32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Dinner Date

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

April is upon us! Jeff and Elliotte discuss Gary Bettman’s night out with Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake (1:00), Executive Director of the NHLPA Marty Walsh addresses the media for the first time (4:50), AHL teams looking to push Scott Howson out of the league (17:00), a wild game between the Senators-Flyers (24:00), Pittsburgh still in the race (29:30) and the Rangers sign Filip Chytil to a 4-year extension (35:10).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music: Tyler Ramsey - Evening CountryListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: CHED, SportsNet AT&T and Sportsnet.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.

Where are you, Elliot? I'm at the hotel where we did the interview. This is not Stouffville Wi-Fi. It's not a hockey hotel. It's a curling hotel, so it's even worse. I worked at a curling club for a year. As a bartender, curlers drink better than anyone in Canada. Hands down. That's how I feel.

Here we go. Gary Bettman, Marty Walsh, and Scott Housen, three of the most powerful people in the hockey universe. We'll discuss all of them as 32 Thoughts kicks off once again, presented by GMC and the new Sierra AT4X, Delitzsch, Friedman, and yours truly. Want to get to Marty Walsh, who met the media today, Elliot. Want to get to Scott Housen,

where it looks as if there's a movement to oust him among some in the American Hockey League. But we'll start with the NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, and who has he been having dinner with lately? So on Tuesday night in New York City, well, apparently I didn't realize this. There was an NBA board of governors meeting on Tuesday in New York. And afterwards, Gary Bettman went out for dinner with Ryan Smith, who was the owner of the Utah Jazz and also the Real Salt Lake, which is the MLS team in Utah. And I have heard Ryan Smith's name connected to the NHL before.

You know, he was involved in potentially being interested in purchasing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Obviously, he didn't do that, but he is someone who was on the NHL's radar. And they went out for dinner on Tuesday. I don't know who paid, Jeff. I don't have those details. I don't know who had the lobster bisque and who had the creme brulee. I'm not really sure about this particular one. The big question, who tied their shoes when the bills came essentially is what i'm asking now

oh here comes the bill oh my shoelaces are undone i have to go to the bathroom who had the branzino and who had the filet i don't know all this stuff but i do know they met okay so first of all i think ryan smith is the exact kind of owner that the NHL would want. He's done a real nice job out there in Utah with the Jazz and the soccer teams. As a matter of fact, part of his partnership in soccer is with David Blitzer, who is the co-owner of the New Jersey Devils. So Smith is a guy that the NHl i could totally see the nhl wanting him in their orbit now the question is what does this mean and as you know jeff utah has a pretty good hockey history with the old ihl team the grizzlies yeah i think ryan smith

has interest in the nhl i think the nhlL has interest in Ryan Smith. What I thought was maybe if the upcoming referendum in Arizona didn't go well, it would make sense that if they needed somewhere to go, Salt Lake City could be the place in the short term. I don't necessarily think that's what they're talking about anymore. Salt Lake City appears right now to be the favorite for the 2030 Olympics, the Winter Olympics. Salt Lake had them in 2002, but now there's a lot of talk that they're the favorite for 2030. And are we talking about a new arena for hockey and basketball? But I definitely think that this is a city and region that is on the NHL's radar and vice versa and a story to keep an eye on.

Interesting. So no to a potential for a Houston or we've talked about Kansas City before. The one thing that we do know that, you know, if you look at Gary Bettman's resume and what he's been able to do is Gary Bettman has always been able to find owners. It's almost as if he has a drawer full of owners and he can pull one out at the drop of a hat when he needs one. And my initial thought upon hearing this was, okay, is this going to add to this long list of potential owners that Gary Bettman has? And I look at Ryan Smith and I say, sure sure utah jazz and that makes a lot of sense and salt lake city does as well but he's also from oregon and as we've seen the success of hockey

in the united states pacific northwest hello seattle we're looking your direction the success that that team has been um and the ahl team as well you know there are a lot of people that told me once upon a time, I don't know why the NHL is looking at Seattle. They should be looking at Portland. My first thought was, are they actually looking at another team in that area of the United States?

