32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The New-Look Senators

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

The Ottawa Senators were very busy this off-season! Pierre Dorion and D.J. Smith have assembled a squad that is looking to compete for a playoff spot. Jeff and Elliotte travelled to Ottawa and caught up with a few members of the team including Thomas Chabot (7:00), Brady Tkachuk (19:45), Josh Norris (27:30),  Alex DeBrincat (35:15), Cam Talbot (44:00), Claude Giroux (53:20) and Erik Brännström.They also sat down with Senators GM Pierre Dorion and head coach D.J. Smith (1:01:00) to talk about the changes this off-season, the team arriving early to Ottawa and what they consider a successful season.Music Outro: Steve Marriner - Take Me To the CityListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman. Editing support by Mike Rogerson.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.

Coming. Are we good? We're good. When did you, uh, when'd you come back up? Uh, two weeks ago. So a lot of guys came back really early, eh? Yeah. Everyone came early. Weird. That's, that's when you know that you feel good about your season. Nobody's showing up the day before. Exactly. Yeah. Welcome to a special Ottawa Senators edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Jeff Merrick, Elliot Friedman, Emil Delic. Now, we all went to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago. We thank the Ottawa Senators for making people in their organization available. One thing quickly, right off the top, we want to address. There is no discussion of either Alex Formington or Drake

Batherson, mainly because there's no new information and nobody within the organization is talking about them. Since we recorded these interviews with various members of the Ottawa Senators, netminder Cam Talbot, who you will hear from, will miss the start of the season. He's out five to seven weeks with an upper body injury. General Manager Pierre Dorian, who you will also hear from, claiming Magnus Helberg off waivers from Seattle. He'll start the season alongside Anton Forsberg. Also, the Jacob Chikrin speculation is still out there. Expectations, enthusiasm, rain high around the organization. And around the Ottawa Senators,

some heavyweights remain. Tampa, Toronto, Florida. And even though the Boston Bruins will start the season banged up, you know that's a team that competes hard and will not surrender points easily. And when they get healthy, they will once again be a top team around the

ottawa senators in the atlantic now we know ottawa is better and the question elliott becomes how much better let's start there we know all about the summer of pierre and what dorian did in the offseason how much better is this ottawa senators team well i think they're a lot better and i think the key is they're older. Like a lot of their best players are still young. And I think you get an understanding of how hard it is to win in this league. It's interesting, Jeff, there's a, as we tape this, the openings on Tuesday morning, there's a clip flying around Twitter of Giannis, the great NBA player for the Bucs. And he's one of the best talkers right now. Like every time he speaks, I listen.

And he's talking about that the NBA is not a league where skill wins. And he talks about the work it takes and, you know, the effort it takes and the sacrifices you have to make. And I think we all know the Sanders are a great skilled team, but I think the young players have to learn what it really takes to win in this league. I think the top four triumvirate of Tampa, Toronto, Florida, Boston will be broken up this year. I think that now they might all still make the playoffs, but my bold prediction for the Atlantic division is that the top four is

different. And I think, you know, the Talbot thing we'll see, like that's a big blow, the Talbot injury, but I do think they're better. You know,

we know this team is better and there also seems to be a better vibe around the team. And we noticed this as soon as we got into Ottawa, everybody talking and talking positively about the Ottawa senators. And then you get to the rink and you talk to people people on the team people support staff everywhere there's a sense of optimism and Elliot just a different vibe again we haven't dropped the puck yet but there just seems to be a really better vibe around Ottawa this season yeah there's no question about it. I think the one thing that has happened here is that sometimes you get a chance to rewrite your history

and the Ottawa Senators have been given a chance to rewrite your history. They're doing it. And I know some people didn't like the contracts, but there are times you simply have to say that we have to change the perception of ourselves in our market. And the sanders were given that opportunity and they are doing it and as you know we've compared it to a duck it looks calm on

top but it's paddling furiously underneath and we think too that all the other off-ice stuff the arena the lawsuits they're working on getting this all sorted out and solved so that the era of good feeling can continue you know you mentioned there are a lot of people that didn't like some of the contracts i can assure you there are plenty of players and agents that loved some of the contracts that were signed in the offseason elliot and one of the questions too and before we get to the interviews i'm curious about this one going back to the draft i mean in montreal there was all the the whispers about the Ottawa Senators

trying to get another defenseman. Mackenzie Wieger's name was very much out there. He, of course, goes to the Calgary Flames in that Kachuk deal alongside Jonathan Huberto. I mentioned off the top the Jacob Chikrin rumors are still very much out there. Safe to say that Ottawa is still looking for one more blue liner.

I'm actually working on writing my first blog of the year, and I had some conversations about Chikrin the other day. I've heard it's quiet. Now, I've been told that Chikrin will resume skating with the Coyotes. The plan is to do it next week. There's been a lot of noise out there. And I think the reason is, I think the player in particular would like this to get done. But I've just heard there's nothing close

right now gotcha of course i'll say that and then like a nine player trade will drop and i'll look like a total moron emil we need to do an update two o'clock in the morning elliot friedman from the shower i'll be in the shower yeah someone roused merrick okay let's get to the interviews we'll start with thomas shabbat who enters his sixth full season with the Senators as the anchor on the blue line. As we all know, last season was cut short after blocking a Sean Corrales shot and breaking his hand in the process. Elliot, it was a tough injury year for Chabot. He missed four games as well after getting hit by Tom Wilson in February, and he's now hoping for a fully healthy and productive season. And so are the Ottawa Senators.

A quick thought on Thomas Chabot Elliott. I love athletic freaks. You know, people who have a gift of physical fitness or high VO2. Like Duncan Keith is the ultimate physical freak in the NHL. Kelly Rudy used to brag that he had a really high VO score. I'm sure it's lower now. That's from all the squash.

That's from playing all the squash. Well, I'm sure it's lower now with all the red wine and meat heats, but you know, he always used, and, and Shabbat is one of those guys too. Like he can play forever. You know, you covered him in juniors. How much losing did he do in juniors, Jeff? Not very much.

Not with St. John. And he was elite from pretty much day one when the Seadogs got him. And he helped lead them to a Memorial Cup berth as well. Like he was high, high-end player. Well, back when I used to cover the NBA, there was Damon Stoudemire who went from a college in Arizona where they never lost to an NBA team that always lost, the expansion team Raptors. They actually had a good season, even though they lost 61 games. And he always used to say, I never lost this much. And I always think about guys like that. And Shabbat never really lost this much.

And now it's his opportunity to finally grab something. And you can tell he's excited. He sure is. Let's hear from him. Thomas Shabbat kicks it off. The Sens special on 32 thoughts, the podcast. Alongside Thomas Shabbot of the Ottawa Senators, we've made a lot about the new guys

that are coming in, Debrinket and Talbot and Giroux, et cetera, and the younger guys that come in and push for spots. How much do you feel like the wily veteran on this team now? Not too bad, obviously. Adding guys like uh the brinkhead and obviously jiro they've been around different guys and obviously the experience that drew has you can't you just can't buy that i mean he's been around for years he's seen a lot of stuff so

to have him around obviously it's going to be huge for a group but but i mean at the end of the day i've been been here this is my sixth season on this team and obviously been the longest standing senators in the last few years so uh but no i'm just just mostly excited i think having different guys getting to know different guys and obviously the team's got a lot better than the team that we ended the season with last year so but no you know what it's it's just fun it's been a fun getting to know those guys came with those guys the the reason i ask is i mean every team every workplace has its own like vibration has its own thing and way to do business and way to conduct themselves etc how how often do you find players calling you like hey what's what's this like about the senators what's that like about the senators uh kind of more and

more i would say i mean you get to meet different guys in different situation whether it's at camps we do this summer or events or whatever and they always ask the same questions come around and i think the the look on the city of ottawa has not been great the last few years obviously when the team's not doing as good yeah it only makes sense right but i think more and more you're getting questions on how things are going on and i think a lot more guys are getting interested into coming here and guys have been getting traded over the years um they had the same idea once he got traded here and then once he got here they just realized ottawa was nice like it's a nice place to live it's a nice place to grow a family it's a big city in some ways that you have everything you need, but it also feels small. It also feels

like you meet different people and they all know each other. They all know someone you already know. So, but no, I mean, having you guys coming in, obviously everybody kind of just sees it. It's a great place to be. I love being here. You mentioned you've been here six years. Sometimes it must feel like it's been like 60. Like, you know, you really think about like a lot's happened in your time here, Thomas. I wonder how you look back at it all. Just talking with DJ before camp start, and we were just talking about hockey in general,

and I was telling him, looking back in my basement at home, I have my picture of my first NHL game, and looking at the picture, I'm the only guy that's left, and that's only five years ago we've seen a lot of guys go there's been a lot of stuff uh happening and and obviously it's been a lot of years that we kind of struggle so obviously seeing what went down this summer and adding key pieces and big time players and uh see the team kind of turn the corner on on obviously yes our young guys are good but uh now we're looking to make a push and see the team kind of turn the corner on obviously yes our young guys are good

but now we're looking to make a push and make the playoffs I think it's been one of the best summers I've had off the ice I think in putting the work and being focused on getting ready to come here and play 82 games as best as I can and I think that that was the biggest thing I think it's it's one of those training camps that everybody's looking forward to. We're all excited. And obviously, the past few years, it was fun. It was fun to see how Tim progressed so quickly, how Drake has become such a great player, Brady, again, the captain and doing a good job.

