How important is this game for the Canes in Detroit tonight?

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E.J. with NHL Network joining us on the Adam Gold Show. How are you, my friend? I'm good, I'm good. I was kind of big in that.

Yeah, it's very good. Maybe not as good as Conor Bedard, but if Conor Bedard could sing, I'm not sure he can. I was doing my post-game podcasting thing that I do for the Canes every night on Tuesday, and I had the Edmonton Chicago game up. And the first goal of that game that was scored by Bedard, it was the Bedard-McDavid matchup.

Everybody's Conor versus Conor, it was amazing. But that goal that Bedard scored, about how many players in the NHL have that kind of quick twitch skill to be able to score that goal? Not many. Not many. I mean, I don't, I mean, not many.

That's all I can say. I mean, like, like I think of that play, I'm thinking maybe Matt Barzil could maybe make that play, maybe. But, like, the thing with Bedard, he not only makes it with speed, but then his quickness, and then to hit the spot with the shot. I mean, there's just not a lot of guys who can do it. And you know what?

To do it in that spot, to your point. I mean, like, he understands what's going on. He's playing against Conor McDavid, and he's in Western Canada. He's a Western Canadian kid out from the Vancouver area. So, it was a big night for him, and he responded really early.

Now, he doesn't have any help. And, you know, that team is, you know, they had made some plans to add some veterans. Kind of gone sideways with Paul being hurt. Corey Perry, you know, kind of being dismissed from the team with his own personal issues.

And, you know, some other people, you know, I guess it was Seth Jones who's not even on the trip. So, you know, it's a challenge for him. But, he's been fun to watch, and he's got great hockey IQ. That's the thing that's jumped off the page of me, aside from his natural gifts. He really knows where to move the puck, what spots to get to, and getting there at the right moment.

Before I ask E.J. Raddick about tonight's Carolina Hurricanes opponent, the Detroit Red Wings. Just the other side of that game was Edmonton. And, they have, I'm pretty confident in saying, figured it out of late.

What is ultimately the difference between Jay Woodcroft and Chris Knoblauch? Yeah, I mean, I think it just, I think the change kind of settled everything down. Because, you know, when teams, they have such, you know, they have high expectations. And, when teams have high expectations and things don't go well, right?

You can't move everybody off the club, right? So, you know, right away there's a focus on the coach. They made a move. The players in that room realized, okay, I mean, there's not going to be, you know, another change.

Not going to be ten games and make another coaching change. So, I just think it settled out everybody a little bit. I think, you know, like Jay Woodcroft, when he came in for Dave Tippett, I mean, it was the same thing.

And, I think that some things came together. The McDavid had been dealing with it and trying to play through a little bit of an injury. I think he got healthy and got going, which is a huge issue for them. Their goal today, they sent Jack Campbell down. They gave the net to Stuart Skinner. He responded, and they just got their defensive game to a more reasonable place. Their power play started clicking.

And, you know, I think they tried to make things a little bit simpler. So, they were, you know, when Knobelock first came on, you know, they have a win or two at home. They went on the road.

The road trip wasn't great. It started, they went into Washington and hammered the Washington Capitals. And, then they've been rolling ever since.

So, you know, right now it's good times. But, you know, when I look at them, I still see, you know, there are holes. They don't have a great bottom six group. They don't defend great. And, you know, it's going to, you know, like you know, I mean, goaltending is so important. You know, you got to hope Stuart Skinner is going to play well. We'll talk about goaltending in a second. As a matter of fact, the Hurricanes are the last team that beat Edmonton. And, I was sitting there that game and I watched and went, oh my gosh, Edmonton is such a mess defensively. And, the goaltending can't save them. Stuart Skinner has played much better since.

And, the top guys have just been on fire pretty much throughout. All right, because you in some ways described Carolina when you described Edmonton, right? You know, I mean, look, Edmonton was not alone.

