32 Thoughts: The Podcast - From Kempe to Chaos

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman open with Adrian Kempe’s extension talks before shifting to the growing conversation around Tage Thompson and why Buffalo has no interest in moving him (7:37). The guys look at a tough week of injuries across the league, including Sam Honzek and Jack Hughes’ freak incident (11:04). They discuss the NHL and NHLPA’s upcoming visit to Milan to monitor Olympic rink construction (20:49). They explore whether Andrew Brunette is feeling pressure in Nashville (26:29), Toronto’s five-game slide and how different the Blackhawks and Connor Bedard look under Jeff Blashill (30:23), and Hockey Canada’s hesitation about taking Schaefer, Bedard, and Celebrini to Milan (38:47). The Leafs’ search for roster-for-roster trades comes up (46:45), as does Vancouver winning the David Kämpf sweepstakes while Montreal hunts for a stop-gap centre (56:31). Elliotte also breaks down Mark Scheifele’s misconduct after a hot mic caught his comments (1:04:41), plus the chaos between the Rangers and Red Wings following an empty-net goal after time expired (1:08:05). The Final Thought spotlights the Dallas Stars’ Hall of Fame Weekend (1:13:25).Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (1:33:14).Today we highlight Vancouver-based electronic-indie duo Carbon Mass and their single Impulse. Check them out here.Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here.Donate to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation here.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

Sorry, Elliot, you pose no threat to them, and kudos to whoever told you that and is laughing hysterically as you go around your yard every night to do your business. See if that can help. Excuse me, Mr. Friedman. We've been noticing you've ordered a lot of your head. Welcome to another edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Kyle Elliott, Dom, back with you on this Monday morning where the country of Canada has a hint of green across it. Congratulations to the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, 112. Great Cup champions, great game, great win over the Montreal Alouettes.

Elliot, if you have a little bit of green in you right now coming to us from Dallas. You're down there for the Stars Hall of Fame event. We'll get to that. Your experience down there a little bit later. And Adrian Kempe swimming in green after the news on Sunday, you were all over it. An eight-year deal. He remains in Los Angeles. The UFA class of 2026 takes another hit.

didn't have to go as high as 11 per year, got it done at 10.625. How did these two sides come together after for a long time, as you have been talking about, Elliot, they were far apart. Swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck. Yes, right into the head first into the coins. It wasn't five minutes after this got out that I got my first. text saying you owe me a steak dinner remember someone said would not be 11 that L.A. would hold the line and they would find a way to get it done under 11. And I think one of the ways about that, I think there were two ways about that. Number one, I think they gave him some

structure. And number two, I think they knew that he wanted to be there and L.A. didn't want to go to 11. So one of the things we talked about was that it was believed he wanted to stay and the Kings wanted to keep him. So this was not a surprise. I think most people believe that sooner or later that Kambay was going to sign in L.A. and he was going to stay there. I didn't know that it would be this quick.

Ken Holland and the Kings were here last week. They met face to face with J.P. Barry. the agent. And I just heard there was a big effort to close it right now. And I don't know that everyone expected it to happen right now, but it did. And it's a big win for L.A. It's a big win for Campi. You know, it's a ton of money. So it's a big win for Campi, but the kings get them signed. They had to get them signed. I just think with the shrinking market and Kopitar leaving and the importance of campaign to the Kings and the fact they're going really well right now, they're really on a nice little streak, it was important for the Kings to eventually get this

done and they did. If you would have asked me in the last few weeks, would it be 10.625? I think there was a lot of time where I felt it would be higher. But as I mentioned to you, I had one guy who was willing to bet with me and a couple others that came out and said, the kings will hold firm, they'll get it done under 11, and those people were right. But the end of the day, the bottom line, young Bukascus, is that most people, including myself, believed that Campi wanted to be in L.A., the kings wanted to get it done, and he would be a long-term king. And that is exactly where we are. What was it like?

Because you went down when they came through Toronto. You went down to the skate that morning. What was it like being around that group? As you say, they're going really good right now. It's been a great road trip for them. Now they get this bit of business done.

I know they had a little bit of troubles at home to start the season, but the Kings all of a sudden look to be headed with some momentum behind them here now as we get into the thickness of the month of November. you know, Kyle, this thing goes up and down, right? You go through your good points, you go through

your bad points. The key thing is, like, how do you manage it? Are you even killed? Do you limit your streaks? You know, we look at Anaheim right now. Anaheim was a team that we were all talking about a couple days ago, a couple weeks ago, and now all of a sudden they've lost three in a row. So, you're wondering, does this have staying power or what's going to happen here? I think that's what this whole league is about can you ride the wave can you limit your i mean obviously you want your winning streaks to go as long as they can but can you limit your losing streaks la started the season very poorly all of a sudden they're in a really good place sooner or later they're going to have a dip they're going to be in a bad spot the bottom line is can you limit it

They've got some real veterans there. You know, Doughty got hurt, Saturday night in Ottawa. You know, the one thing is, and we'll see what they say before they play Monday in Washington, there seems to be a feeling, Kyle, that's not a disaster. We'll see what they say. It might be a few weeks, but he's going to be okay. And I think that's the thing. Can you ride the wave?

You look at L.A., they've got Doughty. Doughty's played 15 years. He's seen everything. Ups, downs, relaxed. Copa Tart, he's played even longer than Doughty. This is his last year. His family comes to Montreal. He's taking all these sticks on the road trip to give away his gifts.

But he hasn't changed at all. Like one of the players there says he's still a robot. He's seen everything. I think that's the thing with L.A. is that, you know, they've got Edmondson, you know, they got C.C., they got Duman. People who are ripping the C.C. Dumlin signings. Things are stabilized. They got Kemper, who's won a Stanley Cup.

I think L.A. has got a bunch of guys who've just seen everything. They know the ups. They know the downs. We'll see where it goes. But they're calm. I really do believe that one of the most important things in the NHL is calm. It's 82 games, soon to be 84. You're going to have five game winning streaks.

You're going to have five game losing streaks. Can you stay on an even keel? And one of the things that L.A. showed early on when it wasn't very good is that they can stay on an even keel. But getting Kempi done, that's a big deal. And, you know, I'll say something else, too. Tuck Tuck's got to be looking at that campy deal and saying that's about

my number. We'll see where Buffalo goes from here. Can I say something else about Buffalo while we're here? Of course you can. There's been a lot of talk about Tage Thompson. I look at it this way. We talked about this a bit

in the last pod. The Buffalo Sabres do not want to trade Tage Thompson. Zero. Zero. Berkeley wants to trade you

more than Buffalo wants to trade Tage Thompson. I believe that. And I know Berkeley loves his dad. I don't joke about that. I know Berkeley loves his dad. So that's how little Buffalo wants to trade Tage Thompson.

Now, if at some point, Tage Thompson wants to force the issue, at some point, and that's not now, it's different, Kyle. But the bottom line is they don't want to do this. And I watched Tage Thompson the other night on Saturday night. He scored one goal that only primes the Dano Chara could stop. And he scored another goal where he blasted Alex Dobrinket into the stratosphere, right? Mm-hmm.

And I just think that when you have great players, you keep them. Like you force, if they want to force the issue, you say, okay, you force the issue. Like, we want to know, we want everyone to know that we did this because the player wanted it. And sometimes it gets to that point. But if I'm the Sabres or I'm anybody else, it's all, I'm just looking at it and saying, and I say this with L.A. too. Hey, he's a top player.

He's our guy. We're not going anywhere with him. If he leaves, it's not going to be because we want him to leave. And that's why I'm not surprised at all that Kempe got done. And as we've talked about, there is really no dipping your toe in the water for those that are in that want to be considered for the Olympic conversation. And though it hasn't gone great at times for Buffalo, I wouldn't say Tage Thompson is one of those players that has failed to immerse themselves into the thick of it and the best performance yet coming on Saturday and that comeback win over Detroit. This weekend, though, Elliot, I mean, you want to talk about war of attrition and the amount of injuries that popped up. I mean, a ton of them from shot blocks, right?

Like you mentioned Doughty, the brutal one with Charlie McAvoy in Montreal. Kirby Doc in the same game. I was in Chicago. Kesselring, kind of a frequent one. Oh, you're right. Filino in Chicago. You know, Matt Murray leaves the game in Seattle. Thomas Harley's week to week.

Sam Hansick's week to week. Connor Garland didn't finish to the game Sunday in Tampa. Big win for that is the biggest fluke injury of all time, though, Hansick. Yes. Well, I was going to say either that or it was leading me to the injury that's been most discussed the last few days and that being Jack Hughes. We'll get to that one in a sec. I'm talking about Hansick on the ice. Yes.

That is a total. Now, it's clear he thinks that Backland's going to take another route. but I couldn't believe that and when Hansick it's announced he's going to be out week to week I felt brutal for that guy just brutal so Hughes so I got a call on Friday morning and people were someone said to me you better looking at Jack Hughes I'm like what am I looking at here and you know they said you better look into what happened at Jack Hughes so I started asking around eventually it starts coming to me right and you know with this story and we know it's a non-hockey injury it was at a team dinner and you know I think the biggest

challenge with that story and this is one that took me a few hours to sort out is you can't guess on this story now you can't guess on any story but you really can't guess on this story because Because if you're writing a story where a guy gets hurt at a team dinner, anything you write is going to lead to guessing. So you have to try to know as much as you possibly can. And one of the things people wonder is, is this something nefarious? like Brian Leach a billion years ago he missed time because of an event after a team party and the Rangers announced that he slipped on ice and that wasn't the social media era I think there was a lot of speculation but it's different when it's the social media era

now as opposed to then and the thing I can say about this Jack huge injury was the funniest line someone told me is they were like from what I understand about you and they're talking about me not you Kyle but me they go from what I understand about you and when you go out with Baxa and Amber and they mention you too Kyle this is the kind of thing that could happen to you Elliot and I think it was their way of saying that this wasn't anything nefarious it wasn't anything where there was ill will it was one of those there by the grace of god go i things where you go out as a group and something happens and it is i think it's the word like i don't know some people have used freak i think i've used fluke like it's just one of those things that

kind of is fluky because initially when i was going through this story one of the things i was wondering about was was did something bad happen um you know was there anything here that you have to look forward to and say this is you know years ago paul quontrol the blue j pitcher got injured in the offseason and it turned out he was injured in a snowmobiling accident and you know it became a thing because it was something he wasn't supposed to be doing so i think that's one of the things I always look at is did something happen here that wasn't supposed to happen in a bad way? And I think the cases here is there's something that wasn't supposed to happen because he got hurt, but I don't think it was anything negative.

