Winnipeg Jets at Utah Mammoth tonight | WST Sunday Live
Good morning everyone and welcome in to another edition of WST Sunday live. My name is Carter Rabchack. In a moment, I’ll be joined by Liz Hood. And today, we’re going to chat all things Winnipeg Jets, the week that they’ve had heading into the holiday break. And it’s a game day edition of WSG Sunday Live as they take on the Utah Mammoth today to close out not only their three-game road trip, but their preh holiday break schedule coming up here. Um, and funny enough, uh, and I’ll get Lissa’s thoughts on this, they are the only team in the entire National Hockey League that is off starting today. Every other team plays either Monday or Tuesday. Some teams play both. The Winnipeg Jets are the only ones that are going to get that extra rest for Monday and Tuesday uh going into the holiday break. So, they wrap up their schedule today. Another Central Division opponent, another road game against the Utah Mammoth. Like I said, we’re going to check chat about the week that was. Um was great to see the photos of everyone at Boston Pizza on Wednesday. As maybe Hus mentioned on the show and I was texting list that day. I felt so sick. Uh so decided to stay home, but was very very jealous of all of you that had a great time at Boston Pizza. The Jets didn’t really do you any favors, but we’ll have to look into January and hope we can do that again and hopefully I can make it that time. But great to see all of those photos there Wednesday at Boston Pizza. Um and on today’s show, we’re going to get get into trending up down burning questions, all of those things. and our Chuds Powersports Powerpollic recently, so we’re going we’re branching out. And our Chud’s Powersports PowerPole is going to be listen top five holiday treats. And I think the chat is really going to enjoy that. Put together our lists last night, so that’ll be great. And shout out to Chuds. Um again, the winter is fully fully here. if you weren’t sure. I say that almost every Sunday, but the snow we got over the past couple of days, the Chuds family definitely fired up uh as it’s definitely snowmobile season now. But great to see everyone here on this Sunday morning. And Liz Hood, great to see you. How are you doing on this Sunday morning? >> I’m great. It’s what takes you 10 minutes to get me in here. I’ve been sitting just waiting >> to explain my absence from Wednesday at BP Liz. >> Yeah, you know what? That’s one less person to have their name in the draw to win the jersey that I won. So, I will take your absence um in in a heartbeat. But uh I’m I’m doing well this morning. How are you? >> I’m doing well. Doing well. Um you go and look at the standings in the National Hockey League. I prefer not personally. >> I’m not doing well. Do we want to start there this morning? >> Might as well. Yeah. Let’s jump right into it. >> Rip the band-aid off. We were going to talk about Friday’s game against the ABS, but like they lost. It was a close game. Colorado’s really good. The Jets aren’t. Follow for more. We did a We did a full postgame show. So, if you want uh some more detailed thoughts, you can go check that out. But, let me find the NHL hockey standings here. As last night, a few of the bottom feeders in the NHL picked up some wins and the Winnipeg Jets find themselves tied for last place with the Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks 32 points. They’re the worst team in the NHL since the start of November. Um, as we know, we’ve documented that throughout the past couple of weeks. I’m sure they’re one of the worst teams in December as well. But listen, I mean, I’ve said this a few times on this show throughout the season, but if you told me, you know, Mark Shaley, Kyle Connor would be having career years or we’re close to it with career highs and Ardi and Hellbuck would be playing well and Morrisy would be a lock for Team Canada and playing, you know, very good hockey himself, I wouldn’t have envisioned a scenario where they were in the spot that they’re in and that’s tied for last in the entire National Hockey League. I think the thing that’s so strange about it is that I just I remember how many I don’t know if it’s interviews or things that I would do last year where people would want one hit shots on why are the Winnipeg Jets so good, why are the Winnipeg Jets so good, that sort of stuff. And and I feel like a huge part of what I would often talk about was the whole concept of the success by committee. Um because at the end of the day last year if you would asked me if Winnipeg’s top players, especially up front, could hang with every other team’s top players. I was like, it’s not setting them over the edge. You know, Mark Shley isn’t miles and miles better than the top center of every team they’re going to run into in the playoffs and all that sort of stuff. But it was the depth. There was a little bit of of of push from every kind of line. And there was some really interesting parts of all of the different groupings that put out on the ice, different value propositions, different skill sets, and and it entirely was success by committee. Yes, they had the VZNA goalender behind them backstopping them, right? And that’s that’s something that raises your floor significantly as we’ve spoken about, but it wasn’t Mark Shley is having one of the best years of his career. Kyle Connor just signed a massive extension and is, you know, shooting the lights out, all this sort of stuff. And they were so much better. Well, obviously they were so much better. They quite literally could not have a larger margin between where they were at last year and where they’re at this year. And it literally doesn’t get any different than that, right? So >> I that’s what’s so baffling to me about it. And you know, we talked about this with Demetri. And a huge thing that has been a huge part of kind of the discourse I’ve been a part of is I don’t have a lot of time for the Nicola’s excuse to be honest with you. Because I think that at the end of the day, like that was one guy. That is one guy. And I understand it’s a good guy. I understand it’s a good guy, but one guy, any one guy cannot move you from one to 32. >> Yeah, there’s there’s a lot of things that kind of spilled into what I just said there, but I just think it’s it’s staggering knowing that such a big part of their success last year is quite literally their downfall this year. >> Mhm. 100%. Um, and look, I’m I got the wild card standings up here. Utah Mammoth first team out uh at 37 points or tied four uh but one more game played over the San Jose Sharks at 37 points. So the state of the league is very weird where the Winnipeg Jets are tied for last but they’re also five points out of a playoff spot. But I think a great example of you know people will look at that and say oh they’re five points out of a playoff spot so so no big deal. But you go look in the East, you look at the Buffalo Sabres. The Buffalo Sabres are 73 and0 in their last 10 and have won five straight games and they have made zero push in the East. They’re they’re still yeah five points away. Still eighth in the East. You want to know why? Because they have to leaprog like seven different teams. Like it’s it’s just you’re in such a hole. Yes, you only have five points and a couple wins will get you closer for sure, but it’s uh it’s it’s a tough hill to climb and you got to leapfrog all of these teams in the process, right? And Utah’s one of those teams. So, today’s game, definitely an important one for the Winnipeg Jets if they want to get back into that playoff conversation and kind of salvage a terrible two months. Uh you can’t do that with one game. You’ll have to do that with sustained success coming out of the break. But today’s game against Utah, Central Division again, if the Jets goal is to cuz the top three of the division is out of the question. They are what is that 17 points behind Minnesota for the three seed. Um so it’s wild card or bust for this team if they’re going to make the playoffs and Utah’s one of those teams vying for it. Uh and we’ll see what they’re able to do today. Listen to the Jets lines for today. They did practice yesterday in Utah. very snazzy new practice facility over there for the Mammoth as they, you know, start a new franchise. Um, and guess who gets the spin on the top line? Our guy, Gustav Nyquist, our guy list. No, I’m kidding. Uh, Connor Shely, Nyquist is the top line. Perfetti, Nomestico, Valardi is the second line. Baron Lowry, I follow the third line. And then the fourth line, Neidarider, Taves, and Pearson with Cole Keepy being the extra. On defense, uh, no changes to the top four. Morsey Dlo Sanber Punk and then the third pair is Stanley Miller with Flurry and Shen being the extra pairing. And then we’re expecting Connor Hellbuck to get the start unconfirmed. Who knows? Um with with it being the last game going into the break and all of those things. And these lines in in and of itself are unconfirmed. It’s just how they practiced yesterday. So, we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t think they’re having a morning skate. I think they’re just going straight into the game. So, we’ll have to see with warm-ups if these lines that we saw in practice yesterday from Mitch Clinton and Mike McIntyre there on the road do hold for the game. What do you what do you think list Gustav Nyquist topline Gustav Nyquist just as we >> I want to throw back to you first though just and you don’t have to give a full explanation who just like pulse check how do you feel about these? Do you like these or no? >> I I’ve been of an answer it. No, it’s yes or no. I’d go yes to start, but like that’s what we’re dealing with, you know, almost like okay, I’ll take it, I guess. But I I’ve been saying for weeks they need to split up Conor and Sha and they still haven’t. And >> so I have multiple thoughts about all of these lines. >> Gust on the top line is just objectively funny. He had a good game. He hit he had a good game Friday against the Colorado Avalanche, you know, with the slap pass to Mark Shley on the power play and made a few nice plays. saw that chemistry and said immediately 20 minutes a night get ready to learn it. Yeah. No, I think that look >> at excited. Absolutely. And I’m excited about the perspective of that second line because I think that look and I’m about to make a crazy comparison that’s so insane. Um, but I remember last year in the playoffs, you’re talking about, and I’ve given this example a couple times, but every single time Connor Halbuck had like a little bit of a rough game, which happened a lot when they were playing in St. Louis, the conversation around the community was always like, should Eric Comry start next game kind of thing. And my opinion was always, will starting Eric Comry in the next game give you a better chance of winning said game? Honestly, maybe with how Connor Halabuk has been playing d whatever how things are going with the team when Conor Halbuck’s in net maybe. But the goal is to win a Stanley Cup and you’re not going to win a Stanley Cup with Eric Comry starting games. You’re going to shoot Connor Halbuk’s confidence. You’re going to screw the dynamics of the team. All these different things. