32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Are You a Club or Are You a Team?

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman highlight Connor Hellebuyck's outstanding season before revisiting the Vancouver Canucks' wild travel-day win over the Toronto Maple Leafs (3:38). Then the guys delve into Cutter Gauthier's return to Philly and the outstanding atmosphere (9:09). After the Philly chat, the guys focus on Ryan O'Reilly trade speculation (22:02). They also talk about the Seattle Kraken whose playoff hopes are teetering. Will they sell before the deadline? (27:00) Kyle and Elliotte update listeners on Evander Kane's injury situation (32:50).  The fellas talk about the Pacific Division leading Vegas Golden Knights (37:45). After, Elliotte talks about the US juniors head coaching position after David Carle confirms he wont return for a run at a 3-peat (44:45).  Kyle Bukauskas discusses his takeaways from Steve Staios' mid-year address in Ottawa (51:11). The Final Thought focuses on the Boston Bruins' tumultuous season and a report of instability within the locker room (59:37). Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions and respond to your voicemails in the Thought Line (1:08:33).In the final segment Kyle and Elliotte look forward to our live show this Thursday night in Canmore Alberta (1:35:30).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;

And I guess in this mini tournament, Carolina finished first because they won both games. Vancouver finished second because oh my god that doinked in. That Washington kick just happened as we were watching. So I've got it here on a delay. Unbelievable. Sorry I ruined it for you. This has been the game of the weekend. I'm just happy the Packers lost, Kyle. No offense. I know the Vikings are going to break my heart at some point, but at least the Packers won't win either.

Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X, Sramati, Friedman, Bukaskis with you, and Elliot, we begin this pod with some congrats to our Canadian women, the U18s, capturing gold at their world championship over the weekend. Three to nothing. They blanked the states in the gold medal contest. So wonderful scenes over there where they were doing their thing. Wanted to mention that before we get rolling here.

I watched the ceremony and there were like 600 people on the blue line. That's a big traveling party that Canada sent over there. Yes. But a big win. Good double. All worth it. Yes. Elliot, you are in Winnipeg, not only the home of the Jets, but the home of His Excellency Scott Oak. Yes, so flew in on Sunday morning. I waited. His flight from Calgary, excuse me, came in an hour after mine, so I waited and we drove back from the airport together. Oakie's book is coming out next week. He's got a couple of launch parties. I believe that Peter Mansbridge and Sheila Rogers are coming in to do some interviews with Scott

as part of the book launch and really looking forward to seeing what he's going to write and what lies he is going to tell that make himself look good and his coworkers look worse. Because no doubt that will be part of this piece of fiction. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading Scott's book which, as we mentioned, comes out next week. I had to tell you it was a really nice day here in Winnipeg until the sun went down. It got really cold. Really cold. Very big enough jacket? Yes, oh yes. I was prepared, had a great stake at 529 Wellington and I'm gonna watch the Jets

and the Canucks practice on Monday before they play on Tuesday. Gonna be a great game. Connor Hellebock has six shutouts and six losses this year. You have to wonder, is halfway through the season guy leads the league in games play and has many shutouts as he has losses. It's obscene the year he's having. He's the one goaltender who's part of the hard trophy race and you know Vancouver obviously as you were there on Saturday in Toronto as they shut out the Maple Leafs and you could tell you know after that game and as they come into Winnipeg and they didn't practice on Sunday, but the Canucks suddenly feel very good about themselves.

It's amazing what one win can do for you. Right. Peterson had his best game of the year. He's been skating a lot lately and they're hoping that just the fact that he's been out on the ice a lot is going to be very good for him. And the word is that Roenick is not far away. So the reinforcements are coming and I'm looking forward to this game on Tuesday night. Yeah.

So why don't we talk about Vancouver a little more then just in terms of the weekend because you had the story there, the pregame show delayed travel getting out a rally did you hear about the Deicing machine that had broke down for them I think that was a big part of why they couldn't get out Friday night after their game against the Hurricanes because there's two obviously going on either side of the wings of the airplane one had Broken down and because it was cold enough there in the rally area, they thought if there was only one operating, by the time they spray one wing down and get around to the other side to do the other, that first one would freeze up again and so they would just be

going back and forth all night. So I think that was a big driver. Oh my God, that would make me crazy. Why they ended up staying over. Yeah, so I guess they found out, I guess the game ended at 940-ish and then at 1010 they found they weren't going to be flying. And it wasn't a big crowd that night in Carolina simply because of the ice storm. It wasn't because of anything else, it was just one of those weather nights where you

knew it was really bad. And I think the Canucks knew there was a chance that they wouldn't be getting out after that game. I actually kind of was really interested in the whole thing because it was kind of like a mini tournament between Carolina, Toronto and Vancouver. It was Toronto, Carolina on Thursday and a kind of a unique situation where a home team plays back to back and the other team is waiting for them So it was Carolina Vancouver Friday and Toronto Vancouver Saturday And I guess in this mini tournament Carolina finished first because they won both games

Vancouver finished second because oh My god that doint in that Washington kick just happened as we were watching. So I've got it here on a delay. Unbelievable. Well, I'm sorry I ruined it for you. This has been the game of the weekend. Wow. I'm just happy the Packers lost, Kyle, no offense. I know the Vikings are gonna break my heart at some point,

but at least the Packers won't win either. Yeah, as we were saying before, that was a Elliott Friedman pickleball experience watching the Packers on Sunday afternoon. You will get yours soon with the Vikes. Oh I will. This is unbelievable. It'll be painful. What a win for the commanders. Yeah, so as you know, as you can all hear now, we were just recording this pod after the Vegas-Minnesota game was done, the last game of the night on Sunday and we were watching the end of this one. So anyway, so Vancouver finishes second because they beat the Leafs on Saturday and Toronto goes 0 for 2 and their coach is not very happy right now.

But you know, it's really interesting. I didn't know that about the de-icing. I knew that they got there on Saturday morning and they left an hour later than they were supposed to. They got a police escort from downtown Toronto to their hotel, which is the only- Even Tocket was like, that was kind of slow. Yeah. That's the only way with Toronto traffic that you can get from the airport to downtown in

less than six hours. But it's the second time in a year that the Maple Leafs have had a team come in right before the game and beat them. Remember last year, Detroit. There was a time last year that was a Sunday night game, Detroit to Toronto. There was a time we weren't even sure that that game was even going to be played. And the Red Wings showed up about two hours before they dropped the puck and they won that game too.

The Maple Leafs should send their team charter to make sure the opponent gets into Toronto like six days early, because the last second thing just doesn't, doesn't work for them. Um, but you know, um, like I said, uh, the Canucks, they, they felt, I mean, you were there, they felt really I mean, you were there, they felt really good about themselves after that game, especially the game they lost in Carolina was a really low, like Carolina doesn't play a lot of low event games, they shoot the puck from everywhere.

It was kind of a weird game for the Hurricanes, but they dominated. They didn't let the Canucks do anything. And then for them to come in Toronto and bad travel like that and win, you could tell they had a little bit of extra hop in their step after that one and they're hoping it's a little bit of a turnaround for them. Yeah, it was interesting actually. Craig Simpson, as our group's talking in the morning and we realize what's going on with Vancouver, he said right away he goes they'll probably have their best game in weeks like channeling the mind of a player of just putting everything else aside and

getting there and playing. And for Vancouver fans that haven't seen it yet, Quinn Hughes was quite good in the postgame. Had to overcome the adversity of the guy standing next to him asking the questions but I thought he gave a pretty good snapshot into where his mind and the the team's mind is at as they as you say huge win for them with what had been a pretty difficult road trip for them to that point before shutting out Toronto on a big stage on Pocky night. And your interview with Taka pregame where Taka talked about how he says how are you doing and Quinn says and Hughes always says back to him no no how are you doing? And Quinn says, and Hughes always says back to him, no, no, no, how are you doing?

You can tell this year in Vancouver, and I'm not just talking among the fan base, and I know they love him, but inside the organization, the legend of Quinn Hughes is growing. All right, so if that was one of the big stories over the weekend, was anything going to top the scene in Philadelphia on Saturday? That was right up there too.

