32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Barkov Breaks The Oilers & Ryan Getzlaf Joins The Podcast

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Where do the Oilers go from here? After a 6-0 loss to the Florida Panthers, Jeff and Elliotte really begin to question what management is thinking in Edmonton and if the team needs to make a desperation move to save their season (00:01). They then touch on Sheldon Keefe’s comments following the team's loss to the New York Rangers (9:55), arena capacity for Ontario teams (23:00), more updates on Vancouver’s GM search (25:10), Victor Hedman’s dominance (29:10), more teams are added to the Jakob Chychrun trade list (35:00), a couple of things on Brad Marchand (39:10), and they take a few of your questions (44:30).The guys also chat with Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf (51:30) about the influx of youth on the squad, coming into a team that was filled with veterans, his world junior experience, if he’ll be the last man standing from his draft class, his friendship with Corey Perry, post-playing career plans, and if he was considering signing somewhere else in the off-season.Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryMusic Outro: J.E. Sunde - Sunset StripListen to his entire album on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: 104.5 The Team ESPN Radio, AM 560 Sports WQAM, Bally Sports Sun, Rogers TV, Sportsnet and Twitter (Sean McGuire via Aiden Smith)The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Let me just say, I had the best spicy chicken for dinner tonight, but I think that that means I'm going to need to drink a lot of water during this podcast. Great spicy chicken. Spicy podcast. It's been said before, Elliot, you never hit rock bottom. All you can do is decide to stop digging. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. We had eyes all week long on Thursday evening in Edmonton. The Oilers facing off against the Florida Panthers.

Panthers coming off a tough loss earlier in the week against the Calgary Flames. You knew they would be in an ornery mood. And you had a feeling that the Edmonton Oilers would come out with something. You know, after all the speculation and the talk and what happened at the scouting meeting and California and all the discussions about trades and firings, et cetera, you knew Edmonton would bring something. And they did in that first period,

they were all over the Florida Panthers. And you said to yourself, maybe just, maybe there could be something here. By the end of the night, the song remained the same. 6-0 is the final score. We saw jerseys hitting the ice as well. Various members of the Edmonton Oilers trending on Twitter.

There's a game Saturday against the Calgary Flames on Hockey Night in Canada for a little bit of spice for the weekend. Where are we with the Edmonton Oilers now, Elliot? Saturday against the Calgary Flames on hockey night in Canada for a little bit of spice for the weekend. Where are we with the Edmonton Oilers now, Elliot? Tonight, I sat down, watched all the games. Yes. Did a chunk of our podcast earlier with you.

It was a one beer night for me. Just one nice smooth beer just to relax. I have a feeling when all the various members of the Oilers, whatever their role in the organization is, when they get home after this game tonight, it's going to be a lot more than one beer for them. You know, just what a nightmare. Everything, as you said, first period dominant.

They outshot Florida 17-7. Bobrovsky stands on his head. He's the best player on the ice in the first period, and tied for second were a lot of Oilers who played really well. And then you saw that first goal. Huberto left circle down low, worked out in front, a shot, and they score! It's Barkov off a perfect setup. He's able to one-time it past pass Koskinen the Panthers have a power play goal and a one nothing lead what a pass out front from Sam Reinhardt and Barkov with the finish beautiful pass by Reinhardt gets it down low on the goal line and it's a saucer pass then the

defenseman CeCe he was flat on his or sorry Nurse was flat on his stomach. He had to saucer it over the defenseman to make it land in time. It was 528 in. It wasn't a great goal. It was short side, and the Oilers lost the game right there. And I think everybody out here who's listening to this knows what it's like to be down, okay? I know what it's like to be down very publicly,

and I don't like kicking people when they're down. Like Jeff, what else is there to say in that moment right there? You could see Koskinen sag, the team sagged, the game for all intents and purposes was over. And I thought the Oilers really gamely tried to come back but they didn't believe that they were going to be able to make it work and you know the Barkov one that made it three to nothing in come the Panthers a shot they score what a laser beam that came in from Barkov out of the

high slot over the pad of Koskinen it It's 3-0 Panthers here in the third. Long outlet pass by Gutis right on the stick of the far blue line by Barkoff. He takes it inside and cuts to the middle of the ice and decides just to let the shot go, and it's got a lot behind it. As he's able to get that wrister low down and beats Koskinen. You could hear it in the building. It was like a balloon going. And the tough thing is right now is

Smith is hurt. Skinner's in protocol. You have to win games. I was thinking to myself, take Koskinen out for maybe his own sake. You know, the problem is you have a young kid behind him

who's barely played and you are trying to win the games but i'm almost like thinking can you not put koskinen back in because he's broken too like you can imagine how he feels oh horrible so where do you go but the thing is that that isn't new like that's been an ongoing story between that goaltender and this organization. But I think it's just hit it's rock bottom now. Oh, it can get worse. Saturday's the Calgary flames.

Like here's the thing. My question is, does anything change between now and Saturday? It's one thing to lose to the Florida Panthers, but you can say are the best team in the NHL, make a real good case of the best team in the NHL right now. And they certainly showed that tonight it's another thing to lose to the calgary flames on hockey night in canada saturday yeah i mean i just wonder if we're going to wake up on friday

and we're going to have to redo this podcast because they go out and say screw it we're getting someone else just to say we got someone else i mean how many times have we said at some point you have to do something to change this and i know that ken holland doesn't want to make we've talked about this before doesn't want to make the coaching change i get it yeah i get it that's not his style he's resisting it he doesn't want to do that he doesn't believe in that okay and he probably knows he's going to have to overpay to get a goaltender. You brought up a really good name. Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders. And the reason is, is he has term. So if you're looking at that first round draft pick that you and I like to argue about occasionally here on this podcast,

you've made the point that you don't want to use that for a rental. Varlamov has another year left on his term. This is not a rental. This is a goaltender with another year left on his term. This is not a rental. This is a goaltender with another year left on his contract. Now, do you have the complications next year because you have Mike Smith signed for one more year and Stuart Skinner now needs waivers? Yes, but I think you're in a situation now,

if you're the manager of the Edmonton Oilers, you're not worried about next year at all. All you're worried about is the game against Calgary and trying to get something back for this team i don't know how you do it like i have a hard time pinning all this on the goaltending when you don't score a goal you can't pin it on i know i know but this time you can't escape it they were dominant and the game was over in that moment and you can say that okay they've got to be mentally stronger than that and it's true but i think when you are having trouble with all

the different goaltenders you've tried to use they were beaten there and you could feel like did you not think the game was over when it was one nothing0? Not so much 1-0, but the Verhege goal. There was a really great play by Reinhardt. That goes in. All of a sudden, it's 2-0. I don't know that the Oilers have it mentally together to come back from 2-0. And then you're right.

The one that really cracked the spine. It's a really nice shot by Barkov, and he's an elite-level player. But the NHL, can that goal go in from that distance with that shot? It's really tough for me to I'll get you off the hook for me no for me that shot can't go in that can't go in I don't like to kick

people when they're down I know really it really hurts me to do that I know the only problem with Varlamov is you know he's got a modified no trade so I'm not convinced he'd go to Edmonton you know the thing that Holland could do if he wanted to talk about him was, imagine that negotiation, Holland-Lamorello.

He could say to him, you need the cap room too. It's a great name. I'm just not sure it makes sense. But, you know, I think if you want to give a shot to a younger guy, there's Huso. Vanacek. You know, Vanacek to me is a really interesting name i mean vanachek signed for another year at 750 and you can give him a chance now it's not a guarantee but i don't mind that gamble i mean you know there's holtby ufa doesn't make any sense flurry

i can't see it you know corpuso, they're not crazy about him. He hasn't played well. I still wouldn't pay a big price, Jeff. We've had this argument plenty. I think you're at a point now where you have to say to your team, guys, you had a great period there. You had to hold together stronger, but we also know we owe you a goalie here.

