32 Thoughts: The Podcast - America, We Love You

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

Jeff and Elliotte show the American NHL teams some love off the top and start by focusing on Max Pacioretty's return to play with the Washington Capitals and Brandt Clarke's recall by the LA Kings (5:59). They react to the Brendan Smith hit on Connor Bedard (9:26) while Jeff and Elliotte lament the Calgary Flames being wrong side of .500 (17:10). Next, a discussion on some of the most unattainable records in hockey, including Martin Brodeur's 691 wins (24:27). They talk about Vegas finally snapping their losing streak (28:28) and Elliotte lays out the latest regarding William Nylander's pending extension (38:09). The guys also talk about the Ottawa Senators being "open for business" (52:09) and Jeff and Elliotte close by talking about... cold plunges? (1:18:48) The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line and announce the winners of our Victoria Live Taping Show contest (57:59).Audio Credit: The Washington CapitalsEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.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.

If Elliot sang that song, it would sound like this. I just called to say I love me. That would be Elliot Friedman's version. While the lyrics are true, it wouldn't have sounded that good. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts, the podcast brought to you, as always, by the GMC Sierra. Merrick alongside Friedman and Dom Schramatti. Brought to you, as always, by the GMC Sierra, Merrick alongside Friedman and Dom Schramatti.

And, you know, I know, Elliot, you've been getting some texts and DMs about, you know, from some of our American listeners wanting more of an accent placed on our friends to the south. So let's do that. William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just kidding. Although we will get there. We will get there. Relax, everybody.

But one of... Very good, Jeff. Thank you. Very good. Well, you know, all the Canadians say that Toronto is basically a U.S. city anyway. That's right. Toronto is not Canada. There's Toronto and then there is Canada. The two are not the same.

Okay. Let's start off at a couple of different places here. And let's start off at the most recent. It's always tough watching players struggle to get back from injury. It's always tough to see it go a year. It's really tough to see it go two years with a little bit of a speed wobble in the middle. Max Pacioretty and the Washington Capitals. Now, the Capitals trailed the Los Angeles Kings twice in that game on Sunday,

down 2-1, down 3-2. Pacioretty picks up an assist in the process, kind of gives a speech that really fires up the Washington Capitals in the room after as well. Your thoughts on what we saw from Pacioretty specifically. Jeff, it really is one of the best things that these NHL teams do on social media is the postgame after a win, when the coach gives out the game award or the players pass, whatever it is, the championship belt or the hard hat or the axe to each other, whatever all these teams do. Like Simon Benoit the other day for the Maple Leafs, I can't score a bleeping goal, but I'm glad to hit the bodies for you guys.

It's a great line. Pacioretty was excellent. It was really a great moment in the aftermath of that game. That was a rough two years for me, boys. And if I learned one thing, it's not to take things for granted. And that game proved

we have a special group in here. Let's make sure we never take that feeling for granted. I have to say this. The Capitals, I don't think I was the only one. But after the first week of the season, I thought they were going to be roadkill this year. And I don't think I'm the only person who thought that. But they found some speed. And they found a way.

And, you know, there's a lot of talk about coach of the year candidates the carburetor has done a really nice job in washington so far you know the only thing i would say to spencer carbury about his performance is i'm watching that video that they sent out after the victory to the over the kings and carburetors going into his pants for the puck with patch ready's first point on it and those pockets were a little deep Spencer I think you need shorter pockets because it looked like his hand was going to come out the bottom of his legs but he eventually dug the puck out and it really was a great moment and you could see how emotional it was for, for patch already.

That was a, that, that was a big moment for him and a big moment for the team. And I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised by where Washington is at this point in the season. John Carlson. Excellent.

In that game, John Carlson, no surprise. I mean, we talked about how much Kemper outstanding we talked last year about how that Carlson injury really damaged the Washington Capitals almost beyond repair. It's great to see him back. I do like, by the way, the fact that we were encouraged to talk about American teams off the top. And your first reference is to a Toronto Maple Leafs defense.

Don't think that's lost. I was like, just keep going. Don't stop. Just keep going. Maybe nobody will notice thanks for that and we also should point out the hershey bears did their teddy bear toss oh it's the best 75 i think it was something like 75 000 so good have now been thrown over the years um it was uh it was pretty impressive another uh great video of their fans tossing these bears on the ice you know i i don't mind telling you and you're probably not surprised by it you've probably actually seen it uh how many times we've worked together uh

my screensaver on uh on my laptop is uh hershey bears teddy bear tossed me a few years ago with someone tossing the world's biggest teddy bear onto the ice. I've always wondered like if there was ever like a movement for crowds to bring it. Cause I'm sure you've seen like every now and then a giant bear gets tossed. Uh, this is the biggest one that I've ever seen and it's Hershey and everyone's

wearing those cool jerseys. And here's this enormous bear coming over the glass. Anyway, it's one of my favorite hockey photographs and that's my screensaver. Love the Hershey bears. Love the teddy bear toss. the glass anyway it's one of my favorite hockey photographs and that's my screensaver love the hershey bears love the teddy bear toss love everything about it so i'm glad you mentioned that elliot i'm glad you mentioned that yeah and i'm glad you pointed out that after saying we're going to start with the states i brought up a calendar old habits die hard people yeah the capitals you know it reminds me of uh benoit the defenseman for the toronto maple leafs let me tell you a story here um brant clark uh back up with the los angeles

this was a big week let me get my hockey geek on here for the 2003 born don mills flyers um gthl triple a team one of the best you know minor hockey teams that the GTHL has ever had. Um, Brant Clark comes up to play with the Los Angeles Kings again. And Brennan Offman, uh, makes his debut with the New York Rangers against the Chicago Blackhawks earlier in the week. Nonetheless, Brant Clark back with the LA Kings. So I have to go through this and do the math, but someone who follows this a lot closer than I do, I think Clark was third in scoring in the American Hockey League when he was called up.

To do what he's doing as a 20-ish year old in the AHL in terms of his numbers is really unheard of. It's something I actually have to go through and look at, but someone said if you check the history and do the math, nobody does what this kid is doing in the american hockey league as a 20 year old player right now when he was called up after 30 games he had 32.7 goals and 25 assists yeah it's really hard to do really hard to do that as a young defenseman in the american league so he's impressive now remember last year there were some rumors about him at the trade deadline.

They called his representatives and told him, the Kings did, they called his reps and said, we're not trading him. We want you to know that we're not trading him. Now, at the same time, I think that nobody doubts Clark's talent. I do think at times there's been some battle over whether or not maturity wise he was ready for the NHL but look like they've had trouble scoring the kid is lighting it up down there they you reach a point where you say we're gonna we're gonna shake things up a bit and we're going to bring this kid to the NHL and And I watched him a little bit on Sunday.

And the thing that I really liked about him was, it wasn't so much the offense, but he clearly made it known he was not going to be intimidated. He started a couple of scrums. And that's one of the things I always wonder, like you said, it's not the first time he's been up. He played nine games last year. But after the kind of year he's having this year I just wondered would he hit the ground

running and the Kings lost and they're not going very well but he I thought did not look intimidated he really looked engaged I thought that was a really good sign you know the tough thing for him is like are they going to let him go on the power play there you know obviously when you're that kind of a player and that kind of score in the American Hockey League you you know you you need to be put in offensive situations I don't know if that's going to be possible for him in LA, but you can definitely see the talent and you can definitely see the attitude. Yeah. I mean, he's a, like Elliot, he's a sublime skater. He, he really is. And he's destined for power play time in the, in the national hockey league.

