32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Our Lone Star Itinerary

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

The good, the bad and the ugly! Jeff and Elliotte are in Dallas, Texas capturing some playoff content with the Stars. They kick things off by telling everyone about some of the work they’ll be doing in Dallas and who they will be chatting with while in the Lone Star state (00:00). They then discuss the sale of the Senators (14:25), clean hits resulting in fights (25:20), how the QMJHL will be removing fighting (35:45), Martin St. Louis sitting Jonathan Drouin (44:40), the current playoff picture (52:00), Kim Weiss setting history in the NAHL (57:30) and James Reimer refusing to wear the Sharks Pride-themed jersey (59:00).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailOutro Music - The Weeks - Bottle RocketListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Bally Sports & Sportsnet.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Elliot, 32 thoughts in Amel's hotel room. Welcome to the podcast presented as always by the Sierra 84X. We were in Dallas in Amel's hotel room after a crazy day. Last night, hockey night in Canada, early flights, lots of cars, lots of driving, lots of flying. So you had planes, trains, and automobiles. You and Amel had those aren't pillows. Man, I hung out with Amel all day long, man. It was actually really good.

Although one thing I will say, and appropriate now that we're here in dallas and i mentioned this to him as we were driving from austin to dallas so wait a second you have to explain this first yeah like i'm the prima donna here my flight i gotta direct direct right to dallas i gotta direct what happened to the two of you guys we flew into austin this morning and then rented a car and then drove. Well, Amal drove and I sort of dozed in and out. But the times that I was awake, oh boy, you've driven with Amal before. I like Amal's driving. I'm a very aggressive driver.

Bob Cole did not like my tailgating. He liked I would get him to places fast. Yeah. But he used to tell me. Okay. I'd leap break you. So. He's more aggressive than me. I drove with Amel in Germany and I loved it because it felt right.

But he drives here like he's driving in Germany. You see the problem with that is, and I generally like that. I wouldn't have a single complaint. People will remember you did the Moritz Seider piece and I did the Tim Stutzle piece. You know, I spent eight hours on the Autobahn the next day because I did a drive. And the great thing about drivers in Germany is everybody knows how it goes. If somebody comes up behind you faster than you, you get out of the way.

Yeah, it doesn't happen here, bud. Here, it's Frogger. That's a great, oh, I used to love Frogger. Oh, you're making an old man cry. Here is Frogger. You just have to weave your way through everything. People are completely unpredictable, but I like that.

Yeah, I know. And I have to say, Amal, I think he's an excellent driver. I do like driving with Amal. Here's the thing. And we're in Dallas. And about a mile away from our hotel is Dealey Plaza. And if all I'm saying, and I told Amal this, if he were driving through Dealey Plaza, the president would still be alive. That's how quick and weavy and turny and dodgy our man Amal is behind the wheel.

But he got me here safe. So Amel, thank you, my man. Thank you, my man. Great job. So we're here for a few reasons, mainly to do interviews for the podcast and for various TV shows, NHL and Sportsnet,

Hockey Night in Canada, playoffs, et cetera. So very much looking forward to talking to a few people. And it sounds like we're really going to be busy. Am I allowed to say some of the names, Amel? I am. I get the thumbs up.

Okay. So fingers crossed, Tyler Sagan, Jamie Benn. By the way, how nice of a comeback season is this for Jamie Benn? It's one of the things that we're going to talk to him about. He looks healthy and strong and outside of Jason Robertson, he's top dog on this team

right now. For about 10 minutes on Saturday night, he was a 30 goal scorer. Yes, that's right. How about that? A couple called back. By the way, was that goal in? Would you have counted that in overtime?

Yes, that was a goal. Okay, we're all on the same page then. Wyatt Johnson, we'll talk to him. We'll talk to Jake Ottinger. You're going golfing with Joe Pavelski, I believe. See, I have to say I'm nervous for this assignment. I don't get nervous about a lot of things, but I have not hit a golf ball yet this year.

And I'm also been like Tiger Woods at the apex of his power. I am redoing my swing. I am petrified about this because Joe Pavelski is the golfer in the National Hockey League. One of those people, in the words of close friend, Craig Smith, who absolutely makes you sick because he's great at everything he does. So this is an assignment.

People ask like, what makes you nervous going on air? I'm going to hit golf balls with Joe Pavelski. This makes me nervous. Well, you know why they chose you to do this assignment though? Because it'll make him look good? No, this makes me nervous. Well, you know why they chose you to do this assignment though? Because it'll make him look good? No, because I'm awful.

I am the worst golfer you will ever meet. As I like to tell everybody, Elliot, when I golf, the best two balls I hit is when I step on a rake. No joke. We'll also talk to Pete DeBoer, head coach of the Dallas Stars. Very much looking forward to that.

And Jim Nill, the general manager. Looking forward. You're doing that piece on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to talking to Jim. I mean, where do you begin with Jim Nill when you consider as a player, as a manager and through like the Detroit Red Wings organization, running this Dallas Stars team, you know, it's funny too about this organization.

It's kind of gone through a couple of different lives in the last couple of years. Like there was that time where we weren't sure what was going to happen with the Dallas Stars. We weren't sure where the owner was at with the Dallas Stars. We weren't sure who was still going to be here, what this team was going to look like, who was going to be traded, who was staying. Now, all of a sudden, and I'll talk to Nill about this, we look at the Dallas Stars and you can almost count

the number of windows they have to make runs. Yeah. And again, I'll ask Nill about this as well. The interesting thing about the Dallas Stars at deadline, like I think they were in on a lot of the biggies, but they didn't, obviously they didn't close because I think that Nell probably thought the prices were too high and they

still have windows. Like unlike the Boston Bruins who have the questions about Bergeron and Krejci, et cetera, they may look at that and say he really got to go for it. The Dallas Stars weren't in that position and they still find themselves top team in the central and they're looking at

more young players. We talk about Bork a lot and we talk about Stankoven joining this organization. They've got multiple windows here to do this. They signed a kid on the weekend too that you would know a lot better than me, but a couple of teams said that they really liked that pickup and that's Chase Wheatatcroft 101 points.

Only one guy has more points than him in the Western hockey league. I think his name is Bedard. I'm not really that familiar with him. Sold out Saskatoon 15,000 on Sunday. First of all, I'm happy to see a kid who's 20 years old, not drafted sign with an NHL team.

I really liked that, but you know, someone just said it's a nice gamble by Dallas. I still remember Jim Nill scoring an overtime winner the first time the Vancouver Canucks went to the Stanley Cup final in the early eighties. He scored an overtime winner in the Western Conference final against Chicago. I still remember the highlights of, of that goal.

