32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Out Of Gas, But Not Ideas

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

Filling up the tank! Jeff and Elliotte (driving home from the studio) give the latest on the Erik Karlsson trade rumours (1:00), wonder if we’ll see Andrew Brunette behind a different bench this season (7:55), chat about the Vancouver Canucks (10:00) and the scuffle between the Oilers-Kings (12:25), helmets in warmups (20:00) and an interesting rule proposal from the GM meetings (22:30).The guys then go around the league talking about the real deal Devils (27:00), a fun game between Dallas-Florida (34:00), tribute night in Winnipeg (37:00), the Blues finding their stride while Washington searches for answers (41:20) and Boston continues to roll (43:40).GET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Veps - A Show of HandsListen 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 Ohio, Bally Sports Southwest, Bally Sports Sun, Bally Sports West, KKSE-FM and 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.

all right boys i'm gonna go fill up with gas i'm down to 10 kilometers welcome once again to a friday morning edition of 32 thoughts to podcast presented by gmc and the all-new gmc at4x we have a lot of we have a lot of really cool games to talk about uh today elliot but first jeff you know what i don't have a lot of what's that kilometers 20 till i have to refuel so this could be an interesting car cast. This could be the first car cast where Elliot actually gets out of his car and fills up his tank as he's talking. No, you're not supposed to do that. Is that right?

You're not supposed to do that. You don't talk on the phone while you're pumping gas. I did that once on one of your radio hits with you, and somebody tried to make a citizen's arrest with me, so I won't do that again. And you also can't smoke cigarettes at a gas station either, Elliot, so don't do that either. I'll leave them in the car. Okay, let's start with some news. People like leading with the news, and then we'll get to some game action. And man, there were some really cool games on Thursday night.

But to start things off, this started off with a conversation on a radio show earlier on this week, and it was our discussion about the San Jose Sharks and Eric Carlson. And I asked you early in the morning if there was anything between San Jose and the Ottawa Senators vis-a-vis Eric Carlson. And you said, give me some time, I'll get back to you. And then on the radio show, you said there has been discussion between the two sides on Eric Carlson and then boom, news cycle begins. What is the latest, if there is indeed a latest on this issue? Well, I don't think there's anything hugely new as we do this at this time. You know, Mike Greer said a lot of this in motion when at the GM's meetings, he said that,

yes, it was something that he would consider. Obviously, if it was something that Eric Carlson will consider, he's got the ultimate say over this. He's got the no move clause, but Greer kind of threw it out there. And then we all started chasing and yes, you gave me a homework assignment. Yes, I did it. I have to say that i didn't always work so hard on my homework assignments when i was actually in school but i think there's teams that have kind of talked and i think the senators are one but number one i should say i don't think anybody's gone to carlson yet to say would you wave here? I don't think we're at that point or anywhere close to that. It's such a complicated deal.

And I think one of the things that it makes it very complicated is that how many teams have the ability really to do this and Ottawa with a lot of their contractual obligations from players who they're not going to want to trade. Like, I don't think they can do it. and i think that's kind of where it went there but you know what i i do think there's some teams we're going to look at it i do think there's some teams who have some interest but a lot of it comes down to a where carlson's willing to go and b what san jose is willing to do you know this one if it does indeed happen at any point to whichever team, this one has third team screaming at me.

Yes. Double retention. When you consider salary retention, because even if the San Jose Sharks take a major chomp out of the contract, you're still going to probably need a third team here now not unlike i remember you and i talking actually when we were in paris about patrick kane and how if they were going to move him before the season there'd have to be a third team involved most likely i kind of get that same feeling here about eric carlson mainly because not only is 11.5 but it's four more seasons elliot but that's the problem. I think that Patrick Kaner, Jonathan Taves is an easier one to do third retention because it's short term.

Let's just say if I'm going to say, oh, Arizona could do it. You know, at some point in time, Arizona is going to have to start paying some of these young guys it's got. Right. And I mean, who knows? I mean, we don't know where we're all going to be in four years. I mean, you look at all the trending topics on twitter tonight and we're all there's a world full of people expecting to wake up and not see twitter tomorrow so i mean who knows what's going to happen out there but how many teams are going to be willing to say we're going to be interested

in retaining for four years yeah like that is a really tough ask, even for a team that's rebuilding right now, you know, Arizona at some point in time, they're going to have to start trying to win and paying their guys. That's a big, big commitment, Jeff.

And I'm not convinced there's a ton of teams out there that are going to want to do that. Don't disagree. This is my opinion. I want to state this very clearly you know they asked us tonight in that awful burning segment segment to pick a team with carlson this is my opinion i saw yours i saw yours this is interesting but the team i wonder about is florida Why is that? Florida's a really skilled offensive team. They've got a lot of money coming off their cap after this year. They're going to have a bit more flexibility.

