32 Thoughts: The Podcast - “It’s Not Revenge?”

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

And the Carolina Hurricanes continue to haunt the Montreal Canadiens. Jeff and Elliotte recap Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s return to the Bell Centre (00:01), chuckle at what they saw post-game on social media and discuss Montreal’s early struggles. They also chat about Brady Tkachuk’s return to the Senators (17:00), the goaltending situation in Calgary (20:00), Winnipeg getting it done shorthanded (23:00), Quinn Hughes continues to impress (27:00), the early season challenges (on and off the ice) in Chicago (29:00), the youthful Blues (41:30) and the winner by Vladimir Tarasenko (37:00), what we might see with the Rangers and Vitaly Kravtsov (51:00), and much more New podcast intro music by Jane’s Party. Thank you to Zach, Tom, Devon and Jeff for composing this season’s intro music. You can find their full discography here Music Outro: Conspirators – Fear Listen to the full track here by Conspirators This podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Audio Credits: 98.5 KFOX, 630 CHED, Bally Sports Carolina, KSMO, Phillip Thompson Twitter and Sportsnet. 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, no, the Carolina Hurricanes again. Have a good night, everyone. Oh, man. Elliot, I think a lot of people around the NHL are stunned, but should they be? Carolina Hurricanes Twitter, didthehabslose.com. Now, this tweet came moments after the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Center 4-1,

and yes, because who says this sport has no poetry in it? After the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Center 4-1, and yes, because who says this sport has no poetry in it, Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored the 3-1 goal. Back up top. Shea scores! Brady Shea rips one from the blue line, and the Canes go up 3-1. Welcome back to Montreal, Jesperi Kokaniemi. He redirects this puck. And this is the script.

What a tip. What a hard-working shift from Kokaniemi. DidTheHabsLose.com. And when you go to it, there is an opportunity to purchase, 20 shirts using the code name we and you know who the shirts are for yeah you spary cut kenyamian sebastian ajo yeah of course can we stop pretending that there's no element of revenge or hatred between these two teams like i really feel bad for the reporters who get told oh there's no revenge here stop going with this angle yeah of course it is and you don't unleash that on twitter after a

victory if there isn't a large element of dislike and it wasn't only did the haves lose there was another tweet that came out saying reporting the score to the league which has to do with montreal turning in carolina for playing less than six exhibition games so i mean let's just stop with the there's no dislike there's no revenge this isn't about anything other than hockey drop the pretense we all know what this is you know i will say this so i get texts after this all came down tonight there were people who laughed at it and there were people who were like i hope the hurricanes get theirs i have to say it comes in about 50 50 those are the reactions i get but there's no question that if we're trying to move out of the vanilla NHL era,

this is taking us in that direction. The Carolina Hurricanes are very much leading the charge. This is, it's funny, I was texting with someone from a team just before the podcast and making the point like this, this is new in the NHL. This isn't shocking in other sports. This is shocking because it's the National Hockey League. These kinds of things don't happen in the nhl this isn't shocking in other sports this is shocking because it's the national hockey league these kinds of things don't happen in the national hockey but how many times have we talked about leaning into being a villain and the carolina hurricanes in quick order

have gone from being the lovable bunch of goofballs doing goofy stunts at center ice right the bunch of jerks doing goofy stunts at center ice after wins to becoming one of the great villains in the National Hockey League. And they have their sights set on the oldest franchise the league has ever known. You know, I've always made the tongue in cheek joke that there's no such thing as the original six. There's just the original one, the Montreal Canadiens and everybody else is an expansion team. This is the oldest, most storied franchise the National Hockey League has ever had.

And the Carolina Hurricanes have them in their sights and are relentless. They found the last nerve of the Montreal Canadiens and they're plucking it like a fiddle. I never thought I would see something like this in this NHL that I grew up with. But here we are. And the Hurricanes are leaning into it. Tom Dundon, what have I said he wants to be? The NHL Jerry Jones. No, I know.

And I'm with you. I would just like Don Waddell to stop saying that this isn't personal. Well, even Dundon says it too. Like everybody, just just enough we get it this is personal continue by all means like i think this is fantastic for the sport you know once upon a time you know who used the line we're gonna have to stop all this fighting in the nhl we're gonna have to build bigger arenas i think Cherry was the one who used to use that. I think it might have been Punch Imlach who first said it, though.

I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like a Punch Imlach thing. But I think with this, as much as people may find it distasteful, I'll tell you what, every time Carolina and Montreal face off, everyone's going to be watching and they're going to fill buildings because now they've made this personal comma again montreal's really down they're oh and five now yeah and you see brandon gallagher smashing his stick in that game yeah and you know carrie price when he when he eventually comes back and joel edmondson when he eventually comes back,

and Edmondson was in Carolina before going to Montreal, they're going to remember it. They're going to say, these guys kicked us when we were down. We talk about Florida-Tampa and what a rivalry that's become. I agree with you. This is very much a rivalry now.

Not in the same division, not geographical, but these are going to be highlight circled games because the players, especially the, because right now the Canadians players are kind of losing that rivalry, right? Ajo State in Carolina, Cock and Yemi's in Carolina, scores, put big time money on the board, as they said.

You know, Montreal obviously had the great finish last year, but they're feeling their oats right now. They're struggling, they're hurting, they're losing, they're in a bad spot. They're going to be mad. They're not going to forget this feeling. And so these games, you're right, it's a rivalry now, and it's going to be a mean one. Because to have a rivalry between two teams that aren't in the same division, that aren't geographical rivals, something has to happen. And now something's happened. Yeah, I mean, this is going to be more than just social media bickering back and forth. This is going to be, I mean, who knows what's going to happen on the ice.

But one thing that I can see here, Elliot, right away. Okay, let me give you an example. Normally when we see one team blowing out another team, what happens when the team that, like I say, it's an eight to one game, okay? What normally happens when the team that has the eight spot gets a power play? Do they put out power play one?

No. They put out power play one? No. They put out players down the roster. They don't put out their number one power play. Montreal ever gets Carolina up six to one, seven to one, seven, nothing, whatever, and they get a power play in the third, guess who's going out? PP1.

