32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Keefe, Out.

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman open this edition of 32 Thoughts by delving into the Rangers-Canes series. Thats followed by thoughts on the Avalanche-Stars series. The fellas talk about the Jamie Benn hit on Devon Toews behind the net (15:46). Then, Jeff and Elliotte park some time to talk about Sheldon Keefe being relieved of his coaching duties with the Toronto Maple Leafs (23:49). They ponder whether Keefe wants to get right back into coaching. Afterwards, the guys talk about Joel Quenneville popping up on the coaching market (34:00). The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (38:08).In the final segment, Jeff and Elliotte look back at an electric comeback by the Vancouver Canucks in Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers (49:34). They talk about Leon Draisaitl's cramps (53:37).  They wrap the podcast by talking about the emotion filled Bruins-Panther series (55:47).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.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.

Leafs Nation, time has come to say goodbye. I'm forever grateful for the opportunity to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's a dream come true for a boy from Brampton. I didn't get it done in the playoffs. I didn't help push our team over the line and deliver. I accept responsibility for that. No excuses. That's the job. I didn't get it done.

The Carolina Hurricanes on the brink. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation and Elliott. Before we get into the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Rangers and how the New York Rangers refused to lose in this postseason. Quick update. an ad onto this podcast, depending on what happens during the Maple Leafs press conference on Friday morning with Keith Pelley, Brendan Shanahan and Brad Trilliving. So you may end up with some type of bonus pod or bonus addition to this pod.

It could be a double Friday for you. It depends on what happens on Friday morning. It depends on if the Leafs are boring or they are interesting the challenge is theirs boring no second pod interesting second pod pelly shanahan tree living this is all over to you now in the meantime, the New York Rangers may never lose another game again. You know, Elliot, it's one thing to sweep the Washington Capitals, a team that was, what were they, dash 37 going into the end of the postseason. You said to yourself, okay, well, someone had to get that spot. So not exactly a surprise that the Rangers did to the Washington Capitals

what the Rangers did to the Washington Capitals. But this is the Carolina Hurricanes. And I know the Canes have played well, but the Rangers have just been that much better. Is a lot of it Shusterkin? Yes, but it's not only Shusterkin. Artemi Panarin, the overtime hero on Thursday night, he scores the OT winner, but it wasn't as if it was a team full of passengers here and the big dogs getting it done. Just about everybody contributed in this one. Elliott, flat out, full stop. This is impressive what we're seeing from the Rangers.

It sure is. And people could say, oh, they're getting outshot. That doesn't really bother me because I see games where a team gets outshot and they're completely on the run most of the night and they escape with victories by the skin of their teeth. I'm not seeing that from the Rangers. Yes, they're getting outshot, but I don't feel they're getting buried. I don't feel they're out of control. I think they've got a plan. They never seem to lose their confidence.

They're constantly fighting and counteracting and going right back at the Hurricanes. This is a team that is getting outshot, but it is not a team that is getting dominated. The only negative, the only negative, I thought, for New York in game number three was that Philip Hedl did not score. That is the only thing that prevented this from being. He almost did.

That's what I'm saying. He almost did, but he got poke checked by Kochetkov. Pokecheckoff, as somebody called him, because he did it a couple of times. But other than that, it was a 9.5 out of 10 night for the Rangers. I thought they were great. They are dominating Carolina's power play, and they scored a shorthanded goal off a great effort from Kreider.

There was nothing I would look at from the Rangers on this particular night and said that really worried me. They kept their composure. You know, D'Angelo laid his gloves down and wanted to fight someone, and it's almost to me like they've been told, you are not to engage him whatever he does you leave it alone and they're disciplined they're calm they're composed and at the end of the day when things go wrong they believe in the guy behind them to bail them out of all situations

it's a great it's a great recipe for success. It really is. Speaking of D'Angelo, the spear on Jacob Truba at that point was like 10 minutes and 30 seconds. It was a terrible penalty. In that third period. Just, I mean, you've seen it before from that player,

but you think to yourself, you know, you're down to nothing in the series. At that point, it's two to one. And what are you thinking at that moment it's uh it's two to one and what are you thinking um at that moment like there were a few things i'm glad you mentioned that crider play and i like i like the the point that kevin made on the show uh which was you know criders out there killing the penalty and it's a lot of standing and not moving and then everything happens so suddenly yeah and first of all Kreider is a super fast

player but man did he ever well did he ever burn Brent Burns uh to get open from Mika Zibanejad like he was a bullet train getting to that open ice it was like honestly that shorthanded goal was a thing of beauty it was whether it was Zibanejad pass or the finish by Chris Kreider just getting into that position to get that ice and you saw like brent burns just chugging chugging chugging uh to try to try to keep up with chris cried or in good luck there was a like there was a whole lot of interesting in this game one thing i do want to mention too if the carolina hurricanes would have won this thing yes we would be talking about svechnikov he was great because he was like he was excellent in that game.

I thought he was excellent. I thought Natchez was dangerous. I thought for sure he was going to score. I thought he was very dangerous, especially early in the game. To the Hurricanes, this has to feel like the gods are cruel. Last year, they go to the Eastern Conference Final. They cannot score. They break their traditions.

They bend from their principles. They go hard after rentals who should alleviate this problem, and they still are having trouble scoring. And the power play we mentioned, it's 0-4, and it's minus now in this series because the Rangers have this shorthanded goal. It just, again, this is the kind of thing that I have to go back and I have to look at it.