He fits with them. You know, the other one, and again, this is purely my opinion. How many defensemen does Washington have signed after this year? John Carlson, one. Well, I mean, they have two RFAs, but they have Matt Irwin, a UFA, Eric Osten, a UFA, Trevor Van Riemsdyk, and Nick Jensen are UFAs as well. And so is Orlov. Sorry, I didn't see it.

Yes, Dimitri Orlov as well as a UFA. So those are the two teams I look at. I think Florida's going to have a bit more flexibility and Washington's going to have a lot of flexibility on defense. And again, this is not me digging on it. This is me just looking at it and seeing I could see situations where those two teams are players here. But again, Carlson's got to want to go

and there's got to be a willingness to work out a deal. But those are the ones that kind of stick in my head to watch. I'm sure there's going to be more twists and turns as this goes. You know, the only thing that I wonder about with the Washington Capitals is, and we talked about this on radio the other day, the Washington Capitals are going to do whatever it takes to get Ovechkin that record, to catch Gretzky and beat Gretzky.

You know, I know John Carlson's already there as a right-hand shot. Do you want another right-hand shot Carlson and then Eric Carlson to ensure someone's getting the puck to Ovechkin? There's not going to be any rebuild here for the Caps as long as OB's chasing this record. They're just going to keep putting in players that give them the best possible chance to get it. I don't disagree with you. So, I mean, the one thing there is that Carlson Burns didn't work in San

Jose, and now you're looking at it with Burns in Carolina, Carlson's red hot in San Jose, so maybe he might not want that. Again, don't anybody run with we're reporting this. This is just the two of us spitting here. Give us a break. Don't radio us the first day on Mastodon or whatever the hell it is we're all going to.

Oh, is that where we're heading Friday morning? Okay, good. People are like, go to Mastodon. Mastodon, I don't even know what this is yet. But anyway. I checked it out for about two minutes and it looks really confusing to sign up. I got to go back later on tonight. Someone just said it's really complicated.

It's not worth it. Anyway, Florida's number one. That one jumped right out into my head. And in Washington was another simply because they got no defensemen for next year yet. Right. Okay. So a couple of things here. A team that even when they're not playing or making headlines,

are the Vancouver Canucks. First of all, and we're going to get to New Jersey here in a second in their overtime win against the Maple Leafs. It's 11 in a row now. But the situation with Andrew Brunette and the potential for him leaving the bench during the season. Your thoughts on this one? I'd say it's unlikely.

Now, I do think the Canucks checked on Brunette's availability both last summer and potentially even during training camp. We know now from what Jim Rutherford has said that he was not happy with the way camp was going, and I think they poked around it. I don't think there's any mechanism where Brunette can just leave in

the middle of the season. As of Thursday morning, the Canucks had not asked the Devils for permission to talk to him and I don't believe there's anything that allows Brunette to walk during the year and I certainly didn't get the inclination that the Devils favored letting him walk during the year and i certainly didn't get the inclination that the devils favored

letting him go during the year now next summer that's something else entirely but during the year i definitely did not get that impression things are going well for the devils right now you wouldn't want to screw around with it um i do think the canucks are considering other options. We're going to see what's going to happen here. You know, it's really difficult. The idea of leaving during a year, teams really don't like that. And as I said to you on your show on Thursday, Rutherford did it once before, but he did it with an AHL coach. He hired Kirk Muller from AHL Milwaukee,

which was Nashvilleashville's affiliate to coach the carolina hurricane several years ago and that was during the season but it wasn't someone leaving an nhl bench even as an assistant to go to another team i really didn't get the inclination that that made the devils too crazy to do right now. That said, I do think the Canucks are looking at other options. We'll see what that means. We'll see where they go, but they're definitely putting some feelers out there. There's no question about that.

I think one of the questions we all have about the Vancouver Canucks because the coaching thing is obvious. Jim Rutherford has done that interview a handful of times now, which leads any sane thinking person to believe, okay, he's upset with the coach and in his mind, he's contemplating a change. How far does the word change extend into the organization? And I would imagine that the conversations are being had about coaches. What about the conversations around players? Like how frisky do you think Rutherford's being right now? I think he's being frisky.

Like, first of all, he's frisky at the best of times. He likes to talk to people in terms of, you know, who's available and what's out there. He's a guy who certainly has no fear. I do think he's getting calls on some of his guys,

Horvat and some of the other players around there. I heard some rumors about Columbus, and that makes a lot of sense. Columbus could really use a center. Does that make sense, though, without an extension? I was just about to get there, and you're thinking exactly what I'm thinking. The question is, do you believe you can sign him? There's some teams he makes sense as a rental. There's other teams he doesn't make sense as a rental,

and they're definitely one of them. That's kind of the question I'm wondering here is, is he going to be willing to do that? I think, is Vancouver going to give anybody permission to talk to him? Is Horvath going to be willing to do that? Like some players might just say, you know what? I'm willing to be traded.

