Detective Work; Deciphering More On How Gulutzan Plans To Coach The Stars | DLLS Stars Podcast

Detective Work; Deciphering More On How Gulutzan Plans To Coach The Stars | DLLS Stars Podcast

Today’s DLSS Stars podcast, we have an interesting detective job to start with, learning a little bit more about how Glenn Gullson will be implementing himself as the Stars head coach. Plus, Luds is back, so we’re going to ask him all the things we talked about yesterday today right here on DLS. Get ready, boys. [Music] [Music] [Music] It is Tuesday. It is July the 29th. This is the DLLS Stars podcast as we are live in the studio alongside Sam Nestler and of course our guy Craig Lewig back in action today. I’m Owen Newkerk. Before we get to today’s show and the topic to start things off, don’t forget to hit the like and subscribe. Let us know in the chat where you’re watching from. All the engagement helps send our show to more places on the YouTube algorithm. But more specifically, we have a $36 special going on to be a diehard because of Cowboys and NFL training camps in action right now. Scan the QR code down below. Luds there. That’ll take you to alldls.comintro and you can get a huge discount off the regular annual subscription charge for being a diehard. In addition to being a diehard, you can also use that to get a free t-shirt. One of them could be that Dallas collection that is now out. Merch dropped from about two weeks ago. Very good-looking shirts. I don’t know if Luds watched our show yesterday. We’ll ask him in a second. Definitely not LS’s shirt, that black one that said Dallas versus all y’all got paraded out in front of us by Ben. So, we might even see LS in studio, we hear. So, let’s talk to Craig Lewig. Uh, Luddy, obviously, we know the circumstances surrounding you not being in Wisconsin right now. Uh, sad for you and your family, particularly your wife’s side. Uh, how’s everybody holding up? I would say as good as can be expected. You know, it’s kind of a long process. It was a long drive for me, you know, to get back here, but it always is. So, but you know, it it’s life. Did you do it in one shot? Always. No, I actually I didn’t. I stopped in uh I stopped in Witchah last night and then uh my dog apparently wanted to leave a little earlier than I’d expected. But uh so anyway, no, I didn’t uh you know what? I was kind of getting stuff out of the cabin and button it up, not knowing, you know, going to come back, what’s going to happen. And man, it took me like three hours to get the hell out of there. I don’t even know what I was doing. I was just trying to throw stuff in the truck or in the car. So, with it being 100 plus out, or at least it felt like that out in Dallas. Does it make it any easier knowing you’re going back to Wisconsin soon? Oh, Jesus. I’d like to take a plane. like yeah it’s it’s uh you know you get you get kind of into Kansas and then you know you get a little closer to Oklahoma and then about midway through Oklahoma you know you can feel it in the car you know what I mean like Jesus I’ve had the AC set on the same in fact I thought it was broke and then all of a sudden then you’re like oh no that’s right there’s no more trees you get past Oklahoma oh yeah no trees just tundra oh well we’re happy to have you on today uh apparently in studio the rest of of the week. How about that? Tomorrow we are starting our summer series called The Other 31 where we start bringing on guests from each of the other 31 NHL teams. Tomorrow we’ll have John Walton, who is the Washington Capitals radio playbyplay announcer. He’s going to, I’m sure, talk about Luds and not being distracted by OV’s chase as they went from barely making the playoffs two years ago to the President’s Trophy last year. Should be a really fun behind thescenes look at the OV chase and everything that the Caps are doing. And that begins our we’re not necessarily doing it 31 and 31 days because we have some other things planned. But between now and training camp, we are going to have writers, broadcasters, announcers, you name it, from each of the other 31 teams joining. So Luds, tomorrow we’ll be in studio talking with John Walton, who’s one of my close friends from way back in the AHL days. It should be a lot of fun. You know, I was thinking we might want to get Albi on here at some point, too. Alan May, you know, he had to step in step in there. A little relief duty um for a little while this past season. So, um Albby good be a good guest. Keep uh keep sending us those booking ideas. We’ll do everything we can to get them. Uh we already have potential. Well, I don’t want to spoil it yet, but we’re working on some fun ones. Um and uh we’ll see how that all plays out. Yeah. All right. So LS, before we get into let’s ask Craig everything that we talked about yesterday. We’ll do that in the next segment where we did a big Wyatt Johnston piece. I want to throw both of these this at both of you. Mike Hikah did a Q&A with Glenn Gulletson. It’s on the Dallas Stars website, dallasars.com. And just started to get some more insights into how he’s going to be as a head coach. So, as we decipher and play detective a little bit, I wanted to just go through some of Gulletton’s answers because I think it shows a little bit more about who he is. And the first one is the first one they said because Hike asked him basically what’s on his summer to-do list. And I thought this was fascinating. He said Golson said one of the first things he’s doing is getting with his assistant coaches and discussing all of their roles and responsibilities. He said he’s been an assistant for so long that he understands the nuances of game day and non-game day and especially as far as how you help things flow smoothly on a day-to-day basis. And he said he became kind of the elder statesman of the coaching staff in Edmonton as he had been there the longest when they started making some of the changes. you know, Chris Knobblock coming in even even earlier with Jay Woodcraftoft and he goes he was the facilitator and got pretty good about knowing when the goalies are going to work, who are they going to work with, what drills are they going to run, what order when we’re on the ice, he wants it smooth, well-run. Luds, why is that so important for an NHL team to have things run as efficiently and smoothly as possible? It it seems odd to me that that he was a facilitator. It seems like that would be a job for the head coach, right? Guy kind of delegating what you should do, but you know, I I would think Knoblock maybe Knoblock gave that to Gully since he’s been around and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, I you know, I think that’s what you do is I think you basically spread spread the wealth around. You want to make sure that everybody’s engaged, everybody’s got a a a bite of the pie, and you know, you do your little thing and we do our little thing and um and then it, you know, again, that it’s you circle back on that stuff every single day. It’s not like it’s you leave people alone. Um you know, somebody will have the PK, somebody’s got the the power play and you know, the little details of special teams and and all that kind of stuff. And I I think it kind of seems like that now. I mean, it probably wasn’t quite like that a long time ago when I played. It was there was always generally one guy barking. Kind of takes on the the football thing, right? I mean, I I think when you when you think about the NFL, I mean, there’s the head coach, but then there’s 20 other coaches, you know, they they’ve got the wide receivers, they got the kicker, they got the punter, they got, you know, they got the guy that worked the flag on the sideline, some of these guys. So, you know, I just I think you just want to give everybody feel like everybody’s part of the wins as much as they are the losses. and um and and that doesn’t mean that if if a special teams falls on its face that everybody doesn’t come around and give their input because you want to always be working together. But but I think it just keeps everybody engaged. And I think from a player standpoint, I think it’s nice. You know, you got different guys coming up and talking to you. And for the most part, the assistant coaches are are generally supposed to be the buffers, you know, and I think that’s probably changed since back, you