But just from the eye test, it just seems like it's very perimeter. And they just don't get inside enough. Again, I have to look at it some more. But that was one of the things that really struck me. I have to go back and I have to, at it some more, but that was one of the things that really struck me. I have to go back and I have to like, that was one of the things that really struck me. I test versus evidence. I'll check the evidence.

It just seemed very perimetry. You know, on Saturday, Elliot, we talked a lot about, we talked a lot about a couple of players in another overtime game, one netminder and one goaltender, Samsonov and Morgan Riley. And in this one, do we make a, although the play was different, are we having the same type of conversation around Piotr Kocetkov and Dmitry Orlov and their mishandling of the puck?

Or in Kocetkov's case his ignorance of the puck as it gets rimmed around one of the things that's really interesting to me is that there have been now two major overtime goals scored because the goalie didn't want to play the puck right one was Samsonov in game seven Toronto and the other was Kuchchetkov in this particular game for the Hurricanes and Russian goalies kind of have a reputation as bad puck handlers I'm you know off the top of my head I'm sure there are exceptions but generally the feeling is because of the wider ice it's not as valuable to them and they don't really learn it and now we've seen two examples where it really burned the team they played for. Now, the one thing I wondered about,

and Kevin said that was not an excuse because it wasn't that bad. I thought the puck got around the net really fast. And if you watch it, Orlov has the Rangers right on top of the run on top of him as he touches the puck. So I kind of thought, you know, maybe he saw the danger and said i cannot leave my net but when i said that on air i had a couple of people who reached out to text me to say that at this level you have to be able to handle those kinds of zone

entries and rims and when you can't those are the kinds of things that happen. The puck ends up in your net. What do you think game four, Kuchetkov or Anderson? Oh, boy. I don't know that. I mean, maybe outside of that overtime goal that we just talked about, I'm not sure that I'm pinning any of those goals on Kuchetkov. But what did Rod Brindamore say about why they didn't go to anderson on thursday night arrest said they wanted to give him rest so does that mean that he's going saturday

or he would go saturday regardless of what the outcome was in game three that's what i'm wondering i don't have a rest issue he's going back to anderson yeah i i just wonder about the excuse why he wasn't playing if it's rest then your eyes on anderson for saturday sweep saturday potentially like i'll tell you man i could not have been more wrong or had a worse read based on what we saw in the playoffs last year in the opening round i thought this was going to be you know when the new jersey devils beat the new york rangers the way that they did i thought this was going to be and i know injuries were a factor for the new jersey devils this year and certainly goaltending was as well but i thought this was going to be a sort of symbolic passing of the torch and this was going to be the rise of the devils and the beginning of the decline of the new york rangers i could not have been

more wrong this is super impressive. Actually, I disagree with that. You are wrong all the time, but you were wrong about this. I think a lot of people thought that. I thought I was wrong once, Elliot, but I was mistaken. You know, the other thing, too, is we talked in the last pod, there's been a lot of conversation about recycling coaches. Yeah.

Everybody thought Peter Laviolette was a recycled coach. How many Rangers fans were uninspired by the hiring of Peter Laviolette? Well, I mean, part of it is. Part of it is he's coached teams that have competed hard against the Rangers for so many years as his tour through the Metropolitan Division continues. I don't buy that. I think that there's a lot of people out there. Look, I'm all for new coaches, coaches getting second chances, everything. I always want to see people get the opportunity to prove themselves.

chances everything i i always want to see people get the opportunity to prove themselves but i think there is definitely a lot of now the reaction is oh same old guy same old guy same old guy and in some cases that's true i'm not going to argue with it but each case has to be seen on its own merits and i I would wonder how many Rangers fans, especially a lot of the really online ones, would go back a year and say, boy, was I wrong about Peter LaViolette? Because a lot of the buttons he has pushed, especially with their most important player that he had to fix,

Alexi Lafreniere, he pushed the right buttons. And this is, you know, you look at Peter DeBoer, he's coached a lot of teams. You know, you're looking at, obviously, Laviolette has coached a lot of teams. You know, there's some fresher ones. Jared Bednar is a fresh guy on his first team, has a Stanley Cup.

Rod Brindamore, fresh guy on his first team, having troubles here, but he's rejuvenated that franchise. I think it just goes to show you that a lot of us could have a lot more of an open mind on some of these hirings. Sometimes we're right, and sometimes we're very very wrong so thursday on the radio show i had cory lavalette from the athletic on the program and you know what he pointed out and i hadn't thought about this what's that the last time peter laviolette was at pnc arena yeah for a playoff game was game seven 2006 2006 the last time he was there and victorious again he was and we'll see what happens saturday

hold on we can't just let this leave like this okay number one all of a sudden much quicker than anyone thought this is a huge game for the. Not only the obvious reasons, but also Carolina has a lot of decisions to make on the ice with their roster and in their organization. There is no way the Hurricanes thought they were going to have to make them this quickly or at least accelerate the process of making them at this time. There is no way that a lot of fans and media and other teams would have thought this would be the case. But all of a sudden, we are 36 hours away, by the time this podcast drops,

of Carolina starting to make some very big decisions. And you have to be very careful like Tom Dundon who runs that organization he does not make decisions based on emotion he bases them all on probability and but there's no question if they go down the way they're in danger of going down it it's going to be very, very emotional. So these next few days are going to be really tense in the triangle. There's no doubt about that. What you're getting at here is a number of things.

