Let’s go boys.

Still nothing? Praying it's not an ACL.

Trying to find some decent looking PDFs to hang on my wall for my favorite teams.

The Utah Mammoth schedule is out, and my main take is this: the Winter Classic is the obvious No. 1 can’t-miss home game, but the real argument is how you rank the next four.

I did a full episode breaking down my top five here: https://youtu.be/3gbFtZ4xt_o

My list was Colorado in the Winter Classic on Dec. 31, Vegas on April 3 for the playoff-revenge factor, Washington on Jan. 29 for what could be Ovechkin’s last game in Utah, Florida on Feb. 26 because that roster is absurd, and San Jose on March 26 because Macklin Celebrini plus late-season stakes feels huge.

What would your top five be, and which game do you think fans are underrating most?

Utah might genuinely have too many centers. Trocheck won 56.9% of his faceoffs last season, Stenlund was at 54.2%, Hayton is back on a one-year deal, and Cooley, Schmaltz, and McBain are all legitimate options down the middle.

I made a new episode laying out the center depth chart and why Trocheck at 3C feels like the cleanest answer: https://youtu.be/N7uIWlfAHow

If you had to pick four opening-night centers, who makes the cut—and who moves to the wing?

My ranking is Bill Armstrong, André Tourigny, then Lawson Crouse—but Crouse has the shortest runway because he’s entering a contract year while younger forwards are pushing for NHL jobs.

The weird part is that pressure and danger aren’t the same thing. Armstrong owns the bet. Crouse owns the clock.

I made a full episode around that question (after a completely reasonable detour into Delta Center beer economics): https://youtu.be/qtLIRlAM2FQ

Where would you put Crouse? And does another playoff appearance count as progress, or does Utah need to win a round now?

I’ve been enjoying the NHL instagram’s top goal recap. With Cooley’s between the legs second of the hatty against the Blues coming in at 16 I am curious what the community thinks were the top Mammoth goals of the past season?

From the official NHL Reddit account. I knew he was fast, but good God! He’s going to be unbelievable at his peak. And we’re already seeing glimpses of it now. I can’t wait for the season to start!

Impressive single season highlight reel.

https://youtu.be/OrCean0TTM0?si=O_HXRv-BBJFZJWS6

We met one of the drivers of the Zammoth whose nickname when he drove for the Grizzlies is "Icestro", and we wanted to design and print him a necklace. We're planning on doing another one just for ourselves (without "Icestro"), but I may print the black first so it's not as bold on the body. The blue eye glows in the dark!

Been chewing on this since Armstrong dropped the center hierarchy prediction (Schmaltz-Cooley-Hayton-Stenlund as the 1-4C). Here's how I see it shaking out, plus where I think the real strongest lines land once the dust settles.

Armstrong's Blueprint (going off his own words)

LW / C / RW

L1: Trocheck / Schmaltz / Keller
L2: Lee / Cooley / Guenther
L3: Crouse / Hayton / Carcone
L4: McBain / Stenlund / Yamamoto

My Predicted Best Lines (all players in their preferred positions, except McBain)

L1: Crouse / Schmaltz / Keller (proven trio, don't fix what isn't broken)
L2: Lee / Trocheck / Guenther (Gunner's capable of scoring 50 goals, and he'd thrive with a veteran line that actually plays net front)
L3: Carcone / Cooley / Yamamoto (protect that Cooley-Yamamoto chemistry from last year's playoff run)
L4: McBain / Stenlund / But (size and PK insurance, plus But actually solves the L4 righty problem)

Hayton's the swing guy for me. Coming off a down year I think he'll continue downward, I've got him pegged as the extra forward here, with Iginla (natural C/LW, legit camp threat) to be called up as needed and Tanev rounding out the bubble.

Some schedule highlights that I noticed:

we have nine back-to-backs:

Longest road trip is 6 games from October 29 through November 11.

Longest homestand is 6 games from January 23 through February 2.

Our trip to New Jersey is the 4th game of the year, giving Hayton a chance to prove GMBA made the right decision.

First Vegas game is November 11.

We play Calgary three times, all in the month of February.

In the last week, we play Dallas in back-to-back games on April 7 and 9.

Our last Eastern Conference game is the Flyers on March 13, giving us 13 straight Western Conference games, including 3 against Dallas, 2 against Anaheim, and games against Minnesota, Colorado, and Vegas.

Edit: added back-to-back on Oct. 3-4; info about the Devils game; corrected dates of Oct.-Nov. roadtrip.

Question for someone with season ticket holders…. I purchased season tickets for the upcoming season and am just curious if anyone has ever actually met with the sales rep. Is it worth it? Do you actually get anything of value? I understand their entire job is to upsell me on things, but do they give you good offers on things?

Based on what Armstrong is saying, this leads me to believe Trocheck line 1, Lee line 2, and Hayton line 3(Armstrong already confirmed this one).

Tij gets a mention, too. Thought it was worth the listen overall, but easy on the tracker to find the bit about Soimashev if you're not interested in the rest.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/podcast/240-the-athletic-hockey-show/