So just now, though, seeing that the team's taking a step and we want to be a team that makes the playoffs, not only one year, but we want to be in the mix for the upcoming years. I think it's been awesome to see. When you first started, it was around the time that they went to the Eastern Conference Final in 2017, so the expectation was there. This is probably the first time really since then that the expectation's been there.

How does it feel? It's great. There's nothing like playing hockey when there's some pressure, I feel like, personally. Obviously, it can be hard at times. We're all aware of that. I mean, that's what I try and tell everyone, and the group's aware of it.

I mean, our division's not an easy division. We can't just make playoffs and make it happen. There's a lot of work that goes into it. There's been teams that have been in the playoffs for a bunch of years in a row, and looking on the teams that that are in the division everybody added pieces this summer so uh we're not the only team that did it we're not the only team that got better so there's a lot of work that's that goes into it but i think that the mindset of everyone and just

seeing how early everybody got here this year i think that meant a lot to me personally uh we were here two weeks before and we were skating the full team together yeah obviously we know there's more pressure and there we we know there's more expectation but just seeing how everybody's excited and everybody showed up and everybody was ready to work all together and uh g and uh brinksey and timmy they've been skating together for a bunch of days already. So I think to me that means a lot. It shows that guys want to take a bigger step and improve all together.

And I think that's been great so far. So Elliot referenced that team, that Ottawa Senators team that went to the conference final against the Pittsburgh Penguins. I remember that really specifically because you were part of it, even though you were playing in Windsor

at that point at the Memorial Cup. So I was at for that game, for the Chris Kunitz game. So I'm at an Italian restaurant in Windsor with Rocky Dundas, Colby Armstrong, and Todd Warner. Do you go on those lines? There were a couple. There was some dented crates. A lot of guys who don't like to pay the check.

There's some alligator arms. Yeah, a lot of people tie in their skates when the bill came. The old bathroom trip as the bill comes up. That happens. I like that. I left my car out in the way. I left my wallet in the car. Let me go get it.

And we're watching this. And I can't remember. I think it was either Todd or Colby who said, you know, if St. John's Seadogs aren't in the Memorial Cup right now, Thomas Chabot might be playing in this game right now. Do you remember watching that run by the Ottawa Senators? I know you're focused on Memorial Cup at now, Thomas Chabot might be playing in this game right now. Do you remember watching that run by the Ottawa Senators? I know you're focused on Memorial Cup at that point, but do you remember watching it and

thinking like, next year that's going to be me? Yeah, I really was, to be honest. Luckily enough, our playoff run with St. John was fairly, I wouldn't call it easy because it's never easy, but it kind of was. You guys went through everybody, even Blainville at the end.

You're torched. We had a lot of days off in between playoff series and everything, so it was keeping an eye out. But one thing that happened, too, I think we were first or second round of the playoffs or starting the second round in St. John, and Ottawa went through a bunch of injuries on the back end and we kind of started hearing rumblings that I might be getting called up an emergency call up yeah emergency call if one more guy was getting hurt I think because they were

weren't whatever the rules were I can't remember everything but but then at the time I was like that kind of sucks like you played all season with your team for the goal to win the QMJHL and go to the Memorial Cup on my last junior year but then at the same time I was like well it'd be kind of cool like they're all the way to the final almost one goal away from the Stanley Cup so I was like in between but uh you know what I would have loved to to go there after the Mem Cup obviously Obviously, when I saw that overtime goal, it was pretty unfortunate. But, I mean, I was really looking forward to that. Even though I wouldn't have played, I think just the experience of being around the guys

or just being live, like as a hockey fan, being live, watching every single Stanley Cup game, I think it would have been pretty cool. But, no, I was really thinking about it. I was like, next year when I come in, obviously, I was kind of expecting to play a few games in American League. I think it's always good as a defenseman to do that. But, obviously, along the way, along the season, I figured I was going to be called up at some point

and try and take my chance there. But, obviously, that's not the way it went. But it would have been pretty cool, yeah. So, what have you learned just skating with Giroux? A lot. Like I played against him for five years. I knew him. Obviously, he's almost got, what, 1,000 points in the NHL,

so it's pretty obvious that he's an amazing player. But I never realized how good he actually was. I've been skating with him for two weeks, and just the plays that he sees, the moves that he can make. And I haven't I don't think I've ever played a guy that's just as strong as him on his stick sometimes he'll come down on you and literally just leave the puck and just block your stick and take the puck back and I think it's not like the the fancy move that everybody would be like oh my god this is amazing

but it's such a good play and hard to defend for me as a defenseman. And I think just being around him and also as a guy, like as soon as he came in the locker room, it feels like you talk to him, it feels like you already knew him for five years. He's just that easy to talk to. He's just friendly. And I think it's such a big, big piece that we've added. And he's just going to do so good for us along the way here this season. Where does Debrinket like the puck? Oh puck oh anywhere there's no bad area for him uh such a good shooter

we always drake and i we love talking hockey and just picking brains from different people or whatever and hearing stories but just we've been talking about it for two weeks in in the driving together at home or whatever and it's just he can have the puck anywhere and he'll still find a way to shoot it and it's it's pretty impressive to see like seeing him live seeing skating with him and whatever pass if the puck's bubbling or whatever he can still handle it and get a good shot off so I mean there's a reason why he scored so many goals right but um I played against him at the mem cup too and that year i think he had what 70 some 70 goals in that year he was strong and to break it like yeah it was insane we lost i think 12

to 7 against those guys i wasn't gonna bring it up but yeah i think he had i think the brink it had like seven points we talked about it a few weeks ago it was it was did he bring it up or did you bring it up uh He brought it up. So Joseph and I were talking about the Mem Cup and he brought it up and he said, yeah, I had seven points that game. I was like, oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. But no, he's just an impressive player.

You can shoot it from anywhere. You know, we've had a couple of players mention how good Tim Stutzla looks and we were with him in Germany for a couple of days, and Elliot did a real nice piece, which eventually we'll get to see one of these days. From our point of view, he looks fantastic. You've been on the ice with him.

Who's this Tim Stutzla we're seeing this year? I think we've kind of slowly started to see it last year, but I think it's just going to be more and more. And obviously, playing with the brinket and Giroux this year it's just going to surround him even better it's going to fit him even better obviously Giroux's so good on face off so then Timmy can sometimes not take it obviously as a young guys it's a younger guy it's always hard to take draws in this league but but no man I've said it as soon as I saw the guy skate for the first time in Ottawa, that first year he came or that year in World Juniors, just before he came with us.

He's just so talented. It's honestly kind of crazy in some ways how talented that guy is. Just the way he skates, he can put the puck through his legs. There's never a position that he can't make something out of. And obviously pumping his tires a lot here but I always tell him I think he's such a good player and obviously he's got some stuff to learn as we all do

as a hockey player but to have guys that have been around for a few years and guys that can surround him and help him I think he's going to look even better awesome this has been great good luck this season thank you guys thanks guys him, I think he's going to look even better. Awesome. This has been great. Good luck this season. Thank you, guys. Thanks, guys. Okay, so that's Thomas Chabot. Let's present now Brady Kachuk and Josh Norris. As far as Kachuk goes, listen, we all know he's the captain of the Ottawa Senators. We all know

that he raised eyebrows and there were some chuckles watching him cheer on his brother Matthew in Calgary last season during the playoffs. But as we like to say, Elliot, let he who has never captained an NHL team while cheering for another while possibly buckled with two tins of beer in his back pockets cast the first Michael Stone. You'll hear from Brady Kachuk in a second. Josh Norris, you know, last season the Ottawa Senators found they had like legit one of the hardest things to put together,

and that is a solid first line, and Josh Norris is right in the middle of all of it. Him and the draft pick that turned into Tim Stutzla now have Sens fans wondering, well, maybe we did win the Eric Carlson trade after all. Here's Josh Norris, but up first, Brady Kachuk. Pleased to be joined by Brady Kachuk. Pleased to be joined by Brady Kachuk. And listen, at this time last year, it was, you know, Matthew Kachuk watching the Brady Kachuk drama.

How much were you either involved in, paying attention to, amused by the Matthew Kachuk drama this offseason? Yeah, no, it was fun. I feel like it was around a year ago today where he came on with you guys and stirred the pot a little bit. Do you talk to Brady at all during this?

