32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Elliotte’s Run in With the Law

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte comes clean about his lead-foot run in on his way to the studio on Sunday. Kyle and Elliotte delve into a frustrating travel day for the Canadiens after a tough two-game road trip (6:30). Elliotte talks about why Marty St. Louis is one of his favourite people in hockey and how he has adjusted as coach of Montreal (8:30). Next, they talk about Minnesota vs. Toronto on Saturday night and Kirill Kaprizov's future (19:40). Kyle and Elliotte also talk about the goaltender interference challenge in the Winnipeg vs. Tampa Bay game (26:48). Elliotte talks about the Islanders being banged up on the blue line and the market for defensemen (34:17). The Final Thought focuses on the Boston Bruins' critical weekend (38:00). Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions in the Thought Line (43:05).The fellas wrap the podcast promoting Elliotte's one on one interview piece with Slovak hockey star Juraj Slafkovsky (58:53). Watch the full interview with Slafkovsky here > youtube.com/watch?v=pZkpkz6zHVUEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.  

Ben from Tabor, Alberta. Yes, the home of the world-famous Tabor corn. Hey, Elliot, Kyle, and Dom. First want to say love the pod. Been listening since it was still 31 Thoughts. Wow. Thanks a the GMC Sierra AT4X. Dom, Elliot, and Kyle, all with you. Elliot, I was tuning in Sunday night to you and the gang doing the first Leafs regional telecast of the season. Can't believe we're already into November and your first show together with David and Justin and Nick as well. And the pregame show starts and David Amber makes the comment of Elliot Friedman here just in time. Was there a story behind that or just typical free jatted again? There is a story. I had a bit of a lead foot going into the studio.

Did somebody tip you off on this? No, I just watched the show. No, you're a liar. Somebody sent you a text about this. I promise. I promise. I would tell you if someone did. This is just good journalistic instincts.

You are a terrible. I want to play cards against you. You are a terrible liar. Yeah, I had you you are a terrible liar yeah i had a bit of the lead foot uh coming down to work and uh i got caught so i as you what yeah as as you know elliot i honestly had no clue seriously sorry nobody told you about this? No. Yeah, I got caught. Oh, no. I was really close. As you know me, I don't like meetings,

and I will show up at the last second before a meeting. Now, for our Leaf regionals, I actually really like this. We don't meet. This is one thing I really enjoy working about with Dave, Nick and Justin is we like to keep it as free-flowing as possible. There is a script but it's more there just to let everybody know when the video is coming in. We don't tell each other, we know what the topics are but we don't tell each other what we're gonna say. So we usually don't go on set until 15 minutes before we're going on air.

And I literally walked into the building 15 minutes before we were going on air because I got caught with a bit of a lead foot. Yeah, that's true. So when he called me Speedy Gonzalez, that's what he was referring to. Oh my goodness. And there was no, do you know who I think I am conversation? Are you crazy? Do you think I would do that? Not a chance. Because you know why? Best for times. I would be crushed when the officer said, I have no idea who you are. It would be too bad for my ego. Jeez.

When was the last time you were busted for speeding? Only once in my life. Was it? In the province of Alberta. And how far were you over? 20. I was driving back. So Dana, my wife, girlfriend at the time, was living in Medicine Hat.

And I was driving back from there to go to Calgary to fly back to Ottawa and she goes oh like you can do it was 110 on the highway she goes oh you can do 130 like everyone does it's no problem I'm like okay so I'm just cruising along there and I come up over top of the hill and at the bottom there was was an officer and he was ready for me. Were you on hockey night at the time? No, I was at Sportsnet, but I wasn't doing any hockey night stuff. No, just kidding. Did the officer recognize who you were, he or she? I don't believe so.

I don't believe he did. No. I was very early in my Sportsnet tenure. It would have given you more of a fine. Anyway, so, I mean, at the end of the day, I made it on time. No harm, no foul. Now, I wanted to ask you, you had a funny story of what had happened to you and John Bartlett in Pittsburgh with Montreal-Pittsburgh postgame.

You guys were having one after the game in the hotel bar, and what happened? So, yeah, we get back to our hotel, and we had a restaurant in the lobby right next door, and we were sitting, and it was John Bartlett, Gary Gally, the rest of our production crew. There was seven or eight of us that were sitting down there, and we were sitting at a table that was right next to kind of the window that you could see out into the lobby and i had my back to it but bartlett

could see he was looking out through the window and at what point he just stops and he said and the canadians are here and the canadians are checking into the hotel uh which was strange of course because it was the end of their road trip they were supposed to be headed back to Montreal post game and all of a sudden you see the entire team roll in with their luggage and everything and it was like uh-oh something's gone haywire here and we learned soon after what had happened I guess the plane that was theirs sitting at the airport in Pittsburgh, the fuel truck was going to gas up the plane at some point on Saturday, whether it was the afternoon or evening or whatever, and made contact with the plane. I don't know how severe it was, but clearly when that happens, even a slight bump, now you've got to go through a whole series of checks and balances to make sure that the plane's still okay to fly again. So they weren't going anywhere on Saturday night. And I guess, I mean, they were staying at a different hotel

the night before in downtown Pittsburgh. Saturday night, they were full, so they had to repo and scramble and find a place. They ended up where we were staying, just at another part of the downtown core there. But, man, now you got, all right. And it's funny, like that was a week after Carolina had plane troubles trying to get from Seattle to Vancouver and they had to bus up, right? And the great story that Dan Murphy told about Brent Burns arranging hamburgers

for the whole team in Everett, I think, along the way where they stopped for some food. But it was just a bizarre scene. I think they were able to get off the ground on Sunday morning and eventually get back to Montreal. But talk about salt in the wound for the Canadians after just a really frustrating road trip, no points in two games, and you're grounded in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

Well, I think anybody listening to this podcast who's ever had travel issues where you have to return to the hotel, you can empathize with that. Even if the Canadians are traveling by a private plane in what people joke about is the Never Hungry League on those planes, people understand.