I remember last year when he went back to the Barry Colts after the world juniors. And it was like beer league. Like this guy is like, okay, he's way, way outgrown this league. Like you can just tell. So as much as those points in the American Hockey League are spectacular, and they are, there are a lot of people that are saying like, well, yeah, duh, that's what Brant Clark does. Speaking of Brant Clark, one other thing that we should mention, even though he's been reassigned to Utica, his brother got called up to play with the New Jersey Devils against the

Vancouver Canucks. So it was quite the weekend for the Clark family. So that's fantastic for them. That's great. Congratulations to that family. Connor Bedard mentioning the uh new jersey devils playing the chicago blackhawks conor bedard and the brendan smith hit and the fractured jaw and everything that happened after that and before we get to it i don't know about you but you and i are the same vintage and maybe your brain went to the same place when you saw hit, did you not have shades of 1981 and Bill McCreary, Wayne Gretzky? I did. I did. So it just shows you how much everything has changed. When Bill McCreary hit Wayne Gretzky, years later, one of the players on the Toronto Maple Leaf bench told me that when McCreary got back to the bench, one of the players said to him, like nobody cheered him. Nobody cheered him.

One of the guys turned to McCreary and said, are you trying to get us all killed? Like that was the NHL in 1981 yeah you know and you know like nobody's cheering Brendan Smith here but nobody's saying to him you're you're going to get us all killed it just shows you the difference of where we are in 50 years right or 40 years I'm sorry there I was told there was no math. But I did think about it, Jeff. It was, I actually, I watched that hit not too long ago, and it was very similar. Like someone said to me, it reminded them of Scott Stevens and Eric Lindros. And I was like, come on, it's not the same. You know, I don't think that this was anywhere near as violent as that and i have to say i think

luke richardson deserves a lot of credit for honestly saying that was not a dirty hit in diffusing the situation i think brendan smith did what anybody in that like i know people hate fights after clean hits to me this is different um this is conor bedard and the black whether it's a clean hit or not the blackhawks had to respond the way they did anything less would have been they would have gotten absolutely destroyed for it um like police for example get from time to time when they don't stand up for each other more canadian tie-ins um i saw i saw smith hosted a big charity event on sunday with the devils um i don't know how anybody could argue that like nobody here did anything wrong bedard got hit smith hit him

cleanly richardson made it clear it was a clean. The Blackhawks raced to stand up for their teammate. And the Devils just went on and, you know, won the game. I think I'm like everybody else. It just stinks because I have no doubt that, well, Bedard doesn't want to be out of the lineup. That's number one. And number two, it just stinks. Like McDavid getting hurt stinks in his rookie year

because everybody wants to watch him play. It does. And the other person that I think of in all of this as well is Nick Foligno, who had the fight with Brendan Smith afterwards. I don't think that anybody had a problem with it. I think everybody understood the situation and Brendan Smith understood the situation and both were willing.

It was one of the longer fights we've seen this year. Yes, very long. It was. And I think everybody understood that. And I'm always wondering, you know, at what point you earn your next contract and considering what Nick Foligno has meant on and off the ice for Conor Bedard, I can't help but thinking part of me is like Nick Foligno just earned his next contract with the Blackhawks. Did you feel the same way? Yes. But you know, the one thing I would say to that is, I was actually talking about this with a player last week, and they said that if Nick Foligno had won a Stanley Cup, he bet he would sign with Chicago like

right now, if that option was available to him. But he said that Nick Foligno was 36, and what he wondered was was does Nick Foligno hope that he could still end up in a Stanley Cup situation because in Chicago right now and I don't want to like I feel like this is almost the wrong day to say this because with 13 million dollars dressed it forward they just beat the Calgary Flames oh man I don't think I'm really insulting anyone to say that the Chicago Blackhawks do not have Stanley Cup dreams this season or next. So that's what they said to me. You know, it was just purely a player's perspective. With Foligno, if you extend, you know, you're not playing for the Stanley Cup this year.

And so how do you feel about that you mentioned it so just a quick thought on it as well i mean on the ir there's 35 million dollars uh on the ice there's 32 uh we talked about this last week on the podcast and you wondered if that had ever happened before almost like you willed it into existence ell Elliot, and there it was. There's a thought on a gutsy win by the Blackhawks. We'll get to what it means for the Flames later when we are allowed to talk about Canada again. But what a gutsy win by the Chicago Blackhawks that was, Farid. Well, it sure was because when people, I saw it,

they tweeted out the lineups of who was taking warm-ups for chicago and people were like calgary by 46 like nobody thought that the blackhawks were going to win this game and they did like big brass ones for chicago and colin blackwell how many how many times do you shoot at the empty net at the end of that game twice yeah i don't blame him either and i would have kept feeding him if i was out there just keep giving them a buck until they scored it remember last year the flames missed the playoffs not largely but one of the contributing factors was how poorly they played against chicago like basically i don't know if you're a dc universe guy jeff. Not as much as you are, Elliot. If the Flames were Superman and the Blackhawks were Brainiac,

all of our knowledge would be collected by now. Someone out there is going to get that. You know what I want? But a big win for the Blackhawks. And I'll say this too. I have to think that one player that Kyle Davidson's going to be getting called on is going to be Jason Dickinson I know it didn't go well for him in

Vancouver but he's looked like a different player in Chicago and I've got to think that some of these contenders looking for a depth center could do a hell of a lot worse than Jason Dickinson so I wouldn't be surprised. And the other thing I would do if I was, if I was Kyle Davidson right now is I might call Phil Kessel because you need players, you're going to need goals. And the other thing you can do is it's long enough to the trade deadline, two months that if you get Kessel up and and going you might be able to get something for him at the deadline that's especially with with especially with bedard out

give your fans a reason to buy a ticket that is a really interesting one hmm i'd never considered that before let me uh let me ruminate on that one uh and as we do um quick thought on the uh on the flames here uh now it puts them on the wrong side of 500 um we thought that was going to be the tap-in game for the calgary flames charlotte huberdo by the way now playing with the white tape again interesting for those of you who care about things like that he snapped his slump when he went to the black tape and now he's back to the white welcome to the triviality that your buddy mark savard keeping us all guessing oh man savvy taping twigs with savvy i'm telling you it's that the great youtube sensation uh thoughts on the flames on this one well i i thought they played really well

in in philadelphia on saturday that was a great game on Saturday afternoon, and they just got beat, unfortunately. But, you know, you can't have that. If you're trying to compete for the playoffs, and they are, you can't lose games like that. It's very disappointing, and it's very disheartening. And, you know, I can understand why Flames fans would be emotional, and I'm sure the organization is emotional after a game like that you you hate it um you know I mean you hate it and it's it's embarrassing like you feel embarrassed for 24 hours after something like that

um you know the thing about the Fl is. Hannah Finn. It's wild. He had a big extension at the beginning of the year and in the neighborhood of 60 million and after a couple of losses, he kind of changed his mind. They, they had a verbal agreement. Basically he changed his mind and it went away and they saw what the market was for him. And now I heard they're talking again and you know there's there's differing degrees of

belief on how significant there is there are some people who think that there have been some momentum there are some people who say it's not really a huge change from before it was always open but I thought when that extension didn't happen at the beginning of the year any chance that Hannafin was staying was over and you know he still might end up getting traded but I don't think it's over I don't think it's a hundred percent a guarantee and the one thing about Hannafin is he's younger he's 27 so I think there's a hundred percent a guarantee and the one thing about hannifin is he's younger he's 27 so i think there's a feeling that there's there's it makes sense in some ways maybe to keep him now again as i said saturday night that's no guarantee and we'll see where things go closer to the

deadline but you know one thing i really thought was that there was no chance he was going to stay in calgary and i had a couple people telling me on the was that there was no chance he was going to stay in Calgary. And I had a couple of people telling me on the weekend, it's, it's not no chance. I think there's, there's a possibility, but I don't know how to handicap it.

