32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Should They Buy or Sell?

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

Jeff and Elliotte open the podcast by reviewing the Red Wings defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and a discussion around whether the Leafs should really be buyers at the deadline. They get into Jacob Markstrom and his potential trade availability (9:07) and dive into the future of Jake Guentzel and whether the Penguins go into a mini rebuild (16:09). Next, the Ottawa Senators are gauging the trade market for veteran players (26:39) and Jeff and Elliotte give their thoughts on Drew Doughty responding to trade proposals on X/Twitter (34:33). Finally, is Cody Hodgson planning a comeback to professional hockey (40:20)?The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (50:19) and Elliotte sits down with Colorado Avalanche Forward Nathan MacKinnon (1:26:03).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

No, no, no, no. We're doing this right now. No, hang on, hang on. Hang on a second. We are taking a time out and we're talking about Scooby-Doo. Yes, here it is once again, 32 Thoughts the Podcast, presented as always by the GMC Sierra, Marek Friedman and Dom Schramatti along with you. A little bit later, he is one of the most focused individuals you will find anywhere in the NHL.

He is Nathan McKinnon. Elliott sat down with him on Friday, one day in advance of the Avalanche, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs. And Elliott beating the Toronto Maple Leafs was kind of a theme this weekend around the NHL and maybe on Sunday from one of the more unlikeliest foes. Planes, trains, automobiles, snowstorms. The Detroit Red Wings still got through the game was delayed a little bit almost a full hour but at the end it was red wings four with an empty netter maple leafs two in a game that i think a lot of elite teams would look at and say this is

a game we need to get on the wings early foot on the the throat, and not let up. That was a disappointing defeat. And one of the things we were talking about before the game, Jeff, in our 52-minute pregame, and let's face it. Nice tap dance. Let's face it. The real winners were the audience who got to listen to Dave and Justin, Nick, and myself talk for an extra 22 minutes. Please.

That is worth its weight in gold, that quality television. Anyway, one of the things that remind me, I remember a couple years ago when Victor Hedman, they had that game, Tampa, L.A., and Tampa was short guys, and Hedman knew he was going to play 40 minutes or something. And John Cooper said that Hedman was so excited to play the game that night because they knew they had every excuse to lose, but Hedman was challenging himself to see if they could win it.

It was a personal challenge for Hedman. I just remembered that and i thought about detroit they're walking in they really looked sorry guys disheveled they looked like they'd been sitting on a plane for eight hours you're calling someone i know that is true oh uh yeah it's it's it's pure pot calling the kettle black. The kettle is on line two, Mr. Potts. It's embarrassing. There's no question. I am completely shameless, and I have no morals.

Yes, they look disheveled. They were sitting on a plane all day. I kind of wondered, would Iserman make them sit there all day in suits and ties? And the answer was no. They walked in. They were tired. But you wonder, are they going to take this as a challenge we have every excuse to lose nobody's going to think we can win this game and the way they celebrated at the end of the game jeff the answer was the bench

was obviously yes obviously yes but you're right toronto should have pounded them early for the travel reasons and also Samsonov's first game um you know you've got to protect your goalie and that to me was that was the biggest loss for Toronto in in the game he made a huge save when it was still 2-2 a minute before Kopp scored the winner Samsonov gave you a game where you could have won and you need that for him and you need that for yourselves that's that's a bad loss for toronto and detroit is right there right there now they're back in the race they're right with them and that's the one thing about toronto like it was a bad week it's been a bad stretch they've let some teams off the mat here and again that takes us back to a debate that we had on the Maple Leafs earlier in the season

which is should this team really be buying like is this the year to buy and they wanted Nylander done and they got it done because they wanted to know that that bit of business was over. But still, still, they have to be asking themselves, with the limited amount of stuff that we have to trade, is this really the year to buy? And I would be asking that question again this weekend. What's the old saying? Managers will always tell you. Teams make the decision whether we're buyers or not. There was that one year in Toronto when David Ayers came in

for the Carolina Hurricanes, which pretty much made up Kyle Dubas' mind. That's right. The next meeting he was supposed to trade for Zach Bogosian, basically. That's right. There were deals on the table that went away based on that game. Screw it, I'm not doing that. Yep, I'm not rewarding this.

So I think that's a really interesting one. I think for Maple Leafs fans, I've been saying, and we've been talking about it all year, don't be surprised if the Toronto Maple Leafs come trade deadline time, don't do anything. Or if they do anything, it's not much, unlike other teams that are going to compete for the Stanley Cup. Because on Saturday, there was bad weather in Buffalo.

We all know the story. They moved the NFL playoff game. That's right. You were there. You know, Brad Treeliving made a trip on Saturday afternoon to go see the Sabres and the Canucks. And I think one of the things we're all kind of sitting there saying, you know, he doesn't see Vancouver a lot.

He probably hasn't seen Buffalo a ton. But everybody was kind of wondering, with the weather the way it was and the team playing that night, it's pretty interesting that he went down there to make that trip. And there's some interesting names you could look at in those situations and say, what's he up to here? But to be up 3-0 on Colorado and then to have that team in 2-2 with a couple minutes left and not come out with a point,

it's a really rough outcome. Really rough outcome. Especially since Sheldon Keefe tried the mini-Darko. He didn't go for the $25,000 fine, and he didn't have the crazy eyes that the Raptors head coach had. But he did complain about the one call and get three first period power plays about it so but the uh the the austin matthews call on saturday night you're referring to yep yeah and then uh was rewarded early uh in that game against the tri-riders well the good thing

for the trinimate beliefs elliot is that as they go out on this road trip their schedule is going to be easy checks notes edmont oops, they've won 10 in a row. The Calgary Flames, the Vancouver Canucks, and then the Seattle Kraken, who at the time of this recording have won nine games in a row. Happy road trip, Toronto. Yes, and obviously a huge win for the Red Wings. And Patrick Kane, he left in the first period.

Tough shift where he took a big hit from Holmberg and then fell, making a good defensive play on Holmberg. What a great scoring chance. But the initial word is it's not the hip. I think we all worried when we saw that, that it was a hip injury. And Derek Lalonde said post-game that he didn't that it was a hip injury. And Derek Lalone said post-game that he didn't think it was the hip, and I'd heard the same thing reported during game. We'll wait for further clarity, but the word is it was not the hip.

I'll say this. If there's one injury everybody's waiting on right now, it's Jack Eichel. That's the one uh he he he got hurt against boston on thursday he came back he scored and everybody thought this was no big deal and i guess it the soreness just didn't go away on friday and i and i heard there was some inflammation there and they're doing some tests and I was told you know we're gonna have to wait a few days to figure out what this is and I don't like to jump to conclusions but put it this way there there's some people waiting okay what exactly do we have

here and until we know it's not that bad and people are nervous i guess that's the best way to put it i don't like to overstate anything i don't know but i think nervous is the right word until you know for sure this isn't a bad thing people are nervous and getting called up because of this injury brendan brisson from the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL and in the process turns Pat Brisson from agent to nervous, anxious hockey dad as we

stand by to see how Brisson does with this call. That's a great one for that family certainly. You talked about Eichel on Saturday. A couple of other things from your conversation with Ron McLean on Saturday headlines. Jacob Markstrom and the no move. Jacob Markstrom and the conversation.

What's up with Jacob Markstrom? Well, look, you know, Kevin Weeks set Twitter on fire on the weekend and he did it in a very stylish way. I have to say, if you want to create maximum carnage, just tweeting out a picture of Jacob Markstrom would do that. I think that the tough thing for the Flames was

it was on their father's mentor's trip, and Markstrom was there with his brother, and they basically told me, we don't want to talk about this because it's a really nice time for us. They've done really well. They won at home with all the families there. don't we don't want to talk about this because it's it's a really nice time for us they they done really well they went at home with all the families there they won in arizona and in the obviously they went and they won with vegas so you know they were saying to me they didn't want to say anything but you know the the thing that i heard just from talking around is that number one

as of saturday night and and Sunday when we taped this, I don't think they'd gone to Markstrom with anything. There's no evidence I could find that there was something there that they'd gone to him with. So that's number one. And number two, what a couple people said to me was there's an understanding there that they're not just going to him with anything. For example, if some team says, you know, we'll trade you Markstrom for a seventh round pick, Calgary's not going to him with that.

What I was told in the words I used, and I was told was high bar, that it really has to be a great trade or somewhere they really think Markstrom would want to go. And other than that, they're not going to him. And because I just don't think Markstrom wants to be bothered by it. And then there's also this, this, the Kelly Rudy rule, which is that he believes that no move clause players shouldn't even be asked. And, you know, that's probably as far an ideology that you can asked. And, you know, that's probably as far an ideology that you can get on this, you know, and Craig Conroy was a player and I would assume that he has some

recognition that of what it's like to be a player and sort of put into the bad position of being asked to waive a no move clause. that's where i think it stands jeff is that i don't think anything's happened so far and i think the words i was told was high bar to even go to him so um i've thought a lot about and i've talked to kelly about and i've talked to you about it as well and um kelly's been up front about this from day one his thoughts on on the no move clause just so all of our listeners have an understanding. Kelly's point in all of that is, because I think a lot of listeners may look at that and say, well, why shouldn't you even be able to ask a player to waive his no-trade?

Kelly's point is that that is something that's negotiated into a contract. That is something that two sides have agreed upon. Sometimes players will get a no-tr trade in exchange for a lower salary. They'll have that type of security. And I've always looked at Kelly's logic behind that and understood it and agreed with it. To me, it sounds and feels like you turn a contract into charity, which is give me something in exchange for nothing. We want you to waive your no trade so we can do this bit of business.

That player isn't getting anything for agreeing to waive that no trade. Now, if there was, and we'll see what happens in the next round of CBA negotiations, maybe this will get brought up, maybe it's been brought up before. and we'll see what happens in the next round of CBA negotiations. Maybe this will get brought up. Maybe it's been brought up before. I still believe if a player has a no trade and you ask that player to waive it and you make a deal

that that player should somehow be financially compensated for waiving that no trade clause. That, to me, is a deal. You waive the no trade. You get this in exchange. We want to do this business with you. This is how you're going to be compensated for it. Well, that happens in the NBA. The NBA has something called a trade kicker. I don't think that this would be allowed in the NHL under the

current CBA, but the NBA does have a rule. It's called a trade kicker. And basically what it is, is that a player who has one gets more money if he's dealt to a new team. So for example, like one of the trade kickers out there, a couple of years ago, Ben Simmons was traded and he had a 15% trade kicker. So now you can waive it if you really want to, and I don't remember what happened with Simmons, but I do remember in that conversation that that came up. So the NBA does have a rule for that.

