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Speaker 1: Welcome to Cracking this Morning, a presentation of the Crack

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Speaker 1: and Audio Network and Sports Radio ninety three point three

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Speaker 1: KJR FM.

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Speaker 2: Here's Mike Benton Holme Stan Finale, coming up as a

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Speaker 2: Seattle Crack and looking to get back on the winning path,

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Speaker 2: something that has been a bit hard to come by

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Speaker 2: in the most recent home schedule. They take on the

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Speaker 2: Chicago Blackhawks for the third and final time of this

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Speaker 2: regular season. Pod drop is seven o'clock tonight from Climate

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Speaker 2: Pledgerina airtime at six thirty. Welcome to Cracking this morning.

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Speaker 2: Mike Betton with you as always. You can get this

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Speaker 2: on demand by visiting the Crack and Audio Network via

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Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, and again for all on demand podcasts,

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Speaker 2: simply sign up for free to get it at sports

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Speaker 2: radio kjar dot com. You'll be leaner, cooler, more fit, smarter,

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Speaker 2: healthier in your hockey brain. You know we're always here

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Speaker 2: for you. We will have Jeff Baker join us here

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Speaker 2: in just a bit, of course, a part of seattlecrackin

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Speaker 2: dot com, also their VP of Editorial. We'll get into

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Speaker 2: the meat of two nights ago, where the Kraken dropped

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Speaker 2: a six to two lost to the Utah Mammoth, Bobby

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Speaker 2: McMahon's influence here on this offense, and a quick look

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Speaker 2: at the Blackhawks already looking here to the future, well

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Speaker 2: out of the playoff race and mathematically eliminated at twenty

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Speaker 2: seven thirty five and fourteen point total at sixty eight.

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Speaker 2: Jeff Baker will be with us in just a bit.

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Speaker 2: Before we get to him, we're also gonna hear from

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Speaker 2: Ford Coppocaco, who has certainly found new life offensively since

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Speaker 2: the Olympic break twelve points in fourteen games since the

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Speaker 2: beginning of March. There's only one player who has even

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Speaker 2: matched that total, and that's Bobby McMahon, who has been

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Speaker 2: lighting the net up on fires since the trade deadline

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Speaker 2: and joining the Kraken as well, with eight goals in

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Speaker 2: a ten game span. Perhaps as nature has it, the

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Speaker 2: two have now joined on a line together as wingers

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Speaker 2: for center Chandler Stevenson, and of course they all found

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Speaker 2: the score or sheet together, with a Kraken building a

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Speaker 2: lead showing plenty of promise up to nothing with six

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Speaker 2: point fifteen left in period one, and McMahon poking through

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Speaker 2: his twenty seventh goal of the season, set up by

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Speaker 2: Chandler Stevenson and Coppocaco as well. Unfortunately, the rest of

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Speaker 2: the game went by the wayside for the Kraken, who

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Speaker 2: at one point appeared to grab a three to one

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Speaker 2: lead off a tip end goal by Jacob Alanson in

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Speaker 2: period two, Utah issuing a coach's challenge for goaltender interference.

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Speaker 2: Upon for the review, Utah won the challenge, the goal

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Speaker 2: was wiped off the board, and Utah kept pushing ahead,

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Speaker 2: eventually scoring six unanswered goals to coming courtesy Logan Cooley,

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Speaker 2: with also Dylan Gunther and Cooley each picking up three

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Speaker 2: point games in the process, and the Kraken falling to

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Speaker 2: one and six in the previous seven home games, that

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Speaker 2: presents a perilous playoff picture at this point. With eight

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Speaker 2: games to play, the Kraken with seventy five points on

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Speaker 2: the season, a record of thirty two to thirty one

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Speaker 2: and eleven. They will sit entering today four points back

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Speaker 2: of the cut line shared with the San Jose Sharks,

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Speaker 2: Nashville Predators, and the Los Angeles Kings. Plenty of teams

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Speaker 2: still very much in the playoff mix here at this point,

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Speaker 2: and m Kraken running out of time, you're still seeing

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Speaker 2: some daylight potentially as they head into this homestand finale

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Speaker 2: against Chicago. Before Jeff Baker joins us, we caught up

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Speaker 2: with Ford Copocaco with more to react from in this

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Speaker 2: stretch drive, the state of his lines play and his

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Speaker 2: play as well.

