Patrick Kane on what motivates him 🏒 + NHL Season Preview: Are Panthers a Top 5 Team? | The Drop

Patrick Kane on what motivates him 🏒 + NHL Season Preview: Are Panthers a Top 5 Team? | The Drop

What’s going on everybody? Welcome to another edition of The Drop presented by Discover. Greg Washinski, Ardo Oal, and I should say another season of The Drop Five. Here we are. They they’ve never found the studio we use that we’re just able to kind of sneak in and do it like a like a pirate radio station kind of Christian Slater pump up the volume level for the three people that get the reference. Yeah, it’s exactly how and you’re one of them. So, it’s two people out there. But we’re back for another season. We couldn’t be more thrilled. Expect some fantastic episodes all throughout the NHL season, including this preview. By the way, uh we’re in the studio. You can see we we made some improvements. Look at this. This is a digital board. Digital board. This usually is a local dentist office, but on your on your screen, it’s been replaced by the drop. Yeah. Call call the uh dentist offices of Isaac Yankham DDS. Oh no wrestling references a minute into the show. Uh we have a great show for you here. Uh our own Emily Kaplan was at Media Tour. She had a chance to sit down with Patrick Kaine. Uh that’s coming up later in the show. We spoke with Spencer Carberry, head coach of the Washington Capitals. That is a terrific conversation. Uh he’s one of my favorite coaches to talk to in the league. He’s very cerebral. I like a coach that can think. And as we f we found out in talking to him like a guy who also loves to dive into the the business world to get tips from leaders there and uh it was really good to get his thoughts on the old capitals as well. But as you know if you’ve been watching the show for the last 5 years the way we love to start the show is winners and losers presented by Discover. And we’re going to do a little bit of a different twist. We haven’t gotten to the start of the NHL season quite yet. So why don’t we do winners and losers of let’s say the off season and I’ll start with the winner. I think it’s a pretty easy one. An Kopitar he’s going to have a farewell tour for the entire season. He’s going to retire at the end of the season and welldeserved because I would venture to say wish and obviously you’ve been covering the league for a very long time. He’s one of those we know he’s very good. We know he’s elite but when we talk about those elite players he kind of becomes the underappreciated player. And I wonder if that’s because of Berseron. I always wondered that because, you know, Patrice Berseron became the multi multi multiselki guy. Kopitar won two. He won a couple of bings. He won a couple of cups. Uh, 1278 points in 1454 games. He’s a Hall of Famer. The best Slovenian hockey player I’ve ever seen. Yes. Um, but it’s going to be a great chance for us to take a season to celebrate his greatness. And I found it interesting that he decided to announce his retirement before the season. One, it was interesting because in true hockey uh a hockey tradition, he announces on the same day that Clayton Kershaw announces. So literally no one talks about Kopitar’s retirement. Uh unfortunately, but I also found it to be interesting that he announced his retirement on the same day that Alex Ovetkin kicked it down the road. He did not make a decision about this being his final season. and and it’s going to be interesting to see, you know, how how Kopitar celebrated throughout the league and obviously Ovetkin kind of allowing the season to play out before making a decision uh instead of taking over another season for the Capitals and making it all about Obi. Yeah, I will give a shout out to the Dodgers, particularly the social media account cuz they were among the first to put that Sports Illustrated cover to post it on social with Kershaw and Kopitar. So they brought the they brought it together like LA Sports the least they could do after Ste the Kings had a press conference for God’s sakes and Kershaw’s like I better get this out there while I can. It’s the least they could do. Uh give us a loser. Uh loser the Florida Panthers health. Oh my god. We were on the cusp of a dynasty people and then you have Matthew Chuck out for the few first few months of the season. Hopefully he’s going to be back in December. And obviously the incredibly frustrating news to see uh Alexander Bararkov go down in uh practice, his first practice of the preseason, man, with a ACL and MCL injury. Now, we don’t know with any certainty right now whether he’s going to be done for the entirety of the year, which obviously impacts what the Panthers can do with their cap, but um but a huge blow to this team that again looked primed to make a fourth consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup final, potentially a third straight Stanley Cup championship, which we haven’t seen since the Islanders 1980s dynasty to lose their captain. And for my money, the reason they’ve won back-to-back cups, Barkov, even if his numbers aren’t blowing you away, he does everything you need in the playoffs was just a huge bummer. If he does return for the postseason, they make it work with the Cap. I’m just talking uh personnel