32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Babcock Resigns

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

The Mike Babcock era has come and gone in Columbus. Jeff and Elliotte discuss Babcock resigning (1:00) and how we got to this point with the Blue Jackets. They also talk about the job ahead for Pascal Vincent (19:45), Connor Bedard putting on a show at rookie camp (25:00), what’s coming next in Ottawa for the Sens (28:45) and Jaromir Jagr’s career continuing (33:00). Plus, the guys answer your questions from the Montana’s Thought Line (35:30) and then sit down with Anders Lee (42:35) and Seth Jarvis (55:30). Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and Cam Barra, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Chicago BlackhawksThe views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Okay, just so you know, in my contract, it says that I have to be a little bit louder than Elliot on the podcast, so let's just keep that in mind, okay? Here's your hat, what's your hurry? Welcome to 32 Thoughts to Podcast, Jeff Merrick alongside Elliot Friedman. The big story of Sunday has been the big story of the weekend, has been the big story of the week, has been the big story going back to the NHL media tour in Vegas, Elliot, and that is Mike Babcock. On Sunday, he announced he was resigning as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He released a statement about it as well. The Players Association issued a statement. Marty Walsh spoke about it.

We're going to get to both of those things. We're going to talk about the future of the Blue Jackets and Kekulainen and Davidson and plenty on Mike Babcock. But what just happened here? I mean, we were on our way to, you know, day one of media and boom, Paul Bissonette and the Spittin' Chicklets podcast dropped what turned into an anvil on Mike Babcock and CBJ. Your thoughts on, and just from your perspective too, because you've been right in the heart of the volcano here, what just happened this week?

What did we just go through? That's a great question. I don't have a short answer for that, to be perfectly honest. I mean, we just went through the end of someone's career, is basically what we did. You know, Mike Babcock was getting close to, he was about to go to Traverse City to watch the Columbus Blue Jackets

at their prospect camp, and he did go to their first game, and instead, he's out, and this will be the end for him in the NHL. And it was an absolute whirlwind. If you listen to the podcast on Friday, you kind of heard me walk us through a bit in terms of what we knew to that point.

Bissonette made his comments. They came out Tuesday. Initially, and I think this is the thing here, that initially both the team the league and the players association were satisfied by the comments from Boone Jenner and Johnny Goudreau which leads to a dynamic that we'll get to later that there was nothing here and you know the team released the statement we did the interview with bill daily but i spoke to the players association too and i said do you guys have a concern here and they were like no it

according to what we're hearing here um we don't have a concern that we think that this wasn't um anything as nefarious as was indicated and And I think it all changed on Tuesday night. I heard there was a player who came forward, and I don't necessarily think it was a player on the Blue Jackets, but I think it was somebody. Like one of the things that Biz showed from his text messages is that I don't think the complaints originated from Columbus. I think they were other players who were friends

or new players on the Blue Jackets and they said hey like this is something that we want to address and identify here and that's kind of where it started and it just snowballed I think after Tuesday night there was I heard there was one player who said, wait, there is something here that you have to look at, and it affects the younger players. And so I think everybody, especially when the younger players were mentioned, these guys are going to be the cornerstones of the Blue Jackets, hopefully for years to come.

I think I've had this debate with people, but bottom line is I think that veterans generally, not always, but generally can handle themselves better or better positioned to handle these things than younger players are because they're new and they don't feel they have, in a lot of cases, as much power. I heard once the younger players became a factor here, this really kicked up. And, you know, I wrote a story Thursday night that there was going to be a meeting on Friday

between the League and Players Association, and it was an already scheduled meeting. But now the Babcock item had gotten to the top of the agenda. There were people who told me on Thursday night that Babcock was going to have to step down or Columbus was going to have to make a change. One way or the other, there were a number of people who felt on Thursday night this was not going to end any other way but you know you don't want to guess you can't be wrong about something like that

and there's some information started to filter about what I kind of wrote about on Sunday night is that is amidst anything that was being discussed here there was one particular meeting that had everybody concerned and it was a meeting that was a was not at a Columbus rink or a Columbus facility it was in another location and it was a meeting where apparently Babcock had access to the phone for several minutes I don't know what that means I don't want to guess but the player didn't have their phone for several minutes. I don't know what that means. I don't want to guess. But the player didn't have their phone for several minutes while Babcock had it. And because it was a young player

and because it wasn't at the rink and because of just this entire situation, also the fact that for Babcock, his behavior had to be perfect. He could not make a mistake and this was obviously a very big breach of privacy you know I think the amazing thing about this whole situation Jeff is still like the other day there was a story in one of the San Jose papers for about Patrick Marlowe and how he said that he would did something and it wasn't a big deal to him at all like that's one of the things to me that's amazing about all this

is the wide variation of responses I got from people but when you're in the position Babcock's in you cannot commit anything close to a violation you have to be squeaky clean and I know this one particular interaction and maybe there was more I don't know but this one particular interaction I had people telling me on Thursday night that it was going to lead to either a resignation or dismissal and we got a but you have to careful. You can't say anything until you know. You know, considering this is another issue with a younger player and, you know, the very public history

of Mike Babcock's controversial interactions with younger players is well told, you know, how much of this now is a reflection of the hiring by Jararmulke Kalainen or John Davidson? I think we're still unclear as to who pushed for the hiring. I would imagine at Monday's, you know, media day for Columbus, that question will get asked and certainly answered. But, you know, one of the questions now is, and I want to circle back to the PA

and get more on Babcock, but just so we have it on the table, what happens above Mike Babcock? Because this doesn't just exist in a vacuum here. He was hired. There was talk of a vetting process that was done. Some significant people in the Blue Jackets organization vouched for him publicly.

