- 10 minutes ago
Robert Tiffin joined the K&C Masterpiece to discuss the Dallas Stars’ current stretch. Tiffin broke down Jake Oettinger’s inconsistent season and playoff expectations, and explained the impact of injuries on the team’s recent struggles. He analyzed lineup changes, the importance of upcoming games for playoff positioning, previewed potential matchups and more.
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00:00And right now, it's time for the C-Block starring Corey Majors, as well as our stars, insider, and burgeoning
00:10entrepreneur.
00:11It is Robert Tiffin. Good afternoon, sir.
00:15Anytime you're burgeoning, it's a very good afternoon. Good to talk to you guys.
00:19See, I'm with you on that. Now, I want to let you know, and we'll talk about your new enterprises
00:25and whatnot.
00:25This first question has not been approved by Corey Majors.
00:30In fact, I'm quite certain he would prefer I didn't ask it.
00:34Can I ask the first question instead?
00:36But did you ever think you would be involved in a job where you're having to figure out playoff probabilities,
00:44likelihood of home ice advantage, and did the fans have a Nazi salute?
00:51You know, it's never boring, I guess.
00:53That's what you can say about the world we're living in.
00:56And, you know, professional sports tend to reflect the world we live in in a lot of ways.
01:00So it's never boring. That's one thing you can say for it.
01:03I appreciate your answer.
01:04Hey, Corey, that wasn't so bad.
01:05That's because he's a pro. Robert Tiffin is a pro.
01:08You had to know we were going to ask about that, though, right?
01:11Well, it's a story, right? It's a story.
01:13I think American Airlines Center said they're looking into it and investigating it.
01:17And they have, you know, stated that obviously a lot of different types of offensive gestures and things like that
01:23are not allowable when you buy a ticket to go to games.
01:27There's there's kind of a it is a contract.
01:29If you read the fine print on your ticket, not that anyone has physical tickets nowadays.
01:32But somewhere in that Ticketmaster or StubHub or whatever, you know, jargon, there is stuff in there that, you know,
01:38gives them the ability to kick you out for a lot of different reasons.
01:41So certainly it sounds like they're they're looking into all that.
01:44But, yeah, it's obviously disappointing is not strong enough word for it.
01:47But it's interesting.
01:50Like I said, never boring.
01:51The what kind of first pitch do you think Otter can throw out tomorrow?
01:55Is he throwing a heater in there?
01:56Does he have does he have an assortment of pitches that he can toss?
02:00This is interesting because I actually talked to him, I think it was last season, about how goalies use their
02:05gloves and how fewer goalies in NHL nowadays are really truly catching pucks the way you would with a baseball
02:12glove.
02:12And they more tend to use the glove as kind of a blocker just to knock the pucks down, then
02:16cover them or collect them into their body.
02:18So we'll see what his baseball skills look like with with his throwing hand.
02:22We already know with his glove, he's he's pretty good at catching pucks, actually.
02:25But I personally, I think he's got to go out there and throw a knuckleball.
02:29You really just got to keep everyone on their toes, right?
02:31Ooh.
02:32Hey, in that same conversation, did you ask him if it's fair to be concerned about the number of blocker
02:38side goals he's been giving up as of late?
02:43He let's see.
02:45I've talked to him a couple of times this year.
02:47And overall, he's been pretty.
02:51Look, all professional sports, you need to be confident.
02:54If you're going to be an athlete, once your confidence starts getting shaken, everything else is going to shake.
02:58He went to the Olympics, didn't get in a game there, didn't didn't play in the Olympics.
03:02But he's always said that he his goal is to be the best goalie in the world.
03:05And certainly he's, you know, you look around the league, there are 20 plus teams that would happily switch their
03:14goalie with Jake Ottinger.
03:15No questions asked.
03:17But it's also very true that he has not had his best season so far.
03:21And he hasn't even really been able to put together like a, you know, the Stars is a team, right?
03:26It's been up and down at times.