Rod Brindamore is still without contract. Other players on expiring deals include Tara Vinen, include Jake Gensel, include Jordan Martinuk, contract other players on expiring deals include tara vinen include jake genzel include jordan martinook include stephan nason include brady shea and brett pesci and tony d'angelo and jalen chatfield and here's another interesting name who is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights we don't have to have this big, huge discussion now. We'll see what happens in game four or five or however long this series lasts.

Martin Natchez. Yeah, there's all names we could be talking about on the next podcast. There's a lot of decisions to be made here, and I have to shout out the funniest thing I saw on the stand during the game. After one of the Rangers goals, there was a female Ranger fan in a New York jersey,

and she was sitting next to two Hurricane fans, I assume a father and a son, and they were wearing red Lucha Libre masks. Were they like Carolina Hurricane style Lucha Libre masks? Yeah, they were red, and I think they were in Hurricanes jerseys. They were clearly Hurricanes style Lucha Libre masks? Yeah, they were red. I think they were in Hurricanes jerseys. They were clearly Hurricanes. She's a Ranger fan and they're Hurricanes fans. And I wonder if they all knew each other

because the woman reaches out to fist pump the young kid and you can tell he wants no part of this. He's a Hurricane fan. Why would she be reaching out? But it's mom. But it's mom. I wondered if it was. I figured it had to be and the kid who's this little cute kid he just begrudgingly dabs her oh it was heartless man

that is tough tough sports elliot's sports all eyes on on Saturday. Or as Rangers fans are hoping, sweep Saturday. Meanwhile, Elliot, Game 2 between the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars was an interesting one, to say the least, for a couple of different notes. The Dallas Stars jump out to a 4-0 lead, heading into the third. You think they're tucked away in cruise control. Not so fast. We've seen Colorado do do this before and they almost did it again kivaranta makes it four to one brandon duhaime four to two valerie nachushkin gets them within one and then s lindell scores the empty netter as dallas stars fans can exhale what did you make of

this one five three is the final the series is now tied at once no matter what lead the dallas stars have in this series it is not safe it could be eight nothing with four minutes to go and at the very least it's going to end up eight six the best news for dallas obviously hints got going sagan scored peter deborah like coaches are hot in these playoffs Jim Montgomery calls out David Pasternak he scores the series winning goal Peter DeBoer mentioned some of these guys got to start scoring Rupe Hintz has a big night Tyler Sagan gets his first of the playoffs Haskinen with a pair two Haskinen with a pair two you know, Brendamore has got to do something. He was pretty calm after game three saying they're trying the power plays,

not going very well on the off day. He's going to have to rip someone so the hurricanes can start scoring. I thought, I thought Tanev in the last couple of minutes of the game was a beast. And I thought Suter in the last couple of minutes of the game was very good. Although he probably shouldn't have played the puck after the high stick. He probably should have made Colorado play it. But other than that...

Eat some clock. Eat some clock. Other than that, I thought Suter was very good. Stars were much better. They probably deserve better than a split, but they'll take it. They'll go to denver tide one one and we're going to be watching this series for a long time now a couple of other things i want to mention in this one uh the jamie ben hit on yes on caves behind the net so

automatically and again i think we're on the same page about this one i like that they do it call the five review it it was ruled no penalty on this one um i have no problem with that one this one was a real tough hard hit by a big strong jamie ben unfortunately for devon taves he kind of gets sandwiched he gets hit by jamie ben and then gets hurled into wyatt johnston as well and had his head down behind the net, all of it. Again, every now and then we get these reminders. This is a violent game played by big, strong athletes. Elliot, your thoughts on the Jamie Benn-Devon Taves hit? I worked a game a few years ago.

It was Toronto at Dallas, and Jamie Benn was in. Jake Muzzin was still playing for the Leafs and he was behind the net somewhat similarly to Taves with his back turned and Ben had a chance to just steamroll him and he peeled off at the last minute and I was told that after that play happened because it was a national game was a Wednesday national game and I was told that after that play happened, because it was a national game, it was a Wednesday national game, and I was told that after that play happened, it started getting used in the player safety videos that they would show to teams as what to do. Jake Muzzin on this play, but Muzzin was so vulnerable with his back to him that he peeled off and didn't do it. So this is a guy who knows right from wrong. The other thing about Ben is he has had, and thanks to Joey Kenward, who was very helpful to me today. I shouted him out on the air too. Ben only has one major penalty in his playoff career, and that was the bad one he took on Mark Stone last season

that got him suspended in the Western Conference Final. He's played 92 career playoff games. He's got one major penalty. So even though he's a horse, he's he's strong he's nasty and he's tough he is not a dirty player i agreed with the five minute major review i agreed with the call you know if they wanted to call him two minutes for charging i didn't think there was any problem with doing that although charging seems to have disappeared from the rule book but what's the charge everybody moves their feet all book but what's the charge everybody

moves their feet all the time what's the charge okay there you go but that was not a major or or an ejection or a game misconduct it it was a violent hit but there was it wasn't a bad hit jamie ben for everything that people may think has generally been under pressure, a pretty clean player with one insane variation off it last year against Vegas. I agree with the call. If they would have said two,

I could have dealt with it, but I agreed with the call. Agreed with the call, felt horrible for Devontae at that moment, obviously. Had to leave the game. Thankfully, he came back. Yes. You want guys to be okay.

Totally. One other thing that I want to mention in this one, Elliot, before I move on and get to some news. For the second game in a row, Dallas was called for embellishment. Now, in the first game, it was a Josh Manson hook and then Rupe Hins called on the embellishments. And then Thursday night, it was Kiva Ransa with the interference on Mason Marchments, who the officials ruled went down a little bit easy.