And the fallout with, so Anaheim was there Saturday, that was the big rematch with Cudder Goche. Remember a couple weeks ago when they first played in Anaheim? We were kind of joking that it was a little more of a tamer game than maybe we were anticipating. That was a downer game. That was just a downer game. That was that was just a downer game Like it was an unsad all the tarot and all the right. This one was very different and That game in Anaheim was a downer game. There was a lot of talk nothing happened

and then the thing is though in Philadelphia and I knew a couple of people who were there and they said that was the best crowd of the season like that building They they they they walked out there They were actually they were texting me during the game the people I knew who were there and they were like you got to Talk about this on the pod this week. This is awesome. This is the best atmosphere of the year and Those fans like the Flyers had no choice But to show up for that game. Like, you know, you heard Cutter Goche, he said, you know what, if people really knew

the real story, you know, they would be much more understanding. Well, the problem with what Goche says there is that he has declined to say what the real story is. Now, if you've heard me on this pod before and discuss it before You know what I've reported. It's that that year when he finished college It was the year that Chuck Fletcher was fired and Daniel Breyer and Keith Jones took over I think he believed he was going to join the team at the end of the season and and

I think, look, can I say 100% there was a promise made? No, I can't say that. But what I can say is that at least the player believed there was, I don't know, I don't know how, I don't want to speak for Goche, whether he felt it was a promise or an indication or whatever the case. And that year was so bad in Philadelphia that Jones and Briere made a decision that they weren't going to bring him into the locker room. They said their locker room was a really tough place and they offered him to go to the American Hockey League and finish that year and then join the Flyers the next year and it was just never the same

after that point. But whatever the case is, you know, it is perfectly within Goche's right to say, look, that's over. I don't want to talk about it. It's my decision and that's it. But what you can't say is if people knew the truth, they would feel differently. Like you can't have it both ways. Like I actually thought a lot of the quotes coming out of this game were really interesting. But you can't have it both ways. And you're the Flyers, in the eyes of your fans, your manhood is being questioned. Like your organization is being told you're not good enough for this particular guy. And look, we all know Philly fans, we all know how they are, we all know their identity. It would have been unacceptable for Philly to play any differently than they did in that

game. Not only to win the game, but to physically engage him. Like Goche is not a fighter, he's not going to fight anybody. But you know, Lawton took the shot at him, Konekne said, I'll fight you. It was almost as if Konekne looked at where the camera was and said I'm gonna I'm gonna look right into it and tell you what I'm saying. He's kind of promo seriously He was like Triple H out there cutting a promo on on raw like that's what he was doing and But you if you're Philly you couldn't do any less than that like was, anything less than that would not have been acceptable in the eyes of your fans.

And Anaheim got pounded, and the guy who was happiest for the Flyer was Jamie Drysdale. Because I think it's been a hard road for him, and he got a big goal. And you could tell he did the interview after the game with Ashlyn Sullivan on the Flyers broadcast, and she brought up the pro Drysdale chance in the crowd, and he couldn't contain himself. He was so happy that you could tell by the look on his face. Did you see the video in the dressing room afterwards too, when Ryan Paley handing him the player the game belt? No, I didn't see that one. Yeah, it was cool. All right, boys. Great game.

Full 60 minutes of players hockey. It's kind of fun. Tipper, TK, Frosty, I thought your line played great tonight. Ers, great job on the net. Mike, hell of a celly. But everyone knows Jamie's better. So. Wow.

So you just mentioned, you know, like, heard our crowd. Jamie's better and handed the belt to him. And then the whole dressing room stood up and had the slow clap going and eventually moved closer and closer and closer to him. It was an interesting ritual, but you know, Cattell was one that meant the world to him, giving everything that had been going on in the moment of Saturday. Anthony Stewart's dad, are you a club or are you a team? That's a team. There you go. That's a team. So, and you know, the thing is, is that, you know, like I laughed at Tortorello's quotes post-game when, you know, the media was asking him about, was asking him about the, about the crowd and he goes, well, I don't care about all that bleep you guys are talking about.

I want that to be a crowd when we're playing for something. That's what I want. We're a playoff team in the buildings like that. Which is a really good line. Actually, I thought it was a really good line too, but don't forget in the aftermath of Goche's training was the Flyers who made it very clear they felt like a jilted lover in all of this. So it wasn't like they didn't stoke up the crowd and the whole emotion behind it too. But I did like Tortorella's message. I thought it was good. But this is the one thing, and I really do believe this.

I don't think this is specific to Go Chase so much. I think this is just in general. Sports is better when there's hate. It's just better when there's hate. And again, to me it's got almost nothing to do with Goche in this particular case. Like the thing is, I always say, and this is one thing my dad really prepared me well for, you are free to do whatever you want.

As long as you don't hurt anybody, as long as you're willing to accept the consequences of your actions. And that's the way I look at it. I look at Goche is free to say, I don't want to be here and I want to go somewhere else. And ultimately, he got his wish. But he also has to accept that that's the way he's going to be here and I want to go somewhere else. And ultimately he got his wish. But he also has to accept that that's the way he's going to be seen in Philadelphia. And he's also going to have to accept that if he's not going to give the exact reason,

then you can't expect the Flyers fans to feel any differently. Like nobody's in the wrong here. Everybody is free to do as they wish. I have no problem with any of this. Sports is better though, when there's hate and that game had a lot of hate around it. And the thing is too Kyle, if I was a flyer player, I would say, okay, you know, Cudder Goche has free to do what he wants. Okay, you know, Cutter Goethe has free to do what he wants, but if I have any pride in wearing that jersey, and you can only imagine like Ed Snyder in the week of his birthday just spinning in his grave at all this stuff, if you have any pride in wearing a flyer jersey, you always have to manufacture

pride wearing a flyer jersey, you always have to manufacture that I'm not, even if deep down I believe it's a business and the kid is free to do what he wants, I can't act like I find that acceptable in any way, shape or form because I'm a flyer. And I thought the flyers answered that bell. And then big credit to the Ducks, who the next day went into Carolina, and they could have collapsed. They blew the lead. It was an emotional day,

because it was Eric Stahl retirement day, and they found a way to win that game with Goche scoring in overtime. Like, it was win, win, win win win win win everywhere. Carolina got five points out of six. The Flyer fans got their pound of flesh and their team won big. Anaheim after losing badly twice because they got killed in St. Louis on Thursday found a way to win a tough game and a tough turnaround in Carolina and Goetia scored the overtime winner.

It's like a trip to Disney, Kyle. Everybody goes home happy. The happiest place on earth. And especially because, yeah, he scores two goals in that game against Carolina. And I can only imagine at any stage of your life being at the center of something like that. But 20 years old, and I don't know, Greg Cronin, the coach of the Ducks had the line afterwards that he said he talked to Gautier before the game in Carolina and said, you know, it must feel like there's a thousand pounds of weight off your shoulders here now

after getting through that night in Philadelphia. So of course, everyone's going to feel a certain way about how Gautier went about things and how he's now in Anaheim, but credit to him for turning a corner after a very difficult night in Philly and having a great one in Carolina. And you mentioned Eric Stahl having the number 12 retired. Congratulations to him. Part of that 2003 NHL draft class, only four remain still in the NHL. Ryan Suter, Brent Burns, Corey Perry, Marc-Andre Fleury. Yeah, it's uh, and you know, I wanted to mention too that the Hurricanes, West Coast hockey, John Davis, West Coast hockey is his ex-handle, he said the Hurricanes were the largest NHL favorite

this season, minus 500. And Anaheim found a way to win that game. You have to have a short memory here. Wow. You know, the thing I remember with Eric Stahl, not only Stanley Cup champion, but he was the internet code at hurricanes games.

The password was EricStahl12. And I showed that and the hurricanes had to change the password. You wrecked it? I did. And you know how the password. You wrecked it? I did. And you know how I found out I wrecked it? It was when the All-Star game was in Carolina. We went down to do a piece with Stahl's family, and he's got a beautiful family.

But we showed how he was. I can't remember if I showed it or I mentioned that he was the code. That's how big he was or I care if I showed it or I mentioned to that he was the code that that's how big he was in Carolina and not long after Boston went into Carolina and Fluto Shinzawa who does a great job covering the Bruins for the athletic sent me an email saying my internet wouldn't work in the arena and I couldn't figure out what was going wrong because normally it just logs on automatically because the memory and he said no we had to change it they told him because I put it on

hockey night in Canada that it was the password. Oh man. You can't get out of your own way. I am just a disaster. The other thing, just before I forget about Philadelphia, I wanted to mention too, so I mentioned in the last pod that Scott Lawton, that apparently Daniel Brier had asked for a first rounder. And I took it to mean that he wasn't really interested in moving him.

I had some very interesting pushback on that from a couple of people. Number one, someone pointed out to me that last year Daniel Brier would not trade Sean Walker until he got a first round pick. And people said Brier is crazy, he won't get a first round pick. And eventually he did from Colorado. Now he had to eat Ryan Johansson's contract but he held out and he got it. So they said to me you should be very careful about making that generalization because Breyer's history is if he holds on it can work. And someone else said to me if you look at some centers lately, especially ones with term, first round pick is not unheard of.

So I just thought it was really interesting I got that feedback on it and wanted to mention. All right. Well keeping in that tune then, Saturday headlines over the weekend, your lead item was about Ryan O'Reilly of the Nashville Predators. So naturally when you have a season like Nashville has had, they're going to get calls about players and we've already seen them move on from a few of them. Fabro, Tomasino, Carrier all have new homes now. And you would think, assume that Ryan O'Reilly would be a player of interest as well.

