Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny previews Stanley Cup Conference Finals, WCF begins tonight, Utah Mammoth prospects in Memorial Cup + more

Transcript

Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny previews Stanley Cup Conference Finals, WCF begins tonight, Utah Mammoth prospects in Memorial Cup + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the Sean O'Connell Show, your source
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: for the best utes football company. Here's OC from the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: one a half.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Am Oh, it's a great song.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Many welcome back to the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Festival of Tea's still on, powered by the Utah Golf Association,
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: brought to you by Mountain Home Services. We are giving
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: away free rounds of golf to the best courses in
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: the state and beyond every day on the Sean O'Connell
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: Show and on the Driver's Bence check its make sure
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: you're listening in we'll call it forty minutes when I
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: give that away with a trivia question. We are lucky
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: enough to be joined here and our number three by
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: my good friend and our NHL slash Utah Mammoth Insider,
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Adrian Denny, brought to you by a Laddin Industries and
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. Adrian, How are you.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Hey, Sean?
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: You ready for some Conference finals action getting underway tonight
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: the Carolina Hurricanes. They're still in the league. They're gonna
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: be back in action for the first time in eleven days.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: Yes, that is wild eleven days off in the playoffs.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: I don't think that's necessarily a good amount of rest.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: Longest time between games in modern NHL history. A couple
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: teams had ten Boston in twenty nineteen ten games, excuse me,
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: ten days between winning the Eastern Conference and starting the
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: Stanley Cup Final, and then Anaheim in three ten days
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: between winning the Western Conference Finals and the start of
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: the Stanley Cup Final. Oh, teams one of Stanley Cup Finals.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: We are your home by the way of the Stanley
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Cup Playoffs, Western and Eastern Conference Finals. Game one, Vegas, Colorado,
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: which we're gonna be talking a lot about here tonight
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: at ESPN seven hundred and ninety TWOEFM six pm puck drop.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: So let's handicap this series, especially given the news we
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: got today. Cale mccarr is going to be out of
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: tonight's game for Colorado. That is not insignificant.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: Two time Norris Trophy winner for Best Defenseman in the
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: NHL nominated again this year. He wasn't one hundred percent
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: in the series against Minnesota. Took a big hit in
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: Game one. You can kind of tell he wasn't wasn't
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: quite feeling great. Then in game five took another hit.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: But he's going to be out replaced by a you
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: know pretty much HL NHL Platoon player. They expect him
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: back soon, if not for game number two. So yeah,
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: that's the big story going into game one tonight with
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: Vegas in Colorado is no Cale mccarr and for Vegas
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: oc you know, we we saw him. They're not especially fast,
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: but they can clog up space. They've they've got some size,
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: So that seems to be the game plan for for
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: Vegas is slowing down Colorado like they were able to
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: slow down Utah and in certain aspects and Anaheim to
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: to get to this point. We'll see though for them
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: their captain Mark Stone missing the last couple of games
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: of the Anaheim series. That's a big defensive presence for them.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: How much does that that affect him? He's skated today,
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: but we'll be out for game one.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: One of my big questions about this series, and we
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: saw these teams play in the regular season, but playoff hockey,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: as we've come to learn, is different. And I wonder
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: if Vegas can beat Colorado at their own game, because
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: to get through Utah, to get through Anaheim, they kind
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: of played Colorado's game a little bit. Now, do you
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: have to make a significant adjustment if you're torts and
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: try not to be the same version of the Las
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Vegas Golden Knights that got you through the first and
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: second round series?
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Because maybe you're like, I don't know if we can beat.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: This version of the Colorado Avalanche at the game we
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: have been playing, will there be a significant tactical difference
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: with what we see from the Knights.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: I think you just gotta go with what's made just
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: successful to get to this point the way they finished
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: the regular season strong and beaten in regulation in eight straight.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: One thing with Vegas OC that they might want to,
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: you know, focus on, though, is getting off to better
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: starts in their series. Right they've they've gotten stronger. Is
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: these series have gone on, both have ben tied it
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: to They were down two games to one against Utah.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: They were tied to two against both Utah and and Anaheim,
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: and they pulled away in game five and game six.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: But probably not too high percentage of a situation against
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: Colorado to to to come in kind of fill your
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: way through. You want to you want to come in
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: and take take one of these games. It was a
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: different situation for Vegas because they've opened both their series
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: up at home so far, and historically they've never been
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: a great team. They might be the worst Game two
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: team at home in NHL history, losing to Utah, losing
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: to Anaheim, but that's that's typically typically the game they lose.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: But uh as they've gotten stronger in each series so far,
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: they might be out of time if they're not strong
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: out of the gates against Colorado. And I say that,
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: you know, completely dismissing all history, because when these two
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: teams last met in the playoffs in twenty twenty one,
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: Colorado jumped up two oh and Vegas won the series.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: Since then, both those teams have won Stanley Cup Championships
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: Colorado in twenty twenty two, Vegas and twenty twenty three,
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: And now they're both playing for a chance to win
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: it in twenty twenty six.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Who is Colorado's most important player in this series? Everything's
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: just been I won't say easy for them, because obviously
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: it's not. But this season has gone as well as
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: anyone in Denver could expect it to go. Who is
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: the most important player in this series for them?
