NHL Teams on the BRINK of DISASTER | Are the Wild and Blues Heading for a MELTDOWN?

NHL Teams on the BRINK of DISASTER | Are the Wild and Blues Heading for a MELTDOWN?

On today’s episode of Lockdown NHL, six teams that might be very close to breaking the glass on that panic button. You’re locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, hello and welcome in to another episode of Lockdown NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League. We are your first listen each and every day and we are your team each and every day as well. Make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platforms and subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. Today’s episode of Lock 10 NHL is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and you can win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. On today’s episode of Lockdown NHL, we have six teams that are off to slow starts. We’re going to dive in, check under the hood, and see which teams are in actual danger of rough seasons this year. My name is Seth Toppel, host of Locked on Wild, joined by JD Young of Locked on Sharks. And no, the Sharks are not one of them because the San Jose Sharks are a fun, exciting young team that is learning how to win um and learning how to torment the Minnesota Wild to no extent. So, that’s for another show, but we are going to start in the Central. And uh before we talk about my team, why don’t we lead off by talking about another team in the Central Division that was expected to have a building season this year, building off of what they did last year, which was being one of the hottest teams in the NHL in the second half, willing themselves into a wildcard position. And now this year, the uh the music coming out of St. Lewis is flat. It’s like the uh the Tik Toks where it’s like the way off key version of the song. That is the St. Louis Blues to start this season. Uh yes. Uh the Blues who you and I on this very podcast multiple times asked, “Is this Blues team actually really good or did they just play a bunch of really bad teams at the end of the last season?” Uh, and granted they took the Winnipeg Jets all the way to game seven and were two seconds away from uh going on to the second round, but have been off to a horrible start to this year. Uh, they are, as we’re recording, 35 and one with seven points. Uh, that is 30th in the NHL. Uh, they have trouble scoring. They give up a lot of goals. They have a minus12 goal differential. Uh that is 30th also in the league when it comes to goal differential. Only my San Jose Sharks and the Calgary Flames are worse. Uh this team, right, we we knew the defense was a little bit older. Uh I know they they tried to inject some youth into it, but it doesn’t seem to be kind of sticking right now. like this is a team that has uh not gotten off to expectations this year and a lot of people thought this could, you know, be a potential wild card team. They can’t stop a nosebleleed. They can’t score. Uh this Blues team, maybe this is the regression to the mean that we saw from last season where they won a bunch of games against a bunch of bad teams and this year they’ve not been able to do so. Yeah, it just, you know, it is weird to see this team that just was lighting the world on fire at the end of last season. Uh they they just cannot they they cannot get out of their own way. And you look at what happened in that game against Pittsburgh. They gave up two goals in the first like two minutes of that game. Two goals within 30 seconds. That’s a mark of a bad team when you give up like backtoback goals. As someone who’s watched a lot of bad hockey over the last couple years, that is a mark of a bad team is letting things snowball like that and giving up two goals right away. Uh yes, bad team right there. And you’re just, you know, you’re not getting any level of production really from the back ends. And when you don’t get any production from your blue line, um, that puts a ton of pressure on the rest of the team to try to pick up the slack. And, you know, outside of Jake Neighbors, who has six goals so far this season, I mean, Robert Thomas, one goal so far. Yikes. Um, Pavle Buchavic has two goals so far. Jimmy Snugroo getting a little closer to where you would hope these players would be. He’s got three goals so far, but Braden Shen’s got one. Dylan Holloway, big prized acquisition via the offer sheet a couple of seasons ago. He’s got one goal so far. They just have a ton of guys that just have not hit the level of production expect. Kyro has three goals this year. Like that’s a guy who needs to be scoring for this team to be successful. Yeah. Yeah. Um before we get to your wild, on a scale of one to 10, one, no worries. It’s just a phase 10. Uh this is heading straight to the the tit like Titanic to the iceberg. Where are you putting the blues on the panic uh scale right now? I mean, I don’t doubt that they will have a stretch in which they will kind of figure it out, but I I I just think their their blue line is not good enough to be a playoff team this year. So, I’m going to say eight. Um, I I don’t think I think we saw the effect that Jim Montgomery can have on a team, you know, to kind of rally the troops. And as somebody who saw this happen a couple of