32 Thoughts: The Podcast - A Hard Look Back, And Then A Look Ahead

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

It was a very difficult week around the hockey world. Jeff and Elliotte kick off the podcast by discussing a pair of incidents that took place in the AHL as well as the ECHL, and they express their frustration as racist behaviour continues to be seen and heard in the game of hockey (00:10).They then touch on Keith Yandle’s ironman streak (17:15), the struggling Flyers and what they might do next (25:00), some trade talk around Ben Chiarot (30:00) plus where we're with the Jakob Chychrun trade auction (33:20), an update on the Evander Kane situation (37:00), the battle of Alberta (38:00) and they get to some of your emails (41:40).Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Clark Gillies.Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: 630 CHED, MSG and WOR-TV.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.

welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast presented by the all-new gmc at4 lineup and elliot would like to start the program today by showing support to boko imama and jordan suban for what they've been through jordan suban a previous podcast guest by the way coming on talking about some of the businesses that he was working on and uh creating okay so so when it comes to Bokoy Mama, I always remember the 2015 NHL draft, which, you know, I was at, and Tampa Bay was drafting 180th. It was the second last pick of round six,

and his name was introduced, and I didn't think too much about it until all of a sudden he came out of the crowd and you know Jeff what's one of the things that you always look at is oh my goodness you know who's still here in the crowd at the end of the draft who's been waiting for two days to hear their name called and Boko Imamo was was one of people. What I remember was I was standing right near the Tampa Bay draft table when he came in and the first person he met was Steve Iserman. And Steve Iserman reached out, shook his hand.

And I remember he says, Boco, we're so happy to have you. And he had such a big smile on his face. And he went around to all the people who were sitting at the Tampa table and you know there's 20 people at a table and they all shook his hand and they welcomed in and he was so happy and this happened right in front of me and periodically you remember these moments like another player I really remember with it happening uh too was was Mario Ferraro when he was drafted by the Sharks when When he came down, I was right next to the Sharks table, and I saw him go around and shake the hands of everybody there.

And it's really a huge moment for a kid. I just remember him, Mama, and I was always thinking, you know, I'm going to kind of follow this person's career because I saw this neat moment here, and now I'm really curious to see where it goes. Two years ago, it was actually January 2020, I just remember feeling really horrible when I heard that he was the victim of a racial slur in the American Hockey League. And on Friday, about 20 minutes before the announcement came

out from the American Hockey League, I got a text saying something's up in the AHL there's some suspension coming down and I looked around and I tried to find it it was difficult to pin down before the announcement came out but when I heard it was Umama my heart sank like there's two reactions to this really I think a lot of people have. You either get really angry or you get really sad. And I got really sad when I heard it was Imama because I said, why again? Like, why does it have to happen to this guy again? It happened once and now here it happens a second time. The other thing I heard, Jeff, about this one that was really tough was that

when the incident happened, he didn't see it. And as a matter of fact, it was reported by his teammates and good on them. Good on them for reporting it. But what I heard happen was there was a Zoom call with him and he was shown the tape of the video. And from what I understand understand his reaction when he saw what happened it was just painful he was so hurt and he was so angry i heard it really affected the other people on the zoom call like i don't have words to do it justice and i probably am not explaining it to the level that i should explain it. But I just heard everybody was incredibly affected by how Imama reacted when he saw

the gesture. And I understand that's the reason that the American Hockey League never released the tape was because they basically said that this is trauma for him and we don't want to send it everywhere. And I understand that. I know some people will disagree with it, but I understood it when I heard that. And I just felt so awful for him. I was thinking about it, you know, basically for a day and a half and then it happened again. And it's the monkey gesture. And, you know, you'll remember about a month ago, I wrote about Derek Joslin. Yes.

The former NHL-er who's now playing in Austria. And he's biracial. And the same thing happened to him in a game against the Slovenian team. There was a player who did that gesture. And then it happens with Jordan Subban. And it just makes you sick. And, you know, I know there's a video that went out on Sunday night from Jacob Panetta. And there's a tie-in between all three of these cases.

And the tie-in is that everybody here is saying, I didn't mean it as the monkey gesture. I meant it as you're a real tough guy gesture. And after three in a month, you're sitting there as an observer and you're saying, doesn't anybody learn? Even if I took the guilty parties at face value, I'm sitting here and saying, doesn't anybody learn? These are three instances. And I know Joslyn's was half the world away, but still, you know, it gets around the hockey world. These things get around. And, and the one that happened to Jordan Subban was 24 hours after a suspension was announced in the American hockey league. It was a week and a half after the incident, but it's 24 hours after

the suspension. And I'm saying, where's the awareness here? And people can say, oh, it's the league's fault or it's the various players associations fault. But I also think as a human being, you have to be self-aware and say, this just happened here or this just happened here. this just happened here, or this just happened here. This happened the day before. I just can't believe that people aren't making it known that this gesture is interpreted a certain way by people. To them, it's offensive. It's racist. And after having three of them in a month, I'm just, I don't know if I'm surprised. I don't know if I'm disappointed. I don't know if I'm just, I'm angry, but I'm looking at this as a complete institutional failure in terms of after the first one happened overseas, because the Jalen Samaric situation was much different. That was a different gesture and nobody is having any gray area about that one.