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: Vegas did a good job of kind of containing you know,
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: Utah's top guys early on in the series. Gunn their Cooley,
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: and young Moto got off to that hot start and
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: then they focus their attention towards them after shutting down Schmaltz,
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: Keller and Kraus in the first couple of games. So
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: we'll see if Gabe Laniskog, Nathan McKinnon, and Marty Natchius
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: can can keep the power going against Vegas. And you know,
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: LA kind of hung in there for a little bit
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: against Colorado, not in terms of you know, falling behind
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: two in the series, but but the games were close.
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: La was able to keep the games low scoring, get
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: game number two to overtime, kind of kind of playing
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: kind of that similar you know, just just kind of
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: clog it up defensive style that that Vegas is is
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: going to try and play against him. And you know,
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: you look at the Minnesota series first game was nine
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: to six, that that didn't turn out to be the
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: recipe to try and you know, keep up with with
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: Colorado right there, because if you score six, they're going
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: to score nine. You know, a player to watch maybe
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: on the Vegas side is Thomas Hurtle, who finished the
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: regular seat and with a goal scoring drought. It was
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: close to thirty games without scoring and then he scored
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: one and two straight. But he's a guy that you know,
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: can got a couple of big goals against Anaheim playing
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: on that that third line for Vegas of just kind
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: of being in front, being a past going hard and
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: not you know, not getting down that that he not
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: scored a goal in almost thirty straight. So maybe watch
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: out for him from from the Vegas side if you
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: want an X factor, And you know, for me for
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: for the AVSH we talked about it last week how
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: they just got everybody involved. But can can Vegas shut
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: down a Laniskog, McKinnon and Natus like they did Utah's
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: top two lines and really all six games of the
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: series one or another, Gunther, Cooley, Yamamoto, Keller, Schmaltzkrause were
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: never really going in in the same game for the
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: Mammoth outside of that that game number three.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: This is Adrian Denny here in studio with us talking
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: a little NHL playoff, which unfortunately the Utah Mammoth are
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: no longer in. But we're getting down to it with
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: a game one tonight in the Western Conference, a game
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: one tomorrow night in the Eastern Conference. We already referenced
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: the long layoff for the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canadians have
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: played seven game series in both so the two ends
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: of the extreme here, and I wonder how you handicap
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: the Eastern Conference series.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: So you've got Carolina eight to oh, as you said,
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: Montreal with back to back seven game series where they've
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: had to win game seven on the road in both
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: of those series to beat Tampa Bay and Buffalo. Here's
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: one for you, oh see, that I would probably dismiss
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: pretty quickly. The last five games between team teams that
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: have swept their last series versus a team that won
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: game seven of a series. The sweepers are one and
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: four in the last five series that has had a
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: sweeper versus a game seven winner. Carolina, oh see, I
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: would say probably makes it two and four.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: So they've had the time off. We talked about how they.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: Really managed their last month of the regular season, calling
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: out ahl players to fill half of their roster, and
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: they were strategic on rest. And now they've they've won
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: back to back four game series sweeps. Carolina is in
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: the conference finals. For the third time in the last
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: four years. They've lost to Florida and the previous two.
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: But they go at you. They're aggressive, they expend a
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: lot of energy, and so playing against them that'll wear
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: you out. But they also use a lot of energy
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: playing so eleven days off, I think Carolina is gonna
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: be fine. I think where they've kind of run into
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: some trouble is just kind of running out of gas
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: getting into the conference finals because they are high pressure offensively,
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: high pressure defensively, and Montreal is gonna try and come
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: in and sneak one to keep their momentum going. But
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: Montreal has played a lot of a lot of hockey.
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: They've played fourteen games to Carolina's eight. They've gone to
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: four overtimes during that stretch. So we'll see if Montreal
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: can just keep keep it on here. Montreal over the
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: years is they've been a team that's kind of come
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: out of nowhere a couple of times. In twenty twenty one,
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: when we were coming out of COVID and kind of
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: a bubbleish season right when they had that Canadian only division,
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: Montreal fired a coach, finished with a losing record with
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: their new coach and then got to the Stanley Cup
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: Final where they lost to Tampa Bay. They've got a
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: couple of big players from that team, Nick Suzuki, their
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: captain being one of them, and then they kind of
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: went into a rebuild on the fly and here they
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: are their back. So Montreal's kind of got some experienced Suzuki,
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: Josh Anderson, some new guys and now they're trying to
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: get back to the final again. I heard of comparison
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: to Montreal and Saint Louis of twenty nineteen, with this
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: team and that Saint Louis team that also was in
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: last place in January but pushed their way to game
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: seventh Stanley Cup Final and ultimately beat Boston.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Much more important to the local team, the local market.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: There's other playoffs that lasted longer for the prospects than
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: they did for the actual Utah Mammoth team. And Gabe Smith,
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: who you and I have talked about before, ended up
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: for the Monkton Wildcats, having just an unreal run, not
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: to a championship unfortunately for him and for Danoye and
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: the other Monkdon Wildcats, but thirty three points in the
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: playoffs up there, and this is a guy who's now
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: more firmly on the radar, I think for all of
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: us in Utah. Tell me how much of it you
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: saw and what you think.