seasons ago when Dean Evson was let go, you know, you do see that coach bump because a lot of the players are like, well, shoot, if I don’t pick up my performance, maybe I’m going to be next. But that’s not a sustainable thing. that’s not a sustainable model for success is just hoping that your players are kind of scared into picking up the slack. And I think that’s what we’re seeing with St. Louis this year is yeah, it worked to kind of get them back on track, but they’re just there’s just a lot of work that that roster needs. Yeah, I’m at a six. I was never high on the Blues this year. Uh, and again, I I thought they, like I’ve mentioned, I thought they beat up on a lot of bad teams. So, it feels like they kind of fell back, but I still, this team is worse than I thought they would be. Uh, right. This team is known for being like a competitive night in night out type of team, and they just have not been that so far to start this season. So, uh, a team that is I had high hopes for this season and I I assume you had some at least decent hopes for, uh, the Minnesota Wild, who, uh, have been off to a horrible start as well. Uh, I’ll go take a break if you want to talk about the Wild and we’ll let just let me know when you’re done. Well, as you uh as you saw in the uh the postgame show the other night, uh I think I have diagnosed the issue quite quite easily um with this team. It’s it’s a team that is old. They’re tired. This is mostly the same group that we’ve seen over the last three seasons with relatively no change. And honestly, I think it’s a group that has kind of gotten comfortable. They’ve kind of gotten comfortable and complacent because what is really what’s really at stake, you know, the biggest thing that was at stake for this team over the last few years was losing Krill Capri off and that got done. Like what what are what are the repercussions for poor performance? Who’s losing their job for not playing well? It’s the young K. It’s the young prospects. The prospects are the ones that are bearing the brunt of the failure so far. And I I mean that’s that’s coaching 101 right there. Every co Yes. It’s like it’s the children’s fault. Like I just I just don’t get the sense and I’ve I’ve tried to dig into this a little bit like who is really going to lose anything if this season doesn’t go well? Like is Craig Leupold going to fire Bill Garren? I don’t get the sense that that’s going to happen. Is Bill Garren going to fire John Hines? I mean, maybe, but I just I until I see until I see some sort of actual ramifications for this. I can’t really believe that anything’s coming. Yeah. watching like the Wild, uh, you know, even when I was kind of doing my like getting ready for the this the game against the Wild, it was startling to see how bad this team was at scoring at five on five and especially outside of like Capri off and both like the top guys like this is a very topheavy roster and all their offense comes on the power of play. like the Sharks who have a bad bottom six outplayed the Wild’s bottom six and I don’t even think it was like particularly close. Uh and you you got like you saw the Sharks get contributions from their bottom six. That’s been a thing you know kind of a one of the reasons why their offense I think has been much better than expected for San Jose. But um for the Wild though like you know you coaches love their bottom six, right? Got to get those guys in there who can you know play the right way, all that stuff. uh this bottom six for the while just doesn’t do it right because if if you at least had guys who could be PK killers like you know ace killers on the PK they’re they’re definitely not that right as this PK is one of the worst in the NHL um and you’re getting outworked by a bunch of children basically from your stand from you know recent by by the Sharks but yeah um I think this this team is it needs some reworking especially in the because you you have pieces, right? You have Baldi, you have Rossi, you have Capriovv. Yeah. You like the goalending, you like the blue line. Like there’s a lot. It’s just I feel like the the forward group needs like a whole new restructuring for this Wild team. And I just don’t know if that’s something that they’re going to be able to accomplish on the fly here, especially given their contracts and and stuff like that. But um I mean I like I think out of all the teams we’re gonna talk about, this is the team I’m most worried about because I I thought this team had the talent to be a potential, you know, darkhorse Stanley Cup, you know, like get to the second round of the playoffs type of of of team with especially with Capri off because we saw it last year. We saw this team play very well last year and now, you know, it’s it’s funny a year later. So, uh, yeah, this team is like a nine for me on on the the panic scale. It’s a full 10 for me. I just I honestly I feel like it’s gotten to the point that they need to send somebody out to send a message like that this just is not acceptable. They’re they’re dead last in five on five goals in the NHL with the exception of Calgary. Uh, they’re dead last in the NHL. They’re tied with two teams for dead last and high danger goals so far this year. These are not one-year problems. These have been problems for