When you think you're going somewhere and all of a sudden a couple hours later, you're checking back into the hotel. Everyone gets how awful that feels. Oh, by the way, we were kind of ripping you after the show. Oh, thanks. You're welcome. Because you asked Crosby in the postgame how many times he'd been first star.

And I thought you knew the answer. Like we were like, what kind of guy asked the question without knowing the answer because he didn't know and I thought you were going to pop the number right at him so we were all looking at you and saying if you're going to ask you got to know the answer well are you that surprised I literally let off the podcast with this asking a question about how your night went on Sunday, not knowing the answer. I thought you knew for sure. And look where that got me. I thought you knew for sure.

Anyway, I just didn't. No, you know what? I'm just, but you're, you know, you're standing there waiting to do the interview and he gets called out for the first time and I'm just, you know, observing going, geez, like you wonder how many times he's, he's gone out and done that over, over his career. And so I didn't know the answer. And sometimes I just, well, a different way to start. I still don't.

Just a different way to start the interview. You could tell Crosby was good to talk. But, you know, I wanted to ask you a little bit about Montreal a bit. Do you see, like, I really like talking to Marty St. Louis. I think he's one of my favorite players, or now he's a coach, but when he played, he was one of my favorite players and people in the league to talk to. And oftentimes I would reach out to him, like,

just on things that really didn't have anything to do with him, just to get his opinion because I think he's really smart and he has a really good eye into the game. And, you know, over the last week or two, you know, I think when he gets the job, you know, people were surprised. He obviously wasn't being mentioned as a candidate. Nobody really knew he was that interested. And all of a sudden he gets the job and the Canadians are really down and, you know, they

start having some better results and some of their players are really happy and you can see the improvement. And, you know, the one thing someone said to me at the time and it's so true it is so true is said you know now marty san luis he's in the honeymoon stage um everyone loves him there's no expectations on the team he's talking up his players he's he's really engaging and intriguing to listen to him talk about hockey and he said that will change eventually when the expectations are on the Montreal Canadiens now I don't even know that you would say the expectations are on the Montreal Canadians maybe their fans have more expectations which is is fine. Fans are fans. They're entitled. But I think a lot of people would have looked at this team this year and said,

no, they're not even close to competing for a playoff berth. But they've been loose. They've been giving up a lot of goals. There have been some lopsided games. I think that's added to the spotlight because they have had some really l had some really lopsided ugly defeats and that's never tolerable and now for the first time you kind of see the strain coming and the pressures are on him a bit and uh like it's the first time he's ever had to deal with this and i just wanted to ask you what you've seen from him and what you saw from him on the weekend? Well, it was a stark change post-game Saturday in terms of his demeanor and the messaging he was trying to get out compared to post-game Thursday after they lost to Washington.

And we talked a lot about that on the last pod. I think you said, hey, expectations are a little different. And part of it is because they put it on themselves. I don't believe this was a market or fan base driven thing. And at the same time, I'm not saying that they came out in September and were like, we're going to be a playoff team. Nothing like that. But you could tell that philosophically as an organization it was time to start taking steps here tangible steps and when you bring in a guy like patrick linea and the excitement around him

lane hudson and what the potential could be and and still will be for him you know there was there was a legitimate reason to have some buzz around the group. And I really thought, you know, when Kevin and Luke on the panel there on Saturday night in the first intermission was talking about how they came out against Pittsburgh, and Kevin said it, like, you're worried about some regression here instead of progression. And they showed some of the video. And I remember, like, even in that first period, there was a time where the Penguins had montreal hemmed in their zone and gary galley said on the

air he was between the benches going you can hear from the pittsburgh bench they're tired they're tired stay on them and montreal finally got the puck back and instead of doing the old get over the red line and just dump it in like they tried to make a play and next thing you know they turn it over just inside the blue line and they're back again and not able to complete the full change. It's like, my gosh, you can only imagine what Martin St. Louis is thinking at that time.

And they did get better as, as the night wore on and they got, you know, a goal back and made a push before the penguin sealed it with the empty netter. But I don't think we're at a point yet. One thing I really do believe, Elliot, is that the head coach, the captain, Nick Suzuki, are very much in lockstep in their thinking. I don't believe this is any type of disconnect between coach and dressing room as things are going through. The team is going through a bit of a rough patch here.

I don't believe that to be the case at all. it reminds me a little bit of you know the ottawa senators last year where there was like okay now it's time to to take a step and right for a myriad of reasons it just never happened and it felt a large part of last season for ottawa was a step back And I think that's probably what a lot of people in Montreal are fearful of here. I mean, you look, Cole Caulfield's been off to a terrific start, but Alex Newhook, two goals. Kirby Dock, one goal. I mean, he's coming back from a pretty significant injury last year.

Juraj Slavkovski, one goal. So those guys, the complementary pieces, haven't quite got going yet. You have to think that they will. But right now, it feels like a group that's trying to break out of a little bit of a fragile state, right? So much talk of managing the puck better after a couple of poor losses against Seattle, against Washington. And then, you know, it took them two periods against Pittsburgh to really start to make some tangible plays offensively to become a little more dangerous as a group again. So as I say, you know, and Martin St. Louis talked about it,

like this is a stage that is a necessary one for the team to go through. And as he said, once you get on the other side of it, you know, it's a really fun place to to be it's just it's tough to know right now how long it's going to take for for this team to to finally get through to that side i agree i think that's all really well said you know it's interesting to hear you talk about how you think that he and suzuki are very much on the same page and there's no issue in the room and i I think that goes to, you know, he was very critical of them on Thursday, but not on Saturday.

