32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Join Elliotte On His Drive Home

Episode Date: March 15, 2021

Following the Maple Leafs-Senators game on Sunday night, Elliotte called Jeff on his way home from the studio to talk some hockey. Here’s their conversation. Some of the topics that were discussed ��� Joey Daccord’s memorable night in Ottawa (00:00), the struggles in Toronto (7:30), why Nashville will be the team to watch as the […]

You guys not hearing me? You should be hearing me. Buckle up, Elliot. Safety first. You guys hearing me? I can hear him. Okay, so let's set the stage here and set the scene for what is happening on today's edition of 31 Thoughts, a podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4. This podcast, Elliot, sort of has an hourglass attached to it. You've just finished doing the Toronto Maple Leafs-Ottawa Senators game nationally on Sportsnet

with Carolyn Cameron and Anthony Stewart, Kyle Bukoskis in the nation's capital. And now you are about to drive home, seatbelt on, two hands on the wheel, and your headset on so you can pay attention to the road be safe and no no headset bluetooth bluetooth bluetooth all right you're bluetoothing it up for us today and here's how we're doing the podcast as much information as we can cram in this show between now and when elliot friedman pulls into driveway. So let's begin by talking about the game that you just covered, the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Before we get to the game action itself, the story of this one may be what happened afterwards,

and that's the Joey Decord interview. I think he just made himself thousands of new fans, Elliot. Kyle Bukowskis has had two major goaltending interviews in the last calendar year. David Ayers and Joey Decord. Probably the two best interviews that Kyle has ever done. Maybe the two only good interviews Kyle has ever done. But Ayers, of course, was a fantastic storyline. And Kyle knocked it into the fifth

deck with his interview after that game. And then Joey Decord, pretty simple. Matt Murray was supposed to start this game for the Ottawa Senators, as Joey revealed in his interview just before they went on the ice for the pregame warm-up. Murr, actually, I didn't know anything was going on, and then Murr tapped me on the pads maybe two minutes before warm-ups, and he said, hey, something's going on here, I didn't know anything was going on and then Murr tapped me on the pads maybe two minutes before warm-ups and he said, hey, something's going on here. I don't know if I can go. I'm going to be able to tell you pretty early. So I was like, okay.

Then it got out here and I think it was during the second little warm-up drill. He just kind of gave me a head shake and I was like, oh, here we go. If I'm being totally honest, in my head at that moment, I said, I'm going to win tonight.

And we're going to win tonight because sometimes it's not a storybook situation. Sometimes you just got to go and find a way. And that's just what we did tonight. We played so well. All the guys that passed from Timmy was, oh, my God, I almost fell fell over on the other end when I saw that pass to Schmatz back door. It was unbelievable. So yeah, just really grateful right now for the opportunity. I'm so fortunate to be where I am in my life and have the people that I do in my life and

play for this hockey team in this city. It's unbelievable. But he goes out in a bit of a surprise, and he wins his first ever NHL game. Now, there's another storyline here, and that is Ottawa's goaltending. Ottawa's goaltending, whether you use the conventional metrics, such as save percentage or goals against average, is the worst in the league. If you use some of the advanced metrics, such as goals saved above expectation, and what that takes into account is the quality of the shots.

It doesn't rate them all equally. It rates them by quality. And they're the worst in the league by a significant margin. And the Senators aren't asking their goaltenders necessarily to be 1993 Patrick Waugh, but they're just asking them to be competitive and to make saves. At a better rate, they've been doing battle. And Joey Decord went into this game, and he almost got run over in the first minute, as he did.

First shift. By Willie Nylander. But he made, as Ottawa went ahead 2-0, he made some big saves, and he made Toronto work for their goals. And that's all you can ask for. He battled, and he won his first NHL game in exceptional circumstances, and great for him. Your first career win in the National Hockey League.

