Stan Fischler's report has an exclusive interview with Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, a look at the Kraken, Panthers, goalies, commentators and more.

SIX POINTS ABOUT SIZZLING SEXTETS

1. In every game – and in every way – the Kraken resemble first-year Vegas.

2. And, yes, they just could go to the Stanley Cup final. Seattle, that is.

3. Moreover, nobody seems to have figured out a game plan to beat them.

4. It’s becoming less of a secret now that the Rangers also have the making of a finalist.

5. The Blueshirts’ problem is that the persistent team across the Hudson in Newark also means business.

6. Whether his Capitals win or lose, Alex Ovechkin remains a remarkable running story.

EXCLUSIVE: KEVIN CHEVELDAYOFF INTERVIEW (Part 1)

What’s come over the high-flying Jets? Their insightful GM has the answers. The topics follow with Chevvy’s replies:

PICKED TO FINISH LOW BUT RIDING HIGH:

We have not accomplished anything yet. When we sat down as a group at the beginning of the season, the players were very open and honest with each other about what they wanted to accomplish as a group. They collectively asked themselves what they were capable of and challenged themselves to show that we were better than last year.

Hockey is a very unique sport. It truly is about the team that can come together and play as a cohesive unit, block out the outside noise and play for each other. As (coach Rick Bowness) has said from the beginning, coaches lead good teams – players lead great teams. We have battled through some key injuries, and players have stepped up and performed well, and we have battled through ‘Bones’ missing the first part of the season with COVID. Hopefully, we can keep on grinding away and keep pushing forward as a group to see what this team is truly capable of.

THE SPECIAL ‘KNACK’ OF RICK BOWNESS:

‘Bones’ recently just passed another milestone in his coaching career, appearing in his 2,600th game behind the bench of a NHL team. It’s hard to even put that into the proper perspective. To say that he has “seen it all” would be an understatement, and yet, he is quick to tell you that he is still learning and growing each day.

If you ask him why he is still coaching, he would tell you it’s because he loves the game so much and that he has one singular goal to accomplish – he is driven to win a Stanley Cup.

Right from the first time that ‘Bones’ and I got serious about his interest in coaching our team, it was easy to see what has made him a very successful coach and such a wonderful person to be around – it’s his ability to communicate. ‘Bones’ is very direct and very honest in his assessment, and he believes in addressing things head-on and not let anything fester. He is open to having dialogue, and whether it’s with his players or his staff members, he is looking for their input and their opinions. He has evolved with the game, and he empowers his players to be leaders. There is a mutual respect amongst the group.

A LOOK AT THE PIERRE-LUC DUBOIS DEAL

P.L. is having a tremendous season for us, and he is still a young, powerful player growing into his game. He has been a big part of the start that this group has had this year. We were very excited to get him because we envisioned a one-two-three punch of Scheifele, P.L. and Adam Lowry giving us size, strength, and skill down the middle. We are hopeful that we can get healthy in our top nine and see what we can do with them as the drivers of our offense. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s nice to have the strength in that area.

CONNOR HELLEBUYCK AND WHAT HE MEANS TO THE JETS

Connor has been fantastic for us. Period. He is a real competitor and challenges himself to get better year over year. He wants the net and wants the work. He and our goaltending coach Wade Flaherty have a very good understanding of each other and have mapped out how they would like things to go. Dave Rittich has won some big games for us this year and will also be relied upon down the stretch. I am sure it’s gratifying for Connor to hear his name being mentioned in the Vezina conversation and deservedly so. However, I do know that he will be the first to say that there is only one thing on his mind that drives him to be the best, and that is to try to win a Stanley Cup. As an elite goaltender in this league, he gives us a chance to win every night, and we are very fortunate to have him.

MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE ON THE JETS

While every season begins as a blank canvas, it is always great to see how talented athletes push themselves to even greater heights. When ‘Bones’ took over as coach, one of the first conversations that he had was with Josh Morrissey.

Bones challenged Josh to push himself to an even higher level than he had previously achieved, because ‘Bones’ believed Josh had even had more to give. Rick told Josh that he believed he could be in the Norris conversation, and Josh has responded with a great first half of the season and his first All-Star Game nomination.

The last few seasons have been tough on Josh personally as he stood beside his father, who was battling cancer, and I’m sure that he must be looking down and smiling as he sees how Josh has helped this team get off to the start that we have had.

POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE GAME

When we sit down at the GM meetings, each year, there is always a great deal of discussion as to where the game is at and what can we do to make it better. Needless to say, those conversations are robust and wide ranging. I like so many things about where the game is currently at. It’s fast, it’s skilled and it’s a very tough league to win in. We have made so many advancements in areas like video review and coaches challenges, etc., all of which have come with a great deal of discussion and careful deliberation, and I think that has helped the league get to a place to arrive at the “correct call”.