We'll talk about Boston a little bit, but when we were discussing them last week when they were going really terribly, if you're a coach, you can't repeatedly pound on the team. The players have to believe you're on their side. The players have to believe you're going through the struggles with them and you're not blaming them for the struggles. And I think that, you know, he was tough after Thursday. Saturday, he had to be the way you said because the players have to know that San Luis is with them. I think the other interesting thing about San Luis, and I would say this about him and I

say this with great respect of all the players i've ever dealt with in the nhl i don't know if there's one who had more pride than san luis and you know all anyone who's great at anything has enormous pride and drive but i don't think there was a guy who was more proud than San Luis was. And, you know, my arrival at Hockey Night in Canada coincided where his career really took off, that 03-04 season, you know, where he had the magnificent year and they won the Stanley Cup. And that year, I spent a couple of days in Vermont at a Stanley Cup party, not as a guest, but doing a feature. And, you know, we got to know each other pretty well. And I've always had a good relationship

with him. And I've seen it like when people question him, he never forgets. He never forgets because there's still a little bit of, and I think it's perfectly normal and perfectly healthy, that guy who people said was too small to make it. Like that never goes away, right? There were so many moments, like, you know, one of the Tampa players told me that in St. Louis heyday, there was nobody who grabbed the sheet to check their ice time quicker after games than San Luis and it was because like if he felt he wasn't getting what he deserved he was always checked to make sure he was right he would take it as a personal affront and I remember there was a year that they played the devils in the playoffs when the Devils

were really good. And him and LeCavalier were playing, you know, 26 minutes in the first couple games. And Tortorella and everyone's like, there's no way that this can continue. And Tortorella is like, there's no way this can continue. It's too much. I'm asking of them. And we'd go to him and he'd say, we'd say it's too much you go oh yeah who tells you that why do you think that like the idea that he couldn't do something was so personally offensive to him that like his eyes would just pierce right through you and I remember also too in 2014 when he initially didn't make the Olympic team and you know then he made it as an injury replacement like they won the gold medal and I an injury replacement like they won the gold medal

and I interviewed him right after they won the gold medal we were covering it for CBC at the time we did a one-on-one and he was in such a great mood like when I did that interview with him I was like I said one of my questions is going to be is you know is everything okay with you and Tampa Bay after this and because of the great interview we gave and the celebration, I didn't get a chance to ask that question. I was kind of kicking myself afterwards, but then I was, but then someone said to me, like, why are you mad at yourself? There's no, like, look at his reaction to you.

There's no way it's still a problem. Then he went back and he still said, I want to be traded. Like that's, that's San Luis. Like he, so like like like watching him now as you know for the first time you know like you could see he felt like his coaching was getting questioned a little bit and he got his back up and like in a lot of ways i think that actually turned out to be a great thing for him because I think he will be more determined to find a solution to all this and try to like you you can't change that the team is not ready

but you can change the way they play and the way they defend right and so I think that will motivate him to do it but I saw the look on his face. He's like, people are doubting me. And you knew it was going to happen eventually. It happens to every coach. It happens to everybody. But I saw it last week. I saw it was like, people are doubting me. And like, I'll tell you, this guy, that will motivate him.

Like, I have seen it too often. I have seen him just like, oh, you think I can't do that? And the desire to prove you wrong. No NHL, all NHL players, especially the great ones, have it to some level, but nobody I've dealt with more than him.

And I'm interested to see in where it takes him and the Canadians. Bang on. So Montreal looks for more progression this week. They host Calgary on Tuesday night. Your game on Sunday, Elliot, why don't we go back there? Minnesota

and Toronto, the wild win in overtime. Matt Boldy, man, what a move in the extra frame to finish that one off it reminded me a little bit of remember the Matthews goal in the playoffs last year against Lena Zalmark game two against Boston yeah he's had more of a head fake but that's that's where my mind went uh watching Boldy put the finishing touches on that one but you know what we're just talking a second ago about uh Saint Louis not being on the Olympic team.

I think, could you imagine Bill Guerin leaving Bolden off the U.S. Four Nations team? Not, like, a few people were talking, do you think Bolden makes it? I'd like to see Guerin not put him on. Yes. Because you could imagine Guerin as a player if he was in that position. Oh, yeah. Right? Or Garen as a player if he was in that position. Oh, yeah. Right? Or when he was a player. Garen would tear up his own office. Yeah, exactly.

So, Kaprizov, Elliot, you and Nick were discussing things a little bit during the intermission on Sunday about what his next contract could look like. We talked about it kind of around the start of the season there when Craig Leopold had those comments about nobody's going to offer him more money than we will. So what are your thoughts here on Kaprizov? Toronto held him off the score sheet Sunday, but this is a guy who's off to a dynamite start here.

You know, the thing about that is he took a while to get going in this one, but there were times I thought he was going to explode in the back end of the game. And as you mentioned, he didn't do it with points, but you can see the danger. You can just see how good he is and how dangerous he is. But, like, I think it says a lot about Minnesota that, you know, Toronto was holding on for dear life. They played hard, but then they were eventually going on fumes at the end of it. And, you know, the Wild found a way to win without

Kaprizov scoring. I think that's always a good sign for your team. So what Nick and I were talking about is like, what's that number? You know, what's that number going to be for Kaprizov? And, you know, it's early. He's having a great start. And Nick's talking about Kaprizov. What if he gets 105 to 120 points and wins the big trophy that Justin pointed out he doesn't have yet? And my argument in this particular case is if you've listened to this podcast long enough, number one, my condolences. And number two, you've heard me reference the book The Bald Truth by David Falk.

