32 Thoughts: The Podcast - The Next Ninety One

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

In this edition of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman open with the red-hot Anaheim Ducks seven straight wins and a new challenge ahead: paying Leo Carlsson. The guys discuss the clear power imbalance between conferences and break down Colorado’s 9-1 demolition of Edmonton, asking when it’s time to truly worry about the Oilers (9:30). They touch on Toronto’s scoring prowess contrasted by their leaky defense and goaltending issues, plus an update on David Kämpf (24:33). Elliotte revisits the Blues’ brutal loss to Seattle and whether Doug Armstrong might go back to his familiar “holiday sale” playbook (40:52). The segment wraps with fallout from the U.S. government shutdown’s impact on NHL travel (46:52) and a Final Thought on the uncertainty around designated 19-year-olds in the AHL (48:55).Kyle and Elliotte answer your emails and voicemails in the Thoughtline (57:25).Today we highlight Heartland New Brunswick's Seth Anderson and his newest single Leafs Are Out. Check him out here.Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here.Donate to the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation here.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

There was a period of time where the Wazes of the world made a difference. I don't buy that anymore. Like, they still throw you to the wolves now. You know what Ways does well? They were very good about speed cameras and they were also very good about where police were. Yeah. That way. I'll give you that on Ways.

Kyle is every stereotypical male from the 1990s. It's like, no, honey, I don't need a map. I know where I'm going. Well, I was like that too. I won't go to the point where I'm like, I'm lost. But if I think I know where to get there, like, the power of critical thinking is, I don't want to lose that. You buy yourself a new, like, shell from IKEA and you're like, instructions, who needs these? No, that I follow to a T.

You can't mess around with IKEA furniture. You can't. Then you're asking for trouble. But I'm, yeah, the problem is, like, going to Home Depot and being like, I could ask somebody. where the cocking is. But I'm just going to do three laps instead and not get anywhere. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, Elliot, Kyle Don, back with you. Another weekend in the book.

So, Elliot, on Friday's pod, we had a little bit of fun with the number 91. I didn't have much of a direction with it then. I do now. So, Friday night, I'm watching a little bit of the Red Wings Rangers game. And in the intermission, Sergey Fed, of, the one and only player who will ever wear 91 for the Red Wings, was in the booth with Ken Daniels, Mickey Redmond, and one of the, the most interesting thing he said to me, so he still gets out and skates a few times a week, and he still wears a pair of

Graf Supra 703s. Now, those gear geeks out there that heard him say that, or heard this now, the hearts are fluttering ever so slightly. Beautiful piece of the crib. For those people who aren't such gear yeats, why is this a big deal? I think back in the day, those were, in a lot of ways, the holy grail of just beautiful quality skates.

Maybe not as big of name as a Bauer or a CCM. Now you've got brands like True that have skates that are very popular. You see a bunch of players in the NHL wearing them now, but a good pair of graphs are timeless. timeless timeless timeless and every now and then even play in men's league you see a guy wearing one and it's almost the tip of the cap the nod and like good on you for keeping those going he still wears them which was really neat okay so fedorov only player to wear 91 for detroit he was the first player to wear 91 for the anaheim then mighty ducks now ducks franchise who was the

second player to ever wear 91 for the ducks Is it Carlson? It is. And remember a few weeks back, what was your line about Logan Cooley and the Utah mammoth before the contract got signed? Pay the man. I'm starting to wonder if that's applying to Leo Carlson and Anaheim. What about Goce?

I think there's a whole handful now. The team can't be stopped. Seven wins in a row. They passed the Vegas. test on Saturday. Yes, they did. With their backup, with Peter Marazic and goal. Exactly.

Got a little helter-skeltery there in the third period, Jacob Trubin over time, and then convincingly over Winnipeg, with Lucas Dostal backstopping them on Sunday. So Leo Carlson, the next 91 to get his day. Surely, it's got to be coming. I like that.

Instead of the next one, the next 91. There you go. Because now you've got you've got some a little more of a sample size of that number

in the history of the game. Novelty for a long time now it's got some substance. Pay Carlson, pay Goche, get off the wallet, Pat, get it done. It's only going to go up. No matter how much you grind them.

I think the interesting thing about this is I'm beginning to think the more and more I watch him play that Dostal in particular is going to be one of the best contracts in the league. He's a really, really good goalie. And when Joel Quenville took over the Ducks this year, I had a couple of people say to me, he's going to be great for Crider and he's going to be great for Truba. look how well those guys have done under Quenville. The question is, how is he going to be with all the kids? And the reason they were saying that is he'd been out of coaching for a while.

Kids are very different now. Like, it's not just hockey players. It's anyone out there who's a parent knows how different kids are now. I have a 14-year-old. Kyle's got a baby that's, five months old that's already talking back to him and he can't control him. That's right. Okay.

So anybody out there who's a parent or a teacher, you know how different kids are. And, you know, Quenville had a really young team at the beginning when the Blackhawks won their three Stanley Cups from 2010 to 15. But even then the change in young people from, say, 2008 or 2009 until 2026 is so different. and so pronounced in the social media era. I think people were really curious to see how he would do with this group of very young players. And the answer right now is just fine, thank you. It is an amazing team to watch. And we've talked about this a little bit, the changing of the guard.

Now it's Anaheim, Chicago won again big, although there were a couple of empty netters in beating Detroit the other day. What did we joke about San Jose a couple weeks ago? God help the rest of the league if they ever learn how to defend. Now the sharks are winning some more lower scoring games. There's a bunch of different team. Montreal, of course, is one of the beasts of the east right now. The league is changing.

There's no question about it. We're still discussing who's got staying power and who doesn't. But there's no doubt here. And the other thing, too, is, and you were talking about, talking about this when we were speaking earlier today, Kyle, is that there is a power and balance. You know, in the East, Carolina looked really good on Sunday night. They dominated Toronto in a game that was close score-wise. I really like the job New Jersey is done, considering some of the injuries and the fact that Marstrom hasn't been great yet. Montreal's been really good.

but when you look at the top of the West and you look the top of the East the West got that sort of early 1970s heavyweight Muhammad Ali, George Frazier, Joe Foreman lilt to it. Like there's some real heavyweights atop the Western Conference even when you don't even count the Anaheims.

Like you're looking at Colorado Monster Weekend and we'll talk about them in a couple of minutes. Vegas has been hurt. They're still Vegas. Dallas had a big win on Sunday. Edmonton's been awful, but you're expecting that they're going to peel themselves off the mat, hopefully, sometime soon.

The West at the top has a much more powerful feel about it than the East does. And I think those West playoffs, they're going to be a looney bin. They are absolutely going to be crazy once we see which of these teams get in here. Yeah, and I think that's what's making it almost more impressive for whether it's Anaheim, whether it's Chicago or San Jose, that there aren't a lot of places to hide out west right now, and they're still finding ways to stand out. Also, you mentioned your line from a few weeks back about, you know, God help us if the sharks ever learned to defend. So I'll just slide this in here quickly.

one of the submissions to the thought line this week, Fernando, who is a sharks fan, he brought up the fact that, you know, you had said that, and then all of a sudden now the sharks are defending a little bit better. So he was asking you to pray that the sharks miss the playoffs this year to hope the opposite effect continues to happen. Well, you know what, Fernando, if that will make you happy, I'll do it for you, man. I'll go to my deity, and I will do it just for you, Fernando. Just for you.

