32 Thoughts: The Podcast - One More to Go

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman unpack an eventful semifinal round from Milano Cortina. They open with reflections from Canada-Finland before getting into that 2-2 goal that could have been called for goaltender interference (11:00). They debate who to take out of the lineup of Crosby returns to the lineup (15:00). The fellas then look forward to Canada-USA on Sunday and its various roster machinations and storylines (27:00). They touch briefly on the bronze medal matchup between the Slovaks and Finns (41:30) before unpacking the women's gold medal final (43:12). The Final Thought again focuses on all the fans who have reached out while the fellas have been at the Olympics (57:42). In the final segment, Dominic asks Kyle and Elliotte to debrief their experience at the controversial Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena (1:05:02). Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here. Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail. This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

You will never look as good at 8 in the morning as you will on Sunday. Yeah, yes, especially when you have our poor makeup team running all over the arena to touch you up. My goodness. Sunday morning, the beer goggles will benefit me. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the Toyota BZ. Go all-electric and a winter-ready Toyota BZ at your local dealer today. Dom, Elliott, and Kyle back with you. We are through the semifinals here on the men's side of the Olympic hockey tournament in Milano Cortina.

The gold medal matchup is set one year to the day of the four nations face-off final. Canada beating the Americans in overtime off the stick of Connor McDavid. We learn that the rematch will come Sunday for Olympic gold. Say it, Elliot. say it. My nipples are erect thinking about it. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. It is stiff bosom season again. You know, it's funny. A couple of guys came up to me in the second intermission of the U.S. game when it was already, what, five nothing at that point or whatever, four nothing at that point. And they were like, they held out the Instagram page with my quote and saying, Elliot, how do you feel? And they put that in my face. And I go exactly like that.

Yes. Actually, so we'll get into this a little bit later. I was at the women's gold medal game the night before, and I was walking through the concourse before the game, and there was a group of Team USA fans that got my attention and shouted at me, where's Fridge? Where's Fridge? And I said, probably out for a cigarette.

And they got a kick out of that. Yeah, you know what? I didn't want to beat that one to death. And I didn't also, the nipples are wrecked one. I'm worried it's getting too much. But yes. Had to at least be winked at here. Since the people asked for it, give the people what they want, Kyle.

Give the people what they want. By the way, Dom, how are you doing? Well, I suppose losing in a blowout feels a little bit better than losing a close game. That would have been heartbreaking. But either way, it's a little down right now. We're not going to lie. We'll rebound tomorrow, but right now we're feeling it. Oh, well, you know, you were saying to me before the podcast started that people were ripping

you because they felt that the Slovaks fluked into it. Let me just say this. Nobody flukes into an Olympic semi-final. So tell those people to do something very bad in Slovakian. Thank you, Ellie. Yeah. Well, we're going for bronze tomorrow. Go Slovaks.

Yeah. And that's still, I mean, that's got to be, would be considered a great result for Slovakia, right? Like going in? Absolutely. Yeah. I know it would be the same result as they got four years ago, but different set of circumstances here.

And it also presents staying power for the Slovak. So, yeah, they've been a fun story. But, man, the U.S., if your goal is to be peaking when you hit the metal round, and particularly the gold medal game, they certainly seem to be on the right path towards that. But, okay, Elliot, why don't we start? Oh, boy. Three days in a row.

for Canadian hockey fans. And back home in Canada, it's three mornings, early afternoons, from the quarterfinal, Canada, Czechia, the gold medal game on the women's side, Canada, USA, and then here on Friday,

Canada, Finland for the men's team to get back into the gold medal game. Where do you want to start here because there's some, the offside challenge, there was the goaltender interference challenge that wasn't. and a two-gold deficit that left everybody here feeling, oh boy,

how many more times, Elliot, can Team Canada do this to themselves? Let's start with the last one first quickly. They won't be able to do that against the U.S. Like, one of the things that happened here is that Czechia and Finland, they were prepared to allow Canada to dictate the pace of play and the temple. tempo. Checkia didn't forecheck a lot and Finland was ready to sort of concede the exterior and pack in the, protect the house and deal with it that way. They weren't trying to force Canada down the ice, hem them in. They weren't pressuring them. The U.S. won't play like that.

So that's the number one thing I think is going to be different about the gold medal game. You know, as you know, Kyle, I was extremely nervous against Chequia, and I admitted on air on the TV broadcast of that game that when Palat scored, I thought Canada was going to lose. I never felt that way against Finland. To me, Kyle, the most shocking thing was Finland played in a quarterfinal game against Switzerland, where they trailed 2-0, they were down 2-0 with 5 minutes to go. They scored twice, and then they won it in overtime. And if you read all the quotes from that game, it was the exact opposite of what happened in this one. Like all the Finns kept saying we were relentless.

We kept pressuring them. We knew we were going to score. We just had to keep sticking with it, and we were going to find a way. And Janone, the Swiss goaltender, who had a great tournament, he said, we got up 2-0 and we didn't try to score a third one. We basically played to hold on. And that's why we lost.

And it was as if they were mind-wiped and they completely forgot about the circumstances of that game. Like they had a couple really good chances after scoring their second goal that Bennington stopped. And look, you can argue Canada is a better team. You can argue Canada is a deeper team. But I think that Finland team has a lot of talent. and some real elite talent.

And I just felt that they, you can't sit there against Canada and let them repeatedly come up the ice against you. And the thing is too, is that Finland did a good job of anytime they tried to pass it into the slot, they knocked it away or they broke it up. Eventually they were just going to start hammering the puck and scoring, which is, you know, what they did. And, you know, I don't know. I mean, I was disappointed.

You know, and it was interesting. Rantan got off the ice and he said, hey, when you're playing defense for 25 or 30 seconds, you've got no energy left to go up the ice and try to score. Like it was a pretty, I always am careful because sometimes when people are speaking in their second language, they don't mean for it to come out a certain way. I've always loved talking to Rantan. I think he's a pointed guy. And whether or not he was saying that as a criticism or just saying that,

as an observation. I think it's true. I think Finland played a way that they allowed Canada to come back and win that game. And yeah, if I was a Finnish fan, it would have bothered me. And I know, you know, Tamus Salani was mad about the officiating. I mean, you know, and I'm never going to argue with Salani's passion. He wants Finland to win. But I think some of that is simply the way Finland allowed the game to be played.

same with Chequia and Chequia can't complain about the officiating because of the missed too many men call but when you let the other team dictate the pace like Canada just had two games where combined I think they outshot the other two teams like 80 to 50 or 80 to 40 or something like that you're you're not going to win the penalty power play battle when you are letting the other team come up and down the ice against you you're just not and I I think that's why Finland lost this game, Kyle. And I also believe the U.S. will look at this and they say, A, we dictate the pace. We don't have it dictated to us. They are not going to allow Canada to come up and down the ice against them. It's just not going to happen. Well, especially when you consider the lineup and the options that Team USA has, like they've got a lot more power to handle what Canada. is going to throw out them.

