32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Everything's Coming Up Robertson

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

It’s October and we are doing a carcast. Jeff and Elliotte have a lot to say this week including their thoughts on the Vancouver Canucks (1:00) and the New Jersey Devils (8:00), the drama in Toronto (11:45), the showcase in Montreal (33:40), the Sharks locking in their first win (39:00), Ottawa finding its scoring (42:20), Buffalo not messing around early on (43:10), and they wonder if we watched a preview of the Stanley Cup Final between Carolina and Edmonton on Thursday night (47:50).Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars joins the podcast (57:00) to talk about his contract negotiation, hatred of brussels sprouts and kale, who his parents watch if he and Nick are playing at the same time, his family RV and they talk about the Stars fantasy football league.The guys also say a few words about Jakub Vrana as he entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program (26:15).Check out the 32 Thoughts merchandise hereMusic Outro: Gilla Band - Eight FiversListen to the full song hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Bally Sports Arizona, CHED, KFAN FM, MSG, Sportsnet and Toronto Maple Leafs Radio Network.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.

oh abcdefg everybody has to be a little bit different i like that abcdefg presented by gmc and the new sierra at4x welcome once again to 32 thoughts the podcast or should i say 32 thoughts the car cast yes it's not even the playoffs and elliot is already licking the envelope and mailing it in i'll just do it on the drive home, says Elliott Friedman. I'm hungry too. I want you to know that my stomach is growling. I am playing herd tonight. This will be in the 32 drive-thru cast.

Okay, so as we watch Elliott order some fast food on the way home, this will be fascinating, folks. We've got a lot to get to and a lot includes an interview that we did Wednesday evening with Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars. Turned out we interviewed the wrong Robertson because Nick was the star on Thursday night. More on that in a couple

of moments. But Elliot, let's start with the Vancouver Canucks and you can't help but feel for them. You have to be the ultimate Vancouver Canucks hater to really relish in what the Vancouver Canucks are going through right now. Again, they lose. It's overtime against Minnesota.

Karelo Kaprizov with heroics after Matt Zuccarello ties things up in the third. And everybody says, oh, this is really going to happen again. Over to the left wing side. Kaprizov. It's a four on three. 220 to go in overtime. Kaprizov. Cross ice. Zuccarello waiting. Waiting. Trying to go. really going to fire one. It ricocheted back to him. No whistle. He's got an empty net. He scores! Carrillo, Kaprizov wins it in overtime. And the wild rep of the homestead getting a huge win over the Canucks.

4-3 the final here in St. Paul. Elliot, it happened again. Your thoughts on Vancouver right now. Just a pure desperation hockey game. Minnesota needed the win too. The thing with Vancouver is Vancouver is on the road. Minnesota has been going through what

they've been going through at home. Gord Stelic used to always have this thing he would say when he was in the front office of Toronto. If you're going to stink, stink on the road. There were a lot of great games tonight. Obviously, I was primarily watching Toronto-Dallas because I was working that game,

but there were a lot of great games tonight, and I was glued to that wild Canucks game because here you are, you've got two teams. They're barely five games into the season or not even five games into the season when the puck drops, and those two teams went at it like it was game 82 when they were fighting for a playoff berth. You could really feel how much that was on the line in that game. And it was punch, counterpunch, and it was incredible to watch.

And, you know, the one thing you see at the end of a big game like that is what are the reactions captured by the camera and the look on Patterson's face, the look on the Canucks face at the end of the game. They couldn't believe it in this sport. And, you know, Jeff, when you're in our shoes, in our business, you root for people. Oh, yeah. And I don't like to see people lose for a long time. And whoever lost that game, I was looking at it, and I was saying, as a human being,

I am going to ache for the team that loses this game. And they cut to that shot of the bench, and you could see the looks on some of the Canucks' faces. It's misery. I just, you know, Nick Caprio said to me once, he says, losing sucks. And that was embodied on the face of those Vancouver Canucks tonight. And I felt awful for them because they gave it their all. And you look at Myers, like the one thing the guy was really watching is Myers.

Basically, he rushes backes back Jeff to join the team so you know he's not a hundred percent but he's here saying they need me I'm gonna play and you know he's the guy who takes the penalty in overtime that sets the man advantage up for the wild to win the game and sometimes God is mean like God is mean and God is mean. Like God is mean. And God was mean on that one for Tyler Myers. Just mean. Like I said, off the top, I really feel bad for Vancouver. I feel bad for a lot of those players and looks on those faces that you point out at the end of that game.

Those weren't just looks. Those were stairs. Some of them blank stairs. Some of them blank stares. Some of them stunned stares. Some of them stares where you're just looking off into the distance, hoping that something is going to appear, and it doesn't. And I was mentioning this to you on the radio, the Ian McIntyre piece at Sportsnet.ca and the quotes from Jim Rutherford.

And you can read these things a couple of different ways. On the one hand, you know, he's talking about, you know, if you squint really hard at the words, Elliot, it might look like he's taking a shot at Bruce Boudreaux by talking about playing the game the right way, playing with good habits and reading that you might look at that and say, okay, well, he wants a, he wants a stronger structure coach in here, but then he follows it up with, I think judging where a team is at after a five-game road trip would not be fair. We just have to build in the right direction.

So there might be two sort of competing ideas, arm wrestling right here, this sort of wink to doing things the right way. I know this team. And also resisting an urge that many may have to make a coaching decision here. I don't think he wants to do it. I think he said it publicly that he didn't want to do it. And I've heard that he said it privately that he doesn't want to do it. That's one of the situations that's been really on everyone's radar because it didn't look like,

and we've talked about it, I don't need to go into it a lot, Vancouver wasn't sure they were going to go back with Boudreaux this year. And they looked into a couple things and ultimately they went back to it. And I think that's why everybody's kind of waiting for it, in this case in particular. I do believe Jim Rutherford when he says he doesn't want to do it right now because it's a failure for your organization. You know, people are saying, and when we did our last podcast this week,

I got a call from someone, a guy who I really like, and he said, your podcast was kind of ghoulish today. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, you're talking about coaches getting fired and they've coached two or three games or four games. And I said, Hey, I get it. I'm with you. I don't like talking about this stuff. I rather hate it. But the fact is that, you know, this is kind of where we're going in some of these situations right now, if they don't get turned around because the pressure is so tight. He said

to me, well, nobody gets fired now. And I said, that's not true. You go back to Peter Laviolette in Philadelphia. Denny Savard. Denny Savard in Chicago. Absolutely. And nobody wants to talk about this stuff. I mean, you are quite honestly a ghoul if you like talking about this stuff. But the fact is, it's on the radar.

And I don't think Rutherford wants to do it. But the fact is, it's on the radar. And I don't think Rutherford wants to do it. I don't think he does because I think he knows it reflects terribly on the organization if you have to do that this quickly. The one thing Vancouver has is they're going home. And maybe it settles you down. Maybe you find something. But it's not going to be easy because it's Thursday.

They're playing their first game Saturday and it's Buffalo. Who's looking really good to start the year. Yep, man. I just feel for those Canucks. I don't know what else to say, but you can see a team that is grasping for answers. And right now doesn't have any. How are you feeling about the New Jersey Devils right now after beating the New York Islanders four to one and really in a lot of ways, smothering the New York Islanders?

34 shots at Ilya Sorokin. Mackenzie Blackwood only had to face 14 shots, surrendering the lone goal. You know, they've won two games in a row here. And the last time we talked about the Devils, this would have been on the radio show, Elliot. One of the points was it was the big guys that were getting it done for New Jersey. Palat scores, Heischer scores, Hamilton and Mercer.

And again, for the second game, Palat gets two, Nico Heischer scores his second of the season, and Jack Hughes gets his first. That's always a good sign when the big guys are coming through well they also pounded the islanders tonight right from puck drop you know one of the things with the and this is the toughest thing the devils withstood one of the toughest things when that was happening with rough and we talked about how much i hated to hear that because i have a personal affinity for Ruff.

When it's your fans doing that, and again, I don't blame them. Fans are fans. They've earned the right to do what they want. That's hard to ride out. That's really hard to ride out. And the Devils were trying to say, look, our underlying numbers, they're really good. They weren't getting saves, and you're not going to win if you're not getting

saves, but they were trying to say, hey, our underlying numbers are really good. Well, now they're getting some saves. I'll tell you, so I was in New York on Tuesday for the Board of Governors meeting, Jeff, and I was thinking about do I go to the Islanders

game on Tuesday night or do I go to the Devils on Tuesday night and then we just got finished our work so late I didn't get finished at the uh at the hotel where the meeting was until almost seven o'clock I just decided I was gonna go for dinner and watch I started getting texts you know the ducks go up one nothing on the Devils the ducks go up two nothing on the Devils and you start getting texts and you're like oh like here you go you know is it gonna happen and as you said their best players dragged them out of it you look at all the guys that they've paid the money to dougie hamilton made big plays andre palat made big plays. Andre Palat made big plays.

