The Lowdown with Lowetide - Tim Booth (Mar 31st)

0:00different reasons. Tim Booth from Seattle Times joins us now. Tim, thanks for joining us, appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me on. So I was going to try to explain the different ways the Seattle Kraken could make the playoffs as a wild card. And then I thought I would ask you, but I didn't want you to hang up. So let's not talk specifics, but there is a way, especially because they have two games in hand on the Nashville Predators. There is a way for the Kraken to make this postseason. Yeah, there's a path. I don't know if that's a path that they will actually decide to go down, but there's a there's the math works that they can actually get there. They need a little bit of help. And yes, having two games in hand on Nashville is a big deal right now. Getting a point tonight would be pretty massive, frankly, if they could get out of Edmonton with at least a point, if they could somehow miraculously get two points out of tonight,

1:02then I think the math starts to change a little bit more in their favor, but they have a really tough closing schedule. They have a incredibly tough closing schedule. And so every little point that they're able to pick up here keeps them in the race a little bit longer, even if it doesn't seem likely that they're going to be able to catch Nashville or the Kings or, you know, whoever ends up claiming that final wild card spot. The mammoth game, and I hate to use the word mammoth twice in a sentence, but it's very large on Thursday as well. So this week really kind of, I think, you know, the game tonight and the game against Utah are going to dictate a lot of how the things look at by the weekend for the Kraken, right? Yeah, it's the next, it's the next five days, really. I mean, you've got, you got the Oilers tonight, you come home where they have not played well, post Olympic break, they've been pretty terrible at home, post Olympic break, come home for Utah on Thursday night, which is obviously a really significant game. And then you've got Chicago at home

2:05on Saturday. And Chicago, it represents one of two maybe breeders that you would consider looking at the schedule coming down the stretch because right after they play the Black Hawks, they have a back-to-back in Minnesota and Winnipeg, and then they come home for Vegas Calgary and the Kings to close out their home schedule. Oh, and they get a back-to-back in Vegas and Colorado to close out the regular season. So there's not those, there's not many opportunities. You look at the the schedule going forward and go, oh, there's two points right there. Oh, there's two points there. They're going to have to grind every point they get coming down the stretch here, and it still might not even be enough to catch, you know, one of those other teams because of how poor they played coming out of the Olympic break and now having to go into this really difficult stretch of the schedule. At the deadline, one of the players that was sought after in a lot of markets, including this one, was Bobby McMahon. He ends up going to the crack in for a

3:06fourth and a conditional second and just looking at the numbers, especially the five on five scoring. Bobby McMahon has made a difference there for Seattle since arriving in the last eight games. Absolutely. And he brings, you know, he brings a little different element that they've just been lacking in their forward group that they he's just fast, like he's really fast. And he's been able to translate that speed on the ice into scoring opportunities and then converting some of those scoring opportunities. And he's just he's just something different that they did not have among their forward group. They don't have really that blazing guy who can just skate past everybody and create a creative chance. Berkeley, Captain, maybe it can become that guy eventually, but he is a kid, you know, he's a rookie in his first season. It's tough to expect that kind of impact in your rookie season. But McMahon's a veteran. He's a bee was described

4:07as a late bloomer when it came to his professional career and finally getting going and truly getting an opportunity in Toronto. And I think there's, there's, there's, you know, he's kind of created a bit of buzz among fans here about, well, he is a pre agent. What if we bring him back? What if they can get him back at a, at a viable number? For next year, how does that change, maybe some of what they view as some changes that are going to happen to their roster, just because of the number of UFA that they have right now. He's coming and made a really strong impression. He played for Lane Lambert when Lane Lambert was an assistant last year with, with Elise. Obviously knew what kind of what they were getting and now he's stepped in and really been impactful so far for Seattle. So all in all, it was kind of a very quiet trade, kind of like sort of under the, a little under the radar because it happened right as the deadline was hitting on on trade day, on trade deadline day. But it's turned out to be a really important