I don't think it was anything nefarious. I just think it was a player at a team rookie dinner and a pretty innocent thing went sideways. and he fell or he slipped and he got cut and I'll tell you this Kyle when I first heard about it I was told he was going to be out for a long long time that he was going to miss the Olympics and he might miss the rest of the year now what was announced by the devil's was that that not that was not the case six weeks reevaluation eight weeks timeline but I really do believe that what they found after the surgery was not as bad as they initially thought. And while I think I have an idea of what occurred, I'm not 100% sure, so I'm not going to guess.

And I don't believe, I don't believe that it was anything that people would look at and say, that's bad. It's unfortunate. it nobody wants to see this happen but it wasn't bad in a negative way like honestly it was there by the grace of God go I he's a pro athlete you hate to see it happen you want everyone to be careful but it was not anything that you'd look at it and say this is a bad human or anything like that I mean I totally get it like as you know Elliot you're putting you're were putting your life into your own hands going out to dinner with David, like, well,

Ovechkin, when he was on his run to catch Gretzky, anytime they were on and he scored, you didn't know how he was going to react. He was like punching you. Arms flailing. Yeah, exactly. So I understand the comparison. And I go out with BXA, who's actively trying to sabotage me, right? Yes.

Though I will say, I meant to bring this up last week when Boston was in Toronto last weekend, I got to tell you, you know, we're walking in the dress room, Nikita Zedorov was on his way out, and he gave you a pretty friendly nod, and it all made sense. I thought, no wonder you're so comfortable given BX of the gears, because if anything ever went sideways, a quick phone call, the number 91 in Boston, and you would have been taken care of. Yeah, he could have blasted me into next week. There's no...

Very smart. In all seriousness, with that huge story, I spent hours on that story, and, you know, I think what it is is, and I said this before, and I really mean this, it sounds stupid, but you really want to get it right. And you want to get everything right, but especially a story like that one, because you know you're going to be reporting something that is Jack Hughes got hurt away from the rank, or Jack Hughes got hurt at a team party. And it's going to be a thing.

and people are going to speculate about what exactly happened. And, you know, I don't know a hundred, like I'll tell you that I'll be honest with everybody, as I always try to be, I don't know 100% that happened. But the one thing you can do is ask is, or you can try to filter out here, is there anything bad that happened here? And as far as I can tell you on Sunday night, and I'm in Dallas and we're taping this at 12, 25 a.m., Dallas time on Sunday night like I don't believe there was anything nefarious here I think it was

something that just unfortunately went sideways and happily for Jack Hughes and the devils and team USA I think the hope here is like I double checked what are the Olympic rules and basically you can replace someone right up until before the Olympics like you'll remember the last Last time Canada went in 2014, you'll remember they were making a decision on Jeff Carter right at the absolute last minute and would Carter go as an injury replacement? And you can go late. So if they wanted, Team USA could name Hughes. And we are expecting that Team USA will and Canada will name.

name their team right at July 1st, they could name Hughes, and if Hughes can't go, then you could change him later. But, you know, that's the thing you're going, you're going with is what am I really dealing with in terms of timelines, and what am I really dealing with in terms of what happened? And, you know, it was, it was a long day, you know, you want to be accurate, you want to be fair, you want to deal with the people involved properly. whatever you report, you want to feel that you're dealing with the fans and the audience accurately. And it was, it was a really challenging story because you knew that because it was an off-ice incident, it was something that people were going to be asking a lot of questions

about. No question, no question. Also, you reminded me to 2014, remember Stamcoast, right, had the fractured leg and then not I would say totally last minute but late in the process right when they didn't realize okay he's not going to be ready in time martin st louis ends up being his replacement for sochi and goes over there for Canada instead yeah it's it's a great call and now you know I think too that we're dealing with a situation now the two Sweden games are over so Nashville wins game one Pittsburgh wins game two and we know when we're dealing with a situation now the two Sweden games are over so Nashville wins game one Pittsburgh wins game two and we know now that the NHL and the Players Association are going from Sweden to Milan to check out the rink right like Joe Riki is going to represent the players association it was kind of funny Kyle when the board when the GMs were meeting last week in Toronto I asked if betman and Daly were going and I was told no and I said I actually said it to Daley I said I would be really concerned, more concerned, if you and Bettman were going. And he was kind of insulted a bit.

Like you pointed out that, you know, we're still setting an 18. So one is Derek King, who's not the former player, but he's the senior director of facility operations and hockey operations. And Dean Matsuzaki, who's the executive vice president of NHL events, they're going, along with Joe Riki from the Players Association, to check out the rink. But it was kind of funny because I was like, well, you know, I'd be really concerned if you and the commissioner were going. And he was like, hey, these are still important people.

So it was kind of funny that reaction. But, you know, I asked a couple people, how serious is this? And they said, we'll know this week when these guys visit. And I get the impression, this isn't going to be a thing, and this is all going to get worked out. But Batman is definitely annoyed about all this because the rink in Sochi, they had an under 18th 10 months in advance of the tournament. They're not getting that here. If anything, they'll get a couple games a month before the tournament. So Betman's really annoyed about it.

So that's one thing. And the other thing, too, and I do believe this is a factor. You'll remember John Tavares got hurt in 2014. And Gar Snow was furious about it. Like he was really upset. And he spoke his mind. And, you know, the league kind of pushed back and Snow had to apologize. but there were a lot of people behind the scenes

who really supported Garstow for saying that. They're like, you know, what are we getting out of this? We're putting up our players. What if it's our guy that gets hurt? Garstow had a lot of, maybe people didn't come out and say it, but they supported him privately for kind of ripping the whole Olympic experience. If a guy gets hurt, like the teams, like the Islanders lose out. And I think Batman looks at it,

like, okay, if they don't have this rink down in time and someone gets hurt because it's not a perfect rink, it's going to be a big headache for him to deal with because you know the owner is going to blow up. And the other thing, too, is I ask, they have a backup plan and I was told no, they don't, that they really hadn't thought about it. And maybe if they go to it this week and it's really bad, they might have to start thinking about backup plans. But I believe they're really hopeful that this is all going to work out. There is something to all the Olympics, the facilities are never done

and it becomes like a big scare story and everyone rolls their eyes and it gets done. This is definitely taking longer than the NHL and the Players Association hope. They don't like this. I asked someone who's seen some pictures, I said he wouldn't share the pictures with me yet and I go well how does it look then? And he goes Stonehenge. I just started laughing. He can't be serious. I was, I thought, I said, I don't know if you're lying to me or not. And, but that's really

funny. He said, it's not that bad, but it's not as far along as we would like. Right. Well, when we were in Milan and August interviewing Nico Heeshire, we were reminded and for myself, you learn short train ride between Milan and Switzerland, if it ever got to that point, because you know, Switzerland has more than a handful of hockey rinks. up there if you had to hit the emergency break glass button. I have to say, Kyle, I don't think we're there until after this meeting. I want to see where this meeting goes. Sure.

I don't want to see where it goes. Glad you pointed that out. Also, and you touched on the Global Series over in Stockholm. So I just wanted to say quickly, the Colorado Avalanche lead the league in points, also lead the league, and regulation wins with 12. You hazard a guess who is second? Well, considering you said this, I'm going to go with Pittsburgh. Yeah, they've got 10.

Shout out to Bob Grove, who pointed that out after their win on Sunday. Bob Grove, good guy. Over in Pittsburgh. But, yeah, the Penguins in second, nearing the quarter mark of the season. Anyway, you said that was a big guy, and we'll get to the rest of the first of. of our topics here shortly, but you had said on Friday, this was going to be a big weekend for Nashville, a heck of a fight back and turn around late. The first game on Friday, didn't go so great for them on Sunday, but what did you think watching them overseas?

You know, the thing is about Nashville is one of the things I always worried about, and you know, Andrew Burnett, the coach is under a lot of pressure there. The first thing I always look at, Kyle, is the team playing hard. if they if they weren't playing hard they wouldn't have won game one like i looked last week they played a game on saturday in dallas they lost but they played hard they had a stinker in new york against the rangers on monday night and they come to this game and i thought they played hard like i don't look at this and say this is on the coach okay

I don't look that it's a team that's given up on the coach I think this the new owner of the predators Bill Haslam traveled with them early in the year I've been told that he thinks the NHL is very leaky Welcome to the National Hockey League, Billy.

And I think he's trying to keep his thoughts private. I really believe that he would like to give the predators some time before he makes any decisions. I've heard this about him. He's not rash. He's not looking to jump into anything. He really wants to think and say, I want to make the best long-term, intelligent, thoughtful, information-aided decision about the pruders.

So when I look at situations like this, I look at two things. Number one is the team playing hard. Look, they're flawed, they're not a great team, but I do think they're playing hard. I think if they'd quit, they wouldn't have won that game on Friday. because they had every excuse to lose it late, but they found a way to win it. I think that one of the things I always look at is the fans vote with their wallets, right?

Mm-hmm. And teams get nervous when their fans say, I'm not going or, you know, things get soft, and that's a question that only the predators can answer. But I do think they went into this week. I think it was a big, big week for do we have to make any decisions here? And I still don't have the answer. We'll see what they do when they get back.

But one of the things I always look forward is the team not play hard for the coach. And they lost Sunday and it wasn't pretty, but if they'd quit on Burnett, they wouldn't have won that game Friday. So the answer is, I don't think they've given up on their head coach. It's not pretty, and they may have to make some decisions. And one of those is if they make a change, as the owners tell Barry Trots, you're the guy who has to go coach the team. You're not hiring anyone elsewhere.