Jack Hughes made big plays. He sure. Nico, he sure. He sure. Yeah. He made big plays. Like if you have any chance of being successful in this league, when the times are down, your best players have to step up and drag you through.

And that's exactly what happened. Again, the devils, I don't know if they're going to be a playoff team but they want to play meaningful games the best thing i saw from them in the first week of the season is the red black and white devil's bus was in danger of going over the cliff and there comes to a point where you can't sell the underlying numbers anymore and their best players pulled them through and uh good on them because i think that says a lot about who you are as your team like in that moment the devils can say okay

we could have a change and it's not going to be on us no no they weren't doing that they pulled them through that's funny you say that the way you do about underlying numbers in that conversation. I was talking to someone from one team that is very, very invested in analytics. And I was trying to raise that point. And the person stopped me and said, that's all well and good. But at a certain point, life begins. Yes. And I'll never forget that line. That's well and good.

At a certain point, life begins. Let's talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs and specifically talk about Nick Robertson. And again, I'll remind you, we'll have the other Robertson a little bit later on. Elliot and I sat down with Jason Robertson on Wednesday night

and we'll present a good part of that interview for you today. What a wonderful night for Nick Robertson. Parents in the stands. His first game this season comes through two goals, including the game winner. A pass for Robertson, parents in the stands. His first game this season comes through two goals, including the game winner. A pass for Robertson, brought to center.

Robertson over the line, dropping it back. Another shot, he scores! Holy mackinac! The kids want it! His second goal of the game, and Nicky Robertson wins it in overtime! We all know what the Maple Leafs have come off of, that horrible loss against the Arizona Coyotes

and the subsequent controversy slash drama slash high school locker room talk between coaches and players and media and fans. It's been a week for the Toronto Maple Leafs. How did you see Thursday night's win against the Dallas Stars? This was a case where God was not mean when it came to Nick Robertson. God was just and God was fair. Nick Robertson deserved to make the Toronto Maple Leafs this year. Yes. One of the

things that I don't think is right is when people are rewarded or people lose out because of contract status or we're paying too much money to do this Nick Robertson deserved to make the Toronto Maple Leafs opening night roster but he didn't for numbers and cap reasons now it never lasts something always happens. Someone gets hurt. Something happens. And Matt Murray got injured and it gave Nick Robertson the opportunity.

The worst segment we do at Sportsnet is burning questions. I hate it. I cannot stand doing it. We do it on with Leaf Regionals. It's David Amber's ideas. You already know it's terrible. David Amber's ideas. You already know it's terrible. But he makes Anthony and myself

answer these questions. And one of the questions in the game on Thursday was, who's the right fit with Tavares and Nylander? And my answer was, they hope it's Nick Robertson. Well, tonight was his opportunity to show.

And he did. And it's not only about the goals. Ultimately, he's paid to show. And he did. And it's not only about the goals. Ultimately, he's paid to score. If Nick Robertson is going to be successful, he's going to have to score. But I thought the defensive play in overtime, and for those of you who didn't see it, Jamie Benn is coming in on him in overtime,

and Jamie Benn sees this is not a defenseman. This is Nick Robertson. And he goes to make a move and Jeff, you can tell me if you disagree. I thought that kid was beat. I thought Ben had him when he pulled the move on him. And he recovered and he knocked the puck away. It's incredible.

I thought from the get-go, anytime a forward sees another forward defending, their eyes get huge. You say to yourself, okay, watch this. He's going to show you why forwards don't play defense or forwards get burned when they try to play defense. I thought it was a hell of a play

by Nick Robertson. It was one of those games where the goals are going to be the headline, but if you ask the coach, Elliot, the play that you just discussed, that's going to be the one that sheldon keith takes away yes it was a great performance by him and this was a huge win for toronto again i thought they didn't play very well at the start i thought they kind of slept walked through the first period and i don't know if the officials felt bad that they missed the

matthews getting hurt in the first but then all of a sudden the power play started coming they got four in the second I think they got eight for the game and Toronto feeds off that power play and they scored on it and they got going you know Matthews for a guy who didn't score, he played 27 minutes. Blocked shots. And I thought he played blocked shots, which hurt him too. He got mugged a little bit, which is what happens when you're the best player. And he just kept going.

When you think of an elite Austin Matthews game, we all think of him scoring four goals or something like that because that's what he does. I thought this was an elite Austin Matthew matthews game because dallas was all over him they're a tough team and he didn't back down and he kept playing i thought he was excellent and i thought their d was really good on a night where their d looked pretty thin you were at the rink this morning, uh, and you worked the game tonight. How many, because there are plenty of players on Dallas from Ontario.

Yeah. How many guys were playing free hockey tonight? I E they spent all their money on tickets. Less than you think. Well, Wedgwood was, he bought 13 tickets. And the other thing that one of the guys remind me was,

is not only do you have to buy tickets, but you have to put money on the board. So you're almost at a deficit. So Wedgewood, I know, bought 13 tickets. Now, Delandria and Wyatt Johnston, they had 50 passes, but apparently they didn't have to buy any. They said either their relatives got them or their teammates gave them up. I think Sagan had to buy a bit. So at least one, potentially more, but not as much as you would have thought. Speaking of Sagan, great line with Sean McKenzie. It's nice to win here. Unfortunately, it didn't happen for them tonight. Can we talk about this? Sure.

I want to talk about this whole Toronto thing a little bit. Okay. Are you not annoyed by it by now about it though, Elliot? I am. I mean, that was a huge win for them. Yep. But I just don't understand why he felt the need to, like if anything he said, I thought that was over the line.

It was basically just saying that Arizona had no elite talent it's such a different game than anything even in preseason you don't play games like that where you have the puck that much we didn't adopt we didn't score special teams so um it's a hurry to improve I know there's a lot of areas to improve you're only four games in you guys haven't found the rhythm our best people have not found the rhythm. Maybe really look at it. The difference between us and Arizona is that we have elite players. Our elite players didn't play like elite players today.

Couldn't make a difference. In that sense, the game is going to be close. Generally, the rule is you don't talk about the other team. Leave them out of it. That was the part I said he's going to end up apologizing for. Hey, Clayton Keller, here's one for you from the Leafs coach. But to say the elite players haven't been good

enough, I don't understand why a coach feels the need to back off or apologize or clarify that kind of a comment. I don't understand it. I used some of the wrong words to try to describe what I was trying to describe, which is that the difference in the game I find is just we weren't able to

produce, whether it's power play or five on five. And that's really the difference with all the puck time we had and everything like that. But by no means was i meaning anything anything beyond that which is what i wanted them to be to be sure of and as it turned out they didn't know what i was talking about but um which is a good thing but um at the same time important that that they know where i was coming from maybe i'm just desensitized because of all the stuff people call me on social media but that wouldn't bother me. And the other thing too is I worry it weakens the coach. You can't do it a lot. And like the shots of Dubas tonight on the,

the goal that was the overturn. Yeah, but that's fine. Like you could see the tension on him too. Like it's tense around there. They feel it. By the way, you know,

when you could tell something was up and dubas knew it right away there's a certain period of time that you know when the video review is starting to get uncomfortably long it's not going not going to go your way and the camera was tight on dubas and you can tell he knows the longer this goes, the better chances going against the Maple Leafs right away. Cause you could see what the hands up in the air. You could see it. A lawyer friend of mine told me that years ago that when it comes to jury cases that

you know, going in who's got the better case him or the person he's arguing against. in who's got the better case, him or the person he's arguing against. And the longer a jury deliberation goes, the more that the person who felt they had the weaker case feels confident and the worst, the person who had the stronger case feels. And that's exactly what happened. I will say this tonight. I thought that was the right call. If they would have said that was no goal, then I don't think you can have battles in front of the net.

And Kelly Forbes in Dallas, their video coach, if he calls for a review, he always wins. So I said they're going to win. Dallas has put a nice tweet, by the way, about that. That was a real nice touch, getting that out there. But anyway, as we were saying, I just didn't understand why Keefe had to apologize or clarify or withdraw that. You can't say our elite players haven't been good yet.

I mean, what are we coming to here? I don't think you can do it a lot, and I don't think you can take personal shots at your own guys necessarily, but to say that our best players haven't been good enough yet, that's something that we have to back away from. I don't get it. Now I have a theory.

Okay. And like, I don't think Matthews is bothered by this stuff. He, he shakes it off. The player who made the most comment about it on the day off was, was Marner. Obviously it takes a little bit to get everything going,

but I think we feel good with where we are. I mean, a lot of stuff happens behind these doors when you guys aren't here and when fans aren't here. So we talk about all that stuff. We know what we need to do to be successful. When you hear the coach say he has elite players, what goes through your mind?

