32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Some Other Things to Talk About

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

More COVID-19 challenges for the NHL. Jeff and Elliotte break down (00:01) what was a difficult weekend around the league as more teams were shut down, case numbers hit an all-time high, and how the NHL's participation in the Olympics looks to be at its breaking point.They also discuss the much-expected debut of Alex Tuch with the Buffalo Sabres (17:20), the return of Robin Lehner to Long Island (21:10), take a quick look back at the Eichel Anaheim trade package (24:00), what team isn’t interested in Jakob Chychrun, potential front-office candidates in Vancouver (30:00), Brett Connolly’s hit on Tanner Kero (31:40) and the guys take your questions (36:00).Full transcript for the episode can be found hereOutro Music: Hot Flash Heat Wave - Where I’m @Listen to the full single hereThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, Sportsnet and WHL.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.

Yeah, that's good. Like only you would answer that kind of a, it would come up with something. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts to Podcast presented by the all new GMC AT4 lineup. Elliot, before we go any further at all, I almost feel like I want to apologize to start the podcast.

I don't know that we really want to start by talking about COVID. Oh God, no. But we really have to start by talking about COVID. We are God, no. But we really have to start by talking about COVID. We are so sorry. We apologize to all of you who are so sick of COVID. We promise we will find something else in this podcast to talk about other than COVID. But sadly, we have to start with this.

I'd rather talk about, hey, Alex Tuck is going to debut with the Sabres against the Blue Jackets on Monday. Isn't that cool? We're going to see a piece of the Jack Eichel trade, but you can't. Not possible. Okay, so Elliot, let's start with the Olympic question. And one of the things that Bill Daley, Deputy Commissioner of the NHL, talked about at the Board of Governors, I can't remember the exact phrasing, but it's along the lines of material damage to the schedule,

which would allow the NHL to step in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and cancel NHL participation. Where are we right now? I think the announcement could come as soon as Monday. What I was told was that the league made it very clear that all the postponements on Sunday did give that material damage to the schedule. And now I think the question is simply, does the league announce it or do the league and the players announce it together? But I do think the Olympic is simply, does the league announce it or do the league and the players announce it

together? But I do think the Olympic announcement could come as soon as Monday. Okay. So let's end the pod right there. So it doesn't sound dated. Okay. Kidding. You know,

so much of this going back to the weekend, even, even last week when it became apparent with all the, the postponements of games that this was going to a place that nobody wanted, it almost became a game of chicken. Who's going to call it off? Does the NHL have the bullets to call it off?

Do the players have the guts to call it off and say, we don't want to go, even though we kept talking to, I'm sure you were the same, agents and players who all said, I don't want to go or my guys don't want to go, but nobody wants to say it publicly. The players want the NHL to do it for them so they don't stand up and say, I'm saying no to my country. Did you have the same experience this weekend? Generally, yes. I would say that that absolutely did occur.

I had a bunch of calls on Friday night just from people saying, do you hear there's going to be a shutdown, a full shutdown on Monday? Okay, pause on that. Okay, so Saturday morning, one of my first phone calls was with an agent. Your biggest source. Not my biggest. Here's my question to you. Yes.

On Saturday morning, when you make your first call, is it to your biggest source? Sometimes, yes. Okay. Sometimes it's someone who I believe may have a story. No, we're not going to play that guessing game. No, no, no, no. I don't play guessing games with sources when I'm serious. Okay.

I'm just asking you, did this person qualify as your biggest source? Was this this person? At times, this person has been my biggest source. Yes. Okay. Fair enough. And one of the things that he said to me was, I hear we're getting shut down on Monday. Yeah. And I went, whoa. And we talked it out a little bit and he had questions too. And I didn't have any answers and I had questions and he didn't have any answers. And so I called you and the conversation and let everybody in on how the weekends work for us i said to elliot elliot i just heard that there's a chance the nhl shuts

down on monday and i believe your phrase back to me was i'm already working on it you know you make me sound like an egomaniac when you put it that way i should everybody. Can't let me have any joy. Like what really? Where'd you hear that? I was like, oh yeah, Merrick, like that's 12 hours ago. You make me sound like a total egomaniac. No, normally what I would do is I would text Jeff and say, look, I'm hearing this. Like we have a text chain that goes back and forth.

