32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Attrition Is Getting to Edmonton

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Jeff and Elliotte look back at a dominant Florida Panthers Game 2 win over the Edmonton Oilers. They look forward to Thursday and ponder whether a couple days rest can get both teams a bit healthier for Game 3 (14:35). Afterwards they delve into some NHL news. First they discuss the Carolina Hurricanes appointing Eric Tulsky as their new GM (18:30) and discuss the big decisions he has ahead of him (23:35). Jeff and Elliotte talk about Jim Nill winning the Jim Gregory Award (26:12). They wrap the opening segment by discussing Bryan Crawford's appointment as OHL Commissioner (30:31). The guys answer your questions in the Montana’s Thought Line (33:19).Jeff and Elliotte wrap the podcast by discussing the purchase of CapFriendly by the Washington Capitals (42:44). Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailThis 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.

The Oilers were your pick from the outset. What do you think of them so far? Well, they played great in game one, but they didn't win. Boboski was f***ed. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He was freaking amazing. I apologize to y'all kids at home. The Florida Panthers win game two, but there could be trouble on the horizon. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation. Welcome to 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation. Not a car cast, Elliot. It is a Kathy cast.

Kathy Broderick making this one possible. I like to say of these podcasts, powered by Kathy Broderick. So once again, Kathy, thank you, thank you, thank you. What did you make? I just have to say that in the car so that she can hear it okay very good. Kathy I want you to know that Jeff is not calling this a car cast he's calling it a Kathy cast yes

she said thumbs up she loves it good on you to give her credit I hope she's blushing accordingly I know Kathy doesn't like the spotlight despite us dragging her into it year after year after year where she deserves to be. Elliot, that game on Monday was particularly violent.

It was a revolving door of players leaving the ice and coming back on. We're going to get to the situation with Barkov here in a couple of seconds. The Florida Panthers, at the end of all of it, win 4-1. The penalty kill streak for the Edmonton Oilers is over. We may have a significant injury here to a key player on the Florida Panthers. The shots on goal by the end sort of started to even out a little bit,

28-19, in favor of the Florida Panthers. But remember at the end of Saturday's podcast where we talked about how we didn't think the Panthers were going to come out and lay an egg like they did on Saturday? Well, Monday, Elliot, they did the opposite of laying an egg. No, they did not. That was an awesome performance by the Florida Panthers. Your thoughts?

Number one, you have to give them credit. They earned the win, full marks for the win. Saturday, as you said, they didn't earn the win. They got the win, but they didn't earn the win. Game two, they absolutely did. They were the better team. And I thought one of the real big things was Bobrowski gives up his first five-hole goal of the playoffs,

and they just shut it down. On the off chance that Bobrsky was not going to be himself, that was the only shot he faced for about, what, 15 minutes? Yeah, a long stretch. Florida absolutely locked it down. They earned the win. You know, just before we get into the Barkov stuff, because it obviously is a huge play,

for me, the number one concern about the Oilers is not that they're down two to nothing it's that they're down two to nothing they're playing a buzzsaw a great hockey team a great detail-oriented defensive team that always seems to have the stick in the right position and it looks to me like Edmonton is running out of gas. The attrition on them is really starting to go. In a lot of ways, it's what happened to Florida last year. They got worn down early in that Stanley Cup final, and they kind of ran out of bodies. And I see that right now with the Oilers.

We know that Kane is really banged up. He's standing half the time when he's on the bench. Nurse got hurt in this one, tried to play through it, only played three shifts after the first period, stayed on the bench. And Dreisaitl, he doesn't look right to me. There were a few plays, and he certainly made a terrible decision at the end of the game. But even before then, Jeff, he left the game once just for a couple minutes. And there were a couple of times where he took contact, and he kind of looked like he was shaking something off or his body reacted poorly whatever the case the Panthers are an absolute machine and the Oilers look like it's starting to take a toll now I heard what David said about I know people or I'm looking

forward to people counting us out again and that's the only way you can react you have to go with the us against the world mentality but I am looking at this edmonton team and beginning to think are they on are they on fumes here well you know we talked about um game one for the florida panthers was all about sergey burbowski saving that game do we look at game two and say the way the florida panthers won this one was their structure. And I had one coach that I was texting back and forth with who pointed out, watch them on exits, watch the close support. There's always one,

usually two players for close support. And when Florida's playing like that, their exits tend to be really easy. And they had, and listen, I think the attrition is a big part of it, but you know, the Florida Panthers were able to shuttle the puck seemingly at will all three periods. Like, I know we're going to put the accent on, you know, all of the ultraviolence and the physicality of this one. But at the end of it, Elliot, like they didn't panic. They didn't waver whatsoever.

didn't waver whatsoever. Matthias Ekholm scores that five-hole goal, as you mentioned, on Sergei Bobrovsky. There is no panic. They stick with it. Do we look at this one and say it was the Panthers' structure that carried them through that one? Absolutely. And not only that, but I think between Bobrovsky

and the way they play their position so well, the others are overpassing. There were several opportunities tonight where I thought they had a good shot and they tried to pass, and it didn't work or get knocked away. They clearly have the Oilers overthinking, and I think that's their structure and attention to detail. As for where you're going, I thought Dreisaitl lost his cool there. To me, that was a frustration play.