One area that technology may allow for continued improvement might be in unlocking the potential of the player and puck tracking system to help improve clarity and accuracy of things like high-sticks, pucks struck with high sticks, goal/no-goal, etc., through reading the height of the puck from the ice surface, the acceleration/deceleration because of contact, or perhaps noting change in speed or angle of the puck as it exits the playing surface, which might indicate if it hit the glass or not. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but hey, you never know!

THE KRAKEN ARE KINGS OF THE ROAD IN 2023

Seattle’s 8-5 victory Saturday in Chicago completed the first perfect 7-0 road trip in NHL history. Glenn Dreyfuss has the details.

Hannibal and General Sherman never led marches more dominant than Seattle’s record-setting two-week rampage through North America.

Along the way, the Kraken laid waste to the league’s No. 3 team, Toronto (5-1), and handed No. 1 Boston its first regulation loss on home ice. The 3-0 shutout also marked the first time the Bruins had been blanked.

Seattle’s road show received boffo reviews from vanquished opponents. “They made their opportunities count,” said Darnell Nurse in Edmonton. “Their push just outworked us,” said Mitch Marner in Toronto. “A lot of guys playing to prove something,” said Nick Suzuki in Montreal. “That’s a really, really good hockey team,” said Don Granato in Buffalo.

As Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark added, “Their game speaks for itself.”

Seattle raised its gaudy road record to 16-4-2, second best on the circuit. An upcoming homestand will reveal whether that mojo travelled back with them. Seattle has won only half its games at Climate Pledge Arena (10-8-2). If the Kraken beat visiting Tampa tonight, they will equal the win total from their entire expansion season.

Kraken notables include left wing Jared McCann; a Chicago hat trick raised McCann’s team-leading goal total to 22. Not bad for a guy Toronto acquired from Pittsburgh for the express purpose of exposing him in the expansion draft.

Center Matty Beniers, age 20, is putting up Calder-worthy numbers (17-19-36 through 42 games, plus-14, just one minor penalty all season). Right wing Daniel Sprong, not a lock to even make the team, then delayed by passport woes, has made up for lost time: he already has a career-tying 14 goals on a bargain-basement contract.

Save for a long-term injury to goalie Chris Driedger, the Kraken might not have even claimed Martin Jones from the off-season reclamation pile. All Jones has done is tie for second in wins (21), registering back-to-back shutouts in Montreal and Boston.

Most importantly, Jones has infused his teammates with confidence.

“I haven’t seen it get quite out of hand that quick,” said Max Domi in Chicago. Between 9:30 and 13:11 of the first period Saturday, Seattle scored five times on five shots.

The Kraken ride an eight-game winning streak, their third heater this season of five or more victories. Their 5-on-5 dominance has masked flaws – a middling power play, porous penalty kill and inability to win faceoffs.

The great Miami Dolphins teams of the 1970s relied on their famously dubbed “no name” defense. The second-year Kraken are doing Miami one better: virtually an entire roster of high-achieving no-names. The rest of the league would be well advised to learn those names fast.

I’M JUST SAYIN

* Apart from Quinn Hughes, the Canucks defense should be re-spelled sieve.

* Quinn’s 200 career points in 242 games are the fastest by a defenseman in Canucks history.

* Young Brother Jack Hughes must get some Hart Trophy thoughts: that is, Mr. McDavid permitting.

* Erik Karlsson is first in the league at even strength points, and Sidney Crosby is tied for third – it’s Deja Vu (2013) all over again.

* The Maple Leafs are very good. It’s just that the Bruins are better.

* This is not an impossibility: Devils versus Kraken in the final.

* A word to Connor McDavid: Because you dislike the shootout, don’t go around telling us: “No one wants to see the game end in a shootout.” Lots of people love the shootout.

* Dean Evason’s limited practices for his Wild is a creative concept. Watch how fast it’s copied elsewhere.

* How about a Rumor Derby. Who gets mentioned more in gossip trade talk, Erik Karlsson versus Jakob Chychrun? Looks like the Coyote is ahead, 4528-4521.

* On Jan. 3, 2019, the Blues were 11 points out of a playoff spot, and you know what happened that June.

* Is there a latter-day 2019 Blues in the NHL house this year?

FLORIDA PANTHERS: LOST SEASON OR INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE?

After winning the President’s Trophy last season and setting a franchise record for points, the Florida Panthers have gone downhill. Our Snowbird in the Sunshine State, Alan Greenberg, offers his analysis.

What happened?

Last season, the Florida Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy, set a franchise record with 122 points (seventh highest in NHL history) and were on their way to greater things before being swept in the Atlantic Division final by Tampa Bay. It was a regular season in which everything on the ice went right. When Joel Quenneville resigned as coach, Andrew Brunette took over, and the team didn’t lose a step.

