32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Media Day

Episode Date: June 3, 2023

Viva Las Vegas! Jeff and Elliotte are in Sin City covering Stanley Cup Media Day. But before we get into everything, Elliotte provides an update on some breaking news -- Mike Babcock will be the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets (00:00)! We then hear from both coaches on where the Stanley Cup will be won (5:30), the guys discuss Kyle Dubas being named the president of hockey operations in Pittsburgh (8:50), Toronto hiring Brad Treliving as their GM (23:30), Ottawa sale (33:00), Philadelphia filling out their front office (36:00), Patrick Kane injury (37:30), interest in Alex Killorn and Tyler Bertuzzi (38:45), and the goalie marketing (40:10).Jeff and Elliotte also chat with Matthew Tkachuk (43:30) and Alex Pietrangelo (55:50) ahead of the Stanley Cup Final.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Moise - PARANOIAListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Chopped Herring Records & Sportsnet.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.

Okay, quick insert at the top of the pod from Saturday morning in Las Vegas with some coaching news to discuss. This is what we're hearing. As reported, it is believed that Mike Babcock will be the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets once his contract with the Maple Leafs is up at the end of June. I think right from the beginning, Babcock was very high on Columbus's list. I think they met early in their process, and depending on who you talk to, Babcock either wasn't ready to take the job, or initially he might have turned down the job. Whatever the case, Columbus went through their process. Babcock,

I believe, took a family trip overseas, and either he reconsidered or he thought about it more. One of the reasons I don't think he would have been a fit or wouldn't have wanted a job like the Rangers is I think he wanted something that was a little bit more out of the spotlight. And I'm not knocking Columbus here. I'm not making fun of Columbus here. But the fact is, it's not the same as New York City or Toronto when it comes to media. So I'm not surprised that if he was going to take another NHL coaching job, it was going to be a situation like this one. I think what's going to be interesting here is the reaction. I think some of the players in Columbus were asked about the possibility of it. You know, don't forget Rick Nash won a gold medal playing a big role with Babcock on the 2010 Canadian

Olympic team. So I think we're in a situation where maybe Nash was willing to say, all right, I had a good experience under him. I guess we'll hear more as this continues. It will be interesting to see what the players have to say, particularly any of them who might not have known that Babcock was going to be the hire. I personally believe everybody deserves a chance to show that they've learned from their lessons and learned from their mistakes. And I can't imagine Columbus didn't make this higher without a very, very deep dive into that exact feeling. I definitely got the impression on Saturday morning that some of the players were surprised. So we'll see where this all goes. But as it stands, Babcock is going to be Columbus's

coach. New York, I think this is going to be a weekend where they kind of consider who they might offer the job to. I think Laviolette is still in there. I think John Hines is still in there. If anyone else is at the top of that list with those two guys, honestly, I admit I'm not aware of them. Meanwhile, Toronto, I do think we're going to see the Maple Leafs and Keefe potentially talk about an extension. I think there have been some initial meetings and I wouldn't be surprised if the two sides investigate something like that. All right, with that out there, back to your regularly scheduled podcast. Elliot, we're at T-Mobile Arena.

Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Canyon AT4X. You, me, and Amel sitting around the table here after a full day of doing interviews. You will hear, by the way, on this podcast a little bit later on, Matthew Kachuk. Would you call him the star of the playoffs, the breakout celebrity of the playoffs, Elliot Friedman well if you're a seinfeld fan you're familiar with the summer of george yes this is the spring of matthew so uh you'll hear from him in a little while here on the podcast also you'll hear from alex petrangelo and of particular note he addresses the handshake, Elliot. I do not want to give any spoilers. Okay. No spoiler alert because there are no spoilers.

Stay tuned. That's coming up a little bit later on. Alex Petrangelo talks about shaking the hand of Leon Dreisaitl. But before we get there, and there's going to be a full slate of news, a lot of things we have to go over and catch up on the last couple of days, whether it's Pittsburgh,

whether it's Toronto, whether it's Ottawa. Yes, that continues. Some signings in Philadelphia as well. Jeff, before we get into the news of the week, just wanted to shout out Nicole Buckley from the National Hockey League and her staff. Yes. We've been in media days before. This one was very smooth. Things ran on time. If they didn't it was because jeff asked

too too many questions how dare you but you cad i have to say it was excellent this was as smooth a media day as i've ever seen thumbs up from us here and also to our crew led by amal delich jeremy mcclain, and the technical people. That's a local Vegas crew, right? They were really on the ball. So just wanted to say thanks to everyone. I want to start off by talking a little bit or actually throwing to a clip and getting your thoughts on it

from the two head coaches, Paul Maurice of the Florida Panthers and Bruce Cassidy, the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights. We didn't sit down very long with both of them. I mean, this was car wash time here, but they gave us some really good stuff. Let's start off today by hearing from Bruce Cassidy on where the Stanley Cup will be won. Well, it's interesting because I would say in the slot battle, I think the team that

controls the neutral zone is always going to have an edge because you're forechecking to get into your game. I think both teams forecheck well, but if we get away from that, I think the slot battle will determine the Stanley Cup. And so, true to form, after we spoke with Bruce Cassidy, we spoke to Paul Maurice and asked,

well, the same question. We recycle here. Save the planet. Yeah, I don't want to tell you that because it's critical to us. They have some things. So they have two or three things that they're very, very good at, elite at.

And eventually, he's right. The game always ends up to the net front, right? The percentage of goals are scored from the slaughter so much and the inner slaughter just, you're scoring at like 4% outside of them, so for sure. So,

how does it get there? Right? Each team is going to try to get the puck in the slot really in different ways. They're going to do everything they can to keep us from getting it the way we do,

and we're going to do everything we can to get them, stop them, but theirs is different. So we've seen versions of their game in Toronto and Boston. Not so much Carolina, who got a ton of slot

shots on us. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, we will both try to take the strengths away. And as the underdog, we will pay particular attention to it. So that's Paul Maurice having no part of strategic talk in advance of the Stanley Cup.

You got to go on these fishing trips, Elliot. You just got to go. It's kind of funny. We asked Bruce Cassidy. He's one of the best coaches at breaking down things in his media availabilities. Ron McLean is a huge fan of listening to Bruce Cassidy talk. He's very open.

And he said when we asked him about it elsewhere in the interview, that he just doesn't think there's a lot of secrets. And according to Paul Maurice, Bruce Cassidy is absolutely 100% wrong. I did, though, think that Maurice gave an interesting answer, too, without trying to actually answer the question.