During the season or during the summer? No, now as he's going through his situation. All the time. I'm in the mix. It's a family business. Nobody wants to deal with the Kachuks in this, but we do it by a committee. Yeah. Brady might be – he's doing great.

Well, I want to hear what Brady might be. What were you about to say? He might be pulling a classic Kachuk right now. I mean, Dad held out, Matthew held out, and Brady looks like he's on his way right now. So hopefully it gets – hopefully we can get it figured out here. But there's just a lot of fake stuff out there regarding this. They're not too close.

So hopefully it gets figured out. But who knows? It was almost funny right away. But then I was like, okay, this could cut. But it ended up all working out. But, yeah, no, it's been good. I mean, the summer was definitely crazy for him. And just to see it happen, you know, kind of being there for when it did, it was pretty surreal and just see his happiness telling us that

it was awesome. Just to rewind really quickly to it, to a year ago when he came, we were in Chicago for the players tour and your brother was on with us and, you know, when he started talking about when you're negotiating with one Kachuk, you're negotiating with all the Kachuks and everything that he said, what went through your mind when you first heard that? Of course, he's always been supportive and, of course, on my side with everything. But yeah, just when it came to the negotiations, it all came down to my decision. And of course, they give advice and stuff like that and different perspectives. But I wanted to be here long term. And that's why I signed here for seven years. And it's just what I wanted. So, of course, I always appreciated him and my dad's advice and um but at the end of the day they

allowed me to make you know my own decision too brady you know as you mentioned your family uh including you know your mom and your sister you guys know sports and you guys know business and you're still young but are there other nhl players who ask you about, ask your advice, just because of how knowledgeable your family is about it, and say, you know, what would you guys do in this situation, or what do you think about this situation? Yeah, there's been a couple, you know, close buddies who, you know, have talked to either Matthew or I just kind of, you know, what they think. But it's just more being there for them as a friend

and going through whatever options they had and see what's best for them and what sets them up for, you know, that next contract, that next deal and, and, uh, whether it's a timeframe and stuff like that. So, but I don't think it's more to try to, you know, pick my brain about it. Just, I want to be there for them as a friend and, and, uh, you know, it's life-changing when you sign one of those deals. So, um, just to be able to almost have not a part, but to be there for almost their decision process, it's pretty cool. And it's nice to share that memories with some of my buddies. Yeah, it might sound like a weird question

because you've just grown up in hockey, surrounded by hockey. But at what point, because you're real smart, your brother is real smart, your dad, your mom, like as Elliot mentioned, your sister, like your whole family understands. When did you first start to get it, like the business side? And even just from a hockey point of view,

how to maneuver in a salary cap and maneuver in an area where you're a restricted free agent with not a lot of movement rights but still able to get yourselves into positions to get big deals. At what point did you just take an interest in the business of it and really start to get a handle on it? Going into it, I was more excited for the process of going through my first negotiation and stuff like that, but as the summer went on, it became more, not aggravating, but the excitement went away.

And more, that's when I started figuring out, okay, this is the business. And now with that, you want to set yourself up and your future family and your future life. But also, if you sign the best deal possible, you're potentially helping out the guy next to you. And when they negotiate for their contract and all the comparables and all that different type of stuff. So now when I sign that, it's down the road. Hopefully it helps another person in that situation too.

You're the captain of this team. I'm always curious. As we went into a huge summer for the Senators, how much did you know about what was going to happen? How much did they tell you about this is going to be our plan i didn't know like the full details i knew um that this is you know

there's gonna be a big change and and um no personnel so as you know the summer went on and as we got closer to free agency is more you more guys that they were looking at. But didn't really know the official word until right before it was announced, a little heads up. But at the start of the summer, they didn't say, we're going after this, this, and this. It's just as they started getting close to being final, that's when they let me know just to give a heads up. So no, it was appreciative. But I feel like for two weeks weeks there is a lot going on. So I feel like the phone was getting a lot of notifications during that. Whose name came across your phone that you were like, oh.

Yeah, well, just go with the guys that are team. It's, of course, you just named the three. And if you know anything, I was just saying, you know, I met those guys and, you. And Tal was playing with Matthew. So, of course, got a really good review there. So they really enjoyed being together. So, yeah, no, it was just, of course, all great things. And just seeing them now in person, they're even better people than expected.

So it's already been fun to hang out with them. There's been a lot of debate about should the word playoffs be uttered. As captain, how do you feel about that? Yeah, well, I think we don't really need to add that extra added pressure from the outside. I feel like that just creates almost a distraction if we're putting that word out there and trying to create that pressure from everybody else. But I know we're confident as a group. We're confident to take that next step. And we want to prove to everybody that we're ready for what's to come. But, yeah, I don't think we need to say, oh, we'll make it or not. I think that we're just ready for the next step.

Final one for me is what was the best text or message you got from anyone when you were out in Calgary last year in the playoffs? Just a screenshot of the picture at the beers in the back pocket. That was, I looked at my phone. I was like, Oh, what can I do now? So I captured it. I was like, all right, it looks like just going to enjoy the game now. So, um, yeah, that was probably the best text I got.

Who was it from? There's multiple people who text you that. And then I saw a couple of tweets about it. I was like from? There's multiple people who text me that and then I saw a couple tweets about it. I was like, okay, people think it's funny. So I was like, oh, I'm just here to support Matthew. That's pretty much the only reason why I'm doing it. So that's all I care about is Matthew. He's like, no, I loved it.

It was awesome. Speaking of Matthew, last question here. Scale of 1 to 10, how much are you looking forward to playing the Panthers? Yeah, it's probably a 10, but it's not going to be as fun now. It's going to be all business. Those are big points, big divisional games, but it's going to be different. It's going to be an

adjustment, but we're both treating it as those 10s, the excitement just to see him. It's going to be more family coming down now since it's probably easier to get to. It'll be a lot of fun. Chuck's in the same time zone.

Look out. Oh, boy. Thanks so much for this. Good luck this season. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Alongside Josh Norris of the Ottawa Senators, where it seems as if optimism is the call of the day. Everybody that we've spoken to today,

we know that it's been challenging in this organization for the last few seasons. It feels different. It looks different from the outside. Elliot and I are talking here from the back seat. You've got a hand on the wheel. What's it like from your point of view? I think it's kind of similar, honestly. We keep getting asked the same thing. There's all this buzz around the city and the fans,

and everyone's just excited to kind of come see us play, and I think that's how we feel inside the locker room. It's not hard to see. Obviously, we have a lot of young, really good players, and then you bring in a guy like G, and you bring in Talbot, who's an established goalie, and all of a sudden you have a real team. You look at us on paper, we're for sure a lot improved and obviously it you know the first thing that you have to do is play well on the ice so there's still that that we have to prove but

it's looking good right now what did you think the offseason was going to be like because I mean this was the season of Pierre Dorian what did you think it was going to be like like you leave your exit meetings and you're like what happens with this team what did you think it was going to be like? Like you leave your exit meetings and you're like, what happens with this team? What did you think? I remember our exit meeting. We both were kind of chuckling, like saying, let's get this deal done soon. And he said it pretty confidently. So I left the room feeling good, honestly. And then I spoke to him probably three, four weeks later. So things kind of settled down a little bit. And then he called and talked to my agent or whatever and had our first discussion. And a month later, the deal was done, honestly. And before that, we had made some acquisitions and acquired Talbot and the Brinkett, which was, honestly, I didn't see that one coming.

I don't know if you guys saw that one coming. Not until not long before it happened. Yeah. And then I think once that started to happen, you could sense that something was kind of brewing. And then I signed and then Timmy signed. Obviously, Drew signed before that. But, yeah, it was an exciting summer.

And I think, like Elliot, you just said, I mean, everyone got here two weeks early. And especially for the young guys who don't have places here yet, it's typically not something that you do. You kind of just show up a week before or whatever. I think that just shows how excited everyone was. Yeah, that's the word, excitement. So how many of those players crashed on your living room couch because they needed somewhere to stay for a couple of days?

It was actually pretty good, honestly. Timmy slept at my place a couple nights, mainly because he didn't have a car yet. All right. And you mentioned you talked about your contract. Who knew? Like, who did you tell? Say, hey, you know, I'm signing tomorrow.

What's the circle of trust for Josh Norris? It was a tight crew. Outside of my family, it was Brady. It was Quinn. Quinn Hughes. Yeah. Timmy, obviously, was in there. Drake and Chabby.

So that was kind of the crew and said just keep it tight for now and and uh it was actually it was funny uh I was talking to Chris Moore our he does like all the media and stuff like that and I'd signed on a I think it was a Thursday and we were going to release it on Friday and I ended up getting the paper back to him at Thursday at like four o'clock or three o'clock or something. And he's like, don't worry about it. We'll get the news out tomorrow and let you kind of have your full day. And so anyway, I emailed them the contract back. And next thing I know, I'm sitting on my phone at home and my brother comes knocking on the door. He's like, Hey, uh, they just like released the contract. And like, all my buddies are texting me. I'm like,

what the, you know, I text Chris. I'm like, hey, I thought like tomorrow was the day. You know what I mean? And he's like, oh, sorry. I just got your email. I thought it would be okay. And I was like, yeah, no worries. But, you know, maybe a heads up would have been nice or something. My phone starts blowing up.