I don't think you could do that in the NHL. Someone will tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can. No, that was my point. In the next round of CBA negotiations, for this one, under this CBA, you can't do it. Like a contract is a contract. There can be no new money introduced. None of that.

But all I'm saying is in the next CBA. If that's something on the PA's radar, I don't know. But further to Kellylly rudy's point uh i think that if you're going to again this is all philosophical and theoretical ask a player to wave and that player agrees they should be compensated if a trade is consummated that's my only point there and we'll see what happens with jacob markstrom but you can understand why he's a highly thought of commodity out there um excellent excellent goaltender i i have to tell you that was uh that was a great performance by the flames that was uh they had a hell of a week

i wouldn't let the parents go home or they or the mentors go home like you're stuck there you have to stay yeah sorry yeah that was like the um that one uh that one early New York Islanders team. What year was it? Was it 75? And they were playing at MSG. Chico Rush told me this story. They were playing at Madison Square Garden, and the circus was there right before the game against the Rangers,

and someone from the circus mistakenly put a bag of elephant dung in the Islanders' room, and they beat the Rangers and decided that their good luck charm was the bag of elephant dung in the islanders room and they beat the rangers and decided that their good luck charm was the bag of elephant dung and chico said they took it from game to game as their good luck charm against the new york rangers anyhow um i don't know why i gotta tell you thank god i wasn't on that team that's not not the... That's not... I'd rather force the parents and the mentors to stay than have to carry around a bag of elephant poop. That's my contribution to this conversation. I wonder whose job that would have been,

to carry the bag of elephant poop around. Wow. Okay, off that page, onto the Pittsburgh Penguins page you talked about this Saturday, the future of Jake Gensel of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Well, obviously,

there have been a lot of rumors and the fans in Vancouver are drooling over the possibility of Jake Gensel being a Canuck. We all know how much Jim Rutherford loves his former Penguins and Gensel's a really talented guy. The one thing that a few people said to me is that, first of all, I still think

there's going to be another conversation between Gensel and the Penguins, at least one. And I would assume it's going to be sometime around or after the all-star break. But the one thing I really got told here is that the real determining factor is it's not even as much the money or the contract as it is where are the Penguins going. And if, you know, they've put themselves back in the playoff race. They really looked ugly early in the year. Crosby is all world. He's very much in the year uh Crosby is all world he's he's very much in the heart trophy conversation and as we put this podcast to bed they are in the race and and I just think that's where it's

going to come down to where is this team going over the next couple of years because what they're talking about here is you know if they really think they're going to have to go through a kind of mini rebuild here what is that going to mean for players like Gensel does it make more sense for them to move a Gensel than keep them and the other thing that becomes a factor is if you want to keep guys like Gensel, they are going to want you to add. And I think one of the questions the Penguins are asking themselves right now is, does it really make sense for us to add? They don't have a ton of cap room to just go out and throw money at people. So you're going to have to trade for people. And does it make sense for them to be giving up? Like we just talked about Toronto. Is this the

year you're chasing for Toronto? They've got to be asking themselves that question. But I think the other thing for Pittsburgh is the same thing. They don't have a ton of assets. Does it make sense for them to be throwing some of those assets away or trading some of those assets for something that helps you win this year or next year? And I think they're asking themselves that very question right now. Does it really make sense? So to me, the question is not about Gensel's contract. It's about A, do they think that's the thing that makes the most sense for

them or b does Gensel want to be there if you know Pittsburgh's going to say hold on we're not making short-term moves to make ourselves better now Penguins fans are going to hear this and they're going to think what does Letang think what does Malkin think what does Crosby think and I think those are all very fair questions. I just think it's like the Nylander thing. You deal with what's first on the calendar. And the first thing that's on the calendar is Gensel. And I really do believe, after researching it last weekend,

the direction of the franchise is the biggest determining factor in Gensel's future there. Okay, while you were talking, and it wasn't that I was ignoring you. No, I know you zone out, but it's okay because I do talk for a long time. I found the poop story. Oh my God.

It was 1975. I was shoveling the bleep and you were looking for it. It was 75, and in the opening round of the playoffs, the Islanders beat the Rangers. And at MSG, they were sharing the facility with Barnum and Bailey, and there were bags of elephant dung around. And they went down in the next series.

Now, they ended up beating the New York Rangers, and the bag of dung became sort of, I guess, a lucky charm for the New Yorkork islanders so they ditched that they're playing the penguins in the next round they go down three games to love yeah if you'll remember elliot they were the second team ever to do it bingo yeah exactly they're the second team to ever ever go down to uh to go down three nothing and win the first one uh were the maple leaf, who beat the Detroit Red Wings, ironically, considering that first conversation in 1942. So they needed a spark, and they decided that they needed to go get a bag of elephant poop

from Barnum & Bailey, which was their good luck charm against the Rangers. So it was an equipment manager that made the trip with the elephant poo to Pittsburgh, which became the good luck charm for the Islanders. And they ended up defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins, won nothing in game seven to become the second team of all time to go down three Cobb and then win. Sorry, you were saying something about the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And then you remember what happened the next round in the semi-final uh they were lost to the flyers yes but they were down ended up winning the stanley cup they were down three nothing in that series and i think it was al arbor who joked we've got them right where we want them and they won three in a row they forced it to game seven and they lost game seven at the spectrum four to one so then the players i believe at that time the islanders set a record uh i think they won i think nine or ten games facing elimination something like that and they maybe i don't know it would have to be be maybe eight i don't know somewhere but at the time they set a record for most consecutive games winning when facing elimination but i remember they were down three nothing the next round forced game seven and lost to philly

speaking of the islanders uh we saw one of the weirdest visuals we've ever seen on saturday uh in nashville against against the Predators when after the Nashville Predators scored the empty net goal to make it 3-1, Yusuf Arsene with the empty netter on that one, I guess everybody thought the game was over. Yes. Everybody bailed. So Thomas Hickey was the guy who kind of explained it a bit

because initially when it happened, I was like, are these guys protesting? Are they on strike somehow? I kind of laughed and I said, are they protesting the stick makers because Mayfield's stick broke, allowing the game-winning goal to beat Sorokin with seven seconds left. So I didn't know if it was some kind of work to rule or something like that. Just a horrible way to lose.

Although I give credit to the Predators Twitter account who tweeted at me or a wonderful way to win something like that. But I wondered if something happened that the Islanders just said, you know what, we're, we're furious and we're leaving. And the thing that kind of made me realize that it probably wasn't the case is I don't think the coach would do that. Like Lane Lambert is not storming off the bench with time remaining because he's mad about something and the whole team's following him.

And later on, someone sent me the video. If you look at it, when the puck goes in, it says zero on the TV screen. So the clock had to be... And the horn goes off. Yeah, and the horn goes off. So the clock had to be right there too. They thought the game was over.

Now, why only six guys stayed? Maybe the linesman got them or the referee got them or they realized they were dropping the puck. I'm not really sure. But Thomas Hickey did make a good explanation for it because the first time I saw it, Jeff, I was like, boy, the audience must be furious. And then I started to say,

what would Lou Lamorello think about this? Is he going to be happy with his team doing a work to rule with one second left in regulation but unfortunately the story was nowhere near that good and they simply thought the game was over you know bull horvat stayed on the bench too and the cutaway to horvat he has like one of the weirdest looks and expressions that we've seen from bull horvat and i like i'll get to write this one down because uh the next time we interview Horvat, I'm just curious to see like, what's going through your head at that moment.

You look over to your bench, it's empty. You got Lee Pellick, Dobson, Fashing and Nelson on the ice, but everybody's gone. I'm just curious, like what's happening in between the years of Bo Horvat at that moment.

Nonetheless, it's weird because everyone in Nashville is standing up on their bench and you look over the islanders and it is the bench that hockey players forgot at that moment in the nfl you used to have to do that if you scored a touchdown with no time left you had to kick the extra point it was part of the rule and about five years ago they they changed the rule and what one of the things that changed it was my vikings one of the few times they didn't break my heart like it was tough weekend for some football fans like those cowboy fans it was brutal weekend uh great weekend for the lions fans haven't said that a lot but great weekend for the Lions fans. Haven't said that a lot, but great weekend for the Lions fans.

But in 2018, Minnesota won a miracle playoff game against New Orleans. And, you know, with no time left, they scored a miracle touchdown to win. And they didn't break our hearts for a change. And they made the Saints come back on the field for the extra point. Could you imagine? Oh, you're in your room. You're despondent.

You've given up the most ridiculous. The Saints deserved to win that game, and they lost on a fluke touchdown. Oh, by the way, you've got to come back out so we can kick the extra point. It's just, I would have told them to get lost. i don't care how much they would have fined me salt on an open wound yes you know most of my friends i'm not much of an nfl uh followers as you can tell um but all my buddies are all pittsburgh steelers fans and so they're on pins and needles and they've got one extra day now uh to worry and

fret because the bills game has been been pushed to monday because of the major snowstorm so um that's about the extent i follow the nfl through my friends who are all pittsburgh steelers fans meanwhile ottawa looking for hey jeff bills fans hey jeff uh ottawa senators looking for veterans gauging the market on younger players well i think they have a quite a few untouchables, and I think those guys are obvious. Like, Chikrin's name came out last week, and I don't think they're rushing to do anything like that.

I really don't. I do think one thing they're figuring out is who teams like. And it doesn't... You know, they're a new front office. Stayhouse has been there for a few months. Bonus has been there for a little bit longer. Dave Poulin just got there. You know, I was talking to one of the managers the other day of another team, and he says,

one of the first things you do when you get in there is, you know, the person you you replace some of them are really good they'll leave you detailed stuff and others don't and now i don't know which way that went in ottawa but even if you're left detailed notes you've got to find out for yourself right is this still true did this change and and and he thinks that's one of the reasons like like things like names like chicken is getting out there, whether it's true or not, it's because everyone wants to find out what is Ottawa thinking of doing?