Tell me what you're thinking. Going to get emotional. Yeah, definitely not the way I drew it up, you know, in my head. But against the Leafs, you know, at home, obviously a crazy situation. And that's why you always got to be ready. And I just tried to get in the game and get myself going as fast as possible. And the boys played unbelievable. Like, oh, what an effort out of our

group i'm uh i don't even have words right now honestly i just want to thank my family and uh for everything they've done for me it's uh yeah pretty special just so happy for joey and in the interview you can tell how excited he was at getting his first win essentially in the interview he recounted the entire entire game after one of Kyle's questions. And then, I'm sorry, man, you see a goalie cry after his first NHL win. That's a, oh, someone's cutting onions in here kind of moment.

Congratulations to Joey Decord for that one. Going back to last week's podcast, it's like when I read The Giving Tree, Jeff. Like, it's ball city. Dude, I had so many people tweet me about that. Now I've got to go read this thing, but I feel like I need to be emotionally prepared for it. Also in that game, Drake Bathurston with a command performance,

and as you talked about during one of the intermissions, some great work by Tim Stutzla. And a couple of things there. One, the minutia of hockey. Tim Stutzla changes the tape on the blade of his stick. No reason given. Yeah, credit to Brent Wallace. Very, very nice touch.

Yes, caught that one. Noticed that, yes. Yeah, let's pump Brent. Drake Bathurston with a pair. And on the one Bathurston goal, I'm sorry, man, but that backhanded toe drag by Tim Stutzla before dishing it off to Bathurston may have been the play of the night. Just a gorgeous backhand toe drag. Tim Stutzla before dishing it off to Batherson may have been the play of the

night. Just a gorgeous backhand toe drag. No question about it. And you know, it's kind of funny how this league goes sometimes. I don't know if it was BXA who told me this or it was another player on the Canucks who told me this years ago, but I worked a game in Vancouver where the Canucks were playing the Leafs. And they weren't going through a good stretch. And their owner, Francesco Acquaviti, walked in. I found this out later. He walked in the dressing room before the game and he said,

you know, you guys beat the Leafs tonight and all is good. And they did. And, you know, that's the thing about Ottawa. They have such a bright future. They've got so many good young players. But until tonight, you know, the goaltending had been so up and down that their fans get so disappointed with what's been happening in net. But you go out there and you torture the Toronto Maple Leafs

or you torture the Montreal Canadiens if you're the Ottawa Sadders. Oh, yeah. Their fans can live with that. And they've tortured both those teams this year. And I do look at Ottawa and I say, they've got a bright future. You've got to get from here to there. But in a year like this,

those are the games that make it worthwhile for the Senators fans. Wonderful win for Ottawa. Great performances by Joey Decord Drake Batherson as well I don't know however that I've seen a player miss more empty nets at the end of a game than Brady Kachuk

I just sort of feel bad for him by the end could you imagine if Toronto had tied that game no I'd like to talk about Toronto for a bit here because we're going a couple weeks ago Jeff we worked a Wednesday hockey game where they swept Edmonton with three different goalies and gave up one goal yeah that's when they won

the Stanley Cup right yes yes and but we were handing them know the North Division yeah Toronto play against all Friday Winnipeg could be the number one team in the division by then. And I look at this a couple of things here. Jack Campbell's injury, and I don't know if maybe they lost their sense of detail because they started to believe their own press commentary or media commentary, the same stuff that we were talking about. I thought there might be a trap. It looked like your classic NFL trap game out of there.

But now it's five out of six. So Kyle does an interview with Paul Maurice before the Toronto game. And Maurice says he likes mustard and onions on hot dogs, which is disgusting, like just a disgusting combination. But he also says, I'm finding out about my team. If you're the Winnipeg Jets, do you not have

to go out and get Eckholm or Savard? Eckholm makes a lot of sense there. Eckholm makes a ton of sense. They could probably use two defensemen, but if you're going to get one, Matthias Eckholm makes a ton of sense. They could probably use two defensemen, but if you're going to get one, Matthias Echo makes a ton of sense on the Jets. Completely. It's going to cost you a lot.

Yep. But I do think the Leafs will sort themselves out. I don't like this. I don't like what's happening in that. But if you're those two teams, it's now a go for it year. And I'm sure the J jets are sitting here and saying we don't want to deal with this quarantine again we've already given up a lot i'm sorry there are

seasons you're sitting at the poker table with all those chaps in front of you and you say screw it i'm going in i'm going in it's you're the Jets, you want a defenseman. Maybe two. Your net mining is taken care of. Your goal scoring is taken care of. You're deep at center. You're great on the wings with Connor and Ehlers and Wheeler. Like, on the wing, you look fantastic.