He was a fun player. And you know what, when, um, when I, when I think of Jim Nill, of that goal. He was a fun player. And you know what, when, when I, when I think of Jim Nill, I do think of the Vancouver Canuck Jim Nill. And I think of the Detroit Jim Nill as an assistant general manager. And I think of that GM factory that was the Detroit Red Wings, whether it's Ken Holland or Steve Eisenman or, or, or Jim Nill. You know who I wonder about in Dallas? And I had him on the radio show last week and it's tough. It's almost impossible not to be impressed by this person when you talk to him. And when you start to look at what he's doing and how he's doing it, you say to yourself,

this guy's going to be a general manager one day. And that's Rich Beverly with the Dallas Stars. Like I know he doesn't get a ton of headlines right now, but somewhere down the road, cause he's doing this slowly and correctly and taking the stairs, et cetera. Rich Beverly is going to be in these conversations for general manager.

You know, it's, it's interesting you mentioned that I'm, I'm with you on Beverly. This is something I like to tell a lot of people and some people are saying like, you know, I like to get my name out there. Like this isn't just in hockey. This is kind of everywhere. If you're a young person in business or you're

an up and comer in business or a different field, whatever, whatever you're about, people always say, I got to get my name out there. And it never hurts, I don't think. But the one, the one thing I always tell people is the right people are always watching. I think that when it comes to the next generation of leaders or the next generation of people who are going to be successful at things, the really smart people who are running things or have an eye to running things know who those individuals are. Like they know who's out there

or they'll make a call and find out who's out there and somebody really smart will give them their name. I'm a big believer in that, that the right people are always watching and they always know who's on the cusp of doing something big. Let me ask you about Dallas while we're on this topic here.

We got a lot we got to get to on today's podcast, but just a general thought. I mean, they finish up the road trip against the Calgary Flames. We're going to go to the game Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken. Well, you are. Oh, that's right.

You're going to be in, you're going to be in Vancouver. I forgot about that. That's right. Plug it. So it's kind of a weird travel week. After I embarrassed myself golfing with Joe Pavelski on Monday, I'm flying to Vancouver and I'm coming back to Dallas on Wednesday,

but it's the annual Canucks for Kids Fun Telethon. I think this is the third time I've done it. I want to say the third time. For the Canucks and their fan base, extremely generous. The first time, I think we did half a million dollars raising. Last time, I think it was around 700,000. I don't remember the exact number. So I remember the first time I was like,

I have to beat Scott Oak, and we did. And the second time, well, we have to beat the first time, and we did. And that was a big number. I think it was thanks to the generosity of all the fans. I think it was the second highest number they ever raised.

So, you know, we, we set a big bar and you know me, I don't like to go backwards, but the other thing I'd like to say about this is that, um, it's been an interesting year between me and the Canucks, uh, to say the least. And, uh, I didn't know if they'd want me back this year. And, you know, it's their event, and they should have people there

who they're comfortable with. But it's something I really want to do because I have met people who have really benefited greatly from the Canucks for Kids Fund. And I want, this is something I want to do. So Sat Shah is co-hosting it. Randeep who co-hosted it with me last time.

He's got game duties. So Sat, nobody wants to talk to Sat during the game. So he's available. I'm thankful that they would want to have me there because it hasn't been easy with me in the Canucks at times this year. Yes.

I don't know what to say about that here on the podcast we're just going to let the gravity of that sink in and move on and go back to the Dallas Stars just a general thought, they wrap up the road trip, big win against the Calgary Flames, really exciting game, goes to overtime and Jason Robertson is the hero 41 goals, Jason Robertson, here we go again and as we said at the beginning of the season, it was a couple of weeks in and we were already saying, wow, that contract's a bargain. Your thoughts of where the stars are at right

now. I mean, in that division, Colorado is really starting to make noise and we're going to get to the, uh, the Western conference race here in a second, but just a general thought on, uh, on Dallas. As you know, one of my rules, I don't like to pick teams to repeat.

Uh, I think it's too hard. Uh, that doesn't mean I don't think it can be done. I wasn't surprised Tampa did it and I won't like to pick teams to repeat. I think it's too hard. That doesn't mean I don't think it can be done. I wasn't surprised Tampa did it, and I won't be surprised if Colorado does it, depending on what happens with Landiscaug here. But the reason I like Dallas, I think they can play you anyway. Like, I didn't think they were always like that the last couple years.

Like, if you remember last year's first-round series with Calgary, and Calgary was a really high-scoring team, Jeff. That was the Ottinger show, man. That was Jake Ottinger. That was the only way they could play. They had to grind and play low-scoring games. Now I think Dallas is like, okay, you want to play us a physical game? We'll play you a physical game, but you want to score with us?

We can score with you, and the infusion of just the youth. I know you've got your man crush on Wyatt Johnston, who you're going to talk to on Wednesday. 20 goals, baby. Wyatt Johnston wins your Spitfires. Here we go.

Scoring as we tape this on Sunday night goals. I just have to say that I think now they're a team that can play you a lot of different ways. I don't think they were always like that. I think they, even the year they went to the cup, I always saw them as three yards in a cloud of dust. Now I think they. And Anton Hudobin. And Anton Hudobin. Three yards in a cloud of dust. Now I think they-

And Anton Hudobin. And Anton Hudobin. Three yards of cloud of dust in Hudobin. Now I think they can beat you with the play action. They can beat you with the spread offense. And if they need to establish the run, they can do that. So let me get ahead of myself here because the playoffs haven't even begun. I'm trying to put players on the Dallas Stars next season.

I think the one thing that Dallas might want is the same thing that everybody else was chasing a deadline this year, and that's players that are nasty to play against. And what I really wonder about is if he gets to free agency, and who knows? The Bruins can turn around and sign him tomorrow. I wonder if they make a big push to try to bring in Tyler Bertuzzi. Well, I think that was a guy they really wanted at the deadline.

I think, I think we both talked about him. Yep. You know, what's interesting to me is the team that got him, the Bruins, they're going to have a pretty low first rounder. So what that said to me is Dallas really wasn't too interested in giving up a first rounder.

Well, that goes back to my original point at the start of the podcast. I don't think that Jim Nill wanted to come anywhere close to overpaying because they have numerous windows here to do this. Yeah. This wasn't a do or die situation for the Dallas Stars.

And if they can bring in someone like Tyler Bertuzzi in the off season, I think that might be like, when you look at the stars, like what are the areas they need to address right now? Like that seems to be one of, if not maybe the most obvious and one of the only holes that this team really needs to fill.

Anyway, should be a good few days here in Dallas. We are happy to be here and very much looking forward to the, the Dallas Seattle game on Tuesday. Now, a couple of other things here, the Ottawa sale and the numbers that game on Tuesday. Now, a couple of other things here, the Ottawa sale and the numbers that are getting staggering.

