32 Thoughts: The Podcast - A Buyers’ Market and Nobody Wants to Blink

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman set the table for a buyers’ market ahead of the trade deadline, with selling teams wary of getting stuck and prices running high. They discuss Adam Fox staying focused on winning now (9:53), Buffalo pushing forward with Alex Tuch’s future in question (16:00), Vancouver listening on most pieces outside of its young core and Filip Hronek (17:00), and why the Blues’ asking prices, including for Robert Thomas, are significant (20:53). The guys also touch on Nazem Kadri’s term complicating things in Calgary (25:20) , Winnipeg’s outlook with Logan Stanley and Chicago’s willingness to move pieces (27:09). The fellas talk about the uncertainty in Nashville (29:00), Seattle’s serious pitch to Artemi Panarin (30:35), and what to make of the Oilers and Kings (35:59). They switch focus to the East where Montreal exploring defensive options (43:59) and Tampa Bay standing pat (46:43). We send our condolences to Jon Cooper and pay respects to Boomer Gordon (49:50). We wrap the trade speculation with the Devils and their uncertainty (51:00). Kyle and Elliotte have a lighthearted chat about Filip Gustavsson's "Flu-game" (52:32). The Final Thought features a message from Elliotte to the U.S. women’s hockey team (59:40).  Kyle and Elliotte answer crowd questions in the Thoughtline (1:14:18).  Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here. Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail. This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

Hey, Minnesota's got their own fluid game now. Oh, can you imagine? Oh, there's like frozen vomit in the crease and you've got to go down and try to make a save in it. Oh, so when I was eight years old. Oh, I can only imagine where this story is going. Good. I can't wait to hear this. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the Toyota BZ.

Go All Electric and a winter ready Toyota BZ at your local dealer today. Dom, Elliot and Kyle back with you again. Fridge, we are back home. We're on North American soil. You're back in the eastern time zone. Mountain time zone for me. Dom remains out in the Pacific time zone. In a lot of ways this week has felt almost as or more exhausting

than the two and a half weeks we were over in Milan for the Winter Olympics. We are one week away from the trade deadline. How are you adjusting? The travel home Monday, NHL returning Wednesday, and the news picking up. I was great until the schedule resumed, Kyle. Wouldn't allow myself to go to sleep Monday night,

my travel home day until 9 p.m. Good night's sleep, woke up once or twice, got back to bed. Wednesday, sorry, Tuesday, did not allow myself to go back to bed until 10 o'clock. Slept all the way through the night, nine hours, fantastic. I felt great. I was like, adjusted myself right away.

And then these darn 1030 starts, I am too old for 10.30 Eastern starts, Kyle. I am too old for this. Come join the party out here. Yes. Yes. It may have to happen. I'm too old.

creaky for 10.30 Eastern starts. Well, Edmonton Kings on Thursday night, 1040, the television, the scourge of... I know, and we were just coming off... Good sleep. Right. Almost two weeks of 910. Television ruins the world. Ruins it.

I know. But we were just working 9-10 local puck drops across the pond not too long ago. That's true. But yeah, it's been an adjustment. I had men's league hockey Tuesday night. My legs were still in the sauna at our hotel and Milan. Yeah, how'd you play? Horribly.

Not that when I'm good, am I any good? But it was terrible. I offered nothing. More horrible than normal. Yeah, offered absolutely nothing. But okay, let's dive into it here, Friech. As mentioned, we are a week away from deadline. One week from today, you and I will be chopping it up in studio once again,

along with the cast of thousands on deadline day. So, leading into it, what is top of mind for you? The buyers, the sellers, the market at large across the NHL. So I had a long conversation on Thursday with one of the teams that is a buyer. and he said something very interesting to me. He said, unless you have a particular target, you say this is the player I want because you think they're a top line player

or he fits your team. He says there's a lot of teams out there that with somewhat similar guys and he thinks that some of these teams are going to be stuck unable to unload players. He thinks there are too many sellers and not enough buyers.

And he said, and we'll see how this, he said, call me in a week, and we'll see if I'm right. But he said some of these teams are going to get really nervous because they've got players they want to move and they're going to get stuck because there's too much inventory. And he said the teams that are really buying are banking on this.

They are hoping that some of these teams that want to sell and need to sell are going to panic. And he's got seven days to be proven right or wrong. So how did we get here then? Because I feel like it was yesterday, just before we got on a flight to head across the pond, it was, well, look at how many teams are still in the race. Look at how close things seem, more so in the east and the west, of course. But inevitably, you knew the separation was going to come. But to get to the point here where there are a lot of sellers to the point where the market could really become saturated,

how did that happen so fast? I think in the Eastern Conference there began to get some separation. You know, Washington is four points out. Columbus is six points out. Ottawa after they're lost, there are seven points out. You know, Florida won. They're eight points out. You know, I think there's some separation there.

That's one thing. And in the West, I think with some of the, these teams that are out or around the fringes, I think they're having honest conversations about where they really are. Like, if you take a look at, go with Seattle, and I think Anaheim's a little bit different because they're younger. But if you go with Seattle and everybody below. them in the Western Conference, the Cracken have the best goal differential and it's negative 10.

Like the Predators are two points out. They're negative 27. Right? Mm-hmm. So I think some of these teams are like, where are we really? But there's also some teams that are really out there. And so I just think all the sudden, Kyle, a bunch of these teams just said, okay, let's be honest about where we are and where we're going. and let's make guys available.

And all of a sudden, there are more sellers than there are buyers. And some of these buyers are hoping that these sellers are going to panic. So who are you looking at that maybe have entered the chat more recently as sellers? Or if you've got... So why don't I do it this way? Okay, because I was making notes. Like, here's my list of sellers. Okay. Rangers, I think Rangers have a lot out there. I mean, they certainly have things that they're not willing to do, but I don't think there's a lot of it. And other than that, I think they're willing to listen on most ideas.

You know, Trocheque is the big one. I think nothing he did at the Olympics has decreased his values. value. You know, at the Olympics, he accepted a role. He didn't complain. And in the biggest moments of that gold medal game on a five on three, he played unbelievable. And again, he accepted a role that was not going to be the biggest role. And he did it without complaint. And that did not go unnoticed. And so, I mean, everybody's tied Minnesota into him. I think that one's obvious. I think L.A. really likes them. As I have said before, with Trochik, his preference is stated that his preference is East. It's not a hard and fast rule, but he stated his preferences. I know there are teams who suspect Colorado. I just don't know after what they did last year to get Nelson, Colorado has a lot they can do. although there's been some talk about Ross Colton and just his fit there

I still don't know how much Colorado can really do after what they did to get Brock Nelson you know I'll say this too I heard some teams say that they suspected Pittsburgh could be around the trocheque he's obviously from there I think he'd be a great roster fit there I just don't know that the penguins at where they are are going to be making the kind of trade it would take to get them. I don't know if they see it working with what their plans are and where they're going and the stage they're in. And then the other team, I've always kept an eye on Detroit just because they tried so hard to get him when he was a UFA a couple years ago. and Eiserman likes term.

So one other the thing with the Rangers, Kyle, did you see Adam Fox post-game? I mean, I'm just trying to, you know, focus on this year right now and play each game. I mean, that's really all I could do right now, could control is, you know, I was just trying to work to get back and help the team finish wrong.

So I think that's, that's where my head's out, obviously. that's the focus right now and I think that's a conversation when we're down playing against we're trying to win Gaveton do that tonight and I think that's where that's where my focus is right now. It sounds like a guy that's

really starting to think about his future. What that says to me is that's an end of season conversation. Yes. And the one thing I'm going to be careful with here is that this is a guy who moved

heaven and earth, as was his right, under CBA rules, this is a guy who moved heaven and earth to become a ranger. So to me, it's all about everybody take a time out and we'll see how we feel about the end of the season, but that's another thing to keep an eye on with the Rangers. Philly, Daris Seller, Ristel Aynan, another guy who liked Trojek, did nothing at the Olympics to hurt his stature, played very well, hit McDavid a couple of times. The thing that someone said to me, though, is there's a lot of D out there, a lot. And it's not that people don't like this player, who's also got a reputation as an excellent teammate, by the way. it's just that the challenge for the flyers will be is there's a lot of D out there. So if you don't like the price on him,

unless you've really got your heart set on him, there's other players you can move to. That's the challenge for Philly. Toronto came out of the break, Kyle, ugly. U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi. Oh, yeah. They really ugly return against the state of Florida. And they're coming home.

The video team being absolutely dialed. It could have been much worse. You know, someone made a joke to me. One of my buddies texted me. He said, if the least want to get a couple of first rounders, they should trade the video team somewhere. Yes, it's right. That'll restock the coverage.

I actually thought that was. That was pretty funny. marketing saturated. No, no. It's definitely not. But, you know, I know there was some talk about the next three games will determine where they go. I don't believe any of that. I really, they had decided they were sellers.

I think they wanted to see some pride from their players. I think they wanted to, you know, they wanted at least to finish the season strong. they didn't get that obviously really ugly. They didn't get that obviously. It was really tough to watch. Ottawa on Saturday night, I assume you're coming in to work that one. Yes.

Okay. I know you've got to go see your senators. Nobody else is allowed to be the ringside reporter when the senators are playing than you. That's right. But they're selling. They're selling and they've been selling for a few weeks right now. You know, there's been a lot of questions about Easton Cowan the fact he isn't playing and what's going on there.

You want to know my theory? Yes, I do. My theory is they've basically said wait a week and you'll be playing the last month of the season. So everybody that potentially could be assets to move out, they want them playing right now. Yes, that's what I think it is. That's my guess. And then he plays after the deadline. Right.

Or before the deadline if they trade guys first. Now, I said on radio with Marquesi and Futa that I've had a few people tell me there is the path to an extension with Bobby McMahon. We're not there. I don't know if we'll get there. I don't even know if it's possible if they trade him and then he comes back in the summer. But I did have a few people say to me, like, there's, it's not impossible. One gets done there. We'll see.

