The Kevin Karius Show - Mar. 27th, 2026 - Zach Cavanagh

0:00Hi, this is Pablo Torei from Pablo Torei finds out and today I want to talk to you about Boost Mobile because we spent a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places, and so on, but those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost Mobile says switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit BoostMobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds, customers pay $25 per month as long as they remain active on the Boost Mobile and Limited plan. Savings claim based on a January 2026 boost mobile survey of a thousand Americans with single line on limited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the Boost Mobile and Limited plan. For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com. Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the fantasy

1:00fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn, but here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before. That's right. Hey, hey, so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chip. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong. News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts. As we welcome back Zach Kavanaugh from the sporting Tribune covers the Anaheim Ducks. Good morning, Zach. You're with Kevin Kerri. Thanks for jumping on sports 1440 this morning. Really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem, Kevin. Happy to be here in the beautiful sunny Alberta, right? I know you're on this trip here. So have you made your way up to Edmonton? Are you still in Calgary? I'm still down in Calgary. Literally looking at the Calgary tower right now. And we'll be flying

2:03up this afternoon. Oh, excellent. Too bad he didn't want to make the drive. Nothing, nothing better than that. Two and a half hour drive up the QE2 for you here. Zach, but that's that's what I hear. Yeah. And wait till you get up here. I mean, it's just absolutely pleasant in Edmonton and area. I think we are looking at, oh, it's only minus eight, but it's going to get warmer today, but we got lots of snow. You're going to really enjoy it when you come up here for for the weekend. It's just absolutely abysmal, Zach. Well, man. It's funny as like as a California, I actually like the difference, but I don't think I don't know what I feel like if this was every day, like you guys have to deal with it. So we're getting sick of it here, Zach. It's been a long winner. And you know, we just got to dump this week again. And it's it's been minus 15. Yeah, we are getting sick of it. And we want spring to come for sure. How was the game last night? The three two overtime win ducks over the flame, Zach. It was a it was a weird one. It's it's a gust about a lot of these games where

3:08they give up the first goal and even they didn't play terribly necessarily to to let up these goals. They had a couple of return there in the first period that maybe they should have been down more. But Calgary wasn't doing anything either to sort of impress themselves upon the game. And Michele Grandland just had a singular performance there with a three goal, the hat trick, to kind of pull them out of that. But otherwise, it was sort of a not not the best performance the ducks have had. But when they get wind out of games like that, that's kind of what the magic has been all season. Well, if I told you with 10 games to go here, nine for the oiders, that the Anaheim ducks would be in first place in the Pacific. I would have told you that at the beginning of the year, Zach, what would you have said? Hey, I wouldn't have believed you for one second. I would have thought that, you know, economic David was out for the season and Jack, I go was out for the season and all that sort of stuff. It's, you know, it's the division is where it is because of sort of the failures of the oiders and the in Vegas in my eyes where the ducks have been

4:10magical. They've they've found these ways to tie the games late and they're excellent in overtime, undefeated in the shootout. All the things are breaking for them at the right times. But everyone knows when you look at the standing like there's 10 teams in the east that are better than the ducks are right now. If it wasn't for the state of play, the ducks would be competitive. They'd be in the play off right, right? Certainly, but I wouldn't have imagined them being at the top of the division, certainly, just based on the pedigrees of Vegas and admittance specifically. But the opportunities there and they've seized it and they're they're running with it 10 games to go up five point lead and who knows what it could be if they'd be Edmonton on Saturday. That's the biggest game of season four for everybody. For sure, it is Zach Kavanaugh from the sporting tribune, our guest on the Kevin Kerri show here on sports 1440. What's John Carlson looked like since the deadline acquisition on the blue line here, Zach? His veteran boys, it's something that's you know, maybe a bit of a cliche or something. All these guys say when I knew guy comes in like, oh, we're excited to see him, but it's really stood out. And you know, he's sort of like a

