskiewicz,
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: what a move!
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: He scores!
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Mackie Samaskevich fighting his way over the blue line. He
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: stayed with the puck and he finds the back of
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the net for his first goal in Kraken Colors. He's
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: got some speed from the captain on the right side.
• 2:54
  Speaker 7: There's a backhand.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Shane Wright scores!
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, the price was right on that!
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: And, picks it back up, left side, crack it onside,
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: Matty Beniers.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Across, and Miscavige scores!
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: The return of the Mac.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Back to the back of the net.
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: He's got two tonight.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And the Seattle Kraken on top by a 5-0 score
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: with 25 seconds.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: To play here in this period.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Well, Seattle working some offense off the rush this time.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Jared McCann on the left side with speed. He's got
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Matty Beneers trailing him. Nice backhand pass to Matty. Matty
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: with a one-touch feed over to Sam Miscavige. He puts
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a top-shelf 5-0.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Just wiggled his gloves at him.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: We'll see if they go.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Here's Montour.
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: Now they're going to go. Montour.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Bart Stone.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Right circle inside of Kraken territory.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Gloves and sticks are down.
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: They'll size each other up.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: Bart Stone.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Reaches first, Montour grabs him! Two strong rights over top
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: of the head! Now they jostle at one another. Mark
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Stone has one, now Montour another strong right hand. Mark
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Stone counters with a right of his own. Montour trying
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: to grab his footing, he does. Keeps him at arm's length.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Stone over top of the head, too strong for Montour!
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: And then Mark Stone will catch him, and then they'll
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: take each other down.
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: To the ground.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: All right, Everett now had those calls, 2-2 with two
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: wins over Calgary and the Kraken falling to Edmonton 3-1.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: Though it was a close game and a tough one
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: to take to end the brief homestand 6-2 to the
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Vegas Golden Knights. As we now bring in Everett and Al,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: firmly entrenched in Detroit. Everett, where have I seen this
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: movie before? How are the old Stomping Grounds house family?
• 4:54
  Speaker 7: Everyone's doing well, man. Mom and I grabbing some dinner.
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: The key to the city still works.
• 5:02
  Speaker 7: The carpet from the airport downtown was perfectly manicured. The
• 5:06
  Speaker 7: police escort was so kind. Just felt really good to
• 5:11
  Speaker 7: come back home. you know, to be able to see
• 5:14
  Speaker 7: my great city once again in all of its glory.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Al, you were his escort around town?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I get to ride on the Everett Fitzhugh.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: You just say, I know Everett Fitzhugh, right?
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I get to go through the same doors as his
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: key opens. And we went through the front door of
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Buddy's last night for some Detroit-style pizza.
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: Oh, goodness.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: It's grown on me, Mikey. It's grown on me.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: You're speaking my language. I don't know where you are.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: We have some Detroit-style pizza out here. It's not as,
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: I think, vast for the selections as you may get
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: around your parts of Michigan. But not just the crust,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: not just the cheese, but for me, it's the right
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: amount of protein-based toppings, a little bit of veggies, but
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: if you go to Troy Style Pizza, you go all out.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: Just my take on that.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: Oh, 100%. You're loading that thing up. Modo does a
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: really good job.
• 6:04
  Speaker 7: There's a Jets up in Linwood that's probably.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: And the Jets also, yeah.
• 6:08
  Speaker 7: Yeah, the Jets is a chain out here in the Midwest.
• 6:11
  Speaker 7: Modo does a really good job for being a Seattle-based
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: pizza place.
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: But yeah, it doesn't get better than the original.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Give me a little inside tip, too. They got the
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: old world and the new world stuff. You want the
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: old world. You want those little small rounds that cup up. Yes, perfect. Perfect.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: That's what you want.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Perfect. Just grease spilling all over the place.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: This is one of those calories don't count type of meals.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: One of those calories don't count type of meals. Well,
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: let's get into things here, fellas. And I think just
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: to kind of analyze where this team is at right
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: now at 2-2, we'll get to the lineup changes potentially coming.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: Ryan Lindgren announced that he'll be out four to six weeks.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: And I think there's some context here with how the
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: crack can handle this from an emotional scale, a physical scale,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: a competitive scale against Vegas. But I think for me
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: off the top ultimately is that you're encouraged by the start,
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: but you remain grounded with reality. Because the first two
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: out of three games, you beat the Flames, you scored
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: 12 of your 13 goals against them. And it's true
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: that we have seen an uptick as far as skill
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: and how much that they can produce when there is
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: a breakdown. But we saw Tuesday night against Vegas, you
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: better come with the A game. against competing teams or
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: else this kind of stuff is going to happen. And
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: from what we've learned, at least I think in my opinion,
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: the Kraken can't afford to play games against teams who
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: are more polished, have more big game experience, and have
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: been longer together. So this to me is going to
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: be the standard throughout the entire season. We know there's
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: promise and potential with this group. We know that there
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: are a lot of young guys who need more ice time,
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: and they're starting to get more ice time as well.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: And we're starting to see some early returns on a
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: few guys from Mackie Samaskevich to Berkeley Catton to even
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Shane Wright on top of that. What we do know
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: is that until you prove otherwise, they will have to
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: face the role of underdogs a lot this season. And
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: that means extra attention to detail. That means extra attention
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: to care with the puck and extra attention to patience
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: when you fall behind in a game. Example, exhibit A
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: was Vegas on Tuesday night. So I don't think that
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: this is the norm with this team to what you're
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: going to face here with Vegas. I do think it
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: was a wake-up call. And I do believe that what
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: we saw in the first four games were kind of
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: the opposite ends of the spectrum, where you beat up
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: on a lottery team early, and then you face a
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: very polished team, and go down all of a sudden 5-0,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: blink of an eye, when your game just isn't there.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: So I really think from what we've seen, this has
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: got to be the standard where the Kraken have to
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: elevate their details more often than not to be competitive
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: in games and to be in the mix. Guys, your thoughts?
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: You face the Stanley Cup finalists from last season, Tuesday night,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and it showed. High danger chances were hard to come by.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: You gave up a lot of high danger chances. So
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you go into a game like that expecting it to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: be a more difficult game. I thought it was a
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: little sloppy as well. And when you're playing better teams
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: or you're playing not better teams, sloppiness is on you, right?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You should be able to make tape-to-tape passes. You should
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: be able to make proper clears. And I thought too
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: much or too often in that game, it got a
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: little bit sloppy. And whether it was D zone exits
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: or offensive zone plays, they weren't connecting. And I think
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that had a big part of the outcome as well.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: So that definitely needs to get cleaned up. But I
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: like the test. I like the, hey, you beat Calgary twice.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Let's see how you do against a Stanley Cup finalist.
• 9:54
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think, you know, I remember back in the preseason,
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: we were talking about what the perfect preseason.
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: Looks like. You win a game handedly.
• 10:01
  Speaker 7: You win a close game. Maybe you lose a close
• 10:05
  Speaker 7: game and then you get blown out to see.
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: Where your weaknesses are.
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: And I felt like these first four games for me.
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: It's a very small sample size. I'm not discouraged. You
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: took care of your business against Calgary. You looked, I thought,
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: fine outside of some period trouble. You got off to
• 10:23
  Speaker 7: penalty trouble in the first period. You got off to
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: a slow start in Edmonton. You recover a bad hometown.
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: Bounce for Dreisaitl, ends up in the back of your net.
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: Those things are going to happen. The Vegas game, I'm
• 10:35
  Speaker 7: with you, Al. I thought it was sloppy. The guys
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: couldn't complete a pass. The neutral zone was clogged up.
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: The weaknesses, I thought, were kind of exposed for Seattle,
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: which is not a bad thing. I'd rather have those
• 10:49
  Speaker 7: things worked out game four than game 64. If we're
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: still having this conversation after Christmas, if we're still having
• 10:56
  Speaker 7: this conversation after the All-Star break, then I think we've
• 11:00
  Speaker 7: got a lot bigger problems on our hands. These first
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: four games, I was okay with Obviously, outside of the
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: Vegas game.
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: But, you know, you're right, Mike.
• 11:10
  Speaker 7: This is the kind of hockey the Kraken are going
• 11:12
  Speaker 7: to be able to expect all season long. And you
• 11:15
  Speaker 7: need to beat the teams that you need to beat.
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: You have to beat the Calgarys and the Vancouver's. And,
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: you know, I'll throw Detroit in here the next couple
• 11:25
  Speaker 7: of weeks. You've got them two times in the next, what,
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: 14 days, whatever it is, 10 days, something like that.
