32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Back to Florida

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

The Montreal Canadiens find a way to extend the series. Jeff and Elliotte recap an exciting game 4 in Montreal (2:00), discuss the impact of Shea Weber throughout the game, wonder if there were more than 3500 fans in attendance at the Bell Centre and go over the lineup changes made by both coaches. They […]

Today's episode of 31 Thoughts to Podcast is dedicated to the memory of Matisse Kivlenics. So Elliot, let me, before we get into the game, let me let you know what I've been doing the last 24 hours. First of all, what do you think it is? Looking for Guelph pajamas? With my man, the director of athletics from the University of Guelph, Scott McRoberts. And originally, he said he could get an adult onesie with university of guelph colors logos all of that stuff which okay that was that

was kind of intriguing to him i said you know let's just stick with regular guelph jammies let's just do u of g jammies and scott McRoberts is going to put it all together for us. Director of athletics for the great university of Guelph. And then the Montreal Canadians ruined the whole thing. Well, wait a sec. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. I don't want this to go to waste. So last year it was the beard and the target was 15,000. Yes. If we want to do a target for the Guelph Jammies or the Guelph onesie. The onesie. What should it be? Geez, I don't know.

I think it's got to be a bigger number than the beard because the beard was going off anyway. And we got to set the, it'll be Bloorview Children's Hospital, I assume again. We'll figure out which charities it's going to be.

Yeah. But I'll leave it to the audience. What's the target number? Tweet in your target number for this one. How much money we can raise to get Elliot in either an adult onesie or a Griffin jammies. Let's see what happens. We're crowdsourcing this.

We're not committing to anything at this time. We're crowdsourcing this. Let's see committing to anything at this time. We're crowdsourcing this. Let's see how people feel. Crowdsourcing this one. Let's see what the number ends up being. And then Jeff and I will make a decision. Let's get to the game. Josh Anderson bookends it, starts it, finishes it.

I had a real good game playing with Suzuki and Caulfield. We're going to a game five. 3-2 is the final. John Cooper was asked after the game, what would you have done differently? And he said something along the lines of, well, we wouldn't have hit as many goalposts. What's your takeaway from this game Monday night?

I really thought that in the first 15 minutes, they were going to blow Montreal out of the building. Montreal did not touch the puck the first 15 minutes, they were going to blow Montreal out of the building. Montreal did not touch the puck the first 15 minutes. And I didn't think that we were going to have a game five. I was actually, at one point, I Googled what do Guelph pajamas look like. I thought they were going to storm away with it and Price held his ground.

They got the first goal. You know, honestly, I have to tell you, it's a stunner that Montreal won this game. They didn't touch the puck early. Yep. They blew two leads pretty quickly. They had the four minute double minor on Weber late in regulation and early in overtime. All credit to the Canadians. They had every excuse to lose this game and they

found a way to win it. And you know what? I don't like politicians. So I am happy to blame this one on the mayor of Tampa Bay. So that's Jane Castor, Tampa Bay mayor, uh, who, if you missed it, opined that it would be best if Tampa lost Game 4

so they could come back and win it on home ground in Game 5 and celebrate properly. Here's what we would like. What we would like is for the Lightning to take it a little bit easy, to give the Canadians just the smallest break, allow them to win one at home, to give the Canadians just the smallest break, allow them to win one at home, and then bring it back to the Amelie Arena

for the final and the winning of the Stanley Cup. But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but they are playing some amazing, amazing hockey. To which every Tampa Bay hockey fan cringed to say nothing about the organization itself, who must have felt the same way. Before we get deeper into the game, thoughts on a couple of lineup changes for Dom Ducharme.

Jesperi Kudkinyemi out, Jake Evans in with Byron and Leckanen, Alex Romanoff in, Brett Kulak in, John Merrill, Eric Gustafson out for Tampa. Once again, no Cologne. Matthew Joseph, who was real good specifically on that Pat Maroon goal, uh, drew in once again for the Tampa Bay lightning. Um, what did you make of the changes

specifically by Dom Ducharme there? Well, first of all, let me just say, I was really happy for Matthew Joseph. I know it didn't work out the way he would have liked it, but to get a big assist like that in his home province, that must have been a huge moment. And that guy could play for anybody else except the team he's playing on, right? Oh, he's a full-timer all over the league.