We're losing. I'm frustrated. He's probably hurting too. And he made a big mistake. Like, there's no question about that. You know, Barkov, the thing about Maurice is, Maurice has had a really good, as everybody knows, he's been in a great mood throughout these playoffs.

He, you know, he's got all the funny quotes. He was not a happy guy in the postgame tonight. And a lot of his quotes, especially on that topic, were really quick. You know, this isn't the Oprah Winfrey show uh it doesn't matter how I feel he threw the onus on the NHL to look at it I got the sense that the Panthers were hopeful that with the night that everything will be you know okay tomorrow but you, they don't know, and you have to wait and see, and you can understand why they're mad. Like, as a couple of their players said to me,

if it was the other way around, and that was McDavid or Dreisaitl got hit that way, they'd be arresting us at the border. So, you know, that's, you know, they feel, any Panther fan, I think, would feel that that deserves a suspension. I don't know if we're going to go there. With two days off, I can just see everyone saying, let's see how we feel on Tuesday. You know, the one thing about it is Dreisaitl's definitely put himself in a position here where he doesn't control the outcome of the situation. He's put himself at the mercy of the NHL and Department of Player Safety, and they do have to make a decision here.

There was a lot of frustrating plays for the Edmonton Oilers, like moments where you could just see that they were getting suffocated by the Florida Panthers. Like we mentioned this last game, when the Florida Panthers are on their game, as one person told me, they make it so hard to move out there that by the end of the third period, you're tired and you're frustrated and you're cranky and you hate playing. Like that's Florida. And whether it was Leon Dreisaitl. Yeah, Dreisaitl was frustrated.

Everybody was. That was a real frustration play. You can't do that. You can't make that play. The whole Oilers team. It must just feel like they're getting squeezed for three periods. Like when Florida's on their game,

that's what it feels like. And here's another one then. Sam Carrick with the, as we like to call it on this podcast, the cowbell on Dmitry Kulikov. Like there were a lot of moments here where you just saw Edmonton just snap and say like, we're frustrated. We need a release valve. It's going to be the high hit on Barkov.

It's going to be the spear to K Barkov it's going to be the spear to Kulikov like you just saw it from Edmonton you know the interesting thing about that Jeff is earlier in the game there were a couple of occasions where Florida took penalties like on the first penalty of the game I can't remember who it was but they go after Carrick. They give him a cross check, and he ignores it, and Edmonton doesn't. As a result, only Florida gets the penalty, and there was another Florida penalty in the second period where, again, they went after another oiler to try to draw an offsetting penalty. And again, at that point in time, the other player kept his cool. But I agree with you, the later it gets and you're down 3-1 late,

it's a lot tougher to keep your cool in that situation than when the game is more in doubt. Edmonton, I thought, did a great job of keeping their cool early. They weren't bothering with that later. And in a couple of ways, that's a page from the Panthers' own book. You know, Florida has made a living the last couple years of being the kind of team that when you're about to beat them, they're going to be a sore loser and they're going to take their pound of flesh. As you said, this was a mean, mean, nasty game.

There were a lot of plays made by both teams that you would look at and say, it's not exactly going to make the page one in the sportsmanship manual. But the dry settle one, because it was so blatant and injured a good player, it's the one that really stands out. And, you know, there were a few of them in this game. There were a lot of plays in this game that were really nasty, but that is the one that gets all the attention because it hurt the key player.

People say, well, what about this one and what about that one? None of those ones had the result that this one did. There's one more we should throw on the fire here, another log, and that is Connor McDavid and Matthew Kachuk along the boards with Connor McDavid throwing the punch to the head of Matthew Kachuk. Normally, we see a very disciplined Connor McDavid. Not at that moment, Elliot. I mean, the game, I think, at that point, yeah,

the game at that point would have been 3-1. I bet you Edmonton's player teammates would have loved him doing that. Oh, I don't doubt it. Connor McDavid probably loved it, too. The one thing I'd like to say about Kachuk is you know I think he's really changed the way he plays after that injury last year yeah that was a really serious injury and nobody could blame him for changing it and he's been really quiet for a lot of points of these playoffs but that was a hell of a play he made to chase down that breakaway. That was,

you know, that was now, do I think he should have got maybe a, maybe he should have got a penalty there. No. Okay. Now, but it doesn't,

it doesn't change my opinion of the fact that he made a hell of a play at a huge time in the game. What I liked about it was you could see he was trying to lift his stick. So he's trying to wait for Connor to bring his stick to the left or bring his stick to the right. Do you see where he put his own stick when he finally lifted through the legs? Yeah, it was a high IQ play. It's just such a smart play. Smart play. You know, I do want to say this.