• 11:30
  Speaker 7: You got to beat those teams, right? You can toss
• 11:33
  Speaker 7: up the Vegas's and the Edmonton's. Hopefully you get a
• 11:37
  Speaker 7: few wins there. But as long as you're taking care
• 11:40
  Speaker 7: of your business and beating the teams you're supposed to beat,
• 11:42
  Speaker 7: that's what matters. Because you don't want to be sitting
• 11:44
  Speaker 7: here going into that last series of the season out
• 11:48
  Speaker 7: in the Central Division, five points out of a playoff spot,
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: and you left... 10 points on the table against the
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: bottom teams in the league. So I thought this week
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: taught us a lot about the Kraken, where they are.
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: There's still a long way to go, but it's game
• 12:04
  Speaker 7: four now going into game five, and I'm okay with
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: where this team is.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Let's break down the Calgary game first off and the
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: latter of the two where the Kraken opened the home
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: schedule winning 6-1 because it kind of felt like in
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: a way a mirror image of opening night. Same exact
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: song and dance, 3-0 lead. They blew it open. See
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: you later. You know, fans are going to the exits
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: in Calgary, and this one was pretty much academic by
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: the second period, if not the third as well. What
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: again I took away, and we talked about this on
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: the broadcast. Mackie Samaskevich, my goodness, you couldn't have picked
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: a better time to say, hello, Seattle, here I am.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: It didn't take long for him to show off his skill.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: The two goals that he scored were not cheap. I
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: thought the kids looked terrific that night, and they did
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: this against competition that was really out of sorts. But
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: even then, Joey Decord, you know, I thought who didn't
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: get as much, I think, talk. you know, and understandably
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: here because just how much Mackie Samaskevich stole the show,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Berkeley Catton stole, and his line stole the show as well.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: He had to be good in the first roughly five,
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: six minutes of that game, and you can pretty much tell.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: I mentioned this with the Inferness on his show by
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: the second period. You can check out that box. Yeah,
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: he looks fine. He looks styled, and you don't have
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: to worry at all about Joey Decord. So I just
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: think from an overall scale, you walk away beating a
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: Team Everett, as you said, you should be beating in Calgary.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: And I think we've learned, at least from that standpoint,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: you have a baseline to work with. You have a
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: fit with Mackie Samaskevich playing with Matty Beneers. I like
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Bertley Catton with Shane Wright, especially Wright on the wing.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: We'll touch on them later on here, but things really
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: kind of fell back into place where nature intended with
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: the four group from what we saw back in the preseason.
• 13:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah, you found combinations at least early on that have worked.
• 13:59
  Speaker 7: I think the confidence of Berkley Catton and Shane Wright
• 14:03
  Speaker 7: for me is what's really stood out these first four games.
• 14:06
  Speaker 7: I know that they both were given a list of
• 14:09
  Speaker 7: things to work on in the offseason. And again, I
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: understand it's only four games in, but by and large,
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: I felt that they've worked on those things. Berkley Catton
• 14:20
  Speaker 7: last year I thought for the situation that he was
• 14:23
  Speaker 7: put into, having to come in from day one, never
• 14:25
  Speaker 7: is easy.
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: But I thought that he steadily improved. He improved on
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: the fly every single night. And now we're.
• 14:31
  Speaker 7: Seeing him taking a little bit more risk offensively, which
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: I love. You're seeing him using his skill, using his speed,
• 14:39
  Speaker 7: which I love. Shane Wright, a lot of noise surrounding him.
• 14:43
  Speaker 7: in the offseason. And you can kind of tell that,
• 14:48
  Speaker 7: you know, maybe it wore on him a little bit.
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: That's not what he wanted to have get out. And
• 14:53
  Speaker 7: I'm not blaming Shane Wright for any of that, but
• 14:57
  Speaker 7: he's come in so far.
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: And, you know, I forget the.
• 15:02
  Speaker 7: Player, but there was someone on the NHL was was
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: talking about not wanting to prove the detractors wrong, but
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: wanting to prove his team right. They kept me. They
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: believed in me. So now I'm going to go out
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: and show that you made the right decision. And I
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: think Shane Wright, again, we're seeing a lot of confidence
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: in him. We're seeing a lot of.
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: Skill coming from him. So I thought those two have
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: been phenomenal.
• 15:27
  Speaker 7: Mackie Samuskevich was kind of an ease in. to the
• 15:31
  Speaker 7: first game at Edmonton. He was on that season opening
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: IR for a couple of days. And, you know, I
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: thought that his game in Edmonton was strong. And then
• 15:40
  Speaker 7: he comes in Calgary, gets put back on a top
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: six role, which we expect him to be most of
• 15:45
  Speaker 7: the season.
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: And he blows it out of the water. So I
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: thought that the.
• 15:49
  Speaker 7: Guys that you needed and you really wanted to see
• 15:54
  Speaker 7: where they were, what you're getting, I thought that's what
• 15:58
  Speaker 7: stood out to me the most in these first four
• 16:00
  Speaker 7: games is how well, even in the loss to Vegas,
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: how well the Catten-Wrights line looked, how... Mackie Samaskevich looked.
• 16:11
  Speaker 7: I'll throw Matty Beneers in there. I'll throw Montour in
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: there as well. The guys that you wanted to have
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: good days and good games and good performances, I thought,
• 16:20
  Speaker 7: by and large, you got that from those guys.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I think, too, that talking about the center for a second,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I think the only way one, two, three or four
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: C's are changing, you got Beneers, you got Stevenson, you
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: got Kattman, you got Freddie Goodrell. I think the only
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: way those guys are changing at center is if one
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of them gets hurt. And if one of them does
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: get hurt, obviously, you've got, you know, Shane Wright that
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: can play the middle. I think Ben Myers can play
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the middle. But I think the competition right now is
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: probably on that third line, that third line wing. Kapokako
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: is currently on that third line. And when he came
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to Seattle, he was playing top line minutes. And I
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: think right now, Ryan Winterton is in a position to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: challenge for that third line winner spot. Now, it's tough
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: to challenge it when you're on the fourth line, which
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: is where he's on right now, because you get less
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: ice time. But he starts like contributing offensively, playing a
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: little more physical and upping his game. I think he
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: could challenge for that spot that Capococco currently occupies. The
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: problem is going to be is what do you do
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: with Capococco because he's definitely not a fourth line winger.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: But if I'm Ryan Winterton, I don't care about that.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I just play my game. I want to get better.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Let the coaches figure out where I fit best. But
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: I think there's a real competition for that third line wing.
• 17:37
  Speaker 7: I was going to say, how many times, Al, did
• 17:39
  Speaker 7: we say last season about Ryan Winterton?
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: Once he figures out... how much.
• 17:44
  Speaker 7: Speed he has, how fast he is.
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: He's going to be a dangerous player.
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: And I think we're seeing some of that danger early
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: on in the season, definitely in preseason. I've liked him
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: with Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton. I've liked Kapo Kakko
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: on that line as well. I think they both have
• 18:02
  Speaker 7: looked good, but you're right. You can't have a four-person line,
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: so then what do you do with Kapo Kakko? I
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: think Shane Wright, or Ryan Winterton, rather, I think he's
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: got the potential to be that.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: Sixth man, if you will.
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: I think he can be one of the more underrated
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: surprises of the season this year for the Kraken for
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: that reason. He's challenging those guys for those roles. He
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: wants to be in a top nine. He wants to
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: sneak into a top six role. I think he's got
• 18:36
  Speaker 7: the speed to do it. I think that he's growing
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: his game every night. I'm really loving what I've been
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: seeing from Winterton the last 15, 20 games of last
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: season going into the preseason and now these first four
• 18:51
  Speaker 7: games of the year now.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I'll add here to this point, and this is just
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: an exercise type of thing, because internal competition is so
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: important for the development of this team. We've heard it
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: over and over and over. But at what point do
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: you stop and say, you know what? Things are working
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: here on this top six group. Why do I want
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: to move a guy up a line or down a
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: line or up a line or down a line?
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: That's where we're at right now is I think that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: at least probably for the first 10 games, again, barring
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: any injury, I don't think we're going to see a
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: lot of change in those top six.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: I really don't.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I think it's that third line and who the right
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: combination is, to be frank, who the right combination is
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: for Berkley Catton to play alongside of him. And I
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: do think Shane Wright is one of them that leaves
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the other spot. And I think right now it's between
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Capococco and And Ryan Winterton.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: And, you know, it's.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Difficult because I think Ryan Winterton can compete for that
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: for that position.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: He's just got to do it on the fourth line
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: And like I said, if he's putting pucks in the net,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: if he's blowing by defenders, I can see coaches going,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: we need him on the third line.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Especially if Kapogako isn't doing that. Al, you're right.
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: And also there's a bit of kind of... If it
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: ain't broke, don't fix it. And right now, I mean,
• 20:00
  Speaker 7: I think the Vegas game was more of an effort
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: problem and not a personnel problem for Seattle. But I
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: do think that it's working right now. The energy each
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: line has, there's different pieces that every line brings that
• 20:17
  Speaker 7: are meshing well together. And listen, we get out of
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: this first 10-game stretch– 15-game stretch, you're going into Finland,
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: and the Kraken are, you know, 10-5, let's say.
