32 Thoughts: The Podcast - It’s Just A Flesh Wound

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

The final push! Jeff and Elliotte tip their hat to Brayden Schenn (00:00), discuss an odd event in the Bruins-Blues game (4:15), Connor Bedard had himself a weekend (6:50), Kris Letang plays in his 1000th game (12:20), Islanders hitting a bump in the road (16:20), Panthers string together some wins (20:00), Buffalo inserts Devon Levi (22:40), Craig Anderson’s future (26:10), the marketing plan put forth by Ryan Reynolds (27:40), NHL going to Australia (31:00), Jets and Flames get some big wins (38:20), and Michael Bunting has a target on his back (45:00).They guys also take your questions and your voicemails to wrap up the podcast (48:00).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music: Dead Horse Beats - Moon MistListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: CKRM, MSG, SportsNet AT&T, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 960, WBZ-FM and WQAM-AM.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Oh, geez. When I was in university, I did an interview with Pat Borders. He spit tobacco on my running shoes. Deliberately? I still don't know. It could go either way. Hey, Elliot, before we get going, how was your day today? You know, it was pretty good, Jeff. I woke up at 10.30. I always like to wake up at 10.30 on a sunday i did like a quick two minute workout i do when i first got out of bed two minute workout yeah you know so like i have three workout days a week right now yeah so on the non-workout days when i wake up i do five push-ups i do five lunges on each leg. Oh, yeah. I do five squats and a 30-second plank. Oh, okay.

And then I did what every father loves to do on a Sunday morning. What's that? Take their 11-year-old to the LCBO. I swear, I think I did see you on the cover of Today's Parent magazine. That was you, after all. Walking by the newsstand quickly. And I thought that was you. Yeah.

It's quality parenting time. We walked over. There's one near our house. You know, we picked up some stuff that we needed to pick up. We did some, Max did some basketball drills he needed to work on today. And then I came into work, Toronto, Detroit. What about you? Okay.

Well, my day was was all right you know uh brody had a skate today tj had a game did some yard works unfortunately in the process now of tearing down the rink as we're transitioning from winter to spring that's always a a bittersweet moment for the rink but the reason i ask was so you're telling me that you didn't have anyone i'm going to read a list here skate over your hand get a stick to the face while getting a slap shot to the hand and then later take a thomas nosek high stick in the face as well all the while registering three assists albeit in the losing losing cause, for your St. Louis Blues. I don't know anyone in our orbit, Elliot,

who had a rougher day than Braden Shen. Oof. And still he was there till the end. I know. Like, after any one of those things, he could have taken the rest of the day off, and he was not taking the rest of the day off. You know what GIF was in my mentions?

Monty Python, the knight. That was a good one, yes. But you know what? There's another one I like that's a bit more recent. There's a South Park one where Randy Marsh, one of the kid's dads, gets into a fight and he's losing. And he doesn't want to give up. And the gift says, I don't hear no bell.

Hey, bad dad. I didn't hear no bell. So the fight continues and he wins it. And that gif was in my timeline talking about Braden Shen. I didn't hear no bell. And anything that references South Park and the NHL is an automatic winner. My 11-year-old watches South Park like nonstop. I don't know if I should be letting him do that at 11 years old.

I don't know. Maybe I should be on the cover of today's parent magazine along with you, but he just loves it, and I'm probably too irresponsible a parent to care. How about that, Elliot? So we are both parents of the year, but I think South Park, and we're really going off the end here. You know, you take a look at seminal shows in the history of television. When I was a kid, I at seminal shows in the history of television.

When I was a kid, I know it's all in the family. And people talk about how that show changed television. I think South Park goes down as one of the most important television shows of all time. All in the family, 100% with you. And I'll always throw in Sanford and Son as a biggie for me. There's a lot of them. With that, we'll kick it off. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by GMC and the Sierra AT4X.

Merrick Delich and Friedman, your favorite boy band, talking about that Boston Bruins-St. Louis Blues game. And one more thing that I want to add to that. Well, really a couple of more things. We mentioned Raiden Shen's really tough day and good on him. Yep, great on him. So the first goal, so I talked, I mentioned this on radio last week and I was meaning to mention it to you

and never got around to it, but the first goal of the game now gives me an excuse to mention this to you because I've always wondered what the call would be if this happened. Now, the first goal

originally was given to Trent Frederick and then later changed to Jake DeBrusque because they couldn't tell whose stick the puck actually went off. This is going pixel by pixel by pixel to try to figure this thing out. Jake DeBrusque ends up getting credit

for it. But it almost looked like the scenario that I was talking about, and I thought it was kind of goofy, and I know it was a little bit random, but welcome to my radio show, when I mentioned it. But then watching this, I kind of had this, oh my God, this is actually happening kind of moment. Am I clairvoyance? Am I Nostradamus? You know what I've always wondered about? What would the call be, Elliot, if two players both took a swipe at the puck,

each got a piece of it, and it went in. Like if you had a left shot and a right shot both swiping at the puck, the toe of their blade each captures the puck at the same time and propels it in, who gets credit for the goal? I've always wondered about it. I mentioned it last week. I don't have an answer for it. I checked around.

Nobody seems to have an answer for it. The best thing that I can kind of come up with is you award it to the player who last had possession of the puck in some sequence in the offensive zone. But even there, I'm throwing a dart and painting a circle around it. I have no idea, but it almost happened with DeBruskin and Frederick. I'm like, oh my God, this is actually happening like a couple of days after I mentioned it. Okay. I have spent no time thinking about this. I know. I'm just dropping it on you. But as you're ranting here, I'm thinking about what possible solution can I offer?