You're the guy, but I don't see a team that's quit because if they did, they would have lost Friday, too. they would have gone on two yeah and they did get this split okay you want to talk a little Toronto here yeah let's let's do that I know everybody loves it when we talk about Toronto yeah well now

the losing streak has reached five games so what did you see in Chicago what was you know what you were there you were around them you saw Jeff Blasheel doing the 6-7 Not only that

What are you doing in the morning? So he does his morning media In the hallway outside of the hawks dressing room The Leafs didn't do anything Saturday morning They didn't come to the rink as a group It was a 6 o'clock local start They stayed at the hotel

But anyway But you know there's training staff Equipment guys that are around During his media Dexie Midnight Runners Come on Eileen starts blaring I mean blaring

Great song Great track Great track blaring from the Leaves room to the point where there's no way Blaschel could compete

with the audio volume Right So he Credit to him plays into it and says this reminds me When I was in college I used to jump around

to this song So he's in a good mood pregame Good mood post game With the 6-7 Even brought in the hand gestures, too. I saw that.

Yeah. So he was, uh, what was your line about him? He's de-aging. De-aging. Yes. Yeah. He looks younger. He looks younger now than when he started.

Like, a youthful team that's good, a youthful team that's bad, you look older. Because you're sitting there and you're saying, I don't have a chance here because these guys aren't ready to win. But when you have a youthful team that's starting to figure it out, like the Blackhawks do, like they still have a ways to go, but they're starting to figure it out, it makes you younger. Blasheil looks younger. I watched him do the 6-7, and I looked at him and I said, he looks five years younger, five years younger. Yeah.

Well, last three years down in Florida, right? I think that helped too. That helps too. In the sun all the time. In the sun. Nice and warm always. Salt water. Salt water's good for you.

Exactly. Helps wind the clocks back a little bit. Okay, what I saw. So Jeff Blaschell, by the way, he's younger than me. He's 51 years old. I would say when I watch him in the post game doing this, six, seven, he looks like he's like 46. That's pretty good. We'll give him minus five.

Minus five. Nice. Okay. What did I see this weekend? Well, first of all, didn't realize until I got there. But it was like a good sports weekend in Chicago, all right? Now, my fault, I'm not always up on the college football schedule, but we get the hotel and you're seeing a bunch of Michigan Blue walking around.

I'm like, okay, that's interesting. Some J.J. McCarthy jerseys, of course, you love now, Minnesota Viking. Yeah, tough loss. Tough loss. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really heartbreaking. So I'm going, all right. I could tell your crush Packers fan, like they're really cool.

crushed. Shut up. Yeah. Okay. So not only that, they see a bunch of Northwestern. And we realized, so Saturday afternoon, like 11 o'clock local, they played at Wrigley Field. And it was like Fox's main college football game on Saturday. Their A crew was there. It was a big deal. And so the Northwestern team actually stayed at our hotel. So like coming back from dinner, The elevators were just jammed full of players coming up and down, in and out of meetings, getting meals before bed and all that, seeing family, the whole works. It is amazing the operation that, you know, a college football is.

Like just for one team, right? Like all the personnel and then you see the buses out in the morning to get everybody over to the stadium. So anyway, so you're like, okay, that gets your juices flowing. The game itself, let's just say, okay. We talked about Blasher looking younger. We've heard about different attitude around Conan Boudard. It was neat seeing that in person. You talked about in the pregame,

everyone's very tight about how he altered his training with specifics and what he did over the summer. But clearly it has worked. San Jose was in Calgary last week on Thursday. I had a brief conversation with Macklin Celebrina. I just asked, what was it like being around Bader? this last off season, said a lot of the things you would expect, very motivated, everything he did was with a purpose,

re-evaluated certain things about his game, that all checked out. But then he finished by saying he looked like a guy that was enjoying again a lot of what that life entails, right? After coming into the league and just you could feel and see at times the weight of almost, I need to be. be great right away for this franchise you know and when it didn't go so well in year two all that you can only imagine comes with that he's like he looked like a guy that had let a lot of

that stuff go i think was just finding joy and what his process was so i think all of that as important as all the training stuff was that may have been just as important for him to get himself to a point where we're seeing now and and off to a terrific start The Point Street came to an end on Saturday, but he looked very dangerous at times. It wasn't a perfect game for Chicago, but they win it. If I'm putting out a legitimate positive for Toronto here,

like not a manufactured one, before we get to that, before we get to that, what did Cowan say to him? You saw that, they have them jawing each other on the bench? Because Baderd looked legit. Intimately mad. Well, mad, and then there was some laughter, too.

Someone said that there was... But at the beginning, I thought, am I wrong, but at the beginning, did you not think Bedard was annoyed at him? A little bit. Like, I think there was typical back and forth chirping, like nothing out of the ordinary. And then someone told me at one point, I think Cowan said something.

along the lines of, you know, questioning, I'll say questioning Bedard's chances at making Team Canada for the Olympics, which I could, like, that's almost a compliment, like the fact that, you know, he's even, he's even there. Like, I mean, Wayne Gretzky just this week saying, he's looking like a guy who's becoming a serious contender for making it. Like, if that's what I'm being chirped for,

I don't feel so bad about myself. Well, you're ringside reporter, right? Right? at the Olympics this year for CBC. Yeah, you and I are both. And I'm on the panel. Thank you very much. I'm honored to go.

First of all, I'm not, Claire Hannah's on the panel, is on as ringside reporter too, right? Yes. Well, there's no doubt that she's more deserving of being there than you are. Like, no doubt at all, right? I know.

I know. So you should consider yourself very fortunate. Me, I was a shoe in. But. God, how do you live with yourself? I don't. Like, I honestly, I don't. So, like, I'm on the panel with James Duthy, Kevin BX,

Cassie Campbell, Pascall, and Cheryl Pounder. And it is obvious. I am the least important person on this panel by about six miles. So I'm just there to look pretty, which I'm not bad at, I think. Yeah. Anyway, if viewers could see you now. Yeah, luckily they can't. I have to say this.

So we got Celebrini. We got Bidadard. And, you know, Matthew Schaefer, I give this kid a lot of credit. He has forced his way into the conversation. It's incredible. So I don't think Schaefer's going, right? I just don't think he's going. I think if you look at the defense from the four nations,

I think Team Canada is really happy with a lot of those guys that went. I think they're really happy with the obvious ones. And, you know, even though a doubt he got hurt, I don't think this is something that's going to knock them out. Here's the thing I've heard. What did Team Canada prioritize last year, Kyle? A lot of guys with cup rings. Guys who've won.

Guys who've won, right? And I think they're going to prioritize that again. These are going to be high pressure games. Can you command your emotions and control yourself in big games? And you look at the D. a lot of those guys have played a lot of big games. Like I think this, I think Harley's a lock, I think McCar's a lock, I think Morrissey's a lock, I think Paraco's a lock, I think Sanhimes a lock, I think Taves is a lock on defense. Doubtie's hurt, but I still think it's very likely he goes.

Theodore, it's been kind of a weird year, but he's won a Stanley Cup. Yeah, he got hurt there last year, but they took him. I think with a lot of those D, you've got to give a reason to beat those guys out. Now, I don't think that they look at this and say, I think the challenge that's come up is Schaefer has been really good, badard has been really good, and Celebrini has been really good, and credit to all those guys for making this a conversation but all of a sudden

you're looking at all three of those guys and you're saying what's the biggest game they've ever played okay that's what I think they're weighing is Celebrity is a great player Badard's taken a huge step

Schaefer is unreal I believe that Canada's nervous what these three guys is having all three of them in a big game because they haven't played at the senior level games like that. Well, that's just said.

And you know what? People can listen to this and they can say, Elliot, you're a moron. And that's fine. I am a moron. I am freely willing to admit that. But if you were to ask me what Canada's issue is with taking all three of those guys, I would tell you it's that. I would just say for Bedard in particular,

he's played in two World Junior Gold Medal games, both in Canada. Now, I'm not for a second comparing World Junior Gold to Olympic. But you know what, I think that's fair. You know, right? I think that's legit, yeah. Understanding, what's the blowback if Canada loses those games?

You know what, Kyle? I think that's a very, like, I think you make a lot of terrible points. I don't believe that is one of them. I think that's very legit. Part of the challenge is it's not Bedard's fault. Like when you get taken first overall, 99 times out of 100, you get taken to a bad team, right?

So it's not your fault if you don't play a lot of big games at the senior level. He's played big games at the junior level, and so he understands that. but so it's not his fault he doesn't have a lot of resume in the NHL or the four nations or whatever but I do think for team Canada that's a thing that's a thing yeah that's and that's totally justified and the only point I'd make about Schaefer too is that Kevin brought up early in the year the idea of macar insurance that's where I'd at him, potentially.

You mentioned Bouchard with that. I know. He mentioned Bouchard with that. But right now, in that category, Schaefer is my guy, if that's what they would look at. But as you say, I think it's an enormous credit to Schaefer. Yeah.

That he's even made this a conversation. And I would say this too, to Celebrini and Bedard also. I think it's enormous credit to these guys that they've even made it a conversation. Yeah, it's been so fun. So what did you see around the Maple Leafs? Okay.

The legit positive, not a manufactured one, I would say Joseph Wool looked solid. He did. He looked like Joseph Wool at a high level. Three holes, they gave up. I don't pin on him. They need some stability there in the crease. And if that's a sample of what he's going to be now going forward,

that's a good thing. for the Leafs. I got to be honest, Elliot. So you mentioned on Saturday that Kristana, of Austin Matthews were there in Chicago, too. I think all of the injured guys were there. I mean, it's quite clear

that there was a team outing going on after that game. So knowing that, knowing they had a lead after 40 minutes, how do you not get that game over the goal line? and finish with the W as the more

experienced, the older team that one that was a bit of a stunner because it was not like some of the other losses that they've racked up here lately So I got St. Louis on Tuesday night at home it's the resistible force against the movable object, right?

