Sean McIndo (3:12)

And do like, we're like, where, where.

Sean Gentili (3:13)

Are we on this? We're at 5 hours and 46 minutes. As I look at my clock right.

Frankie Corrado (3:17)

Here, I, I get why they want to get it done, but realistically, I'm not sure they need to get it done. I, I think they need to get it done before the Rangers are playing again after the break, you know, for. Because, I mean, if the trade happens today, is he going to fly out and play somewhere tomorrow night? I mean, I guess, I guess he could, but I think this is more of an after the deadline thing, which means they do have a couple of weeks and I wouldn't be shocked if it happened, but you could see a scenario where there's, there's so many moving pieces and we've got to talk about the extension and we got to talk about the no move clause that maybe they get down to a point today where Chris Durie says, look, we, we're down to a couple of teams. We've got a pretty good sense of what the package would look like, but we just don't have time to get this over the finish line by 3 o'.

Sean McIndo (4:11)

Clock.

Frankie Corrado (4:11)

So let's take a breath, take a couple of weeks. You know, no one's going to get hurt. No one's anything like that's going to happen. So in two weeks, when the deadline lifts, the freeze lifts. That'll be when we announce the deal and then we move on from there. That, that feels like the most likely scenario to me, but let's see how it turns out.

Sean McIndo (4:33)

If you're the New York Rangers. I don't, I don't feel like the Rangers need to have the same sense of urgency to get this deal done that other teams that would be on the receiving end of this thing would need to have. Because, okay, he hasn't played since, what, January 26. So if he doesn't play here, you know, you're going to basically go six weeks without playing. If you're our tempenarin, if you make a trade, if you're a team that makes a trade for him today and he's able to play tomorrow, so he's played one game now in six weeks or five weeks, like it doesn't matter that much. Like one game or zero games is not going to make a difference. So if you're another team and you're like dealing with the Rangers and the Rangers want you to sweeten this thing up because they want to make the deal happen, you know, right now as opposed to before the trade deadline. I'd say, who cares? It's the same deal. I'm not like, you know, I'm not having that massive sense of urgency to get this deal done just because you think that, you know, I need to pay a little bit more or I have to be the one that comes to the table. Now the extension thing is going to be the thing that's tricky with all of this because, like, Panarin would probably want to go to, you know, Florida or Tampa. How can they make an extension happen today? But there would be other teams that would be able to make it happen today. But is that, is that okay with Panera and to go there, you know, like dgb, if you're, if you're thinking about Carolina, they've taken massive swings with Jake Gensel and Miko Ranton and they both left and they didn't take the extension. So, like, you know, is if they trade for Panarin or if they try and get this done with Panarin, is it three for three or does he actually stick around? It feels like when he wanted to go to New York, he went there for a specific reason. I feel like Carolina is a very different place than New York City.

Frankie Corrado (6:29)

It is. And, and that was the story when he left Columbus in 2019. Everybody said, oh, he's going to New York. That's where he wants to wind up. Did he talk to other teams? Were there other possibilities? Sure. But it sure sounded like he had his heart set on New York City. The big, the big city and everything that comes with that. Now there's a difference between being 28 and being 35. Maybe he's got different priorities now, but I think that he's certainly a guy that likes to have some control. And I think at the end of the day, this is going to come down to what are his priorities? Because he wants to pick his destination and he wants to get an extension. Great. You have a no move clause. You have leverage. Good for a player to go out and use that leverage. But there may just not be a destination that fits both those criteria of it's one of the places he wants to go and they're willing to offer an extension right now because it's very, very hard to see that working in, in a Florida or a Tampa. So, you know, what's your third choice? How far back is that third choice from the first couple of choices? Can we put this together or is this a situation where you got to go to Panarin and say, pick one or the other. Do you want to go to your very favorite place? We'll try to make that happen. Do you want an extension? Is that mandatory? That's a different set of destinations and you're going to have to let us know which, which lane you want us to drive down.

Sean Gentili (7:58)

So Vince, in his write up that ran last night, he did mention a few other interesting teams outside of Florida. He also, he mentioned Carolina, of course, but he mentioned the Kings, the Sharks and the Caps as teams who are believed to be involved and probably have enough cap space or certainly have enough cap space to, to make it work. Oh man, the Caps are interesting. I, I think the Caps make a lot of sense for him. Not just because of the Russian thing with him and Ovechkin, because I think that's an open question as to how close they are or are not. I, I think he, I think he makes sense there in a lot of different ways as a short term addition and then potentially as a guy who could sign for a few more years and sort of keep that window. Like he lines up with other players. They have, I know he's, he's older than Pierre Luke Dubois and he's older than Jacob Checkering and he's older than, you know, some of the, in their prime guys that they've, that they've gone out and added. But I think he's, I think he's of a type with some of the players that they've gone after over the last little bit.