And it's just a book that taught, like, David Falk was an NBA player agent. He represented Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, among other players. And he, you know, he talks about it in there about, I don't care about comparables. I talk about situations. Okay. I don't care about comparables. I talk about situations. Okay? And he says, like, that may be their situation, but it's not this situation. And that's why I think, and Kaprizov is the guy

who immediately jumps to my mind with that. I don't look at Kaprizov as, well, he doesn't have a trophy or he doesn't have 120 points in a season. I look at what that team looks like if he's not there and how important he is to that team, that organization. And first of all, also, too, he's a wild. He's not wild. He is a wild. They, he's a Wild. He's not Wild. He is a Wild.

They drafted him, a steal. They brought him over. You know, there was another year where it was a real challenge for him to get over, but they got him over. Like, they have invested in him. He is one of theirs. Like, that is a Minnesota Wild success story. When Craig Leopold comes out the

beginning of the year says no one could pay him more than we can to me that's not only a true but it's also him understanding that they're gonna have to pay him a lot and so like when I say that I think he's gonna be in the Matthews dry saddle range I I believe that like if he wants to be like i mean who knows like you never know what could happen but i think this guy is going to be one of the top paid players in the league because i think the wild no it's a if he hits the market everyone's going to be chasing after him and b he's that important to their franchise. So, I mean, we'll see what his numbers end up being at the end of the year. But, like, to me, it doesn't even matter that he doesn't have a Hart trophy

or he doesn't have a billion points in the season compared to some of the other guys or the Cup. He's their most dangerous player by a mile, and he makes them go. And so, like, to to me this is a situation i think the wild know it deep down this is going to be a massive number and they'll happily pay the massive number because they know he's worth that to them do you think i'm wrong no i don't and and i i'm not as privy to the inner workings of, you know, OK, how does a contract really come together like you would be, Elliot? But I think it's a great book. Thank you. I will. I will loan it to you as long as you promise to give it back. OK, well, I promised something earlier and you completely disregarded it. So, yes, I promise to give it back.

disregarded it so yes I promise to give it back but I the big thing that you mentioned there that that I am totally with you on is just the idea of the impact that he has in that market beyond any individual accolades that he has earned at this point of his career the way he moves the needle for Minnesota hockey I think has to really be considered there. And the fact that we talked about the owner coming out and saying what, what he said, you know, almost a year prior to when they can actually get a new contract signed, uh, tells you that the, the franchise is very well aware of that and have no problems with it either. I mean, he's a three-time 40-goal scorer. He has broke the century mark in points,

so it's not like it would be a contract totally based on projections or potential. He has shown game-breaking stuff for a long time now. And as you say, trying to picture the Wild, an organization that has done well for themselves, has been, you know, for large stretches, a team that has been in the mix for a playoff spot in the playoffs. But, you know, it's different when Kaprizov is part of the picture there versus when he isn't in terms of interest, excitement,

the way he can make that building pop. I think that counts for a huge amount beyond how many goals or assists he may be putting up year to year, which is still among the best in the league still. All right. So we agree. Eight times 17. Okay, perfect. Solved. Put it in stone. We'll see you in July. Did you watch Winnipeg-Tampa, or did your travels not allow you to do that? I caught bits of the second half, so I think I know where you're going with this one. I didn't like the ruling on that challenge. Yes, the 1-0 goal.

It's not a big place. Whoa, that one hit the post after a redirect in front still lose hellebuck down and whoa de metal came close it's in brandon hagel finds it buries it and makes it one nothing tampa bay connor geeky goes into to connor hellebuck and you can tell he drives the stick into Halibut's pad, though the puck wasn't under the pad. Halibut's pad goes into the net. Brandon Hagel ends up cleaning up the loose change.

Scott Arneal challenges it, and the officials in the situation room uphold the call. And you can tell Arneal was irate on the bench afterwards. And I don't blame him because to your point. Arneal looked like someone had scratched his car in the parking lot. He was pretty upset. Yeah. Because we talked about this not too long ago.

Like there's a difference between they cited the rule about the NHL did when they put out the explanation, rule 69.7, about in a rebound situation, attacking player, attempting to play a loose puck. If there's incidental contact, that is allowed. But the puck was kind of behind Geeky as he was making the play on Halibut's pad. And it wasn't a case where he's whacking at it. Like there was more of a piercing, stabbing motion moving hellebuck's leg back i didn't like that one either so i have a solution oh let's hear it because this this podcast is not only about

yelling at each other and complaining about things it's a lot about that but it's not all about that that this podcast is also about solutions okay so I have written and we have talked before there was a Tampa game earlier this year against Vancouver in Tampa the Lightning had a goal disallowed because Mikey Acemont made that two-handed jabbing push and got his stick underneath the Canuck goalie, who I can't remember at the time, and jammed him into the net. And they said, no goal. They ruled it, no goal. I thought that was a great call. One hour later, Edmonton, seeing that, challenges Mattvei Mishkov's first NHL goal.

Now, there's a difference between what Acemont did and what Mishkov did. Mishkov didn't make that two-handed jab-stab push. He whacked at the puck, trying to whack it in. And they said, that's a good goal. That counts. So I'm sitting here here and i'm looking at this and i'm saying okay and i said at the time they should put out a video they didn't but i looked at that and i said okay if you want to tell me that because mishkov was shooting the at the

puck in a regular motion that counts i can buy that sat night Ottawa Seattle Ottawa's first goal Seattle challenged it and in the moment the goal was disallowed because the referee saw Nick Cousins make that two-handed jabbing stabbing motion straight forward and when I saw the referee make that call I was like okay that's what we're saying here if you make that motion it doesn't count to me the difference between Cousins jab or push and Geeky's jab or push is that with Cousins, he's clearly seized the puck and he's going right at it. And like I thought, like again, I thought that was a good call. He was going right for the puck with Geeky.