It's going to be things like this nonstop. Maybe Weber un-retires to take a couple shots. Just comes in to take slap shots. I think that's what we're going to see with these two teams. Alright, so a couple of things from that game. It's a 4-1 final at the Bell Centre. The Montreal Canadiens, you know, there were times

when they really pushed. There were times when Freddie Anderson was outstanding, specifically in the third period. But a pair by Sebastian Ajo, Andrei Svechnikov with his fourth, Yosperi Kotkaniemi with his first goal of the season because it had to happen, of course. And 4-1 is the final score. You mentioned the Montreal Canadiens are winless so far this season.

They're 0-5. What happens now in Montreal? I don't know. I wonder if they've just decided they're going to let this play out. You've brought up the great point. They can't trade their number one pick, right? They host the draft this year. They host the draft.

And now you're thinking your number one pick. I generally think that Montreal is too good for this, but now you're kind of wondering what this is going to spiral into. So you're sitting here and you're saying there's no chance we're trading a number one pick. And there's also might be no reason to trade a number two pick because it could be at the top of the second round. Right.

So I don't think you're doing anything like that. You know, Bergevin came out the other day and he said, it has nothing to do with cap space as to do with the group we have uh and uh just to make a change just to make a change and i i do like our team you know there's some pretty good hockey players downstairs that are not playing up to their potential and until they do uh there's nothing that i'm going to do to make a change just to make a change change a fortline player just said making a change i I don't believe in that.

And I think now if you're Montreal, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to do it. I think you kind of got to see where this takes you. I mean, there's no way you would have expected two weeks ago you're in the Shane Wright conversation. But you know what? Right now you're in the Shane Wright conversation and you have to let it play out. I don't think you can do anything if

i was in charge i would be saying guys we're riding this out and we're seeing where it takes us you can do that in a lot of markets the question is can you do that in montreal i don't care he i don't the heat will be on elliot and you know it and the i know it will this is october and already the volcano is raging and it's bad for ticket sales and everything like that like i get it i know but this is the trade you make that people talk about for 20 years if you make it berkey our buddy berkey he talks about when he traded for phil kessel in toronto he never thought that was going to be that high a pick right yep and that's the trade if you make that deal right

now with like a first rounder or whatever it is you're making a trade that you're going to sit there and say boy i'm going to regret that I'm really risking or getting that trade in five years. I know, I know Montreal is going to howl. And if anything, it might hurt Bergevin's own leverage in his contract negotiations. But if I was in charge, I would say we have to let this ride out. We cannot risk making a trade that just blows us up. Because the other thing too is you know eventually you're going to have price coming back right yeah and like i don't think this is all jake allen's fault

but how much does that change everything i thought jake allen looked really good tonight montreal didn't have a lot of offense going and that's going to be a story all season long for the montreal canadians where are the goals coming from? Before we finish up and just sort of check in on a lot of the Canadian teams to kick off this podcast today, I want to get your thoughts, because you mentioned Mark Burge. I don't want to dwell on it too much, because we've talked plenty about it elsewhere. But your thoughts on the hastily called press conference

the other day. Did he have to do that? He didn't have to. He was taking heat off his team. And I think also it delayed the the cock kenyemi return stories for a few hours so i think both of those things he did and i never have any problem with a gm trying to take the heat off his team i like that i i think it's a good thing to do but he absolutely punted the ball into molson's end of the field by saying, in a perfect world, I'm back here, yeah.

So we now know what this is about. It's about a negotiation and what the number's going to be. I'll say this. I think Molson, there were plenty of times that Molson could have fired Bergevin and didn't. It's very clear he always believed in Bergevin's plan. And last year, it got them to the Stanley Cup final. But it's also pretty clear that right now Bergevin and Molson

disagree on what that's worth. And does this change it now? Does any part of Molson look at the way that this year is going? And we'll see where it goes. There's still 77 games to go. But does any of this change Molson's feeling they've really got holes now they couldn't have planned for Weber although they must have known late last year it was possible could they have planned for Price

Edmondson they couldn't have planned for him unfortunately unfortunately, being away. And, you know, we hope the best for his family. Like the one thing that suddenly becomes a question here is, how does Molson feel about all of this? And it's not going to be totally Jeff Molson's voice in all of it. I mean, he's the majority owner, but there's, you know, Michael Andlauer, National Bank. There are other factors here. I mean, the majority call is still his.

I don't know. I don't know what a continued spiral like this, every team has brand managers attached to it, what that does to the Montreal Canadiens brand, what that does to other businesses. When it comes to a team like the Montreal Canadiens, there's more pressure than just the game itself that's exerted on the team, on the franchise, all day long. And that's what Bergevin's biggest strength is, Jeff, is that he has kept his path.

Like, I think it stresses him out. You'd have to be like an android, like the vision, for it not to stress you out on some level. the vision for it not to stress you out on some level but bergevin is as good as there is at blocking that out and saying i have my path and i'm going down my path and if i was going to keep him that would be the number one reason i'd want to keep him i've seen lots of other gms cave in to that kind of pressure. You know, the other thing here, Jeff, is how does Jeff Molson feel about this getting punted on his lap or, you know, Bergevin answering that question in that way? Listen, how many times have owners, you know, starched general managers when the GM has said, well, I've done as much as I can with this

contract. It's up to ownership now like that's not a phrase that's uh that's the kiss of death and you've seen that happen to general managers before when they say well i've taken as far as i can go it's his decision now the last thing that owners want to do is be responsible for that yeah and they don't want to be called out like that so yeah watching that press conference that was the one thing that i thought i was like oh what's the term clm career limiting move i'm like oh is that just a clm right there but i think the canadians have to ride this out i think they have to wait until they see what price's situation is when does edmondson come back you know i don't necessarily think that

all of this can completely save everything but you know at least you start to get a bit of your identity back and price obviously is the single biggest game changer on the roster but right now i'm saying this is an old basketball reference but san antonio spurs were a decent team suffered injuries went to the bottom they got david robinson right and it turned the franchise so maybe what you do is say guys we're taking the right off if we get say shane wright or another top of the draft player we come back next year with everybody back and we say all all right, what do we got? You're telling me that after every Montreal Canadiens loss, Shane Wright's going to trend on Twitter in Montreal?