You have to do it. Yeah. You know, I would like to say one thing too. I'd like to talk about something in particular. I wrote in my notes this week. I gave the impression to people. I didn't really realize it when I was doing it. I thought I was being flippant about it being in California and, you know,

Daryl Cates could talk to them in person if he wanted to. Some people took that to mean he was running their scouting meetings or dominating or domineering their scouting meetings. That wasn't the case. I think he gives his opinion to the management team, but I don't think he like sits in the scouting meetings and starts giving opinions. I wanted to clarify that.

I don't think that was happening. But again, I would like to close this out by saying I don't like panic moves, but I think the Oilers, they have to go get a goalie. They have to. This is their season right now, Elliot. Do you not feel this? That right here, this is their season to turn it around

or it becomes another wasted season. This is it. 100%. Okay, so clearly not the last time we're going to talk about the Edmonton Oilers, but let's pause the conversation. Turn our attention, Elliot, to another Canadian team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the previous games, I thought

I just thought it was different. I mean, today, I just thought we played soft and we made poor decisions defensively uh we couldn't sort anything out i just thought it was just just far different like each game has been different so it's hard it's hard to to talk about patterns other than the obvious in that we've been giving up leads but i just thought we got exposed today for being a team that was just soft soft and purposeless and just kind of playing the game and just hoping it was going to work out but uh you know we were missing important people tonight um on defense in particular so our team

game had to be very very solid and purposeful and try to make life easier for our defensemen and our goaltender and uh we didn't do that nearly enough you know hockey players get called a lot of things and hockey players can shrug off a lot of things you can say a lot of things to a hockey player you can say a lot of things about a hockey player. You can say a lot of things about a hockey player, but the one thing that I do know, Elliot, you probably should never call a hockey player soft. It seems like that is very much a line. It's the biggest insult. That for players, you just do not cross,

but there it was, Madison Square Garden, Maple Leafs squander another lead, a three-to-one lead. They lose to the New York Rangers, and that was one of the words that Sheldon Keefe used to describe his team. A bridge too far, Frej? No, I don't think it was a bridge too far.

If that's how he feels, that's how he feels. I will say this. I had someone say to me that it got lost in the other stuff, the soft stuff, but I had someone say to me that they thought the worst thing was what he said about Campbell. Well, I mean, he's not playing to the same level. I think that's obvious. We've come to expect his ability to make big saves, not unlike the one he made, made way through the third there.

Another time we left him wide open at the crease and made a huge save. We've come to expect those from him there was someone else was saying to me that if he was in key's position the way campbell's this year and it's pretty obvious they don't trust right now what's behind campbell as far as he's concerned campbell should be basically exempt from criticism so i thought that take was interesting but you're right soft is the biggest insult you know i think you could call a hockey player just about anything else and it wouldn't accept them as much as soft yeah i think that the gm really tries hard not to overreact to one game that's number one i think it's his job

to be detached his coach is in there he's on the bench and on this trip keith has shown a little bit of frustration. You know, when he said after the Arizona game... The day off, I think, is going to be important for us. I think our group looked tired here again today. I thought in that third period, you know, I thought we seemed like we hit a wall there to stop playing for a good chunk of time

in that third period. No life, no energy on our bench at a time when we needed it. So that, to me, is a sign of fatigue, in that third period. No life, no energy on our bench at a time when we needed it. So that, to me, is a sign of fatigue, which obviously we've been on the road here for a bit. It's our third game. It's a back-to-back and all that. But I guess we start to wonder about our conditioning

and where we're at there. He talked about the lack of conditioning, which really surprised me because that came on a night they got goalie. They dominated Arizona that night, and Vemelka just stood on his head and completely beat them. But you look at last week, that comment, and then you look at the other night, you can tell that the coach has a bit of a short fuse right now for what's going on.

And I think it's the GM's job to look at it from 35,000 feet and say, okay, I'm not going to overreact to this. And I'm curious to see what it's going to mean. They've, they still got a lot of time before the deadline. Like the thing that I took from that was, is the coach at all worried that he's not going to have Muzzin because if you don't have Jake Muzzin, then it really changes your defense. That's the defenseman in terms of the way he plays the body. You don't have anyone else like that.

And he's out with a concussion. And I think they're optimistic. It's not anything that's long-term. But with a concussion, you never know, right? Yep. So that was the one thing I kind of wondered about it was, is the coach worried that he's not going to have Muzzin and therefore it changes the complexion of his defense?

But I've kind of been told don't run with that theory right now. So the one thing that i thought about when i heard sheldon keeps comments was a couple of things one i thought about the jake muslin situation and you saw how you know uh rasmus sandin and timothy lily grin i mean lily grin got run by by chris crider i mean crider does that to a lot of defensemen but still like the one defenseman on that blue line that has snarl and has pushback and does things that the other defenseman can't is Jake Muzzin. And we've talked about that

before. He's, you know, the one guy where there's not a really, no one has an overlapping skill set on that blue line with Jake Muzzin. Like you look at the forwards, you can miss some forwards because there's some other people in the forward group that can do some of the things that the other big guys can,

but they just do it in a minor key. They can't do it as well as the big guys. They do it in a minor key. No one on the Leafs blue line does what Jake Muzzin does. But the other thing that I wondered about Elliot was, you know, with that frustration that you saw from Sheldon Keefe and, you know, the choice of words, which was interesting and controversial, I wonder how much in the back of his mind, he's thinking about what happened earlier that day. And that is the schedule coming out and having a look at what February looks

like for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the thoughts of maybe not having Muzzin and that stress compounding after another loss where they squander a lead. And that was a big day. That was a big day for the Maple Leafs. Listen, it's Madison Square Garden. It's the Rangers. It's the Leafs. It's going to be a big night.

I know you might look at it and say, you know, why would you waste that bullet calling your team soft on a midweek game in January? Like, why would you do it then? I just think that that was a day where the Maple Leafs got some news about their schedule and they probably didn't like it. Dovetailing with the situation with Jake Muzzin. Do you think that has anything to do with it? It's not as terrible as your regular theories.

But the only hole I would poke into your argument was I think that the Leafs and probably then Keefe knew about their schedule for a while. You know, the announcement wasn't made until, you know, 3 o'clock Eastern time on Wednesday, but it doesn't mean that they got their schedule at 2.55. I think they've known for some time now what their schedule would be. That's the only hole I have with your argument. The plays everyone's looking here, you know, the Sandin one with Reeves. Goes to Truba at the air point, climbs the blue line, back to Miller.

Miller flings a shot that goes wide. The rebound off the end boards. Reeves with a shot and scores! Ryan Reeves' second goal of the night. It's 3-2 Toronto. Well, that's the big body of Reeves. He goes in. He starts the first commotion on a hard forecheck on Dermott,

and the Rangers do a nice job. This puck comes back to Truba. Truba gets it over to Miller and the puck gets to the net and Reeves just hangs in there. He hangs in there, hangs in there and short side, top corner, Ryan Reeves on the board for the second time tonight and the second time in his first season as a New York Ranger. That one didn't bother me as much. I think he tried to battle him. He got beaten by a monster of a guy who would overpower any defenseman. I thought he gave it the effort.

The one with Kreider I didn't like, with Lilligren. I didn't like that one at all because Kreider just bullrushed him and Lilligren basically left the play. Savannah Jad wins the faceoff face-off back at the point Trubel with a shot safe Kreider rebound scores Chris Kreider is 25th of the season and the Rangers make it 5-3. Yeah that's a goal scorers goal the patience that Kreider has to kind of wait and then fire it upstairs all starts with with a face-off win. Mika Zibanejad, give Trouba credit. He gets the puck through and then Kreider, no panic with the puck. And it's upstairs, short side, Rangers 5, Toronto 3.

I'm trying to imagine what Dubas thinks about all of this. First of all, he's paid not to overreact to one game like coaches sometimes do number two the one thing i think that dubas really agrees with this year is that their new defense coach dean chenoweth what i heard was when they talked about overall philosophy they talked about the kids gotta play like sandin has to play and Lilligren has to play. You know, for one thing, they're at the cap in a lot of places. And for another, eventually you've got to find out what these two are capable of, right?

And I think Dubas really believes in that they've committed to this and he likes that. So I think what he is going to do is he's going to say, look, I want to watch this for a couple more months before the deadline and then kind of make my decision then. Like I had people texting me last night and this morning saying, okay, the Leafs need two defensemen. They need a righty that can play a lot and a lefty for depth.

