32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Sleepless in Seattle for the Winter Classic

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

Jeff and Elliotte are in Seattle for the 2024 Winter Classic and for this edition of 32 Thoughts. They dive into the Ottawa Senators announcing Steve Staios' appointment as the GM and President of Hockey Operations, Dave Poulin as the new Senior VP of Hockey Ops, and Ryan Bowness as Associate General Manager (6:21). The guys discuss the latest developments in the NHL goalie market (17:39) and get into a debate over the Ovechkin-Askarov disallowed goal (27:43). Jeff and Elliotte also spend a few minutes talking about the World Juniors and the Conor Geekie hit (35:25).  The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (42:09) and then sit down with Seattle Kraken GM Ron Francis (50:52), Golden Knights Forward Jack Eichel (1:03:10), GM Kelly McCrimmon (1:14:13), and Head Coach Bruce Cassidy (1:25:33). 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.

You have a spidey sense on that one? It's always tingling. I am always... No, I'm not talking about that. It's always tingling. We're talking about Nylander. That situation, right? It's always tingling.

Just want to make sure. Elliot, I want you to start the podcast in one very specific way to capture this moment perfectly. Okay, what's that? I want you to say the podcast in one very specific way to capture this moment perfectly. Okay, what's that? I want you to say this along with me. Draw me like one of your French girls. Draw me like one of your French girls.

Jeff, it's New Year's Day. What are you doing? I'm not doing that. You're lounging on Dom's bed in the hotel here in Seattle, and all I can see is Rose from Titanic. As you lounge on his bed john is man you're weird if you're looking at me and you're seeing you don't even have socks on poor dom's gonna sleep okay first of all we'll paint this picture in a second but i just want to say if you're looking at me and

you're thinking of kate winslet you've got even more problems than i thought you had the same posts so so here's the thing. I do not. I'm lying on my back with my leg up. You were a second ago. So here's the thing. We're doing this. We're in Seattle.

We're here for the Winter Classic. Looking forward to it here on Monday afternoon. Great weather. They really lucked out with the weather here. And we're in Dom's room producer dom doing the podcast and dom has two double beds in his room yeah you need that and you're always a double bed guy no yeah i was gonna say like no the only thing i ever asked from a room was can i get a king bed but so he's got one bed the other bed which he's clearly slept in and this one which is pristine yeah you're ironing with your butt

right now so i came and lied on his bed like what's the big deal he's not sleeping in this bed am i wrong here people it's like a couple weeks ago. Is this weird? BX is smelling his socks. Is this weird that I'm lying on the unused bed? There's one Sportsnet personality who shall not go by name because I don't like to slander people without them being here to defend themselves.

He always asks for two double beds because he wants to throw his luggage on one. It's not Dom as far as I know. But Dom says, he says, well, why are you lying on my bed like that? I said, you're not using this bed. He goes, well, I don't know if I'm going to get that other bed made up, so I might want to sleep on that one.

And I was like, what? Oh, little kitten, is you going to get this bed made? Okay, that is, am I wrong or is that weird? You can't sleep in the same bed two nights in a row? All right, how about this? Is this wrong? One rule in hotels, if you guys all don't know this, is don't drink out of the glasses. But I have never heard that you can't sleep in the same bed

two nights in a row if it's not made up. What about the protocol of lying in another man's bed without shoes or socks on? Because that's what you're doing to Dom right now. And now you're going to expect him to sleep in that. No, I don't. He's going to sleep in the other bed. Like, if this was his bed, it would be absolutely a foul.

It's what hockey people call a gross misconduct. Oh, gross. Because I will say this. There's nobody who hates feet more than I do. I think feet are the most disgusting body part. You wish you could be outside of the room when you take your socks off? I can't even stand my feet. But this is not the bed he's sleeping in, so it's not that bad.

I don't understand. Elliot, it's not your decision. Yeah, I understand that, but I'm trying to defend myself as much as I can here. sleeping in so it's not that bad i don't understand it's not your decision yeah i i kind of i understand that but i'm trying to defend myself as much as i can here all right well it's a pretty flimsy defense your honor but what a waste of the start of a pod well come to 32 thoughts the podcast in seattle in dom's room we've established that presented by gmc sierra happy new year to all the great listeners of our podcast. Yes, absolutely. As Elliot mentioned, we are in Seattle.

You are going to hear, we did a number of interviews today. So you're going to hear a collage of pretty much all of them, whether it's Ron Francis, GM of Seattle Kraken, Kelly McCrimmon, GM of the Vegas Golden Knights, Bruce Cassidy, head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, or Jack Eichel, star center for the Vegas Golden Knights. You will hear from all of them over the course of this podcast. And we'll get to the Winter Classic here in a sec.

Yes, Elliot. Oh, I was going to ask you about this morning. This morning was really good. Ron Francis was really happy to do this interview today. He was? Yeah. Good. He's in a great mood.

Good. Because you weren't there. Yes, I walked right into la was la was so i worked late on uh on saturday night and uh i didn't realize that the toronto to seattle route does not have a direct in the morning so you know flew toronto chicago chicago seattle and when people heard i was going through chicago i could be danger are you nuts yeah are you insane you never take a connection through o'hare unless you have nine hours to find your way through it yeah and i only had about 45 minutes but i was fortunate someone up there likes me. Smooth connection. Nice. Smooth trip. And I didn't get a chance to see.

You know the one person I really wanted to meet today? Hmm. Marshawn Lynch. He was there. Yeah, I know. I couldn't make it to the field this morning to see him on time. I love Marshawn Lynch. I think he's one of the funniest guys around.

I love that he's a minority partner of the Kraken. I think it's a great thing to have him part of the funniest guys around. I love that he's a minority partner of the Kraken. I think it's a great thing to have him part of the team. I've heard that when he comes in and he does team nights, they have one of those promotions where they give an award to a fan during a commercial break. When he does it, he's great at it, very, very willing to do things. I really wanted to get a chance to speak to him today, but unfortunately I didn't get here early enough to do things I really wanted to get a chance to speak to him today but unfortunately I didn't get here early enough

to do so. You know Jeff one of the things that happens when you're here is you think about okay here we are at the 2024 Winter Classic what are they thinking about for 2025 and number one there's no Heritage Classic next year there was a Heritage Classic this year they generally skip

on off on off so there's no Heritage Classic next year. There was a Heritage Classic this year. They generally skip on, off, on, off. So there's no Heritage Classic in Canada next year. But 2025, they were saying to me, okay, I was asking, and they're like, who do you think we'd want in the 2025 Winter Classic? That's on you to figure out. And you know who jumped out at me? Conor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks. So I don't know if it's going to be in Chicago or it's going to be with Chicago, but I would not be surprised at all. As a matter of fact, I would bet that the Chicago Blackhawks and Conor Bedard will somehow be involved in the

2025 event. You're going to hear from Ron Francis, Kelly McCrimmon, Jack Eichel, Bruce Cassidy, all still to come. Meanwhile, the headline story outside of the Winter Classic today around the NHL, Elliott, Steve Staios is now the general manager of the Ottawa Senators, also the president of Hockey Operations. Dave Poulin is now the senior VP of Hockey Operations, and Ryan Bonas is an associate general manager. There's a lot of questions that fall out of this, but your initial thoughts on the news today? I was a little bit surprised because if you'd heard everything coming out of the Senators, it was that they liked, that Mike Andlauer, the owner,

liked the Montreal setup. The Jeff Gordon, Kent Hughes setup, and that Ottawa would follow the same model. And it's not exactly what happened. So I was a little bit surprised. And also with the timing. I have several different reactions. First of all, I'm going to give credit to Ron McLean

because Ron McLean said to me he predicted right away when the GM change happened. It was going to be stale? He predicted it was going to be stale. I think there were some other people around the league did one other listener to this podcast said it too um that he thought it was going to be stale and those people were right i had heard and i think i'd mentioned on the pod and written that there was definitely a feeling that ryan bonus was growing into a bigger role that given the opportunity under the you plan god last rule of there was supposed to be no change and then there was a

change they were really impressed with what he brought to the table and like i don't i think And I think there's a few people out there who really believe that long-term, Ryan Bonas, if he's not going to be the general manager of the Ottawa Senators, he's going to be a general manager in the not-too-distant future. And I think the Senators would prefer it would be with them. So I'm not surprised that he got promoted.

My initial reaction to it was why now? Like they didn't do a big search. Yep. Um, you know, obviously there's, there's, there's a lot of people in the sport who like Dave Poulin.

They were definitely looking for a more experienced person. There's no question about that. Um, what I'm kind of wondering is is does this mean they have some other things they're thinking about like coaches i'm the coaches trades whatever it might be like that's the thing that when when i saw that today and i was still on the plane and i had a chance to process it that that's what I thought. Did they have... Because they didn't have to do this today.

They could have interviewed more people and then still come back to Dave Poulin. Yep. What it says to me is they have some things that they're considering and they wanted the people in place to do it. So what happens in January around the NHL? Trade talk starts to pick up. Teams know where they're at, where they're heading, wanted the people in place to do it so what happens in january around the nhl trade talk

starts to pick up teams know where they're at where they're heading what they need to prep for and that's probably because i was like yeah i'm thinking to myself okay so why now yeah and my thought is this is now when teams have pretty much made decisions on where there are some teams that are still maybe maybe maybe maybe but most teams by now they know what's under the hood yeah and they're going to start to act accordingly yeah that's why i thought it was made now it makes it makes sense to me you know they like i said they didn't have to do this now so the fact that they did, they wanted some certainty. They wanted to move along the process. You know, I have to say this. There's been a lot of talk about John Gruden,

the coach of the American Hockey League Marlies team. As I understand it, I don't think Ottawa is expecting Toronto to give them permission in season. Now, I confess, I asked around about this about a week or so ago. So things can always change. But the initial reaction I was getting was, this isn't going to happen during the season. And it wasn't only the case with Gruden.

