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Hockey Mountain High, your go-to avalanche podcast presented by Superbook Sports.
I'm JJ Jarez, Eryf Dean here with me to cover all things avalanche hockey.
Eryf, playoff intensity starting to kick in.
Today I was spending some time watching the Pittsburgh Penguins versus New York Rangers game,
which the Pittsburgh Penguins won in overtime.
You could really feel that playoff style hockey.
Of course, there's a little bit of bad blood leaking into this season from past seasons
between those two teams.
They also play each other a couple times this week,
which is going to be fun to watch the next matches.
But you can feel it starting to trickle in, that playoff intensity.
Even yesterday with the avalanche game,
you see against the Arizona Coyotes.
Arizona, it wasn't exactly a lay down performance for them.
I mean, if I was a player playing for Arizona,
it would be very easy for me to try to play against management
and against the front office.
Like, oh, you want us to tank?
You want to try to get Conor Baddard will watch this.
Watch how hard we're going to play within this locker room now.
So I kind of get that from the Arizona Coyotes.
But even from a team at the bottom of the league like that,
it wasn't a lay down performance.
It was a tough win for the avalanche,
and they really kind of had to earn it.
Yeah, they absolutely did.
I mean, it was a very playoff-y type of game
where you had to kind of scrap for every goal.
I mean, there was even the goal that was waved off
that Dennis Smalgin had from the hand pass from Matt Nieto.
It was kind of, you had to work hard to score,
which doesn't usually happen against teams like Arizona
granted for the avalanche.
They just, they struggle with Arizona for whatever reason.
But the LA game was the same thing.
The Los Angeles game on Thursday was very much a playoff type of game.
San Jose, not so much.
And then last Sunday, obviously, it was very playoff-y as well
against the Seattle Kraken.
So you're starting to see that intensity ramped up.
And like you said, it's happening around the league.
I mean, we saw the Philadelphia Flyers
and the Tampa Lightning get into a whole heap of a mess
when Tony DiAngelo got body slammed by five guys
for going after Corey Perry's family jewels, so we'll say.
So we're seeing it around the NHL.
And it's what makes hockey so great this time of year
is when it starts to ramp up, when you start to get into that playoff field,
especially when you play other playoff teams,
teams you're battling with, teams you're in a race with.
I remember the avalanche Calgary game.
Now it's been over two weeks now, 15 days ago.
Yeah, you know, the Nazem Kadri story was a big story,
but at the same time, Colorado and Calgary were pretty close
from the standings at that point.
And Calgary's fighting for their playoff lives.
And Colorado's fighting for their playoff lives.
And they're both in the wild card race.
And that game just had so much playoff intensity.
And you're going to start to see that continue here
for this last stretch of hockey games.
I mean, we're just over a month away from the last day of the regular season.
Yeah, it was good to see the avalanche take care of business again,
saying Jose and saying Jose didn't even, you know, sniff a chance in that matchup,
which is good to see from a team gearing up for playoff style hockey.
But then you look at that LA game and, you know, maybe a little bit of worry starts to come up,
because LA is a good team.
LA's surgeon, trying to fight for that number one spot in the Pacific.
And you're like, all right, here's an actual test for playoff style hockey.
Let's see how the avalanche do.
And they dropped the ball five, too.
But of course, we heard from Jared Bednar the conversation about mindset, right?
And kind of getting your, getting your team mentally prepared
for these regular season games after winning the cup.
And he had some interesting comments about that.
Yeah, he did.
He said that the avalanche are kind of struggling with,
he was asked about waking up for regular season games after a cup run.
And if that's difficult, and he straight up said, no question.
And it's been a mental grind.
And it has been, I mean, Nathan McKinnon, I know that, you know,
you're going to be back at these games here shortly,
but Nathan McKinnon after the game against LA was very Nathan McKinnon,
like in the locker room, when we asked him how things were going and, you know,
this little slump, he made comments such as, it's a long season.
Games like this are going to happen.
Stretches like this will happen.
We're not going to win them all blah, blah, blah, blah,
just a weird game.
He even made comments about just, you know,
not always having your best foot forward.
And just like pretty much all of these comments that are basically like,
we're, we're bored of this.
We're so bored of this.
And if you remember last year, the avalanche going to the playoffs,
we're in a little bit of a slump.
They lost a lot of games in the last bit of the regular season.
Obviously meant that they lost the president's trophy to the Florida Panthers,
which in the end obviously didn't matter.
They still had home ice advantage the rest of the way.
And then game one of the playoffs against the Nashville Predators,
what did they put up for goals in the first 10 minutes?
They woke up and said, Hey, we're, we're here.
We're at this playoff thing that we've been talking about for the last six months.
We're here.
It's time to show up and play our game.
So it kind of seems like that's the route they want to take now.
