32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Emergency Podcast! Paul Maurice and the Jets

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

Jeff and Elliotte break down Paul Maurice’s resignation (00:01) and Dave Lowry being named interim head coach. They also discuss why a number of teams are shut down until Christmas (11:30) and how much money Montreal lost by not allowing fans in the arena (15:45).Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryOutro Music: Frank Motley & The Bridge Crossings - Walkin’ The DogListen to their full album “Canada’s Message To The Meters” hereThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: 105.3 The FAN 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.

Well, this isn't an easy decision for you, I'm sure. How long have you been thinking about this? Well, let me start this way. I'll give you a little background. I came up here on a four-month contract and fell in love with all of it. Ownership, management, players, the staff, the city, the fans, the snow, the ownership, management, players, the staff, the city, the fans, the snow, the cold, and found a home and a wonderful place. And I love this place.

I love this team. And that's the driver, Paul, in how I got here today. All right, Elliot, emergency podcast, break glass. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. Want to get to games postponed, want to get to teams shut down, but first, some news that surprised all of us on Friday morning. We had just released the regular Friday morning 32 Thoughts podcast when we got the email from the Winnipeg Jets that Paul Maurice had resigned

as the head coach of that squad. Dave Lowry takes over in an interim capacity. Your thoughts when you first heard the news? First of all, you notice how we joked on the podcast this morning, listen to it now, because 15 minutes later, everything's going to be different. Poor Amelie does all that work to edit the pod and kaboom. You what happened so i first saw it on twitter with the statement that they released on twitter and the first thing i do is i look for the check mark and the check marks there of course but i still didn't believe it i thought i would click on the link the post and i would see like at winnipeg jilerts or something like that like it was just

one of those fake close tags alerts that people do to fool us all the time. I had some people text me, did you have any idea this was coming? And no, I had no idea that this was coming. I thought Maurice did an unbelievable job at his media conference. I take him at total face value. I think he was burned out. I don't think there's any question about that. The fact what he talked about about

coaching in the bubble and how it wasn't fun i think a lot of coaches and players and executives and everybody involved will tell you that if you've been employed or on a team or whatever or in the league the last two years since covid started it has taken an enormous toll on people, just like anyone listening to this in life. It's taken an enormous toll. It's caused a lot of us to reevaluate our existences. And I think Maurice finally got there. Now, the other thing I think here is if you watch Kevin Shevelday's media conference,

it is clear that the Jets were thinking, do we have to make changes here? And one of those would have to be potentially a coaching change. You know, the jets are a loyal, loyal organization. And I wouldn't be surprised if part of this was Paul Maurice sees it coming because he's been around a long time. He's been fired before he knows. Sure. sees it coming because he's been around a long time he's been fired before he knows sure he sees it coming and he says i'm going to do the jets a favor because i'm ready for this too and they don't have to do it to me i'm going to take it myself out of the equation for them

pause on that for one second do you think that is out of a sense of loyalty to the winnipeg jets who as you mentioned are a very loyal organization? They pride themselves on having people there for a long time. Is that what loyalty buys you? I think so. But number one, when Paul Maurice says he believes it was time, I 100% agree with that. I don't think that's a lie. I think he knew it was time for him, but that leads us to B, which is he's smart enough to see what's going on around him and he says you know what the Jets have been great to me and I'm going to take this out of their hands I'm going to fall on the grenade and I think the other thing

he did that I thought was really good was it would have been very easy for media and fans to come out of it and saying Paul Murray said this is a good team I'm a good coach but sometimes when you take over a team and it's kind of like you're starting at the bottom of a mountain and you're pushing a rock up to the top you can only get it to a certain place and that And that's where I feel I'm at. And if you would allow me some arrogance, I would say that I'm better positioned than anyone to know that they need a new voice. They haven't quit on me. They're a good bunch of men.

My relationship is strong with all of them. And I'm cheering for them. I am. But when you have a 26-year professional hockey coaching career, you know they need a new voice. They need somebody to help them get to that next place. It doesn't need to be a more experienced, necessarily, more talented guy.

It needs to be a different voice because it's the right time for it and i know that he took that one out of the equation too he specifically came out and said the players did not quit on me the voice just wasn't there anymore so he basically took this whole thing and dove on the grenade and now everything is on what he didn't said as opposed to anyone else. And I do think that's what loyalty buys you a hundred percent. And plus also, I just think he's that way, right?

Don't think he's going to blame anyone else. I think everybody was impressed with it. The, the level of professionalism, the level of class and poise, and perhaps above all the self-awareness as well. Like this doesn't happen in the NHL. This doesn't really happen, period.

And just for NHL purposes, I can only think of a couple of different times where coaches have decided to call it quits while the season was on. You know, Patrick Waugh walked away, but that was the off season. Dale Hunter didn't go back. That was right before the season. Right before off season. Dale Hunter didn't go back. That was right before the season.

