32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Lightning Strikes Twice

Episode Date: July 8, 2021

The Tampa Bay Lightning are the 2020-21 Stanley Cup champions. Jeff and Elliotte discuss (00:00) the Conn Smythe winning performance of Andrei Vasilevskiy, the entertaining post-game press conference from Nikita Kucherov, the play of the Tampa defense, and why the team was more motivated than ever before. The guys also touch on what the Stanley […]

sorry i just ate a strawberry i think take another sip out of that giant jug of water of yours welcome to 31 thoughts the podcast not a car cast it is a tampa cast stanley cup champion cast presented by the gmc sierra at4 uh jeff merrick and stovill elliot in tampa where you've just seen the tampa bay lightning win win their second Stanley Cup in a row. And in the process, Andre Vasilevsky collected the Conn Smythe trophy. You were there, packed rink, lots of fun, celebrations, all of it.

We will get to the Nikita Kucherov press conference afterwards. We'll talk about what's next for both of these two teams. But give us a sense of what it was like to soak that in on Wednesday night, Elliot. I didn't know what to expect, really, Jeff. For example, I haven't been at an arena with a full crowd,

I think, since the All-Star game last year in St. Louis. And the whole thing is so surreal. I went to my first game last week in montreal and then we come down here and the world is just a really different place and i'll tell you i saw there were a couple of lightning jerseys i saw tonight they were number 24 so i thought they were ryan callahan jerseys but but they said DeSantis 24 on them. Oh, geez. When you go to Florida,

you're in a completely different world right now. Yeah, I know. Those of us who work in covering the playoffs were the only people in our hotel wearing masks. Somebody had told me, expect people to be rude to you. They weren't rude to me. A couple of them looked at me funny, but nobody said a word about it.

They respected my space and I respected theirs. And it's funny, like one person actually said to me, he asked me, are you vaccinated? And I said, yes, I'm double vaxxed. And they looked at me kind of funny and they said, you know, like to a lot of us down here in Florida, if you wear a mask, you're not vaccinated. So they actually thought I wasn't vaccinated. It just shows you how different you are from place to place.

But I told my wife I was going into a complete, almost totally full rink. Technically, it's not a sellout. And she's like, it's so hard to fathom. But the place was wild. These fans, they were riled up before the game. Sometimes you go into buildings, like game three going into Montreal, Jeff, that building was

confident and Tampa took it away from them quick game four going into montreal those canadians fans were nervous and they found a way to win tonight this was a confident crowd they thought they were going to win and even though price kind of stole the first period i thought maybe the tampa fans would be nervous that they weren't going to win. They never wavered. You could tell it was a confident crowd and they thought they were going to win. And to be honest, you know, the best team won. They were deep, forward and D, everybody contributed.

They had the Conn Smythe trophy winner in net. This was the best team in the league this year and they are deserving winners. Very deserving winners. Yeah, that first period carry price was outstanding. Shots 13-4 for Tampa. It was, again, the tilted rink, the kickoff that we expected from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I'll tell you what, when you talk about depth, I don't know that we can talk enough about Ross Colton tonight. We're going to talk about all the stars and all that but i just love that it was a depth player on tampa that scores the stanley cup winning goal beautiful play mcdonough to savard savard who makes maybe the best pass he's ever made in his career right on the stick of ross colton make it 1-0, his fourth goal of the playoffs. He emerges with it, center point. Right circle, Chernak. Savard!

He centered it for Ross Colton! Ross Colton has made it 1-0! Savard stepped in, centered it for Ross Colton. He redirected it in. It's 1-0 Lightning. What a pass by Savard. Picks his head up. He spots Colton in front of the net.

Colton's got his stick on the ice with Edmondson on him. But the pass is so perfect. It's right onto the stick of Colton. And he just redirects it into the net. And that is the Stanley Cup game-winning goal. It's a Stanley Cup game winning goal. It's a Stanley Cup winning goal. Like I just think about, I always think about that. Like for someone like Ross Colton, like it's one thing for Stamkos to score it or Kucherov for point.

