32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Live From Canmore, It’s 32 Thoughts

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

In this Hockey Day in Canada edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman speak with a handful of distinguished guests: Glen Sather (5:00)Lanny McDonald (24:00)Kevin Bieksa (48:57)Afterwards, Kyle and Elliotte delve into the latest news and notes around the NHL. They begin with the future  of Tristan Jarry who cleared waivers in Pittsburgh (1:15:59). Kyle and Elliotte talk about how all seven Canadian teams are in or around the playoffs at the halfway point (1:19:00), they touch on Rasmus Andersson's future with the Calgary Flames (1:23:30),  and they discuss Cam Neely's comments on the future of the Bruins (1:27:47). Elliotte comments on whether 4 Nations will be a pressure point for teams to make trades (1:30:00) and the guys talk about Connor Hellebuyck's play this year and how impressive he is (1:32:00). The fellas give the Sabres their flowers for calling the league to change the goal-scorer on empty-netter on Wednesday night (1:33:00). The Final Thought focuses on Hockey Day in Canada and the city of Canmore (1:35:53).Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions and respond to your voicemails in the Thought Line (1:38:57).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.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

One kid takes 40 face-offs, every face-off and then changes. The son gets none. So that's the type of coaching you're getting for little C. Is this pod recorded? Oh yeah. I thought you learned this lesson last year. Like it's unbelievable. Every year this happens to me.

I feel like it's just us talking, but it's not. It's all your 30 listeners. Welcome to 32 Thoughts to the Podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4X. We are in Canmore, live. Hi, everybody. Elliot Friedman, ladies and gentlemen. Where's our producer? Dom Schermatti, our producer in the back.

Give everyone a wave to Dom. This is really cool. Kyle Bacoskas. So we went out for breakfast this morning. We love breakfast. Kyle loves breakfast. I do. I do love breakfast. This is what kind of team that we have.

And we're sitting there eating and Dom, our producer, looks over at me and says, you know, Kyle, this is a live show today, so you can't just sit there and constantly say to Elliot, anything else you want to talk about? Anything else you want to talk about? I said, gee, thank you. That's, I'm glad I know that. So we've got, we're flying by the seat of our pants here today,

and speaking of the seat of your pants, Elliot and, well, why don't you tell everybody your excursion earlier today that everyone will see in full come Saturday. I don't want to give it away too much, but Kevin Biaxa and I had a biathlon challenge this morning at the Nordic Centre. It was an awesome experience. One of us choked at the end and lost, but I won't say which one it was. It was a great time. You know, the thing is that I hadn't cross-country skied in about 40 years. So on Tuesday, before I came to Canmore, I

drove an hour north of Toronto and I went cross-country skiing, but I did it classic style so when I got up here they said oh no no no no we're not doing it that way we're doing I don't know what even they call it but the more skating style yes so that you know the the odds were really against me at the beginning but it was it was a great experience I love it was the gal brothers who are our coaches they were fantastic it was a great experience and Let me just say we'll probably say it again later so that we have it at the beginning of the pod when it actually airs tomorrow

Everybody in this room could be somewhere else today We cannot tell you how meaningful it is to myself and Kyle and Dom that you chose to be here It's awesome, and we will give you a great show because we know what you expect it meaningful it is to myself and Kyle and Dom that you chose to be here. It's awesome and we will give you a great show because we know what you expected, we know you demanded and we are here to deliver. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Got some shout outs?

You want to do? I was going to say, so George Rusick and Matt Rose, where are you two? From 960, the fan in Calgary there. Here you'll see them in the alumni game tomorrow night. Late round gems from the draft the night before. So we're expecting big things out of George and Maddie. And you wanted to shout out one of the Flames alumni, Colin? Yeah, Colin Patterson is here too.

So we're going to have, there's Colin in the back there. Colin Patterson is here. So So we're gonna have, there's Colin in the back there. Colin Patterson is here. So Colin and my uncle Robin, they were two members of the Killer Bees Slow Pitch team back in the day. Had some incredible stories. It was really neat to meet Colin Patterson earlier. I heard so much about him growing up as a kid

as a slow pitch player. It was to say nothing of all of his achievements as a hockey player. You go ahead. You know what Colin, I see a couple of Oilers jerseys up here. Just stay at the back. I don't know what your reaction is when you see them. All these years later, I don't know if you can handle it or not.

So just stay back there. Just wanted to shout out a couple of people I met, Abigail down here in her family, and she was telling me about her mother, Marion Kingsbury, 77 years old, still a Canmore resident, drives to Calgary every game for Flames games. She's got a season's ticket holder for the Flames. I know I see a lot more Flames representation here. I made sure I came prepared because I knew there would be Flames questions, but we love the great hockey fans of Canmore and region. And also, I believe in the room tonight is Sheila Redenbach. Are you here

Sheila? She's not. I told she was going to be here. Okay she's volunteering. Her daughter Jennifer is a media relations person with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Jennifer told me her mom was going to be here. I wanted to shout her out but that just shows you. You plan for a podcast and it's still a disaster anyway. That's the first lesson I learned since coming aboard this show. So we've got an incredible scene here. Thank you to Silver Tip Resorts for hosting us. The snow falling in behind is just picturesque. I know Rob kind of went over a little bit with you know the live thought line we'll have a little bit

later on. We also have a wonderful lineup of guests here and hopefully some fun storytelling as we make our way through the afternoon. So why don't we get to that here now? So up first, the architect of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty in the 80s, everything Alberta about this man, the Hockey Hall of Famer, five time Stanley Cup champion. Please put your hands together for Mr. Glenn Saver. Look at that, great tan, great jacket, great shoes, impeccably dressed,

but you know, we really wanted to make you comfortable, so we put all these Flames jerseys in the first couple of rows. I'm pretty used to the Flames. Because we beat them every year for how many years? We're wasting no time. So my sons live in Calgary so I'm a Calgary fan too. Got it. Oh man that's gonna be the headline out of this by 32 thoughts from Kenmore.

Glenn Sather, I'm a Flames fan too. Most listened to podcast ever. But now that I'm retired, I don't have really any solid affiliation with anybody except the National Hockey League. You guys, of course, I try to listen to your shows as much I can, but it isn't broadcast in the States. You're not missing a lot. No, just kidding.

I'm just kidding. First, how are you doing? How is retirement like going? Well, I've got a chance to do a lot of things that I never had a chance to do in the 57 years that I was in this business. And I think I told Ron McLean, I said after 57 years, I'd better retire before I get fired. Do you miss it?

No, I watch the games. I watch our game tonight, New York's game. I watch hockey every day. I can sometimes three, four games. So I don't love watching. Like if there's if there's a team on, aside from the Rangers,'re still connected to well I used to really like the Rangers but they've been pretty sure this year so I think we have a second headline from this podcast but they're getting better you know they got a pretty young team now I like watching Edmonton on a watch Calgary mm-hmm I watch everybody Toronto right you still talk to a lot of people around the league? Like just curiosity, what's going on, what's being talked about? I still have lots of friends in the league. You know, Lanny's here tonight, so I've known Lanny since he was about this high, came to the hockey school in Banff. He was there, in fact, the last couple of years he drove the bus for us up to Sun Chan Village and back all the time.

I had to tell him to slow down, he was going too fast. So he chose the right career, hockey over bus driver. Oh, he was a great player. Yeah. Even when he was like 15 or 14 years old, he could see it. Right. So, High River, Wainwright and of course you had the place still here in Banff.

Like what does this part of the world mean to you? Well, this has been home since I came to Banff as a lifeguard in 1962. I worked at the Upper Hot Springs. I thought I was going to the Banff Springs Hotel. I got there and the guy says, I don't know who you are. I said, isn't this the Hot Springs? He said, no. So, I went to the upper Hot Springs and

cleaned the washrooms and was lifeguard there for two years. Then the next year I went down and ran the Cavan Basin, which was the staff house for the lifeguards that were at the Cavan Basin. I was there for, I think I was still playing major, junior hockey. Maybe I think I was playing pro and I was still playing major, junior hockey, or maybe I think I was playing pro, and I was still working as a lifeguard. Wow. So describe Glenn Sather the lifeguard.

Yeah. Well, we used to put baby oil on. I don't think I'm going to be sleeping tonight. A third headline comes charging from in behind. Well, you tan better with baby oil. Right. It's living proof. And a third headline comes charging from in behind. Well you tan better with baby. Right, it's living proof. So I heard, yes. You don't do that anymore.

No, they kind of warn you, please don't do that. But no, that's actually one of the great stories is that life has changed so much that back then, all the players, whether they were beer salesmen or they all had secondary jobs in the summer. So aside from lifeguard what else did you do during the summer? Well I ran a hockey school in Bant for ten years and I made enough money to buy an apartment block and a vacant lot with an old house on it. And I just kept moving around and building and used to own Storm Mountain Lodge.

I run a service station in Banff and lots of stuff. I like doing that. It's an adventure. What was your favorite business? Well, I own a place called Silver City with a guy by the name of Chuck Wix. There's some people people here they know exactly what you're talking about. And I was down there about one o'clock and some guy had banged the elevator and there was a big dent on it so I had to take the elevator door apart and I was banging with

a sledgehammer. The guy came out of the bar, he was drunk, he wanted to fight me because I was making noise. And I said, do you want to fight a guy with a sledgehammer? I know the bar business was fun, but I got out of it after a couple years. I'd like to store them on the lodge, I cooked there. It was a lot of fun, a lot of good people came. And we had a good bunch of good people who worked up there.

So it was fun. It was more like a family business. Right. So beyond, of course, your coaching prowess, working in management, like there was a business side to you as well as you went over the course of your career, owning some junior teams along the way. So the business savvy side of you, where did that come from?

Well, it's hard to tell. I went to school at Oklahoma City in Memphis State when I turned pro and I took child psychology. That might help more than anything. It was interesting and trying to figure out how people operate. I think that in the hockey business, you have to run it like a family. Your scouts have to be part of it,

your staff has to be part of it. Obviously, the coaches and the players all have to become part of it. When we made the deal to get Wayne and Edmonton, he lived with us for a year. The next year, he moved him to Ace Bailey, and he was the guy that died in 9-11 in New York. Ace and I played together in the WHA and first year in the NHL when I was coaching. And he and Wayne became real good friends.

So Ace's wife wasn't living with the two of them. She came out for Christmas and Ace didn't have a Christmas tree. So he rented this place, there's a beautiful spruce tree in the backyard. He got a saw, cut the tree down, put it in the stand. And after his wife left, Mike Barnett was there to pick Wayne up to go to practice. And Ace is out there with a hammer and nails nails nailing this back onto the stomach. But that was Ace, very creative guy. Yes. He, Wayne Gretzky has told a beautiful story about Ace Bailey about one time they were, I can't remember if they were in a car that had trouble or something like that,

but they were going to be late to practice. And the story that Wayne Gretzky told about Ace Bailey is that he said, you better go to practice and I'll wait. And Wayne's like, no, I want to stay with you. We go, we go together. And Ace Bailey said, look, they won't care if I mispractice, but they are going to care if you mispractice. So we sent Wayne Gretzky to practice. Such a beautiful story about a beautiful man.

Yeah, he's a great guy, really good guy. And unfortunately what happened in that 9-11 deal, when Wayne got sold to LA, he came to me because they were so close and he said, do you think you could let me out of my contract so I could go to LA with Wayne? And I said, yeah, absolutely, I know how close you two were. It's not a problem. So he went to LA,

and then the next year, that 9-11 happened. Go ahead, Kyle. I was just going to ask, you mentioned the family dynamic, and that's the one thing whenever you talk to anyone that was part of those Oilers teams throughout the 80s and into the 90s, that's the constant. But everyone did everything together. You had so many personalities in that room, so many great players.

How did you manage to get all of them on the same page? Well, I told them we only had one rule, don't embarrass the coach. And I was the coach. Yes. But, I mean, there was a lot of characters on that team and we won the first Stanley Cup. And you'll see the cup out here tonight and they have a custodian that travels around with them.

In those days we didn't have a custodian. We got the cup, they left it behind in the dressing room. And the next couple days I got calls, the guys took it to a strip joint. They left it in a pool. It fell out of the back of the truck. I had to take it to a auto body shop to get it repaired. Are you serious? Oh, it's a hoard of stories. They're all really good guys.

And they're all young. They're having fun. I think you're going to be in sports, you have to have fun. Yes. That's the biggest thing for me. Stick together. See all the Calgary jerseys, that's one of the greatest rivalries we ever saw. What was your favorite moment of the Flames-Eulers rivalry?

There's an awful lot of them. I remember Bob Johnson, one time we were playing in the playoffs, moment of the Flames-Eulers rivalry? Oh, there's an awful lot of them. I remember Bob Johnson, one time we were playing in the playoffs, and he's got the backup goaltender wearing an Euler jersey, and the guy didn't stop a thing because they wanted him to score. But there's, you know, when Wayne scored the overtime goal in one of the games in Calgary, you know, when Wayne scored the overtime goal in one of the games in Calgary, you know, some guy was heckling me. I turned around and gave him one of these.

I remember that. That was pretty memorable for me. And I'm sure for that guy for all the wrong reasons. If Gretzky had stayed in Edmonton, how many more Cups would you have won? Maybe 20. I just hope that his record isn't broken by Avetskin. You don't want it, eh? No. And for a lot of reasons. I mean, the game is different than it was then. There was all kinds of, Wayne had to quit

because his back was so bad, guys cross checking after he scored goals. And the way that, now Vetchkin is a superhuman man, he's like 245 pounds and solid muscle. And I just don't want to see it go to Russia. Does everybody agree or not? I understand. Yeah. A lot of guys probably won't say that.