Do you wonder what happens there? I think you have to. We'll see what they all say on Monday. I have always believed that if I have the highest title on the mantle, the buck stops with me. I've always believed if every anything goes wrong not that i have the highest title on the mantle here jeff but i you know like 30 32 thoughts was yeah your brand like if something goes wrong on the podcast it's it's on me you know i i i really do feel that because you know i this started under me so i i really do i do feel that way now i don't think that one person hired mike babcock i think there

were a lot of people in hockey and i would bet on the business operations of the team that had a say so i don't you can't tell me this is all on one person but i talked to an owner on on sunday night there's an owner i speak to i called him i said i said what do you think and he goes you know why people say I meddled too much and I said okay why is that and he said because of this like the McConnell family who own the Blue Jackets they have a reputation of we hire people and we let them do their jobs you You know, Doug McLean, when he worked in Columbus, after he left Columbus, he always talked about how great it was to work for them. They were great people to work for

because they didn't micromanage you. And, you know, like that's what this owner said to me is he said, when something goes wrong goes wrong he said that's my organization and so like people say oh i meddle too much maybe but that's one of the reasons i do i nobody cares more about the organization than i do and i have have to protect it. Now, I'm not saying that the people who work in Columbus don't care about the Blue Jackets and the brand. I think they do very much. But to me, if I was the owner of the Blue Jackets, I'd be saying, all right, this is our brand my brand what do i think here and i don't think we're going to know the answer to those questions for a little while this was a risky hire um the fact that there's a whole lot

of i told you so going on um around around the league leads at least me, Elliot, to believe that there's going to be some significant questions asked here above the level of the coach and into management positions. Because this was a risky hire from day one. And to your point, this was a very, very narrow tightrope that Mike Babcock had to walk on. And the fact that there's not a lot of surprise and the fact that there's a lot of I told you so is going on around the league right now, it's going to lead you to believe there's going to be a lot more questions asked about who made the hiring, how the hiring was made, who approved, who signed off,

and who had reservations, and who didn't approve of it. But we'll see. The next few days, we'll bring those answers. I want to ask you about Marty Walsh, the executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association. So here's his statement. Our players deserve to be treated with respect in the workplace. Unfortunately, that was not the case in Columbus. The club's decision to move forward with a new head coach is the appropriate course of action.

You know, this is the, at least publicly, first major piece of business that we've seen marty walsh do on behalf of the national hockey league players association your thoughts on marty walsh and the pa in all this initially it was all right nothing to see her move along but that changed and it seemed once there was a sense that something was wrong here the PA was really aggressive in getting to the bottom of it. Marty Walsh comes from the government world right? Yep. And I mean you know my feelings on politicians I'm not pro-politician at all but in theory there are supposed to be rules in that world about how people are treated. So I'm not surprised that he would take the information

that came to him and say, where I come from, this is not acceptable and it shouldn't be acceptable here. So as a start, I completely feel that that's the way that this should have been handled you know i also think about hainsey you know ron hainsey was in carolina when some of the bill peters stuff happened and with some physical issues on the bench. And at the time, he stood up to Peters and made it quite clear that that wasn't going to be allowed to happen and it wasn't going to be acceptable. So I am not surprised that under Hainsey, this was the case too. I mean, this is one of the strangest things about this whole situation

is that Hainsey played for Babcock in Toronto and saw the quote unquote good photo sharing and not the bad stuff that was unearthed here. as head of the NHLPA was because of the way that the Players Association handled the aftermath of the Kyle Beach situation. And they dropped the ball there too. And fear was going to leave anyway. He was getting to the point where his time was up, but that was really the ending. And so the first challenge that the Walsh-Hainsey administration gets, I think a lot of people will be happy to see that it was handled this way. There are going to be players who are going to look at that and they're going to say, okay, on these kinds of issues, we're going to be protected, and that's important. So obviously I think it's a very good thing for the Players Association.

Like, I remember, Jeff, when we were doing a lot of the stuff with Eichel and his injuries and him wanting to do his own procedure, there were players who thought that that was an example of the Players Association not standing up for them either. So this, in Walsh-Hainsey's first attempt, that that was an example of the players association not standing up for them either yeah so this in walsh hainsey's first attempt it was important they got it right um speaking of standing up for your people uh i want to talk to you about paul bissonette and i want to talk to you about tnt and there was a moment in the evolution of this story um Bissonette started the story on

the Spittin' Chicklets podcast and then there was cold water thrown on it from a lot of different angles whether it was um you know the players uh you know uh Boone Jenner, Mike Babcock himself, the NHL, the NHL Players Association. There was a timeframe where it was looking like this story didn't have any legs. And a couple of things happened. One, Bissonette stood by his story strongly. And two, despite the, and don't forget, TNT's a rights holder. Despite the outcry from all corners, and Liam McHugh tweeted about Bissonnette's reporting as well,

the host of the NHL on TNT. They stood by him. Oh, I'm not surprised at that. I'm not surprised at that. I'm not, because TNT stands by their people, Jeff. Look at the stuff that happens in basketball. They stand by their guys. But you know there's a lot of other places that would cave in their people in that situation,

and they didn't. I just think that's important to have out there. They stood by their people in this situation, and I think that's important to have out there yeah they stood by their people in this situation and i think that deserves applause i really do i'm not surprised in the least bit that tnt did because that's their reputation there have been times the nba has gone to them about their inside the nba show and said tone those guys down they're like no like we're not we're not doing that you know the thing about biz is and i remember after the awards in nashville i said that he's the most

powerful media member in the nhl and i believe that um the fans love him uh the players love him um you know like you know i i think one of the things that definitely comes up here that Columbus is probably going to look at and say is, okay, this was a situation that went wrong in our organization, but they felt more comfortable going to biz than they did to us. And I think sometimes that happens. We all have trouble in our workplaces sometimes. We all disagree with our bosses or hate our bosses, and sometimes they hate us. But there has to be a protection to you too, right? You know, that's what HR is for.

And in this case, biz was the HR. You know, I think the other thing too that should be mentioned, Jeff, is the Columbus Room. And obviously this will be something that develops over the next few days and weeks as training camp opens. But there are people wondering, you know, is this going to be a problem? You know,

the fact that Jenner and Goodrow came out and said that, you know, defended what happened to them. And again, I think it's important here to recognize that one person's experience might not be the same as the other, but is it going to be a problem? Is that going to be an issue?

And I think everybody's kind of wondering about that. How is everyone going to feel? Like I said, I heard that that meeting on thursday the one that the team had with the with marty walsh and ron hainsey i heard it was really something i heard it was i've used intense you know someone else said if you're tired of using the word intense you could use the word fierce um you know what what are going to be the outcomes of that is there going to be any long-term dressing room repercussion? I don't know the answer to that,

but obviously the players are going to talk about it. The one thing that I really think is great for Columbus is in the middle of all this, they go out and they have a dynamite rookie tournament where what, Fantilli puts up seven points in two games, including a hat trick like like in the middle of all this you know you're you're in the middle of this maelstrom this hellscape that suddenly you're in but your prospects go out and they and your best ones go

out and light up that tournament i mean at least there was some good news for columbus this week absolutely a word or two about pascal vin as well, who gets hired as head coach. Many will say, well, certainly it was a long time coming. And, you know, probably not the way that he wanted to get hired as a head coach in the NHL. But nonetheless, someone who's probably, Elliot, safe to say overdue to become a head coach in the NHL. He gets his shot running the Columbus Blue Jackets. There were a lot of people that were really happy for him, really happy for him.

