the
what is up everybody all you find listeners of hockey mountain high your
go-to avalanche podcast presented by superbook sports i am jj jerez with me
erif dean happy to be back talking some avalanche hockey podcasting doing what i
do doing what i've done for the last eight nine years erif it's just part of
who i am i felt like um almost a bone of mine was missing or or i was missing a
philangi of some sort just part of me was not there so i'm happy to be back
podcasting thank you to everybody out there that sent me well wishes on
twitter um for the birth of my baby boy
phyllis elias hetith he's a beautiful child and um everything's going well but
respect all the parents out there i mean i know i knew parenting was hard i was
expecting it to be hard but it is kicking my
ass out of view i've got a few text messages the last three weeks i'm just
happy to not i mean there's many things i'm happy to have for the show coming
back to normal um but one of them is to not have to
intro a podcast because it's one of those little things you and i were just
talking about before we started recording like
give me a topic and i'll talk your ear off i'll go on my four five minute
tangents you'll say three words and then that's something else will come to
mind and then i'll just cut you off and then i'll go on another four five
minutes but tell me to intro and outro a podcast
and i just i can't i can't do it welcome to hockey mountain high or go to
and then i like half the episodes i did without you i forgot the ad read
or i'd forget to say presented by superbook sports
or it like just no structure just me blabbing with peter bond ryan
bolding who were both just great soldiers and coming in and
trying to make something of the show the last month so um i would say we tried
about as hard as the avalanche did at the trade deadline to make something of
this show and and and we did it we got jj back and we're ready to rock and roll
yeah we'll see how consistent we can maintain this schedule but
i have a really what maybe my best friend in the whole world has season tickets
him and his dad kind of have season tickets
right in the corner um of where the abs attack twice
and when they're sitting there in their seats and the avalanche are losing it's
the first period maybe the avalanche didn't do so
hot what they like to do is switch seats or
switch jerseys or change hats change something up right and there was a
stretch of avalanche hockey there were they were on fire
when i took my break right they kept winning and winning and winning and
now it's to the point where they've lost three in a row so i feel like we got to
shake things up i got to come back on this podcast and see
if we can get the jiu-jiu back in the right direction
um but yeah i guess what have you seen the last three games that has suddenly
caused the avalanche to slide again when they look to have you know made a
comeback in the nhl and they were suddenly the talk around the league
it's just the narrative the the script writers as we call them
it's so perfect the way this has unraveled
because first of all like am i panicking i wasn't panicking when they were
eleventh in the west i'm not panicking now but
they shut out the vegas golden nights like this time last week they were
shutting out the vegas golden nights and i've been barbershev's debut and gold
vegas had zero like nothing coming against the avalanche
then they get the new jersey devils they play usas and and and they let in
seven goals and it was kind of like you know the
you know it's five one made of five four blah blah blah like
they made something out of a game where it's like yeah they had to play their
third stringer that's what happens when you don't have
frankie we've seen the story before with grew bower and hunter miska like
there's this is nothing different um then two nights later or whatever it
was later they go into dallas and they lay two more
goose eggs and mico ranted and flips out and then they come back home
they have a game all but locked up a very sloppy game
and they once again lay another goose egg late in regulation lose it and over
time didn't touch the puck in ot mico ranting and got another one of those
uh temper tantrum penalties earlier in the night
and it's just so perfect because this is all centered around
the trade deadline where you know even you and i we all expected the avalanche
to make a big addition there's reasons why they didn't we can kind of get into
that a little bit but they end up with only larsaller obviously jack jonson
as well they previously had brought in matineeiro and they brought in
denis malg in way way back months ago and you kind of like
you come out of the trade deadline and as an avalanche fan and a lot of the
fans on twitter that have been tweeting me for the last three games
are already pissed off that the avalanche came away with nothing but larsaller
that means jt comfor is your second line center for the cup run that means
larsaller is your third line center and then the very next game they get
embarrassed by the team ahead of them in the standings
and then two nights later they lose a close game that they should have won to
another team in the playoffs and all anybody can say is they should have done
more at the deadline they should have done more at the deadline but funny
enough there's a team in toronto that brought in six new guys they are
beefing up for the playoffs and they're on a little bit of a losing streak
and it's they did too much so it's just funny the way the script
always goes around the trade deadline like the deadline has nothing to do with
the colorado avalanche playing three bad hockey games
but ultimately they played are playing bad hockey at like just the right time
for people to blame it on the lack of pickups at the deadline it's hilarious
well i like how you point out the dallas loss is kind of being an eyebrow
razor right because it kind of is that avalanche usually take care of dallas
no problem and i think that was probably the first time they lost to them this
year i think they've eaten the other meetings and last year
i can only remember one loss to to the stars
um so i i think obviously the stars are a good team but i think that kind of
tells you a little bit of about them just trying to figure themselves out
again right i know adding one guy to the lineup isn't exactly