I want to talk about Edmonton. Yeah, let's get there. Okay. So we had two games on Saturday night, all right, two late games. One of them was Edmonton, Colorado, and the other one was Vancouver versus Columbus. And Ron Kelly and Kevin went out to the set late in that game, so they could only watch one game at that time. And it was, they were obviously watching Vancouver Columbus because that was a one goal game that was coming down to the end. I was still in our green room, so I was able to watch both of them.

And I watched the last minute of Colorado Edmonton and the avalanche absolutely wanted that 10th goal. They went hard after that 10th goal. They had a breakaway chance and then they got the puck. and instead of ragging it or shooting it back down to their own end and just lazily passing it around a couple times, they kept on trying to shoot. They wanted to score. They were up 9 to 1 and they wanted to win by more. They wanted that 10th goal.

Now, Kelly and Kevin didn't see it, but I said, I want to show that to everybody on the show. And so I did. And after it was over, they both said, to me, okay, usually when you bring up video, it's terrible or it makes no sense or it's completely wrong, but they were like, holy cow, you were right. The avalanche wanted to bury Edmonton. Like Colorado was taking all of its playoff frustration out of the last couple years and they hadn't even really, they didn't play the Oilers last year all over Edmonton. And you know, we're all talking about what are the Euler's got to do, how do you handle it?

If I was Chris Knoblock, I would be showing them that, that here you guys are, you're losing nine to one. You have been the beasts of the Western Conference the last two years. You have gone to the Stanley Cup final twice in a row. You've had chances to win the Stanley Cup. You have established yourself as the Kings of the West. conference and the road to the Stanley Cup goes through you and Colorado came in and in your home building they didn't just embarrass you they wanted to continue embarrassing you they didn't just want to pile drive you into the ground they wanted to pile drive you to the molten core of

the planet it's not just that you lost nine to one is that this other team a really good team. They were saying, we haven't embarrassed these guys enough. We want to embarrass them even more. If I was knoblock, I'd be saying, these guys, they have no respect for you. We have lost our respect. Teams are laughing at us. It doesn't even have to be true. You just have to grind it into them. Man, I got to tell you, if I was on the receiving end of that and I saw the way that last shift ended, first of all, I would have been pissed off as it was already, but I would have been, I don't even know what's the next level, Kyle. I would have been irate, doubly pissed off. You're reaching ludicrous levels here.

Ludicrous level anger. they were toying with Edmonton. They were like, so in the 80s, there was a basketball team, the University of Oklahoma, and they went to the NCAA final, and they lost to Kansas, 8379. That was Larry Brown, Danny Manning, Kansas. And I remember reading, there was a game that year where Oklahoma beat somebody by like 99 to 66.

And late in that game, Oklahoma fouled. I think it was Colorado they were playing against. Oklahoma fouled Colorado. And their coach was like, what are you doing? You're winning by 35 points. And they fouled them because they wanted to get to 100.

They wanted to score a basket so they could say they got 100 in that game. And then when Kansas won the championship, I think Larry Brown told a story once that the Colorado coach called them and said, I so badly wanted you to win because of what those jerks did to us in that game. It was humiliating. I just, I look at that and I'm like, we're all talking here about what's wrong with the Oilers. When can we really start worrying about them?

If I was Knoblock, I would be grinding that last shift into McDavid and Drysident all those guys' faces, every single one of them. These guys are laughing at you. They were ready for them. And then I think about the line that Rick Bonas had in the playoffs with Winnipeg a few years back, no pushback. There was no pushback from Edmonton on Saturday night. Yes.

I can remember, too, you mentioned some other. other, my one year doing ringside with Montreal, they went into Columbus on a Friday night in November, coincidentally enough. It was back to back. They played at home the next night. They were saving price for the home game on Saturday. Was that the Columbus game? Yeah. They lost 10 to nothing. And Montoya was in there for all 10. And I remember at 9-0, the Jackets crowd was chanting, we want 10, we want 10. And then they got it. and anyway it was one of those I can't believe what we're all witnessing here you're just not used to seeing that type of score in the national hockey league and we're not used to seeing nine to one in a showdown that was kind of billed as we talk about heavyweight fighters in the western conference you thought this was going to be a great early season slug fest and it was only one side throwing haymakers and it's been discussed here over the days since, and leading up to this, because it's been another so-so start for Edmonton.

They've got six wins and 16 games, Elliot. They've gone through this the last few years around this time of year, and they somehow managed to sort it out when it truly does matter. Does anything feel different to you at this point? Are you still proceeding with caution, knowing what they've done the last two, seasons or how do you view where the oilers are at right now? What I don't like, like, first of all, I'm not writing them off. I don't like a lot of things that are happening here like most people.

I'm not writing them off, but there's two things that concern me about them. You know, there was that answer from Chris Knoblock about goaltending and he kind of paused for a few seconds and everybody took that to mean Skinner, but you know what? Look, he can be better. There's no question about it. But in the Oilers zone, opponents are getting anywhere they want to go to, anywhere. They can basically do whatever they want. They've blown what, six two goal leads this year? Nobody is scared of the Oilers defense. There isn't a single team in the league that doesn't think right now that no matter how much we're down, we can get to where we need to get to in

their D zone. So yes, Skinner could be better. Yes, Pickard could be better. But you know what? So could the group in front of them. There are times you can look at it and say, hey, our goaltending is letting us down. Right now, their team defense is atrocious. And I think that no matter what is going on here in that, I think it is.

just extremely lazy and extremely convenient to say goal-tending is the problem. It's much bigger than that. The other thing is, you know, I know Evander Kane is not there, and Kane hasn't had a great start to the season. A other guy who's not there is Corey Perry, who has had a pretty incredible start to his season in L.A. scored again. One of those guys would have done.

something you know i i saw brian burke on sunday night and one of the things that burkey always talked about was don't lose quietly don't lose like that quietly you know go out and you don't have to injure anyone you don't have to be stupid but you you have to go out there and and and just say you know what like just show that you have a spark knock somebody over and I think that's the thing that's kind of surprised me is that they're really me right now it's almost like they look at it and say hey we've got hymen coming back we've got yamark coming back we've got injured players coming back and we've always been bad in October no big deal I don't know like that one like I said at the beginning

the way Colorado was going I was was like, knock someone over. Like, just show that we're not going to take this. And I think that really surprised me. Like, I don't think the older's going to be like this all year. I think they're going to be a lot better as the season goes on. But, you know, in the job, like, I think there'll be a lot better as the season goes on.

I just think I've been shocked at how. easily they're taking it all. Especially when you consider, I mean, we were there right at the start of their training camp for a day, seen all the buildup. There was the McDavid contract stuff, which was its own thing,

but everything we heard from them in terms of, okay, last season was heartbreak. This year, it's anger. It's unfinished business. This is a motivated group. All of it. What we've seen has kind of been

the opposite out of the gate. Yeah. that's been kind of the biggest concern. And you mentioned the goal-tending thing too here, Elliot. The more I think about it, regardless of how this season ends up going, if it completely becomes something irreversible, if they go on to win the Stanley Cup,

and anywhere in between there, I wonder if no matter what this is, the last season Stuart Skinner's in in Edmonton-Oarler's uniform. Those contracts do. This is a final year

of his current deal. I just wonder you've put that out there in the past with other situations with players and teams, the line of sometimes it's just time.