He's someone who has no trade protection, a four and a half million dollar cap hit for the next two seasons after this one. But as you're pointing out, he may not have trade protection in writing, but it sounds like if Nashville was going to entertain any of this, they are treating it as such. He does have protection. Yes, and you hit on the key there that nobody, I don't think anybody believed that in year two of his stay in Nashville, people would be talking about Ryan O'Reilly on trade boards. I think that's a really important point that you made there at the beginning of your dissertation

because that's exactly why I think this is even a Conversation and you're also right that he does not have no trade protection or no move protection But he's being treated as such and I do believe so a lot of teams are having their scouting meetings right now You know you have your amateur meetings and you have your pro meetings and as you can imagine they're the pro meetings teams are looking for centers are talking about O'Reilly and I heard that the Predators have been called about him and that's what they had told teams that he's being treated as if he has no move protection and it's yeah I was told two things that the Predators have been saying, look, like, you know, unfortunately,

we may have to consider this. I think their preference is to keep them. You know, the Predators are looking for centers, and if you trade O'Reilly, you might be looking for more of them. And also, like, O'Reilly is a culture guy, and I think they want, especially as they start bringing some young players in, they want him to be part of teaching these young players how to play. And you know, so I was told that he's being treated, he's got no move protection, and they won't take anything to him

unless it's off the charts. And not only is there that, but you know, O''Reilly is gonna have to agree to it so that's kind of where it is because of who he is I have no doubt there will be a lot of interest but a as I said it's gonna be up to O'Reilly and you're gonna have to pay for them to even think about going to him so that's that's where it stands right now with him. He's, um, he's one of those really respected players around the NHL.

And, you know, the other thing that's interesting about that too, is that, you know, Nashville wasn't a team that gave a lot of protection, right? Um, you know, Ro they, they really took pride in they didn't throw around a lot of clauses and Roman Yossi got them, obviously. And then, you know, last year O'Reilly didn't get them. And then look at what happened last summer. They had to hand some of these out to some of these guys that they signed in the Stamco's

Marshalls, Rows and Shades. And so I think that, you know, someone made a good point to me that that's part of this conversation too Is that you know was indicated to O'Reilly? You know we kind of don't do that then they did it, but you know obviously The respect they have for him. They're gonna. They're gonna take care of him Nothing's happening to Ryan O'Reilly without his say so Right because he's got a lot of respect. Barry Trotz has a lot of respect. That's what was one thing I heard too like we mentioned some of the players that have been moved on elsewhere over the course

of this season from from Nashville was that Trotz you know I looked at situations where some players maybe weren't getting opportunities things weren't going great as a team. And he made sure that when there was a feeling of, okay, it's time for someplace new, that he did his part in trying to make sure that would happen in those cases. And I also think he would be somebody, as frustrating as this year has been for the Preds, like if you're ready to depart from Ryan O'Reilly, it almost feels like you're

preparing to take a step back for a longer period of time than I would imagine Trotz has in his mind as they try to pick up the pieces here in quick fashion. But that's just me. I think that's very fair. By the way, Forsberg has a no move clause there too, as you would expect. Correct. Very good. Yes. All right. So, last pod, we started, Elliot, by looking at all of the teams that we think and conceivably

would look at and say, yes, they are very much still in the playoff mix, who is not, who is kind of teetering. The Seattle Kraken was a team that we had looked at and thought they're teetering a little bit. Another note that you had over the weekend was the fact that their CEO Todd Laiwiki flew in for their game in Buffalo on Saturday. That was a big win for them and then they followed it up with a crushing loss to Detroit on Sunday. It's been a tough go for them of late. Also, what should we read into Laiwiki's visit over the weekend? Is it similar to Terry Pagula when he

joined his Sabres in Montreal not too long ago? Is it something different? What do you hear in there? I think there is a similarity to Pagula going to meet the Sabres because it comes at a time where the team is really struggling. Now the one thing I will say is that the way I said it on the air, I said he went to meet the team in Buffalo. Some people took that to say that he met with the team in Buffalo, some people took that to say that he met with the team in Buffalo. And I can see, like, I don't think that's anyone else's fault. I think that's my fault for not being careful enough.

I don't know if he actually met with the players. I do know when I said he went to meet the team, I meant he went to join the team. But you use the word meet and you open it up to interpretation. So that one's on me as opposed to anybody else if anybody thought that. I don't know if he actually met the players, but I know that he aside from the playoffs he doesn't go on a lot of road trips and you know he wasn't there initially. So they played in Columbus on Thursday night and they lost and I don't think Ron Francis, the GM, was on the trip either and he was in Ottawa and he'd

gone back to Seattle. But they showed up in Buffalo after that very tough loss in Carolina. They'd lost 9 of 11 after that game in Carolina as you mentioned they had the big comeback in Buffalo and then they got pounded in Detroit and You know this goes back to last summer. You know, I think there was a real schism in their front office at the end of last season about where to proceed and and what to do and You know first Dave Haxdell was let go and I'm not convinced Francis thought that was the right answer. But then there was definitely a split on where to proceed from there. I think Ron Francis and the people in the front office who support Ron Francis wanted

to hire Todd McClellan. And I think there were others in the front office who wanted to hire Dan Bilesma who obviously got the job and those people won out. And you know this for a while they were in the race but as you mentioned it's been going very poorly for them lately and in the background of all of this is you know the fact that obviously the team wants to do better they went to the playoffs two years ago. They shocked Colorado in the first round. There were big hopes for them and it's hard to go backwards. They missed the playoffs last year. They're in danger of missing the playoffs this year and as we've also

talked about before, Kyle, there's a belief that the NBA is coming back there and the worst thing you want to be when you're a team is you get an expansion team in your city that could get some interest. And those fans in Seattle have been dying for the Supersonics to come back ever since they left. And you know, basketball is very popular there. You don't want your team to be in a bad spot at that time. So I think a lot of that, like, you know, Ron Francis is a very careful, cautious guy. That's who he is. He doesn't, you know, he doesn't act impulsively. And I think there are people in the organization who would like him to be a bit more like that,

but that's just not who he is. And I think between all of these things, they're probably going to have to sort out how they want to proceed. And I think also losing takes its toll. Will Borgen wasn't playing. I think he wanted to be traded. He got his wish.

He went to New York. I've heard Burakowski a bit out there. I've heard Bjorkstrand a bit out there. And the big challenge for Seattle is they simply just don't have a huge prospect pool yet because they haven't been around that long. So I just think it's a bit of stress, a bit of frustration right now, and they're trying to navigate how they're going to get through it. So we'll see where it goes, but a few people told me they saw Leibniz at the game on Saturday in Buffalo, and it really struck them because that's not a normal thing. It's different and anytime, and we all go by patterns of behavior, right? And whenever something is different, you're always wondering exactly what does it mean.

Right. And we mentioned Nashville just a moment ago. I mean, they were one of the other big spenders in the off season, right? Big deal to Brandon Montour, big deal to Chandler Stevenson. You say the word stress. I imagine that's all baked into the pie as well as they try to navigate things here and where they go. Interesting. I don't disagree. All right. You want to talk of Ander Cain a little bit? Sure. I would love to talk of Ander Ce a little bit? Sure. I would love to talk of Vander Cane a little bit.

OK. So this was one that definitely raised eyebrows. Yes. So let's bring people up to speed here. He had already been recovering from abdominal surgery, right, that he had in the fall. He knew he was going to be out for a while. And then it was announced that this past

Thursday he had knee surgery done also, a knee scope. So not repair work or anything, major structural work there. But it was enough to put the recovery for the abdominal procedure he had done on hold. Naturally, as you were saying, getting some interesting reaction, there was so many calls for, well, here go the Oilers and lining him up to be ready in time for game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs. But if you listen to Evander's quotes... Yeah, he doesn't seem to be that interested in that, does he? No, he thinks that it's not changing his timeline, though he wasn't going to be specific about when he exactly thinks

he will be back. He thinks it's still a similar schedule that he had put out in his mind. He said he plans to be 100% and ready to go at some point this season. Where are we at here and what was your takeaway from all that was said and what you learned over the last few days? Well going back to the summer Kyle there always seemed to be this I don't know if I want to call it a divide I don't know if it's quite that serious but there seemed to be a difference of opinion. The Oilers seemed to say you know we'll see how long this is going to be it's going to be a while. And Evander Kane always seemed to be like, yeah, I'm not so sure it's going to be that

long. And that really doesn't, hasn't changed. I mean, obviously it's, it's been some amount of time. I don't think that this schedule has really surprised a lot of people, but the overall tone of it is, has been Oilers are more than prepared to be patient and the player wants to get back out there as much as he possibly as quickly as he possibly can the the interesting reaction on the weekend was or when this was announced on Friday is that if you start to do the

math if you if you look at the math as it's kind of laid out, we're getting really close to the playoffs. Because you know here we are, it's the second week of January, you know say it's four weeks and okay we're at the middle of February, just as the Four Nations is starting, and then as rehab starts again, and we're already at least at the trade deadline. You know, a couple teams were saying to me,

you can start to see the math working out later and later and closer and closer to April 19th which is when the playoffs begin. Now I'm not saying that we're gonna get there because I think it's too soon like they left it open right as in we'll see where we are in a few weeks but the capologists out there and the other teams out there, you can see the wheels turning in their head and they're saying, okay, right now we're probably between the trade deadlines March 7th, right now we're between there and the playoffs. So we're getting close.

