Utah Hockey Club with an emphatic win last night. It was seven to one over the Kraken here in Salt Lake City. Our next guest joins us on a weekly basis to hockey, Utah Hockey Club and big picture NHL storylines.
He is the great Neil Smith. Neil, Happy Wednesday, sir. How are you?
I'm doing just great? Thanks guys, how are you doing? Spence?
Doing well? Doing well?
So, I mean, look in a vacuum, you know, seven to one, a home win for the Utah Hockey Club over a solid Seattle cracking team, not a team that's going to the playoffs this year. I mean, in a vacuum, Neil. I guess it's good to experience winning like that. So a nice win for the hockey club last night, but it will, you know, be in vain as the.
Wildcard playoffs will not happen this year.
But just for a moment in time, let's focus on a fun day last night, Utah Hockey Club.
Getting a win, yeah, and a record setting win, you know, scoring seven goals and the first time that's happened. And I got to say that if we reflect back on the season, had Utah learned how to win at home earlier in the year, they might be a number of points ahead, and maybe you know, in that eighth spot, it was really not winning at home and getting used to Salt Lake City for whatever that means, that has cost them some points here in the end.
Yeah, it was two things, Neil, really all year long. It was as you reference, it was the inability to win at home. You know, when you look at the amount of home wins they have eighteen, I mean that would be tied for it would be tied for the worst home record in the Eastern Conference, which by the way, is an honor that my New York Rangers have with only eighteen home wins at Madison Square Garden.
How is that possible?
Let me ask you that, you know what You've got to ask how anything possible that's going on inside the garden on Ranger game nights there. I mean, they have been pathetic, they're they're leaderless. They look completely disoriented, and they looked like they can't wait for the season to end and get back home wherever they're from. Just just they just played horribly and and for the talent that they have, they just I mean, you know that Chris Krider had seventy five points at this time last year
and this year has twenty five. He's off by fifty points. That's just one example. They just Sstkin carried them to the President's Trophy last year, but he wasn't able to do it with the way this group played this year, and they're gonna they're they're going to miss the playoffs too. They've they've got a game tonight against Philadelphia tomorrow night in Long Island, and you know they're not far from being eliminated.
So only four games left for the hockey club. The final home game will be Thursday against Nashville, and then they end on the road for three straight Dallas, Nashville again, and then Saint Louis. If you're coach Tourney, if you're Bill Armstrong understanding what the deal is where playoffs won't be a reality, what are you looking for from this young team to close out the season the right way?
I just want to see that there's still fighting the team and that they have pride in wearing the jersey and that they're not going to go down. You know, they're not going to just let these games go. There's still a lot to play for. On a team basis. I mean, for example, Clayton Keller is only three points a week from having his best season ever point wise, He certainly, I'm sure, would love to accomplish that feat. The Utah Hockey Club is way ahead of where they
were this time last year. I think they're eighteen points up on where they were last year. So that's something that they want to keep going. They want to improve their record, and on an individual basis, everybody wants to prove they deserve to be in the NHL if they're going to be a free agent at the end of the year, they want to they're playing for the scouts. But you know, the evaluation, as I've said, goes on continuously.
From a Bill Armstrong standpoint, there's never a day that you're not evaluating who you've gotten, how to make it better.
It's weird as I'm looking at the standings because I was looking just for a parallel to find a team that's only what eighteen home games, and looking at the East, I was surprised to see the Rangers there at the bottom. But the worst teams in the East are the Flyers, the Bruins, and the Penguins. And as a hockey fan from the nineties. I mean those are like three of
the big banner NHL you know organizations. What gives with some of the biggest markets and best NHL organizations at the bottom of the table, they're out east.
Well, Philadelphia has been into a rebuilding program. They started a few years go, so that's no surprise. They're trying to do it the right way, get draft picks, build it back up again. It took a while to get down to there where they are now, but they're trying hard to rebuild the thing. And they made a coach and change near the end. John Tortorella was let go and Brad shag got made the coach who was an
assistant in the Boston Bruins case. It's got to be the most angry fan base in the league because two years ago they won the President's Trophy. Last year they had a real good season. This year, they didn't start
off very well. They fired the coach, they made the assistant coach the coach there, and they just started to plummet to the point where at the trading deadline they offloaded even their captain, Brad Marshad, who's now with the Florida Panthers, so they're a minus forty nine on a goal differential, which is way down there and second worst in the East, only to the next team, which is Pittsburgh, which has the accolades of having the great Sydney Crosby
play for them for twenty years and be fabulous every year. In fact, he's had twenty straight seasons of averaging a point a game, which is remarkable. Even Wayne Gretzky only had nineteen, so he's been fabulous. Malcoln looks like he's at the end of his rope. Chris Latang, who's the star player for them, is older now not playing poorly, but they traded for Eric Carlson that didn't do any good, and they're really just a team that should be rebuilding
I don't know what they're trying to do there. They're not. They're half way into rebuilding him, halfway into trying to put good players around Sydney, and then right above them just to finish it off. You've got the Buffalo Sabers, who have now been crowned with a fourteenth straight season of no playoffs.