You mentioned on Saturday, a number that started with a nine. Do you want to give us context for that one? Sure. So on my flight this morning, my direct flight to Dallas. How dare you? There was a gentleman named Scott who came up

to me and he's in the financial sector. And he said he and his wife were, were watching Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night. Thank you very much, Scott and Mrs. Scott. And he was really interested in what I was saying with Ottawa. And he had a great line, Jeff, that I would like to share on this podcast that I think a lot of people are going to like. Okay's hear it he goes what is the difference between heaven and hell in business i'm curious what is it heaven is when you have a deal hell is when you try to close the deal and he said that that came to his mind while he watched our segment and you know he said that if you've been mind while he watched our segment.

And, you know, he said that if you've been watching what's been going on with the banks and in California and now credit Swiss, you know, he thinks that this is not only a thing for the NHL, like, you know, the Washington commanders are for sale. We're taught Michael Jordan is talking about selling his majority interest in the, in the Charlotte Hornets. He thinks this is going to be a real challenging time for a lot of people. So, you know, he said to me, he heard the number I mentioned, which, as I said, it's rumored the high bid, which is non-binding for the Senators, is rumored to be $9.25. is rumored to be 925. And he said he wasn't disputing me,

but as somebody in the business, he thinks a lot of these sales could have some rough rides just in terms of getting from the bid process to closing them. You know, we credited Bruce Garriock and Sportico last week. You know, Garriock's reported a lot of interest.

Sportico reported nine bids. And they also reported multiple over 900. Now, I'm not saying they're wrong. I don't do that. I don't like casting doubt on other people's reporting because God knows I've been wrong before and could be this time. But I was only able to confirm one from what I could tell over 900. And I believe it's about 925. Now, I think there's some other groups that are in the mid eights, and I think there were

some that came even lower, but I don't know all of them. But the one thing that this 925 number did, Jeff, and again, I stress again, everything was non-binding to this point, but I really do believe that what it allowed the NHL to do and the sellers and the Melnick family to do was say that we're going to be in this zone and you better be prepared to show us how you're going to get there. And so that I do believe is very much going on. So a couple of things to, uh, to your friend's analogy about heaven and hell,

you know how much of a Rod Serling fan I am. Yes. My wife is a huge Rod Serling fan. She has good taste in everything other than men. He used to have, I'm going to butcher this quote, but it's something along the lines of he, Rod Serling is one of the,

one of the, the greatest, you know, right. Well, one of the great TV writers and movies. Apropos of nothing, you go back and look at that stuff and Twilight

Zone and see how much of it was bang on. A hundred percent. And you know what else was planet of the apes. Check out the writing credits there, Mr. Rod Sterling Esquire. Um, he used to talk about the easiest thing to do

is have the idea. The hardest thing to do was get it down. Yes. So as your friend is talking to you about, you know, the easy thing is, you know, how, so heaven is have the idea. The hardest thing to do is get it down. Yes. So as your friend is talking about, you know, the easy thing is, you know, so heaven is having the deal and hell is closing it. What I'm curious about is, and we've talked about this a little bit on the last podcast or

the podcast before, who knows, they all run together at this point. I'm curious about the lower bids. Can we talk about the high bid for a second? Sure. Okay. I want to get to where you're going, but I think we should start with the high bid. Okay. Remind me to get back to low bids then as you're freestyling on the high bid for a second? Sure. Okay. I want to get to where you're going, but I think we should start with the high bid.

Okay. Remind me to get back to low bids then as you're freestyling on the high bid. I will. I have a suspicion. I do not know if this is true, but again, you know, like the Bettman took pains to point out last week at the, at the GM meetings that not

all the speculation has been accurate. And, you know, I just want to say that people are really trying to be careful with this stuff. So it's hard to, it's hard to say what's a hundred percent true and what isn't, but there is a suspicion that the high bid so far is from Nico Sparks.

He is a very interesting individual. He runs a tech firm, Pixel Lime. And the only real question I've heard about the group he's put together, it's a big group. And I think one of the questions that some of the other potential owners of the senators have here is, is the NHL going to want this kind of ownership structure? Because in the past, leagues prefer one big owner and then you can have smaller partners if you want.

Someone said to me, if this group becomes a big factor, it's going to be interesting to see who's in it. Because obviously the star name right now is Ryan Reynolds, who's in the Remington group. Yeah. And people are curious because of his connections, Nico Sparks, who he could have in that too. But, you know, I think he's very interested in putting together a group here that has a

lot of, you know, multicultural voices. And there are some people who suspect that if anybody came out big, it's this group. And I think what everybody's trying to find out now is what their financing plan is and, you know, exactly how is this group structured? Because now once you're serious or you show what you're in, everybody tries to pick everybody else apart, right? And now the cage match begins. The bell has rung and the battle royal has started. Yes.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they're the group that came out hot and said, we're serious here. Like we want everyone to know here that we're serious. So my, my question then is about the lower bid or the lower bids. Right. The psychology of it would be interesting if you feel, and again, I'm throwing darts here, but if you come in at a lower number than what we believe or you believe the Sparks bid could be at, is that an indication that that group feels they have all the other boxes checked? We talked about this before. There isn't an obligation just to take the highest number.

There's other things around it that could offset however many millions of dollars. Well, sure, you know what? 900 is 900, but we're going with 825 because of that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. Do you think that that's an indication that the lower bids check more of the boxes that the NHL and the family would want?

I don't know if I would go with that, Jeff. I think it's more like, don't bid against yourself, right? Like when you're going in to buy a house, do you go in there and do you bid a ridiculous number right away? Or do you try to see what the market is? It's like when I negotiate a contract, are you one of those people that throws out a number? Or are you one of those people that says, I want to hear what you think my value is? I never want to throw the you think my value is?

I never want to throw the first number. Well, that's the thing. So I've always learned that if you throw the first number, you better throw out a massive first number. And on the other hand, when you're buying something, if you're there to throw out the first number, you probably want to go a little low and then see where it takes you. You see, I think that's kind of happened. I think, as I also wrote last week, I think a lot of people see opportunity in Ottawa. I really do. It's very clear. Not just with the team though.

Well, it's very clear that this Remington Reynolds group, like they see, Reynolds sees the opportunity to do with the Sanders what he's done at Wrexham. The NHL sees that too, and the fans see that too. But Remington, the Braddies, they have development in mind. Put it this way. I don't think they were the highest bidder,

but I don't think they're far off. I think they're around there. So I just think what it comes down to is you don't show all your cards at the beginning, but I think what we have now, as I said, Saturday night is the NHL saying, okay, our initial numbers are telling us we hope to get to 900 because that's the current record.

