32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Islanders Owe Us A Massage

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Elliotte is stuck in Florida and he cancelled his massage! Jeff and Elliotte discuss the Bo Horvat extension with the Islanders, how it all went down and what this means for the future of the team (3:50). The guys then get into Dylan Larkin and his talks with the Red Wings (13:10), the Capitals signing a pair of players (36:25), what Vancouver and Carolina might do with their additional cap space (39:00) and will we see Chicago move their  big names (46:45).They also put out a few suggestions on how to improve the All-Star Game (16:50), the Senators firing Troy Mann (42:30) and they take your questions (1:05:10).Plus, the guys catch up with Vancouver All-Star Elias Pettersson while in Florida (49:10).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemailMusic Outro: Void Complet - Hey Look I KnowListen to the full track HEREGET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Video support is provided by Nicholas Andrade.Audio Credits: MSG and Sportsnet.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.

Hey fellas, it's Austin from Airdrie, Alberta. Hope you guys are having a healthy and hydrated year so far. I just want to share a quick story with you about the time my buddy and I met Elliot in Las Vegas. So my friend's parents won a VIP stay in Vegas to watch the Golden Knights draft their team. And during the NHL awards ceremony, my friend and I booked our hotel and flights and followed them into as many VIP events as we could sneak our way into without any passes. But that night when we were on the strip, we see Elliot and David Amber hanging out. So we go over to introduce ourselves and, you know, thank them for all they do and whatever else a bunch of starstruck lads would do.

But unbeknownst to us, Elliot had already spoken to my friend's dad for a while. And so when my friend said his name, Elliot said, ah, so you must work at this Canadian airline, just like your mother, Angela. Like absolute surreal moment.

Yes, we were stunned. But like, why yes, NHL insider Elliot Friedman, you nailed it. Definitely a pretty sick moment. But anyway,

stay safe, stay warm. Keep doing your thing. Appreciate it. So that is Austin in Alberta, Elliot. That's a little surprise courtesy of our producer, Amal Delich. You being essentially

the, how should we say, Canadian airline insider as well as NHL hockey insider. How about that? Well, I'm just glad that Austin clarified that I'd spoken to his dad beforehand because that story could have gone in a lot of different directions as a matter of fact i was kind of grimacing as i was listening to this because i was thinking where is this going

and could this end very badly but i'm i'm happy it didn't speaking of travel we're going to get to that in a couple of seconds here i guess there are there are worse places to be stranded in than sunny florida however elliot is not stranded in sunny florida he's stranded in rainy florida that story in a moment welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast presented by gmc and the new sierra at4x now coming up on today's program we're going to talk about the all-star weekend that just came and went. We'll talk about Sidney Crosby and did he just save the playoffs? We'll talk about the Washington capitals opening the ATM machine for a couple of forwards,

the Vancouver Canucks opening up some significant cap space. And you will hear from Elias Pettersson, Elliot. This is part of our 32 thoughtss Beach interview series. And folks, stay tuned. Elliot does ask if there's a problem with JT Miller. But first, what is your situation? We're supposed to be doing this at our respective homes. I'm at my place in lovely Stouffville.

Where are you right now? I'm looking at the beach and it's not raining anymore, Jeff. It's gotten a little bit nicer. But my flight today, which was supposed to leave Florida, sunny Fort Lauderdale, at 11.05, was initially delayed to 1.20. And then it was canceled. So Glenn Healy and a lot of the NHL alumni were on that flight. Greg Sansoni, one of our executives, was on that flight. So it looks like we're going on Monday morning.

We will see. But I have to say, I can say this because Steph really doesn't listen to this podcast. I'm not hugely complaining about this, I have to say. Well, you know what people love to hear? Media people complaining about air travel. Yes. People love when we complain about air travel, especially on Twitter.

But we'll save you all from that. Okay, so I just ran down a couple of things that we're talking about today on the program. Also, at some point, I'm going to ask you about the National Hockey League Players Association and where they're at with their search, how they started voting, etc. Before we get to everything that was all-star weekend, we got to go over the headline of the day. Sunday afternoon, we get the word the Bo Horvat contract extension with the Islanders is done. It is eight

years, $68 million, good for an AAV of $8.5 million. I kind of thought this was going to come in eight times eight. Nice little tidy 64. Not so fast. $8.5 for the former captain of the Vancouver Canucks. Your thoughts? Well, first of all, I'd like to thank Lou Lamorello, Pat Morris, and everyone involved here for ruining my Sunday afternoon massage.

and everyone involved here for ruining my Sunday afternoon massage. After I got kept here for an extra day, I decided I was going to book a quick massage, and I was literally walking into the room when it broke. Of course, you have to try to get the AAV, because we know Lamorello's not going to tell us. So it ruined it. I think I should either be reimbursed or bought a new one. You did see the Lamarillo quote or hear the Lamarillo quote.

All I can tell you is it's too long and it's too much money. I mean, you want the truth? No, no, no. Well, that was going to lead into my next point. Next question. It's too long and too much money. And everyone had the Iia kovalev chuck new jersey devil flashbacks there when he uh when he jokingly referred to that anyhow continue yeah so i don't think anybody is hugely surprised by this um on friday night when we showed the horvath interview he was gracious to do with us while we were at the all-star game you know when we came out ron and

i talked about how the word was the serious talks talks were underway and they were really going to try to get this done. You know, I, I can't say I'm surprised. I thought it would be eight times eight too. And I wouldn't be surprised if that was the Islanders hope, but eight times eight and a half. I mean, I've been saying now for months that that was the area of horvath's market value ever since the two deals in st louis with thomas and kairu bull horvath comes out he has a huge season he's on a 50 goal base he's a number one center in the national hockey league

you know that's what these guys cost that's what their market value is and so i'm not surprised at all you know as lamorello said he got horvat with the intent to sign him i always believed that that was the goal and honestly jeff another reason that i wouldn't be surprised if he signed now is that he's going from one of the NHL's most intense, passionate, and crazy markets to a quieter place. And if you think about everything that happened this last year or so in Vancouver, and obviously how crazy this year was, and how relieved he was that this trade is over, I would bet that going from the noise of Vancouver to the relative quiet of Long Island was something that appealed to him a great deal. So I look at that and I think that absolutely has to be a factor. And the other thing too is, I just think a family guy like Horvat, he doesn't want to go twice.

And I can't tell you how many in the last couple of weeks, how many guys have talked to me about that, about one of the worst things about being a trade deadline rental is you basically go in three different cities in a very short time. It's not fun for everyone, especially when you have a family. And I'm not surprised horvat would look at this and say i'm very happy to do it uh i want to get to what this means for the rest of the market most notably dylan larkin but park that for one second here um you know we have said from the get-go lamorello doesn't do this unless he thinks that he can get the player

extended you know one of the things that people have pointed at here, and this might just be a matter of priority and Elliot, I'm very much of the mind that what did we talk about a couple of weeks ago? No team ever said, well, the problem was we couldn't win because we had too many centers. Specifically, if you have the shot to get a center, whether it's your, whether it's the number one need, when you go to the grocery store or not, you go and you get that center. Put yourself as much as you can in the mind of Lou Lamorello. Like we've looked at this Islanders team and said, you know, down the middle, this team's okay.