the biggest shake-up and they were able to manage their trade deadline last
year with four new additions but um it's just different in there and and
they're still trying to navigate the whole process without their captain right
you brought up mico ranton and getting pissed off
we've seen mico ranton and get pissed off a couple times this year and mostly at
the refs um so let's let's get into that conversation
first before we we dive into and unpack more about what you said
because i think it's funny i've been watching these games from home right
which stinks but also has its benefits and
in in watching the last night's game and watching coach bednar's post-game
presser it's funny how he kind of subtly brought up mico
and i heard the rest of the press room kind of just spark up like oh we better
ask some follow-up questions on on on this comment right
and i know that's our job is media to dive into that and to you know
is this an issue no it's not an issue i think it's definitely something
jared bednar is aware of he knows the way his his guys are he definitely has
his finger on the pulse of that room and it's not something that he's going to
ignore jared bednar loves discipline jared bednar loves hard work
so he's not going to just let something like that slide sure he's going to
get in the ear and say hey you got to straighten this out but it's not going
to be anything egregious like a benching which i heard was
was brought up yesterday hey you ever think about benching him
no you're not benching mico ranthenan and no you're not benching mico ranthenan
for letting the emotions of the game take over right that's kind of what makes
him a good player is he he rides those emotions when times are tough
he comes and shines he he scores a big goal when when uh
the emotions are high right i just think it's a little bit more of a testament
to his his immaturity as a leader not that he's immature
but his leadership and the way he's learning how to do it is is growing
he's always had land of scog to lean on and land of scog's not there
would land of scog would his presence in the locker room make a difference i'm
sure it would but he's kind of trying to navigate this whole
leadership role without much guidance if if if that makes any sense
i mean we've said the same thing about nathan mckinnon this year last year
every pretty much every single year and look at him not there
and look at him don't you feel like he's kind of he got tired of that negative
connotation towards his name and kind of doesn't necessarily yell at at teammates
as much anymore doesn't necessarily have that negative energy kind of tries to
approach it differently i think mico ranthen's going to be the
same way he just has to figure out what's wrong what's right and and this is
him figuring that out yeah it's going to take a little bit of practice a funny
thing is about the uh or a little bit of time i should say some reps in
an a leadership role like that without gay bland scog which like
again you cannot understate like what number 92 means to this team not just
the points but gay bland scog can put up 45 points a year for the next six years
of this or seven years of this contract after this season
and he would still be worth the seven million dollars because of what else he
brings to this team um but aside from that like
the funny thing is about the mico ranthen and the benching thing
Jared bednor actually brought that up before we did
and uh you know he had mentioned mico's name earlier than i asked him like if he
got a chance to if he's addressed the mico ranthen and here's the exact
quote because i've never heard Jared so quickly answer a question that he
knew was coming and like you like you said it was deep in the press
conference here's literally word for word what Jared said you can't do it
can't do it he knows it can't do it like that's how he started his answer like
he was so fed up with it you know we saw it like you said earlier in the
season mico was having a lot of games like that and now it's two straight
games in a row against dallas it's one that you know negates a four on four
and makes it a power play for the for the stars
against the seattle kraken it's after a penalty was already taken
where you take another two and you gave the team about us close to a sure thing
for a goal that you can have in the nhl a two-minute five on three power play
which the avalanche impressively killed on before pissing away the game with an
obtit turnover later but you can't do it can't do it he knows it can't do it
and then he went out to say my options are to sit him the rest of the period
or talk to him and turn him loose and hopefully he can bounce back
i didn't think he had a good night prior to that so the frustrations
probably you know brought brought on by his own games
and uh you know points are important games are important this time of year he
understands that so you know i had that discussion whether i'd rather turn
him loose and see if he can dig in and help our team wouldn't make up for it so
that was my decision so he went into that beforehand but
ultimately like look gabelande scog over the years has had
you know moments where he's lost it on the refs we've seen it
the hell off the ice the very last regular season game gabes ever played
where we're coming up on the one-year anniversary of him
blasting the refs in carolina uh on the miss calls and not on nazim cadre and he
hasn't played a regular season game since which is crazy he's just like a ghost
part of this team right now but it comes with maturity it comes with time
having that leadership role having kind of the team relying on you the locker
room relying on you the media relying on you everybody relying on you you can
tell at times it's gotten to mico and is it something worth addressing yes but
is it something to panic over the dude's got frickin 40 goals like
what more can he do basically to say like the pressure of leading a team and
being one of the big leaders on the team it's not affecting his game
it's getting to him sometimes and in some ways
but it's not affecting his game and you know you take that you add on the fact
that the avalanche have just had this insane amount of injuries the entire
season you know the players think about that you know they think every time we're
getting close well now josh manson he's gonna miss some time well now we don't