I didn't believe prior to this that Kane was going to miss the regular season. I know that there were a lot of Oilers fans hoping it, but I never believed that that was going to happen. Now you can look at this situation, you can say, well if you do the math, it's not impossible. if you do the math, it's not impossible. I'm just really curious, like the player mindset, especially for him, who's a very confident guy. And we was asked about just the idea of going this long into the year before finally suiting up for a game. Whenever that comes, he was like, well, I went from sitting on the couch to becoming an Edmonton Euler part way through the season in 2022 and they end up going to the conference final then. He's

dealt with injuries in the past. It's just, it's, it's interesting, like the old dynamic, right? Like how the team's going to play it and you can tell the players going, I'll be, I know I will be. Fascinating to watch where this all goes from here. It will be. It will be. But like I said, the math is moving later and later. Yes. It's getting late early. It's getting late early. All right, elsewhere around the league over the weekend, Elliot, Sunday night, Vegas hosting Minnesota, two of the top teams in the Western Conference, and the Golden Knights sink their teeth further into top spot in the Pacific for now, but a convincing victory. They pulled away in the third period. No Jack Eichel. He was out due to an illness, but 37-16, they outshoot Minnesota and beat them 4-1 on a night. Marc-Andre Fleury receives a standing ovation from his former home crowd in the fortress.

A lot to talk about here. As you mentioned, Eichel, who heading into the game, led the team in scoring by 18 points, not there. We never really talked about it, but Keegan Kolesar getting re-signed by Vegas, he got his 10th of the year. That was a guy no teams were kind of hoping would hit the market. 27-year-old guy, UFA, he was going to be 28 in April. Uh, Vegas kept him and quietly he's a big part of their team. And I know there was some disappointment that he didn't, um, hit the market there. Vegas got him done. And that Dora Fiev, he leads the team in goals now. He scored two on Sunday night.

He's got 16. Like Vegas to me is a really, they've got their stars, their Eichel, their Stones, their Theodores, Patrangelos, you name all those guys. But what they're also really, really good at, I find is plugging and playing. You know, like for example, Barbachev came back from injury, they went out and they got him from St. Louis. He's a good player, but he got plugged into the Vegas roster and immediately he's effective. Dora Fiev, who's a young guy, was one of their draft picks, and they were patient with him and now they plugged him in and he is, you know, he's a real talent. Kolesar, they got in a trade with Columbus. And again, it maybe took them a bit longer, but I've really liked his game with Vegas

for a long time. Really been a huge fan of his. It goes back to when they beat Winnipeg the year they won the Stanley Cup final. I remember they go back to Winnipeg, tied 1-1, and on the first shift, Adam Lowry is chasing Mark Stone and going hard at Mark Stone. I remember they go back to Winnipeg tied 1-1, and on the first shift, Adam Lowry is chasing Mark Stone and going hard at Mark Stone, and Kolesar comes off the bench for a regular change. He gets the second shift, and he goes right after Lowry.

And that was a big moment in for... It was basically him saying, I know we're on the road, but we're not letting you push around our captain in your building. And it's just, I just think Vegas, the stars that they get, but the way they plug and play like a bunch of other guys in their roster is to me a huge part of their success. And watching those guys score three of their four goals without Eichel to win against a really good team

that's beaten up a bit in Minnesota but still a great team on the road. That's a tremendous win and I saw Mike Russo reported that they'd indicated that Kaprizov could be back later in the week which is huge for the Wild. You mentioned Flurry. It's really interesting. I think there are people in the organization just still have some hard feelings towards Flurry, but it's very clear how the fans feel.

The fans love that guy. They love him. And it was really interesting to see Flurry play the game. They played back to back. And so you know that he was going to get one of two games and Gustafson was going to get one of two games. And I thought it was really interesting that Flurry got the first game, which they won. They won against San Jose and you know a lot of teams believe you should start on a back-to-back you always have a better chance to win on the first night right? So you start the goalie you think you has a better chance to win it for you on the first night and they were in and you know too they're in San Jose and they're in Vegas so you know that you have a better chance of even as good as Minnesota is on the road you know your better chance is to win on the Saturday in San Jose and

Gustafson had been Had you know had a rough start lately, so I just think that John Hines looked at it and said you know what? Flurries are a better guy right now. He's getting that one. And I'm sure that he's not going to complain too much. And he's going to say, I'll take my, I'll take my ovation from the bench. And it worked that way. They got, they got the win they needed to get in San Jose.

But it was a nice moment. It was a really, really nice moment. And it'll be interesting to see when his career is over. I mean, obviously he's going to be beloved in a lot of places. Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and the fans in... And remember a few years ago, Bill Foley, the owner, after they won the cup, came on the pod and talked glowingly about Flurry. the fans in and remember a few years ago, Bill Foley, the owner after they won the cup came on the pod and talked glowingly about Flurry. So it'll be interesting to see how it all goes down in Vegas too. I still remember when they played Montreal in the playoffs in the shortened season

and all the drama and intrigue like every game it felt like was who was going to start for Vegas that night? Was it Flurry? Was it going to be Lennar? And like the lights that DeBoer and the coaching staff went to as you're looking for clues, who's on the ice first? Who's leaving first? Well, Lennar left first, but oh man, Flurry is starting this game. Like it was, they were doing everything they could to throw off the set. That always felt like the biggest story as you were waiting for warmups to begin before each game was who was starting in the Vegas cage and anyway part of a very dramatic series that ended up being but that's one thing that I always think of beyond of course the brilliance of that first year for Vegas and the hand that Flurry

had in there was just who was going to start when it got to the nitty-gritty that one year up against Montreal. I remember in 06 in the Western Conference Final, it was Edmonds and Anaheim when the Oilers went to the Stanley Cup Final. I don't know if Randy Carlisle did it or Géas Jiguerre and Ilya Brizgalov did it, but at the morning skate one day, they made sure they left the ice at the same time. So we knew which one of them was leaving. I do remember that. Remember the expansion draft.

They did the awards in Vegas. They did the expansion draft right after and Flurry was there. It was a pretty cool moment, a really good moment. That would have been just after he'd won the cup again. Yes, the fans have made it very clear how they feel about him in Vegas. All right, so it was a difficult loss for Minnesota on Sunday, but some things to cheer about for Minnesota hockey fans. Of course, their Team USA World Junior team captured gold for a second straight year here in Ottawa a

few weeks back. We learned not too long ago that David Carl We talked about him not too long ago and all the success that he's had and what's going to be next for him He announced he is not going to be coaching team USA at the world juniors next year when it is hosted in Minnesota, but you have learned there is a familiar name on the radar familiar to USA hockey and familiar to the Minnesota college hockey scene? Yeah, so I was kind of asking around, you know, who will Canada's next coach be because that's the country I take a little bit more interest in and at this point in time, I don't think that's determined, but the person said to me, but we are

thinking that team USA is going to take a long look at Bob Motzko and he is the coach at the University of Minnesota as you mentioned and He won a gold medal with team USA at the tournament in Montreal was that 2017 correct. Yeah, that was the Troy Terry shootout against Canada in the gold medal game. Oh my god that guy there's the two shootouts I really remember Jonathan Taze and Troy Terry. Yep. So like I don't know whether when or if they're gonna formalize this or what the schedule is but there's a lot and the tournament next year is in Minnesota, so it makes even more sense, but there are

a lot of eyes on him to be the potential step up for David Carl, and as you said, he's had a lot of success. It would be a great choice if it was indeed him. Yeah, okay. So a few more things we wanted to get to. Really neat after hours over Saturday night. Scott Oak and Ryan Leslie with Robin Regear and Craig Conroy and Rasmus Anderson. Three members of the quarter century teams that was named in Calgary on Saturday too.

And you had a nice note about the late, now late Al McNeil, who the hockey world lost a few days back now. Longtime member of the Calgary Frames. He was the head coach in Atlanta, and then when the team made the transition up to Alberta. And you had a really neat image also on Hockey Night 2 of the note, the note that he would file, his own little game report of each player that he did practically right up until the end.

Yes, so Al McNeil, until November, the day after every Flames game would submit a handwritten note of his ratings of everybody who'd played, the 18 skaters and the two goaltenders. And he had a rating system that went from zero to two. Zero meant you were Elliot Elliott Freeman podcast level bad, and 2 meant you were Kyle Bacoskas pod level excellent. So they were smart.

They gave me one after a win. It was funny. There were a lot of people in the hockey world who really liked that McNeil got recognized like that. I didn't know that he was Ron's mother's cousin either. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, when Ron mentioned that I was like, whoa, I had no idea. But there were a lot of people in the hockey world who kind of thought it was nice to see McNeil get recognized in that way, and I really appreciate the flames for allowing me to access to one of the

scouting reports but it was funny because a couple people who knew him said I would love to see what was blacked out because you say there was some redactions yeah he said he said if he was not impressed with a player's report performance he was not afraid to indicate it so in the writing. But he was very complimentary. I thought he had a very interesting line about Connor Zario, unfortunately he's injured right now, but said, you know, his legs have caught up with his head. Like he obviously he felt that Zario had a great head for hockey and he was just hopeful that the rest of them would catch up to it, which it

clearly has. But the flames were wise enough to give it to me one after a win. And the comments were not that cutting. But I think I understood the flames. They wanted to be careful because we initially had it blurred out, the other items. And there was nothing really too bad. But you do want to be respectful

here but you know how it is Kyle like people out there are really smart and they're really digitally intelligent and initially it was sent to me in blurred out by the producer Brian Spear and I'm like we're not doing this and he goes I can't tell what is said and I was like well well, maybe it's because I know what's behind the initial notes. And again, it was nothing too bad, but I know what was. And I was just living in fear of these smart people out there figuring out what was said and maybe the McNeil family getting upset or something like that. The last thing I wanted was the family to get upset. We're trying to do this good thing.