It'll still be profound. It'll still be meaningful. But to have someone like Ross Colton score that goal. Just like we talked about Matthew Joseph's contributions in these playoffs, the two assists and coming up in big games. I don't know. I just really liked the fact that it was Ross Colton that scored that goal, Elliot, because that does talk to the depth of the Tampa Bay Lightning

and talk all you want about the superstars. At the end of it, Tampa was just deeper and better than everybody else in this league. They were. And I know people get upset because some people get upset because of the salary cap. I've said it before. I'll say it again. If the league and the teams wanted to close this loophole, they would have done it six years ago for Patrick Kane and they didn't.

And you know, what it says to me is you have an owner who will do anything to win. You have an organization that will do anything to win. You have an organization that will do anything to win. You know, Tampa has some ruthlessness in their organization. They, the way they negotiate contracts, when you don't have leverage, they can be really, really tough, really, really tough. But at the end of the day, it's all about winning for them. And everything they do is about that. And I have one GM who thinks it's an absolute

fiasco that Breezeblood did not win GM of the year this year. Yeah. I've heard a lot of that too. I agree. And I waited for a text tonight. I didn't get it, but he has been on me about that being a total fiasco.

And you got to be ruthless sometimes to win. And that's the way Tampa is. They will do everything they can. And they proved it again this year. One more note about the death of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Was this the year and specifically the playoffs where everything gets a brighter light shined on it? Was this the playoffs where everybody finally understood just how good Eric Chernak is as a a defenseman i think there's a lot of guys there like sergachev how much how far he's come chernak yes i believe craig simpson mentioned him in the

post game how much he's grown but you know matthew joseph comes in and he's an impactful player you know maybe chernak is the poster boy for it this year, but there were a lot of guys on that team that we talked about it on the, one of the more recent podcasts. How many people do you think are calling are tampering with a good row and Coleman while they're celebrating with the Stanley cup? I'm sure it's epic. We talked about that with Alec Martinez.

So of course, throwing good row and, uh, and, and Coleman who are U who are ufas and you know that was one of the themes in the post game whether it was john cooper uh on the ice uh whether it was stephen stamkos at the podium i mean openly talking about hey listen there's salary cap there's expansion draft don't expect this team to be together next season as we see it right now like stephen stamko's talked about how you want to win so bad and you're so pissed off about last game and you come in this game and we just we reset and we just used everything as motivation this year you know cooch wasn't here in the regular season we did our job we made the playoffs he comes back we know we got a chance we know you know going forward with the salary cap world that

this might be the last game that this particular group plays together i can't say how much that motivated us we talked about it midway through the playoffs we talked about it going into game five of the islander series let's take advantage of this opportunity that it's it's not very often you get this chance to play with a talented team like like we did the reality is like there's a lot of guys that are going splitsville here from the tampa bay lightning yes and that's a very powerful motivator if you have a team that really gets along with each other, that really works. And it clearly worked in this particular case. I'm really curious to see what they decide to do here. Is there any way they can find to keep any of their guys that they want to keep?

We know that they use the Florida State taxes to their advantage. If anybody is injured, we know they'll use. After Killorn, who came out and told Kyle that he had a broken fibula to stay taxes to their advantage. If anybody is injured, we know they'll use like I, after Kalorn who came out and told Kyle that he had a broken fibula and he put a rod into it and tried to play anyway, you know, all the jokes were coming out about, well, there's the first contender for long-term injury next season.

This year, we all thought things were going to happen and then the Kucherov injury came out. Okay. So I think you have to know, and they waited, and they waited, and they waited. They did the Lamorello rule. If you have time, use it. Now, this time they won't have as much time.

They're going to be forced to make some decisions early, but I'm really, really curious to see what this team does and how they go about trying to keep themselves really good for next year andre vasilevsky wins the uh con smith you care to talk about your ballot sure i had vasilevsky one i had kucherov two and i had uh point three i thought a lot about mcdonough you know earlier in the round i had kucherov round, I had Kucherov one, but you know, Kucherov played hard, but he clearly this epic press conference he had tonight and we'll, we'll talk about that. Did anyone ask him what his injury was? I didn't see it.

No. I think he has a pretty significant rib injury. Like I had a couple of people point out to me and we showed it in the pre-game if you watched the power play they didn't score on at the end of game four he has a one-timer where he's just in agony when it's over and you know the same thing kind of happened tonight he had one one-timer in the first period that Price just ate alive, but he clearly was not himself. And, you know, I think Vasilevsky again, another shutout, his record in after they lose, his record in clinchers, that did it for me.