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: Or they're, you know, 8-whatever-and-whatever. I'm not a math guy, Al,
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: you know that.
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: But I do think that if the Kraken are in
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: a positive position, I don't see any reason to change
• 20:41
  Speaker 7: things up.
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: And you know what?
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: This is where, and I'm not saying... Guys aren't bought in. Obviously,
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: everyone's bought in. But this is where you might have
• 20:52
  Speaker 7: to see the ego take a hit a bit. You
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: might have to set the ego aside and say, hey, listen,
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: do I want to play on the first line?
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: Do I want to play on the second line? Absolutely.
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: But what we have right now is working. We're winning.
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: I'm fine with whatever role you give me, and I'm
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: talking about all the 23 guys on this roster, not
• 21:13
  Speaker 7: calling anyone specifically out. But I think that's where you're
• 21:17
  Speaker 7: going to really need to preach from a coaching perspective.
• 21:21
  Speaker 7: Eberle and Montour and Matty, all the leaders have to
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: step up and say, hey, guys. This is working, all right?
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: So if you're not getting your minutes, don't worry. It's
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: going to come. You're not getting your time, whatever.
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: That's fine. It's going to come.
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: But if we're getting to a point now where this
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: team is winning games with the combinations that they're putting
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: out there, you can't mess with that.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: Let's get to the Vegas game, and I'll touch on
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: the Brandon Montour-Markstone fight and the context of this separately.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: But I just think for me, just looking at this
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: from a 60-minute scale perspective, The details part killed this
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: team on Tuesday night. You go down 1-0, didn't box out.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, debatable whether goalie interference or goalie interference. It's
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: a judgment call on that point. But then you go
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: down a man, you get blown coverage front of the
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: net for a penalty kill. Tomáš Hrl gets a power
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: play goal. The 3-0 goal is what really, I think...
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: did this team in, not for how it was scored,
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: but what happened after that, because it was the most unfortunate,
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: unlucky break, literally and figuratively, the Kraken could sustain with
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: Brandon Montour losing his stick, and he's got to go
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: back and defend a 2-1-1 shorthanded with no twig. So
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: tough from there, but it then, I think, began to
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: open up a door where that second period unraveled. The
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: Kraken had, as far as five-on-five shot attempts, I touched
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: on this in post-game, it was 25-2 Vegas in that
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: second period. So for me, I mean, too many shortcuts
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: you try to take, too many breakdowns, and I think
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: after that 3-0 goal, that was, I think, a big
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: test for this team to understand when the game gets
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: a little more uphill, the details have to become much
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: more simple and much more direct because there was much
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: more time to climb back in this game.
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I loved Montour's response, his post-game pressure after that, too.
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: I mean, he goes, you know, I broke my stick.
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I probably could have played it differently.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: That's a real leader. he breaks a stick, not your fault,
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: nothing you can do about that.
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: And he's still talking about how he could have defended
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: that one, one better. Like, that's what I want to
• 23:30
  Speaker 7: hear from my captain, from my assistant captains. And I just,
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: I just wanted to call that out because that was
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: a phenomenal at whole three and a half minute press conference.
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: I know Darren Brown from sound of hockey podcast, or, um,
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: put the whole thing out on social media, go find it.
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: It was, it was a great response, but yeah, you
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: know what? I think that it was that backbreaking goal,
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: that third goal of the game, but I'm going back
• 23:54
  Speaker 7: and I'm trying to find out, I'm looking back. I
• 23:57
  Speaker 7: can't even blame Joey Decord for any of those as well.
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: I mean, it really was just kind of the breakdowns and,
• 24:02
  Speaker 7: and all of that for, for those goals, those four,
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: or I guess what, five of the six goals that
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: were scored were his.
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you and JT talked about that afterwards. I don't
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: know if you're willing to share it or not. You
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: guys kind of broke down each goal and, you know,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: whether you felt like it was Joey's fault or not.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Maybe just share some of that.
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I asked him because, you know, it's it's hard.
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: We were trying JT and I.
• 24:25
  Speaker 7: Were talking about how bad the game looked just from
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: a hockey perspective. We knew that it was a sloppy
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: game played. We're not out here talking out of turn.
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: I think anybody in that room will tell you. you know,
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: that it wasn't the cleanest of games. And I looked
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: at JT and I bluntly asked him, I said, how
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: many of those goals were, do you think were Joey's fault?
• 24:44
  Speaker 7: Because I can't for the life of me, blame him
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: for any of those goals. And he goes, honestly, the
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: first one was a tip. The second one was, you know, the,
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: the back, the all alone.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: He didn't box out.
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: Yeah. The Mark Stone-Eichel breakaway. I mean, you're two of
• 25:05
  Speaker 7: the best players in the world. That's going to be
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: hard to stop. So we're going through all those goals.
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: And you're like, OK, maybe you'd like Joey to have
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: one of those. But it's like you can't even say
• 25:17
  Speaker 7: that Joey was off his game. I thought Decord looked strong.
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: He still made some big saves. But the goals that
• 25:22
  Speaker 7: were created were from defensive breakdowns. There was the other
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: one that went off the post and in. And Joey
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: didn't even have time to get set. He was coming back.
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: And by the time he got set, the puck was
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: already by him. Nothing you can do about that one. So,
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: you know, that's what it was. It was kind of
• 25:37
  Speaker 7: that that team commitment to to defense that I think
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: that the guys were a little bit unhappy about with
• 25:43
  Speaker 7: after that game.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: Let's talk about the Brandon Montour-Markstone fight where originally this
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: kind of goes back, I think, to the first few
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: seconds of this game where Mark Gatcombe hits Ryan Lindgren,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: boarding penalty, and the Kraken unfortunately lose Lindgren here for
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: the rest of the game after about roughly the five-minute mark,
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: five minutes left in period one. But then... With this
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: game already academic, things really began to boil over. You
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: had Montour fighting Mark Stone. You had words exchanged. Then
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: you had Ryan Winterton taking his pound of flesh against
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: Gatcombe later in the game. Mark Stone said after the game,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: quote about Montour. He was saying some things about our
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: team I didn't like. I'm not going to fight too
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: many five-on-threes, but I just didn't like some of the
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: things he was saying about the team, end quote. And
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: here's how Brandon Montour responded after the game when asked
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: about the incident.
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I think we've, I wouldn't say love-hate, really.
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: I don't really know the guy, but just over the
• 26:46
  Speaker 8: years battling and maybe trying to I know I can
• 26:50
  Speaker 8: get under his skin as much as I can. He's
• 26:51
  Speaker 8: a heck of a player. I felt for his own sake,
• 26:57
  Speaker 8: his teammate goes down like that and you expect in
• 26:59
  Speaker 8: a 5-1 game that maybe their leader will step in
• 27:03
  Speaker 8: and protect his teammate and he didn't. It felt like
• 27:06
  Speaker 8: for myself that was an opportunity for me to get
• 27:08
  Speaker 8: him and get under his skin and obviously it showed that.
• 27:13
  Speaker 8: Good for him to step up and take me on
• 27:14
  Speaker 8: in a sense. Again, tough game for us, and we're
• 27:23
  Speaker 8: going to bounce back now.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: How many times have we heard about other teams taking
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: liberties on the Kraken in the first five years? So
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: I think for me, this was an important moment for
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: this team to lay a foundation for the type of
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: culture they want to set when they see a player
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: getting a run from the other side. So ultimately, I
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: begin with here this on what do we think it
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: says about Brandon Montour today? And the kind of example
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: he wants to set across the entire room.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it means that he's a leader in
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: that room. He's setting a standard for everybody else. And
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: they both had different agendas in that fight. And so
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: because they both had different agendas and they aligned at
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the right time, I'm not surprised they both fought. I think,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: you know, Montour saying maybe he's standing up for the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: for for his player that got that got taken out
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of the game. I think Monty is standing up for
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: his player, Ryan Lindgren, that got.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Taken out of the game. So, you know what? I'm
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: good with that.
• 28:20
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, that was part of that interview, his
• 28:22
  Speaker 7: postgame presser, and I will say. Mark Stone using the
• 28:26
  Speaker 7: word team, uh, doing a lot of heavy lifting in
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: that response because it sounds like Brandon Montour was saying
• 28:33
  Speaker 7: some things about you that you didn't like.
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: Um, I love it.
• 28:37
  Speaker 7: I'm all about getting up under someone's skin. And like
• 28:40
  Speaker 7: I said before, that's what you want out of your captain,
• 28:42
  Speaker 7: out of your letters, right?
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: The, the people that are entrusted with leading this team
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: in the right direction.
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: And there's five good ones on this, on this team.
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: And You know, I loved it. The Kraken needed a spark.