And if you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, one, you do have the backup goaltending issue, and we saw that play itself out on Sunday. I don't know how they can come back with Michael Hutchison at all. There have been a lot of different chances. I feel horrible for the guy but pro sports

it is what it is. You're the Maple Leafs. You're out there and you have a lot of time now between games not that you're getting someone right away but you've talked about this before you have this time now to get someone in and start their quarantine if you're kyle dubas are you burning the phones this sunday night as we record this podcast i think he's been doing it already i just find it very hard to believe he isn't trying to add. I've heard

Eric Stahl is not likely in Canada. I hate to say that it's not happening, but I've heard it's not likely. And the reason is, you know, Dubois is a young guy, you know, he's in his early twenties and look how hard that quarantine was on him. Stahl's in his mid-30s. Do you want to do that? Make him sit for two weeks then have to ramp his way back up? I've heard it's a concern. So I'm not convinced

Stahl's going to be the answer for a Canadian team. I also have heard that the price of Raquel, I'm not so sure Toronto's gonna be in on that I could be wrong again I know I'm putting myself in position here to get clobbered if certain things come true I've heard the price on Raquel is gonna be like maybe Anaheim thinks that Toronto doesn't have what it wants I go back to Granland and maybe anybody else I haven't thought of out there. Pause on that one then, because it wasn't that long ago that the Ottawa Senators were the kingmakers come trade deadline time, right?

There was Carlson. There was Stone. There was Deshane. They were the team that was going to decide where the balance of power changed in the NHL by way of who they shipped off. Is Nashville now that team? Is Nashville now in a situation where they're saying, we have quality players here,

we're going to probably end up going through a rebuild. If you want our guys, it's going to cost you a lot, but we have the chance to make your team better. Are the Nashville Predators now the potential kingmakers in the NHL? I think so because one of the questions I always ask, Jeff, is, is there anybody new out there? Are there any names out there on the trade block that, you know, I hadn't heard? And not everyone's going to tell you, but you always try. And I still get the sense, and I heard this weekend, that the name that makes the most difference to teams that get them is Eckholm.

He's the guy. He's the biggest name out there right now that I know of and that people are willing to tell me who's a difference maker. Now, they're looking for a Muzzin kind of package, two prospects and a first-rounder, and someone's going to pay that. Now, my question is, who's it going to be? Winnipeg, I think, is in.

Boston is in. I've had some questions about whether or not Toronto's in. The thing with Toronto is, if you get him, you've got three lefties, Riley, Muzzin, and him. What are you doing with that? How are you sorting that out? I've heard at times Montreal's in, but I've also had people tell me that Montreal's not.

So I don't know what to make of that. The other wild card there is Philly. And again, I've had people tell me that Philly's going to say they're not going to blow what it's going to take to get at home unless they can solve an expansion draft issue at the same time. And, you know, do they really think that this is their year I've had other people tell me that Philly's gonna go for it anyway but you know again some people have pushed back on that that's a tough division to decide to go for it yeah so I've had at least five teams Boston

Montreal Toronto Winnipeg, and Philly. And I think he's the guy. Now, the other team out there, but it's not a defenseman, I think Detroit could be pretty interesting. I think Detroit has almost everyone available. Hang on. Everybody not named Dylan Larkin. You know, Sider and Raymond, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. First-rounders, yeah. What does someone think of an Anthony Manta? What does someone think of a Tyler Bertuzzi? But I still think Eckholm, as far as I can tell, he's the guy. I'm not so sure

Anaheim's going to deal Raquel. As we sit here on Sunday night at 1022 Eastern, I'm not convinced they're going to do it. Let's bounce around the league then as you're driving safely home. One of the interesting headlines around the NHL, speaking of the Ottawa Senators, here's a former defenseman of theirs, Eric Carlson, the San Jose Sharks, who said, I did not sign here for a rebuild. Don't want to go through what I did for 10 years in Ottawa.

