Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth's 3-1 start, McBain fighting everybody, Schmaltz NHL's leading goal scorer + more
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: And the summer rainbows sneaking into outside lands.
- 0:06Speaker 2: You're listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
- 0:10Speaker 2: Hyundai Studio of ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
- 0:12Speaker 1: What would they want with me? One o'clock on a Wednesday.
- 0:22Speaker 2: That means it's time to go between the pipes with
- 0:24Speaker 2: Adrian Denny, our Utah Mammoth insider. Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling.
- 0:28Speaker 2: Aladdin Industries make this conversation possible. What a game last
- 0:33Speaker 2: night for the Utah Mammoth on the road in New Jersey.
- 0:36Speaker 2: 5-3 victory. Had a little bit of everything in it.
- 0:41Speaker 2: Lawson Kraus gets on the board. Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz,
- 0:45Speaker 2: Vincent Trocek, Mackenzie Wieger netting the goals for the Utah.
- 0:50Speaker 1: I almost said the university of Utah for the Utah mammoth.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Lots to talk about from this one.
- 0:56Speaker 2: And from the start of the season where the mammoth
- 0:59Speaker 2: are three and one, two and one on the road
- 1:01Speaker 2: so far, Adrian, daddy, welcome.
- 1:04Speaker 1: How are you? Hey, OC.
- 1:05Speaker 3: Thanks for having me in all great stuff to talk about.
- 1:07Speaker 3: Don't have one thing to nitpick. Honestly, I don't have
- 1:10Speaker 3: one thing. It's all great with the mammoth right now.
- 1:14Speaker 3: So it's, it's been fun and goals are going in
- 1:17Speaker 3: and the power plays are Looking like a thing of art.
- 1:22Speaker 3: You mentioned a little bit of everything. Jack McBain dropping
- 1:25Speaker 3: the gloves again. They've already fought three times as a team.
- 1:29Speaker 3: Laying down the second most hits in the NHL. Team
- 1:33Speaker 3: that lays down the most hits, Boston. Going to play
- 1:36Speaker 3: them tomorrow as the trip continues. So they're in a
- 1:39Speaker 3: good spot on this road trip. You split in Boston
- 1:44Speaker 3: and Buffalo. You come home four and two and after
- 1:47Speaker 3: starting the year with five of your first six on
- 1:48Speaker 3: the road, that'd be a pretty good thing.
- 1:51Speaker 2: Really, really cool to watch last night, especially that Jack
- 1:54Speaker 2: McBain situation you're talking about. One of the more emphatic
- 1:59Speaker 2: finishes to a hockey fight so far in the young season,
- 2:02Speaker 2: dominant performance by McBain and dropping the gloves. And we
- 2:07Speaker 2: were speculating on this a little bit earlier. Like when
- 2:10Speaker 2: you have that physical presence and it's something that bear
- 2:14Speaker 2: tourney and bill Armstrong have talked about, trying to make
- 2:18Speaker 2: that physicality more a part of the team identity. They're
- 2:20Speaker 2: not talking about fighting, but what they're talking about is
- 2:24Speaker 2: a sort of identity that pervades through the roster. And
- 2:29Speaker 2: when you have somebody who then manifests it and represents
- 2:34Speaker 2: that in the most extreme manner and does so effectively,
- 2:37Speaker 2: it's a nice little reminder for all of us that
- 2:39Speaker 2: this team with some increased size might actually be that
- 2:45Speaker 2: sooner than later.
- 2:47Speaker 3: It's a well-rounded group, right? You've got your top six forwards,
- 2:52Speaker 3: your Gunthers, your Cooleys, your Schmaltzes, your Kellers, Trojaks, Lees.
- 2:58Speaker 1: Piling up points.
- 2:59Speaker 3: But then you've got a shutdown line with a guy
- 3:01Speaker 3: like Jack McBain, Lawson Kraus, and Barrett Hayton. You can
- 3:07Speaker 3: put out there to do exactly that. They're one of
- 3:11Speaker 3: a handful of forward lines in the NHL right now
- 3:14Speaker 3: through the first week. hasn't allowed a goal at five
- 3:18Speaker 3: on five. And you know, Lawson Krause is good for
- 3:22Speaker 3: 20 goals a season, four times in the last five years.