• 28:55
  Speaker 7: You know, that whole third period was about not getting
• 28:59
  Speaker 7: pushed around. And I thought there was some really Vegas
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: tried to turn up the heat physically. Jeremy was on
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: at one point. was hitting everything in a blue.
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: Sweater in the crack.
• 29:09
  Speaker 7: If to their credit, you didn't have a Melanson, you
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: didn't have a Curtis Douglas in that game. So you
• 29:13
  Speaker 7: didn't have the quote unquote muscle, but they still didn't
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: back down from the fight literally and figuratively Ryan Winterton
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: getting in there as well. Um, so I was happy
• 29:24
  Speaker 7: with the response. You know, I, I didn't say it
• 29:26
  Speaker 7: on the air, and hopefully it doesn't sound negative, but
• 29:30
  Speaker 7: if you.
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: Can't beat them, beat them.
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: And I thought the Kraken did a really good job
• 29:35
  Speaker 7: of sticking up for themselves, sticking up for their team,
• 29:38
  Speaker 7: and salvaging success. from that game. They don't play again until, what,
• 29:43
  Speaker 7: January 9th, I think. So, you know, I don't think
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: there's going to be any holiday cheer extended in late
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: Christmas cards given out between those two teams. But I
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: do think that even though the Kraken lost, I do
• 29:56
  Speaker 7: believe that there was a bit of a tone set
• 30:01
  Speaker 7: and maybe not a loud message, but I do think
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: that there was a little bit of a rumbling that
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: was sent around the league that, hey, this Kraken team
• 30:10
  Speaker 7: isn't going to take your ish anymore.
• 30:14
  Speaker 6: And let you get away with it.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'll tee this up here for you because
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: this is so important with whatever I've said. I think
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: you don't just look at this here in a vacuum
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: of sending a message to Vegas, but this is now
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: something to be broadcast league-wide. This is a different team.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: You cannot take liberties against these guys.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and despite whatever it said about Jacob Monson, Curtis
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Douglas out of the lineup, he lost Ryan Lindgren after
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: a period. Seattle still out hit Vegas 17 to 16.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: So that mentality of playing physical even exists when you
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: don't have those three guys in the lineup. And obviously
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: standing up for each other continues as well.
• 30:51
  Speaker 7: And we saw that in the preseason game against Calgary, right?
• 30:54
  Speaker 7: We saw McMahon and Samuskevich and McCann and Berkeley Catton.
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: Like, we saw.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Adam Larson.
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: Larson, right?
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: He unloaded on Falco, yeah. We saw guys who.
• 31:07
  Speaker 7: You don't either, A, normally see or maybe wouldn't expect
• 31:11
  Speaker 7: because of the role that they play and then their
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: role on this team. Maybe you wouldn't expect them to
• 31:17
  Speaker 7: get in the muck as much as they did.
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 31:20
  Speaker 7: The fact that, you know, you have everyone sticking up
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: for one another. Al, our favorite word the last couple
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: of years, team toughness, right? You're seeing that team toughness.
• 31:33
  Speaker 6: I said words.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: If you say it fast, team toughness, one word.
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: There you go. It's one word with a space in
• 31:40
  Speaker 6: the middle.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: You're hyphenating, okay.
• 31:43
  Speaker 7: Two words, team toughness. But you're seeing that, I think,
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: early on. And that is, That's refreshing to see. And
• 31:50
  Speaker 7: like I said before, I'll say it again, maybe not
• 31:52
  Speaker 7: a loud message, but I do think a couple of
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: folks around the NHL, maybe the eyebrows went up like, oh, okay,
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: this Seattle team, this isn't the Seattle team that we've
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: seen in the past.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: January 9th is the next time these two teams will meet.
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: They'll face off twice in March. How much do we
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: expect fireworks next matchup that is still three months away?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, listen, we always talk about hockey players
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: having long memories. And, you know, I think that might
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: carry into certainly the January 9th game. By the March
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: pair of games, those could be important point games. And
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: so maybe things aren't as run and gunned and play
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: physical and fight at all costs because you might need
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: points and you don't want to put your team in
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: an odd man situation. But I expect all three of
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: them to be huge battles.
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: You get one chance to settle it, and it's on
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: January 9th.
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: I'm with you, Al. You play on St. Patrick's Day,
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: and then I think a week and a half later,
• 32:50
  Speaker 7: and you're right. But when those two teams meet in March,
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: you only have 15 games left, and you could be
• 32:59
  Speaker 7: just in or just out of a playoff spot. You
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: don't want those games to get squirrely. So if you're
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: going to settle it, settle it on January 9th. If
• 33:08
  Speaker 7: it carries over, great.
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: Like, you know what I mean?
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: If this is the start of a rivalry, then awesome. But,
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: you know, get your pound of flesh on both sides.
• 33:17
  Speaker 7: If Vegas feels they were slighted, Ryan Lindgren now out
• 33:21
  Speaker 7: for the next six weeks, at least six weeks. So,
• 33:25
  Speaker 7: the Kraken, you feel that you're slighted for taking one
• 33:28
  Speaker 7: top D-man out of action? Okay, get your pound of
• 33:31
  Speaker 7: flesh then. But you can't let it go. And then
• 33:34
  Speaker 7: in March, all of a sudden, well, back in October, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 33:39
  Speaker 7: You get one shot. Get your shot, get your licks
• 33:41
  Speaker 7: in in January, and then we move on.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: When I say we have a lot to unpack, I
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: meant we have a lot to unpack here for this show.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: So before we get to break, one more thing that
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: I do want to hit on. Ryan Lindgren will be
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: out four to six weeks upper body ailment. He missed
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: the remainder of the game after leaving late in the
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: first period. And again, from the mark, Gatcombe hit 15
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: seconds in. So with him now not being back, you
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: would assume Josh Mahura, left shot deep, next man up.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: We'll see beyond that as far as a depth chart.
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: But do you think this really has any kind of effect,
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: whether he plays on the left side opposite Kale Flurry
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: or Morvilli out of Vinen?
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're going to see probably a rotation
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: of those three. I don't know that left shot, right
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: shot is going to factor into it quite as much.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: We saw Vili Odovainen playing with Mahura today. Whether that
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: carries over to morning skate for the game against Detroit,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: we'll see.
• 34:39
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I think it's next man up, right?
• 34:43
  Speaker 7: I think for Lindgren, you do lose a lot. I mean,
• 34:45
  Speaker 7: he's a warrior.
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: He just... He battles.
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: He battles every single night. Again, he reminds me a
• 34:53
  Speaker 7: lot of an Adam Larson. If you don't notice him
• 34:55
  Speaker 7: on the ice, it's not a bad thing. That means
• 34:57
  Speaker 7: he's doing his job. And more often than not, Ryan
• 35:02
  Speaker 7: Lindgren does his job very, very well. So having to
• 35:06
  Speaker 7: replace a steady defenseman, the steady physicality that he brings,
• 35:13
  Speaker 7: not going to devastate you, but he's going to lean
• 35:16
  Speaker 7: on you all night long. That is something the Kraken
• 35:19
  Speaker 7: are going to miss. And that's on Fleury or Mahura
• 35:22
  Speaker 7: or Otto Weinen.
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: I'm with Al. I would love to see a full rotation.
• 35:26
  Speaker 7: And I know the coaches love to Um, you know,
• 35:28
  Speaker 7: they like to have the left, right, left, right split on.
• 35:31
  Speaker 6: D maybe, you know, in a perfect world. Yes. But
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: you're not always going to be able to get that.
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: So I'd love for this to maybe be out of
• 35:38
  Speaker 7: violent to step up and, and see what he can
• 35:41
  Speaker 7: take from his time on the guys that he's for
• 35:43
  Speaker 7: sure to get.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: We talked about the.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Battle on that third line wing spot with a couple
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: of cuts. It's the same on defense right now, at
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: least for the next five, six weeks where there are
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: three guys that are going to be battling for two spots.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: And we'll get to more of this here in a
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: bit also, because this is a, a big component for
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: the Kraken and their penalty kill game. Lindgren was usually
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: one of the first guys over the board, so he
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: got some holes to fill definitely with Lindgren out and
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: his ability to play a physical game and block a
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: lot of shots as well. Our poll question of the week,
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: what's your current mood right now through four games? Are
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: you more encouraged because of what you saw on a
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: skill level versus Calgary? Are you more concerned with how
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: things kind of came back down to earth a bit
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: against Vegas, or are you more in between? It's open
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: right now, Kraken AudioNet. Go vote there at X. We'll
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: get to your responses, plus also your mailbag questions coming up.
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: In the meantime, up next, conversation with Max Bultman of
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: The Athletic on the Red Wings. They're up next here
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: for Friday, right here on Kraken Weekly.
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: Gets Rowe to center, into the offensive end. Montour settles, shoots, scores!