I can't stop from being traded, but I'm not doing anything long-term until I know exactly what the market is out there. You know, these are all questions we don't know. But there's a lot of teams out there that could use a score. There's a lot of teams out there that could use a center. And I think he's listening to everything like i've said before i think they're only untouchables or patterson and hughes i think everybody else he'll listen to some guys have control akman larson has control for example you know demko that's an interesting one he's had a really tough start to the year i still think it would take a ton to move him unless the canucks think for some reason that his health won't recover but i i think

that's a crazy bet to make but i do think rutherford's listening to a lot of stuff out there okay so that story continues something from wed night, uh, Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers. Now, I don't want to say that this is, you know, um, part of the, the residue from last year's opening round playoff series between the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers. But that was a nasty series. Like that, those two teams, like pretty from the get-go did not get along and what we saw was alexander edler go knee on knee with conor mcdavid cuts around anderson

and then he got drilled and that's going to be a penalty and now dariel nurse wants a piece of alex edler and goes right after edler belted mcdavid at the line and mcdavid slow to rise he's now back up he is a little slow to get up and obviously this is going to nullify the power play but I don't mind this. A little bit of a step up by Adler. Darnell Nurse didn't like it. Getting some words from Drew Dowdy on the bench

who talks a game as well as anyone in the National Hockey League. Always involved that way. McDavid looked like he's fine. Everybody had their say about it. Zach Hyman, for obvious reasons, he's been hit, you know, a similar if not identical way by Alexander Edler, was really vocal and really passionate and really angry,

to be blunt, Elliot, in that interview with Gene Principe. No, I mean, it's just, you know, he did that hit to me a couple years ago. Exact same play. I was out for two months. He just did it to Connor. Same thing. Just an extremely dangerous play. I'm glad Connor's okay.

How did you see all of it? And is there, once again, a bigger conversation about protecting stars to be had? First of all, I don't like it because he's done it before you know you you mentioned hyman i forgot he had a he had a suspension in the worlds for it too he's not the fastest guy i understand mcdavid's coming at you uh you know a billion miles an hour but it's not good it's you have to send a message that it's not okay for one of the nhl's most important players to get injured in that way and i've really come around on this and i'd like to thank a twitter user named justin who's got a danish flag in his profile his twitter handle is at oiler and he sent

me was the tweet i was kind of referring to and that is Troy Vincent Troy Vincent was a really good NFL player he was a defensive back he was a really tough player and earlier this year there were a lot of controversial uh roughing the passer calls in the NFL and some of the players and fans were really complaining about them. And Troy Vincent basically came out and said, the NFL is popular because of great quarterbacks and keeping them healthy and active is a top priority. He said, quote, 91 of the most watched 100 TV shows were football games. Why?

Because of the quality of play at the quarterback position from top to bottom. Now, people are going to disagree with this, some of them philosophically. Like, I like a tough game. I like a really tough football game. I like a really tough hockey game. But I like it to be tough in the sense that everybody battles for every inch and let the best person win, let the toughest player win. I really love that.

I like a tough game in both sports but i also recognize that players are going to get hurt like tom brady had a year where he got injured on like the first series of the season and missed the whole year and that's really unfortunate but it was a legitimate knee injury and there's not much you could really do about that but generally he's been incredibly durable and he's still going. I don't like to make life of some of the things he's been through. Divorce is a really brutal thing. But everybody is tuned in to watch everything that this guy does.

He just released a trailer for a movie he's working on and it's getting huge buzz. You have to keep players like that protected. And the thing is about we've seen McDavid get injured before in his rookie year when he got limited to 49 games, but I didn't think that was a dirty play. He's fast and he got taken hard into the boards on a crazy fast play. We have to understand that that can happen. But what we have to say is we can't have him getting hurt on that kind of a play. And I know you, what you say, it's on the players.

And I kind of get your point a lot here, Jeff. But overall, there has to be a message that we can't see players getting hurt on these kinds of plays. This game is faster than ever. They're still in a really confined space. McDavid is a pinball all over the place. He can't be injured intentionally and he can't be injured recklessly and the nhl with its own suspensions the double ihf with its own suspensions has proved that that play is reckless and we can't have that anymore the sport can't afford reckless injuries like that to their best players. So is the answer then stiffer suspensions?

Well, yeah. I mean, you have to say that we can't have that play. You see, to me, like to your point about how I feel about the players, is this needs to be settled at the players association level, not unlike how the players treated Gretzky in the eighties, which is that's our meal ticket. That's all of our meal tickets. People come to watch Conor McDavid. He, you know of our meal tickets. People come to watch Conor McDavid.