have a second goal that we have keep concave playing with yellow pads
we have kyle macar getting a concussion coming back and we lose again like
nothing is really nothing has really been a steady flow this year i know they
just went 14 2 and 2 and an 18 game stretch but that's kind of what i'm
seeing in mico ryan and you're seeing it even after he wins games he's got this
fire to him in the locker room that he never had in years past
i want to go back to i think it was early last season right when we were still
doing the covid style press conferences we didn't get that one-on-one time in
the locker room and you and i on this very podcast had the conversation of
noticing a little more snarl out of mico ryanton and right he had a little
more added to him you said it a second ago gay blaynes gog has a tendency to
lose it sometimes whether it's on referees sometimes it's on opponents
too right i think mico ryanton and while he's growing
into you know an n h color he's seeing a guy like gay blaynes gog who he
obviously emulates and he says that guy has a little bit of snarl to his game
i want to add a little bit of snarl to my game to keep being a well-rounded
n h color and i think with the physical side of it he's slowly pushing that
envelope and trying to figure out what he can get away with i've seen him do
a lot more cross-checking a lot more slashing to people's back of legs this
season than i've seen him ever in years past so
i agreed there's there's like there's an element to it that he kind of needs to
tone back a little bit calm down but i like him having that little bit of
snarl that little bit of attitude pointing to his ring finger when he's in
the penalty box right a little bit of cockiness and confidence but what i'm
loving out of it is the fact that this team already won a cup right and when
you win a cup people start to question oh how how much driver they gonna have to
go out there and win another one now that mico ryanton and has more pressure on
his shoulders he wants to shine he wants that pressure
you know he wants to come and live up to those expectations and get the avalanche
to another Stanley cup that's what i'm seeing out of him is that fire
that intensity of him just being a competitor and wanting to win
yeah i mean those are those are the types of guys that went over and over again
like if you know anything you know and i say this to you and i say this to the
listeners and even to myself because i've only interacted with him
you know several times i can count on one hand or two hands even
but nikita kucharov is one of the grumpiest
humans in the nhl which is what makes his whole uh
rant that he had on number one bullshit number one bullshit with wasi and uh
number one bullshit that guy in vegas win golly of the year and blah blah blah blah
like that whole thing what makes that even crazier than it was
is that it came from him just the grumpiest dude kind of like ryan
kessler just used to be the grumpiest hockey player
ever and those guys win that's what they do like
there's uh you know if any of our listeners are listeners of the steve
dangle podcast he used to always like look at guys like kucharov and say i
wish the maple leafs had more of this you know and he would make the joke like
you know the maple leafs need to hire somebody to follow mitch marner around
and just fuck up his day like just he pore cereal fucking flip it over he
makes copy thoroughly just launch it just
piss him that he's walking out to his car take his keys like
take away his socks when he's like getting ready to put like just fuck up his
day to the point where he can be grumpy and have that snarl
because those guys have an extra chip on their shoulder and that's what you're
seeing from mikko ryan and the same guy that's got 40 goals right now
you know this is the same guy that last year in the post-season
do you remember the narrative about around mikko in the post-season
his lack of goal scoring how he had i think it was two goals in the first two
rounds and they were both empty netters ended the ended the playoffs second on
the abs and points behind kale but only five goals and two of them were empty
netters that's not a guy that's gonna score five goals if the avalanche go
four rounds deep this year that's a guy that if if he can redo those 20 games of
last year and play him again this year he might have 14 goals in the playoffs
like that's why he's gonna bring in it's with that extra edge that he's playing
with i mean he can easily hit 50 goals if you're telling me 50 goal seasons
come with a little bit of uh undisciplined penalties here and there
honestly i think anybody will take it yeah no absolutely i mean this is
this is uh this is what he had i mean i think he is gonna hit 50 because i know
he knows that that's a big number and that's something that's achievable for
him right now given how many games he has have left and given the fact that he's
already at 41 and only needs nine more so it's very much a thing that he can
he can he can reach and it it takes this type of a player
and this type of a personality and this type of uh let's say energy to hit that
mark um another thing you kind of brought up
uh just subtly was the goaltending fiasco that's going on right now right of
course they brought in Keith Kankade they given use to zanin in a shot they
just called up Jonas Johansson the papal france's injury is
bringing a lot of i guess unknowns
once again yep i mean that's that's the thing that's going on first of all to
start with Keith Kankade what a what a goofy funny guy
just like when you talk to him in a locker room you wouldn't think
and and i'm not by any means bashing him as a professional athlete but you
wouldn't think he was a professional athlete he's got zero like snarl and
flair all that stuff we're talking about and i forgot we were we were talking to
him about like something in a locker room about
oh yeah yeah someone asked him like you went from Boston
the top team in the in the east like the top team in the NHL just crushing it to
a team that you can call maybe second or third like you know at the time when
the avalanche had a higher safe percentage and we're second in the west
and he was like yeah you know that doesn't bother me first the worst
second the best like he's just just a goofy goofy guy
