32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Are We Heading for a Rematch?

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman react to Game 3 of the Western Conference Final, as the Edmonton Oilers roll over the Dallas Stars 6-1 to take a 2-1 series lead. They then shift focus to the Eastern Conference Final, where the Carolina Hurricanes lost their 15th straight Conference Final game and concede a 3-0 series lead to the juggernaut Florida Panthers (20:58). The Final Thought highlights the USA winning its first IIHF Men's Worlds gold medal in 92 years (35:56).Kyle and Elliotte also answer listener voicemails and emails submitted via the Thought Line (42:48).In the News & Notes segment, Kyle and Elliotte discuss the Toronto Maple Leafs as a new era begins in the front office (56:17). The pair also talk about Mathieu Darche landing the New York Islanders GM position (1:03:16). They wrap up the podcast by providing updates on the remaining coaching vacancies around the NHL (1:09:38).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

Okay, last one for you Brad. A few days ago an image surfaced of you and some teammates going for a Dairy Queen run on an off day and rally. We got an image of you in the dressing room during the second intermission. No chance you were fueling with a Blizzard here, were you? Yeah, that's a little chocolate chip cookie dough. Blizzard right there. There's nothing, you can't beat it. It's the best dessert in the world. So I better get lifetime free supply of Dairy Queen now. Thank you, fellas. But yeah, we had a little fun on the off day and there's DQ right by the hotel. So we popped over, got a blizzard, enjoyed our night. Well played, Fred.

Congratulations. Thank you, baby. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X. Tom Schermati, Elliot Friedman, Kyle Bacoskas back with you once again. Elliot, how you doing my friend? I'm doing well Kyle, how are you doing? Good, good, good. It's great to see you back on the television on Sunday.

Nobody thought that, nobody thought that at all. I'm okay being the one in this case. I pick my battles when I go against you. Sometimes you gotta be united every now and then. That's fair, That's fair. That's fair. We are three games into the Western Conference Final, Elliott, and through the first nine periods Dallas has won one of them.

Now is enough for them to win game one, but otherwise it's been even or all Edmonton. And as game three carried on on Sunday afternoon, it became more and or all Edmonton. And as game three carried on on Sunday afternoon, it became more and more all Edmonton. Despite a wonky start, as Connor McDavid told Gene Principe afterwards, the Oilers wrestled back control of this series, going up two games to one on a Sunday matinee in their own building. I do have to say that I thought in the second period Dallas carried the game.

And if there was a point there, I could see it slipping away from Edmonton. But of course, this is always how it goes. You dominate a period and then McDavid scores with 18 seconds left and you go to the dressing room feeling like we just accomplished nothing. We owned the ice, we had all the great chances and McDavid he just shoved it right down our throats. I have to say it wasn't a true Skinner performance, shutout or six goals, but it was his best performance of the playoffs. I don't care that it wasn't a shutout. Skinner was the Oilers best player and that's as confident as he has

looked in a net these playoffs. Now he's got to be consistent, he's got to keep doing it. You saw Kevin's pack of him walking to the ice for the start of the game like Vince McMahon or Conor McGregor. He looked confident. He was confident. It was a W, which is the only stat for him that matters. He saved them because there was a time in the second period I thought Dallas could have scored about four. That's one of my favorite, it's become one of my favorite looks across the league come playoff time is when the door to the Oilers room opens and whether it's Stuart Skinner or somebody else, but Skinner had the strut going on Sunday as you said, that walk down

the hallway out to the ice and the way the lighting is in there too, it is poetry. Great, great theater, Elliot. And maybe one of my favorite looks of the whole game was when Hyman scored on the breakaway in the third period to blow it open, crowd goes crazy. He's screaming all the way from the corner, right to his own bench. And it cuts to Skinner in the crease

and he's just like casually swiping the snow away from his crease, like just a calm, unbothered as can be as the building is going off. Cause remember that was a huge scramble right in front of him just before the Hyman goal. It was a great kind of juxtaposition of like elation in Edmonton and a goalie that just was calm and everything was right in his world. Locked in. They call it the bubble. Skinner was in the bubble.

I'm a big believer in the whole idea of never let anyone see you sweat. That's why I loved watching Braden Holtby. He'd give up a goal and he'd flick the water in the air and he'd focus on one of the drops and it was his way of reconnecting with his calmness. I loved watching Skinner in this one. You'll remember at the end of game one there was a shot of McDavid and Dry Cytl on the bench. As Dallas exploded in the third period, they looked, they looked pouty. The two of them were not happy.

They looked pouty on the bench. They looked like seven year old Elliot when he was told there was no ice cream after dinner tonight. And I remember, I remember seeing that look, yes. I remember seeing that look and saying, uh-oh, it's going to be different in game two. And the score has been nine to one Edmonton since then, even though, as I mentioned, Skinner saved their bacon in the second period of game number three.

You know, I'll say this, this was an interesting game to say the least from a refereeing perspective. And we were talking about, you know, things like the puck over glass that wasn't called in the first period and the other scored twice right after it. I did have someone who said to me that he thought that if Dallas had a real complaint and it was one of the things that they didn't complain about, there was a scramble in the second period in the crease where Thomas Harley knocked in the puck a bit late and Evander Canyon, John Klingberg made a beeline for Harley. They were like free shot, free shot. But I had a couple of people say to me that you can't rule that a goal because it was

poked in. But they felt that if there was one play, that if they were the stars, they said that that puck wasn't covered. And that was a quick whistle. That's not a continuation because it was poked in, so therefore it couldn't have been scored a goal. But they felt of all the things that Peter DeBoer was undoubtedly grinding his teeth over,

that was the one that would have bothered them the most. Do you think we're going to get to a point? I thought you did a nice job explaining in the intermission just why certain things could have been reviewed versus what aren't eligible to be reviewed. You talk about the missed puck over glass Brett Kulak got away with. And as you said, if it's called puck over glass, a team can challenge to say no, that wasn't clean, there was a deflection, but it's not going to be a puck over glass Brett Kulak got away with. And as you said, if it's called puck over glass, a team can challenge to say no, that wasn't clean, there was a deflection or something that would negate a penalty. But if in the case that we had here on