I wonder if we're getting to that point here with the goaltender and the team. And it's not me saying the guy can't do the good, it's not me saying the guy can't do

a good enough job in goal, just feels like even opening night against Calgary, right, there was that tough goal to tie it, kind of the miscommunication with him. I think it was Evan Bouchard and Blake Coleman skates in and knocks it home. And it was almost like big portion of people there were like waiting for the moment to go, ah, you see, that's why we can't trust them. Like it's as if the mind's already made up, right? Took him to game seven two years ago. Okay, still not sure.

Outduled Jake Ottinger in the Western Conference final last year, convincingly. Well, once again, the second best goalie in the cup final two years in a row. I think there's, obviously, it's a big year for the team, big year for the goaltender himself. My understanding is I think he's in a much better mental space now than he was. a year ago. Like I think if that game on Saturday happens last season, there would be some concern over, okay, how is Skinner going to be now over the next few weeks? I think that's not an issue anymore. I just look at the totality of how it's all gone. And as much as it's a great story on paper as the local guy drafted by Edmonton, developed by Edmonton, now

playing goal for Edmonton and had some really wonderful moments along the way also can't be the easiest situation to be in at times because when things are going poorly there's really as much as you try to escape it you can't totally and the family gets involved in all that just starting to really think not only because of what happened Saturday and how tough it got and the pause and Chris Knoblock's answer to Mark Specter's question starting to wonder if no matter what here it's going to be time whether it's at the end of the season or sometime before that feels like we're getting there the roster will change over the next little while as some players come back from injury we'll see we'll see like i said they just look

really meh time to get out of meh yeah show a bit of fire. Time to show a lot of fire. Yeah. Right. Baseball season's done. It's snowing in Toronto. Yes, that's right. You almost missed it. You almost missed the snow. No, believe me, I drove through plenty of it today. Oh, did you? Yeah. I saw plenty of snow. All right. So it's Matt in Edmonton, and how do you compare that with what's going on in Toronto, where a few days ago it felt like there was good traction and then a mess of a weekend with back-to-back games at home, the Hall of Fame game on Sunday, where it felt like, and Austin Matthews even alluded to, they were fortunate to be leading after two periods. It seemed like the inevitable is what

ended up happening. Boston, God, talk about that crazy start, three goals in 38 seconds, and Stolars gets chased. Hildobey gets the start on Sunday, Elliot. This is a team that I think from the beginning of the year has been issues with a stringing together anything consistently where the coach is saying that's how we want to look as a group and with all of that

though it's not all goal tending when they're having trouble defending they've also had trouble keeping the puck out of the net as well so I have some theories here first of all your Campbell River buddy Rod Brindamore

they made him watch the Hall of Fame ceremony while he's still on the outside looking in I think that means next year he should be inducted that is we don't have the cruel and unusual punishment rule in Canada

but if we did that's cruel and unusual punishment If you have to watch that from outside while you're so close to being in and probably should be in, that ends it. You should be in. Take note, Hall of Fame Committee. Next year, the Campbell River clone, Rod Brindamore, should go in. The finest from the salmon capital of the world.

Okay, so one of my theories. series is, what was one of what Toronto's strengths last year? How they defended? There's a team save percentage? Team save percentage. So last year, according to sport logic numbers, the Maple Leafs were second in slot save percentage and fifth in inner slot save percentage.

This year, they're 31st and 25th in those two. Like they are... That's a huge drop. What are they, the highest scoring team of the league or the second highest scoring team of the league after Colorado? I think after Colorado, I think they're back down to second, but to your point, they're having no issue scoring. They're having no issue scoring. They're the second highest scoring team in the league, and I think they're the second worst in goals allowed in the league.

They're third. Anaheim's no second. So they're third now, Anaheim moved up to second spot? Yes. Okay, but they're one of the top three scoring teams in the league, but I think they're the second worst in goals against overall goals scored. And the biggest difference when you look through everything is that tight-in scoring chances, they've gone from one of the best to one of the worst. And I can't help but wonder, Stollers is basically the guy because they don't have Wool.

Now, Wool played his first NHL game on Saturday night. He played 36 minutes in Lehigh Valley. So I don't know how close he is to being ready here. However, they need this duo back. Stollers, we know it. He's a good goaltender, but he's got, he's like a 50 games max goalie. He's 45 to 50 games. He's already at 12 games, and we haven't hit Remembrance Day.

yet um so like to me that's one of the factors here that they don't have their regular duo and i think that is a problem but look on the weekend carolina they were getting great a scoring chances up and down the ice boston how many breakaways did they have in the like we have four in the second period alone unbelievable boston great chances up and down the ice like it's wild they almost got that humiliating defeat to Pittsburgh earlier in the week on the Monday they came back they win that game then they beat a really good Utah team although they're now struggling a little bit too and then on the weekend they have back-to-back brutal defensive efforts like just brutal and I the lot of those mistakes last

year were covered up by stoleers and wool. You don't have wool. You're worried about how much you're using stolers. You know, like, maybe they weren't as good as they were last year, but okay, you weren't expecting them to be one of the worst this year at those stats. Like, to me, when I look at, it's like a good sponge, Kyle. You spill and you make a mess, and does your sponge clean up the job? Last year, it was spick and span.

This year, it's clean up on aisle 6. Sponge can't handle the job so far. Not enough absorption power. Not enough absorption power. I think, and I wonder. Like, you know what, like, you're looking at the tear that Neelander's on right now and the terror that Tavares is on and Matthews has gotten better,

you think that you're going to overcome a lot with that. And they can't. And you mentioned those areas about where the say percentage is down. I wonder if part of that is, so you and I spent some time talking to Morgan Geeky of the Bruins after their skate on Saturday morning. Just about one of the things playing with Pasternak now, as he's been really since Marshaun was traded,

to Florida at the deadline. And one of the things he talked about was he's really spent time and trying to understand how a player of his caliber thinks the game, sees the game, all of that. And one of the things he said was, you know, in his mind, he wasn't as aware of, but certainly a guy like Pastronach, those east and west type passes in the offensive zone.

Like if you can make the puck cross kind of the center line that would run in the middle of the offensive zone, right? If you draw it from the end boards all the way through towards the center ice faceoff dot, you can make a pass, go across there once is great, back another time. The percentage of you converting then on your next scoring chance goes way up just because of the goalie having to move side to side. And what's been one of the biggest issues defensively for Toronto

is they're getting seamed, left, right, center. Saw it again against Carolina, like, Just come into the zone, pass going from one side of the ice to the other, tough back check, not a lot of defenders right on guys, like the Jarvis goal was like that, even a little bit, the go-ahead goal by Stankovin, that all can kill a say percentage when all those things are happening around it and quality of chance. Steve Valacette, the Royal Road. Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly.