03:27But on balance, they've been, you know, top two, top three team in the entire league all year.
03:32Jake Ottinger has not been able to do that as a goalie.
03:35He hasn't been a top two or top three goalie in the year at really any point.
03:38He's had games here and there.
03:39He had a couple of great games against Colorado this year.
03:41And we might see him in another couple of days here.
03:44Maybe he'll have another great one against Colorado.
03:45But it's it's no secret that he's not looked at his best this year.
03:51And that's one thing down the stretch.
03:53Sure.
03:53You want to see guys get healthy.
03:54You want to see him start scoring a little bit more.
03:57But you'd like to see that Jake Ottinger show up at least once or twice just to remind you that,
04:02yep, that that guy who can turn it on,
04:04who can win you a playoff game no matter who the opponent is.
04:08It would be good for everyone to see that goalie.
04:10And I think I would include Ottinger in that category as well.
04:14It'd be good for him to get a game like that under his belt.
04:16Safe to assume, though, that you still believe that that goalie is there.
04:22Yes.
04:23And the reason I believe it is because we have seen it this year.
04:26It's the same reason I still believe the Stars are going to be a really good team in the playoffs.
04:29It's because we've seen them put together enough consistent runs that aren't just, oh, the power play got hot for
04:34a few games like it was early in the year.
04:35Or, oh, they played some weak teams or whatever.
04:38They put together a quarter of the season.
04:40They were basically the best team in the league and playing like it, whether you look at underlying numbers or
04:45shots share or defense or all of it.
04:48They were they were really doing it.
04:50Now, they didn't need Jake Ottinger to be stealing games every night, but he was good.
04:53But just not quite great, outstanding world beating.
04:57And that's the thing that that I still believe he has in him.
05:00And again, goaltending is all what do any of us really know about how goaltenders work, right?
05:05I mean, you talk about throwing out a first pitch.
05:07I mean, pitchers are always weather a start.
05:09We saw it with Nate Eovaldi the other day for the Rangers, right?
05:11Like sometimes he's going to look like the best pitcher in the world, but he's not going to look like
05:15it, you know, 35 starts a year, right?
05:18There's going to be those times where he doesn't quite have his fastball and, you know, goalies are the same
05:22way.
05:23But overall, I still very much do trust Jake Ottinger.
05:26It'd just be a little easier to trust him if he could remind us what he's got.
05:30Robert Tiffin, great stars analysis, but also great Rangers analysis to add in, Kevin.
05:36Oh, you're right.
05:37And so I want to ask about that analogy.
05:40Do you think that's where the lack of the cup comes in for Ottinger specifically?
05:46Because at least with Eovaldi, people will always lean back on, yeah, but when it matters the most, I've seen
05:51him be the best.
05:52While there are still some difference of opinions on that with Ottinger.
05:57Yeah, and what I've been telling people when they say, oh, are you worried about this season or his numbers
06:02are way down?
06:03And, you know, time's been close to kind of an average goalie this year, which, again, same percentages are down
06:09across the league for a couple different reasons,
06:11both the way they're tracking shots and counting shots or not counting shots this year.
06:14That's changed, too, but he's not been great.
06:18But I do think that for him, and certainly Pete DeVore would be in this category, he has a couple
06:23years in the playoffs where he has not stepped up when they've really needed him.
06:28He wasn't the only one.
06:29I think two years ago, especially, the power play disappeared.
06:32This last year against Edmonton, the whole team kind of sank.
06:37I mean, they won one game against Edmonton, and then they got kind of a gentleman's sweep.
06:42The next four Edmonton took, and they were the better team in all of those four, I would say Edmonton
06:45was.
06:46So neither of those series were totally on Ottinger, but the measure of a great goalie is not just can
06:52he be good enough to win you a game, but can he win you the game himself?
06:56And that's what he hasn't done for two series in a row against Edmonton.
06:59So for me, when people ask, are you concerned about him?
