32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Live From L.A. It’s 32 Thoughts

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Kyle and Elliotte visit Los Angeles, California to get a closer look at the LA Kings as they prepare for their season. The fellas begin the podcast discussing Drew Doughty's leg injury and how the Kings will cope with his absence. Afterwards, Kyle and Elliotte talk about the Robertson-Nylander incident from Thursday night and expand on the extra precautions teams take in the preseason (11:14). The guys talk about Matt Dumba making his presence known with the Dallas Stars (27:57) and Elliotte provides the latest on Igor Shesterkin (29:36). Then, the guys talk about Ian Clark's future with the Vancouver Canucks (34:10).  Kyle and Elliotte delve into the Philadelphia Flyers as Daniel Brière works his magic again, this time with Alexei Kolosov (36:02). They also talk about Cole Perfetti ending his stalemate with the Winnipeg Jets (42:52). The guys end the first segment by discussing the newly announced Rogers Stadium in Toronto (48:07) and the Buffalo Sabres announcing their leadership group with Rasmus Dahlin being named captain (51:07). Kyle and Elliotte answer your questions in the Thought Line (54:53).The fellas sit down with LA Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller for an exclusive one-on-one interview (67:10).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty & Cam Barra 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.  

A buddy of mine messaged me. He was listening to our podcast on Monday when we were discussing the 50-50 and what would be kind of the hockey version of that. And he suggested a true Shohei equivalent in hockey, 20 goals, 20 assists, 20 starts in goal all in one season because Shohei as the pitcher and the hitter when he's healthy. No, that's wrong. That is such an awful comparison.

Why? Because those aren't pitching stats. Well, of course it's not pitching stats. It's two different sports. I just thought it was a funny comparable. No, no, no, but his... Because he plays both sides of the ball. That would be both sides of the puck.

Yeah, but he's not doing that this year in his 50-50 season. No, I understand. Not only are you dumb, but your friends are dumb. My goodness. I just want to save the record. We're never going to finish. This is terrible. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by GMC, Dom Schrammati, Elliot Friedman, Kyle Bukowskis with you.

We're all under one roof for the first time, the three of us all together. Elliot, we're in El Segundo, California. We're spending a few days with the LA Kings doing a handful of interviews as their training camp and preseason marches along. The big story, we'll get to all the hockey stuff in a minute here. Our pickleball game the other day, Elliot. Yeah, I had a feeling this was going to come up. It was a barn burner. Kyle's bringing this up because he whooped my tail.

You know, I will concede. You do play more pickleball than I do, but I still don't think it would have mattered. I concede defeat. I got beaten, but we will play again and I will take my revenge. I don't know if the beatdown can get any worse, but I look forward to it.

We've got a lot to get to here in today's episode. Jim Hiller, the head coach of the Kings, he'll be part of the interview we did with him. That'll be part of the episode today. The Thought Line is back again. And expert bobber and weaver, Jim Hiller. He had the shield put up firmly in the ground at certain points, but also got into a lot of great topics along the way too. It was interesting. So we landed here Wednesday morning. Yes. With the time change still about mid-morning and it was overcast, kind of stayed overcast most of the day and i think back now it was almost like an ominous

sign because we're out for dinner wednesday and i were watching the la kings pre-season game in vegas and what happens on drew dowdy's what second shift yeah him and old teammate tanner pearson battling for a puck along the boards uh His legs go opposite directions, and the left one digs in along there, and man, it did not look good. Both of our hearts sunk as we watched it, as did Kings Nation. So on Thursday, the Kings just said that he was getting a lot more tests done.

We still don't know the extent of the damage, how much time he's going to miss, but it sounds like this is an organization that's preparing at least for the short term of life without Drew Doughty. So one of the things I think we do know is that there is a broken bone somewhere in there. And what they are trying to determine is if or how much, if there is, ligament damage occurs.

And for anybody out there who's any kind of athlete or understands medicine, you almost prefer there to be the broken bone. You don't want the ligament damage. The ligament damage is a longer timeline. So I think that's what the Kings were doing on Thursday, is trying to determine the second part of that equation. If it's just a broken bone, you're probably looking at what, six weeks, maybe four to six, but you know, four to six weeks and you can manage

that. If it's ligament, it's longer. Like one of the things I was starting to do was look at, okay, what right-handed D are still out there? Like there's a Justin Schultz, there's a Kevin Shattenkirk. And of course, there's going to be situations where waivers or someone becomes available. But I'm not sure the Kings are going to look into anything like that until they have a better idea. And I'm assuming that update will come on Friday after they skate on Friday at home. But that's kind of where they are. But it's interesting in the interview, which you'll hear, Hiller talks about how the veteran players on the Kings,

you could tell by the reaction on the bench, how disappointed and upset they were for Dowdy to see him get hurt so quickly and suffer such a painful injury during the preseason. It's funny, like Hiller was asked, do you regret playing Doughty? And I completely understand the question. If I was in there, I would be asking the same question, but it's almost like a trap in the

sense that you have to play guys in the preseason, but it's the absolute worst case scenario. I don't know what you can do to protect against it. It was a fluke play on the second shift of the game. Yeah, and so now, assuming they've got to go for a while without Doughty, if it's not going to be externally where they look for filling the void, I guess Kyle Burrow is a guy who they signed, was in San Jose last year. He ended up playing a ton of minutes the other night against Vegas after Doughty left. Everyone's going to be looking at Brant Clark as a guy who's expected to be a full-time regular player this year and

to take a big step. Who are you looking at in terms of how they go about sorting through this as long as he's out? So whoever moves to Doughty's spot, you assume will play with Mikey Anderson, right? Yes. Because that's the regular number one pair. The first name I thought of was Brant Clark, actually. But one of the reasons, Kyle, they went out and they got Joel Edmondson was they wanted him to play with Clark. So it doesn't sound to me like they want to break up the Edmondson Clark idea. And I think also, while they seem pretty excited about Clark, I think they have a plan for the way this wants to work, and they don't want to vary from it.

What's the old Mike Tyson line? Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, the Kings got kind of punched in the face here, but I think they want to keep this the way it is. So I think Burroughs is the guy who makes a lot of sense. They also have Jordan Spence here. I wonder if they'll try the idea of someone who shoots left like Gavrikov playing on the right side.

Yeah, they may not have a choice. They may not have a choice, but the interesting thing about that is like Jim Hiller is a guy who coached with Mike Babcock, and Babcock's feeling about this was you could do that 10 or 15, 20 years ago, but the game is too fast to do that now. So I'd be curious to see if he decides to do that. But I got to think in the short term, Burroughs is probably going to get a chance to be that particular guy.

But again, it determines how long do they find Doughty to be out. You know, the other thing that should be mentioned about this is that there was some debate about whether or not Drew Dowdy is still a Team Canada guy for the Four Nations faceoff. I don't think there's any doubt in the Canadian staff's mind. I think that they really do feel like Drew Dowdy is going to be someone who's on their team. And as long as he's healthy enough to play, he is going to be on their team.

Yeah. And we heard that's still a big deal for Drew as well. And the other thing that I guess once he got onto the table there in Vegas when they helped him off the ice, the first question was just how long. He's still being fairly good spirits here at all, but that's the question for him going, how long is he going to be? How long? And you know that he's one of those guys, if they say eight weeks,

I'll be back in four. They're going to have to drag him away from the ice to prevent him from competing. So right now, as we sit here and record this podcast from the King's beautiful podcast studios here in El Segundo, which they were gracious enough to let us borrow, you're hoping that it's just bone and not ligaments, and that's still what they're trying to determine. And, you know, this is something else too. It could determine big parts of the Western Conference playoff race. And we wish Drew Doughty a speedy recovery. We hope to see him on the ice again soon.

So, Elliot, you and I and Dom, we're going to be here in SoCal until Saturday. We're actually going to go out and watch the Kings and Ducks play in Ontario, home of the Ontario Reign, the Kings American Hockey League affiliate team on Saturday. The Kings actually don't play any preseason games at Crypto.com Arena, their home building, because the arena is still being renovated. They actually start the season seven straight games on the road before coming back and playing their home opener. So they've got a bit of a grind coming out of the gate. We're going to talk more about their team in general, what the future looks like for the Kings on Monday's pod, along with another interview with Quinton Byfield. But Elliot,

we just came back from Dodger Stadium on Thursday night. We watched the Dodgers clinch the National League West division against their rival San Diego Padres. Shoei Otani was doing his thing again, went three for five, the go-ahead RBI. They had a big seventh inning, five runs they tacked on, and that ended up being enough to take the division. What were your takeaways away from that? Have you ever watched Shoei Otani in person before? No, this was the first time I'd ever seen him in person. And the biggest takeaway I had is the electricity. You think about Los Angeles. What an epic generational run Los Angeles has had. From the Showtime Lakers, to Wayne Gretzky, to Shaq and Kobe Kobe to Mike Trout, even though unfortunately they never won anything with him there,

to LeBron James and now this. Like, think about what it's been like over the past 40 years to be a Los Angeles sports fan. Most of that time, you had a generational player entertaining you on an almost daily basis. And the thing that surprised me in this one tonight was when they won and clinched the division, their celebration was kind of muted. But every time Watani came up, that place was alive.