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it. Now, last game, Culver Fighting. I’m not comparing Cobra Fetty to Conor Hellbuck, but I’m about to. I think this team fully understands that they like they want to win. They’re not giving up yet. The players, the coaching staff, like this is not throwing the white flag territory for them yet. Like they’re not mentally there yet. And I think they know deep down that with how many players are not producing as well as they could, whatever. There are certain guys that you need to prioritize getting going more than others. this team right now, if they’re going to start getting better, it has to be with guys like Cole Perfetti starting to do a little bit more. You’re not going to do it without them. You’re seeing what’s happening with them not playing well. And so, what you need to do is pick the guys who have the most potential to actually have an impact on this lineup. And I’m sorry, it’s not a Tanner Pearson or whatever. So, I think that putting a guy like Valardi with Perfetti to try and like prioritize just getting a little bit of something going there like I like that. I like that a lot. And I think that that puts Gbervetti in a little bit of a better position to succeed. Like he’s been getting more flack than Vladimasov has in my opinion. And we know how the Winnipeg Jets drive their offense. Everything lives and dies by the center of your line. And so you can often times if you feel like pinning blame on someone if a winger is not doing well, oftentimes you’re allowed to look at the center and see what the center is doing. That’s just the nature of the beast with Winnipeg Jets hockey. So I this isn’t going to help in that regard. But I think that maybe adding something to get maybe both of those players going. No, it’s not a center that’s switching up for the two of them, but it’s as high leverage of an addition to that lineup as you’re going to get. Um, so I think that that’s a really interesting look. I don’t know if it’ll stick. I highly doubt it’ll stick, but at least it’s something, right? And at least it’s something that I like more than some of the other options. It’s not Tanner Pearson getting back on the second line, all these different things. And I like Lowry staying with Baron. Uh, I don’t mind Nyquist as a secret third thing on the top line just for a quick stretch >> interested in how this is gonna go. >> Like, you know what? Whatever. Like, and and I’ve since he’s come back from injury and since he’s come back from his healthy scratches, maybe we’ll go back that far. It’s not quite as long as back to his injury. I’ve been okay with him and like goals are they could be luck based and we know that Gustav Nyquest shooting percentage has been in the doghouse since the last September but I’ve actually been okay with some of what I’ve seen from him in the ozone and like he’s had a couple looks in the penalty kill that actually make me think there might be a little bit of juice there whatever so again when your other options are Jonathan Taves and Tanner Pierce whatever like okay sure give it a shot I don’t know and if it doesn’t work break it up I don’t care but at least it’s something I don’t know. >> Yeah. And the the options that Scott Neil is working with right now is just not at the level that it was last year. And last year they were so consistent, so good up and down the lineup, all four lines that he barely ever had to change his lines as we know. And this year, like Ken Weeb on Kenny and Renie last game made the point of like, okay, Perfetti’s benched in the third period of the ABS game. You look up and down the bench after the top line goes out there and who do you tap on the shoulder? I mean, Morgan Baron had a nice short-handed goal. Um, Lowry isn’t producing offensively when you’re, you know, this is this is the situation of the game. You’re trailing by a goal. Ncov hasn’t scored in 23 games, I think it is now. Jonath has one secondary assist in 18 games. Um, Ayafollo has gotten some offensive production, but I guess you could throw him out there. Um, and again at the time the top line was Connor Shiffley Valardi. So that kind of takes away all of the offensive threats there. They’re spreading it out a little bit more. But I do think today’s game list, as as much as we want to sit here and say like, oh, none of this matters. You know, season’s over. If you want to play like the doom and gloom game, I do think today’s game is big for Cole Perfetti coming off the healthy scratch and or healthy scratch the benching in the third period of the Colorado Avalanche game. Um, got beat on the nature’s goal. uh took a penalty, a bad one against I mean it’s Kale Mar but still it’s just kind of a tickytac tripping far away from any kind of danger and then steps onto the ice for the third period coming out of the penalty box skates to the bench and that’s the only ice he saw in the third period. I do think that today with Valardi on his wing it could be kind of a bigger game per for Perfetti to get back on track because as we know he has not been great so far this season. He has one even strength goal. His goals have come against Calgary and Nashville, both on the road. Um, and he’s just, you know, going into the road trip, he had three assists in his last four games. Maybe was was, you know, heating up a little bit, but still nothing really happening there on this road trip for Cole Perfetti so far in the St. Louis game and then the Colorado game. And I think Scott Neil, you know, we’ve talked less about how like we view that. I I mean, there’s the there’s there’s the side of it of like, okay, what is happening with Perfetti has happened to 10 other guys so far this season and they haven’t been benched. So, why is Perfetti being benched? But I think we’re at the point where hopefully going forward that’s the standard kind of thing. You know, when guys aren’t producing, they’re taking bad penalties, they’re just getting sat for periods because what else can Scaril do at this at this point? He’s, you know, filtered guys in and out of the lineup. He’s changed up the the lines. And as much as I can sit here and say I want them to break up Connor and Shaley, they seem reluctant to do it. So, he just needs to start benching guys for poor performance. I think that’s kind of the next step in Scott O’Neal’s kind of plan to get this team back on track list. I don’t know what you what you think about that. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I guess the one thing I will say is that like I understand how reputation based and like all these different things the NHL is where, you know, benching Jonathan Taves, short-hifting Jonathan Taves is one thing, but like actually benching Jonathan Taves like I think there’s all these different levels of of respect or whatever you want to call it. Like some of the guys who are a little bit more established like Alexo, Vladin Muskov, Neon Nether, I don’t think are going to be subject to that same level of, you know, benching or or what have you. But the other guys >> Mhm. >> they haven’t been benched per se, but they’ve been scratched. Tanner Pearson’s been scratched. Go Keep been scratched. Christose Dyquist has been scratched. Right. So I think that there is a little bit of performance stuff, but I mean we didn’t even talk about the deep pairings. I do think it is hilarious that Wednesday I thought Luke Shen played one of his better games of the entire season and this is one of his first backtoback scratches of the year as well. He’ll sit out for a game pretty regularly. >> Colorado and Utah though to be fair. No, for sure. And like getting Colin Miller in there, I think is great, especially considering how Hayden Floyer looked in his first game back from injury on his off hand. Yes, it was a Colorado Avalanche. But I think that’s one thing, and I said this on our postgame, and I will keep saying it. It is just really ironic to be talking about like, oh yes, it’s a Colorado avalanche, you know, like all these different things and kind of using these excuses and semantics that you do when you’re a lottery level team and it’s like, okay, like this moral victory, whatever, but we’re playing against the best team in the league, whatever, so it’s okay. like this group is still wanting to take themselves very very seriously and still wanting to to compete at the highest level and you know after whatever game it would have been Ottawa on Monday it’s like okay just got to go have a good road trip with these three games okay they drop at 0 and3 this keeps happening you know you keep having these sequence of games like okay I just got to do well in these these sequence of games like at a certain point it’s like what like for what okay they went and they won this road trip and it was like they went three and0 and it’s like oh sweet okay they come back and keep laying eggs in the new year. It’s like I I don’t know. I’m not trying to sound bleak, but like >> our last episode, Sunday morning, coming out of the Washington game, we’re talking about how this could either that game could have either been the turning point or just a one game, you know, like what the hell happened that night and it’s looking more like the latter because like you said, Liz, this team will have one good game or one strong performance and I’d even throw the Colorado Avalanche game kind of kind of into that mix. Not quite the level of Washington. that was their best game of the season. But the ABS game, like they hung with the ABS, moral victory, uh got no result, right? They got no points. Um but look, like this team just can’t string together two to three good performances in a row, back-to-back 60-minute efforts, and they haven’t been able to do it for two months. And that’s why they find themselves 32nd in the National Hockey League, or tied for 32nd, I should say, uh to be accurate here on WSC Sunday Live. But yeah, this this team and and look, I I even mentioned off the top of the show with lists like Connor, Shaley, Morrisy, these guys are having career years. Valardi first year of a contract extension, he’s playing great. It just kind of speaks to and even I’d even loop into that a little bit as well. Morgan Baron having six goals and Logan Stanley having six goals. Like there’s those mini offensive breakouts happening and then just everywhere else it’s been just a little bit worse. and and Lisa has brought that up many many times on our postgame reactions where you know they’re just not getting what they used to get from Cole Perfetti and Adam Lowry and Nino Netheriter is hot and cold as he always is and when the team is really good that’s fine but in these cold stretches it it kind of gets magnified and Alex I follow offensive producing you know he’s not really a 25 goal guy so he’ll be a good forch checker but then when he fishes the puck out and passes it to a guy in the slot who is that guy receiving the puck they’re not Kyle Connor. Well, sometimes it has been cuz I has been on the top line, but just the the bottom nine even has a mini breakout happening in Morgan Baron with six goals, some of them being short-handed, but it’s still just not enough. It’s still just not good enough list. And today’s game against the Utah Mammoth is going to be another example where um let me bring up Utah’s lines. Like they don’t have Logan Culie right now. They’re missing their topline center, their superstar center. They just signed for eight years, 10 million, whatever the the final contract was. Um, and here’s their lines. Keller, Schmolz, Purka, Krauss, Hatton, Gunther, Butt, McBain, Carone, Carone, Caronei. How do you pronounce that list? Do you know? >> I I >> O’Brien Stenland Keroot is the fourth line. Sergeev, Dery, Schmidt, Marino, top four, Nate Schmidt, by the way, is what the Winnipeg Jets are facing today. Ian Cole, and then Desimony, and then it’s Vesmela, Vamela, Vanichek in Net. We’re not sure who’s starting. um for the Utah Mammoth today quite yet. >> Oh, if they know their history with the Winnipeg Jets, it should be >> they know who to start. They know who to start. Um but yeah, like I don’t even know. Is there anything that could here? Let me propose this to you, Lis. Is there anything that could happen in today’s game that could send you into the break and going into their next game Saturday against the Minnesota Wild thinking any differently about this team? >> No. because I I’ve talked about this with with lots of people before where, you know, I I’m such I’m so not fun when it comes to talking about I don’t know different teams and different things where I don’t have a good sweeping take on anything. I’m very like mushy middle and so much stuff. And you know, going into a game against Colorado, you know, someone’s like, “Oh, like how would you feel if the Jets kicked them 8 nothing tonight?” I’d be like, I don’t No, that would be a little different than if they beat Utah 8 nothing tonight. I think >> No, because I disagree, Conor, because they go when they lose. I know, but then if they go and lose the next four games, it’s like, okay, that change nothing. So, like I one game does not change my opinion on anything ever. Like, it’s just such a small sample and so many factors can be at play. and like that Washington one and something that just drives me crazy about that that game and that performance is that I know that it was Nino’s thousands game and the reigning heart trophy winners return from injury. So it’s like they really pulled themselves up by the bootstraps to to win this one and like >> where’s that effort and I don’t know if effort is the right word because you’ve talked about this. It’s not like they they look like they’re trying. I get all that sort of stuff, but >> like where is that willpower? I guess maybe is a better word to use when clearly you need those wins right now. And like I said, like you you kind of said, if they were to, you know, take this game, circle it, and it’s like, all right, this is a game that we are going to, you know, use as motivation. This is going to be a game that we’re going to use to set off on the right tone going into the holiday break, whatever. >> Do they have the the willpower to do that? I I don’t know if they do because you’d think at this point they would have selected a couple games at this point. It’s like we got to win these. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. And that the St. Louis game to me was well, okay, backing up to the middle of December, Ken Weeb wrote a very good article at the Free Press about how that four-game home stand against Dallas, Boston, the Washington game, and then Ottawa was kind of entering must-win territory. and not must win in terms of they needed to go 4-0 on the home stand, but like 3-1 or 2-1 and one and the way that they found a way to lose against Ottawa in the final game, you know, that would have been two and two, could have salvaged it a little bit. And then the St. Louis game, if we’re going back to this week and just talking about the week in general, the St. Louis game, you know, I talked about the Washington game being the maybe the turning point. The St. Louis game might have been the dagger list. you lo you you get shut out by the Blues. Like come on. And uh yeah, that that was really ugly. And then yeah, great. They they put together a better effort against the Colorado Avalanche. And we can sit here and say that if they put the effort they did against the ABS against the St. Louis Blues, they probably win that game. But that means nothing because like we’ve been saying on this show, this team is just so different game to game. Um and I got to say this, it makes our job pretty tough. Like I don’t know what to expect tonight. I don’t I I could see them win 5-1 and lose 5-1. Dead serious. >> Oh, yeah. No, for sure. I agree. And I think the thing that is just so hard and I kind of brought this up earlier. It’s just so frustrating. Like, not frustrating, but like it’s kind of exhausting like sitting here and being like, “Okay, like um what needs to happen in order to win this game, you know? You talk about the opponent, talk about this, that, whatever, and then they lose the game and then you go back to the next game and you do the same thing again.” And it’s like, “Okay, at a certain point like they literally have more losses than they do wins right now.” Like, are we going to be sitting here in game 81 where they’re the 31st team in the National Hockey League being like, “Okay, how do they win this game?” You know, it’s like I I know that that’s not what’s happening exactly right now because there’s still so much ground that teams can cover going up or down in the standings, but do you know what I mean? That it just like it feels kind of weird. like at what point and I’ve talked about this, hear me out, crazy analogy here, but something I was talking to a couple people about, I think you might have been one of them, uh, the other day was the whole idea of, you know, sports are built on moments. We become sports fans because of moments. And I was talking to someone about how like if you’re a Jets fan, I don’t know if you trade the Cole Perfetti game tying goal in game seven against the St. Louis Blues for almost anything in the world. If if you could go one to one for a Stanley Cup, obviously you lean with the ladder, but you can’t predict those sorts of things. I don’t know if you give that up for very much because those are the moments that are so special. And I was saying you could go all the way to a Stanley Cup without ever having a moment because if you win every series in five or six games and every single one of those games is by a couple of goals, there’s never a moment where you get to have that like ecstatic celebration based on a specific play on the ice. Yeah, you have it postgame or whatever, but that specific moment of a thing that you see and you react to is just so unique and so special to sports. And anyways, where I’m going with this is that you can win a Stanley Cup without her having a moment where it’s like, by God, we won the Stanley Cup. Because if you win, if you’re up 3 to2 in games and it’s game six and you’re winning 6-1 going into the third period, there’s never a moment until I know it’s until the buzzer drops, but okay, if there’s one minute left and you’re up by five goals, you know you’re winning the Stanley Cup. You know, there’s never a moment where every single person collectively that’s a part of this game, whether you’re on the team, watching it, whatever, says this team won the Stanley Cup, everyone has different barometers. And I feel like that’s where we’re going to be kind of with this team in terms of like missing the playoffs and like it being a throwaway season cuz a lot of people are not there yet. A lot of people have been there since the beginning of November. And it’s just really weird to have such differing perspectives and like levels of confidence or doubt or belief or whatever in this group right now. And I don’t know if that’s ever going to get like rectified until it’s game 82. And and either if they win their last game, they get into the playoffs. If they lose, they don’t. That’s the only way we’re ever going to kind of all be on the same page about them. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I I get it. And look, um, Hus was doing the math earlier in the week going into this road trip and coming out of the road trip. The math is is worse on what this team needs to do to get to say 95 points. I know the threshold is a little bit lower in terms of um like the playoff line in the west so far this season, but Hus was saying going into the road trip 307 and three was the record the Winnipeg Jets were going to need to go in their final 50 games to hit 95 points. Well, they’ve already dropped two regulation games from that with St. Louis and Colorado. So now it’s 305 and three over their last 48 games to make or to hit 95 points, which would presumably get give you the privilege of playing the Colorado Avalanche in the first round and being a nice little tuneup for Nathan McKinnon to when he goes on and plays the winner of Dallas and Minnesota, right? Like I I just say they go on a run and they win 30 of their final 48 games. That’d be awesome. you’re just playing Colorado or you’re just playing I guess you’re you’re you’re gunning for that number one wild card where maybe it’s Vegas, maybe it’s Edmonton at this point, maybe it’s Anaheim, LA, the Pacific is really bunched up, but this is what they have working against them list to go 30 15 to three. The seventh hardest remaining schedule per tankathon where their strength of schedule remaining is their points percentage of all the teams combined 575. They play the ABS three more times. They play Dallas twice. They play Minnesota twice, Vegas three more times, Anaheim twice. Um, so it’s not an easy schedule going forward for the Winnipeg Jets. That was the easy part of their schedule. St. Louis, for example, was the easy part of their schedule. And they’ve burned >> they’ve had a decently easy schedule to be honest. >> They’ve just burned too many games like that. They just had >> Yeah. And I think where where I kind of fall is I just I hate I hate I hate just get in mentality for the playoffs. I hate it so much because I think that so many people, you know, will talk about teams and be like, well, Florida just got in and all these different things. I understand the mindset of just get in, but it’s not equally applicable to every single team. The Winnipeg Jets, the 2025 26 Winnipeg Jets have not earned the confidence to just talk about just getting in, right? You know, you have the former, you know, conference finalists or whoever these different teams. There are certain teams that have all these different horses and tools and things that make them look really promising. Those teams are allowed to just get in, just get into the lottery at this point because just getting into the playoffs is not like this is not a group that I take seriously in the just get in >> cont. There’s not a 2019 St. Louis Blues run coming, you don’t think? >> And but if there was, then you would get into just get in territory where you could be like, “Okay, cool, whatever.” But like as it stands right now, people are just saying that because it’s the Well, people are just saying that. I don’t know if anyone’s saying it, but if you are saying just get in. Yeah. And you idiot, not um >> if that is the mindset that you have and that’s how you kind of perceive this group, I think you’re going to be sorely disappointed when they actually do in fact just get in because it fully is within the realm of possibility. When you have a heart-winning goalender and the central division looks the way that it does, you’re going to get, let’s be real, two games worth of ticket revenue and then Bob’s your uncle. That’s it. Good night. See you in September. Because it’s just this this group doesn’t have the horses right now to create a just get in storyline that’s going to be compelling enough to to make a push here. And and I will see I I see people in chat saying, you know, like anything can happen in the playoffs, you know, like that’s the just get in mentality. Anything can happen and anything can happen. I’m I I have time for that. But let me ask you this. Do you have confidence in playoff Connor Hellabuk stealing a series against the Colorado Avalanche? >> So here’s the thing, though, and I agree with you that anything can happen, but there are way too many variables that are clicking for a team like the Colorado Avalanche and that aren’t clicking for the team like the Winnipeg Jets. Say Nathan McKinnon goes down for the Colorado Avalanche or whatever. Okay, they still have Kale Mar. They still have their penalty kill. They still have all these different things in the depth of their lineup. They still have goalending that’s actually doing well for them right now and two goenders who are playing really well and can swap in and out as needed. They have all of these things where when we talk about anything can happen, you need in this situation, eight things to go right for the Winnipeg Jets that also go wrong for the Winnipeg Jets. Anything can happen applies to two teams that are kind of neck andneck whatever and one or two things kind of goes crazy or ary at a moment. Like you want to talk about anything can happen game seven Winnipeg Jets versus St. Louis Blues. Like there was a lot that was going right and a lot that was going wrong for the St. Louis Blues kind of in the back half of that game and all these different things that led to that moment having the possibility to come to fruition. I don’t think the Jets are even going to get to a point where it would matter enough if, you know, all of a sudden the Colorado Avalanche power play is shooting 0%. I think there are too many other things that are going well for that team and too many other things that would have to go well for the Winnipeg Jets in response to that in order for anything to happen to actually apply to a matchup that’s as far apart right now as these two teams are. >> Yeah. And I do think the next time the Winnipeg Jets make it to the playoffs, uh whether they find lightning in a bottle this year or it’s next year or whenever, um I think Connor Hellbuk will be much better than he was last year. I’ll put that on the record right now. But at the same time, I I see some people saying, you know, like with the current lineup construction, no, that that won’t happen in terms of uh the Jets going in and beating Colorado. And and then you also get to the pointless where you know the Jets are in a weird spot where they view themselves as kind of win now in this window as kind of they should I think in my opinion at least you know going into this season sort of thing because they had shley all these players 30 years old or above Morrisy uh they just signed Kyle Connor to a long extension like they have the thought of we’re trying to win right now because Connor Hallell’s in his prime I get that line of thinking And well, you can’t trade your first round pick right now to help you win right now because you are tied for last in the National Hockey League. So then you hear the rumors of them being in on guys like Mason Marchman who went for a second and a fourth. Well, the Jets don’t have their second for this year or next year because they traded them for Brandon Tanv and Luke Shen. um they they just don’t they’re in a weird spot where you’re not trading picks or assets really because next year you’re going to want Braden Joerger and Elias Salammonson to be in the lineup, are you not? Like you’re going to be counting on those guys for NHL minutes list. I know like Salammonson for sure. I think with the fact that Miller’s a UFA and Shen is a pending UFA like I think Salam Monson is a lock for opening night next season and he might play like a lot this season as well. Uh, a lot to come, but there’s guys like Brad Lambert will be 23 next year. He’s or he’s 21 right now. He’ll be 22 or 23. Braden Jagger’s 21. He’ll be 22. He’ll be another year, full year of AHL under his belt. Like it’ll be time to and I know the Jets and the