32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Moncton Monster Pod

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

In this Hockey Day in Canada edition of 32 Thoughts LIVE from Moncton NB, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman react to Mitch Marner facing the Maple Leafs for the first time since signing in Vegas, while also highlighting jersey retirement nights for Zdeno Chára in Boston and Sergei Fedorov in Detroit (17:00). The guys dig into a surprising coaching change in Columbus (26:22). Things shift to our live show where the fellas open with Rasmus Andersson emerging as the hottest name on the trade market (30:19), and bleak times in New York where the Rangers’ goaltending can no longer mask deeper issues (37:18). They discuss Vancouver opening the door to offers on everyone, Elias Pettersson’s difficult stretch, and Filip Hronek as the Canucks’ most valuable trade chip (44:24). Plus, the episode features interviews with Moncton Wildcats captain and Utah Mammoth fourth-overall pick Caleb Desnoyers (47:37), Wildcats head coach Gardiner MacDougall (1:03:19), and Kevin Bieksa (1:27:43).Kyle and Elliotte answer crowd questions in the Thoughtline (1:55:14). Today we highlight New Brunswick's Mike Trask. Trask’s songwriting deconstructs traditional genre conventions to reshape the familiar into something extraordinary. Check out his music here.Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.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

Anything else? Yes. Oh, okay. No, God. Okay, Olympics. We're all going. Three of us are going. Canada?

Yeah, we're representing Canada. Easy answer. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. We are in Moncton. This is not the live show. That will come later. What time is it? What does it say on your phone here?

I've got 2.25. It is 2.25 a.m. Friday morning. Selwynton. time. Kyle Bacostles and I, we did the live show earlier today, as Kyle mentioned. You'll hear that in a few minutes. We had the Hockaday and Canada banquet tonight. And what do we say? We're not putting the podcast to bed until after the late games, because there was a big one, Toronto, Vegas, Mitch Marner for the first time against the Maple Leafs. And it was very important. Kyle, for you, me, and B.XA to get a late-night putteen run in. Yes. Yes.

We were hungry. We had to carve up before we put this thing to bed. What kind of patine did you get? So I went with the pulled pork. Did not regret it. It was great. There was two others that came in after us. They were both pulled pork enthusiasts.

Yes. And you went with. Butter chicken. And did you like it? Excellent. Yeah. Do you remember what kind of Biazah got? No, I just don't know.

that he went with the large. Yeah, you and I went medium, which was the perfect size. Yes. In the middle of the night. And BXA said, I regret going large. Yes. We went with this medium, which was also Kevin's shirt size for the bank went on. Oh, my God.

None of you can see this, but I'm telling you, BXA needed a crowbar to get into a sweater for this event tonight. Some people, and you all know someone like this, they wear. really tight shirts to show off how muscle bound they are, BXA undoubtedly needed a crowbar to get into a sweater tonight. It was a boy's medium. It was way too tight. After we're done this, we have to go help and get out of his shirt before he can go to bed once and for all. Because if he wakes up in the morning with this thing on, he will be unable to breathe. There will be, he will have lifetime circulation difficulties. Let me. Let me. we just say this podcast is always a little bit different. It's the Hockey Day in Canada podcast.

We're in Moncton. And Kyle, you and I got in here on Wednesday. It's been a beautiful couple of days. This city, they have done an incredible job welcoming us here. We've had a great couple days already. And there's more to come. You're headed to Winnipeg. So what happened to your flight? It got, well, as you know, there's the snow in Toronto, and I think that's, I had a morning flight first thing out of here to get to Winnipeg and I have to go through Toronto. There's no Moncton, Winnipeg direct. But it got canceled. I was, we were sitting at the banquet. I got the notification. So it'll be a late arrival into Winnipeg, hopefully for the game Saturday. So if that means a few extra hours here in Moncton, I'm more than okay with that. The only negative is you can't go to 529 in Winnipeg, which is one of my favorite restaurants. Yes. I just want to say the banquet on Thursday night, Ron Kelly, Kevin and I did something. It was phenomenal. You and I did something. It was fun. We did our live podcast, which we'll hear. Dave Amber did a quick speech. He killed. He killed it. And then the hosts were Ivanka and Ken. First of all, we all know Ivanka is a genius. She agreed. Ken, he should just quit because he will never do anything better than he did on Thursday night in Moncton. Ivanka is a superstar.

She can always hit the high note. Ken, he can't. But on Thursday night, he was phenomenal. The best I've ever seen him, he should just retire. he was like peak Steph Curry from beyond the arc doesn't matter he could not miss anything that came out of his mouth that crowd he had it in the palm of his hand good for him so normally in these circumstances

we would fire out the live show and say that's our pod for Friday morning but we had to wait for the ending of Toronto Vegas we thought it was very important that we addressed this game and other things that happened on Thursday night because it was a big night in the NHL. It seems like every night is a big night in the NHL, but this was a big game.

And it was Mitchumoner's first game against the Maple Leafs, and Vegas came back to win it, 6'5 and overtime. It was a great game, a great game. And I will just say this, from both the Vegas perspective and the Maple Leafs perspective, I loved everything about it. And I always talk about Anthony Stewart. What does he say?

You're a team or are you a club? A team is good. A club is an insult. I walk away from this game on Thursday night saying both are teams. Vegas trailed all game long. They were playing catch-up all night. And they came back and they found a way to tie it and then win it. That's a team.

They knew how much this game meant to Marner. They won it. Toronto lost the game. They blew the lead. They lost the game and they will be disappointed. But I walk away from that saying they are also a team instead of a club. And the big one for the Maple Leafs is next Friday in Toronto. Yes.

Vegas at Toronto. And that is such a big game that even though it's a Friday night, we are doing it nationally. It is a national leaf game because it's such a big game. That's the one where the Maple Leafs really have to do something in front of their fans. But I thought this game, even though they didn't hold on to win it, it showed they were a team. So the evil telecom did the broadcast, and there was a lot of news in the pregame about how Mark Masters, who I have a ton of respect for, I think he's a great broadcaster, asked Matthews about Marner. and Matthews said, I've done enough Mitch Marner questions.

I'm not quoting him 100%, but we all know what he's talking about. He's like, I don't want to talk about this anymore. I think that is great. I think it's great because I think Matthews and Marner have a lot of respect for each other, but right before a game, there's nothing wrong with throwing that out.

There's nothing wrong with saying, we're not friends tonight. Tonight we're here to win a hockey game. And if Matthews says that right before a game, I see nothing wrong with that. In the morning, if you want to talk about Marner or the day before he wants to talk about Marner, totally fine.

But right before a game, if he says, don't put this stuff in my face, I think his fans, leave fans, love that. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And they didn't win, but they didn't lie down. They competed. They went all out.

And what it says to me is their performance in this game next Friday in Toronto, they're also going to go all out. It is a meaningful, meaningful, important game. One team's got to win. One team's got to lose. But one thing we know after this game, both teams are going all out. out. Vegas in support of Marner, Toronto, to beat Marner. There was something

about the way Matthews answered that question. There was like a calmness but fierceness. A point. That I haven't seen that side of them publicly before. Like it's usually

in the past it was just a complete shutdown. There was something different about that on Thursday night of like I understand why that's being asked, but we're not doing that right now. Yeah. I just, that was like, because I work ringside like Mark does too. And I, like, it's a tough spot where you're going, no, he probably doesn't want to talk about it. But man, how can you not?

Yeah. That stood out to me. See, I would have in that situation, if I asked the question and I got shut down, I'd be like, I get this. Yeah. And Mark goes, message received. and onwards with the interview. Yeah. Right?

Like it was two professionals there in that moment. I thought it was really, really nicely handled. I could not help but notice, obviously you heard from the Leaf fans that made the trip, the booing, especially early on when Marner touched the puck. Maybe that's a precursor, probably is, to how things are going to feel next Friday in Toronto. There was also something about, I guess it's Vegas. So if you're going as a Lee fan, if there's one road game you're going to try to go do,

maybe it's that one. Early on this season, the typical, though of course, they always still travel pretty well, it hasn't been the same level. Now part of that is maybe still there's a political aspect of going, like we saw it in the world juniors, all the Canadian fans they hoped to come down,

didn't come down. But there was something about, just when they cut to the fans in that building, the Toronto fans, there was some swagger. Like, we've talked about how critical the last few weeks that there's swagger with the Leafs again. They're a different team now. And now you see it with the fan base again where it's like, oh, they're, they're believing

that their team may be okay here. Like they're seeing them, they're going, we've got a group again that you can get behind. Like you talked about everything they've gone through and the rest of the players beneath the top of the food chain finding something that they say, we're now part of this now, like we matter, we're key contributors to all of this when it hasn't always been the case. I don't know. Maybe I'm not doing the best way of describing this all here,

but just looking at that crowd there on Thursday night for the least fans that traveled down. Yeah. That also I thought was something to take note of, too, of like, Thursday and things turn a corner. It's resonating with them. So I thought Thursday night was everything that sports is supposed to be about. I saw the same thing you did. I saw the Vegas crowd.

We rally around our guy. Marner is our guy now. And we're going to support them and we're going to cheer for them and we're going to want them to win. And that's what they did. And I also saw a lot of Maple Leaf fans like you said and they're like, He's not our guy anymore, and we're going to cheer for the Leafs, and we're going to want them to win, and that's what they did. Thursday night was all about what sports is supposed to be. You have your side.

I have my side. We're going to support our team. Next Friday night, and we'll talk about this on Friday's pod, next Friday's pod. I don't think there's going to be as big a Vegas contingent as there was a Toronto. Continent in Vegas. This is going to be a Toronto home game. It's going to be emotional night. They're playing in Boston the night before, and then they come in.

I would expect that Toronto's going to do a video. I would be disappointed if Toronto didn't do a video. I think they should. But I think it's going to be, like when Sundin came back, I never had any doubt that they were going to cheer for him. this one, I don't know how to handicap it. I think it's going to be a little bit different. How did, okay, what about Funuff?

When he came back, his first came back in Toronto after being traded to Ottawa. Because I remember that was like, how was it going to be received? Now, he was cheered and he got emotional. And I think that's how it should have been done. Yeah. But I remember there was some question going into that because. Finuf wasn't one of theirs. I understand.

He was traded. Marner was one of theirs. I want to save this because I want to collect my thoughts. I want to make sure I say this right. Like one of the things we're going to talk about next Friday, and you need to remind me, is so I think Thursday in Vegas was a money on the board game. Marner had to have a lot of money on the board for Vegas. But I bet you the Leafs had a lot of money on the board, too.

Scott Lotton, right? He's always the guy. Yeah, so we actually talked about that. We were with a bunch of former NHEL Thursday night in Moncton. And I'm not going to say who they were, but they talked about how this would be a big money on the board game both ways. Next Friday is going to be the same way. I'm going to talk about next Friday,

the biggest money on the board game that I know about, listener hook. I'm waiting until then. Biggest money on the board game I know about. Like this is an emotional one both ways. I think next week is going to be very different. I don't know how to handicap it. You know, one of the things is, Marner did some interviews in the lead up to this.

He spoke to the Athletic. He spoke to the Toronto Star. You know, walk an interview with ESPN, who was broadcasting the game nationally. I don't think he's going to do an extended sit-down with anyone, including us. I think there's a feeling there that it doesn't end well. He could say 50 good things and one bad thing,

and the one bad thing gets extrapolated, and so it's not going to happen. I have lots of different feelings about that, but I'm just going to leave it alone at the moment. I don't know what to expect next Friday night, but the thing I hope is I hope we get a game as good as this one was. Vegas went all out for Marner. The Maple Leafs went all out to win.

That's what we should get. It's going to be emotional. Like, even though Toronto lost, knowing how big this game was for the Toronto fans, you can't look at your players and say, they didn't give us everything they had. They absolutely did. You know, Nealander got hurt, so we'll see.

But everybody went out hard. Like there were no, there were no passengers in this game. Everybody competed. That game next Friday, it's going to be, it's going to be a looney bin. Yeah, yes. Like if I was an NHL player, I would be like, that game next Friday, I want to play that game. Yes. I got a kick out of

So Anadua, Mario Fontana with our camera crew, went to L.A. Wednesday night. Yeah. Because Vegas played there the night before and got Marner in the room after the game when he had said, well, I hadn't even thought about playing Toronto until just now that our game is started.

I'm like, no chance. Come on, Mitch. No chance. Yeah. But it was great. It was great, great theater. I was safe. worth staying up for.

Initially you thought, okay, 10.30 here. We already had a long day in Moncton, but that was totally worth staying up for seeing the end of that one. Great, great drama. Anything else you want to touch on? Yeah, there's a few things. What are you pointing me about?

Well, I was just going to say the Charo retirement, both him and Fedorov this week. Yeah, I have to say this was a great week in the NHL for that. Detroit Red Wings, Upper Deck Home Run. with Sergey Federov. What was the longest home run ever hit at Tiger Stadium? Do you know?

Oh, I should, because you said this this week on the radio. So Reggie Jackson hit a home run at Tiger Stadium that went out of the ballpark. It's, Tigers fans will tell me if I'm wrong, or Detroit fans will tell me if I'm wrong, but I believe that is recognized as the longest home run ever hit at Tiger Stadium. It was in one of the All-Star Games. that's what the Fedorov ceremony was. That was a home run that was hit out of the building over Lake Ontario, like into Windsor. That's how good that ceremony was.

I have to say that what really stood out to me was how emotional Eiserman looked. Like I think Eisenman's a robot. Like I don't think he really worries about anything, but he looked emotional at that. You know, Federov saying if I could do it over again, I wouldn't have left. I thought that was fantastic. I thought Federov overall with his family was great. I thought the ceremony was great. We talked about it on Monday's pod that it was time.

I thought that was really a beautiful ceremony. I thought on the same night, St. Louis did a thing where they introduced a bunch of players to their Hall of Fame and Kelly Chase Connard. I thought that was a phenomenal ceremony. It was interesting. I saw a story and I apologize. I can't remember where I saw it. But some St. Louis players said, I didn't really know a lot of this about our history and it was really emotional to them. I think of everything that happened this week, the thing that hit me the most was Todd McClellan, the Detroit coach, saying that some of our guys didn't know who Konstantinov was. So there's a big debate about who the next Red Wing is to get their number retired. Was it going to be Zetterberg?

Is it going to be Datsu? Like, all these guys are deserving. Red Wing's fans can tell me if they think I'm wrong. I think Constantineau should be honored. You know, his career got cut short, very sadly. But he was going to go down as a great player. I would love to see his number go. up on the rafters.

You know, I think certain things happen to you in life where you understand things happen that are out of people's control. And I've seen that happen in my life where, you know, things happen and they're not someone's fault.

They just happen. Konstantinov was not his fault. And I think the Red Wings should recognize that. Now, I'm never going to rip them if they disagree. Everybody is entitled to their own feelings on this, but I think that number should go up. And that's just my opinion. And I will never have an issue with the Red Wings if they disagree, but it's just my opinion.

