32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Bolts, Brady & Bukauskas

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

We have a series! Jeff and Elliotte break down the response from Tampa Bay in game 3 (00:10), the time allowed for a coach's challenge (10:45), and the exchange between Charles Barkley and Kyle Bukauskas (13:00).The guys also discuss Ethan Bear’s future in Carolina (14:45), Vancouver landing Andrei Kuzmenko (18:15), the San Jose GM search (21:45), Peter DeBoer and Dallas (23:55), the identity of the Philadelphia Flyers according to new head coach John Tortorella (27:00) and the Hockey Canada investigation (33:30).Check out the limited edition 32 Thoughts merchandise line HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Production support by Mike Rogerson.Audio Credits: AM 970 WFLA, Sportsnet and Sportsnet 590 The FAN.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.

excellent good job that's good that's good and that elliot friedman is what we like to call in the business a response yes welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast merrick alongside friedman and delage six to two is the final score gabriel landis cog may have opened up the scoring to make it one nothing sorelli responds to tie it up this was very much a Tampa game. This was very much the story of the Tampa Bay Lightning responding, the Tampa Bay Lightning players getting hurt, going away, coming back. We've heard so much and talked so much about the revolving door of this guy's going down the hallway and another guy is coming out. This was a story of Tampa chasing a goaltender,

and this was the story of the Tampa Bay Lightning, as we like to say, reminding the hockey world that there's still the Tampa Bay Lightning. Your thoughts on game three? It sure was. It was all of that, Jeff. I think everything you described there was true. And it still remains to be seen if it's a total game changer. I think we all knew that this was going to be

Tampa's best game of the series. Stemco's talk total game changer. I think we all knew that this was going to be Tampa's best game of the series. Stemco's talk following game number two, that they were going to be a lot better and this was going to be a lot different. It's a series, as the old cliche goes. I think now we've got to expect we're going to get an answer from Colorado. I think there were times in that second period, Jeff,

when it was 5-2, you're sitting there and you're waiting for the Colorado response, which never came. I think that the avalanche knew this was not going to be a sweep and they knew Tampa was going to crawl off the mat, but I'll guarantee to you the one thing Bednar is going to harp on them. Where was the, like the second period pushback? Where was that challenge that everyone was expecting? You always look for that morsel

that you can use to motivate yourself tampa did it colorado didn't and i'm curious to see the colorado response because tampa pushed them around tonight there was some response from the team and there was response from one player specifically who uh i think has been outstanding although we don't really talk about him a whole ton. And that's Gabriel Landeskog. Here comes McKinnon dashing in. Rantanen kicks it back. McCurr across on the other side.

Landeskog scores! Gabe Landeskog has doubled down tonight. And it's 3-2. I think Landeskog has been one of their best players. In the entire playoffs. And through the first three games here of the Stanley Cup final. So there was push from a player like Gabriel Landeskog. But, you know, to me, Elliot, the moment they chased Darcy Kemper

was a big one for me because what do we talk about going into this Stanley Cup final? If it comes down to Vasilevsky versus Kemper, that's not a fight that the Colorado Avalanche want to have. That's not a fight that anybody wants to have, to be quite honestly. But that's not a fight that the Avalanche want to have. I just wonder how much of a quote-unquote moment, I'm not going to say turning point,

but how much of a moment that will be for the remainder of this series, Darcy Kemper getting pulled after Pat Maroon makes it 5-2. Well, Amber overreacts to everything because that's what he is he's a born overreactor he's like there's a goaltending controversy I'd start Fransos game four I'm like Dave oh no no no they're not starting Fransos in game number four you know Fransos finished off the Edmonton series and the moment Kemper was healthy he was back in that like Fransos is not playing game four but you know this wasn't a good night for Kemper you know obviously something is going on between him and Perry where now Perry has punched Kemper in the stomach and back-to-back

games I just wonder if you know they start saying okay stop talking to Perry and you Perry stop punching the goalie I think they got to Kemper tonight the thing about this is this is what we're reminded of I think it's Lou Lamorello has a saying winning is winning and losing is losing it doesn't matter in a playoff series how bad you lose Tampa in game two had one of the worst losses I've ever seen them have and they came back with this tonight there's no reason Colorado can't be the same it's a one in the loss column the four goal differential it doesn't matter it's a one in the loss column and you shake it off and you come back and I have no doubt that game four is going to be the best game of this series by a mile. Because two teams are going to be desperate.

