32 Thoughts: The Podcast - One Win Away

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Jeff and Elliotte revisit Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. They delve into everything that's made Florida successful, and the mistakes that have cost Edmonton. Afterward, the guys  dive into the latest news around the NHL. First, they talk about Doug Armstrong's extension and Alexander Steen's 5-year deal with the St. Louis Blues (21:35). They discuss Patrik Laine's desire for a trade out of Columbus (31:24) and Utah HC's jersey unveil (33:57). Then, they focus on the San Jose Sharks hiring  Ryan Warsofsky as their next head coach (35:45) and Jalen Chatfield extending with the Carolina Hurricanes (37:49). The fellas also touch on Kaapo Kakko's extension with the New York Rangers (40:39) Finally. Jeff and Elliotte reveal that Nikita Zadorov's future with Vancouver will be solidified in the coming days (42:51).The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (44:41).Jeff and Elliotte wrap the podcast with a quick preview of the AHL's Calder Cup Final (54:03).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.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.

The final seconds tick away and the Panthers take game three by a 4-3 final score. The Panthers lead the Stanley Cup final three games to none. The Panthers are one win away from hockey's ultimate prize. And now it's cliche time for the Edmonton Oilers. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation. Elliot, you're in Edmonton. Elliot, you were there. Take us from the beginning to the end. That crowd got quiet pretty fast. It livened up towards the end when the Oilers made a game of it. But I want to get the contrast from walking in, not sure if you went to the Our Lady Peace concert,

want to get the contrast from walking in not sure if you went to the Our Lady Peace concert but walking in the mood the vibe to walking out it was crazy at the start of the game I walked by the Our Lady Peace concert I didn't really have a chance to go in so because we have our meeting pretty much at the time the concert's on and while I like to skip meetings entirely, as you know, Jeff, I don't like to meet. I do have a responsibility to be there. So I didn't get a chance to go to the concert. But, you know, the city was electric. The building was on fire. The first period, Edmonton controlled it for most of the time.

And the goal was scored. The first one, it sucked the life out of the building. Fogle got the life back into the building and then it got sucked right out again late in the second period with those three goals now the one thing that about the other crowd that was different from a few others I've seen is that they didn't leave it's not like they took off in the third period they stayed They got one rise at the end of the game. They have four to three with five minutes to go. And they were alive again. But obviously, everybody here was crushed. And as we were walking back to the hotel, because we're a short 10-minute walk from the rink here,

there were a few people who were like, what do you think, Oilers and seven? But it wasn't that confident I was more like a hope than a belief and uh this Florida team man like it's not a fluke and one of the conversations I had on Thursday morning that really stood out to me was I was just talking to one of the players about the trip in and the whole controversy about, you know, did they wait too long? Did they throw themselves off? And he just rolled his eyes. He said, that's a you thing. That's a media talking point. Like to us, we're like, whatever, we have a game to win. And we're just focused on the game. And he said, you guys can all discuss that. We're here to focus on our

task. And, you know, this game, I think you could argue Edmonton deserved a better fate. I think you could argue for a lot of it, Edmonton was the better team, but the bottom line is Florida sticks to what they do. And that is they outnumber you. They win battles. They break the puck out all over the ice with support and they don't beat themselves. And this was a case where every Edmonton mistake ended up in Edmonton's net. First goal, mistake, goal. Reinhardt. Second goal, mistake, goal. Third goal, mistake, Bennett, goal. Fourth goal, Bennett goal. Fourth goal, mistake,

Barkov goal. And Edmonton, I think Chris Cuthbert came on at the beginning of the third period and he said something like Florida had 54 seconds of offensive zone time and they had four goals because they put all of Edmonton's mistakes into their

own net. Now they got, Edmonton scored a couple of, one was a crazy fluke goal, but you need those. And the second one was a great tip by McLeod to make it interesting. But even though they had some sustained pressure late in the game, I never felt absolutely certain that they were going to tie it. Like there's some nights you're like, okay, this team is going to tie it it's going to happen we all know it i know even though they came close like on the one play where mcdavid shot from behind the net i didn't get a chance to get down

in time to ask bobrovsky i'm going to try to ask him on friday i think bobrovsky knew that mcdavid was trying to bank the puck off him so he if you watch, he moves his left leg, and then he has the presence of mind to make the save on McCloud. Like, to me, Bobrovsky was absolutely incredible in this game. This is obviously the most goals he's given up in one game in this Stanley Cup final, but I thought he was phenomenal. And look, like, whenever Florida makes a mistake, you've got to beat Bobrovsky, and that's not easy.

And, you know, it was funny. I was talking with someone about this after the game. When Bobrovsky was signed to that seven-year, $70 million deal, the conventional wisdom, and I admit I thought about it as much as anyone else did, was that if you're Florida, you hope you win the Stanley Cup in the first two or three years, and then you don't care how bad that deal ages. Well, now we're what, in year six of that contract? And he's one win away from a Stanley Cup. And if they win, he's going to win the Conn Smythe, and then he's going to go to the Hall of Fame.

I mean, it really is an incredible performance from him, numerically and also stylistically, Jeff, because if he doesn't make the save in a technical way, he gumbees himself into making the save. It's incredible. That's a very hip reference from the 70s by the way that not a whole lot of people that didn't watch saturday night live in the 70s are not going to get but good for you for going out there and making the gumby reference elliot i

i really admire that one um let me let me just fix something i just said jeff he's in year five of seven i think i said year six he's in Yeah. Yeah. Two years remaining on this one. You know, you can make the point too. There's a lot of things I want to pull out of this game with you here in a second. But while we're talking about Bobrovsky, does it not feel like he's got, and this flies in the face of all conventional wisdom about things like aging curves and what happens to goaltenders as they get into their thirties. Like, are we at the place now where we're looking at Bobrovsky and this seven-year deal?

