Speaker 1: This is Neil Smith, former president and GM of the
Speaker 1: New York Rangers and the New York Islanders. Join me
Speaker 1: and my co host Vic Morn for our podcast NHL
Speaker 1: Wrap Around for all the important news and views around
Speaker 1: the NHL.
Speaker 2: The Utah Hockey Club went up to Edmonton last night
Speaker 2: and they got their breaks blown off seven to one.
Speaker 2: Edmonton gets the win. The hockey club tryna stay alive
Speaker 2: in that wildcard race. So let's bring in the man
Speaker 2: that educates, entertains, informs when it comes to the world
Speaker 2: of professional hockey, the Great Neil Smith. On a Wednesday afternoon, Neil,
Speaker 2: Happy Wednesday, sir, How are.
Speaker 3: You happy Wednesday?
Speaker 4: Do you?
Speaker 3: And happy belated Saint Patrick's Day from Monday?
Speaker 5: Yes, indeed, Saint Patrick's Day Monday.
Speaker 2: And Neil, in case you didn't know, birthday for your
Speaker 2: guy over here, my birthday, Saint Patrick's day.
Speaker 3: Oh that's my sister's birthday. Well look at that. That's great.
Speaker 3: Happy birthday. I know you are, you know, twenty six now?
Speaker 5: Oh goodness goodness, Neil.
Speaker 2: I'm a rapidly but you know, like, I'm not that old,
Speaker 2: So I always feel bad when I say that I'm old,
Speaker 2: But I just turned forty seven.
Speaker 3: Oh my, well, you're a youngster. You're a youngster. You
Speaker 3: got a long way to go to catch me.
Speaker 5: Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's but Neil, I'm old enough now to realize that
Speaker 2: just like physical pain is probably part of the deal, right,
Speaker 2: you just get up and the hip perts or whatever.
Speaker 5: It's just kind of the deal, right, That's.
Speaker 3: Just part of that's just part of the aging system,
Speaker 3: is that everything seems to start working less sufficiently as
Speaker 3: we go along.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, hey, before we get into kind of the
Speaker 2: nuts and bolts of what happened last night and where
Speaker 2: we're at with our local hockey club, I've just got
Speaker 2: a question about Connor McDavid. And I know that people
Speaker 2: that really know hockey know that who Connor McDavid. You
Speaker 2: know who Connor McDavid is and what he is in
Speaker 2: the ecosystem.
Speaker 5: Of pro hockey.
Speaker 2: But I was telling my producer reporter during the break, like,
Speaker 2: even if you don't know a sport, you always know
Speaker 2: the guy that's different, right, And there's just something I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's just his speed, I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's just his skill.
Speaker 5: There there's something about Connor McDavid.
Speaker 2: It sets him apart from the best players every time
Speaker 2: I watch him play.
Speaker 5: What makes him as special as he is, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's his speed, a it's his fact that he's
Speaker 3: six over six ft, he's about six foot three. He
Speaker 3: can do things at a higher rate of speed than
Speaker 3: some people could do it in his shoes on. You know,
Speaker 3: he can do things on the ice at a very
Speaker 3: high rate of speed that people they can't just can't imagine.
Speaker 3: So I think that he embodies what people love about hockey,
Speaker 3: and that is the speed, the physicality, and the skill.
Speaker 3: And I think that he's able to He's certainly not
Speaker 3: a physical player in the sense of throwing out big
Speaker 3: body checks, but he can take whatever physical play you
Speaker 3: want to play on him. And I think that that's
Speaker 3: why you always notice ninety seven. If you go down
Speaker 3: Edmonton game, there's no way you're leaving without having seen
Speaker 3: and noticed ninety seven on the eights.
Speaker 2: They had one play last night. They had a power
Speaker 2: play opportunity. And I honestly don't know how often hockey
Speaker 2: teams run like set plays the way basketball teams do,
Speaker 2: like a one four flat, a pick and roll, or
Speaker 2: you know, whatever it is. But it was very intentional
Speaker 2: to get Connor McDavid the puck as he had momentum,
Speaker 2: and the rest of the guys looked like they were
Speaker 2: just flat footed. I mean, it was pretty remarkable. What's
Speaker 2: your take on Edmonton overall as a team. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously we're prisoner of the moment because they just stomped
Speaker 2: the hockey club seven to one. But I was very
Speaker 2: impressed with what I saw last night from the Edmonton Oilers.