He said, yeah, ultimately, that's where the puck goes. You know, like if you're a defenseman, you learn this really early in your, you know, minor slash youth hockey career. You know, if you lose your assignment in your own zone as a defenseman, go to the front of the net, because that's where the puck is headed anyhow. So it shouldn't surprise anybody that Paul Maurice said, well, yeah, of course, that's where the part of the series is going to be won because that's where the puck goes anyhow. Nonetheless, one of the things that I think we should all look forward to after the game are the coaches' press conferences because we have two of the best talkers in Bruce Cassidy, head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, and Paul Maurice, same, of the Florida Panthers. By the way, you'll be able to hear both full interviews coming up soon with head coach Bruce Cassidy and head coach Paul Maurice

at a later date. Don't forget, coming up a little bit later on, you'll hear from Alex Petrangelo of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Spring of Matthew, Matthew Kachuk, coming up a little bit later on. In the meantime, news on the March

Elliotts. I guess we should probably maybe start with a cleanup from the last couple of days because these conversations continue. Kyle Dubas is the president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Good afternoon, everybody. On behalf of John Henry, who's here today, and Dave Beeston, it's our pleasure today to introduce you all to Kyle Dubas, the Penguins president of hockey operations. A move that surprised some, a move that a lot of other people looked at and just kind of bobbleheaded and said, yeah, we thought it was heading this direction. Anyhow, what did you think of it? First of all, I know you, big wrestling fan, Jeff Merrick.

You're going to go Scott Hall and Kevin Nash on this one? I am. Or you could pick the original Four Horsemen, the Andersons, Talia Blanchard and Ric Flair. Very nice. Four Horsemen. Nice. Lovely.

J.G. Dillon was the manager, by the way. I was actually a bit surprised that- You're talking about the timing of the announcement. Because Cahal Kelly of the globe and mail he asked uh the mapleys about the timing of the penguin brendan shanahan specifically yes 30 minutes before the toronto presser brendan about a half hour before we sat down here your former gm was announced as excuse me the president of pitts, he'll be debuted an hour from now. What do you think of that timing?

Well, I think they're like us. I don't think it was intentional timing. I've been in contact with the CEO of Fenway, Sam Kennedy. He and I are very close. We've talked over the last week several times about Kyle. So I think they need to get to work as well. Fully endorse Kyle. I thought he told Sam that he would be great

for their organization and I'm very happy for him. As far as I know, the Penguins were not asked about it. I don't think it was intentional. What I do think is that the Penguins wanted to break the news themselves. I know I was chasing it. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I was not far away from getting it confirmed.

As a matter of fact, when I did put it out, I have a friend who counts the stuff. He says, oh, the penguins beat you by 52 seconds, you loser. They broke their own news before you were able to break it for them and you're getting that thrown in your face that's nice i like your buddy yeah i like that this is what friends are for like you know just to rub your face in it when you feel shame and failure i like that guy but i think that's the reason for the timing i think the penguins knew they weren't

going to be able to keep it quiet i'll say this like a lot of organizations, a hiring like that, you sort of get a note. I don't know what they do, a group chat, a WhatsApp, like an email, whatever it is. WhatsApp. Oh, that's what I said. WhatsApp. That's so embarrassing. WhatsApp, grandpa. Amal, you have to leave it. I can't, I actually said WhatsApp. That is awful. After people were ripping me for using the word lit in a tweet on friday anyway so whether it's a group chat a whatsapp and email whatever it is like normally you hear that this from what i understand was not the case in pittsburgh as a matter of fact like i don't know

if this is exactly true but i'm betting it's close they sent the tweet out and like basically kyle dubas david beaston and john henry like showed up that's how tight it was in pittsburgh that's how tight they kept it sticking with the pro wrestling theme by the way i don't think they're avoiding this yes it's like the swerve of all time like they did everything they could to keep it as quiet as they could. I know some people out there are ripping Dubas for I'm Toronto or nowhere. It's tough for me to, what I would say is that I'm not going to, I definitely don't have it in me to go anywhere else. So it'll either be here or it'll be taking time to recalibrate,

reflect on the seasons here. But you won't see me next week pop up elsewhere. I can't put them through that after this year. It doesn't bother me. Jeff, you can tell me if you think I'm wrong, but the moment it ended for Dubas the way it did, he was going somewhere. Because the situation changed.

It wasn't by his decision. If you're looking for a reason why Dubas said one thing but did another, well, the ground shifted under him. He wasn't controlling his fate there in that situation. He was dismissed. He was dismissed from the Toronto Maple Leafs. So the situation changed for him, so he adapted accordingly. I have no problem with it. Kyle, welcome to Pittsburgh.

In your final press conference with Toronto, you expressed just how difficult of a season it was on you and your family. Why was this the opportunity? It was, and I mean, maybe I was too honest that day with how I was feeling in that exact moment. But that's in the past. The way that we viewed it was when we came to the last day there, so Friday the 19th, I think that's the date I have in my head. When we got home the next day, you get inundated with calls, texts, people want to come over to the house. It's nice, but it's also sad.

And then the way that we viewed the next day, it was very early the next morning. I was on the phone with one of our staff there, and I had a 617 area code call, and I hung up, and it was a message from Sam who told me that they had permission from Toronto. And my initial inkling was, you know, we need to take a breath here before we entertain other options because that was our intention at the beginning of the week and my wife then you know later in the day said I actually think you should go and at least meet with them because you know she said it's if they're great people and they have a long-term view of the organization it's going to be a great

fit for you in terms of what everybody is about that you're going to work for and work with and the staff has a great feel then we're going to be moving anyway now so our kids are going to be six and two leo be in grade one next year shannon's view was if we're going to move we may as well move now before the kids are too entrenched and so that was the first step i had a very long meeting with Tom, John, Dave, and Sam at John's home on the Sunday, which was, it was, to say it from my view, was just a remarkable meeting in terms of hearing the way that they view a sports organization, the way that they want to build things out, the short-term competitiveness, but the long-range capacity to build an organization that can sustain success.

Then it was, you know, having time with Sully and Sid to see what kind of people they were, because, I mean, I can look from afar and think I know them, but getting to know them was important to me as we went through it. And then, really, the closer came in on Saturday, Sunday, with Jen and Jason, with our family coming down, and they really felt extraordinarily comfortable here. And it's not, you know, the other part of it is, you know, on the family side, all of those boxes were checked in terms of the people that I'd be working for and with. The people in the organization that I had met were incredible,

and everybody in the city that we interacted with was incredible. And then once Jen jen and jason were great with showing us around we all became very comfortable with the idea so it wasn't the intention going in but seeing that we were going to have to move anyway you never know that if you pass on this is it's an opportunity to work with these people and and for a city like this and a group like this going to be available and so so we jumped in today with both feet. You know, one of the things you and I had talked about was that I believe there were teams that reached out to him and said, do you want to come work with us as a consultant?