Yeah. And I think they're pretty comfortable that they're going to get there. We'll see. If this thing sells for $900 million, what's expansion fees going to be now? Say it. I don't know. Say it, say it elliot you could always last one was 650 yeah you know don't report this as fact but you know you know the billion number is going to come up we're just shooting the breeze uh sunday evening in a hotel room in

dallas i just like i said it was interesting that this gentleman, Scott, came up to me and said, I wonder if they're going to get that. I understand the skepticism. I do. I think after opening rounds of bidding, they know they can do it. Before I cut myself off, I just think the one concern I've heard from some of the bidders is how big is the market to make that much money? The other thing I wanted to mention is just over the groups that I think we kind of know about.

So Nico Sparks, Mike Anlauer, who's a minority owner of the Montreal Canadiens, the Kimmel family, he used to have a minority share of the Sprint Penguins and were bought out when Fenway bought them. The Remington group, that's Braddy and Ryan Reynolds. Rocco Tullio, that's Braddy and Ryan Reynolds. Rocco Tullio, who's, we should mention his son,

Ty, is having a really good year. A great year. He's a really nice player. With the Bakersfield Condors. He's an Oilers draft pick. Rocco owns the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. Jeff York. Oh yeah.

Jason York's brother, who owns Farm Boy. You know, there was a report last week, I don't know much about it, but Graham Roosten and a First Nations group. And, you know, I don't know where all these people are in the opening bids, but these are some of the names that we've kind of heard so far.

And I have no doubt there's partnerships out there and other names have kicked the tires that we don't know, but we'll see where we are. Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, including with Prime. You know what I want to get your thoughts on? You know what I want to get your thoughts on? Because I never really talked about it on the air, but the video that I showed on Saturday of the Jonathan Kovacevic fight with Alec Martinez

after the Paul Cotter hit. Picked off by Martinez, redirects it to Cotter, and look out, he got wiped out and a big hit from Kovacevic. Now Martinez coming in on him. Well, Kovacevic is a big boy, and he dropped his limits right away. I don't know if Martinez was going over to fight him. But that was a heavy, hard hit on Cotter as Martinez, the veteran, steps in.

Not really part of his game, but certainly showing his teammates he's there for him. And the reason we played that was, that was one of the videos that the managers watched. And I don't know how divided it was, but it wasn't unanimous who the instigator was on that play. And there's very much a conversation about, you know, being aware of who's instigating fights. You talked about this,

being aware of who's instigating fights and how they're doing it. After clean body checks, there was conversations about that. It sounds like the upswing of it was they just want the officials just to be aware of, you know, where the right call should be, et cetera, and just sort of have it in your purview. And listen, we saw one on Sunday afternoon with Matt Dumba catching Evgeny Kuznetsov and came TJ Oshie. Do you have a thought on that play specifically? Because the room was kind of split. Some managers thought that Kovacevic should have had the instigator because he dropped

the gloves first, even though he's the one that delivered the hits to Paul Cotter. Others said, no, it's Martinez who, even though he's skating up the ice with the play, confronts Kovacevic. I was glad you found that because when Colin Campbell met with the media, he brought up that point. He said, if a guy throws the big hit and he knows he might have to fight for it, but he drops his gloves first, isn't he the instigator? but he drops his gloves first. Isn't he the instigator? So I think he was making that point specifically to tell people not to drop their gloves. So I was glad you found that fight because it was clear he was talking about somebody in particular, and obviously Kovacevic was that guy.

To me, I think if you drop your gloves, but somebody's coming right at you, you're not the instigator. I understand why an official might think that, but if somebody's coming at you, you're not the instigator. I understand why an official might think that, but if somebody's coming at you and you know you've just delivered a big hit, you're just doing that so you don't get jumped first. I think the call was right on that one, offsetting majors. Okay, but what I think is more interesting is that we always talk about is discussion at the GM meetings going to have an effect on the game.

This one has had a game, had an effect immediately. And I think what they talked about in those calls, Jeff, and we're going to talk a lot about fighting on this podcast. What's happened since the GM meetings is they talked about making sure the right team gets a power play.

That was a big conversation. If there's a big hit and a fight comes out of it, it shouldn't be an even up. If a guy has to fight because of a clean hit, his team should benefit and get a power play or the instigator should come. Look what's happened. Last Monday night, Juleson throws a big hit for the Canucks.

He has to fight Foxa. Redick Foxa, yeah. Foxa got an extra two. As you mentioned, on Sunday, Dumba threw a big hit on Kuznetsov. We'll talk about that hit. Oshie got an instigator. On Saturday, Cal Foote got an instigator after

Brendan Dillon threw a clean hit. So immediately, immediately, this is an impactful change. And I like it. I have nothing against fighting, but I don't think you should be fighting after a clean hit. What did you make of the Dumba hit? I thought it was clean. To me, it looked shoulder on shoulder.

And now Kuznetsov has no idea Dumba's coming. One of the things I did, and I give credit to Tom Galitti, who writes for NHL.com. He tweeted out that he likes to watch games on both feeds, and he said it was diametrically different. For a hit like that, Elliot, you know that the Minnesota feed will be profoundly different than the Washington feed. Yeah, so Minnesota was clean hit. Washington was blindside hit.

And the other thing that happened was NHL Network was calling it with Jamie Hirschen and Kevin Weeks, and Weeks said it was aside hit. And the other thing that happened was NHL Network was calling it with Jamie Hirschen and Kevin Weeks. And Weeks said it was a clean hit. So, and I thought it was a clean hit. Now, depending on the angle you look at, I think there is some head contact, but it's principal point, right? And to me, the principal point is shoulder to shoulder. I think it's a clean hit.

Now, the thing that people make a mistake about, and I have been guilty about this mistake before, is they use the phrase blindside. The Washington broadcast said that's a blindside hit. The problem is blindside's not in the rule book. It was there for about six months. I think it was 2010, 11. Yep.

After one of those big hits, I think it was the one on Mark Savard. So it was there for about six months and then they changed it and it became principal point of contact being the head. So I agree with you. Kuznetsov has the puck. He's got no idea Dumba's there.

