32 Thoughts: The Podcast - It’s Red Hot Behind The Bench

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Fun opening weekend! Jeff and Elliotte kick things off with a discussion about coaches who might be in the hot seat (00:30) including Lindy Ruff and Bruce Boudreau (8:30), wonder what’s going on in Ottawa (14:30), the latest on Jakob Chychrun (12:00) and Sonny Milano (20:30), the Leafs and Matt Murray (22:20) and the debut of Monday Night Hockey at Sportsnet (26:20).The guys also talk about the Redwood Line in Detroit (29:50), the impressive Stars (22:40), Elliotte’s team of the week - Vegas (39:00) and they FINALLY take your emails and a voicemail (40:30).Music Outro: K. Roosevelt - Day GlowListen to the full song hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Bally Sports Detroit, Bally Sports Southwest, Hockey Night Punjabi, MSG, Sportsnet 650 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.

didn't see that one coming did you no way welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast presented by gmc and the new sierra at4x merrick friedman delich and away we go elliot was planning on doing something last week about coaches on the radio show that got punted because of breaking news. So today I want to start off the show with this. So last week I texted an NHL coach and I just said, I want to ask you one question. And this is the question. What is the biggest issue facing coaches today? Here's the response. I think the question of what really measures job security. We see winning coaches let go. We see losing coaches being let go when their team wasn't built to win.

I think teams that exercise patience with players and coaches get rewarded one way or another. Trotson, Nashville, Bednar in Colorado, Cooper in Tampa. Sadly, we live in a world where the first finger that is pointed is always at the coach, no matter if it is at the pro level or your kids' games. We choose our jobs. It is our reality that we accept. And right now, Elliot, even a couple of games in, there are coaches that are feeling it. It's hot seat time already. First of all, I can tell that that note came from a coach because it's a coach who wants a 10-year contract like trot scott or cooper got or jared bednar is going to get to um it is a coach holy self-serving batman although i totally understand i don't think

it's necessarily wrong i really don't think it's necessarily wrong. I really don't think it's necessarily wrong, but I think it's a very self-serving note. That would be like me saying, how do you evaluate a broadcaster? Well, you give them a 40-year contract and see, okay, did they get better? You know what? That person, he or she, they got better.

Great value. But it is hot seat. as bizarre as it is. You know, here we are recording this podcast on a Sunday evening, 627 Eastern. And there are a couple of coaches, you know, and the turtleneck's pretty tight around the neck. That was tough to watch in New Jersey on Saturday night. It really was. Fire Lincoln! Fire Lincoln! Fire Lincoln! night. It really was. I would say, first of all, I don't get mad at the fans for this. Fans are fans. They pay their money and the devils have some very loyal fans who want to see wins. And it's like you kind of said there, we know the rules going in. If you don't win, eventually that's going to happen at some point,

whether they target a coach or an executive or a player, that's going to happen. I still found it tough to watch. Like here's my thing with Lindy Ruff. Lindy Ruff became a head coach in the NHL in Buffalo around the time my TV career started. I was in radio before he was a head coach, but I started in television at Headline Sports, now The Score, about the same time that he was hired by the Buffalo Sabres.

So I've dealt a lot with Lindy Ruff over the last 25 years. And yeah, he can be crusty sometimes, like who isn't? But generally, he's been very blunt, very honest. If you ask him a question, you're getting an honest answer, whether you like it or not. And from a professional standpoint, I've always enjoyed my time dealing with him. So it's kind of like I have a bit of a soft spot for Ruff because my career in TV mirrors his time as an NHL coach. So I kind of have that thing. I understand this.

When you're getting the results you're getting, that can happen. And what did we both say in our preview pod? That the expectations were on in Jersey this year. I don't know if they really believed they were going to make up 30 points and get to the playoffs, but I do think they looked at as this is a year where they battle and they're in the race they're 0-2 it's way too early however you can sense how tense it is there you really can't this was a year where New Jersey was supposed to take a jump.

And the other thing that happened is they brought in Andrew Burnett. Now, it may be innocent. Andrew Burnett did a really nice job in really difficult circumstances last year. There are some people who felt he wasn't treated properly. Whatever the case is, you bring him into New Jersey, you think you're making yourself better, you're hoping you're making yourself better, but it's impossible not to look at it and say, all right, you've got a coach in waiting who already was in a tough spot. You've got a coach who's in a tough spot because if the devils lose,

the pressure is going to be on. It's a situation that you knew could ignite it took us three days basically and it ignited but hang on i think part of this too is last season what was it early to mid-may both mark recce and elaine nesradine were removed from the bench as well. Yes, that's true. So I don't want to say that that's sort of chumming the waters, but we've seen this before. When a head coach has his assistants taken away, generally it's a prelude to something else. Yes.

I mean, at the end of the day, there's one thing that matters here. The expectations were high. And again, it's early, but we saw this. We all looked at this and said, if New Jersey doesn't have a good year, there could be consequences. And this is a really tough spot for an organization to be in because you want to give your coach time to find his way and the team's way and if you make a change people are going to look at you and say why didn't you just do it last year you didn't

give him a chance two games for example but if this doesn't turn around fast you can see it coming here's the thing when the fans turn on the coach and i know you shouldn't let fans make your decisions for you i understand that like i mean brian burke made this point about ron wilson at a certain point it becomes cruel of the corner. Trying to get to it. That's blocked. And it's grabbed off by Bozak. That's the one. And unusual punishment. Like, you can't put your coach through that. Like, look, I'm hoping the New Jersey Devils

turn this thing around fast. I like the New Jersey Devils. I want this team to do really well. I've been saying watch New Jersey for a few years now. Eventually, I'm going to be right. There's a lot of players I like on this team. I really hope that they turn it around. I just know that when fans

have one thing in their mind, and sometimes, to your point, they'll pick like in Toronto, traditionally, it's always the fans will pick a defenseman to get on, and then that's it. That's never happened. The Leafs fans will pick a defenseman, and that'll be representative of everything that's wrong

with your organization. When fans get a hold of a coach, it's almost as if unless you just keep on ripping off wins, there's not a whole lot you can do. And the thing that should be mentioned is, asked about it, Ruff ate it. Yeah. He ate it.