5:10trade for Seattle to fill linger on the edge of the playoff chase right now. Tim Booth, our guest from Seattle Times on the lowdown with low tide and sports 1440 radio. There are people in this city to this day who are angry above the Jordan Everly trade, which happened, you know, like a long time ago, almost a decade ago, to the monitors. And, and, you know, when, when he moved to the Kraken, there was talk of, you know, maybe they can, you know, sign up as a free agent. Maybe there's a trade to be made. And I know he's had some injury issues since getting there. But this is, I think year five for, for Jordan Everly in Seattle, having a really good year. I think he leads the team in offense. A really fine player, very slick, very skilled. How important is he to the Kraken efforts? Well, considering how difficult offense is to come for this team, the fact that he's leading, he's leading the team with 23 goals this year is pretty, pretty significant. I mean, he's,

6:11he's obviously the captain. He's a leading goal scorer. He leads the team in points. And he's shown a level of maybe resiliency that I don't know if everyone fully appreciated coming back from the injury that he suffered last year. Like he suffered an incredibly rare pelvic injury that based on what the doctors here in Seattle had said, they've never seen that injury take place in a hockey player. Like that level of impact when he crashed into the boards against Chicago was the kind of impact that leads to an injury typically seen in more contact sports like rugby and football. It was a really major, major injury. And so the fact that he even got back on the ice last year and then to get back this year and be as productive as he has been at the age that he is. I mean, he's not a young guy anymore. He's 35. To the point where Seattle was

7:12willing right before the deadline to sign him to a extension to keep him here and take away any chance that he becomes a UFA this off season. I think that all that speaks to his general importance to this franchise still being young and still trying to find its way and having at least you know, a captain to center around who not only is a great guy in the dressing room, not only is the veteran leader for the group, but at 35 is still going out there and producing to the point that he's your leading goal scorer and you're and leads your team at points. You probably don't want that in a truly successful team to have a guy at 35 leading your team in points with 51 points on the season. But it's for where they are right now and still trying to find who their offensive stars want to be or could be in the future. He's incredibly important to everything they're trying to do. So I have a question about Chandler Stevenson. I know that his

8:17his goal share is poor. I also know via Puck IQ, he plays an enormous amount of time against the other team's top 42.9 percent against the team's other team's top opposition, the elite players. It looks to me as though he's being asked to take on some heavy lifting and these minus 20. And we know that doesn't jive with the rest of the group. Is that a role he's played all year and does the coaching staff feel is though it's an important role by him or is he considered to be a player that has not been able to meet the challenge and it is a big challenge. It's it's a little bit of both because if you ask the casual fan, they look at his production, they look at the raw numbers, they also look at his contract and they go why? Why is he here? So if you just look at it in that prism, it looks like he's not living up to the contract that he signed a couple of years ago when he came here as a free agent. But the structure that they have

9:23with who they have in the down the middle as their centers right now, he kind of needs to take on those matchups. He kind of needs to be the guy who goes out there against Mick David or goes out there against McKinnon or you know name your top center in the league. Like that's the matchups he's going to take because Maddie Beneers is really developed pretty nice two way play for Seattle. But he's still kind of young and he's still trying to figure out how to be more successful when he is matched up against those top line centers. So he kind of slots in and all along Beneers is always kind of projected to me at least that he's eventually a two C. Right. If he's your one C, you're kind of lacking and he's probably more of a two C and if he's your two C and he's on that second line, that's a pretty good second line. That goes more to speak to some of Seattle's roster construction that they're in that position. But that's meant that Chandler Stevenson has to take on a lot more of those matchups.