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Speaker 3: Okapa, first up, how do you assess what's ahead of

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Speaker 3: this team with the eight games left?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's not being the best lately. We

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Speaker 4: need some wins right now. We want to We're wanna

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Speaker 4: make the playoffs, so it's steeling off, you know, like

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Speaker 4: we have to find out our best game and then

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Speaker 4: I'm in your chest tomorrow.

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Speaker 3: How do you compare And I'd say, for example, the

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Speaker 3: highest period one versus the lows of period three and

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Speaker 3: kind of find a balance for what you guys want

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Speaker 3: coming up here for the Chicago.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they started well, that's something like we

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Speaker 4: gotta just keep pushing, you know, like playing the zone

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Speaker 4: and then get body stood. And I feel that's what

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Speaker 4: we what we are doing when we are our best,

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Speaker 4: you know. So I mean, yeah, yesterday was not us,

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Speaker 4: especially in the end, so gotta just gotta find a way.

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Speaker 3: I can't think of one example as far as a

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Speaker 3: better one recently than the goal that one of your

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Speaker 3: line made scored last night. And Bobby McMahon, he just

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Speaker 3: goes right than that and just finds a way to

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Speaker 3: polk one on through to get these guys a two

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Speaker 3: gold lead. And things have been kind of shuffling back

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Speaker 3: and forth with the line combinations. But what are you

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Speaker 3: discovering about what he does for you and Chandler on

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Speaker 3: that line together.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a strong body, he can skate. I mean

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Speaker 4: obviously he's feeling well right now. I think we all

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Speaker 4: can see it. So so you know, like like a

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Speaker 4: goal last night, I mean there's there's been a couple

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Speaker 4: of goals like he just got the buck in the

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Speaker 4: Newdle zone and skated in and scored a goal. So

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Speaker 4: he can really skate. I mean TV also in the middle.

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Speaker 4: I mean both both of those they they can do that.

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Speaker 4: And I mean really like to play with those those

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Speaker 4: two guys.

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Speaker 3: What about your games since the Olympics ended? Where do

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Speaker 3: you feel that you're at right now?

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Speaker 4: I think it's been being better than before. I would say,

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Speaker 4: maybe got some little confidence, you know, And then I

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Speaker 4: mean playing with those those two guys right now, I

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Speaker 4: think there's been a lot of pretty good games. So

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Speaker 4: so that's kind of them the mindset keep just keep going.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of funny because we're all talking about, you know,

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Speaker 3: two three months ago, the questions of what the Olympics

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Speaker 3: kind of you know put guys at a disadvantage. We're

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Speaker 3: playing so much hockey and you get worn down. But

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Speaker 3: you know, are you kind of a believer that it's

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Speaker 3: kind of helping you maintain some rhythm in your game?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe a little bit. There was some pretty hard

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Speaker 4: games also, you know, played against all the all the

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Speaker 4: best players, so I think for sure that that that's

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Speaker 4: being helping and you know, like played played well there,

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Speaker 4: so that builds builds confidence.

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Speaker 2: Well, time is running out Ken the Kraken salvage as

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Speaker 2: much as they can right now with the playoff race

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Speaker 2: getting a bit steeper. Joining us now Jeff Baker for

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Speaker 2: Seattlecracking dot Com VP of editorial as well here on

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Speaker 2: Cracking this morning. Great to have Jeff back with us

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Speaker 2: once again. Jeff Fellow, Happy Saturday. And you know I

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Speaker 2: first said this, you know, the last roughly two three games.

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Speaker 2: You know, despite where the Cracking are at, you had

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Speaker 2: to ask back in September could you find ways to

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Speaker 2: play in meaningful games right now at this time of year.

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Speaker 2: And we have seen plenty of meaningful games as well.

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Speaker 2: How are you, man, I'm doing well.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, they're playing. They're playing quote a quite a few

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Speaker 5: meaningful games they have played in them and you know,

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Speaker 5: unfortunately they haven't won the majority of those meaningful games.