He is to be hit because he has the puck. He's allowed to be hit because he has the puck he's allowed to be hit because he has the puck eligible i believe is the term eligible thank you thank you that's why i didn't finish my english degree he's eligible to be hit he's got the puck but he's got no idea dumb is there and blindside's not in the rule book so the idea that it was a blindside hit, that doesn't exist. The key question is, does he get them principal point of contact ahead? And I don't think he does. Do you disagree? No, I don't disagree at all. The one thing that I want to add in all of this, because we always talk about who bears responsibility. And I know this isn't a very popular topic at all and i remember getting into it with one agent specifically uh over this the one person that we always ignore in these situations

is the person throwing the pass we never talk about suicide passes anymore but we should always talk about you know the only thing worse than a suicide pass is a slow suicide pass yeah and if you've ever been standing there waiting for a slow suicide pass, you know, oh, man, it's coming. And there's nothing I can do about it. The puck. The puck. And it's like, well, this, can you please just zip the pass? The one thing that I just want to, I don't really necessarily have a point about this hit on it.

on it but the one thing i don't think we keep in mind enough as far as gameplay leading to hits is the pass that leads into the player who doesn't see the other player coming and i think there is a responsibility there like i'm sure whoever threw that pass because that's off goes to him after and says i can't throw that pass you look up the whole ice you're seeing dumba drop down and curl and i know everything happens so fast in hockey and i always got to catch myself it happens so fast jeff it happens so fast but i'm sure that if that player had a mulligan he's not throwing that pass because that's off in that situation all i'm saying is there's just more to it than just the player who gets hit and the player that delivers the hit itself's just more to it than just the player who gets hit and the player that delivers the hit itself. I just want to have that out there more than anything else

for each. I don't disagree. I would say this. I think that hit happens less and less. I think more and more players don't throw that hit anymore. You know why? No. Why? What's your theory? My theory is players don't want to make that hit because even if they make the hit the puck is still going up the ice and they've taken themselves out of the play we used to see that all the time when once upon a time like asking any of the guys that played in like the 80s and 90s if you were a winger what's your only responsibility on the back check oh make sure the defenseman doesn't get in front of me now it's you're sprinting it doesn't matter if you're a left wing right wing or center you're first you're on the puck carrier like the game has changed so much now if you look for that

big hit and throw the big hit even if even if you make the hit the puck's still going up the ice and guess what you're not in the play anymore like we don't, that's why I don't think like we talk about how there's, there's more respect in the game now and guys don't chase each other around the ice. And I think that's true. I think it's true. And I think the game is safer, but I think the game is safer now because as the game is played, if you look for big hits, you're taking yourself out of the play and Matt Dunn was a defenseman and that leads to an odd man rush.

You can't do that anymore because of how fast the game is and how you take yourself out of the play. And Matt Dunn was a defenseman and that leads to an odd man rush. You can't do that anymore because of how fast the game is and how you take yourself out of the play. I don't disagree. I think that's part of the equation, but I just think there's been so much emphasis more now on head injuries. And I remember when my son had his first concussion, he fell off his bike and he suffered a concussion. Yeah.

And the first thing the doctor said to us was, you know, I want you to know a concussion is not a death sentence. I was actually surprised by how blunt she was in telling me that. She said that, you know, people get so scared by the word of concussion, and some of it for very good reason, but she said,

you have to understand that. But I think now we've heard so much about it, I do think there is more respect on these hits. But Jeff, what's coming? The playoffs. I know. And I think everything ramps up at this time of year. This is when the players start to change from,

okay, we can coast a bit to there's no games off anymore. You talk about tapering, like a swimmer tapers. Like a team like Minnesota, they're tapering for the playoffs now. Can I throw one more theory at you? Sure. On why the game is safer now than it has been before? Because there are so many second generation players. And there are a lot of people in power around,

not just the NHL, but in a lot of leagues. And when you're a parent and have a son or daughter who plays hockey, your natural instinct is, I want to make this as safe an environment. If my kid ever gets there, I just think it's natural. I think it's one of the byproducts of so many second and third generation kids playing hockey now than ever before.

Getting back to fighting. Okay. Talked about this on Saturday, the Quebec major junior hockey. This is your story. So why don't you lead the convo? Well, I mean,

uh, Mero Chikini is a new, um, commissioner of the lead the convo? Well, I mean, Mero Cicchini is the new commissioner of the QMJHL, and last week announced that starting next season, they will ban fighting in the Q. Right now, it's a five and a 10. It's not banned as much

as the penalties are stiffer, right? Well, we don't know because we haven't seen the details. Ah, fair enough. Right? So there isn't a plan how they're going to do this. Is it automatic, you know,

expulsion from the game plus suspension? Is it automatic five game suspension? Is it automatic 25 games? Like I, no one knows the details about this one. I exchanged messages with Dan McKenzie, who's the president of the CHL, uh,

about it. And he's expecting to hear from the Quebec league in a, in a few weeks on this one, but this goes back to COVID yep so during covid there were a lot of quebec-based junior teams that needed and received financial assistance from the quebec government but the horse trading on this one was we'll give you the money to help keep you afloat because franchises would have folded like as i'm told during covid there were Because franchises would have folded. As I'm told, during COVID, there were some franchises that were really close to shutting down and the provincial government

saved them with this financial assistance. But what the politicians wanted was not just curbing, but ending fighting in the league. Like, we're going to help you out financially, but here's what we want in exchange for that. We want this league essentially to be the non-fighting league. What I wondered about is, does this translate then to the OHL and the Western Hockey League? And I asked both commissioners. Ron Robison of the Western League said,

no, no plans to change for next season. Dave Branch of the OHl took a more measured approach and said if they go through with this it'll be curious to see what the effects are in this league and what can translate as i'm paraphrasing branch here what branch see branch to me seem curious see the thing is like you know the junior world much better than I do. To me, that's it could happen. In the OHL, I agree with you on that. Yes. I agree with that. Looking at it

from 10 feet away from you, that says to me it could happen in Ontario next year. I don't think next year. Here's what Dave Branch said. Here's the actual quote that he gave me. We haven't seen what the new rule that is being contemplated will look like. As you know, fighting in all three leagues of the CHL has just decreased dramatically over

the last several years. And if nothing else, if the Quebec League in fact introduces the new fighting rules being promoted by the Quebec government, there it is, we were talking about before the trade-off, it will give us an opportunity to see the effect on the game in general. That to me says, I want to see what this thing looks like. Now, Dave Branch has a lot of legacy positions. I mean, Dave's done a lot for the OHL. And one of the things, and he got the support of a lot of owners on this one as well, is he was the first of all the commissioners

to put a cap on fighting, which at the time was considered heresy by a lot of people around hockey. What's the OHL doing? What's this going to mean for the talent in the OHL? It's going to be talent training. They're going to go elsewhere. But quite the opposite has happened.

I wonder if this is the OHL saying, we're curious. We want to have a look at what happens in the queue if they do this before we do this ourselves. What do you think? You have two sons who could be good enough to play. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, but they're talented players. I think this is a good thing.