But I thought that was a beautiful ceremony for the Red Wings. Beautiful ceremony for the Blues, beautiful ceremony for Chara and the Bruins. and also the Sabres who are on a tear and had a huge win over the Canadians on Thursday night they honored one of their former teams and they said that Vanek and Pommonville are going in to the Sabres Hall of Fame. Yeah.

Like there were a lot of guys like, one of the guys I really liked dealing with because I really thought he was an intelligent guy was Tallinder. And, you know, he spoke and, And Lindyrov talked a lot about Afina Ganov and how Afinaganov said to him, you know, I really, years later, I appreciate what you tried to do for me. And I think Vanek and Pommonville are very deserving. Maybe I'm just getting old. I'm 55.

But I thought it was a really spectacular week in terms of honoring people that deserve to be honored. And when I heard McClellan talk about Konstantinov and some of the Red Wings players asking who he was, I don't make fun of young people. Like, you know, I think there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I don't know who that guy is or what's that person's story. You should be curious. You should say, I'm not sure what that is. I love what Detroit did. I love what St. Louis did.

I love what Boston did. I love what Buffalo did. And I would like to see Constantine a good honor. That's a really interesting one. I'm certainly not going to disagree with you on that. The Chara ceremony, just him one by one,

the names of the 2011 team and the crowd reacting to each of them. Like that was a really cool, impactful touch. to all that too. I wanted to highlight that also. You know, I thought that was beautiful. And, you know, so like I said, we're in,

and you said, we're in Moncton right now. So during the, during the dinner tonight, the banquet, Ron called himself, Kelly, Kevin, and myself up onto the stage. And so we go, after the shows are done on Saturday night,

we go to a pub in Toronto for a beer after the show. And, you know, one of the things we talked about is we don't know how many years left we have of doing this. And I think that's why Ron called us up. We didn't say that, but I think that. Like, every time I go on Saturday night with those guys, like, I look at you, I look at Amber, and I look at like Ken and Ivanka hosted tonight and I think I think you guys are the future. Like Ron's a thousand years old.

Kelly's a thousand years old. I'm a thousand years old. They turned 45 this week, Kelly. Yeah. I'm a thousand years old. And Kevin's younger with you guys. Like you guys are the future. Like Ron Kelly and I,

we don't have too much. longer. And I think about that and I'm like, I cherish those moments because I don't know how much longer they exist for. And when I heard Charra name all those guys, it kind of remind me of that. Like, like, obviously, we're not the 2011 Boston Bruins. We're not winning the Stanley Cup. We're not winning any awards. But that's what Charra is saying. Like, when you win like those guys won, you're always there. You just never know how long you have this for, right? So I don't think about it a lot,

but I think about it in those moments. And I thought about it tonight when I saw what Charra did. This was a great week for memories in this league. All these ceremonies, God, it's right in the fields here, Elliot. And it's also very late. And if you're hearing any music in the background,

we're sitting in the lobby of the hotel recording this. Yeah. just shy of 3 a.m. Atlantic time. Anything else from Thursday you want to get to before? I just wanted to shout out, we mentioned Buffalo, one again. I wanted to shout out Ilya Sorokin. What a performance. One nothing over Edmonton.

He's, uh, he is firmly entrenching himself in the Vesna conversation. So someone said to me earlier this year, so they had a goalie coach, Piero Greco, who used to be in Toronto. He got let go by Islanders early in the year. The day that happened, I think I mentioned this, someone sent me a note, and they said, Sorokin's going to be on fire at some point. I said, why do you say that? He goes, because he will hate that that goalie coach got let go because he was struggling.

That will get Sorokan going because he thought very highly of Greco, and he will say, I take responsibility for him getting. didn't let go. So I think about that. But he's a great goalie and he showed it on Thursday night. And you know, Rick Bonas, we're in Moncton. This is bonus country. He's 2 and O as coach of Columbus right now. You know, I have to say I was shocked at this. I tweeted out. I didn't expect it to come. I was really surprised. I wanted to recognize Dean Eveson.

He did a job last year. When you're a coach, you understand there's going to be things that happened to you during the season that you have to prepare for. What he did last year, coaches never sign up for. They missed the playoffs by two points. I never thought he would be in trouble this year. In our interview with Gardner McDougall, we talk about Gardner McDougall is in his 60s. How do you get young players to play for you?

And I think this year in Columbus, Dean Everson, one of the reasons he was let go as head coach, is that whatever success he had last year, it wasn't working this year. And things change fast. You know, Kent Johnson played 21 minutes the other night. He played 18 on Thursday. They weren't winning games. They had 11 wins and regulations. They were last in the East.

Their young players, Johnson was struggling. Fantilli had 28 points. They were struggling in the third period. It just reminds you how fast things change. I could not believe after everything Everson done last year, he could be in trouble this year. But that was the thing that started to me. this week is life changes really quick.

And I think if you're a demanding coach and Evanston's demanding coach and young players now, they're different in the way you handle them, I just wonder if we're getting to a phase where coaches are just going to be turned over at least this time when I snap my fingers, it actually worked unlike last year when I tried this.

I just wonder if the shelf life of coaches is going to be even less. I'm honestly a little bit shocked. well, that it was him, but it took us almost to mid-January to have the first head coaching change in the league this year. It feels like most seasons, some team gets the itchy finger earlier on to make a decision.

Not the case here with everybody seemingly in it for the first little while, and Columbus is the first first. one to make the swap here with Rick Bowen is coming out of retirement. We all thought he was retired and back behind the bench with the blue jackets and great to hear him. Judy's health are in good standing where he was at a point comfortable enough to go back to another job like that. So we wish him in the jackets. Jackets the best.

But yeah, I wouldn't have had that one as the first domino amongst head coaches to fall when it comes to midseason changes. It's 255. this is a two-hour pod Without this We were two hours Dom how long Gallagher's I gotta tell you something

So we're sitting in the lobby of our hotel If people could see Dom shorts Yeah Patterns are very complicated Shorts You know it's January A lot of Canadians need a tan Dom really needs a tan

Oh I ain't getting it in Moncton this weekend, I'll tell you that. We've had great weather, but it's not tanning weather. All right. So, enough of this. We're going to go to bed, and we will send you to the earlier portion of our show today, live from Gallagher's Pub in downtown Moncton. Enjoy it. Gallagher's Pub, how are we doing?

This is outstanding. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Beavneau 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Bonjour, Tous. It's fabulous to be here. in Moncton for Scotia Bank Hockey Day in Canada. 25 years, you can believe it, Elliot. And now we're out here at Atlantic Canada,

and it looks like a great crowd here. It's been a wonderful, we've been here not even 24 hours yet, and it's been tremendous here so far. I don't know if you notice here. So we have the two youngest 19-year-olds in the province right here saying, front row, Ben and Sam. So which one of you had hockey last night?

How'd you do? Good? Okay. All right. I got to tell you something. When I went to London, when I went to Western Ontario University, when I got there for Frost Week, I was three weeks away from my 19th birthday. Whatever fake ID you guys are using, I wish I had it back then.

So your mom, Michelle, is working on the local organ. She ripped me last night for the beer. I was my choice of beer to drink here at Gallagher. So I can only imagine how in line she's got you two boys here growing up. I know you guys, you've got great pair to here. So Elliot, we're here at Gallagher's. Can I just shout out one person before we start? For sure.

So last night we came here to Gallagher's after the draft for the hockey game tomorrow night. And, you know, we were trying to all be unselfish. And we were kind of grabbing each other's bills. And it turned out that when Kyle and I left, we left part of our bill unpaid. Okay. So there's a gentleman over there named Joel Darling. He's in the blue. Okay.

So if you leave today and you didn't pay your bill, Joel will cover it. Sorry. We unknowingly tried to dine and dash here last side. I'm just thankful they let us back in here today. So we're here in Gallagher's. Before we go any further, we've got to start with the hard stuff. And everyone around here knows the hard stuff means maple syrup. I heard a great line a few months back that, you know,

between Ontario and Quebec, they may make the most, but the best maple syrup comes way out here. So I'll do a little this here. to Mungton and to Gallagher's. Cheers, everybody. Whoa! We should do this before a show all the time. All right.

So where would you like to start? We got some great guests coming up here over the next 90 minutes that we're with you. And for those, so we tried to get, when we first walked in, tried to get around and say hi to everybody that was in here already. But for those that we may have missed that came in a little closer to 3 o'clock, we're not going anywhere but when the show is over. So we'll hopefully get a chance to say hi to everybody. If you want to take a pick.

Yeah, if you want. We don't blame you if you don't. And you don't have to take both of us if you don't want Kyle in the face. He's not going to be offended. Yes, I've been to many airports with you. I know who the big star is over here. Know who the big star is. So why don't we start with, before we get to our guests,

a little bit of news around the league. And it's funny. So a year ago, we were in Canmore. And a lot of people at the time were wondering about what's going on with Calgary. They were kind of on a bit of a surprising turn of their season. This time around, a little bit different. but the big name that everyone's got their eye on right now is Rasmus Anderson, of course, who's due a new contract at the end of this year.

It had been a storyline coming into this season, and now just before the Olympic break here, and then 12 days between that and trade deadline, the name's running red hot again. Well, we said on Monday's podcast that Calgary had indicated that they wanted this trade done before the Olympic break, which is three weeks today, today being Thursday, hot drops on Friday,

but as we do it, it's Thursday, and the Olympic break is three weeks today. There's an Olympic trade deadline February 4th. And I believe the flames want the deal done. And now what I also believe is that Rasmus Anderson would like the trade done by then too. So I think there's a lot of effort. There's been some reports this week about Boston. I definitely think the Bruins are involved.

I know there's a lot of Bruins fans in this part of the country. I think they're in there. The toughest thing is always to tell where it's. is at a particular moment. When it's come to the Bruins and the flames, I've heard it's on, it's off, it's on, it's off. I know there were some people who thought at one time it was pretty close, then it backed away. Like, we'll see where it goes. There definitely is mutual interest there. I think another team that is poking around this is Vegas. Vegas liked Rasmus Anderson last year. They couldn't get, they didn't get a deal done. I don't think it ever really got close to there.

But I still think Vegas is lurking around. I suspect Dallas too, and I always assume that there are teams I'm not aware of. I always believe that there are teams fishing around there that I'm not aware of. But that one, it's of all the talk right now in Vancouver is another team that's kind of in the middle of everything right now. But I think the kind of like the hottest situation in terms of wanting to get something done by both team and player, I think it's Anderson and Calgary. So do you think is it likely extension attached? Is there any chance there could be a rental type scenario? I think all possibilities are on the table. You know, the one thing that becomes a factor here is that sometimes the closer a player gets to July 1, they say, let me just see what's out there. And I think that's kind of, I think it depends on where he could go. I think it depends on what a team could offer. And I think it also depends on how Anderson feels about the city. So I think both options are available. Yes and no. How's that for narrowing it down? That's really good.

That's really good. I like that you like someone posted online that like I just say if I could have do it all over again, I would just be an insider. And once a week I'd pop on and say something like this could happen. It may not happen. Right. And you like the post. I thought that was great.

That was very, very good of you to go over there. You know what? Because it is funny. Like the one thing about Anderson and I've joked about this before because Anderson has admitted he hasn't always been happy with things I've said about this. So I am. I am respectful of that. I just think that this situation overall,

it's like it's been stop, start, stop, start, stop, start. And I think it's taken its toll on both team and player, and I think they'd both like to get it done. Okay. Because at some time there, there was the thought, maybe he could come back to Calgary and re-up there. You think that ship sailed? I know you never say never.

I never say never, but I think it's unlikely. It would surprise me at this point if that happened. Okay. All right. So Raspis Anderson, and Boston, that would be an interesting, one too, especially because they've kind of had a surprising year. They got a big night tonight, of course, was Zadano Charra's Jersey retirement.

I think, too, if Boston did it, I would suspect it would be with an extension. Okay. Like, if it happens in Boston, that screams extension to me. Okay. All right. What's going on with the Rangers, by the way? We met a Ranger fan in here. Yes.

And he was depressed. He's the most, he's the guy with the biggest stack of beer right in front of his chair. That's right. You know what? It's awful. And, you know, I think the thing is, like, I was talking with somebody about them this morning. You think about the goaltending they've had going back 30 years. They basically went from Richter to Lundquist.

Before that, Van Biesbrook was a really good goalie, but Van Breesbrook, Richter, Lundquist, Schist, Schisturkin. There have been some breaks in there, but they've always had the goaltending. And now Schisturken's out, and it's almost like, it's almost, almost like Kyle, when you go home after a broadcast and you wipe off the makeup and you see, you look in the mirror and you say, this is what I really look like. Yeah. Because so, because Schisturkin is not there right now to cover up all the deficiencies, right? And the thing is, I think, Quick is a perfect backup, but he's not in a position now where he can carry the mail every day.

So all of the Rangers' problems and weaknesses, they're all being exposed without Schisturkin there to erase what he can erase. And this is not an easy fix. Like people are saying, how do you fix the Rangers? This is not a short-term thing. Now, the thing that makes it really tough is the owner is very hard to predict and he just went on radio and gave Chris Drury the backing. So unless he's going to completely change how he feels, I'm not expecting any big maneuver in the front office. They've torn it down before.

They've rebuilt before. I wonder if this forces them to think we've got to do that again, or do they just say, you know what, when Shisterkin comes back, we'll just cover up some of these problems, like a good, I used to wear a Revlon 7, natural 10. Like a good Revlon 7, natural 10 covers up all my problems. Well, not all of them. That's right.

So, but I really think their, um, biggest decision we talked about, Panarin, what do they do? Then, you know, do they entertain a trocheque?

Because I think if he was available, there'd be a ton of teams going after him. Um, but, you know, I'll just say this, like that is not an easy fix. And the other thing I'd say about the owner is,

there were Ranger fans who turned on Glenn Stather for years. And Jim Dolan never back now. He said, nope, he's my guy for a long time. So when he says someone's his guy, I tend to think that he's not back and down. And what's interesting is that the last time they went into a rebuild, they almost never really got a chance to get started with it

because Panarin falls into their lap. So that expedites things. And then the lottery balls fall in such a way during 2020 that they end up with Lafranier first overall. I know he's having a tough year, but has had some good seasons with the Rangers. So I wonder because you would still consider them, even though they're not in a Florida,

they're not in Texas, they're not in Vegas, still a destination. People always want to play in New York. So I want to always. When you look at it and think this could be a while here to sort out some issues, maybe it's not as long as you think because A, you've got Shisterkin already. Yeah, but the problem is to say it's very hard to change in free agency because a lot of the great players sign.