Like I said, I talked to him today. He explained what he meant to say and how it came out and everything like that. I'll leave it at that. But, you know, like I said, we have closed doors here for a reason and we have talks without you guys for a reason so um we had that talk today and um you know we understand we're grown men you know somebody said to me what i said in the broadcast they thought i was taking a shot at marner i'm not taking a shot at marner but what i am saying is that I think you have to understand who can handle that and who can't. And Marner, as we've seen in the playoffs, when the pressure really gets going,

it's nothing doesn't want to win. It's just that he tenses up. And I wonder if it was like, we just want Marner to be comfortable. And in that case, I understand because you do have to create an environment where your players can be successful, but still, overall, I don't think if Keefe does that maybe once or twice a year that it's something he should

have to walk back from. I don't agree with that. You can tell me what you think. I'm with you. I don't think that Sheldon Keefe had to walk anything back, but then I always check myself and say, okay, well, how are you raised? What do you expect out of coaches? How do you expect people in authority around you to behave? And I keep coming back to the same thing.

Now more so than ever before, and this isn't just exclusive to hockey. This isn't even exclusive to sports. This is education systems. This is workplaces. It's really hard to treat every single person the exact same way because everybody has a different background. Everything has different things that will set them off. Like to your point about Austin Matthews, I agree.

I don't know that anything bothered, like I'm sure there are things, but I see him, whether it's him rolling his eyes at things or just like getting annoyed at the pettiness of stuff. Like he does not get bothered and he continues to put himself out there. Sometimes he gets Curtis. I don't get the sense that he cares at all, but not everybody is Austin Matthews. Yeah.

So I do believe that I understand that you can't treat everybody the same. And when you say something as big as what Sheldon Keefe did, I think the majority of players are going to say, okay, that's legit. We had to eat that one. He's, you know,

the coach has got a point and there are some players that might get their backs up about it that's all all i'm saying is it doesn't surprise me what's the room like the coach says the same thing in front of everybody 60 of the team might go okay we deserve that and the other 40 will walk out and go well who the f is that guy think he is and it's the same quote that's kind of how I looked at this one. And maybe that was just the coach trying to say like, you know what? I need to try to manage everybody here.

If we're going to do anything, we all know what's happened in the playoffs. We all know the story of this team. We all know what's at stake for the Maple Leafs this year at every single level. I can't just say, well, the majority of guys are with me. If I'm Sheldon Keefe, I need an overwhelming majority with me and I can't lose anybody.

And I wonder if that was in the back of his mind. Before we wrap up on Toronto, just wanted to send the best to Jake Muzz. Absolutely. I just have a feeling this is going to be a while. And like, I don't think they're going to rush into any decisions here, which is the smart thing. But I think if you're the Maple Leafs, you do have to be preparing for the possibility

that you might not get them back this season. So I'm not saying it will happen that way. I'm not saying it won't happen that way. But I think if you're the Maple Leafs, you do have to at least prepare for the possibility and just want to wish them the best. That's three in the last 12 months. And I think everybody here is going to be careful. John Tavares is the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. and just want to wish him the best. That's three in the last 12 months.

And I think everybody here is going to be careful. John Tavares is the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But when you talk to players, when you listen to players, when you observe players, do you not get the sense that in some way as well, Jake Muzzin has been the captain of this team? Huge, especially in a social way. huge especially in a social way i think he has a big big impact on the social nature of the of the group yes i think that's very true from all of us wishing him well so jeff before we take the break yep there is one other person i want to mention and that is jacobana. Yes. And you'll remember that when we went to France before the season,

we did an interview with Jacob Vrana that was very fun. He talked about being the only Red Wing to live downtown. We got a lot of notes, or at least I did. I don't know if you did or not. People loved it.

About how fun Vrana seemed to be. Now, there's always some things that you look at and you say with history, you look at a bit differently than when they initially happened. And Vranis showed up to that interview and like his hair was all over the place. His suit was a bit disheveled. And I mean, you've seen me on air. I like to be disheveled. So none of that fazed me at all. And some people, you know, joke that he came right from being out to come do the interviews.

And we don't even know if that's true, but we joked about it with him at one point. And now, obviously, you feel very differently about it, hearing that he is gone to get some help. very differently about it hearing that he is gone to get some help and you know I just want to say that this is a young man who I want to wish the best to I did get one DM in particular from someone saying that he remembered the interview which he really loved and he says do you think about it differently now and I wrote him back and I said I I think about it quite a bit. So, you know, I just think I remember, you know, I was a young man like Franta was around 25. And, you know, I like to have a good time. And there were there times I said, you've got to calm down a little bit or you've got to go a little bit easier. Yes. I never got to the point where I thought I needed help.

yes i never got to the point where i thought i needed help but i recognize now that obviously he does and you know i i've really liked my dealings with him over the time and i wish him the best but i just wanted to say jeff that when i heard he was going into for getting into the program to get help i thought a lot about our interview And as fun as he was and as playful as he was, and as much everyone liked that interview, I can't help but think of it a little bit differently now. Just because you're wondering, you know, hey, that was just two months ago. What was Jacob Vrana going through? You know, how was he feeling?

Was he in a tough place at that time? So, you know, I just wanted to acknowledge that I've thought about it a lot. And the two days since the announcement was made and, you know, he's a young man that made the bold step to get help. I just hope he gets the help and he comes back and he lights it up and plays great for the Red Wings themselves. And the fact that he's gone to get help should be applauded and encouraged. If there's anyone listening to this podcast right now that finds themselves in a similar situation, I hope you do the same. And for Jacob Verana, like to your point, when I first saw the news, that was the first

thing I thought of is us, you know, yucking it up about, oh, you're out all late. Where are you? Like, to be honest with you, I felt pretty bad. I mean, you don't know. And you just say, OK,, I stayed out plenty of nights all night long and you did too and probably Amel did as well. That was the point I was making that I

wasn't laughing at him because I did things like that myself all the time. Yeah. All the time. I'm really glad that he's going to get help. I'm glad the NHL and the Players Association provide this for players. and friends around him that may have been party friends that can now say to themselves, I need to be a real friend

and not just a party friend for Jacob Verana. All I'm saying is I hope when he comes back that there is a cradle of friendship that he can be welcomed back into. I just hope he gets healthy and hope he gets well. The hockey is secondary. Like you, Elliot, all the best to Jacob Verana and his family and his friends. You know, Jeff, the other thing I yeah like you elliot all the best to jacob verana and his family and

his friends you know jeff the other thing i'd like to say is there's a big debate about whether or not these announcements should be made okay and i understand everybody's position on it i think the worst thing is you know he's on the non-roster list for a couple of days. And then there's speculation, right? Sometimes I think the speculation is worse than the truth because in this day and age, and we see this in a lot of different stories, reporters won't report on the speculation so it goes wild on social media and the internet. I actually think it's better that you come out

and say this is what it is. And the other thing is, I understand people might get embarrassed that you come out and say this is what it is. And the other thing is, I understand people might get embarrassed that they need the help, but I think the vast majority of people right now look at it like you have no reason to be embarrassed. I think we've come a long way in a long time. The first thing should be help. And I think that that's what the league and the players association recognize. Like Oliver Shillington is going through a tough time too.

You know, they say he's going to get help for whatever it is he needs. And people are like, okay, we get that. I understand people value their privacy. And to be perfectly honest, last year,

I missed a couple of shows or I missed one show and then i kind of went off twitter for a week and i had to announce that i had covid and that's the reason i was kind of shutting down and i didn't like that i had to do that i actually waited for a while and then i did it but you know i i think nowadays it's better than the alternative. And people understand. They just do. I don't think anybody should say that you don't want to make the announcement to prevent embarrassment. I don't think that's the message we should be sending anymore.

When you make that public, you help someone else. This isn't just about you at that point. You're making it easier for someone else to say, you know what, I need help too. I think we need to all keep that in mind. When you're saying that publicly, what you're doing is something for yourself and something for someone else. Still to come on the podcast,

we'll talk to Jason Robertson. Well, we'll broadcast our interview with Jason Robertson that occurred on Wednesday evening. And we're going to get to the Montreal Canadiens and the San Jose Sharks here in a second. But first, I'd like to remind you,

if you want to get 32 Thoughts merchandise, I'd like to remind you, if you want to get 32 Thoughts merchandise, I highly recommend the hipster line fresh off the runways of Stouffville, Ontario, Elliot. I was wearing that yesterday. Make sure you're wearing your wedding ring at the same time when you wear all that

because, you know, sometimes. Visit our Sportsnet store at www.shopsportsnet.store slash collections slash 32 hyphen thoughts. The link is in the show notes. Get your 32 thoughts merch while we still have it. Okay, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Arizona Coyotes. Couple of things in this one.

One, Yuri Slavkovsky scores his first goal. Turn over here. Slavkovsky scores his first goal. Turn over here. Slavkovsky scores! First in the National League. Yuri Slavkovsky. And then barks at Josh Brown who took a run at him

a couple of seconds before he scored. Oh, that was awesome. Great visual. So cool. He's giving it to Brown after the hit. There was the play right there. visual so cool

your guy Arbor Jack eye throwing down with Zach Kassian. 41 a game and we got a tilt. It's going to be Kassian. Yeah, Kassian's going with Arbor Jacki, the young defenseman. Oh man, they're throwing some bombs. Oh my, Jacki, I had no idea. This is the guy they call Wi-Fi. If you look at the pronunciation of his name, you'll know why. And he has got the crowd juiced up in this one. That Cassian's going to go to the Coyotes dressing room.

