32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé!!!!

Episode Date: June 25, 2021

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, held annually on June 24, is the feast day of St John the Baptist… but today it was also the Montreal Canadiens day to break the fast and feast on the Golden Knights! Jeff and Elliotte discuss Montreal’s big win tonight (1:00) and also speculate about what this could mean for Vegas making moves for next […]

I've done dumber things than that. Like, come on, that wouldn't even be in the top 50. Welcome to 31 Thoughts, a podcast presented by the GMC Sierra AT4. Elliott is already en route back home. As they are partying, Elliott, in Montreal, they are partying, well, probably not just partying in Montreal, but probably the entire province of Quebec as well. And a lot of pockets in Canada to boot. The Montreal Canadiens eliminate the Vegas Golden Knights in six. Arturi Lekkonen, the overtime hero, 139 in. Smiles all around behind COVID masks.

Luke Richardson. Some of them, anyway. Some of them, anyhow. I mean, I always love great sites of jubilation like that, whether it's weddings, whether it's parties, whether it's sporting events, regardless of the sport itself, just the event of fun.

And again, this is only getting to the Stanley Cup final, but what a wonderful night for everybody in Montreal and Montreal Canadiens fans, the most storied franchise in all of hockey from coast to coast to coast here in Canada. Your thoughts on what we saw Thursday night. Well, it's awesome. I mean, number one, you know, we're Hockey Night in Canada.

We want to see Canadian representation. We want to see the Canadians do well. I mean, the Canadian teams, not only specifically the Canadians, but this is the Canadians' year. And, you know, we've had the rights at Sportsnet for seven years. And this is the first time a Canadian team has made the Stanley Cup final. I have said many times my university time finished in 1993. I still don't have my degree, so I always make sure to point out that I finished Western in 1993.

All I've ever wanted to do was cover a Canadian team, win the Stanley Cup. And I don't know that that's going to happen this year. It will be Tampa or the Islanders will be an enormous challenge for the Canadians. But I want to at least get the opportunity to try to witness it and it's been too long it had been 10 years since Vancouver was the last team there Calgary had a shot in my first year at Hockey Night in Canada that of course was 2004 then we had Edmonton in 2006 then we had Ottawa in 2007 and then Vancouver in 2011. And now it's Montreal's turn.

And I'm excited about the opportunity to see it. I'm excited to cover a series where a Canadian team is competing for the Stanley Cup. It gets my juices flowing. You know, you never make it, no matter what your team is, you never make it to a Stanley Cup final without a lot of stories, with a lot of intrigue, with a lot of human interest. What to Elliott Friedman

is interesting about this Montreal Canadiens team? What isn't? You know, where do you want to go? Is it Luke Richardson? Is it Dominic Ducharme? Is it Carey Price? Is it Shea Weber? Is it Dominic Ducharme? Is it Carey Price? Is it Shea Weber?

Is it Kot Kanyemi? Is it Bergevin? Is it... Where do you want to go? Is it Nick Suzuki? Is it Cole Caulfield? Is it Cole Caulfield? The year of his life right now, Elliot?

Where do you want to go? I mean, is it the fact that we're seeing, you know, to me, it's almost crazy that there's only 3,500 allowed inside the building when you see everybody that's there outside the building? Well, OK, so let's pause on that because we had this conversation on Hockey Central and Justin Bourne put this one to you. Like, there's no way that the government's only going to allow 3,500 people in the Bell Centre, right? Look, that's way outside of my purview.

I don't know what they're going to do. You know me. I don't put a lot of stock in politicians. I don't know what they're going to do but those scenes were incredible at saint jean baptiste you know like i said to you i have a friend who lives in montreal he texted me at 12 noon he goes i don't know if i'm gonna make it and i'm like the game doesn't start for eight hours and And, you know, I texted him when it went into overtime, and I said, how are you?

And he goes, I'm holding on. You know, there's a lot of emotion there. You know, the roller coaster of emotion for Canadiens fans. You know, right now, they're all, we knew we were going to do it. How dare you ever doubted us? I can't believe none of you guys ever picked any of us. I said that, you know, my friends from Montreal were saying, you're not allowed to pick us now after the first round.