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Speaker 5: And that's that's kind of why they find themselves in

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Speaker 5: the predicat predicament that that we're in right now. And

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Speaker 5: uh yeah, you know that's that's the downside of playing

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Speaker 5: meaningful games. They hurt when you lose them. You'd rather

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Speaker 5: be in the meaningful games though, So there is that

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Speaker 5: if you want to take a positive away, Look, Mike,

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Speaker 5: they got to score goal. That it's been a problem

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Speaker 5: all season long. You can't just score two goals a

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Speaker 5: game and expect to win in the NHL. The thing

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Speaker 5: is the crack and have shown that when they score

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Speaker 5: three goals in a game, they tend to win more

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Speaker 5: often than they lose, a lot more often, actually usually

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Speaker 5: about twice as much. Or they get points and let's

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Speaker 5: say twice as many games that they don't get points

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Speaker 5: when they score just three goals. I'm not talking about

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Speaker 5: four or five. When they score four or five, they

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Speaker 5: hardly ever lose. But we're talking about, you know, just

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Speaker 5: three goals they need to score. That's not asking for

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Speaker 5: a lot out of an NHL team. And you know,

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Speaker 5: they had been doing it for a while. They've been

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Speaker 5: doing it up until the Winter Olympic break and that's

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Speaker 5: when they you know, they sort of turn their season around.

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Speaker 5: But since the winner Olympic break, they've scored two goals

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Speaker 5: or fewer and I think two thirds of their games.

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Speaker 5: And that's not going to get it done because they

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Speaker 5: lose almost every single one of those and most teams

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Speaker 5: in the NHL will You can't win scoring two. So

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Speaker 5: if you're going to lose two out of every three games,

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Speaker 5: the season's over. They've got to find a way to

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Speaker 5: change that dynamic. They've got to change it tonight Chicago,

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Speaker 5: and keep changing it against Winnipeg, then against Minnesota, and

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Speaker 5: then you know, hope for the best going forward. That's

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Speaker 5: the predicament there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a scoring goal thing of it. They're three

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Speaker 2: nine to two last fourteen games. That dates back to

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Speaker 2: their very first game to begin the month of March.

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Speaker 2: They've allowed fifty five goals as well in that span

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Speaker 2: nearly four per game, and the power play going back

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Speaker 2: here to the offense just four of thirty seven. So

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Speaker 2: I mean quite a few things that we can kind

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Speaker 2: of connect this too. But I also go back and

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Speaker 2: examine the what if picture when you talk about building

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Speaker 2: up a two zero lead. This happened the previous game,

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Speaker 2: This happened in Buffalo, this happened against Nashville as well

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Speaker 2: at home. So how do you kind of draw the

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Speaker 2: connection between the highs of period one, the lows of

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Speaker 2: say period two, or maybe even moving day as we say,

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Speaker 2: in period two before period three, and kind of find

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Speaker 2: a way to balance with what this team wants to

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Speaker 2: get after here for a full sixty minutes.

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Speaker 5: Well, you and I talked about in the press box

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Speaker 5: during the Utah game, and I actually wrote about it

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Speaker 5: in a column on Seattlecracking dot com on Friday yesterday.

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Speaker 5: And so, look, it's not This isn't because the crack

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Speaker 5: and are blowing leads and they're suddenly defensively for us

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Speaker 5: and a liability that they're they're blowing those leads because

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Speaker 5: they're not scoring enough goals. You score three goals and

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Speaker 5: turn that to nothing lead in Buffalo into a three

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Speaker 5: nothing lead, and they had god knows they had their

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Speaker 5: chances to do that, and that game's over. They're not

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Speaker 5: coming back. You know, in the game against Utah, you

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Speaker 5: score a goal to make it three to one. I

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Speaker 5: know that goal got called back, but that's probably a

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Speaker 5: much different hockey game. Or you make it three nothing,

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Speaker 5: I think nothing, yeah, right, that that changes the entire

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Speaker 5: That changes the entire game. The problem is after they

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Speaker 5: made it to nothing, I think it went about seven

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Speaker 5: or eight minutes without a shot on goal, and that

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Speaker 5: can't happen. You've got to keep pouring it on. That's nothing.