Lindy, what did you react to some of the crowd chants tonight calling for your job? You know what? That's part of the business. We've got passionate fans here. They're used to winning. That's part of my business. I mean, that's part of my job.

I take full responsibility for when this team loses. You know, great history here. The fans want Ws up on the board. It's as simple as that. You can't lash out. You can't lash out. If you lash out, it's the end. You have no more wiggle room.

The other coach is feeling it right now after coughing up back-to-back leads, and they're now 0-2 to kick off the season, Bruce Boudreaux with the Vancouver Canucks. We all know what happened last summer, and this is tough. Did you see the hard skate on Sunday? Yes.

I am really curious about this one. First of all, by the way, I would like to say, how dare the NHL give us a day off four days into the season? Is this early? I mean, I got nothing to watch on Sunday. Well, there's a lot of football on. There's some good games. I'm watching Kansas City Buffalo as we do this.

So if I'm completely distracted, you'll know why. But don't they understand that they are here for our entertainment? And this is an enormous dereliction of duty. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. Anyway. But we make up for it on Monday, by the way. We do make up for it on Monday.

But I'm really curious about this one. So they play Saturday afternoon. They lose in Philadelphia. For the second straight game to start the year, the Vancouver Canucks cough up an early lead. They fall to 0-2. The final score, 3-2 this afternoon at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. They're off Sunday and they have a hard skate. Then they play Monday in Washington and Tuesday in Columbus. And also don't forget Vancouver's travel. They were in Edmonton on Wednesday night and they played Saturday afternoon in Philly. Yep. You know, forgive me, Jeff, you have more of a career than I do and you have kids who play and I don't I would say this would be an unusual day

to have a hard skate on the off day three and four agree or disagree on the road like this yeah it's not like Bruce Boudreaux is inexperienced he's been around hockey for 50 years that said a lot to me that they're doing that and i'm curious to see how they come out to play i just hope they don't come out of gas out of that i really don't because everyone's going to point to that practice i can see what can happen but you know jt miller again you always look at who eats it oh he ate it i don't really have the right to talk about the team at the moment i mean take this upon myself to be a better player. It's not playing to my standards, so I'm not going to comment on behalf of the team.

The team's battling. You know, it's not going great for us finishing the games, but it's not like we had a good start today by any means. We just happen to be up two. The puck bounces on you there. You had to slip on the first goal or second goal. I mean, you must be feeling very frustrated. I've been on for all eight goals pretty frustrated oh boy when things are going badly like sometimes life serves up that poop sandwich and you have no choice but to say

oh i'm gonna put some mustard on this and see if i can make it taste okay just like lindy ruff sometimes you have to eat it. JT Miller. I give him credit. He ate it on the ice for all eight goals against. We were talking about that last night. We watched the clip after the show. We didn't have time for it in the show,

unfortunately. And Kelly and Kevin, they didn't realize he was on for all eight goals against. And when I told them, they were like, Ooh, like no player, no player likes that. Nobody nobody so we'll see what happens uh this continues uh as elliot mentions vancouver canucks facing off against the washington capitals

on monday and then tuesday it's the new jersey devils uh facing off against the anaheim ducks okay arizona coyotes jacob chikrin you talked about this on Saturday. What is the latest? The latest there is that Arizona, Chikrin's been skating on his own. He's cleared to skate, but he's not cleared to practice because the ankle injury is fine, but the wrist injury isn't done yet. They're on the road. They played in Pittsburgh. They played in Boston. On Monday night, they play in Toronto.

And after Toronto, they are going into Montreal. Not only are they going into Montreal, young Merrick, but they're going into Montreal with two days off before they play the Canadians. So Thursday night, Canadians by 1,000. so thursday night canadians by a thousand yeah yeah yeah yeah it's the dreaded extra day off in montreal quebec city used to be the same way back in the day by the way if you find someone who gives you canadians by a thousand you might want to take a look at that line yeah you might want you might want to have a peek there so the expectation is that Chikrin is going to join the team in Montreal

and is then going to be able to start practicing with the team. I don't know when we're talking about playing. I don't think that's set yet, but at least he's going to start practicing. And once he starts practicing, I think we start to get some movement into where we're going here. Again, there's been a lot with Ottawa. I heard from several different places that right now there is not a path to a deal between Ottawa and Arizona. Like what Arizona wants and what Ottawa is willing to do.

I don't think Ottawa wants to touch its roster. And the exception I would say is a guy like Zaitsev who really isn't part of the future there and probably would have to go to make this all work. But I don't think other than that, Ottawa wants to touch their roster. The best thing Chikrin can do is come back and play and play great. And then everything will may change. But right now, at least in terms of those two teams, there's no match. And we'll see once he comes back and play,

if he plays well, it may help Ottawa and it may help everybody else too. You know who I'm cheering for in Arizona? Who's that? Vemelka. Carl Vemelka. Yeah. Two games, 95 shots.

You know, the one thing I like, they didn't quit against Boston. They didn't quit. Yeah, they came back and they made a game out of that let's take on the ottawa senators here what what's the latest with the sends because you know we just talked about coaches and it's not as if you know dj smith's on an expiring contract or anything there's four of those lindy ruff dallas akins bruce boudreaux and peter laviolette but do we extend the same conversation to dj smith here after a couple of losses i don't think so i i don't like i was i was calling around i was saying does anybody think that dj's in trouble here and someone said to me

that they really thought the sanders would have to go like owen 25 for that to happen right and put it this way i'm not predicting the sanders are going to go owen 25 new jersey we all knew the script coming in yep vancouver as you mentioned boudreaux's on the last year of his deal and i believe that vancouver i don't know what the right word is to use here because you always worried that the wrong word is going to is going to turn into a five alarm inferno so let's use toyed okay that's a controlled fire okay that's good that's good yeah that's a controlled fire like like that's only about a two alarmer i don't think that's a five alarmer they don't call the foam truck for the two alarmer okay okay very well so i believe vancouver at least toyed with the idea of making the change.