Or, you know, we have situations where we don't have people with a lot of term. And maybe you start as a consultant or an advisor, and eventually you grow into a bigger role. I think those options were open to him. I know of one team that considered it, but then ultimately didn't ask for permission because they figured he was just going to Pittsburgh. Now, one of the teams I wondered about for argument's sake is, was Seattle.

Is there a Sue connection there? Let me just check my notes. Not only that, but they're really tight is, you know, Dubas and Ron Francis. And I'm not saying he would have gone in as the GM, but I

think Dubas knew that if he wanted to, he could join the crack in an advisory role and then, you know, see where everything went. But I think the way it ended yeah i think you want to get right back in and prove to the leafs that they made a mistake and i thought it was really interesting the tone of the press conference when the maple leaves were asked about dubas

brendan shanahan was complimentary and you know he said i gave sam kennedy who works for fenway our full endorsement dubas barely mentioned toronto and you could tell like this is personal now for dubas this is business he made a business decision and for kyle dubas this is personal and he wants to beat the Leafs in the worst way. Now, it's interesting when you look at the title as well. We wondered about general manager. Now, we've talked a lot about how this might just be strategic. He comes in as president of hockey operations. I think anyone who's followed Kyle Dubas' career and knows where he's at

knows that he still wants to have hands on the wheel here. He's still got the juice to be the GM. Like that's what Dubas prefers and that's what Dubas wants. I think I said to you on the radio the other day that it kind of feels a little bit like a Vancouver situation where, you know, technically Patrick Galvin was the general manager, but we all knew that Jim Rutherford was making the moves. That's very much the way we suspect it's going to be here.

So what happens then to the position lower, one lower than the president of hockey operations? What happens to the general manager spot? Is that a title that is now used to lure people out of organizations, most obviously the Toronto Maple Leafs? Or is it something else? How do you read that situation? He's president of hockey operations, but we know he's going to be the GM.

As we record this, I think it's been reported that there were three people let go in Pittsburgh. I think there's more possible to come if they haven't happened already. Alex Schell, Kerry Huffman, Tina Murray. I think people there are worried that there will be more if they haven't happened already. You know, there were some people who were really upset about some of the circumstances around those. Look, Pritam is the one that all the Leaf fans are wondering about.

People forget that Brendan Shanahan hired Brandon Pridham. Shanahan came to Toronto from the NHL, and Pridham was the guy he absolutely wanted to take with him. I think the Leafs will do whatever they can to keep him, and they're hopeful. I don't want to use the word confident because I don't know, but they're hopeful that he will stay. I use the word confident because I don't know, but they're hopeful that he will stay.

I think the two names that people talk about are Wes Clark, who's the director of amateur scouting and Daryl Metcalf was one of their assistant general managers. I do think it's very possible that Dubas will want and the Penguins slash Fenway will want someone to come in there who's relatively fresh and new that can eventually be groomed towards being a future leader of the Penguins hockey ops. They interviewed a lot of people, relatively newer people. Evan Gold from Boston. Kate Madigan and Megan Duggan from New Jersey. Cam Lawrence from Columbus, Sam Ventura from Buffalo, who used to be in Pittsburgh. Did they interview Alexander Mandrycki from Seattle? I have not heard Alex Mandrycki. No. Okay. So I don't know if they

interviewed her or not. I wouldn't be surprised if it's someone like that, Someone who can grow into the job. But I agree with you. I think he's going to maintain the decision making power. When he and Shanahan were trying to sort this out in Toronto, he wanted to be able to talk to the board when he had to, but he didn't want to do that all the time.

He wanted the GM role. He didn't want to manage up. Whether or not he has the title of GM when this is all over, he's going to be the GM. You know, there's an elephant in the room here, and I'm just going to splash the name out and see what happens. What about Jason Spezza through all this? I'm glad you mentioned this.

So as mentioned, I think one of the reasons Spezza resigned when he did is because I think they were thinking of making him interim GM in Toronto. People don't think Spezza wants to move. I don't want to speak for him. That's his decision. So I don't see him as GM. I do think he's going to be in the Penguins organization. I think the biggest thing is like he had term left.

So technically Toronto could block it. Now, someone said to me, you could hire him to work for Fenway. Unless there's specific language in his contract preventing that, you could hire him to work for Fenway. You see, I've wondered about that, because I think that the Fenway model is going to be the sports ownership model of the future, and what that does is provide you cover

to make hires like this. So it's not the actual team that makes the hire, it's the parent company that makes the hire, and you can kind of skirt some rules and regulations and get players out of contracts do we know if this has been addressed at the nhl level before to try to close this loophole or do you know if it's even one that the nhl would even do you remember the last time they got in the middle of this mess it was okay, okay, we're going to do compensation to teams if you lose a GM or a coach to another team. Oh, yeah, that was a disaster.

And Bettman said, I'm only doing this if I don't have aggravation. Yeah, there was aggravation. It took him like 10 minutes until there was aggravation. And he said, get this crap out of here. I don't want to deal with this. And the one that blew it up was Peter Shirelli from Boston to Edmonton. And Edmonton was like, you fired him.

We don't have to pay compensation. And Boston was like, no, you do, because he's still under contract. And Bettman threw up his hands and said, I told you I didn't want any of this BS, so we're blowing it up. All right, so that's the Kyle Dubas Penguin situation. There will be plenty more on this

in the days and weeks to come. The Toronto Maple Leafs introduced their new general manager, and just by the virtue of who Brad Treliving is and where Brad Treliving has been and how he's worked and where he's worked, we knew there would be a different tone to the press conference than Maple Leafs fans had been used to with either Kyle Dubas or previous with Lou Lamarillo I mentioned to you on the radio the idea of pendulums you know over correcting to find their balance and Lou was at one extreme and Kyle Dubas was at the other

extreme and does it feel like Brad Treleving is kind of in between those two do you think he is I think that's a very fair description i think tree living is a guy who like you know he was a tough player when he played famously fought gino ojic at training camp once not always a great decision maker wow that's guts but a tough player when he played but you know in calgary chris snow was the person who created a lot of their analytics and and they paid attention they listened to a lot of their analytics and they paid attention. They listened to a lot of this stuff. So I think he's someone who looks at everything.