Might be happening already. Okay, so that's the Montreal Canadiens story. Quick check around the NHL on a very busy Thursday night that saw the return of Brady Kachuk to the Ottawa Senators. Let's kick off the podcast right now. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the first ever GMC AT4 lineup. Welcome once again to the 32 Thoughts Podcast. Thanks so much for joining me and Elliot and Amal as well. A quick little checkup on some of the Canadian teams on a busy Thursday night around the NHL. Elliot starting with the return of Brady Kachuk

to Ottawa and he factored in on the Drake Batherson goal that gave the Ottawa Senators the early 1-0 lead. They squandered that. Goals by Logan Kachur and Kevin LeBanc. In front of the net the Sharks grab it and they score. Logan Kachur right in front of the goal getting a pass from Brent Burns

who kept the puck in on a clearing attempt. The exchanger shoots, score! Kevin LeBanc, a rocket from the left side, and it's Kashmiri for a power play goal. The Sharks are up 2-1. 2-1 final, San Jose Sharks remain perfect, 3-0. Ottawa Senators lose in the return of Brady your thoughts well the number one thing I'm happy to hear is that DJ Smith doesn't think that Shane Pinto is going to be a long-term thing I was a little concerned about that when I saw him leave the game he tried to come back but he didn't look great they said he they don't think it's long term and that's the best news for Ottawa I think the

Senators they're going to be in it all year. I think they're going to be pretty good. I think they're going to add a little bit this year to try to get a bit more center depth. The biggest concern I have about Pinto right now is it's not always fair to say, but it's the second time he's been hurt. He got hurt in the preseason. He got hurt now, and it's not always fair.

When guys like your second line center you're putting him in positions where he's going to be involved right the question i'd be asking right now if i was the senators is as much as we like this kid are we putting him in a position to succeed is it's too much to ask for him right now i think he's a really good player i'm just asking about right now that's my question but i'll tell you this i like ottawa after watching them for a week i definitely think they're trending in the right direction and i think they're going to be a problem i think san jose deserves a lot of credit lebanque had a second goal disallowed tonight. He looks like his shot is back. That San Jose team, they were a last round pick in our Stanley Cup pool, right?

They were. We said at the beginning of the year, and I know it's still early, that somebody in the Pacific was going to be a total wild card. I wonder if they're the team. Three games in, I love watching them. I was just hearing you talk about Ottawa and I'm like I kind of like watching the San Jose Sharks

like Timo Meier looks real good you mentioned Kevin LeBanc as well and the one thing we know about him going back to Junior with Barry is he has that release the rookie William Eklund is already on three games and he's got three points like I don't know Freed it's only three games but

every time I watch san jose i you know i i stay with them for a longer time and a longer time and eric carlson's already putting up points like i know he's not going to be prime eric carlson from seven years ago but he looks good too and the much malign you know go, goaltenders, James Reimer, Aiden Hill. Reimer was really good. Yep. Aiden Hill's been really good. Again, three games in,

I'm enjoying watching the San Jose Sharks. Yeah. I never thought I would say that at all this season. Calgary Flames beat the Detroit Red Wings. 3-0 is the final score. Two takeaways from this one. I thought Detroit outplayed Calgary in the first two periods takeaways from this one i thought detroit outplayed calgary in the first two periods that this was detroit's i can't take my eyes off the kids uh more cider and lucas raymond yeah raymond looks really good cider looks like it looks really good too yeah i

still remember steve eiserman's disdainful response to my question when he drafted uh cider so i i always i really So I'm really interested in the kid because of how disdainful Iserman was about my question. Big, strong defenseman and early candidate for save of the year, Markstrom on Leattie. Five goals on the year, tied for the league lead. There's Raymond passing over. Stopped by Markstrom as he stones Leattie.

Markstrom's ball to cross to make a save. Best stop of the night. He's had a couple. And here is the opportunity. What an incredible play making the save off of Letty. You know, one thing I kind of wonder about on this, and I'm sure Daryl Sutter will give me a straight answer if I ever asked him.

Calgary plays Washington at 1 o'clock on Saturday. If they weren't 0-2, do you think this would have been a Vlader start? Like they don't want Markstrom playing 82 games this year. No, he's never played. No, no, no, no, no. They don't. And he's never been the back-to-back guy either.

They want to space out games. That goes back to Vancouver. That's a good question. I don't know. So I wonder if for Calgary, and again, one thing I don't like. So I wonder if for Calgary, and again, the one thing I don't like about what I'm doing so far this season, Jeff, is I'm in early season panic mode.

Like I'm talking about Chicago, like it's early season panic. I'm talking about Montreal, like it's early season panic, but I really feel it around the league this year. And, you know, I don't think it was early season panic for Calgary, but I'm wondering if they're looking at this saying, all right, maybe we've got to split at home in our first couple, and then we can play Vlader in Detroit, and Markstrom is rested for Saturday afternoon in Washington.

And all of a sudden, you're 0-2, and you're sitting there going, uh-oh, yeah, you know what, we've got to play him. And the other thing, too, is this was, as you said, Detroit kind of outplay play them and you know the other thing too is this was because you said Detroit kind of outplayed them for the first two periods they did Calgary's MO in the first two games was they kind of outshot and outplayed people but they couldn't finish and that's why they lost so it was kind of funny to see it this way I'll say one other thing tonight they didn't play Zdorov and they did play Shillington. Shillington's a bit, I don't know if reckless is the right word.

I think he takes chances and that's not necessarily always good for a Daryl Sutter coach player. But I don't know how easy it's going to be to keep that guy out of the lineup. The thing about Shillington is he gallops. That's the thing. Whenever I watch Shillington, because he's suchillington is he gallops that's the thing whenever i watch shillington because he's such a great he looks like he's galloping to me he seems to be the kind of player that his entire life just because he's been a better skater than

everybody else takes risks because his feet have always saved him so he can go out there and gallop thinking my feet will get me back in time to be all right yeah i can i can definitely see that by the way my wife is not allowed to look at Shillington's Instagram page. Why? Check it out, man. And Claire won't be allowed to look at it either. That is one attractive man.

Good luck for the rest of us going up against Oliver Shillington. I want to mention a couple of things as well about the Winnipeg Jets. We'll start with the Anaheim Ducks. Has the clock struck midnight now on the Anaheim Ducks? They lose to the Winnipeg Jets 5-1. They kick off the scoring, Troy Terry,

power play goal, and then it's all Winnipeg after that. Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Kopp, Josh Morrissey, and a pair by Kyle Connor. Yeah, I wouldn't write off Anaheim just yet. Oh, I see that tongue-in-cheek, of course. You've had such a really good start.