But think about what it was like when they were down 3-1 to Toronto. Think about what it was like when they limped into the postseason. You know, Bergevin's moves last summer there wasn't a lot of agreement with him there were a lot of people who thought he was crazy so i think true fans they live and die with their teams i totally get it they react in certain ways to their teams i totally get it but just think of how those Canadian fans felt. Again, my friends who lived there, they told me after they fell behind 3-1 in Toronto, just talk radio and everything in Montreal where Canadians Twitter.

It was crazy. They couldn't wait to throw the entire Canadian organization into the St. Lawrence Seaway. And now they're four wins away from the Stanley Cup. Sports is the best reality show ever. Ever. Nothing beats it. Not the Real Housewives of whatever city, not Jersey Shore,

not the Kardashians. Sports is the best reality show alive. We're going to talk plenty about the Montreal Canadiens because they still have one more round of the playoffs. They're into the Stanley Cup Finals. So let me focus in then on the Vegas Golden Knights and the obvious what's next questions for this team. By the way, I did want to say I want to say a friend of mine who's a huge Leaf fan he said if it's Montreal versus the Islanders he's not

sure he's going to be able to handle it there's a whole lot of that going around right now uh amongst amongst Maple Leafs fans but but give me your thoughts on on what's next for the Vegas Golden Knights here like I thought that of all the interviews that we saw post game you know Mark Stone really wore this one yeah he wore it Mark Stone wore it Mark Stone you know well first of all he said he wasn't hurt he was really hard on himself you know the line that's going to endure from Mark Stone's press conferences.

I got skunked. Yeah. He wore this one. Um, and a lot of guys tried to wear this one. He cares. He wears emotions. Every single shift.

Like there's Mark Stone is, must be the worst poker player on the planet because he wears every single emotion on his face. And I don't know if that's true about him in poker, but man, he must be easy to read when it comes to cards. DeBoer talked about how they didn't find another level and Montreal was able to find another level. Like Riley Smith, Alec Martinez,

like everybody went out there, Robin Leonard, like everybody went out there and tried to put on the brave face. But as i mentioned stone really wore it he said he wasn't hurt but you could tell he felt hurt by what happened before we get into the specifics of some of the players and what's next what's your takeaway from vegas this series and their season you know first of all I think that they continue to set a high standard. You know, they're still an expansion team, really.

They've only been in their fourth season. Hang on. They're an expansion team, and some people are already saying they need to go through a rebuild. I don't know. They're in their fourth. They go Stanley Cup.

Unbelievable first-round loss. Conference final. Final and whatever this is. Final four. Clarence Campbell. unbelievable first round loss, Western final, and whatever this is. Final four. Clarence Campbell. Yeah, final four. I mean, you know, first of all, Stone,

he cares a lot, you can tell. I didn't see where the final numbers ended. It couldn't have been much higher. But he and Pacioretty were going to play the lowest they've ever played in the playoffs this year. And by significant margins. Stone was at 16 minutes after regulation.

Pacioretty was at 14.33. You could see that even their coach felt they didn't have it. Montreal is really hard to play against. Some of their fans didn't like it when I called them Islanders light the other day. Roger Soucy, a Canadian fan on Twitter, he sent me a DM saying we should be Islanders Extra Strength. So if the Canadians are now in, we know. If the Islanders lose, yes, I'll start calling them Islanders Extra Strength for sure. They're a hard team to play against.

They make it hard to get to the net. They make it hard to get through the neutral zone. And, you know, I thought the most dangerous player for Vegas all series, the guy, when he got the puck, yes, 100%. When he got the puck, if I was a Canadian or a fan, I would have been terrified. I thought something was going to happen every time he touched it. But their forwards dried up. Caulfield scored four goals. Their forwards scored, you know, four goals. And I just think that I don't know what happened.

You know, the one thing is they're the only good team in the NHL, and they are a good team, who are not strong down the middle. So I wonder if they're going to look at this series and say that's where we got beat and that's what we have to address because when you look at their offense suddenly drying up i wonder if they look at themselves down the middle but that was always the interesting thing about the vegas golden knights they were built on A, good goaltending, B, a good blue line, and C, the wings. Speed on the wings, yes.

