00:00the florida panthers uh dennis who seem to be going through somewhat of a sleepwalking season
00:05which shouldn't be surprising i mean dennis when you win championships uh it's hard to regather
00:11and regroup for those regular seasons but i guess i would ask you is that what is going on you think
00:16with the panthers this season will they be able to just hit that switch like they did last year
00:19i think it'd be tough this year craig because look you're talking about a three-peat which it's hard
00:25enough to win back-to-back stanley cups this year they're missing their best player alexander
00:31balkoff tore up his knee or uh in practice early in the season probably doesn't return for the
00:36playoffs their best player right now is the goaltender sergey boboski he's had a subpar season
00:41i mean they've dropped defensively they were a really good team not the greatest but they were
00:46seventh overall goals against last year this year to the 23rd that's why they're out of the playoffs
00:51looking in right now and it's an older team brad marchand sam reinhardt they're having
00:55good seasons but i just look at their back end craig and i think that's the issue that's the key
01:00we could have a situation where the stanley cup champions are not in the playoffs when we get to
01:04april yeah as of right now minus 210 on fan duel to make it so the assumption is is that at some
01:10point they will uh turn it up but as you can see this is the longest odds they've had to win the cup
01:15in three years at 11 to 1 they've fallen that far back meanwhile as we dive into sort of the
01:21landscape of the national hockey league dennis eight teams out of the 16 last season who made the
01:25playoffs are out of a playoff spot with 30 games to go and actually we have the olympics coming up
01:30as well what do you make of how the season looks and do you think that not only will we get a new
01:35potentially new champion but maybe some teams in the playoffs we haven't seen before
01:39yeah well uh 10 games ago i would tell you that it was one team and 31 teams the one team being the
01:46collar our avalanche but craig i'll be honest with you they look bored they were so good in the beginning
01:51of the year they had run off these incredible streaks they had played by 40 games and lost
01:55foreign regulation which is unheard of in the hl they look bored so maybe they need a little bit
01:59of a break at the olympics maybe make a trade to energize the roster but it's not the teams that are
02:05getting in or getting out it's it's who's getting in those long suffering fans in buffalo 15 years
02:12what are the playoff spot they're going to be in the playoffs craig they are it's been a decade for
02:15the detroit red wings they're second in the division right now in the atlantic division so
02:20it's teams like that a team like uh the san jose sharks who has this young kid i'm sure we'll talk
02:25about macklin celebrini they haven't made the playoffs in seventh season they're in the spot right now the
02:29anaheim ducks sixth season so there's not only a change in the guard there's teams that have not been
02:34there for a very long time that have been their fans have been patients for rebuild they're getting back
02:39into the playoffs right now i think it's exciting for the league because unlike other sports this is a
02:43situation where you don't often have repeat champions and you have new teams in the playoffs
02:48and that's why in this league because it's so contentious to make the playoffs we don't need an nba cup
02:52we don't need a playing tournament uh the regular season is basically the playing tournament so it's
02:57been great to see these teams that have not been a place for a very long time exciting their fan base
03:01as we get down the stretch
03:02as we get down the stretch
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