Absolutely. So I was really thrilled for him to get that moment. You know, as for what Montreal did, first of all, I really felt they needed to make a change. I understood why they didn't make changes going into game three, but they had to for game four. And I think everybody understood the changes on the blue line.

I was not surprised that Jake Evans got in because I think Ducharme and the coaching staff really trust Evans. And his first game, you know, he hadn't played in a while. He was coming off a pretty traumatic injury. I wasn't, I don't think anybody was surprised he was a step behind.

I still can't believe, you know, even though Evans got an assist and't, I don't think anybody was surprised. He was a step behind. I still can't believe, you know, even though Evans got an assist and again, I had no problem with him playing. I still can't believe that Kotkaniemi was the guy that they took out. I disagree with that. I think as an organization, the Canadians have made a lot of good calls on Kotkaniemi, taking him third overall, you know, how they've used him around the lineup. I wouldn't have done that. When you have a guy who you want to be a cornerstone player, particularly at center, he's got to play these kinds of games

to understand how hard it is. I know myself, okay? I use this analogy a couple of times today. If I was on the Hockey Night panel with with Dave and they came to me for this game, game four, and said, you're off the panel. You know, I would never complain publicly. I would never rip a teammate. I don't believe in that kind of thing, but I don't think I'd ever forget it.

You know, I would be pissed off. I would be furious. And I don't think I would ever forget it. And I can only judge others the way i judge myself like if i'm cock and yemi i'm not causing any problems but i won't forget that that's not just a scratch and some other point during the season this is a big time big stage scratch and i just know how i would feel and i wouldn't soon forget that and i just unless he's really playing terribly or noticeably terribly than other people i'm not screwing

around with a franchise potential franchise cornerstone like that and it will probably get worse for yes very card kenyami because what's the old saying you don't change a winning lineup do you expect them to change a winning lineup come wednesday no i i i don't think you do i mean you know the other thing too is is that to me looking at it from the outside it's a situation where you're taking either him out or a veteran out and i'm wondering if Ducharme just said, like I listened to his explanation and actually on some level, it made sense about his duos and things like that. I understood where he was coming from, but that couldn't have been the only guy they were thinking of taking out of

the lineup. Right. And at the end of the day, it's always easier to take the younger guy out than it is to take the veteran guy out. A couple of things. One, you know, we wondered if in game three there was really only 3,500 people in the stands. I don't believe it for a second. wondering if there were 35 people in stands because elliot there were way more than 3 500 people in that rink tonight you say you're really bad at counting houses but even you

okay looking around that building on monday night sitting there with dave and not was there more than 3 500 but how many more than 3,500 were there? You know what? It seems to me that whoever's responsible for making this decision for Health Quebec is looking at their TV and saying, la, la, la, la, I do not see the crowd. La, la, la, la, I do not see the crowd.

Yes. That's what's going on. The other thing that was always nice to see we remark on it every time it happens because it's montreal gila fleur yvonne cornway and patrick waugh there and they're actually they're in the booth right next to us right yeah did you get a chance to talk to any of them ron interviewed gila fleur and yvonne cornway came in to say hi to ron and and we all said hello to mr cornway uh why Why did not come in, but I just like waved at him a little bit.

This was a very different pregame show on Monday night. First of all, it was, there were a lot of interviews, Gila Fleur, and he looks fantastic. We're very happy to say he looked terrific. Jay Baruchel came in with his wife. You know, it was funny because he's staying in the same hotel we are. And I have this thing, my son who's nine max, he loves elevators.

