Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Tom Callahan on the Utah Mammoth first round loss to Vegas, Next step they need to make, Stanley Cup Playoffs + more
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So feb Miss America.
- 0:03Speaker 2: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
- 0:06Speaker 2: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and one half ms.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Drinking whiskey and right sing in this sob the day
- 0:16Speaker 1: that I die.
- 0:19Speaker 2: This be the day.
- 0:21Speaker 3: If you're feeling the sting of a Utah Mammoth season
- 0:25Speaker 3: coming to an end, We're with you, all right. Hopefully
- 0:28Speaker 3: you got a chance to see playoff hockey at the
- 0:31Speaker 3: Delta Center and one of the three games played there.
- 0:34Speaker 3: If not, there's gonna be plenty more Stanley Cup playoff
- 0:37Speaker 3: hockey being played to the.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Next few seasons in that building.
- 0:40Speaker 3: And by the way, the remodel, the construction has already
- 0:44Speaker 3: begun as it gets another facelift. Joining us now on
- 0:49Speaker 3: the Sean O'Connell Show. Tom Callahan, host of Lockdown Mammoth
- 0:53Speaker 3: At Callahan on Air, friend of the program, one of
- 0:56Speaker 3: our hockey insiders, Tom, welcome back.
- 0:58Speaker 2: How are you, uh you know what? Not too bad?
- 1:02Speaker 2: I appreciate the tuning, the mournful dirge of you know,
- 1:08Speaker 2: Don McClain coming in, But I'm trying to go glass
- 1:12Speaker 2: half full here as I look back at this season
- 1:14Speaker 2: and what it meant for the Mammoth Well.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Let's do that.
- 1:18Speaker 3: Let's approach from this glass half full, because if I
- 1:20Speaker 3: rewind all the way to the beginning of the season,
- 1:23Speaker 3: when we're having our exploratory talks, Hey, what should we expect?
- 1:26Speaker 3: What do you think is gonna happen here? It was
- 1:29Speaker 3: this is a team that could make the playoffs. The
- 1:33Speaker 3: optimistic ones of us said, this is a team that
- 1:35Speaker 3: will make the playoffs, and they at least did that.
- 1:38Speaker 3: We saw some great stuff from them in the playoffs.
- 1:40Speaker 3: We saw some things that need to be cleaned up
- 1:42Speaker 3: and fixed so they can advance beyond the first round
- 1:45Speaker 3: next time. But it feels like they're at least on pace.
- 1:48Speaker 3: If we're trying to keep this glass half full. Is
- 1:51Speaker 3: this what the Mammoth franchise needed from their second season
- 1:55Speaker 3: in order to stay on track?
- 1:59Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. And at the beginning of the
- 2:01Speaker 2: year on our show, we said playoffs are bust. And
- 2:05Speaker 2: you know, even on here, every time we come on, Hey,
- 2:08Speaker 2: playoffs or bust. That was how it felt. If you're
- 2:11Speaker 2: going to quote unquote take the next step the playoffs.
- 2:14Speaker 2: For the next step, they made the playoffs. They made
- 2:17Speaker 2: a pretty good showing against Vegas. I still think they
- 2:21Speaker 2: could have won that series, and we could, you know,
- 2:24Speaker 2: talk about that, so we're blue in the face. But
- 2:26Speaker 2: they did get the next step. They got the playoff experience.
- 2:30Speaker 2: There were some nice revelations, some surprises along the road
- 2:34Speaker 2: this year in the regular season, some players who really
- 2:36Speaker 2: stepped up. I think some other you know, deficits in
- 2:41Speaker 2: the lineup made themselves a little more evident, and overall
- 2:45Speaker 2: we have a clearer picture as to what it is
- 2:48Speaker 2: going to take to your original point to advance this
- 2:51Speaker 2: team even further in seasons to come.
- 2:55Speaker 3: So as that picture comes into greater clarity, what does
- 3:00Speaker 3: it look like, where are the holes that need to
- 3:03Speaker 3: be filled still on this team?