know, back in the day, too, where, you know, and again, I I had some some coaches, you know, Pat Burns was a tough guy. Obviously Hitchcock was a tough guy, but but they knew that they could lean on their assistant to be able to come in after, you know, jumping down somebody’s throat and and hey, go talk to him, you know, and because I can they just wanted to be that guy that was a an authority figure. I don’t know if they’re as much as an authority figure now um as they used to be. Um I I think that I think it’s nice though. I think you you kind of it’s it makes it feel more like one big family and I think that’s what you want anyways. the team is supposed to feel like a family and you shouldn’t have the coaches on an island. Um, they’ve got to be part of it and I think that’s where the mutual respect goes back and forth. And I would think Sam that now that he has another decade plus 12 years or so of NHL coaching experience as opposed to his first goaround with Dallas, he has way better ideas. I mean, I it makes me think of why did they hire Rick Bonis for Jim Montgomery? First time as an NHL head coach at the time. They wanted an experienced guy that could help him with some of these facilitating kind of things. I would imagine that Glenn Gullson wants things running like a finely tuned machine before they even start training camp. He doesn’t want to figure it out on the fly. Now, you can always make corrections during the season, but I don’t think they want to just say, “Hey, we’ll show up and see how it goes.” I feel like they have a want to have a plan so that when the players start arriving, they’re already ready to go. Yeah. And he’s been in different roles, too, right? We know he’s been a head coach. She’s been an assistant in different type of scenarios. He’s he’s been on totally different teams, uh, winning teams, losing teams, and everything that Les was just saying, it made me think of players, at least for me, when I was on, you know, on teams, you want to know what to expect. You don’t want to know be going into the rink and not knowing what am I doing, what time am I going out there, what drills are. You want to know you, you know, when you come in every day, what you’re going to do. You know, which coach is going to be running which drills. You know, when there’s an optional morning skate, which coaches are on the ice, which coaches do I talk to. But I think having that situation and then adding to that the fact that a chunk of this coaching staff has had so much success with Elaine and with Jeff Reese and obviously now the new guys coming in. It’s good to be able to know which person’s going to do exactly what which role and when. And I think that’s huge for the players to have more confidence and feel more comfortable. One other thing, go ahead. You know, the other thing for me with that is I think when you have a number of coaches that are involved and whether it’s just with a group of 12, a group of six, a group of four, a five, whatever it may be, I think you’re always learning things about that group. So Sam’s got the defenseman and I have the forwards and you have the power play. you’re learning and tendencies and what makes players tick instead of just a head coach trying to figure out because there would be times that when I know that let let’s say you know you got your D coach and and he’s with those seven guys every day and a head coach needs to talk to one of those guys because he’s not playing the way that he wants him to play. I I I would go to the D coach and I’d say listen I’m going to go have a chat with him and because because something isn’t working because the D coach may not be getting to him the way the head coach wants him to. So, so you basically ask Lane and say, “Listen, where do you go with him? What don’t you go? What’s the best direction to go with him? Is he can you take a little bit more criticism or do you got to kind of tap dance and tiptoe into the conversation?” And so, I I think when you when you’re individual coaches and they have their groups that they work with on a daily basis along with the rest of the guys, but they probably learn a few more things about those 12 guys or those seven guys or the two goalies or whatever. I mean, again, we know how often a head coach when you’re going to talk to a goalender, the first guy you go to is talk to the goalie coach and you know, you you know, because that there and but again, just look at that. That’s one guy dealing with two people. And so, he knows exactly how it is. So, now you got a D coach that deals with six or seven guys, you know, and then you got a forward coach that deals with those 12 versus having to deal with all 23 of them and knowing all their uh little nuances to to be able to find the right button to push with people. I I’ll be honest with you. I It was one of the conferences I had with with Hitchcock. Um again, we keep on going back to Hitch. I I tell Hitch, you can never get rid of him, Luds. I just always bring him up. You know what I mean? I got a respect for the guy, but I but I would go to Hitch and I’d say, “Listen, very rarely do you ever want to get down Zubie’s throat, right? But but you do not.” And I’d say, “You cannot push the same button with Zubie as you push with me or you push with Darien or you push with Maddie. there’s a different button, a different way to approach each player. Not not I I don’t want to say indivi every single one of them, but but there are some that stand out and you can be hard ass on on five of us, but you want to get to that guy there, you got to take a different approach. And and I think when you just look at goalie coaches because they deal with those two guys and and I I don’t I mean I guess a lot of me would always think that for a goalie, most of it’s from the neck up. They got to be good up here, you know, and so you have to know what makes that guy tick and what what does and what doesn’t. I want to start another part of this, but I don’t want to have to cut everybody off. So, let’s go to break a minute early and then we’ll get back into more of this. Let’s keep this going because I’ve got more things about Gully that I think are fascinating that we can talk about this will be four segments. It might as well. We know that the run sheet is always flexible and fluid. So, we’ll continue that on DLS. back in town. You’re throwing me a curveball right away. All right. Well, whether you need snapbacks, truckers, fitteds, beanies, or TE’s, you may think I’m talking about grundles right now, but this has nothing to do with like that. Branded Bills has you covered with every performance and style. Looking for some gear to make your brand stand apart from the crowd? Well, Brandon Bills has the best custom headwear around. Start your order and their dedicated team will help you create the exact custom apparel you’re looking for. They have a partnership with 40 colleges as a part of their campus collection, including TCU, Texas Tech, and Texas. Head over to branded bills.com and use code BB DLLs for 15% off. I can’t I can’t help but think of Big Brother. Well done, lads. Uh, and if you guys see, we are in the lounge today despite me wearing shorts, which I had to navigate how to sit in the in this. I actually wore jeans because I knew we were going to be in the lounge. I I took the risk today, but I’m covering it up. So, we didn’t need to be showing any grundles here on the show. Be mature, everybody. But, we are The reason I say that is because the flooring here is excellent. And the flooring is from our friends at Empire Today. Just like your favorite team needs a home ice advantage, your home needs a home floor advantage. and Empire today can help you get it. They have flooring experts, dedicated flooring professionals who focus on, you guessed it, flooring every single day. We know the big box stores that have all kinds of different options, but Empire today are simply flooring and they do it better than anyone else. So, you know you’re getting exactly what you want. You can use their amazing floor room designer to look at what a piece or what a floor would look like in a specific part of your home with your furniture. It’s all kinds of high-tech stuff that I have no clue how it works. With Empire today, you get upfront and all-inclusive pricing. Plus, you can schedule your