32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Price Speaks and Is ‘The Michigan’ Boring

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

Carey Price held a press conference in Montreal on Sunday. Jeff and Elliotte discuss the goaltenders' comments regarding his health as well as his desire to stay in Montreal (3:00).They also give credit to Craig Anderson (0:10), touch on Montreal’s potential off-season moves (7:00) along with Vancouver’s (11:30), provide an update on Anaheim's GM search (18:20), discuss some names that are linked to Toronto (25:30) and Florida (28:30), tell us why they love jersey retirement ceremonies (30:00), and debate if the 'The Michigan' is getting boring (44:20).Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha MonjauryMusic Outro: Mike Clay - Côte à côteListen to the full track by Mike Clay on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: KLAA-AM, MSG, Sportsnet and WQAM-AM.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.

What's the thought line again? 1-833-311-32. Elliot, here we go. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts to Podcast presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. And Elliot, contrary to popular opinion, there are actually good news stories happening all around us all the time. Case in point, Craig Anderson. I just wanted to shout him out to start off the podcast. Craig Anderson, how many times has it looked like his career is over? Most recently, this offseason was one of the last times. Basically, Buffalo found themselves with no goaltenders and said,

we got to sign one and called him. And even this year, didn't we both hear rumors that his career was over with a neck injury? Yep, that that might be it we may have seen the last of craig anderson wasn't on the ice no news away from the team neck injury not good octogenarian in his 40s you're sitting here and you're saying there's no way this guy's playing again and how many times throughout his career has that happened several times and then he comes back on a day

where the sabers get multiple positive covid tests get a scare they don't know if they're even going to play basically every other goalie that's in the organization is either injured or suspended and what does he do he goes out and pitches a shutout for 50 plus minutes and they beat arizona three to one on the road yeah i have to when, when you look at his overall career arc and how many times he's been completely written off and come back and also what his family went through when his wife was ill. I mean, he's,

he's had an amazing career, an amazing career, but I wanted to shout him out. Yeah. And yeah, really quietly because he doesn't get a lot of fanfare of this past era, like a really outstanding goaltender at every stop. Right.

But he just goes about his business quietly. Like he's almost like this reluctant type, outstanding netminder. Here's my question about Craig Anderson. And I'm with you. It's impossible not to feel good for this guy. What does Buffalo do with him at trade deadline? First of all, he's going to be one of those guys where nothing's happening unless he wants it to happen I believe that it's kind of like flurry

you know one of the things that's going on right now is I think Washington is all over flurry they want him to join them and I don't think that he's comfortable as a longtime penguin doing it at this time now Now, will it change? I don't know, but they're going to try. But when Fleury was traded from Vegas to Chicago, one of the things he was promised was nothing's going to happen to him without his permission. And I would say that Anderson's probably on the same wavelength.

Nothing's going to happen to him without his permission. But holy smokes, is he one competitive SOB? And I, and I say that with the utmost respect. You always cheer for the great story, right? Wouldn't it be a great story if he goes to a team and helps them on a playoff run and helps them put a significant dent in the playoffs. Be fantastic. I just think that here's a guy that's, you know, clearly on the back nine

can probably see the clubhouse. I don't know. I just want to see one last great run from Craig Anderson. I'm just cheering for that great story. And we've always talked about cheering for players and not teams. I cheer for Craig Anderson. I'm with you. Another player that we all cheer for, and it's impossible not to, whether you're a Habs fan or not. Even if you're a Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you're mortal enemies of the Montreal Canadiens. This season specifically, impossible not to cheer for Carey Price. And Sunday evening, we heard from Carey Price, how he said he had no plans to go anywhere else,

wants to play this season, we'll know in the next few weeks. What did you make of the Price Press Conference? You never know how a media conference like that is going to go, right? Because the subject matter is significant. He took a mental health break and needed time away. He's coming back from an injury. So you never know if it's going to be serious,

if there's going to be some levity. So I really didn't know what to expect, Jeff. It was pretty solemn. And the one thing, I don't want to jump to any conclusions. The number one thing that I thought was important was he said he's doing well mentally. That's the most important thing. That's what we all wanted to hear. But, you know, other than that, I thought it was a pretty solemn media conference.

There wasn't a lot of joking around there know there wasn't a lot of joking around there there wasn't a lot of smiling and you know it stood out to me that he wants to play but he doesn't know if he's going to be able to play and there's clearly some uncertainty there from him about what it means if he can't play he's going to try again he says he's going to know in the next couple weeks if his knee allows him to play but if the answer is no what does that mean and I think that uncertainty I'm sure he doesn't really like it so this isn't the last chapter in this and I think we all wish him the best so what I take from it number one is he says he's doing well. That's important. Number two, he doesn't know if he's going to play. And that's also significant because I think that most athletes want to call their own shot. They want to go out on their terms.