5:16an evolved version of what some of these ducks puck-moving defensemen will be whether it's Jack and Nicole or Powell Minchikov. He is so calm when he enters his own and you just look at the play last night on the overtime winner. He gets the puck up high, switches spots with grandma down low, he just sort of just starts charging, grandma recognizes that goes up top and they hit the one time mark. And it's these little plays of just sort of the deafness of his shaking the shoulders or looking a guy off to open up space and give room to guys. He did it again in Vancouver on Monday or Tuesday, a three assist night from there. He's really fit in with the offensive scheme here and brought a sense of calm to the blue line where with all these young kids, it can kind of be a little hectic at times. And he's not the big physical Radco-Gudas or Jacob Truba, but he's a big guy that knows how to handle the puck on the ice and get the puck to guys in the right spots and he's certainly helped the power play. It looked so much better last night than it had in recent

6:17weeks. Yeah, no kidding. Zach Kavanaugh with his son sports 1440. Couple injuries last night with a couple guys on the back end. What's the status there, Zach? So Radco-Gudas had a lower body injury about five minutes left in the second period. Didn't have an update last night. The ducks are practicing this afternoon at Edmonton. They'll have a better evaluation then. I won't be there for for that, but basically sort of have to wait till warm up tomorrow with no morning skate on Saturday. And then Paolo Minticoff, he went down on the flames, go ahead, go there in the third period and it was a little controversial where he's lying prone on the ice for 30, 40 seconds before the score. He came back late in the third and he had a shift or two and stayed on the bench for all time. So he's seemingly okay. Again, something to get a better update on when they play tomorrow. And then Troy Terry was another guy who didn't play last night. They called it a maintenance day with a lower body injury. He'd been coming off an upper body injury recently, but they also

7:22expect that he should be back in line up tomorrow. But all of that is sort of up in the air when it comes to these injury updates. They're a bit coy and it's been coming increasingly coy as they get toward the playoffs, but that's the nature of the NHL, isn't it? Yeah, sure is Zach Cavanaugh with us on sports 1440. Well, Mason McTavish here, Zach, what's your take on the season that he's had? I mean, the healthy scratch just recently. And, you know, his future moving forward within the organization. It's certainly been a tough season. There's no two ways about it. And he finally got back on the goal chart with a goal in Vancouver on Tuesday breaking a 14 game drought. He's struggled to be consistent. And he has always been a streaky player. That's nothing new. But it just seems that when he hits these ruts this season, they seem deeper than they've been. And even he was on a line to start off the season with Beckett Seneca and Cutter Goetheye. And there was a stretch where Cutter and Beckett were scored off a chart. So the ducks were the hottest team in the league

8:24and all that sort of stuff. And even while those two Iraqi appoints Mason still wasn't despite being their pivot man in the middle. So it was kind of a strange dichotomy. And as he got into those deeper and deeper ruts, Quindals tried to move him around to jumpstart him and whether that's putting him on the wing or shifting into the fourth line where he is now. Some of it has stuck and then it doesn't really stick for that that much longer. So it's hard to tell. But as far as going forward with the team, it's they clearly made a commitment to him with the, you know, the deal that they signed in the off season. And they need him to be that guy. It's, you know, McKayle Randland stepping up in the way that he has has been a godsend to kind of fill that second line center role. But that should be McCavish's role. And I still get the sense they're very committed to trying to get that to work and maybe writing the season off and seeing if he can't latch back onto it next year because he is a guy that can impose himself on a game when he really gets going. But it's been a struggle. And you know, whether it's in the dot or otherwise, it's,

9:25it's stuff that he's still building on as a 23 year old. But it's also the time of his career where they've given him an assistant captain letter, a half the season. And they want him to really grab hold of that role. And he just hasn't quite gone there yet. But there's still a place for him, you know, he's they need him to be good as kind of a longer short of it. Yeah. Did the contract negotiations have anything to do with maybe, you know, how he came into this season? You would think so, but it's funny because normally he starts very slow. And I thought coming into, you know, camp as ladies he did that it was going to be even worse. And he started off the season fairly hot. Again, with, in fact, it's Santa Clara Goethe, maybe part of that is, is the two of them helping him more than infelming them. But I, it's hard to tell this late in the year because the worst moments of the season have come recently with those healthy scratches and such. But he's had a really great attitude toward it. Like any time that I have to approach