but you know he brings a little bit of a veteran presence that you had before
with Michael Hutchinson and guys like that like
this is the part that not many people like to talk about is
any team that loses one of their two goalies and i'm talking the tandem
teams like not you see sorrows in his backup or vassaleski and his backup
unless you use you lose sorrows or vassaleski but any team with a tandem
when they lose one guy you're kind of fucked like that's what happens
Toronto, Sam Sonov and and Matt Murray whenever Matt Murray's out they got to
ride the hell out of Sam Sonov and hope that
shalgren or or woll can play a game here and there
and it's just what happens like the capitals have dealt with that
the Bruins if they lose Swamen you're either going to play Olmark every
single night or you're going to bring up now that they don't have Kincaid and
that was their third goalie before whoever the hell you're going to bring up
like that's just the reality of it it is unfortunate again to see Frankie go
out but the avalanche can count their blessings because the last time Frankie
went out when Georgie played 12 straight games his game
really started to unravel and i don't think we're getting there right now
despite these two losses but he really started to unravel to the point that
when Frankie gave back if you remember Jared had to give Georgie that
mental reset he gave him three games off in a row
to kind of get his head back in the game i don't think you're going to need to do
that this time around but it is definitely a concern
that franços is not healthy you got a right Georgie f because
you quite frankly just don't have many options
pure speculation for me but educated guests let's call it
groins and hips do not heal and they re-aggravate they re-tweet
i think what you're going to see here much like they did last year with
guys like taves and land of scog and rested them the rest of the regular
season to make sure they were ready for playoffs
yep i wouldn't be surprised if that was that's what goes down with Pablo
franços because he was a pivotal part of last year's playoff run they're going
to need that if they need him again they want him 100 percent they don't
necessarily need him 100 percent they'll get to the playoffs with
Keith Kincaid used to say in an or Jonas Johansson
yeah i mean look last year it's crazy that they have five guys on the depth
chart now that can actually play a game like you know that's not something that
a lot of teams have despite the fact that three of them just
aren't really the biggest names but the reality is like look a couple years
ago the avalanche we're trailing three to one in a series to Dallas and have to
rely on Michael Hutchinson and they don't want that to happen again
if Darcy Kemper gets poked by a stick in the eye last year
and his backup goalie was who Vasil Fske had and Brian Elliott no disrespect
to the former evident minder your season's done
he's not going to give you what Frankie gave you
so if anything happens to George you whether he needs a mental reset he's
not playing well he gets injured you gotta have
Frankie and if both your goalies get injured you know what you just
throw your hands up if you're Jared Bedner say it's just not our fucking
year like that's just the reality no team in this league
can win a Stanley Cup and i promise you this no team in the league can win a
Stanley Cup if both their goalies are hurt
that's assuming Jared Bedner hasn't already thrown his hands up and said
this is right here no no no i think the 14-2 and
2-run made him realize that it is his year mikko's got 41 goals
Nathan McKinnon's got 12 goals in his last 13 games
imagine that he's up to 25 goals in 50 games he's at that 41 goal pace
after starting the season just as slow as he did a year ago
yeah and he's in shoot everything mode i'm trying to score a ton of post
post all-star game Nate is my favorite kind of Nate every year go look at the
numbers it's unreal what he does i love that
sounds like a story you could write um all right guys superbook sports uh
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er if you and i planned to do a trade deadline wrap up show after the trade
deadline wrapped up and on the baby yes yeah on on Friday and the baby um
got involved and we were unable to execute that podcast so we have a couple
thoughts and conversations to have today on the trade deadline um a lot of
avalanche fans out there kind of upset that they didn't do enough you've kind
of is not the word you've hinted at it already in this podcast um i think
what stood out to me was again i've been watching everything on altitude haven't
really missed a game haven't been as dialed in on games as i normally am with
the baby in my arm but still watching every game and saw the
macafarlane interview that he did with i believe it was mark mozier and in that
interview macafarlane kind of says look we're kind of in a tight spot with our
prospects and our draft picks based off of what we've done in in years past
and i think that said a lot to me because he's basically not throwing his hands
up and giving up but just saying look we made a lot of moves last year and i
think that's what people are forgetting yes
large-seller Keith concade maybe a little underwhelming but the four
moves that they did last year three of them are still here three of them are
still making an impact and once manson is a regular in the lineup you know you're
gonna still feel the the trickle down from those trades so
it yes this year was maybe a little bit of
disappointing disappointing but they still have those pieces from last year
they have a couple of additions this year and gird bednar said all year long
he's ready to go to battle with the guys he has so i i'm really not too worried
about what they've done because we know what this team's capable of
yeah so the biggest thing that i'm gonna say is look
we have been doing this podcast all season ever since the alex new hook's
gonna get a long leash we'll see what happens we'll address it at the deadline
if we need to i'm not gonna sit here and pretend at this moment
after the trade deadline that yeah i mean who needs the second line center jt
second line center like that that's what we said all along like no we
obviously we're talking a big game with ryan riley jonathan tayv shan manahan
