Monday night, the Union Blue Radio crew got a chance to interview Josh Cooper of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy blog. This was for a segment on the podcast… and then the recording software decided to have some issues, so the audio is nigh un-listenable. Luckily for you, our producers suffered through the sweeping volume problems and incessant buzzing to get you this transcript!
Josh recently covered the Blue Jackets on their California trip, so we talked Tortorella and you can see an expanded look at Cooper’s impressions on Puck Daddy. We also got a taste of the West, some thoughts on tonight’s game against Nashville, and a broad view of covering the NHL.
Huge thanks to Josh for joining us. You can find Josh on Twitter @JoshuaCooper, and you can read his work at the Puck Daddy site.
Sam: Recently you were able to cover the Blue Jackets while they were on their west coast swing. What were your impressions of the team at the time?
Josh: I really like John Tortorella as a coach. I liked him before he was hired by the Blue Jackets and I like him even more afterwards. Just being around him, listening to him talk about the game, he makes you think. And I believe that one of the big things that he’s done in that locker room is that he’s just been able to be super honest with players. And they all know where they stand. Now, granted, a lot of them may not like what he’s saying. But at least they know what’s going on.
Just kind of judging by what some of the guys in the locker room have said, it’s a lot easier to know where they are and what they’re doing. Versus in the past where maybe they were able to play their way out of slumps. They know they have to play well or else the hook’s coming.
I think that when you have a coaching change, generally you go with the 100% opposite direction of what you had. Just to see if it works, because it’s just kind of what happens. And he couldn’t be more 100% opposite, I think, than Todd Richards or a lot of other coaches in the league. I think he’s what they need, I think he’s going to turn them around. I think he’s already done that to some degree. He’s the type of coach who can really help this team go far in the playoffs. Which is something that we haven’t really seen out of them. May not be this year, but I think down the road? He’s a good coach for them.
Alison: For all our listeners: Josh already wrote a great piece on Torts on Puck Daddy. If you haven’t already read that, you should check that out.
Josh, you mentioned that it looks like the team is starting to turn around, and you’ve obviously talked to the guys. Are there certain players or certain aspects of how the Jackets are playing where you’re seeing the imprint of John Tortorella making an impact?
Josh: I think they really had no place to go but up after he got there. I mean, look, they’ve been over .500 since he’s been there. It’s a process. They’re not going to hire a new coach and suddenly go on this insane tear where they’re going to win every game. It doesn’t happen that way, it’s uneven.
But I think they’re starting to buy in, I think they’re starting to believe. I think they know that they have some good talent there. I think that talent is going to start showing. It’s almost like they’re just too good to be this bad, and they were too good to be that bad, and it kept getting worse. It just almost took on a life of its own.
And now it’s starting to shift. Again, it’s going to take a little bit. But I think that if there’s one thing that Tortorella gets? It’s that it’s not going to happen overnight. It is going to take a while, and it just starts with chipping away at it. With trying to get a couple of wins here or there. And if you get a couple of wins, then one win becomes two, and two becomes three, and you get a bit of a streak going! But it take a while, and I think he gets that. He has the patience.
I think that management, while they think this is a “win now” type team, they understand it’s going to take a bit to dig out of this hole. And the hole may not be dug out of this year. But they’re going to dig out of it at some point. Whether it be at some point this year or some point next season. I think that the long-term progress that you’re going to see with the Blue Jackets, with Torts as coach, is going to be really solid.
Matt: Upcoming for the Blue Jackets are a team you used to cover very closely, the Predators. I know you’re not directly with them anymore, but are you impressed by the Predators so far? They’re 10-3-3 at this point. Do you think they’re a good team so far? Do you think we should expect a rough game for the Blue Jackets?
Josh: The Predators… I kind of take more of a long-term view of them, instead of a short-term view as them playing the Blue Jackets. For those purposes, I don’t know what to really expect. Because, with the Preds, everything just goes through their goaltender. And when Pekka Rinne is not playing that great, I think they’re a very much different team.
I think for this game, the Blue Jackets just have to shoot the puck at Rinne as much as possible. Pound the net and hope that a few shots go in and he’s off his game. Everything goes through him. When Rinne’s playing well, they’re a more confident group. They’re a group that’s able to play their system better, they’re able to flow better offensively, and they can be a dominant team.
When he’s not playing as well? Then they’re just simply not quite as good. And then some of their major deficiencies, which in my mind would be really mediocre center play, start to rear its head. I think that’s an area that the Blue Jackets, with some of their centers, can take advantage of Nashville.
Sam: What’s interesting to monitor as well: Rinne’s getting up there in age. Shea Weber’s getting up there in age. Will the window for Nashville close given their contract situation at all?
Josh: I don’t think so. But I’ve kinda been a weird proponent of trading Shea Weber recently. Which is strange, because when I covered the team I thought that was such a horrible idea. But it just seems to make so much sense now.
He’s a right-handed shot that is 30 years old. Now, granted, he’s still really really good, and really effective. But he’s not the great sort of dominant player he once was. You have Seth Jones who is going to turn into a great, dominant player. You have Ryan Ellis who’s a solid right handed shot and is probably a good number four D. And I think this team has a glaring, glaring hole in center. I think that trading Shea Weber makes sense, as far as that goes.
In terms of Rinne, I think the one thing you always have to watch? He just gets played so much that by the end of the season he tires out. Now, granted, he’s had a couple of really good early round playoffs series. But after that, he’ll just kind of fall off and he just sort of loses it. And I think that’s a big issue there.