And you know what I came up with? What's that? Who needs the goal more? Well, that would be the old school way of who's got the bonus for that goal or who's in a slump yeah like who needs it that's what i'd go with who decides you go to the bench and you ask the coach okay who needs that goal more than uh more than the other guy anyway the boston bruins uh win that game four to three they thought they wanted an overtime on

the orloff goal that's called back and then they win it in the shootout. The St. Louis Blues are now eliminated officially. Before we go to anything else, did you see what Conor Bedard did on Sunday? Oh my goodness. Just filthy. Sous de l'oeuvre comes off the near boards. Coming for the net. Centering pass. It comes to

Bateman. Rebound shot. They score! And some hats start to come out onto the ice as Conor Bedard has the hat trick goal to tie it up at 5-5. Well, Conor Bedard has been doing all weekend. So Regina is Conor Bedard's team, and they're playing Saskatoon in the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.

And I defer to you, but you said that the Blades, who are Saskatoonatoon would have been the heavy favorite in this series right big time big time well now they're down to nothing so bedard got had five points in regulation he didn't get a point on the overtime winner slacker like you had a story on saturday night and yeah there's a couple things that you brought up on on the hnic version of 32 i think are really interesting but the one thing that you talked about was saginaw's getting the memorial cup next year yes and they're getting it for two reasons well three reasons one they put together a good bid. Two, they have a really good team.

And three, Connor McDavid never played in the Memorial Cup. No. We don't know that Connor Bedard's ever going to play in the Memorial Cup. He's trying, but you're right. One of the reasons Michael Misa was an exceptional status player last year, you know next year he's going to play in the Memorial Cup. And if somebody says to me, ontario hockey league fixed it so that this talented young player who we're going to see in the nhl someday gets guaranteed a spot in the memorial cup i say good on them as long as the

team is good enough and i defer to you and you say they will be then you should be putting these players into memorial cup situations now we talked about this earlier this year about Bedard and should he accept a trade or should it be traded somewhere else that's a Kamloop and it's pretty clear he didn't want to go and and that's his right if that's how he feels I'm good with that it's it's his life he does what he wants but this kid is starting to put on a show in the whl playoffs and even though his team isn't expected to do well it's exciting to see what he might be able to do in the postseason like if they went around it's crazy town because that was not expected of them. And they're up to nothing.

And both those games, by the way, they won in Saskatoon. They go back to Regina and that place is going to be berserk. It's a Jordan show. It's an absolute Jordan show. It is. And to the point about Saginaw as well, like

they, like to your first point, they checked all the other boxes. Like there's a number of different things you have to, a number of boxes you have to check and criteria you have to hit in order to get the Memorial Cup. They hit them all. To your point about having the team, one of the things that impressed the selection committee was not just that it looks like they're going to have the team, but they'll also have the

assets in order to enhance the team next year. They traded at deadline, which is a gamble because they're in a playoff position and they're in the playoffs right now playing against Flint. There was no guarantee they were going to get the Memorial Cup. And even still, they traded defenseman Pavel Minchikov to Ottawa. Now, Minchikov's a first-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks. He's someone that's going to play in the NHL.

And they got a very healthy return for him. And all those picks that they got coming back the other way, they can use to help enhance that team for next season. But I can't help but wonder if one of the big motivations here is we have an emerging star in Michael Misa. We need to get him in our biggest tournament, period. And I'm like you, Elliot, I have no problem with it. Again, it's not as if, as if Saginaw is not a good team.

It's a really good team. Dave Drinkle has done a great job with that program. And, you know, Dick Garber, the owner has written a lot of checks for a lot of years and they're going to keep doing so next season. But I really do think a big part of this is they have Michael Misa, and part of that is why they're going to get the Memorial Cup. As long as you can look at it and say the team is good enough to be there, hey, we're in the entertainment business. Everyone's in the entertainment business except this podcast, as you know from listening to it.

So I'm all good with that. Speaking of the entertainment business, I'm not going to make this too much about not even OHL hockey, but minor hockey as well. Brady Martin of the U16 AAA Waterloo Wolves, the OHL Cup, just a performance of a lifetime. Anthony Stewart was talking about this tonight. That's a name you're going to hear a lot

for a lot of years. Just remember the name, tuck it away, put it in your hip pocket, and just remember your your friends here on 32 thoughts talked about him once upon a time just remember the name brady martin you are going to be hearing a ton about this kid for a long time a couple of more things here we're following very closely um the playoff races and had a real good look at the p Penguins this weekend, a look at the Florida Panthers this weekend, the New York Islanders as well this weekend.

And I want to start with the Penguins. They lose 4-3 on Saturday to the Boston Bruins, double up the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on, and we'll pause on this note, game number 1,000 for Chris Letang. Tonight, Chris Letang is playing in his 1,000th career NHL game, becoming just the 68th NHL player to play all 1,000 games with the same team,

joining teammates Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin as the only three players to do so with the Penguins. At this time, please welcome to the ice Tom Werner of Fenway Sports Group, as well as Chris's wife, Catherine, and children, Alex and Victoria. And he plays 30 minutes plus. No shock at all. Ricard Raquel with a pair of goals.

Before we talk about the Penguins weekend, that was a quick thought on Chris Letang playing game number 1,000. First of all, anybody who plays one game in the NHL is a super player. Anybody who plays 1,000 games in the NHL is the elite of the elite. And anybody who plays 1,000 games the way that Chris Letang did and fought their way through what he has, and this is a guy who's had two strokes and has played 1,000 games. Just process that sentence.

I know. Two strokes and has played a thousand games you know the thing about this is letang is very demanding of himself it was really interesting like i was i was watching some of the tributes that the penguins put on their twitter pages about that some of the players videotaped and And Malkin had a hilarious one where he said, Never stop. See you all night and pass me on power play. Good luck.

