32 Thoughts: The Podcast - It’s Good That You Hate Canada. Plus: Turtleneck Tales.

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

The turtleneck stole the show! Jeff opens the podcast asking Elliotte about his Hockey Night in Canada fashion choice (00:00), the inspiration behind it and the reaction on social media. They also talk hockey — the pair of games in Lake Tahoe (23:00), Sidney Crosby and Travis Zajac playing in their 1000th games (30:30), the […]

When I wear T-shirts, I can only wear V-necks because my neck is very fragile. I cannot wear a regular neck shirt. It hurts. And I especially hate turtlenecks. Like wearing a turtleneck is like being strangled by a really weak guy all damn day. The great Mitch Hedberg. the great Mitch Hedberg. Elliot, the turtleneck, the phenomenon, the trending,

not just of you, but Ron Burgundy as well. The tweets all night long. I don't know and I don't care what he's saying on TV. I can't stop looking at Elliot Friedman's turtleneck on Hockey Night in Canada. Now, I'll give you a little glimpse into my life today. Here's how boring my life is, Elliot. Okay. You know what I spent a big chunk of my afternoon looking at today?

What's that? Pictures of the history of Hockey Night in Canada commentators at the rink, in the studio, to try to find one example of anyone who's ever worn a turtleneck on Hockey Night in Canada before. And? I could not find one. I could not find one at all. First of all, how did you keep that such a secret? Peek behind the curtains here.

I was told originally that there was no way, because you and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, there was no way that you were going to be allowed to wear a turtleneck on hockey night. What happened? So first of all, 20 years ago, earlier in my career, there's no way I would have done it. I took myself way too seriously. As I've gotten older and Deb Berman, who the MVP of Sportsnet in charge of our wardrobes, has gotten more of her claws into my life. She has said, I'd like to try some things. And, you know, being older, less stiff, I think, you know, things happen to you in life. You learn what really is a pain and what isn't and what you should worry about and what you shouldn't and what's a big deal and what's not. I've learned to laugh at myself a lot more. And, you know, I just said this time,

if we can do it, let's do it. And it started from Carolyn Cameron, who is the true turtleneck champion of Sportsnet. She wears them all the time. And a couple of weeks ago, she challenged me to wear one on Hockey Night in Canada. And, you know, Deb told me about it and I was like, let's do it. And Deb wanted to try it. I think she's someone who really wants to push the fashion boundaries. It's very clear that the show as a whole is going through a metamorphosis and we are heading towards a new generation of the way we do things at hockey night.

And I think Deb would like to push it fashion wise. So I said I was willing to do it. And there were people, and I'm not going to say who, but there were people who weren't sure about it for a couple of reasons uh number one you want to do it properly number two you don't want you know people daring other people to wear something and that becomes the uniform next week on hockey night in canada you know for example this week is the last week of tim and sid if sid says oh i'm i'm quitting on Friday, I'm going to breakfast TV. So I'm going to dare David Amber to dress up as Batman tomorrow night on hockey night in Canada. You don't want Dave taking the dare and showing up as Batman. So they said they had to have a process to this.

The other person who had a lot to do with it was Deidre Dion, who's our Senior Director of Talent Strategy and Business Relations. And we should add 2002 Olympic bronze medalist in freestyle aerial skiing, who has been taking on a bigger and bigger role at Sportsnet. And they said, leave it to us. And they came up with a plan. They said, this is how we're going to do it. And we agreed that we weren't going to do it on hockey day in canada we just didn't think that was the right thing to do that's a big

day with a big message so we decided not to do it and we also agreed that we would put out the picture of myself and carolyn and they picked austin matthews who wore it best, but we wouldn't talk about it in advance. We'd, you know, we just try to do it low key, unveil it and just see what happened. And you know, Jeff, at the end of the day, life's been tough and I just want to make people laugh. I want people to have fun when they're watching and kind of laugh and, and they did, which we're really happy about. I think everybody loved it, whether they are fans of turtlenecks, whether they love the style or not. I think everyone just had a good time with it on Saturday night. I know Twitter certainly had a good time with it on Saturday night.

Did you think it would get the response that it did? I mean, right away, bam, it was the story on Saturday night hockey Twitter. You know, honestly, I didn't know what to expect. I thought some people would really hate it. And I saw it. Some people would like it.

It was definitely more liked than I expected. You know, sports net put out one tweet. Should he go back with the beard or should he stay with the turtleneck? And I saw some people tweeting, is there a third option? But for the most part i thought people really laughed and kind of liked being involved in the joke um so it got more reaction definitely more reaction than i thought uh it was going to get but this is all part of a

of another conversation that i've had i think you and I have had this conversation off camera before. I watch a lot of clips of inside the NBA on, on TNT, Ernie Johnson with a primary geyser, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kenny Smith. And I watched the show that they do. And I have doubted that some of the things they do would be accepted by hockey viewers. And just generally the whole hockey, I don't even think establishment is the right word. I don't necessarily think it's establishment. I just maybe everybody in it. Like Barkley has a thing he does at the beginning of every year called who he play for,

which is basically they put people on the screen and they say, who does he play for? And Barkley never gets it right. He never has any idea. It's awesome. And I think if we ever did something like that, where they quizzed us on who does this guy play for in the NHL and we didn't know, we'd get destroyed. Oh, a hundred percent.

Oh, we get crushed, Elliot. We'd get crushed. How can these idiots not know which team this guy plays for? Quick thought on that one. Yeah, go ahead. I think that that works because those guys are players, and there isn't the same expectation of players as there is non-players. I disagree with you.

You don't think, if we did that segment with Kevin Bieksa. No, I don't. I don't think hockey viewers have the same sense of humor. I don't. I really don't. Really, eh? But not like, okay, where does Drew Doughty play? But if you said, where does Mikey Anderson play?

No, I don't. I really don't. And people listening to this, they can tell me if they think I'm nuts. Like, I have a really thick skin. You hear me say the words occupational hazard all the time. You know, you take heat when you're on TV and that's fine. And you know what I think it is?