One of the problems is for Tampa is they might be hurting as well. Whether it's Nikita Kucherov, who we saw in the third. I think Kucherov is okay. You want to talk about overreacting? I overreact when I see injured players in the playoffs. Yeah, I get that. And I say to myself, I know how much they want to stay about overreacting i overreact when i see injured players in the playoffs yeah i get that and i say to myself i know how much they want to stay in the game and to see someone leave the ice the likes of which we saw nikita kucherov i always get kind of weird about it like i know how

much these guys will put up with to stay in the game so to see them leave is a tough one which is why the nick paul story was a great one. Yeah. On Monday night, goes out, comes back, like he's hobbling around the ice fridge. Like we talked about Stamkos' goal in the bubble against Dallas. Yeah. I'm seeing Paul score against Colorado as he's hobbling around. I'm like, I don't know if he's going to be able to skate

from the bench into the offensive zone. He's wobbling so much and he ends up scoring. Yeah. It's a wonderful one but i i do wonder we all do at this time of year you know how much you know dinged up players is going to affect everything and you know case in point for me you know nikita kucherov and uh certainly nick paul to say nothing of the fact that in this game we didn't have braden point and we didn't have andre burakovsky for colorado or cadre who i saw tonight post game out. Look, I think Kucherov's going to be okay.

This is just the immediate aftermath. I'm just walking home from the arena. I didn't get a sense of the immediate aftermath that there was anything serious there. You know, Paul obviously played. Burakovsky and Kadri, we'll see. You know, this was the point in the series where the Avalanche wanted to have an idea of if they were going to have Caudry.

As we record this, it's two weeks after the surgery. And this was when they wanted to know if he could be a player. And I get the sense they're still hopeful that he's going to be a player. Burakoski, I don't know. It's fresh. And I don't know the exact specifics of the injury. You know, the whole point thing to me tonight is really interesting, Jeff, because a couple guys saw him in the morning after the skate,

which he didn't participate in, and he was really limping. He didn't look right. And you know him. He wants to play. I don't know if we're going to get full clarity on this, but I really wonder if this was not a point decision. It was a Cooper or team decision because I'm watching this tonight and Tampa was better positionally. And I just wonder if they thought that point as good as he is, just couldn't get to the places that he needed to go. And it could be me overthinking it but i did wonder at watching it tonight like

riley nash he's not uh braden point but he's smart and he's healthy and you know he can get to spots i just wonder if that's what this was about that they're saying you know just braden we love you you're one of our best players we just need to be be right positionally and you can't be there right now. I, it may be, it's just a conspiracy theory, but that's what I'm thinking, man.

That's a tough conversation to have with someone like Braden point. That is such a hard conversation to have. You know, one of the great moments, again, you always look for moments within a game that turn into moments within a series and maybe moments that help turn things around. I don't know fishing for a story but it felt like

it was really important when it happened and my head hasn't hit the pillow yet so I'm still thinking about this game a lot and it still seems really important to me. The offside? No, not the offside. The Andre Vasilevsky save on JT Comfer.

Won by the Avs. At the right point, McCarr takes a center point. Shoot! Save made! Rebound shot! Blocked! Comfer had an open net. I think Nick Paul blocked that second one.

Wow. Headed the other way to center. The first shot from McCarr was tipped, and Vasilevsky made an incredible save. And it looked like the net was open for Comfer on the rebound, but the puck stayed out. And right there, and Comper got another save by Vasilevsky. I thought Paul blocked the second one, but no, Vasilevsky got over. Big saves,

boy, two great saves. Oh, I think that's a big moment for sure. I thought that thing was huge and I can't get it. Coming away from any game, there's going to be a few flashpoint moments that you're going to have in your head. Like that Andre Palat goal.