That was really funny. But the one that really stood out to me was Marcus Patterson. There's a thousand games in the NHL. It's not a lot of us that can do that. And how hard you play every night, the effort you bring and the commitment. And it's really fun to watch. And what a great career, man. And let's keep it rolling.

Where he basically talked about his commitment. And that's the thing I've always heard about LeTang is that i think when you're great or you're a thousand game player in the nhl you're a deeply deeply committed individual and there's a lot of things that you don't see that a player does to get there and i remember years ago doing a piece when you know todd reardon's first term as an assistant coach with the penguins and they talked about letang's commitment to film watching and it was like go home no leave no he'd get his own keys so he could go into the film room and eventually like there were just ways they had to say to him you have to stop watching video of yourself basically it got to the point where it wasn't instructive.

It was more torture. And, you know, eventually LeTang finds his way. But I just think that for this guy to get to 1,000 games with everything he's been through, in addition to what it takes for a quote-unquote normal NHL player to get to 1,000, I think he deserved to be celebrated, and I'm glad he got it. And I love the Penguins tradition of when someone gets to 1,000. I think he deserved to be celebrated, and I'm glad he got it. And I love the Penguins tradition of when someone gets to 1,000 games of them all mocking the warm-ups.

I think they did it for Malkin, they did it for Crosby, and now they did it for Letang. I think it's a great team tradition. With Chris Letang, everybody's going to follow along. No way he was going to dodge this bullet, and it just shows how much they think about Crystal Tang. And they're having some fun, obviously, out there on the ice as is Crystal Tang.

So right now, the Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves one point up on the Florida Panthers, get to them in a second, and one point under the New York Islanders. Let's get there now. Tough weekend for the Islanders. They drop a 5-0 decision Saturday at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Sunday they drop a 2-1 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes.

They're not quite tucked away here yet, Elliot. They were making noise that they were going to be tucked away. Nice little run, you know, dusting the Capitals, dusting the Devils. All of a sudden here, the Islanders seem at this crucial time of the season to hit a tiny little bit of a, how shall we say, speed wobble. Your thoughts on the Islanders right now? I blame it on the reporters who asked Lou Lamorello about his contract status. I think it's common understanding around the league

that your contract expires after this season. Have you discussed with ownership at all extending that? Well, first of all, I never talk about myself, but common knowledge around the league, obviously none of you know what's going on with it. So when you say common knowledge, I'll just stop there. And I wish that sometimes you have facts rather than common knowledge. And when you report, report what you know, not what you guess or you read or you hear. I had a couple of people ask me, like, who were the reporters? One GM asked me, like,

who was the reporter that actually had the guts to ask that question i'm surprised you know jeff i'll i'll admit now they had a tough weekend it was tampa and carolina two of the best teams in the league i really believe the islanders are going to be okay just because i think they have of all the teams down there i think they have the best goaltending and in the long run i think they're going to be okay however they had a bad weekend last weekend they sorted themselves out they've had a bad weekend this weekend and they'll have to sort itself out you know they're a bit like the jets and that we've joked they can't stand prosperity it almost has to get hard for them before they can get out i still think they're

going to be all right because they're goaltending. But, you know, I think the thing we should mention is that all of a sudden, look who could have control over their situation. If Buffalo wins in regulation against Florida on Tuesday night, which is a game I can't wait to watch, the Buffalo Sabres have control of their destiny. And a week ago, two weeks ago, there was no way any of us were going to say that was going to happen. No way.

Not a chance. And I want to get to Craig Anderson here in a second, but you want to hear a quick little story about me and Lou Lamarillo. And it's a great line by Lamarillo. This is years ago when I was hosting the Leafs Lunch Radio Show with Bill Waters. And it was towards the end of the season. The Devils had been eliminated. And we had Lou on. And I figured, okay, I'm going to just take a shot and see what answer I get here. We're talking about players that needed to be qualified.

And I just asked Lou. I said, so of these players, who are you going to qualify? And the answer was great. He didn't even address me. He said, Billy, tell Jeff that I'm not going to answer and the answer was great he didn't even address me he said billy tell jeff that i'm not going to answer that question which i thought was great that's pretty funny wouldn't even address me for the answer hey tell your dumb buddy here i'm not going to answer that question that's fantastic that is so good that's so dismissive. It's fantastic.

It's completely dismissive. At that time, I was like, oh, wow, that's a great comeback. But, oh, that stings. Oh, right in the rear. Oh, body shot. Oh, taking a knee. Water in the basement. Water in the basement.

Florida Panthers went over the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-0. And so for a hot minute there, they had the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. How do you see the Cats right now? Again, a lot of credit to Alex Lyon. Yeah. You know, who would have thought that the Panthers season would be coming down to Alex Lyon? Into the near circle.

Johnson has a chance, a shot, a save made by Lyon. He kicks it away, and the Panthers win 7-0. Alex Lyon's first shutout in the National Hockey League. And he got his first shutout the other night. I think it was Aaron Portsline who had the line that the Columbus lineup wouldn't have been legal in the preseason because they didn't have enough veterans on it. It's a great line. Yeah, it's a very good line.

The guy's done the job. He's stabilized them at a really difficult time. I'm looking at this and I'm trying to figure out who do I handicap as the two teams to make it, right? And again, I go with who's got the best goalies. And there's two things the Islanders have here that nobody else has. Number one, the best goalies.

And number two, a tie for the lead in regulation wins. And plus know even though they've played one more game than pittsburgh and florida and they've played three more games than buffalo they're in the highest spot if the islanders don't make the playoffs it's because they cough up a lot like this is on them this isn't on anyone else i think they should make it you know i mean i think ottawa unfortunately hit the wall this weekend i just don't think they're going to be able to do it anymore and then i don't bet against crosby i'm still going islanders pittsburgh but i gotta tell you i'm not as convinced it's going to be islanders pittsburgh as I was a week ago. What about you?