But the first time this happened to Derek Joslin, it should have been everywhere. Don't do this. Don't do this. Like you may think you're doing this, but this is the way it's going to be interpreted by a lot of people. And the second time it happened with Boko Imama,

again, there should have been like the teams, the players associations the leagues word of mouth from people involved everybody should have been sending out a note on friday saying this is what happened this was the gesture don't do this this is the way it's going to be interpreted and it happened again 24 hours later and i i just remember seeing Jordan Subban's tweet. And then you see the video in PK Subban's tweet. And I was sitting there with David Amber and Kevin Bieksa and the producer, Brian Spear. And we're like, we have to put this to air and we have to put this to air right away to let people know what happened.

And then you hear the pain in Harner Ryan's voice when he's talking about it in the third period of Edmonds in Calgary and Louie is supporting Harner Ryan. We have to do a better job of learning our lessons. The problem is like, Jeff, we all love hockey. We do. We love hockey. And I think there's a lot of good people in hockey. And I think there's a lot of good things in hockey.

But these incidents, they kick the crap out of the sport they do it you see akil thomas's tweet about is this the game i love we need to grow and we need to show like i really do believe there is room in hockey for everybody no matter who you are and where you come from and the hockey i support is like that. But, you know, these kinds of incidents, they're kicks in the stomach. And the thing that I can't believe the most is, because we've now dealt with three of these in a month, is that where are people stepping up

and learning from the Joslin incident or the Amama incident that we have to get, unfortunately, a Subban incident here, where is the learning? Where are people saying, men and women, this happened, and this is the way it's going to get interpreted, and why are we not learning our lessons? And that, I think, for me, is one thing. I I've seen it before where I see one thing and people see something else. And I've always remembered what that's like.

Like always be aware that something you're doing or saying is going to be interpreted different ways by different people. And I'm not perfect. I'm far from perfect. I make my mistakes. But the one thing I've really tried to learn is to recognize that not everybody sees the same things I do. And that to me is the biggest disappointment here is that we're clearly not learning our lessons. This gesture is interpreted

and seen in a certain way. And we all have to recognize you can't use the excuse anymore of, you know, I didn't mean it that way. I was talking tough guy because it's happened now three times in a month. And we should all know now that this is the way it's going to be interpreted. Do you have any problem with anything I said there? No, but I want to pick up on a couple of things you said there and color them from my perspective as well. I think when you were talking about leagues and educating players and associations and educating players and coaches, educating players, I think we also need to throw a couple

of other people of influence on hockey players lives one are agents that's fair i think every agent should be talking to all of their clients as well about what this gesture and other similar gestures mean and how your body language can be interpreted by a lot of different people like if we're going to have and listen I'm with you that this undoes a lot of progress. What we've seen recently undoes a lot of progress and gains that this sport has made. People are going to have to learn how to be more sensitive about how they speak, about how they behave, about the gestures that they make. And that's going to be on associations, that's going to be on leagues, that's going to be on leagues, that's going to be on coaches,

that's going to be on agents, and it's going to be on broadcasters, and it's also going to be on hockey parents, and I'm one. I check a lot of these boxes. I'm very sensitive to this issue, as you are as well. Like I'm with you. I'm part anger and I'm part disappointment. Harner Ryan is a really good friend of mine, and I'm watching this, and it's breaking my heart.

And Louis is such a great teammate. And we all know what Louis is doing in that moment too. Like he's supporting his guy. And Harner Ryan, knowing what he has gone through in his life to get to where he is at, that guy's worked harder than all of us to get there. That guy's heard things that none of us even dream about. That guy's had challenges than all of us to get there. That guy's heard things that none of us even dream about. That guy's had challenges that none of us have ever faced to get to this place in our career. I got nothing. I think we're all on the same page about this. Nothing but respect for Harnarayan Singh and his families to these incidents. I want to reinforce again, this does

undo a lot of the progress. You know, I'm watching you guys discuss this, and I'm thinking about David. Yeah, of course. I'm thinking about Harner Ryan. And I'll tell you what, one of the best commercials that we air is that Bauer ad for the barn. It's fantastic, and I love it every time it comes on. It makes hockey look

really cool. And it's an opening and it's an acceptance and it's an encouragement of different types of athletes and different types of people getting involved in hockey. And then I see these incidents and I say, this is all unraveling. As much as there's a tug and pull, one way of saying, hey man, like there's a big tent here. Everybody get underneath. There's room for all of it. Then we get incidents like this. I saw the, um, the Jacob Panetta explanation video, and I've heard the arguments that we're doing the bodybuilder pose. We're doing the tough guy pose. Here's the thing. Right now in 2022, nobody gets the benefit of the doubt on that. No one's getting the benefit of the doubt

on that. That definition and that interpretation has very much changed. And I'm watching Jordan Subban react on that video that I think we've all watched a number of times. And to me, that reaction, Elliot, that reaction isn't just about that incident. That was a trigger for him, certainly. And that obviously really upset him. But my thought after watching this over and over again, I thought this initially as well, this is a lifetime of buildup. This isn't just about one thing this is about i have to go through this again yes i have to i did this when i was