So certainly it's going to be a different set of circumstances. And that's been a big thing with Mike Sullivan coach teams, dating back to when he first came onto the scene with Pittsburgh and they won back to back Stanley Cups. How many times Penguins fans will know he would say, we want to dictate the terms, we want to dictate the terms. And that'll be. That's what Cooper said at the beginning of it too.

Yeah. He said that we want to set the tone. We don't want to worry about matchups. We want people to adjust to us. we don't need to adjust to them. Yeah. Bruce Cassidy, I remember when the one playoff year in Boston, when they beat Columbus in six games,

they won in Columbus in game six. I remember his line after the game. He goes, oh, everyone talks about going into the building on the road. You want to weather the storm. He goes, well, we want to create the storm. I was like, oh, God, what a great line that is. But it is a fantastic line. Yeah, yeah.

By the way, Mark Stone, like the day before and the practice day between the quarter final and the semifinal is he talked about being comfortable and uncomfortable moments. I go, who are you, John Cooper? And he laughed and he goes, well, now you know, I'm one of the guys who listens in the meetings.

That's a great point by Mark Stone. And further to that, I mean, Nathan McKinnon said as much in the post game after the Finland affair. And it was that he admitted, you know, they were, you didn't like how they handled moments against Chequilla. Like they, they were rattled. Suzuki makes an incredible play and gives them new life.

He goes, we were much more calm, settled as a group, even though down two against the Finland team that was packing the house in. They were getting in the way. They were defending really well. And then it just, to your point, it was too much defending and it eventually cost them. I got to admit, Elliot, as soon as. Shea Theodore's blast went in to tie the game at two. So my perch, I'm up at the top of the rink on one end of the ice.

And it was at that end where the goal went in. And I got on the mic to our guys back in Toronto right away. And I said, get ready. I think a coach's challenge is going to come here for goalie interference. Were you thinking anything similar? Not initially. Initially, I didn't think so because I only saw Holla push him in there, but Biazza was adamant that they should have challenged it.

And then I went back and looked at it, and he's right. They should have challenged. Now, the finish coach said after the game, he thought it was a good goal. And I'll also say that Cassie and Cheryl, they thought that it would have been a goal anyway. So they were aligned with the finished coach. But Armiya said it was goalie interference. And Saros said it was goalie interference. And so it's interesting to me that the coach said good goal.

Maybe he was like again, this is something I think that gets caught up in language. So I want to be careful with what I say here. But I wondered if he was kind of trying to protect his decision or he just believed that. because, you know, the one thing that he's wrestling with is we know this Canadian power play is killer. They've already scored once in this game. If he's wrong, then he's now allowed them to go on the power play tied 2-2. So I understand why he might have been leery of doing it. There was a strategy to not doing it.

The other thing, as someone said to me, he's a double I, coach. He understands the double IHF strategy, right? Or how the rules work. So you would think that he would know goaltenders interference and the standard of it in an Olympic tournament. But I'll tell you this, but Kyle, they have called goalie interference really tight all tournament, including in the one game, Chequie is Switzerland in the round robin where Chequie had a goal disallowed where the contact wasn't even in the crease.

And in double IHF standard, if a goal is trying to make a save, even if he's outside of the crease, you know, they can take it off. So that to me, I would have challenged it. I'm with you. I would have challenged it. They've been really protective of the goaltenders. and I did have a couple of officials who texted me after we had the debate on the show,

and he said they were surprised he didn't challenge it. And they just think he was afraid of Canada's power play. And there is an argument to be made for that. You know, the one at the end with the offside, to me, that was a pure panic, Hail Mary, last ditch three-point bomb to try. Like that was nowhere near close enough. Like to me, if you're taking that goal off the board, there has to be absolute conclusive lock solid evidence.

And that with the way that with the pictures we were seeing, there was no way they could overturn that. It was a Hail Mary, which I understood. Right. But it was, it was tight. Yeah. So for all those reasons, I did, I did get it. So Canada escapes.

McDavid, two more assists, McKinnon with the goal, and yet it's Macklin Celebrini, not only leads the forwards among Canada and Ice Time in this game, all players. He played a little bit more than Cale McCar in this game. Let me ask you a question. If Sid comes back on Sunday,

how do you take Celebrity out of the first power play? I don't know. Like he dug he does he dug up two of the pox to keep that winning power play alive. Yes. His story said, Welcome back. You're on PP2.

Yeah. Well, does Reinhardt become the guy you bump? Well, he scored. I know. I know. Crosby scored this tournament too.

But don't bring logic and facts into this conversation. Seriously, how do you take Celebrity off the number one power play? His wall play is so impressive. Like just the ability to make plays where there's no room, to know where he's sending it next. It is, I can see why the best guys want to play with him. It's been impressive. Kyle, did you see Doughty talk about Celebrity in the post game? Yes.

I mean, he has a few times. maybe actually after the semi I may have missed it. Okay, so I'm just reading these quotes that they, I don't know who he was talking to, but they put these quotes out, which are so helpful. And he was asked about Celabrini replacing him as Canada's youngest hockey player

at Olympic games for the men. His answer was, and I could just totally see Doughty's face as he says this. I did not play as good as him. I am pretty positive about that. Yes. Doughty was pretty good. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

And you know what's kind of cool, like they were seatmates on the flight over here to Italy. And Dowdy said he just talked his ear off. He goes, I didn't even let him be quiet. He goes, I just kept asking some questions. And so it's neat that that that was kind of how the trip started, 19-year-old Celebrini against the guy that was once the 20-year-old defenseman for Canada on route to an Olympic gold. That's great. And yeah, and I'm betting that unlike Doughty, Celebrity will not be.

close to late for the gold medal game. He doesn't seem to be wired that way. No, no. But it was an honest mistake for Dowdy back then. Not like he slept in or anything. Okay, we'll go with that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, the Crosby thing, Elliot.