- 3:25Speaker 3: Hayden's usually teetering around that number. McBain's been in double
- 3:30Speaker 3: figures two of the last three years. So they'll be
- 3:34Speaker 3: able to pop some big goals into just by kind
- 3:37Speaker 3: of crashing and bruising and banging and When they don't score,
- 3:42Speaker 3: they're not going to give up anything when they're on
- 3:45Speaker 3: the ice. And a lot of the times they'll create
- 3:50Speaker 3: momentum with a good offensive shift that establishes puck possession.
- 3:55Speaker 3: Then you can roll out your stars and they can
- 3:57Speaker 3: take advantage of it.
- 4:00Speaker 1: First goal of.
- 4:00Speaker 2: The game was like two minutes in on the power play.
- 4:05Speaker 2: And a nifty pass from Sergeyev, who's right up there
- 4:08Speaker 2: at the top of the zone. Looks like, you know,
- 4:11Speaker 2: kind of fakes a shot, gets the puck back to Keller,
- 4:14Speaker 2: and Keller puts it in the back of the net.
- 4:16Speaker 2: And look, you're not going to have a power play
- 4:18Speaker 2: opportunity two minutes into most games. But the fact that
- 4:22Speaker 2: there's no, like, waiting, there's no grace period, there's no run-up,
- 4:27Speaker 2: that as soon as the advantage comes for this Utah
- 4:30Speaker 2: Mammoth team, they take advantage of it, I think is
- 4:33Speaker 2: a testament to the work they put in on special teams.
- 4:36Speaker 3: And the first two minutes of a game, the first
- 4:38Speaker 3: two minutes of a period, Power play percentages are terrible
- 4:43Speaker 3: because you're just kind of coming out and you're getting settled.
- 4:47Speaker 3: And for New Jersey, who just lost their last game
- 4:50Speaker 3: 6-0 to the Islanders on Saturday night, the last thing
- 4:55Speaker 3: that they wanted to do was take a penalty 10
- 4:58Speaker 3: seconds into the game when Timo Meier high-sticked Jack McBain
- 5:03Speaker 3: and the Mammoth, who entered the day at 6-9 on
- 5:07Speaker 3: the power play, went to work and made it seven
- 5:10Speaker 3: for ten but the best thing about the power play
- 5:14Speaker 3: right now see is the ability to sustain last year
- 5:19Speaker 3: when the power play was struggling if they didn't win
- 5:22Speaker 3: the opening face off on the power play they were
- 5:25Speaker 3: pretty much done they they couldn't get set up they
- 5:28Speaker 3: couldn't get reestablished and they started this year off you
- 5:33Speaker 3: know really good winning face offs but it's not how
- 5:37Speaker 3: they've they've scored all their power play goals. They've been
- 5:42Speaker 3: able when the opposing team gets a clear to come
- 5:44Speaker 3: back down and, and get reestablished. Whereas, you know, last
- 5:50Speaker 3: year we're, we're looking at the first half of the year,
- 5:52Speaker 3: second worst power play in the NHL. Probably the, the
- 5:55Speaker 3: face off percentage was the biggest thing that cost them
- 5:57Speaker 3: to the point that head coach Andre attorney was bringing
- 6:00Speaker 3: Kevin Stenland out. Who's a fourth line centerman to just
- 6:03Speaker 3: try and win you a face off to get your
- 6:05Speaker 3: five on four started on the right foot.
- 6:09Speaker 2: Uh, New Jersey made a late push, and you had
- 6:14Speaker 2: the insurance goal. Trochek gets on the board, and a
- 6:19Speaker 2: newcomer like him integrating so quickly, I guess we shouldn't
- 6:23Speaker 2: be surprised because he's an elite player, and that's why
- 6:26Speaker 2: this Mammoth team brought him in. But again, I guess
- 6:30Speaker 2: I'm just expressing the fact that I'm impressed with the
- 6:32Speaker 2: fact that it doesn't take a lot of time for
- 6:36Speaker 2: things to start firing on all cylinders it doesn't seem
- 6:38Speaker 2: for this team, at least not this year.
- 6:40Speaker 1: It hasn't.
- 6:41Speaker 3: And would you put Trocek out there with Schmaltz and Keller?
- 6:45Speaker 3: I'd say give them five or ten games to get
- 6:49Speaker 3: settled because Schmaltz and Keller have been playing together for years,
- 6:53Speaker 3: and they're just kind of two different guys to play with.