The Cats averaged 4.11 goals per game and registered 11 wins when trailing entering the third period. Last year’s “Cardiac Cats” became this year’s “Wimpy Cats.” They have yet to win a game when trailing after two and have been outscored in the third period by a 65-46 margin. At the mid-season, they had more regulation losses (19) than all of last season (18). They are mid-pack in goals per game and bottom half in goals against.

GM Bill Zito’s reclamation projects were the work of genius. Gus Forsling, Radko Gudas, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Anthony Duclair and Mason Marchment played the best hockey of their careers. Other acquisitions, such as Sam Reinhart and Brandon Montour, also had great seasons. There was a fun atmosphere around Sunrise.

Last season started with the Cats winning 11 of the first 12 games. They have yet to put together a three-game winning streak this year.

Zito could have done what his cross-state rival in Tampa Bay did in a similar situation. The Lightning brass didn’t panic, change coaches or disassemble the team. They tweaked and added more grit.

Zito, on the other hand, took a calculated risk and overhauled the team, starting with the coach, making them more playoff ready. Everyone knew it would be a temporary step back, but the mediocrity which followed will be second-guessed for years.

To be fair, cap limits forced the departures of a few excellent players. The losses of Marchment, Frank Vatrano and Noel Acciari were significant. Their replacements do not have the same offensive potential, although Eric Staal has recently found a spark. The deadline acquisitions of Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot last season came back to haunt them because of the cost in draft picks and young prospects.

So how else did this train wreck of a season happen?

The deal which brought Matthew Tkachuk to Florida was impressive and will help in the long term, but it just about killed this season. The loss of premier defenseman MacKenzie Weegar in the transaction was irreplaceable. The Cats would have lost Weegar after this year anyway for lack of cap space. Still, he is a first-pairing defender who was especially impressive during Aaron Ekblad’s injury absences. The defensive collapses and penalty-killing deficiencies this year without Weegar are apparent. On the positive side, the power play has been hot recently, going at a torrid 34.5 percent since the holiday break.

The trade also put the Cats in a horrendous cap crunch. The combined final-year contracts of Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau did not equal Tkachuk’s new salary. As a result, the Panthers had to dress less than 20 players on multiple occasions this year.

Injuries and illnesses keep mounting. The Panthers were behind the eight ball before the season began when Duclair, a 31-goal scorer last year, required off-season Achilles surgery and will miss more than half of the season. Superstars Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad missed significant time and haven’t been up to their usual standard while playing. Gudas and Patric Hornqvist, who add toughness, were out with concussion issues. Hornqvist is still out. His LTIR cap saving may be needed to reinstate Duclair when he is ready.

Goaltending has reverted to mediocre. Last year, $10-million goalie Sergei Bobrovsky had a comeback season, flashing his prior brilliance. This year, he has been erratic, and his save percentage has been below .900. Backup Spencer Knight also had a charmed year but has had his ups and downs this year.

Coach Paul Maurice’s style is far different from the high-flying styles of Quenneville and Brunette. Maurice emphasizes defense and play along the boards. The players either can’t adjust or simply have not bought in.

The next month will be critical to determine if Zito will be a deadline buyer or seller. With a shortage of cap space and no first-round picks for three seasons, Zito will be bargaining from weakness.

The off-season will be a different story. With Knight’s new contract kicking in ($4.5 million per year), the Cats will have the most expensive goaltending combination in the NHL. On the positive side, the NHL anticipates a rise in the cap. In addition, major dead cap space (more than $5 million) from the buyouts of Keith Yandle and Scott Darling will be gone. It is improbable that Hornqvist will not return, adding another $5.3 million to the till.

As the man said, “There’ll be better days ahead.”

THE WEEKEND THAT WAS:

FRIDAY: The Jets zoom, 4-1, over Pitt. Mark Scheifele had two red lights and an A.

SATURDAY: Torts’ Flyers – 3-1 over Caps – are stealthily moving up the ladder.

SUNDAY: Two underdogs don’t want to lose even to hot teams: Habs, 2-1 over Rangers, and Canucks, 4-3 over Canes in a shootout.

MONDAY: Game to watch: Philly at Boston. This game will be a barometer. It will tell us precisely how much Torts has done to improve the Broad Streeters.

BIG QUESTION: Who’s better – Cale Makar or Adam Fox?

BIG ANSWER: At this minute – the Ranger.

YAYS AND BOOS:

YAY TO MARK SCHEIFELE for moving into a tie with Ilya Kovalchuk for the second all-time points leader on the Thrashers/Jets franchise.

YAY TO BRUCE BOUDREAU, who’s enduring one of the worst losing streaks of his NHL coaching career (seven of last nine) but remains his usual calm and unflappable: “I just wake up every day and go to work until they tell me not to.”