I've been the same. I still do feel that at the end of this thing, the Islanders do have enough to get in. Listen, Buffalo is a completely delicious and unexpected wild card in all of this. But if I'm handicapping, I'm saying Penguins and Islanders. And the reason I'm

saying the Penguins is, like we've been talking about all season long, when they're on, they're on and they can look like world Islanders. And the reason I'm saying the Penguins is, like we've been talking about all season long, when they're on, they're on, and they can look like world beaters. And don't look now, but all of a sudden, Casey DeSmith is giving them goaltending. Tristan Jari is back. You just cross your fingers that, you know,

the Pittsburgh Penguins can nerf the world around them and make sure that he's safe and bubble wrapped for games. I would say the same, Penguins and Islanders. But I do love me a good Buffalo Sabres chase here, Elliot. And that takes me to a question about two goaltenders for you. One, what did you make of Devin Levi's entry into the NHL? This would have been last week against the New York Rangers. Haven't had a chance to talk about that since Friday's game.

And you had an interesting note on Craig Anderson and his future with the Buffalo Sabres. Which one would you like to address first? Well, I think we should do Levi because the Buffalo fans are hot about him and he looks like he could play a big role I like that they played him at home the easy thing to do was play him in Philadelphia on the road on Saturday that would have been less pressure and Philadelphia is not as good a team

but I think when you have really talented young players you shouldn't be afraid to hide them and I like that the sabers didn't hide them because it says to me that buffalo looks at this kid and they say we think he can handle this and he did to me it's not what you talk about it's what you do and that doing jeff showed me how highly the sabers think of him. And I've mentioned this before. I think before Levi committed to the Sabres, he wanted to know that this was a team that believed in him and if he played well, there was a path for him to get there faster than maybe a lot of other prospects would get.

And the way they've acted, the Sabres have shown that, and the kid clearly revels in that. You know, watching that game, and by the way, that was the Rangers were on a back-to-back. And so that did make some sense, you know. Sure, the Philadelphia Flyers aren't as good a team as the New York Rangers, but the Rangers were on a back-to-back, and they really looked in that first period

like they were on a back-to-back and they really looked in that first period. Like they're on a back-to-back, like two shots on net, like everything kind of aligned for Devin Levi there early. The third period, you know, the Rangers showed up, you know, throwing 20 pucks at Devin Levi,

but getting there, I was like, okay, it's two periods and 11 shots here. Like, what are we learning about Devin Levi? Other than this is a pretty smart move by the buffalo sabers catching the new york rangers on the back-to-back putting levi in there

and they kind of look like they have nothing in the tank like the rangers looked flat well you know that that's a really tough trip from metro new york to buffalo i get that trust me but they look flat they looked awful they look terrible because they don't have anything to play for i think they're i think you can see gallant is having trouble getting them going a bit there like they don't have anything to play for they're tired in their spot there is a player in the western conference whenever we talk about the east back-to-backs like ottawa at home saturday in columbus on sunday or the rangers playing in manhattan on home Saturday in Columbus on Sunday or the Rangers playing in Manhattan on Thursday and Buffalo on Friday.

He says, I go apoplectic. I almost have heart attacks. Hang on. Hang on. Is it someone from the Dallas Stars? Because they have the worst. Yeah, they have the worst. And to be honest, Florida and Tampa have bad travel.

They're the worst in the East. And to be honest, Florida and Tampa have bad travel. They're the worst in the East. But Dallas and those Canadian teams, he goes apoplectic whenever we talk about a back-to-back like this one. I know I'm getting a text on Monday. Okay, so we'll get up. Are you freaking kidding me? New York to Buffalo, they look tired.

It was back-to-back, and they looked like they were exhausted. Or like those first two. I'm sorry, you can only muster two shots against the buffalo sabers yeah i don't i don't i don't i don't know anyway so i did want to mention craig anderson like i think we all see where this is going there's a decent chance this is his he even talked about it when we interviewed him earlier in the year that this was likely his final nhl season he's officially day-to-day with an upper body injury and it's tough to throw him in now in a meaningful game. You know, you have three other goalies who can play. It doesn't make a lot of sense,

and I think even he would concede that. I do think the Buffalo Sabres have an eye. Their last home game is on the 13th, Thursday, against the Ottawa Santers, and I think the Buffalo Sabres have discussed with Anderson the possibility about him starting that game, and

if it was to be his send-off, it would be incredibly fitting and a really nice touch. However, if that game is a meaningful game, and like we said, Buffalo has a chance this week to take control of its own destiny. I don't think that's going to happen.

And I think he would understand. I think he would get it. So I'm really torn on this one between I want Craig Anderson, if this is to be the send-off, to get that proper send-off. And how awesome would it be if Buffalo was in the playoff race on the second last night of the regular season? I know what the Sabre fans are going to say. They're going to say, are you nuts?

We haven't seen a playoffs here in a long time. But as a human, I wouldn't mind seeing Anderson get the great send-off. Yeah, just one more time. You mentioned Ottawa there a second ago. You had a couple of notes on the Sens and Ryan Reynolds, and I found the marketing position of the proposed Reynolds group, Remington, the Braddy

family, particularly interesting. Ottawa versus the world? Yeah. Let's remember Raptors versus everybody. Yeah. One of the great intros ever done at Sportsnet, Paul Sadu, who did the one about the Raptors. That was so good.

That was great. The reaction to it wasn't so good. It caused Paul a little bit of aggravation, but I thought it was a great, great, great intro. Anyway, I've heard that that's what he's kind of pitched. Like, again, Saturday night, Leicester there, there's a lot of people cheering for Toronto, right? Yep.