I still think their window is still pretty wide open. They’ve got some really solid young players. I think it’s probably a good two years or so until it closes, I think it’s still pretty open. I think they really are one piece… obviously it’s a big piece, a hard piece to find, but they are that one piece away from being a truly solid, legitimate Stanley Cup contending team. I just don’t think they’re there right now.
Matt: Their top point and goal scorer right now is James Neal, so that is an asset, to a degree. Do you think he has put his dirty play from Pittsburgh in check? Is he able to be an effective scorer now, rather than more than that in a bad way?
J: I haven’t watched Neal as much this year. But in watching him from last year? One thing I found really strange about him was that, it’s almost like he does nothing until he does something. And I know that’s really strange!
Watch the guy play: you think he’s worthless for 80 percent of the game, and then he gets in this open space, and he can fire that shot and score a goal! He does more little things, but sometimes they’re hard to see and that’s how you make money in this league. That’s how you become a very important player in this league, by scoring. And luckily he does that a lot.
I don’t think he’s put his dirty play behind him. I think that if you watch him in the playoffs, he’s a bit of a different type of player there. That’s something that’s been a knock on him, and until he actually becomes a real playoff performer that’s not going to go away.
I also think that with Neal, he does give them a dimension that they never really had before. As far as a guy that can, with one play, one shift, change the entire course of a game? I think that’s what’s super-important about him.
To circle back to your question, I don’t know if he’s really put it behind him. I don’t think we really will know until playoffs again to see how he does or does not perform.
Alison: Moving on from Nashville: as you’ve transitioned away, you’ve been able to look more globally, at the league as a whole. One thing we always like to ask people like yourself: what league stories are you watching? What do you think are going to be some players to watch, some interesting narratives that are going to develop throughout the year?
J: I’m a Western Conference guy, so I’ll give you my thoughts on that conference. What I think as far as storylines that I’m really monitoring out here.
You have the San Jose situation. Patrick Marleau is a guy who has done really well throughout his entire career with San Jose, a rare thing to have want to be traded. You have the Battle of Alberta. That has turned into not so much a battle but a knife fight right now between those two teams. They’re both not very good at the moment. But watching Connor McDavid was big storyline out West this year. Sadly he’s injured so it’s not as interesting, if you will.
Right now though, shifting our attention east? Evgeni Malkin kinda calling out the Penguins. That was pretty interesting, because that’s a team I thought was playing well. They lost two in a row, but they had a nice little win streak going before that. They played really well defensively! 37 goals in 17 games is really good! And when you look at teams that win Stanley Cups, it’s teams that don’t allow goals, not goals that score 5 goals a game.
There are a lot of different things going on this year. Those are some of the things, at least at this exact moment, that pique my interest.
Sam: As you talk about the Eastern and Western Conference, I do have to ask the age-old question. Which do you believe is the tougher conference between the two?
Josh: I have to go with the Western Conference. I just think the centers in the West are so good. And you need one of those guys to win a Stanley Cup. You need Anze Kopitar, you need Ryan Getzlaf, you need Jonathan Toews. You need a guy like a Tyler Seguin, perhaps. They’re just so good out West, and they play that type of style you need to play to win. And win Stanley Cups. That real solid puck possession style where you score between 60 and 80 points a year, but also possess the puck well when you’re on the ice. They do so much.
I think it’s a harder conference because you have so many better all-around talents in the West than you do in the East. The East has some tremendous offensive players, but they don’t have guys that… I mean, to me just watching Jonathan Toews is an absolute revelation. Because he does everything so exceptionally well. And the fact that this guy has never won a Hart Trophy continues to blow my mind. Even though… if I look back, I may not ever have put him number one. So I guess I’m part of that, heh.
But I mean, watching the playoffs last year. They don’t win a Stanley Cup without him. He’s one of the most valuable players in the league! I look at the Blackhawks and think: they can win without Patrick Kane. They can’t win without Jonathan Toews. And they can’t win without Duncan Keith. These amazing all-around talents.
A guy like Toews or a guy like Kopitar, they’re the best at what they do. I think that there’s nobody in the East, although you have some guys who are really good offensively, there’s nobody in the East as good as them as far as playing solid, all-around puck possession hockey.
Matt: One last question for you, more of an open-ended question. Jeff Marek as often described himself as a fan of player stories, rather than a fan of teams. Where do you find yourself in that spectrum? Do you like player stories? Do you prefer to follow whole teams rather than individuals?
Josh: Hmmm, that’s a question I don’t think I’ve had before. That’s a fascinating one. I think I just root for the narrative, the storyline. Whether it’s a player story or a team story, I think there’s always a narrative. And I like a better narrative, if you will. I grew up a Rangers fan, I’m not a Rangers fan anymore which drives my father crazy…. but…
So, for example, when the Blackhawks were playing the Lightning. I love John Cooper as a coach and he’s been awesome to me in dealing with him. But to me, the story of a Blackhawks dynasty trumped the Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup. So to me, that was a better story. I’m not saying I’m rooting for the Blackhawks, but to me that was a better story.
That’s how I look at it. I mean, there are times that, yes, that you root for yourself. Like last year in some regards, also. Going the antithesis of that in some degree, wanting the Ducks to beat the Blackhawks so I could cover a Stanley Cup!
But when you totally pull yourself out of it? Then, yeah, I think you have to pull for the better story, the more interesting thing for the league. Because when push comes to shove, what’s better for the league and its players is really better for all of us, as fans and people who are involved in the sport. As the sport gets better, it gets more notoriety and we get to rise up with it. I think that’s always the most important thing.
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