I'm hearing this. I'm working on this. And Saturday before we get into the office, we'll speak four or five times, right? Like I like to be in the office. If there's an afternoon game on a Saturday, I like to be in there for the afternoon game. But even if there isn't an afternoon game on Saturday, I like to be in there really early. Because on Saturdays, I really like to be in work mode. Well, if I'm at a morning skate, that's one thing.

But if I'm not in the office, I'm probably screwing around at home with Max or something and I'm just not into a proper mode but Saturday was late because I was really chasing that one and I couldn't get going you know out of the house and like I said Friday night I got a bunch of calls saying there could be a shutdown on Monday and you know the way I like to do things is I like to collect the information and then go to as high a level as I can get to who's willing to talk to me. And the thing about it was I started getting different information from different people. Some people were saying, no, there won't be a shutdown, but look out for the borders. Other people were saying, no, they're going to play as many games as they possibly can. And they're going to try and jam in as many and they'll shut them down

one by one. And I also think that the story was constantly evolving because all of this was on the table. Like one of the best people I talked to on Saturday, who's one of the most plugged in people, they said to me, the reason you're hearing all of these different rumors is that everything is on the table. There's a shutdown on the table. There is a border shutdown on the table, but all the games between two teams from the same country can still be played. There is a, we're going to try to get every game in,

we can get in and we'll shut them down team by team if we have to like all of that was being discussed the other thing was and this became apparent on Sunday is that there were two things the league was talking about if there was going to be any kind of mass postponement of games. And that was, are the Olympics going to be part of that? And number two, and I know this because a player told me about it, they said that their team told them that one of the things that was discussed was if they shut down the whole league from say Monday to January 1st, then they want to know players aren't going to go anywhere. And the players like, what? You know, they said, yeah, like if you're saying it's not

safe to play because people are getting COVID, we don't want you going to Mexico or Hawaii or traveling on planes to go see families. Why would we want that to happen? I think all of this was being discussed. I think also what happened to Edmonton was a big deal. And that was that Edmonton waited till 8.30 local on Friday to fly to Seattle because they wanted to get their test back. And Duncan Keith got put into protocol. And then Saturday, they had to take tests again.

And they were like, why do we have to take tests again first thing Saturday morning if we just got our results back late Friday night? And they couldn't get out of it. And then Saturday, they got a positive test from Poole Yarvey. And the worry was getting him back across the border. And all of a sudden, all of these teams that had to go across the border were looking at this and saying, this is another example of how unfair and not right this is.

So I think they decided to just sit with the border. And the one thing I was warned about was, don't say a shutdown is guaranteed because it's not, which is what I did. But I hope that paints an accurate picture, Jeff, because it was constantly evolving because everything was on the table. There was only one thing that I found in my calls, and probably you were the same way with yours on Saturday.

One thing that wasn't on the table, one thing that wasn't evolving, one thing that was a constant. There was no way the Winter Classic was going to get scrubbed. So on Saturday night, I mentioned that there were rumors of a shutdown between, I don't know if I mentioned Monday, but a shutdown until the Winter Classic. You know, two of the players whose comments went really viral were Nick Cousins and Jonathan Drouin. And we talked about that briefly on Friday's podcast. Yeah. Nick Cousins was a shut it down guy. Jonathan Drouin admitted that he was nervous about it.

He was playing against a team that was having an outbreak. That's what he was concerned about. And he was nervous about it. And there are players who feel that way. I will say this. And the one person I spoke to said, you can tell the story, but you can't say the team. So I said, okay. And he said to me, what are you hearing? And, you know, I said, I'm hearing rumors of the possibility of a league wide shutdown to the

winter classic. And he kind of hit the roof a bit. He goes, well, if they're so worried about the wild and the blues for the winter classic, shut them down. Don't shut us and everybody else down. You know, again, based on everything we've been talking about, like everyone's talking about what Hellebuck said and what Eiserman said. Well, the whole COVID protocols, I think, are just tough on people. I think it's doing a lot more harm than good, and everyone that I talk to, they're in agreement that we need to be informed,

and then we need to be able to make our own decisions. Like, I think our fans need coming to the games and need a team to cheer around to bring the community back together and bring people's spirits up. They need something to look forward to because all this shutdowns, and I know me personally, all the shutdowns, it's hard on families, you know, mentally and not being able to do things and live your life the way you want to live. It's tough on people. So, you know, when this league