Right before the season. Dale Hunter had his one experience with the Washington Capitals and walked away and went back to London. Now, someone like Rocket Richard lasted a couple of games with the Quebec Nordiques and said, that's it for me. I can't do this. Larry Robinson with the New Jersey Devils left, you know, citing, I believe it was mental fatigue.

No one can certainly blame him for that. But this just doesn't happen at all. And to the point about a team quitting on the coach, the one game that I go back to this season, and, you know, interestingly enough, it involved the Winnipeg Jets. Back on November the 5th, it was a Friday night. It was Winnipeg Jets and the Chicago Blackhawks.

It was Jeremy Culleton's last gameets and the Chicago Blackhawks. It was Jeremy Culleton's last game as coach of the Blackhawks. Kyle Conner was looking like, well, I just referenced Rocket Richard. He was looking like Rocket Richard in that game. You could tell the Hawks had given up on their coach and it was going to be hard for

Culleton to go back. We all know about the Bowman protection that he had previous, but that looked like a team that was very much done with their coach i never got the sense elliot did you that winnipeg was done with their coach that the jets players like oh enough of this no i didn't see that you know i'll tell you this the the other team that's asking those questions right now is vancouver you look at the way that they've taken off under Boudreaux. I think people are starting to wonder, you know,

were those players at a point where they just had completely tuned out green? I didn't see that in the same level in Winnipeg. The other thing I wonder about it, though, the timing is, they know that Wheeler is going to be out for a while, right? Like from what I heard, they were waiting for the swelling to go down to determine the exact amount of time that he'll be out wheeler and maurice are tight tight tight he is maurice's conduit and i wonder if he looked at it and said you know we've got to save the season my guy

whatever you want to say conduit shield whatever phrase you want to learn he's not going to be there and someone pointed that out to me today and you know i thought that really made a lot of sense the other coach i remember doing that was larry bird he coached the indiana pacers for three years was very successful but he always said in that third season he's quitting after that year and no matter how good they were and and he took them to an NBA final, he refused to change his mind. He said after three years, players need a new voice. I want to get to Dave Lowry here in a second, but one quick follow-up on Paul Maurice.

I think we all understand that if he wants to coach again, I believe he'll take time away from the game now to decompress and to plan out his next steps in his career. If he wants to coach, he'll coach again. He's a really good coach. I've always wondered about Paul Maurice in management though. And at times I've heard, you know,

a whisper or two about, you know, could Paul Maurice take a step above the coaching level? Are you going to say he's the next GM in Vancouver under Jim Rutherford? I did have that conspiracy theory floated to me today. Him and Rutherford have the association

Going back to junior hockey And into the Carolina Hurricanes And the Compuware organization But we'll park your conspiracy theory on the grassy knoll here Elliot I just want to say You're not the only person who's floated this by me today I'm not saying Vancouver Just in general

Could you see him in that space? Because I could I think he can do whatever he wants to do No the one the one thing is, though, if you're burned out, GM's not a good job. If you're a GM of a Canadian team, is that a good thing to do? If you're feeling burned out, that's a big job. I'll tell you what I am worried about, though. What's that? If he comes to Sportsnet, whose seats he taking yours or mine?

Oh, yours. Easy. No, yours. Easy yours easy no clearly he's taking yours quicker than you can say jack the bear oh yeah yeah yeah no he's taking he's taking yours quick you better hey look there's some pink paper on the fax machine elliot friedman on that i don't know what that's about what's a fax machine for that my card's not working what happened here

uh dave lowry takes over kevin cheval day off saying he's taking over for the remainder of the season. Not the first, because the question was out there, not the first father and son coach, player, dinant. The Deneens? Imlach as well for two games in the 60s. Oh, I forgot about that. That's right.

There was the Patricks. That happened three different times with the Rangers. So this isn't new in the NHL, but it's new in this era of the National Hockey League. So Dave Lowry takes over. Your thoughts on Dave Lowry as the new head coach of the Winnipeg Jets. Look, Dave Lowry is a good coach. It's a unique dynamic, that's for sure. I assume people will handle it like adults.

I'm sure that when the Jets hired Dave Lowry, because Adam was already there, and when they considered this move, there was a conversation about what all of this was going to mean. And my expectation is, at this level, is that everyone's going to handle it professionally. You know, there's too much at stake here. This is a big Winnipeg season. They went out and they got Nate Schmidt.

They went out and they got Brendan Dillon. They have to save the media members who said that Winnipeg season. They went out and they got Nate Schmidt. They went out and they got Brendan Dillon. They have to save the media members who said that Winnipeg was the best team in Canada too. So there's, there's a lot at stake here. I just think there's too much at stake to be worried about anything that isn't winning games. Really. People have said for a long time, Jeff, that

Dave Lowry was going to be a head coach in this league. I don't think this is the way anybody expected it was going to be, but now's the time. Elliot, nothing is like the way we expected it to be, but here we are. And further to that, a quick couple of words before we wrap up this edition of the Quickie Pod for some of the shutdowns. Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, the Montreal-Boston game on Saturday is postponed as well. Calgary misses games against the Blue Jackets, the Ducks, and the Kraken. Colorado will miss four. Tampa, Detroit, Buffalo, Boston, Florida will miss three.