Well, there you go. You're a genius. I don't know. I just throw darts, that's all. You know what I do, Elliot? Here's what I do for a living. I throw darts at the wall and then I draw a circle around them afterwards

to make it look like I hit a bullseye. And if it's totally off the map, I say it never happened and I move on. Speaking of moving on, Marty Walsh is the new executive director of the Players Association, had his introductory meeting with the media today. I listened to the Zoom call this morning

and watched him speak to reporters and a couple of things. I mean, this is his first presentation to the media. And so there's a sensitivity about what he's going to project. And I'm sure in the back of his mind, I don't think he wanted to give out too much headline fodder in all of this. And there was a lot of, well, if I don't have the answer, I'll get it to you later on. But the one place where Marty Walsh really put a marker down was when he was asked about the salary cap

and the raising of the salary cap in the summer and he essentially said that he was open to talk about the salary cap yeah the commissioner in our in our meeting we had a quick meet we want to say meeting we stopped by and saw him we had a meeting in new york so i went by to spend about a half hour with commissioner um he brought that up and certainly we're open to any conversation but not open to making any changes to escrow let me just go back we're open to any conversation but we're not open to changing the escrow so that is the first marker down from marty walsh your thoughts on what we saw slash heard today i know he had a chance to talk to the executive director as well. Jeff, he's very Boston.

Oh, yeah. When you think about somebody from Boston, that's exactly what you think about. And I don't say that as a negative. I said that as a positive. You know, Boston is a tough, tough town. And what I saw in this media conference was somebody who is very comfortable wielding either Thor's hammer or the velvet glove like a lot of stuff he really demurred and said you know what

I'm still meeting the group I've still got to kind of figure out what everyone thinks as you mentioned he made the point about we're not interested in in moving the escrow like that flag was thrown down right away and also luke fox brought up the contributions for jeremy jacobs when i did an interview with him that people are going to hear in the next couple of days i also mentioned because another who donated for his inauguration was john henry the owner now of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was, I don't know if defiant is the right word, but he was firm and passionate in saying that, look, if you think I'm going to throw away my representation of the players for a campaign donation,

you guys are nuts. So basically we have some idea of what he stands for in terms of representation and what the issues but i still think we've got uh some more to learn now you know a couple of the things that some of the topics that we discussed that maybe didn't come out uh so much in public was he has a meeting next week with the arizona coyotes because I asked him about that situation. He said that he's going next week to meet with the Coyotes players to talk about not only their situation with the salary cap, but the arena they play in, the future of the vote, which is in May.

It's very clear to me that that's a situation he wants to get a handle on and learn how the players feel about it as a whole. I asked him about Rush's future in international play. He didn't want to go there. I talked to him about the pride jerseys. I think people heard his public answer, which is history and politics is very progressive and he supports those initiatives, but he also said it's an individual player's choice you know one thing i did ask him uh jeff is what happens if it comes down to if it's a special jersey night you wear the special jersey or you don't play because i think that conversation is going to happen or at least that idea is going to be made part of the conversation and he said he

does not support that. He said it should be a player's choice. I know Bettman said this week they're going to have to talk about this stuff. I'm not convinced the Pride jerseys are going to go away. I'm not. I would actually be somewhat surprised if that happened based on everything I've seen over the past few weeks. But he stuck very strongly to it should be a person's choice. So he also had Jeff, his first conversation with Connor McDavid. He hasn't spoken yet to

Sidney Crosby, but I think generally his standard answer is going to be, I still have to get to know a lot of the players before I make too many firm commitments. You know, one of the interesting things, and I can understand why he said this as well at the introductory press conference on Thursday morning to the media, when asked about the World Cup and Russia, as you mentioned, he sort of deferred and said... Yeah, I think first and foremost, you know, we've had a couple of conversations over the last couple of weeks about the World Cup of Hockey. We've talked a little bit about the Olympics as well coming up in 2026. And I and i think at first you know what i like to do is let's let's establish the program let's establish the world cup of hockey back and let's have a forward-looking uh schedule to see

so people can be consistent with it fans love it players love it it's important for us to do it i think that right now commenting on what's going on in the world i mean anything can things can change and things can different things can. So I think it's a little too early to talk about who's involved in the tournament or not. But I think we should get the tournament on paper and get the concept written, more than a concept, start the conversation, really get it going moving forward and what this will look like. And then, obviously, we have to deal with challenges that might come up as time goes on. I kind of said to myself, I'm reminded of, checks notes,

the last executive director of the NHL Players Association who wasn't necessarily willing to dig deep into the CBA to draw new money for the players, always feeling that the pot of gold was in international hockey. And that didn't happen under Donald Feer.