- 6:56Speaker 3: So you think, okay, give them a little bit of
- 6:58Speaker 3: time to get settled. And yesterday Clayton Keller's talking about
- 7:02Speaker 3: that line. He's like, yeah, just give us some more time.
- 7:04Speaker 3: And we're like, it looks pretty good to us. And that,
- 7:09Speaker 3: that insurance goal that, that Trocek scored was in a
- 7:14Speaker 3: one goal game, but it all came because Clayton Keller
- 7:18Speaker 3: comes up from behind, picks a guy's pocket when he's
- 7:20Speaker 3: trying to skate it out of the Utah offensive end.
- 7:22Speaker 3: And then Schmaltz streaks in, scoops it up. And then
- 7:25Speaker 3: all of a sudden the mammoth are off and running.
- 7:27Speaker 3: So as, as many points as Schmaltz and Keller put
- 7:31Speaker 3: up defensively, they are elite. Nick Schmaltz was in the
- 7:35Speaker 3: top 10 of the NHL and, takeaways and strips last year, but,
- 7:40Speaker 3: but he's just tenacious. And for him to be starting
- 7:43Speaker 3: off this eight year contract and having taken his game
- 7:47Speaker 3: to another level after a career year last year, where
- 7:49Speaker 3: he got 33, it's just really, really impressive when, when
- 7:52Speaker 3: the team around him has gotten better and he's able
- 7:55Speaker 3: to take his game and elevate it to, to an
- 7:58Speaker 3: even more elite level, both defensively, but, but putting the
- 8:02Speaker 3: puck in the net, you remember a During the inaugural season,
- 8:05Speaker 3: he didn't get his first goal until after Thanksgiving. It
- 8:08Speaker 3: was an ongoing saga. We're like, this guy scores 20-plus
- 8:12Speaker 3: goals every year. It just didn't come for him. You
- 8:15Speaker 3: see what happens when he gets hot. Nick Schmaltz is
- 8:18Speaker 3: a guy that when he gets on a streak, it's
- 8:20Speaker 3: good for Utah.
- 8:22Speaker 1: He is currently the goals leader in the NHL.
- 8:25Speaker 2: We're just going to assume that that continues all the
- 8:27Speaker 2: way through 82 games, right?
- 8:29Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always funny.
- 8:31Speaker 3: The first first couple of weeks of the season, the,
- 8:33Speaker 3: the guys you see leading the, the NHL and goals, um,
- 8:38Speaker 3: Paul Cotter, who is with Vancouver, uh, who's a guy
- 8:42Speaker 3: that's teetered from the minor leagues to the NHL for
- 8:45Speaker 3: the last couple of years is, is up there too.
- 8:48Speaker 3: But Schmaltz is, I mean, it's legit 30, 33 goals
- 8:51Speaker 3: last year, a career high about 10 above, you know, is,
- 8:56Speaker 3: is career average. So You know, when the power play
- 9:01Speaker 3: is going as it is, the power play for the
- 9:05Speaker 3: Mammoth is often the best start through four games for
- 9:08Speaker 3: any team in NHL history since the league started tracking
- 9:11Speaker 3: power plays in 1977. So that's almost 50 years. Eight
- 9:17Speaker 3: for 13, 61%. But Schmaltz is always out there on
- 9:21Speaker 3: the power play, and it's a good spot for a
- 9:24Speaker 3: goal scorer to be in. And, you know, you got
- 9:26Speaker 3: that first power play unit, and Barrow will leave him
- 9:28Speaker 3: out there forever. full two minutes. You got Anders Lee
- 9:31Speaker 3: and Vinny Trocek and Barrett Hayton, Lawson Krause, Mike Carconi
- 9:36Speaker 3: on your second one. He just leaves out Sergachev, Schmaltz, Keller, Cooley,
- 9:43Speaker 3: and Gunther for the whole time. And they've been able
- 9:46Speaker 3: to eventually score.
- 9:49Speaker 2: We're Between the Pipes with Adrian Denny brought to you
- 9:51Speaker 2: by Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling and Aladdin Industries talking
- 9:55Speaker 2: Utah Mammoth Hockey.
- 9:57Speaker 1: I guess this is a negative, finally, to talk about.
- 10:00Speaker 1: about for this team.
- 10:02Speaker 2: Mikhail Sergeyev got boinked in the head with a puck
- 10:06Speaker 2: friendly fire. I think it came off the stick of
- 10:08Speaker 2: McKenzie Weger and just hit him in the back of
- 10:10Speaker 2: the head.