I thought of him with that as well. Like, it's just the quality of chances that are now and how those chances are coming to be has to factor into why those numbers aren't anywhere close to where they were a year ago yet for Toronto. By the way, Toronto, we should get clarity on this David Camp thing pretty soon. Okay. Yeah, because you were saying on Saturday, now the signing bonuses is a sticking point here when looking at the idea or the possibility of terminating the contract. So how does it all work?

So he had a signing bonus of, I think it's a million in a quarter. And it was paid earlier this summer. And what there is in some contracts is there's something called clawback language. And it allows the team to seek the return of a sign. signing bonus if the player terminates the deal and for if you're wondering why it's there it's kind of obvious it protects against a player quitting once his signing bonus is paid and gives the team a route to seek it back right back in the contract and basically if camp was to terminate Maple East would get two years of cap flexibility, right?

Mm-hmm. Because they basically get his entire contract wiped out and the cap hit. And the cap hit, like his AAV is 2.4. In the minors, you get to take a little over a million of that off. so you get a couple years of savings and the league could argue and I suspect the league has probably poked their head around this and said you get two years of cap freedom basically by paying a player about $1.3 million so you should ask for that money back and also if you have clawback language in there then the league is going to say

you put the language in there, you should use it. Now, I have no doubt the Players Association would argue the other side. It's their job to protect the player here. But I have heard return of the signing bonus has come up in the middle of this. So I am thinking that either the Maple Leaf said, hey, there's clawback language here and we're going to enforce it, or the league has said, hey, there's language here that we want. you to enforce. So that's another one of the reasons I think this has taken longer than people

thought or expected. Now, is that clawback language? Is that pretty standard in any player contractor across the league? Or is that more case-by-case organizationally, whatever their philosophy is on that stuff? I am under the impression. It is case-by-case. I asked if it was standard and I was told no. But there are teams. I don't know if it's every team, but I know there are teams that it's standard. If they give you bonuses, they put clawback language in there. Okay.

So that's the latest with the David Camp situation. It was tough to see Scott Lotton go down in mind. That was a big hit the way Zedorov stepped up there on Saturday. Obviously, he didn't play Sunday night against Carolina. You heard anything further on what he could be. looking at in terms of no i don't want to guess that one i don't want to guess that one wait a couple days to get a bit more clarity here but what a nightmare for him gets

hurt comes back gets hurt again and you know i think one of the things that i i was talking to krag baroube about is that he likes lorence and lotton together and because he liked the chemistry they showed last year in the playoffs they've had no opportunity to build it this year lawton's out again and I saw Lorenz was a scratch on Saturday night, or Sunday night. So that's not good for either one of them. Tough weekend for Toronto on Hall of Fame weekend, no less. But off to Boston now on Tuesday night.

So the return match for that one and Brandon Carlos first game back in his old building and maybe something to spark the Leafs that way. Hey, so we spent a good chunk of time last pod talking about that wild ending to the wild predators overtime last week with Annena knocking the net off, the goal still counting all of it. You got some information and just wanted to clarify what was an important note in the lead-up to that goal that maybe explained why the net came off so easily. Yes, so I got a couple calls about this, and basically it's two rushes before the disputed goal.

Caprizov is coming down with a chance. And the puck is actually shot off his mask, and the left post lifts up. And the peg doesn't go into the hole. It kind of gets pushed up. So the net's already off. And when he tries to push off the post, it doesn't hold. Yes, the net comes off. And yes, the rule says it doesn't matter if it's on purpose

or accident but a play he made earlier on where again he wasn't trying to knock the net off had kind of dislodged things so I did want to add that into the context my overall position hasn't changed I would have been furious if I was the predators and I'm okay with it if it scares teams into not knocking the net off on purpose. But I felt it was important to mention that in trying to make a save earlier, he dislodged the net and basically set us up for this inevitability. And what it is a reminder of is someone else said to me is everybody's got to be diligent that the net has to be checked or people have, people have,

to notice well before these things happen. Now it's three on three overtime and it's scrambly and it's not always easy. But when I was talking to a couple people about it, they were like, could this whole thing have been avoided if it had been fixed after that earlier save? Also, I wanted to shout out to Nate from Nashville who wrote in and was asking about the possibility of making the pegs run deeper into the ice and maybe they would withhold the net and keep things a little more sturdier while not compromising the whole safety aspect of having them in the first place. I was told over the weekend, Elliot, that the league either is working on or has worked

on recently improving that. I got to do a little more work on it to get to the bottom of. I know I think just over 20 years ago, they did ask, you know, the support of those rubber pegs to make them longer so they were a little more sturdy when the net was in place. It sounds like they're kind of revisiting that, you know, even prior to what we saw here last Tuesday about making things a little more sturdy and trying to avoid incidents like we had in Minnesota and Nashville last week. So check the ticket for the latest on that one. I've got to do a bit more work on it.

Nice. Good to see you doing some work. I know. It's about time, eh? Into November, just like the Oilers. No more meth. No more me. No more me. No more me. Okay. Okay. What else you want to do here? What else you want to go through? How about St. Louis? I know you had a little something on Doug Armstrong. Oh, yes.

So obviously they've been talked about quite a bit over the last few days. Doug Armstrong out there making some calls, brutal loss to Seattle. on Saturday night. Like just Cairo scores after the benching. Hofer tries to score the goalie goal. Isis the puck. Seattle ties it with two seconds left. The Blues thought it was goalie interference.

And then basically the Blues never touched the puck in overtime in Seattle beat them on the goal by Shane Wright. Like just a brutal way to go down. I was reminded by somebody that Doug Armstrong has done this before. And the year he did this before was in 2019. He sent out a pretty famous memo basically advertising a Christmas sale. He sent it out on the GM group chat right before Christmas and talked about like holiday discounts and Christmas prices and boxing day sale. I haven't seen it, but I have heard about it.

Sounds like a serious wish book. Yes. Yes, it was. It was. And of course, what happened, he didn't tear his team down and they went on to win the Stanley Cup that year, 2018, 19. So maybe he's going out of this playbook again. A couple of things. We'll see.

Like, I think at the very least, he wanted to rattle the cage. cages of his players a little bit. Let them know, because they know he's liable to do anything. He's not afraid. And I think he wanted his players to know that that kind of thing was on the table. You know, Braden Shenz name's been out there. Braden, Ottawa went after him a couple years ago, didn't get it done. Toronto went after him last year with the idea of uniting the Shen brothers.

didn't get it done. Shen's got less protection this year, but, you know, the one thing, and we'll see how St. Louis reacts, but Armstrong has said before that that's my captain, and you better give me a reason when talking to other teams.

And with the senators, I just I think they talked I'm not sure it ever really got close I think with Toronto last year I think the price was really big like really big and one of the reasons I heard it never happened was one I'm not sure Toronto wanted to go where it ended up going and secondly once the Maple Leafs didn't get Luke, I don't think Braden was as interested in going there. But again, you know, Armstrong has said before, it's my captain, you better give me a reason. We'll see. The other thing I think I really believe here, this is Doug Armstrong's last year as GM of the Blues.