So whenever I go in an elevator, I FaceTime him if he's around so he can see the elevator ride. But he knows the rule. And the rule is if there's anyone else in the elevator, I turn off the FaceTime because they haven't signed up for this. And so I walk into the elevator and there's someone there and I missed the button to end the FaceTime. So I'm scrambling with my phone and I'm trying to call them back. And you know, there's someone else in the elevator with me, but I don't look at them and that on the way out, like they wave at me and I kind of half-heartedly wave back. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm on the phone with my son. Then about three minutes later, I get this DM

and it's Jay Baruchel saying, I was just in the elevator with you. And I'm like, oh my God, that was so rude. I was so embarrassed. But he was a really good interview. And, you know, so was Tardif. Like, you know, he was, he was fantastic to talk to when he told a, he was wearing a

Philip Deneau shirt because, you know, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, as people know, he took the year off for the NFL to work in some of these long-term care facilities. And there was a woman there who was staying in the home and she loved Philip Deneau and he set up a FaceTime call with her and got a jersey.

When I was with Duvernay-Tardif, I feel like less of a human being because of everything he's done this year. The whole night was really special because of those interviews. The pregame showed a bit of a different feel. You know, we haven't done these really, Jeff, all season.

So it was really nice to have that. It was a really special night. I'm looking, the only thing I'm not looking forward to about game five is that, you know, there's a tropical storm headed towards Tampa on Wednesday morning. I could kind of live without that. I was going to say is the only miserable thing

about heading to Tampa for a game five, the fact that the game five might not be on Wednesday. Now, as we sit here early Tuesday morning and tape it, we're under the impression the game is going to be played on Wednesday, but you're right. You, you never know what could happen. You know, Jeff, the other thing is this is

going to be the first game I go to where there's going to be a full house. Yep. Weather permitting, of course. And I don't know what that's going to look like. That's going to be very weird and different for me right now. That's going to feel really cool.

You're going to love it. I know you. I'm looking forward to it. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. A couple of more I'm looking forward to it. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. A couple more things from the game as well. Flashpoint player. And it wasn't just because of the four minute penalty at the

end of the third period that bled into the overtime. But this was a Shea Weber game in a lot of ways. You mentioned right off the start, this is all about Tampa. And they're dominating. They are dominating all period long before Josh Anderson scores on a gorgeous, we should point out, pass from Nick Suzuki.

Josh Anderson gets lost. Great patience there by Nick Suzuki. Buying himself some time. Savard went down and how about that saucer pass? Anderson gets it up and over the glove of Vasilevsky as he tries to move laterally. Anderson puts it in there. Man, I'll tell you what.

Suzuki is just growing before everybody's eyes. Like future star in the NHL period. But Weber's physicality in this game. I know this Weber story is going to be about the double minor, the high stick on Palat, putting Montreal's season in jeopardy. You know, oh, did he just hand Tampa the Stanley Cup? double minor the high stick on palad putting montreal's season in jeopardy you know oh did he just hand tamp with a stanley cup but the way that weber went at braden point specifically like at times like there was that one hit along the boards we had a run at him from about half

the width of the ice where you're like oh man if he catches him anywhere close to clean i don't know that that you know that we're going to see much more braden point this game did you have a thought on shea weber's game tonight well i'm happy for him that it didn't end with him in the penalty box that's number one you wouldn't want to see somebody sitting in the penalty box when your season ends on a four minute man advantage penalty in overtime so i was really happy for him you know i thought the canadians they were pretty docile and placid for a lot of this series they were more like themselves in this game and i have no doubt they were pushed in that direction you know price

too i don't always trust the public models on expected goals some teams tell me that they're missing some information that they have that the general public doesn't so they make me they say be wary of that kind of thing but one of the teams said to me that the expected goals price should have given up was somewhere between four and five he gave up two i thought there were a lot of guys who were back to themselves and were normal again and we'll see what the case is for game five the guy i'm actually really happy for that it didn't look wasn't worse was point and not because of any of the hits but because of the shot he took from headman well it's funny because that was after he got pounded a couple of times by weber and then the cherry on top was getting a slap shot from Victor Edmund.

