32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Cheech

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

John Garrett says see you later and Jason Robertson carries on. Jeff and Elliotte kick off the podcast by talking about the news of John "Cheech" Garrett leaving the Canucks broadcast (00:01). They are also joined by Dallas All-Star Jason Robertson (59:00) and discuss the exciting game between the Penguins-Stars (54:00).With everyone back from Dallas, the guys dive into the comments made by Connor McDavid about the WBC (10:00), Jared Bendar getting an extension (20:45), the fan reaction to the 10-year NHL x Fanatics deal (29:00), Flyers giving a chance to younger players (35:30), spectacular performances in Canes-Ranges (38:10) & Leafs-Panthers (39:15) and a look at the west with the Jets (48:30) and the Golden Knights-Flames (50:30).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music: Joshua Ray Walker - Sexy After DarkListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Bally Sports, MSG, Root Sports, Sportsnet, WFAN and WXDXThe 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.

Take it away, John. Ah, yeah, really, Murphy. Since 2002, I've had the privilege and honor to be the color analyst on the regional Sportsnet Canucks broadcast. This season will be my final time filling that role, even though I will appear on some other Sportsnet properties. The podcast you're about to hear was primarily recorded car cast style with Elliot driving home from the Sportsnet studio after doing the Florida Panthers Toronto Maple Leafs game.

Elliot's home now so we're all using the same audio software and wanted to kick off the podcast now with the shocking news of John Garrett announcing this will be his final season behind the mic calling Vancouver Canucks hockey games stunned shocked I'll be honest saddened I love listening to that crew I love listening to John Garrett anyone who can make you know games that are challenging to watch sometime entertaining always has a soft spot in my heart. Every single time I watched a Vancouver Canucks game, whether the game was a dud or not, or if it was the most exciting game of the night, John Garrett always made it that much better. And I'll go you one more, Elliot. Here's why I really have a soft spot

in my heart for John Garrett. You've heard me talk about my love for the World Hockey Association before. One of my most vivid memories as a kid is going to my very first Toronto Toros game at Maple Leaf Gardens. John Garrett was the starting net minder and we sat, my dad and I, right behind him.

First of all, congratulations on an outstanding career, John. I don't know what to say, Elliot. I'm stunned. Well, he did say he was going to continue working for us. Yes. I'm just going to miss him on the games. Yes. They have great chemistry.

Him and Shortos have great chemistry, chemistry incredible chemistry john has earned the right to do what he feels he wants to do i hope that's the case that this was his call he's earned that right um you know i was there obviously on tuesday night for the telethon this year and i it was so typical garrett i was laughing my head off because the game's on against the Golden Knights. It's a good game. It was close, but he's talking about the World Baseball Classic Championship, which was on the same night. So I know what's going on there. He's got one TV on the game. He's got another TV at the World Baseball Classic, like watching it while the Canucks game is on. And I'm saying to myself, there's only one guy I know who can get away with this.

And that's John Garrett. Like nobody's irreplaceable. I don't believe anybody is irreplaceable, Jeff. No, no. But I do think it's going to be a challenge for whoever goes in there to create the same kind of chemistry with John Shorthouse. Not that,

you know, it's impossible because Shorthouse is a great broadcaster and he'll be welcoming, but it'll be a challenge. you know, the other thing I really liked about John too, was one of the first, the first year of Rogers that we had the rights.

I worked a Saturday night game on hockey night in Canada and Washington was in either Alberta or Calgary. I can't remember where. And then on a Sunday night, they asked me to go into the studio. They were shorthanded. They called me in a pinch. We need somebody in the studio on Sunday night for Washington in Vancouver. So I said, no problem. And I pinch hit for whoever needed to be pinch hit for. And I was on with Brad Fay. And before we threw to John and John, we had to just talk about the game for a second. And Brad goes, what are you thinking?

And I said, you know, this is a schedule loss potentially for Washington. They're just in Alberta. They got to go back to back. Vancouver was waiting for them. I know it's not the longest flight, but you're not used to the West Coast. Like Vancouver's got to jump on them. This should be a schedule loss for the Capitals. was waiting for them i know it's not the longest flight but you're not used to the west coast like

vancouver's got to jump on them this should be a schedule loss for the capitals and they drop the puck so brad throws to john and john they drop the puck shorthouse starts talking and at the first chance garrett goes i want to talk about what elliot friedman just said there and i'm listening and i'm going, oh, okay. And he says like the Vancouver Canucks, where they are, have one of the worst schedules in the NHL. Like how can he come on this show and say the Capitals have a schedule loss?

He goes like the Canucks have like 20 of them a year. And I was laughing. I wasn't on the air at the same time, but I heard it all. And I was laughing. I loved it. Like I like it when the crew at the rink and the crew in the studio reference each other. It shows we're a team. It shows that we're paying attention to each other. And I thought it was great. And I came

on in the intermission and Brad was like, what did you think about that? And I said, I think it's great. Like if Garrett thinks my point's stupid, then he should go say my point is stupid. he called me the next day and he said he had no problem with that i said no no way i liked it and i think the audience likes it i it shows we're all connected and john was was very good about that and a real generous broadcaster um just you know selfishly for my own little radio show perch always made himself available um to your point about you know listening to what's happening in the studio he would reference you know conversations that i would have had on the radio various times things that caught his interest he'd bring them up during the show and him and shorthouse would uh would banter back and forth about them that is one of the premier

crews in the entire nhl like vancouver i've always said Vancouver Canucks fans are really spoiled with that crew because they are the Cadillac. And John's a huge part of it. Like one of the most difficult things to do in that position in broadcasting is to both describe what's going on, which is the analyst's job and why it's happening, but also infuse humor and your own personality into it. Some people never get there. Everyone tries to do it, but a lot of people fail. John seemed to get that right away. In that position, he had this incredibly attractive

personality because, this is going to sound weird, Elliot, but I think you know what I'm going for. because this is going to sound weird, Elliot, but I think you know what I'm going for. John Garrett was really comfortable being John Garrett. Yes. I always use this Miles Davis line. He didn't catch up. All of it, right? Finger foods, you know, all of it.

But I always use the Miles Davis reference sometimes. You know, it takes a long time to sound like yourself. John Garrett was really comfortable sounding like himself. I am so going to miss him in that broadcast booth. Yeah, me too. Now, like I said, he's going to be doing something else, but it'll be different. And you know what? I hope he doesn't change.

Some people change when they move from the national to the regional and vice versa. Like I have to tell you, I've met some people who do regional games and then they do national, and I think they actually sound better. But I hope that Garrett doesn't change and his personality stays the way it is. If you've been watching and listening for all these years, you know how much I have enjoyed my experience and the time doing this job. And a lot of the reason is the great people I work with. Sportsnet Pacific crew doesn't have an equal in the business. No matter what the situation, no matter what the time of day or night, they make you feel like you're in

the building. I'd like to thank John Shorthouse, Dan Murphy, and our producer Greg Shannon. Your camaraderie and friendship will never be forgotten, and we will be lifelong friends. But most of all, I'd like to thank the fans, whose unwavering support

has lasted for these 20 years and beyond. Your enthusiasm and passion for the game and for this team will never be forgotten. We are all Canucks. Thanks. We take you now to the car cast portion of the podcast. Okay, everybody, it's just me here. I'm going to start off the podcast by saying something that's going to make Elliot's eyeballs roll back.

Wait, okay, ready for it? Here we go, here we go. Daniel Sprong scores again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by GMC and the Sierra AT4X. Merrick Friedman and Delic. It is car cast time. Elliot driving home from the studio after working the Florida Panthers-Toronto Maple Leafs game.