I'm sure Wayne won't say it, but they say records are to be broken, but as far as I'm concerned, that one shouldn't be broken. You're really interesting. How do we turn from that? So Gretzky gets traded. One of the great stories I heard, so the 89-90 year, you guys went on of course to win the cup

with Mark as the captain. So that year, you're two years removed from Wango in LA, one year removed from him and the Kings beating you in the playoffs. That year, Messier and Kevin Lowe are sent to the All-Star game. They represented the Oilers. So your two biggest leaders are gone over that trip. The rest of the team, this was a player-driven thing.

The entire group, wives, girlfriends, everybody, go to Lake Louise for a ski trip over the weekend. And you think about that now, right? Whether it's an all-star break, like who is an entire team? And it was a player driven thing. Everybody went together. Nowadays, there may be a couple of guys who go somewhere together, but for the most part, everyone's doing their own thing.

But everyone stayed together and went skiing. So first of all, as the general manager, how did you feel about that with your players going off skiing and knowing if things went south, if an injury occurred, like the damage that could be done on the hill, but also the fact that it was the entire group going together then.

Oh, I loved the fact that they all went together and they're all in great shape. Besides, I wasn't worried about them getting hurt. I think that it's to take your wives and your kids and the whole works go to Lake Louise, they stayed at the hotel. They didn't wreck any rooms, they had a lot of fun, but they all skied and they came back healthy. So, skiing is, this is a short sideline story, but I was playing for Montreal and Scotty Boone was the coach and every year Scotty would take four or five days on a trip and we went to Squaw Valley.

So I had a friend who has passed away now, but he was the character that took care of the World Wildlife Fund in Glenn, Switzerland. And he was head of the heritage sites for the world. He came and we skied together. Of course, first day of practice, Scotty says, nobody's skiing. Everybody said, okay. Well, I went skiing with my friend Thor. Came right down the bottom and here he is with

Claude Morel and Scotty Bowman having a drink, sauce, never said a thing. I always thought it was because I wasn't a very important player, he didn't care. But I think you should be able to do other sports. I mean, I took these guys skeet shooting and duck hunting and all kinds of stuff, just so they would get a diversified feeling for life. They've all turned out pretty damn good today. I mean, if you know Craig Simpson and Messier,

and Wayne, and all these guys, they're great people. What, who's the best athlete off the ice of all those guys? Probably Mark. Yeah. I mean, you should see Mark Waterski. He's one of those guys that can put his elbow on the water and just carve everything. He's a great athlete.

He was pretty good with his elbow, I remember. Yes. He was very good. You didn't want to mess with Mark because he's going to get you back. Right. Then how about when it comes to shooting or hunting? Because I always say you take some guys out, who's the best? I can tell you who the worst was. Okay.

Okay. Even better. because I always say you take some guys out, who's the best? I can tell you who the worst was. Okay, let's go there then. Well, I have a great friend that I played hockey with when I was 16. He was from Hardesty, his name was John Golka. I used to give exhibition tickets around to all the farmers around Hardesty and Viking. So I got Marty Jell Jones to come, Wayne came, Glenn Anderson came, there was three or four other guys. So we set up the blind, and Marty's right beside me, and we had a few practice rounds

to make sure everybody had a handle gun. So Marty's right beside me, and he's jammin' away with this, trying to get the bullet in this chamber. I said, what's the problem? He said, I can't get it to go in the chamber. Well, he's put it in backwards. Even I didn't do that in biathlon today, I'm happy to say. So one last thing I wanted to ask you was whenever I ask people about Glenn Sather, they say hardest negotiator ever. People would go into a room and they would be sweating knowing that they had to negotiate against you.

What was the hardest negotiation you ever had? They were all hard. One of my favorite ones. And we moved to our office in Edmonton. And we had a building outside of the Coliseum then. And I had my desk raised. And I had two grizzly skulls that I found in my yard in Banff. And I had them on the desk.

So you were one of those people who raised your desk over the people who were in the room with you? Well, yeah, look at you guys. Can't argue that one. So anyways, Semenko came in. I loved Semenko. He was one of the driest, humorous, funniest guys that I've ever known. He just had a tremendous wit about him. He could take your jobs if you're still around today.

So it's a low bar, Glenn. It's a low bar. So anyway, he came in and we sat there and negotiating a contract. I of course said, no, here's all I can pay you. In those days, it wasn't a lot of money. But that's basically what the salary was for everyone in the league that did what he did and he was the best at it. He walks out of the office and says to Bruce McGregor, how do you think I can beat a guy negotiating contracts with two grizzly skulls on his desk?

That was the tone-setter. Okay. Well, on that note, I heard a few stories just about some of the deals that you made over your time particularly in New York so I'll just ask you about one. 2013 when you traded for Ryan Clough from San Jose. So I'd heard the story is you were going back and forth with Ron Wilson over the deal and you guys couldn't come to terms with whether it was a fourth or a fifth round pick going the other way. So how did you determine it? We flipped the coin. Like literally and you did it right?

We did it in my office and Jim Schaumfett was there. He was assistant manager and I said okay Jim's going to flip the coin he's going to call it. Of course we won. Yes. Was Doug Wilson in the office with you while you did? No, no. He was on phone. Did you tell him the truth? Yeah. Okay. I was wondering if you lost and you just lied to him anyway. No, no, no. You had the witness, right?

It was like the whole setup. Never want to lie because it'll come back and haunt you. That's true. Right. Very right. That's very good. Glenn, this has been great. Awesome. Thank you so much for the story.

It's great to see you, guys. Yes. Great to see you. Right. Let's say it, everybody. Well, you guys got a bonus there. There's going to be five headlines out of that one. Oh my gosh.

We could have kept going for another half hour. Yeah. But we want to be respectful of everybody's time. So why don't we bring up our next guest? Is there anything else you want to get to before that? No, let's go right to the guest. They don't want to hear from us. They want to hear from the guests.

All right. Stanley Cup champion with the Calgary Flames in 1989 Hockey Hall of Famer, Lanny McDonald. Lanny, hold on. Didn't you forget something? Give me a second. Okay. I'm sorry. He still moves very well. Wow! The Stanley Cup.

I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I will adjust. You know, I got to tell you something. The funny thing about that is there's a Canuck fan sitting in the third row, and Lanny looked for a jersey of someone who didn't have the Stanley Cup, and I saw the look on your face when he saw you, you knew what he was about to do you knew he was coming for you that was great stuff great stuff oh my god so great to be here and look at this crew how good is this to be back in canmore and how about glenn saether my old boss

Glenn Sather, my old boss. Yeah. Yeah. Four years I went to his hockey school, two, and he told the story. The last two years I was the bus driver. We lived up in Sunshine and I hate to tell you, no one ever tried this. We used to race to get to the rink from the sunshine. And at that time, you went all the way to the top. Don't ever try that ever again.

That was maybe my dumb ass moment, okay? Ever again. Is it true you had a lead foot? Possibly. Possibly still have, but I haven't had a speeding ticket in four years. Oh man, don't say that! Hold on. If only my colleague could say the same.

Oh, thanks a lot. Oh, a little problem? Yeah, recently I didn't realize the speed limit had changed in one of the roads in my neighborhood and I got caught. It wasn't a school zone. No, no, no, no, no. Thank goodness. It was like a small highway. It should have stayed 90.

They moved it to 80. It wasn't pretty. Sorry. Yes, they're on their own program out in Ontario. Very quick here because Kevin Biaxa is up next and that's right. Love that guy. He is so good on hockey in Canada. He's my newest hero and he picked my team last night. We're gonna kick Colin Patterson's ass. By the way, I think you introduced Colin wherever he is back there, way back there in the corner.

I love this guy. Patter and I won the cup together. We've been best friends for way longer than that. You talk about a guy that is the consummate athlete, knows every person, he can meet you once and he'll never forget you. It's a gift that he has and it's so much fun. Like we'll walk into a room and I'll whisper,

the guy in the Canuck sweater. Yeah, that's Brian, he's a dumbass. So that's how valuable he is. No, Colin is unbelievable. All this to say, what a guy, Colin Patterson. Hey, we learned that- You look fantastic. Yes. You know what?

I will just touch on this for a half second. February 4th, it will be a one year anniversary. If you're ever going to have a cardiac arrest, have it at the airport. And I mean that sincerely. Good people are there, they're very well trained. To anyone here from Saskatchewan? Wow, good representation, nice. There you go two nurses didn't know each other one both going to Hawaii one on her 35th

anniversary one on her 20th anniversary both pumped in and helped save my life. So that... I've had a love affair with Saskatchewan for a long time, but that was over drinking Pilsner beer. But after Denise and Sherry helped save my life, I have a great appreciation for Saskatchewan and you're welcome in Alberta anytime. Nice, excellent stuff. Awesome. And you're in the beer business still, Arshad, right? Your daughter and son-in-law got the business going down in Montana. How's life in the beer world? You know, it is absolutely

fantastic. We own the it is absolutely fantastic. We own the buildings and the land. They own the business. It's the most fun you could possibly have. I'm on quality control. And no, I don't need any assistance. No, it is so much fun. And quite frankly, we took a page out of the Calgary Flames

and Calgary Flames alumni book. We sponsor everything that happens in the community and the community believes that brewery is theirs. And it is the greatest thing. We have loved being a part of it. And yeah, I cannot see it ending. If you ever get to Montana, this is not an ad.

But if you do, I'll probably charge you double for the beer, but that's beside the point. No, we have 12 beers. On my birthday, every year, February 16th, old stash porter comes out and it is damn fine we age it for a hundred days in Jim Beam whiskey barrels it goes down so smooth we serve it whiskey sniffers because you can't in a full pint you have the first one you go to have the second one,

your ass is stapled to the chair. You cannot get up. So be very careful. We take your keys away if you have to. So good. Anyway, way too much fun. Yeah, we're in Montana. So it's a lakeside Montana,

15 minutes straight south of Kelesville right on Flathead Lake We love it there. We've been there for 50 years and Lo and behold this July I'll be married for 50 years. Oh my god This this gentleman the front is programming his GPS as we speak. He can't wait to get to the serve oiler. Oiler fans? Are they still in the lead? I know, I know. I'm just kidding back there. That was the, and it was great to listen to Slatz.

That was the greatest rivalry you could possibly have. If you couldn't get up for a game against the Oilers, you didn't deserve to play in the league. Like you were taking your life in your hands, but God, it was so much fun. You could pass them in the hallway and you would not even make eye contact. Now, we do all these alumni things together, they're actually not bad guys.

Who did you hate the most? Who didn't I? Kevin Lowe and I used to run the hell out of each other in the corner all the time. Now, we both team up and we're both chairman for the Ronald McDonald House, me and Calgary and Kevin in Edmonton, and we're trying to do good things for people that are less fortunate. Thanks. Yeah, the guy that was probably, it was Messier that you feared all the time. Gretzky you respected, Messier you feared, but the guy that scored so many big goals

on us was Anderson. Like both his play regular season, but in the playoffs, he had reckless abandon and he was going to the net come hell or high water. If he had to run over poor Mike Vernon, he did. That was just the way it was. And oh God, it was fun. You know, I think for my generation,

I was born 1970 in Toronto. There's two things I remember of you. Number one, I remember the day you were traded. And for those of you who don't know, there was a protest outside Maple Leaf Gardens the next game after Lanny was dealt. A couple of my friends, I was, I think I was nine years old, a couple of my friends. Oh, jeez. I know.

A couple of my friends from grade school went with their parents. They were holding up signs that said Lanny. And they tried to start a boycott of the Maple Leafs at the time. They were like, if someone offers you a leaf ticket, don't take it because they're ruining the team. What do you remember about your trade from Toronto to Colorado? Well, the first thing I remember was when I came off the ice on December 28th for the second practice because Harold Ballard and Punch Im Lack said, no they're playing so bad, we don't care if it's Christmas, they're practicing twice. So they would make you

go down in in rush hour and come home in rush hour just to take you off even further. And I remember coming off the ice after the second practice and Guy Kenear, the trainer, said, Punch wants to see you in the coach's office. And it was a very small office. And so I go in there and I know this is not a good thing because there was all kinds of talk about someone was going to get traded. You should worry because my name wasn't mentioned. When your name isn't mentioned,

oh, here's a surprise for you. You're gone and I remember walking in and punch says This part of the game. I hate the most. Yeah, right you do And he said We've traded you Okay, where am I going? I don't have to tell you that Okay, where am I going? I don't have to tell you that

Well, who am I going for I don't have to tell you that either Well is anyone going with me? I don't have to tell you that and he sticks out his hand to wish me good luck And my only regret was I didn't hit him right there Because there was no one else in the room. No one could prove it. And anyway, I walk out and the other trainer asks, hey, Joe Scro says, Lenny, there's reporters outside. They want to talk to you about trade. So I go out, talk to them, and they said, what do you think about trade? I said, I have no idea where I'm going or who I got traded for. So they tell me who I got traded for.

I said, is anyone going with me? They said, Joel Quinville. I said, I need a minute. I went back into the room and I said, I'll come right back out. I went and talked to Joel. No one had told him that he was traded, and Punch had already gone back upstairs.

So I was the guy that told Joel Quenville that he was traded to Colorado. We lived together for the rest of that year. We've become best friends, still are today, and it was one of the best things that ever happened. Even though I was a huge Toronto fan, I got to come back after Colorado and play in Calgary and find a way to win the cup and meet a guy like Colin Patterson. And that is the second thing about Lanny McDonald, people my age and I know there's probably a lot of people here, out of the penalty box, Stanley Cup goal, Montreal Forum.