Right, you already did in the Hurricanes Wi-Fi. That's right, I already did it in the Hurricanes Wi-Fi. I don't want to hurt... So they did recognize Al McNeil in the first commercial break of the game against the Kings, which was a real good game. His wife was there at the game, his son, who scouts for the Flames was there, but his daughter and her husband and their two kids couldn't be there, so I think they're gonna do a proper honoring later in the season. But that was a good game. Like, Wolf, you're the one who was on the Wolf, called her train early. I think it's really gonna be hard to beat Celebrini, like really

hard, but he's in the conversation. And I got to tell you that, that Matthew Coronado, if he was not the best player on the ice on Saturday night, he was very, very close. Very good. Yeah. Big win for Calgary there as they're trying to stay in a competitive race in the Western Conference, almost as competitive as we're seeing in the East, which we talked a lot about last pod, but we should just quickly mention that here in Ottawa, only because on Sunday, Steve Stahels, the general manager, they did their mid-season kind of State of the Union address, and he is very good at being respectful. Is it true that you almost fell asleep in the middle of it? No, I didn't almost fall asleep.

If it was anything, it was because of coming off short rest after working on Saturday. But no, no, no. He just has a very good way of taking everyone's question, answering it respectfully, as directly as he can, but not divulging too much. I don't know, Elliot. I mean, my takeaways from what he was saying is that he's looking, he's trying to make the team better, but as we talked about last week, with how many teams there are in the mix, I mean, it's really, really difficult to try to pry something out of somewhere because right now it's either a flat out no or the asking prices are very,

very high. Let me just say this about Steve Stahos. He was a much better quote as a player than he is as an executive. Yes, unless he's on after hours. Only Scott Oak. He was great on after hours. Only Oak he can pull the best out of Stahos. Yeah, you know they got the Ridley-Gregg extension done last week very quietly and

that's a good extension. That will, I think that extension is going to age very well. But he got that one done quietly and I know there were a lot of people asking about Claude Giroux and he said, I'm not going to talk about that. I don't know that there's anything close there right now. The one thing about Giroux is they have time there. I think all things being equal, everybody kind of knows that if the team is good,

he's not gonna be in a hurry to go anywhere else. They had a great weekend, like that goalie. Did they ever. Yeah, they win on Saturday, they blew out Pittsburgh. And the thing I really liked about that was, so they have a horrible game that we talked about on Friday's pod, they had a horrible game on Thursday. They have a team meeting on Friday,

and then, like I always think that when you're, like have a team meeting where you're calling guys out and demanding more, and I heard that meeting was pretty blunt in some ways, and with guys like Kachak and I heard that meeting was pretty blunt in some ways and with guys like Kachak and Giroux in there, I don't think anybody should be surprised. I think the best thing that can happen for you is you get an emotional spirited game on Saturday or your next game. First of all, they got off to a great start.

They scored on their first shot, which Pittsburgh has had a nightmare with. Mike Johnson pulled up the stat and they scored like 30 seconds later. Like we all hope in TV we look like that much of a genius. And yeah, that's right. So they had the lead quick and then that game turned kind of nasty. Like Nadelkovich got involved in it. And I think when you have that kind of a team meeting you want an emotional game because your team's wired up to begin with because they had to tell each other off and then you get

that. That kind of high intensity game is perfect and they blew Pittsburgh out and then you know it's not exactly a long road trip and Dallas played the night before and it's not a big trip for them but to me Dallas is one of the best teams in the league and you're down early and you're goalie. A young guy who has very little NHL runway is going back to back. That is, again, with Ottawa though, like I think I feel like I say this all the time, Kyle, do it for 20 games. Like don't get hot for five and then be terrible for five.

Like, good teams don't do that. Good teams have staying power, and that's the one thing Ottawa doesn't have yet, is staying power. But the thing they are doing is they're buying Stale's time. Like, Marillinen, by doing what he did this weekend, number one, he's a gamer. He's battling.

That is the number one thing you have to have. You have to show that you're a gamer. All those guys in Ottawa, they came back and they won that game because they're sitting there and they're knowing that goalies aren't supposed to go back to back anymore. It's not even 24 hours, it's 22 hours. Like the one game started at seven, the next game starting at five, and you're sitting here and you're looking,

if he's giving us this kind of a game, shame on us if we don't play the same way too. And that's the thing, like he's buying Staios time. And that's what Staios is asking for here. Like he's talking about, oh, I can see Matt and Palo play I can see Marilion play he's gotta say that he is praying these guys buy him time and the biggest Credit you can give to Marilion and now as he's doing that

He's he's not forcing Staless to rush into anything as a panic Because of if he was falling apart and they weren't getting wins or saves, Stales would have to do something. He's buying them time. And it was funny, Elliot. I bumped into Josh Bogorad, the play-by-play voice of the Stars before the game on Sunday, and he said to me, I had no idea. He goes, the Stars have not won in Ottawa since March of 2016.

Now, I know they only come there once a year, but you think about how many good seasons the Stars have had from 2016 to now and how many poor ones the Sens have had from 2016 until now. Quietly it's become the the house of horrors for Dallas considering they had ripped off seven in a row prior to Sunday and stopped in their tracks by the Sens in the place where apparently they don't win anymore. The curse of the Brook Street Hotel.

That's right. That's right. That's right. The bus ride up from Montreal and the Brook Street Hotel. So I love that hotel because I did a lot of, we used to stay there, we did a lot of games there. I heard some great stories of you and the brook street hotel back Oh, yeah, but see but you know Those stories are all true unfortunately

But you know who used to get mad about one thing at the brook street hotel that he would get mad when I said how Much I loved it. It was Bob Cole I knew this is coming because he said that when you were lying in bed The TV was too low and it was hard to change channel with the converter That was his only complaint about the Brook Street. He couldn't get the sensor No, it was I I never had this problem because I got longer arms than Bob I guess but he you know, he had trouble doing it but the Dallas Stars the curse of the Brook Street I've heard it's been refreshed. So

We'll be happy to know that and maybe I'll be the TVs Yeah, good coffee place good hotel bar good spa Lots of good stuff there All right So before you get to a final thought Elliot just wanted to send us some well wishes to a couple of people in the hot And he's based first off Connor In, the goaltender with Utah. He revealed this week that he had been away for a little bit of time. And the reason was he lost his mother in December and understandably taking some time to grieve there. Also Craig Laughlin, the color voice, longtime color voice of the Washington Capitals.

They announced on their broadcast this week that he is going to be undergoing heart surgery. So we wanted to wish him the best and say hello to him. of the Washington Capitals. They announced on their broadcast this week that he is going to be undergoing heart surgery. So we wanted to wish him the best and send Ingram the best as well after just an incredible loss to his life and his family also. Well handled by both teams. Utah kept that pretty under wraps.

We all thought that Ingram was hurt. Obviously it was more than just a physical injury. And remember that Ingram's been through a lot. He was the Master's and Trophy winner. So Utah was obviously well aware that they had to be very careful here. And I think the hockey club in their first year in the NHL deserves a lot of credit. And you could tell too that in Washington, it hasn't been an easy year for Washington. John Walton, who's their great radio play-by-play voice, had missed some time as well. So it's been a hard year in the broadcast booth there,

but you can tell that the capitals do all the right things, including winning. That Ethan Frank got called up this week and immediately had a great weekend in helping Washington get three out of a possible four points and those are karma points when you treat people well like they have with Walton and Laughlin you get karma points and Washington clearly does. All right that brings us to the final thought which is brought to you by GMC and Elliott the Boston Bruins who were desperate for a result over the weekend. Down in Florida, they had lost a tight game to Tampa. They were getting set to play an afternoon game against the Panthers on Saturday. The

Mothers were down there with them. It hadn't been going very well on the ice. And then, the report comes on Friday from WEEI radio personality Rich Keefe suggesting that Brad Marshand and David Pastraduck, the relationship had been strained, that Pastraduck didn't want to play on the same line with them anymore. Marshand not only did he come out and refute the report, it was an all-out offensive attack going against that suggestion that there was anything going on with him and the prized superstar winger for the Bruins. It was how you would expect a guy like Marchand to stand up for his group, his teammate, his friend, and clearly

something he doesn't agree with, but he went on the offensive there. What did you think of it all? So the thing that I think had a lot of people really kind of wondering about in the beginning was, so that reporter Rich Keefe, he was the one who was way ahead of everybody else on Jim Montgomery being fired that day that Jim Montgomery was fired. So anytime that you know and he was proven to be right on that it was it was that day and anytime somebody is that far ahead of everybody else and on something and he reports something else about the same team you know people are like okay you know what people are like, okay, you know, what exactly does he have here?