seven and i started playing hockey i did this when i hit puberty and there was body contact in the game i did this when i played my first triple a game i did this when i played junior hockey i did this when i turned pro i went through all of this and here we are in 2022 and here's all these things that i keep hearing about this game and how this game is more welcoming to me that this game is a cradle for more people like me and there's a spot for me in it and i'm going through this again in 2022 i looked at that moment i said it's not just about that one gesture at that time. To me, that's a lifetime of putting up with this and just saying, that's it. No more. I can't do it. That's that visceral, raw, enough of this emotion that I saw from Jordan Subban. And that

does make me like you really angry, upset really disappointed and really sad and i can only imagine what bocola mama's going through i can only imagine what jordan suban's with i can only imagine how harner ryan had to get through what was one of the most anticipated games on the calendar all week long last night the edmonton owners and the calgary flames how he was able to get through that game last night to let alone say nothing about how David Amber got through intermissions. It's sadness, overwhelming sadness right now, Elliot. I'm with you, Jeff. I feel terrible for the victims, first, second, and third,

and fourth, and fifth, and sixth, and seventh. I mean, they don't deserve that that and their families don't deserve it. The thing I was happy to see out of all of this was the support of Jordan Subban's teammates, Nico Blatchman. He came off the bench and he's going to get suspended, but who cares? He stepped up for his teammate. And I'm just glad to see on on some level that that happened nico blashman by the way was a teammate of boko amama in saint john with the sea dogs

and the qmjhl oh i i saw that he played in saint john but i didn't even put two and two together yeah that was a team that um joe valena would have been on that team, Thomas Chabot, Matthew Joseph would have been on that team as well. So listen to Nico Blatchman wear that suspension with pride. No apology for that suspension. None at all. Good for him.

You know, Jeff, I just wanted to close by talking about Christoph Rabich and Jacob Panetta. Christoph Rabich apologized by statement and vowed to do better. Jacob Panetta did a video on Twitter and vowed to do better. You're going to have the opportunity to do better. You can prove to people that you're honestly remorseful and that you want to do better out of it. And you want to make amends to Imama and Subban and their families and their friends and everyone really,

you have the opportunity. All right. All right. There haven't been exactly a lot of wonderful stories around the Philadelphia Flyers this season. Expectations were high. We all know what's happened. A pair of 10 game losing streaks. That seems to be dominating the headlines lately. But there is one positive headline and

that's keith yandel on monday game 964 tying doug jarvis on tuesday game against the islanders where the record will be broken your thoughts on keith yandel i'm really happy for him that he's going to get to this there's a lot of things you think about. When I was younger, I was more of a geek as opposed to a nerd. Explain. I just remember someone once telling me, Friedman, you're not a nerd, but you're a geek. So I've just always gone with that.

Okay. And it was kind of funny. Like this was not bullying. This was kind of funny actually. So we used to always joke like one of my friends he was one of those perfect attendance people in school cal ripken your buddy was cal ripken okay good well i don't want to go to cal ripken because that's when i started to really gain appreciation because by that time when cal ripken was breaking the record i was i was you know 26 27 years old

and i so i want to get to that in a second. Okay. But when I was a kid, like people who went to school every day, they were losers, I thought. Like the nerds would go to school every day, not the geeks. The geeks, we were above that. Yeah, we're going to eat subs and play video games while you geeks go to school.

We're going to belly b and play video games while you geeks go to school. We're going to belly busters. That's awesome. I remember one year there was one guy. It was so funny. He had perfect attendance and he didn't really care about it. But at the end of the year, he's like, I have perfect attendance. I'm going to go through with it. And the last day, which was a totally meaningless day, we played hooky to go play baseball.

And he's like, no, I'm not going. It's the last day. I've been perfect till now. I'm doing it. It was just funny. But I used to make fun of perfect attendance. I thought that was a really stupid, dumb thing. And why would anybody care if they showed up to work every day?

And then I realized, as I became a professional and got it into the world, how hard it is to do that. And Ripken is a perfect example. To show up at work 2,632 days in a row, that is to be admired. It's not to be made fun of. It's to be admired that you can do that and you know jeff like for example i know how much you love doing your radio show and it's hard as much as you love to do your radio show to show up there every day and do it people get sick especially now people get sick a family member something comes up there are so many things out of your control that can happen. For Yandel to get to 964, I think it's incredible, especially in a sport like this one.

Because again, you could just be standing there and someone can run over you or a puck can hit you and you're out. And we know that almost happened once in his career. And we know that at the beginning of last year, Florida was thinking of benching him until the players went and said, no, no, no, this is not happening. We're not allowing this to happen. I think this is an incredible accomplishment.

Although, apparently there's a joke going around that people are kidding that are like, either he's not getting tested for COVID or they're just hiding his tests. Can we go back to that game last season? Because that was a big deal. Like there was legit concern, like going into training camp, they're going to scratch the handle for game one.