And it was funny. But, yeah, that's kind of how it happened. It was funny. We were talking off mic about how you said you can never be satisfied in this league. When you look back at last year and when you looked ahead to this year, what did you say I'm going to be better at or I'm going to work at? I think I want to be able to control the play

a little bit more, hold on to the puck more. I want to give the puck to my line mates more and be kind of a, not more of a playmaker, but I know that that's something that I wanted to work on. I have the goal scoring's something that kind of comes naturally and I'm putting good spots and just like I said be more of a well-rounded player and be better defensively too I think at times it was a little inconsistent last year at least to my standard and yeah I mean obviously I want to be a really really good center

in this league and you have to be good on both sides of the puck so in my inner core that's what I wanted to do. Eric Branson actually talked about that this morning. He said that the team has talked about having the puck more. I think we're going to play more with the puck this year and try to be more, what do you say, have control of the games more. I think we just have been hunting a little bit the last couple of years. But this year, I think we can be the teams

that controls the games because we have a different set of two first lines this year, I think we can be the teams that controls the games because we have a different set of two first lines this year. So it's going to be really good. So I think that's the biggest thing. I think we're going to have the puck more. So that's a big point of emphasis for you guys? 100%, yeah. I mean, I think you saw us play last year.

We're not an easy team to play against. Sure, we weren't winning a ton of games last year year but I think if you kind of go around the league and ask teams who was one of the harder teams to play against or maybe one of the teams that was on the lower end of the standings but it was always a tough game because we played hard and I think the next step for us is just more puck possession and controlling a puck more and that means you don't have to defend as much either right so which is not a fun part of the game and so if you have it more then it's more fun and you're probably winning more games so um what's the expectation you've taken strides here's talbot here's the brinkett klojuru comes in um a lot of younger players are going to push a camp we all know the names

uh what's the expectation now for this team well the expectation from the outside versus the inside is probably completely different at least from my perspective yes we have a better team on paper more talent but i think it's easy to look so far ahead and be like okay we have to be this team we have to win this amount of games we have to push for a playoff spot and it's so easy to do that but i i know it's cliche i've said this a bunch but we have to stay grounded especially at the start of the season and and be present and take care of the things that you need to do to win hockey games because that's at the end of the day it's all that matters we've shot ourself in the foot both years that I've been here so far and you're out of the playoff

race by November or December so like I said the expectation is very high and we hold ourselves to a high standard, but we have to take it one day at a time and take care of stuff and take care of business. Perfect. That's great. Thanks so much. Thanks very much. Yeah, good luck. Have a great season. Thank you very much. Okay, we hope you enjoyed those three interviews. Quick break. When we come back,

DJ and Dorian, Cam and the Cat, plus more as our Sen Special continues. Welcome back to our Ottawa Senators special. Alex DeBrinckit arrives in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks on day one of the NHL draft in exchange for a first-round pick that turned into Kevin Korchinski of the Seattle Thunderbirds, a second, which is Paul Ludwinski from the Kingston Frontenacs, and a third in 2024. DeBrinckit is coming off his second 41-goal season

and is expected to fill the net for the Senators on the line with Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzla. Enjoy the cat on 32 Thoughts the Podcast. Alex Debrinkit, I swear we're going to talk about the NHL and the Ottawa Senators, but a couple of minutes ago, Thomas Chabot sat there

discussing how you gleefully remind him of what your eerie otters did to his sea dogs in the Memorial cup. And he said, yeah, he's talking about how he put up a seven spot on us, et cetera,

et cetera. True story. Yeah. I was there at the round. I watched the game. I was there to see it, but you laying into them. Yeah.

It's been mentioned a couple of times. I mean, I get it from DJ, so I got to give it to someone else. So, but yeah, those, those are fun games to play and uh nice to reminisce but I'm excited to be on his team and not have to play against him anymore absolutely

have you gotten used to a new logo yet uh yeah it's been different I've been here for quite a few uh weeks so I've gotten used to it a bit but I think it's all gonna hit me tomorrow when we get on the ice for practice and play the game on Saturday. I think there'll be a lot of fun to be in a new uniform and hopefully it goes well. Did you have any idea? I had some sort of idea. I was going to get traded, but not here. I had no idea where I was going to go. I mean, yeah, I kind yeah, you see the stuff on Twitter and online, but you're kind of just sitting there waiting for something to happen. Yeah, I mean, I loved my time in Chicago, and obviously it didn't turn out definitely the way we wanted it to,

but I learned so much there, and I became such a better player there. So obviously I wouldn't change that for anything, but I'm ready to go here and hopefully we can you know turn some heads and have a good season it's the business unfortunately does it like sometimes the first time a young player realizes it's a business as much as it's a game it can change them does it change you at all no not really I mean I think I've learned it's a business a lot of my good friends have gotten traded out of Chicago so you know it is what it is obviously i mean i loved it there but like i said i'm definitely excited to be here and with the

talent we have in that that locker room it's going to be a lot of fun to play hockey and i'm not so sure it's going to be great in chicago so um i'm excited to play some meaningful games and you know really enjoy that here we've talked a lot about Tim Stutzla today. A lot of your teammates have gone out of their way to say, like, Tim looks really good. We spent a couple of days with him in Germany in the summer, and he looks fantastic. You're going to play a lot with Tim Stutzla.

What's that going to be like for you? Yeah, it's going to be fun. I mean, just the few skates we've had together he looks uh really good he's very skilled um has great vision and can you know hold on to the puck and move the puck so i think that's something maybe not everyone knows and he can has a lot of speed too and i think that's something that's huge when you get that speed up the middle of the ice it makes it way easier for the wingers and a lot more opens up so obviously we want the puck in his hands but if it's not he has the speed to you know kind of back up the the defenseman and create a lot of plays that way a couple of your teammates i've asked them like what's a good pass for de brinkett where does he like it and they

said he can take it anywhere so what's a bad pass to you like where do you look at and say oh come on you can't put it there i don't know i feel like if i if it's i mean out of reach is definitely not uh great i feel like that's something that i try to do is be able to get anything off and even if it doesn't have a lot of power on it it's still got a chance to go in the net and you know sometimes those ones that kind of flutter in are better than the ones that go hard. I think it kind of tricks the goalies. I try to hit anything in range and do my best. If I can't, then I'll try to look to make another play.

Because Kevin Bieksa, I remember listening to him one night on television. He really broke down passing. He talked about backspin and you know when a left-hand shot passes to a right-hand shot and you know you play with Patrick Kane who's as smart as anybody as who has ever played the game and I just wonder like what was it like receiving passes from him and how what kind of touch would he try to put on it for you um yeah I mean he can pretty much, you're really not getting many bad passes from him. So, I mean, he's always giving you a chance to shoot the puck and

most of the time when he passes, it always lands flat and that makes it so much easier for a shooter to hit the puck, obviously. So, I think that was his kind of specialty is the saucer pass with rarely hops up on anyone. so you know getting passed from him was was pretty easy for me to to hit it I mean I don't know if I really think about the spin too much it might have something to do with it um I guess I haven't really thought about that too much but he usually puts it in your wheelhouse and it makes it a lot easier to shoot the puck when um you know it's a flat hard pass so you know that's what he's so great at and um obviously he creates so much space for everyone on his team you know guys are always watching him

and he's able to find a guy um you know cross ice or wherever it may be but um you know he's one of the best you know this league has a lot of great shooters and you're amongst the top like you're in that elite category who do you look at and say, oh, yeah, that guy? I mean, I think you got to say Ovi, right? But also Matthews. I think, you know, Ovi's more of a one-time threat, and Matthews, you know, his pull and drag is so deadly, you know, right around the defenseman.