I think there were other people that Ottawa wanted to talk to that they were told not in season or they knew it wasn't going to be allowed to happen in season people will point to the Rangers situation with Chris Knobloch and the American Hockey League team and will say well Knobloch was allowed to go but I would maintain in that situation that's early in the season I mean you're getting deep into the season here now I think that's I think that's actually different to like it is a different scenario because listen peter laville that's right he was not going to be the coach all i'm saying is the the situations are not the same yeah that's why you can throw the rangers example out because that will come up

and yes and you know i think with ottawa i i don't think they're looking to make massive moves. I still think that they're... But I will say this. Ottawa has kind of surprised us a little bit here this year. That used to be a pretty leaky organization. And Anlauer and Steyos are certainly trying harder to get their raps about it. But this one, again again it kind of happened at a time i don't think a lot of people were expecting so i think the message we're getting

under like the and lauer steos ticket is expect the unexpected is expect the unexpected. Here's what I wonder. They're very much in charge and expect the unexpected. I agree with you on the first one. I'm not so sure about the second one. We'll see. But what I look at on Sunday was this is the cement hardening. This is the concrete hardening around Steyos and Ann Lauer

with the firm grip on the steering wheel of the Ottawa Senators. One of the only things left here now, as you mentioned, is the coaching situation. But as far as a team being run, that's done. The idea that, oh, you know what, we're going to make our decisions at the end of the year. There's going to be more of a thorough search. And we all know what happened with, you know,

Pierre Dorian and everything that's gone on. To me, Sunday was a cementing of these two guys have their hands on the wheel. That's it. I don't know about the, I'm not so sure about the unexpected. That's the only thing that I'm not sure. I don't think there's going to be a massive change of direction for the ottawa senators i think they've identified their core and they know who their team is and where they're heading and they're gonna build and complement that core you know i i don't in theory i don't disagree with you

here's where i do disagree with you at the beginning of the year what did we think dorian smith all season yeah now i heard when that penalty was coming down for the draft pick i did hear lookout yeah that that could lead to a change with dj everything was we're gonna hang on we're gonna hang on we're gonna to hang on, we're going to hang on, we're going to hang on until they just decide we can't hang on anymore. And with the GM search, even though some people predicted it properly from the beginning, like Ron, I think a lot of us were expecting

it wasn't going to happen now. So when I say you can expect the unexpected, I think that they are very good at saying this is what we're planning but if things change we're going to adapt for sure fast for sure so that that says to me that you know someone's gonna hear this and say, you're calling them liars. I'm not calling them liars.

I think that they set an expectation and a path and they almost lure us to sleep. And then, whoa, the path changes. I mean, you just have to be prepared. Now, I agree with you. I think they're looking at this like this is our team for a long time. And whoever they hire as their coach, they're going to be hopeful that this is their coach for a long time. And you mentioned, and we've talked about this, identifying the core.

I think they're identifying their core too. And I think it's at that age group, it's Kachok, it's Stutzla, it's Batherson, it's Norris. Sanderson. It's Sanderson, it's Chikrin, and it's... Shabbat. Shabbat, who I do think they consider as part of their core. But the only thing is, just as someone looking at it from outside, I think we shouldn't be surprised anymore if Ottawa calls audibles.

Like, I don't think they're looking to make big changes to their core. I think they're looking to do some things around it and bolster it. However, I think what we've learned right now is maybe they might proclaim one thing, but it doesn't mean it's going to go that way. Where's Shane Pinto in all this? Well, he's back there now. We talked about a couple weeks ago about how he'd move back into the city.

Jacques Martin said on Sunday he now has a stall. Yep. I think his first game back is January 21st against Philly, and I think he's allowed to practice 10 days beforehand, but now he's allowed to kind of be around. Yeah. I would expect that he's going to sign his qualifying offer this year, pro-rated.

However, I have heard, unconfirmed by team and agent, that they have, since the GM change, they have talked about a longer-term deal. So he would be in that core picture. He is definitely part of the core. I forgot to name him because I had heard some rumors about Pinto potentially being out there that the team wanted to move on. And I was told in several places in no uncertain terms that they were, you know, they were planning to keep him and they considered him a big part of the group.

Now, Jeff, you know, you make a really good point that maybe this is just a new group getting in and they're trying to say okay this is our group and eventually there won't be that many changes i'm just saying someone who covers the league auto was giving a a definite vibe of expect the unexpected don't be yeah wait for the head fake wait for the head here comes the head larry burke peak night nobody had better head fakes than larry bird uh okay we've talked a lot about goaltenders um all season yeah let's do it again uh goalies on waivers ilia samson off and eric comrie toronto and buffalo okay so i actually want to start if you don't mind can we just mention winnipeg for a second i'm going to tie

all this in okay so winnipeg had a huge weekend um'm going to tie all this in. Okay. So Winnipeg had a huge weekend. As we record this podcast on New Year's Eve, they are third in the league in points percentage behind the Rangers and Boston. And they just played Minnesota back-to-back and won both games. And Hellebuck won one, and

Brassau won the other. But I will say this. I had a long talk. Like I was doing a lot of GM calls on Saturday about where are we going goalie-wise. And I had a long talk with a couple guys about Hellebuck. And I know that there were a lot of people who were skeptical of that deal and we're in year one of seven.

We'll see where it goes. But you know what? I had a really interesting conversation with one GM who compared goalies to NFL quarterbacks. Raise your hand if you're a fantasy football champion. Oh, Jesus. Elliot and Dom, great. You should play fantasy football, Jeff.

It takes 10 years off your life. I need more distractions in my life. My hair's not gray enough. It gives you heart attacks. Anyway, he was comparing it to football quarterbacks. Okay. And he's like, there's eight studs. Uh-huh.

There's Lamar Jackson. And there's Tua, although he's struggling right now, and there's Justin Herbert, and there's a couple of really good quarterbacks, and then there's a bunch of quarterbacks you just plug in, and you don't know if they're going to be good anywhere. And he mentioned Joe Flacco, and for those of you who play football, fantasy football, or are a football fan, Joe Flacco wins a for those of you who play football, fantasy football or a football fan, Joe Flacco wins

Super Bowl with Baltimore. People debate how good he really is. There's this big online debate, is Joe Flacco really elite? He leaves the Ravens, he goes to a couple teams, it doesn't go very well. And now he shows up in Cleveland and

he looks better than he ever has. And one GM said to me he says I'm watching Joe Flacco and I'm following his career path he goes it's like a goalie in the NHL like sometimes you have no idea what to expect why is this guy good with this team and why is this guy good not good with this other team like he said perfect example can't tell but should be a perfect answer for this. All teams play differently. Whenever we talk with Kevin Woodley, what does he always say? Not all goaltenders fit with every single team.

Their performance cannot be replicated because all teams are different. But what his point was with Halibut and Winnipeg is that, and he says in his organization, he's like one of those teams that always debate, do you really need a goalie? Do you really need a goalie? Do you really need to have a goalie? And he said watching Hellebuck this year, and the Jets and Hellebuck weren't sure

that was going to work, and it happened in October or September. He said it is a reminder, if you have one of those eight quarterbacks if you have one of those eight goalies you hang on to them for as long as you can yeah you know i i do find that because i find it interesting because like you i've heard the comparison before nhl goaltenders are like nfl quarterbacks that's how valuable they are and i think what and it certainly drives me goofy sometimes when i think about it why aren't they the highest paid players in the nhl then like what was the conversation we had last podcast who's the mvp the league minimum salary backup yeah like when you consider how important

goaltenders are to your team why are they not the highest well i think it's because a there aren't that many of them and you know i think price's injuries scared some teams off i agree with that like generally i think if you take a look at these goalies, like Lundqvist was signed when he was 31 years old, and he made six and a half years of that deal. Like he did, you know, there were a lot of people saying that's crazy. I think goalies have a later prime, but the goalie market right now, it's crazy, Jeff.

So as you said, there's two guys on waivers on Sunday. I don't think anyone's claiming Samsonov at $3 million. I think he's going to the American Hockey League and he's not going to play next week. What are they going to do with him then? He's going to practice. And I think they're going to work with him off the ice. I heard a really interesting story about Samsonov.

Someone said to me that one of the concerns they really had about him right now is, apparently at times he was practicing very well. And it wasn't obviously translating into games. And I think teams, they get into,

that's when teams are really stuck. Like, what do we do here? You know, what do, because you can't just say, oh, the guy's going to have a good practice and he'll feel better. Apparently that was happening. He was having really good practices and it wasn't working. So they're going to just work with, like, one thing that really amazed me is how both Kelly and Kevin were adamant

that playing in the American Hockey League is not going to help this. So they're going to work on his mental game. They're going to work with him. They're going to work on his, his practicing and they'll see where they are in a week. And the one thing I heard trade wise was I heard they did not like what was being offered to them i heard that it wasn't like someone was saying to me like they were saying okay can we throw like a sixth rounder out and get someone and they didn't even like like teams apparently were saying no we like we want a prospect or something so that's how crazy the market is is that the market or is that specifically

toronto well i know i i because like carolina would have made a deal for a goalie if they could have new jersey would probably have made a deal for a goalie if they edmonton would have it's like like i just think like these like even the middling goalies are the the prices are are crazy these teams are... So the tough thing with Comrie is, I think Comrie is a better goalie than he's shown. The salary is the killer at 1.8. Nobody's really got... But someone was saying to me that they think with Anaheim, for the trade for Gibson and the retention...