adam henryk a little bit of nichmaltz sprinkled in there some boon
janir whoever you could think of so i'm not going to pretend that didn't
happen i also understand chris mcfarlane's point
about the draft picks my whole point is this i got two things
number one there comes a time where and and the first thing is like
people are coming at chris mcfarlane like he hasn't been a part of this front
office i don't care how many times people want to say it
what happens in that front office and the way trades are consummated
is not much different than it was in years past no matter what people want
to tell me because people have been tweeting me aggressively that things
have changed with joe sakic not in that seat i promise you they haven't
i promise you they haven't that's number one
number two there comes a time where and this is not the gms fault
you look at the market and you say what can i get
because i would understand if adam henryk
shan manahan and jonathan taves were all healthy and all got traded and the
avalanche struck out on all three and obviously ryan o'Reilly and obviously
bohorvat i would get it then the columbus blue jackets weren't
trading boon janir the arizona coyotes nichmaltz
you're going to see in the off season if it's the avalanche or another team what
it costs to get that guy and it's going to start with alex newhook
like that's the reality of it alex newhook your first rounder maybe a couple
first rounders trust me it'll be that big of a package
regardless there comes a time where you just say what can we get
so i think chris mcfarlane's point about the draft picks it's valid but it's
valid in the point of like what did you expect me to do
trade two or three first rounders for like a
jay james van rimsdike level forward like there was just not much on the
market do i fault them for it no bohorvat was traded at the olster
break that was a long time ago and the new york islanders signed
him to a contract right away what the mate believes paid for for ryan
o'riley i applaud them for what they did there because they got ahead of the
market but even when they did that jonathan teshan monahan adam henryk
those are the three big names we heard over and over and over again
they're all hurt none of them got traded and that's not chris mcfarlane's fault
that's just you throw your hands up like we've said so many times and it's like
fuck what do we do so that's the first point i want to make the second point i
want to make is when you look at the savelange team
when you look at what they've done the story that i wrote a couple nights
a couple days ago after they're lost to dallas i said
they may have to grind a little harder they may have to face more adversity and
have their backs up against the wall at times but they can still
basically what i'm saying is look did they lose an opportunity to bring in a
big name player yeah let's say those injuries played a part let's say you
brought in jonathan teshan let's say you brought in adam henryk like those
injuries really screws you out of adigan other piece
you have the cap space because you have the ltir situation with gable and
discog it's unfortunate but without those pieces
you still have a team good enough to win the Stanley cup
is it good enough to go 16 and 4 and have a 2 nothing series lead and three of
the series have a three to one or three to nothing series lead
along the way never have a team reach three wins
four nothing four two four nothing four two
probably not but you can still win a cup you just have to grind a little harder
you just have to have your backs up against the wall
and you know last year if the avalanche had a game seven against st louis we
probably wouldn't have felt too confident this year after they've won
a Stanley cup yeah you probably feel a little more confident they have to
shake off the demons of that game seven that they haven't won in 20 years like
this team is still good enough they i promise you they are are they going to
be good enough if manton and nichushkin and frankie and georgia and and gave and
hell my role missing for the lineup no but if they're semi close to health
and get just a few of these guys back and have a reasonable amount of injuries
like last year which they still saw burky get hurt and cadre and campers i was
poked out and things like that they can still win they just probably won't do
it as easy as they did last year yeah and of course they are now deemed as
one of those teams that knows how to win right they have the playoff experience
a lot of the guys in that room know exactly what it takes to win a Stanley
cup they're going to go in and execute it's about getting hot at the right
time right but what's what's been the narrative that everybody
loves to talk about right now right it's how the east is about to be the
craziest battle of all time right and i loved how many time you use the word
market in your little shapule just now because for me that's exactly what it is
it's the market the east was getting ready for an arms race right that's
what we've heard it's going to be a battle it's going to be an octagon in a
cell exactly and because of that i think the teams in the east were
willing to pay a little bit more the teams in the east had this idea like
hey we got to get ready for this playoffs it's about to be nuts
the avalanche said prices are what for this guy
no we don't we don't want to dabble in that i think the avalanche did a good
job of not overpaying for anybody just to make a
a splash just to make a move um you know i don't really feel like
i mean i guess you could look at tanners you know but there haven't been
too many overpayments but i feel like the avalanche in their workings their
calls to other guys saying hey what will it take for this guy what will take
for that guy prices are we're just too high for him and they just didn't see
it necessary here's here's the big takeaway that i want to get from from
what i'm saying if there was someone out there that made
sense overpay that's okay can't be overpaid for brandon hago
ten pay overpaid for barclay goo drow and for blake colman uh and obviously
not for tanners you know which i can't i can't use tanners you know in the same
categories was of the three guys because david now got proof of concept we don't
haven't seen that yet from tanners nick paul was a little bit of a high price