here. Okay, Matthew Kachchuck and Sasha Barov return. I actually like I think that team without those two players still make the playoffs. I think so, too. And I think that it’s because we always have this conversation. It’s year three. They three straight finals. Oh, the tired factor, the extra 25 games in the season, all that talk. But now you have a refreshed two players. You do. So, I wonder if that’s going to change the narrative a little bit. Everyone else is dead tired, but they’re all right. They’re fine. No. And and I think that they can surv like you mentioned, they can probably survive it. I mean, Anton Lindell has been called baby Barkov for years for a reason, which is he’s a guy on another team, would probably be at one or two in the center position, and now he’ll get to move up the lineup most likely. um they should be able to survive. The real question though, Arda, as you mentioned, is whether or not they’re going to take the salary cap space that opens up with Barkoff being on long-term injury reserve, which is $10 million against the cap. Uh are they going to use that? And if they use it, that means he’s done for the entirety of the season. But if they decide that he can maybe come back for the playoffs and they can go maybe like I think it’s like 3 million or something along along those lines above the cap. So, we’ll see what they end up doing. Yeah. A winner for me. uh the final goodbye in Pittsburgh for Mark Andre Flurry. It was a moment. Now I in recent years I have loved the tradition when a like Andre Kopitar is going to get this treatment this year. When he plays a team for the last time, there’s going to be a handshake line. Even if it’s in, let’s say, November and they’re playing an Eastern Conference team and that’s the last time they’re going to see them. He’s gonna get a handshake line. And I love that tradition. I think it should remain in the NHL like the goodbye, you’re retiring, let’s show our respect on the ice. Equally, I hope that Mark Andre Flurry has started or and the Pittsburgh Penguins organization has started a tradition where a longtime player that either went away or even is retiring gets one final preseason game. And I know that the their number of preseason games is diminishing. I get it. But I loved it. It was a moment. It created uh a great vibe and hockey fans loved it across the league. Not just Penguins fans. So, give me more of that. I would love to see it. And also, uh, pranks. He also pulled pranks. A lot of pranks. And we do love that on reporters. We do love that. Poor guys. Notes are everywhere. Uh, loser for me, unfortunately, is this Franken jersey that we saw at Flurry’s last game. A patchwork jersey representing the teams he he uh played for. Again, maybe you like this. It’s definitely a jersey foul. My problem with it is, oh, Arda, we simply must respect the legacy of Flurry’s time with the Chicago Blackhawks, don’t we? Come on. Well, he technically played there. I But but who cares? Are you So, you’re saying let’s just forget about the Blackhawks. Aar Penguins flurry jersey. He’s basically retiring as a Penguin. That’s all I’m saying. Oh, totality of his career. Okay, fair enough. Uh, why don’t you round this out since you’re the Jersey foul afficionado? All right, we saw some new threads come out before the season. The winners for me are the Seattle Kraken’s new black jerseys, that glowinthe-dark art. Very cool. Very cool. They should have gone with black jerseys to begin with. They look awesome. Uh so those are dope. And then the Capitals Eagle jerseys. Uh they’re bringing back the screaming eagle. They’re putting it on a jersey. Uh I think this jersey will probably end up being their new duds or new threads at some point in the near future. Uh, and then loser for me, look, the New York Rangers throwbacks looks like a beer league team that ran out of money back in the 1950s. And then the Hurricanes jerseys, they they added black to the logo. Doesn’t change the fact the logo stinks. Looks like a swirly toilet toilet bowl. And now you have put uh black highlights into the swirly toilet bowl to uh to accentuate that it looks like a toilet bowl. Okay. So, it’s not number one or number two for you. The hurricane’s got uh the Rangers color though. I love that shade of blue. Sure. You What What don’t you like about it? I I just think it’s I don’t It is a lesser version of the jersey they’re wearing. It’s the same thing as the Team USA jerseys where they would have one that looked great and then they’d have like the old tiny one that looked like it’s just beat up and moth riddled. And you know, I just I the Ranger jersey has nothing to me. Fair enough. Speaking of former Rangers and Team USA, Patrick Kane running it back. got a one-year deal in the off season with the Detroit Red Wings, looking to break that playoff drought for the make it to the postseason for the first time since 2016. As we mentioned at the top of the show, our Emily Kaplan had a chance to sit down with Showtime. So, you’ve won nearly everything there is to win as an NHL player. Cups, individual accolades, playoff accolades. What still motivates you? Um, you know, I think just just love of the game to be honest with you. Um, you know, obviously there’s so many great