How are you this evening on a fine Thursday night as we record this, Elliot? Can I ask you something? How many tweets did you send out about that Sprong goal? I saw at least two. Just two. Because I couldn't figure out whether it was a pass to Tanev who was a trailing forward or he actually tried to bank it off UC Soros. But then Emerald City

Hockey sent me the clip of Daniel Sprong saying... Try to fake him, bring him out and then go off his ass to be honest. That's kind of what I wanted to do. Yeah, so just two tweets. But because I annoy you with Daniel Sprong, Elliot,

all the time, it must feel like an avalanche of tweets about Daniel Sprong. I have to tell you, I don't even think Daniel Sprong's family talks about him as much as you talk about him. I just love him going back to junior. The story to me is fascinating. I just love him going back to junior. The story to me is fascinating. I just love his shot. I just love the resiliency.

I just love how it's been a fit. I just love that there's a fourth-line player in the NHL who's close to tickling 20 goals here. I just think it's a great story. I just love it, and part of it is I know that it tortures you. So any chance I get to do that, I will do it. We're going to talk about a trip to Dallas a little bit later on in the podcast, and we'll play our Jason Robertson interview as well.

But before we get there, making headlines over the past couple of days, Connor McDavid talking about the World Baseball Classic and Shohei Otani versus Mike Trout, and essentially saying, why can't we have that? I thought it was really cool. It's what we've been asking for in hockey for a long time, right? You know, it was best on best. You know, look, everyone's talking about baseball and, you know,

did you see, you know, Otani versus Trout? And, you know, that's what hockey's been missing for, you know, almost a decade now. So, yeah, that's what we has been missing for, you know, almost a decade now. So, um, yeah, that's what we've been, that's what we've been asking for. Now, this isn't the first time that we've seen an NHL or publicly muse about the future of international hockey. Uh, we talked about it plenty last season when the players weren't allowed to go to the Olympics and how much this is now become a very much player driven initiative. First of all, what did you think when you,

I don't know if you heard them or saw them first, read them first. What did you think of McDavid's comments when you first saw or heard them? Well, as a guy who wants to see best on best and a lot more than what we've had, I was like, hell yeah, go for it,

Connor. You know, I think that one of the challenges like at the all-star game, Sidney Crosby spoke up about the playoff format and he wanted to go back to one versus h in each conference and at the gm meetings the commissioner was like oh everybody loves this it's working great so you're sitting there and you're looking well that lasted a long time that was a subtweet by the commissioner by the way the thing you always have to remember is just because your best player

is for it and we should listen to what our best players think, it doesn't mean it's going to happen. The thing that I really do believe here is, though, is that I think McDavid speaks for a lot of players. It was announced that, you know, Marty Walsh is going to have his first media conference next week, right? Yeah. And this is going to be on his radar.

Like, the players are going to be on his radar like the players are going to be on walsh for this so i'm hopeful we get more traction about best on best than we did about you know the one versus eight look there was going to be a world cup next year and they didn't do it because the european nations made it very clear they did not want to play against Russia. Now, I think some of these sports federations, including the International Olympic Committee, were hoping this was going to go away. And now what have we seen this week, Jeff?

The IIHF has said Russia and Belarus will not be at the men's and women's world championships this year. Russia and Belarus will not be at the men's and women's world championships this year. And also the Olympics wanted to have Russia back in Paris in 2024. Like the world is really pushing back against that. And there's no guarantee the IOC is going to get its way. So we're going to get to a point where the NHL is going to have to sit here and say, are we going to do this without Russia?

That's a problem that baseball doesn't have. I think we're going to get to this where they're going to have to make a definitive statement one way or the other. Either we're not doing it until Russia is allowed to compete again, or we're going to have to do it without them and i think the pressure of players like mcdavid is going to push them towards option b and i just think jeff there's something else at play here you know early on the world baseball classic you know the mets pitcher diaz he got hurt yep and people were saying looking at the American ratings initially, and they were like, nobody cares about this. It's so myopic. What we have to be looking at is growth, worldwide growth.

The TV numbers in Japan were staggering. Oh, my goodness. Yes. were staggering. Oh my goodness, yes. Like half the households in the country watched the round-robin game between Japan and South Korea. There was one game, I think, Puerto Rico played the Dominican Republic. 62% of the country in Puerto Rico was watching that game.

Czech Republic had its largest audience for a baseball game ever. We tend to look at things in a very North American way. It's not only about North American growth, it's about worldwide growth. And the lack of best on best is hurting hockey worldwide. It just is. so it's not only about the canadian and u.s players and those audiences who would love to see this we have to make sure the rest of the world sees hockey best on best like great britain won a game and they're talking about this catcher who i think is in Mariner's organization and how people in Great Britain are talking about him there. Like, you have to do this. So when I don't only see it as a,

we have to do this for Canada and the US, although we all want it, we have to do it for everyone else too because we worry about losing momentum and losing interest worldwide. And that's why I think they have to do this in 2024 and 2025, whether Russia's going to be in it or not. They have to do it.

Have to. And you know what I want to see, Jeff? I want to see, before training camp, they play the round robin and one playoff round. They play the quarterfinalsals and then they stop the tournament and instead of the 2025 all-star game they play the semi-finals and the finals so the one thing that hockey has always i shouldn't say always because you and i grew up in the canada cup era the one thing that hockey has tried very much to do was keep the sport away from September

and not compete with football and not compete with baseball. What you're saying is screw it, go head to head with these giant sports in September. Look, the last World Cup was in September. I know. And the other thing is, too, is don't forget, I mean, football's starting to play more days of the week, but don't forget the World Cup was played afternoon session, evening session,

afternoon session, evening session. You can make it work. And also, like I said, I'm putting the biggest games in All-Star weekend at the end of January. Like, you can make that work. And also, like I said, I'm putting the biggest games in All-Star Weekend at the end of January. You can make that work. One of the reasons why I felt the World Baseball Classic was so compelling, and this is what I hope they can capture when they do it, and hopefully there's a schedule for it. We've only been talking about this going back to the end of the lockout 0405, is what the World Baseball Classic showed was that there isn't just one baseball culture.

There's a lot of different baseball cultures. There's different ways to play the game, to cheer, to behave on the field, to behave in the dugout, to behave in the stands, and it's all good. We see this at, for example, the World Hockey Championships every year, but that doesn't really get a whole lot of attention in North America. It's all good. We see this at, for example, the World Hockey Championships every year, but that doesn't really get a whole lot of attention in North America. What I'm hoping is that, listen, we know the games are going to be fantastic.

It's the best players in the world. I just hope that whenever this tournament finally comes around, it gives specifically North Americans a peek into how hockey is consumed, how hockey is played, how hockey is celebrated, how hockey culture rises in other countries. Because the one thing that I've always maintained is we can learn a lot from other hockey cultures and bring it into North American hockey culture. But we just never get a chance to do it. Because we're so focused on the season. And getting to the cup. And then pausing for what seems like only two weeks in the summer. And then getting right back at it. I think this is a great chance to grow the game culturally.

And selfishly for someone who lives and works in North America. Bring other elements to the game here. And realize that there are different ways to play the game, cheer for your favorite players and your favorite teams. Like you've heard me talk about Latvia before. You've heard me talk about how much I love Latvian fans. I think they're probably the best fans with all due respect, Canadian and American fans listening right now. Latvian fans have everybody licked. They don't care. They're singing, they're dancing, they're drinking, they're winning, great, they're losing, that's great too, who cares? They're just

there having a wonderful time at a hockey game. We don't have that here, and I kind of wish that we did, and I think we can learn a lot from the way that different hockey cultures celebrate the game. We saw that in the World Baseball Classic, man, and I really hope that when this thing finally gets

going, well, here's the other thing about Conor McDavid saying this, because it's not as if Gary Bettman and Bill Daley don't get asked about this. They do. But when someone like McDavid speaks up about it, now the question for the commissioner and the deputy commissioner can be framed in a very specific way. Gary Bettman, Conor McDavid believes this. And that puts Gary Bettman or Bill Daley, if he's asked the question, in a position to address Connor McDavid. Well, like I said, Jeff,

Sidney Crosby said this, and the commissioner said it's working great, so they'll disagree if they want to. This is different. As I said earlier, we would have had a World cup next year if it wasn't for russia's isolation due to the invasion of ukraine and they decided to punt it for a year now they're gonna have to make a decision and that is do we go ahead without russia

and i think what was clear to me is if the players have their say, the answer is we've got to do it. But you know what, Elliot? I feel you need to make the decision now because it's not just about the invasion in Ukraine. It's about Russia being in good standing with the rest of the countries that are involved here. And that's not going to happen overnight, even when this invasion ends. It's still going to take a long time until Russia is in good standing internationally. To me, it seems as if you need to make the decision now.

