32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Heat in the South, Questions up North

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman dig into potential roster shakeups around the league, including Edmonton possibly moving on from Andrew Mangiapane and questions surrounding Trent Frederic’s slow start. They react to an entertaining Connor McDavid interview (11:13), break down the Battle of Florida as the NHL’s hottest rivalry (19:00), and discuss J.J. Moser’s long-term extension in Tampa (26:00) along with Matthew Tkachuk’s push to play in the Winter Classic (31:00). The guys also touch on Mason Marchment's trip on Matthew Schaefer and the reactions to it (34:00), Flyers fans anxiously awaiting trade news (38:14), coaching chatter tied to Toronto (44:21), and Ottawa’s playoff push amid goaltending concerns (47:37). The fellas weigh in on Jake DeBrusk getting healthy scratched on Monday against the Kraken (50:00) and a reminder not to overreact to slow starts at the World Juniors (56:41). The Final Thought brings relief as a tentative agreement is reached between the ECHL and the players’ association (1:02:24)Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (1:10:28).Today we highlight Toronto based pop rock band Beyond the Sun and their track DON'T LET ME GO YET. Check them out here.Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music 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

Yeah, Poland is one of the countries I really want to go see. People I know who've been there say that some of the most beautiful people they've ever seen live in Poland. So there's a few, it's one of several reasons I actually want to go see that country. You know, stick out like a sore thumb. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I'm not entirely sure what day it is. I do know I had a wonderful time of the 32 thoughts. holiday bonanza. And I know that we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. Hockey

returned over this weekend. Elliot's here. Dom is here. Some great games on Saturday, more intriguing ones on Sunday. We'll get to some of that here in a little bit before we get any further. Wanted to send Linus Allmark, all the best, the news on Sunday that he is taking a leave of absence from his Ottawa senators for personal reasons. So wanted to mention that there before we go any further. Elliot, the Edmonton Oilers. So they had a banner of a game going into the break against Calgary through everything in the kitchen sink at Dustin Wolf coming out of the break on Saturday night. Cudos to the flames for hanging on there late. But they are a group that has looked a lot better the last two weeks, still waiting on Tristan Jari to get back. But

overall, getting more bodies back. Because of it, you're seeing David Tomashek, the contract terminated there. Noah Philp put on waivers on Sunday. They've got some decisions to make here. As more bodies become available, what are you all hearing and what could be going on and what has been going on in the Alberta Capitol? As you said, Kyle, they are getting healthy. So Roslovick is back. Capitan is close. They haven't been fully healthy all year. Remember, Heimann was hurt to start Captain and got hurt, Nugent Hopkins got hurt, Caputin got hurt again in practice, Roslavik. So it's been in, out, in out,

and all of a sudden, they are about to get healthy. And not only that, but people who've been watching the American Hockey League closer than I do, especially Bakersfield, say that Isaac Howard and Quinn Hudson have been extremely good down there. And while the others are kind of like, hey, it's excellent, these guys are getting experience and they're getting confidence sooner or later, they're going to want to give one or both,

probably both of them another shot in the NHL. So we're in a situation where there's going to be some extra bodies. And I understand that one of the names that could possibly be affected by this is going to be Andrew Monjapani. And, you know, Monjapani started in the year in a bigger role, and lately he struggled to find both ice time and consistency. In the last 10 games, he's got three of them under 10 minutes. As a matter of fact, he's got only three games where he's played more than 11.

He had an 11-41. He had a 12-16 in that 5-1 win you mentioned over Calgary, and he had a 1302. That's the most in his last 10 games in terms. Toronto when the Oilers won there in a game you covered. So Manjapani practiced in Winnipeg on Sunday on the fourth line. The Oilers play the Jets on Monday night. And we've seen a couple of trades recently, Kyle, where players who, their situations just weren't working out.

Philip Dono was one in L.A. Mason Marchman was another one in Seattle. And the Crackett are now 4 and 0. I know, they were on life support. You know, that one has ignited them. But those were players who were dealt because, look, it just wasn't working out and you try to move on and find a better situation.

Now, Mangapani has a no trade clause this year. He has a full no trade until I believe the middle of June. But I think there is an understanding there that if the Oilers can find something for Mangapani with another team where he might, might have a bigger role, he would be willing to waive in that situation. So again, it's one of these things. I don't think it's like a hard and fast trade demand or anything like that.

But I think there's just a realization, like to know, like Marchman. It just wasn't working in that spot. And if another situation can be found, I think Manjapani would be willing to look at it. So we'll see where that develops over the next few days. But a lot of this is being led by the fact that Edmonton is finally getting healthy and Howard and Hudson are lighting it up. And in that situation, there's going to be guys who have to sit. There's going to be less time for other guys.

And I think Manchapani is one of those who could potentially be moved to open up spots. We'll see how it plays out. So you believe there could be willingness both sides in terms of looking and understanding, maybe a fresh start is best here? Yes. I do think both sides would be willing in the right situation. Yes. Okay.

It's been like, so that's been one situation. And I don't know, I'm not asking this to suggest, is there anything, you know, brewing trade-wise or anything? But have you heard anything on like just the Trent Frederick predicament and just how they are still trying to get him going and trying to find the best version of him? Because that's been probably the most puzzling of anyone you look. look at their lineup to this point in the year.

I think he's a much better player than he showed. I don't have a good answer for you on that one. I wonder if maybe there's, you know, that injury had when you lose a chunk of your summers sometimes, like I think he did. He wasn't like 100% healthy. I do wonder if it's a factor, but that's purely guesswork on my part. Kyle like that's not me being told that that's the case all I can say is in you know in frederick situation he's a much much better player and he's showing you know the one thing here is

that frederick's on an eight year deal right and man japani's on a two year deal so I think that in under that's one reason I think monjapani it might be easier to find him a better fit I think when when you have frederick in that kind of situation the the only choice you have is to work with him and say, how can we make this work here for everybody involved? But that is a much better player than I've seen so far. No question, he's struggling. Now, the other thing, the Oilers, they had a couple of waiver moves on Sunday. They had Philp and they had Tomasheck.

It got out that Tomashek is heading back home to Europe. You know, the Philp one to me is interesting. I really, I have a soft spot. for the Canadian University guys, considering, you know, I covered Canadian University hockey, both as a reporter in University at Western and early in my professional career. So I always kind of like those guys. I'm curious about this one because I did have people say to me that if he does clear waivers and he may, he may not, this story might not be over.

I think there are some teams out there who are interested in him, but I heard that some of them might want the option of being able to send him down. Now, if you claim someone on waivers, you can't send them down for a month. So in that situation, if he doesn't get taken, and again, he might. But if he doesn't get taken, I could see a trade being possible where a team could say, look, we'd rather get him this way. So if we want the flexibility to send him down, we will because if he clears waivers, a team that trades for him, we'll be able to do it.

So we'll see how that plays out. I mean, look, he's a big right shot center. Teams are killing themselves for those kinds of guys. I got to think there's interest in there, out there for him. Okay, good thing to keep an eye on. So as you know, Elliot, after hours always must watch. I mean, anything involving his excellent Scott Oak is, but even more so this past weekend because not only did he have Kelly Rudy on his opposite side,

did Scott this weekend, but it was. was Connor McDavid between the two of them. I didn't take long for the whole, oh, he happened to mention that he once got a Leaf jersey with McDavid and 97 on the back. That was all over my buddy's group chat. We don't even need to make him a jersey. He's already got one. Yes.

But beyond that, if I'm an Oilers fan, I mean, there was a lot there that he talked about that I would have been really happy to listen to it. Yeah. It was a great, it was a great segment. and, you know, I'm really happy that McDavid did it. Honestly, you know, this is my opinion. I think he should do it once a year. You know, he doesn't always like that kind of stuff,

but people love to hear from him. And I honestly thought, the thing I like about McDavid is that when he does that with Oki and he commits to it, he brings stuff. He knows that he's there for a reason, and he obviously likes and trust Scott. And so he'll say things, but, you know, it was funny. Like I said, all my buddies were like, hey, he's got to leave Jersey.

We were perfect. And then you go back and you watch the whole thing. And you realize I said, guys, you always said a lot of really good things about the Oilers and about where things are headed. They don't care. Like, they're just like, that doesn't exist to us. We just heard the leave jersey stuff. But yes, it was a great interview and everybody should go listen. Anything that stuck out to you in particular?

Yeah, that stuff was good. I mean, lending a bit of insight into, you know, Brad Harrison, one of the equipment guys, the brains behind like the Leon Drysidal, thousand points shirt. I think he also orchestrated, remember McDavid's when he got a thousand points? Yes.