And this is not as easily provable. You know, you could prove that Jim Montgomery was getting fired because he did. This one, I mean, you know, you, you take Marshan and Pasternak at their word. That if they come out this strongly against it you 100% take them at their word. I thought what was really interesting too was that the way the Bruins social media went after it. That was the thing that really stood out to me like and because you know I'll say this the Bruins have a really creative social media team they they do some really good work. You know, for example,

you know, it's the Mother's Trip right now and they did a martini making contest on Sunday. I was glued to all three minutes of it. They had the Canadian mothers on one team and the American mothers on another team and the European mothers on a third team and the American mothers on another team and the European mothers on a third team and the European mothers won the contest. And I was like, I just wasted three minutes of my life watching this and I will watch it again. But this time the Bruins and teams, we're seeing changes in the NHL, like that Martini thing was clever, it was new.

Like the teams are tearing into each other more and more. And by the way, there was one on the weekend over a picture in the American Hockey League between Lehigh Valley, and who was the other team? I wrote this down. Lehigh Valley and Hartford, they had a fight over a picture that was used, because it was old. I was looking at this like, I cannot believe

what I'm looking at here. Like the admins were ripping each other over a photo that was used. But the thing that was rare about this one was the Bruins, by putting the pictures of Marshand and Posternak hanging out with each other, like that was unique to me. It wasn't nasty, but it was pointed. Like the Bruins were using their social media as a weapon to go after this and address this and we don't see that very much. I thought that was really interesting that they made and then you know they made sure you know

Marchand Scrum was out quick, Posternak Scrum was out quick. You know Marchand Scrum was out quick Posternak Scrum was out quick You know, they played a great game on Saturday in Florida like that was wild That was a great hockey game. Like what a great game that was Florida scores with three seconds left an absolutely bizarre goal and then Boston wins it with two seconds left and overtime an Absolutely bizarre goal like similar into the same net like it was a nice Yeah, but Boston had to respond that way and the other thing too is did you see the intermission interview with Marchand? Yes, I did with Emily four questions. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now this is inside baseball, but you and I have both done this job

What would happen if you tried to do a four question between period interview? Oh, I get my the microphone would be disconnected. Either by us or by the team. Yes. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, it would be by the team. Of course. No, but our guys might might get mad at you too. Like if you took four questions in an intermission interview, our guys might say, we're not running that. That's happened to me before. Like when I was a sideline reporter,

I had one with Brian McCabe, I think, that went two and a half minutes when they were really struggling. And he's like, our guys were like, we can't run that and I'm like, it's good, so we can't fit it. Anyway, but Marchand clearly said, okay, I know what's going on here and I'm dealing with this. You know, I thought that was really impressive that he would do that in the middle of a high-intensity game against that kind of an opponent.

I mean, again, you have to take the players at their word. You do. But I think one of the reasons that one raised such eyebrows was because it was the reporter who nailed the Montgomery. But again, you take the players at their word and I just think that between that dynamic and the way the Bruins handled it, like they went on the offensive, I thought that that whole situation was really unique. And I got to think too, you know, if I was Marchand and I would be really angry and frustrated

that it happened on my watch too. Never mind that it's about him. And I think that was part of why he was so angry. It's because he's the captain and he sees that role as important. And the season's already been hard enough for a lot of different reasons. And he's like, I'm angry that this stuff is all happening on my watch. And I think it shows Marchand's pride in himself and the role of the captaincy that he reacted

as strongly as he did. Yes, especially when you consider, I mean, he is the last remaining piece from that 2011 group and one of the biggest lessons that he took away from having Zdeno Chara as a captain and a teammate was how to run a room, how to gauge the temperature of the room. You can only imagine how a guy like Chara would react to something like this. And to your point exactly, Elliot, he's thinking along the very similar lines now in this position and this story comes to the forefront and he was going to handle it head on.

Head on. Head on. With the support of the organization, which was pretty neat. Yes, and I think also the biggest thing that happened to the Bruins on Saturday was that was Swainman's best game of the season. And we started this pod by talking about how Saturday was Pedersen's game of the best game of the season, and you're hoping that that gets him going for Vancouver, and now you're gonna finish it with that's Swainman's best game of the season. And you hope it gets Boston going, him going for Boston because they need it big time.

Perfect. Great way to bookend the first block. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC. We will take our first break and come back with the thought line. This is 32 Thoughts to the Podcast. We'll be right back. Okay, welcome back. Gather around everyone. It's time for the Thought Line. And Elliot, we have some follow-ups to do from the previous episode before we can move forward. By the way, I have something I'd like to say to you. Oh, alright, let's hear it.

So you said something on one of the last pods that had me doing some investigative work. You said something about the outfits that we were going to be wearing when Kevin and I do the biathlon this week in Canmore. So I had to ask, I said, what is Kyle talking about? And I learned that Kevin and I apparently are going to be wearing the Biathlon Canada onesies that they wear when they compete internationally. And I said to Deb Berman, our outstanding wardrobe leader, I am in much better shape, but I don't know if the world is ready for me in a onesie. And she laughed her head off.

So. Yeah. I, whether they're ready or not, here Elliot comes. Even I have to admit, I am not convinced this is a good idea. I am. Oh, I can't wait. I cannot wait. The photo ops are going to be incredible to say nothing of the actual biathlon activities

you two will be involved in. It's going gonna be fantastic. I'm excited for you. You know, actually, so as we mentioned, I'm in Winnipeg and I'm going home Monday night and I think I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go to the Dallas Stars morning skate on Tuesday and then I think I'm gonna spend the cross-country skiing because it's been a while since I've done it and I just, I don't want the first time I'm doing it to be on camera. It's been a long time. Proper preparation, Freeds.

This is good. Yeah, I have to do, I have to actually go out and spend a little bit of time getting the muscle memory back and remembering, hey, opposite side, opposite pull, opposite ski, just remember to get all that stuff back in my mind. Excellent. All right. Well, we'll report back when we're in Canmore and see how you made out. Okay, so some follow-ups from last pod, Freach.

We missed a name when discussing the players that do not wear a visor still. I'm sure you know which name that was. Yes. I had several Islanders fans who pointed out Matt Martin. Yes. I do not want to disrespect Matt Martin. Islanders fans are hilarious, by the way. I tweeted out that they won their third in a row.

They swept that road trip the other night when they won the game in Utah, immediately the first response was don't worry we'll lose the next eight out of ten so it's good to see that nothing has changed on Long Island. Yeah so Matt Martin still part of the no visor group and no disrespect intended no disrespect intended particularly since he could successfully punch me in the face and cause great damage. Yes, suited up the last two games for the Islanders in fact, and as you mentioned they won both. Also, this one too, Elliot, you ready for this?

Alex from Cape Cod, Dear Elliot, Kyle and Dom, you fellows answered a question of mine not too long ago, thanks for that, but I had to write in again when I heard Elliot say he plays the board game Sory with his family. Sory is an elite game and it is about time it received public recognition as such. My extended family plays a tournament of it every Christmas and my dad actually acquired an oversized golden Sory pawn as a trophy. It moves between households as the champion receives it each year in a manner Similar to how the Stanley Cup moves between teams Oh and the family member who comes in last place is crowned the ultimate

champion I Suggest the Friedman family begin a similar tradition Elliot Shumpman Friedman has a nice ring to it all the best Well, I will say this in the the big game we played this year, most recent one, I did finish third, I finished last. Now, so I would be the champion. There would be other years I would carry the golden sorry pawn, but I did finish last this year. And for people who love the game sorry,

and Craig Custance, I believe, who wrote just another great book, he's written a couple great books about hockey, I remember him telling me his family is big into Sorry. But I will say that we have modified the game, we do some different rules. One of the things is you're not supposed to be able to move one of your pawns out of the home pad Unless you get a one or a two We just don't bother like not everybody in my family has a great attention span

So we just don't bother with that you draw the card you go So that's that's one of the changes that we've kind of made To make the game go a little bit faster for this generation go a little bit faster for this generation, but I love Sori and I love to hear that there are other people as competitive as I was at that game. It's a great game. Not as good as Stratego, but it's great. Yes. Always mention Stratego.

Hey, you remember when we did a little digging on the history behind why a lot of hockey pucks are made in Dom's homeland of Slovakia, right? Yes. Okay, so how about this voicemail here? Pat from Winnipeg, listen to this. Listen, further to the Czechoslovakian made pucks, back when Czechoslovakia was still a country, when they first started coming to Canada, their pucks were so hard, they were breaking glass in the rinks and there were signs all over Winnipeg in hockey rinks

saying no Czech pucks allowed. They obviously fixed the problem but they were breaking glass all over the place. Thought you'd enjoy that. I had no idea. That's a great story. No idea. Very good. You know what? Dom's got a hard head so I'm not surprised that the Slovaks have hard pucks. It's made of vulcanized rubber. I have no doubt that's true. It all makes sense now. Thank you very much. That's a great voicemail. Thank you. Yes, and maybe that's why they're just souvenir pucks now more often than not. Okay, to this week's questions as we move forward. Chris from Sudbury, Ontario. Kyle Elliott and Dom, long-time listener, multiple-time questioner, first time getting on the pod. My question is about how players get paid.