I think that should be up to those countries and I wouldn't weigh in. I think those countries should have their say. Other issues around the NHL. Jared Bednar signs a contract extension. There's a few things that are interesting about this, not just the decimal point, but sort of maybe what this means for the coaching fraternity right now. Well, first of all, when it takes effect and it takes effect next season, Bednar is going to become one of the highest-paid coaches in the league, and he deserves it. I mean, he won a cup, and when you win a cup in this league,

you deserve to be among the highest-paid coaches. Like, I believe right now the highest-paid coach in the league who's actively working, think is cooper you know he should be he's won two of them and almost won a third i think the top five are cooper mcclellan lavielette sullivan and cassidy i'm not sure if they're exactly in that order but i i think that's them but you know who would be the highest paid coaches if they were working would be Babcock and Quenville. And Babcock's contract, this is the last year.

So Bednar's extension kicks in in 2024-25, and then he moves up there. Now, the interesting thing about that is the trend. And someone pointed this out to me. Look at some of these teams who feel they have good coaches making sure they keep those coaches a long time. So Bednar gets an early extension and gets three extra years out of it. Mike Sullivan got an early extension, got three extra years out of it. Mike Sullivan got an early extension, got three extra years out of it. Like we're all wondering what's the future in Pittsburgh off ice. There's no more secure person there than Mike

Sullivan, whose new extension is yet to kick in yet. Don Granato got extended early and got two extra years. You know, Tortorella got four years. Luke Richardson got four years. Cassidy got five years. Like, if you're a coach now who's had some success, you're getting a ton of security and you're getting early extent. Like, I don't know if we've seen Jeff, and you're the hockey nerd much more than I am,

and I say that with respect. I don't know if I've seen this many coaches get such early extensions before. Like this is a new one for me. You know, it's funny. We used to always have this conversation because you're right. There is certain amount of comfort that coaches enjoy now that they never have in the past.

You know, the thought was always, and this is more pre 20042004, 2005 than post when the game opened up and became more entertaining. But in the frozen puck era, the water skiing through the neutral zone era, when, you know, coaches weren't signed for A, the decimal point that they are now,

to say nothing of the term, you know, the feeling was always, look, I'm not hired to make the game entertaining. I'm hired to win games here. And if I don't win games, as ugly as it might be, as neutral zone trappy as it might be, as Peterborough freezy as it might be,

if I can't do that, I'm not getting hired. To be honest with you, it uglied up the game because coaches just said, I don't care what this thing looks like. I'm not hired to put on a nice show. I'm hired to win games. And it doesn't matter how I get there. And if I lose games, I'm getting fired.

So between choosing to entertain you, the fans, or win games, I'm going to pick win games and make this as boring as possible because that type of hockey was successful in that environment. That doesn't happen anymore. Well, also don't forget, we've changed the game to a point where you can't do it like you used to. And I wonder if this is a reflection of that, because I'm wondering the same thing. Why? Why is this happening now? Like what is specific about this era that allows, you know, managers to say,

we need to lock these guys up for as long as we can, because that's important to our business. Why is that? Because once upon a time, it wasn't that way. You know that it wasn't this way at all. You know, one of the things I've wondered about,

absolutely true, Jeff. I mean, you're right. You know what I've kind of wondered about? You can't be a dictator like you used to the players have more power than ever and yes there's times you have to be a bit of an ass and there's times you've got to grind your players and get on them. But you have to walk the line between demanding and motivating much better than you ever

used to. The players are making too much money. Your best players have term and they're making more than you're ever going to. You have to get along with them. Like you look at Tampa, there are times John Cooper's grinded on his best players. We've seen Bednar and McKinnon fight on the bench verbally, but at the end of the day, Bednar and Cooper, they have to be demanding, but they also know they got to win with these guys. I think coaching is much more of a partnership than a dictatorship than it ever was. You have to be in a situation where players have got to want to play for you to be successful.

Even Cassidy, and I think Cassidy's a good coach, it ran to the end in Boston, clearly. Paul Maurice and Florida, they're back in the race right now but his time clearly ran out in winnipeg i think that's the one danger here of this like i am not gonna argue against any coach getting paid or any coach getting these extensions coaching is hard and i like to see people secure the bag i'm a huge fan of that i think the one thing you always have to wonder is when does the voice go dry and when do the players finally tune you out but i think this also is team saying if we recognize we have a good coach we're going to take that risk i think one of the great skills outside of the x's and o's that a coach can have in today's day and age and it's probably true historically as well although many coaches never took the option is the ability to understand when the team doesn't need to hear your voice and can defer to the

assistants, can read the team and say, you know what? They don't need to hear from me today. I've always believed that the best coaches understand when their team is done with them, like not capital D done, like we're never going to listen to you again. But just, you know, turn down the heat by, you know, deferring to your assistants and letting them do more. I agree. You know, we always talk about having to manage, managing downwards, managing upwards.

I wonder about with coaches. I really do. And managing your players and understanding, because many of these, listen, Jared Bednar, Jared Bednar played in like every league in North America, including Roller Hockey International. You knew I was going to sneak that in. Yes.

And so he understands what it is to be a player at a lot of different leagues and probably remembers, you know what? One of the best things my coach did for me was he shut up this one day because I was going to the rink and I knew that if I heard his voice, I was going to go banana sandwich. Heard his voice. I was going to go banana sandwich. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music,

included with Prime. Elliot, do you have a thought on either, and I don't know what you think is the bigger story here, the Fanatics deal or the Fanatics backlash? What stood out more for you this week with the league and their new partner? I want to say I appreciate all of the great fans of hockey and the great listeners of the pod who sent me DMs about this contract. It's like I didn't recognize the hatred of fanatics. And I have to say that the hockey fans, you really educated me this week,

and I appreciated the education. You took me to a place I didn't know, and I did some work because of it. I had one experience with fanatics that I didn't like. I don't order a lot of merchandise, to be perfectly honest. You'll get a good laugh out of this. I ordered a Jack Rathbone jersey. Shocking. I know you love them.

I know you love them. But it turned out someone else got me a Jack Rathbone jersey. So I tried to cancel it, like within a day. And they're like, no, it's already printed. You can't cancel it. It's yours. And I was like, you know, that's kind of lame. But as you know me, I try to move on from things pretty quick.

And I was just like, OK, you know what? I've got this here. I'll I'll be happy with two Jack Rathbone jerseys. I'm I'm doubly lucky and fortunate. I have to hang on. Was one a home and one away at least no they were both uh the the uh dark color at some point in time i'll find a way to donate it or or give it to somebody that really appreciates it emil's christmas uh present is

already wrapped up as well that's your christmas present you're getting a rathbone jersey this year so that's pretty funny merrick that was good but that was one experience and then you know I started searching it out on social and I saw some stuff and I was like oh wow like this is uh this is a big deal here so I started asking some people I know who work in you know the merchandising and business for teams. And I have to tell you, they'll never admit this publicly. Never, never, never. But there's some trepidation out there. I think some of the teams were nervous about this. I don't think they were that crazy about it.