Not too long ago. And I know they got more coming, a thousand games for Newgeon Hawkins. I also love it too. He's going to have the most games in Oilers history. Like, they have to do something really special for him, right? And it was great when he was talking about it. goes, oh, I couldn't even believe that, you know, Henrique hit in a thousand games, just

doing it as an Edmonton oiler, that had never happened before. Like, he was blown away by just the statistics part of the anomaly of how rare that's been in Edmonton for whatever reason. And now Nugent Hopkins is about to become the first to do all 1,000 with the oilers. Like, it was, it was good. Like, he just, he was open to that stuff. He was open, like they, they grinded him on the whole ketchup phobia. Like, he had a laugh about that.

he was just really engaging like you're seeing more and more out of that when i thought the same thing with you too like he goes i know this is a program that whether people watch it live or online the next day um there's going to be a lot of interest here and uh totally brought his end of the bargain here so it was it was good the catch up thing when when scott if you know scott like we know scott he's going to do that right like i like i I didn't watch it on Saturday night. I watched it on Sunday morning, Saturday night, as you know by now, after we're off the air, you know, we go as a group and just have a beer to just break down the show and chat.

So I always watch, yes, there was no eggnog consumed this time, I'll tell you. But I watched it on Sunday, and when Scott started, I'm waiting for it, because you know, Oak, you know the ketchup is coming, and when he starts doing it, I'm like, okay, I want to see McDavid's face because I want to know how he's going to look when this starts to happen. And you could tell, like, he was game. It was almost as if I kind of wondered if Scott had told him in advance, the catch-up question is coming. Because he was game. He was game.

He was, he was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to play along with this. But, you know, I loved it. I thought Scott's had two bangers back to back. They're always good. Like, they're always really good. But Rasmus Anderson was excellent last week and McDavid was really good this week after, you know, a tough loss. They, you know, I have to tell you this, Adam Klapka, I said this in the post game on Saturday night. Watching that guy, and he had obviously some great plays, like that Spinarama assist, he made a great reception.

of a hard pass and center ice on his backhand. And it's a simple play. Nobody will remember it but I was like, wow, like that's a really skilled play. And even BX looked at me and said, yeah, like that was, that was a hard pass

to corral. And it's just a reminder that all these guys here, like Adam Klapka is a, like he's a good player, third, fourth line guy. But if you, it's just a reminder that if you make the NHL, you are the elite of the elite. Like I think of guys like, you know, PJ Stocks scored five goals in his

NHL career. He was a 20 goal score in the Quebec League. And Nick Kiprios, who did a lot of fighting obviously in his NHL career, he was a 60 goal score in the Ontario Hockey League. Like there are a lot of guys who were really good players who go to the NHL and suddenly they're not the best anymore and they have sometimes they're even whether it's their coaches or whatever they just don't do as much as they used to do but that doesn't

mean they can't do things and like Longberg was joking with Oki at the end of the game about oh I used to do that a lot more before I got to the NHL but it's just a reminder of how tremendously skilled these guys are

even the guys who don't play the quote unquote skill roles like clapka reminded everybody that hey maybe i'm not a first liner in this league but i'm still a pretty talented guy like he dominated that game it was a was a really impressive performance yeah it's even this wouldn't have been more so a skill play but like his role on when it ended up being the game winner the coleman goal that doesn't happen if he doesn't drive the lane the way he does and open up space for like it was just a smart heads up play too like he had an awesome awesome night and to your point about

it doesn't matter if you play one shift in the league or you play 1,200 games, like the best of the best. And when you consider how well McDavid has been going and the way he's skating around the best players in the world, I mean, again, only amplifies the level that he is at and just how great he's, he's like, we asked him about it back in September, trying to kind of peak twice this year, Olympics and playoffs. And you've talked about like a swimmer tapering. We've kind of seeing that with him through October, then November, and now a different gear here in December. And, you know, it's no coincidence that the team itself is starting to click a lot better to in Edmonton. So good stuff out there. Yeah, Battle of Alberta was great for all sorts of reasons going into the break,

coming out of the break. And then there was the Battle of Florida, Elliot. Now, hold on one second. Before we get to the Battle of Florida, I was just looking up PJ Stock stats. while we were doing this because I wanted to make sure I had it right. So PJ played two years in the Quebec Junior League, and they were in the mid-90s. These stat lines, I just have to say them. First year, PJ is 19 years old for the Victoriaville Tigra, 70 games, nine goals and 46 assists.

So he's 55 points in 70 games, very respectable, 386 penalty minutes. The next year, next year, 20 years old, 67 games, 19 goals and 43 assists. So he's almost a point of game player. 62 points and 67 games, 432 penalty minutes.

Oh my gosh. So you have to think about it. He must have been the prolific, most prolific by-minute score in that league. I was going to say, if points for six he existed back then, like he would have been a top five pick. And I hope he never hears this

because it'll go right to his head and he'll be impossible to deal with. But, like, just think about that. 67 games, 432 penalty minutes. And then the other times he's not even on the ice. It's just on the bench because it's not his shift and 62 points in 67 games. That was the last time in his life. And PJ now is 50.

He was 20 back then. That is the last time in his life. PJ was an efficient person because when he was on the ice, he made it count. That's almost, yeah. So there's that efficiency. And then, actually, you never know this? So Thomas Shabbat, his older brother, Francis, and he played, he got one game in the queue.

Coincidentally, also with Victoriaville, he scored two goals in the game. And I remember asking Thomas about this years ago, like, how did he not get another game in the league? And he just said it was, I don't know if it was a numbers game at the time or just there wasn't, because it was a call up, obviously, to fill in, I don't know if a guy was hurt or something.

but he played one game, he scored two goals. So he is a career, two goals per game scorer in the QMJHL. So if you don't throw in a minimum games played qualifier, when you look at the most prolific scores in QMJL history, and they had a lot over its history, he stands alone at the top at two per game. He only played one, though. But it's one of the great mysteries for me.

And some of the random hockey sets, you score two goals in your QMJHL debut, and you don't get another game. Not that year, not any other year afterwards. That is a great pull, a great pull, Kyle. One hit, Wonders. You can do it in music, you can do it in hockey. Yes, sir. Okay, more than just one hit between Panthers and Lightning on Saturday night. But it was a calm first half.

and then things went off the rails there. So more of your thoughts on the latest installment of what has to be considered the best rivalry going in hockey right now. So Saturday night, I've got to watch, you know, I'm making calls. I'm trying to get stuff ready for headlines. And I don't. So I'm not really watching the games as much as I can or should. But I generally tend to watch the Canadian games, the ones on our broadcast. We had Battle of Ontario.

and we had the other game featuring Winnipeg and Minnesota. But when Florida and Tampa are on, I am riveted to it. I cannot take my eyes off it. And I watch that game more than the other two games on Saturday, I confess. As you said, it's just the best rivalry in the league right now. They had 136 penalty minutes. And one other player in the league, he had a great text. He said, 136 subpar effort from me.

those two. Only two fighting majors. They weren't, he's like laughing. They weren't even trying. They've basically given up. But it was still, it was still really,

really mean. Like, maybe there weren't fighting majors, but the stick work was real. There were a couple of fines on Sunday. Like those guys were chopping at each other. A couple of things. A.J.

Greer is really in the lightning's head. Like those guys, hate him they cannot stand him and they spent a lot of that game chasing him around like they wanted to fight him um and he i don't know if he's been told not to do it or he's just like no i'm not giving you the satisfaction but he didn't engage until bork strand pulled him down and then he started throwing them and when he goes to the penalty box after that those lightning players are just giving it to him. Like there's five Tampa guys in the box and they've got the door open and they are really giving it to him. And, you know, I know what they're saying. Oh, okay, you fight

Bjork Strand. And Greer's response is, look, I wasn't going to fight, but he pulled me down. So what am I going to do? But it's clear to me that Greer has either been instructed or has decided he's not fighting these guys. The two Tampa guys who really impressed me, Gensel, Like that is twice now, at least twice now, maybe three times. The Gensel has been in the middle of this against the Florida players. Gensel's a great hockey player. He's there to score. He's not there to fight.

But he doesn't back down from this stuff. And I really appreciate that about him. I know Scott Sabrin got knocked down by Jack Eye on Sunday night. They threw a few punches. And then he got clocked. Yeah, but he got clocked. and, you know, hopefully he's all right. But the thing about Sabrin is, as I've said before,

I really respect what Tampa did with him after he got the suspension and the preseason. A four-game suspension to an HL player can be the end of their NHL career. Because who's going to call a guy up who's suspended for that long? But the Lightning did the right thing. They kept calling him up so he would serve the suspension. And every time they play these games, he's right in the way. the middle of them. Like he went after Greer and chased after Greer a bit, but like I said, Greer wouldn't fight him. Like to me, if I'm the lightning, and I know you're battling

for first place, they've had a pretty incredible year considering some of their injuries and the way they started, to me that guy is a full-timer for me. Every time they've called them up, they've called them up for these games to show some battle against other people. And he does it. I've been really impressed with Sabrin this year. But the thing that stood out, and the same player who joked about the 136 penalty minutes, the thing he said to me was just watching that game, the biggest thing that hit him was Kuturov.