three years. And it just gets worse every time because guess what? Players get older. Their skills deteriorate. These like I’m honestly I’m I’m I don’t know whether to be surprised or annoyed or irritated or all of the above. Yes. That once again this team was like, we mostly have what we need because guess what? They played well as a group when they were fully healthy and they’ve done that one time in the last four years for a stretch of like 20 games. That’s that’s looking like that is the anomaly that 20ame magic stretch compared to everything else that we have seen from the Minnesota Wild unfortunately. So as far as I can tell I do not think the Minnesota Wild have a single goal from a bottom six player this year. hash. Uh, I could trade you Ryan Reeves. He’s got two this year. We already tried that. It wouldn’t work this time. It’s a nice thought, but it wouldn’t work this time. Yeah, it’s not good, man. It’s not good. No, I need the um I need the Debbie Downer music from SNL. It’s not good. Yeah. Not great, but hey, it could be worse. There is a team that is below the Minnesota Wild in all of these statistical categories in the entire National Hockey League. They’re below the San Jose Sharks of these categories as well. Yeah, we’ll uh we’ll talk about the uh we’ll talk about the ice cold Calgary Flames. Flame off. Uh that’s coming up as we continue today’s locked on NHL right after this. Today’s episode of Locked on NHL is brought to you by Monarch. Let’s be honest, most of us can’t even name all of our financial accounts, let alone what they’re worth. 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Welcome back to today’s episode of Locked on NHL. Once again, we thank you for making Locked on NHL your first listen each and every day. Again, make sure to like and subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. Let’s talk now about the ice cold Calgary Flames. Although I believe they won their most recent game. They did win their most recent recent game against the Rangers. Spoiler we’re talking about later. Yeah, we’ll uh we’ll get to them in due time. But um you know th this this one may not be as much of a surprise because of the year that they had last year, but boy this has been uh this has been a bit of a tire to say the least for the uh Calgary Flames. Yeah. And a team that who could have seen this coming, right? A team that struggled to score last year, literally did nothing this year to add scoring is having trouble scoring goals. Uh, who could have seen this coming here? But I again, I know you have Zayn Perk. I like Zayn Perk, but I think trying to count on a 19-year-old defenseman uh to boost your scoring probably not going to work out for you, right? I mean, the Calgary Flames have scored 21 goals. uh in 10 games this season. Uh the worst goal differential with minus4 and every game it just feels like uh an absolute struggle for them to put up any sort of offense uh for them. And again like uh you see Justin Wolf, Justin Wolf’s doing everything he can and just basically dragged this team to almost making the playoffs last year. But I just don’t think that’s a sustainable, you know, way to play hockey. You can’t win every game two to one. You can’t play defense for 60 straight minutes. Uh and yeah, I just feel like the Flames are um you know, one of those teams where they got hot last year. They they were able not hot, but I guess they they were able to win a lot of close games and this year they’re just not able to do replicate that same formula. You know, it is interesting because one of the guys that you would hope would be able to help you in the goals department has gotten off to a real cold start himself. Uh that being Matt Coronado and you know he’s been a healthy scratch here. Yep. Um because they’re just they were not getting you’re not getting what you need from one of your top guys and that certainly that that’s not going to help the situation. But, you know, the other guy who we thought was maybe getting on the right track a little bit was uh Jonathan Hubedo, and he right now has just a single goal. Now, he’s only played in five games, but he has just a single goal so far this year. And if you’re not getting scoring from those top level guys, like, who is going to provide it for this team? Like, your goalies aren’t going to do the scoring. Where is it coming from? Yeah. Uh I this team could be one of those teams where you could be very active at the trade deadline trying to move some pieces here to potentially uh you know like try to especially in this year’s draft. Uh and I think this team like they need a top end forward prospects badly. Uh and there’s some pretty solid ones in in this year’s draft. like uh I wouldn’t be surprised especially you know like Nazim Kadri it feels like everybody’s been checking in on him now that his uh no trade cost has gone down to a 13 team no trade list like even though he’s got you know three years after this year still on his deal I think a lot of teams will be interested in him uh like yeah like and you know you still have Raasmus Anderson who’s entering the last year of his deal like this this team feels like they could be one of the biggest movers uh at the trade deadline to try to acquire as much assets as possible and they should