Sean McIndo (9:04)

And keep in mind, like Ovi's not the only Russian that plays on that team, like Protus is there. He's a good player, he's a valuable asset to them. So if Ovi were to say, you know, I'm done in a year or two, there's still going to be like a Russian wingman, if you want to call it that. The thing I, the thing I think about with the Caps is Carbery, like very forward thinking, offensively inclined coach who's going to use Panarin the way he's meant to be used, right? And like I think a lot of people would, but I kind of, that would get the juices running a little bit to think about what that match could look like between the coach and player.

Sean Gentili (9:39)

I've had a couple pretty long conversations with Spencer Carberry about player usage as it relates to Alexander Ovechkin, because this is going back to the spring when Oveskin was chasing the record, but, you know, it's kind of continued through then. And Frankie, man, I think you, I think you nailed it. I think as you look at Artemi Panarin as, you know, productive as he still can be there, he's, he's aging, right? And he's, and he's kind of a specialty player in certain ways when even in his prime. So there are going to be concessions and adjustments that need to be made for him as he gets older, but I don't think anybody is more equipped to do that. If you're Artemi Panarin and you sign a 7, 8 year extension that takes you through the rest of your, through the rest of your 30s, well, who's a coach who's found a way to maximize a player, an offensively gifted winger well into his 30s and into, into his 40s. Now in Oveskin, I think the fit there. And also we have Chris Patrick saying a couple weeks ago, like, yeah, we want to go get a high end winger. I think the fit there in a lot of ways, outside of whether Panarin wants to go there, which I think seems like an open question. I, I think the fit makes a whole lot of sense. Are we surprised to see San Jose on that list, by the way?

Frankie Corrado (10:59)

I, I'm, I'm surprised to see Washington on the list. I, I really, I don't, I mean, you guys are selling me a little bit, but I'm looking at this. I think the assumption, and maybe I'm too stuck in this, is that the Capitals would, would try to squeeze as much juice out of the stone as they could for the Ovechkin era. And then when he's done, which is going to be soon, then you could do maybe a little bit of a reset because it is, it is an older team and, and the problem is right now they're five points out of a playoff spot. If I'm Artemi Panarin, I'm not going there without an extension. That, because I cannot risk going somewhere and missing the playoffs. And for what should be my big showcase heading into free agency, I'm sitting on the sidelines all spring. I can't risk that. I want an extension if that's going to happen. But do I want to be the guy putting aside whether he wants to live in Washington, whatever else, do I want to be the guy who replaces Alexander Ovechkin? You really want to be that? Do you want to be Cam Newton coming in to replace Tom Brady? And, and you can say he wouldn't be that that's like a pretty good.

Sean Gentili (12:12)

That'S like a pretty good analogy, by the way. Kim Newton, Kim Newton replacing Brady.

Frankie Corrado (12:16)

Like, except if Cam Newton had a seven year contract and had to be there and everybody, every fan is sitting there going, oh, because I mean, look, when Ovechkin's gone, probably just the natural gravity of the NHL may pull the Capitals back to the pack if they're not there already. Does, does Panarin want to be the guy that everyone's blaming? Because, oh, you know, they. Ovechkin left, Panarin came in and they've, they've been no good since. It'd be an unfair narrative.

Sean Gentili (12:42)

But there's a reason, there's a reason that we're not. That this interest or whatever, that this seems like a bit of a one way street right now. There's a reason why we're not talking about Artemi Panarin saying like, hell yes, I put, put me in Washington tomorrow. If that were the case, like it would have, it would have happened already. And I know the Caps, they have a decent stock of, you know, young players. I know, I know they like, sincerely do like a lot of the guys at the top of that, at the top of the prospect group. So I can imagine them. The flip side is I can imagine them trying to be picky about, about, about what they, about what they send back. It's not, it's not a seamless thing. I just look at the on ice fit and also the stuff that they've done over the last couple of years, which is like, whether they like it or not, and they're certainly fine with it, but they're in a win now window, I think because of Oveskin and because of other players that they have on that team. They've done well to extend that, say through Tom Wilson's prime or whatever the next, the next few years. That's been. The work that they've done over the last couple years is that they've set it up so they're not going to, theoretically that they don't fall off a cliff whenever, whenever Ovechkin leaves. And I think that's where Panarin works. Is this kind of bridge for tomorrow into three years from now, does that, Is that gonna, is that gonna work seven years from now? That's a whole, that's a whole other question. And Sean, like you said, man, I, There's a reason this hasn't happened already. There's plenty of stuff to question or not necessarily love about it.