installation as soon as the next day. Schedule a free inhome estimate today because some things are just better at home. DLS listeners can receive a $350 discount. Yes, you heard that right, $350 discount when you use the promo code DLLS. Restrictions apply. Visit Empire today for full details. Well done, Sam. Let’s talk about logistics for a minute here in this Q&A. And I highly recommend you go if you’d like to look at the details, go to dallasars.com. It’s the I think one second most recent article on the site. Uh it was posted today. Mike Hikah talking to Glenn Golitin, the new Stars head coach. There was some discussions about what Glenn has been dealing with is talking to director of team services Jason Raidman aka Stretch, who by the way is going to be in studio with us. uh maybe the third week of August once LSDs is back. We we don’t even know LDS. We we’ll find out. You’re you’re an enigma wrapped up in a mystery. So, we’ll have to wait and see. But in talking with Stretch, there’s two things and their sports performance department. Two different things. Talking about when on the road trips to stay over after a road game versus fly home. and he talked about sort of can we land at or before 2 am or not because if they can land before 2 am we’re probably coming home because guys can’t go to sleep really quickly after a game on the road or at home but if it’s going to be later than that that’s when players are starting to fall asleep on the plane maybe we should stay over and get better sleep in the hotel then and this I thought was really interesting he talked about new assistant coach Dave Peltier who is going to be a liazison is on with the coaching staff to the sports performance the sports science division for the stars talking about when to when players are re rehabbing returning to play where they’re at health-wise and ls to me this was big where we’re at practice-wise energy-wise how many contacts a player has had in the last few days all of that there is a difference between skating and actually being hit and banged around so we put a lot of emphasis is on analytics and sports performance. And I just thought the fact that they have those kind of numbers, and that’s not something that the mainstream media will talk very much about when they get into analytics, is how many times a player has received or dished out contact during a game, practice, you name it. Well, let’s see. I think it was a week ago or maybe two weeks ago, we were talking to Gully and I think I remember telling Gully, or I didn’t have to tell him anything. He knew that the Dallas Stars are the team that hits the least in the NHL and the Dallas Stars are the ones that get hit the most in the NHL. So apparently they’re getting a lot of days off. So um yeah, I mean I think it makes sense. It’s just like you know again if you’re keeping a stat or you’re coming off of the stat sheet as we know oh and you you know you’re a stat guy. How many times are your quality scoring chances and your high danger chances not right? And so to me, when you’re talking about contacts, it there’s got to be a different levels of contact. I mean, if you’re This is a contact sport. You’re supposed to get hit. Ideally, you’re supposed to hit and get hit every time you’re on the ice, at least give a hit. So, I I think it depends on the kind of hits and the kind of game. And you know what? You know, when you come out of games, you don’t have to look at the stat sheet. you’re going to know that you either were running people over as a team or you were getting run over or it was just one of them kind of games where everybody just went through the motions. So, but I understand where they’re going with that. And you know, with the schedule the way it is, I mean, just look at the schedule from last year because of the four nations thing. Look at what’s going to happen this year. They’re going to they’re going to have 20 days or 21 days a gap in there where they don’t play a game. So, the second So, if you’re going off of that, the second half of the season, they’re not going to practice at all because they have no days off anyways. um you know that relatively few of the practice days but I I mean think I think in theory it’s a good way to go about it but you know I mean we all remember when when some guy got hit and you know it made an impact on them and you remember the player the players remember the player so I don’t you know to say that it’s going to be five hits and you get the day off or it’s going to be 12 hits or it’s going to be two hits whatever it’s going to be I think you have to the quality or quantity I I of the of the hit to me will make a difference. It’s a great point because and I’m sure Luds could speak to this Sam. There are probably differences in terms of how you feel depending on opponent. Oh yeah. After games some, you know, there’s probably games where you go, “Wow, I feel great. That was easy, quote unquote, as far as the physicality.” And then there’s others where you go, “Man, I feel like I got run over by a truck. I feel like I got run over by a Florida Panther is is the best way to put that.” Yeah. No, it’s very different team by team. And then we’ll we’ll talk about a little bit differentiating between teams, I’m sure, later in this conversation with Golson, but um knowing knowing what type of game you’re going to play is also going to go into this. I’m sure they’re going to have uh certain situations where they know, hey, Mero Hasten is going to take a beating tonight. They’re playing the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s going to get hit every time on the forche. Our forwards are going to get pinned to the to the boards a lot more. They’re going to be more physical. So, that stuff will come into play. The other part of it I thought was interesting was and maybe that’s the day you give him a day off or an optional or something. Exactly. And LSDs knows like we talked about this all last spring with with Merror returning and Jason like contact in practice is it’s not minimal to none. So like a lot of that might just be hey we’re not going to do we’re not going to throw you into the uh you know the battle drill in the corner or whatever it might be. But the other part that I thought was interesting that Goldson said was he referenced his I think it was his son that wears like a a Garmin or a sport watch that tracks his sleep. Yeah, I remember that part. And Goldson said like look it stuff is great. You can get the stats, you can get the analytics, you can get all these things to let you know how your body’s feeling, how you’re sleeping, but you don’t want it to become an excuse. And I think a lot of people treat that. I know people that wear I think Garmin’s the one that has a thing called uh your ready meter or something like that where you wake up and it tells you how your body is out of 100. I know people that look at that and they see it says like 65. I’m watching a movie today. Yeah. You don’t feel good. And that that you can’t go. Those are excuses. You can’t go too far. And that to me that I don’t know. I I mean I I I like I said, it’s cool to to to get as much information as you can from a game, but but I I think at some point you have to be able to trust the players, too. And because hey, you got hit seven times tonight and we’re going to give you the day off tomorrow. Well, I didn’t even feel any of them. I I know what I mean. And like, so when you play, how many back tobacks did did Dallas have this year? I think there’s going to be a dozen. Okay. So there’s a dozen of them. So I can tell you right now, those are all days off after anyways, you know, I mean, except for, you know, except for the guys that play six minutes a night or something like that. And then as far as the travel time and guys are falling asleep at 2:00. Well, let me tell you, there’s two groups of probably about six a piece that are still playing cards when they’re playing. So, I don’t know where these, you know, if you got four guys that are sleeping, we’re not, you know, I’m just So, and a lot of that has to do with, you know, your your individual guy because I I couldn’t sleep. I I mean, you you’re just awake the the whole time and and so by the time you land, it didn’t matter if we played in Vancouver and then flew back and and landed in Dallas at 3 in the morning or 4 in the morning, you know, and you just basically stayed up for a couple hours and went to practice and then you get you kind of get it all out of you. that that’s when I think the those are the kind of things that I’d say. I mean, you got them hard travel days and and when you go home and you don’t do anything because you’re supposed to rest, you feel worse the next day. I mean, generally the second day is when it hurts the most. Kind of like a It’s usually not the first day, it’s the second day. And then my my philosophy was all well then just never let the second day catch up to you. There just isn’t going to be you just keep going. Yep. We could do a whole segment just on the sport science of it because I mean Led is totally right. Like each person’s different. Like for example, I’m never very good at sleeping on airplanes. I’m just I don’t know if I’m excited to be on a flight keyed up or whatever. I would probably have an easier time trying to fall asleep in a hotel. You should try You should fly Spirit. But yeah, right. But not Well, that you have to drug yourself, right? 