Lawton, as I said, and it can always change and it can change very quickly. I just heard there was a wider golf with Lawton. That's all. We'll see if that can change. but I do think again there's a lot of defensemen out there and you've got to be careful about how you handle things in case someone says oh this is too much and I want to go somewhere else but I do think the interest in Ekman-Larsen is real I do think Edmonton's interest in Ekman Larson is real.

And I think it's just going to be really interesting to see what happens with him in particular. Because I do think they could do that if they wanted to. I had this written down here because I was talking about extensions. I wanted to mention Alex Tuck, Buffalo is not a seller. They're going for it. Again, I could make myself look really bad here. but the betting on Tuck is that he stays in Buffalo next week whether there's an extension or not.

Like even if they don't sign them and I would suspect at this point in time they're not, I think he stays. And don't forget that Yarmou Kekalainen has been in this position before when Columbus won their first ever playoff series beating Tampa, they had some UFAs. And Yarmal was in the position where he just said, you know what?

Yeah, Columbus. is never won a series. We're going for it. And if we lose guys, we lose guys. And that's what they did. And so he understands this. He knows how to handle it. And I think that's the way he will do it in Buffalo.

So as I record this pod late Thursday night slash Friday morning, my bet Kyle is he stays and even if he doesn't have an extension, which he probably won't buy next week. Again, things can change. But that's my call. right now. Vancouver, Dom's Canucks. You know, Jim Rutherford is, he did a podcast, the John Shannon, Darren Millard

podcast. You know, the Canucks, they'll listen on just about anything right now, aside from their young players in Philip Ronick. The way this year is gone, they are, they've recognized, I think there's a lot of disappointment. inside the organization about where they've gone in two years. And I think if they could move people out of the organization, more of them, they would.

And, you know, I think it's going to be hard. Some of those contracts make it difficult. The Myers thing is interesting to me because I don't think, and when initially when it got out, Myers found out Tuesday morning that Detroit had an offer for them. that Vancouver wanted to consider. Wednesday night, when he set out the game, I had a couple people tell me

that it didn't look like he was going to accept it. I don't know where that stands as of the time we recorded this, but I do think what it does is it opens up other possibilities for Myers, other teams might come into it. We'll see kind of what happens there. But I think the thing that Myers has to consider, and I think this does make him consider it is his full protection ends July 1st.

And when this happens, you basically have a choice. You can make the call when you have the power or you can risk losing the power. And, you know, I think at this point in time, Myers has to realize that the conducts are not afraid to move away from him. so I think they're all working together and I think the Canucks understand that he won't want to rush. I understand why he does not want to go too far in the middle of the season for his family situation. But one way or the other, it does look like whether it's now or later, Myers knows Vancouver's prepared to move on.

So I think the effort now is to try to put him into a situation he's comfortable with. There was a rumor that Jake DeBrasc had asked for a trade. That was denied to me. But, you know, I still think that if something happens that he likes, he wouldn't stand in the way of it. Pedersen, one of the things, with all the noise that's come out of there and all the news that's come out of there this week,

one of the things I wanted to ask is if there was anything that was going on. famous last words, but it seems quiet around him right there. I don't think the Canucks are eager to retain. It's a long time to retain for. And I think that's, I think some teams have tried to ask them

if they would consider it. And I don't think it's something they're very interested in doing. I've kind of wondered about Ottawa and Vancouver. If there's a match there. Just over the year, there's people say, people have kind of hinted there might be something there.

I just have not been able to figure out what it could possibly be. Maybe someone left over from the Travis Green era in Vancouver. That's what you always wonder about, right? Yeah. And, you know, Ottawa, I think, is looking at. And I just think the Canucks have basically let people know, aside from Roanick and our kids, were out there. St. Louis, everybody knows.

They've been out there for a while, but the prices are big. The price for Thomas is very high. Either another young player who's a younger player than Thomas, who's a potential 1C or a Quinn Hughes-type deal. I think the price on Cairo is high. The price on Falk, I've said before, is the Rasmus Anderson trade.

You know, there's been talk about, Minnington, I think they would consider just about anything, but the price is high. You know, Florida, there's been a lot of talk about Bobrovsky the last few days. I think the challenge there is that, you know, Bobrovsky saw a lot of guys get paid last year. Eckblad got a big extension. He's 30. Bennett got a big extension. He's 29.

But the other guy who got a big extension, Marchand, at 37. But Brovsky is 37. And he's, even though he's had a tough year at times this year, he's still a future Hall of Famer, who was the backbone of a two-time. defending Stanley Cup champion, possibly once removed. And, you know, the Panthers, I would suspect they have a limit of where they're willing to go,

but it's not always easy when a player who's a key player on a team like that sees other guys get paid, and especially one player who's right around his age. and they say, okay, well, we may not do, we may not be able to do that for you. So I don't know. I think Florida gets things done when they want to get things done. They've proven that to us. Don't doubt them. We didn't think there was any way they could get all three guys done last year, Kyle.

They did it. But clearly they haven't gotten to a zone yet that Bobrovsky is comfortable with. So do you think are they a team that's entering the seller's zone here, as you say? I know it's been a tough view for them, injury-wise, results-wise. There's still little ways out here in regards to the Eastern Conference playoff picture. I mean, couldn't see them being a big buyer at this juncture because of where they are because of the limited assets that they have. I understand. I understand.

But I just wonder, is there any part of them that goes, well, let's just see how long we can or how interesting we can make things they've got a week like they did Marchand fell on their lap like minutes before the trade deadline last year right so i always assume that they're not uncomfortable doing that especially yeah if if the market is what uh your contact was suggesting out there like i i wonder if They're a team that goes, oh, really? That's all it's going to cost to get that guy in. Yeah, I think he could help us in some way down the stretch here.

Why not? I mean, they've proven to be the poster childs for, oh, you don't see value in this player. Yeah, we'll take them and we'll make them an important piece here. They're a smart front office, so I could expect anything from them. But, you know, the Bobrowski thing is interesting to me. I don't know how to handicap that at this point, but I understand why a player like that might look and say, okay, all these other guys got taken care of, you know,

I should be too. Calgary, what's that? Well, the contract that it's about to end, I mean, it's hard not to look at it and say, you know, they took care of it with that deal as a $10 million goal. That's fair. But I understand what you mean, And even later on in his 30s, like the Marchands and others, there was another payday to be had.

So I get it. I'll just say this. At the beginning, that contract looked ugly. At the end, it looked like good value. He paid that over, repaid that over and over. Worst contract to first ballot hall of famer. Calgary, I heard that, I heard a couple things with Calgary. Number one thing I heard, because there was a lot of questions about White Cloud.

What were they going to do with White Cloud? Another team told me that they heard that White Cloud is not in a hurry to get out of there. That he's not someone who shows up and says, nope, this isn't for me and can I go somewhere else? That is not the case. Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't get traded. It just means that the flames are happy to have players who are house. happy there and they're not motivated to move him. They get a great offer. Look out. There's not much else you can do. You get a great offer.

You jump at it. But I've just heard from a couple teams that White Cloud indicated to the flames, he's happy to stay. And therefore, they're not rushing him to the front of the list. We have to trade this guy. The biggest challenge I think the flames will have is that all of their guys have competition. Cadry, I think people love Cadre the player. I'm not sure they're crazy about the term. And also there's other centers. There's Trocheck, who we've mentioned.

There's O'Reilly who will get to. There's other centers available. So while I do think people like Cadre the player, between the age and the term, I think that's the challenge that the flames are going to have. And like I said, people like Coleman, people like Weger, but there are other players around them. And Conroy has shown he's not afraid to be patient. And if you look at some of the deals he's made to get younger, when he has had some leverage to wait, he's done a pretty good job using that.

But the key I've heard there is that White Cloud is not in a rush to leave, and therefore they're not rushing to move him. Chicago Murphy, again, a lot of defensemen available. That's their challenge. I've heard they've got McKayev out there. I think they tried to sign him at one point, but I think McKeyev is out there. And Chicago's going to have a couple other guys.

I know some people have wondered about Kortinski there. because they've got a lot of D. He's been in the minors. His future is another thing I think people have wondered about. Winnipeg, I mean, obviously the one is Logan Stanley if they don't sign them, but especially the way Helibuck played at the Olympics. And now I think the Jets look at it like he broke through, he's confident, the shackles are off.

And also they look at it as their season really fell apart when he was hurt. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jets look at it like a lot of this year was a bad year, everything went wrong. Maybe we're not as good as we were a year ago, but we're better than we showed this year. I don't expect a fire sale. Nashville, I don't know what to say.

Yeah, they won again. There are a couple points out. I had people say to me, O'Reilly's not going to move. I had people say to me 50-50. I don't know what to make of it there. I really don't. And also, you know, you've got a new owner now who's starting to go public a bit. I think it's really hard when you're a new owner and the team makes a charge

for the playoffs to waive the white flag. Now, everyone's different. Some people don't care, but it's hard when you're new and you're trying to make a good impression. Stamcoast, again, I was told most likely not right now. I still really think Marcia's so. Everybody's trying to work there to find a solution.

and also another guy who did nothing to hurt his value at the Olympics was Halla. He played extremely well for Finland. And again, there's a lot of centers out there, and that's the challenge. O'Reilly is the elite of the elite. If they want to move them, they'll have no problem. But again, I got like no way he's moving to 50-50 he moves. I just don't know what to make of it as we do this pod. But Halla, I think, is a guy who did not hurt his value.

Seattle, Seattle's got a bunch of guys unsigned, like Jamie Alexiak. They're still in the playoffs race, but they've come out of the gate. They've had two really ugly losses, including one of them to St. Louis. It's not, it doesn't make you feel great about yourself. but they are in the playoff race and I think that's very important to them you want to know what somebody said to me at the Olympics

Kyle, what one of the I heard this and another player told me heard it too so I was in the mix zone with one of the players and he says, did you hear what the Kraken offered Panarin? And I said I heard a number and he goes, what did you hear?