Oh my God, if you're a good Catholic boy, I got a stupid penalty, I should have scored a goal. The puck got away from me into the corner on a rebound, and Patrick Waugh made a pretty good save, but I should have scored the goal. Bobby Smith grabs a puck, I take a penalty,

I go to the penalty box thinking, you dumb ass. You can say it. Dumb bell, dumb ass. And I'm sitting there. I must have said 400 to Hail Mary's. Like, being a good Catholic boy, surely he's gonna help me tonight. Sure enough, they kill off the penalty and James McCown tells the story.

He gets the puck back in our own zone, he feeds it up to Hawken Lube. Hawken is breaking through center, I jump in on the play and McCown says I cut him off or he would have had all the highlights that night. But if you ever watch the replay of the goal, the pass from Hocken Lube to Neuendijk and in one motion, he throws it all the way across the ice through

Chalios' stick and skates right onto my stick. Patrick was sliding across and we knew if he comes across, you go top shelf because there is nowhere else. When that puck went in, I thought, like call the game, come on. Like it's two to one, we're ahead. Like blow the whistle, it's over. And by the way, Colin Patterson at the back,

that's quite his story. He got a new shipment of Hesplers. You couldn't even lift the Hesplers. They were that bad a stick and worst curve ever. We try and talk him out of using it. He says, no, no, I got this. Sure enough, he scores the first goal. If you ever watch that highlight,

you see him look to the bench, bring the stick down, kiss it. Thank you, boys. Wow. And it was one of those moments in a game that totally helped change the entire game. So there you go, Patter. Delivered again Colin I like to see you get some credit because you've been crack catching strays the whole podcast So it's nice to see you get some credit

Yes And I heard stories that that you would call it would often in the last number of years you would tag along on like the flames Dad's trip and that which I might have for the fathers must have been a real thrill What was that like for you going on the road again? Well, we have gone on sponsors trip with the flames and also the dad's trips. I don't know why we got shut out of the mom's trip this year. They would have had a way better time with pattern night. But we have so much fun together and we were

actually talking about it on the way up here today and one of the things it does for the players it takes all the pressure off of them because we're looking after the dads the entire time. We're having fun with them. We go for a beer. I have water, but that's beside the point. But you have a beer with them in the afternoon, you entertain them all through the game. It is so much fun. Then they get together with their sons afterwards,

like you guys looked like you're having a blast up there in the suite. Well, we were and we hope they keep calling us from the flames. We're in every time. Yeah, no kidding. So last one for me, Lanny, and just going back again to what you accomplished in 1989, I just would love to hear the story that when you often go talk to teams or young kids, the thing of pencils you bring along with you.

I would just love to know the meaning behind that. That was really neat. Well, Kyle, I'm not sure where you got that information, but that is true. He has your phone tapped just so you know that. When I go speak to junior hockey players or classrooms or even businesses, I take a roll of pencils with me. They're all taped together, 36 pencils, and I will call a person like yourself up because I notice right away, you're probably the toughest guy in this room.

So I'll ask if you'll help me and I hand him, pick out your favorite color pencil. The key is they're all different colored pencils because regardless of what team you're on, you have to find a way to play as a team. Regardless of the color of your hair, color of your skin, color of your hair, color of your skin, color of your eyes, what shape you are, it doesn't matter.

Find a way to work together. And then after they break that pencil, and I'll say, okay, like, congratulations, you are the toughest guy in this room. You owe me seven cents, by the way. And then I'll hand him the other 35 pencils and I use 36 pencils because on a hockey team, 23 players, management and and top office people, it takes about 36 people to win the Stanley

Cup. And if you're not on the same page, you have no chance of winning. And I'll ask that person, can you now break the all 35 pencils? There isn't a hope in heck. I've had the biggest drilling engineers, pro wrestlers, pro football players, hockey players, no one has been able to break them. Now, you might because you are tough.

But I use the example because if you play as an individual, it's very easy to break the bond. But when you play as a team, and this is for you guys if you're playing minor hockey, when you play as a team and you listen to the coaches, you might not agree with everything, you voice your opinion, but when you walk on that ice,

whether it's a football field, soccer field, baseball field, or hockey, and you listen to the coaches, you've said your piece, but you play as a team. It is amazing what you can accomplish. That's the only reason why good teams find a way to win the Stanley Cup.

That's awesome. That's a great story. I just want to wrap. We had a chance to meet a few people before and there was a gentleman here who was wearing a Boreasalming jersey. And Boreasalming was the best and there was a beautiful moment a couple years ago when Daryl Sittler and some of the other Leafs gave him a chance to say goodbye to the Maple Leafs fans in person. Just maybe a favorite, for you, Salming, memory. There is so many. I have had the luxury the last nine and a half years to be chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame. I have six months left.

It was one of the greatest opportunities of my life. I loved every second of it. And every time we would have Borya come to one of our events in Toronto, like I had the greatest respect in the world for him, in my opinion, he may be one of the top six defensemen of all time. And I mean that sincerely and every European player should actually have given him a bonus off of their their paychecks because he earned the right for all of them to find a way to be able to

come play in the National Hockey League. And the incredible strength that it took for him to be able to come having ALS to Toronto and be able to survive that weekend, which was action-packed non-stop. He was supposed to come to, that was Friday and Saturday games. We had dinner together on Sunday. He was supposed to come to the Hall of Fame induction on Monday, was way too sick to be able to get there.

I saw him Tuesday morning before he left to fly back. Somehow he summoned the courage to get to the 100th anniversary of Swedish hockey and was honored as one of the top defensemen along with Lindstrom there and passed away two days later. Pretty incredible strength that it took to do that. I loved him as a player, loved him as a friend. You talk about a guy that you would love to go have a beer with.

Well, it probably wasn't one, it might have been a couple. Was Boria, like he was so full of life. You look at the guy we have on the Calgary Flames right now, Michael Backlund, who does a phenomenal job as captain, but he also is a tremendous supporter of Special Olympics and ALS.

And God bless him. You talk about why he's captain and why he's the leader is that's why that's awesome Lenny we are we are so fortunate for your storytelling your passion and everything you brought to the game so thank you very much for joining us and have a great weekend. Oh my god and now that Canuck fan you get Kevin Biaxa. Yes! So Jacob Bernard-Dawker of the Ottawa Senators, he's born and raised in Canmore. He's a local product. Unfortunately he's hurt just less than two weeks ago.

Freak accident in practice and so he's on the shelf for a little bit. But his father Thomas was telling me a story when Jake was a minor hockey and Thomas was coaching the team. So Thomas had, you know, a missing tooth and he was wearing one of those flippers, right? And so he was from the bench and barking out words of encouragement to the players during the game. And I guess at one point he was yelling something out and barking out words of encouragement to the players during the game. And I guess at one point he was yelling something out and some air got underneath the flipper and went flying out of his mouth over the heads of the players on the bench and onto

the ice. So he's describing the scene of as he's trying while the game is ongoing, trying to get out of the bench, not let any of the young players out because as soon as the gate opens, everyone wants to rush out onto the ice and not get called for too many men and get his tooth back without disrupting too much play so when I think of tooth this yells from the bench I think of coach Kevin be Exa Kevin oh it's still sour at me we didn't tell why. We didn't want to give away the ending, but he said somebody choke, that's all we got.

Yeah, and you see the one that's pouting on stage. Can I tell a quick Lanny story before, because I don't know if he's gonna, there he is. So Lanny mentioned how he's the chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, so every year when they have the induction weekend, usually the ceremony's on the Monday. On the Sunday there's a game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and they have a bunch of

Hockey Hall of Fame members. They have some players that played with the inductees have a game and it's fun event, great event, sold out and it's more like an interactive thing. So Lanny always coaches it. So he mentioned how he's not going to be coached anymore. So I've had the privilege of playing for him twice now at the Hockey Hall of Fame. And I know how nice and jovial he looks up here, but he's a fierce, fierce coach. And what he's known for in this game, it's a fun game, you know, it's to celebrate the inductees, but he wants to win. So he walks around the room after

and he kind of shakes your hand and it's like, we're gonna win though, right? We're gonna win though. Like, yeah, okay, we're gonna try, try we're gonna try so the first year I played in the game was year that the Sedin's retired in the long go do you guys remember them those the ones that scored all the goals against the Flames and Oilers and we used to beat them every game remember those guys yeah so those guys retired so I'm playing on for Lanny's team and on the other team is the Sedin's and Alfredson and for the how long is the show? Just keep going.

It's a long story. Just keep going. So at the beginning, they have a ceremony. It's like on air, there's no room for anybody else. Thank God. So they have a ceremony at the beginning and the players are all in their suits and they drop a puck and they get their hockey Hall

of Fame jacket and Lanny's there and they do a puck drop. And then we start the game and we play and they have to go back in and get dressed and put their equipment on. So in that game we get up like five, nothing quick. And some of the guys on our bench are like, should we like back off a bit and make this a closer game? I'm like, no, no, no. Like the Sadines and Alfredson aren't ready. Like they're not dressed yet.

Once they come out, this is going to be a different game. So we're up four, nothing, five, nothing. Sadines and Alfredson come out two minutes. Their first shift in our zone. Brian McCabe and Antropov just skating around for two minutes, it's like doink, doink, doink, around the horn, shot chance for two minutes. Next thing you know, it's five, five, right? So we go in for the intermission,

it's like a flood, half flood running time. And Lanny, and apparently he's known for this, but he goes around the room and just carves every single player individually. We're all there on our own time. We're all coming in for this event. I didn't know it, it was like his shtick. First time, I'm like, oh my God,

this guy seriously wants to win. So we ended up losing that game. So then when I played the next game from was this year, and then I see him on Lanny's team and he reminds me, hey, I picked you on my team. Like, we're going to win this time? And I'm like, yeah, we're going to try. We're going to try really hard. So of course we're losing after the intermission again.

And he comes in and I just remember it this year more clearly, but the first guy he looked at was Andrew Raycroft because he was sitting right there and nobody else knew this. I kind of knew it was coming. And he goes, Razor. He's like, you blame and everyone else around here. I knew it was coming. He goes, Razor, he's like, you blame everyone else around here, but you suck out there. Everyone wakes up and he goes,

seriously, you can stop at beach ball. What's the matter with you? The guy's like, sorry, I know. He goes, Piazza, they told me you're an offensive defenseman. You can't defend and you got no points. What the hell are you? He goes around the room and then when he finally sees somebody that he likes, he's like, oh, thank God we have you.

So I'm going to miss that from Lanny for sure. Did you come back and win this time? We lost this time too. We actually pulled the goalie and you guys remember Pierre Terjan, who was inducted last year. He gets the puck and starts trying to rag it, skating around to kill the clock so I buried him right in front of the bench buried him and then we lost but you'll always have that sorry Lanny but he's coaching me again tomorrow well oh that's right. Will you still take me next time? He's getting red

again just the memories come back. So what else do you guys want to talk about? You've been out here Western Canada for a while here now. You're Fairmont prep team that your son Cole plays on. You're out on Vancouver Island and then you came over here in the lead up to this. So I mean you've become it's like you're back in your old home again on the West Coast. Yeah. What was it like? How was the tournament? Tournament was good it was fun it was a tournament on Shawnegan Lake School which is a beautiful school in the middle of Victoria just north of Victoria. Did well, started this Academy like six years ago quickly emerged into

a team four years ago. So we've been playing same group of kids for the last four years. They're all 17, 18 years old, graduating high school. So this was kind of our last tournament actually together, which is kind of nostalgic, but did well, won three games and lost two. So we ended up winning the bronze or whatever. At this age, we don't really do tournaments anymore.

Like you guys do, like the little kids do, like the younger kids, we have showcases. So we go, we don't really do tournaments anymore like you guys do, like the little kids do, like the younger kids. We have showcases. So we go, we play one game a day, three 20-minute periods flood, and the whole point is for scouts and schools and junior teams that come and watch these kids more than the outcome of the tournament. But this was an actual tournament.

So last tournament I'll ever have with these kids, I've coached most of them for 10 years. Out of curiosity, were the other coaches happy with the way you coach your team? I'm the boss so they have no choice. I had one assistant there with me who's younger from Minnesota so obviously I know more about hockey than he does. Are you like Lanny? What are you like as a coach? I can be like Manny but I think I pick my spots more than him. I don't do it every intermission but no, I mean I feel like I'm fair. I think a coach my spots more than him. I don't do it every intermission. But no, I mean, I feel like I'm fair.

I think a coach today has to be able to communicate first and foremost. So you can't coach a group of kids, 20 kids we have on our team, you can't coach them all the same. Every kid is individual. Some kids are more sensitive than others. Some kids respond to being hard on them. Other kids need like tangible things and stats.

Like this hilarious hilarious this generation. I'll say, you didn't have a very good practice today, but let's try to regroup and have a better one tomorrow. Yeah, I did. I'm like, what? They gaslight you and you're like, holy shit, did he have a good practice? Did I see it wrong? Then I go to one of my assistants,

I go, yeah, that guy struggled today. He goes, yeah, he was awful. I go, that's what I thought. to one of my assistants, I go, yeah, that guy struggled today, right? He goes, yeah, he was awful. I go, that's what I thought. And I go back to him, I go, no, you didn't have a good practice. He goes, coach, you know I had a good practice. What? All right, so that's how you coach these days. So then there's a lot of former players you coach against, right?