But it has been a little bit of a grind for them to get up,
especially I know about a month ago, I mentioned,
or coming out of the ulcer break, I did mention the avalanche had one of the top
three easiest schedules the rest of the way.
But at the same time, that might be a little bit of a like,
not not an issue going into the playoffs, but that could be more difficult because it's harder
to wake up for games where like you got two games in a row coming up against San Jose.
What are the chances you're going to win both of those?
You rarely win two games in a row against one team when you play them back to back like that.
We just saw the Boston Bruins beat Detroit yesterday and lose to them today.
The Bruins have 10 regulation losses the entire season.
And now one of them's against the Detroit Redmi's because they're just bored of it.
And it happens.
It's funny because we heard similar comments from Nathan McKinnon when they were
doing that, when they were only playing within the division,
he brought up the comments before we're playing Arizona 800 times.
He always has these comments about the regular season, which is funny to me because
that's just a typical Joe Sackick mindset.
The wake me up when the playoffs start, it looks like Nathan McKinnon's kind of inherited that.
But I don't know if you really have time this season to be bored of the playoffs.
This is kind of the stretch where you need to be sharpening everything up.
But I get it.
It's funny too because the last couple seasons were like,
oh, we can't wait until everything returns back to normal.
Well, things are back to normal.
It took us to game 64 for Nathan McKinnon to get bored of it.
So I don't really want to read too much into those comments.
I think, yeah, the regular season's a mental grind for everyone.
But now's the point where that gets lifted.
Now's the point where we brought us into the show.
This is where hockey starts getting good again.
Teams fighting for position and fighting to kind of make a statement out there.
Yeah, last year, if you remember, so we are at the one year to the exact day,
the one year mark of Gabe Land-Daskogg shutting it down for the rest of the regular season.
Two days prior to this, March 10, the Avalanche were shut out.
Two to nothing by the Carolina Hurricanes.
And the whole Nazim Qadri drama happened where he wasn't getting cold.
And Gabe came out on a Zoom call and in front of media that was there live in Carolina
and used West and the other West McCauley and the other referees' names.
In his post game, basically saying how it was bullshit, how Qadri can't get his calls because he has a history.
Two days later, he shut it down.
The very next day, the Avalanche coincidentally shut out the LA Kings.
Two days after that, they shut out, sorry, the Calgary Flames.
Two days after that, they shut out the LA Kings.
They went on a 10-game winning streak.
A 10-game winning streak that ended with a week where they won.
Nine to three against the Kings, three to one against the Devils,
seven to four against the Hurricanes.
And then they started to lose along the way.
They lost six of the last seven games.
So they had sharpened everything they needed to sharpen before those last seven games.
Granted, last season was a little bit different.
You had your playoff spot locked up.
You knew where you were going to be.
This year is a little bit different in that sense.
Do I agree with you that, yes, they have to start to sharpen things?
Absolutely.
But I also kind of see a team right now where they've had a lot of turnover.
We know they did.
In the off season, there was a lot of turnover.
Then they had all the injuries.
They had all the call-ups.
Cal Burke was playing games.
Jean-Luc Fudie, Luke Zeddlach, Anton Bleid, you name him.
Up and down the line of Dryden, Hunt was picked up off waivers
and then shipped off for Dennis Malgin, who's now starting to score goals.
They've had a lot of turnover, but they have seemingly a pretty permanent lineup right now.
They know who they're playing with.
McKinnon and Ranton and finally were reunited yesterday.
Rodriguez has played a lot with JT Comfer.
You're seeing Dennis Malgin playing with Niedo and Newhook.
You're seeing Lars Ehler take that position between O'Connor and Kogliano
that so many centers have played there, starting to be some regularity among the lineup,
where I'm not too concerned about them sharpening anything,
because the only guys missing are guys like Helman Landisgog.
That have been here before that know the guys.
There is no more reintegrating somebody into the lineup.
There's no trade deadline acquisition outside of Lars Ehler
that you're sitting there trying to figure out how to fit them in,
because the other trade deadline acquisition,
you wouldn't even think he was gone for six months
when you look back at it now when Jack Johnson,
he just feels like he's been here the whole time.
So should they start to win these games a little bit more?
Yeah, sure.
They went two one and one on that homestead,
which was a little bit upsetting because they should have beat Seattle.
They should have been three and one.
But I'm not too concerned about needing them to sharpen things up
before the playoffs, because we saw this happen last year.
I'm more concerned about them being healthy for the playoffs.
It's just funny seeing the two different attitudes, I guess,
when you look at Nathan McKinnon and his, yeah, whatever,
we're not going to win them all.
And then you go to a guy like Andrew Kogliano
and he gets really upset after losses, right?
He sits there and almost is like rethinking his entire life.
It seems like when after a loss.
So I'm sure it's polar opposites and there's guys in between as well.