Just, I mean, nobody wants to see it happen that way. Even he was careful in his statement to mention that, like nobody wants to see it happen like this. But in terms of his personality and the work he's put in, you know, you'd think he's like 28 the way people talk about him he's 52 years 52 yeah you know like but they were they talked about like there's a lot of you were happy to see him get the chance you know I think there's a decent chance Jeff that if if they hadn't gone to Babcock he was gonna be the guy I know there were people in

the organization who advocated for him. You know, the, the biggest challenge, and we've talked about this on this podcast before is it's not always easy to go from assistant to head on the same team. I know you go from good cop to bad cop and that's not an easy thing to do, but you know, like life is what's my grandmother's old line you plan god laughs so you know he's sitting here he's going okay i'm going to be the assistant coach this year and now that is the the opportunity is here you don't plan for it but it's here you have no time

to drop the ball like one coach said to me is that, you know, the best thing that could happen is he doesn't have time to overthink it. Camp opens this week and you can just do what you do and that is coach. You don't have to have too many meetings. You just go coach. But that's the thing. Like this is your opportunity. You have to be ready to grab it, seize it, control it, and take it. I think this is a team with a lot of good pieces

that has a chance to get off the mat. He has to make sure that he can rise with this team. The opportunity has been thrown on his lap like a bowl of warm soup. Oh, my. He has the opportunity to run with it. You know, let me finish off this conversation with a story. I had a phone call Sunday afternoon for someone who used to play for Claude Noel, who was talking to me about the Mike Babcock photo situation.

And he said, you know, when I played in Milwaukee under Claude Noel, he made us show photographs too. And I said, really? And he said, yeah. But he said, here's what he did. And obviously this is, you know, in the era before, you know, sophisticated photo rolls on your iPhones. But nonetheless, he said, he called each one of us in the off season

and said, look, when you come to the team this year, what I want you to do is bring like 10 or 12 pictures of whatever you want to display to your teammates. Could be pictures of your family, could be pictures of your pets, anything from your history, things you've done, places you're gone, however you want to represent yourself. your history, things you've done, places you've gone, however you want to represent yourself so your teammates have a more accurate snapshot of who you are, bring that to the team. And what he would do is, I don't know if it was once a week or once every two weeks, I'm not sure the frequency of it, but what Claude Noel would do is he'd tell a player, okay, tomorrow you're going to present. So what you would do is you'd bring all of your photographs and there'd be a board and you'd have to either, you know, tape or glue or staple all your photographs onto this board

and it would be displayed in the dressing room before all of your teammates. And after practice, you would stand up and you would describe, you know, this is my partner, these are my kids, or this is my dad, and this is my dog is my dad and this is my dog and this is us on vacation and this is us doing whatever and it was a way for everyone to get a better sense of who you were other than oh he's the guy that feeds me one-timers on the power play and then we go and have a beer and eat chicken wings uh after a game and he said it was a really great way to get to know everybody on the team it's quite different than how you know Mike Babcock most recently did it but nonetheless I just wanted to throw out there at least one good

news photo story with hockey players and I think that sounds like a great way. If you're going to do it, if you're going to like follow the coaching strategy of, you know, get your players to show pictures, uh, the way Claude Noel used to do it in Milwaukee, I think is a, I think is a great way to do it. It sounds like a nice idea. As long as you have everybody's buy-in, Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Here's Bedard from the circle. There's the wrister that everyone's looking for.

That looks fun, doesn't it, Chicago? 2-0 Hawks. Bedard getting again mid-slot, weaves in. And another tough angle shot, Conor Bedard. His second goal of the night, and he continues to put on quite a show. There's Conor Bedard with another shot and a hat-trick goal. Conor Bedard has done it all tonight. Okay, so, you know, Elliot, a couple of moments ago,

you mentioned Adam Fantilli and, you know, all the points and the hat-trick and the whole deal. How about Conor Bedard at his rookie camp with the hat-trick in the first game where it seemed as if each goal got prettier than the last? Although, personally, I like the second goal maybe better than the other two but i'm splitting hairs here do you have a quick thought on what you saw from conor bedard this

weekend well i was talking to one of the people who was at the games where he was scoring and he said to me you know i was wondering how many goals bedard is going to score this year after watching that i'm taking the over i said i don't care what the number is give me the over yeah i just told him if you want to be successful at wagering shop around for the best line let's get to main camp here folks but let's just say i wouldn't be surprised if that number goes up boy did like the best was the reaction by Colton Dock. He was like, oh, my God. What did I just see?

He's standing in front of the net and he just can't believe what he just saw. He's like, oh, my goodness. What the heck was that? Speaking of rookie camps, just curious to get your thoughts on the Pittsburgh Penguins. So the Pittsburgh Penguins, you know, didn't wear Penguins jerseys. They wore practice jerseys. Dubas did this in Toronto as well. He's very much of the belief that you earn the jersey,

that just by showing up at rookie camp, you don't get to put on the jersey. I know there are some other teams that, mainly because teams complain about things that are a little bit different or if someone wants to color outside the lines a little bit, a team will grouse. Dubas did this before the Maple Leafs. Doing it with the Pittsburgh Penguins now, the idea of you earn the jersey, you don't get it at rookie camp.

Yeah, I got to tell you, I don't get as wired about that one as some other people might. I kind of like the idea of what he's thinking there earn the jersey if I if I was a player I think I would I think I would like that I think I would sit there and I would say I like the carrot that's being dangled in front of me but but the one thing I was thinking is it's always the feeling of how do you feel now and how do you feel 20 years from now? And what I would hope to do if I was a good person, which I'm not, but if I was, is that if a player was in our rookie camp and didn't make the NHL, I would want to send them like a team jersey say i know you were here i know it didn't work out you didn't unfortunately didn't make in the nhl but you were

a penguin in camp once here's a penguin's jersey so a consolation prize you didn't make the team but here's the sweater nonetheless see See, that's what I, like I said, Jeff, if I actually was a good person instead of the terrible human I am now, that is what I would like to do. What did they say? Ifs and buts for candies and nuts,

we'd all have a Merry Christmas? Yes, yes, we would. If I was a good person. If I was a good person. Okay. Ottawa, Michael Ann Lauer and the Sens close. How close is this now? It's going to be this week.