players in our league that are that are pushing the bar that make you, you know, want to get better and push yourself, but for me, I just, you know, I still love it. I still love being on the ice. I love, you know, making a play or scoring a goal and, you know, having that feeling of adrenaline. um you know being able to celebrate with your teammates, celebrate with the fans, all that stuff is um just things you can’t really pass up and can’t even really describe how how you feel in the moment. Um you know, obviously I have 4 and a halfyear-old son now. He loves watching, loves going to the games and and um you know, being a part of it as well. So um there’s definitely some motivation to play for him, too. How long would you like to play? Um, you know, I I hit my hit my uh 1300th game last year. I think the the goal would probably be to get to 1500. Um, you know, whether I play more or less, we’ll see. Um, after that, if I still feel good and still love it. I think, um, you know, that would definitely enjoy, you know, the opportunity to keep playing. But, uh, we’ll see how it goes. I mean, I guess that would put me at, you know, three more years, but um it’s not like I’m, you know, counting the years or have, you know, a specific date or numbers in mind. It’s just kind of what I’m hoping to get to and we’ll see after that. How close to peak Patrick Kane do you feel right now? You know, I think the last I would say compared to the last four or five years, I probably feel as good as I I have. Um, you know, obviously I was dealing with a lot of hip problems before that and some pain I was dealing with and then, you know, having the surgery and coming back and getting used to it the last couple years, I feel like I’m kind of over that now. So, I feel like I’m in a good spot going into the year here. I love the organization. Teammates are incredible. Um, uh, it’s it’s really been a great spot for me to kind of revive my career. a lot to a lot of positives to say say about Steve Eisermanman and Todd Mlen the coach there. Um just um really helping me get the most out of my game that organization. So it’s been it’s been awesome. I’ve really enjoyed my time. Thanks to Emily Kaplan and Patrick Kaine for sitting down with us here in the NHL on ESPN. Exciting. By the way, the Stanley Cup is back with ESPN this season. So we look forward to bringing you that championship later this year. So whether or not the Detroit Red Wings will even make the postseason, that’s going to be one of the questions that hockey fans are asking. But we would like to give to you here on the drop right now, a who can win the Stanley Cup power rankings. We love a good power ranking here on the drop. We do. Let’s start with number five, the Dallas Stars. Now, the Dallas Stars are right in kind of that mix with the Colorado Avalanche around this area in the ranking. I think you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the Stars at this point. They’re a deeper team, granted, new head coach and Glen Gullson. We’ll see what happens post Pete Dbor, but they have a stacked lineup that’s been a conference bride for a few seasons running and now we’ll have a full season of of Nico Rant in it as well. So, we’ll put them at five. Number four, your dynastic Florida Panthers who still obviously belong in this list quite highly despite having all those injury concerns in the preseason with Kachchuck being out for a few months and Barkoff potentially being out for the full season. Again, you cannot ignore the fact that when this team gets into the playoffs, Arda, they just know how to win. So, they’re number four on the list. Number three on this list is the team that certainly knows that the Panthers know how to win in the postseason. That’d be the Edmonton Oilers. But listen, we don’t know uh what’s going to be McDavid’s future long term with this franchise, but we do know he’s going to be here this season, Arta. And that’s important because the Oilers have made back-to-back cup finals. They run it back with essentially the same team minus Cory Perry, which might be a problem actually. Um, and the bigger problem is with the same goalending. But as McDavid and Dry Settle have proven, they can drag all manner and sort of this team into the playoffs and then, you know, advance them through the Western Conference. We’ll see what happens. But I think the Oilers at this point have to be considered number three as far as the potential Cup contenders. Number two, well, there is somebody in the West I like better than the Oilers right now, Arta, and that be the Vegas Golden Knights. Now, the Vegas Golden Knights suffered a significant loss in the offseason. That’d be Alex Petrangelo, who may never play again, even though he believes he might be able to come back this season uh with a a hip injury. Uh that’s a huge hole on their blue line, but it’s going to be a blue line that still has Shay, Theodore, and Noah Hannifin, and and and others to try to fill in the gaps. What they added though was a guy named Mitch Martner. And everyone we talked to artist says the same thing which is that Mitch Martner will thrive in the desert. Get him away from the pressure cooker of Toronto and he’ll be able to find his game and actually even perform in