He's looking at his hand. And indicating that the young guys aren't just about skill and edge work. They're also about snapping mitts and throwing knuckles. I have to tell you, when that fight started, Anthony and I were looking at each other, and I said, I don't know if Jack, I should be fighting this guy. And boy, was that a bad prediction you know what was what was a better prediction was montreal by a thousand because arizona yeah you called it was

there for two days extra day in montreal never works that well the thing is is you know you're trying to grow together and build a culture and you know jack is going to have nights where that's going to happen to him but that fight and then you know he went after brown on that play where slavkovsky scored yep and seeing those two guys sit next to each other and smiling on the bench like that's huge those are two young guys like slavkovsky is a franchise cornerstone, you hope. And Jack Eye is a piece of gold found in a river. Jack Eye is a Grand Slam home run out of nowhere, potentially. And he's a cult favorite in Montreal.

He's a cult favorite. But now you're looking at it and you're saying, here's these two guys who are both rookies. One we think is going to be a cornerstone. One, suddenly, we're hoping is going to be a cornerstone. And they're smiling together on the bench

on a play that's going to bond them forever, you hope, right? You can't imagine a better dream scenario if you're Montreal than what happened on that play. You know what? Hang on. You know what Jack Eye is? What's that? Here's what Jack Eye is from Montreal. You know when you go into

your drawer and you pull out a pair of pants that you haven't worn for a while and you reach in your front pocket and there's 50 bucks? That's what Arbor Jack Eye is for the Montreal Canadiens. Whoa! That's a better analogy than I the Montreal Canadians whoa I didn't know we had 50 bucks in there this is awesome that's what he is

he's the $50 bill in the pair of pants you haven't worn for a long time I agree with you Jeff that's a better analogy than I came with I have to give you credit on that and the other thing about this is is that we're all talking you know who's going to win the Bedard lottery this year?

Arizona's in it. Montreal sent a message tonight that they might be in it, but competing hard to win games is more important for them. They took advantage of an Arizona team, like I said, that was in Montreal for two days, and they blew them out of the building right from the beginning. And Slavkovsky scores, and

Suzuki with that ridiculous Datsoukian move on the penalty shot. The captain of the Montreal Canadiens is going to go to work, and they're on their feet at the bell center. Alright, here we go. Penalty shot. Suzuki as he goes wide in on Connor Ingram.

And Suzuki scores. Oh, my. Kids at home, this is absolutely gross. What a set of mitts on Nick Suzuki. Yeah, he's good. There was none of this, no, no, no. We're not playing to win this game. They went out there to pound them. Now, they sent

a message tonight, we're better than this team, and we want to be seen as better than this team. And I think that's really interesting when you're trying to build yourself up. And before we go to San Jose, we should mention, Chikrin, as we talked about, he's

joining them. I hear that's starting to heat up a bit. Well, I mean, everybody has injured defensemen. It's no surprise. And I still don't think it's going to be Ottawa. I still think it's unlikely. But somebody called me today and said that one is starting to heat up a little bit. Okay, we'll get those trade talks all spiced up.

You mentioned the Bedard lottery a second ago and the beginning of the season, we said, okay, we know what the program is here for Arizona. Uh, we know what's happening in Chicago and, you know, the San Jose sharks open up with five losses in a row. They end up winning a big one on Thursday nights.

Uh, Eric Carlson ends it in overtime. 3-2 is the final score. The San Jose Sharks pick up their first win. Your thoughts on the Teal team? First of all, those uniforms look phenomenal. Oh, yes, they do. I was watching them tonight.

I said, I cannot believe how good these things look. We talked earlier about New Jersey and how they were going off the cliff and their best players pulled them back. So this was a game tonight in New York. You're winless. You've had some bad performances, but you know this one means a lot for your coach. I think I've told this story before, but back when I covered the Raptors, remember when Antonio Davis was traded from Indiana to Toronto, their first game back in Indiana, they stunk.

And Butch Carter was coaching the Raptors at the time, and he went wild. He said, this game mattered to our teammate here, and we were terrible. What that said to me was that the Sharks recognized, okay, we're not going really well, but this game matters to our coach. And you know what happened too was when David Quinn got hired, a lot of people made fun of that hire. They ripped that hire. And it was because of what he did in New York. And I thought it was really interesting how a lot of the people with the Rangers, including some of the young players, like Zbigniew had some really thoughtful things to say about David Quinn coaching in a rebuild versus now they're trying to win, right? And how it's not fair to sort of evaluate those things on the same level.

I thought it was really thoughtful by Zibanejad. Anyway, this is kind of a rebuild for the Sharks. Those players came out and they said, we're battling for this guy tonight. And to lose is one thing, but they played hard. They looked like they were going to get blown out of the building in the second period. I think they're the worst second period team in the league. And they found a way to get back and win that game.

That said a lot to me about that team. Cause they could have packed that one into. I like Eric Carlson a lot. I know he's not the same Eric Carlson. We all know that, but every now and then like that finishing play, like that was Eric Carlson we all know that but every now and then like that finishing play like that was Eric Carlson willing that goal and it's a nice play by Meyer behind the net to get the feed to him after a marvelous play by by Eric Carlson to get it there that was like a glimpse of what Carlson

used to be you know what I mean for each yes was like, okay, that's how I want to remember Eric Carlson. I know we're not going to get 82 games of that Eric Carlson ever again, but the nice thing about it is every now and then we're going to get a glimpse of what Eric Carlson used to be. All right, Elliot, before we get to Jason Robertson, a couple of quickies here.

The heat's off in Ottawa, right? They've won a couple of games now and you know, maybe we look at Washington and sort of raise an eyebrow and look sideways, but all is good in the Canadian capital? I was never worried that the heat was too on there. I didn't think it was the same, but that team can score now.

Seven against Boston, and they fell behind 2-0 against Washington and blew them out. I'm concerned for Washington. They're not getting Wilson back for a while. They're not getting Backstrom back for a while. It sounds like they're really concerned about how much time Connor Brown's going to be out.

I just wonder if the Capitals have enough. But I thought that was a big week for Ottawa just to stabilize themselves and keep the goodwill going but I have to tell you Jeff the team I'm one of the teams I've really been impressed with is Buffalo Darlene sets an NHL record first defenseman to score in four consecutive games to start the year the offensive zone pass across Paterka fading away for the shot in front there it is nhl history for rasmus doleen as he gets his fourth goal in four straight games to start the season the only defenseman in nhl history to accomplish that and it gives buffalo a two-to-one lead

they win in edmonton although comry stolen them they win in in Calgary. That's not going to be an easy team waiting for Vancouver in Vancouver when the Canucks get home. But, boy, I've got to tell you, I don't know which of these teams are going to have staying power, Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, who it's going to be, but they're going to make it interesting, and I really like it. And, Jeff, also, just what a week for the league with all the comebacks. This league is better when teams decide

they don't want to protect leads. They're just like, nah, we're going to let teams come back into games. I know coaches hate it, but the league is more entertaining that way. It is. And if I can add one thing to the Buffalo Sabres as well, like listen, Darlene, we talked about breakout

players at the beginning of the season, and we talked a lot about Tim Stutzla, for example, and for good reason, that guy's fantastic. Man, Rasmus Darlene, as much as everyone is talking about Owen Power, this is Rasmus Darlene, who was a first overall draft pick himself saying, hold on a second here. I'm the next big defenseman that everybody's going to start talking about.

He's been flat out amazing. And Elliot, you see last weekend when he snowed Josh Norris in the face? Yes. Like Norris is down in the corner. He skates over deliberately to him and snows him. Did you ever think you'd see Rasmus Dallin do that? Because he did. You know, Anthony and I were talking about this tonight off camera.

Hockey's changed a lot. You know, with what we've learned about concussions and things like that, there shouldn't be as much fighting as there used to be. But this is still a mean game. And intimidation still matters. There's two things there. I think intimidation matters and also having the ability to not be intimidated is huge as well.

Like we're, we're all thinking about Boreas Salming right now and what Boreas Salming is going through. I know Elliot, he was one of, if if not maybe your favorite player of all time. Yeah. And whenever I think of players refusing to be intimidated, I think of Boreasalming, and I think of players like him. That, to me, is a skill, much like we consider skating and shooting and puck handling, all of it, because it is nasty,

and players will try to intimidate you. That is part of it. If you can get an edge by intimidating someone, you take it in this game. That's a history of it. That's why I've always felt, like always, Elliot, the most underappreciated skill you can have is the ability to not be intimidated. Salming was the ultimate, the ultimate in this.

He's number one so far. Number one, the ultimate, the ultimate in this. Like he's number one so far. Number one, there's not even a number two. There's a whole bunch of number threes. But I've always thought that that's a really incredible skill for someone to have. I agree. Especially in this game right now.

One player I do want to mention with Buffalo, just to get his name out there. And we talk about a lot of players in the Buffalo Sabres. Alex Tuck has four goals. And now Tuck will pick it up, skate it out to center, shoot to the empty net, and score.