I assume once playoffs come in, the right mindset is going to step in.
But you can't really sleep on these Arizonas, the Anaheims.
Anaheim, they fight every single night.
And I watch a lot of Anaheim games because I often bet against the Anaheim ducks.
And they make me look silly because John Gibson's always out there fighting tooth and nail to make
saves.
And like you mentioned, you got San Jose twice.
Of course, you just rock their world.
But that was on the second night of a back-to-back coming from Winnipeg.
You can't expect that same energy, that same effort from the San Jose Sharks.
So those are the games you really got to stomp on and keep your foot on the team's throats
like they did last week against the Sharks.
But there's still a handful of opportunities to keep climbing the standings
and keep trying to fight for that home ice advantage.
Yeah, I mean, this year, coincidentally, they have a better record on the road than they do at home.
They've won 18 games in each place, well, not plays, but 18 games on the road, 18 games at home,
which is really 17 and 17 when you take out the Finland trip.
Wasn't that how it was in the playoffs too last year?
Last year, they ended up losing, I think just the one game on the road, game for game three and Tampa.
Right.
That was the only game they lost on the road.
The other three losses they had were the overtime game against St. Louis,
sorry, game three against St. Louis, game five against St. Louis, or game two, game five,
and then Tampa Bay and game five as well.
So they lost three times at home on the road, so we're at home.
I don't think they care much about home ice advantage.
Like I really genuinely don't.
A month and a half ago, Jared Bedner said, we don't really care where it is.
We just want to get in.
Then they went 14, two and two and in that stretch, they're like, hey, home ice advantage in the number
one seats kind of up for grabs.
Let's go for it.
Funny thing is home ice advantage in the number one seat is still very much up for grabs,
even with that loss to Dallas.
They are currently right now.
Two games in hand on both Minnesota and Dallas, and they are five back of Minnesota,
and they are seven back of Dallas.
And it seems like a lot and it probably is and you're probably not going to catch them.
But if you win your two games in hand, you're one back of Minnesota,
and as long as you win those games in regulation, the tiebreaker is for you.
Now, Dallas, if you win your two games in hand, you will be three points back of Dallas,
which by the way, their two games coming up are Montreal and Toronto, which Toronto is a
tough game, but then you got Ottawa and Detroit, which you got to win three of these four,
I would assume on the road.
But if you win your two games in hand on the Dallas stars, you're three points back of the
Dallas stars, but you play them one more time on April 1st.
You win that game on April 1st, you made up the difference, and then it's just a matter of being
better than them the rest of the way.
So it's still very much up for grabs, but if they don't get it, they might end up in a 2-3
matchup against the Minnesota wild.
If the Minnesota wild catch the Dallas stars, you're in a 2-3 matchup against the stars.
If you make it the first place, you got a whole heap of teams you can play in the wild card,
be it Edmonton, be it Winnipeg, be it maybe even Seattle or LA, if they drop down, even
the Vegas Golden Knights can drop down at this point.
A lot of opportunities for your, for the team you're playing the first round to be a whole heap
of teams, granted Minnesota and Dallas are probably the two at the top of the list that you're likely to see.
Now, basically, it doesn't really matter what happens the rest of the way.
I think, you know, in terms of standings, I should say, but I think the most important thing is
not just that they feel good about themselves, because, you know, losing a few games here and
there and talking about not being mentally prepared for the playoffs is one thing,
or not being mentally prepared because you want to play in the playoffs and, you know,
get through this mental grind of the boring regular season is one thing,
but you don't want to catch yourself losing four, five, six in a row heading into the
playoffs because the season is different from last year.
So if you go on a two, one and one stretch, a two, two and one stretch,
kind of like they have been the last four or five games, that's fine.
You just don't want it to completely get away from you.
You don't get it to let it get away from you.
You don't want to be in a position where you're fighting for a playoff spot late here in the middle
of April. You don't want that last game against Nashville to really matter in terms of your playoff
lives. You just want to make sure that you're ready to go.
And regardless of who the opponent is, regardless of home ice advantage or not,
you're going to feel good about yourself because you're the avalanche.
You just want a couple where you went 16 and four and a lot of those guys are still on your team.
Is it me or does it feel like the avalanche always have games in hand?
This year's been a little bit.
So in past years, yes, this year we have to remember that game against Nashville that was
canceled when they flew to Nashville and the arena was flooding or whatever the hell was going on.
That's been the big issue this year.
Right now, the Edmonton Oilers have played 67 games.
The Nashville Predators have played 63.
That wasn't a scheduling issue.
The Predators had to cancel two games that have been rescheduled for late in April.
So they should be at 65. Colorado should be at 65.
I remember last year as they were kind of, I think I want to say even this same moment
from time, right? And you and I had a discussion about just getting in the playoffs.
