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Durraftkings Network. Hello, welcome to the Let's rush this episode in Talk Hockey so we can stuff our faces with turkey and sweet potato castle all show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Jwark is here from The Hockey News. First of all, if you're watching our video, we did not plan this, but we are wearing the same hoodie. It is a CCM hoodie right now. I'm perfectly warm. We didn't plan this, but CCM, if you are watching, which I doubt you are, please, pretty please, we're sugar on top, sponsor our show. Thank you. All right, everybody, we are ready for the 10-minute misconduct. We have a guest here, John Bouchagras from ESPN, and we're going to get started right now. I want to get started by talking about the biggest surprises and disappointments. I got to tell you, they're both from the Pacific Division. In my humble opinion, I think Vancouver is having a real surprising season that actually doing very well, but the Edmonton holders are not doing well right now. What is your biggest surprise and disappointment so far in the season, John?

Yeah, I think you nailed it, Roy, right there. Certainly Edmonton by far the biggest disappointment. Some had them winning the Stanley Cup. I didn't have them going that far. But certainly a team after winning playoff series the last couple of years and losing to the eventual champion. You knew they were just about right there. Never loved their team, knew they had bottom six issues, scoring goals, and the defense is not real dynamic, a little pedestrian. So maybe those warts were just overlooked because how good McDavid and Dry Subtle have been. Now that they're back to mere mortals, this is what happens. So as a result, just an unbelievable set of circumstances. If they were not to make the playoffs, that would be a huge shocker.

John, somebody who, a name that's been floating around the news a lot lately is Patrick Cain, one of maybe the best pure American gold stores that we've seen, at least in my generation. He's been linked to a few teams. One of them is the Florida Panthers. Finance is going to come into it. But from what I've been reading and from what I've been told, it sounds like this is a guy that just wants to win. So what have you heard about Patrick Cain just as he's getting ready to make his season debut here?

Yeah, I've heard that too. I'm surprised that the guys won three Stanley Cops. He won a lot. I figured he'd want to go just a place where he'd want to live and want to play for a couple of years, and the environment, and maybe another story, like returning to Buffalo, his hometown. I thought that would be more important than just winning. But these guys do like to win. It is first and foremost on their mind. And a place that has a lot of support, whether it be Colorado, a really good team, because he's not going to carry a team anymore at his age. But I've heard the winning part, so I guess you can get both. I guess there are options we can get both. And so it's interesting. Certainly I've heard Florida now. They're another team who seems to be in the hunt, Dallas. I've always said Colorado all along because especially right after they won the Stanley Cup, they're seeing themselves to have some warts now. They get some ugly losses sometimes. Sorry about that, fellas. I'm here by the beverage station at Valencia Driving Ridge. I always thought Colorado was the place because McKinnon, Rantan, and just the whole support system there, and McCar as well.

I want to talk about the Columbus Blue Jackets. They have had a disastrous season off. I mean, it even started in the preseason. Before training camp with the prior ring of Mike Babcock all the way through the Patrick Lion-Aid benching, why don't you give us some thoughts on what's going on in Columbus?

Again, another shocker. Again, I didn't have them as a playoff team, so it's not like I'm certainly surprised. But the fact that they could end up the top three lottery team again after all the money they spent, they redid their D to get some adult veterans. Adam Fantilly is a real deal. He's going to be a 15, 20-year veteran, a really good player, borderline Hall of Fame, probably, if not in. But when you think about it, when you do add a lot of pieces and you play a young lineup, which is what they are, I guess you have to expect a slow start. Sometimes it all comes together quickly. But I guess we really shouldn't be surprised. This is older guys, all rich, all new, and then younger guys who are still learning how to play in key spots. And then you have one-trick ponies with Goodrow and Lionay, and so I guess maybe, again, that's what's great about the season. You just don't know until they play 20 games what people look like, what anything looks like. So again, not a shocker, because again, I didn't have them as a playoff team, but again, to go what they went through with Babcock, have this new coach who's really flexed in his muscles first time around, benching Lionay, benching Gidro, benching people, Severson as well, who's now hurt.

So yeah, that's another surprise, disappointment for sure.