JERRY HACK’S ‘FAVORITE’ GOALIES

Author of the fabulously funny Memoir of a Hockey Nobody: They Said I Couldn’t Make the NHL, So I Went Out and Proved Them Right!, the whimsical ex-netminder brings back memories with this Rogue’s Gallery of Goaltenders. Here’s Part 1.

Being a netminder and an ardent Canuck fan, I am legally obligated to name Vancouver goalies. Dunc Wilson, Glen Hanlon, Richard Brodeur, Curt Ridley, Kirk McLean and Roberto Luongo are some of the ‘tenders I enjoyed watching. That said, I’m listing six (actually seven) that I most enjoyed and admired.

6. Gary Smith. ‘Suitcase’ first entered my world as Tony Esposito’s backup in Chicago. He came to Vancouver in May 1973 in a trade for all-star defenseman Dale Tallon. Smith played 66 games during the 1973-74 season and was the team MVP, but it was the next season that stands out. He single-handedly muscled the Canucks into the post-season for the first time in their history. When I played road hockey with my friends, I was Gary Smith. He was always a good goalie, but for that one season, he played like a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

5. Mike Smith. In November 2006, I had just played a game and heard the Dallas Stars practising in the arena. I ambled down to check out Marty Turco. There were five players and the backup goalie playing a game of “5 on 0”. Mike Modano rushed the puck into the zone and four others came in behind him. The goalie stopped Modano’s attempt, and the others went after the rebounds. But they couldn’t score! The goalie was stoning their rapid-fire onslaught. It took 10 or 12 shots to finally beat him. This goalie showed his competitive nature as he was mad at himself when he finally allowed one to get by him. From that moment on, I was a Mike Smith fan.

4. Arturs Irbe. ‘The Little Latvian’ had two memorable runs in the playoffs, in 1994 for the San Jose Sharks and 2002 in Carolina. He spent one forgettable season in Vancouver, where he was by far the best goalie they had of the five they used that year. But management decided not to re-sign him, deeming him to be “too short.” The reason he makes my list is not just because of his ability but because of his courage. When Soviet troops and tanks invaded his country, he put up barricades to protect critical infrastructure. Every goalie has courage, but how many have the courage to defend their country from formidable invaders? Irbe did. For that, he is a national hero in Latvia, and he has my eternal respect. (Check out Jerry’s top three on Friday.)

WHO SAID IT? “That’s the problem with being picked for this thing. You have to play.” (Answer below.)

A RARE PLAY-BY-PLAY GUY – HE EVEN DID THE CLEVELAND BARONS

You can count on one finger the number of teams called by the fellow who did radio play-by-play for the New Jersey Devils, NHL Cleveland Barons and Tampa Bay Lightning. In Part 3 of this series, the inimitable Larry Hirsch tells The Maven what it was like to broadcast for the near-bankrupt Barons.

“Cleveland was my first NHL gig, but the Barons were in financial difficulty. At one point in the season, I found out that the players were not being paid, but I had to keep the fans informed. So, I get a message from team captain Bob Stewart that the players were going to go on strike due to non-payment before our next game in Toronto.

“Fortunately, the issue was settled when the Gunn Family bought the team and all was well. But, not quite, because my ‘Dream Job’ came to an end when the Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars and I was out of a job.”

But the irrepressible Master Blaster got off the canvas, got the Devils’ first play-by-play job and eventually wound up in Tampa Bay doing the Lightning.

Knowing that Larry has followed the careers of many hockey play-by-play men, I asked him to pick his choices for the very best in the business. He starts with Doc Emrick as kind of them all and then moves on as follows:

1. Win Elliott. (He did the Rangers in the 1950s.) “My enthusiasm as a broadcaster developed listening to Win do Ranger hockey.”

2. Danny Gallivan. (A Canadian legend who did the Habs games for years.) “Danny was the consummate NHL broadcaster. He was exciting and his call was spot on.”

3. Jiggs McDonald.(He did the Kings, Atlanta Flames and Islanders.) “Jiggs became America’s ideal play-by-play guy. He was the ultimate professional and a classy fellow through and through.”

4. Bob Miller. (Kings) “A Hall of Famer.”

5. Gene Hart. “Another in the line of legendary voices of Philadelphia.”

6. Rick Jeanneret. (Buffalo) “My kind of announcer. Crazy but great. ‘May Day, May Day!’ Great call.”

6B: John Forslund. (Hartford, Carolina, Seattle). “He’s the best on TV today. ‘That’s Kraken Hockey!’ ”

P.S. The Maven believes Kenny Albert is the best play-by-play man going today and has been for a while.

ANSWER TO WHO SAID IT? Goalie Don Beaupre, after an All-Star Game in which he gave up six goals.