And he had big hits in their win over the Padres on Wednesday night he had the go-ahead RBI in this one tonight but you can just sense it like every time that guy comes up people are expecting something special he's just on one of those runs now where he always delivers it was a real highlight to go see him this evening. And the thing about LA too, Elliot, they do a tremendous job of recognizing and celebrating the moment. There was also a moment in Toronto tonight between the Maple Leafs and the Canadians,

Nick Robertson and William Nylander. On the back check, Robertson doing something we've seen countless times in the game. The little extra boost from the back to try to help Nylander speed up, and it went completely haywire. The stick into the back of Nylander. He wipes out into Christian Dvorak, I believe,

of Montreal, left the game, did not return. Now, Craig Berube very quickly post game saying it's going to be fine there's nothing to worry about even John Tavares suggested that he saw him afterwards no reason to be worried what did you think of all that there it was similar to what we talked about before with Doughty in the sense of cause and effect like that's the kind of play I've been on the air when people have been praised or it's been kind of laughed that someone tried to make that play and then tonight it just goes horribly wrong you're right they're lucky that it doesn't appear to be that bad for Nylander and it's funny I did get a

text tonight from a coach who said that there are people before who felt that that is horrible play and they don't want their players doing it for that exact reason that you can throw a guy off who's not expecting it um i'm glad for nick robertson considering the offseason that he had that it didn't turn out to be a disaster and he came back to score a goal later in that game because if Nylander had been really hurt or Robertson hadn't come back and had the big goal later in the game that would have been the complete focus for the next couple of days and that's the last thing he needs it was kind of a weird game for Toronto in the sense that you know Nylander got hurt Tavares got hurt and Matthews didn't even play now I don't think they're worried at all about this Matthews injury I think it's just

something that you know why we're in exhibition games he's not going to play there's no need for him to play I'm sure some of these teams are looking at anybody who's even remotely nicked up especially with what happened to Dowdy and they're, we're not going to do anything with these guys. We're not taking any chance. And the other thing, too, is I'm a little surprised, Kyle, in the opening week of the exhibition season, how much there's been a freak out about injuries. You know, for example, in Ottawa, you know,

Allmark played his first first game and we'll get to that in a second but they've been very careful with norris uh zoob has been out and you know just like all the i mean we're still two weeks before we play for real so i think like the way i look at it now is as long as these guys are playing by next week, it's okay. No need to overreact yet, Autowins. Now, if it's next week none of these guys are playing, then you have reason to panic. But I don't think you do yet. Now, the one thing about Zub is I'm out of the impression they don't think it's that serious.

So that's good news for them like the same thing with Sorokin in the island like he you know Patrick Wise said the other night he's not sure what's going to happen in the preseason again I I'm more worried about this if this is happening next week as opposed to this week and Allmark answered a lot of questions by coming out hot and making 28 saves. I have to tell you, like, Ottawa didn't put a great lineup out there, but all of Buffalo's players are overseas. Like, there is no excuse. Even in the first week of the preseason, they shot 41-16 by that Buffalo lineup.

Right. They almost needed special exemption for the lineup that they dressed, right, because of the fact that their NHL group was overseas. You know, I've seen, you know, Dom made a good point, our producer, the way Travis looked, Green looked after that game, that was very Vancouver Travis. We saw that look on his face before in Vancouver, right? You know, he basically challenged a lot of those guys by saying it was going to be their last.

Some of them was going to be their last game in Ottawa because cuts are coming. Again, I don't overreact to the first week of preseason, but I'm sure they were hoping for a better performance from everybody not named Allmark in that game. But, you know, hopefully Allmark answered a lot of questions. He was really good. You know who's not worried about being wrapped in bubble wrap? Matt Dumba. So they have that big rivalry, Stars Wild.

Right, and he was hated in Dallas. I cannot think of a better way to say, hey, I'm on your team now than the 50-foot run he took in the exhibition game the other night. And there are players who think that veterans, like a guy like Devin Shore, who's a veteran player, shouldn't be hit like that in preseason games. Dumbo was like, I do not care. Yeah.

Way to introduce yourself to Dallas because I have no doubt there were Stars fans who were like, Matt Dumba? Really? Yeah. Really? I think right at the outset of free agency, right? Did they not sign on July 1st?

Yeah. I was like, are you kidding me? This guy? Yes. And he, there is no better way to ingratiate yourself into a new fan base than what Dumba did in that game and the other team I noticed too was was San Jose like it's obvious that you know if Smith or Celebrini if someone even looks at them in the wrong direction they've got Giovanni Smith.

They've got some other guys there. They've got Clem Koston there, who's no shrinking violet either. San Jose this year, they sent some messages that if you try to rough up our kids, hey, it wouldn't surprise me if Mike Greer ripped off the suit and put on some equipment. He still looks like he can kill some people out there. Oh, I should ask because we do every podcast

and we'll continue to until it's done. Jeremy Swayman? I didn't hear anything different as of now. And, you know, we should talk about Shisterkin a little bit too because it's been a big topic this week. We touched on it last week that, again, I believe that one of the reasons they've told Truba this will be it is because they've got some big extensions to do.

You know, Shosturkin, I think they're going to sign him. I do. To me, this whole, everything that's come out this week is all about the Rangers saying there's no need to panic here. We are signing this player. We are making him the highest paid goaltender in the NHL. We recognize his importance to us. We know he's the backbone of this team,

and we are signing this player. This is now all about the number. And, you know, I don't know what this number is going to be there's been a lot of reporting it's going to be 12 12 5 11 5 ultimately the the one advantage the rangers have is they have the eighth year right so if shisterkin doesn't sign there he's going to lose a year at a very big number that is the one thing the rangers have in their power but to me and this week everything that's come out this week proves it they're signing him they're signing him it's just a matter of what that number is going to be.

Because if you're the Rangers, you've got to think, you've got a chance at winning again this year. And with that, not wanting any distraction beyond what you can't control has got to be a huge priority for you too to keep the focus on the ice because of what they believe this team is potentially capable of doing. I don't think he'd be bothered by it. I mean, you're right. Like to me, it's tougher if you're in Canada, like even though New York is the biggest media market in North America and one of the biggest in the world, I don't think a player like Shusterkin who, you know, he's not one of those guys who talks every day.

He's not one of those guys who plays every day, even though he plays a ton. And, you know, if it was Aaron Judge, it would be everywhere, every day. It's not quite that for Shesterkin in the States as it would be if he played in Canada. I don't think he's going to be a guy, I could be proven to be totally wrong. I don't think he's going to be a guy. I could be proven to be totally wrong. I don't think he's a guy that's going to be bothered by this. And the other thing, too, is I always remember Bobrovsky. Bobrovsky, his first big deal in Columbus, he told them he wasn't going to talk during the season.

And then he signed a big extension like in December. So I always think that a team can go to an agent and say, look, I know you said you won't talk to us during the year, but we think we can get this done now. And so it's just, I think in Shusterkin's head, the agent could tell Shusterkin, we're not talking during the year, go focus. And you can say, all right, but that doesn't mean the team can't go. And then the agent can come to the player later and say, guess what? The team's ready

to make a deal. And then the player will do it. So I always remember that Columbus Bobrovsky thing. But again, to me, this whole situation reeks of the rangers are doing this it's just a matter of what the number is and some other goalie news too elliot that just came down as we're recording here on thursday out of anaheim just down the way john gibson underwent emergency appendectomy surgery wednesday night expected to be out three to six weeks what's with all the appendectomies caden gooley He had his appendix removed and now John Gibbs. First of all, hope he's okay. Yeah.

Have you ever had your appendix removed? No, not that I know of. Have you? Not that I know of. Was taken from you and sold on the black market without your knowledge. No, no. My sister did, but I didn't.

Just wild to be happening at the start of the season. Boy, that's a really tough one for Gibson, simply because, as everybody knows, Gibson and the Ducks, they're trying to work on something, and this is only going to make it even harder. So hopefully he's okay, and really terrible, terrible timing for him. We wish him the best as well. So hopefully he's okay and really terrible, terrible timing for him.

We wish him the best as well. Ian Clark and the Vancouver Canucks, Elliot, did you want to add a bit? I mean, that one's starting to pick up a little bit of noise. I think that it's known that Clark may move on with the Canucks blessing. I think they're not going to stand in the way here if an opportunity opens for them. New Jersey already has a goaltending department, but he knows Jacob Markstrom well. So we'll see where some of these situations kind of move to but um you know

i think people who followed that situation much closer than uh than i have they really felt that it was likely that um after it was decided that you know clark couldn't go on ice every day this season for his own health because of injuries he suffered, that maybe this marriage wouldn't continue. And I'm curious to see where it's going to go because even though it looks like the relationship between Clark and the Canucks have kind of turned in a bad direction, he's a really sharp guy who really knows goaltending.

And he really played a huge role in Thatcher Demko getting to be who he is and where he is. So I think teams would definitely value that kind of institutional knowledge. So let's go to Philadelphia next, Elliot. Alexey Kolesov, their young goaltending prospect, we talked about a few years ago how it did not seem very promising, the idea of him coming over to Philadelphia. It looked like he was going to stay back home in Russia. There was talks about, would the Flyers trade him and the other teams that would be acquiring him, do they think they had a chance in bringing him over? It sounds like that's all been avoided. He is going to come

to Philly. How did the Flyers and Kolesov sort all of this out? A friend of mine said that Daniel Breyer should be named ambassador to Russia because he seems to be able to solve a lot of problems here. Muskov, Fedotov, and now Kolesov. Now, the bottom line is Kolesov has a contract. And I think in all of our lives, unless you have a really good reason, if you sign a contract, then you have to live up to the terms of it, right? So Kolesov has a contract. From what I heard, and I haven't spoken to him, but I heard that he really thought he may have a better path to the NHL than maybe what was shown at the end of last year or he

thought was possible this year but the bottom line he has a signed contract and the NHL feels very strongly that even though it doesn't have all of the agreements it does you do have to honor each other's contracts so I think Kolesov kind of realized that that's the case this was brewing over the last couple of days, but one of the things about the Flyers is that they're very careful about saying anything because until he actually gets on the plane to come, you just never know what's going to happen. But he's on his way back.