And he was called for embellishment as well and actually if you go back to the ranger carolina hurricane game as well there was the alex venberg hold and the andre svechnikov embellishment yeah so which i thought i did not like that call at all because i thought svechnikov was diving to make a play at the puck i don't disagree the the more so the point is it really looks as if officials are looking for this call they hate it like it happens once it happens once and happens twice what's going on here it happens three times I have to feel that they're looking for do you agree you know what Jeff if you were a detective no crime would ever get solved. You just figured this out now?

No, but it's just like in the last couple of days. They're like really looking for embellishment calls here. Well, Taka had said it, so it's pretty clear, and you're right. I don't always agree with what they rule as embellishment, but I do agree generally embellishment equals bad. You know what else we're seeing a lot of? Too many man penalties. Yes.

Yes. We had Vancouver in the first minute. Yeah, yeah. Colorado got, what, two tonight? The Rangers got one. A lot of too many man penalties. There was this phenomenon about, was years ago remember in the playoffs i can't remember what year it was specifically i think it was like 10 or 15 years ago where there was like every game there was a too many men on the ice call and teams on line changes would just throw the puck at the

bench and inevitably officials would count and sure enough there were too many men on the ice and it became a tactic and then i think teams were warned hey stop doing that because you're not gonna you're not gonna get the call uh but you're right embellishment is up recently and too many men is up as well exciting game it is a 5-3 final for the uh dallas stars look forward to five more games of that. Yes, please. Send all of it. Okay, Elliot.

So the news on Thursday involved the Toronto Maple Leafs and the dismissal of Sheldon Keefe as the head coach of said franchise. Now, something I mentioned to you on the radio show as well, which still, to me, the more that I think about it, is stunning, but we've all seen how coaches in that position have gone this year Lindy Ruff was hired by the Buffalo Sabres on April 22nd and right now he's the 26th longest

tenured coach in the NHL and he hasn't coached a single game yet for the Buffalo Sabres that's where we're at with coaches and we'll talk plenty more about coaches in upcoming podcasts. But Sheldon Keefe fired his head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He really made a real nice thank you video thanking Maple Leafs fans and the organization, etc. A real nice gesture by Sheldon Keefe. Your thoughts on what we saw on Thursday morning. Martin San Luis is fifth, by the way. Oh, I know.

And he was hired like five minutes ago. That is insane. Yeah. Honestly, I think everybody knew, including Sheldon Keefe himself, that this was going to happen. If you watched him on Monday, he saw it.

He saw the future like an oracle. He knew this was going to happen. So I don't think anybody is surprised. I had some people say to me that they thought the Maple Leafs might announce a new coach at their media conference on Friday. I don't believe that is true. I think they're going to go through a process here and I think you could see some people visiting them very very soon if not this weekend look I think I've said a lot about Keefe over the last few days everybody knows how I feel I think he did a great season i you know he with matthews hurting for games five and six he said guys there's only one

way to win and with him back in game seven they almost won the series from three one down playing their best defensive hockey maybe of his entire tenure. They came that close. And if they do win, we're talking about Jim Montgomery's future and changes the Boston Bruins are making instead of this. But that's life. That's the way it goes. That's life in the big city.

We all saw this coming. Now, Jeff, as I said on your show, I believe that Brendan Shanahan will be back next season for the Maple Leafs I don't know what exactly they're going to announce I don't know if they're going to announce he's he's staying on and that's all we're going to say I don't know if they're going to announce he's going to finish the last year of his deal and then we'll figure it out. But one of the things I heard is that Keith Pelley wanted to be at this media conference and that it was going to happen at a time where he was going to be able to attend. And so that's Friday. And I don't know if he's going to give a vote of confidence to Shanahan or or Tree Living or if it's going to be a sign that he's about to become more involved. I'm not sure what this is all going to mean.

But he wanted to be there. He's going to be there. And I think Shanahan is going to be back for another year. We'll see what gets announced on Friday morning. Friday morning. Barring any other availabilities that I'm not expecting, I think the two lead contenders for this job are Craig Berube and Todd McClellan. Now, I think Berube has had some serious talks with New Jersey, but New Jersey kind of seems to be in a point where they're deciding between Berube, Woodcroft, possibly McClellan, and maybe anyone else I might be missing.

McClellan, I think Toronto would be the fifth team that would interview McClellan over this cycle. And I think Seattle is very serious about McClellan. And I think they're... Now, two of those teams are St. Louis and Ottawa, and they've hired their coaches. So that leaves Seattle. That leaves New Jersey.

That leaves Toronto. I'm not sure yet about winnipeg but i think that mcclellan i think seattle's interested i think the devils are interested and now obviously the lease are interested so we'll see where this goes if it goes beyond these two i mentioned jay woodcroft because Tree Living knows his body of work. But we'll see. But I really do think the – and also don't forget, Shanahan played for Detroit for a year when McClellan was there as an assistant coach. So that's just another connection.