Look at all the people who are coming off the board. Like I bet you, like for example, say Connor McDavid had been an unrestricted free agent, They would have given him three blocks of prime real estate in Manhattan. Can't do that. Like, the best player who's still a free agent is their own guy. And to this point, they haven't paid him. They're not willing to pay him what he wants. Now, maybe that changes, but they're like this with him.

Who is the instant guy that can change your team? There really isn't one free agency-wise. They don't have a toned trade. So it's like Vancouver is starting to admit now we have to take a bit of a longer look at this. So I always believe players want to play in New York. Matt Sundin has told a story before about how when he was deciding between Vancouver and the Rangers,

Mark Messier told him you have to go play in Manhattan. Just once in your life, you have to go play in Manhattan if you get the opportunity. I still think it's like that, but I'm just not sure who's the player that changes it for them so quickly this time. Okay. Do you know what Mike Sullivan thinks of all this? Like, because they got him as the win now. I can guess what Mike Sullivan thinks of all this. Yeah. They got him as the win now, try to get him over the hump type coach.

And now where things sit here. And I don't for a second consider him as a guy that would go, I don't want any part of this anymore. No, he's committed. He digs in. So that's another fascinating wrinkled to all this too, where suddenly you find themselves in a position that they would never have guessed they would be in. You know, the other thing, too, is their players are taking a real beating because of some of the answers they're giving to the media.

I think in this day and age, do not pour gasoline on your own fire. Like, that's what I see with those players. They know if they say anything about, and then they're kind of saying things like, we're not competing as hard, or Trojik said, we're not all in the right place. We're all panicked and we're going to the wrong spots. You know, I didn't even, like, J.T. Miller got ripped the other day by saying, I'm sorry, I don't have an answer for you. Like, I actually didn't have a problem with that because I think that was an honest answer. Like he was saying, I really don't know what's going on here.

But I see a bunch of guys, and I see this in Canadian cities a lot, where players are saying to themselves, anything I say that is bad is going to be used against us, I don't want to say that. And I see a bunch of guys there that feel they have to show the accountability of not, ducking from the media. Like, don't run, go out there and answer questions, but you can see they're tiptoeing around the answers. That's a really tough place to be. The bottom line is, that's a much bigger job than I think they realized. Right. And that reality must be hitting them really hard right now. Yeah, because I just, they didn't think they would be in this spot. No. Dead last in the East, three weeks out of the Olympics, and then the trade deadline here

soon after. Every week, there's like one team that's sort of, like in that spot where it looks like it's the end of the world. Last week was Ottawa. Now they come out and they get two wins, including pounding the Rangers and everybody feels better. Week before it was Winnipeg. Week before it was Winnipeg. They've got some wins. Jonathan Taves is starting to go.

You feel better. Like this is, I was just talking to Gardner, who's coming on the pod in a few minutes. And we're talking about like how it's such a streaky league. It's win three, lose three, win three, win three. So it's really, it's hard to gain momentum. Okay, you mentioned touched on Vancouver a little bit ago. You want to dive into that? Any deeper as the realization setting in?

Everybody's available. They've basically said now, we'll listen to everybody. Now, some players have no move clauses. I feel a little bit badly for Pedersen because he's just gone through a really rough time. And I tend to be very sensitive about that kind of thing. I'll say this. If you were to ask me, if everybody in Vancouver was available, Do you know who I think would be the number one guy

Everybody would be asking about? Everybody? Yeah. Was a guy that used to play here? You want to tell me who you're talking about? Connor Garland? He's second. Okay.

Yeah. I wanted to make sure. I knew you were talking Garland, but I wanted you to say the name. Rather me screw up than you? Yeah, that's right. In front of everybody. Okay.

Are you putting Booium on this list? No, because he's not getting true. Okay. All right. Well, he said everybody. everybody. Ronick. Yes. He would be the guy.

Now, Philip Roanick has a no move clause. He has control over it. And he doesn't talk to anybody. He's a very quiet guy. So it's hard to know what he's thinking. But I think if Vancouver was serious, he would be the guy. First of all, he's low maintenance.

He doesn't say much. He works hard. He competes hard. He's a heck of a player. he's in a position that everybody would want, that would be the guy. I guarantee to you if he was available, I could see a team like Ottawa doing something. I could see a whole bunch of teams calling them about him.

Is ownership finally accepted the reality? You know what? Like this whole thing, people get caught too much on language, rebuild, retool. Don't trip yourself up. Just say this isn't working. We're trying a different path.

We'll see where it takes us. But you would say in the past with that organization, though, they've convinced themselves that it's not as major of surgery necessary as went on, right? Like, that's why Trevor Linden, part of the reason why he left the organization. So that's more why I was wondering that. I think there's a realization this isn't going to work. So where will, I hate when people put a timeline on it. I really do.

Well, I think it's like what I always say, don't walk yourself into trouble. Yes. And that's why I think going back to Ottawa, member Steve Stales a couple weeks ago, had the last. line will contend when we're ready to contend and everyone went, what does that mean? Are they taking a step back? I thought it was for that exact reason because as soon as you say, we'll be ready in two years, we're going to be ready in six months. If things go not exactly according to plan, now everyone points the finger back at you and says, you said this. I remember the first GM I ever covered,

Isaiah Thomas of the Raptors said, I'm never going to have timelines. Right. Never going to have timelines. We'll just go where we go. I love that. Yeah. All right. Let's go for some guests. Okay. You ready for some guests? I'm ready for some. guess. They are tired of hearing from you and me already. All right. Well, why don't we start then with the captain of your Moncton Wildcats? Just coming back from

capturing a bronze medal with Team Canada at the World Juniors. Another terrific year here in Moncton. Fourth overall picked this past year to the Utah Mammoth. Caleb Denoye. Microphone right there, sir. You know, Caleb, I was

worried for a second. I saw you get up. I thought you were leaving. I was like, Did we turn you off already that quickly into the pod? No, no, bathroom break. That's right. Settle in. It's going to be a long one. How are you doing?

How is it being back from, I mean, most incredible, I'm sure, emotional a few weeks at the World Juniors in Minnesota. And how has it been coming down from all of that? Yeah, it's been great. Obviously, it was a very exciting moment. I know what's the type of moment is that you dream of as a kid to be at World Juniors. and for myself had the chance to also see my brother when he was younger and went Tadminton, but it was the COVID year.

So kind of saw the environment of it, and I was really excited for it. And, you know, it's a long month with the camp and everything, the tournament, you know, kind of get tired of being there. But when you come back, obviously, I'm really lucky to have a good staff in a good group here that makes it even more comfortable and couldn't be more excited to be back in Moncton. Well, you know what? When you're in the NHL with Utah, and the first time you've faced, your division rival Minnesota will play this clip and says Caleb Denway is coming back to Minnesota I couldn't wait to get out of there last time

and I can't wait to get out of here with two points tonight how's that nice great no you know what Caleb like just you mentioned that it's it's such a high intensity environment you're there you're there for two weeks every year or there for a month basically once the the camp begins and every game matters so much and the whole country cares so much what What did you learn about being part of it? Like, what were the things that really stood out to you? Well, I'd say that that one was a bit different.

I had the chance to have three world championships before that, but none of them were as long as that. And obviously it's during Christmas time. And from my family and night, Christmas is a very big moment during the year. So it was kind of different to not be there with them. But obviously, you adjust to it. And, you know, hockey Canada is so professional. And they make it so easy for us.

it's to become a family with the group of guys. And obviously, everyone's there are great people. So it's just very fun. And always very exciting to share these moments with the best person in the world and in the country. All right. So you come from a hockey background. Your father played for a long time. Played minor pro in Quebec.

Your brother, of course, plays. He's in the Minnesota system. Your uncle Simone, he was a captain of the Wildcats. And now you, of course, are. So I wonder, everybody in your family, who is the most competitive? Who was the most? hates losing the most. After me, I'd say, I'd say, good starts, good start.

I'd say probably, I can't say my mom because she's going to be too cocky about after, but I'd say my older brother, Elliot, obviously we compete a lot against each other during the summer, whether it's in the gym or on the ice at every practice, we always want to beat each other. And, you know, I'm kind of the younger, but I never really had the upper hand on him. but now kind of starting to catch him in some aspects of the game. But in the gym, I'm still far behind. But still trying to catch him.

So we're both very competitive together, and I really enjoy competing with him. What was the first thing you ever beat your older brother in? Chess. Chess, right? Yeah. Yeah. You still playing out? Not really.

Honestly, we had a phase that we played a lot. But the best was our middle brother, the one in between us. Okay. But, yeah. I don't think he's going to be happy that I said that. How old were you? How old were you when you beat him in chess the first time? Let's say 14 maybe.

And did you rub it in? Were you merciless when you beat him? Of course, and I'm still doing that. Well, further to that, I heard because Elliot was a Habs fan growing up, right? Yeah. And so I heard like when you guys would play on the pond or road hockey, you purposely would pretend to be Milan lucci, each of the Bruins, just to further twist the knife in.

Well, I was a Bruins fan when I was young. And, you know, it's a while ago, but I still remember having that blanket of the brunes at home. And when they had a playoff against each other, I was on myself on the side of the couch with my bruns blanket. And the rest of the family was voting for Montreal. And, you know, I've always kind of cheered for Boston and really enjoyed watching them. But now I'm on the Montreal side now. I saw, so last year at the draft, I saw Elliott in the gym. I think we were staying in the same hotel.

Your brother, he can throw them around. watching him. I said, that is not a man to be trifled with. So I'm glad you let him have it. Now, your dad, I looked it up. Your dad played for Sanhaasinth, but I noticed, so your rookie year, year in Moncton, you scored 20 goals. Your dad did not hit 20 goals until his fourth year in the Quebec League. Do you remind him of that? I actually didn't know about that, but it'll be a good thing to tell him after the podcast is done for sure. Yeah, so your dad was, it was defenseman, so zero, zero seven. And in his last year, I think he got like 20.

So he got there, but that is one thing you can, and of course he played with Martin Roder, and he played with Patrick Poulin, his first year. Did he ever talk to you about any of those guys? Yeah, yeah. Well, I asked a lot of questions about it, and obviously they're great players, and he mentioned how hard they work

and how they compete and their habits and the day to lay life and I know kind of try to bring every little details of that into my game but especially when we're younger as I said about the work ethic of how they worked really hard to kind of bring that into my practices and every little aspect

of my life. Okay so you mentioned draft weekend I think you were the one initially told a great story about you and was it Sam's list or Jason's list about where Sam's list. Yes there you go. I have to tell you like the thing I saw was the most impressive about you on draft I've told people this.

So Sam Cozantino, who was one of our junior or draft evaluators, and by the way, Gardner's a little unhappy with Sam because he has another Moncton player ranked too low this year. But Sam Cozantino had you ranked pretty high. And after the draft, you were at the same hotel and you saw Sam Cozantino and you went over to him and you said, Sam, thank you for believing me in me all year. I thought that was such a great gesture that you did that. That was awesome. Made Sam, you know, Sam's not the tallest guy.

He's about four foot six. So it made him feel like about six foot ten. That was awesome. Right, right. But didn't you give it to him a little bit for having him where he thought you were going to go versus where he went? Yeah, he still had me pretty high, but I think he had me at, I think it was at six. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think we went upstairs.

We're at the same hotel. So I was going with my family very tired of the whole week of the draft and saw Sammy stood up and shook my end, sent congrats, but I still told them, like, yeah, I beat your rankings. So we kind of had to remind them that he was wrong about that one. Yeah, oh gosh, that is fun. So Utah, what have you, like what you've seen of it so far? What was your experience there?

Well, it's gorgeous. From right when you land there with all the mountains and everything, it's tremendous. and had the chance to do development camp and also the main camp. They have the chance to do it because of an injury, but just meeting everyone there in the new facilities that they have. It's unreal. We're lucky here in Moncton that we have one of the best in the CHL,

but Utah is something else. It's massive and it's brand new from this year. And as I said with the whole staff. I'm a big believer that you build winning culture with great people, and that's what we have in Moncton, but also in Utah, just meeting everyone. and the players, you know that they're going the right direction. So I'm really proud to be part of that organization.

Okay, Gardner, close your ears for a second. Okay, put your hands over your ears. Gardner, let's see. Come on, put them up. Tell us a good story about Gardner. There's so many of them, but I'd say just honestly, this person from day to day is the thing that, you know, impresses me the most, you know, he loves to say consistency,

he's the mother of excellence, and he's so consistent. in what he does and, you know, the energy that he brings. And he's such a great person to us. And it's the same thing as the culture for us. It's important to be good hockey players, but great people, even more important. And GMAC is the best person of all in our whole group. And he sets the standards really high.

And, you know, we just have to push them even more. But it's just so good for us and the mental side of the game, but also the tactics and everything. We're just very fortunate to have him as a coach and converse for, for a better person and coach out. That's awesome. Very nice to say. So I'm curious about something.

Like what is an absolute standard that he makes you stick to? That there is absolutely no coming under the line under any circumstances. I think that's almost a question to ask him. What's his favorite one? But I think, no, it's stuff that I can't even like think about because there's so many of them. But it's just little details of, you know, being on time and practices, all the details and everything,

all the standards of everything are very high, whether it's cleaning ourselves and being on time, working hard, pushing the limits. And, you know, I'd say in every little aspect of his life, there's something that he does that he doesn't make us do as his 5.30M run that, you know, I don't think we'll be able to do. But I think he pushes his standard really high, so it's very good for us.

Okay, I wanted to ask about fishing. I understand you were big into that. Your grandfather is both big into it. Your greatest fishing success story. It was here last year in Miramishi. Losing, that was one of our 20 who got traded at Christmas. Came back because his girlfriend is in Moncton, so he brought his boat. And I went with him and Vincent Collard, who was one of our assistant last year,

and I got traded to Blaineville this year. We went fishing on Losing's boat. and caught my biggest dry bass, probably my biggest fish ever, so that was probably my best fishing story. How big? That's great. Geez, we didn't measure it, but I'd love to say around 40 inches. It was a pretty big one.

How long did it take you to reel it in? Took a while, honestly. Yeah, and I didn't have my rod, so I had one of Loshin's old rod, and it was terrible, so it took even longer. That's awesome. Sorry, that's fantastic. That's like having to play with a wood stick nowadays. It's like, how can you do it?

Did you have a picture with it or anything like that? I do have a picture with it. I'll show you after. Okay, we'll have to see that after. So what's the best thing about Moncton? Well, if I can't say the Wildcats, because I think the Wildcats is by far the best thing for us. You know, as I said, with the culture that we have in the facilities and everything.

But other than that, I think just the community that we have. And, you know, this week is great for us because we get to do even more with events like these and, you know, boys that are practicing with kids today, school visits, everything like that. I think our community is great and people are big fans of the Wildcats. And they really cheer us loud and support us. And I think, you know, Saturday's game is probably going to be sold out. So we're expecting to be.