10:28the subject with them, he's always there ready to talk and give them a fairly believable answer, not just sort of the player speak that you get sometimes. But it's, it's all there for him. I just, I don't know if the contract discussion particularly had an effect, but he's clearly been struggling to define his place in this new system. We all prefer things a certain way, like groceries. If you want groceries, just how you like them, you've got to try Instacart. They have a new preference picker that lets you pick how ripe or unripe you want your bananas. Shoppers can see your preferences upfront, helping guide their choices. Because when it comes to groceries, the details matter. Instacart, get groceries, just how you like. Howdy, howdy ho and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Miss

11:31Born. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Miss Born before. That's right. Hey, hey, so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chip. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong. News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy Fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah. What about Owen Zellweiger? We've been following this guy for a long time, you know, world juniors and everything. What's his trajectory been this year? What do you think it is in the future as well? Here's Zach. Olin's had a rough go of it, too. And he was a guy that really started to take off last year and has its upper trajectory. And it's the problem that Olin is looking at now is it's just such a stacked duck's back end, whether it is right now or looking at the guys coming down the pike, whether it's, you know, first round picks like Steven Solberg or Tristan Luno. Those guys are going

12:35to be coming up on the left side in Solberg's case relatively quickly. And Zellweiger as a smaller defenseman, he has always relied on his shot and his speed. And his speed is still there, but his sides are never going to change. And his shot isn't falling as much as it is this year. So he's, he's had a bit of a rough go recently. He was scratched on on Tuesday. And now that, you know, he was able to get some more reps, but now that Rack of Goodness is up and Ian Moore has made an impact the season on the back end as well. There's one of these guys are going to get pushed out pretty soon. And for a while, it maybe felt like it was going to be Palomitcha cost based on the early part of the season. But Michikov is really solidified, especially with Carlson as his partner recently. And Zellweiger is kind of the guy that's on the bubble right now. And I would be surprised if he is, is moved at some point for, as a duck need, look at the needs and say, hey, maybe we need another scoring forward and we could package a guy like him.

13:37He still has plenty of promise. He just is kind of losing his, his role here with the organization slowly but surely. So is it as size do you think that maybe that might be somewhere where the organization goes, we don't have a spot for you. But when you think about those three pending older UFA's in Carlson, Truba and Goudus, you would think that there's a spot for him in on the back end moving forward, wouldn't you? You would think it's, I get the sense that they still want to keep Truba. I get the sense that they've made no kind of bones about it that they do want to at least approach Carlson about staying. Goudus is kind of on the fence. But when I say that there's all these young guys in the organization right behind him, you know, Steven Solberg is a big hitter on the left side. And Tristan Luno is a very tall, easy, bulky kid, but can also score the puck. And he's a right-handed defender. And Ian Moore is kind of the surprise in all this where he got a call up early when Goudus went down early in the season and has just enamored himself so much

14:38with the coaching staff that they try to keep him in the lineup, whether it's a forward or D. And all these guys are just slightly bigger, a little bit older, have a little bit more to them. Knowing Pat Verbeek, it's so funny with him being the little ball of hate. He loves his big strong players. And just like we saw with Zegris getting moved out in the last off season, I don't know if he sees Owen Zellweger as a long-term piece. And Zellweger has had the opportunities to really make an impression in that way. And he did certainly last year. But this has not been the same season for him, despite the more regular playing time that he's had this year. Look at down the road here, Zach. Is it crazy to say that the three young forwards that they're building this team around in Gochie, Carlson and Seneca? Is it crazy to say that all three of these guys could be 40 gold guys in the NHL with this duct tape? Not at all. It's kind of amazing how the jump that Cutter Gochie took this season. I think we all expected him to take some sort of

15:39leap. And I would say, OK, 30 gold would be a great season for him. Now he's staring at the 40 gold plateau. He's at 36. It's on the way. And Seneca, coming into the season, nobody thought he was going to stick with this team longer than the 10 game tryout. And here he is, one of the most consistent players on the team. He has hit a slow patch here recently. And I want to talk to him. I still haven't gotten to him in about a week or so to kind of see where he's feeling. If this is the the the rigors of a long NHL season, finally catching up to the 20-year-old. But he he bounces back and he's always out there. He's always trying stuff for better or worse. He likes to get a little fancy with some of his reads these days. But it's incredible the the leap that particularly Carlson and Gochie have taken. And Beckett and Seneca has been the X factor for this team. We talk about where I would have expected the ducts to be. If it wasn't for Seneca's contribution, basically an extra top six forward that you didn't expect to be a 50 plus point score for you at