And, you know, being a competitor the way Carey Price is, I just got the impression watching that that he wants one more try to go out on his term and i certainly would understand that if i was in his shoes you know one of the things he was asked about as well uh the idea of maybe playing somewhere else i mean that's been existing in whispers for a while now as well we all saw what happened the expansion draft and how he could have gone to the Seattle Kraken. But I thought it was not interesting. I think sort of expected, I think,

that he said he had no plans to go anywhere else. I haven't made any plans to do so. You know, me and my family are very happy here. We're settled in. You know, this is our home. You know, there's a reason i signed the contract like i did here with a no movement clause was to be here so as of right now i have no plans to move anywhere do you have a thought on that comment i thought it was really good of him to come out and take

that emphatic stance because if he does anything but that that's the headline right the headline is not that he feels good the headline is not that he's trying headline, right? The headline is not that he feels good. The headline is not that he's trying to make a comeback. The headline is he wouldn't commit. And to be honest, whether or not he wants to go anywhere else is completely irrelevant if he's not healthy enough to play. So I see it as one step at a time. And step one is getting back on the ice i don't want anyone to think that i'm saying that that doesn't mean i don't believe him i'm not saying that at all i'm just saying that there's really no point in even discussing what his future might be until we know his knee is healthy enough to get out there and then we can cross that bridge if we need to come

to it his honest truth might be i prefer to stay in montreal i want to be here but there's no point in igniting any controversy until you know if that's even relevant okay sticking with montreal elliott you know we've talked a couple of different times on this program that we wondered if ben charot would be kent hughes's first move as general manager of the montreal canadians do we add another name? And is that name Jeff Petrie? Well, first of all, I still do think Sherrod's the first move because he's unrestricted. I think that teams are really making their

intentions known. Like I think St. Louis is very much in there and they're not the only ones. So my guess is Sherrod is still move number one. Now I'm assuming you're talking about the other night, and we'll talk about that in a couple of minutes. Saturday with Cassian, that one?

Yeah, you're referring to that, eh? Well, look, all I'll just say with Petrie is there's time. You can say, okay, if somebody wants to do it now, they can do it now. But because he's got term, you can also look at it and say, we can wait until the summer and you know the one thing about now is there's not a lot of cap space and if you trade a charot and you're retaining to make your deal better you only have to do it for now and if you're trading a petri and you have to retain, there's term on that.

So I wouldn't be surprised if, I mean, it could happen now. I never want to discount it for my old takes exposed moment, ice cold take, but I really do think that they can wait on that one to the summer if they have to. You know, Montreal had nobody on the ice there that was going to be able to handle Zach Kassian. Nobody. As Kassian clipped Montembeau, the helmet went flying.

And now the players gesticulating, though relatively briefly. And we might have our first penalty of the night. Nobody even did a thing to Kassian. I mean, here's the first power play we're going to see in this game, but nobody even reacted after this. You watch it. He knocks the helmet off. The goalie steamrolls him.

I know Kassian's a pretty tough customer, but that might be part of the problem in Montreal. You've got to have a little emotion there, at least a little bit, to go over and say, hey, you can't do that. They are going to get the power play here. Would I have liked to see more? Yes.

Do I think the Canadiens players on the ice realize more could have happened at least? Yes. But that's not the game anymore. At least not until, you know, the playoffs start. You know, the other thing too, Jeff, is that I wondered, do you think there's anything to the fact that both of those incidents happen in buildings where there's no fans? Like, what do you think happens in Ottawa or Montreal?

If there's fans in the building for either one of those games? They go berserk. They go berserk. And there's an emotional expectation that you do something and do something right away. Like, do you think I have anything on that? Or do you think that's a completely nuts theory? Oh boy. No, I don't, because if you want to do it, you do it.

And I don't think that if there were fans screaming, they're like, first of all, Jeff Petrie's not the kind of player and he's not going to do anything, whether there's fans there or not. Like in the Ottawa situation, I just wondered about the remainder of the game. Because, you know, there's still significant time to do a lot of things. For this one, this is directed specifically at Zac Cassian.

I'm not willing to make that leap. That because there's no fans there, you suck the emotion out of a player playing that game. Fair enough. Just because it happened in both cases. So I wondered if the reaction of the crowd could have changed things. But like I said, the game has changed.

I don't always like it. Maybe I'm a Neanderthal. I don't care. That's my opinion. But it's where we're going. The only reason I ask about Petrie as well too is I think we know all, we all know the conversations are coming with Ken Hughes and players with term on their contracts that may or may not want to be part of this rebuild

or whatever this thing is going to be called, but the Montreal Canadiens are going to go through like, look, Jeff Petrie is 34 years old. Jeff Petrie has got three more years after this is $6.25 million. Does he want to be part of this in his career or does he want to chase a Stanley Cup? I think Montreal is going through all that right now.

All of that right now. From Montreal, let's go to the other end of Canada. Vancouver Canucks. And it seems and feels like the Vancouver Canucks are laying the foundation, should we say, or are the wheels already turning to start changing the look of this team? And I would imagine the job number one would be, and listen, we heard Rutherford talk about it

at the Patrick Alvin press conference. We have to add more players to get to where we want to get to. And that's something that's going to have to be decided here leading up to the trading deadline. How do we go about that? And we got to figure out a way to get a little cushion on the cap. It's always difficult,

but being up against the cap and a team that's not in the playoffs at this point in time is not a good thing. So some big decisions are coming up, but now that we've added more people to hockey ops, we're now in a position that a stronger position to make those decisions. It seems as if job number one for the Vancouver Canucks to me, Elliot, correct me if you think I'm wrong, get rid of salary. I don't think that you're wrong. I definitely believe the job number one is to create some room. And I think he's going to try to do that.

