Welcome to Hockey Mountain High, your go-to avalanche podcast presented by Superbook Sports.
I'm Mayor of Dean here of Mile High Sports, joined by Ryan Bolding of NHL.com to chat more
avalanche hockey, another avalanche trade. Unfortunately, not another avalanche victory,
but a really entertaining game, but we'll kick things off with a quick introduction. How you
doing, Ryan? I'm good. I could use a little sleep after last night. That was quite the game.
It took a while to come down from that. Yeah, tell me about it. First period was,
I mean, the avalanche didn't have the best start. And we'll talk a little bit about it,
but first period was a little bit of a snoozer. By halfway through the second period, I was wired.
It was a completely different game. The JT comfort goal that made it five to four was very
Stanley Cup final level loudness. That was a roar from the crowd. It was pretty spectacular.
Yeah, it was incredible. And the way that the crowd kind of got back into it, it was a beat down
early. It looked like the game was over. And then, like I said, we'll talk about it a little bit,
but the way the crowd roared back to life, it was playoff atmosphere. It was sort of playoff
hockey style from the avalanche a little bit. And I turned to Megan Angley from DnVR,
who sits next to me in the press box towards the end of the game when I was writing my story.
And I was like, no more goals, Megan. Yeah. It was wild. It was, I think it was exactly
five to four at the midway point. And it ended seven to five. So, you know, each team added a goal
plus an empty netter. It was, it was pretty crazy, pretty spectacular. But we are here to,
for starters, chat about the new trade acquisition that the avalanche have made and have already
introduced into their lineup, the Colorado avalanche at about, I want to say somewhere around 11 to
11 30 a.m. It was both reported and then confirmed and announced by the team that the team traded
for Lars Eller from the Washington Capitals for a second round draft pick in 2025. Lars was with
the Washington Capitals on a trip in California. They were in Anaheim. He said yesterday he was
about to take the ice for morning's gate because the caps played the ducks later that night,
Wednesday night, and was told of the trade. He was obviously told before the road trip to pack a
little extra just in case there's a deal sometime during the, during the road trip, which there was.
He quickly worked with the avalanche to figure out logistics for a flight. He got his flight
figured out. He flew into Denver. He got to the arena. The avalanche take the ice. If correct me
if I'm wrong, I think it's 6.25 p.m. for pregame warm up. And he said he got to the rank 15 minutes
before the team took the ice. He took the ice for warm up wearing number 20 with the avalanche,
came off the ice, walked with Jared Bedner to the locker room to just get a quick. Here's really
quickly what to do, what the systems are. Jared said he told him to trust his instincts, go out
there and play his game. He played in the game. The avalanche lost seven to five. He made his debut
after the game. You wouldn't think he was on a losing team because he was just so excited to
chat with us, so excited to be on this team and excited to be here for the long playoff run. I
think I got his entire day mapped out perfectly, but that's the Lars Eller day on March 1st.
Yeah, I walked into the locker room post game and I was late because I have right on
deadline. So I got to put some final details in that can only be done after the buzzer.
And the scrum around him was massive to the point where I was like, I'll come back when it lightens
up and it didn't. So I had to come back and just get whatever scraps I could from the perimeter
there because he was just, you know, Mr. Popular. It'll be interesting to get a little more familiar
with him, you know, during practices and things like that when things calm down a little bit and
you can kind of find some little details and threads. But like you said, what a day from him,
you know, he kind of said, I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow, today, Thursday, on his off day,
just because it had been a whirlwind of a day for him. And he got into the rink, had to hurry
into the lineup. And, you know, he played second shift. I mean, 30 seconds in the game, he was
making his avalanche debut. So really a quick turnaround for the guy. Yeah, it's pretty wild
because his turnaround was so quick. It's not like they set him up in a hotel or he had an apartment
or something ready for him where he was able to come drop off his belongings and play a game.
Like he brought everything with him to the rink from his equipment to his personal belongings,
everything, I guess they probably gave him like a little closet or something. I said,
Hey, go here, change, like get your shit together. Like he had to leave his luggage bag somewhere.
Like the end of the night for him was wild, woke up in Anaheim, traded ended up in Denver, had a
massive scrum around him to chat. And you know, he was really, really, really good with his time.
And he was like very generous, very willing to talk. And it kind of reminded me of when the
avalanche traded for Matt Nieto, not in the similar sense where Nieto was traded same day,
because that was a trade in the evening he played the next day. But in the sense where
the avalanche lost that game when Nieto debuted it made his debut or redebu, I should say.
And we all went into the locker room to chat with Matt Nieto in a very, you know, how the
avalanche get how any NHL team gets after they lose just a not a happy locker room,
but a really happy go lucky Matt Nieto like, Holy shit, I was on a bad team. And now I'm playing
for the avalanche. And you got the same vibe from Lars Eller. I was on a team that's selling.
And now I'm here. Yeah, we lost. Yeah, this. Yeah, that. But I could not be happier to be here. And
you can, you can kind of sense it from his, from his demeanor, from the way he was answering his
questions. He's excited. He's pumped. Yeah, very affable. You know, smiling. It was, it was almost
shocking in contrast to like you said, the way the rest of the room was going. A lot of down faces
in there. When I came in, there was Eller talking, there was used to sanding in, there was your
gev who obviously, I mean, you could go talk to him, but what's the point? And there was a
Andrew Cogliano in Valnechuchen. And I only remember Neutushkin because I looked over at him
and was like, it's not worth the back and forth to try and get him to talk because I could get
other guys in that amount of time, you know. So it just that the contrast of him, like,
being excited, giddy, you know, happy to be here, happy to be on the former Stanley Cup champion,
happy to be in the playoff push, you know, happy to be on a team that's a buyer and not a seller.