It's that I think the whole analytics versus non-analytics debate has added another level of edge to the whole discourse about the way hockey is covered. And I don't believe it would be received very well even if it was you know bx or rudy or anthony or jen botterill or cassie or any of our analysts i don't think it would be received well not at all i think a lot about how to loosen up the broadcast a little bit and i think we're making i'm not the only one jeff i think all of us talk about that and i think we are taking strides but i see the things that inside

the nba does and i'm not convinced they would be as well received in hockey and so i always think what can we do that is better received and i was really hopeful seeing that last night and not for me i just think for all of us i i think we just have to find uh new ways to make people smile and laugh a little bit okay so in your mind when you saw yourself on the set did you feel more like i was thinking of this this afternoon great turtleneck wearers did you feel more like will ferrell or steve mcqueen well when somebody sent me the steve mcqueen and said the new bullet one of my favorite movies of all time and just generally one of my favorite stories of all time is the great escape yeah which was a very famous uh steve mcqueen role so i'm pretty

content with my own existence i don't want to live anyone else's but for a second they're thinking that anybody was comparing me to steve mcqueen was cool. Best text or tweet you got about it. Oh my God, there were so many. Are there any that come to mind? I would imagine there's a number of people in the industry. Okay, starting with players, going to coaches, going to GMs, going to presidents, going to owners. Hey, maybe even going to commissioners or executive directors.

No, I heard from him on the beard. I did not hear it. He had other things he was worried about yesterday. At what level did the turtleneck resonate enough that it got a text? Player, coach, GM, president, where are we? All of the above. There were some absolutely great ones. above there were some absolutely great ones um you know there there's there's one guy who said to me that like you know don waddell in carolina is pretty well known for wearing the turtlenecks

right and you know someone't tell me about this at all i don't think i really told anyone i think the only people who knew my wife knew yeah carolyn knew i told brian spear the saturday night producer on friday we have a regular friday college and you do know i'm wearing a turtleneck, eh? And he didn't know that. I felt he should know, but it was very limited. The other on air people didn't know until I walked in the room. A couple of weeks ago on, uh, during one of our Wednesday night shows, I wore a turtleneck to work.

And you remember what we talked about afterwards? No. What did we say? You were going to hold up a turtleneck next to me and you're going to tweet out getting ready for Saturday night? Question mark. This is when there is the, uh, started to chum

the waters for the Saturday, but then all of a sudden that went away and it was not going to happen. And I sort of discard it. I said, okay, well, that's, that's not going to happen. It would have been cool. Would have loved it. But ultimately it is, well, that's not going to happen. It would have been cool. I would have loved it.

But ultimately, it is not to be. So I see you on Saturday. I'm like, first of all, bravo. That's outstanding. I love it. It's great. Go to the Twitter machine. Weigh in.

Make sure you become one of the logs on the fire on this thing, and let's keep it burning because it's fantastic. But two, I sent Deb Berman, who you referenced a second ago, our national stylist at Rogers, the excellent Deb Berman. I said, so if Elliot can wear a turtleneck, can I wear a penny collar shirt like Peaky Blinders on Wednesday? And what do you think the answer was?

No. Not a chance. See, that's why I'm curious. Where is this going to go? As much as you've opened the doors i still can't wear a penny collar shirt on wednesday night hockey that ain't gonna happen so you've opened the door but where's this all gonna go like i do think jeff at some point in time like you know watching the bruins walk in in their so good into lake tahoe in their 90s and the vancouver canucks were losing so they had the one night where they didn't uh wear the dress clothes and then they beat calgary uh last

saturday i think we should have a conversation you know ron likes to dress a certain way so let ron dress that way my belief is i have no style so So I am, you know, I'm at the mercy of Deb. What do you want me to wear? That's the way I should wear? Fine. I'll put it on. But I do think we should be having a conversation about how people want to dress and how can we work it so that you can look professional, but maybe stylish and different. Like to me, if you don't want to wear a tie, I don't think you should have to wear a tie, but that doesn't mean you should look like a slob. How can we make you look good? And also, you know, with all the women on our broadcast now, it's not the same for every one of them.

They all have different styles too. Right. So how can we do this in a way where everybody looks professional? Everybody looks good. I, I think we should be taking a step out there to say there's different ways to dress here. And, you know, hopefully this was a small step towards it. And there you have it. Fresh off the runways of Hockey Night in Canada, welcome to 31 Thoughts, the podcast presented

by the GMC Sierra AT4. Marner's got it. Marner, a move. Scores. What a beauty. Mitch Marner. Dry Seidel scores. Leon Dry Seidel got the rebound. Went right up top.

It's a power play goal. Austin Matthews lets it go. Scores. He has doubled down once again. Third straight two-goal game. Meanwhile, Lucic went down in a heap. McDavid broke free out from behind the net. Rinshot score. There's the hat trick.

His second this year. McDavid's got a dozen and Edmonton is running Calgary right out of the bag. Welcome to the Very Stylish 31 Thoughts podcast. Jeff Merrick along with the fashion plate Elliot Friedman. Coming up on the program, by the way, you will hear from Kerry Kaplan. Really interesting guy. Co-owner, general manager of the Brampton Beast of the ECHL, who last week announced they would be

ceasing operations. So what goes into that decision? How do you arrive at that? And what do you actually do when you fall the franchise? Kerry Kaplan, we'll discuss later on. An old high school buddy of mine. An old high school buddy of yours. A former, as we find out in the interview, baseball teammate of yours back in the day, Elliot. What position did you play in baseball? I never asked him that question.

I primarily played outfield. Okay, very good. I was too lazy to bend down for grounders. I didn't like grounders. Where did you bat in the lineup, sir? Either at the top or the bottom. I wasn't a big power big power hitter okay i am not afraid to admit this i was the epitome of mediocrity the one thing i had is i had a very good arm i could throw out people on the base paths but other than that i was the epitome of mediocrity well you know what i always

say about that elliot a mediocre man is always at his best and someone uh who right now is at his best is austin matthews 18 goals in 18 games as we record this uh you know who else is at his best right now after a five-point night against calgary 37 points overall in the nhl is connor mcdavid uh mitch marner and leonisaitl are laying waste to the NHL. And the hue and cry, Elliot, true or false, amongst everybody else in the other three divisions in the NHL is, wow, the defense in the Canadian division must stink. How do you address that? I think this is actually great for the game,

that the hatred of the Canadian division is growing. There's something to be said for this. Look, at all the major international events, right? Yep. All the rest of the countries, they hate us. They don't want Canada to win. I mean, there's some obviously fierce rivalries, Sweden, Finland,

but if your most hated opponent isn't Canada, they're your second most hated opponent, right? And I remember 2002 Olympics, Canada beats US in the gold medal game. Aaron Miller walking out of the arena after Canada won the gold and just asking him about, you know, losing to Canada. And he goes, that makes it worse.