- 10:11Speaker 1: He did not return to the game, which is never great.
- 10:15Speaker 1: Any updates? What do we know? no updates.
- 10:18Speaker 3: Team's not practicing today in Boston. They'll have a full
- 10:22Speaker 3: morning skate tomorrow ahead of the game against the Bruins.
- 10:26Speaker 3: And that is typically when you'll get an injury update
- 10:31Speaker 3: is right before the team hits the ice for morning
- 10:35Speaker 3: skate right before their next game. Gosh, like it's unfortunate.
- 10:43Speaker 3: He was playing a great game. He had three points
- 10:47Speaker 3: and he's been, you know, the minutes leader for Utah
- 10:50Speaker 3: each of the last two seasons. And in every situation,
- 10:54Speaker 3: he was in the top six in minutes in 24, 25.
- 10:57Speaker 3: And then as the mammoth got deeper last year, they
- 10:59Speaker 3: didn't have to use him as much, but, but you know,
- 11:03Speaker 3: whether he's playing 22 minutes or 28 minutes, it's still
- 11:07Speaker 3: a big chunk of minutes out there. And he's a
- 11:11Speaker 3: tide for third in the NHL and scoring right now
- 11:13Speaker 3: with Keller and Schmaltz and Gunther with six points in
- 11:18Speaker 3: four games.
- 11:22Speaker 2: Who has surprised you most on the roster so far?
- 11:24Speaker 2: Who's been the, the revelation.
- 11:28Speaker 3: McKenzie Weger has come out and really done, you know, what,
- 11:34Speaker 3: what the mammoth traded for like top five and block shots,
- 11:39Speaker 3: top five and hits every year. And he's, he's out
- 11:45Speaker 3: there last night blocks, six shots, laid down two hits
- 11:52Speaker 3: Sunday in, um, New York against the Rangers. Just, he
- 11:56Speaker 3: had eight shot attempts, um, six hits, five block shots,
- 12:03Speaker 3: first player since 2018 to have, you know, numbers like
- 12:08Speaker 3: that in terms of hits, block shots, shot attempts.
- 12:11Speaker 1: He scored his first goal. Um, last night.
- 12:15Speaker 3: So that's, that's what you get from him. He's, he's
- 12:18Speaker 3: a bruiser with some skill and, you know, after the
- 12:23Speaker 3: trade last year, he went from the slowest team in
- 12:26Speaker 3: Calgary to the fastest team in Utah. And, you know,
- 12:30Speaker 3: that being the hockey aspect of it and trying to
- 12:34Speaker 3: get settled, trying to, you know, up, uproot your life and,
- 12:39Speaker 3: and come in. So he, Expected to have this start,
- 12:44Speaker 3: and the Mammoth are really happy that he has because
- 12:48Speaker 3: he's on year four of an eight-year contract. He's here long-term,
- 12:53Speaker 3: same contract that Sergeyev's on, but to have a big
- 12:57Speaker 3: defenseman who just does all of those things and can
- 13:01Speaker 3: play the heavy minutes we're talking about with Sergeyev, that'd
- 13:06Speaker 3: be one. Daniil But, Dmitry Sibyshev have looked fantastic. pretty
- 13:09Speaker 3: good too. And it's just what we talked about last week.
- 13:11Speaker 3: It's just kind of the confidence. It's all they needed.
- 13:13Speaker 3: It was just, they've, they've got, they've got everything. It's just,
- 13:17Speaker 3: you know, the, the confidence to, to do it and
- 13:20Speaker 3: not think.
- 13:23Speaker 2: We're going to have the same conversation about the mammoth
- 13:25Speaker 2: here that we're, we've had for several weeks about the Utes.
- 13:29Speaker 2: Of course, an NHL season kind of progresses faster. You
- 13:33Speaker 2: learn things faster because the activity, you get more games
- 13:37Speaker 2: in a shorter span of time. Right now, they've looked
- 13:41Speaker 2: really good. The Mammoth have looked really good against the Blackhawks,
- 13:45Speaker 2: the Blue Jackets, and the Devils. They lost against the Rangers.
- 13:49Speaker 2: There were some good things in that game, some things
- 13:51Speaker 2: that obviously they would like to change, and we don't
- 13:53Speaker 2: expect to see a constant problem. But based on the competition,
- 13:58Speaker 2: you have to adjust expectations, and you have to say,
- 14:01Speaker 2: all right, we don't know this yet because we've only
- 14:04Speaker 2: seen it against these teams. And again, Two weeks from now,
- 14:07Speaker 2: we probably don't have to have the conversation the same way,
- 14:09Speaker 2: although there's always going to be an element of that.
