Mitch Kasprick is now the “Westdale Curmudgeon”
Odds and Ends, Thoughts, and Questions from this past week in Hockey –
Just so there’s no confusion when I’m spewing my bias, I am a fan of the Winnipeg Jets, Arizona Coyotes, Manitoba Moose, Winnipeg Ice, and all Team Canada Hockey teams.
I am NOT a fan of Gary Bettman or as I call him, Count Chocula. I am a big believer in the 7Ps or is it the 8Ps? You’ve been warned.
June 3: Tentative start of Stanley Cup Final
June 4-10: NHL Scouting Combine
June 26: 2023 NHL Awards
June 28: Round 1 of the 2023 NHL Draft (7 p.m. ET)
June 29: Rounds 2-7 of the 2023 NHL Draft (11 a.m. ET)
You can listen to a more in-depth audio version here >>> Audio Version … Podcast is now live
PRO TIP: Listen to the audio version as you’re reading. Much more in-depth.
1. ICE: The Winnipeg ICE and the Seattle Thunderbirds are tied one game apiece after the first two games in Winnipeg and the two teams now head to Seattle for games 3, 4, and 5.
Fri, May 12 Sea at WPG 7:00 PM CDT Canada Life Centre SEA 2 WPG 3
Sat, May 13 Sea at WPG 6:00 PM CDT Canada Life Centre SEA 4 WPG 2
Tue, May 16 WPG at Sea 9:05 PM CDT Accesso ShoWare Center
Wed, May 17 WPG at Sea 9:05 PM CDT Accesso ShoWare Center
Fri, May 19 WPG at Sea 9:05 PM CDT Accesso ShoWare Center
Sun, May 21 Sea at WPG 7:00 PM CDT Canada Life Centre *
Mon, May 22 Sea at WPG 5:00 PM CDT Canada Life Centre *
* if necessary
For me, early on in this series, the difference has been that Thomas Milic has outplayed Daniel Hauser. The ICE and Hauser are going to have be a lot better if they want to see a game 6 back in Winnipeg.
2. Jets: I’m reading and hearing that the Paul Maurice haters must be eating crow now that the Panthers have knocked out the Bruins and the Leafs but I’m not sure I agree.
Like I’ve said in the past, I was never a PoMo hater nor a PoMo apologist and coaches get too much blame when a team loses and too much credit when a team wins … it always has been and always be about the players … you either have the horses or you don’t.
— Westdale Curmudgeon (@WpgSportsTalk) May 13, 2023
3. Jets: For the third time in six years Connor Hellebuyck has been nominated for the Vezina Trophy.
Obviously, you didn’t need “Vezina quality ” goaltending to win the Stanley Cup this year as these 3 were all eliminated in the first round.
4. NHL: The Eastern Conference Final is now set with Florida visiting Carolina but the starting date is still TBA but will be later this week. The West still has a game 7 between Dallas/Seattle to determine who plays Vegas in the Western Conference Final.
5. NHL: Instead of Oiler fans whining about Alex Pietrangelo’s slash on Leon Draisaitl they should be asking their coach WTF Leon was doing on the ice, sucking for an empty net goal in a 4-1 game?
6. Jets: With the Florida win over Toronto the Jets improved their draft selection by one position from 19th to 18th. Thanks, PoMo.
7. WHC: I love watching the WHC because it gives this retired old curmudgeon lots of hockey to watch during the day and I get the chance to keep my eye on our three Winnipeg Jets (Nikolaj Ehlers, Nino Niederreiter, and Dylan Samberg) participating.
8. Jets: Some good news on the prospect front. Brad Lambert is off to a good start in the Sea/Wpg series with 2 goals and 1 assist in the first 2 games of the WHL Final.
Maybe the Jets get lucky and Lambert becomes a regular on the big club sometime in the 2024-25 season. IMHO, Lambert needs at least one meaningful season of development with Manitoba Moose and it is up to him how fast he gets to the show.
9. NHL: I bet Count Chocula is getting a chubby just thinking about the possibility of a Vegas/Seattle Western Conference Final.
10. NHL: Odds and ends:
Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images
- I like the way Harnarayan Singh calls a hockey game.
- Vegas is in the Western Conference Final for the 4th time in its 6 year existence.
- Does it really matter who plays in goal for Vegas?
- Lots of Oilers’ fans want to blame rookie Jeff Skinner for Edmonton’s loss but the Oilers paid Jack Campbell $5,000,000 for FIVE years to be their #1 goalie, so there is the problem in my opinion.
- I said in my podcast before the Jets series that Vegas had an elite puck-moving defence corp and they were really good versus Edmonton.
- The Oilers are far too dependent on their powerplay and they didn’t get enough 5 on 5 considering they have the 2 best players in the world and others like Zach Hyman, RNH, and Evander Kane.
- Listening to every team’s season-ending post-mortems from their fans and media sounds eerily the same.
You can listen to a more in-depth audio version here >>> Audio Version … Podcast is now live
PRO TIP: Listen to the audio version as you’re reading. Much more in-depth.
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