They maybe had a short little skid and we're just like, you know what?
It doesn't matter. They just need to get in. This team is so good.
Once they're in, they're going to start steamrolling teams and what ended up happening,
the avalanche were in a fight for the president's trophy all the way down to the final game, right?
But I guess there's going to be a moment where they have to flip the switch from all right,
the mental grind of the regular season to suddenly a mental grind of the playoffs.
So if they're kind of stumbling, maybe having a little bit of struggle with the mental grind
of the regular season, how easy do you expect it to be for them to flip that switch into playoff mode?
Oh, I think it'll be very easy. Like that, that again, that has, I have no issues with that.
Basically, my entire rant was to say, as long as you're in middle of the pack playoff team,
a three, four or five six seed, you're not at the bottom fighting for a wild card seed where
the games genuinely do matter. You don't want to be in that position. As long as you're in that
middle of the pack, three, four, five, six, you know, the top eight teams, you're going to be
completely fine because Nathan McKinnon, Kiel Macar, Devon, Taves, Miko, Rannin, maybe Gable
Andeskog, who the hell knows, all of these guys are going to turn it on as soon as you get to the
playoffs because they're going to remember what it feels like. They're going to remember what it
means to be in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And these guys are all still in their early mid and late
20s. These are not older veterans that have lost it in a year. They're ready to go.
Yeah, absolutely. That's going to be fun. Once you feel that playoff energy, you can feel the
second you step in the building that it's a playoff game, right? And you know, the players do too,
the players spend maybe an entire week of getting ready. I just can't wait for when the avalanche
don't sweep their first round opponent. And everybody says it's over. Yeah, because that sweep in 2021
went so well for them. Yeah, I mean, listen, the playoffs are going to be different this year.
This is what I wrote about a couple weeks ago. This is what we talked about last week on the
podcast. The avalanche are going to have their backs up against the wall a little bit more of this
playoffs. They're going to earn it. They're going to have to earn it. Like, you know, what would be
really shocking a two to two series. They didn't have any of those last year was three to one or
two nothing every freaking series. Nobody got close. The only glimpses of stress there was for
avalanche fans was when they were leading a series three to one and lost game five and it happened
twice. That's it. Oh, and when their goal to almost got his eye pulled out of a socket like other than
that, you know, that small little thing like nothing really bothered this team last year. But
you're going to have two to two series this year. You're going to lose the opening games of series
this year shit that didn't happen last year. Hell, you might even go down to nothing in a series
like the Tampa Bay lightning did against the New York Rangers. And you're going to have to say
that's okay. We have the winning pedigree. We can win four straight games and defeat these guys.
Give us more adversity. We want more stress as air of Dean and my husband. I'm not saying we
want it. I'm saying it's going to happen. It's this year. The playoffs are a little bit different.
And if it doesn't happen, we're just going to crumple up this entire regular season and say this
makes does not matter. Like the regular season, if the avalanche going to the playoffs again this
year after all we've seen from the Western Conference and all that's gone on, if they go into the
playoffs again and do what they did a year ago, where they just steamroll teams, crumple up the
regular season and never care about it ever again. That's where McKinnon gets his paychecks
so that in the playoffs, he can play for free and kick people's ass. That's what it seems like.
So I don't think that's going to happen. If it does, it would be kind of surprising, but at the
same time, hilarious. But I don't think it's going to happen that way this time. I do love the fact
that I think I mentioned this when we talked last that the avalanche now have a Stanley Cup.
Where now, if they end up in a game seven in the second round, even the two demons of this team
in the past, it's not going to feel the same. Even though they didn't have a game seven last year,
they're going to feel a little bit more confident. Like if the Blues forced the game seven last year,
that is a stressful game. That's a doubt game. That's a holy shit. Can we even beat this team,
let alone make it to the Stanley Cup final type of game. But now that you've won the Stanley Cup,
their first round series can go seven games, and they won't be as worried as they were in the past.
Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, you know, I'm hoping for predictability. So that way I can
take it to the sports book and take it to Vegas, right? Just like you can do on Superbook Sports,
make 2023 the year you beat Vegas. Superbook Sports gives you the chance every week to go
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I've always been so curious about how they are so good at their stinking jobs, right? I mean,
especially when it comes to over-unders and they're within a point, if it's basketball, I'm saying,
or football, they're always so close on those spreads. You see all the time the Broncos are favored
to lose by five and they end up losing by six. So yeah, I'd love to have a conversation with an
odds maker one. I remember you can have a whole podcast episode with somebody.
Right. Hey, you know what? They might play Vegas. We might get a chance to actually go meet
them. That's a very realistic possibility for the Western Conference final or something like that.
But I remember the game and everybody knows this game now. It was the Memphis Grizzlies and the
Denver Nuggets because it was the game that John Moran risked at all at Shotgun Willys
the same night. Holding his gun like somebody who's never held a gun before.