Oh, by the way, before we get to the Crosby thing, someone also said to me on that goal tennis second goal, Saras should have stayed down. And I'm like, come on. Like, of course he's going to try to get up. He goes, I know, I know. I know. Of course, he's going to try to get up.

He's not going to, there's no way. Don't start that precedent. Yeah. But he says if sorrow stays down or is slower to get up, maybe it's a more obvious challenge and an overturn. Right. But I don't blame him. Like I'm like, I would do the exact same thing he did.

You're down. You get up. And Soros played great. He really played a great game. Yeah. And I saw his line out. towards of, well, he fell on me and I couldn't get up. And it's like, well, obviously you could get up.

But I do, I was of the belief that that still impacted his ability to make the save. Like, I don't think he was fully reset. I'm with you. I'm completely with you. Also, did you have a problem with the penalty call on McKinnon? No, because here's my question. Did the stick get him? Yes.

And they've been calling that all Olympics. So it would one thing if it came up four inches short of his face and he's snapping his head back, and you're going, ah, that's bad karma. But it got him. You know, it's interesting because I don't like head snaps and I said that to somebody. And I think it was BX, actually, and he goes, Elliot, if the stick comes at your face, you're going to snap your head back. Yeah.

He said, he said, how would you feel? someone swung a stick at your face. And I said, depends on who's swinging it. Well, there was one of the Olympic workers. If it's Berkeley, if it's Berkeley, I'm okay because he's eight months old. I think I can handle that. You know, if it's BXA, I'm a little more concerned. Those are very far ends of the spectrum, an eight month old.

And one of the toughest guys to play the game. Well, I should have then known that we were going to have this conversation because one of the Olympic volunteers that was on the shuttle back to our hotel here from the rink, he had a broken stick souvenir with him. I should have asked to borrow it for a hot minute and trying to give you a whack. From Rupert Hints, apparently. Yes, there's a Rupert Hint stick that snapped about, I don't know, a foot and a half up from the blade.

I don't know, if that guy has, you know, young kid or something, saw it off clean, fire a blade in there. Do they still sell blades nowadays? I'm sure you can find one. I'm sure you can find an old Eastern ultralight blade sack a curve and away you go. Good, good as new. Talking about penalties, Kyle, it's interesting to me that two of the penalties that were called in this game, Canada, Finland, one was too many men, so you know they're on it.

And the other was Sam Bennett's goalie interference. Chekia complained about McKinnon. I don't know if he butt-ended Dostall or what he did to him late in the third period of that game. It made me wonder if, I mean, it could be because NHL referees have seen Bennett and they know what he does. But the fact that that penalty got called to, it also made me wonder if people, because the checks were mad about that non-call, that that was something else that they were focusing on. Okay, Crosby.

Amazing as everybody's trying to figure out, is he going to play, while they closed their morning skate, you couldn't even get in to shoot visuals. So clearly he went out to try to skate. But even Tom Wilson after the game going, they're on their way to the rink and asking people, well, is Sid playing?

Like, what's the deal? They were left in the dark until right up until the last minute. So what all did you hear about the effort that was made to at least try to get the captain into the lineup here? I heard that all the stops were pulled out, all of them. Team Canada did everything in its power. Crosby did everything in his power. And the other thing too, and someone did say this to me on Saturday, there are a lot of people who don't necessarily work for the federations,

but work with players who are here in Milan to work on players. So, for example, like, I think some teams who have a lot of NHLers here sent some people over saying, Hey, if any of our guys on the different countries need something, they'll be here. I'm not going to say who it was, but Kevin and I ran into an individual at the Duomo a couple days ago on our one off day, who is someone that Kevin knows who treats NHL players. And it's on different teams in this tournament and different teams in the league. but he was brought here by his guys just in case they needed him. Now, I don't know exactly who Crosby may or may not have here,

but it was hinted to me that it wasn't only Team Canada, but who did everything that he wanted, but also that he, you know, he just had people around who could really help him. You know, we weren't allowed to see him skate. you know, it was funny, like, we were debating, like, do we climb the tent? Do we try to sneak in, like, under a wall? And it's like, you know, no, you're not going to do that. Anyway, you probably couldn't anyway.

Of all places, like, that's the facility that you could try to sneak through. We're joking about it. Like, yeah. Anyway, so I don't know what he looked like skating. All somebody would tell me was it was reasonably close. like some of the Canadian players were saying on their way to the rink they didn't know if he was playing or not and there were a couple who said they only found out like right before game time i think the news broke about 320 local and the lineup had to be in by 340 so it was about that time right

like i don't think the players knew well i'm sure some did but not all of them knew so you know like i said I heard it was reasonably close. And John Cooper's line is he's got more of a percentage chance of playing Sunday than he did today. You know, one of the things I did here was that they were looking at either trying to acquire a brace or create a custom brace for him or put together one that would allow him to play. You know, Kevin, I was talking to Kevin about that and he says, you know, sometimes it's hard to get those made quickly. and I said for Sidney Crosby at the Olympics, especially at the last two games of the entire tournament, there's going to be somebody who's going to be very happy to make that brace for him. Because especially if it goes well, you are going to become the brace of the brace for all athletes.

Like it's going to get around, right? So, you know, I mean, you know, we'll see. But like I said, I heard it was reasonably close that he played. So we'll we'll see what that means for Sunday. I mean, I hope it happens. One, because, you know, hey, I'm pro Canada. Two, you know, I think it would make for a better game. And three, you know, Crosby deserves it.

You know, for everything great, he's done, and this is probably even reason number one, for everything great he's done for the game, he deserves to play. And, you know, that's the way. way I feel. And it was neat after the game, so, you know, Canada still has to have somebody wear the sea and Connor McDavid, not surprisingly, he gets the nod with Crosby not able to go.

And McDavid's line afterwards about wearing it goes, I hope I'm just keeping the seat warm. That's all. Just keeping the seat warm for Crosby. So optimism within that the 87 gets into the gold medal game. But I really like that line from him afterwards. especially when you consider the lineage of Crosby's career that impacted McDavid and now what he's gone on to do. It was really nice. Yeah.

Yeah. I have to say, I give the Canadian team a lot of credit. They had a lot of excuses the last two games to be upset. After the way they steamrolled through the group stage, there were a lot of reasons they could have lost. And both to Czechia and Finland. And they found ways to win. They showed big guts and big hearts. And oftentimes that's kind of why Canada tends to win.