He comes from the business world too. So I think you tend to look at things very analytically there. Look, he did all the right things in his media conference. He didn't pour gasoline on the fire. Like one person I know that you and I both get along very well with is John Ferguson. I always remember his first media conference when he thought he was answering a really simple question. No, I don't think we're going to bring back Doug Gilmore. And it turned into a firestorm, a first day firestorm.

So I always think about, do you get through that first day without igniting anything? And I don't think he did. Like he basically said, look look like i believe in talent um austin is is one of the elite players in the world you know we're not talking about a a good player in the in the league we're talking about elite player in the world getting to austin is a priority but outside of the contract stuff number one is just getting to build that relationship you know it's not walking down and and trying arm wrestle about contracts. It's getting down and getting Austin, me getting a chance to meet him. But more importantly, having Austin get a chance to meet me. That's priority number one. You know, there's

a lot of things that are priorities. Sheldon is as well. And as I said to him, it's a little unique situation. You know, that's the business. My outside lens of Sheldon I look at a team was a two years as a full-time coach 115 points 111 points I think he's a really good coach my view is determining whether a guy's good bad or indifferent you have to work with him you have to get to know him so we're going to sit down and we're going to we're going to go through it but we're not married to anything and we're going to sort out Austin Matthews first ands first and probably sheldon keith second i don't think anybody has a big issue with that he left all the doors open for himself yeah saying everything is on the table but i i really and he stressed this tree living did a couple of different times he wanted to go it almost seemed like he wanted to go out of his way

to mention how difficult it is to get good players the good things here is we got really good players okay you look at where these players are drafted right you just have to pick the number where it is to get good players. The good things here is we got really good players. Okay? You look at where these players are drafted, right? You just have to pick the number where they're drafted. There's a lot of pain to get good players. So having those players excites me. And like I said, they're world-class players.

We're going to review everything. And he talked a lot about all the pain that the Toronto Maple Leafs team had to go through to get those players now I don't know whether that is because I always always got to look at it through different lenses you know I don't know if part of that is strategic like if you are thinking about making a move why devalue your players at a press conference say oh yeah bodies are going out the door you know it would make a lot more sense if you say, yeah, great players are hard to get and we've got great players here. So I want to go out of my way to mention how

great these players are and what we had to go through to get them. So if you're thinking about trying to steal one, guess again, but we are open for business. You know, this idea of the core four and, and all those types of things, my job is to protect them, right? It's to protect them. And I'm first fiercely protective of my players, but this can't be about the core four. This is about the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's not about four players, not about two, it's not

about one, it's about the 23 guys that we're going to have in this organization. So I understand the spotlight's bigger here. I understand we're so fortunate to have all you people that care greatly about this team because of the fan base we have, but it's about the Leafs. And the success of this team or whatever challenges we have isn't because of four guys or two guys or one guy. It's about the group. And for a manager coming in, I'm pretty lucky to have the talent that those four represent, as well as everybody else on this team. But you're not opposed to it, basically.

We will look at all things. Like from a strategic point of view, like, listen, Tree Living's a smart guy. I'm just trying to figure out, you know, what lens I should look at that press conference through. And I looked at it and I said, that is a very safe, mature, at times funny. Yeah, it's good. It's good to see those guys. It's good to see him still playing at 75. Not a lot of guys do.

And laid back because that's Bradtree Living style press conference. That's how I looked at it. Look, like I think what this all means, and I wrote about this on Friday is I think it's going to come down to what Toronto is going to have to sign all these players for. You know,

if you look at the contracts of the core four, none of them took discounts. And I don't want to repeat what I said about Matthews. If you listen to this podcast, you know what I think is going to happen there. I think he's going to sign for a big number and not max term. The thing I think about here, Jeff, is, and this is what someone actually said to me the other day,

it's not just signing Matthews. The last time they went through all this, when they signed Matthews, well, now Marner has to go to this number. And now Nylander has to be taken care of. So I think that's what's going to be the biggest factor here. And, you know, Tree Living's big thing is, can he get Matthews to commit to July 1st? Okay, I don't know.

Like I said, I think Matthews is going to sign. I just don't know if it'll be done by there. Well, then all of a sudden, now you can start laying the groundwork. Well, Nylander needs another deal. Marner's going to need another deal in a year at the earliest. That's what I think is going to determine the future here. Like the last time, Toronto didn't say no to anybody. They said yes, and they got all these deals done.

Is it going to be different this time? The thing that's interesting about Tree Living is he's lived the scenario of a star player going into the last year of the deal and what can happen. He's lived the scenario of keeping a coach after you've been hired. He's also lived the scenario of, because he's going into his last year, giving a coach an extension and then it all goes sideways. He's lived all of this. And that's the most fascinating question to me is how does that shape his philosophy here? Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Hello, gang. This is Ryan Schaap calling from beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. When the podcast first started off in 2017, 2018,

I was working a 3 a.m. affiliate shift at a channel that will not be mentioned, and I would be taking a night bus across Metro Vancouver full of drunk people coming out of the bar

and refurbished eating whole pizzas. I'd go work this shift, and I wasn't the happiest or the most fulfilled in my broadcasting career and in my hockey coverage career. And on those long, miserable, depressing bus rides, the first several episodes of 32 Thoughts is what kept me motivated and optimistic and generally kept me feeling warm and optimistic. Anyway, I also was working for the Canucks in-house video team at the time, and Elliot was in town covering the Calder Trophy race. We met Barzell and Brock Besser. As I was leaving my post for the night,

I encountered Elliot Friedman, who was about to take the elevator to the 500 level. In that moment, I wanted to take the time to tell him how appreciative I was for your podcast and to keep me motivated in my hockey podcasting career, but I chickened out. So here I am, five years later, telling Elliot and also Jeff to a lesser extent

how much I appreciate their show, appreciate your show, and all the work Amel does. It is a highlight of my week, and I love to steal news from here verbatim or slightly altered. As always, good job, Elliot. Good job, Amel. Under the influence of fly shit, I glide Good job, Amel. Oh, we just have to go.