- 3:05Speaker 1: And how heavy a lift is it or is it
- 3:07Speaker 1: just some tweaking.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's one of those things where the
- 3:13Speaker 2: biggest question I've got heading into the offseason and where
- 3:16Speaker 2: there is the most potential for change with one move
- 3:20Speaker 2: is behind the bench. Andre Tourney's contract, you know, coming
- 3:25Speaker 2: into this year, was on its final year and I'm
- 3:29Speaker 2: really curious to see what the direction is going to
- 3:32Speaker 2: be with all of it. Quite frankly, I mean, the
- 3:37Speaker 2: front office has to make a decision here on the team,
- 3:42Speaker 2: the identity, the focus of this team, because right now
- 3:46Speaker 2: they can go one a few ways. They have speed elements,
- 3:49Speaker 2: and they can play fast and they can really, you know,
- 3:52Speaker 2: kill you with that, and they did to Vegas a
- 3:54Speaker 2: couple of times in that playoff series. But they also
- 3:58Speaker 2: can play big and they've kind of been drafting in
- 4:01Speaker 2: that mold, so or maybe somehow you can be a
- 4:05Speaker 2: hybrid of that. But I think that's one of the
- 4:08Speaker 2: things that has to change is the way they approach
- 4:10Speaker 2: their games and their game plan, no matter what the
- 4:14Speaker 2: result is of who's back there. The other thing, I mean,
- 4:19Speaker 2: this one's pretty blatant, and the Vegas series underscored it
- 4:23Speaker 2: three times. They blew a league and lost. That's huge.
- 4:28Speaker 2: And that is not just on the defense, meaning the
- 4:31Speaker 2: six guys back there and the goalie. That's everybody that is.
- 4:35Speaker 2: The whole team needs to be better defensively, needs to
- 4:38Speaker 2: shore those things up. Too many times in the regular season,
- 4:42Speaker 2: you know, we talk about the naps, the defensive missus,
- 4:45Speaker 2: the giveaways that let other teams that were good in
- 4:48Speaker 2: transition really take advantage of Utah, and Vegas did it
- 4:53Speaker 2: in the series. It's just where there were giveaways or
- 4:56Speaker 2: miscues credit then they capitalized on them, right, Vegas had
- 4:59Speaker 2: to actually score the goals. But it's the same thing
- 5:04Speaker 2: we've seen from Yudah defensively for a while now, and
- 5:06Speaker 2: I think that that, to me, is a huge priority.
- 5:12Speaker 3: We talked about special teams all year, so it would
- 5:14Speaker 3: be appropriate to look back in our post mortem and say,
- 5:18Speaker 3: all right, the ups and downs, the roller coaster of
- 5:22Speaker 3: the penalty kill and the roller coaster of the power play,
- 5:24Speaker 3: and especially the power play deficiencies that we saw in
- 5:28Speaker 3: the playoffs. Is that fixed with personnel or is that
- 5:32Speaker 3: fixed with practice?
- 5:35Speaker 1: How do they address those things?
- 5:39Speaker 2: Well, again, it always starts with coaching. Special teams is
- 5:44Speaker 2: a lot of coaching, but then it is a lot
- 5:46Speaker 2: of personnel to play the way the coach wants them
- 5:48Speaker 2: to play. You can have what someone might consider the
- 5:51Speaker 2: perfect penalty kill or the perfect power play, but if
- 5:54Speaker 2: you don't have the personnel to do it, then you're
- 5:57Speaker 2: not going to x acute what the game plan is.
- 6:01Speaker 2: And so it's it is chicken or the egg right here. Okay,
- 6:05Speaker 2: you have to take the personnel you have and put
- 6:07Speaker 2: together a game plan that will be successful for them.
- 6:12Speaker 2: Because if we're trying to force a square pegan around hole.
- 6:14Speaker 2: Look Edmonton's got the best power play in the league
- 6:16Speaker 2: because they have McDavid and dry title. Okay, any team
- 6:20Speaker 2: with McDavid and dry Sidle could probably throw chalk at
- 6:23Speaker 2: a board and land a really good power play plan.