Because in some of their recent games, particularly of the playoffs last year, Kucharov was very quiet He did not We all know what a great player he is And we all know how he could change a game He did not make his imprint on the series He was not at the Kuturov level with his play He was not dominating games

The way Kuturov can And that's one of the reasons The Panthers beat them in five games last year Was Kuturov did not make his mark on that series And I thought this was an interesting point and he said that that was the best. He'd personally seen Kucherov play against Florida in some time, and he was fantastic.

And that, you know, especially when the games get more meaningful, Florida's going to be there with their one for all, all for one. And Tampa is not really built to beat that. They said the only way that Tampa can beat Florida right now is with Vasilescu being as good as he was on Saturday and Kuturov dominating games like he did on Saturday. So he really thought that the best thing for Tampa was not only the victory, but Kucharov was Kuturov because they can't beat the Panthers any other way right now. Yeah, a couple more goals for Kuturav Sunday, too, against Montreal a win ultimately.

They nearly choked that one away, but got it done in the shootouts. And I think, too, like, you're right because they've still got top heavy in Tampa, whether it's Kutrov or Point or Hagel. They've got Nick Paul back now. Gensel, you say, that they brought in a couple years ago. But nowhere near the depth that they had when they were going to three straight Stanley Cup finals winning two of them. And so I just think- Although they do have some great fines. Like they do have a bunch of guys this year who've done fantastic jobs for that.

No question. And we'll get to one of them here who's been around for a couple seasons now that got an extension over the weekend. And a very nice-looking one at that. But I just think like of all the. the years and the success they've had like the last few here especially now as you say like they're in the conversation to be at the top of the Atlantic division as we sit here right now Elliot like this has got to be some of the most impressive coaching that John Cooper has done because personnel is a little different and he's been around as long as he has been with the same organization and how often do you see in other situations message gets stale time for something different and They found a way to make it work there for this long and continue to do so. It's very impressive. So that's been a big part of it.

And let's get to JJ Mosier, the eight-year deal that you would put out over the weekend. Yeah. So Moser gets a late Christmas gift. He's been excellent this year. His underlying numbers have been fantastic. Yes. But his play on the ice has been fantastic. Headman's been hurt.

McDonough's been hurt. And Moser's been a tremendous player. And, you know, one of the interesting things about Moser was, if you go back to his draft, he got passed over. And so when he was taken in 2021, he was already almost 21 years old. Actually, he was 21 years old when he was taken. 21, hold on, because that draft was late, right? Yeah. So if you go back to Moser's draft, he had been passed over a couple of times. So when he was selected post-COVID, he was already 21 years old.

He was born on June 6, 2000, and he was taken in the 2021 draft. So he was older. And as a result, he was in the, like he just finished his fourth year in the Swiss League. He came over. he played a little bit in the American Hockey League and he had I think he was something like he was a like 12 points in 18 games or something like that like he got off to a great start

and he basically became a full-time NHLer right away like if you if you take a look at all the picks from that draft Moser is second in games played if you take a look at all the other guys who are right there with him the only guy who's played more games is Cole Sillinger, who was taken 12th overall, okay? So then you've got Moser, who's second.

He was taken 60th overall, and then look at the rest of the group that's there. Wyatt Johnston, he was a first rounder, 23rd. He's third in games played. Maddie Baneers was taken second overall. Owen Power was the number one pick. Mason McTavish went third overall. Kent Johnson went fifth overall. So here's this guy, William Eklund, who went seventh overall.

And then it's Matthew Nyes, who was taken three picks before Moser was. So Moser was a bit of a late bloomer, but he was ready. When he got taken, he was ready. And he's had a fantastic year. And that contract is going to age really well. The last pod, we talked about cider and how great his contract's going to look. I don't know that I'd put Moser on the same level as cider. I think cider is in a higher tier, but that Moser contract, that's another one that people

are already saying to me, that's one because of the tax situation in Tampa that is going to look like a beautiful, brilliant deal if it doesn't already. Yeah, and Brian Egwam sent on their lightning broadcast on Sunday. He's been their most important defenseman this year because, as you say, the injuries to some of the big boys and hasn't been short term in some cases and he's continued to flourish for Tampa so congrats to him on the new deal that was the news for Tampa over the weekend as they picked up that was a great game by the way on Sunday in Montreal Montreal was down big came back um Slavkovsky man he's he's really coming and remember we were talking the last

pod about Nashville and you said everybody wants to play with Ryan O'Reilly I could see all these guys in Montreal saying, hey, make sure Slavkovsky's on my line. Remember when Montreal was in Toronto three weeks ago and we had that conversation with Marty San Luis and San Luis talked about how he was moving Slavkowski around

depending on matchup and who he thought certain lines would get and Slavkowski's going to be that guy who they're going to move around depending on how he felt the matchup was going to go or who really needed him. And I thought in a game full of great players and Tampa probably wasn't 100% because it was it was less than 24 hours after a really emotional game

I thought that Slavkovsky dominated out there yeah he looked great took a bit for Tampa to get going but four points out of four points for them over the weekend meanwhile just one final note on the Panthers sure you saw Sunday Matthew could chuck non-contact jersey there he was out there for practice and Paul Marisa understandably saying, look, there's still a lot of hoots to jump through here now, but the first one, a big one, back on the ice with his teammates.

You know, I wrote last week in my notes that, you know, who wouldn't be surprised to see him show up in that outdoor game with the special stick, right? Yes. Now that they've, how beautiful is that thing that sure would put out the Miami Vice themed encrypt code? It is gorgeous. You know how much I love Miami Vice.

Yes. Crocket and Tubbs, man. the best. You could see Maurice throwing cold water on that. It's pretty obvious to me that Paul Maurice is looking at this and saying, I understand this is the entertainment business, but we're in the winning business, and I don't think this is a good idea.

Wah, wah. I can't wait for the next time you interview him. I hope the first question you asked Maurice, he just responds, and walks away. I just, now it's like it'll be great over the next, I don't know, they don't have a lot of time, but just how much selling does Kachuktu to go? I'm good.

I can play. I can do it. Let me play. Let me put me in, coach. I'm good. He's itching. So anyway, it'll be spectacular seeing that there. Yeah.

Unfortunately, we can't go because of the Canadian Olympic announcement. So I'm disappointed that we can't get down there. I understand duty calls. Speaking of injuries, there was a brief, I was briefly terrified on Saturday night when Kail McCar left that game, a great game, a highly entertaining game in Vegas. The Colorado wanted a shootout. That was a fantastic. As you mentioned, that's another one.

Like, they're not in state rivals, but there's a real, and they're not even in the same division, but there's a real dislike you can tell and a real intensity between the avalanche in the nights. But when McCar went off for a couple minutes in that game, I was, I was said to myself, this is a disaster. Kevin and I were talking about, well, if that's his wrist and there's a non-displaced fracture, then, you know, he'll be back right on time for the Olympics. But if it's displaced, this could be really bad. We're like, shut up, Kevin. And then he came back. And then McCar came back like five minutes later. And that would have been just brutal, brutal. Like I said, there's It's going to be a fight.

Yeah, there's going to be a fight over this somewhere. Yeah, in-season Cup, you keep winning. It remains in Denver. Remains in Denver, for those people to enjoy in Grand Junction, for the hockey fans there to enjoy, everyone in the state of Colorado. The in-season Cup remains. Yeah, that was a heck of a game. I had to go, I went back and watched on the flight Sunday.

I watched at least the third period of that, and then overtime in the shootout. Great, great entertainment. Okay, Fritz, we mentioned things getting ugly down in Florida on Saturday. You talked about Mason Marchman briefly earlier, and he was in the middle of it. Now a Columbus blue jacket sticking the foot, part of the leg out on Matthew Schaefer and middle of the ice on Sunday. Matthew Barzell came right over and took care of things the way he saw fit in the moment. Anyway, what was your read on that hole? play well i didn't like i didn't like that that happened with schaefer i think those are just not

even in the post game if you listen to marshman he says i probably shouldn't have done that right and which is an understatement there's no question i hate to see those kinds of plays um i i give a lot of credit to barzell for doing what he did and the thing about that is if you have ever been hit on the top of your skate before you know how much that hurts. Like Barzell knew exactly what he was doing. He knew it was going to hurt him. He knew it was going to be painful, and he wanted it to be painful.

