32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Hockey’s Got Me Feeling Oogy Inside

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman open the podcast with a quick word on the Jeremy Swayman-Boston Bruins tension. That makes way for Elliotte to expand on the outcome of Vegas receiving cap relief for Robin Lehner (7:38). Kyle and Elliotte delve into Conor Geekie's one game suspension and fallout of the "crazy stuff" happening in this preseason (13:40). The fellas then highlight a couple of outstanding players who will surprisingly make an opening night roster across the NHL (24:26). Elliotte touches on why the Colorado Avalanche have a chance to struggle out of the gate (29:00). The final thought presented by GMC highlights the biggest takeaways from the Board of Governors meetings this week (33:16).  Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions in the Thought Line (40:23).The guys wrap the podcast by giving Utah and the NHL their flowers for headlining their inaugural regular season game with a concert by country sensation Shaboozey (52:24).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty & Cam Barra 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.  

I knew you were romantic, but I didn't know you were romantic for hockey. Right around this time of year, it gets me every single time. And we've got a lot to talk about here on the show today. I feel like we're on the Hallmark Channel. Oh my God. Yeah, exactly. That could be a good pitch for them. 32 Roses, starring Elliott Friedman. 32 Roses. I'm not just... Starring Elliot Friedman.

Okay, welcome to it. 32 Thoughts presented by GMC, Sermati, Friedman, Bukaskis, with you, Elliot, this morning. And Peter Lonzo. Oh, my gosh. Were you watching that? I just got off the air. I was happy for him because the Mets fans were pounding him and the Mets media were pounding him.

And so if anyone was going to do it, I was happy to see it be Pete Alonso. It is tough to beat October baseball. And as I took my garbage out to the curb this morning, Elliot, you know what I was thinking? What's that? It's also hockey weather. Little bit of a nip in the air. Different feeling outside.

Little bite. It's time for hockey. The real stuff. We're almost through preseason. Did you ever see the movie Misery? No, I didn't. Kathy Bates, James Caan. Excellent performance by Kathy Bates.

Okay, go on. She says, you make me feel all oogie inside. Hearing you wax poetic about the start of hockey season and the chill in the fall weather. And don't forget later today, we're going to talk about the start of hockey season and the chill in the fall weather. And don't forget, later today, we're going to talk about the end of the podcast. We've got our first game, Devil's Sabres Overseason Prague.

Hearing you talk about your excitement at the start of the hockey season makes me feel all Oogie inside. All right, let's get to it. We've got the name of the podcast all ready for this episode. You want to start off with Swayman just because we have to?

Sure. So yeah, the Bruins, they were in Quebec City Thursday night. How about the ovation that Patrice Bergeron got when he came out before puck drop? Did you see the sign behind Corpus Salo out there at the Videotron Center? Take 64 or go go which wasn't

ported at corporate sallow of course well i was going to say they realized that wasn't swayman playing they didn't show the fan i only saw a close-up i was wondering if it was cam neely holding the sign oh my gosh or sea bass or sea bass uh anything going on with number one not here not hearing anything new as of thursday night when we record this not hearing anything new we'll see um like i said i thought they're going to take a couple days to decompress but i'm not hearing anything new uh aside from that um i have a question for you though what's that if the bruins start the year without Swayman, how do you feel about them? I was having this conversation with a couple people.

And I heard on the Leafs broadcast on Thursday, I was watching you on the panel there and asked the guys about the similar question because not only do they go in the season without Jeremy Swayman, they also go without Linus Allmark. For two years, you've had one of the best duos in the league. Allmark-Swayman got broken up, Allmark traded,

and now, as it stands, Swayman not there. So it's Corpus Salo and Brandon Busse. I really like Busse. I think he's a good young goalie. And they've also got Patera, who they took off waivers from the Canucks. But even as good as the Bruins are, how do you feel about them with that duo? Differently. I feel differently about them.

But, hey, remember going into the season, they did it without McAvoy, without Marshawn not too long ago. They survived that. Not only survived it, they had an incredible regular season. This group has precedent. There is something about the way that dressing room operates, but

goaltending is a different story. I'm really curious to see what a fresh start for Corpus Allo does for him regardless of if he's the number one guy to start here i did and it was a struggle but that ottawa team last year defensively wasn't all that great in front of him and anton forsberg a lot of nights too so that played a factor into it but But now he comes into a different setup. They will be good.

I really like their blue line. And better with Zdorov. So I think they can survive it. Someone from one of the teams that's in the Atlantic Division said to me, I hope we don't see Swayman until December.

Oh man. Well, cause it's going to be such a beast of a division again. Yeah. I think they can survive it, but the longer it goes on, my feeling about them certainly does change. What about you?