And I told him, and he said, that's what we heard too. And so it was three years at 14 and a quarter per. Foof. Crackin are serious, man. So that's why you think they're still serious about this year? I think they're serious about getting a player who can electrify them offensively. Right. That moves the needle there.

Shane Wright. That's where they move Shane Wright. And, you know, or they move him for another young, talented player. Now, Matt Marquesi, when I brought this up on the radio, he said, you know, they could do, they could do him for LaFrenier from the Rangers, right? And I said, I don't believe that's the case. I think that if those two teams wanted to do that deal, it would be done already. So I don't think that's the deal.

Hmm. Okay. But I think he still potentially could be an option. I still think right for the right offensive stud or a young player that they really like. But boy, that's a lot of money for, you know, I would like to tell the Cracken, I will work for half that. Yeah, that's right. I get to bed a lot sooner out there, too. I would only cost you $21 million.

Yeah. Um, you know, other teams out there, uh, you know, Dallas, I still think term is a hard thing for them until they decide on Jason Robertson, I've heard term is a really hard thing for them. Although there's nothing official on Sagan, I heard it's going to be a real challenge for him to play again, which is I was really sorry to hear.

Because I know how badly he wanted to come back and how important it was to him, but I just heard it's going to be a real challenge for him to play this season. So that might open up some room for them this year, but again, until they make a decision on Robertson, they don't have a lot of room to take term, if any, at all. Do you believe just looking at those that are in the mix

for one of those wild card spots in the West, Elliot? I mean, the idea of who they would be looking at in the first round and the notion of, eh, not sure if that's worth it for us. Is that a real thing? I think it's, I think it is a tiny bit. But again, like, it depends on who you're talking about. Like, you know, I think a team like Seattle,

especially now, now that the NBA has said they're going to consider expansion this summer, I think it makes it even more important for Seattle to show, progress, right? So I think even if you go in and you potentially risk Colorado in the first round, you take it. Right? And again, you know, Nashville

new owner, I think if someone says to me, he says, let's go for it, you take it. Like some of the other teams here, Utah, I've said before, think they would like to add. You know, their goal differential is plus 24.

Like only Colorado, Minnesota, and Dallas are better than that in their conference. Like, plus 24 to me, that's a good team. And like I said, I think they were around on Panera, and I think they made a serious pitch. So I look for them to add. Or at least try to. Kyle, Kings.

Wharf. Where do you want to start here? Oh, boy. Well, there's a wide range of ground to cover. Panarin, I didn't sign up for a rebuild. No, no, no. And you think that the goodwill that must have been, you thought, built up with Bailey.

Exchange, it was a nice Rolex watch for the ability to wear 72? You know what? The biggest scandal of the off day could be for the Kings if the Rolex turns out to be a Frolex. Oh, man. Lose to the Knights. Lose to the Oilers. Frolex.

That is three strikes and you're out. What's worse? Did you see McDavid's goal here on Thursday? First player to 100 points this season, by the way. He got there in Los Angeles. here Thursday night. I thought he was going to go around the net three more times. Darcy Kemper ended up in Redondo Beach by the time the puck finally went in the net.

Goodness me. That was a microcosm of the whole night. And that night and how they finished against a depleted Vegas Golden Knights the day before. So for the Kings, as they are a team, as you've talked about, trying to figure out where they are this season in particular, they made, the Panera trade and sign, as you mentioned. But, boy, of all the teams that didn't have great first few games back here, now that the seasons pick up again, that's going to be near the bottom of the barrel. I don't even want to joke about it.

We were joking about it before, but it's a real disaster for them. First of all, full credit to the Golden Knights. The fact that they won that game on Wednesday night, they were down after two periods, They were missing a whole bunch of guys. They had every excuse to pack it in. And they showed big guts by finding a way to come back and win that game. The only bad news for the Golden Knights is when all those guys come back in, the first game they lose, Bruce Cassidy is going to say, hey, we won without you.

Let's just remind you of that. That's right. Anyway, it's bad. And, you know, I do think, I do think Holland's gone pretty hard after Trocheque. And, you know, as we talked about earlier, I've heard Trocheque's preferences to stay east, although it's not locked in. I think that's his preference. You know, I think Holland badly wants to add someone who can get his scores, the puck and Fiala's a big loss. but it's kind of interesting, Kyle,

about how some of the teams have just come out of this. Toronto, we talked about earlier. Seattle's had two bad losses. Like some teams you were hoping, as you said, with Panarin, new player, new blood, new energy, and they come out like that in the first game, and then they get blown out at home on the second game, violating the stelic rule, which is,

if you're going to stink, stink on the road. and, you know, the other thing, too, is it comes against Edmonton, which suffered an equally ugly loss on his first night to the ducks, blowing a third period lead. You know, I don't know if Ken Holland, like I said, I think he wants to make another move. I don't know if it's going to be so simple for them to trade their way out of this one. And, you know, all of a sudden, as we finish games on,

Thursday night, the Kings in the wild card race. They are three points back of the wild card. They're five points out of third place in their division. They still got two games in hand on Edmonton, but now they would need help. Edmonton's six points up against them. So that was, you know,

they could have been two points out with two games in hand. Instead, they lose eight to one at home. and you can see Ken Holland, he does not like to make coaching changes in season. The last one he did in Edmonton was Knoblock in, Woodcroft out, and he really had to be dragged into that one. And there was an obvious time he could have done it if you wanted to in L.A., and that was the Olympic break.

And it's really tough when you put your faith in your coach and you're like, we're not going to do that. And then this is what happens when you. come out of the Olympic break. Just terribly disappointing. I think as bad as it was for the Kings, it was great for the Oilers, just in the sense that they lose their last games,

a couple of games going in. Leon Dreisel will come out and says, hey, everybody's got to be better, including the coaches. And Kyle, what do they do? They lose that first game, like we said, an ugly loss. And all of a sudden, Chris Knoblock is,

cracking the whip. He's pulling his goalie with 13 minutes left after a long night. He's critical of his players in the post game. It's almost as if he said, guys, like, if this is what you want, this is what you're going to get, and you better be able to handle it. And I think the best thing for the others is with that goalie pull, with the bad loss, with Knoblock being critical of them after the game the previous night, this is how they respond with an eight to one victory. and maybe it's that simple with the Oilers. Maybe the kid gloves have to come off and everybody has to hear some things they don't want to hear.

It snaps you to attention. You play better. We'll see. I do think that OEL thing with Edmonton is real, though. I just think the big challenge is, I think they've found it a lot harder to move Manchapani than they thought. I think they felt there would be opportunities out there. I heard that.

and they just haven't been and that's a complicating factor but I do think the OAL stuff is very real. You know, in the East Columbus, I know they've got some UFAs everybody's kind of wondered about. I think there it's they want to make the playoffs

or try to. Someone said to me over the break they took a run at Coil. it's a really tough one. I mean, he could be the number one free agent available right now. So we'll see what he wants to do. I think

Boston, we know they tried Rasmus Anderson so I could still see them being on the D market. I've heard they want to add a forward if they can. Don Swiny did an interview with their Nesson during the games where he says we could work both sides of this.

I think the Islanders would like to add, you know, the islandists still have a lot of bodies, a lot of bodies. And I think they'd like to add, I think they want to reward their guys, they're having a magic season, all of a sudden, Schaefer is five goals away from the rookie record. It's all coming up, Millhouse for the Islanders. like they, I think they want to try to make their team better, give their guys a chance. Carolina always looking to add.

I mean, we talked about Detroit. They're in on Myers. I've wondered about Trochev for them. You know, the Canadians, I do think they've looked at some of these D, these guys like Ristolinan or guys like that. And by the way, I think that, the Canadians have given Linae's representation, permission to talk to teams.

And, you know, the interesting thing about this is, you know, Lina is a guy who has asked out before. I don't think he wants to leave Montreal. I think he really loves Montreal. But it just obviously isn't going to fit, isn't going to work at this point in time. But I think he's actually really enjoyed his time there. So, you know, we'll see how this all. works out. And I also think that, you know, we all know about their interest in a center. I've heard they've poked around O'Reilly. I just don't know how feasible that is.

Like Montreal to me, Kyle, they're a team that could go through this week and kind of sit there and say, we have some choices here. We have what people would want. We have the ability to do things. Who's the guy we, the best guy we really think we can get? Yes. That's what I was thinking about over the last couple days. Having no deep intel of what's going on there, they just feel like the team, like they could be Randy Orden. Hiding somewhere in the weeds, you don't see him, you don't see him, he's not on your mind, on your radar. And then out of nowhere comes the RKO and the place goes wild. Yeah, they like that too.

They like to be seen as the stealth guys. And they buy it to their time. They recruit assets. They've done a good job setting themselves up for success. It's been a good year there. Tough one to let slip away against the Islanders on Thursday night. But in an eastern conference that, you know, there's Carolina has established themselves.

Tampa's been brilliant. But they're a team that could say, I like our chances of making some noise here. And how do we best support the guys that we have already in-house? And this feels like a good time for them to try to do that, just with everything you're laying out here. So that was one team I was really starting to wonder about. I see them as waiting in the weeds. We got things people want.

And like I said, they like to be stealth. Tampa to me, I'm looking at them, and they lost a really good game against Carolina on Thursday. If you haven't seen the lightning defend the empty net late in the game, go look at it. After I mentioned it to someone, they told me the lightning actually put it on social. It's very rare show highlights on social of you losing a game, but apparently they put it on there of them defending the empty net. They're plus 60. they're tied with Carolina for first place in the east they don't have a lot of holes there

I'm beginning to wonder if they almost just say this is our team and we're pretty good right because I mean they've plugged holes internally beautifully all year yeah I'm watching them

first game after the break Wednesday against Toronto you know some of these guys Some have been certainly part of it for a while now, like the Gonzalez's of the world. But boy, does he look good playing off Kutrov and a point. I can't imagine that's the easiest thing to do in trying to get your brain sync the way those guys see the game. Kutrov, especially as we know. But even like the Dastuse looks like he's a real player there. It just is incredible how, you know, they spent so many assets over their two cup runs.