with matthew joseph in a high draft pick like
that's okay overpay if jonathan taves costed you for some reason you know not
that he would have but a first rounder and a third rounder and jonathan taves
just does his taves thing in the playoffs and goes full leadership and leads you
to his fourth Stanley cup and your second cup in two years
it's worth it it made sense but nobody out there made sense
who was that what you're going to trade a third rounder and a second rounder and
a first rounder for nick buicks dad just to have another piece
just to have another guy you can argue they kind of did that with lars elder
but they got i promise you listeners lars elder in the playoffs as long as his
career hasn't passed them by which i don't think it has because 12 months ago
nobody thought cagliano and helm could have done what they did in the playoffs
i promise you lars elder was made for playoff hockey that's a guy that ramps
up his game so give him a chance but like you can't
force a trade that's not there campa bay for whatever reason honed in on tanners
you know which you know it makes sense like given the kind of player he is they
honed in and they said fuck it we're gonna overpay because we know this is the
piece that piece wasn't there for the avalanche
maybe it was nick schmaltz but that's got a lot of salary cap ramifications
maybe that's something they visit in the summer or maybe they just didn't want
a trade alex new hook i don't know what it is i can't say what it is maybe
arizona wanted bow by room you never know but
the piece wasn't there to even overpay for it if you want to go that route
yeah yeah i mean i was watching i think it was tsn and then i switched to sports
net early morning i was still on tsn and they before the trade deadline itself
ranked their five best teams every single one of the panelists had the avalanche
in it before the deadline after the deadline same story so
even without making moves the avalanche are still one of the best teams and you
know i think everybody like i said can hold their hats high that
from last year to this year there's a handful of new players that are still
in there making an impact and i i don't know if that many moves were necessary
because they took care of a lot of them last year
they absolutely did and and the the biggest here was something funny i heard
on the jeff marrick show he said that and he said i can't confirm this but he
said i heard a theory from somebody that's connected with uh you know general
managers in front offices and he said the theory is the western conference and
mind you this is after the avalanche beat vegas
so this is cal ron one a six-game winning streak which like
dude they went 14 two and two another o two and one and suddenly we're we're in
hell like did we not learn from the pittsburgh
o t loss and the tampa bay shootout loss and the tampa bay five nothing lost
just a month ago not even a month ago like it's gonna be okay i promise you
but like you're really letting those twitter followers get to you man
no i just i've been reading a lot of these and i'm just like
like they went 14 two and two even when you add this o two and one stretch
they're 14 four and three in their last 21 games they go 14 four and three the
rest of the way they're winning the west 14 wins gets you to 48
you know about 108 points or whatever it is on the season by the end of that if
you go 14 4 and 3 again but anyways the jeff marrick thing he said
that there's a theory out there that he was unable to confirm
that the western conference said why are we going to overpay
and blow our brains out to trade all these assets
when the colorado avalanche are clearly the class of the west
like in the eastern conference it is a juggernaut battle the boston
ruins as crazy a season as they're having
toronto where tampa bay can beat them the carolina hurricanes as crazy a season
as they are having again the new york rangers did it last year they can beat
them again and who am i missing oh the new jersey frickin devils who
had a team o mire like all of these teams can beat each other it's a juggernaut
battle the western conference ain't that hard
it's not that strong the avalanche just played two of the top teams
uh in dallas and in and in vegas they crushed vegas they got crushed by dallas
before that they played win a peg win win a peg was still better than them and
hadn't started reeling yet they beat the shit out of win a peg
four goals on five shots on kana helibok to start the game
like they're doing their thing they're looking they looked up and down the
western conference minus i game against dallas which they do have another one on
april first you have to also take into account
at playing a dallas team no land is called no detruskin no manson it's a
lot of heaviness missing from your lineup but regardless
they looked up and down the western conference and they said hey we're
still here we're still the avalanche with jt comfort as our second line center
last year in the western conference final and the stand-up final we won four
games in a row and we went four and one without nazim
cadre so we can do it again like that's just the reality
this team is loaded on defense if you remember something we talked about on
this very podcast a training camp i said to eric jaunson
you guys lost bircuit you guys lost cadre would you consider this a
defensive first team now given what you guys have in defensive depth
he kind of brushed off the question but you know said like we still have the
offensive horses without nazim bircuit but the defense is their bread and
butter now they haven't had a game with what jared
bedner likes to call his five horses that's taves that's macar that's bairam
that's manson and that's sam jarrard they haven't had a game with all five of
those guys since november fourth in finland
all of those guys like manson's the only one that's injured right now and hope
be ready by the playoffs i would assume they're all healthy this isn't a gay
blend it's called maybe situation these guys are going to be ready to go you're
going to have your five horses whether you want to stick ej in number six
or they want to stick jj in number six whether you want to stick red hunt at
number six you got your five horses you're a defense first team sam jarrard's
crushing it right now bo bairam's playing out of his mind we saw what