You know, I feel bad for the Ottawa fans. We keep on saying, you know, Bruce Garriock, he keeps getting their hopes up, and then he just keeps pushing along. But it's like the sale. It's like the sale, right? No, but this is totally different. The sale by the end of the time was one of those plays said it's like the sale it's like the sale right no but this is totally different the sale the sale

by the end of the time was one of those plays where since the nfl is back the ball gets fumbled for 68 yards because nobody could pick them up like that's what the sale was this this post-sold process has actually been pretty smooth it just you know who gets rich at this time the lawyers you got to get you got to do a lot of papering. It's going to get done. And like I said, we're going to find out about Cyril Leder. We're going to find out about what Alfredson's going to do. We're going to find out where Steele Steele is going to be in all this. And I think we're going to find this all out this week.

It's getting really close. You know, I think one thing, I generally think Andlauer knows kind of what's going on i think you know pierre dorian's been doing his job of keeping them updated and everything they're thinking yeah but this pinto thing like you know one of the things the thing is like there's deadlines and there's deadlines really right like one it's a soft deadline it's the start of training camp another soft deadline is the start of exhibition games and there's a soft deadline you want to start the season like they're kind of deadlines because you want to be there and you

know i do think that number one i think ottawa wants shane pinto there and i think shane pinto wants to be an ottawa senator um i just i don't know how this is all gonna play out I don't know how this is all going to play out. You know, I think that, you know, obviously they aren't there yet. As we do this at Sunday night, they aren't there yet. You know, the bottom line is I just look at the Senators cap situation and, you know, I've said many times on this pod, I think he's a $2.5 million player. Like, how are you going to get there?

How do you get there? You're going to have to move somebody out. I said on the last pod that I think it's possible that a team will maybe take a player they have to move if they trade Pinto in that deal. But I still think at the end of the day, the Senators want to keep the player and the player wants to stay in Ottawa.

I'm just not sure how they're going to get there barring a trade. I just don't know how. And it might have to be a trade that either it's a three-way or a player has to go with Pinto. I don't know. It's... Look, I think all these teams right now,

like Addison and Minnesota, the Wild, they're just like, we don't have room. There's no money. There's no money. And the thing is, too, is Addison isn't as accomplished a player as Pinto now. Pinto's a guy who scored 20 goals in this league.

And, you know, that's significant. He's a good player. I just, I don't know. I don't know where this one's going to go. But I'm wondering if, like, the new owner comes in and, you know, does he say, hey, I want to make a good splash on the day I come in. Get this done somehow or something like that. I don't know.

But I'm just wondering if that's going to make a good splash on the day I come in. Get this done somehow or something like that. I don't know, but I'm just wondering if that's going to be a factor in maybe getting this sorted out. I want to mention as well, coming up here in a couple of moments on the podcast, our conversation in Vegas with Anders Lee of the New York Islanders. Lots on other sports, by the way, with Lee. As we know, he's a talented uh and accomplished athlete not just in hockey but in other sports most notably football but as we find out elliot he's quite an accomplished pitcher stay tuned for that and then someone who really i don't want to say surprised us because we knew he

was a great personality but it's our first time getting a chance to do anything long form with him uh and that's seth Jarvis of the Carolina Hurricanes, who was fantastic. Great suit, too. Like a great suit. Great suit, great shoes, great look, whole deal, wonderful interview. These two coming up in a couple of moments.

But before we get there. I have to say also that talking about someone's great suit on an audio podcast, I think that's a real hit for the listeners. Yeah, that's real good we're smart like that elliot um but before we get there i want to get your thought on one of our favorite topics i mean everybody loves talking about number 68 looks like jogger's coming back for another year in cladno with the knights at the age 51 at the age of 51 his his 35th pro season.

Now, the only downside to this is it sounds like Jagr only wants to have his number retired. And Pittsburgh, we're looking your direction. Once he's actually retired from playing, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. Yeah, well, first of all, I think he does it for a certain reason, aside from just being a guy who really loves hockey. You know, I think he said before he's worried about how, what could happen to the team after he retires.

Like, will the team make it without him? And, you know, that's the purest thing of all. Like, I think the Hockey Hall of Fame should make an exception here. I think he should be taken to the Hockey Hall of Fame right now. I've called about this before, and the rule is you've got to be retired for three years. They've waived that before. For Gretzky and Lemieux. They've waived it before.

But this is different because he's still playing. Those guys at least stopped playing, in Lemieux's case, for the time being. I think there should be an exception for Jager. And people always say, well, if this, then that, and then you've got to do it for that guy. I'm like, no. Hey, if somebody else plays until they're 51

and keeps doing it because they're trying to keep a a team in his hometown alive and financially strong okay i'll say you can bend it for that person too but i think they should put yager in while he's still playing and i don't know if anybody agrees with me people might think i'm wrong or i'm nuts but that's my opinion and if you don't like it, I'm not going to change it. There you go. Put him in the hall. We'll hit a break.

We'll come back with Andrews Lee and Seth Jarvis. 32 Thoughts continues. Okay, Elliot, before we get to our future interviews with Seth Jarvis of the Hurricanes, Anders Lee of the Islanders, time now for the Montana's Thought Line. Montana's barbecue and bar, Canada's home for barbecue, to which Elliot Friedman always reminds us,

try the ribs 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca is the email, phone number 1-833-311-3232 we will start with a call about the hoof the hoof, Vanderhoof BC, one hour west

of Prince George just thought I'd let you guys know listen, like listening to your show. Take care. That's from Cole, Jonathan, and Ian. We got a number of DMs and emails, and in this case, voicemails. Ryan Kennedy was one of the guys. Good hockey writer.

With the Hockey News. So thank you for that. Yes, the hoof, which was referenced last week, which uh thank you for that yes uh the hoof which was referenced last week which elliot and i said where's the hoof uh we now know it's in central british columbia thanks to everyone who reminded us of that we appreciate all of you writing in and making us feel super dumb elliot and i have broken compasses in our head. Yes, we do. We can't find stuff. Okay, one more audio clip here from the ThoughtLine. 1-833-311-3232. This is Rick in Sherwood Park.

Shoot. Hey, guys. Rick from Sherwood Park. I wanted to ask a question about trading and retaining salary. So if you retain salary on like a player that makes $900,000 or minimum salary and you retain it, is it possible to have a guy on your roster that you're paying like $450,000 a year? And what if it's a double retention? Can you like legit have a guy on your team for like $200,000?

Keep it coming, boys. Cheers. The answer is yes uh if you get a player basically you can get a quarter of a player because a player can be retained twice so 50 in one case and 50 of that 50 in another case so yes that can absolutely happen the scenario you described. Okay. This one comes to us from Zach in Ottawa. Hey, Jeff and Elliot, emailing you from near Ottawa. Long time listener, love the pod. My question regards the rules about trading draft picks. We always see, for example, a 2024 fourth round

and a 2025 third round being traded among and for other assets is there any limitation as to how far out these draft picks could be if i'm the gm of a team could i look into my crystal ball and estimate when my team will be highest in the draft and therefore have higher trade value and trade say a 2040 first round pick. Cheers, that from Zach. You know, it's funny. I asked somebody about this last year, and I didn't get an answer that there was a hard and fast rule. I don't think there is.