Just the way that he set it up, the way it was executed, the fact that it happened against Makar and Taves, where he placed the puck so perfectly. I'm kind of a big Andre Palat fan. I like the guy. And so I can't get that out of my head. And I also can't get the Vasilevsky save on JT comp for the pad save,

keeping that one five, two, because if it gets the five, three, maybe there's some oxygen there and it turns into a different game. To me, there are a couple of moments that really ended any idea of a Colorado comeback.

To me, that was one of them. I really think though, Jeff, that a huge moment was that challenge. You know, as we said on the broadcast, that was a long time. Oh, it sure was. They were given a minute 20 and that's long.

I guarantee to you, they're going to be coaches looking at that and saying, why hang on a second, pause. Why did they give them that long? That was like uncomfortably long. Like what's going on here? Amber was getting mad because his dinner plans were affected. But so years ago when they brought it in, one of the questions I asked was how long do coaches get to decide? And what I was told was they say, okay, puck goes in, team allowed to celebrate, TV allowed to deconstruct the goal, show some replays, and then we drop the

puck and i said well how long do you think that is and they go we estimate that about 35 40 seconds so brian spear the producer he timed this in a minute 20 and the other thing that was really interesting was they were about to drop the puck and the bench popped up and they let them make the call look it's a huge game it's a huge call if tampa's wrong they're down two nothing in the series they're down one nothing in the game and colorado is going on a power play that the lightning can't stop right now yeah you know i mean the end of the day, Jeff, they got the call right. And that's the most important thing. But that was a long, long time. And I'm going to bet you that there are some coaches and maybe teams that might not have gotten such a benefit of the doubt as Tampa and Cooper.

I guess you were in your breaks or you earn your respect. But they got a long leash on that one. but they got a long leash on that one. Scale of one to 10, how hot are Jared Bednar, Joe Sackick, and the rest of the Avalanche organization about how long that took? How long John Cooper was allowed to think about the challenge? I'll just answer as if I was the Colorado GM.

I would say, okay, they got the call right. But I would say, if we get something that close, we get the same leash. We get a buck 20 to think about it? Yeah, if we get something that close we get the same leash we get a buck 20 to think about it yeah if we get a close play you have to give us the same length of time that they got and i would be saying that i'd be saying hey you gave them 80 seconds i'd have a stopwatch i'd be pointing to my watch like you're early my 80 seconds aren't up yet is that because we all know gms will call after games or when they're allowed to call? Is that going to be the nature of the conversation?

Like Joe Sackick is calling with his grievance and then that's going to be the big one. If I was Joe Sackick and according to Wikipedia, I don't have a heart trophy, two Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold medal. But if I was Joe Sackick, I would just say, Hey guys. Okay. Cause we got the call, right? But just remember the next time you got to let us breathe too. Okay. Anything more on the game from you?

No, I mean, we've got a series now. And like I said, game four going to be the best game of the series. No question. Can we talk about the biggest moment of the night? When Barkley talked about how good looking Kyle Bukoskis is? When Charles Barkley called Kyle Bukoskis the Canadian Tom Brady? Charles, well said. Appreciate the time. Hey, first of all, you're a good looking man too.

You're like the Canadian Tom Brady to me. Well, that's maybe the biggest compliment I've ever received from a big man. So Charles, thank you again. No, thank you for having me. Chris, I want to hear more about Kyle. Absolutely. Sir Charles. Can we just pause and reflect on Sir Charles calling our good friend and colleague, Kyle Bacoskis, the Canadian Tom Brady, in the perfect moment of the night. In an unrelated story, when I walked into the studio after to where we go get changed out of our suits, Kyle kind of said to me very quietly, like he whispered, he goes, I should be hosting this show.

It's so good. I just loved it. I'm really happy for him. Anyone who knows Kyle knows what a great guy he is. I told him it's one of those things that's going to stay with you for the rest of your career. And it's a good thing. Yeah.