josh manson brings to taves and macar taves and macar
they're gonna be okay yep i'm with it i'm with it so let's lean into that
navigate that narrative sorry there we go
sleep deprivation kicking in um the narrative of west versus east right i
just wanted to you know have a quick conversation on that the abs are 14
10 and 3 against the east which uh is i would say mediocre but probably
better than a lot of teams are faring um but i guess the real question is
now that we're just looking at from here out out there to the rest of the
season do the avalanche have what it takes i mean
we just let let it into it but do they have what it takes to go all the way
i mean yeah everything i just said like yeah i mean yeah it's gonna be a tough
series it's gonna be hard if they get there because they're gonna beat some
heavy teams along the way and i understand how they've played against
these western conference teams but when you get to the stay on the cup finals
none of that matters it's seven coin flips it's two teams that have both
one 12 games if it's let's say boston i mean as good a
season as they're having they're being rewarded with
tara no or tara no or tampa bay in the second round
probably a very frustrating new york islanders team in the first round like
that's a very big possibility the islanders can grind down the ruins too
so it's not going to be easy for them if tara no or tampa make the finals let's
say tara no just to change it up from tampa
they would have to have beaten both the boston bruins and the tampa bay
lightning and then one of the rangers or devils or carolina hurricanes like it's
not going to be easy to get there these teams are going to beat the
shit out of each other and not like the west isn't that's what that's where i
was gonna go i mean not like the west isn't but offs are
our war yeah but yeah but like we saw tampa bay last year i know they crushed
florida because that was kind of a flu key season the panthers had winning
the president's trophy but they had a really tough series against
the toronto may police they had their backs up against the wall down two to
nothing to the new york rangers losing both games i think it was
at home or was it on the road i forget they lost the first two games and then
one four straight and then the third team they played in those three rounds was
the president trophy winners who they absolutely crushed
those were who they faced meanwhile the avalanche had two sweeps yes one of them
was against connor mik david but the other one was against dave riddick
and connor in drum the avalanche had an easier route they played 14 games tampa
bay kind of came in like you know they kind of came in limping like holy
shit we had to play some tough series and what did the avalanche do they want
game one and overtime they beat the living crap out of them seven nothing in
game two and then they lost game three and then cadre scores in game four and
the series was over before you know it three to one you pretty much have it in
the bag you lost game five you won game six like
this similar scenario played out a season ago
because of the route that tampa bay had to take to the stanley cup final
yeah minnesota and st louis had crazy good records last year
yeah it was a little bit different on that front yeah the calgary flames were
unreal last year too and all those teams have kind of taken a step back
mind you or you know minnesota's kind of coming back up but
this similar scenario played out last year where had it been
any team but the calorado avalanche in the stanley cup final
you would have looked and said tampa bay's got another cakewalk but because it
was the avalanche you said eh not so fast so you can see the
eastern conference go through their juggernaut battles right now just a
total and like you said an octagon hell in a cell whatever you want to call it
beat the crap out of each other get to the stanley cup final
and the entire narrative is going to change if it's the avalanche because
it's going to go from the east has got this locked up too
uh i wouldn't be so confident if i'm the bruins because now you are playing the
defending stanley cup champions who yeah maybe they ended the regular season
with like 102 points but they also had all those injuries and now they're
clicking so have fun with that this might have changed in the last couple
days but the avalanche headed into the trade deadline with the second best
safe percentage in the nhl the gold tending is there the defense like you
said is there they could just get the gold scoring that were used to i think
there's there's no problem for this team my only worry
is that they have had so much bad luck this year it is that it just feels like
the bad luck is going to peek its head at the the most inopportune time which is
what made last year so great right they they got lucky with the lack of injuries
and and um kind of almost all the way to the end
i mean yeah when when darcy kenper had his had his issue with the helmet it was
kind of like yikes and then he was back before you know it against the st louis
blues and you know frank he was holding the fort down whenever he was out again
against edminton when cadre broke his finger the avalanche obviously turned to
jt comfer um but they had anj burekovsky in the lineup who scored the game
winning gold in game one of the tampa vase series
and then when burekovsky was done for the playoffs cadre came back and played
with half a finger and you know kind of did his thing
andrew kagliano also broke a finger and he came back like
they had a lot of things excuse me they had a lot of things going throughout
the series but it wasn't the crazy mikorretan and nathan mckinnon are both
out the same game like that's ultimately like you're you're a nathan
bikinnon injury away from jt comfer alex new hook and evan ron regas like
that's just the reality but with a little bit of luck on your side which we
haven't seen but like the funny thing is there is no
aside from the fact that injuries kind of linger because that's a real thing but
if you flip a coin and you call heads 25 times in a row and it lands tails 25
times in a row that has no effect on the 26th flip
that's just the way it goes the gamblers fallacy exactly so like
you could sit here and say well it's just been a season of bad luck we're never
gonna get it how do you know josh manson can get healthy gable and