In a game like that, in a game like that, Jeff, I didn't like the Bouchard penalty, the slash. Like in a game like that one where guys are kneeing each other, guys are putting each other in the circa 1985 Jimmy Valiant, handsome Jimmy, goodnight Irene. Wow. I did not like that bullshit. This was a game where everybody was out for blood.

We did not need that one call. I really do appreciate it. Boogie Woogie Man reference on the podcast. Thank you very much for that one. It's one of my favorites. Let me throw one more at you here. What did you make of the Warren Fogle knee on Listerainen? I have to say in the moment, I understood the call.

You know, I agree with Kevin's point because I've heard it several times. It all depends on which way Fogle points his knee. If he points it out straight, I don't generally think it's a major, but when you put it to the side, I do. The thing is, if you're an Oilers fan, you're looking at the difference

between those two plays, and you're an Oilers fan, you're looking at the difference between those two plays, and you're saying that Listerion was down, and when Bennett threw the knee, the Oilers player, I can't remember who it is, didn't go down. Oh, Bouchard. He didn't go down. But in that moment, I cannot fault the officials for calling five. I have to say, it was a really weird night for reviews. Like at the beginning, they didn't give Dreisaitl a penalty at all, and then they gave him two.

Yes, after they came in, yes. Yeah, it was kind of a wild night, but in the moment I understood why they called Fogle for five because I could see how you think that Lester Ryan has pretty badly hurt at that time. Okay, so an extra day's rest here. These two teams will not meet again until Thursday in Edmonton. Coming off of Saturday, we said goalie game.

Florida won't play another clunker. What are we saying about Thursday's game? Back in Edmonton, crowd's going to be insane. We know what Oilers fans are like. That building gets really, really loud. I always look at situations like this and say it's going to be a really interesting energy. It's going to be an enthusiastic crowd. There's going to be some nervousness mixed in as well for the fan base,

which will really give it a unique dynamic. What do you expect on Thursday? I mean, a lot of now, the next couple of days, are going to be revolving around what's the status of Barkov, what's the status of Barkov, and how healthy can the Oilers players get in a couple of days here? But what do you look for on Thursday? Number one, I think the building will be bananas. And I'm looking forward to the atmosphere.

That's number one. I think that you really have to ride McDavid. I wonder if this becomes a McDavid record ice time game, Jeff. Maybe. 56 minutes. Whoa, geez. God rest his soul, but he's the forward version of Brad McCrimmon when he played a brand new weekend, 60 minutes.

A minute off a period. I think this is going to be, like, if it was me, I'd be going to him and saying, you know, you can be tired in two weeks. I need you. I need, like, what's the number? Like, how much can I get out of you? You know, the thing about, I'll tell you this, I'm beginning to wonder about Kane. You know,

like I'm watching him during the games. Now he comes to the bench, he sits for a couple seconds. And then when he either he's been on the bench for too long, or he senses it's his time again, he's starting to get up. I respect him. He's a gamer. He's really trying to play, but I'm starting to wonder about his effectiveness here. The whole thing with nurses, and you're hoping with the extra day, if you're the Oilers, he can recover. Edmonton fans are all over this guy. You need him. You need his 20-something minutes. If you don't have that for game three, you're in trouble. something minutes if you don't have that for game three you're in trouble you are really in trouble and um i think the fact that he was able to stay on the bench is probably a good sign that there's a chance here but you know like he's got to be able to play more than three shifts yeah the the

the one thing just as an aside to, I'm a sucker for this and I'm glad you brought up Zdeno Chara. I shouldn't be surprised because he's one of your favorite players. I just love nurse staying on the bench. I really did. I really love staying on the bench. I'm glad you brought up Chara in 2019 against the blues, taking the shot to the face and opening and closing the gate.

I'm a sucker for that every single time I'm hurt. I'm injured. But if you tap me on the shoulder, I will go, I'll give you whatever I have. I don't know how much it's going to be, but if you tap me on the shoulder, I'm going to go.

I love that stuff. Well, that's basically what happened. Like what it said to me, Jeff was what they were doing was, you know, everybody's wiped out they were doing was, you know, everybody's wiped out Darnell. Can you give us

45 seconds? He was like, sure. That's what happened. Okay. Eyes on Game 3 as the venue shifts from Sunrise to Edmonton. In the meantime, a couple of news stories here before we get to the Montana's Thought Line in segment two.

We'll start off with Carolina Hurricanes and Eric Tulsky as the new general manager of this team. What a career it has been for Eric Tulsky from elite level analytics studies online to becoming the general manager of an NHL team. Carolina Hurricanes, Eric Tulsky, Elliot Friedman, your thoughts. This is the right choice for this team. I, you know, Jeff, we talked about this. They talked to Yarmulke Kalan and they talked to some other people. Right from the beginning, they knew that whoever, if they went outside the team for general manager, it was going to be a facilitator or an information gatherer. They were not going to have the power.