I think everybody thinks about that. And the Canadian division now, the numbers are so high. You know, Matthews going into Saturday night was averaging 0.94 goals per game. That would be the 11th highest of all time if it lasted. And, you know, McDavid's on pace pace for what 105 points in 56 games yeah and so i'm starting to see you know the canadian division doesn't play defense that's why all these players are having such great numbers i think that's so good in this year where you know everything is so hard and you're worried about covid if everybody hates the canadian

division because they don't like the numbers i think that's great for the sport i think it is excellent the hate for canada has to come back there's no question about that it will drive interest in the sport how many times have we talked about this when it comes to sports sports is essentially emotional. Now you measure it using your head. We all understand that. But the tug is not mental. It's emotional by and large. I don't want to say overwhelmingly, but generally the tug to sports is from your heart, not your brain. And how many times have we talked about this if you're gonna have love you have to have hate too you know and one of the great things about sports is finding something not just to love about it

but something to hate about it and when's the last time we saw anything other than perhaps pity from other organizations towards Canada. Not so much internationally, because you're right, that is the measuring stick. In the great Victor Hedman interview that we did, which will never be aired for various reasons, and we asked him the question, which country do you like beating more than any other?

He said right away, as much as we expected Finland, he said Canada right away. So this is an emotion that's legitimate in sports. I think it's valuable in sports. I think it should be encouraged in sports. But when's the last time anyone in the NHL, other fan bases really got mad at Canada? I guess maybe, listen,

there was a lot of venom from the Boston Bruins and their fan base towards the Vancouver Canucks in 2011. But I can't think of the last time that Canada was greeted with this type of scorn on a team-to-team basis in the NHL. Can you? Oh, yeah. I think Toronto gets it all the time. But not like this, Elliot.

When some of those series with the Devils. No, but the point about this is, this is a Toronto Maple Leafs that are on top. This is Austin Matthews that, you know, heart trophy, Rocky Richard, all of that conversation. Like it's that Yankees hatred. It's not the, oh, look at these walking ATM machines going into Scotiabank arena, turning themselves upside down and, you know, having the organization shake every nickel out of their jeans and then they scurry back and do it two days two more two days later this type of hatred is they're on top and austin matthews has 18 goals we have to find a new way to hate them now yeah that's fair you know'll tell you, there's something else at play here. So someone pointed out to me the other day that they think the voting is going to be unfair this year for awards. To be honest with you, Elliot, I've talked with people about this before.

The voting this year is going to be really hard. Yeah. The voting this year is going to be really tough. There's 24 US markets chapters. There's seven Canadian chapters. There's an international chapter. The international chapter is slightly more Canadian than anyone else. But in the Canadian chapters have a lot more people than anyone else,

but not everybody gets a vote. It's pretty interesting. Everyone's going to be watching all their teams, right? You know, for example, are you only going to vote for people in your division? Like, I'll tell you this. If Austin Matthews scores 50 and Toronto wins the Canadian division, like I don't care what team he plays for. He's going to win the heart trophy.

And that would be the case anywhere. I think somebody scores 50 goals this year and their team's good. How are they not winning the heart trophy? I don't know. How many points is Connor McDavidcdavid going to put up again i know it's not all his fault but i mentioned the team here because like toronto was opened up we're taping this on sunday night while montreal is playing so understand that montreal is playing while we're saying this toronto's got a six point lead in the north

okay with a game in hand With a game in hand. With a game in hand. Now, Edmonton's coming to Toronto next week for three games. If Edmonton catches them and beats them, that's fine. But I'm just saying, if Matthew scores 50 and Toronto wins the North, how's he not winning the heart? Now, if McDavid gets 100 points and Edmonton wins the North, then he's winning the heart.

But people are saying, hey, the voting is not going to be fair. If these guys go on record paces, I don't care if there's no defense being played. I agree with you. I want to get to a couple of other issues here because I want to get to Kerry Kaplan. And there's a few things that we need to get to. One, as we record this, tonight is game two, the Lake Tahoe experience.

We all saw what happened on Saturday with the rain conditions and the lengthy intermission. And then we came back and Nathan McKinnon put on a show, Kale McCarr put on a show, et cetera. Outside of the unfortunate circumstance with the ice itself, and by the way, for everybody that took cheap shots about it and how could the league not have foreseen this and how does the sun sneak up on you? I don't recall seeing one person raising this as a concern before at all. I didn't see anybody outside of what happened with the ice itself, the visuals. And I know they want to do this with fans. I get it because

that's such a premium game. I thought it was gorgeous. Like just some an aesthetic point of view, Elliot, like, was that not beautiful from everything everything from the scenery uh from the mountains to the shadows that were very pronounced and at times did it seem to you as if you could kind of hide the puck as you were skating with it like within the shadow itself it was a really really weird phenomenon to watch but what did you take away from the weekend in lake tahoe one of the biggest questions they had was what to do the philly boston game from which started at 7 30 eastern 4 30 pacific on sunday i think that one had been moved well before it got announced like that's what i heard it had been moved considerably sooner than they announced it which which is kind of weird. I kind of wondered why they would wait that long when I heard it. The big question they had was, do they try Vegas, Colorado?

And in the morning, I heard first thing in the morning when people woke up, it was misty. It was kind of dreary. And I think they really felt that that was going to give them a chance to try it they thought they'd have enough cloud cover to do it also if they move the game they lost the national us tv window which is a consideration and what you said was a thing they wanted that view to get shown it was so spectacular they wanted it to get shown so they talked about it with the league the teams the players and they said they would give it a shot now it became pretty obvious pretty quickly they weren't going to do it and i think we're very fortunate that no one got hurt yeah i think the players deserve a lot of credit and the guy would

single out would be gabriel landisgaard because he got interviewed by nbc as they announced the postponement and you know at that time everybody's ripping the league he could have easily gone on tv and ripped it too and he talked it up he was very positive about it and i think that's most players like i asked like a couple people around what were the players reactions to all this and you know boston philly they had to fly all the way across the country and wait an extra day and the one thing i get told is if you go to every outdoor game the players can be very mixed like the the first one the edmonton montreal one was the one we covered and you know we've talked about how the oilers and Canadiens players made a deal

that that game was too important not to play. So they were going to play it and it was going to be a no hitter. Hang on, hang on. For those that may not know the story, by no hitter, the agreement was each team agreed Don't hit anyone. not to hit each other.

It's too cold. There'll be no body contact. Sorry, go ahead. The ice was, they were worried about the ice. So, you know, once again, the players, I think were their reactions mixed? Yes, I think they were, but they understood the importance of it to the league and they made it work. I thought the game on Saturday night was, once it resumed, was really good.

And I'm watching the other game as we do the podcast. It's pretty bright in some places, but again, it looks spectacular. Um, you know, the players deserve a lot of credit. They know a lot is on the line in these situations and they do it. I will say this, you know, the commissioner had some comments about having fans at games and that's a big part of this. You know, one of the reasons that I think the league wanted to go forward with it yesterday was they get criticized for not trying anything, right?