Alex Tuck with his third goal of the hockey game. And that will just about ice it for the Sabres. That Eichel trade, getting Alex Tuck in that deal, that was a really good bit of business by Kevin Adams. Don't disagree. And I'll tell you something else that's interesting in Buffalo right now is Jack Quinn didn't play on Thursday. And I think the hope was like after he sat out a game that he might get back

in. But what that says to me is the Sabres are kind of looking at it. Yes, we've got to develop, but we also want to start see if we can build some momentum can we turn this into a giant snowball of momentum that's interesting to me buffalo wants to be in the race they want to be in the race and if you don't already know the name get to know jj pka. They're expecting big things of him in that organization.

He sure can. Evan Bouchard can go in behind the net, find some room on the right, goes up the middle. He's got McLeod. Now to Nugent Hopkins, in over the line, back to McLeod. Scores! Ryan McLeod! He goes five-hole on Anderson! There were a lot of great highlights in that Carolina Edmonton game.

My favorite, the Ryan McLeod shorty on a beautiful play by Ryan Nugent Hopkins. Just a filthy play, right, Freed? And you can't help but wondering, A, is that a Stanley Cup preview? And B, if it is, let's just hope it goes seven. That was a flat out fun game. That was a great game. A lot of skills. Smetchnikov, three goals. The thing about that one is I

picked it to be the Stanley Cup with my crazy rule that you couldn't pick either Colorado or Tampa. So I think it's a Stanley Cup preview if the NHL goes with the rule Tampa and Colorado are not allowed to go. Oh yeah, they're all about whoever's third place. Yeah, third place in each conference.

Yeah, you guys compete for the cup. Yeah, that's good thinking. Jeff, one of the things I was thinking about watching that game is, and it's something that I'm thinking about more and more, how many truly great goalies are there in this league? Mm-mm. This league is becoming about now. This league is becoming about now.

Just make one more save than the other guy. You don't need to stand on your head. Just please God, make one more save than the other guy. That's what the NHL is turning into. It's funny, Elliot. I've thought about this a while and I've arrived at the place now with goaltenders, and this is what makes goalies like Vasilevsky and Shesturkin such freaks, okay?

Once upon a time, I think you could legitimately say our goalie stole the game. And listen, every now and then a goalie can steal a game. It is so rare. But I think what we're seeing now is the most you can ask for goalies is to steal a period or maybe two. Like growing up, goalies would steal games all the time, right, Rich? Even getting into our 20s and 30s, goalies would steal games. Goalies don't steal games anymore and the ones that do you hold on to those goaltenders are sacred those are the ones that i mentioned earlier but around around the rest of the league

hey man the best we can expect save a period maybe save two i think it's even different than that it's not so much save a period just make one more save than the other guy brayden holdby I always think of Brayden Holtby and his way of looking at it was the Mitch Cornway there's three kinds of goals you give up didn't have a chance maybe should have had it and should never let that go in that's a bad goal I think the more and more goalies are going to be graded on how many bad goals to give up. Hmm.

Like Vasilevsky, another world. That guy's different. Oh yeah. Hellebuck. Yep. I think that guy is different price at his best. That guy was different,

but how many other goalies are getting graded like those guys anymore? Shisterkin. Shisterkin is another example. He's on another level. I think Sorokin has a chance to get there. But he's not there yet. No, but he's right there. He's right there.

And I do believe Markstrom, I think, is on the higher tier, although he got chased again tonight. I think Demko has a chance to get there, but really how many guys are like that? So did you look at that Carolina-Edmonton game, which by the way was the battle of two former Toronto Maple Leaf goaltenders, Frederick Anderson and Jack Campbell. Did you look at that one and say that that was Campbell out-dueling Anderson? Like, did it have that feel to you? It comes down to it.

Campbell made one more save. That's the difference. Campbell made one more save. Technically, it was five. 28 to 23. I know what you mean. Thanks, Captain Matt. I know what you mean.

But while we're being Pacific here in the Atlantic, like, let's stay right. That's what this league is going to turn into. If you don't have one of those nuclear weapons, just give me one more safe. Now, Jeff, before we get to our interview, what were you doing on Thursday night? Oh, I was at Stouffville Arena dropping the puck

for the Stouffville Spirit and the Oakville Blades. Stovall Arena, dropping the puck for the Stovall Spirit and the Oakville Blades. Now, do you think that they invited you to drop the puck there because on the last podcast we took a question from another Jeff from Stovall, and they

wanted you to know that you are still the preeminent Jeff from Stovall, not this other guy? I was approached about a month and a half ago. So when I moved up here, one of the first people I talked to was Kenny Burrows. So Kenny's the general manager of the Stouffville Spirit,

legend in tier two, OJHL hockey, and got to know Kenny really well. We work out of the same gym. A lot of the Spirit kids work out of the same gym that I do. And he just called me and said, hey, how do you feel about, you know, dropping a puck for before one of our games, what we'll do is we'll, you know, you tell us what charity you want to support. And for the whole month, we'll,

you know, proceeds from our 5050 will go to your charity of choice. And I can't turn that up. First of all, I've never dropped a puck at a hockey game before, and that's really cool. And they let me bring my kids on the ice to drop pucks. So there were four pucks that were dropped, which was cool. So TJ, Brody, Joe, everyone got to drop a puck with Dad. So really cool Dad moment there. It was fun.

Stovall Spirit won the game 5-3. Rob Corte, who's one of our bosses, his son Zach plays on the team, number 21, a patrolling winger really having a Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds draft pick he's had a really nice season for Stouffville so anytime I can do two things anytime I can

you know help out a charity and the charity of my choice is Team Dog Rescue I have them linked on my latest post on Instagram we've done a lot of work with Team Dog Rescue. We foster dogs, our family. We've adopted dogs.

My wife and I will probably do that for the rest of our lives. So anytime I can raise money for Team Dog Rescue, I do. And anytime Kenny Burrows wants something for the Sovo spirit, I will always answer that call. Great kids, great organization, and a lot of fun. Thanks to Kenny Burrows and, you know, everybody with the, uh, the Stovall spirit, including the legendary Lorna Burrows, who has been at it from day one and doesn't miss a game. Anyway, a lot of fun on Thursday. Congratulations, bud. Nice job.

So Elliot, you and I had a chance to speak with Jason Robertson one day in advance of the Dallas Stars facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And one of the great stories about Jason Robertson is, you know, he played for the Kingston Frontenacs in the OHL and his final season, he was traded

to the Niagara Ice Dogs. And when he went back to Kingston, you know how they do the big welcome back video? Because he was a fantastic player for the Kingston Frontenacs. They do the tribute video. The problem when they did the tribute video for Jason Robertson,

he had just taken a minor penalty. So he was in the penalty box. Have you ever seen a player waving to the crowd from the penalty box as the welcome back video was playing? That was Jason Robertson on his return to kingston i know his brother nick was the big story on thursday and the joke that we had in our group chat was boy we interviewed the wrong robertson but i really enjoyed this talk with jason before we uh begin the interview i wanted to thank joe calvillo of the dallas stars They're in the media relations department.

So just to explain what was going on here, we interviewed Robertson at the team hotel and they didn't have any, normally we would do it in a banquet room or something like that, a boardroom or a meeting room or whatever. And they didn't have one available. They were all booked up. So we needed a hotel room to do it in. They get there after a long ride in Toronto traffic from the airport,

and he can't even unpack in his room because we're sitting in it. So I just wanted to say thank you very much to Joe for letting us do that because I'm sure the last thing he wanted to do was just sit there waiting for us to finish interviewing Jason Roberts. He had dinner reservations at one of the more renowned oyster bars in Toronto. And I'm watching Joe while we're doing the interview and he's very gracious and a real gentleman and a wonderful guy. But I can kind of tell like, okay, we're really going on here.

And Joe's probably got his tongue hanging out. Now we're getting a little bit deeper into the evening. We might want to wrap up the interview with Jason and let, uh, let Joe get his, uh, dinner. Nonetheless,

uh, hope you enjoy listening to this interview with Jason Robertson as much as we enjoyed talking to this outstanding hockey player. So here he is, Jason Robertson, the Dallas stars on 32 thoughts, the podcast. First of all, Jason, thanks so much for joining us. I'm curious what it's like to be you right now. New contract, new coach, you're playing great. How's life for Jason Robertson right now, new contract, new coach. You're playing great.

How's life for Jason Robertson right now? Well, it's a bit of a whirlwind. I've only been with the team for like two weeks now. So everything kind of happened real quick. Now you're playing games and not just that. I'm in Toronto. It's kind of weird. It's my first NHL game about almost three years ago, two and a half years ago so that's kind of exciting and you know it's our only second road

game and you know we're already in Toronto and I know a lot of people around here and they're going to come see it so it's a little bit different and it's exciting right now you know especially we've won the past three games right we started off strong so it's definitely a lot of positives so it's it's great to start the season on a good note. You mentioned as we record this, you've only played the three games, the two games against Nashville, and then the game Monday against Winnipeg. But you guys look really good. And it looks like, I don't want to say you're playing looser,

but it looks like you're playing more free, up-tempo. I'm just trying to figure out a way to describe how you're playing under Peter DeBoer versus Rick Bonus. It looks like a way to play that's more fun for players. Is that accurate? I'm not going to lie. I had a lot of fun playing last year. 41 goals. You did

alright. No, I know. Jeff is trying to go with the let's question to Robertson Carves Bonus. No, I would never do that. I'm not going for that. I had a lot of fun last year. You know, I think we gained that respect from our coach last year.