The Hurricanes are not alone. You can draw a comparison to the Devils too, who have gotten, who had high expectations and gotten off to a slow start. But, you mentioned goaltending. Pyotr Kuchetkov was great in the win over Ottawa. But, I can't remember the last time I said that Carolina's goaltending won them the game. But, I thought Kuchetkov won them the game. Against the Senators. It's not really sustainable.

Well, I hope it's sustainable. I hope Kuchetkov can beat that. But, man, they haven't had good goaltending all year. Yeah, I mean, he's what, an 883 save percentage? And, you know, Rod's is at 860.

Yeah. I mean, which is, you know, that's, you're headed to the American League when you get into that territory. And, you know, obviously Freddie Anderson has been out.

And, you know, we don't know what the status is going to be there for the, at least for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, Freddie's going to be able to get back to playing. But, you've got to hope that Kuchetkov, who is somebody that, you know, we've talked about him before. He's been a really good prospect. And, you know, he's been kind of up and down because of the three goalie situation that they had there. And, now it's really, you know, this is a great opportunity for him. And, it's a great opportunity to build on what he did the other night. I think this is a really important game tonight for Carolina to build on.

Because, you know, I don't have to tell you or the listeners. I mean, it's been a rough road trip and it was rough out west. But, they kind of ride the ship. And, I think that whole thing with Brady Kuchuk the other night. I mean, maybe that's, you know, he's a fiery guy. I've seen clips of him in the minors and he's, you know, he's a little bit of a character. I mean, maybe that lights a little bit more of a fire under him and gets the guys going, you know, a little bit more for him. But, your point, I mean, you watch it all the time. The goal telling us hasn't been good enough.

If he can get going and he has the ability from what we've seen and, you know, that would be a huge difference. I mean, that metro division, it's kind of crazy. Because, like the Rangers being at the top.

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Go to allbirds.com and use code fresh socks for a free pair of socks with purchase. But you figured Carolina and New Jersey would be right there alongside. Instead the Islanders, squatters and Huskers, have blown a bunch of leads this year. They're having a point streak and a plate finding ways to win that are sitting there in second place right now, if they hadn't blown some of their leads out of they'd be in first place, which is kind of, you know, crazy to think about, but. Um you know, so I think this is important game tonight for Carolina. Detroit is a good opponent. They're trying to find their way into the playoffs this year. They've added a bunch of pieces to their team. Um I think it's important game for Carolina to get back home and try to get the ship kind of back on track. I agree, and they'll have Nashville tomorrow and then the capitals on Sunday.

First look at Washington haven't played the Devils yet, either. So there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot. I mean, only played the Rangers one. So I mean, there's a lot of games within the division. That are going to ultimately settle everything here.

E J Radek from NHL Network is joining us here. So, uh, to expand on the big game tonight. I think it's a big game really from one standpoint, obviously, because I didn't think Carolina played great against Ottawa. They played well. They didn't play great. They didn't do their their, you know, dominate puck possession, all that kind of stuff.

I thought it was an evenly played game. Special teams and goaltending where the differences Carolina hasn't had a lot of those, but they've got to establish somebody who can go out night in and night out and help them win a game. And from that standpoint, I think it's really big for could check off. Yeah, I completely agree because, like I said, he's a young guy that has ability. There's no question that he's got ability. Show that ability at the minor league level.

He showed her from time to time at the NHL level. But is he ready to take off? And as I mentioned, he's a fiery guy that I can go out and play. He's got a lot of ability.

You know, it could be something that that allows you to play at a higher level, but it could also be something that teams take advantage of. Right And so we'll see where he is tonight. I think it would be really important for him to put another game.

Behind this one and start to regain the confidence of the team in front of these guys. You're never going to tell you. Of course not. You know what? Thoughts are. But the reality is this the guys on that bench are confident and when they're not getting good goal tending.

It impacts everything. I always said like, you know. Great move. They just got let go of ST Louis the other day, right when he came in, it kind of coincided with Jordan Biddings.