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: This is Brandon Montour.
• 36:50
  Speaker 8: Back to Kraken Weekly with Mike Benton.
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: All right, Everett now taking a break here for a bit.
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: Mike Benton with you in time for a check in
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: with the Coachella Valley Firebirds. And let's say this guy
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: right now in a Firebird uniform is turning up the
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: heat in Southern California. Yanni Newman has an opportunity for
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: the hat trick. He scores!
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: He did it!
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: Yanni Newman has the hattie.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: The empty net goal makes it 6-2 with 3.06 to
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: go in the third period.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: Evan Pivnik had the call on 106.9 FM. The eagle
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: for Coachella Valley as a Firebird through two games. Have
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: a guy right now soaring to the top potentially as
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: a call-up option. That's Yanni Newman, and no surprise, he
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: had five goals in the last two games. Good enough
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: for AHL Player of the Week honors. Newman had six
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: points in just two games, both against the Ontario Reign,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: including his first career hat trick in what was a
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: 6-2 victory over Ontario in a rematch. The Firebirds now
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: with a little bit more. Room to breathe as far
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: as days off. They'll get back after it finally tomorrow
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: night at home, hosting the San Diego Goals at 7 p.m. Again,
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: we move on with Kraken Wheatley to a look for
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: tomorrow night's game when the Kraken take on the Red
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: Wings in the first of two matchups coming up this month.
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: Needless to say, it hasn't just been a wild, whirly,
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: and crazy offseason. It might be in soap opera territory
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: here for Detroit. GM Steve Iserman, long a part of
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: the organization as a player, Stanley Cup winner, and now
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: GM with the fabled Iserplan, as they called, stepped down
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: from this position as part of restructuring, replaced this last
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: month with interim GM Sean Horkoff. It didn't stop there.
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: Dylan Larkin, eventually reports came out he requested a trade
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: that had to miss preseason due to injury, was booed
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: by the hometown fans when scratches were announced at their
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: home opener. He lost his captaincy, and on top of that,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: came back from injury to make his season debut Tuesday
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: against Ottawa. On top of that, was named first star
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: of the game in the Red Wings' first win of
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: the season, 5-3 over Ottawa. But beyond the whole Larkin situation,
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: there's now one brewing with defenseman Simon Edmondson. He is
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: at the center of a requested trade as well. He
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: has returned home to Sweden to skate right now on
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: his own time and on his own terms, and also
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: is in the middle of a contract standoff with the
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: Red Wings as an unsigned restricted free agent. Ed Vinson's numbers, very,
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: very promising. A sixth overall pick back in the Matty
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: Beneers draft of 2021. He's a 6'6, 222-pound left-shot defenseman
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: who came within one goal of hitting double digits last
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: season on the Red Wings blue line with 25 points.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: in 72 games at just age 23. So will he
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: stay or will he go? A lot of questions surrounding
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: the Red Wings and a lot to get to. All right,
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: moving along right now here to what's ahead to begin
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: this five-game road trip is one stop in Detroit, the
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: only one for the regular season when the Kraken take
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: on the Red Wings Friday. And a man who is
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: all over the news and the Wings have been making
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: plenty of news over the last several months is Max
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: Bultman from The Athletic joining us right now on the
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: Beacon Plumbing Hotline on Kraken Weekly. Max, happy to have you.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much here for doing this. And Needless
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: to say, it is never a dull day, especially early
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: in the hockey season. But as far as the scale
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: of excitement from one to 10, 10 being the biggest,
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: what's your level at right now to begin the regular season?
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: Oh boy.
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's been a wild, a wild stretch here,
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: really dating back to June. I mean, when Dylan Larkin's
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: trade request first got out, then you get Iserman's departure
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: in July, um, Simon Edmondson still not signed, permanent general
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: manager still not in place. I mean, the crazy factor
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: is like, again, I don't know what more could be
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: in it at this point than this. So it's been,
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: that part's been shocking. And then, you know, it's the
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: kind of the... jarring nature of trying to cover a
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: season with all that still looming you know it's one
• 41:15
  Speaker 5: thing when there's all this kind of uncertainty and confusion
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: in august or even in september in the lead up
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: to a season even in camp it's one thing but
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: there's games that count being played every night and it's
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: a very strange backdrop for all.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: That In spite of what's been going on with the
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: Dylan Larkin trade request, Simon Edmondson, his contract standoff, we'll
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: get to all of that here in a bit. There
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: is one constant that I see, of course, in the room,
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: and that's being Todd McClellan. Of course, there are tremendous
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: offensive weapons on this team. Alex Dabrinkit is a headliner
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: here as well. But from where the Red Wings want
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: to go to begin this season and everything kind of
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: coming all together, how do you define the state of
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: the Red Wings this week?
• 41:58
  Speaker 5: Boy, what a question. How to define the state of
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: the Red Wings right now? Confusing. I mean, it's a
• 42:05
  Speaker 5: team that was in first place in its division in
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: late January of last season. They spent the better part
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: of the last three to maybe even four years really
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: trying to emerge from a rebuild and have never quite
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: been able to get there, but have always kind of
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: been on the doorstep. So you enter last offseason and
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: you're thinking the state of the Red Wings is still
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: trying to get over the hump. But with all the
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: uncertainty that has come up since then, I don't know
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: that we can say what a clear direction is. I'm
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: sure that certainly in that locker room, they are thinking
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: that way. They are thinking like, hey, we need to improve.
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: We need to try to make the playoffs, get over
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: the hump. It's a little hard for me to see it, though,
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: given A, how good the Atlantic Division is, and B,
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: all that uncertainty that is there. Now, you have a
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: night like last night And I say this on Wednesday.
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: So Tuesday night, Dylan Larkin returns to the lineup and
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: has a couple of points. They get a win. I'm
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: not saying it was normal, but it was the most
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: normal it's felt in a while around here. I mean,
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: you're having to sell the team chance on the first
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: two home losses of the season. I don't know that
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: I can give you a two word state of the
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: Red Wings right now because there is so much going on.
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: I think there is definitely a, a feeling from players
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: like they want to try to focus on hockey and
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: come together and play and push. But it does feel
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: like everything around them is an obstacle to all of that.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: Recapping what happened with Dylan Larkin, who was a face
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: of this franchise, a Michigan-born player as well, and it
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: seemed kind of like the perfect marriage and perfect fit
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: going back into the 2015 season when he was a
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: fresh-faced rookie. Then he begins to accumulate more and more success.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: He gets all the way to the Olympic stage, wins
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: a gold medal, and then we see everything as far
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: as this come to a head with Tehran apart at
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: the seams. He officially asks for his trade request, and
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: then the press conference goes down, and here we are,
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: as you mentioned, from Tuesday night. comes right back off
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: of injury for his first game of the season, scores
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: in his season debut, and also gets named the first
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: star of the game. How much has this maybe shifted
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: the dynamic with how Larkin is viewed around these parts
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: right now and how this could maybe forecast his future
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: depending upon if he stays or where he goes?
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: I think the fact that fans saw him play and
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: play hard and stick up for his teammates and score,
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: I think that matters. I don't think it erases everything else. Um,
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: but I don't think anything was ever going to erase
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: everything all the way.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: And so is it, uh, has it fundamentally changed the
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: nature of the situation? I don't believe so. Not at
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: this time, but has it given me more of a
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: thought that something like that could be possible in time? Yeah.
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: I think I'm kind of open to that, to, to
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: that being the case now in a way that I
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: don't know that I would have really believed had you
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: tried to sell me on a week or two even ago.
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: I mean, there was such reaction after Larkin's, he hadn't
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: spoken about it all summer and he has a press
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: conference to start a training camp and fan reaction to
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: that was not good. And at that point I thought, Oh,
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: this is going to be an issue all year. But
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: I also don't know that fans were expecting what they
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: saw out of Larkin in game one. I think, you know,
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: I've covered Dylan my entire career and this guy loves hockey.
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: He plays hard. It's who he is. It's why he
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: was such a valuable piece of that team USA. If
• 45:46
  Speaker 5: he was out there, he was going to play and
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: he was going to play hard. And I, that's exactly
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: what he did. And so, you know, there's a lot
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: that can go into everything around this. I'm not going
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: to speak for Dylan. He hasn't spoken about it himself about,
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: you know, what really was motivating this, but I do think,
• 46:02
  Speaker 5: when you look at the situation from the outside and
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: you see a player who has spent, you know, his
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: entire career with this franchise, he hasn't been to the
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: playoffs since his rookie year. He's been at the center
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: of this rebuild and he's gone through a lot of, uh,
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: a lot of lows with this franchise and stuck around
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: through them all. Um, I can understand how it, when
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: someone kind of gets into their thirties that, you know,
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: maybe winning would become feel really urgent in a way.