But I thought it was really interesting the way that one of the first things when the question about growth or the discussion about growth for the Players Association arose, one of the first things out of his mouth was international hockey and the World Cup of Hockey. And as you mentioned, he's spoken to Conor McDavid. I would imagine part of that discussion would have been McDavid talking about Otani and Trout and the future of international hockey with the NHL players. But we have gone down this road before with the Players Association, but it does sound very much and feel very much, Elliot, like this is much more of a player push right now. found interesting as much as marty walsh positioned himself as you know someone who has always advocated on behalf of labor and he talked about his family's construction past and rising through the ranks of of the union etc he was quick to mention at various key points the marriage of labor and business and working in harmony with business. Because I think that, like, I was guilty of this as well.

I wondered why the NHL Players Association would go with someone with a very strong, and Marty Walsh has a very strong, labor background, as opposed to someone who had more of a business acumen, given that I don't think the NHL Players Association is looking for a fight over any elements of the CBA. I know there's the escrow issue. Let's just bracket that for a second. But it didn't seem as if they were positing for a fight here in any way, shape, or form. They were looking for growth.

So I was wondering if they would go with someone with more of a business background. But Walsh almost seemed at a couple of points to go out of his way to mention that marriage, labor and business working in harmony. Have a thought on that one? I think it's very true. As a matter of fact, I'm going to write my notes today. They're going to come out before this pod. And cause I think that's the tone of what the players want. They definitely want a situation where they feel they can, like, I don't think these

players have any desire to be, to go on strike or be locked out. Like, I don't think they're interested in work stoppages. To me that this player wants to get like a lot of people do. I don't think they're any different than most of the public. They want to grind for the best deal that they can get with the minimum amount of aggravation. That doesn't mean you don't work hard. That doesn't mean that you're not committed to your craft. It just means that you want the least possible aggravation. That doesn't mean you don't work hard. That doesn't mean that you're not committed to your craft. It just means that you want the least possible aggravation towards negotiating it. And that doesn't obviously always happens. In fact, it rarely happens, but it means that you start with that philosophy. Like I see a person here who has played in a lot of rough games, Jeff. Politics is a rough, rough, dirty, dirty business. This is a guy who was mayor.

I don't know if there's a dirtier business or a rougher business than local politics. Like I asked him, you know, what did the players want? And I think from what I heard is the players want someone who can grow the game, grow the pie, but we don't want to miss any time. How do we go about doing that? And he definitely presented himself as a person who can do that. His philosophy is to try and do that. Now, one other thing I wanted to mention to you, Jeff, I did have a conversation with someone from a team the other day, and they told me that they think there is a deal to be made on the cap. I said, oh yeah, what's that? And he said to me that he thinks there is some wiggle room based on the current projections. And I talked to one of the team and they said,

yeah, they could see it. He said, there is the possibility they think that they could raise the cap by maybe $2 million, and the escrow shouldn't need to be touched. Now, for people who don't know that, the next three years, the players' escrow was capped at 6%. And what these two teams were telling me and a couple agents were telling me is, if you got near $2 million, you could probably be okay with the 6%. The question is, is anyone going to be happy with probable? And number two, is anybody just going to be willing to do that? Say yes.

If the escrow numbers don't get touched, we'll go to $2 million. But here's what I wonder about that. I think we're all curious about what the first fight, for lack of a better term, what the first fight is going to be here between Marty Walsh and Gary Bettman, or the first aggressive exchange of ideas, if we want to give that, if we want to give it a softer landing.

You know, Gary Bettman has talked about raising the salary cap, but also talked about escrow. And as we mentioned Thursday, Marty Walsh made it perfectly clear that was a non-starter for the union i have a tough time seeing gary batman because let's not forget too he's got to go back to his owners and i don't think that he wants to go back to his owners and say i'm handing marty walsh his first win in the first encounter. I don't know that the exchange will be, I'll give you something and nothing will come back my way. If you're Gary Bettman, who again has bosses himself and has to answer to them ultimately.