Like two teams that really have a lot going on there so you know what was the most interesting question i got Kyle was they said to me when you talked about how they want to move roster for roster and hockey trade and i said they don't want to move your core guess what people asked me who's the core that's that's that's exactly it like who do you think is the core and i think it's four guys

I think it's Matthews I think it's Nealander I think it's Tavares and I think it's nice and other than that I think they're looking to see what's out there

I don't think they want to move Cowan I know there were a lot of rumors about because remember last year they made two future deals right they did mitten in the first for Carlo and they did Grubonkin in the first for

Lawton. I don't think that that's what they want to do. I think they want to move roster for roster, player for player. And I think the four guys that they're not touching, at least for now, are Matthews, Nealander, Tavares, and Nice. And I think everybody else they will at least consider. So what are they going to do with Nick Robertson? They've hung on to him for all this time. And now, finally, Elliot, I would say he's looking as close to the player that they had hoped he would become at the beginning of all this. I actually think that the, like, I actually think that that one should have happened. If they really wanted to maximize that one, I think it should have happened in the summer.

I don't know. Like, I, I don't know. I could be totally wrong on this. Like, they offered him to Columbus for Chinnikov. Columbus said no. I mean, now you might as well just keep him, right? I guess. But if you're seriously looking at, how can we improve go on roster for roster? Well, you see what the offers are. But I don't know.

I kind of think that the time to deal him was as past. I don't know. I it's it's interesting like someone said to me like this is the thing with me and I'll I'm just going to explain it to the audience someone said to me who on that team is value who's not part of the big core and I think we can all guess the thing is I don't like to guess and it's going to be honest with everyone I don't like to guess because when I guess it becomes a thing sometimes on social and then someone calls me and says you guess this guy well you're wrong or you don't know and I'm like you're right I don't know but I guessed and I don't like to guess because it becomes a thing but I feel so I'm not going to say

specific names because I want to be sure. But aside from those guys at the top, I think they're asking about everybody. What's this player's value? What's this player's value? What can I do with this? So it's like, you know, Kyle, you're there. Like, it's tense around there.

It really is. Like, they feel it. They feel it. Now, I don't believe this. Like, I don't believe that they're looking at making a coaching change. They just hired them last year, and, like, they won the division last year. And they won a playoff round, which hasn't been easy for them. And they probably should have won two.

I don't see it. But there's no question this has gone to another point. And that first round pick, you know, someone said to me, don't underestimate the stress that's around that because top five protected, it's yours. But other than that, it's Boston's. And, you know, someone said to me, what's the point of finishing 18th, right? You lose the pick to Boston. and if you're going to miss the playoffs, you might as well finished for the last.

I'm like, how do you prepare for that? But that's a tough thing to have hang over you. Like, you know, I'll say this about, you know, tree living. Years ago, he made a trade with the Islanders when he was in Calgary where he traded for Hamannick. And that first round pick hung up.

over his head all year because Calgary made the plus I think they finished 18th and eventually it was chalk and the honors got the 13th overall pick but that's that's not a fun thing to have hanging over you it really isn't um so I don't know what's going to go on here um but I've heard they don't want to make futures deals and I consider Cowan even though he's with the team right now a futures deal I heard that's not what they want to do and I'll never say it's never going to happen because I've been around too long to know that those are stupid predictions to make but I heard they don't want to make futures deals they made some last year they won their division they wanted to take a run I don't I don't I don't

don't see that right now. Yeah, San Jose, too, the Stoetslopick, right? That was a season after they had gone to the conference final in 2019, like another of did not think we would be in that situation. So you have five losses in a row now for Toronto. Last time they lost six in a row, Mike Babcock lost his job. It was almost six years to the day back in November. Really?

Yeah, back in November of 2019. I could always be wrong. I just don't, I don't see. that. I don't either. I don't either. And that's sorry, that's not what I was hinting at, but it's just like, it's been a while since they've lost six in a row. Yeah, I, I know what you, man. I just I don't, I don't see that. Also, Elliot, just wanted to quickly shout out. I mentioned great sports weekend in Chicago, wanted to give some love to colleague of ours, David Alter, Leaf fans, of course, know him. He is there every game, at home, on the road. He covers that team.

all the time. David participated on Saturday morning in Chicago his very first high rocks competition. What's that? Those who aren't familiar, it's the big new thing. Everyone's doing high rocks for each. Toronto had a big competition. I want to say it was back in October not too long ago. It is effectively a combination of, in totality, eight kilometers of running and eight different workout stations and you're basically going back and forth running workout running workout uh you can do it as pairs you can also enter as an individual now if i were to do it i'd want to do it as a pair so i'd had someone to kind of you're in the fight with alter went solo which i got big tip of the cap too and then he did that in the morning and was at

United Center to cover off Leifes Hawks later that night. So that a boy alter. Wow. Yeah. David, I am very impressed. That's fantastic. Really good. Yeah, I wanted to shout that out.

I don't think I'd be able to get a bed. I don't think I'd be able to get a bed. Never mind. Never mind go cover a game. That's impressive. By the way, did you know? know that I called Alter because he was near the microphones? Oh, did you?

So I want to talk to all reporters about this. So, at least as you said, didn't have a morning skate. So they made Craig Barubain a couple players, like Nick Waugh was out there, Ekman Larson was out there, available around 5 o'clock local. And there's a whole bunch of microphones around. and you can hear people talking. So I called, I could hear him talking. And I called him and he's like, oh, I'm about to go into the scrum.

And I'm like, yeah, I know that. But can you tell everybody there, including yourself, the mics are live. We can hear what you're saying. I constantly do this if I'm listening to stuff. Because the worst thing is I would hate to hear anybody get in trouble for saying something around a live mic yeah and then i and then i heard you and i texted dave and i said except for kyle it's okay if you say something that gets you fired and he didn't see it for like four hours he texted me four hours later and he goes i didn't see this this is pretty

funny but first of all david that's an incredible accomplishment i'm really glad you shouted that out Kyle but secondly just to all reporters remember when you're in a scrum situation or you're waiting for someone to come to a press conference you never know if those mics are on so because hey hey i've been there you talk about stuff you are interested in stuff you're waiting for someone to talk about and it might not even be like a bad thing it might be just something you're thinking about the team or the person you're about to interview and it goes out there in the world right like kelly and i were talking about this. Kelly said there was one time he was talking with someone like in intermission and he got a DM on social media, I think on Twitter and some guy from Finland was like,

we can hear you. And so I always warn people when you're around a microphone, assume it's going everywhere. Always assume it's on. That's impressive though. Holy cow. All right. So Toronto's seeing what out there. What about Montreal? Like we mentioned Kirby Doc, it's four to six weeks. That's on top of the Alex New Hook injury. Now they need help down the middle, big time. What do they do? I'm thinking that in a previous life, Jeff Gorton pushed some old lady into a puddle of water when she was crossing the street because their luck is terrible. I got robbed by a sweet old lady at a motorized cart So they were in on camp late Late When Newhook went down

They called and said You know can we get involved in this And obviously they didn't get them He was going to Vancouver unless something strange happened But I got to think if you're Montreal You're going through the league

And saying who's a stopgap center we can get with stature i think there are a couple of teams looking at him and saying he can play for us in the short term like one of the teams i heard that was kind of looking at him was carolina but all their guys are coming back right and you know Toronto i think it's kind of an admission that we don't know what the timeline is with tanav so Toronto was willing to make that claim, I look at Montreal, they're going to have dock back, they're going to have new hook back. So I don't know if, like, we already know Montreal was looking at a 2C. Now I'm looking at Montreal. If you're going after camp, you're basically saying,

is there someone who's available on a short-term basis, like a few months, just to plug the hole in so we can get through this. And it seems like it's a tough environment to do right now with how many teams are still in that, well, we still kind of like with where we're at. Let's see where this goes. I think it's changed a bit.

I think it's changed a bit. You know, there's some guys who aren't happy where they are. There's, you know, you look at the waiver wire. Like, Toronto did that. Like, Toronto was going to call Henry Thrunup. I think to play on Saturday. Did you see Thrun in Chicago? I didn't.

I saw Stetcher post game. Somebody told me they saw Thrun in Chicago. I don't know if that's true, but I'd heard that, like, Thron didn't play on Friday night for the Marley's Day. I think they played in Grand Rapids and he didn't play. Okay. And someone told me they thought they saw him in Chicago,

but I heard he was getting called up. He didn't. Once they claimed Stetcher, they didn't do it but now I think with Montreal you're looking at who's a relatively inexpensive center we can aside from the fact they're looking at you know the codry types that all the Crosby rumors forget the big guys for a sec they were looking at comp they're you know you're looking at the waiver wire you're looking to see like maybe who's a four five or a five six or a guy in the HL who's not happy you know that's

what camp was right so you're looking at that who's somebody who's a stopgap that can get you through like all of a sudden Montreal's struggling right they've lost a few games in a row and i don't panic but you know if you're the canadian's you're saying who can we get someone that we can punch in for a few months that can that can help us you know Vancouver has to make a move and I don't know what they're going to do but I know teams when they're in this point they look at it and they say all right if we're going to put someone on the waiver wire who's stealing them and they'd be looking at someone like montreal and saying if we put this guy on the waiver wire are we going to lose them hmm Vancouver's still grinding a freege

we talked about it last week but open it in the third period against Tampa on Sunday. They get Quinn Hughes back, four assists for him. It's not always pretty, but they're hanging around. I saw, I saw Julian Breezebaugh and Bill Zito talking to each other briefly on Tuesday at the GM meetings. And I was disappointed that they weren't clawing each other's eyes out. Set the tone for Saturday. So that game didn't have anything over the line,

but Peros was there. They warned the teams. And, you know, one of the things I heard they told the referees is throw guys out. When they re-evaluated that preseason game, Kyle, I think they kind of told their refs, like, you could have thrown those guys out earlier sooner. And it never got to that, but that was an ugly, ugly game. Like, did you see

they were, the Tampa guys were challenging A.J. Greer to fight. I go into this with no knowledge like I do with the whole podcast. I go into it with no knowledge. But it looked to me like Greer was told, don't do it. Right.