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: And again, I'm not saying Dylan has said that this
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: is me kind of reading the situation. And then there's
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: also the reality that he and Steve Eisenman, I don't
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: think it's a secret, kind of did have a difficult dynamic,
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: especially toward the end there. So I look at those
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: things and I think, you know, Dylan Larkin and the
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: Red Wings are aligned in that they want to win.
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: And the Red Wings fans are aligned in that. And
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: I think if that happens, I'm never going to say
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: never on anything of how I can see this playing out.
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: But that's something really only Dylan, only residents at RMG
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: and Sean Orkoff ultimately can speak to and ultimately can
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: have kind of control over.
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: Max Bultman joins us right now on the Beacon Plumbing
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: Hotline from The Athletic here on Kraken Weekly. Another name
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: who is right now out of the picture and still
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: is at this point is Simon Edmondson. A big, burly,
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: talented left-shot defenseman, first-round draft pick back in 2021. He
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: is an RFA right now, and he and the organization
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: are in the middle of a contract standoff. First off,
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: how much has he made an impact on that blue
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: line at just age 23? And to you, what are
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: the odds that he plays another game in Detroit?
• 47:39
  Speaker 5: I still think it's a fair chance of this. I mean, look, like,
• 47:43
  Speaker 5: no one's commenting on kind of this situation. from afar,
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: but I know the Red Wings have said pretty recently
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: that it's a priority to sign. It may mean that
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: they have to get their heads around what that number is. Obviously,
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: him going back to Sweden is a bad sign. It's
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: a sign that things really went off a cliff in
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: a hurry. The thing I keep coming back to is
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: that if this was August and they were three weeks
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: into a negotiation and at a standstill, I don't even
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: know that we'd have heard about it. I mean, how
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: often does that happen in the course of summers is that,
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: you know, your first offer isn't going to be accepted.
• 48:22
  Speaker 5: And I think that the big difference here is that, A,
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: we have the visual of Edmondson being in camp one day,
• 48:28
  Speaker 5: being practicing with the Red Wings one day, and then
• 48:31
  Speaker 5: in Sweden skating with Ferlanda the next. And two, it's
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: that the player really did make a great faith effort
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: to come here with no contract, with no GM at
• 48:41
  Speaker 5: the time that he was, uh, well, I guess they
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: would have had a GM two days before camp open,
• 48:45
  Speaker 5: but only, only just having a GM to show up
• 48:48
  Speaker 5: to camp, uh, and, and play on a PTO through camp. And, uh, I,
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: you know, when you have a player make that kind
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: of overture and try to do something in kind of
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: the interest of a team like that to not, not
• 48:59
  Speaker 5: be behind, uh, and then the negotiations don't go well quickly. Uh,
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: that's another kind of big factor that, that is impossible
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: not to, not to notice in all this.
• 49:08
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: So, I still think there's a path to Edmonton signing
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: in Detroit personally, but nobody's really commenting. So it's hard
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: to say that with certainty, That's kind of my read
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: on this. I still kind of believe that at the
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: end of the day, cooler heads prevail here, and everyone
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: sees that it is in everyone's best interest to come
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: to the right conclusion here, which in my opinion is
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: a long-term deal for Edmonton and Detroit.
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: With Steve Iserman out, Sean Horkoff is in now as
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: interim GM. And also recently, Chris Draper, of course, a
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: longtime Red Wing great from those teams back in the
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: 90s and 2000s as well. He also experiences a shift
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: in his role more toward the pro scouting side. So
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: at this point, what are we learning about the change
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: in the voice in the front office and how this
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: also can wield some influence?
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think, you know, the it's the front
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: office that needed some change. And Corey Proudman, one of
• 50:01
  Speaker 5: our writers at The Athletic reported that the Red Wings
• 50:04
  Speaker 5: are also going to bring Mark Leach in, who was
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: a scout. He was previously the scouting director, amateur scouting
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: director for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But before that, he
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: was with the Dallas Stars. And before that, he was
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: with the Red Wings and then with the Stars under
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: Jim Neal, which was a franchise that has drafted quite well.
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: So I think that's a big name that they're adding
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: to their front office as well. Some of this other stuff,
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: they're in flux. You're going to have to do some
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: moving around and get some new perspectives on different departments
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: and maybe some new voices in high-level positions. Chris Draper,
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: like you said, will be going from overseeing the amateur
• 50:39
  Speaker 5: to overseeing the pro. Look, the pro scouting in Detroit
• 50:43
  Speaker 5: has taken a lot of hits over the last several years.
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: When Mark Howe retired, they never formally replaced him as
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: their director of pro scouting. They still had pro scouts,
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: of course, but I think having a voice like Chris
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: Draper there, does that bring some new perspective? Could that
• 51:03
  Speaker 5: bring some kind of new structure? I don't know what
• 51:06
  Speaker 5: the result of it will be, but I think trying
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: something in that department makes a lot of sense for
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: what some of the Red Wings' shortcomings have been over
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: the last few years.
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: The Red Wings got their first win of the season.
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: over Ottawa back on Tuesday night, 5-3. Among the names
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: that we saw pop up in the score sheet, Victor Arvidsson,
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: he's been around here for quite a bit, but what
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: are we learning about the role that he could play
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: here on this team in the absence of Patrick Kane,
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: who is moving on back to his old team in Chicago?
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: It's the role that he was signed to play, which
• 51:34
  Speaker 5: is a top six scoring winger. Ideally, they would have
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: him I really helped their five-on-five scoring, which is an issue. Ironically,
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: I think both of his goals so far are on
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: the power play. But the Red Wings will take him
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: any way they can get him right now. This is
• 51:45
  Speaker 5: a team that was shut out on opening night, had
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: two goals in their first two games. They have the
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: outpouring on Tuesday when Larkin comes back in the lineup
• 51:54
  Speaker 5: and score five. I don't know how many nights this
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: year they're going to be able to put five on
• 51:57
  Speaker 5: the board. But they're going to need Victor Arvidsson to
• 52:00
  Speaker 5: be a big part of their attack. And that's why
• 52:02
  Speaker 5: they went and got him. He's a guy that doesn't
• 52:04
  Speaker 5: just score kind of the pretty goal. He can score
• 52:07
  Speaker 5: from hard areas, can do it at five on five,
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: can get to the middle of the ice. Those are
• 52:12
  Speaker 5: all things that this Red Wings team certainly is going
• 52:15
  Speaker 5: to need from him.
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: That will set us up here for Friday. The Kraken
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: again taking on the Red Wings in the first of
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: two matchups, and they're going to be done as far
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: as the head-to-head series here after this month. Max, appreciate you.
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: You do great work. You do hard work, and we'll
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: look forward to having you down the road once again.
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: Hey, thanks for having me.
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: All right, Max, thank you. That's Max Bultman joining us
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: from The Athletic. We'll come back in a bit. Everett,
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: now join me once again. We'll get to your questions
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: from our mailbag segment, our poll question, and our three
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: stars heading into the five-game road trip beginning tomorrow in Detroit.
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: We're back in a bit on Kraken Weekly. This is
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: Berkley Catton, now back to Kraken Weekly with Mike Bennett.
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: All right, big thanks once again to Max Bultman for
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: joining us from The Athletic. And my goodness, let's say
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: the pregame show is going to be pretty easy to
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: talk about on the Red Wings side of things coming
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: up here for tomorrow. Mike Benton, Everett Fitzhugh, Al Kodesky
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: here for Kraken Weekly. The Kraken again opening up a
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: five-game trip starting tomorrow where they will go through Detroit.
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: They will go through Philadelphia. They will go through Washington,
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: Tampa Bay, and Florida. We got you, of course, Detroit.
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: On air, half hour for pregame before the opening faceoff
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: all across the Global Credit Union Kraken Audio Network. Our
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: poll question again, what's your current mood right now through
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: four games of the regular season? Voting is still open
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: right now at KrakenAudioNet at X, and 57% of you
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: say you're in between, encouraged or concerned. 57% of you
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: say the mood right now is in between. Again, voting
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: still open right now at X at Kraken Audio Net. Mike, Everett, Al,
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: back with you once again. And we jump into our
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: mailbag segment with, I think, a bit of a look
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: where this team could go that we had some hints from. Maybe,
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: I think, some changes on the roster. And one thing
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: I wanted to point out was the fact that we
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: still have learned that this team, front office-wise, is not
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: done yet with looking to add. But, of course... Skill
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: and production, from what we've learned, could be the top priority. Yet,
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: in connection here to tomorrow night, one name potentially that
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: could not be a part of this is Simon Edvinson,
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: based on his contract standoff. And that's our first question
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: from our mailbag segment, SBellman253, who asks, why have the
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: Seattle Kraken not traded for Simon Edvinson yet? On one hand,
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: the Kraken made a trade for Mackie Samuskevich based on potential.