Because, look, when a team comes out and says, look, we want to do something like Ottawa basically has, these guys, they're like sharks, right? Oh, there's a millimeter of blood in the Atlantic Ocean. Let's all go for it. Like, that's the way these guys are. And so they're asking, what are you thinking? And look, like, I don't think Chuck's getting traded.

I don't think Stutzel's getting traded. I don't think Sanderson's getting traded. And I've been a real moron by suggesting any of these names because now people are going to be like, oh, Elliot didn't say X name. So there could be traded. No, I think they've got a lot of quite a few untouchables here, but I think

they want to know. Elliot Friedman says Drake Bathurston is getting traded. That's right. He left him out of his list. I think they want to know like who's, what do people think of our players? And that's what I think Otto was doing.

I mean, we're going to hear a lot of crazy rumors with Vancouver. I think that's going to, just because they've got such a passionate fan base and they're so aggressive and they're out there on social media, I think Vancouver is going to be the rumor center of the NHL over the next little while. Like, obviously, I think there's a lot of circumstantial evidence that makes sense on the gensel erickson act this weekend i don't buy that

one i i don't see any any reason why minnesota would do that um you know i it would really surprise me but i i just think you're going to start hearing a lot of stuff about the canucks i and obviously the wild the wild are going to have some big decisions they're going to have to make you know the the coach bounce it's not there that was an awful awful loss like the only thing i was mad about the ice you know you know it off the ice and we've seen that a few times this year the only thing i didn't like about that from Arizona's point of view is that the wild shouldn't be allowed to lose that bad in those uniforms. Those are beautiful uniforms. And if they say we have to put them away because we lost six, nothing to Arizona.

That is a, that is a capital crime by the, by the coyotes tootes to make Minnesota put those uniforms away. What they should have done is call the timeout and everyone had to go and change. We cannot lose this badly. That Clayton Keller goal, what a beautiful goal. What a hockey player. What a great hockey player he is. Fantastic.

But I look at, like Minnesota does not have a lot to trade. And, you know, it's been a hard year there. Some of the recent stories, the investigations. Injuries. Injuries. And, you know, what someone said to me, and they made a really good point, is that whenever you go through what the Wild went through with investigations, you always wonder,

okay, you go through the initial investigation, and then people start looking around, what else comes, what's the aftermath, and I don't know that I'm expecting anything, to be perfectly honest, I don't know that I'm expecting anything, to be perfectly honest. But you're really on edge. And when you're losing, like they're starting to lose now. I could just see Minnesota being like, we just have to, I don't know, get to the end of the season, whatever, and just take stock on everything that's happened.

Because your organization is just shell-shocked when you're going through times like this. And I think that's exactly what the Wild are going through right now. The Kings are different, Jeff. The Kings, it's just hockey. And eight losses in a row, they have to figure out simply how to win games. And it's obviously, Edmonton has caught them now and that's that's a big concern seattle is is coming back right at them calgary is coming back right at them it's a big concern but i think it's different when it's just hockey as opposed to you know some of the off-ice stuff the wild have had to deal with

ellie i know we've used up a lot of oxygen this year in our lives talking about the Philadelphia Flyers. That was a really emotional week for the Philadelphia Flyers. Is it going to be calm for a while for the Philadelphia Flyers, or will there be minor eruptions, volcanic eruptions? I'm sure they hope it's going to be a lot quieter.

Look, they had a great weekend. They beat the Jets. And the good news for the Jets is not too bad on Shifley, and it looks like Kyle Conner's getting close. So the rich get richer there. But they had the win over the Wild on Friday, too. And by the way, I could not believe the Wild didn't get a penalty shot in overtime.

Like right before the winning goal, that was crazy. I know Keith was mad on Saturday, but that one was even more egregious on Friday. But look, like, you know, Drysdale didn't play on Saturday sick, but he looked really good for them early. And, you know, Philly got a bit of a jolt, a positive one, with Drysdale's arrival. The one thing I wonder there is I really wonder if they try to get Seeler done.

You know, they kind of have to figure out where they're going here. You know, Drysdale adds another body, and I do think that they would like to start figuring out where they're going long-term here but to me the guy i think they they really try to get done uh and no insult to anybody else but i i think sealer um that's the one i that's the one a couple teams told me um and again i don't want anyone to turn this into what does that mean for Walker I because I don't know but I had some teams say indicate to me they think Philly is trying to get at least

Seeler done although I think a lot of people look at that and say of course they're looking to extend the left-hand shot D there's a you know that right-hand shot as you mentioned and Sean Walker on the expiring contract they just put in another right-hand shot, as you mentioned, and Sean Walker on the expiring contract. They just put in another right-hand shot defenseman in Jamie Drysdale. Rasmus Ristolainen, right-shot defenseman, is sitting there as well. Someone's drawing the straw here.

Sanheim can play both sides, yeah. So we'll see what happens, but that doesn't surprise me about Seeler. Look, we all know what philadelphia wants to build and the kind of players they want to build around sealer fits identity very much thought on drew dowdy responding to uh trade proposals so somebody somebody sent me this and uh it's crazy stuff like fans are fans they're discussing trades what can we do and you know the the kings fans they want to see spence and clark in the same game which the kings have decided to avoid and i i really like both those young players and i guess there's some tweeter who said well we'll play after trade

matt roy who's been our best defenseman for the last five years and drew dowdy who hasn't tweeted in about five years tweeted ha at this and what that says to me is that Drew Dowdy in Carolina on Monday is going to have a monster night so Drew Dowdy by the way prior to that hadn't tweeted since june 2022 and it was about f1 that's right um i i do i can't let something go here i do have to remark on it the person who made that tweet that dowdy responded to yeah at marcel and rogie like come on that's a great twitter handle do you think it's a person who's half marcel dion half rogie vachon that would be the perfect hockey player that would be they could play the game by themselves hall of fames two of my two of my all-time favorite players in the history of the sport, Marcel Dion and Rogi Vachon, going away.

West Coast Hockey Bias at Marcel and Rogi. Great, great handle right there. I got to tell you, that tweet is a window into the soul of Drew Doughty and the Kings right now. Okay, Dr. Freud. Well, no, no, no, because I try to put myself in people's shoes. I got Freud's book on the bookshelf. I'm looking at it right now.

Because I always try to put myself in people's shoes. And it's going really badly for the Kings right now. And if they go out and they have a big night and they beat the hurricanes on monday night you're gonna know that look drew doesn't need any more motivation he's got a lot of pride they're struggling he wants to get a win but you always have to dig a little bit deeper and drew dowdy is going to be digging a little bit deeper because some rando on social media said that Matt Roy

is the best defenseman on the Kings for the last five years. I respect it. I respect it. I get a lot of people who take shots at me too, and that's life in the big city. I think if you're going to do these jobs, that's the way it is. And I really have a thick skin, and I don't really pay attention to a lot of it. But I admit there have been times where someone said something about me,

and I'm like, oh yeah? Like, just a random person on Twitter, a bot with nine numbers at the end of their name, an OnlyFans model. It's all happened. I've had people do shots like that, and I just say, oh yeah? And it's stupid. It's really really stupid i cannot deny it's stupid

but once in a while we do need to dig a little bit more out of ourselves so when someone sent me that i just laughed i i just thought it was funny you know what i find elliot when things are going poorly for you either personally or professionally yeah it's a really good time to spend a lot of your hours on twitter real real smart things are going awful i'm gonna go on twitter right now drew dowdy what are you doing uh i think i think i think it's like you you know, I think, as you know, the media, we love Doughty. We love Doughty. Are you kidding?

For sure. This is another chapter in the legend that is Drew Doughty. I really want to see him have a monster of a game on Monday night. Like just a monster of a game. Like just a monster of a game. If you're producing that Kings Carolina game for Los Angeles, that drew Dowdy response is what you open up with. Depends on how good your relationship is with them. Then you wait until it's always tougher on the team broadcasters.

It really is. They have to, they have to walk a tighter line than we do. That is true okay uh i want to fly through a couple of things here um any update on cory perry in that situation no i i don't think so i hadn't heard much today i think i i think people just want to be as quiet as they possibly can on it okay um edmonton 10 straight wins courtesy courtesy of Evan Bouchard. Yeah, Edmonton-Toronto on Tuesday night. Games that, you know, the only thing that bothers me

about Edmonton-Toronto on the Tuesday night is that it's a regional game. McDavid-Matthews should never be regional games, never. It's the only thing I don't like about it. The entire audience should be able to watch these games. But they look fantastic. And, and, and again, I think they think they're a little bit thin, the Oilers and, but before they kind of dialed it back, it's like we talked about Toronto.

Now I think they're looking around again. Cody Hodgson comeback. Yeah. That made me smile on Saturday, elliot i was surprised at how much reaction it got but maybe uh people love them yeah maybe i should love them um people loved cody hodgson i did cody hodgson first round pick played 325 games retired at 26 um you know admitted later he had a condition and it's a condition that's different for different people um and uh you know for him it caused him some real serious muscle injuries tears and things like that and he

talked about it later he had to retire and um you know i heard someone sent me a note and i don't know if this person would want me to say who it was, but it was a former player who skates with him. He sent me a note saying, I skate with Cody Hodgson, and he looks great, and I think he wants to play. So I reached out to him, and he told me it's true. He's skating five, six times a week. He's doing some work with Yari, the skills coach. Yari Burski, no way.

Is he with Burski? Yeah, he's doing some work with Yari, the skills coach. Yari Burski. No way. Is he with Burski? Yeah. He's doing some work with Yari Burski and he's skating and he's working out five, six days a week. He said he got kind of a clean bill of health in the summer. And, you know, like anybody who's like anybody who would have to retire that way, you're unfulfilled, right? It's one of the things I tell a lot of young students. I say, look, like I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you from personal experience what you don't want to do and the way I kind of live my life. And that was when I turned 50, I promised myself that I was never going to look in the mirror and say, I really regret I didn't give it my all at that.

Because that's something I really wanted to do. And we all have things we don't do to the fullest. But there's the things we're going to look back and we're going to say, I'm going to regret that I didn't do that. And, you know, for the most part, I live my life like that. When I hit 50 and I'm now 53 53 there weren't many things I looked at and said man I I really regret that and I always tell people ask yourself that question am I going to regret not doing this when I'm 50 and you know so Hodgson's going to be 34 next month his birthday's in February and I get it he's probably looking at it and saying, boy, I'm going to regret the way it ended. And the thing he said to me is,

look, I know I'm not going to the NHL. I know that I'm not going to be guaranteed anything. I just want to play. I want to play somewhere. And to be honest, I was thinking about the Newfoundland growlers after, uh,

after the Terry Ryan thing. Um, but, uh, he just wants a chance to play. Just get back in, take a run at it. And I hope he gets this opportunity. And I'm with you.