And I've been really impressed by the way they've pulled together. And so it sets up a rematch of Vancouver 2010, a rematch of Salt Lake 2002, Canada and the U.S. So if we're looking back to one year ago at Four Nations, Elliot, and okay, what's different about each team? Yep. The emergence of Celebrini, no question for Canada. For the U.S., it's a healthy Quinn Hughes as one thing,

but also, too, the emergence of Jack, who has struggled to find his way last year at that event, it's been a different case. The two Hughes brothers have been, their fingerprints have been all over the American's journey to the gold medal contest. Yes. I actually think that their two best players

have been Hughes and Waransky, and that's Quinn. Like, they really control the game when they're out there. And that's one thing that Canada is going to have to neutralize is not letting Quinn Hughes dictate everything that happens when he's on the ice and not let Zach Werensky dictate everything that happens when he's on the ice. I find that those are the two most important U.S. players. You're right. Jack, that's a great omen for them.

Like Dylan Larkin, I've loved him at the last two tournaments. I think he's been spectacular and he continues to be really good here. Remember, the other thing, too, is Jack was really struggling going into that final in the Four Nations. And that's something else that's going to be 180 degrees different than a year ago. He's going to go in feeling really good about himself. You know, there was Tage Thompson. He left the game, did not play the third period. They called it precautionary.

And he, Mike Sullivan said that he anticipates he'll be okay to play on Sunday. I mean, that would be huge because, first of all, he scored. and secondly, it was a heck of a shot. Like, there was not a lot of room there. And he scored. And also, like, they set up their power play for him, right? There's a right hand shot over there. They don't have a lot of righties.

So not only what he does, just as like a physical, tough guy to take off the puck, but if you lose that shot, it really affects your power play. By the way, it was a really nice thing that the Capitals and the Hershey Bears did freeing up his dad Brent to go to be here. Brent's an assistant coach with the Bears and freeing them up to be here for the weekend. That was really well done. PJ Stock played with Brent Thompson and always said, you know, great things about him. So I'm happy that, you know, Brent Thompson gets to do that.

But Thompson's injury situation is a big deal. You know, Kyle, the guy who I look at and say, he's finally going to score and I'm concerned for Canada that it's going to be a really big goal. Austin Matthews is due. He is having unbelievable chances and the saves were getting even more and more ridiculous.

He had a great chance in overtime against Sweden that Markstrom stopped. He took a really good shot too before Quinn Hughes scored. But he had three or four dynamite chances that he just couldn't cash in. So as a Canadian, I'm really nervous. Like, he's due. He's really due.

And I'm just worried that when he finally breaks out, it's going to be big and it's going to be bad for Canada. Yeah, I mean, he's got three goals in the tournament. I know, you know, it's different in the preliminary round. But he's been all around. Like the, like, remember last year in the Four Nations four, finally he was robbed by Bennington so like he's due in a big game yes no question and it seemed like he's another guy that's kind of been building his game towards a gold medal clash and

just a matter of all right are the shots going to fall for you i also wonder too in looking at this matchup elliot so there was the game against germany where the kachucks decided leon we're coming after you all night matthew in particular i'm glad you brought this up up right off the opening face off against Sylfakia there was Matthew right up against your eyes, Slavkovsky, letting him know it was not going to be an easy night for him, their most important player. So who's the guy that the Kachuk's target?

Who does Mike Sullivan send them out against shift after shift here in this gold medal game? Now, Canada will have the last change as the number one seed. But what do you see? What do you envision? unfolding as the Kachucks try to make their mark in more ways than one Sunday. Eichael loves to play against McDavid, right? Mm-hmm.

Do you put the Kichucks in Eichael against McDavid's line? I mean, it would be great entertainment. Like, yes. Like, I, the Craig Simpson line. Like, he's always, he loves it when coaches go, our best against your best. See what happens. Or does John Cooper go with that mayhem line where he puts Wilson with Bennett

and he says, we'll do that. Right. Against the Kachucks. Man, man. I think they're going to see a lot of each other both ways. All the heats the referees are getting, getting Ternak and Matthew Kachuk out of the games, they didn't. do anything that cost them.

Their medals, that was, their metal games. Because you could tell Churnack, he was ready to go and he wanted to go. And when the referees got in there, could chuck through a punch. And I was like, that's a bad idea. Because this guy is not going to stop

to kill you now. Yes. Not calling him a bridesmaid. Oh, Oh, Chernak is, I love the guy. And he's the nicest guy off the ice, who's the meanest guy on the ice. And he was out for blood there.

He was not going to stop. But the thing is, I look at it this way, Kyle. If McDavid's back with Wilson, to me, John Cooper goes for that. Right. every game in this tournament that's how it started and it's not how it's finished

Yes so you got to anticipate the gold medal game being somewhat similar and so maybe that's the matchup early on and then if the switch is made McKinnon's back up the Mick and the two Macs

you know what's interesting if I was John Cooper I would start Wilson with McDavid against the Kachucks. Like if the Kachuk, if Mike Sullivan puts the Kachucks out with Eichl to start the game,

I would go McDavid-Wilson, Celebrini. Just see what happens. You're giving Tom Wilson a chance to start the game. It gets him into the game early. Yes. And they tried that. And that's what they did against Finland, right?

Mm-hmm. Like, it's like Tom Wilson's in the cage, a wild animal in the cage, and you're throwing a raw meat and opening up the door. Yes, right. And I think that's, that was a huge key, I think, on Friday is that he got involved early on and then the switch was made and that line felt important. And they just continued to roll. like those guys first off I credit to you know I think we're all wondering okay how close or how far away from 100% is Brad Marshan I thought that was by far his best game he was fantastic he really rose to the occasion he really did so if that's a sign for them going forward they can can he do that one more time here with the gold medal on the line that's a really good good bit of news for for Canada as well one other thing about Marchand

Kyle is that, so we had Gretzky on in the pregame, and he was fantastic. He had a lot of great answers to questions. I really enjoyed talking to him. And he, we asked him about in 91 in the Canada Cup, it was a best two out of three final, Canada versus the USA. And in the first game, Gretzky took a big, nasty hit from Gary Souter and got knocked out. And so they had to play game two without them.