the postseason playing alongside the likes of Jack Eel. Uh listen, this is a very very good hockey team. They know how to play defense. They know how to play playoff hockey. They’re going to get good goalending. I think they’re the class of the Pacific Division. And right now I think they are number two on our list of number of winners. Number one is plucky little team that’s been bubbling under the surface for several seasons. Rod Bindor’s boys and the Carolina Hurricanes got to be number one on this list. Arta, they added Keandre Miller from the Rangers to a blue line that was already pretty stout. They added Nick Eers to potentially be the solution uh on wing on that top line that they’ve been looking for forever. Uh if nothing else, he’ll bring incredible speed to this team. Uh they’ve got a good collection of younger players in the lineup that are that are maturing. Uh they still have a bit of a problem at number two center. They’re going to try to see if Logan Stanovven can maybe be that guy. Um and the goalending is what it is. I just think that if you have a diminished Florida Panthers team, if you have a Toronto team going through the postmor transition, nobody in the metro really scares you too much if you’re Carolina, if you’ve already taken the care of the Devils, for example, in the playoffs. Uh, I think that the Hurricanes right now, given that they’re coming out of the East, should be considered number one on the potential cup champions list, but what say you? Who would be number one on your list, sir? Vegas would be number one on my list. I like I like your They just everything about them screams championship material. And I going back to the Marner thing, like Marner and Eel could be as good or even better than Marner and Matthews. I I really feel like that’s going to be a fantastic They could be the best line in the NHL. Barbashev or whoever else is on that line like that could be the top line in the NHL by far. And they’ve been compiling players. I mean Hurdles there. Yeah. Look at their center depth. Look at the the the um William Carlson. William Carlson, Jack Eel, Tomas Hurdle, Colton Sizens. Yeah, that is a fantastic center depth for the Golden Knights. Uh and they know how to win. They know how to win and they got a great home advantage. Uh, and you know, if there’s any any holes in that lineup, they’ll probably find a way to fill them. Mark Stone’s still there. At least what’s left of Mark Stone still there. Yeah. And by the way, like I know you talked about Petrangelo and, you know, their defense and everything. They finished with the third fewest goals allowed last season. Like their their offense got better. Their defense is solid. Their goalending is proven. Like, say what you want about Aiden Hill, he won a Stanley Cup. True. So, I mean, listen, I Yeah. The only thing they don’t have going for them is that they changed the long-term injured reserve rules. So, uh, we’ll see what happens there. Exactly. We’ll see how they fill those holes. Now, speaking of Mitch Mner, uh, someone that had eusive praise for Mitch Mner was Spencer Carbry, his former assistant coach, and essentially even said when we spoke with him, he’s one of the big reasons why I got a head coaching job in the NHL in the first place. Yeah. Deserves a finder fee. Yes. Right. Exactly. It was a steak dinner or a steakhouse or something to that effect. Anyhow, here is a great conversation that we were able to have with the head coach of the Washington Capitals, Spencer Carberry. Happy to have joining us here on the drop on ESPN, Spencer Carberry, head coach of the Washington Capitals. Uh Spencer, let me start here. Uh fun video to see on social media. Uh you recently went to commanders practice. Uh and I love seeing head coaches at the top of their game interacting with each other. And I I I love hearing what those conversations are like. like what was that day like for you talking with Dan Quinn and the coaching staff and what were your big takeaways? Um what it is um number one is just going there as sort of a a local fan and and someone that’s supporting the local teams whether it’s um the commanders, the nationals, um the Wizards. And the and the the second part of it is is you learn so much and and and it’s like this back and forth of like picking each other’s brains on um preparation to player development to transactions to how you conduct meetings, slogans, like you name it, we we we ask each other. And um I just find it’s it’s you can always pick up whenever you talk to coaches in different sports and in different arenas in life, even in business, like you can pick up little tidbits that I walk away from those interactions being like that’s a really good idea or that’s interesting. I wonder if we tried to incorporate that into an NHL team if if that would work as well. And so that’s um that’s why I always love doing that. I’m a huge fan of like watching all of the stuff whether it’s all or nothings like on Manchester City and and soccer and um so yeah I have I have a lot of time for learning about different sports and how things how things are done in in those uh arenas. Do you pick up a lot of books written by coaches too or No, I do. I’m more of a business book. Oh some of your favorite