I believe he's going to play exhibition games. I believe he's going to play for the American Hockey League team to start the year unless something happens like an injury or something that gets him in the hl right away to me the the biggest question is and all of the a number of these players have it is the european assignment clause and you know there's some players they have it at the beginning of the season there's some players who agree not to put it in there until a certain part of the year like i'll play in the ahl till say for argument's sake

december 15th and then i'll go back if i'm not in the nhl yet i i believe there's some kind of understanding here that there will be an option open to him if he's not in the NHL by a certain time. But the best thing he can do is show up and play well, because that's the only thing or the best thing that will get him to the National Hockey League. How is Daniel Breer's, I guess, reputation building around the league, like amongst other general managers? He's had to wade his way through a number of issues here coming out of the gate. And he seems to have got through a lot of it quite well.

Yeah, I think he's done a really good job. I think he's got a good reputation. Like I think one of the things about Breer, and we talked about him, we had him on this podcast once, is that, you know, he went out through the ECHL and he did a lot of business work too. that, you know, he went up through the ECHL and he had a lot of business work too. He put in the work and I would bet that doing that kind of helps you prepare for different things. If you've ever ran a company or been a manager in a company, you know that things go haywire on you all the time. So how do you adapt to that? And clearly, you know, that Flyers front office,

navigating Russian players, like there's teams that don't want any part of it now. And there's teams that will do it, but they're afraid of it. The Flyers seem to have a real skill at it. And the one thing that really stands out more than anything else is Mishkov basically making it so that he would end up in Philadelphia. That's a big feather in their cap. This one's a little different. The Flyers had to take a harder line. They had to battle. You know, Fedotov's situation was kind of out of their hands for a while.

had to battle you know fedotov situation was kind of out of their hands for a while this is one where it was it was in their hands but it wasn't but the point they had to make was we can't bend and they didn't bend and for now they've got the player coming over so another file that the flyers have to sort through is ryan johans. So in August, they put him on waivers for purpose of terminating his contract. They did that. And as many expected, it was this week, Ryan Johansson and his camp, they filed a grievance about it all.

So what can you tell us about where things stand there? Yes, so the Players Association announced that they had started the grievance. They had 60 days. And it's interesting, the reaction to this one. And like I said, and I've said since the beginning, the source of this dispute is that this is a player who didn't miss games or practices when he was in Colorado

and he was traded to Philadelphia, and all of a sudden it became an issue. And that was the source of the dispute between the two teams. Now, the one thing I always say, and you have to be very careful about, is that anybody who's played 900 NHL games like Johansson does, they're going to have wear and tear. So I never like to question injuries. There was one thing I did say on the pod i think it was before you took over kyle so you don't have to take any blame for it it's

solely on me is that one when philadelphia announced the waivers the termination it was just after his wedding and he was dancing and you, I had some people say to me that that may have been one of the reasons for the timing. And I had someone call me and he said he didn't think that was fair. And he was more mad at me than he was at Philly or anyone else. He said that, you know, there's a big difference between trying to battle on Zakopitar and dancing at your wedding. And he didn't like the correlation and he didn't like that I brought it up in that way. And so I said, you know what, when I get the chance to talk about it, I'll mention that. And he said he thought that was fair.

Like his point was that you can get injured in the NHL and not be able to play in the NHL. But it doesn't mean you're completely incapable of doing some things like that in your life. So that's what the source of this dispute is going to be about when they go into the grievance process. I always think everybody wants to try to settle this if they can. Neither side likes an arbitrator creating precedents. They really try to avoid that. So I always think they try to settle it, but we'll see where it goes. I think it's going to come down to when Johansson saw doctors, what did they say? And the answers from those doctors will determine who ends up winning or losing or settling this particular grievance.

Okay. So do you know what the next step is in all of this? Now they have to set the arbitration, but I'm assuming there will still be attempts to settle. Okay. Anything else you want to touch on in Philly while we're there? Mishkov. Okay.

Goal and assist on Thursday night. This is going to be, we've talked about it a little bit in the past. If you had to place a wager on Calder, and I said you could, if I was going to give you, say, $50, and say you can place a wager on Calder, and I'll give you Celebrini, I'll give you Miskov, I'll give you Hudson,

because I could be forgetting someone, just in case I'm forgetting anyone. But if I was going to give you that money right now, out of the Rogers Petty Cash Fund, who would you bet it on? Only giving me 50? Yeah. I don't want you to bet something that you're uncomfortable about losing.

And also, if I take more than $50 from the Rogers Penny Cash Fund, they might notice it. Right. That's a good point. I will take Mishkov simply because the opportunity to put up numbers, and that is a big deal when it comes to the calder voting you know what i can tell about that guy right away the flyers players really like him i don't know how much they can all really communicate with each other yet i've heard that when they practice

you can tell there's a lot of gesturing that they're trying to talk hockey to each other i don't know how good his english is yet but the one thing you can really tell watching them play is they really seem to like playing with them and he really likes playing with them yeah igor zamula has a heavy workload this year playing and translating i agree with you i think i think right now Mischkow would be my guy, but I'm looking forward to the Calder race this year. Yeah, it should be a lot of fun. Winnipeg, Elliot. Cole Perfetti, the contract stalemate is over there.

Two-year deal, $6.5 million in total. Perfetti, you could tell just some relief and going, that's behind us. Now I can worry about playing again. Were you surprised that it went as long as it did? We've talked about this for a number of podcasts here now since we came back to start the year. But were you surprised that it was still going

into the second week of camp? First of all, correction, I think the biggest news in Winnipeg this week was Sean Reynolds getting a haircut. Oh my gosh, yeah. how did we forget that that's right he didn't just get a haircut he took an axe to that um but do you think it was in relation to your himbo comment yes he i went on the kenny and renny show and i kind of got the impression it absolutely was i thought he looked great but yeah you know i guess you know i thought so too kind of weak back down for criticism

anyway perfetti but it wasn't criticism sorry criticism go ahead you look great yeah uh perfetti this was one that had to happen because i think everybody knew there was a chance it was going to go off the rails i thought the timing was very important like what does off the rails look like here to me off the rails is you know hard feelings really seeping in and it's it's higher than winnipeg wanted to go and it's probably not as high as perfetti and his camp wanted to go. But it's a good number. Two times 325 is a good number. It's funny, like one GM reached out to me and he said, like, you keep on bringing up Pinto. He said, if I wanted to really bring up a hard line,

I would come back at you with Philip Tomasino. Because Philip Tomasino in Nashville worked them really hard. He signed for eight 25. And, you know, if you look at his numbers, his numbers aren't that far from perfetti. And,

uh, we laughed and we said, this was, uh, me and the GM, we laughed and we said that I'm probably more worker friendly because I'm a worker. And he's probably more management friendly because he's a manager and manager. he said he said you're lucky I'm not negotiating your deal and I said

we'd have a holdout yeah actually you're not supposed to use the phrase holdout anymore you're supposed to say unsigned because it's true you don't have a contract but I just thought it was fine to me it was cole perfetti wants to be a jet i don't ever believe in this conversation a long-term deal was on the table but i think perfetti is happy there and i think the jets know that and eventually and also too the agent knows that eventually you reach a situation where you've got a point of diminishing returns in terms of the relationship between team and player, particularly for a player who's in his first negotiation like this one. It's always better. Get the deal done.

It's better for both sides to be a little bit unhappy than for one or both to be extremely unhappy and good on the Jets and the agent for realizing that. Okay. Did you see the news in your neighborhood this week? The new outdoor stadium that Live Nation plans to build just outside Toronto, Downsview Park area. Well, it's in Toronto.

In Toronto. It's just not in downtown Toronto. Right. Sorry. That's what I meant. 50,000 seats. They hope to have it open by next summer. So an aggressive timeline there.

It's going to be called Rogers Stadium, naturally. You have a theory. You have a theory about. How many, we're going to have to find different names to name things. We've got Rogers Center, Rogers Arena. Rogers Place. Rogers Place. Like who is the person at Rogers who is in charge of the thesaurus?

Oh, we put our name on another one. Yes. Here's what we're going to call it. I think this is where Oasis is actually supposed to play next year. Come on. No, I think that someone was actually saying that to me today. They think that the Oasis tour might end up in- So it's meant to be a concert venue.

It's meant to be a- But the first thing i thought of because my bringing always turns to sports is i wonder if they're going to try to put an outdoor game there yeah it wouldn't surprise me toronto's already had one they had it was a really good one against detroit that was at um bmo field where the soccer team in the yargos now play right but you know that is a area of the city where there is room to park. There is transit there. I've heard that telecoms like to make money.

I don't know if that's true, but I've heard that. I wonder if that's got outdoor game possibility on it. What was your favorite outdoor game that you've been to? That's a great question. The first one between Edmonton and Montreal, just because it was the first one. But the other ones I would name, Michigan Stadium. Obviously, they released Red Wings.

That was a great outdoor game. Buffalo-Pittsburgh, because it was the first one they kind of tried, that was a great outdoor game. Wrigley Field, just because I love the Cubs. Yes, yes. That was a great outdoor game. I've liked most of them. I have to say this.

A lot of the time, you kind of go to like i went to like i think the first 18 i actually counted this once i think i went to this a lot 18 and then you're kind of like oh no another one of these again but then when you go there you get caught up in the excitement and the thrill of it and people have like i like, I didn't go to Nashville, Dallas. When I watched that on TV, I wished it was there. Because the people there looked like they were having a great time with the pig races. That's right. And the walk of shame for Corey Perry when he got kicked out of that game. Like, every time I watch one of these on TV, I kind of wish I was there.