like this team hasn’t really like this team is that team that just they kind of waffle are we going to kind of tank are we going to you know try to go for it and stuff and they just um then you just become a mediocre team and that that’s the worst place to be in sports is just being in the middle and not making the decision and I feel like that’s what the flames are. So um where do you put the flames on your on your scale of one to 10? I have them at a four because uh like it hasn’t started out this well, but I kind of thought the Sharks might be better than them and it’s looking like it might be true. It it depends. It depends on if you expected them to be a playoff team or not. I don’t know that I necessarily did. Um so I probably would be in the four I probably would be in the four or the five range, too. Um, you know, it just they didn’t like the most predictable thing of all time was going into the season and saying, “Well, hey, did they address the scoring?” No, they did not. No, they did not. Okay, then yeah, they’re probably not going to make it into the playoffs. So, it’s like a five, which is probably where this next team is going to end up. Um I it just you know I I don’t know that we even call this a notable slow start but you got to talk about it because they’re 44 and two so it is technically a slow start. The Edmonton Oilers who you know call it the uh call it the cup hangover. Call it whatever you want. Um, they have gotten off to a little bit of a slow start this year with 29 goals in 10 games and 12 of those goals by Leon Dryidle and Ryan Nent Hopkins. Uh, one goal for Conor McDavid so far, which is not great. Again, Ryan Reeds, two goals this year. Trent Frederick has as many goals this year as Conor McDavid does. That’s Yeah. Yuck. But it’s, you know, the the funny thing about this is, as we were talking about before we uh before we hit record is like, can you really be concerned about a team with Conor McDavid and Leon Dryidle on it? Um, I’m not concerned, but I’m starting to kind of dig through the drawers for the panic button because this is what the this team does every year. So, like I I’m probably like a two or a three with the the the concern ratio here, but uh like they they make a habit of this. We see this every year, right? And then usually kind of around Thanksgiving or so, they they kick things into gear and especially for teams that have gone on long playoff runs, uh you can understand maybe it takes a little bit longer to kind of get things going here. So, I’m not concerned. I’m not cons, but the the Conor McDavid scoring thing is like we’ve noticed the past couple years where his goals have just kind of like we haven’t had that big like 50 60 goal McDavid season, right? Where it’s just like just a nice reminder of like I’m the best player in the world and it would have been nice to this year to kind of like have that nice kind of little reminder of like I it’s me. I’m the guy, right? I’m the guy who everything runs through and it’s getting off to a a onegoal uh start, you know, 10 games into the season. A little tough there. A little tough. Last year, the Oilers were four, five, and one through the first 10. Yes. So, two years ago, 27 and one. Yes. And then I think they lost to the Sharks and then like that was like kind of their like moment. That was the end of the uh that was the end of the Jay Woodcraft era if I do recall. It was there. I think it was like the next game or something like that. But like there was a lot of Woodcraftoft is going to get fired here yesterday. Nine and one they started. There you go. Yep. Yucky. And then they won from December. They didn’t lose a game from December 21st to January 27th. So, yes, this team is capable of of doing great things. So, again, I’m digging through the drawer. That’s awesome. This is the This is the where are my keys? Um, where did I put my keys level concern? The the junk drawer everybody has. Uh, Midwesterners, unfortunately, you have four of them. Uh, but you know, it’s it is what it is. So, but yeah, digging through it, pawing through right now, looking for the looking for the button. We better have multiple junk drawers. We don’t have multiple goal scorers in the bottom six. Yeah, we’re better. Um, we’re going to talk a little Eastern Conference, including new head coach still not fixing the issues for the Rangers. We’ll talk about that as we finish today’s episode of Locked on NHL after this. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride that hot hand, Steph Curry. Uh FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fandal.