common sentiment is that they overripe their prospects and leave them in the minor too long. But like for some of these guys like Salam Monson and Joerger and Lambert, it’s going to be time. And Chipperov, either they can hang or they can’t, you know, like next season is going to be that season. So, they’re in a weird spot where like, okay, do you want to trade Brayden Jagger for someone when you’re probably counting on him next season when this is already kind of a lost season, you know? Like, I don’t I don’t know how they’re viewing this organizationally. I know Mike tweeted that Mark Chipman was in attendance for that Colorado game. He doesn’t usually travel with the team or he doesn’t all the time, but he did for that Colorado game. How’s he viewing this? How’s Kevin Shival Day off viewing this? They have a lot of pending unrestricted free agents. When do they start selling? Do they start selling? Do they sell? I don’t know. There’s a lot of questions to be had still over the p over the final however many 48 games. >> Yeah. I think the thing that’s really hard too with this group is that like look, last year they overperformed. So what you do when you overperform is you’re like, “Ah, sweet. What do we do to try and shape this team up to to make a push this year?” This year they’re underperforming. And last year a team that underperformed was the New Jersey Devils. And the New Jersey Devils underperformed because they have a really good player who apparently is actually uh an optional skate this morning. So, congratulations to Jack Hughes on his return from his gruesome kitchen injury. >> No more food, no more, >> no more restaurants for you. But I think that um like a team like that last year, you know, they lose their number one center and it’s again similar kind of mentality to the Connor Hellbuck thing where it’s like, okay, look, they’re they’re not a bad team and they have some holes, but they’re doing okay. They weren’t going to win the Stanley Cup with Jack Hughes. And so what they did is they kind of like soft sold and all these different things. Yeah, they got into the playoffs, but it it was what it was. They weren’t banking on last year being their year, but what you can do is kind of like take a quick step back and now they’re kind of all at it again this year trying again. I like that mentality. It makes sense. It works. But what’s really different about someone like the New Jersey Devils and the Winnipeg Jets in that regard is that there’s only so many years that the Winnipeg Jets can keep doing this. Don’t get me wrong, right now I am in the camp of like, you know, if I have to lean on lost season or not lost season, I’m sorry, but I’m kind of putting the my bets a little bit more on the former, but say that happens again next year and you’re like, okay, like, you know, things are going tough or you know, Mark Shley gets hurt or something like that. >> You know what just happened to Quinn Hughes will happen to Josh Morrisy if it’s happening again next year. >> Why would you say something like that? That’s insane. >> Okay, anyways, >> like that’s the pressure they’re facing. >> Well, no, I know. And and that’s actually something too. I can’t remember who it was. Um, someone in the chat earlier was just mentioning something about the core and this that whatever and an offseason kind of topic that I had and it wasn’t even an offseason top. It was going into the playoffs and an offseason topic of it’s like if the Winnipeg Jets lose in the first round again, you have to trade one or two of Josh Morsy, Kyle Connor, Mark Shley, Conor Hellbuck, whatever these big pieces. You have to you have to because that’s three years in a row of just absolutely defeating first round losses to three different teams, you know, all this different stuff. Like it would have been absolutely like you you would have had to have done something cuz it’s so evident that these horses that they currently have are not good enough. All they needed was to get out of the first round in order to instill some level of belief in I think many many people to think that they maybe they can, you know, double down on this group and keep going and keep building from there. If that goal doesn’t go in at the end, and I understand that if you know, my grandma had wheels, the hockey games are 60 minutes. I get that. If that goal doesn’t go in though, if that goal doesn’t go in and then they end up losing that game and all these things blow up, again, I’m not saying I trade that for the world because that’s a really important moment that kind of unites a fan base and is so special. But like that’s how fragile things were at this time. Even with the president’s trophy winning group, the question was always what happens when it actually matters. And I just think there have been so many high leverage moments in the last couple of years that >> the team hasn’t quite been up to the task. And and that sounds and I’m not trying to pin that blame on anyone. I’m not saying that like they’re not physically good enough. They’re not mentally tough enough or anything like that. I don’t know what it is. But I’m just saying that I think that it’s been a really really interesting couple of years. And I think that you don’t have a lot of that luxury of time on your side when all of your core players are on the wrong side of 27. Like I think it makes it really difficult to to keep having these years of of deferring your window because you can’t do that with how old these players are getting to be at this point. >> Totally. And I’m not like I I bring that up just to say if the Winnipeg Jets are 32nd in the league the next three years like the Vancouver Canucks were, like Josh Morris is a competitor. He’s going to be on team Canada. He’s not going to want to do that, you know? Like, >> and I’m not saying he’s leaving. I’m not saying that either. Like Josh Morsy loves it here. >> You just heard it here first, folks. >> Yeah. Breaking news. No, >> not saying he’s leaving. Like he’s he’s absolutely inact. Yeah. Like if the Jets are good next year, he will absolutely resign for the next seven or eight years, you know? Like he he loves it here. Um and he’s a part of that core, the drafted and developed guys. Like I’m not I’m not saying that, but if the Jets are are terrible, this is the pressure they’re facing. List. And I kind of bring that up in the conversation of like how do Chipman and and Chevelah feel about this because you want to help this team win now. You want to keep guys like Josh Morrisy happy and winning and Connor Hellbuck and Mark Shiffley signed up for seven years with the you know commitment to win and have a a a competitor every year. What are they thinking about this? All of those things. So it’s very very interesting but this has been a kind of a negative conversation so far but leave it up to Tonopaly to save the day list. Look at this. >> Conor, you have to yell it. You have to yell it. Jets have trouble attracting >> because of the all caps. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no. Tonopaly, thank you so much for the $20 super chat. Says, “Jets have trouble attracting free agents and no trade clauses make it tough to acquire super skilled players. Their best ways through the draft. This is a blessing in disguise. Embrace the free fall and get a top three pick. Merry Christmas.” Merry Christmas to you, Tik Konopali, and merry Christmas to everyone. And happy holidays in the chat as well. Um, again, the the Winnipeg Jets maybe won’t be as big of a talking point or maybe just as big of a talking point around your your Christmas dinners this week. Um, you know, last year they were first in the NHL. This year they’re tied for last. I think equally big conversation list of last year like wow the Winnipeg and now this year, wow, the Winnipeg Jets. I’m going to need to put together a couple of like Q cards of like main top talking points for like every single like I had a family dinner last night, got a family dinner tonight, got a bunch next week, all this sort of stuff and I need to like have my my points because as you know, as you’re familiar, I am not the most short-wed person in the world and so I will talk for hours on end if someone’s like, “Oh, why are the Winnipeg Jets bad?” It’s like, do you want a PowerPoint? Do you want an Excel sheet? Like what’s what’s the vibe here? Would you like a monologue? Do you want this to be an open discussion? But uh yeah, no, it’s uh it’s a very very different >> time to to be in. And look, like I I’m not >> times times are strange, Connor. Times are strange. I’m not >> upset. I’m not feeling defeated. I’m not feeling whatever. I’m not feeling anything overly negative about this group, this team, where we’re at right now. Like, it’s it’s it’s not a big deal. You know, things happen like teams go through these phases and all this sort of stuff, but the question is just always around what’s the response going to be? What’s the decision-m going to be? You know, this is something that uh I Thomas Dance made a really interesting point on Twitter earlier kind of this this week, and this is my kind of paraphrasing version of his tweet, but he was talking about rebuilds. And I think that if if the Jets were to go the rebuild route, everyone’s going to freak out because it’s not going to happen though. But listen to me. >> And you can’t with Connor Hellbuck in his prime. You can’t rebuild. >> You can’t with Connor Hellbuck in his prime. But I think a legitimate rebuild, a legit not okay, maybe not. maybe more on the rebuild side, but like a a rebuilding ritual, if you will. It doesn’t take as long as people often think it does because oftentimes when we look back at teams that rebuild, we look at their entire quote unquote bad window in the same vein where usually what actually happens is a team is bad by accident for a couple of seasons, then they finally throw in the white towel and are bad on purpose for a couple of seasons and then come out of it. Say that’s five or six full seasons in a row. If you just make the decision early and you kind of cut it off, whatever, that’s actually only a threeseason rebuild. Rebuilds don’t take six seasons. What happens is if you’re stubborn for a few years and then you actually buy into it, you kind of end up on the other side. But if you actually were to kind of set out a plan and say like, we’re not making, you know, March trade deadline acquisitions for the next two seasons because we’re going to retool all of these different pieces. Even if we have a a Calgary Flames run of 104 and one right now, like if this is a Calgary Flames record, we’re not It’s okay. Good for the team, ethical tank, if you will. But if you have this kind of like vision for the group, I think you could fix this lineup and rejig it pretty well in just two seasons. But again, the thing that’s really hard is you’re totally right. While you have these players, I think it makes it really, really difficult, especially if you want to extend Josh Morris, especially if you want to win while Connor Halabuk is still at his best. That’s why I think the position the Jets are in right now is kind of scary in that regard. But I think there are options. So my question and my interest is always just around what do they do? Because I am hoping it’s something. And if the team goes all in and all of a sudden starts like trading all this stuff and buying all these like wacky players and stuff like I’m sad for it, you know, like and I I’m not saying buying the Mason Marchments of the world, but if you start packaging up some of your best prospects to bring in the Quinn Hughes of the world, whatever, okay, let’s talk about it. Like I I’m here for something because it’s so very evident that this iteration of the team, and I’m not trying to rope in my my shies, the the Manitoba Moose, but like none of them are going to come in and fix this team. So there there has to be either some massive external replacements in my opinion or you do a little bit of a a rejig that could take, you know, 18month rejig or whatever sort of something like that. But I just don’t think that uh six-year rebuild is something that >> should even be within the realm of possibility because the only reason it would be a six-year rebuild would be if the Winnipeg Jets, you know, kick the can down the road for the next three seasons and then their hand is forced into a rebuild and then it takes three years to get out of it. >> Sure, but like they still have really good players. I don’t know. Like I I the retool just seems so obvious to me. But here’s the thing, Connor, is that like, and this is a conversation that so many people have had, and I do really fall into this camp. Retools don’t really work. >> Okay, but here’s the thing. The Washington Capitals are the example that everyone