And they're trying to be optimistic. Like, I look at it, I try to live life that way. I try to see, it doesn't always happen it, I try to live life that way. I try to see, it doesn't always happen, but I try to see the best case outcome. And I said, okay, what's the best case outcome here.

And the thing I think people are hoping for is, you know, fanatics has made the MLB jerseys since 2017, 18, but they're not allowed to put their name on it. They do them and they put the Nike swoosh on them. It's a Nike product technically. So the number one thing they're happy about is that they're keeping the same

factory in Quebec. Like that's one thing they're happy that Fanatics is using the same manufacturing plant that did them already. So they're hopeful that that's good news. But the other thing they're hopeful about is if Fanatic screws this up, they will never be able to put their name on a league's jersey. They will never get the opportunity. So what they think is going on here is this is their chance to show the nhl and everybody else that they can do good

enough work that the leagues will want to say fanatics is our official jersey manufacturer the nhl is kind of the test drive for this and it's a bit of a risk, but I think what these teams are hoping is that they will do a good enough job with the NHL that other sports will say, okay, we can let you put your name on our product too. So the NHL is kind of the test driver for all this. And you can all decide what that means to you and what you think of that but i think the optimistic people are hoping that it drives fanatics to be better because if this fails nobody else is letting them do it it's a long contract elvia you know what one person i talked to today from a team said you know we were all kind of hoping that it was going to be you know

new balance because of you know warrior hockey that all kind of hoping that it was going to be, you know, new balance because of, you know, warrior hockey that, uh, that ended up with the, with the contract. And we'll kind of take a, a wait and see approach on this one. This is a long time. You know, Fanatics is a powerful, powerful entity. The gentleman who's kind of built them up, his name is Michael Rubin from a purely capitalist point of view. He's done an unbelievable job. From a purely capitalist point of view, he's done an unbelievable job. Fanatics has gobbled up other people, has gained a greater foothold in the industry. Obviously, that hasn't made a lot of people very happy. I saw some stuff on the internet of mistakes that have been sent to people.

And you're like, wow, this is crazy stuff. And that's led to the accusation that they've kind of overextended themselves they've bit off more than they can chew because you're only as good as your name did you see this thing with jared spurgeon no i gotta shout out jared spurgeon here okay so apparently there was a wild fan or a spurgeon. I'm assuming they're a Wild fan who ordered a Spurgeon jersey. And it came misspelled as Spurgino. And somebody sent me a tweet from this fan. He took it to an autograph signing and Spurgeon signed it Spurgino. Good for him.

Jared Spurgeon. I always liked that guy. I like that guy even more now after hearing that. Listen, you've met him. I've met him. Does that surprise you about Jared Spurgeon at all? No, that is making lemon aid out of lemons. Yeah, that really is.

You know, like I said, the hope is that this gets them to shape up and do a better job. You know, you're right, Jeff. It's 10 years. I'm assuming they gave them an offer that the NHL said we can't say no to if we're going to give it that amount of time. You know, what's one of the other things we're all talking about is the salary cap, right? We need the salary cap to go up. I'm sure that's a factor. Okay, so some hockey things. Thursday night,

there's a lot of great moments around the game. A couple of really good games as well. I'm not sure if I mentioned that Daniel Sprong found the back of the net again, albeit in a losing effort there. The crack and dropping one there to the Nashville Predators. Close game, though. 2-1 sprung the only goal scorer.

Anyhow, that one took a shootout. Highlight Tyson Forrester. Like, we've talked a lot on this program about the Philadelphia Flyers this year, and I don't want to do a whole bunch more because it's sucked a lot of the oxygen up here on the podcast. But the Flyers are rebuilding. So Flyers fans are going to get and should get used to seeing a lot of both Tyson Forrester. And Morgan Frost has been really good too, Elliot.

But Forrester, six points in seven games for the Philadelphia Flyers. And you saw that shot on Thursday night. Holy smokes. Flyers and you saw that shot on Thursday night. Holy smokes. Well, I think what happened is what happens there is that John Tortorella has basically made it very clear. Like he's been really

blunt even for Tortorella. What was it? Thursday night is 700th win. He's like, does it mean anything? He's like, no. But he's been really blunt about his roster, basically saying that we're going to clear some guys out. And you know what people like tyson forrester here when that gets said they hear he's telling me there's jobs open that's what he's

saying he's saying to all those kids that are getting a look at the end of the year there's spots here who's taking them yeah he wants those guys to show up like a pack of hungry dogs with one piece of meat thrown in the middle of all of them. Forster, if he plays like that, he's going to grab one of them. Now, the other thing I wanted to mention about Philly, it's not official, but I'm hearing it sounds extremely likely that Cutter Gauthier is going back to Boston College next year. Why rush him?

I think that's kind of what they're looking at. Why rush him? I don't think it's official yet, but I was hearing Thursday it's headed in that direction. I think there's a chance he plays a bit more center this year, and that's never a bad idea. You know what? Good for them.

And again, it's one piece of this rebuild, but the one thing the Philadelphia Flyers have always been guilty of, certainly in this era of Flyers hockey, is rushing guys and getting guys to the NHL too quickly. And then ultimately, whether it's their confidence is destroyed or whatever, they just end up not working out. I know it might be a small thing.

Oh, that kind of go chase stay at BC for one more year. I think that's big because that is a very un-Philadelphia Flyers thing to do. Specifically, with someone that you've seen Cutter Gauthier play, he looks and plays like a Philadelphia Flyer. Yeah, he's a talented, talented kid. You know, Philly past would have been like, let's get this guy in here as fast as we can. Get him in our program and get him on the main squad.

If that ends up happening, smart move, Philly. Another big highlight, Igor Shostakhin stopping Yessi Pouliarvi in the save of the night, stretches out. I mean, oh, how many people winced watching Shostakhin stretch out like that? Mott couldn't get there in time. Now a break here. Here comes Derek. Step out of the circle. Out to the wing and a huge save by Igor Shusterkin.

What a save by Shusterkin. Wow. I got to be honest with you, Elliot. I really felt bad for Pauly Harvey. I mean, how many times did we see that in Edmonton? Just red line to red line, real good play, real good player, but just can't take that round black thing and put it over the red line. I have a feeling, though, if those plays keep happening,

it's going to get better for him. I really do. 100%. 100%. He looked good, and I'm cheering for him. I didn't even ask you about the game that you worked, and it was pretty noteworthy because the Florida Panthers and the Pittsburgh Penguins are kind of going head know head to head here for that final wildcard spot

in the Eastern Conference you worked the Florida Panthers trying to Maple Leafs game 6-2 final for the Maple Leafs uh one of the sidebars to this one we spent a lot of time on the last podcast discussing it but Mark and Eric Stahl um not wearing the Pride jerseys in warm-up. To me, Elliot, what this is continuing to do is obscure what should be the real story. The real story shouldn't be about the hockey players, but should be about the hockey fans

from the LGBTQ community and making them feel welcome and safe going to a hockey game. And what I'm finding now is, and I think we all are, this is becoming more and more of who's wearing it and who's not. And the focus is on the players involved and the focus should be on the

fans and the LGBTQ community. I don't disagree with you, Jeff. And I talked about this on Monday and I'll just reiterate it quickly. I think the way the sharks and the Panthers did it is the way it should be done. If you want to wear the jersey, wear the jersey. If you don't want to wear the jersey, don't wear the jersey. And I think what we're seeing is that 95% of the players in those situations are wearing the jersey.

And as I said on Monday, I know what it's like to face hate. I'm not a member of the LGBTQ community, and I don't like to tell other people what to think. I only judge how I would judge my own situation. If you told me 95% of the people in the world accepted me for who I am, I personally would take that. So I just wish that every team, the choice was left up to the players. If you want to wear it, wear it.