ones. Um, so I’ve been reading a lot of Ryan Holiday and I know it’s not necessarily um um strictly like business and and how he correlates it. It’s more on like leadership and um I I have Yeah. I I I read a lot of his stuff and he sent me actually Yeah. Yeah. Obstacle Away is is a great read if you’ve if you were uh if you haven’t read that. I mean you’re like a CEO. I mean, you’re like, you know, you got to you’re managing a whole a whole situation there. It makes sense. It makes sense. You consider it on the business side. Um, let me ask you about the big man. So, you went through all of last season coaching through an unprecedented thing, which was the Alex Ovuchkin goalcoring record chase, chasing Gretzky’s record that he finally broke. You and I saw each other at Capitals camp a couple weeks ago. Obie said nothing official yet regarding his status beyond the season. Was it a relief to you? A obviously that he’s he’s he’s playing out the string this year, but B also that you don’t have another massive everybody’s watching every game and the media triples and there’s all this attention on your team because it’s Obie’s retirement year. Yeah, definitely. No doubt. If if that was the case, it would bring an element of exactly what you just described in every building, especially when you go and play the western teams where it’s where it would be the last time, you know, definitively that he ever goes into those arenas. No doubt. I I can’t deny that. Um and so, you know, we we just don’t know what the future holds. if um he he’s left it open and certainly as an organization, as a coach, you’re like, heck yeah, let as many more years as as you possibly can play, but we we respect Alex so much and and what he’s done in this organization. So, when the time comes to make a decision on his future, he will. And and I bet too, a lot of it will have to do with how the year goes and at his age. And um you know, he’s he’s just coming back from an injury right now in in training camp, so hopefully he gets up and running. he skated today. So, um I think that’s kind of the way that he’s from my conversations with him is he wants to see how the year goes, how he feels physically, mentally going through the grind and and see where he’s at. How often would you check in on that with him or how much would that even come up throughout the I mean, it’ll be important to us because he’s Alexkin, one of the faces of the league from the media side, but from your side as the head coach, how much would you even have those kinds of conversations with him? I I’ll talk to him. It won’t be, hey, h do you feel like you’re feel good enough to play next year? But it’ll be like almost daily, h how um how are you feeling? How are you feeling physically, mentally, where you at? Because a lot of I have a lot of conversations with him almost daily when we’re here, as long as it’s not an off day. And sometimes on off days, we’ll we’ll have some of our most productive conversations over the phone because you have a little bit more time on those days. But um part of it is about him, but the other part is he’s our captain. So he’s got his finger on the pulse of of our team. So I’m always checking in with him to to see how things are going with the entire group and get his sense of of what we need as a group. What can I do? What can the coaches do? Um so yeah, th those are daily conversations and making sure I’m checking in on on how he’s feeling individually as well. The Capitals are kind of the envy of the league uh in the sense that you have been able to rebuild on the fly or retool on the fly with OV still here. I mean there are obviously reasons for that including LTI and things like that but more than anything else no matter if it’s the kids who come up from Hershey or or the players that you import from elsewhere like Cherin and Dubois it just seems like everybody kind of fits the template. Where does that come from? I I think that one is is a combination too. I think um I I would point to first and foremost our our leadership group and Alex John Carlson, Tom Wilson and even I would go back to TJ Oshi and Nick Backstrom recently have both moved on but they they’ve laid a foundation here and so it’s kind of carried on of when new people come into our team and this is it was great when I came here I’m like Yes, this is exactly how I would do it as well as a coach and a player. So, this meshes perfectly is we do everything we possibly can, the players, the leadership group, and then myself and our staff to make a player feel as comfortable as possible and as quickly as we can and then make the expectations as clear and laid out as possible. And that’s through communication and that’s through myself building a relationship and the players building a relationship with new guys whether it’s a young player whether we’ve acquired a player in a trade and that’s I think what we take a lot of pride in because we know and I know if Joe Smith comes to the Washington Capitals and feels completely comfortable and knows exactly what’s expected of him and what he has to do on the ice. we’re gonna get the best Joe Smith we possibly can get. And that’s how we approach each individual player. And I like I said, I think it’s it’s the players do and our leadership group does an amazing job of that. And then we try to replicate that as coaches as well. For for your own for your own purposes, what what percentage is I test? What percentage is data for you at this point in your coaching career? Great question. Great question. Um I’m gonna say 7525. 