And I think they spoke to some potential coaches, but obviously they didn't do anything, but we kind of knew if this didn't work, there could be something. I don't sense that with Ottawa. I don't think there's a desire to push that button. I really don't. I, I think Ottawa season would have to become a serious tire fire before that was considered. So, you know, like I was hearing rumors, the hot seat, stuff like that. Like I checked around and people don't believe it at that level.

Now, what does everybody see? You know, there's some reporters I follow, obviously, and a couple of fan accounts I keep an eye on are with the Sanders. And they were so geeked up and jacked up for their season that they're 0-2. And on the first night, Craig Anderson stole that one. I don't think they lost that game as much as Anderson stole it. He was great. And then they lose to Toronto.

One-goal game. And people are like like this is a huge homestand for the sanders this is a huge homestand and you know i get it people were excited and they want to see it go somewhere i just don't believe at this point it's anywhere near the same defcon level as say new jersey or vancouver i really, really, really have to go off the tracks for that to happen. But again, what scotched the season for the Ottawa Senators last year?

The start. Yes. And I think like we look at teams that needed a good start. Like this was a great, we talked about, you know, how great a summer it was for Pierre Dorian and it was, and expectations were higher. Elliot, we did an entire podcast.

Like we flew to Ottawa to interview everybody. everybody like everyone's everyone's caught up in this and like this is an improved team but right now what fans are seeing is oh this happened last year again it's only two games let's all calm down i get it i understand why it happens because the excitement was there i'm just saying from my perch where i kind of try to distance myself and say here's where i really think the hot spots are i really don't see ottawa is that on the same level i don't think they're down that path and i really think it's the path they do not prefer the other the other thing too about vancouver i should mention is yeah vancouver's paying i think travis almost $3 million this year not to coach.

So making a change just adds to that number. Now, is it more important to win? Yes. For them, the organization, I think it's more important to win. But the finances of it are a thing too. Are we going to have to already go on Barry Trotz watch? I'm just thinking about this now. Are we going to have to go back on,

you know, what's going to lure Barry Trotz back to the NHL? Are we going back? Remember last year with Trotz watch, everything was like, no one can make a move. Everyone's frozen until Barry Trotz makes his decision. Are we going back there?

I don't know, but it's a good question. Here's a good conversation for you. Like I got a really interesting call. So one of the other reporters who does a mediocre job covering the NHL is Pierre Lebrun. Pierre did an article at the beginning of the year with Barry Trotz. And I had a couple people reach out to me and say,

that's not good form by Barry Trotz because there's other coaches are going to look at this and say he's campaigning for my job and I don't believe that's true and here's why so Pierre reached out to talk to him about Chara because obviously Chara played for Trotz. And I'm sure he did what every other reporter would do, and that is say, oh, okay, well, why I've got you on the phone, let's talk about your situation. And Trotz is going to answer the questions. And I don't blame Pierre for doing the story at all. I would have done the same thing.

Heck, I wrote about Travis Green last week, and he started the season without a head coaching job. And what someone said to me was, ooh, the timing of that, or actually it was more than one person. They said the timing of that's not right. These coaches are going to look at it and know that Barry Trotz is looking over their shoulder. I don't think for a second that Barry Trotz did that for that reason.

I understand why coaches are paranoid because they're naturally paranoid people but i don't think you can put two and two together that way how many times have we seen coaches show up on hockey panels it's the same thing yeah and inevitably they get asked oh do you want to go back to the nhl and coach well of course i want i'm happy doing my job right now and i love my colleagues but i've really got a passion for wins and losses. Like that's, that's Dan. Two lies. They don't enjoy TV. And when they're on TV, they don't enjoy their colleagues.

Fair enough. Okay. Sonny Milano. Now, as we record this, Sonny Milano is on waivers. You broke the news yesterday on hockey night. Now property, the Washington capitals. The reason I think he clears and we'll see if I'm right or wrong at 2 PM Eastern on Monday is that

they gave him a one-year deal so the way I understand this happened is if you'll watch last week uh Washington lost two players on waivers Janssen Fjallby and Leeson one to Winnipeg and the other to Anaheim so they needed bodies and uh I actually heard that the agent had reached out to the capitals and said, look, you're down to, what do you think here? And the capitals thought it was a good idea. So they gave him a one-way contract, which means for those of you who aren't familiar, he gets the same salary in the NHL or the AHL, $750,000. And for those of you who aren't familiar with this,

and you're on me about this all the time very properly. I was going to say, you're doing a good job of this now. Well done. Not everybody knows what these things are. Like a two-way deal means you get one salary at the NHL, say $750,000, and another salary at the AHL, say $200,000. But the one-way means he gets the same number, $750, no matter where he plays.

And I think that's going to scare some teams off. There aren't going to be many teams that are going to say, we want Sonny Milano making $750 in the American Hockey League if he'd gotten to this point where he didn't have a set contract. So I think Washington made a smart play here. And that's why I think he's going to clear. We'll find out at two o'clock Eastern on Monday, if I'm smart or this is just the latest example

of my complete idiocy. We'll stand by for that information. Matt Murray injured, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender, Ilya Samsonov to save the day. The Maple Leafs call up Victor Mete. They call up Nick Robertson. They call up Wayne Simmons as well.

Your thoughts on this situation? You can't help but feel awful for Matt Murray. I heard he was crushed. I heard he was absolutely crushed. And then, of course, the internet pile-on starts. Of course. And, you know, obviously the first game didn't go the way he wanted, but I think he was really excited.

I think he was really hopeful. I think he was really hopeful. And you know how much players love playing against their former teams, right? True. So he's geeked up, and then he suffers an injury the morning skate. And I was actually walking into the building. The first video I saw was from David Alter, who reports in Toronto. And the Sportsnet cameras obviously captured him skating off the ice too.

I watched it. I couldn't believe it. You know, you're sitting there and you're saying, what else? So one man's injury is another man's opportunity. It's a great opportunity for Ilya Samsonov. And the Maple Leafs dodged a bullet in a lot of different ways.