I, I think they're really good. And I, like I said, i think they're really good and i like i said i think they're better i don't know though like that's that's a huge change in their identity and their personnel even though they're still a really good team and i think even better than they were last year and I think even better than they were last year, your eraser from behind is gone. The one thing I think that really saves them, really saves them,

is early in the year, they don't have back-to-backs. There's a lot of games, even in the East where you tend to have a lot of them because the travel's so short, they don't have a single back-to-back in the first month of the season. So if you don't have them and Cor Pacello, as you said, picks up from where he was last year, they don't have a back-to-back until the end of November. So you can probably get through it.

until the end of November. So you can probably get through it. But the longer it goes, the less I like it for them. And I just think that Swayman's a hell of a goalie. Like, you go back to the playoffs they had last year when things were starting to teeter against Toronto and Jim Montgomery was asked about different players in their lineup, he kept saying Swayman was the one guy he wasn't worried about.

He didn't have to worry about him at all. And you go a little bit longer without that, understanding still the culture that that team has built in that room and being able to withstand absences as they've done for a number of years now. Man, going a long period of time, if it gets to that without Swayman and Allmark now, this season for the Bruins, I don't like it very much. I'm with you. I'm with you. I still think there's an ability to sort this out. But for the first time now, you really have to look at, okay, what happens if it doesn't start on time? Okay, take me to Vegas. That's what I say to everybody.

Take me to Vegas. I really like going there. All righty. The topic du jour, Robin Leonard. The solution, the news came out on Thursday, was reached between the NHL and the PA in regards to Leonard's contract with the Golden Knights. He's entering the final year of a five-year deal. For those that need a reminder or didn't catch it a few weeks ago,

Leonard did not show up for physicals at the start of training camp. Even if you're someone who has been on LTIR like he has been, you still need to show up day one to be examined. So, Elliot, can you elaborate on the solution that was reached in all of this? I know people are upset. My whole feed all day was full of people saying Vegas gets away with it again.

Vegas is the preferred child. Some people were calling them the Vegas golden childs. Step back for a second and really look at this. I know people are emotional, but step back for a second and really look at it. If a player has to show up for a physical and doesn't show, who do you think has the odds for a better case in a grievance? Is it the team or is it the player? I'll take team for $1,000.

And you would get the $1,000. Even though you didn't phrase it in the form of a question, you would get the $1,000. And you would get the $1,000. Even though you didn't phrase it in the form of a question, you would get the $1,000. And that's it. Vegas had a case here to terminate the deal because Leonard wasn't there for the physical. If anybody's getting just a financial benefit here, it's Leonard more than the team is because they could have tried to grieve it. And they would have had, at the very least, from a CBA point of view,

they would have had a very good case. Now, Leonard wasn't able to be there. The league knew that. The Players Association knew that. The team knew that in advance. It wasn't a surprise Leonard wasn't there. So what happened is he got help here from everyone involved. He's been through a lot lot I think a lot of

people really support him and want to see him be in a good place so I think because they understood the circumstances they said okay we're gonna find a way for Leonard to be paid and the team can benefit too. I know people get mad at this, as I said, but if you look at it objectively, from a purely legal point of view, Leonard got a bit of a benefit here as opposed to the organization did. I know people don't like to hear that, but it's true.

And I hope that Leonard's in a good place um you know i i i think the less that is said about it the better but i just hope he's in a good place and i'm glad that a solution was found where you know everybody could work this out okay my one follow-up then on this one elliot and understanding all of what you just said want to ask it carefully with respect to as you say all that lennar has gone through do you worry at all i mean the old line that you bring up from time to time from colin camp, the law of unintended consequences that could come from a new precedent being set with this, or is everyone involved kind of under the understanding

that this is separate from what would be considered precedent? Well, it's a great question. One of the things that the League and the Players Association do is they agree sometimes to carve-outs, the things that the league and the players association do is they agree sometimes to carve outs situations where because something happens it doesn't they work it so that it doesn't affect future situations i think it's fair to say that this is a very unique thing, one of the things that happened in the summer is, you know, Nachushkin in Colorado is in a situation where he's in the program and he's getting help.

And, you know, Colorado was told, you don't get any cap relief. You know, he's expected back in the middle of the next season in November and because he's in the program you have to let it play out that way so you know there was there was a unique situation here with Leonard it didn't allow Colorado any relief with a player who's been through his own challenges. So what that says to me is that they are looking at this on a case-to-case basis, and no two are the same, and as long as the league and the players both agree, they find a way to get things done. And that's what I would say, Kyle, that I don't think you're, I mean, number one, you hope you don't see more of these situations because it

means someone's going through challenges. So you don't want any of that at all. But the way this one was handled, they've made it very clear using the word unique, which I've heard a lot of the last few weeks, that this is just going to be about this particular case and it shouldn't be used as an example necessarily in any other case. Okay, we'll park that there and head to Tampa next. Connor Geeky. It was announced on Thursday that Geeky has been suspended for one preseason game for violating Rule 70.2,

the legal line change, but for the purpose of starting an altercation. Wednesday night went after Josh Davies, who earlier in the game delivered a heavy but clean hit in the open ice on Victor Hedman, the captain.