They're going to end the streak. They're going to do it. Well, they told them it was going to happen. That it was over. Yeah. That it was done. And the players lost it. if you give a player a cause he or she will rally and they rallied around keith yandel and do you remember the looks

on the player's face when two things happened one when yandel came out for introductions and two when he scored that goal yeah just the looks on the florida panthers faces said it all they had created a an us and them dynamic and he was one of us and whether you agreed with it or not whether you thought yaniel should have been in the lineup or shouldn't have been in the lineup there was that heel villain dynamic that was created, and he became one of them. And the streak continued. You know, at the end of all of this,

I don't know if Yandel has any plans to write a book or do like a super long-form podcast about the streak and how close he came various times and conversations that he had around the streak. But I think it would be a fascinating one one day. And I'm with you on showing up every day. Now, for everybody, it's a little bit different. And you brought up the example of the radio show. And for me, one of the things like when I went over from CBC to Sportsnet, one of the things I didn't have anymore was a daily radio show to do. And I had always done that. Like pretty much my entire adult professional career, I always had a daily radio show to do.

And it became part of my routine. It became part of like a daily discipline that I had to have. And almost became like therapeutic. Like I had to have that in my life. I needed a daily discipline that I had to have that in my life. I needed a daily discipline that I have to do this every single day. So it became helpful and it's never really been a chore. I mean, at times it is,

cause I'm not feeling that great. Now I got demands. Oh my God, it's 12.05. I got to talk to Jeff again. Yeah, you love it every day. I know. No, no, hold my calls. No, I'm not.

Oh no, wait a minute. I am going to be distracted. I'm going to make lunch. I'm going to send texts. I'm going to do all those those things um but I see I crave the daily discipline of that and I'm not sure what Keith Yandel's motivation is here but at some point and I'd be curious when that point was like at some point whether it's Keith Yandel or whether it's your buddy that wouldn't go play baseball with you jerks as you tried to lure him into playing hooky at some point Yandel must have said to himself, I want this record.

I'm thinking Doug Jarvis. Like, I'm always curious, at what number do you think Doug Jarvis? Because, listen, at some point, Keith Yandel started thinking about it. And I'm sure at some point, Falk Hessel thought about it. Because he may ultimately set the Iron man streak here like if you know whatever

happens to keith yandel kessel may catch him it's good that you brought that up because i was thinking about all the people who are around him kessel is 23 games behind right and look at some of the people that got close in recent years, Marlo Cogliano. You know what I think it is? I, and now there's suddenly a drop off. It's Yandel at nine 63. It's Castle at nine 40.

And third is Brent Burns, six 39. That's the thing to me is I think it becomes competitive. Now, Jeff, you're competing. Can I just play in a game where a lot of people

get benched or they get hurt or something happens, I'm still going. To me, that's the competitive nature that makes Keith Yandel and Phil Kessel NHL players, right? I want to be in that lineup. I don't want to jinx it, so I want to move on here. But a premature congratulations to Keith Yandel. We'll pause it there because, again, I don't want to jinx the guy. I'm really happy for him, too. So am I.

It's meaningful to him and to his teammates. One of the reasons, too, Jeff, is that he picked Philly this year, and he had a lot of options. It was because the Flyers were committed to, we're going to get you there. Okay, speaking of the Philadelphia Flyers, Saturday was tough, huh? He's delivering it away, and Buffalo's back at full strength. The breakaway pass up the middle to Krebs, going in and off.

He scores! Peyton Krebs, you are having the afternoon of your young NHL life. Krebs out of the penalty box, wins the race, and salts it away. Saturday was really tough against the Buffalo Sabres. The losing is the losing. The questions are the questions. You're Chuck Fletcher. What's going through your mind right now?

Well, first of all, Bill Meltzer, who does a great job of covering the Flyers and their alumni, he tweeted out on Sunday that he's heard that Chuck Fletcher will hold a State of the Team press conference within the week, date and time TBD. Okay. So to me, the biggest question is, has Fletcher been told what the direction of the team is? From what I understand, there have been conversations

and he's presented what he thinks should be done. They just had their scouting meetings. Has that been decided? And that's the number one question. See, I think the one thing, Elliot, that everybody is curious about here is who stays and who goes? And have they made those decisions have they had those conversations let's just get the elephant in the room out of the way because he will be asked about

has that conversation happened yet how active will they become come trade deadline time? What happens to, you know, you've mentioned Rasmus Ristolainen lately a lot. What happens there? How many players are untouchable? Essentially, the question with the Philadelphia Flyers is, we know there's probably going to be changes. The question is, how deep does this thing go? Well, that's the thing.

Are they committing to a full rebuild? They didn't want to do that before this year. They're like, no, we had a good season recently, and we're coming out of a pandemic. We want people in the building. We don't want to rebuild. To me, the Flyers have two jobs to do, to figure out what's going on with their team

and also to rebuild their relationship with their fans. There's one more. What's that? The coach. I think that's all part of the direction they're going in, right? Like if you're going to rebuild, the Flyer fans were mad about Ed Snyder's birthday not being recognized on a home game on the date of his birthday. And Chris Tarian took a real run, the former broadcaster and former flyer, took a real run at

the organization this year for not properly supporting the alumni game and was the Flyers Hall of Fame weekend. And that really resonated with people. I think they have to fix that too. You know, when it comes to players, the one everybody's focused on the most is Giroux. comes to players, the one everybody's focused on the most is Giroux. He's their captain. He's been a flyer for a decade. He's one of the best players in the history of the franchise. He really cares a lot about being a flyer and he still plays really hard and he has control over his situation. And Jeff, what's one team in every trade rumor? Colorado. Colorado. Like, you know, Colorado could use a right-hand shot. Who couldn't use Claude Giroux? The biggest challenge I have with that is,