You get the... Can you just let the sisters know? Yeah. They were just doing the pre-game show? Well, we'll just have to go. You get the... Can you just let the listeners know? Yeah. They're just doing the pregame show. Okay. So as you can hear, by the way, before we continue here with this podcast, because we're at T-Mobile Arena in a side room

and we're about 30, 40 feet from the rink, what you're hearing is the music as they rehearse the pregame show for game one. So that is what we refer to, Elliot, in the industry as they rehearse the pregame show for game one so that is what we refer to elliot in the industry as ambient sound if you're hearing that in the background there's a little preview of what you're going to see on and hear on saturday nights uh the other ontario team and that is the ottawa senators it's the obligatory what's the latest with the send sale i do think

the league wanted this to be i liked your note your note, by the way, in your piece about how this could be a good way for the NHL commissioner to be quite chuffed before game one. Look, when he does his State of the Union address, he gets asked a lot of tough questions. I'm sure he's going to be asked about Arizona. I'm sure he's going to be asked about the video of Nachushkin that came out, the body cam footage. I'm sure he's going to be asked about the video of Nechushkin that came out,

the body cam footage. I'm sure he's going to be asked about a lot of other things that are negative. That's what we do. We get only so many chances to talk to him that we're going to take those chances. Like I have to tell you, like I had someone in the banking industry who told me the other day that they won't be surprised if that sale gets announced at say 1.2 billion

now i don't know if that's true i'm just i'm doing doug mclean i'm not telling you what i know i'm telling you what i heard i'm not saying it's the truth i'm just saying what i heard that's right so that's a win for batman even a billion is a win that's huge about 1.2 but i don't know if he's going to get the opportunity to do that. I think they were hoping he would. So Ian Mendez had a report today on Friday that the Kimmel's were out. Like, this is the tough thing. And this goes back to what we were talking about the other day, like the Ottawa people, even if it is a crazy process,

they don't want to hear the Toronto idiots making fun of them. Like, I think Ian's tweet, I think just highlights the issues that we all have with this story. It's like a swirling bowl of spin. I don't know if the Kimmel's ever withdrew, but I think there were times they thought they were out. So after Ian talked about that,

and I said, I don't believe that to be the case, but I do believe at times they thought they weren't going to win. Somebody called me and it's someone who's connected to one of these bids. And he said, that is kind of part of the frustrating thing is that there's a lead bidder and we all think it's Steve Apostolopoulos. And the issue is that what he thinks is happening is other bids are being told, well, if you can get here, you're still in it. And what one guy told me was he thinks one of these groups has said, put that on paper and say, if we get to this number, we get it. And it hasn't happened so that's part

of the frustration like i don't know if that group is the kimmel's he said he wouldn't tell me but i understand where ian was coming from even if the substance of it wasn't accurate i understand where he's coming from because i think some of these groups at different times, like they thought they were out. Only to be pulled back in like Al Pacino in Godfather 3. Here's your obligatory Godfather reference here on the podcast. Yes. Quick note on the Philadelphia Flyers. We talked about the other Pennsylvania team.

Yeah. And here are the Flyers and Daniel Breer's latest moves. Alan McCauley, assistant general manager. Riley Armstrong, director of player development. Nick Schultz, assistant to the director of player development. Three new positions. Well, you should talk about Riley. I'm really happy for Riley and the Armstrong family.

I mean, we know him through working with Colby. His brother, really good, tough player. He was a coach for a long time into the American Hockey League by way of the ECHL, has been with Daniel Breer for a number of years, going back to ECHL Maine as well. There was interest from a couple of other teams last season with Riley Armstrong, and he's highly thought of as a coach. And this is a really good spot for him. And I'm happy for him, and I'm happy for the Armstrong family,

director of player development. That's a really great one for Riley. Yeah, happy for Riley too. And Colby, like you said. They're Armstrong family. They're a great family, so I'm happy to see them do really well. Look, Philadelphia's new hierarchy is being built. It's coming out, and I think we're all curious to see

what this is going to mean for the roster. Elliot, something you wrote about on Twitter on Thursday. Patrick Kane, hip resurfacing, estimated timeout four to six months, still plans on playing a long time. As of July 1st, he's an unrestricted free agent. What are your thoughts on Patrick Kane? Well, first of all, i wanted to apologize to dr sue because i googled his name and i just saw uh some spellings that were hsu and i and it's su

i remember i used to get fails in school when i got people's names wrong in a in stories so i got a fail on that initial tweet. Go to box for shame. Look, I think that it really confirms a lot of speculation we had about Kane, which was that he was really bothered by something. I hope he feels great. I hope he comes back. I hope he errs on the side of caution and just takes a little extra rest. But I have no question that he's going to be able to find a team

that's going to say, you know, for a year, maybe two, if you really want them. I have no doubt that he's going to find somebody who wants to do that. You write about Alex Killorn and Tyler Bertuzzi, two teams trying to keep two players. Yeah. So I think that Boston is starting to try to figure out what it can do to keep Bertuzzi. He did look good in that when you look at how he plays. Yes. Now with Bertuzzi, one of the reasons I think it didn't work out

with Detroit was because of term. That he had a certain term and he preferred to stay there and the Red Wings weren't willing to go there. I don't assume that any of that has changed. So we'll see what the case is here. But from what I'm hearing, Jeff, the Bruins are, you know, floating some things out there and it's pretty clear. I think to other teams, what Boston is trying to do,

and that is find a way to keep Bertuzzi on the roster. Kalorn, I think Tampa made him an offer. I don't know if it was like, uh, like a Nick Paul, seven times three isish kind of thing, but it was something along those lines, like a long-term lower AAV number. And I just don't think it's going to work. I mean, I've heard there's a lot of interest in Kalorn out there. Listen, Tampa, you know this, Elliot. There have been so many times where we thought,

okay, they're going to finally have to cut bait here with Alex Kaloran. And you can tell how much they value this player. Yes. I mean, how many different times of the draft have we said, okay, this is where Alex Kaloran is finally going to get moved

for cap relief and for cap reasons. And it never happened. So reading your, uh, your piece on Friday, that didn't surprise me just because of how highly they think of this guy. Elliot, anything else you want to mention before we get to more of the cup final? You know, one thing I wanted to mention is I think the goalie market is starting to heat up.

You know, some of these teams that either need goalies or they've got extra goalies or goalies, they don't think they're going to be able to sign. Someone told me you're going to be able to sign someone told me you've got you're going to have a little bit of homework to do because it's starting to heat up out there do you think this is the summer where goalies get paid i think hellebuck anywhere he goes going to get paid if he's not in winnipeg but i don't know how many are going to get paid but i think teams are going to decide are we sticking with what we've got can we keep what we've got or we have to look elsewhere like someone said to me it's really starting to heat up and that's actually dubas's first big decision tristan jari yeah for

sure i gotta tell you like you know i i was thinking about this so one of the people as you mentioned that they let go of was their strength and conditioning coach tina murray yeah tina murray strength and conditioning coach like whenever i. Yeah, Tina Murray, the strength and conditioning coach. Like whenever I hear that, I wonder, is that their way of saying, well, Jari kept on getting hurt and we just have to find a new way to work around him. Like a new plan. And please understand,

I'm not saying that Tina Murray was bad at her job or anything like that. All I'm saying is that whenever a team gets injuries and the strength and conditioning coach gets let go, I wonder if they're saying, okay, we need a new philosophical way of attacking that. Let me be a little bit more specific, as we say in the Atlantic.