Looking ahead, John, there's some chatter that the NHL may be doing another tournament, like a best-on-best, like they call it a tournament, international tournament, where we haven't seen anything since the World Cup of Hockey, which I want to say was 2018. It feels like it's been a while.

Yeah, it was a while. It was '15 or 16.

I can't remember either. Yeah, right. I was thinking 2016, but that felt like too long ago.

No, it was that long ago.

But it was a lot of fun, right? Even though it wasn't your traditional countries against one another, I enjoyed it a lot. I know that a lot of the players have been pining for something like that. So now that they're talking about the players and the lead are talking about maybe doing something with four nations, as somebody who's covered a lot of these international events, would you be excited for something like that? And what would your thoughts be just on doing it with just, was it Canada, Finland, US, and Sweden, what they're talking about?

Right, yeah, I'd like to have six. I'd like to have Slovakia and Czech Republic. That would be, I think, a little better getaway. We're not going to have David Posturnock play in this thing, one of the most popular players in the League. But yeah, not having best on best has been one of the few failures, one of the few big failures of the NHL, these last, like you said, coming up on a decade now. I know because it was pre-grey hair for me. That's how I know it was pre-2017. During the hurricane here, I was like, I'm not going to shave. And then I was like, I like this. I'm going to keep it. That's how I know. Line of demarcation for the World Cup of Hockey is my hair going gray. We need best on best. We need to see Connor Bidard and Connor McDavid on a line. We need to have that patriotism that each country feels, and it's important. It'll grow the game, it'll gain fans. It's important. Not so much growing the game is in this day and age because of the rise of women sports and the rise of F1 and the Premier League soccer of the last 15, 20 years.

Itry to get people in America pick a favorite team, buy a jersey. There's only so much money and eyeballs to go around. As long as you don't fall behind. It's not so much growing. It's like, Hey, let's stay status quo. It's a $4-6 billion industry, so it's strong, it's healthy. More teams are coming with a billion-dollar expansion fees. But this best-on-best is what really helps grow the game internationally, which is what you really do. They invested in it. They do it now, and it's an important part of the puzzle.

Between the President's trophy season, the Kachuk trade, the All-Star Game, the Stani Cup final, the Eyes of Hockey, you've really been on Sunrise right now for the Florida Panthers. Tonight they played at Boston Bruins. It'll be the third straight sellout and it'll be the fourth and nine games. Keep in mind, it's going to be two sellouts on Thanksgiving week. That's great. This is an amazing time for Florida. What are your thoughts about this?

Yeah, it really is. I always believed in the market, believed in the state. I took off in Tampa because of the championships, obviously. That's been a very successful NHL franchise for a long time. Always thought it could work in Florida. Let's face it, the whole centerpiece that this whole happen was the Matthew Kuchak tree. That will go down as the seminal moment, the tectonic plate shifting moment from the Florida Panthers. That will take them and have them be competitors and relevant and more importantly, interesting for the next 15 years. It's one thing that we have a good team, but it's also just a whole other level when it's an interesting team. That's where part of, I think, Boston, sports, city, hydrogen bomb that's gone off these last 25 years is, yeah, they've won championships, but they've been really interesting. Like Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, even Brad Marshand for the Bruins, has been over a decade now since they won their cup. But interesting cats, not just winning, but do it with interesting players. Of course, the Patries with braided and Grunk. That's just a personality, and that's what Kachuk has brought. I'm going to the game tonight.

I'm actually going to hang out with Sean Thorton, who's obviously part of the business side of the Panthers, trying to get those season ticket numbers up, trying to get the corporate sponsors, trying to get the barn full as much as they can to have that great ambiance and to have that experience even be better for existing season ticket holders. They renew because it's more fun for everybody. The players, the fans, the broadcasters, if the house is full and it's on fire. I'm looking forward to the scene tonight against the Bruins. Obviously, they're division foe. I picked the Panthers to win the division before the year. They're right on the Bruins. I still think they're going to win the division once they get healthy. I think they're a better team than Boston all the way around. Goal tending is the big Bruins edge, but it's going to be a good benchmark for the Panthers. They're going to take this very seriously tonight. I think you'll see extra stir it up stuff from Kachuk and Marshian tonight. It's going to be very fun.