Sunday, Dallas couldn't say hold on, you missed it, that went right out. Are we getting to a point? Should we get to a point where that's going to be challengeable to like to me, when I'm watching that going, well, how come it has to be called a penalty where that's going to be challengeable to like to me, when I'm watching that going, well, how come it has to be called a penalty initially for it to now be challengeable? I think it should be reviewable one way or another to get the call right. Well, now you will have now you wonder if we're going to get there, Kyle, because of this

particular play in this particular game. One thing I do know, and I'll say this, there was another call at the end of the first period there where Kapiton lifted Rantinens stick into Rantinens face and he got a penalty and last year at the GM's meetings, like right now you can only review at least a double minor on a high stick to make sure it's not friendly fire. You can't do a minor penalty. Last year at the GM meetings in March, and I'm talking March 2024, that was actually one of the recommendations the GMs made was any high stick, even if it's two minutes, you can review it to make sure

you get the right guy. And it didn't pass. After the GMs approve it, it has to go through the competition committee and the board of governors and it didn't make it all the way through. I really hadn't thought about it until game three. I don't know why it didn't make it through. I don't know who blocked it or who said we don't want this. Kyle, I think what it comes down to is they don't want to stop the game even more than they already do. They feel that there's too many reviews and they don't want to add more

of them. But whenever something happens in a big game like this one, what expanded video review? Eric Carlson's goal in the 2019 Western Conference Final was should have been blown dead because of a hand pass. I don't know for San Jose. Oh, right. Peter DeBoer good call. I don't know if this is big enough to change it. But when it happens on this stage, you know, people start to talk about it. Yes. And I totally agree with you. We don't need to make the game any longer than it already is. But I just it stuck with me. When you went and visited the situation

room before the playoffs. Yes, talked about how quickly they know certain things like they get to the video well before the officials on the ice if it comes to it gets a chance to review something. So that's what in my mind too. I'm glad you brought this up because I haven't had a chance to review something. So that's what's in my mind too. I'm glad you brought this up because I haven't had a chance to write about it since I was in there. It's just been too busy.

This is gonna make the officials really mad. Whenever they hear me say this, they get really angry about it because they feel their independence and their influences being stripped away. But we're going to get to a point where the video review room is going to have to make almost all of the calls. Now one place where I think the referees felt very strongly that they did a good job was the kicked in goal with Winnipeg, the

Petrovic goal, even though they didn't announce it properly. They said no kick on the ice and therefore it didn't need to have that long a review. But generally you're right, they know in there very fast what the true result of a play is. And you could tell by the look on Kulak's face, he knew it was a penalty. Sometimes that's all you're about to learn this as a parent, Kyle, when it comes. That you can tell if your child is guilty or not guilty of something Just by looking right at them Yeah, I had a terrible poker face growing I think I still why am I not shocked to hear this Because you played cards with me once or twice you probably but also like you are like the ultimate do-gooder

You are probably but also like you are like the ultimate do-gooder you are kyle do-right that's too much that's far too much credit i don't think you've done much an illegal thing in your life i will happily keep that notion as long as i can as long long as I can. We should do, we should do thought line submissions. What is the worst thing that Kyle Bacoskas has done in his life? A, litter. B, miss a garbage can throwing a cup. C. So also littering? Yeah,. See also littering.

Yeah, that's also littering. Good point. See one illegal left turn. He didn't realize. Blinker was birdie even know ripping the tag off a mattress. Please please submit your selection. Oh, I get nauseous when I still see people throw garbage out of vehicles now.

It's unbelievable. Really? Yes. It's like, we're still doing this? Anyway, we're way off track. Are you surprised as things got off track in that game and the score got out of hand for Dallas? I know Wes Piccalli did a good job, like making the penalty call on Thomas Harley going we're

not letting the temperature get too hot around here but you at all surprised there wasn't a little more attention towards Darnell Nurse after the whack on Rupay Hintz in game two and what Mason Marchman said following game two. Here's the thing. Number one, everybody saw what happened in Carolina, Florida the night before of Kachak going after Ajo, so I have no doubt that everybody was in tune to it.

And B, there was a hit that knocked Connor Brown out of the game. So it's not like Dallas can't say that a questionable play hadn't knocked out an Euler. Now I don't think that was a headshot by NHL standards. The primary point of contact is the chest. That's not a headshot, but it was late. You know, I mean, it's a big hit. It's a great play by Petrovic. It leads to a goal. It was late, but I think most teams will say they want their defenseman making that play and they will take their defenseman making that play Nobody wants the injury nobody at all

But they'll but Petrovic is the kind of guy if he's not trying to make that pinch He you know, Ilya Lebushkin could be in the lineup for him. So Dallas will take that I Looked at that and I said, it's tough for the Stars to say that we need to get our pound of flesh when Connor Brown is out of the game. And you know, Chris Knobloch said post game, we don't know his status yet on a hit that was a little bit late and could have been a penalty. Like it's the same thing as as nurse nurses play was a penalty. Petrovic's play was a penalty and now you know two players are missing. Thing is you know hints he tried to play as you saw it reminded me Kyle of what

happened with Lundell in game one of the series you're doing, Florida, Carolina. Remember he got hurt in the last game against Toronto, and he came out for warmup in game one. He warmed up for five minutes, but he played. So I wasn't sure what was going to happen with hints. De Boer said post game, not close, but it's hard for the stars to be going out for revenge or being angry when now Edmonton's Short a guy to Browns been playing great for them hints is a huge loss. You know, they moved Grandland to center they put Robertson up front the thing about Dallas is that I know Robertson scored But generally the Oilers are getting a lot more offense

from a lot of different people as opposed to Dallas' some of their guys have really dried up or struggled to score at the wrong time. You know, Rantanen, I actually thought he played really well. I thought he was engaged. I thought he was competing, but there's just not enough offense with them and the hints loss is is devastating for them. Right and he drilled the post early in the second period I mean another inch to the left is it a different conversation and as you mentioned early on how well Stuart Skinner played to mask up what could

have been a much better offensive afternoon for the Dallas Stars. And I'll just say quickly, because I know it was a few days back, but when Nurse caught Hintz there in game two, it reminded me of remember PK Subban and Mark Stone in the playoffs in 2015? Oh, yeah. Because I was wondering when they were reviewing it if they were going to give him a major because Hintz had left to the dressing room and when Mark Stone got slashed and he left for the room and so because of that in that game, PK Subban got ejected.