is starting to go back to those ways, I just don't see if they're really thinking about how it's affecting people long term. And, you know, looking at it from the outside again, you know, playing a Carolina team the other night with six guys already tested positive and now five more positive tests on your team, you know, it kind of looks like maybe that wasn't the greatest idea. I'm not so sure bob i really i don't know what the right thing is at the end of the day i think uh now i'm getting political but at the end of the day uh our players are testing positive with very little symptoms if

any symptoms at all uh i don't see it as a threat to their health at this point. So I think you might take it a step further and question why are we even testing for guys that have no symptoms? There are a lot of players and people in the league who feel the same way they do. I had one player who said to me that he felt that if say Colorado plays Dallas you shouldn't be tested unless you're symptomatic and if you're on one of those teams the other teams in the states the only way you should be tested if you're asymptomatic is if you're going into Canada they said look like everybody here realizes the players the players association the teams the Canadian government is not going to allow a situation

where a symptomatic positive players are going to be allowed in the country. So this player's solution was, and he said he's not the only one who feels this way, is if we're asymptomatic, don't test us in the States until how many days it is before we have to go into Canada. Like that should be the rule. And I don't think that's going to happen. I had a doctor on the weekend and this is a doctor I think who has done some work with

governments. He told me that at best in Canada, he believes we're six to eight months away from even considering that. Now that timeline could change, but the opinions are all over the place, Jeff. I know I'm repeating myself a bit at times. Yeah, yeah, that's all right. I just think there's a realization that that isn't happening in Canada, and they have to protect the Winter Classic at all costs. They cannot afford for that game not to be played. So here then becomes one of the issues, and that is one of the schedule. Now, as of Saturday, I'm of the belief,

I don't know where they're at right now, but I'm of the belief that as of Saturday, the NHL had the postponed games already worked into a new schedule, that that was complete, but the NHL could not announce it for the obvious reasons because we don't know how much more damage is going to be made to the schedule i don't know where that's headed now we have to believe that they were doing the work right

all along yes there's not a chance that all of a sudden there's a, Hey, we have 110 new games to program here. Hey, schedule makers, Steve, how to Petro roll up your sleeves and finally get to work. They've been doing this all along just to get that out there. One other point too, I spoke to someone from a team on Saturday who's, and this person has been banging this drum for a long time. And now this person has more ammunition for their point. I think you and I have discussed this before. The idea of doing a baseball style schedule with all of these games that have to be made up, which is if you're going into LA to play the Kings once, now you're going in to play them twice. Well, that's if you have multiple games against them.

But hang on. No, but here's the point. Like if it gets so bad that there are so many games postponed, even if it means that the schedule is not balanced. Yes. It's a crazy year. We have to do the games. Everyone's got to get their 82. Doesn't matter if everything evens out. This is a season where you just have to do it.

You know, I don't disagree with that this person was of the belief that may happen now just get it just get your 82 game regardless of who it's against elliot just get those 82 games done and if it means hey we play a disproportionate amount of games against the new jersey devils or the nashville predators or the edmonton oilers so be it. Yeah. You know, I don't see anything wrong with that, Jeff. Like you're not going to have perfection. So do it.

If you have to play somebody 17 times, play them 17 times. I'm with you on this. It's not going to be perfect. I should say too, that usually we're annoying other people. Other people aren't calling us, but I did have a lot of texts and calls from people on Saturday with, what are you hearing? Players, coaches, executives, what are you hearing? What do you think is going to happen?

Are you hearing about this shutdown? Are you hearing what's going to get canceled? One player said to me, he said he heard about the talk about players not being allowed to travel around christmas he goes have you heard that and i go yes and he goes you have a better chance of lifting the cup this year as captain of the stanley cup champion than that occurring i got when you when you uh when you mentioned that to me on saturday i texted two agents that i'm pretty close with and they had the same answer, which was essentially two different versions of, what do you think they'll do, dummy? I.e., not a chance.

Not a chance that's going to happen. I did think, Jeff, that the possibility of just playing two U.S. against each other and two Canadian against each other was very possible. And that's exactly what turned out to be the case. Do you think this Olympic announcement? Can I say something else about the Olympics? Of course, yeah, go ahead. I think that the players are praying it gets moved back a year.