And happy to try and provide some of his skill. You know, it just was nice to see that and jarring
to see that in the locker room postgame. And like you said, Matt Nieto had a bit of a quick turnaround
too, although he was traded the night before and got in kind of early. He was there prior to
morning or prior to, you know, media sessions, I saw him walk through the locker room to the
coaches area. But familiar face, right familiar with the organization familiar with Jared Baddonar
to a degree familiar with a handful of guys in the locker room, same with Jack Johnson,
traded the night before comes in the next day. He's there for Morning Skate already has a number,
you know, familiar face familiar with the organization. So this is, you know, the first time in a little
bit that a guy's traded for with no familiarity. And it's thrust right into the game. And unfortunately,
for him, I'm not sure his first shift went the way he wanted it to.
No, the New Jersey devil scored on that first shift. I actually think it was a broken play
that also involved, involved Jack Johnson, who was playing in his second game back with the team
that he rejoined after playing for previously, like you had mentioned. So not a good start,
obviously, he did end the night minus one, but I don't think he cares. I don't think he's too
concerned. I don't think the avalanche are concerned. It was was a very quick turnaround. And
my goodness, the amount of this is all we got after that goal was just a little wild,
because I'm just like the guy literally just flew in. I think Lars Ella is going to be a great fit.
I really do. But just the fact that he played yesterday, I mean, you got to hand it to these
to these guys. I mean, you're seeing it all around the league, Rhino Riley, when he was traded to the
to the Toronto Maple Leafs, him and Nolichari made it and made an effort to go in and be there
right away and play. Jacob Chikrin is playing right now for the Ottawa centers. I don't even know
you can get your visa figured out that quickly going from an American team to a Canadian team.
And we've seen a ton of debuts already. Matias at Combs already played for the Edmonton Oilers.
These guys just want to get in. They want to get ingrained with their new team. And Lars Ella,
like you said, the first guy since Dennis Smalgin, who was more of an an a child depth tweener guy.
Grant is playing a lot of hockey right now in terms of dressing. But between him,
Nietto and Jack Johnson, this is the first guy who's literally a new person to the avalanche.
I asked him yesterday, I had if he had ever played with any of these guys. And he said no, like nothing,
like never skated with anybody in this locker room, never played with anybody in this room,
doesn't know anybody in this room really on a personal level. He didn't mention, you know,
a group hour in Burakovsky were both traded here. And none of them are here anymore. Because obviously
they all want to stand the cup together with Washington. Lars Ella actually scored the game
winning the cup clinching goal with the capitals in 2018 when they had Ruby and Berkey. So,
just a wild turn of events. But let's chat a little bit about what he brings to this team.
Starting from the top is the fact that at morning skate, I was not there, but I know you were there,
and Jared went out of his way to refer to him as a third line center. And then Lars,
yeah, yesterday, really quickly where he thought he fit. And he said exactly where they played me
today, centering the third line, like they could not be more clear that Lars Ella is here to be
your new 3C. You know, the saying shit rolls downhill, right? Usually it's not a pleasant saying,
but I like to kind of tweak it a little bit for the NHL for the abs in particular to say
talent rolls downhill in a perfect world. And what you want is to get your, you know,
cagliano's and o'conners down the lineup if you can. And you slowly want to start, you know,
getting pieces back into the lineup that are higher up than where guys are now or adding
pieces to fill these gaps. So you can slide the guys who have been playing maybe a little above
their depth back down the lineup. And so when you bring in a guy like Ella, who is in agreement
with the coach, third line guy, right? He's going to center this third line right now. That's looking
like a cagliano O'Connor man, it's really hard to say those two names back back. But, you know,
as as pieces get healthy, as guys come back, you can slide guys down the lineup. And that's,
you know, the nice thing about this is he comes in, he can stabilize a third line. He can play
those situations. You can move pieces up and down around him, but you've got this dependable
situation. It doesn't answer the 2C question completely. But now you have the ability to,
you know, flex JT com for as needed, right? You have the ability to move new hook from wing to
center and back to wing as needed. And you've got this piece down here who can anchor the bottom six,
sort of that Darren Helm-esque role. But, you know, a couple of years earlier, a couple steps quicker.
Yeah, I thought we were going to see a line of cagliano Rodriguez O'Connor and then another line
of Niedo Eller and Malgin. And the reason why I, you know, in my mind, I kind of wanted to see
that. Not that that's what makes sense. But I kind of wanted to use that to get the point across that
several months ago, the avalanche literally couldn't play their fourth line. Whether it was
Dryden, Hunt and Anton Bleed or Lucas Sedlack or Martin Coward or insert any of the AHL pickups
that that AHL call ups, they never trusted their fourth line. And Jared would literally,
in his post-gamers, when the avalanche were struggling, would go out of his way when asked about his
top guys being overplayed would literally go out of his way and say, I have eight players I can trust
or nine players I can trust, not exactly in those words. But he would say, I don't have a deep team.
Like he was very straightforward about these guys are playing two, three minutes because,
quite frankly, they shouldn't even be in the lineup. With the additions of Malgin, Niedo and Eller,
the avalanche literally reacquired four words, 10, 11 and 12. And not that that's where they
slot in, but 10, 11 and 12 of players they can trust. Malgin ideally isn't even number 12. But
hey, he's better than what they were playing before. He's given you more than what you were
getting before. And now you have in your lineup, somewhere, you know, if, and it's a big if gay
bland Scott comes back, that would push Dennis Malgin out. But on top of that, the avalanche
are likely going to make another move here. We're recording this. It's Thursday. It's five
o'clock p.m. So the debt trade deadlines in 20 hours by the time you're listening to this,
they may have already made another move. The expectation is the avalanche are going to get
another forward probably a scoring winger if they can't get that second line center,
which at this point, I don't think they are. I think they're going to roll with JT.