And I've totally changed my tune on this one about fighting. Because you're a parent now? I think that's a big part of it. I really do. Now I have skin in the game. I was just talking about second generation players and I'm looking at myself and a parent's natural instinct

is to try to make sure the environment their kids grow up in and around is maybe for lack of a better term, nerfed a little bit. You want to make it safe as as you can i don't like it nhl fighting is one thing professional hockey is one thing the older i get ellie here i go turn the old the older i get the less time i really have for it you see my opinion is uh similar now i also think they're going to go to cages one day too and that'll just that'll get

rid of it altogether. Yes. My opinion is similar. I'm not anti-fighting. I have no problem with two willing participants at the pro level. I'm not crazy about stage fighting, but that's pretty much gone now. I think now when we have fights, even though we both talk that we don't necessarily like fighting after a clean hit, I think fights happen pretty organically now in the NHL. There's very few stage fights anymore, and that's the way I like it. I remember when Colin Campbell came on Hockey Night in Canada almost 20 years ago and said,

maybe it's time to get fighting out of the game. And he took a lot of heat for that. But I remember someone said to me after that, people are going to look back at him and say he was ahead of his time. And I think a lot of people do. And I think the other thing is, is that someone said to me, it's going to look back at him and say he was ahead of his time, and I think a lot of people do. And I think the other thing is that someone said to me, it's going to happen the other way. The way funding is going to be cut down is we're going to take it out of the kids' levels first, and then it'll get to a point where it's not really in the NHL anymore.

Same thing that they've done with the helmet rules, same thing with the visor rule, and we'll see about the cut resistance stuff now. Same thing with the visor rule. And we'll see about the cut resistance stuff now. But to be honest, like part of me says I'm a bit goofy about this stuff. I think once you're allowed to, you're an adult, whether you can vote, whether you can drive a car without restriction. Part of me says you should probably be allowed to fight. But if you're going to tell me you're not going to have fighting at the junior level, I'm not going to argue with that.

I don't like 16 year olds fighting against 20 year olds and stuff. That was the point I was going to make. There is a major age disparity in junior hockey here. And I've seen it all too many times. I mean, listen, our colleague Nick Kiprios, you know, his, I think it was one of his, his first games in the OHL ended up fighting Steve Thomas, who I think might've been an overager at that point. And I think

Nick was probably 16. Like there's the, the, the point that you're, you're raising. I don't like that. And that happens. So I shouldn't say it happens a lot now because fighting is down to branches point in all three leagues, but that was kind of a regular occurrence. The reason I stopped playing hockey,

there were two reasons. One was financial. We were going through a really difficult time and, you know, we just, my parents just said, you know, we can't afford to do it anymore, which was unfortunate, but just realistic of the time in our family. And secondly, I was a bit soft and it was a time

where hitting got introduced and I was a smaller kid and I couldn't protect myself. That's one of the things I've said that over the years is that I wish I'd been taught to protect myself better. And I think now one of the problems is, and I think we saw it with Slavkovsky this year. And by the way, I love the pictures of him last week, going back and getting his high school diploma. It's really good. I thought that was really neat. It's awesome. I thought that was, whoever posted that picture from the Slovakia,

I thought that was great. But this is a kid this year who was unprepared to kind of protect himself in the NHL. And so it's not only a North America thing, it's around the world thing. I think we have to do a better job of teaching these kids to protect themselves when they get into the NHL. Because this is only going to, whether you like fighting or not,

this is only going to exacerbate it further. People are going to be more unprotected when they get to the NHL. Jeff's got this gleam in his eye. He's thinking of starting a class where he takes people in the octagon. I just. One day, and that day is not today, but one day, and this might be five years from now if we're still doing this podcast, you know,

we're going to have the conversation about. What's that? The end of board hitting. Now, technically the boards can't be used as a weapon, but hits around the boards happen all the time. But again, I think that's come a long way i think it has two but i think that the net one of the next conversations we're going to actually have about

physicality in the game like i think one day we're going to look back i honestly believe this elliot it sounds weird now because we all just grew up with the game and yeah you get hit in the boards and that just happens i think you know a hundred from now, we're going to look back on hockey as it's played now and say, you used to hit each other into the wall? You would skate 30 miles an hour and slam each other into the wall? What was wrong with you? Well, there's a lot wrong with me. No, but I'm saying like, eventually I think the conversation,

and again, it's not going to be today or next week or next month or next year probably, but I think somewhere down the road the conversation about board hitting is going to come up i don't know i i think when the games really mean something these guys ramp it up that's why the playoffs are the best games in the of the year we're close we're close we're getting there before we get there i want to rewind to saturday as well and jonathan drew in with the Montreal Canadiens. Martin Saint-Louis hinted he was going to send a message. He sent a message to Jonathan Drouin.

Yeah, you know, like you never know when you're going to get, you know, challenged. I don't mean like challenged, physically challenged, but like you never know when you, never know when something's going to happen that you don't have real control over it, why it happens. And then in that time, especially as a leader, you have to have a response. And people are probably really watching your response. And you have to be calculated and firm, but also fair. And I think tonight was a fair thing. And Joe handled it tremendously well.

Like I said in French, me and Joe have a great relationship. You know, I got to know him a lot this year. I think he's had a great season for us. I love the kid. And, you know, for him to handle it the way he did, you know, I gain even more respect for him. So, you know, I think we've got to turn

the page on that. Monday, Joe will be back and we're going to move forward. First of all, I would like to say that I was slandered on the air by Kelly Rudy, who told a partially true, while Kevin was telling all of his great. He deserved all of it. While telling all of his great David Booth

stories about David Booth missing meetings because he was in a tree somewhere in Ohio. Kelly Rudy told a story about us at the 2006 Olympics in Italy, where he chewed me out in a hotel lobby in front of other people for being late. Now that part of the story is true. And I wasn't just late.

I was egregiously late and he tore into me in front of everybody. And he said, that shows that you have no respect for other people's time, that you think your time is more important. And I actually don't think like that. I'm just late, but I took it because I deserved it. And he said on the air that he apologized to me and I've never been late again. Okay.

Well, we all know. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We all know. Ammo, ammo, ammo. Did you record that? You got that? Okay. That might be my new ringtone.

I was going to say, I absolutely have been late many times since then. But I want to say something about Kelly's apology. He did apologize to me because he felt that it was too public. And I said, you have nothing to apologize for. I was the one that was late. If I didn't like that, I could have fixed it by being on time. So I don't think that Kelly should have had to apologize to me. So basically, Drew Ant talked after the game on Saturday night,

and he said he overslept. He didn't hear his alarm. He overslept. He was late to a meeting by two minutes, and he was benched. You know, Kevin Bieksa wondered the same thing on air that I did. Yeah. It couldn't be the first time. Like, does anybody get benched for being late to a meeting by two minutes for the first time?