Minnesota, Chicago, and Nashville. And as we record this podcast at 3.17 Eastern on Friday afternoon, and again, to Elliot's point, 15 minutes from now, as of right now, there are no plans for the league to pause at all. Look, we're seeing the NFL, they're moving their schedules around. Everybody's battling this. The wild thing for me is what the NFL is doing.

And we talked about this this morning. They don't have the runway that hockey and basketball do. Their schedule is getting close to the playoffs. In the first podcast we did today, we talked about how now they're saying if you're vaccinated and asymptomatic, you could return, depending on your test results, in one day. And earlier today, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, did a radio interview where he said,

Yeah, I like where we are right now, and I think that we will get to a point probably this week that we'll only test if symptomatic. That's if you've been vaccinated, and that's a good thing. Test when you're symptomatic, and that's it. I think we've about gotten to a point where the players union and the league are on the same page to get that done. Now there will be stepped up protection because of this quote outbreak we're having right now and so you'll have a mask, you'll have more separation than we've had the

early part of the year. You will have certainly less group congregation and you'll have more restriction or you'll ask your players to exercise more discretion away from the practice or away from the team. We're getting closer to the point where if you're vaccinated, we're only going to test you if you're symptomatic. You know, we've talked about this. All it took was one league, particularly the NFL, to do it. And we were going to get other leagues looking at it. I have spent a lot of time today talking to as many people privately as I can.

It's like life. There's two camps. There's the Nick Cousins camp, shut this down, and he's got a lot of support. And then there's the other side of we're all vaccinated. A lot of these cases are asymptomatic. It's time to let us go through it. And there are players who feel that way. The other thing I did hear was And there are players who feel that way.

The other thing I did hear was that there are a lot of players, and I totally understand this, who like the players getting tested because they want to protect their families. Who would argue with that? Tavares talked about that, and now he's in protocol. So I totally understand that.

And the other thing too, Jeff, I'm hearing is that does anybody see the Canadian government okaying a plan where positive asymptomatic players are going to be allowed across the border? No, not a chance. And what does the NFL not have? Canadian teams. Teams in Canada.

The NBA's got one. The NFL has zero. I will say this. I had one player say to me today, this is all Canada's fault that it's got one. The NFL has zero. I will say this. I had one player say to me today, this is all Canada's fault that it's so strict. And I said, well, that's where 35% of the revenue comes from too. He kind of laughed at that, but I just think it's a unique challenge that the NHL has

that the other leagues don't. From what I'm hearing today, I just don't see the NHL getting to that point. Final point, and we'll wrap up this pod on the last podcast, the one from five minutes ago, Elliot. We talked about the Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens. We'll reconvene at 8.30 tonight.

I'm in Barrie for a kids' hockey game. When I come back, another podcast, which will dump around midnight. If you aren't sick of us yet, you're about to be. I'm sick of myself. I've been talking so much lately. I'd like to leave the room when I'm around're about to be. I'm sick of myself. I've been talking so much lately. I'd like to leave the room when I'm around.

I get it. I feel the same way. We talked about Montreal and Philadelphia and how that game went on and how there were some misgivings around the league or some questions and perhaps some anger. Why are we leaving money on the table? The Boston-Montreal postponement for Saturday's game. That's a financial consideration perhaps more than anything else? Yes, I think it is. If you take a look at it, so I was told that Montreal averages

around $2.3 million gross for a game. There were people angry that that game was played last night without fans because it's $2.3 million, you're never getting back. But the flyers were there. I mean, what are you going to do? Requests came or the order came late in the afternoon if you look at the release today it said the canadians will resume their schedule in new york next week at least that's what's planned they're on the road they're at the islanders and at the rangers so it doesn't affect them but i have no doubt that they said look we lost one 2.3 million dollar gate and what that means

for hrr and the cap eventually going up. We're not losing another. Now, the other thing that is good news is for Boston. If you look at what Washington did, they stayed in the States until Friday morning, flew to Winnipeg game day so they could take their tests in the States and there's less of a risk of someone flying to Winnipeg, testing positive, and then getting stuck in Canada. Boston had Montreal and Ottawa. Now, if they want to, and I don't know what they're going to do.

I'm just saying, spitballing this. Even though it's a 5 o'clock game on Sunday against the Senators, they could always stay home now until Sunday morning, take the test, make sure everyone's clear, then go. Because what players don't want, like Edmonton going to Seattle with another positive test, Toronto with two positive tests supposed to go to Seattle on Sunday night, I'm sure that these teams going over the border aren't crazy about it.

Absolutely. Okay, thanks for listening to this Quickie Pod. As more stories come to light, you can expect to be annoyed by yours truly, and Elliot Friedman here on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. told me she dropped the needle now she can't so mama mama come on just a walk in the door if you don't know how to do it i'll show you how to walk Good night. the 4th of July just too high just a walk in the walk of that dog

yeah if you don't know how to do it