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: This also kind of fits where they're going. Maybe I
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: think if you make a trade for a guy like
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: Simon Edmondson, he's a young defenseman, left shot, massive frame.
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's a guy who could consistently crack double
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: digits and goals. Let's just be honest here. So the
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: potential where you could maybe add where you've got a
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: more of an aging core right now on your defensive
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: side is a pretty palatable situation to look into. On
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: the other hand, This does not solve the issue that
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: you've been trying to tackle and add more talent and
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: more production up front. On top of that, you want
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: to add a guy like Simon Edvinson. Earlier this morning,
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: reports came out that the Red Wings are asking for
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: a very, very, very hefty price, which could mean roster
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: players and definitely mean draft picks and prospects. The draft
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: picks thing is not something I am most concerned about
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: because the Kraken have a huge table of these things,
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: the prospect side as well. And I mean, let's just
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: be real here. Chase Reed's probably the one guy who
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: isn't going to go anywhere as far as this draft pool.
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: But again, when you begin to mess with roster players
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: and you're trying to build, this becomes a really, really
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: tricky situation with who you want to move in and
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: who you want to move out in return.
• 56:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
• 56:18
  Speaker 6: You've got to work the problem backwards.
• 56:20
  Speaker 7: Everybody wants the Kraken to trade for Connor McDavid for
• 56:25
  Speaker 7: a couple of sevenths and a bag of pucks. You
• 56:28
  Speaker 7: need to look at your roster and say, who on
• 56:32
  Speaker 7: the Seattle Kraken, as Sean Horkoff, Red Wings interim GM,
• 56:39
  Speaker 7: who on.
• 56:40
  Speaker 6: The Kraken do I want back in return?
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: Start there.
• 56:45
  Speaker 7: So put yourself in Horkoff's shoes. I'm looking at Matty Beneers.
• 56:49
  Speaker 7: I'm looking at Jared McCann. I'm looking at Berkley Catton.
• 56:52
  Speaker 7: I'm looking at Jake O'Brien. Chase Reed, right?
• 56:56
  Speaker 6: Vince Dunn. Who else is on that list, right?
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: So.
• 57:03
  Speaker 6: You got to give to get right.
• 57:05
  Speaker 7: And Simon Edmondson, by all accounts, I was talking to
• 57:09
  Speaker 7: a good friend of mine today at practice who covers
• 57:12
  Speaker 7: the Red Wings. And I asked him, I said, who
• 57:14
  Speaker 7: is Simon Edmondson? And he goes, honestly, Simon Edmondson, Simon Edmondson.
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: And these are his words.
• 57:21
  Speaker 6: He was like.
• 57:23
  Speaker 7: He's not making the same mistakes in development. There haven't
• 57:29
  Speaker 7: been the same mistakes in his development that we saw with,
• 57:33
  Speaker 7: let's say, a Jamie Oleksiak, right? He's got a heavy shot.
• 57:37
  Speaker 7: He skates well. He's a little physical, you know, so...
• 57:42
  Speaker 7: in a good way. And I'm like, all right, so
• 57:44
  Speaker 7: it sounds like he's a player that could be on
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: someone's blue line, a top pair D-man, for quite some time. Okay, well,
• 57:50
  Speaker 7: if you're going to get a potential top pair D-man,
• 57:52
  Speaker 7: you're going to have to give up something. So, you know,
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: why haven't the Kraken traded for Simon Edmondson yet? I mean,
• 57:59
  Speaker 7: maybe Jason Bottrell's tried. We don't know these things at all.
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: It takes two to tango. The Kraken can want all
• 58:05
  Speaker 7: they want, But if the other team doesn't like the
• 58:08
  Speaker 7: package or if the package is, if the asking price
• 58:11
  Speaker 7: is too high, if you're the asking GM, you know, again,
• 58:14
  Speaker 7: hypothetically speaking here, let's say the trade is, okay, we'll
• 58:17
  Speaker 7: give you Simon Evanson, but we want Beneers and Catton
• 58:21
  Speaker 7: and O'Brien and a first back.
• 58:23
  Speaker 6: I'm not making that deal. You know what I mean? Like,
• 58:26
  Speaker 6: I'm not making that deal. So it's got to make sense.
• 58:30
  Speaker 7: But I love when these questions come through because it's,
• 58:33
  Speaker 7: you know, yes, the Kraken want to make these moves.
• 58:37
  Speaker 6: Yes, they want to be in on these trades.
• 58:40
  Speaker 7: But just because the news hasn't come out, it doesn't
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: mean Jason's not trying. It doesn't mean that the calls
• 58:47
  Speaker 7: haven't been made. But also, who are you preparing to
• 58:51
  Speaker 7: lose for Simon Edmondson?
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he would obviously be a huge add
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: to this blue line, both figuratively and literally. I think
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: that Fitz, you and I have talked a little recently
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: about trades that didn't happen from the past. And it
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: constantly surprises me when we hear reasons why trades didn't happen.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: And no, it's not because of the amount of money
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: that was offered.
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's maybe it's it's a it's a spouse
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: that doesn't want to come to Seattle. Maybe there's somebody
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: in your family that doesn't want you to move to Seattle.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: It's interesting what we're hearing. So different things motivate different people.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: You can have all the right pieces on both sides
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: and the right amount of money. And there might be
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: something completely outside of your control that causes the deal
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: to fall through.
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: So I agree with you, Fitz.
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: I think that from what we've seen, from how we've
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: talked to Jason Botterill, I would be shocked if he's
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: not in these conversations. But all you can do is
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: try and solve the problem for Simon and say, what,
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: you know, what are problem for the Detroit Red Wings?
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: What are they looking for in a trade? And decide,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: are you willing to give that up? And like I said,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: even if the answers are yes to all of those,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: there might be something outside of your control that kills
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: the deal.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 7: And this is also the problem that I think we
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 7: have in the NHL. And it's a culture problem in
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 7: the NHL. NFL, NBA, this stuff leaks all the time, right?
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 7: Those are very leaky businesses. And I think they are
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 7: intentionally leaky businesses.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: Ask the Dallas Cowboys. They love this stuff. It drives
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: their business.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 6: Loves this kind of stuff. Right.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 7: But in the NHL, like guys aren't telling you what
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 7: goalie is starting.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 6: Right. Like, I don't, I don't care who your goalie is.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 6: I've got, I've got enough film on both goalies.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 7: Like I don't, you know, you're not going to mess
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 7: up my game plan because Joey, the court is starting
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 7: over Philip Grubauer or vice versa. But I do think
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 7: that that's the, the culture, the, the, the cone of silence,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 7: the tight to the vest culture is, that we have
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 7: here in the NHL leads to a lot of this.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 7: It leads to GMs, in this case, Jason Bottrell, I
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 7: think unfairly getting bad reps for not being aggressive enough,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 7: for not doing too much.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 6: What's to say he isn't? And I know for a fact,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 6: and we.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 7: Can't talk about a lot of stuff that we know
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 7: behind the scenes, but I know for a fact Jason
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 7: Bottrell has been in All the moves, all the trades
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 7: that you've heard the last month and a half, two months,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 7: all the deals that did or didn't go down, the
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 7: Seattle Kraken is right there in most, if not every
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 7: single one of those talks. So, you know, don't come
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 7: after him. Don't come after the organization and say that, well,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 7: they're not being aggressive enough.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 6: They're not doing enough. I promise you. Hand to Kraken
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 6: S on my chest.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 7: This team is doing enough. They are working hard. to
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 7: try and improve this team, this roster every day.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 4: Question here from that gray beard at X. When do
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: you want to go with Bobby McMahon on the Berkeley
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: cat and Shane right line? I love the idea. I'm
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: not ready yet to go there because we're too early
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: into the season right now. I like where the fit
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: is with Capo Caco. And then there's the component of
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: having to move. You know, if you go with, separately
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: Chandler Stevenson and who he plays with, with Jordan Eberle
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: as well. And you're still trying to get, I think,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: a sense of who's fitting where. And the sample size is,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: I think, way, way, way, way too small to really
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: blow this thing up. And secondly, this team is still
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 4: too healthy not to even, I think, go there here
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: in the first place. Yet, things can change if, A,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: somebody gets hurt. Knock on wood, that doesn't happen. But also, B,
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: Let's just say one of the kids pop, and then
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: you can maybe earn a little bit more trust. And
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: this is a huge what if, because you want to
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 4: be careful of these situations and not overexpose them. But yet,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 4: let's just say what if, Bertley Catton, really begins to
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 4: catch fire in his second year and really figuring things
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 4: out from a scoring standpoint, being a facilitator, and then
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 4: you can't help but put him against bigger matchups and
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: putting a guy who can shoot the puck with him
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: would even take that line next level and also Shane
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: Wright as well. So I think maybe a great idea,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: but that's something I think that's a conversation where you
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 4: table it just based on A, where this team moves
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: on a four line scale and be how healthy can
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: you stay here for a rough of the first month
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: or so?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I think also it goes back to what we
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: spoke about earlier, which is if you like the way
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: your top six are playing, let's not touch them for
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: tip for 10 games, you know, assuming nothing drastic happens.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: And, you know, we're four games.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: In, I like the way that that line of Bobby McMahon,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: Jenner Stevenson in the middle and everybody on the wing
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: has looked, um, I, I like the speed of Bobby McMahon.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: I think that he pushes that line to be faster.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: I think Berkley Catton has that on his line, especially
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: when Ryan Winterton is on it already. So I don't
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: necessarily like the idea of putting Bobby McMahon on that line.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: I want to see how these next six games look
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: with those other two.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 7: Jared McCann, Mackie Samuskevich, McCann's your shooter. Beneers is your playmaker.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 7: Samuskevich is a combination of both. McMahon is your shooter.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 7: Stevenson's your playmaker. Eberle, another playmaker. Good skater can get
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 7: you the puck. Capo Caco is your shooter. Berkeley Catton
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 7: is your playmaker. Shane Wright is shown earlier in the season.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 7: He's a little bit of both. I think the three
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 7: lines right now are perfectly balanced. Those top nine lines
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 7: are perfectly balanced. I do like the idea of, of
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 7: a McMahon, a Catton and Wright. I do love the
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 7: speed of that line, but I think right now you've
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 7: got a really good sweet spot of everything you need
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 7: on each line.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 4: Let's get to our three stars of the week here.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: And I'll first off begin with my third star. I'm
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: going to go with Shane Wright because number one, why not?
