Pond Hockey Podcast

Hockey Christmas is here and it didn't disappoint this year.  Big name free agents like Panarin, Bobrovsky and Duchene all signed within hours of go time.  Plus....Joe Pavelski is a Dallas Star now?

For our last pre-free agency day episode we cover some of the trades made leading up to and during the draft.  Kevin Hayes and Jacob Trouba gone from Winnipeg, Marleau gone from Toronto and PK Subban traded to the Devils before day 2 of the draft.  Hopefully these are just a precursor to a chaotic offseason with lots of high profile moves.

The Blues win game 7 in Boston to win the cup, and Ryan O'Reilly is the Conn Smythe winner.  Sorry Boston fans, but all is right with the world.  The Blues go from the worst team in the league to Cup champions in just a few short months...it's impressive to say the least.  Now for the long and hopefully exciting offseason!

The Bruins swept the Hurricanes in the East, and the Blues overcame some adversity in the West to reach the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals.  Will is somewhat recovered from his illness so we're recording during Game 2 in Boston.  Other than the Finals we cover the Oilers hiring Dave Tippett as their new coach, Finland winning the worlds, and the Mitch Marner offer sheet controversy.

With the Sharks eliminating the Avalanche a short time ago, the Conference Finals are set.  The Boston Bruins will face the "Bunch of Jerks" Carolina Hurricanes in the East, and the Sharks will face the St. Louis Blues in the West.

With the "Bunch of Jerks" Carolina Hurricanes advancing and the Bruins beating the Blue Jackets 4-2, the Eastern Conference Finals are now set.  In the west, the Stars and Blues have to settle things with a game 7 and the Sharks have a commanding lead over the Avalanche.  After that we talk about Ken Holland being named the Edmonton Oilers GM and trade rumors surrounding PK Subban.

With the first round concluded (which happened live during the episode) Will, Val and Dan recap some of the stunning first round upsets and offer up their picks for the second round.    

The NHL playoffs this year have been....unpredictable.  Who would think the Blue Jackets would be up 3-0 on Tampa Bay, or Pittsburgh be down 3-0 to the Islanders?  We give our mid series recaps for this episode.

Will and Dan welcome Dan's wife Val onto the show to talk about this season's playoff matchups.  Will the Sharks overcome their goaltending challenges?  Can Vegas recapture some of the fire that took them to the Cup Finals last year?  Can anyone beat Tampa?  We discuss it all and give our playoff predictions.

We're here in the last week of the regular season and many of the playoff matchups have yet to be determined.  Particularly in the central, where Winnipeg, Nashville or St. Louis could all still win the division.  Quinn Hughes made quite the impression in his NHL debut, and Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou have put together some pretty solid seasons for a bad Red Wings team.

Tobias Rieder will NOT be re-signed by the Oilers in the offseason according to CEO Bob Nicholson.  Thanks Bob!  Eugene Melnyk rips everyone, and the playoff races get a little more solidified.  

Both the Leafs and Preds have been struggling as of late, and coincidentally face each other here soon.  Someone has to win, right?  We then break down the divisional playoff races and discuss why we think the Islanders wont make a splash in this year's postseason.  

Sad but true, Columbus really needs to get it together and quickly if they plan on going on a Cup run.  Also Jack Eichel and Jakub Voracek were suspended over the weekend and Jonathan Huberdeau was the first star of the week!

With the passing of Ted Lindsay, it's a good time to reflect on all of his amazing contributions to the sport of hockey.  We also discuss whether or not Columbus will still make the playoffs despite gearing up heavily for them, and John Tavares gets a salty reception from Islander fans in his return.

Deadline day has now passed and we recap the big trades...Mark Stone, Wayne Simmonds, Kevin Hayes...Cliff Pu!  You know, the real shockers of Deadline Day.

The Blue Jackets have done some pretty big things in the last 24-48 hours...getting both Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel, so we decided to do an early update for this years trade deadline.  They're going all in and we love it!

We start the episode lamenting the mess that is the Edmonton Oilers roster, especially when comparing it to that of the Tampa Bay Lighting.  Nikita Kucherov is on an absolute tear, as is the savoir of the Blues, Jordan Binnington.  Also the Hurricanes are streaking and getting a lot of value from their roster.

As the NHL trade deadline gets closer, Nashville makes a couple of depth moves-Panarin, Duchene, Stone and others are rumored to be on the block-and the Ducks fire Randy Carlyle.

We've been talking about this all season now, and when it finally happened we forgot to mention it.  Peter Chiarelli was relieved of his duties as the Oilers GM.  It may be a band-aid solution, we shall have to see!  We also talk about the Bobrovski/Panarin trade situation, Carter Hart as the solution to the Flyers goaltending woes, and the streaking Hurricanes.

It was the usual good times at this year's All Star game and Skills competition, but Kendall Coyne and Brianna Decker were the ones who stole the show.