can you make the math work even close to the deadline? If Claude Giroux wants to go chase a Stanley Cup, that's a team you go to, one. And two, I see a fit there. By the way, just as an aside, for right shot fits, for the Colorado Avalanche, there are two names that jump to mind right away for me. One is Claude Giroux, and the other, and we'll

see what happens with this team, but if it goes south, I wonder about Joe Pavelski there. Yeah, I think those are both. Those are the two. Those are both good, very good calls. But excuse me, sir, we're talking about the Flyers right now. I wanted to make my point.

I'll just put my feet up and let you. It's a hard fit because for one thing, Colorado doesn't have like a player there you're looking that makes money. Like even if the Flyers keep 50%, Colorado, I don't see an obvious player that they want to move to take off their roster, right? to get them to Giroux's number.

That's number one. And number two, say maybe you have to use a third team, then the price to get them becomes even greater. There are teams that can do it. Oh, yeah, there's no question. There are teams that can do it. Again, this is my opinion. This screams Colorado. I just don't know if it works. yeah there's no question that teams can do it like again this is my opinion this screams colorado

i just don't know if it works okay elliot the uh the low-hanging fruit time although you know what we really should make the point even low-hanging fruit is nutritious sometimes elliot the rumors and the trades and the speculation and let's begin with the montreal canadians and ben charotte a player in demand a a player of consequence for the montreal canadians and their new general manager kent hughes will this be the first decision slash trade that kent hughes makes i think so i i mean it makes sense to me really by the way you know i have say, Montreal, for a team that really is being stripped bare of, you wouldn't even recognize the team that went to the Stanley Cup final. They played hard this week.

They had every excuse to get killed in some of those games, and they played great. I thought they were going to win again. I thought they were going to win again. Did you not get that feeling on Saturday? I don't know. I just looked at all that Colorado firepower, and I said, they're going to find a way to win this game here. Oh, I know.

We all thought that, but was there not a part of you that for at least part of that game you said to yourself, maybe Montreal can do this? Yeah, no. I thought they played really hard. I just thought Colorado was going to find a way especially when it got to overtime i just didn't think that they were going to be able to do it suzuki scores you're not thinking oh here we go no because it happened all week

right they were right there and then you know the other team would especially when it gets to overtime it's almost like you know with some of their lineup it's almost not fair because then you shorten the benches and that's where their guys yeah really take over they kill you they kill yes i know and they have another you know another weapon that kind of gets buried in the headlines in taves who's been nothing short of fantastic this year and he was in on the overtime winner landis kog scored anyhow go ahead you're back on montreal but i do think charotte is probably the first no because he's the ufa and i already think there's teams jockeying here right i do think there's some teams here who are saying we would like to do this and we would like to start this as soon as possible and you know i think that st louis has been around

there i think florida's been around there i think I think that's a player that Calgary has interest in. And just the other team I do wonder about is Toronto. And again, I think that the Maple Leafs will be patient and not overreact to some of the things that have been happening lately. But the reason I mentioned Toronto specifically is that I believe that when Ben Chirot was an unrestricted free agent and he signed with Montreal, Toronto was in there. And they just couldn't make it work. But they liked him.

He was interested in them. And he is like a local guy. He's a Hamilton guy, right? Let me ask you this point in blank. Is this Jake Muzzin insurance? Is that what this would be well no i think you want him to play but the one thing i've heard about muzzin is that you know it's a concussion so you always have to be careful but i have heard generally they're optimistic that

it's not worst case scenario there but you know it never hurts to have that insurance i guess as you call it the only reason i bring up the term insurance is, you know, Jake Muzzin, the way that he plays can't be replicated by anybody else in that lineup. That is true. And that's why I'm saying, okay, so if he's out, here's the insurance. You still have someone else who can do similar things. That was my only point about having Muzzin insurance. So we'll see.

Jacob Chikrin, speaking of defensemen, and this has been an interesting one to follow. This is your story. Like you've been working it so it sounds like the Coyotes have one offer which meets that I guess we're sort of loosely calling it the Brent Burns threshold the uh the young player the prospect and the first round pick but this auction continues like I think there are a lot of teams around that are interested in Jacob Chikrin. You know, we've talked about Anaheim before. We've talked about St. Louis, the Islanders and the Bruins and the Florida Panthers, who I still think are going to be the team to watch here. The New York Rangers, the Los Angeles Kings.

I think we have to put in that mix as well. here, the New York Rangers, the Los Angeles Kings. I think we have to put in that mix as well. I wonder if this is the point where you're not getting the best offers, but you're getting offers that satisfy your criteria. You're not getting your A-list prospects, but you're still getting prospects and you're still getting young hockey players. I don't know that they're any closer to pulling the trigger on a deal here and like as you always say you know it's tough to say that when one phone call can end it you know if all of a sudden the anaheim ducks say okay mason mctavish well the whole thing's over yeah but we don't think that's happening right you see that's the thing though with all of this

because you attach any team to to arizona and let's just say for sake of argument, Anaheim. And there's a fit there because they don't know what's going to happen with Hampus Lindholm. And that could be a great spot for him to slide in if Hampus Lindholm walks to free agency. And then you say to yourself, well, Arizona is going to want Mason McTavish right away.