Who are some of the guys you coach against? What do you mean? Who do I coach against? Well, in these tournaments like who do you see coach against Kessler before no he's a couple years younger Matthew Lombardi this year played him he's got a French Academy I'm trying to think now Andy McDonald coaches st. Louis junior blues almost like every organization mission has Andrew a coin Adrian a coin, every, every, uh,

association in the U S has NHL players that have stayed and kind of grown them. So we have ours, LA's got a ton. So we have coached against a lot of former players, which is fun. Who's the best former coach player, former player coach. Sorry, best former, not Kessler. He's a lunatic. Talk about lunatics yelling at refs, English. Best former not Kessler. No, not much. He's a lunatic.

Talk about lunatics. Yelling at refs, kids. Funny story about Kessler. So I'm at his house last year. We're at a tournament. I just want to say, I knew this is where this was going. It was not going to take a lot to wind this up. Can I open this up to the crowd here?

Yeah, sure. So I'm at Kes's house last year. We're there. We're in Michigan for a tournament. He lives there. So we go over to his house after our tournament, whatever. And I'm talking to his son who's a... How old are you? Two thousand what? 2012? Yeah, so he's a 2010. So he's two years older than you.

Teams the best team in the country by far. They've won the national championship at their age group the last two years. So I'm asking Kesler's son, Ryker, I go, oh, what's your game like? He's like, good. And I go, are you good on face-offs? Like, yeah. I go, because your dad was really good on face-offs. I know your dad has every statistic out there.

I go, what's your face-off percentage? And he goes, 65%. I go, that's really good. You'd be number one in the NHL. I go, so how many face-offs a game do you take, like 15, 20? He goes, none. And I go, what? And as I'm a game do you take like 15 20 goes none And I go what and as I'm saying this I can see Cass over there where that Montreal Canadians guy is and Cass is like in A convo, but he's like kind of like listening in and I go What do you mean you've taken no face-offs and Cass yells from the other side of the room because I got a guy

That's 90% and he takes every draw All right, well that's good development and he takes every draw. I'm like, oh, that's good development. One kid takes 40 face-offs, every face-off and then changes. The son gets none. So that's the type of coaching you're getting for little C. Is this pod recorded? Oh yeah. I thought you learned this lesson last year.

Like it's unbelievable. Every year this happens to me. I feel like it's just us talking, but it's not. It's all your 30 listeners. Wait, we have more thoughts than listeners. We have 32 listeners. My mom was in the last episode. It's two years in a row now. I heard stories that you were not aware that it was recorded. You guys trick all your guests. So the thing is, like, so last year we're in Victoria and Kevin's rolling like this and the pod comes out and his phone blows up.

Like, why did you say this? He's like, you guys tricked me. Tell me. I go, what do you think a podcast is? You know, Hockey Day in Canada, my favorite memory, Kevin Hockey Day in Canada, was the year it was in Lloyd Minster. I flew to Lloyd Minster, and then I had to leave on the Friday to go to Vancouver,

because I was hosting the game Vancouver-Calgary, and that was the line brawl night. John Tortorella, Bob Hartley, Tortorella tries to get into the Calgary room. Brian McGratton keeps everything from going completely insane. But the best part of it is, while they're in the hallway, all of a sudden you see the medical door open to the Canuck room, and your head poking out and smiling,

and like, what's going on out here? What do you remember about that whole night? I had an amazing warmup. I was like really ready to go and then fought the first shift and then just wasted the night, went into the dressing room. But to your story,

so we fight first shift of the game and like not even sweating, not even in the game yet. All of us get kicked out, we go in the dressing room, we're high five in, it's fun, right? And so then, you know,

we just get down, get all of our gear out and we're just in our spandex, like our under gear because it's fun, right? And so then, you know, we just get down, get all of our gear out, and we're just in our spandex, like our under gear, because it's not sweaty, there's no reason to change. And we go in the lounge and we sit on the couch and we watch the game on TV, right? So when the period's over, now we're gonna kinda get close. I don't think we were gonna go in the room,

because we were kicked out of the game, but we were gonna be close enough to the dressing room to hear what Torch said. Well, he doesn't come in to talk to us. He's down the hallway hallway trying to fight everyone. So all of a sudden, somebody runs back into the room, and is like, Torz is in their hallway, so I know the room better than anyone.

So I go through that trainer's room, in the dentist's office, around. I'm barefoot, so I'm in spandex and a tight shirt. That's it. No shoes, no socks. And I open the door, and half the flames guys are still like piled up because they can't get in because TORCH is trying to fight

everybody. And I remember it was Lance Boma and Joel Colburn. Joel Colburn. And I grabbed Joel Colburn and I tried to pull him into the dentist room to fight him. And Lance Boma was like, what are you doing? What are you doing? I'm like, get in here. And that was the way. So like the fight wasn't over in my opinion, right? Like we're still going but what a wild wild night yeah it was it was kind of impromptu and we're still talking about it so it was entertaining right was that was that at the top few for like all the games you played in the league just in terms of like oh man I didn't see this coming tonight what we

saw this the starting lineup when torts came in the room before the game and announced usually he announces who's starting for them and then for us so he What we saw, the starting lineup, when torrents came in the room before the game and announced, usually he announces who's starting for them and then for us. So he comes in and he's pacing, and we're like, oh my God, what's the matter here? He goes, well, they're starting their idiots. So I have to start ours. He goes, McGrath and Wesgarth and whoever,

Jamie Lundmark or something like that was the other. He goes, they're starting all their idiots. Like, I can't put the C Names out. I can't put them out. So I got to start our idiots. So Sistito, Dale Weiss and Kellen Lane, who was a rookie who hadn't even played a game yet, who told us when he signed with us, I don't want to be a fighter. And so they told the team, because he was 6'6 in college, like, I'm not a fighter.

If you want me to be a fighter, fighter, I'll go to a different team. So he started and I'm like, actually I think I asked, can I start to see what happens here? So we knew it was coming. Right. But then you took his face off, right? Almost to protect him. He didn't want to fight and there's

a heavyweight in the face-off circle. Funny thing is two weeks earlier, we were crossing over, sometimes on the road, you cross over in cities with other teams So we were playing Nashville and then the next team to play them would have been Calgary like two nights later So they came in early so after the Nashville game we were staying the night before traveling home So we go out on Broadway for a couple beers and a bunch of the Calgary guys are there So I'm sitting with West Garth and we're having a beer, like literally two weeks earlier, talking, cordial.

Oh, you play college hockey? Oh, you play college hockey? Everything's great. Next thing you know, I come in and I'm like, what are you doing? Why are you trying to fight this kid? He goes, I'm not doing anything. I'm like, all right.

So I go back out, still won't let the kid put a stick in for the face off. Kid's looking at me like, what do I do? So I came back in again and I'm like what's your problem? He goes nothing. So when the puck dropped I didn't think he was actually going to grab me and fight me. But he kind of like grabs me and then he kind of like you took the face off. He kind of lets me go and I'm like okay things are diffused and then like my wires crossed because I started seeing everyone else fighting and I hated

this one guy in Calgary. Shmead? What's his name? Ladislav Shmead. He played for the Oilers too. He played for the Oilers too? Yeah. That's why I hated him. Hated that guy. So when I saw him going for one of my good buddies, Garrison, I just, the wires crossed and then the kid ended up having to fight the original guy. So my bad. I tried. That was good intentions. So that was a big one, but there's for a number of years there where those Calgary-Vancouver games were quite nasty. Is there anything that comes to mind for you? I mean, you would have met them in the playoffs later on.

First one, first game ever. So first game that I played Calgary was before Christmas when I got called up maybe loosely like December 21st and then I think we played Calgary on the 23rd at home and then we had like two days off and then we played them again on the 26th, Boxing Day. So I played maybe a game before that. I played against LA my first game, Calgary the second game on the 23rd. 24th flew home in the morning to Ontario to spend a day and a half with my family. Flew back Christmas night and then I'm at morning skate on the 26th and I get in early

and I'm on the bike warming up and Mark Crawford was the coach and he comes over to me and I'm on the bike and I'm like thinking, oh this looks good, you know, young guy came back, I'm riding the bike before practice, it's gonna be my third NHL game. Can I swear or no? Probably not. Yeah, I think you can swear. It won't be a bad swear. We're a long past that here today. So I'm on the bike before practice. It's gonna be my third NHL game. Can I swear or no? Probably not. Yeah, I think you can swear. It won't be a bad swear. We're long past that here today.

So I'm on the bike, was Lenny swearing? No, say there was, yeah, it's later. Of course, so I'm on the bike and Mark Crawford comes over and he puts his face right in front of mine. He goes, and he looks at me, he goes, what the are you waiting for? And I'm like, what's your problem? And he just walks away and goes into his office.

So yeah, I'm laughing about it now, but at the time I'm like, oh my god, what did I do to this guy? He must have had an awful Christmas, right? So I'm sitting there and I'm digesting it. And I finish my bike ride. And I'm like, I guess I got to go into his office. And I'll be like, what's going on here? So I build up the courage, because I wasn't young. I was like 25. So I go into his office and be like, what's going on here? So I build up the courage, because I wasn't young,

I was like 25, so I go into his office and I'm like, knock on the door, I'm like, hey, what's going on? Like, what are you talking about? He goes, you've played two games now, he's like, you haven't been to a fight yet, he's like, I might send you down tomorrow, and your teammates have no idea what kind of player you are. He's like, why don't you play the way

you're supposed to play? And I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, well, why haven't you fought anybody yet? I go, what? I played two games in the NHL. I've asked guys. I've actually asked three or four guys, but who wants to fight some young rookie kid for no reason?

And he goes, you make someone. And I was like, OK, well, I'd ask a Gindler, but he's not going to fight me. Why would he fight some rookie kid? He's a superstar. And he goes, then you make him. I'm like, OK. So that's what I go into thela, but he's not gonna fight me. Like, why would he fight some rookie kid? Like, he's a superstar. And he goes in, you make him. I'm like, okay. So that's what I go into the game, to 26.

And I tell my dad, I'm like, I gotta fight somebody. So that was my first NHL fight that night. And I really believed if I didn't fight, I was being sent down. Who wasn't? It was Byron Richie, who ended up being a good friend of mine. So same thing, like, I knew there was only a couple guys that I could fight.

A Ginla, I thought was a long shot, because I didn't think I was a good enough player yet. Britchie was tough and Jason Weimer. I feel like those were kind of the only guys. I feel like Raguir was going to be too good of a player too for me at that age. So he walked by, he skated by me, chopped him on the back of the leg. He looked at me and he's like, what's that for? I'm like, let's go.

That's literally how it happened. If you watch the highlight, it's like, he's like, what's your problem? I'm like, gotta go. And then we fought. And then I went in the box and Aguindla was yelling, he was already in the box because he had a coincidental Brian Allen and he's like, Aguindla is yelling at me. He's like, he thought I punched him on the ground. And I'm like, I did. I did punch him on the ground. Punched him in the air. I punched him standing. I punched him on the ground.

It's a fight, right? And the Ginnlet didn't like that one. So that was my two of my first three games were against the Flames. When you asked the Ginnlet to fight. I never asked him to fight. Oh, I thought you said you asked him earlier on. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Sorry. So maybe the first, first game. So what did he say to you? I don't even think he looked at me. He's like Okay loser And then the rest of our career we never it was like one of those things where I think we had like a mutual respect We knew if we did fight it would be an absolute war So I never asked him after he never asked me but we're always ready

It was kind of like look like you two, you know, just kind of look at each other. You want it? No, you want it? I'm gonna do this and if your face runs out in the way, that's your fault. That's the Simpsons, right? You guys watch the Simpsons? Yeah. Well, going back to I just when you mentioned the story with Mark Crawford there, it took me off to the other story of years later now, you're established NHL defenceman, John Tortorell is the coach, and going into his office, you mentioned, you know, having the courage to go talk to the coach there. I love the way you tell that one about talking to him about ice time and opportunity and role, as things had changed a little bit there when he was in Vancouver. Yeah, so he was, now I'm 10 years into my career and like you said I'm established and Torch comes in, he signs a five-year deal, this is the first year of the deal and early on he had some really really strong opinions of how he thought system wise we should play, which whatever, it's fine. So he, like defensive zone, he wanted the D close to the net.

He wanted the forwards to chase around. He wanted us blocking shots from 15 feet. And on three on twos, as defensemen, specifically, and I've never had any other coach tell me this and it's funny because I kind of teach it a little bit now, but he wanted on three on twos, he's like, I want you guys holding hands. So he always wanted his two D really close, holding hands. Let the four with the puck go wide and take a shot from the angle, right? But I want you guys, I don't

want you to get spread out and get two on ones, which is what every other coach teaches offensively. So we're in Anaheim one game and it's the end of the second period. It's like two to one or something. It's like a meaningless goal because the score ended up being six-five, but it's the end of the period. They go quick up. The puck goes up to Perry at the blue line and I feel like I can get, I can knock it away before he even gets control. So I kind of step up out of this holding hands. He goes through me, hits my skate, goes to Getslov. Now Getslov has a 2-1 on Hamus, my partner, goes through him, back door tap in.

So now we go in like 10 seconds left in the period. So we go into the locker room in Anaheim before they did the reno's, and it was a really thin wall in the coach's office, and the whole intermission for 10 minutes before the coach comes in, we can just hear Torz yelling, this effing this guy and effing that,

and we're like, oh my God, and the whole room can hear it. So nobody knows who he's mad at though, right? So we're all kinda like, who do you think he's talking about? Like who do you think he's mad at? And Edler's knows who he's mad at though, right? So we're all kind of like, who do you think he's talking about? Like, who do you think he's mad at? And Edler's like, he's mad at me for sure, for sure. And Hammy's just like, no, I think he's mad at me.