If land is Scott comes back, if you have one more forward, that's going to push both Dennis Malgin
and Matt Niedo out of the lineup. Now you have that depth that you've been looking for that
and doesn't include the fact that Ben Myers is already on the outside looking in and you're,
you know, hoping he can kind of build his game up to a level where you want him to play. But
like you said, players get healthy players get pushed down. If your second line is going to be
land to Scott and ran in with JT, that gives new hook Rodriguez and Ella the opportunity to be a
third line. Niedo Kogliano O'Connor blah, blah, blah, insert any of the other names here as the
opportunity to be a fourth line. So really a lot of maneuvering, you know, you're obviously going
to acquire another forward at some point, bring new hook out of the top six, even without a healthy
land to Scott. It really stabilizes a lot because what it does is exactly what Matt Niedo did.
It puts people in their proper positions, proper places. Now you have Ella and Niedo both playing
in your top top nine yesterday. That's not something you had in November, December.
Yeah, no disrespect to you guys like Ben Myers. It's just not quite there yet, right? You go out
and you add Matt Niedo. He's an NHL player. You add Lars Eller. He's an NHL player. You add
Morgan. He's an NHL player. He's a tweener. He's been doing good work, I think, for the Avalanche,
right? But he's that Dryden Hunt replacement and it's a guy that's going to fall down to the line
up to his proper spot. You know, the apps plug some leaks with some guys who did what they could.
But like he said, yeah, in the perfect world, we've got the O'Connor's and Kogliano's on the fourth
line. We've got, you know, Landis Gogg on the second line. You've got J.T. Comfer, second,
third line. You've got Alex Newhook, second, third line. That's what we want to see. I mean,
the apps are being tied to James Ben-Reebstek a little bit right now. So we'll see that'll be
an interesting one to keep an eye on. You know, it's kind of funny. They've gone all this full
circle to get to needing a scoring winger. You know, like, yeah, I know everybody knows Patrick
Kane wanted to go to the Rangers, but you could have figured this out a little bit sooner at least
tried. Maybe they did. Well, we won't know, you know, until after the deadline. But the line up's
coming together and saying that, you know, going into this last week of games, there were some
questions. There were some questions about a team like Vegas coming in. How were they going to
show against the Avalanche? How are the Avalanche going to hold up? And the Avalanche really slapped
him in the mouth, right? And then the Devils are in town. You've got new additions. This line up is
coming into picture here for the stretch run and the playoffs in New Jersey slaps the avalanche in
the mouth real hard, I think. You know, so you can see that things are still a work in progress
just here in Denver. And as Ella becomes more familiar with his role, with his line mates, you know,
as the line stabilized and as ice time stabilizes, I think things will get better. You know, this
team's missing Kilmer car that helps a lot on the back end when he's in Jack Johnson played 19
minutes in his team redebu and looked pretty good, right? But in a perfect world, Jack Johnson's
not playing 19 minutes a hockey. Yeah, no, absolutely not. In a perfect world, you know, with the fact
that Kilmer car is inching closer and Eric Johnson still weighs away in a perfect world, Jack Johnson's
your number six defenseman. We still haven't since November 4th seen the avalanche have all five of
their horses, as Jared likes to refer to them on the blue line playing in the same game. That's
Taves, that's Macar that's Manson, that's Byron, that's Gerard. We haven't had that since. And even
back in November, I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a Sam Gerard that's playing a hell like
granted. He was a minor streak in New Jersey didn't have the best game, but a lot of people didn't.
He's playing a hell of a lot better hockey than he was in the beginning of the season. I'd argue
better than he was at any point in the regular season last year or the playoffs, because he only
played like six games. Sam Gerard's being is playing a little bit better. Bowen Byram obviously has
elevated his game late here in the regular season, just like he did a year ago when he came back
from his concussions and kind of got his feet wet and feet under him a little bit. Caves was brutal
against the Devils, but you know, he's Devontaes. You can always trust him. Kilmer cars, Kilmer car,
and Josh Manson is healthy and he's been a positive impact most nights, which is what you want from
Josh because he is a kind of high and cold player sometimes since he returned and especially in
that first game back against Minnesota, he was he was so much fun. So this will be the first time
they have all their horses, assuming nobody's hurt before Kilmer car returns, which could be
Saturday. So we'll see. I'm sure the avalanche will practice Friday. We'll get a better idea of
what's going on with kale. What I love about Lars Eller is look, first starters,
is it looking more like the avalanche aren't going to trade for a 2C? Probably. And that's fine. It's
it's okay. They have a lot of weapons on this team. Are they as deep as they were last year? No,
but does it doesn't mean they can't win the Stanley Cup again? Still no, they still could.
They went 16 and four last year. Oh, I don't know. Maybe they go 16 and nine this year. Maybe it's a
little bit tougher. Maybe they got to win a game seven. Maybe they got a trail three to two in a
series. All the things they didn't do a year ago. But also when you look at the avalanche lineup,
you also have a Miko Renton and who last year scored five goals in the playoffs. And I think
two of them were empty netters. You're going to get some big goals from Miko in the postseason
this year that you weren't last year. So there will be some things made up here and there to
replace what you had in cadre and how effective he was or Burakovsky into Stanley Cup final and
things like that. But to get back to Lars Eller, what I love about this edition,
two C aside and the fact that it probably means JT zero to C putting that aside because I think
I think people are connecting that with Lars Eller and that's why they dislike the acquisition.