You know, I give Jim Rutherford credit. He said that he was going to take his time and formulate things. And that's exactly what he's done. He's taken his time and he's formulating things. And now I think he's starting to act. About a week ago, I got told, start watching them. And then last weekend, I started to hear some of the stuff that they're talking about. And JT Miller's name has been front and center. And I think for a lot of people, he's the crown jewel of what Vancouver might do.

But I think there's some other pieces there. I think Garland is the interesting one to me because I definitely think his name is out there. You know, one of the reasons I linked New Jersey to it is that the thing that I heard appeals to the Devils is that Garland signed. He's locked in for a good number. The Devils have really talented young offensive players in, you know, Hughes, obviously in Hischer. And you want to be able to say, okay, we can play you with someone and we know it's someone who's going to be here. When someone mentioned to me that they heard New Jersey was in it, I said that made perfect sense for me. And that's the kind of player they should be looking at to play with their people. Now,

I know, Jeff, some people were writing and saying that it's New Jersey because, you know, Rachel Dory, who used to work for the Devils, is now part of the Canucks front office. I don't necessarily believe that. I think it helps that she's got some institutional knowledge there, but I think it's more the Devils looking at it and saying, this is a player who makes sense for us. And, you know, I think it does more the Devils looking at it and saying, this is a player who makes sense for us. And, you know, I think it does. I could see why there could be a marriage there. You know, it's interesting.

On Saturday, you talked about the forwards with the Vancouver Canucks. And I wonder how much of that is watch the forwards because that's where Vancouver can make moves. Yes. Oliver Ekman-Larsen contract is one thing. The Tyler Myers contract is another. Those are two ways you can make cap space and a lot of it really quickly. And they just can't, I'm guessing, make those moves at all.

Well, it's not that you can't make those moves at all. It's just that Ekman-Larsen has control over the situation. That's number one. You know, he's got to say you have to deal with him to make him feel that he wants to go anywhere. And it was hard enough to get him to leave Arizona, really. It took him a long time. And he only said I was willing to go to two teams, and he picked one of them.

So it's not an easy trade to make, even if you wanted to. Myers takes a lot of grief out there. The one thing I will say this about Myers is he cares about being a Canuck. Like he competes hard. And now in this day and age, I think that would be a contract that would be hard to move. But I, I like Myers. I really do. I think that if I was, I would at least look at it from a Canucks organizational point of view

that he gives me everything he can give me whenever he plays. And I can deal with that. I like that. You know, I know he got ejected the other night, but he plays hard. I really do think that. And he plays with a mean streak. I think he really cares about doing well for that team. I can deal with that. But I think your overall theory is right, Jeff, in the sense that, you know, I think they could move Miller easily. I think they can move Garland. You know, I think they could move a Tanner Pearson and, you know, the name that I know

always comes up there is Besser. And one of the questions is his qualifying offer. I mean, we'll see what happens with all of this. But I do think that there's a lot of traction around their forwards. And I think that he's learning what the market is, Rutherford. And I think he's going to have the ability to do some things here. I think Miller in particular is going to be a coveted player. Would it be safe to say then, and this may be just obvious,

but let's get it out there, that the Vancouver Canucks, unless your name is Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, or Thatcher Demko, they're listening? Or is that too far? I don't know if it's too far, but I didn't hear Horvat's name. Like, I asked around. Like, here's the thing to me about Horvat. If you really want to win in this league long term

you need players like that guy i agree with that i would be surprised i've been surprised before bull horvat as crappy as vancouver's start was he was right on the olympic bubble like that tells you what people think about him out there now jim Jim Rutherford may look at that and say, Ooh, I can get a lot of that. But you know, to me at some point in time, you've got to try to win.

And, you know, I'll tell you this, if I had a choice, Bo Horvat or no Bo Horvat, I'm taking Bo Horvat, but we'll see. It's interesting.

Cause we're talking about all of this and saying Jim Rutherford, Jim Rutherford, yet Patrick Alvin is now the general manager. Yeah, you know, I understand that. But Rutherford's going to be ultimately making the decisions and it's going to be his personality. I get that. I just wonder when that transition to this is Alvin's move, this is Alvin's move happens. I don't know.

You know what they'll do? They'll joke the good moves are Rutherford and the bad ones are Alvin's. Well, they do the same thing in Montreal as well with Hughes and Gordon. That's right. The good moves are Gordon's and the bad moves are Hughes'. Anaheim Ducks and the general manager search. You talked about this on Saturday as well and the name Pat for beat came up I think someone told me that one's getting tight we could be getting close I

wouldn't say like it's Monday or Tuesday but I do think we're getting close here the challenge for me is is is determining the difference between the internal candidates who in alphabetical order are Martin Madden, Dave Nones, and Jeff Solomon, and the external candidates. And I think that Pat Verbeek is very, very much in the picture here. And someone actually called me on Sunday before we taped the podcast and they said, you know how you mentioned Verbeek in Vancouver? And I said, yes. I wondered if he was part of the thing there. He goes, you just got the wrong team.