And it was like, well, what are they going to do now? How are they going to replenish? Players, they had to say goodbye to because of cap reasons. And they've brilliantly bound bodies that can play and play how they want to play. It's been really impressive. So I think as soon as the idea of Blake Coleman being available, I couldn't help but think of a reunion there. You think that's at all possible?

I don't know. I don't know. I just think somebody poured cold water on that to me. I'll just say this, Kyle. The thing that makes me worry about this time of year, Isaiah Thomas, you always say draft time and trade deadline time, everybody lies. So I did have someone pour cold water on that idea to me.

We'll see. Okay. We'll see. I think to me that the number one thing for TAN, Tampa is the only thing I think they or one of their biggest concerns priorities should be, just make sure that headman is tapered. So on the third Saturday of April, he's ready to go. Agreed.

That's what I'm looking at if I'm delightening. Hey, Victor, what do we need to do to make sure you're ready to go? third Saturday of April. And this reminds me a couple of things here. Before we forget, condolences to John Cooper. His father passed away right after the Olympics. And I also wanted to shout out Boomer Gordon.

There are some people in media who are media, like you and me. And there's other people who in media are kind of like the voice of the hockey fan. And even though they're in media, they never stop being a fan first. And I'm not trying to say that like it's a bad thing. I think it's a good thing because in media there's room for all kinds.

And even though he was in media, he never stopped being a fan first. And a lot of people really liked him. Like when the tweet came out from the NHL radio account about his passing, like there were a lot of release. sad not only co-workers, which was great to see that the people he worked with really loved him, but also just fans who really liked listening to him. So I wanted to shout him out as well. Just a couple other things. I'm not sure what to make of the devils yet, you know, because

this was supposed to be a big year for them and it started out like a big year for them. And it didn't go well kind of went like two things really hurt them this year the Quinn Hughes trade stuff and Jack Hughes injury like they were really going until Hughes got injured the first time at the team party so and now they come out of the break

they've like the was really special with Jack Hughes and Dave Thompson but they've lost two in a row and so I don't know what to make of them going in the next week yet I think I think everybody would love it if they could find a solution with Dougie Hamilton that works for everybody. But other than that, I'm not sure what to make of their situation yet. It's been really disappointing.

But I wonder if a lot of those decisions get punted to the offseason. Really? like Dougie Hamilton included? No, that one I could see happening now if there was something that worked out for everybody. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it feels like even beyond the roster,

there's some hard conversations and decisions to be had within that organization with the way things have gone this year, don't you think? Yes. And by the way, Kyle, what happened in the Minnesota crease? He got sick? Oh, yeah. So we were just started recording here when this happened. Poor Phil Augustus and clearly not feeling great. No pun intended, but guts it out to start for Minnesota. Big game against Colorado. Which they won. Which they won. But with just over a minute left, hoof, he, he couldn't keep it down. and he threw up right in his crease.

Some of it got on his jersey and... Oh, how did I miss this? And then, like, I don't know who you feel worse for. Like Gustafson, who's clearly not in a great space, or yes, for Wollstead that has to come into that crease and play the end of the game. And then he gets scored on, the first shot he faced. Now, you know, the score was Minnesota had it well enough of a game.

It wasn't a problem. Oh, but that's just, that's a tough way to close out. But, hey, Minnesota's got their own fluid game now. Oh, can you imagine? Oh, there's like frozen vomit in the crease and you've got to go down and try to make a save in it. Oh, so when I was eight years old. Oh, I can only imagine where this story is going. Good.

I can't wait to hear this. Yeah, yeah. my minor hockey league team we got picked to go play in the intermission at one of the Canucks games. So I talk about excitement. And so we go there,

staying right down down in Vancouver. We go to all Moxies, like a team out and we go to dinner first before going to the game. Now, growing up, it was a staple. If family was going out to Moxies, which was like a big outing for us. You know, we didn't go there often. When you did, it was a big deal.

I always ordered chicken strips and fries, okay? Always, always, always. Great plum sauce. Moxies back then. Go there that night and I'm like, I know what I'm getting. I go to order it. My dad was like, you always order that. Like, do something different.

You can't have the same thing all the time. I'm all right, fine. So order pizza. Like, I really branched out, right? So I remember eating the pizza and I'm like, this tastes a little off. but I didn't want to make a scene so I just ate it.

Okay, we're going to the game. We'll get to play in the intermission. This is so cool. And I remember we got there early, we went down by the glass watch warm up. I remember sitting there and I was like, I kind of feel, kind of feel a little funny.

And, uh, and so we were playing the first intermission. And, and I remember some, like I, I don't know how I got through it, but, I mean, my parents were saying, like, watch me go on. He doesn't look himself out there.

But I was so scared. I was going to have a Philip Gustafson moment on the ice. I didn't, but I did just about everywhere else around what was then GM place that night. It was so bad. It was so, so, so bad. And I stayed, like, I don't know, like, my only disappointment with this story is that you actually didn't throw up. No, I thought. I thought for sure it was coming

and I managed to just keep it down in time but oh man I had it like because you know we dressed up nice to go to the game and I had all over my dress pants I remember one time running like through the concourse and I was trying to like get to the garbage can in time and I just came up short and yet I stayed for the whole game

like I should have been taken back to the hotel at that point anyway it's a different world back then I have I have a legend Dormit story from university that I will tell on my last ever podcast. Nice. Nice. All right.

Set your calendars, folks. You will not want to miss that one. Retire. It's worth the wait. I will tell you this story. It is worth the wait. So good. Get well soon, Philip.

Get well soon. Yes. All right. Before we go to final things, thought you got anything else you want to ask about anything I forget? So I don't necessarily forgot. I mean, we touched on Anaheim briefly and their unique situation has a young group, but right in the mix.

Yeah, yeah. But a team that almost a year ago, the messaging from management was playoffs this year, and how they're in position to do so. Is Pat Brubique willing to be super? I think there. one of, in terms of strength of schedule here down the stretch, they have one of the easier past. I know that doesn't guarantee anything.

All I'm saying is it's shaping up to be the ducks in a really good position to be among the eight in the West. So how do you think Verbeek handles it? Well, again, he's got, he's got some big contracts to deal with, right? Like, what do you think Leo Carlson's going to get paid? here if they do term. Like he came right out a break where he

was hurt. Didn't look too bad the other night against Edmonton. Like, but what do you think Carlson's number? And he's got Goce who scores and Seneca's a couple years away, but boy, he looks he looks fantastic. This Calder vote, I mean,

look, like, it's going to be really hard to vote against Schaefer, like really hard to vote against Schaefer. But Seneca is fantastic. But so we knew he was willing to consider Panarin, right? Mm-hmm. Just no extension. Somebody reminded me when White Cloud came out of college,

Verbeek was still in Tampa and tried to get him. But I don't think unless they really make it work their while, I don't think White Cloud's going anywhere, as I said earlier. But, you know, Verbeek's, tough one to read. That's what I heard. I heard he made a non-extension pitch at Panarin. Heard he liked White Cloud,

mindful of big contracts. I'm sorry, I can't give me any more than that right now. I'm sorry to disappoint you. Add it to the list. Days since, Fridge disappointed, back to zero. Back to zero. Previous high,

three hours. Two and a half. Three hours. Okay. All right. With that, time now for the final thought presented by the Toyota BZ, go all-electric and a winter-ready Toyota BZ at your local dealer today. It's been a heck of a week. The discourse around the U.S. men's Olympic team in the aftermath of winning their gold medal on Sunday, the celebration, who they celebrated, a phone call with the President of the United States, and where the victory.

lap all took them. We have seen Elliot hockey social media. It's gotten ugly and divisive in the past. It felt like the volume was really cranked up here the last couple of days. I don't think we're going to rehash all of it, but what would you like to touch on? Kyle, there's two things I'd like to discuss. One is the U.S. women's team and secondly, the postgame celebration. First, the women's team.

Nobody ever listens to anything I say, which is smart. Nobody should listen to anything I say. However, I am going to say this about the gold medal winning U.S. women's hockey team, because I think it's important they understand this. You're in a whirlwind. You didn't create it. You feel that people are joking at your expense. you feel that you are being disrespected,

you feel you are not being taken seriously. It is very important that those individual players and that team know that approximately 0% of the world's population. And Kyle, I would say that it's not approximately 0%. It is 0% definitely of the world's population thinks any less of those players or that team because of the comment the president made on that phone call. No one with a functioning brain.

And again, I would add, even people without a functioning brain saw, whether they're a hardcore hockey fan or someone who just watched them at the Olympics, they saw the same thing that I saw, you saw and dom saw and that is they were a steamroller they were dominant they were elite they had a tremendous Olympic accomplishment and that if Canada to their credit had not played the best game that they played in the last four years the gold medal game would not have been close

The only reason it got to overtime was the Canadians said this is the only way we can beat them, and we are going to do that for 60 plus minutes. And they almost pulled it off. But a close victory in the gold medal game is no shame. As far as I'm concerned, it made the Americans legend even greater because they were finally pushed and they stood up to it and they found away. everybody, everybody sees that. And what happened in that phone call did not change that.

And I think that that is something, like I don't want to speak for any of the female players. If you saw their quotes, you understand how they all felt. I just thought it was important for them to know that what happened on that call affected the opinion of zero people. Zero worldwide. We all know how good you were individually. We all know how good you were as a team. We all watched it. We all saw it. We all know it.

You earned it. You deserved it. It wasn't a fluke. It was earned and won the way it's supposed to be done. and I think it's very important that those players and that team recognizes that no matter what happened on that phone call nobody thinks they're the butt of a joke nobody lost respect for them nobody thinks of any less for them you were a steamroller that won that gold medal fair and square and everybody knows that Kyle do I get my message across yes we talked about it a couple pods back it was it was an absolute thrill to be in the building that night to watch that all unfold. And they were such a deserving champion and gold medalist.