Our line, you know, kind of not really, you know, separate ourselves from doing what the other lines are doing, but we kind of, you know, branched out and did some more creative things. But as far as this year, I think when Pete came in and what he wanted to do was just create a faster team. And I'm not saying, you know, speed,

like being faster up the ice or quicker in terms of physical strengths, but as a team just thinking faster, you know, players get into spots as quick as they can and move the puck up quickly. And so far, you know, we've got a lot more transition and, you know, guys are enjoying it. Every coach has rules. One of the things Ovechkin talked about when Boudreaux was there was it became pretty clear that there were, Boudreaux had some different rules offensively

for Ovechkin and his line mates than anyone else. Did Bownes at all last year say, okay, your line, you can do some things differently because you're going well? I don't recall a moment when Bones came up and told us that. It was kind of something that we knew last year we need to win. We need to create offense. We were struggling offensively as a team. As a line, we just try to be creative. you don't really see often one line staying together every game the whole season. So, I mean, we played together for 70, I played 74 and Root might've missed the game. So 72 games of the year, that's from what I've heard from players,

it doesn't happen often. Right. So it's kind of an unheard of. So, you know, we just had that sort of chemistry and Bowens just, you know, kind of obviously saw the results, so he wasn't going to get in the way. And, but, you know, we just had that sort of chemistry and Bowens just, you know, kind of obviously saw the results. So he wasn't going to get in the way. And, but, you know, that's just having the chemistry with the certain, you know, line mates and building that. And it worked well for us. Now, so this year, just in terms of DeBoer and rules that he has, as opposed to the rules that Rick had either on or off the ice, what's different? I think everyone's trying to play the same, play faster.

That's really it. Move the puck up, control the puck at the blue lines. You want to be a good forechecking team. I think that's what we always want to be, but if we can make a play on the blue line, I think that's something that's kind of more promoted this year throughout all four lines. You can notice if you look back on

the video these past couple games that more guys are starting to do that and trusting in their skills and I'm sure that this gives them more confidence to go out there and make plays and go play hockey. Why does this line work? I'm always curious because we know you you got you know going back to when we all saw you in junior hockey, a ridiculous shot. The Joe Pavelski story has been well told, maybe the best tipper in the entire NHL. He's got the hand-eye coordination like few others and Rupe Hintz is an emerging star. Why does this line work? well you know there's been asked that question for a while but if from a different perspective you know nobody really thinks about that i would like to say we're one of the better lions at breaking the puck out of the d zone pavs very intelligent you know he gets a puck on the wall he can make a play break out the puck quicker rupe can get a speed up the ice we can get the speed up the ice you know alternatively i like to get break pucks out cleaner instead of just stomping

in and going after and get it. So I think it all starts in the D zone because other than offensive draws and, you know, changing, a lot of it starts in the D zone and building that speed up the ice. So that starts there and Pavs, you know, one of the best that have helped breaking that puck out. And then we get going north and then, you know, the neutral zone, we have three skilled players on the ice just puck out. And then we get going north, and then the neutral zone, we have three skilled players on the ice just making plays. And like I said, 70-plus games last year. Just the chemistry and just knowing where everyone's going to be,

it's hard to defend that. And holding on to it at the blue line more? Yeah. Like on the entry? Yeah, no, I think we did that a good amount last year as a line. But like I said, our team's really starting to put an emphasis in that. For me, really, I think I can have more ozone entries by myself, really do that. Yeah, you just get more creative off the rush,

create more offense off the rush. All right, Jason, I'm going to allow you to put a player here on the referee's radar. When you've got a head of steam, who is the biggest cheater at holding you up illegally so that you can't get as free as you want to be? Who's the best at it? You know, I don't really think about going up the ice.

If you want to get real specific, I think the biggest one is off draws in the offensive zone. You know, when you win the puck back and then you interfere with the guys so you can't go yeah so casual picks it is casual pick it's you know never gets called it's hard to get called yeah but it's like it's a big pick fabcox red wings were the masters i know exactly what you mean it's that red wings team they were the masters of that you will lose a draw and especially on the power play.

You line up on the wall or inside, and more so on the wall because you're lined up against a big D. What they're running is either strong or low bump where all the guy has to do on the wall is pick him. Just push him, make sure the other D gets the puck and rims it. That's the hardest thing. So who's the guy who does it best on you? I don't know about best. This wasn't last year, but I remember playing Detroit my first year,

COVID year, and I remember Mark Stahl was just – I just couldn't get around him. Him or Chernak. I just couldn't get around him. I was 20. I was 21. I was trying so hard to get – I just couldn't get around him. I was 20. I was 21. I was trying so hard to get. I just couldn't.

It was so big. And was it interference? I don't know. It was interference. Yeah, I will say it is. But it never was called. But that was definitely, you know, when I was my rookie year, I was like, oh, my God. Like, I got to learn how to get around these guys.

And obviously, I mean, now I'm going to my third year. on these guys and obviously i mean now i'm going to my third year uh you learn how to kind of cheat this cheated and you know try to fake inside go around or cheat so hard inside to do that so there's there's there were ways to you know combat it but when i was first you know i didn't know any better just try to put my head down and fight for body position but uh that was definitely kind of an eye-opener, see how hard it is. All right, this has been too serious so far. So here we go.

What is the deal with Jason Robertson and Brussels Sprouts? Oh, jeez. Brussels Sprouts. I hear you have a hatred for Brussels Sprouts. That's Tom Holey right there. I cannot confirm or deny. Yeah, no, that was... Rival now with San Jose.

Yeah, big shot now. No, he doesn't run his football pool anymore. He couldn't. Yeah, it's too big. I don't know if I said last year or it might have been the year before, but we always had the meals after the game at home you know we get it catered and it's all it's in the you know to-go box now and i think it was last

year i think i still did it last year where you know the guys tell me like i'm filling out the forms or whatever and the guys tell me oh you know there's a vegetable and meat and side or starch or whatever and filling out and the guys i see brussels sprouts and i'm like i can't eat brussels sprouts or i don't enjoy it i mean you know the guys you know they fill out and on the brussels sprouts it says like steamed or um whatever their you know special version of the brussels sprouts is are the guys tell me that okay i guess it's good you know i tried it once the special way whatever was tried it once i had it i couldn't eat it problem was i never got it switched so i always got the meal with brussel sprouts every meal and i just wouldn't eat it

so haunting you no that and kale kale brussel sprouts are the biggest really i like kale kale chips no you don't like them this leads into another story it's a funny story actually so Oh, that and kale. Kale mushrooms are the biggest. Really? I like kale. Kale chips. No, you don't like them? This leads into another story. It's a funny story, actually. So when I was 15, I was playing, and you probably, it was GCHL. Don Mills, right? Don Mills, GCHL finals or whatever.

And we were playing the Marlies. And there was like a two-week break. Gosh, I don't know what it's called. Maybe it was like the Canada Olympics for like 15 or 14. They play all the winter games. Winter games. Yes. They do it every four years.

Yes, the winter games. Okay, so that was my year. Okay, I didn't go. I was American. So there was a two-week break in between uh the finals so which is weird but i remember i think it was best of eight because it was we went we went the distance game eight but it was uh game three and i remember i uh broke my like fifth metatarsal or metacarpal whatever one's in your uh pinky and uh then the two-week break came so i ended up doing is going

home seeing everything and you know trying to get ready to play again and i remember seeing the the hand doctor in detroit and the guy's like yeah you know you might have to wear a soft cast cast hard cast just hard shell cast okay and what you got to do is you got to uh try to eat a lot of vitamins i think kale has vitamin uh i don't know whatever vitamins in kale it's got a lot of iron. I think kale has vitamin, I don't know, whatever vitamins in kale. It's got a lot of iron. Yeah, I don't know which one it is. I don't want to say it and be wrong.

So whatever vitamins in kale, and it's like you eat a lot of it. So what I'm doing is like eating a little bit, you know, just putting in a blender, just with water, just drinking kale, kale all the time to try to like speed up the, the recovery or whatever was in my finger. And I couldn't have any more. It was so much kale all the time. It was so bitter. Your body thanked you. Yeah, no, I did. You know, I ended up coming back and

I didn't miss a game. So I came out late, but since then, you know, you know, I go to the restaurants and they have kale Caesar salads and I just can't eat it. It's just so bitter. Just memories of that two-week gap between playing Don Mills and the Marlies? No, that was the worst. So kale is definitely up there. Okay, so while we're going back to that era of Jason Robertson, I was told today that your family had a legendary RV that you would drive around in from tournament to tournament, team to team to team.