And if you watch him leave the ice, you see the island of players going, good job, good job. Now, we were having a bit of a debate in the green room about should that be a suspension. And I thought it probably would be in the moment. and then, you know, Marchman came back and played, so I kind of started to change my mind a bit. It's such a whack that I could see them doing it, but as the game progressed and Columbus came back and Marchman and won,

and Marchman said post-game, I probably should have done that. I was thinking if I was in charge, I wouldn't suspend him. I'd let everybody else know that there's to be no, copycat of this unless it's an exactly similar situation. But I don't think I would. Like even Marchman had been in a post game. He knew he knew he was lucky.

If Schaefer had been hurt, Marshman could have gotten a huge suspension. So I didn't like the play. I didn't like that it happened. I think we were very, very lucky, very, very, very lucky that we didn't get a worst-case scenario injury there. And if I was Department of Player's Safety, I wouldn't suspend Barzell for it. I wouldn't, especially since Marshman came back.

Yeah, and especially that Barzell got five. Yes, he got thrown out. I have no problem with what the referees did. Throw them out of the game. I think everybody understands that. But I do not feel he's deserving of a suspension, the way everything played out. no i thought it was all handled in game and then you know i don't know there's a fine pop up maybe but anything beyond that i'm going don't need it here i kind of wondered if the islanders

called ducks in the middle of the game and said is ross johnston available or maybe maybe they asked matt martin like do you have a uniform here in columbus did we bring one with us Well, he's Schaefer's landlord, after all, is he not? That's right. So I'm sure. That's right. Just throw the extra bag of hockey gear in the car on the way to the game and where they go.

I know the blue jackets have one of the toughest guys alive in Matthew Olivier. But the Islanders are going to need somebody who's like, if you even look cross-eyed at Schaefer, we're going to make you pay. Yeah, yeah. They had a few of those guys for a lot of years. Long time. Long time. Gary Howlett.

Oh, yeah. Now you're going way back. And now I'm going way back, but yes. It has been part of their DNA for much of their history. All right, Ellie, the Philadelphia Flyers. So they were part of, your headlines on Saturday, including names like Christian Dvorak, Igor Zamula. We can throw Trevor Ziegress into that conversation, too.

What have you all got on the flyer front? Well, I got a couple of DMs from Flyer fans, and I guess there was some of this sentiment over social. You can't keep track of it all, but I got a couple of DMs from Flyer fans who were really mad. They're like, this is not the Flyers news we want to hear. and they're saying we want to hear about zegaris extensions and not so much about Dvorak and you know Dvorak is like a little bit of an older center you know we shouldn't

be extending that guy we should be taking care of Zegaris why why are they not trying to extend Zegaris and I was like okay you guys need to take a chill pill like you guys really need to calm down life is not that linear I think I had written before a while ago about how the marriage between the Flyers and Zegaris is going really well, and Dvorak and Zegaris have worked really well together. And of course, they're going to try to extend Zegaris. I'm sure they're talking about it. As a matter of fact, I believe they are talking about it.

I think I mentioned that once before. Just because, you know, people can do more than one thing at a time. The Dvorak thing is interesting because, and I think the reason popped up now is as I mentioned, when you sign a one-year deal as Dvorak did, the earliest you can extend the player is January 1st. So around this time of year, I do often check around and I say, okay, like there's guys who signed one-year deals. Are any of them going anywhere? But the reason I really found out about this one is that people are trying to find centers out there. Like, look, L.A. just traded Philip Dano, and, you know, they talked about maybe a guy like

Halini is getting more of a chance. Well, he's not playing very much, so they're looking for it center again. And I think a bunch of teams are out there looking for guys. And Dvorak is an obvious name. He's on a one-year deal. Is he available? And I heard from a couple of places that it was kind of hinted to them that Philly's going to sign him and the player wants to stay. And so they're probably going to work out something. Now, the key phrase I said there is it's got to work out for both sides. And that's what I said on Saturday night. And I think there's a logic here as to what, you know, Philly wants to do and what the player wants where I think both sides are trying to find the sweet spot. And that's what they're trying

to do. But I think at the end of the day, he's been good for Philly. He's been good for, it's been good for him. And I think, but I do think Philly is trying to be smart about what they do. So we'll see how what all works. I think when there's a will, there's a way. Clearly there's a will. And both sides, I assume, are going to be creative. But the thing is there is that other teams sure believe that Dvorak will work out something there. We'll see. He's been a really good fit there. But yes, I still do think they're also going to work on Zegris. And the other one is Zemula. So Zemula, as the Flyers know and their fans know, 1.7 million this year and next, cleared waivers, went down to the American Hockey League.

He wants to play in the NHL. And I think, you know, the Flyers' defense has been really good this year, really good. Ristelan came back. He's kind of getting squeezed out. I think he wants to play in the NHL. Now, his agent is Dan Milstein. Dan Milstein did this with Texier. Taxier was at 2.1 in St. Louis.

They couldn't keep him at that number. He terminated his deal and he signed him Montreal, where it's been better for him. I think Zemula is willing to do the same thing. The issue I've heard is that Philly would rather have a player because you never know. You get injuries on defense. They could need him again this year. So I think rather than terminate him,

I think they'd rather get a player who could either help them at Lehigh Valley in the time being or potentially help them later. So we'll see what that all means. But clearly there's a player here who would like to get back to the NHL and if the Flyers are willing to terminate his deal, I think he'd be willing to do it. So we'll see where it all goes, but that's where it all stands. But I was, I was surprised about some of the DMs I was getting from Flyer fans of this. I thought it would be good news because he likes it there and he's been good for Zegeris, but I guess,

you know, maybe I'm just too optimistic. Yes. Holiday Goodwill was gone. Gone. It's after Christmas, the holiday goodwill is over. I really like Dvorak. I think he's, you know, one of the things I think people should understand is that, you know, a guy like Dvorak is a veteran, a really smart guy, he also knows when a situation is good for him. So everyone's going to work together to see if they can find something that fits here. Yeah, he's had a nice little reemergence. Like remember how badly they wanted to run him out of town in Montreal and then down the stretch last year. I think It was like him, Josh Anderson, Brennan Gallagher. He had a great year for them if they charged to the playoffs.

He was a big part of that. So, so reliable. And it's been a really good fit with him and the Flyers and Rick Tocke and all that. He's played some important minutes there. So not surprised that they're headed down that path. Okay, a couple more things here we want to get to. The note you had, I mean, big weekend for Toronto. I would say this is the most, in a two-game span, the most Matthews-like,

we've seen the Leafs captain when you look at how he played against Ottawa and following that up in the Detroit games. So they get three out of four points there. But the note you had on Saturday about Pete DeBore reaching out through a friend to Craig Barubi was an interesting one. Well, first of all, Matthews, that shot he had on Saturday night, or Sunday night, that just missed ending the game. That was, you're right.

Like, that was prime vintage Matthews. and you hope there's more of it. You know, I wrote, we did our podcast on Monday, dropped it on Monday, and then a couple days later, after they made the change with Mark Savard, I wrote the story about how, you know, Craig Barubei and Brad Tree Living were not on the firing line,

that they had the support of the organization at this particular time, and they were not on the firing line. Well, what I'd heard was earlier in the, and I actually heard it on Saturday just before the show, somebody told me about it, but, you know, there was a lot of rumors about Peter DeBore. I think that's to be expected. If Toronto would be making a coaching change, DeBore would be the name that would jump up the most because he's the most experienced guy and Toronto could afford him. And, but I'd heard that as you said, he'd reached out through an intermediary to say to Baru, it's a brew bay that it's not happening

don't listen to the noise, don't worry about it that's not happening and you know I sent a note to a bore I just said hey is this true and what he said back to me was he confirmed it and he said look I just want everyone to understand I've had that happen to me before

I've been in a situation where my job was in jeopardy or people were rumoring that I was going to be out and this guy was going to take over and I didn't like being on that end of it so I didn't want to be on this end of it. And I thought it was a really good gesture. And, you know, Barube, by the way, his line Saturday morning when he walked in and saw us,

and he says, you all guys all look heavier because it was post-Christmas. Like, it was a really good line. So he's obviously, look, they've got five out of the last six points and they've really battled hard. But I just thought it was a really good gesture by DeBore. And, you know, I think, too, what it probably is. probably does by DeBoer agreeing to confirm that story is not only does it calm the waters privately behind the scenes, but it calms them publicly because now people won't be speculating

that because he says it's not happening. Now, I did get a call from someone on Sunday saying they don't even think DeBoer would take a job before the Olympics. Like, that's his primary focus. And I, you know, I don't know. Like, I don't know what the likelihood of that is, but I thought that call was was pretty interesting. Very interesting. So we'll see where things go for the lease as they try to pull themselves out of the basement at the Eastern Conference. It looked rather dire this time a week ago, but three much more encouraging results in a row put them in a bit of a different light and a bit of a different mood all around the group heading into this week.

