The Hockey PDOcast

Jeff Marek joins the show to provide some sage advice about being on TV and help amend our preseason watchability rankings.. Plus, a deep dive on all things Florida Panthers. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:00 What's going on in Florida? 24:00 Challenges of being on TV 35:05 Are the Blue Jackets for real? 46:00 Devils being surprisingly entertaining 49:45 Dallas Stars struggles 54:...

James Mirtle joins the show to discuss who's pulling the strings for the Leafs behind the scenes, why Roman Polak is still in our lives, and the importance of squeezing the most out of every single roster spot. We also talk about how fair it is to expect our readers to have a certain baseline understanding of the subject matter, and his new gig at The Athletic. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics...

Chris Johnston joins the show to discuss the newly minted list of expansion draft exempt players, how it affects the decision-making process for various teams between now and the trade deadline, and certain notable names to keep an eye on. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 5:00 Expansion Draft Rules 11:30 How can the Ducks keep all of their defensemen? 16:00 Are the Blue Jackets goalie...

Bret Hedican joins the show to discuss how much the game and the demands of the defense position have changed since he came into the league. Plus, how the San Jose Sharks went about constructing their blueline, what it's like watching Brent Burns on a nightly basis, and some other quick-hitting topics about his time playing in the NHL. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:30 Difficulty...

Micah Blake McCurdy joins the show to discuss how well early-season numbers translate towards the rest of the season, the biggest surprises thus far, and where we most noticeably went right vs. wrong with our projections before the year. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:30 What early-season stats can tell us 2:45 New York Islanders struggles 8:50 How long can the Rangers keep scorin...

Mike Johnson joins the show to discuss what the New York Islanders need to do to make sure they keep John Tavares, playing through early season shooting percentage fluctuations, and what he looks for when tuning in to a game. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:50 Deep dive on the New York Islanders struggles 10:35 Why do teams keep passing on P.A. Parenteau types? 14:27 Is the East be...

Bill West joins the show to discuss how Sidney Crosby is still holding onto his claim as the league's best player, how the Rangers are trying to emulate the Penguins style, and what it's been like covering Mike Sullivan. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:00 Sidney Crosby is still the best 10:45 The difficult Metro Division 16:00 Creating a high number of scoring chances 21:00 Mike Su...

Jonathan Willis joins the show to help rank the Top 10 General Managers and the Top 10 Head Coaches. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 2:00 Honourable Mentions 6:00 Bob Murray's rough summer 10:00 Building the Washington Capitals 13:30 Young GMs rising 18:15 Jim Nill's trading record 20:30 David Poile's makeover 22:15 The cream of the crop 25:30 Coaches Intro/Honourable Mentions 30:00...

Nick Mercadante joins the show to help rank the best puck-stoppers in the game. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 2:45 Methodology for the rankings 8:30 Win Threshold Percentage and Loss Threshold % 18:30 Andrei Vasilevskiy's rising star 20:15 Roberto Luongo is still good 27:45 Braden Holtby vs. Tuukka Rask 30:30 Jonathan Quick? 38:30 Brian Elliott's sneaky efficiency 40:45 Another Ste...

Chris Johnston joins the show for an early season edition of the Legit-O-Meter and Panic Meter, in which we try to figure out how sustainable the surprises thus far are moving forward. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:15 The spike in scoring 6:00 The Rangers rolling 4 skilled lines 10:00 How legit are the Oilers? 15:00 How worried should we be about Freddie Anderson? 22:30 The ghost...

Andrew Berkshire joins the show to continue our Top 10 series, this time focusing in on the best defencemen in the NHL. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:43 Honourable mentions 5:02 Shea Weber's omission 7:45 Anaheim starting the year without Lindholm 11:30 Washington's best defenceman 13:00 John Klingberg personifies the Dallas Stars 16:00 OEL being overlooked down in Arizona 18:20...

Andrew Berkshire makes his return to the show to help rank the top 10 left wingers and top 10 right wingers in the NHL. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 2:00 Matt Duchene and Jaromir Jagr 4:00 Brendan Gallagher 7:00 Mark Stone, Tyler Toffoli and Jakub Voracek 11:45 Nikita Kucherov 17:30 Blake Wheeler and Joe Pavelski 20:45 The top tier of Right Wingers 25:00 Freshbooks read 26:00 Left...