That's huge. It's enormous. That's huge. I know you always roll your eyeballs when i say first rounder but retention will get you a first rounder no i'm not really i really believe that i'm not rolling my eyeballs at that and if i was before i'm not anymore like i i do think if you want anaheim to retain it's going to cost a lot it's going to cost now it's still but but i mean who can take that contract all by itself?

They can't. But you're going to attach something to it. And, you know, I think the same thing with Jake Allen. Like, he's at, what, 3.85 next year? I think that that's another one. I don't think the price for Allen is obviously as high as it is for Gibson. It's interesting, though. Like, I've had teams say to me that there's what Montreal has asked for

and what people think they're really willing to do. And the question is, when do you move them to what they're really willing to do? I'll tell you this. really willing to do. I'll tell you this. One goalie whose name I heard a little bit was Kakkanen from San Jose.

Expiring deal. Expiring deal. And if you look at the underlying numbers, money puck numbers, very good goal save above expected. And the team's underlying numbers that we don't see do contribute to that.

I think there's a few teams that kind of thought about him number one what's the price yep number two the only negative i heard was that you just don't know he's never really had to do it before Say that he's having a great year. People think he's good, but it's like that Flacco thing they kind of talked about. And my point was my God, he can't be a system goalie because San Jose's giving up

a lot of goals, so you have to like him. But I just think that I know there's some teams out there where a little bit what price am I going to have to pay for a guy I haven't seen yet? But teams like him, i just think that i know there's some teams out there a little bit what price am i going to have to pay for a guy i haven't seen yet but teams like him they do those conversations start to heat up now uh and we'll see what happens with the maple leafs and the buff and i mentioned this every time we talk about uh toronto and i'm doing it again i think nylander is priority number one there and it's the thing that

they're trying to do. You have a spidey sense on that one? It's always tingling. I am always... No, I'm not doing this. It's always tingling. We're talking about Nylander.

It's always tingling. Just want to make sure. One other thing I wanted to mention about Carolina. Yeah. I'd heard that some teams had talked to them about bunting. You mentioned that on Saturday. Yeah. And I got to tell you, one of the teams I wondered about was,

you know, there's a GM out there who knows them pretty well. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. pretty well pittsburgh pittsburgh all right well we'll see where that one goes um washington capitals good return for him though in uh score a big goal big goal scored a huge goal uh washington capitals have now lost four straight games yeah the game against Nashville, the disallowed goal, the Alexander Ovechkin goal, the Nick Dowd in front of Yaroslav Vaskarov, which I don't think you liked so much. You know, Kelly Rudy, God bless his heart. He's the nicest man alive.

A goalie could commit grand larceny, rob a bank in broad daylight, and he would say, there's something there that doesn't convince me the goalie is actually guilty. I didn't like that call. I judge everything by if a goal gets taken off in the playoffs, how am I going to feel about that? And I would hate if that goal got taken away in the playoffs. How am I going to feel about that?

And I would hate if that goal got taken away in the playoffs. Number one, doubt is not in the crease. Are you okay with that being a Stanley Cup championship goal? Yes. Yes, I am. Doubt is not in the crease. You don't have to be in the crease. I know you don't have to be in the crease.

you don't have to be in the crease. I know you don't have to be in the crease, but as you have said many times, the crease often tells the tale. It's a big tell. That's where like, okay, put it this way. The crease is where you don't presume innocence. You assume guilt. Yes.

That's how I see the crease. Yes. And you have to prove that you're innocent you don't have to convince someone you're guilty you have to convince people that you're innocent when you're in the crease that liability is sky high here is my scientific method of determining if a goal good luck is it's good or not am i okay if if the Stanley Cup is decided on that goal? And the answer is yes, I am. And the reason is because I don't think that's enough to overturn a goal. I just don't.

You saw Nick Dowd's right skate and Askarov's stick get pulled to the side. But again, Askarov is outside the crease. Now listen, I would make the argument. Oh, sorry. Dowd is outside the crease i would i would make the argument oh sorry doubt is outside the crease he is i would make the argument that that's part of incidental contact and i don't mind a little bit of bumping yeah i'm good with that but again i'll come down to how strict do you want to read the letter of the law his skate gets tied up and his are you okay with that goal deciding the stanley cup i am i am i think push to shove yes but i'm not as i'm not as firm on it okay because i don't like the slope where that takes us like that goal being disallowed and all of a sudden we've got a jack

edwards freak out on sunday oh and the Detroit game. When a Detroit goal gets scored. And Jack is a frequent listener to this pod. When he declared open war on goaltenders. That was awesome. He's not entitled to make contact with the goaltender even if he's out of the paint.

So, it's open season on goalies if they leave the blue paint. Wow. I think Jack Edwards wanted everyone to know, you know, I've been off for a couple days. I'm back. I'm back, baby.

I'm back. I'm back. That was awesome. You know, that one to me was a bit more cut and, like, to me, that one was more cut and dried. Swayman was outside the crease. But I understood it. Like, if you watch that game...

If you watch that game in Washington the night before, you could sit there and you could say, well, wait a second. Those don't look very different to me. That's what I don't like. Even though I saw the Swayman thing a lot more clearly than the Askarov thing, I think both of them should have had the same result. Here's what I'll come to on the argument about Askarov and Dowd.

I wonder if it comes down to who had that position first, whether it was in the crease or outside the crease. And this was, Dowd is outside the crease. Who had that position first? Is that what maybe it comes down to? Maybe. Again, I go back to the more goals we have that look like that getting taken away, I think it's just bad. Now, the other thing, too, that was interesting was someone said to me that if you look at the clock, it counts down to under a minute, which means it can be a review.

Yes. But when does the puck enter? the puck enter it was interesting like they felt that it's that should have been nashville's challenge not the nhl's challenge because the puck actually enters the net yeah with a little over a second left a little over a minute left excuse me you know a little bit more on winnipeg and minnesota i've been going back and forth with people on this ever since the Winnipeg Jets moved from Atlanta back to Manitoba and that is I'm really waiting and every now and then there's a little mini eruption I'm still waiting for the Winnipeg Minnesota rivalry you know we always talk about either lost rivalries Boston New York Detroit Montreal or new rivalries, Boston, New York, Detroit, Montreal, or new rivalries, Anaheim and Arizona coming

to mind. We saw, Elliot, what hopefully will be the beginning of a lovely, nasty rivalry between the Winnipeg Jets and the Minnesota Wild. Province to state. Nasty games. How do you like Lowry and Maroon? Going for it. Let's go. Right off the face let's go middleton and dylan yesterday or saturday the injuries gustafson and kaprizov kaprizov might never play another game in winnipeg um you know that was that should have been a penalty but it's

not like people are like he should be suspended that's that's that been a penalty, but it's not. People are like, he should be suspended. That's not a suspension. But it is a penalty. That was a heck of a reverse hit by Kaprizov, too. I mean, Hellebuck in particular, and Brassois, too, they're making Winnipeg play nine feet tall. That team feels really really good and you know what what someone was saying to me today is that you know winnipeg minnesota is a

really physical team their whole identity is punish you right yeah if you can punish the Minnesota Wild, people notice that. People recognize it. Minnesota doesn't get thrown around too much, if at all. And there's going to be players who watch that and say, the Jets, they stood up to them, eh? They pushed them around a little bit, eh? Hmm. So when you look at Coach of the Year,

a lot of talk about Rick Tockett. Yeah. A lot of talk about John Tortorella. Yeah. A lot of talk about Peter LaViolette. Yeah. And Jim Montgomery. Yeah.

Rick Bonas. Can you do like a Bonas slash Arneal combination? Well, he did handle the team for a while, yes. Still got half a season to go here. I'm just saying, I know. But you know me, I like to hand out the awards every week. Yes, I know. The winner of the Hart Trophy this week

and the winner of the Vesna Trophy next week. I know you do. You know how I obsess about these things, Elliot. A quick couple of things on the World Juniors. And I know you wanted to talk about the geeky hit and the geeky ejection. Yeah. Is that just a matter?

Because I looked at that one and I said, okay, I've watched enough international hockey to understand where they're going here. One, geeky's big. And the guy that he hit isn't as big as him. And he hit him hard. And this isn't, like, I can still remember. Remember when, like, Dion Phaneuf caught, you know,

Radoslav Olesh, and we all looked at that and went like, oh, okay, well, that's fine. Well, he got punted for it. I remember that one, yes. We're used to seeing players get ejected for hitting too hard. Yep. So it didn't come as any surprise to me. I know that maybe newer fans that

don't watch a lot of international hockey might look at that and go what it's a hit it's not his fault that he's bigger and it's not his fault that it made a great hit open ice uh how did you see it first of all it was a it was a huge massive hit 11 seconds 11 seconds in i i mean like i i don't think that should be a penalty but i understand that look if i was playing for team canada international tournament under double ihf rules you do have to understand that that can happen to you yeah you have to be ready for that like i'm sure all those kids are told this is not like hitting in the western hockey league here so that's my reaction is in north america that's never a call or rarely a call or a reviewed call that they overturn in the international events, that's going to be a penalty every time. You know, it's...