What's that? I don't think there is, Elliot. I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a rule about it. But what he did tell me me he didn't know the team he said he heard of one team that really did want to punt a draft picked into the future and they were told no my favorite story around this is the ontario hockey league there was one year where draft picks well second round draft picks specifically, there were, I mean, Travis Konechny went for like a bajillion second round draft picks when he got traded from the Ottawa 67s. But there was one year where there was a string of draft picks that extended like, you

know, 10 years long. And this one GM who was responsible for one of these deals called me up and was laughing and said, you know, my wife just said to me, and I said, what's that? And she said, you know, you went to work today and traded a nine-year-old. How do you feel about yourself today? Because of how far along the draft picks went. Anyway, Zach near Ottawa, thank you so much for that one. We'll finish up with this. Teague from Saskatoon.

Jeff and Elliot, the Oilers are holding captain skates early this year, and it made me wonder about the rules around these skates. It looks like the Oilers have their training staff helping out. It made me wonder if the team pays for the staff or if it's on the players to pay for the ice, trainers, equipment managers etc also made me wonder how much can coaches and players talk over the summer and are there things they aren't allowed to talk about i feel like you hear about coaches having dinner with players sometimes if the coach can't practice with the team before

training camp are the limits to what they can talk about with their players over the summer thanks for the pods great job this is an actually a really interesting question you're allowed to talk as much as you want the coaches will often go travel like i've heard of situations where a coach gets hired on a new team and you know for example if they have players who live in europe sometimes they'll go to europe and go meet with the players you're allowed to do that you're not really allowed to skate with them or practice with them the Canucks last year got fined for practicing with some players at the end of after after their season ended last year and the coaches can't be on the ice with the players uh this year um i'm sure like for example with the oilers they're not charging connor mcdavid for the ice i would be very surprised

if they were doing that hey good practice today connor with all your teammates you got in that'll be four hundred dollars yes no i don't think that's happening there's no there's no i in team but there's two eyes and invoice how you be paying for this mr mcdav think that's happening. There's no I in team, but there's two I's in invoice. How will you be paying for this, Mr. McDavid? That's right. So, you know, like I remember a couple years ago, there were complaints about the Maple Leafs because so many players lived in Toronto. The Maple Leafs would open up their practice facility

and people and other teams were like, wait a sec, they're getting a recruiting advantage. You know, and that one drove the maple leaves crazy so you know basically the way it works is once the captain's practices start um the coaches can't be on the ice with them but other than that anyone wants to be there from the team is allowed to be there. Okay. Thank you to everyone who submitted either voicemails at 1-833-311-3232 or emails at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. It is the Montana's Thought Line, Montana's Barbecue and Bar,

Canada's home for barbecue. Let's get to our two feature interviews. Seth Jarvis, young burgeoning superstar for the Carolina Hurricanes. But up first, here's super athlete Anders Lee of the New York Islanders on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. OK, so Elliot's going to ask you a bunch of football questions. But I want to ask about just you as a young athlete, because there are some people that you meet, like elite level athletes, and you say, whichever sport this person chose, they were going to be elite at it. And

maybe it's more than one sport. And you seem to be that guy. Why did you choose hockey? Well, I'd always played all sports growing up, something that I was very grateful that my dad showed me all these sports, and I enjoyed them all from baseball to football and hockey. But hockey, at the end of the day, was going to give me my greatest opportunity, and that was when I was kind of between football and hockey. I had the opportunity to go to Notre Dame and play hockey there. That was a tough one to say no to. And I think at the end of the day, too, as much as I love football,

I wasn't giving up hockey. I think that was always going to be what I wanted to do. How did baseball fit in there? Baseball was great because, you know what, it was so much different than the other two. And I played it. It was just so much fun. Being outside, you know, you're chirping with your buddies.

Like, it's just, it was fun. I had a good time with it, and it something different it was slower paced and then you know baseball it's like all single moments and like just you at the plate or you on the mound and um a collection of individual moments and individual competitions exactly and I think the concentration that you have to have just throughout an inning or whatnot or on the mound. It offered a different perspective on playing sports, I guess. What position did you play in baseball? I played third in pitch. So you liked the hot corner?

Yeah, yeah. It was hot at times. Worst injury? Well, just a ball to the lip for sure. You know, bad hop. Yeah, took a few of those. But not bad in baseball. Kind of escaped them. And starter or closer?

Starter. Yeah? Yeah. And, like, what was your fastball? What would it top out in? I remember getting clocked. Like, I threw hard for sure. I think it was totally a control thing when it wasn't working.

That's where it was. What was your bread and butter pitch? Was it the fastball? Fastball for sure. And then my curve, I definitely threw it too hard. Like, I didn't drop it off enough. This is all things I learned after I stopped pitching. You got terrible coaches, eh?

Well, I don't know. Definitely not that. Do everything hard. So you played baseball like a hockey player, essentially. Pretty much. Yeah. There used to be a third baseman in the Jays, Brett Lauer. You remember Brett Lauer?

Oh, of course. And everything he did was at you know a volume 10 yeah like and he grew up playing hockey as a canadian kid and he attacked baseball like he was a hockey player i'm guessing you were the same way yeah like i never figured out the change up like it was just not an option little circle yeah oh yeah i know and i didn't i didn't like it i didn't like it i didn't like it. Hey, if Verlander and Scherzer got traded then the Mets could use a pitcher. It's not going to be me. Well, I have to credit Isles' videos on

Twitter because I saw these things the other day and it's your football highlights and everybody knows you were a quarterback at one point, but man, you could run. You're going 90 yards untouched. You're going 60 yards untouched so there's both a positive and a negative the positive is andrews those are great plays the negative is

did you ever throw the football right yeah like i told you before we got on you're watching the wrong video no yeah we uh we ran we ran the ball uh threw the ball a ton too um but yeah some some great holes there opened up by the O-line. And like I said, those were the glory days. Friday night lights, playing football. We'd play it, we'd have a Friday night game and then three hockey games over the weekend. It was just how we did it in Minnesota. Did anyone ever say to you like, this is too much or anything like that? I mean, there was guys like a teammate of mine, Zach Budish, played college hockey. Great professional career overseas. He played football with me. It's just what we did. There were definitely guys that did both sports.