And Canada did win two in a row. and won the Canada Cup. But they had to play game two without him. And we asked him about that. And, you know, he said that they had a lot of great players, which Canada did here, and they found a way to win the semi-final. But one thing he talked about was,

who is the person you look to when things go badly? And you could see Marchand was trying to be that guy. He was trying to be the guy going up and down the bench and leading and being popular. But one of the players told me, you know who was really good in the quarter final to Chequia when they were down late was Cooper? They said that Cooper was relentlessly positive on the bench. Keep going, keep going. It's coming.

It's coming. We're right there. And they scored. And so obviously Suzuki with that big goal. And that stuck out to me because Crosby is definitely the guy a lot of them look to. And I think it says a lot about Cooper's feel. that he was being that guy and being that guy. Got to say, Elliot, I, regardless, you know, if Crosby's in the lineup, if he's not, as I've said, dating back to last year, I will not bet against a Crosby-led Canadian side.

I don't know, I'm not a betting guy. I haven't looked at what the lines are. I mean, this has got to be as close to a pick-um as you could ask for it this tournament. U.S. has been so good. They play a system. They're committed to the system. Everybody goes up and down the ice. Everybody checks. Everybody plays defense.

They have been as committed to the style that they want to play as any team has been in this tournament, more so. The one thing is there are a few former NHL players who were talking. The one reason all of them, and this is my thing too, the reason that they were also hesitant definitively picked the U.S. is because Canada always seems to find a way. And in these big games, 2002, 2010, Canada has always found a way.

And this U.S. team, I think they are really good, really good. I think they're even better than the Four Nations team was last year. Again, they've got a breakthrough. And, you know, the, the Canada, this tournament is like Freddie Kruger. You think they're dead and they come back to life.

They're going to have to drive the stake through them. They've had the opportunities to do it. Four nations last year, they've never been able to do it. They just can't put enough garlic on Dracula. That's what they've got to do. A couple other things I wanted to mention here. I thought it was interesting that John Cooper in the post game talked about giving Finland two freebies,

a face-off and a shorthanded goal. So we can't do that. Canada and face-offs in this tournament, it's been a real problem. As a matter of fact, on the one that led to the Rantin'nong goal, they had a left shot on the right side. Denny Goethe, who's working the tournament for Radio Canada, he's the guy who noticed it.

Like he's like, left-hand shot, right-hand side, trouble. So that's one thing. Like, I noticed that Cooper pointed that out, get rid of the freebies, and he's right. I also think that right now, the teams protect the middle of the ice and their D-Zones so well, if you overpass,

teams have to stop overpassing. If you're in close, you've got to shoot it. Or shoot to rebounds. I just think all these teams are too good unless it's the power play or a six on five you're having a hard time getting passes through those are a couple of things I really noticed I think this U.S. team is great

I think this is going to be an excellent game but like I said I think for the U.S. to win they have to find a way to slay the dragon Brady Kachuk said it's the biggest game of their lives. Dylan Larkin called it a date with destiny. We heard all from the Canadian side about this is what they came here to do, a chance to play for a gold medal. It wasn't a guarantee going in that Canada would face the U.S. at any point in this tournament, to say nothing of

playing in the final one. But man, it is the matchup that we all secretly kind of were hoping for. and what a treat that we'll be on Sunday for all the marbles. Yeah. An Olympic gold medal. Kyle, this is why we do this job. Yeah. This is why we do this job to get these games. So Slovakia, Finland for the bronze.

I know that Lavei was upset that Vladimir Orsag pulled him, but I understood why. They're going to need them for that game. Slakoski said in the mix zone, after they beat Germany, he said, I just want a medal. So I think the Slovaks is disappointed and blown out as they got. They will be better. You know, Finland, I think that they were really disappointed, really disappointed. But historically, you know, they've been in this position a few times before.

They always play, if they end up in a bronze medal position, they always play like that is meaningful to them. So I do think we're going to see two. Sometimes, like, remember Canada in 98, they're like bronze, they didn't even, they just folded and finished fourth. I don't think either of these two teams is going to mail in the bronze medal game. Not at all. No. So that goes Saturday night here, Milan time, just after 8.30 p.m. And yeah, to your point about Finland, I think four of the last five Olympics with NHL participation, they have gotten a medal.

obviously the silver in 2006 in Torino and three other bronze. So they do have a habit of making those games matter. And you know Slovakia will be motivated too. Okay, you want to talk about the women's final? Yeah, because you worked the women's final. I went to Hockey Canada's Ice Pilotso. And I watched it there. There were a number of people there.

It was. Yeah, I was that. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was a good night. It was a lot of fun. And we had a great time. And we had a great time.

Unfortunately, it didn't like the result. But you work. So fill us in. Like, what did you think? So I, yeah, I came just to kind of help where I could with some interviews. I did one in the intermission. And then post came in the mix zone. Claire Hannah was obviously at the panel with Cassie Campbell,

Pascal and Haley Salvean. So she had to stay there. Otherwise, you know, she's been doing all the interviews around the women's tournament over the course of the last two weeks here. So I'll be honest, like I sat up by the panel position, which is a great vantage point of the ice. And I just let like I'm going, all right, let the emotions take over here and let's just feel what we're seeing here in front of me.

And it was incredible, Elliot. It really was. The crowd, of course, was tremendous. It was like eight-year-old me wouldn't believe like I'm working on the same crew as Cassie Campbell, Pascal and Cheryl Pounder. Like I vividly remember their gold medal game and in Salt Lake. Yeah, oh, yeah. And attached to that. So like, just to be sharing the same broadcast with two of them along with the rest of

of the crew was like, wow, this is, how did we get here? And it was, you know, I have never, I've never seen Canada, US clash on the women's side where there was such little legit optimism of Canada winning that game. Like, you know, the US have had some really powerful teams over the years. There's no doubt. but this was a different territory. So for all the talk going in about they picked a team that's too old, they're too slow, the postponed first game, the plan injury,

like we talked about the men's team having reasons to be upset here through this medal round. They had every reason to say this is just not our tournament, and they refused to let it be that way. So it was, you know, Kristen O'Neill, what a display on the short-handed goal. But I have to say, Elliot, I remember a few times over the years, you know, after the CWHL folded and all the uncertainty on where women's hockey was going on the professional side and some of those press conferences sitting there with Poulan,

with Rebecca Johnson at the time, with a Kendall coin, and with Hillary Knight. and them willing to stick it out to sacrifice what were prime years of their careers to find a solution for the health of the women's game going forward. That's always stuck with me and to go from there and to know it was Hillary Knight's final Olympics, final time wearing her country sweater in a big moment like that and to score the goal that tied it late in the third. period. You thought, of course, of course she was going to have some say here. So you were heartbroken for the Canadian woman with how that game ended. And I have to say, Ellie, like, I mean, they're all so wonderfully professional, even in a moment like that. I did feel kind of sheepish doing those interviews.