We need to find a way to build with the core that we have. How did you interpret that? And is it, is it not too dissimilar to what we've heard Doug Wilson say about the San Jose Sharks team as well? We're not rebuilding here. When I first heard about it, you're sitting there, you're saying, Oh, that's a jaw dropper. But then you go and you actually watch it and you see it in the context and you figure out, okay, he's basically saying, I came here to win. I want to win. I don't want to hear about this rebuild talk. I think there are some teams this year, like, first of all,

nobody's playing in ideal circumstances. We all know that. But there are two teams in particular, I think you look at them and saying they're playing in extremely, extremely challenging circumstances. And you have to take that in when you factor their results. One is Dallas, who had 17 players on the COVID list at the beginning of the year, have to start late and then get their schedule blown up for another week because of the power failures in Texas. And the other is San Jose because, you know,

they had to start with that ridiculous road trip and so did their AHL team. Now, I think we've all got big questions about San Jose. I think we look at some of the contracts and the ages of some of those players. But the fact is, we talked about how we both watch them a lot. They've started to play better. Carlson has started to play better. Kane, who's going through a ton, has started to play better. Kane, who's going through a ton, has started to play better. Your buddy Curtis Gabriel has given them a breath of fresh air.

Couture has been excellent. You know, I still think there's some questions about San Jose, but I'm looking at the way that they're starting to go, and I'm still not sold on all their goaltending. Dubnik is out playing jones but i heard some rumblings about maybe timo meyer being available i got told don't go down that road i think the sharks really want to see now that they're going to play some games at home who are we and i think that's what this is about. Bouncing around, Calgary Flames, Daryl Sutter.

There is style and there is success. Sometimes you can have both. Sometimes you only have one. So far, Calgary has chosen one, and that is success. 2-0, most recently, the two-goal performance by Sean Monaghan. What do you make of the Calgary Flames as we see them under Daryl Sutter? It hasn't, Elliot, been the most exciting brand of hockey, but I don't think we expected that when Daryl Sutter took over.

There's a couple people I ask about what their tracking game stuff tells them. And one of the things they told me is that Calgary went from a reasonably high event team to a team where nothing happens in their games. I guess the first period of Calgary-Montreal, the first game that Sutter coached, had four scoring chances in. That's it. The other thing, too, is if you look at Calgary's five on five goals since Sutter got there, they're one on battles. They're dumping the puck in more noticeably

and they're winning the battles to get the puck. Quickly, he has changed the personality of that team. That's a bad week for Montreal. Not only did they lose twice to Calgary, but they did in regulation. Those are the kinds of things that happen to you during the season.

If you miss the playoffs, you look back and you say, oh boy, like we did that to ourselves. They could have buried the Flames. They could have. And they let them off the mat. That's one that, you know, the Canadians are looking at and saying, that one might come back to get us. Calgary Flames trailing the Montreal Canadiens by two points for that fourth and final playoff spot.

Montreal, however, does have the game in hand, and those are the two teams that have made coaching changes. I want to get to the New York Islanders. Yes. Hottest team in the NHL. Top team in the NHL. They've won nine games in a row. And the bad news is, of course, that Danders Lee is on long-term injury.

Jean-Gabriel Pajot is now on the COVID list. So is Noah Dobson. Very weird situation before their game. Yeah, absolutely. And they just keep on winning. Like, I've been skeptical about the Islanders for a couple of years now. I don't know that I can justify that anymore.

When we did the season preview, do you remember what we said about the Islanders? I think I had them out. I certainly didn't have them first place. No, okay. Let's look at it this way. Do you remember what I said about the islanders i think i had them out i certainly didn't have them first place no okay let's look at it this way you remember what i said about the others not what silly jeff said about the others but genius elliott said about the others what did genius elliott friedman say about the islanders last year in the post season i picked them to win a couple rounds I think and the reason I did was because I just felt that in this crazy town of a year a team with good structure was going to be okay what are the

Islanders they're greater than the sum of their parts they're a bunch of players who all understand their roles and they all know how they're supposed to play. I think in chaos that works. So before this season in the pod, I talked about that. Oh, I thought they'd be okay because they know what they're supposed to do and where everyone's supposed to be. Now I would be lying. I can't even lie well enough to claim I saw this coming. I didn't think they'd win their division or challenge this much to win it. But I thought they'd be all right. That game, I was watching it on Sunday. It was total chaos.