To have a great game and we'll be ready for a big game for the standings. Okay, another thing going back to your draft at the Combine, I was reminded of one of the questions. I think it came from Montreal, was about being stranded, stranded on a desert island, you and one other person, there was a baseball bat

and a water bottle, and the other guy already grabbed the water bottle, what do you do with the bat? And you gave maybe the best answer saying, hit a home run. What did you mean by that?

Well, knock his head off, the whole part, yeah. Yeah. I'm glad. we'll clear that up. It's good. What did they say when you said that? Well, they were probably surprised

that little bit. They were shook, but they had so many, like, odd questions. Montreal's the king of the odd questions. Like, by far, honestly. Like, I thought everyone was, like, we're going to have, like, some questions that we're going to be off chart a bit,

but, like, everyone was just almost the same questions more about your people around you and, you know, how you describe your game and stuff like that. But Montreal were completely off the chart in their questions. Did they have another one that really stood out to you? One was about casino and

Nick Suzuki. So your roommate with Nick Suzuki and he comes back at like 3 a.m. from the casino and he's drunk and everything. And Marty Sandley was in the lobby and he saw him go up the stairs. So the next morning when you go down to breakfast, Marty asks you like, yes, what time did Nick come?

back yesterday. Like, was he in the room, did he go out or something? And so do you tell him that he went out or you just stoke it and even if he knows you don't tell him? So that was also a pretty odd question. What was your answer? Well, you can never snitch on the voice. Good for you.

Yeah. Good for you. That's awesome. That is great. I bet you they love, even if they didn't admit it, they love the home run answer. I guarantee you that. answer. They love that answer.

So where do you get your enthusiasm, your personality? Who do you credit for that? I mean, yourself, of course, but just your environment, we're all a product of our own environment. Growing up and in your family, where do you think some of that came from? I'd say especially more my mom, both of my parents and grandparents, but I'd say more my mom, my mom has a lot of energy to when she loves to talk and to, you know, she cares about people and others around her and, you know, interested in what they do in life and stuff like that. And, you know, it's been values that she's been sharing with my two brothers and I to be great people and to embrace that and to kind of try to make a difference into people's life.

So I'd say that my mom is probably the main factor of my enthusiasm. All right. Great way to end it there. I know a big thing for you and the family is love and loyalty, and I know Moncton feels that with you. So Caleb, thank you so much. It's great to hear from Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Caleb Densoy. All right.

That was pretty good. Your questions were great. I'll try to make mine better. Okay. Redemption time. Like at the F1 simulator earlier today. Oh my gosh. We went over the F1 simulator today,

and it's a good thing I wasn't driving actually on the streets. Let's put it that way. He went full Toronto. I'll just say that. He went full GTA. All right. Time for our next guest. You all know him.

The winning. head coach in UNB history, a New Brunswick Sports Hall of Famer, seven national titles, Memorial Cup and a Q title with Moncton last year. Gardner McDougal. Nine. Nine. Oh, my gosh. Nine.

So, great start to the podcast. All right. So that's, I got to tell a story here. Okay, I'm not going to say who the broadcaster was because it was a tough moment. And plus, I'm not perfect, but I just remember this one. A guy I know was interviewing Scotty Bowman once,

and he said, Scotty Bowman, winner of eight Stanley Cups, they're live on television. Scottie Bowman goes, nine. And I was just like, oh, if I've been there, that hurts, man. That hurts. Oh, man. Well, I've dug myself a hole here with you, Gardner. Well, it's funny because I was there for one of them, right?

Now there's a trend going on on social right now, everything, 2016, 2016, right? because 10 years ago, everyone's into nostalgia and throwback. One of the only University Cups I got a chance to cover was in 2016 in Halifax. You guys beat Sane Fax in the final there. So that was my first introduction to you. I just wonder, like, of all the, I know you're big on wow moments, and this certainly is not one of them for yourself. But like, of everything you've been able to experience, particularly in the last three, four years,

like, how do you begin to process all of it? Well, first of all, privileged to be with you two guys. Yeah, I mean, we... Everybody knows that's a lot. There you go. No, no. And I do remember 2016, and I'm a Saint of X grad, and we played him in the final, and I think there was almost 10,000 at

the Scotia Bank Center at that time. And it was pretty neat because Taylor was a fifth-year player for us. And it was his last year plan and his second national championship. And we had lost in the AUS finaled. And at that time, because two teams would go and, in this case, three teams went, the AAS final was important. But it was like our guys were kind of just revving up for the nationals. It was more important in some ways. And even though we had to have, I have the kitchen table meeting with my group after we lost at St.

of X. And we probably heard a few feelings, but we put them to a new level. So that was a pretty neat, wow moment in Halifax that time. You know, such a great hockey city, had such a capacity crowd. And so that was a really neat. As far as the last four or five years, you guys country fans? Yeah. Country music.

Luke Combs, you know him? Of course. Yeah, yeah. And what's his best song? Oh, man. That's about me. I don't know. He's old for two right now.

I said I knew the guy. Yeah. I'm not any better here. I knew Luke Combs. I don't know any of his music. So is his most popular song? is when it rains, it pours. Okay.

And I kind of feel like that. I feel like that right now. You're telling me. I said before he went to the World Juniors, I just said, I hope there's something left in this back pocket because we've been fortunate to be around a lot of good teams. And I said, hopefully for the World Juniors and, you know, the second half our season here for Mr. Irving

and among the Wildcats. But I've been really fortunate. And just sometimes things come out of the blue. And a lot of credit to my son Taylor when he was an NHL player agency. kind of hook some of these deals up. You know, St. John, he was a very good friend of their GM at that time, Trevor George. And when they decided to make a change, he probably brokered a lot of that type of thing. And I remember not sure really what to do.

You get a call and they say, we want you to take over. And I remember he was telling Trevor, I think it was a Saturday morning. And I said, well, I'll have to think about it. Can I let you know today or tomorrow? And he says, we prefer tonight. And Taylor, you know, reached out to me, and I think he was out fishing someplace. And he said, listen, Dad, it's one hour from home. It's 30 days.

It's the goddamn Memorial Cup. What are you thinking? You know, so that was an even the under 18 program to get that opportunity. It was, you know, he had known the general manager at that time for Hockey Canada. And so it just been really fortunate. And then the neatest call of all of us from Mr. Irving when he offered the opportunity to come the Moncton here. It was, yeah, those calls that you were so honored to get. But again, it was, we were going to the under 18, and it's not a decision. You're 24 years at UNB.

And he's saying, you know, I'm offering you to job the Moncton Wildcats. And I said, Mr. Rubman, this is a great honor. I'm going to Finland in two days. I'm not going to 24 years and make a decision that quick. So I said, listen, well, like, I'm think about it. And I actually asked him, I said, what are you doing tonight? And he, He said, well, you want to come down to my office? I said, no, no, I want to come to the rink. And you want to see the environment. And I guess when you come to Moncton and you see the dress room and the arena,

I mean, that's pretty hard to say no to something like that. And just his passion. And I think that's one of the neatest things. I've been fortunate to be around the game of hockey a long time. It's been my life for about 40 years now. But just the passion and the generosity and what this guy means. means to the wildcats, but for the, you know, the city of Moncton in our province, in our region. What he, it's just amazing. You know, I was always on the outside and to get inside, it was

incredible. Yeah. So, in Florida was through Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I sat down with Brad Marchand for a piece that's going to air tomorrow and we, I asked him about Mr. Irving and it was funny. I was just making a couple calls about him because I knew that, you know, we have you hear and like someone was saying to me that you know the the banquet is tonight and if mr irving shows up in a tie everybody's going to show up in a tie and it's just like so he's obviously beloved because of what he's done for the area in a lot of different ways but he's obviously a very demanding person what's it like to work with him for someone who doesn't know well um we got the memo earlier today from our GM

wear a tie tonight. That settled that. That settled that, but no. I give you permission if you don't wear a tie. You can say you did the podcast today, Mr. Irving, and Kyle said I didn't have to wear a tie. He's going to say who's Kyle. He's three for three.

I got a flight to catch, guys. This has been a lot of fun. Funny, that's what we say. too. No, and, you know, as many of the passionate fans here, I was on the outside for 24 years, and I had good friends that were either general manager or coaches, and it always, you know, be intrigued. I mean, when you have such a prominent family, and I was fortunate to work with Mr.

McCain and St. John for a brief period of time, but it was a monumental period of time for St. John. And I think when you get the opportunity, like, you, you know, you. These guys serve our province. You know, they're certainly into the business world, but they do so many things behind the scene that people never get an idea how much generosity. I remember there's a three-week period last year.

I just got the job, I think it was September. We had our golf tournament, and he had donated, you know, $10,000 to the boys and girl. Oh, $100,000, wasn't it? Yeah, $100,000. And it was a ninth year in a row, $100,000 to the boys and girls.

Girls Club or the agency here. So this year would have been a million. He went over to PEI and I think you donated $250,000 to the farmers and PEI, the potato farmers. And then we had five premiers spoke here. It was a really neat function. It had five former premiers in New Brunswick

and they spoke and it was liberals and conservatives united for one night. But he donated I think $100,000 worth of diapers for the homeless and then a big generous donation. That was in a three week period. And that's public recognized.

There's so many things he does behind the scenes, you know. But I've just been intrigued by our opening meeting. And I had met him a sponsorship at UNB at national tournaments and coming down and trying to get $50,000 out of them. And the first question, what French fries do you serve at the Aiken Center? And in your bathrooms, what's your toilet paper? I was over too. I didn't know. Next time I knew.

But that's the standard he has. And, you know, a pretty neat story when, you know, last year I ran a road trip. And it was a tough road trip up to Quebec. And for the last several years, we had a couple of five-year veterans on our team. And none of them had won three games and three victories and three games on the road. And he always calls when I took the job. He said, listen, I'll call you after every win. If you lose, I won't call you.

And I said, Mr. Irvin, I hope we talk a little. lot. You know, so we had won two on the road, and so I think it was a road trip up to Schwenwick in Drummondville, and we finished up in Victoriaville. And we'd got the first two wins he had called me, and I said, yeah, Mr. Murray, we're pretty excited here, and we got four points, and he said, yeah, where's six? You know, and that was, we kind of used it with her group throughout the year. We'd get on a pretty good winning streak, and let's say we won six or eight in a row and I said, yeah, Mr. Irving, he's asking for nine, you know, but he has high standards, but, you know, it's something, it's like goal setting. You do goal setting and absolutely works.

And you don't kind of say, how does it work? Why does it work when you write, you know, something down on the paper, you put it someplace where you can see it, you make a plan for it? It absolutely works. And the same as his standards, you know, in the business, but also with her team, you know, like he just has high expectations, but, you know, when you get belief and you get a number a group behind it, somehow it just works. You know, so I've just been so thankful for just getting this opportunity at my stage, my coaching career to be able to work. It's a privilege every day to come to the Moncto Wildcats.

I'm, I have a little rink. I'm from a little village from PEI, but at PEI, and we have a small little community rink. I come to the Abbey NUR Center every day. I'm usually there early. I stay late. And when I leave, I kind of pinch myself and said, this is just like the NHL. And it is, you know. So, yeah, we've been pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with them.

Awesome. All right. I'll try not to screw this one up. I heard a story about, you talked about your time in St. John for the Memorial Cup, the first meeting you had with those players and what you had on display when they walked into the room at the hotel. Yeah, it was interesting. like I think whether it's in sport, hockey specifically, but in the business world as well. Like I think your opening meeting of the year is like your wow moment.

Like you can set it in business if it's January 1st or it's April 30th or whatever, you can set the standard for the year. So you only have one chance to have that opening meeting. And I remember talking to Trevor. And when I decided I, Trevor's a night owl. He doesn't get up that early in the mornings. I'm kind of a night owl, but I also like to get up early. and I had got up for my run with my two dogs that day,

and I just left a note or a notice. I called him, and he didn't answer. Of course, he's still sleeping. And I said, it's a great day to be a St. John C. dog. And then you call me with the details because to let them know I was going to take the job. And then I asked them, because they had sent the players home for five or six days, which was a really good move.

Because they're coming off the worst moment of their careers from a pride. And, you know, they're hosting the Memorial Cup. and Mr. McCain, who's a tremendous person, but had kind of, you know, he's a very joyous person and very supportive, but I think he got at them pretty good. I mean, understandably, you lose the first round. You're in the business world. You're counting on three rounds of playoffs here for putting on the Memorial Cup. So he's quite disappointed.

So when they come back, I just asked him, what time are they coming back? Where are they coming back? And he said, well, we're coming back for five. And I said, well, again, we may, I think six or six 30. and I don't want to meet at the rink. I will meet what's the best hotel you have in St. John? And they said the Delta. And I said, okay, get a room at the Delta.

And curiosity is always a powerful learning element. You know, rather than giving people the answers, you make them earn the answer. And I said, you know, you guys can meet them there. And then I'll make an appearance because you have that one. And it was interesting. I was on the way down driving from Fredericton and, you know, a rival coach,

but a good friend of mine, from Acadia, Darren Burns was texting me away. Is this rumor true? Is this rumor true? Because, of course, his son Brady was a prominent player of the sea dogs. And I wasn't saying anything. I wanted to have the surprise factor. So we finally got the room.

He talked to them. It's just nothing. And we made a change in coaching. And here's your new coach. You know, so I have a PowerPoint that had to put together that day. But I've been fortunate to do World University Games in three different occasions. and be involved even with the university games versus the world juniors and three different occasions.

And even though it's maybe only a four-day affair, I still think you have to have that opening meeting just to set the standards, expectations. And so I had done that up. And part of that presentation is, you know, we want to be the best in Canada. You know, so I always ask who's won their province, who's won a provincial title,

who's won a league championship, different things like that. And this is a great trivia question. if you guys are in trivia, you know, because there's several members of the St. John C. Dogs. I have played five years of major junior hockey, but never won a playoff round. You know, so, but when I went through that and then I brought my ring collection out, which is fortunate, extensive. Nine, nine, nine, yes. No, no, nine plus three world championships at that time, 12.

and I didn't bring to Manitoba, Jr., but that was my first one. It was pretty, so I had 12 rings. I think one of the captain at that time, he had said, you know, the French media got a hold of them afterwards and stuff. He said, well, you brought the rings out. I think there was a ring for everybody.

But that's you one chance to kind of make, you know, make an impression, make a standard for it. You know, that story reminds me. LeBron James told the story when he was debating to sign with the Miami Heat when he went there. He said one of the things that got him to sign with the heat was Pat Riley brought out this bag. And on the table, he opened up the bag and he dropped all of his NBA championship rings.

And there were five of them at the time. And I don't remember if he won any of he as a player, but I think they were the five. He won as a coach of the Lakers. And LeBron's, it's funny. Like, it doesn't matter if you're LeBron James or a young man in Atlantic Canada under 20, that just winning resonates. It works. It's just amazing how that is.