You know, it was funny. I sent him a screen grab of Kyle looking like completely shocked. And I sent it to him and he was kind of laughing about that. It's a great moment for him. I'm really happy for him. Barkley, man, I wish I could go on air like that. I'd be a lot more entertaining. That was awesome. The only thing I'm disappointed in with Kyle, and I'll send him a text when we're done this podcast, I'm disappointed he hasn't used that

in his Twitter bio yet. That should be the first line of his Twitter bio. Give them a little bit of time, Jeff. Charles Barkley calls you the Canadian Tom Brady. The minute the exchange is done, are you not changing your Twitter bio like that right away? I would probably give it a day. Get lost. Not a chance. I would want to build up the anticipation. You'd want to

countdown clock. Elliot is about to change his Twitter bio. Changing Twitter bio in dot dot dot. Alright, so 6-2 is the final score. As Elliot mentions, we have a series. Game 4 should be a doozy. Tampa is very

much back in the Stanley Cup final. News, the latest, coming up next on 32 Thoughts to Podcast. So Elliot, will the bear be released from Carolina? You talked on Monday night during the game how Ethan Bear is now allowed to talk to teams. So is the bear free to wander? He is, although I don't necessarily guarantee yet that he's going somewhere else did you think of that all night is the bear free to wander by the way in the pause between our game description a little bit of yucking up with amel and us uh returning to the podcast that's that's how long

it took me to come up with will the bear wander which is why it's so lame because i dedicated about zero brain cells to coming up with it all All right. You said it, not me. Anyway, I don't think it's too bad. This is what I hear is going on. I heard about this on the weekend. I wasn't able to confirm it. And I think I got it nailed down today. So basically what's going on here is that Ethan Baer was a healthy scratch throughout the playoffs, but I've heard Carolina still wants to sign. I heard they have made them offers or they've had conversations and just the two sides are are not close whatever the case is the two sides are not close remember last year i know it's a bit different for ufa than an rfa but the hurricanes did allow dougie hamilton before free agency to talk to other teams.

Yes. So Carolina is a bit different when it comes to this. They've done it with their coaches too. Like they say, look, like our limit is X. This is all we're paying you. If you think you can go out and get more, shop yourself and all power to you. And that sounds exactly what has happened here with Bear. They can't reach a deal carolina's got

a limit and he's allowed to go out and talk to other teams and you know i haven't found out which teams yet but there are some teams i believe who are interested you know the one thing is bear is not a ufa he's an rfa rfa with arbitration rights too that's a big with arbitration rights, too. That's a big one. With arbitration rights. That is a big one. And before July 13th, Carolina has control over this. Nothing can happen without Carolina's consent until July 13th. I do have a feeling that a lot of this surrounds arbitration. And I had an agent who called me after the segment tonight, and he said to me, this is what he would guess the issue is between Bear and the Hurricanes. And he wouldn't tell me who it was. He said there was a player who was arbitration eligible and had a deal with his team and said he's not announcing it until after July 1st.

And I said, why is that? And he goes, because he didn't want it to affect arbitration for other players. And I said, that's an issue. And he goes, it can be. So he wonders if there's something that's going on in the negotiation about what's being offered or what Bear wants, that people don't want to affect other arbitration eligible players i don't know that to be the case but he said if you said that on your podcast it would make sense to people who kind of deal with these things for a living i think there's going to be interest bear is a good player until july 13 think there's going to be interest. Bear is a good player. Until July 13th, it's going to come down to

what does Carolina want to do about all this? So this will be a story that develops. Meanwhile, I want to ask you something about Vancouver. Yep. Did Elias Pettersson just get a new winger? Very possible. So that's a big win for the Canucks. That's a big win for them.

Let's set this table properly here. Andre Kuzmenko signs with the Vancouver Canucks. There were a number of teams after this free agent. Been playing in St. Petersburg of the KHL. A much sought after free agent. Congratulations to the Vancouver Canucks. Patrick Alvins, Jim Rutherford,

they won the sweepstakes. Your thoughts on this one? I know GMs always say, look, outside of the compensation, it's a free player. This guy's going to walk into a top six role with the Vancouver Canucks is going to get tons of power play time and be given every opportunity to succeed. This is good business by Vancouver. I really thought the two favorites were Vancouver and Edmonton. And the reason I did was because these were two GMs who had been after Kuzmenko for some time.