So I know that if that happens, it's going to resonate with a lot of fans of that team. And I think he's got it planned. I think, you know, it's interesting. Like, nobody's really supposed to do interviews right now, right? And Nico Sparks did an interview on the weekend with one of my old coworkers at, it was Headline sports at the time

patricia bowl and you know he basically talked about that we have a lot of things too and you know like i thought that was pretty fascinating because you know the reynolds train is really going and you know some of the other bidders have kind of indicated that they know that if it's close you know the the reynolds train might take it over the finish line but obviously i think sparks was trying to send a message that you know we've got something special here too i'm curious to see how betman would react to that because everybody's supposed to be quiet yeah i mean break those ndas people reynolds at city hall the mayor's tweeting about it and he's glad handing through the rink and it like it's reynolds mania i'm with you and a lot of people like how do you not

at this point like from what i understand and again we don't have all the information the first bids were non-binding, but the word was that the bid from that group was very competitive. So if they were 300 million or 200 million behind everybody else, you'd be like, whatever. I think because they're very much in there, the fact that Sparks did that interview said to me, he doesn't like that because he's competitive, which I'm fine with. said to me like he doesn't like that because he's competitive which you know i'm fine with but like again i think it's a situation where some of the other groups are kind of understanding that if it's close it's going to be tough to beat the reynolds train i'll tell you this like uh someone said they were hoping to have the second bids done by the end of this week it's not going

to happen i'm beginning to think that timelines in this whole process really don't mean anything. It's like the timeline of when your kid's supposed to make their bed. It never happens when it's supposed to happen. But I'm really curious to see how this is going to end. Is this going to end with a bunch of bids or is this going to end with someone saying, here's our number.

Tell us if we get it or not. Here's the number. Give me my team. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Do you have a thought on the Australia games?

I talked about this on Saturday. Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes. Well, first of all, good scoop by you. Because I think a lot of us, like I heard it was going to be LA-Boston. I think, well, I shouldn't say like I'd heard. It had been reported. So it's not like I'm like a super insider on this one. By the way, my first thought on the whole thing would have been,

oh, St. Louis because of Nathan Walker. You didn't report this, but you said that you heard that there was a possibility of four teams going at some point right yeah so i would think that st louis would be one of them you know i think you've almost got to find a way to make nathan walker part of it there's one of your success stories right there. Like there's a big hook. Look, one of ours got to the NHL. Part of the idea is, you know, you show up at these places, give people a taste of the NHL, and all of a sudden kids want to pick up hockey sticks. And they're playing and you're popping that market. What does this do for your international business?

That's one issue as well. But as far as, you know, growing the game game of hockey that's what this is supposed to do i'm with you like it makes the most sense to have someone well to have walker there so walker is signed for one more year at st louis at 775 it's a one way so obviously there's only one route out of this, Jeff, and that is Alan Walsh has to demand a trade to either LA or Arizona. The NHL has to on-ramp this thing. Or maybe this could be like they do in soccer and he's alone.

He's on loan to one of the teams for these two games. All I know is that I want to go on this trip. Oh, yeah. The other thing, too, is I want to say I think it's a smart move not to send Boston there. It doesn't make sense. Elliot, they might win the Stanley Cup. You're going to torpedo a season.

I understand why you're sending a West Coast team there. You know, the thing is, too, is that Colorado, one of the things i think we mentioned this colorado really felt that their season got kind of thrown up and down a bit because of getting back to the mountain time zone after going to finland i mean i understand the bruins are a hugely popular team and if nathan walker gets traded there in the offseason i'll change my opinion but to me it doesn't make a lot of sense to send the bruins anyway good scoop yeah thanks i'm with you um i would love to go i don't care uh how i get there i don't care where you stick me on the

plane i'll go in the put it this way i'll go behind the passengers and fly with livestock if i can go to these games in australia how about that elliot i'd like to see that i shouldn't say that out loud or else my cup my company might take me up on it okay elliot western conference uh wild card race uh first of all man we've talked a lot about the drama that has been the winnipeg Jets. And what's the old saying? Winning is the best perfume. Winning makes everything nicer. Everywhere you go, when you win, everything's great.

Winnipeg Jets win on Sunday, 6-1. Nico Heischer wrecking the Connor Hellebuck shutout with 14 seconds remaining in that one. 6-1 is the final score. And also the Calgary Flames beat the Anaheim Ducks. It's a comeback. 5-4 is the final score. And also the Calgary Flames beat the Anaheim Ducks. It's a comeback. Five to four is the final there. Your thoughts on this race between two Canadian teams?

Well, huge marks to the Winnipeg Jets. Yes. Because they were leaking oil. They were on fumes. Someone was driving on empty just to get to the corner pump to get their car going again and not only were they big wins they were convincing wins they clobbered detroit six goals each game and then new jersey like new jersey's got the back-to-back chicago to winnipeg you know that's

a schedule advantage for you and they pounded them right away i guaranteed you this winnipeg those players they know what everybody's saying about them there and all you can do is take care of your business and i thought winnipeg did it and credit to them the other people i'm really happy for jeff are our wednesday night hockey crew yeah because they get a huge game this week between the Jets and the Flames. But there was one thing I just wanted to mention. So that night of the big bonus post-game media conference in San Jose, like there were a lot of things that got a lot of attention. There was the line about,

are these guys really putting themselves out there are they giving it their best there was the eye roll when shifley's name was mentioned there was something else he mentioned too and that was about eelers not getting a lot of ice time nick missed a couple i agree with you nick missed a couple shifts what happens sometimes is when i send kevin out to take the faceoff on the right side, and Adam's on left wing, and sometimes we don't get it out. That's why I try to get Nick as much ice time on the third as possible. But that's what happens.