Alexander Steen is taking over next year. I think that Armstrong wants to leave the team in a good place for Steen. I just cannot believe for a second that Armstrong would do anything that he thinks would leave Steen in an overall worse position as he enters GM of the Blues. It just doesn't strike me as the way that he's wired. and he has really worked hard to put Steen in position to be successful once he takes over. I could always be wrong. I've been wrong before, but I would be really surprised if he did something that he didn't

think long term was beneficial for the new manager, who's basically his right-hand guy. So I think about all of this stuff when it comes to, St. Louis. Is there any party that just wonders maybe deep down Doug Armstrong, after all the years in St. Louis, he's still not quite ready to retire, maybe a little bit of self-sabotage. And he's like, I should just, I should stick around just a little bit longer, just until this all gets sorted out. I don't want to put Alex Steen in a tough spot. And then it just extends his tenure a little bit. Like, I don't, like, I do think that he's very, like I said, very careful about leaving it well for Steen.

I don't see him staying longer. No. No, I know. I don't. I don't. It's interesting, though, like Tom Stillman, the owner said earlier this year, it's not like Armstrong's leaving and going somewhere else. I'm curious to see what Stillman thinks about Armstrong's next role in the organization and what that's all going to mean because I,

I think people thought, oh, well, maybe he would go and become the GM somewhere else. But the owner sure doesn't sound like that. No, no, no. Okay. So whether it's St. Louis or any of the other 25 teams down in the U.S. or the seven Canadian teams that got to fly south of the border here coming up, Elliot. For those that have missed it, air travel in the States in a bit of a bind right now with some of the government shutdown and, like, major airports being affected just with the staffing

shortages and everything going on down there. And you would have thought that maybe that only applied to commercial travel, but it sounds like the teams are worried about getting their own charters flown from city to city. So what's going on? What are you hearing? There were some teams I heard that travel was a nightmare. Pittsburgh, going back of Saturday to Sunday, they were in New Jersey. and then they went back home to play

the Kings. That was one team I heard that had really difficult travel. I heard there were a bunch of teams that did too. A lot of these airports have had delays and it was concerning. There were some really nervous people about it.

Well, even so Alex Steve's who got called up to play for the Bruins on Saturday in Toronto. He was telling Luke Fox after the skate that so he was with Providence. They were in Cleveland that weekend. And I guess the Bruins were even, you know, so spooked by just the uncertainty with air travel. They instead of flying him to Toronto for the game had just hired a car service instead.

So he drove from Cleveland to Toronto to be able to play in the game on Saturday night. So it was a very real thing. Yeah, like it was everyone was thinking about it. Okay, let's get to the final thoughts. So, Elliot, we were under the impression that we were heading towards. award a world next season in which every team could designate one 19-year-old to play with their American League affiliate team. You know, we talked about it last week, about Zane Perak. That would be a perfect example for Calgary.

I'd have to be doing that right now, of course, unfortunately now he's hurt and going to be out a little while. But it doesn't have that option right now. We think that's going to be the option there next season, but it sounds like that's not even set in stone too. And as you were saying on headlines with Ron as well, like there's still a few things to kind of be determined here as teams would love to have a little more control over their 19 year old draft picks. Yeah, it was interesting because I had a couple managers mentioned it to me last week and I was like, what are these guys talking about? They already have a deal starting next year with

the one player, as you mentioned, one player from the CHL, a 19 year old. who can go to the HL team. And a couple managers said, that's not set in stone. Like, you better start doing your research on this. And every year in September, the coaches and the GMs, they get together in one city and they go over some things. And this year, the Canadian Hockey League came to meet with them, and they said, look, it's been a tough time for us right now,

but we're still your best development league. And that's true. The CHL is still the NHL's biggest and best development league. And they said, you can't hurt us. You have to make sure we're in a good place. And these CHL teams are really worried about losing 19-year-olds. And I'll also say this. I do think that there are some of these teams and managers,

maybe they have a team that's got a CHL team in their city, like the Canox and the Giants, the Oilers do, the flames do, they're sensitive to the Canadian Hockey League. Or maybe they've got a manager who played in the Canadian Hockey League. Or they've got an owner, like Dallas, for example, whose owner owns a team in the Canadian hockey league. in hockey league. Whatever the case is, I do think there's loyalty there in a lot of these places. That said, I think they also want more control over their 19-year-olds. Like, as one

guy said to me, why should it only be one? Why shouldn't we have the option for any of the 19-year-olds if it's better for their development. And what a couple guys said to me was, not every 19-year-old is going to be ready for the American Hockey League. Some of them would absolutely better be served to either not getting signed and going to the NCAA

or even if they are signed staying in the CHL. Some of them aren't ready physically, some of them aren't ready mentally, whatever you want to say it. I don't think they're looking to say, oh, 19 out. I don't think it's that simple. I'll tell you what someone said to me.

They brought up Calgary, for example. They said, Calgary, as you mentioned, has Gridden in the American Hockey League. Well, what if this was the rule was in place and you had to pick and choose between Gridden and Perak? Like they said, why shouldn't Calgary have the option that they could put both of those guys there? both of those guys are ready. Both of them deserve the chance to play in the American Hockey League if they're not going to be in the NHL.

And they just said to me, why should Calgary have to do that? And I think there's a couple other teams. And basically what happens is, is you know, every year there's a team that gets two or three first rounders. And those players might both or all three of them might legitimately be ready for the American Hockey League. and you know I'll tell you this initially my feeling was somebody was going to tell me

this isn't going to happen they're going to go with the one and that's going to be it Kyle nobody told me that now maybe that'll change over the next couple days but it's very clear to me that the league and the teams feel they have the right to reopen this with the CHL the CHL is clearly expecting it the players association would have to agree to whatever is the solution. But what it says to me is that there are managers here who want to try to push the league into saying it shouldn't just be one.

We should have the option for if a player is ready at 19 to play in the American Hockey League, they should get to go. Now, the other thing I wanted to mention to you, and we talked about it on Friday, about this story about the USHL being bought by the CHL. The more I hear about this, the more I don't believe that that's going to happen, Kyle.

But what I do believe, and I believe this now very strongly, is that the USHL is in a position where the NHL wants it to be safe. And the reason people think that this came up is because the NHL made it very clear to the various development leagues that the USAHL. is important to it. And if the NHL says the USHL is important to it, then everybody here takes notice. And so I think there's going to be some talk here about

how can people make sure that the USHL is protected and doesn't enter a worst case scenario because of what's happening here overall. Okay. So, and this is topical, of course, because we've got kind of a brief GM meeting coming up on Tuesday in Toronto, or anything else you're kind of anticipating to be brought up there? I don't know.

I, you know, when I was making a lot of my calls on Saturday, the agenda wasn't out yet. So, and sometimes the real challenge, Kyle, is that sometimes GMs will tell you or people will tell you, I think we're going to talk about X, but sometimes. that's just something where maybe you're just talking to a GM it matters to them and it doesn't gain widespread conversation it was pretty obvious to me that there were multiple managers talking about this so I do think I do think there at least is going to be some talk about it oh one thing I did hear was that um you know we'd speculate about Colorado being Dallas's opponent for the outdoor game

next year. Yeah. I don't think it's Colorado. Really? Yeah. Hmm. Someone said to me, good guess, but wrong. Not sure who it is yet, but they were like, it's not Colorado.