That's wild.
I mean, another you know, banner kind of organization and franchise in the world of pro hockey. I didn't realize that it had been that long. We had the beat rider for the Jazz from the Trip on the show Last Hour, and I asked him a question, and it made me think of wanting to ask you kind of the same through the prism of hockey, where we find ourselves with the Utah Jazz, our basketball team.
They're very early on.
They shouldn't be this early on, but they kind of botched their early years of the rebuild. So now they're trying to build it up the right way for the first time this year after two years of kind of being in the middle, and it will be a brick by brick process.
Some luck needs to land their way.
And there are teams in the NBA neal that we can look at that we're where the Jazz are now just a few years ago, that are now starting to achieve some success. Give our hockey fans maybe a team or two that were where the Utah Hockey Club is at now just a few years ago that have been able to rebuild and are now in a spot where they're making the playoffs and they're threatening to do something special.
Like a model of a team that was rebuilding just a few years ago that's done it the right way and now is in a place where they're being very successful. Is there one or two teams that come to mind if that makes.
Sense, Yeah, no, it does make sense. And I'll tell you a perfect example of a good job as the Ottawa Senators, who are at ninety points. They have clinched a playoff spot. They've been out of the playoffs for I think it's seven seasons in a row, but they rebuild it. They're a small market team of the Canadian dollars, so that they can't they can't buy their way to anything. But their home record twenty four eleven and two. Their road record is about five hundred, and they've been really
good as far as competitiveness. And it's not an easy game against Ottawa ever, but it was only a couple of years ago. Last year, I mean, they missed the playoffs. Another team that's been shocking in the East is Montreal Canadians, who were right down at the bottom of the Eastern
Conference for quite a few years now. In fact, I don't think they've made the playoffs since the bubble, you know, since the colded bubble years when they somehow went to the final in that season where you played only within your division and they had a Canadian division. They got out of there and ended up playing in the final against Tampa Bay. And so they've missed for a number of years. But now they've got a lot of good
young players and they've called back up. And those two teams are teams that have been trying to do it, you know, the way that the hockey club is doing it through continually drafting and developing players.
So, Neil, since you and I last spoke, it did become official that the world of pro hockey has a new goal scoring king and it's Alex Ovan And it was a pretty cool scene. It was kind of a cool thing to watch. I mean, I would imagine if you're a player and you have to sit for twenty twenty five minutes and then play again, that'd be a
little frustrating. But to see, you know, all of his family and his friends and his former teammates and Wayne Gretzky himself there to celebrate this achievement that when I was growing up as a hockey fan, I was always told this is something that will never be broken, and now it is so now that it's official. Put this into context for us in your ecosystem in the world
of pro hockey. Just how impressive is this that Alex Ovechkin, after a number of years in the NHL, was able to break the great Ones goal scoring record.
Now he's been twenty years in the NHL, just like Sidney Crosey. They both came in the same year. And Ovechkin has always been just a pure goal scorer, like obviously the best there has ever been, and he's and he's been able to survive for twenty years. A lot of guys are great goals, but their back gives out, their knees give out, something gives out, and they can't make it through all the years that Alex Ovechkin has.
But he's a bowl big guy. I was at that game at Ubs Arena in Long Island against the Islanders. I was there. The atmosphere is absolutely electric right from the warm up. I mean, there were so many Cat fans there, Washington Capitol fans, and everybody was just waiting. When number eight came on the ice, everybody's eyeballs were on him. When he would go off, he sort of relaxed for a minute, and then he came back on.
But I got to tell you, when the New York Islanders took a penalty early in the second period, you could just feel that the electricity in the building. Oh my gosh, is this going to be it? Alex is going to be on the power play where he scores a lot of his goals from obviously, and sure enough, on that power play, first shot that he had went in and the celebration began, and it was quite a
celebration by all the fans in the building. Everybody knew they had seen something historic and it was really a great event. The Capitals are now have to try to turn around and put it behind him and get back to the task at hand, which is trying to win the Stanley Cup with the type of season that they've had.