It was Anaheim. And the one thing, too, here is that Anaheim, part of their search committee here are Scott Niedermeyer and Paul Correa, right? Yes. Both of those guys know Steve Eisenman really well, obviously, because they won gold medals with him, right? Mm-hmm. And Steve Eisenman doesn't really promote anyone,

but he's been promoting Pat Verbeek for years. And he feels that Pat Verbeek is ready and deserves an opportunity. You know, the thing about Verbeek is he worked with Eisenman in Tampa. He worked with Eisenman in Detroit. You know, he was a really good player. And the other thing, too, is he's another guy who's put in the work. He's one of those guys. He turns up in all the dirty, dark rinks looking at players.

And he's done everything you have to do to climb your way up. And he's very quiet. He doesn't say much. He's right out of the Iserman mold that way. And Iserman has been saying for a while now that, look, he learned with us in Tampa. He learned with us in Detroit. He knows what to do.

He deserves his chance. And I will say this. I've had other people outside of this eiserman korea niedermeier realm who have said to me for a couple years now that they really think that verbeek has earned his opportunity and i wonder if it it could be here you know one of the things that we're interested in here as well is uh when the general manager gets named what the um the first couple of orders of business are for them. Because there's some business to do in Anaheim.

There's impending unrestricted free agents in Ricard Raquel. We talked to Ryan Getzloff on the podcast last week as well. He's a UFA. We know all about Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson, players like Nicolas Delorier, I think you put in that conversation, Sam Carrick, et cetera. Yeah.

You know, someone said to me over the weekend, you know, one of the reasons why it's important that Anaheim gets business done sooner than later and names a general manager sooner than later is John Gibson. sooner than later is John Gibson. They feel that John Gibson needs to be shown that this team is interested in remaining competitive and not just let players get traded at deadline

or walk at free agency and not improve the team. What do you think of that? I think it's important, but I don't think it's your biggest deal right i think what's important is that you have guidance about what to do with some guys at the deadline to me the biggest question is lynn holm same i'm with you on lynn holm and i think the job number one needs to be resigning them don't't you? I just think that if you let him go, then you are constantly going to be looking for someone like him for years.

Agree. What I heard was, and I don't know where it stands right now, but one of the rumors I'd heard was that they were willing to give him a little bit more. If he was willing to take a little less term, like I just heard, they didn't want to go into

the big term and that was the issue now i just don't know where that stands right now you know because obviously bob murray's no longer the gm there and you know we're going to have a new philosophy whether it's you know one of the internal candidates or verbique but i don't know i've heard raquel's name out there a little bit. I think he's on the market and I think everybody there is kind of wondering, you know, is it just time for everybody here to take a new route? I don't know if that's where it ends up, but I know that's kind of been asked with Manson.

You know, they have a lot of interest in Manson. You know, I mentioned Toronto. I think there's a lot of teams out there who are, like I wouldn't be surprised if Josh Manson wants to stay in California. If this becomes a, how do you feel about going somewhere for a short time? Coming back.

We can get some assets and then you come back. Now that could be wrong. They could end up signing him, but I wouldn't be hugely surprised. I think the priority is Lindholm, but then again, if Lindholm leaves, do they keep Manson? I don't think you can hold, even if you're in the playoffs there, I don't think you can hold on to Lindholm at the deadline if you don't think you can sign him. But that's just me. deadline if you don't think you can sign them but that's just me you see i look i look at those big three and i say you lose ricard raquel okay you have younger players that can fill that spot take that role you lose josh manson okay to that previous point i think you can live with losing

josh manson again i come back to lindholm you can't replace losing Josh Manson. Again, I come back to Lindholm. You can't replace that. Yeah, I agree with you on that. Like that's the one that I think you really can't afford to lose. I would agree with that. I understand the conversation about term with someone who's 28 years old.

I know everyone gets weird about giving term to players that are either in their thirties or approaching their thirties quickly, but I don't know, man. Hampus Lindholm was a special defenseman. Hampus Lindholm's a special player, and there's not many players like him in the NHL. And you know, someone mentioned something to me a while ago

that I thought was pretty interesting as well, which is how important someone like Nick DeLaurier is for these younger players, especially someone like Trevor Zegers. Hugely popular teammate too. I can believe that. Yeah. You talked about old school mentality in NHL.

Trevor Zegers is a guy that does flashy moves, and that's not always going to rub people the right way. That's not going to always rub the other team the right way. And I just wonder about having someone like Zegers in the lineup. Do you need, I don't know, do you need someone, do you need someone who might deter someone from taking out their frustrations after someone does the Michigan on them for the second time in a season or the second time in a game? I think Deloria is important there too. I know they really like them. You mentioned Josh Manson with Toronto.