Like, I just got two on one. I go, he could be mad at me too. Like, we don't know guys. Like, it could be anybody. And sure enough, it was me, right? So he comes in and absolutely tears a strip off of me, which is fine. Like, I've been yelled at by coaches before,

but just tears it, gets personal. I can't remember exactly what he said, but he got personal on me. You're selfish or something like that. I'm selfish because I made a bad read. So anyways, we go home, rips me in the media, fine. Then we had two days off.

So I'm at home for two days just stewing. I'm like, my wife's talking to me. She's like, why don't you just go talk to him? I'm like, all right. So I think about had two days off, and so I'm at home for two days just stewing. And I'm like, my wife's talking to me. She's like, why don't you just go talk to him? I'm like, all right. So I think about it for two days, what I'm going to say. I had this speech prepared, like I'm a fifth rounder. I was never given anything. I had to work my way up and fight.

Blah. I had this huge speech, right? So you're kind of worked up a bit. So I come in for practice, and the whole hallway is full of jerseys, and it's a signing day. So we have to sign jerseys for like a half an hour before practice. So I'm signing jerseys and he walks by me and again I'm still like worked up and he's like hey how was your two days off? Like nothing happened right?

I go good I gotta talk to you and he goes oh okay coming in my room but first is everything okay with your son? Because I had something going on with my son at the time, like medical, and he goes, is everything fine with your son? He's trying to butter me up, right? I'm like, I want to be mad at this guy. I'm like, yeah, yeah, he's fine, he's fine. He goes, okay, come in.

So I go into his office and he's like, what's up? I go, do you remember when you like absolutely ripped me in between the first and second last game? He goes, refresh my memory. I'm like, what? This is such a big deal on my head. And to him, he's like, what are you talking about? And I go, you ripped me on the,

cause I didn't play the three on two the right way. And I kind of get into my rants a little bit, right? And he goes, he cuts me off halfway through. He goes, Juice, I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but the way you describe it, I still think you played it wrong. And I was like, yeah, but you attack my character and blah, blah, blah.

And all I care about is this team and this is all I have my, big thing where he goes, okay, okay, well, I respect you coming in here. And I'm like, okay. He goes, I don't agree with you, but I respect you. And I'm like, okay, good. So I leave there and I'm like, okay,

at least I feel a little bit better, but nothing's really been said on his end. Team meeting, calls a team meeting and prompt to, everyone in there. And I'm like, oh God, calls a team meeting and prompt to everyone in there. I'm like, oh God, now he's going to rip me again. Calls a team meeting and all the trainers and he goes, this guy, this son of a B, he just came into my office and he just gave it to me.

I didn't understand anything he was saying. I didn't agree with it, but I respect this guy and I need more of you assholes to be like him. Loved it. And after that, favorite coach, favorite, he loved me. I couldn't do any wrong just because I confronted him. He always just wanted that to confront him and then have the passion. So that's the story you're talking about, right? Yes, exactly.

Worked out really well. So if your coach ever benches you, I'm glad that was the story you wanted because that was a waste of six minutes. It was the other one, Kevin. Okay, so I just want to ask you about the Canucks. There's a lot of drama around there right now. Yeah, why? It's because Kyle's making up rumors about them. I just, for the Canucks fans here, what

do you think? Well I don't know as much as you do but I think every team has a little bit of that I don't think it ever becomes public like this. I think I think that pros should be pros I think I don't I didn't love every teammate I liked a lot of them most of them but obviously there's something going on there and it's either be adults and be pros and figure it out or get rid of one of them. So I don't know how you can expand on that. Which one would you get rid of?

We are all Canucks. And we'll wrap with that. Kevin, thanks, buddy. I just want to say, like, so the question I get the most just in the general public is, how do we really get along? And I would just say that he's the best addition we've had in a long time. So that's what I would like everyone to hear me say.

I get that a lot, too. They're like, oh, you must really hate freed men. I go, no, like, if I hated him him I wouldn't make fun of him like this. Elliott's actually the reason I even came into the studio. So Elliott and I had a relationship when I was still playing. He was kind of one of the only, and I hated the media when I played. And he was one of the few media members, him and Dan Murphy, the only two I really talked to. But back to 2008.

And then when I retired, I was still kind of in the middle of retiring. I was at the Spengler Cup, I came back and he was like, why don't you work the All-Star game with us? Why don't you come in the studio, try it out, see if you like it. So the reason I'm here is because Elliott kind of forced me to.

So we actually are really, really good friends. So it's just an act. And we're all richer for it. Yes, thank you everybody. Thank you. Kevin Biaxa. All right, so where's hold on, where's Stu? Stu in here somewhere that I met earlier. All right, so Stu, Penguins fans. We was asking when we were chatting with some people before the show,

all right, what's going on in Pittsburgh? So Tristan Jarre, the goaltender, for those that may not have seen it, signed to a long-term deal. He had a tough start to the season. They'd sent him down to a conditioning stent and the American league came back. The team had actually responded pretty well,

got on a little bit of a run to kind of get back into the conversation playoff-wise, but it's gone south again. He was put on waivers yesterday, he cleared today, Elliot. So what's the latest with Jari and the Penguins as they navigate what goes next? He's going to the American Hockey League. He's gonna play for Wilkes-Barre Scranton.

You know, I always say this to a live audience, you know wherever you work or wherever you live Like who's pulling their weight and who isn't and I think that Pittsburgh wanted to give Jari a chance to prove that he could play his way out of it But unfortunately, he just couldn't like there's no goalie in the league this year Who's given up more goals on the first shot than Tristan Jari. And it's not only the first shot, like if you go through it, someone actually sent me this note this morning that second shot, third shot,

fourth shot, like unfortunately early in games, he is just getting scored on all the time. So the one thing I always say is what's true today may not be true tomorrow. And people have a really short attention span now. If you do the work and you commit, you can always make a comeback. So Pittsburgh's gonna hope he can find a way.

I have to say this though, there were people who really warned against that contract for Jari at the time, but not because he wasn't good. It's because he always got hurt. At that time, you'll remember when Pittsburgh signed him, there were people talking about, could Jarby be one of Team Canada's goalies? And I think that there are a lot of people in shock

at how it's gone for him, but you come to a point where you just say, we can't have this anymore, and Pittsburgh was there. All right. So where does Kyle Dubas go from here as a group? Like we saw the Tomasino deal and you've pointed that out as that's kind of where he is targeting for the Penguins, where you've got the old guard there,

the longtime members that have won Stanley Cups and trying to refresh things and getting younger that way. Well, he's gonna keep trying to add young players. He's told people he has goalies to trade, he has defensemen to trade, he's got forwards to trade, not anybody that you would, not anybody going to the Hall of Fame. Like those guys aren't getting traded.

But the other players he's willing to move if he can. And you know, one of the teams I've kind of wondered about a little bit was Buffalo, just because Buffalo has some young players that they've thought about, do we move them? And I could see Dubas being all over those kinds of players. But we should spend some time talking Calgary. I was just gonna say, how about the year that they're having?

This has been pretty good for the Flames. Three of their last four. You know what's great? So we're here, Hockey Day in Canada, we're just past the halfway mark. You look at all seven Canadian teams are either in a playoff spot or right near the cut line. Like everyone has either got themselves established in a spot or firmly in the mix. It's been a

while since we've been able to say it about all seven Canadian teams this deep in the year. I so badly want it to happen, I say it all the time, I just want to see a Canadian team win the cup and cover it before Sportsnet fires me. That's what I want okay. I don't care which one of them wins it I just want to see one of them win it. My first year at hockey night, Calgary game 7 against Tampa. My second year at hockey night, well that was the lockout we won't talk about that. So my second season, I guess, at hockey night, Edmonton, game seven against Carolina. There was Ottawa, game five to Anaheim. There was Vancouver, game seven to Boston.

And then there was, of course, Montreal. But that was a tough series. Like the Canadians did an unbelievable job to get there. They were totally overmatched against that Tampa Bay team. And then last year, I mean, I swear to God, when I went to Florida the morning of game seven, I thought Edmonton was going to win the Stanley Cup. I don't know how you felt, but Florida was really reeling and I thought Edmonton was going to win for sure that morning. Yes. I had a, I could not believe like their practice the day before the pan the Panthers before game 7

You could still see the looks on their eyes of just like collecting themselves And somehow they they managed to do it because when we got all on that plane to go from Edmonton back down to Florida It was that feeling of my gosh the drought in Canada is about to end But somehow the Panthers, despite being pushed to what would have been the ultimate way to collapse, found a way. So the Oilers are running hot right now, but Calgary. Yeah, well, before we do the Calgary,

there's one McDavid story I'd like to tell. Okay. Because I think it just says a lot of who McDavid is. So how many of you have seen the Amazon doc where he blows up after the second game, right? Like you see how mad he is. And like I gained a lot of respect for McDavid just all the way through the playoffs last year,

but also he allowed that to be filmed. Like as you guys know in hockey, they've had a hard time getting players to agree to have that kind of stuff being seen. But now like they're all sitting here going, well, if Connor McDavid can let that happen, who has the right to say no? Maybe Crosby, and that's it, if Crosby wanted to.

So I think what McDavid did to allowing that to happen is gonna push the line in a good way for all of us who love watching hockey. But the thing I love most about McDavid is, it's three nothing, they win game four at home to make it three to one. And anybody from this area who's ever traveled to Florida, you know that is not easy travel, okay? Now some of us were lucky.

There was an NHL charter for like 75 people, but a lot of people who had to cover that series, they had to connect all over the United States and Canada to get there. And so some of those people, not me, because I'm grumbling, Kyle may have been grumbling a bit, like we don't care, I'm just kidding, Kyle's just burying him again.

We don't care, like I want to see the Stanley Cup final go as long as it can, it's like a showcase. But it's three one and there's some media grumbling Florida's gonna win this series. We can't believe we have to take this long travel day again. And of course Edmonton wins game five and now we're going back to Alberta and he was incredible. He was unbelievable. But the best part about it was so after the post game is over everyone's done all their interviews, we're getting ready to go back to the hotel. There's a whole bunch of media standing around

one of the hallways in Florida and McDavid walks by and he's like, enjoy your trip back to Edmonton. It was awesome. Like I was like that, like that's Jordan-esque, right? Like I'm sure a lot of people here watched the Jordan documentary and I took that personally like that was McDavid just I loved it so much to walk by and did that that's when I realized like I really think to be to be the best of the best you can be a great person when you're away from the rink and or when you're not competing but when you're competing you you it's like Hulk

Smash and that's when I realized like McDavid he's like Hulk Smash it was awesome. Yes and then watching the other week now and Yuri's getting his number retired and it just god how quickly the time all goes it feels like that was yesterday watching him being drafted first overall by Edmonton but well we'll see what the the encore is for the Oilers here and trying to get back to finish the job, but Calgary. Yeah, so Flames, everybody wants to know about Rasmus Anderson and there's been a lot of conflicting reports about what's going on.

What I really believe is going on there is that the Flames do not want to trade him this season and they will not trade him this year as long as they're still in the race. It's my personal opinion what the Flames would like to do is Rasmus Anderson can sign an extension on July 1st. I think they want to get through this year, hopefully stay in the race, keep this going as long as they can, and then make him a contract offer and see where everything stands. I think they want a chance to offer him an extension

and see how close they are and then make a decision. Now, if it goes badly for the flames and things really change, that may change. I think they've bought time. They're competitive, they see how good Wolf is, like all these veterans, they see, okay, we have a goalie. Wolf is taking the job. They see Zary, unfortunately he's hurt,

but they're like, we have a player there. They see Coronado, they're like, we have a player there. They see Pelletier, he's got a role, they say, we have a player there. I think Pelletier, he's got a role, they say we have a player there. I think a lot of players, I think there's a bunch of veterans on that team who are like we're gonna go in this with an open mind but you have to prove it to us. I think they're starting to prove it to these guys a little bit. I think they got to stay in the race but I believe what Calgary wants to do is keep Anderson through this year and make him an offer in the summer and then see where everything goes.

And I think as it stands today, I think Anderson is amenable to that plan. I believe they talked this week when all the rumors were going on. I think the flames told him that that's what they would hope to do. And as far as I can tell right now, he's got no problem with that. But the key is Ws. You need Ws. Now, can there be enough Ws to alter Craig Conroy's plan? Because he's a very patient general manager.

He has stated numerous times. No, I don't think he's going to change from the long-term plan. The one thing that someone did tell me is if they stay in the race and they still need a right shot center, which they need, maybe they look at a rental that won't cost them a lot if they can't get a long term answer.

But that's the only thing I think that's changed. All right. Dustin Wolf for Calder. Anybody? Dustin Wolf. What a race, though. So you've got Sellebrini, an incredible incredible forward you've got Lane Hudson defenseman you've got Michkov in the weeds a little bit with Philadelphia another forward and then a

goalie and Dustin Wolfe so how do you go so who would you be voting for right now who I'm kind of leaning goalie a little bit here especially if the flames get into the that's not what you said before we got into this room. Hold on, I've said this on the podcast before. No, he said celebrini by a mile. Like, I understand, you come in here and you change your answer. What did Glenn Saether say when he was here?

The truth. And you're bending it. I think if he backstops the flames to a playoffs playoff spot, how can he not get a two on? I am not disagreeing with you at all. That's a first? Well, because normally what you say is terrible. Yeah, I thought I'd try on something different today. For the crowd, we've got a live show. All right, anything else on Calgary you want to touch on?