The only other guy I kind of considered was Ryan McDonough. Cooper kind of put him on our radar, and McDonough was really good, but I just think that the Tampa's defense is so good. I mean, it is so, so, so good. I went Vasilevsky Kucherov point. Let's go to Kucherov then, because watching this press conference, I was stunned. First of all, he shows up shirtless, which is always a great look as you're celebrating with a tin of beer. I'm doing this podcast shirtless which is always a great look as you're celebrating with a tin of

beer i'm doing this podcast shirtless by the way so a somewhat slightly buckled nikita kucherov goes off we have nikita kucherov media please raise your hand if you have a question we'll start with joe smith the athletic jo, let's hear it. How would you describe your, congratulations, how would you describe your emotions right now after doing what you guys did? I don't know what to say.

Back to back and I couldn't sleep for three nights. To be able to win this game is huge Wessie was outstanding MVP I was telling him every day

Wessie you're MVP you're the best player and then they gave it to whatever the guy in Vegas the Vezina and then last year they gave Vezina to somebody else

number one bulls**t number one bulls**t Wessie took both cups you know he took MVP and I keep telling him he's MVP. He's the guy that f**king... He's the best. You know, he was on his head

today and, you know, he kept us in the game. And another shout-out by him. Remarkable. Can't even tell more. I'm so happy we... I didn't want to go back to Montreal, but they acted... The fans in Montreal, come on. They acted like they won the Stanley Cup last game.

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? John Romano, Tampa Bay Times. Their final was last series. Okay. Of all post-game press conferences we've seen after the Stanley Cup, this is a next-level presser. This seen after the stanley cup like this is a next level presser this is the one that you don't maybe maybe it's just so profound because we don't expect that

from hockey especially not from him because he doesn't talk very much not a chatty guy we know that and here he is just blasting off like we expect to see more of the stephen stamkos style of press conferences. And we got that. And Stamkos spoke, you know, quite, you know, eloquently and politely and respectfully. Nikita Kucherov was not that guy. He was the opposite of what you're getting in a Stephen Stamkos press conference. What did you make of Kucherov blasting off?

Because from my point of view, we've talked about heroes and villains before and don't be shy about embracing the villain in you or the villain on your team kucherov became an immense villain in montreal tonight and the canadians will remember this the next time they play yes you know he's gonna get it from There's no, there's no question that some Canadians going to take a run at him to stand up for their fan base. I mean, there is no doubt about it. However, first of all, showing up shirtless,

hilarious. He has a reputation for being kind of crusty and prickly and he proved it, but he can also obviously be really funny. The first thing I believe is if you're going to talk, you got to back it up. He backs it up. Let me pause on that because what makes it even more profound is the fact that this is nikita kucherov saying this like one of the best players in the world this isn't i don't mean to sound disrespectful but this isn't pat maroon who we sort of expect you know

sometimes to be that guy to deliver these messages this way. This guy could have had the Conn Smythe trophy beside him as he was blasting off. And he was playing hurt, legitimately hurt. I think he has a reasonably significant rib injury. Yeah. The only reason I'm not saying it's very significant is I just don't know, but I think he has a rib injury. And secondly, he's not speaking in his first language either.

Sometimes we forget how hard that is. but to see him come out firing, like I love what he said about Vasilevsky. Yep. Cause I mean, I agree with him on the Vesna thing. I don't, you know, sometimes the guys don't win, but I disagreed with the number of ballots he was left off of. I'm sure people can hammer my own picks, but that's fine. You know, Kucherov, it was epic. That was quite a performance but you know next year some canadian is going to take a run at him because you have to

stand up for your fan base yeah but i gotta tell you like number one bold leap that's going to be on t-shirts everywhere you can expect that first thing tomorrow morning, t-shirts, hats, that'll be people's avatars on social media. You know, that's going to happen from an NHL point because I mean, this is making headlines, this presser from an NHL point of view, cool or not cool. Like, I love it. But here's the thing. I have a poor sense of what's good and what's not. Because I love that. But my background is villains are necessary. But we've talked about this. We talked about this in the last podcast,

or one of the more recent podcasts. NHL needs villains. We can't all sit here and say we want players to be honest and then rip them when they're honest. Here's a guy who's a great player who has this personality, doesn't show a lot about. He's got obviously some liquid courage in there, and he's going up firing.