He got a five in a game. Stone came back and finished the game a little while later and you can imagine how the Canadians and their fans felt about all that. But that's where my mind went to seeing that in game two in Dallas. And a different result this time around where the referees kept it to two minutes. But there is precedent in that case where player leaves the game and all right, slash becomes a five minute major in a game misconduct. The thing about that is too, is that diving has made this harder on the officials. I understand.

And Hintz did not dive. If Hintz is not gonna play in game three, he's not missing games to make a point. Nobody's doing that. He's a pretty honest player. But I do think the amount of diving in the post season has really made this harder on the on ice officials. And that's something, you know, the players and the teams

are going to have to police themselves. Because ultimately they're the ones who don't benefit. You don't get the calls because they're making sure, okay, I guarantee to you that there's referees who thought about that play you mentioned. I forgot about it, but I guarantee to you there's officials who remember plays like that. So here's my question to you, Kyle.

When Ekholm is ready to go, how do you take out Stetscher? He's been great for nurse. I wonder if you go 11 and 7. Well, that's an interesting one. Especially if Brown can't play. Yeah. Because it's hard. Like, you're probably taking out Stetscher, who's been really good, like I said, for nurse.

And up front, if Brown's healthy, I mean, Pod Kolson's been really good, Kapanen's been really good. All of a sudden, you're looking at this and you're saying, no one deserves to come out. Saw Tampa and their back-to-back hump runs, they would go 11 and seven quite often, weren't afraid to do it. Yup.

Even the stars of these playoffs have gone 11 and seven. It's worked for them a lot of times. I mean that would almost, gosh you'd hate to see Connor Brown miss any time, but at least the decision's made for you there if that home's ready and everyone else can remain and keep feeling good about the way they've been playing to this point. But otherwise that's a tough one. That's a hard conversation, but if Echolme's ready, you're not letting him sit any longer.

I just wanted to show one other thing about Dallas. On the last podcast, we wondered who made the question to Gretzky, who were you cheering for? And we wondered if it was Tyler Sagan. Robert Tiffin, who's one of the great independent reporters who covers the stars, he sent me a note that Jamie Ben had taken credit for it in one of his media appearances. So that answers our question. Ben was the guy who said it.

And I did want to shout out the stars have some excellent independent media who cover them. Robert Tiffin, David Castillo, Taylor Baird. So since I was shouting out Robert, I wanted to shout out a couple of other reporters who kind of do this on their own. Nice. Glad we got to the bottom of that once and for all. Yes. All right. It's one of the best atmospheres come playoff time. Roger's place in the Moss Pit was electric on Sunday.

The Oilers are up two games to one. Game four goes Tuesday night in Edmonton. The Eastern Conference final, Elliot. Game four tonight. Will there be a game five? We'll see. This has been, Elliot, it's been a bullying. That's the only word I keep coming back to when thinking of what we've seen between the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes through three games. It's been absolute bullying on the scoreboard, on the ice. And the beauty of this whole thing so when we do our rights holder

chat with the coaches in the mornings after the skates when we chat with Paul Maurice he made a very good point in talking about how they are a much more disciplined team now than they were two years ago when this run all started for them. And I'll buy all that. I will buy that. But just because you're disciplined doesn't mean you don't enjoy conflict. And even when that game got out of hand on Saturday night,

it wasn't the Hurricanes trying to get their pound of flesh because they were getting run out of the gym again. It was the Florida Panthers continuing to poke, continuing to jab at them and say, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? And through three games, the Hurricanes haven't had much of a response in any aspect. Do we want to talk about this or do we want to talk about the other big question from this series. No, let's do this first. Okay, so I, game four for Carolina. Some people say it's too late. I never say it's too late. This is a pride game for Carolina.

This is a game where you have to stand up and say, all of the sand that's been kicked in our face We are kicking it back Because you're right. They've been pushed around and they've been bullied and We talked about how this happened to Tampa Bay in round one about how there was a feeling that They had been intimidated by the Panthers and there's no question that the Hurricanes were there too. When Rod Brendan Moore after game three goes out there and says the things he said you know he's angry because his team is being bullied. Coaches don't do that unless something really serious

or really bad is happening to their team. And in Bryndenmore's world, being bullied is really bad. And you'll notice the guys that he didn't, that he singled out better stall and Martin hook those were the two guys who nullified Tom Wilson in the Washington series so he's not gonna criticize them because it was their job to limit Wilson's effectiveness last round the most intimidating player in the NHL, and they did it. So he's not going to talk about them, but he'll talk about other guys. And he's challenging his group. Two years ago, they got swept. And what did Brendan Moore say? That wasn't a sweep. Like that's him standing up for his guys. Rod, it was a sweep, you lost four and nothing.

Nope, that was not a sweep. This time around, he's taking off the gloves and he's saying, this is not acceptable what we're doing. And you know, you saw Kevin show it. I heard Biz talked about it on the US broadcast. Like we talked about when Thomas Harley took that whack at the puck in the second period of the game in game three near Skinner, Kane and Klingberg, Klingberg came right after him.