As great as that Canadian team was, especially that night, how they pushed them. Decl your points, Elliot. They held. They deserved it and should be celebrated as such. And we'll continue to be. Nothing changes there. I'm just one guy with a podcast. And I don't like to speak to presume.

I speak for anyone else but myself. But I think in this case, I speak for the vast majority, if not 100% of people. We all saw what we saw. You're great. And in our eyes, you will always be seen with greatness. That's number one. Number two, the celebration. Okay.

So, Kyle, every year, you and I, we get to see the Stanley Cup presented. And when it's over, I have a routine I'd like to do. We get off the air. We finish all our responsibilities. I go down to the dressing room with the team that lost in the final. I try to see if there anyone there have a good relationship with, shake their hands, give condolences, get the hell out of the way.

Okay. Then I will go to the winner's dressing room where the celebration is underway or on the ice, if they're still on the ice. Shake hands. Give congratulations. Get the hell out of the way. Did I win the Stanley Cup? No. I talked about the people who won the Stanley Cup, but I did not win the Stanley Cup.

I should not be in that celebration. That celebration, there's room for the families, yes, but eventually it moves to become, it's the players who won, the coaches who won, the staff who won, the executives who won, the owner, that's who that party is for. If you didn't play a firsthand role on some level of winning the championship, say your congratulations, and GTFO. Get out. Okay? And that's what I try to do every year. I remember when one of the years the Chiefs won their Super, one of their Super Bowls,

I think it was the first one where Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift were dating. And there was a famous shot of them on the field together after the Chiefs won. And they hug and they give each other their congratulations and the cameras are on this. And I almost feel like a voyeur and I'm like enough of them already enough. but then something happened, I never forgot. He says to her, I'm going to go celebrate with the boys now or my teammates now. And she nods, she understands. I can't remember if they hug goodbye or kiss goodbye or whatever, but she leaves.

And I remember watching that and saying, Taylor Swift is one of the most powerful and accomplished people in human existence. if she understands that that is not the place for her in that moment and she has to respect the team's privacy. Kyle, who among us should feel different? Right? Agreed. Have you accomplished in your life as much as Taylor Swift? No, but I'm working on it.

Stay tuned. I have not accomplished. as much of my life as Taylor Swift, and I never will accomplish one one millionth of what she has done, okay? But I just remember looking at that and saying, you know, that's pretty cool. Like, she understands that this is, as I'm sure there would be times where he would say, that's her time, it's not my time. This is a big, big star who's like not my place.

I thought that was so cool. Almost everything that went wrong this week was because that got violated. Okay? I think the lesson I would learn, and Megan Rapino talked about this on a podcast this week, the lesson is that if you're a player, you should gatekeep your celebrations. I think most people, Kyle, are like you and me. if you have to go by and you want to wish someone you know congratulations you either ask for them to come out of the room or you go in you shake hands quickly and you get out and like the thing is like I went to one of the women's games I watched the gold medal game from the Canada hockey house but I the only night I could go to another night I could go to a woman's game was the Canada US preliminary game I walked in there and the The first person I saw in the building, the arena, was Vincent Trocheck.

First guy I saw. He's like, the hockey tournament hadn't even started yet. He was going there to watch Canada, USA women. I know the Kachucks, I think they were at the semifinal. The Hughes brothers, James Dothie told me he saw the Hughes brothers at the final. Yeah. You know, Charlie McAvoy has been a big supporter of women's hockey. I think going back through the Olympics,

you always see American and Canadian players at their female teammates games. It happens all the time. And I know that a lot of those players are big supporters of women's hockey because I've talked about it with them before. So I just think it's too bad that a lot of the negativity,

like a lot of the negativity that came out what was a great victory, heartbreaking for this Canadian, but a great victory were because somebody was in there who shouldn't have been. And that's the way I feel. I feel that if you're not a competitor or a staffer or a coach and executive, you shouldn't be there. And if I was a team, I would look at this and I would say from now on,

if we win and you don't have a direct connection, you're out. Mm-hmm. So those are a couple things I wanted to say about it. Am I missing anything? No, I don't think so at all. I think the one thought that I kept going back to here over the last few days.

I mean, I, of course, I'm not American, I'm Canadian, but I can only imagine what it would be, like, I mean, the thrill, you just helped capture an historic gold medal for your country, 46 years on the men's side since it last happened, and then you get the opportunity to visit the Oval Office and take away who's sitting in that chair right now or at any other point, right? But you get the invite. Wow. And so, but with all that, I mean, the whole notion of, and we've heard a few players say, well, you don't want to get political about it all. And that's fine. Like I take them at face value. Like they're not looking at it that way. I get it. But the problem is that is still going to be perceived as such in some circles. And it's hard to see that changing going forward. And it's too bad. But that's the reality we live in now. And so whether you're an athlete, a team, when you get that invitation, you have to be. You have. have to know going in. If you say yes, the people are going to applaud you and some people are

going to try to rip you apart for accepting the invitation. And you just have to be willing to live with that. You've got to know what you're getting into. The reactions shouldn't be a surprise anymore. You know, this is this is the world that we're in today. So what you achieve and accomplished in the field of play, that will always be unifying what goes on there. But any type of political collaboration, rightly or wrongly, it's only going to lead to observers picking sides. And it's too bad. And whether you think that's not a problem or it is a problem, that's for every one individual

to decide for themselves how they feel. but that it's clear now that's what the reaction is is going to be and we saw it again here this week all right now is the final thought presented by the Toyota BZ we'll take our first break when we come back long overdue

brand new edition of the thought line 32 thoughts to the podcast we'll continue after this all right welcome back oh Elliot I have missed this the thought line hath returned I can, I, Griffin Porter, well done, man. I can only imagine the behemoth that was the thoughtline inbox and the voicemail box while we were gone.

But he managed to sift through it all. And we've got the latest batch ready. You know, I remember when I was a teenager, there was a garbage strike in Toronto. And so. Really? Yes. So all of us in our neighborhood had to dump our garbage in the parking lot at the York Mills Arena, which was the local hockey arena in our area.

And I think it lasted a few weeks. And it didn't take long until the entire parking lot was full of garbage. It was disgusting. That's why I imagine the thought line looked like after two weeks of no thought line. Elliot Friedman, the thought line is just garbage. That's good. I'm impressed. That's really good.

So it's just like piles like taking place of the, uh, in like the parking stalls? Not parking stalls, parking lot. Well, yeah, but like, right, where vehicles would normally park, it was just piles of garbage. There's no room to park. There were, there would be games there and people would have to park on the street. It was disgusting. I'm glad that got sorted. Yeah.

It was disgusting. Oh, boy. Got any quick shoutouts you want to do? No, you know what? I do have one at the end, actually, that we'll kind of circle back what you got. Yeah, I got a couple. So on Tuesday morning, I went to get a coffee at my local Starbucks, which I know you will never go to. But there's a local Starbucks here, and I've mentioned them before.

The manager is a big fan of the pod. And I went, and he was there. and I went to talk to him, but when I went to go pick up my coffee, I'd mobile ordered. There was a note on the cup, just said, welcome home with a smiley face on it.

And I was pleasantly surprised. It was really a small thing, but a big thing. And the lady who did it, her name is Alicia. So I just wanted to shout out Alicia for, you know, I certainly wasn't expecting that

and I never would again. But it was a pleasant surprise and it was a really nice thing. And it reminded me that even the smallest things you do for people can really make their day. So thank you, Alicia. I also just wanted to shout out a listener by the name of Dr. Rebecca Grady. I went to go see my nephew Jake play hockey also on Tuesday night. And there was a Dr. Rebecca Grady there who works.

at one of the hospitals in downtown Toronto, and she says after some of her late shifts, she listens to the podcast on her drive back home to unwind. So I wanted to shout her out. And a young boy named Romeo, he was a goalie for one of the teams there, and he was wearing his team's MVP chain after their game. I said, what, they handed out to the best player?

He goes, yep, I got it today. So it was nice. And finally, I did get one person who called me, and it's a person in the league, a guy who I get along with really well. And he begged me. He said, you got to ease off the raccoon stuff. It's too much raccoon.

And I agreed until a couple of people sent me this. Oh, man. This is when you think you're out. They pull you back in. They pull you right back in. They said, Elliot, I know you really hit it out of the park in your marriage. This is one of the notes. And you should hold on to her with your cold, dead fingers, which I completely agree with, by the way.

But in case it doesn't work out, we have found the woman for you. And they sent me a news story. I'm not going to read the woman's name. I'm just going to leave it out. But a woman was arrested after police say she kept sneaking behind a Fresno Taco Bell to feed raccoons and call them the board members. According to officers, this woman allegedly showed up three nights in a row with a bag of soft tacos and began addressing the animals like she was running a late. night staff meeting. Police reports claim she named one raccoon, Mr. Whiskers, and attempt to hand it a crunch

rap to finalize the merger. Oh, my gosh. Employees called authorities after customers reported what they described as an unsanctioned wildlife summit taking place behind the dumpster. When officers arrived, she allegedly insisted she was just networking. and that the raccoons have more loyalty than most co-workers, which may be true. She was charged with public nuisance and released,

but reportedly told police the raccoons will be expecting her tomorrow. Oh, boy. Well, when you come armed with the double crunch trap, the expectations shoot through the roof. Oh, man. The first comment is hilarious. Somebody writes, how is this a crime?

Right. I don't see the problem here. Was it your comment? No, it was not mine. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I didn't see that one coming for the list of Where Can the Story Go from here? That is outstanding.

And of course, it's behind a Taco Bell of all the fast food joints. I didn't even check to see if this is true or not. People just sent it to me. Yeah. I mean, that's how your life operates in this business. That's right. People just sent it to me. I don't know what else you want me to say.