- 6:26Speaker 2: So that's it is part of its personnel. Part of
- 6:31Speaker 2: it's getting the right personnel with one another. And the
- 6:34Speaker 2: other thing too. On the power play. Towards the end
- 6:36Speaker 2: of the year, especially after the Olympic break, all of
- 6:38Speaker 2: a sudden, it got pretty good. It seemed like they
- 6:40Speaker 2: were executing. They were finding ways to get pucks through
- 6:44Speaker 2: and then to score some goals. They were getting into
- 6:46Speaker 2: what we call the greasy areas, which is right around
- 6:49Speaker 2: that net, you another five to ten foot circle around
- 6:51Speaker 2: the net where you're going to take a lot of licks,
- 6:54Speaker 2: but you're going to score a lot of goals. And
- 6:56Speaker 2: I think the evolution of some of the younger players,
- 7:00Speaker 2: you know Cooley gumfor continuing to evolve. Man, he's got
- 7:02Speaker 2: a wicked shot, like you know, those guys are getting
- 7:05Speaker 2: better with experience. I think that had something to do
- 7:08Speaker 2: with it too. And the penalty kills just straight up
- 7:11Speaker 2: hard work. It is hard, hard work, and it's discipline.
- 7:15Speaker 2: When goals are scored on a power play, often by
- 7:18Speaker 2: the opposition, it's because there was even the slightest breakdown
- 7:22Speaker 2: and coverage, and it takes a lot of mental acuity
- 7:26Speaker 2: as well as the physical skills and stamina to continue
- 7:29Speaker 2: to kill penalties. So you know, those are things that
- 7:34Speaker 2: you take the personnel you have and try to fit
- 7:36Speaker 2: the right guys into your system, and if it doesn't fink,
- 7:39Speaker 2: you've got to change the system. So I think it
- 7:42Speaker 2: is a little six and one a half dozen to
- 7:44Speaker 2: the other, But again to me, it's more on the
- 7:46Speaker 2: coaching side, because I believe Utah, especially power play, has
- 7:51Speaker 2: the skilled players to have a dominant power play unit.
- 7:56Speaker 3: Tom Callahan our guests talking you Tom Mammoth as their
- 7:59Speaker 3: season ended life last Friday on a playoff loss to
- 8:03Speaker 3: the Las Vegas Golden Knights. We'll talk about the Western
- 8:06Speaker 3: Conference playoffs as they continue to shape up, and the
- 8:09Speaker 3: Eastern Conference playoffs. But the NHL Draft lottery is tomorrow
- 8:16Speaker 3: five o'clock, five o'clock Mountain time tomorrow, and the Mammoth
- 8:24Speaker 3: don't have lottery odds. Vancouver has an eighteen and a
- 8:27Speaker 3: half percent chance to take that number one pick. But
- 8:31Speaker 3: is this draft class? Is this group is the timeline
- 8:35Speaker 3: that the Utah Mammat are on right now? How much
- 8:39Speaker 3: attention should we be paying to the draft lottery and
- 8:42Speaker 3: to this particular class of prospects?
- 8:46Speaker 2: I think the Mammoth I mean every year. First of all,
- 8:49Speaker 2: it is worth it to look at the draft class.
- 8:51Speaker 2: But because Utah makes the playoffs, they're in the bottom
- 8:54Speaker 2: half of Round one, and they have done a nice
- 8:57Speaker 2: job over the previous several seasons of stockpiling draft picks,
- 9:02Speaker 2: so they have that capital. Here's two reasons why it's interesting.
- 9:08Speaker 2: Number one, just to see what's your opponents around you
- 9:12Speaker 2: were doing and how they're faring, how that might work
- 9:14Speaker 2: out for them. And number two for me for Utah,
- 9:20Speaker 2: it's a point where I think, now the cupboards are
- 9:24Speaker 2: stacked with prospects. You have your picks. Yes, you want
- 9:27Speaker 2: to hit on your picks if you can, but those
- 9:30Speaker 2: are trade capital. Those are means of moving around to
- 9:34Speaker 2: get players, because now you're entering your Stanley cup window.