No, I think that's good. Unless there's, well, you know, we'll have questions in a few minutes. Okay. So we'll leave that. I don't want to ruin anything. Okay. For change. But on that note though, yeah, thanks. On that note though, just the idea of kind of what teams are going to be doing here

over the next little while. The trade deadline is March the 7th. Yeah. We have four nations coming up in a couple of weeks in February between Montreal and Boston. In Boston, the Bruins, Cam Neely had some interesting comments the other night at their Golden Black Gala. he talked about these kind of two scenarios for the Bruins here. After four nations he's looking at, do they add or if they continue to kind of unwind

a little bit, is it a bit of a retool? And I wonder how many teams around the league are thinking similarly because as we've said, there's a lot still in the mix for a playoff spot. Well first of all I think it's wise for the Bruins to think that way. For the first time in a long time you can see it's changing for them. Even two years ago when Chara first left we were like oh they're done and they were still unbelievable. Now I think you can look at them and say okay they're not done but it still unbelievable. Now I think you can look at them and say, okay, they're not done, but it's changing. And I think it's smart for them to have.

I think there's a lot of teams like that. There's a lot of teams close. What's gonna be interesting is the Four Nations ends February 20th and it's gonna be two weeks to the trade deadline. I wonder how many teams are gonna try to do something even before that happens. Remember the 2014 Olympics where Canada won gold, John Tavares broke his leg, missed the

rest of the year for the Islanders. There are teams who are thinking about that. That's going to be hard hockey. It's going to be great hockey. Those players are going to go each other hard. If there's anybody on any of those rosters who might get dealt, I think there are teams who are going to consider trading them beforehand because you don't want to risk the injury. But I understand why the Bruins said that and I think it's smart.

It might actually be time for them to retool a bit. And by the way, we talked on Saturday about Ryan O'Reilly and there was a reporter today in Nashville named Nick Kaiser and he went up to Ryan O'Reilly and asked him about moving, about willing to move because he does not have an official no trade clause. And O'Reilly said, I don't really, we don't really expect anything crazy to happen. I'm part of the group and I plan to be in the future. He said he wants me to be part of the group and I'm not worried. This is where I want to be in this future. He said he wants me to be part of the group and I'm not worried this is where I wanna be in this group. So based on that, because Nashville said they will not,

even though O'Reilly does not have protection, they will treat him like he does, because he's earned it. So based on that, it doesn't sound to me like anybody should be expecting Ryan O'Reilly to go anywhere. Okay, well we have a read on maybe where temperatures could be hottest

between now and maybe pre-Forenations where some action could be found? That's a good question. You know, one of the teams we've been talking a lot about is Buffalo, but they keep winning. So as long as Buffalo keeps winning, people keep thinking they're not going to do anything too much. They're going to wait until that falls apart a little bit. Look, I think this is what we're waiting. Edmonton, maybe two defensemen.

When do they do it? Toronto Centre, maybe a defenseman. When do they do it? You know, Tavares got hurt. That could be a little bit of time. They said week to week. Now the one thing I believe about injury reports is they always give you more, longer.

Because it's always better to beat the timetable than be behind the timetable. These teams have figured out that if they say, if Kyle breaks one of his nails and he's out for six weeks, if you say six weeks and all of a sudden it's eight, it looks like it's even worse. So I think teams like, they look at the Canucks, they said Pedersen and Hughes were week to week

and they were back quicker. So I think teams always go high. But that one will be interesting to watch. I mean, I think the team, the two teams everyone's kind of watching are Glenn Saylor's team, the Rangers, although things have kind of calmed down a little bit there. And I think everybody's watching Vancouver. And before we started today, we watched JT Miller's comments

to the media. Vancouver went into Winnipeg. They were feeling really good after that win over Toronto. And they got their butts kicked and Miller looked like today like he just wanted nothing to do with talking to anybody So I just think in Vancouver like as they said Jim Rutherford can do anything So we just kind of wait to see what they're gonna decide to do as they continue to look at it I didn't want to mention Winnipeg first. I was gonna ask. Hello Buck, like they're talking about him for the MVP

and why not. I don't know how many Jets fans there are in here. He is a different person this year and they're all talking about it. Like he's just enjoying things a little bit more. I think the way the playoffs went for him last year and it wasn't all his, but I think he took it really personally. And not only because they lost, but there were games like he wouldn't even show up to talk to the media and the media was ripping him. And I think one, it's clear to me, talking to those guys, first of all, DeMello said that everybody kind of wrote us off and we doubled down.

I really love the attitude, but I think there's hella bucks a different person. He said, my mental approach last year did not work and I'm trying a new one. And they said he's trying to just enjoy the little things a little bit more. Hope it works out for him. And the Jets, I still think maybe center, maybe D.

Hmm, okay. You mentioned Buffalo a little bit ago. Did you see the empty netter last night? How many people saw this empty net goal last night? Oh, it was wild. You want to describe it? So they were up three to two against Carolina. They became the first team since 1966

when they started keeping these stats to score a goal in a period without getting a shot on net. So it sounds impossible. It pretty much is. But the way they did it was they were up three to two. Carolina had the empty net. They shot the puck down the ice. And Ryan McCloud, the ex-oiler, who had two goals in the game,

was going for his first hat trick and Brent Burns was having none of this. Brent Burns chopped them down, tackled them and when you have a path to an empty net it's an automatic goal. So even without the shot they got the goal and they won 4-2. But here came the controversy. Technically Thompson, Tage Thompson, was the last guy to touch the puck. So it was, they said it's Thompson's goal. Now the Sabres, and I give them a lot of credit for this, they called the league. They said, are you sure? They went through the rulebook and they found

something that kind of indicated, look look if it looks like Thompson could get possession he could get credited for it and I heard the league went back and forth like four times and finally they gave McLeod the goal so he got his first career hat-trick and to me that's a small thing but it's a big thing it shows like an organ and I asked at the Sabres lobby and they didn't use the word lobby but they did ask it to me that's a small thing but it's a big thing it's an organization looking out for accomplishment for one of their guys it was a big night I love stuff like that when I used to cover the Blue Jays I saw Manny Ramirez hit a fly ball to right field once. Sean Green caught it. He crashed into the wall.

He dropped it. Ramirez ended up on third, and the scorer called it a three base error. And Manny Ramirez had his manager call the press box and say, no, that's a triple. And the manager fought with the official score until he got it changed to a triple. And then the Blue J pitcher was mad because the runs that came in were now earned instead

of unearned so it started as ERA. And the Blue J's called and they said, what are you doing? Like that was an error, not a triple. And Green probably didn't want to be charged with the error. But like I saw that there, how the two sides fought for their guy. And I just love that the Sabres, whatever they did, I love how the two sides fought for their guy and I just loved that the Sabres whatever they did I'd love the Sabres fought for it. Beautiful. All right So why don't we get to the final thought then before the live thought line final thought brought to you by GMC Canmore hockey day in Canada, which how many of these have you done now where you've been on site?

Oh, I don't remember how many on site like Like it's my 20th year at hockey night. So I mean, I've been for 20 of them. I haven't been on site at time. Kenmore brings back great memories for me. We were here two summers ago for the wedding of the bucasca. Kyle and his wife, Dana got married here two summers ago. Where did you guys get married? Cornerstone. Yeah, cornerstone. Yeah, the ceremony was out at

the ranch and then the old dinner theater for the reception and it was a hell of a night. He had a big hand in it. He was a dynamite dynamite wedding guest. Well, so I I don't remember but there's like, I really don't remember a lot about the wedding. I they said I led a dance once, which sounds unbelievable for me. It really does. I have journey. Oh, don't stop believing. He was up on the stage. He was like, it was like this. Suddenly it makes a little more sense.

Okay, because I do love that song. But people told me later I was doing videos and sending videos to family members who weren't there and stuff like that. And then I remember the next morning, I didn't remember, but I went out and I walked one of the trails just to sweat out whatever was internal. And it was just like, I've been here a few times. It's phenomenal. And the one thing is I'm a Toronto guy. I'm 54 years old. I've lived 50 of my 54 years in Toronto. And I love the city.

But the one thing I really do understand is the more that you get out of the metropolitan areas and the more you get into the country or the farther you get away, you really realize how communities like Canmore are the backbone of hockey in this country. Last year, for a while, I didn't get to go on the road. Last year, they sent us all back on the road,

not just me, but Kevin, Jennifer, Kelly, yourself. We went to Victoria and number one, we know everybody's here to see Ron. It's okay, we don't take any offense to it. Particularly in Alberta, we know Alberta is McLean town. But we can give him a bit of a break because we can do some things. And also, I just know, I hope this comes across the way

I mean it, I know it means a lot to the community when all of us are here, right? Because it shows you matter. And it's important to know, when all of us are here, right? Because it shows you matter. And it's important to know, you all to know, that you do matter because in all seriousness, without communities like Canmore and all the great hockey day hosts throughout the years and the ones that will be in the future,

there's no hockey night in Canada. It doesn't exist. And whether we say it or not enough, we all know it. And it's important that you guys know that we know it. Great. We appreciate it. This has been wonderful. Before we get to the live thought line, so for those that listen to the show, as often when we get to this part of the episode, there's usually some carryover from some questions or inquiry sent in from episodes past.

And there was something baseball related that you had a follow-up to. Yes, so last podcast I talked about Ricky Henderson and how he hit right and threw left, and like nobody ever did that. Yes, I actually did but did not Ask you guys something. Okay, let me just ask you guys something about this Okay

If I threw something out there and said nobody ever did that and my co-host actually did that Wouldn't you expect him to say something like hey, I did that. Am I wrong? Am I off on this one? Oh, yeah, a little bit. Context is key here because I had just been blabbering on about how I threw left in baseball and shot right in hockey, two roles that are, you know, valuable commodities in both sports and did nothing beyond being mediocre at best in either one. And then you went back and you're talking about Ricky Henderson doing ball throwing. Well, I'm not going to try to compare myself to Ricky Henderson. I've talked about myself enough here so that's why at that point I bowed out. Well I still think you should have said something. Anyway that's pretty

incredible you did that. So Dan Rusynowski who's the great broadcaster of the San Jose Sharks and just went into the Hall of Fame. He brought up Cleon Jones who was a big player, won the World Series with the Mets in 1969. I had one fan brought up a player named Mark Carrion. I had another fan from St. Louis who brought up Ryan Ludwig. And Andrew Wolfe, who was here with the NHLPA,

he actually sent me the details. In the entire history of baseball, there are a total of 70 players who've done it. Wow. Ricky Henderson is the only one in the Hall of Fame, and there are two current ones who both played for Houston, Chas McCormick and Jake Myers. So thank you, Andrew, and thank you to anyone who sends notes about stuff we don't know or we're wrong on, we appreciate that.

Very good, all right. Why don't we get to the live thought line? So Dom, our producer's here, we got the mic on the stand, so if anyone has a question, please in an orderly fashion, form a line. Don't be afraid, as you've seen today, only reporters ask stupid questions, okay? There are no bad questions. Okay, there are no bad questions.

Okay. All right, just tell us your name. Yes, what's your name? My name is Jim. Correct. So Four Nations Cup question. I want your call on who's gonna finish first, second, third, and fourth.

And keeping in mind, my daughter told me this morning that unconfirmed rumor Kiprsov's gonna play with Finland. Oh my God. Could you have that? That. Could you imagine? Wow, wow, wow. Well, we know you are all in on Team USA. You believe that. And Dave Amber told Connor McDavid that I picked Team USA. Yes, yes. Which really went well for me. One of the best players in the world knows that Elliott wants the Americans to win. I'm thinking I'm going, I'll go Canada 1, I'll go USA 2, and I'll say Finland shocks us, goes 3, and Sweden is 4th, and they reevaluate things and become a real threat come the Olympics a year from the four nations. All right, nice. I'll go USA, Canada, I know, and Sweden, Finland.

Thank you, Jim. Hey, guys. My name's Jimmy, actually. I've been a big fan of you since 30 Thoughts was only in writing. Is everybody in this room, is their name Jim or Jimmy or something like this? Have we been pranked somehow? Hey, Jimmy.

I've been a big fan ever since 30 Thoughts was only in writing. So good to see you. Thank you buddy. A few pods ago you were talking about making the outdoor games a spectacle again. I gotta tell you a little story first. A few years ago I was in a postgraduate sports business management program in Kyle's home of Ottawa and Algonquin College. And our program coordinator had a relationship with Steve Mayer. So we presented to the NHL major games bid simulation to outdoor games in Europe. So our bid was Oilers versus Red Wings, Cider versus Dry Cytl in Munich, Germany. One week after Oktoberfest, first game of the NHL season on the standalone game on the Saturday before the altogether game started on Tuesday.

And the Hill I'll Die On is that's the biggest spectacle game that they can do. So I want to know when you guys think it'll be going international for the outdoor games and what you personally think the biggest spectacle game they can do is. First of all, I got to tell you, Jimmy, that's a great idea. I only have one issue with your proposal. Why is it after Oktoberfest and not during? Oktoberfest ends a week before the NHL season starts. You can start early. Well, our bid included them going to Oktoberfest on the last day early.

No, no, no. I want the reporters to go to Oktoberfest. Well, yeah, you can go and cover it. And then Dry Cytil would have like a preseason game and clone in his hometown and Cytil a preseason game out against his old team as well. I think it's a phenomenal idea and I really hope, I gotta tell you Jimmy, if they steal that idea and you don't get like 5% of the profits, you send us a note and we'll make sure that you get your credit. I would say for me Kyle, I want to see them do it like at a big soccer stadium like Old Trafford, Wembley, that's what I want to see them do it like at a big soccer stadium, like Old Trafford, Wembley.