Because he's never otherwise come across as a guy that won't answer to that. Never been shy. And you know, the interesting thing about that was, I heard in the preseason after that game because Tampa called up all of the AHL guys and they did a lot of the fighting that the Florida guys were saying

oh, you've got to call up your HL guys to fight your battles. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, it's, you know, and you all, I'll say this. I wrote it and I would say this about Tampa. I think Tampa did Scott Sabrin a real solid because a four-game suspension to an American Hockey League player can be crippling to their NHL's chances, but Tampa called him up, he served his suspension,

he scored last week in a game for them. That was like a goal scorer's goal. It was a goal's a reminder. Like, I always say this to people. I don't care what your role is in the NHL. If you play one game in the National Hockey League, you're the elite of the elite. Like I always say this about Nick.

Like Nick Kipper has in a lot of fighting in the NHL. He scored 60 goals in the Ontario Hockey League. And I always remember that. Like guys who are really skilled have to do that in the NHL or play a deeper role in the NHL. But you're right. Like I'm glad you mentioned that was a real goal scorer's goal. But, you know, I heard the Florida guys were kind of like,

oh, you've got to call up your HL guys to fight. your battles for you, right? And I thought that was a really hard, nasty, mean game. Unfortunately, a lot of players who are going to be there when it really matters, couldn't go. Injuries for Tampa and injuries for the Panthers. But it was a mean game. And I heard the league told the refs, if guys act up, throw them out.

and seemed like the message got through and a gutsy one there for Tampa considering the circumstances on Saturday on the road and they got smoked so followed up with yeah Vancouver was sitting there waiting for him on Sunday but yes the rivalry down in Florida still alive and well okay a couple other things to get to

before the final thought you want to touch on Mark Schifley and a hot mic and just hot in general with how things ended there, the penalty in overtime, and then the misconduct. It didn't matter in the end for Winnipeg, but couldn't partake in the shootout. Well, first of all, I like the double IHF rule. I don't like a lot of double IHF rules compared to NHL rules. I just don't think they fit.

But I love that rule. So shyfully took a penalty in overtime. And the double IHF rule is if you take a penalty, even if it's a minor, and it's not over by the end of overtime, you can't shoot in a shootout. I think that is a great rule. Awesome. But the NHL has not adopted that. They don't have that rule. So even though Sheifley's penalty was not over, he could have shot in the shootout until he got the misconduct. And the hot mic picked it up and, you know, Shifley doesn't swear. And what did it catch him saying? Flipping and stuff like that. Like I laugh my head off when I hear that stuff. I, uh,

people who talk like that and I respect the fact you don't want to curse I still think it's hilarious like absolutely hilarious so the hot mic caught it the interesting thing was he comes out after the penalty and I remember thinking like he's he's going for a while here and I am not surprised at all those guys gave him the misconduct which took him out of the shootout you can't if you get a misconduct but I thought they were really patient with him and I was like he's not stalked and eventually they they tossed them out of the game um it was it was kind of wild that was a really that was an awful first period that turned into a a really good game and that was a reminder like shifley's not a guy who curses but just remember there's microphones everywhere you got to be

really careful what you say because those mics picked up everything and and lucky for shifley he's not a guy who said anything that you would you would pick up on the microphone you know I think Kempe Kings had to sign him I think they had no choice no choice and ultimately they got it done they sacrificed a bit of structure to get to take away the AAV I watched that hit that Lowry put on Cadrean overtime. Like, what a great play that was. Winnipeg has to sign that guy.

I'm sure that they're probably looking a bit higher than the Jets would like because that's just the way all this stuff goes. They got to sign that guy. Oh, yeah. He's a jet. He's a jet. Like, I just love.

the way he plays. Like that play on Caudray in overtime where he caught him, there's five guys in the league who would make that hit. It was such a great play.

Yeah. So good. Great bit of emotion there. And that kind of then leads into, so Detroit, New York on Sunday, first of all, aesthetically,

one of the more visually pleasing match that we've had this season. Oh, yeah, the uniforms look great. Yes, color on color, the centennial uniforms for Detroit, and those thirds that the Rangers have been wearing this year with the slightly different colored blue.

Anyway, it all look fantastic. And then at the end, Mason Appleton, former Jet, was about, what would you say? A beat and a half after the final horn? Yeah, yeah. Beat and a half. the rangers net was empty as they were trying to tie the game horn goes and then he rips it into the empty cage

and jonathan quick comes off the bench and he's not having it it was awesome like it's a great like the whole idea of the net is sacred i love that elliot what about you so uh this isn't a very 21st century male of me i think the league misses this stuff i loved it i am with you first of all i'm a big jonathan quick geek i'm i'm a i'm a big fan of his the way he prepares he's obviously got huge standards for himself because he's still playing right like he's still a backup at the age of 39 like he's going to be 40 in january oldest goal in the league so if you're doing that you're a special kind of athlete it's not just about your talent it's about your drive it's about your passion it's about all of those things i think the nch l would be better off if you had more guys like that i loved it i loved him charging i loved him charging off the bench.

Like, I don't even care who he plays for. It's got nothing to do with the teams. It's all about, nope, not doing that. I loved it, loved it. If every guy cared about their team as much as Quick did there, the league would be a better place. Because that was the thing, there wasn't much reaction initially, and then he comes out at the bench,

and everyone's like, well, okay, he has a problem with it now now we've got a problem see the only thing i don't like about jonathan quick is he ruined my great story years ago that when the kings came back from three nothing down against san jose i think they lost game two they got pounded and i heard he went by the bench and he said to all the other kings and said my fault my fault i'm terrible my fault and I asked him about that and he said no that's not true I never said that and some of the other kings said oh he's lying to you he said that so I'm annoyed it quick for not telling me the truth apparently

but I freaking love that I would like to think if that was me I would have done that too you should have pride pride in that and it's stupid like it's it's kind of like people can look at that and say it's really stupid like who cares if he shoots a second half against the whistle i don't give like i don't care to me that's like wait a sec the visitor like in college football or NFL the visitor is celebrating at midfield nope not happening on my watch brawl i love that i get it like even i can remember minor hockey days like stuff like that, it would drive you crazy.

And I'm glad that it hasn't gone away in Jonathan Quick. That's really cool. By the way, speaking of goalie, so we talked, I think it would have been last week, right? And all the reaction to the wacko overtime goal between Nashville and Minnesota with the net being off, but goals still counted. So I did get confirmation that in 2024, Elliot, the league actually did introduce pegs that were two inches longer than ones they had been using, I think, since 2002 or 2003. So the one question we got from one of our listeners about would they look at doing longer pegs in the ice. They did go to that just a couple of years ago.

And they have said that they have seen a noted drop-off and how often those nets get knocked off by goalies. Obviously, it's still not perfect. There's got to be the ability for it to give out for safety reasons. reasons. But they did revamp it a couple years back. I think by and large, Elliot, I think just the way that position is played, and goalies push

off from the post more now than they ever have before. And a lot of times that just is the leading cause and sometimes the nature of the beast. That's just the outlook. Yeah. Outlook. Yeah. All right. Wanted to get that in. And now we can get to the final thought.

So yes, Elliot, where you are in Dallas, their Hall of Fame weekend. Joe Newendike, this year's inductee into the player category. Ralph Strangis, long time play-by-play voice there, came over from Minnesota North Stars. He went into the builder category. You've been part of this event for a number of years now. Always seems to be a highlight for you the way you talk about it. How was this year's event? Kyle, it was 27 degrees when I got here today, 27 degrees. Really?

First of all, I don't want to leave. I walked from the hotel of the venue, which is about 35 minutes, and then I walked back at the end of the night, also about 35 minutes. My God. I can understand why people want to play in Dallas. It is freezing in Toronto. It snowed last week. week. I had to shovel or Steph had to shovel like three or four times. I understand like I have a greater understanding of the challenges the Canadian teams face after a Sunday in Dallas where it's

27 degrees and you can walk around for an hour and a half. Anyway, I want to say this. So first of all, I'm a member of the, they asked me a few years ago, would you want to join our nomination committee and vote and I said sure and I enjoy doing it I enjoy talking about these kinds of things first of all I believe every team in the league should be doing this every team so they have an event and people can buy tickets and they have the Shane Smith and the Saints perform a concert if you've watched Yellowstone and I think everybody in the NHL has watched Yellowstone at some point or another great show you know the shame smith and the saints like they're really talented great band um but it's the connection between the team and the city right and so every year they do this

and as you said they elect one builder and they elect one player and it's a it's a really special night because it's emotional and so ral stranges was introduced by dan stuckel who's worked for the for a long time. He briefly went to Calgary, but he's been with the Dallas Stars for a long time, and he got really emotional introducing Ralph Stranges, the long time play-by-play guy, and Strangess was emotional. And then Jamie Langenbrenner introduced Joe Neuendike, and Langenbrenner was emotional, and then Neuendig was emotional. Like, if you're fans of these teams, you could do this in every NHL city and you could knock it out of the park because people get passionate about it, right? And it's meaningful to these people.

Like they get recognized for playing for these teams. And, you know, one of the things I'll say about this was Joe Newendike was the GM of the Dallas stars when they were going through a really tough time. And then Tom Gullardi bought them and he went for a change. He brought in Jim Nill, and it was really hard. Like, New and Dyke was a god in Dallas. He won the Stanley Cup. He won the Kansomite Trophy in 1999. And it was a really difficult divorce.

And I remember that I was one of the people reported that they were going to make the change to Jim Nill. And it was, and New and Dyke heard it on TV before he was officially told. and it was you know like joe new and dyke if you know anything about him like jamie langenbruner called him the best teammate he ever had remember when matt sundeen was in toronto and he was asked the best teammate he ever had he said it was new and dyke like people have enormous respect for new and dyke but it's like one of those things like it's business and dallas had to make a change and it was hard on new and dyke and there were hard feelings for a time. But time heals all wounds.