He, you know, he sells tickets. People come to watch Ovechkin. He sells tickets. Like we all know the list of players, you know, Kirill Kaprizov, like players that sell tickets. We all know who they are. I think that needs to be sort of consensus at the player's level that like, what are we, we're

shooting ourselves in the foot here by taking everybody's meal tickets off the ice. The thing about, you know, comparing hockey players to quarterbacks in football, to me, it's, it's not even apples and oranges, it's chalk and cheese, because the only player that I see that you can go out of your way to deliberately protect the same way the quarterbacks are protected are goaltenders. So I don't know that I'll buy the quarterback and the center or the quarterback and the star left winger, Alexander Ovechkin or Brad Marchand or whomever.

The one area, and the NHL has done work on this previous, the only one area that you can really go out of your way to protect is the net minder. That's it. You're not wrong, Jeff. But the fact is, we're in a league right now where they're trying to get the cap to go up this year right yep now one injury to connor mcdavid might not change that but to me it's a philosophical thing you know the fact that

gary betman came out and said and surprised us all and came out and said, we might have the cap go up 4 million this summer instead of another summer from now, you know, he sees it too. Like he sees that as this is the kind of news we need. He put that out there into the sphere because he recognizes that that is a good story to sell. It's a good story for the NHL. So that says to me, that's his sell. It's a good story for the NHL. So that says to me, that's his goal.

That's what he wants. Well, if that's the goal and that's what we want, part and parcel of that is what sells it's the stars. And part of that is look, guys are going to get hurt. You're just going to make sure if they get hurt, they get hurt in a way that you don't look at and say,

man, that shouldn't be happening. Okay. I'm sure there'll be no one that has comments on that whatsoever. And if Twitter exists on Friday and into the weekend, I'm sure we'll get no tweets about that one. Okay, Elliot, a couple more things to wrap up the news segment. We'll get into some games in a second. Uh,

mandatory helmets in warmup. What's going on here. It was interesting. They kind of threw us a bit of a, of a fake play. We were all talking about the Kevlar after the GM meetings and they came with the helmets and basically now helmets are going to be mandatory and warmup.

Any player brought into the NHL after 2019-20 is going to have to wear them. Look, I mean, if I could play, and we all know I can't, but if I could play, I'd want to play warm-up without the helmet. I really like it. I love watching it. But look, like Taylor Hall. Taylor Hall, Cory potter i remember that i know what they're saying they're saying if we want to be seen as taking this seriously

we have to do this there's only one reason why guys don't wear the helmets and warm up and that is because it looks cool that's it it's the only reason but man it's not worth it like i remember did i tell you this story about what happened with me in the uh taylor hall cory potter incident no so i was working that game it was a regional for sports net and so i you know did the the announcement and the throw to what happened with potter and hall and then we went on and did the game and then i'm driving home and i start getting all these texts like oh my god you're on you're on TMZ. You're on TMZ. And I'm thinking like, oh, geez, OK, like what have I done to justify being on TMZ? And so I pull over and I check my phone and it's me throwing to this gruesome bit of, you know, Taylor Hall, Corey Potter visuals.

But for a second, my heart stopped because it's like, oh, there's the career ender right there. You never want to get a text, saying, hey, check it out. You're on TMZ tonight. Oof. That was a tough one for your buddy, Jeffy here. But listen, I'm with you. Like, it's not worth it. Does it look cool?

Yes, of course it does. But it's also dumb. Like we've seen too many players get hurt. Pucks go at incredible rates of velocity. Even if you're not shooting at someone, we've seen them go off goalposts and crossbars and hit players. All of a sudden, now it's

a scratch situation and the player's getting zipped up. It's not worth it. I have about zero problem with this one, Elliot. I can't say you're trying to be serious about head injuries and then allow that to happen. I know some people don't like that, but that's just the way it is. Anything from the GMs? Well, a lot of the stuff has kind of been out already, but one of the things that we were talking about is, so last Saturday night, there was a play in Calgary, Winnipeg, where Kyle

Connor was hooked on a breakaway. And i thought it should have been a penalty shot but they were given a power play and actually the flame scored shorthanded right after not long after the face-off but apparently what they did was in the meeting was they showed the gm some plays that could have been penalty shots or could have been called power plays either way like that one and they kind of took an informal poll like Like, do you think that's a penalty shot? Do you think that's a power play? And one of the things I kind of wondered was like, it used to be, it's changed now, but it used to be the case in international basketball that fouls late in games, you had a choice. You could shoot the foul shots or you could take the ball again.