I really don't. Okay. We're going to get to Nylander soon, folks, but more American content first. Um, let me go at this, this way,

the last player. To score on Patrick Waugh and end his career was who? Andrew Burnett. The goaltender who tied Patrick Waugh's Rins record on the weekend was who? Marc-Andre Fleury. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think Marc-Andre Fleury hates the Minnesota Wild? You know, I got to tell you, that game on Saturday night, that last minute.

Oh, Wild, so good. He had to go to the bench three times before they got him off. Justin Danforth, and my new nickname for Justin Danforth is Greektown. Nice, nice. For those of you who don't get it, Danforth is Greektown in Toronto. So Greektown had a chance to win the net, and he was distracted by flurry diving, and he missed the open net.

They go down, they score. Then he makes an unbelievable save off Chinnikov in overtime. And then they go down and they score. And I have to say, my Conor Bedard winning the rookie of the year because of all the extra attention and all the extra responsibilities you've taken, take, has not gone over well among wild fans who are drooling over Brock Faber who look great they should you know I'll say this this whole Bedard injury thing because you remember what that did to McDavid in his rookie

year cost him the Calder trophy um that's gonna to thicken the plot here with Bedard and Faber and everybody else who's involved. But that Faber looks unbelievable. You know, the thing, too, is, and Fleury will have his chance on Monday night against Dallas to pass Woff for second place. But, you know, one thing I was looking at in the NHL history is goalies playing 1,000 games. And maybe we shouldn't be surprised about this because we've gone from an era where, you know, the Broad Ewers played 65 to 70 games a year. And now look where we're going.

You look at the list. I don't know if we're going to see another goalie do this. Jonathan Quick needs 233 more games for 1,000. Now, Jonathan Quick takes things very personally. I'm sorry, but I don't think he's going to get there. Ducking, ducking, because, you know, I love Quick, but he's got a big circle on his shoulder. When he hears this, he's going to be coming at me.

You know, Sergey Bobrovsky needs 328 games. What is that now? That's seven seasons, maybe. You know, the one guy who jumped into my head was Vasilevsky. Vasilevsky is at 443. And he's going to be 30 this year. He's an interesting one. and he's going to be 30 this year.

He's an interesting one. Connor Hellebuck is at 473, and he just turned 30. But those guys, we're talking 500-plus games for them as they get older. But other than that, Jeff, like the 1000 game goalie, we're not going to see one for a long time. If ever, if ever. I say this remembering that when I was a kid,

103 career shutouts, which was held by Terry Satchuk, seemed unattainable. That has been blasted. But the one thing that I am very confident in saying, I can't see this record broken. And it speaks to what you're talking about with the 1,000 games for net minders. No, is the all-time wins by a goaltender, Martin Brodeur. Is anyone going to touch 691? Look, I think the most unbreakable record in sports is Glenn Hall, 502 consecutive starts in a row. That is the most ironclad record, not only in hockey, but in sports.

So don't bring me wins. Wins are immaterial. I'm talking about stuff. Yes, that one, no one is going to touch. Park that. But it was a much, much, and actually it's even longer if you factor in his AHL streak as well. But yes, to your point, that NHL streak is not going to get touched.

But no, like who's touching 691 wins? No, I'm with you. But that's why, you know, as I see Fleury doing this, I started to go through some of the other numbers. Someone sent me a stat that this year in baseball is going to be the first year since the first season of the Toronto Blue Jays that they're going to start the season

without a 300-win pitcher. Oh, wow. And a 500 home run player. And something else. I'm not sure what it is, but another one of those, like that, you know, baseball's always been the big counting stats sport.

Yeah, yeah, yeah sport yeah yeah yeah yeah but this year like so the blue jays the mariners came in in 1977 this year is going to be the first year since then that they've started the season with no 300 win pitcher and 500 homer hitter and we're starting to see this in all sports now I think this is just another example of how everything in sports is changing about how we like we always say like this person is the greatest ever. No, like to me the greatest player ever in baseball was probably Babe Ruth. But there's no way of comparing anybody now to him and the whole way we're going to measure greatness now and even with generations that were closer to us than babe ruth have completely changed so when you know

when i watch flurry right now to me it's the real end of an era it is the end of that goalie era. He's the last one standing. James LaPaglia You know, it really is an interesting point about sports and, you know, for the purposes of this podcast, obviously hockey. I really do marvel at how sports science, nutrition, rest, technology, all of it has made athletes better, like much better, much healthier, yet careers are still shorter than they ever were. And I think that's the nature of just, you know, how competitive sports is just because of how much money is involved now than there ever has been before. And I think to the point about like, bring this all back to goaltenders right now. I just think that the way that the game is played right now,

it's just too physically taxing for you to play anywhere close to a thousand games. Like we all see goaltenders go up and down during a game and that's wonderful, but that's just in the game. You don't see how many times they do that in practice and all the pressure on the knees and the pressure on the hips over and over and over. Like, I don't think your body, no matter how much, you know,

advanced technology you have either in your equipment or your training is going to offset that. I just, and also you don't allow it like sports don't allow that anymore. Yeah, it's true. Um to Marc-Andre Fleury. Man, it was great to see him after the game too. Just like the biggest smile in the world. Yeah, he's never lost the passion. One more year.

One more year, Elliot. One more. Okay. There's two more teams I want to talk to about on our U.S. tour. Okay. New Jersey and Vegas. Oh, okay.gas snapped a losing streak they did um you know so a week ago we saw vegas at the outdoor game in seattle and

sometimes i think the outdoor games are a bad gauge of of who you are and where you're going but honestly that was one of the worst games i've ever seen Vegas play. We interviewed Bruce Cassidy and Kelly McCrimmon the day before that game, and they weren't panicked or anything like that. They were calm. And the one thing I thought they both talked about was we know what we have here. We know we have a very mature, very smart team, and they know what it's going to take and I generally agree with that I then you take a look at them they lost that outdoor game and then they lost to Florida

on the Thursday and before they beat the Islanders and I'm not going to say that their feeling of okay we're not panicked here ended because i don't think that's quite true but i do think there was definitely a feeling like okay enough is enough like enough is enough it is time to start playing like i heard after that game with florida whether it was thursday night or or friday i would assume it was the Friday in between the Florida game and the Islander game, there were some pretty honest conversations and meetings about what was going on and it's time to stop and it's time to start playing properly. And they came out and they beat the Islanders. So I'm curious to watch Vegas right now because someone I know

who listened to our interviews with them and them all saying, yeah, we know what we've got here. We're pretty relaxed about it. They said, well, that era of good feeling lasted about five days. And, and, and, you know, like one of the reasons Vegas won last year is because they have a really high standard for themselves and they just basically said, okay, kids funds over and it's time to start playing I think the other thing too is you know at some point here you know Vegas is going to decide you know what do we go out and what do we need and uh because you know that's what they do and they they go out and they find

good players one guy said something very interesting to me about Vegas claiming Bjornfoot from the Kings and it's something that Kelly McCrimmon talked to us about. You know, first of all, Vegas seems to have this love affair with former LA Kings, and it drives all the Kings fans crazy. But secondly, people say, what is Vegas watching when they go out and get players? Players who maybe haven't done well anywhere else. And Kelly talked about their scouting and people do really respect their pro scouting. They say that Vegas has made a lot of hits on a lot of other teams' misses.