Yeah, okay. I couldn't. I didn't. I'll tell you, one of my buddies was really angry at them the other night. I think I told this story to you on the radio show about how a friend, when it was 4-4 Edmonton-Anaheim, he said, All right, I'm having a big loss night. I'm taking Edmonton Anaheim he said all right I'm having a big loss night I'm taking Edmonton

minus a goal and a half it got to be 6-4 and Shattenkirk scored with 17 seconds left yeah and he called me at 1 30 in the morning or almost whatever it was he was mad and yelling and I'm like what's wrong with you and he's just venting his frustration over how much he hates Kevin Shattenkirk because Shattenkirk just cost him a i think it was like a 460 win so i thought it was a pretty fun call to get late night you know like i like the ducks so far again you know i think they really compete like even gibson have been saying like we're just not competing hard enough i think it's one thing to lose but i think even gibson felt that they were going down too meekly that's not happening this year that's a good sign for where they're going

like like i said that division's weird like everyone's in it so it's not like you're looking at the anyone and saying boy they started off so badly they're out of the race it's gonna be interesting winnipeg that's a huge one tonight they don't have wheeler for at least 10 days and then shifley goes positive negative positive and now nobody really knows kind of what's going on here they're kind of in that limbo area do we have a problem do they do we not have a problem it's their home opener off a really disappointing road trip start there were a lot of built-in excuses to lose and they won their opener that's a huge huge win for the jets like they're going to look at this and say we could do this without our captain and without our number

one center they're going to feel really good about themselves and i'll tell you this i think the best decision that shovel day off may end up making this year was saying who cares if cobb walks away at the end of the year we're keeping them i really do think that's going to be their best decision do you have a thought on hellebuck versus gibson the sequel maybe uh hellebrock uh heard and read what we said. He was exceptional tonight. 38 saves on 39 shots. He sounds like he's way too smart to be paying attention to our garbage. You know, once upon a time, that was always the knock on Hello Buck, though, for the longest time, right?

He would get distracted too easy, distracted by things inside the game and outside the game, and it would affect him. And then when he got rid of all that noise in his life, all of a sudden he became a much better goaltender and we're seeing the effects of it now he was exceptional elliot on thursday night yeah i thought he was fantastic and you know what on a night like that where you're down two big bodies your goalie has to be great and you know what the winnipeg remembers the old gortz delictruism if you're gonna stink stink on. All right, Elliot, let's quickly touch on the Vancouver Canucks

as well and action against the blood. Nobody cares about Vancouver. Let's just skip them. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Now that we've lost all of our Vancouver Canucks listeners, let's talk about the Vancouver Canucks. We wouldn't do that to you guys. We know you're one of our most passionate fan bases. We love you, little buddy.

Noogies in the parking lot. I love you, little buddy. All right, last call. Vancouver defeats the Chicago Blackhawks. 4-1 is the final score. Jason Dickinson, Tanner Pearson, Brock Besser, and Connor Garland scoring for vancouver here uh we're going to get into probably a bigger discussion i would imagine about the

blackhawks here in a second elliot but up first your thoughts on the canucks well first of all i just think that there's so much of a different team with hughes playing when he's taking three minute shifts we're saying three minutesminute shifts, but we're talking before about how most times your difference maker is your goalie, like Price from Montreal and Hellebuck was in this particular game for Winnipeg tonight. But when you go up the list this year of players that are incredibly important to their team,

this week has told me that Hughes's position on that list is going to rise and significantly and that's why if you're vancouver you sign players like him for as long as you can and that's why i think his six-year deal is going to turn out to be a fan you know it's going to be a fantastic contract for him because he's going to make a lot of money. But it's going to be a fantastic contract for the Canucks because I think he's going to rapidly outplay that deal. And people bitch about his defense and stuff like that. No, that'll come.

But what he does is he occupies the puck and he does things and the team is just calmer with him there. That is true. They're a such different team when they don't have him in the lineup. I want to get to Chicago. And that's a great win by Vancouver. Good on them. And Saturday night, they open up Seattle's building.

I'm really disappointed we're not there. You know what? That would be fantastic. And I hope that is an instant rivalry. I hope that burns with the passion of 1,000 Minnesota Wild Winnipeg Jets games. Or Carolina-Montreal games. Ooh, that's as much off the ace as it is on as well. Alex DeBrinckit with the lone goal for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Dylan Strom, welcome back to the NHL. He draws back in. I know, Elliot, you don't like the fact that he took a hooking penalty on your favorite player, Jack Rathbone. We're going to get to the Strom conversation here in a second, but we always have to preface these things by saying it's early. And so here I go. It's early, but the Hawks, man, and Jeremy Culleton, man, how do you feel about Chicago and the coach right now? This is similar to what we were talking about with Montreal earlier, right?

With Montreal, I think you have to ride it out. Five games into the season, you already have an insanely screwed up year for a lot of things that are out of your control, you're already have an insanely screwed up year for a lot of things that are out of your control, right? And things that you have to say are bigger than hockey prices situation, Edmondson situation, and even Weber's because his body just can't do it anymore. Chicago situation is different. They went all out in the summer seth jones mark andre flurry it's the rebuild is over taves is back we're going for it so i look at chicago and montreal are

very different places so i didn't see emily caplan's report today but somebody sent me some notes she was on the point uh John butagross's show not to the point which was Brian Burke's show but the point yes and basically she said that talking to people around the Blackhawks they're not gonna panic and they're gonna they're gonna hold on and and keep the faith and then you go out and you have this night tonight and you said it before about Montreal it is so much easier said than done and I just believe that Montreal right now is in a different place especially with the run to the finals than Chicago is I think the pressure on Chicago to do something is going to be much more intense than the pressure on montreal i think it's

going to take a really really really really strong backbone at the top of that organization not to do anything you know i want to say this the other night their home opener culleton got boot like i wasn't watching the beginning somebody said you better go back and watch that and I watched it and Culleton got booed and I cringe I do not root against people when they're down I know what it's like to be down I don't like to root against people when they're down

but I heard that and I was like oh it's great to have the home opener, I'm sure, but it was a difficult hearing, like some of the boo birds. Hey, we all got pride. And we played for Chicago. We played for the team and the fans and the organization. And we want to win.

So I understand people care. We're just going to dig in and keep responding. If they responded well tonight, we've got to respond again. And that team played hard for him on Tuesday night. They lost, but as you say, they got goalied by Sorokin. Yeah. That they played hard. That said to me, they understood what was on the line and they played.