And it would sometimes depend on who was shooting or did you want to force them to foul you again? But that was kind of the way it used to work. It's now changed. But I was thinking with someone and a few other guys there, what if you had a choice as a team that if there was a foul on a breakaway and the team had the choice, do we want the power play or do we want the penalty shot

you know for example if you have like a 30 power play like edmonton are you always saying you know what we'll take the power play yeah or if you have a really good player who was fouled we want him shooting the penalty shot and one of the guys we talked about this with was chuck fletcher the gm of the flyers and then he thought about it. He started laughing. He goes, man, I'd feel terrible if it's like a guy you don't want taking a penalty shot. And you look at him and you go, no, we'll take the power play. Power plays at 12% or something like that.

That guy's going to feel horrible on the bench. So maybe that's the reason it might never happen. But I just like the overall idea of could we ever see a situation where that happens? You know what might complicate that is if you have that situation with under two minutes remaining and the team just takes the power play so they can run out the clock. Yeah, to me, that's all part of the strategy, Jeff. Oh, no, no, I get it. I get it. But I'm just saying like that could be used as a tactic.

Yeah, you know what? We'll take the power plant. We'll just run the clock out here and we'll just do empty calorie minutes. That's one of the first things that comes to my mind. Well, here's another one. Okay. You know that one of my favorite things to do is annoy you with ideas. Here's one. I'm keeping you from home. This is so good.

Tevo Taravainen makes a pass to Sebastian Ajo, and he's clean. He's on a breakaway. Hampus Lindholm is trailing him, trips him up, and the referee calls penalty shot. Ajo takes a penalty shot

and scores on Linus Ulmark. Okay? Should Tara Vinen get an assist on the penalty shot? You know, you told me about this earlier today off camera. And I was like, that's such a dumb idea. And then later on, I thought about it again. Even as you were doing this, doing this, I'm like, I don't care enough to have an opinion either way.

Like let Jeff have his W. No, hold on a second here. It's a general manager's job to have an opinion and have a thought on this one. If you were a general manager, Elliot Friedman, GM from Team 33 in the NHL, you're at the manager's meeting and Chuck Fletcher turns to you and says, Hey, Fridge, what about this? What do you think you would say? This is not journalist Fridge, but GM Fridge.

I only care about this if the vote is 16-16 And I have to think about deciding a vote That doesn't even tickle you under the chin a little bit? No Not even like a little nothing? No, it doesn't, not at all It's just late and you want to go home And you're done with my act, I know

No, no, no, I'm not done with your act. I've moved over to the side of the road because I don't want to run out of gas. I'm good to do to continue talking, but I just think this idea is not worth my time. I just live to annoy you with hockey talk. That's all. I just want to prove to you that hockey talk

can be really annoying. Anyhow, mission accomplished. You've proved that several times over the years. Listen to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Okay, on that,

let's get to some of the games. So so thursday night you you worked the toronto new jersey game this was an exciting game this was back and forth uh this was nylander tying it late and sharing govich ending it in overtime the new jersey devils have won 11 games in a row and it feels like the maple leafs have lost 11 overtimes in a row. Your thoughts on the Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils game that we saw on Thursday night? Well, I loved it. I thought it was a great game. You could see that those two teams were wired to play each other.

They played hard. Oh, yeah. You know, the Devils, you know, you kind of forget at some points that the Devils have a lot of guys that kind of have the Ontario ontario roots from bastion to hamilton to you know you forget you know jack hughes spent a lot of his formative years in toronto right so playing the gthl yeah you know for a few of those guys it's kind of a big home game for them and i thought they played hard i i really did i thought i thought the least played hard i thought it was a really really good game.

You know, one thing that happened on Thursday night, I can't believe how many goals came really quickly after another goal. Like Toronto took a 1-0 lead. New Jersey scored, what, 24 seconds later? Jesper Brat. Seems like every time 34 scores a goal, there is some significance to it. That makes it the – here's a chance in front. Scores.

Just like that. The Devils have tied it. Calgary got a goal and Tampa Bay scored seconds later. So the Flames score with a man advantage. Five minutes into this third period and make it interesting to say the least. Good try all night. Now it's a one goal game montreal columbus columbus went up five to three montreal scored like right off the draw when suzuki bank went off the goalie and that man olivier first goal is a blue jacket they just brought the puck over to the bench here for him and now it's Suzuki off Corpus Allo from an impossible angle and behind him it's a one goal

lead again seconds after the Olivier there was a lot of that on Thursday night but the best sign for Toronto in that game was Matt Murray. You know, he played great. That game, when New Jersey was up 2-1, they could have pushed that to 3 or 4-1 a couple times, and he made a couple of brilliant saves. Like, these devils, you know, they're deep. Miles Wood had six goals tied for their team lead

in five-on-five before the game. Yep. They're deep, and they play hard. And you've asked teams to play against them. Everybody talks about their offense and their skill, and they've got all that. They defend a lot better. They're a lot tighter.