And I think some people weren't crazy about that and backed out. I think there were others who were willing to do it. I think at the end of the day, it was very clear that after the owner, Tom Dundon, who was very involved, Dundon is the real power center of the organization. He makes the major decisions. But after that, the true power broker of the organization is Tulsky, and he deserved the job. And you know what, to be honest, Jeff, if he wasn't going to be named the GM, he wasn't the GM in name only. He was very much the GM. he was very much the GM. But he's clearly, after Dundon, he's the guy Dundon trusts the most.

He deserves it. He's earned it. And he should be the guy there. It is the right thing to do. Jeff, I think it comes down to that. He is the right guy in that organization, and he should be the GM of the Hurricanes. He has been a power broker there, a decision maker there for a long time. We've talked about how Tulsky's interviewed for GM positions before, Pittsburgh, Chicago as well, but make no mistake about it. He has been involved in major decisions for a long time. He's not anyone that's in a spotlight taking a bow for any of it. But make no mistake, as this Carolina Hurricanes team evolved into the team that they are now, Eric Tulsky was involved in all those major decisions.

So to me, it makes like I'm with you. It makes the most sense for this now to transition to Eric Tulsky. It is now, he's got the keys to the car. It's for him to drive now. I also have to think here that if they, the other thing they had to weigh was if they didn't give it to him. Oh, I know. I know.

What would that mean? Yes. Yes. I know. And I'll say this. It became, I was looking into this on Monday. out of the combine that it was going to be Tulsky, that all signs were that he was going to be the guy and that Dundon was going in that direction.

And what a couple guys said to me was, if Tulsky got upset at this, and I don't know how he was going to feel, And Tulsky got upset at this, and I don't know how he was going to feel, but they really got the impression that Dundon recognized he could lose him. What one manager said to me was that he could see a situation where another team could say, if you won't make him the manager, I will. And what that could have led to for Carolina. And because the thing is, like, if Carolina is going to say, well, we have a manager, but Tulsky is our big center of power behind the scenes,

would another organization say, you know what, we can do the same thing. We can have a president of hockey operations and we'll make him our GM so that technically it's a promotion,

but we can also set up other layers around him in our organization. And a promotion could lead to a raise and all those things. I have to think Dundon knew that could happen and wanted to be careful about it. He's got a great reputation around the league. Like, let's face it, Elliot, this guy's work is well known. And I'm with you. I think it was, it would have been a huge risk for Carolina not to make Tulsky the GM. Okay. So then here becomes the situation with Eric Tulsky. His big decisions for the Carolina

Hurricanes. We've talked a lot about Martin Natchez. We've talked a lot about, oh, have a look before a cap friendly disappears. And we'll talk about that later on at how many defensemen they had. They don't have signed for next season. Like there's a lot of decisions here that Tulsky has to face. Like, do you have a pecking order for any of it? Do you have a sort of like, let's, let's do Carolina hurricanes triage here. Okay.

This is, this is Tulsky, Tulsky triage. You're Eric Tulsky. Which patient do you see first? Well, I think you have to take a look at the – I think what they looked at it as, Jeff, was they have to deal with the UFAs first. And I think they were looking at Pesci, Shea, Chatfield, all those guys, like they realized they have to get business done pretty quickly. And I think they were getting around to it. And I think they were kind of

holding on the Natchez a little bit. But I heard that over the weekend, that the Natchez stuff kind of jumped up a bit more. I heard that, you know, a couple of guys were telling me that, I think initially Carolina looked at it like worse came to worse. They could bring Natchez back next year. I think that feeling has kind of slipped away. I think there's an understanding that while Natchez hasn't said anything publicly, privately, I think he's made it pretty clear that he'd like to move on. So that's now they still have some time because they probably don't have to do that until the draft if they don't want to in terms of, you know, what they might get out of it. But a couple guys told me that they think that Carolina has either indicated to teams,

you have what we want or you don't have what we want. And what some teams told me is that they're wondering if there's going to be some of those teams that were initially told by Carolina, you don't have what we want. Can they do a three-way deal and to try to get what Carolina wants if they want nature? So I just do think that that picked up a little on the weekend. Okay. Interesting time ahead for the Carolina Hurricanes jump right into it Eric Tulsky there's no dipping your toe into the water here you're going off the diving tower

but speaking of general managers Jim Nill is now a two-time general manager of the year back-to-back general manager Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars you know and the one thing that I was thinking about this year about the GM of the Year Award, and I don't want to take anything away from anyone that has won it, but the General Manager of the Year Award.

I mean, essentially, you're awarded this because you're overseeing an entire successful franchise. Like, and the thing about the Dallas Stars, like, what do we always talk about with the Dallas Stars? Like, everything is clicking together. The scouting, the player development, the American Hockey League team, the pro scouts with the trades, the coaching, the way the team is meshing, the way the team is handled, and Jim Nill is overseeing all of it. As much as it, and I'm sure Jim Nill would feel the exact same way, knowing Jim Nill, the little bit that I do, I think he would probably look at this and say, this isn't just about me. This is the GM award is an organizational award. about everybody in the organization, amateur scouts, to Rich Peverly, to everyone working at various levels of the minor hockey operation, to everyone with the Dallas Stars.