Roy is pointing to me. I turned my volume down. We started naming all those New England things that had been going really well. So let me just get focused.

I'm sorry.

Good segue, though, because I did want to ask you.

We in at Butchies, Modron's career.

Okay, a little positive note there. I did want to ask you about something happening in Boston right now. The whole situation happening with Mielon, Lucic, he's away from the team right now. It came out that he's entering the NHL and NHL PA Players Assistance Program following a reported arrest that he had for a domestic incident. It's obviously an awful situation that everything is very individualized, but I wanted to ask you just for your insight to touch on anything that you've heard about the situation.

Yeah, not me all again. We weren't there. We don't know for sure. But he's obviously had issues in his past with his temper, whether it's at a nightclub in Vancouver or out with his wife and his kids and a family. The Bruins are a tight organization. Obviously, he was part of their Stanley Cup winning team the last time they won one. They brought him back, really, probably for as much PR reasons as anything, as the disappointing loss to the Panthers, the retirement of Kracie and Bergeron. Let's get some good news here and get some good mojo with him. They brought him back. It was a very popular sign. They start off well. He starts off well, hasn't been playing due to injury. But now since he's been out, they've been fine. He certainly has some rope with the organization and with Cam Neilly because, again, he's an important part. He was their grunk in a lot of ways back when they won the Stanley Cup, a great fighter, breaking glass, giving body checks. I'm sure they'll give him the benefit of any doubt, but if he never plays again, that's also very possible. We'll see how it goes with the investigation and what his wife… Obviously, she controls a lot in this, what she wants to do about it.

Now we're just have to wait and see. I think that Bruins realized this last month, last two weeks that they don't need him from a team perspective. Their team is strong. Their room is still strong in that way, and he's not the player that he used to be. We'll have to see what happens here. I'm sure it'll happen here in the next couple of weeks or so, one way or the other.

Finally, you mentioned the Panthers potentially winning the division. That's your prediction there. Let's go over your predictions. Who's going to win each division? Who's going to win the conference and who's going to lift the cup?

Yeah, I had the Panthers certainly winning one of the best divisions in hockey. I just felt like that the roster was very strong, the defense, how the Montours come along. Just what they did last year was really impressive. Matthew Kuchak is a certified NHL superstar, a certified elite playmaker along the lines of Sidney Crosby or anybody else. He can't skate like those guys. He's a different player. But when he has the buck in the offensive zone, the decisions he makes and the way he passes the buck and sees the play, he's two steps ahead of everybody, which he has to be because we know he's very slow. But fast thinkers can become faster, quicker, and fast players. I just think that Chuck is an MVP candidate, and he will be for the next five years. That's why I like them to win the division. The Metro is top. I think the Rangers are the best team. The Devils just don't seem... They get bullied by the Rangers. I would think they would be on Zadorov and any other defenseman or forward that can give them some grit and grime. They're just getting bullied, and they better fix that or they will not be a successful playoff team.

I still think the Rangers there. Over to Central, I still believe in Colorado, strange losses this year. You hate to see that, but I like them. In the Pacific, Vegas is still Vegas, came out cruising. Now they know, Okay, we're good. I wish the playoffs would start tomorrow. They just want to start the playoffs now. They do not want to go through six more months of regular-season hockey or five more months. I like those big four. Overall, I really do think it comes down to Colorado and Vegas. I picked Colorado before the year, but man, if I had a better paycheck than looking the way that the Vegas team is built up and down, you probably would have to say, If I have to bet a paycheck, I'd better bet on Vegas. Then the Eastern Conference, it really comes down... I do think it comes down to the Rangers and the Panthers. I think those are the two candidates. Unless there's a groundbreaking trade where Toronto gets two real defensemen and the gold tenning goes nuts. I really do think the Panthers have a great chance to return and we have a great chance for a repeat of last year's final.

I really do.

Wow. Okay. Sign me up. Yeah, I'm the Entertainment and Sports Program and the network, John Butchagrass. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.