So people are curious to see how Bjornfoot does there. But generally, everyone knows that Vegas is going to go out and get what they need. And, you know, I think one of the things people are talking about is they've got a lot of good unsigned players. We talked to them about Marcioso and Stevenson. They've also got Carrier and Martinez. And, you know, is Vegas going to do what a lot of other teams do and that is say to these guys we want to know if you're signed by the deadline and if not do we just stay the course with some of those players or do we say okay we look for something else long term and do

they think any of these players are being affected by the contract negotiations some guys i would say no some guys i would say a little bit more than others but there's definitely a sense that vegas has kind of said okay it's time to get going and you know i i think knowing what they're like and and in terms of unafraid to make tough decisions and the fact that they're absolutely demanding to win again i i think there are teams expecting vegas to go out there and start saying okay here's what we want and how do we go about getting it what was it what was it that kelly mccrimmon told us uh how many viewings of ivan barbachev was it 45 yeah before they they pulled

the trigger on this is a team that scouts well and i knew i wasn't going to get the answer out of mccrimmon when i asked him but you gotta ask these things like he knows who he wants i really you don't believe for one second that kelly mccrimmon doesn't already know what he's looking for come trade deadline time i'm sure he's identified plenty of options for the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah, I agree with that. And Jersey, really beaten up. Three top six forwards out, a good checking forward out, Noshik, two of their top four D out.

Now, the thing that's really challenging for New Jersey here is that they're expecting everyone back. So everyone, people say, okay, go out and trade for help. Well, it's, it's harder to do that when you're expecting everyone back. Now, the one that, you know, people are kind of wondering is, is Hamilton. And if, you know, Hamilton's ETA is right around the start of the playoffs, I think, or a little bit into the playoffs. So you could fudge that one if you wanted to. Teams don't do that, Elliot. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

That doesn't happen in this league. Stop, Elliot. Sorry, sorry. Stop. I apologize. I apologize. But you've got to get into the playoffs first, right? And so, like, that's the one thing.

Like, I heard with Jack Hughes again they're hopeful they dodged the most serious thing there and they won't need surgery we'll see they're going to wait to see how it goes with his rehab but when you're expecting everybody back you can't just necessarily go out and make a whole bunch of trades right like they had to put Noshik on LTIR so they could even do a call-up so you know they're going through it right now. And unless they're going to make a hockey trade where money goes out and money comes in, you know, they're probably in a situation where they have to just make it work with what they've got here. And they put up a big fight against Vancouver, but they got beaten too bad early.

You know, it's hard to come back when you're struggling it's even harder to come back when you're beaten up a couple of things to that um this really underscores how important and versatile a player like dawson mercer is who you can put him on the wing on a top line no problem uh jack hughes go down goes down uh back to his i guess natural position uh of center uh you can never have enough guys like that in your lineup so now all of a sudden dawson mercer becomes a real important piece here and as much as everyone has talked about luke hughes and for good reason he's been really good so is nemich nemich nemich has been excellent for the new Jersey Devils like

does a Dougie Hamilton injury hurt of course it does does the Siegenthaler uh uh fractured foot injury hurt of course it does but I think sort of lessening the blow is just how good Nemech has been you know people talk about like Nemech going in a deal for a veteran D. Okay, maybe that happens. But if I'm New Jersey, I don't know that I'm doing that. We're going to talk about veteran defensemen in a minute. But I'm not convinced I'm doing that if I'm the Devils. Especially this year.

You know, like you may not make the play. I mean, the Devils fans are going to go berserk when they hear this, but you may not make the playoffs this year. And you're trying to build something that's sustainable for a while with his share and Hughes and Meyer under contract. You know, like the bet, what I'd be saying is anyone we trade for, are they going to be better than Nemich in two or three years like how many defensemen in the league do you think they if like i know that i just started

playing but in two or three years do you believe he's going to be better than i don't know what percentage 50 of the defensemen the nhl yeah i think you're thinking that yeah 75 what are we doing here the the only way or one of the only ways i could ever see that happening is if if new jersey was involved in a trade with a team and the team they were dealing with new jersey needed them to retain a lot of salary to make their salary cap situation work i don't know that i i listen i'm with you my default is listen i'm the sam pollock guy right don't give up on a player until you're 100 and and even then really give it a hard think but i i'm just trying to figure out like what would the situation have to be what would the scenario have to be like if you're gonna involve

in a team sometimes you're trying to win i don't think this team is at that point yet like they're still building even though they're good they're still building i don't see them as a team that 100 has to win this year if i traded that guy every time i turned on the tv and saw one of his new team's games. Oh, I know. I'd be watching with like my hand over my face and a gap between my ring finger and my pinky just peeking out to see what was happening. I know. I know.

I get it. I get it. Okay. A couple of more things here. You know, this was like the big story Saturday on headlines. Yeah. William Nylander. Remember I said we're going to talk about defense.

We're going to do that here. Don't worry. We're going to get to Blue Liners here in a second. William Nylander and the deal closer than ever. So this saga can finally come to an end and Maple Leafs fans can finally turn their attention to Mitch Marner and what's going to happen to his contract on July 1st. But in the meantime.

Well, you know who's salivating at that. Like on the leaf regionals. And I think our next one is next is on the 14th. Yeah. It's going to be all over that. You got it. You got a new protein shake on the regionals. You can't like, it's so funny.

You go from one to the other. It never stops. It's going to happen. You watch. Oh, you watch. So it's when this podcast gets it gets uh dropped it'll be it'll be monday morning and uh i said on saturday night and i

still say i stick to it i think it's possible this gets done on monday i think i said as early as monday i i think that's still a possibility we'll see um could be a real big emotional night when they play uh san jose on tuesday at home but uh um by the way like just an a1 performance from nylander in the face of the media both in los angeles and san jose as he answered questions about this like i just won't break the facade but can't help with that bleep eating grin right in front of everybody's faces oh yeah oh yeah outstanding like just outstanding anyway it's gonna get done um they uh they're just i i think there's just some i think it's probably some structure of all the bonuses and everything that are part of it what percentage of it is

bonuses but it's going to get done and it's going to be eight years and honestly i don't know if the number is exactly 11.5 it's it's but it's right around there it's it's in that area and um you know i i have to say i have a few things i'd like to say about this because i spent you know a lot more time just trying to figure out how this all worked. Now, I have had, there is a belief out there that if the Maple Leafs had done this in the summer, they could have saved themselves a million or two. The more I've talked to people about that, the less I believe that. Like people are saying, okay, he got off to a big start.