Do you want to expand on that a little bit? There's significant interest. There's what type of interest in Toronto with Josh Manson? I think he's a player they're really taking a deep look at. He's a right shot. The difference with a guy like Sherrod is, Sherrod, you might have to move people around because he's a lefty,

depending on what you decide to do around because he's a lefty depending on you know what you decide to do manson's a righty it's a bit of a more seamless fit in toronto the thing about manson though is it's the canadian question right first of all he's got a modified no trade list can he even go there and number two is that you know we've talked about this some teams and their players like they've made it very clear that they don't want to go to canada right now so that would be my other question here would there be any reason that you know manson wouldn't want to go and you know he wouldn't be the only one um so i reported on saturday speaking of the maple leafs that they are not actively shopping Peter Mrazik. And even though there have been some whispers around about his availability or not,

teams have called and essentially have read the situation and said, okay, Jack Campbell's having a Vezna trophy type season. We know you're going to have to pay him. Could there be a squeeze here for the Maple Leafs? If you're interested in doing something with the goaltender, please give us a call. Please call us at 1-800-DUBIS. So that's the situation with Peter Mrazik.

Had you heard much around the net minder in Toronto? A little bit, but you know what, when I heard you say that, you know what that says to me, Jeff, is that Toronto is doing their summer groundwork. Yeah, that's another thing too. The goalie decisions are coming in the summer.

Because if they can't keep Campbell, then, you know, Mrazic, unless they move him too, he's their guy. But if they do keep Campbell, you're going to want to know where you could potentially move Mrazic if he wants to go, right? Or if you want him to go. The other thing that I mentioned about goaltenders

is that note about Matt Guzda, who's an overage goaltender with the Barry Colts. A number of teams are looking at him right now, including the Maple Leafs, who met with him last week, having a wonderful season in the OHL. I think the Leafs are looking at a couple of other OA goaltenders. I think they look at their goaltending depth, and they see injuries, whether it's to Joe Wall,

Nian Scott, et cetera, and they say, we need to shore up this position ASAP. So I don't think that Guzda is the only one they're looking at. And there are other teams. And the one interesting team there is the Nashville Predators. Now, Matt Guzda is from Knoxville, Tennessee. And after I reported that, I got a call from one team who said, I think it was a couple of years ago, that Chris Mason, former Nashville Predators goaltender, now Nashville Predators... Broadcaster. Yeah, had really been pushing for Matt Guzda and speaking well of him to any team that would listen.

I wonder if he doesn't end up in Toronto if Nashville ends up. I know the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Rangers are also considered frontrunners, but I wonder about Nashville, but the Maple Leafs are very much into him as well. Florida Panthers. Elliot, I reported about Owen Tippett. That name is very much out there, it seems, in every trade. That is the one consistent. He was on the first line the other night and

people were looking at that and going, interesting. We've seen him play now with Barkoff. We've seen him play with Huberto. Your eyebrows go up when you see that, Elliot. Well, I just think that, you know, you know that there's opportunities, right?

And they're trying to do something. I do think if there's a deal with Arizona, Tippett's going to be a part of it. I do. And I think if there's opportunities right and they're trying to do something like i do think if there's a deal with arizona tippett's going to be a part of it i do right and i think if there's like for example say they go clingberg for argument's sake i wouldn't be surprised if tippett's you know a part of that too sometimes you know like like i was we were talking about earlier with raquel you know sometimes it runs its course and that doesn't mean anybody's wrong or anyone's at fault, but sometimes a situation just runs its course. And I think that you look at what Florida's got going up and down their lineup, that's probably the case here. Hey, listen, I'll go back to our earliest conversation here

on the podcast, Jeff Petrie. Yep. He's not the same defenseman this year as the one that we've seen before. Not even close. Every time I watch Montreal Canadiens, I'm like, that is not Jeff Petrie. Yep. He's not the same defenseman this year as the one that we've seen before. Not even close. Like every time I watch Montreal, I'm like, I'm like, that is not Jeff Petrie.

I think we all say that when we watch the Montreal Canadians, a couple of things I want to remark upon before we get to some emails here. Um, want to talk about Dowdy's thousandth. Want to talk about Zuboff and his number retired, but I want to start by talking about Henrik Lundqvist and number 30 goes to the rafters joining net netminders Eddie Jockaman and Mike Richter, two of the most popular goaltenders

to ever put on the Rangers jersey. Henrik Lundqvist joins them. The Rafters at MSG. Your thoughts on Hank? I miss you guys. I miss you. I really have. I miss you guys. I miss you. I really have.