Exactly. And you know, when he was down on the ice there, I thought he was done for the year. Yeah. And he missed two shifts. And one of the reasons he sat there was because you have to skate all the way the other end of the ice when you're the visitor

in Montreal. But I was happy to see him come back for the third. Nobody wants to see somebody knocked out from that. Tyler Johnson jumps in right away in Braden Point's spot. Third period was an interesting one. Alexander Romanov makes it 2-1.

To the point, Romanov shooting, scores! Alexander Romanov, his first Stanley Cup playoff goal. Seven-second shift, and it's a memorable one. Dosilewski tries to play it. Good job by Evans, keeping it alive. and dom ducharm looks like a genius for inserting him into the lineup and then as you mentioned earlier listen on a i don't know how you maybe describe it, as a misread on the two-on-one, a misplay, I don't know. Matthew Joseph's pass right on the stick of Patrick Maroon. Taps it in. Maroon, a clear and tough block by Tyler Toffoli.

Holds it in to the right point. Joseph knocks it off his stick. It's out of the zone. And Joseph collects. Matthew Joseph into the offensive zone right circle. Left circle, Maroon! Score! Pat Maroon circle, Maroon. Score!

Bad Maroon! Bad Maroon! And this game is tied up 2-2 with 6.12 left. What a play by Joseph. It was unbelievable. I thought he was going to shoot it, and he should have. But the guy went down in front of him, so he just saw Maroon, and he passed it to him.

And Maroon put it into the net. We're all tied up at twos. Do you have a thought on those two plays? I can only imagine, Elliot, how loud it was at the Bell Center when Romanov scored. Well, it was hugely loud, and it was also loud because I think this fan base has wanted to see Romanov play. So the fact that he scored, that added another level to it. They like him, and they want him in the lineup.

Let's follow this up with the overtime here and then move on on the podcast. This one's just going to be a quickie, by the way, folks. Josh Anderson scores in overtime, it three two this is after nick suzuki again who i thought was real good again in this game great game almost ended it shorthanded style in overtime your thoughts on josh anderson though he started it he ended it big speed size playing with suzuki and caulfield thoughts on Josh Anderson. Well, first of all, I have to tell you that happened right below where we sit, where our set is. And I didn't see it go in. At the beginning.

Oh, really? Yeah. I was watching it from Stouffville. I saw it going. Maybe you should be at the games. From where we were, it was in and out so fast that you you couldn't tell even kevin said i'm not sure that's in and the reason we kind of we realized before the replays were showed that it was in is because nobody in tampa argued they went right off the ice and i always remember that from

patrick kane's overtime goal when the blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010. The two guys, Kane knew it was in, and the two guys right next to the net, Michael Layton, obviously, and Braden Coburn, they knew it was in. So when Vasilevsky was sitting there and came right off the ice and the lightning followed him, I said, okay, these guys know it's a goal. And then the replay showed it came in and out pretty quick. Again, I have to tell you, Montreal grinded for this one tonight. I really thought there were points in the game that Tampa was going to take over.

They didn't. The Canadians battled. They looked more like themselves. And I wondered if Price had some kind of Vasilevsky mental block because he's beaten him 12 times in a row. Yeah. Whatever the case, he's got to win now.

And you know, we'll see. We'll see if they can bring it back to Montreal. Yeah. Price has case, he's got to win now. And you know, we'll see. We'll see if they can bring it back to Montreal. Yeah. Price has struggled against the Tampa Bay Lightning. That's not exactly a secret. What do you expect on Wednesday?

Like someone will look at this game and say, all right, you know, winding your wristwatch on the way to the electric chair. Like, how do you see this one? Again, I think Tampa is going to come out like a house on fire. The building's going to be packed. I think Tampa's going to come out like a house on fire. The building's going to be packed. Yes.

It's going to be noisy. They're in their own barn. Like, all of it is just lining up. And we know how devastating. Like, that's the thing about Tampa that we've seen before. They can score, like, three goals in 2 minutes and 15 seconds like that. Like, boom. And then the game's over.