gives. Every single move that the Washington Capitals made last off season, well, not six months ago, but this season before that, every single one of them hit. If one of those doesn’t hit, which >> the Jets don’t need every single one of them to hit, >> they have Conor Scha. What do they do? >> They have >> Look at all these things that aren’t working right now. >> Yeah. No, they have they have three players playing at the best level of their career on their top line. A Norris level defenseman and a heart trophy level goalender. They don’t need everything to hit. They need a goal or two from the bottom nine list. >> Okay. But what happens if one of those players takes a step back? What happens if Conor Hellbug takes a tiny step back? All these things upon all of these external moves hitting. Yeah. There’s so many if if if every single one of these players keeps continue continuing to play at a careerhigh level. If they make a bunch of external moves that work out really really well for them when the last external moves that they’ve made have all been terrible. Like all these different things like it’s so it’s so high risk high reward. And the Washington Capitals I feel like reset so many people’s expectation of what it means to completely reshift in the middle of your window or whatever you call it your lineup like that because somehow every single one of them worked. Chipper worked. Dubois worked. Logan Thompson and this whole Darcy Keer situation that worked. Every single thing that they did worked. Conor Mcichael and Dylan Stro. Nobody saw that coming. And so I think that that really screws with people’s perception of how likely that is to repeat and how easy it is to replicate. I don’t see a world in which that it it happens with how many variables would need to continue to punch at the level they are right now. If even one of those moves doesn’t work and some of these players take a step back, it’s it doesn’t do anything for me. interesting because you you raised some great points, but I we sit here today and they’re 32nd in the NHL. I still don’t view them as the worst team in the NHL. You know, they have so many good players that I just feel like the retool route. And >> what Brent brings up here in the chat about how they should have been developing their draft picks, now they’re paying for it. I think this is the biggest thing stopping them from retooling is the fact that, okay, you want to move Brad Lambert, >> who wants him? What are you getting for him? What are you getting for him? You you Because here’s the thing, Liz, the Winnipeg Jets are in such a weird spot that they don’t trust any of their prospects to come in and help maybe the most ineffective bottom nine in the league, but also they don’t have enough value long-term to trade them for someone to come in and help them right now for a team that’s winning right now. So yeah, the last five years of development of of young players is like we need a WST Sunday special of eight hours to really talk about that. And >> let me bring up our good buddy Marada Tesh’s tweet because he tweeted the other day about how like Cole Perfetti is one of three players in the last decade that has made the team or is on the team right now in terms of draft picks that was um let me go back and find this. Maybe I’m just >> Well, it think of it was a Michael Remis tweet that was a screenshot of ah yes >> Morat’s article. Is that what you’re thinking of? >> Yes. >> I don’t remember exactly what it is. Verbatim, so I’ll sing the Jeopardy music while you pull it up. But it was it was damning whatever it was. Do you want me to actually sing? >> Uh here we go. Yes. So it was from Morat’s article in the Athletic. Go check it out. Um, here’s Michael Remis kind of screen grabbed a paragraph from it and said what a paragraph and and what a paragraph it is. Um, Morat wrote, “The Jets haven’t drafted inside the top 10 since a lottery win led to Patrick Lane in 2016.” As we all remember, Coletti was taken with the number 10 pick in 2020. Has the 10th most points in his draft class. But he’s just he’s one of just three Jets picks from the last 10 drafts on Winnipeg’s roster right now. And when you go back and look, what is that? Stanley Samberg Perfetti >> if we’re counting 2016. >> In the top, sorry, in the top. >> No, in at all. >> Oh, the only player they dropped. >> Samberg, Perfetti, and well, Stanley was 2016. I’m assuming uh Morat’s including that. But >> again, like they have so many misses in their list. Vesseline and Han Lucius had to retire from hockey, unfortunately. I’m not like pinning it. He’s not a bad hockey player, but like that just didn’t work out. And then the the recent ones, McGroy, they had to move for Jagger, who’s not ready yet. Lambert not ready yet. Barlo struggling in the AHL. >> Well, and that’s the whole thing with everyone, you know, talking about how old the Winnipeg Jets team is and stuff like that. like even a couple players bringing down the average like you know I know that the cap is going to be a little bit of a different conversation kind of going forward and whatever but a huge part of a lot of teams that have had so much success over the last few years is also the cap efficiency of ELC players getting plugged in on lineups and >> have to that’s why the 2017 team was so good they had line eighters all those guys on ELC’s and >> Conor’s on his ELC Conor’s on his CLC like the Jets also can’t afford to be bad at drafting like That’s just the the state of their franchise. Like they’re the smallest in the league. The only UFAs they’re attracting are the ones that we’re talking about here every single Sunday as being, you know, like not working in the bottom six, >> right? And you think about the three players that, you know, the the Jets have on their lineup right now that they’ve drafted in the last 10 years. And if you, you know, talk about Logan Stanley, Logan Stanley took eight and a half, nine years to become a regular on this team. Um, right. and and Dylan Samberg, don’t get me wrong, great player, all these different things. They got extremely lucky with that player. When that player was drafted, I don’t think anyone was expecting him to kind of have this um this this level to his game that he’s had. And that’s wonderful. And that’s what you do when you draft later in the in the draft is you try and find these guys that you’re like, if this hits, this is gonna bang because that’s and that’s what they did here. And it’s great. Don’t get me wrong. Cole Bfetti also fell into their lap and was drafted as a center and has played wing his entire NHL career and hasn’t been super great in the last little bit. Like even that, even the three that they have, like that’s not exactly a recipe for success either. And yeah, like you said, kind of looking down into the Manitoba Moose system, like >> it’s bleak in terms of, you know, future NHL impact players. Like there’s a lot of guys on that team I really, really like. Heck, I’m going to go down to the the Canada Life Center after this and go watch them play some hockey before the holiday break and I’d like to see you all there because we love the Manitoba Moose. >> However, like it’s not looking like, you know, oh my gosh, can’t wait for these guys to to play on the Manitoba Moose or pardon me to play on the Winnipeg Jets. A lot of them I don’t know if they ever will. And so, >> it’s it’s it’s a really >> challenging time I think to to be in. And that just it adds fuel to this fire of of us talking about, you know, their core is a little bit too old to want to rejig things in a way that takes years instead of months and all this different stuff. They’re in a really weird position. They’re in a really really really weird position and a lot of it is self-inflicted and I don’t think it’s it’s I’m not saying it’s a bad position, but it’s weird. It is weird and I think there’s a lot of really strange moving parts here. >> Yeah, for sure. And we should wrap this conversation as Dallas brings up. Are we going OT today? still haven’t done your normal hits or segments yet. We’re going to get to our Chud’s power sports powerful in just a second. But inside baseball, listen and I were talking last night thinking like what are we going to talk about? Are we going to be able to fill an hour? We just filled an hour without even doing any of our segments. So, >> I can’t with us. >> Welcome to WSC Sunday live. This is uh >> this is classic stuff, folks. This is this is what you come here for on a Sunday. >> So, we’re so glad you’re all here. We really are. Like, this is it’s so much fun. We have we have awesome >> and I love kind of reading the comments and I’m like and another thought and all these different things because you guys always have such interesting uh comments and things to contribute. >> Yeah, the chat >> at 9:00 a.m. I I’ve always said they’re they’re firing. They’re ready to go at 9:00 a.m. and going into the holiday season. They are they are fired up for sure on this Winnipeg Jets team. And some people, you know, still bringing the positivity, the optimism, thinking, you know, or or uh claiming today’s game is a big game. Utah’s right there. It is. If they want to make it, let’s do it. Big game. Must win. >> Must win. >> Must win. Must win. Can’t lose. All of the above. Got to have it today going into the going into the holiday break. Jets take on the Mammoth today. 6:00 puck drop. Um down there in Utah. Let’s get to our first segment of three. Thank you Dallas for keeping us on schedule today. Really appreciate it. Um our first one is going to be from our friends at Chuds Powers Sports. Now the plows are out because the the snow I think it was 35 cm over the 2 days. I think maybe it was 30. Um there was so much snow here in the city and so much snow up in Gimy where Chud’s Powersports is located up at the corner of Highway 8 and 231. And they’ve got you covered with everything for the winter season. It is officially snowmobile season. Um and it is well underway with all of this snow. They’ve got great deals on all of these Arctic Cats, snowmobiles, RVs, ice houses, boats, UTVs, dirt bikes, tractors, golf carts. They have so much over there at Chud’s Powersports. Uh, a ton of items on clearance as you see right behind me here. Um, and they’ve been serving Manitobans for over 80 years. So, you’re getting the best possible customer service you could possibly get up there at Chuds. And if you can’t make it up there to the corner of Highway 8 and 231, check them out online, chudspowersports.com that I’ve got up on the screen behind me here. Tons of clearance items on the website and and you know, a large selection of everything you need powersports related for the winter season. Um, and check out their their other site as well, true northparts.ca, CA where they have a ton of items on clearance um kind of adjacent to all of their big powersports items that they have at chudpowersports.com. I I’ve browsed and there’s a lot of interesting stuff there as well at true northparts.ca. But check them out. Highway 8 and231 chudspowersports.com your home for powersports right here in the province of Manitoba. And we have a banger of a Chuds Powersports Powerpole today. Thank you to Chuds for sponsoring our power poles. I think this is the Chud’s Powersports Power Poll. Putting emphasis on the because this is the one. This is the one, folks. We’re done with hockey. >> We’re done with hockey. We’re done. We’re leaving it in the in the rearview mirror. We’re on to the holiday break. What are our top five holiday treats, holiday snacks, whatever you want to to call it, Christmas, you know, baking, all of those things. Here’s what we put together. I’ve got peppermint bark at number one. Nimo bars at number two, After Eights at number three, gingerbread cookies at four, and pumpkin pie number five, Liss has After Eights at 1, Christmas crack at two, sugar cookies at three, Lindor chocolates at four, and ginger snaps at five. Now, I’m sure the chat is going to have a lot of opinions on what their favorite holiday treat is, but listen, explain your Chud’s Powersports Power Poll. >> Okay. Well, first of all, it looks like this is a safe space for uh for mint chocolate enjoyers. So I I respect after I feel like that’s a I have takes >> a bit of a a little bit of a a soft spot. It’s um mint chocolate and you know pineapple on pizza that people always seem to have really strong opinions on and stuff, but this was actually hard for me. I was like I I couldn’t even think of like >> all of the all of the options and all this. Okay, what do I what do I snack on like crazy during the holidays or like when there when there’s a spread out? I actually I had a family dinner last night and I actually was like taking recon of like what am I going to reach for here and then I like wrote