Because people look like they're always having a great time. All right. That'll take us to the final thought presented by GMC. It was announced earlier on Thursday, Elliot, from overseas in Germany that Rasmus Dahlin has been named the new captain of the Buffalo Sabres. Alex Tuck, Dylan Cousins, Matthias Samuelson, Tage Thompson, will be rotating through as the assistants. This seems like a fit. First overall pick in 2018. Seems like he had started to becoming more comfortable in his skin over the years,

having more and more of a presence both publicly and with how that room was ran. What was your reaction when you heard Darlene was the next captain in Buffalo to me the the choices were Darlene Tuck or Thompson like it was one of those three guys who I thought was going to be the next one and I can't argue with the pick of Darlene at all I think it's a it's a great pick you know one of the reasons i really like dallying is a pick is uh and actually all three of these guys have this in common it wasn't the easiest road for all of them they kind of struggled at times early in their careers i mean thompson was basically all but labeled a bust and they picked themselves up off the mat and they became really important players

i really like the choice of dalene i mean you could you could tell the limited amount of times i've been around them like some guys have it he's got it but the other thing too is when you watch teams practice um you can tell like who are the better practice players uh how do teams relate to certain players um do they you know is it someone they respect is there someone they don't respect and it's pretty clear that dalene's got a lot of the respect and um you know the other thing too is he's their highest paid player and you know i i really do think that in a lot of cases um your highest paid player um if he's not your captain should be the most formidable part of your roster and because i think i think um if if he's not there's a lot of things that can go wrong. And I just think that he's the perfect choice for that reason.

I think he's, I can't fault this at all. I'll tell you this, I'm always interested too in who goes around him. You know, like Cousins, who's gotten his sharing an an a he's in the same group um samuelson who's sharing an a he's kind of in the same group like this buffalo team you know they got to make the playoffs this year this is a huge huge year for them and one of the things i really like the sabers have done here is they've basically said to their young core, four out of the five of you are getting letters.

If there's any doubt, it's your team, right? It's your team. Yeah. Really good. New era in Buffalo, in a sense,

bringing back Lindy rough again, the expectations to make the playoffs and R Rasmus Dahlin leading the charge as the new captain. That was the final thought presented by GMC. When we come back, the thought line and our conversation with Jim Hiller, the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings. Plenty more still to come. Stay tuned.

Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, Elliot, time now for the Thought Line. A reminder, the number to call, 1-833-311-3232. The email address, if you'd like to write in, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. A lot of great entries this week, Elliot, from all over, not just North America, but the world here. We're very fortunate how many people take time to reach out to us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Please keep doing it. Let's go. We will begin with Eric in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Good day, Elliot and Kyle. I listened to the September 20th podcast and Riley from Saskatchewan asked when music started in the hockey fan experience. I have an article that references an old newspaper publication in 1867 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, near Halifax, that a hockey game was played between the army and Navy with about 1500 fans and a large band even even attached the article so i i wanted to bring this up because i hope like by the end of the season we get an entry being like not long after the roman empire like it just keeps going further and further back but it's great that our listeners the pride of dartmouth they're saying wait a sec kyle's a moron for suggesting that it was chicago

and we're going to prove he's a moron by bringing in contemporary articles that say it was 1887 in Dartmouth. Ladies and gentlemen, please continue to submit questions that show that Kyle is dumb. That's not hard. That's not a hard thing to do. But we thank Eric for that,

and I wanted to include that because it sets up our next submission. Mr. parts unknown just for you someone's listening that's right yeah very good yeah i like that good on you mr x whoever you may be kyle and elliot the question last week about the first music in arenas got me wondering if you were a player and had to choose your own goal song what would you choose so one of my favorite uh songs i believe i used to use this is my uh music on during radio hits in both vancouver and nashville is it's the end of the world and we know it by arianne oh wow great i love that song i thought it was great entrance music for me personally. So that would be my tune. What's yours?

Well, I just, the idea of you scoring a goal at any level of hockey is a sign that the world is ending. So that's very fitting. I still remember my first one. Really? How old were you? What was the scene? I was in, I think I was in Peewee because I played defense a lot.

And so I wasn't back then,, there was like a cord on your neck that didn't let you over the red line. And I wasn't the most aggressive kid, I will say. I was a bit of a soft kid, unfortunately. But I was playing wing, and somebody – one of the better players on our team, a guy named Sean Atkins, who passed away a few years ago, but was a really good player. He had a good shot.

He missed the net, and it banked off the back boards and came out the other side of the net where I was, and the goalie couldn't get there fast enough, and I jammed it in. I still remember it. That's awesome. My teammates cheered in disbelief that I'd actually scored. I'm happy for you. Thanks.

Yeah. I can sense the happiness. No, it's those core memories, right? It's fun when they get brought up again. I'm going with Everywhere by Michelle Branch, the chorus in particular. Really? Yes. That'll get the crowd going.

I didn't know you were a Michelle Branch type. She had some great hits back in the day. She really belted out. Yep. Okay, we'll go to a voicemail next. Hey, guys. It's Shafiq from Calgary calling here. And I had a quick question for you regarding training camps

and PTOs in particular. So I'd love to know how exactly the compensation works for players who are signing PTOs this time of year. And that was it. Last but not least, keep up the great work, guys. Thank you for making the graduate school much more tolerable. Take care. So this is a question we've got a few times over the last few weeks,

and I wanted to include it naturally with training camps getting going and a number of players in the PTO situation. So what's the answer? Basically, you get treated as if you're on the roster. So you get your per diem, you get access to the facility, you can have the meals that they prepare for the players. But it's as if you are on the roster for per diems and things like that. However, you're not under contract.

The other thing people should remember about PTOs that they sometimes forget, and we sometimes forget, is let's just say a player like Sammy Blais, he's on a PTO with Vancouver. He doesn't have to just sign with Vancouver. He can just sign with anybody. Okay doesn't have to just sign with Vancouver. He can just sign with anybody. Okay. Let's go overseas now, Elliot. Axelly, apologies if I got the pronunciation wrong, but Axelly from Hausjarvi in Southern Finland. Hello from the already dark Hausjarvi in Southern Finland. My name's Axeli, and I have a question regarding European player drafts. I've heard that some Finnish junior teams

or Liga teams that grow players get compensated when their players get drafted into the NHL. Is this true, and how does the money get decided?

Is there some sums that get bigger when the player is drafted in the first round, or is it always the same? Huge thank you to the pod, to both of you, handsome hosts,

and Dom. Oh, I like this guy. Hold on, he also adds, I love listening to it is it always the same huge thank you to the pod to both of you handsome hosts and dom oh i like this guy hold on he also adds i love listening to it while playing nhl on xbox although my girlfriend doesn't like it because i can't hear what she says well i'd like to stay out of domestic disputes i would like to say that all right so draft compensation then elliot but first of all i am glad that our guys this is why i like fins because they recognize our handsomeness yes a huge fan of the finnish people um and so i don't know the exact amounts um because they've been renegotiated over time and i don't know what they are right now. But yes, if a team gets a player drafted, then there is an amount that they get from the NHL. So honestly, I can't answer right now what the amounts are per round.

But yes, you are right about what you heard, and there is compensation. And that's why, for example, for example, like some of these teams, like a seventh-round pick might not mean a lot to us watching the draft, but they mean a lot to these teams. The difference between a player getting drafted and, you know, a player signing as a free agent down the road, it is money to the teams. And, you know, to be honest, in russia that was one of the big issues between russia and the nhl over the transfer agreement is that russia thought that the money

that the play that they were getting paid for their players getting drafted was simply not enough for what they felt they were putting in in terms of developing the players so that was one of the big issues okay last one ke one, Kevin from Ellicott city, Maryland. Hey guys, first off, so happy to have hockey and the podcast back up and rolling. I've been reading Ken Dryden's book and finding him to be such an interesting character. At times, I almost feel the story of his last season could be made into a movie, which got me thinking what player or event in hockey would you guys want to see a movie made about my mind goes to slava kozlov's time in the ussr and defecting to the us can't wait to hear

your answers here's to many more years of 32 thoughts this is a fun one well one thing i would say kevin is if you're interested in pieces like that a few years ago at Sportsnet, they did a piece on Alexander McGilney's defection of the Buffalo Sabres. And you can easily find that online. It's a beautifully done piece. And among the people that were interviewed, if I remember correctly, were Jerry Mean and Don Luce, who were very big in the Sabres organization in terms of helping McGilney get to North America. So if you're looking for something like that, I would recommend that particular Sportsnet piece, not because I work for Sportsnet, but because it's actually a really, really well done piece that I believe won some awards and deserve them.

Boy, that's a great question. One of the first names that jumps to my mind is Mario Lemieux. Just think about everything he went through, the battles to come back. That's a great question. One of the first names that jumps to my mind is Mario Lemieux. Just think about everything he went through, the battles to come back, the returns from retirement. I would love to hear some of the things he went through off the ice just to get himself able to play, and also the negotiations that the money was owed to him from the Penguins and how he became an owner and how he ran that team

and Crosby staying with him early in his career. I think the Lemieux story would be really good, but I also think you try to think about some of the real characters of the game, whether now or back then. characters of the game, whether now or back then. And I would say this, like you think of some of the guys who played minor league hockey for as long as they did. I would love to hear the stories of people who played minor league hockey for some guys played for like 20 years. Um, especially, you know, you think about you know we don't have as many of them anymore but there were a lot of guys who fought in minor

league hockey for 15 to 20 years like dennis bonvey i think he's a scout now um frank by a lois nasty nasty morasty you know that's it's it's a great name and a great nickname i bet you some of the stories that they have about you know playing hockey in so many minor leagues for so long and they were beloved in their communities those would be the players i would really think of yeah and a reason why like that untold documentary on the danbury trashers was so compelling yeah for a lot of those reasons too i'm gonna go so he said player or like event or team i'm gonna take the 2002 team canada the salt lake olympics i would love a movie about how all of that unfolded that's a great one my generation like that was our summit series our 87 canada cup of course there was even

you know some political tension between Canada and US at the time. The fact that it was in the US playing the Americans in the gold medal game, all the drama behind the loony getting blown out by Sweden in the first game, the press conference by Wayne Gretzky, how tight the quarterfinal was against Finland, and then getting a layup with Sweden being upset by Belarus playing them in the semifinals. And that whole tournament like so many good stories obviously when you look at the roster that Canada fielded there how many hall of famers and the all-time great players that that all came together to capture that gold

medal I would love a little more storytelling and uh some sort of whether it was a documentary or a movie on that team and that tournament. Tim Warrensby wrote a good book about it, but you're right. There is a documentary to be made there. The Lucky Loony, things like that. That's a good call. All right. That was our latest.