And then there was one power play that they were in there the whole two minutes, and he didn't get out on that. But no, I'm trying to get him more minutes. I am. And he was skating well tonight. minutes and he didn't get out and on that but no I'm trying to get him more minutes I am and uh he was skating well tonight but again in the face-offs in that second period in that right side Kevin goes out Adam stays on left wing obviously so we have two sentiment and he missed a couple of shifts there but that's uh you know that's got nothing to do with his play that's just the situation so I did try to get him more ice time there in the third.

But it was almost like Bonus was saying, Ehlers is a little bit of a victim of circumstance here, and we've got to do a better job of getting him out there. So he played 13-50 in that game. He played 15-57 against Detroit. He had a goal and assist. He played 15-37 against New

Jersey, and he had two goals. Now, you can still debate on whether or not that's enough time for Nick Ehlers, who I think is a really talented player, but I think when you come out as a coach and you say that, maybe it's not the thing that people remember most of all

because there was plenty of other stuff there said that we heard. But I guarantee to you, Nick Ehlers knew about that. And I guarantee to you, some players in that room knew about that. They're thinking, Bonas said that Ehlers is a bit of a victim of circumstance and I've got to get him out there more. And he was two minutes higher in both those games. I think when you're a coach, you owe it to that player when you say that to make sure he gets more time. And Ehlers got more time and they scored 12 goals. Is it all on him? No, but I don't think those things are coincidental i think bonus for everything he

said about everyone else to me he said something about himself and that is ehlers has to get more of an opportunity so listen a couple of big wins for the winnipeg jets but a couple of big wins as well for the calgary flames elliot you know it took overtime uh go back to Friday, 5-4 against the Vancouver Canucks. Giuseppe spins to his right. Setters out in front. Joshua whacking and hacking away. It's stopped twice by Markstrom. And now we've got a 2-1-1 the other way.

Backlund to Toffoli. He shoots. He scores! And here we are as we record this Sunday and the Calgary Flames have just come back and beaten the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 and the sea of red rises at Scotiabank Saddledome. And after failing to win a game that they trailed in following 40 minutes in their first 75 games this season,

the Flames do it in game 76 and again in game 77. Milan Lucic ties it. Michael Stone wins it. The Flames defeat the Ducks by a final score of 5-4 and remain just two points out of the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference. This is a team that, you know,

we've tried to write them off before and now they're stringing together a couple of wins. They have the dreaded four-game week. So they have Chicago Tuesday. You mentioned Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets then they've got vancouver on hockey night on saturday so you know i'm always cognizant of teams that have the four game week and what how much they're going on fumes by the time game four rolls around but nonetheless big couple of games for the

flames what did i talk about with the islanders why do i believe in them because they have the better goaltending and they have the tiebreaker winnipeg's got both those things they got a two point lead both have five games left winnipeg's got the better goaltending situation and their four wins up on the regulation wins calgary doesn't have time to worry about being tired they have to win the other thing too is all a sudden, we've got another goaltending question in Calgary. Like, what do you do? Chicago, Winnipeg, back-to-back. What are you thinking there?

Because, again, first goal. He centers it, and Vetrano scores. They give up a goal, and then Markstrom's out after the first period, and Ladar comes on and wins the game. Frank Vetrano whips the puck past Jacob Markstrom and the Ducks. So you've got a lot of big decisions that you have to make here. I think the thing about Calgary now, all of a sudden, for the first time all year, you've come back and won games that you were trailing going into the third period.

So that's good news. The other thing is, like, Michael Stone scores the winning goal. And, you know, that's a guy that the Flames love. They love him so much, they bought him out of one contract, and then they re-signed him the same summer. And I didn't even realize you could do that. The Flames had to ask the league, can we do this? And the answer was yes. But, like, that's a guy they love, and he's coming back from injury.

Like, Michael Stone, like we talked about LeTang earlier, Yes, but that's a guy they love, and he's coming back from injury. Like Michael Stone, we talked about Letang earlier. Here's a guy who keeps signing low-number contracts with the same team just because he wants to play. He comes back from an injury and gets that reward, maybe the goal that saves Calgary's season. And the other guy is Lucic. This has been a tough season for him. He's a lightning rod out there.

Where he gets to play in the lineup, he missed some games. You know he's got a ton of pride, and he scores that huge goal to tie it. Here comes Coleman the other way. He floats the puck to Lucic. Lucic shoots and scores! And the sea of red erupts. What a shot by Milan Lucic. The thing about Calgary, it's amazing.

Winnipeg, at least this week, they won their last two games really easy. Not Calgary. That Vancouver game. Not Calgary. That Vancouver game. Not Calgary. That was drama. This Anaheim game, it was drama. Calgary is doing nothing easily this year. Now, the one thing about the Flames is, I wrote this on Friday,

after that big L.A. game where they got hammered, the one two weeks ago where they lost big in L.A., I think they kind of had it out. And I think there were a bunch of players who said like it's enough enough complaining enough worrying about your ice time enough grumbling to people where it ends up in the media and we know jeff that's your fault not mine just play try to save the season i think there were some players who were there like, it's not only that we're in danger of missing the playoffs,

but I think they felt we were kind of self-sabotaging. Let's play and play our hearts out. And I think guys like Stone and Lucic, those guys are pros, man. They've been around a long time. They love to play. It hasn't been easy for them and

watch those guys go to lucic when he scores like they jump on him you can always tell how people react when someone scores or a goalie wins the game do the teammates like this person and you saw for lucic and stone Stone, those teammates, they love those guys. Since that Kings game, the Calgary Flames have won five of their last six. We also should mention huge game Monday night, Nashville at Dallas. Yes.

That's a tough one for Nashville. They're five points back with two in hand. Gotta win. The Maple Leafs didn't win against the Detroit Red Wings. Congrats to Derek Lalone and Steve Eisenman's group there. A couple of stories coming out of this one. One, the injury to Matt Murray in just a weird collision in the net with Lucas Raymond, who loses an edge and falls into Murray.