That the Olympics themselves? Yes. That the whole thing gets scrubbed? Just like the summer did a couple of years ago. Well, the one thing that I wonder about here, because so much of this is face-saving to some extent, certainly from the player's point of view, doesn't this have to be a joint announcement?

I don't know the politics of this. I would hope it would be, but I don't know the politics of this. And then here becomes the other question. We've talked about this before. What happens if all the Russians just say, I don't know the politics of this and then here becomes the other question we've talked about this before what happens if all the russians just say i don't care i'm going no this is the now they have their material damage it's not gonna matter so let's say canada for example nhl players aren't going who's going well the canadian team just pulled back from the spangler cup the one that was supposed

to go and play there. So now they're all going to bubble wrap and cross their fingers for February? I guess they'll wait and see. It'll be the next group of 100 players or so who are put on the list by all the federations. And it'll be up to them to fill out the teams if they're comfortable in going. Okay, so that heavy newsy section is all done. We can all take a breath now and pause briefly and move on to a happier story. Alex Tuck makes his debut for the Buffalo Sabres Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Before we talk about Alex Tuck, can I make one request?

Sure. I don't want any Spider-Man movie spoilers in my timeline. I have one request. Unavoidable. I was going to take my son to see Spider-Man. We're going to wait because in Ontario now, you can't have popcorn in the movie theaters. So when we go to movies, my son's a big popcorn guy and you know,

first world problems. We can't have popcorn in the movie theater right now, which I'm not complaining about. I'm just kidding about. So we got to wait. So I want no Spider-Man spoilers in my timeline, please. I beg you all. I beg you all. So I want no Spider-Man spoilers in my timeline. Please. I beg you all.

I beg you all. I believe the term for this is Streisand effect where you're calling attention to something and now it will be amplified because you know, your timeline is going to be full of like, don't check your mentions now, Elliot. No, I don't like them all because I like when people do stuff like that. Like I love the by play or the fun by play like that. that like i love the byplay the fun byplay like that once you drop that i don't want any spoilers for spider-man on a podcast like this yeah guess what you're gonna get in your timeline all spider-man spoilers i'm sorry they're already there all that's going they're already there but i'll just like them and laugh at them all well that's the wonderful thing about live sports elliot uh we don't know what's going to happen.

Alex Tuck is going to play his first game for the Buffalo Sabres on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Tuck, of course, a part of the Jack Eichel deal coming over from the Vegas Golden Knights, Peyton Krebs, the other part, along with a first and a second. And just as an aside, does it not feel like about a bajillion years ago that Jack Eichel dominated this program?

Yes, yes, it does. You know know we should do a poll this year which topic did you get sick of the most jack eichel covid every vancouver what's happening with the canucks vancouver oh yeah that was a big one like seriously the end of your poll which topic nauseated you the most like how many notes you guys have on your piano, boys? Like two? Like all you've been playing. This is like a Neil Young guitar solo. One note over and over and over again.

Like holy smokes, boys. I really like the Alex Tuck story. Yeah. There's sometimes when moves are going on or trades are going on or talks are going on and you don't realize it. And then when it's over, you kind of realize the backstory and you look at things and you say, oh yeah, I should have seen that coming. And it's pretty clear to me that the Vegas Golden Knights knew that they had a real good

chance of making that deal with Buffalo because they had two things that Buffalo wanted. Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuck. And Tuck because Buffalo wanted a veteran player who was from there and would be happy to be a saver I'll say this I really like Alex Tuck as a player I I think he's a really good player who doesn't get enough credit for for how good he is I know friend of the pod Doug McLean we once redid that draft and he had uh Tuck in the top 10 so if you go back that's the 2014 draft that's the philadelphia draft it was the top 10 picks are ekblad reinhardt dry sidle bennett del col vertanen flurry neilander ehlers nick ritchie 10th and alex tuck that year was taken 18th by minnesota and you know so it's

still a pretty high pick but i remember mclean had him really high at the time i don't think he had him in the top five when we did this and this was a couple years ago but he had them he had him around seventh this is a big thing for buffalo this is a guy who they really hope comes through for them and and revitalizes their fan base a bit. He's a really good player, so I'm looking forward to watching this. I'll tell you, I really think, too, we should mention Robin Leonard's return to the island on Sunday. It's fantastic. Well, during the break here, the Islanders honored Robin Leonard