They're a lot more aggressive. And I will say this, a couple of their players said it, and a couple of other teams have said it Hamilton has gone to another level in defensive zone and you kind of see it like he's exerting his will in the defensive zone probably better than he ever has and I noticed that a couple of times in the game on Thursday night there were a couple of things there too. One about the blue line, that right side, Dougie Hamilton, John Marino, who just looks fantastic and Damon Severson. Damon Severson is your third pairing right side defenseman.

When you have Damon Severson on your third pair, Elliot, you're doing something really right. Oh yeah. Like you're right about that. And I know that, that he sure takes a lot of the oxygen and hughes does and you know uh certainly jesper bratt and the bratt pack and uh he's filling the net but man their back end looks real good here a couple of things i thought that on that he sure goal and uh it was either Cuthbert or Simpson that made the point.

I think it was Simpson who made the point. And this is Heischer, just all kinds of confidence. Look at the little stutter step and hesitation by Heischer once he gets this puck. Riley's taking away the pass. It's shooter against goal score, and Heischer wins this battle. That little hesitation freezes the goalie for a second, and that quick release. battle that little hesitation freezes the goalie first second and that quick release he sure does that slight little pause before he shoots to freeze the goalie and then snaps it quick like that is just i know people have heard me too much talk about he sure but that play is like the subtle

play that the players look at and go like oh yeah like that's chef's kiss uh you know one of the players told me about hisischer too, Jeff? What's that? I don't like to interrupt you while you wax poetic about Hischer because I know it's like... Oh, yeah, you hate ignoring me and interrupting me. I know that really bothers you when you do that. That's pretty funny, actually.

You know what a couple of players told me? That the biggest change they've seen is off the ice. Really? They said that in the past you know hisher was the captain but he's young and he's growing into the role yeah that in the past like the the coach would go to him or ruff would go to him and say what do you think about this is something you check with the captain and he would go back to the veterans and say guys what should i answer here they said that one of the things that is happening now is he's not going

back to them as much and they say it's not like he's ignoring them but he feels more confident in making those decisions like obviously you're more comfortable off the ice you're more comfortable on the ice but that's one of the things a couple little players have said to him they said that uh they've really noticed that he's more comfortable in his own skin, making decisions that the captain needs to make. And before he still wasn't a hundred percent sure there, I thought you'd like that. Well, Roger Federer is retired now.

So now it's his turn to lead Swiss athletes. He takes that burden on his shoulders there. So New Jersey extends their winning streak now to 11. You know, one other small point here, we talked a lot about the, the quote unquote soft schedule that New Jersey extends their winning streak now to 11. You know, one other small point here. We talked a lot about the quote-unquote soft schedule that New Jersey had to start the season and that eventually they're going to have to start,

and they will, and they have now. They've played the Maple Leafs, playing teams that are a little bit higher in the standings. I think a lot of us looked at this game and said, okay, this is a test for the New Jersey Devils. You know, I know they have beaten some better quality teams during the streak, but we talked a lot about their schedule and said, okay, it's going to get tough eventually.

Now they've got Ottawa on Saturday and then Edmonton, Toronto again, and then they'll face off against the Buffalo Sabres next week as well. But I think this was a big test for the Devils. You know, this is in Toronto. Both teams are rested. I think this was a big test for New Jersey. They were ready for that. Now, that game was a lot of fun, but you know what was better?

Yeah, you loved Dallas. I was working Toronto, so I didn't see it as much, but you loved Dallas, Florida. Oh, boy. This is one of those games where you say, I really wish these two teams were in the same division, And if we can't get them in the same division, can they please meet in the Stanley cup final? So this one is a six, four win for the Dallas stars of the Florida Panthers. And fascinating in this one, Sergey Bobrovsky gets pulled surrenders four

goals on 11 shots and income Spencer night. Uh uh there was a really you know a tough tense moment with scott wedgwood uh on an anton lundell breakaway he just seems to get twisted and reaches back and grabs his back and then he can't move and he gets stretchered off and we're just thinking you know horrible things about what's wrong with uh with scott wedgwood uh he didn't go to the hospital he stayed in the room. Uh, I was told he was in good spirits, was getting worked on,

uh, as well. So it doesn't appear to be as bad as it looks. Just let me slightly interrupt you there, Jeff. Sure. That Peter DeBoer says upper body injury, flying home with the team evaluated in Dallas tomorrow.

Good. And Tyler Sagan told the media, they saw him after the second and he was okay. Or he's sorry. He was in good tomorrow. Good. And Tyler Sagan told the media they saw him after the second and he was okay. Or he's sorry. He was in good spirits. Yep. So your initial Intel appears to be very good for a change. Okay.

Yeah. Very. I got one right. That's my blind squirrel gets a nuts moment. So he's thankfully okay. Cause that looked real tough. Yeah. It's weird to the game itself.