If you don't want to wear it, don't wear it. I think that people should have their freedom of choice. To the game itself, Austin Matthews with a pair of goals, Matthew Kachuk with his 35th. Man, he's been money for the Florida Panthers. 6-2 is the final score, and I thought one of the most baffling stats coming out of this game, that was the first game of the season where the Maple Leafs had a 5-on-3 power play, Elliot? That's amazing. I've heard that a lot for the last

couple of days, and someone sent me a note that that's never happened over an 82 game season since they started keeping the stats about 14 years ago the closest was in the 56 game season the islanders didn't have any but you know the one thing i really think here jeff is that matthews is heating up on if you're a Leaf fan, it's Matthews scoring in some bunches. It's only happened three times coming into this game. You know, last year to get to 60, he had 15 multiple goal games, and it really has been wondering how and when it would break out.

This is just a great read from behind the net, though. Watch as he looks right here and sees the traffic, takes two aggressive strides and just turns and fires you got to make a decision am i trying to pass nope gonna be a shooter and that quick release and turnaround finds the back of the net you think that doesn't mean something there it is is his reaction we did a burning question the worst segment in television history where the question was who's gonna lead the leasing goals at the end of the year and Nylander scored again so he's a couple up on Matthews yeah but

Anthony picked Matthews and I didn't want to pick Matthews too because I think it makes it more boring but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he gets there like you know Matthews has had the injury and we know that, and he revealed it was a hand injury. But I also think on some level he's been kind of tapering himself. Like, look, he had the big 60-goal year last year, and they lost in the first round of the playoffs, and it means diddly squat, right?

Like, he knows he's getting judged in the playoffs. They all know they're getting judged in the playoffs. I think on some level, Matthews has been like, you know what? I'm not killing myself in the regular season this year. If I'm, I'm saving myself a bit for the playoffs. And like I say, he's like a swimmer, an Olympic swimmer who's tapering. And he is like, you watch, like he's stealing pucks again. He's starting to fire it again.

Like in a lot of that's health. He's looks like Austin Matthews again. There are 10 games or 11 games or whatever it is from the playoffs. He's ramping himself up for where he needs to be. You know, the one thing I look at with Toronto though, I wonder when Sheldon Keefe is going to say, okay, I'm setting my defense.

Like Lilligren, to me, he's lost a bit of his confidence. And tonight they arrested Riley. They went 11-7. I can't imagine they're going 11-7 in the playoffs. Maybe I'm wrong. But when does Sheldon Keefe go to his guys and say, okay, this is my group. Barring injury, this is how I want to line you up and now we're all going to get used to each other. Like Stewie said tonight

and he's the player, so I always defer to him. He said 10 games. They got 11 games left. That's my question with Toronto is when do they start to say, here's our pairs? I wonder when they and they've been doing this with their blue line now for a while and you mentioned Morgan Raleigh

was rested on this Thursday night. I really wonder at what point they start to sit down the big guns to rest them for the playoffs. I don't necessarily think you're wrong, but if you start seeing these guys a ton, are you concerned at all there's going to be no chemistry

when the postseason begins? That's the art of coaching. What did we talk about earlier? That's really knowing your team. I like McCabe. They're kind of trying to figure out who he's best with, right? Oh, yeah. Got to figure that out.

How did Brad Marchand escape an instigator penalty against Rem Pitlick? I'm still trying to figure this out. He hits Patrice Bergeron, and in comes Brad Marchand, house on fire. Gloves off, stick down. They can confer now and maybe come up with an interference call because Marchand's probably going to get the instigator. To me, it's an easy interference call right there. Yep.

That was not being called. And Marchand's going to police it himself. of policing himself. Hey, people don't yet pay to get into the building to see Rem Pitlick. They pay to see Patrice Bergeron. Yeah, you know, with 12, 11, 10, 13, however many games every team has left, you can't play half. You know, you can't play half speed. You can't play half effort.

You've got to play all out, regardless of where you are in the standings. And that's certainly the leadership's group approach for the Boston Bruins, and that's where you see that emotional reaction. Maybe the officials were happy that Marchand deleted his Twitter. All the officials are celebrating they can't get tripped on Twitter anymore by Brad Marchand. We'll just give him a double minor on that one. That was old school Boston-Montreal.

That was a mean game. That was good hockey to watch. I've got to tell you, Ottawa-Tampa, that was a mean game too. Really mean game. I don't know what to make of Tampa right now. I really don't. I mean, I've got, I told you this.

I got people saying, oh, the Leafs have got them this year. And I'm just like, why do you guys do this to yourselves? Like why? I got a note from someone about Tampa today saying Braden Point's going to score 50 goals and it might be the quietest 50 goals ever. True. When have we been this quiet about someone scoring 50 goals and braden point there with number 45 on the season braden points got 45 goals so not a peep i know it's like it's like

people look at the lightning and say i'm not impressed with them anymore because they've done everything but 50 goals is 50 goals i'm looking at the west too je Jeff, like Nashville. That was a big win for them. Big win for them. I don't know if I believe it yet, Jeff. They definitely breathe new life into themselves. And they've got the math. But you wonder, like, do they have what it takes with the subtractions they made in terms of experience

to hang on there? When you let go of that much experience, I don't necessarily worry about the team getting to the playoffs as much as I worry about what they can do in the playoffs. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I think that that kind of experience really shows up in the post season more than the regular season.

I've always kind of felt that way. And that's why I think the Islanders are built to do something in the post season. They got the great goal to, we've talked about the Islanders are built to do something in the postseason. They got the great goal. We've talked about the Islanders before and how I feel about how their playoff built, not necessarily regular season built, but that's kind of how I feel about the whole situation here. All right, Elliot, that's a big win for the Winnipeg Jets.

So Thursday night, the Winnipeg Jets began the California road trip. They beat the Anaheim Ducks. In a couple of days, they'll play the Los Angeles Kings and then wrap up on the 28th against the San Jose Sharks, get back to Winnipeg and its games against, in order, Detroit, New Jersey, and Calgary. This is a big win for a team that needs a big win. Now, they're not out of the water yet.

There's still maybe some tough times ahead, but they needed to beat the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night. You know, we talked about Nashville and you wonder, do they have, do they have the staying power, right? With all the youth that they've injected and all the experience they've lost, they have the math. And what Winnipeg does is they stay five points up, even though the Predators have three games in hand, they've given Nashville no room for error. And that's all you can do if you're the Jets.

So Bonas' availability the other day, he asked Sean Reynolds, who motivates you when you get up in the morning? And Sean said, myself. And Bonas said, exactly. And said, that's what we're dealing with. First of all, I think Sean is lying. I've seen him, and he completely lacks motivation. Like, there's no way that Sean motivates himself

to get out of bed in the morning. Like, Sean, I know you openly lied to the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets, and I want everyone to know that. But it's a wild scene there. It says to me the bonus is pulling out every trick in the book just to get them across the finish line, right? And Anaheim's one you got to have.

And they got it. I know Allmark is having a great season. And Shisterkin is starting to come back, but I am sorry. The Vesna trophy winner in the NHL this year is Connor Hellebuck. And I will take no arguments on this topic. I am not taking calls on this one. I am not taking calls on this one.

Tell Linus Allmark to hold. Tell Ilya Sorokin to hold. I'm only listening to phone calls from Connor Hellebuck. The lights are off. There's no one home. Close, but no cigar. The Calgary Flames drop another one this time to the Vegas Golden Knights. 3-2 is the final score here.