He's on pace for his career high in goals, assists, and points. He's playing two more minutes a night than he ever has. If you sign him in the summer, you're not paying him this because of the way he played. I know that's the conventional way of thinking. I do not believe that to be true in this case, and for two reasons. Reason number one is that if you go back to anything I've said about Nylander's negotiations going back to the summer I've always said that Nylander was not going to be the only mate believed to take a discount

you know Austin Matthews got a massive deal and I don't belabor or complain about these things. I believe you are worth what someone is willing to pay you. And you should never undermine yourself unless you want to, for whatever reason. Matthews took a massive deal. He's a 60 goal scorer. That is goal scorers get paid. And I always believed that Nylander wasn't going to be, you know, a 3 million a year or less or more less than Matthews that's just what he believed and what his camp believed and it wasn't going

to happen and I believe that was exactly what happened here like I just don't think he was signing for eight and a half or nine or ten if if it was going to be 13.25 for Matthews and whatever we see here with Marner. But the second thing is, and I've talked to a lot of people who have negotiated with and against Lewis Gross before, and I've asked about his reputation and he represents Nylander. And basically what he does is when he comes to meet with you he says this is what I feel my client deserves and he doesn't budge from that when he has the leverage and he didn't budge from that in the summer and especially as Nylander started he didn't budge that from that as it happened and also there's you know there's i've tiptoed a little

bit about the michael it's funny i got a call on on on friday after the podcast dropped about michael nylander and he said and the guy said boy you really tiptoed around michael nylander and i go i hate talking about families and he goes this is not. And everybody knows it's not normal. And you can say it. Look, Michael Nylander had a feeling. He knows the business. He knows what his son's worth. And he felt his son was going to get what he felt his son was worth. And I want to say this too about Willie.

Willie Nylander is not like some dupe here who's getting manipulated by other people around him. I think he's a pretty stubborn guy too and he's another guy who also believes I am worth what I feel I'm worth and I don't feel it's just his dad doing it or his agent doing it and he's just going along I think I think he plays a big role in it too which is totally fine whatever they set a number and I don't know if 11.5 ish was the number I don't know if they moved much if at all but it was around here it was close to here and they were not bending they said if you want Willie in Toronto this is the number and in the summer the Maple Leafs were not willing to go there they were not and obviously now they

are and I think again there's two reasons that they got here number one is the way Willie played Nylander's played extremely well he's a good player good players are hard to replace if you lose him and I know Nylander drives people crazy he drives me crazy sometimes the way he plays but if you lose that production it's very hard to replace it you're constantly chasing it and the second thing is and I think this is the key thing here even more so I think over the summer the Toronto Maple Leafs made it clear that they would consider trading Nylander for a top defenseman. And there just wasn't anything out there. And part of the reason is that teams who are going to trade for him, they didn't know if they're going to be able to sign him.

And so nobody's trading a top D or a really good D for a Nylander that you don't know if you're going to be able to sign. Like, look how hard this negotiation was going to be on Toronto. It wasn't going to be any easier anywhere else. And so that made it difficult for Toronto to make a deal. They had no deal to make. But I think from the beginning of the season until just before Christmas when Toronto really re-engaged, and I think a lot of this restarted again just after their trip to Sweden, I think the Maple Leafs, and this is what another team told me, and I'm sure we'll ask them after this is all over, but I think the Maple Leafs went through the league and said, if we let him go and we use that money to build the blue line,

who is the defenseman that we could go get that would be impactful enough to, in its own way, fix the loss of Nylander and his production? And Jeff, you know what? I was spending this afternoon watching, by the way, there's nothing more depressing than the last week of NFL regular season football. Like it's, it's just like, you realize the playoffs are great in a month. I'm going to have to talk to my wife on Sundays again, but I was going through the list. I'm sure she does list i'm sure she does i'm sure she does but jeff like go through the league think and i i'm the same way i'm like okay they they gotta go out and they gotta get a

defenseman who is the impact defenseman that is they're gonna be able to get that's who you can say is gonna minimize the impact of what you're going to lose up front with him. No, you're not going to find him because teams aren't letting go of those players, specifically on the blue line. Elliot, what have we talked about the last however many years now? Jeff, before you just go on here,

and I'm going to leave it to you because I've been talking for 11 minutes straight, but that, I believe, is what they decided. They said there is not a defenseman that we can get our hands on who is worth losing this player. And that is when I think they dove back into this. You know, once upon a time towards,

um, uh, towards the end of the initial William Nylander saga, uh, with the Maple Leafs and that contract, there was a lot of talk about a move with Alex Petrangelo and William Nylander between Toronto and St. Louis. The thing about defensemen now more so than ever,

if you look at the last however many Stanley Cup winners, the Vegas Golden Knights, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Colorado Avalanche, the St. Louis Blues. What do they all have in common? They can all defend. Yeah. They may not all have the flashiest players. They may not have the guys that are on the cover of video games

or on TikTok videos. They probably don't have those players. What they do is they have a lot of guys who can defend. How many times have you talked to a general manager and they've talked about whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and we have to defend better. You look at cup champions. Those teams know how to defend.

And those players don't, the teams don't let go of them like it was i and i understand we've been through it before on why doug armstrong made the decision that he did and and dug in unfirm on the no move with alex petrangelo but guys like that don't escape yeah they don't and that's why vegas is right there to out your tangles available. Boom. We're making room because those guys don't become available. Yeah. Like they, the Maple Leafs weren't going to get that impact defenseman that can defend. And I heard that was a very big factor in all this as in we do our research and we figure out if we let him go, is there a defenseman we can get who minimizes

the loss of him up front and i think they decided the answer was no yeah because they weren't available or they or they couldn't make a deal well because again for willie nylander he's the these teams don't know if they can sign him, or you have to give up something else that you really don't want to give up. Or again, they're just not available. I think they just felt there was not a defensive option that made sense. And I think that was a huge factor in this. So as this entire soap opera played itself out, I think it was last week I said to you on radio

when it became a little more obvious what the number was going to be for Nylander. I said something along the lines of, does this impact Elias Pedersen and the Vancouver Canucks? And you said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So you shot that one down. Okay, fine. Well, can I say something about that?

Yeah. Like, I think the numbers always impact people. But the point I'm making about Patterson is the number one thing that's going to impact him is when he's ready to talk. Like, he has made it very clear he's not yet ready to talk contract with Vancouver. So, like, to to me it has no like William Nylander signing this week assuming it gets done and I think it will it has no impact on Pedersen because you can't sign Pedersen until he's ready to talk yeah well the number have a factor sure but that's what I'm

saying here okay so because Nylander signs doesn't mean Pedersen's going to wake up on Tuesday morning and say, well, he's done. Yeah. Cha-ching, time to cash in. No, he's not ready yet. Okay. So you know me though, Elliot. Like I'm not going to just take that one.

I'm going to come back with another name because I live to annoy you. Yes. How much is Mikko Rantanen smiling right now? Who's up in 2025? You i i have to say like look like it's all great like the one thing is it's a 50 50 league jeff if one guy gets paid somebody else doesn't right that's so salary cap player versus players right so when people say they raise the bar yeah they raise the bar but unfortunately for someone else they get squeezed however the one thing i i do think is different about the nhl is the top players now are saying

uh-uh we're getting paid like there's a bunch of agencies that do both NHL and NBA players. Some do more, but the, the, the people in those agencies, the NHL guys tell me that in the NBA, it's the feeling is like, no, no, no. I'm the star player. I get paid too bad with everybody else thinks the NHL's history from the star player, especially in the cap era is no no i take a little bit less mcdavid and i think that's starting to change in the nhl mcdavid leaving money for dry saddle uh yeah is the perhaps the most obvious point okay uh a couple more things we wrap up the a block here and uh get to the montana's thought. The Ottawa senators, you mentioned Saturday, Steve Stahos, uh, busy letting people know that Ottawa is open for business.

Yeah. I, I think this though, I think it's a specific kind of open for business. Again, it's you plan. God laughs. We've talked about it.