They were like, nope, we get a shot at you now. And the referee let them have it. The fact that nobody did that, Bryndamore, he cannot tolerate that. And no doubt, he challenged them behind the scenes. And he said, guys, if we're losing, we're not losing like this. We're not allowing ourselves're not losing like this. We're not allowing ourselves to go down like this. So this will be a pride game for them

in a lot of different ways in game number four. All right, you wanna get to the other big question that you had? What was that? So every once in a while while I would do a sideline or ringside interview and I would know someone is lying to me. And when I saw you ask Marshand what he was eating and he said it was Dairy Queen Blizzard, my BS meter would have gone off. Like I was, what's that?

No, I'm sorry. I was gesturing going, me too. Like I thought he was just playing into the joke. There is no way he was doing that during a game. OK. Of course. I'm surprised we even had to explain this, but I guess we do. Yeah.

I mean, I thought he was leaning into the joke. Like, do you think there's a DQ and Orange Julius outlet attached adjacent to the Panthers dressing room? Or maybe he brought one with him and he froze it. Oh, man. I mean, that would be next level commitment. What were you thinking as he was telling this to you? I thought, well, as I said to him after he finished his answer, I said, well played.

Like I just thought that was a great piece of television right there. As he looked at the camera and said, it was outstanding for my lifetime supply. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't actually believe that No, I didn't. Okay. I didn't but he managed I think to convince a few people so for that Well, Marie's had to answer about it on Sunday. He's like no, we don't have Dairy Queen in the intermission Well, I think Carter Verheggie was like, he did? I didn't even know about that. It was so funny.

They were like, it could be possible. It was so funny. When I saw Maurice's quotes, I was like, has the world gone completely insane? Just completely insane? But I was curious. Do you think it was peanut butter, do you think it was peanut butter or do you think it was applesauce or something else? I think it was, I heard it was peanut butter.

Okay. Which. Because BXA was saying a lot of guys like applesauce. Yeah. Yeah, I heard, I heard peanut butter and it would make sense. Okay. But but we have to say here for the sake of everybody on this pod that dairy queens best dessert is the peanut buster parfait. Now I recognize some people have allergies

and cannot eat that. But all things being equal, the best dessert is the peanut buster parfait. I will leave you be on that one. One other thing. Peanut buster parfait. Go ahead. One other thing about Florida. You know what we were talking about about Florida is that they're one for all and all for one, which is very important. They're very intimidating. But another thing that happens is guys who maybe weren't that intimidating elsewhere go there and become intimidating. I don't know if it's because they feel seven foot tall

because of the way the rest of the team plays, or I don't know if. rest of the team plays or I don't know if Bill Zito's got some kind of mental program that turns these guys into beasts but players who go there who may not be eight feet tall everywhere else. They become that way when they go there. And that's a good thing. That means your culture rubs off on guys coming in. For sure. And even in the short term too, like twice in these playoffs, yes, for Boquist has been inserted into the lineup and has

scored big goals in those games that he's come in, those first games he's come in. Last round against Toronto goes into game five, scores, and then in game number three on Saturday, scores the go-ahead goal in the third that opens the floodgates, three points in all. The fourth line, like all those guys who came in there, they look like the grind line all of a sudden. And to your point about you get into that environment and suddenly you're looked at a little bit differently, like even a guy like AJ Greer, who's always been a big body, but has bounced around to find a role over his time in his career to this point. And now you throw him in there with Nocek and Gadjiewicz,

like each time they go over the boards, like they've got roles. They compliment each other and it's where the sum is greater than their parts. Like that's been a, that's what the Panthers are. And it's honestly, it's machine-like where they're at at this point. Mikaela, I think there were people out there

who thought he was a good player. Not like this and not mean like this. Kulakov was a good player, but was he as mean, as impactful as he is here? I don't think so. There's just something about what they do there There's just something about what they do there that makes people a lot more confident in themselves and what they can do. Another thing that's unique about them too, and I don't know if it plays anything into

what you just described there, Paul Maurice was saying in the calendar year 2025 up until the start of the playoffs they had five full practice days from January, February, March, and I guess midway through April when the regular season ended five full practice days. And he said when we practice we never do systems or structure stuff on the ice. That's all video. He also said, which I didn't know about this, Elliot, more and more this year. And I think as the years have gone on for them, you know, so often, unless the teams out in the West Coast, and it's a five hour flight to where they're going next, you know, they'll stay over in whatever city they're in after the game. But

more often than not, you finish a game, you get on the plane and you're off to where you're going next. I guess the Panthers more and more will stay over in cities and then just travel the next day. Don't go. That's very Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, very under Mike Gillis. Right. Like he was the first one to really revolutionize sleep doctors in the NHL. And a lot of other teams especially started doing it after the Canucks did it. Cause Florida and Tampa are kind of remote.

I'll tell you this, I had a player say to me that they should redo the divisions and they should put Florida and Tampa with Washington and all them and they should put Columbus and one other team in with What is currently the Atlantic? Now the problem with that is you don't want to break up the three New York teams. You don't want to break up the two Pennsylvania teams. So it's one of Washington and Carolina, right?

And Washington's got a long history there with some of these other clubs. And Carolina, well, if you're going to move Florida to that division, it kind of doesn't make sense to take Carolina out geographically. But players have kind of talked about this, is there a way to ease up that team's travel? But hockey fans won't be sympathetic. They've won three of the last four Stanley Cups in Florida, could win another one. They'll say, screw those guys. Let them stay over the next day and sleep. It's been working for them. It's been working for them. As Maurice said, he goes, we've got an older team so we can get away.

Smart. Not practicing enough. He goes, if you got a younger group, you probably can't do that. Pretty soon, if it isn't happening already, and I think there's been some tire kicking here, people are going to start asking the Panthers, who should we be interviewing from your organization? Is it Brett Peterson? Is it Paul Kropelka? Is it Gregory Campbell? Is it Sonny Maeda? Someone's going to start to say, we want to start stealing people in this organization. It's only a matter of time. And should also just add quickly, Elliot, some injury stuff for Florida.