12 hours. You have to sleep. But like I you also aren’t going to fall asleep in the hotel room at 11:00 that night. If you get back from the rink that fast, you’re just going to be wired and stuff. So, you’re probably sitting there going like I would go let’s just get on the plane and get home because I’m going to be awake anyway. Like a 2-hour flight, whereas somebody’s going to say like, “Hey, you’re going to get lousy sleep. Why not at least sleep from 2 to to 8 and then at least you’re not exhausted the whole next I mean, it’s it’s an imperfect science. They’re trying to do their best. Let’s let’s talk about this. We we had times, guys, that there were times when we got back from a a West Coast, you know, and and you would get home in at 4 or something like that and, you know, you didn’t play for a day or so. Uh but you’d come back at times and practice at 10 in the morning, you know, and just listen, we’re going to we’re going to get get it out of you. You know, it’s going to be it’s not going to be a good practice, but we’re just going you’re going to skate for 45 minutes. We’re going to do that. And then you go home and you you do whatever you do and and then you just, you know, you take the next day off. So I, you know, again, I I get it that there’s all the numbers and the data and all that kind of stuff and and and I think the more we tell people about it, the more you start to believe into everything it is, too. And the funny thing is is that we’re going to have to carry this over in a few minutes because there we’re still not done with the topics. But that’s good. Every pro I mean, Les was talking about not feeling your best, right? There are going to be days and probably the as the season goes along more days you don’t feel your best than than you do that you have to find a way to perform. That’s part of being a pro is can you execute to near your best level even when you wake up or feel less than 100%. And of course all the routine the the game day routine is all about a player trying to figure out what things did I do that made me feel good in that game. Oh, I did this today. I’m going to incorporate that in my routine and try to, you know, like if you have one of those games where you’re like, I felt amazing, you’re just going to try to replicate that. And it doesn’t always work, but to the point that Sam made about the sleep patterns and if if you wake up and it says you didn’t sleep well, is that telling you mentally you’re not no matter what you do, you’re not going to feel good. And you’ve got to be as a pro find a way to get over that even when you don’t. Yeah, that might be the good way to look at it is like I’m not looking at this saying my body’s not ready today. I’m looking at it, hey, I’m 50% today. How do I get to 75? And that’s a as you said, that’s part of being a pro and that’s a tough challenge. Leds knows it. Even today, uh, you know, as we talk a ton about the the advancements in stats and and and uh physiology and all these things that are available now also have their detriments. They have they have players thinking a little bit more sometimes than they should. And that’s how you have to get above that is when I’m at this level, how do I get to this level? Or what specific thing did I do that got me to 85% on that one day? And that’s how you get your routines. I talked to Jake Hoter last whatever it was last year about his routines. He talked about, you know, building them as he goes along. It’s because you you did one thing and you’re like, I felt really good when I did that. Add it to your thing and all of a sudden your routine becomes or hey, I played really well when I ate chicken and broccoli and so now you eat chicken and broccoli chicken and pasta like every other player in the whatever it is. Or if you had a bowl of soup today instead of a salad like LS, I know you’re more of a Star Trek guy than a Star Wars guy, but I can see you being very much like Harrison’s Ford Harrison Ford’s character Han Solo, which is, “Hey kid, never tell me the odds. Don’t tell me I can’t get it done today. I’m going to show you whether the odds are stacked against me or not. Yeah. You know, just listening to you guy, I mean, you know, for I I think we just kind of played and you knew the nights he didn’t feel good. You know, whether it was travel or, you know, two games in four days or three days, whatever it may be, but you you may have to alter your game a little bit. you know, you maybe you don’t take that that extra rush up the ice or you don’t take that extra run at a certain guy because you already know that you’re not 100% and so you just kind of manage what you had left in the tank and and I think the more the more you you talk about this and you go over it with people and you have all the the numbers and the data man I always felt like get everything out of your head except the game. Don’t be thinking about, well, you know what, they said that if I if I felt this way, I I probably should have done this. And it just to me, it ends up being reasons why I didn’t perform this particular night with with just the exception of just park it. Park it and go play. you only play 15, 17, 18 minutes a night, you know, like, and again, I’ve seen so many guys play through some some pretty incredible injuries and and it was just you you just check it out and you know, you hurt after the game. You just you get it done and you move on. All right, we’re going to break because up next, let’s talk about not only the last part of the things from the Gulletin interview I wanted to bring up, but also as it pertains to Wyatt Johnston here on the DLS Stars podcast. All right, we’ve heard it all before, but let’s do it again because DLSS Cowboys is headed to Las Vegas. Yes, we are still pushing for the DLS Stars as Lud shakes his head to crew to get to Vegas as well. I believe we’re the only team, maybe the Rangers haven’t as well, but everyone else seems to be going to Vegas. We’d like to go as well, especially when it’s not in the summer. KG be out there sweating in the 110°, but the DLS Cowboys crew is headed there in November. They’re taking over the strip for an unforgettable weekend, and you need to be there. Join us at the Cowboys take on the Las Vegas Raiders, which still sounds weird, on Monday Night Football, November 17th. This all-inclusive trip includes a three-ight stay at a luxury resort, game tickets, VIP parties, exclusive events with the DLS crew and fellow diehard fans, and much, much more. It’s going to be a good time. As I always say, Clarence will make it a good time, even if you guys are not having a good time. This is how Dallas does Vegas. So, book now at true fantra.com. Thank you, Sam. Let’s talk about game time. You know, you can get your tickets for the Dallas Cowboys trip through True Fan Travel, but for all the other games out there, you need Game Time. It’s very simple. Download the Game Time app or go to their website, gametime.co, and you can get great deals on sporting events, concerts, theater, comedy shows. It’s all parts of the entertainment gamut. And they do so with some really fantastic offers. And let me tell you, you do not want to miss out on things like Well, what about the Oh, apparently they deleted half of that stuff. I gotta move that back. How about last minute tickets and zone deals? Easy to find NHL tickets. You can even zone deals. You can pick a section and they will give you the specific seats, but at a discount or lowest price guaranteed. Even if you find something better, they will give you 100% of 110% of the money. Blah blah blah. Take the guess work out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the game. Yeah, please send this to the group. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use the code DLS for $20 off your first purchase. Again, create an account. Redeem code DLS for $20 off. Terms apply. Download Game Time today. Delete this one. What time is it, Sam? Time for a better ad to read. Game time. I go to read it season to start. We need the season to start. I kid you not, Luds. The branded Bills was in the middle of It was like It just I found it. It’s just all over the place. Probably trying to copy and paste it. I don’t know what was going on in there, but it was an absolute mess. So, all right. You guys just keep making me look good. Well, we’re here for it. Okay. So, the last thing I wanted to bring up at this, it wasn’t everything in the interview, but it was interesting. He was talking about, there’s two parts. One is how Edmonton attacked the Stars, and then the second one is about the Stars current roster construction. Hikah asked Gullitson about what they did with Edmonton and if there’s something that the Stars need to change because of that, and I thought the answers were really fascinating. Gullison said with the Oilers, they limited the Dallas rush and and they were on our we were on our details all of the time. Don’t let them tip. Limit their chances around the net. So, we’ll look at doing those things better here, finding ways to get around what other teams are doing. He said, “What I but really what I like to do and what we did in Edmonton is we were able to adapt and create offense against different defenses. How do we create offense against Edmonton? how do we create offense against Vegas? And he says, “You have to be able to adapt and work on that in the regular season, Luds, to get ready for the playoffs.” But the thing that he said more than anything else, aides from style and tactics, we were relentless on the details, I really do believe this was our biggest reason for success against Dallas. I think it’s called adjustments. We talk about this in playoffs all the time. What did what did Pete Dbor say about how Dallas creates their offense? We’re an off the- rush team. Well, not not that you need not say that out loud, but the other 30 teams know you’re a rush team, right? So, what you do, the same thing I talk about with power plays. And if you see a certain power play that is predominantly working the same entry, the same setup as penalty killers, you take it away. Take plan A away and make him go to plan B. So there were, it was not this past season, the season before we were watching, I was sitting upstairs and watching the Edmonton series and I had text one of our old coaches and I said, “Every time Dallas gets the This is exactly what Gully’s talking about. Every time I see Dallas gets the puck and they start breaking down the left wing side and they’re they’re getting from their blue line now they’re getting to the neutral zone very to the red line. Very rarely do you ever see the left defenseman, another far side defenseman come straight across the ice. They would do that every single time and they would just they would take everything away on their rush. They already picked that up from last year. So and I I said to Wills I said alls we need to do is now as soon as you feel somebody this is what they do. In other words, what they’re they’re emptying the oppos the opposite side of the ice. They’re emptying it out. There’s nobody there for a certain period of time. So, when that left winger, for instance, for Dallas gets the puck and you have their left defenseman coming across ice, you have to send your right defenseman up on the play, get them up to center ice on the far board. Just throw the puck over into that area. Those are the kind of adjustments that you need to make. And so, what what Gully’s talking about is all these things as you’re taking away rushes, you’re taking away uh an entry on the power play. How many times have we we talked about it just us sitting in here the last year about the entries that Dallas has had on their power play and they use the same one every single time. Now, when it works, it looks beautiful. But you, we’ve seen so many teams that go, “Well, here’s what they’re doing. We’re just going to stand up here and we’re going to force them and we kind of spread out our other two guys because all they do is they kick it to one side or the other.” They never put it in deep, but then we’d see the second power play group sometimes put it in deep, then they recover the pucks. So, all those little things that that I’m talking about there is exactly what Gully’s looking at. And he’s going to say, “We’re gonna we’re going to spot certain things that we can do to change the flow and the touches and the entries and all these kind of things.” And I think Gully said he’s got maybe three different kinds of way he wants to play in the Done. Great. Have five different ways to play in the Done. That way, all of a sudden, you can take away something that that offensive that team is doing on their offensive entries or what they do with cycles, but we’re not going to let them cycle the puck. or we’re going to say, “Listen, they’ve got four poor left wingers, okay? Poor than the rest of the team.” Well, we’re going to make sure in the neutral zone that those are the four guys that enter the zone. We’re not going to let their best players enter the zone. All those little kind of things is what what you’re looking to do. And I think the more you do that through 82 games and be able to adjust to one or two or three different systems that you have, the quicker that they’ll get it in the playoffs. the answers that Gully followed up with things that he’s going to focus on. He wants to get a little bit more from Maverick Borg or can I get a little bit more from Maverick Bourc from Niels Lungquist. Can I help Liam Bishell or Wyatt Johnson? He thought that the growth would be coming from the younger guys getting better, which there’s the potential, right? The older guys, great players, there’s not much difference from what they’ve been to what they could be this year, right? They they’ve either reached their ceilings or they’re close to it. So, he sees more potential there for internal growth. And I thought the line of the other thing in regards is young players, young guys, they bring juice, they bring energy. They’re young, they’re hungry, they can give us fuel. Yeah. And the we’ve talked a bunch about the the roster spots that are kind of available, right, for for guys like Bourke, for guys like Ritz Kovian or or players that can fill in that are younger guys that basically have to help. If they don’t fill in those spots, then the stars are going to have to go out and get help to do it. So, it’s a huge opportunity for these guys. And I like I think Golitin said it in this I forget if it was this or another article he talked about in Edmonton all the tactics all the things Ledge just went through the biggest thing he noticed was the players decided what they had to do. This was in this Yeah. Like the players themselves and I know Luds loves that because he talks about it’s a mentality. It’s a it’s an approach. It’s the way you play the game. It wasn’t the coaches dictating. It was the players. You can do all the systems you want but when you go out there Florida Panthers I keep bringing them up but they’re two time champions. you have to they play with an edge. That’s their style. It’s not like Paul Maurice is sitting there going, “Hey, when that guy does that, you should do this.” It’s just the way they play the game. And for for Dallas, that mentality can go like 80% of the way. The tactics are what fills in the gaps after that. It’s the It’s the idea that we have to do this. We have to defend this way in front of our net or we’re not going to have success. We have to play this way on the forche or we’re not going to have success. And that comes with that energy