Like I know they struggled at the beginning of the season. Like, look, knowing that the center position has scored any goals, that's corrected itself. But we wondered about, you know, what are they going to do with wingers, for example? Is that going to be the next, you know, target here for Lou Lamorello? He goes for the center as much as you can put yourself in lamarillo's mind what is he thinking here well you know one thing i i think is if you watch this run in the same one where he said that line it's too long and it's too much money yeah he's also asked about cap space in the future because in a year they're gonna have to do sor Sorokin, which is going to be a big, big number and the way that's going. And he said, I'm not worried about, you know, down the line. I'm worried about today.

We'll just worry to rebuild right now. There's always a big debate. It happens all around this league. How do you feel about rebuilding? When do you rebuild? I think there's a legitimate argument to be made here that the Islanders, after missing the playoffs by 20 points last year and struggling to be in the race this year at times,

and they're an older team, might want to think about rebuilding their group. Well, they're not doing that. They've committed to Barzell, which I thought was a great move and a very important move for the fan base, and now they've committed to Horvat. These two guys are going to lead them for years to come, and if you think they're going to intentionally go out

to rebuild or tank or anything like that, this is a message that that's not going to happen and what it says to me is that they will go barzell horvat dobson pellock pulak and the goalie sorokin as a key part of the next generation of islanders and we'll see what they do around them that's what this says to me. You know, the other thing that someone said to me was they have a really good combo and Sorokin Varlamov. I'm very curious about whether or not they're going to be able to keep

Varlamov now. And he's been good for them. He has, he's 34 years old. He makes $5 million. We wondered about him last season with various teams. Edmonton was one of those teams we wondered about. He's on an expiring contract.

You're right. It is a really good tandem. He hits the market. There would be interest, obviously. I'm not sure about this one at all. This is one of those situations in the league that I look at and I say, I'm not sure how this one plays itself out. This is the great know, the great complimentary goaltenders for each other, both having really good seasons as well. Varlamov is

34, Sorokin is 27. If you're Varlamov, are you not tempted because, you know, you don't have many more swings at this thing to finish up making your money here. And if they're going to pay Sorokin what Sorokin is going to earn, and now Barzell enters a new stratosphere next season, so does Bo Horvat. How much money are you looking at? If you're looking at re-signing Semyon Varlamov and bringing him back, how much are we looking at here? That's going to be a haircut, Elliot.

Yes, it would be. I mean, it's going to come down to, in any way, does he say, you know what, I like it here, I like the fit here, I've made money, what's the most you can give me? I'm not saying that that's going to happen, but that's the only way I think it can happen. Back to Horvat quickly, just for the sake of hockey talk, do you think that if Horvat hit the market,

and we've talked about teams that may have question marks about their centers next season, we don't know what's happening with the top two centers for the Boston Bruins, we don't know what's happening with the top two centers for the Boston Bruins. We don't know what's happening with Sean Couturier, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Do you think there's any way that Horvat could have had a contract that started with a nine?

If he had a big finish this year and there was a dearth of centers available, yeah, I absolutely think he could have. I totally do. But I think he liked the fact that the Islanders made the play for him. I think he liked the idea of being in the Eastern Conference closer to his family. You know what really helped the Islanders here was having all the all-stars there. Like having Brock Nelson there.

Having Sorokin there. I'll tell you who else is good too, and it's a guy that you and I know a little bit from dealing with him. It's the person who leads their media relations department, Kimber Auerbach, who's been there a long time. All these guys had their families there. I actually shouldn't say that.

I don't know if Sorokin did. But Nelson did, and Auerbach did, and the timing was really good for the islanders because brock nelson could sit down and his family could sit down with the horvats and they could talk about life in new york for our back it's not a player but he's been with the organization for a long time and the players really trust him and he's got his family there and they can talk to the Horvaths too. I think that was fortuitous for New York. Okay. Everyone who's a Detroit Red Wings fan listening to this podcast right now is thinking one question. What does this contract mean for

Dylan Larkin? See, I think Dylan Larkin, and we talked about this on Friday after Media Day, I think Dylan Larkin truly does want to be a Detroit Red Wing. I think he's invested a lot in them. He's from there. He's the captain of the team. I think he's coming to the realization that if he's going to resign in Detroit, it's not going to be at the same number he could get somewhere else. I think now, especially with Horvat off the market, centers are hard to find. There's going to be teams out there that want centers.

I think he could easily make more money on an AAV. Don't forget, Detroit will have the advantage of the eighth year unless they trade him. He can make more money on an AAV outside of Detroit than he can make in it I think that he understands that now what someone said to me this week was tell me the team that Dylan Larkin would rather play for than Detroit and I think that that's kind of going to be the question here. Anybody who's in a negotiation, okay, you know what it's like when you're not getting everything you want.

At some point in time, you have to sit there and say, okay, this is as far as I'm going to take the other side. Is that going to make me walk away? So the closing scene of Reservoir Dogs, essentially, this is the standoff.

One side saying, this is the money. Well, it's very stylistic violence, though, like it really was kind of cool. But this is one side saying this is what we have for you. And the other side saying, listen, this is not enough. And I have the power to walk away to which the other side says, this is the money we have for you. Almost calling bluff. I think that's it. And you know, the one thing here I kind of look at is like someone said to me, you know, like Horvath's not a big point guy and he doesn't have as many points as some other guys who make that kind of money. And like, again, my argument to that is it doesn't matter. It's what the market dictates. It's the scarcity. And there is a scarcity of top centers. It's the same thing I said about Horvat. The position he plays and the role he plays

makes him a guy who can hit it big in the market. And the other thing I really think too is, like in Detroit, they won Stanley Cups with two centers. Oh, yeah. Like that's who could have had 150 points every year if he wanted to. Zetterberg, I think he got 100 points once. Now, Jeff, you're telling me that I'm completely insane and I'm wrong and my memory's terrible and most of the other guys are 92.

Hockey Geek pushes up glasses. Actually, Elliot, it was 92. Actually, I like that meme. Whenever I see that, I always laugh my head off. Actually. Yeah, I thought he had 100 once. But, you know, hang like that meme. Whenever I see that, I always laugh my head off. Actually. Yeah, I thought you hit 100 once. But, you know, hang on a second. Your point about Datzik and Zetterberg, like, I'm with you.

The value there is, we've talked about this before, not only were Zetterberg and Datzik the best offensive players for the Detroit Red Wings, they're both the best defensive players. Yeah. You have to try really hard to lose a line matchup when you have Zetterberg and Datsuk. It's next to impossible.

Think of that luxury, tapping those two guys. Any situation, go. 13, go. 40, go. How do you lose in that scenario? Obviously, you don't. The other thing, too, is Larkin's not a big point guy like some of the other guys who are getting paid, but

if he plays the two-way strong two-way game, that gives Detroit the best chance to win. All right. Time to beat 18.147 of Nikita Kucherov. Off to a good start. Two for two. Look out, Brock Nelson. Four for four.