You know, it was interesting, you know, watching Ottawa and you mentioned Allmark at the top of the pod and obviously everybody wishes him the best you know we talk about how life throws you curveballs and how do you handle it it's going to be interesting for ottawa because you know what's their what's their goaly combination going to be right now Kyle right probably marilyn and sogard right so you know it's not the easiest thing to kind of ask right after an announcement like that gets made you kind of have to let it breathe a bit and see how things develop but if you take a look at some of their sport logic numbers Kyle limiting scoring chances against their numbers are very good and so you're sitting there and you're looking at their situation and you're saying okay like how do

the senators handle this they've got a good defensive team they do a really good job of you know, defending themselves particularly at even strength and the goaltending has been a struggle, how do they let this play out? And I admit, I don't have the answers right now and I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but it's probably something they were even thinking about before the unfortunate announcement on Sunday about Allmark.

And again, we wish them all the best. Yeah, goaltending's been a story. there. The penalty kill, of course, as those in that market are well aware. And I've had a couple people around the league volunteer, not associated with the senators going, they should be in a better spot than they are win loss wise. You know, they just, they see a very good team there. They're going, they should have more of a foothold on one of the eight spots in the east or top three in the Atlantic or whatever. I think there's, there's a lot of people around the league that go, that's a good team there and believe they're going to get sorted out sooner or later.

Okay, also on Sunday, Elliot, so Vancouver Canucks lose at home to San Jose Saturday night. That was the other late game on Hockey Night in Canada. They practice on Sunday, and we learned that Jake DeBrusk is going to be a healthy scratch Monday against the Seattle Cracken. Now, this is someone who, of course, signed the big extension year and a half ago or two off seasons ago in Vancouver.

Career high, 28 goals last season, is first as a Canuck. But it's been a bit of a, he's, his career, he's been known as a streaky goal score. Get red hot and then cool off at times. But he's had one goal in his last 16 here, Elliot. I give him credit that he came out. He fielded all the questions about what was going on. I said it's embarrassing. Understandably not thrilled with it all, but he wasn't hiding from the situation.

but Jake DeBrusk is getting a reset Monday when the Canucks play the Crackin. I really try not to overreact to these kinds of things because I think they can be one-offs. And the other thing about it is that Adam Foote has been very careful this year not to pour gasoline on the fire. Like I actually liked that he came out and admitted it, said yes, it's a really. reset. He's been struggling. We want to get him going again. But I just think the way it is right now in Vancouver with them looking to move people, it's impossible not like it's almost like a no-win situation at this point in time because foot comes out and they handle it the right way. They say he doesn't say you're going to have to see the lineup tomorrow or we're going to

keep you guessing he comes out right and says yes we're doing it he as you said de brus comes right out and says yes we're doing it and immediately it's they're trying to get out in a way it was no trade clause like it's you can't you just can't escape it you you can do all the right things pr wise which they did there and you just can't escape it i i just want to see this i just want to see this and see how it plays out i i i Don't know if you're jumping to that conclusion yet. Like we opened up the pod talking about Mangapani, right? Mm-hmm.

And he's got a shorter term, but also it took a while for it to get to this point. You know, Philip Dino, it took four and a half years into a six-year deal until it got to this point. Louis, Louis DeBrasque, I knew I was going to do that. I knew I was going to do that, Kyle. Jake DeBraska's in the second year of a long-term deal. You know, he's still playing a bit for them. It's not like Dave, it's not like you're looking at what they're doing with him around this and saying the opportunities aren't there. So I don't know that we're there yet.

But just because of, you know, what they're kind of going through and what the mission is kind of of their group right now. the story explodes and plus it's also it's Vancouver which is a whiteout market as we know it explodes into something really big but I still want to wait and see a bit but I understand why it becomes a big deal yeah seems like the honeymoon period the initial jump that everyone had just with the Quinn Hughes situation finally being put in the rearview mirror that was bound to happen though like This whole league, like this whole league right now is you win four, you lose four, you win two, you lose two. Like everybody gets hot and everybody gets cold.

And, you know, obviously, like, like I'm watching Chicago right now and they're really struggling with all these guys being hurt and they got pummeled by Pittsburgh on Sunday night and, you know, they got really hot. now they're back down. I think they're 31st. And you know what? A couple, you know what someone was saying to me on Sunday night was Kyle? It's like, they're going to get, if this continues, they're going to get another top young player. And they're going to be even more frightening when they have figured this all out.

But the Black Hawk fans, they don't want to hear that right now. They got the taste and they're like, oh, no, like another season where we're going to be down here. Like, I try to look at things the bright side, but I'm sure the Blackhawk fans don't think like that right now. I look at Vancouver and I watch that four-game streak and I'm like, this is excellent. But you know, because it happens to everybody, the pendulum is going to flip the other way. Like, you take a look at DeBrasque Minutes in his last few games, 18, 13, 18, 16, 19. Like, you can't look at this and say he's not playing. It's not the same to me as some of these other situations.

So that's why I'm not jumping to that conclusion yet. But I understand that it's in Vancouver at a time where they're trying to move people. I know why it becomes a story. Also, you mentioned the Penguins beating up on Chicago on Sunday. I just quickly shut out Justin Brazo, first career hat trick. Like, this is a guy. Long route. Well, yes.

a route that almost was nearly taken the exit from a number of years ago, right? So he started, he was with the Toronto organization for a bit, played in Newfoundland the East Coast League, a little bit with the Marleys. And then COVID hit. Talent, 60 goal score in the OHL.

Right. COVID hit and he thought, okay, with where the landscape was at the time that his pro playing days was done, he accepted enrollment at the University of Toronto. He was two weeks from starting his journey to a kinesiology degree. Two weeks.

It's not he was considering going to school. Like, it was happening. And then an offer came from Providence to go play for the H.L. Bruins out there. And the rest, as they say, is history. And Sunday night, first career hat trick. Pretty impressive. For a guy that thought his pro hockey career, he was prepared to move on from it at one point.

Yeah, very. And one of the big believers in him has always been dubous, right? They were the ones who signed him in the NHL. And obviously he brought him to Pittsburgh this year. Right. Good point there. Have you watched any of the World Juniors, Team Canada out of the gates so far? You know, I haven't watched a ton of it.

I'm kind of shocked at some of the stuff I'm seeing and reading, though. I mean, look, Dale Hunter team he won gold with last time. They didn't start very well, and they finished hot. Like, I would have thought that people, like, I don't freak out when teams don't do well in the early rounds. Like, if you follow Canada internationally going back to 2002 when they won gold at Salt Lake City, you can do not great in the early rounds and still win a gold medal. Now, last year was unique. just seemed to go sideways completely.

But, you know, people, people are saying to me like they only beat Latvia 2 to 1, and Canada used to beat them like 12 to nothing. I don't know. I mean, I actually think it's better for the tournament that some of these games are more competitive. I hate watching 12-0-14-0-0 games. I think it's better if other teams, maybe they don't have the same talent, but when you're better coached and you're committed to something like they obviously clogged up the middle against Canada and when you have good coaching and you have commit to a system and you make the games like it was exciting to watch that game going to overtime to think that Latvia could win this on one shot like it sucks for Canada but it's better for hockey but some of the stuff about the like Martone can't take a penalty there I completely agree with this but like the tapping on the butt and and how big a deal that is.

And the handshakes, I mean, they were right to apologize. They didn't realize the rules. But why are they shaking hands in preliminary games? I just think some of the things I'm hearing and reading are insane. Like, it's the first round. Like, come on. Yeah, I got to say, like, why Porter Marzona to put out an apology for the tap on the check player there going by? Like, I could not believe that.

Like, are you, are you kidding me? Why are you apologizing for that? He should be apologizing to his teammates for taking a bad penalty. Like, that's, you're the captain. You can't do that. But for, like, the apology for, like, the public apology for that. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know. Like, Elliot, I grew up right in that thick of the, uh, the five straight, the one in the 2000s from 05 to 09. Yeah. I remember the early one, the 90s. Right. Right. That was a bit before, you know, my memory took hold, but those teams were brash, they were mean.

It was a different style of hockey back than I know. They had a swagger to them, and they did not apologize for any of it. Like the Panthers. And everyone else had felt like in the country at the time ate it up. And you see it every, like, and it's not about, well, I'm Canadian, so Canada should be able to behave however they want it. I'm going to support it. It's just, you see it of the. tournament every year. Like the Americans

going back to back, like how many times over their runs, have we seen you know, some of the gestures out to the crowd and saluting some of the fans of the opposing countries? There is a swagger to greatness. Absolutely. And so when you keep winning gold medals and still have swagger.

Absolutely. You know, if you want to put an end to it, beat them then. And the checks gave them all they can handle in the opening game. Lafey, as you say, great, great guys. to take that to overtime, especially a year after, you know, they stunned them in the shootout in Ottawa.