- 14:12Speaker 2: But in the very, very early goings, how quality are
- 14:17Speaker 2: these wins against teams like the Blackhawks, who you shut
- 14:19Speaker 2: out in the home opener, against the Devils, who have kind.
- 14:23Speaker 1: Of the same expectations that you do? They want to
- 14:25Speaker 1: be a playoff team. They want a playoff series.
- 14:28Speaker 2: They're plus 3,000 to win the Stanley Cup, just like
- 14:31Speaker 2: you are. When you're judging the competition and the performance
- 14:34Speaker 2: against the competition, how do you net out?
- 14:38Speaker 3: Chicago has not looked good. They're one in three. They
- 14:41Speaker 3: won their first game last night. Columbus beat Buffalo, who
- 14:45Speaker 3: is the Atlantic division champion from last year that came
- 14:47Speaker 3: out of nowhere, six, three in their first game. They've
- 14:49Speaker 3: played one other game. It was against Utah. They lost four,
- 14:51Speaker 3: one mammoth controlled that, that whole thing. The Rangers look good, man.
- 14:56Speaker 3: Like Igor Shisterkin healthy in goal. Like they, they can
- 15:01Speaker 3: win every game when, when he's in, they beat the
- 15:04Speaker 3: Islanders last night. They're four, one Utah, Utah, could have
- 15:08Speaker 3: won that game on Sunday with all the imperfections. And
- 15:12Speaker 3: we've been like, yeah, pretty good game. And then New Jersey,
- 15:16Speaker 3: not sure what to really expect from them. I think
- 15:19Speaker 3: the way that they've controlled New Jersey, Columbus, and Chicago
- 15:23Speaker 3: has been a pretty good exclamation point for what they've
- 15:28Speaker 3: come out and accomplished so far this year. Power play
- 15:33Speaker 3: is going to come back down to earth, right? Eight
- 15:35Speaker 3: for 13. That's, that's something we know. we'll come back down,
- 15:41Speaker 3: teams make adjustments, teams focus, teams dial in, they'll figure
- 15:45Speaker 3: stuff out, and then Utah has to adjust.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Not to interrupt, but even coming back down to earth,
- 15:50Speaker 2: but we expect, right? You want it to be better
- 15:51Speaker 2: than it was. So what is the percentage, like a
- 15:55Speaker 2: realistic target percentage that this team is preaching within the
- 15:58Speaker 2: dressing room?
- 15:59Speaker 3: I think they can have a 25% power play, which
- 16:02Speaker 3: would be top eight in the NHL, top quarter of
- 16:07Speaker 3: the league. um, there's, there's talent out there that, that
- 16:12Speaker 3: can score. So they, they've re-signed assistant coach, Blaine Forsyth,
- 16:17Speaker 3: who oversees the power play to a multi-year contract. The
- 16:20Speaker 3: same day they did head coach Andre tourney and in
- 16:23Speaker 3: June and power play was second best in the NHL
- 16:26Speaker 3: from February 1st on last year. So they definitely saw some,
- 16:31Speaker 3: some stuff that made them feel pretty good about the
- 16:35Speaker 3: power play coming into this year. And, and just off
- 16:40Speaker 3: to an amazing start. And so what were they two
- 16:45Speaker 3: for four on the power play last night? I think
- 16:49Speaker 3: that the middle one that they didn't score and might've
- 16:51Speaker 3: been their best power play of the night.
- 16:52Speaker 1: So, so that's looking good.
- 16:54Speaker 3: That's going to come back down to earth, just percentages
- 16:57Speaker 3: and teams adjust. And we saw it last year after
- 17:00Speaker 3: you had that hot October, but the way that Utah
- 17:03Speaker 3: is playing right now, with the physicality and, you know,
- 17:10Speaker 3: the net front presence, they've scored almost 60% of their
- 17:13Speaker 3: goals from right in front of the net this year.
- 17:15Speaker 1: Last year it was 40%. That's a pretty big jump.
