Thatcher Demko, Jim Rutherford, Covid discussed on The Ray & Dregs Hockey Podcast

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New. Everything's fresh. Yeah. So I think what Bruce has been able to do is just take the heat off a little bit and say, yeah, this is what we're going to play like. And this is how we're going to play and just go play. Yeah. And there's a couple of things. They've had some in the four games. They've had some good schedule breaks. They've gotten teams on back to back nights. They've been fresh. They've been at home. Their energized. Oh yeah, and their goalie is to stop in the pock again at 95%. Right. I'm not throwing cold water on at all. I'm just trying to be realistic. If Thatcher demko stops a pocket 95% for the rest of the year, they're going to win a hell of a lot of games. The weaknesses are still there and Jim Rutherford has addressed them in his press conference. They need to be faster by his note. He wants to be more aggressive. He sees the holes in the team. I think everybody can see the holes in the team, but you can't fix them all in a week. No. No. And so they'll be ups and downs and, but, you know, I live in Vancouver. It's nice, not to step on a pile of crap all the time. Every time the team walks around, it's nice to watch a team and go, ah, even if they lose, you go, no, that was good. Yeah. Because it's been so negative for so long. It's just it's been miserable for any can not hockey fan. And now they get a breath of fresh air. Give us an assessment of the two Alberta teams. You know, we're poised to do the Maple Leafs in the Edmonton liners tonight being Tuesday night as we record this. The floundering right now, they've lost 5 in a row. So take us through what your thoughts are on why things aren't going their way. And not that we need to get into the COVID conversation again, but that's where the Calgary flames are, but aside from that, you know, what do you see in Calgary? Okay, so start an Edmonton. How many games do you think Mike Smith has played this year? Yeah, not many. Like, did you have a guess? Yeah. Who would have 26? So they've been playing with their second and third goalie for 24 of 26 games. When Miko koskinen one 11 games early, he had the highest goal support of any goalie in the league. Yeah. Right now he's in a 9 O 5 save percentage, I think, and three 5 goals against average as I'm doing research for the game here on Tuesday. How are you going to win with that? Yeah. You can't. And so eventually, it leaks out into everything else. They lost Cody CC. They lost Duncan Keith. Well, there's their second pair. Yeah, right? Gone. Then you get up front. Their power play was running at 50%. Well, that's not going to happen. No. All the time. And so as it's tumbles back to earth, they start losing the special team battle more and more and more. Their bottom 6 forwards haven't scored forever. Well, part of the issue with that is they're number three center who was hoping to be Derek Ryan. It's just not worked. He's not been a real disappointment. So now you have a cloud playing in the middle of their third line. He doesn't have an assist yet. Well, how do you think his wingers are doing? Yeah. I'm very good. So there's your Euler story. I think if you would have started the year and said they're going to be 16 and ten, you would have said pretty good. Pretty good. It's Larry David would say, pretty pretty pretty good. However, now there's stumbling around and you're like, man, look at the panic has set in. They're a flawed team that needs their goalie back. And if he can't come back, they're screwed. As for Calgary, remember when Mark strom had a 48 save shadow? Well, he's got 5 shutouts. The coaches know the teams know that's not always going to happen. And he was scoring goals literally every game, not going to happen. Yeah. They've won four out of 12 games on whole mice. So they're your issues right there for Calgary. But I think in the long picture, you look at them and you go, they're both in, they both have a good record for this time of the year. There's going to get hot again and then they're going to get cold again. He'll Colorado was losing games all over the place when they were injured. Now they're winning because they score literally 7 goals a game. Yeah. That's not going to happen. That's not going to continue to happen. No. So I think that's where the Alberta teams. They've hit the ditch. Yeah. All right, well you mentioned Colorado Pittsburgh is a good story among our American Friends. But why don't we wrap up headlines with Nashville? Did you see this team challenging? Potentially challenging for the central division at the start of the year. I mean, they've won, you know? No chance. You know, at four for a lot of reasons, you know, I wondered how UC sorrows was going to take the number one job and just do it all the time. How could he do that? He's been fantastic. Matthias at home and Philip forsberg during the last year, other contracts. You know, so that can either go good or bad. Well, at home, they got signed early. Forsberg was hurt, came back and scored four goals and I think his second game back, like you're like, no, no, I'm not too shame. It's found his game again. Pretty good. So now you've added some offense to a team that's always been able to skate. Duchenne's probably been as big a key for them as any. Without him, they become pretty thin, but I didn't, I didn't see this. I mean, they traded Ryan Ellis. Could that be a good thing? Yeah, here they are and they're in a really good position. I would say John Heinz is a very underrated coach. Not just because they won 5 games here. Yeah, he's a progressive guy. He wants his teams to play a real offensive style. Of course, you're going to have the guys to do it. But I've been impressed with Nashville, man. You know, you've said that so many times before it's the old adage, right? The player wants more ice. He goes to the coach. The coach says, well, you want more ice play better. Player says, well, play me with better players. Back and forth, they go and I feel like there's finally been this compromise and a relationship that's been developed between Matt duchene and John Heinz, where the player is playing better and that allows John Heinz to play him more. Well, they spoke in the summer and Heinz and Duchenne apparently had a pretty honest not always chipper conversation. And Duchenne told him what was bugging him and Heinz told him what was bugging him and I always go back to when John tortorella and Vinny le cavallier were going to strangle each other and Jay feaster called them both in the office and said, I'm not tradeing you and I'm not firing you. Figure it out. Meetings. And they won the Stanley Cup because they figured it out. Our interviews on rain drakes are brought to you by our friends at Canadian club whisky, who are asking, are you over beer?.

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