We can't say hockey players are boring or hockey players don't talk, and all of a sudden this guy goes out there and gives us everything we're clamoring for and starts saying, ooh, that's bad. Or we shouldn't do that. It's sorry. You can't have it both ways. No,

listen, I agree wholeheartedly. I love it. And I've made the point. And he probably will never do another interview for another season. And I've always made the point too. Like I think that stuff like this is so important in sports. I really do,

because I don't know that i've ever heard anyone say i can't wait to get to the game tonight to watch these two teams respect each other i don't think that those words have ever been spoken before elliot that's why i think stuff like this is great patrick maroon with three straight stanley cups That's a sidebar to all of this. Ryan McDonough, who, as you mentioned, got some ballots for the Constantine Trophy. That's a sidebar story here. What about Victor Hedman through all of this?

You know, Chris Johnston on headlines a while ago mentioned off-season surgery, fighting through, all that kind of stuff. What did you make of Hedman's play through the playoffs? Well, I think he clearly wasn't himself, but he was more than good enough. This was the first time I got a chance

to see them live the last three games. And it's impossible to do anything against them. It really is. You know, Hedman wasn't the guy we saw last year and we'll find out what's wrong with him, but he was still really good. But that team is so disciplined. They play hard defense.

Everybody back checks. Everybody knows where they're supposed to be. They're a high IQ team. They're determined. There's no floaters. Like there's no passengers on that roster it's an absolutely stacked roster i think there's a lot of teams where headman wouldn't be 100 that they couldn't overcome that and win like they did and you know i think that they could

because of everything they did i'm looking at in a salary cab era. Okay. I think this is the best team I've seen. This is better than those Blackhawks teams. You know, the first one was still really good before they lost Buffalo and Versteeg and all those guys. They didn't have the goalie though. If you did a tournament of all the Stanley Cup champions in the cap era, I'd take this one. I don't want to give a flippant answer. I'd have to really think about that one.

No, don't think. Just give an answer and let people trash it and tear it apart. Just knee jerk. I don't know. I might be inclined to say the Pittsburgh Penguins. Which one? There's three of them. The one that won back-to-back.

Beat Nashville the second time? Yeah. I mean, reasonable pick. I'm picking this one. And I have to admit, I'm not really thinking about it. I'm just going off the top of my head. That's okay. What was our tagline for the podcast?

Speaking out of my butt? What was that one we had for a while ago? 31 thoughts? Don't think, just talk. That's right. Just make hockey sounds, dummy. I want to say one other thing before we get to Montreal. So do I, but shoot, you go first.

This series and the result of it gives me extra respect for the New York Islanders. For what they're able to do against. That they got to a 1-0 game seven against these guys. Yeah, that they push them. You know what? I mean, listen, that's the other thing that's sort of unspoken here tampa had a tough time getting there like tampa faced real tough teams yes to get there like i know they looked like world beaters at the end you think okay they

must have blown by everybody they had a tough and right up into the very end against the islanders they had a tough road against really hard teams to get to the stanley cup final one thing i want to mention before i get to montreal there's a few people that i thought of and i mentioned ross colton earlier and it winks at what i want to get to here so tampa wins this stanley cup and happy for all those guys really happy for luke shan again too like just to watch him hold the stanley i'm really happy for him. Absolutely. But I'm happy for a few people that probably won't get as much credit as they deserve. One is super scout Al Murray, who we've talked about before. You look at that forward group with the Tampa Bay lightning and outside of Stephen's dam

coast, not one of them as a first round draft pick him and his staff have been able to find players, identify and find and bring them into the organization. And the other people I want to mention, Benoit Grue, Eric Vailleux, and Gilles Bouchard in Syracuse and the Syracuse Crunch organization. You know, the scouts identify and bring them in, and then it's up to these guys to develop them. And Ross Colton is someone who played in Syracuse for a grew in value and Bouchard. Like he's a product of the Syracuse crunch and that affiliation with the Tampa Bay lightning.