Number one, you know, Shalgren, their third stringer, he got clobbered by Ethan Prowe in Rochester the night before. When I saw that, I was thinking there was no way he was going to be able to play and he could. And secondly, because they were able to put Murray on LTIR, they didn't have to use the emergency backup for one night, the e-bug. And as you said, it gives them some opportunity. They had 20 players. Now they can go to 23. Simmons gets his shot. Nick Robertson, who deserved to be there, gets his shot.

And Mete, too, you always want the depth because they are going out on a West Coast swing next week. So it's a really big deal for the injury, for the roster flexibility. The other thing, too, Jeff, is that if Shalgren had not been able to play, they're at 50 contracts. Very rare. Most teams do everything they can to avoid that. 50 contracts is the maximum.

You always want to keep at least one. And some teams are fanatical about doing everything they can to stay at 47 or 46. But it's very rare a team's teams at 50 Toronto's right at 50. If Shalgrin had not been able to play, would have been wild to see what they could do because their only other goalie under NHL contract is in Sweden. And he was a draft pick this year.

A couple of their other guys like Dylan Ferguson, they're not eligible to sign tryout agreements because they've played pro games before. So it would have been a wild scene seeing what they would have had to do. Hang on one second here. Who was the last player to go in net? You love chaos and that would have been right up your alley. I do love chaos and I also love trivia.

And this is something everyone can keep in their hip pockets. The last skater to ever suit up in nets, and this only happened for 30 seconds of a game in 1960, was Jerry Topazini. And if you ever talk to anybody, Elliot, as I'm sure you have about Sudbury hockey, the name Jerry Topazini comes up. So the last time a position player went in net was 1960, Jerry Topazini.

Yeah, I don't think that was going to happen. You could use the e-bug. But if it had been anything, it would have been wild. I was a goalie in the MTHL. You know, you think maybe, you know, Dubas has my number. You think maybe he would have given me a call. I was little busy with kids hockey yesterday but i could have hopped in there you guys would have been cool the second intermission if i had to hop in i think they would have called wayne merrick before they called you oh that is a very very great poll

and on the same level i played golden western beer league oh very good you could have got the call from no way oh okay they would have called milton friedman to play goal before they called elliot the great economist oh well done okay great and he's like a thousand so this is a good place to mention something i'm looking forward to monday on sports net It is the debut of Rogers Monday Night Hockey. It is David Amber, his new program, alongside Cassie Campbell-Pascal, Anson Carter, and Keith Yandel. Two games, Arizona, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Montreal. Looking forward to those.

And I'm just looking forward to seeing DA again. It was great seeing everybody at HockeyNet yesterday, but it was a drag not seeing DA. I will say this, and it'll go right to his head. I miss the behind the scenes not having David there. David is one of the funniest coworkers I've ever worked with. So for those of you who don't know, we call him Captain Canada because nobody sweats the Canadian teams more than Dave Amber.

Every time a Canadian team scores. Well, if there's three playing at once and they all he almost root for them all to give up a goal at the same time because he loses his mind like this is a disaster oh i know it's like we just melt like winners of the lost ark melts face melt absolutely absolutely so i missed that and i and i hope his show with cassie and anson and keith is great i know it will be great sure i. I'm wishing him the best. And I have to tell one story. Do you know who's had an Aaron Judge-like week on social media last week?

And I'm not talking about playoff Aaron Judge. I'm talking regular season. Regular season, set in records Aaron Judge. No, who? Anthony Stewart. Anthony had two unbelievably hilarious moves on social this week first of all on the weekend you know he picked jack campbell as his vesna yes i saw the show yes so people were playfully ripping him when campbell was pulled on saturday night

and anthony said i don't know what everybody's talking about. And he put up the screen grab with it and he Photoshopped it. So it said UC Saros, which I thought was really funny, but also, so we worked last Tuesday night, which was the, the, the Rangers, Tampa, Vegas, LA double header. And before the game, Anthony tweeted out a picture of Dave holding Dave's famous binder that we always make fun of. The binder that's got everything in it. Oh my God, this story is so good. And so he tweeted it out. And about two minutes later, Dave goes running into Finding Andy like, take that down, take that down, get rid of that picture.

And they didn't realize that dave's phone number was on the binder or they just forgot so so dave got a text from some anonymous person who said mr amber i'm sorry to text you randomly but that picture of anthony has your phone number on the binder and i really wanted to physically prevent anth Anthony from erasing the picture, but I recognize that I'm not capable of physically preventing Anthony from doing anything. So I couldn't stop it. Stewie is hands down.

One of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. Yes. And he seems to have this never ending supply of the perfect gift for any opportunity. And he blasts it out fast. We've seen some people with tight gift games on hockey Twitter. No one's tighter than Stewie. No, phenomenal.

All right, looking forward to Monday Night Hockey with David Amber, Cassie Campbell-Pascal, Anson Carter, and Keith Yandel. The Coyotes and the Leafs, the Penguins, and the Montreal Canadiens. you know elliot you wrecked something for me now oh you did and it's really unfortunate but now every time i watch the detroit red wings and i see elmer sododerblom and he was real good, scores his first goal and how'd you like that between the legs move by the big man on Saturday. I'm always going to think of you because of how

fascinated you are with this behemoth of a hockey player. Sunquakes behind the net to Rasmussen. The big line for Detroit. Wrap around drive. They score! Bingo. Sutter bomb! His first National Hockey League goal. The first goal of the season for Detroit. And the excited mom and dad. You and I talked to Derek Lalonde about

can, if they can get their offense from that pressure that they're facing and turn it over and go the other way in the transition game, just like the turnover a moment ago that led to the goal. 6-8. 6-6. 6-3.

All in on that one. So someone sent me a note. I can't find it now. I don't know what I did with it. Okay. But they're calling what I did with it. Okay. But they're calling them the Redwood line. What a fantastic nickname.

That's great. Great nickname. Well, they're huge. And if you don't know what we're talking about, this is the Detroit Red Wings. It's Soderblom, Michael Rasmussen, and Oscar Sundquist. Sundquist is the- The baby. Is the squirt at only six foot three.

