Hello everyone! Myself (@PhilipAIver) and my Winnipeg Jets guru of a co-host @sliiiiip present to you Episode 3 of the AIH 20416 Podcast (@AIH20416). Alan flexes his mighty Producer muscles, booking Travis Hughes (@TravisSBN) as our special guest. Travis Hughes is all things hockey at SB Nation, serving as editor of hockey coverage at SBNation.com and manager of our network's 30+ hockey blogs, while still being a regular contributor and editor over at the blog he founded, Broad Street Hockey.
In our intro segment, I manage to remember my own name and Twitter handle, while being completely wrong on Thomas Raffl's waiver status and Grant Clitsome's status on LTIR (he's on regular IR). And before leaping into our division-by-division season preview, we ask Travis Hughes about SB Nation's role in legitimizing the fan blog as a distributor of hockey knowledge and opinion, league-wide reception to alternative media, Philadelphia GM Ron Hextall reversing 40 years of Flyers history and more.
Moving to the central pillar of Episode 3, we walk through all four NHL divisions, moving from the Metropolitan to the Atlantic, then leaping over to the Pacific before finishing strong with the Central. It would be poor form to give away too much, but Travis graced us with a cornucopia of content, including but not limited to: possible Division Champions, playoff predictions, forgetting the New Jersey Devils exist, picking Buffalo over the Boston Bruins, the madness of Edmonton postseason hopes, and how the only certain things in the Pacific are Arizona being bad and Anaheim being good.
As you might expect, we save the best for last. We discuss the crème de la crème of the Central, how many teams the division might send to the playoffs, the pressure on St. Louis and Ken Hitchcock, and the idea that one day, Joel Quenneville might not be the right man for the job in Chicago. Oh, and a Winnipeg Jets question or three make their way in there as well.
Alan pulls a fast one and asks all three of us to give Stanley Cup finalist and winner predictions. I won't reveal who we pick to win it all, but here are our projected matchups (I think I inadvertently expand Alan's question to include Conference Finalists).
Alan
Stanley Cup Final: Anaheim v. Tampa Bay
Phil
Western: Chicago v. Anaheim
Eastern: Washington v. Tampa Bay
Stanley Cup Final: Anaheim v. Washington
Travis
Western: Nashville v. Anaheim
Eastern: Washington v. Tampa Bay
Stanley Cup Final: Nashville v. Washington AKA The Barry Trotz Bowl
Between all that, NHL expansion talk, Steven Stamkos speculation, and the awkwardness this summer of running a blog network with a New Jersey blog named In Lou We Trust, it was content enough for two podcasts. We haven't been fired yet, so it must have gone well! And since it went well, you should give it a listen:
1. Listen online here.
2. Visit our page on the Internet Archive.
3. Download the .mp3 file directly here or here.
So tune in, let us know how we did in the Comments section below, and remember to send your questions, concerns, comments and haterade our way by tweeting @AIH20416. Thanks for reading, and look for Episode 4 early next week!