And I think it's such an underrated skill. I feel like people might not notice it that much, but it really changes the angle on the goalie and, you know, he can fire it. So he's probably the guy everyone's looking up to, to try to emulate. And I mean, obviously he scored 60 goals last year, so that's definitely impressive. Yeah. So I think he's the guy to look at and, you know, he really sets the mark a goal scorers like inevitably will go through slumps it's just just a game you know and you know that what do you do when you're going through one like i know some guys like change up the

entire routine change the pattern of the stick they use like all of it do you do anything like that it should be i have no slumps Well, we know that's not true. I think when I'm having a tough time, I try to simplify the game, not do too much. I mean, you can never shoot the puck enough. So I think if you shoot it 10 times, hopefully one goes in. So I feel like I don't change any of my pre-game routine or anything like that no no changes to the stick but I think just the drive to the rink in a different way different moves like that I think just mentality is um maybe slightly different you got to get back to you know what brought you here

you got a four check hard when you do all the little things right you're gonna get chances that are probably gonna go in so I feel like that's kind of my mentality shift and I think whenever I go through a slump I'm probably trying to play too fancy or you know make too many pretty plays when I can just either shoot the puck or you know work harder so that's kind of what I do when I'm feeling I'm maybe gripping it a little too much I try to just relax and focus on the little things. What are you going to miss most about Chicago? I mean I have a lot of great friends there so them probably most but i think the food second you know what you know what i was gonna say deep dish pizza but i don't know like do athletes elite level athletes eat deep dish pizza um i do like pizza chicago style is not my favorite probably

but yeah i mean i think there's just so many great restaurants there that you could go out every night and get a unbelievable meal at a different restaurant so that's gonna be missed but you know you can find good food anywhere i feel like or you can make it at home so that's not the end of the world uh listen uh poised for the great season good luck this year thanks so much for doing this. Yeah, thank you. Hope you enjoyed hearing from Alex DeBranquet. Let's get to a couple of more Ottawa Senators. Some new look sends.

We're going to get to Claude Giroux here in a couple of moments. We all saw the Claude Giroux thing coming, right? The local boy goes home. It's obvious, right? Well, Claude Giroux thing coming, right? The local boy goes home, it's obvious, right? Well, Claude Giroux will tell you this one was not a layup. Although he's happy in Ottawa, you know, this is the team he chose, he did have other options to weigh. Before we get to Giroux, Cam Talbot, not exactly a secret, the former Minnesota goaltender, was not a fan of how things were playing out with the Wild. So he got out as Pierre Dorian pulled off the always popular goalie for goalie trade, sending Philip Gustafson Bill Guerin's way. When he gets healthy again, he'll share the Sens crease with Anton Forsberg.

Here's Cam Talbot on 32 Thoughts. Welcome to Cam Talbot to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. And I know it was an interesting summer for you, but you landed in a pretty exciting place and you could feel momentum with this end sort of gathering all summer long. How are you right now, Cam? I'm great.

Like you said, I came to a team that's got a lot of excitement around it. You know, I think it was four or five days before I got traded here, they went out and got Alex Debrinket and then the following day they signed Claude Giroux. So, I mean, there was already a pretty exciting core here, and to add the three of us I think was pretty exciting

to be one of those pieces, so I'm looking forward to it. When you saw Debrinket and Giroux News and all that before you came, did you have a feeling that maybe that's where you were going to end up? Honestly, I had no idea where I was going to end up. That was, this one kind of was off the map. And, you know, at one point they had three goalies here. So I didn't think that it could be a landing spot. And then, you know, Murray goes to Toronto and I get flipped for Gustafsson.

So it was one of those things where I didn't really see it as a landing spot. It already felt like a crowded crease as is. But, you know, now it's back to two of us, and it's going to be fun. Ken, was there somewhere maybe you thought you were going to be? You mentioned you were kind of looking at the landscape. I'm sure you looked up and down the standings. I could be here, I could be here. Is there somewhere you thought?

You look around, but you never really know. You're just looking at teams that their goalie might be going here and this goalie might be going here, and then you try to anticipate where those guys are going to sign and where there could be openings but you never really know I mean I knew that Jack Campbell wasn't going to be in Toronto anymore that could have been a landing spot and if Washington didn't get Kemper that could have been a landing spot so you just never know and you look around at the landscape and you kind of anticipate but again teams like this kind of come out of nowhere

and ends up where you're meant to be that draft weekend was a wild weekend you know Marc-Andre Fleury resigns and your agent George Bezos and the agents are supposed to be passionate defenders of their clients and he sure was he made a lot of waves did Bill Guerin at all come close to convincing you to stay? Yeah, honestly, I think that we wanted to stay. We never wanted to leave Minnesota. We had put down some roots there, bought a house. Kids were in school. They had their friends, their hockey teams,

their soccer teams going and set for next year. And it's one of those things where it's not just about you anymore. It's about your family. And, you know, when it comes down to that, I think that we were very close to just about you anymore, it's about your family. And when it comes down to that, I think that we were very close to just staying. I had a great relationship with Marc-Andre when he came, and he's one of the best goalie partners you can ask for, and that's obviously well-known.

So he comes as advertised, and it was definitely a tough decision to move on. That relationship's always an interesting one with the two goaltenders. You've had a couple of legends. You mentioned Marc-Andre Fleury. We think of Henrik Lundqvist as well. What makes it work and what can derail it? Honestly, I think that both those guys are very good at making things work. I mean, obviously with Hank, it was more of a one-two relationship, but that was kind of what I needed at that time. I needed the experience and the guy to learn from and that kind of thing at that time. And then with Marc-Andre, it was more,

we're both pushing for starts. We're both pushing to be the guy in the playoffs, and we both wanted the same thing. We both wanted Minnesota Wild to win a Stanley Cup last year, and neither one of us are selfish guys or bad teammates or anything like that. So it was easy to make it work with both those guys, to be quite honest.

I look at your career and I think back, I was looking at this yesterday, where you started and where you are now. How close did it come to unfolding the way that you thought it was going to? You mean not being here? No, no, no, but just in general. Go back to where you started from and the path you took yeah would you have imagined that in your mid-30s like this is where

you'd be and this is how much you've played and you'd be a number one in the nhl absolutely not i think that's why i said what i said like not being here was, you know, my career trajectory to that point. You know, until my last, I'd say, month in Alabama Huntsville, I had no agent, no idea that I was going to be playing past that year, any sort of hockey, let alone be in the AHL the next year. So things just kind of took off for me that last month. And I remember getting called into my coach's office in Huntsville and him asking me if I had an agent. And I was like

no I never needed one you know I just kind of looked at him and he gave me honestly five or six names on a piece of paper and said these guys have all called let me know if you need help making a decision or anything like that and about a month later we played our game in the NCAA tournament we lost to Miami Ohio two to one and I think it was within 24 hours I was signing with the Rangers. So everything just happened so quickly. And, you know, I think that was one of the biggest and most important decisions I made because I did have a couple other options signing out of college.

But to have the opportunity to learn from Benoit Allaire and to work with Henrik Lundqvist I think was very attractive and obviously turned out to be the best, one of the best decisions I've made. Forgive my ignorance, you're 35, right? I am. I guess before that last month in Alabama, Huntsville, where did you think you'd be at 35?

Probably doing some sort of investment banking or something like that. I was always good with numbers. I was a corporate finance major in college. So, you know, Huntsville wasn't, it was always good with numbers. I was a corporate finance major in college. So, um, you know, Huntsville wasn't, um, it was a good hockey school, but it was more based on academics. So you couldn't take any classes off. You had to make sure that you were in class and make sure you got your studies done before you went to practice kind of thing. So I was no slouch in the classroom either. And I was making sure, cause I didn't think that I'd be playing any kind of hockey

after that year. So I want to make sure that my, uh, my academics were in order and I was making sure because I didn't think that I'd be playing any kind of hockey after that year so I wanted to make sure that my uh my academics were in order and I was ready to basically start a career after that do you give investment advice to teammates I do not no now I have business and financial advisors for that and uh if they have any questions I forward them right to them I was curious you know a lot of musicians will look at some of their early work and think like, oh, what was I thinking when I wrote that? It's almost like borderline embarrassing. Would you ever go back and look at yourself, you know, even before the NHL, you know, look at video of yourself and go like, oh man, am I different now? Oh yeah. I mean, if anyone ever seen me play in college, I played, you know, four or five feet out above the top of my crease. I was more like Jonathan Quick style than Henrik Lundqvist style. And then I think that was one of the biggest things was getting to work with Benoit Allaire was he really reeled me in and it took about three to four years of him constantly, okay, let's bring it back a foot here, and now another foot, and now another foot,

until you're comfortable where you're at. There's less movement. There's less flexibility involved. It's just more reading, and his big thing was most goalies at this level are going to make the first save, but it gives you that better opportunity to make that second save. And like I said, I wasn't the most flexible or athletic like Jonathan Quick was. So reeling it back and being in a better position to make those second saves.

I mean, I look back at that and I was like, I could not have kept that up. That's for sure. You've been skating with some of these guys? Yeah, I've been here for about three weeks now. So who's of your future teammates? Who have you noticed? Honestly, I've noticed Timmy quite a bit. I mean, he's out there.

He's, the things that he can do with the puck are pretty impressive. So, Drake Batherson, I mean, he's got one heck of a shot. And again, these are guys that I haven't seen a whole lot of over the past three years being in, three or four years being in the West. So, Josh Norris, you know, all these young, skilled fours that this team has, they've all impressed and they come as advertised. But I think the biggest thing that I've realized is how much these kids want to win, how much they love hockey, and how much these guys all really get along.