Lars Eller is made for playoff hockey. He is a gamer in the playoffs. He has proven time in time
again that he elevates his game in the postseason. And the number one concern that I have seen outside
of the two C thing is has Eller run out of gas. And it's a very reasonable
concern and question to have is Eller the same player he was? Well, maybe he is. Maybe he hasn't
maybe he has run out of gas and he's not effective. But what we saw from a veteran last year in
Darren Helm or a veteran in Andrew Kogliano who in the regular season were not that effective and
in the playoffs ramped it up because they've been there. They know what it takes. They know what it
means to make it far. Not that Kogliano's won a cup, but he's been in the playoffs,
had some nice long runs with Anaheim, for example. You expect Lars Eller who scores at a half a
going point per game pace in the playoffs, which is way better than he ever does in the regular
season, also has that same sense of knowing when to ramp it up, knowing that when the playoffs are
around 33 years old, bad regular season aside, we're taking this to the next level. We're going
to be the Lars Eller that the Avalanche know they acquired. Yeah, and it's I mean, he's 33 years old.
It's okay for a guy to age down the lineup. You know, there's still talent there. There's still
skill there. But maybe you're not as fast as you were. Maybe your hands aren't as fast as they were,
right? We've seen it. We've seen, I mean, just Jerome Agimla from the Bruins to the end of his
tenure with the Avalanche were, you know, two different players, let alone the prime of his career.
You're looking at Lars Eller. I mean, this is a guy for the last five, six years was shooting
between 8% and 11. He was shooting 6.9% this year. So down having it down year with a down year
Washington Capitals team. And like you said, point per game player who can elevate himself in the
playoffs. He's going to play fewer minutes than before and be totally reliable back there. And
that's what the Avalanche are looking for, you know, stability in the lines like we talked about.
And that I think is one of the most important parts of it. Like this is a guy in 27, 18,
had seven goals and 11 assists in 24 playoff games. 13.13% 13.46% and winning 50% off his face-offs.
Like that's responsible in all areas. Incredible. 18 points. Like that's really close to what
Nazim Kadri gave you last year. Like he was not that he's going to play his Kadri, but like he was
almost as effective to the Capitals as Kadri was to the Avalanche last year. And we all know what
Kadri meant to this team. And the funny thing is like about a player that it is okay for himself
for him to reach down the lineup. If he's going to be your 3C, that's literally the position he
played for the Capitals. He played with Brent Connolly and coincidentally Andrei Berakovsky on
the left wing. That was the line that won the Capitals' Stanley Cup. Andrei Berakovsky has
scored some big goals in his career coincidentally also against Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevsky in the
2018 playoffs. And he did it on the third line. Last year in the Stanley Cup final against Tampa Bay,
Berakovsky scored a big goal on the third line. In 2018 Lars Ehlers scored a big goal on the
third line to clinch the cup. It's 2023. The Avalanche are bringing him in to be that third line center
to be that piece. Guys like Connolly and Berakovsky are not you know entirely defensive-minded players.
Lars Ehlers a defensive-minded center or let's say a two-way forward. He knows how to play the
200-foot game but they stuck him with talent. So if he can play with Berakovsky and be effective,
I'm sure he can probably play with a left winger and Alex Newhook. I'm sure if you put Evan Rodriguez
or Matt, Matt, and yet or someone like that on his right wing. Hell even James Van Reem's
Dyke will make that work as well. It's just such a savvy smart underrated move by Chris McFarland
and the Avalanche's staff. Again it could go to hell. He could have you know his prime could be well
passed and he could not be effective at all. But it's such a savvy smart move to go under the radar,
pick up a guy that not many people are talking about and have him be another puzzle piece because
you can go out and trade for the sexy name. And sometimes the sexy name makes sense. We talked
about Ryan O'Reilly. Last year all the talk was about Claude Giroux. He wanted to go to Florida.
He went to Florida. The Asbot in Lekken and he scored the cup clinching goal. Very similar case
this year. Patrick Hain, like you said, maybe the Avalanche would have went for him. It didn't
really happen. But you got a guy in Lars Eller that you can look back on in months and say,
now I get why this team brought in this player. And even just you know outside of analytics and
those kinds of things, we heard Jared Bednar talk about why the team made the decision to bring back
Jack Johnson. And somebody said, well, what about his low underlying numbers? And Jared Bednar said,
he had low numbers the first time we brought him in too. And he was fine. There are expectations
for players that don't translate into statistics as well. And one of those things he said about
Jack Johnson is we trade a player on the cusp, Andreas Englund. He's not young, but he is serviceable.
But he wasn't really good at moving the puck. And we knew the day that they hired Jared Bednar,
that the focus of this team was going to be a five man unit offensively and defensively
that could move the puck out of their zone, be quick on the transition and hard on the forecheck.