I think this question has been asked in the past, but it's always good to have a refresher. We all know that players only get paid during the regular season, but do players who play in more than 82 games get some sort of overage? I was checking out Sean Monahan's career stats as he's having a fantastic first season in Columbus, he certainly is, and I noticed that last year, because of his trade from Montreal to Winnipeg, he actually played in 83 regular season games. So would Monahan have been paid more money

based on his standard player contract, being that he's playing in more games than what the CBA states between the Players Association and the league. Thanks and go Sens Go. Great question the answer is no because the pay is like the same that a lot of us have. I believe it's the first and fifteenth. I could be wrong about that but it's similar to many of us. Yeah similar to many of us to most of us who get paid twice a month. That's how, that's how it works. So it's not based on the amount of games played, especially for a player like Monahan, who's

on a one-way contract, which means he gets paid a full salary no matter what league he's in. It just goes by twice a month. And you know, for example, the most games played in a single season is 86. I think Jimmy Carson's one of the guys who did that. You don't get paid extra for games. That's not the way it works. Very good.

Up next, Elias, Elliot, Kyle and Dom. I recall an earlier podcast you guys discussing the lengthy shootout between the Marlies and B-Sens on a Saturday afternoon and given what we saw on the shootout in the Canada-Latvia game at the World Juniors where the first 15 attempts were unsuccessful, the question is what is the record for most unsuccessful attempts to start a shootout in NHL history? On a side note, I too enjoy a more peaty Scotch and find that LeFrogue quarter cask is a nice segue for those that enjoy whiskey but perhaps are not ready for the stronger tasting Lagavulin. All the best in 2025. Well thank you for the recommendation. First of all, I will give that a try. Do you know the answer to this one, Kyle? Yeah. Yeah.

So one came to mind for me, like there was a doozy, if you want to call it, a few years ago between St. Louis and the Senators, and that was 21 unsuccessful attempts out of the gate. That would finish fourth in the all-time list. Really? Yeah. Well, there was a preseason shootout. I did a game between Toronto and Buffalo.

Oh yes. Wasn't that the Paul Ranger one? That might have been that one. All I remember is I believe that Randy Carlile was the coach then and nobody could score I know what yes, it was I don't know if it was Paul Ranger. Yeah No, it was it was that the one that went 15 people before they scored is that what was that what it was? Yes, he was the oh Was that the one where Paul Ranger tried to kick the puck in? That one you're referring to? He kicked his stick and propelled the puck that way.

Okay. Okay, I'm starting to remember this now. I think I did that game and I'm just Googling it now and it was Jonas Enroth was the goalie. Yeah. And there was 29 guys didn't score. I'm just reading the story now. That's unbelievable.

29 combined shooters didn't score. So what's the record? So all right, so clearly this is regular season. Yeah. 29 would trump anything in the regular season. Okay. But the record is 25. The Rangers and the Flyers back in October of 2006.

Marcel Hossa finally put it to an end. Oh my God. And the quote from the winning netminer that night, Henrik Lundqvist postgame, I was just wondering if it was ever going to end. The fall of you has The fall on successful attempts. Did you ever consider just okay we'll give up the point, there's no way he was way too competitive, but I wonder if at any point he's thinking about that. Just let one dribble through me. At some point. Right, enough already. Enough. All right,

Elias, thank you for that one. Up next, Will in America. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like what would have been a very fitting spin-off to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Will in America. To me it's more like that's D.B. Cooper and he doesn't want anyone specifically to know where he is. Yes. So Will writes, gentlemen, on the January 10th podcast, it was mentioned during the Dylan Cousins discussion that lots of teams are looking for a right-handed shooting center.

Why is that? Why does it matter whether a center is right-handed or left-handed? Also, do teams generally have a preference for which hand wingers shoot with? Go caps. Typically it's a case of supply and demand, right? Yes. There's just more lefty shooters than there are righty shooters, so a good righty shooter becomes more valuable. You know, also too on face-offs, if you don't have a good righty, when you know, it's on that side of the ice,

it's a disadvantage to win them. So that's the reason, that's the simplest reason, Kyle's right. The second part of the question about a preference, that is a great debate. You could feel, if you are a real nerd of hockey, and I say that in this case in a positive way as opposed to anything negative, we could easily do an hour podcast with a bunch of

coaches and Adam Oates would be the guy that I would specifically mention about handedness and why it matters and where it matters. You know, for example, and I mentioned Adam Oates, he is adamant that nobody should play on their off wing, defensively especially, because he says it's just too hard to make plays. And Mike Babcock was a guy who I remember when he went to the Stanley Cup final as a member of coaching the Anaheim Ducks, he had six lefty D. And then years later when he would coach in Detroit or Toronto, he did not like that. And I said, well, what's the difference? And he goes,

the game is just much faster now. You can't make plays. And, um, I remember Adam Oates pointed out one year with Boston, I can't remember was the year Boston won the Stanley cup or another year. They were really good. He said they had perfect balance. All of, anybody who played on the left side shot left. Anybody who played on the right side shot right and they had two centers each way. They had two righties and they had two lefties. So you know there are and basically what it comes down to is on your weak side they think it's too hard to make plays. Now Brad Stewart was a guy who always played on his offside and he

when Detroit moved him to a strong side He was totally lost out there, but that's in the minority and people who can do that are coveted um and uh, but the other thing I would say is for power plays Like ovi one timer. He's a right-hand shot. He's on the left side because for one timer timer, he's a right-hand shot, he's on the left side because for one timer that makes it easier and quicker to shoot and you will find on power plays you want that one timer weapon and the way you get that weapon is if somebody is playing on their offside. So that's kind of in a nutshell the philosophical

debate. Anything you'd want to add? The only thing I've thought of is I've gotten older, Elliot, so growing up I was a right shot in hockey and I threw left on the baseball diamond and I did nothing with those things, with those traits. Absolutely nothing. Really? I could have been such an asset as a right shot and a lefty playing baseball and Was nothing more than average if I'm being kind of myself it both You know what just just another example of wasted potential Kyle Add it to the list. Yeah, exactly join the group. You know, it's funny. I have a buddy. His name is Jeff.

He's a really good friend of mine. He was, when we were teenagers, he was just a really good fundamentally sound basketball player. Like when we were 15 and grade 10, he could do one of those layups where he would jump and he'd put the ball around his waist and through his legs and lay it in. Like he was the only guy to do that then. And we joke with him now that it's his mother's fault that he didn't make the NBA because he was so lazy

and she didn't push him hard enough. So we always joke if his mother would have been harder on him, I brought this up at his wedding actually. What a great time for that. I understand all this stuff. You make me think of Ricky Henderson because I believe he's the one guy, the late Ricky Henderson, I think he's the one guy who hit right and threw left.

I don't know that there was anybody else who did that. Now maybe there's a lot of guys who hit left and threw right, but any baseball nerds out there, tell me if I'm wrong, because I think Ricky Henderson was the one guy who did that, the one guy I can remember. Very good, good memory. All right. I loved Ricky Henderson. I know, I know. There was a good chat about him a few weeks back. Okay, Brad in YYC. Hi guys, I know. There was a good chat about him a few weeks back. Okay. Brad in YYC. Hi guys.

I'm curious if there is a possible loophole for NIL money, name, image, and likeness, for college players that have already been drafted into the NHL. Hypothetically, could the Islanders sign Cole Iserman to a NIL deal and pay him money to stay in college. It's not a player's contract, but a NIL agreement. Football and basketball players all leave college after being drafted, but the NHL drafted players can stay in college until they sign their entry-level deal. Wishful thinking? It is.

I actually looked into this. It's a great question because this is something now that the lines are blurring between the Canadian Hockey League and the NCAA about what's allowed. I've started to try to learn a bit more about this so I can deal with this. Number one, no you can't. There are specific rules about where you can take, I mean the whole system is basically completely corrupt, but there are still some rules, and one of those things is pro teams can't be involved

in paying that money for hockey, for your sport specifically. Like the Florida Panthers, I remember a couple years ago, I worked on a story about this, unfortunately it didn't get done, but I worked on it. They at one time, I think they were sponsoring like a quarterback at the University of Miami

or something like that. So it wasn't a hockey player. Yeah, they did something where they put some money towards it, they sponsored something. And if I'm wrong about this, I know I'll I'll hear but I remember they did it and I remember working on it was a really good idea I thought so you know the other thing I've been kind of learning now is that NIL one of the challenges is is that Canadians can't go on an American NIL to US colleges, because it's a visa thing.