Yeah, literally holding it from the tip of the side was weird. But at Shotgun Willys of all places,
I remember the line for John Moran's points that game were 27 and a half the over-under.
He ended with 27 even. Wow. Just wild how good they are at this shit. How I don't know how they
do it. It's just it's so impressive. And you see things like that all the time.
Like Connor McDavid's points totals for the season. Like where is that at and how close is it
going to be? Like did they know going into the season? I haven't looked at his lines, but
it wouldn't shock me if someone in the off season said, Hey, let's set Connor McDavid's over under
at 152. And that's pretty much right. What he's on pace for never done before in the NHL for over
25 years. Anybody hits 150 points, but they're so good at it. They can get it or my biggest nemesis
error if you know this from this season. Shots on goal. Are they still good? Like, you know,
because those are moving one one night. It's three and a half for Evan Rodriguez. The next
night it's two and a half. And I'm like, two and a half. Evan Rodriguez has this. Let me hammer that.
Yeah. Yeah. Two and a half. Evan Rodriguez has this. You want to know how many shots he had
against the Arizona Coyotes? How many? Two. Just wild. There you go. And I, you know,
I always think about when we came into the season, you're like, Oh, Evan Rodriguez actually led the
NHL in shots on goal. So every night, I'm like, Oh, he's shooting. He's shooting to me. He's one
of the top. Yep. So and he is like, right now, I remember going into that Calgary games. I had
had some buddies in town that went to the flames game and we're in the crowd. And they asked me,
like, what should we take? And I said, McKinnon shots over Evan Rodriguez shots over. Now's
him. Caudry shots over. The only one that hit was Evan Rodriguez. Right now, some good bets to take
our Nathan McKinnon scoring and Kayla McCar getting at least a point. Those two are sure things,
but they're also like minus 180 odds lately. So Nathan McKinnon, 15 goals in 16 games since the
all-star break. Talking about flipping a switch, right? Talking about switching a fricking flip.
Yeah. He's he's crushing it. All right. Let's get to more conversations. You brought it up a
little bit ago, but that's the Landis scog injury. There were some updates last week. I guess my
real question and the question I've honestly been posing since I think late November, early
December, do we even see him this regular season and how confident are you that he does in fact step
in for playoffs? I can't even give you a prediction anymore. I'm I'm so beyond like,
remember Nazim Qadri last year, how it was like, yeah, he's done. He's done. He's done. And then he
came on the trip and we're like, yeah, he's done and game three, the avalanche got kind of blown
out and we're like, he's done. And then he just showed up for morning skate game. And even even
that morning skate, we're like, he can't even shoot the puck. He can shoot the puck. Peter boss said,
I bet you if this guy plays, he's gonna play like seven, eight minutes and not be effective,
you know, maybe put him on the power play or something. And he ended up playing, you know,
18, 19 minutes, scoring the game, winning goal. But like, just that randomness of Nazim Qadri
mean like, Oh, yeah, I'm just going to show up today and I'm going to be on the ice. And I
remember even national media, like, yeah, we saw a Nazim Qadri kind of come after the Darren
Dragger tweet on Instagram, be like, yeah, we'll see when TSM posted that he was probably done.
But he just showed up just randomly out of the blue. Oh, hey, here's morning skate. And Nazim Qadri
is there with a regular sweater taken line rushes on the top power play unit. A different
glove on different glove, a very, very hefty looking glove. But like, the randomness of Qadri
being there when we showed up at Emily Arena, like, I could see that happening. It could be
game one of the first round, it could be game seven of the first round, it could be game one of the
second round, it could be, I don't know, a game in mid April, a game in late April, game in early
May, I don't know how long the avalanche are going to play for, they might get swept in the first
round land. He doesn't get a chance to even come back. But I can't even give a prediction anymore.
Like, that's a thing. It wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't play a single game until maybe opening
night next year. But it also wouldn't surprise me if you wake up on name, you're at morning skate
and, you know, for fans and for listeners, you're on Twitter and you're scrolling and you see
Gabe Landis Gog taking part in morning skate, on a line with, I don't know, McKinnon and
Nick Tushkin or whatever. It almost sounds like you're saying that if it happens, it's almost going
to be a miracle comeback, unexpected, like, you don't even seem confident that he's going to be 100%.
I'm definitely playing today type of mindset. It's almost like, I'm going to have to play
through this. Let me surprise everybody and show up to morning skate. Well, I mean,
most of the time they're playing through something anyway. So I don't think that's really a difference.
I think the biggest thing is that I don't know if I want to call it a miracle. I would say more,
it's going to be kept under wraps. Not because we need to hide this from the media and the fans
that Gabe is getting close, but we need to make sure that Gabe feels ready to go. Because what
we've seen so many times this year with injuries and what I bet the avalanche are going to do with
Landis Gogg is like right now, just give you an example, a completely different example.