Like Dallas goes up for nothing in this game. Dallas goes up 4-0 in this game. Dallas goes up 5-1 in this game, and the Florida Panthers keep on crawling their way back into this one. And by the end, it's 5-4 Dallas, and the Florida Panthers are pressing, and Brandon Montour is protecting an empty net, and he makes maybe the save of the night.

Yeah. Just throws his body in front of a shot which was just a gorgeous play before that mason marchment and and matthew kachuk throw down kachuk surprise surprise was in the middle of everything it seemed on thursday night and then it was an empty net goal that that sealed it for the dallas stars and of interest here and i just love this from p DeBoer, was Ty DeLandria that got the empty net goal. Like this is a really emotional game.

This is a game where the Florida Panthers have all the momentum. They've crawled back into this one. They're throwing puck after puck on Jake Ottinger. So you wonder, okay, who's DeBoer putting on the ice here? And one of the players that he puts out there is Ty DeLandria. Montour cranks it up, saved by Ottinger. And it's clear to center. here and one of the players that he puts out there is tied to Landria that is a confident coach and that is a huge moment for that player like elliot how many coaches just defer to i'm gonna put you know uh veteran players out there guys that i know what they're gonna give

me and the responsible older guys are gonna sit on this lead he puts out ty delandria and is rewarded with the empty net goal i honestly for each i just love that about peter de boer on that situation good on him or young players have to show that they can play. Absolutely. That was a fantastic game. I thought the most ridiculous game of the night was the one in Carolina. They outshoot Colorado 48-15 and lose 3-2 in overtime. Leckanen to his right.

Taves with it. JT Comfort, the trailer. Comfort, one-timer. Leckanen. He scores! It's a work of art. Arturi Lekanen has a five-game point streak. And you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here

because this party is over. Every time I looked up and looked at that screen, Fransos was making another ridiculous save. Nashville is starting to come back. That was a big win for them at home. You know, the Jets just scored in the last minute. Long wrist shot off the end boards, comes out the other side, and they score.

Shifley to Connor. It's a hat trick with less than a minute to play. This is a heartbreaker. Kyle Connor, you know, what's so hard to defend about this, I mean, watch Connor when this puck goes wide. He's up high, but he knows that he needs to get into that open space. And Zegras can't get a stick on him. So the second time in a row, they score in the last minute.

And the other night, they sent it to overtime, and then they win. And now they win in regulation because Kyle Conner scores with 54 seconds left in an emotional game there with Solani and Newman in. I have to say, Jeff, I have been pleasantly surprised with the league this year. I think the quality of play in terms of the excitement of the games has been very high. Goals are up. The save percentage looks like it's on track to be the lowest it's been

in about 16 years. People love goals. People are getting goals. People are getting comebacks. I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of play this year in terms of the excitement level of games. That's interesting, too, because you like that the save percentages

are going down, but at the same time, you love the Winnipeg Jets story. And isn't the Winnipeg Jets story just how great Connor Hellebuck has been? There's been some great performances there. I don't want to underserve know, under, under serve here. What I think the Winnipeg jets players are doing,

but isn't the big story in Winnipeg, just how great Connor Hellebuck has been. This is vintage Hellebuck. He's been fantastic for each. I think they help them out a bit more than they used to. I do think the team is better in front of him, just in terms of the way they play. He holds it. And then there's the play and hellebuck gets a paddle on that what a save watch his head has to hold that

you see hellebuck just kind of reaches back with his stick and face another thing jeff about this jets game is that in the post game tonight k Kyle Connor, who you mentioned scored the winner, on a night where Solani and Teppo Newman were honored, said... Yeah, I was kind of pissed off after I scored the third goal. Me and Wheels were talking about if whoever scores first is going to throw the glove up and do his celly, but that didn't do it. But anyways, it's...

No! No! Come on! Would have brought the house down you know would have made that so perfect what's that on that goal when tamu solani scores and throws the glove up and shoots it who caught the glove dallas akins head coach of the anaheim ducks oh what a guess i am on my team it is 11 o'clock and i'm parked on the side of the road that's what would have made it so perfect because dallas akins is coaching the anaheim ducks come on it was right there and you know what anaheim's got one of the most flamboyant players in the league zgris who had a hand in an unbelievable goal in this game.

What Conor should have done is thrown the glove Dallas Aikens' direction to see if he would have caught it again. Yeah, Dallas would have deposited it somewhere in a bad spot. But Jeff, final game I wanted to discuss. Yeah. So I turned off St. Louis Washington when it was three to nothing.

And the next thing I noticed is I was driving home. It was for all. And Washington had a goal disallowed in the last couple of minutes. I didn't see it, but from what I'm hearing, I sent a text, good call. And someone who was an unbiased observer told me good call. It shouldn't see it, but from what I'm hearing, I sent a text, good call. Someone who was an unbiased observer told me good call.