It, uh, like that part's all been compelling in its own way, but the extra stuff here and you need to apologize and how dare they skate on the Czech side of center during warm up. Oh, come on. Clapka was packed, it was practically in Edmonton zone the other night in warm up. That's right. I was actually kind of surprised you didn't get fined.

I'm with you, Kyle. And the other thing, too, is, like, I've seen lots of teams win tournaments that didn't look good in the exhibition games. Now, maybe, or the, sorry, the preliminary games. You know, now, maybe in a week I'll be eating my words. But especially in Canada, I think we have seen enough tournaments. And maybe it's just because of the way they lost last year and they, they haven't won in a couple years that everybody's reacting like this. I'm not there.

But just from a two-and-a-half-hour flight away, a three-hour flight away, Carl, it just seems to me like this tournament isn't won in the preliminary round robin. No. Now, if they have the discipline problems in the metal round games, you deserve to lose. But it just seems, it seems too quick here. Yes, especially now with the format, before you won your group, you got to buy right to the semis, right? That doesn't happen to the world juniors anymore.

You've got to go through it. It doesn't matter. You got to go through the quarters still, just like everybody else. So anyway. And I want compelling games. Like, to me, it's, you know what? Like, okay, you're not beating Latvia,

12 nothing anymore. Last year you lose to them in a shootout. This year, you beat them in overtime. Isn't that what we want in hockey? More competitive nations, less blow, out games? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. No, you're not. I'm totally with you there. Okay, let's get to the final thought that, Elliot, because, you know, last week we talked a little bit about where things stood between the ECHL and the Players Association there. You were

hopeful that something could get done, you know, before boxing days, a big day for that league and stuff. It got ugly for a few days. Some of the stuff that spilled into online when they weren't able to come to agreement through Christmas, through Boxing Day. We are now at the point, at least, thankfully, that a tentative agreement has been reached, hasn't been ratified yet, but at the bottom of the statement that the ECHL put out over the weekend that players will report to their teams in good faith and prepare to return to play pending ratification and approval. So from what you all know and what you learned, how did they ultimately get this across the finish line? Well, everybody felt pain. I think that's,

the key thing here, Kyle, is that everybody felt pain. And, you know, one of the things I'll say, and again, I'm not close to this. I followed it from outside, but it was very unique to me just to watch it. If you've covered the labor disputes, the previous ones in the NHL between the league and the players association, one thing that's really stood out is the unity of the two sides. Betman, he had the owners in lockstep, and they were terrified of him. They would never speak out against him, and he was the mouthpiece, and they were in line. The Players' Association, those players were in line. And I remember in 2000, and I think it was the big one in 4-05, Pierre Dajnay, who at that time was playing for the Montreal Canadiens, he spoke out

against it. And there was a big players meeting after that. And the media was there to cover it. And they were behind closed doors. And Dajna came out like he was starring as Roddy McDowell and Clockwork Orange. Like it was as if they'd brainwine, oh, no, I'm okay, I'm all. Like, if you spoke out, you were put back into line. And if you followed this on social media, like there were players who came out and said they were not in support of the PHPA. There were players who came out and they were saying this isn't about the teams. It's about the league or it's about other teams.

Like this was not a unanimous kind of thing. It was very different from what I've covered before in, in these kinds of situations. So you could tell, like, everybody was dealing with not a lot of, not full unanimity. And there were pain. Like, those games,

those games that weren't played are right around Christmas Day, boxing day, the day after boxing day. Like, those are big revenue generators for some of those ECHL teams. And it hurt not having those games. Now, the players got some important things, They got more pay, which is always important.

It's always about money. A big one, too, was a couple days off after three days and three games or three games and three days. And that's very important. You know, but a couple people did say to me, so there were big wins for the players there, no question about it. But a couple people said to me that the one thing that's going to be interesting here is will there be, you know, lingering dam?

Because in the NHL, even though there were hard feelings in some cases, you know, they're still playing for millions of dollars. And eventually the league recovered. And if you've taken a look at the league, and I think they finally realized that this was too damaging. And now everybody's making too much money for this ever to happen again. But the league kept on being healthy. and the league kept on moving forward

and people were able to put a lot of that stuff behind them. There's some people I spoke to who are not convinced that's going to be so easy to happen here that it might be player versus player because some players came out and publicly said they didn't support this. There are some teams that are really going to be hurt

by the games they lost and how to make up that revenue. And also don't forget that we're all carefully watching the NHL. You know, there was some, there was one reporter in particular who I think is a really good reporter, but made some comments on social media about how, you know, all of a sudden people care about the ECHL. And that's fine.

I don't have any issue with that. But the one thing that's true about that is that a lot of people who are kind of looking at this are going to go away. So when we're all not watching it as closely, are there going to be some hard feelings that play out behind the scenes? Like, I want the ECHL to be healthy. I think it's good for hockey. It puts the game on in places where there isn't an NHL team

where people aren't going to get a chance to see NHL games. And I believe that league and those teams are very important. And a lot of the players who are playing there are truly doing it because they love hockey. but you know I had a couple people say to me they're worried that some of that bond might be broken here and how hard they're worried about a couple of the teams they're worried about the bond being broken and a certain amount of like innocence lost and can you fix that because it's not good it's it's not good for everybody involved so I'm happy for the players the fans the teams the league that they got this done but a couple people said to me they are they are a little concerned about long-term damage because it's not as easy as the NHL putting this behind them and I'll say something to the AHL which had their CBN last year was really thrilled that they were able to avoid

anything similar they some of the teams reached out to me and some of the players reached out to me and they said boy are we really lucky we didn't go through this because it was it was really tough to watch. Yeah, it was. You only hope that time kind of plays the ultimate role in helping men some of the fences that were trampled over in the last few days is how some were really feeling came out in a very, very public way. Do you know what all, like did the NHL, I don't always say get involved, but were they at

all, just given, I mean, it is a feeder league, it's one below the American League, of course, but there are affiliations. I haven't heard anything about that, to be honest. It's a good question. I haven't heard anything about that. I know that there were some players that wanted them to intervene. But as we tape this, I don't have a good answer for that. Okay.

All right. Bottom line is, tentative agreement reached, and that's most important here in this case when it comes to the ECHL and it's players. All right, that was the final thought. Why don't we take our first break? When we come back, it's the return of the thought line. You're listening to 32 Thoughts, the podcast.

All right, we're back. a one episode hiatus, thanks to the holiday spectacular. The thought line returns, Elliot. And before we get to the fresh batch, we've got some catching up to do, some loose ends to tie up. So why don't you start? There will only be one thought on the thought line today, but it is an enormous one. It ties up the biggest loose end of Christmas, and I will get to it in a second. However, Kyle, there is more fashion controversy.

By the way, I have to say, I have to say, Deb is the goddess of fashion. There are a lot of people who pushed back on the brown shoes with blue suit against her. Kyle, you had a lot of support on this one, that there was nothing wrong with the brown shoes and the blue suit. I just want to say. Yeah, I think she sees that too, but she was like, yours were too beat up. Yeah, don't lump me in this. She came after, they came after you specifically.

I know. Leave me, I'm not taking any stray fire on this one. I'm just the observer. But so you were getting a lot of support on that. However, there were some comments about your attire on Saturday night for the Battle of Ontario. You wore a beautiful three-piece suit. Like, it looked great on you. except for one thing.

People were texting me and saying, you don't do up the jacket button on a three piece. When we wear them in studio, you don't do up the button. I actually had to go to the Sportsnet Plus app and rewind the show, like I was doing NHL video review, to see if you had done the suit jacket button up, because I got texts. Kyle is ruining the three-piece suit.

You were like the Chris King of SportsNet fashion. That's right. Elliot, I got to be honest. I mean, I've been wearing, I don't wear them often, but I've been wearing three-piece suits for a number of years now. This is the first time I understand, I thought it was an either-or thing. This is the first time I've been told,

got to leave the jacket undone in that case. So fine. Next time, I will go undone. I look forward to our listeners, opinions, and thoughts on the topic. Yeah, okay. What's this big loose end you got to tie up here? All right. Here we go.

Here we go. It's the note everyone has been waiting for from Jake Deemer. Jake is the one who bought the trick. Justin Jari jersey, the Penguins jersey for Christmas. And he was good enough to send an update on what happened. You ready? Yes, this is fantastic. First off, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of yours, Jake. I gave my wife the Jari jersey and she was. T'an-tun-tun-thrued. Absolutely thrilled. She's only ever had one favorite player and the idea of swapping for a different player never crossed her mind. I let her and the family listen to the podcast

and everyone got a big kick out of it. But I just wanted to settle the debate that she appreciated the thought of a jari-pan Linguins jersey and says she will wear it when we go to games in the future. You, Elliot, were right. You have redeemed your gift-giving wrongdoings. And most importantly, Kyle and Dom were wrong. Can everybody tell what this sound is?