Hold on one second. Before we go to the end, I did get a note from someone about the future considerations question last time. They basically said you were trying to be too careful and your answer wasn't very good so basically um basically he said this is an executive in the league future considerations means nothing you really can't have a trade with nothing going the other way so you have to say future considerations but you know what what he said was you kind of didn't explain it right enough that you can't have pre-arranged follow-on deals so there's no actual future consideration so future considerations

is generally we're not giving you anything but we can't say that. Yes, and a great reminder of how poor a job you typically do at explaining things. The Thought Line, 1-833-311-3232 and 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Back to wrap from this SoCal edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast after this. Okay, before we get to our interview, we wanted to mention this past Monday, a big event in Toronto. Hold on a second. I just have one question for you. Go ahead.

What is it that you travel with? What do you mean travel with? For my coffee? Yeah. I just learned this today. You want to bring this up on the pod? Yeah. I think this is actually very interesting.

I just learned you're a huge coffee guy. Well, no, you didn't just learn this because we talked about it. You just not to remember. I didn't remember until this morning that you were a big coffee guy. Great. So I look forward to like in February,

you're like, hey, I want to ask you. No, now that I brought up on the spot, I will remember it. Okay. So while I travel with what's called a narrow press, they have a travel version of that for brewing the coffee.

I travel with a scale to measure your water and coffee amounts because that's a big part of it. And also just a manual small grinder because grinding your beans fresh is a big part of getting the best flavor out of it. So what is the ideal? Like I like my coffee, but I'm not like this. Okay. Um, I'm not weird. So, uh, why, uh, what I want to know is what is the ideal, when you measure it, water to beans, what is the ideal? I think it's a 16 to 1 ratio, I believe, for a typical pour over.

I could be way off with that, but I believe it's around 16 to 1. It can vary depending on what type of roast the coffee is. And a lot of that stuff I don't know about. I'm still very much learning. And it's not like I have eight cups a day. I'm one, maybe two max, but I just love the art behind it, the process of making it. I know a lot of people listening to, well, why would you just go down to the lobby and get a coffee? No, no, no. I understand this. You totally could, but I enjoy the process of it. And what's great, getting a chance to travel throughout the year. I mean, sometimes I'll just bring some coffee beans from home,

but getting to go to different roasteries wherever we are on the road, bringing it back home and also trying it in the hotel. So I'm trying to get you an endorsement here so i want 25 if this works if you can land it you got it what is what is the you kevin o'leary now you're like we're on shark tank that's right i'm trying to help you here okay where's the best cup of coffee in in the nhl man uh there's a place in denver called corvus yeah they do a really good job that's up there there's a place in Denver called Corvus. They do a really good job. That's up there. There was a place in New York called Everyman Espresso. I'm not sure if it's still there, but I remember that knocked my socks off the first time. In Canada, we're very lucky. There's a number of good spots. September Coffee in Ottawa locally, just because I'm there and I've had a chance to try it a few times.

That one really stands out. The other one I should mention too, in Toronto, Sam James Coffee Bar. They've got a really good thing going there. I actually had a chance to go visit their headquarters, see the roastery and all that, meet Sam. A really bright mind in the coffee world and does a lot for the other cafes and roasters in the area wanted to mention them as well um but there's a time like the the coffee community elliot like you would be blown away no i wouldn't i've actually heard about this okay nothing surprises you no that's actually a very good imitation, but I'm not surprised. I actually have heard that you're not the only person.

You're not the only weirdo like this. No. The big coffee expos every year, I believe last year it was in Chicago. It is a massive, massive job that they put on. I don't know if it's quite Comic-Con levels, but there's a lot of people that go to it. All right. So let's get back to what we were doing initially before this detour.

So Monday, Elliot. Yes. Amazon, the big premiere or big unveiling of their broadcast team for their Monday night games this season in Canada. And also a little more insight

into what they are calling Face Off inside the NHL, a six-part docuseries that drops on October the 4th. The first look at the trailer was dropped this week too. to what they are calling Face Off, inside the NHL, a six-part docu-series that drops on October the 4th. The first look at the trailer was dropped this week, too. First off, were you at the event? No, because I was at a charity event in Montreal.

That's right, that's right. But they had William Nylander on stage talking about it, and even just the trailer alone, a lot of people are reacting to Conor McDavid in the room, but we have the audio of William Nylander on the bench against boston stop crying bro what was your thoughts when you saw all of this rolled out well we've talked about this a little bit about what we'd heard was coming and i don't think anybody was disappointed by what they saw at the premier event um it was bill daily came on in vegas and talked about how teams didn't have any control over it.

I heard, subsequent to when we talked about it, I heard that most teams were actually really good. Like a lot of the teams, as a matter of fact, a couple teams actually reached out to say to me that we wanted noted that most teams were actually pretty good because I've written about this before but Gary Bettman sent out a memo to the teams last December in December of 2023 there had been some refusal to wear mics and he said that the future of our league depends on cooperation with this kind of thing so most of the teams said they really got the message and they didn't interfere. The other thing I really heard was that people were kind of blown away by how the players were accepting of it. Yes.

You know, Nylander, I saw the interview he did that day where he said, look, I watch these kinds of shows, so I was happy to participate. But I think they were really blown away by how much players like McDavid were willing to do it and several of the other players were willing to do it. And from what I understand, the players put up almost no fight at all in terms of what it was. And, you know, it's interesting. I saw McDavid's interview this week where he said, I really didn't want to become the star of this, but I did hear there was a McDavid scene that a lot of people, specifically,

I think the people at Amazon were very excited for people to see. And I don't think it was the one when they lost. I think it was that one. It was, it was clearly that one. And, you know, you know, people, you know, the thing about McDavid is, um, and I, and I've said this before, I think the guy is a killer i think he really wants to win i think he really wants to beat people and i think if there's anybody who has a question about his willingness to win it's going to be over once they see this full scene but you know again uh you know as as someone who works in the business, Kyle, I admit it frustrates me that it's not us doing this, that we have to credit Amazon because I would love all this stuff to air all over Sportsnet. But look, this is where we're going.

And, you know, we always say the NHL has to do more and do more and do more. And it's very clear that they recognize the time has come and they're going to. and do more, it's very clear that they recognize the time has come and they're going to. And I hope this is only the beginning of a league where they recognize that this is what has to be done and we have to push our lines even more. You know, the interesting thing about it is when that happened on the Maple Leafs bench in the playoff series, before the next game, we reported what happened on Sportsnet.

And at the time, no one would talk about it. They wouldn't admit it. It turned out we were exactly right about what happened. The face-off play had crumbled. We didn't have the exact words. And this week, I got a call from someone who said, you know, one of the things that kind of happened when everybody was working on that was there was a lot of talk about how much more valuable it would be for the Amazon series if nobody confirmed what happened so that we could quote unquote break it on the Amazon series at this point of the year. So like, for example, when the Oilers put out that clip of the after game seven yes in the room i don't think everybody was very happy about that because they're kind of they they really wanted

to push the breaking of these behind the scene moments to amazon they valued the relationship with amazon so it was it was funny this guy was saying to me is all the discourse was going on about that maple leaf face-off play they were kind of like okay i know these guys have to ask about it but we really have to make sure that the most valuable stuff is saved for this piece yeah so it's just another example of, even though Amazon's doing a documentary and we're kind of in the news business, it's all competition. All competition.

Right. And in fairness to the Oilers, their production team, I mean, they had been giving behind-the-scenes snips all throughout the playoffs, right? It's not like that came out of nowhere. Yes.

But I understand where the Amazon was coming from. I also like what Quinn Hughes said this week, too, where he's going, naturally, I'm a pretty private guy. I wasn't totally comfortable. But when you see the other stars the other big names that had signed on to do this he kind of felt well who am i to say no to all of this because

as you say as great as it could be conceptually to have the idea to do this if you don't have the player buy-in it goes nowhere and clearly just from the brief trailer that's been out there they got it well that's a captain the hughes i give him credit for that recognizing that i will tell you this periodically in sports net they have talked about doing that for our saturday night show like a behind the scenes show really yes they have they have come to us before and asked us about the possibility of doing it. And in my case, I was concerned about two things. Number one, I wouldn't want any of the phone calls I do with people around the league. Oh, following you around.

All of us. Okay, sorry. All of us. I got you. Okay. Like I said, my concern was like I wouldn't want any audio or the ability to know who I was talking to because you don't want sources revealed. And like to be honest, I was concerned about how everybody would react to the way like people like Kevin and I talk to each other. But like look, like I think it's only like a matter of time before that starts happening in the TV business too, where it's not only about, you know,

what you're doing on the air, but it's about what you're doing off the air. That would be phenomenal. Our pickleball match yesterday. Can you imagine? That would be the least rated show of the whole series. Thank God that beat down didn't get recorded. Yeah. Oh, that beatdown didn't get recorded. Yeah, that's right.