Montreal played a heck of a last game, though, in Tampa. They played a great game, too. They did. And they got outdone by two mistakes. But they're going to come out shot out of a cannon again. They better be ready. We'll see what happens in game five. A couple of notes from around the NHL. We want to do this one quickly because someone has to get to bed

because he's getting on a plane very early in the morning. 5 a.m. wake-up call. Woo, what a boy. Okay, Buffalo Sabres. Eichel wants surgery. The Sabres want rehab. Peter Fish says this is coming to a conclusion. Anything new that you can glean there before we get to the Sam Ventura news?

Peter Fish, the agent, he's used that line before. I think the only thing that's suddenly becoming an issue here is if you don't do this soon, is the acquiring team going to be comfortable that Eichel's going to have enough time to recover to be ready for next year? And again, the ask is really high. There's one team out there and someone from there just said, you wouldn't believe what the ask is. And I said, well, what is it? And they go, I can't tell you now, maybe later. And every day I text this person and I say, is it later?

And they say, no, we can't do it. I just think the ask is really high. We'll see. I mean, they've really tried to keep a lid on that after everything that happened when it first started. But there's at least one team out there I've heard that is saying, if this isn't soon, we're out. Also in Buffalo, we're out.

Also in Buffalo, an interesting hire. So Sam Ventura leaves the Pittsburgh Penguins hired by the Buffalo Sabres as VP of hockey strategies and research. What do you make of this one? Well, he had a tie in with Jason Carmanos. Yes. And I think Carmanos had a big say in this.

Sam Ventura's got a really good reputation. And one of the people who quote tweeted it is a guy by the name of Seth Partnow, who's known as Anchorage Man. He's a big NBA or basketball analytics guy. i've read some of his stuff it's it's very interesting it wasn't just the hockey guys and people who are hockey fans who kind of responded to this one there were some people who are big into analytics into other sports and i thought that was really interesting. Ventura, there are people out there who really like him.

What it says to me, Ron Hextall is not a dumb guy and I think Ron Hextall does a lot of very interesting thinking and I know that he doesn't discount analytical thinking. So that says to me he's got something else in mind. And with the regime change in Pittsburgh, Sam Ventura was available to go elsewhere. That's one of the few things that Sabres fans online have liked. And the online world is very analytic.

So whether you're pro or anti-analytics tends to really tip off what the response to something like this is going to be. But the analytic community was very happy for Sam. He's a smart guy. I don't know him, but I've heard very good things about him. One person that I spoke to from an NHL team said this is an interesting one because of the relationship with Jason Carmanos. one because of the relationship with Jason Carmanos, because it's one thing for an NHL team to have, let's just say, an analytics department. Call it that.

It's one thing to have an analytics department. It's another thing to get your ideas into the, how do we put it, discussion flow of a team. Like you've heard the stories before. Oh yeah, we've got an analytics department. The stuff goes to the general manager and then he throws it in the garbage and doesn't even read it. But you can check a box and say, we have these people that handle analytics for us.

See, this one is different because he comes in with Karmanos. see this one is different because he comes in with carmanos so you know that his information is going to get in the information stream of the buffalo sabers this isn't just yes we have an analytics department this is getting your voice heard which is why i look at this one elliot and i say this one's this one's different than just like a regular analytics hire. This is Sam Ventura comes in, and because of the association with Carmanos, his ideas are going to be heard, which would lead me to believe, or think anyhow,

that Buffalo is probably going to go all in on analytics. True, false. I don't know if I would say all in, but I think he's obviously going to have a voice. And I would think a pretty big one. We'll see. I'm beginning to think a lot of this, some of this stuff is performance art, right? In what sense? I think there are some teams who really believe in it, but they don't always brag about it, right? And I think there are some teams that brag about it and believe in it.