Andrew Berkshire joins the show to help construct a list of the top 10 players currently playing the center position in the NHL. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 3:30 Number 10 6:30 Number 9 8:30 Number 8 10:30 Number 7 and Number 6 17:30 Numbers 5, 4, and 3 23:30 Number 2 30:00 Number 1 32:30 Honourable Mentions This episode is brought to you by Freshbooks, an online accounting servi...

Jeff Marek joins the show to help count down this season's most watchable teams from 30 to 1. Much like last season, the premise is as follows: "If you’re sitting down on a random Thursday night and there’s a ton of hockey on to choose from, which teams are you prioritizing seeing (all other things being equal, and rooting allegiances aside)? Talent is obviously king, but style and likelihood of e...

Rob Pizzola joins the show to help break down the Over/Under season-long point totals for all 30 teams this coming season. From a betting perspective which teams provide the best opportunity for value, and which ones should you stay away from? Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 2:00 The Randy Carlyle Effect 5:00 Alberta Teams 7:00 One more year of losing for Arizona? 10:00 Early season...

Micah Blake McCurdy joins the show to help preview the upcoming season, and predict how the standings will wind up shaking out using his new model. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:30 Predictive Models 7:30 Coaching influence on predictions 18:30 How much better can the Avalanche get? 26:30 California Teams vs. The Oilers 28:20 Can the Predators take the West? 30:45 Signs of decline...

Corey Sznajder joins the show to discuss tracking the 2016 postseason, which microstats are most important and how they should be incorporated into evaluations, and what all of it says about various individual defensemen across the league. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:40 Jogging memories of the 2016 postseason 10:20 Primary Shot Contribution Percentage 13:50 Jon Cooper's deploym...

Garret Hohl joins the show to discuss a wide array of Winnipeg Jets-centric topics including Jacob Trouba's trade demands, Ondrej Pavelec once again figuring to be the downfall of the team, and what we can reasonably expect from Patrik Laine in his first season. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 2:38 Jacob Trouba's performance to-date 5:20 The problem with evaluations using box car sta...

Chris Peters joins the show to discuss who's to blame for Team USA crashing and burning in the World Cup of Hockey, and what's behind Team Europe's improbable run to the final. Here's a quick rundown of the topics covered: 3:11 World Cup of Hockey surprisingly entertaining 5:28 Who's to blame for Team USA's failure 7:00 The infatuation with '96 9:48 Roster construction in a short tournament 12:20...

Jonathan Willis joins the show to discuss The Patrick Roy Era following his decision to step down from his job with the Colorado Avalanche, the organization's surprisingly shrewd summer, and where they go from here. We also look into the perpetual blame game taking place in Edmonton, and chat about Jimmy Vesey's options. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:08 Patrick Roy's last stand 2...

Chris Johnston joins the show to discuss how the media can continue to tell more interesting stories using numbers on every medium, but particularly the last great frontier: television. We also chat about the right vs. wrong way to go about assembling an analytics staff in your front office, and which direction Las Vegas will go in with its draft picks come expansion time. Here’s a quick rundown o...

Nick Mercadante and Patrick Kearns join the show to discuss the imbalance the New York Rangers face between their personnel and their desired strategy, whether Alain Vigneault is underrated or overrated, and the heavy demands being placed on Henrik Lundqvist's shoulders. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:30 Setting the scene 6:00 The Rangers blueline woes 18:00 Developing young playe...

Andrew Berkshire and Jack Han join the show to discuss how the Montreal Canadiens will need to adjust to life without PK Subban, weigh the pros and cons of Shea Weber's game, and look at how video work and data is the next frontier for analysis. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 1:00 Using video analysis to evaluate systems 8:00 The PK Subban trade 16:30 Optimizing Shea Weber's talents...

Corey Pronman joins the show to help preview the upcoming draft by diving head-first into the Laine vs. Matthews debate atop the board, mulling over the options after the top 3, and pulling back the curtain on how he puts together his top 100 rankings this time of year. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 2:00 The Laine v Matthews Debate 8:30 Defining "Hockey Sense" 14:00 The drop in tal...

Jonathan Willis joins the show to help sort through which free agents you'd like to stay away from, which ones you'd like to target, and which ones could provide the best bang for your buck. Here’s a quick rundown of the topics covered: 0:50 The Pros vs. Cons of paying Steven Stamkos 4:40 Does Stamkos make sense for the Leafs? 6:41 Aging forwards with red flags 13:45 The glut of intriguing middle-...