Now, Caleb talked about your standards. So, Gardner, how old are you? What am I saying? What's Mario the muse number? 66. You got it. That one I know. Now, the reason I ask this is because you have had

incredible success coaching young man, whether they be at the junior level or at the university level. And one of the things I see in the NHL now is that all these young players are taking over and coaches want to be demanding. But it's hard. It's like there's two generations

between a lot of these coaches and they're always looking for ways like how do we reach these kids. And like this week, a coach got a fire in the NHL. Dean Aviccant did an unbelievable job with Columbus last year in the most terrible of circumstances, got them within two points of the playoffs.

But this year he's gone halfway through the season. The message just wasn't working anymore. So I'm just curious because you're obviously very good at it. You're 66 years old. You look much younger, but you're 66 years old, and you're coaching 16, 17, 18, 19, 20-year-olds, and they respond to you.

How do you do it? How do you do it? Just before going there, 66 is good, but I'm just an infant. Rick Bonas is 70. Yes, he is. I got an extension there, Mr. Irving. I think it goes back, though, to relationships and building relationships.

And I think that's the key because you want to build connection and you want to build trust. And trust is a two-way street. You know, the player wants to get trust in the coach because he gets more ice time or a better role. And the coach wants to, you know, the coach wants to get trust in the player

because you're going to get more out of them if you buy into it. So I think, and that's part of the opening day meeting and then doing different team building things. and stuff like that. It's just trying to build a connection with a group. And even though these guys are young, like hockey players,

whether they're with the Moncton Wildcats or in Columbus, you know, they want the same thing. They want to find a way to get better and they want to have an opportunity to win. You know, I think those two factors, most hockey players, I mean, obviously in the National Hockey League is different

because there's that personal. They want another contract, you know, that type of stuff. So you've got to try to mix, you know, the connection that they have a scene. significant role. They're getting better, because if they're getting better, they're going to get a better contract, and that you get a chance to win. Because I think one thing about winning, it covers a lot of blemishes up.

Yeah. You know, so when you win, nobody complains about ice time. Nobody complains about their role. How can they? You know, that type of stuff. And I think also goes back to the standards of your leaders. And I'm so fortunate to have Caleb here because he changes our dress room every day, he walks in.

just because of his exuberance and his high energy. Obviously, he's an elite player, but he also has a tremendous work ethic. And even going to the world juniors, you know, it was a different role for him. And, you know, where you're playing on the wing and then you're playing kind of on a shutdown line. They played against the top line of every team. So it's a new role. You know, didn't play power play minutes. Did some penalty kill.

But the neat thing about that was, like he embraced the role. He just has so much passion. And it's not always what you want. but sometimes is what you need. But he's going to help our leadership here among them so much because now he's never had that role before in his whole career, but now he can emphasize with those guys that have that role in our team, and he's just going to have more of a feeling for those guys and say,

hey, I understand, you know, and I think sometimes everyone has to give a little bit of themselves to the good of the hold, and it's being to have character people that will do that, you know, and because, you know, the good of the hold will get something that one person can't get alone, and that's winning, you know, so you have to have every buy-in. So I think, you know, when you look at the National High School League and the coaches, not only, you know, they have to be a terrific, you know, technical and smart and all that,

but I think probably the biggest thing is just connecting and getting that dress room, and you guys would know more than I would, but just getting the dress room that everybody is going the right way, skating the right way, because, you know, you got guys on contracts expiring. You know, you've got guys on long-term deals. Does winning mean anything to a guy in a seven-year contract? you know and just finding that pride that they're all hey we got a chance to win here and do something special and we've been fortunate enough on Moncton and at UMB I was really fortunate had tremendous leadership because my belief if your leader your head best player is not your leader but if your best player is only a seven and a half at a ten I don't think you'll ever get your team over a seven and a half out of ten but if your best leader is a nine is bought into whatever the coaches if a coach wants two-a you know players I always see you know players I always see you know said when Detroit was really, really good. And I don't know if it was Bowman or what the comment was in Detroit where the scores

became grinders and the grinders became scorers. And then you got two-way players. And I think when you get that, then no one can cheat. When your top guy buys into a terrific work ethic, got a great attitude, is a high performer, has all that. And it's hard to find those guys. Then you're going to get the most in of everyone. What's Caleb out of town?

Oh, he's right up there, but I always got 1% better. But yeah, no, he's, but the neat thing is. He's JGS. Look at his age. He's just getting started. He may be the youngest captain in our league, probably. And just what he's done so far in his career when you think about it, you know, with hockey Canada and then, you know, winning the President's Cup last year.

And now, Ed, you know, wasn't the color we wanted. You know, adding a bronze medal is still significant. And he's, actually, he'll make so much as such a young age. So he mentioned the standard is high. Like, what's the, like, what are the unbreakable things about you? Like, you say, no matter what, I'm not accepting less than this. Like, what are the things that are absolutely unshakable have to be accomplished? How long do we have?

Well, it's only Kevin next, so it's like, take as long as you want. No, I like the flex forward check is a big part. So it was interesting. I think we were in Thunderbatte, the national championships. Hunter Tromley was her best player. He was the best player. I got the coach at UNB and he was out with a high ankle sprain. And, you know, the sports event was covering the championship.

And I'm not sure who the guy was at that time. But he says, like, it's unbelievable we played Alberta, which our chief rival in the first game of the tournament. And we're up five one after one period. And the guy says, your four check is amazing. Like you seem like you have an extra guy in the ice. What does it call? And Hunter said it's called the bent knee.

And we named it the flex. But yeah, you got to bend your knees. Yeah. And I think for check is three parts of the game. It's offensive zone. But if you don't have the puck in a neutral zone, I think it's a neuter zone four check. And if you don't have the puck in D zone, you've got to get it back. It's a D zone four check.

So I think you've got to, you know, you've got to work, obviously. but you've got to bend your knees and work. You know, I think that would be probably one of the neatest things. And I think you've got to work, but to me work as smart, as intensity level and is grit, you know. So you try to, some players have one or three. Some players have two. You're trying to get all three, you know.

So sometimes you try to make your, say, your grinders a little bit smarter and maybe your skill guy is a little bit grittier. You know, so those would be, yeah, there's lots of little ones, but I think, you know, I think there's only two rules. We have one be on time in Moncton. and then never disrespect the program. Nice. Last one.

Has the NHL ever called you? Well. That's a yes. No, not really. I mean, yeah, I don't. I think you always, you have to have an agent. Like I said, I'll never get the NHL. Doug McLean hired every hockey person on PEI.

And UNB. And UNB. And UNB. So he was there in Columbus for five years, total charge. So if I'm not getting a call from Doug McLean, I'm never getting the call from anybody. All right, great stuff, Gardner. Thank you so much for coming on.

Gardner McDougal. All right, you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Okay, you either love them or you love to hate him or I'm living proof. You can do both over the course of your life. You can evolve. Kevin B.XA.

I want to paint a picture here. Okay, so this morning, I did an interview with the Moncton Wildcats podcast, and then Kyle and I went for a walk, we went for a coffee, got back, go into the gym, and Kevin's in there, and he's on the treadmill. And, you know, Kevin goes. Like, this is a guy who works out to the highest level. Of course, though, he's on the phone.

Like, is there anything more annoying than anyone who's on the phone? This is coming from you? Yes, yes, it is. Really? But wait, it gets better. It gets better. I can't wait. Okay, so he's in a terrible source.

First, he's on the phone. He's charging away. he's sweating buckets. Ivanka Ozmak comes in. She goes on the treadmill a couple over. And then when Kevin's done, like he's panting. He's going out there. And Vanka's like, Joy, that was, Kevin, that was a really hard workout.

He goes, yeah, I'm not really. No, he knows I'm right. He knows I'm right. He goes, yeah, I got to feel pain by the time the workout's over. I'm not really happy with my workout unless I'm feeling pain. And he goes, and she goes, oh, it's like a weight vest. He goes, no, I'm going to feel. When I walk my dog, I put on the weight vest.

Like, I'm just listening to this. Totally out of context. Totally out of context. Like, so. This is why you got 32 listeners. It's right. Like, I'm like, it's so, oh, yeah, I use the weight. Can we have a shot of syrup, please?

Yeah. You want what? Yeah, of course. Isn't that the tradition? It's like getting screeched in in Newfoundland. Come on. We're like none of the locals have ever done it, but it's like a cruel trick to the tourists. Yeah.

Is that what you do, though? You just, is that the thing kill him? Yeah. Really? Should wear a weight vest while you do that. Great story there, Elliot. None of it's true. The only story that's true is that you ran out on the bill last night.

You and Kyle ran out on our boss, Joel, over there. Oh, yes. We let everyone know. Are you the anonymous caller? I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, that's a yes. Wow. I don't know what you're talking about.

Yes, anonymous call. Yes. I thought you wanted to ask me about the biggest fish that I caught. I actually texted it. to you while Caleb was talking. Oh, I thought it was, is that that guppy? And I didn't have my own rod either. Are you the anonymous caller? No, I'm not the anonymous caller. I would have to care to be the anonymous caller. No, I don't care. No, I don't even. It's what you want us to think. It's some random guy who calls in and trolls you or something. Yes. Like, you don't know what it is.

It's not me. But I know you do listen to the pods. You playing dumb here makes me more. I listen to the walking my dog and my weight vest. It's a great scene of a creep. Like, I'm just trying to get a sweat in before I have to come on on this podcast. And this guy's behind me stretching, just like stalking me. Did he have his little ab corner? Because that was the first question he asked. He was like an area to do like my ab stuff.

Yeah, well, he was doing abs. He was doing like the little half crunches or whatever. And for the record, I was doing a radio interview, a mandatory radio. I was before you came in. I didn't know when you came in because you kind of like lurked in there like a creep. But I was doing a radio hit obligation,

media obligation. And then when the phone was off, I got a run in. No big deal. So when you were finished the radio hit, that was the person you said, I love you too. So,

so let, so all I heard was, oh, I'm sorry to hear you didn't get a lot of sleep last night. No credibility at all. Like, just making things up right now. You can tell by the smile.

that I am 100% accurate. Do you guys listen to this guy at all? So that's why. So Rick Boness takes the job in Columbus this week. Before his first game, he does an interview with Hockey Central. It was David Amber,

Mike Fuda, I think Sam Costantino, and Mike Fuda asks Rick was part of the reason why you took the job in Columbus so you wouldn't have to come into studio anymore to sit next to Elliot and Kevin. And no word of a lie, he says, yeah, because they sit there and go at it for five minutes. and I just, I do nothing.

He goes, and then finally we can get to the real matters at hand. And he wasn't kidding. Like, you're all seeing this live and impersonating. Yeah, but like watching in the green room with Bones, he doesn't stop talking the whole time. Oh, look, one, two, two, like talk about your flex forecheck. It's like overkill with Bones. Oh, one, two, two, oh, clip that one, clip that neutral zone, clip that breakout. And it's like in the playoffs, we've been working games like triple headers for three weeks.

And it's one in the morning and Bones is still clipping neutral zone for check. So, like at some point, uncle. But interesting, listening to Gardner there, and Rick Bonas was my favorite coach I've ever had. I know he's from Moncton, or at least it says that on Wikipedia. Is he from Moncton? Born here, yeah. Born here.

Comes back here in the summers still, I believe. Halifax? Close. Okay. Same thing. Just kidding. But Rick Bonas was my favorite coach in my career. And kind of for some of the same things that you were saying,

like there was that there was a mutual respect. and there was that trust. And a little bit different because I didn't have them in junior. And junior, it's a little bit different relationship because they're kids still. But when I got to the NHL, like now I went four years in college. I didn't go right away. Some of us aren't as lucky. But so I was 24, 23, 24 years old, essentially a man.

And there was that mutual respect. And the reason I always like bones and I respected him is because I knew it was it went both ways. So after every game, he would sit down with me, come find me the next day at the rank, with his laptop and he'd have my shifts from the game before. And he would show me four good things right away. Then he would show me like two or three teaching things. And the thing that I always respected is it wasn't a dictatorship. So he would show me a clip and say, yeah, you made this pass.

Why didn't you recover to the middle? Because now the forward turns the puck over and you're still kind of in the corner. And now that guy gets the slot middle ice for a grade A. And I was able to always give my perspective and say, well, bones, this is why I did that. Like I passed the puck. but then I actually had to sidestep Brian McGratton trying to take my head off. So that's why I kind of like ventured up the wall. And so he's like, oh, okay, I didn't see that.

That makes sense. And he would actually allow me to have a voice. So it was mutual, right? And a lot of times he'd be like, no, shut up, Kevin. Like you recover the middle. And I'm like, you're right. So that was like the mutual respect that you were talking about that I think, I wish more coaches had, but the great ones do.

And I knew, I knew Rick Bones cared about me, Rick Bones, cared about me at the end of the day. And I've had one picture that I always tweet. I tweeted the other day when he took over of me at a really low point of my career on one knee after practice and bones came over and knelt down right beside me and knew I was struggling. And he sat down beside me and he goes, what's wrong? And we actually hashed it out and we talked about it.

I was in tears. I was emotional. And he was there for me. It wasn't really had anything to do about hockey at the time. And those are the coaches that are special. Those are the coaches that you trust. and that's why Rick Bonas is 70 years old. He's coached more games than anyone ever,

and he'll probably keep doing it for another three, four years until Judy tells him he can't do it anymore. Sorry, that was a gardener answer. It went on and on and on. How long are you in meetings? Three hours and 20 minutes before the game. Just kidding, just kidding. And I'm sober.

Yeah, this is good. Well, you got Maple Street. sir opinion, so this is helping. What's your favorite part about coming out? Because you've done a few of these now, the hockey days. Like, what's your favorite part of being out and around and on site at various parts of the country? Yeah, I just did a clinic

at the beautiful arena, by the way. Really nice arena. With Greg Shell, who's awesome. No, this is the best part. You guys know. Like, just getting in the community, like two years ago, these guys kind of hoodwinked me into coming on to the show. I didn't realize they were filming it. So I was actually telling

some good stories. I wasn't there for that. I was telling good. Stories, couple swear words. Let me just ask. And they're like, oh, it's filmed. Like, we record this. Let me just ask you guys a question. If you see three people sitting up in front of a bar like Gallagher's here and they're holding microphones, do you think maybe it's being recorded and could go out on the air?

Like, what are the chances do you think that that's happening? Like, 51%? Well, the thing is, the stories could be so much better if it wasn't being recorded. Dom, turn this off. But so, no. So we've done this a few times. the game on Friday, the alumni celebrity game is always a lot of fun. But just like hearing, meeting people, hearing the stories.

A couple close talkers in the airport last night. Geez, like one guy comes up to me, welcome to Moncton. He's like, right in my grill, eh? Like, let me breathe, bud. It's 12.30 at night. Just getting into the community, I went for a walk this morning, just downtown here. You got this big structure out there. I'm not sure what that is.