75 eyeball 25 number. Okay. Yeah. And and I’ll say this like usually usually more times than not it matches up. When it doesn’t and you’re like and they send you a number that you’re like whoa. Like I did not think we were we were so bad in in that um underlying number or that measurement. And then you go back and you start to watch it and you go oh okay. Like usually, you know, the numbers are right. Shocker. It’s It’s not They don’t lie to you. And they So, and it and that’s really helpful because us as coaches, like sometimes you can get like this. You get the tunnel vision and your staff gets tunnel vision and you think of a player or a certain thing that you guys do is like, “Nope, it’s good. It’s good. This is how we’ve always done it.” And then someone brings you an analytical number and you go like, you start to look at it and you go, “Oh, okay. May Yeah, I see what they’re talking about.” Yeah. 7525 is an interesting breakdown. So So usually what’s happening is you’re seeing something and then you’re asking for numbers to corroborate what you’re what you’re noticing. Yes. Or you’re you’re getting they’re usually what our analytics team will tell us like hey you’re doing this really well or you’re doing this poorly and you’ll look at and you go yeah that makes sense. I would agree with that. And but there’ll be some that you go geez I thought we were really good at that and and we’re not. Like for instance, we give up, you know, the the third most oddman rushes in the NHL. And and your eyeball te your eyeball should tell you that like if you feel like in a game you’re watching, you’re like, geez, we’ve given up a lot of oddman rushes usually. But sometimes you’d be like, I don’t feel that way. The third most oddman rush game, what are we doing wrong? And then you start to dive into it and you go, geez, we’re Yeah, that see why they’re saying that it tracks. Yeah. Yeah. We’re putting the welcome bat down. Yes. allowing it to happen, right? And and then it’s on us as coaches to not be stubborn and and like we got to fix this. Like they’re not just telling us and and not go, “Nope, I’m set my ways. We do what we do. Leave us alone because now you’re you know, you’re you’re going to fall short if if you’re trying to get better in a bunch of different areas.” Yeah, we could we could separate a whole hour to talk about this. I think like nerd out about this at some point. Uh that’ll be for another day. I do have one last question for you, Spencer. So, uh, recently preseason game in Hershey. What was that like for you? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. We, we spent, my family and I spent 5 years there, three coaching, but the two years I was in Toronto during the co years, uh, my family was back in Hershey, and we just travel up um to Toronto every month um to visit. And it it’s a special place. If you’ve ever been to Hershey, Pennsylvania, it’s just a small town that has a a big league team, the Hershey Bears. They get 10,000 fans a night. It’s almost always sold out. The fan base is amazing. Um, and for the AHL level, I think, you know, it’s hard to argue with that that place as being the best place to play or coach in the American Hockey League. And so, we were very fortunate, three great years there as a coach. and to be able to go back there now as an NHL head coach and stand on that same bench and then share it with, you know, 10 guys that played there that I coached in Hershey. Um, yeah, it was a pretty special night. Did you ever participate Did you ever participate in a bear growl celebration? No, the the that came in after uh Yeah, they uh they started that. I I always love that they would they would get that and Mikey so um Conor Mcichael played there. I coached him in Hershey, played a couple years there. He said on the bus when we were um busting into the game, he told the boys, he’s like, “All right, if if I score tonight, I’m going to give the the bear growl.” And sure enough, he him and Protos had a twoono short-handed and he didn’t pass it. He shot it and scored and he went by the bench and gave the uh the bear. It was good. Yeah. How How tempted were you to jump in the teddy bears? Oh my. That That was a whole story in itself. Like we’d have to like it would take an hour to get the guys are cold. They’re coming out pulling groins because they got to do a whole new warmup. It was like oh my gosh. Yeah, those were uh those were next level teddy bear tosses. It’s awesome. Last one for me. I wanted to ask you about uh someone you used to coach. Uh you uh managed to climb over the wall and escape Toronto. Uh Mitch Mner has now done the same. Uh you you coached Mitch for a couple years in Toronto. wanted to get your take on what you think uh how he’ll fare in Vegas. I think he’ll be fantastic. I I think I really do. Um I I understand Toronto. I understand the pressure and the expectations and when um when when it when it’s always, you know, Stanley Cup or bust, it