Speaker 3: Well you'd have to be, because there was a beatdown.
Speaker 3: But Edmonton is a very inconsistent team. You really don't
Speaker 3: know what you're going to get from one night to
Speaker 3: the next. They have the ability to do what they
Speaker 3: did last night, and they also have the ability to
Speaker 3: turn around and lose to a bottom feed or team
Speaker 3: because they're for whatever reason, and last night. Here's the
Speaker 3: impressive thing about last night, and it happened to be Utah.
Speaker 3: It could have been anybody. Anybody in that building last
Speaker 3: night was going to get beat. The impressive thing for
Speaker 3: Edmondson was seven goals, fourteen assists probably on those seven
Speaker 3: goals or however many, and Leon dry title the leading
Speaker 3: scorer in the NHL goals wise, didn't get a point.
Speaker 3: So that means they had contributions from all kinds of
Speaker 3: people those to get those seven goals, but none of
Speaker 3: them were Leon dry Sitle. Usually you'll go to you'll
Speaker 3: watch an Oiler game and dry Title will get one
Speaker 3: or two. I thought he might get his fiftieth last
Speaker 3: night in Salt Lake. I'm sorry, in Edmonton against Utah,
Speaker 3: but he wasn't able to do it. But just think
Speaker 3: how stacked is your team when your best scorer doesn't
Speaker 3: get a point and you win seven to one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is impressive.
Speaker 2: I wonder so coach Tourney pulled the Melka after Correll
Speaker 2: game up three goals and went with Jackson Stauberd didn't
Speaker 2: do any better.
Speaker 5: He gave up four.
Speaker 2: But last night was Correll's twelfth straight start in goal,
Speaker 2: and that's a career high. Connor Ingram away from the
Speaker 2: team dealing with some personal things, as we discussed last year,
Speaker 2: do you think you could draw a straight line? I mean,
Speaker 2: I just thought it was kind of ironic as the
Speaker 2: broadcast was outlining that Vimelka had never started twelve straight before.
Speaker 2: Then suddenly the game starts and he just he was
Speaker 2: up against it. There wasn't much he could do. Do
Speaker 2: you think it's a fatigue thing? Is that a concern
Speaker 2: now that there are other kind of first choice guys
Speaker 2: on the sidelines. That Vimelka looked as tired as he
Speaker 2: did last.
Speaker 3: Night, you know, certainly could be it, because you know,
Speaker 3: that's tough to keep playing night after night in the
Speaker 3: National Hockey League, in today's NHL, where you're playing almost
Speaker 3: every other day on average, So you know, it could
Speaker 3: be that. It could be a combination of him being
Speaker 3: tired and Edmondson also being at the top of their
Speaker 3: game last night. You know, he played two days earlier
Speaker 3: in Vancouver. They fly over to Edmonton get ready for
Speaker 3: that game. Now they've got one day off and they're
Speaker 3: going to be two more night against Buffalo. And that's
Speaker 3: just the way the NHL works. But it's hard when
Speaker 3: you're running one goalie all the time. And you know,
Speaker 3: Jackson Stauber is a fine young guy, but he's you know,
Speaker 3: is he ready for the show? You know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He wasn't up. The only reason he's up is because
Speaker 3: Connor Ingram has had to take his leave of the absence,
Speaker 3: so we'll see. I mean, Vanilka is a good goalie
Speaker 3: may have had an off night, or maybe coach Torney
Speaker 3: thought that he was having an off night, so better
Speaker 3: to rest him and get him out of there. A
Speaker 3: lot of coaches too, you know, they think they're down
Speaker 3: four nothing to Edmonton, and they say, look, we're not
Speaker 3: winning this game. So I'm taking my guy out to
Speaker 3: give him a rest. Let him wait for the Buffalo
Speaker 3: game now. And you see that happen a lot.
Speaker 5: So where we find ourselves now?