I wish him all the best. I think a lot of people are cheering for Cody Hodgson. Let's finish with Terry Ryan then. 47 years old. Plays on Sunday for the Newfoundland Growlers against Adirondack. Team they're chasing in the north. It's a 6-2 loss. In the process, Terry Ryan fights Zach Walker.

I didn't see who the first guy was, but the guy who basically threw up his hands and said, it's not going to be me. I thought that was hilarious. That was pretty good. Terry Ryan, who, I mean, you know Terry. I've known TR for years. Larger than life personality.

Loves everyone that he's around. Just has like the heart of a Newfoundlander. Just big, huge, you know, hug for everybody. Your thoughts on Terry Ryan getting the call, Terry Ryan getting in the game. Well, I think this is Paul Bissonnette's story to tell, and I'm sure he'll tell it on Spitting Chicklets this week, but Paul was the one who heard about this on Saturday night.

He was sitting around with us when he got the call that Ryan was going to play, and when he was telling us, we were looking at him, and we thought he was joking. Paul is so hilarious that you don't know at the beginning, like, is he being serious, or is this a joke? You don't know at the beginning, like, is he being serious or is this a joke? But, you know, as Ryan said himself, they called him while he was out celebrating his birthday. And, you know, basically he asked them, if you're serious about this, I'll go back home and I'll stop drinking now.

And they said, yeah, we're really short um we're actually going to need you you know first of all it's hard to get players to go out to newfoundland and secondly i didn't realize this but i guess there's a rule in the echl that if a player leaves you after i think it's january 10th you can't bring them back so so i i guess they they must have lost some players like it's different if it's a call-up and the marlies have had a bunch of call-ups so they're short players but if a player leaves you to go play somewhere else i guess you can't bring them back so they were stuck and i guess one of his teammates called first and then adam party called and they got it all sorted out but this was incredible promotion for the echl like i know

there's going to be people who are going to look at this and they're going to say really like this is the story we need a 47 year old guy being pulled out of a bar to come back i don't have time for people like that i'm looking at ken reed uh ken reed like watching the game as tweeting out him watching the game on his computer because he's so interested i'm just glad that ken reed didn't show us his tabs i'm i'm literally afraid to know what's on ken reed's tabs but you know i mean it was great i thought it was. You? Listen, I've got a soft spot in my heart for Terry Ryan. I met Terry, she's 2007, 2008. We've always kept in touch.

Sometimes we've been able to cross paths and get together. Other times we haven't. He's one place, I'm in another place. Hey, buddy, we'll have to catch up with you next time. He's one place, I'm in another place. Hey, buddy, we'll have to catch up with you next time. First of all, I have a ton of respect for someone who, like you can tell, TR loves hockey. He loves hockey.

Still to this day. Like 47 years old. And I don't know if you saw his postgame. Like he's really emotional about this. Like he is really emotional about this. He is really emotional about this he has you know he's from a hockey family his dad played professionally his dad played for the Minnesota Fighting Saints his father has this legendary basement um at the at the Ryan household where it's like a hockey hall of fame and there's great memorabilia from you know the NHL and the WHA and I've talked to

senior a number of times there is no short conversation with Terry Ryan senior and that's what I love about it like if you're calling TR's dad park an hour because you're going to get a million great stories so I have a lot of time for the family and I have a lot of time for someone like Terry himself who, you know, when he started the weekend, you know, like he,

he started the weekend just thinking it's going to be another regular ordinary weekend. I'm going to have my birthday and I'm going to have a couple of drinks with my friends. And at the end of it, he played a pro hockey game. Listen, life can be so great. Yeah, life can be so great.

Yeah. Life can be so special. Just when you think, when's the last time he played a pro game? 20 years ago? And he's a big ball hockey player too. Like he loves everything about hockey. He loves the game.

He loves the room. He loves to talk. And that's the family too. Like that comes right from dad. So listen, I'm a hockey dad too and part of me is you know watching terry play in that game against adirondack on sunday and i'm thinking if i'm senior how much am i loving watching this just when you think you're never gonna watch your kid play hockey again this happens so i'm with you it's just too much of a good story to be cynical about

or to be all bundled up about like this is a beautiful story for a really beautiful hockey person just enjoy it yeah i'm really happy i'm really really happy for terry ryan really happy for tr i have to tell you too i'm really happy for him and i think it's great I'm happy for the ECHL I'm just going to tell you this right now when you retire when you're like 70 I'm going to call you and say you have to host a radio show tomorrow

first of all nobody retires you get retired yes but you should say when i get retired get retired yeah i'm gonna call you at 70 and say there's a 12 to 2 eastern radio show tomorrow that needs hosting do you want to come in and i'll say i haven't watched a hockey game in 30 years yeah i'll just say it doesn't matter you'll have to talk about Elephant Poop from 1975 and you'll get through it

listen man I don't take any of it for granted I know that it's a blessing that I get to do a show like this with you and talk about Elephant Poop from 1975 and there's context for it and there's a story that comes along with it and I love it that would make me very happy if you called me up at 70, and I still had my faculties and could cobble together a two-hour radio show.

So thank you for that, Elliot. On that, we'll pause. We'll come back with the Montana's Thought Line. Congratulations, TR. Come back with the Montana's Thought Line and also Elliot's one-on-one with Nathan McKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. of the Colorado Avalanche. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music,

included with Prime. Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Don't forget, still to come, Elliott Friedman's one-on-one sit-down with Nathan McKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. That recorded Friday in advance of Colorado's victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada.

Time now for the Montana's Thought Line, Montana's barbecue and bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Elliott. Try the ribs. Man, what a pause. 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca 32 thoughts i'm gonna try different tones i'm gonna and different cadences i'm gonna be like peyton manning at the line i've got to

mix this up really think you're over a little bit overthinking this one but we soldier on omaha omaha try the ribs try the ribs omaha you to put the accent on the right syllable. That's the key to all of this, Elliot. 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311-3232. 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311-3232. Kevin. Before we get to Kevin in the next one,

I wanted to tell you, I got a note from someone. We were talking about the goalie Gordie Howe hat trick or the goalie Ron Hextall hat trick, whatever we were going to call it. So someone reached out to me, one of the great people in the league, and I'm not going to say what his name is because I think some of these people get paranoid

that they're ever linked to me. Oh, I know. But one of the great people in the league reached out to me and told me about mike smith oh yeah now mike smith in his first game in the echl this person thought he scored got a shutout and got into a fight and not only would this have been a legendary performance. It was not exactly correct, but it was close. So Mike Smith played in the ECHL for the Lexington Menowar. That was a one-year team. They played in Lexington, Kentucky, and they were named because, you know, Kentucky is obviously a big horse racing area, Kentucky Derby.

It was named after one of the world's most famous horses, Man O' War. So it was called the Lexington Man O' War. And I believe it was Smith's first game there. He had a shutout and he scored. And it was a 1-0 game when he scored. I think the final score was 2-0. Like you can find quotes of him saying,

yeah, I know I maybe shouldn't have shot it, but look, we know Mike Smith now 20 years later he was gonna shoot it he did not get into a fight in that game but he got into a fight i think about two weeks later so basically mike smith's almost his first week as a pro he he completed the gordy howe hat trick in like five games. Not bad. It's hard. It's rare. It's close.

Like it's close. There's a lot of really rare things that are in the goalie Gordie there. First of all, the goal. Absolutely. And the fight, which happens seldom. Now, here's the thing. Do you get special marks for fighting a player or does it have to be another goalie? I thought about that after the podcast. No, you just fight.

Fight anybody? You just fight. Like a fan or an official? Like, doesn't matter. Like, just grab a random fan and like, that's it. Don't be too picky, Jeff. Like, you know what? Like, some people can't afford to be picky and you're one of them. So don't be too picky.

Mike Smith always amazed me because he would go on these stretches where he was the best goalie in the world. Like, did it be like these one month stretches where he was the best goalie in the world like did it be like these one month stretches where he was invincible like he always had one of the one of the more interesting careers to me and was well one a great puck handler too you know like i said like at times like just the best goalie on the planet you know i was talking to somebody about mike smith this week and they said to me i first of all i think theers really miss his competitive nature. Yes. That was the thing that people used to love about Mike Smith was how competitive that he was. And he drove players with him. On a team, he was a driver.

But the one thing, the funniest thing that someone said to me about Mike Smith was, you know how you say on the podcast to me, sometimes your best characteristic is your worst characteristic? And I said, yes. And he goes, that's Mike Smith. you know sometimes your your best characteristic is your worst characteristic and i said yes and he goes that's mike smith because mike smith believed he could do anything and there were times as a coach or a teammate of his you would say mike you can't do that don't even try it and and they would say that some of the biggest mistakes that he would make or some of the ugliest goals that he would give up were because

he thought he could do anything and it would get himself into trouble. But more often you would take it over not taking it. But I really appreciated this person reaching out and I wanted to mention it and we should track down Mike Smith. I bet you that would be a hell of an interview. Thanks for the text, Gary. Yeah, sure. I got to tell you, I've heard I'm not in his good books right now. Okay, let's get to Kevin in Massachusetts. I'm going to hear about that one, Merrick. Thanks a lot.

Kevin in Massachusetts. Elliot and Jeff. Statistically, I believe the majority of emails come in with Jeff's name first, so I'm sure he appreciates that. All right, Elliot and Jeff. Statistically, I believe the majority of emails come in with Jeff's name first, so I'm sure he appreciates that. All right, Elliot and Jeff. The NHL All-Star Game Skills puts power on display with the hardest slap shot. The game today has so many players with an unbelievable

wrist shot. Have they ever considered a hardest wrist shot competition? Nice job making them sound good dom and shout out to number six a beer league beauty we lost last year all right has there have they ever considered a hardest wrist shot usually wrist shots are just used part of the part of the accuracy shooting yes that that's what i would agree i mean to be honest i don't know like i don't know if people would find that interesting you guys can all tell me if i'm wrong the hardcores would the hardcores would what why am i fast fastest fastest backward skater how about

hardest backhand shot competition like come on elliot we can we can we can spice this up look i know the slap shot isn't taken anymore but there is still some magic about who can really fire that puck the the thing i do wonder about jeff is will we get to the point where nobody can even take a slap shot anymore i hope that never goes away i don't think we'll ever get there although listen the gap is so tight now that it's really like you raise your stick up off the ice a second and yoink. Like that's it. That, that Scooby snack is gone. I was going to say, you know what? You watched your Scooby-Doo this morning.