And they need it like tomorrow. Like there was a lot of that. Sure. What happens by Keefe doing that is everybody who believes that, they now have license to do it. And Kessler once said to me in Vancouver, he didn't like, he says, I know you media guys like it when Alain Vigneault carves us, but I don't like it because it gives the fans license to do it.

They can say, well, I can rip this guy and say this guy's this because the coach does that. So everybody who said, ah, the Leafs, they play too soft, they're too soft, whatever, now they've got license to do it because it's been said. And so everybody's texting, ah, two defensemen, a lefty, if we're depth, a righty. Like if Dubas believed it texting, oh, two defensemen, a lefty, for depth, a righty. Like if Dubas believed it already, okay.

But I don't think he believed it already. I think he's looking at it like, I still want to see these guys as the intensity ratchets up before I make my decision. And I think that's what he's going to do. I think he's going to watch it play out. I don't think he'll overreact to one game even though everybody else is really unhappy you know i i wonder how much though that puts cal dubas in a difficult position like if he wants to make a move with the blue line and the coach is saying everybody here is soft does that not put him at a

competitive disadvantage when he's making calls i don't buy that i mean look like everybody can see what toronto's strengths and weaknesses are i just don't believe a coach's rant in the middle of january makes everybody think that oh toronto's even more desperate now i don't buy that i just don't leaves face off against the islanders on saturday that's a soft team so you're going from oh yeah no problem you're going from one soft team to another they're not going to get your face up against the glass on a consistent basis no they're a lot of fun yeah no they tickle you in front of the net too yeah they bring a feather and tickle your chin yeah it's wonderful nice easy game should mention as well ryan getzlaff's going to be aboard here a little bit later on in the podcast

sat down with him a couple of days ago, Elliot. Real interesting conversation as well. Like he's, you know, he's sort of assumed that role now of the elder statesman, the veteran, although I think you and I can still remember him coming in, him and Corey Perry as the big hotshot rookies on this Stanley Cup team that had, you know, a who's who of all, certainly elite level defensemen on the blue line, Scott Niedermeyer and Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin to say nothing, you know, of some elite level goaltending

with Jean-Sebastien Jaguer and like up and down the lineup. And there were these two kids, he and Ryan Getzlaff and Corey Perry. And it's interesting to hear Getzlaff talk about Perry and the relationship still to this day. He misses his bestie.

Yeah. He misses him. That was interesting though. And Elliot asked a little bit later on if Corey Perry tried to lure Ryan Getzlaff to Montreal. And then I think the conversation about how close he was to leaving in the off season, you know, on free agent day, you know, I think we had all heard about Edmonton. I think we had all heard about Nashville as well. I think we had all heard about Nashville as

well. And I would imagine there have been other teams that were interested in Ryan Getzlaff. And, you know, we asked him just how close he was, just how close he was. Don't ruin it. Don't give it all away. People are going to want to listen.

I'm not saying the answers. This is like the carrot in front of the mule, the cheese in the trap here, Elliot. These are the questions. The answers are coming up. This is lousy cheese. It's like Lim's like limburger okay well we'll move on then i want to stick with an ontario issue capacity limits for fans in ontario so this affects the toronto maple leaves it affects the ottawa senators it'll be 50 capacity elliot on february 21st full capacity on March 14th. The question becomes, how much financial damage does that do from now to then?

Oh, it does a lot. So before full capacity, Ottawa has 15 home games and Toronto has 10. Toronto's three and a half million a gate. Ottawa's about 600,000. You know, the teams say at this point in time, they don't know exactly how this is all going to affect overall revenues or the million dollars that the salary cap is supposed to go up, but it's going to hurt. So you know what people are wondering about as well, Elliot? The Heritage Classic. What's the deal there? They sound optimistic that they're going to be

able to make that work, But nobody wants to say anything because they don't want to rub anyone the wrong way by saying something that's incorrect. They don't want to jinx it. They sound optimistic. But, you know, I did see today that the soccer game between Canada and the U.S. is going to be at 50%. The NHL is hopeful, but until you know, you don't know.

You know, look, we've all got COVID fatigue out of respect for our burned out medical professionals who are doing unbelievable work. I really try not to go any farther than saying that I think a lot of us have COVID fatigue and a lot of us would love to see full buildings. I think it's really hard for especially players to see full buildings in the U.S. and not here. But what are you going to do, Jeff? Like, what are you going to do? I know. And listen, I sympathize with you on healthcare workers. Yeah.

And many of my friends work in that field too, and I know what they go through. I remember we had Craig Donaldson on at the beginning of the podcast. Great guy. As frustrated as I get, I think about that podcast often. Vancouver Canucks and the latest with their general manager search. Now, this has been a week where Kent Hughes was named officially the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens and had his first press conference alongside Jeff Molson and Jeff Gorton.

And all the attention now turns to the team we believe who will be naming next and that's Vancouver what is the latest Elliot well Vancouver has interviews going on Thursday and Friday two of the names that have been mentioned the most Scott Mellenby and Patrick Alvina are in town to get their interviews done and I think we'll see what happens after this week. Now, there was a report about Mike Futa. I've been led to believe that's incorrect. Now, I could be wrong, but I've been led to believe that's wrong. I give Jim Rutherford credit. He has not made this easy on us.

I think Sean Burke is another interviewee. I heard Anson Carter's name, but I was told that was a conversation. And while Rutherford and Carter, like I hear those two guys have a lot of respect for each other. I just heard it was just not good timing and it was decided not to pursue, but I know they had a conversation. I don't know if Ryan Johnson has been interviewed, but I have people keep telling me they think that he's going to be a part of this, especially as it grows. So I'm really curious about it. I've also heard in some of these searches that there are some teams that are still deciding over timelines that they want to allow people to be interviewed. And I don't know if that affects Vancouver. It might be more for Chicago and Anaheim

because I think Vancouver is getting closer. But I have heard there are some teams saying the timing for allowing interviews isn't very good for us right now. So we'll stay tuned and see what happens with the Vancouver Canucks general manager situation. Before we move on to anything else, you were on Rachel Doria's podcast today

when she was announcing she was going to Vancouver. So you must have thoughts on this. The Staff and Graph podcast. Yes. So yeah, I'm really happy for Rachel. That's someone that's worked hard in a number of different places in a couple of different capacities as well. I met her after, I think it might've been a Sudbury newspaper where she talked openly about, you know, at a really young age, I think she was like 20, talking about wanting to one day become a general manager in the NHL. And it's one thing to think that, and it's another thing to put that out. And I really admire that. I admire that about young people now more so than ever putting their ambitions out there for the world. We've talked about not living a world of secrecy anymore.

You put everything out there. And I was just impressed by that. And I've struck up a friendship with Rachel ever since. I've always been supportive of Rachel in whatever she wants to do. And I'm just happy for her. And I know the Vancouver Canucks have a really enthusiastic and hardworking person and someone that, you know,

has great things in her mind that she wants to achieve and she's smart. And what have we talked about before when it comes to your organization, you can never go wrong filling your organization with smart people and filling your organization with people that will challenge you and people who's, you know, the cement hasn't hardened around their ideas yet. People that can evolve their thought too. So I'm real happy for her. And as I told her today, as the news was made official, I very much look forward to her

ignoring my texts now and ghosting me as she's like, I'm working for a team. I can't talk to you anymore. If that happens, and I'm sure it will, I'll understand. And I'm really happy for Rachel. I really am. Well said. She's a good person. Vancouver got a good one there.

All right. There's something that I want to get on this podcast just because I really like this player. And I think when someone does something, the likes of which we saw Victor Hedman do earlier on this week, I think we should pause and note it. Two goals and one assist, over 32 minutes of ice time, four defensemen for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Los Angeles Kings. I'll tell you, we've talked about giving teams a reason to quit

or a reason to lose. Tampa won't take it. And Victor Hedman relished the chance to be part of a four-man D crew against the Los Angeles Kings. Your thoughts on Hedman? And what I would have to say, Elliot, is the best performance we've seen from a defenseman this season, period. I was going to write about this next week.