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, he had three points in four games. And
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 4: do you call the second goal that he scored? for
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: this season against Vegas in garbage time. Yes, absolutely. But
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 4: I think, quietly, he's having a pretty good start to
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 4: this season. Moving him away off of center and out
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 4: of the wing where he's got more board play, more
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: shooting responsibilities, he looks comfortable there. He doesn't look out
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 4: of step. And I think the decision to put him
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 4: at Berkeley-Catton, where he's clearly shown that he's taken an
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 4: upgrade from as far as how he can skate, how
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: he can move the puck, and do it as well
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 4: with physicality and drive. That's helping out Shane Wright exhibit A,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: the goal that Wright scored against Calgary. And that was
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 4: also a terrific skill play that Wright pulled out to
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 4: get that backhand on Dustin Wolfe. So he's making plays.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: He's using his natural ability here to shoot the puck.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: And for me, I think for him to get goals
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 4: in back-to-back games, that's big for his confidence. So Shane
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 4: Wright is my third star of the week. My second
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: star would go to Brandon Montour. Because the surface numbers were, yes, modest.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: Two assists in four games. But this was more than
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 4: production for me. At the end of Sunday, this was
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: about a culture thing. And a culture foundation that he
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: set and that he helped reinforce. And that this team
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 4: has to come across with a complexion of an edge,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 4: of abrasiveness, and setting a tone... that nobody in that
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: room will get pushed around. It takes a lot of brass,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 4: you know what, to challenge a captain of another team.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 4: He had no problem doing that. And quite funny how
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 4: it maybe goes back to how they were battling it
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 4: out in the Stanley Cup final, and here they are
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: in 2026-27, still dropping gloves and still trading barbs after
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 4: the game. Brandon Montour, though, showed a lot of backbone
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: for a foundation, for a team that is still growing
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: and needs to play with that kind of backbone game
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 4: after game. Brandon Montour is my second star of the week.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: My first star is going to go to Mackie Samaskevich
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: because on Sunday he announced I have arrived and it
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: couldn't have come at a better time. It was in
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 4: the home opener. for the first official regular season game
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 4: this town has seen live in six months. And after
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: a long summer of so many questions, of so much skepticism,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 4: this was a great place to start to demonstrate how
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: much he fits on this team and in this city
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: as well. Nothing says rapport like making a great first impression.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 4: He did so with two goals. He did so with speed.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: He did so with a nasty shot that he showed
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 4: off late in period two and several other plays. I
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: thought he showed that he played with an edge. I
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 4: made this comment later on. He looks like a Florida
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 4: Panthers coached player. He doesn't want to skate around you sometimes.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: He wants to skate right through you. That to me
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 4: was impressive. Mackie Samaskevich is my first star of the week.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: My third star of the week is actually going to
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: go to both goaltenders, Joey Decord and Philip Grubauer. I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: think that over the first four games, they've shown me
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: what I'm looking for, which is goals against average below three.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Joey Decord at 264 and Philip Grubauer at 228. Even despite,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: in the case of Joey Decord, getting scored on six
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: times in that Vegas game, still with, say, percentages above 900.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: So goaltending for me over those first four games is
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: my third star and It's got to keep going that
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: way through the rest of the season. Second star for me,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: Maki Samuskiewicz. I agree with you, Maki. I think the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: two goals versus Calgary was a good statement for him.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: i want to see him keep developing and when i
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: say developing i mean developing into this roster who does
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: he fit with best who's the right center for him
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: to play with uh do we put him with you
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: know bobby mcmahon to just have a crazy fast line
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: and you know the fastest centerman of the four where
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: does he fit best but I think that Calgary game
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: really showed what he could do offensively so he's my
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: second star player And then the first one, I'm going
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: to get lazy on this one. Jared McCann with a
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: goal and four assists over the first four games. He
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: leads his team on points right now. Listen, I know
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: he's a shooter. I know he wants to score more.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: But if he's racking up apples while he's waiting to
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: put the puck in the net, I'm okay with that.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: He's my first star.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 7: Yeah, my third star for the reasons that you guys mentioned,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 7: Mackie Samuskavich, I thought two goals in that first game.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 7: You're seeing his confidence. You're seeing what he brings to
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 7: this lineup, very much like Bobby McMahon did last year
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 7: after that trade. So far, he's not met a shot
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 7: he's not willing to take, right? And I'm okay with that.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 7: I think for that reason, I'm making him my third star.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 7: Number two for me, Mikey, you said it perfect, Brandon Montour.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 7: I mean, you stand up for your team. You're fighting
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 7: the other team's captain. You know, you're down. He even
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 7: said it, a bit of an embarrassment for us on
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 7: the scoreboard. But I'm not, we're not about to play,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 7: get taken out like that in our home building.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 6: Um, I, his comments post game, I thought were great.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 6: I've said it before. I'll say it again.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 7: That's what you need to hear out of a leader,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 7: out of your captains, out of your A's. Um, you know,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 7: so that, that for me was Montour, uh, getting my
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 7: second star, my first star of the week, Berkeley cat.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 6: Um, I go back to.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 7: His play at Edmonton, that wall play down the boards,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 7: him and McDavid skating, um, together the entire way, you know,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 7: Berkeley found a step on him, got a good shot
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 7: off and, you know, he didn't burn Connor McDavid, but
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 7: he didn't back down from Connor McDavid as well. I
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 7: thought there were a few times this past week. where
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 7: on that line, he was in a position to score.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 7: Maybe he didn't catch a pass or whatever. He would
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 7: come back down the ice a second time again, and
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 7: now he was getting a shot on net. I'm with you, Mike. Yeah,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 7: the number's probably a little bit pedestrian. He has a
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 7: goal and an assist and a plus-one rating. But I
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 7: think the confidence, the playmaking that we're seeing from him,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 7: I left this week really impressed. with what I saw
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 7: from Berkeley Caton. I have, you know, you're talking about
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 7: my expectations this year, my dark horses, Fitz's hot takes.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 7: I think Berkeley Caton can be a 2020 guy this
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 7: season for Seattle. At the rate he's going, I might
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 7: bump that to a 30-30 guy, just because of what
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 7: he has been able to do these.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 6: First four games.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 7: And I think It's only a matter of time before
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 7: the puck starts going in the net more regularly. So
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 7: I'm giving Cat my first star.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 4: So my question is, does the first star from Everett
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 4: Fitz you get the key to the city in Detroit
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: for the week?
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 7: He gets to sit next to me at the mayor's booth.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 6: You know, the VIP entrance. I will allow him to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 6: come with me. Behind me, of course. Behind me, of course.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 6: He can come in with me to these places, yes.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 4: He has the Everett now bodyguard service. Welcome back home, Fitz.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 4: Welcome back home. Detroit set next up coming up tomorrow,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 4: 4 p.m. face off crack and then into D.C. to
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 4: face the Capitals Sunday, 2 o'clock Pacific time next Tuesday
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: at Philadelphia, 4 p.m. before our next show. We'll have
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 4: everything for you a half hour before face off. on
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 4: the Global Credit Union Kraken Audio Network. Big thank you
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: again to Max Bulma. And for Everett and Al, I'm Mike.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 4: See ya. Your home for the Kraken. Sports Radio 93.3
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: KJR FM.