And admittedly, I'm watching it in slow motion, but the puck is like behind him. Yeah. And I know Morrissey comes in there but he comes in late like the the push in the hellebucks pad has already occurred I think when Morrissey kind of enters the the fracas well actually you know I'll say this the puck is in between geeky's legs and it gets swept out but like I just don't know how you could argue at that point in time that Geeky's making a play on the puck because it's not where he's jamming Hellebuck into the net. So I think one way you could solve this problem

if you wanted to is say like, if you're going to make that motion, you better be right at the puck when you do it because there he wasn't right and again like if you zoom out a little bit on this here Elliot and just go did Hellebuck have the ability to reset and make a save on the Hagel shot I would argue no because of the action that the geeky did and that's the whole point of goalie interference. That's why these types of coaches' challenges exist.

So you almost don't even need to get in the nitty-gritty per se. Hellebuck didn't have a proper opportunity to stop the puck here. But I see what you say about that kind of jab and push-forward motion. And there is writing in the rule book about it certainly when the puck is under the goalie but it wasn't even under hellebuck in this case see i just watching that and if anyone out there wants to see it watch that first goal seattle ottawa like just watching that on saturday night it really made a lot of sense to me. The official in the moment, and in that moment, I think the official did the right thing.

He waved it off because he saw Cousins make that two-handed push jab forcefully. But then when they go look at it, you can see he's right at the puck and the puck is free and they overturned the call. I think that is perfectly fine in that situation. I mean, the difference between that, I think, and Geeky is that the puck is not where Geeky's got his stick and it's going behind him. So, I don't know. Maybe it just seems so easy to me, but it just seems you could do that. All right, other stuff that... Hold on. Just wanted to say quickly, Elliot just seems you could do that. All right. Other stuff that, um, hold on. Just

wanted to say quickly, Elliot, before you move on, congrats to Nick Ehlers, highest scoring Danish player in NHL history on Sunday night with a couple of points against Tampa, 474 on his career. Sorry, continue. He's having a great start to the season. He looks really good. Really good. having a great start to the season. He looks really good. Really good. Be like Aaron Judge. Set records in your contract year. Nick, Aaron Judge, Ehlers. Okay.

A couple other things. I don't know. You were traveling. Can't get anywhere to Ottawa. Always takes minimum six flights, so I know it takes a while. But only capital city in the world you can't get to okay so islanders i won't uh islanders really banged up on the left side of the blue line pellock unfortunately out a while they've

listed romanov and uh riley is day-to-day they both didn didn't play on Sunday. They lost to the Rangers. I think they're looking for left-hand D. You know, we saw Utah. They went through it. They went out and they got Ole Matta, third-round pick. You know, the market's kind of thin right now, depending on what you're willing to do. But the Islanders are out there looking.

We aren't finished this yet with Toronto. You know, Toronto's situation is pretty interesting. They sent Hockenpah and Dewar down for a conditioning stint, and because Toronto played Saturday, they don't play again until next weekend, the Marlies I'm referring to. You know, they don't have to activate. A conditioning stint can last three games, and then you can ask for two more if you want.

But if they don't want to, they can buy a little bit of time here. But you can still see it. Toronto's going to have to do some stuff to lighten up their roster. The math just makes it impossible for any other way. One of the things Toronto has indicated is, I believe they asked the Sharks, when they had Benning out there, like who else was kind of interested because they know with their roster crunch they might have to do this again.

I think they've indicated they are trying to do right by Benning. They're like, this is an NHL player. He's good enough to play in this league. And I think they would like this is an NHL player he's good enough to play in this league um and I think they would like to find like he basically flew across the country and then went with the team to St. Louis and Minnesota I think they're trying to do right by him um but it's just you know this is it can be tough and right now they have talent choices they have to make. So that's something else to watch. He's a left-hand shot. And, you know, the other thing too is I was watching a bit of Washington, Carolina. I was really curious to watch this one. One of the managers was saying to me that he thinks Carolina

is the best team he's seen so far. And this was supposed to be a down year for the Hurricanes. I think a lot of us were kind of doubting them, and now Freddie Anderson is out for a little while. But, you know, Washington's been great. It looks great in the short term for the Capitals. All their changes are coming up. McClellan, he's rolling sevens with everything he's done. And, you know, look at what they're doing.

And Carolina came there and took it to them. They won the game. They outshot them 2-1. I really enjoyed watching it. The only thing I was confused by by Carolina is I don't know if the Capitol scouting tapes have made it to Carolina over the last 15 years because Ovi has this place he likes to score from, and he buried one from there.

But other than that. 860. 860. Other than that, the Hurricanes, they look really good. I think some of us predicting the demise of the Hurricanes might have been a little bit premature. And the guy I give a lot of credit to is Natchez. Because he wanted more. The guy I give a lot of credit to is Natchez because he wanted more.

He told us that Rod Brindamore said, if you want more, you have to meet me halfway. And you can see, like, it's early, and you never know where all this is going to go. But you can see that he understands what Brindamore has asked of him. And Brindamore said, if you do that, I will reward you. And so far, so good. So credit to Natchez for understanding. Leading the team with 18 points through 10 games to start the season.

So, Elliot, that'll bring us to the final thought, which is brought to you by GMC, the Boston Bruins. Critical, critical weekend for them. Back-to-back shutouts, victories over the Flyers and the Seattle Kraken. And then on Sunday, interesting to note, though, on Sunday night, David Pasternak did not see the ice in the third period. Jim Montgomery said afterwards that it was a coach's decision. That's all he was going to say about it then.

What were you thinking as you saw all of that and heard that from the head coach post-game? Well, first of all, more importantly, I thought they needed the wins, as you said. That was a critical, critical weekend for the Bruins. One of the things that really interested me was that Don Sweeney went as part of his kind of scouting slash GM team candidate duties. You don't know exactly which one was the case here.