07:01I say, he really can't disprove any of the things that Pete DeVore or others might have thought about him
07:07until you get back to a point like that, until you get back to the playoffs.
07:11It's a tough burden as a goalie because it means you could have the best season in the world.
07:14And then we saw it with Conor Hollabuck last year, who Ottinger will be facing tonight.
07:18You can be the best goalie in the world like Hellebuck was, and then if you're joking in the playoffs,
07:22people will say that.
07:22But vice versa for Ottinger.
07:24He hasn't had his best regular season, but if he turns it on in the playoffs, no one will care.
07:28Since that 6-3 loss to the Mammoth, you had the good game over, I'll say great game over the
07:33Avalanche, winning on their ice.
07:36And then it's been a lot of, oh no, what's going on here?
07:39People keep asking me, and I just keep saying, man, they need to be healthy.
07:44They need some guys back.
07:46How much of what you've seen on the ice can be fixed just by some of these forwards getting healthy
07:52and being back out there?
07:55It's a big part of it.
07:56They need it.
07:57Goldson said this morning that they're missing, I mean, you look at it, count Tyler Sagan, as you certainly should.
08:03They're missing six forwards right now.
08:05I mean, that's two lines.
08:06And Ropey Hintz, Tyler Sagan, Sam Steele, I mean, those are all players that have played top-line minutes.
08:13You know, that's a great forward line right there.
08:14If you count those two players, then you throw in Radek Foxa, Michael Bunting, who they got at the trade
08:19deadline, and he hasn't quite been able to mesh, and now he's hurt.
08:22Tyler Myers is banged up right now, too.
08:24Both of their trade deadline acquisitions are hurt.
08:27They're rolling two-fourth lines.
08:28They've got a lot of AHL guys up.
08:30Cameron Hughes played his first NHL game in five years in Boston, which is a great story for him.
08:35He's a great guy.
08:36He's leading the AHL in assists right now down in Cedar Park, but the fact that he's playing his first
08:42NHL game in five years kind of tells you how banged up the stars are.
08:46So health is a big part of it.
08:48They also, you know, it's not like they're fighting for their playoff lives.
08:52They've clinched already.
08:53It's really just about home ice between them and Minnesota at this point.
08:56So there is a little bit of that, I guess I'd say, malaise going on, too.
08:59But you don't want to keep this flag going in the playoffs.
09:02You've got to get some life.
09:04I think they need to win two or three at least.
09:06Okay, that's what I was going to ask.
09:07So then when is the time where you say, okay, we've got to turn this thing back up just a
09:12notch before these playoffs?
09:15Yeah, for me, I look at that Minnesota game.
09:18So they play Winnipeg, Colorado, and Calgary.
09:20They have a five-game home stand.
09:21They start tonight.
09:22They play Winnipeg, Colorado, and Calgary.
09:24I think they need to win two of those three games.
09:26If you win two of those three games before you even have that matchup against Minnesota,
09:30a potential four-point game when it comes to home ice, then you can just breathe easier.
09:34You have more separation.
09:35There won't be any risk.
09:36Minnesota has eight games left.
09:37Dallas only has seven.
09:39But if you win two of these next three or, you know, with the NHL,
09:42so if you get four points out of six, I guess we could say, you make your life a whole
09:46lot easier.
09:47Even if Minnesota comes into town and, you know, beats your five-nothing or something,
09:51they still have breathing room and easily control their own destiny.
09:54But if you don't do that, then it's tricky.
09:58And then all of a sudden, Minnesota comes in, and they could potentially be catching you
10:01and maybe get home ice, get all this momentum down the stretch.
10:04You know, the Stars have been kind of the big brother in that relationship for a long, long time,
10:08as recently as 2023 when they bounced Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs.
10:12We all remember the Matt Dumba hit on Joe Pavelski.
10:14But Ropa Hintz was a big factor in the power play and kind of getting Dallas past them.
10:20So for me, you've got to win two of these next three so that that Minnesota game doesn't mean too
10:26much.