from the young guys. Maverick Bourke plays that way. Maverick Bourke did that when he was in. He had great success at it. That’s the mentality they need to take. And then the other thing that stood out to me and going back to what Led was just talking about, he he you mentioned taking away plan A so they have to go to plan B. That was the biggest thing that we didn’t see from Dallas last year was that when they when Edmonton or or Winnipeg or Colorado, anyone took away what they wanted to do, the game just felt like I mean we looked at each other watching some of these road games and it just kind of felt like Stars don’t have it tonight. And you can’t you can’t have that. You can’t you can’t just look at it regular season or playoffs. You can’t just go into a game and and feel good and all of a sudden the team takes away your your rush or your one type of rush style and you go, “Oh, well I they’re just playing really well tonight or their goalie is locking it down or whatever the excuse might be.” You have to have layers to your game. And I think Goldson is just he’s saying all the right things and he has the backup of his team in Edmonton doing exactly that on both ends. I’m really excited to see how that develops because from all the stuff we’re talking about, he he sees the holes that we saw, right? We talked all year about certain things, especially Luds, obviously with specifically with some defensive uh flaws. He’s talking about the way he’s talking sounds like he sees those and he’s making adjustments to better those areas. It’s funny you bring that up, Luds. I want to ask you about this. Uh, Hikah asked Gully about the challenges of wings/centers compliments and saying it doesn’t seem like a perfect lineup. We’ve talked about who’s going to play on the left with Duchain and Sean if they keep that pair, that duo together. And his answer was that there really are no perfect lineups in the NHL or rosters. He said, “You have to find a way.” He goes, “I love the centers. I love how it’s built up the middle. I love when you have extra centers because centers can play wing. left side, right side doesn’t matter to me. He said that about defense to Shawn last week. And he said, “I like guys who want to play on their off wing because there’s an ability to possess pucks a little more. I really like the lineup. I like the D. There’s some potential for some good pairings there.” That gives you the idea that he’s not necessarily married to the idea that your left wingers have to be left shots. Yeah. Well, I I think there there are some coaches and and this this is a few years ago. I heard a couple coach talking. They would like to have all of their wingers play the offsides. They’re offside. And and I mean, when you think about it, you know, there’s times when you’re in the offensive zone and people are trying to rim pucks out and when you’re on your offside, you can pick up those pucks off the wall, you can keep them in a little bit easier and, you know, and so there there’s different things and exit exiting the zone and all these other kind of things that they were looking at, you know, but you have to, you know, not I I don’t think kids are trained to play their off sides as much anymore. the Europeans are. I mean, you talk about the Europeans, it just seems, you know, but again, I think Europeans can get away with it a little bit easier because there’s more ice and it’s not as physical of a game. So, maybe it it trends easier that way. But, but I agree. I mean, I think if you can find players that can play out of position, let them go. Let them do it. And I and I do agree because anytime that you can have a a right-handed shot, I know that I have to play if I’m a if I’m a left-handed defenseman and and I’ve got a a left winger coming down on my side, which would typically be a right winger. When he gets across the blue line and if I give him too much now, when he takes one step to the middle of the ice, he’s got a better shooting angle because he’s on board versus, you know, with his puck, the the stick, everything over on the wall. So there there’s there’s a lot of positive things to do that, but you’ve got to be able to find the right the right players that can do that, you know. So, and and he’s right about the the wingers. I mean, and there’s a reason that Babcock when when they went to the Olympics years ago, um you know, they they picked up so many centermen. They they picked they had something like eight centermen on the team, and it’s because they can play all over the ice, you know, and they’re smart. They play well in their own zone. They’re the typically the guys that play down low in in the D zone, so they know how to play defensively. You just and and for wingers, for the most part, they’re a little more active than they used to be, but for the most part, wingers come back in the zone, they post up and get on the wall and get ready for a breakup. Centerman’s got to get down low and they’ve got to interact with the defenseman. They got to look around. They got to not in Dallas’s system, but but they got to look around. They pick up people coming in different areas of the ice. Stay in front of the net as a winger. Yeah. Yeah. They they play D. That’s what happens. And the D play wingers. So, um, when they for checking out the defenseman, the other. Um, anyway, so yeah, I I don’t disagree with any of that kind of stuff. I I I think it’d be nice to be able to have players that can play all over the ice. And again, it’s harder to play against, you know, when you got guys changing sides and they’re flipping and flopping and everything’s all over the place. So, that’s kind of a line from a Seinfeld episode, too. I think it was flopping or something like that. Or was that George? I think it was George. George was flipping and flopping. Yeah. No, I think it was Kramer. Anyway, uh, Luds, I just curious going off that, if you’re looking at the roster right now, who are your top targets or players that you see could do that, you know, like who who if they need a left wing, which as now they do, but it could be the other side, too. Who are the guys you look at that would stand out to you that could fit well on a wing? Well, there’s not a lot for me. I think Wyatt can I think Wyatt can can play all over the place. Um, and I know somebody’s going to say they’re going to talk about Matt Duchain. I just think Matt Duchain does all of his best work as a lefty comes down the right side. He just feels more comfortable. I think Tyler Sean can do it. I don’t Yeah, but again, we have to remember Tyler Sean’s not 25 and Duchain’s not 26. So, it it’s hard and and those guys have playing been playing certain sides of the ice and areas of the ice and gravitating to where they do their best work for a long time. So to take one of those guys and move him to the other side on a a steady diet, you know, I started thinking about that and you know why why why is Mckel why was Granlin such a good fit with hints and Ratman? What do you guys think? Why do you think style? What do you mean by style? I think because he was the guy that could get into the corners, but he he had the skill to play with two top end guys, but he’s also able to be I think he was honestly a more skilled and smaller version of Mason Marchment. What he did with Duchain and Sean, which is allow those creative players to do their thing by not only helping it, but also crashing the net, getting in on the forche, and doing some of the dirty work, albeit with a high level of skill. Okay. So, he was kind of the responsible conscience of the line. Agreed. Okay. Is that Jason Robertson playing there in Male Granlin’s spot? He’s a different style player in that regard. It’s not that he disregards his defensive duties, but he may not always be the first guy back like Granland was. That’s that’s the point is that I think that those two guys, meaning Rupe and Mo, were able to kind of freewheel and do their thing because they knew that somebody was going to be back there, meaning Granland. How many times you watch Granland curl up over the top and he’s that high guy all the time coming back and helping his defenseman, right? So, I started thinking like, wouldn’t Robo be a better fit with Duchain and Sean? I to me, who’s the high guy there? I’m not saying that that’s the fix, but it doesn’t solve the