it down. I was thinking I was like I really like you know my my roommate made some Christmas crack and that made me think of that. Uh and then I reached for a Lindo chocolate yesterday and I was like okay must be uh must be that. Looks like people are in agreement with some of my taste. >> Yeah, you’re getting the win here I think unfortunately. Okay. I just think here’s my thing. Um of all the things on here the one that I find the craziest >> for me >> gingerbread cookies. Gingerbread cookies is a bit of a hot take to me. I thought people really just used gingerbread cookies a little more decorative. They’re fun. They’re festive. They during the season, but I don’t know if anyone I’ve ever met anyone >> that plays into it like the activity aspect. >> Like when you make a gingerbread house, do you eat that thing and like are like I’m so happy to be eating this right now? >> I don’t eat the gingerbread house. I eat the I eat the cookie. I eat >> But I think it’s also like a bad gingerbread cookie is like bad. Whereas like if you make a bad chocolate chip cookie, it’s like you know what? It is what it is. But so maybe I just haven’t had good gingerbread cookies. >> I load it up with icing. It’s a fun activity. decorate it. Throw you throw some crazy things on there, too. You throw some M&M’s, stick them on there. Like, yeah, like I think it’s a >> I think it’s a >> it’s on the list for me. And then I saw I saw a comment um you know, pumpkin pie is a Christmas thing. It >> bars being a Christmas thing. I like I just feel like that’s like a random dessert. I don’t know if it’s like a tradition for you or something like that. >> Okay. I have my family has pumpkin pine enamel bars over Christmas quite a bit. >> I love that for you. That’s wonderful. >> So, I’m counting them. personal experience as Christmas treats or holidays. >> I would put in like for like I’m thinking of some of the stuff like butter tarts would be like S tier for me, but I’m like I eat those bad boys for dessert with my family at many times of the year and stuff like that. So I’m like I don’t know. I don’t consider it like a Christmas dessert. But I’m also not a huge NA bar guy. They’re a little bit too >> like they’re a little too rich for me. I don’t know. >> That’s absurd. But I’ve also gotten, it’s actually like depressing how much >> I’ve gotten to that stage. I remember when I was a kid and people would be like, I can’t, that’s too much for me. Like only a little bit of ice cream, only a little bit of this. I remember being like eight and I’m like, I will eat this until I throw up. And I’ve actually gotten to the age now, unfortunately, where it’s like things can be a little bit too rich, a little bit too much, you know? Okay. All right. You need to stop. The one comment that dunks on me. >> I was waiting for someone. Thank you. Thank you, Wesley. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Nimo bars are so good. They No. And I will not yuck your yum, Connor. This is a perfect context for me to use our favorite saying. Like I think that I’m not saying that I think they’re objectively bad or anything, but like I just was shocked to see it as your number two. So that’s why I thought your uh your two and four were were interesting to me. Peppermint bark banger. After banger, pumpkin pie, banger. Like love. >> I’m a big I I love the peppermint. Love the mint. >> You seem to like the like spices like a little bit more of a like the anise flavor, you know, like a little bit. These are all I don’t usually think when when going for these things. I’m just like, >> I’m going to cut that. I’m going to cut that right here. I don’t really think >> I don’t usually think. Yeah. Welcome to WC Sunday live. Follow for more. Um >> the uh peppermint bark. Yeah. Number one. Like I don’t have it as much as I have Nimo bars and After Eights and all those things, but it’s amazing. >> But every time. Yeah. >> Hits every time. And After Eights, I have a take list. You know how they come in that little like box >> and they’re all individually wrapped? Individually wrapped. The paper is an underrated MVP because without the paper, I would delete probably an entire box of of After aids in one sitting. But the paper makes you think. It makes you, oh, I have to take it out and then eat. And then where do you put the paper? The paper starts piling up around you if you’re just like watching hockey. And I’m just chucking paper like these afterate papers all over the place. And I’m like, I’m making a mess. I need to stop eating these. But if there weren’t any paper, I would just run through the entire because they’re so small and thin. It’s just like potato chips. It just rip through them. >> Good take. Good take. Yeah. No, anytime you have to unwrap something a little bit, it kind of makes you feel like a glutton. You’re like, “Oh my gosh, I >> I know. The paper Whoa. I need to I need to slow down. >> Come on.” >> I know. The the paper needs to uh paper has never slowed me down. Rob Mahod, I I love it. That’s what the holidays are for. Don’t let the the paper slow you down. Um, no, the paper’s an underrated MVP for me. But yeah, this is our Chad’s power for our poll. Um, wanted to have a little bit of fun with it. Uh, go go go away from hockey as we are heading into the holiday season. And yes, a happy holidays and a merry Christmas. >> Now we have to go back to it. So >> yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, we’ll have to go back to it next year and and update our power poll. >> No, no, I said now we have to go back to hockey because we >> Now we have to go back to hockey. Yes. Trending up, down, and burning questions coming up. Um, >> we had a nice wonderful Oh, man. Kevin Soldier asked, “What about drink?” >> Ask about drinks. >> Okay, wait. We’re not going to do a top five, but thoughts on eggnog. >> Not for me. >> Not for you. Wow. Another bad take. >> Haven’t had a really, really long time, though. >> Another bad take. >> But yeah, I need to But do you know what Connor’s top drink is, guys? >> Candy cane hot chocolate. >> Fire. Absolutely fire. Absolutely fire. And yes, eggnog. 100%. Uh, peppermint mocha. I see. Yep. In in I’m in for every all of it in in um No, but eggnog you get a little bit of uh cinnamon. You know, I I guess I’ll just say fireball in there. That that goes down easy at the uh harabchack Christmas party. I will say that for sure. Yeah, everyone everyone in chat saying spiced rum with eggnog. Um yeah. >> Okay, maybe I have to try some egg. I I don’t honestly I probably haven’t had eggnog since I was like a kid. I’m such a like I tried it once and I don’t like it and I just like don’t go back. And every single thing that I’ve tried in the last like five years, I’m like this actually isn’t that bad. >> It’s good eggnog with with a little bit of uh extra in there. Try it out. Your life will never be the same. Um >> holiday season, folks. And uh yeah, we’ll maybe have to do top five drinks. I don’t know. Next year. Next year with our holiday episode. But that’s going to do it for our Chuds Powersports Power Poll. Shout out to Chuds for sponsoring our power polls here on Winnipeg Sports Talk. And uh as ridiculous as they might be, for still sponsoring our power polls here on Winnipeg Sports Talk Sunday live, even when we dipped into holiday treats. And like I said, happy holidays and merry Christmas from all of us here at Winnipeg Sports Talk to you, everyone that was at the Wednesday uh BP watch party, and uh everyone who’s watching the Winnipeg Jets game tonight list. Let’s get to our next segment. This one won’t be nearly as fun, I don’t think, but it’s trending up down. And this is the part of the show where you and I pick one Winnipeg Jet player who is trending up or down over the past week of play. And we usually don’t pick players who we took last week. I can pull that up while you make your pick in terms of who we >> got it here. I follow Hella Buck, Flurry, and Comry. >> Okay. So, those players for us are off the board. For people in chat, not off the board, let us know in the chat down below. Who are you taking for trending up, trending down? One Winnipeg Jets player who you thought has played good or bad over the past week of play. Uh list, who do you got for trending up? >> I’m gonna go with uh a player that I have been so kind to and so wonderful to the last 10 years. Logan Stanley gets my trending up pick this week. You know what? I think that uh there there’s a lot of stuff that um you know with that player >> that uh you were going to take him. >> I was going to take him. Yeah. That’s my bad. I’m so sorry. You know me, you asked me first. >> This is our show. You’re good. >> This is our show and I always get to go first. I always have the easiest route. I go first for both. But I’ll pick Logan Stanley because I think that uh he’s been a bright spot for a lot of Jets fans and I think that that’s, you know, something that people are allowed to hang their hat on. And so I uh I think that’s a popular take in the chat. >> Logan, Bobby or Stanley. Yeah, I mean he’s just I will say like we’ve we’ve said many times on postgame reactions this year, it’s very clear that he’s just h he has this newfound confidence list where >> he’s just trying things that he just wouldn’t go for with the puck and like Yes, go for it. Absolutely. Like play into those instincts, play into that that skill, play into whatever people for sure. Yeah, there are a lot of people that are like, “Oh, he’s still bad defensively and everything.” Yes, don’t get me wrong, but and this is going to sound like aggressively awful, but like before he was bad defensively and offensively. So, you know what? If one of them’s going to improve, be my guest. If he’s going to play in the lineup, I’d love to see one of those things improve. And you know, it’s uh it is right now. It’s not like in light of this offensive explosion that his defensive metrics have gotten worse. So, right, >> sure. Let’s let’s do it. Let’s have some fun. >> Let’s score some goals. Let’s score some goals. Um and yeah, the confidence is there for Logan Stanley. I love the fact that he’s shooting the puck a ton. And Liss, I know his defensive metrics might not be um you know, miles better. He’s not like a a shut down defenseman all of a sudden, but he is. One of the things that I mentioned for years with Logan Stanley is he needs to use his body. He needs to act like he’s 6’7. Actually put some guys through the boards. Okay. Yeah. We’re just going to stop the stream right here, folks. You can clip me saying I don’t think I’ll clip that if you will. But he he, you know, I was saying for years needs to use his body, needs to use put some guys through the boards, you know, act your size, if you will. And he’s absolutely been doing that. Credit where credit is due. He caught Nathan McKinnon with a huge hit. Martin Nis as well. Uh the St. Louis game, you know, the the last one or the penalty at the end wasn’t great, but again, there were hits in that game where he was laying some big hits uh right at the blue line. He’s been doing that for for weeks now, too. So really liking what I’m seeing from Logan Stanley in both the goalc scoring department and the big hits. Uh which I think a lot of fans wanted to see on both fronts for that player. I’m going to take Morgan Baron. Um jumped on a nice loose puck for a short-handed goal against the Colorado Avalanche. That was his sixth goal of the season. And there are just so many plays throughout a game where maybe the Jets will be ineffective or just kind of there for four to five minutes at a time. I was going to say six to seven minutes, but I don’t want List to take over the show again. >> You with it again. >> Yeah. And then Morgan Baron will just make something happen. He’ll go and have a great forch check. He’ll show that effort. He’ll have a great back check. The Ottawa game, which counts under this trending up down segment. Logan Stanley’s goal, if you go back and watch, Baron tracks back like the length of the ice from from below Ottawa’s goal line. Not the length of the ice, from below Ottawa’s goal line, basically to the red line or to Ottawa’s blue line, just tracks back on Dylan Cousins, hits him into the board, separates man from puck, gets it over to Gabe Valardi, who passes it to Stanley and scores. And Baron um you know makes a great play on that one. So, I I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Morgan Baron, both with the puck as he’s scoring some goals and he he loves the backhand, loves going to the backhand on breakaways, but not only with the puck, but away from the puck. Like, this guy’s an absolute horse and he is he’s forchecking like crazy, backing like crazy. He He is showing effort. He’s got the speed. It pops out on this Winnipeg Jets team, the speed. So, I’ll