- 9:37Speaker 2: In my opinion, this is the first year where the
- 9:40Speaker 2: window opened just a crack. Next year, I want to
- 9:43Speaker 2: see the window thrown open halfway and the year after
- 9:46Speaker 2: that if better be wide open, because I think it's
- 9:49Speaker 2: basically a three year window. In years two and three
- 9:52Speaker 2: is where this team is going to be competing for
- 9:54Speaker 2: a Stanley Cup. So I think the draft matters in
- 9:57Speaker 2: that Utah might be able to do some maneuvering with
- 10:01Speaker 2: what they've stored up in prospects and picks to fortify
- 10:04Speaker 2: themselves with a mid range player. And I mean that
- 10:09Speaker 2: as far as age, like mid twenties, late twenties, maybe
- 10:12Speaker 2: an early thirties vetter, and because they're going into that window,
- 10:15Speaker 2: So that to me is why the draft matters. I mean,
- 10:19Speaker 2: it's fun to see who wins the lottery. Is it
- 10:20Speaker 2: going to impact the Mammoth? No? And how different is
- 10:24Speaker 2: that from a year ago, which is actually a really
- 10:27Speaker 2: nice place to be if you're a Mammoth fan.
- 10:32Speaker 3: The Stanley Cup playoffs move on without us, as they
- 10:36Speaker 3: do every time a team loses. The Avalanche and the
- 10:40Speaker 3: Wild put on just a bar burder of a game,
- 10:44Speaker 3: fifteen combined goals in this one, and Colorado emerges victorious
- 10:48Speaker 3: to take the one zero lead in that series. Plenty
- 10:52Speaker 3: of hockey left to play, obviously, we had just wonderful
- 10:57Speaker 3: hockey in the first round. Are we gonna get that
- 11:02Speaker 3: same level of intrigue or even better in the second?
- 11:07Speaker 2: Well? If heller out of Minnesota game one, is any
- 11:09Speaker 2: indication buckle up? I mean that was nuts, boy. I
- 11:17Speaker 2: every time I looked away from that game, there were
- 11:20Speaker 2: not one, but two or three more goals on the board.
- 11:22Speaker 2: It was insane, But it's fun. Not every game in
- 11:25Speaker 2: that series is going to be like that, but they're
- 11:27Speaker 2: all going to be close. The contests will get better
- 11:31Speaker 2: as we get through the Cup playoffs, or the intrigue
- 11:35Speaker 2: will build. I can't believe Montreal bounced Tampa in seven games,
- 11:41Speaker 2: but good for Montreal. And now there's a real old
- 11:44Speaker 2: school rivalry playoff matchup Buffalo against Montreal coming up. Carolina,
- 11:50Speaker 2: I think is gonna go through Philly like a hot
- 11:52Speaker 2: knife through butter. So that's that'll be an interesting storyline
- 11:58Speaker 2: from whether or not number one Philadelphia can really make
- 12:00Speaker 2: a series out of it. At number two, if Carolina
- 12:02Speaker 2: gets another sweep, they're doing a lot of sitting around
- 12:07Speaker 2: what happens when they get the winner of Buffalo Montreal.
- 12:09Speaker 2: So that's interesting to me. That's going to be a storyline,
- 12:12Speaker 2: and then I mean, the West is just going to
- 12:14Speaker 2: be teams just beaten on each other. I don't I'm
- 12:19Speaker 2: going to hate to put it this way, but I
- 12:20Speaker 2: feel like Minnesota and Colorado pretty much is the Western
- 12:23Speaker 2: Conference final. I don't give a chance to Vegas or
- 12:26Speaker 2: Anaheim coming out of the Pacific for either one of
- 12:29Speaker 2: those two teams to beat the winner of Minnesota Colorado.