My unpopular opinion, you know, people talk about... One thing I do agree with is we have less of a stomach for injuries than we ever did. We like a tough game until someone gets hurt, and then none of us like to see it. Elliot, you can't have both. I know, I'm just saying that. You can't have both.

Like, two of the most popular sports in the world right now, well, one of them in, what's the king in North America? The NFL. Yeah. Which they've taken a lot of big hits out of, but it's still a dangerous, violent game. Yes. One of the most popular sports in the world right now ufc yeah hugely popular

i think people are willing to accept or like violence more than they are willing to let on i think a lot of people are like that yeah until somebody gets injured. But again, that's being hypocritical. It is. I want this incredibly violent and safe. I think a lot of people are like that, though. I always say the same thing. You know what? If you said, Jeff, starting right now, you can only park your car when you're driving 50 miles an hour.

Eventually, I might learn how to park my car driving 50 miles an hour, but I'm going to smash a lot of cars along the way. You cannot have it dangerous and safe at the same time. Thank God I don't live anywhere near you. A couple of other things from the World Juniors. I get these notes, and I'm sure you do as well. What have you heard about some of these players coming off the World Juniors? Because that's when trade deadline starts to pick up.

And so just reading tea leaves um uh it very much sounds like oh we just mentioned connor geeky from wenatchee it looks like everything is pointing towards him ending up in swift currents um geeky is of course a arizona coyotes first round draft pick matthew savoy it's a buffalo sabres first round draft pick. Also plays at Wenatchee. Looks like he's off to the Moose Jaw Warriors. There's some I can't really get a handle on either if or if where

Nate Danielson could be headed. He's a Detroit Red Wings first round pick playing for Team Canada. A couple of people have told me watch for US-based teams. Maybe the Portland Winterhawks. We'll see what happens there. In the Ontario Hockey League, I think all eyes are on Owen Beck, the Montreal Canadiens' second rounder.

He plays for Peterborough, and it very much sounds like if he is on the move that the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds may be the clubhouse leader and the odds-on favorites to land him. An interesting trade on Sunday. The Saskatoon Blades picking up Alexander Suzdalov from the Regina Pats, or his rights from the Regina Pats. He's a third-round pick of the Washington Capitals, played with Conor Bedard last year with the Pats.

Really a highly skilled player. The Washington Capitals, Elliot, had placed him on a pro team in Sweden, but they agreed to release him provided he went to a contender or a top team and the blades of the top team in the in the western hockey league so he goes to saskatoon uh he'll be available january 5th for that team that earlier on this season made the deal for fraser minton uh second on draft pick for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So that's what it sounds like, first blush from some of the big names around the CHL after the World Juniors.

Nice work. There we go. Elliot, quick note, Stephen Stamkos, who we recently saw have a, should we call it a fight, with Aaron Ekblad last week in that Tampa, Florida game. That was a mean game. Great rivalry. Yeah, man. most games played in

lightning history steven stamkos never wanted to leave still doesn't want to leave we'll see how this all plays out spidey sense uh i don't know i i let's celebrate the great moment for a change um again the the thing about stamkos is go back a decade and didn't we all think he was cursed? Oh, yeah. I still remember that like it was yesterday. Him sliding into the net in that game against Boston. Oh, man.

And what did we all say? Is that going to be the end of what could be a great career? And all of the injuries. The blood clot. Yeah. Just... And all of the injuries, the blood clot. Yeah. Just, and he's built a Hall of Fame career. Okay, we'll hit a break. We'll come back with the Montana's Thought Line

and then the collage. Our interviews here from the Winter Classic in Seattle. You'll hear from Ron Francis. You'll hear from Kelly McCrimmon. You will hear from Jack Eichel. And you'll hear from Bruce Cassidy. All still to come on today's podcast. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast made my day today elliot who dat dan duva play-by-play

voice vegas golden knights i'll explain why in a second welcome to the montana's thought line presented by montana's barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Try the ribs. That's why. Oh, yeah. He said that to us, right? At the lobby of the hotel. That's right.

All of a sudden, someone from the back, try the ribs. Hey, thanks, Dan. That was great. That made my day. Anyway, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca is the email address, 1-833-311-3232. Encore en foi, again, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311-3232. Encore un fois, again, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311-3232. Brian submits this one. Last episode, you guys said it was legal to carry the puck on your stick.

Would the NHL allow players to use that tactic in a shootout? I can imagine Conor Bedard at center ice picking up the puck on his stick blade, skating in on the opposition net, and whipping the puck past the goalie lacrosse style. Would this be allowed? As a further thought, maybe some players would think of using special sticky tape on their stick blades for the shootout to facilitate picking up the puck and keeping it on the stick. By the way, that's called friction tape.

Two-sided tape, also referred to as Gordie Howe tape because Gordie used to use a two-sided tape. I've tried it before, and anyone who else has tried two-sided tape, it's great. It sticks to your stick. But by the time the third period rolls along, your stick gets heavy because it absorbs water. Anyhow, would the NHL allow that, Elliot?

I actually think that the NHL would allow anything in overtime or anything in a shootout that isn't felony murder. Do you know of anything that says you can't do that? No, no, no. You're allowed. You can do that. There's only one thing that I have a question about about because you could scoop the puck up lacrosse style and skate with it yeah that's no problem here's my question if someone slashes your stick because that's the only way to get it off your blade unless you're going to body check the person

which i suppose you could and probably should do if you slash the player to get the puck off their stick is that a minor penalty i don don't know i i don't spend any time referee free stuff yes look i the reason i would think it would be legal in the shootout is because technically you're not supposed to take the puck backwards in the shootouts but once people started doing spinoramas people argued well technically that puck's going backwards yeah and i was like go away fun police we're gonna count this so i i just think anything would be allowed to happen uh yes thank you very much for that question uh here's one i like this mike in calgary hey jeff elliott and dom my wife actually asked me this question the other night and i thought it

was a great question when a player gets traded let's use the door off to Vancouver. Okay. What is keeping Nikita from telling the Vancouver coaching staff everything that the Calgary coaching staff is working on? Do players have an NDA, or are they free to say whatever they like? Love the pod.

I listen religiously. I like that. Do players have to sign NDAs? Can you imagine? Nikita, before we give you this plane ticket to Vancouver, you have to sign this NDA. No, they don't. There's nothing that can prevent them from doing that.

And I would assume they do. It's not like football, where football, people like Bill Belichick were notorious for signing somebody who just, he's not the only one, signing somebody who was on the practice squad of a team. They're about to play and they could talk about all their stuff. That's just good strategy. Good strategy.

That's just Greg's good strategy. And they hack into each other's apps as the college football coaches are now complaining about. And Elliot, let's finish up with this one because we have all these interviews to get here in the third part of the podcast. Austin from Churchill.

Hey guys, great job with the pod. What are your thoughts on adding new awards to the NHL? Like which ones? Has there been any talk of adding a comeback player or most improved player of the year awards like they give out in the NFL and NBA. I think it would be an interesting addition and a great feel-good story.

Brock Besser is having an incredible season after and going through hell, deserves to win something. What do you think? Cheers and go Jets go. From Austin. We had this conversation about a comeback player of the year on the pod, and you know what someone said to me? It's the Masterton?

We already have that. It's called the Masterton Trophy. Perseverance, dedication. I don't know if it's the same as a comeback. I don't disagree. When I think of how our award tends to get voted on, I don't disagree with that point. Okay.

Most improved player. I've asked about that there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in that what are awards marketing there are things that you get for doing well right it's marketing it's part of the market although in the nurse family there are no participation trophies We got a lot of comments on that Sarah Nurse interview She was great But I mean Awards are marketing Marketing for your sport and marketing for your stars And I think as long as it's not

Absolutely ridiculous I don't mind Fragmenting Defenseman trophies Offensive, defensive I'm good with that Can I tell you what I heard on the weekend? I don't mind fragmenting defenseman trophies at all. Offensive, defensive. I'm good with that. Can I tell you what I heard on the weekend?

No, I think I'll just end the segment there. Okay. Someone told me that last year, some of the players disagreed with some of the awards voting more than they ever have. Like the winners or just who got votes or who didn't get votes? I think winners. Really? Yes.

Because they looked at my ballot and said, well, Merrick's got it perfect. How come he's not represented properly? I heard one of the ones, they thought that the Norris was too lopsided. Really? What would they have liked to have seen? I mean, Carlson kind of had a season for the ages.

He did, but it was interesting because I think players were kind of like, look, I voted for Carlson 100 points. I was like, you got to vote for him. I just heard the players didn't really agree with that. And the reason I'm bringing it up now is that I heard it at the time and I kind of forgot about it.

Yeah. And it was brought back onto my radar last weekend. That they thought it was too lopsided. But did they still think that he should have won? But just not by that margin. I didn't get a great answer. Are we like splitting hairs on this one? I didn't get a great answer because one of the things

that you always do is if you only speak to like three or four, sometimes you're guilty of assuming that three or four speaks for 700. But I do think, I definitely got the sense that they felt

it should have been closer. That Quinn Hughes should have had more? Didn't say who. Miro Haskinen. Didn't say who. Just said two lopsided. Did you talk to Quinn Hughes and Miro Haskinen about this, by the way? Were those two the players you talked to?

The four players I talked to were Quinn Hughes, Miro Hayskin, Charlie McAvoy, Alex Petrangelo, and Charlie McAvoy. Okay. That's Montana's Thought Line.

Montana's Barbecue and Bar, Canada's home for barbecue. We're back with a collage of interviews from the Winter Classic in Seattle. Keep it here. Welcome back to the podcast.