And we've talked a lot about Calgary and their playoff hopes and getting close and losing one goal games like this at home. Elliot really has to sting for Daryl Sutter and company. Absolutely. And, uh, you know, it's two nothing early. I mean, it wasn't like we've seen, it was two nothing after 15 minutes this time. And the first goal was 11 and a half minutes in. So it wasn't as, as bad as some of the other ones we've seen this year, but it just seems like they're always chasing. You know, you saw that board they put up the other night in LA, right? I'm still amazed at just everything I saw on that board. Games decided by one goal, most losses in the NHL uh in one goal games overtime shootout losses most

posed hits no third period comeback wins and that happened again tonight losses when out shooting opponents by 10 plus i mean this is the what the 22nd time it's happened the most in nhl history you know jeff like some years they're not yours right this is not calgary's year and you know i think the thing i'm really getting the sense is i think they're really at a loss to explain it like why this has happened why markstrom's had the year he has you know why they've been so quote-unquote unlucky they've tried so many different things, combinations, ways to try to get their goaltending going. You know, one thing that I am really curious about here

is does Dustin Wolf get games? Dustin Wolf, for those of you who don't know, could be the MVP of the American Hockey League. He's been so good for the AHL team. You know, he's had two great years in that league. There's no point in sending him back there next year for a third one. I'm curious to see what they're going to do in goal, how they're going to make room for him.

But I'm also wondering, does he get games? You know, do they say to him, okay, you're going to play so we can get a glimpse of this? Because I do know they've asked a ton of questions there about what happened to Markstrom, what's wrong with Markstrom, how do we fix Markstrom, and nobody has an answer. Because every time it looks like it's getting better, it just goes off the rail. The other thing we should mention about this game is Vegas. It just goes off the rail. The other thing we should mention about this game is Vegas.

Logan Thompson got hurt and left the game with about six and a half minutes left. Now, Thompson had been injured and he came back to back up Jonathan Quick on Tuesday in Vancouver. And I saw him in the morning and he was so excited and ready to go. And Bruce Cassidy in the aftermath of the game Thursday night said he's concerned about Thompson because he's missed a lot of time. Just think about right now, like you're Vegas. You think you can win the Stanley Cup. Yep.

Thank God Jonathan Quick dropped into your lap, eh? Because you're concerned about Thompson. I know there's a lot of concern about Aiden Hill and what his situation is going to be. You're really lucky that you're two goalies down, potentially, and you've got Jonathan Quick and Laurent Brassois. You could do a hell of a lot worse than that combination at this time of the year.

Absolutely. You could be Pittsburgh with Tristan Jari just unable to get healthy. I know. Speaking of stops and starts. So the Dallas Stars and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday nights. The Stars start to run away with this one a little bit in the third. A gorgeous tip power play by Joe Pavelski.

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but a tip in goal by Joe Pavelski makes it two to one. And then Jamie Benn, Elliot, what a story he's been this season. Jamie Benn with his 31st goal of the season, 71st point. Stars come up, ice, here's Dodonov, down the left side at the near circle, passes for Domi, shoots, DeSmith denies him, rebound, they score! Jamie Benn on the follow-up puts it into the back of the net. It's 3-1 Dallas.

Penguins score one more to draw within one. They throw about 10 legit scoring chances at Jake Ottinger towards the end with the goal he pulled, but to no avail. The Dallas Stars win this one. And to the point about Jamie Benn, you'll hear this when we release the Peter DeBoer interview. One of the most impressive things about Jamie Benn this year is DeBo board has his minutes

down under 16. Like he's running this bench as pretty much as even as possible. Like they really run their bench as evenly as you can considering all the stars that you have there. And Jamie Ben is having this comeback season, you know, that's re cementmented Jamie Ben as a force in the NHL. Your, your thoughts on this one, both from the Dallas point of view, and also the Penguins who had a chance to gain ground on the Florida Panthers who lost to the Maple Leafs, but couldn't. The other thing too here, Jeff, is now, you know,

Jari got hurt again. They raced to Karski to the game. They said they really have no update on Jari. And the other thing too is that Florida's got like a six-win lead on the first tiebreaker, right? So if you're Pittsburgh, you can't just tie Florida. You have to beat them. And what did we say?

We said the Islanders, we like them because they've got Sorokin-Varlamov. And now it looks like it's Bobrovsky-Lyon versus DeSmith-Tikarski, unless there's something better here with Jari. Anything that could go wrong in goal for Pittsburgh this year health-wise, just like Vegas has. And, you know, we were just saying a couple seconds ago, Vegas is pretty fortunate,

considering they're down two goaltenders of what they've got. Pittsburgh doesn't have that depth. I've heard everything with Jari, that it's his groin, his back, that it's some combination of both, but he just can't get healthy. And you wonder if that's just going to take Pittsburgh's playoff chances down with them. I remember the conversation we had wondering if the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to look for goalie depth of the trade deadline. I mean, Corposalo was one of the names that was out there. That was, again, hindsight is 20-20.

But given how precarious and I would even argue important a season this is for the Pittsburgh Penguins, I hate doing the, you know, look back with the vision of today. But man, getting some goalie depth probably really, really would have helped the Pittsburgh Penguins. Case in point, the example that you just raised, Vegas Golden Knights. let's get to our interview here with jason robertson but before we do that we're going to talk a lot about dallas as we present some of these uh various interviews on on different platforms we you know had a chance to talk to jim nill the general manager peter deborah the head coach uh you sat down with mason marchman as well very much looking

forward to that one uh you golfed with joe pavelski well i went to the range you swung a club beside joe pavelski and i asked jake ottinger about it during the interview i heard about this i did with him you'll uh you'll have to wait for the audio of that one let me let me explain what happened here as i said on the last podcast i was really nervous to hit with pavelski because he's that good and he was great yeah so we got to the course and i didn't realize this but tony romo was hitting on the range not far from us i totally missed it but also jake ottinger was there and so was ty delandria as a matter of fact while we were interviewing pavelski in the clubhouse delandria and ottinger played what must have been the ninth hole like right in front of us so they brought clubs for me and i started to hit and I have to tell you the irons didn't go very well I hit the driver

very well I was very happy with the driver but the irons did not go well and what I didn't realize until later is when I went to grab the clubs Ottinger actually walked away from his own hitting to come watch me hit. And my irons were bad. I'm not going to deny it. They were terrible. And I guess he was, I didn't see any of this, but almost did. And I guess he was really disgusted as he should have been.

I can't wait until you hear the sit down I did with him because that was like, honestly, Frege, that was my first question. Oh, yeah. You just watched Elliot golf. Give us your rundown. Give us the play by play. He was not impressed. Yeah.

You know, I got to tell you what I heard when Amal told me that this happened. I said, please say he was there for the driver. And Amal just shook his head and said no. You'll hear the Ottinger piece hopefully sooner than later. We sat down with Wyatt Johnston and we sat down with Max Domi.

It was a really cool trip. The stars, the players, the organization, coaches, Jim Neal, as you said, they were really generous with their time. Really generous. Just opened their doors and said, what do you guys need? So a special thanks to, uh, to Joe Calvillo, um, who's our communications director, Kyle Shahara, who is a huge roller hockey fan and came through with vegan burritos, uh, a couple of different times for breakfast. So Kyle, thank you very much. And Renaina Zell as well, who was outstanding.

Everybody there was gracious and generous with their time. And this is all like right around a Seattle Kraken game as well. So they're juggling, you know, the duties of preparing for an NHL game against the Seattle Kraken and also making sure that, you know, us two nitwits have, you know, are able to bring something back from this trip to Dallas. So the first day we did interviews, we sat down initially with Jason Robertson. Now, we've talked about Robertson and talked to Robertson before Elliot,

but this is now a few months deep into this season. This is a couple of days after he scored that gorgeous overtime winner against the Calgary Flames last Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada on a beautiful toe drag and a backhand move over the shoulder of Jacob Markstrom. Before we get to the interview, your thoughts on what you're seeing now from Jason Robertson. Well, you know what? I just want to go to the interview and I want to give you credit because normally I say listen to the end of the interview because it's really good. And it's quite possible I'm lying, but you have to listen to the end of this interview because Jeff,

you asked a dynamite question. It was the best question of the interview. And when you see the YouTube version of this and you see people who watch it, see Robertson's reaction. Yeah. You asked a great question. I give you a lot of credit. Like there's sometimes someone else will ask a question,

I'll be like, damn, I wish I would have had that one. That was a damn, I wish I would have had that one question. That's a great hook to help our what's called in the industry, TSL, time spent listening. So Elliot's actually hooking you right to the end of this interview with Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars. Enjoy. He's got the big beard on. I like it.