Before we move on to Montreal, we really do need to say a couple of things about not just a Tampa Bay lightning, but a key piece of that organization, which is the Syracuse Crunch. You have a thought on them? Well, I think it just goes to what we talked about before, is that the Lightning are, as an organization,

they are demanding not only of their players, but they are demanding of everybody in the organization. Their American Hockey League team is expected to develop players to go seamlessly into the organization. And as you pointed out, they do. Their scouts, their demand that they go out and they find players who are drafted a bit later on

that can make their roster. And they do. Steve Iserman was a very demanding boss when he was there. And I think Julian Breezebaugh is also a very demanding boss. I think those standards are everywhere in the organization. And I don't think that people chafe underneath those standards. Instead, I think they compete hard to reach those standards.

And to me, that's important. You should have, when you're in a high level position anywhere in an organization just i think in general of yourself you should demand a lot of yourself and if a lot is expected of you that means that people believe you can deliver a lot and can you do it and the people in that organization certainly do congratulations tampa Congratulations, Tampa. To the Montreal Canadiens, the Price-Weber press conference was interesting specifically when Carey Price tried to say the difference was I didn't play well enough early on

and Weber cut him off and said, I disagree. I don't think that's the case at all. To be honest, I think that we weren't good enough in front of carry. They were, I mean, give them credit. They're a heck of a team. They're here for a reason. And, um, they were, they were better than us in the end. Even before it got to the press conference, I saw something unique tonight. And that is that I didn't see the shots on the bench of Weber with tears in his eyes at the end of the game. But I saw him on the ice and while Tampa was celebrating, I saw guys go over to him. It was probably about half the team and console him and that.

I don't recall seeing that before maybe it's happened jeff but i really noticed it you don't see that gallagher had a shift late in the game where he was next to the tamponette and he pulled something oh that looks so painful oh my god as he came back to the bench he swore and you just knew that he was done, right? And these are some of your guys. And, you know, for Weber to try to ease it up so Price didn't have to eat it all. Yeah.

I mean, I got told this week that last year, Mark Bergevin told his staff after they beat Pittsburgh and lost to Philly, I have a team that I think if it gets into the playoffs will be a tough out, and I'm going to double down on that. And it was close. I mean, they lurched towards the end of the regular season. You know, they were down 3-1 to Toronto and should have been out,

but he won his bet. And the thing about that I'm wondering now, Jeff, is I'm curious to see where they kind of go from here. You know, can you keep doing that every year? I mean, Caulfield's going to have a bigger role. He's going to have an interesting choice about who to protect and things like that too.

But, you know, that was Bergevin's bet and he won with it and now with the division switching again next year does he make the same bet right because let's not forget he's going into a division now that will include tampa will include boston and will include a very much improved florida panthers squad plus toronto yeah that's going to be that's a tough you know what the iowa fans i know this Boston and will include a very much improved Florida Panthers squad. Plus Toronto. Yeah, that's going to be, that's a tough. You know what? The Ottawa fans.

I know, listen. The Ottawa fans, they're going to have big expectations. I know, they're thinking they're going to push for a playoff spot and they might. And they might. The Ottawa Senators might just do that. Okay, so what becomes the questions here then?

I mean, for me, one of the questions about the Montreal Canadiens is Philip Deneau. And is he back? the questions here then i mean for me one of the questions about the montreal canadians is philip dino and is he back because in these playoffs he was outstanding elliot i expect that bergevin will try again just for our listeners on the same page there was an attempt made at the beginning of the season i I believe. Yeah. And they were about, they were somewhere around half a million to 750,000 apart. That was the spread and it affected Deneau early in the year.

And finally he got his legs under him and no, he didn't score a ton, but he played a ton. If you take a look at it, he led Montreal's forwards in ice time in the playoffs and he had one goal. And I think that's the first time that's happened since I think 2006. I have the note somewhere, but I think

that's how long it's been. And I'm sure he's going to try. Bergevin is going to try, but he made himself a lot of money. He did. Yeah. Deneau 1856. He beat Suzuki by a second. Yeah.

And he had one goal. That's what I wanted to go next is Nick Suzuki. Did we see the emergence of the next big number one center for the Montreal Canadians? Oh yeah. No question about it. Look, he's going to take an even bigger role. Caulfield's going to take an even bigger role. It's obvious too that the coach really

trusts Jake Evans, right? Yes. Like he's a Ducharme security blanket, which makes it even more challenging probably to keep to know because eventually you're going to have to sign, that's three centers and not even mentioning Kotkaniemi and you've got to sign Suzuki, right? I want to get to Kotkaniemi here in a sec.