Sean McIndo (14:11)

Yeah, there's A. There's a trust factor that I would have with the Washington Capitals, because if you go back to when, you know, Backstrom's not playing there anymore, TJ Oshi's retired, and it's like the changing of the guard really happened for the Caps, and you got to think to yourself at that point, well, here we go. Like, Washington's going to. Washington's going to bottom out, and they're going to start the cycle again. Instead, you know, they make a trade for PLD and they make some other signings, and they've drafted really well along the way. And furthermore to that, they've developed these guys in Hershey and they've won, you know, championships down there, and now they've come up and they're still a really good team. So I think that's. That's important to keep in mind with this Panarin thing. If it were to happen there and Ovechkin is gone sooner rather than later, I'm of the belief that, you know, OV being gone doesn't. Doesn't torpedo this team. It actually just kind of keeps them status quo where they are, and I trust that they will make the necessary moves and develop the right pieces to. To keep them in the mix. I had a crazy thought at the start of the season. You know, like at tsn, they were asking us give us a couple crazy hot takes that that could or could not come true. And my one at the time was Caprisov and Panarin will sign with the Washington Capitals and join OV for, like, the goodbye tour. And that'll be obvious way of, like, restocking things and leaving it better than when he got it or something like that. Well, Caprice offs in Minnesota, but maybe there's a chance that Panarin ends up there, and I don't think it's a. I don't think it's a terrible fit. And the other thing is, you know, a lot of guys in Washington, they had success last year. A lot of guys had career years. Strom, McMichael produce. Not every year is going to be a career year, but I think having like, a little bit of an offensive, offensive firepower kind of guy helps those guys achieve some numbers. Maybe if you can get them linked up with Panarin.

Frankie Corrado (16:14)

That's a obvious prediction, man. I just want to say for the record, 50% of a correct prediction that rounds up to 1.

Sean McIndo (16:21)

No.

Sean Gentili (16:24)

It'S not. I don't know if that's prices right rulers is that price is right rules. I don't think so. That's Mac and do prediction rules. That's how, that's how they work.

Frankie Corrado (16:31)

You got to take, you got to take the wins where you can get them. Sean, you were asking about San Jose.

Sean Gentili (16:36)

Yeah. Like, like eight minutes ago like an idiot when I just tried to like shoehorn it in into a good Caps conversation.

Sean McIndo (16:43)

Yeah.

Sean Gentili (16:43)

What, what about, what about San Jose?

Frankie Corrado (16:45)

So my initial thought is, is that makes a lot more sense in a few ways. May be a more desirable location. It may be a team that's trajectory seems to fit a little bit better. You know, I know they're a young team and you know, you kind of look at it and you say, well, do they want an old guy? Well, sometimes you need to bring in the veteran to help you make the next step. They've got all sorts of assets. They've got the cap space. Chris Durie, I'm sure if you hooked him up to a lie detector, would rather trade our Tammy Panarin out west.

Sean Gentili (17:19)

Yeah.

Frankie Corrado (17:20)

And within the division where he's going to see him a couple times a year.

Sean Gentili (17:25)

An Amtrak right away. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think Jury ideally would.

Frankie Corrado (17:29)

Here's what scares me a little bit if I might career. If you bring in Artemi Panarin and you have to sign him to an extension and this, this would apply to a trade or even if it's a free agency in the off season, you're going to pay him a lot of money. Artemi Panarin has been a guy, he wants to get paid. Even when he wanted to go to New York, he got a nice, nice big chunk of change to do it. You've got a lot of young guys who are going to need contracts soon. Does this create and we made it deep into this podcast without mentioning the Leafs, but does this create sort of your John Tavares comes to Toronto situation where John Tavares has been very, very good in Toronto, but he came in at that 11 million dollar number and suddenly all the young guys were like, well, I mean if, if we're given out $11 million contracts, suddenly Mitch Marner wants that, Austin Matthews wants a little bit more, William Nylander wants a little bit more. And it just, it becomes a situation where I think John Tavares did everything on the ice the Leafs could have ever asked for him. But I think his contract really did set off a little bit of a chain reaction in that organization as far as what the ceiling was and who was going to make what do you worry about that if you're San Jose, how am I going to get Macklin Celebrini signed if I just gave 12.5 million to 35 year old Artemi Panera?

Sean McIndo (19:00)

I, I don't know. You know what, it is a fair question because we've seen it happen and the domino effect of what that can do for a team, so it is valid. But Macklin Celebrini, to me anyways, is going to be in a ridiculous stratosphere when it comes to his salary. Like it's, it's going to be a super, super aggressive number. And so Panarin at, What is he, 35, coming over as a UFA, I don't think it pushes the needle on that number for me anyways.

Sean Gentili (19:33)

And the Sharks, the Sharks would probably love to sign Macklin Celebrini for whatever they're going to sign, right? They would love to sign Celebrini to the Panarin contract.

Sean McIndo (19:44)

Celebrity is going to be an $18 million player, right? Like, is he not? Like it's going to be, it's going to be a really aggressive number. So. And right now their cap situation is so good. Any, at least like they have the Tyler to Foley making $6 million. Like there's, there's not much going on there. They're, they're in a good spot. I mean, I guess it depends who is Marner.

Sean Gentili (20:05)

Who is Marner in this scenario? Is it Will Smith?

Frankie Corrado (20:08)

I think it's Will Smith, yeah.

Sean Gentili (20:10)

Oh God.

Podcast Announcer (20:13)

That'S.

Sean Gentili (20:13)

I. Poor, poor Will Smith. Pan.

Sean McIndo (20:17)

Panarin's projectable number is probably like under 12 million at this point. It's got to be 10 and a half to 11 and a half, wouldn't you think?