Kyle with the coffee grinder, as Tom says. Just Kyle making his coffee. My goodness. Yeah, it's a shock, really, that this show hasn't come to life yet. Just think of the possibilities they have, the great personalities they can follow around. Let's get to our interview, shall we, Elliot? Absolutely. So earlier on Thursday, we were out at the Toyota Sports Performance Center, the LA Kings

practice facility. Really need to be able to spend some time around the team as their group takes shape as the preseason rolls on here. Got a chance to sit down with Jim Hiller, head coach of the Kings. 22 years he's been in the coaching business, has lived quite an interesting life in hockey. We'll get into his background, the vision he sees for the Kings going forward, the pride of Port Alberni, B.C., the head coach of the Kings, Jim Hiller, our conversation with him. Enjoy. Jim Hiller, the head coach of the LA Kings, joins us here now.

Jim, great for you to join us. Welcome to the podcast. You've lived a pretty interesting life in hockey, and you've been around it a long time, been a lot of different places. I guess we'll just start with that. I mean, when you think back to how you ended up here, ultimately, as head coach of the Kings where does your mind first go to oh well you know what honestly it goes to probably sitting on my couch watching hockey with my dad watching Wayne Gretzky play for the Oilers and then

Wayne Gretzky being traded from the Oilers to the Kings. And I think it was maybe four or five weeks after that, I was, no, I think I've got, you'd have to correct me on the date. I either got drafted by the Kings, yes, first, and then Gretzky got traded to the Kings. Yes. And then I got to play with the Kings. And I think a lot of times the first, you know, players move around in hockey, but the team that drafts you and the first team you play for you, it has a special place for you. So now to come all the way back and be the head coach of the Kings is pretty special because the Kings were always, in a sense, you know, my team.

They always felt like that. So that's the loop. It was always watching Wayne Gretzky play and then getting a chance to get drafted and play for the team he played with and now coach the team and I don't know who it was somebody told me before in a press conference how many players who played their first game and coached their first game head coach for that same team not that many in NHL history well let's take this story a bit further because your first camp weren't you on Gretzky's line? I was, yeah.

Barry Melrose was the coach, and shout out to him. He had a pretty good impact on me. And when I came in, he put me right away with Wayne and said, relax, just play. That's where I got you slotted in. And thrill of a lifetime. Five or six days before he left with an injury, I had to get his back worked

on uh trading camp days uh all those trading camp games were unfortunately probably the highlight of my career i mean i would have like i you know i i don't know if i can use this phrase but i would have bleed bricks if i was a rookie at my first camp and they said you're going to be wayne gretzky's winger yeah like how did you handle it? You mentioned watching with your dad. Did you call your dad and say, you're never going to guess who I'm playing with? No, I don't remember exactly, but I remember for whatever reason it should have been.

I wasn't intimidated. I was just so excited. And probably it was, you know, probably should have been more excited as my career went on, but that week or whatever it ended up being, you know, it was just some of the most exciting hockey or time in my life as a hockey player. And then your last year pro, you were over in Italy, right? With Milan.

Like what was pro hockey in Italy like in the early 2000s? Right. I had played five years in Germany before that. And my good buddy who I played college with was in Italy. And so I thought I'd play for one more year. So I went over there and played with him. And it was great. What an experience. Because, you know the hockey in Italy, you know,

in Europe is in itself is one thing, but we lived in Milan and just the, just the chaos of that city. I think that was really the thing I'll remember most. Tell us about it. What was, what was the chaos? Well, you know, it's just, Germany was, was very know organized the city you know that and Italy was just a little more free-flowing so I was talking about today park you just kind of parked your car where you wanted to park your car at that time and it was no such thing as parking spots I remember going to the soccer game at San Siro watching AC Milan and just cars everywhere no you just pulled

up and parked your car and you were boxed in. So you would have to wait for the other people to come before you were leave. And so it was just that kind of thing. It was just very free flowing. Wasn't used to that. Wow. How was the quality of play when you were there?

No, there wasn't a high quality of play. No, it was not. But I played again with my, my buddy, Scott Beattie and patrice lafave the three of us were aligned never patrice lafave what a score what a player so you know we

probably had more experience than most players in league we had a pretty good line so it was fun to play we scored a few goals right after that you basically jump right into coaching so where along the way did that bugs first start to to grab you how did it all come about well you know what it did when i played college uh northern michigan university uh you know we had a team that was pretty good we were an older team and we went and went to national championship in 91 and i i just kind of saw the outcome and impact the coaches could have on our team none of us were high-end players by any means. There were way more talented teams.

And we just had a special bond with the players. I thought the coaches did a good job. It really made an impact on me on what kind of an impact the coach could have on a team. And so at that point, I thought, you know what? I think I'd like to do this when I'm finished playing. So I got an early start on it as far as when I was playing pro and bouncing around just kind of would i do this this work you talk to your teammates did you like that what do you what would you do different um so you do get a little bit of a background on on the player's perspective of the coach so who was your coach on that national

championship team it was rick calmly and what did he do well like what what what did you say i know he was he was a disciplinarian he was very strict you know at that time he could be more like that um and i just think the players had a lot of respect not only for him we had walt kyle mori gary were two other coaches on that team uh i think the players just had a lot of respect and belief and trust in the coaching staff and i think was we just worked together. It just worked. We ended up winning. And so how do you win when you're not supposed to win?

You know, you've got to have good players, but you've got to have good coaches too. So the whole thing worked. I thought he did a good job of establishing discipline, but still letting us have fun. Every year it comes with the challenges and things you prepare for. We're talking on Friday morning. Thursday night you're in Vegas We're talking on Friday morning, Thursday night,

you're in Vegas and two shifts into the game, your number one defenseman gets hurt. Like how does it throw everything into like a spinner? Well, you know, you don't like to see that happen to anybody. First of all, your team or anybody else's. But Drew is such a competitor. I know we talked about him earlier this week, and he's just the ultimate hockey player, Drew. When you think about hockey, you think about Drew Dowdy.

He's competitive. He loves it. He's passionate about the sports. He loves his teammates. And the thing I'll remember most from that moment when he went off is, and I kind of looked down and I just caught it down our bench. And I saw some of our veteran players, like, actually like banging their stick against the boards in frustration when he

left the ice. And this goes to show you the respect they have for him. And they knew, you know, he's out. It doesn't look good. We don't know what's going to happen, but we're going to miss him. We're going to miss him in a lot of ways, not just on the ice, but he's a true leader of the team, one of the true leaders of the team. And, yeah, so, you know, we'll regroup and we'll take it from there.

But sad to see. So do you address the team about it, like at the rink the next morning, giving his presence and the role that he plays in all of this here? How do you go about the next day? Right. No, I just talked to a couple of our other you know veteran defensemen and you know if drew's not going to be around who knows for a while then what does that require from you guys not just on the ice but off the ice there's a there'll be a void in leadership and some other guys can step up and fill that void well it's one thing i remember one of the first coaches i dealt with his always line was always no matter how good someone is one person's injury is another person's opportunity and that's the only thing you can do as a coach even if it's one of your star players

you have to convince other players that is their chance to do the job and there's been so many examples over time in every sport where somebody's gone out it doesn't always work this way but somebody gets their opportunity and rises i think a tom brady first of all now we're not talking that level but somebody does somebody gets the opportunity they don't always take it to that degree um and in our case there will be more opportunity for sure and and i think we have guys that are ready for that and can fill some of that void. Not all of it for sure.

We've got an idea who that might be, but let's see. It might be somebody else that might surprise us. So what I just heard is that Brant Clark is Tom Brady. That's what I just heard. We'll see. We'll see if it's Brant, but it could be others. If you think about the right side, Jordan Spence, Kyle Burrows played 25 minutes in that game.

So we've got other opportunities and then there's other guys that can play the right side who are left shots. We got to sort that out. No question. So one of the things that you kind of addressed it there is that there's certain things in the la organization that you know are constants no matter what's happened the last 15 years the calmness of anza kopitar and the laugh of drew dowdy yeah and one of the things i know you guys have kind of addressed is

you kind of thought you had a calm quiet team and you wanted to make it a little bit louder and a little bit more boisterous, and that's what a guy like Tanner Cheneau does. How do you deal with, not necessarily on the ice, but just Drew off the ice? Oh, I have a great relationship. I like talking to Drew because Drew, again, you just think we're all in this game of hockey because we love it,

and Drew is one of those guys that loves it as much or more than anybody I've ever been around. So he'll talk about the game. He'll talk about his teammates. What do you need from me? What like he's just all in, he just wants to win. And I think that's the him and Kopi together just want to win. It's a, it's a, I know everybody wants to win, but they want to win and they have won. And it's for me as a coach to be around those guys in that way,

it's really helpful because you just know the message. You just know what the, what their ultimate goal is. It's, it's not about anything else, but winning. What's it been like for you waiting for a head coaching opportunity in the nhl um you know i've been i've enjoyed it i i had hoped that i would have got you know maybe more opportunity sooner like everybody always does you think you're ready and you're waiting for your opportunity and and uh but what do you do You just try to put your head down and do the best job you can and continue to build your resume and hope that at some point you do get your chance.

And, you know, nobody likes to take over from a friend. And Todd, you know, brought me in, an excellent coach, a great person. Nobody likes those circumstances, but we know how the game works. So when your name is called, you just got to go and try and do the best you can. I've really enjoyed it. I didn't know if it would go beyond last season. I'm glad it did, of course. Really enjoyed the end out last year, but I'm really enjoying this. We've got more time. We've been able to plan practice and execute and think about systems and all those kinds of things.

Really enjoyed getting prepared for this season. One of the hardest things that any coach has, they've told me, is going from an assistant coach on a team to the head coach on a team. Because players, like when you're assistant coach, a lot of the time you're the good cop. And when you have to switch to being the bad cop like players can smell phoniness from a mile away how did you manage that well that's right i think it's a great challenge i think you framed that really well i think you have to be authentic you know and i think you could be authentic as an assistant coach if you know whatever your role is um but then when you make that uh leap you just have to be who you are.