The squirt at only six foot three. They're there. Little boy at, uh, at six foot three Rasmussen six, six, and Soderblom is six foot eight. The biggest line in the history of the game. Spectacular. Elliot, the watch. The good news for Detroit is they're two and oh, they've beat the teams. They're supposed to be. If you want to begin the climb to respectability,

you have to beat the teams that are with you or potentially below you. Game one, they beat Montreal. Game two, they beat New Jersey. Those are the teams Detroit has to munch on to get up the standings. That's a good sign for the Red Wings to start the year. Good start for Derek Lalonde,

the new head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. You know who looks great? Like really great? Vegas? Kadri. Yeah, okay. I mean, I'll take either answer. Both answers are acceptable.

Both answers are correct. But watching on Saturday, first of all, you know a game like that is built for Nazem Kadri. Power play. Kadri! Kadri!

The guard-gay-all goal! Power play goal! A game like that is built for Nazem Qadri. You know a game where it's being hyped as a quote-unquote battle, whether it's the Battle of Ontario, Toronto, and Ottawa, or the Battle of Alberta with Edmonton and Calgary. He's now been part of both. Those games are tailor-made for Nazem Kadri. And you were there working it in the, the nightcap game on hockey night, a good game, big win by Calgary.

Nice comeback for Edmonton, tough night for Jack Campbell. But I thought Nazem Kadri may have stole the show. I thought he was fantastic all night. Is Edmonton going to spend all year giving people leads and then going on the power play and coming back and scaring the bejesus out of you? If there's one team that can do it, it might be Edmonton

because of what Conor and Leon can do almost single-handedly, but it is a dangerous way to live. Yes, and you know that Woodcroft will be on them about that. That game was everything I was hoping it would be. I agree with you. Kadri's a Daryl Sutter guy, right? Yeah. Players who should play for certain coaches.

Alexander Ovechkin and Bruce Boudreaux were perfect for each other. Absolutely perfect for each other. Mike Green too. Yeah. Nazem Kadri and Daryl Sutter are perfect for each other. You know who's looking perfect for their team right now? Peter DeBoer. Now, I know it's just two wins and it's against the same team,

but Dallas looks real good. What did Rupe Hintz say? Okay, this is from a tweet from Matthew DeFranks. Rupe Hintz on if blue line decisions, this would be on entries, blue line decisions feel different this season. Here's the quote. Yeah, obviously, we don't dump it now

every time, almost. Last year, we dumped it a lot, so I think it's going to create more offense to us when we handle the pucks and make some plays there. You feel like Miro is kind of positioning himself

to... That's a really interesting quote. That's a bomb. The thing is, I hate when people get criticized for this we say hockey players are boring and the other thing too to remember about hints is he's talking in not his native language right yeah so the other thing you always have to realize that he's speaking very bluntly because it's not finnish and you have to give him a break for that but for example miles

wood came out and said this is a must win game and they lost and he said he was sick of losing and and people were all over him and if you want to criticize him and say well you took a bad penalty okay against philly that's fine but we say players are too boring. And then when they say honest, blunt things like that, people go all over them. You can't have it both ways. Can we pause on that? Did I ever, I think I've told you the, the, the Fred Shiro story with Dave Schultz where Schultz comes to him and there's a big cover spread on the hockey news. And it's like, Dave Schultz is ruining hockey. This is when he was putting up like 472 PIMS.

And he says like, hey, you know, Fred, my parents read this. My family's going to read this. And Fred's like, oh, you don't like it? And he says, no. He said, you want me to make it go away? And he says, yeah. He goes, well, take this advice then. Say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

Yes. Now get out of my office. You know, it's the old line. Dogs don't bark at parked cars. You can't get upset at guys if we say, you know, be more, have more personality. And then when they do, we start barking at them. I agree a thousand percent. And if we want people to be honest, we can't jump down their throat when they're honest.

The only interesting thing about DeBoer is DeBoer, I think is a very good coach, but there were people last year who criticized his his vegas offense because there were too many shots from the point and they said it wasn't quote-unquote modern enough so i don't know if he looks at it and says i have different personnel here so i have different things i think nashville's pretty good i agree and they steamrolled them twice. What is it about Dallas that you like this year? I just think they're really deep. I think they got a lot of good players. Like I like Ottinger, obviously.

I like Robertson. I think they've got a lot of really good players. And the thing is, you know, Ben isn't the scorer he once was, but he's still a presence. And so if you want to play a hard game, they can play that with you. And if you want to play a more skilled game, I think they're better positioned to play that with you too. By the way, I owe everybody in Dallas an apology. I mentioned the Stars Hall of Fame, which is at the end of the month.

Yeah. And Taylor Baird, who does a great job reporting on them down there, she reached out to me and said, you said it was Ganey and Hitchcock. Hitchcock. It's not Ganey and Hitchcock. It's Ganey and Hatcher. Aha. So I am in the corner wearing my Dunce cap, and I feel shame,

but I wanted to make sure that I got that right. I get that, although I think the coach that brought them a Stanley Cup in 1999 is eventually going to get into that. Yes, but still. So I was invited to vote, which was a huge honor. I really appreciated the invitation. And basically the way it worked is it was sort of

one builder and one player, which is kind of a a smart thing to do and so i mean the architect of the stanley cup and the captain of the stanley cup and you're right the coach will get in there eventually but i i thought the architect of the stanley cup and the captain of the stanley cup was the right thing to do yeah i only had one vote you know it wasn't like i was disagreeing with the majority on this one. So I was texting with someone speaking of Peter DeBoer and why this seems to work with Dallas. And again, the caveat for all of this is it's early.

And he was saying to me, like, you know, Peter DeBoer now has a really heavy team. High shot volume is what DeBoer always wants. Because to your point, a lot of it is point shots. And, you know, he believes on creating offense inside off of second and third opportunities where outside of the power plate, that's where you have to go to score. And, you know, he's got guys now that he can use to push people to the outside, you know, defensively, if,ly, if you're heavy and strong like that, just keep pushing from the inside out. He's like, this is why DeBoer works with the Dallas Stars. And you saw it in the two games against the Nashville Predators.