Even though it was earlier in McClellan's career, before he ever became a head coach, he does know him. So we'll see where it goes, but I believe those are the key people that they're going to be looking at. You know, one more thing I would say about Keefe. I was talking about this with someone, and we just discussed, you know, we were asking each other, this with someone and we just discussed you know we were asking each other during his time what was the playoff defeat pat quinn always looked back at some of the losses they had one was 2001 to new jersey another was 2002 to carolina and said honestly i thought we had good enough teams to win it all and i would slightly argue with him i said 2001 was colorado in 2002 detroit had 10 hall of famers you really

think you would have won the stanley cup against either of those teams and he looked at me jeff like he was going to claw my eyes out with his fingers. So I learned not to debate that. But you always wonder, is there a team here or a year here where... I have an idea. I think it was 2021, the Canadian division. Like that year, they played their best defense like on a year-long basis. And they hammered Edmonton, who was the second-best team that year,

in the regular season at least. They locked them down when they played several times. And then they were up 3-1 to Montreal, and they lost the series. And I remember when they gave up the first goal in Game 7, which was a bad goal, you really got the sense that they were going to lose that game and so i i would so if you're going to look at a year back and say boy that was the year

that could have been different i think it was that one now i don't think they were winning the stanley cup necessarily or anything like that but i i do think that was a team that should have gone a lot farther in the playoffs than it did the field looked open for them or you could at least see the path and they had a chance to go deep and it just fell apart it just completely caved in and once the ball got rolling they couldn't stop it the the thing about keef is now sometimes coaches like to jump right back in sometimes coaches like to have a pause and reflect sheldon q's extension hasn't kicked in yet he has a couple years if he wants to surf here does he strike you as the kind of person that wants to get right back in because you know one of

the things that he said in his video is, he wanted to give my family the time that they deserve. Being a coach is always demanding. Being a coach in Toronto can be completely chaotic and life upsetting. It's difficult for spouses, kids, extended family, friends, all of it, because it's a 24-7 job and you're being scrutinized by everyone in the city who's a general manager i wonder if sheldon keith wants to jump right back

in to this thing or does he want to take a little bit of time i always err to the belief that coaches want to jump right back in but I think in Keith's case it might come down to where it is you know we talk all the time about you know when you change when you fire a coach you want the next coach to be different you don't want the same prototype right and one of the things you wonder here how does Keith feel like for example of Winnipeg reaches out, does he want to go back to a Canadian market? Or would he want to go somewhere quieter? Like, someone said to me that they wouldn't be surprised if LA reached out,

then that Keefe would be very interested in something like that partially because it's has a chance to be a good team and secondly because it's going to be quieter it's california it's the sun and he has a lot of family connections to ari So, you know, I had a couple people say to me, like, everybody's expecting New Jersey to interview him. I'm sure other teams are going to call. We'll find out if this is true or even if the Kings do reach out to him. But there were a couple people who suspected

that L.A. would appeal to him. Okay, Elliot, before you wrap up this segment here, anything else on the coaching situation? I mean, take your pick, throw a dart, it's going to land at a vacancy. Anything else on the coaching situation in the NHL? One of the things, and Steve Simmons and the Toronto Sun already has written about it, is that there's going to be a lot of talk about Joel Quenville.

And, you know, first of all, it is important to recognize that as we tape this podcast, or record, I guess is the proper word now, at 11.02 Eastern on Thursday night, Joel Quenville is not yet reinstated by the NHL. So the NHL won't say anything about it until either Quenville comes to them or someone comes to them and says, hey, we want to do this. One thing I can tell you that I have heard is that there is a theory out there that if he does return, there's some talk it might not be as a head coach right away. That, I don't even know what to call it, whether it's a preference or,

and not necessarily by him, I think he wants to coach. He made that very clear in his interview with Andy Strickland, that he wants to coach and be a head coach but some teams indicated to me that they were under the impression that maybe it might be as an advisor first an opportunity for Quenville to dip his toe in first and just get back in that way as opposed to going right back down, as opposed to being right behind the bench right away. I don't know where this is going to end up, but that there's a few teams who are talking like that.

Well, you know, that's interesting because, as you'll recall, when he joined the Chicago Blackhawks, it wasn't as a coach. Yes. It was as a scout. Now, we all understood that okay it's only a matter of time before he gets installed as the head coach here and it happened and you know the players are upset because they all love danny savard but uh technically he was hired as a scout before taking the coaching position in chicago So that wouldn't exactly be new territory for Joel Quenville here.

Yes. So it's just something to keep an eye on. I don't know where, like, I'm not saying that's a hundred percent, just something to keep an eye on. I think it's, I don't like to guess with this one. I don't think it's a good idea, but I've heard this in enough places to know that even though the NHL does not comment on this, there are definitely teams who have that impression. Let's go with that. So one other, I'm glad you mentioned that, the Cam and Strick podcast and the conversation that Quenville had with Andy Strickland.

Strickland asked him, which teams would you be interested in coaching? And Quenville was quite direct. He said, those top teams in the Atlantic. And he said those would be intriguing to him. And Paul Maurice isn't going anywhere. John Cooper's not going anywhere. Could make the argument Jim Montgomery might have had some question marks around him. But then they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games.

So he's not going anywhere. And there's a vacancy in Toronto. That's the only thing that I wonder about here. And again, I know that he's not calling a shot and dictating where he goes, but I just thought it was interesting the way that when Strickland asked that question, right away it was top teams in the Atlantic. That was the answer from Quenville. And now there's a vacancy.

Again, we'll see where this all heads. All right, hitting a break. We come back with the Montana's Thought Line after this. Again, we'll see where this all heads. All right, hitting a break. We come back with the Montana's Thought Line after this. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Welcome back to the podcast. Time now for the Montana's Thought Line. Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue.

Try the ribs. Try the ribs. You got to try and live. 32 Thoughts at Sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311-3232. Thanks, as always, to Rick Turner for the sweet tunes. Elliot, you're going to love this one. This doesn't come from one person.