Frankie Corrado (20:27)

I think with Panera and what it's, it's going to be and I, I've seen this mentioned in a few places. He's going to have an overall dollar value. He's going to say, you know, as an example, I want 50 million bucks. Now if you want that to be over four years at 12.5, okay, you want to make it 5, 6. I won't be around to play those years. We all know that. But you know, that's how this game gets played. And we've seen the league kind of set a precedent by allowing the Brad Marchand contract in Florida. Maybe Panarin does the same thing, says you go ahead, add his. I want four years at 50 million. If you want to add years to that for cap reasons, go ahead, I don't care. But I want the overall number I Wonder if it's five. What about five at 55? Don't you mean, you know, whatever it is, I'll do seven at 50, pay me seven million bucks a year and I'll be on LTIR for the last three years and everybody will know exactly what's going to happen as soon as I sign the contract. But we'll all just pretend. Or maybe we won't. You know, the, the league has been weird about this. The league has said no sometimes, but yes some other times. So who knows? Maybe it depends on the team. Maybe it depends on the scenario.

Sean McIndo (21:41)

Let's not gloss over the fact that it was not the Brad Marchand contract. That was the first one that I remember that was like this. It was the Chris Tan of contract in Toronto. That is like six years. And it's like he's not going to.

Sean Gentili (21:56)

Be, definitely not going to be around.

Sean McIndo (21:57)

At the end of it.

Frankie Corrado (21:58)

And there was, there was talk though that the tanf deal, they were going to go even longer and the league said don't get silly with it. And so, and the league does have to do that eventually or else, you know, every 39 year old is going to be getting an eight year extension. That, and, you know, it, it, it just gets weird. So it's, it's interesting.

Sean Gentili (22:21)

I just want, I'm, I'm, I'm really hoping we get just a replay of the Kobachuk situation where they sign a contract and then decide it, decide it's.

Frankie Corrado (22:29)

Not allowed, sign a contract, don't approve it, sign contract, reapprove it years later, say it's not approved anymore, take away a draft pick, give the draft pick back, and somehow the Vancouver Canucks end up paying the salary cap penalty. No one else.

Sean Gentili (22:45)

Still, I, I find myself randomly thinking about that way, way, way too often. All right, that's a good chat. I mean, we're. And also it went on long enough where, who knows, maybe our Timmy has been traded already. Who, who knows? Today is again the, the trade freeze day. We're gonna hit a break. We'll be right back. We're talking Matt vay, Mishka, Philadelphia Flyers, maybe some other stuff. Stick around.

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Sean McIndo (23:19)

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Sean Gentili (23:39)

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide.

Frankie Corrado (23:44)

Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.

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Sean Gentili (24:53)

All right, folks, we're back. Macando corado gentili here, fellas. The Brier signal worked. He has it in his office. He answered the call. A day or two after the Matt F m Rick talket stuff seemed to hit its peak. Danny Brier, who's the boss in Philadelphia, obviously talk to reporters, try to take down the temperature on all that. Here's what he said. A lot of this is from our guy in Philly, Kevin Kerrs. One thing I can tell you, this is Brier. One thing I can tell you, Matvey Mishkov is not going anywhere. Let's make that clear. One, that's one thing he said. A second thing he said Socket and Matvey have a good relationship. Sometimes they're fiery when you're not winning. Things are done and said, but they always come back to the table and want what's best best for this team. And Rick wants the best for Matvey. Rick knows how important he is, the future of the organization and he wants to make it work. This is obviously. Guys, we'll do a quick recap here. I suppose this is obviously in the wake of a season where Mishkov came into camp, maybe not having trained as hard as he did, as he typically had in the off season, comes in out of shape. Taka clearly noticed it. It's been an issue. It's reflected itself in its minutes. It's reflected itself in its usage it's reflected itself in the way Taka talks about Mishkov publicly, which is something that bubbled up again a couple days ago, which was the reason for the Brier signal from Elliott to go up in the first place. And here we are. Frank, we'll start with you. I suppose. What do we think of the situation overall and what do we think of what Brier did yesterday to. To try to get his arms around all of it.

Sean McIndo (26:33)

Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here. I will say this. Two things can be true. Players want to be coached, they want guidance, they want to have hands on communication with the coach. They want all that. Now with this Mitchkov situation, the other thing that can be true is sometimes you also have to build the player up a little bit. Even though guy came into camp out of shape, there's no excuse for that. It's over though. Like he's, he's a young player and I think sometimes these guys, they just, they need to be convinced, to be honest with you. And I'm not saying that's right, not saying that's the way it always was, but it might be the way it is now, and it could be the way it is with this specific player. So with that being said, Matt Vaymichkov comes into camp out of shape. It's difficult to catch up to everyone who was already in shape and now progressing with the season because those guys are all a little bit faster. They're just, they're, they're into their, you know, hockey lungs a little easier. And this guy's trying to get up to like even par. Everyone else is making birdies now. This guy's just trying to get to even par. So that's the challenge for Mechkov. And it's not like he's, you know, a really high iq, veteran kind of savvy player who can overcompensate for being out of shape because he's going to think his way around the ice. I think of like guys that were the most intelligent players like Barkov or Bergeron or Kopitar, right. Like those guys could think their way around the ice. He can't do that yet. He's got to do it with his legs, he's got to do it with his skill. So he's constantly playing catch up here. It's a tough spot for Talkett because he's got to coach him, he's got to hold him accountable. But he's also still has to find a way to build him up. So it's Not a great situation. And you have fans planning, you know, fire talk at chants on Twitter at 19 minutes to go in the first period, last game. So it makes sense that Brear is out there. And I appreciate the fact that, like, he's. He's trying to get ahead of it and talk to the fan base and put the fire out. So good on him for doing that. But I think where. And this is my final, you know, kind of concluding thought on this is the reason why this is such a big deal in Philadelphia is because they are starving for a highly skilled player like this. They have a lot of redundancies. They got guys that work hard, they got guys that have a certain ceiling. This guy's almost like. We almost don't know how good he can be offensively. And they need him to work out, because if he doesn't, the rebuild is right back to where it's been for a long time. And that's why this is such a massive deal in Philadelphia.

Frankie Corrado (29:15)

I gotta say, I. Maybe this is just me. I did find it very funny that you've got a player who is apparently out of shape and. And. Or at least came into camp out of shape and overweight, and the GM says, well, the thing about him is he always comes back to the table. Yeah, yeah, we know, Danny. That's. That's apparently the problem. A little too much time spent at the table. The thing that really shocks me on this is Mitchkov. Not this time around, but back in November when we kind of lasted all of this, he talked about his off season and basically said, I took four months off. No hockey, no nothing. I mean, he basically did the 1970s NHL thing where you just. You just don't do anything in the summer, and then you show up and you work it off in camp. And I guess I get it to an extent where, I mean, this kid's been through a ton over the last few years. I can absolutely see that at some point he was going, I need a break from this. But I guess maybe this is. This is my question of Frankie, how does this happen? How does a team allow that to happen with any player, let alone a guy that. You've sort of built the future of the franchise around how hands on our teams. How. You know, wouldn't this kid have been given, you know, a workout plan, something for this, for the off season? And for him to just walk in and go, yeah, I haven't done anything in four months. What's going on is. Is that. Is that a surprise to the team? Did they know, were they okay with it? Is this a situation where they told him go ahead and take the time off and now that it's not going well, he's. He's getting thrown under the bus? Or were they as surprised as I was to hear that an NHL athlete apparently did nothing for four months?

Sean McIndo (31:07)

No, they would be. They would be surprised. You know how competitive guys are now. Like, jobs are on the line. Every single year. There's more and more young guys. They're more, there's more opportunities. So it's not like they're going to sit there and hold his hand and FaceTime him every day and be like, hey, Matvey, it's 8am Are you at the gym yet? Like, they're just, they're not going to do it unless he's at their facility, unless he makes the decision to say, I'm in Philadelphia all summer and I'm going to train at the facility. But can't necessarily force him to do that at this point. So, yeah, it would come as a surprise. I'm sure you're going to have check ins, but how easy is this? DGB calls me Frank. You in the gym today? Oh, yeah, Coach. Dgb. Really good workout today. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Great job, buddy. Keep us posted. Okay, dgb. Bye. Like that. I don't know, like, you know what I mean? Unless you're there, unless he's at the facility or unless you have someone there wherever he is training, there's a trust factor that needs to be there.

Sean Gentili (32:04)

At a certain point, you got to just move on. Past the off season stuff, though, I get it. It was a disaster. Dude's 20 years old or whatever. He tried to see if he could get away with it. He did not underline it. Whatever. Like, that's, that's where we are. You hope it doesn't happen again because lesson learned, I suppose it's just wild to me that this is still, I'm Frankie, I'm on your side. Or I'm on. I'm of the same mindset with you on this. I get it. You know, guys want to be coach. Guys need to be coached. At a certain point though, it's like, it's like talk. It's on a. He's doing a. He's doing a podcast at a charity event in. Mishkov is still catching strays for being out. It's like, okay, it's February. Like, it's, it's high pass time for everybody involved. Mitchkov talket the organization to have gotten their arms around all this because Yesterday and the day before. I follow way too many Flyers fans on various social media accounts or various social media sites. I mean, this was like, this was a 10 alarm fire for them. It was in. It was incredible how, how big a deal this turned into and it should be. You know, I get it, they've gone in the tank over the last couple weeks, but this is like the reset. This is, this is the point. You know, everybody's about to have a few weeks off to train or to, or hang out or do whatever like this is. And all. All Flyers fans are going to do now is talk about this for another, another 10 days or 14 days. It's. It's a, it is a situation that was on the. That had already been toxic to some degree and it, and it was on the verge of turning into like a Three Mile island nuclear meltdown over there. Over. Over what? Like, he, like he came into camp in bad shape and now he's playing 14 minutes a night. Like, figure it out. Because from the outside, like, just play. Everybody get over it. Like the coaching staff, the front office, Mitch Gov, the fan base, like, you got it. You got to move on because this is really on the verge of spinning out of control for them.