That's why I look at this sort of skeptically. Ultimately, Bettman will make this decision because he makes all the decisions, Jeff. It's like our wives, they make all the decisions and we do whatever they tell us to. I go where I'm put. But I wonder how much gentle nudging, let's say, he's going to get from owners who want some flexibility with their teams. I can definitely see that. I just don't know whether that is an enough.

Do you think that's a majority of teams though, or there are a few teams? And is it substantial enough that in the first encounter over the first issue, Gary Bettman gives into the union? I don't know. It's a great question. I think we talked about politics before, and Marty Walsh is very well- well versed in that, uh, in

the dark arts of politics. These are two cage fighters. No, I know. These are two cage fighters. This one is a fascinating one and I'm always interested in the first exchange and what it brings, uh, because, you know, both have constituents to answer to and both have

reputations on the line for the first encounter between the two. We'll park that for now. Scott Housen, who is the top dog in the American Hockey League, there has been, there have been whispers about this going back a few months. There has been a movement to oust him

from his position. What is the latest? The best line I got about this, and I'm using it in my notes too, Jeff, is that someone said to me in the NHL, if you are interested in taking over from Gary Bettman when the time comes for him as NHL commissioner, which might be after we're all gone because he just is going to outlive all of us. This is going to be what you should look out for. This is a test case because prior to Scott, how was Dave Andrews was the HL president for 26 years and he ran the league with authority. Like you remember, we did that interview with him when he was retiring. And we said to him, like you had the reputation, basically you

ran the league with the iron fist and not only did he not dispute that but he liked that that was the question he basically said you had to okay it's like herding cats you have to do this and what a couple of teams have told me is they think this is about some teams felt they didn't have enough of a voice when Dave Andrew was there Scott Housen comes in they thought it was going to be different under a new president and they were going to have more of a voice and as soon as Scott Housen started to say no to some teams, it started to turn on him. From what I understand, Jeff, about a week and a half ago,

there was a meeting of the executive committee. And at that point in time, there was no commitment given Gotthausen's contract. And I think there were about seven teams that were holding it up and the NHL found out about it and they did not like this. The NHL does not want instability in this league. And I think also, I think the NHL feels some degree of thank you to Housen because during the postcovid year the taxi squads were bad for the ahl like you have one player in particular you think the taxi squad really hurt right michael di pietro yeah listen he got nhl money and and that was great i just look at

michael di pietro specifically in his development and how much like sure he's you know practicing with you know elite players and getting elite coaching, et cetera, but he wasn't getting games. And I really felt that it really hurt him specifically. And I think the NHL was really appreciative of the AHL to agree to do that so it could get through the season. So I think there's some loyalty to Housen for the AHL to make that concession

to get through the NHL season. I think on some level, Jeff, it's a little bit of the 32 teams in the AHL, 21 are owned by their NHL team, 11 of them are independent. And I think some of this is the independent teams versus the AHL teams. It's not completely along those lines. You know, the other thing I heard that was brought up was Housen is a hockey guy and a lawyer, and maybe they want more of a

business person. Funny. We just talked about this with the NHLPA, but Jeff, the AHL numbers are really good. Let me pause on that because I've talked a lot about this, and I think this is a point to stress here. The AHL is in really good. Let me pause on that because I've talked a lot about this. And I think this is a point to stress here. The AHL is in a really healthy business place right now.

Yes. Like we're long past the idea of your American Hockey League affiliate is your lost leader in your organization. It's a place where you throw good money after bad. That's not the case anymore. Like this is a healthy, vibrant league. And one more thing. There is a healthy, vibrant league. And one more thing, there is a similarity. You know, you mentioned Dave Andrews and the respect that he commanded and the iron fist and all that, that was well-earned. And to me, what's really cemented Dave Andrews was he fought the IHL for a number of years

and then absorbed teams. That was the most challenging time perhaps in the history of the American hockey league. And the symmetry that I see between Andrews and Housen, and you just brought this up was the COVID era NHL and the COVID era AHL and what he was able to do and still work hand to glove with the NHL and then come out the other end of it and have a healthy, profitable league.