Will this be the summer of not just the goalie getting paid, but the backup goalie getting paid? Knowing how much teams now are looking at their goalie situation and saying, we're not playing this guy 60 anymore. We need a goaltender that can give us quality starts, like 30 quality starts. That's going to cost. I kind of look at it this way. I like to see people get the bag, so I hope they get paid. But if you're not happy with your situation or you can't keep it for financial

reasons, you're starting to look around. Quick pause. We'll come back, talk more about the Stanley Cup final, Game 1 on the horizon on Saturday night. You'll hear from Alex Petrangelo of the Vegas Golden Knights and Matthew Kachuk of the Florida Panthers. Okay, welcome back to the program.

I want to get to a couple of interviews here. I'm going to air the interview we did, Elliot, earlier Thursday with Alex Petrangelo of the Vegas Golden Knights. Give us some really good stuff and stay tuned. Yes, Elliot does ask about the handshake. But first, Matthew Kachuk. We knew it was going to be good. It always is with Matthew Kachuk. But a lot of this conversation,

and you'll hear it here in a couple of moments, revolved around his appearance on the NBA on TNT and becoming not just the face of the Panthers, but the face of Florida hockey. And maybe even we say the face of the panthers but the face of florida hockey and maybe and maybe even we say the face of the nhl right now before we get to the interview your thoughts right now on matthew kachuk i don't want to talk anymore i've spent the last 40 minutes talking people are sick of me they want to hear from kachuk they want to hear from petrangelo but i i just want to say that we said another podcast he's the right guy at the right time. Yeah.

The perfect guy at the perfect time. Matthew Kachuk on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Okay, before we talk about hockey, describe being on the set, the NBA on TNT. First of all, it was unreal talking with those guys on camera. It was super cool. My favorite part was talking with them off before for 15, 20 minutes. We were just hanging out in their TNT room and just watching highlights of basketball and hockey was on and hearing their opinions on basketball and everything.

It was cool talking to Charles. He's a super funny guy. What you see on camera, he's exactly like that often. Somebody who I'm very lucky to say has been like following me and I've been following him for, for forever. So the fact that he even knows who I am is pretty cool.

So talking with him and Shaq, who I met on, on air was, was awesome. You know what? The thing that I really liked about that, watching that whole thing, Matthew,

is that, you know, obviously Shaq and, and Kenny Smith aren't huge hockey fans, but they had really good, like, I thought the question Kenny Smith asked you about what's more important about the skating or the stick handling and Shaq pretending he wanted to fight and stuff like

that, like they welcomed you, even though they didn't really know a lot about the game you play, they welcomed you as an equal and they said, you're part of our group. That really stood out to me. I just felt like, even though they probably don't know as much as like you guys do know about hockey,

like they wanted to know more. And I think it helps with our team doing so well in that market and having the heat do well. It's like, it's kind of like overlap with the fan bases right now. So like maybe that some hockey fans didn't know much about basketball, and now some of the basketball fans are learning more about hockey. So I think it helps having a team like that do so well.

If the Heat were doing so well, I probably wouldn't have been on NBA TNT. So it's cool that that allowed me to be in that position. And, yeah, I thought it was really cool those guys to ask those questions and want to learn more about hockey. Charles knows a lot. He does. And Ernie knew a lot as well. But for the other two, like for them to ask questions and try to learn more, it was cool for me to talk about my sport too.

You know, one of the things people have been talking about here is that it's not only the summer of, or I guess maybe, I guess the spring of Kachuk in terms of the way you've played. But it's also the spring of Kachuk in terms of your way you've played, but it's also the spring of Kachuk in terms of your personality and the attention that you've brought to the game. Now, I know there's business here, but the fact that you're being seen as advancing the sport and the eyes on the sport, do you think about that? I don't think about that, but I've realized what's going on around me, and you try to keep a focus on,

on the task. And I've done a really good job of that. And my team has done a really good job of that, but recognizing more people watching, you know, different backgrounds of people watching Florida, South Florida is being talked about hockey first, along with basketball.

Now, like it's, I'm not saying it's, it's because of me at all. It's because of our team, but it's allowed. I think that the NHL, with the help of our team, has done a great job marketing the sport now for people that don't know as much about or didn't. Now, they do. Having these two markets in the finals is really helping grow the game. I'm seeing it firsthand from when I first got to Florida this summer, how it's changed this year with our team doing well and going on this run. It's

like, it's amazing. People, guys on the team can't go to many places without somebody noticing them, which is, is so cool. And it reminds me of my time in Calgary. You know, speaking of your time in Calgary, um, you played on the best line in hockey with all the respect to other elite lines out there from last season, I mean, you and Lynn Holm and Johnny Gaudreau were special. Great line. And you come to Florida, and my curiosity is, how long until you felt really comfortable playing with the Panthers?

There's obviously going to be an adjustment, different team, different conference, all of it. You had a monster year, but I'm curious, when did it really seem to click for you? Well, I didn't really play many preseason games. I got hurt towards or a little banged up where I couldn't play more than like the split score game and one other. And it really helped me playing with Benny to start. And we played with a lot of different people this year, but I would say for 60, 70 of the games, I was playing with Benny. And that really, really helped me.

I just think that having that familiar face on and off the ice, I was so lucky to come. I came here early, but not that early, where I had the whole summer to hang out with these guys. And I was here probably a month before the season started or a month before training camp. And it clicked. I swear it clicked like that off ice. And so I knew it wasn't going to take a long time for me to feel comfortable like I did in Calgary on the ice. And don't get me wrong. Like I play with unreal players in Calgary and Johnny and Lindy for basically the whole year last year.

But coming down here, I didn't realize the skill level. I knew they were really skilled, but that first day in the summer skate with them, I was like, I had no idea they were this good. So that made it super easy. It didn't matter who I was playing with. They were really, really, really good player and really offensively gifted. And I think that's what the Panthers have been known for the last few years. And we've kind of changed that and the style we're playing and we still have that offense, but now we're playing more that gritty style, which suits my game. So it helps me. What did you think of Paul Maurice when he was coaching against you? And what do you think of him now?