But he was you know, as far as individual achievements, that was certainly one of a kind to see that, because you know, in our day when I had Gretzky on the team, Spence, every day that he got a point or a goal, it was a new record, right because he held all the records. So we didn't stop the game every time he scored a goal because he had them. You know, we stopped the game when he beat Gordy Howe at eight o two. That was the La Kings he was playing for, and they stopped the game and
they had a celebration all that. But then after eight o two, every goal was his goal. So he went from eight o two to up to eight ninety four. And then of course now Alex is at eight ninety five. Just to put the buff here's an interesting one for you to put the Buffalo playoff drought in perspective. For you, the Buffalo playoff drought is so long that Alex Ovechkin last time Buffalo made the playoffs, was five hundred and
ninety four goals away from Gretzky's record. Yez he scored five hundred and ninety four regular season goals since the Buffalo Sabers made the playoffs.
That is wild, is there? You know, when you have a nickname that's the great one, you know, you're probably in rarefied air by yourself. Are there any other players historically that could be in the debate of who the greatest hockey players of all time? Because we do this debate in other sports and I think maybe with the you know, actually, you know what, even in hockey or achieve me.
Even in golf.
If you want to say Tiger, then you can talk about Jack's major record. Is there any debate who the greatest hockey player is of all time?
I think there's some debate in that. First of all, Wayne would say that Gordy how is the greatest player, because Wayne will never say himself. But there is a lot of folks who were during the Bobby Or era when he changed the game in the seventies, when he revolutionized how an offensive defenseman would play, and they won back. They won to Stanley. Excuse me too, Stanley cups through his heroics. There is a lot of people who would say that Bobby Or was the best player ever because
of the way he changed the game. I personally think it's been Wayne because Wayne. I saw Wayne play in his glory years and he was just absolutely incredible, and he's called the great one for the reason of this. You know, the Gritsky name is close to a great like g R. E. T. The Great Eight is a great name for overeitskin, and that's what his nickname is. And he certainly has been the Grade eight.
All right, Neil, before I set you loose, you know I can remember because I think Ovechkin and Crosby kind of came up at the same time, right, like they kind of broken Yeah, same year, right, And so I can remember back then the debate about, Okay, who's going to be better between these two? Can either of these two be this generation's Wayne Gretzky? Can either of them become you know, in that stratosphere where Wayne Gretzky exists?
Who are if you have names the players right now in their early twenties that are this generation's Sidney Crosby and Alex Govetchin. If that's even a parallel we can make.
Well, the latest two guys are are Barrard that's playing on Augall Blackhawks. It was first overall three years ago. And then you've got in San Jose, you've got two guys. Now You've got Will Smith who's a great young player. And you have also I'm going to stumble on this name here, but he's up for the Rookie of the Year as well, Matt Macklin. Celebrini is a great young player. Those are the guys that you need to watch. There's a guy in Montreal, Lane Hudson with a T not
a D, who's a fabulous offensive defenseman, just fabulous. He's probably gonna win Rookie of the Year. So between those three names, Berrard, Celebrini and Hudson, I think you got chance there to see guys that are in that level of play that Crosby and Ovechkin have given us, which isn't generational necessarily because they did it together, so they
were that generation together. Gretzky obviously was generational, Gordie Howe was way back, and Bobby or It's harder today to be a generational player because you don't have the same type of game. But I think those are the names you're going to be seeing for a long long time.
All right, Neil, tell our listeners where they can go get the podcast Retch run Stanley Cup Playoffs almost here.
Yeah, we did a great one the other day with Craig Laughlin, who's the color analyst for the Capitals and done every one of Alex Soovetchkin's games over the years. That was really fun and it's on you know, you could get it on YouTube or Spotify, Apple, anyplace. NHL wrap Around is the name, and I think people would really enjoy the guests because whatever is a current topic, we seem to be able to talk to somebody that's very current with that story into coming on, and we had a.
Lot of fun, good stuff. My friend. I appreciate the time, have a great weekend. We'll chat too.
Thank you so much, all right.
The great Neil Smith, general manager of the Rangers when they won the Stanley Cup in ninety four, stops by on a weekly basis to kind of help us in doctrine ad the market into the world of pro hockey. Maybe that's the wrong term anyway. Four games left for the Hockey Club Nashville coming up at home tomorrow. It's your final chance to see the hockey club here in Salt Lake. They finish off with three road He's at Dallas,
at Nashville, then at Saint Louis. Neil stops bout today courtesy of our friends at IFA Country Stores.
The weather is warm, look outside seventy degrees.
So if you've been neglecting your lawn, now's the time to get it taken care of. IFA Country Stores has everything you need to care for your lawn, no matter its size or shape.
Their four plus.
Lawn care program can promote a healthy, green lawn for you this summer they're the same products you used at many local sports fields, golf courses in city parks. You can consult the IFA's team of experts for your yard this season, Visit them online at IFA dot co op er stop by one of their eighteen Utah stores today