32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Canadian Olympic Roster Reax

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman react to the Canadian men's Olympic hockey roster following the announcement in Minnesota. Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

All right, welcome to a brief emergency edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Dom, Elliot, Kyle, back with you. We are just a couple hours after the announcement. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before we begin the emergency pod, I have a question. Dom, what time were we supposed to start recording our emergency pod today? 1130 Pacific, 230 Eastern. And what time did we start recording?

recording our pod today? Closer to 1145, 1150. And why did that happen? Lunch was farther than Kyle expected. I thought it was a shorter walk. What can I say? It was my first time in downtown Minneapolis. I don't have the lay of the land here.

By the least I gave you guys a courtesy heads up. Usually with you, L.A., it'll be 2.30. We wait for half an hour. We haven't heard anything from you. And you're like, I just woke up from a nap, guys. Sorry, I'll be another 20 minutes for some inexplicable reason. This is slander that never happens. Oh, my gosh.

For you of all people to take issue with that. Okay. So you were down there for the announcement. Before we really begin breaking anything down, what did you see? What stood out to you? You were boots on the ground. You were in the room. What stood out to you?

Yeah. Well, beautiful rustic hotel where they had the event, obviously in a big conference room. It did feel a little strange, Elliot, that we're here south of the border for Team Canada's Olympic roster announcement. I understand why World Juniors are going on here. A lot of the particulars with hockey Canada are already down in the area. But it still felt strange being in the U.S. for Team Canada's Olympic roster announcement. Now, I was in the room, so I didn't see it on TV, of course, or, you know, sports that had it streaming online. But it was, it was like, I remember before the Sochi Olympic roster announced, but that was a big, felt like a big, big event.

Like they took over one of the ice pads at what's now Ford Performance Center, the Leafs practice facility. And it was like a huge production. Different set of circumstances here. It felt a little strange. But nevertheless, finally. the way it is over. We've got our 25 names that are headed to Milan

for the Winter Olympics. Just the other day, you, me, David Amber, we had our picks who was in, who was out. I would say the biggest surprise was no Sam Bennett. Well, hold on. Before we get

to that, I'm going to give you your props. I ripped you at the opening of the podcast for underestimating your lunch walk, but of the three of us, I got two wrong. I had Bedard and I had Bennett on my team. You only made one mistake. You got 24 of 25. You beat me. The only one you got wrong was Hegel, right? Yeah, I had hit, which still, it had felt crazy at the time. I had him off, but had Bennett on. But the four forwards that were not there at the four nations,

that were named here on Wednesday, those were the four I had on my list and the same eight defensemen and Logan Thompson and Darcy Kemper joining Jordan Bennington. I think all three of us had those three goalies, right? Or Dave may have had Blackwood. Anyway. Okay, so yes, I think Bennett is the big one

and it's pretty clear now what happened here. And that is, there's a famous line when Bill Parcells, left the New England Patriots as the coach in the mid-90s. Parcells took them to a Super Bowl. They lost to Green Bay. Desmond Howard was Super Bowl MVP. He had a phenomenal return game.

But after that, he left in a dispute over getting to pick the roster. And Bill Parcell's famous line was, if you want me to cook the meal, you have to let me pick the ingredients. And one of the things about John Cooper was that when he was hired to coach this team at the Four Nations last year and returned for the Olympics, he talked about that with them and he got to make some picks. He didn't get to pick all of the ingredients, but he got to pick a couple of pretty important ones. Maybe you call them spices. Maybe you call them entrees.

Maybe they're side dishes, like a good, boiled asparagus. But whatever the case was, John Cooper got to pick a few spots. And it's clear here that Doug Armstrong and the managers left him three choices. And it got down to a place where I think it basically came to between Bennett and Sorrelli. You know, they were really interested in Suzuki. obviously we talked about how I suspected they really liked Bo Horvatt and I do believe for a long time it was going to be one of those two and Bennett and at the end of the day they went with both of those two Cooper takes Sorrelli and no Bennett and I have to say I was shocked you know people

say to me why don't you do more gambling picks and stuff like that I said the other day that Sam Bennett was a five-star lock for me. This is why I don't give gambling advice because I don't want my five-star locks to cost anybody any money. I was shocked. You know, I don't get upset about these things. I don't get angry about these things.