with a video tribute and an emotional day for Robin Leonard. His first game back on the island. He has said it many times. He says the Islander fans saved his life. They have a special place in his heart, in his family's heart. His wife flew in for the game, and in his acknowledgement you see him scratching his neck there. He's

pointing to the map of Long Island that he had tattooed right behind his left ear. Well, sometimes you forget that he's not just a hockey player. He's a normal human being, and I think the fans love the forget that he's not just a hockey player he's a he's a normal human being and i think the fans love the fact that he was so up front with them with his problems and uh he's obviously was incredibly appreciative like first of all he handled it so well in the lead up about the things he kept on saying about the islanders and their fans and and the tweets and

and shaving his beard into the sink. Like, what a brilliant social media move that was. Lou rules. You know, the fans' reaction to him. You may have heard that fan base doesn't always handle leaving very well. What? And they were excellent to Lanner. I mean, it was in a really lousy time for just the world in general. I really enjoyed

watching that on Sunday afternoon. That was outstanding. And good for him. I know the Islanders woes continue as well, but good on Leonard. And the shot of him pointing at the tattoo on his neck is just a fantastic one. That's going to be a big one. At the end of the year, when we all do our highlight montages of, okay okay what are the things that stood out for you that little subtle tap to his neck for zinc there is certainly going to be top of mind i know this is a tough one to think of off the top of your head but has there been a better social media post by an nhl player that you can think of oh some of the luongo ones luongo was excellent he absolutely was excellent i thought about the castle one like i can't put my finger on it but i could be somewhere tonight which i mean for castle was an absolute jaw dropper but that

picture of his beard in the sink it was dynamite it really was i remember i saw it and i just laughed i said that is just a perfect perfect social media post from a player that was really good i mean luongo had a string when he was going i mean listen bissonette rocked all of it and shook everybody up he was a remember how remember how terrified Arizona was of his Twitter? Oh yeah. Remember how many conversations Paul had about his Twitter with the coyotes? But he soon became bigger than the team, right? He did, I know. You reached a point where you couldn't do anything with that.

Yeah. I just thought it was so fantastic. Getting back to that Alex Tuck debut for the Sabres. So that is, you know, part of the package for Jack Eichel. And you and I talked on the radio last week. We're having a conversation about the Anaheim Ducks and how former general manager Bob Murray was inactive by

way of doing anything with the roster in the offseason outside of a flirtation with Jack Eichel. And for those who didn't hear the radio show, I don't know why you wouldn't listen. You should be ashamed of yourselves first of all how dare you sir or ma'am you want to go over the uh conversation we had specifically

what the rumored deal was between anaheim and the buffalo sabers yeah so i heard what the sabers asked anaheim for was it was zegras it was drysdale and it was two first rounders whopper and anaheim wasn't willing to do that and i think the other thing to mention here is i also did It was Zegers, it was Drysdale, and it was two first-rounders. Whopper. And Anaheim wasn't willing to do that. And I think the other thing to mention here is I also did mention that I don't know that Anaheim ever got to a point where their doctors were comfortable with the disc replacement. And the one thing I do want to be careful about there is that it's possible that might have changed later,

but this was early, like around the draft, right? Who knows if that was still potentially on the table later or a deal was on the table later, maybe Anaheim might have gotten more comfortable with it. But I was one of the guys saying, I really think Anaheim's in there. In the end, I think they were early but between what buffalo's ask was and what anaheim's comfort level with the adr was i don't think it was it was ever

close you know this cycle deal or this cycle auction rather much like the lindros auction once upon a time i wonder how much this is going to be a white whale for people to try to figure out who offered what and this goes back to something that we've talked about a number of different times at the end i remember ron did a big thing on that once and when i was at hockey night and it was still at the cbc he did a big pregame he and uh he had here's what new york offered here's what philly offered that's awesome here's what toronto offered you know it was a whole pregame of here's what all the offers were see i would love that just for other famous trades like um the patrick waugh auction like i remember

jacques demers telling me once that uh chicago offered ed belfort straight up boom goalie swap how the world would be different, right? I might have made that deal. The auction trades. Wouldn't you make that deal? To me are fascinating. It's pretty enticing, eh? I would make that deal.

Yeah. Well, what did Montreal need? Belfort hadn't won a cup by then, but he was very high. Oh, 100%. High of his powers. Yeah. The point for me in all of that was, I can recall thinking to myself, hold on a second here.