That's where they've decided to allocate their money. Big dollars to Stone and Pacioretty and Marcheseau and Smith. And I mean, down the middle, you're looking at Chandler Stevenson and William Carlson and Nicholas Waugh and Thomas Noshak., like none of this screams

Stanley Cup, but around them looks like Stanley Cup quality. I always felt that there's not ever just one way to win. That's why I kind of hate this mentality that, you know, whatever is successful the year before, everybody has to chase it and everybody has to do it. I like teams that say, okay, well that works for them. This is going to work for us. But that is the one thing that I do wonder about. You know, Alex Petrangelo was supposed to be the final piece. That was the last big ticket free agent. That was it putting them over the hump. They got their guy and now it was Stanley Cup or bust. I like teams that try different things, but I'm with you on this one. I wonder if they look down the middle and say,

maybe we've spent too much money on the wings here and not enough money in the middle. You know, I think too, the thing you know about those guys is Vegas goes after everyone who's big, right? Yes. I remember last summer summer hang on a second are you are you taking this to jack eichel territory well you know i i'm not specifically

about eichel but you know that they'll they'll be in on anyone who they think can help them yeah i believe that you know that that's the way they are it's their dna the surest predictor of future behavior is is past behavior and those guys go after the big fish no matter who they've got no matter who they've got they've go after the big fish yeah um let me ask you about a couple of situations um that'll face the vegas golden knights here in the off season one um i can't remember his last podcast, the podcast before, they all run together now. Alec Martinez is an unrestricted free agent, and I would have to imagine that something would happen

with the goaltending this offseason. Yeah, I gotta think so. Like, you know, Fleury has one more year. Leonard's signed long-term. You know, signed long term you know I don't know I don't know I just don't know how that's can they come back with the same group I don't know I mean the one thing about Fleury and Leonard I don't think their relationship is phony like sometimes I see people put on a big show about look we get along and we're friends, and I wonder if it's phony.

I don't see that one as phony. I see their relationship as being very legitimate. Now, I think obviously Fleury has some trust issues with the organization, and I think that, I mean, the owner loves Fleury, but I think sometimes the hockey ops don't have full trust in flurry, but I think those two can deal with it each other. To me, the question becomes is if they, if they feel they need to go out and get another piece and it's a piece that carries a big ticket, where do you create the room to add it?

Well, the, the, the one thing we talked about last time is, you know, Martinez is going to probably go somewhere else. And Nick Hague is going to slide into that spot, right?

Well, that's, that's, that's where Nick Hague will be slotted. So there's, there's a savings there, but that's not enough to bring in a big ticket, a big ticket player.

You have to do something with Marc-Andre Florin and 7 million. Like, if you're going to create cap space, that's the place you have to do it. Well, it's one or the other, really. And listen, like, Vegas is in a situation where, as weird as it is, and as weird as this is going to say, they're in the position to be able to hand over a Vesna Trophy finalist

just for the cap space. I mean, we'll see what happens. You know, the owner there has always shown tremendous loyalty to Fleury and Foley is very hands-on. You know, we'll see how it plays out. It almost happened last year. He was close to going to Pittsburgh. We'll see.

But for me, just knowing the way Vegas thinks, their aggressive nature and the fact that you have to think they're going to address whatever they consider their weaknesses, you know, they're going to be a team to watch. They always are. That's their identity now. If there's something sparkly or something shiny that they like, they're going for it.

I like an aggressive team in the NHL. I think it's good for the league, and they're one of them. Kelly McCrimmon, George McPhee. This is an aggressive squad. More on Vegas in the days and weeks to come here on the podcast. So the Montreal Canadiens will face off against either the Tampa Bay Lightning or the New York Islanders. This one is going to a game seven.

But let's rewind to game six and a couple of hot buttons in this one. One, the Coliseum itself, which was fantastic. And what a great finish at the end with beer tins and even a shoe on the ice. Do you remember when Curtis Lazar ate the hamburger? Of course. How could I forget that? I am disappointed that none of those Islanders picked up one of those cans of beer. And you don't put it to your lips because that would be disgusting but you like pour the beer out of the can into your mouth would you do that i've done dumber things than

that like come on that that wouldn't even be in the top 50 okay fair fair point um so to that game six though uh the tampa bay lightning go up to. But they don't just go up 2-0, Elliot. They go up 2-0 after killing off a 5-on-3. Sorelli scores. And everybody is thinking, this thing is over. Like, what an emotional gut punch. Right? You have a 5-on-3. You have a chance to jump back into this.