10:26Because if we get four games from now and Minnesota has a chance to really,
10:30really start to build a huge amount of confidence going into a playoff matchup,
10:33that's not a great place for Dallas to be.
10:35Does the advantage in regulation wins make you feel any better?
10:39I think you laid out a really good plan to make sure you get home ice.
10:43Do you feel any more comfortable with the pretty big advantage in regulation wins for a tiebreak?
10:49Yeah, it's basically like an extra point, right?
10:51So it really means that I think right now they're six points up on Minnesota,
10:54so effectively they're seven points up because they have a tiebreaker.
10:57So that's the good news if you're Dallas is that you could only get 10.
11:02What do they have, seven games left?
11:03You can only get 10 to 14 points.
11:05But that's fine because really Minnesota actually needs to get seven points to pass you up.
11:10So that's a big factor.
11:12It's good.
11:12You know, credit to the Stars, that really hot run they went on for a quarter of the season
11:16really banked them a lot of wins and a lot of points.
11:19But the problem is they're so thin, especially at forward right now.
11:23I mean, they're going to go, guys, tonight they're going 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
11:27And Golitson said really bluntly this morning it's because he just hasn't really liked
11:31what they've been doing as a team for a while now.
11:34So he's mixing it up pretty heavily.
11:36They're only going to have three lines and then two other forwards they'll rotate in.
11:40They'll have Kyle Capobianco coming in to play his old team.
11:42He hasn't played in over a month.
11:45They're really shaking some things up.
11:47So, yes, they have a cushion.
11:48They have a lot that they can feel comfortable about.
11:50But if you're a coach like Golitson, you've got to find some life right now.
11:54And he's definitely looking for some other levers to pull.
11:57And I feel like Duchesne was right to the point after Tuesday's game and he was like,
12:01oh, yeah, this was the worst game of the road trip.
12:04And it was.
12:05There's really no question to me that it was.
12:08There were moments in the other games.
12:09But even their other two losses on that trip on Long Island and in Philly were one-goal games.
12:15Even the New Jersey game right before that trip, it was terrible.
12:18They had a lot of mistakes.
12:18But they nearly came back.
12:20And then they lost.
12:21I think New Jersey got an empty netter to win 6-4.
12:23But in Boston, they were the worst team outside of the second period when Dallas got some life
12:28and drew level at 2-2, Boston was the better team for most of that game.
12:31And Dallas just didn't look like they could hang.
12:34And that's, yeah, that should be concerning.
12:36And I think Duchesne was right on that they didn't look good.
12:39And that's not good when you've not been looking good for a while.
12:42Then you get to the last game in a road trip.
12:44And then you look as worse as badly as you ever have.
12:47That's not a great sign.
12:49Now, in sports or in life, we can always take things for granted.
12:53And I have to admit, it wasn't until I saw the Jim Neal extension in cooperation with,
13:01hey, Toronto was going to try to get him, that I was like, holy moly.
13:07Yeah, there were some whispers.
13:09And Jim Neal kind of said the other day without, I mean, I wouldn't even say said without saying.
13:15He kind of did say that whispers were starting to get loud and that phones were blowing up.
13:20I think he said Tom Gallardi's phone.
13:21He was getting inundated with calls.
13:23So they figured, you know what, let's just iron this out so it's not a distraction
13:27and the focus can be back on the team, which is a very Jim Neal way of talking about,
13:31you know, what's surely a multi-million dollar contract extension is,
13:36oh, yeah, we just didn't want this to be, you know,
13:38distract from the hockey we have to play.
13:40So we figured we'd check this box and get it taken care of.
13:42I mean, you know, no one except Neal and Gallardi probably knows exactly what that process looked like.
13:48But to hear him tell it the other day, it sure sounds like it was just a formality
13:52and they just didn't want to kind of, just something they'd been meaning to get around to
13:57and just had been busy and then they happened to be at the Olympics
13:59and they talked a little bit more about it then.