Did this person give you any indication there was the slightest chance of it being moved off of Saturday? No. So that we could go. They did not. Gah. Double whammy. Put a Canadian team there.

Yes. Yeah. No kidding. Well, at least we'll have a Heritage Classic to look forward to next year. Very good. All right. So we'll wait Dallas's opponent from Jerry World next year. That'll be a spectacle.

That was the final thought. And with that, why don't we take our first break and come back with the thought line. 32 Thoughts the podcast continues after this. All right. Welcome back. Gather around, everyone. Time once again for another edition of the thought line. And before we get into it in earnest, Elliot. So this past Saturday on hockey night, there was a little Movember flavor to the evening. We are well into the month of November here now. Dom, our producer, is growing a must. in support of the cause. So, Dom, before we go any further, why don't you tell us why you're doing it and why it's important to you?

Well, in 2023, I contracted atrial fibrillation, which is quite a common heart arrhythmia. Not common in men my age, however, but it's something that I've been dealing with since then. And recently, I had to undergo what was called an ablation to help stabilize the issue. Now, I want to thank everyone at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver and my cardiologist team there for getting me through safely.

It was all done really well and really professionally, and I'm utterly grateful for them. But this November, I'm growing a mustache in support of the Canadian Heart and Strofe Foundation. I will leave a link in the podcast description below and every podcast description this month. And if you can, if you would like to, please go donate. It would mean a lot to me to help support finding solutions for this very common disease.

All right, Tom, good job. How are you feeling overall? You're feeling better? I'm finally feeling better, yes. We've just surpassed the three-month recovery point, and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. Awesome. Well, glad to hear it, Don.

glad to hear you're feeling better and hopefully soon your producing gets back to even par. There is money. So from AFIB to A-FRIGE. We're glad you're feeling better, Dom. And excellent job. I can't wait to see what you look like

by the end of Movember. We'll have to get some photo updates as we go along here too. Yeah, it won't be the show. Let me tell you. No, you know, that's the best part about it. I know. Honestly, Dom,

Like, I hope it's greasy because it's supposed to be greasy. I did it and it was super greasy. I like yours. No, you look good in a mustache. Not at the beginning. At the beginning, it was greasy. But for you and for everybody else is doing Movember, it's a great thing. Awesome.

Great work. Okay, first of all, I want to thank all those Islanders fans who ripped me for forgetting butch-goring, including their outstanding play-by-play voice, Brendan Burke, who's, sent a photo of Butch Goring's banner hanging in their beautiful new arena. Yes, I forgot Butch Goring, and I do appreciate all of you letting me know about it. I also like to thank some people who made some suggestions about ridiculous games and injuries or ailments that have caused people to sit out sporting events. I had a few point out Dustin Penner, who in January

of 2012, suffered back spasms while eating pancakes. and missed a game, and also Yvgeny Malkin, who missed a game in 2013 in Florida after getting a sunburn. And if you could miss broadcast with sunburns, I would definitely have done that before. So I can empathize with Malkin. Yes, that's right. Oh, my gosh. Now, and you all tell you this, I did have another, I was. reminded of one and it was a basketball one. The Toronto Raptors, one of their original

draft picks in the expansion draft was a point guard by name of B.J. Tyler, I'd forgotten about this and he fell asleep with an ice pack on his leg and it froze the muscles and he suffered an injury and I don't believe he ever ended up playing more than 10 games. for the Raptors. That was, that was a strange one. He, I'm going to look this up right now, actually. According to his NBA statistics, he never actually played for the Raptors. He played 55 career NBA games, all for the Philadelphia 76ers,

who was the team the Raptors took him from in the expansion draft. But I was reminded of that. That was the one, and that was basically my first team I ever covered. in the business. So that was quite an introduction to strange injuries. Wow. And we actually got some sent into the thought line here over the last few days as well, as you can well imagine. Frank from Black Diamond, Alberta had a few. In 2005, Manny Fernandez missed action because he injured either his shoulder and or back while blow-drying his hair at home. He remembers in 2007, Brent Sopal missed some action for the Canucks because he heard his

back in an attempt to retrieve a cracker dropped upon the floor. And is this true? He includes here, Fridge. Do you remember this? A freak injury involving Glenn Healy when he was playing for the Maple Leafs. When he stepped on the puck during the skills competition? He said he cut his hand while cleaning his bagpipes. Was that a thing?

That is true. Apparently 10 stitches. 2000 There we go But it was in the off season Okay, all right So not necessarily something where he was Forced to miss time

Yes I'll tell you this There was one time I was working With Healy And And we were on the road During the playoffs

and we had rooms next to each other. And he would bring with him on the road a portable bagpipe. It wasn't one of the big ones that you carry, but it was more like a recorder kind of thing, just something that you could take with you. And he's really good at it. He's an excellent bagpiper. But there were sometimes during the day or night,

I was like, this freaking thing again? You see you lying in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. No, no. He plays on into the night. By the way, there's, Googling that, I found another one that I had forgotten about that was pretty crazy. Joe Sackick versus the snowblower, he broke three fingers and missed three months.

Oh, my. God, yeah, I forgot about that one, too. See, usually I don't like Kyle to tell me these questions in advance because I like to just go off the top of my head. But this is an example of a question I should probably let you tell me. So I have better answers immediately. Lesson learned. We got there anyways.

All right, let's dive into it here. And I do like the audience participation. Okay, Adam writes in. Hi, Elliot, Kyle, and The Gang. I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole and found a late 90s NHL documentary showing GMs like Brian Burke and Mike Milbury playing Shinny during the GM meetings. Any idea if that still happens? There are definitely a few current GMs who take that a little too seriously. If so, my guess is Pat Verbeek plays even harder than he negotiates with RFAs. signed an optimistic ducks fan yeah this used to happen and brian burke was the organizer of it and i think it was not necessarily when he was a gm in the league but when he was working in the league office

there were a number of years uh he said when meetings were in florida and tucson for sure uh that they would organize like an hl gms versus nchel staff shini game so he would play dave nonis would play He said Darcy Ruggier was a good player in those. Don Maloney, Glenn Sather would come out and play. So now we're talking kind of in the 90s for each. I don't believe it happens anymore. I don't think it does, no. But it did happen for a period of time,

which I didn't know until Adam wrote this in and I went and checked on it. The other one that used to happen, it was at the owner's meetings. Bill Wirtz was famous for having a croquet game among the owners. And it fell apart in one of the fights over who was going to be commissioner. And I know I'm going to get this wrong in the moment and someone's going to tell me what the real story was. but I believe that when Gilstein was temporarily the president or whatever they called him and Gilstein was in between John Ziegler and Gary Bettman and suffice it to say that was a tumultuous period in NHL history

the old guard wanted Gilstein because they could control him and the new guard wanted to break the old guard and when it was realized that the new guard was going to win this and was going to get a new person in there who ended up being Bettman, it ended the croquet match. I've been told this story before. How about the end of croquet ended the old guards hold on the national hockey league? I could see it.

We had a croquet set in the family growing up, and it could get ugly. It could get ugly. at certain times, too. It breeds that absolutely. I love croquet. It's actually really fun game. Yeah. Great game.