Go play in the Elite League afterwards on the weekend. That's just kind of how we did it. It didn't seem like it was worth giving up football when you could still play the hockey on Saturday, Sunday. Well, the way you're smiling, I can tell those are some of the best days of your life. Islanders. Okay. So I always wonder about this. So on the eve of free agency last year, someone said to me, take Mayfield off your list. He's staying. There's a deal there he's not going anywhere and you know you you say okay and you try to confirm it but it's it's impossible as you know and I always wonder like that day the big deal Mayfield big deal Engvall uh big deal uh in goal Varlamov and I wonder like how much do you

guys know as players about what is like what how about what is going to happen well I think you know you're you're in the room with these guys all year you know where they stand and how they feel about the island and the team and what they want to do and so for us these weren't surprises you know you these guys got to do what's best for them for sure and their families but their intentions to want to stay and see this thing out with our group by no means was a surprise at all. It's a big vote of confidence in your group, a big one. What did you think when you heard all that? I thought it was great.

I mean, these guys have made impacts on our teams for whether it's a long time with Scottie and Varley or just even a short time with Pierre. Like I was saying, we did a lot of good things at the end of the year uh our season didn't end we didn't like the way the series ended um but i think from where where we can take some of that uh there's a lot of opportunity there you mentioned pierre engvall um in toronto misunderstood i I think might be the best way to put it. I'm always curious to hear hockey players talk about other hockey players because hockey fans, observers, a lot of stuff we missed that you guys know. Yeah.

What should we know about Pierre Engvall? I think he's a great player. I think he stepped into our team and made a big difference, and I think you guys saw that. But just the way he was carrying the puck for us, the way he was entering the zone and using his speed and his body, like he's a big guy. He's strong.

He's a strong player. And he can go to work in the corners if he has to. And he was doing all those things with us, and that's why he was having such great success and making an impact with Brock and Palms during the latter half of the season there. Who's a better athlete, him or you? With Pierre?

Yeah. I've heard he's a great athlete. He is. I mean, he's got hands. He's got hand-eye. Like, I think he can give me a run for sure. But you're still the best. Well, we play different sports.

We play different sports. I think he could give me a run. That's an awesome quote. No, I don't know. We've got a lot of good athletes on our team. We play different sports. I think he could give me a run. That's an awesome quote. No, I don't know. We got a lot of good athletes on our team. It's actually ridiculous. So who else is there? Like Brock Nelson, like this guy's hand-eye and competitiveness,

like tennis or table tennis, whatever it is, like he's just a natural athlete for sure. Who's the worst loser? Like when you guys play, do your competitions, who's the worst loser? We got some poor losers. You know, like the sewer ball Who's the worst loser? We've got some poor losers. You know, like the sewer ball before the game or before practice. We've got some poor ones. But they're going to be safe with me.

They're safe. They're safe. Now I see why Lamorello named you captain. Yeah, right. What do their names rhyme with? Yeah, exactly. Totally. Totally. Can never have enough leaders on a team.

We've always heard that. What was it like bringing Bo Horvat into the mix? Oh, it was great. He stepped in right away, not just on the ice but off the ice. He's such a good person, cares deeply about his game and his team wherever he's at and very welcomed in our room. And I'm excited for him to get settled in and have a full season with us. And it's a big transition moving coast to coast midseason.

And now that things are kind of more settled, I'm really looking forward to him. And definitely in a leadership role for sure. I mean, like you said, you can never have too many of those guys and guys leaning on one another and different guys speaking up throughout the year. You need that. I wanted to ask you about Barzell.

First of all, what do you think about his guitar playing? Honestly, we both picked it up a little bit during the COVID year. He's head and shoulders. He's got some more time on his hands to play, but he's gotten pretty solid, honestly. It's pretty good good so was this like an everly replacement when everly went out oh yeah yeah yeah who's gonna host the bonfires exactly so barzy took over but no he's he's he's a good little player now now he's going on stage yeah yeah he's enjoying it can you beat that eventually no i too many hours i'm short on like you got to put in a

lot of time with the guitar if you're starting at you know 30 years old so i i got some work to do is there a new team song not yet not yet is one coming i don't know yet we'll work on that we'll work on that glad you heard it i think it was fantastic it was awesome he would we had a blast you know he wouldn't play at all he just said said, look, I'll play you a couple. Yeah. Like, I got to tell you, like, when he told the story about sitting in the bubble and doing that. Yeah. Like, to me, that's what life is all about.

Like, just sitting with your buddies and coming up with stuff like that. Oh, I mean, the bubble was one of my favorite hockey memories, honestly. Really? We were there for, what days whatever it was yeah it was a road hockey tournament with 25 of your buddies and like yeah it got long for sure but like we were in Toronto we were in the middle of a run like yeah you felt unstoppable like it was it was really cool like hard to be away from the families no doubt yeah that that part definitely It was really cool.

Like hard to be away from the families, no doubt. That part definitely started to wear. But, I mean, we were just hanging out every day all the time and winning hockey games. It was a good experience. That's awesome. I mean, you're the first guy who's ever said to me that was one of their favorite experiences. We hear the opposite a lot. For sure.

I mean, and, you know, we had a good experience in the bubble. Like we were, you know, we did something pretty good. I mean, we came up short, obviously, but we made a lot of in the bubble. We did something pretty good. We came up short, obviously, but we made a lot of memories doing that. I think that experience set us up to continue on that path. Last one for me, Anders. I was watching a little bit of some of your games at the end of the year, and I was watching just the line, like, Sezekis, Clutterbuck, Martin. And, you know, age, like, it's eventually going to come, like, it comes for all of us. And I thought about, you know, what's it going to be like for the Islanders when those guys aren't there anymore? Or whichever one of them, two of them, however it goes.

And, like, I've always loved watching them, and I've loved how they're, like, it's such a huge identity of your team. They're so important. Have you thought at all about a day where one or two or three of those three aren't Islanders anymore? You know what? I haven't really done that. I think that their impact is still felt very widely,

and these guys put in a lot of effort and work and take a lot of pride in what they do. It's not an easy job for them to go out there and play that way for 82 games. And they make a great impact on our team, and it's going to be fun to see them roll it back again. You know, I think they're going to have a great year. Last one for me. Do you understand goalies?

And here's how I'm going to frame it. You have one of the best goaltenders in the game, Ilya Sorokin. I am forever fascinated, fascinated watching this guy play. And like the way he moves, I mean a lot of Russian goalies are like this, but the way he moves around the posts is like no one else. Maybe Shestarkin with the Rangers, like no one else in the game. What do you see when you watch him play? I think you're touching on it, that athleticism. He's so flexible and the way he can read a play

like he has anticipation. He's really never out of a save and that's very difficult obviously to put the puck past him, but just over and over and over to see these saves uh that can be discouraging on the other end of it well like you watch like do you ever think to like go up to him like do you even have hips like how do you move like that it's it's incredible i mean like i'm not moving like that at all you know like his body type the way he's just he's kind of lanky he's got just incredible flexibility.