I thought they played what was on the line and they played i thought they played pretty hard on thursday but you know what jeff you reach a point where it's just not enough anymore i mean they're getting murdered at five on five have they had a lead all year i don't think they've had a lead all year no no they have not they have not had a lead. This is just me talking. I see Montreal having a longer runway than Chicago does right now. And I have no doubt that what they're telling people like Emily is true, that they want to ride it out. I think it's going to be really hard because the tickets there, from what I understand, have been a little bit soft.

And ultimately, your public decides, right? Your public decides in that situation. You see, I wonder how much the organization looks at this start and says, to your point, we've brought in a whole bunch of new faces. Like the big headline makers are Seth Jones and Marc-Andre Fleury. But there are other players that have come in as well. Jake McCabe. I think it's a really good acquisition.

I like Jake McCabe a lot. But, I mean, there's a lot of other players that have come into the Blackhawks organization. And any time you have a whole bunch of new players all playing together for the first time, and Jonathan Taves hasn't played in a season, and now he's come back to the mix, and he's looking for points,

don't you look at that and say, we've got to give them some time to figure out how to play amongst each other here like doesn't that give you a little bit like i know that they're howling i feel bad for colton jeremy colton first gets the job and he gets booed why because he's not joel quenville and now the team is in disarray a lot of new faces and he's the one that's hearing it from chicago blackhawks fans he's the easy scapegoat i know he's he is you're right which is which is why i feel bad for jeremy culleton to all of this yep let's get to the dylan strome conversation here dylan strome draws back

into the lineup for the first time this season not exactly a secret that Stan Bowman is looking to move Dylan Strom. What's the latest as far as you can ascertain? I think there's a certain price that they're looking for. This is a little bit of guessing on my part, just based on the conversations I've had. I think they're looking for as high a draft picked as they can get. And, you know, I'm not talking about like a first rounder, but probably as close to that as they can get and you know i'm not talking about like a first rounder but probably as close to that as they can get and i just don't think at this point in time anybody's there you know we're going to have this this conversation about brandstrom in a few minutes so i'll leave

it more to there it's just the battle about what you think someone's worth and what someone else thinks that they're worth but that's that's a tough one for him tonight. He gets the opportunity. He takes the penalty, and they juggled all their line and it's in the third period. He's on fourth line left wing again. There's just no point in having him there. He doesn't fit that role. There's one thing I'd like to say about Culleton, though.

So in the postgame, he gets asked about Strom, and it would be very easy for him in the middle of all this to just bury Strom. But he tells reporters he thought he was solid considering he didn't play for a while. Penalty in the second, a tough one,

but overall made some plays and worked hard. I think it would have been so easy for Culleton there considering everything that's going on, to just make some lame comment or offhand remark about the player. I'm impressed by that towards a player who's going through a really tough time. I don't think that's a small thing.

Well, maybe a small thing, but a big thing, as I sometimes like to say. I'm impressed by that comment. Shows a real human touch. We'll see what happens with Dylan Stroh, my story we're following. And it's forced up to the line, and the Knights will play it out. Petranzo spins it, rink wide, Blues come back in again. Shin down the middle to Kairou, they score!

Tara Senko scores for the Blues! Puts them on top, 2-1. A melee happens after the goal, but it wound up being a 3 on the goalie after the turnover at the line. And the St. Louis Blues take a 2-1 lead. 10-11 to go in the third period. Tarasenko rewarded.

Elliot, is it just me, or was that Vladimir Tarasenko's best game in the last, I don't know, fill in the blank, however many months against the Vegas Golden Knights. Big win for the St. Louis Blues and a big night for Vlad Tarasenko who off the opening faceoff, free each Wednesday night, he was flying in that game. So life is all about attitude. Well, not all about attitude, but i think a lot about attitude we all have good situations we all have tough situations what's the old line jeff you plan god laughs love it and vladimir tarasenko planned to be traded in the offseason and right now

there's a big trade story for example in the in the NBA, Ben Simmons of the 76ers. He wanted to be traded. The Sixers couldn't make a deal, just like in Tarasenko's case. So Simmons comes back basically on the eve of the season. He shows up to practice in sweatpants. And initially they said it was his phone in his pocket and now i'm seeing that maybe it wasn't his phone in his pocket but he's not exactly putting out a great effort right to the point where joel mb the other teammate he's basically saying screw this guy i don't even care

about him anymore that is a bad attitude that was like hang on if we want to give a hockey context for it remember jogger with the capitals remember like jogger completely uninterested yes in being a member of the capitals won't do line rushes with his team that jogger yes that's a good one there's your historical context for this in hockey there's costanza driving the World Series trophy around the parking lot. So Tarasenko could do the same. He could sulk. He could pout. He could whine.

He could bag his own chances of getting traded. But the Blues are 3-0. The one thing you always wonder if, winning can cure everything. You have to be a special kind of sour puss not to be happy in a winning situation when you're playing you know Tarasenko's still playing 16 minutes a night you know last year he was playing 17 and a half so maybe his minutes are down a little bit but when you're winning and he played hard the other night you know who knows maybe he was trying to put on a show for the golden nights when you're winning and you're playing you're happy there's no excuse not to be happy so i give credit to paul bissonette too who called it during the broadcast he said you know tarasenko is really flying tonight i think he's going to score the winner and bissonette turned out to be right but

that's all you can do that's all you can do is show up and say, I'm going to make the best of it. And if you still want to be traded, then the only way you can get yourself traded in his situation is by showing up and playing great. And right now, that whole Blues team is really interesting to me. Just the infusion of youth, which I think exactly is what they needed. Yes. I want to get to that infusion of youth, the Thomas and the Cairo and the Jake Nabors conversation.

But when it comes to Vladimir Tarasenko, if you're the St. Louis Blues and you're looking to make this deal, and again, he has the trade protection and a $7.5 million cap hit, but safe to say, if you're the St. Louis Blues, you're looking for a defenseman coming back, correct? That's what you want. I don't know. I think you look for the best fit, right? Yes, but in an ideal world,

I'll even drill it down a little bit more. You're looking for a really good high-end top four left shot defenseman. Those are hard to find, right? How many of those can you get they are but goals are also expensive yes they are and if teresenko is inspired and if teresenko is going to play like this for this season and next season you know through the duration of his contract hey man goals are hard like i know early in the season goals tend to be

easier before the systems get down on the coaches get their hooks into players, etc. But goals are expensive. Goals are hard in the NHL. When you have someone that can score an easy goal like Tarasenko can, that's a luxury, man. Although defense seems to be more expensive than every other position right now. Everybody's getting paid at that position, absolutely. Okay, the youth infusion with the St. Louis Blues.