Again, it's early, but you're right. They really do look good. I also have to say, I thought Vegas had a really good week. Probably the team of the week because they're 3-0. They needed it. Man, they needed it thought Vegas had a really good week. Probably the team of the week because they're 3-0. They needed it. Man, they needed it. Logan Thompson was really good. Aiden Hill was really good.

And Bruce Cassidy is a tough coach to please. He said after they won the game against Seattle. So, like a lot of positives. I think both goaltenders, if you look at the three games, have not let in a bad goal, one that they shouldn't have stopped. I mean, I think they'd tell you they'd like to stop every one, but there's no bad goal so far. I think that's what you want out of your goaltending,

good, consistent, solid goaltending. We've gotten it. How many coaches do you hear say that? Not very often. Usually they think every goal is a bad goal. That's a good compliment for his goaltenders. Vegas has looked really good. And the other thing, thing too about Vegas is,

and this goes back to our conversation last week, is they won two opposing home openers, right? Yep. They had 51 shots to ruin the Kings home opener, and they scored 12 seconds into Seattle's home opener. And we were talking about Seattle as a team that should have had four points in its first two games, and they won that game basically in the first 12 seconds.

So that's a really, really good week for Vegas. And Tuesday night, Vegas and Calgary, that's going to be a good one. That'll be nice. Okay. We said we were going to do it, Elliot, and we are. We are back with emails and phone calls. Okay. Thought line is open.

Emails all set to go. We're going to start with Steph in Okanagan Valley, BC. This is not my wife? This is not your wife unless she's relocated to the... What's she doing out there? Steph, what are you doing out there? Hey, man, great wine. Man, maybe Steph's into the great grapes. Okanagan Valley.

Chef kiss. Long time listener. Thanks for the pods all over the years. You've accompanied me on many walks and runs through my neighborhood here. It is gorgeous there, by the way, as we all know. You got to help me understand how a stud like Pacioretty can get traded to the Hurricanes for, quote, future considerations.

I understand why the deal happened. Vegas needed to dump salary. But how do teams agree on what future considerations are? Same with Monaghan to Montreal. Do the respective teams put parameters around what future considerations might be? For example, do they stipulate that the future considerations will be a future draft pick, maybe a young prospect or a UFA or a bag of pucks?

And do they put a timeframe on when the future considerations will be provided? Thanks for all your hard work and helping fans like me see behind the hockey curtain. Well, thank you, Steph. What's not allowed okay until recently and this is a good question by the way until recently you could have picks based on if a player re-signs with the team he's traded to that was taken away because the players association objected they said the players should not feel pressure to re-sign or not re-sign based on what draft picks could be involved.

So you can't do that anymore. Basically, it's agreed to before. When you make the trade, you submit the league what the conditions are. For example, does a player play 12 games with this team? Does the team win one or two rounds the upcoming playoff year with the player on the roster? Things like that. I will say this. In the Pacioretty deal with Carolina, and another one was the Mark Stahl deal between the Rangers and Detroit, it was basically nothing. If you look at the Markstall trade,

the Rangers traded him and a second round pick to Detroit for future considerations. There's nothing. The Rangers needed to create some cap room and they did it. So if you do the research on that trade, he was traded with a second round pick in 2021 for future considerations. There's nothing. And if you look at the same thing with Max Pacioretty and this trade,

he goes with Dylan Coughlin and we're not going to see anything. That doesn't happen too often, but it does happen. You know what I thought was one of the more interesting future considerations? Was one team agreeing to play an extra exhibition game in the other team's market. And what deal was that? I'm not going to say, Elliot, don't go source hunting on me here.

Was it Buffalo? I'm not going to say who it was, Elliot. I just threw Buffalo out there. It's not Buffalo, but I don't want Buffalo getting mad at me. I thought that was an interesting one. We'll do this, and if we can do this one, the future considerations is we'll play an extra exhibition game in your market. Okay, can you name one player who was traded for himself?

Oh, wasn't Andrew McBain? That's not who I was thinking. Don't look don't look it up i'm taping an age cheater amal he's cheating no wasn't andrew mcbain who was it ken solheim i know it's obscure that's okay was it washington no it was it was detroit and min. So Ken Solheim was a 1982nd round pick by the Chicago Blackhawks. He was from Medicine Hat, Alberta. He played in the Western Hockey League with Medicine Hat. And I believe he played, yes, he did play with Kelly Rudy. So Ken Solheim was drafted from Chicago.

Mm-hmm. was drafted from Chicago and he was traded from Minnesota to Detroit later for future considerations. And the next season after playing 10 games for Detroit, he was back in Minnesota and he turned out to be the future considerations. Okay. While we're playing this game of goofy trades. Yeah. Which player was traded for hotel bills?

Was that Dale DeGray? That was Dale DeGray. Now, I will say you have told that story before, so it popped back into my head. It wasn't because I knew it. Okay. And like everybody heard there, I wasn't typing and cheating like Jeff was.

No, I thought it was Andrew McBain, so I typed that one in real fast, but it wasn't. Look, everybody listening to this podcast knows you were trying to cheat. By looking up Andrew McBain's trade history? Because I didn't know Andrew McBain. I'm not buying that that's what you were actually typing. I'm not buying what you're selling.

Very good. Okay, that was an excellent question that took us in a couple of different directions. So go down the rabbit hole. Steph, well done. Wasted eight minutes on the podcast talking about Andrew McBain, Ken Solheim, and Dale DeGray. Okay. Okay, here's one in the spirit of how does this work?

Okay. Adam in St. Louis. As I'm sure you are, I'm excited that hockey is back. Now the training camp is over. There have been a lot of players sent down and brought back up on waivers and was hoping to get an explanation of that process, which players can be claimed by other teams and who's protected. How is the order determined?

If multiple teams try to claim the same players, thanks for the insight. And as always, great job, Jeff, great job. Ammo the bit lives. That's good.