And I think there are other teams who talk a big game about it because they know that if they say, no, we don't believe in analytics, social media is going to go crazy. So they say they do, but they really don't. So they say they do, but they really don't. I would think if you're giving someone a VP title and you're luring them from another organization, you're probably putting something into it. Agreed. Just one other thing I wanted to talk about this week. Yep.

Duncan Keith. I wonder if this Edmonton, Chicago thing is getting to a yes or no situation. What do you mean? I just wonder if Edmonton and chicago are gonna say either we're doing this or we're not because we're in the headlines too much it's too public that we're talking we need to put an end to this one way or the other i don't even know if it's so much that as much as it is you know they're kind of staring at each other. They know what's on the table. Are we going to do it or not?

You know, both these teams have to have some certainty on what they're doing for A, the expansion draft, and B, eventually, especially in Edmonton's case, free agency. Got to know if this is going to get done or not. Wouldn't this be something that's initiated though by the player since he's holding the cards here? Well, it is, but you're going to be able to make a trade, right?

Absolutely. But I'm just curious about what type of pressure someone like Duncan Keith could apply to the Chicago Blackhawks. Like if he wants this done, could Duncan Keith not go to the organization and say, like we talked about this, I don't know, last podcast or podcast before.

I did you a real solid for like 10 years. We won a couple of Stanley Cups. I won a conspired trophy. We did it all on the backs of me having a very team-friendly contract. Now do me a solid here. You may not have the return that you want, but this is me calling in a favor

does that not feel like this well there is certainly part of that but i i think also the blackhawks might want to do it too you know i think they'd love to change some things around and i think they would definitely do duncan ke solid and say, hey, you're a franchise legend. If you want to go somewhere, we'll work with you to do it. But I think they'd also love to get their hands on a Seth Jones or a Dougie Hamilton. And without Keith's money there, it's easier to do that. The other thing someone was saying to me was, you could buy out Duncan Keyes contract. Now it's a big hit the next two years.

It's four and four and a half, I think, which is still a million less than what his cap hit is right now, a million and a half and then a million. But the two years after that, the cap hits 600,000 apiece. Right. And then Duncan Keith could sign

whoever he wants. Now, I'm betting Chicago would rather trade him than buy him out. Yeah. And also get the cap hit completely gone instead of slightly gone the next two years. But, you know, that's what someone said to me they could do.

It's not the worst idea. Chicago, by the way, Chicago's getting close to having, like, nothing on their cap. Like, in the next couple of seasons., Chicago is getting close to having like nothing on their cap. Like in the next couple of seasons, like getting pretty close to like starting from scratch here when they get a couple of these big tickets off. We've said it before.

They're going to be one of the more interesting teams to follow in the next couple of seasons for how they redo this and restructure the team. Elliot, I want to finish by talking about Matisse Kivlenic, who passes away at the age of 24 after a fireworks accident. We want to offer condolences to his family first and foremost, condolences to his friends, condolences to the entire Columbus organization and their fans,

the Latvian Hockey Federation and their fans as well. I mean, what an awful story to hear. The details, awful, young person, everything about it, just terrible. You know, I just wanted to say I thought the tributes from the Blue Jackets and their fans were extremely well done. The Nathan Gerby one, the Jarmo Kekulainen one. Earlier tonight, I saw an Elvis Merzlikens one from Instagram. I'm sure I'm missing some, and I'm sorry I'm not naming them all.

Nick Folinos. But I thought the tributes were beautiful. And, you know, I know it's been a big challenge for the Blue Jackets fans in the last year. A tough season. The Seth Jones news, and none of that compares to this. Like this is gut-wrenching and heart-hurting. But I thought that fan base, first of all, they're a great fan base. They love hockey. They're a big part of the league.

I just thought that fan base today, the hardcore Blue Jackets fans, doing a meetup at a local bar and doing an 82nd tribute to him because his number is 80. I think that is just beautiful and good on the Blue Jackets fans who did that is such a wonderful tribute in a gut wrenching time. I thought that was fantastic and should be singled out for praise. Thank you.