I know you really like Trevor Zegers. I know you really like Jamie Dreyse. But this is Jack Eichel that we're talking about here. I've stopped saying that about Zegers this year. Now, I know that Eichel, when he gets back in watch, he's going to go right back to being one of the top 10 forwards in the NHL. Boom.

But I'm telling you, man, Zegers, we've talked about how you've mentioned I always must watch TV and you know not just for the Dishigan move either with Sonny Milano like every game he does something I've stopped saying hmm yeah you know what I don't know why Anaheim didn't make that deal now I know why Anaheim didn't make that deal I'm not disagreeing with you you notice he knows we had a goal in the western hockey league fakes his move picks it up again flips it in front shot they score it was done a week ago in the nhl and cross hannis puts it to the front of the net. James Stephon bets it in for a hand-eye

coordination goal. An unbelievable strike. And those two may have come up with the WHL goal of the year in their final game before the holiday break. Yes, I know.

Well, now, and every team, like, listen, you know whose hockey team practices that now? Who's that? Before practice begins. Every single team, including both my kids. Yeah, of course. I mean, everyone can scoop it now.

That's a standard. I guess that's a skill that everybody has. But just to create, and everyone can bunt it. Like everyone's bunted angle. But putting the two together, now everybody is trying it in practice. So no surprise that we saw that in Canadian junior hockey. We're going to keep seeing it.

The one thing about that play is if you go on and you watch it, the defenseman number three has the right idea. He sees what's coming and he tries to swat the puck with his glove. And he missed. But that's the right play. Get big in front of it. He's on his knees. Get big in front of it.

And you know what? The other thing that's going to start happening is forwards in front of the net are going to start getting clobbered. This is going to test the cross-checking crackdown because forwards are going to start getting clobbered. I'll tell you what, if you're the player

who bunts the puck in get out of there fast yes get out quick bunt and run down the first baseline as fast as you can because something's coming all right a couple of other stories i just want to mention quickly i was on edmonton radio the other day and i mentioned that i thought edmonton would be around the chicken trade. I had a couple of people say to me, they don't think it's going to be the Oilers. Okay. I could always be wrong. Even though left shot D is pretty high on the wishlist.

I just heard that it's not going to be the Oilers, not for chicken, that they're not in as much as some other teams are. Of course, i could end up totally being wrong and this is a smoke screen it's happened before the thing is though he he feels like an maybe not just edmonton type player but an alberta type player yes when you look at chicken doesn't he scream alberta to you he sure does but like i said i had people say to me don't count on it like if you're putting your money down, put it elsewhere. Okay. And I'm an idiot, Jeff, because Gary Mason, I said he's from the Vancouver province and he's not from the Vancouver province.

He's from the Globe and Mail. What was his report? I'm not disputing any of what you just said, by the way. That he's from the Globe and Mail and I'm an idiot? Correct. Vancouver considering some new hires amongst them, Jennifer Botterill, Jaina Hefford,

Operation Consultant for the PWHPA, and Angela Ruggiero. I don't think Gary's wrong. I think his report is 100% true. It's awkward for us because Jennifer's sitting right there and you're kind of sitting there. You want to dig in the story and you also don't want to blow it up for her. And some teams get really goofy if the news gets out. So we see where it goes but i think the report's accurate you know i do think there's

a number of uh former uh female like angela rogero for example she was interviewed in florida last year right when zero got hired that she was there was a number of people interviewed and she was one of them and i think you're going to see a few hires of some former female players. And I'm wondering if there's any who are getting towards the end of their Olympic time who go through this cycle and become part of this conversation. I don't think this is going to be the last one. Montreal is aggressively looking to hire more women in their organization as well. I think that's going to be part of the shift with the Montreal Canadiens.

So that would come as no surprise to anyone. We're going to get to some emails here and we're going to get to some voice messages. Email address remains the same, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Phone number remains the same, the thought line 1-833-311-3232. In the meantime, four-game suspension for Brett Connolly. The Tanner Kiro hit on Saturday night, which looked just horrific. All of it. It was just pit of your stomach. And it's a reminder, once again, that this is a dangerous, violent game played by big, strong individuals who, with the speed of the game now, more so than ever, don't bump into each other,

but they collide with each other. Like I look at the Brett Connolly play and I say to myself, I know what he's thinking. There's no history there. This is a guy who doesn't do this stuff. No, and you know what he's thinking. He's thinking, I'm going to pinch.