Cause you did yoink and refused to refer to Scooby snacks. You're going through full shaggy mode right now. By the way, if you were, if you were a Scooby character, you would be shaggy. Like that part was written. A little bit.

I think there i always think of uh scooby-doo that there are part but the reason that it resonated so well with a lot of people and even into our adult years is i think a lot of people can see a little bit of every single character in themselves this is for a different podcast at a different time when we're really stretched for content but i've thought about scooby-doo a lot in my life and i really do one of the things i've come to is we all see characteristics from our own personality in all no we're doing this right no we're taking a time out yes no we are taking a time out and we're talking about scooby doo why do you think about this well first of all it was one of there is no way I'm not asking you this right here. Let me just get a list here of all the Scooby-Doo characters.

Okay. Can you make it reasonably quick, though? The only reasonably quick way that I can make it is Scooby-Doo is sort of always presented as a star of this one. It's funny you mentioned Shaggy because you know the main reason that i always resonated with shaggy as a character one because i thought he was hilarious um two characters like that in movies and there was a great one in pulp fiction um always caught my caught my attention and three you know who had the voice of shaggy in scoopooby-doo was someone that i let casey oh really yeah that was the voice of shaggy and i remember always watching casey casem every week this was on saturday it is now

time for this week's long distance dedication did you love casey case i'm like we all casey 20 years ago i met a guy named Dom whose picture on his iPhone was of him canoeing we met one weekend in Tofino and unfortunately we could never see each other again but I think about Dom all the time can you please

play We Built This City by Jefferson Starship in honor of my friend Dom. Can you please play... I love Casey Kasem. Sorry. You know what? I'm ruining this. No, no, no.

It's funny. One side note on Casey Kasem as well. I always love the weird, bizarre turn. I was expecting that to be, can you please play Mr. Roboto by Styx? It just turns out to be this long-winded way of trying to get your favorite song on, which may or may have anything or nothing to do with the person you just dedicated that to.

No, but I was always drawn to Shaggy's voice because it was Casey Kasem. And that was one of the first examples of voice acting. And then later on, I learned all about Mel Blanc and all the wonderful voices that he did. And then later on, fell in love with the story of Christopher Murney, who played Hanrahan in the movie Slapshot, who went on to be this wonderful voice actor. And it was actually the voice actor of Chester the Cheetah in the Cheetos commercials as well. one that I was like wait a minute that's Casey Kasem like that top 40 guy that I watch after solid gold every Saturday afternoon um but were you not a huge fan of Scooby-Doo Elliot as a kid like of course not like totally capture and I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids yeah during my university years there were some late night Daphne Velma arguments that turned borderline violent I have to say okay we turn our attention now away from how do we get from the hardest risk shot to Scooby-Doo nonetheless uh real quick uh hey Jeff Elliot and Dom first

I want to thank you for helping me get through some of my work days. Having the pod to distract me definitely doesn't impact my productivity. Apologies. Apologies, employers out there. I had a question about the fallout from the Cutter-Go-Chain-Flyer situation. Do you think this will at all deter teams from selecting players out of college now, or will we see the NHl revisit its rules around players getting drafted and out of ncaa and allowing them to choose not to sign and hit free agency without any sort of extra compensation to the team thanks for keeping us entertained and keep up the good

work that comes from there's actually there's there's no name attached to that one so that comes from mr or mrs anonymous from parts unknown exactly weighing 237 pounds the masked superstar uh okay mr or mrs x if that is indeed your name uh it's a good question and and i'm gonna say no and and and the reason i'm gonna say no uh is that number one if you draft a player where goche got drafted from which was sort of like the the ushl college route you keep their rights for four years and i just don't think and it's the same thing for europeans if you're drafted out of europe they keep your rights for four years i just think that after four years if you can't convince a player to play for you, then, you know, you're never going to convince a player to play for you. And I just don't see

the NHLPA wanting anything that gives any teams more control over the rights of a player. So to me, four years is enough. If the player wants to go through the process and say, I'm going to wait four years or whatever, um, you know, that's, that's life. Now the Canadian hockey league rule, by the way, is two years. Um, but, uh, you, you know, so if you're, if you're still under draft age, you go back into the draft. If you're overage, you become an unrestricted free agent. So it doesn't usually happen as much with the CHL players, but in theory, they have even less time to wait

than a player like Cutter Gauthier would. So I don't see that changing, really. I'll tell you what I do think, and unfortunately, I couldn't write the full blog this week because there was a lot going on, but the one thing that someone told me was they can guarantee me this that when the Cutter Gauthier thing broke and the reasons got out or the conversation around it got out every single team in the league called their top prospects and said how are you feeling you know what's going on here he He said, there's not a single

team in the league that didn't think, do we have to worry about this? Is there any one of our prospects who could be leaning this way? And, you know, one of the things that Lewis Gross said in our interview with him on Friday was talking about how kids had changed and the parents, well, he didn't say so much kids. He said the parents were tougher, but he also blamed the agents for going after younger kids. And someone in the league said to me, they were really surprised that he went there. They were really impressed that he went there. But he also said that this is a reality that they all have to live with. It's not just the agents who live with that. It's the

teams who live with that. And he said, the big lesson with Cutter Gauthier was you really have to be on top of your players. And that, you know, Philly thought that they were doing the right thing here by giving Gauthier space. It turned out to be the wrong thing. So there will be teams now that are going to be even more on top of their prospects because they said, you know, Philly tried to give them room and they lost the player. They lost control of the situation. So I think that's probably going to be the big lesson. So now all these college kids are going to be like, oh, thanks, Cutter. Now I have to talk to my NHL team every single day.

I've got the director of player development is really on my tush every single game i gotta talk to someone from the team uh thanks cutter um let's get to a voicemail uh thomas in columbus go ahead thomas well hey guys i am a recent listener and i am wondering your guys thoughts is this the best league has ever been from a production and a talent standpoint? Like, I just watched four games that went into overtime, and I was wondering, is that some of the best hockey you guys have ever seen? Well, first of all, Thomas, welcome to the pod. We are always happy to hear that there are new listeners.

Sometimes Jeff and I wonder why, but we are appreciative. A lot of bored people out there, Elliot. A lot of time on the phone. The one thing I would completely agree with is that it is the most skilled the league has ever been. I do believe that. I strongly believe that. And I don't think that's an insult to the great players of the past.

I just think the way the game is taught from a younger age with more emphasis on skill coaches and skill development have really changed what a lot of these players can do. Equipment and training. Equipment and training. Yeah, and the training. You're right. You know, like, for example,

it used to be that you got fat over the summer and you got in shape over training camp. Like, that doesn't exist anymore. So, yes, you're right, Jeff and Thomas, I do agree. I think where things have really changed for the better in the league, and we got away from it, like, don't forget in the 80s, and I don't know how old Thomas is, but, you know, you had 40 players a year getting 100 points.

You had 20 players a year getting 50 goals. And, unfortunately, we went away from that. 20 players a year getting 50 goals. And unfortunately, we went away from that. But now I just think, Jeff, that there seems to be comebacks every night. Like we went through in baseball, they used to call it the dead ball era. In hockey, we went through the dead puck era. And that was sort of in the late 90s and the early 21st century. Now we've got comebacks.

And I think the thing that really changed in the eyes of the league was you know the 2004 Stanley Cup final there were no lead changes between Calgary and Tampa and people realized that can't work you know you cannot have that then there was the lockout at the same time as the lockout you know they had the Shanahan summit that kind of changed the way the game was looked at and i know people will always be mad at referees they're always going to disagree with calls but there's no question to me that the that the the ability for comebacks and the ability for skill is as great as it's ever been uh jeff how do you feel i feel the same way i think it's a

matter of sitting on the shoulders of the generations that came before. You know, I don't think we get to this place in hockey unless there are, A, those glorious athletes that came before to pave the way and set a standard. And two, both rule changes, quality of athlete. I know that we've talked plenty now about how specifically in the united states elite elite elite athletes now for the first time en masse in the history of hockey are choosing hockey first before choosing football or track and field or basketball or baseball or whatever um i think the uh equipment technology is at a um is at a place right now, which is the best that we've ever seen. I mean, even just think about even like 2000, I want to say like 2002 or 2003,

when a lot of players started switching to composite sticks, and there really were only about a handful of guys that knew how to use them like it was don't forget like remember how many passes went off blades like you were used to a wooden stick and it's really easy to take a pass on a wooden stick like if you ever you know you go back and use a wooden stick the first thing you notice is like wow taking passes is great and it took a long time for players to learn how to use composite technology and the technology itself improved to say nothing of what happened with skates and and that technology i think nutrition and training is a big one as well um and i think the the league was

the league has been allowed to breathe and grow even as the population of hockey players expands i'll tell you one of the things that i that i often think about i think you and i have talked about this before not necessarily i want to take this in a different direction. Is this the strongest the league has ever been? And I think hockey everywhere right now is better than it's ever been. I spend a lot of time thinking about, and again, this is no insult to those players at that time. This is just circumstance.