Sean McIndo (34:19)

Well, guess what? Now Mitch Goff has an opportunity for a mulligan because everyone's going to take off. Everyone's. Some guys are going to be playing at the Olympics and the rest of the league is going to take a bunch of time off. Guys will take, you know, however many days completely off of doing anything. Then they'll get back in the gym, then they'll get back on the ice. There's going to be like a reset here to see who's got their legs coming out of this break. This is Mitchkov's opportunity to be like, okay, I feel bad that I didn't come into camp in shape. I'm going to work out. This whole time I'm on the ice, I'm working out. And when the puck drops on February 26, I'm flying and I'm ready to go. I think that's going to be a pretty revealing moment. Those games right after this break will be revealing as to how Mitchkov attacked this last break. Considering the summer he didn't do enough to get himself in shape.

Sean Gentili (35:16)

Yeah. And in the meantime, he's the man who invented being lazy during the offseason. And it's just, it's just, it's just crazy to me.

Frankie Corrado (35:25)

Do we want to talk?

Sean McIndo (35:26)

We.

Sean Gentili (35:26)

We should. You know what, let's make it, let's make it a Russian winger trifecta. Since we've talked about Panarin, we've talked about Mishkov, we'll close on this. So Nikita Kutra fella, he's, I think he's starting to, I think he's starting to figure it out. He had four points last night in Tampa's 43 win over the Sabres. That's a sneaky, sneaky important game. Say Tampa 181 and 1 in their last 20, also pretty good. The stats coming out of that related to Kucherov are incredible. In, in the calendar year of 2026, we're four months and a couple days or a month and four days in 11 goals, 28 assists and 39 points since new Year's. How does that work, dude?

Sean McIndo (36:12)

You want to know how that works?

Sean Gentili (36:14)

Yeah. Can you tell me three, three four.

Sean McIndo (36:16)

Point nights in your last five games and I'll do her and, and the other ones that aren't four point nights are two point nights. This guy's unbelievable. But this is nothing new. Like, this is, you know, this didn't come out of nowhere. Nikita. Kucherov has, has been this. But he's gone nuclear here the last little while. And Tampa, you know, it's funny, like last night I was on the, I was on the desk doing Senators, Carolina, right? And I'm, we're, we're all talking about could this be Carolina's year? And it's like, ah, no, Florida, Florida's not going to be in your way. That's an issue for Carolina with the way that they play. And then you're like, knock, knock, Tampa's back and there's Guccher off and he's got another four point night and it's like, oh yeah, Tampa, they will, they will punch you, they will shove you. They will do all that kind of stuff that Florida does. Maybe not to the same level that Florida does, but you're like as soon as one door closes, the other one opens and Tampa's back in the mix and there's Kucherov right in the middle of it.

Frankie Corrado (37:17)

And you're just hoping if you're Caroline or anyone else who has any hope in the Eastern Conference, that he's just getting this out of his system now. Like an all time heater. Better in January and February than April. But I mean, this is crazy. This is, you know, we're on, you know, week five, almost week six of, of Wayne Gretzky numbers. You know, Dom had a very funny post where he's, you know, Saying that.

Sean Gentili (37:44)

First time for everything.

Frankie Corrado (37:46)

Yeah, yeah, got him. He said he was saying he's, he's, he was at like a 213 point pace and he's like, well, so is this just, this is just what Wayne Gretzky did all year in the 80s. And yeah, as the old guy, I'll tell you, yes, this is what it was, but this was the 80s. To do this in, in, in 20, 25, 26 is wild. I, I, I all respect to Wayne Gretzky, but those goaltenders, those stand up goalies and those defensemen whose idea of gap control was. I'll just back into my own goalies crease as soon as Gretzky comes over the blue line and let him whale a slap shot from the, from the circle for Kucherov to be doing it now it's, it's wild and, and I gotta say it, this is a staple of the takes industry.

Sean Gentili (38:39)

Nikita Kucherov here in the tear in the take mines.

Frankie Corrado (38:42)

We all are underrated. Yes, underrated. I mean underrated.

Sean McIndo (38:47)

Really.

Frankie Corrado (38:48)

Two, two scoring titles in a row. And now, now he's doing this like are we going to look back and go like man, I mean McDavid was amazing, McKinnon was amazing, but we didn't appreciate Nikita Kucherov.

Sean Gentili (39:01)

You know who does that? You know who doesn't, who didn't underrate him? The Oilers? The Oilers or the, the Oilers? The Sabers on that, on that game time goal by Darren Radish yesterday. He gets, he gets the puck like at the top of the circle is like the, the, the obvious terror in, in their, in their games at that moment. He just. The gravitational pull of, of Kucharov over, over on the circles. I, I think, I think any, I think me and DGB could have, could have scored on that.

Sean McIndo (39:29)

I think that's the word right there. Dgb. Underappreciated. Maybe not underrated, but underappreciated for how good, how dominant can be. Because he does it differently than McKinnon and McDavid, right? Like he doesn't storm down the ice and with that intensity or that ferocity with the big galloping crossovers. He moves like he shakes and bakes, but he is almost slithery in the way that he conducts his business. So optically it looks different but I think you're right. Like underappreciated more than underrated for sure.