spot up on, you know, on the left wing up there. But then I’m like, well, I look at Sam Steel. Sam Steel is a physical guy. He can be responsible guy. He plays on that fourth line. He kills penalties, but he doesn’t have the offensive side probably as Granlin did, right? I mean, he’s not Maybe. Yeah, I think he’s got more than people give him credit for. Yeah, it’s hard to say because he probably hasn’t gotten a fair enough chance to get a steady diet to play with a couple and see what he does. But I’m looking for those two guys to do what they do and how do who’s the next best Granland on this team, but how do you take a honestly how do you take a centerman that’s on the fourth line and then move them up to a top left winger? You know, I don’t I’m not saying that that’s the but I think I I guess I was thinking more about Robo and and I was thinking about Robo and I was thinking about Granland. So, when those other two guys, they play and they know that there’s always somebody back there. They always know that somebody’s got my back and and again, this is no knock on on Robo. But then I’m thinking, well, it seems to me like Robo would fit in better with, you know, with Tyler and and with Duchine, the way that Duchain can get up and set people up and Tyler can read off of everybody. It doesn’t solve the problem of who plays up there. No. What about Wyatt Johnson up there? the only guy there then I mean if you’re talking about moving if you’re I don’t even know if it’s going to happen if steel is going to get a chance on that second line what’s the difference he plays on the first line with them other two guys and and you know probably not there could be a lot of there could be a lot of searching you know for that and it’s amazing how one one empty spot which is that number two left winger spot just kind of discombobulates a bunch of things here talk about Wyatt Johnson next here on the DLS Stars podcast. But first, let’s talk about being a diehard. As I mentioned at the top of the show, $36 Dallas Cowboys and NFL training camp introductory offer is on right now. Use that QR code. Look at the discount. Huge. More than 50% off the regular annual price. $36 for an entire year. If you’ve never signed up to be a diehard, you do that. What do you get? Well, of course, you get a free t-shirt by signing up to be a diehard. The Dallas collection is the latest merch drop. So you could get the Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura one. That’s always fun. There’s Big Tex and the Corn Dogs. The creepy mascot one. You name it, they’re there. You can do that. They’re also the regular ones, whether it’s the DLSS flags, the one that Sam was wearing yesterday, which was defending the green, I think. Lots of different choices. And of course, all the ones we trotted out at the end of the season and into the playoffs for the Stars, whether it be the Finnish Mafia, the Otter shirt, the captain, which I was wearing yesterday, the Wyatt Johnston 16bit bet, all those are available. So, you sign up to be a diehard, you get a free shirt, then you get 20% off merchandise. So, get more than one shirt, but you can save money in the process. Then you get 20% off events and you use the dieh hard status to be able to save money on the Dallas Cowboys trip. If you want to go to Vegas and see the Cowboys play the Raiders in November at Monday Night Football, what a great way to sort of compile some discounts and save more money. You get Sam’s writing, you get Sean’s writing, that’s for Stars, Tim Kada with the Mavericks, you get Clarence Hill who’s in Oxnard right now covering the Cowboys training camp. his writing. You get Jeff Wilson with the Rangers are suddenly on the cusp of a playoff spot in the American League. All sorts of great things going on with DLSS. And don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter. It’s free. Go to our website alldls.com. Put your email in. You don’t have to be a diehard to sign up, but if you do, you’ll get an email every morning with the latest from DLLS. All right, Luds. This is our opportunity to give you a chance to weigh in on our big discussion yesterday. What do you think when you ponder Wyatt Johnston’s 2025 playoff performance? what was going on with him compared to the playoff before or even as we highlighted yesterday the second half of last year’s regular season where he was tied for fifth most in goals and one of the top scorers for about 50 games from Christmas till the end of the regular season. Well, maybe last year had something to do with this year because he arrived last year. he put himself on the map last year and you know and maybe you pay a little bit more of attention to him. You know, again, are you going to circle certain people on a on a board when you get to the playoffs or you get to regular season game? Can’t let this guy do this and this guy, you know, you I I think there’s just there’s more awareness to to Wyatt being on the ice now and deservedly so. I mean, we’ve seen what he can do. um you know and I you know that I don’t has Wyatt had the two guys to play with you know I mean does he have the support on the right side and the left side when Wyatt go Johnson goes out because again if you can with who he’s playing with who and sometimes you don’t know who he’s playing with I don’t think he knows who he’s playing with sometimes and and it’s I think if you if you would ask that line that we just talked about with you know with with hints and raton and granland last year um It’s probably fun coming to the rink for those three guys because they they don’t even have to look. They know they’re playing together. They’re going to talk all the time. They come to the rink. They’re not thinking about anything but what they’re going to do with the other two guys. And and Wyatt’s case now, I mean, he’s he’s just gonna And you know what? The number that he gets paid, too. That that kind of that sometimes that hurts a guy, too. If you don’t know a lot about him, but he’s making seven or eight million, whatever he’s making. Well, that kid must be pretty good. We better we better keep an eye on this guy, you know? And then you go ahead and you, god forbid, if you see him walking into the rink, you know, he’s not like he’s Miko Renon walking into the rink. You’re like, “Okay, well, I’m not letting this little kid skate around in front of, you know, in front of the net. We’re going to make it more difficult on them.” So, I I think it could be a number of things. I I I just think the Wyatt’s the kind of guy, you know, again, depending on they’re going to have to figure something out, right, with their with their 12 guys. I don’t think they’re there yet. Um, it’s not easy finding that that 12th guy, which might be your sixth guy, but I I would be taking wide and I’d be moving him around a lot, you know, and again, just kind of play with it throughout the regular season. And, you know, can he play on the off side on the top? Can and can he can he slide over? Can he play center and move hints over? I mean, just play with Wyatt during the year because I think there’s just there’s so many places that if Wyatt gets a dose of that kind of stuff and and make him play against I mean, get him out there, get him in matchups, get him to play against the best players. Do you think it makes more sense to ask Ro to play wing than Matt Duchain? I don’t know if either one of them should. I I just The only thing for me if you if you go to to Matt about it, Matt’s been playing center for a long time. You know what I mean? He’s pretty good at center and that’s what he does. And and he like I said where I think his strength is and how he is so good with whoever the two guys he plays with is when he gets to over to the right side of the ice. He makes so many great plays there. And not only that, when he can’t find a play to make when he gets over there, he will see it and he’ll take it to the net and he makes something happen going to the net there. I just don’t see a lot of that happening. It doesn’t happen when he gets to the left side. I don’t think he even tries to get to the left side. I think the only time he goes to the left side is very Let’s Let’s see what happened in the Edmonton series, guys. Did we see Matt Duchain on the left hand side a lot coming into the offensive zone? Yes, we did. And that might have