9.497. And that's the highlight of the night so far. This guy's pretty good. You know, the great ones can just sort of write their own script, can't they? He said, I'm going to stay out of the fastest skater, let somebody else do it. I think this is a year where I should focus on this. And man, when he focuses on things, it's just incredible. You know, we're in Florida. You're still there. We'll open up with some

wide brush thoughts. I mean, I know a lot of people groused about it. Some things that people really didn't like other things people thought was interesting or curious or like the attempt to be different. But the execution could have been fill in the blank. How did you see the weekend? Well, first of all, I consider the weekend an enormous success because it was 30 below in Toronto and it was 30 above in Fort Lauderdale. So I hope everybody understands that that 60 degree swing in favor of where I was as opposed to where I wasn't made the entire weekend a success in my books. However, I do agree that there needs to be some changes here. And I think for the people who legitimately were unhappy with the way everything played out, I believe some people in real positions of power feel the same way, that

we need to fix this. I think you're going to see some serious attempts at how do we make this better and one of the reasons i think is that um you know toronto that all-star game in 2000 of all the all-star games i've ever been to that was the quietest one ever yeah and one of the reasons was it was at that time it was North America against the world. And Curtis Joseph was playing for the North American team. And Matt Sundin, if I remember correctly, Dimitri Yuskevich, were playing for the world team. And like the crowd just didn't know who to cheer for. So if they don't come up with something, we're going to have a really quiet crowd next year.

And nobody wants that. So I have some ideas. I don't know if there's anything you want to say first, but I have some ideas. You know what they should do? You know, All-Star Games used to be, right? It used to be the defending Stanley Cup champion against the All-Stars pulled together from all the other teams.

Considering how everybody hates Toronto, why don't you just make the All-Star Game the Maple Leafs versus the rest of the NHL all-stars. Are you predicting the Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup this year, Jeff? No, I'm not. I'm just playing on the hatred that everybody has about Toronto around the rest of the NHL. So it's essentially the Maple Leafs versus the all-stars from 31 teams.

How about that? That's the first dumb idea I'll lob out there. Okay, so I have a few things here that I want to discuss and where i thought the problems were and and some ideas i have to fix them number one this is a sponsor event there were a lot of people who were not in their seats okay that has to be fixed now we joke jeff about the jameson's bar that uh the pan started. Did you finally go, by the way? Hang on, just quickly.

Did you finally get there? You would not stop talking about this thing. I know. It was really nice, I have to say. It's very nice. But some people were in there. There was a good chunk of people in there as opposed to watching the skills. There's nothing that looks worse for your product than when the TV comes up at whatever time it was.

I guess it was 637 o'clock on Friday night. And people looking on TV are like, there's nobody sitting there. Well, hang on then. It's a good thing to go into Toronto because the Maple Leafs have never had that problem at all. Believe me, this is the first thing I was thinking about. You have to tell your sponsors, you guys got to be in your seats. If you don't want to go or you want to hang around in a suite or a club or something like that inside the building, well, let us know and we'll put some people in your seats.

Number two, the show needs to start with a bang. Like, I actually thought the end of the skills competition was the best part of the night. The hardest shot, and I really liked the accuracy. You had the first Battle of Alberta last year in the playoffs. First time since 1991. It'd be a much different one if you got Kadri now in the mix going up against McDavid, if they can possibly do it again. Should mention Daniel Sedin, 8.9 in 2011.

So here we go. McDavid's not going to miss. Three for three again. One more. Double clutch, but no mistake, 10.6. Kadri, 10.13. Kadri got it first, I think. Yeah.

And McDavid handled it a couple of times, making sure trying to get the last one, and as that was going on, your eyes are going... Like, McDavid went perfect and he lost. Yep. I think that would have been a big deal and a really fun thing

that would have gone viral and really captured a lot of attention, but it was too late in the night. They had lost the momentum. So I think what you have to do is you have to do something right away that says the people were in this. And here's my idea. By the way, just as a quick aside, I'm just thinking of my own history,

and one of the best shows I ever saw was phil collins at exhibition stadium okay guess which song he opened with uh in the air tonight it was amazing like right away the biggest mega hit bam captures everybody and chester thompson on the drums was fantastic. But I know exactly what you're talking about. Come out and grab them. Because you know what happens. It started too slow between the fastest skater competition. And then Marner did his one breakaway attempt.

Dude. Bitchy. Come on, man. You know I got you, bro. Dude, it's a big night on, man. You know I got you, bro. Dude, it's a big night tonight, man. You know I got you? I know. We're in Florida, though.

You know what I need again. Bro, Mitchie, relax. I told you I got you, man. I got you. You ready? Check this out. And things just kind of stalled right there. And then you know what happens?

People start killing it on social media, and then it becomes the cool thing to do, which is add to the pile on, right? You got to start big. And here's my idea. So when we were still at the airport on Monday morning before our flight got canceled, somebody told me that they heard

that there were a few players on the bench saying they missed the draft. And this goes to another thing I have to say here. I think what the league has to do to the players is say, you guys have to arrange the all-star weekend, the skills. It's clear we're not getting a ton of buy-in from players. Some of the players really care. Like McDavid obviously cared. And Cadry obviously cared.

I saw a lot of complaints that the players weren't really going that hard on some level you're not going to get a competitive game and i understand all that but the thing is that it has to be impressed upon the players that this is something you have to care about to sell the game like Like Eddie Hall, one of our top producers, he told me that generally the skills competition outdraws the all-star game. So that's something that people want to watch. It has to be told to the players, you guys have to give us a better effort than we're getting. And then as part of that, I think the players should be asked, what do they want as part of this? I heard there were three or four players who said they liked the draft. All right, bring back the draft. So next year on the Friday night in Toronto, I think you open the show with

the draft and you do it live on the ice for everyone to see it. You remember why they didn't like it? Because someone has to get picked last. Oh, come on. Like, you know what? Like, seriously. No, dude, hang on, hang on, hang on. I do not want to hear this. Elliot, all I'm saying is that's their problem with it.

I don't care. I think it's fine. Someone's going to be last. Whoop-de-doo. Someone's last at a regular draft. I don't care if it hurts someone's feelings. I'm with you. Well, too bad. This is is pro sports i'm just saying that is the sensitivity and you know that that is a sensitivity that's out there i think it's ridiculous yeah it's completely ridiculous

because someone's got to go last and like we're still seeing pictures of phil kessel right like that's gonna exist in hockey inf, but that is the resistance right there. Phil Kessel, since that happened, has had two Stanley coverings and made $60 million. Like I think he's okay. Like in two weeks, I think the NBA is doing a draft for their teams. So what I'm doing is I'm starting with the draft right away. Everybody gets into it. People will like it. It's a good show. Then when you have to take everything off the ice

so you can do the skills, and this is Kathy Broderick, another one of our producers came up with this idea and I really like it. You pre-tape the fastest skater. You have it done in advance. First of all, the McCarr injury, you can't do it that way anymore.

We're taking too many risks. Okay. So what you do is you take the players out earlier in the day or the day before, wherever you want to do it, you take out your fastest skater people and you do it on like a frozen lake or a track, but you do it straight away it is speed it's 60 meters or whatever it is or however you want to do it it's pure speed and the winner is

the person who get not the time but the person who gets the fastest average and you pre-tape it and you pre-package it it gives you one last thing you have to do around on the ice so you go draft pre-tape fastest skater then you do your hardest shot you do your uh accuracy shooting which i i really liked and the other thing is it's got to be done in two or two and a half hours now eddie who's a programmer he said it's got to be two and a half because you need commercial time but i i think two to two and a half hours is the sweet spot but that's what i'm doing next year i'm starting off with the draft i'm pre-packaging the fastest skater then i'm doing hardest shot and accuracy and if you want to do something else like another producer jeff j Geradad, he had a hilarious idea. He says, you put all the players in the path and see if they can actually

get where they're supposed to be going. People who live in Toronto will understand that. That is pretty good. Or you do something else that's specific to Toronto. I don't know. That's the way I'm starting. Let me throw one more thing at you when it comes to hardest shot, when it comes to accuracy shooting, and when it comes to fastest skater. I think there should also be outside of the players who are there, because this is essentially the skills performed by the all-stars who are selected. This isn't necessarily the specialists at all. But a lot of teams do individual skill competitions. Some of them are pretty good draws for teams. I think there should be one wild card

in all of those events. So while Martin Natchez may not make it to the All-Star, might not be voted in or selected, Martin Natchez at the Carolina Hurricane Skills Competition, if he hits a certain time that's better than everybody else at their individual skill competitions, he gets an automatic berth into the all-star fastest skater. Ditto for player X for hardest shot. I'm good with that. Whomever that.