I don't know. They have a lot of prospects, but that's going to be the one I'm sure that they ask for. I don't know that Anaheim does that. No way. Knowing how much they think of Mason McTavish, knowing how they're looking, you know, the future of their organization.

And we just had Ryan Getzlaff on and I asked him about the 2003 draft and will he be last man standing? And he said, not a chance. So, you know, he's thinking, eh, I might be close to the gate here, but they're looking up the gut for the next 10 years, that organization. And they're seeing Trevor Zegers

and they're seeing Mason McTavish. Yep. Do they want to let that go for Jacob Chickren? Just like with the Florida Panthers, the other significant team of interest. Do they want to let go of Anton Lundell? I don't think so. I don't think so.

I don't think so, but I don't think so. I don't think so, but I put it this way. Do you not get the feeling that if Arizona is at the best offer stage right now, this deal would have already been done. Yeah, I do. It's poker time.

Yes. Like, I'll tell you this. When I hear you say they've got a legit offer, they're telling people, show your cards. Are you in or are you out? I don't think Arizona wants to wait a long time on this. They may say publicly they do, but I don't believe they do. I don't think they want to risk an injury. I think they'd really

like to do this if they can. When I you say that i say ah someone wants people to drop their cards are you at the table are you fishing your wish are you playing poker are you playing fish and fish is at the other table so i'm curious your thought though on why they would want to because on the surface you would look at this player and you'd say, good price tag, has term, what's the hurry here? I'm with you. I think they want to get something done. I think that everyone here is a little bit impatient.

They don't want it hanging over their team. And also, Chikrin's been hurt before, right? Yep, that's true. Yep. Other stories we're going to follow this week, the ongoing situation with Evander Kane what do we look for next Elliot the league is not

tipping its hand on this you know last week I think there were some teams who thought they were going to find out they didn't you know it's one of those things they could announce it at any minute the league is being pretty quiet about what they know you know if he can play

i think it's probably edmonton and washington of washington's end so my buddies in calgary were all over me after saturday night's broadcast why they're like could you have rooted any harder for koskinen they're saying don't you know how much we hate the oilers hang on hang on hang on i get it i understand calgary flames fans i understand it and it just goes against everything you stand for the cheer for anyone wearing that jersey i get it i understand it i got nothing but great feelings about koskinen after saturday yeah i saw a guy that got beaten up yes every time he had the nerve to wake up all week long all week long we saw leon dreisaitl resist trying to get you know lured into slamming him wasn't gonna happen yeah but everyone else took a whack at that pinata

everybody else was taking a swing at koskinen and i don't know that any of us expect this to last but for one night at least for one night when everybody said this thing is going to cave in and and it was two nothing after the period. Calgary scores those two goals, and Elliott, you know they could have had a couple more in that period. Were you not saying, oh boy, here we go again? You saw us in the first intermission. Listen, by the way, I want to make one point too.

That may have been Kelly's best work this season. I thought Kelly Rudy on Hockey Night this weekend was phenomenal and incredibly insightful and revealing and sensitive. And Kelly's always good. But there was a layer of another, like an extra layer of humanity that he placed on top of this by putting himself in the place of Mikko Koskinen and talking to us from his

perspective and what he needs and what Kelly has gone through. Man, that was great. That was great by Kelly. It was really good. It was fantastic. I get it, Calgary Flames fans, but isn't a part of you cheering for that guy? How do you not cheer for Koskinen on Saturday? Specifically in that third period.

He kept that game alive. They said, look, we wanted to win 1-0 and have Koskinen make 56 saves. That's what they told me. Which I thought was pretty funny. But I was happy for Koskinen too. He had an awful week. That whole Edmonton team, they needed that victory in the worst way.

The worst way. They did. And good on Koskinen. 44 saves. Good on Evan Bouchard with a pair of goals. And good on Leon Dreisaitl, who had a fantastic night as well. Rifles a perfect pass to Dreisaitl, right wing. Play is onside. Dreisaitl to the net. Scores! Pooley-Army, the net front presence, allowing Dreisaitl to cut inside the patience.

And he outweighed Jacob Markstrom before making it 4-3 with 5.5 to go. Well, yes, Apolliarbi drove the net hard and he got a piece and sent Shillington on his butt in the process. And that opened up an opportunity. You don't see Chris Tanev get walked wide. He is one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL. And the Edmonton Oilers, on a brilliant individual effort, from the MVP two years ago, Leon Dreisaitl,

have got themselves a 4-3 lead. Heck of a pass from Duncan Keith to trigger the play. Pooley Irving. By the time we have the podcast drop on Friday, we're going to know all the members of the Canadian Olympic team. You mentioned a few of them the other day. You know, just disappointed for podcast

guest, Devin Dubnik, that he didn't make the team. Yep. You know, he could tell he was hoping to make it. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out for him. But good luck to all those Team Canada players. Stay healthy, everybody. That's the men and the women. For everybody competing at the Olympics,

stay healthy and get there safe. So just we're all on the same page as well. The men's team will be named on Tuesday. The women will be leaving for Beijing on the Wednesday. Time for a couple of emails before we sign off. Free Giroux? Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