I watched it the other night. That night was why Tampa is a two-time defending Stanley Cup champion. So I'm watching the game, and I get a text before that game saying Tampa's only playing 4D, and LA is plus 170 on the money line. So even at home, LA is the underdog to win the game against the Lightning. And I looked at that and I said, Tampa 4D and it's worthwhile putting down a bet. And as you said, Hedman has an unbelievable game and Tampa wins the game. And I'm watching on our feed. I'm watching the Tampa feed.

So after the game, I'm listening to their post game show, which is still on with Paul Kennedy and Dave Andrichuk. And I can't remember the order of if it was Cooper first or Hedman first, but Hedman comes on and he's got this big smile on his face. And somebody asked him. Victor, Ryan described you as excited when you found out you were only going to play with four defensemen.

I mean, what is the challenge in that, though? It's not something that you have to do. Sometimes it happens during a game, but not for a full game. And so I'm looking at this. This is why i was writing the blog this week and he basically says i'm not gonna lie i had trouble uh napping today because i was i was pretty excited uh you don't want to have guys being hurt and not being able to play but you know we've never seen this before never been a part of it so it's new. So you got pretty excited about it and you knew you were going to be out there, you know, every other shift. And, you know, it was a challenge in itself.

And 82 game season, you need those challenges. So, you know, for us, it was something different and something exciting. So, you know, we don't want to do this on a regular basis. But for one game it was it was kind of fun to mesh yourself and see what you can do with only four guys so obviously very happy with the outcome and uh looking forward to getting some guys back next game i've told these stories about michael jordan before i think michael jordan's biggest strength was you could get a meaningless game against the Clippers in the dog

days of February and Michael Jordan would find a reason to score 40 points and win that was what I think separated Michael Jordan from mere mortals and I'm watching Hedman and I'm thinking of this because he can't sleep in the afternoon because he's so excited to try to win with 4d like here we are we're a january game against the la kings and like there's no rivalry between the kings and the lightning although that was a different conferences it was a mean game like it was a good hockey game there was there was a lot of meanness that night it was really entertaining but here's headman pulling the jordan move of i've got a game that overall you don't think that there's a lot of motivation here more than normal and i'm wired to play this game because we could win with 4d

and i just said like that's what separates the good from the great. Because he's like, we have every excuse here to lose, but we're going to win. And Ken Campbell was on the postgame Zoom with John Cooper, and he was talking about his Norris ballot and Kale McCarr's on it. And Cooper said something like. When you're filling out those ballots that he should be on it every year um you know cooper's got this kind of look he gives you when he's deciding if he's going to be really sarcastic or not with his answer but i think the thing that he basically

conveyed was victor headman's the best defenseman in the National Hockey League. He might not win the Norris Trophy every year, but he's the best defenseman in the NHL. And tonight was the reason why. I know I'm a failure as a person, but if I could conduct myself in a way, that is the way I would strive to conduct myself. This is where you're expecting me to say, Elliot, come on, you're too hard on yourself, right?

No, I know you're agreeing. Believe me. You know what he was, he at least told one person before the game who asked him about the 4D setup? Two words, dream scenario. And you can see he had been saying that with a smile. I have no doubt he was relishing the idea

of playing like beer league 4d i bet if you told him hey we're going down to 3d he'd be like all right bring it on good on victor headman that was a uh a command performance if they played with 17 forwards and one defenseman i think tampa should try that one night. The late, great Brad McCrimmon used to do that for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey. Now, I know it's junior hockey and it's not the NHL, but he would play complete games for the Wheat Kings.

He'd be out there for the whole game. Beast was awesome. We miss that guy. Speaking of defensemen, it seems as if the deeper we get into the season, the more teams keep popping up around Jacob Chikrin. And you wrote about the Florida Panthers being all-in on players,

that this is an all-in year. They're one of the teams tied to Jacob Chikrin, the Columbus Blue Jackets. I mean, I think a lot of teams have inquired. Some of the teams have the package that the Arizona Coyotes are looking for, which we've talked about a number of times here on this podcast. What do you make of the Jacob Chikrin situation here? Normally we say like, oh, all it takes is two teams to bid up a big price.

There's more than two teams involved in this situation. Yeah, I think there's a lot. I think the Coyotes prefer to send a mease though i don't think that that is absolutely 100 going to happen i think florida has let it be known that they're deep in this and that they are prepared to do what it takes to get it done i don't think they're the only one you've talked about la anaheim and st louis yep i think columbus is there i've heard the rangers i've had people disagree that it doesn't make sense for them but i've heard it i've heard rangers too i think that chris jury is going to be one of the gms to

watch i really do i the rangers made a lot of changes last year because you know first of all what were one of the issues that you know people said about the rangers last year that they weren't they didn't stand up for each other right they yeah like basically they were accused of being what keith accused the lease of being the other night and they're obviously a very different team although i gotta tell you jeff gordon he did extend crider and he brought truba in there so he did bring some guys with some beef and truba's been clobbering people this year. He has.

But, you know, their identity has really changed. They're going really well. I think Drury and Jim Dolan, I think they could take a big swing. I think they're in on the chikrin. I'm glad you've heard it too because Yes, I have. I had some people who said to me after I wrote it,

it didn't make sense. And maybe the swing won't be Chikrin, but I think the Rangers are preparing to do something. It does very much, if you read the tea leaves out there, it does very much feel like they want one forward and one defenseman. That in their mind, they're one shy of each. We need one forward and one D. I could see Chikrin. I could also see Jake DeBrusque up front. And you know what forward and one D. I could see chicken.

I could also see Jake DeBrusque up front. And you know what? You know who else I could see? I mean, this is, you know, not exactly breaking news here considering how much, you know, Gerard Gallant liked this player, but I think we can all see Riley Smith there.

If the Vegas Golden Knights have to make some difficult decisions to get Jack Eichel into the lineup when he joins the mix. Honestly, I can see Rangers making a big move for a big forward. And if they can, a big move for a defenseman. I hear a lot of noise around what teams think that the Rangers are going to be involved here and some stuff.

Take a look at it. Montreal just hired a new GM. They've got a lot of decisions to make. Yep. Chicago hasn't hired a new GM. They've got a lot of decisions to make. Like the one thing I can't figure is when this is all going to start. You know, the trade deadline is still two months away and there's not a lot of teams that have a lot of cap room. There's a lot of teams in LTIR, which makes it even more complicated. But I do think that there's some teams that are saying, look, we'd like to get started early if you want to. Well, there was, like I told you, one manager told me,

which is there was a feeling amongst many that there was a mini trade deadline in a lot of teams' minds that they all wanted to get something done before the Olympic break, that they were treating that as a deadline. Let's get some business done here before the Olympic break. We're not going to leave this thing to March 21st. Let's get it done before the players go to Beijing. And obviously that didn't happen. And so that kind of went away, but there very much is an appetite to do something early.

I think for a lot of these teams, I just wonder, you know, which trade is going to be the one that breaks the dam here? Because there's going to be one and that breaks the dam here because there's going to be one and then teams are going to scramble and react we see it all the time before we do anything else i want to talk about brad marshand for a second sure for a couple of different reasons number one this is a potentially altering injury yes bruce cassie didn't say much about it obviously didn't come back, I guess was his quote. But if you've ever injured your collarbone before,

and that's what it looked like. I know I'm kind of guessing here, but that's what it looked like, collarbone, shoulder area. When you saw that he couldn't raise his arms on the goal, that's, ooh. I have done that before. And I'm guessing I may not have the pain threshold of a guy who's been thrown around as much as Marchand does. I don't know.

You're pretty tough. You're pretty tough, Elliot. I will say this. I'm not soft about that stuff. I am not. But I remember when I heard it and I did it making the greatest catch of my life in softball in a game that we were losing by 16 at the time. Oof. I felt like throwing up. catch of my life in softball in a game that we were losing by 16 at the time. I felt like throwing up.

I couldn't believe the nausea that came through my body when I got that injury. So I can only imagine how much pain he was in. Like, I think the Bruins are fine to make the playoffs, but I think in terms of the Eastern Conference playoff race and the standings, that's a potentially altering injury. And, you know, I think Marchand, I don't think he was going to win it, but I think he was having a heart trophy level season. So we'll see what this means. But I'd like to talk about him for a second.