Do you feel the same way? The GM of the Year Award goes to one person, but really it's for everybody in the organization. Of course, but you know how it works. Yep. When things go right, you get the credit. When everything goes wrong, you get the blame. So I'm sure that the way Jim Neal would probably look at it too is,

it's nice to win this, but I'd rather be competing for another trophy this week. Of course. I still think the Patrick Alvin thing is a little bit weird, not because I don't think he's a good manager. I just think it's kind of weird when you have a guy like Jim Rutherford above you on the organizational flow chart. Yeah. It's a little weird to me.

But that's why I've been thinking about this award a lot, because I'll be honest with you. I started thinking about it differently when Patrick Alvin was named as one of the finalists. And I arrived on this idea that it's an organizational award and he just happens to have the general manager portfolio. You know what I mean? It's an award for the team, but there's one person who's going to stand there and hold the trophy. That's fair. I mean, it's not your worst take of the week. I'll say that. By the way, Jeff, I just wanted to say about the Canucks, there was a lot of reaction to what I said in

your show about Lindholm and the belief that Vancouver was willing to go seven times seven, and it's not going to get that done here. I think there's a couple of things at play to recognize. Number one, while you and I think it's a really smart thing for Vancouver to try to sign him because of the flexibility it brings to their roster and how good it makes their roster, you know, someone made a very good point to me, and they said that Lindholm may not be the person who likes the idea of being a third-line center or a guy who gets moved around the wing a lot.

So that was one thing. Even though he wouldn't necessarily always be the third-line center, you're kind of the third man on the totem pole behind Miller and Pedersen there so I thought that was a good reaction they also said maybe there's just another place he prefers to play um or you know maybe there's another team out there that is offering him more money but you know one a couple guys said to me, and one of them was a player, they wondered if in Lindholm's specific case, the issue might just be that, you know, if he's playing center there, he's probably the number three center on the roster,

and they weren't convinced that that would appeal to him. Right. Okay, one more bit of news. It is OHL-related on Serial Hockey League. Brian Crawford. Oh, uh, bit of news. It is, uh, it is OHL related Ontario hockey league, uh, Brian Crawford. Oh yeah. Good scoop today. Yeah. Brian Crawford will be the next, uh, OHL commissioner. You know, it's interesting, you know, Elliot for, for most, pretty much all of our adult lives, it's been Jill Carto in the queue.

It's been Dave branch in the O and it's been Ron Robison in the, in the Western hockey league. And now in the last couple of years, it's, you know, Mario Cicchini in the queue, it's Danison in the Western Hockey League. And now in the last couple of years, it's Mario Cicchini in the queue, it's Dan Neer in the Western League, and now it'll be Brian Crawford, who joins the OHL from Golf Canada. The last six years, he's worked as the tournament director for the Canadian Open.

You know him a little bit from covering university football when he would have been at Queen Queens and you were at Western. He played in the CFL for the Argonauts. Actually, that's not quite true. I'm 10 years older than Brian. I think he's 42. Yep. So it was when I was at the score.

Oh, that was it. Yes, I was the sideline reporter. Oh, that was it. Yes, I was the sideline reporter. And as a matter of fact, I was trying to remember this today, but one of the games we broadcast where he played at Queens, they had a quarterback, a really good quarterback named Tom Dennison. And Dennison, I think, set a record for most yards passing in one game. He had like 550 yards passing in a game.

And he played in that game. So I remember Brian there. And then I remember covering Brian in the CFL with the Argos. And then when he went into the corporate world, and obviously he was at Golf Canada recently with an old friend of mine named Lawrence Applebaum runs Golf Canada. And Brian worked with him. But that was a good scoop by you.

Not bad. Congratulations to Brian Crawford. Congratulations to the OHL. They finally got their commissioner. Look for an announcement, Elliot, I believe at some point this week. We'll stay tuned for that. Elliot, before we hit the break and get to the Montana's Thoughtline,

anything else you would like to add? Yes, in the final segment, we're going to talk about the cap-friendly story. But the one thing I just wanted to add to it tonight that we found out late at night is I do believe an official announcement is going to come on Tuesday. So initially, I don't know if this was going to happen until it was done in July. But in addition to everything we're going to talk about in that segment, I believe the announcement could come as soon as Tuesday. Okay, we'll stay tuned for that. Quick break. More on CapFriendly later, but up next, the Montana's Thought Line on 32 Thoughts, the podcast.

The Montana's Thought Line on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Listen to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Welcome back to the podcast. Time now for the Montana's Thought Line. Montana's barbecue and bar, Canada's home for barbecue. Try the ribs. Try the ribs. You got to try the ribs. Indeed.

Thank you, Rick Turner, for that one. And the way to get in, 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca, 1-833-311-3232. The Montana's ThoughtLine curator remains Griffin Porter. And this is what he has put together for us today. Elliot, Matt in Australia. Hi, team. I'm an Australian hockey fan who lived in Ottawa in 2002.