So Geeky's a guy, Elliot, 20 years old. It's his first year of pro. He's just getting to know his new team in Tampa. Comes to the Lightning in the Mikhail Sergeyev trade back in the offseason. John Cooper was saying postgame, hey, this has been the rep of the Lightning for a number of years now. You come after one guy. You're getting

all of us coming after you Kucharov was the guy who went after him the hog tie right after by the way but that was what a textbook open ice hit though I understand nobody likes seeing their captain get hit but Davies isn't the tallest guy and boy did he catch headman clean but what was your reaction he did well first of all you said, it's Tampa's DNA. And remember last year, the Maple Leafs showed their players video of Tampa coming to the aid of players like Vasilevsky when they didn't like the way they were treated. That's right.

The Leafs did that. They said, wait a sec, that's the way they do it. That's the way we have to do it too. And Cooper is 100% right about that. You know, the thing here that's really interesting is I thought, you know, one thing when I saw the announcement that they were going to have the hearing, the first thing I wondered about was it the 10 gamer. And it's not because a 10 gamer is when you come off the bench and you have no business being on the ice and you go right into a fight. Geeky was actually a legal line change.

He came on the ice legally and then sought out Davies and got into the fight. And if you look at that, that's happened historically before. I saw Ryan Lomberg got a one-game suspension for that. And John Scott got a two-game suspension for that, and John Scott got a two-game suspension for that. And, you know, so I knew that that was going to be the case. I think the interesting thing is I thought the NHL did, or the Department of Player Safety, did Geeky a little bit of a favor. And the reason is, as you said, he's a 20-year-old.

He's in his first training camp. If they give him more than a game suspension, they have to give him something. They have two exhibition games left. They play Friday against Carolina, and they play Monday against Nashville. If they give him two games, it really hurts his chances to make the team.

For sure. And so the league did him, or the Department of Player Safety did him a favor. Now, I say good on them in this case if they felt that aside from just breaking an obvious rule, Geeky wasn't guilty of anything bad, I have no problem with that. The one thing I've been thinking is we've been talking a lot about the exhibition season. And we've been talking about, okay, there need to be fewer games.

And what do we have to do to cut down the injuries? One of the things I mentioned last pod, and I'm thinking about it more and more, is the disparity in some of these lineups. I worked Toronto-Detroit on Thursday night, and this was another example. Detroit played most of their team, and boy, were they bad. Like, that was a bad performance. And Toronto played almost nobody. And I think this is part of the problem.

I really do. I think it's a huge issue, and I think it's leading to some of these injuries in the preseason. and but one of the things I also think about this is do the league and the players association have to sit down when they sort this out and say look we're going to give players less of a benefit of the doubt in the preseason we want less crazy stuff happening in the preseason because it's not worth it. And let's use the example of that Montreal-Ottawa game the other night where three of the Senators got hurt. So I was flying home from the Board of Governors and I didn't see the game. But when I landed, a buddy of mine called me and says, did you watch Ottawa-Montreal tonight? And I said, no, flying back. He goes, it was awesome. I loved every second of it.

I felt like I was watching a mid-season 1980s game where the teams hated each other. I wish I could see more of this. And you know what? To be honest, I love those kinds of games too. I'd like to see more of that also, but I don't think it should be happening in the preseason, and I don't think it should be happening with lineupsseason, and I don't think it should be happening with lineups

where one team has everybody dressed and one team doesn't. So they did geeky a favor today, and that's fine, but I really believe that if we're going to continue having this problem of one loaded lineup and one non-loaded lineup, I think the league and the players association have to come out and say, we're tolerating none of this stuff in the playoffs because any team,

what happened with Ottawa the other night, where three key guys got hurt, and luckily for the Senators, Shabbat, Stutzel, and Kachuk were all okay and they're not going to miss time, it's not worth it. It is not worth this happening to any NHL team in the preseason. And that's one of the things I've been thinking about, that maybe we have to get to a point where we're going to say,

if you really want to cut down the injuries, and I'm talking about the non-fluke injuries if you want to cut down the non-fluke injuries in the preseason you've basically got to say anything dirty here is going to get hammered so you think stricter supplemental discipline penalties in the preseason. I do. I do. I don't know how you solve the lineup discrepancies, though. Well, if you go down to four games, you might to some degree. However, I still think like a lot of the stars might only play two games. Yeah.