And, you know, you could really tell it meant a lot that no matter what happened to Joe Newendike as an executive, it didn't matter in the long term because he brought a Stanley Cup to Dallas as a player. And that's all the people care about. And that's all the people remember. They don't care. And a lot of the issues that New Indyke dealt with were, not his fault it was just a team that was going through an ownership change cuts were coming

everywhere until galardi got there and changed things new and dyke had to face a lot of challenges that other gms haven't had to deal with but in the eyes of the stars fans they don't care about any of that stuff it's joe new and dyke want us to stanley cup and that's the way they'll always remember it like you know one of the interesting things is is that new and I talked about how when and all the players go like this is an event the players have to go and each one sits at a table with a with people who've bought a table and the players are phenomenal to deal with you know like I'll tell you this like I saw like the players they all get introduced at the beginning and then they walk to their table and I saw a few of them they would go to their table and they would they wouldn't just sit down they would go and they introduce themselves to everybody at the table, and you could tell the people really, really like that. But New and Ike said that when Calgary won the Stanley Cup in 1989, Lanny McDonald was 36 years old. And he said he looked it up, and he said, and Jamie Ben's nickname is Chaba.

I didn't know this until tonight. but Jamie Ben's nickname is Chaba and he's getting close to come back the stars said they held him out the other day because they didn't think it was right for him to play against Philly but he looks like he's going to play this week potentially since Tuesday

but he said like how old is Jamie Ben and Jamie Ben is about to turn 36 and so he put that in the head of the Dallas players we won he talked about how it was such a great feeling as a young player to help Lanny McDonald win the Stanley Cup and how, you know, as much as he's proud of the Stanley Cup, he won in Dallas, and they love him in Dallas.

He said he also thinks a lot about the cup he won in Calgary because it got Lanny McDonald's cup. And he put that into the heads of the players. And I'll tell you, I met a fan. there who was sitting at the same table as Wyatt Johnston and that fan told me that when

Newndyke was talking about that like Wyatt Johnston was riveted on New and Dyke. So I thought cool that was really interesting. You know, and Newndyke told some great stories. He said that when he first got traded to Dallas

he remembered walking through the parking garage one night and he said some fan came up to him and said you're going to drop your mitts tonight and doing that kind of laughed and he said probably not me but i think hatcher and sherla might but enjoy the game and um and you know he kind of laughed about that and he talked about how like they were so good that when they were a goal ahead in the third period we knew games were over and how to talented their team was. He shouted out Ed Belfour and talked about how in 99, Belfour beat Fuhr, Waugh, and Hachick. And, you know, what a great goalie he was. But the McDonald's story was the one that, you know,

really stood out to me. The other one he told that was really good was he said that he shouted out Yerie Lettnan, who was there. And he said that Ken Hitchcock, when they were going really well, would really grind them. Like when they were going really well, that's when Hitchcock would be tough. And there was one day,

like Lettin would skate with Medano and Hull, and in the playoffs, they were going well, and Hitchcock kicked the three of them off the ice, and said, you guys don't want to practice today. And he said, Medano and Hull would, like,

charge off the ice, they'd go shower, and they'd be like, oh, they have a 1030 tea time somewhere, so they were so excited they got kicked out of practice. practice. Yeah.

And Lennon would sit on the bench and he looked like he shot his dog and he'd apologize to his wife and he'd go to confession and he would really be the conscience of the line while the other two guys like just didn't care at all. And it was just like New Indyx speech was, you know, it was really good. Like you can see why players loved New Endic. Like a lot of players will talk about him. I'll say this one thing about Newendike, too. Here's the thing, a reason I love Joe Newndyke.

And when I was in, like, grade 12, Newndyke's first arrived in the NHL. I think he scored five goals in nine games at the end of the year when he showed up from Colgate. And the next year, we had a hockey pool in our high school, York Mills and Toronto, a guy ran it, and he handed out the sheets to everybody. said the easiest way for me to do this pool is it's $20 and this was

1997 or whatever it was it was $20 and he he was Cornell not Coralgate okay so close enough and uh sorry Cornell Colgate Cornell you sound too much the same it's your fault it's not mine but like so it was the easiest way to do this pool in high school it was $20 And he had lines of four, like you'd put four players and you could pick one. You circled one and he would just add up the stats. But at the end, he had a blank player. Like you could pick one player that wasn't in any of these lines and you could pick

them and put them on your team. And I put Joe Neuendike because you had five goals in like nine games the year before or whatever it was. and people were like Joe Newendike like who's this guy and that year he scored 52 goals now I admit Kyle it was kind of an esoteric pick I was trying to show I was smarter than everybody else and normally that does not work it leads to miserable fail but this was a case where it really did work really well and New and Dyke won me the pool so I was super I've always always always been a huge Newindyke fan for that. And Langenbrenner, who got really emotional introducing him, he told a great story about in 2003 they won game seven against Ottawa on the Eastern Conference final, and Newindyke got hurt in game seven.

And they were really worried they were going to lose without him. And Newindyke went to Langerbrenner and said, look, I know you're going to win this for me and us. without me. And Langenbrenner said he looked around the dressing room and like there's Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermeyer and Patrick Eliasch and all these other guys. And he's like, I was convinced Neuendike was confused and he thought he was talking to somebody else besides me. But he pointed out how New and Dyke always knew what to say at the perfect time. And I just liked that line about Langenbrenner. And I'll say this,

you know, Ralph Strangis, he also gave a great speech. He got really emotional. And the best story he told was that when he got divorced and he had to create a Tinder profile, Tyler Sagan helped him make it. Like he said, that's the first time we ever told that story.

I got to be honest, I'm going, initially I'm going, where is this story? Yeah, he said Tyler Sagan helped him make his Tinder profile. He also was wearing a bolo tie. And Strangis was very well known for wearing his bolo ties. And he auctioned this one off. And I saw him. I was chatting with him.

And he was explaining it to me. He said that this particular one that he wore at this event was. a kangaroo leather strap. It was 10-carat gold. It had emeralds. It was sterling silver. And the guy's name was Clint Orms, a Texas silversmith, who specifically made it for him, especially for this. And it was beautiful.

and he said he was oxing it off. It was a spectacular, spectacular look. So Strangis had a priest come up and do a blessing at the beginning. And it was funny because the priest came up and said, basically say a good sense of humor before he did his blessing, he said, if you're surprised that Ralph asked me to do this, so am I. And then Strand just came up and said,

if you think you've got a hard job, he goes, this is my priest and I'm an atheist. It was just an outstanding line. Like he had a lot of really good lines. He said, look, if you want to create things,

don't listen to anyone, which I think is so true. He talked about how he's from Minnesota. He came with, team to Dallas. He said that they were in Minnesota one minute and the next minute they were in Dallas and we had to sell. And he said, I'm proud to represent my home state whether they like it or not because, you know, some Minnesota fans aren't crazy about Dallas because the team left. But he also shouted out Neil Broughton. Neil Broughton was one of my favorite players growing up

And he said, like, those are the two players in the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame were from Minnesota because Broughton's numbers retired. So they immediately adopted it. Any player out of their number retired was taken under the Dallas Star Hall of Fame. So Broughton's retired. So it went in there too. And he shouted out Broughton. Like the whole night was really something.

And, you know, the last thing that he mentioned was, I know you're not necessarily an 80s wrestling guy but one thing I never knew about Ralph until he mentioned it tonight was he was one of the last voices of the AWA the American Wrestling Association

in the 80s I was a big wrestling guy and like I was a Flair guy Rick Flair was always my guy but I remember at that time it was like Jerry Lawler and it was it was Carrie Von Eric and And, you know, the AWA was big in Winnipeg.

Like, that was their territory. So I always, because it was Winnipeg, I always had like a real, I wasn't the hugest AWA guy, but I respected it because it was Canada. It was Winnipeg. So you got to stand up for it. I never knew that about Ralph until this night. But, you know, at the end of the night, I just have to say this. There were a lot of people there.

There were fans. There were players. There were media. Mostly fans. sponsors. But people were riveted. They were riveted to what Strangess had to say. They were riveted to what New and Dyke had to say. They really appreciated the speeches by Langenbrenner and Dan Stuckel. I can't say this enough. Every team should be doing this. Every team. Because the way Newindyke got up there and spoke and the way Strangis got up there and spoke, like every team's got great players who maybe don't get their number retired, but they should be honored by the team. And every team's got great builders, like, hey, like, when the Dallas Star, or when Dallas Stars got there

from Minnesota, Ralph Strangis, the play-by-play guy, had to sell the team to the fans there. And there's a connection. You know, people want to hear from those guys. Like, you know, Joe Bowen is retiring this year in Toronto. Like, I think there should be, like, something should be named after him. You know, maybe they name the. radio booth after Joe Bowen. I don't know.

I don't have a good answer, but there should be a night where everybody gets to hear from him. And there's a lot of good Toronto Maple Leaf players or great Toronto Maple Leaf players that maybe don't have their numbers retired, but you can still honor them. Like, everybody should be doing this. It's such a great night. So I really enjoyed, and I'm not looking forward to my early morning flight, which is really creeping up on me as we're doing this podcast. But Kyle, it's like it's, it's, these are, like there's a lot of great people in the

sport who deserve to be celebrated. And I, this is a real highlight for me to go to this every year. Awesome. Very well said, Elliot, I totally agree with you. You may not know the difference between Cornell and Colgate, but you raise a very good argument here. And you know how to pick a 50 goal score before they pop. That's right. Here's the problem.

Cornell and Colgate, they both begin CO, they both got seven letters, they both are in New York. It's not my fault. They're too confusing. It's clearly their fault. That's right. This is an issue they need to sort out between themselves.

That's right. This is not my fault. It's their fault. Excellent. Great way to leave it. That was the final thought, and with that, we'll take our first break. Elliot's got a flight to catch. So we better get to the final thought, which will be on the other side. 32 thoughts.

The podcast continues after this. Okay, welcome back. Where or where will the thought line take us today, Elliot Fried? I'll give you one guess. Okay. Does it have to do with furry bandits? I got a lot. I got a lot of comments.