But I got to the river, the elbow. or the Ben, you call it, the Chocolate River, reading about the Causeway. I just love learning about the communities. That's the main thing, I think. That's good. Is the Causeway a sensitive thing around here? A little bit.

Okay, I won't bring it up again. 32 listeners, don't worry. It's good. Nobody will know anything. That's right. That's right. All right. So your son's playing,

Cole, and the BCHL. Same age as Caleb, 2007. And how's it going? It's going good. So he was traded last week, and I don't believe in ever moving halfway through the season, but it was the right move for him just for development. So he got traded to a team where I was familiar with the coach.

So they got three NHL coaches, two of them have played over a thousand games in the NHL, Matt Cook and Dean McCammon, and then Ryan Holwigs played 250, and they kind of reached out and wanted to bring him in for a bigger role. So I don't know how you can say no to that. So now he's in Vernon and he's loving it. They have a great rink.

You guys have an amazing rank. They have a great rank for the VCHL. So, yeah, playing hockey. He's loving it. He's living out there being responsible. Billets, maybe, not really. On his own a little bit. Oh, yeah.

A little top secret. That's right. It's a good thing that isn't recorded. Don't worry. Nobody lists. You got bullets? 32 lists. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, because I wanted to bring up, I'm sure you remember our holiday episode this year. We always like to have Kevin on. And he was telling us about, because he was playing for the Express of the time, Cole was, in the BC Lower mainland. And your line to the,

you know, you said you didn't talk to the coaches, but you talked to the GM a little bit. And your line was, if I was coaching this team, I would win a championship with them. And then no more than a few weeks later, he's Delta Vernon.

And I thought, oh, the timing is interesting. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up. I don't even know how to respond to that, Kyle. I feel like Gardner right now, listening to your questions that are misses. Was that, they really have an issue with that? With what?

You said that I would win a championship if... No, of course not. I didn't think there was. I just, I got a kick-in- I was kind of saying it as a, like, we were doing a Christmas special. I know, I know. That's why jokingly I thought the time was... But I did say that to him.

Yes. Yeah. And how was that received? But that was more an indication of, like, my over-confidence of myself. Yes. No, the team is still good. It was just a good move for both sides. Good.

All right. When you watch the NHL right now, who's your favorite team to watch? Montreal Canadiens. That's a popular answer here. Well, that's why I said it. Why do you like them? Well, they're exciting.

They're exciting. But they, if you watch, and honestly, I think their biggest rival now is the Washington Capitals, because I think it brings out the best in them. So they're obviously like a skilled team, fast. That doesn't do it for me personally. Like I always want to watch skill and speed with like competitiveness and toughness or grit. I think you said use the word grit.

And I think Montreal has that finally. I think they obviously have the speed and the skill. You guys see that in Demadov and Suzuki, Cofield and Slavkovsky even. But they have the grid and they have, I love Jack I'm. He's from my hometown. I love the way he plays. He Struble plays. Josh Anderson, Gallagher's a friend of mine.

So I still think they have. have a little bit of everything. And when they play Washington, it's on full display. And I think that's the type of team that's going to be successful in the playoffs. Because goals dry up in the playoffs, special teams dry up. So you need to be a competitive team, an ultra-competitive team to move on. And it feels like they have that this year. Last year, Anderson and Tom Wilson fought each other in the bench during the playoffs.

Did you ever fight someone on the bench? No, I tried to grab guys from the ice and bring him into the bench. More so in the HL. But no, I don't think I've ever fought anybody in the bench. But I did have start a line brawl on hockey day in Canada 12 years ago. January 18th, it was my mom's birthday. I had an amazing warm up too. And sewer ball, I won every sewer ball game.

That's the soccer game before. Had like an explosive workout. not ready for the game. And then Calgary decides they want to start their fourth line tough guys. And at the time was Brian McGratton, who was a childhood friend of mine that I grew up with. So I knew how crazy he was. 6-6-250, toughest guy in the league. Kevin Westgarth, same size, works for the NHL now.

And they started them against us in Vancouver. And John Tortorello was our coach. And he came into the room and he said, they're starting their idiots. I can't start the Cedines. So I have to start ours. So I'm like thinking, I'm like, am I, is that me? Is that mean me? Like, am I considered an idiot?

So he said our fourth line and it was like a young, what was his name? Kellan Lane who was playing his first NHL game, who was a big guy, but didn't want, not a fighter. And I think I put my hand up. I'm like, can I go? So then drop the puck. So he wouldn't let her set him and take to draw Westgarth. He's crowd in the circle. You could tell they wanted to start a line brawl.

So I just kind of switched with him. I took the face off and then ended up being a five on five. line brawl. So after the line brawl, crowds going nuts. You guys are talking about it. Everyone's talking about. We're still talking about it 12 years later. Go in the room, high five. And then it's like, now what do we do? Like just wasted a whole good warm up on, I played three seconds. I got one face off win, a five minute fight and a game of misconduct. So get on dress. And now I'm in like my spandex and everything. First period intermission comes and our coach takes off and runs down the hallway and tries to fight their head coach.

So what do I do? College guy, right? Smart. I'm like, I'm not going to run down after him and follow him through the hallway. I'm going to go through the medical room, the dentist's room. There's a side door that goes into the Calgary Flames hallway that comes off the ice. So I like sneak through there, open the door, and there's like Lance Boma and like a couple of their other guys. And I try to grab, there's your answer to your story right there. Yeah.

I grabbed one of them. I tried to pull them into the dentist room to fight them. And they had their full of gear on and I was just in like spandex and a shirt. So. And if you actually watch the footage, you can kind of see me like in the camera in the corner there coming through the dentist room. So that game, I was working, it was, the Hockney and Canada was in Lloyd Minster that year

on the Alberta, Saskatchewan border. And I was in Vancouver for the game that night. I was hosting that game. And as I was throwing a commercial, the director, like there's a person in your ear is usually the producer. The producer is usually the one telling you, okay, we're going to break in this long. All of a sudden, I heard the director scream,

don't throw it a commercial. And because we have a camera in the hallway, and there's a rule with that camera. You are not allowed to have that camera, at least it was that, I don't know if it's changed, but you're not allowed to have that camera hooked up to a tape machine. So anything that you show there has to be live.

It cannot be taped. So they cut to that camera, and you could see there was a commotion in the hallway. And at one point in time, Kevin's head does peek out of the debtist room. And it's like this. Like, he's just like that's this big smile.

But the thing I always remember was Tortorella did get into the Calgary dressing room. And what Calgary's goaltending coach at that time was Clint Milarchuk, who was a tough, tough guy. And he was ready to tear Tortorella apart. And Brian McGratton was actually the guy who saved him. He pushed, he grabbed Tortorella, and pushed him out of the Calgary room.

And the NHL always said later, like Tortarella got suspended, a bunch of people got suspended, but the NHL always said later that that would have been a lot worse if your old buddy Brian McGratton hadn't done what he did. He like pushed him out of the room.

But that was a, that was a crazy, crazy nights. That's your typical NHL, heavyweight enforcer. Like, toughest nails on the ice, biggest, baddest, but usually like the best guys off the ice. And then the gentleman part. Like he knew that that was going to be trouble.

Yeah, for everybody. So for him to step in shows a lot about Brian McGratton. Yeah. Now, was there anyone that you've talked to that was involved that night over the 12 years that, like, gave their perspective or said something about that night that you were like, oh, I didn't know about that or oh, I forgot about that that, like, tricked your mind. Yeah, I've talked, obviously I talked to McGratton about it in the summer. Shane O'Brien was on Calgary at the time. I always felt like, so how many guys, I always felt like if you didn't get kicked out of the game, that's, that's. That's embarrassing for you.

So after it, like, we're all in the box after the original brawl and the referees are like trying to sort it all out. And so we're still in the penalty box before he got kicked out. And Zach Cassian comes over to me in the box and he goes, I'm going to kill somebody. And I go, hold on a second. Like just let everything calm down because you want to get somebody. You don't want to be kicked out of the game before you can actually do something. This is a bad example for these two kids right in the front row. If you really want to get someone, this is how you do it.

So, but he's, I'm like, Cass, like, if you do something right now, they're just looking to throw guys out of this game, let things diffuse, and then grab Shane O'Brien later. So he tried to. It didn't work. But, yeah, like, Calgary's version of it was nothing was premeditated, at least from the coaching staff. They just said they won the game before it.

I think it was in Edmonton the night before. The fourth line had started that game. So, like, what do you do as a coach? You just roll it the same thing. Let's run it over again. And the two coaches hated each other. And the two coaches hated each other. Then they saw, I don't know, if it was the lights of Saturday night,

hockey night in Canada, hockey day in Canada. But like the fourth line just all went around to each other and said, let's get something going. But they didn't know if there was going to be any takers. They didn't know who we were going to start. Home team gets last change. But like I said, Tortorella is like, their idiots are starting.

So we're starting our idiots. So Tom's Decedo goes out. he's not going to say no. You know, a couple, Dale Weiss goes out, he's not going to stay no. Like, I'm like, can I come out, please? I'm not going to. So that's why everything turned into it up the way it did. That Tom Sassito thing was funny because he's the guy who actually revealed that quote,

that Tortarella said that after the game. So he comes out, he talks to the media, he says, John said that they're starting their idiots, so we got to start ours. And people were like, you do realize you're calling yourself an idiot. He just didn't care. It was hilarious. Well, he said, like, Torres was like, I can't put Danny and Hank out. I can't put the Siddines out.

And then, like, talking with McGrath and after, I told him that, I go, we were, we're thinking about starting our first line because you know, you guys aren't going to jump our best players, are you? And he goes, no, of course we wouldn't have. So that would diffuse a situation. But that wasn't as fun. No, we wouldn't be talking about us, though.

Right? We'd be talking about like lobster fishing that we're going to do tomorrow. We're doing that tomorrow. We're doing that tomorrow. You're excited to kill some lobsters? That is fun. Yes, I am. That is fun. Can't wait? Yes, I am. That's what I'm here four. Is there anything you've ever done on the ice that after your career was over, you look back and

say, I'm embarrassed. I did that. Oh, putting me on the spot. I mean, there's a couple. So first of all, let me clear the air. I've, in my whole career, never find, never suspended, ever, right? Thank you. That's a reaction I was looking for.

Now, I did a lot of stuff that I should. should have been fined and suspended for, right? So this one guy, I don't know if you guys remember, Brandon Peary, do you remember that name at all? Yeah, it was a score. Yeah. So before he got traded when I was in Anaheim, he got traded to our team just before the deadline.

Earlier in that season, I didn't know this until he told me when he got traded. But when he came to Anaheim to play us, he was playing for Florida Panthers, he cut across the middle and I absolutely chicken winged elbowed him right in the head. And he missed like a month with concussion problems. and like, I don't know, I didn't remember it at the time. I think I got a penalty for it. I didn't get kicked out of the game.

So he told me when he got traded, he goes, hey, Brandon, don't worry, I'm okay. I'm like, what are you talking about? He goes, yeah, you elbowed me in the head. I go, no, I didn't. Like, I would have remembered. So I went back and I watched it online. I was bad.

So, like, I apologized, obviously, and I felt bad. So there's like, obviously some stuff in the heat of the moment that you do in the game that you kind of regret afterwards. but I mean, it's a short list for sure. I don't really regret much. Everything's a learning opportunity, I think. What are you looking for? What story are you looking for?

I don't know. I'm just curious to see. Do you know one? No, no. Because I've never seen you regret anything in the green room. I regret being on their show right now. I could be eating right now, like subway or something. Sleeping.

I could be sleeping. It could be on the ice with kids, instead of giving kids bad messages about fighting. That's right. Most fun teammate. Oh, that's a good one. Most fun teammate. Oh, I've had, that's the best part of playing is teammates. Sneaky, Alex Edler was one of my favorite teammates.

Oh, yeah, I know. And that's why you wouldn't think Alex Edler. Obviously, like, Burroughs was fun. So I'm not French, and I understand Moncton's the first bilingual city in Canada, 2002. in my history. So I sat at the French card table my whole career. So I know all the swear words. I can understand French.

Would you like to tell the kids what the swear words are? They know. Okay. These two? You do two know, right? Yeah, you guys know everything. So I sat with Alex Burroughs, Mani Mahaltra, Maxime LaPierre, Steve Bernier, a couple goalies that we had.

Maxime Willett was a French guy, Mark Schwinnard. So I sat at the table with all the French guys. so Alex Burroughs is always one of my favorite. Lot of give and take. I gave it. He took it. So he was a fun teammate. Dan Hamus was one of my favorites.

And then when I went to Anaheim, Corey Perry, you guys, he's still playing. Corey Perry is such an interesting guy. Like he's still 500 assists the other night. Going to be a Hall of Fame. I don't know first ballot, but he's going to be a Hall of Fame. He'll be a Hall of Fame, no question. And like he would sit in the dressing room and he would just, he took every joke. He was always the punching bag.

Like you wouldn't think a guy who's won Memorial Cup, World Juniors, Stanley Cup, World Championships, Olympic. He's won everything. And he was just such a good teammate. He would be the punching bag in the room. We'd all make fun of them. And he'd just sit there and laugh and laugh and take it. And just

that's the end of the story there. He just would just take it. But you know what? Crosby was like, is like that. Because Crosby loves to be one of the guys. Graskey is like that too. Like those guys where they love the players who, like, it was actually, there was, I saw a really interesting story. Like, so Sergei Fedorov got his number retired last night. Saw that, yeah.

And very early in his time there, Joey Kosher was one of the toughest players ever taped his skates together. And so Fedorov got annoyed. And what he did was he taped Kosher's bag shut so he couldn't open it. And Kosher said, you know what? I love that. This guy, Russian guy, doesn't know the language, doesn't really know any of us. And he gave it right back to us.

right away. But like Crosby and Gretzky had that rep. Crosby is two early as big friends were Colby Armstrong and Ryan Malone because those are the guys that would rip him the most and he loved it. So I think those are the closest teams. The closest teams that I've played on are

talk about your best players where Gardner go. Is out of here? Yeah. Yeah. The best players You ripped him and he left. Can he not take a joke for real? See that's the whole point that I'm about to say. Like the best teams I played on where our star players were the guys who could take it, right?

It wasn't like Cedines on a pedestal, Luongo, and then everybody else. Like those are the guys that I personally went out in the dressing room just to keep everybody at the same level. And I think like Cid recognizes that in Wayne and Corey Perry is the same way. Like everyone has to be at this level in the locker room. Obviously there's a respect for the guys that have played and the guys that have won and the guys that are veteran guys. but I think as far as being like an address room having like a cohesive team or a cohesive, you know, office at work, everybody has to be at the same level.

So I think that's one thing that everybody recognizes. Awesome. Anything else? Yes. Oh, okay. Oh, God. Okay, Olympics. We're all going.