First of all, Pajot shows up, or doesn't show up, and he's not even on the 23-man roster. The first thing that jumps into your mind is, is Lamorello trading this guy? You know, what's going on here? And you know the reporters are going to be totally in the dark, because that's the way he does it. And, you know, so that's one situation. And then Dobson shows up, and he's taken out of the game and you think that this

incredibly detail-oriented team has completely screwed up the lineup card because Dobson's out and now the other Sebastian Ajo is in and of course he comes into the game and sets up the first goal you're watching this and you're going, it's so Islanders, it's total chaos and they make it work. I can't give them enough credit for the way they sort of go about their business. You know, for example, there's an Islander player I want to talk to for the blog this week and they asked me, okay, what do you want to talk to them about? Just general, you know, you guys don't get a lot of attention. I think this player deserves a lot more attention.

And they wrote back, we'll see if we can set it up, but we kind of like no attention. So it was, it was, it was pretty funny. It was now, I don't know what this COVID situation is. I, you know, I hope for both Dobson and pageau's sake it's a false positive we had one of them this week with mark andre flurry and i know boston was hoping that that was the situation too with jake debrusk so i hope that's it but that was weird around their game that game against the new jersey devils i don't know did you think that was offside did you expect a review on that one?

The Islanders certainly did, and they started filing out. I couldn't see it because I was working the game. What did you think? Well, at first glance, I think it's fine, and everyone's celebrating, and New Jersey's all happy, and the Islanders are about to leave. It's like half the bench is cleared out, and then all of a sudden there's a challenge.

It's offside. And don't forget, in overtime, the league calls for those. That's not the Islanders calling for it. That's the league doing it. It was just the weird... I always find it a weird visual when players are called back. And there it was. And that's just such a crushing game for the New Jersey devils too.

Cause you're in there against the Islanders hottest team in the NHL and you beat them in overtime and you're right there. You're rebuilding team. And it's a huge win and it's getting called back. Yeah. That sucks. And the devils too, their season was ruined by their covid break they were in it

yeah next thing you know there's 20 of them on the covid list and they've played well at times but the results the results have been nowhere i i feel for the devils i really do you know good times are coming though soon for them yeah like you can see where that you can see where that whole program is going you know by the way just on paieri yeah i think i i think they're on they're beginning their phase they're the devils in palmieri okay are what are we doing here i think they're talking you know can we get a deal done what's it gonna take you know where are, where are we? How do we feel? How do you feel? And then,

you know, yes, no. And if no, where are we going here? I think that process is, is beginning. While we're talking about surprise teams,

holy Florida Panthers. At first it was like, well, this is neat. The Florida Panthers are kind of hanging with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And they still are Elliott. Yeah. Is this a mirage? Is this fool's gold? Or is this legit?

I think it's legit. So, I got a text. I hope he's not going to be mad. I'm going to tell this story, but I don't have to see him this year, so he can be mad. He'll see if he's still mad at me next season. So, Steve Goldstein, who's the great play-by-play voice of the Florida Panthers, he texted me tonight and he said,

I'm doing something on the show tomorrow about Panthers in awards. Is Eckblad in the awards voting? Is Barkov in the awards voting? Is Quenville in the awards voting? So I think Hedman's going to run away with the Norris this year. You think I'm right or wrong? No, I think it looks like it. Absolutely right now.

Totally. Okay, you can stay as the co-host of the podcast. Last time, I agree. I think Petrie's been fantastic. I think McAvoy's been fantastic. And it wouldn't surprise me if Ekblad was a finalist. I think he's been that good. But I think Hedman's been fantastic. And it wouldn't surprise me if Ekblad was a finalist. I think he's been that good. But I think, you know, I think Hedman's running away with it this year.