14:02So Neal was pretty blunt.
14:03He said he's hoping to retire, to spend the rest of his career, finish his career with Dallas.
14:08And certainly look at his track record, the Stars are, you have to feel good about that,
14:13especially as a Stars fan.
14:14I mean, I think you could argue he's been maybe the best GM.
14:18I mean, Bob Ganey, obviously what he did bring in a cup, there's no comparison to that.
14:21But you look at the 13 years under Jim Neal, there's a lot to like there.
14:25And now we know he's got two more.
14:27Now we're talking with Robert Tippin right here on 105.3 The Fan.
14:29And we always talk about how you can get the best info from starsthoughts.com.
14:35But can you also now tell us about your newest endeavor, the algorithmically incorrect hockey?
14:43I thought I was going to get it on the first try, I did not.
14:46I always tell people if you can get it in two tries, then you do it all right.
14:51That's usually what it takes me.
14:52So if you want to trigger people, you can call it AI hockey for short.
14:57But algorithmically incorrect hockey, it's basically just a passion project.
15:01I started with my buddy Sean Shapiro, who also was a longtime Dallas Stars writer.
15:05Now he lives up in Detroit.
15:07Still covers the Stars a little bit here and there, but the hockey world more broadly
15:11and even works for lead prospects too.
15:13Our goal is just, hey, why not do a podcast where we both get to talk about stories
15:18that we think are worth telling, hear from people that are worth hearing from,
15:22that isn't tethered to, you know, oh, this has to be breaking news
15:25or right on the news cycle or how does this affect the Maple Leafs
15:28or what are the Yankees or the Lakers doing, right?
15:30What if we just told stories that we thought were cool?
15:32So it's just going to be a once-a-week video podcast we're doing.
15:35You can watch it at Stars Thoughts.
15:37You can watch it on YouTube.
15:39It's just a podcast.
15:41We had a couple of great guests yesterday talking about Elliot Friedman
15:44who's on from Sportsnet.
15:45He was talking about some – we talked about Jim Nill a little bit,
15:48who he knows pretty well.
15:49So Lou Lamorello, a very old-school former GM in the league
15:53and some great stories about what it's like kind of being that insider type of person
15:57and what it's like from Elliot's perspective, negotiating those relationships,
16:02whether he even likes to be known as an insider, what that life is kind of like.
16:06And then we had an agent on too, Ian Greengross,
16:08who's an agent for both NFL players and coaches and then some NHL coaches as well.
16:12So hearing from an agent about how he works for his clients,
16:16what those negotiations sound like, we thought it was cool.
16:18It's not necessarily, you know, apropos to the biggest story on ESPN.com
16:22or anything right now, but we think it's great stuff that's worth hearing about
16:26and stories worth telling, and we really have a good time doing it.
16:29So you can check that out.
16:30We're doing it once a week on Wednesday afternoons live,
16:32but it'll live there for a long time, much like all the great work that you guys do here too.
16:36Awesome.
16:37Awesome.
16:37Look at that.
16:38Thanks for the compliment, but also looking forward.
16:41I think those kind of things, those kind of interviews are awesome.
16:43For sure.
16:43Yeah.
16:43Those are the best, man.
16:44Yeah, Robert, thank you very much.
16:46I'm disappointed we couldn't get you in the morning,
16:48but I'm glad that you were able to come on the show.
16:52Yeah.
16:53I guess this is brunch or lunch at Tiffin's or something like that.
16:57Almost dinner time.
16:57Yeah.
16:57Almost dinner time now.
16:59So here we go.
17:00Wow.
17:02We are in the South.
17:03Wow.
17:04Wow.
17:04My grandma would agree with you.
17:06Yeah.
17:06It's supper time right about now.
17:07All right.
17:08Well, there you go.
17:08I guess we can better hustle then.
17:09Thank you very much.
17:10Good sir.
17:11Thanks, guys.
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