But I would say everyone's probably different there. Like some veteran players may even want more than that. You know, I'll say this. A couple years ago in one of those media tours, I asked players, and at those media tours, there's a lot of really good players, how many exhibition games do you need? And, you know, the only guy who said he liked to play in a lot of them was Patrick Kane oh really everybody else

said yeah everybody else said one or two and look what's happening now JT Miller's held himself out a bit Austin Matthews held himself out a bit these guys aren't stupid they're seeing what's going on out there and just to go back to that game in Montreal between the Canadians and the Senators, I know when it was announced at the start of that third period that Thomas Chabot wasn't coming back and Sens fans on Twitter were going nuts, going, oh my gosh, a third guy.

The first thought that I had was, I wonder if they just pulled him and said, you know what, Thomas, this game is already off the rails. We don't need you getting caught up in any crossfire here either. Let's just take an early shower. 100% that happened. There's no question about that. Kyle, the interesting thing about that game too is a couple of things.

I think Montreal has felt at times they got pushed around a little bit. You think so? Yeah, last year. I think Montreal has felt at times they got pushed around a little bit. I don't think they mind. Yeah. Last year. I don't think they mind too much. People thinking that if they push them around, you know, they're going to. They're going to they're going to hit back. And, you know, the other thing about it was really interesting was you know ridley greg

he's got an identity everybody knows who that guy is good or bad everybody knows who he is the same guy i was talking to before he said another reason it was like the 80s was it was almost like montreal said if you keep this up it was almost like Montreal said if you keep this up we're going to go after some of your other guys. I think that's exactly what happened.

Like 20 to 30 years ago one of the big deterrents was it's like there's the famous story in the Toronto Vancouver series in 94 where Gino Ojek's going after Doug Gilmore and Wendell Clark states up to Pavel Bure and says, if you don't tell your buddy to cut it out,

we're coming after you. And that was the end of that. It's very old school. It's Montreal saying, if we can't get a piece out of you, it's not like we're going to forget. We're going to go after the other guys. It was wild.

Crazy. Preseason. And now they're supposed to play again on Saturday in their final games of the preseason. I bet you that everybody behind the scenes is going to be working to cool down the temperature of that game. I'm not sure it'll actually happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if they get some calls.

Take it a little easy. I did laugh my head off when Kirby Doc told that fan's girlfriend to give him a call. I almost died when I saw that. Because he was going down the tunnel. That's what you thought. Fantastic. Yes, I was trying to read

lips there. that was awesome and i will just say between ottawa montreal toronto and the way those fan bases can go at it when the certain matchups occur over the year i feel montreal and ottawa feels like the nastiest of the group they hate each other hate each other it's the triangle of hate nothing so entertaining than the triangle of hate Toronto Montreal opening night and before we get there though like there's some things and some players to really keep an eye on here as we wrap up the preseason. Guys that maybe weren't totally on the radar coming into training camp. We talked a little bit about it at the beginning of the week. But as we get down to things here, Shane Wright, a couple of goals the other night for Seattle.

We just mentioned Ottawa. Carter Yakumchuk is still here in camp. Jet Luchenko in Philly. Sam Honzik in calgary where is your interest lying here as we wrap up the pre-season this weekend shane wright i'm always interested in um i i just think that i would when i look at quentin who, by the way, had a hat trick Thursday night. A 32 bump. A 32 bump.

Shane Wright is not built like Quentin Byfield, but Byfield is a reminder to me, and we talked about it, not every path is linear. And Wright's had a hard path. I want him to do well this year. I'm not going to lie about that. I want Shane Wright to do well this year. I'm not going to lie about that. I want Shane Wright to do well this year. So I like that a lot.

Jet Luchenko in Philly, does it not look to you like he's made that team? It's incredible, isn't it? First round pick from this year, and him, Anthony Richard had three points on Thursday night too, but Lushenko right out of the gate is really impressive. Looks to me like he's going to make the team, which I never would have believed.

Atu Ratu in Vancouver, we talked about him earlier this week. Yep. I'm really curious to watch him on Friday night. That game's on Sportsnet. He's fortunate to make a decision. I'm slightly annoyed at Calgary for sending down Burstovitz. Yes. I really enjoy watching him play, but only slightly annoyed. I was happy for Tyson Berry, but I

wanted to see Burstovitz get a couple of games, but I can't really blame them for what they did. Calgary's got some decisions to make. Are they going to play three goalies? Is Hanzik going to make the team? What are they going to do with Coronado? These are choices

I didn't think they were really going to have to make at the start of the preseason but they're right there what's Edmonton going to do on defense are they going to sign Travis Dermott I've got Islander fans telling me to watch out like everyone there has kind of talked about Siplykov a bit, but now Kyle McLean, nine points in 32 games in New York last year. Those fans are really starting to get excited about him. This whole Sorokin thing, like just Lamorello theater on this one has been amazing.