Will I really? Yes. No, no, no. The preface is good and the question is good, too. This doesn't come from one person or two people. This comes from multiple people. This comes to us from Sandy, Jill, Hannah, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Renee, Sydney, and Kara from Savannah, Georgia. Okay. okay hello gentlemen from savannah georgia home of the savannah ghost pirates man is that a cool looking team elliot have you ever had a good peruse through the savannah ghost pirates either merch or just looked at their jerseys and seen their presentation it is top drawer and one of

my favorites in hockey i did as a matter of fact because you discussed it once so i went and looked so good are so what the kids call fresh oh the kids still use fresh anymore elliot yes they do all right okay very good i wouldn't know um okay we ladies love the pod and have made it part of our hockey based girls night get togethers to listen and discuss how border you guys. Holy Jesus. Over the course, over the course. I figured you guys between you have heard enough dumb male conversation that

you don't need to listen to this. Okay. But here we go. Over the course of listening and drinking, we devised the perfect accompaniment activity, the 32 thoughts drinking game. So take a shot every time. I can only imagine.

Take a shot every time Jeff says, don't look now, but. Or take a shot every time Elliot says, I had several people reach out to me and tell me to be careful about this. Number three, I do not disagree with you, Jeff. Number four, Ted Darling reference, two shots if Rogi Vashaw is mentioned, three shots for Porky Palmer. Wow, I do like that one. After my own heart there, ladies.

Elliot reminds us he's around our dad's age. Number six, Jeff gets that soap and warm water feeling. Number seven, someone refers to Toronto as the center of the hockey universe. And number eight, Jeff's voice gets high-pitched warm water feeling. Number seven, someone refers to Toronto as the center of the hockey universe. And number eight, Jeff's voice gets high-pitched when discussing goalies and the Lady Bang. Well done, ladies. And now, on to our eye roll question,

if you're still willing to entertain it. Yes, we are. First of all, these women probably can't drive for a year. No kidding. Because it's going to take that long until their blood alcohol content is back to legal. Yes.

Yes. Mix in a water, ladies. Mix in a water. Okay. We're big Florida Panthers fans and super happy Oliver Ekman-Larsen is on the team. It seems to have benefited

both player and team immensely. This led us to wonder if a player is signed to a huge, quote, difficult to move via trade contract like that and he struggles and decides it's not working out let's say like huberto and calgary does he have any remedy on his end teams can buy a player out but is there anything in the cba or any rules that would permit a player to go to management and request to quote restructure their

contract to make it more movable any such out clause for a player if it's just not a fit other than doing what patrick bergland did thanks guys for the entertainment y'all are wonderful sincerely sandy jill hannah elizabeth jennifer re Cara. P.S. We'll be coming for your mentions, though, if these award ballots come out and neither one of you voted for Alexander Barkov or Selke. Anyhow, what can players do? I don't know about you. I'm safe.

No, I'm safe. We're both safe, ladies. We're good. Don't have to come for us. First of all, thank you very much. Great feedback, great drinking game, and great questions. The answer to your query is no. You cannot restructure a contract.

In the NFL, you can do it. It happens all the time. But in the NHL, you cannot. Once a contract is signed, it is ironclad, except if there's a buyout or bad behavior allows for a termination but you cannot renegotiate a deal once it's signed it's in the cba that is done now there was a unique situation last year with philip zadina then of detroit and now of san j, he signed a contract with the Red Wings,

and the situation didn't work out from a playing point of view, and Zedino walked away from what, Jeff, about $5 million? Yeah. He requested for his contract to be terminated so he could go somewhere else and play. That's a unique situation. He was advised against doing it by both his agent and the Players Association, but ultimately it was his choice and he did it.

So that's barring a team buyout or a player asking for his contract to be terminated, like Zedina did, or Patrick Berglund deciding not to fight against it, then those deals are ironclad. Buyout, termination are the only options out. Okay, and one more. We've got a packed podcast today. Kevin from Ellicott City, Maryland. Hey, Jeff, Elliot, and Dom.

This is Kevin from Ellicott City, Maryland. Love the pod. Wanted to know about NHLers. Oh, this is interesting. I want to know more about NHLers that had promising careers in other sports. In football, we hear about athletes having prospects in other sports. Russell Wilson, MLB, Tyree Kill being a track star, etc. I wanted to know if you all knew of NHL players being drafted

or at least courted to play professionally in another sport. Keep up the great work. Whenever I hear questions like this, and I know here comes the old guy response, I always think about Lionel Conacher, the big train, who was probably the best multi-sport athlete the NHL ever had. He was the only player to have his name on both the Stanley Cup and Grey Cup in the same year. Two other players did that, Joe Miller and Carl Voss, but Conacher

did it in the same year. He was a boxing champion in Calgary, once fought a four-round exhibition bout with Jack Dempsey. He was a lacrosse champion. He was an International League baseball champion with the baseball Maple Leafs and actually went into politics after his life and actually passed away while he was an MP during a parliamentary softball game. So he was, anyway, he's sort of the one that I always look at. The Canadian athlete of the half century. Yes, correct. yes yes lionel conacher the big that that's where my brain always goes there but there's like there's so many

whether it's you know clark gillies and and baseball dave brown uh and baseball like there's a there's a lot of uh like because what we're talking about here is elite level athletes yeah right and they probably just didn't play hockey growing up they were great at other sports like adam oates and lacrosse robertson well joe newendike and gary roberts yes great lacrosse players gretzky was a very good baseball player and lacrosse too and lacrosse he was excellent adam oates well he'd be great at anything he'd be great at anything, really. I remember, I also want to shout out a couple of baseball players. Tom Glavin was an excellent hockey player. He was drafted into the NHL.