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Final segment of today’s edition of Locked on NHL. Once again, we thank you for making Locked on NHL your first listen each and every day. Uh again, make sure to like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. And uh make sure to check out Lockdown NHL game night as well for full recaps of all the games going on throughout the National Hockey League. Uh just a couple games on the schedule, but uh some crazy crazy happenings for the Sens who uh dispatched the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins took care of the uh St. Louis Blues. Again, the music’s flat in St. Louis. Did you see the uh Crosby goal that he scored? Yes. After the Penguins were hemmed into their own zone and then he broke out. It reminded me of his idol scored a goal very similar the other night. Um it was a nice goal for Crosby, but it highlights uh another issue for a couple of uh couple of just regular uh contenders throughout the uh throughout the course of the NHL. Tampa Bay Lightning are in a bit of a rut here. three, four, and two to start the season. And you’re just I think the biggest thing that I can boil it down to is you’re seeing pedestrian starts for guys that you just can’t afford to be pedestrian. Yeah. Nikita Coutroof with eight points through the first seven games of the season. That’s He is he’s starting to kind of get things going here. And you notice they won their last two. So maybe they’re they’re the team that’s maybe starting to figure things out, but yeah, it’s it’s been a horrible start for the Lightning. And I mean like Braden Point, he’s got two goals in nine games. Um they just, you know, we I was kind of wondering what the the depth scoring was going to look like this year. You bring back Yanni Gordon, you sign him to that five-year extension at 33 years old. I mean, he does have two goals through the first two games of the season, but um again, similar story is you’re you’re not getting a ton of production from the bottom part of the lineup. You’re not getting a ton of production at all. 24 goals in nine games is not a ton. And Andre Vaselki just, you know, he continues to be just a step off from where he’s been in previous seasons. when you’re not scoring goals and you’re giving up maybe one more goal than you have been accustomed to. Yep. That’s a that’s a good recipe for losses. Yeah. You wonder with Fatleski, right, where he missed a good chunk of the the preseason and it was, you know, kind of worrisome if he’s going to get back if he’s still 100% healthy or if he’s still trying to get back from whatever uh got, you know, kind of knocked him out for that. So, uh, but I mean also, uh, you look at the power play for this team, which you would expect to be one of the best power plays in the NHL. Uh, and it has not been one of the best power plays in the NHL. And I think for a team like with with all this talent, especially like such a topheavy team like the Lightning, right, where you have like it’s it’s, you know, a point like it’s these guys here who have to kind of carry the load and you haven’t really got been able to take advantage of the man advantage here. Um, you wonder like you assume this will probably fix itself at some point here, but yeah. Uh I think the the problem too is like just the division that they play in, right? It’s just it’s such a a tough division where like getting behind now it it you know I know they’re only two points back from uh you know the Panthers in the wild card right now but like it feel like you still have to jump you know five or six teams just to kind of get back into the wild card. I know we’re talking wild card in October here, but still like the Lightning need to kind of turn this thing around here quicker than later than than you know. Yeah. Quicker than later here. Well, and it’s not as though you know we’ve we’ve got a pretty tried andrue benchmark for teams by Thanksgiving. If you’re in a playoff spot by Thanksgiving, you generally stay there. Yep. Um if you are not in a playoff spot by Thanksgiving, it’s real hard to get into one. I think it’s within four points, right, is is usually kind of the benchmark. Four points of a playoff spot. And yeah, uh hopefully though, like for the Lightning, right, they’re came out this weekend. Uh you got a big win over the ABS. Uh I think it was the ABS, right? Or no, they got a big win this weekend, you know? Uh the but like you got to start kind of putting things together here for for Tampa, unfortunately. Ross or Yeah, Ross, things could get really late really early. Speaking of the New York Rangers, dead last in the Metropolitan Division, tied with Columbus. Columbus has played two fewer games. The Rangers have played tied with Pittsburgh for the most games in the Metropolitan Division so far. And they’re 35 and two to show for it in those 10 games. They’ve had trouble scoring goals. They’ve had trouble winning at home. They’re 04-1 at home. Yeah, it’s Oh, lightning. We forgot to ask before. Where do you have them on the Sorry. Uh, where do you have the lightning? Uh, I’m at like a 67 as the kids say. Uh, also there’s a game in Vegas. That’s who I was trying to get. So 67 as the kids say for the Lightning. That’s where I’m at. I will say a five and a half. If Cooerof gets it If Coocher gets it going, they’ll be fine. He can he can pull them out of it. And I think Bazki will start to kind of string the games. Anyway, sorry. Back to the Rangers. Uh, this team, a team that like they thought last year like, hey, last year was just was the bounce, right? We’re going to bounce back this year. We did a lot of stuff, right? We we got rid of Trouba. We got rid of some of the other kind of older guys. We brought in JT Miller, made him the captain, right? Like this this year we’re gonna return to form, be the team that we expect to be. It has been an awful start. Awful start uh for the Rangers. Like you said, they they cannot win at