10:27And so if you look at the raw numbers, it doesn't look good. But you look at it a little bit deeper, like you pointed out with the amount of time percentage wise that he is matching up against top lines. It kind of maybe justifies or makes sense a little bit more why his numbers are where they are. Shane Wright is interesting to me. I there were rumors about him being dealt. So I looked into him and is this a little more math to his goal share is 43% expected goal share 57% that implies some bad luck, bad fortune. But it's it's always felt to me as though and correct me if I'm wrong, that maybe he's he's not fulfilling the role that the team would like him to and he's a young player. And so that there has to be patients. But but he's also a player who's impatient to to get to whatever level he's heading for. So is this a player that you see being long-term a Kraken? And and if not, is this a player that you think might benefit from a change of scenery?

11:33So anytime you're a top five tick, there's going to be an enormous microscope on how how you develop and and what your base around what your expectations were. Um, he is he's plateaued. I mean, without question, the season has been a plateau is not a little bit of a dip of a season for Shane. And as you point out, some of that is bad luck. Some of that is they kind of shuffled lines to try and figure out how to unlock a little bit more offensive production from him. Some of that is he's struggled a little bit with some of his defensive responsibilities of what Lane Lambert is asking him to do in this in the system. The the talks about him being on the trade market before the deadline where it seemed to be very real all the way back to some rumblings in in December and January about a potential a potential move for him. He is the we go back to how Scalow's roster is constructed and how they don't have that top line scoring threat. They don't you know they were in the talks about

12:38Panarin and that never came to fruition. Um, you know, they're even conversations about maybe Robert Thomas right before the deadline from from St. Louis like that's the that's the guy that they're lacking. The guy that they know can go out and get them a goal when they need a goal in in a pressure clutch situation. The one piece that makes the most sense when you look at their roster right now that could be moved in the off season to maybe get that piece is Shane right. And if you were to package right and one of Seattle's plethora of draft picks together, you might be able to put together a pretty good package to to you know wedge someone that fits that need for them out of an established an established team or or more of an established player who's shown through their career that they can put up points and score goals. Um, so whether he needs a change of scenery, I I don't know it seems to lend that that might be the case, but he also remains the most obvious young piece that has some proven NHL experience

13:44that Seattle might be able to package together this off season to do something that really might impact their offense on a on a bigger scale. And then obviously with that comes the risks of of creating the way it's hot five pick and what he maybe becomes in the future. But if this team feels like it's you know one or two pieces away from actually contending for a playoff spot in a season when the West isn't as down as it is, um, he might need to be the piece that's that's parted with in order to get get something in that helps them more. Final question for you. One of my favorites when he played here was Adam Larson just a really tough smart shutdown kind of defenseman. I know that he's been providing that kind of quality play for the Kraken since getting there a few years ago now. How has how has Larson played? I know he's got a lot of miles of NHL hockey and that can wear down a defenseman. How's he played

14:47this year and what's the forecast on Adam Larson? He's played pretty well. I don't I don't know if he's played probably as well as he had the last couple of years. Maybe it's a maybe it's a you'd say it's a little bit of a dip of a season. But his durability and his consistency is I mean it seems like it's unmatched. You know among defenseman in the league he just played as a thousandth game on this past on this road trip down in Florida. He's going to be honored on Thursday night before the game against Utah back home. Just like you asked for a steady defenseman and he's a steady defenseman and he's been paired with Vince Dunn pretty much from day one of arriving here in Seattle and Vince has a little bit of a tendency to be up and down and so to have someone as steady as Adam paired with him for this long has really made them into a very effective duo

15:52on the blue line for Seattle. He's quiet. He's unassuming. He hated all the attention that came with his a thousandth game. He'll hate the attention that comes with the ceremony on Thursday night. But he's just as steady as they come that you could ask for from a from a not just a professional but a guy for a young franchise to come in and and be as consistent as he has been. There's a chance he's going to play in 82 again this year. Just I mean everything he's not going to it be flashy. He's not going to put up numbers for you but you need someone just to play consistent solid defense for you. He's your guy and he's gay. He's very much lived up to that to that in Seattle. Tim Booth thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Enjoy the game.