You know, Alvin in Pittsburgh was a guy who had interest in him. And Ken Holland, when he was in Detroit before, had interest in Kuzmenko too. So, like, I heard he loved being wined and died. And, I mean, who wouldn't, really? But I heard he loved it. There were a few teams, even some of the other ones who were in it, who really thought it was going to be Vancouver or Edmonton. Two of them had been around him or interested in him for so long.

And I'd heard Vancouver was confident that they were going to be able to pull this off and they got it done. The interesting thing is all the reports said that Kuzmenko wasn't promised anything, but there's one thing I do know about this whole process. And that is that Kuzmenko could only sign a one-year deal. So he needs a new contract for the next year. And he knows that he had to be in a good situation to set up that next contract. So let's just say that the Canucks didn't promise him anything. The one thing he had to be convinced of was he was going to be put into a situation

where he would be able to have a good run at another contract. And at the very least, Vancouver had to convince him of that. And Bruce Boudreau played a big part in this one too, I heard the story about him driving and Alvin driving. I'll just say this, that I don't think any teams that were really interested in him did anything less than go all out. Like I said, I heard he really enjoyed being wined and dined and everybody who was interested did a good job of it. I think that kind of thing never hurts. But at the end of the day, to me, this player needed to be convinced he was going to be put into his position to succeed. And, you know, Vancouver definitely did that. It's a big coup for the Canucks.

It is. I mean, anytime you get a player like this who's wanted, who says, I'm picking you, it's a good, good feeling. I just like the idea of Bruce Boudreaux being like this elite-level recruiter. Not only is he a head coach, but also he's an elite-level recruiter. Bruce Boudreaux, the man that can recruit Russian hockey players and talk dogs off meat trucks. That's how compelling Bruce Boudreaux is. It just makes for a nice story for each.

That's what I'm going with here. Well, and the other thing too is if you know if you're an offensive player, you're going to get a chance to succeed under him. That's an excellent point. That's an excellent point. He's going to put you in position to score. We do know that about Bruce Boudreaux.

Okay, do we have any more on the elusive quote-unquote international candidate in San Jose's general manager search? So first of all, I would like to thank all of the hockey fans overseas who told me very nicely and very positively a dumbass for getting Rachel Raffner's team wrong. I said, DeVos, he works for Bern. team, Ron. I said, Davos, he works for Byrne. So all of you who nicely corrected me and told me how idiotic I was for getting those two teams mixed up, I do appreciate the notes and I plead for your forgiveness and hang my head in shame and embarrassment. But I do appreciate all your messages. You go to box and you feel shame two minutes and you are free. I did. Like in snapshot,

I definitely felt that. I was speculating that that could be a name. I understand he was contacted and said the Sharks have not reached out to him. So probably isn't him. But I will say this. I had a couple of people send me notes and say that if there's somebody who makes sense, it's Johan Garpenloff. And I should have thought about that one because

we talked about how the shark's connection was big and garpenlov was a shark as a matter of fact what did you say what does every maple leaf fan remember about garpenlov oh man yeah the crossbar or the pipe like that that shot that would have ended it for the maple leaves in the playoffs when they met in In 1994. That's right. There were two plays that all Toronto Maple Leaf fans remember. Garpenlov hitting the post and Ozil Lynch having Felix Potvin at his mercy and passing it. Yes, correct.