Where would you like to begin there? Well, first of all, let's take a look at you know minutes played okay so i'm looking at this is through wednesday last year blues minutes played among forwards o'reilly 2045 shen 1909 perron 1833 schwartz 1742 tarasenko 1725 to get to a really young guy among forwards Cairo 1425 he's 10th okay Thomas 1336 he's 11th Barbashev 1321 so right now O'Reilly's down two minutes a game he's still number one among forwards, 1851. But the separation between him and Braden Shen is almost two minutes. Shen is second at 1638.

Now, Thomas is 1624. Barbashev is 1552. Kairou is 1353. He's down a little bit. But all of a sudden, Thomas is fifth. Barbashev is seventh. Kairou is 1353. He's down a little bit, but all of a sudden Thomas is fifth. Barbashev is seventh. Kairou is eighth. And you and I both thought the Blues were stale.

They needed something a little to freshen them up. And it's early, but it looks as if they're making a commitment to say these guys got to play, and it's always easier to stick to that commitment when you're winning the other player that i want to point out here too and it's taken him a while to get there and i don't know if he sticks and i know it was a game against arizona so maybe take it with a grain of salt but two goals the other night for clem costan who was a first round draft pick in 2017 remember that when when they had like the studio behind the stage

and all the players and you feel bad for that one guy who may not go in the first, that guy was Clem Koston. And it was like, okay, it's time to take the camera off Clem Koston. This is getting embarrassing here. We thought maybe he'd go middle of the first round and thankfully for his sake, he ended up squeaking in when the St. Louis Blues drafted him 31st overall. Clem Koston, like again, if you make a Vladimir Tarasenko move

and you can bump Clem Koston up to that third line to play with Robert Thomas and Ivan Barbashev, all of a sudden you've taken, to your point, Elliot, a team that had gone stale to a team that right away has been revitalized and you've done it all with your own players. Yep. You've done it all with guys that are right there and whatever you get for Tarasenko,

you get for Tarasenko, but things just start to fit a little bit more. I think the one player that's surprised everybody, because the names that you mentioned, Robert Thomas, he's 22 years old. Jordan Cairo is 23. I think the one that surprised everybody is Jake Neighbors, who finds himself in that game against Vegas playing with Braden Shen, 19 years old. Did you think on a team coached by Craig Berube,

we'd see a 19-year-old playing in the lineup in the top six? Now, with the Oil Kings, he's like great f1 you know great four checkers separate man from puck real aggressive player so you can see where barubi would like him but a 19 year old in that position on a craig barubi team in this economy elliot in this economy that's good one merrick like that. With these supply chain struggles and the inflation? It's not only Berube. I think it's also that it's St. Louis. For as long as I can remember, they always scream veterans.

This predates the Doug Armstrong era. And toughness. You always think about the Blues and veterans. Because they always made the playoffs and and they never drafted high the last guy they drafted really high was what eric johnson and he got hurt and then traded yeah as far as i can remember when they came into the league don't forget they went to the stan Stanley Cup the first three times because they drafted all those veterans. I remember once, just as a quick aside, when I used to work with, well, when we used to work with Mike Milbury at CBC,

he told me when he was running the Islanders, he offered the St. Louis Blues every single pick that he had won draft for the St. Louis Blues pick. And I think it was the Eric Johnson pick. I'm like, who was it? He's like, beat it. I'm not telling you. But I think it was the Eric Johnson pick I'm like who was it he's like beat it I'm not telling you but I think it was that one just as an aside I guess the Islanders feel they have to do that once every 15 years because they did it all for Ryan Murray too they did it with Columbus too didn't they yes that's right 2012 so take a look at this like Blues draft history, like their first pick. Yeah. 17, 26, 62, 25, 20, 26, 56, 21, 47, 25, 32, 2010, 14 and 16,

Schwartz and Tarasenko. They hit it with that. Petrangelo, four. Okay. Lars Eller, Ian Ian Cole 13 and 18 Eric Johnson one so other than that but like in their history they don't draft high a lot so that's why I think it looks so weird with neighbors because they're never drafting near the top. So you never think, like Neighbors was a 26th overall pick two years ago. So you don't ever think, oh, there's a young kid who plays for the Blues right away.

Like you're not wired to think that way because they never draft people that high. You know what I always think about with St. Louis? And I always wonder why history has never really been kind to this story or even told this story. When you think of the early St. Louis, and I always wonder why history has never really been kind to this story or even told this story. When you think of the early St. Louis, I'm going to tangent here on St. Louis, but why not? When you think of the early days of the St. Louis Blues, okay, like they're a second six franchise. They're part of 67 expansion. They were actually given a team before they actually had a team or even before they had a rink. But when you think of those early St. Louis Blues teams, you think of, to your point, veteran squad,

and you think of going to the Stanley Cup final three years in a row, right? Yep. You know what they were? They were the original Broad Street bullies. We think of the Philadelphia Flyers in that era as team toughness, right? Dave the Hammersholtz, Donky, uh, really big, tough players. You know, you, you fight one of us, you fight all of us. The St.

Louis blues were that before the Philadelphia Flyers were, and it was the plagers. It was gas off after that. It was their Bano and Noel Picardard who was an old school tough guy noel picard is infamous for being the player that tripped bobby or in that infamous picture yes um like the philadelphia flyers would play st louis post-expansion and they would get beaten up horribly there was one situation noel picard attacked Claude LaForge of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Ed Snyder said, that's it, I've had enough.

And that was the beginning of him loading up on tough guys. Say, we need something to respond to the St. Louis Blues. And if you look at the St. Louis Blues history, they've generally, in every single era, Elliot, they've always had at least one or two sluggers. Like, that market loves tough guys. Philly always has a reputation of loving tough guys. Or Kelly Chase. Oh, keep going.

Kelly Chase, Tony Twist. Yeah. The stories of tough guys in St. Louis are legendary. We always look at Philadelphia and say, yeah, real tough team. I look at St. Louis and I say, yeah, but you know what? At times, St. Louis was tougher. They always wanted a slugger. And that fan base loved it. In a lot of ways, they were the original Broad Street Bullies before they were the Broad Street Bullies.