Darren Helm has not shed the non-contact sweater, but Darren Helm looks like a healthy NHL player
right now. There is nothing about the way that dude is playing the way that dude is skating.
We're not playing like games, but playing in practice. Nothing about him shows anything is holding
him back. Gabe Landis Gogg, of course it is. You're seeing him kind of skate like,
very gingerly slow motion and kind of like going through these robotic motions of testing his
knee. Like he's in the very early phases. Darren Helm, there is nothing about him that looks off,
absolutely nothing. But he's still wearing a red non-contact. So he's going on the trip,
just as an example, you know, let's say this scenario plays out Monday Montreal takes part
of morning's gay red non-contact. None of us are even thinking about Darren Helm, but we're not
even considering him as an option. Monday in Montreal, morning's gay Tuesday,
probably no practice. Wednesday he does the morning's skate in Toronto, then they go to Ottawa,
they play it back to back. So no morning's gay, he doesn't play in the game. Then you show up in
Detroit Saturday or Friday for the practice before you play the Red Wings in an early game on Saturday,
and he's in a non-contact or maybe he sheds the non-contact, and then suddenly he's playing the
Detroit game, which would be a funny coincidence because obviously he'd want to play the Detroit
game of all games, which is in my opinion why he's on the road trip, but like that's not the
Detroit game ever, right? Exactly. And I firmly believe he's on the road trip because of that,
because he wants to be there. I actually know that that's why he's on the road trip. But
it's one of those things where it's like, Darren Helm is not an option, Darren Helm is not an
option, Darren Helm is not an option. Close your eyes, go to sleep, wake up. Oh, hey, Darren Helm's
in morning's gay, and he's going to play. It doesn't mean it's a miracle. It just means they're like,
they're not going to tip the hat of like he's getting closer at all. Even right now, as much as
we're watching him skate and being like, Helm looks very normal. Nobody from the team has said
anything more than the same thing they say about Landis Gaga. But yeah, we hope he can return at
some point this season. Nobody's saying he's progressing well. Nobody is saying he's getting
closer. Nobody's giving a date or a target. And it's not that they don't do this with anybody,
because Jared Bedner openly said, I expect Josh Mans to play in March, not even April, but in
March. But with Darren Helm, nothing. So I think with gay, bland, is gone. It'll be something similar
to that. I guess I was just saying it's going to be less of like, all right, I'm ready to go 100%
I'm feeling good. And it's going to be more like, you know, let's screw it. This is good enough. I'm
going to play. Yeah, yeah, that could probably be a thing with Darren Helm. I think now it's it has
to be the I'm ready to go on 100% because the last time he said screw it, he came in, he played
five games and he hasn't played since. Funny thing is the five games that Darren Helm played beforehand.
The last game was that loss to Chicago and the sky was falling right before the avalanche went
14 to and two. That was his last game. Then he sat out the avalanche very next day, defeated the
Ottawa Senator seven, nothing and have taken off since. But Darren Helm is a different story with
gay, bland, discog at his age, knowing that he's had the whole season off, knowing that he's going
to have another off season to kind of figure out what's going on. I think it will be kind of a
screw it. I'm close enough. Right now he's not close enough. But I think when he is close enough,
he might make that decision. Yeah, I agree. I mean, that's very land-as-cog-esque, I would say.
Other injuries you just brought up, Josh Manson, let's start with there. What are the updates?
Jared straight up said he expects him to play in March, you know, late March is what he said.
So by my math, that means he'll probably return around like April six or seven because they're
always off by a week. But the regular season ends April 14. So that means to me that Josh Manson
will be back before the playoffs. And dude, like how many times do we have to save us here? How
important that guy is to the team? It's such a different team when he's not there. It's such a
different team. And we talked, we've talked about this on every single podcast since before you took
your three week hiatus. Josh Manson, Bowen Byram, Sam Gerard, Devontaves, Kael Makar, the Avalanche is
five defensive horses have not all played in the same game since November 4th in Finland.
Which is why I keep saying for the playoffs, it's not about ramping it up. It's just about
getting healthy because even without gave land-as-cog, even if you got to do what the Tampaa Lightning
did in 2020, where their captain played one shift, scored one goal and was not to be seen other than
that play, the Avalanche can win a cup without gave land-as-cog. It'll be a hell of a lot harder.
They can win a cup without gave land-as-cog, but they would need their five horses to be healthy.