That's awesome. Okay, anything else? No, let's go to the thought line. Right way to finish. Actually, you know, I remember I do have a shout up before we get started. Oh, my God. It's so funny. Okay. So on my flight from Milan to Montreal on my way home on Monday, I was seated next to a gentleman by the name of Jeff. Now, Jeff informed me that a number of years ago in the playoffs, he was seatmates on a plane with Chris Cuthbert and told Chris's story of how his group, it is believed, they are the longest running hockey pool in history. What?

Consequently. Yes. Now, so back when this first happened and he met Chris and told him about it, C.C. mentioned it on the broadcast, one of the games shortly thereafter. Now, inevitably, you know, there's been, you know, I think Chris got bombarded with a few people saying, that's not the oldest one. This one is. That's not the oldest one. This one is. Anyway, it's, I think they're in their 47th year consecutively. Whether it is the oldest or very impressive run. So it's, it's. started, I believe, with eight guys. I think it's up to around 16 now, if I recall Jeff telling me. And it's a playoff pool. So every, and most of them are retired now. A lot of them still live in Canada. Some are down in the States. Some are across the pond in Europe. But every spring, they now, instead of doing it over Zoom or FaceTime, they have the ability to meet in person. They pick destinations. I think they're going out to Atlantic Canada this time around and they do their draft in person. And he told me a great story. that I believe the second or third season in, they were doing, filling out their picks for the playoffs. And Jeff, who's kind of the main guy in charge, he does all the tallying throughout the postseason for everybody's totals. And I think, yeah, it was a second or third year. One of the guys, I don't know if he had to leave early or he missed whatever,

his final pick. So Jeff made the pick for him. And so the guy he picked for him was Dennis. Vevergard. Oh, Danz, Vervigard, yeah. Ververgars, Vancouver Canox, yeah. Yes, but I think this was the year,

he was his first year with the Flyers. Oh, okay. So, so, Ververgard in the playoffs that year had all of two points. And this guy who was stuck with him for that year, for 40-something years,

he never won. It was like the, it was almost like the curse of the Bambino. He never won until The couple years ago Jeff found video of one of the assists that

Dennis got in the playoffs that year. There was like he found it on YouTube or something and so he said like to the group like how funny is this? Here's one of the points that he got from that year that he only got two. And he goes, since that year that guy has won back to back.

really pools yeah so finding the Dennis Ververgaard video yeah that's awesome story yeah yeah it broke the curse so anyway I just think I admire how long they kept it running yes he had Dennis Ververger had an elite mustache oh yeah elite like you just go pull up his hockey DBB before photo that's sitting there waiting for you, confirms what you just said. It is a beauty. All right. Now we can get into the thought line.

And the first submission comes from Jeff. I don't think it's the same one. Just a coincidence. Hey, Kyle, Dom, and the raccoon whisperer. Now, there were a lot of people that... Someone's going to freak out about this. I know. That's what's written.

There are a number of submissions on this topic, as Griffin pointed out. So after watching the Canada, at a Chequilla game back in the quarter final and realizing Chequia scored with six skaters on the ice, seven in total, if you include the goaltender Dostal, how does the official score sheet get filled out with the blatant missed call?

Do all six skaters get a plus? If that's the case, what if eight skaters were out there and the roughs missed it? Do all eight get a plus? Or do you go back and check the film and the extra skater just doesn't get the plus? What if the extra skater was the one who got the goal or the assist? How does it work

in that situation? Thanks for all you love the pod. Well, because of how unique of a situation that is, and it doesn't happen often, especially on a goal scoring play, that it was missed by everybody, but in what would have been the case like the game in question here, the last guy on the ice would be the one to not get a plus.

It would be that simple. Well, one of the things I'm looking at here, here. By the way, did you hear NACIS talk about what happened? Yes. Yes. That the lines changed and so they got confused and forgot and who was supposed to be going on. That's what happened. Yeah. I was reading that today. Him and Palat went on for, I think, was it Trevenka? Yes. Yeah. And I love him. That was well done. This was a article. And the celebration act where it's going, something doesn't look right here. Well, it's funny. Like, I'm looking at the score sheet right now.

of that goal. So the players that are officially recognized as on ice are one, that's the stall, 7 and 18, that's David Spachek and Andre Palat, the goal score, 48, 88, and 98. So that's Thomas Hurtle, David Posternak, and Martin Natchez. So they're recognizing four forwards in the defensemen. Right. Right.

So in that case, it wasn't the last guy on the ice. They just said, we're going to pick these five, it's precisely what they did. You know, one of the other things we didn't talk about, and I'm glad this came up because it was one of the things that, one of the reasons this play did not get noticed. And someone said, you should point that out when you have a chance. is that this is a case.

The way the Olympics work is, so when we broadcast a game during the regular season of the playoffs or even like the Four Nations last year, we have our own truck. So we control the replays and all the communication is between the, say,

Chris Cuthbert and Mike Johnson and the truck. So they say, can you show me that replay? Can you tell me what I'm seeing here? and the producer and the director who are putting together the pictures, they can talk directly to each other and the on-air people. The Olympics is different. The Olympics, there's what's called a host feed.

And a country, and Canada is the country in hockey, is hired to produce the games. Because you can't have 100 countries, bringing 100 trucks to produce hockey games. So there's one country that's selected. Like, for example, when I used to work at the Summer Olympics, China produced the table tennis because they were the big table tennis country in the world and they knew how to televise table tennis properly.

So Canada is the one that almost always does the hockey. But what it means is there's one group of people producing and directing it and they don't have as much direct communication with each individual broadcaster. And somebody said that that was one of the reasons it didn't get caught. And then if it would have been televised like a regular NHL game, it would have been discovered. But since the setup was a bit different, that's one of the reasons it wasn't discovered. Yes. Thanks for pointing that out.

Because, yeah, you are limited in what control you have in terms of what's coming. And it also, like, it reiterates the skills of, whether it's Mike Johnson or whoever's doing color during the Olympics. Like, typically, you know, okay, this replay's coming, then it's going to be this one. You talk about the communication with the truck. Now you don't have that. Like, it's out of your control. And so the host feeds parameters is to kind of give, okay, the nuts and bolts. These are the replays to kind of make it as on a level playing field in terms of what you're going to show and whatnot.

but sometimes, depending on different color, men or woman may have preferences if they're doing a game over, I want to see this first and then that, but you just don't have that luxury in this setup. So everyone's kind of got to conform to the host feed. And it's, yeah, I wouldn't be able to do it, but credit those who do. Okay, we've got a few voicemails here.

The first one is Zach from Tampa. I had a question for you guys. Obviously tried to watch as many of the guys, games as I could, but would love to know from your guys' perspective, a list of the players you guys think get either a second crack at the NHL from all the teams that participated or guys that haven't been in the NHL that might get a look based on their play in the Olympics. Love you guys so much, love the pod. And I will say I've loved how much Dom has been a part of the pod,

We'd love to see that moving forward even after the Olympics is over. And yeah, so thanks guys for everything. Let's go bolts. Let's go blues. And Dom Dvorsky is part of the future for Slovakia. So get excited and tune into some of those blues games. Thanks, guys. Dom, are you big on Dvorsky?

I'm huge on Dvorisky or Dahliawoldiwal calls him Labrador. Why does he call him Labrador? What's his first name? Oh, Dalabor? Oh, Dalabor. Okay. Labrador Dvorzky. That's pretty funny.

Okay, so I would say there were a couple of players on the Slovakian team that really stood out to me. First of all, there was Oliver Ocular. And we talked about him on one of the previous pods about how I think he's a guy who could play in the NHL. And he played the American Hockey League for Charlotte last year, which is Florida's team. He didn't have a great experience. You know, the Panthers were loaded, obviously a great team. He was a fourth liner for Charlotte, the checkers, and he went to Sweden this year. But watching him, like, I could see how he could potentially help a team and get a shot.

Kellamins was another Slovakian player I looked at. I think he played 14 games for Arizona. We did mention this last week. You know, I also did mention Adam Rizitschka. He didn't finish as well. he struggled in some of the games, later games, but he's a big guy. And, you know, I just looked at some of those Slovaks, and it didn't end well for them. They lost their last two games, didn't get a medal.

They got beaten by the States and Finland. But I saw some guys there who can play, who can definitely play in the NHL or should probably get another chance to play in the NHL. were the ones that stood out for me. Anybody I'm missing there, Kyle? Yeah, so I would throw another Slovakian, Martin Jernat, the defenseman. I know he's a little bit older now. He was originally in Edmonton draft pick back in 2011, but man, on a pair with Eric Chernak for the majority of that tournament, really good. Like I put up some numbers and just was like a solid guy. Again, I know he's what into the, what, 32, 33 years old now. So, you know, maybe that causes pause, but I thought he showed really well.

Another one, too. Now, he is a Boston Drapic. He's playing for Providence now. But Locke Malas with the Latvia. I thought, I thought he was good. And I think, The other Galafian guy who I thought was good, is the guy who's playing for Grand Rapids right now.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he has 18 goals for Grand Rapids or 14 goals for Grand Rapids? Yes. Yeah. I thought he was good. Yep. I think the Bruins are excited about Lockmellis.

I thought he was good. And also this may not totally fall in the category of what Zach was asking. But that, Albert Smith, the 18-year-old. his draft eligible this year. I know Sam Costantino talked about him on the Wednesday night show the other night. Yeah, he did nothing to hurt his draft stock only help it. He did not look out of place there at all.

It was impressive to watch for a Lapian team. There's another guy who's a little bit older who has been in the NHL and Sharks fans will remember him, Radim Shemak. He's 33. And it'll be 34 in September. So I don't know if there's, if he would even want or there would be a pathway back for him.

But he had a great chance to win that game for the checks. And he didn't have a lot of points. I think he only had one goal at the Olympics. But I thought he played really well. I liked his game. Okay, here we go. I believe I'm pronouncing this right. Evil, that's how it's spelled, from Kingston, Ontario.

Like E-V-I-L? Yeah. Let's go with E-V-E-L. Aveal? Yeah. All right. Aveal. That sounds.