First of all, he grabs that fan's phone, which was hilarious. Aiden Smith. Aiden Smith. He grabs the phone, which was hilarious aiden smith is a kid aiden smith he grabs the phone which is hilarious and yes the kind of thing that i think the nhl needs more of hey what's up this is bm63 just walking off from uh warm-ups hope i don't know whose phone this is but uh hope you have a lot of fun tonight because i know i'm going to anyways gotta, got to go. See ya. But, you know, he's had quite

a month. You know, when our grandparents get to 85 years old and they just decide they don't care anymore and they're going to say whatever is on their mind, Brad Marchand has hit that point. He does it with the Olympics. They get blown out by Carolina the other night after a tremendous ceremony for Willie O'Ree. Considering O'Ree unfortunately couldn't be there, I thought everyone involved, the league, the Bruins, including O'Ree himself with a wonderful speech, did a great job. Carolina talks up the win and he hammers them on Twitter with, you're the reason we paid 20% escrow. And I don't have the tweet in front of me, but there was somebody who asked me to explain what Marchand meant there. And basically what has happened is Marchand is taking a shot at the

hurricanes for not being a high revenue team. Like say the Bruins are, and he's saying that one of the reasons the players owe money is because teams like the Hurricanes don't make enough money. Like, that's a real shot at them. And to give you an idea, there's been a few times over the years when labor relationships between the league and the players

have been really at their low, where people will go into wild conspiracy theories like this one. The NHL only keeps a team in Arizona to keep the salary cap down, which I think is insane. I don't believe that for a second. I think the commissioner is committed to the market and Bettman is, we've talked about this, out of his cold hands, is he going to let Arizona go anywhere? It's the absolute last case scenario for him. But that's the way in moments of extreme

disappointment about labor have people occasionally said things. So that's what Marshan meant for that. When his career is over, the TV networks are going to be fighting over him. And I think he takes Kevin's job before yours or mine. But, you know, the other thing too is someone said to me that, first of all, I wonder how many players are seeing Marchand doing this stuff, especially with the Olympics and encouraging him to keep doing it because he's less afraid than I think a lot of other ones are.

afraid than I think a lot of other ones are. I had a couple guys tell me that they think that the Olympics issue in particular, and some players who were supposed to go to the Olympics didn't want to play in the all-star game. They thought if they weren't allowed to play one, they shouldn't have to go to the other. You know, I'm getting told that the Olympics has ripped open a lot of wounds among the players and why they felt they weren't guaranteed to go and they think this has you know long-term ramifications for the players association you know basically we're in talks now about what's going to be the succession plan for donald fear and there's always a battle from time to time for players to be interested in this at times they get criticized for not caring enough about this kind of thing someone told me the olympics and

what marchand is doing is the tipping point of how a lot of players feel this was handled and they said to me it's a story that you have to be watching. With you saying that. All right. So with that, let's get to some emails and let's get to some phone calls as well. And there's a couple of interesting ones here. And one has a nice little historical slant to it. And we always appreciate that.

This from Matt. With the NHL having to reschedule so many games, do you think we'll see any teams playing three games in three nights anything in the CBA prevent this? And that's what I wanted to get this one in. You can't do it under the NHL CBA. Yeah, three games in three nights is not. I mean, there's a special exemption. Yeah, but in you can't do it under the nhl cba yeah three games and three nights is not i mean if there's a special exemption yeah but generally you can't do it it was interesting though i i had one player tell me that when they looked at their schedule

they said to themselves i knew it was coming but to see it look like that i wasn't prepared for it it's gonna be a lot's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot. I feel like you're in the American League all over again. This is from Josh in Florida. I'm new to the pod and already loving what I'm hearing from the two of you. Had a question about a potential winter classic between the Panthers and Lightning in Florida. What do you think that would look like in the future,

and do you believe it could be a realistic possibility with the growth of the sport into the state? Elliot, I love it. Well, I love it too. And I know the league has investigated it. And the biggest problem I've heard is that they're worried they couldn't do it just because of the weather, the humidity.

I think they would love to do it, but I've always heard they're just concerned about the ability to have ice outdoors in Florida, even in January and February. They're just not convinced they could pull it off. The thing is, if you're going to do it,

you do it now. Yeah. While these two teams are great and meeting in the playoffs, that adds a whole new layer to this rivalry. What have we talked about for so long? The inability of these two teams to get a rivalry going because as one was good, the other wasn't.

And then one was great. And now it's clicked because if you're not going to do it now, you just don't do it. Yeah. But if you're going to do it, the time is now before we get to get stuff here again, one quick voicemail, then we'll get to the captain of the Anaheim Ducks.

This from a listener in Hamilton, Ontario. Hey, Jeff and Elliot, love the show. As a lifelong Hamiltonian, I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that Hamilton was so close, 10 meters away from the finish line of getting an expansion team and having it snatched away at the very last moment. Do you happen to know any other interesting stories of cities, which almost got expansion teams, but for one reason or another didn't thanks. And I'll always listen to the show.

Hmm. Maybe not make it just expansion teams, but other cities that almost got NHL teams. I mean, Elliot, two weeks ago, we were talking about Saskatoon hosting a game. So Jeff, I know you have a couple of here that are good stories. The Saskatoon St. Louis won 1983. St. Louis doesn't even show up at the draft and there's rumors the team's going to Saskatoon

and Harold Ballard had like one of the all-time great lines saying, why would you go to Saskatoon? That's where God left his snowshoes. Whatever you think of Harold Ballard, that is funny. And the other one I think of, and it's not exactly the same, but there's a good story to be told there, a good book to be told there, was before the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, the Arizona Coyotes were literally, I think the year before,

about five minutes away from moving to Winnipeg before that franchise got saved. So those would be the two that I would think of. There was also a time in the early 50s where the American Hockey League legitimately rivaled the NHL in terms of quality of player and quality of team. And, you know, there was always, you know, the question, you know, the Cleveland Barons

were a legendary team. Real good. I mean, remember Johnny Bauer, you know, didn't want to join the NHL in the Toronto Maple Leagues because he could make more money playing with the Cleveland Barons. But there was a lot of talk and I believe the governors all agreed to it, but the Barons couldn't put the money together to make it happen, that the Cleveland Barons were going to join the National Hockey League. Cleveland was coming in, and what we now call the Original Six

would really have been the Original Seven. And the other one that I think of, Elliot, is 1967 expansion and the St. Louis Blues. Now, that market was granted a franchise, but no ownership. Like Chicago pushed for St. Louis to get a franchise, but there was no ownership bid. And that's another one of those, could you imagine if that ever happened now? We're just putting a team here and now we're opening up for ownership bids but that's what happened in 1967 and what the nhl had planned to do is if no ownership bid came forward they were putting the team in baltimore now baltimore and came up a couple of different times in expansion and eventually washington ended up with the team but those are a couple that came to mind for me. And when Seattle expansion happened, we were all reminded of how Seattle came close a couple of times, I think in 74 and 76. And there was actually a press conference announcing that Seattle was going

to join the NHL in the mid seventies. And, and that didn't go anywhere, but those are, and I'm sure I'm missing a bunch too but those are just a few nhl does things very weirdly over the years you look at the way some things were done listen look at the origins of the league how you know it was essentially a backstabbing that started this league and also how many teams did the norris's own at one time didn't they

oh man the six teams? I know, right? The Norris family owned all of them. Could you imagine now what would happen if you said, okay, we're awarding St. Louis a team, but we don't have an owner yet. We don't have an owner. We don't have an owner by this date. We're going to go to Baltimore.

Could you just imagine that? Listen, the NHL had to be drag kicking and screaming into expansion, right? It was like the threat of how good the hockey was out west and it was going to rival rumors of the WHA. And they liked it the way it was. If it was up to those owners, there would be no 1967 expansion. Thank you very much.