Uh, Dorian was supposed to be GM all year. He's not. Smith was supposed to be coach all year. He's not. The team was supposed to contend for the playoffs. They're not. I thought Brady could chalk was really good on after all year. He's not. The team was supposed to contend for the playoffs. They're not. I thought Brady Kachok was really good on after hours on Saturday night,

basically saying that as far as we're concerned, we can't give up. We have to play until we're officially out or talking about the Blues in 2019. He's a Kachok. He's a Kachok. The Blues, yes, the Blues, the patron saints of we don't give up hope in January. But so a player has to think like this. I don't think the Senators are giving up on their young core. I've heard they think that's way, way, way too premature.

But they are looking for pros. That was the word I heard, pros. But they are looking for pros. That was the word I heard, pros. Players who know how to play, play the way that you need to win in this league. They take care of themselves a certain way. Like Ottawa has Giroud, and he's certainly like that, but they feel they need more of that.

And that's what they're looking for. And, you know, the other thing I heard on Sunday someone called me back and they said look they're the other thing too is they're not just necessarily looking for guys now I think they want to bring some guys in who can help now but I think they're willing to consider players who are both short-term and long-term guys as long as they're like true pros like that's what they want. They want to bring more of those players into their organization. And I think this has been a really tough year there. And, you know, I think that like it's kind of a tough balance. We've talked about how the players said that it's too crazy there and they have to calm it down.

Well, like I said last podcast i i think there's a difference between calming it down and allowing your players to be too comfortable and like i said i think the senators feel that they are and they want to kind of you know change that a little bit i don't think they're in a right like i said i don't think they're in a rush to change any of their core players but i i think they definitely want to get a more of a sense of urgency uh out of their group you know the worst thing you can do in sports is get used to losing and i think they're a little worried that some of those guys are getting a little used to losing that's why rebuilds are so scary yeah they're so scary even if you pick up all the prospects

in the world but you have a culture of losing, and this is what we do, and here's when we quit. Oh, I totally get that, Elliot. The one team I'd like to talk about is just a little bit here, the Jets. They win 6-2 on Sunday night. They hold Arizona to 17 shots. They're back in first place in the league by two points on the rangers in boston um and you know if you take a look at the jets they they have a lot of guys signed to long-term deals including some of their best players including two who they signed

uh right before this year but if you know if you look at the rest of their roster around them they've got a lot of good pros and you know if i've tried to watch them a lot more lately and um you can see they like they've talked about how they've gotten a lot of the distractions out of their room like just you know you heard r bonus say, everybody wants to be here, but you look at a lot of the guys they've brought in, like I have follow good pro. No mess, Nikov, really good pro. Like I, a bunch of guys told me like the mess, Nikov just underrated in terms of how much he just loves hockey and maybe he's not the high end offensive talent that people thought he might

be, but a really smart player. Who's a really good pro need a writer, you know, good pro guys like the guys they've brought in on D Dylan Schmidt, good pros, Laurent Brassois, who they had before, but now he's got a reputation, good pro. If you take a look at some of the singles that they've hit over the past couple of years,

a lot of those players have turned out to be really good pros. Brendan Dillon, just good pros. They're really benefiting from that this year. You know what's remarkable about Winnipeg to me, and I'm just going through their schedule here right now, um, getting into November from November to now, you know, many times they've allowed three goals in a game.

Well, aren't they in a streak of like 20, like 25 in a row or something like that? It's remarkable in 60 minutes. something like that. It's remarkable. In 60 minutes. I know that's going to end because you just did that. By the way, that Jets social media account, they're ruthless. Oh, I love it. Why not though? Why not? Let me just say that if that streak ends, Merrick brought it up, not me.

I'm already the star of one team's commercial. I don. I'm already the star of one team's commercial. I don't need to be the star of another team's commercial. Okay, so let's conclude the A Block then, Elliot, before you get in any more hot water and star in any more team's commercials. How about that? Quick pause, Montana's Thought Line, after this. listen to the 32 thoughts podcast ad free on amazon music included with prime it's time now for elliot to say his line. It's the Montana's Thought Line, folks.

Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue, Elliott. Try the ribs. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311-3232. Yes, it's its own hashtag. Try the ribs. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311-3232. Before we get to some of the questions here, we do have five prize winners who won tickets for the 32 Thoughts Show January the 18th at Wicket Hall in downtown Victoria,

part of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada, which takes place between the 17th of January and the 20th. Our show starts at 2 o'clock and expected to join us former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa, who was spitting fire at Nick Cousins on Saturday. Rawr! And Brian Burke, other NHL alumni in the Stanley Cup, will be aboard as well.

Here are the five, and they all had great submissions. Chris Gilmore, a.k.a. Gilly. Elliot actually submitted 32 of his own thoughts about why he should be one of the winners. I know it's pretty great, eh? Like some of them are sort of, you know, pandering, like longtime listener, longtime supporter. Yeah, but still that's effort. That's okay.

Overworked public servant would make my day. I love that one. Relieve knowledgeable in Victoria, local micro brew scene, happy to give advice and or buy pints. 13th is his birthday, would make an awesome present. And maybe most of all, according to Chris Gilmore, he tried the ribs. So you are going. Also, Jeremy Arksey from Victoria said he's very much looking forward to going and meeting Brian Burke and meeting Kevin Bieksa as well and submits fantastic job Griff and Dom mediocre job Jeff and Elliot well that is the truth so you get to go for there Connor Pickard in Victoria is going as well

said he really appreciates everyone coming out to Victoria. Johnny Harris is going as well. He submitted a great one and wonders about other towns, villages, cities that pleasantly surprise you with their rich hockey roots and communal love for the game in other previous hockey days in Canada. Mine would be Winkler. I didn't know much about Winkler until I went to Winkler. Elliot, is there one location for a hockey day that really sort of warms your heart?

One of the ones I really remember well was Lloyd Minster. So I would say that was probably the one. Because it was the first time I ever saw Brian Troche perform, and I really liked that. Oh, so good. That left me with a great memory. I would say Lloyd Minster. Johnny Harris also recommends to order a fish burrito from Tacofino.

Okay. And a shaft from any bar while you're here. You won't regret it. I'm guessing Tacofino is in Tofino, which I don't know if you've ever been to Tofino. Clack would sound. It is gorgeous. The hot springs are fantastic.

I went whale watching there for a couple of days many, many years ago. Saw a lot of orcas and a 40-foot gray, and it was gorgeous. And lots of puffins, Elliot. Lots of puffins. But also getting a ticket as well. And this may be the best one.

Jugpreet Bajwa, who sang a song for us, Elliot. He sang a cover of Stevie Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You. Let's hear a little snippet of it right now. I just called to say I love you. I love you. I just call to say how much I care. I do. I just call to say I love you.

I love you. And I mean it from the bottom of my heart can i can i ask a question after hearing all this that somebody wrote a 32 thoughts answer and this fantastic song that was just written i would like to ask everybody who listens to this podcast to say, have you ever listened to a podcast before where the listeners had more talent than the people on the podcast? Does that not just seem weird? You know what I've always felt, just as a quick aside, you know what I've always felt about doing,

well, specifically sports radio? It's the one profession in media where your listeners slash viewers know more than you do. That's kind of how I go into every single program, assuming that everybody knows more than I do, because generally that's true. And by the way, Jug Preet, that was such a great version of it. And I'd like to point out as well,

if Elliot sang that song, it would sound like this. I just called to say I love me. That would be Elliot Friedman's version. While the lyrics are true, it wouldn't have sounded that good. I would say this. I am the most off-tune person in the world. Nobody sings well. I should say I have a really good friend.