- 12:32Speaker 2: So maybe we are looking at Carolina Colorado, but maybe not,
- 12:36Speaker 2: and that's why we've got to play the games. I
- 12:39Speaker 2: would love to see Anaheim pull the upside against Vegas,
- 12:42Speaker 2: and I think that's going to be a really interesting
- 12:44Speaker 2: clash of styles. I think that Utah showed Vegas as beatable,
- 12:50Speaker 2: and I think that the Ducks can follow the blueprint
- 12:53Speaker 2: and get the job done. So to me, there's a
- 12:55Speaker 2: lot of intrigue, all for different reasons, all for different series.
- 12:59Speaker 2: But if you're just gonna to pick one to follow,
- 13:01Speaker 2: it is the Division series Central Division, Colorado Minnesota. That's
- 13:05Speaker 2: the one I would watch every single game.
- 13:09Speaker 3: Is Connor McDavid skating in an Oilers sweater much longer?
- 13:16Speaker 2: I mean, yes, I mean what's crazy is he took
- 13:21Speaker 2: a discount to ensure that that team would have the
- 13:26Speaker 2: tools it needs to be able to support him to
- 13:29Speaker 2: win a Stanley Cup. But they cannot get out of
- 13:33Speaker 2: their own way when it comes to defense, goaltending and
- 13:39Speaker 2: supporting Tom McDavid. Quite frankly, they're lucky they have a
- 13:43Speaker 2: Leon Dry Sidle. The Oilers were a worse team this
- 13:47Speaker 2: year than they were the last two years. And I
- 13:50Speaker 2: don't know that McDavid forces his way out of Edmonton yet.
- 13:55Speaker 2: Next season is going to tell you a lot, though.
- 13:57Speaker 2: If they come out to the gate and they're awful,
- 14:00Speaker 2: I think can change a lot by changing the coach.
- 14:02Speaker 2: They could really you know, over the summer just be like,
- 14:05Speaker 2: you know what, we're going to go with a different direction,
- 14:08Speaker 2: and then that's going to buy them a couple of
- 14:10Speaker 2: years of Hey, we're going to figure this out and
- 14:13Speaker 2: you know, how do we work with McDavid and make
- 14:15Speaker 2: this better. But I still stand by my prediction that
- 14:18Speaker 2: he's going to be the best player ever to never
- 14:21Speaker 2: win a Stanley Cup.
- 14:24Speaker 1: That would be that would be brutal to see in
- 14:27Speaker 1: his career given how great he's been.
- 14:30Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's he's we throw around generational talent
- 14:33Speaker 2: pretty easily. In any sport. But Connor McDavid truly is
- 14:37Speaker 2: a generational talent. Everything he does with the fuck and
- 14:40Speaker 2: without the puck is exceptional. And yes, it would be
- 14:44Speaker 2: a shame, but man, I just I don't know. I
- 14:49Speaker 2: don't think it ever happens in Edmonton. I just don't.
- 14:51Speaker 2: He will have to go somewhere else. Eventually.
- 14:57Speaker 3: Are we going to see Sidney Crosby and alex so
- 15:00Speaker 3: betch getting back in the NFL next year?
- 15:04Speaker 2: Obie, Yeah, I think he'll come back for one more.
- 15:08Speaker 2: I know he said he's going to evaluate it, but
- 15:12Speaker 2: there's just part of me that things he would like
- 15:14Speaker 2: to get to a thousand goals because it's a nice
- 15:17Speaker 2: round number, and he could, but it's going to take
- 15:21Speaker 2: a little while. He's not going to do it next year,
- 15:24Speaker 2: so he's really gonna have to And look, you know,
- 15:28Speaker 2: at the end of a Vegskins career, he's going to
- 15:30Speaker 2: go back and play in the KHL because you know,
- 15:32Speaker 2: that's what Puton wants him to do. But he can
- 15:35Speaker 2: still go back and play when he's forty five or
- 15:37Speaker 2: forty seven years old. No one will know the difference.
- 15:39Speaker 2: It'll still be, you know, hometown hero a NHL All
- 15:44Speaker 2: time great comes home per Sid, It's a little bit
- 15:47Speaker 2: of a different story the Penguins. Nobody gave him a
- 15:50Speaker 2: chance this year, but they came back and they made it.