Now it's golf. You know, they do play a lot of golf, although there are some GMs who play pickleball. Julian Breezebois is a good pickleball player. You know, it's actually a good pickleball player besides you, Kyle, is Eric Engels. And I believe that Angles has played. a couple of the GMs and pickleball before.

But golf and to a lesser degree, pickleball are the key sports right now among the managers. Okay, Emily from Boston, dear Dom, Kyle, and Elliot, I am a new hockey fan. This is my first season following closely. And I have a question. Welcome aboard, Emily. You have picked wisely. Welcome to the world of hockey. I have a question regarding NHL scheduling.

Next week, my Boston Bruins will play the Ottawa Senators for the third time this season. It will be the B's 19th game. They will have not yet played two other teams in the Atlantic Division at all, though, Montreal and Detroit. Is there a rhyme or reason for this? Why aren't divisional games spread more evenly throughout the season? Thanks for all your great work, love the pod, and go B's. It does happen. We get this every year.

there's always complaints about my team never sees this team early and then plays them four times in a week. Some of it is having to do with basically how the grid works. Like I'd have to check this all out, Emily, but sometimes, you know, if your building is not available at certain times and you're sent maybe to the Western conference or farther away in the east, it's not as easy to get you to certain places. it's all part of the patchwork, right? You know, there's also been some cases. Like, I remember, I can't remember who it was, but I remember asking this question once, and there are occasionally times where a team will say,

if they have a big rival, they don't want them early in the year. Like early in the year has more competition, whether in the States, whether it's like football or high school football or college football or anything like that or obviously there's just less competition as the calendar flips into January.

So I would say that oftentimes that's because of the grid where one team may be at certain points in time, it's harder to get them to play certain teams even in their own time zone or seem closer to them. And some other times it can be because teams request, hey this is a big rival of ours we would generally prefer to play them at X time of the year so it's weird it's strange

not everybody likes it but it's usually because it's requested or the grid just works out that a team and with their own building availability they just say you know what the best mix for this team to play this team is here yeah and I don't

like sometimes with the way the schedule shakes out like there's certain teams within your division you may only play three times in a year feels not quite enough. That's going to change with the 84 game season. I know and I'm glad. That changes next year. Thank goodness. Okay, Taylor and Adam. Hi, Elliot, Kyle and Dom. I'm a flames fan and was watching last week's game against Columbus. Nazim Cadre played in his 1,000 game. My wife and I had heard there were 437 players that have reached a thousand games at least. I believe that was the number. and 13 have played for Calgary, again, a number I believe I heard correctly. So that got us wondering.

And naturally, I thought the boys at 32 thoughts would know which team has handed out the most silver sticks, meaning that they have had the most players reach a thousand games while playing for them. Hope to hear from you guys. Thanks in advance. So yes, we should clarify that the whole silver stick presentation, Fridge, is a rather, new phenomenon. Actually, we mentioned Brian Burke earlier. He was a big driver behind that becoming something that was seen throughout the league,

making more of an event around a player getting a thousand points, a thousand games, 500 goals, things like that, and having something like a silver stick presented. It was not something that was seen commonly throughout the league. Prior to that, there were a few teams that did it. Go back to the 80s, I think the Oilers were, one of the first with Gretzky racking up all the milestones. They had someone

locally that would do silver sticks and things like that to honor the numbers that Gretzky was pulling off. But it really wasn't until the mid-2000s with Brian Berg stepping in saying, this needs to happen across the league. And now you see it all the time. Marcus Johansson, for

example, a thousand games tonight. And his ceremony's coming up on Tuesday. Jeff Petrie, a thousand games, not too far away. So they come fast and furious. But yes, which team has seen the most a thousand game players now the question was

the question was which team has handed out the most silver sticks right? Yeah but for the purpose of this I'm saying which team has seen the most players hit a thousand games with them so not necessarily all 1,000 with the franchise

Cadre for example didn't get all 1,000 in Calgary but teams that had players hit that milestone while with the organization. And we're including all time, right? All time. Well, it's got to be an original six team. You are getting warmer.

Actually, I feel very warm today, so I think I'm just warm in general. Like, I'm thinking of the list of players who played a thousand games. It's a good list to think about in this situation. For this question. you know which two teams really jump in like there were a lot like Toronto had a lot of guys in the old school like Red Kelly Alan Stanley Tim Horton George Armstrong but then I think of Detroit Gordy Howe Ted Lindsay and of course Montreal but for some reason I think of all those guys with Toronto Matt Sundin

later I'm going Leafs it's a very good guess they are tied for second they've had 26 players come through and hit a thousand them in L.A. actually surprisingly enough really

yeah I mean they've been around virtually half the time but 26 there as well. California is where old people go to relax, so I'm not surprised. That's true. That's true. When you put it that way, it makes total sense.

But no, one team has more. It has to be, to me, like I was thinking there's some Chicago guys, McKita Hall, but it's got to be Montreal or Detroit. Just for, I'm going to go with Montreal. It's Detroit. 31. Of course it is. Yes, of course.

31, yeah. Rangers 22, Dallas 20. Of course, there would be the, yeah, and Chicago 20. Where's Montreal? Not in the top six. Really? Mm-hmm. However, if you look at teams that played a thousand games exclusively with one franchise.

Okay. As you can imagine. I got to think that's Detroit. They had seven. Chicago and Boston are tied at the top with eight Toronto Montreal 5

LA 5 Detroit off the top of your head you've got Eisenman you've got Lidstrom those were just immediately guys like that just jump off the page

so I would have thought them but all right Detroit 31 that makes sense yeah good question though very good question question very good question and we got another fun one here courtesy of danny from san ozay don't see what you got greetings from the bay area despite working in the nbae the n hl and the sharks have

always had my heart i write with a question for the sports net stats crew during macklin celebrini's three point night against the seattle crackin last week that tied them for the league lead in scoring at the time, Ryan Winterton scored his first ever NHL goal for Seattle. For a long while, it seemed like nearly every player was scoring their first NHL goal against the Sharks. He says, lucky for all of them, they have Randy Hahn on the call for their first goal.

It's a great point. So, Randy is fantastic. Here's my question. In the salary cap era, or modern era, as it's known now on this podcast, which team has allowed the most first ever goals. Thanks for your time, love the pod. The future is teal. Yes. Yes, it sure is right now. Danny, you know what I love about this question is every fan base in the league thinks they are the answer. Because I can't, if I'll ever tweet out, someone just got called up to make their NHL debut tonight. There's always the fan base that this team is playing against. It's like

wonderful everybody playing their first game gets a hat trick against us so there isn't a single fan out there who doesn't think that they're the answer so i would say danny's concerns are valid but i san jose's ninth they're ninth so they're in the upper half but so it's real Danny, your grievances are real. So 75 players since 0506 have scored their first NHO goal against the Sharks. I got to say that seems like a lot to only be ninth. Oh, yeah. Well, it keeps climbing.

Danny, sometimes they really are out to get you. And in the Sharks case, it is true. You want to hear the top five? Okay. Do you have some examples? That's what I'm trying to think of your... If I can think of an example of a player who scored their first NHL goal, I might be able to guess who this is.