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Speaker 5: It's a cliche. You know, to nothing leads to the

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Speaker 5: least safe lead in hockey. Yeah sometimes, but honestly, the

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Speaker 5: good teams find a way to make those stand up

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Speaker 5: and the krack and we're doing that. You know, they

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Speaker 5: went an entire five months without losing a single game

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Speaker 5: in which they had a multi goal lead all season now,

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Speaker 5: and a handful of those the other team came back

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Speaker 5: to tie them, but then the cracking went on and

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Speaker 5: won and overtime, and then I think one time they

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Speaker 5: even want to shoot out way back when, but you know,

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Speaker 5: they were doing that the first five months of the

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Speaker 5: season they were getting the job done. The last since

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Speaker 5: the break, I mean, and you just mentioned it right there,

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Speaker 5: we've had three times now in the last I think

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Speaker 5: it's twenty two days twenty three days where they've blown

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Speaker 5: two nothing leads. And then there was a fourth time too.

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Speaker 5: They blew a three to one lead in Tampa Bay.

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Speaker 5: But they did win that game, and one of the

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Speaker 5: reasons they wanted is because they scored that their goal,

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Speaker 5: and so they it was three to three after regulation

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Speaker 5: that they had. You know, you're not going to score

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Speaker 5: two goals and win many games in regulation. You know,

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Speaker 5: you've got to score three to at least get it

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Speaker 5: the overtime, at least get the points. And that's what's

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Speaker 5: really hurt them so far. Hurt our team, you know,

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Speaker 5: as far as playoffs go, is we've given up too

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Speaker 5: many games where we don't get it even to overtime.

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Speaker 5: And that's because we're not scoring three goals. You've got

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Speaker 5: to get beyond the two goal threshold. I don't know

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Speaker 5: if it's it's pressure. I don't know if it's you know,

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Speaker 5: a lack of confidence. We've seen and you and I

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Speaker 5: talked about this all the time, we've seen the players

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Speaker 5: make passes, you know, instead of shooting, they pass up

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Speaker 5: on clear shots. And the players themselves offer this criticism,

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Speaker 5: and the coach Lane Lambert offers this criticism, he's been

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Speaker 5: doing it all year, that they're not shooting, they're passing

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Speaker 5: the puck. And and why do you do that if

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Speaker 5: you're a player, because a lot of times maybe you're

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Speaker 5: not confident you're going to score. And so that's something

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Speaker 5: they got to fix. They got to they got to

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Speaker 5: just get down to it, as Mighty Beneer says, bear down,

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Speaker 5: get down to it, do the work, put in the work,

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Speaker 5: take the lumps in front of the end, and get

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Speaker 5: that puck over the line any way you can. And

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Speaker 5: they're not always doing that, and I think that's I

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Speaker 5: think sometimes they get those two nothing leads and it's

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Speaker 5: they kind of settle for it from there and try

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Speaker 5: to hang on. And that's terrible recipe for success.

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Speaker 2: Jeck Baker joining us here on cracking this morning as

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Speaker 2: a crack and getting set here for the Chicago Blackhawks.

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Speaker 2: It will begin also three games in four nights. It

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Speaker 2: will travel tomorrow big and I mean mess back to back,

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Speaker 2: potentially looming Monday against Winnipeg, then Tuesday against Minnesota. Jeff,

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Speaker 2: I got a wild stat for you. Ever since the

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Speaker 2: debut of Bobby McMahon, the krack And have scored twenty

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Speaker 2: six goals. McMahon has accounted for eight of them, which

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Speaker 2: is thirty percent of the entirety of the Seattle Krackt offense.

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Speaker 2: Who'd have thunk he'd be in the conversation for a

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Speaker 2: thirty goal season at the trade deadline, But that's how

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Speaker 2: good he has been playing since he has done Seattle

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Speaker 2: Kraken colors. So I t this up for you on

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Speaker 2: a platter. What are we learning about the meaning of

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Speaker 2: Bobby McMahon for the Kraken and this offense this later

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Speaker 2: of the season.