So we saw Sam Reinhart do the starting lineup before game three, moving around pretty good. Paul Maurice said hasn't been ruled out, hasn't been cleared for game four, but I thought what Matthew Kachuck said about him was interesting. He said his routine, Reinhart's routine on game day on Saturday was the exact same as it normally would be. He said if you didn't know what was going on with him, you otherwise would have thought he was playing Saturday night. So that's another encouraging sign

from the Panthers. Very encouraging. And they were worried about it. I'd heard that. I understand that, yeah. They were worried about it, yeah. Totally, I can see that. And Michola, too.

It looks like he's in pretty good shape to play in game for thank goodness he I could not like him and Nugent Hopkins those I could not believe those guys got up crazy happy they did those were ugly ugly ugly collisions happy they're both okay got something pretty spectacular going one went away from a third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup final and thus ensuring that The Stanley Cup will continue to go through the state of Florida one way or another as it has every other year since 2020 all right that'll take us to the final thought which is brought to you by GMC and Elliott the

Latest installment of the double IHF world championship is in the books for the first time in 92 years the United States Gold medal winners one nothing they take it in overtime heck of a game Tage Thompson with the Heroics in OT Jeremy Swamen pitching the shutout and a real sweet moment when they were presented trophies the captains there had one of Johnny Goudreau's jersey on hand to go along with the trophy presentation, Elliot. Yes, that was a phenomenal touch and I wanted to mention it here because the pictures went viral, the video went viral, but what a fantastic thing that was to do. The Swiss

thing that was to do. The Swiss had a great tournament. They didn't have the obviously the same roster the US did in terms of talent but they know how to play on that big ice. But once I really thought once it got to three on three overtime it was gonna be really tough for them to beat the Americans. Three on three to me, no matter what the ice surface is, it's a skill game and that US roster was just loaded with it. So the Swiss played great, but I wasn't surprised once it got there that the US won. As you mentioned, the guy I thought this was most massive from was Swamen. We talked about how I think teams have called Boston about Swamen. What are you thinking there? And there's, were a lot of hard feelings from everybody involved this year, but

you don't sign someone to a contract like that and give up on them a year later unless you have an irrefutable reason. You say, okay, we're doing a reset and we're starting over. And if you're Boston, you're looking at that and you're seeing the performance he had and you're like, good start to the off season. I thought that was massive for Swainman. I thought it was great for Tage Thompson. You know, I think one of the reasons Thompson didn't make the Four Nations team is because he's had, and it's not obviously all his fault when you

hear this, he never really had huge experience winning anything in recent years. Well now he has. If you look at Canada's team that won, it was all about picking winners, the guys who had won things. I think the US that really mattered a lot to the US as much as they could. Well now Thompson's got a gold medal and he's got an overtime winner, a golden goal. He's going to be playing for the US in Milan. And again, I thought Wurenski was phenomenal.

Makes me feel a lot better about my Norris pick. Some of my other picks not looking as great in the playoffs, but I feel a lot better of my Norris pick after watching the World Championships. I wanted to mention too, I heard that there were a bunch of NHL teams looking there at Robin Sallow, the former Islander who played for Finland. I think we could see him make a return to the NHL next season. I heard he's interested. And I heard there's

interest in him. All right, good to know. I thought, well, you go back to the end of four nations. I remember Dylan Larkin saying like, we need more buy in from our guys, when it comes to the world championships, like that's got to start to matter a little more to USA hockey, if we're really going to be serious about Taking our program at the senior level to the level they want to get to they've put together a real impressive run here lately at the world junior and u18

level but senior level is where the struggles had remained and Another step towards changing the narrative there after coming up just short in the Four Nations Championship at the Worlds for the U.S. for the first time in 92 years. Just one last thing from the Worlds. Apparently there was a player for Canada who was driving to the airport to fly to join Canada for the final two rounds and got to the airport, saw the score against Denmark and just turned around and went right home. Wow. Yeah. Because Canada lost Horvat, so there was an injury replacement they were looking at.

That's what someone told me. Wouldn't tell me who the player was, but said that there was someone who was headed there and got to the airport, saw the score, turned around, went right back home. They hadn't checked their bag yet. You know what, Kyle? I don't know. I can't answer that.

Geez. Yeah, that was a tough result for Canada, but for the Americans, a breakthrough moment for that group as they continue to build towards the winter Olympics in Milan next February. Okay. We should probably touch also on the PWHL final where overtime, overtime, overtime. So Ottawa wins the opener, Minnesota with the silencer in game two, and then in triple overtime back in St. Paul the Frost take a two-to-one series lead. Game four goes later tonight as the Frost can become back-to-back

Walter Cup champions in the first two years of the PWHL existence. Billie Jean King is going to have to drop a bonus in these players paychecks for the overtime they've played so far. Yes, she can do it. No question about it. Little bonus. Players have played hard, played a lot of hockey. Be a nice thing to do. Yes. Well, especially Ottawa, right, because they went five with Montreal

in round one. Yes. More overtime in each game of the final here to this point. So that's been great drama over there as well. I'm never upset to see the players earn a little more. Well said. All right. That's a final thought brought to you by GMC.

We'll take our first break and come back with the Thought Line. You're listening to 32 Thoughtline, 1-833-311-3232. Thirty-two thoughts at Sportsnet.ca. Elliot, you ready for the latest installment? Am I ever ready? Can I just shout out someone first? Yeah, please do. I wanted to shout out the Duko brothers

Mike played in the NHL. He played 18 games for Florida and Vancouver and Mike and then he went overseas and the brother John And then he went overseas and the brother John, he is the coach. He coaches in the Ontario University system. I met their mother, Andrea, briefly on Saturday night. So very proud of her two hockey sons. And she talked up John as a head coaching candidate of the future. So I just wanted to shut out Andrea Duko who talked up her sons on Saturday. Nice.