Earlier on Sunday, Elliot and I sat down with some members of both teams. You'll see at the Winter Classic, the Seattle Kraken and the Vegas Golden Knights. You will hear from Bruce Cassidy in this collage of interviews Seattle Kraken and the Vegas Golden Knights. You will hear from Bruce Cassidy in this collage of interviews, head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights. You'll hear from Vegas' general manager, Kelly McCrimmon. You'll hear from their star center, Jack Eichel. But kicking it all off, the general manager of the host,

Seattle Kraken, here's Ron Francis. Elliot was traveling when this one was recorded, so finally, it's just me and a guest without Elliot wrecking it. Here's Ron Francis. Elliot was traveling when this one was recorded. So finally, it's just me and a guest without Elliot wrecking it. Here's Ron Francis. First of all, Ron, this looks fantastic behind us here. I am

curious, from your position as general manager, what's been the most challenging thing about putting this event together? Actually, you know what? The NHL does a great job. They've done this for a long time, so they organize that. The Mariners have been fantastic to work with and help get everything set up.

You know, probably the biggest thing is just in hosting, you've got everybody coming into town. So, you know, we're running somewhere close to about 300 family and friends that are in town for the event. So managing that and making sure we get as many people as we can on the ice to skate, as many people here to watch it, feeding them tonight on New Year's Eve

and getting them into the building tomorrow has probably been the biggest challenge, but it's a fun problem to have. You know, it's always fun too to see the local team put their flair and put their spice on the event as well. What were some of the more goofy ideas maybe that you heard over pitch that got rejected I'm always curious about that around the table okay so you know no bad ideas just throw them all out yeah you have a couple that you

looked at yeah I don't know we can do this yeah I probably don't have anything for you I really wasn't in a lot of that we have the business side that kind of in the market side that more or less took on that from our standpoint. I know they did a really good job. Our jersey's been well received. They've done a lot of advertising in the city. I think the city of Seattle is excited to have this event here and show our city off. I think our fans are really excited to be a part of it and I know our players are just itching to get out there and play.

As a kid growing up, that's what you dream of, right? A lot of times we skate on the outdoor rinks and now to have this chance to play it's fantastic for our guys it's become one of those items for players now there's like okay I want to play I want to win the Stanley Cup I play my first game I want to score 50 goals all-star all this has become an item for NHLers now right no it has I mean our guys have been really excited ever since they heard it was happening. You know, and they put a lot of time in now.

Part of it is what are they going to wear, what's it going to be as they come off the bus tomorrow. So there's a lot of, you know, sort of effort into that and then a lot of discussions with the players as to how we want to make it work and making sure that we take care of their families during this event too. So really exciting. Our organization's thrilled that we're getting to host this and, you know, thanks to the NHL for giving us that opportunity because we really appreciate it. I mean, listen, you're a legendary player yourself. Is there a part of you that says, you know what, maybe I was, maybe I'd

like to have played in one of these. You know what, the closest I came was the Penguins invited me to go back to playing the alumni game there. So I did sort of get to, it wasn't the real deal, but unfortunately I was out of the game and didn't get the chance when it came along. But this is just a special thing that the league does and we're thrilled that we have it here in Seattle. What are the players saying to you about it? You mentioned already they're thrilled about it, but is this one of those,

hey, this makes it worth it here? Yeah, I know they're all excited. You see them around the locker room and my concern as a GM is there's so much planning for this and you have to have these discussions and you have to get them their bracelets and their credentials and everything else for them and their families. Is that going to take away from their prep leading up to this? But our guys have done a real good job focusing on the NHL scheduling games. They're sort of laying in front of us, but also you can tell in the back of their minds they're really excited to be here.

Just spent some time walking through the locker room down there, and they all got smiles on their face, and they're like little kids again, which is great to see. That's awesome. Let me ask about your team. Really quickly, you've put together an impressive prospect pool. How many of the world juniors right now? Seven now with Mr. Ferkus flying over and actually Shane Wright probably would have been there if we let him go so yeah we've got some good young pieces there. Our scouting staff has done a real nice job in that area for sure.

So how do you, I mean, expectations after last year's season and make it to the playoffs and knocking off the Stanley Cup champions, I mean, expectations certainly go up. How hard is it to say, you know what, these players are hands-off, or are they hands-off? Like, do you always have an eye to the future, but knowing that we need to build on what we did last year?

Yeah, I think right from day one one our approach was a little bit different you know we knew going into the expansion draft we weren't going to get the same kind of deals that Vegas got I mean the GM's had four years to prepare they had time to go back and look at what they did and what they would do differently you know Vegas had nobody sitting on the outside that could affect their expansion draft Vegas made two trades. Nothing that they did wrong. Those were the rules, but they were allowed to make two trades,

which sort of affected some of the rosters on the teams we picked. So going into it, we knew that really wasn't going to be an option for us. So part of the plan was to get the best possible team we could on the ice and be competitive each and every night, but also try and build from the ground up so that when we, when those kids start to roll into our system, we're, we're feel that we're a competitive team, not only for the short term, but for year after year and long term. So it's been a bit of a balancing act.

We certainly think we've got a lot of good hockey players in our lineup, a lot of character individuals. You know, that's why I think we were able to have the success we had last year, but we're also excited about what we have coming. So it determines, I guess, where we are at the time, whether we do certain things. But there are certain guys that absolutely would not be in play based on our strategy to build for the long term.

How have the phone calls been from other general managers? Yeah, you know, there's always calls. You know, I always say as a player, you're always scared to death you're going to get traded. You know, as a GM,. You know, I always say as a player, you're always scared to death you're going to get traded. You know, as a GM, you make 100, 150 calls. You're lucky if you get one thing done. So, you know, there's a lot of, you know, there's always conversations and stuff. But, you know, it's a little interesting, too, with the cap situation with a lot of teams, too.

There's not a lot. It's not real easy to do things in this sort of environment right now. You mentioned Shane Wright a couple of teams too. There's not a lot, it's not real easy to do things in this sort of environment right now. You mentioned Shane Wright a couple of seconds ago. One thing that we do know about you is you have a plan. You have a plan for your team. You have a plan for individual players as well. What's the plan for Shane Wright? Kind of doing what we're doing, right?

Last year we got him some NHL games. We got him back to the World Juniors. He was able to be captain on that team. They won a gold medal. Went back to Juniors. He was able to be captain on that team. They won a gold medal. Went back to juniors. He got back into Coachella. They went all the way to the Calder Cup finals. They were in an overtime in game seven

away from winning the Calder Cup. So a lot of experience there. Came into our camp, we reassigned him to Coachella again, and he's having a decent year down there. Much better overall game from where he was a year ago. And that's our plan, which is continue to work with him, continue to develop him. And at some point, he's going to get the opportunity to come up and play here. But, you know, we want to make sure we're doing it right for Shane and the organization in the long term.

Is he one of those players that you look at and you say, you know, we could call him up here for a fourth-line spot, but that's not where shane wright's going to be like does it matter what the spot is or do you say it's shane wright if it's not a top six spot well you know we did that we had some injuries earlier and we and we called him and went to 10 up and they played three games and all three were like 10 minutes or less i don't like that as a gm because you know if he's coming up i want to see him playing if i if i haven't been coachella he can play 15 plus minutes a night. He can play in all situations.

I'd like him, when he comes up here, to have that opportunity to play more minutes and in more important roles where he can show what he can do. You know, power play being one of them, for sure. You know, this is kind of, at least it feels this way now, in that this season in the NHL has been

the year of the backup goaltender. We had a number of teams with three goaltenders, and everyone was terrified about Tampa and waivers and trying to get a guy down, etc. How do you look at the goalie situation in the NHL right now, and do you think this is here to stay? Well, you know, I think there may have to be some discussions, you know, when we get into the offseason, how we manage that a little bit. But, you know, I think we've been no different.

We went through this last year. We lost the goaltender for about 11 games. You know, again, this year we lost Grubauer. We've got DeCord and Drieger playing for us. So, you know, they've done a real good job in the interim. But, you know, you're going to always deal with injuries, and we're no different. Like, we haven't played one game this year with the roster we thought we're gonna start the season with but it's such a critical position

the goaltending position right so it's if you have your goaltender healthy and able to play gives you a huge advantage and you're seeing it now not only you know with us but a lot of teams throughout the league that that's such a critical position you know I find it interesting that I don't think the NFL would let if the quarterback went down, some guy come out of the stands and dress and be the quarterback or starting pitcher. That's what we do right now. Is there something there that we need to discuss and kind of look at that a little bit differently? Whether it's carrying a third guy or what have you, but certainly I think it's

an interesting point for all the GMs to have discussions on. I'm going to assume that that's come up before general manager meetings, at least whether formally or informally. Yeah, I think there's been some sort of brief discussion on it, but you're seeing more and more of it and it's becoming more and more of an issue. So does that put it more on the forefront moving forward? We'll have to wait and see, but I would think it becomes more of a discussion point not a fan of the e-bugs i think

it's great but you know i think you know you're the points are so valuable it's a tough situation to take somebody that you know maybe by day is an accountant or a singer or something and now you're throwing them into a national hockey league game um you know at a critical point. Matt Beniers, remarkable season last year called their trophy. What are the conversations that you have with him or Dave Haxtell has with him as he finds out that the second year in the NHL is more challenging than the first? Yeah I know it's it's just sort of you know I think he went the first 13 games without a goal, right? So you have a discussion with him and just make sure mentally that he's okay.