I love this one. I love this question. From Beegs in New Hampshire. Did you see Claude Giroux's effort Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I love this one. I love this question. From Beags in New Hampshire. Did you see Claude Giroux's effort in the shootout against the Islanders? A slap shot in a shootout from a star player. Is this him mailing it in prior to a trade? And what are some of the landing spots? Well, we've already talked about Giroux and trades,

but this isn't the first time we've seen Giroux do this. There's no way that guy's mailing anything in. Come on. Well, hang on. No, he's not. But I mean, as far as the slap shot in a shootout or slap shot in a penalty shot, he did this against the Leafs. I want to say he's done it against San Jose.

Like Giroux's done this before. To me, it's one of my favorite moves in hockey. Just coming in point blank, just a top of the hash marks and letting one go. Brian Rolston did this, Elliot. Remember? how many times did brian ralston do this like every shootout brian ralston here comes a slap shot yeah thomas vanik would do this on the regular too sometimes he'd do that around the world move just you know circle around the puck and then blast it we've seen chara do it which must be the most frightening thing in the world for a goaltender. But you know who used to do it?

Hoodler used to do it too. You know who used to do it and he used to love it because the guy's such a rhinoceros on skates. Remember Marian Hossa doing this move? I don't remember him doing that. Just coming in and blasting it. I just don't know what goes through a goalie's mind. Like, you know, you're powerless. You're just like, I'm just going to try something and maybe

kind of get in the way. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. I love the slap shot from the hash marks move on the shootout. Do you like that move, Elliot? I do. I think it's entertaining. I think it's funny. Look, whatever works, right? I love it.

Koskinen the other night. They don't ask you how, they ask you how many. Yes. Okay, from Phillip in California. I was a bit peeved to listen to the latest episode and hear... Uh-oh. I know. Phillip. Hang on. What did we do? Well, he heard no mention of Timo Meier. I totally respected Victor Hedman deserved

airtime for his game against LA, but Timo also had a pretty good game against Los Angeles. Yeah, I think so, Phillip. Five goals. How about some Timo time? Do pretty good game against Los Angeles. Yeah, I think so. Fill up five goals. How about some Timo time? Do you remember the first time you saw Timo Meyer play? Yes, it was in a CHL game. And I just remember it was one of those nights where he had the puck and nobody was taking it from him.

Great power forward. Don't remember. You know, there's some players because at that age, some are more filled out than others. Some players, you want to check the birth certificate. Is that player really 20? Meyer was one of those guys.

Yes. Halifax and then Ruan Miranda. And the first time I saw him was, I mean, I'd seen him on television playing for Halifax, but live at the 2016 Memorial Cup with the Huskies playing in Red Deer. Like that was the year where London had like Marner and Dvorak and Kachuk. That was the top line.

Oli O'Levy was on the blue line and Max Jones. Like it was stack team and they ended up beating Timo Meier's team but I just remember like to your point seeing this big hulking power forward that could move his feet and the one thing more than anything else that just stunned you was the release yeah like just how this guy shot was heavy like I'm I think like a lot of us we've been waiting for Timo Meier to emerge as the next big power forward in the NHL, I wonder if we're there. I had heard that San Jose told Meyer they expected a lot different from him this year. That if he really enjoyed being a member of the Sharks,

that this had to be a better year for him. And it's pretty clear he likes being a member of the Sharks. He started out good too. There was a stretch there of about two to three weeks that you could have made an argument, albeit in a, how shall we say, in a minor key, not a major key, in a minor key for the Hart Trophy. That's how good he was for the San Jose Sharks

when they had their first little run. Okay, we'll finish up with this one, Elliot, from Bill. As a Canucks fan, there's been a lot of discussion recently about potentially moving JT Miller. I think it's a move worth discussing given his age and the fact that he'll be a UFA next summer, but I'm wondering how potential trade could impact how other teams, players, and fans will perceive the organization

and the potential negative locker room dynamics that it might create. I.e. players won't be happy management's trading away one of their best players and making them a worse team. What do you hear? What do you know? JT Miller. I think Miller is sick of the trade rumors.

That's number one. I think he's reached a point where he's like, like there's one a day, like enough with this garbage. I think he's kind of tired of listening to it. I have no doubt that that's the case. Look, the guy plays hard. I do think you get to a point where players getting close to the end of his deal. You have to have an honest conversation with where are we going here?

And sometimes a year and a half out, a player may not be willing to say, I'm leaving, I'm not coming back, or I'm definitely staying. Sometimes they will. You have to kind of figure out where this player is. But they don't always have an answer. The one thing I think about Miller is that they've been called on him a lot. Not necessarily are they interested in trading him, but they get calls about him. I know Benning got a ton of them.