But back to this edition of the St. Louis Blues. We talk a lot about the Minnesota Wild being a new team, an exciting team. This ain't your granddaddy's Minnesota wild. I know it's early, but when you watch St. Louis blues hockey, don't you get that same kind of vibe about St. Louis right now with this little youth infusion? I'm curious to see if it lasts, but if they're committed to it, well, like I said, they're winning. So you think it'll be okay, but you know, we'll see what happens when we get into the dog days, but I think it's what they need. I think it's be okay. But we'll see what happens when we get into the dog days.

But I think it's what they need. I think it's something they should commit to. I thought St. Louis might take a step back this year. If they're really committed to this, they're doing the right thing. I absolutely believe they're doing the right thing. Okay, let's dovetail that then and talk a talk a little bit wait a sec wait a sec i just want everyone to know what that seconds ago we took a time out because jeff's dog was barking astro what's your dog's name again astro everyone thinks because i'm a big houston astros fan

no i just love the jetsons so astro just called a podcast time out we're back yeah he may go off again anytime he sees either a squirrel he's a german shepherd anytime he sees like a squirrel or a chipmunk or someone going down the driveway that's it he goes banana sandwich so it may happen again folks it may happen again uh but let's talk about vitaly kravtsov a little bit and more specifically you start to learn a lot about general managers when they're forced with situations like this, and you learn a lot about their temperament and how they deal with things. And Chris Drury, now with two hands on the wheel as general manager,

president of the New York Rangers, is faced with this Kravtsov situation. You know, when he was running the American Hockey League team in Hartford, there were situations where players requested trades as well. There's Sean Day, there's Ty Ronning, there's Brandon Halverson, there's Ryan Gropp. And in all these situations, Chris Drury said, kick rocks, you know, I'm not going to deal you and was comfortable to wait it out and not just make a knee jerk decision or a knee jerk trade based on, oh, this player wants out. Forget it. We're making a trade on my timeline. If we're making one at all. Now that's a lot different than dealing with a top 10 NHL pick someone with the skill set of Vitaly Kravtsov. I'll pick someone with the skill set of Vitaly Kravtsov. But when you look at this situation and the dynamic between Chris Drury, who's someone who is, you know, who believes in fairness, but also doesn't have a lot of time for prolonged

negotiations, who is in some ways, you know, very steadfast in what he believes. How do you see this one playing out? Chris Drury has always been calm, but firm. The way you describe him in terms of dealing with things, the American Hockey League is the way I've always understood him, that he's not going to get emotional, at least not publicly, but he's going to make a decision and he's going to stand by his decision no matter what the popularity of that move is or is not. Gerard Gallant, the coach of the Rangers, he called Kravtsov to say, why don't you come back?

And I think that's an excellent gesture i know if it if i was in someone's shoes i would really listen at least to something like that but it sounds like kravtsov has made a decision he wants to start again i know he's in russia he doesn't want to be in the khl he wants to be in the nhl i do think this is going to end up in a trade. However, we're in that sort of zone of what you are versus what you could be. You know, look what the Rangers did with Leos Anderson. There were conversations about that. What you are versus what you could be. They ended up trading him for a second rounder.

Rangers waited, by the way, on that one. They did. That wasn't right away. That was, we're going to grind this out. You know what someone brought up to me today was Yessie Pugliarvi. How many times did Edmonton think about trading Yessie Pugliarvi? How many people said they should trade Yessie Pugliarvi? But no, Ken Holland didn't do it and look

what happened let me let me pause on that for one second okay ken holland not trade pull the rv because he didn't want to or did he just not get what he wanted for him but i think those can be one in the same right like i think every player in the league has a value okay what is your value on that player and i don't think he ever got anything that made him think but to me in these situations some teams get to a point where they say i just have to do it I don't want this hassle anymore, or I don't want this aggravation anymore. Or Berkey told me once with Ilya Brzgalov, he said it reached a point where he just didn't think it was fair to the player. I'm going to put him on waivers because I don't think it's fair anymore to him.

Ken Holland, he never reached that point. He said, it's not worth it to me to do this because I think there's something there and i think the pull yarvey thing watching how he's growing in edmonton it says to me that some teams look at that and say boy i better not make that mistake too soon yeah the thing is when you're dealing with someone like kravtsov much like when ken holland is dealing with someone like Kravtsov, much like when Ken Holland is dealing with someone like Yassir Pouliarvi, you talk about every player has a value. When it comes to young players, that's always changing, right? We always talk about players existing in two phases, potentiality and actuality. And we're talking about two players here in Pouliarvi and Kravtsov

that still exist in the realm of potential, not an actual. They're not fully realized, actualized players. So you're still speculating on what they could be. And everyone's going to attach a different value to that based on where that player is at and what they need. So that's where this is so tough to do a deal. Like you look at some of the, not that history tells us everything,

but what's the old Mark Twain line? History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. So I think we can look at the history of managers. I love Mark Twain, but that's stupid. No, it's a good line because context is king. No, no, no. Context is king and everything always changes.

You can't say because X, then Y, especially when you're dealing with something with as many variables as we're talking about here, namely, no. Context is king and everything always changes. You can't say because X, then Y, especially when you're dealing with something with as many variables as we're talking about here, namely human beings. We're dealing with what ifs. What if this guy turns into something big? What if Kratsov turns into a 40 goal scorer? Are you making a trade based on your belief that he's going to be a 40 goal scorer? Because in someone else's mind, he might be a 25 goal scorer. Like you look at the history of general managers and look at someone like sam pollock who said never trade young players until you're 100 sure if you're 99 sure don't make the deal it's only when you're 100 that's the danger well let me ask you something what would you do with branstrom i still wouldn't

trade branstrom i still wouldn't i know that. I still wouldn't. I know that Ottawa is, you know, looking at their blue line and the players that are on the horizon. You look at Sanderson and Jacob Bernard Docker. Yeah. I still would not move Brandstrom. I know that you'd look at, you know,

always undersized, hasn't been able to crack the lineup in a full-time basis. I still would not give up on that play unless someone walks in with something that blows my socks off. Well, I think that's a very fair way of looking at it. I think that's exactly what's going on. I don't think it's a guarantee,

but you've got to think that the player is going to be unhappy. I think the player is unhappy, absolutely. And who can blame him? His first-round pick. And he wants to play. And this is one of those situations. I don't think DJ Smith for a second is not playing because he doesn't like him.