Guy's name is dave miller he's the only more off key guy than i am i'm second worst in the world so you're good for karaoke then no karaoke is not supposed to sound good no karaoke's supposed to sound bad nobody needs to be nobody needs to be subject to that nobody do you have a karaoke tune by the way i'm not a big karaoke guy. I'm not. I have one. Johnny River's Secret Agent Man.

That's it. That's the only one that I can do that I'm sort of. I am. I am just shrugging at what an awful rendition of that song. There's a man who leads a life of danger. Oh, it's so good. Okay. Let's get to the questions here. Thank you for all those five submissions as well.

You're all going to the show in Victoria. Andrew submits this. Happy New Year to you both. I discovered 32 Thoughts about a year ago. It's become a big part of my life already. Thank you, sir. I live on the California Central Coast, which is not a prominent part of the hockey world.

After decades as a here and there hockey fan, I've been diving in pretty deep the last few years as a Sharks fan, and the podcast has been an excellent way for me to strengthen my knowledge and understanding of the game, so thank you for that. A few weeks ago, there was a thought line question about cross sports trades. I happened to be reading Jeff Kirby's wonderful book, The Hotline, how the legendary trio of Hall, Hedberg, and Nilsson transformed hockey and led the Winnipeg Jets to greatness.

On page 26, and he did a screen cap of the page, he actually describes an attempt to have this done. He enclosed a photo and the page for reference. So here's the story. Jack Kent Cook, LA Kings and LA Lakers owner, tried to get Arthur Wirtz, Blackhawks and Bulls owner to trade Bobby Hall for Wilt Chamberlain. Wow. It's actually even more interesting since Cook thought that transforming the Kings this way

could help keep the WHA from succeeding. As Curbison says, it's not clear if a trade like this would have been allowed, but it does make for a fascinating historical what if. I can't find anywhere else where that specific idea is. I'm not saying that it's wrong. I just can't find, Elliot, anywhere else where it's referenced. But for sure, Jack Kent Cooke offered to take Hull off Wurtz's hands, offering $1.4 million. $1 million to Hull and $400,000 to Wurtz. Cook thought he could sign Hull and keep him from the WHA and save the NHL a major headache to say nothing of millions of dollars.

And I always wondered, if that happened, would we have the Oilers, Coyotes, Hurricanes, or Avalanche in the NHL today, Elliot? If the WHA would have collapsed early there's no answer to that there's there's no answer that's a great question but there's no answer now one thing that was bothering me and this is where i should really be the nba expert on this podcast and not you even though you covered the NBA, I don't even think you knew this one. So something didn't sit right with me when we had that conversation about cross-league trades. And I brought up my Curtis Joseph example. It actually has happened between the NHL and the NBA. So let me back up here. The Atlanta Hawks and the New York

Nets. So compensation for Julius Irving, Dr. J, from going from the NBA's Hawks to the ABA's Nets was a fourth-round pick in the NHL draft, and that was Pat Ribble, defenseman. I remember Pat Ribble. Yeah, I remember he played for number 10. He played for the Maple Leafs, I think, for parts of one season. So the Hawks and the Atlanta Flames were owned by Tom Cousins. The Nets and the Islanders were owned by Roy Bowe, who was the original owner of the New York Islanders. And so as part of the compensation for that happening, he sent a draft pick to Atlanta, 58th overall, fourth round,

and the Atlanta Flames drafted defenseman Pat Ribble. Wow. So technically, or not so technically. Not so technically at all. It's actually happened though, Elliot. We could find that we discovered one. We got one. Nice job.

Really nice job. A lot of work. But let me just say, I was about 30 seconds from going on air last night to talk about the, or on Saturday night to talk about the Newlander signing. And I'm getting a bunch of texts from Merrick all excited because he got a basketball hockey trade i'm like merrick what do you think i'm doing at nine o'clock on a saturday night what do you think i'm doing while i'm watching you yes other stuff um jesse from coburg uh hey jeff elliott dom i from Coburg, home of Mr. Game 7, Justin Williams. Yes, who's doing a great job on our air.

He sure is. I have a follow-up to your question about which NHL numbers has the most all-time points. That was a fun one. That was number 10. Although I love the classic numbers in the game and the history that comes with them, I also love players who choose unique numbers. For example, I'm a big fan of Andrei Svechnikov, who wears number 37.

I was wondering if you have a specific player and or number that may not be worn often that you love or loved seeing on the ice. Thanks for the pod. Listen while studying. In the best student city in Ontario, not London, not Guelph, but Kingston,

Go Gales and Frontenacs. I think we can both agree on one. I think we both agree on one thing that that's wrong, but go ahead. Yes, that is wrong. Even though my nieces are there, that is wrong. You know, yes, there's a couple. First of all, I remember watching John Davidson wear 00 with the New York Rangers. They went to the Stanley Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens in 1979,

and John Davidson wore 00. I love that. I remember Neil Shee wearing 00 in those great battles between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers Battle of Alberta. She a defenseman. He wore zero. I always enjoyed that. I always appreciated Jaromir Jagr wearing 68. That was not a joke. He had a Prague Spring and as someone who really used to be a student of history a lot more than I am now, I always admired Yager's reason for wearing that number but there were two other ones that were different and kind of fun and interesting that

I always remembered number one is do you remember Steve Hines of course yeah 57 Hines 57 yeah of course so I I always thought that's a great one i thought that was fantastic and the other one i remember is the current general manager of the buffalo sabers and i've never asked him this directly but it's been told to me before he wore his number in the nhl was for a while was number 42 i don't remember if he wore it everywhere but he wore it in toronto and the reason is um there was a book that was very popular when i was a teenager called the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and the answer to the ultimate question of life was 42 and the story goes that and if if it's wrong i'm sure i will hear this but apparently

kevin adams wore number 42 because of that and i never read that book and the reason i didn't was because a lot of my uh friends read it and they were so pretentious about it i refuse to do it didn't ray whitney wear 42 with the wings i i can't remember off the top of my head but i just remember adams wearing it for that reason i love that uh i hope that that's true see i'd kind of be scared to ask kevin adams that because i wouldn't want him to say no that's not the reason i'd rather just live with maybe the lie that is that that's the reason why he wore it yeah so Kevin if that's wrong don't call me just leave me alone um a couple of things on the zeros by the way that you mentioned um do you know why Neil Sheehy wore zero no well his explanation for why he wore zero he said I wanted a number that was the farthest away from gretzky because

that's where we were in terms of the talent that we had and zero was farthest away from 99 that's pretty funny always which i really i would say opposite away from gretzky because when he ran him he wouldn't feel as bad nobody hit gretzky as much as neil she did yes now um there's a couple of things on zero uh john davidson davidson wore zero on the urging as i believe it of phil esposito because esposito wore 77 and he wanted all the guys on the rangers because hey we're the new york rangers that have really distinct numbers and double numbers like 77, 88, whatever it was. He wanted the Rangers to look different. And so Davidson grabbed double zero. I always liked Bernie Perrant, who wore double zero for the WHA's Blazers. He said, whenever a goal is scored on me,

I look at the puck in the net and I say, uh-oh, into zero zero oh oh and so that's why I chose double zero there uh the first person ever to wear zero in the NHL was a Montreal Canadiens backup net minder 1940 Paul Bebo uh he was a non-rostered player uh so he wasn't assigned a number and when he finally got into a game they didn't have a number for him. So they just gave him zero. Later on, he went on to wear number one and number 16, but he was technically the first to ever wear the zero in the NHL. I am with you about a million percent.