This is just the nature of hockey. I always wonder about that era between 1967 and 1975, where I still maintain the NHL was at its weakest. And it's just because of expansion. There was the league doubled in 1967, right? And then in 1970, you went from 12 teams to 14 teams, you know, welcome the Vancouver Canucks, welcome the Buffalo Sabres. And then two years after that, all of a sudden we got the Islanders. Welcome. We got the Atlanta Flames. Welcome. Like you went through a really fast period of mass expansion, which watered down the NHL. And because of that, we saw a lot of videos of, you know,

the high-end guys of the time skating around pylons with Minnesota Nurse Stars jerseys on or Detroit Red Wings jerseys on, two of the weaker teams of the era. Again, no knock necessarily on all those elite players who played in that era, but I think of two things. One, when has the game been the strongest? And two, when has the game been the weakest? And I'll always point to that time between 67 and 75. That's the time where there was just this massive, and to say nothing of the fact that, throw this one in the equation too, the World Hockey Association took a lot of good players from the NHL as well, further weakening that product and giving the NHL headachel um headache after headache anyway uh long-winded

answer here for me but thomas and columbus thanks so much i would also say this i think that's all great stuff i think i would also say this for a long time in recent memory the goalies were ahead of the shooters now i think the shooters are ahead of the goalies the goalies have not learned and well enough yet that if you give a shooter an inch yeah they will put it well there was a long time too let's not for i mean we're both kids of the 80s and that was advantage shooter i mean it took a long time for goalies to catch up to shooters and then when when they did, coupled with defensive schemes and looking the other way on interference and hooking and holding

and all these other types of infractions, it became advantage goaltender. But I think you're bang on. What's the Alain Vigneault line about making nets bigger? And Alain Vigneault said, oh, if you want to score more goals, go work on scoring goals in the offseason

because goaltenders work on becoming better goaltenders. Go work on your shot. You know what I've got to tell you? You know what we're missing in hockey? We have to bring this back somewhere. We've really gone down the rabbit hole here. Good luck with this nine-hour podcast, Dom. But we've really gone down the rabbit hole here.

But we are missing, and I know you watched this when you were a kid, because I watched this when I was a kid, is Showdown. Oh, yes. And they used to film that in the off-season. In Markham, Ontario. Yeah, and you'd have the scrimmage, and you'd have the drills, and it would be a scoring system. It would be one goalie paired with two or three teammates,

the shooting drills, all that stuff. And they would film it in the summer, and then they would show 30 minutes of it before a hockey night in Canada on Saturday night. There were episodes until one team won. It was so good. And I remember years ago when John Shannon produced Hockey Night in Canada, one thing he did in the offseason once was called the Labatt Blue Pickup Cup,

which Alan McCauley's team won, if I remember correctly. And I love this stuff. When I was working at the score, we had one year, we got the rights to the CFL Quarterback Challenge, where the quarterbacks and the CFL did a competition of drills and our viewers loved it it was so good that TSN stole it from us those thieves that's why I called them the evil telecom because they stole the CFL quarterback challenge from us but I wish there was some sort of short off-season competition because the other players deserve their off-season time

but i wish there was some sort of short off-season competition that you could package and air later showdown competition that was great or like a pickup competition i think people would love that i think they would eat it up so i mean look players deserve their time in the summer the season's long but if there was a way to do this i think it would be awesome do you remember when daryl sittler had to compete in showdown without a maple leafs jersey well that basically got him traded right him and palmeteer that that's what started the fight with harold ballard and punch imlac that harold was feuding with them and didn't want the Maple Leafs logo attached to them?

Yeah. I remember that was a big story at the time. Okay, let's get back to the regular scheduled podcast here. Let's get to another voicemail. This is Josh in Saskatchewan.

Hey guys, it's Josh calling from the home of Mikeosh in saskatchewan hey guys it's josh calling from the home of mike commodore fort saskatchewan alberta uh just listening to the pod here on the highway uh minus 46 night on the way to my 10 o'clock beer league game uh because i'm a crazy canadian and it got me wondering if you guys had ever heard any funny stories about former NHL players playing beer league with the rest of us average Joes. I guess if we win tonight, Jeff, that'll be for you. If we lose, Elliot, it's your fault. Thanks, guys. Give us a good word.

Okay, I thought I was... First of all, that doesn't make you crazy. That makes you perfectly normal in this great country of ours, that you would brave minus 46 to go to Beer League. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Nothing. So, I announced

that it was Saskatchewan it's fort saskatchewan alberta uh apology apologies there uh i got a good one i love this one i'm glad josh called in on this one so this is years ago so uh here in stouffville uh one of my best buddies is sean pearson sean pearson is a former mma fighter he has six fights the ufc in the welterweight division uh our kids play hockey. Great dude, whole deal. I've known Pierce for a number of years. I've worked out with him.

He's sparred with me. I have never either taken him down or landed a punch. It's just like you realize really quickly, Elliot, just when you think you can handle yourself, there's a whole different world out there, Elliot, of people that do it professionally.

Anyway, Pierce and I have been buddies for years. So Pearson told me this great story. He was playing, I want to say it was in Whitby. For people that don't know where Whitby is, it's a little bit east of the city of Toronto. So he was playing on a team and this would have been a summer team and Sean Thornton was on his team as well. And this happens a lot. i've seen this happen to pearson before even in like baseball summer summer ball guys for whatever reason want to go after the ufc fighter you know the former mma guy like ha ha ha like watch this and he said he said you know a couple of guys you know would take runs at him and he said one guy i don't know if he caught him behind or sean didn't see him coming but pearson said that he got smashed by this one guy like right

up against the glass thornton happened to be on the ice grabbed him and like filled him up like you know that's ridiculous guy so pearson tells me afterwards he's uh they're in the they're in the in the dressing room pearson goes up to Thornton and says, hey, you know, thanks for that. I really appreciate it. But, you know, I can I can kind of handle myself. And Thornton stops him and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That happened on the ice and on the ice. That's my fight.

Now we're going to the bar. If it happens there, it's your fight so that is my favorite nhler beer league story with a with a ufc tie-in so i thought you might like that one i'll give you one i remember some friends of mine uh who work in uh the financial business organized a game against some nhl alumni this is probably about 15 years ago. And the alumni told me later that the dressing rooms were next to each other. And when they got the list of alumni who were going to play, they realized a lot of them were in their late 40s.

There were a bunch of older guys who at that time could only be available for that game. um there were a bunch of older guys who at that time could only be available for that game so when they got the list of who was going to play the the financial guy said you know we could beat these guys they're in their 40s we could say we beat these guys so they got a young team they got a younger team and there were a couple of older guys like so i would have probably been about 35 30 40 at the time so there were were a couple of guys my age, but they went and they got some younger players. And they're in the room and they're talking to guys like, these guys are in their late 40s.

We're going to beat them. Like, if you're not here to win, like, go home right now. And what they didn't realize is the alumni could hear them. And so they told me that it went from this is going to be a fun game to where okay this is the way these guys are talking we're going to teach them a lesson and that's awesome i i couldn't go but my buddy told me later he said that they never touched the puck oh yeah like they said like we were faster than them uh we were we were younger than them but when they decided that they were keeping the puck away from us there was nothing we could

do nothing and i i think i i can't remember i think they actually did score but they almost got shut out and nobody gets shut out in those games. And then at the end of the game, one of the alumni told them, we heard what you guys were saying about us. And you know, like what the guy said was if you ever play these games again, remember, it's supposed to be fun and don't ever underestimate the pride of someone who

played in the NHL. And actually my friend told me that a couple of alumni told them that there are alumni who won't play in these games because of people like them. Because they want to have a good time. They want to have a couple beers. They just want to enjoy themselves. And you get people who think, like, this is my chance to prove

I should have been in the NHL. So they got embarrassed. I think they lost like eight one or eight nothing or something like that and they just said like we never they were all exhausted after the game they couldn't move they they spent the whole game chasing and that's the one thing i would always say is that maybe some of these guys are a little bit older maybe some of them have let themselves go but you never forget how to play. And there's a big difference between a person who plays as little as one game in the NHL

and somebody who thinks they're the best beer league player ever. I'll tell you what. I played in a charity game on a line, and I'll be honest with you. I felt like Paul Henderson. I'll tell you why i remember playing in a charity game on a line with norm allman and ron ellis and in the early 70s using the two-sided stick the two-sided stick what's the two-sided norm allman stick well because norm allman used to show up at charity games and he had a stick that had a right blade and a left

blade and he would turn it over. No way. No, he wasn't using that one. I saw it once. It was hilarious. That's awesome. He could shoot both ways. That was the line in the early 70s, Henderson, Ellis, and Ullman.

And I remember thinking to myself, okay, we're going to take it easy, a little bit older, to be generous, very much older. And honestly, every pass was hard and on the tape, a little bit older to be generous very much older and honestly every pass was like hard and on the tape in motion you're right they may be a little bit of

a step slower but they can still think the game and move the puck and this was incredible I'm like holy smokes this was the line Allman Ellis and Henderson and I'm in the Henderson role and all I'm doing is throwing passes and Norm Allman skates I'm throwing passes like way ahead of Ronnie Ellis I'm like jeez and I'm in the Henderson role, and all I'm doing is throwing passes in Norm Ullman's skates. I'm throwing passes way ahead of Ronnie Ellis.

I'm like, geez, guys, I'm really sorry. I had to apologize after every single shift because I couldn't keep up with him. You're right. It doesn't matter how old you are. These guys remember, and these guys were NHLers. That's the Montana Thought Line. Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue.

Elliott's one-on-one with Nathan McKinnon is next. All right, welcome back to the podcast. Nathan McKinnon, leader of the Colorado Avalanche, one of the favorites for the Hart Trophy, had a chance to sit down with Elliott Friedman on Friday, one day in advance of the Avalanche game against the Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada. So here it is, Elliott Friedman in conversation with the most serious player in the NHL.

John the Taves isn't playing anymore. Nathan McKinnon on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. First thing I wanted to ask you, big news the other day, Landeskog on the ice. How good was it to see him? It's great. Even just around the room,

he's still rehabbing obviously, but just to have his presence back in the room, he's in our team meetings now, he'll come to the odd power play meeting with our unit. Just hearing his input is so valuable, you know, just having that voice back. There's not many, as you, you know, it's my 11th season now, and there's not many players that have a big presence in the room.

A lot of guys are in and out, or they're new, or, you know, he's been there since day one and has such a big presence as a room. A lot of guys are in and out or they're new or, you know, he's been there since day one and has such a big presence as a captain for a reason, obviously. And it's great to have him back. Game one playoffs, is he going to be there? I'm praying he is, yeah. He's doing all the right things and he looks great. You know, I don't want to – it's just hard.

I don't want to put something out there. But we're all very hopeful. And, uh, he's an irreplaceable player in person. So we're all praying he's back. How much did you keep in touch with him when he was away? All the time. Yeah. We talk a lot.