That's what I want to see. But I love yours. Ours was Allianz Arena where Alphonse O'Davie is from Edmonton plays. You know what? I got to tell you, I don't know why you're not employed by the NHL right now. Thank you. That's what I'm saying. You should have your own podcast.

That's better than any idea we've come up with. That's fantastic. Kyle? And well, just in the theme of spectacle, I would love to see something around here in the backdrop of the Rockies, right? Because it's as great as it is locally for those that come to the games. We were just a Wrigley Field for the winter classic in Chicago.

And everything but the game itself was wonderful there for the few days that we were in town. But watching it on TV, it's one of those where you've seen the one, you've seen it all. In Europe would be phenomenal. but like Lake Tahoe, I know they had troubles with the weather that day, but it looked incredible just from a TV audience perspective. I think somewhere, somewhere in the mountains,

whether it's you put up some temporary stands, maybe you don't have the same attendance numbers that you would at a big house or an old Trafford, but I think the product that you were able to put for those tuning in, I would love to see it. It would be incredible, especially with the drone technology we see now, the jib cameras, all of that stuff. It could be a heck of a production.

That's great stuff, Jimmy. And by the way, they did think about Lake Louise at the same time as they did Lake Tahoe, but can't do ads. Governments ruin everything. Yeah, it's really hard there. All right, keep up the good work guys. Thank you Jimmy, take care. Great, great. By the way, Jimmy, that's a great idea.

Michael, not Jimmy. What's your name, sorry? Michael. Michael, okay. I didn't hear you, it's pretty good. Oh, thank you, I went old school, yeah. So I don't get beat up tonight. So a question for Elliot, competition related.

So might be out there, so don't get mad. I won't get mad. Kind of American, but I'm not going to get mad. I'm going to get mad. I'm going to get mad. I'm going to get mad. I'm going to get mad. I'm going to get mad. I'm going to get mad. I'm going school, yeah. So I don't get beat up tonight. So a question for Elliot, competition related. So it might be out there, so don't get mad. I won't get mad.

Kind of a Merrick type question. Oh, maybe I will get mad, okay. So we give away three points in NHL in overtime, right? You get two to win, one if you lost. Correct. Why not give away three if you win and zero when you lose? So like, how would that monopolize and make the game better? Now with all the speed and put more pressure on the five on five than

setting it to overtime and the shootout? Well they're doing that in the PWHL, right? Like they've got that going there and I think it's been a pretty successful model just in terms of the drama that can play out. I know it's only six teams right now, four now in that league, but I think they had some pretty great success with it in year one So it is happening elsewhere around the NHL and also at the four nations They will be flirting with a bit of a different format, too

You know honestly, I'll tell you why Michael. I think one of the reasons is that look how many teams are still in the playoff race You get more fans going to your games I do think a lot of it is that. Some people don't like that. Some people don't like that I say that. But it's true. Like the loser point I guess is it is, it keeps more teams in the race.

And I really do believe that's the reason they do it. But wouldn't the five on five be better? Like wouldn't it be that much more competitive? It could be. I mean, you know what? I don't think you're wrong in your argument. I just don't get the sense they're in any hurry to change it, for the reason I mentioned.

And I only had to email you twice and win free tickets to get a question heard. I'm sorry, Michael. I'm glad you won the ticket. Persistence pays off, Michael. I had to ask my wife out six times before she finally went out with me, okay? It's all worth it. Hey guys, my name's Ethan.

My question was about the emergence of betting, and last year we saw in the playoffs, Neelander, and the unknowingness about his injury. And I was wondering, has the NHL, and in conversations with the new CBA coming up, has there been discussion and talks about more injury disclosure just because of how much money is in the betting world now and how that affects the betting market?

It's a great question, but the answer is no. And I'll tell you why. I'm not a big gambler. I have nothing against betting, but I'm not a big gambler. And I understand if you were going to put money on the sport, you want the most information you can. I will tell you this, though. I'm sorry, what was your name again?

Ethan. Ethan, I'm sorry, Ethan, I will tell you this there is nothing, nothing, nothing that will get you in hot water more in this league right now than trying to find out about injuries. And I know I've been there okay and the players feel extremely, extremely passionate about it. whether people agree or not they get targeted look at Queen Hughes man Queen Hughes we knew he had an injury in the Amazon show and I'm not blaming Amazon they showed the game not to show they showed the bandage he's wearing on his hand and you saw the rough ride he was getting these players absolutely get targeted for their injuries especially

as the games get more important. I will tell you, I'm not going to tell you the incident of the player, but there is a player right now who is furious at me because I looked into an injury. And I understand, I don't blame the player. I'm not angry at the player. I knew there was a chance that that was gonna happen because I know how strongly,

and I respect how strongly they feel about it. So it was just, it was a big injury. It was impossible not to look into, but the player was furious. And I think the league recognizes that. I think the Players Association recognizes that. Ethan, I don't believe it's gonna change. My name is Connor, and my question is, how do you think the new CHL NCAA agreement will

affect both leagues going forward with respect to top prospects? Oh boy, there's a lot of layers to that. Okay, how many people have to get to the banquet on time? Exactly. I hate to break it to you, you won't make it. You want to start on that one, bud? Well, so my brother works for the Western Hockey League and I don't ask for information from him for the obvious. Especially now that we've pointed this out on the broadcast.

Elliot Blue is my cover is the moment he could. So where is this all gonna go? Like the fact of the matter is like, we don't know yet. Because when we first started talking about it, it was like, yeah, this is, we're only scratching the surface here. And then I know, I won't disclose anything too much, but just I overhearing some, we were saying, we drove out here together,

and he was on the phone for a lot of the drive. And some of the conversations he was having there, just the eyes open even wider, we're going so many things that we haven't even considered yet that could potentially be the fallout of everything that that goes on here. I think as Mopeli and I pointed out, you know, you want to be in a situation for what's best for these young players to have opportunities to develop, to be in situations where they can, whether it's achieve the potential as a player or use it as a springboard to whatever education and Ultimately career path that they that they go down to

But it's gonna be the wild wild west here for a little bit for players using their leverage And and those that represent them to try to find them in the best situation possible and also the teams to whether it's junior teams collegiate teams, elsewhere, they try to, I don't want to use the word manipulate, but take advantage of everything that they can to build the best team possible, because there was some guardrails for a long time that kind of separated who could go and do what,

but those appear to be going down, and so the importance on finding the best players to keep your team or program competitive it just became that much harder. So Connor let me just say I think the simplest way I can say it is if you're below university age the CHL is gonna get all those best players. If you're above CHL age, the NCAA will get a lot of great players, if they're not pros. I think what we're all trying to figure out here

is what happens if you're a great player who is eligible to play both in the CHL and the NCAA. Where are you gonna go? That's the answer we're all trying to figure out. I, Soren from Edmonton. First, I want to say thank you. What's your name? Soren.

Soren, okay, sorry, okay. I thought you said, sorry, I'm from Edmonton. I think that's what all these people thought too. That's hilarious, man. But it was really great to hear Lenny MacDonald and hearing his story about Boreasalming and obviously getting better and whatnot. But my dad also had ALS and I was actually at the Toronto game

when they're playing Pittsburgh on the Friday and them inducting or talking about Boreasalming and how powerful that was. I'm getting emotional now just talking about it. But it was just really powerful being at that game. And I just wanted to mention that. And hearing his story and just the struggle my dad had and everything that he went to try and get better, try to prove the doctors wrong.

But just as a question, being an Oilers fan, what kind of defensemen would you think they should go after at the deadline? Thank you. First of all, Sauron, it's a beautiful story, and I'm glad you found a little bit of peace in that night. Good for you, bud. You want to try?

Well, I think back to Sauron, like at the start of the year, so we had a bunch of our colleagues on from around the different Canadian markets that cover their respective teams. We had Gene Principe on. For the Oil fans, of course, know Gene has been around the team for a long, long time. And that was one of the questions to him about where does this team go in terms of how they bolster their lineup over the course of the year. And his

line was, okay, who is this year's Matthias Ekholm? It was a total game changer when they brought him in. It was almost around two years agoias Ekholm, right? Like it was a total game changer when they brought him in. It was almost around two years ago at this time, right? And I think he's gonna sign and stay long term. That'd be fantastic. Yeah, I think he loves it there and I think they're gonna try to figure it out. Seems like a perfect match right from the get-go.

So- His life's life's the cold. Yes, right? There's the Swedish roots there coming out full on. And that's where my mind is kind of at, is that kind of player. Now it's difficult to do, especially as we've talked about, where a lot of teams are figuring out, okay, are we still going to stay in this race or are we going to start to taper off here? But that type of guy for a team that, you know, once again started out of the gate slow but really seems to be going now. It could be a real big help because they only lost

a couple of important players, as you know, over the off season, particularly on their blue line. And so if they're gearing up for another long run, they need a little more cavalry back there. So that's where I'm at. I think Soren, they're gonna look for a depth defenseman, somebody they can plug at the bottom if they need to. But I also think they're asking themselves the question, who is the best defenseman we think we can get?

And I think that's what they're trying to figure out. Hey boys, how are you now? My name is Todd. Hi Todd. I'm here in Cameroon to support my nephew, Rhett DeConie, captain of the local Cameroogles. Nice. Beautiful. Top team in the A.J.

So my question to both of you guys, Kyle and Elliott. Outside of the sports, or excuse me, the hockey realm, which athlete would you like to have on your podcast to do an interview with? Oh, that's a great question. But hockey, I would say I would love to do an hour with Tom Brady. I would love, because I think that guy is, like I really do believe, Todd, that to be, it's so easy not to keep a high standard as you get older, right? I find that a lot with myself. I'm not going to be able to keep a high standard as you get older. Right?

I find that a lot with myself. Like I said, I'm 54 now. There are days where I'm like, I'm closer to the end than the beginning. And, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm like, do I still have that grind? And a lot of the time, I do. But there are, but I, like to me, Brady is one of the few,

like I loved Michael Jordan. When he came back with Washington, they were not successful. And I, it's always more than one person, but Jordan to me, like the idea of him not being successful, it like, it was like a shot right in the heart. Like I look at Brady and how good he was for how long, and then he went to Tampa Bay and won again.

I would love to spend an hour with that guy. Couple that come to mind for me. I'll say Tiger Woods, just because I find the sport of golf so fascinating in that you are basically, I mean it's you and your caddy, you're effectively, I mean you're playing against yourself a lot of the time and the mental games that can all come through that.

And you know for a lot of golfers, like just their ability to recall certain moments of tournaments, the shot, the situation, how far out they were, like everything is so top of mind. And it would just be so neat to go through just some of the different moments of his career, to say nothing of the other stories of the life that he has lived to this point. And it would just be neat to kind of have him go through in detail all of the color

around some of the great moments that we've seen over the course of his life in golf. That would be a real neat thing, an opportunity. I got to tell you Tom, when he came out the other night for that event with Eye of the Tiger, I almost ran out of my chair. It was awesome. Tiger Woods, a great call. Todd, let me ask you something.

If we could get a non-hockey guest on the pod, who would you want to hear? Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey Vonn? Okay. We will make the effort. Hi, my name is Dallas. Dallas. My question is around hockey playoffs in the NHL specifically.

Fully understand why they did what they did with the divisions in the wild card and to create that inter-divisional competitiveness. But is there any chance that we see a one through eight playoff picture again? I think it's possible because I think, like I want expanded playoffs. And I think if they actually expand the league again, I think they have to do it. I want expanded playoffs because again,

I think there's more teams interested, more fans, more teams in the race, which means more fans interested in the race. And tell me, like, you don't think this would be a good idea. Top six advance automatically, two games, 10 at seven, nine at eight, no overtime first game, win, lose, or tie. If you lose, you have to win the second game. If you tie, somebody has to win the second game.

But if it's equal after two 60-minute games, sudden death overtime, first goal sends the next team through the playoffs, right? I think people would go bananas for that. I know our TV network would go bananas for that. Betman hates expanded playoffs. I fought with him about it. Once he finally just said to me, stop asking me, it's never going to happen. Why is that? I, I don't know.

It's terrible. I think it's because it's not his idea, to be perfectly honest. Like, like, like, you know, like, I don't know. I don't understand. Well, actually, I shouldn't say that. I know why he does, because he thinks, he thinks, I still think it's a little bit because it's not his idea. But he's like, you know what, it's hard to make the playoffs in this league and he likes it that way. And there was a time a couple years ago, and he way I knew when it happened, he was going to wave it in our face. But he and he absolutely did. There a couple years ago, if you go back, you can find the year year like Columbus and the outers were ninth and tenth in the east And they were 20 points out of the playoffs and he like waved it at us He's like, ah, it doesn't look so good now does it so he doesn't like it, but I do think that

As part of the cb8 discussions which are gonna happen I wouldn't be surprised if that one versus eight comes up again. And I know people talk about, and you're of the age like me Dallas, you remember when it was one, 16, two, they won't do that. Because the risk of travel is bad. They don't want like an Edmonton, Florida first round.

I don't think it's good either. But I do think one versus eight will be part of the conversation, if not expanded playoffs. My name is Brian and... Brian, you're an Oilers fan, right? I hadn't heard that. I am. I'm here from Edmonton, yeah. I'm an Oilers fan. But my thought is there any talk about the league, about relevancy of the smaller Canadian markets?