Sean Gentili (40:01)

71 points in his last 32 games. This is from J. Fresh. This is, this is it. Frankie will let you go after this. 71 points in his last 32 games. Good job. 15 players in the entire 2014-15 had more points than that. His last 32 games would have put him in. In 15th and scoring in 2014-15. Good God. What are we doing here?

Sean McIndo (40:25)

2014, 2015. I think I played against in the minors. Oh, I'm pretty sure he was torching everyone in the Miners. Yeah.

Sean Gentili (40:40)

Where are you next couple days? I've lost track of you once again. You're in. You're in Toronto.

Sean McIndo (40:45)

No, but I'm in Philly for the game. For the Sens game. Going right into the Beast of Philadelphia. Sends flyers. And then a little bit of a break for the Olympics.

Sean Gentili (40:57)

Very nice. Enjoy it, brother. I guess. Yeah, you guys, too. It's not like that much of a break. We'll talk to you next week. We'll have our Olympic. Olympic preview spectacular. You get a break from tsn, but not us. Lots of fun.

Sean McIndo (41:11)

No, we got the Gino Reddit hits to do. We got that talking.

Frankie Corrado (41:16)

We don't give. We don't give time off, man. It's. That's what the off season's for.

Sean McIndo (41:20)

Exactly.

Frankie Corrado (41:21)

You can go on the Mitch Cop plan in the summer, but we got you until then.

Sean Gentili (41:25)

Yeah, then we get to make fun of you and yell at you for six months after that. Exactly.

Sean McIndo (41:33)

Okay, boys, have a good one.

Sean Gentili (41:34)

Talk to you next week, buddy.

Frankie Corrado (41:42)

Oh.

Jennifer (41:43)

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Sean McIndo (41:45)

Right?

Jennifer (41:45)

And the best part, they accept Discover. Except Discover in a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah? Huh? Discover is accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby. Get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants. These are making a comeback, I think.

Sean Gentili (42:05)

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.

Frankie Corrado (42:12)

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Frankie Corrado (42:36)

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Sean Gentili (43:14)

Perfected. All right, there goes Frankie. Sean McIndo, what have we learned? Other than the fact that my headphones didn't work for the, the first 25.

Podcast Announcer (43:26)

Minutes of the podcast, what have we learned?

Frankie Corrado (43:28)

Sean? Oh, we, that, that wasn't really a learning thing. That's. We're, we're used, we're used to adversity around here.

Sean Gentili (43:36)

Play through it.

Frankie Corrado (43:37)

Speaking of adversity, kind of maybe not really. I learned that I guess birds are hockey fans or at least Islander fans. You, I don't know if you saw this, but during the Islanders game last night, they scored a goal while Bo Horvat was being attacked by a bird, which is not something you see.

Sean Gentili (44:00)

There was an attack. Did that, did that pass the threshold of an attack? Or was it more of an, or was it more of an encounter?

Frankie Corrado (44:09)

You know, in, in today's hockey, that counts as an attack. You know, back in the old days, that would have been nothing. You know, today it's, it, it counts as something. But yeah, Bo Horvat head to head to, you know, get a bird out of the way before he threw the puck in front for, for what turned into a goal. And yeah, that is, it's been a while since we've had, was our last live animals on the ice. I, I mean, live animals. It's it. And, and it went a lot better for the bird than it went for the, the bat back in the, the fog game way back when. And it went better than it went for the live chicken that got thrown on the ice in an LA Kings game in the 80s, which then proceeded.

Sean Gentili (44:57)

To like, I learned about, I learned about that.

Frankie Corrado (44:59)

I feel like I'm the only one who, who brings it up. And, and I'm going to continue to because it was, that was a, that was a staple of like the VHS blooper industry for, for a couple of years there. That's, that's how we used to get our information. Like this is, everybody's watching like the, the, you know, the YouTube clips of the bird this morning or like bull Horvat miked up the Islanders social media put out. It used to be you wouldn't know about this stuff until like two years later when you got like the wackety dackety hockey bloopers on VHS for Christmas. And then you'll be like, oh, there was a bird on the ice.

Sean Gentili (45:40)

Bought it, bought it out of some guy's trunk.

Frankie Corrado (45:42)

Exactly. You know, and they, they'd be playing Benny Hill music. Be a bird on the ice. And you'd go, okay, that's, that's pretty cool. But yeah, shout out to the bird, who apparently seems to be okay, and shout out to Bo Horvat, who didn't let it distract him from putting a big goal on the board.