You know, one thing about Matty, he's not going to change who he is. He continues to work hard in practice, continues to work hard in the game. So that's a positive, you know, just trying to lean maybe a little bit of your own experience. You know, I know in my position, you know, I played 23 years. It wasn't all 23 seasons that all went perfectly and never had a bad game or never had a bad stretch. And I always felt when you got into those stretches, the thing was to try and go back to the things that you do well, right? What is it that makes your game successful? And if you go back to those little things that

helps you kind of find your way. And I was pretty confident that he wasn't gonna go 82 games without a goal. You know, try and lighten the mood a little bit with him and get him to relax a bit. But, you know, he's such a big part of our organization now and moving forward. We just want to make sure that he's doing all right. But it is a good league. And it's hard to score goals in the NHL, as you well know. Do you think, I mean, this would make sense. Do you think he puts too much pressure on himself? He takes a lot of pride in what he does, and he's an elite-level player.

Do you think that there's a squeeze in it too much sometimes with Baneers? I think if you get to this level as an NHL player, you put a lot of pressure on yourself in any situation. And Matty's no different in that regard. He wants to help the team win, he wants to score goals, he wants to make good plays. Those are things he wants to do. He's a leader within our locker room.

So when things aren't going well, it's harder to be the leader and that's part of what the challenge has been to Matty continue doing the things you do as a leader and continue to work on your game. But we believe he's gonna be fine in the long run. Last one for you so it is the the day before the Winter Classic what does Ron Francis do? Try and enjoy it as much as I can with my family and my team you know I've got a lot of people in all my kids that are in town

and my mom and brother everybody's here so we're gonna enjoy the day today we got the family skate. We're going to let all our players and their families go out, and then we've got all our staff and them coming out to skate. And then we're doing a great big dinner tonight for about 300 people, all the family and players, everybody in town, just because it's New Year's Eve and to sort of spend some time with them and then sort of sit back and hopefully enjoy the game tomorrow as well.

That's fantastic. Best of luck. Thanks so much for doing this. My pleasure. Thanks, Jeff. Jack, thanks so much for joining us. So every hockey player has a number of boxes they want to check for their career. Drafted, first contract, first game, first goal, Stanley Cup, all these types of things, awards, all-star. Where does Winter Classic fit in in that collection of boxes for you

well i think when they started this tradition uh because the first one was when the first like real winter classic that they promoted and did was buffalo buffalo right although the snow globe this does air in canada we don't want the can hordes coming after you. No, of course not. But those games were majority, like they were known as the Heritage Classics, right? Yes, that's correct, yes. So the first Winter Classic was that one in Buffalo. What year was that? Was that 2008?

Yes. Around then. So I would have been, yeah, I mean, I was a young kid, and I think watching that, and obviously Crosby had just come into the league, and I think every young hockey player was just a huge fan of him. So I think that tradition just continued to build each year, and you just dream about playing in one. I have memories of being out on a pond in winter classic jerseys whether it be the light blue pens jersey that they wore in that winter

classic or uh bruins winter classic uniforms um so you always dream about doing it fortunately i was lucky enough to play at city Field in New York against the Rangers when I was with Buffalo. It was a dream come true and now to be able to do it again. I feel very fortunate. It's an incredible experience I think for us as players. It's also an incredible experience for your families and the people that you have here with you. I remember interviewing Crosby after that one in Buffalo when he scored in the shootout. And I said, it must be the greatest feeling in the world. You're in the middle of this huge stadium.

In that case, because they're on the road, everybody's booing him. And he goes out there in front of all those people and scores the winner. And he said it was like Gladiator. He felt like he was in Gladiator. And you get to do a lot of incredible things as an athlete. I would imagine being in that position is as up there as it gets. Yeah, I mean, you look at some of the historic Winter Classic moments. I know if I think back, obviously the Bruins overtime game

against Philadelphia at Fenway Park was pretty cool. You think about, like, Henrik Lundqvist's save on Daniel Breer. Some of the other shootouts, the game at the Big House was obviously pretty cool. You know, went to a shootout as well between Detroit and Toronto. That was, you know, I was living at Ann Arbor during the during that during that game when I was at the National Development Program but I wasn't in town I was actually overseas in the World Juniors so I didn't get to go to that one but yeah there's there's so many great memories around the Winter Classic and this game and

you just want to be on the right side of them. Sorry, Jeff. I heard you skated with some of the kids this morning. Who's good? Well, yeah, Marshy's good. Marshy's got three. His kids, I've been on the ice with them before. His three boys are pretty good.

Are they like him? I don't know if I'd compare they like him? I don't know if I compare them to him. I don't know. His oldest, James, is a good player. His middle one, William, is really good. And his youngest one, Henry, is a pretty good skater as well. I imagine they're really good players. Yeah, he's tough on them. They're always on the ice.

They're always working. He's pretty tough on them, but he takes a lot of pride in it. It's really cool to see. Obviously, you grow up in your relationship with your dad when you're a young kid. It's one thing. And it's almost sometimes a love-hate relationship where they're pushing you.

And you don't quite understand it. As you get older, you're, it's almost sometimes a love-hate relationship where they're pushing you and you don't quite understand it. As you get older, you're really thankful for it. Being able to be around, you know, my teammates and their kids, it's a super cool experience. You know, I remember when Max Petruetti was still here, how into his kids' hockey he was and, you know, getting to know Mars he was and you know getting to know Marshy and his wife and getting to know their kids and all they do for their their kids hockey it's awesome to see and you know I hope they have you

know so much fun being out there today it's such a cool experience for you know not only them but all the kids and all the families you know, not only them, but all the kids and all the families, you know, wives, girlfriends, you name it. It's, you know, it's all part of this great experience that we get to have. You know, we always say the Winter Classic is a great event. It's a spectacular show, but the game isn't at NHL levels. Not everything is controlled. Things are different. How different is it? And do you even mind considering it's a spectacle and it's a cool thing?

How different is the ice, for example? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely, there's a lot of variables that go with it. Temperature, ice. Glare. The glare. You have that hollow feeling underneath you a little bit because there's obviously, you know, when we play at a normal arena,

it's concrete below us, below the ice. Whereas when you're on the ice here, you know, I don't know what they use to put underneath on the ballpark, but I'd imagine it would be wood, right? You know, to try and protect the field. So there's some different variables. The seating's different. The fans aren't right on top of you.

So there's, you know, a little bit different eyesight and the dimensions feel a little bit better. I was going to say, are sight lines off a little bit? Sight lines, yeah, sight lines are a little bit different. The dimensions feel a little different,. I was going to say, are sight lines off a little bit? Sight lines are a little bit different. The dimensions feel a little different whether they are or they aren't. You know, there's some variables that go with it, and I think you just take them for what they are. We're very fortunate to be playing in this game,

and everyone's dealing with the same variables, so I think that's the best way to put it. I bet you when you came into the NHL, you always said, I'm going to play in an outdoor game where it's going to be Vegas against Seattle. Yeah, that was my first thought. Yeah, exactly. Who would have thought, right? Who would have thought Vegas and Seattle a couple years ago

would be playing in the Winter Classic when they first started this? Yeah, it's awesome. You have the two freshest franchises in the league. And, you know, every time we come here to Seattle to play, they have an incredible atmosphere. You know, we feel like we have an incredible atmosphere at T-Mobile. So it should be a really cool experience for both franchises. Who do you guys hate the most?

Is it the Kings, the Oilers, the Avalanche? I don't know. The Wild, the Sharks, the Stars. The thing is, the Sharks rivalry was really hot before John. Really? Yeah. But I'm wondering, like, I was watching against the Kings the other night. That was a great game to watch.

Yeah. But I was looking at that and saying, who do these guys hate the most? Yeah. Like, everybody hates you because you're the champions. Right. I'm not sure. I don't know. You't know you know you're smiling well you know what i'm sure different guys on our team how would have different opinions on that who they specifically hate the most so what's yours uh who would i hate the most i don't know honestly. You know, I'm a little newer here.

It was my first playoff run, so these guys have a little more scar tissue from some of these series they've had. Yeah, it's a good point, though, too, because it seems like you get every other team's best game. Elliot and I talk about this on the pod all the time. Your games against Minnesota are awesome. Your games against L.A. are awesome.

Games against Edmonton are awesome. Go right down the list. Dallas. Colorado. Colorado, another great. Maybe that's the most obvious one. That exhibition game was like a regular season. I was going to say that was, yeah, that exhibition game.

It sure felt like a regular season game at the end of the preseason. But that's good. It's a competitive game. It was physical. I mean, you want those type of games the the compete was high the the skill level was high both teams had a lot of their you know regular players in uh i think you want those sort of games that during the preseason to try and get yourself prepared be a similar game at the end of the preseason with uh with la and it seems like all those every time we play them dallas colorado

it's always tight games la um you know edmonton yeah um i think you see both teams really get emotionally invested in those games uh last one for me jack um the conversation around you this year on the media is look at jack eichel's 200-foot game. Is this something you're doing differently, or are we just all lazy and we've only noticed this now? You guys are just lazy. No, no. No. You know what?

I give a ton of credit to RD. They definitely make us forwards look good. The system in which we play, I give a lot of credit to Bruce, the coaching staff. I think the system bodes well for our team, our centermen. For me personally learning it, having the opportunity to get comfortable with it last year and then you know try and make improvements and then just trying to focus on it more because I think it's it's an important part of the game and I think there's ways that you're always trying to get better and for me there was a long time where everyone critiqued my, I guess, play in my own zone.