He went on the weekend. He saw Columbus on Friday. They were playing Winnipeg. And then on Saturday, he went to go see Toronto St. Louis. and then on Saturday he went to go see Toronto St. Louis and one of the things I really heard was that Sweeney who's definitely feeling the heat like everyone else there he was trying to dial things down a bit like let's get through the weekend let's see how the weekend goes well if that's the case they bought time but I've seen situations before where GMs, when things are really bad, they're like, I'm not leaving my team.

I am going anywhere my team goes, I am going to be there with them because I want to see it firsthand. So I thought it was interesting how he still felt comfortable enough to go on to those two other games. Now, maybe it wasn't a Team Canada thing. Maybe he's thinking about trades he's looking at whatever the case is like i said i've seen it where gm say this is not my time to be away so i thought that was interesting you know obviously it was a huge weekend for the bruins

you know one thing that really stood out to me was at the end of uh the philadelphia game on saturday there were some scrums there and trent Frederick was really mad at Travis Konechny. But some of the players on the bench, like Marchand, they were kind of smiling at it. And I was like, you know what? They're not the big bad Bruins anymore, but that's still kind of important to them. Just to see them actually having a couple of enjoyable moments on the bench

was something we hadn't seen all year. And then they just destroyed Seattle. The shots were 17-1 there at one point, and they won the game. That was huge for Swayman, too, like getting a shutout after Corpus Allem out on Saturday. You know, the one thing I thought about the posture knock, again, this is a case where Montgomery makes it very clear he's not making an example out of his depth players.

He's making an example out of his stars. And I won't overthink it because Brad Marchand has already told us we overthink this stuff and great players should expect it. It was just, to me, I almost kind of laughed at the sense. It was like, what a great weekend for the Bruins, and we still can't get out of it with something else to talk about aside from just two Ws. But you know what?

They're going to come into Toronto on Tuesday, and first of all, they're going to be wired for that. Pasternak's going to be wired for that. And as I said, Kyle, Tuesday night, toronto boston is the biggest thing on the international world stage on tuesday nothing else is happening in the world that will be bigger on tuesday night than bruins leafs i'll tell you just coming from pennsylvania there over the weekend which is like a key key battleground state with what's going on down there. It was wild being there for a couple of days. What did you see?

Well, I just, honestly, the local commercials on television, and of course, once you get down there and like your social media feeds, right, like they get a hold, now you've got an IP address that's linked to Pennsylvania. So all this stuff that's now popping up on your social media feeds, the different ad campaigns and smear campaigns of vote for this person, not that person. It was like, whoa. That's one thing I can't wait for Wednesday. All these ads will be done. I am

tired of all these ads. Yes. And I apologize to any of our American viewers that are like, this is just another year on the campaign for us down here. But for a Canadian going down there, it's a little jarring. This close to decision day. I love our American fans. You guys have too many elections. Just too many elections. That was the final thought brought to you by GMC.

When we come back. Too many elections. The final thought. Too many elections. Too many elections. Never too many thoughts on the thought line. We'll get to that after the break. You're listening to 32 Thoughts, the podcast.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. All righty. Time now for the Thought Line, 1-833-311-3232. The email address, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Elliot, there were a number of submissions over the last couple of days after we discussed great names in the history of the game. Some of the listeners had some fun with that one. I got one on social.

Oh, yeah? I'm rolling. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to repeat it here. I'm just, it was just, oh, my, I was dying. Okay, so what else did we get? Well, why don't we start there? Included one to go with our batch here for this one.

Ken from Halifax. Hello, Elliot, Kyle, and Dom. On the subject of classic hockey names from Friday's show, are you aware that there is a very highly regarded college basketball player named Ace Bailey? I'm not a big college basketball follower, but every time I hear the name Ace Bailey, the first person that comes to mind is the former Toronto Maple Leaf,

even if I only know him from the history books. Yes, I was going to ask, as someone who used to cover the NBA, I thought you would have been all over this. I'm looking it up right now. Ace Bailey, Rutgers basketball. Unfortunately, I used to love college basketball. I don't watch it anymore, really. I just don't have the time.

And also, I will say this. The NBA kind of ruined college basketball for me a bit because it was just so much faster. Like, it just seemed slower to me after the NBA came to. I'm looking at it right now. Ace Bailey, an 18-year-old. He looks like he's a bit of a stud. Freshman.

Yeah, freshman. Geez, senior year in high school in Georgia, 33 points and 16 rebounds. Wow, Ken, that's a great catch. Thanks for that. You know, Ken mentioned Ace Bailey, the original Ace Bailey, a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs that the All-Star Game was first created for after he was injured during an NHL game. But we should also mention the other Ace Bailey, a former teammate of Wayne Gretzky's,

who tragically died as part of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. And he was beloved in NHL circles, beloved. So with the Ace Bailey mention, I want to make sure we remember him as well but ken that is a great great pull and thank you for bringing it to our attention very nice okay pekka from espo finland hi griffin dom and the other two nice fresh off my i like that very Very good. By the way, that was a great weekend in Finland. Barkov, the true conquering returning hero. Fantastic. Oh, yeah. Well, it's funny you bring that up because Pekka writes, Fresh off my fourth Global Series game in Finland.

And I'm wondering this. There were parts in the lower bowl that pretty obviously had large groups of fans that had traveled from either Texas or Florida. So do the participating teams get an allocation of tickets to offer their season ticket holders who would be mad enough to travel all that distance to the game or do these groups self-organize and ticket hunt? I was sitting right in front of a dead silent group of Texans.

Not a fun game for them at all. Yeah. Tough couple of days. Yes. So I'm under the impression that I have a friend who is a seasoned ticket holder in Florida, and he said that he was contacted. It's funny. He couldn't go, but he said he was contacted by the Panthers and asked, would he be, would he want tickets to go there? So I don't know if it's anything formal, but obviously a little bit because of the fact that, yeah, the fact that he was contacted by them, obviously there is some way of doing it. Yeah.