He can just reach places that you wouldn't think he really could because he's not an overly big guy or anything like that. His technique is a huge part of that as well. He just makes it very tough. But still, not the best athlete. Not the best athlete. I'm not, yeah. Approaching. He might be.

And Sorokin. Thanks so much for athlete. I'm not, yeah. Approaching. He might be. And Sorokin. Thanks so much for this. No, thanks, guys. I know we're going to get Brent Burns stories out of Seth Jarvis. So, Elliot, why don't we just open up with Brent Burns stories. So, Mario Ferraro sat right there and talked to us about getting dental advice from Brent Burns because he's got a couple of teeth out and he's got to deal with it. When I say Brent Burns, what comes to your mind?

He's one of those players that's impossible not to have an opinion and a few stories on him. Yeah, just the craziest person I've probably ever met, and not in like a super energetic, well, energetically. He's like a 12-year-old in like a 38-year-old body. But I think just the way he lives his life is just insane. and not in like a super energetic, well, energetically. He's like a 12-year-old in like a 38-year-old body. Yeah. But I think just the way he lives his life is just insane. Like he, it's like, I've never met someone who has like a ranch,

snake farm, like all this stuff. Like he's telling me stories about his ranch. He's got pictures of like zebras on there and stuff like that. Like who in their right mind is running this in the summer? But yeah, he shot me a few texts this summer trying to get me to go down there. Once I heard snake boots, whenever you're outside the house, I was like, eh,

probably not going to sell me on that one. So maybe next summer, maybe next summer I'll grow over my fear. So Burns is a fascinating guy because to your point about, you know, the ranch and the animals and the reptiles and all that, like that's the story. And the look is great and all of it.

Talk to us as a hockey player, though. Like, when you see the hockey player, Brent Burns, what stands out for you? I mean, just being able to do what he does at such a high level at that age is incredible. Being able to, I think he broke our defenseman, like, single season points last year. So, I mean, to be able to i think he broke our defenseman like single season points last year so i mean to be able to do that and uh yeah i think like picking apart his game i think his shot is just incredible being able to shoot as hard as he does from wherever one timer yeah it's he might

not know where it's going because he doesn't pick up his head but it's coming hard and it's usually coming pretty high so how do you like standing in front of that not great you know i've had a few close calls but uh yeah it's he's he's just the best yeah you know seth you're for yourself just you're going in another year coming in like this summer what did they tell you maybe in your in their exit meetings with you rod and what did you focus on this summer i mean i feel like it's the same most summers just getting bigger and stronger being a smaller body you need as much strength as you can get and i think this summer uh i really took to another level and i feel really confident about how i trained in my fitness level coming in which is something that maybe in years past it's been something i've been really trying to work on

but i think this year it's something I'm comfortable with. What happened this summer that made you feel better? You know, I just matured a little bit. I think maybe late puberty. Maybe I finally hit my stride. Starting to grow. Not the Western Hockey League program anymore. No, no. The NHL program.

Yeah, I can kind of grow a little scruffy beard now. So, yeah. But I think just taking everything that I was doing before and just bumping it up a little bitruffy beard now so um yeah but i think just taking everything that i was doing before just bumping it up a little bit uh a notch i mean nutrition is something that's been uh maybe i wasn't so focused on before and i think this summer and that pat the past season uh was something i really focused on really and really took to another level tell me about your diet like did you change something did you cut did you add more cut out something yeah what don't you eat anymore don't i eat yeah what's off the plate off the plate is sadly a lot of candy i have a wicked sweet tooth so do i what's your fit like like what's your favorite candy

well i don't know if you ever had like little nerds gummy clusters yeah yeah my kids love those oh my god i yeah those by far my favorite but so trying to cut out as much of that as i can and then one thing i got into um the past summer was fasting actually like intermittent fasting so what was your schedule what did you do i would eat my last meal would be at i wouldn't eat past eight o'clock p.m and then i wouldn't eat again until 12 31 p.m and then you just eat big meal little snack big meal go to bed and just drink water in the morning and so i do all my workouts and skating in the morning and i've honestly the first week was a little bit tough yeah i was like yeah this is might not be for me but after getting through it i've never felt

better it was it was crazy just not even the amount of energy you have, just not feeling heavy and felt ready to go. Black coffee in the morning? I'm like, no, I can't drink black coffee. While you're doing that, you can't? Oh, I can't drink coffee. I'm like a 12-year-old. Hot chocolate maybe, but not coffee.

I didn't start drinking coffee until I started dating my wife at 37. So, like, you've got lots of time. But here's my question. Can you do that during a season? Yeah, that's the part I guess I'm going to figure out. So you're going to, your goal is to still try and do that, eh? Uh, I think I'm probably going to end up eating like a normal person, but I think I'm going to be conscious of how much I'm eating and probably not eat quite as much in the morning. Um, and just see how I feel in the first couple weeks. And if I don't like it, then I'll go back to a normal schedule.

That's pretty cool because intermittent fasting, I don't do it, but I start to read about it. I find the concept and the idea very interesting. And they always tell you if you don't eat your breakfast, you're not going to have the right energy during the day. But you're not the first person to tell me that they've found that turning that on its head actually works really well. Yeah, so it's been cool to kind of figure that out myself and see the benefits. Now, did you work on it?

Like, one thing I really like talking about is, especially with skilled players like yourself, the craft of their game. What's your summer workout like in terms of puck skills and things like that? Yeah for me a lot of it. Luckily I play with one of the best puck protectors in the game, Aho, and so I've been able to watch him just the way he doesn't stick handle as much as I think people think he does. It's just carrying the puck and knocking sticks away and that was something I really focused on this year is just being able to go through traffic and not try to dangle everybody, but just place pucks, knock sticks,

and be able to maneuver my way without having to overcomplicate it. And then for me, I'm just trying to play as much as I can with my head up. And I think you can get in trouble when you get caught with your head down, obviously you can get hammered and stuff like that. But I think just being able to maneuver the ice, head up,

not stick down a little as much is a combo that I'm hoping is going to really benefit me this year. Nice. Further to that, I'm curious about this. What was the hardest thing? You mentioned the hardest thing to get off the plate are the nerds clusters. What was the hardest thing to get out of your game, though? Because, listen, we watched you a lot growing up, and anyone who's watched you, like, elite, elite player,

like, great hands, vision, all of it. But when you got to the NHL and now here you are right now, what have you had a hard time getting out of your game that you needed to get out of your game to play in the NHL? I think the biggest thing, well, there's probably two. The first one is puck watching defensively. I think last season my defensive game took a big step, and I think a lot of that had to do with not getting so zoned in on the puck.