He said to me, do you think Barkov is in the Hart conversation? And I said, yes, I do. I think the Hart's going to be impossible this year. I think there's about seven, as we sit here right now, great contenders. There's about seven, as we sit here right now, great contenders. Matthews, McDavid, Kane, Stone, Fleury, maybe even Hedman and Vasilevsky, and Barkov. But he's in it. And in Gwenville for Coach of the Year, I don't vote on that, but I got to think so. I just think there's a lot of people on that team who have really elevated their games.

And we talked about how they were embarrassed last year. The most interesting thing to me about that division is I don't think Tampa can be caught. I don't think Carolina can be caught. I'm not even convinced that Florida, their winning percentage over 700, can be caught. Can Dallas catch Chicago? So, okay, so you say Chicago. You're completely disqualifying Columbus from this one, as I think most people are as well.

The math is so bad. It's awful for them. I hate math, but the math is bad. 30 games, 29 points. It is going to be so hard for the Blue Jackets. Haven't been able to string together wins. Stars getting benched. Like we've seen, listen,

all the Columbus drama has been laid in front of us all season long. We're all aware of that. But you're right. There are two, maybe three teams fighting for that fourth playoff spot. And that's it. And the remarkable thing is we thought the Chicago Blackhawks

were going to be in the bottom with the Detroit Red Wings. Yes. That was not as good as my Islanders prediction. We all thought Chicago was going to be just brutal this year. But then came the goalie and then came the future Hall of Famer. Chicago's been fun you know at the at the end of it this is like wildly exceeding uh expectations a couple of more things um interesting waiver wire today hate talking about it right now because when the podcast

comes out we'll find out whether these players clear or acclaimed um but jack johnson of the rangers and dave bacchus It's the second time for both. It allows them to go to the taxi squad because once you play a certain amount of games, Tan, you need to clear them again. To me, this is a lot of Seattle stuff. You know, teams letting it be known who they'd love to move off their roster.

I'm sure they're going to be calling Seattle and saying, in some of these situations, what will it take for you to take this guy off our roster? It's starting to feel now to me, Elliot, more like Vegas. Because after Vegas happened and then went to the Stanley Cup final, everybody said, never again, Just take the player you want. We don't care.

We're not going to get trapped there. And I kind of looked at that and said, okay, well, we'll see when it gets close. Because you know how protective general managers are about certain players. I don't think they're just going to say, fine, take whatever you need and just get out. This is starting to feel like Vegas again,

isn't it, from gm's point of view well especially since we know that the cap's not going up yeah there's no flexibility and one of the things i'm kind of wondering about here is what if seattle says we're not taking any of these guys we're gonna leave ourselves flexibility and free agency we're gonna do the expansion draft take them as little salary as we can and go after whatever free agents are out there because there's a minimum they've got a hit sure but it leaves them a lot of flexibility by the way by the way know, we're talking about the TV deal and the fact that we're waiting on the other partner

and, you know, we think that they're kind of locked in a battle of wills with NBC. And CJ was saying there's a mystery option. This is just me kind of thinking out loud. Here we go. But what if the mystery option is espn taking the whole deal and they're using this first part of the espn deal to try to jack the price for fox I'm wondering about it. That would mean that ESPN would come in at a significantly higher price than NBC is married to. Yeah, I think so.

At this point, why not? Just something that I kind of thought about. All right. I wonder how close you are to home right now. I'm in my driveway. Okay. Then I want to finish off by talking about Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Oh, yes. Thank you very much.

Before we get started on Hagler, I was huge, still am, huge boxing fan. That was, for me, the best era of boxing. And those fights between, whether it was Roberto D duran whether it was tommy hearns whether it was the late mark marvin haggler sugar ray leonard and by the way haggler won that fight i'm sorry yes i agree i agree those to me split decision come on those to me were the greatest fights i remember getting so excited for for Hagler and Hearns after Hearns took apart Roberto Duran. The interesting thing about that division for me,

the middleweights at that point for me, Elliot, is my favorite fighters seem to change every couple of months. For a few months, I was a huge Tommy Hearns fan. Still, I am a Tommy Hearns fan. But I got enormous Tommy Hearns fan. I was a huge Roberto Duran fan for a while. Huge Marvinarns fan. I still am a Tommy Hearns fan, but he got enormous Tommy Hearns fan. He's a huge Roberto Duran fan for a while. Huge Marvin Hagler fan, huge.