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Speaker 5: Well, I think Bobby McMahon fits very well within the

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Speaker 5: system that's been implemented by Lane Lambert. You know, he's

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Speaker 5: got two things, two things that they were hoping for

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Speaker 5: from from honestly from Mason Marchmant when that when that

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Speaker 5: didn't really work out. You know, he's got the size,

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Speaker 5: he knows how to go to the net, knows how

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Speaker 5: to knows how to handle the puck in front of

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Speaker 5: the net and do something with it and you know,

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Speaker 5: not just pass it off. He knows how to put

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Speaker 5: it in the net. And he's also got speed and

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Speaker 5: that's you know, we haven't had that uh with the

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Speaker 5: crack and that that element of speed is one of

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Speaker 5: the fastest players in the league. And that just you know,

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Speaker 5: transforms how teams are going to defend you. That transforms

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Speaker 5: the players that they can deploy against other cracking lines.

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Speaker 5: You know, it depends like are you are you gonna

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Speaker 5: want to put your best defenders against the Bobby McMahon

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Speaker 5: line because he's so fast, or are you gonna want

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Speaker 5: to keep him out there against the top line with

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Speaker 5: every uh now, Jared mccannon, Matty Veniers. But you know

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Speaker 5: that it just changes the whole dynamic, the whole look

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Speaker 5: of this team. Uh. And and you know they say

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Speaker 5: speed kills and speed does kill, but you know what,

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Speaker 5: so it is going to the net and being able

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Speaker 5: to score in close. And he showed us he can

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Speaker 5: do it both ways. And that's that's a that's a

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Speaker 5: huge part of what Lean Lambert wants. Obviously, he wants

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Speaker 5: a big transition game in there. And how do you

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Speaker 5: transition quickly? You do it with speed? He can burn you.

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Speaker 5: And we saw it in Buffalo when he burned Rasmus

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Speaker 5: Stallion down the right side board, right wing boards. You know,

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Speaker 5: it was just pure speed. Showed it last night when

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Speaker 5: he scored. You know, he mucked his first shot, he

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Speaker 5: whipped on it, but he kept going, kept plowing ahead,

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Speaker 5: did a spin around move and back ended the puck

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Speaker 5: in the net. And that's you know, that's presidence of

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Speaker 5: mind to do it at the net front when you

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Speaker 5: know you're going to get hit and you know you

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Speaker 5: don't have a lot of time and space. He knows

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Speaker 5: how to do that. So that's been huge, a huge

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Speaker 5: addition for the team.

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Speaker 2: There's only one player who has as many points as

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Speaker 2: he does since he joined the Crack, and that's Coppocaco,

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Speaker 2: his linemate right now, by the way, with twelve points

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Speaker 2: in fourteen games. Jeff Finally, the Blackhawks coming in here

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Speaker 2: the Crack and looking to go three and zero against

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Speaker 2: Chicago this season, a team with the course Connor Bodar

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Speaker 2: at the top, part of their future. Aton Frondell they

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Speaker 2: called him up, got his first NHL goal. Frankie Nazar,

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Speaker 2: a big part of the cop and former Seattle Thunderbird

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Speaker 2: Kevin Korshinsky as well, back on that blue line. That's

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Speaker 2: a big piece of their core. They're looking for a

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Speaker 2: lot of mileage down the road here. But I think

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Speaker 2: for me, the big issue here is that you can't

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Speaker 2: sit back against team that's got virtually nothing to lose

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Speaker 2: but except for traction for the NHL Draft lottery. So

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Speaker 2: to you, the biggest key here for this evening is what.

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Speaker 5: Win. You gotta win. I mean, it's the key for

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Speaker 5: every evening now. It doesn't matter what the team's pedigree is.

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Speaker 5: You know who their prospects are, who their great future

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Speaker 5: players are, what their position in the standings is. You

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Speaker 5: got to go out there and win every single game.

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Speaker 5: If you're the cracking right now, you haven't left yourself

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Speaker 5: you know, you know, we haven't left ourselves very much

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Speaker 5: wiggle room. You know, we can maybe lose another game

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Speaker 5: or two, but you got to be getting points in

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Speaker 5: every single one of these games, and you got to

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Speaker 5: be getting two points in every single one of these games.