Tampa kills it off. And Anthony Sorelli scores. Dagger, right? Not so fast. Eberle and then Mayfield with the best shot of his life. And then Anthony Bevilier wins this thing in overtime. You have a quick thought on Game 6 in advance of Game 7 tonight?

Well, it was an incredible game. It really was an incredible game. One of the best games of the playoffs. I mean, Mayfield, I mean, for half the world a villain, for half the world a hero i mean if you're a writer like a great writer that is the storyline that you are you dream about being handed you know first of all whatever you think about the penalties or what was called i just want to say scott mayfield that guy deserves a lot of credit he has turned himself into a player

yep and a long shot just a guy who has developed into a heck of a player you know for me one of the most fascinating things that that happened was actually on the day off between games six and seven and that is there was a lot of private, like, first of all, the biggest question hanging over this series is what is going to happen with Kucherov? You know, is he going to play game seven? Because their power play, when Matt Martin got that penalty

and Kucherov wasn't on that power play, Palat had one great pass to point and it was a glorious chance, but it just wasn't as dangerous. Kucherov is so good. He can make any play anywhere on the ice and find anyone on the ice. That power play was just not the same

without him there. The one thing you notice right away is no one on that team, and it seemed like they handed the whole power play zone entry over to Braden Point, who's really good. But nobody gets the zone as efficiently and seemingly as easily as Nikita Kucherov. Like, he gets the zone, sets up smoother than maybe anybody else in the league, Elliot.

It's frightening. I agree with that. It's frightening. I agree with that. I agree with that that's where Tampa really I mean outside of like the guy finds seams that nobody else seems to be able

to find but just the fact that how easily he gets the zone yes I think it's true so you're saying and I think they're good enough I think they're good enough as a team to win without him I just think it's much, much harder.

And they're going to have to find something on the power play. But, you know, one of the things that was wild in the off day between game six and seven was, I guess there was a lot of jockeying for opinion on how Kucherov got hurt. And, you know, we don't know what the injury is right now. And I don't question injuries. Like, if that guy's leaving the game, he's legit hurt. But I heard there was quite a battle because, you know, first of all, I think if you're Tampa, you're trying to see, you know,

should Mayfield get extra punishment, which isn't happening. But, B, if you're the Islanders, you're defending him against the fact that that should even occur and i heard there was a lot of jockeying about and i got some of it about how was kucherov actually hurt you know some of us wondered was it on the cross check well i think we all wondered if it was on the cross-check, but some people were saying for sure it was the cross-check. And then some of us also wondered, did he maybe get hurt on the play where he tried to hit Barzell and Barzell was ready for him? And I guess, you know, people were claiming that where he was really injured was when he, I guess his elbow or his arm hit the boards and maybe that's where he got injured. So apparently behind the scenes, there was a lot of this jockeying going around about

where Kucherov was actually injured. It was a fascinating day. A couple of people were telling me about it. But, you know, to me, I think Tampa is good enough. They can win without him, but it's a huge loss. It's a hard loss. And I think it's an enormous challenge. You know, to me, you know, there's a couple guys in Tampa I look at. Number one, Vasilevsky.

After a loss, he's unbelievable. You know, a guy I kind of laughed a bit and felt bad for was John Puchagros. When it was 2-0 and the Lightning ran into penalty trouble. He sent out a tweet saying he could call 100 penalties, they're not scoring. And I felt the exact same thing, and they won. And you know Vasilevsky's going to come back big time in Game 7. The other thing, too, is that Chris Johnson reported a little while ago that Hedman wasn't healthy.

He's clearly not healthy. Jeff, do you remember how he dominated the playoffs last year? Of course. He was the best player on the ice. I haven't seen that against the Islanders. And I wonder, what's the Hedman? What's he going to come out with? I have a feeling he's going to have a game like I I've said this a million times I do not bet against the

Islanders they come at you the same way over and over and over again especially if Kucherov can't play I'm looking at Vasilevsky and I'm looking at Hedman and I think they're going to come out with monster performances on Friday night. One final thought on this one. And I want to go back to Scott Mayfield. Because that game, in a lot of ways, was all about him. Whether it was the goal. Whether it was the controversy with the crosscheck on Kucherov. And let's not forget, too, going hard at Stephen Stamkos at the end of the period.

