Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / John Ahlers on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Confidence level in Mammoth's series comeback attempt (?), Ducks vs Oilers + more

Transcript

John Ahlers on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Confidence level in Mammoth's series comeback attempt (?), Ducks vs Oilers + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean o'connells Show from the Murdoch
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: one a half am.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I know you've been dialed in.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: You've been focused only on this is Las Vegas Golden
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Knights Utah Mammoth Series, double overtime thriller Last Night in Vegas.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Game six Friday nights at the Delta Center. Make sure
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: you can get there. If you can't, go to Big
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Willie's seventeen seventeen, South Maine and join the watch party there.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: They've got sign member Billia to give away.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Our next guest has a Game six of his own
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: to worry about. Tonight, Ducks Oilers in Anaheim on TNT.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: The Ducks are up three to two. They've got a
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: chance to knock out the Oilers. Nobody's done that in
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the Western Conference playoffs since twenty twenty three.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: John Aller's voice of the Anheim Ducks joins us. Now,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Hi John, welcome, How are you?
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: I'm well, Sean, how are.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: You doing great?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Very excited to be talking a little Western Conference playoff hockey.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We are we are, We're newcomers.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Still it feels like two years in and obviously this
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: is our first fora into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: a team of our own in Salt Lake City.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: And you know, Anaheim has had more than that.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: You've you're died in the WOL now you're an old
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: veteran of these things. Is the playoff hockey in the
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Western Conference, especially living up to what your expectation was
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: this year?
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: Well, I look at the two series that you and
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I are most closely tied to, and there's a lot
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: of similarities. And that is you've got young teams that
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: haven't experienced the postseason in the Stanley Cup playoffs period
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: against veteran teams that have gone as far as you
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: can go, including Vegas having won the Stanley Cup four
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: years ago in twenty twenty two. So you know, it's
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: a dichotomic me of the matchup. But the great thing
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: about the Stanley Cup Playoffs is really all you're trying
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: to do is get in because you know, both Utah
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: and Anaheim were the lower seeds at times. Both of
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: those lower seeds have led in their respective series. Anahei,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: I'm still with a chance to close it out tonight
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: at home as the lower seeds. So, you know, the
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: beauty of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is you never really
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: know what to expect. Everybody over the course of the
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: last few years has gotten accustomed to shut down hockey,
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: tight games, a lot of hard hitting physicality and low scores.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: And then you look at Anaheim and Edmonton and they've
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: combined for forty goals in five games. And were it
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: not for this series, the probably the talker around the
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: National Hockey League would be that, you know that the
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: Utah Vegas series has been rather high flying five four
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: four three games there as well, and the speed that's
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: the other the other, you know, the other thing that
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: really reminds me of of of these two series, Utah
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: and Anaheim both have a lot of speed, much more
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: so than the teams they're playing against. So I believe
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: the Stanley Cup Playoffs never fail to reach there, you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: everything that we anticipate for them. But I think it's
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: a it's a fool's errand to try to think you
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: know what you're gonna see this time of year.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: I know that the coaches and players stay focused on
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: a game at a time, in a series on a time,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: but we in the media and the fans, we get
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: to say, all right, let's see how this bracket lays out.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: The winner of Anaheim Edmonton faces the winner of Las
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Vegas Utah. From the Anaheim perspective, is one of those
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: preferable for a second round matchup.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: Well, it definitely depends on who you talk to. My
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: broadcast partner, Brian Hayward, and I have been working together
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: for twenty four years. He would prefer if Anaheim could
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: win this series to meet Vegas. The Ducks did sweep
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Vegas this year in the regas season. I only met
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: three times, and I don't believe they've played since prior
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: to Christmas, so I don't know how much stock I
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: put in in that. For me, I would prefer the
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Utah matchup because at least it would give Anaheim home
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: lights advantage, and this time of year, I always prefer
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: to have home lights rather than not. Even though the
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: numbers don't bear out that it's all that much of
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: an advantage in the Stanley Cup playoffs, relatively speaking, compared
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: to the other sports, it's a much larger advantage. And
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: that's a whole other conversation because it really doesn't make
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: sense that it should be an advantage at hockey, but
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: it doesn't turn out to me, and you know, especially
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: for a young group, and the fact that Anaheim has
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: been very good at home this year. That's really the
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: only reason. Because I've talked to other people within our
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: organization and people that I respect within the media and
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: around this game, and they also believe that the better
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: matchup for Anaheim might be Vegas because of that speed
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: the Utah possesses, and Utah does can play at times
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: with a great deal more defensive structure than what we've
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: seen with a great deal of consistency from Anaheim.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Well, let's focus on the series that are being played