They're all such good kids. And I think that speaks to them as well. There's no egos in that room, even though they're all so highly touted. They're all just good teammates as well, which is nice to see. Ottawa plays high event games, Cam. Luck goes on in Ottawa games. I don't know how you would compare that to Minnesota last year, last couple of years.

When you watched Ottawa, I'm sure you watched some video. What did you think? I mean, they're exciting. That's for sure. They're very exciting. So, you know, hopefully we can continue to play those exciting games, but maybe not make them as close or maybe as high scoring on our end.

But I think that's where myself and Anton come in. I think it's going to be a good rapport there and a good relationship between the two of us, keeping the puck out of the net. But, yeah, I think as these young guys continue to grow and evolve their games uh they're not going to be as focused offensively as they are you know defensively i think that they're just going to continue to grow in those roles and and know that it's going to take keeping the puck out of your net to win more hockey games i think that's what ultimately everybody wants and and bringing in guys like claude that have been there before and have been leaders. And I've been a leader on some of the teams that I've been on as well. So I think

that bringing in some older guys and some leadership roles is going to help those guys grow a little bit more. Exciting team. You're in for it. All eyes on you. Thanks so much for doing this. Thanks guys. Claude Giroux joining us here on the podcast. First of all, congratulations. I know you've gotten a million texts and phone calls and all that, but add us to the list. Was it ever in doubt? I mean, we talked about it when the season ended. Oh, yeah, Giroud to Ottawa.

That's the layup. That's the two-foot putt. Was it? No, no, it wasn't. I know when the season ended, I really liked it in Florida. It was a good time, and we had a good team. And at the end of the day, it just didn't work out for both sides so it was time to look at other options and and Ottawa was always in the mix but it's when I started really realizing about the team the coaches and being able to to join a group

that we can build together got me very excited and obviously staying at home it's definitely a plus but I like to say it's it's not the reason I'm here. I'm here because I like the core group. I like the way the team was playing at the second half last year, how they took a step. And all those young guys, the way they play on the second half, that's what made me pretty excited. Was there ever anywhere else you thought it might be?

To be honest, I've never been in this position before, and now going through it, I respect guys that go through it multiple times. It's a tough decision. There's a lot of pros and cons for all the scenarios, but when I was able to speak with Pierre and DJ leaving those meetings, it made me really excited and made me want to just jump on board. This looks like it's a hand-to-glove relationship. And this looks like this Ottawa Senators team,

certainly the top six, looks tremendous. You've played in the Metropolitan. You've played in the Atlantic. You've had a chance to play against the Ottawa Senators. I know this is a different composition now with the new players in, but what were your thoughts playing against Ottawa when you're either a Flyer or a Panther? I hated it.

That's one of the reasons why I wanted to come here too is just when you play the Senators, they work hard, they compete, they play with passion, and it starts with Brady. Brady is the captain, and the way he plays, you don't have a choice, but you have, starts with Brady. Brady is the captain and the way he plays, you don't have a choice, but you have to play like him. You have to go out there and compete and you're not there to make friends. And when you play against a team like that, you know it's going to be a hard night.

You want to be part of that. I had an interesting conversation with someone about you and they talked about, everybody's going to talk about Claude Giroux going to Ottawa because it's home for him. It's home for his family. He's a scorer who can really add a lot to their offense but what this guy said is what you're not going to see and the biggest factor that Claude's going to have there is that he's demanding he doesn't show it publicly but he's very demanding this is a former teammate

of yours he said he learned at the feet of Chris Pronger, who was maybe the most demanding teammate ever. And he said that behind the scenes, Claude Giroux, he'll never say it publicly, but behind the scenes, he's going to demand a lot of these young players. Is that a fair statement? Well, I think as a teammate,

you expect your teammates to play at their best ability. And sometimes when you see one of your teammates not playing the way you know he can, you're not going out there and start yelling at the guy. You just try to work with him. You try to see what he's thinking. And then you just kind of have a conversation about it. And I think a lot of players did that for me when I was younger, being able to find that sweet spot when you can play your best.

You know, some nights you just won't have it. But how do you go through the game that you don't have it and you make it a positive? You keep it simple. You start making the little details. And, I mean, I was able to learn a lot from Chris Pronger and Danny Breer and Mike Richards. And having those guys being able to kind of teach me that at a really young age I was able to kind of figure it out because 82 games a lot of games you know you're not going to have it every night but if you can make that one play you can have that one good shift or to get momentum from your team those are just little

details that makes a good team what makes you mad from a teammate ah i hardly get mad at my teammates unless it's a effort related but uh you know it doesn't happen often this is the nhl the best league in the in the world and if you're in the league there you're in league for a reason so uh effort is not always it doesn't happen often but when it does that's usually what gets me pretty fired up how often do you think about or do you even think about okay we haven't had a normal season for a long time here how do i pace myself through this because i mean you're the veteran here like you've done it there's a lot of kids that haven't how do you do it i'm not pacing myself i'm uh first game starts i'll be ready to go and i think mentally, it's more challenge mentally than physically. Off the ice, you take care of your body, you eat well, you sleep, all that stuff.

But I think mentally, I think that's what's going to be the hardest part to be able to, like I said, 82 games, it's more games than people think. When you play four games in one week it's it definitely gets to you and so you know mentally you just gotta stay loose just have confidence in what you did in the summer i just wanted to ask you about philly you know it just seems like things in the last couple years just went completely haywire there with 2020 hindsight claude do you have any theories on you know why it kind of went that way? No, I don't. But like last year, we start the season not bad,

and then you lose Couturier, you lose Faraby, you lose Ellis, you lose Hayes. I mean, those are your top guys. And when you lose those kind of guys, it's hard to compete every night with teams that are healthy. So one thing happened bad and another thing, and it was kind of a nightmare of a season. It's kind of frustrating a little bit because we did think we had a good team on paper, and if everybody was healthy,

I think it would have been a different result. So it's definitely frustrating that my last year as a Flyer, that's how it was. But, you know, it's a great organization. Chuck Fletcher has been unbelievable to me and Paul Holmgren and Bobby Clark and everybody just, they've been great to me since, since I'm 20 years old.

Final one for me, two lines, Stutzla, Giroux, Dobrinket, Matthews, Marner, Bunting.

Who outscores who? Outscores? Yeah. Plus minus Who outscores who? Outscores? Yeah. Plus minus or outscores? That's different. You can pick. You can pick. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Oh, come on. Give me a pick. No, wait and see. That does wink at one thing. We'll end on this one. What's the expectation this year from this group? You know, since I'm here, I've been asked that question at least 10 times. You know, at the end of the day, playoffs.

I think that's every team's expectations to make the playoffs. You do that, you give yourself a chance. So, but saying that, knowing how young we are, how a lot of players haven't played with the players, chemistry is going to be very important early in the season. We get the chemistry early on in the season, and I think we can do some damage, but we're not going to be the best team

on the second game of the season this year. We're going to have to keep working, keep building, work on our game, and it's going to be a process. But when we get to that point, we're going to feel comfortable in our game, have an identity. I think that's when we're going to be dangerous. We wish you the best. Thanks so much for this.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Okay, so now to the gentlemen who make the big decisions. And we interviewed them together. DJ Smith, with the expectations of the nation's capital raised, it's up to DJ Smith as head coach to execute new players, improve players, and a league that's now looking at the Sands and saying, hmm, maybe, just maybe.

As far as Pierre Dorian goes, he's been all smiles this past summer while he retooled his team. Trades for Alex DeBranckit and Cam Talbot. He brought in Claude Giroux, got extensions done with Tim Stutzela and Josh Norris, all the while hunting for another D-man. Dorian finally has his team trending upwards.

Elliot and I sat down with both these gentlemen together to get their thoughts on their squad. Enjoy Pierre Dorian and DJ Smith on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Alongside Pierre Dorian and DJ Smith, Pierre, I want to start with you. It's been described as the summer of Pierre. I know you've seen it.

I know you've heard it. Maybe you chuckle inside. Maybe you try to shrug it off. But this was an impressive offseason for the Ottawa Senators. And we get to Ottawa yesterday, and it's Senators talk in the airport. Guys in baggage talking Senators. Restaurants, Senators. At the hotel, Guys in baggage talking to senators. Restaurants, senators. At the hotel, senators.

Talking to players this morning, there's this, we haven't had a sense of optimism here in a long time, but here it is. I don't know that it's just about the signings and the trades. It's got to be about something more.

Where does this sense of optimism come from from your chair? From my chair, it just comes from the team that we've been able to put together through the summer. It comes from the quality additions that we've been able to make, you know, solidifying our top six forward. Wouldn't say it's the best in the league, but it can compete with some of the best in the league. Solidifying our goaltending, getting a guy that was an all-star last year. I think it's also the guy to my left.