I know, you know, you've got a job to do. Yeah, I've been there. I'm trying to ask questions. But I also understood for me, like I'm going, the first time. they're seeing me on the other side of that mix zone fencing. And it's in a moment like that, I'm going, holy smokes. Like, I, anyway, it's just a, it's, it's, Why don't I'm going to talk to this guy?

Right, right. Like, now this guy shows up, who I don't know who this guy is. And now he's interviewed me after we just lost the gold in overtime. I thought it was a brilliant Claire Hannah strategy. She shows up in the good times. Yes, yes. And you show up in the bad ones. Oh, I know.

A brilliant strategy by Claire. I should have, uh, I should have known. But anyway, and then in the aftermath of all that, Elliot, I'll just say one final thing. Someone made the point that, you know, as tough of a loss as it is for Canada, they said, you know, this may be, the fact of the U.S. won, it may be a better thing for the PWHL going forward. I mean, of course, there's untapped potential everywhere you look because that league is still so relatively new. but they just made the point that particularly in the U.S., there's still so much room for growth. And so the ripple effect of a moment like that

with Megan Keller, a brilliant move in overtime, and how many young girls or just hockey fans in general are inspired by that and where that all take things in terms of the interest in the growth of that league, there's a lot of opportunity to that to be a real seminal moment. And so hopefully when we look back, however many years later, you can say, yeah, what a great thing that that happened and look at all the positives that came from it.

You know, a few things. First of all, well said, and I like to hear, you know, I did some women's hockey sideline reporting. I actually called one game. Bruce Rainey at the 2006 Olympics. He got sick during a game. And CBC wanted to broadcast it. It was Finland in the U.S. So I did a couple periods.

But similar, I did sideline the job you did a couple of times in a pinch at the Olympics. You know, watching that game, when the TV timeout came with like three minutes left, I was like, oh, that's bad. That's, that's not good for Canada. Because it was too late. It allowed them, you know, if it, there's a team meet timeout is obviously under the six minute mark. And, you know, if it gets, I think in North America, if it gets to under two minutes, you can't take it. Because they think it's just too much of advantage and too much of a time out for someone that might need it.

So this is usually as close as we ever get to a six minute break getting taken late in the game. And I remember seeing it and I was like, oh, that's really going to hurt Canada. It's going to give the U.S. 90 seconds to give all their best players a breather. Like a timeout's what, 30 seconds? It's nothing. 90 seconds. It's a real breather. It slows down the game.

Like I thought that was hugely advantageous for the U.S. to get it there. And I was like, oh, I don't like that. You know, look, the U.S. dominated them. They dominated them in the game in the Olympics, but it was like 2002 when the Canadians lost days of times in a row. You just have to be ready to play the one game at the one time, right? And the Canadian women did that. You know, they top to bottom. They were not a better team.

And even in that game, they had to play a lot of defense. And unfortunately, it's just the way it was. That was the only way they were going to win that game. And their coaching staff knew it. and the players knew it. And to their credit, they committed to it and they almost pulled it off. You know, the other thing, too, is they gave up the heartbreaking goal at the end of regulation, but they had their chances in overtime.

It's not like they folded and came out. And that's probably the toughest thing, the two on O that they really didn't get a good chance on. There will be people who think about that for a long time. I mean, unfortunately, that's life in the big city. Like I always tell my son, whether you do well or you do bad, you can't cheat the guy in the mirror. Like, did you give the best effort you could? Did you go all out?

And they did. And they lost. It's tough. The U.S. women deserved it. They, like, this was the time where the Canadian women really, really pushed them, harder than they had at any point recently. And you know what? They took it and they won. They deserve it.

No excuses. It was tough. It's always tough to watch the losing team after a game like that. They just looked awful. You know, Hillary Knight, I was happy for her too. I think I've told this story before, but I first met, I don't know her that well, but I first met her at the outdoor game where they named a Canadian Olympic team. I think it's the first one that she ever played for.

And I was sitting at the back of the media room, and she was in the media room and I was writing on something on my laptop and she leaned over my shoulder and she goes, interesting stuff. Like she just looked at my laptop. And she didn't, I don't think she read it.

I think she just wanted to do it to like, and I remember I mentioned someone to that, I mentioned that to someone and they kind of laughed on the US to go, oh, she's, Hillary's confident. Like they love that she did that too. And so,

you know, I've chatted with her brief, over the years and obviously she got engaged while she was here and she's coming the end of her career. So I was, I was, I was really happy for her personally. Um, you know, I felt, I felt bad for the Canadians, but, you know, they were, they were definitely the underdogs and they, they absolutely played the best game they could have. You know, I've heard a lot of the debate, Kyle, and I'm no expert on women's hockey. Um, you know, it's The thing, though, that, you know, people said they should have gone younger, they should have gone younger, and maybe they should have.

I just don't know. But I think the thing that concerned me the most as just a viewer is that when Poulin was out, they really struggled. And I don't know what her plans are. But, like, you know, hey, the man Crosby gets hurt. They find a way. They felt they had to play Poulin. game against Germany because they just felt they had to because of how much they struggled without her. And I think that's the thing that I look at is for the Canadian players,

how do you, if this is it for her, how do you build your post-Pulant identity? Because right now they don't have it. So how are you going to build it? That to me is even bigger than the question of age on the team. When she was out, there weren't obvious. players that you looked at and said, oh, they got this. So that's what you have to build. You know, I did want to say something else. I didn't realize this, but I know somebody who knows the U.S. coach really well.

And, you know, he's been through some battles. So, and this person wrote to me and said, like, I was, I was really happy for him because he's been through some things professionally. And he said he was really happy for him. And so this is a person who I really try. and really like. So, you know,

like, so for him, it was even more than, you know, the U.S. beating Canada. He just wanted to see, John have some success there.

Man, for so many years, so many years, Knight and Poulan have been the faces on the marquee, not only for Canada, US, but just women's hockey, period.