That is me, Pat. cutting myself on the shoulder. Jake, thank you for the update. I will hold this over, Kyle and Dom, until next Christmas, we get our gift questions to see who is right. I wear the crown for a year. We'll see what happens 12 months from now. This is a Jewish Christmas miracle. All those years you have thought about this unknown gift you gave many years ago.

Finally, you have exercised those demons. To quote the great Jim Houston, it is a wonderful day for an exorcism. I can't tell you how many people have asked me, what was that gift? What was that gift? I'm like, I'm never telling because I don't want to out the person. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Jake, thanks for following up on all of this. I appreciate, Jake.

Most important thing is the worst, the worst, worst, worst feeling is when you put a lot of thought into a gift and it doesn't go well or it's not received properly. I'm glad that you took that much thought and that much care. You wanted to do the right thing and it worked out for you. Awesome. Good stuff. All right. All right. What do we got this week?

So I've got another loose end to tie up here. Oh, okay, good. This is from Dylan, director of operations at Grand Junction Regional Airport. No way. No way. I'm telling you. Came right into the thought line. Kyle and Elliot.

I am a steady listener of the podcast, but was just about thrown out of my chair when I heard Kyle came through our latest diversion event in Grand Junction. Grand Junction regularly sees diversions destined to Denver, given its long runway and favorable weather conditions. I am the director of operations for the Grand Junction Regional Airport Authority and happen to be out on the ramp, tarmac, when the event happened. I came out to help the airline staff that were overwhelmed with the influx of planes to supervise the deplanement of the Calgary flight.

You probably saw me standing there under the wind. as you walked into the terminal, we were working to have a truck parked in front of the plane as you deplane so you didn't feel any of the jet blast from the F-18s that were parked on the military ramp. Though we don't have the largest terminal, we appreciate you noticing the festive music that was playing. We tend to get a lot of feedback,

both positive and negative, as you might imagine. Santa worked with the airport for a couple of decades and is now retired from airport work. He still likes to make appearances in semi-retirement. We know it's a stressful time for travelers, so I was happy to hear the big man made your time a little easier. I am proud to say that hockey is growing in the Grand Junction area. This is the inaugural year for the Grand Junction Riverhawks

as part of the NCDC within the USPHL. So far, they are having a strong season as an expansion team. The local rink just underwent. some major renovations and maybe looking at expansion in the coming years. I would be remiss if I didn't say that there is a large avalanche fan population on the western slope of Colorado and the hockey community deserves a shout out. Hey, I agree that if Grand Junction is good enough for Santa, that it's good enough for everyone, if you ever come through the area again or more than likely get diverted from Denver, let me know.

Wow. We've got listeners in Grand Junction. First of all, go River Hawks. Glad to see that hockey is expanding into your corner of the world. Excellent stuff. And, Kyle, that is good news for you because what that means is when you landed there, there wasn't a gigantic red flag next to your name. It didn't say Bukascus cavity search right next to you.

No. Which is on some level is kind of disappointing. I know you're hoping for the opposite. Dylan, thanks for standing at. That's awesome. That is great. Okay, we move on. Sanders from Syracuse, New York. Happy holidays and happy New Year to my favorite Canadians.

I have a question about teams traveling after the holiday break playing on what was Saturday, December 27th. As I was watching my Islanders, Brendan Burke stated, all away teams playing today had to travel to their games that morning. Does the league try to keep the away team? team close to the team they're traveling to due to the short amount of time for travel. For example, the islanders host of the Rangers. That's a simple train or bus ride for the Rangers to UBS Arena. Does the NHL try to keep the commuting short like this one for the Rangers during this time of the season? Thanks for everything you guys do.

Lastly, as a teacher, brown shoes and blue pants or a suit were always good in my mind. None of my students have told me it doesn't look good. If anyone would call out my outfit not working, my students definitely would. Can't beat young adult honesty. That's undoubtedly true. I believe that 1,000%. So, Sanders, this is a great question because it is something that's relevant every year. And one of the things that Brendan Burke did talk about was travel in the morning.

Technically, you are not allowed to travel before the day of the 27th. So if you wanted to go at 12.01 a.m. you could. The most recent violation happened when the Maple Leafs played St. Louis a few years ago. The Maple Leafs left at 10 p.m. local time with the approval of the players. Because I remember I checked. I asked the players and their representatives, did the Maple Leafs come to you and say, we want to do this? And the answer was yes.

The players approved it. but they were still fined for leaving before the 27th. And the least argument was Toronto to St. Louis is pretty long for what the NHL tries to do here. Depending on what website you get, you get from between two hours to two and a half hours. That's even longer than the NHL would like to do, but there are some situations where they have no choice but to do it because of the limited amount of close matchups. And I'll get to that in a second. But the Maple Leafs went at 10 p.m.

And they got fined and they said, look, our guy said it was okay to do it. And I remember calling the Players Association about it. And their answer was, look, we negotiate for these rights and we fight for them and they should be upheld. And the Players Association, even though the least players said they were okay with it, said, no, it's not okay. The Flyers have been punished for that once. That was a long time ago. The Leaves from the Flyers are the two I remember, and the Leaves are the last one.

So the NHL and the Players Association is very strict about that. As for length, if it's over two hours, they really try to avoid it. That was one situation that was over two hours. There was another one years ago. When the Blackhawks were in their heyday, they played the Avalanche Act. home on the 27th, and that's a bit of a hike from Denver or Colorado Junction to Chicago.

That one's about, Grand Junction, that right. That's about two and a half hours, and the avalanche got pummeled. They lost like seven to two, and Patrick Waugh was really mad. He said, look, the Blackhawks are better than us. That's when he coached Colorado. He said, look, the Blackhawks are better than us, but to make us fly two and a half hours game day into that buzzsaw, it's ridiculous. And so the league does try to avoid that.

But sometimes there are teams that get the two and a half hour trip. All right. I love that it was kind of like rivalry type set up this time around. Like I don't remember them doing that the first game out of the holiday break. I suppose it helped that it was a Saturday. But there's close proximity for one. But the amount of we had Battle of Ontario, Battle of Alberta, Battle of Florida, like go down the list. It was a great way to swing back into action.

Good on them for doing that. Okay, from Carter. Hello, Mr. Bacoscus, Big Dom, and the Raccoon King. I was watching the Flyers Rangers game a couple weeks ago. If I was the Raccoon King, those things would actually listen to me. I am the opposite of whatever a raccoon king is. The Raccoon Cryer. I'm the raccoon loser. That's what I am.

Carter says, I was watching the Flyers Rangers game a couple weeks ago where Denver Barkie made his NHL debut with the Flyers. He had two points in the game and they came 23 seconds apart. And I'm wondering what is the shortest time between a player's first and second point to begin their career? Thank you very much for all you do. Go Flyers and go birds. 23 seconds, two assists. The only thing I can think off the top of my head, and I don't know if it was in his first game,

but it was definitely in his rookie season. In the 40s, one of the NHL's rookies of the year was a player by the name of Gus Bodner, and he set an NHL record by scoring three goals. And I'll check the exact number while you're telling the full answer here. But he scored a hat trick in a very fast time. I'm just not sure that it was his first ever game. Yeah. Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be the first game. We're just looking at shortest time between first point and second point. So maybe they didn't score their

first game or their second or anyway. But the record does come in the 40s. It wasn't Gus Bodner, but it does come from that era. Oh, you know what? I'm actually, actually slightly wrong here. If you're already screaming at whatever device you use to listen to your podcast, I just looked it up. I know I'm wrong. Gus Bodner set the record for fastest goal by a player in his first game. That was 15 seconds.

So I didn't have the story fully right. Ah, okay. Please excuse my indiscretion. Okay, next. All right. Who has the record? Forties. Is it like a famous player?

I'm not as familiar with this name, but I don't know. Let's go Gay Stewart. Incorrect. Okay. His first name that popped up from the 40s who was not as familiar. Okay. So, Elliot, I looked this up. This guy only played 19 career games in the NHL, all with Boston.

I'm not getting this. Al Rittenger. Yeah, I'm going to confess everyone. I want everyone to know I was not going to get this one. That's okay. I think I understand. So Al from Regina Saskatchewan in January 1944, that scored his first NHL point was an assist.

Eight seconds later, he had his first career goal. That is the shortest gap. Wow. Brian Trotche had his first career goal in 1975. 18 seconds later had his first career assist. Wow. Trotche for a time had tied the record for fastest goal in the game. He was one of the guys that scored five seconds in.

Right. So he was used to making explosive debuts. Yes. The only other guy who beat Denver Barclays. He's 23 seconds from the 21st century was Igor Radulov with the Chicago Blackhawks. No way. 13 seconds between his first and second career goals. They were the only goals Chicago scored that game in what was a 9-2 defeat at the hands of the New York Islanders.