It's not necessarily an all-star player who's competing. It is someone who is a specialist, but it does throw that element of there's a wild card competitor in here. And this is this player's specialty. I like that. I always have. Okay. So now that the all-star weekend is solved,

let's move on to our next one. At the all-star weekend, we heard plenty of things from the commissioner, Gary Batman. He talked about, well, he did mention Toronto next season, hosting the all-star game he talked about international hockey and that schedule and work with the iihf specifically he talked about the

cap and he talked about the number of groups interested in the ottawa senators 15 or so have filed official applications of all the things you heard the commissioner talk about what was the uh the juiciest for you i don't know that there was anything that was particularly juicy this whole thing with the playoffs and the schedule you know we talked that there was a plan out there that would increase the season to 84 games to increase the number of rivalries. And that's kind of been out there since the last GM's meeting. And we were hoping that it would be on the table at the GM meeting that will be coming up after the trade deadline in March. Well, that ties in with the whole playoff thing. One of the things that's going to be kind of interesting about this

is the players have to approve any of these changes, right? Like if they go from 82 games to 84, they change the playoff system. It's never that simple, as you know. And also, too, we're in a point here where we could be getting a new NHLPA head soon. Like it's not as simple as the league says you want to go to 84 games and switch the playoff system and the players say yes. It always becomes a push and pull. What do we get out of this? What are be a conversation is shortening the exhibition season. I think they feel the players don't need as many games. As I told you, I think there's a lot of teams talking about injuries. So I wonder if that becomes a conversation out of, let's cut the exhibition season season do we do anything with the extra time

but a couple people said to me they're just not convinced that the playoff thing and the schedule thing they're just not convinced that betton is going to want to have the what are we doing in exchange for going to 84 games and switching the playoffs i'm not sure that's a conversation he wants to have right now, which is probably the biggest issue out of all of this. What did you make when Crosby spoke out about it, when asked if he was in favor of 1-8? Yeah, I think so. I like 1-8 just because I think if the regular season is as difficult as it is,

teams should be rewarded. I guess that's probably the best way you can be rewarded, even though there isn't a ton of difference. You know, I like that version. I don't have a problem with it. Like, I like the players who said, who didn't like the idea of what happens if, for example, the fifth place team in one division has a better record than the fourth place team in another division.

Like the players brought that up. And like that wildcard thing, it came up because of that. Like, you know, I'm, as you know, I'm a big play-in guy. I want a play-in. I think it should be there. I don't understand why the commissioner is so against it, but he is. That's just a fact of life. Last year's Eastern Conference was not your friend.

Yes. No, that one hurt me. When nine and 10 were 20 points out, like that was bad. That was tough. You'll leave that in our face for a long, long time. That's what's going to happen. For example, say we switch out a wild card and we go to 1 versus 8, people are going to be saying, well, let's just say in the West,

the 9th place team might have 10 more points than number 8 in the East, and people are going to complain about that. Like there's always going to be issues, right? I mean, it doesn't bother me. To me, Wild Carter one versus eight, I'm going C. I'm going with give me more teams, give me a play in. But it doesn't look like I'm going to win that argument. But again, like Crosby, if that's his opinion, I'm happy he shared it.

You know, we've talked a lot about things that the NHL, well, all sports leagues do now, in light of all the money that's been lost during COVID. And there are things, whether it's rink board advertising, and we all know how that's working out right now for some people, ads on jerseys, et cetera, all things that were ushered in simply because of the amount of losses that the NHL incurred over COVID. So I'm going to throw out something that I think you and I have talked about before. As a matter of fact, I'm sure we've talked about before, which could be a tent pole property could raise a lot of money and a lot of interest in the playoffs. goes back to the previous point about you know let's not hurt anybody's feelings if everybody

puts their feelings aside on this one the idea of choose your opponent in the playoffs you're the first place team you pick first you're the second place team you pick second are you going to choose it based on who you think is inferior who you have the best record against base it on travel whatever you tell me that wouldn't be one of, if not the most watched NHL property of the season. 16 teams deciding who they face in the opening round. Yeah, I think it's a great idea. Like I've really grown to embrace it. I don't know that I see that happening anytime soon.

You know, actually, you know, I wanted to say, like someone said to me, did it bother you? What that Zegers tweeted out the emoji of person sleeping right yeah i said no no it doesn't bother me i mean it's his opinion like you know ziggurats is uh he's rapidly becoming an influential guy in terms of reaction to him right you know both good and bad but he came out and he gave that emoji and people were like, are you mad about that? And I'm like, no, I'm very happy to see someone give their opinion, even if it may not be 100% positive of the broadcast I'm working on.

I'm not offended by it. I'm not upset about it, but I don't work at the NHL. I could see some people in the league being upset at that one. Okay, so moving along. That was the All-Star Weekend. Thanks for all the hospitality in Florida. And thanks for keeping Elliot away and out of our hair for one more day. Listen to 32 Thoughts, the podcast,

ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Washington Capitals. We've talked previously about this team will always try to ice as competitive a team as possible. There will be no rebuild until Alex Ovechkin gets the Gretzky record. And over the weekend, they signed two forwards, Dylan Strom to the five-year $25 million deal. That is an AAV of $5 million,

although this contract is a little bit front-loaded. And Sonny Milano gets the three-year $5.7 million deal. AAV on this one, $1.9 million. It was about five minutes ago, he was with the Calgary Flames on a tryout. Elliot, about five minutes ago, he was in Calgary. Also a front-loaded contract. It's something that we talked about on a previous podcast.

The players know what the escrow is going to be for the next couple of years and trying to get as much as they can during that time when the escrow is capped at 6%. It's not as much of a deal in Milano's contract, but I thought it was interesting that one was front-loaded too. The interesting thing there is the Capitals have a lot of decisions to make, all up and down their lineup. It's kind of interesting to see that they prioritize the forwards first because they only have one defenseman signed beyond this year.

But I think Strom's been a perfect fit. As you know, Jeff, I was calling right around January 1st to see if they were starting the conversations because it just made perfect sense that Strom would stick in Washington because stylistically it's worked very well for him there. I'm not surprised about that one at all. And Milano's number, I mean, that's a number that's not going to cause you any problems. And he's obviously been a good fit there.