And are we saying to ourselves, he's gotten better through this contract? Like, there were the Vesna Trophy years in Columbus. Granted, okay, cool. But it seems as if going through this deal, Elliot, and, you know, now he's 35 years old. And as you mentioned, one game away from winning the Stanley Cup

and quite possibly a consummate trophy as well. Are we prepared to say that he's gotten better through this deal? Like as the contract has aged and he has aged, he's gotten better? Because it feels that way. I definitely think it's true. But I think one of the things that has happened, and we've discussed this a couple times, is that he has understood he doesn't have to play 70 games a season anymore.

He has made, I don't think he works any less. I don't think he takes care of himself any less. I don't think his standards have dropped at all. It shows in the way he plays. But what I do think is that he understands he can't play every game. And that has been the difference as much as anything else. He understands the value of rest rest is a weapon jeff that's what they tell me uh yes that doesn't work very well for media

but i keep hearing athletes talk about that um there's one goal that to me was the florida panthers goal like you know how every team has a goal that you look at and you say, okay, that's an Edmonton Oilers goal, or that's a Florida Panthers. There was to me a Florida Panthers goal in this one, when you think of the stereotype of the Panthers and it was the Sam Bennett goal. You know how we've been talking about, maybe not so much in game one, but certainly in game two, the Florida Panthers, when they're on their game, are incredibly frustrating to play against because you feel like you can't move. They don't give you any room to move.

Their forecheck is excellent. They force turnovers. They force you into bad situations. And that Sam Bennett goal, his seventh, the one that made it 3-1, it is a great forecheck, forcing Darnell Nurse into a giveaway situation. Edmonton can't clear the puck. It's just like you can just feel the frustration of everybody on that Oilers team in the defensive zone, and Florida doesn't let you

move grabs the puck and it's perfection and it's fast and they score and that's the one that begins to put this thing out of reach to me Elliot that felt like the stereotypical Florida Panthers goal did it to you yeah I think that's a I think that's a great call but i would say to me the true florida panther play was that was the last few seconds oh aaron ekblad aaron ekblad just kill him though killing him on the boards oh and they couldn't get the puck off him they killed what 20 now i know uh i know some elder fans will get upset at us talking about this because they think eckblad should have gotten a penalty but whatever the case is in the last 25 seconds he held the puck against the boards for like 20 seconds and that's where florida's won

this series uh on the the puck battles um you know we talked uh that the Oilers in their meeting had discussed in the day before game three about they have to start winning battles. And the Panthers, they have a pack mentality. They try to outnumber you and they were doing it very well. Well, it happened again. They just outnumber you or they win battles or they tie up the puck. Nobody was getting that puck off of Ekblad

in the last 25 seconds. And to me, that was the most Panther-y thing of that game, was that they had it on the boards, and Edmonton could not get it off them. We've seen Nico Mikula do the same thing as well, much to the frustration of the opposition. Oh, you know what? One thing that I want to point out here, there were a couple of really close shots at the empty net at the end.

Gustav Forsling almost dumped it in the empty net. Alexander Barkov almost dumped it in the empty net there as well. Did you see Forsling's ice time? He almost played half the game. Yeah, he's 28-41. What did Maurice call him before the game? The best in the world at what he does? Yeah.

He is, like, every time you look up, it's like, oh, Forsling's out there it's like oh Forsling's out there again oh Forsling's out there again Elliot is this like the best waiver claim of all time I was thinking about this the other day Rich Peverley was a really good waiver claim Steve Sullivan was a really good waiver claim. Ilya Brizgalov, when he went from Anaheim to Arizona, not to Philly, was a really good waiver claim. But Forsling, Forsling would be, you know what, Craig Anderson was on waivers a couple of times marty st louis was on waivers but there's a few like that like mike hoffman was on waivers and not claimed like there's a few guys who are on waivers that nobody talk you know what if um

if ilia brisgal off let me pause on that one for a second. Daniel Pierre, I think, was on waivers and cleared. If, okay, I was told that when Ilya Brzgalov was on waivers from Anaheim and then picked up by the Coyotes, that Detroit put in a claim as well. in a claim as well if brisgaloff gets claimed by detroit and they win the stanley cup with him and net we'd be saying he was the best waiver claim of all time but instead he got picked up by the coyotes like so much of this is circumstance as well right he gets picked up but he doesn't get all the way to detroit so he doesn't get in that position but he gets picked up by the coyotes all i'm saying is like, Forsling is one, with all due respect

to all the rest of you Florida Panthers defensemen, Gustav Forsling is the best defenseman on the Florida Panthers and they're one win away from winning the Stanley Cup. I have one other one and I still think

I would put Forsling ahead of him, but it's closer than you think. Okay. Francois Beauchemin. Oh, Doug McClan got him from Montreal. That's right, but then he was traded to the Ducks. And of course, they had Conger and Niedermeyer, but he was still a hell of a player.

Hang on, didn't Doug also get Ron Hainsey off waivers from Montreal? I think Doug picked off two. Two halves defense. I don't want to give Doug too much credit on this podcast. Okay, very good. We'll just move on. I think he picked off two.