You're not allowed, there's specific rules about where you can earn your money from. So what it sounds to me like, and I think we're going to start hearing about this more and more, is that a lot of these schools are starting to set up a system where they can do Canadian-based NIL deals for players who come down to the United States. So like a Canadian player, like there's a lot of talk about Muse, who's the defenseman that Calgary drafted who was traded last week to Sudbury. There's a lot of talk that one of the reasons he got traded to Sudbury is that he's going to end up in the NCAA next year. That's the rumor I still wonder if Calgary is going to try to sign him and bring him into their own setup

We'll see how this is all going to work But there's a lot of talk about whether or not they're going to set up an NIL deal for him where he earns the money in Canada because technically the visa prevents him from earning money from an American-based company. And if I'm slightly wrong on some of these details, I apologize, but that's generally the way that it is explained. Man, there are so many layers to this thing. Yes. Wow. I used to do a lot of this stuff because I was a big fan of the thing. Yes. Okay. Wow. Good question. I used to do a lot of this stuff because I was a big fan of the NCAA and also when I did a lot more basketball, you had to know all this stuff.

I'm kind of relearning it right now. I should say one other thing. Another reason the Allen News couldn't pay Aizerman is that someone said to me that there's a salary cap thing there too, right? The drafted kids, there's an ELC, an entry-level contract you have to sign. There's specific rules to those too, right? So that's another factor in all of this. Okay.

Well, we'll wrap with this then. Joey, the Eiserplan believer from Rancho Cucamonga, California. Hey, Dom, Kyle and Elliot. I had thought about the Hughes brothers and that led me to think, what's the highest scoring duo with the same last name, which I believe it must be the Sedin brothers. Check that, Wayne and his brother. But that led me to a better question. What's the highest scoring duo

of players that share a first name? Hoping I keep Elliot guessing with this one. Thanks in advance. Love the pod and let's go Red Wings. So let me just lay out the groundwork. Is Joey's last name Iserman just out of curiosity here? Yeah, could be. He is a believer. So for the sake of this exercise, we have removed the first name Wayne to try to make it a little more interesting. That was my first guess. Right, and you would be right. Yes, now hold on. Now could you guess who would be the second Wayne be? The second Wayne, would it be second Wayne, would it be Wayne Carlton? No. Okay. So I just want to get one story off my head before I forget it. I remember in high school they said to me like once like who were the two, who were all the Waynes who played for the Oilers in that era? And

like trying to like show what a genius I was was I said Wayne Van Dorp and my buddies were like That's unbelievable and they psyched me out to the point where I forgot to say Gretzky. The other ones are really hard They said so yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Wayne Wayne Carlton would be my first guest so it's not him. I Was the first name that came to me Wayne Cashman? Correct, yeah. That would be tops.

Okay, so now we're taking Wayne out of the equation. We're looking for the two players that share the same first name for the most points career combined. Okay, I would think that Mark has to be up there with Mark Messier, Mark Howe, and the like. Okay, so Mark Messier is one half of the top of this list. Who is the other? It's not Mark Howe. Okay, so Mark is second. One eternity later. Sorry, you know what happens to me in these situations. I just have to get mark how out of my head

Twelve seconds later who is it you know any other guesses wouldn't be mark Johnson wouldn't be mark stall multi Stanley Cup winner oh Mark recce what am I talking about bingo? Yeah, though. Oh jeez. I hope he's not listening to this. He's going to be insulted. Marc Messier, Mark Recchi combined for 3420 points. They topped the list. I wonder how many people are going to write in or tweet at us screaming.

I was I was yelling for Recchi while you were waiting. That's like a weekly occurrence now for us. I was screaming that day, listening in the car. I got to tell you, all these people who submit these questions, I love them, but it's like I seriously do, by the time we're finished taping the Thoughtline segment, I need a nap. My brain is just fried. Yeah, well I appreciate, because as you say, we don't discuss these prior. When the trivia questions come in, I'll do the legwork to make sure we have the answers ready and then I'm hitting you cold with them. That's a really creative question.

I really love that question. I love the fact that somebody thought of this. Now the thing that's really interesting about that is that it I don't know where it stands anymore, but when we were younger and teenagers you would ask yourself the question you know what brothers had the most points in NHL history and the Gretzky's were up there and the Sutter's were obviously up there, right? But one of the great answers that people often didn't get, can you think about it? Like what would be a unique

combination of brothers who would have a high point total just off the top of your head? It's a tough one. I mean, is that as nice? That's a great one. It's it's it's not they're up there But it's not the answer. I'm thinking of it would be Significantly before you were born You I guess they're dumb. I heard you punch in I was gonna say the Hoses But that's not significantly before we were born No, not before you guys were but you would know both these players. They're both in the Hall of Fame. Oh, um, the Mahablitches?

No, great guess. Great guess, but no. I'll tell you, some people might get, there are people who would be screaming at their smartphone right now or whatever listening device they're using because they would know exactly where I'm going. It was a great trivia question. The answer, the Espositos. Oh yes. Because Phil had 1,590 points and Tony had 25 career assists.

So between them, they have15 points and but nobody that was a great trivia question that finally somebody figured out the Espositos counted because they were brothers. And they're both in the Hall of Fame. Man yeah that's not where my mind was going that's very good. Yeah. Very very good. It's a tougher trivia question than Wayne VanDorp, I have to say that, which I took very on brand for me to get Wayne VanDorp and temporarily forget Wayne Gretzky. Very on brand.

Yeah. You somehow backwards stumble your way into the right answer. Always, always. Always. Fun thought line. That was good. Yeah. That was very good.

Good submissions again. That was a great creative question. Great creative question. First name. We appreciate it, Joey. 1-833-311-3232 if you'd like to leave a voicemail or submit an email to 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. We'll take our last break and conclude the pod when we come back to 32 Thoughts. thoughts. All right, welcome back. Before we go, Elliot, we should talk about where we will be in just a few short days from now under the shadows of the Three Sisters out in Canmore, Alberta, the site of this year's Hockey Day in Canada festivities. We're going to do a live show as you may have

heard about by now Thursday a little after three o'clock local time out at Silver Tip Resort. We're thrilled to get a chance to see everyone who is going to be out there for that. We talked early in the pod, Elliot, of your adventures coming up with Kevin Biaxia as you will be doing some biathlon training and great visuals to surely come from all of it. What are you most looking forward to getting back out into Canmore, where you and I were not too long ago,

a couple of summers ago, so familiar territory for us. I don't really remember a lot of that night past so familiar territory for us. I don't really remember a lot of that night past a certain point Kyle, that was your wedding night, it was a great party. I remember doing a lot of FaceTimes, I shudder to think about what those FaceTimes looked like, but your wedding was a great party, it was a great time. I'm looking forward to it, I love hockey day in Canada. For a long time we didn'm looking forward to it. I love Hockey Day in Canada. For a long time, we didn't go on site, but last year we all went to Victoria.

It was awesome. I think it's really good that the rest of us go because I think it's good for Hockey Day in Canada and Sportsnet to have a big presence. You want to show to the community it's important, that a lot of us are visible and out there. You want to show to the community that it's meaningful that as many people go. And I think also it just means a little bit less for Ron to do. You know Ron is out there and he works. He is going wall to wall, wire to wire, and at least when the rest of us are out there you can say, okay Ron, I

know everybody's here to see you but we can disappoint them with one of us from time to time so you don't have to do 600,000 things. So I love going, I can't wait to go and my favorite hockey day was the one in Lloyd Minster because I went out there and we had a great time. And then on Friday, like you're going to do this time, I left and I went to Vancouver and that was the night of the famous line brawl between the Canucks and the Flames. And then John Tortorella went charging into the Calgary room in the first intermission only to have Brian McGratton just defuse everything. So I love hockey day. Like you love breakfast.

Yes, yes. And it'll be good breakfast to have while we're in Canmore too, I'm sure. So yes, it'll be a great, I've never been to the hockey day site before. I'm so looking forward to just seeing it all and getting back to Canmore. Having now some ties to that area will be really neat. The only thing is, yeah, part of me goes, I wish I could stay for the entire weekend to see the actual full-on festivities Saturday, but when the alternative is going to Montreal for Leafs Canadians, especially with how Montreal has been going of late, that's gonna be a banger of a matchup to help set up the night portion of the hockey day in Canada schedule. Games look good, man.

Suzuki's really come on, and those fans, they get excited when Lani's out there. Yeah, you think? You can see it. When he touches the puck, or they sense it's going to him on the powerplay, that building is buzzing. Right. Like it's, I mean, you would know this better than me, but like Kovalev almost, right? Like when he played there, like when he had the puck, the noise, the

anticipation of the build, everything changed. Subban had that too, no question. Yeah. Very, very cool. So yes, the home of the Canmore Eagles That's where we'll be and then out at Silver Tip for the live show We're going to have Glenn Sather, Landon McDonald and I guess Kevin Biaxa will make time for him too So three really good guests lined up. Hopefully Kevin is aware that this podcast Hopefully Kevin is aware that the live show will be put out onto the podcast channels after the fact too It's gonna be fun. So pack your bags, reach, pack your tuque, pack your gloves and the big coat. Make sure you bring it back from Winnipeg. So it's gonna be a chilly but very fulfilling few days out in the mountains. We'll see you there.