What this says to me is that Washington, they said that both agents, Pat Morris and Rich Evans, they were cool with saying that the talks began, you know, right around New Year's or just before. I think that says to you that, you know, Washington is trying to see what's our business. We know what we have to do. We need to know what we can do. And I think the next few weeks are going to be interesting for a lot of people. But I'm wondering what the Capitals are going to do if some of these players remain unsigned going into the trade deadline. That's going to be a fascinating one for them. Speaking of trade deadline, a couple of teams have opened up some cap space here, albeit

for, we believe, different reasons if one of them decides to use this cap space. Max Pacioretty goes from IR to LTIR. So $7 million new dollars of cap space suddenly exists for the Carolina Hurricanes. And the Vancouver Canucks do same with Ilya Mikheyev. He's now on long-term. That adds just under $5 million, like $4.75 of newfound cap space for the Vancouver Canucks. I would imagine that one is looking to add. And the other, you know, Vancouver could use

this in a, I guess the term is weaponized your cap space. You know, they could very much use this as a weapon to be a third team to, uh, to help enable trades. I think Vancouver is going to be an interesting one because I think they still got a lot of balls in the air. Uh, look, I think that they really liked the fact. and so did the player like the fact that the Horvath deal didn't have to wait another month I think Vancouver liked that too like just it's one thing that's now in the rearview mirror they don't have to keep talking about it all the time and I think that's kind of going on with Besser too I think the Canucks have kind of let it be known that you know they would like to get this business done I think the Canucks have kind of let it be known that they would like to get this

business done. I think the player would like to get the business done. As we've reported, the agent has permission to work with this here. I think there is a legitimate attempt to try to do this. And one of the things Vancouver's talked about is we know that we might need to help to facilitate to get this done whether it's eating a percentage of the salary or taking a contract back as long as it's not longer term than Besser they'll consider doing all that so to me that's the flexibility and it's also just the fact that I think they really do want to move on Besser if they can. You know, Carolina, to me, that's just obvious. They're all in it to win it, and that creates the master flexibility for them. Jeff, the other thing I'm looking into this week is,

I just wonder where Edmonton is. I think they are kind of looking around. What do they have to do with Pooley-Arvey? How do they make sure they have the room to do what they want to do up front and potentially defensively? So the Oilers are a team I'm watching because I think they've tried to get there. I did mention earlier, I want to make sure that I get to it here. Anything happening with the Players Association?

And do we know if they're even voting right now for their new executive director? We talked plenty about Marty Walsh on the last podcast. Anything new cooking in the last couple of days with the pa i had heard they were going to start voting on friday but in the few minutes i had a chance to look into this on the weekend uh people said we cannot answer that question nobody was confirming put it that way well i'll tell you this someone actually said to me that there were people, and I don't know who, if they were people who work in the PA or they were players, they didn't even like the fact that we knew that there was an executive meeting called.

They wanted this whole thing to go by, basically just drop the announcement on our laps without even knowing that they called a meeting or anything like that. I said, you know, that's really hard to do because people talk and they said they know that. But for that reason, they didn't even, I don't even think they wanted to confirm the vote. This is a really interesting one because like we talked about in the last pod, like there are some people who are really unhappy with all this, but it's hard to tell how widespread that goes

because everyone's trying to keep a real lid on it. Elliot, something from last week we should probably mention too, and that is something with the Ottawa Senators organization. Now, their American Hockey League affiliate is in Belleville, and last week they relieved Troy Mann of his head coaching duties. Dave Bell takes over behind the bench. This was after a win against the Rochester Americans and caught a lot of people by surprise. And there are a lot of questions and I don't think there are a ton of answers out there

right now. Like at various points this season, and you hear this about coaches like all over the place and sometimes you put stock in it and sometimes you don't. You know, there were a couple of times this year that I was told, watching Belleville, Troy Mann might be in a little bit of trouble. That's common, but I just want to make sure that it's out there, that as much as it did catch people by surprise, it's not as if it hadn't been whispered at least a few times over the course of the season. Last time I heard it was somewhere, and I can't remember if it was right before

or right after Christmastime, but it was somewhere in that zone. Yeah, you had mentioned that you'd heard this was a potential thing, and you were one of the first people I thought of when it was announced, because you'd said, keep an eye out for this, and then it happened.

But there's a couple of things here, and they wanted to make that change quick because they made it right after a game right a game that they won a win e-carbon as far as coach the canadians after a win like to me if you win or lose a game it doesn't matter it's if you if you have a decision that you've made you make your decision but the timing was a little weird and you know the release specifically quoted quoted Ryan Bonus, the assistant general manager who runs Belleville, about systems, systems being the issue. And a couple of things I had heard was, you know, I heard that there were some questions about players coming up. was the American Hockey League team and the NHL team, were they on the same page about what these players were supposed to work on or how they were supposed to be prepared down there? I heard there had been some issues with that. I think where this made a bit of a wild turn was a report

and Claire Hanna was the first person to report it about the possibility that there was some sort of industrial sabotage here, that he was giving away secrets. So I got a call from a friend of mine who does employment law. And, you know, he said to me that he's reading this press release and he heard about that report. And he said that if it was his client, he would be all over the senators to clean this up because as far as we know troy man did not get fired for cause that's number one number two the team press release doesn't indicate anything about cause it says specific philosophical differences and he said to me this guy want to coach in the nhl or the hr and hockey again i? I said, yeah, I think he does. He goes, you have to come out, write out and demand that your name gets cleared on this because it's going to be another year under contract. So if they're paying him, they're

going to have to pay him for another year. You're hoping that maybe it gets offset because he gets a job somewhere else. But if there's this kind of accusation hanging over you, Jeff, who's going to hire you? The difference between that report, which I'm not saying is wrong. I'm just saying, I don't know. The difference between that report in the statement is so pronounced and the reputational damage that can cause, like Buddy was saying, like if he's Troy Mann and that's not true, he's getting a lawyer on that right away. and he's making the team come out and say that is not true because that's damaging to your reputation. Yet as of right now, as you record this, Elliot, that hasn't happened. Like a statement hasn't come out, but we don't know that he's not fighting to protect it. You know, we'll see here because you can't let that one

hang on you. Honestly, I don't think this one's done. Yeah. This one is just not an open and shut philosophical differences. We're deciding to go in a different direction. Yes. This one feels like that this one's not over, that there's still more coming. Yeah, I agree with that 100%. Elliot, before we get to this Elias Patterson interview, a couple of teams keeping eyeballs on the New York Rangers with a couple of call-ups and the Blackhawks. Sounds like some decisions on the horizon here.

Yes, I do think we're going to get closer to, I mean, we're within four weeks of the trade deadline, right? So I do think in some time in the near future, we're going to get some clarity on Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taves and what their plans are, how they feel about the deadline. I don't know how to handicap Taves at this point in time. I'm not sure about Kane. Again, I was talking to a couple people, just guys who played against him recently down here at the All-Star break,

and they can see he's really gutting it out. He's not 100%, and a couple of them said they they really gave him credit for trying to play through it whatever it is that's bothering him although we all suspect it but you know what this one player said to me is you know you can really tell that he's not patrick king although again he really praised him for the effort that he was making to do it because he knows that the the blackhawks are probably counting on it the other one i'm curious about and we might know the answer by the time the podcast comes out you know the rangers are at 23 players right now they called

up blay from his conditioning scent and well cooley too yeah so it's interesting to me that the rangers are at 23 they don't really need to do that and they can protect the cap space too so i i'm curious to see what they're going to be up to things to keep an eye on okay quick break here on the podcast when we come back you'll hear from elias petterson uh we sat down with last thursday on the beach in Fort Lauderdale. Really interesting interview. He's a fascinating guy. Congratulations, Pedersen, on the hardest shot. We'll ask some hard questions of Elias Pedersen when the podcast returns.