But look, Forsling's absolutely at the top of the list in the conversation. I mean, people can decide who's number one. Is Beauchemin number one? Is Sullivan number one? Is Forsling number one? You know, Steve Sullivan had a hell of a career after he was claimed off waivers.

Sure did. He sure did. I'm glad you mentioned Ekblad with that great move at the end to just chew the clock, chew the clock. Like that is to your point. I think it's the right one. More of Florida just frustrating you too. What did you make of Aaron Ekblad

labeling Warren Fogle into the bench? Oh, it was a great hit. Great hit. And the thing, the linesman skated over and he was looking at the Florida bench and he was saying, I got my eyes on you. I think it was Johnny Murray. He was like, I got my

eyes on you. I got my eyes on you. Don't do anything dumb. Don't do anything dumb the the kachok perry thing was wild too like you don't see how you normally do that whatever kachok said it really got under perry's skin he chased him all over the ice he chased him all over the ice and then he yelled at him from the bench by the way you know there's another player that you have to watch in person especially on the penalty kill luster einan he is so good mcdavid is that like he like he's one of the guys that's cutting off mcdavid he's really long and you can see he really knows angles the um that whole line is trouble for anyone they're out there against. Lindell is fantastic.

Tarasenko has been great as well. So here becomes the question. You're the Edmonton Oilers. What next? You're at, in case of emergency, break glass time. What is the break glass? You mentioned Sam Gagne on the broadcast. I loved that. You know, I think we can have the ultimate fantasy

of Jack Campbell comes in to rescue the season when you talk about Hail Mary passes here. You're Chris Knobloch. A lot of the moves that you've made have been perfect. You've had the Midas touch, but now your back is up against the wall. The moves haven't worked out. Although, listen, I think Edmonton's a better team in the first period

and Edmonton's a better team in the third period in game three. But nonetheless, things haven't worked. You're one game away from calling it a season. What do you do? How desperate are you right now? I'm going to wonder if Knobloch is going to look at the third period and say, I don't necessarily need to do anything drastic because we made this a game. I saw a Vander Koehn postgame.

He looked all right. I think that he's been going through a lot to play. You know, he said that he had a hernia situation before the playoffs. It's only gotten worse. You know, I had heard some rumors he might not play again this year, but Ken Holland in the pregame said that isn't necessarily the case. He thinks they could have him back again. So obviously Kane is the first one.

But especially with the power play not going well, I just wonder, and sometimes you just want to do things that maybe your team will rally around. Kyle did a great intro with Sam Gagne, you know, put it into my head. I wonder if there's any chance they put him in to give them a lift. Now, the thing is, is that if you do look at it, some of their depth forwards have been really good. Janmark has been really good. Connor Brown has been really good. He had, again, good chances in this one.

I thought Derek Ryan did a real nice job of annoying Bobrovsky, or at least trying to. He was on top of him a couple of times. That line was really good. They were annoying. So it's not obvious among the Oilers depth players who should be taken out because some of them have been very good. But right now I'm looking at it.

Maybe you need an offensive jolt. Maybe you need something your players could rally around. I mean, he hasn't played in a long time. But as Kyle put it in my head, and as I was watching the game and the struggling 0 for 9 power play or whatever it is, I was thinking, you know what? Maybe this isn't the worst idea. I don't think this goes into Merrick World bad ideas.

Listen, you know, Sam Gagne is one of my favorite hockey players. You're going to get no argument out of me about putting in Sam Gagne for an emotional lift. And listen, even helping you out on the power play as well on a PP2. emotional lift and listen even helping you out on the power play as well um on a on a pp2 and Jeff one other thing I wanted to mention about the game Paul Maurice had another winning moment I laughed my head off when he was introduced before the great game and they booed the hell out of them and he was like waving and saying thank you yep I love that embrace embrace being the villain the world needs more villains but don't you but hang on a second here that was prime heel rick flair well it was and but don't you get a sense that the florida like there are just some teams that really enjoy being a villain like really enjoy being the road team and really enjoy just marinating in the booze. Yeah, they're one of them. That is everybody on that Florida Panthers team.

So why should Paul Maurice be any different? That's what I thought. He loved it and he played it perfectly. I would also like to concede tonight that this was possibly the worst hair night of my career. And Amber was witness to this. Nah, you've had worse, bud. amber was witness to this you've had no i think it was worse but amber was witness to this we had we have a new makeup person who she's never worked with us

before and so like i didn't put any product in usually i do something myself and then they just say okay that's not good enough and we fix it a bit so i showed up with no product in and not good enough and we fix it a bit so i showed up with no product in and everything she tried only made the situation worse like she did it once and i did the first hit and they sent her up there and they said you you gotta fix that it's not good enough so like we're at the top of the first level and people are watching this with bemusement and she's trying to fix it and it's only getting worse and amber said that uh like you could see her frustration as she was trying to put more stuff it was only getting worse and worse and i had to go on air and i just said no worries uh i'll i'll just make it work you know spears he said to he said to me, the producer, Brian Speary, said,

you look like at one point in the show, he goes to me, you look like you have a rat in your head. And I go, oh, that's not going to make me too distracted as I go to air here. Like, normally, I don't care at all. But even I knew this one was bad. Elliot, have you, this was not your worst hair day. I've seen your hits on NHL Network. That is spectacularly bad hair.

Well, it was during COVID a lot of those times. No, I don't do that as much. Some of those NHL Network hits were special. Yeah, but that was COVID times. Are you sort of sneakily lobbying for them to, now Gus is the hairstylist at Sportsnet. Are you lobbying now for Gus to show up for Game 4 just to help you with your feathers? No, I'll fix it. I just felt really terrible for our makeup person because she wanted to do well.