Like, you know, people were asking me, why did Mark Schifley make the team? I'm not going to pick apart Mark Schifley's game. He's a great player. Like, I don't think Cole Cofield's making the U.S. Olympic team. I'm not going to pick apart Cole Coughfield's game. He's a great player. There are going to be great players who are not going to make these teams.

And, you know, the way I look at it here is that I'm shocked. I never would have believed it. I never would have thought it was going to happen. But ultimately, I think it came down to John Cooper was taking Sorrelli. And that cost Bennett his spot. And the thing I'll say about Cooper is, I know he's getting dragged a bit about this. He made a lot of decisions a year ago, including sticking with Jordan Bennington, that won Team Canada, the Four Nations.

So I think he's earned his right to make his call. I'm just shocked it happened. Like if it was my team, there's no way Bennett would be staying at home. Well, you remember, he was a scratch to start that Four Nations and then scores the critical goal in the final against the U.S., goes on to. to win the consmite 15 goals in the playoffs as the Panthers go back to back so for all those reasons, I am equally shocked with you. It's down here

Jason Bucola has been doing some stuff with the world juniors, of course, for us and his pro hockey group. He was at the announcement on New Year's Eve here on Wednesday as well. And his point was like you could see if you're going to bring Tom Wilson then maybe there isn't

the same need for a Sam Bennett. If you're going to bring both Bull Horvatt and Nick Suzuki, maybe there isn't the same need for Sam Bennett. Like I'm with you. I'm not buying that. I like to me that is ridiculous logic. Ridiculous.

And I hope that Jason Bucola hears me say that and still invites me to play redtail with him again next year. I hope I'm not crossed off his list. Yeah. I hope you are. What a guest you are. It takes you to play red tail. But I've seen this logic.

everywhere. To me, that is terrible logic. Like, the idea that you can't take Sam Bennett because you're taking Tom Wilson, to me that's crazy. First of all, one's a winger and the other is a center. So, like, I don't. And I've always believed what Mike Babcock said, which was, I'll put centers all over the roster. You could never have too many centers. And as some of them got to play wing. Like, I think it's crazy to think you can't have both those. guys. Like, if that's the reason, I think that's a bad reason. I think it comes down to Cooper wants his guy and Bennett got squeezed out because of it. Like it says to me that the managers really wanted Horvatt and Suzuki at the end of the day and so did Cooper and Bennett

got squeezed out for that reason because he loves Sorrelli and Sorrelli. He's won with Sorrelli. Right. I thought the most upset you were going to get today was about my extended walk to get lunch. I thought that was funny. By the way, you can tell the Olympic announcement went right to the legs of Tom Wilson just watching some of the New Year's Eve afternoon. Oh, my goodness. Holy smokes. That poor Noah Labba.

Yeah. Gores shortly thereafter is mixing up with Gavakov after a whistle later on in the game. Big smile on his face. So, yeah, you can tell he's fired up about where things are going. And among the things that Doug Armstrong said of the press, conference so it's been about a month here that canada's looked at macklin celebrini and said he is as he said there was like 12 initial forwards that they were like we're going with them and then the final two spots were a little more further debate down to the wire but that great story about meeting with them in celebrating is what fourth or fifth game of his career saying not sure you're going to be part of the conversation for four nations but you know you're absolutely going to be on the radar for the olympics in a year and a half from now. And he goes and puts up four points against Armstrong's Blues that night. And it was like only further entering himself into the conversation from that point

onward. But as you said, capital L Locke for Celebrini. And it sounds like for the management team, no question he was going to be there. Celebrini, the one thing that's very clear about him is how he just has the incredible respect of the other players. yes like they they see him and you know it was interesting i was talking to somebody about this on tuesday and they said a lot of them don't want to say it publicly because they think it's almost a little bit too much for a young guy but the best players in the league they see him

as a peer like i've said on a previous pod i think No player has done more for their stock in the league this year than Connor Bedard. I think Schaefer might be second. I think Bedard is first. I think these guys already see Celebrini as appear at the top. They just don't talk about it a lot because I think they want to keep some of the pressure off them. and they don't, it's not the hockey way to lay it on too thick. But I do think these guys see Salabrini as elite of the elite.