You know, and you don't want weaknesses. You always want to try and find things that you can get better at. And for me, you know, playing in our own zone, helping our defensemen break the puck out, you know, being responsible, you know, building trust from the coach. I think that's all important. And, yeah, just try to make more of a conscious effort. And I think you combine a lot of those things and we get a pretty good team.

And it allows me to try and be a part of that. We play a pretty tight defensive game for the most part. And I'm a benefactor of that at times. And I like to say I also can impact it you know in a positive way. This is great good luck tomorrow. Yeah thank you. Thanks so much for doing this. Kelly thanks as always for making yourself available for this right before the Winter Classic. How long has this been on your agenda? Like what do you have to do for the Winter Classic this year as GM of this team?

We had some preliminary discussions and decisions to make with respect to who's going to be coming, ticketing, those types of needs, which, interestingly, I think our deadlines were, if they weren't in the middle of the Stanley Cup Finals, they were right around that time when your mind is on anything else. But I think where we would have started to, where it came on our radar much more was when you get to the offseason and you look at the upcoming schedule, you look at just the different experiences that your team is going to have.

And the Winter Classic was really perfect in terms of giving your players an opportunity to enjoy something with their families. It's an honour to be one of the teams asked to play. The venue is going to be tremendous. We can see that from our family skate this morning. So I think it was sort of more as we headed into the season. What do the players say to you about this? Is there a whole lot of, hey Kelly, thanks? Some of our players have done it, so I think they know what to expect. I'm assuming you guys were around when we had our family skate. I guess you were likely there with Seattle as well, and you know, that tells you everything for me that you need to know, right? It's, uh, uh, you know, just, you know, really, uh, really gratifying and heartwarming to watch them interact with, uh,

you know, their wives or children, uh, you know, parents, in-laws and, uh, and everything that goes, uh, with the family skate and, uh, you know, just the, you know, the buzz around the hotel because our entourage is, you know, over 200 people for this game. Whereas a regular road game, we'd be, you know, 50 people. So that part of it is different as well. So, yeah, I think the guys really look forward to it and really enjoy it. You know, it's good to hear you say that you embrace it and it's an honor to be selected because I do think there are times people wrestle with, is this a good thing or do we really need this?

Well, sure. I think in the moment, people may think that. For us, it worked out really well. Our schedule has been really heavy in the first half of the year. Coming out of Christmas, we went 27th, 28th, and then we got a nice break. We don't play till the 1st, and then we don't play till the 4th. So we're not having to sort of hurry to get here. We're staying overnight tomorrow night after the game

so we can have a get-together with the families and enjoy that because New Year's Eve will be a quiet night for all of the players because of the game tomorrow. And then we still get home with time for a day off, a practice day, and then play that following day. So I really like that part of it. That was one of the things when you asked the question, what were things that we had to do in regards to the Winter Classic, do in regards to the Winter Classic, our scheduling in and around it probably was the most significant piece of where we were involved in terms of trying to make that layout so the logistics were good that people could enjoy it. So no, I don't look at it as a hardship in any way.

I think that over 82 games, we're competitive people. Losing doesn't sit well with anyone. It won't sit well with whichever team that happens to be tomorrow. But if you just can look big picture a little bit, I think it gives your guys something to look forward to, you know, as you get to sort of, you know, November and into the start of December. And then I think, you know, it'll be something that they remember for the rest of their lives.

You know, we're getting into January now, and that's where we start to see the beginnings of some moves that end up culminating with the trade deadline. I know Mattias Ekholm was a real nice bit of business for Ken Holland last year, but Vegas bring in Ivan Barbashev, bluntly, and helped you guys win a Stanley Cup. It did. I know you're not going to tell us the player or players you have in mind.

Who are you trading for? But do you have something? I'm guessing you must have had Barbashev in the back of your mind for some time before you pulled the trigger on that deal. Do you have in your mind right now an idea of who you're looking for? Well, we rely on our pro staff a lot I think it's really been you know critical to our organization from day one when you look at the role that they've played I think last year's last year's Stanley

Cup team had 11 players that we had traded for so that speaks to a little bit of a different way of building a hockey team. We have to have a lot of trust in our pro staff under Von Karpin. They do great work. We meet regularly. We identify players of interest. We have players that we will adjust our coverage to make sure we're seeing more as we get into 2024 leading up to the trade deadline. Barbashev was an interesting one because he really was a guy

that we identified early in the year. If he was going to be available at any point, we'd be really interested because it was a contract that you could afford. It was, I think, two and a quarter. And he was what we needed. He was different than the players that we had. It's why we made the decision to keep him because he is different than the type of players that we had is why we made the decision to keep him, because he is different than the type of players that we had.

And really, for me, it was not unlike some of Tampa, Julian's best moves were those Coleman moves, the Goodrow moves, like those are kind of the trades that sometimes end up really helping a team. And that's what, that'd be similar to what barbershop was for us. So to not answer your question further, you know, we'll, we have our pro staff coming in, I believe the second week of January where, you know, we'll do a deep dive on every team. And I think we'll really tighten up what we think of our own

team, where we think our own areas of concern might be where we could strengthen our team. And we'll, you know, start to handicap what we think of our own team where we think our own areas of concern might be where we could strengthen our team and we'll you know start to handicap what we think might be happening around the league and adjust our coverage from there is there anything with the barbershop sorry ellie to cut you off i think with barbershop i just going off a memory i think we had 45 in-person viewings uh wow i've been barbershop so he's a player that we we felt we knew pretty well when the time came. I have a few follow-ups based on that, and one of them is a philosophical question. I have been hearing more and more, Kelly, that teams are cutting back on scouting, and there's a big question of what the future on scouting is.

And there's definitely a feeling I've heard in a few places that you still have to amateur scout as hard as you ever did because video is not as reliable but you can pro scout I don't know if I want to call it cutting corners but some people have said to me they think it's cutting corners pro scouting you don't need to do it as much anymore and I'm listening to talk about barbershop here and you saw him 45 times or somebody did I'm going to guess that you think that's not correct. Yeah, that won't be how we do it. I think that maybe where your questioning comes from or it ties into your question is there's more and more things you can do in addition to in-person scouting to develop opinions on players. So the analytics is part of that for sure.

You know, player tracking, I think as teams understand, you know, better as time goes on, the ways that that can be helpful. I think that there's going to be, you know, people that put a lot of importance in that. You know, we'll do the work. I guess we've got the resources from our owner Bill Foley we've got tremendous people in place that's I've talked to you guys about it before I still think that's the best work we've done as an organization

is the people that we've hired and I think it helps us best utilize their abilities that we've got the men arenas watching hockey players the other thing I just want to ask you is there anything you look at your team and say we're going to need this? You know we've had a pretty good start to the year you know we had a great start to the year then in November and December we've had a stretch each month where we weren't as good as we wanted to be I think that there's a lot of things that enter into this not just with our team but with all teams. 82 games is a long season. It depends on what your travel is, what your health is. We've had some health issues again this year, as we have had last year, for example.

In the first half of the year, we had a tremendous health issue with our skaters. The second half of the year, we had a health issue with our goaltenders. So we've had a little bit of that. You know, sometimes it's when you play teams. You know, I know when we went through Alberta, we lost in overtime to both teams, Calgary and Edmonton. And I said before we played Calgary, we were a couple of weeks late getting to Alberta. Because quite a few teams went through there and won both. That's right, yes. There's so many good teams and there's so many factors. You really have to take a broader look at your team. I think we have some comfort, Elliot, in that.

We've returned our entire team except for Riley Smith, so we know that that team can get it done because it has got it done and yet you're always looking to make yourself better and we'll we'll continue to you know the available players and assess whether they would help us and we think that we can improve our team we will last one for me Kelly I know it's not one you're going to love, but Marcia So. He's an original misfit. And really, one of my highlights from last year was what you guys did in Game 5 when you started with five of the six misfits.

I thought that was a really great moment. Now, you've got to sign him. He's a little bit older. You know, just what's your process going through this? Because I know he's an important player in the history and the legacy of the Golden Knights. Well, he is for sure. And obviously, you know, he was a Conn Smyth trophy winner. So that speaks to the importance that he had on our team and has on our team.

And the one thing I've always loved about Jonathan Marcheseau is he scores big goals. He has just got that ability to elevate his game when needed and sees big moments is what I always have found his strength to be. We've got a number of players on expiring contracts. You can add Will Carrier, Chandler Stephenson was another player. We just signed Ben Hutton, Michael Amati was an expiring contract. So we just, you know, as a course of business, we're not going to talk about where we're at with any player's contract or any specific situation.

You know, that goes on between the club and the player and his representatives. Understood. This has been great. Kelly, thanks so much for this. My pleasure, guys. Thanks for having me. We really the player and his representatives. Understood. This has been great. Kelly, thanks so much for this. My pleasure, guys. Thanks for having me. We really appreciate it. You bet.

Anytime. Bruce, first off, thanks so much for doing this. Always curious, a few months out of winning a Stanley Cup, because when it first happens, it's the euphoria and everything. But a few months out, how has things changed for you now that you can say Stanley Cup champion? Well, it's a little easier to coach in terms of if you have a bad stretch or a couple of bad games, there's trust in the group.