She wanted to fix it. But it was one of those things like you're digging in sand. You think you're getting out, but you're only making yourself deeper. You know, like you're digging in sand. You think you're getting out, but you're only making yourself deeper. And it was just a frustrating night for the hairstyling department at Sportsnet. Put it that way. Nothing was going to help with those feathers on Thursday night.

Elliot, we saw the Stanley Cup in game one. We may see the Stanley Cup in game four. All eyes on Saturday, 8 o'clock Eastern, Florida Panthers look to close out against the Edmonton Oilers. You can watch it on Hockey Night in Canada. I don't like sweeps. They're bad for business. Panthers won't care.

Their fans won't care. Sweeps are bad for business. I think the Florida Panthers ownership would like to see a game five. Thank you very much. But I think they'll take the game four if they can get it. Armstrong, general manager of the St. Louis Blues, had signed an extension to remain the president of hockey operations through the 28-29 season. Alexander Steen, signing a five-year deal with the St. Louis Blues, will take over as a general manager in 2026, essentially serving as GM apprentice for a couple of seasons before graduating to the big chair. On this one, what do you hear?

You mentioned something about Steen not too long ago on this pod. I didn't know that the succession would be so clear. You know, I started thinking about the word succession, and I was trying to place all of the Blues front office as members of the family. So that was interesting. I'll report back on who I come up with as who later. But I think everybody kind of knew that Alex Steen had a big future in the Blues organization, that Doug Armstrong really liked Alex Steen,

really trusted Alex Steen. You know, one of the things he's done there is he's surrounded himself with former players, Al McGuinness, Keith Kachuk, just, you know, people who he really, he had Rob DeMaio there for a while. You know, Larry Plo was there for a while, although Plo, of course, was the former general manager. He had a lot of players whose input he liked, and he really liked Steen. He had a lot of time for Steen. And the word was that Steen was a big part of the head coaching search, which ended up with Drew Bannister, and that he was going to have a big voice in the organization for years to come. And eventually the hope was that he would be the general manager. I didn't expect a full plan as stated out like this, but I'm not hugely surprised that

it ended up being that way once I heard it. You know, it's certainly possible that, you know, Steen kind of said, look, if I'm going to go into this full time, we need to have some kind of commitment. And they obviously came down with that today you know doug armstrong i believe this is going to be 25 years as a general manager so he knows that once he's done he's going to hit that big milestone and he's also got the the team canada stuff now too so he's got he's got a lot on his plate. But, you know, I think that everybody around the Blues kind of knew that he saw Steen as an important piece

of the future, and now it's there. Now, I think it is interesting, like, Steen's a committed guy. Anyone who saw him play, you know, I remember a cameraman told me a story once um one of our one of the cameraman i used to work with uh he said to me the the angriest he ever had a player get at him was alex steen and i said really really what did you do like he's i mean he's a competitive guy, but he seems like a pretty mild-mannered guy. And he said there was a playoff game and Steen had hurt his wrist. And it was the camera guy who was in between benches.

And so he came back to the bench and he took his glove off and he was wincing and holding his wrist. And my feeling on this is if it happens where fans can see it themselves, it's fair game. But Steen didn't think that. He saw the camera focusing on the wrist and he snapped. He's like, get that bleeping camera off me. And the cameraman was shaking. He'd never had a player yell at him like that before. So I always kind of remember that as my my favorite alex

steen story so put it this way he didn't feel the same way about it as i did in the camera but you know the one thing that you know i thought was an interesting point that someone raised to me today was um you know are you surprised st louis did this because you know steen hasn't been doing it full time. What if he doesn't like it or what if he decides it's not for him or he's not committed to that? I think you can always change your plans later. I think you can always adapt and say, okay,

it just didn't work out this way. But it's very clear the Blues wanted the succession plan known to everybody. And it's no surprise if Blues wanted the succession plan known to everybody. And it's no surprise, if you've been around the organization, that they value Steen a lot. There's a couple of things here. One, and we talked about this Thursday on the radio show, it seems as if something similar, if not identical, is happening with Columbus between Don Waddell and Rick Nash, that eventually that GM's title gets passed on from the veteran to the, to the new general manager.

Does it, does it feel like we're going to see more things like this? Like Columbus is, they haven't spelled it out that way, but it kind of seems like it's trending that direction. St. Louis just spelled it out. Like,

look, this is the plan. This is what we're going to do. Do you think this is a trend or just like a one-off here? No, I think teams go kind of, we kind of see this go in cycles, right? Sometimes it's the, oh, we need the two people. We need the po-ho and the GM.

And there's other situations like Carolina, for example, they look like they're going away from that. I think some organizations feel differently about it at certain times. Like there's no question in my mind, St. Louis is looking at it as, you know, Steen, we're fast tracking Steen to this. He's going to need a sober second thought around him. And I think that that's definitely the feeling in Columbus too but um you know there are some teams that are really against this they think they think it's an extra unnecessary layer and they don't believe in it so I think it's a situation by situation like one thing I

definitely think we're seeing though is that we're starting to get into the new generation of people um you know rick nash as you mentioned if he wants to do it he could be the guy in columbus uh now we've got steen in st louis eric tulsky with a very different background is is the guy in in carolina um you know someone said to me when i was talking about on your show, you didn't mention Danny Breer. Breer has the background as both a player and in business. He worked in the ECHL organization in Philadelphia. But we're, you know, Craig Conroy and they mentioned Craig Conroy in Calgary. Kent Hughes is a former agent in Montreal. Like we are seeing the turnover.