And this is a league that has been overly conservative. And they said, you know what? Screw it. We're trying it. And it didn't work in the moment. It worked later. It looks like it's working now, Sunday night as we tape this, but it didn't work in the moment. It worked later. It looks like it's working now, Sunday night as we tape this, but it didn't work in the moment.

I hope that doesn't scare them back into being afraid. This is a league that because of where we are, the times we're in, they have to be more willing to take chances than they've been in the past. And I hope this does not change that i don't think they want games without fans anymore which is why i wonder can you do another game like this with five or ten thousand people there i don't think they want the fanless experience that's the commissioner said on sunday night and that's what i was hearing throughout the weekend i just love the visual fans or not like i i just love the visual, fans or not.

Like I just love the field of dreams idea of a game. You know, if you flood it, they will come kind of idea. If you have a minimum amount of fans, just to place it in non-traditional places, you know, with the marketing slogan, I don't know, hockey is everywhere. You know, so I remember being in a restaurant. Were you at the table with us?

Brenda Irving, Jim Van Horn, it was the first night in Beijing, and Brenda found a restaurant in downtown Beijing, and I remember I walked by the wine cellar. I don't think so. I remember walking by the wine cellar, and there was a picture of Steve Eiserman. And I remember thinking about it. I've always said this to myself. Hockey is everywhere.

Hockey is everywhere. Everywhere you look, there's hockey. And I remember here I am in Beijing and of all people, right beside the wine cellar, there's a picture of Steve Eiserman with the Detroit Red Wings with no context whatsoever. The picture is just there. It's a pretty nice place too. Maybe that's your moniker. Hockey is everywhere and you have these essentially pop-up rinks and these pop-up events that happen all over the place i love that idea i understand the

economic reality of everything more so now than ever that the league is going through i just loved like everything visually about the lake tahoe experience, I really dug it. And my idea is you do it with your partners, right? Yeah. 5,000 to 10,000 people. Some people pay, no question about it. Some people will pay for the experience. But have a contest where one or a set of fans in every market gets to write something as to why

or submit something as to why they deserve to represent every one of the NHL markets at this game me and a friend me another person this is why we get to go do it through your sponsors do it through the NHL website figure it out it's not that hard and you give out 64 tickets 32 times two of why a fan from this market gets to represent their market at this game love it why do you deserve it love it just love it a couple of things yeah sydney crosby a thousand games and one of the visuals we'll take away from that is warm up when everyone got down to tie their skates that was awesome even. Even he was laughing. He was howling. It was great.

The video tributes were wonderful. All of it. I've often wondered what Crosby does when his career is done. Like I have a hard time believing that Sidney Crosby, when his career, and I'm not trying to wrap up his career by any stretch. I've always wondered what he does when hockey on the ice in the NHL is over for him. Because I really don't believe that he's going to be one of those guys that, well, hockey's done. It's time for something different now.

He seems like one of those bread in the bone, baked in the pie kind of guys for hockey. Okay, well, let me ask you this question first. Sure. of guys for hockey okay well let me ask you this question first sure his contract is up at the end of the 2024 2025 season at that point in time he is going to be approaching 38 because his birthday is in august do you think he retires then i don't know whether crosby is one of those players that will only play if he feels he's a peak performer or if he's and i find value in both but i really like the peter forrestberg you have to drag me off the ice example i don't think it ruins careers i don't think it oh you tarnish the the the reputation of the player i don't know whether he won't what type of player he wants to

be on the ice. Does he want to be, I just mentioned Steve Eisenman a couple of seconds ago. Like Eisenman accepted a secondary role late in his career. Would Crosby do that? I don't know.

Will he only play if he is at or near his best? I don't know. But I can see at that point him just going on evergreen deals just one year at a time. One year at a time. Do you see him being a manager?

I don't know if he would want to be a manager. And again, I don't know Sidney Crosby that well personally. You know, I could see him like running the Penn State hockey program. I was going to say, I could see him running Team Canada. I could see that too. But I just don't know. What could you see Crosby doing? Here we are, 1,000 games.

It's remarkable. First Pittsburgh Penguin ever, 1,000 games with that franchise. I don't know that he's thought about it. What is it that Kelly Rudy always talks about? Kelly has mentioned this before, and it's always resonated with me. The minute you think about retirement, part of you retires. Marv Levy always said that. When you think you're retiring, you're retired.

I don't know that he's thought about it. But again, I don't know Crosby, but I've always wondered, what would he want to do next? Because pretty much anything he would want to do, the door is open for him to do in hockey. And then one of the questions becomes, who does he kick off the mount rushmore that's for another cut that's for that's for another podcast you put him in the top three anthony reached twitter too much hey man he's a gift master come on he lives there another player hitting a thousand games is travis zajak and i know it's not going to get the

headlines that sydney crosby gets but this is going to sound so incredibly stupid, but you're used to me, Elliot. I look at Travis Zajac as a hockey player. I know that sounds dumb, but hear me out. You know, there are some guys that aren't going to be the best on their team, aren't going to be the worst on their team, but their going to be the worst on their team, but their coach can use them in every situation and feels really safe putting them on the ice. Those guys I call hockey players. And I think it's a real big compliment.

Like Travis Zajac made it to a thousand games. I know he was a high. I think he's a really good hockey player. And I mean that as a really strong compliment. He can do so much for a team. He's not going to score 50 goals, but he's also not going to embarrass your team. Crosby gets 1,000 games.

Awesome. One of the greatest of all time. Travis Zajac gets 1,000 games. I said there's a really good hockey player. You ever thought on Travis Zajac gets a thousand games. I said, there's a really good hockey player. You ever thought on Travis Zajac? Well, I'm really happy for him because he goes on the COVID list and he spent a lot of time on it with two games to go at 998. And, you know, one of the things I'm kind of learning here, Jeff, is that whatever strain was picked up between Buffalo and New Jersey, it caused a lot of symptoms. I can't compare all situations. Everyone's different, but generally from what I understand

here, and this has kind of been backed up to me, the strain that was picked up by the Sabres and therefore the Devils was a lot more challenging than most if not all of the other situations the nhl teams have gone through and you know philadelphia is playing this with several players on the covid list i don't know their full situation but now we know rasmus ristelainen described his struggles to a finnish reporter sammy Hoffran, and they were very serious. We know that Jake McCabe, who's now injured and we're awaiting a full understanding of what his injury is, he had a real battle.

And I watched some of the Devils' Zoom calls when they first came back to practice, and you could tell the players were talking about what Zajac had to go through and they really care about him. And they talked about how tough it was to see some of the things that he battled. So, you know, for him to come back and get a thousand, I'm happy for him. I'm happy for him that he came back and overcame it. And in those comments by his teammates, I saw a lot of respect.