Arriving. It was about about two months later, a month and a half later, and with ST Louis like they had a good team. Like ST Louis had a strong group of players, but like it's like a garden like that. You don't have a goalie that is making the saves you need to make and then occasionally sprinkling in some of the ones you don't expect. You just need good solid goals.

I think and then. That garden of good things can grow within your team. And you know the ST Louis Blues. That's what they needed and then it came in. He played well. The team got confident. They went on to win a Stanley Cup.

Channel Americans to me have a really good team. Now could they use one or two more pieces? Maybe there's a bit to go. Maybe there's a bit to go on.

Maybe there's a bit to go on. Yeah, but they but they've got a good group. They need that consistent goal tending to allow all those other things to grow and develop.

And really have that confidence that it takes to win on a nightly basis in a league where it's really, really tight. All right. Final thing for real quick. Did you have a problem with the way could Chet Koff played the penalty shot? No No. I mean, I've seen you've got to be honest. I mean, you've got to be honest. You've got to be honest.

You've got to walk aside and backhanded into the empty that. I mean, he went to. I've seen other guys do it. Mark Andre Fleury has done it. We had Devon Dubnik on NHL now earlier in the day yesterday. We showed a clip where he did it to Nicholas Cronwall in a in a penalty shot situation.

So you know, I guess Brady is hot. Team is, you know, struggling and he's a leader. He's a fiery guy. He got knocked down. He went into the box. He got knocked down. He got knocked down. He got knocked down. He got knocked down.

That happens. But in the end, you know, he did to me. He didn't do anything wrong. He made the play.

Stop the puck. That's all that matters. It was. It was.

It was my play of the year. I just it was so I laughed so hard for so long real quick about the Detroit Red Wings, EJ. I love the makeup of this team. They have struggled a little bit lately.

But no Dylan Larkin tonight. They've had a lot of fun. They have a lot of money from them and they have apparently too many former Blackhawks for Chicago's liking.

I feel for their fans. But what do you see about the Red Wings that gives you hope? Well, I see organization and structure and I think Detroit Buffalo and Ottawa to me were three teams coming into the year that I thought were, you know, similar in similar situations, and I think quite frankly, I think Ottawa and Buffalo have better teams coming forward.

What I think the difference is, is, I think, you know, right on from the ownership down. I mean, there's just more. Stability and structure with the village family and Steve Aizerman and you know, Jericho on this come in from a Stanley Cup winning background in Tampa Bay, and they're, you know, Alex Tange, one of my former colleagues at the NHL Network and a terrific player is on the benches and assistant coach and. I just think they have, you know, they have a great team. They have a great team. They have a great team.

They've been going for them. Look at Ottawa. I mean, they've changed owners. They changed managers. The coaches on shaky ground. They've had some kind of crazy things that have happened with their franchise this year.

You know the Buffalo Sabres. I mean, you know, I watched them play and I just think you know they need to get to another level. They have personnel that could be really good there.

But you know, they've got some Bolton challenges. They don't defend all that well. I just think they have a great team.

I've reordered them right now because the structure that and the stability in Detroit, I think is really important. And you know, they're kind of like a lot of teams when they're goalie plays well there, they got a great chance to win their power play is much better this year. I think Patrick Kane has looked pretty good in the first couple of games that he played there. So you know, I think they're legit chance to make the playoffs. But again for them, it's a big test tonight because the Carolina Hurricanes are really good. It's a really good a good chance for both teams tonight to see where they're at. No question about it. Final game of a six game road trip.

For the Hurricanes. EJ Radek NHL Network. I appreciate your time, my friend. We'll talk to you soon. Any time. Anytime Adam. Have a good day. You too.

EJ Radek from NHL Network. Cash prizes every day. Ads up when you play at Pulse Casino .com. You can play games and counting and no terrible lounge singer promise.

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