to do with that left defenseman for him, making sure that they pushed him that way. That’s what Gully’s talking about. You take and you take away their most dangerous area that they are and they forced him to go to that other side of the ice. So, I just don’t know if if taking that guy I think it’s just easier with a younger player that that can adjust and if you’re going to see something he’s got more time and and now you’re trying to take a player that’s been doing something for 30 plus years and and trying to do something different with him. I I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Matt play left. I’ve never seen him play a wing, but I I know I don’t watch every single game he’s played. Um, but I I you know, there there’s guys that I think you can play with on this team, but I I keep going back and, you know, I sit there and I look at I’m like, man, they’re just they’re missing a couple guys here and and it’s not Okay, so let me ask you this because I I agree with you and I think that the Stars strength is their center depth and I think they’re a better team with hints, Duchaine, Johnston, and then Fox or Steel, whoever you pick on the fourth line. I think they’re better. So, if you have duos, which is Hitch’s favorite thing to talk about as far as building a lineup, that’s I think one of the things the stars have to decide. Is it Johnston and Jamie Ben? Is it Johnson and Mor? Who’s the duo for Wyatt? Well, Wyatt does not have a winger. That that is his his soulmate. Hence, Ratman, Duchain Sean, Steel Blackwell. You think it could be Wyatt and Robo and then plug in the other thirds on the other three? Yes, that’s why I say that. That’s why I think because I was looking at yesterday and I was driving just playing around. I I’m thinking again that’s old school mentality is having the two and then find somebody that compliments those two guys. That’s why I think that if you’re trying to force I don’t know if you should force Robo onto that line when maybe the right spot is that number two left side for Wyatt to have that option you know right there. I I I don’t know but it’s or you know and again that that’s just me and and but again maybe it is playing with Duchain you know maybe it’s Duchain and but you have Tyler and Sag and I just I just think that Robo is such a a shooter and you know he wants the puck he wants to shoot the puck so get him there. I understand playing with Rantinon because Ranton is more of a passer than he is probably a shooter and he is a great passer. So that might be why you’d say, “Well, let’s get Robo there because he’s one of the best passers in in the league.” So that that that maybe that’s what they’re thinking. I just don’t know if it’s a it’s a good fit. But again, if they’re going to put up, you know, they’re all going to end up with 80 or 90 points on that line, you hard to argue with it, right? So, um it’s just it’s not there. It’s just more more of the the duos. And I think I think that’s what Wyatt’s missing. I I think he’s missing a buddy that he’s going to look over either to his left or right and know that it’s always him and be able to build that that chemistry for him from game to game to game to game. Yeah, Luds, I was just writing down some lines before and I was going to ask this right before the previous break when you were talking about um the top line. What what would you say to Wyatt Johnston with Hinsson Raton and as you just mentioned it Robertson with Duchain and Sean then some combination of you know Beck Steelbour Ben Foxa Blackwell as your bottom six. Do you think Wy can be putting Wyatt on his off side then? I would be putting Wyatt on his left side. Yep. Yeah. And see that for me, listen, and thinking back of Wyatt playing, Wyatt comes off of the wall on the left side and he gets to the middle of the ice and he he’s got quick hands, you know, he’s like that little water bug. Maybe that is a good spot for him. I I don’t I haven’t seen enough that says he can be there, but you know, again, that that line just becomes so one-dimensional for me. I I think you want I don’t know. I think you want a little weight on that line. And I I don’t know, you know, again, I mean, a physical presence, but that that the game has changed a little bit that way, too. So, and isn’t isn’t Wyatt so good at finding those holes in that space? We talked about it on yesterday’s show about how in the playoffs he wasn’t, but normally he gets to this the right spots at the right time. You got a guy like Roa Hint driving who drives the defense off and a guy like Ranton who not only wins battles, but is an incredible passer. I just see Wyatt finding little areas on the left side or in the middle and getting those passes from those two guys. I I just think it could work. Yeah. and and well there you go about having a couple wingers that play their off sides, right? You know, so I again I think isn’t didn’t Gully have that comment? We’re gonna play with things. We’re going to see where people go. So I would have to think if if the Three Stooges here are talking about Wyatt playing there that he’s probably their coaching staff has already tinkered with that because Yeah. If we can come up with it, they’ve probably thought of it. Yeah. Well, that’s what I’m saying is, but you you still you still are looking that you’ve got Wyatt’s got to be one of your top five, four, five, three, I don’t know what number you guys want to say of forwards. So, you have to be able to play that kid. And again, he comes out, he comes out every game or almost every game until Randon got here as being your number one forward when it comes to minutes, right? Yes. So, but is he playing with the right people every time to give him the best chance to, you know, extend where he can go offensively? So yeah, I I I I think when you got a new coach coming in, um there’s going to be experiments going on and Gully’s going to I mean again that is you can have as long as you got your systems in place and everybody knows what the systems are, how you’re going to play and everybody’s on the same page, you can move people around and again Wyatt’s Wyatt’s a player that’s got hockey sense, right? We know that he’s got hockey sense. So, if you want guys to play on their offside or play out of position, you’re better off having the guys that have the the high hockey IQ than guys like me. That’s a perfect way to sign off for today. We didn’t get to a couple of segments, which is fine because we got the rest of the summer, but the other 31 starts tomorrow. Leds will be in studio again, which we haven’t done since the draft, Luds, so that’ll bring back some some horrible memories of five hours on the show, but we will have John Walton from the Washington Capitals. I know that will be a lot of fun, a great conversation. We’re going to do the Calgary Flames on Thursday with a couple of different guests for a couple segments each. And we’ll just start chipping away as we talk about how they see the Stars from another perspective, what their seasons and what their off seasonasons are like. And suddenly it’ll be September. We’ll be talking training camp. For Craig Lewig, for Sam Nestler, for Elijah Smith, our producer, I’m Owen Newkerk. Thanks for joining us today. See you tomorrow at 1:00 Central time. A little earlier tomorrow right here on DLS. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Today we break down a Q&A Mike Heika produced with new Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan for the Dallas Stars website. The interview provides even more insights into how Gulutzan plans to operate things in Dallas for the 2025-26 season. Also, Luds wasn’t on Monday’s show, so we give him the opportunity to weigh in on the Wyatt Johnston conversation. Plus, we discuss The Athletic’s annual TV broadcast rankings and some fun/dramatic NHL News & Notes: Yegor Chinakhov has a real beef with Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason and the Florida Panthers brought the Stanley Cup to a Coldplay concert in Miam at Hard Rock Stadium.

00:00 – Intro
5:30 – DECIPHERING MORE DETAILS ON HOW GLEN GULUTZAN PLANS TO COACH THE DALLAS STARS IN 2025-26
16:20 – MORE DECIPHERING
50:00 – ASK LUDS: WE LET CRAIG LUDWIG WEIGH IN ON OUR MONDAY DISCUSSION ABOUT WYATT JOHNSTON’S 2025 PLAYOFFS.

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