take Morgan Baron for trending up. Uh I think he’s had had a really strong week. list. What do you got for trending down? >> I’ve been looking at our list. We have kind of a spreadsheet going that has all the guys who picked week over week. He’s been safe for a few too many weeks in my opinion. Hasn’t uh hasn’t been touched since the beginning middle of November. Vlad Neomesticov is going to get my turning down pick for this week. I need to see a little bit more from that guy. I think that um considering the the position that he’s in in terms of continued usage and who his linemates are and whatnot, I’d like to see a little bit more energy, a little bit more sauce there, I think that, you know, I I spoke about this long long long ago, many many minutes ago earlier in this show because, you know, we’ve been uh we’ve been going for a while here, but it was talked about how a lot of the offense and a lot of, you know, the momentum of these these lines for the Winnipeg Jets tends to flow through the center. So, um, Vladimkov for a period of time in the fall was playing wing a little bit, but then he’s been back to to center for the last little while. And I’m not saying it’s entirely a coincidence because he had a fine season last year and he was a center. So, not saying he can’t play center anymore, but if he’s going to play center, need a little bit more from him, especially considering how much, you know, the players that we talk about needing to see more from are guys like him and the types of guys that he plays with. So, I’d really like to see him kind of get up and going. So, he’s my trending down. Um, haven’t seen enough from him this week. >> Okay, I’m going to take the obvious one. And I know it’s your guy, so I didn’t expect you to take him because I wouldn’t really ever take Dylan Samberg. So, to each their own. Uh, Cole Perfetti trending down. Got the tap on the shoulder from Scarter Neil in the third period against the Colorado Avalanche on the nature’s goal. Got beat kind of on the back check and then took a bad penalty. Wasn’t really generating much. So, I actually thought he played decent against St. Lewis. But again, like a lot of players in the bottom nine for the Winnipeg Jets right now, Cole Perfeetti is just far too inconsistent. Um, very much so, still in on the player, still think that he can be a successful player. Uh, like this as early as this season, he can fight through whatever is ailing him with this high ankle sprain. And maybe he’s taken a a longer than he anticipated to come back from that. And I still think, you know, there’s moments where he he makes strong plays and and what separates him at the NHL level is his brain and his passing ability and all those things. I’m just not seeing it at the level we saw last year. And then the whole prickfetti thing where last year he kind of turned into a a good board battle guy and was was even hitting some guys at times. And I’m not saying Cole Petty has to go out and crush people, but just the the play away from the puck. I talk about Morgan Baron playing well away from the puck. I’m not seeing the same from Cole Perfetti right now. And the production is not there with only two goals in in his season so far. So I’m going to take Cole Perfetti for trending down. A player that I don’t think we’ve given it to. We’ve given it to him actually. >> We give it to him two weeks ago. >> Two weeks ago. Okay. >> We couldn’t give it to him last week cuz we took him the week before and you took him again. >> Yeah. Sign of the times. Sign of the times. Anyways, Cole Perfetti is my pick for trending down. Um, let’s get to our next segment. That is the burning question segment. This is the part of the show where we open it up to the chat room with one burning question. Um, this is the part of the show where the chat fires off as many questions as they can and we try and rapid fire through as many as we can before we wrap today’s show. So, while you’re here, drop your question in the chat down below. And let me go and find this comment really quick. Can’t control life. be like them. I liked y’all fun vibes. So like the like the show as well. Be like Can’t Control Life. Really appreciate it. Hit the like button. Hit the subscribe. Hit the notification bell so you don’t miss our show every single Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and Winnipeg Sports Talk daily Monday through Friday at 1:00. Husten Remo have you covered. This week is going to be a bit of a lighter week for sure because you know there’s there’s a bit of a holiday going on this week if you’re if you haven’t heard. Um, so for for some days I don’t think well Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Christmas Eve, I’m not sure on the plan. Tomorrow they’ll have a show. Tuesday they’ll have a show and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, TBD. We will keep you posted on that on our socials at Sports Talk.WPG. But listen, um, I got to pull up Wesley. You got to pull up Wesley’s question from higher up. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, >> how about the new Moose merch drop? >> Oh, the new moose merch drop fire. Let me bring up a >> The moose finally True North Shop finally dropped some purple and green moose merch. They’ve had the hats for a little bit logo cuz Connor has one. I know that. So so so nice. I remember I went up to like there were two guys at some random event that I was at in Gimy this summer on August long weekend and I was like, “Where did you get that hat?” And they’re like, “It’s from Jet Gear.” I was like, “What? I didn’t even know that they had old purple and and green moose merch.” Um, but it was only hats. And they finally dropped beautiful photos of Isaac Phillips and Dom Devenentis rocking the fits. Look at this. Pull it up. Come on. Get out of town. How insane is that kit? I have a couple of um I planned an event once that we did a merch collab with FFO. Um, >> and their kind of like signature is like having the the words along the the sleeves of the like I’m wearing my my jet ski right now. um of the the sweater. So, it has the Far From ordinary on the sleeves, but like that purple sweater. >> Come on. Come on. Is that not the nicest thing you’ve ever seen in your entire life? >> That’s it’s sick. And I know I get why the Manitoba Moose are the colors that they are, you know, to get it, but the purple’s just so sick. And I I >> And like I also think that like highkey this kind of adds to the like the scarcity of it, if that makes sense. Like, you know, they go back to it then it’s it doesn’t have the same like wow factor to it. And like again, everything in the ring is blue. Everything from top to bottom is is blue, blue, blue. It makes sense. But at least kind of going back. And that hat is like a three-tone. It kind of looks like the two a beach ball hat where it’s like it’s got the the purple and the green and the brown. You can’t really see in that photo. Look, maybe on Doms you can see it a little bit better. The front of it is purple. You could see on the one side it’s brown and then the other side is a different color. I think it might be green. I don’t know if you could. Yeah, it is green. >> Dom. Yeah, >> it’s uh Yeah, it’s kind of cool. who was on WST this week. Everything’s coming up just right now. There you go. Look at that. >> That is sick. >> Stunning. It’s stunning. >> That is sick. I mean, they need to go back to the purple. I don’t Jets heritage moose purple and start printing money. Bang. >> Purple is under reppresented in the National Hockey League. >> Agreed. Agreed. I was kind of secretly I mean I have a soft spot for baby blue with the Mammoth, you know, they’re who they’re taking on today, but I was secretly hoping that they would incorporate a little bit of purple in there. um when they you know made a new franchise and all those things. Um >> but yeah uh the moose with an >> we gota get back to our questions question. My bad. >> Um >> my I have a question for you and that is >> did you know >> that two Winnipeg Jets players are representing their country at the World Junior Championships. >> I did know that. I believe they are both Swedish Swedish, right? Alons Sasha Banden >> and Sasha Bouen. Yes. So, speaking of prospects, um those are the two Winnipeg Jets representing u their countries at the World Junior Hockey Championships. They’re both playing for Sweden. And last night, >> never beating the no good prospects allegations when they’re only two, >> man. And uh yeah, and last night Sweden beat Canada in a pre-ournament game 4-2. And in that game, Sweden had multiple power plays. Alons Freys quarterbacking power play one. Sasha Bian quarterbacking power play too. >> So if you want a little bit, you know, obviously I think everyone’s rooting for Canada and all those things, but when Sweden is playing and they get a power play, >> tune in because uh good chance that that’ll stick throughout the tournament unless their power play is super ineffective. But Alons Frey and Boumeden and I was really impressed with Boumedian last night as well. Um you know against some of those players like he can really fly. he can really >> absolute sickle mode to be on the first Saturday of the holidays and you’re watching pre-turn tournament junior hockey but uh >> conversation for another day >> here for the world juniors here for it like just so locked in and >> yeah it’s uh like Canada needs to win this year they’re they’re so stacked and the past two years have not been good with the the Czecha losses in the quarterfinal uh both both years but man uh yeah big year upcoming for not only Canada looking to I mean Sweden is is kind of in the same not the same boat but they’re dominant in the round robin every single year and then you know choke in the in the middle rounds that’s that’s kind of their their thing right so um >> just quickly before we get to these questions I’m I’m going way too long here but Dallas Paul’s with a very generous super chat 1919 a little little brown jug reference there says let’s go Jets tonight keeping it simple I absolutely love it um big game against Utah Mammoth central division road game uh we’ll see if the Jets and get back on track and go into the break with a good feeling. Uh, how about that? Making it 161 17-2 if they won tonight. Um, but thank you so much, Dallas, for the super chat. Really appreciate it. You’re here every single Sunday and we very much appreciate your support. Um, let’s get to some of these questions lists. A lot of people are talking about the Moose swag. >> Love it. Love it. >> I know. One burning question. Does a core player need to be traded to shake up this team? If so, which one? from Tom Hank. >> Yeah, I think that it’s really difficult with the the situation the Jets have kind of put themselves in here, especially the the answer last year would have been Kyle Connor just in terms of the contract situation, all that sort of stuff. As it stands right now, um I don’t know what they do. I I don’t see a world in which it makes sense though to trade any of Morris, Shley, Connor, or Halabuk. anyone else I think can and should be on the table for the right return in in that sense if you think it’s going to shake it up and bring in something high leverage, but I don’t think those four players are going anywhere for the foreseeable future. >> Okay. Yeah, I’m with you on that 100%. Um just don’t see like a a major shakeup happening, especially with how, you know, the org views that they’re win now mode. They’re not going to trade Morsey, hell, whatever. Um all of those things right now at least uh or in the short term. Stoop asks, “Without significant improvement, does Arneal make it through the season or do the Jets scapegoat him?” This is an interesting one, Liz. If I’m not mistaken, >> Scott O’Rneal signed a two-year contract, and this is the second year. So, his contract is up after this year. I’m going to double check that while you answer the question. Yeah, I uh I’m going to lean on yes, he makes it through the season just based on our previous knowledge of how this management group handles coaches. I think that if this year is an absolute gong show through the next 50 games or however many are left in the season, I could see them parting ways with him quietly in the summer. I still don’t think it’s going to happen. I think this is a quote unquote, to use our own terminology, a their guy. um you know they they want this guy. Scott Neil was not the only coach available, is not the per se best coach on the market, anything like that. This is the guy that the Winnipeg Jets wanted and I don’t see them changing that up. >> Um especially because >> of you know I’m going to all the connections to the team and the fact that he was in AC for a while, all this different stuff. I think that