Murray falls backwards, hits his head on the ice. Samsonov comes in to take over. And also the Michael Bunting story, and you touched on this during the game and post-game as well, but the big story for the Maple Leafs, the future and the uncertainty around it of Matt Murray. First of all, people who are saying

Lucas Raymond did that on purpose. Oh, God, stop. Come on. Guy's got 38 penalty minutes in 149 games. Just look at the play. It doesn't matter who it is. Just look at the play. That is a complete accident.

These things happen. He was obviously in concussion protocol, Sheldon Keefe said, after the game. And that's something not to be trifled with. And, you know, no two concussions are the same. So, you know, hopefully he gets healthy, but it looks like it's going to be Joseph Wall time. The one thing about Wall is...

He played well. He played really well. The AHL team's been on a kind of bad streak a little bit here. They won on Sunday, but Wall's had a really good season. They've signed him. They believe in him. And the other thing, too, is that around the deadline, people were wondering, should Toronto trade for a goalie? And I think they made it really clear that they were only trading for him

if it was somebody who was better than Wall at a price point that made sense for them. Because they signed him to a three-year deal at a really low number. They believe in him. So I think they'll be okay. If it's Samsonov-Wall, I think they're prepared to deal with that. Though hopefully, you know, Murray will be fine. The bunting thing, that's a big issue, Jeff.

I think they're worried about it. It happened right at the end of the second period. So I didn't have a lot of time before the intermission. And I had some more time to make some calls in the third. So there's a couple of things here. It's very clear, very clear that Michael Bunting is a marked man. And I think he's one of those guys that whenever a team plays Toronto, and I'm talking about early in the year,

there was a lot of, hey, watch Bunting, watch Bunting, a lot of lobbying from other teams about watch bunting, watch bunting, you know, watch bunting. So here's the thing about bunting. If you believe in numbers over the eye test, here are your numbers. Last year, penalties drawn, bunting was tied for third with Tim Stutzle. 45. One was Dubois, 51.

Two was McDavid, 50. But here's the thing. In net penalties drawn versus taken, Bunting was plus 13. He drew 45, and he took 32. Now, look at this year. He's still way up there in penalties drawn he's second mcdavid's at 42 bunting is at 39 however net penalties he's only plus three he's taken 36 so that's the thing and that 36 is tied for second in the league him and marchand are at 36 and Rasmus Deligne's at 41.

So the thing that's changed this year is Bunting's net. He's gone from plus 13 to plus 3. Like a game like Sunday's really highlights it because it's trending in what looks to be a bad direction. Interesting. Quick break.

Back with emails and your phone calls. I'm out. Elliot, we get emails at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. We get phone calls at 1-833-311-3232. Want to start out with an email. This is Chris in Burlington who says, can I buy Elliot's extra Rathbone jersey from him? Is that for sale, Elliot, or is that already in a box

and wrapped up for Amel for Christmas next year? I have to check and see where it is, but I will consider it, uh okay great one to be honest and and you know chris since you asked you know like let me see if i got it send me a note uh in a couple of days like send another note to the thought line to remind me but if i've got it if you want to make a donation somewhere i'll do do that. I don't mind that at all. Or send the email at 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Andy in Amherst View, Ontario. This is interesting.

One, if a player has a no trade list and requests a trade from the team, for example, you have Gennie Kuznetsov. Yeah, yeah. Does the team have to honor the no trade list, or does the no trade list become null and void if the player asks for the trade? That's a great question. A really good question. But no, you still have to stick to the list.

Like the one that all the Vancouver listeners will remember was Kessler. He asked for a trade, but he would only go to one team, Anaheim. So, you know,couver was kind of they could just do that i remember one of the great lines about it was kurt schilling when he asked for a trade from the philadelphia phillies the gm at the time his name was ed wade and he was getting so frustrated with it he said let's just remember here kurt schilling has a no trade contract not a trade me contract so he has to work with us too so no the list does not become null and void if the player asks for it you still have to work with the list or anything a player is willing to

do i always think of danny heatley uh ottawa and the edmonton trade uh i want to get traded okay we've traded you to edmonton yeah i'm not going there oh was ottawa mad about that one the other part of andy's uh email is a player permitted to alter their no trade list throughout the contract for example if a player has edmonton on their list but wants to remove it for obvious reasons can they do this that's another great question the answer is yes and no most of these contracts have situations where there's a certain date that the list has to be held or sent in by. And if you submit it, you have to hold to that list for a year unless the team is willing to bend. Or if you get your list in late, then the team can basically do whatever they want. Like the famous one is Patrick Berglund in the Ryan O'Reilly trade from Buffalo to St. Louis.

Patrick Berglund had Buffalo on his no trade list, but the new list was due on a certain day, and when he was late, St. Louis made the trade. That's the one that everybody kind of remembers. Some players, they don't have to submit a list until a team requests one. That happens periodically, but most of them, they're due on a certain day and that changes yearly on the same day in a lot of these cases. And if you put a team on it, you're held to that unless your own club is willing

to accept the change excellent and those were really good questions uh jimmy in a callowit as someone whose job is to help recruit and manage people something is really interested in me that seems to be changing in the nhl what are teams doing beyond salaries to make themselves more of a destination that players would like to join? Which teams have made the biggest investment in changing corporate culture to make it easier to either sign free agents or have more trade options?