- 17:19Speaker 3: So the, the identity that they're playing with right now
- 17:22Speaker 3: is it's not something you can game plan against. You
- 17:25Speaker 3: just have to go out and deal with it. So consistency,
- 17:31Speaker 3: big thing, but When Utah won seven straight last year
- 17:35Speaker 3: in October and they're running and gunning with Gunther, Paterka,
- 17:38Speaker 3: and Cooley, teams are watching that. They're like, okay, how
- 17:41Speaker 3: do we slow that down? And they do it. It's
- 17:44Speaker 3: an ongoing chess match all season in the NHL.
- 17:50Speaker 2: Once again, the Mammoth are mentioned in potential trade rumors
- 17:55Speaker 2: with Simonson and these other players that are out there.
- 18:00Speaker 2: Any sort of insight on any of that front?
- 18:03Speaker 3: No, other than Bill's going to pick up the phone
- 18:06Speaker 3: and call. If that's something that gets leaked that they called,
- 18:12Speaker 3: he's going to call on everybody. It's his job to
- 18:18Speaker 3: make the team better and go down every avenue. As
- 18:23Speaker 3: I've said, when you've got cap space like Utah has,
- 18:28Speaker 3: when you have the prospect system that Utah has, when
- 18:31Speaker 3: you've got ownership who's come out and made a statement
- 18:35Speaker 3: in every area that we want to win Stanley cups
- 18:38Speaker 3: around here. Like you're going to be, you're going to
- 18:40Speaker 3: be mentioned and Bill's Bill's tactful and he's aggressive. And
- 18:46Speaker 3: he also knows when to say, okay, thanks. Have a
- 18:50Speaker 3: nice day. If, uh, if, if it's not what he
- 18:54Speaker 3: wants to part ways.
- 18:56Speaker 2: With ESPN, put out a list that means very little, uh,
- 19:01Speaker 2: Next to nothing, but they put out their top 100
- 19:03Speaker 2: NHL players. Four Utah Mammoth on it. Keller, the highest
- 19:07Speaker 2: ranked at 39. Gunther at 58. Cooley at 60. And
- 19:14Speaker 2: Sergeyev down at, I think, 88 is where I saw him. Yeah,
- 19:18Speaker 2: 88 for Mikhail Sergeyev. Who is most likely to play
- 19:22Speaker 2: themselves into that top 100 conversation.
- 19:24Speaker 1: Over the course of this season? That's not there now.
- 19:28Speaker 1: That's not there now. Top 100.
- 19:36Speaker 3: I look at this roster, and I see a lot
- 19:39Speaker 3: of meat and potatoes, too. You got your stars that
- 19:44Speaker 3: that were listed right there. Um, you said Keller, you
- 19:50Speaker 3: said Gunther Cooley circuit or Gunther Cooley circuit chip. What
- 19:54Speaker 3: about Schmaltz? How's Schmaltz not on the list? Isn't that implied?
- 19:57Speaker 3: I thought that was going to be your answer. Maybe
- 19:59Speaker 3: I thought you said it. And then I'm like, he
- 20:01Speaker 3: didn't say it. Yeah. Yeah.
- 20:02Speaker 2: Schmaltz is not on there, man. I've got, that's a problem.
- 20:05Speaker 2: I've scrolled it a couple of times. Now Schmaltz is
- 20:08Speaker 2: not on there. 39 for Keller. He was 40 last year.
- 20:12Speaker 2: Gunther was not ranked last year. Cooley was 97 last year.
- 20:17Speaker 2: He's 60 this year. And Sergachev on last year's list
- 20:24Speaker 2: was 96, and now he's 88.
- 20:27Speaker 3: I guess Schmaltz has to be there. Outside of that,
- 20:32Speaker 3: I mean, Trocek and Lee are probably... 100 to 150,
- 20:40Speaker 3: they're going to have the consistent seasons they always do.
- 20:44Speaker 3: And you look at the D, like Wieger, Marino, Schmidt,
- 20:49Speaker 3: like they bring it. Like John Marino, a plus 42
- 20:55Speaker 3: second best in the NHL.
- 20:56Speaker 1: But popping into.
- 20:57Speaker 3: That 100, Schmaltz is the one guy that should be
- 21:02Speaker 3: there that isn't. But beyond that, I think he got
- 21:05Speaker 3: a lot of 100s to 200s. Number one on the list,
- 21:09Speaker 3: you could guess.
- 21:11Speaker 1: McDavid. Conor McDavid. Number two. Nathan McKinnon. Yes. Number three.