they I think they’re pretty committed to him >> and I think Scardinil is a good coach. I I’ll still ride with him at least at at this very moment at 15 17 and two, you know, at a low point. Um I still think that he’s got he’s got, you know, the players playing hard. We’ve talked a lot about that list, you know, like they have taken nights off this year for sure. They have, but it’s not to the point where some of these other teams at the basement of the league are. Uh and I I do still think that he’s a good coach. Um and and look, it’s a valid question. I actually while you were talking I couldn’t find I don’t think it was ever made >> I don’t know if they ever yeah made it public or not. >> I don’t I I don’t think it was There was even a Sportsnet article done didn’t mention anything. >> Yeah. So I I don’t think that that was made public. Bonus signed two-year deals each time. Um or or one two-year deal, excuse me. He was only here two years. Um so I I just assumed that it was a two-year thing for O’Neal as well. Again, don’t know that for sure, but it it’s another thing. And like Cole Perfetti’s contract is up this year and there’s a million or not a million, there’s seven or so pending UFAs. So there’s going to be a lot of questions uh as this season goes on if the Jets cannot turn it around. Um one burning question from Matthew Heyman, will the Jets ever split up Shaley and Connor to at least see if it helps? I think this is a good question that a lot of people are wondering. Um I don’t think it’ll happen and here’s why. Prior to the Mark Shiffley goal against the Colorado Avalanche that made it 3-2 earlyish in the third period of that game, the Jets forwards had gone eight periods without scoring a five on five goal or scoring a goal at all. I mean, Morgan Baron got the short-handed goal, so I guess it was seven periods, but a five on five goal, let’s keep it. Um, they went eight periods, the the Ottawa game, the St. Louis game, and the Colorado game. And then they didn’t even score a five on five goal in the Colorado game either. So it’s been three games now where they have not scored the forwards at five on five. And the whole argument against splitting up Connor and Chley was well if you split them up they’re the only thing going and then you might have nothing going. Well at five on five right now that line’s getting at least in the last three or four games they’re getting outshot out chanced all of these things and they’re not scoring at five on five. So they’re they’re not going. Nobody is going right now. And they split up the top line. They put Valardi down with Perfetti, but I don’t think we’ll ever, we might, you know, there’s a lot of season left. Um, but I just don’t see them ever going to uh Connor Shifley split, especially, you know, for any longer than a game or two list at at the most at this point, you know. Yeah, game or two I think is a bit of a a different scenario, but I’ll I guess I’ll take the other side of it is I think that they will um just because I don’t foresee this team getting that much better in the near future and they’ve pretty much tried everything else up front. So, they’re going to be running out of options. So, I think they’re going to have to um pretty soon because right now I know a lot of people think that it’s the thing to do and people are calling for it, whatever. It’s fair, but they’re doing other things. I think those other things aren’t having the same results consistently that they’re looking for. So, they’re gonna have to keep doing stuff. So, I think that they will at some point. >> This is a great question from Kenny’s water bottle. One week later, is Carter still fuming about the arena situation at the Olympics? Yes. Never not fuming about stuff like this. And >> never not fuming >> to never not fuming. And to to say this, uh, our conversation with Gary Bman and Bill Dailyaly in Winnipeg a few weeks ago did not help my fuming uh, situation here with the Olympic rink. Gary Bman, I should find the transcript, and I’m not getting this 100% correct, but he said something along the lines of in all of their Olympic events when they’ve sent hockey players, all of these things, it has never been this late, this tight for building an arena. And then you see the Darren Dreger video, did you see that? >> Of the pan of the arena. >> Oh, yes. Yes. >> Oh, man. Like, it just >> it’s in rough shape. >> It’s in rough shape. Like I said uh a few weeks ago, Glenwood CC open open for business. Uh if we want to see, you know, our Canadian athletes um you know, ripping through a short neutral zone, Glenwood CC wide open. Wide open. I could even walk, you know, over here to to Allard Arena and see if they have some space, you know, midFebruaryish. You know, we we can make it work here in Winnipeg list. I don’t know. There there there’s a lot of good rings, but yes, still fuming. um holiday spirit not taking me off of the real issue and that is the Olympic ice being 3 ft short um and maybe not ready. Um let me get to one more question here and then we’ll wrap today’s show. One burning question from Chuck. Would you trade the first pick if it was top 10 protected? I think this is another good pick because a lot of people or good question because a lot of people are saying you can’t trade your first. I agree you can’t. But if it’s top 10 protected and you know if that pick ends up in the top 10 the Jets keep it is that something that you think the Jets would consider less and if you were Kevin Shovel off would you consider it? >> So again I’m not fun because the answer is always yes because who’s it for? Um if it’s for Mason Marchment then no. But um I I definitely think that if there was a lane that the Jets thought that they could get better right now, bring in someone um you know, like this is like a bad example, but like one of those Mason McTavish sort of situations where like this summer people were like, is he even going to sign? Who knows what’s happening there? A young player who could be like for something like that. Absolutely. Yeah. >> Not maybe not if it’s not top 10 protected, whatever. But I definitely would be open to it. I think the the risk with that is that there’s so just so few players on the market right now that like that could be spent in a really really bad way. Um but I think that it’s definitely a lane that I think would make a lot of sense for the Jets, especially considering the fact that top 10 is uh fully within the realm of possibility. >> I think it is a lane that that would make sense for the Winnipeg Jets as well. um you know, you keep that security of like, okay, if this slide continues and we’re not great, um then we keep our first round pick and we’re in the top 10 and all of those things, but if the player you bring in is an impact player and they help you and they get you to the to the playoffs and all of those things, then you’re okay trading that first because it helps you turn your season around in a sense, right? >> And I wouldn’t for a rental. Almost any rental, I wouldn’t for a rental. >> Yeah. No, I’m I’m not in on rentals anymore. I think we’ve been burned a few too many times. Tyson on the Olympics says, “You guys haven’t lived through this before. Olympics are always a pain in the ass.” I think that’s why I’m so angry about it because I haven’t lived through this before. I just I just haven’t like I just there they’ve gone to the Olympics before in my lifetime. Yes. But I was a child and didn’t I was not keeping up with the you know >> the the uh Darren Dreger videos of the rinks back in 2014 when they were in Sochi and all of those things. Um yeah. So, who will be in charge of tournament discipline at the Olympics? So, the refs are NHL refs calling double IHF rules and then if there’s like a bad hit or something, if there’s a bad hit and they need supplemental discipline, I believe it’s the NHL Department of Player safety. >> So, how about that? Hopefully, they treat Canada like the Florida Panthers and then they can just get away with with murder. Um, that would be that would be awesome. Yeah, that would that would be really awesome. Uh, that’s going to do it for one burning question. Thank you so much everyone for dropping all of your questions in the chat below. Really really appreciate it. Uh and thank you for hanging out with us on a an extended edition. You know listen I always say oh my god >> oh this is like our longest one ever. >> Lots to talk about list. Lots of panic. Lots of panic. Big game today. Must win. Must win. Big game against can’t lose. Yeah. Can’t lose to the Utah Mammoth. Got to win. Got to win. So yeah. Jets take on the Mammoth today list. Anything else you want to say before we wrap today’s show? Maybe plug your newsletter coming out, you know. >> Yeah. No, I’m uh looking forward to couple weeks of um you know, we’ll have a couple days off from hockey, which will be kind of nice, and then right back at it with some World Juniors kicking it off and then back to some more Jets hockey that I’m going to be chomping at the bit to get back to it. But looking forward to a couple weeks of uh you know, some family time, everything like that. Yes, my my newsletter is coming out in just a couple weeks now. So, if you guys want to subscribe, um it’s called No Right Answer. I can drop the link in the chat. don’t have it pulled up so I might not do that today, but it’s in all my bios and everything like that on any socials as well. Um, but yeah, I’m just very very thankful. I always get a little sentimental at this time of year because I’m so fortunate. I’m really close with my family and like I love spending time with them and we spend a ton of time together over the holidays and all the time and, you know, very reflective of how fortunate we are and how lucky we are with, you know, our family, everything like that. And I just feel so fortunate for everything that we do here, everything I get to do with you, Connor. It’s such a fun time every time. So thankful for Hust and Remo as well and for everyone here who makes this, you know, just the absolute best gig in the world. Um I would pay money to to get to keep doing this with you and for everyone who’s here. So I’m just very very grateful always, but feel like we always get a little bit more thankful and introspective at this time of year. >> Yes, absolutely. Very very grateful for the Winnipeg Sports Talk community. I will be it’ll be next year’s holiday party and I’ll still be shaking my fist at the clouds that I missed last week’s one- nothing loss to the St. Louis Blues. Genuinely like looked like everyone had a great time. Kenny’s water bottle show went long cuz we went on a detour about chocolates that lasted longer than anyone expected. Especially grateful for all of our fans that keep up with our weird detours, about Christmas treats, holiday treats, all of those things. Um, and yes, like Liz said, uh, everyone have a great holiday. Uh, really really appreciate all the support from everyone throughout the season, um, and and throughout 2025. Uh, stay safe over the holidays, be responsible, enjoy some family time, um, some time away from what’s happening outside if you’re if you’re heading out of the city or anything like that. And, uh, yeah, merry Christmas to everyone. Really appreciate all of your support all season long on WST Sunday live. and listen and I will have our Team Canada projection coming out uh or or our roster if you will coming out in the next couple of days on the WST channel. Obviously Winnipeg Sports Talk daily every single day 1 to 3 Monday to Friday. This week a little bit shorter with the holidays of course. But everyone have a great week. Enjoy your holiday season. Merry Christmas to everyone and we’ll catch you next Sunday breaking down Jets Wild after the Jets take on Quinn Hughes in the Minnesota Wild next Saturday. Enjoy the break and we’ll talk to you all next Sunday. Have a good one everyone.
Connor Hrabchak and Lyss Houde host another edition of WST Sunday Live! They discuss the Winnipeg Jets’ 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, preview today’s game against the Utah Mammoth, and much more!
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4 comments
I think there should be a bonus pick in the first round for a team that managed to go from the Presidents Trophy to dead last in the league, 4 way tie for last. Great show Connor and Lyss, WST Sunday live is the highlight of this week in the Jets season.
This year is a write off, Jets have too many holes in their lineup…my opinion, let’s go for high pick in draft…good looking draft this in 2026.
Dreamt that one up… Sorry but NO ONE FEELS SORRY FOR US… IN FACT INJURIES WERE OFTEN PREMEDITATED IDEAS TO TAKE OUT OUR STARS'
Our PK is crap without Tanev and Apples also why let 3rd LA player from PLD trade slip away