From Kinsa, Ontario. Than evil. We, if that's not your name, Aveal, we have now renamed you. It is your name now. A. A. A. Ron. Such a great sketch.

I knew you'd like that. I was watching a couple of Key and Peele sketches the other day. Oh, my God. Those guys, they do. do not miss. No, they had a hell of a run. Okay. Hello, Dom, Kyle, and Odietore di Procione.

Do you have any idea what that means in Italian? No. Is it raccoons again? Raccoon hater. Lucky guess. Yeah. How do you know? Okay.

During the France versus Canada game, Mike Johnson referenced one of France's equipment managers as a, quote, pit crew member as he came out and hustled quickly to get to their goalie to change his skate blade and back to the bench. It got me thinking how and who selects the team Canada pit crew slash equipment personnel. As a Leafs fan, equipment manager Bobby Hastings is known to be one of the best in the league. Would he have to put his name forward to be selected or do the coaches just pick who they have in their respective clubs? There is no eye and team and the equipment personnel are just as important and are just as much a part of this Olympic team Canada.

So shout out to them. So for Team Canada this time around, it was the same guys, I believe, as Four Nations. Johnny Forgett, who is the equipment guy with the Ottawa Senators, and Darren Granger, who has been at this business for a long, long time, the equipment man out of Los Angeles. So it wasn't as simple as, you know, John Cooper taking his guys from Tampa or Bruce Cassidy in Vegas or Pete DeBore

from his time in Dallas or Rick Tockeet in Philadelphia. There was a history between those two and hockey Canada, of course. I think both have worked world championships in the past for hockey Canada. But do you have any more insight in terms of how they are selected in the first place? I think that's basically it, familiarity with both hockey Canada and maybe some of the people who work on the teams. You know, the U.S. one, Chris Capetto, he is a really popular guy who's been, who worked for a number of teams. Like, yeah, there, there were people in the league ecstatic to see him win a gold medal.

And he works for the devils. But basically, everybody knows who the good equipment staff are and the good trainers are, right? And word goes around. And if players have familiarity with you, they'll vouch for you and it kind of go, or if you've worked with these teams before, they'll vouch for. you and that's kind of how it goes very good okay another voicemail ray from revelstoke hey griffin dom kyle and elliott's uh this is ray from revelstoke calling in uh was at the games in milan um what a pleasure what a way to end it i was just curious when seeing the other variations of

you know other sports um do you think the olympics would ever do a best on best three on three tournament. I know the goalies of the countries would not like to do that, but would you think that be something, maybe not the Olympics, but some other NHL tournaments or other independent tournament would set up just a pure three-on-three tournament? Let me know what your thoughts are, and thanks Kyle for taking the time to stop and let me introduce myself to you right before the gold medal game. Thanks, guys. care. Oh, Kyle, I'm glad you didn't blow off Ray like you blew off that guy from Montreal. I know. I had to redeem myself. That's the real reason why this one made it into this

submission list. You know, Ray, I haven't heard anything like that specifically, but I would tell you why I don't think it's impossible. In the Summer Olympics now, in addition to regular basketball, they also have three on three. So what it says to me is that if they thought there was a reason to do it or money that could be made from it, I don't think it's impossible. I actually think it's a really good idea. Do you remember when that story came out a while ago about the three-on-three summer league and things like that? Yes.

Well, one of the things I'd heard the NHL had discussed, and I think even, I've never asked our guys if this is true, so why not just throw it out there and see what happens? But one of the things they were kind of talking about was, was there? a summer hockey television thing that made for TV thing that they could create. Like, would it be worthwhile to have a summer hockey three-on-three league with either, I don't know if they would do current NHLers, but past NHLers or other guys who play, and you could use it as summer TV programming. Because it could be, if it's packaged properly, it could probably be very good, right?

So, like, I know that that kind of idea has been on the fringes. So like I said, I haven't heard it, but it's not like it's impossible or you could never see them doing something like that. Right. In 92, they had roller hockey at the summer games, right? You know what? I don't, was it a demonstration? I don't remember. Oh, was it a demonstration?

And also, don't forget, like, at the Pan Am games and things like that, they used to have roller hockey. Yeah. So it's not. to see them circle back on that. Yeah. Anything that is hockey-esque that gets you eyeballs. And I think the idea of a hockey summer programming is a great idea. Like years ago, when John Shannon was still running Hockey Night in Canada, they did the LaBat Blue pickup cup.

I don't know if you remember that. No, I don't. They had a pickup hockey tournament. and they filmed it in the summer and they played it during the year. And it was good. I liked it. And it's like Showdown.

Well, that was actually pickup hockey. But something like that like Showdown or a pickup hockey tournament or three on three, I'd love to see some kind of summer TV property. Not to work on it. I need my summers off. Yes. But, Kyle, I volunteer you to be the host. Thanks.

I knew that so you're going. But like, coincidentally, we had another submission. By the way, Alan McCauley was dynamite in that tournament. Oh, okay. I think his team won. I believe, yeah. Just by happenstance, Elliot, we also got another submission of Fernando from Brazil that just a quick brief submission. Oh, is that the NHL Brazil guy?

I, good question. Yeah. All he wrote here is that he plays roller hockey and just talks about how it's really growing in popularity. in Brazil. And he listens to the pod. Hi, Fernando. So he, I just thought seeing that and then also the idea of, you know, three on three hockey, whether it's that on the ice or in roller or inline form.

Like I think there would be, it's different now. Like, you think about, you know, have you seen the Kent Johnsons and the Connor Bedards of the world play like in an inline league in the summer back in Vancouver? It's, uh, I think it could be a lot of. of fun. Like they're doing flag football at the Olympics in Los Angeles, right? I'm all for this.

Like anything that grows the game, I'm all for it. Okay. One more voicemail. Steve from Newfoundland. What do you air, Elliot Moose, Modescus, Bukakis, and Don Torretto. How you getting on? If you haven't guessed already, I'm calling

from Sinjohn's Newfoundland, Newfoundland, whatever you mainlanders want to call it, those newfis don't care. But like everyone in St. John's, I'm not from there. I grew up in a little town for about a thousand people called St. Lawrence on the Burr Peninsula, otherwise known as the boot. Believe it or not, it is actually known as the soccer capital of Canada. Give that an ass jeeves. So even though I love hockey, football's number one in my heart. So here's me thought. In footy, a team can loan a player to another team and in their league or others, typically to allow players to play who don't crack

their roster. Old Donald explained to you. So why not have this in hockey? For example, Texie could have a loaned Montreal for a seven-round pick, then return to the Blues after a good year with some increased trade value, or maybe a lone fellow who wouldn't make this contending team but would for a bottom-beller.

It'll never happen, but it would be fun. That's it. Keep up a deadly job. Take care. Now, we've talked about this a bit in the past, but I do, I wanted to circle back on that idea. By the way, Steve, that is a reminder of why the Newfoundland accent

is so outstanding. Oh. Because I'm not going to lie. We were sent this one in advance. I had to listen to it two or three times. So we went to Newfoundland years ago, Michael Ryder's rookie season, and we went to do a piece on him.

And I just remember, it was the first time I'd ever been out there. And there were certain places you went where the accent got thicker and thicker and you didn't want to be rude. I thought I was going to cause an international incident by just not understanding people properly, right? And they're so nice and they're so friendly.

It's the best accent. It's the best accent in the country by a mile. Yes. A mile. Our crew, so the two guys I work with the most over there in Milan, one of our camera operators, Ted Dillon, and one of our audio crew members, Mark Strong, both of them from Newfoundland.

And boy, it was just every day. It was so fun hanging out with those guys. A, their perspective and just, yes, the accent, their sense of humor, all of it was just top-notch. It was, it made the long days feel less long live over there. It was a treat. So, loans, think it'll happen? They don't really do that, but there have been trades before where people got traded and then they got traded back, right? Like one of the great deals was about 40 years ago there was a player named Ken Solheim.

And I think the deal was between Chicago and the old Minnesota North Stars. And he got traded from one to the other for a player to be named later. And later he got traded back for a player to be named later. So he was his own player to be named later. There have been some deals before. I think Sean McCackern was one where a player was traded for one team and then got traded back

so it can happen the one rule as I remember off the top of my head now is that if a player is traded in a retained salary he can't be traded back to the team he was traded from so in theory you could do it

right without salary retention. Yes. Hmm. So I don't know if you necessarily have to write it in, like Steve says, but you can do it. All right. You know what I'm thinking, Kyle,

I should just actually check and see if I'm right about this Sean McKeckern thing, as opposed to just throwing things in there that are... Yeah, let's change it up. Let's confirm what we're saying is accurate, just for fun. Instead of just like normal, just throwing things out there. Sean McEckern, yes, traded from Pittsburgh to L.A., then traded L.A. back to Pittsburgh, August 27th, 1993, and February 16th, 1994. Well, there you go.

Excellent. Steve, thanks very much for the voicemail. We appreciate it. And all the best to you and your family. Don't have to go any further than that, but all the best to you and the family. Thank you for listening. All right, a couple more here.

We had to get one trivia question in. Oh, God, okay. Ready? Courtesy of Gordon from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Hi, guys. This is Gordon from Green Bay. Oh, I know why you picked this. He does right, go back go.

No, it's not just because of that. I refuse on general principle to participate. Hold on. He says here, you'll get no passive aggressive jokes about Elliot for me. Gordon's taking the high road. Oh, okay. And you shut him down right away. Amazing.

Okay. Are you willing to proceed? Yes, proceed. You give your consent? Okay. I give my consent. This NHL season marks the 40th anniversary of Wayne Gretzky's single season scoring record of 20015 points. Back in the 85-86 year.

Trivia question is, in the previous 40 years, up to 85-86, how many times was the record broken? Bonus points, if you can name the players who held the record during that time. In other words, how many times was the NHL single-season point record broken between 1945-46 and 85-86? 45-46 and 8586? Yeah. I actually, I actually think I have a decent shot at this.