Like it was such a beautiful time for the sport when all these guys tripped over each other, trying to fight each other, not duck each other. The thing about Hagler is you talked about all those great fights he had. There were two other fights I remember so well. One of them was against Juan Domingo Roldan. And I might be butchering this because I haven't had a chance to look at it,

but I think he was the first guy ever to knock down Hagler. the first guy ever to knock down Hagler and I remember Hagler being interviewed after the fight about being knocked down for the first time ever and he snarled at the reporter and said it was a damn slip and I'm like I love this guy I love this guy and I also remember another fight fight that haggler had john the beast mugabe because john mugabe was like that was a guy who beat up a lot of people he knocked people out he was a fearsome fighter and he beat him in 11 rounds and nobody had handled Mugabe like that so before he fought Hagler he won all 25 of his bouts he was 25 and 0 and all of them were by knockout and I just remember thinking he was in trouble Hagler was in trouble. This was the guy. I don't remember Hagler's first two

losses. They happened when I was too young. So at that time he was so dominant and I was, I don't know if afraid is the right word, but I loved Hagler and you're in fear that this is the guy who's going to end them. And he just fought such a brilliant fight and beat him in 11 rounds. And he just fought such a brilliant fight and beat him in 11 rounds. And that was his last fight before the Leonard one. I just love the guy. I loved watching the guy fight. I thought he was a genius.

Leonard never gave him the rematch. Like if there was a fight, Elliot, that was screaming for a rematch. Yes. Was it not Hagler Leonard? I remember watching that one. I was in Dominican Republic on vacation and watching that on the beach bar television. And everybody was like, they got to run that thing back. There's no way that is screen.

And maybe the best switch hands fighter I think I've ever seen. Like I'm sure there are boxing aficionados, it'll say someone else was. But to me one switched hands like marvin haggler and boxing's the one sport that always reinforces the idea that it's harder to stay on top than get on top like getting on top is a climb but you have that inspiration to get there like it's the rocky story right yes it's harder to stay on top than get there and i I always loved the way Hagler put it. His great quote about it was, it was so brilliant.

It's tough to get out of bed to do road work at 5 a.m. when you've been sleeping in silk pajamas. Man, that is poignant. Rest in peace, marvelous, marvelous Marvin Hagler loved them no ducks and be feeding me oh now now your name is marvelous mom yeah I called you Marvin now wouldn't it when did you change your name is Marvelous. Marvelous. Yeah, I called you Marvin. Now, when did you change your name? The last guy that called me Marvin, I tell you, he didn't look too good. Just a joke. It's only you're joking, aren't you?

I didn't know. I'm only joking. He ain't got enough money for me. All right. So, I call you Marvelous. Marvelous. Now, when did you change your name? I had my name changed now for about close to four years legally. But I've call you Marvelous. Marvelous. Now, when did you change your name? I had my name changed now for about close to four years legally,

but I've always been Marvelous. Always been Marvelous. Always been Marvelous. Now, what made you decide to do it legally? That's a big step. I was fighting a guy named Caveman Lee, and I seen on the monitor just before the fight as I'm going out, and he had Marvin Hagler.

I says, wait a minute. If you could call Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Leonard, put his name Sugar on there, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad. I said, and this guy K-Man Lee, what about Marvin Hagler? He says, your name is too long.

I says, what do you mean? Put it on top. Marvin Hagler run underneath. He says, well, we don't allow it like that. He says, and if you want it changed, he says, you go to court and get it changed legally. So I ran into this guy again. He says, Marvin, I'm sorry about what happened. He says, you did just that, didn't you? I said, he says, you go to court and get a change legally. So I ran into this guy again. He says, Marv, he says, I'm sorry about what happened.

He says, you did just that, didn't you? I said, that's right. And I said, if you don't put Marv less down, it's going to be me and you, fella.