It's having a coach that we hired a few years ago that I know can build this team into a winner. So it's putting all the pieces together is what excites us. Just in general, what have you seen behind the scenes that's different about the Sanders? The way you guys do business, the way you guys approach things. How have you seen the change that maybe the fans and the media don't see? Well, for me, it's the expectations. The players expect so much more of themselves today than they did before. Before, it was just getting a feel for the league. Now, it's showing up and proving you can play with the other team's best players. It reminds me of Matthews when he was a rookie going against Sidney Crosby,

and Crosby won that match, say, that night. A lot of nights, you know, our guys, you know, got taken to the woodshed by some of the league's best. They want to prove they belong. Pierre? First sign for me was when I found out when everyone was coming to town. I've been in the league for a long time.

Having almost every player that will probably be on the roster be here two weeks ahead of camp I've never seen that before it just was an indication that I think the guy's been in business this year Is that led by one player like is there a Pied Piper hey guys we're getting here early or is that just players deciding on their own

because they did talk about that hey everyone's here early I think DJ can answer that more because he talks to the players on a regular basis. I think it's a mixture of the addition of Drew being here and the excitement. You know, Shabby's here pretty well year round and saying, guys, you know, with Brady, the sooner we get here, the sooner we can get going and we can get together. And I think those three, with the rest of the leadership group, have just touched base with everyone and said,

this is when we're getting going. And I think without the moves that Pierre made, you don't have that optimism. I think, like, Debrinkat was here a week before me, and I usually get, you know, end of August, get in here, and he was here a week before. So I think it's a case of you get one guy here, and it's like, oh, I better get going.

You know, like you don't want to be left behind before you know what everyone's here. Is that a bad sign that DeBrinckit showed up before the coach did? Yeah, no, it is. I don't know if he's got three kids and a dog. But, you know, he just wanted to get settled and he wanted to get skating. And there was no one here. I think Shabby was still in and out. I think he was one of the first three guys to get here.

And in one thing, you know, and we're off topic, but talk about him is that this guy loves to score and he loves to work. You know, first thing he did, he says to the goalie coach, I'll be your shooter, you know, every day before practice. And that's almost like a tedious thing where, you know, young guys, hey, I need a shooter. He wants to do it. And getting here early gets him in the right mindset, and I think we've got ourselves a special player. It was interesting hearing some of your players.

And Pierre, you were asked in the media conference about what are the expectations, and you used the phrase meaningful games at the end of the year. And there were some of the players DJ and Piero said, we should mention the word playoffs. And there were some players who said, I don't think we need to mention the word. They were more down by your train of thought.

DJ, do you have to hammer them with playoffs right from the beginning? Do you think that's important? I think telling people you're coming is not the way to go. You have internal expectations and we can challenge ourselves. The most important thing is October and get out the gate and show that we can win hockey games right away. You know, I think you're putting the cart before the horse if you say I want to get in the playoffs, but you're not ready when October comes.

Remember when you tell people what you're going to do that they're going to be a heck of a lot more ready for you. No one's going to take us lightly this year. We're not going to see as many backup goalies. People are going to be up for us and you're not going to catch a sleepy team anymore. So the competition is going to be harder for us. But the biggest thing for me is be ready in October and we'll worry about November when it comes and December and we'll go month by month. But in order to even be close to talking about the playoffs, you've got to be ready in October. Another thing that players talked about was, a few of them talked about it was,

we have discussed as a group that we have to have the puck more. That is one thing that we have all talked about that we have to be better at. How do you make yourselves better at that? Our skill set's going to help. That's for sure. Some guys are just able to hold on to the puck better than other guys. And systems-wise, we're doing everything we can to do what the best teams in the league have done, but also feeds into what we're doing. You

know, if you have a bunch of highly skilled guys and you're asking them to dump the puck in every single time and forecheck, the likelihood of them getting back isn't good I think in the past we may have had four or five guys that could make these plays and a bunch of checkers so what worked best for us was to you know put it in every time stay above you if you watch Colorado it's not so much putting it in it's speed off the puck it's not giving the puck up it's holding on to it longer and I think we have that skill set now. I think we're strong enough, but that's up to us to prove it. Pierre, did you do everything you wanted with this team in the off season? Do you enter this summer saying, you know what? I got the business that I wanted to get done, done. Or were there a couple of things, eh, that one got away? Well, nothing got away, that's for sure,

because not by lack of effort. Obviously, we felt we needed to upgrade top six, top nine. We felt that. We wanted to upgrade our goaltending. We did that. I think teams are seeing me come from a mile away, upgrading our defense court. But at the same time,

I think we're going to have good internal competition there. I think some guys are coming back, like Travis Hamnick is coming, playing 100%. He wasn't 100% last year. Other guys are in way better shape than they showed up last year. You put the addition of Jake Sanderson in there. I think it'll be a good internal competition on the back end. You know, one of the things, DJ, that we've all talked about, and Elliot and I spent some time with him about a month ago in Germany, is Tim Stutzla and how he looks and the expectation. You always look for,

okay, when's the kid going to have his, you know, breakthrough year? When's the breakout season coming? And I think a lot of us are circling Tim Stutzla. From what you've seen so far, you've coached all of his games, and here we are again with a lot of expectation for Stutzla.

What's this kid's ceiling? How good can Stutzla be? Or should we pump the brakes a little bit on, you know, handing this guy an 80-point season? Well, I always say pump the brakes just to take the pressure off my guys. I don't want them in the pressure cooker. I heard you do that with Sanderson today. Yeah, but in saying that, I believe in Timmy.

I believe that he's special. I think he wants to be great. I think he's really, really competitive. And probably the best thing I see from him, hockey aside, and I think what makes him really good is he treats people good. He's always in a good mood. And that will go on the ice. Because when you have a bad game, if you're in a good mood. And that will go on the ice. Because when you have a bad game, if you're in a good mood, you're smiling,

your bad games aren't going to add up. You're not going to ride the lows as much. In his first year, I couldn't say that. I see him now, you know, he's shaking hands with everybody when he walks in, the ushers and the people helping out at training camp. He's a different kid. He's more confident. He knows clearly that I believe in him and the organization helping out at training camp. He's a different kid. He's more confident. He knows clearly that I believe in him

and the organization believes in him. Now it's up to him to prove it, but I have no doubt that, and I never really have, that he's going to be a special player. I always hated, it was so funny, like Brian Burke always told a story

about Tame and Solani, like Burke would come in grumpy and Solani would always be in a great mood and some days Solani would be so happy and Berkey would be like, shut up, I'm depressed. I hear guys like Stutzler and I'm like, do you ever get annoyed? What are you so happy about all the time? I always laugh at stuff like that.

Well, DJ's like that too. People don't be the amount of energy. I'm not going to say who the player is, but one player told DJ last year, I'm always got a great energy, great energy. And one day the player didn't have the same energy as last year, I'm always got a great energy, great energy. And one day the player didn't have the same energy as DJ. And I think that's a great quality, especially in going through this process. You need a coach, obviously communicates, he communicates well. You need someone that can teach, he knows the systems, he's a great bench coach, but you got to have that energy level, whether it's a win or a loss the day before,

you got to come in because he's starting over again. And that was one thing that really was attracted to us when we hired him is the energy level that he brings every day is off the charts. For me, my dad did me a favor. I mean, he made me work. My grandfather owned a construction company and made me work in grade eight. And I know what it's like to be out there 55 hours in grade eight when all my buddies were playing baseball and whatever. This isn't work. This is a passion. This is a love. So I get up every day lucky to go to work and do what I love.

By the way, I remember Mike Babcock Sr. told his son, you don't ask anybody to do anything you won't do yourself. I always remembered that lesson. I thought that was very good. I always remembered that lesson. I thought that was very good. Pierre, when was the last time you felt, like coming into a season, you felt as good about things overall as you do right now?

This is the best I felt in my seven years as a general manager. The first year was different. If you would have asked me the first year, are we going to get to the conference finals, I probably would have said, I'm not sure we're going to do that. But there's a feeling of a comfort level that I've never felt before as a general manager.

I don't know how to describe it, but just driving in today, wasn't really worried about anything. Just knew that things are going to fall into place. We're going to have a good team. We're going to be competitive. You know, you knock on wood to hope not to have injuries or any serious injuries of long-term, but there's a comfort level that I haven't had

in seven years here. What do you worry about, DJ? Coaches worry. Well, coach, yeah. I mean, every coach, but you worry when you're, when you didn't have the same players you have today as you do now. You want to be able to prove continuously that you can get your team over the top.

