Playoff races and women in hockey are the featured elements on this week's episode of the "NHL @TheRink" podcast presented by SKIP.
Co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke open the show talking about the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens, the two teams that have pushed their way into wild-card positions in their respective conferences since the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
St. Louis has the best points percentage in the League since returning from the break at .813 (12-2-2). Montreal is second with a .769 points percentage (8-1-4). The Blues have a three-point lead for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, and the Canadiens are up one point for the second wild card from the East.
The Blues and Canadiens play at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; Matrix-MW, Victory+, TSN2, RDS).
Following the talk about the Blues and Canadiens, Rosen and Roarke welcome Kim Weiss to the show. Weiss is the video coach for the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League, the affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche.
Weiss talks about her path to coaching in the AHL, blazing a trail as the first female coach of a North American junior hockey team, the Maryland Black Bears of the North American Hockey League, the challenge of going from behind the bench to the back room as a video coach, and the camaraderie she feels in the Avalanche organization.
Following the interview with Weiss, Rosen and Roarke welcome Kori Cheverie, the coach of the Montreal Victoire in the Professional Women's Hockey League and an assistant for Canada's women's national team.
Like Weiss, Cheverie discusses her unique coaching path, which includes stints as an assistant for a men's program in Canadian university hockey and for Canada's men's U-18 team. She talks about learning from Mike Sullivan and Sidney Crosby during her time as a guest coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the growth of opportunities for females in the game.
Rosen and Roarke close the show by discussing Alex Ovechkin's chase for Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record (he needs seven goals in his final 12 games to break the record this season).
They debate who would win a seven-game series between the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets. They also touch on the injuries to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and what that means in the big picture for the Edmonton Oilers.
The "NHL @TheRink" podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