Awesome. Very good. Thank you for sharing that. All right. Kicking us off Spencer. Hello. Griffin Porter and the cronies. My God. You got to be kidding me. The year

was 2007 and I was in high school working at Canadian Tire. As a die-hard Red Wings fan I couldn't believe when I was scheduled to work during Steve Iserman's Jersey retirement ceremony. I made sure to schedule my 15-minute break that evening to coincide with the ceremony, but of course it took much longer than 15 minutes. Yes it did. It was a long ceremony. I shirked my duties in the automotive department for about 45 minutes to watch my hero get his jersey retired by my favorite team. The next week, I was called into my manager's office and was fired for being a time thief. But it was oh so worth it.

My question to you is... No way. You think you really got gassed on a one-off like that? I have seen people get fired for much less than that. Well, he's writing as if he rebounded quite nicely. We can only assume that he used that as a stepping stone to wherever he is now. Okay, my question to you is, do you remember a moment in hockey that made you stop in your tracks, drop everything you were

doing and watch no matter what? So thinking of one, because obviously you're not counting times where you're like, this is a big game. So you've carved out like, this is what we're doing. I remember the timing lined up before, like one of our practices when I was like playing at the U 18 level. And it was the night of the gold medal game of the world juniors in Saskatoon, Canada and the US. And there's a TV out in the main foyer of our arena. And you know, the time we're supposed to be doing dry land stuff and warming up and doing all that. Remember US was up two and Everly scored twice. Tied the game. And so it started with like a couple of us kind of watching

because it didn't look great for Canada and guys were like, oh, and it's over, it's done. And then he scores twice and it was like, oh my God, he's tied the game. So like everyone comes out from the dressing room and then we spent the intermission and then overtime watching that when we should have been getting ready for practice. And John Carlson, of course, broke our hearts at the time.

But that was one where it was like you're pulling yourself away from something you should otherwise be doing going, I've got to see how this thing ends. from Sunday Hebrew school and my parents knew I was faking but still let me get away with it. For 1980, the final game against Finland, they'd beaten Russia on the Friday and it wasn't a gold medal game back then but they still had to play Finland on the Sunday it was a bit of a different round robin setup and it was on the Sunday morning and I had to go and I pretended I was sick and They just rolled their eyes and they let me get away with it. That's one I

Remember. Yeah nice and cap tip to your parents to be like, okay and they just rolled their eyes and they let me get away with it. That's one I remember. Nice. Yes. Nice. And cap tip to your parents to be like, okay, they ended up in this situation. They didn't let me get away with a lot. I will say that. I don't know why that was the time they did let me do it, but they let me get away with that one. Awesome. Spencer, thank you for the question. That's a great question. And again, hope your career skyrocketed after that brief bit of adversity during your high school.

I can't believe somebody got fired over that. That's crazy. All right, next pair from VT Finland. and I mispronounced the city wrong. My sincere apologies. Hello Sportsnet stats and entourage. Greetings from VT Finland, the home of Eli Tolvinen. Now that we know a Finn will win the Stanley Cup this year, it got me thinking and my question is what is the biggest number of different countries the Stanley Cup this year, it got me thinking. And my question is, what is the biggest number of different countries the Stanley Cup has traveled to in one summer? And when was it?

Longtime pod listener, beer leaguer, and NHL fan pair. So I actually didn't go to Sportsnet stats for this one. No. Okay. I had to go right to the source. I'm gonna go with is my answer the 2019 Blues. Oh good answer not the right one. All right hit me. The 2008 Detroit Red Wings. Oh. And they traveled to seven countries with the Cup. Canada, USA, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Czechia, and Slovakia. In total, since they began touring the Stanley Cup, they have been to 30 different countries so far. Because I looked at this.

Blues, one Canada, two Russia, three US, four Sweden. No, that was a terrible guess. For some reason, I thought they had some other guys on that team. That was an awful guess. If the answer's seven, I only got four. That may be my worst guess in the history of guessing on this podcast. But thinking something more recent's obviously the right way to go with. Yeah.

How many more times was it now? The first thing that popped into my head was the 02 Red Wings, because they had all those Hall of Famers, but there were a lot of Canadians and Americans on that team. So, okay, I mean, I should have guessed that one. Poor form by me, poor form.

There will always be more trivia, Elliot. Don't worry about that. Per, thank you for the question. It was a good one. Up next, a voicemail. Steven from Edmonton. After seeing Rantanen single-handedly eliminate the Colorado avalanche, I was

wondering if there was anything Colorado could have done to prevent this. Say, okay, Carolina, trade your ransom in with the understanding you won't trade him to a Central Division rival. Keep up the great work. Thanks. Go others.

You're two wins away from your Stanley Cup again, Steven. It's a great question. The answer is not really I mean you can always say don't do this and maybe the team can choose to agree with you, but they don't have to and I'll give you an example of another deal where this happened in 2018 the Ottawa Senators traded Mike Hoffman to the San Jose Sharks This happened in 2018 the Ottawa Senators traded Mike Hoffman to the san jose sharks

Now the senators knew the florida panthers had interest In hoffman, but they did not want him to be in the same division So the story I was always told was The senator said to the sharks we don't want you to trade him to Florida and the sharks answer was Once you trade him to us

You no longer have any control over any decisions that we make and And I think they asked, are you trading him to Florida? I've never gotten a straight answer on what the reply was, but I heard they were told you no longer have any constraints over what we can do with this player once we've traded for him. And as Ottawa fans, including Kyle know, he was traded later that day to the Florida Panthers. So that is another example of how there's no control on this, unless a team for some reason decides to give it to you. Yes, there was a lot of tough pills for that fan base to swallow over those years. That was definitely one of them. Definitely

one of them. All right, last one, Elliot. Chris in Sudbury. To the powers it be, add 32 thoughts. I really enjoyed the question on the Wednesday pod from Robin Anaheim about players making their debuts late in the playoffs. There's one name I didn't hear though and I had to go check to make sure I was right and lo and behold I knew my knowledge for useless hockey facts did not let me down. 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Calgary Flames in the midst of their improbable run encountered a rash of injuries particularly on defense as they were facing the Detroit Red Wings in round two. Enter Brennan Evans.