The Panthers offered, and I believe the Stars did too. And I don't think it was only limited to season ticket holders, but you could buy packages of like flights, hotels, obviously tickets to the two games over there. There's always travel packages available, always. Right, but like through the teams though, that they were doing it. And there was, you know, tours through different parts of, whether it was Helsinki or Tampere while they were over there.

So that was an option if fans wanted to do that. Or yes, absolutely. Some could just choose to pay their own way over and find tickets to the game. So it would be a bit of both that you would have seen Pekka, I'm sure, at the Lower Bowl at the Nokia Center over the weekend. First of all, Kyle, great job with the research. And secondly, I do know people who've gone before. And it's funny, they actually say that sometimes the hockey almost becomes secondary to the sightseeing, because you're in a different place, right? And you get to see a different part of the world. And so I remember a friend went a few years ago. I think he went to Switzerland and was like, oh my God, I almost forgot about the game.

Don't blame him. Don't blame him. Thank you, Pekka, for writing in from Finland. Next up, Craig writes, hey, Kyle and Elliot. This week, Freddie Freeman of the LA Dodgers became the first player to homer in six straight World Series games dating to the 2021 Fall Classic he won with Atlanta.

Clockwork, as Ron mentioned on Hockey Night over the weekend. Who holds the record for the most consecutive games with a goal scored in the Stanley Cup Final? Elliot, three names answer this question. The floor is yours. Most consecutive games with a goal in the Stanley Cup final? The record is five. Three players have done it. Oh.

Because, you know, the first name I was going to think of was sudden death Mel Hill. He holds the record for most overtime games in a Stanley Cup final with three. Now, I'm looking at that without checking it. So I know he has the record. If I'm wrong about anything about that, someone will let me know. But that was the first name I thought of. So five games in a row.

I am going to say, is one of them Reggie Leach? No. Do you want a hint? Not yet. I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think of who had big Stanley Cup final goals. And I will say. Did any of them go longer longer

than one year or is it all I was gonna say none of them did none of them did the the Freeman Styles it was all the same cup final same cup final did Glenn Anderson do it no I need some I need some some hints They all played for the same team. Two of them were teammates. Okay. Think about the era of that question we had a few weeks back about losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back years. Oh, so we're going back to the 50s.

It's got to be Montreal, and two of them have to be Jean Beliveau and Maurice Richard. Bang, bang. Yes. Okay. The last guy didn't play with the Rocket, but played with... With Beliveau. Correct.

Beliveau retired in like... I want to say Beliveau retired in like... I can't remember if he retired in 71 or 73. But if it's 73, it opens the door for someone like Yvonne Cornoyer. Bang. Well done. You got it. Now, this is going to be slightly edited when you hear it on the pod.

This took so long that Dom was late for his soccer game on Sunday night. It took me a bit, but this is still a victory. Well done. Okay. Great question, Craig. Ben from Tabor, Alberta. Yes, the home of the world famous Tabor corn hey Elliot Kyle and Dom first want to say love the pod been listening since it was still 31 thoughts wow thanks

a lot Todd I appreciate it sorry what was that guy's name Jay thanks a lot, Ben. Really appreciate it. Watching Michael Backlund's 1001st game Friday night when he got his silver stick, I had a string of silly questions. Are the silver sticks solid? What are they made of?

I'm assuming they aren't actual silver and how much do they weigh roughly? Thanks in advance. Keep up the great work so are you familiar that's a canadian company that does these sticks for the league logan sports group aaron logan is the guy that runs it i reached out to him uh earlier in the day and he was kind enough to get back to us and give us the rundown so these silver sticks they are made of solid stainless steel the player sticks weigh roughly 22 pounds goalie sticks are closer to 28 for the occasion that gold sticks are handed out those are made of solid bronze and weigh a little bit more

from start to finish it takes about 28 to 40 hours for the fabrication the welding engraving and making it look nice the coolest part about all this that i wasn't aware of elliot so for the case of michael backlin the flames would have sent aaron one of backland's sticks for them to get a exact copy of his blade his curve how his stick has lied so nice the silver stick is like an exact copy of his blade, his curve, how his stick is lied. So the silver stick is like an exact do-up of how his stick would be that he plays with. So each silver stick that is handed out for a player that hits a milestone like a thousand games is unique to the specific player. That's fantastic. I like that. I like those kinds of details. Very good. I didn't know that part. Great question, Ben.

We're wrapping up this edition of the Thought Line, Elliot. Alex from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Hi, 32 Thoughts crew. Thank you for all your hard work on the podcast. Love the show, and it's much appreciated. Thank you, Alex. My question is this. Imagine you were entering a 25 25 round shootout against an average

nhl player do you think you'd have a better chance of stopping at least one shot as a goalie or scoring at least one shot as the skater bonus question who wins a friedman versus bukaskis shootout i would i would concede to kyle as much as it pains me to admit that he's a better hockey player than I am. I would take Kyle. Hard but true. I have a funny story about this.

Okay. There is a person in media who shall not be named. I know where you're going. But a lot of people around us at Hockey Night know this story. He's a pretty popular person in his market, and he used to work stats for Hockey Night in Canada's broadcasts.

I hope Kelly Rudy listens to this. night in canada's broadcasts i i hope kelly rudy listens to this so kelly rudy was working as a color analyst at one of these games and this person was working stats and he said to kelly i could score on you on a breakaway and remember at the beginning of the podcast, we were talking about how much pride Marty San Luis has in what he does. Kelly is also a guy with a lot of pride in what he did for 16 years in the National Hockey League, a very good goalie. And Kelly lost it and said, You could try 100 times and you would never score on me. And by the time I hear this story, I laugh my head off.