Like I understand that there are some owners in the American Hockey League that want to quibble about games. Some of the independent teams that make a lot of money, thank you very much, don't want a shrunken schedule. They don't want less games. They want more games because that means more money for them. But overall, this is a very healthy league underhausen. Well, if you take a look at it, last full season before COVID was 18-19,

league revenue is up about 50% now since then, one of the teams told me. And team revenue in ticketing is up about 20%. Now, what this person said to me was he thinks that there's some people who don't want to give housing credit for the arrival of Henderson, who's the Knights, the Golden Knights, American Hockey League team and Coachella Valley, which is Seattle's AHL team. Those are revenue superstars. My point is that when you're in charge, you probably get too much credit for the good

things, but you get all of the blame for the bad things. So if you're going to get blamed for bad things, you get credit for Henderson and Coachella Valley helping the bottom lines. I think this, the one thing, Jeff, that made this person mad who I was talking to is that apparently some of the people who are representing some of these teams that are against housing that were beaten out by housing when housing got the job jeff and he doesn't like that like he thinks that's dishonest yeah he thinks that's dishonest i think a lot of this is going to come down to the league i mean the league i mean the nhl like how does the nhl feel about this because like i said i think they feel some loyalty

because the ahl helped them get through covid and secondly i think they want a league that is consistent and kind of in lockstep with it and apparently the league and the ahl have a good relation under housing here listen to to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Elliot, let's do something fun. So, Thursday night, Amal Delich, our wonderful producer, went to the Ottawa-Philadelphia

game. Very eventful. We saw Nick Delorier fight not one, but Delic, our wonderful producer, went to the Ottawa-Philadelphia game. Very eventful. We saw Nick Delorier fight not one but two players almost at the exact same time. He fought one and then fought another en route to the penalty box. Hello, Austin Watson. Hello, Mark Kastelik as well. I want to ask you about John Tortorella removing himself from the bench and going eyes in the sky.

I want to ask about the brinket. I want to talk about his goal and his fight and Cam Talbot after 60 minutes of shots being 44, 11. Before we get there, let's talk to the man that hung out with Ryan Reynolds on Thursday night. Amal Delich. How was your experience at the Sens game?

I didn't hang out with him, but wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did I not tell you not to show up tonight unless you got a picture with Ryan Reynolds?

You did, but I'll tell you, it was so hard to track him down. And the PR guys were not giving away any secrets of what suite he was in. But I will say this, he practically owns a team already. The amount of shirtless men I saw tonight with heart-shaped signs on their chest drawn on saying, I love you, Ryan, was unbelievable. I've never been in an arena with that many dudes cheering on one guy.

But he was allowed to cheer. When he got on the Jumbotron, he was... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, so let me get this straight. You could not find Ryan Reynolds. The PR people were not helping you, but they put him on the Jumbotron.

They did, yes. So you didn't think about figuring out where he was based on the Jumbotron? I think he was being very elusive, going box to box, because he's a socialite. I also didn't want to cross any lines because I was a guest, and I wanted didn't want to cross any lines because I was a guest

and I wanted to represent sports in a very good light. But it was an extremely entertaining game. I had so much fun because I didn't know what was going to happen every single minute. I couldn't believe how rough and choppy it got at times, but also the fans were so into it. Oh, yeah, it was crazy there. And the one moment that just caught the whole crowd off guard

was the Derek Broussard injury. It really eerie it was really eerie I don't like what I'm hearing on the Broussard injury uh I hope it's wrong but I don't like what I'm hearing Hamannik got hurt too DJ Smith said that it's not good for either guy which is too bad but wait a second I Jeff I want to make sure like I heard this properly yeah did you hear almost say that he didn't want to go look for ryan reynolds because he wanted to represent sports net properly i just wanted to make sure i heard that properly yes uh rewinds tape uh yeah correct yes he did say that hold on a second kyle wacoskis was there i didn't want to step on a reporter's toes.

Okay. So how come Kyle didn't go looking for Ryan Reynolds? He had a long day and I'm not going to get into it. He had a long day. So he didn't want to go looking for Ryan Reynolds. What is a Ryan? What's a long day? What was he doing?

He went to the morning skate and he went to the game. No, he was covering the soccer Canada story. So he was busy during the day well okay i don't want to make fun of that because that's actually you know it's a big story big story you guys sat in the press box together you were you were a guest of the senators trying to represent sports net well big thanks to chris moore and brian morris sends media relations how many boxes of popcorn did you eat? Only two bags.