That's Scott May forget, too, going hard at Stephen Stamkos at the end of the period. That's got Mayfield, too. Like, to me, Mayfield's fingerprints are all over. Like, Mayfield is one of the key reasons why we are going to a Game 7. No doubt about it. Like, I think, honestly, he's number one on the list. Yeah. Okay, Elliot, to wrap up the conversation about Tampa and New York here, I want to get your thoughts on what we saw after Bavillier scored.

And, you know, he talked about the tins on the ice and the shoe and all that kind of stuff from the celebration. How much of that, because I'm always interested in trying to read crowds and get into people's heads and try to feel, imagine what they are feeling.

I don't know about you, but one of my great dreams, I would just love to live my life. Just, I love to live one day as another person, just to be able to see the world in a different way have different feelings see different things i always try to get myself in the head of people at certain events how much of that outpouring for anthony bevillier was a just about the goal because we're going to game seven and how much of it do you think was islanders fans saying

if this is the last playoff game ever at the coliseum we want to send it off the right way here that's kind of what i felt for each yeah maybe i i think it's more a and then you know one person does it and the crowd's riled and then just, you know, it's like, it's like the stuff we used to excuse is boys will be boys. And now we're like, Oh my God, that's really not smart. You know, I think it's one of those things that if we ever, first of all, the Coliseum right now is kind of like the house guests that won't leave. We keep running goodbye pieces and, Oh,

this could be our last game and how great's the Coliseum. They don't make it like anyone. Oh wait, there's another one. Like I'm sure if there's another one, it'll, the reaction will be, this is fantastic.

We've won again this time. Maybe we don't throw all the beer on the ice. Okay. We'll look forward to game seven later on tonight or i guess whenever depending on when you listen to this podcast maybe it's already happened the other news around the nhl on thursday oh you're listening to this if we're going to all this effort to make this car cast yeah then you're going to listen to it before the game come on audience by the way i i do want to say and i should have done it sooner thank you you to Mike Rogerson, who is our audio engineer for this one.

Amo is still off this week after he and Joe had the beautiful baby. And we weren't supposed to do a card cast, but we said with a Canadian team going for the Stanley Cup in Game 6, we have to do a card cast, and Mike stepped up, and we really appreciate it mike your top drawer bud um thank you very much for this because doing a card what happened here hold on hold on hold on Okay, the other big bit of news on Thursday happened early and was kind of surprised for a lot of people.

And as the name Dave Haxtall kind of caught a lot of people off guard. Nonetheless, there he is, the first head coach for the Seattle Kraken. On the surprise scale, where does this one rank for you? We all talked about Rick Tockett, Andre Twain. What's the scale? What's the scale go to here? I mean, in hockey, we always use Gretzky trade as the ultimate shocker.

Okay. It's not that. One to Gretzky trade. Nothing's like that. On a scale of one to 10, I would still say it's about a 20. You know, someone said to me today, Jeff, that, you know, last Saturday on Headlines, you did Seattle coaching and Toronto coaches having interviews.

Like, are you that stupid that you couldn't put the two of them together? Or were you just trying to tell us something? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't. I thought if anywhere, Haxtell was interviewing in Buffalo. That's what I thought. Cough twice if the answer is yes.

Cough once if the answer is no. That's one cough. No, I thought if anywhere, Haxtell was interviewing in buffalo because you know buffalo's got a big usa hockey lean to it and even though haxtell's canadian he coached in north dakota right so if anything i i figured that was it um so this is what happened basically the night before they made the announcement that before they they set out a press release saying they're having a press conference and earlier that day that was Tuesday or sorry Wednesday I had heard that

Talk It was not gonna get it that they were leaning away from him now I didn't get that confirmed until Thursday morning so I did my serious radio hit on Thursday morning and they said, it's gotta be talk it. And I said, no, I don't think it is. And, you know, some people heard that. And I wasn't didn't want to tweet that out because you want to chase out and find out who it is. And it was not long after that, someone started saying to me, check it on Haxtell. And the thing is like Ron Francis,'s really faulty you know Tony they interviewed Granado that got out the interview talk at that got out there

Galant that got out they interviewed Joe Sacco that got out I think the one name they interviewed that we didn't hear was hackstall and you know when the news started to get out I was 99% sure it was haxtell but you always have that slight doubt right and that doubt nagged at me and i i were i was just really careful and um you know it is a big surprise that caught a lot of people by surprise and you know the the the reason is you know i just don't think that haxtxtell was high on a lot of lists. And that doesn't mean that Ron Francis is wrong. Like, he knows him.