We've got a good thing going here. The story in Sports Illustrated about expansion, and there was one owner or somebody who was quoted saying, we played in 98 capacity why are we doing this yeah and right now it's it's the reverse where where can we put a team somewhere for 650 million dollars it's true okay let's get to our guest he is the captain of the anaheim ducks here's our interview with ryan getzlaff on 32 Thoughts to Podcast. Pleased to be joined by Ryan Getzlaff, the all-time leading scorer of the Anaheim Ducks,

captain of the Anaheim Ducks, a pair of gold medals, Stanley Cup in 2007. Ryan, first of all, thanks so much for joining us. How are you today? I'm good. Thanks for having me, guys. The pleasure is all ours. Now, when people ask you this question, we're going to get a lot about you, but I want to ask about your team to start. When people ask, what's the difference between last year's Ducks and this year's Ducks, considering, listen, the personnel is almost identical, what answer do you give them just a new year I mean we we went through some experience and stuff last year obviously with our kids and we you know having that many young kids in a lineup last year a lot of it was their first

time going through things and um you know and it makes it more difficult we had a lot of trouble scoring goals last year to keep ourselves in games. And this year we came in with a nice attitude and obviously the excitement back around the rink and stuff with fans and everybody helps a lot. And we were able to kind of get on a roll at the start of the year. Every team goes through its struggles. You're out of the lineup. The team struggles a bit. When you get back, Ryan, what's the first thing you say when you walk in to get everybody settled down? Well, I wouldn't say that I say anything. I think that it's more important that I'm there and doing my job. I'm not going to come in and be a savior by any means.

It's a matter of understanding certain situations. And I think some of those I've been through. So some of that experience helps me call in the room without having to say a whole lot. I'm able to come in and, you know, in certain situations during the games, I can take control of the puck or take control of the play and that allows our group to kind of settle down and fall in suit. And I think that comes with experience. And, you know, I've been lucky enough to have a lot of that. Let me jump on that one because one person that I talked to about you said one of the reasons why Ryan Getzlaff is a great player is

he doesn't dwell on the last play and he doesn't worry about the next play. You're very much an in-the-moment kind of player. Is that accurate? Yeah, to an extent, for sure. I think, again, being in the league as long as I have, being in some of the moments I've been able to be part of, it allows you to have the experience to understand that that's what it kind of takes from it and then move on. I've had some nice coaching along the way that has taught me that, as well as other players that I've watched along the way. Scott Niedermeyer was a prime example of someone like that that never really let anything concern him

other than what his next shift was going to be, and I tried to take that along as I went. It's funny you mention Scott Niedermeyer because I've always wondered what exactly bothered that guy. In all your time with him, I'll tell you this. The angriest I ever saw him was in that series against Detroit when the disputed goal knocked the Ducks out of the playoffs, whatever the year that was. I think it was 2009. But other than that, I never saw him mad.

What's the angriest you ever saw him? I don't know. I saw videos of Scotty twirling around in Jersey and trying to kick it out of the air at one point when he was in Jersey. But you've got to dig deep to find that video. But, no, he, you know, Scotty's a pretty level-headed guy. There's not a lot that bugs him. You know, I've seen him in the middle of a playoff run get a lot that bugs him you know i've seen him seen him in

the middle of a playoff run get a slap shot taken at him after a whistle and you know everyone else in the room was more upset than he was so he definitely uh had a knack for staying level headed at all times and understanding what the next job was that intermission by the way has what i've asked so many ducks players about that and Uh, and that's the Alfredson shot. Yeah. Oh, seven cup final. Yeah. And everyone's hot and you know, everyone's got a different version of what Scott said, but it's all the same message. Like guys settle down. We've got them. What do you remember from that intermission in your ducks room in 2007?

Yeah. I mean, I, I just remember, obviously our team was a pretty high strong team to begin with we fought a lot we did a lot of things that year so i wouldn't say we were the most calm cool team throughout that thing but no i mean i just remember scotty saying just forget about it don't worry about that we'll go get the game and that's all that matters kind of thing and that was the message that basically we had to take back onto the ice at that point. You know,

Ryan, it was 16 years ago that you showed up in Anaheim as a 20 year old and you look around, you've got Solani, you've got Niedermeyers, two of them. You've got Boschman, Andy McDonald.

You've got all these veterans and you're 20 years old. And I'm curious, how does it compare to a 20 year old Trevor Zegras walking in this year and players like yourself, Shattenkirk, Fowler, who've been around for a long time? Yeah. I mean, that's probably a better question for Z, but you know, I can only speak for myself obviously I understand at that point um when I came into the team I was pretty bright-eyed and you know and looking to kind of make my mark and make this team and I remember just you know being completely focused on that I I was I don't want to say luckily enough but I I never really grew up a big hockey fan so

I didn't come into the room in awe of all these people. I just came in trying to find my way and trying to find my space and understand what I had to do to compete at this level. So I was pretty fortunate to be surrounded by some pretty good people and help bring me along and make me understand what it was like to play in this league and what you had to do. And then now, these guys coming in, obviously the kids now are a lot different than we were but at the same time we're we're able to you know kind of relate in different ways and share experiences that I had when I was a kid and and trying to bring them along and help them

any way I can well I wanted to ask a bit more about that because you mentioned kids now, they don't wait. There doesn't seem to be as much of a hierarchy as there used to be. And there's good things about that. And there's bad things about that. And I wonder, you know, you were never afraid. You were always confident in yourself. When a guy like Zegras walks in or another young player walks in, do you ever look at them and say, was I this confident when I was 20? I like that you're using the word confident, not cocky. Well, to me, it's the same thing.

I don't really have a problem with it. Well, there is a difference between confidence and cocky, that's for sure. But to be at this level, you have to be confident in your abilities. You have to be confident in who you are. Otherwise, you're probably not going to make it at this level, you have to be confident in your abilities. You have to be confident in who you are. Otherwise you're probably not going to make it at this level. But at the same time, it's about respect and finding that understanding of, you know, what your position is, where you can be, where you can push. And that's, you know, the kids nowadays are coming in with a lot more, a lot more confidence and a lot more impatience, I'll call it. They don't want to wait, you know, for their opportunity. They don't want to wait for their opportunity.

They don't want to wait for their turn. They want to come in and contribute right away. And like you said, there's pros and cons to that. I mean, there's some of these kids now come in and they're able to contribute right away and they're able to drive the bus and understand their skill levels are just that high, that their hockey IQ will come with it along the way. But in the meantime, their skill takes over

and they're able to compete at this level. So there is both of those. But, you know, I think the biggest thing is we try and just teach them there is other elements to the game other than just your skill level and just your talent level, because those are the things that are going to push you to win championships and win consistently in this league. So what goes through your mind then when you see Zegerson Milano against the

Buffalo Sabres in the highlight of the year? What goes through Ryan Getz's mind? I called our coach after and told him I was going to retire. So that's it for me. I wasn't on the ice. I was at home actually when i walked out but those things are they're all fine and dandy and all that stuff to me is great that stuff pushes the game it adds the entertainment value the fans love it everybody which is great and you know when it works it's awesome and it's the same as you know back in the day when you made a backhand

pass across the rink in the air everybody if it gets there everybody thinks it's the same as you know back in the day when you made a backhand pass across the rink in the air everybody if it gets there everybody thinks it's great if it doesn't it's a stupid play so it's uh it's one of those things you got to kind of weigh out but i i thought it was great i mean they were having fun they made a play happen that everyone was able to talk about and it pushed our team you know to win the game did you know that they were going to do that no i was just wondering if you saw that and said i knew they were going to do it no no no that's nothing they they haven't they haven't uh it's not like they were practicing it or tried in practice or anything like that it came out of nowhere and z's always playing around and

flipping the puck around and all that kind of stuff. And he just happened to decide to toss it to Sonny, I guess, that moment. I mean, that play did so much work marketing the game. You know, Elliot and I were talking about this a while ago on the podcast here that, you know, you can create the slickest, coolest marketing campaign you want. But that one moment against the Buffalo Sabres did more to market this game than anything else that I've seen. I know it's just one element of the game, and to your point, it's not going to happen every... But that moment, when we look back on this season,

it's going to be tough to top that. There have been some great plays, some great moments, some great games. This season's been really good in a really tough situation. But I think we're going to look back on this year and go, oh yeah, that was the year that Zegers and Milano did that. Yeah, I mean, it was definitely cool. That was a big thing for the

game, and like you said, everybody was talking about going through it, which was really cool. Let me ask you about coaches, because in Anaheim, you've had Randy Carlyle twice, Bruce Boudreau, now Dallas Aikens, briefly Bob Murray went behind the bench as well. I'm curious about Carlisle.