That's great research. I wasn't getting any of that. Great question, Carter. Great question. All right, from T.J. Greetings, Elliot, Kyle, and the Mighty Dom. Oh, okay. I attended the Red Wings and Capitals game in D.C. recently, during which the Caps scored a goal that was ultimately discussed around the scores box by the on-ice officiating crew, disallowed, then challenged by the Caps, further reviewed, with the challenge ultimately denied and a minor panel assessed to the Caps.

This led to the inevitable chanting of ref you suck by the offended home crowd by one of the leaders of said chance happened to be in the seat directly in front of me. And once it had died down, I leaned down to ask him if the chant should more correctly be Toronto, you suck. This led to a discussion regarding whether the goalie interference challenge even went to Toronto for a discussion at all. And I realized that neither of us had a good handle on what specifically triggers Toronto. involvement, i.e. the Situation Room, in adjudicating an event during an NHL game. Is it any coaches challenge, any potential goal scoring play? Are there other specific criteria? I know I can count on the 32 Thoughts team for a definitive answer. Y'all are the best. I don't know about that. Generally, I would say you can't count on us for anything, but on this situation, you are going

to be rewarded. Just like the NFL, in the NFL, they always review touchdowns. Was it a legal touchdown? Did that touchdown actually happen? Did the ball legally cross the goal line? The NHL reviews all goals quickly. And every goal is looked at to see, is it a good goal? The only things that the coaches can activate are offside, is it on or offside, goaltender interference, or was there a missed stoppage? Those are the things that a coach can challenge. But kicking motion, that's the situation room. High stick, that's the situation room. What the situation room is responsible for is, did the puck enter the net in a legal fashion? And if the situation room reviews those, there is no danger to a penalty of to either

team depending on the outcome. That is a league review. Okay, great. Thank you, TJ, for that question. Here's another trivia. Adam from Poland. Dear 32 thinkers. Have you ever been to Poland, Kyle? I have not. Have you? No, but it's on my list. Dom, you're an Eastern European guy. Have you ever been to Poland? I have not, but it's also on my list. Yeah, Poland is one of the countries I really want to go see. People I know who've been there say that some of the most beautiful people they've ever seen live in Poland. So there's a few, it's one of several reasons I actually want to go see that country.

You know, stick out like a sore thumb. Boy, that was a belt high fastball. And you put that two counties away. Excellent. Counties. That's great. Great job. Great job, Kyle.

Even I have to tip my cap to that one. That was great. This is Adam from Poland. Hope my location is exotic enough to bring to the thought line. Well, is he just from Elliot. It absolutely is. As a fan of the local hockey team, STS Sanuk, I hope I'm pronouncing that, right,

which holds the record of zero wins, 27 losses, and no games that ended in overtime. Oh, boy. I have a question. What was the longest NHL streak without gaining a point since the start of a season? Please tell me it was at least a month. Best wishes to my Polish-Lithuanian commonwealther, brown shoe wearer Kyle, comrade from the other side of the Carpathians Dom, and to my favorite raccoon neighbor. Elliot. I like the reference to the Carpathians, Dom. That's actually really good. The longer, I actually know this one and because recently Columbus challenged it. Columbus had a season a decade ago where I think they lost eight

straight to start the year. And so we were all looking up, okay, what's the record? I don't remember the exact year, Kyle, but I know the Rangers have it. Nicely done. Yeah. Yeah, it was the same season that Al Rittenger went eight seconds between his first and second points in the NHL, 43, 44.

I wonder if, I wonder if at that time, like, Al Rittinger and the Rangers said, you know what, it doesn't seem like a big deal right now, but 80 years from now, we're going to be, people are going to be talking about us on something called a podcast. Yeah, exactly. No, I don't know what that is either. But they're going to be talking about us on it. Yeah, Al's bummed because he only played 19 games in the show. You're like, don't worry.

It was a noteworthy 19 games. That's what sure was. In particular, like, this is, you have nothing, nothing to be shy about here. Good poll. Yes, the New York Rangers went to 11 straight games of regulation losses to start a season. No overtime back then, unless it was the play. playoffs. Right. Yeah. The, and Columbus is second with eight. Oh, so they ended up second. I just remember we were all looking it up because Columbus was in the vicinity. I just, I do remember that. Yeah. Four other teams tied at seven straight losses to begin and then it cascades downwards from there. But the New York Rangers in 43, 44 take the cake there. But, uh, tough time.

for his squad over in Poland going, oh, and 27 out of the gate? Ouch. A couple years ago, I did an article in the 32 Thoughts blog about a team from Burnaby, B,C.

They were in a junior league there, and they had an awful, awful season. And a couple of years later, they actually, I think, won the championship. So, Adam, there is hope. There is always hope. If that team could turn it around,

no reason yours can't either. Okay, good place to leave it there. Great to have the thought line back again, where you can write into us at 32 Thoughts at Sportsnet.ca, or you can leave a voicemail as well at 1833-3-3-1-3-1-3-2. We'll take one final break and come back and wrap up this edition

of 32 Thoughts, the podcast, after this. Okay, before we go, a couple things we wanted to get to here. So last week, we mentioned that 32 thoughts, taking our show on the road again this year as part of Scotia Bank Hockey Day in Canada. That in 2026 next month will be in Moncton, New Brunswick. On January the 15th, it's a Thursday. I believe around 3 p.m. We will have a live taping. We've got five pairs of tickets to give away to that show.

This year, we've got a trivia question. Okay? Submit your answers for those that would like tickets to the show in Moncton on January the 15th to the thought line, 32 thoughts at sportsnet.com. All we need from you is to include your email and your phone number along with the answer to this trivia question to be entered into the draw. So we are looking for the number of NHLers from New Brunswick that have won the Stanley Cup in NHL history. Now, note that I say NHLers, okay?

So for the sake of this argument, as we know, the Stanley Cup was awarded before the National Hockey League came into existence back in 1917. But for the sake of this argument, we are only taking NHLers from New Brunswick that have won the Stanley Cup. So 1917 onward. Submit your answer to 32 Thoughts at Sportsnet.com. And you'll be in the draw to win one of the five pairs of tickets to our 32 Thoughts live show coming up in just a few weeks

as part of Scotia Bank Hockey Day in Canada. We can't wait to get out there. So we'll keep you posted on that front. Also, a couple of programming notes here at the network as we wrap up 2025. On Tuesday night, nationally across our SportsNet family of channels, you can see Rick Talkett's return to Vancouver, the Flyers and Canucks from the Pacific Northwest at 10 Eastern 7 Pacific, then on New Year's Eve on Wednesday.

So as we know that morning, down in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Team Canada will be announcing their roster, the full roster for the Milan Olympics coming up in February. That will be in the morning at 5.30 Eastern on Sportsnet. We have a one-hour hockey central show that David Amber will be anchoring the coverage of to tee up what will be Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey of Winnipeg and Detroit at 630 Eastern, but also reacting to the announcement of who made Team Canada, who did not make Team Canada. So a lot to get to on the lead-up of the Jets and Wings on Wednesday. Two other games that can be seen nationally on New Year's Eve as well. Both at 9.30 Eastern 7.30 Mountain Time.

The Bruins are in Edmonton and the Flyers had a little bit east to face the flames in Calgary. That game can be seen on Sportsnet 1. Great way to close out 2025 before ringing in the new year. Taking us out today, a track from Beyond the Sun. which is a Toronto-based pop rock band whose sound blends soaring melodies anthemic production and emotionally driven songwriting.

Formed by three brothers with a lifelong creative bond, the band channel's shared experience into music that feels both intimate and expansive. Their debut album, Focus, is slated for release in late 2026. You can catch this track,

along with all the others we've featured this year on the 32 Thoughts of the music playlist on Spotify. Here's Beyond the Song. son and don't let me go yet on 32 bots the podcast. to us. Can't stop, won't stop, you're my medicine. One look, I'm hooked, I'm in hell again. You're the only one to pull me out of here.

But every time I need you, you just disappear. Don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, oh. Don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, oh. She's venom in my brain, I can't forget her face. She likes the bands of lack, and I just love the way she tastes. Oh, I swear to God, yeah, that's my favorite part. Even the smoke from a cigarette looks good around her. I'm so addicted to us.

Can't stop, won't stop, you're my medicine One book, I'm hooked, I'm in hell again You're the only one to pull me out of here But every time I need you, you just disappear Don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, Don't let me go, oh, Don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, yeah, Don't let me go, oh, oh, oh, oh,

I can't stop sinking, drown and drinking, be myself and I Can't stop, won't stop, you're my medicine, one hook, I'm hooked, I'm in hell again, you're the only one to pull me out of here. But every time I need you, you just disappear Don't let me go yet, don't let me go yet, don't let me go, yeah, don't let me go, oh Don't let me go yet, don't let me go yet, don't let me go, oh, oh