I don't know if there were any Montana's franchises back then, so sadly I've never tried the ribs. When a team wins the Stanley Cup, here's the question, and the players and staff get their, quote, day with the Cup, how far can they take it? Does it have to stay in North America? With this in mind, has the Cup ever traveled south of the equator? Nathan Walker won the Cup with the Capitals in 2018, but played just a single game of round two of the playoffs, so walker won the cup with the capitals in 2018 but play just a single game of round two of the playoffs so his name won't be on the cup did he get a day and how far could he take it as far as i know outside of russia and belarus you can take the cup anywhere for your day with the cup now elliot you're right about that there's also a

schedule so everybody kind of says this is where i'm going to be and they build the schedule that way so if yours if you say look am i i would like my day with the cup to be in x place you'll get it especially if there's a pocket of players that are in the same area as you you'll get it around the same time as all those other players. So, for example, if you wanted to say, I would like to take it to Australia and it's approved, which I don't see why it wouldn't be

if that's where you are in the summer, they'd start and say, okay, we're on the West Coast, we're going to take our trip to Australia, and then they'd bring it back. I got to assume if there was one player in a unique location like that, they would make a whole event out of it. You'd get your day with the cup and the cup does Australia kind of thing.

I think that's part of the marketing as well for the Stanley cup. Like that's a value for the hockey hall of fame to have, you know, pictures of the Stanley cup in as exotic a location as possible. Like that's just, I think that's just good for the most recognizable trophy in all of sports. Like we talked about last podcast when you were loud and wrong about having it at every single game.

We talked about how iconic this trophy is. So I think it's good for the player and great for the marketing of the Stanley Cup as well. Great question. Always appreciate questions from Australia. And we also appreciate questions. player and great for the marketing of the stanley cup as well uh great question always appreciate questions from australia and we also appreciate questions hold on hold on before he asked a second question okay has the stanley cup been below the equator before i can't remember any specific case because the first name i thought of when you mentioned that a player from below

the equator who would have won the stanley cup was rick chartrell from venezuela who played with the montreal canadians but back in those days you didn't get a day with the stanley cup so i mean i'm thinking of some other players rod langway was on the 1979 montreal canadians champion again wasn't it a time when everybody had their day with the stanley cup and willie platt was from paraguay but he never won the stanley cup and another player who was close internationally he played for germany but olaf kolzig from the capitals who made the final in 98 he was born in south africa but the capitals lost the final to detroit so those are the closest i can think of okay there you go matt in australia thanks Thanks for the question. We love our questions from Australia.

We love our questions from Saskatchewan. Prince Albert, specifically, Lonnie submits this. Good day, fellows. Ooh, nice. Thank you for the always entertaining podcasts. With the price of tickets to see a live game always increasing, I've wondered if the NHL has ever considered or will ever consider

going to four quarters rather than three periods. It seems like a no-brainer to me. If I'm spending my paycheck on tickets to see my favorite team play, I should be able to see them, quote, attack twice regardless of where I buy my seats. I believe this would improve the game in numerous ways. One, it gives all fans a chance to see their team attack twice. Number two, it gives both teams four rather than three cracks at clean ice. Number three, it would give each team an extra rest,

an extra opportunity to rehydrate, and if necessary, regroup. Number four, I think there would be more offense with the extra long change. And number five, it gives teams and owners one more opportunity to sell more beverages, food, and merchandise. Each arena has two or more ice resurfacers so they could use them both and shorten the intermission times from 18 to 12 or 14 minutes, which would be the same, or add possibly five minutes to a game. I realize that hockey has always had three periods, and the traditionalists probably would never consider it. But just like taking out the center line offside and removing the goal judge from standing on the ice in the back of the net, I believe that this is a change that would be an improvement.

This is our last question, and it's a long one. Has the NHL ever considered four quarters? If anything, I think they'd go the other way. As far as I know, I've never heard them talk about four quarters. I just don't think even adding five minutes is the question asked there. I just don't think that's what they want to do. You'll remember, Jeff, that probably about 20 to 30 years ago they did float through the new york times joe lapointe who was a longtime hockey writer there floated the idea of two 30

minute halves and people freaked i always believed that was a false flag operation that the nhl planted that one trial balloon reaction would be yes and the reaction was yeah prognosis negative that's what the reaction was yeah see i've uh i would imagine for me the the two halves push back the 230 minute uh periods um that would be just quality of ice like i think that listen that, listen, it's bad enough. Yes, that's exactly. That's one of the reasons what it was. It's bad enough after 20 minutes. I can imagine what NHL ice looks like after 30.

But one of the reasons why I don't dismiss this out of hand is, and yes, I understand all the stuff about intermissions and rehydrating and selling more merchant beard and all that kind of stuff. To me, it's about quality of ice. Like there's a difference between ice after 15 minutes and after 20 minutes. And you've seen hockey in those last five minutes of each period.