They were together at the 2019 Worlds. It doesn't mean that Ron Francis is wrong or Seattle is wrong. I just think that on a lot of lists, he wouldn't have been as high on them as he was on Ron Francis's. And, you know, I should have said this earlier. I do want to say this now. I'm very curious to hear what this run is going to do for Luke Richardson. You know, Luke Richardson, when that icing went against Montreal, it shouldn't have been an icing in overtime.

Burrows is freaking out and Richardson is calm. And he has been calm on that bench you know it's going to be really interesting to see you know i think ducharme obviously is coming back but what's this going to mean for richardson you know his you know is he going to start to rise the top of list he's been a guy who's really been passed over, kind of forgotten man, in some ways that Haxtell kind of was in Toronto. Now Haxtell gets this huge opportunity, and I'm curious to see what this is going to mean for Richardson. I'm team cheer for people, and he's top of the list for the Montreal Canadiens.

I could not be more happy for that guy. Listen, if it leads to greater, bigger things for him, then amen. Because that guy and that family very much deserves it. When you look at Dave Haxtell with the Seattle Kraken, and you think about the hire from Ron Francis's point of view, Ron Francis is a very quiet and thoughtful person.

Do we say the same thing about Dave Haxtell? Oh yeah. So basically if the two finalists were Dave Haxtell and Rick talk, which I think they were there too, could you get two more diametrically opposed people? You know, talk it is emotion. He played on emotion. He pushes people. He people you know talk it is emotion he played on emotion he pushes people he

you know the one thing i don't like there's a narrative here on talk it that he's anti-analytics or doesn't isn't interested in analytics you know arizona tried a lot of different things and the people who worked there told me he was incredibly open-minded about them. You know, he listened. He was happy to take everything into account. So I don't think that's a fair narrative. You know, obviously there's two coaching opportunities left. He's not going back to Arizona. I mean, we'll see if there's any interest on Buffalo's part.

Tuckett is, you know, he's got a lot of people who really like him in the league. We'll see where this goes. Haxtell is more cerebral. He's a thinker. He's, you know, when I asked some people today what was the best thing about Haxtell in Philadelphia, they said the best thing he did was the Giroux move to wing. They said that he planned it out.

He convinced them. He said, these are my reasons. And, you know, it turned out to be great. I think that the challenge for overly cerebral people in hockey is that it's an emotional game. And we're seeing in the playoffs that it's an emotional game. And what they said to me about Haxtell is he can put a game plan together he can tell you why he believes you should be doing what you're doing but when the emotions become a factor that's where he needed to sometimes

you have to be able to make guys want to run through walls for you. It's very clear for me that the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Islanders in particular, they will run through walls for the people behind their bench, right? And I think that that's what Haxtell needs to tap into and he needs to improve on. And that's going to be key. And I believe everybody deserves a second chance to show where they mess things up the first time or where things didn't work the first time this will be haxtell's chance to show that yes i've got the cerebral now could i bring the emotional okay so now and and and i'm with you on that one They'll be always curious to see how someone works

in their second go around with it. On the horizon, the expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken. And I wonder if this is an indication that, and I'll just state the obvious for the obvious reasons, does the hiring of Dave Haxtall mean that the Seattle Kraken at the expansion draft will select TJ Oshie from the Caps, James Van Riemsdyk from the Flyers, and Travis Dermott from the Maple Leafs, if they have the opportunity to do so? Because Haxtell coached all three of them. Boy, you're really big into the conspiracy theories, eh?

This is kind of an obvious one though, isn't it? Yeah. I like, first of all, I'll, I'll tell you this. I know there's some other teams who think that it's more likely Toronto loses Kerfoot,

but we'll see, you know, Kerfoot's a Western guy and he's a center. You know, I do think that Seattle is going to go big on the blue line. That's cause that's what Ron Francis did when he was in Carolina. I do think they want to maintain financial flexibility. And, you know, Oshie's deal, it's tougher to maintain financial flexibility.