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: right now. I hope we get Anaheim Utah in the
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: second round.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Anaheim's got to do a little bit more work.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Utah's got to do a lot more work and win
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: two in a row if they want to make that happen.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: With the chance to close it out for the Ducks
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: and to be the first team to beat Edmonton in
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: the Western Conference playoffs in a couple of years and
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: to keep the Oilers out of the Western Conference championship
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: to Stanley Cup Final, what's it going to take from Anaheim.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: They're very different teams the Oilers and the Ducks.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Anaheim's got to start a game better. They haven't scored
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: first in any game in the series. It's not terribly
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: indicative of a bad stretch for them because they don't
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: score first very often at all. Oh, you combine the
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: regular season in the in the postseason, Anaheim has They've
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: allowed the first goal fifty four times in eighty seven
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: games this year, and that's over sixty percent and is
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: not usually conducive to a lot of success. But we've
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: seen the game change and the way Anaheim plays. One
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: goal does not a game make so. But they need
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: a better start. They've even they've had good starts in
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: this series, but what they need is their start to
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: equate to something on the scoreboard. Day. It's a young
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: team and at times this season they've been susceptible to
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: playing really well early in hockey games and not having
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: anything to show for it on the scoreboard. This is
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: the time of year when it's got a show on
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: the scoreboard and they need a good start. They also
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: need to save Sean. You know, their goaltender, Lucas de
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: Staal has been great all season. He's been in net
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: for sixty one games for them, and he also played
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: for Chechia in the Olympics in Italy in February. He's
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: played a lot of hockey in May. That's what we're
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: seeing from him right now. But his save percentage is
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: just a little above eighty six percent in this series,
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: and everyone will tell you this time of year, it's
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: not how many saves you make, it's the timeliness of them.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: In Game four, Anaheim survived and won in overtime, but
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: two partial breakaways for Connor McDavid in the final five
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: minutes were stopped by Lucas do Stall. In the last
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: two games, he's given up a goal on the first
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: shot on goal. That doesn't speak to the quality of
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: the shots he's looking at, but timing is everything, and
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: Anaheim needs some saves from Lucasto Stall, particularly early in
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: hockey games.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Well, you just mentioned his name.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Connor McDavid is, for my money, the best hockey player
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: in the world.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: He's less than one hundred percent.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: We're seeing a lot of highlights, and every one of
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: those highlights is Connor McDavid doing something impressive on the ice,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and then the camera zooming in as he's on the bench,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: grimacing or they're taking him back to the dressing room
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: with a limp, or somebody's having to help him up.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: How compromised is Connor McDavid's health from your perspective, Well.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: I would say he's probably he's probably performing it somewhere
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: between seventy five and eighty percent. But you know, I
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: think we could sit here all day and debate the
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: fact that I would take a seventy five percent Connor
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: McDavid over just about any hockey player on the planet,
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: and he's proving that. I think he's had multiple points
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: in each of the last two games. He's now got
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: six points in the last three games of this series.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: This is the quintessential cliche. You're not going to shut
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: him down. You can hope to slow him down. Our
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: injury slowing him down. I don't think there's any doubt.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: We won't know until Connor McDavid's seasons over exactly how
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: much he's been playing through and what he's dealing with.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: But the reality of it is, this is a guy
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: who's not going to go down without a fight. One
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: of the funniest things I've seen recently was Chris Nablock,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: their head coach, was asked on the podium to Game
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: five because he hadn't skated in the morning, if he
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: was a game time decision now Block took the ball
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: and ran with it because of the way the question
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: was posed to him, and he said he will be
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: a game time decision. And the hockey world shuddered and everyone,
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: you know, their mouths were a gate. But the bottom
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: line was when you ask a coach a question like that,
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: if you word it that way this time of year,
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: he's gonna sure, he's gonna say game time decision. In
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: my mind, Connor McDavid was never a game time decision,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: and he said as much after the game. This guy
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: is gonna play until the Oilers aren't playing. He is compromised.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: To your point, I don't think there's any doubt, But
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: I don't think that really limits his effectiveness as much
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: as it might a lot of players.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: What kind of advantage is the To me, it feels
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: and you could correct me if I'm wrong, Like the
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Ducks are a deeper team than Edmonton. They might not
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: have the same star caliber, top flight guys because who
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: does of econom McDavid and e lyon dry sidle. But
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: even if you look at you know the minutes distributions
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: in some of these games, like they just they're able
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: to spread it out a little bit more as we
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: are getting now into Game six and a potential Game seven.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Does that pay dividends for the Ducks?