Okay, good. Do you want to do the furry bandits first or last? Well, it's the hot topic. Griffin Porter is saying it's one of the most heavily replied thought line submissions in terms of topics. Never before has he seen such a rush of new mails, new letters in the inbox than responses to your current situation with the raccoons. Okay, great. Hopefully somebody here has got some answers.

There's a few here that I'm ready to, and they are legitimate attempts at trying to help you out. Great. So do you want to start here or do you have something you want to get to first? Well, first of all, just a couple of things I wanted to shout out. First of all, Captain Warren Latimer, a frequently, listener of the pod was the pilot today who took me from Toronto to Dallas for the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame. So I wanted to shout them out for a quick flight. We were a bit delayed.

But our time in the air was faster than expected. I'd like to think, Captain Latimer, it was because you wanted to get me there quick. But I know that's not true. Nice, safe, smooth flight. Air Canada's finest. All right, a couple of non-racoon things, Kyle, I wanted to get to. First of all, out of nowhere on Saturday night came a note into my 4U tab that November 15th was the 47th anniversary of the release date of The Gambler. And I think that is the, I'm not a karaoke guy, I'm really not, but if you ask me the best sing-along song of all time, I think it's the gambler. There were a lot of great memories when I was young about singing this song with other people, although I admit I have the worst singing voice in the

world. Now, some people suggested, Take Me Home Country Roads, John Denver, other people put in piano man by Billy Joel. Others suggested Sweet Caroline, which is big in the sports world by Neil Diamond. Others went for Mr. Brightside by the killers, but for me, the gambler is always number one. And there was a post from Teacher Bailey 22. My friend's family owned a local racetrack, Doug Harvey, yes, that Doug Harvey, the Hall of Fame defenseman, worked for his father. Doug would pick us up sometimes if we needed a lift. In his tape down, he's was a permanently stuck copy of Kenny Rogers' greatest hits. My friend could recite all of the songs.

Let me just say this. If I was in a car and a tape got stuck, you could do a hell of a lot worse than Kenny Rogers' greatest hits. I was once on a drive to Montreal, from Toronto, Montreal, and it was my girlfriend at the time, And the tape that got stuck in her tape player was the specials. And I must have heard a message to you, Rudy, about 600 times on that trip. And while that's a good song, it is nowhere near as good as the gambler.

Second thing I wanted to mention, on the last pod, I referenced pole vaulting and mentioned. Sergei Bubka, who in my 20s, was the pole vaulting god of the world. And Tim Larry wrote in to say, Yo, Fridge, if you're going to use pole vault references, modernize your analogy. Bubca was great, but most under the age of 35 won't know him. Mondo Duplantis is the man. He is now the pole vault king.

So shut out Mondo Duplantis. Good, because I was one of those ones under 35 going, I'm sure he was great. Oh, you didn't know him, may? I don't remember, no. No, I'm not as well brushed up on my pole vaulting history as maybe hockey or a little bit of baseball. I will forgive you with pole vaulting. Just this once.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right. You want to hit me with the raccoon. Helps center. Okay. Sir, racco, okay. Okay, we've got a few here to rip through.

Chad. After listening to Elliot talk about his war with the raccoons. I just wasted 30 minutes trying to install Twitter or X or whatever that stupid thing is called just to find out I can't or more likely I'm not smart enough to send a message directly to Elliot. But I am currently an owner of a pest control company in Utah and enjoy the pod as I drive around killing things, mostly bugs. I'm glad he clarified the bugs part. But an easy trick that I have found that helps with raccoons is very similar to what you tried with your own urine, but instead of your own, you can get fox, coyote, cougar, and many other types off of Amazon. Oh my goodness. Get a few bottles of that and spread it around every few days as if there was a real raccoon predator.

And he says, sorry, Elliot, you pose no threat to them. And kudos to whoever told you that and is laughing hysterically as you go around your yard every night to do your business. See if that can help. Excuse me, Mr. Friedman. We've been noticing you've ordered a lot of urine. There's a wide variety of animals. I will say I did get a lot of that. an ex-user, the old Johnny boy,

he sent me a link to Coyote urine, and I had a couple other people on Instagram also say wolf urine. So urine, just not mine, was a very popular answer. Hmm, yours wasn't mean enough. Okay, Dr. Kevin from Toronto. Hello, Elliot.

I've lived in Toronto since 94, and I've had raccoons many a time going through the garbage and even being in the garbage can when I go to put out things into said garbage can. I'm a chiropractor and long ago a patient of mine told me stuff marshmallows with cayenne pepper or the hottest peppers you can find and leave them out in the raccoons will not come back. Her theory, would you go back to a bad restaurant? It's worked everywhere I have had issues. Same patient let me know sprinkling cloves around can keep my. out. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. It's interesting. Thank you very much, Doctor, for that. And I'm

going to try that. That's a really good idea. There was a time when I did put cayenne pepper and I mixed it with something. I can't remember if it was water or something else. And I spread it around the area. And it worked for a short period of time, but not long enough. And a couple people did say to me, it probably has to be hotter than cayenne pepper. So that is something I will go back to. I appreciate that one. That's a new one. Thank you. Okay, one more from Kelso. Elliot, there's only one solution that worked for me in the city. Mothballs. Yep, mothballs. Take a handful, put them in a sock, nail the sock in the area that they've marked, including under the barbecue. If you don't nail it down, they'll just swat it away. They hate the scent. It worked for me. It

worked for me. Failing this, burn your house down and start over. That's outstanding. You know what's interesting about that is I've heard about mothballs before. Number one, I don't know where you can get them. And number two, the thing I worried about was, like technically a mothball could poison them. And I was I was worried about getting charged with that. But I'm going to look back into this. Okay, I wanted to shout out a couple other people. Will Minen sent me like a note.

Mr. Friedman Zero, Raccoon, like a hundred billion. I had one guy, Daniel Gershaw, who sent me a rap song about a woman being trapped in a car because a raccoon was outside of it. I actually listened to it. It was pretty funny. I don't want to mention. in the name of this person because they suggested some things that are not legal in Canada. And even though they're based in the U.S., I don't want to get them in any kind of trouble.

But she said she was listening to 32 thoughts, and her father has owned an animal removal business for the past 20 years. I know you said that you are live trapping the raccoons and setting them free, but she wrote, just an FYI, you have to drive a minimum of 40 miles, 64 kilometers away, or they will be. be able to get back to your house. That seems like a real long way. I mean, it's like you have to burn three tanks of gas to get rid of this raccoon, but I didn't realize that. I honestly, I thank you very much for sending me this.

I have no idea if they're being driven that far away, but it would explain a few things. Raccoons love honey buns and peanut butter if you're trying to trap them. I have a feeling after this, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be live trapping them anymore. If they've got to be driven 65 kilometers away, I don't know if anyone's going to be doing that. And then I got one more story and I got to tell you, I don't know, I don't know that I believe this is true, but it's so funny that I have to include it, okay? from Jim.

Love the pod and empathetic to your raccoon problem. Similarly, I dealt with rodent issues. Mine was skunks. Perhaps this will work for raccoons. I was told to spread human hair around the perimeter of my house. I have none myself. So I went to a barber shop and asked for a bag of hair with gloves on. proceeded to spread the hair around my property.

Surprisingly, it worked. Was it worth it? I guess so. You said it worked. You got rid of the problem. I'm not sure, now that I've been clearly toyed with with this whole urine thing, like the human urine thing, I'm not sure I believe that this human hair thing. is going to work. I can't imagine putting human hair around my house. I don't, Jim, I appreciate the suggestion, but I think I'm going to try the coyote urine before I go for

the human hair, as long as that's okay with everyone. It's like that Seinfeld bit about, you know, you're so willing to grab and run your finger through someone else's hair, you kiss someone on the head, but like if a single hair follicle of someone else lands on you or anywhere knew you it's like the most disgusting revolting thing in the world but kyle if next time we see each other at scotia bank arena for a morning skate and i'm too closely following you with clippers you'll know it's because you're my next line of defense against the raccoons kyle what's that over there to get rid of it, I'll consider the endeavor.

Unbelievable, man. All right. I appreciate everyone's solutions. You asked, they delivered. Yes, you guys are great. Absolutely great. Thank you all. Okay, David writes in. Marty Natchez already

has three goals this year that came within the first minute of a hockey game. What is the record for such goals for one player in a season. I would have no idea. No idea. I'm sure you got this, but off the top of my head, no clue.

I know the fastest goal ever is five seconds. That I know. There is a 12-way tie atop the leaderboard in this category. No way. No way. Yeah, because the record is four, which says to me the fact that we're what, just kind of entering the quarter mark of the season, and Nate just already has three of these.

He's got a real shot to stand alone at the end of this season. The most recent to do it, Ryan McLeod with the Oilers, in the 23-24 campaign. Before that, Cam Atkinson, Jamie Ben, Joe Pavelsky, Pavel Burray in 97-98, Mario Lemieux did it four times in a year. Jeremy Roanick, that same season, 92, 93. Al Seacord, Dave Taylor, Dennis Marouk, Darryl Sittler, and Johnny Gangion back in the 30s was the first.

Wow. No clue. NACIS, I know, that was a, it's a good question. The great question. You know which one I'm honestly not surprised at, and I would like to think I might have at least guessed it? Burry. Yeah.

He started hot. Yep. He liked to start hot. Yep, he did it once. Okay, thank you, David, for that. Ian from Pennsylvania, I'm an Islanders fan, and I was curious about the rare situation in overtime last Thursday

between the Islanders and the Golden Knights. Vegas was on a rush, and the Isles jumped an extra player on the ice early to try to thwart the scoring chance, essentially taking the penalty to save the game On the ensuing penalty kill, it paid off because the Islander scored short-handed to win the game. However, I know there's that rare rule, 74.4, that says a deliberate, too many men call in overtime can lead to a penalty shot. Why was this not called, as it seems it would have hit the criteria?