Speaker 2: And I don't know, Like I was talking to a
Speaker 2: couple of guys with the hockey club, the work on
Speaker 2: the broadcast side, and a gentleman who's producing games, who
Speaker 2: used to produce the Arizona Coyotes games, and he's been
Speaker 2: around the NHL for about twenty years, and this was
Speaker 2: about a week and a half ago, and I said,
Speaker 2: you think.
Speaker 5: They're gonna make it?
Speaker 2: He said, I don't think most people understand how hard
Speaker 2: it is to make up even three or four points
Speaker 2: over the final fifteen to sixteen games.
Speaker 5: And he painted kind of a bleak.
Speaker 2: Picture as far as the hockey club qualifying for the
Speaker 2: wild card. Neil, and where we're at now is a
Speaker 2: four point gap with fourteen games left to play have
Speaker 2: stranger things happened, certainly, But what's the Neil Smith, I
Speaker 2: guess I'll say, like handicap. The chances of us seeing
Speaker 2: playoff hockey here in Utah this year.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're very good because your friend was
Speaker 3: absolutely right. You've got to jump so many teams and
Speaker 3: you've got to put together a string of wins, and
Speaker 3: even then you might gain two points up Because here's
Speaker 3: the thing that people have to understand. Well, it looks
Speaker 3: like you're only, you know, four points back of Vancouver
Speaker 3: and Saint Louis, who are tied. Everybody's playing every night,
Speaker 3: and everybody's getting points here and there, or teams in
Speaker 3: between you and that wild card spot are getting teams
Speaker 3: top points. Last night, a horrible thing for the Utah
Speaker 3: Hockey Club happened. Everybody thought that Calgary would go down
Speaker 3: to the Rangers. Calgary had gotten killed in Toronto the
Speaker 3: night before. They got in at three am. They put
Speaker 3: their backup goalie in and they beat the Rangers. The
Speaker 3: Rangers had only four of their forwards had shots on
Speaker 3: net last night, so they put in a horrible effort.
Speaker 3: Calgary comes away with the two points. Stuff like that
Speaker 3: really hurts Utah's chance to jump over teams. Now, if
Speaker 3: they put together a string of five or six games
Speaker 3: and then go back to five hundred after that, you know,
Speaker 3: then they're you know, they got a real shot. But
Speaker 3: they at this point to hurdle over these teams who
Speaker 3: are playing every night, because what will happen is you'll
Speaker 3: win a game, say the Buffalo, and then you look
Speaker 3: back at the standings and you'll say, oh my god,
Speaker 3: we're still four points behind. Well the reason for that
Speaker 3: is because Vancouver went in and beat Saint Louis on
Speaker 3: the same night as you beat Buffalo, so they got
Speaker 3: two more points. You've got two more points. You're still
Speaker 3: the same number behind. So it's very difficult. You've got
Speaker 3: to put together a string of wins to make up
Speaker 3: some ground.
Speaker 5: And only fourteen games left.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's not a lot of opportunities now to
Speaker 2: make up the ground.
Speaker 5: Good, Neil good.
Speaker 3: Let me give you the optimist side of this. They
Speaker 3: play only eight games out of those fourteen, Eight of
Speaker 3: them are against non playoff teams, teams that currently sit
Speaker 3: in outside the playoffs eight out of their fourteen, meaning
Speaker 3: only six of the fourteen are the battling playoff teams.
Speaker 3: They played Tampa Bay twice, once in Utah, once in Tampa,
Speaker 3: they play Florida, they play La King's, Winnipeg and Dallas.
Speaker 3: That's the playoff teams that they've got to play against.
Speaker 3: They got to make sure that when they get the chance,
Speaker 3: like with Buffalo, who's one of the weak sisters last
Speaker 3: in the East, they got to take advantage of that.
Speaker 3: And they have to beat Buffalo on Thursday night to
Speaker 3: make up some ground that we've been talking about.
Speaker 2: So if we just kind of exist in reality and
Speaker 2: we just admit that it's going to be tough while
Speaker 2: maintaining a little bit of hope, because that's what being
Speaker 2: a sports fan is. What would you say about what
Speaker 2: this year has meant to the club being in a
Speaker 2: new market, and what would you say to the fans
Speaker 2: about the future of where we could find ourselves based
Speaker 2: off of the way that Bill Armstrong and his staff
Speaker 2: have put together this roster.