And whenever, you know, the Vancouver media would report, oh, I'm hearing a JT Miller trade rumor, you know, and it would get out there. Other teams would start calling or, hey, are you guys trading Miller? And Benning's head would spin around like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, and he'd be like, again? When Benning's out and Rutherford takes over, you know, he's starting to do all his due diligence,. And he'd be like, again, when Benning's out and Rutherford takes over, you know, he's

starting to do all his due diligence and people are calling him like, what are you doing with Miller? I think they know exactly what the market is for him. Look, I think they'll try to stay in the race as long as they can. I'm sure there will be the value of trading

him this year versus, you know, staying in the race and seeing if that's worth it to us. But I think they're going to have, if they want to do it, I don't think they're going to have a shortage of teams saying, yeah, we're going to do it. But I just don't know. Like the one thing I'm starting to hear is that teams are starting to say that the Canucks are going to be willing to do some things.

I think Rutherford has let that be known that, you know, there are some things that they're going to be considering. I just don't know if he said it's this or that or this in particular. Very good. Elliot, I want to close by talking about and offering

condolences to the Gillies family. Clark Gillies passed away on Friday, a giant of the game, a giant on the ice, a giant off the ice. My heart breaks for our friend and colleague, Justin Bourne, his wife, Brianna, the Bourne and Gillies family, very close. I think we all have memories of either watching Clark Gillies play or meeting Clark Gillies or seeing him at the rink, whether it's at charitable functions as well, whether it's crushing a tin of beer on his head as he famously did, a wildly generous man, a really good hockey player, a hockey hall of famer.

Brianna wrote the most wonderful like beautiful thing about a beautiful man on her Instagram wrote just a beautiful few passages about Clark and you know condolences and all respect to Brianna Bourne Shannon Hogan who's Islanders host on the broadcast on

Friday just spoke so beautifully about Clark Gillies and I mean she's a thorough pro but you know underlying all of it you can tell in her voice just how much Clark Gillies meant to her how much Clark Gillies meant to the Islanders meant to all those fans meant to that organization and he was someone that everyone loved being around because Jethro always had a smile and a kind word and a laugh. And he just made you feel like a better person when you were around Clark Gillies. Elliot, do you have a thought on Jethro?

I met Ed Hospodar once. Ooh. And Ed Hospodar was a former NHL player who was a very very tough guy and we talked about one of the more famous incidents of his career which was the fight between philadelphia and montreal before a stanley cup semi-final playoff game when the flyers were tired of the canadians shooting the puck down the empty nets. They dressed guys like Hospodar who weren't going to be playing, who would stop this craziness from occurring.

Chicanery. This chicanery by starting a fight. And it was a pretty famous incident. And Hospodar was talking about that. And then he was talking with people about another one that he really remembered and that was when he told the story about provoking Clark Gillies. Yeah. And he said

that Clark Gillies was telling him stop, stop. He's cross-checking him and he's slashing him in the back of the legs and Gillies is like stop, stop. Don't do this. I warn you. And he went too far and Gillies put him in hospital. And he said that it was, it was my fault because he warned me not to tempt him anymore.

We broke his jaw. Like that was, that was that upper. I can, the minute you said at a hospital, all I can think about was the uppercut from Clark Gillies. Again, you mentioned how good Kelly was talking about Koskinen. I thought Kelly was just as brilliant early in the show talking about Gillies and showing the picture of the two of them with their bowling team trophy from the Islanders. One of the greatest lines of that generation, Trio Grande.

Brian Trache, Mike Bossy, and the great, late Clark Gillies. Condolences to the Gillies family. I remember interviewing Dave Schultz once, years and years ago, and we talked about a number of things, and the name Clark Gillies came up. And he talked about, which would have been a year after Clark's Regina Pats won the Memorial Cup, the Islanders and the Flyers were facing off in the playoffs. And Gillies is in the lineup, and I guess Schultz must have thought that,

okay, who's this kid? I'm the gunslinger here. I'm going to show him who's who. I'm the king. And Schultz said, I went at him, and I hit him real hard twice. Gillies but Schultz. And it didn't faze him. As a matter of fact, he laughed. He laughed at me, and no one's ever laughed at me during a fight. And I didn't know what to do. And then he tagged me with a couple fasts, and they were hard, hard punches.

Now Gillies with the rights. Gillies again. Well, forget about third man in with 22 seconds in this game decided. Gillies destroying Dave Schultz. And there's Ted Harris from behind trying to grab that. Let's see who is that. And everybody on the ice knew, oh man, Dave's in trouble. Dave's in trouble quick.

And I think it was Moose DuPont jumped in right away. Third man in, classic Flyers of the 70s. When you guys lose and you jump in to end the fight, DuPont jumps in and the fight's over. That's Moose DuPont. Oh, that's Harris jumping on little Bert Marshall. You notice the way DuPont came in. And all he could hear was Clark Gillies laughing, which must have been haunting.

And this guy was just a kid. And now Gillies just a kid. And there are many people that look at that one specific moment. Clark Gillies taking on Dave the Hammer Schultz, one of the toughest of the tough. And they look back on that and they say, that's the moment the New York Islanders got their identity. They won the Cup years later, but that was the moment they got their identity and they weren't getting pushed around anymore.

Well, Schultz looked like he was on the way down. Schultz amazing to keep on standing as Gillies just punishing with that right hand. Mark Gillies a victory and you can tell on his face. The Islanders now with the icing on the cake, as Schultz destroyed by Gillies.