How was he, or should I say, was he different the second time around with Anaheim? I think he tried to be. The one thing I've noticed about coaches, and I guess people in general, is that everyone can try and change and try to do things, but if your change doesn't result in wins and losses, or wins, I guess,

then you tend to refer back to your old ways. And I think that at times, Randy was a little bit guilty of that. He came in with a little bit different mindset and a little different attitude, but the team results weren't that much better, I think, at the point. So I think he reverted to some of his old ways,

which ultimately ended up with him moving on again. You know, you've had four coaches. Is there anything that's the same in all three of them? Well, I can definitely say that their passion for the game and their passion for winning is the same. They all care a lot about their players and all care a lot about the game and you know they have different ways of delivering that message and different ways of you know dealing with players and stuff but ultimately i know in their heart that they all had a similar interest in that they wanted to win hockey games

and they wanted to you know get the best out of their players. So, um, I definitely would say those are similarities for them. You know, we just saw, uh, uh, as we record this on Tuesday evening at, uh, seven o'clock Eastern yesterday, we saw Chris Pronger get his Jersey retired in St. Louis. Uh, you played with Chris Pronger, of course, in Anaheim, you guys won a cup together. We always talk about our love of grumpy hockey players on this podcast and elsewhere. And I have a soft spot. I'm a heart for grumps. Maybe that's why I like Brian Burke so much.

What was Chris Pronger like as a teammate? You know what? Prongs was great. I got along with Chris really well. I still talk to him all the time, but you're right. He's, I mean, he's kind of a grouchy guy when it comes across as a person and as a player, but he was a guy that drove the team. He's a guy that expected a lot out of players. And then he was the first one to let you know if you weren't doing it. So I learned that at a young age. As a young player, Chris wasn't afraid to demand the room or demand the ice, you know, in practice or whatever it was.

He made you work for whatever you were going to get. So he taught me a lot in that aspect. You know, Ryan, I'm really curious about that because, you know, there's the famous story about Philadelphia when he slammed Giroux into a wall and Giroux didn't complain about it. He realized what was going on. You are no shrinking violet. You are not afraid to stand up for yourself. Like what was it like when Pronger came for you and would you go right back at him or would you just say, if this is my initiation, I've got to take it. My memory isn't great, but I don't know if me and Chris ever had a moment like that, that he felt like he had to attack me. felt like he had to attack me but i do know that i do know that he was demanding and there definitely was times where he would yell at me in practice to do something properly or not or whatever and and again i had a lot of respect for chris and listened to a lot that he said

you know in those situations but i definitely would stand up for myself and and work through it with him um and i think that's why we got along great. Cause I, I never turtled away from anything and I never, you know, worried too much about anything. You know, those guys kind of taught me as well as Randy, that this is a tough game. And you know, if you can't take criticism, it's going to be a long road for you. I'm looking over that list and we mentioned it before you walk into a room, you've got, well, Pronger came a bit later, but you have the Niedermeyer brothers, you have Teemu Salani, you have guys like Andy McDonald. Boy, you were really fortunate when you started out.

Those are great players, very different personalities between all of them, very demanding of themselves, some hall of famers. I mean, you walked into an area where you knew that you were going to get an education and it was your choice on whether to accept it or not. You know what? I've said it all along. When I got drafted to Anaheim, I kind of fell in the draft and it was a little bit of a weird scenario at the start. And, you know, and from the day I got to Anaheim, I, I realized how lucky I was that I ended up there. I watched some of my other guys that I came up with go into certain situations,

and some succeeded, some failed. I was very fortunate to end up where I did with a new ownership group that was pushing the right way and understood what it took to win. Then, like you said, surrounded the team with guys like that. They were great character people uh not only good players but great characters and um and i got to take a lot out of them um in different areas did they clobber you at the rookie dinner how bad was it well you know what our rookie dinner actually worked out pretty good because A, it was in Canada at the time where the dollar was not so good. Yeah.

And B, I think there was, I want to say there were seven of us. Ah. It wasn't too bad. We got to split it up pretty good. Because I could see like Solani ordering, you know, really expensive bottle of wine and saying, oh, there's seven, one tooth. Oh, then I can go a little bit higher on the menu. He still does that to me now.

Do you miss Corey Perry? Yes. What's the biggest thing you miss? Everything off the ice. Me and Paris are, you know, best friends. We grew up in this game together. We were able to go through lots of highs and lows and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, we did, we did almost everything together off the ice,

dinners out, all that kind of stuff. So I think that's the biggest thing I miss is just that camaraderie. Not that I don't have that with some other teammates. Pears has been a really good friend of mine for a long time now. So how hard did he work to try to get you to go to Montreal last year? No, Pairs never worked hard in his life. Are you kidding me? He would never work hard enough to do that because he wouldn't want to admit

that he wanted me there. So no, I think we talked about it one time, but, you know, ultimately we've never been that involved in that kind of stuff. Hockey kind of part of it is a mood point for us when we have conversations to tell you the truth. A couple of things about your draft, because you mentioned that a couple of seconds ago where did you think you were going

like did you have an idea before anaheim who was going to take you i had a pretty strong feeling that i was going to go to the rangers i think they were picking at 11 or something and they'd kind of told my agent not told them but kind of hinted towards the fact that if i was still there they were going to take me and so that was the only one that i kind of hinted towards the fact that if i was still there they were going to take me and so that was the only one that i kind of thought that i was going to end up and they ended up taking huge estimate um that year that was 2003 and a hall of famers in that class like in guys that have you know shattered records and won stanley cups i am curious who do you think the last man standing will be from that draft the last player because whether it's i mean you're in the conversation i think you're seventh

you and corey perry are i think you have a similar amount of games played but there's you know dustin brown and there's ryan suiter and patrice beron. Who do you think the last man standing is? And do you think it might be you? I know it won't be me. I don't know. There's no way my body will let me be the last man standing. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, that was such a unique group.

But yeah, there's still quite a few guys going. So hopefully they can continue on. Did you get the sense even then group, but yeah, there's still quite a few guys going, so hopefully they can continue on. Did you get the sense even then that you look around at your draft class, like we look at it now and we say, this is one of the best drafts of all time. That first round, you guys are all in Nashville for the opening round. Did you all sort of look around and go, this group's going to do some damage in the NHL and do some damage for a long time? Did you guys know how good you were?

I don't think you ever look at it like that when you're that age. I think that realistically, until you actually make the NHL and make a hockey team, you're kind of on the outside hoping to be in. But I think we knew that obviously we came up together. There was a lot of hype on that draft. Fortunate enough to play a lot of international hockey together for the canadian guys and then the americans obviously were playing against them um and then the europeans came in too

so it was a really fun experience i mean the whole growing with that group from the under 17 tournaments on was really fun i remember interviewing brent sutter the night after you guys won the gold in the 2006 world juniors and And he said that was a five, nothing blow out of Russia in that gold medal game. And he said he knew that Canada had won it on the first shift. And he said, that's one of all the games he's ever coached. That remains, I think his favorite. Just what do you remember about that night, that team, and that game? That was really my first, you know,

true experience at that kind of level. It was like that elite level that the fans were passionate about, that everybody was on board. I never played in a Memorial Cup before that or anything, and to go into that building and just see red everywhere and people going crazy was just a unique experience that got to push us along the way. And obviously, from losing the year before, it made it even sweeter because we came there on one mission and we executed throughout that whole tournament and learned a lot.

That was a fascinating time because that Grand Forks team, one of the greatest junior teams ever assembled, maybe the best junior team ever assembled. You guys win the gold and everybody goes back to their team. And then the first time Calgary and Red Deer play, you're fighting teammates. It's a throw down. And then I remember, I think it was the first game. I remember being at Budweiser Gardens in, I think it was the first game after that. It was London and Kitchener. And right at the end of the game, Corey Perry and Mike Richards throw down.