Now he's starting to take shots. I'm curious to see what's going to happen there at the start of the season there's a lot of good stuff here at the end of the exhibition play Nick Robertson lighting it up for the Maple Leafs you know the Maple Leafs can start the year with Dewar and Hockenpah on LTIR, and they can work the magic for a couple of weeks, kind of keep everyone. Like, I think what you're going to see Toronto do is, I think you're going to see Toronto sign Pacioretty and Lawrence, but that number is going to take them down to like 36 cents on the cap.

I think that's what they're going to do. I think take them down to like right at the absolute number where they can maximize their cap. That's what I think they're going to do. maximize their cap. That's what I think they're going to do. Like they played Lorenz at center on Thursday night, and he didn't look bad. And I still wonder when everyone's healthy how this is all going to work. But it's an interesting one.

I think they're going to sign both those guys. So it's going to be one of those weekends where everybody has to bend the cap, and it's going to be fascinating to see how they do it. Okay, speaking of trying to bend the cap or not being able to bend the cap, you wanted to talk about the Avalanche and their roster situation as well? So in the in-season cup, someone in the league, they said to me, they were listening to the in-season cup and i i had the first pick which i took florida and then i had the eighth pick and when i got there i had a line that i have one team left on my elite list and and it was colorado

and he kind of had an interesting opinion about that. He said, I think Colorado is going to be one of the most fascinating teams in the NHL this year. And I said, why do you think that is? And he goes, because I think they're really thin. I think they could struggle early. And I said, can I be the one who runs that quote to Nathan McKinnon? And he laughed. And he said that, yeah, they still have some of the most elite talent, McKinnon, Rantanen, Kel McCarr, all those guys.

But, you know, Landiscawg and Chris McFarland, their GM, TNT did a couple of exhibition games the other night. And, you know, he said that they still don't really know on Landeskog yet. And as we talked about earlier, they don't have any flexibility on Nechushkin. They've been told they have to wait this out. And as a result, they are really stuck cap-wise. And I think Colorado wanted to do some things this summer, but they just weren't able to. And he said

to me that this is going to be a real test of them. And Belmar didn't get a contract. I was a little bit surprised by that. Ivan Ivan, you know, you talk about guys who've pushed to make a team. Jared Bednar said this week he's still

here, but You know, Jared Bednar said this week he's still here. But, you know, Western teams with harder travel. And what we were talking about is he wonders if Colorado's lack of depth is going to have them playing catch up early. He said, I don't like betting against those guys. He said, I don't like betting against those guys, but nobody had bigger cap challenges than Colorado did in the offseason, and he feels you can really see it in what they're battling to get started with this year. And you were telling me before, you reminded me,

Lekkonen's not starting the year on time too, right? Correct. So I think there are some teams in the West really hoping that they can take advantage of Colorado a little bit early before those guys are at full strength. Bednar's quotes saying that, you know, he wishes that there were more of those guys that now have the opportunities because of the absences to take hold of a spot here through the preseason. And it sounds like the head coach hasn't seen as much of that as he would have liked. And you've got Nathan McKinnon, Rantanen, Makar and Taves. Ah, gosh. Like, they could go to an incredible level. I still think of that Sheldon Keefe line from last season.

When those guys are on the ice, it's not the NHL. It's another league. I know you need the rest of a lineup to win hockey games, but those guys at the level that they are at and when they really get going, gosh, they could keep things afloat for a while. I still think they could. They can. Now, you know, also, too, what they did was

they didn't play a lot of their guys early in exhibition play, which I thought was smart I thought they really played it smart but I also wonder how much is he going to play them early in the year oh yes heavy like what's he going to do with

that well I wonder I wonder if he's going to say I can't do that good luck telling the players that hey man it's not my job i don't have to do it yeah yeah lucky you okay so then on that note let's get to the final thought elliot presented by gmc earlier this week you were in new york for a couple of days covering the board of governors meetings in Manhattan. Amongst the topics, the CBA, of course, it's due in two seasons from now. Gary Bettman seemed quite optimistic about it all at the outset. You had some time with the commissioner one-on-one for a few minutes once the meetings wrapped. What were your takeaways? What did you learn from your few days in New York?

Well number one I thought that was interesting about Bettman talking about CBA negotiations. A including the fact that he let us know that he told the Board of Governors that they were going to begin talks I thought that was really fascinating and B anyone who's been a hockey fan for a long time, you know when the storm clouds are arriving. 2004, we knew it was going to be a battle cap or no cap. 2012, we knew that the league wanted to get to 50-50 and it was going to be a battle. Here, Kyle, there is nothing, nothing

that is worth stopping hockey over. Now, I think if you want to talk about things that could cause a fight or one side will say absolutely no to, you can find those. But, like, for example, I could see the players bringing up we want to share the expansion money, which I don't think will happen. But, you know, again, but you can still bring it up. It just probably won't go anywhere. But it's not like anyone's going to stop playing over it.