And developing is one thing. Now proving that you can win with a group is a completely other thing. And that'll be what drives me. That'll be what drives our staff. I think we have a very capable group. We've been around the NHL a long time. But saying it and doing it are two different things. And if you look at the Eastern Conference, go through it and tell

me the eight teams that are not going to make it and tell me the eight that are. I mean, there's some guarantees in there. Probably you would think in this sports, anything can happen, but realistically probably five or six are going to be upset that they didn't get in and it's a battle out there and it's going to take not only you know coaching goaltending playing it's going to take some luck and it's going to take a lot of things to stay in even to stay in that fight but that's what it is i mean you want to get your team ready you want to be organized and you want to hit the ground running was there anything that pierre came to you with this summer. You said, holy smokes, I never saw that one coming. Not that I didn't see it coming, but the Debrinkad,

I mean, just the opportunity to get him, that is a real player. I mean, I watched him playing junior. He was an Erie. I had an opportunity to coach against him. I mean, he's scoring 50 and 60 and 40 in the NHL twice. I mean, you're putting a guy like that in your lineup. You look at the Maple Leafs who we play all the time, Matthews gets 60 goals. That's almost, that's a, you know, borderline goal a game, the coach gets, you know, so as a, as a group,

you know, half a goal is in the net when you start, if the kid can, you know, score those kinds of goals, adding with the group that we have, which I felt really confident with, that was probably the one where I was like, wow, this is a real player. We're going to have two lines that at least there's a decision for the other team. You know, you look at Carolina, they're going to sit Pesce and Slavin on what line? They at least got a pick. You know, and I think before there was no choice. It was, you're going to have to Brady. And if you shut them down, you get us. You know, we have two groups now and some more guys that I think can be sleepers as well.

Game one of the season. I hope you're not in this situation, but I'm creating the hypothetical for you. You're down one with 15 seconds left. You've got an Ozone draw. Who gets it? Norris line or Stutzloh line? The best five players will be on the ice and it might be a mixed match. Is the face-off on the right? Drew's a career 60% guy. Is the face-off on the left? You know,

there's a lot of things that are going to go into it. Again, you brought a guy in that scores 40 goals. It'd be hard to keep him off the ice too. So you know what? Whoever's going the best. And I don't think you can go into a game, you know, like football, where you have a set 15 or 20 plays. As a coach, you've got to watch and see what's going on out there. And if a guy's having a night, that's the way, you know, sometimes it rolls. I mean, you want your big boys out there, but you also want the guy that's feeling it. Let me pick up on Debrinka really quick.

And we've made this point before on the podcast. You know this, TJ. When you have someone that can score an easy goal, just snap it in and relieve pressure on the podcast you know this dj when you have someone that can score an easy goal just snap it in and relieve pressure on the bench because when you have to grind for every goal it's hard the one of the reasons why i like the to bring a deal for you guys one it's 40 goals obviously but just the ability to take pressure off the bench it's been one one for 15 minutes and to break it as a puck on a stick and bam it's an easy goal and it's in

the net and the bench goes okay and the pressure's gone that's one of the intangibles a guy like Debrinkit brings to this team true or false true Boston Bruins look no further Marchant how many nights have I watched the Bruins you know over the last so many years either when I was in Toronto or even last year I'm watching they got they got nothing going, their goalie's playing good, they check like always, you know, they're down 2-1 with five to go. Marchy peels one from Bergeron back of the net, two minutes later, he scores again, game's over. And there's their two points and they move on to the next city. The difference between being in the hunt at the end of the year is two extra points a month between the average team and the team that finishes first. You know, over that span, there's your 12, 14 points. Guy like Mara Chant does that every night.

Guy like Matthews does that every night. You know, I don't want, again, put all this pressure on the kid, but if he's going that good and you're in a game maybe you don't deserve that's when those guys take over and you know maybe you got outplayed but your goalies held you in and he takes over the game for five minutes and you get in the shower everyone gets on the bus win or lose you won the game pierre you mentioned there's new coaches this year there's new tvs this year what other changes have happened behind the scenes that you think are going to benefit this group? Can I talk about my two new assistant GMs?

You can talk about whatever you want. You're the one being interviewed. I've been so impressed with these two guys. You talk about things behind the scenes. People don't know sometimes all the people that work behind you, but the synergy between both Ryan Bolness and Trent Mann has been unbelievable it's like they've been doing it for 10 years and it makes my job so

much more easier I can focus spending time with DJ that I really enjoy so I think that's one thing the other thing to me and we've touched it, is just the mindset of the players. Like I was just talking to Brady yesterday at the golf tournament, and I said, you know, it's a big year for us, Brady. He goes, we know, we're ready to run. You know, the players have that mindset. You know, obviously, as I talked before about the additions behind the staff, but it just has a different vibe to it this year.

Where do you see this team right now? I always think about winning cycles and where is a team on its winning? Where is Ottawa on its winning cycle? I mean, we all see the direction that it's trending. Where do you think it's at? I think we're climbing the hill. I don't know where we are on the hill climb yet.

Are we close to the top? Probably not at the top but we're working really hard to get to the top? Probably not at the top, but we're working really hard to get to the top as quickly as possible. Who is the player that you hope in camp this year makes, either disrupts things because he plays so well or forces you to make a very

difficult decision either in terms of what his role is going to be or whether or not he stays on the roster? One for each of you. Well, I'll go first. I think the guy, and say he's not going to be on the team, but I think Shane Pinto is a guy that can push the guys ahead of him. And I think everyone's anointed the top six,

whether it be a guy playing wing or whatever it have. I believe that this is a really, really good hockey player. I just watched him at that rookie game. And again, we talked about the level of competition compared to the National Hockey League. But I think he's a guy at some point, if he stays healthy and gets pushing, can push to be a guy that belongs in an NHL top six. He stole my guy because without a doubt,

our biggest loss last year was Shane Pinto. I think just we wanted him to play one game because I think he wanted to come back to play last year. The last few weeks, the doctors just said it's not worth it. I'm going to go Matthew Joseph. Almost had a pointy game for us. He brings a great

vibe to the room. He's got great energy, skates. He fits in really well with our system. He's one guy that I think and DJ always decides who plays with who. He just comes in and tells me the lines. He's one guy that could maybe shake up our top six, top nine, just the way he's fit and so well here.

I'll finish with this one then for both you gentlemen. To finish a sentence, this will be a successful season for the Ottawa Senators if... Goaltending save percentage at 918. Coach? Yeah, that correlates. Yeah, that definitely correlates. This will be a successful season if both special teams combine to 105.

100 is usually the measuring stick, correct? 105, that's a big number. 105 is juicy. I like a high bar. Things have gone really well. That's a fantastic answer. I know you're busy, gentlemen. Thank you so much for your time.

Best of luck this season. It's great to see this much excitement in Ottawa. It really is. Good luck this season. Thank you. Okay, Elliot, I'm throwing two numbers at you. 9-18 and 1-0-5. Those are lofty.

I love it. Well, first of all, you have to set high goals. If you want to be successful and you really want to do something, I like the idea that they're setting goals that are attainable, but you really have to make a leap to do it. I really like that.

I think that's so important. The other thing, too, is that I like the fact they answered the question because I think there would be a lot of coaches and GMs that would slough that off. They gave us real targets, and I do appreciate that. We do. And speaking of appreciate, we appreciate a lot of people making this special happen from the Ottawa Senators organization.

A special thanks to Chris Moore and Emily Knight from the Sens. And I know you wanted to say a couple of things about Brian Morris. Well, I'm just happy he's back. You know, Brian took some downtime and like it's his business. Yep. And I just want to say it's good to see him. It's, you know, we're coming out of the pandemic, it looks like, and it's just good to see people

and you want to see people doing well and I was glad to see him. You have a quick final thought on the Ottawa Senators. We just heard a lot of interviews from key players, from the coach, from the general manager. I know, I think we all like, as you mentioned, that they're setting targets and not being shy about saying what those targets are.

Again, as we mentioned off the top, this is a really tough division. This is hard. This is a heavy lift. We know the Sens are better. Final thoughts as we wrap up this edition of the Sens special? Well, what I think, Jeff, is that when something is the same too often, it's boring. And the Atlantic, like we said at the top of the podcast has been Tampa, Toronto, Florida,

and Boston for years. I want to see a challenge. I don't think we expect it yet from Montreal. That's for sure. But I'm excited for where Buffalo's going. I'm not sure they're going to be able to do it yet. Detroit and Ottawa are the teams that could threaten this.

And I think Ottawa is probably better positioned than Detroit simply because they're farther ahead on this rebuilding curve, I think. So I want to see a challenge. I want to see this hierarchy shaken down a bit. And Ottawa, I think, is best positioned to do it. Always good to see new contenders enter the chats we wish the Ottawa Senators and their fans good luck as we mentioned

optimism reigns in Ottawa and taking us out today is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist who got his start in Ottawa Steve Mariner is fronted a couple of groups sharing his high-end guitar skills as well as the electric bass and Hammond organ. I love the Hammond organ. From his Hope Dies Last record, here's Steve Mariner with Take Me to the City on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. The city's gonna take, take, take my soul

The whiskey and the women and the rock and roll There's too much temptation, too little delay. I just can't stay away. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Saturday's coming and the party's a must.

All the pretty people dancing in the devil's dust. Well, I know that I shouldn't, but I think I will. Because I just can't get my fill. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Take me to the city. Take me to the city.