And that's what they're looking for, right? So you bring in a guy like Jack Johnson,
he may not be the fleetest of foot player on the team. He may not be the most responsible
player on the team, but he is a defensive defenseman who can get the puck out of the zone. And that's
what you want. So you look at a guy like Lars Eller, maybe things on the score sheet don't
jump off at you as a fan, right? But that doesn't mean that he isn't being tasked with things that
he is also good at doing. And I mean, he elevates his line. And when you add players who can do what
he has done throughout the lineup, that makes match ups hard for other teams, right? I've said
for years that you don't want McKinnon, Ranten, and Landis Gog on the same line. You know, it's fine
here or there, but that makes it puts all your eggs in one basket. And it's easy then to defend
against, you know, you put your best guys out against best guys. But as those games, the game
within the game, the matchups are happening when you're adding guys like Eller to the lineup,
further down the lineup and elevating a line's ability across the board, right? Now teams have
to game plan for that. They have to play defense against that. And that's how this works. And you
talk about maybe the avalanche don't get through the Stanley Cup final as easily as last year. But
we still are seeing them dominate the West, right? We're still seeing the West gearing up some,
but not, not like we are seeing the East. So this is still, I mean, there's still a potential for
the avalanche to almost walk through what is on their side of the NHL. And the real concern then
becomes how do you match up against the East? But that's down the road, you know, that's many games,
many injuries, many upsets away from where we're at right now. I'm going to throw two things at
you that were said by other people and I'll give them both credit for it. Number one, Jeff Merrick
recently mentioned on his show that he has a theory that he heard from someone, which obviously
they can't confirm, but he has a theory that no team in the Western Conference is going as all in
on this trade deadline, like you're seeing in the East, because they're looking at the Colorado
Avalanche, they're looking at what they're doing. A lot of the teams they're beating are these
Western teams have Agassiz, the Winnipeg's, the Calgary's, and they're doing it pretty handily.
Edmonton three nothing lead, no worries, we're going to be chewing over time. And they're looking
at the avalanche and saying, we can't blow our entire load of prospects and picks,
because that team is still the avalanche. It's funny you brought that up because I spent,
I feel like a significant part of my day yesterday, talking to you and arguing with Jesse Montano of
DMVR about the Edmonton Oilers specifically, and them, you know, losing Tyson Berry, which I think
was a key part of their offense, you know, obviously was playing on the power play, helped them get
to where they're at. I feel bad for Tyson going to Nashville and they bring in Matthias Eichom.
And you look at that and it's not flashy, right? And you wonder, is that enough for this team?
And my argument was this team isn't in their window the way the avalanche are. And Jesse's argument
was, you know, this is a much a window as they're going to get with Conor McDavid at this point in
his career with, you know, free agency coming sooner than later, you know, those kinds of things. But
it's to the point that you said, and Jeff Merrick made, which is looking at, we can't sell the farm
to try and compete against the avalanche when we know we're not going to be able to do it. And that's
how I view a team like Edmonton, right? You want to make the right moves for your team. You want to
go as deep as you can in the playoffs. Maybe you get in and you surprise everybody, you get an upset,
right? You're the Columbus Blue Jackets against the Tampa Bay Lightning. You win a major upset in
four games, unlikely, but it's possible, right? You get in and you can do some damage. But the other
thing is you get in and you sell tickets and you get fans in the door and you keep the operation
going so you can add the pieces one by one to get where you need to go. And that's where I feel
some teams are going, right? The other side of that is the Vegas Golden Knights. And they just are
all in every year. And at some point, you imagine that's going to catch up with them. But even then,
you know, like I said, you expected Vegas to come in and have a real good game against the avalanche.
They got shut out three nothing. I wouldn't say they played particularly well while the avalanche
played about as good as they have all season. Yeah. And that was an avalanche team that Jared
Bedner said the healthiest we've been all year when I asked him is this is the best stretch of hockey
they've played. And the funny thing is, Gabe Lan's how guys and played a game all season.
Cal McCar was not even in a lineup. The guy that won the North like the not the North's not well,
yeah, he won the North, but the cons might like that guy wasn't in the lineup.
The the I kind of agree with both of you on Edmonton. Yes, I don't think that
this is they're they're not as close as they want to pretend they are. But at the same time,
I don't know if this is agreeing with Jesse, but I get Jesse's point in the sense where if you're
Ken Holland, you cannot look at Conor McDavid and Leon Drey said, I don't say we're not going to go
in old end this year. Right. Yeah, you have to do the same all in exactly. You're not you're just
not in a position to be able to accomplish that. Like last year, the avalanche were all in. You saw
it. It worked. You know, even this year, the avalanche going all in is a very different look
than it was last year. And I felt like Chris McFarland addressing the media early before the end
of trade deadline was expectation setting in the sense that, you know, coming out and saying,
we're good with JT Comfer at our second line center. If that's what happens, right? We're good
with this roster as is if that what if that's what happens. They go out and get Lars Eller.
It's not this big flashy trade that everybody wants, you know, right? They don't they don't go
out and get a big flashy name goalie. They get Keith Kincaid. They don't get a big flashy
defenseman. They get Jack Johnson, right? They're adding the pieces to support the pieces that they
know the avalanche already have and saying like, this is this is probably it, you know, unless
something falls into our lap, this is it. And so you look at ours Lars Eller is maybe it's underwhelming
to some, but you know, it's it's all about the whole group, the holistic view of it.