We are in very much the new generation and we're going to hear new names. You know, Chris McFarlane and Joe Sackick in Colorado, they've been very successful together. But, you know, we're definitely in a new era of managers and potentially an even newer era. You know, you start to ask about, you know, like Florida's in the Stanley Cup final. They have a bunch of guys there who could be general managers if they wanted to. I know Paul Kropelka's interviewed for jobs. I know Luongo could be one if he wanted to. And more of the Tulsky style of background. But one guy in Florida whose name I started to hear a bit is Sonny Mehta.

And, you know, I just think that we are going to hear some different names, some newer names. And the other thing that the Tulsky thing does is that it probably opens some names for some different backgrounds and people. Like once one person does it, then other people are going to start thinking about it too it's kind of like when tolsky got hired in the first place elliot and then everybody started rushing to get their own um analytics people and analytics um departments

you know i don't know that we know the answer to this we can only speculate on it but considering now there seems to be a younger turnover in the general manager's position. And you mentioned Eric Tolsky, who's one of, you know, he's one of the more creative thinkers around the game. You mentioned he doesn't come from a traditional hockey background and he brings a level of curiosity that people that just grew up in hockey don't have. Do you think we get new ideas through all of this? Like I'll throw Rich Peverly into this mix as well. I still think he's destined to be gm one day yes do you do you think that you know this means new ideas thrown around at general manager meetings i i the only thing i would disagree with you on this is i think there are a lot more new ideas and fresh ideas thrown around than we're aware of you know like i had

one guy call me like the last pod we did kind of got crazy because you know i named a bunch of teams i knew who had backup plans and some other teams reached out to me and like it went kind of crazy it's just the way things do about oh but the cap friendly yeah like well somebody said to me yeah you claim that like like 60 of teams don't have something that's not true and i said i never said that i said that these are the teams I know of. And I even made a point to say that it just gets a little crazy, but there are some teams that are quite happy for people not to know what they're doing.

So I think there's a lot more out there than people get credit for. And I think the line is constantly moving. I think people are looking at things are starting to look at things very differently do i think hockey is behind some of the other sports yes i do but i do think that line is constantly moving i i think more is going on than people are willing to admit i believe that elsewhere patrick line Patrick Laine and the Columbus Blue Jackets. What's happening here? So we'll give credit to Pierre Lebrun. He was the first person to... Your spy versus spy nemesis?

Yeah, there's a few of them. He's definitely one of them. I mean, there's a lot of good reporters in this league. The thing that I think is true about this one is we were headed to this last season. that i i think is true about this one is we were headed to this last season um you know line got hurt and i had heard during that time that uh when line was healthy enough to return this was going to happen that the blue jackets then under yarmokalainen, were going to give permission for Laine to explore a trade and Laine's agents to do it. Now, then of course, Laine went into the program and I just, you know, at that point in time, I was like, just drop it. Don't, this is not something that you need to look on right now. But I should have picked it back up. I didn't. And the story got broken by someone else. But I do think this is something that was brewing, that the Blue Jackets knew that

Lani preferred this, and they were willing to help facilitate it. Now, from a hockey point of view, Lani is a talented guy. I just think the issue is going to be he's got two years left at eight plus. guy i i just think the the issue is going to be he's got two years left at eight plus a who can handle that and is columbus going to have to do something to facilitate it whether it's an added asset or you know or eat money to move it now some team might say yeah sweetener sweetener like a sweetener a little bit of aspartame to the uh. Oh, my. So, you know, obviously there might be some teams that say, nope, we're willing to do this, no problem. But there'll be other teams that say, you know what, we can't without some help.

So I think that's going to be the issue here. Okay. So we'll see what happens with Patrick Laine. Like, I do wonder, and I know that I tend to kind of repeat myself on this one, and maybe I just look at, you know, the Utah blanks as the ultimate solution for any problem. You are going to try to will this into existence, eh? I am willing so many players to Utah just because, you know, Arizona always had the cap space but never had the cash. Utah has the cap space and they have the cash.

And they're looking for veterans on short-term deals until their young kids are ready. So if you fit that bill and Patrick line, a clearly does, I do wonder if that could be the solution here, but we shall see. Well, we know what the Utah jerseys will look like next year.

And if you're a fan of the Winnipeg ice, formerly of the Western hockey league, I'm guessing you like these, your thoughts, your thoughts on Utah's reveal. I like the colors. I don't understand what people were expecting in terms of design or anything like that. This is the exact same thing that happened with the PWHL. You don't have a lot of time.

You get it done as quick as you can. It's KISS. Keep it simple, stupid, and you'll figure things out when you have more time. And, you know, what it is, is Utah's going to get two runs on jerseys. They're going to get this run. Yeah, I was going to say, fans are buying two sets of jerseys now. Yes, they're getting this run.

And whenever they figure out their uniform, they'll get another run. But look, when you get a team as recently as Utah got a team, this is what happens. So it's hard for me to freak out about it. The base, I like the colors. I have no problem with the colors. And I'm looking forward when they ultimately come up with a name.

And I have to say, Venom is growing on me. I don't know why. But it's growing on me. Yeti, come on. Hang on. Come on, Yeti. Let's go. If I was putting money down, it would be on Yeti.