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Speaker 5: So I'd say start the game the way you did

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Speaker 5: against Utah. They came out, they did everything they had

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Speaker 5: to do. They scored a goal in the opening minute,

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Speaker 5: so that kind of got the whole bugaboo off their

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Speaker 5: back from what they had done in Edmonton where they

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Speaker 5: didn't score, and then Buffalo, they didn't score the last

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Speaker 5: half of the game there, so they put a goal

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Speaker 5: in that was huge, and then they got a second

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Speaker 5: goal by McMahon. They should have had one from Berkeley

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Speaker 5: cat and he almost scored, and you know, but you

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Speaker 5: got to keep pouring it on at that point. Don't settle,

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Speaker 5: you know, go go out, try to score seven goals

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Speaker 5: against the Blackhawks. That's that's the mindset you have to have,

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Speaker 5: and then worry about what you're gonna say for Winnipeg

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Speaker 5: once you get to Winnipeg. It's just it's a cliche

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Speaker 5: one game at a time, but really they have to

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Speaker 5: go out and they have to win one game at

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Speaker 5: a time. There's no more playing for style points. Now.

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Speaker 5: If you got to win it two to one in

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Speaker 5: a shootout on that tonight and then win it two

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Speaker 5: to one in a shootout, just get the two points.

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Speaker 2: No sense, no sense to overcomplicate this year. Jeff A

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Speaker 2: appreciate you, looking forward to more of the.

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Speaker 5: Handiwork, all right, Appreciate you, Mike, all.

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Speaker 2: Right, Jeff, appreciate you. We get you back on once

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Speaker 2: again soon. That's Jeff Baker, of course, VP of editorial

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Speaker 2: for The Crack in his handyworks scene via Seattlekraken dot

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Speaker 2: Com The Crack in two and oh this season against

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Speaker 2: the Blackhawks, and we'll see if this can help them

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Speaker 2: get back on the winning track. Chicago again has lost

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Speaker 2: seven of their last eight games, falling to the host

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Speaker 2: Edmonton Oilers three to one on Thursday, mathematically ousting Chicago

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Speaker 2: from playoff contention with their fifth straight defeat. Nonetheless, as

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Speaker 2: we said, they're looking to the future now at this point.

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Speaker 2: Connor Bedard, no surprise, leads them with sixty nine points

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Speaker 2: in sixty three games and by many accounts, his overall

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Speaker 2: game taking a massive step this season. He is one

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Speaker 2: of two to thirty plus goal scorers on the team.

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Speaker 2: Tyler Bertuzzi leads them with thirty one goals on the campaign.

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Speaker 2: This will be the second time Chicago visits Seattle for

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Speaker 2: the regular season. The Kraken beat the Blackhawks three to

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Speaker 2: one back on November three, and have ultimately enjoy plenty

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Speaker 2: of success against Chicago head to head into the franchise

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Speaker 2: history books, winning ten to fourteen all time matchups and

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Speaker 2: looking to extend they're on right now to four consecutive

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Speaker 2: wins again Chicago, looking forward to talking about it with

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Speaker 2: you as a Krake, and we'll begin three games in

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Speaker 2: four nights, starting this evening. Face Offs has seven. Your

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Speaker 2: pregame show served up by Frostbrewed cors Light Choose Chill

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Speaker 2: is at six point thirty ever refits you al Kiniski

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Speaker 2: in the booth. I'll join you again back by the

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Speaker 2: cors Light, landing in section twenty. Postgame coverage as usual

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Speaker 2: across the street at Tom's Watchbar. I'll be joined with

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Speaker 2: anders Hurst up to an hour after the final horn

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Speaker 2: with your reaction and much more. Big thank you again

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Speaker 2: to Copocaco and to Jeff Baker for joining us and

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Speaker 2: for Kraken this morning. I'm Mike Benton. Enjoyed the game.

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Speaker 1: You're home for the Kraken Sports Radio ninety three point

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Speaker 1: three kJ r FM