I'm going to meet him with body. The puck's going to turn over. We're going to keep the puck in the offensive zone. And it went horribly wrong. Yep yep his timing was horribly off he caught tanner kiro as he was turning to skate up ice i don't think for a second that brett connelly intended to do that i don't think he looked at them and said oh i'm going to fill my boots on this hit here we go cowboy time i think he thought i can time this i can pinch and I can keep the puck in. And it went horribly wrong.

And you have to pay the penalty. You have to pay the penalty. It all happens in a split second. Thankfully, the news on Kiro appears to be nowhere near as bad as it could have been. You have to pay the penalty. I have no doubt that Conley accepts the penalty of four games. that Conley accepts the penalty of four games. I'm watching the NFL on Sunday and Teddy Bridgewater gets hurt really badly.

Godwin got hurt. The great receiver, Chris Godwin, got hurt in the Tampa game on Sunday night. You know what's happening. We're doing everything we can to make the sports safer, but the athletes are getting bigger and stronger and faster. The risk is just there.

In terms of rules, has hockey ever been safer in what we allow? By way of rules and punishment, it's the safest it's ever been. Right. No, no, no, no. Hang on a second. The caveat there is people will look at other eras

and say, well, actually the game was played safer. But as far as the rules go yes yes it is at its safest right now absolutely see that's what i'm saying i'm not talking no problem saying that yes fighting's almost gone there's no more stick swinging very rare i mean and the nfl is the same way you know, the way you can hit people, especially the quarterbacks, the way they played football in the seventies with the head slaps and all that stuff. It's not even close.

We talked about this the other week with Truba. Like the Truba hits, I thought were clean hits, but because we see so few of those and because we don't really have the stomach anymore as people to see, like, I don't remember who said this last night, but I saw a tweet that went viral about,

I'm really getting tired of people watching leave the ice on stretchers. And I, and I totally understand that because I feel the same way. Nobody wants to see anyone get injured, but we're also seeing people getting injured more by cleaner hits than we ever have, I think. So I don't have a good answer here. I just think the rules are as safe as they've ever

been and people are trying to take a lot of the stupid stuff out of the game and make it an honest, tough game. But I just think the players are so fast and so skilled and so skilled and so strong and so much better trained than ever. It's unavoidable, just like the NFL is. It sounds distasteful to say,

but if you want a contact sport played at these speeds, you have to accept that these types of things are going to happen, that this is baked into the pie. Okay, Elliot, let's wrap up the podcast here with a couple of emails and a couple of voicemails as well. So the email address, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. The thought line, 1-833-311-3232.

Eric submits this one. It's funny. I just talked to David Amber about this on Saturday. With COVID protocols and players missing games due to this, does this affect players' Ironman streaks? Yeah. I mean, it could end a streak. Oh, what a horrible way to end it.

I was joking with someone. I don't know if you were joking with Amber about that, that either they're probably not going to allow Gandalf to test, or if he tests positive, they'll just throw it away. Throw it away. Him, Kessel. That's right, he's got the Iron Man going too. Who else is up there?

It's him, Kessel. Once upon a time was Andrew Cogliano, and then that got scotched on a suspension. Yeah. John from Vancouver. Yep. Do you think at some point down the road, we'll see a proposal to have a franchise tag in future CBA negotiations?

Elliot, I can't see it at all. Not while Bettman's the commissioner. I have asked about this for a long time i'm a big supporter of it kurt overhart did a whole proposal about it the franchise player whatever he called the agent i linked to it and it crashed his agency's website well done but he had something like that and it didn't go anywhere i love the idea i'm a huge supporter of it but as long as as betman's in charge i don't see it happening he's not a fan of it he sees this money outside the system and it's just not occurring mikey my question is what are the methods that the GMs use to communicate?