Because Sam Gerard's a better player than he was a year ago. Josh Manson, when he's playing,
looks better than he did a year ago. Bowen Byram has improved exponentially. Kael Makar,
still Makar. Devontaves is still Devontaves. If you have those five horses, remember what I said
in the off-season when I asked Eric Johnson, are you guys a more defensive-minded team? He said,
no, we're still the offensive weapon. EJ, you're a more defensive-minded team. Especially without
gave land-as-cog. Y'all are a more defensive-minded team. And you have a goalie who, unlike Darcy,
well, Darcy Kemper had great numbers in the regular season. I'm not going to take that away from him.
But unlike Darcy Kemper, it looks like he might have an excellent playoffs and might be the guy
needing to steal some games, which again, he can't blame Kemper because he has his eye poked out the
third game of the playoffs. But with Georgie and Gull, and with those five horses, you can do it.
So Josh Manson is that important and it looks like he's going to play before the end of the regular
season. Ten games left in the month of March, four of which at home, 16 days. So we'll see if
Josh Manson hops in in one of these next ten games. But that's a lot. That's a lot of games still this
month. So a lot of opportunity for Josh Manson to get in in March. Let's see, Lars Eller, I wanted
to get to. Now we've seen him play six games in an avalanche sweater. After six games now,
how do you like his fit? Have you seen him maybe getting a little bit more comfortable within this
lineup? Yeah, he's 100% getting a little bit more comfortable. It's going to take him a little bit
of time. Like last year, Arturia Lacking in the regular season didn't even look that effective.
You kind of saw glimpses of it and Jared made the mini-val comment. But he didn't look as comfy as he
does now. He did. That is my favorite comment. He didn't look as comfy as he did in the playoffs.
Hell, Josh Manson in the playoffs in the regular season last year was like a turnover machine,
very high and low. Like he wasn't really that good. And then the playoffs came around and you're like,
oh, that's why they got this guy. So to go back to Lacking in, he was six goals, three assists,
nine points in 16 games. But in the beginning of that stretch, he wasn't really producing.
And he started producing later on the regular season. So basically what I'm trying to get at
is give Lars Ehler some time. And the one thing that irks me about kind of the narrative around
Eller right now is that he sucks. This is what happens when you don't go out and trade for a big
name at the deadline, blah, blah, blah. But the funny thing is had the avalanche trader for,
I don't know, Rhino Riley, and he had a slow six games in his first, you know, not that it was his
first end, but in his first stint with the avalanche, everybody would have been like, it's okay. It's
okay. He'll figure it out before the playoffs. But because it's the player they didn't want,
it's not as big a name and nobody wants to, you know, give Lars Ehler any bit of, you know,
hope or respect or confidence where I'm going to say this again. Lars Ehler is one of the players
that I have watched over and over again on the Stanley Cup playoffs. He is a gamer. What you saw
from veterans like Darren Helm and Andrew Kogli on the last year where they turned it on, Lars Ehler
can do that and he probably will and y'all are going to fall in love with him pretty fucking quick.
So give him a chance. He's getting more comfortable. He looked pretty good against the
Arizona coyotes. And this is by the way, why despite the fact that he hasn't produced in six
games and he's taken a little bit of time to get his feet wet, he's still playing with Logan O'Connor
and Andrew and Andrew Kogliano and not with Niero and Malgin or whatever. He's not being
demoted. And I use air quotes with that to the fourth line of being replaced by New Hook
because Jared Bedner is not worried. He's going to give him all the time he needs to get ready.
And when he is ready, boy, if Darren Helm gets healthy too and you have an all veteran line of
Eller Kogliano and Helm, that would be a lot of fun. I'm excited for that. Yeah, I think you're
right. And everybody kind of turns it up for playoffs, especially a guy on a new team that sees
that he has an opportunity. I think you're spot on and he's going to show us and he's going to be a
different Lars Ehler come playoff time. And just right now, he's about assimilating into his current
team, right? Yeah. Standings watch. I wanted to look just real quick at the standings and let's just
throw some prediction. I know you said earlier in the show, so much can happen. The avalanche
could fall anywhere from eighth in the in the West final wildcard spot to number one in the central,
but let's look realistically. Let's look at points. Let's look at what teams actually have
ahead of them. Do you think the avalanche ultimately fall in that third place central spot? I guess
that's what I'm saying. I think the avalanche lock up that third place spot eventually in the central.
That's where they end up heading into the playoffs, probably going against Minnesota in the first
round. Where do you see them landing and when it's all said and done? I could see that the one
prediction that I will make is they'll be in that two three matchup. I don't know if they'll be third
because I think they have what it takes to catch one of these teams, but you need a lot of balls
to fall in your favor. I don't know why I said balls, but you need a lot of things to fall in your
favor to catch two teams with this many games left in the regular season. I don't know why that
came to mind. You need a lot to happen for yourself to catch two teams in the standings at this
point of the season. I think they'll catch one if they get hot. I don't know about the other.