It's really tricky, but the other thing too for me is who are they going to protect? Are they going to protect four defensemen? Like they rode their top four. As we saw five and six, they didn't play together at even strength. They would rotate one of the other four guys. So is Montreal going to leave one of those guys unprotected?

Or are they going to make a deal so they can do that? It's going to be interesting. Yeah, I think Seattle's getting a lot of deals right now. Getting a lot of offers. I mean, David Poyle talked about, you know, that's why we moved Victor Arvidson because, you know, Seattle essentially said, you know, if you leave him, if you leave him available, we're taking him. So we thought we'd trade him and get something for him and would like to do a deal to make sure that we don't lose other players that we don't want to lose. You know, just to close on Montreal, I don't think the North division was anywhere near as bad as, as people made it out to be. I think it was different.

They beat Vegas and they handled Vegas. As that series got going, they were better than Vegas was significantly as that continued. And if you look at the ratings in the States right now, I think Montreal being in the cup and the numbers not being great is a major reason why we're not seeing a Canadian division next year. I just don't think they want to gift wrap a Canadian team into this final four as they start a new US TV deal. But, you know, I mean, the Canadians, man, they, they fought and they scrapped and they clawed for every inch they got.

I'm curious how much a whole year of Caulfield changes their offense. Like that's the thing that I don't think they had was, you know, they played a great team game. They played tough, but they didn't have the game breakers that Tampa had. And, you know, Caulfield shows obvious ability. I'm curious to see how a whole season of them

changes what they think they need or don't need offensively. You think they have enough to get back? Like we've seen this before, teams that just sort of, that get there but can't stay there. Like we've said this, but I mean, this is the story of sports, right? It's harder to stay there than to stay there. Like we've said this, but I mean, this is, this is the story of sports, right? It's harder to stay there than to get there. Getting there is one thing, but staying there is so tough. It is so, so hard to win.

I wonder if the emergence of players like Suzuki and the emergence of players like Cole Caulfield makes it significantly easier for the Montreal Canadiens. Like, I wonder sort of what type of effect that has on this Habs team, because let's face it, let's face it. Like Shea Weber's, you know,

almost inconsolable for a reason. He finally got there at 35 years old. Father time is undefeated. But does the emergence to some of these younger kids give you more reason for optimism? Yes, I would say that. I just think that watching Montreal in these playoffs, the one thing, if they just had one more game breaker,

one more, like I said, they had a great team identity. They have the great goalie. They played their system to a tee. They need another score or more consistent scoring. We said that all season long about the Habs and getting the goals. Okay, listen, before we wrap up this podcast, and we're going to do more. The podcast isn't going away in the next little while.

We're going to do more wrap-up on the Cup and what this means for these two teams and what's happening next whether it's uh expansion draft whether it's nhl draft whether it's free agency but i want to take a couple of seconds here um because i know after this podcast you're going to head out with the crew yeah you just went through a really long run and i think it's important to a, acknowledge that. So look, dude, like really well done. That was some great work. I know a lot of what you do really keeps you up late at night and gets you up early in the morning and you never complain about it. One thing I think people appreciate about you is it's been a tough season and you don't mind giving people a laugh, even if it's at your expense.

Whether it's the beard or whether it expense, all, whether it's the beard or whether it's the hair or whether it's, uh, the fashion, the jug of water was outstanding as well. And I loved Amber's tweet about how it's, uh, it wasn't water, but, uh, I know you're not one to take public bows, but I think you deserve one here. And I'll let you do the Elliott Friedman thing now and talk about everybody other than yourself. Talk about the crew you just worked with through the Stanley Cup playoffs here.

Like, look, the best part about doing any of this stuff is the people. And, you know, we finally had our first kind of like group thing in Montreal, you know, as teammates of this season. And it was really special and it was really spectacular. You know, the thing about the podcast is you and me and Amal, we do it for the listeners,

right? Um, you know, there was a guy who came up to me tonight. Uh, his, he lives in Tampa. He's a lightning fan. His name was Jack. He just came up to our set and say, it really loves the podcast.