I think that the NHL sees that now it's a time for growth. There's no reason to shut down play. I don't think the players have any interest in shutting down play. I don't think that's their motivation. Like when they were hiring Marty Walsh, the Players Association group that was behind it, they were telling all the candidates, it is our goal to make ourselves a great deal, not shut down play. So that tells you everything you need to know about the players. In 2020, when we were going through COVID, they had to make a deal and they worked to make a deal. They realized if they didn't, there was an existential threat to the league like all the sports had. And that's kind of where we are now. There's no existential threat, but there's no need to do it

either. There's no need to piss off fans everywhere by doing it. And everyone knows that. I also think that the league and the players have already talked about some things that they would like to accomplish. Like this whole thing about the 84 games, the league has already run that by the players. And the players are going through their team meetings. Like the Players Association sent out some photos today that they're in Prague, and they were meeting with the Sabres and the Devils.

They do what's called a fall tour. So they meet with all 32 teams. And it's not a coincidence that Bettman said they're going to meet sometime in the new year because that's when the fall tour will be done and the players will be able to digest, and the Players Association, the leadership, will be able to digest the information they got from all 32 teams and where they're going from there

and what their marching orders are from there. So I think some of this stuff has been floated back and forth already. But when Bettman says he's optimistic and hopeful that he can get it done early, that's pretty rare. That's pretty rare optimism for him. I've heard him say before our relationship with the Players Association is better than it's ever been. That's not news to me, so I'm always careful about that one but for him to say I think maybe we can

get it done early that's new and that makes me think that there will be a serious attempt to get this done early there's always a purpose behind whatever that man says publicly it It's never by accident. I was just going to ask, the other thing that typically occurs during those meetings are presentations from different groups, companies, anything that you learned from there that stuck out to you on that front? You know what a couple of the other governors said to me, Kyle? They were really interested in the i guess amazon made a presentation

and they're really like amazon's all the rage now because of the great series that they did and people are really enjoying what they witnessed and what they saw especially mcdavid i think i think people are looking at mcdavid in another light right now in a good way but it seems to me that it's not only about that show and we'll see if they come back for year two it's just the connection with it like when Amazon backs you they push you and you think of what how powerful Amazon is and everything that they do if they push you it's a driver. It creates interest. It creates revenue. The owners want to be involved with it.

The players want to be involved with it. I think the Amazon thing, in terms of just the show, it's the tip of the iceberg of where the relationship is going with Amazon and the NHL, or where everybody hopes it goes with Amazon and the NHL or where everybody hopes it goes between Amazon and the NHL. I had somebody once told me that Amazon, they want to be a big player in the content world in every country that they can

and have whatever the biggest sport is in each country, right? We've seen the NFL, the NBA in the U.S., and now they're going to be part of the hockey coverage here in Canada starting this season as well. All right, that was the final thought presented by GMC. We'll take a break. When we come back, the Thought Line. You're listening to 32 Thoughts, the podcast.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, time now for the thought line hockey's favorite call in and write in segment a reminder the phone to call 1-833-311-3232 the email address 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca elliot we will begin today with todd from pei todd writes i have missed something, but I am totally confused about Shea Weber getting into the Hall of Fame. Not because he doesn't deserve it, but because I don't remember him ever officially retiring. Isn't his contract still on the books in Utah? Side note.

Yes, it is. I mean, I know he isn't playing, but isn't the whole retiring thing the number one rule and getting into the hall of fame see yaramir yager so elliot how do you explain this one i have no problem with the with the question i think you raise a valid point i know you're not the only person who feels this way but i would tell you there is precedence. The NHL has decided that this is the way it's going to go, and it was if you go back to Philadelphia and Arizona and Chris Pronger. Chris Pronger was traded from the Anaheim Ducks to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2009 with one year left on his contract,

in 2009 with one year left on his contract and he signed a seven-year contract extension pronger as you'll remember suffered a concussion and stopped playing during the 2011-12 season. He was traded by the Flyers to Arizona in the summer of 2015. And while that was going on, with time left in his contract, he was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame. And the reason given at the time was that he had not played a game in three full seasons, which is the minimum waiting period. So it was decided that he was good to be inducted, even though he was still under contract. So you didn't miss anything.

In theory, you are totally right. In practice, there is the pronger precedence, which allows Weber to go in. Correct. Because in terms of the induction requirements all it states is three seasons removed from your last professional game in north america or in europe no nothing stated about where their contract is at whether they say they have retired or not it's just that three-year window needed without playing a game so thank you todd all right tennessee from st louis elliot and kyle this may be a dumb question but i know that represents absolutely but i know that

players are limited on the length of their stick that is true certain players over a certain height are allowed to have longer sticks to compensate for their height, Chara being one of them. What would happen if they got rid of the limit on stick length? Would we see defensemen start using nine-foot sticks to take up space, or would the change only be an inch or two? Would nothing change at all? Thanks for the pod week after week, and glad you're all here for the season. I invite everyone who hasn't seen it before to YouTube Willie Mitchell in warm-ups that one game against Calgary

when he still played for Vancouver. First of all, Kyle, there are no stupid questions. Yes, we addressed that the last pod. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. Secondly, I did not remember what you were talking about, so I quickly Googled it. And then I remembered Mitchell.