How many ice cream bars? Come on, come on. I couldn't find them. I couldn't find them. This is an embarrassing performance. Now, I will say you saw a great game. There's nothing anybody saw in that game on Thursday night where Ottawa outshot Philly, 46 to 11 44 11 after 60 close enough 46 to 11 they jerk they blew the 401 lead it was a great game the building was a fire like

nobody's saying i'm not buying the ottawa senators after that game last night that was a really really entertaining game there were a couple of great games on game last night. That was a really, really entertaining game. There were a couple of great games on Thursday night, but that was definitely one of them. Huge game. That was, and Amble, thanks for that. A couple of things in that game too. And the way that I look at this is.

Oh, well, you've got a great future as a reporter. Like great future as a reporter. Do you want to tell everybody who I saw as well, sitting like a few seats down from me? Who? Who was that? Doug Armstrong and- Oh, Claude Julien.

Claude Julien. Ah. I wonder if Claude Julien's going to be coaching Team Canada. Hmm. Dun, dun, dun, dun. Before we go on to the other games, Amal, did you say you had a cigar on Thursday night? No, I did not. Yes, you did. You did say that did you say you had a cigar on thursday night no i did not

yes you did you did say i did not have a cigar here's my question because i love cigars did you smoke it next to kyle in the press box no i did that would not be representing sports that well you didn't do your glenn sather impression just sit there and chew on it though no what do you take me for seriously to compliment i said you like glenn say either no like come on guys let's be real here i got like john torla staring down at me no way i'll do that you uh you went to a very entertaining game my friend i'm glad you had a good time on thursday thursday was an interesting one i want to get to this la edmonton game here in a second but a couple of playoff races here

and a couple of teams we all have our eyes on right now. Florida Panthers, Matthew Kachuk with the hat trick. They beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jason Zucker, Jake Gensel find the back of the net. The big story though, Tristan Jari with the shutout. The Penguins take care of the

Nashville Predators by a final score of 2-0, so everybody keeps pace. shutout the penguins take care of the national predators by a final score of two nothing so everybody keeps pace and the pittsburgh penguins retain for now the second wild card spot in the eastern conference your thoughts on on these pair of games well just a huge night for jari like you know they need to squeeze every drop out of jari that they can get because you just don't know how long this is going to last. He's clearly banged up. He's far from healthy. He's trying to gut it out.

I think any time you go up against Saros and you win, you take that as a huge night. And it was only a 2-0 game, 45-28 shots for Pittsburgh, but they got something out of Jerry. I have to say this. You know who I really like, Jeff? I really like Zucker. He just scores big goals.

Like we all know about who Pittsburgh's key guys are, but Zucker, man, every time something good happens in Pittsburgh where you need like a greasy goal or a hard play to get something done he just always seems to be around it always ufa i love that guy yeah when i think jason zucker now you know what i will always think of the look on his face that expression jordan mington for bennington clobbered him behind the net and then Zucker turned around and scored on him.

And as Bennington passed the Pittsburgh Penguins bench, obviously he said something that infuriated Jordan Bennington. And he gave that sort of shrug with that upside-down smile on his face. And Russ finds Malkin, who finds Zucker in the high slot. Here we go. Binnington's not done, guys. Yeah, he's yapping at the Penguins bench right now. That leash wasn't very long, was it?

You called it. He came off his helmet off right away. He knew he was coming out, did a flyby. Look at this. Got the mullet going. This is old time. Old time hockey, Bobby. This is old school right here. This is old time. Old time hockey, Bobby. This is old school right here.

This guy. Somebody must have said something. Jordan Bennington's night is done. That is him in a nutshell too because he has been looking for a fight for years. St. Louis

number 50 has been assessed a 10 minute misconduct for inciting. He can get to misconduct. To me, Jason Zucker could score a triple overtime Stanley Cup game-winning goal, and that would be wonderful for him, wonderful for the Penguins, etc. I will always think of him as that guy who tortured Jordan Bennington this season. But I've loved Zucker going back to the Minnesota Wild days. Elliot, I am with you 100% on that guy.