Yeah. So here's here's a way that I like to look at the deadline. And this will maybe help a
little bit a couple people a few fans listeners who ever off the ledge a little bit is the idea that
if you at the trade deadline need to go out and trade for and you know, not that I'm taking
jabs at this team, they had the cap space, you had the room, you do it. But if you're going out
at the trade deadline and trading for Vlad Terasenko trading for Patrick Kane, it's because you don't
have that star power in your lineup already. I understand you lost Nasm Kadri. I understand
you lost Andre Barakovsky, but the avalanche were very talented last year. Takeout Barakovsky,
takeout Kadri. They are still very talented. Have the question mark of Gablandis Gog might not play
surprise surprise. It will be hard, but you can still win the Stanley Cup with an
Echushkin, Lekenin, McKinnon, Rhetton and JT Comfer insert player X here as your sixth forward,
New hook, you know, Rodriguez, Kogliano, Nieto, Lars Eller, Kail Makar and Devon Taves, Bo
environment Josh Manson, Sam Gerard on your third pair, Jack Johnson, maybe Eric Johnson,
your gift playing as well as he is a backup and Frankie. If he's healthy, who proved last year,
he can step in when needed, even without Kogdree, even without a land discog, which ideally you want
Gabe to play. But even without those guys, this team is still very talented and has those big pieces
where, yeah, it would have been nice to get Ryan O'Reilly and I'm 100% on board. I think that fit
would have been perfect. But you have the talent already. If you're just plugging and playing,
it's because you look at the season, you look at what happened early in the year and it goes back
to what I said earlier, the avalanche just didn't have the depth, they didn't have the bodies. So
instead of adding the quality, they chose to add the quantity because they lost quantity, they lost
Niko Sturm, they lost Niklasabe Kubel, you know, obviously, Gabe Landis Gog is still a body, you have
to replace Kogdree, still a body after a place when you bump up Comfer and then you bump up O'Connor
to the third line, well, now you got to replace someone on the fourth line. Anton Bleed wasn't
cutting it. Luke has said like wasn't cutting it by the adding Jack Johnson and by adding Lars
Ellar, they've doubled down on the quantity. If they go out and trade for someone like James Van
Reemstike or players of that ilk, they're doubling down on the quantity. We have the quality, let's
just surround them with quantity to cover our asses when injuries arise and we're going to go for
another cup. And that's just the big thing. So that's what Jeff Merrick said. Peter Boss said
something on the podcast I did with him several days ago, I think on Sunday or Monday where he said,
he has this idea and I kind of agree with it. He says, there are teams in the Western conference
that can beat the avalanche in the playoffs. The Vegas Golden Knights, they've done it before,
they could do it again. The Winnipeg Jets, I know the avalanche score four goals on five shots on
him, but the Winnipeg Jets could ride a hot Connor Hellebuck and beat the same with the Dao Stars
and Jake Audinger, like Jake Audinger almost single handedly beat who was it Calgary, I think
last year, he almost single handedly beat them in the first round. And that was a really strong
Calgary team. So there are teams in the Western conference that can beat the avalanche. But when
you get to the Stanley Cup final, Peter said, I don't think any team in the West can beat those
Eastern juggernauts, but the Colorado avalanche. And that's a very good way to put it.
I don't disagree there. It's been an arms race in the East, right? And you have to keep in mind
that only one team comes out of the East at the end of the day. Who's that team going to be?
My bet is on Boston after looking at everything they've done. They're just a juggernaut, like the
avalanche were last year. But I don't know, there's so much doom and gloom, it feels like
they were the expectations of last season. And then the way that the team performed,
especially down the stretch where they were just, you know, unbelievably good, I think has soured
people on understanding that, you know, you're not going to win every game. And you can still be,
you know, extremely talented team and lose a game here or there, right? We heard Jared
Bednar say last night, like, was the game out of use to sand and in great and ideal? No, it was not.
But neither was it for Vanacek on the other side. And Bednar looked at the schedule and said,
this is the best chance we can give your give to get some rest. And it's against an Eastern
Conference team. This game doesn't matter in the playoff hunt for the avalanche outside of two points,
but you know, they're not, they're not games against division rivals or Western Conference
teams. And you can afford to lose a gamer here, there, you know, I feel like a month and a half
ago, we were talking about the avalanche on the outside looking in at the playoffs. We were talking
about how the avalanche in the Florida Panthers for the first time ever were not in the playoff
picture at the halfway point of the season, you know, the president's trophy winner and the Stanley
Cup winner. And here we are now looking at the avalanche, you know, storming up the standings
into almost first, they're close, you know, they're working their way up. And they go and they have
three back to back sets of games. And they go 501 for 11 out of 12 points that shouldn't be done.
In the NHL, in this, this day and age, right, it shouldn't be possible for a team to play in
particular where the second game of all three of those sets had a rested team that involved travel.
So it's, it's like this team is in a good spot. And they're adding pieces to get better.
You know, there's not a lot of worry, I don't think about what's, what the West looks like,
you know, it's the East that I think is the real concern. It's a team like New Jersey,
who is very talented. The way that they blew that game wide open at the start, you know,
the way that they responded in kind of the avalanche in the second period. Like we had
New Jersey scored three goals in the first period. And the avalanche had one. So we get four
goals in the first period. We got six goals in the second period, you know, that game was wide open,
fire wagon, everybody scoring the I've scored three goals in two minutes, four seconds, right?
New Jersey comes out the avalanche score, they score, and then they just shut it down.
Like those are the kinds of things I'm looking at. Do you think any team in the West can beat the
avalanche in a best of seven series right now, today, at this point? I don't really feel like
it. I don't see anybody there. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's a perfect storm. Things can happen.
Hella book can get hot, you know, you're going to have could go cold. But I just, I don't know that
the talent matches in that in a prolonged series like that, you know, and it's possible injuries
play a factor. But at this point today, you know, the avalanche, I still think are far and away the
best team in the West. In 2017, 18, the Washington Capitals, after losing in 2017 to the Pittsburgh
Penguins again, had an off season of change. And I want to read to you, and again, 2017, 18,
that's the season the caps won the cup. I want to read to you the hockey news is
season preview. This is how their article started. Alex Ovechkin can still score.
Nicholas backstrom looks as dangerous and ever as ever. And Evgeny Kuznetsov could still be that
could be the team's best player this year. While best skater anyway, Braden Holby is still an
old world goalie and could very well snatch another Vazina trophy like he did last year.
When you look at their key additions and their key departures, we'll start with the additions.