Sean Gentili (46:02)

This bird takes its spot on the Mount Rushmore of bird encounters during hockey games. It does not, cannot push out the Bakersfield Condor situation. You remember that thousand fig Day on the Internet, baby, we're not going to get into it, but if anybody, if anybody wants to, wants to check. And I think, I think both of us wrote multiple things about that one. I learned, Sean, just how much NHL players seem to like Houston. That was a big part of our, of our play, of our player poll part three or whatever it is. It's live on the site now. Bunch of, bunch of good nuggets in there about a whole, whole, whole whole host of topics. Houston, though, runaway winner for the players pick for the next spot to get A team or 118 guys pulled for this, 48 of them said that Houston should be the next spot, which is that a surprise? Like, not really. It's a big city, it's in a warm climate, no state tax. That's clearly the sort of stuff these guys, these guys care about. But, man, 48 out of 1, 118, that's, that's a, almost just a straight up majority. And I don't know, man, I wasn't.

Frankie Corrado (47:17)

Yeah.

Sean Gentili (47:17)

I mean, am I, am I, am I, am I wrong here? Like, should, like, does that number.

Frankie Corrado (47:22)

I wonder how much of it is just players trying to give the right answer. And, you know, I think Houston has had a ton of speculation around it. You know, a ton of talk about them being the next team. Not as much maybe recently as Atlanta. So maybe that's the surprise or maybe it's just the novelty factor. You know, we've tried the Atlanta thing a couple of times. There's players in this league who played in Atlanta or, you know, at least as a visitor, so maybe they kind of feel like, hey, it's time to time to try something new. But yeah, it's. It certainly seems like that's where it's headed. Maybe a mild surprise. We haven't gotten more traction on it actually happening quite yet. But feels, feels kind of inevitable at this point.

Sean Gentili (48:14)

48 players said Houston, 25 said Quebec City. 15 said Arizona. Just as a blanket. Most of them mean Scottsdale, I think, I think we all know that. Nine said Atlanta. Then there's a bunch. A bunch.

Frankie Corrado (48:27)

That's what surprised me is that Atlanta is. Is that low. I mean, Quebec City will always get. You know, I, I can probably guess what the passports look like for every player. Yeah, Quebec City, but not how many. If you've got in front of you.

Sean Gentili (48:45)

Did that.

Frankie Corrado (48:45)

Did anybody say Toronto is an expansion market?

Sean Gentili (48:49)

Yeah, two said Toronto.

Frankie Corrado (48:51)

So there are two players who pay attention to the financial side of this league and actually want the cap.

Sean Gentili (48:58)

And two said Toronto, which is one more than the amount of players who said not Tron.

Frankie Corrado (49:04)

Okay.

Sean Gentili (49:05)

That was one person's specific vote.

Frankie Corrado (49:08)

So Keith Kelly snuck in as got a vote into the players poll.

Sean McIndo (49:12)

That's cool.

Sean Gentili (49:14)

Yeah, I was, I was, I was gonna say this is Yarmo K or Terry P Submitting, submitting an anonymous votes. I love the one vote getters too, by the way. We had Lake Tahoe, we had Montreal for a second team. Not Toronto, Paris, San Antonio. Interesting choice there. And then my favorite, Miami. We know, we know that outside Fort Lauderdale, which is where Sunrise is, is not quite the same as south beach, but second team in South Florida.

Sean McIndo (49:53)

Good luck.

Sean Gentili (49:57)

Sean, what are you doing this week? I. I saw your post. You had a post go live this morning. That made me feel extremely bad talking about the guys who had their. Who missed the Olympics.

Frankie Corrado (50:06)

That's what I was going for.

Sean Gentili (50:07)

Who missed their Olympic window over the last 12 years. There's a personal affront to me who's like, I'm like the same age as.

Frankie Corrado (50:13)

I've already had feedback from people saying it ruined their morning. Yeah, I've just got to look at 10 players who have never played in an Olympics and are not going this year. In some cases active, in some cases retired, where I make the case that they would have been there in 2018 or 2022 if the NHL had gone.

Sean McIndo (50:34)

And.

Frankie Corrado (50:35)

But because they didn't, we never got to see guys like, you know, for example, Claud Giroux play in the Olympics. Never happened. There's other guys on the list who, you know, maybe they got to play in a World Cup. Certainly a lot of them got to play world championships. But they would have been there if the. If, if we had gone to the Olympics. But because we didn't, it. It sure looks now like that window is closed and we're never going to get a chance to see these guys on the very biggest stage. Kind of a buck.

Sean Gentili (51:05)

Just glad Chris Kreider got his four nations face off moment. You know, that's.

Frankie Corrado (51:10)

That was big.

Sean Gentili (51:13)

All right, bud, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, folks. Thank you for listening as always. But before you go, we want to let you know the Athletic Football show with Robert, Dave and Derek have got your daily episodes and your video breakdowns lined up from radio Row in the lead up to Sunday's super bowl in Santa Clara, I believe. Plus a big recap episode straight after. So check those guys out. Love the Athletic Football Show. Love, my man Dave Hellman. Check it out. Enjoy the games. We got 10 tonight. And then, of course, we all go into Olympic mode. We're coming back next week, the three of us, next Tuesday for an Olympics preview. And Shannon Goldman and I are back with the normal show tomorrow because Haley is somewhere in Italy, unclear on where exactly. Maybe we'll get an update from her, maybe not. See you tomorrow.

Frankie Corrado (52:13)

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