But Venom is growing on me, I have to say. Nah. Not me. Yeti. Yeti or bust. Yeti or bust of all the names. My bet is it's going to be Yeti. It's going to be Yeti. Yeti or bust. Yeti or bust of all the names. My bet is it's going to be Yeti. It's going to be Yeti.

But I don't know. In the meantime, the San Jose Sharks have their coach, Ryan Worsofsky, Elliot. You've wondered about him as I've wondered about Marco Sturm. And it's Ryan Worsofsky. The background on this and the reasons why include blank. Well, the reason is he's an up and coming young mind. There's no question about him. I don't know Ryan Worsofsky at all, but the reaction I heard from people was that they were really happy for him.

Just someone who worked his way up, has a pretty good reputation and is deserving of the opportunity. I think it came down to him or Marco Sturm. I think they were the two finalists. Jeff Blashill was definitely in it. I mentioned to you on your show the other day that the Texas Stars AHL coach, Neil Graham, I believe, was interviewed once or twice for this job. But it came down to Sturm and Worsofsky. but it came down to Sturm and Worsawski and you know one of the things I heard was that was that the Sharks were concerned that if they didn't hire Worsawski

would they lose him and I think that was not the final decision but it was it was a decision you know they brought him in as an assistant coach last year they really liked him they saw something then and I think it was very important for them to keep him in the organization so he got the job and like I said I don't know a lot about him but a lot of the people that were reaching out about him were saying good uh good deserving candidate and they were happy to see him get rewarded I have to think that Sturm's name is going to start popping up on a lot more lists too, uh, after he went very deep into this process. And, you know, the biggest challenge for me

with a guy like Worsowski here, as you know, what I say is that one of the toughest things to do is to go from assistant to head coach on the same team. Cause you go from good cop to bad cop and that's not always very easy. So, uh, good luck. And luck and uh people speak very highly of him um jalen chatfield you know you put out the tweet about um jacob slaven and the carolina

hurricanes um you know working on a long-term extension here jay i think that's pretty much well i i think it's done i think the slave extension is done it just can't be announced till july 1st. What do you know about Jalen Chatfield? He would have been someone really coveted out there, Elliot. First of all, I think that he's Brenda Moore's type of player. I'm not surprised they would want to keep him. He's an excellent fit there.

And I know the organization feels very, very highly of him. I know someone who knew Chatfield going back to his days in Windsor. And when he showed up at Windsor in the Ontario Hockey League, where I believe young Merrick, he won a Memorial Cup. Am I correct? I am going to point something out about that Memorial cup season in a second. Yes, he did. Okay. So he, when he showed up in Windsor, like he basically showed up with like a garbage

bag full of clothes and no equipment and left with an NHL contract and Memorial cup and they loved him. And this is a person who would always say to me watch Chatfield watch Chatfield that guy is going to find his way and he's going to make an impact on a team and you know like and Brendan Moore is perfect for him that's the perfect kind of guy that he would like so like this guy was a long shot and he made it big. And I love stories like that. I really do. You know, there was one person,

and by the way, that was a World Cup winning team, Windsor Spitfires. They hosted it. That would have been 2017. And I remember working that. Rocky Thompson, by the way, was a coach there, Elliot,

as you can recall. That was a blue line, okay, that had Mikhail Sergeyev on it, that had Sean Day on it, and we can all recall how much of a phenom he was. And also Logan Stanley was on that blue line. It was a really, really high-end blue line. And I can recall watching these games, Elliot, and Colby Armstrong, who was working with us then, pointed out to me, he said, that Jalen Chatfield kid is going to play in the NHL. And I'm like, oh, geez, I don't know. Like, look at Sergeichel. Like, that guy's going to

play. Sean Day is going to play. Logan Stanley, he says, watch. That Jalen Chatfield kid is going to play in the NHL. He may seem a little rough around the edges, but that guy's going to play in the NHL. Colby saw it, Elliot. He's the one person I always think of when I see Jalen Chatfield is Colby Armstrong sitting with me at the WFCU Center in Windsor saying, that guy's playing in the NHL. Take it to the bank. So Colby, if you're're listening not only were you right but you were really right that guy is a solid nhler and it's good to see him get paid as well so congratulations there elliot also the new york rangers getting a little bit of business done on

thursday capocaco signs the one-year contract 2.4 million dollars what's the story here so i have a theory about this one number one i believe that if all things stay equal and kako and the rangers are still married next season everyone's going to be okay with that i think he's prepared to play for new york and i think they are prepared to have him in on their roster and hope that next year is as successful for him as this year was for Lafreniere, who found his footing. I also believe that everybody here was smart enough to realize that the sooner the salary question was eliminated and everybody knew what Kaka was going to be earning this year,

the sooner everyone who might be interested would be able to say, ah, we can fit him in our lineup or, oh, this works for us. Like, I think this is a little bit of a strategy by team and agent to say, let's eliminate the guesswork. So if there is anywhere else out there that makes sense for him and is willing to propose us a fair deal, we're all going to know what the numbers are. That's what it says to me. It is, if it stays the same, we'll make it work. If this knocks a proposal loose, we'll listen. That's what I think this is. I think it's a business decision that makes sense for player and team.

And everybody here is okay with either option. They're okay if next year's team is New York. And they're okay if next year's team is somewhere else. That's what this is to me. It's the business is set. You know the number. How does everybody else out there feel? If no one does anything we like, we're happy to have him as a Ranger for next season.

That's what this is to me. Very interesting theory, Frej. Very interesting theory. Okay, sometimes I regret when I just throw these things out at you about a certain market, but here I go putting my finger in the socket. Elliot, anything new in Vancouver? Did you lick the finger first? Ducks for cover.