Okay. I love it. Okay. Okay. So Gretzky, I think broke it three times. Yes. If you include 215, correct. Yeah.

Okay. If you include 2.15, I think you broke it three times. Before Gretzky, and I remember this, the record holder was Phil Esposito with 152. Yeah. Okay. So we've got three Gratskys, one Esposito, and Esposito broke Stan McKita's record, which was 97. Yes.

Now, you're absolutely right. Esposito did break his own record. So he had 152. Oh, really? I didn't realize he did it twice. Yeah. Two years prior, he had 126, which was the record then. And then, yes, he broke Stan McKita.

Not only McKita, though, him and Bobby Hall. Oh, Bobby Hall were tied? Okay. All right. I didn't know that. Okay. So let me just, so what year do you start with? So 8586.

Sorry, you want like the beginning? Yes. 4546 to 8586. Well, okay. So, okay, so we, I'm just going to give you the names of guys I know who held the record, okay? Uh, yes. So, Gratsky three times.

Yeah. I had Espozito once. I didn't realize it was twice. Mm-hmm. Stan McKita. And I forgot Bobby Hull. So I've got three guys so far. Dickie Moore.

I know he held it once. Yes. Gordy Howe. Yeah. And that's it. And that span. That's it. Well, okay, because Gordy Howe, 45, 46, it wouldn't have been,

Gordy Howe in 45-46. Because I think Gordy Howe's rookie season was like 47-48 or something like that. So just before that window, the record was broken. And then in 50-51, Gordy Howe broke it with 86. So I'll say I knew Gordy Howe, I knew Dickie Moore, I knew Stan McKita, I knew Phyllaspezzito, and I knew Gretzky. I didn't know Bobby Hall. I didn't realize that he held it at one point.

and to be honest, I didn't know Espozo did it twice, and I don't know how many times Gordy Howe did it. But I know that Gordy Howe's record at one point, I think, was 95. Yes. And Dickie Moore got him by one point. Okay. A few years later. Well, it would have to be because if Moore got to nine,

I know he held the record at one point in time, and it would have to be 96. If I knew McKita was 97, I totally forgot about Espozito 126. I didn't remember that. I thought he went right to 152. And the only reason I know about the 152 was that was the famous year.

He set the NHL record with 76 goals. He also had 76 assists. Right. Bravo, man. That's good. Now, so I didn't know all of them. Did you happen to know the name of who had it before, how took it from him?

You know what? No. I mean, the only guys I would guess, like the big scores in the 40s, like the biggest guys, remember Max Bentley and Bill Cowley. Like those would be the guys I would guess, but it's purely a guess. Herb King.

Oh, Herb Kane? Was he not the oldest, uh, was that the oldest Hall of Famer we were talking out a few years ago? Or the oldest MVP a few years ago or am I miss? No, that was Herb Gardner. Right. No, I would never, I would never have gotten Herb Keene. Like, no chance. Wow. But I mean, you, you understood the assignment. And I will give credit to Gordon too, because he, did the homework himself on this trivia question.

So he had the answers, submitted a list. And I double check with our guys. Not that I didn't trust you, Gordon, but it's just due diligence. And no, he had it right. So good on you, Elliot, and good odd Gordon for sending that in. Well done.

Yeah, so I probably got about four-fifths of it. That's pretty good. I'll take that. Okay. This one. loyal to the oil in Alberta. Hey guys, big fan of the pod, and I have a question that most people in Alberta's capital region are dying to know.

Let me preface this by saying that Elliot's appearances on 880 Cheds, Oilers Now with Bob Stoffer are my favorite. He is a guest that I constantly tune into on a weekly basis. That being said, Elliot's hit on Tuesday, February the 17th, left us all wondering what small Italian aplombard. was he fighting with. The sporadic beeping sounds were unrecognizable. It sounded like Elliot was trying to figure out the defrost option on a toaster oven or attempting to make an espresso at 12 a.m. Milan time. This didn't ruin the segment by any means. It just left me and other

Stauffer disciples wondering. What was he doing? Was it a microwave, air friar, waffle maker? What does an elite insider do while doing regional radio in the early morning while on the other side, of the world. Thanks for the time and keeping us in the know and hopefully pulling back the curtain behind the almighty Wizard of Oz that is Elliot Friedman. This is the first time hearing this. I don't even remember, to be honest. Apparently it's a big deal up in Edmonton. Like what, what in our hotel? Because we would have been in our hotel by then, because it was, it was 12 midnight or 1230 a.m. in my was there anything in our room that beeped? I certainly wasn't using the coffee maker. We didn't have a microwave.

Were you getting into your room safe at that time? Yeah, you know what? That could be it because I would be getting back into my room and I would be, I bet you that's exactly what it was. Good call. This is the only thing I could think of in the room that would beep. That would be it. It would be the room safe. Okay.

Hopefully we solved it here. You're loyal to the oil. Yeah, good one. Glad you pointed it out. All right, one final thing here. Ryan from Chicago. Hello from Chicago. First off, I appreciate the team's hard work covering the Olympics over the past two weeks.

The epic stories from juice of Elliot's abuse of Italian bread and desire to sleep in a sauna had me cracking up. However... Why are you of Italian bread? Just crumbs left. However, with all the talk that was going on, Q, Nona's and Nogonis, I simply cannot believe Kyle had zero reflections of the coffee in Italy as the birthplace of espresso and one of the most historic

coffee cultures in the entire world, nothing. As an avid listener of the show and coffee fanatic, I always look forward to Kyle's coffee stories as he travels around North America, so I hope you can understand my disappointment. Hope you had a smooth trip home and go Sabres. P.S., I have my very own cafe here in Chicago, plus Pilates Studio, which perhaps is more up Elliot's Alley, and have an open invite to you guys whenever you visit.

Okay, so Ryan actually, him and I have exchanged DMs in the past, and I believe that's like, it's the name of his cafe is coffee and Pilates. It's very, it's an obvious title, but an effective one. Yeah, I got a cafe and a Pilates studio. No kidding. Yes, yes. So here's the deal, Ryan. I apologize that I'd fail.

massively on this part, as we've talked about, was it a very demanding schedule. And where we were staying, it was perfect for what we were doing. It was close to the rink. Unfortunately, in this case, the rink was not near the heart of central Milan where a lot of the best cafes and third wave coffee options could be found. So I just never had time. Never had time.

You found a place not far from the hotel that you did go to. Yes. I'll get to that. There was one morning where I was like, this is going to be my morning when I get up, I'm going to go into town, and I'm going to go check this off the list

because I haven't had a chance. And it just schedules got switched around. Never got the opportunity to do it. But yes, there was one place nearby where I'd go to, it became every morning. We'd have breakfast at the hotel. That's right to get up, eat right away, and I'd walk to this place called,

Lysola, which is Italian for the island. And I would have my capucho. And about five days in, because it was most of the days, it was the same lady that was there working. She'd come in and, like, as soon as she saw me, she was like, Capucho, I would say, see. And it was, it was lovely. It was nice.

Like it was just a good, you felt, there's some locals kind of around always in there. It was a good kind of taste of you're in Italy, that little village that was just adjacent to our hotel was right near, Nona Amelia's as Ryan alluded to. It was a nice little 10, 15 minutes. You'd never take it to go. I'd sit down, I'd eat it, observe, think about the day that was ahead.

So I would go to the same place all the time, but I didn't get a chance to explore. When we were there in August for the media tour, I did some exploring them. So I sent a few people, Arp and Basra being one, to a place called Orsenaero, which is right in Milan, dynamite spot, owned by Canadians that had moved, husband and wife, moved to Italy and opened up a cafe there. So that was like one I'd wanted to get back to. Just ran out of time. That's okay. we were there to work

and it was all wonderful in the end. Yeah. As I always said, everything about it was great except the last play as a Canadian. Yes. US won at fair and square. Last goal was tough to watch. Yeah.

Okay, so that was a bit of a longer thought line, but given how long it had been since we had done one of these, I thought I'd slide in a few extras to get the juices flowing again for each. So appreciate you all. Stick a little. through it and it was it was a lot of fun to get this up and running again so a reminder because it's

been a while 1-833 311 321 32 32 if you would like to call in and leave a voicemail or you can email us at 32 thoughts at sportsnet dot ca we'll take one more break here and wrap up this edition of 32 thoughts the podcast after this okay before we go wanted to give you a heads up of some programming notes here as we enter the weekend some games to keep an eye on across the network it starts early on saturday Eastern to Mountain Time. The Edmonton Oilers are in San Jose, another McDavid-Salemarney clash. That can be seen nationally on

SportsNet across all channels there, which leads nicely right into Hockey Central Saturday with Ron McLean and Company at 630 Eastern. Three early games I hear this Saturday. First hockey night back, post-Olympic break. We've got the Battle of Ontario, Leifes

and Sends from Toronto, Montreal, hosting the Washington Capitals, and the Calgary Flames are in Los Angeles. That is one of the quote-unquote early games. So 4 o'clock Pacific time or 5 Mountain for fans in Calgary. You can catch the Flames and the Kings. That game also wanted to point out can be seen on APTN as well, broadcast in Anuktitut. So wanted to shout that out as well. A late game this Saturday. Vancouver and Seattle to face the Cracken at 10 Eastern 7 Pacific time after hours this week.

Brandon Montour, always such a good interview, always has good insight, great sense of humor. He will be the guest alongside Scott Oak at the conclusion of the Cracken and Canucks to conclude proceedings on Saturday night. Okay, so we know over the course of our time in Milan, some episodes, we had music at the end, some did not. We're kind of just going through a phase right now

because we've been away where we are restocking the shelves, if I can put it that way, of fresh Canadian content to wrap up these episodes with. So it's not going anywhere. We just don't have a track cleared yet in time for this episode here on Friday. But the plan is to be back to regularly scheduled programming by way of Canadian music on Monday's episode. So until then, have a great weekend. And we'll talk to you on Monday.