All right, get it before it's gone. Visit the Sportsnet shop to get your 32 Thoughts merchandise. That's hoodies, that's teas, crew necks, even a coffee mug that changes color when you fill it up with your go-to warm beverage. Visit www.shopsportsnet.store to get your 32 gear today. www.shopsportsnet.store Okay, Elliot, Elias Pettersson.

I think a lot of us have wondered what the future is with Elias Pettersson now that Beau Horvat is a member of the New York Islanders. The Vancouver Canucks can negotiate with Elias Pettersson in the offseason. We've wondered about friction with players like JT Miller, for example. And I think we've all sort of wondered, you know, where is Elias Pedersen's head at right now with the Vancouver Canucks? Before we play this interview, this beach interview, part of our beach series, I'm calling it, Elliot. What did you expect to hear from Elias Pedersen? Well, number one, I just want to say that I think the video is hilarious.

First of all, Amal and Nick, who shot this, did a great setup on the beach where you and I were sitting in a cabana. He was given a beach chair. Lounging. And he took the option, man. He just lied right down and made himself comfortable. Tip of the cap. It was a bold move.

Very impressive. And by the way, the video that Elliot's talking about, that'll be available a little bit later on this afternoon. If you're listening to this on Monday, check out the Sportsnet YouTube channel. Sorry, finish your thought, Elliot. Yeah, no worries. But I tried to ask him some questions

that a Vancouver fan would want to know. And ultimately, the fans out there will tell me if I succeeded or not. But there's some people you listen to what they say, and there's some people you listen to and look at how they say it. And I think Pedersen is option B. I think the cues for Pedersen about how he feels about things like are his pauses oh yeah for me it's almost how he says stuff like something does he think about the question before answering it or does he or does he know what he wants and he says it

right away like there's a couple times in this where he answers the question right away and there's a couple times where he pauses because he's thinking i better make sure i say what i want to say here properly yeah and for me that's that's what i think about there's a few long pauses we left those in deliberately so don't think that there's anything wrong with your podcast like just if it's quiet for a second that's okay lean in yeah because he's just thinking about how he wants to answer. One, two, one, two. Give it a little more.

That's all I got. Awesome. All right. Let's get right to it. Here he is, Elias Pedersen of the Vancouver Canucks on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Beachside. Alongside Elias Pedersen of the Vancouver Canucks. And we like to make sure that our guests are very comfortable. 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Beachside. Alongside Elias Pedersen of the Vancouver Canucks,

and we like to make sure that our guests are very comfortable, so I hope this is an enjoyable, relaxing experience here for you today, Elias. Thanks so much for joining us. It's been an emotional season so far for the Vancouver Canucks. The stories are up and down and waves and crests and troughs. How would you describe this season from your perspective? What's it been like? It's been, I mean, like you said, it's been up and down. It's been also an emotional rollercoaster with everything.

We started the season with seven straight losses, and then we picked it up, and then coaching changed, and other stuff off hockey, but yeah, I'm just trying to focus on what I can control I asked one of your teammates about you he said stoic patient doesn't give away much but sees everything and you process everything like what have you seen this year um what I've seen this year? What have I seen this year? I think the group has been, maybe lately, there's been a lot of outside noise. And I think we have a good group that we can play well, but we haven't come up to the standards we obviously want. So it's a great group, but we haven't lived up to the standards.

I think the number one question that every Canuck fan has and wants to know is, are you happy? They worry. They want to know that you're going to be at Canuck for a long time. No, I'm happy. I mean, I love the going to be at Canuck for a long time. No, I'm happy. I mean, I love this city. It's a great place to play. And obviously, the Canucks fans are passionate, which I like.

So, yeah, I'm happy. There's a lot of talk about now that Bo Horvat is with the Islanders, who the next captain of the team is going to be. And, listen listen your name your general manager talking about it your name's top of that list how do you feel about that no i feel good i mean we haven't had any discussion about that yet but we have some about they wanted me to have a more leadership role and i'm very happy to hear that. But for me, I don't want to stress into anything because it's not the easiest task to be a captain.

I mean, I saw Bo first-hand get all those questions after every practice almost and et cetera, et cetera. You don't look forward to that? No, I mean, I just want to make a decision. I just want it to be the right one. I don't want to stress into anything. Just the team itself. When you look at what you need, what do you think it is?

Obviously, we need to get our defense better. I think we're scoring a lot of goals, but we're letting it as many, if not more. So I think we're definitely going to get better in our D zone with the structure and everything. I think we'll have the guys, but we just got to clean up the... More detail. Yeah, more details, more rules,

because we usually get stuck in the zone, and they seem to score pretty easy goals sometimes. So we've got to get our defense. Has Rick Taka changed much? Has he demanded differently anything new he's asked for? He's going to keep everyone accountable. He demands hard work and so far it's only been three games. But he likes to show a lot on the board, like small tips or to teach us stuff. So I think that's been good.

And I think now over the break, when we get back, we'll have some more things to work on and how they want us to play. You know, they're still chanting Bruce, there it is, in Vancouver. I'm curious, what was your relationship like with Boudreaux? What did he expect out of you as a player? How did you resonate with your former coach? Yeah, Boudreaux's been great for me. He came in last year when I wasn't playing my best.

And first off, he was like, I mean, I know you're a good player, but I just want to work hard and have fun. So when he said that, I got more comfortable, and I eventually found my game last year. And then my relationship with him, I have tons of respect for him, and obviously he helped me a lot last year. One of the questions I wanted to ask you is, there's a lot of rumors about your relationship with JT Miller.

Is it good or bad or what? How would you describe it? I want to hear it from you. Yeah, it's good. I mean, we had our differences maybe in some games, but I mean, he's a teammate that I respect. And yeah, he's someone I like to play hockey with. And yeah, there's a lot of speculation, obviously, a lot,

but he's a teammate I respect. This is not an issue? It's not an issue. How would you describe him to people that don't know him? I mean, you've seen him on the ice. He's a skillful player. But he's a... I don't know if the emotional is the right word.

I mean, he wants to win so bad and sometimes he maybe gets too hot-headed if that's the right word but he's he cares a lot and just wants to win do you think we're crazy like the some of the stuff we talk about and some of the stuff you hear that gets talked about do you ever look at it and say this is bananas it's uh i don't watch it enough to so i don't hear all the craziness but uh i don't really read a lot online and watch stuff i barely watch tv i'm pretty straightforward play video games with my friends and hang out. That's mostly what I do. That's a nice way of saying yes.

You think that some of this stuff is crazy. I really appreciate that. I didn't say that. That's the reaction. So away from the rink, you said video games. We were talking before. You said you like to cook. You're a cook.

What do you do? What's the kind of stuff that you like to do? I'm a very easy person. Obviously, video games. I play video games usually almost every day with my friends back home. Back home? Back home, yeah. My friends back home.