First of all, that's a great pull that you remembered Mitchell taping two sticks together. Because Mike Keenan thought he was using an illegal stick too long during a Vancouver-Calgary game. And so the next time they played,ell did that as revenge to make fun of them uh and by the way to make a mockery of it all to make a mock at all mitchell stick was legal that's uh that's a great pull what would happen i i mean you still gotta shoot the puck and make a play right right i'm thinking of like bubble hockey. And you know, like the wingers down the side of the boards have the blades that are twice as long as some of the others, right? Or even some of the positions in like field lacrosse

have way longer lacrosse sticks than the other players on the field. It would be carnage. I wonder how many players. I would love to know like obviously like some players would probably do a banana curve right like if the rules were taken away what would these sticks look like like how many players would make material changes to their sticks i gotta think some players would do like i said more of a curve to shoot the puck but you've got to be able to control it on your backhand. How many players do you think would really do something major?

Right because they're so finicky already like they've been used to doing it a certain way for so long I will say like Conor Bedard has The length of his stick. I mean, it's almost like almost to the top of his head I believe like typically you're kind of to the top of his head, I believe. Like typically you're kind of between the nose to your chin when you're off skates. And maybe even some of the more skilled guys would go for something shorter. So they have more control. Defensemen maybe a little bit longer just to have more reach.

I was shocked when I heard that Bedard uses one that would be considerably longer than an average length for somebody his size given the type of game that he plays but I believe that's just what he's kind of always done for most of his life you know what the way he plays too who am I to tell him he's wrong oh yeah and I'm not doing that at all. I just am fascinated by some of the intricacies. When we talked to them in Vegas, we asked them about his flex, right? Yeah, the whippiness, yes. Correct. All that stuff just really, really fascinates me. And I think there's a lot of gear geeks around hockey, too.

Fans, people that work in the game that eat all that stuff up, too. So thank you very much, Tennessee, from St. Louis, for the question. Okay, our next one is a voicemail. Donnie from Ottawa. Just heard you talk about Ryan Johansson's contract being nullified by the Flyers. And I'm wondering, can any team choose to cancel a contract at any time and just choose to pay out the fee or whatever the arbitrator would award against them? Looking for your insight on this. Thanks for doing what you do and go Sens go.

The answer is no. Let's go. The answer is no. If you're going to terminate a contract, you have to have a legitimate reason for doing it. Hockey contracts are guaranteed. Now, there are some agents who will reach out to me and say, no, you can get bought out. They're not guaranteed. Yes, that's true. But it's not like the NFL where they're really not guaranteed.

For the most part, hockey contracts are guaranteed and players and agents, if you try to do that without the approval of a player, they will fight that to the ends of the earth to protect the sanctity of those contracts. So if you're going to terminate a contract, first of all, you'll usually ask the league first and get their approval, or at least a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, that you have a reason to do this. And B, you better be prepared for a grievance that you might lose. You know, you'll see sometimes in season where players agree to have a contract terminated. In most cases, those are players who aren't happy with their situations in North America and they want to go to Europe because they can make more money or play right away.

Those do happen from time to time. But this Johansson case where the Flyers were not happy with the player, they are going to be prepared for the league, or not so much the league obviously, but the Players Association and the agent to fight back, which is exactly what's happening here. So in the case Donnie was mentioning, I think he's trying to say, happening here so in the case Donnie was mentioning I think he's trying to say can they just say hey we'll cut you and you will pay you your money so we can have cap space as we talked at the beginning of the pod yes that happened with Leonard that was a special situation normally the league will say no way you can't do that uh they that's a situation where the league would step in and they would

block you and say no you can't just make an under the table payment like that and if you did you would be in big trouble okay lastly john originally from massachusetts flyers fan due to family ties and currently living in the Chicago Burbs. How's that for a location? That's very good, John. Okay. He writes, Elliot referenced not borking his contract negotiations. By the way, I got in some trouble for that.

So it's good that this is getting brought up again. Well, here we go. As someone under 40 and the majority of Bork's career happening before the insane social media era, I'm not familiar with the situation with the Bruins and the Internet is light on information. Can you bring us in on your inside joke? Yeah, Elliot. Can you? You know what?