I'm so happy to get this moment with my family and my friends who are up here somewhere. But most of all, I'm so happy I get an opportunity to say thank you. It's been an amazing experience and it's given me so much joy and it's definitely played a huge part to make my journey so special so thank you to everyone in here and around the city Friday night to sit and watch those two ceremonies it's great I love retirement ceremonies I love them they're some of my favorite things to watch when a player gets a jersey retired or a team has a ceremony like that. I love them. The emotion's great. And the relationship between that player and the fans is generally fantastic. There's so much about that kind of thing I really enjoy and both of them i thought were spectacular the thing about

lundquist is ever since he's retired he's decided that he's going to become a presence on social media i think he's so good at it of course and that whole week of behind the scenes stuff and elliot hold on he's good at everything it gets embarrassing for the rest of us i know we're all losers compared to him. We're total losers. Like I'm watching all of his behind the scenes stuff and all the stuff he's throwing out there on social. And I'm like, oh, okay.

He's good at this too. Well, that's just disgusting. But I just thought it was a really nice ceremony. I tweeted out the pictures of all the 30 jerseys in the Rangers of the all the 30 jerseys in the rangers room and all the 56 jerseys in the stars room yeah like everything about jersey retirements i love it's everything that's supposed to be good about a sport it's the love affair between a player and the fan base like that one in new york that was perfect to me the way he came out of there and the the eruption of the audience and you know one of my favorite pieces i ever did was

with lundquist on hockey night in canada when it was still at cbc and we walked through new york together we did the walk from basically from madison square garden into his apartment or condo i guess I guess it wasn't an apartment but you know the one person walking by and saying go Rangers and he's laughing and goes there's one of those fans who notices me now and there was one time and I think it was when they beat Washington in 2012 I want to say what it was if I if I got this wrong but I interviewed him on the ice after they knocked them out while it was bedlam in Madison Square Garden and I remember basically during the interview I said to him like look at this look at this like you're on stage

here at Madison Square Garden like the world's most famous arena. And they're all standing for you while you do this interview. And I got caught up in the moment. There's so many things about that one I just loved. And the Zubov one, it's so different because you couldn't get two completely different people. Like Lundqvist is not, he's not boisterous. He's not over the top, but he's very, very comfortable in the spotlight, obviously. And Zubov always hated it.

He refused to be interviewed. You know, I remember Pierre Lebrun wrote a big piece about him. I think Pierre was still working at ESPN at the time. Pierre wrote a big piece on him a couple of years ago, and they had to work it for like months to get Zubov to agree to do it. And he finally talked because the stars just said, we need to get you some publicity here. You know, I, I loved his line about the goalies covering up my mistakes. That guy didn't make too many mistakes.

Nope. You know, he was just a great, great player. And I always thought one of the most overlooked players to go to the Hall of Fame for a long time. Like I have my list of people who I think should be in the Hall of Fame that aren't there. And Zuboff was at the top of my list. And now my list right near the top of it are guys like

Rod Brindamore and Daniel Alfredson. But Zuboff for a long time was that guy for me. And I was just happy to see him get it. Best Russian defenseman ever? No, I think that's Fetisov. And there's a lot of people listening to this podcast who might be a bit younger. And the real shame was we never saw Fetisov really at his prime enough. We'd see him at the Olympics.

We'd see him in a Canada Cup here and there. You know, Gretzky has always talked about how the winning goal in 87, for whatever reason, Fetisov wasn't on the ice. And does that goal happen if Fetisov is out there? Like a North American coach would have put him out there. So I think it's tough to say anybody but Fetisov, number one, but the next level. Okay, number two then.

Yeah, I mentioned him on your show, but I forget his name, who mentioned Konstantinov and just unfortunately, sadly, his career cut short in the car accident. But to me, Zuboff would be number two. I would put him ahead of Gonchar, who I hope does not listen to this podcast. Very good. And the one thing about Henrik Lundqvist is

his legacy does live on in the NHL with the Lundqvist loop. Are you familiar with this piece of technology that goalies now have? So it's a little loop at the back of the goalie skate that he came up with that attaches, like the goalie pads attach essentially to the back of the skateie skate that he came up with that attaches like the goalie pads attach essentially to the back of the skate which allows and this is pure subtle genius by henrik lundqvist

which allows the pads to ride high so when you go down in the butterfly it covers up your five hole more so your pads are still the exact same size but they just ride higher because of this loop at the back of the skates so well he's retired his number's up at the rafters but you look at goalies in the nhl and you can still see the henrik lundqvist effect alive in the national hockey league that's outstanding drew dowdy game number 1000 has come and gone your thoughts on one of our favorite defensemen well gravis a great interview at the beginning of the year sure did that's number one you know he's still very much at the top of his game you know he talked a big game this offseason about being insulted

and now wanting to show that he's still an olympic level defenseman and he delivered he delivered and i have to say the Kings have a lot more staying power this year than I thought they were going to. And he was injured for a little bit of time, but he's been phenomenal. I don't know how long Drew Dowdy is going to play, but the one thing I think we've all learned about him is that that chip doesn't go away too easily. Like he's got two Stanley Cups, he's got two Olympic gold medals, easily yeah like he's got two stanley cups he's got two olympic gold medals and he doesn't strike me as being overly satisfied with himself no he still wants it one more time he still wants one

more crack at it he wanted one more crack at the gold medal and he wants one more crack at the stanley cup you know what i'm interested in remember when he talked to us about wanting to own a junior hockey team my like number one thing I want to do is honestly own a junior team or work for a junior team or something like that. But at the same time, I definitely want to continue to give back to the youth hockey and the organization I grew up playing for. I'll continue to always have that tournament and help in that aspect. I don't know if I necessarily want to get into coaching young kids.