- 15:53Speaker 2: But they're going to be another year older. Let Tang
- 15:55Speaker 2: has always been injury thrown, especially the last five years.
- 15:58Speaker 2: I don't know if he's going to hang it up.
- 16:00Speaker 2: Malkin wants to come back, only wants to be in Pittsburgh.
- 16:03Speaker 2: Sid wants to come back, only wants to be in
- 16:05Speaker 2: Pittsburgh unless the Penguins in their younger core feel like
- 16:13Speaker 2: they really do have a shot at a run. I mean,
- 16:15Speaker 2: I don't know that they would trade prosby or if
- 16:17Speaker 2: you'd have the appetite to trying to go somewhere to
- 16:19Speaker 2: quote unquote when one more cup. But I think he
- 16:22Speaker 2: comes back. I don't think he's done. I just don't
- 16:25Speaker 2: get that sense. Nothing about the way the season finished
- 16:28Speaker 2: tells me he's ready to hang it up.
- 16:34Speaker 3: So I put a question out this morning, this will
- 16:36Speaker 3: be my last thing, like who was the team MVP
- 16:38Speaker 3: this year? And it feels like the consensus is, like,
- 16:42Speaker 3: you know, Clayton Keller playing through what he had to
- 16:44Speaker 3: play through and still being the points leader and facilitating
- 16:47Speaker 3: the way he did. If that's how people want to
- 16:50Speaker 3: say it, fine, a more fascinating question, who is going
- 16:54Speaker 3: to be the team's best player next year?
- 16:56Speaker 1: Tom?
- 17:00Speaker 2: I like this question. This is good. Yeah, it's because
- 17:06Speaker 2: you get another year of Logan Cooley's growth, you get
- 17:09Speaker 2: another year of Dylan Gunther's growth, you get another year
- 17:12Speaker 2: of just the potential for guys next year to jump
- 17:16Speaker 2: in and make an impact to our prospects. Right now,
- 17:19Speaker 2: the again LEAs the boat when Denoyer could one of
- 17:23Speaker 2: them come out of nowhere in surprise. I think Cooley's
- 17:27Speaker 2: game overall, all the tools he has, bode well for
- 17:33Speaker 2: him being the best overall player for the Mammoth as
- 17:41Speaker 2: this team, you know, looks two, three, four years down
- 17:44Speaker 2: the road. But the guy that I love and will
- 17:49Speaker 2: be the team's leading goal scorer is Dylan Gunther. And
- 17:54Speaker 2: I love Gunther not only for his ability to score goals,
- 17:59Speaker 2: but there were times this year when the Mammoth were
- 18:02Speaker 2: just flat or just didn't have it for whatever reason.
- 18:06Speaker 2: They just weren't plugged in that night. But Dylan Gunther was.
- 18:10Speaker 2: Dylan Gunther was in the pile. He was in the
- 18:13Speaker 2: face of the other players. He has that as the
- 18:16Speaker 2: kids say these days, he has that dog in him.
- 18:19Speaker 2: He really does.
- 18:20Speaker 1: To me.
- 18:21Speaker 2: Dylan Gunther is the future captain of the Utah Mammoth
- 18:25Speaker 2: and I'm picking him as my player for next season
- 18:29Speaker 2: to be that person.
- 18:31Speaker 3: All right, I love it. We'll ask you probably the
- 18:34Speaker 3: same thing before the season gets rolling. We still want
- 18:36Speaker 3: to talk some playoff hockey with you as we get
- 18:39Speaker 3: closer to the Cups. So again, appreciate your time today,
- 18:42Speaker 3: and you've been a great asset all season long.
- 18:44Speaker 1: Let's keep it rolling.
- 18:45Speaker 2: Tom sounds great. I appreciate you having me on and yeah,
- 18:49Speaker 2: I look forward to it.
- 18:50Speaker 3: That's TODM. Callahan, one of the best in the business.
- 18:54Speaker 3: At Callahan on air. If you're not Arey following on Twitter.