And this is a guy who last year, the Islanders wanted him for the deadline, right? And he vetoed a deal. He's a devil. I mean, we'll see what his future is going to be, but he's a pretty respected guy. A lot of people in the league have really good things to say about Zajac.

Congratulations to both those players, Travis Zajac, Sidney Crosby on a thousand games. Don't look now, but the Los Angeles Kings have won four games in a row, a pair against Arizona, Minnesota, and San Jose. They got two big games coming up this week early against the St. Louis Blues.

That's going to be a tough test. Do you have a thought on what's happening in LA? Like we had a wonderful conversation with Blake Bolden last week and we talked about obviously her team, the Los Angeles Kings, and here they are on a four game winning streak. Drew Doughty all of a sudden has 15 points.

Anse Kopitar has been real good all season long. Do you have a thought or two on the, on the Kings? Well, you mentioned to me that you wanted to talk about the Kings. So I did actual research. I talked to Rob Blake today and, uh, you know, first of all, if you look at them on points percentage, they're fifth in the West division.

It's Vegas one, Colorado two, St. Louis three, and they're a line ahead. They're all six 11 or better. Then there's Minnesota at 571 and the kings at 531 and that puts them in the race and we all kind of figured it would be blues knights avalanche and kind of okay who finishes fifth you know the thing about the kings is one of the things that blake said was the best players the dow Dowdies, the Kopitars, the Browns, they told them and they recognized that the days of trading away good players or letting good

players go was over. They hit their rock bottom last year, and now it's time to start turning around. And he said that the other thing, and he thinks this particularly affected Doughty, is that they saw some of the prospects were really good players. And they said, okay, we've got some real talent here. And he said Doughty particularly has been motivated by the Olympics next year. And he's admitted it.

He's talked about how he's been left off teams. Blake does think that's a big deal for Dowdy. So here we are, and they do have really good young players. And one thing I asked Blake about was all those guys who are down in Ontario, do you have a plan for them to play? And he said, no, we're not going to be rushing them. He said a lot of the guys that are making uh making inroads at the nhl level are guys who played in the ahl for a year

and he thinks that's important and i asked him if you're in the race will you add and he said no that's not our plan we want to make sure that these young players if these games matter they get as much possible time in them as they can. And they're not pushed down by somebody else who comes in. So, you know, that's kind of what I, what I think the Kings are thinking is they hit rock bottom last year, and now it's time to start taking these good young players, give them their experience and see where we go.

It's been a nice story. And Quentin Byfield on the horizon amongst a lot of other prospects. We've talked about this before. They're amongst the tops when it comes to prospects in their pipeline. Something you mentioned on headlines this week, Elliot, the Nashville Predators,

and we talked about it on the podcast last week, open for business, but you got down to some names and some untouchables, and you cited three, Yossi Ellis and Pekka Rene, the netminder. Everybody else, they will listen. Well, Yossi has a no-move clause. He's the heart of the team. Sure.

Ellis does not have that protection but they consider him incredibly valuable Rene has partial no trade protection I think it's also this could be it for him and I think they want him to retire as a predator so that's kind of where they are I was surprised because the reason I found out about it was because there was a rumbling going around that someone had asked them about Forsberg and while they said it would be a high price it was not impossible and so I started checking around how many untouchables were there and you know I was like I'm hearing three and it was Dante Fabro. And, you know, I was told not necessarily like, again, I think it's a high price, but they'll consider it. So they're willing to consider some big, big things.

I think they realized that that window's closed and it's time to rebuild towards opening a new one. They have a GM that's not shy. No, he's not afraid. Before we hit a break and come back with our guest, Kerry Kaplan, do you have a thought on what's happening with the Calgary Flames right now? Saturday was tough for them.

We always put such a focus on the Battle of Alberta, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers. This one was all Edmonton. Despite, you know, Calgary out shooting the Oilers seven to one at the end of all of it. It's tough sledding right now in Calgary. Those players look really frustrated. I think Kachok was really frustrated by what happened.

Like that whole puck flipping thing led to a meeting that I just think sent them sideways. You know, I think Kachok feels that they don't want him to, or some of the players didn't want him to create a something every game. And I think he's confused by that. I think, you know, he understands only how to play the game a certain way. And I think he's questioning it now. You know, we just talked about Nashville, like the core got to a point where it was time to change it. I think they're at that point in Calgary.

Markstrom charged down the ice twice. I think that was all about, we're not playing hard enough. We're not playing hard enough. We got to play harder. I just think that that group, they're not playing for each other. And I do think Brad tree living has been making a lot of calls on guys,

not just Sam Bennett. And, um And I think they're going to look at it and say, it's time we got to change up our group. It's hard to do right now because you can't bring guys over the border, but I think they will aggressively try to change their mix, not just for now, but

in the future. I think you've probably at the point where you're looking at this group and saying, you know what? This group had its run, and now we're going to do some other things. Big week coming up for the Calgary Flames. I don't know what week sort of determines the course of action, but more losses, and we'll see what decisions get made.

We'll hit a break. Thank you for coming for the turtleneck talk and staying for the hockey chats. You'll hear from the general manager and co-owner of the Brampton Beast, who last week ceased operations. Kerry Kaplan joins us on 31 Thoughts to Podcast in a moment.

Elliot, we are pleased to be joined by the president and general manager of the Brampton Beast, also the president and co-owner of Cosmo Sports and Entertainment. He is Kerry Kaplan, and he joins us now. Kerry, thanks so much for stopping by today. How are you? Good. How are you?

My pleasure, guys. Pleasure is all ours. Thanks for coming on. And listen, in a very challenging time for anyone, for the purposes of this podcast, specifically involved in hockey, everybody at every single level has taken a hit. We all know that. And the Brampton Beast of the ECHL, of which, as we mentioned, you were president, GM, and minority owner as well, have now ceased operations. Before we get into the specifics of what happened and why it happened, How has your life been the last little while

while you wrestle with a decision like this? Yeah, it's a great question. I appreciate it. It's very hard. The decision creeped up upon us and it was probably a week before where myself and the other owners knew it was going to happen.

And that was, you know, it was a long family day because you know that a lot of people are going to be impacted. So that was hard. And then, you know, the last few days, there's a lot of emotions once you actually make the announcement. So there's sadness, but we also realize, which is a pleasant surprise, is how many people we were able to touch in those seven years. Kerry, I'm going to explain yours and my connection in a couple of minutes, but first take us through the last couple of weeks and months as the ECHL came back, some teams decided they were going to play, some teams didn't. And then when you realized that this was the course

of action you were going to have to take. Well, I think the big thing is people don't realize, you know, the pandemic's 11 months, but it affected three seasons for us. And I think that's, you know, as does it a lot of other teams. So which, you know, sounds illogical, but in March of last year, which we had a lot of momentum, our, you know, our team was excellent. We were fifth in the conference. We had in essence, clinched the playoffs.