Kirk McCaskill, who was a really good pitcher in the 80s for the California Angels. His father played briefly in the NHL, and he was drafted by the Jets in 1981 John Tudor who won 20 games as a pitcher for the st. Louis Cardinals in the 80s he used to practice occasionally with the Blues I remember seeing video of him going on the ice and practicing with them so as as Jeff says, there's a lot of athlete crossovers. I mean, to be great at something,

you really have to dedicate your time to it. You can't just sort of do it here and there. But a lot of these players are such incredible athletes that they are capable of doing much more than one thing. I always thought that might be a sidebar to the All-Star game. NHL players doing other sports or competing in other activities. I don't know if they would ever actually do it at the official All-Star game, but just as kind of...

Well, after the way it went a couple years ago, I think they want to get back to the more traditional hockey stuff. But listen, we're the same vintage. You remember Battle of the Network Stars, right? And how fun that was. Haven't you always secretly wanted to see NHL players do skills competitions of other sports? Oh, yeah.

Football, basketball, baseball, whatever, track and field. I think that would be fascinating. I would love to see that. Don't know that it ever happens. I'll just lob it out there and hope that someone else picks it up and does the actual work. There were a couple of other players I wanted to mention since to stick with the question of going from hockey to other sports.

Yep. Anders Lee. Oh, of course, quarterback. Yes. about yes yes uh oh yeah quarterback and he could really run the ball and remember he was state champion yeah and remember when we said the he looked better as a runner as opposed to a passer and he kind of smiled and said those weren't the good highlights paul martin was a very the the former defenseman for the Sharks yeah and the Devils he was a very good wide receiver I think he was like an all-state wide receiver and Keandre Miller was also a very good wide receiver in in high school football there was some talk he would

play college football but ultimately he chose hockey and and I would say he chose very wisely. Alright, Kevin and Marilyn, thanks so much for that one. Excellent question. Your way to get in is like this. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311- 3232. We should probably get in some voicemails on the next podcast. The Montana's Thought Line, Montana's barbecue and bar,

Canada's home for barbecue. We're back in a moment. Chef Elliot and Tom of 32 Thoughts try their ribs today. Oh yeah. Welcome back to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation. Okay, Elliot, get set. Friday night should be another good one with a couple of great series that we're already very emotionally invested in. I want to get to the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers here in a couple of seconds.

But game two, Vancouver Canucks facing off against the Edmonton Oilers. Game one, as we saw on Wednesday, we thought the Edmonton Oilers were cruising along. Questions about is Taka going to pull Shelovs? How much are the Edmonton Oilers going to beat the Vancouver Canucks

by? But then something different happened. It was the comeback by the vancouver canucks we've seen this all season long by rick tockett's team resilience um is the is the call of the day there i i know that it wasn't you know stewart skinner's finest performance but you really got to do give it you really have to give it up for the Vancouver Canucks. That was as impressive a comeback when you consider the stakes as we've seen all season long from that team. We're going to see game two tonight,

but a quick thought on what we saw in game one. All year long, what have the Canucks said? When we break down, we go back to what works. Whether we're losing 3-2 or we're losing 7-0, go back to what works whether we're whether we're losing three to two or we're losing seven to nothing go back to what works and that's what they did in game one when they got in trouble they just went back to what works it was an outstanding shutdown an outstanding shutdown of the Oilers and particularly McDavid who you know is going to come out like a house on fire in game number two. I thought a lot of their players were very good, particularly defensively.

I thought they were engaged. They never gave up. All of their UFAs are making life harder on them. Joshua is making life harder on them. Lindholm is making life harder on them. Zdorov is making life harder on them. Joshua is making life harder on them. Lindholm is making life harder on them. Zdorov is making life harder on them. I mean, it's great for their team and their chances of winning in the playoffs, but it's really bad for trying to keep some of these guys. Like normally you see there's UFAs who maybe play their way off your team. Like a number of these guys are only making themselves even wealthier and the Canucks are going to want to keep them.

But it's a good problem to have right now. You enjoy the ride while you have it. You know, I think the thing is, too, is that you go back a couple weeks to when Demko got hurt, the news that Demko was injured. And, you know, what happened here is when it got announced that morning that Demko was injured, you know, the Canucks fans were in a panic, and obviously so. I mean, he's your number one goalie, and you're like, oh, my God. We were doomed before we even started.

Well, since that happened, the team is now 4-2. Well, since that happened, the team is now 4-2. Shelob's has won three of those games, and DeSmith has won one of them. So you've got a good record in the postseason with your number two and number three goalie playing the games because they're doing enough to win, which is all you need, and everybody in front of them is playing great. They're sitting there and they're saying,

we know what we have to do if we're going to win, and they're doing it. They look disciplined. They look terrific. They rise and fall with the emotion of the game. Everything that... I just love the way that they're playing right now. And this series is far from over.

The Oilers coughed up a hairball in game number one. They're going to be really pissed off about it. Skinner had one bad game the last series and locked it down. He's now had his one bad game this series. Edmonton's going to be a lot better, but Vancouver can be a lot better but vancouver can be a lot better too great hockey great win in game number one great atmosphere um were you picking up what knoblock was putting down about leon dry sidle cramping up yeah i don't know so much about that one there's a lot of theories here we showed his last shift where he was pretty ginger

but also there's a couple of things like on the first power play of the game that early one of the others scored on a minute and a half into the game he collides with the referee and it's kind of a weird play like he's at the side of the net he's kind of backing up to go into his corner spot where he likes to shoot from. And the ref's there and Dreisaitl never sees him. And someone sent me that. They said, look at this play and we're looking at it. And Ron goes, you know what?