Like Edmonton right now, it's not irrelevant. They have Connor and Leon. But a team like Calgary, a team like Winnipeg, teams where you can't get free agents, Calgary's doing a hell of a job. They're probably missing that one stud that you can get in, but there are typically Calgary's on no trade list, places for taxes, travel reasons that free agents don't want to go. Winnipeg's in the same boat. Is there any talk about either amongst the Canadian smaller market teams like that when Connor and Leon are gone, Edmonton's going to be in trouble. Is there any talk about either amongst the Canadian smaller market teams like that, when Conor and Leon are gone, Edmonton's going to be in trouble.

Is there talk about trying to, ways to make these places attractive to try and grow the game going forward? I know they want to expand, but what about trying to keep the relevancy of the markets that they already have when you maybe don't have the things like the tax breaks of the markets that they already have, when you maybe don't have the things like the tax breaks of the low tax American teams, the glamorous destinations to live in, to keep the markets that we have, the good markets in Canada,

and even some of the ones in the States that don't always have that attractiveness. Is there any talk about that? Well, so I live in Ottawa, and I'll tell you, you do hear that certainly as they've gone through their rebuild, you'd hear that a lot about, well, free agents, they don't want to come to Ottawa because you know, Ontario, there's some higher taxes, the rinks in Canada, the winters can be brutal in Ottawa, it's cold, the livability is a little different.

If you're a young guy, it isn't the same setup of being somewhere like in New York or down in Florida or in Dallas. I personally don't buy that as that being like the sticking point for free agents. I really do believe if you're an organization that wins, that has good ownership, that takes care of people, we heard Glenn Sather talk about that family dynamic, that ultimately will trump everything else. Because that's all, and if it's a player where he's going, no, I still want the tax break,

I want the good weather all the time, then that's their thing and no problem. So I think that that's kind of where things are at. So for teams like Edmonton, we talked about at the beginning of the year, there were players that for the longest time had Edmonton on their no trade list, and after seeing what the Oilers did and getting so close, suddenly there was a

few that were a little more open about going to the Oilers. Calgary drafted and developed two guys in their program. They couldn't get up and lost two superstars. They drafted and developed. This is a great market, great community down here. Which two players you referred to? Gajron and Kachak. Yeah. It's a little different. Okay. Yeah. But I think that's going to happen. I two players are you referring to? Goudreau and Kachak? Yeah, but I mean that's, yeah, but I think that's gonna happen, you know? I think like everywhere you're gonna find examples of that and certainly too for two American guys, the want to be a little closer, certainly for you know the late Johnny Goudreau,

the desire to be a little closer to home, you know, it's going to happen, but I firmly believe if you have an organization that is set up of such that is about winning and that looks after its players and their families and everybody that's involved in the day-to-day, over time you will be a destination. Certainly you're playing from behind the eight ball when you have the other things put in front of you, but if your good ownership know good ownership wins we hear that line a lot So if that's your your mandate and how you carry yourself as a franchise I think that will allow you to to at least hang around and to get over the some of the other hurdles that other franchises and markets don't necessarily have to deal with

You know, I thought I thought for a second that you were actually talking about Adam Fox because I know that one's the scenes That's a little further back, but the Reese things apples he never actually played here he never got to experience it because he refused right out of the gate yeah well you know here's what I would say number one I think that you there are a lot of players who re-signed in Canada who I wasn't sure would ever re-sign in Canada like you know you have to pay a lot of money, but they have stayed. So number one, I do think, like Florida

was one of the worst organizations in the NHL, and their taxes didn't help them. Remember, like people used to say, God help us if Florida ever figures it out, because when they do, they're gonna be a monster, and now they're there. Now, where I think you do have some legitimate, and I do agree with you, is taxes yes. Sometimes you have to pay a player more because, and but that's also the case in some of the US states. And one of the more interesting

conversations around the CBA is I know there are some teams who feel very strongly that there has to be some kind of tax equalization plan. Or maybe, and what I've heard kind of is thrown around, I don't know how much traction there is, is can you say something like if a player stays in a market for a certain amount of time, is there a way that we can develop a mechanism where maybe it helps a bit?

I, the problem I, I don't, and this is the thing I don't know, I don't know how widespread that is. Like as obviously the seven Canadian teams, the other teams that play in states with high taxes, they would probably agree with that, but there's a whole bunch of teams that don't play and they love their advantage, and they're basically sitting there and they're saying, why would we agree to that? So I don't know how widespread that is. I think media pressure is a factor. I do think it's a thing.

In Canada, we have high risk, high reward. You guys all know if you're a great player here in Canada, you are a god in your city forever. And they all know that. There's so many players, think of how many players in Calgary or Edmonton or Vancouver who weren't superstars, but because they went and they played hard for their team, they are a god in their town forever. They know it. BX is a perfect example. Kevin was a hell of a player, wasn't a superstar, but he played his heart out for the Canucks and he's a god in that town forever. That matters. I think where I think the more interesting is gonna be where we're going, if you just do the math, right now the salary cap should probably be about 100 or 110. I think some of the Canadian teams

are worried about that because they pay in US dollars. Our dollar right now is not great, last I checked. So do I think some of these teams are worried about this? Yes. Is it a conversation? Yes. The one thing I can't answer you is, is there enough momentum to do anything about it? That I don't know. But the one thing I think is that, like you look at,

I think McDavid's staying in Edmonton. I think that him and Dry Cytle talked about it, and I think one of the reasons Dry Cytle was happy to stay is because he believes McDavid's going to stay. That proves to me that it doesn't matter where you are. If you run a good organization, you can get good players to stay. And I always say, I say this to my son too, make sure whatever you can control,

you're doing the best at. Because there's some things you can't control and you can't win them. But you can control making sure that whatever you do, you're best in class. And we, I mean, we've seen it before. That in Canada, nobody thought Blake Wheeler was going to stay in Winnipeg. He did. Nobody thought Dustin Boffaloom was going to stay in Winnipeg.

He did. Nobody thought Mark Shifely and Conor Hellebock were going to stay in Winnipeg. They did. If you make people believe in your plan, how many people were saying Austin Matthews, he'd never sign in Toronto. At the end of this contract, he gonna be there 12 years. Maybe it's costly but you can convince people to stay. I hope I gave you some peace with that answer. So I'm actually from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My name is Matt. Hey Matt, you man, you came in a long way.

I know, yeah it's been a good time so far up in Alberta. I feel a little outnumbered being a penguin stand right now. So did you come all the way just for this just for this this weekend? Are you the guy who won tickets and you got engaged here? Yes. Oh I heard about you. Congratulations. So I think it was Rob who told me about this this morning on the radio so you and your now fiancee who's where hi there hello fiance so you guys got engaged here and she got you tickets for this right what's your name again Matt and what's your fiance's name? Barbara. Barbara, Matt, congratulations. Yes Barbara, how'd he do? Did well

Yeah, okay, did you tell us how you how you did it how did you propose? Well, we didn't have much time photography wise So I was able to ask someone who was traveling by herself that was also skating on Lake Louise, and we set up some photo shoots, got down on our knee right in the middle of the valley, and I knew she would say yes, so I was lucky. I got to tell you, good on you. You're more confident that your fiancé was going to say yes than I was my wife did when I did it, so congratulations.

That's a fantastic fantastic story guys. Congratulations to both of you and I know that this town will take good care of you this weekend. It's been a great time so far and that's why I'm honored to be here. I had an unpopular question. It has nothing to do with any of the Canadian teams

but more of my hometown. So wait a sec, so hold on. So we're all talking about how happy we are for you and now you're springing, I've got an unpopular question for you. Okay. But just after listening to all of your, you know, episode of this past year,

it's been brought up a little bit about the Penguins and their current situation the past couple of years. So just with Dubis coming down as a GM from Toronto, and the Penguins still dealing with the big three contracts, this last year's performance has been a letdown for our whole city and people like myself. So when would be the right time to actually hit that full rebuild button

based off of Dubis' past actions trying to bring in more talent to put around Sid? If this would happen within the next season, where would Sid's most ideal spot be to go or would he just accept it and stay as a loyal guy he is at heart? It's a tough decision. We don't know what is gonna happen. So do you guys have any input on that by chance? I was just I just wanted to mention since you're a Penguins fan, there was a report today that they found Malkin's rings inside his residence so that was good news. Oh so they're not stolen? Well I don't know if it was moved or something like that but they've been found. I just right since you mentioned you were a Penguins fan I saw the news I just wanted to mention that to you. Okay uh Kyle where's uh Sidney Crosby next play? Yeah. Well, he's got, when we talked to him before the year,

it was just before he had signed, he just seems like the most, as you said, the most loyal of the loyal. And to me, the question is, how much is he willing to endure as the leaf gets turned over in Pittsburgh? I don't know that answer. Elliot might know the answer, I'm not sure. But really, only Sid knows that answer.

So that's like one of the big wild cards. Frankly, I mean, I'm a little bit, we'll see where things go here now. We talked a little bit earlier about Tristan Jarre being sent down to the American League. But the fact that they at least got themselves back into the conversation was kind of like out of nowhere. But, you know, as you know, one of the worst places to be

is kind of in that mushy middle where you're not in a situation where, like the Penguins could use, you know, I don't know about the next Sidney Crosby, but like another top end pick as they start to, you know, reset things here. But as they've got themselves right now, they're a long ways away from that. So where do I think they're going?

I think so long, Cindy Crosby doesn't re-sign there. If he doesn't believe that somehow, some way there's an opportunity for some winning again. So between him and Malkin and Lantang, it's going to be a real challenge in navigating these waters. For Kyle Dubas, he thought about he was under a lot of pressure in Toronto. It had been a great run in Pittsburgh as you've gotten to enjoy for, I'm sure, most of your life here.

But now this is on the other side of it. I think the hardest work I would imagine that he's had in his years working in management and hockey are yet to come in Pittsburgh. And the question is, I think for a guy like Sidney Crosby, is he willing to go through that and see that through, or does he decide it's time? And that's the one thing we just don't know yet.

This is what I think, Matt. I think if he really wanted to go anywhere, he wouldn't have extended. So I believe, and especially at a very reasonable number, it was the finest. If you heard the interview, we asked him, is there going to be an 87 as part of the contract? I really thought it was going to be 10.87.

And he comes up and he sends for 8.7. He gave them, he done unbelievable work for them. I think if he really wanted to leave, he would not have signed. And I believe he does badly want to play in one city. So what I think is going to happen is he'll let this year play out. They're going to be in the race,

it looks like, at the deadline, barring a major change. I think what happens is, they'll reset every summer. How does he feel? Dubas has told teams he wants young players, like the Thomasinos. That's why I think he's circled around Buffalo a bit. They have young guys who are early in the NHL, or ready to play in the NHL

who can breathe new life into Pittsburgh. And I think what they'll do is at the end of every season, they'll sit down, they'll have a conversation. He'll ask them questions like, really, where are we? Dubas will tell them this is where I really think we are. I don't think as long as he is there, they will ever give up. He will always try to add young talent to keep them at least to get into the playoffs. And that's the way I think it's gonna be. Now, as for another team, if Sidney Crosby ever decided he wanted to play for another team, I fully expect Nathan McKinnon to drive to Pittsburgh, stuff Crosby in his trunk,

and take him back to Denver. I don't think Nathan McKinnon would allow Sydney Crosby to play for any other team but Colorado, if that happened. And those are the Paul Bissonnette rumors that he continues to start, so. They get swirling here and there, and we get worried, because we don't ever want him to leave.

But I figured you'd have the best knowledge about that. I really believe if he wanted to leave, he wouldn't have extended. And I do believe he would love if he played in only one place his entire career. I think, I do believe that's meaningful to him. Well, I appreciate that guys. Thank you again, Frank.

Congratulations on your engagement, guys. Yeah. That's it. Oh, we have one more? We have one more? We have one more. OK. Yeah. I couldn't since you're wearing a lanyard,

I didn't tell if you were volunteering or you actually were waiting. OK. I just wanted to come. What's your name? Sheila. Sheila. I'm Jen's mom.

Oh, so OK. So I have to come and say hi. I was selling merch when you called me out. So thank you for the shout out. OK. So I just want to explain who Sheila's daughter is. So every team has media relations professionals. They are responsible for sort of being a liaison

between the players and the unwashed people who cover the teams. And so Jennifer, she was in Winnipeg before, right? Yep, she was with us. She moved from Winnipeg to Toronto. She's got a big future in the business, and she's excellent at her job, and she has to deal with Kyle and me.

Imagine how difficult that is. She warned me before. She said, just remember, their media were Leafs. Don't say anything. See, that's why Jennifer's so good at her job. Your husband's name is Reno, right? So he's here. Oh, there he is.

Yeah, Reno, Jennifer wasn't sure you'd actually come. She said something like you don't like to leave the house very often. I don't know what that is. But we're glad you made an exception for us here. Yeah, Reno, your daughter, she's doing it and she like your daughter. She's a big star. She's gonna be a long future in the business. She thinks you guys are great. She really appreciates your kindness and your support in the media world. She thinks you guys are pretty good. So, well, I got to tell you the rest of the people in that organization don't always feel

the same way. The last thing I want to say as born and raised in Alberta, welcome to Canmore. And it's such a beautiful as all our locals and people here. Enjoy your weekend and enjoy our beautiful mountains. Great, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, appreciate it. Appreciate it.

That's not a bad place to wrap. Yeah, look, guys. This is a bear. Two hours and 40 minutes, we went a bit longer. I know it's not easy, but we hope you found it all worthwhile. We sure did, we loved it. Thank you so much for coming out.

Yeah. all worthwhile. We sure did. We loved it. Thank you so much for coming out.