Our crowds were on the upswing. And then COVID hit, and that shut down our playoff run and our season and any revenues associated with that. As you say, the second year, which is this year, 14 of the 26 teams in the ECHL elected to play, but both of those in Canada, we had no option with the Borders. So November, we shut down the current season. So that's two years. And then I think what we realized recently is next season, which I think for many may be hard to hear, but next season is compromised. Normally this time of year, you sell a lot of

season tickets, you renew your season tickets, you make group sales, you do a lot of sponsorship. renew your season tickets, you make group sales, you do a lot of sponsorship. There's so much nervousness out there that we realized that for the upcoming season, let alone all the costs associated with testing or however that looks, but that the revenues would be greatly depleted. So it was three seasons. You're losing revenues in three distinct hockey seasons. And as a business, it's not sustainable. So we came to that realization probably since Christmas that it was a third season that may be affected. And for us, that was just too much. So the announcements made just recently in the second week of February, you said that you kind of had an idea at Christmas. What happens in the six weeks or so between those two dates as you're trying to figure out, is there a way to save this?

You try and find a way. We had other scenarios with the Beast in seven years where we brought some new ownership on board and we did some other unique things to bolster the organization. So you try to find a way. You know, it's one of those things where, you know, one door, two door, three doors are closed. You try and see if there's a window or, you know, you can throw a fire extinguisher through the door, some way to find an option that can get you there. And part of it was, you know, thinking, well, even in the new year, you know, you think, okay, you know, obviously there was the election in the U.S. and the vaccines were announced in November.

So it was a bit of a last thought that maybe January, February, people will be inclined to think about next year and get excited and they want to get back to hockey. But again, there's too much trepidation. I mean, COVID is still so overwhelming. And we went right up to, I can tell you, the announcement was Wednesday. Our owner's vote was Tuesday morning. You know, we had till Wednesday at the league to declare if we're going to do this. And right up until Tuesday, we hadn't as a group taken that final decision. So we, you know, felt like exhausted every possible avenue to see if we could get there. How would you vote? Well, I don't want to disclose the vote. I would just say for all four of the people, we all emotionally,

if it was emotion, I think all four of us for different reasons would have voted. Yes. You know, it was that balance between heart and heart and head. Yeah. It was just painstaking to get to that point. You know,

people look at it and say, well, the Brampton beast and you know, there's, you know, 2,500 or 3,000 people. I mean, 680,000 people came to our games in seven years. I mean, that's just multiplying out 2,700 times 254 games that we played.

So you end up affecting so many people and charities and community groups and schools that they can't afford to, but people don't realize, and this is the same in any- People in the community have jobs there. I get it. But people don't realize it's the same in small cities. People can't afford to go to Leafs games and Raptors games, but there's a lot of people that can take their kids three or four times a year to a Brampton Beast game. And that's a memory that that eight-year-old is going to have when they're 38. So yeah, it's really impactful on the community. Did you look at all, Kerry, at relocation?

Was that ever a conversation? Not for us. I mean, we, and I know that happens and, you know, from an ECHL perspective, we're Brampton. You know, I'm born and raised in the Toronto area and so uh and all our owners have a distinct connection to the city I mean our you know we have one gentleman in Kingston we have another in Toronto and then we have an interesting you know the first South Asian owner ever uh that I know of in hockey joined our group but he's got a home in uh Peel region and he did a huge cricket tournament in Brampton.

So the answer there is, Jeff, we're all connected to the territory. For us to sell to a group in Pennsylvania, there was no appeal to it. It was sort of Brampton or broke for us. How often would you have been contacted, whether it was when everything was finalized last week or even previous to that, a couple of different announcements, the ECHL, the limited amount of teams coming back, Brampton not being one of them.

I'm curious how many players would have contacted you directly? Like how hands-on are you? How cell phone on are you with players from the ECHL? Are you saying in which instance? I'll give you an example. So my kids work with Aaron Barysa. He's one of their trainers.

And I know there was some plans there for Aaron. And then when it was announced that the Beasts weren't going to be one of the teams coming back, it was scramble time. And he ended up in Slovakia. But I'm curious how many players would call you directly? I'm just curious about the nature of the relationship between, you know, you and the players and how those conversations went. Well, I mean, it's an interesting look at Elliot and I've known Elliot since we, you know, we in essence went to school together and, you know, it's a dream to be a general manager of a hockey team. I've been on the business side of hockey for many years, business side of sports. But in this context of sports but in this context I was general

manager at the ECHL level your hockey ops staff is extremely small it's your head coach and me and your assistant coach so and it's also realizing that the players are guys making $900 a week plus housing you know so they if they're not playing hockey they either have to as you say go to Slovakia or Poland or Switzerland or Norway or find another job. So the answer is there, you know, Spiros Anastas is our head coach. He's the primary point of contact with all of the guys. But I talked to a number of players one-on-one. And then we did, you know, in our Zoom world here, we've had some conversations with guys as developments happen.

But to your point, people say, well, isn't it premature? We're closing in February. Part of that is to let the players and staff and coaches make their plans for next season. We didn't want to run this till June or July, then make the same decision. And then players, we'd compromise guys' situation. In those conversations, would you have been comfortable or did you sort of direct them to other possibilities? Hey, I hear there's a spot opening up on this team.

Hey, this team may need two left shot defensemen. I can make a call for you. Yeah, we do. Well, the ECHL did a great thing. I mean, the ECHL was very proactive in this and it's an unusual thing. 14 teams played and 12 didn't. What the league's done, which is I think very smart, is that all the players from last year are protected by the teams that took a year off. So if we would have played, the Brampton Beast would have got our players back for October, which allowed us to say, absolutely, if you want to play for Tulsa in this current season, we'd encourage guys to do that.

We wanted them to stay active and play. And I'd say a good chunk of our our probably half of our team ended up playing either for another echl team or went to europe at least to do that so yeah we we were we really encouraged guys to to find other options knowing that we'd be getting them back in brampton if we came back so that is just we're all on the same page our listeners understand so that would be essentially you loaning them to other teams but still keeping keeping the rights. We would have the rights. You have some exposure if they go to Europe and they're happy, we could have lost some guys there for sure.