it’s hard. And so, um, I I I think, you know, M Mitch, he he took a lot of that, um, over the years and and fans and and opinion totally up to, you know, you can never get upset with that. I never get upset with, you know, people that are like, “Oh, they shouldn’t treat him that way.” It’s like fans are entitled to their opinion and and what they see and how they come to their conclusions is up to them. And so Mitch um got a lot of the brunt of that, but I I man he is a generational player. Like he is so good, so talented and the two years that I spent like I owe a lot and I told him this after getting the job in Washington like I owe a lot to him as to why I’m an NHL head coach or the things that he did on the power play when I was there and we finished first in the league when I was coaching that power play. He he did some things that you just can’t coach, you can’t teach. It’s it’s his individual talent and um yeah, I I think he’s going to do great. He’s he’s one of the best players in the league. His his skill set and his sense and his how he sees the game. Just a true talent. And when you told him that, he obviously said steak dinner’s on you now that you got the job, right? Except I texted him now it’s reversed now that you’re down in Vegas and that deal. Oh, hell. Now, now it’s buy me a steak house, Mitch. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Especially with no state tax. I mean, now it’s free. Perfect. Carbury, the head coach of the Washington Capitals. Hey, uh this was terrific. Hope you can come back on uh sometime soon, but uh continued success and have a great season. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. Anytime. Thanks again to Spencer Carberry for joining us here on the Drop. Before we go, we are going to introduce a brand new ongoing segment here on the Drop. There are a lot of great storylines to latch on to in the world of hockey this season. Oh yeah. But I would argue none more important than the rivalry between Canada and the United States. The Olympics right around the corner. Patriotism on the ice. Yes. Alltime high. We saw it at Four Nations. It will continue this year. And I will argue that there is no better show in the entire galaxy universe far far away that is more suited to keep the rivalry alive USA Canada than right here the drop. And in honor of that yes Mr. Wishinski. I have decided that we will constantly battle on this show leading up to the Olympics where we will see Canada and the United States battle it out maybe probably for this right here. Look at this. My god. The North American Hockey Championship title. Is this sanctioned? This is a sanctioned championship that we have created specifically for this show that will be battled fought for between the Canadian representative here and the American representative there. And since Uhhuh. Canada was able to win at four nations, this championship for now is right here above my shoulder. You have the belt because Quinn Hughes didn’t play in a championship game. That is the only reason you have the belt. But I’ll I’ll concede it. Like the the Canadians did win on a really I guess what was probably a really lucky bounce by McDavid. But you currently hold a belt. So the question is Arra, how do I get this belt? Oh, this will be defended multiple times on every show and we’re going to save that for next episode because we will also have an episode of the drop on opening night. a triple header on ESPN and you can look forward to another edition of the drop. Greg Washinski, Ardo Cal. The drop is presented by Discover. Get away from here. Unless you want to unless you belt bam the forehead.

Hockey! The Drop presented by @Discover is back to get you ready for this season. Are the Florida Panthers still the best team or can the Vegas Golden Knights, Carolina Hurricanes or Edmonton Oilers de-thrown them? Or will it be the New York Rangers, Dallas Stars or Boston Bruins? Arda Ocal and Greg Wyshynski give you the Top 5 teams in the NHL right now. Sidney Crosby joins the show to talk about the Penguins’ upcoming season. Also, Washington Capitals’ Head Coach Spencer Carbery joins the show to talk about Alexander Ovechkin’s big year and how Mitch Marner fits in with the Vegas Golden Knights. Plus, who are the top 5 teams in the NHL right now? All that and more!

00:00 Welcome to The Drop!
01:45 Winners and Losers of The Offseason
02:10 Winner: Anze Kopitar Retirement Tour
03:50 Loser: Florida Panthers Health
06:00 Winner: Pittsburgh Penguins Goodbye to The Flower
07:09 Loser: Franken-Jersey
07:57 Winner: Kraken and Capitals new jerseys
08:14 Loser Rangers and Hurricanes new jerseys
09:30 Patrick Kane on upcoming Red Wings’ season
12:05 NHL Power Rankings Top 5 Teams
12:18 #5 Dallas Stars
12:40 #4 Florida Panthers
13:05 #3 Edmonton Oilers
13:54 #2 Vegas Golden Knights
14:45 #1 Carolina Hurricanes
17:27 Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery Joins the Show
20:10 On the future of Alexander Ovechkin
22:50 Capitals have a certain template for success
24:50 Data vs Eye Test as a Head Coach
27:25 Carbery on going back to Hershey for preseason
29:33 Mitch Marner in Vegas
32:00 Canada vs USA: The North American Championship Title

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