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: Fourth round draft pick in twenty twenty four is Gabe Smith,
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: MVP of the QMJHL Playoffs, which is go back to
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: Maritime Junior Hockey League, one of the three junior leagues
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: in Canada. They lost and he was named the MVP,
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: so he has to skate out upset and pretend to
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: smile and be cordial to the league. Dignitary has given
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: him the the award. He's a guy that we saw
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: in the preseason fight and hold his own six foot four.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: He's on a three year entry level contract that'll kick
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: in when when he turns pro, which you'd expect probably
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: coming up next season. But the winning experience that that
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: guys like him have calebe Denoye Utah's fourth overall pick
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: from from last Yearne's draft. They won the QMJHL championship
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: last year and went on to the Memorial Cup, so
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: that you saw a lot of tag team and with
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: Smith and Danoie in that playoff, and Danoie, you know,
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: had had a pretty good playoff himself. Twenty five points
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: in twenty one games. And maybe the biggest thing for
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: for the Mammoth is he and increased his point per
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: game total from last year. Not his points because he
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: started the year injured because of the wrist injuries that
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: we talked about last summer, but increased his point per
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: game total seventy eight points in forty five games in
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: the regular season. And those two guys dragon Monkton into
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: the JHL Championship Series for the second straight year. You've
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: got another prospect, Thomas Lava who was on the Chikutamie
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: team that we can spell later, but he.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Was about to say, let me google that.
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: Wait, he's another Utah prospect off of that that team.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: He was selected by Utah on the third round in
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: twenty twenty four. So he's going to the Memorial Cup
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: to play. The way that tournament works, So see the
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: three Canadian leagues, the champions out of the three Canadian
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: junior teams go play a host team at in this
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: case is going to feature t J Ginla, Utah six
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: overall pick in twenty twenty four and Colowna. They were
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: knocked out in the second round of the playoffs, but
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: since they're hosting the Memorial Cup. They'll be involved. So
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: you got a lot of uh, a lot of Utah
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: skaters prospects that are playing big playoff games and are
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: still going. That Memorial Cup is going to start Friday night.
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: You can see all the games on NHL Network. They'll
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: do a round robin and then they'll go into semifinals
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: and final. But you know, it's fun because we've reached
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: a point Sean where you don't get NHL every night.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: Now we only got two series, so might have some time,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: especially over Memorial the weekend, to pop on NHL Network
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: and watch some some Mammoth prospects.
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: Of course, all of you out there are big Tricoudamie
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Seguanine fans. That is the that is the mascot as
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: I'm sure you do. I I'll be honest with you.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: I not one hundred percent sure on how to pronounce that.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: And I heard it on.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: A podcast earlier this week and I phonetically spelled it out,
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: and I've been saying chikutam in any sentence that will fit.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: I think that, uh, I think it probably is pronounced
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: that way. It's pronounced how you pronounced how it's spelled.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: No one here is No one here is going to
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: be able to correct you.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: By the way, what is a Saguanine, Well, that's a
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: native inhabitant or resident of the Saguane region in Quebec, Canada.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: So it's like the Utahs. You learn something new every day.
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: That's good. That is good. I couldn't even spell it
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: to Google it.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: Man, do you have big Memorial Day weekend plants?
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: That is coming right? That's this weekend? It is?
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: It is, Yeah, so I won't see you before your
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: weekend after this. Do you have any any big plans
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: to go fishing? Mobile boat?
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: Memorial Day weekend is kind of like that that first
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: weekend up at the cabin up at Strawberry yesterday, picked
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: up the boat, drove it, drove it from one marina
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: to to the other. Really, so kind of kind of
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: always look forward to that. It seemed like, you know,
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: in my childhood and growing up, Memorial Day weekend all
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: you plan for. Then it's it's rainy, but looks like
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: it's gonna be nice. This weekend looks like it's gonna
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: be in there, you know, eight seventies, low eighties. Yeah,
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: So so that's that's always been Memorial Day weekend for me.
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: Cabin boat a little cool for the jet ski, but yeah,
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: it's it's prime playoff time too. Always remember Jazz were,
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: you know, hopefully playing the Houston Rockets, you know involved.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: So it's a good it's a good sports weekend and.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: You'll have to set on hockey thunder Spurs instead of
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: Jazz Rockets.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's that is that's true. And keep keep watching
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Calves next till the very end.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Evidently, yes, make sure you don't like, ah, this is
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: not going to be a great game, because it ends
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: up being a great game. Adrian Denny between the Pipes
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: brought to you by Aladdin Industries and Valley Plumbing, Heating
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: and Cooling.
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: Thanks for coming in, Thanks for having me. Man So
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: I always say, highlight of the week, and so it
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: was great to see you. It was great to talk
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: a little hockey.