It could be that because he's not expecting to get hit there. He doesn't realize the official's there. And I said, you know what? That could be true. I thought it was good reasoning. But then on Thursday, somebody said to me, he thinks that there was a cross-check. And it was one of those playoff cross-checks that doesn't get called, but it's really mean.

And we just got to find it. So I don't know. I don't want to be calling Chris Knobloch a liar because I'm already in trouble for my comatose Chris line, which I mean is a compliment. He never loses his composure, but I learned that some people don't like it. So I won't call him a liar,

and I'll see what happens in game two, although you would think with back spasms that medical technology is advanced to the point where you could probably practice with it. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. As a guy who's had back spasms before, I've had them be debilitating for a short period of time. i i've had them be debilitating for a short period of time i've haven't had it that long but they haven't happened to me while i'm trying to escape jt miller i have to confess okay to the uh the other game which is loaded with emotion and storylines and the best line that we heard on wednesday night and it went like this from Jim Montgomery

I'm proud of pasta no longer we need more from pasta it's I'm proud of pasta despite the fact we're going to get to the Florida Panthers here and they deserve full credit for that game to win and the way that they did it but one of the stories coming out of this one and you know mike rupp did a walk and talk video on this one on his social media as well what david pasternak did at the end of the game talking about accepting and then going through with after getting the blessing of his coach who denied that he gave said blessing, fighting Matthew Kachuk. Carry that over to Game 3, Elliot Friedman. How much of a story was David Pasternak on Wednesday?

Huge. Now, it's kind of a Pyrrhic victory, right? They lost 6-1. But there's no question that at the end of a loss like that to see one of your best players take that fight so someone else doesn't have to you wouldn't want them doing it all the time but you adore it in the moment and you know the bruins loved them for it um did you have any problem with the punches the late punches no okay no but then again i'm a big fan of the daryl sittler gary howard fight where they fought on their knees for about 90 seconds so no okay no but then again i'm a big fan of the daryl sitler gary howard fight where they

fought on their knees for about 90 seconds so no but no i i did not those are two guys that are just they're they're gonna keep swinging whether they're up or whether down they're on their knees they're on their skates no i had no problem with that one did you um i i've just heard over the years some people say they don't like punches when one guy's up and one guy's down but i do concede that sometimes in the moment it's kind of tough to stop i think it's because kachok kind of has fought before and postranok doesn't but what are you going to do it was it was a wild game and everybody loved it nobody was turning off their television sets or their phones, and nobody was complaining online.

It was quite an end. And when Florida plays, that's baked into the pie. You know, Paul Maurice has a team of sore losers and sore winners, and that's why they're very successful. Because whenever a game gets out of hand, especially if they're losing, they are going to give you a piece of their mind and a piece of their fists. So you can't say you're surprised

when it comes to that with Florida at all. No, and this is all still without Sam Bennett, we should point out as well, which makes it that much more important. Although he made the trip. Now, in this game... Sounds like he's getting close. We'll see what happens.

He's a wild card here. And as long as I don't think that Swayman is too tired, I'm going back to him again. You are. Are you not going to Allmark? No. As long as I think Swayman isn't too tired, I'm going back to Allmark.

Was that game seven catching up to the boston ruins i i think i think we'll have a better idea on friday night i don't like to judge it based on one-offs i i i will think we'll know better after game three because i think in some way that cheapens how good florida is they win a game like that you're like oh boston got tired that's why florida won so i don't like doing that i want to wait a bit more i will say this paul maurice changed up his lines a bit and it was one of those nights where um every hunch you have works it was a good night for maurice yep it was and it was a really good night for Maurice. Yep. It was. And it was a really good night for Alexander Barka, who had two and two.

Yep. Reinhardt with four assists. Brandon Montour with one and two for three points in that game. And a hilarious exchange after he scored the goal late in the third period with Brad Marchand, which included Brandon Montour miming the licking incident from years ago with ryan callahan yeah with callahan in the building hang on did with callahan do you not get the feeling that in this series they've already established uh there's not much that's off

limits here no i i don't think this series is going to be for the faint of heart. Although they could drop Trochak in the middle of this series and he'd fit in very well. He would fit in fine. Thank you very much. This one's been fantastic. Give us seven games of this, please. Series tied at ones.

We'll see what happens later on tonight in game three as the venue shifts to boston and i'll tell you what boston after what happened on wednesday with the bruins and how david pasternak reacted to matthew kachuk regardless of whether he caught a couple of rights won the fight didn't win the fight those bruins fans on friday night are going to go banana sandwich for this team yep when they hit the ice when they see coming off of that effort they get the split they fought their brains out on wednesday night you know there was because because that's like that's bruins hockey like those fans love it. And I think I've told you this before.

My favorite sign that I ever saw at any NHL rink, it would have been the early 70s at Boston Garden. And someone had up on the garden, Lady Bing died at the garden. That is the ultimate boston bruins sign that tells you what you need to know about their fans they absolutely adore this friday is going to be special i can't wait to see it and with that we'll let you go uh the podcast returns on monday morning enjoy friday saturday sunday we'll talk to you again in a couple of days.

Enjoy the hockey. We know we will.