Like, there was like two seconds left in the game. Now we're going to get Corey Perry and Michael Richards right here. Are they going to dump the helmet in Michael Richards' case? They are. They're going to go right at center ice. Corey Perry and Michael Richards. You bet. This is Michael Richards trying to light a fire

under the kitchen arrangers and Corey Perry has shown that he's not exactly shy from the physical doing as well. Now Perry and Richards trying to get at one another. Teammates not long ago of the World Juniors. Beard foes right here. Richards and Perry swinging away and wailing away at each other in a fight that has spilled to, this is like one of the greatest

junior teams we've ever seen. And they look like they hate each other like a week later. That was, can you describe that dynamic? Like the Perry Richards thing was kind of interesting because I'm watching this fight and it's almost like they're laughing, like they're having a good time with it. But then I watched, you know,

you guys read during Calgary throwing down, uh, nobody was smiling, Ryan. Honestly, I think that there's more just a contribution to the fact that we, we were just competitors you know that team was built that way we were had one mission at that tournament and that was to win the tournament

not that we didn't get along there everybody was you know we were a tight group we had a great time but i think when you have competitors like that we just don't really turn it off we don't really know how to so i think that next game was you know going into that after all the celebration all the talk of the team and yada yada yada we got back to the team and i just remember that you know lad and and for the you know they kind of had they had their battles throughout the year the whole time they just said that they wanted to fight and then praise asked me and and i think that was kind of just both our messages to our team that hey we're back here now we're not you know the canada thing doesn't mean anything anymore that's the way we looked at it anyway ryan will you be a coach or gm in this league i don't know

i i can probably say for certain that i will not be a coach whether i go down the gm road at some point i'm not sure i'm intrigued by the management side of things and always like to kind of help understand what's going on. And I think it would be cool experience to be part of building a team, whether it's a direct GM job or, or something in the background a little bit more, but we'll see. Obviously Paul Correa and Scott Niedermeyer are part of the group that are helping select the Ducks' new general manager.

Did you ever say to them, it's nice that you're part of the group, but remember, I'm the highest scoring Duck in franchise history? I haven't had to throw that out yet. I haven't had to throw that out yet. But I'm just curious about it in the sense that, look, I know it was, it was tough this year with, with Bob Murray and the reasons that he's no longer the GM of the ducks, but I understand

you guys did have a relationship in the sense that he would come to you periodically and ask you about what he might've been thinking. Like there are some players who don't want that. They're like, just tell me who's on the team and I'll deal with that. Like there are some players who don't want that. They're like, just tell me who's on the team and I'll deal with that. And there are some players who say, I appreciate the input and I'll tell you what I think. What was it with the two of you and how often did you want to know things? Well, like I just previously said, I've always been intrigued in helping understand what it takes to build a winning

team, what the thought process is. So I always appreciated Bob coming in and asking my input and kind of discussing some of that stuff with me. Ultimately, at the end of the day, my relationship with Bob was he asked for my input and then, you know, he did what he had to do. You know, and I always made that clear to him that this isn't i'm not making decisions i'm not trying to do certain things he just wants to know where i can help him understand what i think we need where i see problems or holes so to speak and that's kind of how we went about it one of the interesting stories around you in the last off season um revolves around free agent day. And it wasn't a certainty that you were going back to Anaheim. We had heard Nashville, we had heard Edmonton, no surprise to either. And I'm sure there were more as well. I asked someone in Anaheim, did you think he wasn't coming back?

And this person said to me, I was concerned. Should this person have been concerned in the first place? I don't really know how to answer that. I think concerns are raised when, obviously when there was no contract come that day, that's a concern. I think that some of that had to do with, me and Bob had a little bit of a miscommunication on what I was expecting as far as timing. I think that when that happened, the day approached really fast without us really even giving it thought.

Like I said, that was kind of a miscommunication between me and Bob. He thought I had meant one thing and I, I meant something else and yada, yada, but the timing of it was weighing a little bit and free agent day comes and phone calls start coming. And, um, and obviously the level of concern is going to go up when you start listening to other things and, and talking to other teams. So, you know, ultimately I don't know if it was ever that big of a concern. Anaheim was where I wanted to be. And then it was just a matter of working out the contract and understanding what was expected on both sides. So, you know, once the talks got going and everything like that,

then everything was fine and we worked it out. Ryan, can you ever see yourself wearing a different jersey or is it Anaheim or Bust? Or could you see yourself, like you look at is it anaheim or bust or could you see yourself like you look at cory perry now it's been dallas it's been montreal it's been tampa he's on the he's like a band he's on tour could you ever see yourself doing that no that's uh you know that's just not for me um i think at this point in my career I've put way too much into this organization and they put way too much into me. I think at this point, you know, I'd like to retire an Anaheim Duck and hopefully they have the same plan. Last question for me, Ryan.

I know the obvious answer for you is probably 2007 and winning the Stanley Cup. And that makes a lot of sense. But if you park 2007 for a second here, for me, my favorite Anaheim ducks series is one that you guys didn't win. And that was 2017 against the Nashville predators where every game and every shift was nasty, like a horror movie at times, a car chase scene at time. Like it was, there was so much in that series.

It's one of those series you just didn't want to end as a fan. I'm sure as a player, your bodies are like, okay, can we please end this now? This is vicious. What do you remember from that series? And do you, outside of 2007, have a favorite Anaheim Ducks playoff series? Well, I mean, it's hard to really say a favorite series I guess you know on a personal level

that year was a lot of fun that was one of the last times I can remember going into the playoffs feeling healthy and and energetic and ready to go and the Nashville series was exactly you know like everything you just said I mean it was a it was a war zone out there and we, I enjoy that part of the game as much as anybody. So it was, uh, I had a blast and obviously would have liked to come out on the other side of it, but, uh, but gained a lot of experience and, um, and just enjoyed competing like that. My last one for you is this, you have played in a lot. We talked a little bit about the Canadian, uh, world junior team.

You've also won two gold medals. So you've played a lot internationally. Who is the player that you never played with who you have the best friendship with from all of those teams? Oh, jeez. That I never played with? Played with in the NHL.

Oh, in the NHL. Yes, from those Olympic or national teams that you have a good friendship with. I could probably name quite a few, but you know, the difference is, is that I, I live here all year round. Most of the people that I hang out with on a, on a daily basis are people that I've played with here and, um, have come back here. Like I said before, I've been very fortunate to play with a great group of guys for a long time and you know since i was under 17s a lot of us played together so you know i still i text with

dowdy and those guys all the time even though they're our enemy up the road but you know once they get off the ice he cracks me up and um but you know and i talked to sid and yeah we just kind of you know every time guys are around and we're able to touch base and it's great and it's worth it when you when you go through things like that together and go through those kind of experiences let's finish with this one then so ellie and i uh work with kevin bx now and have for a couple of years you played uh with kevin bx uh yeah well that's what i'm going to get to here what is the best thing about kevin bx and the worst thing about kevin bx the best and worst thing are his hair no i mean no i honestly i would i would probably say juice's overall attitude i think is his his

best and worst attribute it it gets him in trouble just as much as it gets him out of trouble. So he's always been able to trade whips with just about anybody at any time. And, you know, sometimes it gets him in trouble and sometimes it gets him out of trouble. But he's always entertaining, that's for sure. This has been a lot of fun. Ryan, thanks so much for spending a lot of time with us today. We really appreciate it.

You got it, guys. Take care. Okay, hope you enjoyed that interview with Ryan Getzlaff. We wish him all the success in his future endeavors, both this season with the Ducks and beyond. And will he be the last man standing from the 2003 draft class? Taking us out, Elliot, a songwriter and composer from Wisconsin who's classically trained and is heard in his indie folk approach. J.E. Sund can almost cover any

song, but it's his three full-length records that showcase his skills. From his latest album, Nine Songs About Love, here's J.E. Sund with Sunset Strip on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy. Plane touchdown, I read your text. Baggage claim at LAX.

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