So it's, not sure if we're all ready for whatever comes next by way of, you know, who's at the forefront of it all. So all the best to Hillary Knight, to your point, Elliot. Great personality, great for the game and just a hell of a player. Not many get to say they went out on top on a stage like the Olympics, and she earned the right to do that.

Can I close up with one thing? Please do. Okay, so I got an Instagram DM. I'm not going to say the name of the person, but I'm going to read the message. Because I know what it's like to be that guy one day, the internet, I'm that guy on the internet for a day. I've been there.

I know what it's like. And when I got this message, it struck a chord. Mr. Friedman, can you please shout out Claire Thompson on the pod? I want her to get some love and she definitely deserves it. She was on the ice when Megan Keller scored the overtime winner for Team USA and I've seen the picture of her down on the ice everywhere on the ice. line, as well as some hateful messages directed towards her on social media. What people need to know is that Claire is a five-star human and a five-star hockey player.

She plays for Vancouver and the PWHL and is also in medical school at NYU studying to be a doctor. She previously played college hockey for Princeton and was a big part of the 2022 Canada women's team that won gold in Beijing, where she set the Olympic ice hockey record for points by a defenseman. wanted to shout her out on the pod as incredibly tough as last night probably was for her and the rest of her team she is someone that I think people should be looking up to not down on so I wanted to

read that and Claire just wanted to say as someone who has been that guy on the internet once or twice before and probably will be again the world moves on it seems like the end of the earth the world moves on pretty soon nobody's going to remember

beautiful. Thanks for getting that in, Elliot. All right, with that, time now for the final thought, presented by the Toyota BZ, go all-electric and a winter-ready Toyota B-Z at your local dealer today. Elliot, who do you want to shout out?

Who have you had the pleasure of meeting or interacting with the last few days? Yeah, I got a few. Thanks, Kyle. Robbie Whiten was at the hockey can to Ice Palazzo? he was in charge of the music. Great music choices, Robbie. Excellent.

Aaron Logan, he does silver sticks for the NHL, ran into him. Yes. Paul LaPolice, the football coach, he was there because I forgot, flag football is at the 2020 Olympics in L.A. So he's kind of getting a tour of how the Olympics work. Oh, yeah. Really? And I, the Winter Olympics.

Yes, because you just get an idea of how, like, processes work. It's actually very smart. And, you know, I dealt with Paul when I used to do the CFL. Great guy. He came up and said hi to me. It was great to see him. I hadn't seen him in a long time. So it was great to see Paul. Podcast listeners, Simon from Switzerland, two of my high school friends, Andrew Rothblot with his son, Darren, Brandon Grimont with his son, Dylan. BXA walked up while I was talking to him. I said, I went to high school with these guys. Kyle, like, why did I say that?

Like, just why did I say that? The things he started asking. Talk about an enforced error. Oh, my God. He started asking questions. Oh, my God. Was Elliot really good with women? Oh, my God.

That's, that's, like almost exactly. You're the reverse. Thanks, Kevin. Yeah, it's the routine ground ball to you at second base and you just airmail to throw into the third, third row over the dugout. Third row, I almost put it in the second deck. just terrible. Sandy and Amber, a really nice couple from Lucknow, Ontario. Sandy is a helicopter pilot, and Amber is a nurse. They work in Abu Dhabi. Nice people. Melody from Montreal, Big Habs fan.

Karen and her friend Sharon. Karen is an Oilers fan, but there's a family problem. Her son works at the Saddle Dome and has begun to love the flames. But really nice people. Saw some. Mike Keenan there, Igor Larianov there. There's Solomon from Canada, but he now works for the Olympic broadcaster. Katie and Zoe from the UK, Matei and Mikhail from Poland. I was told about a guy named Dave from Perth, who's a big podcast fan. I don't think he's at the Olympics, but he's from Perth, Australia. I wanted to shout him out.

Oh, yes. Stefan, Matthias, and Leonard from Germany. Matias and Leonard said Stefan is the biggest Elliot Friedman fan in Germany. So I've got to shout him out for sure. Andrew and Matt from Burlington and New Market, who now live and work

in London in the UK. Kiarra from Italy. There was a guy sitting next to our set in Arizona Coyote's jersey. Rocco from Arizona. So I saw him there. I also met tonight briefly. He took

a picture of me with about 10 Canadians, and then he introduced himself, Stoyan Batchavarov, who is the executive director of the Bulgarian Ice Hockey Federation. He gave me a Bulgarian pin, yes, and he said, like, he played for a long time, and I looked up his stats on elite prospects. Stoyan, you had some great numbers for Bulgaria at the World Championships. He had one tournament. He had 13 points in five games.

he's pretty much a point of game player at the another one he had 10 points in five games he's pretty much a point of game player at the world championships in some Olympic qualifying tournaments long career still yet was great to meet you and finally I wanted to shout out so when I was at western there was a guy who played football there his name was Mike Williams and Mike later when I worked at the score and we did Canadian University football he was the offensive coordinator at York University and we did this game. York, it was the first time they ever won,

I think a university playoff game. If it wasn't their first ever, it was their first in like 30 years. And he was the offensive coordinator, great guy and his son, Jordan, was there. And it was like Mike, I didn't recognize that at first, but, you know, he said hello, And he says, you know, Mike Williams, I went to West.

I said, oh, my God, Mike, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you right away. But I remembered, like, I remembered him playing football. I remembered him as the offense co-corner and us doing the game. It was great to see him, like really good guy. So those are all the people I wanted to shout out. That's a good list. Okay, I just got one I wanted to add to that. Okay.

So you remember you and I were on the bus back to the hotel the other day. and you asked me a question. You said, how far away is Bologna from here? I looked up. He said, I was just over a two-hour drive. Anyway, I'm at the game Friday night and got to meet Liviao from Bologna. He was wearing a beautiful, like old school Eagle era Washington Capitals, Alex Ovechkin, Jersey.

They went from his first few years in the league. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And anyway, he. He's a big fan of the pod, listens all the time, he says. He goes, he didn't get into hockey until after watching the Sochi Olympics. That was his first memory of watching the sport and becoming a fan. But he has been ever since and listens to this show often.

So thank you for listening, Livio. It was, it was great to see him. So the woman I met from Middle East Night, Kiara, she said that she's the biggest 32, Podcast fan in Italy. So Livio and Kiara, I'm going to go with Kiara because I met her. I'm sure you're going to go with Livio. Yeah.