Do they all email slash call each other or do they utilize group chats for things like their players who are available for trade? I mean, some of them are the same as you. They text, they call. I'm sure some of them use WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, pick your privacy app that you like. There is a group. it used to be a group email i'm not sure if it's still a group email or it's a a group chat of some kind is that when someone gets put out officially yeah that's but a couple years ago they really cracked down

on it they were angry at the amount of players whose names were kind of getting out there like you know they'd say look like i'm thinking of trading i don't know name a player who was i'm thinking of trading sam bennett for argument's sake and they thought too many people were finding out about this you know as a matter of fact a few years ago one gm i made a joke about and it was not like a funny joke it was a really snarky angry sarcastic joke that if you're going to share this with a certain reporter, have him call me on your behalf directly. Sadly for us, they've done a lot better job of keeping those things quiet,

but there is a group chat that they will put names out from on, from time to time. Okay. Ryan, what do you guys think about raising the NHL draft age up by a year? Has this ever been talked about? And if so, can you ever see it happening? Pat LaFontaine was banging this drum a few years ago, Elliot.

Yes. And I think there was a hope to do something big that would have things like teams in the USHL compete for the Memorial Cup. Could CHL players after their chl career was done go to the ncaa like it was a grand grand plan and it does come up from time to time but i haven't heard anything about it lately yeah 100 that pops up everywhere. And that conversation has been had in every scouting conversation at every rink all across North America. That is Ryan,

a conversation that's, that's happened a number of different times. Okay. We'll finish up with a voicemail here, Elliot. And this one comes to us from Mike. He has a waiver question. Hey,

Jeff, Elliot Amel. It's Mike from Wallaceburg, ontario i consider myself a knowledgeable hockey fan but i have no idea how waivers for the purpose of contract termination works like who needs to sign off on that does the pa have any say hope you guys can help me understand thanks yeah so the way that works is pretty simple a lot of the times you'll see that happen with a player. There will be a number of players, actually, in the last couple of weeks. A lot of them are in the minors, and they don't like the role they're getting.

They're not getting enough chance to play. They're not getting an opportunity to get to the NHL. And they'll say, look, I have another offer offer overseas and can i just go back there and the team will do that they'll agree and you know for example last week i think there were there were two of three of them i'm just going through my tweets we've had a few provolnev from arizona he was unhappy with his ice time and his role in the American Hockey League. And he says, look, I want to go home. The Coyotes said, fine. Put him on unconditional waivers for contract termination.

And he's able to go back home. And there was another one last week. Joel Kellman from San Jose put on unconditional waivers last week. Was unhappy with his role. Not getting an opportunity to play more goes back overseas borgman from dallas he was back in sweden uh anyway he had a i guess they were had reported some personal reasons for staying overseas he was on unconditional waivers for contract termination it's usually that now there is nhl approval and nhlpa approval on top of this like with evander

kane his legal situation it would end up in court papers for time to time that kane could terminate his contract so that creditors couldn't get to it and every time that appeared in a court document or a story because it was in a court document or a story, because it was in a court document, I would check with the league and the players association and get told that's not happening. So I think there's an understanding it can occur in those kinds of situations that we mentioned, but other situations, it does have to be approved by the league and the players, and nobody wants a salary cap situation. The biggest one where I think there was recent talk was Patrick Berglund. Remember, Berglund was traded to Buffalo from St. Louis.

It's your Riley deal. Yeah, it went through a very difficult time. Buffalo put him on waivers to have his contract terminated and the pa wanted to grieve it they wanted to fight it they said they should not be able to get out of that contract and bergland said no i want to leave and i don't want to fight and the pa said okay if the player doesn't want to fight, we won't fight it. But I know that that one was a real challenge. I always felt bad for Patrick Berglund.

Of course, anybody who's going through a tough time like that, you don't want that. Oh, but even before that though, like how many times was Patrick Berglund traded before he was actually traded? He was involved in every single trade rumor coming out of St. Louis. I remember one, one trade deadline, St. Louis. I remember one trade deadline, St. Louis was going on a road trip, not like a lengthy road trip, but for a few days. And someone called me from there and said,

are you hearing that Patrick Berglund's getting traded? And I said, I mean, his name's been out there for a while to the point where we all sort of laugh. I go, yeah, Berglund's getting traded. We've heard it so many times. He goes, no, he's like packed like so many suitcases on this trip.

Like he's convinced that this is the deadline that he's finally going to be getting moved that he had packed so much to go on it. That's so that's my Patrick Berglund trade deadline story. Mike, great voicemail. Feel free to use it. 1-833-311-3232. It is the thought line, the 32 thoughts email, 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. Taking us out, a three-piece band from San

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So it's time to turn the tables Don't make all the mistakes Thank you. And it's over till we find another start Somehow I always end up being apart And this time that's where I wanna stay It's looking away