And the guys know who you are. So if you try to be something different, they'll know that that's not you. So, of course, you've got to carry a heavier hand at times. That comes with the territory. But I still think, you know, they've got to know the person. If the person's being authentic, then I think everybody's able to accept that. And for me, like I said, I just to to Kofi and Drew specifically you know they set the tone for the team and and when I came in they supported me and have supported me

and once your leaders follow once your leaders you know you get the support from your leaders you know the other guys typically follow so one of the stories I kind of heard was early in your time there was a seven, nothing loss in Buffalo. And that was a challenge because you, you had to address them. And someone said to me, that was a big meeting because you, and I know you're never going to tell me who you said what to, but I just heard that you, that you made it clear that whether you were a star player or you were the 20th guy on the roster, that was not going to be acceptable. What can you tell us about that meeting that you can share?

Not much. See, that's no fun. That's definitely not the answer I'm looking for. You shouldn't have brought me on. You know how it works. When we had our first game, Edmonton came in. They were playing well. We played a good game.

We got some great goaltending that night. We beat the Oilers. It was a great night for our team because we'd been struggling. So then you go to the next game and we lose 7-0. So, you know, as a coach, you hope you get a little more runway than game two, losing 7-0. And obviously losing 7-0 is unacceptable. is unacceptable so you know we had to have a meeting and just make sure that everybody was clear on what you know the the standard was going to be and the approach was going to be and if we didn't play well what the response from the coach was going to be and uh yeah like i said it would like a little more runway but it was it was put on the fire at that moment and so we we addressed what we thought the standard would be and and um and what the tone of that sounded like so when did you start to feel that like

okay we're still we're going to be okay here once you took over oh well you know i was looking forward to the next game was against jersey yeah i was looking forward to how we would might respond to that game and uh you know as again it Again, it was a big game for us. The other point and thing I have to remember is how important every point was for us at that point. So we couldn't have afforded to get mad at the coach or be frustrated and lose two or three games in a row early. We had to get some momentum.

And so as great as it was to beat the Oilers and lousy as it was to lose to Buffalo like that, we had to get ourselves back going again. We went out and played a great first period in Jersey and then continued on through the game, won late. I think Quentin scored late on power play. Won the game, went into Boston, beat them, went into Pittsburgh, beat them. So we got ourselves going with some momentum again.

We got home, and I think we felt pretty good about that at that point. Okay, so I always want to good about that at that point. Okay. So, you know, I always want to talk about, you know, who you learned from. You talked about your college coach. But I'm curious. We talked briefly about that meeting after the 7-0 game. What was the game in your career that you never saw a coach lose it on a team that you played for or even you coached with? Oh, that's a really good question that is a good question because i know oftentimes as players you you interpret it

in different ways not always the way the coach intends the meeting to go you can interpret it differently sometimes as players like wow this guy lost it tonight uh but i don't know i don't there's not one that jumps into my head. And there could be one, but I'm not going to share. But good question. Let's leave it at that. Good question. I get a sense we're leaving a lot of good stuff on the cutting room floor here.

Good question. Good question. We'll give you some. We're not giving you everything. We'll save some. So let me go with this one. I have heard that one of the people that you really credit a lot is jacques lemaire so what did jacques lemaire teach you about coaching that you do well i don't know i couldn't compare myself to jacques i think

if i took anything from jacques or the biggest thing from jacques is just this just that the game is simple, the simplicity of the game, to make sure it's very clear to the players, but not to overcomplicate it. Everybody has to work hard. You have to be on the defensive side of the puck to give yourself a chance. And just not, I guess I would come back to it again, just not overcomplicating it. Just the players are tremendous athletes, smart players, give them the structure, hold them accountable to it, but just make sure that they're not overthinking, that they can

play within it. Because the last thing you want to do is, is slow anybody down. It happens so fast out there. So, you know, hopefully I've tried to do that i know we all like to think you know we can do this better and that and all these different things but try to always keep the player in mind and uh and try to help the player get better you mentioned your authenticity as as a coach and in dealing with young players i feel for years now we've heard about well it's it's different like you can't yell at them there's got to be a why there's

a certain level of communication um that's been out there but also young players now i feel like they've got a lot more leverage than maybe they've ever had before so what's it like as a coach now in dealing with the new wave of players each year and how you go about connecting with them well i mean a pretty standard answer i think that you have to communicate with them more than you ever have. But I also believe you have to communicate with them on their level. And their level is social media, not that I'm a social media guy, but their music, their social media, their what they're watching, not necessarily on TV, but on YouTube. You know, the UFC is popular. So some of the things that are important to them to let them know that you're kind of with them. It's not just this coach player relationship where it just ends there. I think, you know, they probably have less. If I want to talk about what I'm doing in my life, probably not that interesting.

But with what's going on with their life, I think if you can have some common ground there that that makes a difference i i'll i'll take quentin byfield as an example because through my kids i love the kid leroy he's phenomenal the kid leroy and so i went playing it in the dressing room here and like i wasn't getting a lot of love from the boys with the kid leroy when i came in here but quentin is a a Kid Leroy fan. So him and I connect on the Kid Leroy. And so I think I went to his concert this summer. We're going to try to get him to come down to a Kings game. And I know he's talked about Quentin. I talked to him about Quentin.

And those kinds of things where it's just a little bit more personal. You find common ground. That's awesome. And the younger player, I think it's important. Do you lean on your kids at all for what's going on? Oh, yeah. Listen, I didn't find out the kid laroy on my own yeah my kids definitely uh i have 19 and 23 year old boys so kind of in the sweet spot okay by the way you look like you could compete in ufc too jim

yeah yeah well we got berger i gotta keep up with berge in some way nobody could ever keep up with berge mark berger and he's in great shape yeah berge is in great shape. Let's – a bit more on that. Like you're turning over your team a little bit this year. Like the goal is for Byfield to take even more of a role. You mentioned Brant Clark. We've got Jordan Spence, Turcotte, Akil Thomas. So the goals for the Kings are – like you've made the playoffs three years in a row.

You never want to go backwards, but you're putting some new young guys into some big spots here. So how do you get them in there, but also let them know the standard cannot slip even a little bit. Well, again, I'll just go back to the culture and to, you probably got to go all the way back to the, you know, early two thousands or 2010s where they were building to win a Stanley Cup

and Trevor Lewis was there, Kofi and Drew were there. So you have that. That's been ingrained in the Kings system and you can never lose that. And the beauty of those veteran players is they live that. So when you're coming up as a younger player, you just see that. And I think that's going to carry the franchise through for so many years forward as you've got these younger players.

If we use Quinton as an example, to come in in behind, and you could see Quinton being here for the next 15 years and carrying that torch. Longtime Kings who have learned about what winning's like winning stanley cups are from some of the you know some of the greatest players that are that are played in their in their generation um here in town so that standard has to be kept there's just it's just it's it's not an option it just has to be and and uh i think the players abide into that they respect our leaders

and i don't think that will ever change. I have a couple of names I want to ask you about. Lou Lamorello. Oh, love him. He won't be listening. Lou doesn't listen to this stuff. But I'll tell you what. That's why he's so sane.

So much respect for Lou. He's helped me so much. Of course, I spent three years with him in Toronto, three years with the island. And you talk also about a mentor in uh in so many ways um just a gentleman give a lesson you want some more elliot yeah of course i want i don't know who you would hear from first me or lou hear from you or from me no no believe me if i ever do anything bad i'll get a call from yeah but i don't want to get a call no but there has to be something you've seen the way he does things or the way he approaches things that you that he would smile if he heard

yeah no well listen uh i'll just say two things lewd just wants to win he just wants to win. He just wants to win. Nothing else matters as you know and he will take care of every detail to help you make that happen. That's that's you know that's he's just all in on winning and every detail the no stone unturned. Okay Mike Babcock. Uh gave me my chance and I respect him for that. He, I was a junior coach and he was, you know, on the cusp of the Olympics and all those kinds of things. And he took a chance on me to, to give me my first job. I respect him for that. And, uh, yeah, he gave me my chance and I'll, I'll remember that. And hopefully there's a day I can give a young coach a chance to. DJ Smith. DJ Smith. Oh, my gosh.

DJ Smith. Yeah. DJ makes me laugh. Anybody who's been around DJ knows that, you know, within two or three minutes, never two or three minutes long without you laughing. He's just a fun-loving guy, loves hockey, loves life, and he's taught me a lot about hockey.

He's taught me a lot about hockey, play without the puck. I think he's got a tremendous mind for the game without the puck in particular. And I've learned a lot from him. Well, I was going to follow up on DJ because I remember when you were two on the bench in Toronto, particularly on the road after the morning skate. All of a sudden you hear the weights clanking up and down off the ground because you two are getting a workout in. Like how competitive are the two of you when it comes to those sorts of things? No, we're back at it. We took a break. Well, you know what? We don't clank the weights around anymore. You might hear the rower going or the bike anymore. The weights aren't getting clanked around. Lower impact? As we get older. Yeah, exactly. No,

but he's good for me that way too. We push each other, enjoy each other's company. Yeah, no, just a good guy to have around. But again, a really good coach, and that's first and foremost why he's here. I want to ask you about a couple of your opponents, Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisaitl. You've sure seen enough of them the last few years. This is tough, eh, Elliot? I should need a list of these questions before I agree to this next time.