Didn't like it when he said all those terrible things about you. Well, I know he probably wasn't the biggest fan of me. That's probably the easier way to answer it, but I'm super lucky to have him as my coach now. First time I met him was right before training camp. And we just sat down and talked about what would make me a better player, which we knew would both ultimately help our team and, and the vision he had for our team and, and the vision he had for our team is exactly where we are right now, playing the exact way we're playing right now. So he's super smart. He's a great motivator and he's brought out the best in me. Like I know everybody talks about, everybody talks about my last year in Calgary,

and that was probably the peak of what I was going to be. And I can sit here comfortably and say that as an individual, I feel like I'm way above what I was last year in Calgary, just from my game growing and rounding out. And I think Paul is a big part of that. Okay, so let me add a bit more. How did you get from there to here? Because you've been unbelievable.

I would say trust is one thing. Every team has a certain standard, how they want to play. But there's a little bit, I would say, of rope that Paul has given me and that I can do some things that I know are my strengths. And it's just allowed me to feel really comfortable

in this, whether you want to call it system or lifestyle or with my teammates. And I mean, I don't know if I'm playing a lot more than I have before, but I know I put a ton of work in the past few summers to be able to play the big minutes. And I think it pays off. I'm super lucky to have my brother that I train with every single day in St. Louis. And we have such a great schedule and our routine. And to be honest, our schedule of training is based around playing in playoff overtime. That's when it's going to pay off. And I feel like this year in playoffs, as the games have gone on, I feel like I'm getting better. And I feel more fresh the longer the series go or the longer the game goes.

And so I credit my brother for that. You come from a super talented and competitive family, your father, your mother, your brother, your sister. This is the first time that anyone's been this close to this in hockey, the hockey's ultimate goal. What's it like for all of you with you 24 hours away from starting this last part of the journey? Yeah, it's been amazing. It has. And to have their support, I didn't think anybody would want to win more than me. And my whole family, like the four other

members of my family, want it just as much. They're so dedicated to our team. Even my brother, he knows that this has been a dream my whole life. And I know some people, I think it's weird if he comes to a game or whatever. He's supporting me and he wants me to live out a dream right now. And I know if rules were reversed, I'd be doing the same for him. So it's not a lifelong dream just for myself to be able to lift the cup and have all that glory and, and, you know, completing that goal. It's for the people that have supported me for my whole life, like how gratifying it'd be for them to see me do that.

And I know they played a little part in it. That's why you want to do it. Let me follow up on that really briefly. This is my last one. I remember speaking to Elliot and I talked when your brother was going through his contract situation with Ottawa. And you gave us a quote where you said, if you negotiate with one of us, you negotiate with all of us. If you win the Stanley Cup, do you look at that as a victory for the Kachuk family?

Absolutely. I didn't get here by myself. Like we just talked about my brother. When the season ends, he's the guy I'm going through the summer trenches with if you want to call it with all the long workouts and work days and and all that stuff so he's the guy pushing me so i know it'll be very satisfying for my brother to know that he played well he's so like selfless where he'll be like it was all you all you know he's probably the biggest reason why i'm ready to go and you know in these positions and feel good in these positions. And obviously my parents and my sister,

they've been there every step of the way, and the amount of sacrifices they've made, I wanted almost more for them than myself. So same goes to, like, Panthers fans. Like, they've been waiting a long time for this, longer than I've been alive. So it's something you want to deliver for them. And I know what my teammates go through each and every day with, you know,

the bumps and bruises they play with. And, you know, it's not easy getting to this point. Like you have to, you know, get lucky. You have to play hard. You have to have some unbelievable performances from everybody. And I've seen it firsthand what guys have gone through. So I want it more for them than myself. We wish you luck.

Thanks so much for this, Matthew. Thank you. Great athletes have an understanding of the largeness of an event and are able to understand the moment. I don't think that Matthew Kachuk is overwhelmed by anything that's happening with him right now. I think quite the opposite. He embraces it and it seems like he wants more the bigger the stage the more matthew kachuk wants to be on it and i think that's through every single interview that you see with matthew kachuk that's really coming through i could say this if they win the stanley cup i want to see the shot of all the kachuk shotgunning beer at center ice with the stanley cup because you know it's coming what if we're gonna see i don't know if we're gonna see

brady kachuk wandering around the stands with tins in his back pocket like we saw a galker at center ice with the Stanley Cup because you know it's coming. I wonder if we're going to see Brady wandering around the stands with tins in his back pocket like we saw at Calgary. You know what? I really like that though, Jeff, is just that the talk of how it's a win for the family.

If I send out a big tweet, we're not celebrating me, Steph, and Max. I'm kind of envious about that. Just that you can celebrate that kind of victory together as a family. I love it. We wish him and the Florida Panthers all the best as we do the Vegas Golden Knights. We wish both teams the best.

We just want to watch good hockey after all. Now, we'll turn our attention now to someone who's already won the Stanley Cup and that's Alex Petrangelo, defenseman for the Vegas Golden Knights. We're going to air the full interview here, and he does comment on the Leon Dreisaitl situation later on. Do you have a quick thought on Alex Petrangelo,

who is probably, you know, you've talked about Norris regret, and then a lot of that conversation revolved around Miro Haskinen. Do we think we have the same thing about Alex Petrangelo, who very quietly has turned in some great hockey this year? I think he's had a great season. You know what I really think, Jeff? I was re-listening to our Kelly McCrimmon pod earlier this year where he talked about he had to move mountains to bring in Eichel

and bring in Petrangelo. And he said, because if you want to win in the NHL, you need players like Eichel and you need players like Petrangelo, number one center and a number one defenseman. Yeah. And here they are, they're four wins away with both of those guys playing massive roles,

massive roles. And so I think about that, about how that's what this guy was brought in to do and he's four wins away from doing it. He's done it before. Can him and the Vegas Golden Knights do it again? Here's Alex Petrangelo on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Alex, you've already won the Stanley Cup once.

How is this different journey than your journey with St. Louis? I think the biggest thing is, you know, obviously probably the timeframe, right? You spend, I mean, we made the playoffs almost every year in St. Louis, and we finally had an opportunity to get over that hump. Spent a long time with a lot of guys there and got through that together.

That's pretty special. My wife's from there too, so that was a pretty cool moment. But I think coming here and obviously a big life change with the kids and the family and coming here, I really felt like the vision that Kelly, George, and Bill had is kind of what I saw too and where they want a team to go. And, you know, we're what, three years in now. We made it to the conference finals.

You know, then you miss the playoffs, and then all of a sudden you have a chance to do it again. I think this is why I came here. I feel like it gave me a good opportunity to win again. Did you ever talk to Bruce Cassidy about 2019? Did that ever come up? Yeah, it's a little awkward. Yeah.

But we talk about it. I mean, look, game seven, anything can happen, right? So it's just, you know, obviously, you know, I play with David Backus too. And, you know, someone that I really look up to, I still do.