I remember that. Good one. Played two games in that Detroit series and that was it. The kicker, Evans never played in a regular season game in the NHL over his career. There is a question here. Are there any other players who have played in the playoffs but never? Suited up for a regular season game. Oh That's a great question. And the answer is yes

There's definitely one I'm trying to remember some examples, but they're definitely Definitely a few There definitely is a few you are right a Lot of it was way back in the day, but they're no no no. I'm going to I'm going to remember. There's a pretty famous one. Not famous for only playing in the playoffs, but more so what he did later. Well right now, Zeve Bui. Yep. And Alexander Nikitian. Alexander Nikitian,

yes. So those two, likely it's not going to stand for them. So those two and Brennan Evans are the only three examples of it in the 21st century. Are you serious? I thought there would be more. I thought there would be more. Okay, what year are we talking about here? The 1954-55 season. Bruins? Yes, you're getting warmer. Dawn Cherry. Yes.

I can't believe it actually took me that long to think about it. Yeah, well, I think I tried to throw you a bit with the way I presented it, but you got there you got there Yes, one game not as quickly as I should have not as quickly as I should have So the majority of this yeah, like most of the names are from the 40s 50s and 60s Igor Nikulin played one game for the Mighty Ducks in the 97 playoffs and that was it for him and as I say since the turn of the century very very rare good question a lot of good questions today very good Chris thank you for that last submission that'll do it for

this edition of the thought line thank you to Griffin Porter who continues to compile these for us throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs. One final break and we'll take a look at some other news from around the NHL when we return to 32 Thoughts. Okay, welcome back just a couple other files to get to before we wrap up the episode here. Elliot on Friday, the press conference with Keith Pelly, the president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in the aftermath of the news that Brendan Shanahan's contract would not be renewed with the Leafs. So a new era in the front office there with Toronto. So anything that Peli said on Friday that surprised you?

No, no, I will tell you something funny. So I had some buddies who are big Leaf fans who were watching the press conference and they started texting me and they saying, why are there Toronto FC questions and why are there Raptor questions? This is a Leaf press conference. They were really mad. I'm like, what's the big deal? No, this is a Leaf press conference.

We want more Leaf questions. I'm like, are you the big deal? No, this is a Leaf press conference. We want more Leaf questions. I'm like, are you guys really mad at this? Like, oh yeah, they were hot. They were hot. So if you want to talk about TFC, have a TFC press conference. And if you want to talk about the Raptors, have a Raptors press conference.

And I said, guys, you got to understand that these reporters, and I think it was Josh Cloak who covers TFC and the great Lindsay Dunn who's everywhere for City TV. She asked about the Raptors, wanted to shut out Lindsay. She does great work. They don't get a chance to talk about this stuff almost ever. So they have to take the opportunity. I could not sell this rationale to my leaf-loving friends Kyle. They were a gog they were aghast Anyway, nothing Pelly said surprised me, you know

He was asked why and as we talked on Friday's pod This was not a referendum on Brendan Shanahan's job performance. This was about too many people doing the same job and how Rogers doesn't like that. And that's what this was about. Rogers won't feel you need Pelly, Shanahan, and Tree Living. And that's what this was about, first and foremost. And Pelly, who's been a sports executive before, he can do it. And that's what Rogers looks at. I think this week, you're going to see

the Maple Leafs start to look at some of their summer business. You know, as Peli mentioned, Brad Tree Living was away. One of his children was graduating. It's a great moment. Congratulations to the Tree Living family. Anybody who's been at a graduation with one of their children knows what a proud day that is for a family. But I think now we're going to start to see the Maple Leafs figure out what their off season could look like. Toavares, there was a lot of talk about how he wants to stay and they want him to stay. As long as neither side is unreasonable, you have to believe a deal gets done here. Tavares obviously can't ask for 8 million a year and I don't think if the Leafs offer 1 million a year it's gonna work but there is

something here that I think both sides can be happy with and it's just a matter of getting there. There's a lot of talk about Matthew Nye's. I think the Maple Leafs are well aware of the possibility of an offer sheet. I don't believe they'll let it get there. I think around the trade deadline, when they had to decide if they were going to move Nye's or how they were going to reshape their roster. I think there were some preliminary conversations about what an extension would look like. So I think they kind of know where they're going here. Now, we are going into a new era of contracts. You know, Wyatt Johnston signed, Matt Coronado just signed. I think, and I think Nyes will come in higher than Coronado, but we're still kind of feeling out

where we're going here with the cap going up the way it is. But when Matthew Nyes says, first and foremost, he wants to be a Maple Leaf. I think he's telling the truth and I think the may beliefs believe that. So their goal here will be to get this done before an offer sheet even becomes a reality. I think both sides want to get it done. But again, it's grind time. It doesn't mean nobody's gonna grind here. Both sides are gonna grind. But again, I start off with the opinion that there is a will on both sides to extend NIEs long term.

So we'll see where it happens over the next few weeks. Marner, I think first of all, you know, there's a lot of noise, obviously. I think first of all, the Maple Leafs are going to ask for clarity. Just where is this going? Is it 100% you are testing free agency on July 1st? Or is there any conversation that can be had here? And that's what I think they'll do, is they'll ask that first and see what the answer is and go from there.