Um, yeah, we're just friends at the end of the day where we're very close. And every year I feel like we've gotten closer and closer. And, um, you know, a lot of us miss him, myself included, but we definitely stay in contact. It's just hard, though. I don't want to ask him how he's feeling every day. Right. It's more about how's your wife, kids, things like that, what are you doing, whatever.

Nate, what the heck were you thinking on that play last night? Yeah, exactly. Definitely said something to that for sure. This year, you've got a point in every home game. You're on an absolute tear. Would you say that this has been your best season so far? It's hard to say. I didn't have a great start to this season for whatever reason.

I just wasn't playing that well. And then at the 10-11 game mark something kind of clicked for me and been feeling good lately you know I think at the beginning of seasons you want to you're excited you want to press hard and you want everything to come so quickly and yeah I just had to try to relax a little bit and fall back into how I play well. Last year was a solid year, and this year has been good so far, but we're at the halfway point, so who cares? Haven't accomplished anything yet.

No, sure haven't. The one thing you have done, the point of every home game, and I know you care about bigger things than that, but there's only one guy who's kind of done that before, and it's Gretzky. And I know how competitive you are, and I know how much you care about the game. And I wonder if any part of you says,

I would like to do that just to say, I did something that he was able to do. Yeah, it's, I mean, I like to get a point in every game every year, but it's going to come to an end. I know it will. I've gotten very fortunate. Last game I had a second apple off an end board shot. So, I mean, Mikko made a great play to Val in front of the net

through his legs and i get a point so it you know it's hard it's hard to uh you know base happiness or uh fulfillment off of a second assist or a point streak or whatever um definitely striving to look at a bigger picture than than that but um whenever you're mentioned with Wayne Gretzky obviously it's cool but it's still a home point streak it's like I don't know I don't think it deserves to be with Wayne you know it's funny you say this because I was making calls last couple days knowing to do this and I said has he has Nathan McKinnon changed Nathan McKinnon changed, Nathan McKinnon changed at all since the, since you won the Stanley cup and everybody said, you would think that maybe he would relax a little

bit or be satisfied a little bit. And it's not happened at all. If anything, it has made you hungrier. It has made you more determined to be as successful as you can be and for the avalanche to be as successful as they can be. True? Yeah, definitely. I think a little wiser maybe, though. The passion is there.

It's been there my whole life. I don't think it's going anywhere, whether hockey or post-hockey, who knows. But I think I learned a lot from that cup run, and I learned a lot from the failures before that. And I'm trying to shape myself into the best leader I can be for the team and trying to push guys the right way. And I definitely think I've learned a lot of how to do that. And when we won, had you know it's we went 16 and 4 um you know felt like

a lot of rough patches though and a lot of things to overcome and with the group we had i learned a lot from you know got like cogliano landy those are two guys I've learned probably the most from in my career and that are honest with me and I'm honest with them. And the fire's there. That's for sure. It's burning as much as ever, but definitely trying to shape myself and to be a good leader. One of the things that someone said to me was kind of like that, that you learned about what happened that year and what worked that year as opposed to what didn't happen in other years. And you're kind of alluding to that there. So what did you learn about what it takes to win and what a good team does?

Yeah, I think we'll – I watched it after we won, but in Ted Lasso when he talks about being a goldfish, that kind of went viral. I think it's easy to try to break down every single game and every play, but sometimes you have a bad night, and everyone has bad days, and just flush down the toilet and move on. With that, I think, comes more resilience. You let things go more, and that's what I'm trying to do personally,

and I think the whole team is just, you know, we lost 7-0 to Vegas this year. We, you know, bad night, moved on and we went on another streak. So I just think in that run though, especially we, you know, losing to Tampa at home to win the cup was gut-wrenching and we had to move on. We had 48 hours to, you know,

I don't think we even watched video on that game. I don't remember anything about it, and we won game six. So I guess just trying to have a short memory. So three years ago, you lose 7-0 to Vegas. What's Nathan McKinnon like? That's an ugly human. Yeah, that's an ugly human. Hopefully, yeah, I'm glad we didn't three years ago

you know i wanted to ask you a little bit about like that those vegas games you guys played great the other night but that exhibition game this year i have never seen an exhibition game like that do you guys and them hate each other more than any two teams in the NHL right now? I don't hate them. I respect them, honestly. I think they're an awesome team. They beat us in a playoff series a couple years ago, and then they won the Cup a couple years later. I know Jack Eichel a little bit.

I respect his game. I think he's a good person. Works really hard. There's a big rivalry there for sure um if we uh want to uh get to the finals i think we're gonna have to go through vegas which is not going to be easy um but you know we're up for the challenge you're playing more than any other forward in the nhl this year. Can you handle that all year? Yeah, yeah, I can. That's my job, and I try to get myself mind and body ready for every game.

One of the things I've heard is that you've worked a lot on, I guess, the physical nature of your skating or the training nature of your skating. Are there things that you have done to work on to sort of improve your stride and improve your power which a lot of people don't necessarily think needs to be improved but I know the best players are always working on that yeah I think efficiency is something I'm always trying to work on you know to play 22 to 26 27 a night you need to be efficient. You can't burn out quickly. So, you know, always working on that. Andy O'Brien's my strength coach and breaks some things down every year. And a lot of it's, you know, single leg strength.

You know, as skating, we're always on one leg. So trying to be equally strong. Everyone's got a dominant leg and little things like that. Nothing crazy, but, you know, every year trying to get better. be equally strong everyone's got a dominant leg and little things like that uh nothing crazy but um you know every every year trying to get better i always wonder about those summer battles with with sid and the other players from nova scotia and it was funny i was talking to ryan graves and he said what an honor it was when he got included because players say that they know they've made it when Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby say that you can join our skates.

What are those skates like? Yeah, don't forget about Marshy either. No, right, of course, yes. Yes. They're awesome. They're so much fun. You know, being from a small area, we actually have a lot of very talented players, a lot of NHLers now coming from Nova Scotia,

which I think, you know, Sid and Marci kind of paved the way for all of us. And when I see younger guys coming up, I feel proud as well, hoping to have played a small role in that. You know, because growing up up i'd play in ontario and the ontario kids would have no idea where nova scotia was i'm like it's we're not that smart in ontario everyone thought i was a fisherman and things like that so i think we always had a chip on our shoulder um so but they're fine they're competitive and um yeah a couple a couple times this summer there's some heated arguments but usually we're okay that's where i was trying to get to because the those players said well

first of all the one thing they all said was that you guys are very inclusive like sometimes you go in with the veterans and you're worried how the veterans are going to treat guys but they say the three of you are fantastic but the other thing they say is you are the one that never takes a day off in terms of this better be a good skate like no screwing around this better be a good skate is that true yeah i think sid sid's the same way i'm a little more vocal maybe than him but um he's the same and you know we're just our careers are short and i think in the summers we only skate two three times a week and we just want to make them the best as we can and it's it's fun though everyone that comes out knows they they got to be ready to go and uh

yeah it's not uh it's not a leisurely skate coglyano came down a few years ago and he loved it too and it's just fun it's it's. It's a fun environment to work hard in. Are you and Sid always on separate teams? Yes. Always. Always, yeah. I'm in a blue, he's in a black every summer. Marci and Sid are on the same team.

Always? Always, yeah. That's tough to handle. I don't win many games, but it's fun is there anybody you're always with um i'm usually with drake batherson and um logan shaw and uh sean o'donnell are we've been skating together for 10 years now so those are the three guys i'm usually with what is the biggest fight you've got or battle you've had with Sid in one of these games? Nothing physical.

Okay. Nothing physical. Just usually if a goal counts or not, and our summer coach has to be the one to decide. It's funny. It's really funny. Yeah, poor guy. I feel bad for him.

He has to pick if I'm right or sid's right and okay here's the toughest question i can ask you about crosby that's the last one will you guys ever play together i hope so um i'm hoping um i don't know what's before uh the 26 olympics but there might be something but next year next year but i guess the main thing i'm focused on is the olympics and yeah that's what would be amazing um i think sid has a ton of game left i think he can play as long as he wants to honestly um i'm a believer that primes are a little longer now and if you do the right things look at a guy like him padelski there's lots of examples of guys that very successful in their 30s and i think sid's going to be

a great player uh two three years from now so hopefully uh i can stay good enough to make that team and uh play together i think your position is pretty safe i remember a couple years ago you skated with marner right because you wanted to get used to just in case it ever happened you and marner would play together an olympic team or a world cup team is there anybody else you skated with just in case like that um over the years i think just through the world championships i've you know played with braden point um i played on a line with marns power play at the 2017 world championships which was a ton of fun yeah Sid played with Connor

the North American team so familiar with a lot of guys and I'm sure the summer of 25 maybe we'll do some more camps things like that to get ready for it I can tell you you want this i know there's a lot of players who've been very vocal behind the scenes at its time and you're one of those guys

aren't you yeah i think so i mean um i missed uh three olympics now i guess at 18 I wouldn't have made it but 22 and 26 or whatever would have had a good chance so um yeah I would like to I mean if if not the next one then when I guess so I might be done if I don't get to the next one I'd love to play in one I know Connor really wants to play in one and um hopefully win and I think it's just such a special thing that I grew up watching. And, you know, winning the Stanley Cup is one thing, but, you know, representing and competing for Canada is a whole other thing that can really solidify your career and look back on and be something super proud of.

Okay, I wanted to ask you, they asked McDavid a lot about the All-Star game. Did they ask you about it at all? nothing no they didn't they probably didn't think i was gonna make it or something happy to be here well you know i'm sure it was really close i'm sure it was really tight but now there's this competition right yeah have they talked to you about that uh no my agent pat said i'm that's pataud. He said that they want me to be in it, so I'm going to be in it. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing, but... You're going to do all the events, I think.

Yeah, I don't know what the events are, but I'll be ready to go. You know, it's hard as shot. It's... Oh, okay. No, but there's the skating competition. So how do they do it? Do they put everything together and then... Well, it's one event after the other and i don't know what the order is but it's it's skill stuff they're going back to the hardcore it's things like hardest shot it's things like

the fastest skater there's puck handling drills and things like that and they want you know the top guys playing they want you they want m want McKinnon. They want Matthews. I mean, Bedard would have been there, but he's hurt now, so we'll see. So, I mean, I really am interested in this, like the best players going head-to-head-to-head. What do you think of it? I think it'll be much better, even just family and friends that go to the skills competitions.