They added a right winger, Devontae Smith-Pelly key departures, Marcus Johansson, who that season
had 24 goals and 58 points. Kevin Schad and Kirk, who that season was a trade deadline acquisition
and had 56 points. Justin Williams, the right winger, Mr. Game seven, who had 48 points, 24 goals
that season. And a couple of defenseman and Carl Oslner and Nate Schmidt, not known for their offensive
prowess, but big parts of the team. So they lost Nate Schmidt, Carl Oslner and Kevin Schad and Kirk
off the blue line, a strong winger in Justin Williams and a strong center in Marcus Johansson.
And despite all of that, all you want to talk about in this preview is Ovechkin still Ovechkin,
backstrom is still backstrom, Kuznetsov still Kuznetsov and you got a goalie. That's how you got to
look at the avalanche this year. That's how you got to look at them compared to last year because
all they did was add before the trade deadline and before Jack Johnson, all that. All they did was
add Evan Rodriguez and they lost to country. They lost to Burakovsky. They lost some depth guys.
They lost their starting goalie, replaced them with another goalie. They lost, lost, lost,
but at the top of the lineup, Nathan McKinnon, Kilmakar and Mikko ran are still raising their
hands like, we got this, we can still do this. And that's just the reality of it. Like in 2021,
when Vegas beat the avalanche, it was upsetting. It was disappointing for the avalanche,
but that was a Vegas team where when you looked at it, it made sense. Right now,
it doesn't look like, like you said, many teams in the West, it doesn't look like many make sense
that could beat the avalanche. And the big additions at the deadline haven't changed that.
Like Max Domi is on his way to the Dallas Stars. Vegas added John Quick in goal and I forget which
forward Vegas also added. Barbershev. Barbershev, thank you. Minnesota added Gus Nyquist and I think
Marcus Johansson coincidentally who we're talking about. Like no one has made that big, big move.
Lars Ehler is just kind of another same level move. Max Domi, I think has the most points of all
of the guys that moved in the Western Conference. So obviously, Matisse Echol is probably the most
prominent name and he's a defenseman. But I wholeheartedly agree. I just don't think
the avalanche need to go out and make the big name acquisition because they don't need it as much
as other teams does. When you look at deficiencies, right, what's the biggest efficiency for the
avalanche? Like what is their biggest weakness in matching up against another team?
It's depth. That's it. It's just depth. And when you look at Edmonton, it's goal tending
and it's defense and it's depth. And when you look at Dallas, it's goal scoring and consistency.
I think Max Domi makes that team significantly better, but we'll see how it does, right?
When you look at Vegas, they haven't had a healthy goalie all season. They started the year losing
their starting goalie for the season, right? They add Jonathan quick. He hasn't been having a great
year in L.A. 78 save percentage. Goal tending was a big question mark. I mean, goal tending was such
a big question mark for L.A. They traded Jonathan quick for Corpusallo. Now I would say that goal
tending is not the issue in L.A. to a degree, right? But their depth and their inexperience on, you know,
on the whole from the Kings, I think is an issue. Vegas, like I said, the goal tending, we saw them
get blanked the other night. You know, they have the talent in the lineup, but you need the guys to
score their captains out for the season. He may never play again. He's going to have, you know,
his second back surgery in his many years. I mean, who else? Who else is even close? Winnipeg?
I mean, they got shelled the other night. Their goal tending is not a question for them,
you know, but consistency is, I think, and goal scoring consistency is. And I mean, that's pretty
much it for the West. And for the avalanche, it's literally just depth. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean,
we've looked at Calgary, Calgary, goaltending has been terrible. Yeah. Goal tending has been terrible,
and they just need an off season to breathe a little bit after all the changes last year. I
think they'll come back better next year, but that's for a next year story. That's not a thing
that's going to bother the avalanche this year or be a threat this year. When you look at the
avalanche, their top stars are better than the other top stars in the Western Conference.
And they have more of them. Kilmer car is the best defenseman in the Western Conference.
Nathan McKinnon is not the best forward because someone named Connor McDavid is,
but he's up there. Mico Ranton, and I think has the most goals behind Connor McDavid in the
Western Conference. He has the most share of goals for his team, too.