That would have been a tap. Oh, boy. So the other story I'll tell about Garpenlov is he won me a hockey pool in university. No way. Because I took him as a late pick and he had 40 points that year, I think, which demolished all other late round picks. I've always loved Garpenlov because of that. But anyway, he's been involved with the Swedish national team. And some of the reporters from Sweden were telling me that I didn't realize this in the Swedish national team,

you're the coach and you're the manager kind of. So there's a lot of responsibility there. So again, we're guessing here, but the Garp and Love one makes a lot of sense. Peter DeBoer in Dallas, is that making sense? Yeah, that one's in the hands of the lawyers and they want to make as much of their 300 an hour as they possibly can. So you paper it and make sure and we'll get there. I think the terms got reported. Pierre mentioned it like four times four-ish or something like that. We'll see what it is, but eventually that's going to get closed.

being four times four i'm pretty confident saying that's more than dallas was expecting to pay for their next head coach both in terms of dollars and term would you agree with me on that i don't know about dollars i would say term you heard two and you've had some good info on dallas all year the moment this started you heard deborah right like he was the guy they like yes so look i think there were other people they talked to i think they talked to casley i think they talked to others yes but you know at the end of the day if you really decided that he's your guy unless it's beyond piggish and that isn't you know you got to go out and get pay for your guy the more that i think about it with peter deb boer in in dallas and last time we were on together talking about this you talked about shots from the point yeah you know who dined out on that

tactic perhaps more than anybody else that peter de boer has ever ever coached let me think about this there's one player i think of specifically no there's one player I think of specifically. No. There's one player I think of specifically who dined out on this idea, on the concept of creating offense using shots from the point, which everyone who's analytically minded right now will tell you, why are you doing that?

It's the lowest percentage shot you can take. There's one player, Frege, who benefited more than anybody else. You've been teasing me for a while now. I guess Brent Burns, who are we going with here? See, I was stretching it out there, giving your brain some time to spool, so eventually you would come to Joe

Pavelski. Oh, I see what you're doing. That's smart. I give you credit. Yes. Tips and chips, all of it. How would Pavelski score all those goals make that rep earn that reputation and now he's in Dallas with someone whose offensive schemes revolve around shots from the point man if you thought Joe Pavelski was important to the Dallas Stars before wait till Peter DeBoer gets there like what is Pavelski's calling card? Tips and little short plays around the net. This is, once again,

a great situation, as I see it, for Joe Pavelski, agree or disagree? I agree with you. Pavelski thrived under him and other coaches. I'm sure Pavelski was a big reason that DeBoer is there. I'm sure he communicated how much it would help like i said i my one question about the board is relationship with goaltenders they have a young stud who looks like he's a cornerstone yeah i think as long as ottinger is okay then you can make this work that's the only thing i would have been concerned about for dallas is you've got this young stud

goalie how is he going to feel about all this? Let's finish this new segment by talking about John Tortorella. Now I had the Philadelphia Flyers newly minted head coach on the radio show today, and we got around to talking about the Flyers identity. And Tortorella said something really interesting about something that came up a couple of times during his interview process. Going back a couple of months when Nick Seeler fought Nick Delorier, and I said to myself, oh man, like Seeler's biting off a lot here. Nick Delorier is a dangerous, dangerous man. And you know, I'm hearing you talk about losing some intimidation, identity and all that.

I think that did Nick Seeler a lot of good in your organization. Agree or disagree? Agree. Even in the process of interviewing, that story's been brought up. It's high marks. I'll put it to you this way. Sometimes in our game, you may not feel real comfortable in that situation or the toughness of the game or some of the tough parts.

I think sometimes you just have to pretend and there's a lot of pretending that goes on in our league there's a lot of guys that you may think are or is that guy but he's really not that comfortable in doing it he's just doing it because he thinks it's going to help his team i think that's part of today's game back in the day day, there was pretenders, but there were some really mean people back then, and the game was played differently. That's not the way the game's going to be played, but I still think there is still some principles of the game back in the 70s and 80s that we can still keep in our game here. And people give me a lot of crap about it when I talk about it, but I believe it. I still think there needs to be some of that identity in who we are

and how we're going to go about it and handle it. And that Nick Seals story was brought up to me a couple of times when I've been in Philly. You know, Elliot, we talked about it at the time, how big a deal it felt like, even though for the Philadelphia Flyers at that point in the schedule, it was kind of an empty calorie game, but something felt different about that Nick Seeler, Nick Delorier fight. And it seems to have really galvanized Philadelphia management and got them to wondering about their previous team's identity, what their new identity should be.