What can you tell us about the Robertson Hockey RV? Yeah, well, that was like 12 years ago when we were in LA. One rink in LA. It's kind of like here. The traffic's brutal. It took us an hour to get from the airport to here today. Welcome to Toronto. Yeah. Well, my brother knows. I lived here for a little bit yeah so we had that and commuted

back and forth doing homework and then dress and drive you know getting dressed there because we'd be late you know you'd have to get dressed and uh having dinner you know rotating kids in and out so one kid does practice this is all in the r all in the rv like yeah this is yeah air and out equipment dinners all of it yeah that was uh that was pretty much what we did for practices because you know we'd get there at four o'clock leave at eight or nine and you know i'll tell you what the best thing was when uh and you know it's kind of like it was really nice for my parents is when we'd have like a six or seven a.m game game or practice. I think maybe 8 o'clock games and we'd leave early and they would set up the bed in the RV. So when you're driving, you know, the bed's set up.

Because it's not the bed you think of because the RV was old. It was a couch that folded into bed. So there was no bedroom. It was just that and they'd set that up for us and, you know, get the blankets. We're sleeping, go to the rink at like eight in the morning you know and that was uh and our poor mom and dad are just driving you know we're back there sleeping i'm getting ready for the game but that was definitely a good moment uh but they have a new rv now really tell us about the new rv yeah so they uh less smelly equipment in it, I'm guessing. No equipment in there, obviously. But no, they got rid of the one RV about 12 years ago.

They bought a new one last year. And they've been touring all over the United States. That's awesome. Yeah, so they haven't yet this year because they've had dogs. But when the dogs are ready, they'll be taking their RV from Los Angeles to Dallas you know they'd go from Dallas to Detroit you know they yeah this is a 42 footer so it's a significant upgrade over the small one we had earlier so and that one has a bedroom you know TVs everywhere you know captain's chairs you know that one's like decked out. Yeah. So that's during the COVID year,

they bring it to Florida, Tampa, Dallas. It's a little harder now because they have dogs and everything. But, you know, when, when they were doing that,

I, we took the RV from Dallas to Las Vegas after the season one year. Nice. And then drove that home so that they still have it. And, you know, there are full on, you know, it still have it and you know they're a full on you know it looks like a truck so they're full-on truckers now my dad had that one beard

the long beard so he was yeah so when uh they'd go to like truck stops because you need to fill up you know all the truckers be there see my dad and they see the rv and you know give them the head wave and everything so no they they have the big one now, and they're still traveling. So, no, they enjoy it. Do you ever drive it? No, when we drove it to Las Vegas, it was too big. It's 42 feet long. My dad does the majority.

My mom might do the long stretches, but I wasn't comfortable doing it. Yeah, I don't think I could handle it. It's just too big. There's too many, you know, buttons everywhere and whatnot. So you might need to take a class on that. Seriously.

So I, I mean that, I think that would be really cool to drive. Like my family's talk, I don't know if it would be a 42 footer, but my family's talked about doing that just across Canada. And I, I'm really excited to do it. I don't know if a 42 footers in my future, but I really want to try something like that.

Yeah. Well, I don't think they can do it. They can't come to Canada. It's, it's too cold here into the snow. They couldn't deal with the snow, but no,

they've driven from Florida, Los Angeles, driven for Los Angeles to Detroit, took them five days. So they, they put a lot of miles on that RV, and they enjoy it. So they kind of find something they enjoy together. My mom and dad just drive with their dogs, and they'll pull aside for the night,

put the TV up, watch our games. They got the satellite going, the streaming, everything, and watch the games, enjoy it, get up, and keep moving. Did they – I'm curious here whether it was you in Kingston, I guess you finished in Niagara, or Nick in Peterborough. They follow you around junior hockey cities too? Yeah, I think my dad made it to every junior rink except like three or four. So he's been around.

I mean, Michigan's easy because we live in Detroit. Never went out to Ottawa. It's too far k-town not that far from kingston though no but it's two hours the other way like farther so it's like you go there for one game as opposed to you know you go to hamilton you know it's right around here so but you know they watched us playing because i was kingston nick was in peterborough and we do back-to-back home and homes yep so they got to do that and then you know choose whoever the third game is because normally it's a three and three whichever kid's hot yeah well no then they'd come to watch me right so no but um you know they follow they follow us a lot in junior it's a lot easier than now because uh you gotta fly from country to country now. Yep. If the Robertsons are at home and there's a Dallas game on

and there's a Toronto game on and Nick is up, which game gets preference on television? Well, no, we have one big TV in Los Angeles and my mom and dad bought a small TV. And I think now because when Nick plays, I think he gets the bigger TV because it starts earlier, right? Because he's on the East Coast. So I think that's what happened.

But, I mean, if they start at the same time, I think my dad would put me up there because, I mean. You should see the smile on your face right now. No, I mean, it's awesome. You know, I don't want to say it, but, you know, you're going to see more minutes, right? No, I mean, it's just not by much, but, I mean, you know, and hopefully Nick gets to that point where it's a lot harder,

but, you know, and he probably will. But for right now, it's probably that. Let me pick up on that. I would imagine that your parents would have thought about this. I wonder if you would as well. I mean, you're both playing in the NHL at the same time. The idea of you guys one day playing together, like everyone's got, you know, every player's got,

okay, I want to check this box, things that I've done, the first goal, the first game, the first, like, whatever. And you get a list of things you want to check this box, things that I've done, the first goal, the first game, the first whatever. You get a list of things you want to accomplish. At what point does playing with my brother in the NHL sort of fit on your hierarchy of things that I want to do? It's actually never really come about. You never thought about it? No, not really.

It's a business. Everything has to align right. Most players don't really get to choose where they want to play and when they're young especially yeah and um it's definitely when i was a junior i thought oh because he got drafts he could get drafted to kingston and i never really thought about it so you'd rather play against them than with them you know with would be cool too but it's just you never think about it being a possibility you don't really see that many brothers in nhl you know playing together the only one i could think of the top of my head was the deans and they got drafted one two or two one two uh two three two three yeah two three that's what i meant um so it doesn't

happen often yep uh but you know if we did i think that'd be pretty neat you know i'd just be feeding him and you know. No, no, no. He's fine with you. I don't know. He's got a rocket. He can't shoot. He's got a rocket. I think he has a harder shot.

He might, yeah. What's with the Robertson boys and the shot? Yeah, I don't know. I think all the reps growing up, all the shooting. Yeah, all the shooting in our house, in our basement. We set up a tarp in the basement. shooting in our house in our basement we set up a tarp in the in the basement and when we bought the house it was a room that the previous owner would put his own like car like store car in there so it was like uh not cement floor but a hard i don't even know what it was but it was a hard floor

and you just you could shoot puck straight off of that and uh drywall and you know some glass facing into it so you could look into it and yeah i remember ripping up all the drywall you know just doing stupid stuff putting holes in the wall golf balls lacrosse ball everything into there and all those reps really so you would shoot golf balls too when we used to play floorball we'd have a net when we were stick handling you know we'd screw around and with the golf ball and we you know we were kids we'd shoot shoot at the net and the golf ball is too small for the net so it'll go right through it and then it'd hit the drywall and create holes so no we weren't shooting golf balls but you know you're screwing around you know doing peaks and

stuff and that'd go right through the netting and right in the drywall and you know my mom and dad weren't happy but it was already it was it's too late it's already too late so um were you kids that would also do like the the jogger wrist curls with the the stick and the weight on the string to strengthen the the wrists no i never really did that i think more so hockey stick handling you're sticking for a long time one-handed stuff you know all that stuff and so many reps so many hours that we did growing up let me throw a dart here though because i wonder about that with like the one hand and the one hand shooting do you ever see the alex kovalev video yeah you one of the guys that had that because that was pretty right like when that

came out everyone's like wow this now it's all over the place and instagram and everything but like when that when that dvd came out guys were like whoa this is like the coolest thing i've ever seen one-handed stuff's cool i mean you don't really see it often ever in a game none but then there's kovalev just like snapping in the corner i was actually doing it today me and uh denny dennis uh gary on we're doing that practice today oh yeah we were trying it out it's actually a strange coincidence because we were just doing it today and we never did it before. And he told me,

oh, Robo, can you lift the puck up with one hand? And, you know, we were comparing and he couldn't get it up a couple feet. Okay, but you could do it? Maybe three feet. That's not bad. No, it's definitely hard. You know, you need that wrist strength

and pretty impressive, you know. So I wanted to ask you, Jason, just, you know, what you went through in the off season working on a new contract. And I remember one player telling me, he said, he was about the same age you were, you're 23 now. And he just said, you prepare your whole life to play hockey and the business part comes in. He says, you don't realize everything that you go through. is you don't realize everything that you go through. Until you go through it, you don't understand what it's like to be discussed on social media,

what it's like to want to play, but know you have to do the business side, how much advice you get from all sorts of different people. What was the hardest thing for you of the last few weeks and months? I'd say, I wouldn't say waiting, but just getting to the point where, you know, like it could bleed in a season, really.