It shouldn't have counted. But Washington outshot them basically 50 to 20. And if St. Louis blows that game, that's a disaster for them after everything that's been going on so far. But talk about two teams. Washington gets the point, which is critical for them. Grice with a huge night in goal. Jeez, I mean, we talked a little bit about the Capitals before,

and I agree with your theory on them. I'm curious to see what they're going to do. They have a lot of flexibility here, especially on their blue line at the end of the season. I think they're going to be a fascinating team to watch. Number one, probably they've got to figure out if there's any chance that Backstrom can play here.

I have to say, if he can't, I wonder if they become a Horvat team. Wow. That makes a ton of sense. I mean, the only thing is, he he's a score and ovechkin's a score backstrom is more the passer anyway just something i was thinking about like these are things that are just popping into my head okay so here this this is another thing that i'm sure has popped

into your head that's five in a row now for the St. Louis blues. Yeah. Are you getting the 2019 Gloria vibes here all over again? Give them the Stanley cup. You know, we were going to wave J Bo Meester. We were going to send Maroon down. Let's call up that goalie from the American hockey league. I don't know. They're looking good right now for each.

The very least everything appears to have calmed down. You know, Pareko's missed two games in a row. Yeah. Actually, it was interesting. Craig Berube actually took pains to say it wasn't the back because I guess there was a lot of concerns about Pareko's back and he said it wasn't that. So that's at least good news.

But it just, you know what it does? It just calls off the dogs for a few minutes. One more thing here. Boston Bruins. They've won 10 in a row at home. Their win streak right now overall is at 5. I think on the show tonight you predicted

that they'll have the most points of any team in the league at the end and pick up the presidents. As we all predicted, of course, as we all predicted, they beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 and David Krejci ends up with pair, including a power play marker. So he now has four goals on the season. Owen Tippett, by the way, scored for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Owen Tippett's looked good, man. Yes. Every time I watch Philly, it's like, okay, wow, that's Owen Tippett looks real good. Anyway, do you have a quick thought on the Boston Bruins here? That's another big win for them. They're now 15 and2 on the season. They're plus 33. Yeah.

After 17 games. You know, the next best goal differential in the league. Vegas? Is New Jersey at plus 22. Vegas and Dallas are plus 19. They're tops in the West Conference. Boston got a bit of an easier schedule at the beginning because of all their injuries and stuff and you know the other thing too is they've got this thing going right now

where you watch them play and they know they're gonna win oh yeah yeah yeah that boston confidence is all over the place they played played Buffalo last Saturday, was it? They were down 1-0 in the second period. And you could tell they were like, we got this. They won 3-1. Like every time that team plays right now, they think they're going to win. And Lynn Holm looks phenomenal.

Yeah. You know, one thing just to watch out with them, I really think they're trying to find a trade for Mike Riley. You know, he's back in Providence, and there was some question about whether or not he was actually going to play there because they were trying to move him. And the latest I heard today was he's probably going to play for the Bruins this weekend, the Providence Bruins, not the Boston Bruins.

But I think they're really trying to find him a new home. Just to add more to the murderer's row that we're seeing, you know, great performances by the Boston Bruins, let's not forget one thing as well. Linus Ullmark is rocking a 937 save percentage. Yes.

And Kincaid was unbelievable in that game in Buffalo. He was incredible. I really like Kincaid. I asked him game in Buffalo. He was incredible. I really like Kincaid. I asked him, is the emoji game coming back? And he goes, no, I think I've retired that. No, please don't tell. I love the, no, there's no, well, I mean, Twitter's dying anyway.

So it's, I guess it's irrelevant, but, but still, that was one of my favorite things is, is Kincaid's emoji game was best in trying to decipher what he was trying to tell us here that was one of the great sidebars when hockey twitter was still alive i already by the way i already feel nostalgic for twitter it's not officially dead yet and i'm already feeling nostalgic for it elliot how pathetic am i i have to say this there's a lot of people out there that claim to hate twitter that won't be able to live without it if it's really

true it's going down and i don't know i don't know what to believe a lot of the technical stuff i read is out of my expertise it's very clear that people really want musk to fail because of the way that he's kind of butchered this in the short term but there's a lot of people that claim they hate Twitter that won't be able to live without Twitter. And you're listening to two of them. Okay. So that's it for the podcast. Thank you once again for joining us.

Much appreciated as always. We bid you adieu today with a very talented four-piece band from lovely Oslo, Norway. Laura, June, Helena, and Maya make up the band Veps, which means wasp in Norwegian. The group lends 90s indie aesthetic and poppy hooks to create a memorable sound. It's really cool. With their latest single, here's Veps with a show of hands on 32 Thought the podcast it's getting late they're in a haze he doesn't dance can't feel his face get that She said, man at the door He's such a bore

She's had enough yet She wants more And I get that And I I said please don't go Don't go home I'm still here Don't leave me alone