And I have a soft spot in my heart for number 84. Oh, for Grabowski? No, but that's a really good one too. That's a really good one too. He's a good friend and I texted with him just this morning, as a matter of fact. I wonder if he ever looks at his phone

and says, oh my God, not Merrick again. Nah, he was texting me about skates. We do this all the time. No, 84 because of Guillaume Matandresse. And the reason that 84 has always been a special number is if you look at the history of numbers in the NHL from zero to 99. Oh, wasn't 84 the last one to be worn? Yes. Yes. You know it. Yes. That was the last number to be worn from zero to 99 in the NHL. So

that night, whenever it was, when Guillaume Latondresse suited up for the Habs and wore 84, history was made with Guillaume Latondresse. Nice. Okay. Now that we've exhausted all of that, Dan in Milwaukee, I have a question regarding waivers. Okay, Elliot. All right.

The Blues just called up Veranda from Springfield AHL. It'dl be curious veranda needed to clear waivers to be sent down still don't understand why chicago didn't pick them haha yeah why don't players need to clear waivers once they are called back up jack campbell is another one that comes to mind love the show jelly dom it's sticking keep up the great work that used to be the the case, actually. After the season-long lockout in 2005, they had something called recallable waivers. And if you made over a certain amount of money, I can't remember what the number was, but you had to clear waivers coming back up.

And we actually did a story about it on Hockey Night in Canada because I had a bunch of people reach out to me and say, you've got to do something about this because it's killing people's careers. Because if the players were called back up, the team that lost the player had to pay half. And so teams didn't want to call guys up because they didn't want to pay 50% of a salary for a player who's no longer on their team right at that time there was not you know the the sharing money on trades that came

later so teams just didn't want that and guys were getting stuck in the American Hockey League they were called re-entry waivers I believe so they changed it so now we're at a point where if you're sent down you can be called back up without waivers. So it didn't used to exist, but the Players Association fought hard against it because the agents were demanding it. And it was one of the things they got in a future CBA negotiation.

Dan in Milwaukee, great question. We'll finish up with this one, Elliot. Brett submits this. Hey guys, wondering if you have any insight into two recent calls against the Avalanche. Yes. In back-to-back games, they've been called for high-sticking double minors where there was no blood drawn. In my nearly 40 years of following hockey, I've always understood blood to be the deciding factor between two and four. What am I missing? Keep up the good work love the show this is one of those well actually yes i looked this up because i had people i had avalanche fans texting me about

it so i actually asked a question and jeff you can tell me if i'm wrong but i was told it's because if the referee doesn't see it and the linesman calls it the linesman has to call four minutes is that correct i don't know about that part specifically all i do know is that um there doesn't have to be blood for a uh for a minor to turn into a double minor as long as there's an injury or the referee determines that there is some type of injury blood or without blood now blood is an indicator certainly of an injury it's obvious but that isn't the sole determining factor that's where i was going on with this one all right jeff i just looked at the text that i got and it's a rule 32.4 of the rule book that says the linesman can stop play if an injury that has resulted from a high stick has gone undetected by the referees and requires the assessment of a double minor.

So if a linesman calls it, it's four. And Elliot, there is one caveat attached to that. If there's a two-minute high-sticking minor that causes a fight resulting in majors being assessed, then the linesman can report the high stick and it's only two minutes. But I believe that's the only circumstance. There you go. There is your answer. Thanks for all the questions this week. Brett, hope you enjoyed that one. Dan in Milwaukee, everybody that submitted questions that were intended to get tickets, congratulations. Also, Jesse and Kober, well done. And man, we kind of went out the door

and around the block with Andrew, who had a bunch of questions of a historical event. So thank you for those. The Montana's Thought Line, Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Wrap up the pod in a couple of moments. Keep it here. okay welcome back to 32 thoughts the podcast thanks so much for sticking with us i have something i want to ask you what what how are you on cold tubs uh i've never done a cold tub i've done plenty of cold showers, but not tubs. I've always wanted to. Actually, I've always wanted to do like Wim Hof method stuff with the breathing and everything, but I don't know. I've just never tried it.

I'd love to though. So years ago, years ago, like my sister and I, we traveled a little bit together. My sister lived overseas in Thailand at the time. And we traveled overseas together. We at the time and uh we traveled overseas i went to eastern europe and we actually went to a place in uh czechia called carlovivari which is a big spa town and i remember i went to a thing and they did a hot bath cold bath thing with me and they tried to sell me on a cold bath plunge like every day. I was like, I don't like cold.

I'm not doing this. So I was recently out in Seattle. I saw a close friend of mine and he is spreading the gospel of the cold tub. Oh, yeah. Now, he's in great shape and he's telling me just like how good it has been for him physically and mentally so i am debating this i am actually debating the cold tub like getting one well no i like wait a sec dom you're a cold tub guy what do you do uh once a week i just fill the bathtub with cold water throw a tray of ice in there,

and I stick my legs in for three minutes, and then I do my upper body for three minutes, and it's great. It releases a happiness hormone, helps decrease inflammation. It's really good for you. So you do it once a week? I try to do it once a week, yeah.

There's some weeks where I slack, but I've been pretty consistent with it. What are you doing that you can't do six minutes a week in this like if you're so if you're so committed to this i'll just forget i'll just it'll slip this is a great thing for me but sometimes i just forget to do it okay but you but you you believe in this right and you do six minutes total six total yeah and it 100 it works especially if you're active or you have aches and pains it helps with pain management and whatever is with cold water in your body it again it releases this happiness hormone and it just brightens your

day and it just makes you feel good it's weird i don't know how to explain it but it works you do it morning or night um usually in the morning you know what it's weird i don't know how to explain it but it works you do it morning or night um usually in the morning you know what it's funny because this guy he who told me about it he is he said the same thing you do it whatever releases from your body it does great things for you yeah i um i got a buddy of mine john clardy he's a drummer um he's drummed with uh tara mellows the awesome band um i met him when he was living in dallas now last time i checked in he was living in prague uh and he swears by it like he's that guy daily as well john's been trying to sell me on this forever and one day i'll actually pardon

the pun take the plunge because i it's true like every time i have like a blast of cold like a good like five minute cold shower, you feel fantastic after you really like you've never had, you've never had a cold shower before Elliot. No, of course I have. Of course I have. I just don't really like them.

Um, and this guy's a little bit older than me. I, I think he's 55 who told me about it. So, and he swears by it. So, so Dom,

you just put the coldest water in and then you drop in a tray of ice? Yeah. All right. That's it. I may report back to you on this. Look out for Friday's podcast. No, hang on a second. Now you have to do it.

I know. This is going to be the A block of Friday morning's podcast. Elliot and the ice bath. You're going to be Canada's Iceman, Elliot Fried. I was thinking of doing it at night, but you say morning, Don? It's better to do it in the morning because then for the rest of the day, your body is heating itself back up and releasing those hormones.

Whereas if you do it at night, you lay into a warm bed. The bed is doing a lot of the work that your body is otherwise supposed to be doing. I will report back on Friday. You think Dom fakes the funk? No, sir. He's serious about this, Elliot. He knows what's up. All right, Dom.

Dom, you are too snub to be working with us. We'll now pressure Elliot into doing this and report back on Friday morning when we will rejoin you and Elliot will regale us with stories of taking the ice plunge until then enjoy the hockey we'll regroup on Friday morning