He's in the sweatshirt shorts. I like a good beard. Tomorrow night. Love it. Yeah. Love it. All right. Want to be ready?

Good. Jason, first of all, thanks for making time. Second of all, I'm curious what you think about when you look at the season that you're having. This is one of the best individual seasons any Dallas Stars player has ever had. Back-to-back 40-goal seasons, first time anyone from the Dallas Stars has done that.

Does any of that really matter to you? Or what do you think about when you think of this season that you're having and your breakout season last year? Well, I think I just keep representing Dallas as much as I can. I'm just the type of player to try to go out and produce and produce. And I think with every year still trying to get better, and that's kind of shown over the past few years. I mean, it's only my third year this year, so I had a lot of improvements.

I still think I can improve more in certain areas, but the improvement kind of reflects on the stat sheet. But I think, I mean, you know, our team's playing super well this year, right? I don't want to jinx it, but, you know, my line's plus 30, you know, this year. You know, it's probably up there in top, you know it's probably probably up there and top you know forward so definitely that's under looked at that's pretty important to everyone I love talking to goal scorers and I'm always curious about one thing because you established yourself as one of the best in the NHL last season is it harder this season to score because I'm figuring I mean teams are game planning for you do you find it tougher

this year at all yeah i mean i don't think it's tougher i think they're definitely people more pay more attention um the line matchups you know sometimes are are a little a little funky as i'm used to but i mean at the end of the day you're still trying to take advantage of what they give you and you look at mcdavid this year and i'm not saying I'm McDavid, but McDavid has 60 goals here. And everyone knows that he's the best player in the world. So he's still proving he's finding ways to do it. So for me, I just, you know, I'm on the ice with a tremendous amount of talent. And that allows me to get open, to get into spots, and to feed me the puck.

And certainly our power play is really good this year, too, to get open, to get into spots, and to feed me the puck. Certainly, our power play is really good this year too, which allows me to get more chances and more opportunities. I'm sure it's going to get more tough and more difficult as the years go by, but hopefully I can take that next step and the confidence and really striding to be the better player and hopefully be able to score more goals. All right, I have a few questions that have come out of these answers. Number one, when you say the line matchups are funky,

who are you seeing more of this year that you never saw before? I wouldn't say that. Actually, the only reason I say that is, and it's actually kind of funny because we're playing Seattle tomorrow, but we were in Seattle this past week, and we played them two games there. I swear we lined up against the same five guys the whole game which you know it's fine and you know it's good you want to play against

the top players but it's just like you know feel like a playoff series right you're playing we play two games so the whole two games you play against the same two deep pairings and uh same forwards so uh we play tomorrow so. But that was a little funky. So that's what the first thing came on my top of my head is just the past road trip. But you want that, don't you? Yeah, I mean. You want to play against the top dogs, right?

I would love that because it's also predictable. I know what I have to do. I know what their tendencies are as much as they know what mine are. Everyone has an idea. I mean, Joe, I'm sure, has been like that for his whole career, basically his whole career, Roop too. But I wouldn't say beginning of the year wasn't as, I said, funky,

but I mean like hard or as accurate line matchups as opposed to the end of the year. But, I mean, when it comes to playoff time, it's going to happen, right? And it's up to us to play hockey and uh try to help our team win and um we'll try to do whatever it took takes who's the toughest right now who's the toughest matchup you know it's hard to think about it because the only thing on the top of my head is this past you know six game road trip i mean you gotta be on the road for 12 days the longest road trip of the season so everything coming to mind is just literally fresh off that road trip. So we had some tough games on the road, but the one in Calgary,

especially, we tried to talk about, you know, helping each other out, supporting each other, working on our slashes up the ice and really just trying to be connected. And if we can do that more and more, you kind of got away from it a little bit, but if stay like that it's pretty hard to defend and that's what we want to keep doing you know the the headline answer would have been jason you said nobody nobody's that hard to play yeah no it's the nhl we could score against anybody including you 97 in edmonton it didn't last night it didn't last week week. So there you go. Your overtime winner against Calgary was one of the nicest OT goals of the season. Just a toe drag, a demonic toe drag, and then backhand shelf roof job. What a beautiful tally by Robertson.

what a beautiful tally by Robertson both sides are loitering before they head off completely but that is absolute jubilation by the guys had quite a night 40 and 41 for number 21 and I don't know how many times I must have watched this thing. I watched it while it happened on TV, and since then I've watched it about a dozen more times. And so much in there is great, whether it's the toe drag, whether it's moving marks from across. But the thing that really I keep coming back to is how high your hands are on your stick when you take that backhand. Like, that's a really high-level shot. Two things. Can you walk us through that OT winner? on your stick when you take that backhand. Like that's a really high level shot. Two things. Can you walk us through that OT winner?

And two, how often are you working on your backhand? I'll answer your last question first on my backhand. It's funny, one of those things that, you know, you don't really appreciate the backhand, but I mean, there's only certain areas where you use a backhand shot and that's whether you're free in front of the net. I mean, you can't take a backhand shot and that's whether you're free in front of the net. I mean, you can't take a backhand shot from the top of the circles unless,

you know, your dots, you can, you know, you're going bar down and back in. It's hard. Yeah. So it's rare that you're going to take that good of a backhand shot and get

that much power on it. So you don't use it as often as you think or would like to use. So, uh, you know, you definitely try and practice, but, and stuff,

but I mean, the only time you're using is if literally you're one-on-one with a goalie because someone's checking you, it's, it's hard. It's a backhand. So, you know, you definitely try in practice and stuff, but, I mean, the only time you're using is if literally you're one-on-one with a goalie because someone's checking you. It's hard. It's a backhand. So it's not often you get to do that. But as far as the goal, I mean, just playing hockey out there, I mean, just knowing that the game situation, you know,

there's only 15 seconds left. And, I mean, you're just trying to make that last effort to try to score a goal. And this thing comes natural. Not natural to me. It just kind of surprises me. And, I mean, you're just trying to make that last effort to try to score a goal. This thing comes natural. Not natural to me, just kind of surprises me. I've tried a couple times this year to put that little flair. Never in overtime or certainly at that stake.

More so in games that are kind of out of hand and you want to try something fun or something to get the guys on the bench excited about. Sometimes it actually works. I just don't get the shot off I want. on five on five I just get checked by some other guy but I mean I guess in three on three there's a lot more ice and a lot more space to operate and you know in that one play I think you know the defenseman has to respect through beat his guy up the ice and kind of sucked him back I was kind of in a coasting motion which is kind of uh it's a deceptive motion because you I mean I don't have that shimmy shaking me but somebody could do that and I just thought of trying to try something new that he wouldn't expect I mean I didn't expect it

to work um and then just I mean when you're in tight like that you just got to get it up and it was exciting when it happened it was definitely an exciting moment for for me for the team for for everyone our fans i'm sure everyone enjoyed that one it was such a cool shot because we're so used to seeing backhands with the stick in close to the player the leverage and the power and all that your hands are out like i know i keep coming back to this i know why i'm so fascinated like That is such a high skill shot to make with your hands stretched out, trying to pull marks from, and you still fire it in. Yeah, well, like you said, the hands are out because I try to toe drag the guy

and try to get as far as possible because the closer you are, it's easier for the guy to check, right? Yeah. Being the big guy I have, I have a long reach, so you got to use that to your advantage. I know a lot of the bigger guys in the NHL do that and use their body, but, I mean, it's just something that comes natural. You're just trying to get that shot off as quick as possible