I can't stop laughing thinking about it right now because I could just totally see Kelly's reaction. I'll tell you another story. Kelly's reaction. I'll tell you another story. Back when I covered the NBA, the first year of the Raptors, they had a media pickup basketball game. So the first year of the Raptors,

their camp was in Hamilton, and they said, you know, after camp's over, we're going to have a media pickup basketball game. And I was okay. But I remember, so all the media played except for and you know paul jones played and paul jones was a really good canadian university basketball player at york like paul was it was a player um but you know who wouldn't play was leo routins he just said you know what this is not for me and at the time i didn't get Like, Leo Routens was an NBA player, was a first-round draft pick,

great college player, dominant Toronto high school player. And I didn't get it at the time, but I understood it later. Like, you know, so, but, like, the pride these guys have. So there were a couple times in beer leagues where friends were shy of goalies, and I played net. And if I could do it over again, Kyle i would play net i loved it i loved playing net and i would like to think that by accident if someone took a hundred shots at me i might deflect one wide of the goal but i know that if if like a if like austin mat Austin Matthews came on me,

he could score 100 times out of 100. And not only Austin Matthews, but I think sometimes we forget how great a player you are if you play like one NHL game. So you take any player now who's played one NHL game, I would be lucky if I made one save out of 100 against them that's the respect I have for the people who play in this sport yes that's where I was going to with my answer is I would be goalie and if it's a 25 round shootout that like you're

just praying that maybe one of those guys are just off and where they're trying to shoot and they miss the net just barely. And that gives you, you know, credited with not allowing a goal. And, and I'm also like, I'm a Southpaw too. So catcher's glove on the right hand.

I thought maybe that would, would throw shooters off a little bit, just enough to maybe make one save, but that would be my only chance. Otherwise, no way. We are aligned in that one. You know, like we just, if you play one game in the NHL, you are a great player. Absolutely. A great player. Great question though. I like that. Great question. Great book by Ken Reed too. One Night Only.

Yep. Who talks to people that played one game and one game only in the NHL. That is a great book. I'm glad you promoted that for him. That's excellent. Alex from Cape Cod, thank you for that. That'll do it for the Thought Line this week. 1-833-311-3232. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca.

Back to rap after this. Okay, welcome back. Before we go, if you missed it on Saturday, Elliot, you had a really good piece. You spent some time over with Juraj Slavkovski and his home country of Slovakia. That was back in the summertime, covering a number of different topics there. First off, how many times were you stopped in the middle of filming by fans that wanted to interact with Slavkovski? I know they weren't going to come to interact with you, but we've learned quickly here how big of a star. No, no, no.

But we've learned quickly how big of a star Slavkovsky is becoming in his home country. So what was your read on all of that? And what was it like hanging out with him in his own backyard? Well, first of all, I wanted to shout out the producer, Jeremy McElhinney, and Devin Burns, who was in charge of the shooting for it. It was, I mean, the pieces and the one, too, with Roenick, and we had a local crew that was there as well, a local Czech crew for the Roenick part of it.

They look spectacular. I mean, those pieces were beautifully shot, and that's obviously a huge part of it. But, you know, the one thing about Slavkovsky is he was really gracious with his time. pieces were were beautifully shot and that's obviously a huge part of it but you know the one thing about Slavkovski is he was really gracious with his time I love going to see parts of the world I've never seen before we kind of talked about it a bit with Finland earlier I've been to Bratislava before but I'd never been to that part of Slovakia and it was it was incredible. It was the people were so friendly He warned us by the way

He said that he was the only thing and the whole piece and we spent about four or five hours with him The only thing in the whole piece He was a little nervous about was walking on the street because he said I I am going to get Recognized a bit and the people were fantastic, and they were respectful. And, you know, you're in another country, so you don't know how people are going to react, but they love him. They were polite, but they love this guy. The kids, their faces lit up when they realized who it was.

And you saw his grandmother, and she was really funny. But I was really happy with the piece and he was fantastic to deal with I mean we talked sometimes about the media tours and one happens in North America usually in Vegas and one happens overseas this year it was Prague before it's been in places like Paris or Stockholm. That's the gift of what those things do because they allow us opportunity to talk with those players. And as I've joked, it's like spring training. It's before the season. The players don't hate us yet, so they're very accommodating. So that was a lot of fun to do and I wanted to shout out

the co-workers who did a great job making it look great. And I also want to mention this week that a fellow Vikings fan and Western confrere, Arash Madani, are going up to University of Western Ontario this week for a Western Mustangs hockey fundraiser. I'll make it very clear, I believe Arash is a graduate. I am not. I don't want anyone accusing me of resume fraud.

I do not have my degree yet, but we're going up there. And you told me that Jason York's son plays for Western now. Yes. Yes, he does. I believe Jack York plays for them. Actually, I think just this weekend, they were in town playing Carlton. So the whole York clan were out cheering on their boys. So you'll have to say hi to Jack for us.

Yeah, I'm just looking him up. Jack York, born in 2000. Holy smokes, am I old. Oh, yeah, there he is. University of Western Ontario. Nice. I'm taking the train up with a rash. Do you have any messages that you want me to give to him?

Oh, actually, yes, I do. You tell him that I still have a book that he lent me to give to him? Oh, actually, yes, I do. You tell him that I still have a book that he lent me years ago. So now you may need to rethink you lending me yours. Tell him it's coming. Okay, I'll let him know. That book you loaned him, you might actually see it again soon. Yes, that's great well enjoy that elliot and i hope you get your degree one day you know every yeah eventually everybody hates the purple satan but i love going up there all right enjoy that everyone have a great week hall of fame weekend coming up but before that we will talk to you again on Friday. Take care.