discock can get healthy even daren help could somehow get
healthy paval friend sos can get healthy erk johnson can get healthy
and you're in the playoffs and you go 16 and 4 again and you win the cup
alternatively nathan mckinnon can get hurt no gable and discock
and you're fucked like nothing that has already happened
other than the fact that again injuries linger nothing that has already
already happened can have an effect on what's going to happen in the future
no matter how much we want to see here and pretend that the hockey gods and
the this and the that like that's just not the way it works so
is this team built to win a Stanley cup yes is a boss and brew or the boss and
brewing is built to win a Stanley cup yeah but if lainous old mark and petries
berseron and brad marshall and get hurt the Bruins ain't winning the cup
it's the same thing for every king right on right on um i guess that's all i have
i just have one last little bit i wanted to get to it's been exactly three
calendar weeks since i last podcasted and in those three calendar weeks there
are three avalanche goals that really stood out to me that i just want to
touch on just to you know i guess stick tap and
give them the credit they're due the first goal of which is mico ranton and
batting the puck out of the air against vegas um because not only did he not
only did he bat that puck out of the air when he went to shoot it it was in the
air right i mean just hand hand-eye coordination at its
finest and just showing who mico ranton has really
evolved into now at the stage of his career yeah 14 seconds in that was a
great play and that set the tone for the night the other goal was another one
that was super fast i think it was the win a peg game where nathan mckinnon
scored but the breakout that the avalanche had to uh create that goal was just so
it was just north that's all they were thinking north north north north i think
it was devante started it behind the net and the puck just went pass pass pass
all of them went forward and nathan mckinnon ended up with a breakaway do you
know which goal does that ring a bell or yeah i do yep
that was that that was beautiful yeah this was during their stretch where they
went three straight games by scoring on the first shot it's crazy right this
this conversation you know i had been typing it in my phone keeping notes i was
hoping by the time i was ready to podcast again it was more of a
these are some some goals that have stood out that have made this great
winning stretch so great but of course we got a little bit of a stutter but
denis moggin yeah when i when i stopped podcasting three
weeks ago we were still waiting to see denis moggin's first goal
he's got four now he's got four since then and and and a couple really nice ones
one on a breakaway the one against edminton was just like what who are you
um yeah those are just three goals i wanted to to point out and salute
so here's my salute yesterday yesterday was a breakaway for denis moggin too
he's he's given you the depth the avalanche
you know this is something i talked about the ryan balding three four months
ago couldn't trust four words 10 11 and 12 on their team
they can only play one through nine and then 11 10 11 and 12 and we're not gonna
play those guys we're gonna give them two minutes because we don't trust them
well they've since added mattan yero denis moggin lars-eler
there's your 10 11 12 they have a 12 man roster
obviously without gay blandest guy even in it so
and obviously darin home as well but they address the situations and those
depth guys are starting to pitch in you're gonna see lars-eler pick it up too
give give him some time luckily the uh have still at home three more games at
home this week a nice little home stretch just maybe a chance to get
comfortable get some wince uh as they head down the stretch but they are
playing there's dale is yeah well they are playing the san ose sharks on
tuesday you beat 14 kinds of shits out of the sharks
while you have them that's that's just what you have to do you haven't played
them yet the season you got three games against san ose and they are a
bad team that got even worse with the trades they made
also shout out to nikos term it's gonna be march seventh when he gets his
daily cup ring like that guy made way to almost an entire season
yeah if we did our morning skate video of what's your best memory of nikos
term they're gonna say who oh oh yeah that guy that guy
oh yeah i remember him but yeah you'd like to take the avalanche definitely
take care of businesses that the guy we traded joce for oh yeah i remember
him um awesome well yeah it was good to be back on the
podcast shake off the dust and uh get back into it and you know i hope
everybody enjoyed it yeah thank you guys
having it no i can hear you i think kind of maybe maybe not
what is the thing look at that um yeah thank you guys for hanging in there with us
that's much um not like this place where i hope to have you back
and we are what is it a month month in a week month and ten days from the
Stanley Cup playoffs it's getting it's getting close we're
doing almost there
20 games i think exactly i just tried to count on the fly there so 20
games left in the season so let's see how they fare and
it'll be a fun little ride down the stretch so yeah hopefully i'm back full
full swing full full time let's uh see how i manage my swing games
let me let me ask you this question as we close it out because i should have
asked you this three games that go before they lost three straight
21 games they got to win 16 of them to hit 50
you think they hit 50 wins 16 out of 21 they got to go 16 and 5 oh man they've
got san jose in there three times they've got arizona in there
Detroit three times they got Montreal Anaheim's
Anaheim's in there once Anaheim they have one of the easiest schedules
they have one of the easiest schedules i know they just lost three games but it
was three playoff teams uh yeah we just went through the entire
outro music we're still talking um but yeah it is i i think they'll do it
i honestly think they'll do it right on right on well thanks everybody for
hanging out with us on this edition of the podcast if you made it this far
bless your pretty heart thanks for having me back
let's make hockey for everyone we got you
so
Thank you.