You know, it could get long enough. You don't want to miss games. Yeah. Get behind the eight ball here. If you don't, if you miss games, it's going to be tough, you know, to come back in. I know a guy who one of the guys who did it last year you know signed at the beginning of the year and then had

to miss you know a week or whatever to start playing and then then it starts you know could tumble into the season you know but you know at the end of the day you had to understand that that's a possibility and you know when I'm playing now it's like I wanted to be here I don't even know what I was thinking but you know at the time it's like it I wanted to be here. I don't even know what I was thinking, but you know, at the time it's like, so it is a business and I had a lot of help going into it. So a lot of people helped me along the way. What was some of the best advice you got and from who? Yeah. Well, no, Pat told me.

Pat Bersan. Yeah. Pat told me, you know, Jay, this could be, you know, a thing that goes into camp. He's had some clients who's had that yeah you know but he told me this in like may so you were like no way yeah well at the time it's like yeah but i don't think like we're talking this is may that's like three months ahead right you're like thinking probably three months but it did so but told me to stay ready i skated all summer with two other players my brother being one of them, and a guy, Jalen Chatfield, he's on the Carolina right now. Yeah, Jalen Chatfield.

So we were the only two skating. We had two goalies, a couple college goalies. The goalies left early for college, and then Chatty left maybe the first week of September, and then Nick left the second week of September. and then nick left like the second week of september that's when it's like okay you know by myself now like you know what am i gonna do you know how am i gonna stay ready uh it's hard to do drills you can't you can't emulate you know game drills by yourself you can barely do it with three guys you know uh once uh i got the

opportunity to skate with the program that kind of you know gave me a little bit of okay you know i gotta get back into battling drills you know haven't been in d zone in five and three months right you know you're serious you don't train to be in the d zone right that's right most guys train skill stuff and you know shooting and making plays but you don't train you know especially as a four a winger you know you don't train you know battling drills by yourself you need other guys you need other people to be out there with you. So that was definitely the hardest training by myself, but, you know, I had my skills coach still with me and, you know, still doing all the work and I appreciate it. You know,

Tommy Nino did all the things with me. You know, we still showed up at the rink every day, you know, try to get some all over ice and so it was definitely, definitely good. But, you know, that was, that was definitely hard being by myself by myself did you did you ever have a point where you said let's end this and someone said to you jason you cannot do that like because that i had one player who told me he once told his agent i can't do this anymore like just get me in there and the agent said trust me like did that ever happen no not really um my dad was a big influence yes i understand your dad yeah so he uh he's a lawyer right yeah he's an attorney

he does a lot of different things um it's kind of in his business he does a lot of work for clients who he's worked with agents before he's worked with owners of movies and stuff. He's like, you know, so he's done it before and he knows how this stuff works. You know, it's just hockey, but, you know, it's a business at the end. Yes. So it's similar. But he always told me, you know, he told me

stay patient, always stay consistent in what you want, you know, at the end of the day. With a week left, you know, we thought it was the best thing, best case scenario to get it done and make the season opening game. So where will you have to buy dinner now on the road? I'm sure Ben and Sagan and Pavelski have told you your celebratory dinner will be here.

Where is it? Well, it's kind of weird because I'm not the only restricted free agent on our team who signed this year. That's right, Jake, yes. You know, I was thinking we'll That's right, Jake. I was thinking we'll see what Jake does first. He was there first. We'll see what he does. I'm not sure,

but I'll definitely take out the crew from last year to dinner maybe in Eastside Mario's or Swiss Chalet. I don't know. We'll see. We're in Canada. I'm curious as well like I would imagine some of the older players whether it's Ben or Suter would have sort of called you

during this and said like you know where are you at are we close like we got a real good team here like what are those conversations like with some of the veterans on the team i think all of them called me or texted gave me a text um you know they understood the situation you know jamie ben missed five games this season nine years eight nine years ago so he he had a similar situation except it went further in so but they definitely you know they call me and you don't want to know how it's going and But they're team players. They're veterans. They're kind of like team player first. Take care of yourself.

Make sure you get what you deserve. So they're just great people. They understand it's a business for both sides. But they definitely wanted what's best for me. And then for the team, obviously, they knew it was going to get done. What was the moment where, and maybe it was Pat Breesong, maybe it was your dad, you heard, it's done? It was kind of, it happened really fast.

They were playing in Colorado that night. It was probably, you know, 11 o'clock at night our time we were we were in detroit and they were in uh colorado so it was two hours you know in front of us so it was only nine and you know it's 11 o'clock and you know they finally settled on we finally settled on something and they're like you know we're thinking it's 11 o'clock our time like okay you know we'll get all the stuff done tomorrow but they're no, we want to get this done now. We're really anxious. We really want to get this done.

And then my dad and I end up staying up for the next hour or two hours, finally finalizing everything. And once it was done, it was also one. So it was hard to get really energetic. I still had to get up and skate the next day. But it was definitely a relief and happy to be back. So Austin Matthews scored 60 last year, 60 plus. And Morgan Riley tells Colby Armstrong he can score 70.

And Matthews like rolls his eyes at just the idea. You scored 40. Do you say, now I'm going to get to 50? No, I'm just get to 50 you know i'm just i don't know i all i want to do is bury more chances uh just score more goals um i think create more chances too that's what i want to do uh you create more scoring chances it's obviously gonna have a better you know chance scoring goals you know maybe get a couple empty netters no i don't know it's something that i'm not really practice that in the off season by the way working on those empty netters you know

it's something you do have to practice because i mean if i could get another story where midway of the year joe profelski is bearing him from the blue line and i asked pad like you practice this like is it a dead center and pressure all around you but no in terms of scoring you know 50 it's not really one of the things i'm looking forward to you know i already had uh had a good year last year i'm not in a contract year anymore so i mean what i'm looking forward to do is keep performing at the top level continue what uh we're doing right now, help the team win offensively. And I think we're going to all take a big stride in a lot of good ways. So it's very exciting if you're a Dallas Stars fan and a player.

And just a final one for me. You said last year when we interviewed you that Ben Bishop was the worst fantasy football GM in the Dallas Stars. Now that he is a Buffalo Sabre, who is the worst fantasy football GM in the Dallas Stars? Yeah, so I'm not in the group this year, but I have heard some rumors from the league. I heard that Jake Ottinger has everyone available for trade. I think he's on the bottom, willing to blow his team up. Goalies, man.

Jake's one of the guys who, when the team's really bad, he's like, okay, I'll give my player A for $100 or something. He'll start selling his players. So I think he's struggling right now. But it's a long season. We'll see what happens. I think he was last last year. So he's last last year and he's struggling right now, but it's a long season. We'll see what happens. I think he was last last year. So he's last last year and he's last this year again?

That's almost impossible because you get a chance at the best players, right? No, I mean, it's just consistent. Maybe some people aren't built for fantasy football, and that's okay. You can be a good golfer. You could be one of the best goalies in the NHL, but when it comes to fantasy football and managing a team, it's, you can be a good golfer. He could be one of the best goalies in NHL, but when it comes to fantasy football, I'm managing a team. It's just not his thing. And I sit behind him on the card table,

on the card table on the plane. So I get a good view of it. I could tell you he plays very inconsistent. You know, I sometimes try to help him on the plane. I give him some pointers, but really just watching out of pure entertainment to see what he does. You know, like I have to say this, like I

play a lot of cards with buddies and my big fault as a card player is that I don't want to fold. Like when I play, I want to play and it's cost me before. Cause I just, I like to chase, but I have one friend and he's a kind of a wild player and there's a guy who sits next to him and i

always know when it's a disaster because the guy sitting next to him is like looking on his face like what is this guy doing so do you think any dallas stars players are taking ottinger's money because they see the look on your face and say he's got a terrible hand and robertson can't believe it no i mean i respect the game too much to do that. I couldn't do that. Sometimes if they didn't look at me and throw a curve ball, but I don't think, I don't think they really look at me cause they know,

you know, who knows, you know, Jake's inconsistent. Will he listen to me or not? So, but I wouldn't say he's bad. He's just inconsistent.

So, but I mean, I like how you tried to give him a soft landing no i really i really admire that no no i'm serious he's just he's a good player sometimes so you don't know what he's doing but uh tell you what it's it's got it's a long hockey season a lot of hours on the plane dallas especially it's kind of kind of kind of far from some places but uh you know we'll see what happens we'll see if he improves. This has been great.

Thanks for spending a lot of time with us today. We really appreciate it. Good luck this season. Yeah, thank you. Go 50. Awesome. Thank you. We really hope you enjoyed that interview with Jason Robertson,

and he was really gracious with his time. The team had just landed, Elliot, to your point earlier. The team had just arrived at the hotel, and the first thing that Robertson did was sit down with two doofuses to go through some hockey questions. So thank you, Jason, for making yourself available. Good luck to you this season, and good luck to the Dallas Stars. Taking us out is a four-piece band from Dublin. Gilliband just dropped their fourth full-length record and it's a goodie from most normal here's

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