Yeah. And one thing I heard, like when they did their orientation camp in Calgary, you know, when it comes to making first impressions, I heard he made a real good one among some of the older guys with that group and just in terms of the willingness socially to be involved, to be engaging with players that have been around. a lot longer that have done it for a much greater period of time, greater sample size and Celebrania.

I guess he just, apparently, from what I heard, hit a lot of the right notes with the players and then, of course, continued to impress the coaches and the management right out of the gate this year, you know, finishing up 2025, what, third in scoring across the whole league. So real impressive. Anyone else in terms of the forwards of who made it? Like Horvatt, great, great year. We talked about him, as Armstrong said, their best. face-off guy in terms of the players they took.

And Nick Suzuki, I mean, if there's anybody. How can't you knock Nick Suzuki? I mean, you can't knock. You think about where he's taking his game coming out of that Four Nations break to now. It's so impressive with how he's elevated. And as Armstrong said on Wednesday, like, it's, they did not lose sight of the fact that not only are you a captain in a Canadian market. He's a captain in Montreal and getting that team to the playoffs last. year and putting themselves in a pretty good spot here again this season.

It's clear whatever as Martin St. Louis was joking to you a few weeks back. He made his case in the summer and it certainly did not fall on deaf ears. No, and you know why, like I said, I look at all these guys, I feel for the returning guys who didn't make it. Guys like Jarvis and Kinec, like that's really tough, really tough. Tom Wilson just scored again as we're recording this. it's tough I feel for those guys Wyatt Johnston Shifley

Bedard Zach Hyman there's an interesting one too because I think Zach Hyman ran out of runway his season just started too late he got hot too late

I can't you know again like you can't pick apart any of these guys like none of them there's just great players are going to be left off these teams it's just a fact of life

Now, the one thing I would want to say is that I thought Doug Armstrong had a really interesting comment, and that is that the players who are injury replacements, potentially, and I think Schaefer was one of those who was told, you know, be ready. You know, he talked about, first of all, if someone gets hurt, we're going to backfill with guys in specific roles as we saw that player. so that's interesting. But the other thing that really stood out to me was they talked about how that player will have a choice of whether or not they'll want to stay in the protocol. And what he meant by that is you have to stay if you want to be seen as a potential injury replacement

and players can be replaced right up until the first game. After the first game, you're 25 are locked in and if you lose someone, it's too bad. But first game, if you want to stay in, you have if you want to be considered an injury replacement you have to stay a part of the doping protocol i know there's going to be some guys out there who are going to for all these teams who are going to be so mad because these these guys are so competitive they're so wired they're going to be so upset there's going to be guys whose initial response is going

to be like screw it if they don't want me i'm not going and i would say don't do that. I have made some very dumb, rash decisions in my life that I regret. Do not make life altering decisions when you're angry or emotional. Because in three weeks time, if someone gets hurt and the call comes for you and say Canada goes to win a gold and you're like, I could have been part of that, but I angrily quit the drug testing program, you're going to regret it. So I think if they've contacted you and they've said, it's up to you, don't leave. You'll regret it if the call comes or the call could have come and you could have been there. And take it for me as a person who's made idiotic, moronic decisions and been remorseful about them later.

Well said, Friege. Very well said. You were validated in your thinking that even with a 200, say, percentage, Jordan Bittington would be one of the three goalies named. He's not a 200 say percentage, of course. But as Doug Armstrong said, he cemented his legacy this past February. And he's one of the three along with Logan Thompson and Darcy Kemper. Yeah, I am not. I mean, I agree with you and Dave when we were talking. I thought the biggest decision was Blackwood or Kemper there. For me, It was never a doubt about Bennington. It was never a doubt about Logan Thompson on merit. He's been the best Canadian goalie this year. And you know what? I give a lot of people here a lot of credit because a year ago, Logan Thompson was not on the Four Nations team

because there were some personality conflicts. And I think when you're running a national team, it is your job to put the personality conflicts behind you and pick the best team. And I think for everybody here to put that away and say Logan Thompson, deserves to be here on merit, it's the right thing. And by the way, speaking of that, remember when we said in the last pod that the lightning

and the Panthers were slacking because they only had 136 penalty minutes last Saturday? Yeah. Someone said to me, after the Bennett snub, you can definitely expect their next game to be well over 200. Yeah, exactly. He's going to climb into the Tampa bench. But, no, but I think that's the Logan's, it's the right thing. Like, okay, that happened.