In defense of myself, it's not really an inside joke. It's just that, as John mentioned, if you're not of a certain era you wouldn't understand what we were referring to i guess i guess what john is telling me is to get younger more hip references it there was a belief in in boston it was true that ray bork was the salary cap he was a great player their best player and nobody was going to make more than him. And at times, players felt that he should have pushed for a higher number so that there was more room underneath for other players to make more money. And so that was what happened. And I didn't like that someone said that to me because, A, it was none of their business.

And, B, I don't think anybody would really want to be known as somebody like that, as somebody who held the line on other people. I want everybody to do well. I want people to strike the best deals that they can for themselves. So that's what that was referring to. Yeah, up until a few weeks ago, I thought Ray Bork spent his entire career in Colorado, so it's been an eye-opener for all of us. No, I'm just

kidding. That's because you were born in 2014. That's right, and I am damn proud of it. Frege, that was another edition of the Thought Line. Thank you to Griffin Porter for helping curate all those for us. And a reminder once again, the phone number to call in,

1-833-311-3232, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. More 32 Thoughts the podcast after this. okay before we go elliot i have a question for you okay what do you know about shabuzy almost nothing except he's got a big song out right now. I know the song. I didn't know that that was him who sang it. Yes. A bar song. Tipsy.

It's not only a big song. I mean, it's top the Billboard 100 charts. It is the song right now. 12th time this year, it has been atop the charts. So Shaboosie Elliott, it was announced on Thursday, he is going to be performing a concert out front of the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City before the Utah Hockey Club's inaugural regular season home opener Tuesday night when they host the Chicago Blackhawks. We should get a last minute ticket there.

If we didn't have to work opening night, we should be going to Salt Lake City. Oh, I would love to go. I'm in the studio on opening night for the triple header in the States, including the banner raising. But I would go see that for sure. I'm actually kind of disappointed. I'm not going to be in Utah. for sure i'm actually kind of disappointed i i'm not going to be in utah uh i'm also wondering if if the hcs put us an additional c on someone's jersey ah okay i'm wondering if i'm wondering

like i'm waiting for seattle to do it i thought they would do it with Eberle. And I kind of wonder if Utah is going to do it. And the reason I was thinking about it is because, you know, they're embracing everything. They want to hit, they want to hit such a home run and they've done such a good job of making the players feel comfortable there, I got to think having a captain or naming a captain is part of it. And to me, the obvious choice is Keller. Yes, great name. I also think that the NHL has just come a long way in their music acts and their gets the last few years.

They've had some doozies. Tate McRae at the All-Star Game last year. Shania in Edmonton during the Stanley Cup Final. I've become a huge Tate McRae fan going back to the All-Star Game because I thought her performance was fantastic. Yes. So now I'm going to learn more about Shibuzy. I really do think, and I've said this many times,

going back to 2017, that Stanley Cup final, Nashville-Pittsburgh was the game changer for the NHL. When they saw what it was like in Nashville, shutting down the streets, doing those big concerts, it was as if a light bulb went off in everybody's head and said there is so much more we can be doing here and i'm not surprised at the least bit that utah takes a a big run at this all part of what should be a really fun opening week of the regular season and actually elliot the regular season technically gets started here

on Friday and Saturday with the Global Series over in Czechia. We've got the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres with a pair of games. Friday, begin at 1 o'clock Eastern. You can catch that game on Sportsnet. 10 a.m. Eastern on Saturday. Watch that one on Sportsnet as well. The regular season suddenly has arrived, Frege. Yeah, I'm excited.

I'm very excited. This is one of my favorite parts of the year. I'm really excited. The Devils, I think, in the East are a lot of people's trendy pick. They kind of won the offseason. There's a lot of people I know are picking devils to do well in the East, picking devils in pools. They're a favorite.

After a nightmare year, they're everybody's Cinderella. Everybody wants to take them to the ball. Buffalo, you know, I've had a few people say to me, if you're picking a goalie in a pool, go Lukanen. That this guy this year is dialed in. It's his job. He knows it's his job. The Sabres, they really tripped up at the beginning of last year.

These are two teams that have a lot to play for. I think a lot of people believe in the Devils. I don't think as many people believe in the Sabres. But the Sabres are one of these teams this year. They know if they don't figure it out in 2024-25, there are going to be changes so the impetus is there to start strong and there are people in this league who really like lukinen i'm looking forward to it really like lukinen to it yeah really like really like lukinen. I think Zach Benson will have a phenomenal sophomore season as well for the Sabres. As we said, no excuses for them anymore.

Jess Pagula had a hell of a summer on the tennis courts. That's right. Now it's time for the Sabres to own the winter. Should be a lot of fun. Regular season is back already. Western Hockey League drop Zach Benson. There it is. It took the whole podcast, but we got it in. He snuck it in under the wire. Good catch, Frej.

All right. Thank you, everyone, once again for listening. We will talk to you again on Monday. In the meantime, have yourselves a great weekend. Bye.