What do you guys play? We play NHL. It's called you play three on three or sometimes five versus five. Also, I play call of duty with the friends back home too okay and are you good like do you win a lot i'm decent yeah i'm decent i'm pretty all right but uh my friends are they're okay but there's always a good time playing with them do you make a player like yourself like do you have a petterson kind of player no i'm playing defense i need to play defense. Yeah, otherwise

there's a lot of goals in the other end. And you said cook. What's your specialty? What do you make? Cook a little bit of everything. Everything from fish to steak to chicken. I follow a food plan in the summer, so I guess you should take those dishes and do it. Do you have a Pedersen steak? Like. Do you have a Patterson steak? Like, do you have a steak that you make for yourself? No. Not a specialty I always do. I'm pretty straightforward when either cook it in pan or on the grill.

Okay. Last year, no NHLers at the Olympics. World Cup has been postponed. When we finally do see NHLers at either a World Cup or Olympics, you're going to be a big part of it. Your thoughts on international hockey. NHL is one thing in the Stanley Cup, and then also playing for your country.

How do you rank those things? Stanley Cup, Olympic gold, World Cup. What's important to you? I'll say Olympic first. Because it's been going on for years years and obviously there's so much history, etc. I want to play Olympics, such a big event. And then I'll say Stanley Cup after. Bigger win, Finland or Canada?

Canada. You'd rather beat Canada than Finland? Canada, they say it's the home of hockey. But, oh, you're putting me on the spot there. No, it's okay. You're not the first Swedish player that we've asked that question to, and they've answered exactly the same. We all think that all the natural enemies are

the finns and every swedish hockey player we talked to said no no i want to be canada yeah i think yeah obviously there's always going to be the neighbor rivalry with finland but canada usually comes out on top on the big tournament so yeah your game is there anything you look at and say that's what you're going to see next or this is what i'm going to start doing more of and better um obviously i need to be better on the in the face of dots that's one thing i want to get better at but in the game i'd say puck protection like be better at small areas i get knocked over easily sometimes so i need i want to work on be able to hold off the fence make a guy do a cutback like extend those sometimes

uh last one for me who on the vancouver canucks do you think doesn't get enough attention? I mean, you get a lot of attention. Obviously, you mentioned JT Miller. A lot of players that get a lot of attention. Quinn Hughes. Who do you think we should talk about more? I mean, my first thought was going to be the guy who just left. But I think Shen. first thought was gonna the guy who just left but uh but um i think shen the way he's uh i mean now he's the all-time leader in hits i think he's a he's a veteran but like he comes with excitement

of working hard every day uh he's a great leader in the room um always brings it would you ever say keep him don't trade him anywhere keep him i'll pass on that question but i always i would love to keep and he said he's an awesome guy but i'm not making those uh making those decisions i understand so you know i want to ask you about your shoe game your fashion yeah what's your go-to uh i like nike are you an air jordan guy What's your go-to? I like Nike. Are you an Air Jordan guy? No.

I don't know if it suits me. But there are some Jordan shoes I like, so I just got to get over the obstacle of like, okay, I can pull it off. But usually I like either Nike shoe. It could be Dunks, but yeah, Nike is the... And suits or anything like that or outfits? Is there anything in particular you really go for suits just try to be have a clean look i like to sometimes mix colors

casual clothes i like oversized and vintage and simple stuff when i when i move over i was all about i need to buy all the expensive clothes because i thought i was cool when i when i moved over i was all about i need to buy all the expensive clothes because i thought i was cool when i was doing that but year two i realized i grew out everything or year three so i wasted a bunch of money on that so after that i started buying uh i mean cheap clothes but like like the vintage t-shirts are cool like yeah that's what i like do you have one that you look at and say on a day off, this is the shirt that's going on? Oh, yeah, for sure.

Which one is it? What does it say on it? One has Metallica on it. Nice. Yeah. Don't ask me any other songs. No, it's okay. There's a lot of faux Metallica fans out there.

I don't see that as a negative. But I think the t-shirt looks cool, so that's why I bought it. Awesome. That's great. Thanks so much for this. Hope we made you feel comfortable. Made me feel very comfortable. Thanks, guys. Thank you very much. Okay, so that's Elias Pedersen of the Vancouver Canucks. I want to thank Victoria Alrick from the Vancouver Canucks for helping set that one up. Much appreciated.

Thank you. Closing thought on Pedersen before we get to some voicemails and some emails. Elliot. I have a feeling I'm going to be listening to this one a couple of times. I just think that Pedersen is the kind of guy you almost have to listen to it twice to make sure you get the full meaning. I know there were a couple of questions in there

where I was listening to what he said and there was one where I actually didn't hear it, but I was processing it but well into you having asked the next question. Because I just think he's one of those guys who's very careful, but very pointed. I really enjoyed talking to him. And I'll tell you this,

I really appreciate his bluntness. He gives you an answer. It may not be screaming at the top of his lungs or very forceful, but he gives you an answer. Was that just your polite way of saying you ignore me when I'm asking questions? Not always. Thanks to Elias Patterson and Victoria. Thank you very much for hooking that up.

Quick pause. We're back with your voicemails and emails. Okay, Elliot, we got a lot of emails about this. I got tons of tweets about this and probably some voicemails as well, but Amel hasn't shared them yet. I want to apologize for mispronouncing Newfoundland on last week's podcast. Boy, did I hear it from newfoundlanders apologies apologies you've been to newfoundland right yes oh yes see i've never been you should go not that it's any excuse but it is on my list and i know exactly where i'm going to go i'm going to go to terry ryan's dad's house because he has like a WHA Hall of Fame in the basement. I've talked to Senior

a number of times. Wonderful guy. Great storyteller. And it's like a Minnesota Fighting Saints Hall of Fame. And, and you'll love this one.

Ken Reed told me this. Every person that goes to visit Senior's basement and listen to stories gets a puck. Nice. I guess he's got like a big barrel of WHA pucks

and you're allowed to take one. So, that's my trip that's out there one day. Nice. I guess he's got like a big barrel of WHA pucks and you're allowed to take one. So that's my trip that's out there one day. Okay. 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca. 1-833-311-3232 is the 32 thought line. And that's where we're going to start with a voicemail from Anonymous Elliot. Here's Anonymous. Hey, Jeff.

Elliot. So I was watching the NFL games this weekend, and it got me thinking about the whole DeMar Hamlin situation. Has there ever been an instance in the NHL where a game has had to be canceled mid-game due to an injury or whatever? Yes. And if not, what would it take for a game to be canceled mid-play? Thank you.

Happened a number of times, Elliot. The most recent one would have been Jay Bomeester with the St. Louis Blues. Yeah. Happened as well with Uri Fisher and happened with Rich Peverly in the Dallas-Columbus game. That game actually,

and by the way, Rich Peverly is, Dallas-Columbus game. That game actually, and by the way, Rich Peverly is, if he's not on your radar as rising stars in the NHL amongst executives, that guy should be there. The work that he's done with the Dallas Stars is exemplary, whether it's helping to pick off Wyatt Johnson, although Joe McDonnell would have been on that file as well too. He's...

Peverly's a rising star in management ranks anyhow. But that Dallas-Columbus game where Rich Peverly had his incident, that goes back to 2014. There's something really interesting about that game, which now that, of course, Rich Peverly is okay, we can focus on. Do you remember Nathan Horton in that game? No, which now that, of course, Rich Peverly is okay, we can focus on. Do you remember Nathan Horton in that game? No, what's that?