16:40this point. I don't know how much further the ducts would be down, but it wouldn't be where they are. Seneca has truly been the X factor to what the ducts roster became the season. What kind of game you think we're going to see tomorrow. Everyone knows that ducts can open it up, like to open it up, take some chances. Orders at times this year, we've seen a similar game where their defensive commitment hasn't been there. But I think what are we looking at 22 goals in the last two games, right? And the six five and seven four. So you think it's going to be like a high scoring one, or do you think because the playoffs are nearing that maybe the two teams will lock it down a little bit tomorrow afternoon, Zach. You would think with the stakes that it would end up being a tighter game than usual, but I don't know that these teams are capable of doing that. I highly anticipated another quick one. I think in both the games, not only have they been high scoring, but they've just had these wild swings and momentum. The game had been in the the way they scored what three goals in like four minutes or something like that. And

17:42and Michele Grandland had his first hat trick in the season there. And the Anaheim game, just another one where it was back and forth and ducts. Tyley, Winley, all that sort of stuff. I can't imagine the teams playing anything less than a hundred mile an hour track me tomorrow. But I will say that afternoon games are not the ducts specialty. So I wouldn't be surprised on the come out maybe a little slow to open this one. But well, same with the orders to Zach for afternoon games. It's just the way it seems. After the ducts are here, you guys are home to Toronto on Monday. What kind of fireworks are you expecting in that game after the goodest Matthew's incident? Well, I'm very curious based on if Radco is even going to play. I think getting injured last night. If he doesn't go on Monday, I don't know what the result of that is. Do the leads then take that out on some of the other ducts star players? Do they just sort of pack it in? I don't know what that's going to end up being if Radco doesn't play. If he does play, I hope it is limited to target records. Do it as have your fight, get it over with, get out of your

18:46system, and then sort of move on. Because again, we with at that point, there'll be eight games toward the playoffs. The ducts cannot afford anything happening to the three guys you mentioned, Beckett, Seneca, Carter Goethe, Leo Carlson. If there's any sort of target and it goes on there, it could get nasty. But the ducts also don't have the same level of bruises that you might think. Like the only guy that will drop the glove is like a designated fighter right now in the lineup is Jeffrey VL. I don't know if that's going to be satisfactory to what the Leafs want there, but it'll be up to see if Radco plays or not. Hopefully he does and everything gets avoided. But if he doesn't, it could get up fairly interesting. Yeah, we'll see what happens. He's like, thanks for coming on. Enjoy the trip up here and maybe pick up one of those winter coats you can buy at the airport. You'll need it when you get here. Absolutely. Thank you, Kevin. Hi, this is Pablo Tore from Pablo Tore finds out. And today I want to talk to you about

19:47boost mobile because we spent a lot of time analyzing inefficiencies in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost mobile says switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look. Visit BoostMobile.com to learn more. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers pay $25 per month as long as they remain active on the boost mobile unlimited plan. Savings claim based on a January 2026 boost mobile survey of a thousand Americans with single line unlimited plans, comparing average annual payments of major carriers to 12 months on the boost mobile unlimited plan. For full offered details, visit boostmobile.com. Howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy, and welcome to fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the fantasy fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Steven,

20:48your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn, but here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before. That's right. Hey, hey, so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chip. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong. Newsflash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts. We all have eyelids. Close them. Open them. How do they feel? If you've ever experienced red itchy irritated eyelids, it might be an eyelid disease called Demodex blepharitis. But here's the twist. Demodex blepharitis is caused by tiny mites living on your eyelids. Surprised? Most people are. But there's something you can do. Stay calm and visit eyelidcheck.com. And together with your eye doctor, you can make a plan. Don't freak out. Get checked out, sponsored by Tarsus Pharmaceuticals.