Speaker 3: Well, what I think is really optimistic and good or
Speaker 3: positive for this hockey club is that they've gotten to
Speaker 3: a new market, they've gotten settled in, they've got a
Speaker 3: fan base, they've got a beautiful arena. They're going to
Speaker 3: change the name, or even leaving it the same will
Speaker 3: be changing it, if you know what I mean, because
Speaker 3: it's still that's still something exciting that's out there that's
Speaker 3: going to happen in the offseason. They got a lot
Speaker 3: of good young talent. They're an up and coming organization.
Speaker 3: They do have a coverboard that has quite a bit
Speaker 3: of assets in it. So I think that you're seeing
Speaker 3: a team. But we've talked about this from the first
Speaker 3: day that's on the verge of getting into that group
Speaker 3: of playoff teams. And once you break into that, then
Speaker 3: somebody's trying to knock you to get you out and
Speaker 3: let them get in, and that's really hard as you
Speaker 3: can see. But I think they've made megas depths since
Speaker 3: they've gotten to Utah compared to where they were at
Speaker 3: in Arizona. With Arizona, there wasn't a lot of hope,
Speaker 3: There wasn't a lot of money to be spent on
Speaker 3: free agents. There was Bill Armstrong was basically operating with
Speaker 3: one arm handcuffed. Now he's not. He's got a good owner,
Speaker 3: he's got a good fan base, he's got people that
Speaker 3: want hockey in that city, unlike Arizona. So I think
Speaker 3: You're miles ahead of where you were last year.
Speaker 2: Neil, before I said you loose, I know you got
Speaker 2: to get going today. I wanted you to settle a
Speaker 2: debate that I was having with my brothers, actually, who
Speaker 2: are hockey hockey guys in a way that you know,
Speaker 2: I just never have been entirely. I enjoyed the sport,
Speaker 2: loved growing up, going to ranger games and all that.
Speaker 5: We were talking about the Four Nations, and you know.
Speaker 2: We were talking about the tournament because it was such
Speaker 2: a pleasant surprise for so many people that didn't think
Speaker 2: it was going to be anything all that entertaining. If
Speaker 2: Russia is allowed in, are they the best hockey country
Speaker 2: or is it still Canada.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm Canadian, so of course I'm going to
Speaker 3: think that it's Canada. But I think that Russia produces
Speaker 3: a ton of great hockey players, and on any given
Speaker 3: year it could go either way. I think that the
Speaker 3: I think that the only way you know who truly
Speaker 3: is the world's best team is when you have a
Speaker 3: full complement of countries in it, which includes Russia. But
Speaker 3: I don't want to see them in as long as
Speaker 3: they're going in and trying to take over other countries
Speaker 3: and do what they've been doing in the last two years.
Speaker 3: I just don't think that we should we should ignore that.
Speaker 3: I think that we should, you know, say, okay, in
Speaker 3: our little world of hockey. You know, if you're going
Speaker 3: to do that, you're not part of our world. So
Speaker 3: but they are a tremendous breeding ground for hockey players
Speaker 3: Neil work.
Speaker 2: Can our listeners go find the podcast before I set
Speaker 2: you loose.
Speaker 3: Anywhere anywhere on any platform. NHL wrapped around. We had
Speaker 3: Paul Maurice, Stanley Cup winning coach on a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, and we're coming down the stretch here and
Speaker 3: we're looking at everything as as closely as we can.
Speaker 3: I give you everything we can of tidbits on the NHL.
Speaker 3: But do you know who I'm going to dinner with tonight?
Speaker 5: Who's that?
Speaker 3: Your father? Oh?
Speaker 5: Very nice, very nice, very nice.
Speaker 3: Where are you guys going to go in the city
Speaker 3: at Wolfgang Steakhouse? And Amy k will be there and
Speaker 3: ken Unos will be there. Oh, I don't know all
Speaker 3: those names. So that it's going to be a lot
Speaker 3: of fun and I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 2: Oh, and you're going to Wolfgangs he likes you more
Speaker 2: than like he likes me. He takes me to check
Speaker 2: fil A when we go to dinner. So enjoy your
Speaker 2: state deal. But please tell him hello, and tell everybody
Speaker 2: high and have a good time.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks buddy, see you soon.