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I think it does, especially when I go back to
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: my original point and in comparing the opponents, Edmonton's an
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: older team. They've played a lot of hockey. Tonight will
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: be Edmonton's two hundred and ninety ninth game, including regular
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: season and playoffs in the last three seasons. That does
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: take a toll, particularly when your team tends to age.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: You know, it tends to lean a little older on
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: the ledger there, and that's certainly the case, and it
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: is something that you see over time. You don't necessarily
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: see it in any one particular game. But that's a
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: lot of hockey sean and it's a lot of high
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: level hockey. When you consider that the Oilers have played
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: twenty five and twenty two playoff games the last two seasons,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: and their off seasons have been shorter, and when you
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: consider the intensity of playoff hockey and just going back
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: even to just the travel of having to play that
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: many games. Because if they've played two hundred and ninety
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: nine in the last three years. You can bet one
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: hundred and fifty of them have been on the road.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: So Edmonton is, you know, a little geographically isolated and
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: window if you will, of being a very top heavy team.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: The minutes played by Connor McDavid or second to none
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: among forwards in the National Hockey League. No forward averages
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: more ice time than he, and no one has over
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: the last three years. Leon Drive titles in the top
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: ten there as well. Ryan Nugent Hopkins plays a lot
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: of minutes for them. On the back end. Evan Bouchard
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: is a huge minutes eater. He plays twenty seven plus
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: minutes a game, and it's just you know, cumulative over
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: time that's gonna wear down on them. And I'm on
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: the other hand, they're leading goalscorer plays on their third line.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: Cutter Goach had forty one goals in the regular season.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: He's on the second power play in it. They don't
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: lean that heavily on any one or two players from
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: an ice time perspective anywhere near as much as Chris
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Knoblock does with his Edmonton Oilers.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Last thing before I let you go, and if you
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: have to take off your Anaheim Ducks at least a
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: little bit.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: For that, I guess you can.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: But if every team in the Western Conference playoffs was
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: huddling together and saying, we just got to make sure
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: that the Colorado Avalanche don't win it all this year,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: who has the best shot of de throating what has
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: been all year long and the best NHL team.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: That's a really good question, Sean. I haven't really thought
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: about that, but I would start with probably a team
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: that has a goaltender that can get white hot, because
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: what can make the difference in what we call a
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: short series, although beating another opponent four times is anything
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: but short work. You get a hot goaltender and the
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: sky's the limit. I harkened back to my first year
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: in Anaheim, which unfortunately was a long time ago two
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: thousand and two to two thousand and three, and that
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: then Mighty Ducks got in his the seventh seed and
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: John Sebastian Shaguhar went on a run like I have
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: never seen. He won the Consmike Trophy as the MVP
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: of the playoffs, despite the fact that the Mighty Ducks
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: lost in the Cup Final in Game seven to the
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: New Jersey Devils, but no one had Anaheim gear marked
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: to probably even get to the second round that year
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: because they were playing the defending Cup champion Red Wings
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: in the opening round. But Shagear almost single handedly gave
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: them Well, he didn't single handedly win the series, but
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: he did single handedly give them a chance to win
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: because of the way he was able to tend goal
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: not only in that opening series, but then they went
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: on to beat the number one seed Dallas in the
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: second round and ended up in that Game seven in
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: the Cup Final. That's what I think it's gonna take
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: to have someone other than Colorado be in the Stanley
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Cup Final representing the Western Conference. I don't know who
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: that is, Sean. I've picking my brain as to the
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: teams left in the West, and there's not a lot
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: of elite goaltenders that jump to mine. That doesn't mean
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: any one goaltender can't get J. S. Shageer hot, but
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: off the top of my head, I think the names
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: that would come to mind might be yes. For Walstead
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: in Minnesota, he finished the regular season well. Jake Ottinger
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: in Dallas has a longer, you know, a resume as
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: far as performance goes, but Ottinger's been rather maligned with
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: his playoff play of late, but I think somebody's gonna
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: have to have to get just a white hot goaltender.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: I won't disagree with you there, And this is a
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: low hanging fruit question to just serve the egos of
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: all of us new hockey fans here in Salt Lake City.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: But I wanted your perspective on the addition of the
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Mammoth to the league, of the Delta Center, you know
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: as a barn, and of this new hot Key community
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: to the NHL, because everyone else we talked to it
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: seems to be that right now we've got a good reputation.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Is that true also at Anaheim?
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, And no one is a bigger fan of the
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Salt Lake hockey market than I. I spent a year
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: there a long time ago with the old Salt Lake
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: Golden Eagles, and I have a very very soft spot
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: in my heart for Salt Lake City, for Salt Lake
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: City sports fans, and more importantly the hockey fans of
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: Salt Lake City. I don't consider this to be a
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: new market. I don't even consider it to be a
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: new team, despite the way the NHL handles them from
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: a record standpoint. This is their second year. I know
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: it's the second year in Utah, but Utah and Salt
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Lake City in general is a fantastic hockey market. It
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: has been. It has a great hockey history, and I
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: think your fans and your market and your city have
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: shown that this year because it is a great place
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: to come into. I've seen some modifications to the Delta
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: Center since I was there with the Golden Eagles, and
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: it's made it a much better hockey barn than it
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: ever was back in its IHL days. And it's it's
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: loud because of what they've done with the configuration of
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: the building, and obviously the fan base has embraced it,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: and it's a fun atmosphere. It's a great place, and
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: it's a great hockey town.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: giving us a few minutes of your time today. I
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: know it's busy this time of year and you got
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: much more important things.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: So thank you and have a great call tonight. Good
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: luck to your ducks.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: My pleasure, Thanks so much, Sean.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Anytime the voice of.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: The Anaheim Ducks you can hear also hear them on
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Sports USA doing NHL stuff John Allers Ducks Oilers Game six,
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Anaheim Tonight, eight o'clock puck drop on TNT.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: The Ducks are up three to two.