I have no doubt Haxtell's going to have a vote. I have no doubt he's going to say, I'd love this guy or that guy. But still, Seattle's not doing anything to help anyone else unless they have incentive to do it. That's number one. So what's the incentive to do this or not do this? And number two, the only thing I wonder about in Oshie's case is do they want to maintain financial flexibility and he's still got some term okay so one of the follow-ups then is what does this mean for the bench situation now in Toronto with Dave Haxtell now removed well I think there'll be a lot of interest I do yeah

you know it's Toronto's Toronto pays well they support you well in terms of resources you know the rewards are high if you succeed there. If I was a player or coach, I'd love to play in a place like Toronto or Montreal because, yes, the challenges are great when you're not doing well, but I look at it the other way. The rewards are great when you're successful. And, you know, I just feel that I think there'll be a lot of interest. You know, I had one guy text me today.

He says that the Leafs were smart. Richardson, I'm not sure about his contract situation. I think it's up after this year. They were like, if they were Toronto, first of all, before this turns into a fiasco, Montreal's not going to let him go anywhere he doesn't want to go. But they were like, if they were Toronto, they'd be stealing Luke Richardson. Yeah.

You know, look, I think that, I think they're going to have options there because they pay well, they give you good resources and the rewards are higher if you do well there. You know, one of the names that, um, that we all thought going back to when Sheldon Keefe first got the job after Mike Babcock was fired, that we should expect to see on the bench is someone who's been with Sheldon Keefe going back to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds days of the OHL and is now an assistant with the Toronto Marlies, and that's AJ McLean. Do you think it's that level of replacement or are we looking at someone with more of a lengthy pro-slash-NHL resume? I think it's going to be... I wonder, would they ever promote the other guy on the AHL bench, Davison? Rob Davison? Yeah. Yes.

Put it this way. Everybody available is going to be sending a resume. Does that include Bruce Boudreaux? You know he'd love to coach in Toronto. I do know that. Or whatever passes for a resume. Okay, just to wrap things up here, one final thought about the situation in Vancouver

with Henrik and Daniel, the Sedins. Are you doing this for Mike because he's a Canucks fan? I'm doing this for Mike as a thank you for stepping in for Amal. I'm also doing this because we haven't talked about the Sedins and their new roles and my pie in the sky dream of one day we see a team with not one, but two general managers. Well, if anything would do it it would be this i just think i'm really curious to see how this evolves over the next year like their true influence and the true meaning of what this is i don't think we're going to know in the short term i think we're going to know in the long term. I'm sure they're going to be asked their opinion. I'm sure they're going to give their opinions when asked. I just think that

when do they decide if they want to do this, really do this? The question that I have, maybe even before that is, how much time do you think they need to spend, if any? Like, maybe the answer is, well, none. I mean, they're the Sedins and they've been around hockey their entire lives. How much time do they need to learn what goes into running an organization before they feel comfortable doing something? First of all, I don't believe that those guys would be so naive and so egomaniacal to believe that they know everything there is to know. That's number one. Number two, I've told this

story before, I think about Iserman. And that is that a guy I know when Iserman got the job in Detroit, he just said, he's an old school guy. He just said, Oh, another former player getting handed a job and going to be able to do whatever they want and not really work. This guy would go into some dingy arena and Iserman would be there. This guy would be at some dinky event and Iserman would be there. And he said, you know what, like, I have to take that back. I really wanted to eat this guy, but he's putting the work in.

And I think a lot of the people who are really serious about it they put the work in and I just don't think that the sardines who never took a shortcut in their careers would ever say it would be acceptable for them to be managers without doing everything what does it mean for the short term? Like, for example, if Jim Benning walks in there and says, I want to sign this player, the Sedin's going to say no. They're going to offer their opinion. Now, this is what I think it could mean is, you know,

I think ownership there wields a big stick, and they're heavily involved in a lot of the decision-making. I could see ownership saying to them, what do you think? there wields a big stick and they're heavily involved in a lot of the decision making i could see ownership saying to them what do you think so are the sardines gonna say no maybe not but if they say i'm not sure or i would say this and it's not enthusiastic what does ownership do with that so then automatically you have that friction then between the Sedins and Jim Benning. I don't think it's going to be. No, I think I think friction is the wrong term to use because I think like I had heard that they were quite comfortable working with Benning.