Because you met him. All right. Well, we will proclaim you the king and queen of the Italian 32 Thoughts podcast fan club. Wow. Nice. Nice, nice, nice. The Italian division. The Italian division.

Wow. That's great. still blows me away. All the run-ins here, but it's been really good. Okay, that was the final thought. Presented by the Toyota BZ. We'll take a break and wrap up another Olympic abbreviated edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Okay, welcome back before we go.

Dom, you have told us you have a question. So what is it? Am I going to regret letting you speak again? No. This is like, regret me speaking, never. Like Elliot telling Kevin that he's chatting with his high school buddies.

Oh, seriously. No, this is a little abbreviated thought line. I am curious because heading into the Olympics, the biggest story was Santa Julia, the arena, and it being finished. So now that we see the finish line in sight, what were your expectations heading into the tournament and what was your reality?

So, my hope was that the fan experience, the athlete experience would be serviceable. We knew it wasn't going to be perfect. Just be serviceable. I think anyone watching on TV, you would never have known, right? The field of play looks good.

I think the ice conditions have gotten better as the tournament's gone on. They've made due with the setup, with the dressing rooms over on the other side by the practice rink. But I got to tell you, everything back of house, like it is, it's comical at some, some areas. Like just the unfinished paint jobs on the walls, you got wires sticking out of places, door frames that were never mounted. You've got, I think there's one room we walked through during this backway that we kind of

can come through from where the CBC office is. There's a parking garage right across from the rink. So like our little temporary, it's called the cabin where a lot of our technical supplies are and some of our crew is stationed out there. And you can do a walk kind of through the parking garage over into the rink. And one of the rooms we walk through on that walk,

there's like wrapped up like kitchen equipment. I don't know if that was supposed to be that room, a cooking area for like media dining. I'm not sure if that was at one point a plan. That's the best. Like you walk through that room and there's like dishwasher. Yeah, like a big commercial stove. You're like, oh, and like it looks, you know, a big ventilation system.

Like, were they planning to have like a pizza oven here? I don't know. It's, yeah, like, and it's kind of ironic that, you know, for, for us as we were getting going there, that the biggest question and issue, you come all the way to Italy and and you had concerns about having food because that was between games, understandably, you know, they close down the concession so they can kind of reset themselves. So we're obviously working during the game. We don't really have time to go, uh, line up and,

and get a hot dog or something. Uh, so after the game's time, when you want to go get a bite, uh, there's, there's not a ton of options. So like that was a work in progress early on when I first got there. It got sorted. Um, so, you know, just little things like that where you just, all right, you make do and then you find, you find out, uh, you know, an alternate arrangement. But I would say, like, there's, from when I first got there, it was like, okay, this is an issue, this is an issue, this is an issue, this is an issue. And give them credit. They work to rectify those as the days went on to try to find solutions, even if they're only temporary, to try to make the most of a situation that was very obviously working up to the final days and into the tournament to finish what they could. I see it similarly.

Bottom line is one of the things I heard about Team Canada, Dom, is that they talked about with their leadership group and then to everybody, no excuses here. Whatever issues we may have with the rink or traffic or our living conditions or anything like that, we are not letting that affect us. And I have to say, like, if you, as Kyle talked about underneath and around the arena, okay, you see some things, but when you were in the bowl, you would never know that there were any issues.

Yeah. Like have you noticed a lot of ice problems? Not really. No. And that's the thing that they were really concerned about, really concerned about it. Like I just felt when we got here, the players would make it work and they have. And the bull is actually, it's pretty cheery.

Like it's, like some arenas you walk into, and they're dull and they have a dull atmosphere, this is not like that. It's held up really well. Yeah. And I'll just say too quickly, Dom, the, uh, so the practice rink, it lets, they have a little mix zone set up by the ice surface there. So it's tight. Like, especially for, you know, I have a team Canada, team USA practice team Sweden, like a lot of the Swedish media there.

Um, you know, I'll get a bunch of media in there. There's not a lot of room. And the practice string, there's no, there's no netting around the glass on either end. So there was more than a few times where, you know, guys are working on one-timers the end of practice and shot clanks off the crossbar of the net or it just wraps around the glass perfectly. And it comes right into where we are. And you need to have a head on a swivel. Thankfully, to my understanding, at least from, when I was there, like nobody got hit or there's any issue, but there's nothing protecting you.

Like you're just standing there. And sometimes because players will come off and you're doing interviews, and there's still guys working on their shots and stuff going on. So you kind of have to have one eye on your interview and the other one elsewhere. Yeah, it's a unique setup, but it's all, it's all worked. Good question, Dom. We don't regret that at all letting you do that. Thanks for asking Tom.

Okay, Fridge. How dare they? How dare they a gold medal game at 8 a.m. Eastern time. Come on. No, I know. People not understand time zones. Do you not understand time zones? Do they not understand how an Olympics works with the closing ceremonies?

Like I said, if you worry about waking up, don't go to bed. So did you see, Kyle, that the province of Ontario announced that they're going to open the bars? or allow alcohol served at 6 a.m.? Yes, it was like they couldn't get that out fast enough. So one of my buddies texted me, he said, Elliot, this is another thing you have to look forward to. I said, oh yeah, what's that? He says, there are people who are going to have

five beers by puck drop. You know what that means? I said, no, what does that mean? He said, to most people, you will never look as good at eight in the morning, as you will on Sunday. Yeah, yes, especially when you have our poor makeup team running all over the arena to touch you up. My goodness.

Sunday morning, the beer goggles will benefit me. There was a great advertisement when I lived in Calgary the first time around going to school. There was a bar back then called Roadhouse. Yep. And on their ads, on their billboards, it said, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. That's very good. And also, I do want to say I did love my face on the Ben Affleck meme. Oh, yeah.

Because this is the only time in my life I will ever be compared to Ben Affleck. Thank you, Danielle Michaud. And even if it's not the Ben Affleck moment, I think a lot of us would want to have, it's still Ben Affleck. Well done. You've overcome all odds. Those were long odds.

I would say longer than Italy winning the Olympic gold in men's hockey. Really long odds. Yes. 8 a.m. Eastern 5 a.m. Pacific, Canada, USA. Gold medal on Sunday. We will talk to you after the medals are

I hand it out here in Milan.