Some of that's a lot of the same players are back. So it's a little easier to walk away from a game you don't like that much and say, okay, let's just take a deep breath and get it right, as opposed to be on edge a lot and say, I want to fix it right away. We got to be at our best if we expect to win, because going through it last year, we weren't always at our best and we did win, but we were at our best at the right time. So there's a little bit of a learning curve that, so you take that into the, I've taken that into this year and at times

and So so far that's probably the biggest thing take away, you know, that's exactly what I go said Actually, we asked if you had changed at all and he kind of smiled He trusts us more he said it exactly the same thing like he said everybody go through bad times and Because we're a lot of the same team. he knows he's gonna be able to bring it out of us it's amazing he said the exact same thing you did well yeah well I mean that's the way it probably should be right when you it's like anything in life if somebody's accomplished something you sort of have to trust they

can get it right it doesn't mean you're gonna win again but the process maybe to do it and how to do it so yeah that's probably the biggest takeaway yet there's been a couple times where we had to stop and say listen last year's over like we got to stay in the moment to here now and we are the defending champions and people say that but we'd like to be the repeating champions right so let's get into that mindset so there's been a few times you if we've had to tackle that issue as well you know I'm a big Pat Riley guy I really like Pat rallies work and when he wrote about the coaching the Lakers through all their showtime he talked

about the cycle of a team right and after a team wins the championships he had the chapter called the disease of me that's where it becomes that everybody wants to get their reward and what do i get for winning the championship have you seen anything like that with this vegas team uh no no i haven't uh you know a couple of guys i mean it's a business cycle right so some guys like aiden hill got paid i'm happy for him he did a great job for us he's been working out his craft now in the league. So there's going to be some of that rewards. But I think that's just maybe where you are a little bit of luck involved. Maybe if your contract year happens to come up when things are going well, that's part of the business. But as far as the individual

maybe playing time, the disease of me and like, I need more, I should be playing more because we won. No. And I think a lot of it's because of the returning group and we kind of slotted in the same now we've mixed some people around but similar roles now some young guys obviously could keep that growing but most of the other guys know where they fit we haven't asked less of them in terms of you know what they brought last year. We're trying to keep it similar as long as we have success. And we did early, not so much lately.

So if that continues, then we'll have to change it up. But that part has been good with the group. They're a pretty respectful group to one another and understand that they need everybody. And I think that's what makes us tick a little bit. and understand that they need everybody, and I think that's what makes us tick a little bit. So do you then deliberately go out of your way to not talk about last year with the group?

I haven't talked a lot about it. I talked about the start of the year, we talked about do we want to be a one-and-done team? If you look at the last 15 years, take a decade and a half or whatever, Chicago had the run of three LA a couple I put Boston in there because they were there three times

they won once, I was there once when they lost lost another time or do you want to be the team that was there once and never back again so they were there once a long time ago the original team we have an opportunity to be that legacy team. The way our core is set up and our contract structures, I think, allow us to do that.

So we've talked more about that at the start of the year. So how are we going to get there? It's a long journey, but that's what I think we're capable of. So it was that a little bit last year, but it's more about going forward. I don't bring up last year a lot. Periodically, things will come up. That play in Florida the other day, hey, we got to expect their best. We got their best. They were better than us. And there's a big reason why, you know. So sometimes it does come up, but not every day. And, you know, we'll mix in the odd clip that might be relevant.

But that's it. Did you talk to anybody about repeating? I talked to Jared Bednar, Coop, but it was general terms. Just on how they, more about how did you approach camp? How did you go about getting up and running? Less so about in-season issues. Those phone calls would probably start coming now, maybe, that you're halfway through.

Did Jared Bednar tell you the truth, or did he lie? Well, Jared might be tougher to get out of now, but he's a great guy. So he was, you know, how they wanted to structure their camp, how he thought it would be good for them. At the end of the day, we did the exact same thing we did last year, to be honest. We were just able to get through it more efficiently because there was less teaching and less video. So I thought it worked last year. Some new people in Henderson,

so good for the organization to review everything and I still think it's good for the players to go through it all. We just, like I said, because we'd been through it once and we knew each other better, you know, the practices were just cleaner and crisper so you get through them. So they're out of the building quicker, their days are shorter. You're still getting the work done. I was wondering if you spoke to anyone in any other sports or anything like that. Some people do that. Yeah, you know what? I didn't.

And I don't know a lot of different people. You know, Bill Belichick and I talk at times, but I did not. I went with the hockey guys. Okay. Sorry, Jim, I've got to say this. Your conversations with Bill Belichick, what are those like? I'm fascinated by him, and it looks like an incredible run might be coming to an end. Yeah, you know, I know they're not where they want to be right now,

so I don't know what will happen in the future. We never discuss anything like that. What I like talking to Bill about is the process. He likes talking about the grind. He loves the grind and talking about the details of coaching, how not to beat yourself. But if you ever called him and said, well, what's it like to coach Tom Brady?

Well, it's going to be click. It's not click anymore, but he does want to get into those specifics. Just like when people ask me about a certain player, it's like, that's between us, right? And, you know, it's just, that's his thing. But it's more about, you know, preparing your team. You know, what do you do if you're, you know, it's not going well. But it just, a lot of general stuff.

Like, I just think he likes the sport he likes the you know I was in Boston obviously then the Bruins you know blue-collar approach because he knows the city well and he loves that about about sports in general and hockey's there's a lot of that's about the team right at first it's not always the best team on paper that wins and so it's just conversations like that. I want to ask you something that we asked Jack Eichel right before you came in. And that is, your team seems to have

consistently great games with the most different teams. Minnesota, Colorado, Los Angeles, Dallas, Edmonton. Edmonton. We're trying to figure out the reason for this. One, you're an entertaining team with a lot of talent. But two, is it that everyone's gunning for you, and they always have, going back to probably year two, after the novelty of the expansion team makes the final.

Do you find that you're getting the best from just about every other team? And that's why, you know, night in, night out, Vegas Golden Knights games are some of the most entertaining games in the league. I think we got early on, like Dallas, we saw them. It was playoff intensity right away. Florida was the other day. I thought Tampa got to that. I just think it's players that are highly competitive. It keeps getting more and more competitive, and they want bragging rights. So do I find we're getting the team's best? Yes. Even the teams that aren't at that level that want to be, I mean, there's a little bit of, hey, this is where we've got to get to.

This is what it looks like. So that, to me, is a certain sign of respect. I think the players should, that we've talked about. Hey, this is part of winning, right? Now when you're on top, everyone wants a PCS. So, I mean, it's, it's a compliment in its own way, but you got to be ready for it too, right? It's, so I, I feel we've gotten that. I think our guys, I, I've noticed this when we practice, if we just do some drills, they're okay, right? And they're, but when we get into the competitive two-on-two or three-on-three

or small ice games, that's when we get the best out of our group, and that's against each other. So I've learned over the last year and a half that that's just who they are. The more that's at stake, the more that they want to win, and that's obviously a good thing. And that's probably why those games get going. Last question for me. We had Sarah Nurse on our show last week,

and she's quite entertaining talking about this, you know, this dream that she has where she forgets her skates, that she can't find her skates. I was thinking about that as you were saying. I know, right? It makes sense. I'm curious. I understand that a player would have that type of nightmare, really.

Oh, where are my skates? My team's already out there. I can't find my skates. What kind of nightmares do coaches have? Geez, I don't know. Is there one? I don't know. I don't have a good answer for that.

I understand what she's saying, though, right? Because you can't play without your skates. It doesn't matter what else is going on. You need your skates. It's the simplest of things, right? So no, I don't really. It's not like I sleep like a baby every night either. Do you wake up crying every two hours?

But I don't wet my bed. Last one for me. Favorite player you've coached. Oh, boy. You've had some great ones. Favourite player? Well, I've enjoyed coaching a lot of guys. I'll tell you who I... Tory Krug was a guy I coached in Boston, and just the back and forth of

running a power play and how he was a student of the game, and how he tried to build his game from just an offensive player to have a legacy to be a two-way player I enjoyed Tory a lot because Tory was um stubborn but uh very receptive to coaching um you know Pasternak was a lot of fun just to watch his evolution because I had him as a 19-year-old superstar. And Jack is one now that I've really enjoyed, because Jack, to me, is like an elite player that was looking for his spot to be elite, and he's founded here in Vegas.

And I think our timing has been good for each other. We were going to be coming into this together in Vegas, and we were probably going to get some credit or blame either way, no matter how it worked out. So I've enjoyed Jack and his evolution as a player. The other guy I enjoyed coaching a lot, I know he's a little bit off, is Noel Achari. Noel was a guy that came up as a free agent in Providence,

and I watched his growth, and to see him move around the league and have success, like one of those guys that you, just a hard-nosed, great teammate that had to really work at it, that probably beat the odds at the end of the day, and to see him have success, as a guy who spent a lot of time in the minors,

I have a really deep appreciation for those guys. That makes a lot of sense. Good luck tomorrow. Thanks so much for taking time. Thanks for having me. Thanks. Okay, I hope you enjoyed that collage of interviews. Ron Francis, GM of the Seattle Kraken.

Kelly McCrimmon, same for the vegas golden knights uh jack eichel of the vegas golden knights and bruce cassidy the head coach of the we should always throw in stanley cup when you've won it stanley cup champion vegas golden knights uh thanks to both the seattle kraken and the vegas golden knights for making their people available for our podcast thanks to our crew led by Jeremy McElhaney, Jason Wessel, Peter Planta, Camilo Torres, and Elijah Lawson. A big thank you from all of us here.

That's it. That's the pod. Thanks for making it this far. I hope you get a chance to watch the Winter Classic on Monday. Hope you enjoy it. You can enjoy this podcast, a new one anyhow, coming up Friday morning. Happy New Year to all of you. Hope 2024 brings you health and happiness, not just to you, but your friends and loved ones as well.

Have a great day.