I like that. Okay. It basically it's, it's when you're drafted, how long you've been a pro, things like that. For example, recent draft picks, people on their entry-level contracts, they are not waiver eligible. So it comes down to what age you're drafted,

what your pro experience is, things like that. If you want to look it up in the CBA, honestly, if I was to read it here, I think it's too gobbledygook-y for this. But if you want to look it up, there is something in the CBA that says, here's when you're eligible for waivers. Do what fun-loving Elliot does, listeners. Every year he goes to the beach and takes a CBA and sits there on the beach and reads

it. Yes, that's what I do. Jeff, you've got me nailed to a T. So once you're eligible for waivers, you're always eligible for waivers and you can't be sent down to the minors without going on them. And basically the reason this happens is

so players can't get stuck with one organization that refuses to trade them or give them a chance or whatever. You reach a point where you're available to everybody. Now, there are occasional exceptions, things like if you've been injured, you go down to the American Hockey League on a conditioning stint or something like that. Those are the exceptions. Now, the rules are pretty simple. They're based on the previous season standings until November 1st. So until November 1st, whoever finishes last, and last year it was Montreal,

they have first pick and it goes from one to 32. And if there's multiple claims, it goes to the team that had the worst, the team that's in the lowest spot. They get the pick. On November 1st, it goes to points percentage. So the order is done that way. There is one interesting wrinkle and it happened last week with Jonas Johansson, the goaltender. Colorado put him on waivers. Arizona claimed him. Arizona then put him back on waivers after claiming Connor Ingram and Colorado was the only

team to make a claim. And because Colorado previously had his rights and was the only team to make a claim, the avalanche can send him down to the American hockey league without putting them on waivers again. I love questions like that because to the previous point, I think we assume too much. Yes, you are right about that. Thank you for that one. This comes from, now listen, Amel puts these together and I swear it's not me.

Although when you hear the question, Elliot, you'll think it was me. And it's even a Jeff in Stouffville. So trust me, it's not. What are the chances there could be more than one person in Stouffville named Jeff? Hey, man, we're like population 55,000 now, man. As a matter of fact, what I'd heard is after you move there, people named Jeff change their names legally. Or left.

Or left. Or left, yes. It's like a big loser leaves town match. Okay, so Jeff in Stouffville. Welcome back, Team 32. Are we Seattle? With this being the 50th anniversary of the WHA, Elliot, which WHA jersey would you love to see make a surprise NHL game-worn appearance?

Looking forward to another top-shelf content season. There we go. Oh, by the way, speaking of WHA, condolences to the Dryden family on the passing of Dave last week. Top shelf content season. There we go. Oh, by the way, speaking of WHA, condolences to the Dryden family on the passing of Dave last week. And still, for my money, I've always maintained that my favorite, two of my favorite goalie masks

come from the WHA. One is John Garrett with the Toros slash Bulls, but the other is Dave Dryden's Chicago Cougars mask, which I thought was brilliant, but condolences to the, to the Dryden family. By the way, a really nice tribute from Ian Pulver, the player agent to Dave Dryden. Pulver was a member of the Players Association at the time. He was one of their lawyers and, and Dave Dryden used to work in the NHL on the equipment. And Pulver wrote a really

nice note about how Dryden cared about player safety and was really good to work with on the equipment. I thought that was a really nice tribute among everything else that was out there. You know, what's really interesting is that the Chicago Cougars was going to be one of the ones I was going to suggest. It's a great one. The other one I think, and simply because Gretzky played there, Indianapolis Racers. Was very cool. But if I had to take a couple there that I think- I'm going to guess which one yours are. Okay. I'm going to guess you're going to say Minnesota Fighting Saints. I was not going to say Minnesota, but it's a good guess.

Like it is a good guess. And I think you were going to say Phoenix Roadrunners. I wasn't going to say either, but these are all good jerseys. I think Quebec Nordiques is too obvious. So I'm going with the Calgary Cowboys with the cowboy hat. I really like that one. And the skates and the stick.

That's a great one. I don't know if you could do this anymore, but you know me, I like purple, right? Yeah. Great color. So Cleveland Crusaders. Oh yeah. And you thinkaders. Oh, yeah. And you think of Jerry Cheevers.

Yeah. So I just don't know in this day and age if you could get away with doing a team called the Cleveland Crusaders. Yeah. But I like the purple. It's a beautiful jersey. And totally off the radar, like something that would just be wildly funny, Los Angeles Sharks. I guess you can't even do it anymore because San Jose Sharks. Because San Jose.

For me, it's Toros or Bulls. Yeah. I knew you were going to say Bulls, so I didn't want to say them. Well, for sure, man. And the other one has a link to your Calgary choice, and that's the Miami Screaming Eagles. So the Miami Screaming Eagles never played a game. They managed to cherry pick both Bernie Perrant from Toronto and Derek Sanderson from Boston, but they never played a game because of arena issues.

So that turned into the Philadelphia Blazers, which was a great, a great team name for the team that Derek Sanderson ended up on. They turned to Philadelphia Blazers, which then in turn turned into the Vancouver Blazers, which then in turn moved to Calgary and became the Cowboys. So you and I both kind of have the same franchise. I just remember Danny Lawson scoring 66 goals for them. There's some great ones. I'd love to do a WHA-themed podcast one day down the road somewhere, somehow. There's some great ones. I'd love to do a WHA-themed podcast

one day down the road somewhere, somehow. That's a great one. Thanks so much for the email there. By the way, I just tried to verify my information. I was completely wrong. He scored 61 for Philadelphia and 44 for Calgary, but just leave the wrong fact in for the pure hilarity of it. Thank you, Jeff from Stouffville, if that is indeed your real name.

Okay, let's do a quick voicemail here. This one, Andrew in Toronto. I'm wondering if you think we will start to see teams with a dominant number one goaltender use their backup in situations where games aren't close and try to use their starter in all situations where games are close. That could involve starting the number one guy in almost every game and then taking out that number one guy once the game isn't that close.