Three of us are going. Canada? Yeah, we're representing Canada. Easy answer. Any doubt they're going to win? Yeah, of course there's doubt. I mean, that's what makes it so great. If we all, and I know maybe this is in popular opinion,

but if we all knew that Canada was going to win, it probably wouldn't be as entertaining to watch. So like if you go back to the four nations, huge win. We're all there. It was absolutely amazing. The fights in Montreal and then, you know, the gold medal win, or sorry, the, I don't know it was the gold medal, but the win in Boston.

But you have to remember, like, we barely beat Sweden. We all gave up a huge lead to Finland and Sid doesn't score that empty netter. And then obviously the gold medal game was super close. So no, like Canada is not a shoe-in. And that's what makes this, you know, such an exciting kind of thing to look forward to. Yeah, it should be a lot of fun.

Look forward to seeing you over there in Milan and look forward to more this weekend. So enjoy the rest of your time in Moncton, Kevin. Thanks for having me, as always, guys. Thanks, Kevin BXA. So we were going to try to do a bit of a live thought line here with questions from the audience. But now we've got, we've got,

got a dead third mic. All right. So you all will do. We'll do a few questions and we'll just share the mic. Okay. Now, I want to say this, don't be afraid. Only reporters ask stupid questions. So don't be afraid to ask.

Just tell us your first name and we're happy to take questions. Oh, hello. What's your name? My name's Dennis. I'm a Canadian fan. I'm one of your 32 listeners. Thank you, Dennis. I actually got to watch the two playoff games in Montreal last April, so that was fun.

Nice. My question is, what's going to happen during the Olympic break for kind of the waiver wire and a lot of teams going to send their rookies to HL? And is that a problem? Or was that something in the new CBA that maybe was looked at? Well, Dennis, first of all, there is a freeze. There can be no trades from February 4th until about February 21st. So there is a freeze. But basically, if you are eligible to go down to the HL, you can be sent to the HL.

Now, for some players who play a lot, they'll just give them the break. But if it's a player who maybe doesn't play a ton and could benefit from going down there, they can go down there. Other than that, go get a tan. It's Craig. Hi, Craig. How do you deal with? with the nerves when the red light goes on? How do you deal with and do you ever get nervous in the big moments?

Well, first of all, Craig, you do great work. I wanted to shout that out. That's Craig Eagles over there. Why don't you go first? Probably, I mean, the preparation going in, like you believe, okay, if I'm not 100% ready, I'm ready enough. Like, you've got to trust yourself. And part of that comes with failing it.

Like, there's been a number of times, number of live hits that I've mucked up, and there's going to be more. So accepting that is a big part of it. And I think it's also just channeling it the right way. Like Kevin just brought up, you know, like the four nations. Like I've never been in a building, like, you know, Elliot's been doing this longer than I have. But I've never been in a building like that emotionally charged. And you're just watching for just the enjoyment of this is incredible hockey.

But to now, you know, you know, there's obviously a lot of interest here. and you're going to set the scene for the game. Like, you understand that there's, okay, don't want to screw this one up. But it's just being, I guess, allowing yourself to be caught up in it, but not overtaking you is another thing. And then also just the trust when you've got a good production crew you work with, you know that when you want to roll in a certain picture or video, like for the stuff that I do, like you know it's going to be there.

If there's sound that you want to throw it to, you know the sound. is going to be there. So that goes a long way too. Like we're fortunate to have a great production crew and other teammates that we have that you may not see on camera when you tune in to watch us at night and know that they've got your back

through all of those. It helps with the nerves as well. But you just, you try not to run away from it either. Like it's, it's really, it's a really cool feeling when, when you're there and you're like, this is a big deal for people that are watching.

And so let's just not, you know, people aren't tuning in to watch certainly anything I save, but it's like, all right, if you're going to have to put up with me for 45 seconds, I'm going to do my best to try to at least make it somewhat worth it. You know, Craig, for me and the job I do, it's a little bit different.

I think the most nerves I ever have is when I'm about to hit tweet on something that I'm 99.9% sure about, but that 0.01% gnaws at you, like Quinn Hughes this year. I knew he was getting traded in Minnesota, but I knew I had it right. but when I was about to hit that button, I was like, oh, God, please don't let something happen after I put this out.

Like Brad Marchand last year to the Florida Panthers, that was another one. I was like, okay, I think this is happening, and I'm pretty sure this is happening, but those couple minutes you breathe, you're like, uh-oh. And, you know, actually there was one last year where I reported like two in the morning the night before the trade deadline that Miko Ranton was going to Dallas. and then there were some things that tied it up, including the extension, and it wasn't until I think it took about 12 hours for it to get done. And it was like, okay, I know this is there, but if this unravels on me, I'm going to look bad.

So that's the stuff I think, like whenever I report something, I'm pretty sure that it's going to happen. But there are those moments between, I'm pretty sure it's going to happen to what actually happens, where you can sweat a little bit, because if you're wrong, you eat it. And not like a tasty Gallagher's burger or anything like that. It doesn't taste anything that, like anything that good.

So those are the moments, I would say I get it. Hey, guys, thanks for, thanks for being here with us. Really appreciate it. You're welcome. Name? My name is Paul. Paul, Richard. So Marty's gone.

So we'll still welcome you since he wasn't the only counselor here. Okay, no problem. Right on. Elliot, in my eyes, you have probably the best job on the planet. Okay. I'm just wondering, since you're, you know, we see you already at the top, what would be your dream job? And retirement's not an option. What do you want to be when you grow up?

That's a, that's a great question because I guess we'll have a lot of growing up to do. You know, honestly, I'm going to try to think of this. I don't think like that. Okay? Because the biggest mistake I ever made in my career that caused me the most emotional grief was because I took my eyes off the prize. So I don't, I'm not like that anymore.

I used to think about that. Like, where do I want to be in five years? Where do I want to be in, I don't, those days are over. I'm like, do your job. Like today, I knew the biggest thing I had to do today was this. I had a couple other thing. at the Monct and Wildcats podcast. I want to do really well at that.

I got to talk for a few minutes at the banquet tonight with Kyle. I want to do really well at that. But today I was like, the thing I have to do the best is this. So I better be ready for this and don't take your eyes off the prize. I don't really have, like I would say this. I have been very lucky to experience a lot of things in life that I never thought I would be able to get to see. I've gotten to, you know, Don Stanley Cups, Olympic Games, World Series, gray cups, basketball playoffs.

You know, I think there's a lot of things. My family and I, we go, my son's a musician, and in order to bribe him to do well in school, we tell him you can go to certain concerts if you do well in school this year. And those are actually the experiences I probably enjoy a lot now. too. I'm going to the Olympics this year, as I mentioned. I'm really looking forward to that. I think

the best way for me to answer your question is, I hope that before I do retire, I continue to get to see things that I never thought I would get to see. That is probably my best answer. It's a great question. I never would have expected. I never even would have thought about it until you

mentioned it. Thank you. That's great. If you don't mind, I'd like to be fair to Kyle and ask you a question as well. Okay. How many championships is Gardner McDougall won? He better get that one right. Never forget that one again. So, Kyle, I mean, we've heard in the past, you know, sometimes people tweet something accidentally.

I don't know if you've ever heard. It's happened in the past. Would you let Elliot Friedman share the breaking news, another phrege bomb, of you accepting to replace Ron McLean on Hockey Night in Canada if and when that would happen. I, yeah. Not asking for Ron to retire, just. No, like, I'm very flattered that he even put that into the world. I, like Elliot says, he doesn't think in the way of what's the dream job.

Like, that's not a thought of mine either. And I honestly, I mean that. when I say it. I love what I do right now. And so long as they'll keep having me, I love to continue to be rinkside. I love being at the games. I love feeling what's going on in the building.

And to Elliot's point, too, like my dream job once upon a time was just, you know, getting a chance to be on my local radio station. I grew up in a small town on Vancouver Island. And everything beyond that, like working on hockey night in Canada, being on sports net, being rinkside for the Stanley Cup final and getting a chance to go over to Milan next month with Elliot and Kevin and

the rest for the Olympics. Like I didn't even consider that as an option. I never, never thought, oh, maybe one day I'll get a chance if I continue to work hard and get some breaks along the way, I'll have a chance to do that. So that thought has never crossed my mind. But I'll tell you this, I am in no rush. to no longer see Ron doing that. I'll tell you that.

It's one of the toughest things for me every Saturday when he comes on the air at 7 o'clock and he opens the show and he's always got something different in how he wants to open the show and to set the stage for the night of hockey. And I always get so caught up in, okay, where is the thread?

How many different areas and what different areas are the thread going to touch this weekend and what direction is he going to take it and to bring it all back in again? Nobody's got the ability to do it like him. He is in his own world and his own class when it comes to that. And so to then be a lot of times the next person after it,

A, it's an impossible act to follow. And B, it's tough at times to concentrate on remembering what I want to say because you get caught up in the brilliance that the web that he spins there too. So I just hope to be able to chance to be standing at the rink and then to have, you know, Ron throw to our crew to set up our game. I hope I continue to get to do that for a long, long time. I'm going to tell Ron that you ask that question, by the way. By the way, at this, like Hockey and Canada,

this is where Ron's the best. He is the best. Any other questions for us? Yes. Hi there. Matt Carter. Mack? How you doing? Matt, thanks. You guys are awesome.

Thanks for being here. As a disappointed Leafs fan, over the last several years. They've been on a good streak as of late. How do you see their season ending? Matt, I got to tell if I knew the answer to that, I'd probably be retired already. You know, I'll say this.

There were times over the last few years where players would leave Toronto and they would be, if they weren't one of the quote-unquote core four, they'd be disillusioned. they'd be like it's this these four guys and the rest of us like uh you know

they used to call the Chicago Bulls before they started winning they'd call them Michael and the Jordanaires and until the other guy Michael figured out that he needed them and they figured out they need to take a bigger role they didn't win this game that happened after Christmas with New Jersey where Matthews

was hurt and Nielander was hurt and they won big I think it changed their group I thought they were already starting to play better, but I think that changed their group because all those other guys realized they were important. Like Nick Robertson's playing the best hockey of his life. Lawton is playing some of the best hockey I've seen in playing in years. Max Domey looks like a player rejuvenated. It's what Gardner talked about.

Like everybody has to feel important. Like, you know, like here, like last night, we were talking about how we got the bills screwed up. One of the ways we got the bills screwed up was a few of us. Our crew was at this table over here, our technical crew, and we were making sure that a lot of their drinks were getting paid for, right? And, like, that's the thing. Like, Kyle gets all the glory because he's the prettiest face at Hockey Night in Canada. But we don't do anything if our crew, the technical crew, the production crew,

the people who work the microphone, set up the microphones, the people who set up the set out there, the people who make sure we get on the air, they're just as important as we are and probably more important. And I think the Toronto team has changed a bit where those other players have recognized their importance. And the thing is that when Matthews came back

and he only missed one game, it wasn't like it became all on him and the other 17 guys. And when Neelander came back after missing six games, like his first game, he only played 13 minutes, I think. Like it's, they're only, path of success is that. It's that you do not win in this league

unless you have 25 players who feel like they matter. And I think that was one of the things that Toronto struggled to build was everybody matters just as much. And I just don't think you win without that. Hi, my name is Bill Whalen. I'm chair of events Moncton.

I just want to welcome you and thank you for choosing Moncton to come. It was all my decision. Bill. I know it once. I know. We sent you the gifts and it worked out. My question is hockey personality, living or dead, that you have never interviewed, who would you love to have the chance? I'll say Jean Belavaux. I never, yeah. I never got it. I mean, obviously, you know, yeah, I remember going to, after his passing, myself and Dan Slater, one of our camera guys, we drove. I was living in Ottawa at the

time and we drove to Dick Irvin's place just outside Montreal on the West Island and we we they set up and they wanted to interview Mr. Irvin of course to speak about John Belavow and um anyway it was just it was incredible of like talk about never thought I'd be in certain places like um that was under of course difficult circumstances but uh to hear him talk about him um yeah I just you know I I've I've got a great reverence for life that existed prior to me, particularly in a sport like hockey that I cover, that would be neat to go back in time and to just learn a little bit and to hear from someone like him. That's a great answer. I was fortunate enough to interview Jean Belvo once, and at the end of it, he called me, Elliot and my friends immediately started texting me, what kind of world do we live in

where Jean Belvoe knows your name? Like they were, like that was crazy. But I would say, John Bill, I think is a great answer. I would go with someone from about the time that I never got to interview, and that would be Maurice Richard. If I could do somebody, it would be Maurice Richard. Because, like, I remember some, I met some of the reporters who dealt with them, and they were like, man, if he, if he got mad at you,

he could really give it to you. And I kind of like that. I like that. Any more questions? Yes. Hi, my name's Brad DePollo. I'm going to ask you a non-hockey-related question because you get them all the time, I'm sure.

Yeah. Is it about raccoons? I get a lot of questions about raccoons. Okay, I don't want to know the answer to that question. So I'm a former podcast host. My podcast is just kind of on pause right now, and I probably actually only really did have 32 listeners. But what, like being a podcast host is a lot of fun.

It's a lot of challenge. What do you really enjoy about, the podcast and preparing for the podcast and talking to guests and things like that. Okay, so we do a thing every episode called The Thoughtline. We're kind of doing a live version of this now, and it's similar. You know, people can write in submissions that we've got a voicemail, a number you can call in and leave a voicemail, and we go through them. So a guy by the name of Griffin Porter, he is kind of the gatekeeper of all of that.

And he short lists all the submissions before each episode and then sends them to Don. and I, and we pick the usually about four or five that we'll use and include in the recording. And it blows me away. That's been the biggest revelation to me, like certainly in the years where being at Sportsnet and I would listen to 32 thoughts every week and going around being on the road with Elliot and how many people would recognize him from the podcast as opposed to Hockey Night in Canada, and you think about how recognizable of a brand hockey night is, that was eye-opening. but now being on the side of it and seeing not just the amount of people that send in submissions,

like we're very fortunate that we've got interested, smart, curious people that follow the sport, but just from the different regions, not only of Canada, of North America, of the world. Like we've had some recently from New Zealand, from Australia, from Finland, from Slovakia, from, and, you know, down even like in South America, we've had submissions come in where you think, Like, seriously? Like, you're that into hockey that you're doing all this? That's been the most interesting, surprising, and quite frankly, just neat as part. Like, you just have an understanding of, A, how far reaching the game is.

And to be, you know, a little part of this one vessel here is, it's really cool. I did not foresee that when I got into this. My answer is similar, Apollo. Like, it's the audience. But I would say in a slightly different way. like I'm blown away by how good the thought line has become. I didn't know how good it was going to be. But the thing is like, you know, we're lucky.

We have a good audience. You know, my, I never, I never look at ratings. Never, ever. Because I've seen people in our business who get consumed by ratings and it makes them crazy. I never look at it. I played cards with some buddies. I have a group of buddies going back from high school. And we play cards every few months.