Did you lick it first? That adds to the shock. Oh, thanks. As you know, I feel they've conceded on Lindholm. Yeah. I think we're going to know in the next few days if there's any hope at Zdorov. Like I said, it just appears unlikely. But someone reached out to me and said, that one's not over yet.

I would say the odds are less than 50%. But someone reached out to me and said, it's not over yet. Now, they told me it might be over soon, but they said it's not over yet. And Jeff, I would like to end the news segment by saying I'm going on a Mitch Marner moratorium. You cannot say anything about this topic without somebody going berserk. this topic without somebody going berserk. This is why this is the hardest topic to discuss in the NHL. And this is why it's so complicated.

The future of this and the outcome of this is so complicated. Because you can't say a thing without somebody getting mad. The nerves are close to the skin on this one, Elliot. Yes, they are. The nerves are close to the skin on this one. Not to say anything remotely controversial. People are getting mad. One day, one day, one day. All right.

That's, as Elliot mentioned, the end of the news segment. Montana's Thought Line bails us out next. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Welcome back to the podcast. It's time now for Montana's Thought Line, Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Try the ribs.

Try the ribs. You got to try the ribs. Thank you as always to Rick Turner for the tunes. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, the way to get in. The Thought Line, 1-833-311-3232. The curator of the thought line is the one and only Griffin Porter. Elliot, you're going to love this one.

Our first question comes to us from L.A. Kings anthem singer Hannah Davey. How cool is this? Wow. Yes. Dear Jeff, Elliot, and Elliot. singer hannah davy how cool is this wow yes dear jeff elliot and such a talented person doing listening to this drivel we're gonna get there that's part of the email stay tuned dear jeff elliot and oh how about this the great and powerful dom barf hannah Hannah, come on. My name is Hannah Davey. I am the National Anthem singer for the Los Angeles Kings. We knew that,

Hannah. I was listening to the last episode where an Australian fan asked if the Stanley Cup had ever made its way to the Southern Hemisphere. You mentioned to your memory it hadn't, but I wanted to provide a correction. It has. The Stanley Cup was on tour and displayed during the NHL Global Series in

Melbourne, where the LA Kings played against the Arizona Coyotes. I was in Melbourne for the games and had the honor of singing the American anthem there. I also have a question for you. There is no way the NHL can do a one and done trip down under. Even Luke Robitaille agrees and said so in an interview with Elliott. Has there ever been any rumblings about going back? And will you let us know if you hear anything? I also wanted to say that here's the part that you asked about. You've both taught me so much about hockey. I really appreciate all the insights and knowledge you share.

Your work is valuable for fans like me. Keep up the fantastic work. And I will certainly try the ribs next time I'm up north. Best regards, Hannah Davey. P.S. I love stuff like this. Just feed my ego. I actually downloaded a bunch of episodes to listen to while I was driving in Tasmania on the Great Ocean Road through Victoria.

Jeff and Ellie, you both make excellent road trip buddies. Thank you for adding to my Australia memories. Hannah, what an email. Thanks so much for that one. Yeah, very nice. Thank you. Thank you, Hannah. Real nice.

Thank you for that one. Have you heard anything about the NHL talking about going back to Australia? As you'll recall, part of the conversation was, we don't just want to do one and done with these things. First thing is, we should have known that the Stanley Cup went to Australia last year with the Kings. I was more thinking about it

as did anyone ever take it there on a Stanley Cup victory tour? Yes. But Hannah is exactly right. It went last year with the Kings on that trip and the Coyotes and we should have mentioned that.

Yes, I have heard it has been discussed again as part of exactly what you mentioned at the end of your statement, and that is how do we continue to build on the momentum of taking those two teams to Australia last year? So yes, it is a conversation. Yes, I think it is on the radar. I don't even know if it's necessarily part of teams going there again,

as much as it might just be, can the NHL do something where the cup goes there or you have clinics there or something like that just to keep the presence? I do believe that has been discussed. Excellent. Hannah, continued fine work with the Los Angeles Kings, and thank you so much for the email. And glad to be your road trip buddy. We'll finish off with this one.

Riley from Parts Unknown. Ooh, there's a wrestling theme to this one. Is this the masked grappler, Len Denton? No, not Len Denton. Although, you know what, Len Denton, one of the things he was famous for outside of being the grappler? No, what's that? He was part of a famous wrestling mistake.

Okay. Okay. What is this? I'm interested about this. I think you'll like this. In a match against Jake the Snake Roberts about a million years ago, Jake Roberts had Denton in a front face lock and he slipped by accident and invented the DDT. That's where that move came from. And then all of a sudden

people went, oh wow, what a... He just slipped Elliot and it turned into one of the great finishers of all time, which is still used by many people today. Anyway. By the way, one thing about Len Denton, his identity got ruined to me. I saw him at a Maple Leaf wrestling card in Toronto

and he showed up in two matches. One is the grappler. I think he took on like Vinny Valentino or something like that. And another is Len Denton. And some guy sitting near me said wait a sec that's the same guy no same tights same boots no because his tights said grappler on them so they weren't the same tights but the guy goes wait that's the same guy oh boy breaking yeah i know

but now that i'm older i don't know the answer to the big question, which is one fee or two? Well, you know what would happen in those situations? That's an interesting one because sometimes a guy would no-show the match for whatever, he couldn't make it there or whatever, and so someone would end up doing double duty, and you would either get that guy's payoff or a percentage of that guy's payoff. So the answer is, yeah,

they would get something for wrestling too on the same card. Oh, okay. Did happen. Did happen all the time. Okay, anyway, Riley from Parts Unknown, little detour there. Crazy question.