Basically, what I'm saying is they might get home ice advantage as a second seed. They might end
in the third seed. It might be Minnesota. It might be Dallas because those guys are only two points
apart right now, but I think they will be in that two three matchup. Fun stuff. Fun stuff.
And then let's just look ahead at the week that the avalanche have in front of them. A nice
little Canadian trip finishing up with the trois, like you said. You're going to be present at Toronto.
Are you going to be Ottawa Detroit as well? Just Detroit. The Ottawa games are back to back.
So getting from Toronto to Ottawa to get there in time for puck drop and then turn around and go
to Detroit just makes no sense. You'll be running into the building. Basically. So we're going to
do Toronto, Detroit. The plan was to go to Montreal, but if I did that, then I'd be on the road right
now and flying to Montreal. That just seems like a lot in the regular season. So we're doing Toronto,
Detroit. So a nice little road trip here, I guess, as the season kind of winds down heading back to
Canada. Expectations for it. Four game set here. I think you're going to win three of these games.
And the one you lose coincidentally, I'm going to predict it's going to be Ottawa, not Toronto.
Granted, and this is a podcast for you and me to have later on in the week, maybe before, after they
play the Toronto Maple Leafs, but that seems good. Like there's no sugar coating in my mind
that I have a prediction that I will say today on March 12 on this podcast and hopefully doesn't
come back and bite me in the ass. I think the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to beat the
Tampa Lightning's in five games. They're that good. They look so good and that game is going to be
so much fun. If the Avalanche could find a way to wake up and have a playoff atmosphere, playoff
mindset type of game in Toronto on Wednesday and beat that team, that'll tell you all you need to
know about the first 20 minutes of this podcast where we sit there and said, can they do it? So I
do think they can win that game and they will win that game, especially given what happened last
time they were in Toronto. Jett Alexander and getting lit up and Jonas Johansson playing and
Kemper missing the game and all that. And then obviously what happened on New Year's Eve when
Toronto came to York Barn and embarrassed you. So I think the abs win that game. I think they beat
Detroit. I think they beat Montreal. I think Ottawa because of the back to back and because
Ottawa has been on a little bit of a tear is the one you end up losing. I see that back to back and
I think about what the Avalanche went through a few weeks ago and not having Pavel Franzuz ready,
right? What do you kind of do there and how do you approach that? Because like we said,
these are kind of important wins. You want to win them all despite the fact that it might be hard
to get up for them all mentally. I don't even know what goalie you're going to take on this road trip
because there's been so many games in this last week and a half, two, three weeks, whatever the
hell, however the how long it's been since Frankie's been hurt where I don't even know who the backup
goalie is until I get the lineup in the press box. Could it be in it? Could it be Johansson?
Could it be Kincaid? It's literally a different guy every single time. So it was up to me. I think
you go Kincaid. Yeah, I think you're going to take Kincaid but also fuck man. I don't know.
I don't know. I kind of feel like Anand is the guy even though he showed that he's not
in each already in the game that he started against the Devils but also that was the Devils.
The Ottawa Senators ain't the Devil. So who knows but yeah, it's going to be tough with this one goal
we think they got going on. Indeed, Devils just shut out the Carolina Hurricanes tonight,
3-0. So you're right. The Devils are for real. That's all we got for today's episode. Anything
you want to throw out there before we close for the day? Yeah, so Jared Bedner and Kel McCar now
have both made comments about my very floral shirt. So I know that's why you wear it. You
love that shirt. I love the shirt. It's not because I wait for people to comment on the shirt. It's
because I love the shirt. So I'm really curious who's going to be next on the list because first it
was Jared who called it a sharp shirt. Then it was Kale who chirped the living daylights out of it
yesterday. And when I turned around and said, and said, hey, this is Jared's favorite button down
you're talking about. He goes, oh, is that what he told you? I bet you he wasn't serious or something
like that. I was like, damn, Kale's really coming at me. So I wonder who's next for that shirt. We'll
bring down on the playoffs. Maybe we'll get something else but no, maybe that's your thing.
Like Don Cherry, right? You're just the guy that wears the flower shirts.
Yeah, but it's the one. I wear a lot of floral shirts, but it's the one same shirt, the one that
Jared commented on March or April or whatever it was is the same one Kale commented on yesterday.
I wear a lot of floral shirts. I love that.
I have two levels when it comes to things that I wear and people have even
tweeted me about it. It's either a boring blank shirt or it's a floral shirt. There's no in between.
Solid color of floral. All right, right on. I guess that's a good place to stop.
When in doubt, wear floral, everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us in this podcast.
If you made it this far, bless your pretty little heart or if you have one more thing to say.
No, I'm ready to rock and roll. Oh, you lean out of the mic. I'm excited for the road trip and
excited to have you back up all over the day. Yeah, indeed. I'm excited as well. So thanks for
hanging out with us. Let's make hockey for everyone.
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you.
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