I had heard that, you know, they didn't want to come in and people necessarily to be fired because they were coming in. I had heard they'd actually said that they didn't think that was a good idea because they still had to learn the business, right? So I don't look at it as friction. I see them as offering their opinions. Like, for example, let's just say

Jim Benning wants to sign Jeff Merrick, right? Wise move. Wise move, Jim. Well done. Well done, Benji. And the twins say that's insane. That would be the stupidest thing we could ever do. What do they know anyway?

Then I could see ownership saying, well, I'm really interested in their opinion. Look, they're not in there to submarine Jim Benning. That's just not who they are. But I do think ownership will listen to their opinion. Do you know whose idea this was? That's a great question. You see, here's why. Like, I'm just trying to think from Jim Benning's point of view.

If it's Jim Benning's idea, well, then, hey, there's more voices around the table. It's someone that I trust, someone that I brought in. I don't see that as being the case. I think they felt this year. That's what I think. Yeah, this year was such a nightmare in the way that a lot of things got dealt with that I just think they looked at it like we need something else here. That's where I look at and I say if I'm Jim Benning, all of a sudden, I didn't ask for this.

And I think, but the thing is, like, that's, but like, I don't think that has to be the end of the world. Like, that's life. Jeff, look at our own jobs. No, listen, I listen, Elliot, I get that it's life, but this is, I get that it's life, but this is also,

this is also how a human being feels. If you're Jim Benning here, how are you feeling about this move? Publicly, he's going to put on the brave face and talk about how it's wonderful and the Sedins are valued people and valued hockey minds, et cetera. But you're not dumb. You know what's gone on, and you know why the Sedins are being brought in here right now. I don't know. I try to think of things from as many viewpoints as possible.

No, I understand. And I'm just thinking, if I'm Jim Benning, as much as I'm saying all the right things publicly, I didn't ask for this. You know, that may be true, but you know what? My way of thinking in life jeff is it's not what you ask for it's what you get and how are you gonna play the hand that you got there's only the the best thing for everyone in the canucks organization to do

is look at it and say i better be prepared to make this work because you know look look what happened with lyndon okay lyndon's gone and he left under controversial circumstances a very popular former player and some reputations took a beating because of it. Yeah. It never, you know, it, it, whether who, it didn't matter who was right or who was wrong. You know, it, it, it was a constant source of conversation ever since the day Lyndon left. Right. Yeah. So are you going to let that happen again? Or are you going to find a way to make it work?

For Vancouver's sake, it's best they find a way to make it work. And I just think those guys, I think those guys are smart guys. I love their answer about why are we here? We're here because we love the Canucks and we want to make it work. They're like, who, like who thinks those guys are liars? When they say that, I think it's completely true. It's not about ego for them. It's not about making themselves look good.

It's about making it work. And they're going to try to make it work. And we wish them luck. And we wish the Vancouver Canucks luck. Once again, it'll be poised. That team will be poised to become one of the more interesting teams in the offseason and now the sadeen factor is thrown into all of it anything else before we wrap up we have a game seven tonight uh the montreal canadians punched their ticket uh first

time they're in the final going back to 1993 when they beat the los angeles kings you have a final thought on a a day that began with Seattle news and ended with a big celebration in Montreal? What a day. What a day. And like I said, nothing bad about seeing a Canadian team compete for the Stanley Cup. Congratulations.

You're either going to love it or you're going to hate watch it. There's no in between. And we'll find out who they play later on tonight as the New York Islanders face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning. We have a game seven. In the meantime, thanks for listening once again to 31 Thoughts, the podcast. We appreciate the downloads. We appreciate your time.

We appreciate you. And we appreciate Mike Rogerson, as Elliot mentioned, stepping in for Amal Delic, who's doing the best job in the world right now. Amal, I really hope you're not listening to this goofy podcast. But way to go, Dad. And that will wrap up. Thanks so much for listening to 31 Thoughts, the podcast. Back in a few more days with a fresh one.

Enjoy. Thank you. Thank you.