So Nathan Horton playing for Columbus scores at like two minutes or three minutes into the game. Rich Peverly has his incident, his episode, and the game is stopped and the game is postponed. And the NHL has to try to figure out what they're going to do for a makeup game. Are they going to just start it at the same time when the official blew the whistle? Or do they go back and just play an entire game with the score being 1-0 to start the game? And that's the way they decide to go. They replay the game. So it's a 60-minute regulation game with the Columbus blue jackets,

starting the game with a one, nothing lead goal scored by Nathan Horton. But in the meantime, Nathan Horton got injured. Was this when he got hurt and he didn't play again? He got hurt and didn't play. So his stat line for that game is Nathan Horton, no shots on goal, 0.00 of ice time, and one goal.

Jeff, I say this with respect. I really do. You're the only person who can come up with this. The only one. I thought you were going to say the only person that would find that interesting. No, I actually think it's pretty interesting, but nobody else would think of this. No, that's not true. This may frighten you, but there are plenty like me.

There are plenty, plenty like me. Okay, this is John from Atwood. Why doesn't the NHL recognize the goals scored by the players from the WHA? The two leagues merged together, so why not recognize the history? If they did recognize it, the goals would actually be Gordie Howe, 985 wayne gretzky 940 hall 913 ovechkin 812 etc i think records are meant to be

broken but also believe history should be recognized you know what i think in the in this case elliot i'm curious what you think i think the the word merged here is the problem because the two leagues didn't merge the nhl absorbed four teams and it wasn't as if they brought the entire squad like these teams all got mixed up and they got absorbed into the nhl this i know some people want to position it like a merger but this was not a merger of two leagues this was the nhl bringing in four teams yeah but that's not that got anything to do with the question. I actually, on some level, really do agree with that opinion. For example, when I look at HockeyDB, it's NHL totals and WHA totals.

I kind of wish that they were all put together. However, I remember Andrew Ferentz made an argument to me once that playoff games should count towards your total. Because one, it's a badge of honor to make the playoffs. And two, playoff games are harder. Like if you look at Ferentz's career, he played 907 NHL games. So he just misses 1,000.

But he played 120 playoff games. So he just misses a thousand, but he played 120 playoff games. So if you counted those, he'd beat a thousand 27, as you know, a thousand is a big number important for a lot of players. And I once brought that up with someone at the NHL said, well, what about this point? And they said, quite simply, the problem is, is that not everybody plays for great teams. And is it really a player's fault? If they play for team, they play really well. If you're good enough to play like 900 games, but your team isn't good enough to make the playoffs. And well, I said, my argument was you should have signed with better teams then.

And the guy laughed and he said, no, but like that's, but that's what it is. The opportunity isn't the same for everybody. I have no doubt said, no, but like that's, but that's what it is. The opportunity isn't the same for everybody. I have no doubt on some level, the NHL looks at the WHA and says, that's not us. They cause us a lot of financial grief in history because they made us pay players more and we don't want to give them any more credit than we have to. But I know for example, in, in playoff games and playoff totals, they say it's not fair.

It's not apples to apples. Here's one. This is from Lily from Detroit. I've been a listener for about three years now, and I don't think I've heard the story of how the podcast got started. We know you work together at Sportsnet, and you have lots of coworkers, so how did the Jeff and Elliot marriage begin? Also, in one of my games, I made a breakaway pass to my teammate

who got tripped and scored on the penalty shot. I definitely think I got robbed of an assist on that. Now that it's happened to me, I agree with Jeff that we got to get this into the rule book. Did I ever tell you that there's one manager in the NHL who listened to that discussion you and I had about that about awarding assists on penalty shots and really didn't like it and so we argued back and forth and i'm just calling this up now and this was the ultimate point that this manager made he said it comes down to this was there a whistle in between

the pass and the shot if there was no assist and of course on a penalty shot there's a whistle in between the pass and the shot? If there was, no assist. And of course, on a penalty shot, there's a whistle between the pass and the shot. So no, no goal. That's what it came down to for this manager. Anyhow. Well, what I would say, because Lily is such a loyal listener, I support her position. So I don't support it because of you, Jeff. I support it because of Lily.

Oh, very, very good. Very good. What I remember, and Amo will probably know if my take here is wrong, is that initially when the podcast idea was proposed to me, and it was about three years into my time at Sportsnet, so that's about six years ago, I was asked if I wanted to do it myself. What I did was I listened to some podcasts that were co-hosted,

and I listened to some podcasts that were not co-hosted, that were solo. And I liked the co-host ones better. I just thought they sounded better. I thought if the chemistry was good, I thought it made a huge difference. And to be honest, I like bouncing things off other people. And the other thing too, I said, Jeff, was I know that I get exhausted from writing at the time and the other things I was doing. I just didn't think that me doing a podcast for an hour was the best option for the podcast.

And so they said, can we give you some suggestions? the podcast. And so they said, can we give you some suggestions? And I would like to tell you that they gave me 40 people before I settled on you, but you were the first guy that they came to me with. And I said, that was no problem. To be honest, if Amal claims I said this, I will deny it. Or any of you claim I said this, I will deny it. But it's actually worked out better than I could have thought. I just think that the different way that you and I look at things has really made the podcast better. Yeah, I annoy you. And people enjoy listening to me annoy you. So I think that's what really sparks his flavor. To me, it was a conversation in the hallway at the CBC building. And I'd gone through a podcast breakup with Wyshynski. And it's funny too, because we were in the process of,

it was me with someone else who's now employed with an NHL team and another person who's now no longer employed by Sportsnet pitching this new podcast. When Scott Moore pulled me aside and said, Hey, how'd you like to do a podcast with Elliot Friedman? And it took me about two seconds to say yes. And then Greg Sansoni called me and then we were off to the races and we were introduced to Amel, um, who's produced this whole thing. And to be honest with you, I had zero idea that it was going to have the longevity that

it's had. Yeah. I don't think that we had any idea. I thought, okay, this is kind of, this is, this is kind of cool. We'll do this for a couple of years and you know, then, you know, people will be sick of my insane takes and we'll just move along and call it a day. But, uh, listen, Lily, so far so good. We keep fooling them every week, a couple of times with some interviews thrown in. So I ain't complaining. Uh, real good question. Uh, really good question there. This is Mike from Pittsburgh, longtime listener, first time mailer, uh, with the NHL trade deadline approaching, I had a thought. The idea was for true rental players where a team trades to rent an asset, not own. For example, Eric Carlson has a difficult to move contract given the term and the cap hit. But what if a team is only renting him for the remainder of the season?

So San Jose would trade Carlson for an allotment of picks and prospects to a team for the playoffs. But come July 1st, Carlson is a shark. Appreciate your thoughts. Great job. Amel. Great job, Jeff.

I like Mike in Pittsburgh. You know, it's, it's an interesting idea. I don't know if San Jose would want to do that, but I think it's a really fascinating idea. I do. I like the creativity of it.

I'm just not convinced that that's something the Sharks would want to do. And to be honest, I'm not convinced it's something that Carlson would want to do. Just be a strict rental buyer team. That is like the player loan to another organization for a few months. We're going to loan you his services, but still retain the rights. Great emails, great phone calls. As always, thank you for participating. Okay, hope your week is starting right.

It is back to NHL action this evening. And with that, we will bid you happy and good podcast. Hope you have a wonderful week. Taking us out today is a production project from London-based DJ Chog Burley, stage name Void Komplet. The sound distills the techno roots heard in the 2000s UK

house music era. From the very talented Void Komplet, here's Hey, Look I Know on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Enjoy. Bye. Outro Music