Sometimes it's tough to complete a pass, Elliot. That would be the one area where I'd say, okay, quality of play. I want to have NHL hockey on the cleanest possible sheet for the longest time, and 15 minutes does that better than 20 minutes. I mean, it's not something that I'm overly passionate about, unlike other elements of the game that I wouldn't mind change, but that's the one reason for me, would be quality of the ice surface.

That would be the only thing you could get me on on this one. Does this one interest you at all? Four quarters? No, I don't think so. I just don't think you want more stoppages. That's what it comes down to. I appreciate the question, but I simply don't

see that being something that they would want. What about the idea, though? Because it's an interesting one, of all fans should be able to see their team attack twice i.e be in the offensive zone twice in the game as opposed to either one or two in a communist world yes that would be idea no obviously that's ideally yes you would like to see that. If you pay, you want to see your team twice.

It's just not feasible, unfortunately. I understand. I get it. I don't think it's a front burner issue for the NHL, but nonetheless, an interesting thought exercise. Hey, I always appreciate the questions. Always appreciate the questions. Lonnie, thanks for that one.

The questions coming in. 32thoughts at sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311- 3232. The Montana's Thought Line. Montana's Barbecue and Bar. Canada's Home for Barbecue. We're back in a moment. Jeff Alliantom

32 Thoughts Try the ribs today Oh yeah 32 Thoughts, try the ribs today. Whoa, yeah. Welcome back to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the GMC Sierra Elevation. Elliot, we'll end the podcast by talking about the end of one of our favorite websites. As of July 5th, CapFriendly will be no more. Purchased by the evil Washington Capitals. We're depriving, no. Purchased by the Washington Capitals who are depriving, no,

purchased by the Washington Capitals. I spoke to someone on Monday morning on my way in and we talked about, you know, what the motivation is here for Washington. And it sounds like, to me, it's something as simple as they want something like this for internal purposes. And instead of, you know, hiring a bunch of people and spending time and resources to build one and then waiting for it essentially for upwards of two years, you could

just spend the same money and buy CapFriendly. Does that sound like this is what's happened to you? Yes. The interest in this story was incredible. we record this podcast i just looked at the tweet sending it out uh and it's got almost three million views and the one from sportsnet was i think at a million and a half which shows you the interest in this story it's pretty incredible i think you're right uh i believe that that not only are the Capitals purchasing the tools, which obviously those of us who are fans or media, we're more interested in the information and the calculators. They're interested in the tools, the infrastructure. I also believe that at least one, if not two, of the top people at CapFriend friendly are going to be working for the team uh dominic's rim who is one of the co-founders he has already worked for chicago and san jose so he's got some

experience but also jamie davis who's another one of the uh main people behind the scenes uh he could be working for the capitals too. So they're not only getting that infrastructure that we discussed, they're getting at least one, if not two, new employees who could help run it for them internally. So that's part of the purchase too. You know, one of the things that someone said to me is that um could the capitals have left it open like a pox on the capitals they could just leave it online and i said well no if you're trying to win you don't leave it online but what one team told me is that even if they wanted to they wouldn't have been allowed to as you know the nhl frowns on the existence of sites like this one even though they should be

doing it themselves they frown on the existence of this and they consider it proprietary information so the capitals couldn't keep it open if they wanted to the league would say you cannot be partner to this and have it be public and also you couldn't make any money from it on any ads. So once the Capitals purchased it, it was coming down, and I've heard it could be as soon as July 5th. There was an agreement made that it would stay open and independently operated through the draft and the beginning of free agency.

Now, I will tell you something. I had one team tell me that if they were to do this, if they had been the one to purchase CapFriendly, they would have demanded to shut it down now. They would have said that, I don't care. I don't want to give any help to any other teams. I bought it. I can do with it what I want. And they like,

there are some teams scrambling today. Uh, no question about it. There were a couple of people who said to me that there will be some teams that don't have this kind of infrastructure that will be like, oh no, we're in trouble here. And like I said, this one guy told me if it was his team, he would have shut it down right away. And he also said, and he said, I want you to make this point very clearly. And I said, okay, I will be certain to muddle it up. And he laughed and I said, don't worry, I'll make it clearly. He said, I have no questions about the integrity of the people who run CapFriendly. friendly but he said if I had a deal with cap friendly and he said his team didn't he wouldn't even ask them anything between now and when it goes

offline he said now that I know they're being bought by the Capitals I would just I said you're a really competitive guy and he said I am and he said I would just say even if I had to deal with them, you're one of the enemy now, and I would find another way to do it. So Jeff, one of the things people are talking about here is what a huge blow, a disaster in particular, this is going to be for some teams, if they don't have their own setup, whether it's something really deep and in depth or something that they can have that's maybe not as good as cab friendly, but at least exists so they

can get through the next little while. Because if you don't, you're really going to be scrambling. And I went through and I don't think this is necessarily everybody, but here are the teams I know of that have something where they can say okay we've got a backup plan here for when this goes offline Seattle and in the land of Amazon they probably throw you out of the city if you didn't have something there that was good New Jersey Carolina I heard Chicago Islanders Islanders.