I lose interest, and it sounds exciting. Like I said, I don't have any say in it, but I'm willing to participate and I'm not sure how good I'm going to do, but I'll be happy to watch the other guys do it as well. Now, who would be the person that you would enjoy beating the most? Beating?

Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I might not beat anybody. I'll come 12th. I'm last it's called 12th I'm not I'm not wagering on that I can I can tell you that much but you know you are a big fan of hockey so on nights where you're not playing I know you watch I know you keep an eye on the league who is the player that you love watching the most um i think sid i watch a lot of pittsburgh games i i watch uh braden chen as well just two two good friends of mine um tyson berry in nashville

and then you know i love watching kucherov i think everyone does i think if you asked everybody's favorite player in the NHL, I think they'd say Kucherov. Really? I would say all the top guys in the league, whatever you want to call it. I think everyone is a big fan of his. Obviously, McDavid is McDavid.

I don't know what else to say about him. Yeah, I like watching pasternak and uh is a right-handed shot guy um yeah i'm a big fan of the game i think there's such amazing talent right now in the nhl i think uh more maybe than there's ever been um obviously conor bedard coming up as well skate with him a little bit and uh just marvel at what he can do so definitely a big fan and it makes me want to get better myself just watching watching these guys play what's the thing that you're you think you're most better at than maybe when you started of all the things that you do i think passing um i think um trying to slow the game down a little bit out there and

that's why i like watching kucherov so much because I'm probably the opposite player as him. He's just has no pulse out there, it looks like, when he's playing. It's amazing to watch. And I think that helps his vision. He sees everything. He's never in a panic. So I think for me, trying to slow down just a hair. You know, Kucherov is, of all the players you mentioned,

he's probably the one we know the least just because you don't see him do long form interviews or anything like that aside from the fact it slows the game down you know what else have you learned or noticed about him that maybe people wouldn't know i know i know nothing about really you see none of us do yeah i played against him in junior so i have have that connection. But yeah, he's a mysterious guy, and I'm sure he does that on purpose. But I've met him a few times. He seems like a really nice guy. But yeah, just marvel at his game.

$18 million over the cap, Nikita Kucherov. Yeah, that was great. I wanted to ask you about Jonathan Drouin. And I've told this story before, but when Jonathan Drouin left Tampa for a while, I came to do a game in Colorado, and you said, don't give up on that guy. He's a good man, he's a good player, and he just needs an opportunity. And I know that this offseason, when it came to, I know you've been very supportive of him behind the scenes,

and when he became a free agent I mean everybody knows you played a big role uh in getting him to Denver and first of all I just wanted to ask you why was it so important for you to look out for Jonathan Drouin yeah well I think first of all I know he's a great person and he's even better as a person than 10 years ago when we were in high school or whatever. But his talent is just still there, and you can see this season. He had a slow first 10 games, just getting comfortable, but now he's taken off, and he's looked awesome.

We're playing together on a line, and he's earned it. He was getting healthy scratched and still had a smile on his face every day and um but I guess in the off season I you know I knew you know he took less money to come to us and which was great but I just felt like um the value he would bring um and you, I just felt like there's so much more there. You know, I don't know, I can't speak on Montreal, but I know in Denver it's pretty good. There's not a ton of pressure. You know, he can kind of do his thing and fly under the radar.

And he even talks about just going to the grocery store now. You know, he's just a civilian living his life. And I think he really enjoys that. And, um, he's, uh, he's playing really well right now. I understand you guys are always together. You go to practices together, you drive almost everywhere together. Um, you've really taken a role in making sure he's comfortable.

Uh, I'm just curious, like what kind of interest do you guys have in common and why was it so important to you to kind of be the big brother of Drouin? Yeah, he's... I guess I didn't really... I knew it, but he loves hockey. He watches every game. He really loves the game.

We can just talk about anything. And I think when you have a friend, you know, from your childhood pretty much, you just feel so comfortable with them. And I feel very comfortable. And, you know, we drive together a lot. You know, on road dinners we go every time together. You know, we do a lot of the same workouts together. We're just together all the time in the gym and after practice. We're lot of the same workouts together we're we're just together all

the time in the gym and the after practice we're just on the same page with everything which is awesome you know you don't find that a ton that friendship and um so i'm grateful that we are teammates again and we've had a lot of fun this year do you guys play the credit card game together when you go out for dinner? A little bit, yeah, sometimes. Sometimes, yeah. Who's the big winner and who's the big loser? I'd say I've lost more this year.

I'm trying to pick them up. He took less to come. I understand. I understand. You talked about workouts. One of the stories that's pretty legendary about you is after games, that you have a big workout after games. And the joke is that the bus never leaves on time because Nate's working out, but no one's got a problem with that.

What do you do after games? I love to bike. Andy got me on that. Yep. The Zone 2 ride. Health andy got me on that yep the the zone to ride health uh and fitness people know that the zone two um it's like the subconscious of your nervous system and um yeah just kind of get all the lactate out and um you know i think actually that you know the tour de france people when they have a day off they do like a a six-hour zone two ride, and then they ride the next day.

If they didn't do that, they wouldn't be able to move. So that's kind of where the idea came from. And the more you play, the more biking that I do. Okay, a few more. Number one, good stories I heard about you, golf. I heard there was a one point in time you were a terrible golfer, and now you're a very good golfer. Is that true?

Yes. And yeah, the temper was bad. I'm sure no one wanted to play golf with me. I was terrible. Would get really frustrated and put some effort into it. And I don't play as much anymore, but got decent. So what do you shoot now? I'm usually high 70s, mid to low eighties

kind of thing. Um, I think I'm a five handicap. I heard you dropped like 20 strokes in a year or something like that. Yeah. I was in the hundreds and then in a year. Yeah. Yeah. And then I kind of play, you know, it's hard to get, once you get to a four or five, it's hard to get better than that. You got to really put some time in and maybe when I retire I'll start doing that so how'd you do it did you buy did you buy like a simulator or something like that I took a lot of lessons in Denver I was from like 20 to 23 I would just like 10 minutes from my our rink awesome guy I would just go there for an hour after practice and just hit balls like every day um and then i had to stop my back was a little tight i'm like what am i

doing so uh i don't do that anymore in the summers i like to play but in the season i don't really touch the clubs so who was the best guy that you beat after years making fun of you for the way you played or took money from you or anything like that? Probably Tyson Berry. Berry, eh? He used to give it to me. He's the worst one now. Really, eh?

Yeah. The worst player or the worst needler? No, the worst golfer on our little golf trips we do. So it's fun to beat him. Who's the best? Braden Shen's really good. I mean, him are probably pretty close. Okay.

The other funny story I heard is that nobody tells Nathan McKinnon what to do except his dog. Is that true? I don't know who said that. But yeah, it's probably true. Okay, tell us about this dog. Her name's Maggie.

She's like a small dog, right? She's like 25, 30 pounds, and I never thought I could love a dog so much before. Coming home to her is better than scoring any goals, and I really enjoy it. What kind of dog is she? She's a Cavapoo. Okay. They're pretty popular right now. It doesn't really shed that much, and she enjoy it. What kind of dog is she? She's a Cavapoo. Okay. So they're pretty popular right now. Doesn't really shed that much.

She's just, she's great. I miss her already. That's what someone said to me. Watch out for bringing up, man. Nobody tells Nathan McKinnon what to do except he melts in front of this dog. I do, I do. It had to be Braden that said that.

I'm never giving up the source. You know that. I'm never giving up the source. I know that. I'm never giving up the source. I wanted to ask you about Jokic. I understand there was a charity event on Thursday night that the Avalanche do with the other members of Kroenke Sports with the Nuggets and the soccer team and lacrosse team. And I mean, we've seen the video before of you a little bit with Jokic.

And I know you went to a game in the finals last year. Do you guys have any kind of relationship at all? Not a super – I wouldn't say we have a relationship. I've met him a few times at events like that. I'll go to some Nugget games and see him there and say hi to him there. But I know Caleb Jones' dad, Popeye. Seth, yep caleb jones's dad popeye seth yep seth and caleb's dad sorry yes as uh no words papa yes papa yeah papa yeah popeye jones so he was i talked to him actually last night at the event and uh i'm just so interested in joker i think he's an anomaly yes obviously and he

doesn't have social media and I watched an interview he did with Michael Porter Jr. he's got a podcast him and Joker did an interview and he says he doesn't want a phone when he retires and he just lives like a low profile kind of life and you know everyone just talks about how selfless he is he's not worried about you know external awards or he just wants to win and have fun with his teammates. And I think he's an awesome guy to look at as an athlete and try to emulate. See, I see all the work that you put in,

and I see that he jokes like he basically does nothing. And does it make you crazy that you're putting all this effort in and he doesn't look like he's even trying and he's as successful as he is? Yeah, but you hear things, and that's actually not true at all with him. I always thought that too, but I guess he's an animal in the gym after games, and he actually looks super competitive. He's got suspended a couple times for hitting people. Have you seen his brothers?

Yes. I would not want to cross those guys. He's a fiery guy. I think he just looks so funny. I guess people say he treats it like a 9-to-5 and doesn't even like it. But I hear behind the scenes how hard he works and how much he loves to compete and win. So maybe there's a little bit to it that I do, hopefully.

Hope I'm not wasting my time. No, you're not. Last one for you, Nathan. If you could change one thing in the NHL or you could bring one thing that could happen in the NHL, what would it be? I would love to see a team in London. In London, England?

Yeah. Really? I love Europe I don't, logistically I don't think it could ever happen but you never know maybe one day yeah I'd love to also play there um you know in the global series or whatever playing the o2 or something like that i just think i think uh british people would love hockey if they uh saw a little bit more of it and saw all

the best players play that's a great answer very unique thanks for your time no problem thank you for having me. Hope you enjoyed that. Nathan McKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. We thank the abs for making him available. Don't forget this Thursday, we will be in Victoria as part of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada. And along with that celebration of the game, we'll be doing a live podcast. We'll be recording it.

It's Thursday in Victoria at Wicked Hall. We'll record it. Poor Dom. This is going to be like a million hours long too. And that'll be our Friday drop for 32 Thoughts, the podcast. So again, Thursday, podcast recording live at Wicked Hall in Victoria. And you can hear all of it if you're not there Friday morning.

Good luck, Dom. We'll talk to you again Friday. Thank you.