And, you know, that's why, you know, we turn these around late at night because we know the audience didn't like it. There's no point in doing it. And we always appreciate the audience and I appreciate the coworkers. You know, a lot of our coworkers, Jeff, had to be in a bubble for two months. And I could tell, like, I joined the bubble at the end of this series and I could just tell, like, how, how like I don't know what the proper word is but it's challenging I think is the best way to put it and you know for you have to be so disciplined and you have to give up on so many things you want to do I can't tell you how much

I appreciate my co-workers who did that you know, the, the thing about my hair and stuff, like we've talked about it. I just like to do stuff like that. So people can have a good laugh. You know, I watch a lot of inside the NBA on TNT, which I think is the best studio show. And I look at the things that they do that people really like about them.

And I think we need to do a little bit more of that on hockey night. And we talk about that all the time. And, you know, some of the things that went viral and some of the, the, the shots that some of you are taking me, whether they were fun or weren't at Twitter, I like all that stuff. I think engagement is so important.

You know, my wife texted me tonight. She goes, did you mention me on the air about the water? And I go, yeah. And she goes, can you leave me out of this next time next time but but i will tell you like of all the tweets and dms i got and some were positive and some are negative i mean whatever it's it's my choice and i'm gonna do it whether people like it or not you know most people seem to really have fun with it but there was one person who said to me that you going on air like this is hope for all of us who aren't perfect

looking that it can happen and i don't really like compliments i tend to ignore them but i will say that one uh stung me a bit in a positive way because i am that person. I am far from a perfect, I know I'm really attractive, like nine on a scale of 10, but no, I know I am far from a perfect human in the way I physically look. And I was told that in my first ever job interview that I wasn't good looking enough to be on TV.

And I tell that story a lot to young people. And that one really reached me because I think all of you out there who don't see themselves as an attractive person, but you want to do this kind of stuff. There's a way for you. You've got to try to be as good as it, as you possibly can be. And that's all I try to do is try to be as good as it is I can possibly be. But there's a way for you if you can do that. And if there's anything I hope I accomplished in these playoffs with the insane way I looked on camera,

it convinced people like that to say that I don't have to be a perfect looking person to get that kind of a platform. And that was very meaningful, a note to me. You see, Elliot, that's why this podcast works, is you appeal to those people and I appeal to the perfect looking people. okay before we let you escape and uh buy the crew a drink a couple of news bits from around the nhl vladimir tereschenko requesting a trade his days coming to a close in st louis what's the latest we'll see now jeremy rutherford of The Athletic, credit to him. He got the story out tonight. I believe Scotty, someone told me that Scotty Upshaw had mentioned something on his podcast too about it.

I believe that this is a mutual decision. I think that Tarasenko wants to go and I think the team wants to move on. Now, Rutherford story talked about concerns about the surgery he had and whether or not a good enough job was done. You know, I take Jeremy's word. I didn't hear that. Like I actually had heard about that in one

case, but not two. So Jeremy's obviously got good information there, but I also think the blues would like to move on to like, I think this is two sides looking at this and saying it's time to do it. There's a problem though. He hasn't played a ton. He hasn't been himself. And also his salary is more than his cap hit next year.

So it's a very complicated, difficult deal. But I do believe both sides want a divorce so this is gonna be some of the blockbuster then potentially whether it's eichel whether it's johnny goudreau whether it's kudznetsov and oliver eckman larson and seth jones and you know i'm gonna bug you about duncan keith here in a second yeah like this could be albeit in a really condensed time this could be the craziest offseason we've seen in years it really could be something albeit in a really condensed time, this could be the craziest off season we've seen in years. It really could be something.

It has a chance to be really something. There's no, there's no question about it. I mean, the bio window begins in a couple of days. It's going to be wild. I mean, I don't even know what date is anymore. Tomorrow, today's the 8th, right? Correct.

Yeah. July 9th is a very special day. Why is it your birthday uh me and courtney love oh nice well happy birthday jeff thank you you're gonna be 52 yeah man happy birthday can i officially be old then oh you're you're three years away from seniors discounts man that's pretty impressive nice won't be able to stay up late to do podcasts anymore. I got to tuck in early. Everybody wish Jeff a happy birthday on Friday.

Yeah, thanks. The expansion draft lists are due. Yeah. The protected lists are due in nine days. It's going to be crazy. Buyout windows, I'm curious about Edmonton. I'm curious about Vancouver. So with Edmonton, you're curious about James Neal?

