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Since the 2004-5 lockout the James Norris Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s best defenseman, has been won 6 different players. These players are Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson, Duncan Keith, P.K. Subban, Nicklas Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara. Of these winners, every single player made the playoffs the year that they won. For all but three years the winner was in the top 2 in points for defenseman. The exceptions are Doughty was 10th in 2015-16, Chara was 13th in 2008-09 and Lidstrom was 5th in 2006-07. Looking ahead to 2016-17, as much as it’d be nice to put the best shut down D on thisRead More →

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As the start of the regular season edges ever closer; it’s time to make some super-early trophy predictions and I’m starting with the Jack Adams Award. The trophy, named after former player, coach GM and Hall of Famer Jack Adams, is awarded to the best coach each season. The winner is decided by a poll of the NHL Broadcasters Association. The 2016 Jack Adams Award went to Barry Trotz, head coach of Carl’s Washington Capitols. The Caps might have thrown everyone by not winning the Stanley Cup, but the team dominated the Eastern Conference and were a single point away (120) from tying for theRead More →

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The guys are back as they talk about Team Europe facing off against Canada in the World Cup of Hockey. Is Canada going to perform as well as Carl and Joel think they will? Jacob Trouba requested a trade out of Winnipeg. Will he get it and if so, where will he go? This week’s show includes their preview of the Atlantic division, including: How much better will the Leafs be with their new young talent, like Auston Matthews? How many of the Sabres young players, like Sam Reinhart, will continue to improve? Does the return of Carey Price mean a return to the playoffsRead More →

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What does it mean to be an enforcer in the NHL? The documentary “Ice Guardians” produced by Adam Scorgie and directed by Brett Harvey answers just that. You may remember Ice Guardians from a recent episode of the podcast. We also had the opportunity to view Ice Guardians at the Calgary International Film Festival on September 24th. Ice Guardians successfully provides a unique and informative exploration of what the life of an NHL enforcer is like. This continues to become more relevant as the amount of enforcers in the league steadily declines. Through conversations with dozens of current and former NHL players, the team behind Ice Guardians are ableRead More →

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Hockey analytics may still be a divisive subject but it’s not going away, in recent years NHL teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils have hired staff specifically to work on statistical analysis. NHL.com now carries enhanced stats for those interested in the insight this extra level of data can offer. In episode 97 the guys spoke with Rob Vollman about his new book  Stat Shot, written with Tom Awad and Iain Fyffe. If you haven’t yet listened to the episode, go back and do it now. I’ll wait. The guys also gave away a signed copy of the book. For thoseRead More →

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The guys are back as they talk about the opening games of the World Cup of Hockey, including the Americans struggles, Canada’s excellence, Rinne’s struggles and the speed of the young guns. They also predict the finalists and talk about the potential outcomes of contract situations for restricted free agents like Gaudreau and Kucherov. Joel tries to get into a feud with Bailey from the the LA Kings, they talk best Twitter follows in hockey, and try to plan how to go to a game in Vegas with so many season tickets sold. Carl and Joel then preview the entire Central division, going from theRead More →

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When the Tampa Bay Lightning face off against the Detroit Red Wings on October 13th, coach Jon Cooper will face the dilemma of which goalie to start between the pipes. Ben Bishop has the experience, but Andrei Vasilevskiy is the future face of goaltending in Tampa Bay, and is by no means just Bishop’s back-up. So which goalie does Cooper go with on opening night? Bishop’s career stats are better overall, although the 29 year old American is seven years older than his Russian colleague and six more NHL seasons’ worth of experience. Here are the pairs’ basic NHL statistics as of the end ofRead More →

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Earlier this summer The 4th Line Podcast took a big step that opened a lot of options up for us: We finally had our own website. When we first started the show we always said that we could get by with sending people to our Soundcloud page or iTunes or to our partners’ websites. We’d always toyed with the idea of having our own site but there wasn’t enough of a reason to have one. Sure, we’d love to have a website, but was it worth it? This past summer, as we had more time to think without hockey to distract us, we started brainstormingRead More →

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The guys are back as they are joined by Rob Vollman as they talk about Rob’s new book “Stat Shot”, a book about hockey, for people who like hockey, through the lens of statistics. They touch on some of the topics in the book, including the worst trades in NHL history and goalie save percentage and get Rob’s thoughts on the Calgary Flames, and even give away a copy of Stat Shot to a listener. Felix Sicard also stops by to help Carl and Joel preview the Pacific division, touching on all 7 teams and having some healthy disagreement about some of the offseason movesRead More →

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The guys are back and in person as they help Joel deal with the injury to Frederik Andersen, talk injury replacements for the World Cup of Hockey, settle on the final 4 in the Favorite Player Bracket and give a sneak peak of next week’s guest. They also give their predictions for who will win the awards for the 2016-17 season, predicting the Jacks Adams, Vezina, Calder, Norris and Hart trophies. Lastly, they settle on the format for this year’s fantasy hockey league, put 2 people in the league and Joel tours Carl’s recording space.  Read More →