home. They had trouble scoring at home and basically until they played the Sharks who cannot play defense. Um and this team just looks like uh Yeah. Right. new coach, same problems. Yeah, it is. It’s been a a brutal start for the Rangers uh to to say the least. And this team I’m really worried about because they don’t have any like they’re kind of boxed into who they are, right? Like with with the the roster that they have you can maybe trade Paner well I mean you could trade Paneran but like as great you know Paneran be a great asset but there’s also some of the off the ice issues with with Paneran that a team would have to potentially deal with. you know, he’s in the last year of his deal and you’re gonna have to make a decision on him, but like this is an older roster. Uh Alexe Lafany, who was, you know, supposed to inject some life. Uh John Chick of Lock Rangers has called him lost and said he is uh he’s like actively hurting the team when he is on the ice, which is not a good look for your first overall pick who’s in season six, seven or whatever. like this team feels like uh they might have seen that contention window shut for them. Yeah, it’s I don’t know. It kind of feels a little bit like the the same thing with the Wild where it just feels like they need a bit of a shakeup. Like it just it but they tried. That’s the thing. They they they they traded Trouba, you know, they traded like they traded all these guys. They brought in Miller to be the captain and it’s the same results if not worse. Mhm. Yeah. I I don’t know because again, you have too many good players on that roster to be that bad. Yeah. And it just it just feels like losses hunt them. Like it the losses just find ways to come to them like a door-to-d dooror salesman. And you’re like, “Please just leave me alone.” And they’re like, “No, we’re just gonna we’re just going to keep hunting.” Yeah. I and like the prospect pool’s pretty dried up. Uh you know, even some of their young players haven’t really been able to to make an impact. You know, a guy like Gabe Perau is a highly touted first round pick. Um yeah, man. This team is like I I’m eight, I think, on on the panic because I just I don’t see how this thing fixes itself, right? And like until unless they just start playing better. Like I just don’t see how this thing fixes itself. Yeah. Um nine nine for me. This is just like it’s it’s inexplicably bad. And I if if you’re already starting to have stuff that Mike Sullivan says fall on deaf ears 10 games into the season, like good luck good luck pulling your way out of that. Maybe. Uh yeah, Mike Sullivan like he leaves the Penguins. Penguins are one of the best stories of the season. Uh, man. H interesting. I look forward to interim Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Sullivan and interim New York Rangers head coach Pete Dbor within the next month. Uh, Pete, what is uh what is Tors up to? Maybe Tors can go to the Rangers. Torts does a great job on ESPN. I like when he does the breakdown. I they they need to give Torts a little like iPad where he can kind of break down the film. I Yeah, I like what Tors is on ESPN there. So Tors was also the kiss of death for the Minnesota Wild this year. He picked Carroll Capri off to win the heart trophy and the Minnesota Wild to win the President’s Trophy. It’s all Tor’s fault, man. Not Yeah, nothing you can do there. Yeah. And with that, we leave you. That is today’s episode of Locked on NHL. Uh once again, make sure to like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any new episodes throughout the week. We got you covered with new episodes every Monday through Friday as part of the Locked On Podcast Network. We are your team each and every day.

Are NHL powerhouses crumbling before our eyes? Six teams, including the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers, face unexpected early-season struggles that have fans and analysts worried.

Seth Toupal and JD Young dissect the Blues’ scoring woes and defensive lapses, rating their concern level at 8 out of 10. The Minnesota Wild’s offensive drought and aging roster raise even more red flags, with panic levels reaching 9 and 10. Calgary’s goal-scoring issues and potential trade deadline moves are examined, while the Edmonton Oilers’ slow start is analyzed despite having superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

The discussion shifts to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s underwhelming performance, with concerns about Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Finally, the New York Rangers’ disappointing home record and offensive struggles are put under the microscope, with both hosts rating their panic level at 8 or higher.

Tune in to hear expert analysis on why these NHL giants are stumbling and whether they can turn their seasons around before it’s too late.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro: NHL teams close to panic button
5:06 St. Louis Blues struggling to start season
10:36 Minnesota Wild’s offensive woes and concerns
15:26 Calgary Flames’ scoring troubles continue
20:33 Edmonton Oilers off to slow start
25:02 Tampa Bay Lightning facing early challenges
30:04 New York Rangers’ disappointing beginning

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