- 21:17Speaker 1: Kel Makar. They've got Nikita Kucherov. Okay. Makar is five
- 21:22Speaker 1: on the list. So Kucherov, three. Makar, five. Who do
- 21:26Speaker 1: you think they have at number four.
- 21:27Speaker 3: On the list?
- 21:27Speaker 1: Quinn Hughes. Macklin Celebrini. Macklin Celebrini. Okay. Quinn Hughes is nine.
- 21:33Speaker 1: They've got... It goes.
- 21:35Speaker 2: Wow, that's... McCarr, Dreisaitl, Zach Wierenski, David Pasternak, Quinn Hughes,
- 21:44Speaker 2: Kirill Kaprizov, Austin Matthews at 11. Number 100, Evgeny Malkin
- 21:54Speaker 2: at age 40.
- 21:56Speaker 1: All right. For all of us old guys out there.
- 21:59Speaker 1: This is a fun list. I hadn't seen this. This
- 22:02Speaker 1: is all new to me. Mackenzie Wieger gets honorable mention.
- 22:07Speaker 2: Uh, so just outside of the top 100, along with
- 22:10Speaker 2: guys like Brad Marchand, what was the, he, he left,
- 22:16Speaker 2: wasn't able to put any weight on his leg.
- 22:18Speaker 1: Do we know anything about that injury?
- 22:20Speaker 3: No. Other than the fact that it's the last thing
- 22:23Speaker 3: Florida needs because their captain Alexander Barkoff is hurt again.
- 22:27Speaker 3: He got hurt two games earlier in San Jose and
- 22:32Speaker 3: it's not as bad as, um, that was initially feared. Um,
- 22:38Speaker 3: so I, I think it's, uh, six to eight weeks
- 22:42Speaker 3: ish on, uh, on Barkoff, but that, that Marshan thing
- 22:46Speaker 3: was some of the puts fear into you too. And gosh,
- 22:51Speaker 3: it's the exact same thing that happened last year with,
- 22:54Speaker 3: with the Florida Panthers.
- 22:58Speaker 1: Next up, as you already mentioned, Boston, how does that
- 23:01Speaker 1: game go? Never won in Boston before been shut out.
- 23:05Speaker 3: Scored one goal. Played in December last year. Last time
- 23:08Speaker 3: the Mammoth saw the Bruins was December. Both teams were
- 23:10Speaker 3: kind of still figuring themselves out, teetering in terms of playoffs.
- 23:16Speaker 3: Both finished strong. Boston finished as the first wild card
- 23:22Speaker 3: in the East. Mammoth finished as the first wild card
- 23:25Speaker 3: in the West. For Boston, they're the only team that's
- 23:28Speaker 3: beaten the Rangers so far. They lost a close game
- 23:31Speaker 3: to Minnesota, who's always good. Um, their last game coming
- 23:37Speaker 3: back from a mini two game trip, they lost four,
- 23:39Speaker 3: one to Ottawa and it, uh, it was ugly.
- 23:41Speaker 1: It wasn't good.
- 23:42Speaker 3: And for me, I thought, oh, it's probably a six, one, seven,
- 23:45Speaker 3: one game looking at the, the reaction and seeing what
- 23:49Speaker 3: the score was, was early, but.
- 23:52Speaker 1: But they're a big heavy team. Um, they.
- 23:57Speaker 3: Are tops in the league and hits Utah, the surprise second, but, um,
- 24:03Speaker 3: Mammoth have not scored a lot of goals against Boston.
- 24:07Speaker 3: Last year at home, beat them 3-2 in overtime. The
- 24:10Speaker 3: year before that, in the inaugural season, beat them 2-1
- 24:13Speaker 3: in overtime in a game that was scoreless going into
- 24:16Speaker 3: the third period. The games against Boston have been really
- 24:20Speaker 3: low scoring. They're a big, heavy team. You could say,
- 24:26Speaker 3: when you look at Utah coming into this season, you
- 24:29Speaker 3: could say Boston, that might be one of the teams
- 24:31Speaker 3: they struggle with, but We talk about how this season
- 24:34Speaker 3: started with the team identity as a whole, the way
- 24:39Speaker 3: that they've had success.
- 24:41Speaker 1: It'll be fun to see, as you.
- 24:43Speaker 3: Talked about earlier, what do we know about Columbus, the Devils,
- 24:47Speaker 3: Chicago Blackhawks. You know what you're going to get from Boston,
- 24:52Speaker 3: regardless of how it shakes out.