When was the last time this rule was ever invoked? If so, has a team ever won on a too many men in overtime? penalty shot. So to answer the second part first, I checked with a few people in the league, Elliot. I don't believe this rule has ever been enforced to this point. A deliberate too many men call resulting in a penalty shot in overtime. Really? Like never? I don't think we've seen it yet. Well, we've got to see it because you know my feelings on this. Call the penalty shot, right? Call it. Yes. But this is a unique situation. And I feel it's one of those where, you know, similar to intentional grounding in football,

like there's lots of times where you know the quarterback's throwing the football away, but the flag doesn't come out. Yeah, but you know what? It seems like it would have to be extra egregious. Well, I'd have to go back and look at this one off the top of my head. But if Vegas can win the game on a breakaway, why not do it? Like to me, to me, Patrick Waugh, Patrick Waugh, Patrick Wad to me is smart enough that he knows exactly what he's doing, right?

Yes. You know, some teams you'd look at it and say, oh, did a player do it or did, it was an accident that it just worked out that way? Like, Patrick Watt, to me, is smart enough that he would tell his team, just go. Like, we'll, especially after it works so well, now we're really doing it again. So I think the The only way that you can stop it Is but and you know how I feel call the penalty shots I just wonder honestly

I don't know why the call wasn't made It's a great question To me it's only one of two things Number one Or it's three things Number one they didn't think it was egregious enough Number two They didn't want to make that call

or number three, maybe people just completely forgot that's in the rule book. Like, I did until he's, like, I actually thought we were going to talk about the illegal substitution versus too many men call. And then when you started reading what the rule was and congratulations to you, Ian, I totally forgot that rule was there. Yeah, me too. I would just say this. If you go back and watch that play, you'll go.

I understand why it was just theoretical two minutes for too many men on the ice. I would like to credit Patrick Waugh for being smart enough to know, hey, if that looks like it's going to be bad, go on the ice and we'll kill the penalty. And not all, yeah. He's a high hockey IQ guy. Yes. He was the kind of trendsetter for pulling the goalie way early or earlier than what had been long. He was one of the first. I'll tell you one of my favorite stories about Patrick Waugh,

Ron Wilson told me this story once. But he was coaching San Jose and Patrick Waugh was still in Colorado, both really good teams. Patrick Waugh got called for using an illegal stick about a week or two before they were going to play San Jose. And, you know, it was a time where there wasn't a lot of TV and not every game was on and a lot of people may not have known about it. but Ron Wilson did.

He was like, oh, okay, Patrick Waugh uses illegal sticks. And so they played Colorado a couple weeks later, and Wilson saved it until a big point in the game when he needed the power play. And he called for a stick measurement, and he said that Patrick Waugh skated to the San Jose bench and said, I knew that you knew about that penalty. I changed my stick. I knew you were going to call me for it.

I was ready for you. No way. And it was not illegal. It was a clean stick. And San Jose lost. And Wilson said he admired that Waugh knew it. He admired that Wa was ready for him. So if you were to tell me that Waugh knew like these kinds of

situations and said, this is what we're going to do, I would 1,000% believe it. Oh, yeah. It all makes sense now. That's a great story and totally ties into all this. That's great. Okay. Brian's up next. Hello, Deb Berman's co-workers. Ah, that's a new one. That's good. That's going to go right to her head, Brian. She's going to be impossible to deal with. In the spirit of bad blood and general chaos, when players have a partial no trade list, they should not only be required to publicly list those teams they don't want to be traded to. They should also have to state why they don't want to play for that team or live in that city. Sure, you'll have some wuss answers like taxes or weather, but there's

lots of room here for pettiness and hurt feelings. Like these examples, I don't want to play in Dallas because your pizza sucks. Or I don't want to play in St. Louis because Doug Armstrong didn't invite me to camp for the Olympic team. Or, I don't want to play in blank because your star player is a jerk. And finally, I don't want to play for either New York team or New Jersey because your NFL teams are so terrible every single year. Thank you in advance for forwarding this idea to your friends, Gary and Marty. Someone once said to me that my list would include anywhere that rolls up the sidewalks at 9 o'clock, because there's a few of those. that's pretty funny uh brian these things are guarded like you would not believe and it's exactly

for what you're talking about because then people start to discuss all right who's on this guy's list wait we're on the list kill him that's exactly why that's exactly why it doesn't happen but i i love the reasons i would say this if i was a player with a sense of humor who wanted to do something like that, I think the result would be, it would be a gift for hundreds of years for those of us in sports media and online. But I don't see a lot of people having enough sense of humor to do it.

Great idea, though. Yes, yes. I figured that wouldn't go anywhere. My no trade list, Calgary, because Kyle lives there now. Yeah. I could see there being a few of those. that's why I live far in the south Don't want to bother anybody

Just in my own little world All right one more Jacob from Chekia Oh nice Hello Kyle Dom and the rest One of my favorite places to go Like one of the great countries of the world I'm a lifelong Sabres fan

And since this season Yes Total sense It has to be Yep Since this season is once again going the wrong direction. I have a question.

The Sabres are the only team who have not won on the road this season. Now, of course, he wrote this in prior to that rather gutsy and impressive come from behind win in Detroit on Saturday night. But he was on to say, I want to know throughout the 82 game season era, so since 95, 96,

which team took the longest to get a Road win. Thanks and keep up the great work, except Elliot. You just keep up the work. I was going to, that's pretty funny. I was going to say to Jakob, so you wrote this in, you said no road wins. And as Kyle said, they had that incredible comeback against Detroit. You should write another note to the thought line saying, the sabers who have never won the Stanley Cup. And let's really test your power, Yaakov. Let's really test your power. So the one thing I do know is that no team, I think, has ever gone through a long season with zero roadwinds.

Yes, you're right. Like, like, I know that, because the two I remember, because I remember when it happened, was Ottawa in their first year, I think they won one. And if I remember correctly, that tied with Washington in their first year, I think they won one. But nobody's ever done zero in a long season, correct? Yes, that is correct. And Ottawa edged Washington in that it took them one extra game on the road to finally get. the first and if you count oh so it was one it was one game later than washington did it is that what you're saying yes yes what game number was it so I

believe technically it was their 39th oh that's right it was right at the end right right at the end of the year and it was like they were I think down two goals in the third period and came back in one but they also played two neutral site games yes but those don't count right they I know Technically don't count, right. I know, but if you looked at it going the amount of games that they played not in their own building, you can tack on extra ones to that. So like that was, that was unbelievable. So, but of course, that was back when they played 84 that year.

Yes. This was pre the time span that Jakub is looking for here. So the record holder isn't nearly as as bad as that expansion year in Ottawa. One, I did, I did remember. because that was my last year of school in the Sanders first season and I remember the countdown would they go old for 41 on the road and I'm happy for them that they didn't nobody wants to be remembered for that no so do you have a guess that who's got uh who's got the great displeasure of sitting at the top of this list

when San Jose was early in their time were they playing 82 games well they came in the same year as Ottawa right they were the

oh right expansion cousins in 92 so that was a terrible question um well let's see okay I'm sorry do you want me to give you the year

no okay I'm trying to think of teams that were really bad. A lot of expansion during the 82 game season era. Yes. That's what I'm trying to think. I'm trying to remember which of those teams. Like Minnesota came in, they were generally pretty good.

Yep, they're not the one. No. So my other options, I'm going to go with Columbus. Bang. Okay. So you got the team. team? Oh, I'm not going to get the year. No chance. No chance am I getting the year. It's your first year at hockey night, 0304. Really? Yeah. 15th road game of the season they needed to get their first away from home.

You know what? That's earlier. You would think that somebody would go deeper than that, right? Fifteen. I mean, it's long when you're going through it. I won't argue that. But when you consider you play 41 home games, or 41 road games, it's actually not that bad. You would think there would be a team that would be going into game 30 or 35, especially since Ottawa did it, where it would be late in the year. No, 15 is the record. Oh, 11, 1, and 2, back when there were ties, of course. Yeah. That was... That's not too. Bad. Not too bad. Not too bad. And... Not too bad.

Jacob doesn't have to worry about his sabers getting anywhere near that after that win on Saturday in Detroit. On the back of Tage Thompson, who said enough of this. We are not going to be the 0304 Columbus Blue Jackets. And took matters into his own hand. All right. That'll do it for the latest edition of the thought line. 1-833-3-3-1-3-2. If you would like to leave a voicemail, or an email we'll do just fine

at 32 Thoughts at Sportsnet.com. One final break. We'll wrap this edition up. 32 thoughts. The podcast continues after this. All right, before we go, wanted to give you a heads up. This Wednesday,

have our usual Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey show that's on the air at 630 Eastern 4.30 Mountain Time with David Amber and company. This week, the contest features the Edmonton Oilers continuing that never-ending seemingly seven-game roadie. They are in Washington to face the caps, a little after five Mountain Time, and almost running side-by-side with that on Wednesday night. Calgary Flames are regional crew. They are in Buffalo at 730 ET, 530 Mountain Time, but that one too can be seen nationally on Sportsnet 1. All right, taking us out today is a track from Carbon Mass, which is a Vancouver-based duo of electronic music composer Sina and vocalist guitarist Tim Clarege.

Their soundweaves a captivating blend of melancholic yet soothing atmospheres, combining smoldering melodies with a groove-built dance floor edge. The duo creates immersive soundscapes through a dynamic mix of synthesizers, drum machines and samplers, crafting compositions that evoke a sense of both darkness and optimism. With ethereal vocals and droning guitars, Carbon Mask captures a unique emotional depth, leaving listeners with a sense of cautious hope, like emerging from hardship with the belief that everything will ultimately fall into place. This track, of course, will fall into place on the 32 Thoughts to Music playlist that you can catch on Spotify. Here's Carbon Mass and Impulse.

on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. heaven before I die Future's old kill in my mind Ship has taken my appetite Move backwards through a burning wall day I come, day I fall. I think And doing nothing means everything

It ties to chain your muscles cut Because they know That you never want Day When the bad ones through a burning wall. Daylight come. Oh!