The logic would be similar to how baseball teams use their best relief pitchers in close games and their weaker relief pitchers in games that aren't as close. It would be a little unique since you might see a number one goalie come out of a game when they're ahead, say nothing halfway through the third what do you think it's an interesting question andrew i will say this and i saw the baseball comparison before you got there i could tell that's where you're going because baseball that is something that absolutely teams do here's why i'm going to say no the reason reason I'm going to say no, and Jeff, you can tell me if you disagree with me, is I just think there's too much risk of injury. For example, say

Vasilevsky, 7-0, take him out after two periods. If you're doing that too often, you're more and more going to be bringing in a goalie who's been sitting there for two, three hours and then putting them in. I think you're risking too much. Now that said, Jeff, I do remember one case where this was tried. Something like this, I should say, was tried. Do you remember when Craig McTavish pulled Ty Conklin in a shootout? when Craig McTavish pulled Ty Conklin in a shootout. I remember that happened with the Maple Leafs,

with Curtis Joseph and Jean-Sebastian Jaguar, but I don't remember the Edmonton example. So I do remember this purely for the reaction of Conklin on the bench. He was really, really angry about it. So this goes back to March 7th, 2006. And Craig McTavish had Ty Conklin starting the game. This is actually the year I forgot. This is the year they went to the Stanley Cup Final. And Mike Morrison was the backup that night.

And Morrison was 5- one in the shootouts. So it's a purely analytic gamble. McTavish, who I think is a pretty forward thinking guy did exactly what Andrew was talking about here. It didn't work. Zuboff and Yoko and scored Yoko and with the move and Alice Hemsky and Ryan Smith didn't,

and they lost the game. And by the way, Marty Turco, who won that game that night, he would, that was his seventh win of the year in shootouts. He was seven and oh, but the one thing I do remember is Conklin's reaction on the bench. He was furious, absolutely furious. absolutely furious. And so it's almost 17 years later, Jeff, and I don't remember that ever happening again.

You remember one? Yeah, it was the Toronto-Washington game, and it was, hang on, did they pull Cujo and put in Jaguar or the other way around? I can't remember. Hang on, let me look this up. Let me look this up. Let me look this up. It was Leaf Washington game. I found it.

Okay. It's a preseason game. It's September 13th, 2009, and Ron Wilson made the change. Was Cujo Annette and they brought in Jaguar? The other way around. No, it was Vesa Toskala. No, it was Vesa Toskala. Oh, it was Vesa Toskala?

Yes. Okay. And Ron Wilson would think that way. And I say that to him as a compliment because it's the kind of thing that he would do. And what he told the media after the game, and I'm reading from the story, which was on Sportsnet, and it's only partial plagiarism

because I do work for Sportsnet but didn't at the time he said that Joseph had been scored on on 28% of the time on penalty shots while Toskala had been beaten with 54% I was playing the percentages I'm not going to hesitate to do that until we get Toskala a bit more practice. Guess who's on the other team who scores? I've never seen it happen before. I saw Joseph warming up and I turned to the bench and said, they're putting him in. I could totally see Perry just completely flummoxed by such an event.

You know what I always, I shouldn't say always, you know what I've wondered about before? If you have open rosters, but just for goaltenders, like if you're allowed to bring in, cause we've talked about before, you know, expanding the roster to have like a shootout specialist ready to go.

Someone that may not be great. The five on five play, but as far as shootouts go, the guy's dynamite. Do you remember how good Matthew Garan was in the shootout? Yes, he was great. It's either him or Johan Hedberg,

because he was also dynamite in the shootout. And I can't remember which one was better, like had the higher, I should probably look it up, had the higher save percentage. But I always wondered if you could have a shootout specialist, not a shooter, but a goaltender, to extend Moose Hedberg and Matthew Garan's careers. Well, there were shootout specialists,

and they were, Jokinen was one. You know who else was really good at it? He played for Pittsburgh, was Eric Christensen. Yep. He was really good in the shootout, I remember. By the way, Merrick. Yeah. I found your game.

You're not 100% correct, but you're not bad. Yes. This is the Toronto Washington? Yes. Okay, what's the deal? It's Curtis Joseph. Okay. And it is...

John Sebastian Jaguar. No. Who was it? It was 2008 and 9, end of the season. Martin Gerber ejected from the game with 56 seconds to go on the third period for shoving an official angry at the tying goal from Brooks-Like. Oh, wow. goal right from brooks like oh wow so joseph comes off the bench at 41 years old and apparently made a huge save off of ovechkin at the end of regulation yeah and he did stop him in the shootout and stopped him in the shootout he stopped him again in the shootout to win the game

you're in the ballpark not only you in the in the ballpark, but I think you're like, you can't be in the first row because you didn't get it exactly right, but I think you're in the second or third row. That's a pretty good pull. I was at that game. He'll have this one. This is cut out of the pages of Robert De Niro told me never to drop names. So I was in a private box watching that game with my old D partner,

my old men's league D partner, Dean McDermott and his wife, Tori Spelling. No way. Yeah. Dean was my D partner in men's league. What was Tori Spelling like? She's the nicest person in the world.

Oh, we hung out with her a bunch that summer. They got married. She was great. She's like the most down to earth, chill hockey cool person you'll ever meet like the most unhollywood person you would imagine did you ask her for one percent of the 90210 residuals i don't even think we talked about 90210 i think mainly just we were a couple of barbecues in oakville and we mainly just talked about hockey really really nice person

so super sweet i gotta tell you that's that's a great way to end the pot i don't really have much to say no you expect that story today i have to say of all the things you're going to talk about on this pod tori's spelling was really far down my list i know know. Yeah, I know. It's true. Dino, he was my D partner for so many years. Absolutely. And there you go. So that's how we're going to end the podcast today

with me dropping names. Like that one, Freed? I can't top this one. I would try. I got nothing. Taking us out then is an R&B artist who's deeply rooted

in the Los Angeles music scene. Kay Roosevelt got his break in 2013 with a major collaboration and then released his debut record with a major label. Since then, he's gone off on his own. From his latest record, Solstice, here's Kay Roosevelt with Dayglo

on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Late night runs Where we going? Take my lead, trust It's growing, wait, hold tight, break Keep going, no, don't stop, girl Something special I can see it in you It gets brighter when you walk in the room

Sun tan, it's doing you right Day glow, doing you right, day glow Doing you right There's something that I feel around you You know I'm trying to keep you in the loop Yeah, doing it, doing you right Doing it, doing it right Show me you're a good time Baby, no, I don't mind Moving it, moving it right Yeah, doing it, doing you right Show me you're a good time Outro Music