I'll give you two names here that should give some hints about teams at or near the top. All right. Okay. Connor McDavid and Joshua Waugh. Well, Connor McDavid, I don't remember Joshua Waugh, but Connor McDavid's first goal was against, Dallas, was it not? It was.

They're third on this list, 82 players. Okay, okay. Joshua Waugh's first NHL goal came against the New Jersey Devils who tops this list. Oh, okay, I thought it was the same team. Okay, never mind. All right, so they're tied for third. Okay. No, devils are at the top.

What? What kind of question is this? wait a second you said connor mac david so i thought it was dallas yeah you're right and then i was then then i i was going names of different teams to try to speed up the process i thought that was the same okay i'm calling for a ruling dom did you not think when he did that that macdavit and waugh scored against the same team thank you that's just as confused as you are thank you how hard was that to do you when When you're doing Jeopardy, you don't ask three questions at once. You just ask a question at one at a time.

Okay. Sorry. I just threw two names out there that I would match with, well, two of the teams that I could think of off the top of my head. Who does? But it's two different answers. Who does that? Oh, gosh.

Kyle, you are never going to be a game show host. I hope you are going to be able to live. I didn't need to come to this podcast to know that. I'll tell you that much. I mean, come on. It's basic. It's basic. You say Connor McDavid, okay.

And then if Joshua is a different team, you say Joshua Waugh as like a different answer. I guess, unless you knew who Joshua Waugh scored his first national goal against. I just assumed it was the same team as McDavid. okay so I okay let's just let's unpack this so it has so Dallas was third yeah devil's first correct I never would have gotten that which team's second Ottawa so wait a sec-so let me just make sure I have this straight you gave two names which was two different answers and you didn't include anyone who scored their first goal against Ottawa. Well, I could sit here for 20 minutes and try to come up with players that scored against all six teams I have listed here.

But as I preface before giving the two names, I said, here's two names that should give some clues to teams that are at or near the top of this list. Okay, I just want to apologize to all the listeners and especially Danny that Kyle ruined this thought. line question. Oh, boy. I just want every, I, it is, is my great apology to all of you. Oh, what a noble thing you're doing. Great. New Jersey first.

New Jersey's first with 89. This all could have been avoided when I said, hey, you want to hear the top five? And you could have just said yes. That's right. So it's my fault. Okay. Instead, I won't be sleeping for the next four days. Okay.

I guess we might as well end it there. No, you got another one? Let's go. You want one more? Yeah, sure. Got one more? Let's go. This is Seth from Perth, Australia. Oh, wow.

Hello, Elliot, Kyle, and Dom. I'm a Columbus Blue Jackets fan who recently moved to Perth, Australia. I must say I enjoy watching the games with a cup of coffee rather than a beer. Nice. I moved here to continue my marine science research. My work... That's pretty cool. Very cool.

That's pretty cool, I have to say. Focuses on how animals of different species interact and how these interspecies interactions shape their niche and function within marine communities. In nature, there are many types of interspecific relationships. First, there is mutualism where both species benefit from an interaction. Think clownfish receiving protection from an anemone, which in turn receives nutrition from the fish waste. Second, there is commensalism, where one species receives a benefit while the other is not impacted positively or negatively. Think a remora fish going for a free ride on a large whale shark.

Third, there is parasitism, where one species benefits while the other is harmed. think a mosquito feeding upon humans. And you're wondering where all this is going. Yes. But I assume there is a plan. But my question is, Elliot, how would you describe your relationship with NHL front offices? Does your insider work cause you to be a mosquito and negatively impact NHL teams? Or are you in a mutualistic relationship where you act as a conduit to get information out that teams are okay having exposed?

Well, that's a great question. First of all, while Kyle was doing all that, Dom and I are on the same wavelength because Dom sent us a text saying, the sea was angry that day, my friends. And I was thinking about, is anyone here a marine biologist? Just before George pulls out the title. So, Dom, you and I were on the same wavelength. Seth, I think that's really cool. of the best in your studies. You know, Seth, honestly, it's kind of both.

There are times it is beneficial for people to get information out there, but there are other times it isn't. And I think that... I think it just depends what you're calling about. Sometimes it's something that their word is going to blow up their dressing room. and they really don't like it. Other times people think it's none of your, other people's business.

It's our business or someone's business. It's not anyone else's business. And there's other times it's like, hey, something happened and we need to explain why something happened. So I think it's fair to say it's a spectrum of both. And there's sometimes people are going to be happy with you and there's sometimes that people aren't going to be happy with you.

And at the end of the day, I always try to treat everyone fairly. I don't always succeed in that as much to my liking or other people's liking, but at the end of the day, I always do try to treat people fairly, and you just understand that sometimes people are going to be happy with you, and sometimes people are not going to be happy with you, and you just have to walk the line. That's good, Elliot.

You do make a good mosquito from time to time. I will say. All right, that'll do it. Sorry for ruining trivia. Bloodsucker. Yeah. Sorry for ruining trivia. I'll try to do better next time.

We'll take one final break and wrap up this edition of 32 thoughts on the other side. All right. Before we wrap up, I wanted to let you know, Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey this week features the Edminton Oilers in the spotlight again as they begin a seven-game road trip, kick things off in Philadelphia, on the air with Hockey Central, David Amber and Company at 7-Eastern, 5 o'clock mountain time and puck drop a little after 7.30 E.T. from Philly. All right. Taking us out. A track from Seth Amberg. Anderson, who is a singer-songwriter who blends Alt Country, Folk, and the Spirit of Punk into honest, heart-driven storytelling. Born and raised in Heartland, New Brunswick, and now based in Canmore, Alberta. Anderson draws from years on the road across town, cities, and continents to write songs rooted in love, loss, resilience, and hope. His newest full-length album, These Exact Days, These Peaceful Nights, is available now. On the single, Leafs are out.

Anderson compares his dating aspirations to the feelings of a Toronto Maple Leafs fan when the team fails to win a Stanley Cup. Elliot, as you always say, everything in life comes back to dating. Anderson says, quote, The uncomfortable emotions makes us the beautifully unique and vulnerable people we are. They give us a reason to write a song or create something that may help someone. I am not a proclaimed Leifes fan, but I do secretly root for them every year to break the curse. Everyone deserves a win once in a while, end quote.

He's got some upcoming shows at the end of the month on November 27th. He's in Saskatoon on the 28th in Winnipeg and on the 29th in Regina. So here is Seth Anderson, and the Leafs are out on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. this place i don't know it doesn't matter now watch the clouds think on yesterdays try to sound like your heart does it Anyway, did you hear about that band? Sother said Thought their drummer's late Remember when we used to

do these things never did it was in my dreams but all i want to know is would you want to go famously the leaves are out again had our hopes of course they blew the meat how the hell had the odds this time should have known

Should you see the signs hang around? It was on home ice, ride crowds. Take it to the streets, flipping cars. Feel the energy. Feel it now You come on feel everything Shia-na-na-na Shia-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na

Shia-na-na-na-na-na-ha-na-na-ha-na-na. Shia-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-ha-na-ha-na-ha-na-na-ha-na-ha-na-ha-na-ha-na-ha-na-na. But all I want to know is what you want to know. Would you want to go? Would you want to go? Would you want to go? Would you want to go?