Sunday night we played cards. They took my money, but they, but one of them said to me that they were looking at the iTunes podcast list in Canada, and they said that, I think, I think we're like, I think we're like number 26 overall or something like that. Actually, sorry, it was, it was, it was even higher than that. I don't remember what it was, but it was a higher number.

And they said like, they said like, you know, this guy says, nothing you do impresses me, but I'm impressed by that. And I think what, What I feel about that is that I feel that our audience demands something from us. And it's not that we have a strong listenership that I care about. It's that I feel that our audience demands a lot from us. And I like that. Like tonight, the game tonight between Vegas and Toronto is going to start at 1030 local time.

It's a big one. Even though it's not the game in Toronto, they're playing each other next Friday. it's Mitch Marner's first game against the Maple Leafs. And I told Dom and I told Kyle, we're going to do an insert tonight after that game is over. Like this pod is not going out on Friday morning without at least five or ten minutes of us talking about that and anything else that may happen tonight.

And, you know, I've had people say to me, like, you guys are crazy that you do the pod at one in the morning or two in the morning. And I said, that's what our audience expects of us. and I like that we have a good audience, but I also like that we have an audience that expects a lot from us. They expect when our podcast drops, it's as up to date as possible.

Now, you're not going to catch everything and things could happen first thing in the morning that ruin your podcast, but we're going to go to bed tonight knowing that when people get the podcast on Friday morning for their commute, everything that happened Thursday night is going to be covered. And I like that expectation, Paul. I like that the audience expects that of us.

Because if you have low expectations, you're not going to be successful. Okay. Yep. Hey, guys, Chris from Rogers. Good to see you. Hey, Chris. Is that a Moncton Flames jersey? That's a golden flames jersey.

Oh, please excuse me. Yeah. Okay. And what an idiot. Here, Roberts. Yeah. Now, Chris, Chris, were you in here last night? Yeah.

Were you the guy wearing like the Maple Leafs? New Brunswick Hawks. Yeah, New Brunswick Hox, yeah, yeah. I've got a few. Nice. But love the passion you guys bring to it. And that's sort of what I wanted to ask you about. What was your biggest influence like as a kid growing up that sort of drove that passion for hockey?

Was it seeing Wendell Clark on a Saturday night? You know, was there some player that really drew you to the sport? And what sort of drives your passion every week? It's a great question. like I didn't come from like my parents weren't big hockey fans. Obviously they became it with my brother and I playing the sport, but it wasn't like I grew up with it always on in the house. I just remember being in kindergarten and a buddy of mine.

He played like pre-Nobvis hockey at the time. And I thought, wow, that sounds like a lot of fun. Paul Correa was my favorite player growing up and he was magic to watch. Those that are old enough to remember when he played and at the height of his powers in Anaheim. So that was, there was an element. element of that that I really enjoyed. And, you know, we have a junior B club in my hometown that they came into the league, I think in 97.

Their first seven seasons, they won the championships. They won the league. And so that's all I knew growing up was going to games there. I think I first went when I was about five years old. And up until I was, I went six years of, I didn't, we didn't have season tickets or anything, but there were some years where it certainly felt like we did. For six years, I never saw them lose. Like anytime we went, they won.

And if they were playing like our rival team, whether it was Comox Valley or, you know, the Oceanside Generals for a period of time, and they would crush them. And it always was like, like the nickname was it was the jungle back then. So it was a whole bunch of nonsense that, you know, fortunately, I think for a lot of good reasons you don't see now. But it was just like Friday nights at Strathcona Gardens.

It's now called Rod Brinmore Arena, rods from the same town. But that was like the place to be. If you had any interest in doing anything socially, you went to the rink and watched the junior B storm. So just being caught up in that and feeling like that was like the bigs at the time, I think that that fueled a lot of it.

I think for me growing up, to have that hometown team that on the grand scale was very small, but to us there, it was the biggest thing going. And it's fueled a lot of what I appreciate still about Pocky now into my 30s. You know what, Craig? I just love sports.

I always did. I love, you know, I realized a very young age, I wasn't going to be a pro athlete. And, you know, actually, I was also a lot softer, a teenager than I am now. If I had the attitude, I wish I had the attitude, Dan, that I have now. But I just love sports. I love competing. It's the last unscripted thing in the world, right?

And I don't know if there was a particular athlete or a particular game, but I loved watching competition, whether it was baseball or football or, uh, You know, actually, one of the things I remember watching most as a kid was baseball. It was, geez, I can't remember which World Series it was. I think it was 77 when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs against the Dodgers. Like I was up that night watching that. I was like, three home runs on three pitches. I was like, holy smokes.

Like, that's incredible. So, like, I just love that. Like, the last, you know, like at the 2002 Olympics, that was the first Olympics I ever covered. I wasn't, I was there for the score, so we didn't have a credential. But I got a ticket to the gold medal game that year against Canada, USA. And the closest I ever came to ever cheering at a sporting event. I had to hold myself down was when a gindler scored the second one to make it four to two. I remember because the puck went up in the air and it kind of went in.

I was like, when it went in, like, I was like, whoa, I can't be cheering, got to hold yourself down. So I just, I love the competition. I love the unscripted nature. I love the feeling like probably like you remember like when I walked into Montreal last year for that one where they ended up fighting like that can't like you can't like you can feel the energy in a city and you could like tomorrow night when you guys play Shakutami like it's one two in your division it's one two in the league like when you guys walk to the building tomorrow it's going to be this energy like we want to kill those guys like I love that it's the best it's the best do a couple more so this gentleman. here. Sorry, what's your name again? Dylan. I was one of the podcast winners. Yeah, so Dylan, he brought a photo

of that tweet I accidentally retweeted and he had me sign it. So Dom did a video. I'm going to put it on my Instagram. I actually tried to get a T-shirt made in time, but they were saying two weeks and it was only on Saturday. Yeah, no, that is outstanding. Well, I'm glad. You know, it wasn't

that bad by the fact that I'm still sitting here today. My question was, obviously, you guys have covered a lot of stuff. What was the best, like, event that you guys have covered in live in person? I know you've done a lot of sports. I know, Kyle, you've mostly done hockey. But what was, like, the best event that you guys have had to cover in person? I mean, I honestly, I don't think it's recency bias.

Like, the four nations probably just in terms of, like, intrigue, the tension, the emotion, the how charged at all was. You know, even, like, just standing there for that overtime, Canada, US. Again, like you're not, we're all proud Canadians. I'm not cheering one way or the other, but you're just going, you knew if it went one way over the other, like what the reaction was all going to be. And especially because we were all excited for that event because we just hadn't seen best on best for so long. But I can remember flying, I did a Saturday game in Vancouver the weekend before and then flew right to Montreal on Super Bowl Sunday. And it's almost like you're excited to be there, excited to be covering it. But it was all, it was a bit of a, it was a bit of a wrench.

in your schedule, right? Like you're having to totally change your way of thinking. You're going away from doing your week to week, whether it's Leafs or Canadians or senators or whichever game you're covering the following Saturday. It was a complete shift to the mind of going, oh my gosh, now I got a whole other set of preparation to do. And what are we even going to see out of all this? It ended up being some of the most incredible hockey we've seen this generation for sure. So that's my answer. You know what? 2002 Olympics was phenomenal. I also did, like four nations last year would be absolutely up there for sure too. I remember the first time the Raptors ever won a playoff series when Alan Iverson and Vince Carter went 50, 50, 50.

That was pretty incredible. World Series, I did 2001, when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees. That was an amazing series. A couple of things like where I got to go where I wasn't a reporter, I could just go for fun. Like it obviously didn't end the way everybody would have wanted, but I went to game six this year, Dodgers, Jay's. Incredible game, incredible series. Still can't believe they lost.

But one of the ones I really remember was I got married in the summer of 2009, like right around like the right before Labor Day, 2009. And we took our honey, we didn't have the Olympics in 2010. That was the evil telecom had them. And so we, so I was on, we took our honeymoon. And I remember, so my wife and I went to Hawaii and then I flew back the day that Canada won the semifinal. So someone offered me tickets to go to the final, which was on the Sunday. So I lay at home on the Friday.

And someone offered me the tickets. And I asked my brother-in-law if he wanted to go. And he was like, yes. And then so I told my wife what we were up to. and she was like, let me get this straight. You just flew all the way to Hawaii for our honeymoon. You just came back and now you're going to go to Vancouver for the gold medal game. And I remember saying, hey, you said yes.

You knew that this stuff was going to happen. And she laughed. She was great about it. But I went, I actually bought, I was given tickets in the first row of the upper deck right above the can, right above the net where they scored the golden goal. So I remember me and my brother-in-law were there. And it was credible. So I think now it's not only the stuff you get to cover,

but it's the stuff you get to go and enjoy. That's the stuff that is fantastic. Maybe we'll do one more, and then we'll wrap her up if there's another question. Yeah, over there on the left. Hi, Dominic, I've been reading your post, blog post, third two thoughts for a long time. And I look forward to it every two weeks. But I wonder how long to take you guys to,

because even on TV, whether on any network, you can hear, you know, while you haven't played the game, right? And it's like, how long did it take you guys to feel comfortable expressing live, you know, sharing your thoughts and having some players sometimes on certain panels pushing back like, hey, you never played the game like you don't know. That's a great question. Do you want to go first? I'll try. Well, because I think I've always kept that forefront of my mind. So whenever I weigh in on anything that would be player mindset,

it's all through context of, because I've talked to a player or a coach about something. So I come at it from, well, this player or a player or a coach said, this is what they're thinking in these situations, or this is how they like to handle certain situations with a team, or if it's something a specific or one play, or when it comes to certain equipment idiosyncrasies that certain guys have. So I never, because I didn't play at a high level,

I never come in and go, well, I think this, because you're right, like there's not credibility attached to that. So if I can bring the context, well, in talking to a player or talking to a number of players, those that are in it, that's how I try to approach it. And I really lean on, like I work with, you know, Craig Simpson every weekend. He's in the booth with Chris Cuthbert and, you know, two-time Stanley. Cup winner with Edmonton and played on those great Edmonton teams. So being able to understand what makes a team go, what makes a championship team go,

and when it can all come together and really work. Like that's been a great, great resource for me over the years in trying to better understand because I think that's the biggest key in understanding that I was not and will not be in those shoes to rely on the experience and just the opportunity to learn from those that are and to try to just help give a little bit better, as I say, context in those moments. I think I try to have three pretty good rules for how I do my job, among others. But number one, know what you don't know, okay? I know there's lots of things out there.

I don't know. I admit it. Number two, treat other people the way you would hope to be treated. And I do try to do that. Number three, don't say anything about anyone that you would have, be afraid. to say to their face. Okay? Like, those are three.

So anything you hear me say, I would not be afraid to say to someone in person. And so I think those rules have really helped me in a lot of ways. I think Kyle has a great answer. Like a lot of times, like one of the toughest things that I had to learn, and I got into some battles over it, was, you know, why did you do this?

Because people see it as you're attacking them. But I try, I would say to people, I'm not attacking you. I'm honestly, I want to explain why certain things happen the way they did. And I think when you've been around as long as I have and Kyle's been around for a while now, if people see that that's just what you're trying to do, they'll give you, they're like, okay, when he says why, he's asking me, okay, explain to me the reason. You know, I think this, I learned very early, like one of the scariest places,

I used to do a lot of Blue Jays when they were really good around 93. and I was young and they were a great team and baseball was a very different animal back then. It was the toughest sport to get to know people. And I remember going into that clubhouse a few times I was young. I was 22, 23 years old and it was terrifying. And the thing is, it's like the players there, like they smell the fear. They know when a reporter is scared.

And so you had to be confident. Like you are like it, like I wasn't the most. confident teenager. I got more confident as I went to university, but where I really got more confident as a person was doing things like that, because if you realize, if you weren't confident, you would get eaten alive.

So you didn't have to be bigger than you were, but you had to believe in what you were doing and you had to be confident with people. So, like, I've had people say that to me before. Like, you never played out. I'm like, eh, what, I mean, it doesn't insult me. I think the thing is now, too, is one of the things that people used to say is you don't understand what it's like to have 20,000 people

booing you. I think the social media change era has changed all that. Like, I'm lucky I have a lot of followers. If even one percent of them are all angry at me for something, that's a lot of people tweeting angry stuff at you. So like you, I, it was like, whenever someone says to me now, you don't know what that's like. I'm like, well, I'm sorry I do. And so I think it brings everyone together. I think a lot of people too, like in my experience, like Kevin, even when, like as much as we tear into each other, even when he

thinks I'm wrong, he wouldn't, I don't think he'd ever pull out like, well, you never played. I think there's a respect, right? It goes back and forth. I just think at the end of the day, if you understand what you don't know, you treat everybody the way that you expect to be treated

and you don't say anything you wouldn't say to someone's face, I think generally it all works out. And I'll say this. there are people that I've battled with and there are people I don't get along with because they don't like what I do. And that's unfair. Like you're not going to get along with everyone in life.

I just always say like, I try never to let it affect like Kyle's kind of smiling because he knows there's one guy in the league. It's no gozo. But whenever I talk about that player, I will never let people know that there's that thing between us.

All right. Kudos to you all for sticking through all We said 90 minutes for north of two hours. This was incredible. So thank you all. This has been so fun. Thank you to Gallagher's.

Thank you to Skills New Brunswick for the sponsorship and making all this happen. For those that are going to the banquet tonight, look forward to seeing you all there and throughout the rest of this weekend. So thank you, Moncton. This was great.

If you've made it this far, you have reached the end, incredibly. So before we say goodbye, one final time from Moncton here this weekend, And just remind you, the big show itself. Scotia Bank Hockey and Canada is on the air tomorrow, Saturday, two Atlantic time, one Eastern. Ron McLean will be out front, Avenue Center,

with so many stories to tell throughout the day. The first game we have on tap, it'll be at one mountain time. The Calgary Flames at Home hosting Matthew Schaefer and the Islanders, and eventually will make our way to two games in the early window, all Canadian clashes. The Senators hosting the Canadians, the Jets, hosting the Maple Leafs, both of those at 7E, T, the late contest this weekend. Vancouver, back home to host the Edmonton Oilers.

That'll be the nightcap on the 25th edition of Scotia Bank Hockey Day in Canada. Taking us out today, a little New Brunswick flavor fitting this weekend. From Mike Trask, with his inimitable. vocal style and raucous live shows Mike Trask has become a staple of the East Coast music community, raised on a healthy dose of country, blues, and folk music, Trask, sonwriting, deconstructs traditional genre conventions to reshape the familiar into something extraordinary. Check them out at mictrask.ca. Here's Mike with Sunny's Last Steam on 32 Thoughts, the podcast.

Many nights I'd be home alone Elbows on no catch your mama They'd say that he even read the forecast on Sunday's last steam Well Sunday he was in no green hall of stone He said he always said my first ride on a number seven On Sunday's last steam for sale