and as high as you can and try to beat the goalie up high, and it did. How many times a year do you do something and say, I'm not going to be sure that this is actually going to work, and it works? Maybe not even a half dozen times. Yeah, well, I mean, you've got to think, I'm not the type of player I am. I'm not much of a stick handling guy. I know I have, I think I have good hands and everything,

but I'm not going to take guys on one-on-one, like the top players in the league who are really good at it, you know, under the stick moves or the highlight reel goals. I'll never be on the highlight real goals you know i'll never be on the highlight real moments so it's not something i don't think i can do but not something i'm you know willing to try to do it's not my game right maybe one day will be my game but you know i'm too concerned of turning it over or not being safe or or all that stuff that's just the player i am i don't want to not lead by example because i don't uh when that stuff's

not successful on our team it's hard to it's hard to look and say you know why is he doing that you know so I don't want to be the guy doing that and that stuff so uh when I do do it and once in a while like I said and it works I mean you can just see the motion when I scored I was like oh my god like it finally worked and I'm just so glad it worked and not only that wasn't a turnover the other way and because I try to be a safe player. I don't want to sacrifice all the things that I've grown up doing and it's playing the right way and not being sloppy or being selfish. You said there's a lot of things that are better this year

and there's a lot of things you still want to make better. Let's start with the good stuff first. What's better? I think just moving my feet. I know it's kind of not a cliche but it's just moving my feet from a to b I think sometimes my first two years it was kind of a pat not a passenger going up the ice uh you know I kind of relied on Rupated to drive the the NutriZone and everything but I think this year I really put emphasis on you know i want to

be a guy who gets up the ice i want to try to be the guy who gets a breakaway out of it you know i want to be the guy who can you know drive the net which i haven't yet i want to still try to do but um have that confidence of okay you can beat guys up the ice you know last year the year before i might have been a little timid and uh didn't know I could do it, maybe I'll pull off. But this year I've tried to really emphasis my game on, you know, once there's a quick turnover, like two, three hard steps, strides, and just go, just get up the ice because there's so much more space and so much more opportunity if you do that. I'm starting to realize that because, you know, I'm the guy most of the time

where if I get it, you know, if the guy, whoever where if i get it you know if the guy whoever playing with takes three straps he's in and i just lay it in for him or make a play up the ice or breakouts and everything so um just those little things like that but that's a confidence thing it's not really you know you can work on it but um that's definitely that's something that i've tried to uh incorporate this you look stronger yeah like like you came in shorts like you've got really strong legs like like i can see like there's a lot of power there yeah no i mean i think i've always thought i mean it looks a little funky but i think if i'm gonna move up the ice pretty good but it just doesn't look the eye test isn't as clean as some people think it is. Some people look at it, but, you know,

I always wanted to be getting up the ice as quick as I possibly can. And sometimes during the year it's displayed, but, I mean, I try to do that more. Now, you said there's still things that have to get better. I shudder to think of what those might be and how much better you can get but what is that? Well I mean the one thing is I think I can work on my one timer

I mean it's not the best I try It's like McDavid like he always said his one timer wasn't that good and now you can see where it's starting to go like is there a comparison to be made there between you and him?

Yeah I don't know. I mean, he's the best player in the world, so I'm sure he has other things to compensate. But no, for me, I think, I don't know, it's just something that's kind of, you know, I've never really worked on him throughout my career. I just want to keep doing it. I mean, you see all the goals and the score nowadays.

I mean, they're bang, bang, one-timer, especially on the power play in that off-wing slot. You look at the best goal scorers like Pasternak and Ovi. I mean, you can't do what Ovi does, but guys who just in that spot, they get it and they're hammering it. You look at a guy like Tate Thompson. He's got a wicked one-timer, as you can know, because goalies are so fast come across you just

got to get off as fast possible i still think i can improve on that i don't know how i mean it's kind of one of the things if you're gifted with it you just have it but i mean i'll still keep working on it and i'm sure there are other things i'd like to improve on probably yeah there's a lot of a lot of things i mean i'm not i don't think I'm the best player I think I can be, but I know there's still some stuff I can work, still work on to get, to try to get more and more. And hopefully as the year go by,

I can start to develop and see that. You know, Connor is going to win the heart trophy. We all know that, but the conversation around the heart trophy is still interesting outside of Connor and you're in there. Do you feel like you should be in that conversation? I don't know.

It was kind of, and I'm not going to compare it because it's kind of apples and oranges. But when you think about that, I mean, two years ago, it was Kirill and I, but it was all Kirill, right? So it's like, it's kind of similar here. So it was like, he got all the votes. You just knew he was going to win it. So I don't really think about that.

I mean, it is one thing or another. But if I could be the player that the team wants me to be, I mean, you know, it's an individual trophy. And I think for McDavid, he's, what, 35, what, 40 points ahead of the next guy. I mean, it's ludicrous. And it's out of this world. He's definitely an MVP of the league. So But for us, it's you know, we got three or four guys 30 goals

Three guys with 30 goals 30 plus goals, you know, Johnny just hit 20 goals Everyone's producing in our team and we're all reaping the benefits of what we've been doing all year you know that structure and what Pete's done and everything. And I've been one of the bigger fortunate guys to be able to do that, and they put me in a position to do that. So I don't really think there's an MVP of the year, definitely, and it's McDavid, what he's doing is incredible. But for our team, the Dallas Stars, I think it's more so everyone buying in and guys reaping the benefits.

I learned something about you today. You never take the option. You always skate. Why is that? I mean, whenever it's an option, I mean, I know it's just we're going to have fun out there. I mean, most of the time we're just going to have fun. No coaches. No, no head coach, right?

So whether it just be the assistant coach is everything goalie coach skills coach whatever i'm lucky enough to be in a position where i can go out there and screw around kind of do what you want to do one-timers work on one-timers just have fun take breakaways after practice play rebound or whatever so that's why i like doing i know this is practices on game days i mean it's kind of like it's non non-negotiable i'm always skating on game days because everyone has their preference, and I know that. But for me, it's very important for me to get on the ice, get a feel for the puck, get moving,

start to mentally get ready for the game tonight. But everyone has their preference, and whatever they've done, it's worked for a long time. So for me, as of right now, I don't take optionals, especially on game days. We've talked a lot about McDaviddavid and the game against the oilers after your collision with mcdavid you're skating off ekholm says something to you what did he say well no it wasn't anything bad i mean you know he just told me not to I think stick my leg out again

and I told him like I'm not gonna try to do it again I mean god I'm not gonna try to hurt I was never trying to hurt the guy I mean so I was uh it was just one of those things that you know I've never had I don't think I've ever had one of those things in my career yet where I had kind of that knee-on-knee collision but I mean whatever it is what it is but certainly I'm not a dirty player I think I'm telling that guy like I'm not a dirty guy I'm not gonna I'm not gonna try to do it again but uh yeah it was uh one of those things where I'm sure I hope if someone did that to me I mean someone on our team would you know confront the guy but whatever it is what it is. It's hockey. Perfect way to end. Jason, thank you.

Perfect. Thank you. Awesome, guys. Yeah. It's hard. Now tell us, Jason, what he really said. Hope you enjoyed that interview with Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars. Taking us out of the podcast today, one of the best-kept secrets from Dallas,

Taking us out of the podcast today, one of the best kept secrets from Dallas. Joshua Ray Walker writes songs with character while diving deep into his Texas roots. Walker's emotionally charged, soul-bearing storytelling and bright arrangements have made waves locally. From his See You Next Time record, here's Joshua Ray Walker with Sexy After Dark, just like Elliot, on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Fewer words make me sound so smart I'll let them slip out slowly Trading glances, blinking glasses Tell me part, I feel sexy after dark You can say That you're always gonna get your way I play

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