Islanders have Steve Pellegrini there who used to work for the league. So some people might be surprised to hear Islanders, but having someone who works for the league, you'd know to have something in place. Same goes for Toronto, Brandon Pridham. They have something there. Columbus has something there. And Pittsburgh, you know know I don't think they

had anything before but once Dubas got there they started building something I don't know how advanced it is yet but at least they've started building something so those are the teams I know of that have something else in place the other teams will be have various degrees of concern and worry about where they're going to go for here and if I'm missing anyone I apologize in advance those were the ones I got information on oh wait and one more I forgot one more uh Vegas has one too because many fans will remember that General Fanniger that website their founder Tomaska, was hired by the Golden Knights. So they've been building something out.

But if I missed anyone, I do apologize. Those were the teams that I know of. So I just found that very interesting. I'm very happy for the guys who run CapFriendly. They created a great service. And I think it's very important to mention the original site, CapGeek, Matthew, who created it. He passed away of colon cancer in 2015. He was really the person who first brought this stuff to the public and did a lot of great work behind it. He should be mentioned as sort of the godfather of these sites. But congratulations

to the people at cap friendly they created a service they're cashing out possible they're both going to work for the capitals they're in with a team um it's a win-win for them and good on them you create something you should be rewarded i'm really glad you mentioned matthew weist um i don't know if you ever got to know him he covered junior hockey in nova scotia and i got to know him a little bit when he when he started cap Geek. And a lot of it was he just loved Henrik Zetterberg and the Detroit Red Wings and wanted to put together a site that just tracked salary information

for the Detroit Red Wings. And it turned into this monster of a site that's led to this and started its own industry. So I'm always glad to hear Matthew Weiss's name mentioned, so I'm glad you did. What this does lead me to wonder about too, is now you mentioned some teams are kind of like, Oh,

we got kind of caught with our pants down here. Like how many teams now are scrambling, you think to put together their own version of this. And then the followup is, and this might be the obvious one that a lot of people are wondering, why doesn't the nhl do something like this i have believed the nhl should do this for a long time and actually to be honest i think sportsnet should do it too you know i i really do i think i think sportsnet they should

hire you and me to do it we do a great job elliot oh yeah our math would be tremendous austin matthews cap hit is minus six dollars does that sound right to you yeah yeah that's good elliot's 459 on friday let's go yabba dabba doo plug it right in anyway the nhl believes that they should not be in the business of publishing this stuff. As a matter of fact, I have been told several times that the relationship between the NHL and Cap Friendly was... Not friendly? Icy. Cap unfriendly? Cap de-friendly, yes.

I heard the relationship was quite icy between them. And I couldn't believe it when I heard that, because quite icy between them. And I couldn't believe it when I heard that, because some teams really loved it. And obviously teams were cooperating with them. So I was really surprised, but that's the case. And I should say this, it's not only the league that feels that way. I've heard some teams are adamant about that too, that they don't feel that NHL.com should be in the business of publishing this kind of stuff. I think that's

wrong, but I'm not winning this argument today. However, as you mentioned, there's Puckpedia, and I saw some people talking about David you know david johnston who i think is pretty smart guy he used to work for the calgary flames he was talking about should i put one of these together so no doubt where the now that everybody knows there's money to be made more people are going to pop up starting to do this stuff oh yeah so there's there's going to be options out there there's no question about that, but it's not going to be the NHL. I don't think they are adamant that they are not the ones who should be doing

this. Excellent. Okay. Listen, congratulations to the crew at Cap Friendly. Like well done. Like you built something that was that built on something that, you know, as we mentioned, Matthew Wiest started before and took it to a whole new spot and provided a great resource for all of us at some very key times during the calendar. Like, not just, you know, all throughout the season, but then around trade deadline or free agency when we're all trying to figure out, you know, who has what space available.

It's been a great resource so congratulations to everyone involved the cap friendly and to the washington capitals i say how dare you take this away from us i have to say the responses were really funny people people were really hilarious it was it high quality entertainment. The other thing too, Jeff, when I realized, so the way this kind of ended up on my lap was a couple of people sent me notes that the Capitals were letting teams know that had contracts with them, that they were canceling them. So these teams had a good idea, something something was up and then it was simply a matter of finding out which team it was but you know a couple guys said to me doesn't it make sense it's ted leonsis like that would be right up his alley right up his alley that's kind of where i was going to go to on this one earlier like this is this very much does fit

the profile of ted leonsis like there's There are some teams out there that you can say, okay, maybe you could see Fenway Sports, Kyle Dubas, Pittsburgh Penguins, maybe wanting to do something like this as well. But this exactly fits. This is very on-brand for Ted Leonsis here. Yes. Absolutely.

Okay, that's it for the pod. I hope you enjoyed it today. We will return after game three, so we will record on Thursday evening for broadcast for you on Friday morning. Enjoy a couple of days off. Hockey returns on Thursday. Enjoy.