And that was an even harder thing, right, to go through when you play against your friends. Do you think this year, because you had an exceptional year, someone that I spoke to said, when all the Norris Trophy ballots are revealed, you guys are going to be all embarrassed that you guys didn't have Petrangelo higher.

How did you feel about your season and your playoffs? Honestly, I felt like I had a really strong season. I think we had a lot of injuries at one point. A few guys missed a couple months and really had to, you know, play big minutes there for a while. You know, is it nice to get recognized? Yeah, but the cliche of it only matters what's in the locker room. I could care less what people think. Look, we're going to play on the east coast at 10 o'clock and everybody's going to watch our games. Not everybody's going to see night in, night out what guys do and, you know, that's their

opinions. I know what I do. Hopefully, I can, you know, help a team win. You know, it's no different than Mark Stone, Jack Eichel. I can go, you know, Shea Theodore. I can go on and on about the list of guys, you know, that we have. And the thing that makes us special as a group is we all understand that we got to give a little bit to get a lot. And we got some big time players in our team that are willing to do that, you know, and here we are.

I appreciate when people say that. It's great, but what matters most is what's in that locker room. What do you give? What does Alex Petrangelo give to get a lot? I give you everything I have every single night. Is it going to be perfect? No, it's not going to be. But I think especially as you get older in your career,

you know you're not going to be able to do it forever, so you've got to make sure those moments count. I feel like I've tried to become an even better teammate as I've gotten old and really enjoy the relationships you know with my teammates and and I really enjoy helping other guys too and especially like Whitey and Hagg are the guys who are 10 years younger than me like funny to say that now but I really enjoy that part of it and those guys are such an important part of our group but if I can answer any questions to them life or hockey whatever it is i'm happy to do those things you know the relationship between a defenseman and a goaltender is a special one and there are certain way i mean

you know this like you read off goalies body language or what they're one of the stories about the vegas gold the nicest year is how many goaltenders this team has used this season how much of a challenge has that been for you? You know what? Not as much as you think. I think the way we play, we can put anybody in there and that's a good thing. I don't mean to say that in a bad way, but if you look at all the goalies that have come in this year,

they've all played well. And I think we know how each guy is going to play. There's similarities between, you know, different guys, but they all do have some, some tendencies that maybe you adjust to, but I think that our style and how strong we are as a group on the back end, I think we're lucky that we don't have to change much when those guys go in. You guys are 12 and 5 in the

playoffs. It's tough to win 12 out of 17 in the playoffs. Did you ever think in any series you guys were in trouble? I wouldn't say in trouble. I felt like we played terrible against Winnipeg in game one. Let's just call it what it is. And then a good wake-up call for us. I think, too, when you have so much success in a regular season, you can carry that. And sometimes you get a little on your high horse, and it brings you back down to earth.

I felt like, obviously, Dallas came back. They win two. And you're saying, OK okay anything can happen and we put our best game in game six but anytime you're playing against you know McDavid and Dreisaitl anything can happen right I mean if you look at what they can do and you know they can flip that switch and and take over a game at any point so I think they probably played better than us in some games and uh but I thought collected as a group we did a pretty good job against them but that was a tough series I wanted to ask you the handshake line with Dreisaitl.

What happened and is it important for everyone to forgive and forget? Well, it's hard to forgive and forget, right? I mean, it's for sure. Look, did I make a mistake? Yeah, I did. I mean, and I paid for it. I had to sit in that room and watch the game

and go ask Phil Kessel. It was hard to watch with me because I was pacing the room back and forth. But, you know, I just wanted to apologize and say that, you know, it wasn't very smart on my end. The game was over and emotions got the best of me. And I think it takes a big person to apologize, right? It's not an easy thing to do to admit your mistake. And thankfully, the guys, you know, did the job for me. Alex, thanks so much for this.

Best of luck in the final. Thanks. Before we go to the music for me. Alex, thanks so much for this. Best of luck in the final. Thanks. Before we go to the music. Yes. What's your pick? I like the Vegas Golden Knights. I have Vegas in seven. I got Vegas in five or six.

Five? They're good, man. They're really good, Elliot. And they're deep. OK. Vegas is good, man. I know they're good, but five is disrespectful. Oh, OK. That's such disrespect. Vegas is good, man. I know they're good, but five is disrespectful.

Oh, okay. Such disrespect. Vegas at eight then. Make sure everybody's happy. I like that better. Before we get to the music here, we've had a lot of interesting feedback from the interview we did with Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz,

the man trying to bring the NHL to Utah. Given the feedback, given the conversations around this interview, and if you haven't heard it, I strongly suggest that you go and listen to it because this gentleman is probably going to be an owner of the NHL at some point, and he is quite unique and quite different. So we encourage you to go and listen to that pod. What's the feedback that you've gotten after the interview dropped yesterday?

Mostly positive. What's the feedback that you've gotten after the interview dropped yesterday? Mostly positive. To be honest, Jeff, in some ways, I kind of was like, we didn't do the interview properly in terms of the order. Like, instead of getting into the hockey, we talked about, you know, who he was and his philosophy as a person. After a while, I was kind of like, oh, we're going in the wrong direction. But I had people who said, no, no, no.

I kind of like knowing about the person before I knew about the hockey stuff. People seem to really like it. You know what the biggest negative I got out of it? What's that? Was that people just don't want to see any more expansion. They're like, we don't want to see any more teams. If you have to relocate, I said to one of them,ate i said to one of them you better get used to it you better get used to it but you know there's i think for the most part people seem to enjoy it look you look at the numbers for the ottawa senators and what they're going to get

and you look at the amount of people that want pro sports franchises and you say to yourself inventory is low and desire is high. Get used to it. Anyway, I encourage you to go and have a listen to Ryan Smith on our interview podcast from a couple of days ago. It was nothing to do with me and Elliot. Ryan Smith was exceptional. Taking us out is an artist of two Rwandan immigrants

who moved to the United States before the genocide that hit his country in the early 90s. Based out of Minneapolis, Moyes has been making rock-infused R&B music over the last six years. From his latest album, We Survived the Storm, Volume 2, here's Moyes with Paranoia on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy game one. After a couple times the leanings drip off me These four star hotels got the same glossy lobby Can't impress unless you're sweet To be honest I don't need no more company Reaching for my buckets I'm sitting comfy Take a step I wouldn't say you've been wanting

Can't keep holding back Yeah Heaven, oh, you're in my cautions Target on the bed, not your home One of my favorite thoughts It doesn't need to be you A couple days ago you crushed that new art Looking for you there were no blood or body

These women driving crazy, kiss on your heart It's better, less or less sweet