That'd be the obvious one. Or the goalie. Right. With Vancouver, what do they do with Berchi or something like that? It's going to be interesting. It's going to be a wild couple of weeks. Yes, I think so.

I told you I'd bug you about Duncan Keith and here I go. Elliot, Duncan Keith. I think Edmonton is, and Chicago are really grinding at this. I think Chicago wants to make a hockey deal here. And I think Edmonton starting to play a little bit of hardball, wondering if they've got, you

know, kind of nowhere else to go. We'll see. We'll see where this goes. Uh, I mentioned David Poyle earlier, um, talking about the, uh, the arvidsson deal and seattle becoming a seattle essentially saying if arvidsson's available we're taking them so they traded him to los angeles to to pick some things up um poyle also said you know he's looking at doing some things with this team that don't expect the exact same squad to come back what do

you hear what do you know about Nashville? Well, like I said, I think they're going to try to extend that home. I just wonder, you know, I do think that that is something that is on the table that they've been working on. I still think they're going to try to extend Grandland. You know, I know they were a team that liked Killorn. So I'm wondering if they're looking at what Tampa might and might not be able to do. Other than that, nothing too big that I've heard right now. But that doesn't mean he's not working on something. As soon as it hasn't got me yet.

I haven't gotten to it yet. Who's tops on your radar right now? As far as curiosity goes. Team or player? Both. That's a good one. I'm sort of assuming that the Eichel talk is going to heat up more than it already has now i've had a couple people tell me now they think that might not happen until

after the expansion draft and i do think this i think vegas is sniffing around eichel not a surprise at all i don't know how they do it a to get the cap space and b to make the assets available to buffalo to make it happen i do think they're they're looking at this i do you know i'll tell you this that i'm not so sure if philly's going to be able to pull off a seth jones deal either why is that no i'm just hearing that it's the ask is huge well it's not even that the ask is huge i just wonder if he's going to commit to them so do you think that regardless of where seth jones ends up he just wants to test the market i think there's a couple of places he would consider signing long term now but i'm not sure Philly's won.

Would his brother be a magnet? I don't know. I know Chicago's thinking that. It's a good idea. It's the Rob Niedermeyer play, right? It's the Rob Niedermeyer play with Scott. I don't know if that certainly does it. I just heard that the big question would be,

would Jones sign in Philly? And I don't think Philly's that interested in doing this if they don't think he will. Or he won't commit to it now. Is Chuck Fletcher under the gun here to do, quote unquote, something? I don't even know if it's under the gun. I think he wants to. Well, he wanted to at the end of when the bubble was over in Edmondson.

Like there was, okay, Philadelphia's in on a whole bunch of things. And then this season happened with the Philadelphia Flyers, which was wildly disappointing based on expectations. Oh, I still think they're going to do things. I think the biggest question is, is he willing to commit there? And if no, I don't think Philly does it. Right. Oliver Ekman-Larsen.

That to me is going to be a fascinating one do we have any idea yet how many teams he'd be willing to entertain moving to i don't think it's about who he's willing to go to i think it's about who's willing to make a deal with arizona about it like i'll tell you this i heard that his exit meeting with ari Arizona this year was as brief as brief could get. Basically it's time. Yeah, it's time. So I just think it comes down to who's willing to make a deal. Anything on Alex Ovechkin and the deal in the drawer?

Am I phrasing it the right way? Yeah, I think it's in the drawer. I think you said it right there. All right. Go buy the crew a drink. Yeah, I got to wake up in four hours. Say hello. Just go right through, man.

Just burn right through. There's no point in sleeping at this point. I am debating it. Say hi to the whole crew for me. Thank you. Taking us out, and thanks to everyone who listened to all these podcasts that we did after all the Stanley Cup final games. As elliot mentions we really appreciate it uh taking us out uh socal vocalist producer and multi-instrumentalist saint panther the artist 2020 six track ep is a unique

and captivating journey through loss vulnerability growth faith and resilience and from that album here's the title track these These Days by St. Panther. 31 Thoughts, the podcast. You might just think I might just go back this time But baby, I gotta keep it moving Cause lately I look way too late I spend all my nights Waving before sleeping I just don't get

Red snow now baby Oh This is real I might just need you To speak a word to me And set me free Cause these things keep moving, moving on And I just can't keep looking back

I gotta keep it moving Gonna stay, stay Keep moving Moving on