And obviously this is all wrapped up in a pretzel here with their new coach, John Tortorella. It seems as if that fight really had an effect on the organization, perhaps even more so than we thought at the time. I don't necessarily think this means that the Flyers are going back to the Broad Street Bullies or 1975 or whatever. I don't think that's a realistic way of going in this day and age. But what I do think it is, Jeff, is that, you know,

the Flyers had an identity for a long time. I remember the late Ed Snyder. I don't think I was the only reporter he told this to. But when he talked about the identity of the Flyers, he used to always say that, you know, every team had one or two tough guys. And Ed Snyder was the toughest of the tough guys. So he believed we should have more tough guys than anybody else. He goes, why don't we have more than everybody else?

And that was what the identity of the Flyers turned into. At the heart of it, it was one for all and all for one. And if you watch the Flyers last year, that was missing. You know, they didn't have that. We talked about this in the podcast. Tortorella is Philly. Piss and vinegar, piss and vinegar. And that's what the Flyers want back.

Like that CeeDee Delorier thing. That's one of the reasons I think that Yandel had his streak ended. Because they were like, how can we take Seeler out of the lineup after that? So when Tortorella said to you that that came up a lot, it's because I think they felt that's what they were missing. Not fighting, but standing up for each other and being Philly. If you're from Philadelphia and you're listening to this podcast, you think you're the toughest city alive.

You think every other city is full of punks compared to you. I think you feel that your team has gotten away from that. And I think that organization feels it's gotten away from that. So if that came up a lot in the conversation, I'm not surprised. Like I did some research tonight so tortorella's teams he's coached during his tenure where they've ranked in terms of majors

okay vancouver fourth and they were probably all that one night against calgary but that was only for a year the rangers during his time there were sixth but tampa Bay was 26th and Columbus was 19th. So, you know, it doesn't mean that his teams are full of fighters, but they play hard. They have that identity. And I have heard that that's one of the things that Tortorella did talk about. They're looking at some of their deeper lines and saying those deeper lines they need to be harder to play against and so i think this all fits i really do you know what i do then if i'm chuck fletcher in the offseason and i get a shot july 13th deloria nick deloria deloria is going to be making eight

times eight by the end of next week but with all the teams that want to sign him like the more that i think about like okay so i'm sure Anaheim wants to have him come back to help with a security blanket around the kids. I can see Minnesota wanting Nick Delorier back. I can see the Pittsburgh Penguins wanting Nick Delorier. And I can see the Philadelphia Flyers wanting Nick Delorier. He's in a great spot here. Oh, yeah. He's going to do very well.

Delorier is not just a tough guy. He's a guy that plays. And he's a guy that plays second unit penalty kill, and he's a valuable guy to have on your team. Maybe it's because I think every team could use Nick DeLaurier, but this one really sounds like a good fit for the Philadelphia Flyers. Okay, we're going to take a slight timeout here. We're going to come back, and we'll talk about the big news of the day, and that is the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

and their hearing on how Hockey Canada handled a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by six CHL players at a Hockey Canada event in 2018. More on 32 Thoughts, the podcast, in a minute. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Elliot, the big story on Monday, the game was one thing, this is a bigger story. The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. And testifying on Monday, Hockey Canada President Scott Smith, CEO Tom Rennie, Hockey Foundation Chair Dave Andrews, and the Sport Minister for Canada, Pascal Saint-Ange,

who said something quite interesting and pivotal in all of this. And we'll get there. In the meantime, maybe the biggest takeaway for me or the one big question that I have coming out of this is the players themselves and how they weren't compelled or they weren't forced, you know, essentially to comply and help and aid the investigation into the incident itself. What was the big story for you coming out of this one? Well, that was probably it.