Well, what can you say that hasn't already been said? Two great players. To watch them from ice level, you know what I mean? You get a better appreciation from them. But two guys that we've got to beat. Yeah. What is, I mean, playing the same team three years in a row in the playoffs what has that taught you going going through all of that uh i don't know i don't know that it's

taught us anything it's taught us that we need to be better whether it was them or anybody else you know we we didn't get past the first round so i think it's taught me taught our organization that we're not good enough and we have to get better and what does that look like we feel like you know adding younger players but we don't feel like that means we're not going to be better younger players in bigger roles the only way they're going to get bigger roles is if they can make us better and so that's the that's the whole point of this is is to win and yeah you want to develop your players but they have to be ready for the roles that they take on um and we feel like some of these young guys are ready to to take bigger steps what does that look like we don't know yet it's only training camp but we feel like you know we're set up pretty good going forward i spoke to a coach once who was an

interim once and he was going uh he had a chance to become the head coach after being an interim and he said one of the toughest things he ever went through professionally was the weight. Like he believed he was right, and he believed he could do a good job. But in that position, it's always hard to tell how the team feels, right? And I just want, between the end of last season and the time that Rob said that you were going to be the head coach, just, you know, you've waited for this opportunity for so long.

Like, how challenging was that for you? It wasn't that bad. And I'm going to tell you why. You know, we had a 34-game run and we had short playoffs. But I felt like given the circumstances, we came in and we did a good job. And I would have liked to done a better job. I don't know how I could have. You would like to change some things in retrospect, but I felt like we did a good job, gave them a vision for what we thought the future of the team would look like, how it would play, who would play where, kind of what

we were thinking. And then as much as you want it and you think that's enough, you can't do anymore. That's just really the way I approach it. We got to see me work. We got to have our relationships. You decide. If you don't think I'm the right guy for it at this point, then for me, it's as disappointed as I would be that I wasn't the right guy. I think it's different than sometimes if you just go on an interview, you don't know each other that well. Here's my plan. Here's my video. And, you know, there's probably a bigger variance of what that's going to turn out like. Because we were here and they saw us work, you know, the upside or downside is probably limited. You have a better idea of what you're getting from your coach. And so I thought, yeah, you saw me work.

If you think that's right for us then let's go forward if not there's not much else i can do that's a great attitude the other thing that people said to me was you were one of the first coaches to really embrace analytics that word yeah that well you know i don't think i don't think it necessarily has to be like a bad word but like a lot because all the coaches have to do it now but like people said to me like jim was one of the first he really understood it there were times some of us looked at him like i don't want to hear this but now i think people would say that you were ahead of the curve than a lot of other guys were well i don't know about that and maybe you know i don't know about that and maybe, you know, I don't know who would say that, but I look at it differently. I have a, you know, going,

going way back. We Brad Rankin and I were back when I was in junior, we were talking about looking at the game differently and the way we did it. And we've kind of put a system together was watching the game and then watching moments in the game and understanding where is that what most NHLers would do or is that maybe a little bit above did they create an advantage with what they did with their moment and offensively and defensively or did they create a disadvantage and so we looked at looked at it that way and then started to assign our own values to those plays. So when you talk about analytics, sometimes you bring a bunch of information and you try to make sense of the information. What we thought we were

doing back then is looking at the video and putting the sense into the video in the front end, rather than trying to make sense of it in the back end. And using hockey sense and commonplace terms that the players would, and coaches and players would talk about looking at it from a coach's and a player's perspective. So anyways, that, that was kind of the background. And you know, that's going on to do different things. My son's involved with that now on his own and, and has his own little business going that way. Let's plug it. What's it called?

No, he's, he's just on his own. He's quiet in the back. Yeah. There's no, there's no, no need for plugs, anything like that. He's just doing a good job. I know he's, he's carrying on his own. He's quiet in the back. Yeah, there's no need for plugs or anything like that. He's just doing a good job. I know he's carrying on, and he's talking to players and managers around the league, and he's doing well. So it's nothing to plug, but I only say it because you mentioned analytics. I just tell you it's a different way to think about the game, not just analytics. It's creating your own values, and then you can look at numbers after that

by just looking at it first. Okay, I'm going to dig down on this because I think this is really interesting. Yeah, I know, but I look at numbers after that. I'm just looking at it first. Okay. I'm going to dig down on this cause I think this is really interesting. Yeah, I know. I'm not taking it any further. Go ahead. Try me. Do you, do you do the, do you still, the system that you created with Brad Warenka, who I remember from the Canadian Olympic team, do you still use that today? Do I personally know my son's involved with it, but I think about the game that way.

Maybe it's a better way to say it. I look at the game and think about the game that way. But I find this really fascinating. So take me back then. Give me an example. How would you, I'm actually really curious about this. Like, how would you score a play? Like if you made a play or Brad Warenka made a play and you went back and looked at it,

like, can you explain to me how you would score it? Because I remember one time, like Scotty Bowen was good enough to tell me, these are the kinds of things that I kept track of. I kept track of who won a puck battle, who won a race to the puck, and I would give a plus or a minus to a player based on that. So what I would like to know is how did you score it based on what you were watching? I find this stuff really fascinating. Yeah, it is. It is. It is actually interesting. Some people do, some people don't again. But Brad and I during that time had lots of conversations, some of them arguments going back and forth because we always thought that the offense had to balance the defense because it's a zero-sum game in the end. You can make a good play, but if you make a bad play, those two could wash out.

Unless you make a really good play and just not quite such a bad play. Now you can end up on the positive side of the ledger. So, again, I'm not here for that. I'm not going to take it any further than that. We can talk later if you want. But, no, it's just a way to think about the game. And then, yeah, you can, about the game and then yeah you can you know through discussion with different people you can say what what would you value that

both good and bad and they start to build a consensus and build a system you're like captain america with a shield man like all my questions you're knocking them into the corner no no no we're not here to talk about that but i'm really happy and proud for my proud of my son he's doing a really good job what's his his name? Talon. Okay. Maybe you can talk to him someday. I would love to. He can fill you in. I would love to. I'm surprised we've gotten this far without talking the 1-3-1, Jim.

Oh, there it is. I forgot about that. Oh, yeah. He should have saved that for L.A. He's come with everything else. Sorry, I couldn't let him have all the fun. No, because I was just going to ask, Jim, I mean, how do you hope the L.A LA Kings look this year in terms of how they play?

What's your vision this season? Well, I would say this, the one, three, one is, is a really good system of style of play to play. It's very difficult. It's frustrating for the opposition. I think it's really helped our franchise get back maybe quicker than, than people thought into playoff contention and getting back into the thick of it as far as winning again. For us, we just felt it was time to give our players something different. We think the strength of our team is our speed up front. Our players can

really skate. And I think what we're doing this year changing things a little bit not just on in the neutral zone but the the neutral zone and the breakouts really work together so they kind of go hand in hand so we felt like if we can tweak this a little bit we can tweak this and maybe we can just allow our forwards um to use their assets to skate just a little bit more and maybe make us a little bit more dangerous offensively. Give us a player who started strong this year that you looked at a camp and said, you know what? We challenged this guy a bit and he's, I liked the way he started.

Well, there's a number of them. There's a number of them, but, but I will say this, I want to give this player credit uh and i will i will mention brant clark because last year he came in i think probably with the expectation to make the hockey team he had a great junior career and he played for a while he ended up going to the minors he had a terrific year in the minors an all-star uh he played some games for us last year and did a pretty good job until some of the things you know showed that maybe he wasn't quite ready for the nhl yet had to go back to the minors did very well for them and now he's come in here i think um just maybe i don't know i don't know what the

word is just to maybe a little bit more relaxed just settled into pro hockey settling into not having to look like the best player on the ice every time he's on the ice, because he's had that ability his whole young career. And he's with Joel Edmondson. They've played together since the beginning of camp, and I'm sure he's had some kind of effect. He's just got a real calmness to his game now. He's a terrific offensive player, sees the ice very well. But he's defending as well as we've ever seen him. I don't know if we could have imagined that he'd defend this well,

play this much attention to detailed defending. I'm sure Eddie's had some influence on that. So that's the one player, and it's early, we're just getting started, but you just love to see the growth in players, especially young players with that kind of talent last one for me then you touched on it there the growth of players is that the most rewarding part of coaching for you or what would it be you know there's there you couldn't even name one you couldn't name three there's so many there's so many all that when you when you see players

come back and they're better when you see them Quinton scored his 20th goal the last game of the year last year. That's exciting for him. The guys in the dressing room after how excited they were for him. When you see Kopi score the overtime goal in game two in Edmonton, there's so many moments that are rewarding and you see the guys celebrating with each other or even at times disappointed you know that's that's part of the whole thing true it's like you get to be part of the journey as

the coach and those guys are out there laying it on the line they do the work and and you get to be part of them and part of them ride that emotional roller coaster have the laughs enjoy the laughs with them at the same time listen to the music complain about things all these things you get to be part of the team still as a coach and uh you know those those moments are always the best part of it great uh last question for me is your championship team in college what was the one thing that that team had that this king's team will need to develop to win well i think it's probably i would say with any team everybody has a certain level of talent but the tighter you become as a team in the end you have to be a team to win i just

this we all know and i'm not telling you anything you don't know but in every year you are a team but there are just some years for whatever reasons, personalities, because every team is different from year to year. The team has a new spirit from one year to the next, and the spirit has to grow. In some years, a spirit just takes hold.

And all of a sudden you're like, how did we get here? That's what we have to do this year. We have to, our spirit has to rise above where it's been in the last while. Right. We look forward to watching. Thanks so much, Jim. Appreciate you coming by. I'm going to try to come up with a bunch more questions.

Yeah. Okay. Thanks Jim. So a big thank you to Jim Hiller, Sean May and the LA Kings, the whole organization have been so great in having us around hosting us for a few days, more content from LA to come in future episodes. We actually did an interview on Thursday with Quinton Byfield as well. That's going to drop as part of Monday's episode. Until then, though, have a great weekend. And I should mention, as this pod drops on Friday,

happy birthday, Elliot Friedman. Be sure to send him a note. I really thought I was going to get away with this. Not a chance. Not a chance. Happy birthday, my friend. We appreciate you spending the day with us. Everybody, have yourselves a great weekend.

We'll talk to you again on Monday.