But Drew has said to the reporters after the game, it's the first time he's ever been late. Okay. You know, the really nice thing about that was he wasn't supposed to play and then Gouley got hurt. And I, I guess the NHL probably said, you can't not dress 18. You know, you don't have injuries. You have a healthy player. It fits under the salary cap. You have to dress him.

So Drew had dressed and he didn't play. Look, like I have no problem with that punishment if it's consistent. You know, if everybody is like that, I don't have any problem with if everybody is like that, I don't have any problem with it. Like I said, I'm a guy who's late all the time and I know I run the risk of getting

embarrassed in an Italian hotel lobby in front of all of my coworkers like I did in 2006. I don't have a problem with that. You know, the rules going in and if you violate them, then it's your fault. Okay. So here's what I wonder about.

Marty St. Louis is creating an expectation and a culture there and accountability. And we saw that on Saturday with Jonathan Drouin. I'm going to ask Kevin and Kelly this next week when I go into hockey night, if they've ever been part of a situation where, cause you just mentioned the playoffs a second ago,

if one of their teammates, like a big name player, someone like you can't put your starting goalie, for example, was late to a meeting and the precedent had been set that if you're late for a meeting, you don't play the next game with the players, go to the coach and say,

we really would like you to reconsider because we really want and need this player in this game i'm not asking for an answer from you don't expect you to you know all of a sudden get into the brain of martin saint louis i would just imagine those situations have come up because i understand like accountability for accountability for all standard for all of it you know how it goes well i'll tell you this i a player told me this story that he wouldn't tell me who the player was and i'll just i'm not going to say who the player was right now because he's told me if you ever tell the story you can't use my name. Okay. So he told me once that they were going into a game in a series where they were down and they could be eliminated and a player broke a

team rule and shouldn't have been playing and they were pissed off at the player. And, but they went to the coach and they said they had a player on their team who was a veteran who was really their last chance to win. And it was a very popular veteran. And he told me that.

Ray Moore. It fits. Dave Anderjuck. I like, I like when you play these games, but he said that they went to the coach and said, I know what we're going to ask is wrong, but if this guy sits out, this other guy doesn't get another chance.

And the coach said, give me a couple hours. What did he do? He said the guy played. I think that's the right decision. You know. Now I only whisper that because I only partially believe it. You know what?

We all have our things that matter to us, right? Yeah. And I think that's the biggest challenge in the world. Do you stand by your principles in moments like that? And I know there have been times I've bent. It depends what your principle is. Don't do that. That's one thing though.

But this is like talking about strategy versus tactics. Sometimes we look for tactical solutions to strategic problems and that's a mistake that we make all the time. No, this was a team role. I understand that. But within that, you can still like by bending

it, you can still do the right thing for that team without harm. All I'm saying is in conflict situations, hard and fast rules aren't always the right choice. I agree. All right, a few more things, Elliot, on the podcast here. I want to talk about races and the bottom and who's in and who's out.

When you look at the Western Conference right now, tough for the Flames on Saturday, that game against Dallas. We mentioned it earlier with the overtime goal by Robertson. Calgary, Winnipeg. And are we still including Nashville? Because my heart says yes, but I'm not sure my head's saying the same thing. I think you have to. To me, this Winnipeg story, it's been...

Kevin Shevelday off has one of the great quotes and I, and I love it. I, and I use it all the time in, in, in sports. He said in hockey, but I think it's all sports. There's only two moods winning in hell. And he's ridden that rollercoaster. Like if you watch that game against Nashville on Saturday afternoon, it's a good game. It was a really good game, but you could see the stress on Shevelday off faces.

He was watching that game. Did you see the smile on bonuses face afterwards? Yes. Holy. That's a stress relief. I can not remember the last time I saw Rick bonus smile like that. I remember. I can't remember which coach it was.

I was covering, but he won a big game and he's like, get out the wide angle lens. I'm getting ready to smile. That was that smile. But Shevelday off looks stressed. Like a week ago on our podcast, we talked about how they went for the jugular and they started Hellebuck back to back. The wild thing about the Jets is they can't stand prosperity.

Every time they open up a lead, they allow the teams to come back. Like that game on Saturday, they were in position. If, if Nashville wins that game and then Calgary wins that night, I mean, they're all right next to each other and Nashville has big games in hand and Winnipeg's down one, nothing and two, one, and they win.

And then Calgary loses that game, although they get a point. Now, you know, the tough thing is Nashville loses Yossi. Yeah. They get pumped by the Rangers. So it's really going to hurt their math. You know, the flames to me, every time they

get close, but that's the problem. The Jets can't stand prosperity and then Nashville and Calgary can't either because whenever they can get right there, they just can't do it. You know, the flames to me, they're down 3-1. They look like they're going to win that game. They lose in overtime.

You know, Kadri gets benched. It's a weird benching to me. And, you know, the one thing I'll say about Kadri is the best thing about him, and you remember his interview on the ice last year with Dave Amber after they won the cup, he's blunt. He's going to say what's on his mind. And I've heard that Cadre has been very vocal about what he sees going on in Calgary and why the team isn't firing on all cylinders. And I think he's been very blunt about just the communication between players and the coach there.

So I'm betting some of that frustration boiled over in that game on Saturday night. And so I'm curious to see where this is all going to go. It's amazing to me there. The Jets pull away and then everyone gets close again and none of those teams can tie them. It's like a tortoise race in some ways. It's good because it makes it interesting. Yeah, you just want someone to grab it. I'm just like, somebody grab it already. It's just, it's good because it makes it interesting. Yeah. You just want someone to grab it.

I'm just like somebody grab it already. It's right there. Well, and I have the same question about the Eastern conference at the bottom there. Are we looking at penguins or are we looking at Panthers? All of a sudden Paul Marisa squad is entering the chat.

Yeah, they're right there. You know, even though they don't have the math, I like the Islandersers i just think they're consistent they're finding their identity again and they have the best goalie sorokin is elite like i know we're all handing this thing to lenis allmark and he's been fantastic too but ilia sorokin has been tremendous yeah well the point that i've made this year about the islanders is they look like a really good playoff team the problem is i don't know if they can get there like don't they look to you to

be a team and what's happened with matthew barzell by the way we have a handle on any of this anyway that's just the way it is i look at the islanders and i say if they can get in the way that they're built because veteran teams tend to do well, as we all know, if they get in, I think the Islanders do really well. I just don't know if they can get in. I think the Islanders get in. Pittsburgh, Florida, Pittsburgh's minus three.

Dude. That's why I'm going Islanders because I'll take Sorokin, Varlamov over Jari DeSmith and Bobrovsky by a mile. Like who are you taking there? Like they're tied right now in Pittsburgh as a game up. Which goaltending do you, do you bet on?