I think DJ Smith is not playing him because he thinks he's got a better opportunity to win with what he's got on, out on the ice. Yeah. I'm sure there's teams calling Ottawa. I know there's teams calling Ottawa and saying, what are you doing with this? I'll, I'll give you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Ottawa was saying, come on, he's, he's worth more than that. He's, he's a good player. Yeah.

It's a tough situation for people. Let me ask you something philosophically. There's always been a belief around the NHL from outside. It's not so much inside the game, although many have said this before too, but generally in hockey, perhaps more so than other sports, teams overvalue their players' worth. Do you find that to be the case?

I would say that some people do i think it's more like everyone wants to win a trade nobody wants to lose a trade nobody wants to make the trade that people are still going to be talking about 30 years later like for example when gmx is retired and someone says what's the best trade you ever made nobody wants to be on the other side of oh boy that trade was with me yep that's what i think it is you know your players better than anybody else you know that but you don't want to be that guy who's like, and also too, if you ever get fired from a job, how that team does the year after you go, that's your resume. I think I've told this story before.

Charlie Casserly is an NFL GM. I remember seeing an interview with him once, and he got fired from a team. I think it was Washington. And someone asked him, do you hope Washington goes 0-16? And he goes, God, I hope not, because then that's my resume. I've always thought that's the best way to think. goes, God, I hope not, because then that's my resume. I've always thought that's the best way to think.

So here's what I wonder about that statement then. Do you think that the idea of not wanting to lose a trade as being a prime motivator is holding up a Jack Eichel deal? Now, hear my logic on this one. I think that is definitely a part of it, yes. Listen to part of the logic that I have on this one. Let me know if you agree or disagree. Kevin Adams, as a rookie general manager in the NHL, doesn't have a body of work that he can point to. So every trade that he makes right now, whether it was the Reinhardt, whether it was Erasmus Ristolane, and two trades that people looked at and said, yeah, good deal. Like Kevin, like real, real, real nice deals there,

specifically for the defenseman. If it were a veteran general manager who had 15 years in the business, do you think this trade would have happened right now? Because you don't have things like someone's reputation getting involved in it because there's already a body of work that that general manager has in his history it's a great question jeff i don't know about that like i dealt with adams a lot as a player and i always thought he was a thoughtful guy. And this might be recency bias because they're 3-0 to start the season as we record this. But the one thing I think that they've done is they've recognized how thin they were.

And he went out and he brought in Jason Carmanos, who's been around and seen a lot of things he went out and they hired Sam Ventura who a number of people in the analytics community who know him better than me say that's a a really smart guy they added another analytic hire this week Dominic Gallimini and again I sent some notes out I, I don't know this person really well. And, you know, I got some responses back from people I trust who said smart guy. And the good thing about this, I want to say one thing about the analyst community is the analyst community is a lot like the media community where we say nice things to each other and then kill each other behind their backs. Right? So the analyst community is the same way.

Like, don't listen to that person's model. It's stupid. Listen to mine. So, you know, if people are saying good things about them, they're probably a really good person. You know, the sense I'm getting from Kevin Adams there is that, like, the whole Eichel thing in last year, it's emotional.

It's very emotional. The sense I get from Adams is he knows what he doesn't know and he's trying to be not emotional but patient and take the emotion out of it and you know look I'm clear on this I don't like this situation I don't think it's right that Eichel can't get the surgery he wants, but I think that if I was in Buffalo's shoes, I would look at Adams and I would say, he's trying to take the emotion out of it and do what's best for his team. I think it's the smart play. I just think it's wrong. What's happening with Eichel's health. And I think it's the smart play. I just think it's wrong what's happening with Eichel's health.

And I think it has to be fixed. But I look at what Adams is doing with the Sabres. And again, this could be a recency bias because they're 3-0. But I think he's trying to build the organization the right way. Here's what I wonder about Eichel, and I'm concerned about, and I'm sure Eichel is, and his representatives, Pat Brisson and CAA are, and this question, to my knowledge, hasn't been answered yet. And if it has, I haven't seen it.

Maybe you have. Considering every day that goes by, Eichel doesn't have the surgery and get this fixed. At what point does the damage become permanent? I don't know the answer to that. I'm not a doctor. I only asked that question. I don't know, but I know it's,

I know it's been asked. If I'm Eichel, I'm like, how much longer can we leave this again? Not a doctor. Don't know. But I would imagine that question would have to have been asked at least by Pat Bresson, the Eichelkamp.

Okay, so that's a wrap on the podcast today. We're going to get to some of your emails on the next episode of the podcast, which will drop on Monday morning, and we will promise, Elliot and I do. We swear, we swear, this isn't like Yellow Laces. I swear, I swear to do an email-only podcast in the near future. The other thing, Jeff, I wanted to say, and we won't get to them tonight, but the Florida Panthers have held the in-season Stanley Cup for a week.

They beat Tampa. They beat Colorado. They look good. They've outscored people big. We can't devote enough time to them today because this one's getting too long, but we owe the Panthers fans some time too. Edmonton Oiler fans, this is a 32 IOU.

Didn't want to let this podcast go too late because we wanted to get it out as early as possible. And we did see Connor McDavid's 200th goal right after the penalty, Dave Tippett throws out the big line and bombs away. He'll go to the right wing, to the blue line for McDavid. He'll come down the right. He'll pull to the middle.

Shoot! Scores! Connor McDavid with his 200th career goal! Congratulations Connor McDavid on his 200th cruising against the Arizona Coyor McDavid on his 200th. Cruising against the Arizona Coyotes as we record this. We see you and we owe you.

We'll get you. Maybe as early as the next podcast. We'll see. And so, Elliot, taking us out today, a London-based punk band. Man, Amel is all about the UK. He cannot get out of the UK, but I love it. This UK punk band has gone a bit under the radar. From their 2021 three-track EP, here are the

Conspirators with Fear on 32 Thoughts from the railing lines That step, then the nerves can't turn them around Keep that breath steady now Keep on choking it all down This fear Let's you know You're alive

You're alive, you're alive The cage on all sides Can you break it away In the name of something meaningful Can you sharpen up the pace Can you make it go away