Speaker 2: The Great Neil Smith Utah Key Club. Yeah, they got
Speaker 2: dog walked last night. Like I was telling Porter, I
Speaker 2: was gonna watch that Carolina San Diego state game, and
Speaker 2: after Carolina ran away with him, I'm like, all right,
Speaker 2: let's check out the hockey club. And I turned it
Speaker 2: over in time to see Edmonton put three on Vamelica
Speaker 2: in the first period, and then coach Torney pulled Vmelka
Speaker 2: and decided to try his hand at the starboard kid
Speaker 2: as Connor Ingram was still on the sidelines, and all
Speaker 2: due respect to uh to Starburn, it didn't go better
Speaker 2: for him at all. Jackson Starboro allowed four goals after
Speaker 2: Lamelca allowed three, and it's just gonna be tough, you know. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: I would love to see it happened. Playoff hockey rules.
Speaker 2: If you've never seen Stanley Cup playoff hockey, you should
Speaker 2: check it out.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Connor McDavid, what is the what's the equivalent of a
Speaker 2: Connor McDavid in another sport, Like if somebody doesn't know
Speaker 2: the game of basketball, they could turn on a Warriors
Speaker 2: game and tell that Steph is just different based off
Speaker 2: the way he makes shots. I was just watching that
Speaker 2: game last night, and I don't grind on hockey tape
Speaker 2: every night, but every time McDavid got the puck with
Speaker 2: a full head of steam, it's like that dude is different.
Speaker 4: It's it's hard number one. I'm to be clear, not
Speaker 4: Neil Smith. I haven't won a Stanley Cup, so my
Speaker 4: expertise not yet.
Speaker 5: Not.
Speaker 4: Yes, you never know who the Smith Entertainment Group might
Speaker 4: hire as the hockey team keeps going on.
Speaker 2: But no, are you throwing your name in the ring
Speaker 2: if Bill Armstrong moves on, you want to be the
Speaker 2: GM why not?
Speaker 5: Why not?
Speaker 4: But the name you brought up with Steph Curry And
Speaker 4: while he is like a similar we talked about the
Speaker 4: term gravity in sports and he has that it's it's
Speaker 4: not as much on the scoring side as it is creating.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: You You look at Wayne Gretzky and I think if
Speaker 4: you take out like all of Wayne Gretzky's goals, he
Speaker 4: still is like second all time in scoring with all
Speaker 4: the assists that he creates, and Connor McDavid has more
Speaker 4: of that than he does, say Alexandrovetchkin, who just puts
Speaker 4: shots in the back of the net over and over
Speaker 4: and over and over again. So it's really interesting to
Speaker 4: watch because he he creates for his teammates as he
Speaker 4: is at You know, every player has a little bit
Speaker 4: of it, but the way he does it, you're just
Speaker 4: seeing open shots for other guys, and that is something
Speaker 4: that I don't know how to compare that in the
Speaker 4: NBA ranks, like Lebron ish like a guy that has
Speaker 4: the scoring title but also kind of is more of
Speaker 4: a passer. That's that's you know, he's not sixty nine
Speaker 4: to sixty, but that's kind of the name. I look
Speaker 4: at a Magic Johnson and lebron a guy that puts
Speaker 4: up a bunch of points and somehow has the gravity
Speaker 4: to bring in the players around him. Luka Doncic, if
Speaker 4: you're looking at kind of a new era, new new age.
Speaker 5: Guy, it was wildly impressive.
Speaker 2: Now the hockey club has a uphill climb at this point,
Speaker 2: as I referenced, fourteen games left to try to make
Speaker 2: up a four point gap. That doesn't sound like a lot,
Speaker 2: but it is coming up on Thursday. So tomorrow Buffalos
Speaker 2: in town. Three game homestand for the hockey club, it's Buffalo,
Speaker 2: it's Tampa Bay and then Detroit. Then a three game
Speaker 2: road trip following a following that, it's a four game
Speaker 2: homestand then they're going to finish off with three on
Speaker 2: the road at Dallas AD Nashville and.
Speaker 5: At the Saint Louis Blues.
Speaker 2: Neil Smith joins us today courtesy of our friends at
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