Everybody put it behind you. Get together, sort it out. God deserves to be there. I'm glad it worked out that way. It's the way it should be. Yes, I agree with you. Okay. We thought we had listed the eight defensemen that were there at Four Nations returning.

Now, did you have some pushback on that kind of in the 11th hour? Yeah, somebody told me I was wrong. You were right. I was right about that. I was wrong about something else, but I was right about that. I have to say, I'm not hugely surprised. You know, I wondered, you know, Schaefer is nine.

I wanted about Chickren. I wanted about Bouchard. But you know my feelings. They won last year in chaos on the blue line. Two injuries, and illness, they found a way. I think they really thought about

Harley, who had struggled this year. I think they really thought about Dowdy, but Dowdy's presence off the ice mattered to them, too. They also felt Harley came in off the beach last year and did unbelievable. I think at the end of the day, they said, we won with these guys.

And I would bet that Rick Talker who's on the staff, he would fight hard for Sanheim. Sanheim, to me, like, just the fact you can play both sides. It matters. So I'm not surprised they did it. Look, any picks you make here, there's going to be controversy. We'll see where we are in eight weeks, but I personally am not surprised they did this. I think it's going to be interesting when Team USA drops on Friday morning, and I guess they're doing it as part of the Today Show. Don't people know, like I don't wake up,

like to wake up before 8.30 a.m. I guess they're doing it as part of the, the Today Show. A lot of people may be surprised you sleep at all. That's the one to me that's going to be really interesting. Having Mike Russo on, because you know he's as plugged in as any. Yeah, he's very plugged in. Those roster selections. Yeah.

The Robertson one just blows me away. It really does. And again, we'll find out if, if, You win the gold medal, everything's justified. If you don't, they just pick you apart. It's always like that way. That's life in the big city. But I am amazed at the Robertson one if that turns out to be true.

Elliot, before we go, so during the press conference on Wednesday, Scott Salmon was asked about the arena situation over in Milan. What are you hearing anything new about status over there? Well, he's going next week. There's a test event at the end of next week that's supposed to really give us an idea of where things are and where the ice is a couple of games, and he's going to that. So I think we're going to have a better idea of where we stand about a week from now. So Salmon actually went to this facility back in October. Now he goes back at the beginning of January.

As he said, the NHL and the Players Association have said, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee continue to tell them, don't worry, it's going to happen. But he is going next week, so we'll have a better idea. It's going to be interesting because one of the things I kind of heard is that maybe some of the practice schedules when Team Canada and the other, I guess not only Team Canada, but the other teams arrive after the NHL season is shut down, will they allow them to practice as much on the ice as they were supposed to? And Salmon did say they've worked on some alternate plans if that happens, but we will get a better idea in about seven days of where everything stands with this rake. So you traveling back tonight?

You got a flight? I've got an evening flight tonight amazingly direct from Minneapolis to Calgary Freed. So should hopefully, hopefully, be back. home before the clock strikes midnight to ring in the new year with the family. Will you time it? Will you walk in the, if, if you arrive home and you're like near your driveway at like 1145, will you wait 15 minutes to pop in on Dana and Berkeley right at 12? And do the, uh, have her set up in the air tonight at the appropriate time so that like

the drum hits right at midnight, bursting through the front door. Yeah. That's the only way to do it, Fridge. That's great. If it's, yeah, I'll sit out in the cold. That's worth it. That is worth it. You've got the show later on this evening and then another busy week.

Leaf Regional Thursday, hockey night, Saturday. Yep, so, but most importantly, happy New Year to you, Kyle. Happy New Year to you, Tom. And happy New Year, it's all the great listeners of this podcast who keep the three of us employed. Absolutely. We will talk to you all in 2026, a.k.a. Friday afternoon evening. Not the morning as we normally do, but a little later on. We'll just give a bit more time for more Olympic rosters to be announced, and we will react accordingly. In the meantime, have a safe and happy new year. Thank you.