And you're right, man. Getting something out of Tristan Jari right now, it's got to make you feel really good if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, the other really interesting game, you remember how a couple of podcasts ago we talked about how Tampa and Boston, that game on a Saturday afternoon had a real playoff-type feel, playoff-type atmosphere, finishing checks,

nasty, low scoring, no one's given an inch. Thursday night, that was LA and Edmonton. And that was Connor McDavid with a shorthanded goal. Jersey gives it away, that was Connor McDavid with a shorthanded goal. Jersey gives it away. And here comes McDavid. Shorthanded. The breakaway. McDavid scores!

His 300th career goal! And the Oilers are up 2-0! Connor McDavid with just a beautiful read. Off to the race. Absolute beauty. Connor McDavid with a boarding penalty early on Mikey Anderson. We all know the history of Mikey Anderson and the Edmonton Oilers. Some really good goaltending by Stuart Skinner.

Your thoughts on the 2-0 Edmonton win over the LA Kings in a nasty Elliott. Nasty game. Well, you're the guy who has a big question about this. And that's the McDavid hit that knocked Anderson out of the game. You want Connor McDavid suspended for a year? No, I just look at it and I say, now he coasts into the hit. So he takes two strides under the blue line and he coasts into Anderson. And, you know, the hit is before the boards and ridess into the hit, so he takes two strides under the blue line, and he coasts into Anderson, and the hit is before the boards and rides him into the glass.

It's a boarding penalty. It was. I don't know that it's going to rise to anything more than that, though, despite the fact that Mikey Anderson left the game. Yeah, I mean, when I saw it, I was like, that's a penalty. I don't think he ran him or anything like that. But he coasted into him from behind. Yeah, it was a penalty, and he got him in the numbers,

and I'm sure someone's going to say to him, don't do that again. We don't mind you hitting, but we don't need that. But Connor McDavid takes a lot of punishment out there, and it's definitely different to see him dishing it out as opposed to taking it. But that's what happens at this time of year. Um, like I said, I thought it was a penalty. I thought that was a great game that we talked about auto was building going bananas. That building in Edmonton was a fire on Thursday night. And, uh, it was an excellent, excellent game. It really was a great game that one was a lot of fun and uh seven games of that in the postseason i think we're all on the same page about that

a signing that i want to get to as well uh philip heatle signs with the new york rangers this is just a beautiful contract for the rangers philipilippito enjoying a really good season, signs a four-year $17.75 million deal. AAV is 4.4. Third line center, you know, anchoring the kid line. I know if you're Filippito, you're looking right now and you're saying, I got Zibanejad and I got Trocek ahead of me, but this guy is, you know, somewhere down the road going to be the second line center for the new york rangers at some point and that number is just so good for the rangers and elliot i can't help

but thinking that's going to really help chris drury when they have to sign and it's coming up this summer k andre miller and alexi lafreniere yeah I've already got people I know who love the offer sheets just coming up with Keiondre Miller offer sheets. Like I get people who text me them. How about this? Do you think this could work? That's a fun game that we like to play.

Look, I think the Hedl deal is a great deal for both player and team. Look, the player is going to get $18 million almost. That's great for the player. The Rangers get them at a really fair and reasonable number. You know, the one thing I think that that's really good for the Rangers about is that, you know, they've taken a lot of criticism for development of forwards. You know, Hedl's a big success story. And I think a lot of that is on the player. I mean, you're not going to develop anybody if the player isn't going to be determined and desires to be successful on their own. You have to be

self-motivated, but I think that's a big one for the Rangers to say. And even some people who aren't even there anymore to say, you know what, look like we knew what we were doing with this guy. I think it's great for team and player. There's not really much else for me to say about it. And on that note, I'm giving Jeff the rest of the podcast off because I am nothing if not a benevolent dictator. Thank you to our wonderful Ottawa correspondent, Amal Delich, and all of you for listening. Taking us out is an artist who writes his music in the woods just outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Sounds pretty cool. Tyler Ramsey removes himself from all distractions when he's looking to tap into his creativity. From his For the Morning record, here's Tyler Ramsey with Evening Country. With the sun in your eyes, you wasted my time.

It's true, it's true. My God, don't you hold out your hand I call off my plans I count it on you On you And if you're ever left with any doubt What you live with and what you do without