That, in my early years, caused a lot of trouble for myself. Just being able to be more aware defensively. Offensively, I like to use my speed. I like to skate a million miles an hour. But I think being able to change it up and not have to skate as hard and add a little more deceptive skating, I think you see guys like Jack Hughes who kind of float through the zone and they're not always going as fast as they can,

then kind of turn it on and beat guys. So just little aspects like that have been tough to kind of get out because it's been so embedded in me. It's just skate as hard as you can whenever. But it's been a challenge, but it's been fun. As you evolve through the NHL, has there been any major equipment changes you've made, skate changes, anything like that?

Or is it basically the same gear, same thing you used going back to years ago playing junior? Yeah, pretty much the same. I think the only big change, and it's not even big. It's big in my eyes. The lie of your stick. Pardon? The lie of your stick.

No. I'm guessing. I'm guessing. No, no, not quite. I've been thinking about it, but I haven't moved there yet. I loved using skates until they, like, broke off my feet. Like, they were, like, worn in, like, sneakers. And Jordan Stahl actually would just give me the hardest time

because he switches skates every two weeks. But he's a big body. Like, he wears them out pretty quick. And so one thing I changed was switching skates more often. And I do like it now. I feel like it's nice to be in a fresh pair of skates. But that was a tough one for me because I liked wearing them until the seams on the toe cap were coming off.

Jordan Starr really likes stiff boots. Oh, my God. That's what I was always told. Yeah. I don't even know how he moves out there, but he moves well. One tough memory to bring up. Just after the Eastern Conference Final final the dressing room after the last game and like that was that was a heartbreaking series just because the way that those games went

what was the mood like in the room what was said yeah i'm sure you could imagine how it was a lot a lot of disappointment not not much was said um one that thing that sticks out a lot to me though is um roddy whendy when he came in, he was like, there's not much you can say to a group at that point. And he just kind of came and sat down with us and just having him in there and being present with us. And it felt like he was not just a coach but on the ice and stuff like that and a player again.

So I thought that was pretty cool, just seeing him do that. He wasn't in there trying to cheer us up or talk to us about what happened. He was just letting us kind of feel the emotions we were feeling and kind of go through it with us. So he just sat down? Just sat down, didn't say much, and just kind of joined in on the bad feeling, basically. You guys are close.

You're right there. Every year, people make their list of teams that can win the Stanley Cup, and Carolina's on it for now for years. But when you look at your team, I'm just curious when you see and say, for us to break through, this has to happen for us. And what is this in your eyes?

Yeah, I think it's easy to speak on last year. Like, I think last year, the injuries to Svetch and Pacioretty. I mean, I think those are two guys where if you could drop a playoff player, it's probably you're going to come up with something like that. So that one, just looking back on it, really sucks because those are two guys that can make a big impact in the postseason. But, yeah, I think just maybe just more grit. I think we brought in some grit with Lemieux and Bunting and guys like that, just guys that will maybe when the game gets a little bit tougher,

like I think what we saw against Florida, like they were getting in our face a little bit, and obviously you don't want to take a penalty or anything like that, but you need to have pushback. I think they did a good job of bringing in guys that will maybe settle that down a little bit more. How would you guys have played Vegas? That's a fantastic question. That's a really good question.

Yeah. I don't know. I think it would have been a fun series just in the way that I think our games are similar but a little bit different. I think we kind of suffocate teams and slow the game down and really make it hard on teams to get out of their zone. I think they're a team that relies on a lot of high speed flying, but they also have that kind of ability to shut the game down. So I don't know how it would have played out but i'm i'm hoping we would have won like did you watch it oh i couldn't no oh really no not a chance like i know some guys they won't watch it but they'll watch the

when the cup gets yeah hand it out most guys answer the way you do i can't stand it no like i had i'm good buddies with uh brett howden on vegas so like i watched when he got it and i was like this sucks and then i just turned it off well fingers crossed that uh people are saying that about i hope so i hope house is saying the exact same thing about me and jim uh good luck this season thanks so much for doing this thank you very much. Both those interviews were real fun, both for different reasons. I continue to be impressed at the athleticism of Andrews Lee, who just looks like such a natural athlete.

And like we mentioned in the interview, Elliot, whatever this guy was going to decide to do athletically, he was going to be successful at. Whether it was football, whether it was baseball, or thankfully, for all of us, he decided to be a hockey player. We can enjoy

watching him. But how about Seth Jarvis? I know you kind of, you know, pop like the cork out of a champagne bottle about the suit, but just a dynamic conversation with a real charming young hockey player. Really good talker, and that's the thing. You know, I've mentioned this to you before. I don't see a lot of these guys anymore because I'm always in the studio studio so it's great to get out there and have the opportunity to talk to him but yeah i don't even know what he was saying i was too busy drilling over the suit pick your lip up mr

friedman pick your lip up be professional uh and on that we'll wrap up now elliot and i on monday are off to edmonton for a few days to do some interviews with a couple of Edmonton Oilers players and some Edmonton Oilers managers slash coaches slash executives etc so that's where we will be but you know we're kind of you know sliding back in here to our regular rotation for the podcast, mainly drops on Monday and Friday mornings. So thanks. I think, Elliot, it's safe to say that we're back. I don't know if that's back with a capital B or a lowercase b,

but we're getting back to work here. Your thoughts on what we're looking forward to in Edmondson? Unfortunately for you, the audience, we are back. We're going to talk to a few of the Oilers. If you heard the dry sidle interview i'm picking the others to win the cup this year as a matter of fact i might be picking them like every year until they actually win i'm at that point now i think they're going to win it did you do that with san jose back in the day no no no i don't think i've ever done

that with anybody before i did well hopefully this turns out more successfully than that did very true very true so looking forward to that i think this team could win the cup they're good enough uh i know there are question marks in net i get it but this is a team that looks like they could win the uh the stanley cup and we'll see what ken holland puts together this season and listen i'm curious to see if i'm curious to see a full season of the power play with Evan Bouchard on the point because as dynamic as it was last season now with the shooting dimension that Evan Bouchard can bring along with it all of a sudden that power play just got even nastier so that's it that's the pod thanks for listening uh in Edmonton for a few days and then we're back with more 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy your week. Thank you.