So do you think now with this new structure, I mean, does true living have more power than he did before? I don't think it's changed at all. I think it's the same. Okay. That was my funny Justin, but Justin Cuthbert asked me that on Friday says, Oh, that means true-living is more power I I don't think that's the case. I think it's the same Right. He just now reports to Pelley Yeah, and I think even prior to this I think there was

The I guess appropriate amount of power you would want a GM to have when it comes to making Hockey decisions I or you would want a GM to have when it comes to making hockey decisions? I look at it this way. Everybody has a boss, Kyle. For sure. In, I think I also talked about this with Justin and Alish on Friday. There was a time when you were the GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, your contract included you could make whatever moves you felt you needed to under budget, but you could

not trade Sidney Crosby or Evgeny Malkin without ownership approval. That was written in your contract. I think that that's the way it works in most cases. It's just smart. You never want to surprise your owner, right? Or surprise the person that you report to. I don't know that this prevents tree living from doing anything. But, you know, anything major, he's gonna run it up the flagpole. That's the way it

works. We all have bosses. We all have bosses. Okay. Also news on Friday, Matthew Darsh, the new general manager, and executive VP for the New York Islanders. Now, Darsh is a name that's been out there the last couple of years when teams were looking for somebody in that position. A popular name like we talk about how long is it going to be before teams start plucking from the Panthers, Brain trust. He's been part of that group in Tampa that won back-to-back cups in 20 and 21 and continued to be a standard bearer in a lot of ways across the National Hockey League. It was interesting in the press release that came out with the announcement the quote from one of the owners John Collins is that he will be given every resource available to put the Islanders first in class on the ice. And I suppose that begins with having the first overall pick at the end of June.

Yes, and we had reported on the podcast previously that the Islanders had indicated whoever got the job would report directly to Scott Malkin, who's the majority owner. And that is going to be the case. So I think it's pretty interesting here. As we talked about on Friday's pod, I don't believe at the beginning of this search that anybody expected someone with Darsh's resume such as never being in the chair before would have got this job. They went to Ken Holland first he preferred LA. They asked to speak to Jeff Gordon. They were rejected and I think they were really interested in Gordon but they were rejected and I think they were really interested in Gorton but they were rejected

by Montreal. Then they talked to Mark Bergevin, they talked to Yarmouk Hekalainen and here's why I think Darsh eventually got it. Scott Malikin is a businessman and a very, very successful one. He is very, very good at what he does. That's why he's in the position he's in. When you look at Darcey's resume, he's got a business degree, he's worked in the business world. His career is not only hockey. He was the student athlete of the year in Canadian University hockey one year. He also was part of the NHLPA.

I remember him being in the meetings in 2013, 12, 13, as they negotiated a new CBA. Like he was a face you saw coming out of meetings. He could speak to Malkin on a business level, and I think that really appealed to Malkin. I think he really understood Darsh's background, and that is what brought him up the ladder. I do think that the islanders thought about the possibility at one time of bringing in both Bergevin and Darsh, but I think the more they talked to Darsh, and first of all, I don't think that would appeal to Bergevin, but I haven't spoken to him. I'm just saying, I don't think that would appeal to Perjavan but I haven't spoken to him. I'm just saying I don't think it would have appealed to him but the more they talked to Darsh

the more I think he convinced them and they became convinced he could do this. Now obviously you're going to have to bring people around you. You're going to have to make sure like, even if you're the most experienced GM alive, you need good people around you and we'll see what they do here. Like they have like Steven Pellegrini, who's their capologist, who, along with Brandon Pridham in Toronto had huge impact on writing CBAs. But there's going to be no shortage of good people who are going to want a job in that organization. They have to build up that organization. So they'll have to build around them and we'll see what they can do in a short time before the draft. You know, teams don't like to let go of draft people at this time of year.

They'll say, you know, you can have this person, but you can't have them until after July 1st. Or there have been situations where they say, oh, you're gonna hire this person? You can't have them until July 1st and we're gonna ban them from our draft table. Like that kind of stuff has happened before. So it'll be interesting to see what the Islanders can do. But I really do believe that Darsh's business history really spoke to Malkin and it's the reason he got the job in addition to the hockey work he's done with Tampa Bay.

So I imagine with all of that, it would take somebody like Brendan Shanahan out of the mix. There was a lot of ties there after last week. Is there anything else that you can add to that part of the conversation? Yes, I would like to correct one thing. I said in the last pod that they hadn't met. I should have said they hadn't met face to face. There was a zoom conversation, but there was never a face to face conversation. The thing that hurt Shanahan the most was that he wasn't available until last week. The islanders were far down their search. They'd really settled

in on Darsh. Like someone told me with 20-20 hindsight now, they didn't talk. They didn't have their Zoom call with Shanahan until Wednesday. The decision was basically made by then. I don't know what was communicated to Shanahan, but they were far down the road. He got hurt by the timing. All right. And finally, just some coaching interview updates around the league. Elliot Lane Lambert, Mitch Love, what do you got? Well first of all we should mention Darsh is gonna be introduced next week. We'll have to see what happens with Patrick Waad too.

Lamarello gave Waad a three-year extension so you know he's got term but it was pretty clear at the end of last year there was some frustration between management and coach about the way the team played. So we'll see how Darsh feels about all that. Until we have clarity, we have to remember that situation. So I heard Lane Lambert interviewed with

Seattle last week after Toronto went out and I heard it went well. Like he's, I believe Dave Quinn was on their final list. I believe Mitch Love was on their final list. There's probably others, but I heard Lane Lambert's interview went well in Seattle, so we'll see. I believe Mitch Love is supposed to interview in Pittsburgh this week. And we've always kind of felt that that was the job that was most likely for him. If it worked out in both ways, team and coach, but I think his

interview in Pittsburgh is this week. Um, Boston, we'll see. I think they're getting down to their list too, deep in their list. And as you know, I've thought that Marco Sturm has a shot there, but we'll see. I'm not saying that it's going to be Lambert Seattle, Love Pittsburgh, and Sturm Boston. I would be wrong to say that at this point in time, but I do believe that all three of those people are factors in these conversations. Okay, that'll do it. Reminder, game four Eastern Conference final tonight, coast to coast,

7 30 Eastern pregame show, 4 30 Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern. A little after that is puck drop from Sunrise, the Panthers trying to punch their ticket to another Stanley Cup final, the Hurricanes. Can they really lose 16 straight games in the conference final? That'll be on CBC and Sportsnet up in Canada. Enjoy the next couple of days, the beginning of your week. We will talk to you the morning after game four of Dallas and Edmonton.