I mean, maybe if one of my kids played hockey, I would maybe do it. But my dream would definitely probably be to own the London Knights or like Guelph Storm or something like that. That would be my dream. There's a few guys that have talked about wanting to own junior teams. I would just really be curious to see what type of owner Drew Dowdy would be. First of all, he'll have the money to do it. We all know that.

I love seeing players, whether it's, you know, you reported on, you know, John Tavares and Sam Gagne with the Marlboros and the GTHL. Yep. You know, there's always all kinds of rumors about, you know, different players wanting to get involved in junior hockey in an ownership capacity. I just wonder what kind of owner he'd be.

I think it's always great when you have players that went on to have success, specifically financial success in the NHL, stay in the game and do it at the junior level. Plenty have done it. Some in a quiet capacity, some in a not so quiet capacity, some very successful. And we think of the Hunters in London specifically. And some hasn't worked out. I always wonder about Doughty. What type of owner Drew Doughty would be? Be an interesting one.

I mean, he's a London guy. We played for the Gulf Storm. Always wondered about that. Someday you'll get your answer. I hope he's an owner. And we can all beg him for jobs. On that, we'll take a break. Come back with some of your emails after this.

All right. Welcome back to the podcast. Your emails at 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca and your phone calls at 1-833-311-3232. Let's start there. Anthony in Muskegon. Hi, Jeff and Freed. This is Anthony Bartoli calling from Muskegon, Michigan. I just have a question about our hometown guy, Justin Advocator, who recently signed with the Grand Rapids Griffins on a PTO. And I was coming to think that if he's still eligible to play,

if he would ever get called up from the Griffins to the NHL, considering he's still on his buyout history, that'll still carry with the Wings until 2025, 2026 season if he's able to still be called up if he were to have a good job in Grand Rapids while playing underneath there. Thanks, guys. Keep up the great work. Bye-bye. Well, first of all, Anthony, thank you very much for recognizing we do great work. That's very important. Pat yourself on the back there, Barry Horowitz. Very nice.

I said we, I said we, but I was more referring to me and Amal. The answer to your question is yes, they could. Now, we should mention that Ablicator is now going to the Olympics with Team USA, but the answer is yes. Now, where people got confused, and I admit I did too, was if you did a compliance buyout on someone, you couldn't re-sign them for a year. So basically, out of the lockout, if you did a compliance buyout, you couldn't re-sign with your team for another year

or the team that bought you out for another year. However, there was a situation a couple of years ago where Michael Stone was bought out by the Calgary Flames and then they signed him. And I was like, what? And they said it was a regular buyout. It was not a compliance buyout. So they were allowed to re-sign him. So the answer is yes, since Abdelkader was a regular buyout and not a compliance buyout, they could technically re-sign him. Just for the purposes of people that may not be familiar with what the term compliance

buyout means, and I know we make a lot of assumptions on this program as to who knows what. Oh, yeah. Good point. Compliance buyout just means it's a buyout. I mean, these come after a lockout when the NHL wants to reset its salary cap. Compliance buyouts are buyouts that don't count against your salary cap regular buyouts do and when the nhl and players association during their first covid break there was some

discussion of compliance buyouts in order to give teams some cap relief but the thought very much was no we're keeping all the money in the system. Yeah, the owners were like, no extra money that we have to pay. That's right. No money is going out. Just so everyone understands what compliance buyout is versus a regular buyout. Johan from southern Sweden. Wouldn't Dallas be all in on Chikrin? If they trade Klingberg, they would get assets to include in a trade with Arizona,

basically swapping Klingberg plus something to get a very cap-friendly Elite D. Wouldn't Dallas be involved with Chikrin, Elliot? I haven't heard it. Doesn't mean it's not true, but I have not that the stars are right now in acquisition mode and specifically on the blue line when we've talked about this before the one thing that Jim Nill did very specifically in the offseason was go out and get two defensemen one of them Ryan Suter and the other was Yanni Hockenpah and that was to help shore up the defense in case something happened with John Klingberg

and they had to either move him or move from him at the end of the season if they couldn't come to a new contract. So I think that's probably the reason you haven't heard Jacob Chikrin mentioned with the Dallas Stars. They've made their defense moves. From Ken in BC, what are the chances that with the success of the Rangers so far this year, Chris Drury is willing to move a Capo Caco or a Lexi Lafreniere

for a JT Miller type player? Oof. Hmm. That's big. How quickly do we want to get a phone call from New York? If I say quickly, will you make this podcast juicier? You know, I think I don't know that they want to do that yet. I really don't.

Look, I think the Rangers are going to do something or at least try to do something big. And if you try to do something big, then you have to give up quality to get quality. But I don't know how eager they are to trade either one of those two guys. So before you introduce our musical guest, I have a question for you.