Let's say a no-goal call is under lengthy review and a fan shot video turns up on Twitter that unequivocally shows that it is a good goal or as we normally call it a goal. Would the league be able to use the video as part of their review process to overturn the call on the ice? If not, the fallout could be massive.

If a series winning goal was disallowed when the entire fan base was aware that it was a good goal riley from parts unknown great question that is a great question you know i have no idea you know i promise you rally from parts unknown if that is your true name i I'm going to ask this. I'm going to ask this. My guess is no, if it appears on just social media. But again, I'm with you. I don't know 100%, but my guess on this one is no, Elliot.

I don't know. I mean, you're probably right. Probably. But let's just say, for example, if this happened at the Stanley Cup final and someone in the media gave it to the NHL or walked into the room and said, there's this angle. I don't know. Would they be able to use it? If they shot it on their own iPhone, would they be able to use it if they shot it on their own iphone would they be able to use it my my guess is my guess is probably no simply because now that you know for example what's everybody enjoying doing right now is these ai answers of podium questions like yes you know you would probably say can we prove this hasn't been doctored and you probably have to be very careful about that so you're probably right but

i will ask it and i and i know and i know that nhl ops is listening to this podcast because they were unhappy with one of the takes from last pod. Which one? I don't know what I'm going to say yet, Jeff, because I have to do a little bit back and forth on this conversation. But it was more of a joking unhappy

as opposed to an angry unhappy, which we have been on the receiving end of too. But it was more of a jokey unhappy. Put it that way. All right. We'll see if we can get the answer to that. And also Riley from Parts Unknown's question on the next podcast. That's a good one.

I'm going to ask. Great question. And that's the Montana start line. Montana's barbecue and bar, Canada's home for barbecue. We'll be right back. Jeff, Elliot, and Tom of 32 Thoughts try their ribs today. Oh, yeah. Welcome back to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation.

Elliot, we've talked a lot about the National Hockey League on today's podcast. One thing I do want to throw in here, the American Hockey League final is set, and it's the same final as we saw last season. Yes, it is Coachella Valley facing off against Hershey, and this one looks like it should be a good one as well. And Patrick Williams, who's really an absolute treasure when it comes to coverage of the American Hockey League and has been for a number of years. I've followed Patrick's work for a long time now.

He brings up this point. Here's the tweet. This will be the fourth time that Dan Bilesma and Todd Nelson meet in the Calder Cup Finals. They met as players, 1994, Moncton versus Portland. Assistant coaches, Chicago versus Wilkes-Barre Scranton. That would be in 2008. And as head coaches, this is last year,

Coachella Valley versus Hershey. And Elliott in the head-to-head matchups, Todd Nelson, who many wonder, how come he's not a head coach in the NHL right now, has gone 3-0. He has a chance to blank Dan Bilesma before he officially takes over the bench boss duties in Seattle for the Kraken.

It's kind of wild that the Stanley Cup could be over just as the Calder Cup begins. I know. Game one is Friday between these two teams. Game one is Friday. You have one game of the Calder Cup final. I know. Game one is Friday between these two teams. Game one is Friday. You have one game of the Calder Cup final, and the Stanley Cup could wrap. Two good teams.

Looking forward to watching it as much as I can. Great stat that Patrick uncovered. And I'll say this to you. Dan Balsma, we know, is moving up to Seattle for next season. Whatever Coachella Valley does with that team and the crack and do with that team at coach, that will be a coveted job. If it is open, there's going to be a ton of people who are going to want to coach their great area of the country.

Well-funded team, very successful early. A lot of people are going to want that job we talked about this going back to last season um it has already become one of the financial power brokers in the american hockey league they they pack the place the fans are great the merchandise i mean it's it's owned by seattle so like the merchandise is going to be great and it is like it's become one of the most successful franchises in the American league and the team they're playing, you know, the Hershey bears. And that story of success is, has long been told. So listen,

these are two, you know, one is a very historical team and the Hershey bears and they got their great look and have always had the great logo and color scheme and everything all throughout the years as they've they've years as they've changed it somewhat, but it's always looked good. And Coachella Valley, which is just cool and has come out of the gates as a powerhouse and one of the most important franchises

in the American Hockey League. So no surprise that that should be a very coveted position. With that, we'll wrap. Oh, before I wrap up, what is your Friday going to look like? What is Elliot's off day? Well, you still got to go over to the practices, right?

And see who's available to talk. So I'm definitely going to go do that. And I think there could be a cigar bar on Friday night. Oh my. BX's birthday is on Sunday. And initially we thought we were going to celebrate it in Florida. But now we may have to do it here. Uh-oh.

Do it on Friday just in case of Saturday? That's right. Normally, you reserve your cigar bar excursions for Mike Russo. True or false? That is true. And he will be invited. Excellent. Good to hear.

All right. Good to hear. All right. You enjoy yourself, whatever you get into after you fulfill your obligations of going to the rink and talking to people. Everybody else, enjoy your day off the NHL. If you get a chance,

watch game one between Coachella Valley and Hershey. Game one of the Calder Cup final there. Enjoy your Friday, and then get set for Saturday. We saw Stanley before game one. Do we see Stanley after game four? Saturday, we'll tell. We'll talk

to you soon. Thank you.