- 24:56Speaker 2: Last thing before I let you go, we were talking
- 24:59Speaker 2: in the previous segment about, um, Argentina bidding farewell to
- 25:02Speaker 2: Leo Messi, at least on the international stage is a
- 25:05Speaker 2: great sendoff in a friendly game against Benin. He assisted
- 25:09Speaker 2: two goals. He scored the final goal on a penalty. Uh,
- 25:13Speaker 2: you know, just the pageantry of it. His, his statement
- 25:18Speaker 2: was beautiful. And I was somewhat lamenting the fact that
- 25:22Speaker 2: we don't have that in American sports. There's, there's, There's
- 25:26Speaker 2: not like a deity of American sport, in my opinion,
- 25:31Speaker 2: at least. What is the closest equivalent we have to
- 25:35Speaker 2: Leo Messi in the sports world as Americans?
- 25:41Speaker 3: I'm going straight to hockey. I don't want to say
- 25:46Speaker 3: a New York Yankee, but guys like him and LeBron,
- 25:53Speaker 3: those are guys that the, or, uh, Aaron judge and LeBron,
- 25:57Speaker 3: like those are two guys you look at, um, Tom
- 26:01Speaker 3: Brady's retired a couple of couple of years ago.
- 26:05Speaker 1: Like, what do you think? Well, because, because it's unique, right?
- 26:10Speaker 2: Soccer has the thing where like, doesn't, doesn't matter what
- 26:14Speaker 2: international club you play for or what professional club you
- 26:17Speaker 2: play for. every four years you get to put on
- 26:19Speaker 2: the shirt and you get to like our football players
- 26:23Speaker 2: don't get to participate in the Olympics.
- 26:26Speaker 1: At least not yet.
- 26:27Speaker 2: Flag football's coming, right? Our basketball players do, but it's not,
- 26:33Speaker 2: I don't know. It doesn't make you love LeBron James.
- 26:37Speaker 2: If you're an anti Laker guy or you're an anti, uh,
- 26:40Speaker 2: 76 or guy or an anti Miami heat guy. You
- 26:44Speaker 2: don't like, oh, now I love LeBron James because of
- 26:46Speaker 2: wind because he won us a gold medal.
- 26:48Speaker 1: Who's the hero. Yeah.
- 26:50Speaker 2: We came up, got a good couple of texts. Muhammad
- 26:53Speaker 2: Ali turned into that. Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, tiger woods
- 26:58Speaker 2: was maybe that pre controversy or everyone kind of had
- 27:02Speaker 2: love for tiger, but it's a unique thing. And in hockey,
- 27:06Speaker 2: I think Canada has it. I don't think the U
- 27:10Speaker 2: S does. right?
- 27:11Speaker 1: Like, yeah.
- 27:12Speaker 3: Um, I don't think so. I don't think so. Um,
- 27:15Speaker 3: I'm so worldly. I had no idea what you were
- 27:18Speaker 3: getting after there, but I don't think so.
- 27:23Speaker 1: Like, does everyone in Canada still love Wayne Gretzky? I
- 27:27Speaker 1: think so. Even though he left and went to LA. Yeah. I, I,
- 27:31Speaker 1: I think so. There's always stuff. Yeah. You know, there's
- 27:34Speaker 1: some political stuff that, You know, that's the.
- 27:38Speaker 2: Other thing now that everyone has social media and they
- 27:40Speaker 2: can tell, they could tell everyone what they really think
- 27:43Speaker 2: it's harder for athletes to, and that's, I mean, part
- 27:45Speaker 2: of the reason probably why Leo Messi is so beloved,
- 27:48Speaker 2: not only in Argentina, but internationally, because you actually don't
- 27:51Speaker 2: know anything about him.
- 27:53Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:53Speaker 2: Like all you get is, is he a good soccer player?
- 27:57Speaker 2: And as far as we could tell, is he nice
- 27:59Speaker 2: to people?
- 28:00Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 28:00Speaker 2: And the answer to those seems like, yes. So everyone
- 28:03Speaker 2: loves Leo anyway. Always great catching up with you, sir.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 28:08Speaker 2: Between the Pipes with Adrian Denny, brought to you by
- 28:10Speaker 2: our friends over at Valley Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling and
- 28:12Speaker 2: Aladdin Industries.
- 28:14Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in. How out of my week, buddy.
- 28:15Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.