Sorokin Varlamov all day. I think the other thing is too, is I never bet against Crosby, but that Pittsburgh team, they are holding on by a thread. I think Pittsburgh is always going to start out prepared. At the beginning of a game, you generally feel they're ready to play because of who they are and their identity. But I've seen a lot of games this year where when it goes wrong,

they can't stop it. That's been the biggest surprise with them this year. It's happened several times against the Islanders, happened the other night against the Rangers. When the boulder starts going downhill. What do we always talk about with Pittsburgh? They're the bicycle theory team.

As long as they're pedaling and moving, they're great. If they slow down even a bit, they fall off the bike. That's the story of the Penguins. We want to mention someone, someone real special, Kim Weiss of the NHL's Marilyn Black Bears, who became the first female head coach stepping in.

She's hired as an assistant coach, promoted to an associate coach, and had to step in because of illness on the weekend. Marilyn Black Bears, the NHL, beating the Johnstown Hawks, the first female head coach to register a win in that league. Congratulations, Kim. Yes. And you know,

I've heard very good things about her. Like people have told me before, that's a name. Yeah. Watch the name that you have to keep an eye on because it's like we say at the beginning of the podcast, the right people are always watching. That's a person they're watching.

Well, she ran that Washington Pride girls organization, like elite, elite, elite for, I think, like 10 or 12 years. So she's a coach and an organizer. That's, I mean, you have to be both. And she played at Trinity College and et cetera. One of those people that has like, you know, the resume where you look at and you're like, yeah, I'm jealous. Congratulations to Kelly. I'm jealous. Congratulations.

I'm jealous about most everyone. Fair. Okay. Elliot, to wrap up, I want to talk about the James Reimer situation from Saturday. We all know the details by now. If you listen to this podcast, we're not breaking news to you about James Reimer not wearing the pride jersey and the statement and the comments afterwards as well. I've thought a lot about this, as I'm sure you have going back to Saturday my first thought is we have to

stop being surprised by things like this this is why you know organizations like the alphabet sports collective main Pettinger and Brock McGillis are still really important in the game I don't think that we should think that everybody is all on the same page about being supportive and demonstrating their support. We're seeing quite the opposite from a number of players around the NHL. So my first thought is we need to stop being surprised by this because I don't think in anyone's workplace

or in any league, everybody at this point right now is all going to be on the exact same page about these types of events and being supportive of LGBTQ+. The other thing, like a lot of people, I was disappointed in Reimer. I was disappointed in the explanation, which he seemed to contradict himself during the statement. I'll tell you, some of the people that I'm most concerned about here are Reimer's family members and specifically kids, because I tend to personalize these things. And if I'm James Reimer and one of my kids is gay, I would hope that they would get a level of support that he hasn't afforded other people in this situation. And sometimes that can be the eye-opening moment it has been before we talked about parenting earlier in the podcast it's not the same thing but with fighting i don't think

it's the same thing but i think it's a very good comparison so that's that that's who i think about here as well you and i talked about this on saturday about the level of support that is out there that is really encouraging. But again, I'll reemphasize, this is why what Bane Pettinger, Brock McGillis are doing is still really important. And I really did like how the San Jose Sharks didn't pause to protect. They didn't do the sports thing. We're all going to cocoon around the player and we're going to be the the shields around them they just said that's your choice we're going on and their twitter feed was spectacular entire night was special for the for the san jose sharks and they didn't do i think

what a lot of other hockey teams have done and thought maybe thought about doing as well and that is just protecting that one member. They just said, this is us. This is what we believe. This is how we behave. If you don't want to be part of it, that's your choice, but we're going forward. I agree with that.

As I said, when it happened earlier this year in Philadelphia, my choice would be to wear the jersey. Now I recognize not everybody feels the same way, but I make my choices and my choice would be to wear it. I've said this many times and I would like to reiterate it. In my corner, my tiny corner of the hockey world, you are always welcome as long as you are not an idiot to other people. I don't care where you're from. I don't care what you believe. I don't care who you are or what your values are.

If you are good to other people and your goal, as I try to be with mine, is to be good to other people, then you're always welcome to me. And that's the way it's always going to be. If you try to treat people right, I'm going to be happy to see you. I felt strongly about two things. Number one, the fact that the Sharks, Reimer,

and everybody involved announced this early. I had a few members of the LGBTQ plus community who said that they felt deceived by what happened with the Rangers in the wild because they bought tickets. They went to go and see the jerseys and then they didn't know until warmup started that the jerseys weren't going to be worn. I agree.

That's not the right way to go about things. You have to be honest. You have to be upfront. I liked that the Sharks were any other way to me is deceptive. So everybody knew where everybody stood well before warmup began. I think that's very important. You have to be honest with your customers, especially in situations like this. But, you know, Jeff, I'm with you. 95% of the players in Philadelphia and San Jose wore those jerseys. And that's a win.

You know, in the world now, when do we get 95% of people to agree on anything? Serious topics, non-serious topics. That's a win. Now, I can't speak for any members of this community, nor would I try to. The one thing I would say is I have come face to face with hate in my life. I've seen it directly in front of my face in my life. And I've always tried to be positive. I'm not always a very positive guy, but I've always tried to be positive and look at things optimistically. And when I see that 95% of players wore the jersey on these two teams,

95% of players wore the jersey on these two teams. I think that that's a win. I think it's actually a very big win. It shows to me, you know, where we're going. You know, I understand that some people may not agree with me that it's not good enough. And I'm not going to argue with anyone. Everybody's entitled to feel how they want to feel, especially the members of that community. But like I said, I've come face to face with unbelievable prejudice before.

And if you told me that this would be the result of these two particular situations, if it was affecting me directly, I would take it. 95% is a win. I just hope we keep moving in this direction. That's all. And that was my point off the top. We can't be surprised that it's not 100% on every single team, but the fact that on these teams, there's generally only one player is not something that when you and I started in this industry, we could even contemplate.

Taking us out is a four-piece rock band from Florence, Mississippi, The Weeks, formed in 2006. And since then, they've put out seven studio albums from their 2017 record, Easy. Here's The Weeks with Bottle Rocket on 32 Thoughts. The Bottle Rocket on 32 Thoughts to Bottle. Well, he lived his life like a bottle rocket, show fuse and all Well, once he's lit, you just can't stop it, that ain't his fault Well, he lived his life like a bottle rocket, destined to fall back down to earth with some big plan Or a blow up in your hand, or a fizzle load, he'd never leave the ground

He's gone, and he's gone Yeah, bottle rocket's lit, I'm ground He's here, and he's gone That bottle rock is slid away too He's here, and he's gone That rolling thunder keeps on shakin' He's here, and he's gone That levee was built for breakin' He's here, and he's gone That bottle rock is slid away too

He's here, and he's gone That rolling thunder keeps on shakin' Outro Music