Yeah. A head of Connor McDavid. Yep. That's correct. He, Devontaves is the
most underrated number two should be a number one on 25 other teams, probably
defenseman. Bowen Byram, you know, behind Rasmus Dallin and probably like on the same level as
Morvid Cider is one of the next best upcoming young defenseman in the league, you know, in that
echelon below the other young defenseman like Kilmer Carne, Miro Heiskin, and Quinn Hughes and
guys like that, Adam Fox, etc. You got depth up and down your lineup, your veterans like Andrew
Koglianos having a great year. Alex Newhook is, yeah, sure. He hasn't taken that next step, but he's a
good depth guy. Like everybody's playing their role to a tee. The issues with this season have
been injuries and because of the injuries and even before the injuries, to be honest with you,
depth, they're addressing the depth. Matt Nietos got three goals with the avalanche and I think 11
games. That's a 12 ish 15 ish goal pace over a full season. Dennis Malgin's got three goals in his
last eight or nine games. Again, 12 ish 15 ish goals over a full season. That's what Andrew Koglianos
on pace for. That's what you need from your depth guys. Darren Helm hasn't played all year and they
found a way to replace that too. So when you look at the avalanches underwhelming moves, it's because
going into the season, nobody in the Western Conference could match up with this team on paper
and still right now, nobody in the Western Conference can match up with this team on paper or with
what we're seeing on the ice. The abs are 14, 3 and 2 in their last 19 after that loss to New Jersey
and nobody's playing as good as them. They've beaten all the best teams in the West. The only one
they haven't played yet is Dallas, who they have Saturday and that in itself could be another statement
game. Yeah, it's big. The wild cards for me, the teams that I don't know
in Seattle, in Minnesota. Minnesota is just this conundrum of a team where
gold tending could be okay and then the abs have that game they had up there where everything was
going through flurry and you're just like, what the hell is going on? And then they have games
where they're just scoring at an unreal clip where they lose Kevin Fiales, a big loss for them,
but Capri Zov is a gamebreaker type of player. I don't really feel like they've got the defense
though to match up with the abs in Seattle. I just don't know. Like the gold tending has been
up and down all year and the rest of it, it's just, you know, can this second year team hold it together
and do damage? It's really hard to say. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. In the Minnesota wild,
their on ice play kind of mirrors what they're doing as a team at the deadline because they are both
using their cap space to their advantage to build assets, but they're also buying in the
form of Nyquist and Johan. It's just such a strange team. I guess Philip Gustave since when
playing good in gold and that's kind of changed a lot for them. Just a whole lot of changes. It's
really strange, but I don't see again, their wild card, but I don't think their wild card in the
sense of like, yeah, this team could really beat the shit out of the avalanche. I just,
yeah, they're not. You just don't really know what's going to happen. I feel that way with Dallas,
you know, you mentioned Atenger. I do think he's the real deal in net. 100%. I think he has the
ability to blow some games wide open and so does Jason Robertson, right? And all of a sudden,
you've got Jamie Ben and Tyler Segan playing like their five years younger and you add Max
Domi to the mix and you're like, okay, this team is interesting, you know, and it's a Pete DeBore-led
team. That's a guy who knows how to beat the avalanche and the playoffs. That's another thing
you don't necessarily take into account. And then the rest of the West is just crazy. Like,
I mean, Nashville's got three games in hand on Winnipeg and there are eight points behind them
for the second wild card and you don't know, like, could they make it in? I don't know that it
benefits the organization to do that, but you know, it's possible. Calgary's kind of freefall
in their way out of it. They could still squeak in.
Natural has sold to Grandland and Echom and they're up to nothing on the Florida Panthers right now,
just wild. Yeah, and they added Calfoot and Tyson Berry. That's right. Yeah. So they
didn't really sell all the way. Yeah, it's it's weird. And Calgary, Calgary is the team I thought
last year would have given the avalanche the most trouble Dallas potentially, right? But watching
that, that what was it? Game seven and overtime with Edmonton and Calgary and Edmonton wins and I was
like, wow, the Western Conference final is going to be a cakewalk for the avalanche, you know, like,
and Calgary has not recovered. So, I mean, the West is when people say it's wide open, it really is.
Yeah, LA is in second place in the Pacific and they have a zero gold differential.
They're the only team in the playoffs with a zero gold differential at this moment in time.
The massive decline of the St. Louis Blues a year after they were the biggest threat to the avalanche
in the Western Conference through the Stanley Cup playoffs last year says all you need to know
about the Western Conference right now. So absolutely. Yeah, I the only and I will end it here. The
only issue I have with everybody saying the Western Conference sucks and the Eastern Conference has
all these juggernauts is I think it needs to be altered to the Western Conference sucks outside
of the defending Stanley Cup champs who for some reason people are not realizing our 14,
3 and 2 in their last 19 and playing the best hockey that they've played since last June.
I will say this though, the Abs are wild card one in the East right now. Yeah, you know,
based on the standings. Yeah, that's how crazy the East is. I mean, Boston has a plus 97 gold
differential. Boston is something about Boston and how good their season is going just like screams
weird upset because it's the NHL and that's what happens. But not that I'm taking anything away
from them. But when you look at the standings and you look at the fact that the Eastern Conference
has like you said, 12345 the six best teams in terms of points percentage 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
and 14 all belong to the Western Conference. So you have the top six then the next eight all being
the West. Well, you know, aside from Dallas and Vegas, well, specifically Vegas, because they're
71 and two in their last 10, the one loss being the loss of the avalanche to shut out.
Aside from Dallas and Vegas having a better points percentage than the avalanche,
the Rangers, the lightning, the Maple Leafs and despite the loss, even the Devils are still kind
of within reach, but mostly Toronto, Tampa Bay and the Rangers. So Colorado, even Vegas can catch
three or four of these Eastern Conference teams. And suddenly the top five is three Eastern teams
and two Western teams. It's still very, very up for grabs. But obviously right now the East has
the juggernauts, the West has the floaters because even the floaters like Nashville, Nashville is
a much better team in the Eastern Conference than they are in the West, even Calgary. Calgary
and Nashville both have a better points percentage than the Islanders, and then the Sens, then the
Red Wings and the Islanders, Sens and the Red Wings all have a better chance of making the playoffs
right now than Nashville or Calgary do. So the West is just a little bit more balanced. The East
has the juggernauts, but I still think there is one in the West. It's obviously the team we cover.
Yep, I agree. Cool. Well, I think that's my closing thoughts. Any closing thoughts from you,
get sir? We'll see what the rest of the trade deadline brings. It has just been unbelievably
crazy in the NHL this year. And to go back to the East First West, a lot of it, just a massive
exodus of talent from the West to the East, which is also something that works in the Avalanche's
favor. Yeah, even like the non playoff teams, Ottawa as a non playoff team grabbing Jacob
Chick-Rin, the Islanders as I say, non playoff team loosely grabbing Bohor Vat from Vancouver.
Like it seems like everything has been East or sorry, West to East, except for Lars Aller.
That's basically it. Yeah, that's wild. Yeah. Cool. Well, I'm going to end this show the way
JJ usually does. If you made it this far in the podcast, bless your pretty little hearts.
Thank you, Ryan, again for joining me. Let's make hockey for everyone and we out you.