That was what stood out to me. I listened to almost all of it. With about 10 minutes to go in Hockey Canada's testimony, I had to go and begin work on the game. So I listened to almost all of the hearing. And I'm the same as you, Jeff. I was shocked by that. And I'll take it one step further. I was even more shocked. Look, if you're going to say that you can't force anyone

to testify, fine. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know what the rules are. But the thing is, what was surprising to me is it doesn't appear as if there was a ban in the sense that they said look if you don't testify you cannot participate in any hockey Canada events because that they could do you know whenever I comment on these things I ask some people I know who are lawyers like just fill in the blanks for me here what am I missing what do I need to know and in this case i had some lawyers said to me it is possible they couldn't force all of these players to testify but they definitely could have said fine if you don't testify you're not eligible for a hockey canada team again or you cannot participate in any hockey canada sanctioned event again at the very least that should have happened i mean the thing here is

is that they kind of mucked it up at the beginning by saying that only four to six testified and then late scott smith clarified that only four to six maybe didn't testify yeah i mean look that looks awfully fishy they could have said okay you don't have to testify we can't force you but now you can't participate for hockey canada and they could have done that you know because that's the thing like if we find out somewhere down the road that you know one of these players didn't testify and was allowed to play that's going to be a disaster for them the other thing too is there's a couple of really weird things about this too. I've heard in the past, sometimes committee members, like the MPs, they get fed questions by reporters. And I kind of wondered if as this was going on,

some of the reporters were feeding some of the MPs questions because it got interesting in a couple of cases. But a couple of things I wonder about here is the report was never completed. A couple of lawyers I know were very interested in that. And also the fact that they didn't use insurance money to pay, as they indicated, they liquidated some of their investments to pay and the insurance didn't pay. I had a couple of lawyer friends were very interested in that. You know, the one thing is, you know, Hockey Canada, obviously they notified the police. Obviously they did an investigation. You know, they said several times they were trying to respect the wishes of the victim, which I think is all the right thing to do. All of those things

are the proper steps, but the fact the investigation was never completed, and the fact that insurance didn't pay, a couple of lawyers looked at that and said, those are weird things. Very weird things. And the thing about insurance not paying is what insurance would do, it would investigate whose fault is it that we're paying this? Now, some people were wondering about that. So, like, this isn't over. You know, the NHL still looms very large here. The NHL has made it very clear it wants to interview all the players on the team. The NHL has indicated that their plan is to release it publicly, pending anything that can't be disclosed. So, I mean, this obviously isn't over, but there was some weird

stuff. You know, one person I spoke with earlier today about it said the question that they had, which kind of left them looking sideways at this entire afternoon slash early evening's worth of testimony, the question that you keep coming back to is, why do you settle a case for people you claim you don't know? Which I think is a really profound question, right? Because this was settled on behalf of the defendants, yet the claim is they don't know who the defendants are. Oh, I think that one I could answer.

I actually do think there's a logical reason for that. What is that? And that is that because it happened at their event, they knew that they were liable. So regardless of who it was, they were just going to settle. I did get an answer to that question because it was at a Hockey Canada event, right? And they did say, they also said there was underage drinking there.

They could definitely see a situation where the lawyer said to Hockey Canada, you're in big trouble here and you're best advised to settle. Actually, the lawyers I spoke to, they said that was actually the easiest question. They totally understood why Hockey Canada did that because it was at their event.

But Jeff, again, I come back to, it's obvious here that the people who potentially have the teeth here are the NHL. And I guess we wait to see where this goes and how they handle it. Because based on what I heard today, Hockey Canada is saying, unless new information comes forward, and you never know what will happen after a hearing like this, maybe someone will be motivated to say something based on what they saw. Or what they heard. Or what they heard. It says to me that Hockey Canada, it stopped. And the NHL is just getting

started. You know, the other thing too here, someone was saying to me was if Hockey Canada doesn't think they can compel people to testify, but the NHL thinks it can, then maybe it's better that the NHL is stepping into this. includes Paul Grant, Ian McIntyre, and Emily Sadler. They will be all over the story and get you that information as soon as it becomes available. Thanks for listening once again to 32 Thoughts the Podcast.