But yeah, we were cooperative with guys playing wherever they were able to play. Ottawa was your affiliate team for the NHL. Yes. How many conversations with them were there about what you were thinking and whether or not they could help? I mean, Ottawa didn't play, you know, obviously last, you know, in the playoff situation last year. So they were one of the teams that was off. I mean, we had a few

conversations, so both of us kept each other in the loop. But because everybody was inactive for this period of time, there really wasn't much they could do or we could do to remedy the situation. You've got to remember, too, unlike other leagues, we're in a 26-team league with 24 American teams. Yes. Which is more you need. It's not the AHL can do a little division. I mean, unless we were going to play Newfoundland 72 times.

And, by the way, you can't get into Newfoundland through COVID, but so we had even less likelihood to be able to get back. So, you know, Ottawa, I would say, is a great partner. I mean, the development for them is king, and that's what you want in an ECHL team. You want an NHL team that develops from within. So, I mean, they were an excellent partner, but there really wasn't anything for them to do because we just, we were the holdup.

We weren't playing. So Jeff, I should explain this. So Kerry has mentioned, we, we know each other for a long time. We went to high school together at York Mills Collegiate in Toronto. And we also used to play when the weather was good at Banbury park, which is not far from York Mills and Leslie, we'd play baseball against each other or sometimes with each other every single day. So there's a long history, you know,

Carrie and I kind of lost connection for a while. And then we gained it again. Carrie was working for the Hamilton. Were you, was it the Hamilton Bulldogs or Oilers? I couldn't remember if it was Bulldogs or Oilers. It was the Bulldogs. The first, first six years of the Bulldogs back was there in the nineties.

Okay. So he works in the marketing department for them. And my favorite story about you, Carrie, and you know where I'm going, you're going to tell everybody is OT night. That's so late. Is OT night. Now explain to Jeff and Amal in the audience,

what you tried to do on OT night and why you were told you weren't allowed to do it. Oleg Tevredovsky was a, Oh, wow. Have you heard that? When was the last time you heard that? Oleg Tevredovsky.

Yeah. Okay. So right. So AHL Bulldogs, we had Oleg Tevredovsky, yeah, okay. Oleg Tevredovsky, so right. So AHL Bulldogs, Oleg Tevredovsky was coming down to Hamilton to play in a – Elliott's got a great memory. No, no, you guys signed him. He was unsigned.

He was unsigned, that's right. He was unsigned. We signed him in Hamilton, right. We signed him in Hamilton. He ended up playing in Edmonton, I think. But anyways, his initials. So the key thing there was Oleg Teavridovsky, which is OT. So we thought we could do a promotion where you've got to get it correct

for me here. The concept was if we scored an OT. I think as if Oleg Tavridovsky scored the OT winner. He scored the OT winner, everybody would get free tickets for another game. Yes, that was your plan. Right. Because I thought that was a really cool plan. I thought it was a great idea.

A cool idea. I thought it was a great idea. But it was blocked. Why was it blocked? Okay, so Scott Housen was the GM of the- Yes, who's now the president of the American Hockey League. Yeah, now runs the American Hockey League. And he was the president.

And he was a big believer in what is what i also refer to as the lou lamorello rule which is no free tickets and the reason that lou lamorello and scott housing believed in no free tickets jeff and i do understand this is you never want a customer turning to especially if it's a season ticket holder or a big time paying customer to turn to the person next to them and find out that that person got in for free. Right. And so now I will make the argument why Scott Housen and Lou Lamorello and Glenn say they were wrong on that one.

The odd, because now you brought it back home there because the odds of Oleg Tevredovsky scoring in overtime were so thin that he's going to score the winner in overtime. But what it did is it would get extra ticket sales for the game that you were at. So the risk was so low, the reward was so high and it was, uh, I think it would have been.

So yeah, you, you brought me right back there. They, uh, we should have done it. Well, so the thing I was thinking is that it just shows your creative thinker. And I can only imagine as this was going on over the past few weeks and months that you were thinking of everything you could to save this team because you guys spilled a lot of blood trying to make it work.

As you know, the typical thing when a team folds is they fold because they're financially, you know, you don't fold because you don't make the playoffs or, you know, you came, you fold because financially you can't make it. I mean, I think what's really hard about this is we had a tremendous amount of momentum. We had good momentum, both for the season we were playing in the season that was coming up. And so in spite of suggestions that Brampton's not a good market or you don't have enough fans, I don't buy, having been there seven years, I don't buy any of those arguments. I think that we're in the biggest hockey market in the world.

Again, not everybody's going to Leaf games. There's lots of propensity for a lot of people to go to games, and it wasn't that. So what was really hard is that, is COVID going to do us in here? For a long time, we thought we'll get through it. But again, yeah, we felt like we waited as long as we could. But again, it was just too big of a mountain. Kerry, were you with the Beasts when they were in the CHL?

Yeah, I was there the first. I mean, Greg Rosen, we started the Beast from day one. So it was the one year in the Central Hockey League in 2013, and then we amalgamated with the or joined the ECHL. The reason I ask is because there were seven teams that joined the ECHL in 2014. I can remember on this podcast when we spoke to Dave Andrews, then, of course, president and CEO of the American Hockey League, he talked about one of his greatest challenges was, and I want to say this would have been 2000 or 2001, when the American Hockey League absorbed international hockey league teams. And he talked about how much of a challenge that was.

What was it like for the ECHL, maybe from your point of view, from Brampton going from the CHL to the ECHL? What were the challenges there? Well, first of all, Jeff, I may have been the only person in both of those rooms. I was the alternate governor for the Hamilton Bulldogs on the day. Yeah, we voted.

We voted for the IHL-AHL. So I was in there, in the room when that happened. And then, you know, fast forward, I was in the room on the ECHL-CHL. I think in both cases, they were really good moves. I mean, the IHL tried at one point to compete with the NHL and that was you know that wasn't going to happen and Dave Andrews did a tremendous job of being developmental triple-a hockey and I think the ECHL similarly is the double-a hockey league but for us it was good I mean we we joined the CHL and our closest rival in the Central Hockey League was a 12 and a half hour bus trip to Quad City.

So, you know, to join the ECHL for us was great. I credit all of those people in the room because a lot of times two leagues look at each other as competitors and they don't get there. What do you think about the future of minor league hockey in North America? How much damage is this going to do? Are there going to be more teams that you're concerned about? You know, where do you think we're going here, Kerry? Well, look, I hope we're the only domino. You know, I really hope we're the only domino.