What teams are on the radar for players? I guess the heart of this question is, what can teams do or what do teams do outside of extra compensation? Because you can't do that to make their team an attractive one for free agents. Boy, this is a great question. This is an excellent question and it deserves some conversation. You may have heard, Jeff, when I i broke in i broke in covering the nba no i think this i don't think i think you might have mentioned it once in the first season briefly

so i'm a young reporter i'm i think when the when the raptors came i was 25 years old their first season and it was such a phenomenal education first of all there were a lot of people whose backgrounds i did not have much in common with and I learned that if you're willing to show your face every day and just listen and have honest conversations with people, you realize there's a lot of common ground there. People can learn to understand each other, unlike in the social media world. The other thing you learn is there was a guy who played in the nba he was an original raptor his name was tony massenberg and tony massenberg like i remember watching tony massenberg in college and you know i thought wow this guy is this guy's a really good

player and he played in the nba for 15 years which means he's a really good player. In that time in the NBA, he played for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 different teams over 14 different stops. He was an original Rapt Raptor and he also spent a couple years with the Grizzlies I think he actually went to the Grizzlies twice and what you learn is like a guy like that if you're lasting that long in the NBA playing for that many teams you're an incredible person like you really are you're a guy that teams want at the end of your bench because you're a great teammate. You work hard. You've got a positive attitude. You don't cause any problems.

Like people just want you around. And I remember one time him and I sat down and he talked to me about the challenges that the Canadian teams in the NBAba faced and he was dynamite about it like he was so good about it and like he talked about like on tv there like at the beginning we didn't have four channels of sportsnet and you know tsn they showed a ton of curling and they would look at it and say where can we find basketball on TV? And you couldn't. So the Raptors, I think they had to buy dishes for all these players so they could watch basketball on TV. And what he mentioned was there are certain places

that everybody's going to want to play. Maybe there are storied franchises. Maybe they've got warm weather climates. Maybe they've got tax situations maybe it's New York and LA and you said there's other places and it wasn't just Toronto and Vancouver it was other places in the NBA where unless you're winning it's going to be hard to get players to go there so I honestly think number one thing that Jimmy's question is, are you in a situation where people think they can win? Because if people think they can win where you are, it covers up a lot of other questions like your tax situation, like if

your weather's not as good. If you're in a place where you can win, that overcomes a lot of things. If you're in a place where you can win, that overcomes a lot of things. But some of the things that people talk about is quality of team playing. You know, we joke about the short back-to-packs. There's a lot of long travel and long trips in this league. What's the quality of your playing? What's the quality of your dressing room? What are the amenities that you have there like are the meals good like you

know one of the things in the there was an nfl pa players poll this year and the arizona cardinals were charging their players for team meals and a guy i think signed in pittsburgh this year he's like it was nice to come here and not have to pay for my meal at the team facility it's all stuff like that tampa right now everybody wants to play in tampa vegas a lot of people want to play in vegas you know people love playing for the rangers so they're gonna have those advantages like a couple years ago remember we talked about columbus and they they didn't have the amenities that other teams had. So people were like, eh. And Columbus, they hired Aaron Johnson as their concierge.

And what they did this year with Jonathan Quick, like that scores points. Jeff, I don't know if there's anything you think. I do. There's a couple of things. But I look at there's the franchises everyone wants to play for because they've got the advantages where they are. And there's the franchises where maybe everyone doesn't want to play for because they've got the advantages where they are and there's the franchises where maybe everyone doesn't want to play for so your amenities and your winning has to be good to make up for so when i saw this question uh what i did is i i texted a number of agents and said like what

are some of the things that teams do to try to warm to your clients here one agent just returned pay the agent fee which I thought was kind of funny. And I appreciated the joke on a Sunday evening, but a couple of other agents talked a lot about what the teams do for families. And I want to read something that one agent sent along, and I'm not going to say who it is, but these are some of the things that go a long way with players. And he said, anything you can do to entice the wives and the girlfriends. Very good point. These decisions aren't just made by, like all hockey decisions,

where I'm going to go, how long I'm going to play contracts, all that aren't just made by the player and the agent. The significant other plays a huge part. And here's some things to keep in mind. A top-notch wives or family room with babysitting. Yeah, excellent point. That's big. A plan on how wives can be important in the team's foundation and charitable work as well. That's big. Great setup for schools for kids that is turnkey and really simple for families. Util utilizing current wives and girlfriends that help sell

how great the city is and how happy they are and what a great group of spouses they have and how much fun they have, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That goes a long way because we tend to think of these things as this is just the player decision. Elliot, how many decisions do you make on your own i don't know that i make many i'm not allowed to make any decisions no you know what i i think that is such a great answer i wish i thought of it i'm glad you did it uh you know it was funny i was talking about a situation today and i'm not going to get into it where like a wives and girlfriends group didn't go well and how much of a problem it caused and this person said to me you have no idea how critical that is because if it goes sideways you almost can't fix it all right let's end up with the uh the podcast today with a voicemail. Here's Chris in Minneapolis.

Hey, guys. Great show. This is Chris in Minneapolis. I've got a question about rules. For a delayed offside, can you score? Like if a delayed offside, they're waiting for everyone to get out. If there's someone still in the zone, but someone shoots it in from outside the blue line and it goes in, does it count?

Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work. Bye shoots it in from outside the blue line and it goes in, does it count? Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work. Bye. Chris in Minneapolis. No goal. No goal until everyone's cleared the zone. Everyone's got to be out. But I like having questions like this on the pod. Yep. Again, because there's a lot of different entry points here for hockey, and it's

important that everybody gets all on the same page about the rules. Chris in minneapolis thanks for sending that one along okay on that we'll call it a day hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead a lot of great hockey on the horizon enjoy it our next podcast comes up friday morning as per usual taking us out as a toronto-based producer and multi-instrumentalist who we featured in Season 2 of the podcast. Patrick Wade, stage name Dead Horse Beats, produces a unique blend of hazy soul that blurs the line between electronics and live instrumentation.

With his latest single, here's Dead Horse Beats with Moon Mist on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Thank you. Bear with me Lay down Race to see Hold out Control of me