I saw a lot of this on my timeline this week. I got a couple DMs about it. Is the Michigan now boring? And you know what? I wanted to say that I was a little bit surprised by this. I guess it shows how quickly our attention spans change. I think the players who've pulled it off deserve credit for being so good at it now. And so able to do it that people are actually asking

this question but i'm amazed that we are getting it now is the michigan boring so jeff merrick yeah hockey nerd yeah what say you okay so i mentioned this on my radio show. I can't remember whether it was Thursday or Friday. And mainly got grief about it. But for me, the Michigan itself is now boring. But I'll tell you what's not boring. And we saw this on Saturday with Jonathan Huberto of the Florida Panthers. Now I like the fake Michigan. Huberto behind the net. In front shot.

They score. Sam Bennett in overtime. And the Panthers come back to win it. 5-4. The final score. Sam Bennett in overtime, and the Panthers come back to win it. 5-4, the final score, Sam Bennett the overtime winner. Smoke him if he got him tonight. In behind the net, the Panthers get the change. Huberto in behind the net, in the office. And then Sam Bennett just weaves his way through three San Jose Sharks.

Now I like the fake Michigan that draws defensemen out of play and then allows an easy pass to the slot. Now I like the Michigan being used as a tactic. And I'll tell you why. Because when someone goes down to scoop the puck, both goaltenders and defensemen freak out because they don't want to be on highlight films. And Huberto just waited and waited.

He was actually looking like he was going to try that Michigan play. He did for a second. Yeah, where he was going to toe drag it. And then he recognized Bennett was going to come down the middle of the slot. Realized, well, I'll just put it on my backhand and put it on a platter for Sam Bennett as he dunks it home in the Panthers win. And David Savard knows he's going to be on a highlight film every time you see Trevor Zegers throwing a pass Samuel Montembo.

Right? And he's like, oh, and you can tell, like, Savard's trying to get there to the far side, and he just can't make it. And I'm sure in the back of his head, Savard is saying, oh, no, I'm going to be on this highlight forever. Ugh. I like to fake Michigan because people

lose their minds. The goaltenders and the defensemen. But the actual move itself, I don't know. I can't get excited about it anymore, Elliot. Can you? Well, here's the thing. I'm not saying that it's not a very skilled move. Like being able to do that

and having the guts to do that in full stride during an NHL game. And I can't underscore the hugeness of that. This is like the best league in the world. And you're able to do that in a split second. Like that is guts and that is skill. And I don't want to take anything away from that. But I just think we've seen it too much at every single level of hockey that I can't pretend to go oh wow about it anymore unless there's a twist to it the one initial where mike leg did it where he was standing and did it yeah to me that's different than ziggurats doing it at speed the other day mountain ball and they score what a play there, huh? Oh, a big goal there for Trevor Zegers, who went from one side of the net behind it to the other side and beat the newly named goaltender for period two, Sam Montembeau. And Zegers has just given the Ducks the goal they just released. Boy, that is amazing, Steve. Trevor Zegers there pulls off the Michigan.

He's been trying to do it, and he finally does it right here. Picked up that puck on the blade of his stick behind the Montreal net, skating right to left, and put it up top before Montembeau could slide over. So Trevor Zegers now with a... Or Svechnikov when he did it. Yes. Like, if you can do it at speed, I don't care how many times it's been done before.

To be able to do that in this game with how fast it is, I think that's amazing. I'm not saying it's not amazing. It is a supremely skilled move. And I know I'm sounding like the ultimate hockey hipster saying, hmm, you know, how many people does it take to change a light bulb? It's a rare number. You've probably never heard of it.

I know I'm turning into the hipster on this one, but I don't know. I can't get excited about the Michigan anymore, Elliot. You have the attention span of an ordinary housefly. No, that's you. Yeah, but at least I'm still impressed by it because I recognize the greatness of being still impressed by it because i recognize the greatness of being able to do it i recognize the greatness of it just like i recognize the

greatness you are a victim of social media no i've just seen it too often you need the dopamine of something different or else you can't handle it anymore that might be it cats and laser pointers welcome the life of jeff merrick that's what I need to be constantly stimulated. Stimulation junkie. You shouldn't be like driving a car anymore because if you don't have dopamine, you're half asleep and can't control it. You're probably right.

It's so embarrassing. Anyway, who's our musical guest this week, Jeff? Well, I'm glad you asked because Elliot taken us out as a French artist who might be better known from his work with his collective, but his solo project really stands out as well. Mike Clay

has spent the last few years putting out great music with Clay and Friends, but has never shied away from going off on his own. With his latest single, here's Mike Clay with Cote a Cote

on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Come on baby, come, come on baby, come on baby now, oh yeah Come on baby, come, come on baby, come on baby right now, oh yeah We said what? I should stay down, down, down, up, up, down We said what? I should stay down, down, down l'air Down, down, down On passe pour le fun C'est le vent

J'ai l'air Down, down, down On passe pour le fun Pour l'amour c'est pas pour pouvoir On est parti de la West Coast C'est ma réveille en Argentine Sous-titrage ST' 501 I'll see you next time.