I actually credit, you know, and I think through my Cosmo Sports, we work in a lot of other, you know, lacrosse and rugby and CFL. And, you know, I give a tremendous, and you see what the OHL is battling through. I give a tremendous credit for the amount of teams that haven't had to go in this direction. And I do hope like 100 years ago in, you know, 1918, you had a basically similar, you had a two-year period of pandemic and then you got through it. I think if you get through it, most teams will get through it and you'll have a strong American Hockey League and you'll have a strong ECHL, which is the AAA, AA model of baseball, which is really what they've been trying to pull off, but they've got to get through it. I know what I do know is that there are a lot of teams, hockey teams and other sports teams that everybody that

doesn't rely on television or doesn't have television revenue is in really, really dire straits. And I think there's a lot of prayers that, um, in Canada, you know, I think everybody's waiting for somebody to get the okay to have 20% fans in your building or 30% fans in your building. So I think if they can get through it, to answer your question, I think both those leagues in particular are in pretty good shape, but you got to get to the other side of this. It's an interesting question because I think one of the things that watching hockey go through this pandemic and watching the American Hockey League watching the ECHL you know you mentioned the OHL throw the Q and and the Western League in there as well watching all these leagues go through this for the first time in in a long time maybe in you know if for for anyone of this generation

we've had to think about what the impact of not having a minor vibrant um minor league hockey system would mean for the nhl and that goes right back uh right all the way down to junior hockey in this country i think for the first time we're thinking to ourselves hold on a second here we've always taken places like the the american hockey league and the ECHL for granted. I think, Kerry, this is the first time we've really looked at it and said, well, this could be a disaster for the NHL when you look at all the number of players, not just the American League, but it's more and more of a phenomenon

now to see players go from the ECHL to the American League into the NHL. We've never had to contemplate that. You remember the first ever hockey game you went to. I bet you people will remember the first game they went to after COVID. You'll remember that in 30 years. You can see a little bit of it coming back and obviously in U.S.

markets and things. But I think, especially for kids, you know, I feel like that they've been tremendously impacted. And yeah, you're correct. The challenge for the OHL and what you don't know is is covid going to actually have an impact on the quality of players 100 all the way down all the way down so right are you gonna you know when you look back are you gonna say well you know this was a bad year or we had a because of what happened in that covid cycle and you know you can do

tournaments and you can but it's not the same. You know, guys are in rhythms the way they play hockey since they're five years old, six years old, and their rhythm has been totally thrown off. You know, you go to Vancouver for three days and you have jet lag. Like, you miss having an entire rhythm of when you play hockey and when the practices are. And I think it's going to have some long-term effects on,

on the game. What's your next step? I'm personally fortunate in that Cosmo sports and energy. I mean, we're in, we do a lot of other business and we're in rugby and lacrosse and soccer and basketball. I mean,

there aren't, you know, we've kind of been in that. I hate the word minor. I don't like minor league. I think it's, it's really major league, but in, in other space. So, so I'm fortunate to be in a, there's a lot of sports and events that need to find a way back. And I think our company is going to be part of that.

But what I want people to know is Brampton is a good hockey market and had a successful team for seven years. And I think that arena shouldn't sit empty. Like right now, as of today with us leaving, it's the largest empty arena in Canada, I believe. In a sense, what I mean is there's no city of the size of Brampton that doesn't have a hockey team. So that shouldn't last long and somebody should find a way to fill that,

if we're part of that or not. But, you know, I do think when you get through COVID and you have a period, you take a look at Brampton again and say, is it OHL, is it AHL, is it ECHL? But there should be a team in that market. Well, that's what I wonder now. I wonder, do you think that same ownership group

gets back together maybe in two years and says, we'd like to try this again? It's not out of the question. You need dust to settle here. And you know, someone may jump in there in the interim. But again, you had an ownership group that left really for COVID and COVID only was the reason that this team closed. Well, let me close on this then, Kerry.

For me, the answer is watching David Ling, because I was a big david ling fan and still am to this day but when you think back the history of the brampton beasts what are a couple of the the more profound memories that you'll have and maybe david ling's one of them i don't know but what are yours david ling is what since you mentioned him he is one he's a guy in his four if it wasn't for your armory agger, David would be the oldest guy playing hockey. He still hasn't retired, by the way. Why retire? No, he doesn't see any reason to retire.

I think he's the guy that will be playing when he's 60. So David played with us in his early 40s, and he was a former NHL guy. But people don't realize who ECHL players are. Guys go to the OHL, for instance, they go to play in university, Canada or the States. Then they try and, where do you land? You try and get an ECHL job. If you're not lucky enough to be, or, you know, unbelievable, as we always say, it's winning the lottery to go to the NHL. You have to be at that elite level. And the American Hockey League is basically NHL drafted players. So the ECHL is kind of the top spot for guys that didn't get there.

And to me, it's the guys you got to know that are 27 years old, that are tremendous hockey players and have done this their whole life. They do it because they love it, because it's not the chance of many of these guys, besides the goaltenders. And we have a couple of our goaltenders, Hogberg and Drieger, in the NHL that played for Brampton. But besides goaltending, the guys aren't going to play in the NHL at this point. But maybe the Remembrance Day, maybe one thing.

And we did something special every year with a company called Kotak Law, and we did a Remembrance Day, maybe one thing. And we did something special every year with a company called Kotak Law, and we did a Remembrance Day game. And we had 2,000 tickets purchased by companies for veterans. And, you know, it was that, or we sold the building out. We did school days where 4,200 kids would come on an afternoon game at 11 a.m. And it was deafening in the building. And that's, you know, kids and a lot of kids who had never been to a hockey game in their life.

And we did that four times a year. And so hard to narrow it down to one, but I'm just touched that, you know, in three days I've received 400 emails. Did you say, where were you guys all like three days ago? That's what you always say. You know, I'd like to, this is funny, Elliot. I'd like to say, you know, I felt like after that,

you're covered everywhere, right, the next day. I'd like to say, just joking, now you guys all know us. Right? Like, that would have been, that's the dream. Well, that's my hockey dream. It could have been, we could have done it this week. I'd say, no, thanks. You know, we got that huge amount of coverage.

Just joking, we're playing next season. but now you guys are all aware of the branpton beast um but yeah we got you know hundreds of of emails and people that are sad and and really some touching stories about you know single parents and people that are less fortunate that came to games and uh schools and like that. So it just shows what these community hockey teams do. And again, I hope it can come back to Brampton in a couple of years in some capacity. Amen. Hope you're right.

Kerry, this has been a delight. Thanks so much for stopping by today. We really appreciate it. Best of luck with, with whatever's next. Thank you. My pleasure guys.

Thank you. I want to thank Harry Kaplan for stopping by the podcast this week. Gang Signs. That's who's taking us out. Three-piece indie electro band from Vancouver, British Columbia. This is from their 2012 self-titled album

Gang Signs with Counting On You on 31 Thoughts, the podcast. Let me say my prayers Are you on your way? Are you here? Are you here? Are you on your way? Are you here? On your way On your way to you On your, on your way

On your way to you On your, on your way On your way On your way to the end